Behavior Observation Research Articles

In-situ Observation of Inclusion Formation Behaviors during Solidification Process Using Model Alloy

In-situ Observation of Inclusion Formation Behaviors during Solidification Process Using Model Alloy

Prophetic leadership: Islamic psychology studies in leadership management in mobile legend games

This study aims to examine the concept of prophetic leadership in the context of the Mobile Legend Game, using an Islamic psychological approach. Prophetic leadership is a leadership model derived from the exemplary behavior of the prophets and apostles in Islam. In Mobile Legend games, effective leadership is essential to achieve common goals and optimal team performance. This study used a qualitative research method with a descriptive-analytical approach. Data were collected through participatory observation, interviews, and content analysis of leader behaviors in the Mobile Legend game that demonstrate prophetic leadership characteristics. In addition, the Islamic psychology approach was used to analyze aspects of prophetic leadership, such as justice, trust, integrity, and effective communication. The results of this study are expected to provide a deeper understanding of how prophetic leadership can be applied in the context of Mobile Legend games. The implications of this study can provide insight for players and game developers in understanding the importance of leadership based on Islamic values and exploring the potential of effective leaders in games.

Exploring Mental Health Awareness: A Study on Knowledge and Perceptions of Mental Health Disorders among Residents of Matsafeni Village, Mbombela, Mpumalanga Province.

The global rise in mental health disorders has significant social, economic, and physical impacts. Despite advancements in support, cultural beliefs attributing mental illnesses to spiritual causes persist, fostering discrimination and stigmatization. The study aims to explore the understanding and perceptions of mental health in Matsafeni Village, acknowledging the complexity of mental health issues. A qualitative method and a descriptive exploratory design were employed, enabling the researcher to describe, examine, and explore the knowledge and perceptions regarding mental health. Data collection was conducted through unstructured, open-ended interviews, with 15 participants selected through convenience sampling. The data were analyzed through thematic analysis. Measures of rigor were ensured through credibility, transferability, confirmability, and dependability. Participants demonstrated knowledge of mental health disorders, recognizing disruptions in thought patterns and diverse symptoms. They highlighted key signs and behaviors, emphasizing the need for spotting indicators such as untidiness. Perceptions of the causes of mental illness varied, including witchcraft and genetics. Participants unanimously advocated for seeking help from traditional healers, medical facilities, and therapies. Community members shared their views of mental health, covering their understanding, recognition of signs, personal interactions, and observations of behaviors in individuals with mental health conditions. Reported symptoms align with existing research, emphasizing the complexity of managing safety concerns in severe mental illnesses. The study highlights the need for community education to reduce stigma, considering cultural factors in mental health perceptions. Recommendations include early interventions, enhanced mental health services, and collaboration between western and traditional approaches for a holistic and culturally sensitive approach to mental health.

UNDERSTANDING THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF PUBLIC OPEN SPACE ON OLDER ADULTS’ FUNCTIONAL ABILITY AND MENTAL HEALTH

Abstract Little is known about how public open space (POS) environment quality and vitality influence older adults’ functional ability and mental health over time. POS vitality refers to the capacity of POS to accommodate a variety of users and activities. We undertook a four-year longitudinal survey of 2081 older adults in Hong Kong to investigate longitudinal relationships between POS environment quality, POS vitality, functional ability and mental health. We applied environment quality evaluation and space use behavior observation to collect data on the environment quality and vitality of POSs within the 200-m buffer area of participants’ residences. POS environment quality attributes included the number of leisure facility types, accessibility, shade, and bench quality. POS vitality attributes comprised the diversity of users and activities. We used the Chinese Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale to measure older adults’ functional ability and the Geriatric Depression Scale (15-item) to evaluate mental health. We applied latent growth curve models to analyze the longitudinal associations. Accessibility to POS and social interactions among users in POS were related to better functional ability and mental health among older adults at baseline. The number of leisure facility types, and social interactions among users in POS led to a slower decline in functional ability over time. However, there were no significant associations between POS and mental health over time. These findings have theoretical implications for the healthy aging research framework and practical insights for planning policies using POS as an intervention tool to facilitate older adults’ healthy aging.

