Automatic sleep stage classification based on easy to register signals as a validation tool for ergonomic steering in smart bedding systems

Ergonomic sleep studies benefit from long-term monitoring in the home environment to cope with daily variations and habituation effects. Polysomnography allows to asses sleep accurately, but is costly, time-consuming and possibly disturbing for the sleeper. Actigraphy is cheap and user friendly, but for many studies lacks accuracy and detailed information. This proof-of-concept study investigates Least-Squares Support Vector Machines as a tool for automatic sleep stage classification (Wake-N1-Rem to N2-N3 separation), using automatic trainingset-specific filtered features as derived from three easy to register signals, namely heart rate, breathing rate and movement. The algorithms are trained and validated using 20 nights out of a 600 night database from over 100 different healthy persons. Different training and test set strategies were analyzed leading to different results. The more person-specific the training nights to the test nights, the better the classification accuracy as validated against the hypnograms scored by experts from the full polysomnograms. In the limit of complete person-specific training, the accuracy of the algorithm on the test set reached 94%. This means that this algorithm could serve its use in long-term monitoring sleep studies in the home environment, especially when prior person-specific polysomnographic training is performed.     

The influence of the interviewing style and the historical context on positioning shifts in the narrative of a Second World War Resistance member1

This article involves a study of the narrative of a Second World War Resistance member by means of an interview in which the interviewer explicitly inserts the historical context by selecting the topics for discussion and asking critical questions. The interview deals with three periods: the Wartime period; the First Wave of Reprisals; and the Second Wave of Reprisals. The analyses show that the interviewee's first and second‐level positionings shift along with changes in historical period and that they mirror the general historical image of the Resistance. These different positionings are highly consistent in themselves and this consistency is also present on the third level of positioning, because of the interviewee's fairly muted style of narrating, by which blatant inconsistencies are avoided and a general, ‘good’ identity is constructed. The article also demonstrates that the interview style adds another, important dimension to the analysis of identities in life stories.     

Attachment Representations and Discipline in Mothers of Young School Children: An Observation Study

Previous research was extended by connecting maternal attachment representations not only to maternal emotional support and task structuring, but also to maternal discipline. A total number of 62 mothers of preschoolers (M_age = 54 months) completed the adult attachment interview and a self‐report measure of dysfunctional discipline. Two years later, a subsample of 38 mother–child dyads was observed during two laboratory interaction tasks in which the mother and child were induced to have divergent goals. In general, the hypothesized connections between maternal attachment representations and discipline were found, at least when discipline was independently observed. Specifically, as compared to autonomous mothers, non‐autonomous mothers showed more overreactivity, more psychological control and less flexibility in their discipline attempts. Also, their children were less compliant. These differences were more pronounced during a story‐eliciting task than during a block task. These findings suggest that parental behaviors in the discipline domain contribute to the explanation of the intergenerational transmission of attachment patterns.     

Individual and institutional push and pull factors as predictors of retirement timing in Europe: A multilevel analysis

The number of retired people in Europe has increased significantly in recent decades. It remains unclear, however, whether individuals are more likely to be pulled toward retirement by their expectations about life after retirement than they are to be pushed out of the labour market due to poor health or dislike of one's job. The fact that retirement timing differs rather considerably between European countries suggests that not only micro, but also macro push (i.e. labour market constraints) and pull (i.e. economic incentives) factors influence retirement decisions. This duality heightens the need to determine the influence of micro-level and macro-level push and pull indicators on the retirement timing of older workers (50 +) in Europe. Results are obtained performing multilevel event history analysis using longitudinal micro data from the first (2004/05) and second (2006/07) waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and macro data derived from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Eurostat. The results indicate that at the individual level, older workers are pushed out due to health problems as well as being attracted towards retirement to spend time with their grandchildren. At the institutional level, financial incentives such as a high implicit tax on continued work and high expenditures on early exit schemes make retirement attractive, whereas the institutional push context is of lesser importance.     

