Locked Box Research Articles

Theoretical Analysis of Moving Galaxies in the Large Scale Structure of SpaceTime

In this paper we will make further theoretical analysis for the validity of the accelerating universe based on General Relativity and three new problems of the standard model of the universe are presented from different perspectives. The first part, analyzed the explosion mechanism of the cosmic initial singularity and put forward a different view from the rest. It’s virtually impossible to start with a giant explosion, the big bang by now cosmologists had refined the idea. The second part devised a new model of the twin paradox. It’s one in which people have been consider to include both special and general relativity in the calculations to expose the counterintuitive weirdness of relativity theory. It seems to has a curious coincidence with the cat-a feline in a locked box that is both dead and alive until the box is opened-was a thought experiment devised by physicist Schr ö dinger. In part three the author makes determination on the cosmological deceleration parameter q0 by using mathematical derivation, and based on which to construct a thought experiment on cosmological redshift. It is needed to make a static model of the universe that both conforms to the Copernican principle and satisfies Hubble’s law and it’s possible to make us a fresh perspective and thought process.

How biology shapes the development of shyness within specific contexts: A longitudinal, cross-lagged investigation.

Shyness is a temperamental trait that refers to fear and wariness in the face of social novelty and is known to have a biological basis. One proposed physiological correlate of shyness has been the change in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) from baseline to a stressor. However, past research linking shyness and RSA change has been mixed, which may be, in part, due to a failure to carefully consider the context under which RSA change is measured and the directionality of relations. Using a longitudinal design and cross-lagged analysis (N = 103, 52 girls), we examined parent-reported shyness and RSA change during a stranger approach task (social stressor) and a locked box task (nonsocial stressor) at ages 3 (Mage at Time 1 = 3.50 years, SDage = 0.19 years) and 4 (Mage at Time 2 = 4.76 years, SDage = 0.38). Cardiac vagal withdrawal during the stranger approach task, but not during the frustration task, at age 3 positively predicted shyness at age 4. Shyness at age 3 did not predict cardiac vagal change in either context at age 4. We also found that changes in RSA measured during the frustration task were stable across time, but changes in RSA measured during the stranger approach task were not stable across time, suggesting a developmental change in physiological regulatory systems to social threat. These results suggest that, although biology may come first in shaping children's behavior, this relation depends critically on the context and the incentives in the child's environment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Creating an Escape Room for Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Validation

Creating an Escape Room for Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Validation

EpiPen STAT: A quality improvement project for anaphylaxis management.

319 Background: The medical oncology infusion unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) experienced six anaphylactic reactions to chemotherapy between June 2000 and April 2021. EpiPen was delayed in all cases. In one instance, a patient experienced an emergency where she could not breathe, and her blood pressure continued to decrease. The covering nurse hesitated before administering an EpiPen. In follow-up, nurses reported a lack of confidence in administering an EpiPen. No licensed independent provider (LIP) was stationed in the infusion unit to guide nurses. The project's goal was to facilitate timely EpiPen administration, guided by the Translating Evidence into Practice (TRIP) framework. Methods: The project lead and the medical director revised the hospital’s chemotherapy reaction guidelines to highlight anaphylaxis management. They established an interdisciplinary project team with medical, nursing, pharmacy, and informatics representatives. Interventions, which started in November 2021, included a reaction management algorithm and PRN-reaction orders allowing nurses to initiate interventions while waiting for a LIP arrival. The unit educator provided EpiPen training, and the pharmacy leaders created an adverse drug reactions (ADR) kit—a locked box with necessary medications that followed BIDMC’s institutional algorithm to manage infusion reactions. Results: The project team collected post-intervention data between December 2021 and April 2022. Nurses reported twenty mild-to-severe chemotherapy reactions, including four anaphylactic episodes. Nineteen patients were discharged home on the day of reactions, and one patient required hospital admission for persistent symptoms. The management algorithm was followed in ten reactions (50%). Deviations from the algorithm were noted in eight cases, with the most frequent reason being smaller doses of antihistamine or corticosteroid. The algorithm was not applicable in two cases with atypical patient symptoms. In seventeen of the twenty reactions (85%), PRN-reaction orders were available in the electronic ordering system. The ADR kit was used in all reactions. In two of the four anaphylactic reactions, EpiPen was administered immediately following hypotension or hypoxia. In the remaining two cases, it was administered for persistent symptoms. Conclusions: The project facilitated EpiPen administration. The critical steps were systemic analysis of barriers, problem-solving with the TRIP framework, and engagement of frontline nurses. In our next step, we will consider narrowing the scope to managing acute hypotension or hypoxia. The narrower scope will enable targeted education about emergency management, potentially at the hospital’s simulation center. To ensure every patient has an order, the department could consider a standing EpiPen order for hemodynamically unstable patients.