Unconventional polarization fatigue in van der Waals layered ferroelectric ionic conductor CuInP2S6

Recent progress in two-dimensional ferroelectrics greatly expands the versatility and tunability in van der Waals heterostructure based electronics. However, the switching endurance issue that widely plagues conventional ferroelectrics in practical applications is hitherto unexplored for van der Waals layered ferroelectrics. Herein, we report the observation of unusual polarization fatigue behaviors in van der Waals layered CuInP2S6, which also possesses finite ionic conductivity at room temperature. The strong intertwinement of the short-range polarization switching and long-range ionic movement in conjunction with the van der Waals layered structure gives rise to unique morphological and polarization evolutions under repetitive electric cycles. With the help of concerted chemical, structural, lattice vibrational and dielectric analyses, we unravel the critical role of the synergy of ionic migration and surface oxidation on the anomalous polarization enhancement and the eventual polarization degradation. This work provides a general insight into the polarization fatigue characteristics in ionically-active van der Waals ferroelectrics and delivers potential solutions for the realization of fatigue-free capacitors.

Validation of scan sampling techniques for nursery pig feeder- and nutritional enrichment use

The objective of this study was to validate scan sample accuracy at various predetermined intervals relative to continuous observation of individual nursery pigs interacting with a feeder and nutritional enrichment. A total of 280 mixed-sex pigs, 19 to 24 days of age were randomly allocated to 28 pens. Pen was the experimental unit, and 7 pens were assigned to each of 4 treatments: (1) biscuit with maternal pheromone attractant (MP), (2) biscuit with sugary attractant (strawberry jam) (JAM),(3) biscuit with no attractant (positive control; POS), and (4) no biscuit (negative control; NEG). Each enrichment pen received 4 biscuits suspended from 2ropes at the feeder for the first 7 days after weaning. The biscuit enrichments were added to the nursery pen at ~ the 15:00 hour on Day 0 and ~ the 08:30 hour on Days 1-6. Behavior observations were performed using continuous sampling of all nursery pigs in each pen during the first 30 minutes after biscuit placement on Days 0 to 6 (98 total hours, 3.5 hours/pen). The number of time each pig interacted with the feeder and biscuit was recorded as well as the duration of each interaction. These continuous observations were then used to create different data sets at varying sample times. The scan sample and continuous data were analyzed using the GLM procedure of SAS and behavioral frequency data were expressed as percentage of time (s) pigs were performing an identified behavior during the 30-minute observation periods. For enrichment use, there was no observed statistical difference between data collected using continuous observation, 10 second scans and 15 second scans when comparing continuous to 5 second scans, 10 second scans, 15 second scans and 30 second scans. For feeder use, there was no observed statistical difference between data collected using continuous observation and the 30 second scan sample when comparing continuous to 15 second scans, 30 second scans, 45 second scans and60 second scans. In conclusion, 30 second scan sampling for feeder use and 10second and 15 second scan sampling for enrichment use can be used, without being different to the continuous or “gold  standard” methodology. These scan point validations are critical because they allow the observer to collect more total data in less time without giving up accuracy.

