Aggression Bias Research Articles

FMEA Assessment Under Heterogeneous Hesitant Fuzzy Preference Relations: Based on Extended Multiplicative Consistency and Group Decision Making

Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is a reliability analysis method that analysis all possible failure modes for each product in a system and all possible effects of failure modes on the system, to classify each failure mode and to propose solutions and preventative measures. It is undeniable that the traditional FMEA method has been widely criticized for its simple scoring and single algorithm. To improve the usability of FMEA, hesitation fuzzy preference relation sets (HFPRs) based on hesitant fuzzy sets have been introduced into FMEA research because of their good fuzziness and uncertainty properties. Most existing consistency-based algorithms for HFPR processing, however, do not consider the possible coherence deviation of the reluctant fuzzy set itself, which includes multiplicative consistency (MC) theory, which will result in the reduced accuracy of results from such algorithms, in addition to not supporting group decision-making well in heterogeneous environments. At the same time, when building a group consensus, constantly adjusting HFPRs through group decision feedback can easily lead to conservative or radical scoring by experts. Therefore, an excellent hybrid FMEA assessment method is studied in this paper. In this approach, an extended multiplicative consistency equation is constructed by extending the applicability of MC in the treatment of HFPR, and on this basis, a mathematical model with the ability to deal with sets of heterogeneous fuzzy preference relations (H-HFPRs) is constructed. Lastly, based on the predictability principle of the occurrence level (O), a scoring correction algorithm is constructed based on group consensus theory to reduce the conservative or aggressive bias of the expert group in the results. The new method was used in the risk assessment of Change oilfield subsea pipeline engineering, and the results were compared with several existing methods to verify the effectiveness and advancement of the proposed method.

Aggression induced by ornament similarity is limited to females in a mutually ornamented fish, Betta brownorum

Ornamentation found in both sexes, or mutual ornamentation, can be used as a threat signal towards rivals or to bias aggression towards those sharing preferences for mates or other resources. The widespread male bias in ornamentation suggests that sexual selection for these competitive functions is stronger in males, but these functions are rarely compared between the sexes. We investigated intrasexual contests in a mutually ornamented fish, Betta brownorum , that uniquely has both male bias and high intrasexual variation in the presence and size of side blotches. Neither blotch size nor body size predicted the winner in either sex. The frequency of lateral display increased with opponent body size in females. Physical attacks increased when facing similarly blotched opponents only in females. These results suggest that nonsexual social selection contributes more to the maintenance of blotches than sexual selection, as the latter predicts the threat signal and/or aggression bias mainly in the sex with greater ornamentation. Our study highlights that smaller female ornaments can have social functions that are distinct from those of male ornaments and may be partially maintained by social selection in many other systems. • A mutually ornamented fish, Betta brownorum , shows high ornament variation. • We found no advantage of large blotches in winning contests. • Similar blotch sizes between contestants increased physical attacks only in females. • Nonsexual social selection is suggested to be influential in female B. brownorum .

Associations of Neurocognition and Social Cognition With Brain Structure and Function in Early-Onset Schizophrenia.

BackgroundCognitive impairment is a core feature of schizophrenia that is more serious in patients with early-onset schizophrenia (EOS). However, the neuroimaging basis of cognitive functions, including neurocognition and social cognition, remains unclear in patients with EOS.MethodsForty-three patients with EOS underwent structural and resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. Brain structure and function were evaluated through the analysis of brain gray matter volume (GMV) and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF). They underwent comprehensive assessments for neurocognition (verbal memory, verbal expression, attention, and executive function) and social cognition (theory of mind and attributional bias). Correlation analyses were conducted to detect the potential link between cognitive function indices and brain imaging parameters.ResultsFirst, neurocognition was linked to brain structure characterized by higher immediate recall scores associated with increased GMV in the left temporal pole, higher verbal fluency scores associated with increased GMV in the left temporal pole: middle temporal gyrus, and higher Stroop-word scores associated with increased GMV in the right middle frontal gyrus. Second, social cognition was related to brain function characterized by lower sense of reality scores associated with increased ALFF in the left precentral gyrus, higher scores of accidental hostility bias associated with increased ALFF in the right middle temporal gyrus, and higher scores of accidental aggression bias associated with increased ALFF in the left precentral gyrus.ConclusionThese findings may add to the existing knowledge about the cognitive function-brain relationship. They may have clinical significance for studying the mechanism of neurocognitive and social cognitive impairment in patients with EOS and providing potential neural targets for their treatment and intervention.

