Types Of Human Behavior Research Articles

Locality constrained dictionary learning for human behaviour recognition

ABSTRACTImprovement of the accuracy and robustness of human behaviour recognition is still a challenging problem. In this paper, a human behaviour recognition method based on locality constrained dictionary learning (LCDL) is proposed, in which two global features, namely average motion energy image (AMEI) and enhanced motion energy image (EMEI), are employed for the description of human behaviours. A discriminative structured dictionary is learned by the LCDL algorithm, whose sub-dictionary corresponds to each type of human behaviour. Moreover, the sparse representation errors of the testing samples are used for the recognition. The results of simulations and performance comparisons on typical datasets show that the proposed methods can reduce the storage space and calculation quantity through the normalization treatment of AMEIs and EMEIs. Since the locality constrained conditions can enforce the intra-class distance and improve the discriminative ability of the structured dictionary, the recognition performance is improved.

Interventional cardiology, where real life and science do not necessarily meet.

Evidence-based diagnosis, decision-making, and therapy appear a must these days. Generating and publishing evidence is a tedious job according to ever new and tightened research practice regulations. Rules will never prevent the typical human behaviour from showing the new thing to be shinier and the old thing dustier than they really are. The medical community is solicited to concoct a meal that is gullible for patients, authorities, and third-party payers out of the available evidence (after applying some conversion factors correcting the common bias of the researchers), anticipation of what will be the evidence tomorrow, common sense, and digested experience. Examples of misguidance by poorly produced or misinterpreted evidence are plentiful in interventional cardiology as they are in other disciplines. Coronary stents, for instance, were first underestimated due to the fact that they were generally used in bailout situations where the outcome remained rather dismal in spite of the salvaging potential of stents. Then they were overused quite uncritically rather to the detriment of the patient. Now with the high quality of the modern drug-eluting stents (DESs), the overuse persists but is no longer a concern. However, the enhanced potential of DESs compared with bare-metal stents was poorly exploited for >10 years because of reports that slipped through the meshes of good review and publication practice to convey the untenable message that bare-metal stents were preferable in many situations. As other examples, use of the fractional flow reserve (FFR) for decision-making has to be questioned despite prominently published reports recommending it. Fixing a lesion is today easier and hardly more complication prone than assessing it with the FFR. Closure of the patent foramen ovale may never be properly applied, because the collection of the understandably requested evidence takes decades, a follow-up duration that makes research unattractive to physicians and financiers. Transarterial aortic valve replacement, finally, is certain to eventually supplant surgical aortic valve replacement. However, this should have already been accomplished as a logical progress. The adoption of this remarkable breakthrough technology is slowed down by the quest for providing randomized evidence in patients, for whom the evidence should rather be derived from already existing studies, and by the quest to triage all these patients in a heart team, meaning to also keep the surgeons happy, although these patients do not really need them.

Crime and Punishment in pre-Hispanic Nahua City-States Tenochtitlan and Texcoco

AbstractThe article focuses on the delinquency existing in pre-Hispanic Tenochtitlan and Texcoco as a particular type of human behavior, having many concrete forms that the wider society perceived (and condemned) through certain concepts and that it sought to both prevent and suppress. The first part of the article deals with the reflections and forms of delinquency existing in Tenochtitlan and Texcoco. In the second part of the article the mechanisms of prevention and repression of delinquency are examined. Although the pre- Hispanic society existing in Tenochtitlan and Texcoco can be considered as a so-called shame culture, in the conclusion of the article it is suggested that it could be a shame culture, which over time has changed, to a certain extent, to a so-called guilt culture.

Efficient Vaccine Distribution Based on a Hybrid Compartmental Model.