Automated Synthesis of Safe Timing Behaviors for Requirements Models Using CCSL

As a promising requirement-level specification language for timing behavior modeling, the Clock Constraint Specification Language (CCSL) has become popular in the model-driven design community for safety-critical embedded systems. However, due to the skyrocketing design complexity, in practice, it is hard for requirement engineers to accurately construct requirement models with expected timing behaviors using CCSL, especially for safe timing behaviors. Although more and more CCSL synthesis approaches are designed to facilitate the generation of CCSL specifications, most of them cannot be used directly for the synthesis of requirements models. This is because existing CCSL synthesis methods: i) focus on filling the holes of CCSL constraints rather than completing requirements models; and ii) rely heavily on limited observations of system behaviors, while the (temporal) safety properties of target systems are neglected. To address these issues, this paper proposes a novel method that enables the automated synthesis of safe timing behaviors for requirements models. By specifying the safety timing properties of target systems using safely-LTL, our approach adopts CCSL as an intermediate representation of requirement synthesis, where incomplete requirements models coupled with safely-LTL-based properties are encoded into CCSL constraints with holes. Guided by the samples (expected behaviors) provided by requirement engineers, our approach can automatically figure out the complete version of incomplete requirements models. Comprehensive experimental results on two complex case studies demonstrate that our approach can not only quickly and efficiently synthesize requirement models, but also guarantee that the synthesized models satisfy specified safety properties in Safely-LTL form.

Medical encounters with patients diagnosed with cancer: The association between physicians' behavior and perceived patient centered care and anxiety

PurposeTo evaluate the association between physicians' behavior and cancer patients’ perceived patient-centered care (PCC) and anxiety following medical encounters. MethodsA prospective study design with 100 encounters, including 100 cancer patients and 22 oncology/surgery physicians, was performed between November 2019 and July 2021. Before the medical encounters, patients were asked to complete the validated State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and physicians and patients completed sociodemographic and clinical data. During the medical encounters, structured ‘real-time’ observations of the physicians' behaviors were performed using the Four Habits Coding Scheme (4HCS). Following the medical encounters, patients were asked to re-complete the STAI and to fill the validated Perceived PCC questionnaire. ResultsMean 4HCS was positively associated with perceived PCC (β = 0.351, p < 0.001) and contributed 10.5% to the total 25.3% explained variance beyond the sociodemographic and clinical variables. Of the 4HCS sub scales, ‘Demonstrate Empathy’ displayed the lowest correlation with perceived PCC as compared to informational behaviors. In contrast, mean 4HCS was not associated with post-meeting anxiety (p > 0.05). ConclusionOur ‘in-vivo’ observations of medical encounters expands on previous studies in educational settings in showing how physicians' behaviors impact real patients' experience. The findings may provide a more accurate picture of physicians' supportive and unsupportive behaviors that impact on perceived PCC and anxiety. Patients may prefer their physicians to focus on the informational content related to their disease trajectory rather than focusing on empathy with their emotions. Physicians should be trained in ways to support patients on how to regain emotional control in stressful medical situations.

The characteristics of the acoustic environment and the restorative benefits of soundscape in interventional therapy rooms

Coronary heart disease (CHD) has become one of the most serious health problems in the world. As a treatment environment for CHD, the acoustic environment in the interventional therapy room is crucial to patients and healthcare workers. To investigate the characteristics of the sound environment in interventional therapy rooms and the soundscape health benefits of the soundscape for patients, acoustic measurements and noise behavior observations were conducted in various areas of an interventional therapy room, and soundscape intervention experiments were performed on patients treated there. In this study, CHD patients were used as the research object. Results show that: 1) the background noise levels for waiting area (WA) and operation area (OA) under empty field conditions were 54.5 dBA and 52.8 dBA, and 66.43 dBA and 64.2 dBA, respectively, under conditions of usual use. 2) Patients perceived the acoustic environment as noisy and uncomfortable in both areas, with OA being more severe than WA. 3) Natural sounds from composite sources has a greater potential for restorative benefits than single-source soundscape.