“Accidental, really?” Attributional bias in patients with Parkinson's disease

IntroductionAmong the cognitive domains impaired in Parkinson's disease (PD), social cognition has received particular attention in recent years. Nevertheless, attributional bias, a social-cognitive subdomain, has not yet been studied in this population, despite its potential relationship with neuropsychiatric symptoms, and despite the possibility that deep-brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus, an effective treatment for disabling motor symptoms, worsens cognitive impairment. The present study therefore compared the attributional bias of patients with PD (stimulated and nonstimulated subgroups) with that of controls. It also explored the potential correlations between patients' attributional bias and their clinical scores. MethodsThirty-two patients with PD (12 stimulated and 20 nonstimulated) were recruited and matched with 32 healthy controls. Attributional bias was assessed using the Ambiguous Intentions Hostility Questionnaire, which yields three subscores: Hostility Bias, Aggression Bias, and Blame. Depressive symptoms (Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression), paranoid thoughts (Paranoia Scale), global cognition (Montreal Cognitive Assessment), and social functioning (Social Functioning Questionnaire) were also assessed. ResultsPatients exhibited more hostile and aggressive biases than controls, especially in ambiguous situations. Stimulated patients had greater hostility and aggression biases and a higher blame score than controls in accidental situations. No significant differences were observed between stimulated and nonstimulated patients. ConclusionTo our knowledge, this is the first study to have assessed attributional bias in patients with PD and explored the impact of deep-brain stimulation on this particular subdomain of social cognition. Results suggest that patients exhibit attributional bias, and this impairment may be exacerbated in stimulated patients.

Rare morph Lake Malawi mbuna cichlids benefit from reduced aggression from con- and hetero-specifics.

Balancing selection is important for the maintenance of polymorphism as it can prevent either fixation of one morph through directional selection or genetic drift, or speciation by disruptive selection. Polychromatism, the presence of multiple genetically determined colour phenotypes, can be maintained if the fitness of alternative morphs depends on the relative frequency in a population. In aggressive species, negative frequency-dependent antagonism can prevent an increase in the frequency of rare morphs as they would only benefit from increased fitness while they are rare. Heterospecific aggression is common in nature and has the potential to contribute to rare morph advantage. Here we carry out field observations and laboratory aggression experiments with mbuna cichlids from Lake Malawi, to investigate the role of con- and heterospecific aggression in the maintenance of polychromatism and identify benefits to rare morphs which are likely to result from reduced aggression. We hypothesize that rare morph individuals receive less aggression than common morph individuals and therefore have an ecological advantage. Within species we found that males and females bias aggression towards their own morph, adding to the evidence that inherent own-morph aggression biases can contribute to balancing selection. Over-representation of rare morph territory owners may be influenced by two factors; higher tolerance of different morph individuals as neighbours, and the ability of rare morphs to spend more time feeding. Reduced aggression to rare morph individuals by heterospecifics may also contribute to rare morph advantage.

(Invited) Achieving Stable Organic Transistors By Eliminating the Major Degradation Pathways

