Power Need
Power Need Presentation- Behavioral Science for Managers.

By: E Rosa

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Power Need - Video

A Pilot Whale Surfaces (Image Credit: Wikimedia)

Submarines traveling in the Antarctic Ocean first recorded it in the 1960s a mysterious quacking sound that baffled observers around the world. They called it the bio-duck calls. Many theories floated around, yet the origins of the sound remained unknown. Until recently, that is. Frolicking With the Whales from in the July/August print issue of Discover Magazine describes how the mystery was finally solved and what it means for the study of the Antarctic Minke Whale. With the citizen science project WhaleFM, you can also help identify whale calls.

Vocalization and listening to auditory signals are particularly important for marine mammals such as whales and dolphins to survive. Why? Because in the depths of the ocean, neither sight nor smell is very useful. In fact, sound is a vastly more efficient medium of conversation, as sound travels four times faster in water than it does in air.Marine biologists have long used these fascinating whale songs to track whale populations and study their behavior.

Killer Whales (Orcas) and Pilot Whales employ a complex array of calls to communicate within their species. An interesting aspect of both species is that they live in very stable groups (called pods) that are centered around the mother. Often, the offspring live with the mother for their entire lifetime. During this period, they develop unique dialects that help them identify and converse with family members even if they have strayed away from each other for feeding.

A towed hydrophone array that helps record whale calls from a large area (Image Credit: Whale FM)

Biologists realized that human activity such as shipping, ocean exploration and offshore construction could affect whales, bringing about a change in their behavior (and hence their vocalizations)1. In an effort to understand these effects, a group comprising of investigators from several research institutes spanning the Atlantic including St Andrews University (UK), Woods Hole Institute (USA), The Norwegian Defense Research Establishment and TNO, an independent Dutch research organizationbegan to study the effects of sonar (used by ships) on the behavior of marine mammals. We want[ed] to connect specific call types to specific behavioral patterns (e.g. diving, social interaction, feeding behavior). Its also useful to understand the way these animals communicate on a more basic level without [the] influence of human activity. says Dr Sander von Benda-Beckman, a researcher at TNO and a part of this effort.

The team recorded the sounds made by Killer and Pilot whales using instruments known as D-Tags and hydrophone arrays. D-Tags are small devices attached to whale fins using suction cups that record sounds made by the whales and animals nearby. Not all whales can be tagged in this manner however, and the tags can also lose suction and fall off with time. So in addition to the tags they used hydrophone arrays, which are essentiallymicrophones that are optimized to pick up sounds under water. These arrays are extremely sensitive, picking up noises made by whales several miles away. Both the instruments alsorecorded sounds generated by human activities2.

A towed hydrophone array that helps record whale calls from a large area (Image Credit: Whale FM)

When the team began analyzing the data they quickly realized they had a problem on their hands. During the analysis of these datasets it turned out that it was too time consuming to get through all the acoustic data collected for the pilot whales, who are a very active species, says Dr.Benda-Beckmann. Faced with a large data set and a time intensive analysis process, he turned to citizen science. My background is in astronomy and I recalled the very successful GalaxyZoo project, and suggested wed try something similar for categorizing the pilot whale calls using citizen science, he says. The choice to allow citizen scientists to analyze the data was also important because it would remove the potential of any bias that would have existed if the classification were done by a few people. When Dr.Benda-Beckmann presented the team with his idea they were enthused by it and created Whale FM, a citizen science project in collaboration with Zooniverse and Scientific American.

Instead of describing how the project works here, I decided to try my hand at it and write about my own citizen science experience. I found that the process itself to be quite straightforward. Upon visiting the site, the center of the screen contained a whale call shown as a spectrogram (a graph of the pitch changing with time). I first listened to this spectrogram, noticing the unique aspects of it. My first call for example, started at a lower pitch and increased before finishing again on a lower note. Below the central call I found were several other recorded spectrograms. I listened to each of them and picked the one that I thought most closely resembled the original call. While my first match turned out to be an easy one, the trend didnt last long. Subsequent matches presented interesting challenges that kept me trying to do more, wondering whether I would get the next one right. The calls were tricky to discern and often background noises from other animals or human activity obscured the actual calls. Some calls were more complex than others with several changes in pitch. At other times, I thought several calls among the options presented sounded similar. In such cases, I picked the one that I thought was the best match, trusting the wisdom of the crowd to correct my answer if it was wrong. After all, I realized, that was one of the purposes of crowdsourcing the analysis!

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Lend Your Ears to Citizen Science! Help Understand Whale Communication with Whale FM

A Pilot Whale Surfaces (Image Credit: Wikimedia)

Submarines traveling in the Antarctic Ocean first recorded it in the 1960s a mysterious quacking sound that baffled observers around the world. They called it the bio-duck calls. Many theories floated around, yet the origins of the sound remained unknown. Until recently, that is. Frolicking With the Whales from in the July/August print issue of Discover Magazine describes how the mystery was finally solved and what it means for the study of the Antarctic Minke Whale. With the citizen science project WhaleFM, you can also help identify whale calls.

