Prior Preferences Research Articles

The Behavioural Effects of Innovative Litter Developed to Attract Cats.

Simple SummaryThe global feline population has been rising steadily, with approximately 96.5 million cats in the United States, 8.8 million in Canada, and 102 million in Europe. In addition to a growing population, the complex behaviour of cats results in many being surrendered to animal shelters, especially for urinating and/or defecating outside of the litter box area. The objective of this study was to determine whether cats would demonstrate a preference for a plant-based clumping litter with an added attractant (ATTRACT) over a control plant-based clumping litter (PLANT). A secondary objective was to evaluate whether male and female cats would express different litterbox behaviours as a function of the litter type. Based on video-recorded and live behavioural observations, cats used the ATTRACT litters more often to urinate than the PLANT litter, and males urinated longer and sniffed the litter more than females did (p < 0.05). These findings provide preliminary insights into how cat litter-box usage might be increased and gender dimorphisms in litterbox behaviours.Urination and/or defecation outside a designated location has been reported as the most common behavioural reason for surrendering a cat and comprises approximately 30% of cat intakes to shelters. The objective of this study was to determine whether cats would increase in-box elimination when provided a plant-based litter product with attractant (ATTRACT) compared to the same plant-based litter product without attractant (PLANT). Sixteen cats were split into two equal cohorts based on availability from the shelter and group-housed in an enriched room with eight identical litter boxes arranged in a circular pattern equidistant from each other. Following a two-week room acclimation and transition period from clay litter to PLANT litter, boxes were designated either PLANT or ATTRACT litter, balancing for cats’ prior box location preferences. For 14 days following litter allocation, cat behaviours such as sniffing, digging, covering, urinating, and defecating were video recorded for 12 h daily. The cats urinated more often in the ATTRACT litter, suggesting that they preferred the ATTRACT litter for urination more than the PLANT litter (p < 0.05). The most significant differences observed were between genders, with males spending significantly more time sniffing and performing urination behaviours (p < 0.05). These results suggest that litter with an attractant may be more effective in eliciting usage for urination, as compared to a litter without the additive.

Efficiency evaluation and ranking of supply chains based on stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis and data envelopment analysis

AbstractEvaluating performance of supply chains has been an important topic in supply chain management for researchers and practitioners. In this study, we integrate stochastic multicriteria acceptability analysis (SMAA) technique and data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology and propose a model, named “two‐stage SMAA‐DEA,” for efficiency evaluation and ranking of two‐stage supply chains (e.g., supplier–manufacturer) with stochastic criteria values. Two stochastic efficiency measures are defined for supply chain efficiency evaluation in the model. The maximum efficiency is the best efficiency score based on the optimistic criterion. The average efficiency is the expected efficiency score based on the average criterion. In addition, the model provides rank acceptability and holistic acceptability index for the supply chain ranking. The developed two‐stage SMAA‐DEA model has several advantages. First, it extends two‐stage DEA models to handle uncertain or imprecise inputs, intermediate measures, and outputs using stochastic distributions. Second, it allows for variable process weights and does not need any prior preference information on processes. Our study extends network DEA to address uncertain or stochastic measures, and the model can be considered as a multicriteria decision‐making method with a two‐stage additive DEA value function. An empirical study evaluating 27 supply chains is presented to illustrate the proposed models.

The One that I Want: Strong personal preferences render the center-stage nudge redundant

In recent years there has been increased attention for nudging as a tool to alter consumer decisions. While nudges should in theory preserve freedom of choice by respecting consumers’ preferences, empirical scrutiny of this claim is sparse. This research investigates the effectiveness of a center-stage nudge to encourage the consumption of a small portion size of soda. Specifically, in all studies we measure the extent to which strong preferences that are incongruent with the aim of the nudge (i.e. thirst and liking) and nudge congruent preferences (i.e. intentions to reduce soda consumption (study 1); Healthy diet goals (observed in study 2; manipulated in study 3) could be expressed when a choice is nudged. In three studies (n = 119; n = 184; n = 202) it was found that strong preferences are not trumped by the nudge and in fact overrule the effectiveness of a center-stage nudge. These findings contribute to the debate about the ethical considerations that are voiced concerning nudge interventions, and urge choice architects to consider consumers’ prior preferences as an important boundary condition of effective nudge interventions.