To effectively and efficiently reduce the morbidity and mortality that may be caused by outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases, it is very important for public health agencies to make informed decisions for controlling the spread of the disease. Such decisions must incorporate various kinds of intervention strategies, such as vaccinations, school closures and border restrictions. Recently, researchers have paid increased attention to searching for effective vaccine distribution strategies for reducing the effects of pandemic outbreaks when resources are limited. Most of the existing research work has been focused on how to design an effective age-structured epidemic model and to select a suitable vaccine distribution strategy to prevent the propagation of an infectious virus. Models that evaluate age structure effects are common, but models that additionally evaluate geographical effects are less common. In this paper, we propose a new SEIR (susceptible—exposed—infectious šC recovered) model, named the hybrid SEIR-V model (HSEIR-V), which considers not only the dynamics of infection prevalence in several age-specific host populations, but also seeks to characterize the dynamics by which a virus spreads in various geographic districts. Several vaccination strategies such as different kinds of vaccine coverage, different vaccine releasing times and different vaccine deployment methods are incorporated into the HSEIR-V compartmental model. We also design four hybrid vaccination distribution strategies (based on population size, contact pattern matrix, infection rate and infectious risk) for controlling the spread of viral infections. Based on data from the 2009–2010 H1N1 influenza epidemic, we evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed HSEIR-V model and study the effects of different types of human behaviour in responding to epidemics.

ЗМІНА СТИЛІВ ЖИТТЯ У ПОСТРАДЯНСЬКІЙ РОСІЇ: ФЕНОМЕН «КУЛЬТУРНОГО ПРОМІЖКУ»

ЗМІНА СТИЛІВ ЖИТТЯ У ПОСТРАДЯНСЬКІЙ РОСІЇ: ФЕНОМЕН «КУЛЬТУРНОГО ПРОМІЖКУ»

Brazilian Undergraduate Students’ Conceptions on the Origins of Human Social Behavior: Implications for Teaching Evolution

Students’ conceptions on the origins of human social behavior are poorly understood. The aim of this research was to quantitatively evaluate the conceptions on the origins of certain types of human behavior expressed by a group of 1,212 Brazilian university students. Results suggest that regardless of either religiosity or evolutionary commitments, the majority of the students advocate nurture-based arguments to explain human social behavior. Data also suggest that behaviors considered to be typically human are better explained by nurture-based arguments. The preference for nurture-based explanations may be due to the absence of the theme “behavior” in biology curriculum in secondary schools. The possibility of teaching aspects of human biology that are known to be influenced both by nature and nurture-based explanations is discussed. We conclude that, despite the enormous influence of evolutionary theory on recent western thought, Brazilian students do not seem to perceive its legacy concerning the origins of human social behavior.

A data-driven approach to reverse engineering customer engagement models: towards functional constructs.

Online consumer behavior in general and online customer engagement with brands in particular, has become a major focus of research activity fuelled by the exponential increase of interactive functions of the internet and social media platforms and applications. Current research in this area is mostly hypothesis-driven and much debate about the concept of Customer Engagement and its related constructs remains existent in the literature. In this paper, we aim to propose a novel methodology for reverse engineering a consumer behavior model for online customer engagement, based on a computational and data-driven perspective. This methodology could be generalized and prove useful for future research in the fields of consumer behaviors using questionnaire data or studies investigating other types of human behaviors. The method we propose contains five main stages; symbolic regression analysis, graph building, community detection, evaluation of results and finally, investigation of directed cycles and common feedback loops. The ‘communities’ of questionnaire items that emerge from our community detection method form possible ‘functional constructs’ inferred from data rather than assumed from literature and theory. Our results show consistent partitioning of questionnaire items into such ‘functional constructs’ suggesting the method proposed here could be adopted as a new data-driven way of human behavior modeling.

Eye contact elicits bodily self-awareness in human adults

Eye contact is a typical human behaviour known to impact concurrent or subsequent cognitive processing. In particular, it has been suggested that eye contact induces self-awareness, though this has never been formally proven. Here, we show that the perception of a face with a direct gaze (that establishes eye contact), as compared to either a face with averted gaze or a mere fixation cross, led adult participants to rate more accurately the intensity of their physiological reactions induced by emotional pictures. Our data support the view that bodily self-awareness becomes more acute when one is subjected to another’s gaze. Importantly, this effect was not related to a particular arousal state induced by eye contact perception. Rejecting the arousal hypothesis, we suggest that eye contact elicits a self-awareness process by enhancing self-focused attention in humans. We further discuss the implications of this proposal.

