Romeo Vitelli's Blog
January 15, 2023
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December 8, 2022
Learning about Leadership from Michael Scott
A study published in the Journal of Leadership Studies examines the actions of Michael Scott, self‐proclaimed “World's Best Boss”, to determine how he communicates leadership on The Office. Using Northouse's (2020) definition of leadership, Scott's behavior is content analyzed to establish his particular message transmission tendencies. Further, given Scott's unique management style, George's (2003) dimensions of authentic leadership are used to code Scott's behavior as Scranton's regional manager. Based on a quantitative coding of shows, two main findings are advanced. First, Scott's leadership prioritizes verbal over nonverbal messages. Second, Scott's approach to leadership emphasizes the authentic dimensions of close relationships, clear purpose, and a caring heart most often with his employees. Scenes from The Office are identified that validate these findings and feature authentic leadership theory in action. Pragmatically, the current research offers trainers, managers, and teachers a resource for educating trainees and students on the role of verbal and nonverbal messages in leadership as well as a tool for developing authentic leadership in others. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
December 1, 2022
Can Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback Treat Psychiatric Disorders?
Neurofeedback using real-time functional MRI (RT-fMRI-NF) is an innovative technique that allows to voluntarily modulate a targeted brain response and its associated behavior. Despite promising results in the current literature, its effectiveness on symptoms management in psychiatric disorders is not yet clearly demonstrated. A study in the journal Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry provides 1) a state-of-art qualitative review of RT-fMRI-NF studies aiming at alleviating clinical symptoms in a psychiatric population; 2) a quantitative evaluation (meta-analysis) of RT-fMRI-NF effectiveness on various psychiatric disorders and 3) methodological suggestions for future studies. Thirty-one clinical trials focusing on psychiatric disorders were included and categorized according to standard diagnostic categories. Among the 31 identified studies, 22 consisted of controlled trials, of which only eight showed significant clinical improvement in the experimental vs. control group after the training. Nine studies found an effect at follow-up on ADHD symptoms, emotion dysregulation, facial emotion processing, depressive symptoms, hallucinations, psychotic symptoms, and specific phobia. Within-group meta-analysis revealed large effects of the NF training on depressive symptoms right after the training (g = 0.81, p < 0.01) and at follow-up (g = 1.19, p < 0.01), as well as medium effects on anxiety (g = 0.44, p = 0.01) and emotion regulation (g = 0.48, p < 0.01). Between-group meta-analysis showed a medium effect on depressive symptoms (g = 0.49, p < 0.01) and a large effect on anxiety (g = 0.77, p = 0.01). However, the between-studies heterogeneity is very high. The use of RT-fMRI-NF as a treatment for psychiatric symptoms is promising, however, further double-blind, multicentric, randomized-controlled trials are warranted. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
November 24, 2022
Bringing Olfaction into the Virtual World
The sense of smell, olfaction, is seldom engaged in digital interactive systems, but, supported by the proper technology, olfaction might open up new interaction domains. Human olfactory experience involves active exploration, directed sniffing and nuanced judgements about odour identity, concentrations, and blends, yet to date most compact olfactory displays do not directly support these experiences. A study in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies describes the development and validation of a compact, low-cost olfactory production fitted to the hand controller of the HTC Vive Virtual Reality (VR) system that employs stepless valves to enable control of scent magnitude and blending (Fig. 1). Our olfactory display allows for concealed (i.e., unknown to the user) combinations of odours with virtual objects and contexts, making it well suited to applications involving interactions with odorous objects in virtual space for recreational, educational, scientific, or therapeutic functions. Through a user study and gas sensor analysis, we have been able to demonstrate that our device presents clear and consistent scent output, is intuitive from a user perspective, and supports gameplay interactions. We present results from a smell training game in a virtual wine tasting cellar in which the initial task of identifying wine aroma components is followed by evaluating more complex blends, allowing the player to “level up” as they proceed to higher degrees of connoisseurship. Novice users were able to quickly adapt to the display, and we found that the device affords sniffing and other gestures that add verisimilitude to olfactory experience in virtual environments. Test-retest reliability was high when participants performed the task two times with the same odours. In sum, the results suggest our olfactory display may facilitate use in game settings and other olfactory interactions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