Designing sustainability changes in a tourist accommodation context from a systems perspective

Pro-sustainability changes are slow and incremental at best in the tourism sector. Research on the topic can take the form of secondary data (e.g., content analysis of strategic documents, social media posts), survey-based intent studies (e.g., willingness to pay), survey-based studies of self-reported behaviors, observation of actual behaviors (e.g., benchmarking studies), lab-based experimental manipulations of measurable behaviors, and, finally, in situ, or field-based, experimental manipulations of measurable behaviors. The latter are some of the rarest studies and are held up as the gold standard for changing behaviors by providing evidence-based, measurable, and actionable sustainability interventions for tourism businesses. This study draws inspiration from a 4-year program of action research into pro-sustainability changes in tourist accommodations. It questions whether any of these approaches are sufficient for changing sustainability-oriented behaviors. This questioning extends to whether the theoretical approaches that underpin even “gold standard experiments” capture the operational contexts of accommodation businesses. It proposes instead that a scaffolded approach, built from a systems map of the theories, tools, experimental findings, interviews with stakeholders and operational context is necessary to create sustainability transformations in tourism businesses. This is a radical departure from the dependent/independent variable approach adopted in traditional scientific methods and that requires a different ontological approach to the science of sustainability. The study has implications for contextualizing intervention-based experimental studies within a wider system of influential factors within tourist accommodations.

Bifurcation analysis, chaotic analysis and diverse optical soliton solutions of time-fractional (2+1) dimensional generalized Camassa-Holm Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation arising in shallow water waves

This paper presents a study on (2+1) generalized Camassa-Holm Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation, which is used to describe the behavior of shallow water waves in nonlinear media. The considered equation provides a more accurate description of wave behavior compared to linear wave equations and can account for wave breaking and other nonlinear effects. This model can be used to describe and study the behavior of nonlinear waves such as rogue waves in complex fluid dynamics scenarios. This includes the behavior of waves in stratified fluids, nonlinear dispersive media and wave interactions in fluid flows with varying velocities and densities. The bifurcation analysis of the governing equation has been performed using the planar dynamical system method. The chaotic behavior of the dynamical system has been examined by utilizing various techniques such as time series analysis and the construction of 2D and 3D phase space trajectories. Furthermore, the introduction of a perturbed term has resulted in the observation of chaotic and quasi-periodic behaviors across a range of parameter values. The considered equation has been reduced to ordinary differential equation by performing symmetry reduction. The Kudryashov method has been used to obtain the exact solution of reduced equation. The single soliton solution of governed equation has been obtained by using Hirota method and impact of fractional parameter on the obtained solution has been studied using graphical representation. The extended sinh-Gordon equation expansion method and modified generalized exponential rational function method have been exploited to obtain dark, bright and singular soliton solutions of considered equation. The motivation for this study arises from the need to understand and analyze the complex dynamics of shallow water waves in nonlinear media with a particular focus on the (2+1) generalized Camassa-Holm Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equation. By performing symmetry reduction and applying various analytical methods, we aim to unravel the intricate behavior and soliton solutions of considered equation, contributing to the broader understanding of nonlinear wave phenomena.

Superabsorbent polymer in alkali-activated slag paste: Swelling-deswelling behaviour and effects on surrounding matrix

Superabsorbent polymer (SAP) has been applied in alkali-activated slag (AAS) for internal curing, but its interaction mechanism remains unclear. This study employed SAP of a large size (∼2 mm) to achieve in-situ and continuous observation of SAP behaviors in AAS paste and their impacts on the reaction kinetics, reaction products, and microstructure of surrounding matrix for 90 days. Results showed that the behaviors of SAP in AAS changed over time: swelling (0–10 h), fast deswelling (10 h–48 h), and slow deswelling (48 h-90 d). SAP swelling in AAS paste is subjected to the additional physical restriction by surrounding matrix. SAP postponed the hydration of AAS but hardly affected the long-term reaction degree due to the ion release during deswelling. Some Ca ions were retained in SAP, altering the reaction products of AAS by forming N-A-S-H gels. The effects of SAP on AAS diminish over distance, ultimately forming an hollow, annular affected zone with a dense microstructure.