Organic semiconductors (OSCs) have attracted a great deal of attention over the past decades given their unique properties, which provide an opportunity to incorporate electronics in non-traditional areas such as bio-integrated devices, flexible and rollable displays or clothing. Coupled with low-cost processing and chemical versatility, these materials are gradually becoming an integral part of various components in contemporary optoelectronic applications. For example, the organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) represent the basic building blocks of displays, radio frequency identification tags and conformable sensors. Along with a performance that should match the application specific requirements, maintaining this performance during operation is a prerequisite for any technology. Therefore, identifying the sources and mechanisms leading to operational instabilities are crucial in eliminating their impact, to ultimately achieve the much-needed stability to make these devices components in real-life applications. In this presentation, I will discuss the sources of instabilities in organic transistors and how they manifest in device operation. I will then describe a technique which provides a reliable diagnostic tool to identify with high accuracy the environmental and operational degradation pathways occurring in OFETs during operation. By identifying the most probable degradation pathways, we developed new device design rules which resulted in OFETs with unparalleled operational stability in both staggered and coplanar configurations regardless of the active material (small molecule and polymeric OSCs), as confirmed by the constant mobility and exceptionally low threshold voltage shift of ΔVth = 0.1 eV achieved under aggressive bias stress conditions for 500 min in ambient air.The work was done in collaboration with Hamna F. Iqbal, Qianxiang Ai, Karl J. Thorley, Hu Chen, Iain McCulloch, Chad Risko, and John E. Anthony

Relating Reactive and Proactive Aggression to Trait Driving Anger in Young and Adult Males: A Pilot Study Using Explicit and Implicit Measures

Driving anger and aggressive driving are main contributors to crashes, especially among young males. Trait driving anger is context-specific and unique from other forms of anger. It is necessary to understand the mechanisms of trait driving anger to develop targeted interventions. Although literature conceptually distinguished reactive and proactive aggression, this distinction is uncommon in driving research. Similar, cognitive biases related to driving anger, measured by a combination of explicit and implicit measures, received little attention. This pilot study related explicit and implicit measures associated with reactive and proactive aggression to trait driving anger, while considering age. The sample consisted of 42 male drivers. The implicit measures included a self-aggression association (i.e., Single-Target Implicit Association Test) and an attentional aggression bias (i.e., Emotional Stroop Task). Reactive aggression related positively with trait driving anger. Moreover, a self-aggression association negatively related to trait driving anger. Finally, an interaction effect for age suggested that only in young male drivers, higher proactive aggression related to lower trait driving anger. These preliminary results motivate further attention to the combination of explicit and implicit measures related to reactive and proactive aggression in trait driving anger research.

Imprinting sets the stage for speciation.

Sexual imprinting-a phenomenon in which offspring learn parental traits and later use them as a model for their own mate preferences-can generate reproductive barriers between species1. When the target of imprinting is a mating trait that differs among young lineages, imprinted preferences may contribute to behavioural isolation and facilitate speciation1,2. However, in most models of speciation by sexual selection, divergent natural selection is also required; the latter acts to generate and maintain variation in the sexually selected trait or traits, and in the mating preferences that act upon them3. Here we demonstrate that imprinting, in addition to mediating female mate preferences, can shape biases in male-male aggression. These biases can act similarly to natural selection to maintain variation in traits and mate preferences, which facilitates reproductive isolation driven entirely by sexual selection. Using a cross-fostering study, we show that both male and female strawberry poison frogs (Oophaga pumilio) imprint on coloration, which is a mating trait that has diverged recently and rapidly in this species4. Cross-fostered females prefer to court mates of thesame colour as their foster mother, and cross-fostered males are more aggressive towards rivals that share the colour of their foster mother. We also use a simple population-genetics model to demonstrate that when both male aggression biases and female mate preferences are formed through parental imprinting, sexual selection alone can (1) stabilize a sympatric polymorphism and (2) strengthen the trait-preference association that leads to behavioural reproductive isolation. Our study provides evidence of imprinting in an amphibian and suggests that this rarely considered combination of rival and sexual imprinting can reduce gene flow between individuals that bear divergent mating traits, which sets the stage for speciation by sexual selection.

Radium-223 treatment patterns in a large real-world population.