Vocalization and listening to auditory signals are particularly important for marine mammals such as whales and dolphins to survive. Why? Because in the depths of the ocean, neither sight nor smell is very useful. In fact, sound is a vastly more efficient medium of conversation, as sound travels four times faster in water than it does in air.Marine biologists have long used these fascinating whale songs to track whale populations and study their behavior.

Killer Whales (Orcas) and Pilot Whales employ a complex array of calls to communicate within their species. An interesting aspect of both species is that they live in very stable groups (called pods) that are centered around the mother. Often, the offspring live with the mother for their entire lifetime. During this period, they develop unique dialects that help them identify and converse with family members even if they have strayed away from each other for feeding.

A towed hydrophone array that helps record whale calls from a large area (Image Credit: Whale FM)

Biologists realized that human activity such as shipping, ocean exploration and offshore construction could affect whales, bringing about a change in their behavior (and hence their vocalizations)1. In an effort to understand these effects, a group comprising of investigators from several research institutes spanning the Atlantic including St Andrews University (UK), Woods Hole Institute (USA), The Norwegian Defense Research Establishment and TNO, an independent Dutch research organizationbegan to study the effects of sonar (used by ships) on the behavior of marine mammals. We want[ed] to connect specific call types to specific behavioral patterns (e.g. diving, social interaction, feeding behavior). Its also useful to understand the way these animals communicate on a more basic level without [the] influence of human activity. says Dr Sander von Benda-Beckman, a researcher at TNO and a part of this effort.

The team recorded the sounds made by Killer and Pilot whales using instruments known as D-Tags and hydrophone arrays. D-Tags are small devices attached to whale fins using suction cups that record sounds made by the whales and animals nearby. Not all whales can be tagged in this manner however, and the tags can also lose suction and fall off with time. So in addition to the tags they used hydrophone arrays, which are essentiallymicrophones that are optimized to pick up sounds under water. These arrays are extremely sensitive, picking up noises made by whales several miles away. Both the instruments alsorecorded sounds generated by human activities2.

A towed hydrophone array that helps record whale calls from a large area (Image Credit: Whale FM)

When the team began analyzing the data they quickly realized they had a problem on their hands. During the analysis of these datasets it turned out that it was too time consuming to get through all the acoustic data collected for the pilot whales, who are a very active species, says Dr.Benda-Beckmann. Faced with a large data set and a time intensive analysis process, he turned to citizen science. My background is in astronomy and I recalled the very successful GalaxyZoo project, and suggested wed try something similar for categorizing the pilot whale calls using citizen science, he says. The choice to allow citizen scientists to analyze the data was also important because it would remove the potential of any bias that would have existed if the classification were done by a few people. When Dr.Benda-Beckmann presented the team with his idea they were enthused by it and created Whale FM, a citizen science project in collaboration with Zooniverse and Scientific American.

Instead of describing how the project works here, I decided to try my hand at it and write about my own citizen science experience. I found that the process itself to be quite straightforward. Upon visiting the site, the center of the screen contained a whale call shown as a spectrogram (a graph of the pitch changing with time). I first listened to this spectrogram, noticing the unique aspects of it. My first call for example, started at a lower pitch and increased before finishing again on a lower note. Below the central call I found were several other recorded spectrograms. I listened to each of them and picked the one that I thought most closely resembled the original call. While my first match turned out to be an easy one, the trend didnt last long. Subsequent matches presented interesting challenges that kept me trying to do more, wondering whether I would get the next one right. The calls were tricky to discern and often background noises from other animals or human activity obscured the actual calls. Some calls were more complex than others with several changes in pitch. At other times, I thought several calls among the options presented sounded similar. In such cases, I picked the one that I thought was the best match, trusting the wisdom of the crowd to correct my answer if it was wrong. After all, I realized, that was one of the purposes of crowdsourcing the analysis!

Read the original post:
Lend Your Ears for Citizen Science! Help Understand Whale Communication with Whale FM

Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) July 10, 2014

Three international experts on trauma and addiction will explore The Relationship of Complex Trauma to Intimacy, Eating Disorders and Addiction, on July 18 at the Crowne Plaza King of Prussia Mall in Philadelphia, Penn., on July 25 at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio and on Aug. 15 at the San Mateo Marriott in San Mateo, Calif. Produced by the Ben Franklin Institute and hosted by Elements Behavioral Health, the intermediate-to-advanced clinical training symposium for therapists and counselors features:

Dr. Courtois will present Treatment of Complex Trauma: A Sequenced Relationship Based Approach, from 9 to 10:30 a.m. The presentation will detail a meta-model for treating complex trauma that includes a three-phase approach, each with associated tasks.

The treatment of complex trauma presents a wealth of challenges: co-occurrence with other conditions, the sequence of treatment, the therapeutic relationship, and the unique spiritual issues that arise from the trauma, said Dr. Courtois. Participants will come away with a solid overview of treatment approaches for complex trauma, including those that are evidence-based, and those that address mind-body reactions to posttraumatic stress.