Development and optimization of trivalent chromium electrodeposit on 304L stainless steel to improve corrosion resistance in chloride-containing environment

In this study, we developed and optimized a trivalent chromium coating electrodeposited on 304L stainless steel (SS) from a Cr-trivalent bath. The results reveal that the Cr coatings at all bath temperatures except for 80 °C showed clusters of polyhedral grains, however, the grain sizes decreased with an increase in bath temperature. Also, the coatings deposited at bath temperatures of 30, 50, and 60 °C experienced networks of cracks, which decreased in population density as temperature increased. However, the coatings deposited at bath temperatures of 70 and 80 °C were crack-free due to surface modification, confirmed by 3D profile results with an advanced power spectral density and a multi-Gaussian histogram analysis. The mechanical test results demonstrate that the adhesion and wear resistance of the Cr-coatings formed on the SS substrate significantly improved, with the optimal coefficient of friction of 0.18. Likewise, electrochemical behavior observations of the Cr coatings show that pitting resistance improved with the increase in bath temperature conditions, as shown in the pitting potential values which increased from 272.6 mV to 436.2 mV as bath temperature increases from 30 °C to 80 °C. From this study, it is proposed that the Cr-coatings deposited at a bath temperature of 80 °C presents the optimal coating performance concerning a combination of all the target qualities aimed, such as better tribological behavior and improved pitting resistance. Thus, enabling the establishment of an innovative method to overcome the conventional issues encountered in Cr electrodeposition of SSs.

109 Animal Behavior Analysis Using Unsupervised Machine Learning Techniques

Abstract With recent technological advances, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and other tracking sensors can collect large amounts of data and transfer information to the cloud and then to producers to remotely monitor livestock health and well-being. Currently, supervised machine learning, such as random forest and linear or quadratic discriminant analysis techniques are used to develop algorithms to identify changes in animal behavior that may be associated with well-being concerns. Supervised machine learning requires behavior observation of monitored animals and may hinder normal expression. However, recording behavioral observations is time consuming and expensive. Our goal was to design a new unsupervised machine learning framework to identify animal behavior without the utilization of human observations. The framework contains two steps. The first step is to segment the tracking data of the animal using time series segmentation, and the second step is to group the segments into clusters where each cluster represents one type of behavior. To validate the applicability of our proposed framework, we utilize GPS tracking data collected at 2-minute intervals from eight cows from May 28 to June 22, 2018, in a 1096 ha rangeland pasture near Prescott, Arizona. After extensive experiments, our framework can partition the movement of the cow using the speed, direction, and distance of the cow from water. These segments were grouped into meaningful behavior clusters using clustering analysis. Speed was the most successful feature for clustering into behaviors. Results are similar to approaches based only on expert knowledge, that rely on speed for classification. Our study demonstrated that we can directly use unlabeled data to group animal behaviors from GPS tracking data. The proposed unsupervised two-step framework allows the analysis of cattle tracking data without direct human observation of behaviors. It is applicable for analyzing the immense amount of data that can be obtained from real-time tracking and sensor devices.

Episodic live imaging of cone photoreceptor maturation in GNAT2-EGFP retinal organoids.

Fluorescent reporter pluripotent stem cell-derived retinal organoids are powerful tools to investigate cell type-specific development and disease phenotypes. When combined with live imaging, they enable direct and repeated observation of cell behaviors within a developing retinal tissue. Here, we generated a human cone photoreceptor reporter line by CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing of WTC11-mTagRFPT-LMNB1 human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by inserting enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) coding sequences and a 2A self-cleaving peptide at the N-terminus of guanine nucleotide-binding protein subunit alpha transducin 2 (GNAT2). In retinal organoids generated from these iPSCs, the GNAT2-EGFP alleles robustly and exclusively labeled immature and mature cones. Episodic confocal live imaging of hydrogel immobilized retinal organoids allowed tracking of the morphological maturation of individual cones for >18 weeks and revealed inner segment accumulation of mitochondria and growth at 12.2 μm3 per day from day 126 to day 153. Immobilized GNAT2-EGFP cone reporter organoids provide a valuable tool for investigating human cone development and disease.