A Qualitative Content Analysis of Rural and Urban School Students' Menstruation-Related Questions in Bangladesh.

Nearly half of Bangladeshi girls reach menarche without knowledge of menstruation and many fear seeking support due to pervasive menstrual stigma. We aimed to explore the types of menstruation-related information and support adolescent female and male students want but may be uncomfortable verbalising. We installed a locked box in four school classrooms in rural and urban Bangladesh as part of a menstrual hygiene management pilot intervention between August 2017 and April 2018. Trained teachers provided puberty education to female and male students in classes 5–10 (ages 10–17 years) and encouraged students to submit questions anonymously to the boxes if they did not want to ask aloud. We conducted a content analysis of the 374 menstruation-related questions from a total of 834 submissions. Questions regarded experiences of menstrual bleeding (35%); menstrual symptoms and management (32%); menstrual physiology (19%); behavioural prescriptions and proscriptions (6%); concerns over vaginal discharge (4%); and menstrual stigma, fear, and social support (4%). Students wanted to understand the underlying causes of various menstrual experiences, and concern over whether particular experiences are indicative of health problems was pervasive. Ensuring comprehensive school-based menstruation education and strengthening engagement among schools, parents, and healthcare providers is important for improving access to reliable menstrual health information and may relieve adolescents’ concerns over whether their menstrual experiences are ’normal’.

Complexity Arising from “Escape Room” Style Activities in A High School Calculus Class

Traditional mathematics instruction serves many purposes in today’s education systems. Providing step-by-step guidance and lecture-style tuition in mathematics is often the norm. However, emerging insights into challenge, grit, and optimal teaching and learning strategies suggest that there may be benefit from increasing the mental burden on students. A short-term investigation was conducted into the use of choice, unstructured assessment and a “locked box” style of student-directed task for a high school calculus class of ESL students in China. Results were encouraging and suggested the emergence of a complex learning system composed of individual students that transcended the typical classroom experience.

Boxing Clever: Explaining UK and US Private Equity Locked Box Perspectives

Boxing Clever: Explaining UK and US Private Equity Locked Box Perspectives

What are the odds? Predicting the likelihood of a negative episode in a sample of toddlers with autism spectrum disorder.

Children with autism spectrum disorder sometimes have challenges with regulating their negative emotions. These difficulties can impact children's social outcomes and how well they respond to intervention. We know that caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder can help their children regulate negative emotions in a process known as co-regulation, but not much is known about how child and caregiver strategy use impacts children's negativity in real time. In this study, 71 caregivers of toddlers with autism spectrum disorder were asked to encourage their child to unlock a locked toy box, a task which is designed to elicit frustration. Video observations of the participants completing the task were used to examine whether specific child and caregiver behaviors increased or decreased the likelihood that the child will become upset. No child strategies were predictive of a decreased likelihood of a child becoming upset, but when children used high-energy behaviors that did not serve a purpose, such as running back and forth, they were more likely to then show signs of being upset a few seconds later. The way that caregivers responded to their child was a potent caregiver predictor of the likelihood of children's negativity, with caregivers' unresponsiveness and proactiveness both emerging as salient predictor of increased likelihood of the child being upset a few moments later. These findings give insight into how children with autism spectrum disorder and their caregiver navigate challenging and frustrating tasks, and have the potential to influence clinical practice by giving an indication off which parent and child behaviors are most effective in reducing children's negativity while interacting with parents and caregivers.