Caching mechanisms for habit formation in Active Inference

A popular distinction in the human and animal learning literature is between deliberate (or willed) and habitual (or automatic) modes of control. Extensive evidence indicates that, after sufficient learning, living organisms develop behavioural habits that permit them saving computational resources. Furthermore, humans and other animals are able to transfer control from deliberate to habitual modes (and vice versa), trading off efficiently flexibility and parsimony – an ability that is currently unparalleled by artificial control systems. Here, we discuss a computational implementation of habit formation, and the transfer of control from deliberate to habitual modes (and vice versa) within Active Inference: a computational framework that merges aspects of cybernetic theory and of Bayesian inference. To model habit formation, we endow an Active Inference agent with a mechanism to “cache” (or memorize) policy probabilities from previous trials, and reuse them to skip – in part or in full – the inferential steps of deliberative processing. We exploit the fact that the relative quality of policies, conditioned upon hidden states, is constant over trials; provided that contingencies and prior preferences do not change. This means the only quantity that can change policy selection is the prior distribution over the initial state – where this prior is based upon the posterior beliefs from previous trials. Thus, an agent that caches the quality (or the probability) of policies can safely reuse cached values to save on cognitive and computational resources – unless contingencies change. Our simulations illustrate the computational benefits, but also the limits, of three caching schemes under Active Inference. They suggest that key aspects of habitual behaviour – such as perseveration – can be explained in terms of caching policy probabilities. Furthermore, they suggest that there may be many kinds (or stages) of habitual behaviour, each associated with a different caching scheme; for example, caching associated or not associated with contextual estimation. These schemes are more or less impervious to contextual and contingency changes.

The Role of Reinforcement in Multiple Response Repetition Error Correction and Treatment Preference of Chinese Children with Autism.

Error correction is a ubiquitous instructional component for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the context of alternating treatment with repeated acquisition design, we taught four young Chinese children with ASD three sets of a match-to-sample task using multiple response repetition error correction with and without reinforcement. We assessed the participants' preferences of the procedures. Results showed that the acquisition rates were similar under both conditions. However, participant's preferences varied, with three participants preferring error correction with reinforcement and one preferring the without-reinforcement procedure. The discussion addresses the results from our comparison in light of prior studies and learner preferences of error-correction procedures, as well as the research and practical implications of our findings.

Methods for exploring and eliciting patient preferences in the medical product lifecycle: a literature review

Preference studies are becoming increasingly important within the medical product decision-making context. Currently, there is limited understanding of the range of methods to gain insights into patient preferences. We developed a compendium and taxonomy of preference exploration (qualitative) and elicitation (quantitative) methods by conducting a systematic literature review to identify these methods. This review was followed by analyzing prior preference method reviews, to cross-validate our results, and consulting intercontinental experts, to confirm our outcomes. This resulted in the identification of 32 unique preference methods. The developed compendium and taxonomy can serve as an important resource for assessing these methods and helping to determine which are most appropriate for different research questions at varying points in the medical product lifecycle.

Exploring Predictors for Teamwork Performance in an Interprofessional Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Course for Early Learners

Background: This study evaluated predictors of team development and performance on a final project in a large Interprofessional Quality Improvement and Patient Safety course.Methods and findings: Predictors examined were prior interprofessional teamwork experience and collective orientation preferences for dominance and affiliation. TheTeam Development Measure assessed perceived level of team development at the end of the course. Structural equation modelling was used to test the relationships, and only dominance was related to team development. Team development was not related to performance on the final project.Conclusions: This study is the first to simultaneously assess predictors of team development and the relationship between team development and course performance in interprofessional education. Although findings were not conclusive, several avenues for future study are highlighted.