From 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., Dr. Peeke will present Food, Addiction and Recovery: A New Approach to Healing the Body-Mind. The workshop presents groundbreaking science in the area of nutrition and addiction recovery. NIHs National Institute of Drug Abuse has funded exciting research showing that certain drugs and specific foods have similar effects on the brains prefrontal cortex and reward center, said Dr. Peeke. We will look at how we can apply this exciting new science to addictive eating behaviors and how, as clinicians, we can use this information to develop an integrative, holistic nutrition and lifestyle plan for clients struggling with addiction and food as a whole.

Robert Weiss, who has developed the first dedicated treatment centers for womens intimacy and sexual disorders in the U.S. as well as the highly successful mirror addiction program for men at Promises Malibu, the Center for Relationship and Sexual Recovery at The Ranch and The Sexual Recovery Institute in Los Angeles, will present Sex, Tech, Intimacy & Infidelity: The Effect of Social Media on Intimacy Disorders and Sexual Addiction from 1:30 to 3 pm. Mr. Weiss will look at how digital technology affects clinical practice and real-world social engagement among individuals, couples and families.

Today there is little question that addictive online sexual activity is costing some their jobs, spouses and families. Weiss reports. Well provide an overview of the kinds of technologies that are evoking age-old problems and discuss practical solutions for men and women struggling with Internet sex and pornography addictions.

From 3:15 to 4:45 p.m., Dr. Peeke and Dr. Courtois will review complex case studies and clinical solutions in a panel moderated by Weiss.

Symposium attendees may earn up to seven continuing education credits. For an agenda or to register for the symposium, go to Elements events page.

About Robert Weiss

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Noted Authorities in Trauma and Addiction to Speak at Elements Behavioral Health Symposia

The total spent by the state of New Mexico on last years behavioral health provider shake-up now tops $24 million.

According to records obtained by The New Mexican on Thursday, nearly $600,000 in general fund money paid to the companies this spring for management of records pushed the price tag for the switch past the $24 million threshold.

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Behavioral health shake-up costs exceed $24M

Titusville native marries fellow graduate of Air Force Academy

Monday, July 7, 2014 4:07 AM EDT

A Titusville native achieved two milestones in her life this spring. Kaylon Markman, formely Kaylon Smith, graduated from the Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, Colo., with a bachelors degree in behavioral science, in May, and married Matt Markman, an Amarillo, Texas, native, on June 7.

The Markmans are in Titusville, on leave, until July 9.

Matt also graduated from the Air Force Academy in May, with a bachelors degree in management.

Both are lieutenants in the Air Force.

The couples first duty station will be in Clovis, N.M. Kaylon will be a force support officer, a personnel-related job. Matt will be working in finance.

The couple wed on June 7, at First United Methodist Church, in Titusville. A reception was held at Bromleys Hillhurst Bed and Breakfast.

Kaylon is a 2009 graduate of Titusville High School. She is a daughter of James and Tammie Smith, of Titusville.

Would you like to comment about this story? We would love to know what you think. In order to comment about any story that appears on The Heralds web site, you must be registered with us. Why? We consider comments about articles the same as a Letter To The Editor. We need to be able to verify the source of the comment. Your comment will be published at the end of the article with your name and city of residence. We do not publish phone numbers or addresses. This information is for verification purposes only. So, go ahead and tell us ... What Do You Think?

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Titusville native marries fellow graduate of Air Force Academy

IESL Management and Behavioral Science
A birds eye view on Conflict Solution; Conducting Meetings; Making decisions ; Leadership and Motivation.

By: somathilak Jayaweera

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IESL Management and Behavioral Science - Video

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

2-Jul-2014

Contact: Debbie Bolles debbie.bolles@utsouthwestern.edu 214-648-3404 UT Southwestern Medical Center

DALLAS July 2, 2014 Cognitive behavioral therapy in addition to medication improves the long-term success of treatment for children and adolescents suffering from depression, a new UTSouthwestern Medical Center study indicates.

Based on the results of a clinical trial conducted at UTSouthwestern and Children's Medical Center of Dallas, depression relapse rates were substantially lower in a group of youth who received both forms of treatment versus medication alone.

"Continuation-phase strategies designed to reduce the high rates of relapse in depressed youths have important public health implications, as recurrence of depression is more likely in youths with multiple episodes," said Dr. Betsy Kennard, Professor of Psychiatry at UTSouthwestern and senior author of the study published June 17 in The American Journal of Psychiatry.

Relapse rates in youth with major depressive disorders typically range from 40 percent to 70 percent, said Dr. Kennard, also Director of an outpatient program at Children's Medical Center called Suicide Prevention and Resilience at Children's (SPARC).

In this study, the relapse rate for the group of 75 youth who received behavioral therapy for six months following six weeks of initial treatment with the antidepressant fluoxetine, also known as Prozac, was 9 percent. Among the group of 69 youth who received only the drug during this period, 26.5 percent relapsed.

Youth who showed improvement after receiving fluoxetine for an initial six-week treatment period continued in the study, split between the medication-only and therapy plus medication groups. Study participants' ages ranged from 8-17.