November 17, 2022
Predicting Alzheimers
Alzheimer’s, or so-called dementia, is one of the types of diseases that affects brain cells and causes memory loss, difficulty in thinking, and forgetfulness. Thus far, there is no effective treatment for AD, but treatment could be helpful in impeding the progression of the disease. Therefore, early AD diagnosis is effective in limiting the disease from progressing to advanced and dangerous stages. Physicians and radiologists face difficulties in diagnosing healthy nerve cells from soft tissue, and it requires substantial expertise and a long time to decipher the MRI images. Thus, artificial intelligence techniques can play a key role in diagnosing MRI images for early detection of AD. In a study published in Connection Science, four proposed systems with different methodologies and materials for tracking the stages of AD development are presented. The first proposed system is to classify a data set using artificial neural networks (ANNs) and feed-forward neural networks (FFNN) based on the features extracted in a hybrid manner by using a combination of Local Binary Pattern (LBP), Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), and Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) algorithms. The second proposed system is to classify the data set using two deep learning models—ResNet-18 and AlexNet—that are pre-trained based on deep feature map extraction. The third proposed system is to diagnose the data set using a hybrid technology between ResNet-18 and AlexNet models to extract feature maps and machine learning (SVM) to classify feature maps. The fourth proposed system diagnoses the data set using ANN and FFNN algorithms based on the hybrid features of ResNet-18 and AlexNet deep learning models and traditional algorithms (LBP, DWT, and GLCM). All the proposed techniques achieved superior results in the diagnosis of MRI images for early detection of AD. The FFNN algorithms based on the hybrid features extracted by ResNet-18 with features extracted using traditional algorithms achieved an accuracy of 99.8%, precision of 99.9%, sensitivity of 99.75%, specificity of 100%, and AUC of 99.94%. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
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November 13, 2022
Remembering the Colorado Cannibal
Legend has it that when Judge Melville B. Gerry handed down a death sentence on Alferd Packer, he said, "There was seven Democrats in Hinsdale Country, but you, you voracious man-eatin' son of a bitch, you ate five of them. I sentence you to be hanged ... as a warning against reducing the Democratic population of this state." According to the actual trial records, Judge Gerry was more succinct (and apolitical) in his death sentence, stressing that Packer would be "hung by the neck until you are dead, dead, dead!".
If Judge Gerry was upset with Alf Packer, he was hardly the only one. As the sole survivor of a six-man prospecting expedition that had become snow-bound in the Colorado Rockies in 1874, Packer's story was that one of the other prospectors, Shannon Bell, had gone mad and killed the others before Packer killed him in self-defense. The fact that Packer admitted to cannibalism, had changed his story 
several times, and had money belonging to the other prospectors with him when arrested counted didn’t help his cause, though. While in custody awaiting a hearing, Packer escaped from jail (nobody ever found out how) and spent nearly nine years on the run before being re-arrested. In the meantime, investigators found the bodies of the other prospectors with evidence that they were bludgeoned to death.
On March 14, 1883, Alf Packer was arrested at Wagonhound Creek, where he had been living under the name of John Schwartze. Since cannibalism isn't a crime in most states (only Idaho has an actual law against it), Packer/Schwartze went on trial for murder. Despite his account of killing Bell in self-defense, neither the jury nor Judge Gerry found his version of events credible, and Packer received a death sentence. Given the public hatred directed against him, authorities arranged for him to be transferred to another jail to avoid possible lynch mobs, and the execution stayed.
It's hard to understand the hatred for Packer since accounts of cannibalism weren't all that rare. Given the brutal winters in that part of the country and the tendency of isolated groups to be snowbound for months, desperate measures were often needed to avoid starvation (much like the famous Donner party of the 1840s). Local and national newspapers certainly shaped how the public viewed Packer (one described him as a "Human Ghoul who Murdered and Grew Corpulent on the Flesh of his Comrades").
While Packer was awaiting execution, the legal wrangling dragged out for years. One lawyer pointed out that Colorado was a territory when the crime occurred and argued that the murders were not illegal at the time under territorial law. The Colorado Supreme Court overturned the murder conviction, although Packer was later tried and convicted of five counts of manslaughter. He received a sentence of forty years in the state prison at Canon City.