Psychometric Evaluation of the TIC Grade, a Self-Report Measure to Assess Youth Perceptions of the Quality of Trauma-Informed Care They Received.

Agencies and clinical practices are beginning to provide trauma-informed care (TIC) to their clients. However, there are no measures to assess clients' perceptions of and satisfaction with the TIC care they have received. A 20-item questionnaire, the TIC Grade, was developed, based on the National Center for Trauma-Informed Care principles of TIC, to assess the patient or client perception of the TIC provided in settings that serve adolescents and emerging adults. The goal of this project was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the TIC Grade instrument and to make recommendations for use of the full measure and its short form-an overall letter grade. The TIC Grade questionnaire was administered to youth over the age of 18 years from four community partners providing care to vulnerable young adults. Potential participants were offered questionnaires at the end of their visit. Those interested in participating left their completed anonymous questionnaire in a locked box to maintain confidentiality. Questionnaires were collected from 100 respondents; 95 were complete enough to include in analyses for psychometric evaluation. The findings of this project support the reliability and usability of the 20-item TIC Grade measure to assess youth's perceptions of the quality of TIC they received. This TIC-specific, behaviorally worded client report measure can assist service delivery organizations to assess their success at implementing TIC and to identify areas where further staff training and support are needed.

Young children’s prosocial responses toward peers and adults in two social contexts

Young children help and share with others, but little is known about the “how” and “who” of this early prosocial behavior. In the current study, we compared 2- and 3-year-old children’s (N = 203; 101 girls) prosocial behavior of sharing and helping. We asked whether the process was different (a) if the social partner was an adult or a same-age peer and (b) if the child was actively interacting and engaged with the partner or not. The highest prosocial responses were found in bilateral joint tasks such as sharing the spoils after a collaborative effort and helping a partner finish a mutual activity. Prosocial responses were lower in unilateral autonomous tasks such as assisting another person in opening a locked box and distributing a windfall of resources. Children did not show an overall preference for helping or sharing with adults versus peers except that they were more likely to support a peer than an adult in an instrumental helping task. Together, these findings suggest that toddlers’ early prosocial skills and motivations are more sensitive to how toddlers are engaged with a partner than to who that partner is, implying that children have a nondiscriminatory general inclination to benefit others, especially in bilateral interactive scenarios.

Improving Discussion on Nutrition Topics in a Rural Clinic Setting Between Primary Care Physicians and Pediatric Patients

Abstract Objectives This research, conducted in rural under served southwest Virginia, determined outcomes for the Healthy People 2020 Nutrition and Weight Status Objective to assess implementation of provider nutrition education in office visits to promote nutrition as a component of routine preventive medicine. Methods The authors' prior research, clinical experiences, familiarity with the region, along with agency reports identified the collaborating clinic as representative of the health disparity region characterized by high childhood obesity rates. Researchers distributed a 14 item survey to participants consenting to an IRB approved protocol, responding anonymously to the paper survey by depositing their completed form in a locked box. Results Participants (n = 384; 80% providing valid responses) were parents or guardians of children 2 to 18 years of age visiting a local pediatrician's office. All responded to have medical insurance, 98% were the primary caregiver of the child and 74% received government aid. Most (77%) caregivers “find fun and interesting way to introduce new foods”. Most (79%) caregivers agreed their child “likes to eat fruits and vegetables”. Caregivers disagreed (84%) to, “A healthy child is a fat child.” Responses by caregivers to, “How often does your provider discuss nutrition topics with you?” were very often (25%); sometimes (32%); occasionally (33%); and never (11%). Responses to, ‘How often would you like your provider to discuss these topics with you?’ were very often (19%); sometimes (30%); occasionally (43%); and never (7%). There was little to no correlation to age of the child on how caregivers responded to “…does your provider discuss nutrition topics with you”? (r = 0.14) and “…would you like your provider to discuss these topics with you?” (r = 0.12). Correlations indicated little to no relationship to children's ages. Conclusions Caregivers in a southwest Virginia clinic reported receiving nutrition education services at a rate exceeding Healthy People 2020 goals and recognized healthy nutrition guidelines. Our findings are consistent with our previous studies, confirming future interventions should target translation of caregivers’ knowledge to children's behaviors to ultimately improve healthy childhood development. This study was sponsored by a Paul Scholarship Program Award, Rachel Horn Mullins OMSIV. Funding Sources N/A.