"Unfortunately, medication alone is not always enough to prevent relapse," said Dr. Graham Emslie, Chief of the Division of Adolescent and Child Psychiatry, Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at UTSouthwestern, and a contributing author of the study. "Identifying novel strategies to prevent future relapses for young people should be a priority. This approach is unique in that treatment was added at a time when the intensity of care is frequently decreasing."

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Behavioral therapy in pediatric antidepressant treatment reduces likelihood of relapse

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Newswise DALLAS July 2, 2014 Cognitive behavioral therapy in addition to medication improves the long-term success of treatment for children and adolescents suffering from depression, a new UTSouthwestern Medical Center study indicates.

Based on the results of a clinical trial conducted at UTSouthwestern and Childrens Medical Center of Dallas, depression relapse rates were substantially lower in a group of youth who received both forms of treatment versus medication alone.

Continuation-phase strategies designed to reduce the high rates of relapse in depressed youths have important public health implications, as recurrence of depression is more likely in youths with multiple episodes, said Dr. Betsy Kennard, Professor of Psychiatry at UTSouthwestern and senior author of the study published June 17 in The American Journal of Psychiatry.

Relapse rates in youth with major depressive disorders typically range from 40 percent to 70 percent, said Dr. Kennard, also Director of an outpatient program at Childrens Medical Center called Suicide Prevention and Resilience at Childrens (SPARC).

In this study, the relapse rate for the group of 75 youth who received behavioral therapy for six months following six weeks of initial treatment with the antidepressant fluoxetine, also known as Prozac, was 9 percent. Among the group of 69 youth who received only the drug during this period, 26.5 percent relapsed.

Youth who showed improvement after receiving fluoxetine for an initial six-week treatment period continued in the study, split between the medication-only and therapy plus medication groups. Study participants ages ranged from 8-17.

Unfortunately, medication alone is not always enough to prevent relapse, said Dr. Graham Emslie, Chief of the Division of Adolescent and Child Psychiatry, Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at UTSouthwestern, and a contributing author of the study. Identifying novel strategies to prevent future relapses for young people should be a priority. This approach is unique in that treatment was added at a time when the intensity of care is frequently decreasing.

The type of therapy used in this trial called Relapse Prevention Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is an individual psychotherapy treatment with a family component that focuses on reducing residual symptoms, increasing wellness behaviors, and preventing relapse. For six months, the youth in this arm of the trial participated in eight to 11 therapy sessions that were tailored to each child.

Continued here:
Behavioral Therapy Added to Pediatric Antidepressant Treatment Reduces Likelihood of Relapse

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Newswise Richard Thaler, Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, has been selected as one of three recipients of the 2014 Global Economy Prize from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

In addition to Thaler, this year's other recipients are Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia's state president and a Nobel laureate, and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, a biotechnology entrepreneur from India. The award is given to "honor policymakers, economists and entrepreneurs who have made a name for themselves with their pioneering spirit to establish a market economy society that is open to the world."

"It was truly a great honor to receive this award concurrently with these two extraordinary women who have each made amazing accomplishments in their chosen fields," Thaler said. "The prior winners of the academic prize are a group any economist would be proud to join." Thaler, one of the founders of the field of behavioral economics and finance, also researches the psychology of decision-making and is the director of Booth's Center for Decision Research.

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, Thaler's most recent book which was written with Cass Sunstein, who is on leave from the University of Chicago Law School to work in the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs has sold more than 750,000 copies. The trio was celebrated for their pioneering work aimed at solving global problems at an award ceremony June 22 at Haus der Wirtschaft in Kiel, Germany.

"In their professional environment, all three prize winners constantly focused on people, their behavior and well-being," said Dennis Snower, Kiel Institute of the World Economy president. "Richard Thaler, the ancestor of behavioral economics, shattered a number of fundamental assumptions in the field of economic sciences that are based on selfish and rational behavior of human beings."

"The award is intended to deliver certain impetus with a view to resolving and overcoming the major world economic challenges of our time in dialogue with the various societal groups in a creative fashion," the Kiel Institute said in a news release.

Thaler has been at Chicago Booth since 1995.

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Richard Thaler Wins Global Economy Prize From Kiel Institute

Change your posture. Body language affects not only how others see us, but also it appears to change how we see ourselves.

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Imagine you are applying for the dream job of your life. Youve got five minutes to explain to two interviewers why they should pick you over 100 other smartly dressed candidates. As you make your presentation, the interviewers stare at you unblinkingly like a bank teller with a lobotomy.

No expression. No indication of interest. They simply watch as you pour out your pitch.

Harvard social psychologist Amy Cuddy designed this nightmarish torture session to provoke profound anxiety. She wanted subjects to be tested to their social-apprehension limits in order to test a surprisingly simple tool you and I can use when the pressure is on. So stay tuned.

Its a terrible irony that when it matters most, we often do our worst. More often than not, our emotions undermine our performance in the most crucial moments of our lives.

Stress and fear wiggle their way up through all our attempts to conceal them and reveal our feelings in predictable ways that others can discern. These little gestures telegraph feelings of weakness and damage our credibility.