Not that the story ended there. A model inmate in prison, Alf Packer (aka "Prisoner 1389") became the focus of numerous legal appeals and applications for pardons by a string of attorneys. The "Free Packer" movement gained its greatest champion in Polly Pry, a Denver Post columnist who wrote numerous columns on Packer's "unjust" imprisonment. Pry aimed her crusade at Colorado governor Charles S. Thomas who finally gave in and ordered Packer paroled as his last official act before leaving office on January 1, 1901.
After his release, Alf Packer worked as a security guard at the offices of the Denver Post. Growing tired of city life and suffering from Bright's Disease (diagnosed in prison), he moved back to Colorado and spent the last years of his life as a mine caretaker. Despite his notoriety, Packer was a favorite with the local children, and he often regaled them with stories about the Old West (they just considered him a "nice old man"). His liver problems worsened, and a state game warden found him unconscious near his home in 1906. He spent the last few months of his life as an invalid, although he wrote a letter to the governor pleading for a full pardon ( which was denied).
Alf Packer died on April 24, 1907. According to one local news story, his last words were, "I am not guilty of the charge." The cause of death was likely stroke-related, although his death certificate listed his condition as "senility - trouble & worry." He is buried in the Prince Avenue cemetery in Littleton, Colorado, at government expense (he was a veteran), and his gravesite has attracted thousands of visitors over the years.
Still, the debate over Packer's guilt dragged on for decades after his death. In 1989, the case became news again when a team of forensic scientists, led by James Starr of George Washington University, unearthed the bodies of Packer's fellow prospectors (their burial site is still known as Cannibalism Plateau in Colorado). After forensic analysis of the bodies, Starr concluded that Packer had lied about killing Bell in self-defense and that Alf Packer was "as guilty as sin and all his sins were mortal ones."
But other forensic analyses soon disputed Starr's conclusions. One determined curator, David Bailey, launched his own project to prove Packer's innocence based on Packer's rusted Colt revolver believed to have been used to kill Shannon Bell in self-defense. In a fantastic feat of forensic science, he matched fragments of a lead bullet found at the death scene to Packer's revolver. Although the research is ongoing, the question of Alf Packer's guilt seems unlikely to be resolved.
In the meantime, Alf Packer has found his way into American folklore. He is an unofficial mascot of the University of Colorado (the student cafeteria was named after him for a time), and his bust is on display in the Colorado state capital building. He's been the subject of several movies, musicals, and a semi-humorous Alferd Packer Society (their motto is "serving our fellow man since 1874"). Lake City, Colorado, has an annual celebration of the Packer story and the local tourism based on Packer's cannibalism tends to be famous (not to mention macabre).
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November 10, 2022
What Influences Social Networks?
In recent years, social networks have become very popular and an integral part of everyday life. People express their feelings and experiences in this virtual environment and become aware of others’ opinions and interests. Among them, influential users play an important role in disseminating information on social networks. Identifying such influencers is important in designing techniques to increase the speed of information dissemination. Such techniques are applicable in various fields including viral marketing, preventing the dissemination of harmful information, providing specialized recommendations, etc. Various approaches have been used to detect influencers on social networks, mostly based on the individual’s position in the network structure and their interactions. Considering the strengths and weaknesses of the previous methods, a study presented in the journal Applied Artificial Intelligence presents a novel method based on the content of the users’ posts without considering the network structure. This is done using a combination of high-level features extracted from images to measure the individual’s influence. Users’ images are investigated from three aspects: (1) color scheme, (2) advertising nature, (3) images’ semantics. To describe each of these aspects, feature extraction methods were used with acceptable accuracy in recognizing influential users. Finally, to achieve greater efficiency and precision, feature-combination methods have been investigated to provide an integrated classifier. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
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November 3, 2022
Polygenic risk for schizophrenia as a moderator of associations between childhood trauma and schizotypy.