MON-128 Improving Medication Adherence in Pediatric Patients

Introduction Caring for chronic pediatric endocrine disorders commonly require long-term use of pharmacotherapy. Although these medications are effective in combating disease, their real benefits are often not achieved because of non-adherence. Health care professionals must be aware to the high prevalence of noncompliance which contributes to increased morbidity and medical complications, poorer quality of life and an overuse of the health care system and increase health care costs. Methods In order to better understand the factors contributing to noncompliance in our patient population, we performed a cross -sectional study along with medical chart review. We randomly selected 30 endocrine charts with chronic disorders and reviewed documentation of the need for medications, type of the visit, dose, duration, plan, patient compliance and refill follow up. Special attention was made if the physicians documented discussing the possible side-effects of the medication. An anonymous survey was handed to the parents at the end of visit and form was dropped in a locked box. No personal information or identification was collected. Parents were inquired about their understanding of the need for medication, side effects, compliance and the reason for poor compliance if they met the criteria. The chart reviewed showed that 47% of the patients reported poor compliance to physician during visit but when asked during the survey only 22 % reported poor compliance. 58% of the patients reported not knowing the possible side-effects of the medications. Reasons for non-compliance given by patients were 58% concerned about side effects of medication, refill not provided 4.8%, forgetting to take medication 2.4%, cost 2.4%, and language barrier 2.4%. Other 30% didn’t provide a specific reason for poor compliance. Conclusion Rates of medication adherence in pediatric patient with chronic medical illness range from 11% to 93%, with an estimated average of around 50%. Our population compliance correlates with the national average for pediatric population compliance. Our study also highlighted the importance of discussing possible side-effects with patients. Reviewing it periodically during clinic visits may decrease the risk of non-compliance. 58% of our patients reported lack of knowledge of proper side-effects of the treatment and impact of non -compliance to disease progression. Based on these results, we provided additional resources to physicians to better screen for factors that may affect compliance in each visit. Certain hard stops were added in medical documents and modifications were done in EMR. Information about common endocrine conditions and medication was added in EMR in English and Spanish. Physicians were encouraged to given written information about the proper use and side-effects. We are planning to do a follow up survey in 3–4 months to evaluate the improvement.

Applying Behavioral Economics to Enhance Safe Firearm Storage.

Behavioral economics applies key principles from psychology and economics to address obstacles to behavior change. The important topic of pediatric firearm injuries has not yet been explored through a behavioral economic lens. Pediatric firearm-related injuries are a significant public health problem in the United States. Despite American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines advising that firearms be stored unloaded, in a locked box or with a locking device, and separate from ammunition, estimates suggest that ∼4.6 million children live in homes with at least 1 loaded and unlocked firearm. In this article, we use behavioral economic theory to identify specific cognitive biases (ie, present bias; in-group, out-group bias; and the availability heuristic) that may influence parental decision-making around firearm storage. We illustrate situations in which these biases may occur and highlight implementation prompts, in-group messengers, and increased salience as behaviorally informed strategies that may counter these biases and subsequently enhance safe firearm storage. We also describe other opportunities to leverage the behavioral economic tool kit. By better understanding the individual behavioral levers that may impact decision-making around firearm storage, behavioral scientists, pediatric providers, and public health practitioners can partner to design and test tailored interventions aimed at decreasing pediatric firearm injuries. Further empirical study is warranted to identify the presence of specific biases and heuristics and determine the most effective behavior change strategies for different subpopulations.