A Human‐Oriented Simulation Approach for Labor Assignment Flexibility in Changeover Processes of Manufacturing Cells

AbstractSkilled operators are the most decisive key factors in manufacturing cells. An optimal assignment of operators is crucial for flexibility and productivity. Although there are many publications dealing with labor assignment problems, different forms of human cooperation on the shop floor and decentralized decision making, which are the main factors for system flexibility, are seldom concerned in existing models. In this article, a human‐oriented methodology to analyze, simulate, and evaluate labor assignment flexibility in changeover processes in manufacturing cells is introduced, which is characterized by an agent‐based approach. First, the problem architecture is presented along with the concepts of labor flexibility. Then, different types of human behavior in the changeover process are modeled. Furthermore, a human–machine interaction model is developed to integrate the human agent models into a generalized discrete event dynamic system (DEDS) process model. In this way, work process dynamics and cooperative behavior can be explicitly modeled and simulated. Third, the model is verified on the basis of a motorcycle engine manufacturing cell, and simulation experiments with different labor assignment schemes are designed and conducted. The simulation results show that assignment strategies incorporating different skill levels and cooperation styles have a significant impact on system performance. The agent‐based approach in conjunction with the human–machine interaction model can be used to analyze and solve a large class of assignment problems in flexible manufacturing systems, especially when human cooperation and collaboration are key factors shaping overall system performance.

Characterization of Smart Phone Received Signal Strength Indication for WLAN Indoor Positioning Accuracy Improvement

Considering that indoor positioning applications based on wireless local area network location fingerprinting would be mainly used on the mobile devices. This paper investigates the differences of received signal strength indication (RSSI) between different smart phones and the distributions of RSSI are also analyzed. The statistical analysis of experimental results shows the differences of RSSI between different smart phones are not trivial. Nearly 65% of the RSSI histograms are significantly peaked relative to Gaussian distribution and 65% of them are left-skewed distribution. Therefore, taking skewness and kurtosis coefficients into account, Gaussian distribution is not sufficient to ensure an accurate modeling of the RSSI. The impacts of human behavior on RSSI distribution are explored and two types of human behavior are revealed to be the cause of bi-modal distribution. The statistical data analysis could enable smart phone indoor positioning systems designers to improve positioning performance and to model location fingerprinting based indoor positioning systems.

The neural basis of humour processing

Humour is a vital component of human socio-affective and cognitive functioning. Recent advances in neuroscience have enabled researchers to explore this human attribute in children and adults. Humour seems to engage a core network of cortical and subcortical structures, including temporo-occipito-parietal areas involved in detecting and resolving incongruity (mismatch between expected and presented stimuli); and the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic system and the amygdala, key structures for reward and salience processing. Examining personality effects and sex differences in the neural correlates of humour may aid in understanding typical human behaviour and the neural mechanisms underlying neuropsychiatric disorders, which can have dramatic effects on the capacity to experience social reward.

Information dynamics algorithm for detecting communities in networks

The problem of community detection is relevant in many scientific disciplines, from social science to statistical physics. Given the impact of community detection in many areas, such as psychology and social sciences, we have addressed the issue of modifying existing well performing algorithms by incorporating elements of the domain application fields, i.e. domain-inspired. We have focused on a psychology and social network-inspired approach which may be useful for further strengthening the link between social network studies and mathematics of community detection. Here we introduce a community-detection algorithm derived from the van Dongen’s Markov Cluster algorithm (MCL) method [4] by considering networks’ nodes as agents capable to take decisions. In this framework we have introduced a memory factor to mimic a typical human behavior such as the oblivion effect. The method is based on information diffusion and it includes a non-linear processing phase. We test our method on two classical community benchmark and on computer generated networks with known community structure. Our approach has three important features: the capacity of detecting overlapping communities, the capability of identifying communities from an individual point of view and the fine tuning the community detectability with respect to prior knowledge of the data. Finally we discuss how to use a Shannon entropy measure for parameter estimation in complex networks.