A Combined Assessment Tool of Teamwork, Communication, and Workload in Hospital Procedural Units

Teamwork, communication, and workload issues continue to contribute to patient safety events. The authors developed a diagnostic mixed methods toolkit combining a behavior observation tool, semistructured interview guide, and surveys to proactively identify relevant gaps. Applied across 14 units at three hospitals, this toolkit yielded 344 findings with 156 associated recommendations and took, on average, four days of observation. On a scale from 1 (not at all helpful) to 6 (substantially helpful), leaders indicated that the assessment and its recommendations were very helpful (median 5, interquartile range 5-6, 34 survey respondents, 47.9% individual-level response rate, 85.7% unit-level response rate). Integrating this tool into a broader safety strategy can help inform organizational improvement efforts.

PSIII-1 Preference Testing of Three Materials on Sows Prior to Farrowing

Abstract Enrichment increases the ability of a sow to express innate behavior in a barren environment and can reduce aggressive behaviors, stress, and promote animal welfare. The objective of this study was to determine sow interaction with different types of enrichment materials provided before farrowing. A total of 11 sows were randomly assigned an enrichment combination of cardboard, paper, and banana leaves. Sows received two enrichment types, then enrichment was switched for the following day, until all combinations were completed. The enrichment material hung from 2x4 wood using ropes that hung the enrichment and chains placed in the ceiling of the farrowing room that held the 2x4 above the pen of each sow. Therefore, enrichment was placed within the nose reach of each sow. Enrichment material (113 g) was placed in the pens at 0700 h and left for 24 h each day before changing with another enrichment combination. Any enrichment material remaining was weighed. Final weight varied by treatment (P = 0.01), with sows consuming the least of cardboard (24.9 ± 10.0 g) and having an equal preference for banana leaves and paper (74.1 ± 10.0 g and 50.1 ± 11.3 g, respectively). Scan sampling was utilized to measure the frequency of interaction with the enrichments. The scans were designed with the first hour recording every minute a sow interacted with enrichment and the following 3 hours recording every 10 minutes. Continuous observation for the first hour of placement was performed for count data. Each time the sow made contact with the enrichment with her nose, the observation was recorded. The results of the behavior observation suggested that time in contact with enrichment did not differ (P &amp;gt; 0.05), nor did the number of times the pig-initiated contact with enrichment (P &amp;gt; 0.05). In conclusion, sow preference showed that bananas and papers were preferred over cardboard. However, sows will engage with any enrichment material provided before farrowing. Future research should be done to see if any environmental factors play a role in sow’s preference.

Exploring objective measures for assessing team performance in healthcare: an interview study

IntroductionEffective teamwork plays a critical role in achieving high-performance outcomes in healthcare. Consequently, conducting a comprehensive assessment of team performance is essential for providing meaningful feedback during team trainings and enabling comparisons in scientific studies. However, traditional methods like self-reports or behavior observations have limitations such as susceptibility to bias or being resource consuming. To overcome these limitations and gain a more comprehensive understanding of team processes and performance, the assessment of objective measures, such as physiological parameters, can be valuable. These objective measures can complement traditional methods and provide a more holistic view of team performance. The aim of this study was to explore the potential of the use of objective measures for evaluating team performance for research and training purposes. For this, experts in the field of research and medical simulation training were interviewed to gather their opinions, ideas, and concerns regarding this novel approach.MethodsA total of 34 medical and research experts participated in this exploratory qualitative study, engaging in semi-structured interviews. During the interview, experts were asked for (a) their opinion on measuring team performance with objective measures, (b) their ideas concerning potential objective measures suitable for measuring team performance of healthcare teams, and (c) their concerns regarding the use of objective measures for evaluating team performance. During data analysis responses were categorized per question.ResultsThe findings from the 34 interviews revealed a predominantly positive reception of the idea of utilizing objective measures for evaluating team performance. However, the experts reported limited experience in actively incorporating objective measures into their training and research. Nevertheless, they identified various potential objective measures, including acoustical, visual, physiological, and endocrinological measures and a time layer. Concerns were raised regarding feasibility, complexity, cost, and privacy issues associated with the use of objective measures.DiscussionThe study highlights the opportunities and challenges associated with employing objective measures to assess healthcare team performance. It particularly emphasizes the concerns expressed by medical simulation experts and team researchers, providing valuable insights for developers, trainers, researchers, and healthcare professionals involved in the design, planning or utilization of objective measures in team training or research.

