Experiments as Code and its application to VR studies in human-building interaction.

Experiments as Code (ExaC) is a concept for reproducible, auditable, debuggable, reusable, & scalable experiments. Experiments are a crucial tool to understand Human-Building Interactions (HBI) and build a coherent theory around it. However, a common concern for experiments is their auditability and reproducibility. Experiments are usually designed, provisioned, managed, and analyzed by diverse teams of specialists (e.g., researchers, technicians, engineers) and may require many resources (e.g., cloud infrastructure, specialized equipment). Although researchers strive to document experiments accurately, this process is often lacking. Consequently, it is difficult to reproduce these experiments. Moreover, when it is necessary to create a similar experiment, the "wheel is very often reinvented". It appears easier to start from scratch than trying to reuse existing work. Thus valuable embedded best practices and previous experiences are lost. In behavioral studies, such as in HBI, this has contributed to the reproducibility crisis. To tackle these challenges, we propose the ExaC paradigm, which not only documents the whole experiment, but additionally provides the automation code to provision, deploy, manage, and analyze the experiment. To this end, we define the ExaC concept, provide a taxonomy for the components of a practical implementation, and provide a proof of concept with an HBI desktop VR experiment that demonstrates the benefits of its "as code" representation, that is, reproducibility, auditability, debuggability, reusability, & scalability.

The role of strategic visibility in shaping wayfinding behavior in multilevel buildings.

In this paper, we explore the mutual effect of prior background expectations and visibility afforded by the 3D configuration of the physical environment on wayfinding efficiency and strategy in multilevel buildings. We perform new analyses on data from 149 participants who performed six unaided and directed wayfinding tasks in virtual buildings with varying degrees of visibility. Our findings reveal that the interaction between visibility and prior background expectations significantly affects wayfinding efficiency and strategy during between-floor wayfinding tasks. We termed this interaction effect strategic visibility, which emphasizes the importance of the strategic allocation of visibility towards actionable building elements in promoting efficient wayfinding and shaping wayfinding strategy. Our study highlights the significance of strategic visibility in promoting inclusive and accessible built environments for neurodiversity. Finally, we provide an open-source dataset that can be used to develop and test new wayfinding theories and models to advance research in the emerging field of human-building interaction.

Digital Support Systems to Improve Child Health and Development in Peru: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Children living in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) are at greater risk for experiencing adversities that can undermine their health and early development. Recently launched digital early childhood development (ECD) programs attempt to support families with young children in their home environments using digital technologies. However, relatively little is known regarding the effectiveness of these new technologies. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study is to rigorously assess the reach, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of a newly developed digital ECD platform called Afini. The Afini platform was designed to support parents of young children in low-resource settings to improve ECD and interact with caregivers through messenger services and a chatbot. METHODS: This is a 3-arm cluster randomized controlled trial. In total, 2471 caregivers and their 3- to 9-month-old children were enrolled in the study across 164 study clusters in the San Marcos, Cajabamba, and Cajamarca provinces of Peru. Clusters of participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: a control group (72 community clusters and 980 caregiver-child dyads), a home visit intervention group (20 community clusters and 316 caregiver-child dyads), and an Afini intervention group (72 community clusters and 1175 caregiver-child dyads). Families in the control group receive no focused ECD intervention. The home visit group is receiving biweekly home visits by a trained field staff following the national ECD program (Programa Nacional Cuna Más) curriculum and training guidelines. Caregivers in the Afini group are receiving ECD activities and advice through the digital platform. The primary study outcome is children's overall development at the age of 2.5 years, using the internationally validated long form of the Global Scales for Early Development. Secondary outcomes include caregiver engagement; caregiver mental health; screen time; as well as caregiver reports of children's motor, cognitive, language, and socioemotional development measured through locally piloted and validated tools. RESULTS: Enrollment started in September 2021 and ended in March 2023. Endline assessments will take place between August 2023 and September 2024. CONCLUSIONS: This study is, to our knowledge, the first to rigorously assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of digital ECD technologies in LMICs. Given the large number of children in LMICs currently receiving only limited external support, the evaluated platform has the potential to improve the short- and long-term well-being of millions of children and their parents globally. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05202106; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05202106. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/50371.

Digital tools to improve parenting behaviour in low-income settings: a mixed-methods feasibility study.