Selfishness, Driven by Human Root Motivation To Be Number One

Selfishness, harming others and benefiting oneself, serves by mistake as human basic motivation in social science research. Even today, such a mistake is still unknown to academic circles; instead, it has become a common knowledge. In fact, selfishness is not a human motivation; it is one type of human behavior. In this paper, we uncover a few human truths. First, the driving force behind selfish behavior is human root motivation to be number one among acquaintances in important variables. Second, a selfish behavior can obtain tacit approval of part or even all of its victims. Thirdly, a weak person first makes downward comparison and then upward comparison; while a strong person first makes upward comparison and then downward comparison. Finally, social justice is not unconditional and hence not dependable.

Correlational Methods for Analysis of Dance Movements

Among the qualities that distinguish dance from other types of human behavior and interaction are the creation and breaking of synchrony and symmetry. The combination of symmetry and synchrony can provide complex interactions. For example, two dancers might make very different movements, slowing each time the other sped up: a mirror symmetry of velocity. Examining patterns of synchrony and symmetry can provide insight into both the artistic nature of the dance, and the nature of the perceptions and responses of the dancers. However, such complex symmetries are often difficult to quantify. This paper presents three methods – Generalized Local Linear Approximation, Time-lagged Autocorrelation, and Windowed Cross-correlation – for the exploration of symmetry and synchrony in motion-capture data as is it applied to dance and illustrate these with examples from a study of free-form dance. Combined, these techniques provide powerful tools for the examination of the structure of symmetry and synchrony in dance.

Implementing comprehensive offender behaviour in a realistic agent-based model of burglary

Explaining and modelling crime patterns is an exercise that has taxed policy-makers, criminologists, social reformers and the police ever since the first crime patterns were recorded. Crime is a particularly difficult phenomenon to model because of its inherent complexity; crime patterns are built up from a multitude of human-human and human-environment micro-interactions that ultimately lead to individual crime events. Commonly used modelling techniques, such as regression, struggle to fully account for the dynamics of the crime system. They work at aggregate scales thereby disregarding important individual-level variation and also struggle to account for the effects of different types of human behaviour. Furthermore, important concepts from environmental criminology – such as individual offender awareness spaces or heterogeneity in offender decision-making – cannot be included directly when working at a resolution above that of the individual. This research addresses the drawbacks associated with traditional mathematical crime models by building an agent-based simulation with a unique offender behavioural model. Through use of the PECS framework for modelling human behaviour, agents are endowed with needs and motives that drive their behaviour and ultimately lead to the commission of crime. As the model uses real-world environmental data, it can be used to make predictions in existing cities. The paper demonstrates that use of this framework, in combination with an agent-based model, can replicate patterns and trends that are supported by the current theoretical understanding of offending behaviour.

Knowledge‐sharing intention in Vietnamese organizations

PurposeThis research seeks to obtain a better understanding of the factors impacting the intent to share knowledge within the Vietnamese organizational context. While the literature provides some examples of cross‐cultural studies involving knowledge sharing, there has been a lack of research on emerging economies such as Vietnam.Design/methodology/approachThe theoretical foundation for the paper is the theory of reasoned action (TRA), a social psychology framework that has been used extensively to explain many types of human behavior. The research model was formulated based on the original TRA framework as well as additional factors taken from the literature. Six variables were tested to determine their impact on the intention to share knowledge in an organizational context. Primary data were obtained from a survey administered to 124 employees in six multinational companies in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.FindingsRegression analysis shows that TRA, for the most part, has explanatory power within the Vietnamese organizational context. All TRA constructs were found to be significant, except for extrinsic awards and expected associations. Examination of actual survey responses revealed that knowledge sharing is generally recognized as being a beneficial strategy in this context.Research limitations/implicationsThe size and make‐up of the sample were limiting factors in this study. In spite of these limitations, the results provide insight into knowledge‐sharing intent in Vietnamese companies. Managers looking to enhance the knowledge‐sharing capabilities of Vietnamese employees will find practical implications in the study.Originality/valueThe paper provides a much needed view of the organizational environment and knowledge‐sharing culture of Vietnam, an emerging country rapidly entering into the knowledge economy.

