Rats with ventral hippocampal damage are impaired at various forms of learning including conditioned inhibition, spatial navigation, and discriminative fear conditioning to similar contexts.

PubMed

McDonald, Robert J; Balog, R J; Lee, Justin Q; Stuart, Emily E; Carrels, Brianna B; Hong, Nancy S

2018-10-01

The ventral hippocampus (vHPC) has been implicated in learning and memory functions that seem to differ from its dorsal counterpart. The goal of this series of experiments was to provide further insight into the functional contributions of the vHPC. Our previous work implicated the vHPC in spatial learning, inhibitory learning, and fear conditioning to context. However, the specific role of vHPC on these different forms of learning are not clear. Accordingly, we assessed the effects of neurotoxic lesions of the ventral hippocampus on retention of a conditioned inhibitory association, early versus late spatial navigation in the water task, and discriminative fear conditioning to context under high ambiguity conditions. The results showed that the vHPC was necessary for the expression of conditioned inhibition, early spatial learning, and discriminative fear conditioning to context when the paired and unpaired contexts have high cue overlap. We argue that this pattern of effects, combined with previous work, suggests a key role for vHPC in the utilization of broad contextual representations for inhibition and discriminative memory in high ambiguity conditions. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Learning temporal context shapes prestimulus alpha oscillations and improves visual discrimination performance.

PubMed

Toosi, Tahereh; K Tousi, Ehsan; Esteky, Hossein

2017-08-01

Time is an inseparable component of every physical event that we perceive, yet it is not clear how the brain processes time or how the neuronal representation of time affects our perception of events. Here we asked subjects to perform a visual discrimination task while we changed the temporal context in which the stimuli were presented. We collected electroencephalography (EEG) signals in two temporal contexts. In predictable blocks stimuli were presented after a constant delay relative to a visual cue, and in unpredictable blocks stimuli were presented after variable delays relative to the visual cue. Four subsecond delays of 83, 150, 400, and 800 ms were used in the predictable and unpredictable blocks. We observed that predictability modulated the power of prestimulus alpha oscillations in the parieto-occipital sites: alpha power increased in the 300-ms window before stimulus onset in the predictable blocks compared with the unpredictable blocks. This modulation only occurred in the longest delay period, 800 ms, in which predictability also improved the behavioral performance of the subjects. Moreover, learning the temporal context shaped the prestimulus alpha power: modulation of prestimulus alpha power grew during the predictable block and correlated with performance enhancement. These results suggest that the brain is able to learn the subsecond temporal context of stimuli and use this to enhance sensory processing. Furthermore, the neural correlate of this temporal prediction is reflected in the alpha oscillations. NEW & NOTEWORTHY It is not well understood how the uncertainty in the timing of an external event affects its processing, particularly at subsecond scales. Here we demonstrate how a predictable timing scheme improves visual processing. We found that learning the predictable scheme gradually shaped the prestimulus alpha power. These findings indicate that the human brain is able to extract implicit subsecond patterns in the temporal context of

Relation between minimum-error discrimination and optimum unambiguous discrimination

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Qiu Daowen; SQIG-Instituto de Telecomunicacoes, Departamento de Matematica, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, Avenida Rovisco Pais PT-1049-001, Lisbon; Li Lvjun

2010-09-15

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the minimum-error probability Q{sub E} of ambiguous discrimination and the optimal inconclusive probability Q{sub U} of unambiguous discrimination. It is known that for discriminating two states, the inequality Q{sub U{>=}}2Q{sub E} has been proved in the literature. The main technical results are as follows: (1) We show that, for discriminating more than two states, Q{sub U{>=}}2Q{sub E} may not hold again, but the infimum of Q{sub U}/Q{sub E} is 1, and there is no supremum of Q{sub U}/Q{sub E}, which implies that the failure probabilities of the two schemes for discriminating somemore » states may be narrowly or widely gapped. (2) We derive two concrete formulas of the minimum-error probability Q{sub E} and the optimal inconclusive probability Q{sub U}, respectively, for ambiguous discrimination and unambiguous discrimination among arbitrary m simultaneously diagonalizable mixed quantum states with given prior probabilities. In addition, we show that Q{sub E} and Q{sub U} satisfy the relationship that Q{sub U{>=}}(m/m-1)Q{sub E}.« less

Task-Based EFL Language Teaching with Procedural Information Design in a Technical Writing Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roy, Debopriyo

2017-01-01

Task-based language learning (TBLL) has heavily influenced syllabus design, classroom teaching, and learner assessment in a foreign or second language teaching context. In this English as foreign language (EFL) learning environment, the paper discussed an innovative language learning pedagogy based on design education and technical writing. In…

Engagement with genetic discrimination: concerns and experiences in the context of Huntington disease

PubMed Central

Bombard, Yvonne; Penziner, Elizabeth; Suchowersky, Oksana; Guttman, Mark; Paulsen, Jane S; Bottorff, Joan L; Hayden, Michael R

2013-01-01

It has been over 20 years since the inception of predictive testing for Huntington disease (HD), yet the social implications of knowing one's genetic risk for HD have not been fully explored. Genetic discrimination (GD) is a potential risk associated with predictive testing. Although anecdotal reports of GD have been documented, there is a paucity of research on the nature and experiences of GD in the context of HD. The purpose of this study was to describe the concerns and experiences of GD in the HD community. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 45 genetically tested and 10 untested individuals and analyzed using grounded theory methods. Our findings demonstrate that a majority of individuals were concerned about (37/55) and experienced GD (32/55) across a variety of contexts that extend beyond the traditionally examined contexts of insurance and employment to include family, social, government, and health-care domains. We describe a process of engagement with GD in which individuals formed meaningful interpretations of GD and personalized its risk and consequences in their lives. Our findings provide an insight into some of the specific processes and factors influencing engagement with GD. These results help identify areas where more education and support is needed and provide direction to genetic professionals supporting their clients as they confront issues of GD and genetic testing. PMID:17957229

Context modulation of learned attention deployment.

PubMed

Uengoer, Metin; Pearce, John M; Lachnit, Harald; Koenig, Stephan

2018-03-01

In three experiments, we investigated the contextual control of attention in human discrimination learning. In each experiment, participants initially received discrimination training in which the cues from Dimension A were relevant in Context 1 but irrelevant in Context 2, whereas the cues from Dimension B were irrelevant in Context 1 but relevant in Context 2. In Experiment 1, the same cues from each dimension were used in Contexts 1 and 2, whereas in Experiments 2 and 3, the cues from each dimension were changed across contexts. In each experiment, participants were subsequently shifted to a transfer discrimination involving novel cues from either dimension, to assess the contextual control of attention. In Experiment 1, measures of eye gaze during the transfer discrimination revealed that Dimension A received more attention than Dimension B in Context 1, whereas the reverse occurred in Context 2. Corresponding results indicating the contextual control of attention were found in Experiments 2 and 3, in which we used the speed of learning (associability) as an indirect marker of learned attentional changes. Implications of our results for current theories of learning and attention are discussed.

The Anterior Thalamus is Critical for Overcoming Interference in a Context-Dependent Odor Discrimination Task

PubMed Central

Law, L. Matthew; Smith, David M.

2012-01-01

The anterior thalamus (AT) is anatomically interconnected with the hippocampus and other structures known to be involved in memory, and the AT is involved in many of the same learning and memory functions as the hippocampus. For example, like the hippocampus, the AT is involved in spatial cognition and episodic memory. The hippocampus also has a well-documented role in contextual memory processes, but it is not known whether the AT is similarly involved in contextual memory. In the present study, we assessed the role of the AT in contextual memory processes by temporarily inactivating the AT and training rats on a recently developed context-based olfactory list learning task, which was designed to assess the use of contextual information to resolve interference. Rats were trained on one list of odor discrimination problems, followed by training on a second list in either the same context or a different context. In order to induce interference, some of the odors appeared on both lists with their predictive value reversed. Control rats that learned the two lists in different contexts performed significantly better than rats that learned the two lists in the same context. However, AT lesions completely abolished this contextual learning advantage, a result that is very similar to the effects of hippocampal inactivation. These findings demonstrate that the AT, like the hippocampus, is involved in contextual memory and suggest that the hippocampus and AT are part of a functional circuit involved in contextual memory. PMID:23025833

Contextual control of attentional allocation in human discrimination learning.

PubMed

Uengoer, Metin; Lachnit, Harald; Lotz, Anja; Koenig, Stephan; Pearce, John M

2013-01-01

In 3 human predictive learning experiments, we investigated whether the allocation of attention can come under the control of contextual stimuli. In each experiment, participants initially received a conditional discrimination for which one set of cues was trained as relevant in Context 1 and irrelevant in Context 2, and another set was relevant in Context 2 and irrelevant in Context 1. For Experiments 1 and 2, we observed that a second discrimination based on cues that had previously been trained as relevant in Context 1 during the conditional discrimination was acquired more rapidly in Context 1 than in Context 2. Experiment 3 revealed a similar outcome when new stimuli from the original dimensions were used in the test stage. Our results support the view that the associability of a stimulus can be controlled by the stimuli that accompany it.

Contextual Control of Discriminated Operant Behavior

PubMed Central

Bouton, Mark E.; Todd, Travis P.; León, Samuel P.

2014-01-01

Previous research suggests that changing the context after instrumental (operant) conditioning can weaken the strength of the operant response. That result contrasts with the results of studies of Pavlovian conditioning, where a context switch often does not affect the response elicited by a conditioned stimulus. To begin to make the methods more similar, Experiments 1–3 tested the effects of a context switch in rats on a discriminated operant response (R, lever pressing or chain pulling) that had been reinforced only in the presence of a 30-s discriminative stimulus (S, tone or light). As in Pavlovian conditioning, responses and reinforcers became confined to presentations of the S during training. However, in Experiment 1, after training in Context A, a switch to Context B caused a decrement in responding during S. In Experiment 2, a switch to Context B likewise decreased responding in S when Context B was equally familiar, equally associated with reinforcement, or equally associated with the training of a discriminated operant (a different R reinforced in a different S). However, there was no decrement if Context B had been associated with the same response that was trained in Context A (Experiments 2 and 3). The effectiveness of S transferred across contexts, whereas the strength of the response did not. Experiment 4 found that a continuously reinforced response was also disrupted by context change when the same response manipulandum was used in both training and testing. Overall, the results suggest that the context can have a robust general role in the control of operant behavior. Mechanisms of contextual control are discussed. PMID:24000907

Contextual control of discriminated operant behavior.

PubMed

Bouton, Mark E; Todd, Travis P; León, Samuel P

2014-01-01

Previous research has suggested that changing the context after instrumental (operant) conditioning can weaken the strength of the operant response. That result contrasts with the results of studies of Pavlovian conditioning, in which a context switch often does not affect the response elicited by a conditioned stimulus. To begin to make the methods more similar, Experiments 1-3 tested the effects of a context switch in rats on a discriminated operant response (R; lever pressing or chain pulling) that had been reinforced only in the presence of a 30-s discriminative stimulus (S; tone or light). As in Pavlovian conditioning, responses and reinforcers became confined to presentations of the S during training. However, in Experiment 1, after training in Context A, a switch to Context B caused a decrement in responding during S. In Experiment 2, a switch to Context B likewise decreased responding in S when Context B was equally familiar, equally associated with reinforcement, or equally associated with the training of a discriminated operant (a different R reinforced in a different S). However, there was no decrement if Context B had been associated with the same response that was trained in Context A (Experiments 2 and 3). The effectiveness of S transferred across contexts, whereas the strength of the response did not. Experiment 4 found that a continuously reinforced response was also disrupted by context change when the same response manipulandum was used in both training and testing. Overall, the results suggest that the context can have a robust general role in the control of operant behavior. Mechanisms of contextual control are discussed.

Heparan Sulfates Support Pyramidal Cell Excitability, Synaptic Plasticity, and Context Discrimination.

PubMed

Minge, Daniel; Senkov, Oleg; Kaushik, Rahul; Herde, Michel K; Tikhobrazova, Olga; Wulff, Andreas B; Mironov, Andrey; van Kuppevelt, Toin H; Oosterhof, Arie; Kochlamazashvili, Gaga; Dityatev, Alexander; Henneberger, Christian

2017-02-01

Heparan sulfate (HS) proteoglycans represent a major component of the extracellular matrix and are critical for brain development. However, their function in the mature brain remains to be characterized. Here, acute enzymatic digestion of HS side chains was used to uncover how HSs support hippocampal function in vitro and in vivo. We found that long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic transmission at CA3-CA1 Schaffer collateral synapses was impaired after removal of highly sulfated HSs with heparinase 1. This reduction was associated with decreased Ca2+ influx during LTP induction, which was the consequence of a reduced excitability of CA1 pyramidal neurons. At the subcellular level, heparinase treatment resulted in reorganization of the distal axon initial segment, as detected by a reduction in ankyrin G expression. In vivo, digestion of HSs impaired context discrimination in a fear conditioning paradigm and oscillatory network activity in the low theta band after fear conditioning. Thus, HSs maintain neuronal excitability and, as a consequence, support synaptic plasticity and learning. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press.

Heparan Sulfates Support Pyramidal Cell Excitability, Synaptic Plasticity, and Context Discrimination

PubMed Central

Minge, Daniel; Senkov, Oleg; Kaushik, Rahul; Herde, Michel K.; Tikhobrazova, Olga; Wulff, Andreas B.; Mironov, Andrey; van Kuppevelt, Toin H.; Oosterhof, Arie; Kochlamazashvili, Gaga

2017-01-01

Abstract Heparan sulfate (HS) proteoglycans represent a major component of the extracellular matrix and are critical for brain development. However, their function in the mature brain remains to be characterized. Here, acute enzymatic digestion of HS side chains was used to uncover how HSs support hippocampal function in vitro and in vivo. We found that long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic transmission at CA3–CA1 Schaffer collateral synapses was impaired after removal of highly sulfated HSs with heparinase 1. This reduction was associated with decreased Ca2+ influx during LTP induction, which was the consequence of a reduced excitability of CA1 pyramidal neurons. At the subcellular level, heparinase treatment resulted in reorganization of the distal axon initial segment, as detected by a reduction in ankyrin G expression. In vivo, digestion of HSs impaired context discrimination in a fear conditioning paradigm and oscillatory network activity in the low theta band after fear conditioning. Thus, HSs maintain neuronal excitability and, as a consequence, support synaptic plasticity and learning. PMID:28119345

The effects of acute nicotine on contextual safety discrimination.

PubMed

Kutlu, Munir G; Oliver, Chicora; Gould, Thomas J

2014-11-01

Anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), may be related to an inability to distinguish safe versus threatening environments and to extinguish fear memories. Given the high rate of cigarette smoking in patients with PTSD, as well as the recent finding that an acute dose of nicotine impairs extinction of contextual fear memory, we conducted a series of experiments to investigate the effect of acute nicotine in an animal model of contextual safety discrimination. Following saline or nicotine (at 0.0275, 0.045, 0.09 and 0.18 mg/kg) administration, C57BL/6J mice were trained in a contextual discrimination paradigm, in which the subjects received presentations of conditioned stimuli (CS) that co-terminated with a foot-shock in one context (context A (CXA)) and only CS presentations without foot-shock in a different context (context B (CXB)). Therefore, CXA was designated as the 'dangerous context', whereas CXB was designated as the 'safe context'. Our results suggested that saline-treated animals showed a strong discrimination between dangerous and safe contexts, while acute nicotine dose-dependently impaired contextual safety discrimination (Experiment 1). Furthermore, our results demonstrate that nicotine-induced impairment of contextual safety discrimination learning was not a result of increased generalized freezing (Experiment 2) or contingent on the common CS presentations in both contexts (Experiment 3). Finally, our results show that increasing the temporal gap between CXA and CXB during training abolished the impairing effects of nicotine (Experiment 4). The findings of this study may help link nicotine exposure to the safety learning deficits seen in anxiety disorder and PTSD patients. © The Author(s) 2014.

User Situational Context: An Essential Challenge to Context Awareness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mowafi, Yaser Abdallah

2009-01-01

Existing research on context and context awareness has broadly focused on the technical aspects of context acquisition and interpretation of users' surroundings, also called physical or sensor-based context. Such an approach has lacked from reconciling the perception of real-world context exhibited by humans, also known as user context, and…

Does perceived discrimination affect health? Longitudinal relationships between work discrimination and women's physical and emotional health.

PubMed

Pavalko, Eliza K; Mossakowski, Krysia N; Hamilton, Vanessa J

2003-03-01

This study uses longitudinal data to examine the causal relationships between perceived work discrimination and women's physical and emotional health. Using data on 1,778 employed women in the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women, we investigate the structural and individual characteristics that predict later perceptions of discrimination and the effects of those perceptions on subsequent health. We find that perceptions of discrimination are influenced by job attitudes, prior experiences of discrimination, and work contexts, but prior health is not related to later perceptions. However, perceptions of discrimination do impact subsequent health, and these effects remain significant after controlling for prior emotional health, physical health limitations, discrimination, and job characteristics. Overall, the results provide even stronger support for the health impact of workplace discrimination and suggest a need for further longitudinal analyses of causes and consequences of perceived discrimination.

Discrimination and racial disparities in health: evidence and needed research

PubMed Central

Mohammed, Selina A.

2010-01-01

This paper provides a review and critique of empirical research on perceived discrimination and health. The patterns of racial disparities in health suggest that there are multiple ways by which racism can affect health. Perceived discrimination is one such pathway and the paper reviews the published research on discrimination and health that appeared in PubMed between 2005 and 2007. This recent research continues to document an inverse association between discrimination and health. This pattern is now evident in a wider range of contexts and for a broader array of outcomes. Advancing our understanding of the relationship between perceived discrimination and health will require more attention to situating discrimination within the context of other health-relevant aspects of racism, measuring it comprehensively and accurately, assessing its stressful dimensions, and identifying the mechanisms that link discrimination to health. PMID:19030981

Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms Among Latina/o Adolescents of Immigrant Parents.

PubMed

Lopez, William D; LeBrón, Alana M W; Graham, Louis F; Grogan-Kaylor, Andrew

2016-01-01

Discrimination is associated with negative mental health outcomes for Latina/o adolescents. While Latino/a adolescents experience discrimination from a number of sources and across contexts, little research considers how the source of discrimination and the context in which it occurs affect mental health outcomes among Latina/o children of immigrants. We examined the association between source-specific discrimination, racial or ethnic background of the source, and school ethnic context with depressive symptoms for Latina/o adolescents of immigrant parents. Using multilevel linear regression with time-varying covariates, we regressed depressive symptoms on source-specific discrimination, racial or ethnic background of the source of discrimination, and school percent Latina/o. Discrimination from teachers (β = 0.06, p < .05), students (β = 0.05, p < .05), Cubans (β = 0.19, p < .001), and Latinas/os (β = 0.19, p < .001) were positively associated with depressive symptoms. These associations were not moderated by school percent Latina/o. The findings indicate a need to reduce discrimination to improve Latina/o adolescents' mental health. © The Author(s) 2016.

Roles of context in acquisition of human instrumental learning: Implications for the understanding of the mechanisms underlying context-switch effects.

PubMed

Gámez, A Matías; León, Samuel P; Rosas, Juan M

2017-09-01

Four experiments in human instrumental learning explored the associations involving the context that develop after three trials of training on simple discriminations. Experiments 1 and 4 found a deleterious effect of switching the learning context that cannot be explained by the context-outcome binary associations commonly used to explain context-switch effects after short training in human predictive learning and in animal Pavlovian conditioning. Evidence for context-outcome (Experiment 2), context-discriminative stimulus (Experiment 3), and context-instrumental response (Experiment 4) binary associations was found within the same training paradigm, suggesting that contexts became associated with all the elements of the situation, regardless of whether those associations played a role in a specific context-switch effect detected on performance.

Infant discrimination of faces in naturalistic events: actions are more salient than faces.

PubMed

Bahrick, Lorraine E; Newell, Lisa C

2008-07-01

Despite the fact that faces are typically seen in the context of dynamic events, there is little research on infants' perception of moving faces. L. E. Bahrick, L. J. Gogate, and I. Ruiz (2002) demonstrated that 5-month-old infants discriminate and remember repetitive actions but not the faces of the women performing the actions. The present research tested an attentional salience explanation for these findings: that dynamic faces are discriminable to infants, but more salient actions compete for attention. Results demonstrated that 5-month-old infants discriminated faces in the context of actions when they had longer familiarization time (Experiment 1) and following habituation to a single person performing 3 different activities (Experiment 2). Further, 7-month-old infants who have had more experience with social events also discriminated faces in the context of actions. Overall, however, discrimination of actions was more robust and occurred earlier in processing time than discrimination of dynamic faces. These findings support an attentional salience hypothesis and indicate that faces are not special in the context of actions in early infancy.

Mechanisms of renewal after the extinction of discriminated operant behavior.

PubMed

Todd, Travis P; Vurbic, Drina; Bouton, Mark E

2014-07-01

Three experiments demonstrated, and examined the mechanisms that underlie, the renewal of extinguished discriminated operant behavior. In Experiment 1, rats were trained to perform 1 response (lever press or chain pull) in the presence of one discriminative stimulus (S; light or tone) in Context A, and to perform the other response in the presence of the other S in Context B. Next, each of the original S/response combinations was extinguished in the alternate context. When the S/response combinations were tested back in the context in which they had been trained, responding in the presence of S returned (an ABA renewal effect was observed). This renewal could not be due to differential context-reinforcer associations, suggesting instead that the extinction context inhibits either the response and/or the effectiveness of the S. Consistent with the latter mechanism, in Experiment 2, ABA renewal was still observed when both the extinction and renewal contexts inhibited the same response. However, in Experiment 3, previous extinction of the response in the renewing context (occasioned by a different S) reduced AAB renewal more than did extinction of the different response. Taken together, the results suggest at least 2 mechanisms of renewal after instrumental extinction. First, extinction performance is at least partly controlled by a direct inhibitory association that is formed between the context and the response. Second, in the discriminated operant procedure, extinction performance can sometimes be partly controlled by a reduction in the effectiveness of the S in the extinction context. Renewal of discriminated operant behavior can be produced by a release from either of these forms of inhibition.

Discrimination and health inequities.

PubMed

Krieger, Nancy

2014-01-01

In 1999, only 20 studies in the public health literature employed instruments to measure self-reported experiences of discrimination. Fifteen years later, the number of empirical investigations on discrimination and health easily exceeds 500, with these studies increasingly global in scope and focused on major types of discrimination variously involving race/ethnicity, indigenous status, immigrant status, gender, sexuality, disability, and age, separately and in combination. And yet, as I also document, even as the number of investigations has dramatically expanded, the scope remains narrow: studies remain focused primarily on interpersonal discrimination, and scant research investigates the health impacts of structural discrimination, a gap consonant with the limited epidemiologic research on political systems and population health. Accordingly, to help advance the state of the field, this updated review article: (a) briefly reviews definitions of discrimination, illustrated with examples from the United States; (b) discusses theoretical insights useful for conceptualizing how discrimination can become embodied and produce health inequities, including via distortion of scientific knowledge; (c) concisely summarizes extant evidence--both robust and inconsistent--linking discrimination and health; and (d) addresses several key methodological controversies and challenges, including the need for careful attention to domains, pathways, level, and spatiotemporal scale, in historical context.

Systemic lipopolysaccharide administration impairs retrieval of context-object discrimination, but not spatial, memory: Evidence for selective disruption of specific hippocampus-dependent memory functions during acute neuroinflammation

PubMed Central

Czerniawski, Jennifer; Miyashita, Teiko; Lewandowski, Gail; Guzowski, John F.

2014-01-01

Neuroinflammation is implicated in impairments in neuronal function and cognition that arise with aging, trauma, and/or disease. Therefore, understanding the underlying basis of the effect of immune system activation on neural function could lead to therapies for treating cognitive decline. Although neuroinflammation is widely thought to preferentially impair hippocampus-dependent memory, data on the effects of cytokines on cognition are mixed. One possible explanation for these inconsistent results is that cytokines may disrupt specific neural processes underlying some forms of memory but not others. In an earlier study, we tested the effect of systemic administration of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on retrieval of hippocampus-dependent context memory and neural circuit function in CA3 and CA1 (Czerniawski and Guzowski, 2014). Paralleling impairment in context discrimination memory, we observed changes in neural circuit function consistent with disrupted pattern separation function. In the current study we tested the hypothesis that acute neuroinflammation selectively disrupts memory retrieval in tasks requiring hippocampal pattern separation processes. Male Sprague-Dawley rats given LPS systemically prior to testing exhibited intact performance in tasks that do not require hippocampal pattern separation processes: novel object recognition and spatial memory in the water maze. By contrast, memory retrieval in a task thought to require hippocampal pattern separation, context-object discrimination, was strongly impaired in LPS-treated rats in the absence of any gross effects on exploratory activity or motivation. These data show that LPS administration does not impair memory retrieval in all hippocampus-dependent tasks, and support the hypothesis that acute neuroinflammation impairs context discrimination memory via disruption of pattern separation processes in hippocampus. PMID:25451612

Systemic lipopolysaccharide administration impairs retrieval of context-object discrimination, but not spatial, memory: Evidence for selective disruption of specific hippocampus-dependent memory functions during acute neuroinflammation.

PubMed

Czerniawski, Jennifer; Miyashita, Teiko; Lewandowski, Gail; Guzowski, John F

2015-02-01

Neuroinflammation is implicated in impairments in neuronal function and cognition that arise with aging, trauma, and/or disease. Therefore, understanding the underlying basis of the effect of immune system activation on neural function could lead to therapies for treating cognitive decline. Although neuroinflammation is widely thought to preferentially impair hippocampus-dependent memory, data on the effects of cytokines on cognition are mixed. One possible explanation for these inconsistent results is that cytokines may disrupt specific neural processes underlying some forms of memory but not others. In an earlier study, we tested the effect of systemic administration of bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on retrieval of hippocampus-dependent context memory and neural circuit function in CA3 and CA1 (Czerniawski and Guzowski, 2014). Paralleling impairment in context discrimination memory, we observed changes in neural circuit function consistent with disrupted pattern separation function. In the current study we tested the hypothesis that acute neuroinflammation selectively disrupts memory retrieval in tasks requiring hippocampal pattern separation processes. Male Sprague-Dawley rats given LPS systemically prior to testing exhibited intact performance in tasks that do not require hippocampal pattern separation processes: novel object recognition and spatial memory in the water maze. By contrast, memory retrieval in a task thought to require hippocampal pattern separation, context-object discrimination, was strongly impaired in LPS-treated rats in the absence of any gross effects on exploratory activity or motivation. These data show that LPS administration does not impair memory retrieval in all hippocampus-dependent tasks, and support the hypothesis that acute neuroinflammation impairs context discrimination memory via disruption of pattern separation processes in hippocampus. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The antecedents and consequences of racial/ethnic discrimination during adolescence: does the source of discrimination matter?

PubMed

Benner, Aprile D; Graham, Sandra

2013-08-01

In the current study, we examined the precursors and consequences of discrimination for 876 Latino, African American, and Asian American adolescents (Mage = 16.9 years, SD = 0.43). The race/ethnic characteristics of schools and neighborhoods influenced adolescents' perceptions of the race/ethnic climates of these contexts. In turn, adolescents who viewed climates more negatively were more likely to perceive discriminatory treatment by school personnel, peers, and societal institutions. Discrimination from these 3 sources exerted differential influence on developmental outcomes: Greater discrimination from school personnel was associated with poorer academic performance, greater discrimination from peers was associated with more psychological maladjustment, and greater societal discrimination was associated with heightened racial awareness. Relations were consistent across race/ethnic groups and gender. Implications for intervening to reduce racial discrimination and other social stigmas are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

Excitotoxic lesions of the infralimbic, but not prelimbic cortex facilitate reversal of appetitive discriminative context conditioning: the role of the infralimbic cortex in context generalization

PubMed Central

Ashwell, Rachel; Ito, Rutsuko

2014-01-01

The prelimbic and infralimbic regions of the rat medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are important components of the limbic cortico-striatal circuit, receiving converging projections from the hippocampus (HPC) and amygdala. Mounting evidence points to these regions having opposing roles in the regulation of the expression of contextual fear and context-induced cocaine-seeking. To investigate this functional differentiation in motivated behavior further, this study employed a novel radial maze task previously shown to be dependent on the integrity of the hippocampus and its functional connection to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell, to investigate the effects of selective excitotoxic lesions of the prelimbic (PL) and infralimbic (IL) upon the spatial contextual control over reward learning. To this end, rats were trained to develop discriminative responding towards a reward-associated discrete cue presented in three out of six spatial locations (3 arms out of 6 radial maze arms), and to avoid the same discrete cue presented in the other three spatial locations. Once acquired, the reward contingencies of the spatial locations were reversed, such that responding to the cue presented in a previously rewarded location was no longer rewarded. Furthermore, the acquisition of spatial learning was probed separately using conditioned place preference (CPP) and the monitoring of arm selection at the beginning of each training session. Lesions of the PL transiently attenuated the acquisition of the initial cue approach training and spatial learning, while leaving reversal learning intact. In contrast, IL lesions led to a significantly superior performance of spatial context-dependent discriminative cue approach and reversal learning, in the absence of a significant preference for the new reward-associated spatial locations. These results indicate that the PL and IL have functionally dissociative, and potentially opposite roles in the regulation of spatial contextual control over

Modeling phoneme perception. II: A model of stop consonant discrimination.