Similarly, those who feel powerful behave markedly differently as well. For example, I watched one fascinating video study of nonverbal behavior on the U.S. Senate and House floors. When the video was sped up, you could immediately spot the powerful. They would stand still like a queen bee in a hive while clouds of underlings scurried about them, touching, bobbing and bowing frantically. We telegraph our feelings of both power and powerlessness all the time, and those little messages either bolster or weaken our influence.

Thats why Cuddys research is so important. Where many before her have offered advice about what to do with your body during a presentation, Cuddy wanted to test whether a remarkably modest intervention just prior to the stressful session would improve performance.

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Insights from the Behavioral Science Guy: Next time you feel nervous, assume this position

With everyone from the federal government to corporate America working to encourage more women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, you would think the doors would be wide open to women of all backgrounds. A new study from Columbia Business School shows that this could not be further from the truth and that gender bias among hiring managers in STEM fields is extraordinarily prevalent.

"How Stereotypes Impair Women's Careers in Science," written by Ernesto Reuben, assistant professor of management at Columbia Business School, and recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals the underlying biases of hiring managers, and also demonstrates the cost of discrimination.

"Studies that seek to answer why there are more men than women in STEM fields typically focus on women's interests and choices," said Professor Reuben. "This may be important, but our experiments show that another culprit of this phenomenon is that hiring managers possess an extraordinary level of gender bias when making decisions and filling positions, often times choosing the less qualified male over a superiorly qualified female."

In an experiment in which participants were hired to perform a mathematical task, both male and female managers were twice as likely to hire a man than a woman -- even when the managers had no information beyond a candidate's appearance and, therefore, gender.

Dr. Reuben continued: "The end result is not only a less diverse workforce and a male-dominated STEM field, but also a detriment to these companies for hiring the less-skilled person for the job."

The study is co-authored by the Kellogg School of Management's Paola Sapienza and the Booth School of Business's Luigi Zingales, was recently published in PNAS.

The Field Study

To test the biases of hiring managers, Reuben and his research partners designed an experiment in which about 150 participants, in the role of job candidates, would be hired to perform a math assignment: correctly summing as many sets of four two-digit numbers as possible over a period of four minutes. Previous studies have shown that this type of arithmetic task is performed equally well by men and women. All of the candidates completed the task and were given their scores. In some versions of the experiment, the candidates were allowed to tell the managers how well they had performed, while in others their test results were not revealed.

Close to 200 other subjects, in the role of hiring managers, decided whether to hire a particular candidate to perform the task. The hiring managers also completed computer-based behavioral testing that indicated the degree to which they held stereotypes about the performance of men and women in science and math.

The Results

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New research proves gender bias extraordinarily prevalent in science, technology, engineering and math fields

Written by Steve Mosco, smosco@antonnews.com Tuesday, 17 June 2014 16:52

As Plainview Old-Bethpage High School senior Hannah Stewart prepares to ship off to Brandeis University in the fall, she, like most young adults here age, will remember the best parts of high school: spirit week, homecoming, prom and, of course, gathering lizards and ticks in northern New Jersey.

The science-minded senior recently worked under the auspices of Dr. Russell Burke, chair of the Biology Department at Hofstra University, in a research project with the goal of finding out why cases of Lyme Disease are so prevalent here in the north, but so rare down south.

This is a part of biology that Dr. Burke introduced me to that I never thought about, working with lizards and insects, said Stewart. It was far more interesting than I ever thought it could be.

For her efforts with Burke, Stewart received a third place award for a research project, titled Host Preference of Wild Northern and Southern Ixodes scapularis, at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles in May. Hannah additionally tied for first place in the Behavioral and Social Sciences Division of the 2014 Long Island Science & Engineering Fair.

Her research with Burke involved a laboratory study of the black-legged tick and the spread of Lyme Disease. Burkes lab has been exploring the ecology of Lyme disease since 2007, focusing on the role that lizards play in reducing the prevalence of the disease.

Stewarts summer 2013 work explored the leading hypothesis that attempts to explain why human cases of Lyme disease are so much more common in the northern U.S. than in the south, although both the necessary ticks and bacteria occur throughout both areas.

This hypothesis is based on the observation that ticks in the south often feed on different animal host species than ticks in the north. Stewart tested whether ticks choose their hosts randomly or whether ticks from different places have different host preferences. Her work showed that both northern and southern black-legged ticks preferred lizard hosts over mammal hosts, and therefore they only feed on mammals in the north when there are no lizards available.

We found that lizards are crummy hosts for the Lyme disease bacteria, said Burke. Down south, lizards dont pass on Lyme disease and this keeps the rate of the disease low. Hannah did some experiments to find out whether ticks actually prefer to feed off of lizards or mice, and her work shows that ticks, if given the choice, will choose to feed off of lizards. Her work will help us move forward with our studies in our effort to understand the spread of this disease.

Burke said he received an email from Stewart requesting an opportunity to work in his lab. In these independent research projects, Burke chooses students that boast a high interest in biology and perform well in school. Burke said Stewart was impressive on both counts.