Extraction of Similarities and Differences in Human Behavior using Singular Value Decomposition

Human behavior has a structure that consists of similarities and differences. Similarities are motion patterns, which are observed universally and are independent of individuals. Differences are particular characters found in individual motions and can represent identities. We proposed a method for extracting similarities and differences in human behavior by using singular value decomposition. Moreover, we described how to analyze the extracted characteristic motions. We applied our methods to several types of human behavior. The data obtained by applying our method proved that similarities and differences in human behavior can be extracted. We also analyzed the extracted characteristic motions in detail.

A GIS-based human health risk assessment for urban green space planning—An example from Grugliasco (Italy)

The need to develop approaches for risk-based management of soil contamination, as well as the integration of the assessment of the human health risk (HHR) due to the soil contamination in the urban planning procedures has been the subject of recent attention of scientific literature and policy makers. The spatial analysis of environmental data offers multiple advantages for studying soil contamination and HHR assessment, facilitating the decision making process. The aim of this study was to explore the possibilities and benefits of spatial implementation of a quantitative HHR assessment methodology for a planning case in a typical urban environment where the soil is contaminated. The study area is located in the city of Grugliasco a part of the Turin (Italy) metropolitan area. The soils data were derived from a site specific soil survey and the land-use data from secondary sources. In the first step the soil contamination data were geo-statistically analysed and a spatial soil contamination data risk modelling procedure designed. In order to spatially assess the HHR computer routines were developed using GIS raster tools. The risk was evaluated for several different land uses for the planned naturalistic park area. The HHR assessment indicated that the contamination of soils with heavy metals in the area is not sufficient to induce considerable health problems due to typical human behaviour within the variety of urban land uses. An exception is the possibility of direct ingestion of contaminated soil which commonly occurs in playgrounds. The HHR evaluation in a planning case in the Grugliasco Municipality confirms the suitability of the selected planning option. The construction of the naturalistic park presents one solution for reducing the impacts of soil contamination on the health of citizens. The spatial HHR evaluation using GIS techniques is a diagnostic procedure for assessing the impacts of urban soil contamination, with which one can verify planning options, and provides an important step in the integration of human health protection within urban planning procedures.

How to be happy in general practice: a personal view

Thirty-four years in the same room in my practice at the end of the High Street; I closed the surgery door for the last time: I cried on the way home. Now after 15 years of wonderful retirement I reflect on what were the elements of my job that made me so happy through my working life. First and foremost I had a ‘personal’ list in a group practice: three or four thousand diverse people who across the years brought to me a pot-pourri of problems from the trivial to the tragic. I observed every conceivable emotion, every type of human behaviour and a comprehensive catalogue of clinical illness. Not surprising then, that after 34 years of responding to these people they became almost friends. (Well, 300 people turned up for my ‘leaving party’ with an embarrassment of gifts!). With a large list the clinical volume of the commoner conditions was considerable, hence expertise was maintained, and even rarer conditions cropped up fairly frequently (I had four patients with Addison's …

Human behavior on the internet

My interest in human behavior on the Internet was stimulated while observing my friends surf the World Wide Web. I began to wonder how people act online and what goes on in their mind. I wanted to see if there are people who show signs of normal or addictive behavior and how it differs from more general Internet behavior. There is a wealth of issues regarding the Internet, including safety, security, social networking, business, research, design, information, and addiction. From informal observation it is apparent that many people approach the Internet with some anxiety. It can be defined as a feeling of fear and apprehension felt by individuals when using computers or considering the use of a computer. When we use the Internet we are relating with others. For example, 70% of Internet users build relationships through communication, relationships, social involvement, networking, meetings, or gatherings. Those whose everyday life involves more communication have more social resources-larger social networks, close relationships, community ties, enacted and perceived social support, and extraverted individual orientation, and they are likely to have better psychological functioning, lower levels of stress, and greater happiness. By contrast, those who communicate little and have fewer social resources-social isolation, living alone, the absence of a close relationship, the breakdown or loss of a close relationship, low levels of real and perceived social support, and introversion are more likely to have poor psychological functioning, to feel lonely, and to experience higher levels of depression. Understanding the psychology of the Internet also includes various information gathered from Web browsing, such as getting information on health and science issues to chatting, dating and viewing pornography. When investigating these possibilities I found that previous researchers have not yet compared uses of the Internet with the types of human behaviors and their consequences.