PubMed

van Hessen, A J; Schouten, M E

1992-10-01

Combining elements from two existing theories of speech sound discrimination, dual process theory (DPT) and trace context theory (TCT), a new theory, called phoneme perception theory, is proposed, consisting of a long-term phoneme memory, a context-coding memory, and a trace memory, each with its own time constants. This theory is tested by means of stop-consonant discrimination data in which interstimulus interval (ISI; values of 100, 300, and 2000 ms) is an important variable. It is shown that discrimination in which labeling plays an important part (2IFC and AX between category) benefits from increased ISI, whereas discrimination in which only sensory traces are compared (AX within category), decreases with increasing ISI. The theory is also tested on speech discrimination data from the literature in which ISI is a variable [Pisoni, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 36, 277-282 (1964); Cowan and Morse, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 79, 500-507 (1986)]. It is concluded that the number of parameters in trace context theory is not sufficient to account for most speech-sound discrimination data and that a few additional assumptions are needed, such as a form of sublabeling, in which subjects encode the quality of a stimulus as a member of a category, and which requires processing time.

AGED DOMINANT NEGATIVE p38α MAPK MICE ARE RESISTANT TO AGE-DEPENDENT DECLINE IN ADULT-NEUROGENESIS AND CONTEXT DISCRIMINATION FEAR CONDITIONING

PubMed Central

Cortez, IbDanelo; Bulavin, Dmitry V.; Wu, Ping; McGrath, Erica L; Cunningham, Kathryn A; Wakamiya, Maki; Papaconstantinou, John; Dineley, Kelly T

2018-01-01

A major aspect of mammalian aging is the decline in functional competence of many self-renewing cell types, including adult-born neuronal precursors. Since age-related senescence of self-renewal occurs simultaneously with chronic up-regulation of the p38MAPKalpha (p38α) signaling pathway, we used the dominant negative mouse model for attenuated p38α activity (DN-p38αAF/+ ) in which Thr180 and Tyr182 are mutated (T→A/Y→F) to prevent phosphorylation activation (DN-p38αAF/+) and kinase activity. As a result, aged DN-p38αAF/+ mice are resistant to age-dependent decline in proliferation and regeneration of several peripheral tissue progenitors when compared to wild-type littermates. Aging is the major risk factor for non-inherited forms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD); environmental and genetic risk factors that accelerate the senescence phenotype are thought to contribute to an individual’s relative risk. In the present study, we evaluated aged DN-p38αAF/+ and wildtype littermates in a series of behavioral paradigms to test if p38α mutant mice exhibit altered baseline abnormalities in neurological reflexes, locomotion, anxiety-like behavior, and age-dependent cognitive decline. While aged DN-p38αAF/+ and wildtype littermates appear equal in all tested baseline neurological and behavioral parameters, DN-p38αAF/+ exhibit superior context discrimination fear conditioning. Context discrimination is a cognitive task that is supported by proliferation and differentiation of adult-born neurons in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Consistent with enhanced context discrimination in aged DN-p38αAF/+, we discovered enhanced production of adult-born neurons in the dentate gyrus of DN-p38αAF/+ mice compared to wildtype littermates. Our findings support the notion that p38α inhibition has therapeutic utility in aging diseases that affect cognition, such as AD. PMID:27765672

Aged dominant negative p38α MAPK mice are resistant to age-dependent decline in adult-neurogenesis and context discrimination fear conditioning.

PubMed

Cortez, IbDanelo; Bulavin, Dmitry V; Wu, Ping; McGrath, Erica L; Cunningham, Kathryn A; Wakamiya, Maki; Papaconstantinou, John; Dineley, Kelly T

2017-03-30

A major aspect of mammalian aging is the decline in functional competence of many self-renewing cell types, including adult-born neuronal precursors. Since age-related senescence of self-renewal occurs simultaneously with chronic up-regulation of the p38MAPKalpha (p38α) signaling pathway, we used the dominant negative mouse model for attenuated p38α activity (DN-p38α AF/+ ) in which Thr180 and Tyr182 are mutated (T→A/Y→F) to prevent phosphorylation activation (DN-p38α AF/+ ) and kinase activity. As a result, aged DN-p38α AF/+ mice are resistant to age-dependent decline in proliferation and regeneration of several peripheral tissue progenitors when compared to wild-type littermates. Aging is the major risk factor for non-inherited forms of Alzheimer's disease (AD); environmental and genetic risk factors that accelerate the senescence phenotype are thought to contribute to an individual's relative risk. In the present study, we evaluated aged DN-p38α AF/+ and wildtype littermates in a series of behavioral paradigms to test if p38α mutant mice exhibit altered baseline abnormalities in neurological reflexes, locomotion, anxiety-like behavior, and age-dependent cognitive decline. While aged DN-p38α AF/+ and wildtype littermates appear equal in all tested baseline neurological and behavioral parameters, DN-p38α AF/+ exhibit superior context discrimination fear conditioning. Context discrimination is a cognitive task that is supported by proliferation and differentiation of adult-born neurons in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Consistent with enhanced context discrimination in aged DN-p38α AF/+ , we discovered enhanced production of adult-born neurons in the dentate gyrus of DN-p38α AF/+ mice compared to wildtype littermates. Our findings support the notion that p38α inhibition has therapeutic utility in aging diseases that affect cognition, such as AD. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The KEEP Phone Discrimination Test. Technical Report No. 64.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Kenneth; And Others

The urban, ethnically Hawaiian child typically experiences great difficulty in learning to read English. In order to determine whether phonological confusion is a source of dialectical interference, the Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP) Phone Discrimination Test (KPDT) was developed for the one hundred twelve students in the KEEP school…

Context-Dependent Modulation of Functional Connectivity: Secondary Somatosensory Cortex to Prefrontal Cortex Connections in Two-Stimulus-Interval Discrimination Tasks

PubMed Central

Chow, Stephanie S.; Romo, Ranulfo; Brody, Carlos D.

2010-01-01

In a complex world, a sensory cue may prompt different actions in different contexts. A laboratory example of context-dependent sensory processing is the two-stimulus-interval discrimination task. In each trial, a first stimulus (f1) must be stored in short-term memory and later compared with a second stimulus (f2), for the animal to come to a binary decision. Prefrontal cortex (PFC) neurons need to interpret the f1 information in one way (perhaps with a positive weight) and the f2 information in an opposite way (perhaps with a negative weight), although they come from the very same secondary somatosensory cortex (S2) neurons; therefore, a functional sign inversion is required. This task thus provides a clear example of context-dependent processing. Here we develop a biologically plausible model of a context-dependent signal transformation of the stimulus encoding from S2 to PFC. To ground our model in experimental neurophysiology, we use neurophysiological data recorded by R. Romo’s laboratory from both cortical area S2 and PFC in monkeys performing the task. Our main goal is to use experimentally observed context-dependent modulations of firing rates in cortical area S2 as the basis for a model that achieves a context-dependent inversion of the sign of S2 to PFC connections. This is done without requiring any changes in connectivity (Salinas, 2004b). We (1) characterize the experimentally observed context-dependent firing rate modulation in area S2, (2) construct a model that results in the sign transformation, and (3) characterize the robustness and consequent biological plausibility of the model. PMID:19494146

Perceived Context of Reception among Recent Hispanic Immigrants: Conceptualization, Instrument Development, and Preliminary Validation

PubMed Central

Schwartz, Seth J.; Unger, Jennifer B.; Lorenzo-Blanco, Elma I.; Des Rosiers, Sabrina E.; Villamar, Juan A.; Soto, Daniel W.; Pattarroyo, Monica; Baezconde-Garbanati, Lourdes; Szapocznik, José

2013-01-01

Context of reception has been discussed widely in the sociological and anthropological literature, but no measures of this construct exist. We designed a measure of perceived context of reception and provide initial support for the factorial validity, internal consistency reliability, and incremental and discriminant validity of scores generated by this measure. A sample of 302 recent-immigrant Hispanic parent-adolescent dyads from Miami and Los Angeles completed the new perceived context of reception measure, as well as measures of perceived discrimination; Hispanic/American cultural practices, values, and identifications; and depressive symptoms. In Phase 1, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses extracted a factor for negative perceived context of reception. A subscale corresponding to this factor was used in Phase 2; for parents and adolescents, negative perceived context of reception and perceived discrimination were differentially associated with acculturation-related variables – suggesting discriminant validity between perceived discrimination and negative perceived context of reception. For adolescents at both sites and for parents in Los Angeles only, the negative perceived context of reception dimensions were significantly associated with depressive symptoms six months later, over and above the contribution made by perceived discrimination – suggesting incremental validity. Results are discussed in terms of perceived context of reception as a new and emerging construct. PMID:24099485

Perceived context of reception among recent Hispanic immigrants: conceptualization, instrument development, and preliminary validation.

PubMed

Schwartz, Seth J; Unger, Jennifer B; Lorenzo-Blanco, Elma I; Des Rosiers, Sabrina E; Villamar, Juan A; Soto, Daniel W; Pattarroyo, Monica; Baezconde-Garbanati, Lourdes; Szapocznik, José

2014-01-01

Context of reception has been discussed widely in the sociological and anthropological literature, but no measures of this construct exist. We designed a measure of perceived context of reception and provide initial support for the factorial validity, internal consistency reliability, and incremental and discriminant validity of scores generated by this measure. A sample of 302 recent-immigrant Hispanic parent-adolescent dyads from Miami and Los Angeles completed the new perceived context of reception measure, as well as measures of perceived discrimination; Hispanic/American cultural practices, values, and identifications; and depressive symptoms. In Phase 1, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses extracted a factor for negative perceived context of reception. A subscale corresponding to this factor was used in Phase 2; for parents and adolescents, negative perceived context of reception and perceived discrimination were differentially associated with acculturation-related variables-suggesting discriminant validity between perceived discrimination and negative perceived context of reception. For adolescents at both sites and for parents in Los Angeles only, the negative perceived context of reception dimensions were significantly associated with depressive symptoms 6 months later, over and above the contribution made by perceived discrimination--suggesting incremental validity. Results are discussed in terms of perceived context of reception as a new and emerging construct.

Context affects nestmate recognition errors in honey bees and stingless bees.

PubMed

Couvillon, Margaret J; Segers, Francisca H I D; Cooper-Bowman, Roseanne; Truslove, Gemma; Nascimento, Daniela L; Nascimento, Fabio S; Ratnieks, Francis L W

2013-08-15

Nestmate recognition studies, where a discriminator first recognises and then behaviourally discriminates (accepts/rejects) another individual, have used a variety of methodologies and contexts. This is potentially problematic because recognition errors in discrimination behaviour are predicted to be context-dependent. Here we compare the recognition decisions (accept/reject) of discriminators in two eusocial bees, Apis mellifera and Tetragonisca angustula, under different contexts. These contexts include natural guards at the hive entrance (control); natural guards held in plastic test arenas away from the hive entrance that vary either in the presence or absence of colony odour or the presence or absence of an additional nestmate discriminator; and, for the honey bee, the inside of the nest. For both honey bee and stingless bee guards, total recognition errors of behavioural discrimination made by guards (% nestmates rejected + % non-nestmates accepted) are much lower at the colony entrance (honey bee: 30.9%; stingless bee: 33.3%) than in the test arenas (honey bee: 60-86%; stingless bee: 61-81%; P<0.001 for both). Within the test arenas, the presence of colony odour specifically reduced the total recognition errors in honey bees, although this reduction still fell short of bringing error levels down to what was found at the colony entrance. Lastly, in honey bees, the data show that the in-nest collective behavioural discrimination by ca. 30 workers that contact an intruder is insufficient to achieve error-free recognition and is not as effective as the discrimination by guards at the entrance. Overall, these data demonstrate that context is a significant factor in a discriminators' ability to make appropriate recognition decisions, and should be considered when designing recognition study methodologies.

Context Matters: Links between Neighborhood Discrimination, Neighborhood Cohesion and African American Adolescents' Adjustment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riina, Elizabeth M.; Martin, Anne; Gardner, Margo; Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne

2013-01-01

Racial discrimination has serious negative consequences for the adjustment of African American adolescents. Taking an ecological approach, this study examined the linkages between perceived racial discrimination within and outside of the neighborhood and urban adolescents' externalizing and internalizing behaviors, and tested whether neighborhood…

New developments in the law for obesity discrimination protection.

PubMed

Pomeranz, Jennifer L; Puhl, Rebecca M

2013-03-01

Obese individuals are frequent targets of weight-based discrimination, particularly in the employment setting. Victims of weight discrimination have sought legal restitution like others who have suffered from different forms of discrimination. However, in the vast majority of the United States, body weight is not a protected class and weight-based employment discrimination does not provide a basis for a legal claim. Some have attempted to seek legal recourse under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 or the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (collectively, the ADA), which protect against discrimination based on mental or physical disabilities in a variety of settings. Until recently, claims of weight discrimination under the ADA have also been largely unsuccessful. However, Congress recently passed the ADA Amendments Act, expanding the definition of what constitutes a disability and incorporating a broad view of ADA's coverage. This short communication provides an update of the law as it relates to employment based discrimination of obese people. The authors propose a legislative direction for future legal recourse. The authors conducted legal research into the ADA Amendments Act, and synthesized this work relating to discrimination against weight in the employment context. In light of the ADA Amendments Act, courts and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have provided protection for severely obese people from discrimination based on actual or perceived disability in the employment context. The authors discuss this positive legal development and additionally propose a targeted solution to address weight discrimination in the employment setting. National polling suggests there is considerable public support for such a measure. The authors thus recommend the implementation of a "Weight Discrimination in Employment Act" modeled after the Age Discrimination in Employment Act to adequately address this pervasive and damaging injustice toward individuals who are

Discrimination in a General Algebraic Setting

PubMed Central

Fine, Benjamin; Lipschutz, Seymour; Spellman, Dennis

2015-01-01

Discriminating groups were introduced by G. Baumslag, A. Myasnikov, and V. Remeslennikov as an outgrowth of their theory of algebraic geometry over groups. Algebraic geometry over groups became the main method of attack on the solution of the celebrated Tarski conjectures. In this paper we explore the notion of discrimination in a general universal algebra context. As an application we provide a different proof of a theorem of Malcev on axiomatic classes of Ω-algebras. PMID:26171421

Acquisition of Social Referencing via Discrimination Training in Infants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pelaez, Martha; Virues-Ortega, Javier; Gewirtz, Jacob L.

2012-01-01

This experiment investigated social referencing as a form of discriminative learning in which maternal facial expressions signaled the consequences of the infant's behavior in an ambiguous context. Eleven 4- and 5-month-old infants and their mothers participated in a discrimination-training procedure using an ABAB design. Different consequences…

Dynamic context discrimination : psychological evidence for the Sandia Cognitive Framework.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Speed, Ann Elizabeth

Human behavior is a function of an iterative interaction between the stimulus environment and past experience. It is not simply a matter of the current stimulus environment activating the appropriate experience or rule from memory (e.g., if it is dark and I hear a strange noise outside, then I turn on the outside lights and investigate). Rather, it is a dynamic process that takes into account not only things one would generally do in a given situation, but things that have recently become known (e.g., there have recently been coyotes seen in the area and one is known to bemore » rabid), as well as other immediate environmental characteristics (e.g., it is snowing outside, I know my dog is outside, I know the police are already outside, etc.). All of these factors combine to inform me of the most appropriate behavior for the situation. If it were the case that humans had a rule for every possible contingency, the amount of storage that would be required to enable us to fluidly deal with most situations we encounter would rapidly become biologically untenable. We can all deal with contingencies like the one above with fairly little effort, but if it isn't based on rules, what is it based on? The assertion of the Cognitive Systems program at Sandia for the past 5 years is that at the heart of this ability to effectively navigate the world is an ability to discriminate between different contexts (i.e., Dynamic Context Discrimination, or DCD). While this assertion in and of itself might not seem earthshaking, it is compelling that this ability and its components show up in a wide variety of paradigms across different subdisciplines in psychology. We begin by outlining, at a high functional level, the basic ideas of DCD. We then provide evidence from several different literatures and paradigms that support our assertion that DCD is a core aspect of cognitive functioning. Finally, we discuss DCD and the computational model that we have developed as an instantiation of

Discrimination between cocaine-associated context and cue in a modified conditioned place preference paradigm: role of the nNOS gene in cue conditioning.

PubMed

Itzhak, Yossef; Roger-Sánchez, Concepción; Kelley, Jonathan B; Anderson, Karen L

2010-03-01

The conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm entails appetitive learning and is utilized to investigate the motivational effects of drug and natural reward in rodents. However, a typical CPP design does not allow dissociation between cue- and context-dependent appetitive learning. In humans, context and cues that had been associated with drug reward can elicit conditioned response and drug craving. Therefore, we investigated (a) methods by which to discriminate between cue- and context-dependent appetitive learning, and (b) the role of the neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) gene in appetitive learning. Wild-type (WT) and nNOS knockout (KO) mice were trained by cocaine (20 mg/kg) in a discrete context paired with a light cue (a compound context-cue stimulus). In test 1, approach behaviour to either the training context or to the cue in a novel context was determined. WT mice showed robust preference for both cocaine-associated context and cue. nNOS KO mice acquired approach behaviour for the cocaine-associated context but not cue. This finding suggests that the nNOS gene is required for cue-dependent appetitive learning. On the following day (test 2), mice were tested for approach behaviour to the compound context-cue stimulus. Context but not cue exposure in test 1 reduced approach behaviour to the compound context-cue stimulus in test 2, suggesting that repeated context but not cue exposures diminished the conditioned response. Hence, this modified CPP paradigm is useful for the investigation of approach behaviour for both drug-associated context and cue, and allows further investigation of mechanisms underlying cue- and context-dependent appetitive learning.

[Stigma, discrimination and HIV/AIDS in the Brazilian context, 1998 and 2005].

PubMed

Garcia, Sandra; Koyama, Mitti Ayako Hara

2008-06-01

To identify discriminatory attitudes in two moments of the Brazilian HIV/AIDS epidemic, as well as the occurrence of possible changes. The Intention of Discrimination Index was obtained by scoring 1 for discriminatory situations or 0, when the opposite was the case. Intention of discrimination ranges were established by means of the clustering technique, and made compatible between the 1998 and 2005 surveys. Mean comparisons, chi-square test and ordered logit adjusted regression models were used to verify association between the index and socio-demographic variables. Between the 1998 and 2005 surveys, there was a statistically significant reduction in the proportion of people who answered "yes" to anti-HIV test's being mandatory in the following cases: admission for employment, before getting married, when joining the military service, drug users, foreigners entering the country, sex professionals, and for all the people. To have lower level of education, to be female, to live in the North/Northeast regions of Brazil, and to be aged over 45 years are factors associated with higher intention of discrimination level. The growth of intention of discrimination shows that information about ways of AIDS transmission and non-transmission still needs to be better planned and promoted, especially among populations that have lower level of education, live in the North/Northeast regions, are female and aged over 45 years.

Technical parameters for specifying imagery requirements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Coan, Paul P.; Dunnette, Sheri J.

1994-01-01

Providing visual information acquired from remote events to various operators, researchers, and practitioners has become progressively more important as the application of special skills in alien or hazardous situations increases. To provide an understanding of the technical parameters required to specify imagery, we have identified, defined, and discussed seven salient characteristics of images: spatial resolution, linearity, luminance resolution, spectral discrimination, temporal discrimination, edge definition, and signal-to-noise ratio. We then describe a generalizing imaging system and identified how various parts of the system affect the image data. To emphasize the different applications of imagery, we have constrasted the common television system with the significant parameters of a televisual imaging system for technical applications. Finally, we have established a method by which the required visual information can be specified by describing certain technical parameters which are directly related to the information content of the imagery. This method requires the user to complete a form listing all pertinent data requirements for the imagery.

Disturbance by optimal discrimination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawakubo, Ryûitirô; Koike, Tatsuhiko

2018-03-01

We discuss the disturbance by measurements which unambiguously discriminate between given candidate states. We prove that such an optimal measurement necessarily changes distinguishable states indistinguishable when the inconclusive outcome is obtained. The result was previously shown by Chefles [Phys. Lett. A 239, 339 (1998), 10.1016/S0375-9601(98)00064-4] under restrictions on the class of quantum measurements and on the definition of optimality. Our theorems remove these restrictions and are also applicable to infinitely many candidate states. Combining with our previous results, one can obtain concrete mathematical conditions for the resulting states. The method may have a wide variety of applications in contexts other than state discrimination.

Context-aware brain-computer interfaces: exploring the information space of user, technical system and environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zander, T. O.; Jatzev, S.

2012-02-01

Brain-computer interface (BCI) systems are usually applied in highly controlled environments such as research laboratories or clinical setups. However, many BCI-based applications are implemented in more complex environments. For example, patients might want to use a BCI system at home, and users without disabilities could benefit from BCI systems in special working environments. In these contexts, it might be more difficult to reliably infer information about brain activity, because many intervening factors add up and disturb the BCI feature space. One solution for this problem would be adding context awareness to the system. We propose to augment the available information space with additional channels carrying information about the user state, the environment and the technical system. In particular, passive BCI systems seem to be capable of adding highly relevant context information—otherwise covert aspects of user state. In this paper, we present a theoretical framework based on general human-machine system research for adding context awareness to a BCI system. Building on that, we present results from a study on a passive BCI, which allows access to the covert aspect of user state related to the perceived loss of control. This study is a proof of concept and demonstrates that context awareness could beneficially be implemented in and combined with a BCI system or a general human-machine system. The EEG data from this experiment are available for public download at www.phypa.org. Parts of this work have already been presented in non-journal publications. This will be indicated specifically by appropriate references in the text.

Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Adolescents' Well-Being: The Role of Cross-Ethnic Friendships and Friends' Experiences of Discrimination.

PubMed

Benner, Aprile D; Wang, Yijie

2017-03-01

There is an extensive body of work documenting the negative socioemotional and academic consequences of perceiving racial/ethnic discrimination during adolescence, but little is known about how the larger peer context conditions such effects. Using peer network data from 252 eighth graders (85% Latino, 11% African American, 5% other race/ethnicity), the present study examined the moderating role of cross-ethnic friendships and close friends' experiences of discrimination in the link between adolescents' perceptions of discrimination and well-being. Cross-ethnic friendships and friends' experiences of discrimination generally served a protective role, buffering the negative effects of discrimination on both socioemotional well-being and school outcomes. Overall, results highlight the importance of considering racial/ethnic-related aspects of adolescents' friendships when studying interpersonal processes closely tied to race/ethnicity. © 2016 The Authors. Child Development © 2016 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Social identity change in response to discrimination.

PubMed

Perozzo, Cristina; de la Sablonnière, Roxane; Auger, Emilie; Caron-Diotte, Mathieu

2016-09-01

This study investigated the conditions under which discrimination can lead to social identity changes among members of a minority group. Both positive and negative relations between perceptions of discrimination and social identity have previously been reported. To explain the conflicting results and understand the complex reality of members of stigmatized groups, we argue that group-based emotions (e.g., group-based dissatisfaction) and ambiguity of discrimination cues (i.e., overt vs. ambiguous) need to be considered. We hypothesized that perceptions of discrimination would play a moderating role between group-based dissatisfaction and social identity change in a context of ambiguous, but not of overt, discrimination. The sample was comprised of 151 Arab Muslims living in the province of Quebec. Participants read fictitious newspaper articles portraying either overt (n = 76) or ambiguous (n = 75) discrimination towards in-group members. Results revealed that for participants in the overt discrimination condition, only group-based dissatisfaction was positively associated with social identity change. In contrast, for the participants in the ambiguous discrimination condition, those who perceived little discrimination and felt low group-based dissatisfaction reported a decrease in social identity. However, those who perceived low group discrimination and felt high group-based dissatisfaction reported a positive social identity change. © 2016 The British Psychological Society.

Operational Context Training in Individual Technical Skills.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoehn, Arthur J.; And Others

Four papers were presented at a conference dealing with the objectives and problems of operational context training (OCT) sponsored by HumRRO in June 1958. The first paper (by William McCleland) outlines the objectives of the conference and its general goals. The second paper (by Arthur J. Hoehn) describes the use of operational context training…

Sex Discrimination in Simulated Employment Contexts: A Meta-analytic Investigation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davison, Heather K.; Burke, Michael J.

2000-01-01

The hypothesis that applicant and rater sex, job sex-type, and job-relevant information would affect discrimination against applicants was tested in simulations. Both sexes received lower ratings when applying for opposite-sex-typed jobs. Both male and female raters rated male applicants higher. Differences between male and female ratings…

Reflections on discrimination and health in India.

PubMed

Srivatsan, R

2015-01-01

This is a speculative paper on the structure of caste-based discrimination in India. It sketches the field by a) proposing four empirical and historical examples of discrimination in different medical situations; b) suggesting an analytical framework composed of domain, register, temporality and intensity of discrimination; c) proposing that in the Indian historical context, discrimination masks itself, hiding its character behind the veneer of secular ideas; d) arguing that discrimination is not some unfortunate residue of backwardness in modern society that will go away, but is the force of social hierarchy transforming itself into a fully modern capitalist culture. The paper then arrives at the understanding that discrimination is pandemic across India. The conclusion suggests that in India today, we need proposals, hypotheses and arguments that help us establish the ethical framework for meaningful empirical research that sociological studies of medical ethics and the epidemiology of discrimination can pursue. Its method is that of logical and speculative argument based on experience, with examples of different forms of discrimination to clarify the point being made. No specific research was undertaken for this purpose since the paper is not empirically based.

Associations of racial discrimination and parental discrimination coping messages with African American adolescent racial identity.

PubMed

Richardson, Bridget L; Macon, Tamarie A; Mustafaa, Faheemah N; Bogan, Erin D; Cole-Lewis, Yasmin; Chavous, Tabbye M

2015-06-01

Research links racial identity to important developmental outcomes among African American adolescents, but less is known about the contextual experiences that shape youths' racial identity. In a sample of 491 African American adolescents (48% female), associations of youth-reported experiences of racial discrimination and parental messages about preparation for racial bias with adolescents' later racial identity were examined. Cluster analysis resulted in four profiles of adolescents varying in reported frequency of racial discrimination from teachers and peers at school and frequency of parental racial discrimination coping messages during adolescents' 8th grade year. Boys were disproportionately over-represented in the cluster of youth experiencing more frequent discrimination but receiving fewer parental discrimination coping messages, relative to the overall sample. Also examined were clusters of adolescents' 11th grade racial identity attitudes about the importance of race (centrality), personal group affect (private regard), and perceptions of societal beliefs about African Americans (public regard). Girls and boys did not differ in their representation in racial identity clusters, but 8th grade discrimination/parent messages clusters were associated with 11th grade racial identity cluster membership, and these associations varied across gender groups. Boys experiencing more frequent discrimination but fewer parental coping messages were over-represented in the racial identity cluster characterized by low centrality, low private regard, and average public regard. The findings suggest that adolescents who experience racial discrimination but receive fewer parental supports for negotiating and coping with discrimination may be at heightened risk for internalizing stigmatizing experiences. Also, the findings suggest the need to consider the context of gender in adolescents' racial discrimination and parental racial socialization.

Discrimination and Depression among Urban Hispanics with Poorly Controlled Diabetes

PubMed Central

March, Dana; Williams, Jasmine; Wells, Shayla; Eimicke, Joseph P.; Teresi, Jeanne A.; Almonte, Casandra; Link, Bruce G.; Findley, Sally E.; Palmas, Walter; Carrasquillo, Olveen; Luchsinger, José A.

2017-01-01

Objectives We had three objectives for our study: 1) to describe the prevalence and burden of experiences of discrimination among Hispanics with poorly controlled diabetes; 2) to evaluate associations among discrimination experiences and their burden with comorbid depression among Hispanics with poorly controlled diabetes; and 3) to evaluate whether discrimination encountered in the health care context itself was associated with comorbid depression for Hispanic adults with diabetes. Design We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data of a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Setting We collected data in the context of an RCT in a clinical setting in New York City. Participants Our sample comprised 221 urban-dwelling Hispanics, largely of Caribbean origin. Main Outcome Measures The main outcome measure was major depression, measured by the Euro-D (score>3). Results Of 221 participants, 58.8% reported at least one experience of everyday discrimination, and 42.5% reported at least one major experience of discrimination. Depression was associated significantly with counts of experiences of major discrimination (OR=1.46, 95% CI=1.09-1.94, P=.01), aggregate counts of everyday and major discrimination (OR=1.13, 95%CI=1.02-1.26, P=.02),andtheexperienceofdiscrimination in getting care for physical health (OR=6.30, 95%CI=1.10-36.03). Conclusions Discrimination may pose a barrier to getting health care and may be associated with depression among Hispanics with diabetes. Clinicians treating Caribbean-born Hispanics should be aware that disadvantage and discrimination likely complicate a presentation of diabetes. PMID:26118138

Kin discrimination within honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies: An analysis of the evidence.