Income dynamics in couples and the dissolution of marriage and cohabitation

Several studies have shown that a wife's strong (socio)economic position is associated with an increase in the risk of divorce. Less is known about such effects for cohabiting relationships. Using a unique and large-scale sample of administrative records from The Netherlands, we analyze the link between couples' income dynamics and union dissolution for married and cohabiting unions over a 10-year period. We find negative effects of household income on separation and positive effects of the woman's relative income, in line with earlier studies. The shape of the effect of the woman's relative income, however, depends on the type of union. Movements away from income equality toward a male-dominant pattern tend to increase the dissolution risk for cohabiting couples, whereas they reduce the dissolution risk for married couples. Movements away from income equality toward a female-dominant pattern (reverse specialization) increase the dissolution risks for both marriage and cohabitation. The findings suggest that equality is more protective for cohabitation, whereas specialization is more protective for marriage, although only when it fits a traditional pattern. Finally, we find that the stabilizing effects of income equality are more pronounced early in the marriage and that income equality also reduces the dissolution risk for same-sex couples.     

Dealing with the wicked issue of child poverty: Inter-organizational networks as forums for collective debate and reflection

In the international realm, inter-organizational networking is perceived as a highly relevant instrument in social policy that enables welfare organizations to deal with “wicked issues.” In this article, we discuss the central empirical findings acquired from a recent qualitative research project that focuses on inter-organizational networks that were formed at the local level to deal with the wicked issue of child poverty as a complex and multidimensional social problem. We explore how the network discussions about normative value orientations in four inter-organizational networks evolve, and identify three central fields of tension that illustrate the complexity for local welfare actors in and across networks to create network strategies in dealing with child poverty: (a) selective versus universal provision, (b) conditional versus unconditional strategies, and (c) instrumental versus lifeworld-oriented approaches. Our findings show that networks can function as valuable forums for collective debate and reflection, since different approaches and perspectives to tackle the problem of child poverty can be confronted with each other. Creating such a forum has the potential to challenge dominant conceptualizations and undesirable assumptions of complex social problems that are present in welfare practices and policies.     

Symbolic convergence of local wisdom in cross–cultural collaborative social responsibility: Indonesian case

Lately, the CSR policies of Multinational Corporations in Indonesia show certain improvements. It cannot be denied that at present the CSRs of Multinational Corporations in Indonesia indicate they are visibly supporting/involved in assisting the attainment of some of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development (SDGs). This study examines the CSR activities of several Multinational Corporations in Indonesia, in particular how they adjust/adapt to the local wisdom in their efforts to attain their CSR goals.The main theory applied in our study is the Symbolic Convergence Theory, supported by the Accommodation Communication Theory. Three Multinational Corporations in Indonesia were chosen as subjects of this research. Analysis is based on the Collaborative Social Responsibility Model (Kartikawangi, 2015) and Cross Cultural Communication Competence in Business Interaction models (Kartikawangi et al., 2016).At present “positive” actions are increasing by companies in efforts to better understand the society they are working in. Clearer understandings of local, regional and national societal factors are required to enhance the corporation’s product development programs, marketing strategies, and CSR strategies. Local, regional and national societal groups are in positions to choose what should be provided by the companies in achieving shared and practical Symbolic Convergence meanings. The societal groups actively present their aspirations, but also the aspirations and local wisdom that must be absorbed by the company. Symbolic Convergence in the relationship is built by all interacting parties. These interactions include the companies, government and local society. Meanwhile, the media also assist in developing awareness through the dissemination of various balanced information in the form of social disclosures.     

Modeling human-bed interaction: the predictive value of anthropometric models in choosing the correct bed support

The sleep system (i.e. the combination of mattress and bed base) is an important factor of the sleep environment since it allows physical recuperation during sleep by providing proper body support. However, various factors influence the interaction between the human body and the sleep system. Contributing factors include body dimensions, distribution of body weight and stiffness of the sleep system across the mattress surface. During the past decade, the rise of several new bedding technologies has made it increasingly difficult for the consumer to select a proper sleep system. Therefore, this study presents a method to model human-bed interaction in order to objectively predict the ideal sleep system for a particular individual. The proposed method combines a personalized anthropometric model with standardized load-deflection characteristics of mattress and bed base. Results for lateral sleep positions show a root mean square deviation of 11.9 ± 6.1 mm between modeled spine shapes and validation shapes, derived from 3D surface scans of the back surface. The method showed to be a reliable tool to individually identify the sleep system providing superior support from a variety of possible mattress-bed base combinations.