Age-related changes in the relation between preschoolers’ anger and persistence

Although the functionalist perspective on emotional development posits that emotions serve adaptive functions, empirical tests of the role of anger mostly focus on how anger contributes to dysfunction. Developmentally, as children gain agency and skill at emotion regulation between the ages of 36 months and 48 months, their modulation of anger may facilitate its functional role for behavior. We examined this possibility through study of how 120 children’s anger and sadness were related to persistence during the transparent locked box task at ages 36 and 48 months. Using survival analyses, we examined how children’s anger and sadness were related to their giving up during the challenging task, and whether those relations were moderated by age. Using hidden Markov models (HMMs), we examined how children transitioned among anger, sadness, and on-task behavior states and whether those dynamics differed with age. Survival analysis revealed that age moderated the relation between anger and giving up. Greater anger was associated with greater likelihood of giving up earlier in the task at 36 months but with lower likelihood of giving up at 48 months. HMM analyses revealed that children were more likely to transition from a Calm/On-task to Calm/Off-task state at 36 months than at 48 months; that children were more likely to remain in an Anger/On-task state at 36 months than at 48 months; and that children were more likely to transition from Calm/On-task to Anger/On-task, and from Anger/On-task back to Calm/On-task at 48 months than at 36 months. Taken together, the findings suggest that anger appraisals may facilitate children in maintaining persistence, but that this functionality may develop with age.

The Relationship between Marijuana Use Prior to Sex and Sexual Function in Women.

IntroductionScientific research on the effects of marijuana on sexual functioning in women, including libido, arousal, orgasm, and satisfaction, is limited.AimTo evaluate women’s perceptions of the effect of marijuana use before sexual activity.MethodsA cross-sectional design, from March 2016–February 2017, within a single, academic, obstetrics and gynecology practice, was performed. Patients were given a questionnaire at their visit and asked to complete it anonymously and place it in a locked box after their visit.Main Outcome MeasuresThe primary outcome was satisfaction in the sexual domains of drive, orgasm, lubrication, dyspareunia, and overall sexual experience. The secondary outcome was the effect of the frequency of marijuana use on satisfaction.ResultsOf the 373 participants, 34.0% (n = 127) reported having used marijuana before sexual activity. Most women reported increases in sex drive, improvement in orgasm, decrease in pain, but no change in lubrication. After adjusting for race, women who reported marijuana use before sexual activity had 2.13 higher odds of reporting satisfactory orgasms (adjusted odds ratio = 2.13; 95% CI = 1.05, 4.35) than women who reported no marijuana use. After adjusting for race and age, women with frequent marijuana use, regardless of use before sex or not, had 2.10 times higher odds of reporting satisfactory orgasms than those with infrequent marijuana use (adjusted odds ratio = 2.10; 95% CI = 1.01–4.44).ConclusionMarijuana appears to improve satisfaction with orgasm. A better understanding of the role of the endocannabinoid system in women is important, because there is a paucity of literature, and it could help lead to development of treatments for female sexual dysfunction.Lynn BK, López JD, Miller C, et al. The Relationship between Marijuana Use Prior to Sex and Sexual Function in Women. Sex Med 2019;7:192–197.

Maternal emotion dysregulation and the functional organization of preschoolers’ emotional expressions and regulatory behaviors.

Although psychopathology in mothers is known to be a significant risk factor for child outcomes, less is known about how emotion dysregulation, a transdiagnostic feature that cuts across many diagnoses, shapes emotion-related parenting practices and the development of emotion regulation in offspring. Building upon previous research that examined the functional relations between emotions and regulatory actions in children, we sought to examine the association of maternal emotion dysregulation and emotion socialization with these functional links in an at-risk community sample of mother-preschooler (children ages 36-60 months) dyads that oversampled for mothers with elevated symptoms of borderline personality disorder (n = 68). We found that maternal emotion dysregulation was associated with children displaying more sadness and engaging in less problem solving during the Locked Box Task, which is designed to elicit anger. Maternal emotion dysregulation was also associated with children being more distracted and talking less in the context of sadness. Maternal nonsupportive emotion socialization responses were associated with children engaging in more defiant behaviors throughout the task and using less problem solving in the context of happiness, whereas maternal supportive emotion socialization responses were associated with more play throughout the task and less talking in the context of sadness, above and beyond the effect of maternal emotion dysregulation. These findings indicate that maternal emotion dysregulation and nonsupportive emotion socialization practices are both meaningfully associated with the development of aberrant patterns of emotional and behavioral responding during the preschool years. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Brontë Badasses, and: Emily’s Apocrypha, and: Reading Emily Brontë by Long Island Sound