DOR: a novel dual-observation-based approach for recommendation systems

As online social media platforms continue to proliferate, users are faced with an overwhelming amount of information, making it challenging to filter and locate relevant information. While personalized recommendation algorithms have been developed to help, most existing models primarily rely on user behavior observations such as viewing history, often overlooking the intricate connection between the reading content and the user’s prior knowledge and interest. This disconnect can consequently lead to a paucity of diverse and personalized recommendations. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to tackle the multifaceted issue of recommendation. We introduce the Dual-Observation-based approach for the Recommendation (DOR) system, a novel model leveraging dual observation mechanisms integrated into a deep neural network. Our approach is designed to identify both the core theme of an article and the user’s unique engagement with the article, considering the user’s belief network, i.e., a reflection of their personal interests and biases. Extensive experiments have been conducted using real-world datasets, in which the DOR model was compared against a number of state-of-the-art baselines. The experimental results explicitly demonstrate the reliability and effectiveness of the DOR model, highlighting its superior performance in news recommendation tasks.

Truthful and Optimal Data Preservation in Base Station-less Sensor Networks: An Integrated Game Theory and Network Flow Approach

We aim to preserve a large amount of data generated inside base station-less sensor networks (BSNs) while considering that sensor nodes are selfish. BSNs refer to emerging sensing applications deployed in challenging and inhospitable environments (e.g., underwater exploration); as such, there do not exist data-collecting base stations in the BSN to collect the data. Consequently, the generated data has to be stored inside the BSN before uploading opportunities become available. Our goal is to preserve the data inside the BSN with minimum energy cost by incentivizing the storage- and energy-constrained sensor nodes to participate in the data preservation process. We refer to the problem as DPP: d ata p reservation p roblem in the BSN. Previous research assumes that all the sensor nodes are cooperative and that sensors have infinite battery power and design a minimum-cost flow-based data preservation solution. However, in a distributed setting and under different control, the resource-constrained sensor nodes could behave selfishly only to conserve their resources and maximize their benefit. In this article, we first solve DPP by designing an integer linear programming (ILP)-based optimal solution without considering selfishness. We then establish a game-theoretical framework that achieves provably truthful and optimal data preservation in BSNs. For a special case of DPP wherein nodes are not energy-constrained, referred to as DPP-W, we design a data preservation game DPG-1 that integrates algorithmic mechanism design (AMD) and a more efficient minimum cost flow-based data preservation solution. We show that DPG-1 yields dominant strategies for sensor nodes and delivers truthful and optimal data preservation. For the general case of DPP (wherein nodes are energy-constrained), however, DPG-1 fails to achieve truthful and optimal data preservation. Utilizing packet-level flow observation of sensor node behaviors computed by minimum cost flow and ILP, we uncover the cause of the failure of the DPG-1. It is due to the packet dropping by the selfish nodes that manipulate the AMD technique. We then design a data preservation game DPG-2 for DPP that traces and punishes manipulative nodes in the BSN. We show that DPG-2 delivers dominant strategies for truth-telling nodes and achieves provably optimal data preservation with cheat-proof guarantees. Via extensive simulations under different network parameters and dynamics, we show that our games achieve system-wide data preservation solutions with optimal energy cost while enforcing truth-telling of sensor nodes about their private cost types. One salient feature of our work is its integrated game theory and network flows approach. With the observation of flow level sensor node behaviors provided by the network flows, our proposed games can synthesize “microscopic” (i.e., selfish and local) behaviors of sensor nodes and yield targeted “macroscopic” (i.e., optimal and global) network performance of data preservation in the BSN.