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Students Mind Ticks With Science

What might be called the make love, not war branch of behavioral neuroscience began to take shape in (where else?) California several years ago, when researchers in David J. Andersons laboratory at Caltech decided to tackle the biology of aggression. They initiated the line of research by orchestrating the murine version of Fight Night: they goaded male mice into tangling with rival males and then, with painstaking molecular detective work, zeroed in on a smattering of cells in the hypothalamus that became active when the mice started to fight.

The hypothalamus is a small structure deep in the brain that, among other functions, cordinates sensory inputsthe appearance of a rival, for examplewith instinctual behavioral responses. Back in the 1920s, Walter Hess of the University of Zurich (who would win a Nobel in 1949) had shown that if you stuck an electrode into the brain of a cat and electrically stimulated certain regions of the hypothalamus, you could turn a purring feline into a furry blur of aggression. Several interesting hypotheses tried to explain how and why that happened, but there was no way to test them. Like a lot of fundamental questions in brain science, the mystery of aggression didnt go away over the past centuryit just hit the usual empirical roadblocks. We had good questions but no technology to get at the answers.

By 2010, Andersons Caltech lab had begun to tease apart the underlying mechanisms and neural circuitry of aggression in their pugnacious mice. Armed with a series of new technologies that allowed them to focus on individual clumps of cells within brain regions, they stumbled onto a surprising anatomical discovery: the tiny part of the hypothalamus that seemed correlated with aggressive behavior was intertwined with the part associated with the impulse to mate. That small duchy of cellsthe technical name is the ventromedial hypothalamusturned out to be an assembly of roughly 5,000 neurons, all marbled together, some of them seemingly connected to copulating and others to fighting.

Theres no such thing as a generic neuron, says Anderson, who estimates that there may be up to 10,000 distinct classes of neurons in the brain. Even tiny regions of the brain contain a mixture, he says, and these neurons often influence behavior in different, opposing directions. In the case of the hypothalamus, some of the neurons seemed to become active during aggressive behavior, some of them during mating behavior, and a small subsetabout 20 percentduring both fighting and mating.

That was a provocative discovery, but it was also a relic of old-style neuroscience. Being active was not the same as causing the behavior; it was just a correlation. How did the scientists know for sure what was triggering the behavior? Could they provoke a mouse to pick a fight simply by tickling a few cells in the hypothalamus?

A decade ago, that would have been technologically impossible. But in the last 10 years, neuroscience has been transformed by a remarkable new technology called optogenetics, invented by scientists at Stanford University and first described in 2005. The Caltech researchers were able to insert a genetically modified light-sensitive gene into specific cells at particular locations in the brain of a living, breathing, feisty, and occasionally canoodling male mouse. Using a hair-thin fiber-optic thread inserted into that living brain, they could then turn the neurons in the hypothalamus on and off with a burst of light.

Optogenetics: Light Switches for Neurons

Anderson and his colleagues used optogenetics to produce a video dramatizing the love-hate tensions deep within rodents. It shows a male mouse doing what comes naturally, mating with a female, until the Caltech researchers switch on the light, at which instant the murine lothario flies into a rage. When the light is on, even a mild-mannered male mouse can be induced to attack whatever target happens to be nearbyhis reproductive partner, another male mouse, a castrated male (normally not perceived as a threat), or, most improbably, a rubber glove dropped into the cage.

Activating these neurons with optogenetic techniques is sufficient to activate aggressive behavior not only toward appropriate targets like another male mouse but also toward inappropriate targets, like females and even inanimate objects, Anderson says. Conversely, researchers can inhibit these neurons in the middle of a fight by turning the light off, he says: You can stop the fight dead in its tracks.

Moreover, the research suggests that lovemaking overrides war-making in the calculus of behavior: the closer a mouse was to consummation of the reproductive act, the more resistant (or oblivious) he became to the light pulses that normally triggered aggression. In a paper published in Biological Psychiatry, titled Optogenetics, Sex, and Violence in the Brain: Implications for Psychiatry, Anderson noted, Perhaps the imperative to make love, not war is hard-wired into our nervous system, to a greater extent than we have realized. We may be both lovers and fighters, with the slimmest of neurological distances separating the two impulses.

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Neurosciences New Toolbox

FORT LEE When Fort Lee High School salutatorian Aliza Ohnouna begins her freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania this fall, shell be faced with a conundrum: pursue a career in the arts or the sciences?

Salutatorian Aliza Ohnouna stands in front of the University of Pennsylvanias Kelly Writers House the institution that recruited her to attend the prestigious Ivy League school. As Ohnouna embarks on her collegiate studies, she has yet to decide whether to pursue the arts or the sciences as her career.

The 18-year-old nurtured both interests over the past four years, conducting psychiatric research at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and editing Poliphony H.S., an international literary magazine produced entirely by high school students.

"Im pretty torn," said Ohnouna, a self-described "literary magazine nerd" who started her addiction with the childrens magazine "Highlights" and then "subscribed to as many [magazines] as I could."

Voracious reading led to a love of creative writing, earning Ohnouna a Gold Key award in humor in the 2014 Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards and an Editors Choice Award from the teen literary magazine "Teen Ink" last year.