How to Measure Galaxy Star Formation Histories. I. Parametric Models

Abstract Parametric models for galaxy star formation histories (SFHs) are widely used, though they are known to impose strong priors on physical parameters. This has consequences for measurements of the galaxy stellar-mass function, star formation rate density (SFRD), and star-forming main sequence (SFMS). We investigate the effects of the exponentially declining, delayed exponentially declining, lognormal, and double power-law SFH models using Bagpipes. We demonstrate that each of these models imposes strong priors on specific star formation rates (SFRs), potentially biasing the SFMS, and also imposes a strong prior preference for young stellar populations. We show that stellar mass, SFR, and mass-weighted age inferences from high-quality mock photometry vary with the choice of SFH model by at least 0.1, 0.3, and 0.2 dex, respectively. However, the biases with respect to the true values depend more on the true SFH shape than the choice of model. We also demonstrate that photometric data cannot discriminate between SFH models, meaning that it is important to perform independent tests to find well-motivated priors. We finally fit a low-redshift, volume-complete sample of galaxies from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) Survey with each model. We demonstrate that our stellar masses and SFRs at redshift z ∼ 0.05 are consistent with other analyses. However, our inferred cosmic SFRDs peak at z ∼ 0.4, approximately 6 Gyr later than direct observations suggest, meaning that our mass-weighted ages are significantly underestimated. This makes the use of parametric SFH models for understanding mass assembly in galaxies challenging. In a companion paper, we consider nonparametric SFH models.

Prior breastfeeding experience and infant feeding at discharge among women with pregestational diabetes mellitus.

To compare multiparous women with pregestational diabetes mellitus (PGDM) with and without prior breastfeeding (BF) experience and to ascertain their infants' feeding type during hospitalization and at discharge. A retrospective cohort study of 304 women with PGDM who delivered at ≥34 weeks gestational age (GA). Prior BF experience and infant feeding preference was declared prenatally. At discharge, BF was defined as exclusive or partial. BF experience and no experience groups were similar in diabetes type 1 and 2, race and number of pregnancies. Women with no experience had more spontaneous abortions (35 vs 27%), fewer term deliveries (51 vs 61%) and living children (median 1 vs 2). In the current pregnancy, mode of delivery: vaginal (36 & 37%), cesarean (64 & 63%), birthweight (3592 & 3515 g), GA (38 & 37 w), NICU admission (14 & 11%) and hypoglycemia (44 & 43%) were similar. Women with experience intended to BF (79 vs 46%), their infants' first feeding was BF (64 vs 36%) and had lactation consults (96 vs 63%) more often than those without experience. At discharge, women with BF experience were different in rate of exclusive BF (33 vs 11%), partial BF (48 vs 25%) and formula feeding (19 vs 64%). Prior BF experience leads to better BF initiation rates while the absence of BF experience adds a risk for BF initiation failure. A detailed BF history could provide insight into obstacles that lead to unsuccessful BF experiences and may help define appropriate preventive or corrective strategies.

Context-aware recommender systems using hierarchical hidden Markov model

Recommender systems often generate recommendations based on user’s prior preferences. Users’ preferences may change over time due to user mode change or context change, identification of such a change is important for generating personalized recommendations. Many earlier methods have been developed under the assumption that each user has a fixed pattern. Regardless of these changes, the recommendation may not match the user’s personal preference and this recommendation will not be useful to the user based on the current context of the user. Context-aware recommender systems deal with this problem by utilizing contextual information that affects user preferences and states. Using contextual information is challenging because it is not always possible to obtain all the contextual information. Also, adding various types of contexts to recommender systems increases its dimensionality and sparsity. This paper presents a novel hierarchical hidden Markov model to identify changes in user’s preferences over time by modeling the latent context of users. Using the user-selected items, the proposed method models the user as a hidden Markov process and considers the current context of the user as a hidden variable. The latent contexts are automatically learned for each user utilizing hidden Markov model on the data collected from the user’s feedback sequences. The results of the experiments, on the benchmark data sets, show that the proposed model has a better performance compared to other methods.