INTRODUCTION: Digital parenting interventions could be potentially cost-effective means for providing early child development services in low-income settings. This 5-month mixed-methods pilot study evaluated the feasibility of using Afinidata, a comprehensive Facebook Messenger-based digital parenting intervention in a remote rural setting in Latin America and explored necessary adaptations to local context. METHODS: The study was conducted in three provinces in the Cajamarca region, Peru, from February to July 2021. 180 mothers with children aged between 2 and 24 months and regular access to a smartphone were enrolled. Mothers were interviewed three times in-person. Selected mothers also participated in focus groups or in-depth qualitative interviews. RESULTS: Despite the rural and remote study site, 88% of local families with children between 0 and 24 months had access to internet and smartphones. Two months after baseline, 84% of mothers reported using the platform at least once, and of those, 87% rated it as useful to very useful. After 5 months, 42% of mothers were still active on the platform, with little variation between urban and rural settings. Modifications to the intervention focused on assisting mothers in navigating the platform independently and included adding a laminated booklet with general information on child development, sample activities and detailed instructions on how to self-enrol in case of lost phones. CONCLUSIONS: We found high access to smartphones and the intervention was well received and used in very remote areas of Peru, suggesting that digital parenting interventions could be a promising path forward for supporting low-income families in remote parts of Latin America.

How learning can change the course of evolution.

The interaction between phenotypic plasticity, e.g. learning, and evolution is an important topic both in Evolutionary Biology and Machine Learning. The evolution of learning is commonly studied in Evolutionary Biology, while the use of an evolutionary process to improve learning is of interest to the field of Machine Learning. This paper takes a different point of view by studying the effect of learning on the evolutionary process, the so-called Baldwin effect. A well-studied result in the literature about the Baldwin effect is that learning affects the speed of convergence of the evolutionary process towards some genetic configuration, which corresponds to the environment-induced plastic response. This paper demonstrates that learning can change the outcome of evolution, i.e., lead to a genetic configuration that does not correspond to the plastic response. Results are obtained both analytically and experimentally by means of an agent-based model of a foraging task, in an environment where the distribution of resources follows seasonal cycles and the foraging success on different resource types is conditioned by trade-offs that can be evolved and learned. This paper attempts to answer a question that has been overlooked: whether learning has an effect on what genotypic traits are evolved, i.e. the selection of a trait that enables a plastic response changes the selection pressure on a different trait, in what could be described as co-evolution between different traits in the same genome.

Investigación de la ingesta de sal mediante natriuresis en escolares de 6 a 13 años de La Pampa / RESEARCH IN SALT INTAKE BY NATRIURESIS IN CHILDREN AGED 6 TO 13 THE PROVINCE OF LA PAMPA

Introducción: en la provincia de La Pampa prevalece una alta ingesta de carnes y fiambres. Existe promoción en adultos para disminuir la ingesta de sal, no focalizada en niños. Objetivos: investigar en escolares de la comunidad agrícolaganadera la ingesta de sal mediante la natriuresis y determinar riesgo de hipertensión arterial. Materiales y métodos: estudio piloto, exploratorio, descriptivo en 67 niños/niñas de 6-13 años, de escuela de jornada completa, sin restricción dietética. Se determinó frecuencia de ingesta de fiambres, peso, talla e IMC, perímetro de cintura mínima (cm) y un control de presión arterial (PA). Se describen los resultados según sexo, edad y percentiles (Pc) de talla (Task Force, 2004). Se determinó natriuresis (matutina y vespertina) e ingesta de sal (método de Tanaka, et al.). Se informaron los resultados a la familia y se educó sobre los factores de riesgo cardiovasculares. Resultados: el 96% consumía frecuentemente fiambres, el 14,66% tenía un Pc de PA anormal. Las niñas mayores de 9 años tuvieron mayor peso (p:0,01) e IMC que los varones (p:0,02). Los varones menores de 9 años tenían mayores niveles de natriuresis matutina que las niñas (p:0,04). La ingesta de sal/24 h de las niñas menores de 9 años fue de 2,48±1,99 g y 3,19±0,36 g en las mayores (p:0,09), siendo de 1,82±0,56 y 3,27±1,03 g respectivamente en los niños (p:0,01). Conclusiones: hallamos un consumo elevado de sal en la población estudiada, aumentando significativamente en varones a partir de los 9 años poniéndolos en riesgo de hipertensión arterial. Se debe efectuar un programa de alimentación saludable especialmente a partir de esta edad para el control de peso en las niñas y de la ingesta de sal en los niños, informando a los médicos responsables para que efectúen el control de la presión arterial en particular.