PubMed

Breed, M D; Welch, C K; Cruz, R

1994-12-01

Compelling evolutionary arguments lead to the prediction that honey bee workers should discriminate between supersisters and half-sisters within colonies. We review the theoretical support for discrimination during swarming, queen rearing, feeding, and grooming. A survey of the data that tests whether such discrimination takes place shows that, despite substantial effort in a number of laboratories, there is no conclusive evidence for intracolony discrimination in any of the postulated contexts. The strongest suggestive data is in the critical context of queen rearing, but flaws in experimental design or analysis make the best available tests inconclusive. We present new data that shows that cues exist on which discriminations can be made among adult workers in nestmate recognition interactions and in feeding interactions, but our data does not differentiate between subfamily recognition and recognition associated with color phenotypes. We conclude that while selection may favor discrimination between supersisters and half-sisters, as a practical matter such discriminations play no role, or only a minor role, in the biology of the honey bee. Copyright © 1994. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Artwork as Technics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Mark

2016-01-01

"Artwork as technics" opens discussion on activating aesthetics in educational contexts by arguing that we require some fundamental revision in understanding relations between aesthetics and technology in contexts where education is primarily encountered instrumentally and technologically. The paper addresses this through the writing of…

Psychoacoustic Assessment of Speech Communication Systems. The Diagnostic Discrimination Test.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grether, Craig Blaine

The present report traces the rationale, development and experimental evaluation of the Diagnostic Discrimination Test (DDT). The DDT is a three-choice test of consonant discriminability of the perceptual/acoustic dimensions of consonant phonemes within specific vowel contexts. The DDT was created and developed in an attempt to provide a…

Further Examination of Discriminated Functional Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leon, Yanerys; Hausman, Nicole L.; Kahng, SungWoo; Becraft, Jessica L.

2010-01-01

One child with developmental disabilities was taught to mand for attention by saying "excuse me." Treatment effects were extended to multiple training contexts by teaching the participant to attend to naturally occurring discriminative stimuli through differential reinforcement of communication during periods of the experimenter's nonbusy…

Discrimination, ethnic identity, and academic outcomes of Mexican immigrant children: the importance of school context.

PubMed

Brown, Christia Spears; Chu, Hui

2012-01-01

This study examined ethnic identity, perceptions of discrimination, and academic attitudes and performance of primarily first- and second-generation Mexican immigrant children living in a predominantly White community (N=204, 19 schools, mean age=9years). The study also examined schools' promotion of multiculturalism and teachers' attitudes about the value of diversity in predicting immigrant youth's attitudes and experiences. Results indicated that Latino immigrant children in this White community held positive and important ethnic identities and perceived low overall rates of discrimination. As expected, however, school and teacher characteristics were important in predicting children's perceptions of discrimination and ethnic identity, and moderated whether perceptions of discrimination and ethnic identity were related to attitudes about school and academic performance. © 2012 The Authors. Child Development © 2012 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Measuring the effect of ethnic and non-ethnic discrimination on Europeans' self-rated health.

PubMed

Alvarez-Galvez, Javier

2016-04-01

The study of perceived discrimination based on race and ethnic traits belongs to a long-held tradition in this field, but recent studies have found that non-ethnic discrimination based on factors such as gender, disability or age is also a crucial predictor of health outcomes. Using data from the European Social Survey (2010), and applying Boolean Factor Analysis and Ordered Logistic Regression models, this study is aimed to compare how ethnic and non-ethnic types of discrimination might affect self-rated health in the European context. We found that non-ethnic types of discrimination produce stronger differences on health outcomes. This result indicates that the probabilities of presenting a poor state of health are significantly higher when individuals feel they are being discriminated against for social or demographic conditions (gender, age, sexuality or disability) rather than for ethnic reasons (nationality, race, ethnicity, language or religiosity). This study offers a clear comparison of health inequalities based on ethnic and non-ethnic types of discrimination in the European context, overcoming analytical based on binary indicators and simple measures of discrimination.

Cumulative trauma, gender discrimination and mental health in women: mediating role of self-esteem.

PubMed

Kucharska, Justyna

2017-12-20

Evidence suggests that women show symptoms of trauma-related symptoms more often than men. Gender discrimination is also associated with the severity of symptoms in women. This study explored the relations among cumulative trauma, gender discrimination and mental health in women with a mediating role of self-esteem and emotion regulation. Two types of gender discrimination were taken into account: discrimination by parents and in the social context. Cumulative trauma over the lifetime was assessed, as well as three types of symptoms: internalising, externalising, psychoticism. A total of 277 females from Poland participated in the study. It was hypothesised that gender discrimination and cumulative trauma would be positively related to symptoms and that lowered self-esteem mediates these relations. Hypotheses received partial confirmation, as both gender discrimination and cumulative trauma have been shown to be related to three types of symptoms. Self-esteem was a partial mediator between gender discrimination in the social context and symptoms. It was also demonstrated that emotion suppression is a partial mediator between cumulative trauma and symptoms. It has been demonstrated that socio-cultural factors, such as gender discrimination, play an important role in psychiatric symptoms development.

Introduction to multivariate discrimination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kégl, Balázs

2013-07-01

Multivariate discrimination or classification is one of the best-studied problem in machine learning, with a plethora of well-tested and well-performing algorithms. There are also several good general textbooks [1-9] on the subject written to an average engineering, computer science, or statistics graduate student; most of them are also accessible for an average physics student with some background on computer science and statistics. Hence, instead of writing a generic introduction, we concentrate here on relating the subject to a practitioner experimental physicist. After a short introduction on the basic setup (Section 1) we delve into the practical issues of complexity regularization, model selection, and hyperparameter optimization (Section 2), since it is this step that makes high-complexity non-parametric fitting so different from low-dimensional parametric fitting. To emphasize that this issue is not restricted to classification, we illustrate the concept on a low-dimensional but non-parametric regression example (Section 2.1). Section 3 describes the common algorithmic-statistical formal framework that unifies the main families of multivariate classification algorithms. We explain here the large-margin principle that partly explains why these algorithms work. Section 4 is devoted to the description of the three main (families of) classification algorithms, neural networks, the support vector machine, and AdaBoost. We do not go into the algorithmic details; the goal is to give an overview on the form of the functions these methods learn and on the objective functions they optimize. Besides their technical description, we also make an attempt to put these algorithm into a socio-historical context. We then briefly describe some rather heterogeneous applications to illustrate the pattern recognition pipeline and to show how widespread the use of these methods is (Section 5). We conclude the chapter with three essentially open research problems that are either

Context effects in a temporal discrimination task" further tests of the Scalar Expectancy Theory and Learning-to-Time models.

PubMed

Arantes, Joana; Machado, Armando

2008-07-01

Pigeons were trained on two temporal bisection tasks, which alternated every two sessions. In the first task, they learned to choose a red key after a 1-s signal and a green key after a 4-s signal; in the second task, they learned to choose a blue key after a 4-s signal and a yellow key after a 16-s signal. Then the pigeons were exposed to a series of test trials in order to contrast two timing models, Learning-to-Time (LeT) and Scalar Expectancy Theory (SET). The models made substantially different predictions particularly for the test trials in which the sample duration ranged from 1 s to 16 s and the choice keys were Green and Blue, the keys associated with the same 4-s samples: LeT predicted that preference for Green should increase with sample duration, a context effect, but SET predicted that preference for Green should not vary with sample duration. The results were consistent with LeT. The present study adds to the literature the finding that the context effect occurs even when the two basic discriminations are never combined in the same session.

Context-Dependent Duration Signals in the Primate Prefrontal Cortex

PubMed Central

Genovesio, Aldo; Seitz, Lucia K.; Tsujimoto, Satoshi; Wise, Steven P.

2016-01-01

The activity of some prefrontal (PF) cortex neurons distinguishes short from long time intervals. Here, we examined whether this property reflected a general timing mechanism or one dependent on behavioral context. In one task, monkeys discriminated the relative duration of 2 stimuli; in the other, they discriminated the relative distance of 2 stimuli from a fixed reference point. Both tasks had a pre-cue period (interval 1) and a delay period (interval 2) with no discriminant stimulus. Interval 1 elapsed before the presentation of the first discriminant stimulus, and interval 2 began after that stimulus. Both intervals had durations of either 400 or 800 ms. Most PF neurons distinguished short from long durations in one task or interval, but not in the others. When neurons did signal something about duration for both intervals, they did so in an uncorrelated or weakly correlated manner. These results demonstrate a high degree of context dependency in PF time processing. The PF, therefore, does not appear to signal durations abstractedly, as would be expected of a general temporal encoder, but instead does so in a highly context-dependent manner, both within and between tasks. PMID:26209845

Health state after treatment: a reason for discrimination?

PubMed

Abellan-Perpiñan, J M; Pinto-Prades, J L

1999-12-01

In this paper the issue of discrimination between patients based on the health improvement that each can achieve is addressed. Previous research in this area by Nord has shown that, in this context, society's preferences may be quite opposite to the principle of health maximization present in cost utility analysis. Using a different experimental design from that used by Nord, some results are achieved which suggest that social preferences may be somewhere in between two opposite extremes, which are that discrimination based on the degree of health improvement is never acceptable and that discrimination based on the degree of health improvement is always acceptable. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Scientific and Technical English.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vaclavik, Jaroslav

Technical English differs from everyday English because of the specialized contexts in which it is used and because of the specialized interests of scientists and engineers. This text provides exercises in technical and scientific exposition in the following fields: mathematics, physics, temperature effects, mechanics, dynamics, conservation of…

Denny's: Communicating Amidst a Discrimination Case.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chin, Teresa; Naidu, Sharmila; Ringel, Jonathan; Snipes, Wayne; DeSilva, Jean; Bienvenu, Sherron Kenton

1998-01-01

Presents a case study for use in business communication classes to help students understand and learn both the context and the strategies for communication with business and management. Looks at communication strategies employed by Denny's during its crisis caused by charges of racial discrimination. Includes actual communications instrumental in…

The Antecedents and Consequences of Racial/Ethnic Discrimination during Adolescence: Does the Source of Discrimination Matter?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benner, Aprile D.; Graham, Sandra

2013-01-01

In the current study, we examined the precursors and consequences of discrimination for 876 Latino, African American, and Asian American adolescents (M[subscript age] = 16.9 years, SD = 0.43). The race/ethnic characteristics of schools and neighborhoods influenced adolescents' perceptions of the race/ethnic climates of these contexts. In turn,…

R-Ras contributes to LTP and contextual discrimination.

PubMed

Darcy, M J; Jin, S-X; Feig, L A

2014-09-26

The ability to discriminate between closely related contexts is a specific form of hippocampal-dependent learning that may be impaired in certain neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Down Syndrome. However, signaling pathways regulating this form of learning are poorly understood. Previous studies have shown that the calcium-dependent exchange factor Ras-GRF1, an activator of Rac, Ras and R-Ras GTPases, is important for this form of learning and memory. Moreover, the ability to discriminate contexts was linked to the ability of Ras-GRF1 to promote high-frequency stimulation long-term potentiation (HFS-LTP) via the activation of p38 Map kinase. Here, we show that R-Ras is involved in this form of learning by using virally-delivered miRNAs targeting R-Ras into the CA1 region of the dorsal hippocampus and observing impaired contextual discrimination. Like the loss of GRF1, knockdown of R-Ras in the CA1 also impairs the induction of HFS-LTP and p38 Map kinase. Nevertheless, experiments indicate that this involvement of R-Ras in HFS-LTP that is required for contextual discrimination is independent of Ras-GRF1. Thus, R-Ras is a novel regulator of a form of hippocampal-dependent LTP as well as learning and memory that is affected in certain forms of neurodegenerative diseases. Copyright © 2014 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

R-Ras Contributes to LTP and Contextual Discrimination

PubMed Central

Darcy, Michael J.; Jin, Shan-Xue; Feig, Larry A.

2014-01-01

The ability to discriminate between closely related contexts is a specific form of hippocampal-dependent learning that may be impaired in certain neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Down Syndrome. However, signaling pathways regulating this form of learning are poorly understood. Previous studies have shown that the calcium-dependent exchange factor Ras-GRF1, an activator of Rac, Ras and R-Ras GTPases, is important for this form of learning and memory. Moreover, the ability to discriminate contexts was linked to the ability of Ras-GRF1 to promote high-frequency stimulation (HFS)-LTP via the activation of p38 Map kinase. Here, we show that R-Ras is involved in this form of learning by using virally-delivered miRNAs targeting R-Ras into the CA1 region of dorsal hippocampus and observing impaired contextual discrimination. Like the loss of GRF1, knockdown of R-Ras in the CA1 also impairs the induction of HFS-LTP and p38 Map kinase. Nevertheless, experiments indicate that this involvement of R-Ras in HFS-LTP that is required for contextual discrimination is independent of Ras-GRF1. Thus, R-Ras is a novel regulator of a form of hippocampal-dependent LTP as well as learning and memory that is affected in certain forms of neurodegenerative diseases. PMID:25043327

Future directions in research on institutional and interpersonal discrimination and children's health.

PubMed

Acevedo-Garcia, Dolores; Rosenfeld, Lindsay E; Hardy, Erin; McArdle, Nancy; Osypuk, Theresa L

2013-10-01

Research evidence indicates that 2 forms of racial discrimination-perceived interpersonal discrimination and racial/ethnic residential segregation (a form of institutional discrimination)-may influence children's health and disparities. Although research on these 2 forms of discrimination and health has primarily focused on adults, smaller bodies of work have documented that perceived interpersonal discrimination and segregation have a negative effect on infants' health, and that perceived interpersonal discrimination may negatively affect children's mental health. Three directions for research are (1) incorporating a life-course perspective into studies of discrimination and children's health, (2) linking residential segregation with geography-of-opportunity conceptual frameworks and measures, and (3) considering residential segregation along with segregation in other contexts that influence children's health (e.g., schools).

Social Support as a Buffer Between Discrimination and Cigarette Use in Juvenile Offenders

PubMed Central

Hershberger, Alexandra; Zapolski, Tamika; Aalsma, Matthew C.

2016-01-01

Cigarette use is a prominent problem in juvenile offenders, leading to negative health outcomes and substance use. One interesting precipitator of cigarette use in this population is discrimination. Social support could potentially buffer the positive relationship between cigarette use and discrimination in juvenile offenders, which could be dependent on the context in which the discrimination is experienced, such as peer, institutional (e.g., stores, restaurants), or educational contexts. The present study explored the relationship between three types of discrimination, social support, and smoking outcomes among 112 detained and probated juvenile offenders (mean age = 16.24, SD = 2.11, 29.2% female, 54.9% Caucasian, 40.4% detention, 53.8% smokers). Results indicated that the relationship between institutional discrimination (OR = −0.10, p = 0.005) and peer discrimination (OR = −0.11, p = 0.01) were significantly moderated by social support, with a higher likelihood of being a smoker, compared to a non-smoker at higher levels of peer and institutional discrimination. Further, based on a moderated regression analysis, results indicated that youth who experienced greater educational discrimination and lower levels of social support, they were at higher risk of nicotine addiction (b = −0.09, p = 0.03). Overall, results indicate that varying avenues of social support, such as parent, peer, and teacher support, can mitigate negative effects of discrimination on juvenile offenders, particularly cigarette use. Addressing discrimination in smoking treatment and prevention in juvenile offenders may be of great utility. Future studies should examine the potential mechanisms underlying the discrimination and cigarette use connection in juvenile offenders. PMID:27010849

Unravelling fears of genetic discrimination: an exploratory study of Dutch HCM families in an era of genetic non-discrimination acts.

PubMed

Geelen, Els; Horstman, Klasien; Marcelis, Carlo L M; Doevendans, Pieter A; Van Hoyweghen, Ine

2012-10-01

Since the 1990s, many countries in Europe and the United States have enacted genetic non-discrimination legislation to prevent people from deferring genetic tests for fear that insurers or employers would discriminate against them based on that information. Although evidence for genetic discrimination exists, little is known about the origins and backgrounds of fears of discrimination and how it affects decisions for uptake of genetic testing. The aim of this article is to gain a better understanding of these fears and its possible impact on the uptake of testing by studying the case of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). In a qualitative study, we followed six Dutch extended families involved in genetic testing for HCM for three-and-a-half years. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 57 members of these families. Based on the narratives of the families, we suggest that fears of discrimination have to be situated in the broader social and life-course context of family and kin. We describe the processes in which families developed meaningful interpretations of genetic discrimination and how these interpretations affected family members' decisions to undergo genetic testing. Our findings show that fears of genetic discrimination do not so much stem from the opportunity of genetic testing but much more from earlier experiences of discrimination of diseased family members. These results help identify the possible limitations of genetic non-discrimination regulations and provide direction to clinicians supporting their clients as they confront issues of genetic testing and genetic discrimination.

Contextual Control of Fluid Consumption: The Effects of Context Extinction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, M.; Skinner, D.M.

2005-01-01

Rats were trained on a conditional discrimination task in which saccharin was paired with LiCl in one context but paired with saline in another context. Rats drank less saccharin in the danger context than in the safe context, and consumption in the home cage was intermediate to consumption in the two training contexts. Rats also avoided the…

Compensatory strategies for reducing interpersonal discrimination: the effectiveness of acknowledgments, increased positivity, and individuating information.

PubMed

Singletary, Sarah L; Hebl, Michelle R

2009-05-01

Previous research has revealed, across a number of contexts, that stigmatized individuals are the recipients of interpersonal discrimination (e.g., M. R. Hebl, J. B. Foster, L. M. Mannix, & J. F. Dovidio, 2002). Such discrimination has been linked to a number of negative outcomes in the workplace, both for stigmatized individuals and for organizations as a whole (see, e.g., E. B. King, J. L. Shapiro, M. R. Hebl, S. L. Singletary, & S. Turner, 2006; C. O. Word, M. P. Zanna, & J. Cooper, 1974). The current research examines 3 individual-level compensatory strategies aimed at reducing interpersonal discrimination. Results reveal that compensatory strategies are successful in reducing interpersonal discrimination in job application contexts and that such strategies uniquely benefit stigmatized individuals. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Workplace Victimization and Discrimination in China: A Nationwide Survey.

PubMed

Zhang, Huiping

2017-09-01

Workplace victimization and discrimination have been intensively studied in the West, especially on the antecedents and consequences of this phenomenon. Surprisingly, little is known about the incidence and associated health problems of workplace victimization and discrimination in contemporary China. Using a representative nationwide sample of 1,138 Chinese employees conducted in 2015, this study attempted to estimate the prevalence, risk factors, and associated consequences of workplace victimization and discrimination in China. It is found that the prevalence rate of preceding 5-year workplace discrimination and victimization was 33% and 12.9%, respectively. Male employees who perceived higher work gains were less likely to experience workplace victimization and those who had higher career efficacy and unemployment anxiety were more likely to experience job discrimination or victimization. Female employees who received tertiary education were less likely to experience job discrimination and being married tended not to experience workplace victimization. Perceived job discrimination had negative impact on male employees' job satisfaction as well as on female employees' happiness. The implications of these findings are finally discussed in the Chinese context.

Racialized customer service in restaurants: a quantitative assessment of the statistical discrimination explanatory framework.

PubMed

Brewster, Zachary W

2012-01-01

Despite popular claims that racism and discrimination are no longer salient issues in contemporary society, racial minorities continue to experience disparate treatment in everyday public interactions. The context of full-service restaurants is one such public setting wherein racial minority patrons, African Americans in particular, encounter racial prejudices and discriminate treatment. To further understand the causes of such discriminate treatment within the restaurant context, this article analyzes primary survey data derived from a community sample of servers (N = 200) to assess the explanatory power of one posited explanation—statistical discrimination. Taken as a whole, findings suggest that while a statistical discrimination framework toward understanding variability in servers’ discriminatory behaviors should not be disregarded, the framework’s explanatory utility is limited. Servers’ inferences about the potential profitability of waiting on customers across racial groups explain little of the overall variation in subjects’ self-reported discriminatory behaviors, thus suggesting that other factors not explored in this research are clearly operating and should be the focus of future inquires.

Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Adolescents' Well-Being: The Role of Cross-Ethnic Friendships and Friends' Experiences of Discrimination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benner, Aprile D.; Wang, Yijie

2017-01-01

There is an extensive body of work documenting the negative socioemotional and academic consequences of perceiving racial/ethnic discrimination during adolescence, but little is known about how the larger peer context conditions such effects. Using peer network data from 252 eighth graders (85% Latino, 11% African American, 5% other…

Social support as a buffer between discrimination and cigarette use in juvenile offenders.

PubMed

Hershberger, Alexandra; Zapolski, Tamika; Aalsma, Matthew C

2016-08-01

Cigarette use is a prominent problem in juvenile offenders, leading to negative health outcomes and substance use. One interesting precipitator of cigarette use in this population is discrimination. Social support could potentially buffer the positive relationship between cigarette use and discrimination in juvenile offenders, which could be dependent on the context in which the discrimination is experienced, such as peer, institutional (e.g., stores, restaurants), or educational contexts. The present study explored the relationship between three types of discrimination, social support, and smoking outcomes among 112 detained and probated juvenile offenders (mean age=16.24, SD=2.11, 29.2% female, 54.9% Caucasian, 40.4% detention, 53.8% smokers). Results indicated that the relationship between institutional discrimination (OR=-0.10, p=0.005) and peer discrimination (OR=-0.11, p=0.01) were significantly moderated by social support, with a higher likelihood of being a smoker, compared to a non-smoker at higher levels of peer and institutional discrimination. Further, based on a moderated regression analysis, results indicated that youth who experienced greater educational discrimination and lower levels of social support, they were at higher risk of nicotine addiction (b=-0.09, p=0.03). Overall, results indicate that varying avenues of social support, such as parent, peer, and teacher support, can mitigate negative effects of discrimination on juvenile offenders, particularly cigarette use. Addressing discrimination in smoking treatment and prevention in juvenile offenders may be of great utility. Future studies should examine the potential mechanisms underlying the discrimination and cigarette use connection in juvenile offenders. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

10 CFR 4.322 - Written notice, technical assistance, and educational materials.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 10 Energy 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Written notice, technical assistance, and educational... the Age Discrimination Act of 1975, as Amended Duties of Nrc Recipients § 4.322 Written notice, technical assistance, and educational materials. (a) NRC will provide written notice to each recipient of...

Unravelling fears of genetic discrimination: an exploratory study of Dutch HCM families in an era of genetic non-discrimination acts

PubMed Central

Geelen, Els; Horstman, Klasien; Marcelis, Carlo LM; Doevendans, Pieter A; Van Hoyweghen, Ine

2012-01-01

Since the 1990s, many countries in Europe and the United States have enacted genetic non-discrimination legislation to prevent people from deferring genetic tests for fear that insurers or employers would discriminate against them based on that information. Although evidence for genetic discrimination exists, little is known about the origins and backgrounds of fears of discrimination and how it affects decisions for uptake of genetic testing. The aim of this article is to gain a better understanding of these fears and its possible impact on the uptake of testing by studying the case of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). In a qualitative study, we followed six Dutch extended families involved in genetic testing for HCM for three-and-a-half years. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 57 members of these families. Based on the narratives of the families, we suggest that fears of discrimination have to be situated in the broader social and life-course context of family and kin. We describe the processes in which families developed meaningful interpretations of genetic discrimination and how these interpretations affected family members' decisions to undergo genetic testing. Our findings show that fears of genetic discrimination do not so much stem from the opportunity of genetic testing but much more from earlier experiences of discrimination of diseased family members. These results help identify the possible limitations of genetic non-discrimination regulations and provide direction to clinicians supporting their clients as they confront issues of genetic testing and genetic discrimination. PMID:22453290

The influence of discrimination and fairness on collective self-esteem.

PubMed

Scheepers, Daan; Spears, Russell; Manstead, Antony S R; Doosje, Bertjan

2009-04-01

This article examines the influence of discrimination and fairness on collective self-esteem. Whereas social identity theory's self-esteem hypothesis emphasizes that discrimination can enhance self-esteem, the authors contend that this self-esteem advantage will actually reverse when groups are primed with the idea of engaging in a fair intergroup competition. They measured (Study 1) and manipulated (Study 2) discrimination and fairness in real (Study 1) and minimal (Study 2) groups, after which they manipulated the presence of an intergroup competition in both studies. Collective self-esteem served as the main dependent measure. Results indicated that when an intergroup competition was present or impending, previously expressed fairness (or less discrimination) was positively related to self-esteem, whereas discrimination was positively related to collective self-esteem in the absence of an intergroup competition. Results are discussed in terms of social identity theory and the importance of the broader social context for examining the relationship between discrimination and self-esteem.

Musically tone-deaf individuals have difficulty discriminating intonation contours extracted from speech.

PubMed

Patel, Aniruddh D; Foxton, Jessica M; Griffiths, Timothy D

2005-12-01

Musically tone-deaf individuals have psychophysical deficits in detecting pitch changes, yet their discrimination of intonation contours in speech appears to be normal. One hypothesis for this dissociation is that intonation contours use coarse pitch contrasts which exceed the pitch-change detection thresholds of tone-deaf individuals (). We test this idea by presenting intonation contours for discrimination, both in the context of the original sentences in which they occur and in a "pure" form dissociated from any phonetic context. The pure form consists of gliding-pitch analogs of the original intonation contours which exactly follow their pattern of pitch and timing. If the spared intonation perception of tone-deaf individuals is due to the coarse pitch contrasts of intonation, then such individuals should discriminate the original sentences and the gliding-pitch analogs equally well. In contrast, we find that discrimination of the gliding-pitch analogs is severely degraded. Thus it appears that the dissociation between spoken and musical pitch perception in tone-deaf individuals is due to a deficit at a higher level than simple pitch-change detection.

Multiple discriminations experienced by people living with HIV in France: results from the ANRS-Vespa2 study.

PubMed

Marsicano, Elise; Dray-Spira, Rosemary; Lert, France; Aubrière, Cindy; Spire, Bruno; Hamelin, Christine

2014-01-01

Since the advent of AIDS, discrimination has remained at the core of the experience of people living with HIV (PLHIV). PLHIV who belong to minority groups are exposed to discrimination not only on the grounds of their HIV infection but also because of rejecting attitudes towards drug users, homosexuals and black people. This article aimed to measure the frequency of discrimination and assess its correlates among PLHIV in France. We used data from a national representative survey, the ANRS-Vespa2 study, conducted in France in 2011 among 3022 male and female HIV-positive patients followed at hospitals. Respondents answered a face-to-face questionnaire documenting their health status and living conditions. Discrimination was documented during the previous two years on the grounds of HIV infection, gender, country of birth, skin colour, sexual orientation, place of residence, and substance abuse in a variety of contexts. For each context, we performed logistic regressions on discrimination, controlling for socio-epidemiological group, age, education level and employment status. Discrimination is frequently experienced by PLHIV in France (26%), particularly when applying for a job (24%), interacting with family (11%) or seeking health services (8%). Women from sub-Saharan Africa reported the highest levels of discrimination, whereas heterosexual non-African men reported the lowest. Men who have sex with men experienced levels of discrimination that fell between those of these two groups. The major perceived reason for discrimination was HIV status (13%). Nationality, skin colour and sexual orientation were cited by 5% each, whereas gender was cited by 1% of respondents. Our analyses show that discrimination is a frequent and cross-cutting experience with differences across the various contexts and among the diverse subpopulations. The intertwining of HIV-related stigma with sexism, racism and homophobia needs to be addressed to understand why discrimination against

School and Neighborhood Contexts, Perceptions of Racial Discrimination, and Psychological Well-Being among African American Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seaton, Eleanor K.; Yip, Tiffany

2009-01-01

The present study examined contextual influences on the relationship between racial discrimination (individual, cultural, and collective/institutional) and psychological well-being. Two hundred and fifty two African American adolescents (46% male and 54% female, average age = 16) completed measures of racial discrimination, self-esteem, depressive…

Teaching Context in Information Security

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bishop, Matt

2006-01-01

This article investigates teaching the application of technical ideas by non-technical means, especially by using puzzles to engage students. After discussing the need to teach students to evaluate contexts in which decisions about computer security must be made, we suggest questions and scenarios drawn from political science, history, as well as…

Discrimination Concerns and Expectations as Explanations for Gendered Socialization in African American Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Varner, Fatima; Mandara, Jelani

2013-01-01

Discrimination concerns and parental expectations were examined as mediators of the relations between gender and parenting practices among 796 African American mothers of 11- to 14-year-olds from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study. Mothers of sons had more concerns about racial discrimination impacting their adolescents' future,…

NMDA receptor hypofunction in the dentate gyrus and impaired context discrimination in adult Fmr1 knockout mice.