The Effect of Consumer Attitude toward Functional Food on Package Attributes and Ingestion Intention; Focused on Garlic

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of prior knowledge and preference of garlic on the ingestion intention and selecting package attributes of garlic functional food. Surveys were conducted to verify the purpose of the study. One-way ANOVA was performed for data analysis; the following conclusions were reached.First, the prior knowledge and preference of garlic have a significant impact on the intention to ingest garlic functional food. Second, the prior knowledge and preference of garlic have a significant impact on the attitude toward package properties of garlic functional food.However, it was confirmed that the preference for garlic was a more significant influence on the selection of garlic functional food and garlic food packaging than the prior knowledge on the benefit of garlic. So this study casts significant implications for the marketing of functional food with strong flavors such as garlic.

Toward a mechanistic understanding of trophic structure: inferences from simulating stable isotope ratios

Stable isotope ratios (SIR) are widely used to estimate food-web trophic levels (TLs). We built systems dynamic N-biomass-based models of different levels of complexity, containing explicit descriptions of isotope fractionation and of trophic level. The values of δ15N and TLs, as independent and emergent properties, were used to test the potential for the SIR of nutrients, primary producers, consumers, and detritus to align with food-web TLs. Our analysis shows that there is no universal relationship between TL and δ15N that permits a robust prognostic tool for configuration of food webs even if all system components can be reliably analysed. The predictive capability is confounded by prior dietary preference, intra-guild predation and recycling of biomass through detritus. These matters affect the dynamics of both the TLs and SIR. While SIR data alone have poor explanatory power, they would be valuable for validating the construction and functioning of dynamic models. This requires construction of coupled system dynamic models that describe bulk elemental distribution with an explicit description of isotope discriminations within and amongst functional groups and nutrient pools, as used here. Only adequately configured models would be able to explain both the bulk elemental distributions and the SIR data. Such an approach would provide a powerful test of the whole model, integrating changing abiotic and biotic events across time and space.

Of Meatballs, Autonomy, and Human Dignity: Neuroethics and the Boundaries of Decision Making Among Persons with Dementia

Autonomy is deemed a basic principle of the physician–patient relationship: more generally, that people have a right to be treated according to their informed preferences and wishes. But there are situations of cognitive impairment in which it is no longer clear whether the patient is in fact able to understand his or her prior preferences. In such cases, the attempt to respect the patient’s autonomy may become highly problematic. An interesting real case of a patient suffering from Alzheimer’s disease—described in literature—gives the opportunity to discuss the complex interplay of factors that are at stake in such cases: In different circumstances, some ethical considerations become more relevant while others dim. Respecting human dignity should always be the landmark consideration, but with the caveat that it may involve different things in different situations and phases.In particular, attention should be paid to the value and the limits of honoring precedent autonomy, as a way of respecting human dignity. This shows that implementing human dignity in borderline areas of cognitive and decision-making capacities requires an ever more sophisticated understanding of what is happening in the patient’s brain, and of how and when the disease is impairing the patient’s capacities. In discussing how to deal with the change of dietary orientation of an individual, it is proposed here to take a different step forward compared to the classic debate on critical interests and experiential interests in responding to the wishes of patients suffering from cognitive impairment.