Recent evidence shows that genetic and environmental risk factors for psychotic disorders are associated with higher levels of schizotypy (or psychosis proneness) in the general population. However, little is known about how these risk factors interact. A recent article in Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry specifically examined whether genetic loading for schizophrenia moderates the association between childhood trauma severity and schizotypy. Schizotypy was measured using the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ), and childhood trauma severity was measured with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) among a total of 168 participants (comprising 51 healthy individuals, 56 diagnosed with schizophrenia, and 61 with bipolar disorder). Polygenic risk scores (PRS) for schizophrenia were calculated for all participants and examined as a potential moderator of associations between total scores on the CTQ and schizotypy total scores and dimensions (i.e., cognitive-perceptual, interpersonal, disorganised). Multiple linear regression models revealed associations between childhood trauma and all dimensions of schizotypy, but no associations between PRS and schizotypy. A significant interaction between PRS and childhood trauma was evident for the interpersonal and disorganised dimensions of schizotypy, as well as the total score, reflecting positive associations between childhood trauma severity and these two schizotypal dimensions, only for individuals with low or average PRS for schizophrenia. This suggests that trauma may be able to increase risk for psychosis independently of any genetic vulnerability. The present findings are consistent with the idea of several risk pathways for the development of psychotic disorders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
October 30, 2022
The Case of the Corregio Soapmaker
Rome's Museo Criminologico [Criminological Museum] may not be to everybody's taste, but it's worth seeing (alas, it's now closed though, hopefully, that will change in the future). The museum's collection featured photographs and memorabilia from some of the most gruesome forensic cases in the long history of Italy. From Renaissance murders to the Mafia, this museum had it all.
There, I first learned about Leonarda Cianciulli, a.k.a. the "Soap Maker of Correggio," and her bizarre criminal career. While almost unknown outside of Italy, Leonarda's career as a serial killer is still unparalleled in many ways, both for her unique method of concealing bodies and her rather odd motive for murder. 
Born in 1894, she was raised in one of the most poverty-stricken regions of Italy. Her mother, Emilia di Nolfi, had become pregnant due to rape and was later forced to marry her rapist, Mariano Cianciulli when she realized she was pregnant. By most accounts, Leonarda's early childhood was a grim one. Her father died when Leonarda was young, but her mother's later remarriage did little to ease the situation at home. Due to emotional abuse by her mother, she would make two suicide attempts. Leonarda compounded her woes by marrying a man of whom her parents disapproved (they had a more prosperous suitor in mind). She would later claim that her mother had placed a curse on her due to her 1914 marriage to Raffaele Pansardi, and the tragedy she later endured seemed to bear that out.
Along with being imprisoned for fraud and later seeing her house destroyed by an earthquake, she also lost three children in childbirth and another ten as children. Of her seventeen pregnancies, only four survived to adulthood, and she was especially protective of all of them as a result. Despite these troubles, she and her husband eventually settled in the town of Correggio, near Naples, and Leonarda settled into everyday life as a shopkeeper and part-time fortune teller.
A long-time believer in the supernatural, she had once consulted a Gypsy fortuneteller who, among other things, predicted that all of her children would die before her. A different fortuneteller told her that she faced either a future in prison or a criminal asylum though Leonarda seemed not to take that warning seriously. Her neighbors would later describe her as a gentle soul fond of poetry. Nobody suspected what would be coming next.
For Leonarda, everything changed in 1939 when Benito Mussolini began drafting young men to prepare for Italy's entry into World War II. Il Duce's popularity had slipped during the 1930s, and the prospect of Italy entering the war on the side of Nazi Germany alarmed most Italians. Leonarda became mentally unbalanced at the thought of her favorite son, Giuseppe, being drafted and possibly dying in combat. The prospect of losing Giuseppe led to her decision to carry out human sacrifices to preserve her son from death. As she would later state during her testimony, killing others would keep her children safe by providing God with other deaths in their place. Since she had four remaining children, she would need to sacrifice four others to keep them safe.
Her first victim was a 50-year-old spinster named Faustina Setti. Faustina recruited Leonarda as a fortune-teller/matchmaker and paid her 30,000 lire to find a suitable husband. Telling her that she knew of a good marriage prospect in a nearby village, Leonarda persuaded Faustina to write letters and postcards to relatives that she would later post from out of town to reassure them she was okay. She also instructed Faustina not to tell anyone about her marriage plans. When Faustina was to leave Corregio, she visited Leonarda's home for the last time. There, Leonarda gave her drugged wine and chopped her body into nine pieces with a hatchet.