PubMed

Eadie, Brennan D; Cushman, Jesse; Kannangara, Timal S; Fanselow, Michael S; Christie, Brian R

2012-02-01

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common form of inherited intellectual disability in humans. This X-linked disorder is caused by the transcriptional repression of a single gene, Fmr1. The loss of Fmr1 transcription prevents the production of Fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) which in turn disrupts the expression of a variety of key synaptic proteins that appear to be important for intellectual ability. A clear link between synaptic dysfunction and behavioral impairment has been elusive, despite the fact that several animal models of FXS have been generated. Here we report that Fmr1 knockout mice exhibit impaired bidirectional synaptic plasticity in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus. These deficits are associated with a novel decrease in functional NMDARs (N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors). In addition, mice lacking the Fmr1 gene show impaired performance in a context discrimination task that normally requires functional NMDARs in the DG. These data indicate that Fmr1 deletion results in significant NMDAR-dependent electrophysiological and behavioral impairments specific to the DG. Copyright © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Gender-related biases in evaluations of sex discrimination allegations: is perceived threat the key?

PubMed

Elkins, Teri J; Phillips, James S; Konopaske, Robert

2002-04-01

Hypotheses derived from defensive attribution theory and social identity theory were tested in 3 laboratory experiments examining the effects of plaintiff and observer gender on perceived threat, plaintiff identification, and sex discrimination. In Study 1, women differentiated plaintiffs on the basis of gender, whereas men did not. Study 2 showed that this bias occurred because employment discrimination was personally threatening to women but not to men. In Study 3, the bias was reversed in a child custody context. As predicted, men found this context to be significantly more threatening than did women and subsequently exhibited a similarity bias. Mediation analyses suggested that responsibility attributions explained most of the variance in discrimination judgments associated with the plaintiff gender by observer gender interactions.

Laboratory Characteristics in Technical Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ives, Quay D.

The research reported is intended to provide a body of information on technical-scientific shop and laboratory education in the field of technological education. The study seeks to address the dearth of organized information on the utilization of laboratories in the technical education context. Various programs involving use of laboratories are…

Stress within a Bicultural Context for Adolescents of Mexican Descent.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Romero, Andrea J.; Roberts, Robert E.

2003-01-01

Folkman and Lazarus's theory of stress and coping was used to develop a measure assessing the perceived stress within a bicultural context. Middle school students of Mexican descent (N=881) reported their perceived stress from intergenerational acculturation gaps, within-group discrimination, out-group discrimination, and monolingual stress.…

Factors discriminating gymnasts by competitive level.

PubMed

Vandorpe, B; Vandendriessche, J; Vaeyens, R; Pion, J; Lefevre, J; Philippaerts, R; Lenoir, M

2011-08-01

This study examined the relationship between the performance level as evaluated by expert coaches and the results on a multidimensional test battery in female gymnastics. 4 coaches assigned 168 female gymnasts aged 6-8 years into 2 groups (Elite-level potential, n=103 and Sub-elite-level potential, n=65) based upon their technical evaluation of the gymnastics abilities on the 4 apparatus. Moreover, anthropometric, physical and coordinative characteristics were assessed. ANOVA with age as fixed factor revealed that results on all aforementioned characteristics, except body fat%, sit-and-reach, rope climbing and a motor coordination test, significantly improved with increasing age. MANCOVA with competitive level as fixed factor and age and maturity as covariates indicated that all gymnasts portrayed a similar athletic built (Wilks' lambda=0.95, F=2.20, p=0.071), but the elite-level potential gymnasts outperformed the less gifted gymnasts on all physical (Wilks' lambda=0.65, F=8.00, p<0.001) and coordinative variables (Wilks' lambda=0.79, F=22.10, p<0.001). Discriminant analysis revealed motor coordination to be the most important factor in discriminating between young female elite and sub-elite gymnasts. A test battery measuring multidimensional performance characteristics is valuable in addition to the coaches' technical judgment in the search of young gifted female gymnasts. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Effects of classification context on categorization in natural categories.

PubMed

Hampton, James A; Dubois, Danièle; Yeh, Wenchi

2006-10-01

The patterns of classification of borderline instances of eight common taxonomic categories were examined under three different instructional conditions to test two predictions: first, that lack of a specified context contributes to vagueness in categorization, and second, that altering the purpose of classification can lead to greater or lesser dependence on similarity in classification. The instructional conditions contrasted purely pragmatic with more technical/quasi-legal contexts as purposes for classification, and these were compared with a no-context control. The measures of category vagueness were between-subjects disagreement and within-subjects consistency, and the measures of similarity-based categorization were category breadth and the correlation of instance categorization probability with mean rated typicality, independently measured in a neutral context. Contrary to predictions, none of the measures of vagueness, reliability, category breadth, or correlation with typicality were generally affected by the instructional setting as a function of pragmatic versus technical purposes. Only one subcondition, in which a situational context was implied in addition to a purposive context, produced a significant change in categorization. Further experiments demonstrated that the effect of context was not increased when participants talked their way through the task, and that a technical context did not elicit more all-or-none categorization than did a pragmatic context. These findings place an important boundary condition on the effects of instructional context on conceptual categorization.

Extinction and Renewal of Pavlovian Modulation in Human Sequential Feature Positive Discrimination Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baeyens, Frank; Vansteenwegen, Debora; Beckers, Tom; Hermans, Dirk; Kerkhof, Ineke; De Ceulaer, Annick

2005-01-01

Using a conditioned suppression task, we investigated extinction and renewal of Pavlovian modulation in human sequential Feature Positive (FP) discrimination learning. In Experiment 1, in context a participants were first trained on two FP discriminations, X[right arrow]A+/A- and Y[right arrow]B+/B-. Extinction treatment was administered in the…

Discrimination in measures of knowledge monitoring accuracy

PubMed Central

Was, Christopher A.

2014-01-01

Knowledge monitoring predicts academic outcomes in many contexts. However, measures of knowledge monitoring accuracy are often incomplete. In the current study, a measure of students’ ability to discriminate known from unknown information as a component of knowledge monitoring was considered. Undergraduate students’ knowledge monitoring accuracy was assessed and used to predict final exam scores in a specific course. It was found that gamma, a measure commonly used as the measure of knowledge monitoring accuracy, accounted for a small, but significant amount of variance in academic performance whereas the discrimination and bias indexes combined to account for a greater amount of variance in academic performance. PMID:25339979

How discriminating are discriminative instruments?

PubMed

Hankins, Matthew

2008-05-27

The McMaster framework introduced by Kirshner & Guyatt is the dominant paradigm for the development of measures of health status and health-related quality of life (HRQL). The framework defines the functions of such instruments as evaluative, predictive or discriminative. Evaluative instruments are required to be sensitive to change (responsiveness), but there is no corresponding index of the degree to which discriminative instruments are sensitive to cross-sectional differences. This paper argues that indices of validity and reliability are not sufficient to demonstrate that a discriminative instrument performs its function of discriminating between individuals, and that the McMaster framework would be augmented by the addition of a separate index of discrimination. The coefficient proposed by Ferguson (Delta) is easily adapted to HRQL instruments and is a direct, non-parametric index of the degree to which an instrument distinguishes between individuals. While Delta should prove useful in the development and evaluation of discriminative instruments, further research is required to elucidate the relationship between the measurement properties of discrimination, reliability and responsiveness.

Integrating ethics into technical courses: micro-insertion.

PubMed

Davis, Michael

2006-10-01

Perhaps the most common reason science and engineering faculty give for not including 'ethics' (that is, research ethics, engineering ethics, or some discussion of professional responsibility) in their technical classes is that 'there is no room'. This article 1) describes a technique ('micro-insertion') that introduces ethics (and related topics) into technical courses in small enough units not to push out technical material, 2) explains where this technique might fit into the larger undertaking of integrating ethics into the technical (scientific or engineering) curriculum, and 3) concludes with some quantified evidence (collected over more than a decade) suggesting success. Integrating ethics into science and engineering courses is largely a matter of providing context for what is already being taught, context that also makes the material already being taught seem 'more relevant'.

Dispositional Hardiness and Women's Well-Being Relating to Gender Discrimination: The Role of Minimization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foster, Mindi D.; Dion, Kenneth L.

2003-01-01

Three studies examined whether personality-based hardiness would be associated with mental health benefits in contexts of gender discrimination. Hardy women encountering both a laboratory simulation and a hypothetical scenario of discrimination showed greater self-esteem and less negative affect than low hardy women. However, these benefits were…

Technical Documentation and Legal Liability.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caher, John M.

1995-01-01

States that litigation over the interpretation and sufficiency of technical documentation is increasingly common as a number of suits have been filed in state and federal courts. Describes the case of "Martin versus Hacker," a recent case in which New York's highest court analyzed a technical writer's prose in the context of a lawsuit…

Perceived Discrimination and Self-Rated Health in Europe: Evidence from the European Social Survey (2010)

PubMed Central

Alvarez-Galvez, Javier; Salvador-Carulla, Luis

2013-01-01

Introduction Studies have shown that perceived discrimination has an impact on our physical and mental health. A relevant part of literature has highlighted the influence of discrimination based on race or ethnicity on mental and physical health outcomes. However, the influence of other types of discrimination on health has been understudied. This study is aimed to explore how different types of discrimination are related to our subjective state of health, and so to compare the intensity of these relationships in the European context. Methods We have performed a multilevel ordered analysis on the fifth wave of the European Social Survey (ESS 2010). This dataset has 52,458 units at individual level that are grouped in 26 European countries. In this study, the dependent variable is self-rated health (SRH) that is analyzed in relationship to ten explanatory variables of perceived discrimination: color or race, nationality, religion, language, ethnic group, age, gender, sexuality, disability and others. Results The model identifies statistically significant differences in the effect that diverse types of perceived discrimination can generate on the self-rated health of Europeans. Specifically, this study identifies three well-defined types of perceived discrimination that can be related to poor health outcomes: (1) age discrimination; (2) disability discrimination; and (3) sexuality discrimination. In this sense, the effect on self-rated health of perceived discrimination related to aging and disabilities seems to be more relevant than other types of discrimination in the European context with a longer tradition in literature (e.g. ethnic and/or race-based). Conclusion The present study shows that the relationship between perceived discrimination and health inequities in Europe are not random, but systematically distributed depending on factors such as age, sexuality and disabilities. Therefore the future orientation of EU social policies should aim to reduce the

Perceived discrimination and self-rated health in Europe: evidence from the European Social Survey (2010).

PubMed

Alvarez-Galvez, Javier; Salvador-Carulla, Luis

2013-01-01

Studies have shown that perceived discrimination has an impact on our physical and mental health. A relevant part of literature has highlighted the influence of discrimination based on race or ethnicity on mental and physical health outcomes. However, the influence of other types of discrimination on health has been understudied. This study is aimed to explore how different types of discrimination are related to our subjective state of health, and so to compare the intensity of these relationships in the European context. We have performed a multilevel ordered analysis on the fifth wave of the European Social Survey (ESS 2010). This dataset has 52,458 units at individual level that are grouped in 26 European countries. In this study, the dependent variable is self-rated health (SRH) that is analyzed in relationship to ten explanatory variables of perceived discrimination: color or race, nationality, religion, language, ethnic group, age, gender, sexuality, disability and others. The model identifies statistically significant differences in the effect that diverse types of perceived discrimination can generate on the self-rated health of Europeans. Specifically, this study identifies three well-defined types of perceived discrimination that can be related to poor health outcomes: (1) age discrimination; (2) disability discrimination; and (3) sexuality discrimination. In this sense, the effect on self-rated health of perceived discrimination related to aging and disabilities seems to be more relevant than other types of discrimination in the European context with a longer tradition in literature (e.g. ethnic and/or race-based). The present study shows that the relationship between perceived discrimination and health inequities in Europe are not random, but systematically distributed depending on factors such as age, sexuality and disabilities. Therefore the future orientation of EU social policies should aim to reduce the impact of these social determinants on health

The meaning of workplace discrimination for women with disabilities.

PubMed

Smith Randolph, Diane

2005-01-01

Studies have found that persons with disabilities who are also members of other minority groups or women encounter dual discrimination. This paper describes how women with disabilities who are in the workplace experience discrimination. In order to determine whether discrimination was a viable issue, theoretical contexts of feminist theory, disability theory, and attribution theory were examined as well as literature examining employment of women with disabilities. For this study, three women with various disabilities were interviewed regarding the effect of their disability on their typical workday, their employment and job seeking history, and employment opportunities. Qualitative data were also provided through mapping by the participants and pictorial data of worksites. Data were grouped into themes of pre-conceived notions of others, attitudes of others, accommodation issues, inclusion issues and exploitation issues. From these themes definitions of discrimination, nondiscrimination in the workplace were developed. Conclusions include the need for more research on workplace experiences of other or more specific populations that experience discrimination as well as the need for ethical reflection on the part of the researcher regarding vulnerable populations.

Discrimination concerns and expectations as explanations for gendered socialization in African American families.

PubMed

Varner, Fatima; Mandara, Jelani

2013-01-01

Discrimination concerns and parental expectations were examined as mediators of the relations between gender and parenting practices among 796 African American mothers of 11- to 14-year-olds from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study. Mothers of sons had more concerns about racial discrimination impacting their adolescents' future, whereas mothers of daughters had more gender discrimination concerns. Racial discrimination concerns, but not gender discrimination concerns, were related to lower maternal academic and behavioral expectations. Maternal expectations were related to mothers' responsiveness, rule enforcement, monitoring, and parent-adolescent conflict. The relations between gender and parenting practices were partially explained through mothers' racial discrimination concerns and expectations. These findings demonstrate the importance of contextual factors on African American family processes. © 2012 The Authors. Child Development © 2012 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms among immigrant-origin adolescents.

PubMed

Tummala-Narra, Pratyusha; Claudius, Milena

2013-07-01

Although discrimination has been found to contribute to psychological distress among immigrant populations, there are few studies that have examined the relationship between racial and ethnic discrimination in the school setting among foreign-born immigrant and U.S.-born immigrant-origin adolescents. This study examined the relationship between perceived discrimination by adults and peers in the school setting and depressive symptoms in a sample (N = 95) of racial minority immigrant-origin adolescents (13 to 19 years of age) attending an urban high school. We examined the relation between perceived discrimination and depressive symptomology across gender and nativity status (foreign born vs. U.S. born), and the potential moderating role of ethnic identity and social support. Consistent with previous research, girls reported higher levels of depressive symptomology than boys, although the relationship between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms was significant for both boys and girls. Perceived discrimination by adults and by peers at school was positively related to depressive symptoms for U.S.-born adolescents. For U.S.-born adolescents, ethnic identity mitigated the negative effects of perceived adult discrimination on depressive symptoms. However, ethnic identity did not moderate the relationship between perceived peer discrimination and depressive symptoms. Social support did not moderate the relationship between adult and peer discrimination and depressive symptoms for either foreign-born or U.S.-born adolescents. The findings support previous research concerning the immigrant paradox and highlight the importance of context in the relationship between perceived discrimination and mental health. Implications for future research and intervention are discussed. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

A novel approach to assessing technical competence of colorectal surgery residents: the development and evaluation of the Colorectal Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skill (COSATS).

PubMed

de Montbrun, Sandra L; Roberts, Patricia L; Lowry, Ann C; Ault, Glenn T; Burnstein, Marcus J; Cataldo, Peter A; Dozois, Eric J; Dunn, Gary D; Fleshman, James; Isenberg, Gerald A; Mahmoud, Najjia N; Reznick, Richard K; Satterthwaite, Lisa; Schoetz, David; Trudel, Judith L; Weiss, Eric G; Wexner, Steven D; MacRae, Helen

2013-12-01

To develop and evaluate an objective method of technical skills assessment for graduating subspecialists in colorectal (CR) surgery-the Colorectal Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skill (COSATS). It may be reasonable for the public to assume that surgeons certified as competent have had their technical skills assessed. However, technical skill, despite being the hallmark of a surgeon, is not directly assessed at the time of certification by surgical boards. A procedure-based, multistation technical skills examination was developed to reflect a sample of the range of skills necessary for CR surgical practice. These consisted of bench, virtual reality, and cadaveric models. Reliability and construct validity were evaluated by comparing 10 graduating CR residents with 10 graduating general surgery (GS) residents from across North America. Expert CR surgeons, blinded to level of training, evaluated performance using a task-specific checklist and a global rating scale. The mean global rating score was used as the overall examination score and a passing score was set at "borderline competent for CR practice." The global rating scale demonstrated acceptable interstation reliability (0.69) for a homogeneous group of examinees. Both the overall checklist and global rating scores effectively discriminated between CR and GS residents (P < 0.01), with 27% of the variance attributed to level of training. Nine CR residents but only 3 GS residents were deemed competent. The Colorectal Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skill effectively discriminated between CR and GS residents. With further validation, the Colorectal Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skill could be incorporated into the colorectal board examination where it would be the first attempt of a surgical specialty to formally assess technical skill at the time of certification.

Differential effects of visual context on pattern discrimination by pigeons (Columba livia) and humans (Homo sapiens).

PubMed

Kelly, Debbie M; Cook, Robert G

2003-06-01

Three experiment examined the role of contextual information during line orientation and line position discriminations by pigeons (Columba livia) and humans (Homo sapiens). Experiment 1 tested pigeons' performance with these stimuli in a target localization task using texture displays. Experiments 2 and 3 tested pigeons and humans, respectively, with small and large variations of these stimuli in a same-different task. Humans showed a configural superiority effect when tested with displays constructed from large elements but not when tested with the smaller, more densely packed texture displays. The pigeons, in contrast, exhibited a configural inferiority effect when required to discriminate line orientation, regardless of stimulus size. These contrasting results suggest a species difference in the perceptionand use of features and contextual information in the discrimination of line information.

Pitch discrimination and melodic memory in children with autism spectrum disorders.

PubMed

Stanutz, Sandy; Wapnick, Joel; Burack, Jacob A

2014-02-01

Pitch perception is enhanced among persons with autism. We extended this finding to memory for pitch and melody among school-aged children. The purpose of this study was to investigate pitch memory in musically untrained children with autism spectrum disorders, aged 7-13 years, and to compare it to that of age- and IQ-matched typically developing children. The children were required to discriminate isolated tones in two differing contexts as well to remember melodies after a period of 1 week. The tasks were designed to employ both short- and long-term memory for music. For the pitch discrimination task, the children first had to indicate whether two isolated tones were the same or different when the second was the same or had been altered to be 25, 35, or 45 cents sharp or flat. Second, the children discriminated the tones within the context of melody. They were asked whether two melodies were the same or different when the leading tone of the second melody was the same or had been altered to be 25, 35, or 45 cents sharp or flat. Long-term memory for melody was also investigated, as the children attempted to recall four different two-bar melodies after 1 week. The children with autism spectrum disorders demonstrated elevated pitch discrimination ability in the single-tone and melodic context as well as superior long-term memory for melody. Pitch memory correlated positively with scores on measures of nonverbal fluid reasoning ability. Superior short- and long-term pitch memory was found among children with autism spectrum disorders. The results indicate an aspect to cognitive functioning that may predict both enhanced nonverbal reasoning ability and atypical language development.

Technical Assistance Information Centers and Consultants.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Arts and the Handicapped Information Service, New York, NY.

Three types of resources for planners of programs for the arts and/or the handicapped are indicated in this directory: technical assistance, information services, and consultants. In this context, technical assistance is defined as free or low cost professional advisory service provided by telephone, mail, or personal visits. Resources listed…

Bacillus subtilis Protects Public Goods by Extending Kin Discrimination to Closely Related Species

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Kin discrimination systems are found in numerous communal contexts like multicellularity and are theorized to prevent exploitation of cooperative behaviors. The kin discrimination system in Bacillus subtilis differs from most other such systems because it excludes nonkin cells rather than including kin cells. Because nonkin are the target of the system, B. subtilis can potentially distinguish degrees of nonkin relatedness, not just kin versus nonkin. We examined this by testing a large strain collection of diverse Bacillus species against B. subtilis in different multicellular contexts. The effects of kin discrimination extend to nearby species, as the other subtilis clade species were treated with the same antagonism as nonkin. Species in the less-related pumilus clade started to display varied phenotypes but were mostly still discriminated against, while cereus clade members and beyond were no longer subject to kin discrimination. Seeking a reason why other species are perceived as antagonistic nonkin, we tested the ability of B. subtilis to steal communally produced surfactant from these species. We found that the species treated as nonkin were the only ones that made a surfactant that B. subtilis could utilize and that nonkin antagonism prevented such stealing when the two strains were mixed. The nonkin exclusion kin discrimination method thus allows effective protection of the cooperative behaviors prevalent in multicellularity while still permitting interactions with more distant species that are not a threat. PMID:28679746

Confusability of Consonant Phonemes in Sound Discrimination Tasks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rudegeair, Robert E.

The findings of Marsh and Sherman's investigation, in 1970, of the speech sound discrimination ability of kindergarten subjects, are discussed in this paper. In the study a comparison was made between performance when speech sounds were presented in isolation and when speech sounds were presented in a word context, using minimal sound contrasts.…

No experience required: Violent crime and anticipated, vicarious, and experienced racial discrimination.

PubMed

Herda, Daniel; McCarthy, Bill

2018-02-01

There is a growing body of evidence linking racial discrimination and juvenile crime, and a number of theories explain this relationship. In this study, we draw on one popular approach, Agnew's general strain theory, and extend prior research by moving from a focus on experienced discrimination to consider two other forms, anticipated and vicarious discrimination. Using data on black, white, and Hispanic youth, from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), we find that experienced, anticipated, and to a lesser extent, vicarious discrimination, significantly predict violent crime independent of a set of neighborhood, parental, and individual level controls, including prior violent offending. Additional analyses on the specific contexts of discrimination reveal that violence is associated with the anticipation of police discrimination. The effects tend to be larger for African American than Hispanic youth, but the differences are not statistically significant. These findings support the thesis that, like other strains, discrimination may not have to be experienced directly to influence offending. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

[Discrimination and homophobia associated to the human immunodeficiency virus epidemic].

PubMed

Orozco-Núñez, Emanuel; Alcalde-Rabanal, Jacqueline Elizabeth; Ruiz-Larios, José Arturo; Sucilla-Pérez, Héctor; García-Cerde, Rodrigo

2015-01-01

To describe a political mapping on discrimination and homophobia associated to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the context of public institutions in Mexico. The political mapping was conducted in six Mexican states. Stakeholders who were involved in HIV actions from public and private sectors were included. Semistructured interviews were applied to explore homophobia and discrimination associated with HIV. Information was systematized using the Policy Maker software, which is a good support for analyzing health policies. Discriminatory and homophobic practices in the public domain occurred, damaging people´s integrity via insults, derision and hate crimes. Most stakeholders expressed a supportive position to prevent discrimination and homophobia and some of them had great influence on policy-making decisions. It was found that state policy frameworks are less specific in addressing these issues. Homophobia and discrimination associated to HIV are still considered problematic in Mexico. Homophobia is a very sensitive issue that requires further attention. Also, an actual execution of governmental authority requires greater enforcement of laws against discrimination and homophobia.

Multifactorial discrimination as a fundamental cause of mental health inequities.

PubMed

Khan, Mariam; Ilcisin, Misja; Saxton, Katherine

2017-03-04

The theory of fundamental causes explains why health disparities persist over time, even as risk factors, mechanisms, and diseases change. Using an intersectional framework, we evaluated multifactorial discrimination as a fundamental cause of mental health disparities. Using baseline data from the Project STRIDE: Stress, Identity, and Mental Health study, we examined the health effects of discrimination among individuals who self-identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. We used logistic and linear regression to assess whether multifactorial discrimination met the four criteria designating a fundamental cause, namely that the cause: 1) influences multiple health outcomes, 2) affects multiple risk factors, 3) involves access to resources that can be leveraged to reduce consequences of disease, and 4) reproduces itself in varied contexts through changing mechanisms. Multifactorial discrimination predicted high depression scores, psychological well-being, and substance use disorder diagnosis. Discrimination was positively associated with risk factors for high depression scores: chronic strain and total number of stressful life events. Discrimination was associated with significantly lower levels of mastery and self-esteem, protective factors for depressive symptomatology. Even after controlling for risk factors, discrimination remained a significant predictor for high depression scores. Among subjects with low depression scores, multifactorial discrimination also predicted anxiety and aggregate mental health scores. Multifactorial discrimination should be considered a fundamental cause of mental health inequities and may be an important cause of broad health disparities among populations with intersecting social identities.

A fundamental role for context in instrumental learning and extinction.

PubMed

Bouton, Mark E; Todd, Travis P

2014-05-01

The purpose of this article is to review recent research that has investigated the effects of context change on instrumental (operant) learning. The first part of the article discusses instrumental extinction, in which the strength of a reinforced instrumental behavior declines when reinforcers are withdrawn. The results suggest that extinction of either simple or discriminated operant behavior is relatively specific to the context in which it is learned: As in prior studies of Pavlovian extinction, ABA, ABC, and AAB renewal effects can all be observed. Further analysis supports the idea that the organism learns to refrain from making a specific response in a specific context, or in more formal terms, an inhibitory context-response association. The second part of the article then discusses research suggesting that the context also controls instrumental behavior before it is extinguished. Several experiments demonstrate that a context switch after either simple or discriminated operant training causes a decrement in the strength of the response. Over a range of conditions, the animal appears to learn a direct association between the context and the response. Under some conditions, it can also learn a hierarchical representation of context and the response-reinforcer relation. Extinction is still more context-specific than conditioning, as indicated by ABC and AAB renewal. Overall, the results establish that the context can play a significant role in both the acquisition and extinction of operant behavior. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Discrimination-related health inequality and role of social capital among marriage migrant women in South Korea.

PubMed

Kim, Chang-O

2016-10-26

This study aimed to evaluate whether social capital could alleviate health inequality against racial discrimination and identify the critical nature of social capital that generates health inequality differences within the social context of South Korea. Using the data of the 2009 National Survey of Multicultural Families, a nationally representative sample in which 40,430 foreign wives participated, the concentration index (CI) was used to measure the discrimination-related inequalities in self-rated health and was decomposed into contributing factors. The results showed a significant concentration of poor self-rated health unfavorable to foreign wives who were highly discriminated (CI 0.023, standard error [SE] 0.001, p < .001). However, when the CIs were assessed among the subgroups of different social capital, no discrimination-related inequality in health was observed among the group of linking social capital (CI 0.008, SE 0.008, p .332). The total differential decomposition method showed two major factors that generate differences in health inequality between the groups of non-linking and linking social capital: protest against discrimination (35.8 %); experiences of discrimination (28.3 %). The present results indicated that linking social capital can be a useful resource of health resilience factor that equalizes discrimination-related health inequality among marriage migrant women in South Korea. This study provides additional evidence that social capital needs to be placed in its political context.

Can honey bees discriminate between floral-fragrance isomers?

PubMed

Aguiar, João Marcelo Robazzi Bignelli Valente; Roselino, Ana Carolina; Sazima, Marlies; Giurfa, Martin

2018-05-24

Many flowering plants present variable complex fragrances, which usually include different isomers of the same molecule. As fragrance is an essential cue for flower recognition by pollinators, we ask if honey bees discriminate between floral-fragrance isomers in an appetitive context. We used the olfactory conditioning of the proboscis extension response (PER), which allows training a restrained bee to an odor paired with sucrose solution. Bees were trained under an absolute (a single odorant rewarded) or a differential conditioning regime (a rewarded vs. a non-rewarded odorant) using four different pairs of isomers. One hour after training, discrimination and generalization between pairs of isomers were tested. Bees trained under absolute conditioning exhibited high generalization between isomers and discriminated only one out of four isomer pairs; after differential conditioning, they learned to differentiate between two out of four pairs of isomers but in all cases generalization responses to the non-rewarding isomer remained high. Adding an aversive taste to the non-rewarded isomer facilitated discrimination of isomers that otherwise seemed non-discriminable, but generalization remained high. Although honey bees discriminated isomers under certain conditions, they achieved the task with difficulty and tended to generalize between them, thus showing that these molecules were perceptually similar to them. We conclude that the presence of isomers within floral fragrances might not necessarily contribute to a dramatic extent to floral odor diversity. © 2018. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

A Theory of the Function of Technical Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ross, Donald, Jr.

1981-01-01

Advances the theory that technical writing functions as a replacement for memory--an information storage receptacle. Lists the formal and stylistic features implied by such a theory. Considers the future development of technical writing within the context of this theory. (RL)

Conditional withholding of proboscis extension in honeybees (Apis mellifera) during discriminative punishment.

