Acceptance by athletes of a virtual reality head-mounted display intended to enhance sport performance

While a growing number of studies have highlighted the potential of virtual reality (VR) to improve athletes’ skills, no research has yet focused on acceptance of a VR head-mounted display (VR-HMD) designed to increase sport performance. However, even if technological devices could potentially lead to performance improvement, athletes may not always accept them. To investigate this issue, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) examines if perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, and subjective norms (i.e., social influence) are positive predictors of intention to use a specific technology. The aims of the present study were to test with competitive athletes the validity of the TAM before a first use of a VR-HMD intended to enhance sport performance and to examine to what extent the level of practice and the type of sport practiced have an influence on the previous variables of the TAM. The study sample comprised 1162 French athletes (472 women, 690 men, M_age = 24.50 ± 8.51 years) who usually practiced a sport in competition (from recreational to international level). After reading a short text presenting the VR-HMD and its interests for sport performance, the participants filled out an online questionnaire assessing their acceptance of this technological device before a first use. The results of the structural equation modeling analysis revealed that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, and subjective norms were positive predictors of intention to use this VR-HMD, validating the suitability of the TAM for investigating the acceptance by athletes of a VR-HMD designed to increase their sport performance. The results also showed that athletes of all sport levels (a) had a significant intention to use VR, (b) found it quite useful (except for recreational athletes), quite easy to use, and quite pleasant to use, even if their entourage would not encourage them to use it (except for international athletes), and (c) found the VR-HMD easy and pleasant to use whatever the sport practiced. Notably some athletes (e.g., triathletes, swimmers, cyclists) did not find the VR-HMD significantly useful and did not have significant intention to use it to increase their performance. Identifying acceptance by athletes of such a device may increase the likelihood that it will be used by athletes of different levels and from different sports, so that they can benefit from all its advantages related to the improvement of their sport performance. Needs-based targeted interventions may also be conducted toward athletes who might be reluctant to integrate this type of device into their training.     

Sexual Assault Training in the Military: Evaluating Efforts to End the “Invisible War”

Sexual assault is an insidious problem in the United States military. In 2005 the Department of Defense (DoD) created the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, which centralizes responsibility for sexual assault training. However, this training initiative has undergone little evaluation by outside researchers. Addressing this need, we analyzed responses from over 24,000 active duty personnel who completed the 2010 DoD Workplace and Gender Relations Survey. We assessed whether sexual assault training exposure (None, Minimal, Partial, or Comprehensive) predicted accurate knowledge of sexual assault resources and protocols. Using a social-ecological framework, we investigated whether institutional and individual factors influenced Service members’ training exposure and judgment of training effectiveness. According to our results, exposure to comprehensive training predicted lower sexual assault incidence and superior knowledge. However, comprehensive training differed as a function of military branch, rank, gender, and sexual assault history. Judgments of training effectiveness also varied across these dimensions. Our results highlight the importance of considering context, gender, and victimization history when evaluating institutional efforts to end sexual violence. The DoD’s 2010 annual report on military sexual assault concluded that “most Active Duty members receive effective training on sexual assault” (p. 104). Our results cast doubt on that assertion.     

A medical records managing and securing blockchain based system supported by a Genetic Algorithm and Discrete Wavelet Transform

The privacy of patients is jeopardised when medical records and data are spread or shared beyond the protected cloud of institutions. This is because breaches force them to the brink that they start abstaining from full disclosure of their condition. This type of condition has a negative effect on scientific research, patients and all stakeholders. A blockchain-based data sharing system is proposed to tackle this issue, which employs immutability and autonomy properties of the blockchain to sufficiently resolve challenges associated with access control and handle sensitive data. Our proposed system is supported by a Discrete Wavelet Transform to enhance the overall security, and a Genetic Algorithm technique to optimise the queuing optimization technique as well. Introducing this cryptographic key generator enhances the immunity and system access control, which allows verifying users securely in a fast way. This design allows further accountability since all users involved are already known and the blockchain records a log of their actions. Only when the users’ cryptographic keys and identities are confirmed, the system allows requesting data from the shared queuing requests. The achieved execution time per node, confirmation time per node and robust index for block number of 0.19 s, 0.17 s and 20 respectively that based on system evaluation illustrates that our system is robust, efficient, immune and scalable.     

It is written all over your face: Socially rejected people display microexpressions that are detectable after training in the Micro Expression Training Tool (METT)

Social rejection is a powerful negative emotional experience, yet rejected people often appear stoic and unmoved. That is, their macroexpressions of emotion are not accurate reflections of their emotional states. Yet, there is reason to believe that rejected people exhibit involuntary microexpressions of negative emotion. We contrasted people's macroexpressions of emotion with their microexpressions subsequent to an acceptance or rejection experience. Observers coded microexpressions after being trained with the Micro Expression Training Tool. Rejected participants expressed more sad and angry microexpressions than did accepted participants. This research demonstrates that socially rejected people display negative microexpressions that are detectable by observers trained in the Micro Expression Training Tool.     