190 Background: For men with symptomatic metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), radium-223 was shown to improve overall survival in the phase III, double blind ALSYMPCA trial. Despite the observed benefits, the application and practice patterns of Radium-223 outside of clinical trials are largely unknown. Here we aim to better characterize the use of radium-223 in a large and heterogeneous real-world population. We identify treatment patterns associated with radium-223 and link these patterns with time to skeletal related event (SRE) and mortality. Methods: We reviewed charts of all men with diagnosed with mCRPC in the entire Veterans Affairs (VA) system alive as of January 1, 2013 who received radiun-223. We generated Kaplan Meier curves for survival and time to SRE based on treatment patterns. We examined the association between common treatment patterns and mortality and time to SRE with Cox models. Results: We identified 318 men with bone mCRPC who received radium-223. Median age at radium start was 69 ys and median follow up was 25.3 months. Median survival was 11 months. 277 patients died during the study period (87%). 50% (158/318) completed ≤4 injections. There was a significant difference mortality among four consolidated treatment patterns (p=0.005) and but no difference SRE (p=0.10). On univariable and multivariable analysis, men who received AR target + docetaxel + radium-223 had increased mortality vs. men who received AR target + radium-223 (p=0.010 and 0.005, respectively). Multivariable analysis showed that non-black race, bone pain, SRE prior to radium, and higher PSA were all linked with worse mortality. Conclusions: We described the largest known cohort of men in the real world who received radium-223. We identified common treatment patterns with differing risk for overall mortality. Further prospective studies are needed to better understand whether differences in survival are attributed to worsening disease status requiring more aggressive therapy, lead-time bias, or true differences in treatment efficacy.

Aggressive Accounting as a Commitment to be Prudent

Accounting information provides guidance for real decisions such as whether to liquidate or continue an ongoing project. Ceteris paribus, implementing an accounting system with an aggressive bias leads to inefficient project continuations and causes a higher cost of capital. We show that an aggressive accounting system can nevertheless be beneficial for the manager because the very fact that it induces excessive project continuations permits the manager to commit to abstain from taking excessive risks prior to the continuation decision. In short, we find that creating inefficiencies with respect to interim project continuations can discipline the manager's project choice ex ante, and hence facilitate financing.

Male-male aggression is unlikely to stabilize a poison frog polymorphism.

Phenotypic polymorphism is common in animals, and the maintenance of multiple phenotypes in a population requires forces that act against homogenizing drift and selection. Male-male competition can contribute to the stability of a polymorphism when males compete primarily with males of the same phenotype. In and around a contact zone between red and blue lineages of the poison frog Oophaga pumilio, we used simulated territorial intrusions to test the nonexclusive predictions that males would direct more aggression towards males of (i) their own phenotype and/or (ii) the phenotype that is most common in their population. Males in the monomorphic red and blue populations that flank the contact zone were more aggressive towards simulated intruders that matched the local coloration. However, males in the two polymorphic populations biased aggression towards neither their own colour nor the colour most common in their population. In sympatry, the rarer colour morph gains no advantage via reduced male-male aggression from territorial males in these O.pumilio populations, and so male aggression seems unlikely to stabilize colour polymorphism on its own. More broadly, these results suggest that the potential for divergent male aggression biases to maintain phenotypic diversity depends on the mechanism(s) that generate the biases and the degree to which these mechanisms persist in sympatry.

Team colours matter when playing away from home: aggression biases in geographically isolated mbuna cichlid populations

The rocky shore habitats of the African Great Lakes support high densities of cichlid fishes, including many closely related/ecologically similar species. Aggressive behaviours between conspecifics, and perhaps heterospecifics, influence this unusually high level of species coexistence. In dichotomous choice aggression trials, male Maylandia thapsinogen were presented simultaneously with two heterospecific intruders (Maylandia emmiltos and Maylandia zebra). M. thapsinogen were significantly more aggressive towards intruders from an allopatric species (similar orange dorsal fin colour—M. emmiltos), than towards a different allopatric species (blue dorsal fin—M. zebra). Aggression biases disappeared when colour differences were masked using monochromatic lighting. A second experiment compared female aggression biases between M. emmiltos with M. thapsinogen, species similarly coloured to one another, the former possessing a yellow, as opposed to a black throat as the latter does. M. thapsinogen preferentially attacked females of their own species in full but not monochromatic light, while female M. emmiltos showed no significant bias in aggression under any lighting. Responses were not affected by olfactory cues provided by the stimulus fish. These results indicate that divergence in colour might facilitate species coexistence in some cases, but not all, which could be important should populations rejoin through lake level drops.

Color and behavior differently predict competitive outcomes for divergent stickleback color morphs.