PubMed

Smith, B H; Abramson, C I; Tobin, T R

1991-12-01

Proboscis extension conditioning of honeybee workers was used to test the ability of bees to respond to appetitive and aversive stimuli while restrained in a harness that allows subjects to move their antennae and mouthparts (Kuwabara, 1957; Menzel, Erber, & Masuhr, 1974). Subjects were conditioned to discriminate between two odors, one associated with sucrose feeding and the other associated with a 10 V AC shock if they responded to the sucrose unconditioned stimulus (US) in the context of that odor. Most Ss readily learned to respond to the odor followed by sucrose feeding and not to the odor associated with sucrose stimulation plus shock. Furthermore, in the context of the odor associated with shock, significantly more subjects withheld or delayed proboscis extension on stimulation with the sucrose US than they did in the context of the odor associated with feeding. Thus, restrained honeybees can readily learn to avoid shock according to an odor context by withholding proboscis extension to a normally powerful releaser. Analysis of individual learning curves revealed that subjects differed markedly in performance on this task. Some learn the discrimination quickly, whereas others show different kinds of response patterns.

How to combat the negative impact of discrimination in a collectivist context? The safeguarding function of peer-oriented hope.

PubMed

Datu, Jesus Alfonso D; Jose Mateo, Nino

2017-03-01

The objective of the study was to assess the moderating role of locus-of-hope on the relations between everyday discrimination and well-being outcomes in a collectivist setting. There were 444 Filipino undergraduate students who participated in the research. Findings showed that discrimination was negatively linked to subjective well-being and flourishing while loci-of-hope (internal, external-spiritual, external-family, and external-peers) were positively associated with well-being indices. Further, external-peer locus-of-hope moderated the relations between everyday discrimination and well-being outcomes such that for those who had higher external-peer locus-of-hope, everyday discrimination may still be linked to greater well-being. The theoretical and practical implications are elucidated.

Ethnic Discrimination against Mapuche Students in Urban High Schools in the Araucanía Region, Chile

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Becerra, Sandra; Merino, María Eugenia; Mellor, David

2015-01-01

Ethnic or racial discrimination towards children and adolescents at schools is of concern in many contexts around the world because it is associated with diverse psychosocial, behavioural, emotional, and identity problems. The purpose of this study was to identify the types of ethnic discrimination experienced by indigenous Mapuche adolescents in…

Explaining negative kin discrimination in a cooperative mammal society

PubMed Central

Cant, Michael A.; Sanderson, Jennifer L.; Gilchrist, Jason S.; Bell, Matthew B. V.; Hodge, Sarah J.; Johnstone, Rufus A.

2017-01-01

Kin selection theory predicts that, where kin discrimination is possible, animals should typically act more favorably toward closer genetic relatives and direct aggression toward less closely related individuals. Contrary to this prediction, we present data from an 18-y study of wild banded mongooses, Mungos mungo, showing that females that are more closely related to dominant individuals are specifically targeted for forcible eviction from the group, often suffering severe injury, and sometimes death, as a result. This pattern cannot be explained by inbreeding avoidance or as a response to more intense local competition among kin. Instead, we use game theory to show that such negative kin discrimination can be explained by selection for unrelated targets to invest more effort in resisting eviction. Consistent with our model, negative kin discrimination is restricted to eviction attempts of older females capable of resistance; dominants exhibit no kin discrimination when attempting to evict younger females, nor do they discriminate between more closely or less closely related young when carrying out infanticidal attacks on vulnerable infants who cannot defend themselves. We suggest that in contexts where recipients of selfish acts are capable of resistance, the usual prediction of positive kin discrimination can be reversed. Kin selection theory, as an explanation for social behavior, can benefit from much greater exploration of sequential social interactions. PMID:28439031

Gender Equity in Trade and Technical Careers Curriculum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vocational Curriculum Resource Center of Maine, Fairfield.

This curriculum guide contains task performance guides for eight duties to be taught to prospective and inservice trade and technical education teachers in Maine. The duties involve eliminating sex bias and sex discrimination in school, on the job, and in self-identification. The eight duties described in the guide are the following: eliminating…

Gay male attraction toward muscular men: does mating context matter?

PubMed

Varangis, Eleanna; Lanzieri, Nicholas; Hildebrandt, Tom; Feldman, Matthew

2012-03-01

The purpose of this study was to examine gay men's perceived attractiveness of male figures based on short-term and long-term partner contexts. A sample of 190 gay adult men rated the attractiveness of line-drawings depicting male figures varying systematically in muscularity and body fat percentage in both short-term and long-term dating contexts. Mixed effects modeling was used to estimate the effects of figure (muscularity and body fat), dating context (short-term vs. long-term), and individual rater characteristics on attractiveness ratings. Results indicated that figure muscularity and body-fat had significant non-linear (i.e., quadratic) relationships with attractiveness ratings, and short-term dating context was associated with more discriminating ratings of attractiveness. Interactions between individual characteristics and figure characteristics indicated that the more available the individual and lower body fat, the more discriminating they were in ratings of attractiveness. The implications for future investigations considering both object and observer characteristics of attractiveness preferences are discussed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A novel form of perceptual attunement: Context-dependent perception of a native contrast in 14-month-old infants.

PubMed

Fort, Mathilde; Brusini, Perrine; Carbajal, M Julia; Sun, Yue; Peperkamp, Sharon

2017-08-01

By the end of their first year of life, infants have become experts in discriminating the sounds of their native language, while they have lost the ability to discriminate non-native contrasts. This type of phonetic learning is referred to as perceptual attunement. In the present study, we investigated the emergence of a context-dependent form of perceptual attunement in infancy. Indeed, some native contrasts are not discriminated in certain phonological contexts by adults, due to the presence of a language-specific process that neutralizes the contrasts in those contexts. We used a mismatch design and recorded high-density Electroencephalography (EEG) in French-learning 14-month-olds. Our results show that similarly to French adults, infants fail to discriminate a native voicing contrast (e.g., [f] vs. [v]) when it occurs in a specific phonological context (e.g. [ofbe] vs. [ovbe], no mismatch response), while they successfully detected it in other phonological contexts (e.g., [ofne] vs. [ovne], mismatch response). The present results demonstrate for the first time that by the age of 14 months, infants' phonetic learning does not only rely on the processing of individual sounds, but also takes into account in a language-specific manner the phonological contexts in which these sounds occur. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Measuring Discrimination in Education. NBER Working Paper No. 15057

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanna, Rema; Linden. Leigh

2009-01-01

In this paper, we illustrate a methodology to measure discrimination in educational contexts. In India, we ran an exam competition through which children compete for a large financial prize. We recruited teachers to grade the exams. We then randomly assigned child "characteristics" (age, gender, and caste) to the cover sheets of the…

The Reverse Discrimination Controversy. A Moral and Legal Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fullinwider, Robert K.

This book has two principal aims: to clarify the topical and controversial issue of reverse discrimination and to reach some conclusions about the rights and wrongs involved in this issue. Focusing mainly on preferential hiring, the book explicitly and extensively addresses the law and the institutional context of the issues. Examination of the…

Aptitude Level and Performance on Intramodal and Intermodal Form Discrimination Tasks. Technical Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kress, Gary

The increased number of marginal aptitude trainees inducted into the Army has created the need for adequately and efficiently training these men. This report presents the finding of research that compared high and low aptitude men--classified on the basis of scores from the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT)--on two form discrimination tasks…

Acoustic variability within and across German, French, and American English vowels: phonetic context effects.

PubMed

Strange, Winifred; Weber, Andrea; Levy, Erika S; Shafiro, Valeriy; Hisagi, Miwako; Nishi, Kanae

2007-08-01

Cross-language perception studies report influences of speech style and consonantal context on perceived similarity and discrimination of non-native vowels by inexperienced and experienced listeners. Detailed acoustic comparisons of distributions of vowels produced by native speakers of North German (NG), Parisian French (PF) and New York English (AE) in citation (di)syllables and in sentences (surrounded by labial and alveolar stops) are reported here. Results of within- and cross-language discriminant analyses reveal striking dissimilarities across languages in the spectral/temporal variation of coarticulated vowels. As expected, vocalic duration was most important in differentiating NG vowels; it did not contribute to PF vowel classification. Spectrally, NG long vowels showed little coarticulatory change, but back/low short vowels were fronted/raised in alveolar context. PF vowels showed greater coarticulatory effects overall; back and front rounded vowels were fronted, low and mid-low vowels were raised in both sentence contexts. AE mid to high back vowels were extremely fronted in alveolar contexts, with little change in mid-low and low long vowels. Cross-language discriminant analyses revealed varying patterns of spectral (dis)similarity across speech styles and consonantal contexts that could, in part, account for AE listeners' perception of German and French front rounded vowels, and "similar" mid-high to mid-low vowels.

Does overall reinforcer rate affect discrimination of time-based contingencies?

PubMed

Cowie, Sarah; Davison, Michael; Blumhardt, Luca; Elliffe, Douglas

2016-05-01

Overall reinforcer rate appears to affect choice. The mechanism for such an effect is uncertain, but may relate to reinforcer rate changing the discrimination of the relation between stimuli and reinforcers. We assessed whether a quantitative model based on a stimulus-control approach could be used to account for the effects of overall reinforcer rate on choice under changing time-based contingencies. On a two-key concurrent schedule, the likely availability of a reinforcer reversed when a fixed time had elapsed since the last reinforcer, and the overall reinforcer rate was varied across conditions. Changes in the overall reinforcer rate produced a change in response bias, and some indication of a change in discrimination. These changes in bias and discrimination always occurred quickly, usually within the first session of a condition. The stimulus-control approach provided an excellent account of the data, suggesting that changes in overall reinforcer rate affect choice because they alter the frequency of reinforcers obtained at different times, or in different stimulus contexts, and thus change the discriminated relation between stimuli and reinforcers. These findings support the notion that temporal and spatial discriminations can be understood in terms of discrimination of reinforcers across time and space. © 2016 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

The visual discrimination of negative facial expressions by younger and older adults.

PubMed

Mienaltowski, Andrew; Johnson, Ellen R; Wittman, Rebecca; Wilson, Anne-Taylor; Sturycz, Cassandra; Norman, J Farley

2013-04-05

Previous research has demonstrated that older adults are not as accurate as younger adults at perceiving negative emotions in facial expressions. These studies rely on emotion recognition tasks that involve choosing between many alternatives, creating the possibility that age differences emerge for cognitive rather than perceptual reasons. In the present study, an emotion discrimination task was used to investigate younger and older adults' ability to visually discriminate between negative emotional facial expressions (anger, sadness, fear, and disgust) at low (40%) and high (80%) expressive intensity. Participants completed trials blocked by pairs of emotions. Discrimination ability was quantified from the participants' responses using signal detection measures. In general, the results indicated that older adults had more difficulty discriminating between low intensity expressions of negative emotions than did younger adults. However, younger and older adults did not differ when discriminating between anger and sadness. These findings demonstrate that age differences in visual emotion discrimination emerge when signal detection measures are used but that these differences are not uniform and occur only in specific contexts.

Graphical methods for the sensitivity analysis in discriminant analysis

DOE PAGES

Kim, Youngil; Anderson-Cook, Christine M.; Dae-Heung, Jang

2015-09-30

Similar to regression, many measures to detect influential data points in discriminant analysis have been developed. Many follow similar principles as the diagnostic measures used in linear regression in the context of discriminant analysis. Here we focus on the impact on the predicted classification posterior probability when a data point is omitted. The new method is intuitive and easily interpretative compared to existing methods. We also propose a graphical display to show the individual movement of the posterior probability of other data points when a specific data point is omitted. This enables the summaries to capture the overall pattern ofmore » the change.« less

Shape discrimination and concept formation in the jungle crow (Corvus macrorhynchos).

PubMed

Bogale, Bezawork Afework; Sugita, Shoei

2014-01-01

We investigated whether jungle crows can learn concepts by using printouts of shapes in a simultaneous two-alternative task. Jungle crows were first trained with a red triangle and red square until they reached the discrimination criterion (80% of correct choices in two blocks of 10 trials each). Then, we tested crows with successive transfer tests to investigate both the discrimination cues being used and concept formation ability, by using novel triangular and non-triangular stimuli. All of the jungle crows learnt to discriminate between the triangle and square during training. The discrimination performance was generally not affected either by changes in the colour of the stimuli or when both shape and colour cues conflicted, with the previously non-rewarded shape but matching colour (red square) versus rewarded shape but non-matching colour (green triangle). The use of only outlines of the familiar stimuli also did not affect discrimination behaviour of crows. In addition, crows significantly discriminated novel triangular shapes during the limited trials given, suggesting their ability to form the concept of triangularity. However, failure to discriminate when the novel stimuli size deviated from the original suggests that there is a limit to shape concept formation in a familiar-novel context in the jungle crow.

A novel perceptual discrimination training task: Reducing fear overgeneralization in the context of fear learning.

PubMed

Ginat-Frolich, Rivkah; Klein, Zohar; Katz, Omer; Shechner, Tomer

2017-06-01

Generalization is an adaptive learning mechanism, but it can be maladaptive when it occurs in excess. A novel perceptual discrimination training task was therefore designed to moderate fear overgeneralization. We hypothesized that improvement in basic perceptual discrimination would translate into lower fear overgeneralization in affective cues. Seventy adults completed a fear-conditioning task prior to being allocated into training or placebo groups. Predesignated geometric shape pairs were constructed for the training task. A target shape from each pair was presented. Thereafter, participants in the training group were shown both shapes and asked to identify the image that differed from the target. Placebo task participants only indicated the location of each shape on the screen. All participants then viewed new geometric pairs and indicated whether they were identical or different. Finally, participants completed a fear generalization test consisting of perceptual morphs ranging from the CS + to the CS-. Fear-conditioning was observed through physiological and behavioural measures. Furthermore, the training group performed better than the placebo group on the assessment task and exhibited decreased fear generalization in response to threat/safety cues. The findings offer evidence for the effectiveness of the novel discrimination training task, setting the stage for future research with clinical populations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perceived Housing Discrimination and Self-Reported Health: How Do Neighborhood Features Matter?

PubMed

Yang, Tse-Chuan; Chen, Danhong; Park, Kiwoong

2016-12-01

While the association between perceived discrimination and health has been investigated, little is known about whether and how neighborhood characteristics moderate this association. We situate discrimination in the housing context and use relative deprivation and social capital perspectives to fill the knowledge gap. We applied multilevel logistic modeling to 9,842 adults in 830 neighborhoods in Philadelphia to examine three hypotheses. First, the detrimental effect of discrimination on self-reported health was underestimated without considering neighborhood features as moderators. The estimated coefficient (β) increased from approximately 0.02 to 1.84 or higher. Second, the negative association between discrimination and self-reported health was enhanced when individuals with discrimination experience lived in neighborhoods with higher housing values (β = 0.42). Third, the adverse association of discrimination with self-reported health was attenuated when people reporting discrimination resided in neighborhoods marked by higher income inequality (β = -4.34) and higher concentrations of single-parent households with children (β = -0.03) and minorities (β = -0.01). We not only confirmed the moderating roles of neighborhood characteristics, but also suggested that the relative deprivation and social capital perspectives could be used to understand how perceived housing discrimination affects self-reported health via neighborhood factors.

Perceived Housing Discrimination and Self-reported Health: How Do Neighborhood Features Matter?

PubMed Central

Yang, Tse-Chuan; Chen, Danhong; Park, Kiwoong

2016-01-01

Background While the association between perceived discrimination and health has been investigated, little is known about whether and how neighborhood characteristics moderate this association. Purpose We situate discrimination in the housing context and use relative deprivation and social capital perspectives to fill the knowledge gap. Methods We applied multilevel logistic modeling to 9,842 adults in 830 neighborhoods in Philadelphia to examine three hypotheses. Results First, the detrimental effect of discrimination on self-reported health was underestimated without considering neighborhood features as moderators. The estimated coefficient (β) increased from approximately 0.02 to 1.84 or higher. Second, the negative association between discrimination and self-reported health was enhanced when individuals with discrimination experience lived in neighborhoods with higher housing values (β= 0.42). Third, the adverse association of discrimination with self-reported health was attenuated when people reporting discrimination resided in neighborhoods marked by higher income inequality (β= −4.34) and higher concentrations of single parent households with children (β= −0.03) and minorities (β= −0.01). Conclusions We not only confirmed the moderating roles of neighborhood characteristics, but also suggested that the relative deprivation and social capital perspectives could be used to understand how perceived housing discrimination affects self-reported health via neighborhood factors. PMID:27306452

Lexical exposure to native language dialects can improve non-native phonetic discrimination.

PubMed

Olmstead, Annie J; Viswanathan, Navin

2018-04-01

Nonnative phonetic learning is an area of great interest for language researchers, learners, and educators alike. In two studies, we examined whether nonnative phonetic discrimination of Hindi dental and retroflex stops can be improved by exposure to lexical items bearing the critical nonnative stops. We extend the lexical retuning paradigm of Norris, McQueen, and Cutler (Cognitive Psychology, 47, 204-238, 2003) by having naive American English (AE)-speaking participants perform a pretest-training-posttest procedure. They performed an AXB discrimination task with the Hindi retroflex and dental stops before and after transcribing naturally produced words from an Indian English speaker that either contained these tokens or not. Only those participants who heard words with the critical nonnative phones improved in their posttest discrimination. This finding suggests that exposure to nonnative phones in native lexical contexts supports learning of difficult nonnative phonetic discrimination.

Discrimination and adjustment among Chinese American adolescents: family conflict and family cohesion as vulnerability and protective factors.

PubMed

Juang, Linda P; Alvarez, Alvin A

2010-12-01

We examined racial/ethnic discrimination experiences of Chinese American adolescents to determine how discrimination is linked to poor adjustment (i.e., loneliness, anxiety, and somatization) and how the context of the family can buffer or exacerbate these links. We collected survey data from 181 Chinese American adolescents and their parents in Northern California. We conducted hierarchical regression analyses to examine main effects and 2-way interactions of perceived discrimination with family conflict and family cohesion. Discrimination was related to poorer adjustment in terms of loneliness, anxiety, and somatization, but family conflict and cohesion modified these relations. Greater family conflict exacerbated the negative effects of discrimination, and greater family cohesion buffered the negative effects of discrimination. Our findings highlight the importance of identifying family-level moderators to help adolescents and their families handle experiences of discrimination.

Temporal Context, Preference, and Resistance to Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Podlesnik, Christopher A.; Jimenez-Gomez, Corina; Thrailkill, Eric A.; Shahan, Timothy A.

2011-01-01

According to behavioral momentum theory, preference and relative resistance to change in concurrent chains schedules are correlated and reflect the relative conditioned value of discriminative stimuli. In the present study, we explore the generality of this relation by manipulating the temporal context within a concurrent-chains procedure through…

Peer Contexts for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Students: Reducing Stigma, Prejudice, and Discrimination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horn, Stacey S.; Romeo, Katherine E.

2010-01-01

Peer relationships are a vital part of adolescents' lives. For lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth, whether these relationships are supportive and positive, or filled with stigma, prejudice, and discrimination rests, to some degree, on their heterosexual peers' attitudes and beliefs about homosexuality. For while LGBT youth may…

Gender Discrimination and Sexual Harassment in Medical Education: Perspectives Gained by a 14-School Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nora, Lois Margaret; McLaughlin, Margaret A.; Fosson, Sue E.; Stratton, Terry D.; Murphy-Spencer, Amy; Fincher, Ruth-Marie E.; German, Deborah C.; Seiden, David; Witzke, Donald B.

2002-01-01

Surveyed medical students about their exposures to and perceptions of gender discrimination and sexual harassment (GD/SH) in selected academic and nonacademic contexts. Findings included that more women than men reported all types of GD/SH across all contexts, and that GD/SH is prevalent in undergraduate medical education, particularly within core…

Social recognition is context dependent in single male prairie voles

PubMed Central

Zheng, Da-Jiang; Foley, Lauren; Rehman, Asad; Ophir, Alexander G.

2013-01-01

Single males might benefit from knowing the identity of neighbouring males when establishing and defending boundaries. Similarly, males should discriminate between individual females if this leads to more reproductive opportunities. Contextual social cues may alter the value of learning identity. Knowing the identity of competitors that intrude into an animal’s territory may be more salient than knowing the identity of individuals on whose territory an animal is trespassing. Hence, social and environmental context could affect social recognition in many ways. Here we test social recognition of socially monogamous single male prairie voles, Microtus ochrogaster. In experiment 1 we tested recognition of male or female conspecifics and found that males discriminated between different males but not between different females. In experiment 2 we asked whether recognition of males is influenced when males are tested in their own cage (familiar), in a clean cage (neutral) or in the home cage of another male (unfamiliar). Although focal males discriminated between male conspecifics in all three contexts, individual variation in recognition was lower when males were tested in their home cage (in the presence of familiar social cues) compared to when the context lacked social cues (neutral). Experiment 1 indicates that selective pressures may have operated to enhance male territorial behaviour and indiscriminate mate selection. Experiment 2 suggests that the presence of a conspecific cue heightens social recognition and that home-field advantages might extend to social cognition. Taken together, our results indicate social recognition depends on the social and possibly territorial context. PMID:24273328

Social recognition is context dependent in single male prairie voles.

PubMed

Zheng, Da-Jiang; Foley, Lauren; Rehman, Asad; Ophir, Alexander G

2013-11-01

Single males might benefit from knowing the identity of neighbouring males when establishing and defending boundaries. Similarly, males should discriminate between individual females if this leads to more reproductive opportunities. Contextual social cues may alter the value of learning identity. Knowing the identity of competitors that intrude into an animal's territory may be more salient than knowing the identity of individuals on whose territory an animal is trespassing. Hence, social and environmental context could affect social recognition in many ways. Here we test social recognition of socially monogamous single male prairie voles, Microtus ochrogaster . In experiment 1 we tested recognition of male or female conspecifics and found that males discriminated between different males but not between different females. In experiment 2 we asked whether recognition of males is influenced when males are tested in their own cage (familiar), in a clean cage (neutral) or in the home cage of another male (unfamiliar). Although focal males discriminated between male conspecifics in all three contexts, individual variation in recognition was lower when males were tested in their home cage (in the presence of familiar social cues) compared to when the context lacked social cues (neutral). Experiment 1 indicates that selective pressures may have operated to enhance male territorial behaviour and indiscriminate mate selection. Experiment 2 suggests that the presence of a conspecific cue heightens social recognition and that home-field advantages might extend to social cognition. Taken together, our results indicate social recognition depends on the social and possibly territorial context.

Sex differences in conditioned stimulus discrimination during context-dependent fear learning and its retrieval in humans: the role of biological sex, contraceptives and menstrual cycle phases

PubMed Central

Lonsdorf, Tina B.; Haaker, Jan; Schümann, Dirk; Sommer, Tobias; Bayer, Janine; Brassen, Stefanie; Bunzeck, Nico; Gamer, Matthias; Kalisch, Raffael

2015-01-01

Background Anxiety disorders are more prevalent in women than in men. Despite this sexual dimorphism, most experimental studies are conducted in male participants, and studies focusing on sex differences are sparse. In addition, the role of hormonal contraceptives and menstrual cycle phase in fear conditioning and extinction processes remain largely unknown. Methods We investigated sex differences in context-dependent fear acquisition and extinction (day 1) and their retrieval/expression (day 2). Skin conductance responses (SCRs), fear and unconditioned stimulus expectancy ratings were obtained. Results We included 377 individuals (261 women) in our study. Robust sex differences were observed in all dependent measures. Women generally displayed higher subjective ratings but smaller SCRs than men and showed reduced excitatory/inhibitory conditioned stimulus (CS+/CS−) discrimination in all dependent measures. Furthermore, women using hormonal contraceptives showed reduced SCR CS discrimination on day 2 than men and free-cycling women, while menstrual cycle phase had no effect. Limitations Possible limitations include the simultaneous testing of up to 4 participants in cubicles, which might have introduced a social component, and not assessing postexperimental contingency awareness. Conclusion The response pattern in women shows striking similarity to previously reported sex differences in patients with anxiety. Our results suggest that pronounced deficits in associative discrimination learning and subjective expression of safety information (CS− responses) might underlie higher prevalence and higher symptom rates seen in women with anxiety disorders. The data call for consideration of biological sex and hormonal contraceptive use in future studies and may suggest that targeting inhibitory learning during therapy might aid precision medicine. PMID:26107163

Sex differences in conditioned stimulus discrimination during context-dependent fear learning and its retrieval in humans: the role of biological sex, contraceptives and menstrual cycle phases.

PubMed

Lonsdorf, Tina B; Haaker, Jan; Schümann, Dirk; Sommer, Tobias; Bayer, Janine; Brassen, Stefanie; Bunzeck, Nico; Gamer, Matthias; Kalisch, Raffael

2015-11-01

Anxiety disorders are more prevalent in women than in men. Despite this sexual dimorphism, most experimental studies are conducted in male participants and studies focusing on sex differences are sparse. In addition, the role of hormonal contraceptives and menstrual cycle phase in fear conditioning and extinction processes remain largely unknown. We investigated sex differences in context-dependent fear acquisition and extinction (day 1) and their retrieval/expression (day 2). Skin conductance responses (SCRs), fear and unconditioned stimulus expectancy ratings were obtained. We included 377 individuals (261 women) in our study. Robust sex differences were observed in all dependent measures. Women generally displayed higher subjective ratings but smaller SCRs than men and showed reduced excitatory/inhibitory conditioned stimulus (CS+/CS-) discrimination in all dependent measures. Furthermore, women using hormonal contraceptives showed reduced SCR CS discrimination on day 2 than men and free-cycling women, while menstrual cycle phase had no effect. Possible limitations include the simultaneous testing of up to 4 participants in cubicles, which might have introduced a social component, and not assessing postexperimental contingency awareness. The response pattern in women shows striking similarity to previously reported sex differences in patients with anxiety. Our results suggest that pronounced deficits in associative discrimination learning and subjective expression of safety information (CS- responses) might underlie higher prevalence and higher symptom rates seen in women with anxiety disorders. The data call for consideration of biological sex and hormonal contraceptive use in future studies and may suggest that targeting inhibitory learning during therapy might aid precision medicine.

Introduction to Psychology and Leadership. Rank-Biserial Correlation as an Item Discrimination.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Westinghouse Learning Corp., Annapolis, MD.

Written as a technical report for the leadership course of the United States Naval Academy (see the final reports which summarize the course development project, EM 010 418, EM 010 419, and EM 010 484), this paper examines the use and interpretation of the rank-biserial correlation as an index of item discrimination. The advantages and…

The inhibitory avoidance discrimination task to investigate accuracy of memory.

PubMed

Atucha, Erika; Roozendaal, Benno

2015-01-01

The present study was aimed at developing a new inhibitory avoidance task, based on training and/or testing rats in multiple contexts, to investigate accuracy of memory. In the first experiment, male Sprague-Dawley rats were given footshock in an inhibitory avoidance apparatus and, 48 h later, retention latencies of each rat were assessed in the training apparatus (Shock box) as well as in a novel, contextually modified, apparatus. Retention latencies in the Shock box were significantly longer than those in the Novel box, indicating accurate memory of the training context. When the noradrenergic stimulant yohimbine (0.3 mg/kg, sc) was administered after the training, 48-h retention latencies in the Shock box, but not Novel box, were increased, indicating that the noradrenergic activation enhanced memory of the training experience without reducing memory accuracy. In the second experiment, rats were trained on an inhibitory avoidance discrimination task: They were first trained in an inhibitory avoidance apparatus without footshock (Non-Shock box), followed 1 min later by footshock training in a contextually modified apparatus (Shock box). Forty-eight-hour retention latencies in the Shock and Non-Shock boxes did not differ from each other but were both significantly longer than those in a Novel box, indicating that rats remembered the two training contexts but did not have episodic-like memory of the association of footshock with the correct training context. When the interval between the two training episodes was increased to 2 min, rats showed accurate memory of the association of footshock with the training context. Yohimbine administered after the training also enhanced rats' ability to remember in which training context they had received actual footshock. These findings indicate that the inhibitory avoidance discrimination task is a novel variant of the well-established inhibitory avoidance task suitable to investigate accuracy of memory.

Health Consequences of Racist and Antigay Discrimination for Multiple Minority Adolescents

PubMed Central

Thoma, Brian C.; Huebner, David M.

2014-01-01

Individuals who belong to a marginalized group and who perceive discrimination based on that group membership suffer from a variety of poor health outcomes. Many people belong to more than one marginalized group, and much less is known about the influence of multiple forms of discrimination on health outcomes. Drawing on literature describing the influence of multiple stressors, three models of combined forms of discrimination are discussed: additive, prominence, and exacerbation. The current study examined the influence of multiple forms of discrimination in a sample of African American lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) adolescents ages 14–19. Each of the three models of combined stressors were tested to determine which best describes how racist and antigay discrimination combine to predict depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and substance use. Participants were included in this analysis if they identified their ethnicity as either African American (n = 156) or African American mixed (n = 120). Mean age was 17.45 years (SD = 1.36). Results revealed both forms of mistreatment were associated with depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation among African American LGB adolescents. Racism was more strongly associated with substance use. Future intervention efforts should be targeted toward reducing discrimination and improving the social context of multiple minority adolescents, and future research with multiple minority individuals should be attuned to the multiple forms of discrimination experienced by these individuals within their environments. PMID:23731232

Dyadic Effects of Stigma and Discrimination on Distress in Chinese HIV Discordant Couples.