Though shes always liked science, Ohnouna said a three-year Science Research elective she took in high school "really opened" her eyes to its "shape-shifting" possibilities.

"It wasnt always the most accessible subject because its very textbook-oriented," she said, but through her research into how the expression of a certain gene could cause autism spectrum disorders, she was able to combine biomedical science with behavioral science and see the subject in a new light.

Ohnouna ventured into other activities over the past four years as well, including the Debate Team, which she co-captained her senior year, and the Art Crew, a club that creates props, sets and advertising material for the schools theater productions.

Outside of school, she helped familiarize an elderly woman with modern technology as a Telecare Buddy with the Jewish Family Service organization, volunteered at the Fort Lee Public Library and supervised children at the Tenafly Nature Center as a Counselor-in-Training.

She also continued to master her Spanish language skills and hopes to further perfect them in college.

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Future filled with possibilities for Fort Lee salutatorian

The worlds largest high school science research competition, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), a program of Society for Science & the Public, announced its top winners in Los Angeles last month and the names of six high school students in Clear Creek ISD were called.

The world needs more scientists, makers and entrepreneurs to create jobs, drive economic growth and solve pressing global challenges, said Wendy Hawkins, executive director of the Intel Foundation. Intel believes that young people are the key to innovation, and we hope that these winners inspire more students to get involved in science, technology, engineering and math, the foundation for creativity.

This years Intel International Science and Engineering Fair featured more than 1,700 young scientists selected from 435 affiliate fairs in more than 70 countries, regions and territories. In addition to the top winners, more than 500 finalists received awards and prizes for their innovative research, including 17 "Best of Category" winners, who each received a US$5,000 prize. The Intel Foundation also awarded a US$1,000 grant to each winners school and to the affiliated fair they represent.

The CCISD students who received awards are listed below:

Sarah Hancock & Kate Rutherford

Clear Horizons Early College High School

Special Awards: Alcoa Foundation, The Future of Transportation (Third Place)

Special Awards :American Association of Physics Teachers (Third Place)

Perry Alagappan

Clear Lake High School

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CCISD students place at International Science Fair

Madison, Wisconsin (PRWEB) June 13, 2014

Pocket Change: Using the Science of Personal Change to Improve Financial Habits (Effertrux Publishing) was named winner of the 2014 Excellence in Financial Literacy Education (EIFLE) Adult Book of the Year award from the Institute for Financial Literacy. The author, Dr. Heidi Beckman, teaches readers how to use well-tested techniques from the field of behavioral science to build and sustain positive money habits.

The basic ingredients of healthy financial behavior include motivation, persistence, and impulse control as well as a basic knowledge of personal finance. While there is an abundance of books on the market that teach readers the fundamentals of personal finance, there are very few books that help readers strengthen their self-discipline, focus, and motivation. In a society where impulse control problems are becoming more and more common, Dr. Beckman felt that this was an important book to write.

As a clinical psychologist and Certified Educator in Personal Finance, Dr. Beckman is well-versed in topics that range from goal-setting and self-monitoring to personal efficacy and self-discipline. She offers a self-help guide filled with tools to tackle the motivational challenges that many Americans face when it comes to personal finance. She also suggests how to design the social, emotional, and environmental context in which good money habits will thrive.

Getting better with money and achieving your financial goals do not happen through passive waiting, wishing for life to be different, or gimmicky quick-fixes that promise instant wealth. Living a healthy financial life requires real personal change (or a pocket change, you might say!) Thankfully, behavioral scientists have uncovered the secrets of habit modification which have the power to convert good intentions into real action. These secrets are covered in detail in this book.

Through practical lessons, relevant examples, reflection questions, and homework tasks, Dr. Beckman encourages readers to:

-Understand their stage of readiness for change, and choose the most powerful strategies

-Set up their environment to make the right behaviors easier and the wrong behaviors harder

-Manage obstacles that arise, such as excuses, distressing thoughts, and difficult emotions

-Maintain enthusiasm by practicing one small change at a time

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Pocket Change by Dr. Heidi Beckman Named as 2014 Adult Book of the Year, Winner of an Excellence in Financial Literacy ...

PWP Uses Behavioral Science
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Newswise WASHINGTON, D.C., June 4, 2014 The American Educational Research Association (AERA) has named Daniel McCaffrey and Li Cai as the new editors for the Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics (JEBS). McCaffrey and Cai will begin reviewing manuscripts on July 1, 2014, and will become editors of record for a three-year term beginning in January 2015.

Cosponsored by AERA and the American Statistical Association, JEBS provides an outlet for research papers that develop original statistical methods useful for the applied statistician working in educational or behavioral research.

Daniel McCaffrey is a principal research scientist at the Educational Testing Service. He is a founding co-editor of Statistics and Public Policy, a new online journal of the American Statistical Association. Previously, he was an associate editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association and the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics. He has also been a member of several scientific review panels at the Institute of Education Statistics and the National Institutes of Health and has reviewed proposals for the National Science Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Li Cai is a faculty member in the advanced quantitative methodology program at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he also serves as co-director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. In addition, he is affiliated with the UCLA Department of Psychology in the quantitative area. His methodological research agenda involves the development, integration, and evaluation of innovative latent variable models, as well as computational algorithms and software implementations that have wide-ranging applications in educational assessment and evaluation, psychological measurement, and health-related domains of study.