Our knowledge of how male competition contributes to speciation is dominated by investigations of competition between within-species morphs or closely related species that differ in conspicuous traits expressed during the breeding season (e.g. color, song). In such studies, it is important to consider the manner in which putatively sexually selected traits influence the outcome of competitive interactions within and between types because these traits can communicate information about competitor quality and may not be utilized by homotypic and heterotypic receivers in the same way. We studied the roles of breeding color and aggressive behaviors in competition within and between two divergent threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus color types. Our previous work in this system showed that the switch from red to black breeding coloration is associated with changes in male competition biases. Here, we find that red and black males also use different currencies in competition. Winners of both color types performed more aggressive behaviors than losers, regardless of whether the competitor was of the same or opposite color type. But breeding color differently predicted competitive outcomes for red and black males. Males who were redder at the start of competition were more likely to win when paired with homotypic competitors and less likely to win when paired with heterotypic competitors. In contrast, black color, though expressed in the breeding season and condition dependent, was unrelated to competitive outcomes. Placing questions about the role of male competition in speciation in a sexual signal evolution framework may provide insight into the “why and how” of aggression biases and asymmetries in competitive ability between closely related morphs and species.

Social cognition in Wilson's disease: A new phenotype?

Studies focusing on neuropsychological impairments in Wilson’s disease (WD) have highlighted that patients showing neurological signs present significant deficits in a wide range of cognitive domains. Attentional and executive impairments have also been described in people with hepatic WD. However, social cognition abilities, i.e. cognitive processes required to perceive the emotions, intentions and dispositions of other people, have not been clearly investigated in WD. In this study we examined the social cognitive functioning in 19 patients with WD depending on their clinical status–Neurological versus Non-Neurological (“hepatic”) forms–compared to 20 healthy controls. For the very first time, results highlighted that patients with WD had significant impairments in the three major components of social cognition: emotion recognition, Theory of Mind and attributional style. However, these deficits differ depending on the form of the disease: patients with neurological signs showed a wide range of deficits in the three components that were assessed–results notably revealed impairments in recognizing “fear”, “anger”, and “disgust”, a significant Theory of Mind deficit and an “aggression bias”–whereas Non-Neurological patients only showed deficits on test assessing attributional bias, with a trend to react more “aggressively” to ambiguous social situations than healthy controls, as observed in Neurological WD patients, and a specific impairment in “anger” recognition. Our findings are discussed in the light of both neurocognitive impairments and brain damages, and especially those affecting the basal ganglia, as observed in people with WD.

Alcohol consumption increases bias to shoot at Middle Eastern but not White targets

Alcohol has been implicated in intergroup aggression and hostility. The effect of consuming alcohol relative to a placebo on hostile cognitive biases toward a social category typically stereotyped as threatening and hostile (i.e., Middle Eastern men) was tested. Undergraduates ( N = 81) consumed either an intoxicating dose of alcohol (BrAC = .05% by vol.) or placebo. Then, they played a shooter game in which they were asked to shoot at targets holding guns, but not at targets holding harmless objects. Half of the targets were White and half were Middle Eastern. As predicted, alcohol consumption, relative to a placebo, increased participants’ bias to shoot Middle Eastern targets, but did not affect the shooter bias against White targets. Findings suggest that alcohol may heighten aggressive biases toward outgroups stereotyped as threatening and hostile.

Accounting Conservatism and Incentives Contracting

This article aims to clarify the consequences of accounting conservatism from a stewardship (principal-agent) point of view. Kwon et al. (2001) argue that the limited liability of the agent results in a demand for conservatism. Specifically, they obtain this result in the case of choosing a threshold for a binary classification. I show that such an optimal conservative bias is not a pervasive phenomenon when other measurement issues are analyzed: the principal might be better off with fair (neutral) valuation or even with a higher of rule (liberal bias). The optimal accounting rule depends crucially on two parameters. First, on the risk aversion of the agent, with more risk aversion being in favor of more liberalism. Second, on the ranking of what the prior literature has labeled the Overall Information Content (OIC) of the accounting systems. I further show that the OIC of a conservative or aggressive bias depends on the informational content and bias of the underlying possible estimates. Overall the results suggest that, from a stewardship point of view, the choice between fair value and a possible conservative or liberal bias might be better set at the standard level on a case by case basis, depending on the specific measurement issue, rather than uniformly at a conceptual level for all standards. The paper contributes to the literature by clarifying the link between accounting conservatism and agency theory. It also has direct consequences for standard setters.