PubMed

Yu, Nancy Xiaonan; Chan, Cecilia L W; Zhang, Jianxin

2016-08-01

The present study investigated the dyadic effects of stigma and discrimination on distress in Chinese couples affected by HIV. Chinese people living with HIV (PLHIV) and their seronegative spouses (N = 119 couples) participated in this study. The PLHIV completed measures on stigma beliefs about being better off dead and dignity-related distress. The spouses completed measures on perceived discrimination and exclusion and caregiver distress. The results showed that there was no significant correlation between the PLHIV's stigma beliefs and the spouses' perceived discrimination and exclusion. The couples showed significant associations in their dignity-related distress and caregiver distress. Analyses using the actor-partner interdependence model showed that PLHIV's stigma beliefs and the spouses' perceived discrimination and exclusion both had significant actor and partner effects on distress within the dyad. Psychosocial interventions aiming for distress reduction in the context of HIV should tackle stigma and discrimination and target the couples rather than solely the patient or spouse.

On the assimilation-discrimination relationship in American English adults’ French vowel learning1

PubMed Central

Levy, Erika S.

2009-01-01

A quantitative “cross-language assimilation overlap” method for testing predictions of the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) was implemented to compare results of a discrimination experiment with the listeners’ previously reported assimilation data. The experiment examined discrimination of Parisian French (PF) front rounded vowels ∕y∕ and ∕œ∕. Three groups of American English listeners differing in their French experience (no experience [NoExp], formal experience [ModExp], and extensive formal-plus-immersion experience [HiExp]) performed discrimination of PF ∕y-u∕, ∕y-o∕, ∕œ-o∕, ∕œ-u∕, ∕y-i∕, ∕y-ɛ∕, ∕œ-ɛ∕, ∕œ-i∕, ∕y-œ∕, ∕u-i∕, and ∕a-ɛ∕. Vowels were in bilabial ∕rabVp∕ and alveolar ∕radVt∕ contexts. More errors were found for PF front vs back rounded vowel pairs (16%) than for PF front unrounded vs rounded pairs (2%). Overall, ModExp listeners did not perform more accurately (11% errors) than NoExp listeners (13% errors). Extensive immersion experience, however, was associated with fewer errors (3%) than formal experience alone, although discrimination of PF ∕y-u∕ remained relatively poor (12% errors) for HiExp listeners. More errors occurred on pairs involving front vs back rounded vowels in alveolar context (20% errors) than in bilabial (11% errors). Significant correlations were revealed between listeners’ assimilation overlap scores and their discrimination errors, suggesting that the PAM may be extended to second-language (L2) vowel learning. PMID:19894844

MATC Student Opinions Regarding Discrimination and MATC Institutional Attitudes toward Women and Minorities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milwaukee Area Technical Coll., WI.

In April 1988, as part of an annual survey conducted at Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), students were asked to assess the institutional attitudes of MATC toward women and minorities and to indicate whether they had experienced discrimination because of race, religion, sex, ethnic background, or handicap. In addition, students were asked…

Acculturation Conflict Among Latino Youth: Discrimination, Ethnic Identity, and Depressive Symptoms

PubMed Central

Huq, Nadia; Stein, Gabriela L.; Gonzalez, Laura M.

2015-01-01

Objectives Patterns of parent-adolescent conflict differ between immigrant and nonimmigrant families living in the United States (Fuligni, 1998). Despite this, there is limited empirical literature examining the nuanced nature of parent-adolescent conflict in immigrant families. To fill this gap, the current study examined the role of two types of conflict (i.e., general and acculturation) in predicting psychosocial outcomes (i.e., depressive symptoms and ethnic identity) among Latino adolescents, and whether these relationships differ within the context of peer discrimination. Methods All survey administration was completed in the participating school’s cafeteria. The sample consisted of 7th–10th graders (n = 172) with a mean age of 14.01 years (SD = 1.32.) The sample consisted of 53% females, and was primarily Mexican in origin (78%). Results As hypothesized, parent-adolescent acculturation conflict uniquely predicted greater depressive symptoms and lower ethnic private regard, even when controlling for parent-adolescent general conflict. However, acculturation conflict predicted lower ethnic private regard only in the presence of greater peer discrimination. More specifically, peer discrimination moderated the relation between acculturation conflict and ethnic private regard such that adolescents who reported the highest levels of acculturation conflict and peer discrimination reported the lowest levels of ethnic private regard. Conclusions These results suggest that for Latino youth and their families, acculturation conflict may be particularly problematic, as compared to general conflict. In addition, youth who face ethnicity-based stressors in both familial and school contexts are especially at risk in their ethnic identity development. PMID:26460666

Acculturation conflict among Latino youth: Discrimination, ethnic identity, and depressive symptoms.

PubMed

Huq, Nadia; Stein, Gabriela L; Gonzalez, Laura M

2016-07-01

Patterns of parent-adolescent conflict differ between immigrant and nonimmigrant families living in the United States (Fuligni, 1998). Despite this, there is limited empirical literature examining the nuanced nature of parent-adolescent conflict in immigrant families. To fill this gap, the current study examined the role of 2 types of conflict (i.e., general and acculturation) in predicting psychosocial outcomes (i.e., depressive symptoms and ethnic identity) among Latino adolescents, and whether these relationships differ within the context of peer discrimination. All survey administration was completed in the participating school's cafeteria. The sample consisted of 7th through 10th graders (n = 172) with a mean age of 14.01 years (SD = 1.32.) The sample consisted of 53% females, and was primarily Mexican in origin (78%). As hypothesized, parent-adolescent acculturation conflict uniquely predicted greater depressive symptoms and lower ethnic private regard, even when controlling for parent-adolescent general conflict. However, acculturation conflict predicted lower ethnic private regard only in the presence of greater peer discrimination. More specifically, peer discrimination moderated the relation between acculturation conflict and ethnic private regard such that adolescents who reported the highest levels of acculturation conflict and peer discrimination reported the lowest levels of ethnic private regard. These results suggest that for Latino youth and their families, acculturation conflict may be particularly problematic, as compared with general conflict. In addition, youth who face ethnicity-based stressors in both familial and school contexts are especially at risk in their ethnic identity development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Technical Adequacy of Early Numeracy Curriculum-Based Measurement in Kindergarten

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martinez, Rebecca S.; Missall, Kristen N.; Graney, Suzanne Bamonto; Aricak, O. Tolga; Clarke, Ben

2009-01-01

The current study examines the technical adequacy of four Early Numeracy Curriculum-Based Measurement (EN-CBM) screening tasks: "Oral Counting" (OC), "Number Identification" (NI), "Quantity Discrimination" (QD), and "Missing Number" (MN). Results from 59 kindergarten students assessed in the fall and spring reveal moderate to high test-retest and…

Marketing information: The technical report as product

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stoher, F. F.; Pinelli, T. E.

1981-01-01

Technical reports constitute a product, the primary means for communicating the results of research to the user. The Langley scientific and technical information (STI) review and evaluation project undertook a review of the technical report as an effective product for information communication. Style manuals describing theory and practice in technical report preparation; publication manuals covering such factors as design, layout, and type style; and copies of technical reports were obtained from industrial, academic, governmental, and research organizations. Based on an analysis of this material, criteria will be established for the report components, for the relationship of the components within the report context, and for the overall report organization. The criteria will be used as bench marks and compared with the publication standards currently used to prepare NASA technical reports.

Political, religious and occupational identities in context: placing identity status paradigm in context.

PubMed

Solomontos-Kountouri, Olga; Hurry, Jane

2008-04-01

This study critically contrasts global identity with domain-specific identities (political, religious and occupational) and considers context and gender as integral parts of identity. In a cross-sectional survey, 1038 Greek Cypriot adolescents (449 boys and 589 girls, mean age 16.8) from the three different types of secondary schools (state, state technical and private) and from different SES completed part of the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status-2 (EOMEIS-2). The macro-context of Greek Cypriot society is used to understand the role of context in adolescents' identities. Results showed that Greek Cypriot young people were not in the same statuses across their global, political, religious and occupational identities. This heterogeneity in the status of global identity and of each identity domain is partially explained by differences in gender, type of school and SES (socio-economic status). The fact that identity status is found to be reactive to context suggests that developmental stage models of identity status should place greater emphasis on context.

Discrimination of dynamical system models for biological and chemical processes.

PubMed

Lorenz, Sönke; Diederichs, Elmar; Telgmann, Regina; Schütte, Christof

2007-06-01

In technical chemistry, systems biology and biotechnology, the construction of predictive models has become an essential step in process design and product optimization. Accurate modelling of the reactions requires detailed knowledge about the processes involved. However, when concerned with the development of new products and production techniques for example, this knowledge often is not available due to the lack of experimental data. Thus, when one has to work with a selection of proposed models, the main tasks of early development is to discriminate these models. In this article, a new statistical approach to model discrimination is described that ranks models wrt. the probability with which they reproduce the given data. The article introduces the new approach, discusses its statistical background, presents numerical techniques for its implementation and illustrates the application to examples from biokinetics.

LGBT Discrimination on Campus and Heterosexual Bystanders: Understanding Intentions to Intervene

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dessel, Adrienne B.; Goodman, Kevin D.; Woodford, Michael R.

2017-01-01

Discrimination targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students on college campuses occurs. Bystander intervention is important in supporting targeted students and improving campus climate for LGBT students. Peer-familiarity context (i.e., who the bystander knows in the situation) can play a role in bystander intervention, but…

Genetic Discrimination

MedlinePlus

... the News Canadian 41 st Parliament Passes New Law, S-201 "Genetic Non-Discrimination Act" Canadian lawmakers passed ... Title II). Read more Genetic Discrimination and Other Laws Genetic Discrimination and Other Laws includes the Health ...

Reinstatement after human feature-positive discrimination learning.

PubMed

Franssen, Mathijs; Claes, Nathalie; Vervliet, Bram; Beckers, Tom; Hermans, Dirk; Baeyens, Frank

2017-04-01

In two experiments, using an online conditioned suppression task, we investigated the possibility of reinstatement of extinguished feature-target compound presentations after sequential feature-positive discrimination training in humans. Furthermore, given a hierarchical account of Pavlovian modulation (e.g., Bonardi, 1998; Bonardi and Jennings, 2009), we predicted A-US reinstatement to be stronger than US-only reinstatement. In Experiment 1, participants learned a sequential feature-positive discrimination (X→A + |A - ), which was subsequently extinguished (X→A - ). During the following reinstatement phase, group US-only received US-only presentations (not signalled), group A-US received A-US presentations, and the Control group received exposure to the context, but no CSs or USs, for an equal amount of time. Reinstatement of differential X→A/A responding was observed in the US-only group but not in the Control or A-US groups. Although differential X→A/A responding was not significant in group A-US, responding to the X→A compound was significantly stronger compared to that in group US-only. Hence, it could be the case the group A-US showed stronger reinstatement, but that differential responding was abolished due to excitation gained by A. Experiment 2 was set up to circumvent the acquired excitation of A by testing transfer of the feature after A-US reinstatement to a different target, B. Participants acquired two discriminations, X→A/A and Y→B/B, of which X→A was then extinguished. Subsequently, group A-US received reinforced presentations of A during a reinstatement phase while group Control received exposure to the context. Final testing of the novel X→B compound was hypothesized to show higher responding in group A-US than in group Control, but findings of this approach were limited due to acquired equivalence and/or perceptual factors causing a secondary extinction effect. We conclude to have obtained clear evidence in favour of

Discrimination and victimization: parade for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride, in Chile.

PubMed

Barrientos, Jaime; Silva, Jimena; Catalan, Susan; Gomez, Fabiola; Longueira, Jimena

2010-01-01

This article describes the population participating in the LGBT Pride Parade in Santiago, Chile, from discrimination and victimization standpoints. The sample consisted of 488 subjects older than 18 years (M = 25.1), who were interviewed during the 2007 event. For this purpose, a questionnaire from the Latin American Centre of Sexuality and Human Rights (CLAM) was adapted and administered. Approximately 35% of respondents reported having experimented school, religious, or neighborhood discrimination. The more discriminated are transgender people. Approximately three fourths of respondents reported experiencing ridicule and almost 60% reported experiencing insults or threats. Transgender were significantly more likely than gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals to experience discrimination or victimization events. Finally, the parade acquired an important social and political character in the context of a clearly homophobic society.

One hundred years of discrimination research in the Journal of Applied Psychology: A sobering synopsis.

PubMed

Colella, Adrienne; Hebl, Mikki; King, Eden

2017-03-01

Employment discrimination-a legal, social, moral, and practical problem-has been a persistent focus of narrow scholarship in the Journal of Applied Psychology since its inception. Indeed, this article identifies the environmental characteristics, conceptual underpinnings, dominant methodologies, research questions and findings across 508 articles published on discrimination in the journal over the last 100 years. Emergent themes document signs of stability and change in 3 eras: an era wherein discrimination research was itself discriminatory (1917-1969), the heyday of discrimination research (1970-1989), and an era of unsteady progress (1990-2014). This synthesis suggests that, although increasingly sophisticated methodological approaches have been applied to this topic, the targets of focus and theories driving research have largely been static. Additionally, research published on discrimination in the Journal of Applied Psychology has often trailed too far behind the times. Specific recommendations for advancing the psychological study of employment discrimination in applied contexts are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Visual Aversive Learning Compromises Sensory Discrimination.

PubMed

Shalev, Lee; Paz, Rony; Avidan, Galia

2018-03-14

Aversive learning is thought to modulate perceptual thresholds, which can lead to overgeneralization. However, it remains undetermined whether this modulation is domain specific or a general effect. Moreover, despite the unique role of the visual modality in human perception, it is unclear whether this aspect of aversive learning exists in this modality. The current study was designed to examine the effect of visual aversive outcomes on the perception of basic visual and auditory features. We tested the ability of healthy participants, both males and females, to discriminate between neutral stimuli, before and after visual learning. In each experiment, neutral stimuli were associated with aversive images in an experimental group and with neutral images in a control group. Participants demonstrated a deterioration in discrimination (higher discrimination thresholds) only after aversive learning. This deterioration was measured for both auditory (tone frequency) and visual (orientation and contrast) features. The effect was replicated in five different experiments and lasted for at least 24 h. fMRI neural responses and pupil size were also measured during learning. We showed an increase in neural activations in the anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and amygdala during aversive compared with neutral learning. Interestingly, the early visual cortex showed increased brain activity during aversive compared with neutral context trials, with identical visual information. Our findings imply the existence of a central multimodal mechanism, which modulates early perceptual properties, following exposure to negative situations. Such a mechanism could contribute to abnormal responses that underlie anxiety states, even in new and safe environments. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Using a visual aversive-learning paradigm, we found deteriorated discrimination abilities for visual and auditory stimuli that were associated with visual aversive stimuli. We showed increased neural

Contextual and Serial Discriminations: A New Learning Paradigm to Assess Simultaneously the Effects of Acute Stress on Retrieval of Flexible or Stable Information in Mice

PubMed Central

Célérier, Aurélie; Piérard, Christophe; Rachbauer, Dagmar; Sarrieau, Alain; Béracochéa, Daniel

2004-01-01

The present study was aimed at simultaneously determining on the same subject, the effects of stress on retrieval of flexible (contextual or temporal) or stable (spatial) information. Three behavioral paradigms carried out in a four-hole board were designed as follows: (1) Simple Discrimination (SD), in which mice learned a single discrimination; (2) Contextual and Serial Discriminations (CSD), in which mice learned two successive discriminations on two different internal contexts; (3) Spatial Serial Discriminations (SSD), in which mice learned two successive discriminations on an identical internal context. The stressor (three inescapable electric footshocks) was delivered 5 min before retention, occurring 5 min or 24 h after acquisition. Results showed that this stressor increased plasmatic corticosterone levels and fear reactivity in an elevated-plus-maze, as compared with nonstressed mice. The stressor reversed the normal pattern of retrieval observed in nonstressed controls in the CSD task, this effect being context dependent, as it was not observed in the SSD task. Overall, our study shows that stress affected the retrieval of flexible and old information, but spared the retrieval of stable or recent ones. Therefore, these behavioral paradigms allow us to study simultaneously, on the same animal, the effects of stress on distinct forms of memory retrieval. PMID:15054135

Semi-supervised learning for ordinal Kernel Discriminant Analysis.

PubMed

Pérez-Ortiz, M; Gutiérrez, P A; Carbonero-Ruz, M; Hervás-Martínez, C

2016-12-01

Ordinal classification considers those classification problems where the labels of the variable to predict follow a given order. Naturally, labelled data is scarce or difficult to obtain in this type of problems because, in many cases, ordinal labels are given by a user or expert (e.g. in recommendation systems). Firstly, this paper develops a new strategy for ordinal classification where both labelled and unlabelled data are used in the model construction step (a scheme which is referred to as semi-supervised learning). More specifically, the ordinal version of kernel discriminant learning is extended for this setting considering the neighbourhood information of unlabelled data, which is proposed to be computed in the feature space induced by the kernel function. Secondly, a new method for semi-supervised kernel learning is devised in the context of ordinal classification, which is combined with our developed classification strategy to optimise the kernel parameters. The experiments conducted compare 6 different approaches for semi-supervised learning in the context of ordinal classification in a battery of 30 datasets, showing (1) the good synergy of the ordinal version of discriminant analysis and the use of unlabelled data and (2) the advantage of computing distances in the feature space induced by the kernel function. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Questioning Discrimination through Critical Media Literacy. Findings from Seven European Countries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ranieri, Maria; Fabbro, Francesco

2016-01-01

This paper presents the main findings of an action-research study that took place in seven European countries in order to develop effective educational responses to prevent and combat discrimination. The study entailed the design of media and citizenship education activities, their implementation in the different educational contexts and the…

Pavlovian Extinction of the Discriminative Stimulus Effects of Nicotine and Ethanol in Rats Varies as a Function of Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Troisi, Joseph R., II

2011-01-01

Operant extinction contingencies can undermine the discriminative stimulus effects of drugs. Here, nicotine (0.4 mg/kg) and ethanol (0.8 g/kg) first functioned as either an S[superscript D] or S[superscript Delta], in a counterbalanced one-lever go/no-go (across sessions) operant drug discrimination procedure. Pavlovian extinction in the training…

Health consequences of racist and antigay discrimination for multiple minority adolescents.

PubMed

Thoma, Brian C; Huebner, David M

2013-10-01

Individuals who belong to a marginalized group and who perceive discrimination based on that group membership suffer from a variety of poor health outcomes. Many people belong to more than one marginalized group, and much less is known about the influence of multiple forms of discrimination on health outcomes. Drawing on literature describing the influence of multiple stressors, three models of combined forms of discrimination are discussed: additive, prominence, and exacerbation. The current study examined the influence of multiple forms of discrimination in a sample of African American lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) adolescents ages 14-19. Each of the three models of combined stressors were tested to determine which best describes how racist and antigay discrimination combine to predict depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and substance use. Participants were included in this analysis if they identified their ethnicity as either African American (n = 156) or African American mixed (n = 120). Mean age was 17.45 years (SD = 1.36). Results revealed both forms of mistreatment were associated with depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation among African American LGB adolescents. Racism was more strongly associated with substance use. Future intervention efforts should be targeted toward reducing discrimination and improving the social context of multiple minority adolescents, and future research with multiple minority individuals should be attuned to the multiple forms of discrimination experienced by these individuals within their environments. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

[Age discrimination. Point of view of the professionals].

PubMed

Ribera Casado, Jose Manuel; Bustillos, Antonio; Guerra Vaquero, Ana Ilenia; Huici Casal, Carmen; Fernández-Ballesteros, Rocío

2016-01-01

It is generally believed that legislation is an essential resource in the prevention of discriminatory behaviour against older people. This study first examines the Spanish legislation for potential age discrimination and then uses the C-EVE-D questionnaire to ask professionals in social work and health care settings the extent to what certain ageist behaviours described in the questionnaire are observed in practice. The field study was carried out with professionals in geriatrics and gerontology, who are members of Spanish Society for Geriatrics and Gerontology (SEGG). The EVE discrimination questionnaire consists of 28 items which investigate the existence of age discrimination in medical and social care contexts. A total of 174 people (63% women; mean age: 45.6 years) took part in the study, with a mean professional experience of 17.2 years. Doctors made up 59% of the sample, psychologists 19%, with the rest coming from other professions. The first 20 discrimination items of the EVE-D questionnaire were significantly positively reported by more than 60% of the sample. Although Spanish legislation, from the constitution down to the rules that govern social and health care settings, clearly prohibits any kind of discrimination with regard to age, our results show that Spanish professionals most closely involved in the care of older people perceive both direct and indirect age discrimination. Furthermore, evidence was found of prejudice in the treatment of older people as a phenomenon in day-to-day health and social services care, both when analysing medical cases and, to a greater extent, cases of a more general nature and/or relating to co-existence. Copyright © 2016 SEGG. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Factors Associated with Medical Doctors' Intentions to Discriminate Against Transgender Patients in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

PubMed

Vijay, Aishwarya; Earnshaw, Valerie A; Tee, Ying Chew; Pillai, Veena; White Hughto, Jaclyn M; Clark, Kirsty; Kamarulzaman, Adeeba; Altice, Frederick L; Wickersham, Jeffrey A

2018-01-01

Transgender people are frequent targets of discrimination. Discrimination against transgender people in the context of healthcare can lead to poor health outcomes and facilitate the growth of health disparities. This study explores factors associated with medical doctors' intentions to discriminate against transgender people in Malaysia. A total of 436 physicians at two major university medical centers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, completed an online survey. Sociodemographic characteristics, stigma-related constructs, and intentions to discriminate against transgender people were measured. Bivariate and multivariate linear regression were used to evaluate independent covariates of discrimination intent. Medical doctors who felt more fearful of transgender people and more personal shame associated with transgender people expressed greater intention to discriminate against transgender people, whereas doctors who endorsed the belief that transgender people deserve good care reported lower discrimination intent. Stigma-related constructs accounted for 42% of the variance and 8% was accounted for by sociodemographic characteristics. Constructs associated with transgender stigma play an important role in medical doctors' intentions to discriminate against transgender patients. Development of interventions to improve medical doctors' knowledge about and attitudes toward transgender people are necessary to reduce discriminatory intent in healthcare settings.

Factors Associated with Medical Doctors' Intentions to Discriminate Against Transgender Patients in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

PubMed Central

Vijay, Aishwarya; Earnshaw, Valerie A.; Tee, Ying Chew; Pillai, Veena; White Hughto, Jaclyn M.; Clark, Kirsty; Kamarulzaman, Adeeba; Altice, Frederick L.

2018-01-01

Abstract Purpose: Transgender people are frequent targets of discrimination. Discrimination against transgender people in the context of healthcare can lead to poor health outcomes and facilitate the growth of health disparities. This study explores factors associated with medical doctors' intentions to discriminate against transgender people in Malaysia. Methods: A total of 436 physicians at two major university medical centers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, completed an online survey. Sociodemographic characteristics, stigma-related constructs, and intentions to discriminate against transgender people were measured. Bivariate and multivariate linear regression were used to evaluate independent covariates of discrimination intent. Results: Medical doctors who felt more fearful of transgender people and more personal shame associated with transgender people expressed greater intention to discriminate against transgender people, whereas doctors who endorsed the belief that transgender people deserve good care reported lower discrimination intent. Stigma-related constructs accounted for 42% of the variance and 8% was accounted for by sociodemographic characteristics. Conclusions: Constructs associated with transgender stigma play an important role in medical doctors' intentions to discriminate against transgender patients. Development of interventions to improve medical doctors' knowledge about and attitudes toward transgender people are necessary to reduce discriminatory intent in healthcare settings. PMID:29227183

Do spouses matter? Discrimination, social support, and psychological distress among Asian Americans.

PubMed

Rollock, David; Lui, P Priscilla

2016-01-01

Perceived discrimination poses risks for psychological distress among Asian Americans, but the differential impact of general unfair treatment and racial discrimination has not been examined. Although social support from distal sources reduces discrimination-related distress either directly or as a buffer, the unique roles of spousal support have remained understudied. Nativity status was examined as another moderator of these relationships to resolve previous inconsistent findings regarding its relationship to the discrimination-distress link. Data were from 1,626 U.S.- and foreign-born Asian American adults (Mage = 42.17 years; n = 1,142 married/cohabiting) in the nationally representative National Latino and Asian American Study, who reported on experiences of unfair treatment, racial discrimination, social supports from spouses, family, friends, and neighborhood, and psychological distress. Hierarchical multiple regressions showed that both unfair treatment and racial discrimination predicted psychological distress, and spousal support predicted distress above and beyond distal forms of social support in the context of perceived discrimination. Moderation analyses revealed that spousal support buffered against negative psychological consequences of unfair treatment, but not racial discrimination. Spousal support was not differentially protective as a function of nativity; however, U.S.-born respondents reacted with greater distress to unfair treatment than their foreign-born counterparts. Psychological effects of both general and race-based discrimination, and the unique contributions of distinct sources of social support, are important to understanding adjustment and cultural transition among Asian Americans. Nativity differentially influences effects of unfair treatment. Implications for future research are discussed. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Behavioral evidence for community-wide species discrimination from echolocation calls in bats.

PubMed

Schuchmann, Maike; Siemers, Björn M

2010-07-01

Recognizing species identity is crucial for many aspects of animal life and is often mediated by acoustic signals. Although most animals are able to distinguish acoustic signals of their own species from other sympatrically occurring species, it is yet unknown whether animals can distinguish among acoustic signals of different closely related sympatric species. In this context, echolocating bats are a particularly interesting model system: their echolocation system evolved primarily for spatial orientation and foraging, but recent studies indicate that echolocation also has an important communicative function. Yet, the role of echolocation calls for species discrimination and thus potentially for interspecific communication has not been investigated. Using a behavioral discrimination assay, we found that two species of wild horseshoe bats could discriminate calls of their own species from those of three sympatric congeneric species. We further show that the bats were able to discriminate between echolocation calls of different congeneric species from the local community. In both cases, discrimination ability was high despite strong overlap of species' call frequency bands. This study provides the first experimental evidence for species discrimination based on echolocation calls. On a more general level, it shows for the first time that animals can distinguish among acoustic signals of different closely related and ecologically similar species from their local community.

Intersensory Redundancy Hinders Face Discrimination in Preschool Children: Evidence for Visual Facilitation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bahrick, Lorraine E.; Krogh-Jespersen, Sheila; Argumosa, Melissa A.; Lopez, Hassel

2014-01-01

Although infants and children show impressive face-processing skills, little research has focused on the conditions that facilitate versus impair face perception. According to the intersensory redundancy hypothesis (IRH), face discrimination, which relies on detection of visual featural information, should be impaired in the context of…

Perceived Discrimination and Ethnic Identity Among Breast Cancer Survivors

PubMed Central

Campesino, Maureen; Saenz, Delia S.; Choi, Myunghan; Krouse, Robert S.

2012-01-01

Purpose/Objectives To examine ethnic identity and sociodemographic factors in minority patients' perceptions of healthcare discrimination in breast cancer care. Design Mixed methods. Setting Participants' homes in the metropolitan areas of Phoenix and Tucson, AZ. Sample 39 women treated for breast cancer in the past six years: 15 monolingual Spanish-speaking Latinas, 15 English-speaking Latinas, and 9 African Americans. Methods Two questionnaires were administered. Individual interviews with participants were conducted by nurse researchers. Quantitative, qualitative, and matrix analytic methods were used. Main Research Variables Ethnic identity and perceptions of discrimination. Findings Eighteen women (46%) believed race and spoken language affected the quality of health care. Perceived disrespect from providers was attributed to participant's skin color, income level, citizenship status, and ability to speak English. Discrimination was more likely to be described in a primary care context, rather than cancer care. Ethnic identity and early-stage breast cancer diagnosis were the only study variables significantly associated with perceived healthcare discrimination. Conclusions This article describes the first investigation examining ethnic identity and perceived discrimination in cancer care delivery. Replication of this study with larger samples is needed to better understand the role of ethnic identity and cancer stage in perceptions of cancer care delivery. Implications for Nursing Identification of ethnic-specific factors that influence patient's perspectives and healthcare needs will facilitate development of more effective strategies for the delivery of cross-cultural patient-centered cancer care. PMID:22374505

The effects of context in item-based directed forgetting: Evidence for "one-shot" context storage.