Planning and navigation as active inference

This paper introduces an active inference formulation of planning and navigation. It illustrates how the exploitation–exploration dilemma is dissolved by acting to minimise uncertainty (i.e. expected surprise or free energy). We use simulations of a maze problem to illustrate how agents can solve quite complicated problems using context sensitive prior preferences to form subgoals. Our focus is on how epistemic behaviour—driven by novelty and the imperative to reduce uncertainty about the world—contextualises pragmatic or goal-directed behaviour. Using simulations, we illustrate the underlying process theory with synthetic behavioural and electrophysiological responses during exploration of a maze and subsequent navigation to a target location. An interesting phenomenon that emerged from the simulations was a putative distinction between ‘place cells’—that fire when a subgoal is reached—and ‘path cells’—that fire until a subgoal is reached.

Using technological functions on a multi-touch table and their affordances to counteract biases and foster collaborative problem solving

Touch technologies have become ubiquitous, motivating researchers to explore their potential - especially in collaborative scenarios. Studies on collaboration using joint visual spaces like multi-touch tables have demonstrated positive effects on performance. Yet, factors like prior knowledge and preferences, resulting in cognitive biases, were neglected although they are likely to put additional demands on collaboration. Whether touch technology can support its users in mastering the resulting challenges remains an open issue. To address this issue, we employed a hidden-profile paradigm (e.g., Schulz-Hardt and Mojzisch 2012) to investigate whether the affordances of specific support functions realized in a collaboration support kit on a multi-touch table help to overcome established pitfalls of collaboration (prior preferences and discussion biases). The collaboration support kit comprised a joint space and private spaces. It allowed participants to push information from the private into the joint space, to jointly sort information within the joint space, and it provided automatic functions like merging information. To replicate traditional hidden-profile studies, triads in a standard hidden-profile condition (n = 25) exchanged information in a discussion; triads in the condition with collaboration support kit (n = 29) were additionally provided with the aforementioned functions. Our results revealed that groups with collaboration support kit available showed greater discussion intensity, more balanced discussions, more indicators of mutual understanding, and better decision performance than standard hidden-profile groups. This is original evidence that affordances of a multi-touch table with interactive support functions can be used to overcome biases from prior preferences and to enhance collaboration.

An OWA-Based Ranking Approach for University Books Recommendation

Generally the book recommendation approaches are personalized in nature, that is, they utilize the users’ purchasing behavior to recommend them the book similar to their preferences. The main problem with the personalized recommendation is its knowledge requirement about users’ past preferences. As a result, these techniques fail in producing appropriate recommendation for a new user whose preferences are not known. The personalized recommendation also needs extra space to store the users’ preferences. In this paper, a framework to recommend books to university students for their studies is presented. In order to answer which books are to be included in the syllabus, a specialized way of recommendation, where recommendations from experts of the subjects at different universities are considered, is presented. We have suggested a ranked recommendation approach for books, which employ Ordered Weighted Aggregation (OWA), a fuzzy-based aggregation, to aggregate the several ranking of the top universities. On the one hand, it does not need user prior preferences, and on the other hand, it eases the complexities of personalized recommendation to huge number of users and replaces it with a single ranked recommendation. The experimental results are compared with the existing positional aggregation algorithm that demonstrates significant improvement in the results with respect to various performance metrics. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The interdomain flexible linker of the polypeptide GalNAc transferases dictates their long-range glycosylation preferences

The polypeptide GalNAc-transferases (GalNAc-Ts), that initiate mucin-type O-glycosylation, consist of a catalytic and a lectin domain connected by a flexible linker. In addition to recognizing polypeptide sequence, the GalNAc-Ts exhibit unique long-range N- and/or C-terminal prior glycosylation (GalNAc-O-Ser/Thr) preferences modulated by the lectin domain. Here we report studies on GalNAc-T4 that reveal the origins of its unique N-terminal long-range glycopeptide specificity, which is the opposite of GalNAc-T2. The GalNAc-T4 structure bound to a monoglycopeptide shows that the GalNAc-binding site of its lectin domain is rotated relative to the homologous GalNAc-T2 structure, explaining their different long-range preferences. Kinetics and molecular dynamics simulations on several GalNAc-T2 flexible linker constructs show altered remote prior glycosylation preferences, confirming that the flexible linker dictates the rotation of the lectin domain, thus modulating the GalNAc-Ts' long-range preferences. This work for the first time provides the structural basis for the different remote prior glycosylation preferences of the GalNAc-Ts.