Athletes trained using stable compared to unstable surfaces exhibit distinct postural control profiles when assessed by traditional and nonlinear measures

Athletes are assumed to exhibit better balance than non-athletes; however, few studies have examined the role of different types of sports on balance measures. Two athlete groups that experience divergent sport-specific balance training are stable- (i.e. basketball) and unstable-surface athletes (i.e. surfers). The purpose of this study was to quantify the effect of stable- compared to unstable-surface sports on postural stability.MethodsEight non-athletes (NON), eight stable-surface athletes (SSA) and eight unstable-surface athletes (USA) performed five 20-s quiet standing trials while ground reaction forces were recorded. Approximate entropy (ApEn), total excursion and root mean square distances (RMS) of the center of pressure position were calculated. Univariate ANOVAs with post hoc tests were conducted for each variable.ResultsApEn values were lower in SSA compared to NON in the ML direction (p = 0.012) and USA had lower ApEn values compared to SSA in the AP direction (p = 0.036). The USA had smaller AP RMS compared to SSA (p = 0.002) while the USA had greater ML RMS (p = 0.008) and resultant RMS values compared to SSA (p = 0.025).DiscussionThese data suggest that USA and SSA may exhibit direction-specific differences in balance strategy due to feedback paradigm.     

Treatment Effectiveness of PMTO for Children's Behavior Problems in Iceland: Child Outcomes in a Nationwide Randomized Controlled Trial

Well‐documented treatment methods must be tested following their implementation in community service agencies and across different cultures to ensure continuing effectiveness. This study was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Parent Management Training—the Oregon model (PMTO), conducted within a nationwide implementation in Iceland. Families of 102 clinically referred children with behavior problems were recruited from five municipalities throughout Iceland. Child age ranged from 5 to 12; 73% were boys. Families were randomly assigned to either PMTO or services usually offered in the communities (SAU). Child adjustment was measured with a latent construct based on parent, child, and teacher reports of externalizing and internalizing problems and social skills. Prepost intent‐to‐treat analyses showed that PMTO treatment led to greater reductions in child adjustment problems relative to the comparison group, obtaining a modest to medium effect size based on the construct score. Only one indicator (parent‐rated Social Skills) showed significant change independently and information on amount and kind of treatment in the SAU was limited. Overall, findings indicate that PMTO is an effective method to treat children's behavior problems in a Northern European culture and supply evidence for the method's successful implementation in community settings in Iceland. This is one of few nationwide implementation studies of PMTO outside the United States and the first RCT in Iceland to test a treatment model for children's behavior problems.     

The heart of the matter: a proposal for placing the self of the therapist at the center of family therapy research and training

As it faces the transition marked by the death or retirement of most of its first-generation founders, the field of family therapy finds itself still unable to answer the critical question of what it is that makes family therapy work. The two dominant approaches to answering this question, the common-factors perspective and the model-specific factors perspective, remain divided at this juncture by a fundamental difference of emphasis between the two. This article proposes a way of integrating the two perspectives via the hypothesis that therapists achieve maximum effectiveness by committing themselves to a family therapy model of proven efficacy whose underlying worldview closely matches their own personal worldview. The implications of this hypothesis for the training of family therapists are examined.     

Learning of letter names and sounds and their contribution to word recognition

This study investigated knowledge of letter names and letter sounds, their learning, and their contributions to word recognition. Of 123 preschoolers examined on letter knowledge, 65 underwent training on both letter names and letter sounds in a counterbalanced order. Prior to training, children were more advanced in associating letters with their names than with their sounds and could provide the sound of a letter only if they could name it. However, children learned more easily to associate letters with sounds than with names. Training just on names improved performance on sounds, but the sounds produced were extended (CV) rather than phonemic. Learning sounds facilitated later learning of the same letters' names, but not vice versa. Training either on names or on sounds improved word recognition and explanation of printed words. Results are discussed with reference to cognitive and societal factors affecting letter knowledge acquisition, features of the Hebrew alphabet and orthography, and educational implications.     

Prior distributions for random choice structures

We study various axioms of discrete probabilistic choice, measuring how restrictive they are, both alone and in the presence of other axioms, given a specific class of prior distributions over a complete collection of finite choice probabilities. We do this by using Monte Carlo simulation to compute, for a range of prior distributions, probabilities that various simple and compound axioms hold. For example, the probability of the triangle inequality is usually many orders of magnitude higher than the probability of random utility. While neither the triangle inequality nor weak stochastic transitivity imply the other, the conditional probability that one holds given the other holds is greater than the marginal probability, for all priors in the class we consider. The reciprocal of the prior probability that an axiom holds is an upper bound on the Bayes factor in favor of a restricted model, in which the axiom holds, against an unrestricted model. The relatively high prior probability of the triangle inequality limits the degree of support that data from a single decision maker can provide in its favor. The much lower probability of random utility implies that the Bayes factor in favor of it can be much higher, for suitable data.     

Can Psychoanalysis Become Empirically Supported?

The article discusses the application of the ideas of evidence-based medicine or empirically supported treatment to the field of psychoanalysis. The author argues that empirical support is gradual rather than categorical, and that the randomized clinical trial (RCT), which is commonly heralded as the appropriate method of support, confounds patient suitability factors with treatment 'as such'. As a consequence of the exclusive reliance on the RCT, empirical validation of psychological treatments has generally favoured cognitive-behavioural treatments, although there is ample evidence - albeit non-RCT - for the beneficial effects of short-term and long-term psychoanalytic treatment. The author argues for a suitability matching approach to empirical validation, where each treatment is tested, as powerfully as feasible, on samples based on selfselection (patient's choice, clinical assignment, suitability judgments etc.). The paper concludes by referring to two recent studies, indicating that there is reason to evaluate alleged empirical support with caution.