PubMed

Burgess, Nicole; Hockley, William E; Hourihan, Kathleen L

2017-07-01

The effects of context on item-based directed forgetting were assessed. Study words were presented against different background pictures and were followed by a cue to remember (R) or forget (F) the target item. The effects of incidental and intentional encoding of context on recognition of the study words were examined in Experiments 1 and 2. Recognition memory for the picture contexts was assessed in Experiments 3a and 3b. Recognition was greater for R-cued compared to F-cued targets, demonstrating an effect of directed forgetting. In contrast, no directed forgetting effect was seen for the background pictures. An effect of context-dependent recognition was seen in Experiments 1 and 2, such that the hit rate and the false-alarm rate were greater for items tested in an old compared to a novel context. An effect of context-dependent discrimination was also observed in Experiment 2 as the hit rate was greater for targets shown in their same old study context compared to a different old context. The effects of context and directed forgetting did not interact. The results are consistent with Malmberg and Shiffrin's (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 31, 322-336, 2005) "one-shot" context storage hypothesis that assumes that a fixed amount of context is stored in the first 1 to 2 s of the presentation of the study item. The effects of context are independent of item-based directed forgetting because context is encoded prior to the R or F cue, and the differential processing of target information that gives rise to the directed forgetting effect occurs after the cue.

Treatment discrimination among assistant coaches of women's teams.

PubMed

Cunningham, George B; Sagas, Michael

2003-12-01

The purpose of this study was to examine organizational treatment discrimination (i.e., when members of a group receive fewer rewards, opportunities, or resources than they legitimately deserve based on job-related criteria) in the context of women's athletics. Data were collected from 170 assistant coaches of women's teams (i.e., women's basketball, softball, track, volleyball, soccer, and tennis). Results indicate that women's perceived work experiences and outcomes were comparable, and sometimes better, than those of men. We present competing explanations for this finding. First, it is possible that these women were not subjected to treatment discrimination. Alternatively, it is possible that this demonstrates the existence of the "paradox of the contented working woman." Additional analyses indicate that work experiences explained a large portion of the variance in organizational commitment and turnover intentions, thereby demonstrating their importance in the workplace.

The big sell: Managing stigma and workplace discrimination following moderate to severe brain injury.

PubMed

Stergiou-Kita, Mary; Grigorovich, Alisa; Damianakis, Thecla; Le Dorze, Guylaine; David, Christine; Lemsky, Carolyn; Hebert, Debbie

2017-01-01

Misperceptions regarding persons with brain injuries (PWBI) can lead to stigmatization, workplace discrimination and, in turn, influence PWBIs full vocational integration. In this study we explored how stigma may influence return-to-work processes, experiences of stigma and discrimination at the workplace for persons with (moderate to severe) brain injuries, and strategies that can be employed to manage disclosure. Exploratory qualitative study; used in-depth interviews and an inductive thematic analytical approach in data analysis. Ten PWBI and five employment service providers participated. PWBI discussed their work experiences, relationships with supervisors and co-workers and experiences of stigma and/or discrimination at work. Employment service providers discussed their perceptions regarding PWBI's rights and abilities to work, reported incidents of workplace discrimination, and how issues related to stigma, discrimination and disclosure are managed. Three themes were identified: i) public, employer and provider knowledge about brain injury and beliefs about PWBI; ii) incidents of workplace discrimination; iii) disclosure. Misperceptions regarding PWBI persist amongst the public and employers. Incidents of workplace discrimination included social exclusion at the workplace, hiring discrimination, denial of promotion/demotion, harassment, and failure to provide reasonable accommodations. Disclosure decisions required careful consideration of PWBI needs, the type of information that should be shared, and the context in which that information is shared. Public understanding about PWBI remains limited. PWBI require further assistance to manage disclosure and incidents of workplace discrimination.

Recognition in context: Implications for trade mark law.

PubMed

Humphreys, Michael S; McFarlane, Kimberley A; Burt, Jennifer S; Kelly, Sarah J; Weatherall, Kimberlee G; Burrell, Robert G

2017-10-01

Context effects in recognition have played a major role in evaluating theories of recognition. Understanding how context impacts recognition is also important for making sound trade mark law. Consumers attempting to discriminate between the brand they are looking for and a look-alike product often have to differentiate products which share a great deal of common context: positioning on the supermarket shelf, the type of store, aspects of the packaging, or brand claims. Trade mark and related laws aim to protect brands and reduce consumer confusion, but courts assessing allegations of trade mark infringement often lack careful empirical evidence concerning the impact of brand and context similarity, and, in the absence of such evidence, make assumptions about how consumers respond to brands that downplay the importance of context and focus on the similarity of registered marks. The experiments reported in this paper aimed to test certain common assumptions in trade mark law, providing evidence that shared context can cause mistakes even where brand similarity is low.

Confronting as autonomy promotion: Speaking up against discrimination and psychological well-being in racial minorities.

PubMed

Sanchez, Diana T; Himmelstein, Mary S; Young, Danielle M; Albuja, Analia F; Garcia, Julie A

2016-09-01

Few studies have considered confrontation in the context of coping with discriminatory experiences. These studies test for the first time whether confronting racial discrimination is associated with greater psychological well-being and physical health through the promotion of autonomy. In two separate samples of racial minorities who had experienced racial discrimination, confrontation was associated with greater psychological well-being, and this relationship was mediated by autonomy promotion. These findings did not extend to physical health symptoms. These studies provide preliminary evidence that confrontation may aid in the process of regaining autonomy after experiencing discrimination and therefore promote well-being. © The Author(s) 2015.

Techniques for Eliminating Sex Discrimination from Vocational Education: An Instructor's Guide for Culinary Arts.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glick, Georgia S.; Upton, Linda Kulow

This instructor's guide addresses issues of sex bias as they occur in the shop area of the Culinary Arts Program. The first part gives general background by discussing sex discrimination and schools and course enrollments by sex and the Culinary Arts shop at the Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical School, Massachusetts. A second, and much…

Learning context modulates aversive taste strength in honey bees.

PubMed

de Brito Sanchez, Maria Gabriela; Serre, Marion; Avarguès-Weber, Aurore; Dyer, Adrian G; Giurfa, Martin

2015-03-01

The capacity of honey bees (Apis mellifera) to detect bitter substances is controversial because they ingest without reluctance different kinds of bitter solutions in the laboratory, whereas free-flying bees avoid them in visual discrimination tasks. Here, we asked whether the gustatory perception of bees changes with the behavioral context so that tastes that are less effective as negative reinforcements in a given context become more effective in a different context. We trained bees to discriminate an odorant paired with 1 mol l(-1) sucrose solution from another odorant paired with either distilled water, 3 mol l(-1) NaCl or 60 mmol l(-1) quinine. Training was either Pavlovian [olfactory conditioning of the proboscis extension reflex (PER) in harnessed bees], or mainly operant (olfactory conditioning of free-walking bees in a Y-maze). PER-trained and maze-trained bees were subsequently tested both in their original context and in the alternative context. Whereas PER-trained bees transferred their choice to the Y-maze situation, Y-maze-trained bees did not respond with a PER to odors when subsequently harnessed. In both conditioning protocols, NaCl and distilled water were the strongest and the weakest aversive reinforcement, respectively. A significant variation was found for quinine, which had an intermediate aversive effect in PER conditioning but a more powerful effect in the Y-maze, similar to that of NaCl. These results thus show that the aversive strength of quinine varies with the learning context, and reveal the plasticity of the bee's gustatory system. We discuss the experimental constraints of both learning contexts and focus on stress as a key modulator of taste in the honey bee. Further explorations of bee taste are proposed to understand the physiology of taste modulation in bees. © 2015. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

A Question of Trust: Predictive Conditions for Adaptive and Technical Leadership in Educational Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daly, Alan J.; Chrispeels, Janet

2008-01-01

Recent studies have suggested that educational leaders enacting a balance of technical and adaptive leadership have an effect on increasing student achievement. Technical leadership focuses on problem-solving or first-order changes within existing structures and paradigms. Adaptive leadership involves deep or second-order changes that alter…

Synthetic biology R&D risks: Social-institutional contexts matter!

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wolfe, Amy K.; Bjornstad, David J.; Shumpert, Barry L.

Social and institutional analyses currently are missing from considerations of synthetic biology R&D-related biosafety, which instead have bioethics, governance, or technical orientations. Social and institutional context shapes standard practice. Here, analyzing context helps identify circumstances that create, amplify, or diminish risk, thereby revealing new opportunities for avoiding or managing those risks.

Synthetic biology R&D risks: Social-institutional contexts matter!

DOE PAGES

Wolfe, Amy K.; Bjornstad, David J.; Shumpert, Barry L.; ...

2016-02-15

Social and institutional analyses currently are missing from considerations of synthetic biology R&D-related biosafety, which instead have bioethics, governance, or technical orientations. Social and institutional context shapes standard practice. Here, analyzing context helps identify circumstances that create, amplify, or diminish risk, thereby revealing new opportunities for avoiding or managing those risks.

Interpersonal Valence Dimensions as Discriminators of Communication Contexts: An Empirical Assessment of Dyadic Linkages.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garrison, John P.; And Others

The capability of 14 interpersonal dimensions to predict dyadic communication contexts was investigated in this study. Friend, acquaintance, co-worker, and family contexts were examined. The interpersonal valence construct, based on a coactive or mutual-causal paradigm, encompasses traditional source-valence components (credibility, power,…

Core ITAC for Career-Focused Education. Integrated Technical & Academic Competencies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Vocational Instructional Materials Lab.

This document introduces the underlying principles and components of Ohio's Integrated Technical and Academic Competencies (ITAC) system of career-focused education, which combines high-level academics and technical skills with a real-life context for learning that maximizes students' present and future academic and career success. The document…

Teaching audience analysis to the technical student

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Debs, M. B.; Brillhart, L. V.

1981-01-01

Teaching audience analysis, as practiced in a technical writing course for engineering students, is discussed. Audience analysis is described as the task of defining the audience for a particular piece of writing and determining those characteristics of the audience which constrain the writer and effect reception of the message. A mature technical writing style that shows the tension produced when a text is written to be read and understood is considered in terms of audience analysis. Techniques include: (1) conveying to students the concept that a reader with certain expectations exist, (2) team teaching to preserve the context of a given technical discipline, and (3) assigning a technical report that addresses a variety of readers, thus establishing the complexity of audience oriented writing.

Refugee Immigrants' Experiences of Racism and Racial Discrimination at Australian TAFE Institutes: A Transformative Psychosocial Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Onsando, Gerald; Billett, Stephen

2017-01-01

This paper discusses experiences of racism and racial discrimination of seven refugee immigrants attending different courses at two Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutes in South East Queensland, Australia. In doing so, the paper draws from two studies that focused on resettlement of refugee immigrants in Australia. A transformative…

Visual discrimination transfer and modulation by biogenic amines in honeybees.

PubMed

Vieira, Amanda Rodrigues; Salles, Nayara; Borges, Marco; Mota, Theo

2018-05-10

For more than a century, visual learning and memory have been studied in the honeybee Apis mellifera using operant appetitive conditioning. Although honeybees show impressive visual learning capacities in this well-established protocol, operant training of free-flying animals cannot be combined with invasive protocols for studying the neurobiological basis of visual learning. In view of this, different attempts have been made to develop new classical conditioning protocols for studying visual learning in harnessed honeybees, though learning performance remains considerably poorer than that for free-flying animals. Here, we investigated the ability of honeybees to use visual information acquired during classical conditioning in a new operant context. We performed differential visual conditioning of the proboscis extension reflex (PER) followed by visual orientation tests in a Y-maze. Classical conditioning and Y-maze retention tests were performed using the same pair of perceptually isoluminant chromatic stimuli, to avoid the influence of phototaxis during free-flying orientation. Visual discrimination transfer was clearly observed, with pre-trained honeybees significantly orienting their flights towards the former positive conditioned stimulus (CS+), thus showing that visual memories acquired by honeybees are resistant to context changes between conditioning and the retention test. We combined this visual discrimination approach with selective pharmacological injections to evaluate the effect of dopamine and octopamine in appetitive visual learning. Both octopaminergic and dopaminergic antagonists impaired visual discrimination performance, suggesting that both these biogenic amines modulate appetitive visual learning in honeybees. Our study brings new insight into cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms underlying visual learning in honeybees. © 2018. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Educational Context: Preparing Accounting Students to Identify Ethical Dilemmas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Billiot, Mary Jo; Daniel, David; Glandon, Sid; Glandon, TerryAnn

2012-01-01

We examine the effect of different contexts in an educational process on measures of ethical sensitivity and levels of moral reasoning of accounting majors in the first Intermediate Accounting course. The educational process compared a context that centers on ethical issues with one that focuses on technical accounting issues. At the end of the…

Perceived Racial Discrimination and Negative-Mood–Related Drinking Among African American College Students

PubMed Central

O’hara, Ross E.; Armeli, Stephen; Scott, Denise M.; Covault, Jonathan; Tennen, Howard

2015-01-01

Objective: Research consistently shows a positive association between racial discrimination and problematic alcohol use among African Americans, but little is known about the micro-processes linking this pernicious form of stress to drinking. One possibility is that the cumulative effects of discrimination increase individuals’ likelihood of negative-mood–related drinking. In the current study, we examined whether individual differences in lifetime perceived racial discrimination among African American college students moderate relations between daily negative moods and evening alcohol consumption in both social and nonsocial contexts. Method: Data came from an online daily diary study of 441 African Americans (58% female) enrolled at a historically black college/university. Lifetime discrimination was measured at baseline. For 30 days, students reported the number of drinks they consumed the night before both socially and nonsocially, as well as their daytime level of negative mood. Results: In support of the hypotheses, only men who reported higher (vs. lower) lifetime discrimination showed a positive association between daily negative mood and that evening’s level of nonsocial drinking. Contrary to expectation, women who reported higher (vs. lower) discrimination showed a negative association between daily negative mood and nonsocial drinking. Neither daily negative mood nor lifetime discrimination predicted level of social drinking. Conclusions: These findings provide further evidence that the cumulative impact of racial discrimination may produce a vulnerability to negative-mood–related drinking—but only for African American men. Importantly, these effects emerged only for nonsocial drinking, which may further explain the robust association between discrimination and problematic alcohol use. PMID:25785798

Perceived racial discrimination and negative-mood-related drinking among African American college students.

PubMed

O'Hara, Ross E; Armeli, Stephen; Scott, Denise M; Covault, Jonathan; Tennen, Howard

2015-03-01

Research consistently shows a positive association between racial discrimination and problematic alcohol use among African Americans, but little is known about the micro-processes linking this pernicious form of stress to drinking. One possibility is that the cumulative effects of discrimination increase individuals' likelihood of negative-mood-related drinking. In the current study, we examined whether individual differences in lifetime perceived racial discrimination among African American college students moderate relations between daily negative moods and evening alcohol consumption in both social and nonsocial contexts. Data came from an online daily diary study of 441 African Americans (58% female) enrolled at a historically black college/university. Lifetime discrimination was measured at baseline. For 30 days, students reported the number of drinks they consumed the night before both socially and nonsocially, as well as their daytime level of negative mood. In support of the hypotheses, only men who reported higher (vs. lower) lifetime discrimination showed a positive association between daily negative mood and that evening's level of nonsocial drinking. Contrary to expectation, women who reported higher (vs. lower) discrimination showed a negative association between daily negative mood and nonsocial drinking. Neither daily negative mood nor lifetime discrimination predicted level of social drinking. These findings provide further evidence that the cumulative impact of racial discrimination may produce a vulnerability to negative-mood-related drinking--but only for African American men. Importantly, these effects emerged only for nonsocial drinking, which may further explain the robust association between discrimination and problematic alcohol use.

Decision Processes in Discrimination: Fundamental Misrepresentations of Signal Detection Theory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Balakrishnan, J. D.

1998-01-01

In the first part of this article, I describe a new approach to studying decision making in discrimination tasks that does not depend on the technical assumptions of signal detection theory (e.g., normality of the encoding distributions). Applying these new distribution-free tests to data from three experiments, I show that base rate and payoff manipulations had substantial effects on the participants' encoding distributions but no effect on their decision rules, which were uniformly unbiased in equal and unequal base rate conditions and in symmetric and asymmetric payoff conditions. In the second part of the article, I show that this seemingly paradoxical result is readily explained by the sequential sampling models of discrimination. I then propose a new, "model-free" test for response bias that seems to more properly identify both the nature and direction of the biases induced by the classical bias manipulations.

Identification and discrimination of Spanish front vowels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Castellanos, Isabel; Lopez-Bascuas, Luis E.

2004-05-01

The idea that vowels are perceived less categorically than consonants is widely accepted. Ades [Psychol. Rev. 84, 524-530 (1977)] tried to explain this fact on the basis of the Durlach and Braida [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 46, 372-383 (1969)] theory of intensity resolution. Since vowels seem to cover a broader perceptual range, context-coding noise for vowels should be greater than for consonants leading to a less categorical performance on the vocalic segments. However, relatively recent work by Macmillan et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 84, 1262-1280 (1988)] has cast doubt on the assumption of different perceptual ranges for vowels and consonants even though context variance is acknowledged to be greater for the former. A possibility is that context variance increases as number of long-term phonemic categories also increases. To test this hypothesis we focused on Spanish as the target language. Spanish has less vowel categories than English and the implication is that Spanish vowels will be more categorically perceived. Identification and discrimination experiments were conducted on a synthetic /i/-/e/ continuum and the obtained functions were studied to assess whether Spanish vowels are more categorically perceived than English vowels. The results are discussed in the context of different theories of speech perception.

The Case for Absolute Ligand Discrimination: Modeling Information Processing and Decision by Immune T Cells

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

François, Paul; Altan-Bonnet, Grégoire

2016-03-01

Some cells have to take decision based on the quality of surroundings ligands, almost irrespective of their quantity, a problem we name "absolute discrimination". An example of absolute discrimination is recognition of not-self by immune T Cells. We show how the problem of absolute discrimination can be solved by a process called "adaptive sorting". We review several implementations of adaptive sorting, as well as its generic properties such as antagonism. We show how kinetic proofreading with negative feedback implement an approximate version of adaptive sorting in the immune context. Finally, we revisit the decision problem at the cell population level, showing how phenotypic variability and feedbacks between population and single cells are crucial for proper decision.

Legitimating Racial Discrimination: Emotions, Not Beliefs, Best Predict Discrimination in a Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

Talaska, Cara A.; Chaiken, Shelly

2013-01-01

Investigations of racial bias have emphasized stereotypes and other beliefs as central explanatory mechanisms and as legitimating discrimination. In recent theory and research, emotional prejudices have emerged as another, more direct predictor of discrimination. A new comprehensive meta-analysis of 57 racial attitude-discrimination studies finds a moderate relationship between overall attitudes and discrimination. Emotional prejudices are twices as closely related to racial discrimination as stereotypes and beliefs are. Moreover, emotional prejudices are closely related to both observed and self-reported discrimination, whereas stereotypes and beliefs are related only to self-reported discrimination. Implications for justifying discrimination are discussed. PMID:24052687

Context Aware Middleware Architectures: Survey and Challenges

PubMed Central

Li, Xin; Eckert, Martina; Martinez, José-Fernán; Rubio, Gregorio

2015-01-01

Context aware applications, which can adapt their behaviors to changing environments, are attracting more and more attention. To simplify the complexity of developing applications, context aware middleware, which introduces context awareness into the traditional middleware, is highlighted to provide a homogeneous interface involving generic context management solutions. This paper provides a survey of state-of-the-art context aware middleware architectures proposed during the period from 2009 through 2015. First, a preliminary background, such as the principles of context, context awareness, context modelling, and context reasoning, is provided for a comprehensive understanding of context aware middleware. On this basis, an overview of eleven carefully selected middleware architectures is presented and their main features explained. Then, thorough comparisons and analysis of the presented middleware architectures are performed based on technical parameters including architectural style, context abstraction, context reasoning, scalability, fault tolerance, interoperability, service discovery, storage, security & privacy, context awareness level, and cloud-based big data analytics. The analysis shows that there is actually no context aware middleware architecture that complies with all requirements. Finally, challenges are pointed out as open issues for future work. PMID:26307988

Discrimination and subjective well-being: protective influences of membership in a discriminated category.

PubMed

Hnilica, Karel

2011-03-01

Research reveals that discrimination has harmful effects on health and quality of life. Among the most frequent types of discrimination pertains gender and age discrimination. Research results show that discriminatory behaviours based on gender afflict predominantly women; age discrimination afflicts mainly older adults. At the same time, it has been found that members of these traditionally discriminated categories often use strategies that mitigate the effects of discrimination. Discrimination will have detrimental effects on subjective well-being. But its effects will be most harmful for persons who are not members of the traditionally discriminated categories. These hypotheses were tested on data from three waves of the European Social Survey that the Czech Republic also participated in. Data were analyzed in a series of multilevel random coefficients regression analyses with respondents nested within states and states nested within years of study. Both perceived gender discrimination and perceived age discrimination have negative effects on subjective well-being. However, gender discrimination had more harmful effects on the subjective well-being of men than women and age discrimination had the most harmful effects on the subjective well-being of people in their middle ages, not the elderly ones. Discrimination does not need to have most harmful effects on the quality of life of members of the categories that are discriminated against most often.

Ethnic identity, racial discrimination and attenuated psychotic symptoms in an urban population of emerging adults.

PubMed

Anglin, Deidre M; Lui, Florence; Espinosa, Adriana; Tikhonov, Aleksandr; Ellman, Lauren

2018-06-01

Studies suggest strong ethnic identity generally protects against negative mental health outcomes associated with racial discrimination. In light of evidence suggesting racial discrimination may enhance psychosis risk in racial and ethnic minority (REM) populations, the present study explored the relationship between ethnic identity and attenuated positive psychotic symptoms (APPS) and whether ethnic identity moderates the association between racial discrimination and these symptoms. A sample of 644 non-help-seeking REM emerging adults was administered self-report inventories for psychosis risk, experiences of discrimination and ethnic identity. Latent class analysis was applied to determine the nature and number of ethnic identity types in this population. The direct association between ethnic identity and APPS and the interaction between ethnic identity and racial discrimination on APPS were determined in linear regression analyses. Results indicated three ethnic identity classes (very low, moderate to high and very high). Ethnic identity was not directly related to APPS; however, it was related to APPS under racially discriminating conditions. Specifically, participants who experienced discrimination in the moderate to high or very high ethnic identity classes reported fewer symptoms than participants who experienced discrimination in the very low ethnic identity class. Strong ethnic group affiliation and connection may serve a protective function for psychosis risk in racially discriminating environments and contexts among REM young adults. The possible social benefits of strong ethnic identification among REM youth who face racial discrimination should be explored further in clinical high-risk studies. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Same-sex marriage and context-specific kinship terms.

PubMed

Ould, Patricia; Whitlow, C Julie

2011-01-01

This study investigates whether married gays and lesbians in Massachusetts are using the kinship terms commonly associated with marriage in referring to and introducing their marriage partners and, if not, whether alternative terms are being used in a variety of social contexts. We demonstrate through survey and interview data that marriage-related terms are used discriminately, are consciously chosen, and are context specific. Choices are dependent on a variety of factors related to personal demographics, speech community associations, intimacy, identity, and safety. A significant difference in the use of terms after legal marriage has occurred suggesting a shift in attitude.

Testing the tenets of minority stress theory in workplace contexts.

PubMed

Velez, Brandon L; Moradi, Bonnie; Brewster, Melanie E

2013-10-01

The links of minority stressors (workplace discrimination, expectations of stigma, internalized heterosexism, and identity management strategies) with psychological distress and job satisfaction were examined in a sample of 326 sexual minority employees. Drawing from minority stress theory and the literature on the vocational experiences of sexual minority people, patterns of mediation and moderation were tested. Minority stressors were associated with greater distress and lower job satisfaction. A mediation model was supported in which the links of discrimination and internalized heterosexism with psychological distress were mediated by a concealment-focused identity management strategy (i.e., avoiding), and the links of discrimination, expectations of stigma, and internalized heterosexism with job satisfaction were mediated by a disclosure-focused identity management strategy (i.e., integrating). Tests of moderation indicated that for sexual minority women (but not men), the positive association of discrimination with distress was stronger at higher levels of internalized heterosexism than at lower levels. In addition, lower levels of internalized heterosexism and concealment strategies (i.e., counterfeiting and avoiding) and higher levels of a disclosure strategy (i.e., integrating) were associated with higher job satisfaction in the context of low discrimination, but this buffering effect disappeared as level of discrimination increased. The implications of these findings for minority stress research are discussed, and clinical recommendations are made.

The shield of professional status: Comparing internationally educated nurses' and international medical graduates' experiences of discrimination.

PubMed

Neiterman, Elena; Bourgeault, Ivy Lynn

2015-11-01

This article examines the intersecting roles of gender, ethnicity, and professional status in shaping the experiences of internationally educated health professionals in Canada. The article is based on 140 semi-structured qualitative interviews with internationally trained nurses and physicians who came to Canada within past 10 years with the intention to practice their profession. Describing the challenging process of professional integration in Canada, our participants highlighted incidents of discrimination they experienced along the way. Although some of the participants from both professional groups experienced racial discrimination, the context of those experiences differed. Physicians rarely reported instances of discrimination in communication with patients or nurses. Instead, they were concerned with instances of discrimination within their own professional group. Nurses, on the other hand, reported discrimination at the hands of patients and their families as well as racialization by physicians, management, and other nurses. We conclude our article with a reflection on the role that gender and professional status play in shaping the experiences of ethnic discrimination of internationally educated health professionals. © The Author(s) 2015.

Socioeconomic Status Discrimination is Associated with Poor Sleep in African-Americans, but not Whites

PubMed Central

Van Dyke, Miriam E.; Vaccarino, Viola; Quyyumi, Arshed A.; Lewis, Tené T.

2016-01-01

Rationale Research on self-reported experiences of discrimination and health has grown in recent decades, but has largely focused on racial discrimination or overall mistreatment. Less is known about reports of discrimination on the basis of socioeconomic status (SES), despite the fact that SES is one of the most powerful social determinants of health. Objective We sought to examine the cross-sectional association between self-reported SES discrimination and subjective sleep quality, an emerging risk factor for disease. We further examined whether associations differed by race or SES. Methods We used logistic and linear regression to analyze data from a population-based cohort of 425 African-American and White middle-aged adults (67.5% female) in the Southeastern United States. SES discrimination was assessed with a modified Experiences of Discrimination Scale and poor subjective sleep quality was assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Results In logistic regression models adjusted for age, gender, and education, reports of SES discrimination were associated with poor sleep quality among African-Americans (OR=2.39, 95% CI =1.35, 4.24), but not Whites (OR=1.03, 95% CI= 0.57, 1.87), and the race × SES discrimination interaction was significant at p=0.04. After additional adjustments for reports of racial and gender discrimination, other psychosocial stressors, body mass index and depressive symptoms, SES discrimination remained a significant predictor of poor sleep among African-Americans, but not Whites. In contrast to findings by race, SES discrimination and sleep associations did not significantly differ by SES. Conclusion Findings suggest that reports of SES discrimination may be an important risk factor for subjective sleep quality among African-Americans and support the need to consider the health impact of SES-related stressors in the context of race. PMID:26896878

Socioeconomic status discrimination is associated with poor sleep in African-Americans, but not Whites.

PubMed

Van Dyke, Miriam E; Vaccarino, Viola; Quyyumi, Arshed A; Lewis, Tené T

2016-03-01

Research on self-reported experiences of discrimination and health has grown in recent decades, but has largely focused on racial discrimination or overall mistreatment. Less is known about reports of discrimination on the basis of socioeconomic status (SES), despite the fact that SES is one of the most powerful social determinants of health. We sought to examine the cross-sectional association between self-reported SES discrimination and subjective sleep quality, an emerging risk factor for disease. We further examined whether associations differed by race or SES. We used logistic and linear regression to analyze data from a population-based cohort of 425 African-American and White middle-aged adults (67.5% female) in the Southeastern United States. SES discrimination was assessed with a modified Experiences of Discrimination Scale and poor subjective sleep quality was assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. In logistic regression models adjusted for age, gender, and education, reports of SES discrimination were associated with poor sleep quality among African-Americans (OR = 2.39 95%, CI = 1.35, 4.24), but not Whites (OR = 1.03, 95% CI = 0.57, 1.87), and the race × SES discrimination interaction was significant at p = 0.04. After additional adjustments for reports of racial and gender discrimination, other psychosocial stressors, body mass index and depressive symptoms, SES discrimination remained a significant predictor of poor sleep among African-Americans, but not Whites. In contrast to findings by race, SES discrimination and sleep associations did not significantly differ by SES. Findings suggest that reports of SES discrimination may be an important risk factor for subjective sleep quality among African-Americans and support the need to consider the health impact of SES-related stressors in the context of race. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A survey of context recognition in surgery.