Computer-Based Testing: Score Equivalence and Testing Administration Mode Preference in a Comparative Evaluation Study

The empirical evidences show that two identical Computer-Based Testing (henceforth CBT) and Paper-and-Pencil-Based Testing (henceforth PBT) do not always result in the same scores. Such conclusions are referred to as “the effect of testing administration mode” or “testing mode effect”. Moderators such as individual differences (e.g., prior computer experience or computer attitude) have been investigated [4] to see if they influence test takers’ performance. The Guidelines for Computer-Based Tests and Interpretations [1] recommended eliminating the possible effects of some moderator variables on test takers performance. This research was conducted to provide the required empirical evidences on the existence of distinctive effects caused by changing administration mode from conventional PBT to modern CBT. The relationship between testing mode preference on test takers’ CBT performance was also examined. Two equivalent tests and two questionnaires were used. Using descriptive statistics and ANOVA, the findings demonstrated that two CBT and PBT sets of scores were comparable. Additionally, prior testing mode preference and gender had no significant effect on test takers’ CBT score, and they were not considered the variables that might affect the performance on CBT.

Mommio's Recipe Box: Assessment of the Cooking Habits of Mothers of Preschoolers and Their Perceptions of Recipes for a Video Game.

BackgroundVegetables are an important part of a healthy diet because they help prevent several chronic diseases. Mothers of preschoolers reported difficulty getting their young children to eat vegetables, and many did not know how to cook child-pleasing recipes.ObjectiveThe cooking habits of mothers of preschoolers, their perceptions of recipes designed for their children, and the involvement of their children in food preparation were assessed to inform a food parenting video game called Mommio.MethodsA cross-sectional survey design was used. Eligibility criteria included mothers of 3- to 5-year-old children who reported difficulty getting their children to eat vegetables. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire with questions about their food preparation practices. They were asked to select up to 4 of the 10 provided recipes they wanted to try and to prepare and report back on their experiences.ResultsMost (46) of the 50 recipes included in Mommio’s in-game recipe box were evaluated at least once and some up to 5 times with a total of 85 evaluations. This well-educated, mostly employed, sample of 27 mothers of preschoolers preferred simple, quick recipes. They ate primarily at home, made dinners from scratch, and indicated that the 46 recipes were generally simple, quick, and easy to prepare. Involvement in preparation enhanced their child’s acceptance of the food. Prior food and preparation preferences influenced the children’s acceptance of the dish at the ensuing meal.ConclusionsThe high rate of home recipe preparation indicated that including a recipe selection and preparation component in a food parenting video game could be attractive and may enhance effectiveness. Mothers reported that the recipes provided were generally easy to prepare, tasted good, and the instructions were easy to understand, suggesting they could be helpful to the mothers when playing a vegetable parenting game. Some mothers reported that involving their children in recipe preparation influenced their children’s willingness to eat the vegetables. The highest rated recipes are being included in the game, and mothers will be encouraged to involve their children in recipe preparation.

Prior preferences beneficially influence social and non-social learning

Our personal preferences affect a broad array of social behaviors. This includes the way we learn the preferences of others, an ability that often relies on limited or ambiguous information. Here we report an egocentric influence on this type of social learning that is reflected in both performance and response times. Using computational models that combine inter-trial learning and intra-trial choice, we find transient effects of participants’ preferences on the learning process, through the influence of priors, and persistent effects on the choice process. A second experiment shows that these effects generalize to non-social learning, though participants in the social learning experiment appeared to additionally benefit by using their knowledge about the popularity of certain preferences. We further find that the domain-general egocentric influences we identify can yield performance advantages in uncertain environments.