The Brontë Badasses, and: Emily’s Apocrypha, and: Reading Emily Brontë by Long Island Sound Jane Satterfield THE BRONTË BADASSES are up to here with their aunt’s old-time religion,their brother’s boozy brawls. They’ll walk milesin unhip boots, unfazed by hail or funnel clouds,slinging sweet iambics to help them keep the pace.Anne’s irked past words with nannying and given inher notice—good riddance to the coked-upfinancier and his straying wife, the schoolboystoning sparrows, the chronic cleaning up.She’s breathing freer now that a Gothic cross heavesbetween her breasts. Some nights she leadskitchen karaoke, is not above canoodlingin the crypts with her father’s curate. Charlotte downsa dirty chai to plot another romance novel.She’ll lock the doors and justify their genius,rifling through her sisters’ desks. She’s no ordinarybusybody, just looking for a pen. Her love lettersto her old prof are full of pretty filthy stuff—submissive dreams and words like whips. Emily’san insomniac, works from dusk till dawn and stillfinds time for pistol practice—survivalism calls.When hailed to play piano, she’ll unleash a darkfugue on unwitting guests and call her hawkdown with a whistle—watch out, she’ll throwred wine in your face. Beguiling cocktails?They can’t even. Their laughter sets the houseabuzz as any hive. They go commando whenthey can, in town or on the primrose path. [End Page 526] EMILY’S APOCRYPHA Wafting across the moors in a cloud of Yorkshire mist, the so-called sphinx of English literature has acquired almost supernatural status. The absences surrounding her have made her all the more magnetic and some colorful apocrypha has emerged to fill the gaps. —Lucasta Miller, The Brontë Myth did not include the dour black plumageof today’s lashing rain, though the hillsin her time and town would have rung with a similar hammering sound,worsening wind erasing horizonsand heather. Did not include the whirl of sirens, though maybe you’d have heardthe purring cat curled up to the grating’sedge while embers alternately flared and cooled. Moor walker and maybemystic who knew a book might be an indexof birds, maybe amid a brother’s intemperate rage, Emily Brontë watched a spider cross the flagstonefloor, ink-thick in its advance, retreat;reckoned that a pistol’s kickback is nothing next to the heart’s: torquedmuscle pumping its own fugue.Linnet, skylark, curlew, cuckoo; lapwing with rainbow feathers and furling crest,merlin of the steel grey eye—You did know the world of tearing talons, poacher’s traps, what cruelty in manbegets. Sometimes you spoke too franklybut mostly held your tongue, tired out at teas, [End Page 527] with social calls. Village paths gave or didn’tbeneath those scruffy boots.You were no small-town sibyl, stitching stuttered measures from some divine source.Nor did you die on an ebony horsehair-filled couchseveral inches short of your lanky height. If good sense demanded a fire ironacross your arm to seal a sheepdog’s bite,you wore its flaming sigil, and if a spray of flour hung in the kitchen’s heat,it shone as moments, marginalia, scrawlednotes stashed in a locked desk box, your mastiff crouched nearby,becalmed though still a beast,held at bay like a devouring flame. [End Page 528] READING EMILY BRONTË BY LONG ISLAND SOUND Life is short & art is all & the day is dazzling, a glassine surface, the clouds a mottled counterpane. The view splays blue, ring-billed gulls parse the tide. No lark or heather-bells, just pages where the seasons swing. You walked away from village chatter, toward the waterfall’s campaign, up moorland hills where a wind beat a path through grass. Such license in stolen afternoons where you saw hidden constellations— the silver trail of snails, a fistful of bees roused from sleep. Your dress was a welter of thunder clouds and lighting bolts— Today I’m gauze and flutter sleeves. Would you say the here and now’s a horizon...

State Laws Regarding Indoor Public Use, Retail Sales, and Prices of Electronic Cigarettes - U.S. States, Guam, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands, September 30, 2017.