According to the official statement she gave to police afterward: I threw the pieces into a pot, added seven kilos of caustic soda, which I had bought to make soap, and stirred the whole mixture until the pieces dissolved in a thick, dark mush that I poured into several buckets and emptied in a nearby septic tank. As for the blood in the basin, I waited until it had coagulated, dried it in the oven, ground it and mixed it with flour, sugar, chocolate, milk and eggs, as well as a bit of margarine, kneading all the ingredients together. I made lots of crunchy tea cakes and served them to the ladies who came to visit, though Giuseppe and I also ate them.
After pocketing the money Faustina had brought with her, Leonarda selected fellow villager Francesca Soavi as her next victim. After telling Francesca that she had found her a job at a school in Piacenza, Leonarda persuaded her to keep the job offer secret. She also persuaded Francesca to write a series of letters and postcards that would be mailed later. Copying the murder of Faustina Setti almost exactly, Leonarda drugged Francesca and dismembered the corpse with an ax on September 5, 1940. She also pocketed her life savings (only 3,000 lire this time). Once again, no suspicion was attached to her, and Leonarda was free to find another victim.
It was this last victim who would prove to be her undoing. Virginia Cacioppo was a former soprano who had sung opera professionally at La Scala in Milan. She was also wealthier than Leonarda's other victims, with more than 50,000 lire in cash and jewelry. After Leonarda lured Virginia to her house with the promise of finding her a job with a mysterious impresario, she was killed like the other victims. In a last, ghoulish touch, Leonarda added cologne to the soap she made from Virginia's remains to make it more appealing to friends and neighbors.
Virginia Cacioppo's sister-in-law became suspicious and began investigating her disappearance. When she learned that Virginia had last been seen entering Leonarda's shop, she went to the police superintendent. Following an investigation, Leonarda Cianciulli was arrested for murder. She was unusually open with the police and described her crimes and how she disposed of the bodies in ghoulish detail. Since World War 2 was still underway, putting her on trial for the murders was hardly a priority. It was not until 1946 and Italy's defeat that the "Corregio Soap Maker" trial finally began.
And it was quite a trial. Though her son Giuseppe had been arrested as a possible accomplice, he was later freed. Leonarda's detailed confession of the murders, complete with descriptions of what she did with the bodies afterward, generated international publicity. During her testimony, she quickly corrected the prosecutor on any details that she considered inaccurate. At one point, she proudly pointed out that she "gave the copper ladle, which I used to skim the fat off the kettles, to my country, which was so badly in need of metal during the last days of the war. . . ." She also described her reason for the murders, including her desire to help her son with human sacrifice. Whether she truly believed what she had said in court or was hoping to avoid prison through an insanity plea, the graphic details of her crimes attracted a fair amount of public attention in a country still recovering from war.
Found guilty by the court, Leonarda Cianciulli was sentenced to thirty years in prison and three years in a criminal asylum. While in prison, she wrote her memoirs, Le confessioni di un’anima amareggiata (Confessions of a bitter soul). Unrepentant to the last, Leonarda died of cerebral apoplexy (stroke) on October 15, 1970. As she would later insist, "I did not kill for greed," though her reason for killing three people seems as murky as ever. When it was still open, Rome's Criminology Museum contained numerous artifacts from the case, including the pot she used to boil her victims for soap.
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October 27, 2022
Online music-assisted rehabilitation system for depressed people based on deep learning.
The processing of negative emotions is closely related to the occurrence of depression, and improving the mood of patients with depression has an important effect on improving symptoms. An article recently published in Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry applies deep learning to the diagnosis and treatment of depression patients, combined with music-assisted rehabilitation to help depression patients recover. Moreover, this paper strengthens deep learning, combines the psychological characteristics of depression to improve the algorithm, and analyzes the algorithm with music-assisted rehabilitation, and obtains an intelligent algorithm that can be applied to the music-assisted rehabilitation system. Finally, this paper constructs an online music-assisted rehabilitation system for depression based on deep learning. The results of the experimental research show that the online music-assisted rehabilitation system for depression based on deep learning can play an important role in the treatment of depression. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
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