Heterospecific aggression bias towards a rarer colour morph.

Colour polymorphisms are a striking example of phenotypic diversity, yet the sources of selection that allow different morphs to persist within populations remain poorly understood. In particular, despite the importance of aggression in mediating social dominance, few studies have considered how heterospecific aggression might contribute to the maintenance or divergence of different colour morphs. To redress this gap, we carried out a field-based study in a Nicaraguan crater lake to investigate patterns of heterospecific aggression directed by the cichlid fish, Hypsophrys nicaraguensis, towards colour polymorphic cichlids in the genus Amphilophus. We found that H. nicaraguensis was the most frequent territorial neighbour of the colour polymorphic A. sagittae. Furthermore, when manipulating territorial intrusions using models, H. nicaraguensis were more aggressive towards the gold than dark colour morph of the sympatric Amphilophus species, including A. sagittae. Such a pattern of heterospecific aggression should be costly to the gold colour morph, potentially accounting for its lower than expected frequency and, more generally, highlighting the importance of considering heterospecific aggression in the context of morph frequencies and coexistence in the wild.

Conservative Accounting, Agent's Participation and Stewardship Value of Information

This article aims to clarify the consequences of accounting conservatism from a stewardship (principal-agent) point of view. Prior literature argues that the limited liability of the agent always results in a demand for conservatism, and that conservatism is beneficial because it deters earnings management. I challenge both arguments. Firstly, I show and derive the conditions under which an aggressive (or liberal) accounting information system might be preferred to a conservative one when the agent has limited liability. Risk aversion plays a crucial role, with a higher degree of risk aversion encouraging increased aggressiveness. Secondly, I provide the stylized example of choosing between rules-based (Rules ) and principles-based (Principles ) accounting. The latter, involving greater subjectivity, might increase the likelihood of earnings manipulation, but enables the agent to communicate relevant, albeit self-serving, private information. Both effects result in Principles being less conservative than Rules. I show that Principles might, nonetheless, be optimal, depending on the value of the likelihood ratio of manipulation versus the provision of relevant information. Manipulation and self-serving reports, which introduce an aggressive bias, might be the price to pay for more informative accounts.

Error-driven versus batch models of the acquisition of phonotactics: David defeats Goliath

Pure phonotactic learning is the problem of learning a restrictive OT grammar consistent with a set of licit surface forms. Hayes' (2004) LFCD and Prince and Tesar's (2004) BCD implement the batch approach to pure phonotactic learning. These algorithms are allowed to glimpse at the entire batch of data and can thus be endowed with aggressive biases towards restrictiveness. These authors dismiss the competing error-driven approach as computationally too weak to succeed at pure phonotactic learning. Indeed, an error-driven learner does not have access to the entire batch of data. Instead, it performs a sequence of re-rankings based on a single piece of data at the time. And its only provision towards restrictiveness consists of a restrictive initial ranking. In this paper, I compare the batch and the error-driven approach on two OT typologies yielding a total of roughly seventy languages. I show that the batch LFCD and BCD fail on a number of these languages. An error-driven learner which performs some constraint promotion besides demotion instead succeeds on each single language. Thus, David defeats Goliat.

Effects of Verbal Aggression and Party Identification Bias on Perceptions of Political Speakers

Two experiments investigated the effects of verbal aggression, specifically character and competence attacks, on perceptions of political speakers. Verbally aggressive political speakers were perceived as less communicatively appropriate and credible than nonaggressive speakers, and were less likely to win agreement with their messages. Some evidence was found that perceptions were biased in favor of those who share a political party identification with the message recipient, and that more strongly Republican Party–identified participants perceived more verbal aggression in messages with no character and competence attacks and considered verbally aggressive Republicans more tactful.