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are the most frequently used tobacco product among U.S. youths, and past 30-day e-cigarette use is more prevalent among high school students than among adults (1,2). E-cigarettes typically deliver nicotine, and the U.S. Surgeon General has concluded that nicotine exposure during adolescence can cause addiction and can harm the developing adolescent brain (2). Through authority granted by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) prohibits e-cigarette sales to minors, free samples, and vending machine sales, except in adult-only facilities (3). States, localities, territories, and tribes maintain broad authority to adopt additional or more stringent requirements regarding tobacco product use, sales, marketing, and other topics (2,4). To understand the current e-cigarette policy landscape in the United States, CDC assessed state and territorial laws that 1) prohibit e-cigarette use and conventional tobacco smoking indoors in restaurants, bars, and worksites; 2) require a retail license to sell e-cigarettes; 3) prohibit e-cigarette self-service displays (e.g., requirement that products be kept behind the counter or in a locked box); 4) establish 21 years as the minimum age of purchase for all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes (tobacco-21); and 5) apply an excise tax to e-cigarettes. As of September 30, 2017, eight states, the District of Columbia (DC), and Puerto Rico prohibited indoor e-cigarette use and smoking in indoor areas of restaurants, bars, and worksites; 16 states, DC, and the U.S. Virgin Islands required a retail license to sell e-cigarettes; 26 states prohibited e-cigarette self-service displays; five states, DC, and Guam had tobacco-21 laws; and eight states, DC, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands taxed e-cigarettes. Sixteen states had none of the assessed laws. A comprehensive approach that combines state-level strategies to reduce youths' initiation of e-cigarettes and population exposure to e-cigarette aerosol, coupled with federal regulation, could help reduce health risks posed by e-cigarettes among youths (2,5).

Developmental change in emotion expression in frustrating situations: The roles of context and gender.

Emotion expression is a central aspect of social-emotional functioning. Theorists assert that emotion expression undergoes significant changes in the preschool period. There is, however, limited observational evidence of those changes, which may vary by interpersonal context and gender. The present longitudinal study examined developmental changes in emotion expressions from ages 3 to 5 years in 120 children from rural economically strained families. Children's facial, vocal, and postural sadness, anger, and happiness expressions were observed in frustrating tasks in 3 social contexts (a perfect circles task with an experimenter, a toy wait task with mother, a locked box task when alone). Findings indicted that sadness expressions decreased with age in all 3 contexts. Anger expressions increased with age in the frustrating task with the experimenter and when alone but not with the mother. From age 4 to 5 years, happiness expressions decreased in the task with experimenter but increased when alone and increased marginally with mother. In terms of gender, girls expressed greater happiness (and lower sadness) than boys but only in the task with the experimenter. Findings suggest that sadness expressions decrease over the preschool years. Developmental changes in happiness and anger expressions (and gender differences) likely depend on context.

Inaccessibility of reinforcement increases persistence and signaling behavior in the fox squirrel (Sciurus niger).

Under natural conditions, wild animals encounter situations where previously rewarded actions do not lead to reinforcement. In the laboratory, a surprising omission of reinforcement induces behavioral and emotional responses described as frustration. Frustration can lead to aggressive behaviors and to the persistence of noneffective responses, but it may also lead to new behavioral responses to a problem, a potential adaptation. We assessed the responses to inaccessible reinforcement in free-ranging fox squirrels (Sciurus niger). We trained squirrels to open a box to obtain food reinforcement, a piece of walnut. After 9 training trials, squirrels were tested in 1 of 4 conditions: a control condition with the expected reward, an alternative reinforcement (a piece of dried corn), an empty box, or a locked box. We measured the presence of signals suggesting arousal (e.g., tail flags and tail twitches) and found that squirrels performed fewer of these behaviors in the control condition and increased certain behaviors (tail flags, biting box) in the locked box condition, compared to other experimental conditions. When faced with nonreinforcement, that is, frustration, squirrels increased the number of interactions with the apparatus and spent more time interacting with the apparatus. This study of frustration responses in a free-ranging animal extends the conclusions of captive studies to the field and demonstrates that fox squirrels show short-term negatively valenced responses to the inaccessibility, omission, and change of reinforcement. (PsycINFO Database Record