We are honored to be the next editorial leaders of the Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, said McCaffrey and Cai. We will maintain and grow JEBS as the first choice of methodologists across the education and behavioral sciences by publishing papers on emerging topics that will help drive research in these fields. This approach will ensure JEBS continues to lead the methodological research agenda.

McCaffrey and Cai will assume the editorship currently held by Matthew Johnson, associate professor of statistics and education at Columbia Universitys Teachers College, and Sandip Sinharay, chief research statistician at CTB/McGraw-Hill.

About AERA

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is the largest national professional organization devoted to the scientific study of education. Founded in 1916, AERA advances knowledge about education, encourages scholarly inquiry related to education, and promotes the use of research to improve education and serve the public good. Find AERA on Facebook and Twitter.

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AERA Announces New Editors for Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics

A primary area of focus in the bill this year is scientific research, innovation and competitiveness. Investing in basic research is key to growth and job creation, and it is the foundation for the economic security of future generations which enables us to stay ahead of China. So said Frank Wolf (R-VA), Chairman of the House Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee at the start of two days of deliberations by the House on an FY 2015 bill to fund a wide range of federal agencies, including NASA, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation.

The House passed this legislation on Friday morning by a vote of 321-87. Although scores of amendments were offered the bills provisions regarding the four science agencies were left largely unchanged.

While there was discussion about the appropriateness of some NSF grants, the partisan divisions seen at last weeks House Science Committeemarkupof their FIRST bill were much less apparent. Chaka Fattah (D-PA), Ranking Member on the Commerce, Justice Science Appropriations Subcommittee saidAs for the Democrats, I want to say a number of things. One if that we are very pleased that in this bill the science accounts have been a focus of high priority.

The subcommittee wrote the FY 2015 bill under difficult circumstances. Overall funding was about $400 million less than the current level. In the last five fiscal years the subcommittee has cut total spending by $13.3 billion or 20 percent. Thisbill, H.R. 4660, is the last that Wolf will be writing as he is retiring at the end of this Congress.

Grants made by NSFs Social, Behavioral, and Economics (SBE) Directorate were discussed as was the foundations grant making process. In introducing his bill, Wolf said,With increased funding comes increased responsibility. I respect the NSF to follow through on the commitments it has made to the committee to increase accountability and transparency in its grant decision making. No funny grants is what I am trying to say. The new director must take every necessary step to ensure that research grants are scientifically meritorious, that funding allocations reflect national priorities and that the taxpayer investments in science are being used wisely. Later in the debate, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) offered an amendment to reduce the bills FY 2015 funding for the SBE directorate by $15.4 million, resulting in level funding of $256.9 million. This funding would be shifted to NSF physical science and engineering grants. The amendment passed by a vote of 208-201.

The bills funding level for NOAAs Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research was increased by $12 million under a successful amendment offered by Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK). Arguing that the increased money would accelerate R&D and the development of new technologies, Bridenstines amendment shifted the money from the Census Bureau. Both Wolf and Fattah supported the amendment and it passed the House by a vote of 340-71. In announcing his support for the amendment, Wolf described H.R. 4660s strong funding for the National Weather Service, explaining the bills appropriation was $16 million above the Obama Administrations request. The bill also provided funding above the Administrations requests for information technology officers, the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program, and a tsunami community education awareness program.

Efforts to increase funding for NOAAs climate research programs were unsuccessful. Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) sponsored an amendment to shift $37.5 million, within the bills appropriation for NOAA, to maintain the current level of funding. Explained Holt:This bill would cut critical investments that are needed for ongoing climate research, and failing to provide the resources necessary to study our changing climate wont make the problem go away; it will just make it harder to predict and more difficult to understand. Denial is the result of ignorance and only deepens our ignorance. We need to support the science behind climate change. We need to develop policies that would help us mitigate and adapt to the threats of climate change. Four of Holts Democratic colleagues offered lengthy remarks supporting the amendment but it was rejected on a voice vote. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) offered an amendment to fully fund the administration request for NOAAs Integrated Ocean Acidification research program but she withdrew it before a vote was called.

Other science-related amendments discussed on the floor included one by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) to move $7 million in NASA funding from space operations to space technology. It was accepted by House members. The House rejected an amendment offered by Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) to shift $10 million from NASAs Exploration program to an international trade enforcement program. An amendment by Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) to reduce NSFs FY 2015 appropriation by $67 million was rejected by voice vote. Rep. Matt Salmons (R-AZ) amendment to eliminate NSF funding for research on climate change impacts on Chinese tea was accepted by voice vote. Another amendment that would have affected specific NSF research grants was ruled out of order.

Action now shifts to Senate appropriators. Today Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and her colleagues approved their version of the FY 2015 bill. It will be considered by the full committee, which she also chairs, on Thursday.

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House Passes FY 2015 Funding Bill for NASA, NIST, NOAA, and NSF