PubMed

Pernek, Igor; Ferscha, Alois

2017-10-01

With the introduction of operating rooms of the future context awareness has gained importance in the surgical environment. This paper organizes and reviews different approaches for recognition of context in surgery. Major electronic research databases were queried to obtain relevant publications submitted between the years 2010 and 2015. Three different types of context were identified: (i) the surgical workflow context, (ii) surgeon's cognitive and (iii) technical state context. A total of 52 relevant studies were identified and grouped based on the type of context detected and sensors used. Different approaches were summarized to provide recommendations for future research. There is still room for improvement in terms of methods used and evaluations performed. Machine learning should be used more extensively to uncover hidden relationships between different properties of the surgeon's state, particularly when performing cognitive context recognition. Furthermore, validation protocols should be improved by performing more evaluations in situ and with a higher number of unique participants. The paper also provides a structured outline of recent context recognition methods to facilitate development of new generation context-aware surgical support systems.

Potential Policies and Laws to Prohibit Weight Discrimination: Public Views from 4 Countries

PubMed Central

Puhl, Rebecca M; Latner, Janet D; O’brien, Kerry S; Luedicke, Joerg; Danielsdottir, Sigrun; Salas, Ximena Ramos

2015-01-01

Context People viewed as “overweight” or “obese” are vulnerable to weight-based discrimination, creating inequities and adverse health outcomes. Given the high rates of obesity recorded globally, studies documenting weight discrimination in multiple countries, and an absence of legislation to address this form of discrimination, research examining policy remedies across different countries is needed. Our study provides the first multinational examination of public support for policies and legislation to prohibit weight discrimination. Methods Identical online surveys were completed by 2,866 adults in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Iceland. We assessed public support for potential laws to prohibit weight-based discrimination, such as adding body weight to existing civil rights statutes, extending disability protections to persons with obesity, and instituting legal measures to prohibit employers from discriminating against employees because of body weight. We examined sociodemographic and weight-related characteristics predicting support for antidiscrimination policies, and the differences in these patterns across countries. Findings The majority of participants in the United States, Canada, and Australia agreed that their government should have specific laws in place to prohibit weight discrimination. At least two-thirds of the participants in all 4 countries expressed support for policies that would make it illegal for employers to refuse to hire, assign lower wages, deny promotions, or terminate qualified employees because of body weight. Women and participants with higher body weight expressed more support for antidiscrimination measures. Beliefs about the causes of obesity were also related to support for these laws. Conclusions Public support for legal measures to prohibit weight discrimination can be found in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Iceland, especially for laws to remedy this discrimination in employment. Our findings

Hard and soft age discrimination: the dual nature of workplace discrimination.

PubMed

Stypinska, Justyna; Turek, Konrad

2017-03-01

The paper concentrates on the problem of age discrimination in the labour market and the way it can be conceptualised and measured in a multi-disciplinary way. The approach proposed here combines two understandings of age discrimination-a sociological and legal one, what allows for a fuller and expanded understanding of ageism in the workplace. At the heart of the study is a survey carried out in Poland with a sample of 1000 men and women aged 45-65 years. The study takes a deeper and innovative look into the issue of age discrimination in employment. Confirmatory factor analysis with WLSMV estimation and logistic regressions were used to test the hypotheses. The study shows that age discrimination in labour market can take on different forms: hard and soft, where the hard type of age discrimination mirrors the legally prohibited types of behaviours and those which relate to the actual decisions of employers which can impact on the employee's career development. The soft discrimination corresponds with those occurrences, which are not inscribed in the legal system per se, are occurring predominantly in the interpersonal sphere, but can nevertheless have negative consequences. Soft discrimination was experienced more often (28.6% of respondents) than hard discrimination (15.7%) with higher occurrences among women, persons in precarious job situation or residents of urban areas. The role of education was not confirmed to influence the levels of perceived age discrimination.

The Relationship between Perceived Discrimination and Generalized Anxiety Disorder among African Americans, Afro Caribbeans and non-Hispanic Whites

PubMed Central

Soto, José A.; Dawson-Andoh, Nana A.; BeLue, Rhonda

2010-01-01

The present study examined the relationship between frequency of race based and non-race based discrimination experiences and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) in a sample of 3,570 African Americans, 1,438 Afro Caribbeans, and 891 non-Hispanic Whites from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL). Because GAD and the experience of racial discrimination are both associated with symptoms of worry and tension, we expected race based discrimination to predict GAD prevalence for African Americans, but not other groups. We did not expect non-race based discrimination to predict GAD. Results showed that while more frequent experiences of non-race based discrimination predicted GAD for all groups, experiencing race based discrimination was associated with significantly higher odds of endorsing lifetime GAD for African Americans only. Results are interpreted in light of the different contexts that these three ethnic groups represent relative to their history within the United States as well as their present day circumstances. PMID:21041059

Defense Technical Information Center thesaurus

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dickert, J.H.

This DTIC Thesaurus provides a basic multidisciplinary subject term vocabulary used by DTIC to index and retrieve scientific and technical information from its various data bases and to aid DTIC`s users in their information storage and retrieval operations. It includes an alphabetical posting term display, a hierarchy display, and a Keywork Out of Context (KWOC) display.

Postscript: Distinguishing between Temporal Context and Short-Term Store

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howard, Marc W.; Kahana, Michael J.; Sederberg, Per B.

2008-01-01

Space does not allow us to make detailed rebuttals to Davelaar, Usher, Haarmann, and Goshen-Gottstein's criticisms of the temporal context model's (TCM-A's) ability to account for dissociations between immediate and delayed recall nor to explain how TCM could account for list discrimination experiments. We agree that future work is needed to reach…

Social Status Correlates of Reporting Racial Discrimination and Gender Discrimination among Racially Diverse Women

PubMed Central

Ro, Annie E.; Choi, Kyung-Hee

2009-01-01

The growing body of research on discrimination and health indicates a deleterious effect of discrimination on various health outcomes. However, less is known about the sociodemographic correlates of reporting racial discrimination and gender discrimination among racially diverse women. We examined the associations of social status characteristics with lifetime experiences of racial discrimination and gender discrimination using a racially-diverse sample of 754 women attending family planning clinics in Northern California (11.4% African American, 16.8% Latina, 10.1% Asian and 61.7% Caucasian). A multivariate analysis revealed that race, financial difficulty and marital status were significantly correlated with higher reports of racial discrimination, while race, education, financial difficulty and nativity were significantly correlated with gender discrimination scores. Our findings suggest that the social patterning of perceiving racial discrimination is somewhat different from that of gender discrimination. This has implications in the realm of discrimination research and applied interventions, as different forms of discrimination may have unique covariates that should be accounted for in research analysis or program design. PMID:19485231

Social status correlates of reporting gender discrimination and racial discrimination among racially diverse women.

PubMed

Ro, Annie E; Choi, Kyung-Hee

2009-01-01

The growing body of research on discrimination and health indicates a deleterious effect of discrimination on various health outcomes. However, less is known about the sociodemographic correlates of reporting racial discrimination and gender discrimination among racially diverse women. We examined the associations of social status characteristics with lifetime experiences of racial discrimination and gender discrimination using a racially-diverse sample of 754 women attending family planning clinics in North California (11.4% African American, 16.8% Latina, 10.1% Asian and 61.7% Caucasian). A multivariate analysis revealed that race, financial difficulty and marital status were significantly correlated with higher reports of racial discrimination, while race, education, financial difficulty and nativity were significantly correlated with gender discrimination scores. Our findings suggest that the social patterning of perceiving racial discrimination is somewhat different from that of gender discrimination. This has implications in the realm of discrimination research and applied interventions, as different forms of discrimination may have unique covariates that should be accounted for in research analysis or program design.

Technical Degrees and Higher Vocational Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hordern, Jim

2017-01-01

This paper focuses on the proposals for the introduction of "technical degrees" in English higher education institutions advanced by the Labour Party's Liam Byrne in a document entitled "Robbins Rebooted" which was published in August 2014 by the Social Market Foundation. The context and rationale for the proposed technical…

Rapid Decision-Making with Side-Specific Perceptual Discrimination in Ants

PubMed Central

Stroeymeyt, Nathalie; Guerrieri, Fernando J.; van Zweden, Jelle S.; d'Ettorre, Patrizia

2010-01-01

Background Timely decision making is crucial for survival and reproduction. Organisms often face a speed-accuracy trade-off, as fully informed, accurate decisions require time-consuming gathering and treatment of information. Optimal strategies for decision-making should therefore vary depending on the context. In mammals, there is mounting evidence that multiple systems of perceptual discrimination based on different neural circuits emphasize either fast responses or accurate treatment of stimuli depending on the context. Methodology/Principal Findings We used the ant Camponotus aethiops to test the prediction that fast information processing achieved through direct neural pathways should be favored in situations where quick reactions are adaptive. Social insects discriminate readily between harmless group-members and dangerous strangers using easily accessible cuticular hydrocarbons as nestmate recognition cues. We show that i) tethered ants display rapid aggressive reactions upon presentation of non-nestmate odor (120 to 160 ms); ii) ants' aggressiveness towards non-nestmates can be specifically reduced by exposure to non-nestmate odor only, showing that social interactions are not required to alter responses towards non-nestmates; iii) decision-making by ants does not require information transfer between brain hemispheres, but relies on side-specific decision rules. Conclusions/Significance Our results strongly suggest that first-order olfactory processing centers (up to the antennal lobes) are likely to play a key role in ant nestmate recognition. We hypothesize that the coarse level of discrimination achieved in the antennal lobes early in odor processing provides enough information to determine appropriate behavioral responses towards non-nestmates. This asks for a reappraisal of the mechanisms underlying social recognition in insects. PMID:20808782

The Sociology of Discrimination: Racial Discrimination in Employment, Housing, Credit, and Consumer Markets

PubMed Central

Pager, Devah; Shepherd, Hana

2010-01-01

Persistent racial inequality in employment, housing, and a wide range of other social domains has renewed interest in the possible role of discrimination. And yet, unlike in the pre–civil rights era, when racial prejudice and discrimination were overt and widespread, today discrimination is less readily identifiable, posing problems for social scientific conceptualization and measurement. This article reviews the relevant literature on discrimination, with an emphasis on racial discrimination in employment, housing, credit markets, and consumer interactions. We begin by defining discrimination and discussing relevant methods of measurement. We then provide an overview of major findings from studies of discrimination in each of the four domains; and, finally, we turn to a discussion of the individual, organizational, and structural mechanisms that may underlie contemporary forms of discrimination. This discussion seeks to orient readers to some of the key debates in the study of discrimination and to provide a roadmap for those interested in building upon this long and important line of research. PMID:20689680

Behavioral mechanisms of context fear generalization in mice

PubMed Central

Huckleberry, Kylie A.; Ferguson, Laura B.

2016-01-01

There is growing interest in generalization of learned contextual fear, driven in part by the hypothesis that mood and anxiety disorders stem from impaired hippocampal mechanisms of fear generalization and discrimination. However, there has been relatively little investigation of the behavioral and procedural mechanisms that might control generalization of contextual fear. We assessed the relative contribution of different contextual features to context fear generalization and characterized how two common conditioning protocols—foreground (uncued) and background (cued) contextual fear conditioning—affected context fear generalization. In one experiment, mice were fear conditioned in context A, and then tested for contextual fear both in A and in an alternate context created by changing a subset of A's elements. The results suggest that floor configuration and odor are more salient features than chamber shape. A second experiment compared context fear generalization in background and foreground context conditioning. Although foreground conditioning produced more context fear than background conditioning, the two procedures produced equal amounts of generalized fear. Finally, results indicated that the order of context tests (original first versus alternate first) significantly modulates context fear generalization, perhaps because the original and alternate contexts are differentially sensitive to extinction. Overall, results demonstrate that context fear generalization is sensitive to procedural variations and likely reflects the operation of multiple interacting psychological and neural mechanisms. PMID:27918275

Ants detect but do not discriminate diseased workers within their nest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leclerc, Jean-Baptiste; Detrain, Claire

2016-08-01

Social insects have evolved an array of individual and social behaviours that limit pathogen entrance and spread within the colony. The detection of ectoparasites or of fungal spores on a nestmate body triggers their removal by allogrooming and appears as a primary component of social prophylaxis. However, in the case of fungal infection, one may wonder whether ant workers are able to detect, discriminate and keep at bay diseased nestmates that have no spores over their cuticle but which constitute a latent sanitary risk due to post-mortem corpse sporulation. Here, we investigate the ability of Myrmica rubra workers to detect and discriminate a healthy from a diseased nestmate infected by the entomopathogen Metarhizium anisopliae. During dyadic encounters in a neutral location, workers were more aggressive towards isolated sick nestmates on the 3rd post-infection day. However, no such detection or discrimination of fungus-infected nestmates occurred in a social context inside the nest or at the nest entrance. Gatekeepers never actively rejected incoming diseased nestmates that rather spontaneously isolated themselves outside the nest. Our study reveals that ant workers may detect health-dependent cues and that their `acceptance level' of sick nestmates is tunable depending on the social context. This raises questions about possible trade-offs between a social closure to pathogens and risks of erroneous rejection of healthy nestmates. Social isolation of moribund ants also appears as a widespread prophylactic strategy of social insects allowing them to reduce exposure to pathogens and to spare costs associated with the management of infected individuals.

Genetic discrimination: international perspectives.

PubMed

Otlowski, M; Taylor, S; Bombard, Y

2012-01-01

Genetic discrimination (GD) is a complex, multifaceted ethical, psychosocial, and legal phenomenon. It is defined as the differential treatment of asymptomatic individuals or their relatives on the basis of their real or assumed genetic characteristics. This article presents an overview of GD within the contemporary international context. It describes the concept of GD and its contextual features, reviews research evidence regarding people's experiences of GD and the impact of GD within a range of domains, and provides an overview of legal and policy responses to GD that have emerged globally. We argue that GD is a significant and internationally established phenomenon that requires multilevel responses to ensure social justice and equitable outcomes for all citizens. Future research should monitor GD and its impacts within the community as well as institutions and should evaluate the effectiveness of legislative, policy, community education, and systemic responses.

The effects of morphine on fixed-interval patterning and temporal discrimination.

PubMed Central

Odum, A L; Schaal, D W

2000-01-01

Changes produced by drugs in response patterns under fixed-interval schedules of reinforcement have been interpreted to result from changes in temporal discrimination. To examine this possibility, this experiment determined the effects of morphine on the response patterning of 4 pigeons during a fixed-interval 1-min schedule of food delivery with interpolated temporal discrimination trials. Twenty of the 50 total intervals were interrupted by choice trials. Pecks to one key color produced food if the interval was interrupted after a short time (after 2 or 4.64 s). Pecks to another key color produced food if the interval was interrupted after a long time (after 24.99 or 58 s). Morphine (1.0 to 10.0 mg/kg) decreased the index of curvature (a measure of response patterning) during fixed intervals and accuracy during temporal discrimination trials. Accuracy was equally disrupted following short and long sample durations. Although morphine disrupted temporal discrimination in the context of a fixed-interval schedule, these effects are inconsistent with interpretations of the disruption of response patterning as a selective overestimation of elapsed time. The effects of morphine may be related to the effects of more conventional external stimuli on response patterning. PMID:11029024

Racial discrimination, gender discrimination, and substance abuse among Latina/os nationwide.

PubMed

Otiniano Verissimo, Angie Denisse; Gee, Gilbert C; Ford, Chandra L; Iguchi, Martin Y

2014-01-01

This study investigates the relationship between discrimination and substance abuse among Latina/os, and further examines whether this relationship differs by gender and type of discrimination. Analyses focus on the Latina/o respondents (n = 1,039 men; n = 1,273 women) from the National Latino and Asian American Study carried out from 2002-2003. Outcomes were alcohol abuse and drug abuse measured using DSM-IV definitions and criteria. Additional covariates included immigrant characteristics and demographics. Analyses were completed using gender-stratified multinomial logistic regression. Men reported more discrimination (39.6% vs. 30.3%) and had higher prevalence of alcohol abuse (16.5% vs. 4.5%) and drug abuse (9.5% vs. 2.3%) than women. Discrimination was significantly associated with increased risk of alcohol abuse for women and increased risk of drug abuse for men. Men and women also varied in the types of discrimination (e.g., racial vs. gender) reported, and in the associations between these types of discrimination and substance abuse. These data indicate that discrimination is associated with different substance abuse outcomes between genders. Future research should consider the mechanisms that explain these differences.

Bacillus subtilis Protects Public Goods by Extending Kin Discrimination to Closely Related Species.

PubMed

Lyons, Nicholas A; Kolter, Roberto

2017-07-05

Kin discrimination systems are found in numerous communal contexts like multicellularity and are theorized to prevent exploitation of cooperative behaviors. The kin discrimination system in Bacillus subtilis differs from most other such systems because it excludes nonkin cells rather than including kin cells. Because nonkin are the target of the system, B. subtilis can potentially distinguish degrees of nonkin relatedness, not just kin versus nonkin. We examined this by testing a large strain collection of diverse Bacillus species against B. subtilis in different multicellular contexts. The effects of kin discrimination extend to nearby species, as the other subtilis clade species were treated with the same antagonism as nonkin. Species in the less-related pumilus clade started to display varied phenotypes but were mostly still discriminated against, while cereus clade members and beyond were no longer subject to kin discrimination. Seeking a reason why other species are perceived as antagonistic nonkin, we tested the ability of B. subtilis to steal communally produced surfactant from these species. We found that the species treated as nonkin were the only ones that made a surfactant that B. subtilis could utilize and that nonkin antagonism prevented such stealing when the two strains were mixed. The nonkin exclusion kin discrimination method thus allows effective protection of the cooperative behaviors prevalent in multicellularity while still permitting interactions with more distant species that are not a threat. IMPORTANCE Multicellular systems like bacterial biofilms and swarms rely on cooperative behaviors that could be undermined by exploitative invaders. Discriminating kin from nonkin is one way to help guard against such exploitation but has thus far been examined only intraspecifically, so the phylogenetic range of this important trait is unknown. We tested whether Bacillus subtilis treats other species as nonkin by testing a single strain against a

Reactions to Discrimination, Stigmatization, Ostracism, and Other Forms of Interpersonal Rejection: A Multimotive Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richman, Laura Smart; Leary, Mark R.

2009-01-01

This article describes a new model that provides a framework for understanding people's reactions to threats to social acceptance and belonging as they occur in the context of diverse phenomena such as rejection, discrimination, ostracism, betrayal, and stigmatization. People's immediate reactions are quite similar across different forms of…

Familiar Tonal Context Improves Accuracy of Pitch Interval Perception.

PubMed

Graves, Jackson E; Oxenham, Andrew J

2017-01-01

A fundamental feature of everyday music perception is sensitivity to familiar tonal structures such as musical keys. Many studies have suggested that a tonal context can enhance the perception and representation of pitch. Most of these studies have measured response time, which may reflect expectancy as opposed to perceptual accuracy. We instead used a performance-based measure, comparing participants' ability to discriminate between a "small, in-tune" interval and a "large, mistuned" interval in conditions that involved familiar tonal relations (diatonic, or major, scale notes), unfamiliar tonal relations (whole-tone or mistuned-diatonic scale notes), repetition of a single pitch, or no tonal context. The context was established with a brief sequence of tones in Experiment 1 (melodic context), and a cadence-like two-chord progression in Experiment 2 (harmonic context). In both experiments, performance significantly differed across the context conditions, with a diatonic context providing a significant advantage over no context; however, no correlation with years of musical training was observed. The diatonic tonal context also provided an advantage over the whole-tone scale context condition in Experiment 1 (melodic context), and over the mistuned scale or repetition context conditions in Experiment 2 (harmonic context). However, the relatively small benefit to performance suggests that the main advantage of tonal context may be priming of expected stimuli, rather than enhanced accuracy of pitch interval representation.

Health Care Engagement and Follow-up After Perceived Discrimination in Maternity Care.

PubMed

Attanasio, Laura; Kozhimannil, Katy B

2017-09-01

Negative experiences in the health care system, including perceived discrimination, can result in patient disengagement from health care. Four million US women give birth each year, and the perinatal period is a time of sustained interaction with the health care system, but potential consequences of negative experiences have not been examined in this context. We assessed whether perceived discrimination during the birth hospitalization were associated with postpartum follow-up care. Data were from the Listening to Mothers III survey, a nationally drawn sample of 2400 women with singleton births in US hospitals in 2011-2012. We used multivariate logistic regression to estimate adjusted odds of having a postpartum visit in the 8 weeks following birth by perceptions of discrimination due to (1) race/ethnicity; (2) insurance type; and (3) a difference of opinion with a provider about care. Women who experienced any of the 3 types of perceived discrimination had more than twice the odds of postpartum visit nonattendance (adjusted odds ratio=2.28, P=0.001), after adjusting for socioeconomic and medical characteristics. The postpartum visit is an opportunity for a patient and clinician to address continuing health problems following birth, discuss contraception, and screen for chronic disease. Forgoing this care may have negative health effects. The findings from this study underscore the need to reduce discrimination and improve maternity care experiences.

A Service Learning Structural Engineering Capstone Course and the Assessment of Technical and Non-Technical Objectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dinehart, David W.; Gross, Shawn P.

2010-01-01

The primary role of a civil engineer is to serve the community; thus, it is essential that students understand the impact of engineering projects on, and the context of engineering projects within, society. One goal of an engineering capstone design course should be to mesh the technical knowledge of the discipline with an encompassing engineering…

Global trends on fears and concerns of genetic discrimination: a systematic literature review.

PubMed

Wauters, Annet; Van Hoyweghen, Ine

2016-04-01

Since the 1990s, developments in the field of genetics have led to many questions on the use and possible misuse of genetic information. 'Genetic discrimination' has been defined as the differential treatment of asymptomatic individuals or their relatives on the basis of their real or assumed genetic characteristics. Despite the public policy attention around genetic discrimination, there is currently still much confusion surrounding this phenomenon. On the one hand, there is little evidence of the occurrence of genetic discrimination. On the other hand, it appears that people remain concerned about this theme, and this fear influences their health and life choices. This article makes use of a systematic literature review to investigate what is already known about the nature, extent and background of these fears and concerns. The 42 included studies have found considerable levels of concerns about genetic discrimination. Concerns dominate in insurance contexts and within personal interactions. The extent of concerns appears to vary depending on the type of genetic illness. Furthermore, installed laws prohibiting genetic discrimination do not seem to alleviate existing fears. This raises important questions as to the origins of these fears. Based on the findings, recommendations for future research are made. First, research on the background of fears is needed. Second, future research needs to assess more fully all different forms (for example, direct and indirect) of genetic discrimination. Thirdly, it has to be studied whether genetic discrimination is a form of discrimination that is distinguishable from discrimination based on an illness or disability. Finally, a last element that should be addressed in future research is the most recent developments in research on genomics, such as next-generation sequencing or genome-wide association studies.

Semantic Context Detection Using Audio Event Fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chu, Wei-Ta; Cheng, Wen-Huang; Wu, Ja-Ling

2006-12-01

Semantic-level content analysis is a crucial issue in achieving efficient content retrieval and management. We propose a hierarchical approach that models audio events over a time series in order to accomplish semantic context detection. Two levels of modeling, audio event and semantic context modeling, are devised to bridge the gap between physical audio features and semantic concepts. In this work, hidden Markov models (HMMs) are used to model four representative audio events, that is, gunshot, explosion, engine, and car braking, in action movies. At the semantic context level, generative (ergodic hidden Markov model) and discriminative (support vector machine (SVM)) approaches are investigated to fuse the characteristics and correlations among audio events, which provide cues for detecting gunplay and car-chasing scenes. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches and provide a preliminary framework for information mining by using audio characteristics.

Life satisfaction and trauma in clinical and non-clinical children living in a war-torn environment: A discriminant analysis.

PubMed

Veronese, Guido; Pepe, Alessandro

2017-07-01

The aim of this work was to discriminate between healthy children and children at risk of developing mental impairments by evaluating the impact on contextual and individual factors of a context characterized by war. We tested the hypothesis that a linear discriminant function composed of trauma, life satisfaction, and affect balance has the power to classify the children as community or clinical referred. Membership of the clinical-referred group was associated with poorer life satisfaction and higher levels of trauma. Community-referred profiles were associated with lesser trauma. Perceived life satisfaction regarding family and school was the main contributor to the discriminant function.

Strength in numbers? Cognitive reappraisal tendencies and psychological functioning among Latinos in the context of oppression.

PubMed

Soto, José A; Armenta, Brian E; Perez, Christopher R; Zamboanga, Byron L; Umaña-Taylor, Adriana J; Lee, Richard M; Schwartz, Seth J; Park, Irene J K; Huynh, Que-Lam; Whitbourne, Susan Krauss; Le, Thao N; Ham, Lindsay S

2012-10-01

The typically positive relationship between cognitive reappraisal and psychological functioning may be nullified for Latinos embedded within multiple contexts of oppression (Perez & Soto, 2011). Multiply oppressive contexts are characterized by exposure to oppression at a societal level (distal oppression), in the immediate environment (proximal oppression), and at an individual level (personal oppression). We replicated and extended Perez and Soto's (2011) findings by examining whether the reappraisal-psychological functioning association was moderated by (a) relative numerical representation of Latinos within the environment (proximal oppression) and (b) personal perceptions of discrimination (personal oppression) among 425 Latino college students throughout the United States. For Latinos in high-Latino counties, greater use of reappraisal was associated with better psychological functioning, regardless of perceived discrimination; this relationship was absent for Latinos in low-Latino counties who perceived greater discrimination. Findings highlight the importance of considering how contextual factors can alter the adaptive functions of emotion regulation strategies.

Speed Limits: Orientation and Semantic Context Interactions Constrain Natural Scene Discrimination Dynamics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rieger, Jochem W.; Kochy, Nick; Schalk, Franziska; Gruschow, Marcus; Heinze, Hans-Jochen

2008-01-01

The visual system rapidly extracts information about objects from the cluttered natural environment. In 5 experiments, the authors quantified the influence of orientation and semantics on the classification speed of objects in natural scenes, particularly with regard to object-context interactions. Natural scene photographs were presented in an…

Rotation and scale invariant shape context registration for remote sensing images with background variations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Jie; Zhang, Shumei; Cao, Shixiang

2015-01-01

Multitemporal remote sensing images generally suffer from background variations, which significantly disrupt traditional region feature and descriptor abstracts, especially between pre and postdisasters, making registration by local features unreliable. Because shapes hold relatively stable information, a rotation and scale invariant shape context based on multiscale edge features is proposed. A multiscale morphological operator is adapted to detect edges of shapes, and an equivalent difference of Gaussian scale space is built to detect local scale invariant feature points along the detected edges. Then, a rotation invariant shape context with improved distance discrimination serves as a feature descriptor. For a distance shape context, a self-adaptive threshold (SAT) distance division coordinate system is proposed, which improves the discriminative property of the feature descriptor in mid-long pixel distances from the central point while maintaining it in shorter ones. To achieve rotation invariance, the magnitude of Fourier transform in one-dimension is applied to calculate angle shape context. Finally, the residual error is evaluated after obtaining thin-plate spline transformation between reference and sensed images. Experimental results demonstrate the robustness, efficiency, and accuracy of this automatic algorithm.

Discrimination and delusional ideation.

PubMed

Janssen, I; Hanssen, M; Bak, M; Bijl, R V; de Graaf, R; Vollebergh, W; McKenzie, K; van Os, J

2003-01-01

In the UK and The Netherlands, people with high rates of psychosis are chronically exposed to discrimination. To test whether perceived discrimination is associated longitudinally with onset of psychosis. A 3-year prospective study of cohorts with no history of psychosis and differential rates of reported discrimination on the basis of age, gender, disability, appearance, skin colour or ethnicity and sexual orientation was conducted in the Dutch general population (n=4076). The main outcome was onset of psychotic symptoms (delusions and hallucinations). The rate of delusional ideation was 0.5% (n=19) in those who did not report discrimination, 0.9% (n=4) in those who reported discrimination in one domain, and 2.7% (n=3) in those who reported discrimination in more than one domain (exact P=0.027). This association remained after adjustment for possible confounders. No association was found between baseline discrimination and onset of hallucinatory experiences. Perceived discrimination may induce delusional ideation and thus contribute to the high observed rates of psychotic disorder in exposed minority populations.

FUNCTIONAL LIMITATION AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMATOLOGY: CONSIDERING PERCEIVED STIGMA AND DISCRIMINATION WITHIN A STRESS AND COPING FRAMEWORK

PubMed Central

Brown, Robyn Lewis

2016-01-01

This study examines whether perceived stigma and discrimination moderate the associations between functional limitation, psychosocial coping resources, and depressive symptoms among people with physical disabilities. Using two waves of data from a large community study including a representative sample of persons with physical disabilities (N=417), an SEM-based moderated mediation analysis was performed. Mediation tests demonstrate that mastery significantly mediates the association between functional limitation and depressive symptoms over the study period. Moderated mediation tests reveal that the linkage between functional limitation and mastery varies as a function of perceived stigma and experiences of major discrimination and day-to-day discrimination, however. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of the stress and coping literature. PMID:28497112

Perceptions of weight discrimination: prevalence and comparison to race and gender discrimination in America.

PubMed

Puhl, R M; Andreyeva, T; Brownell, K D

2008-06-01

Limited data are available on the prevalence and patterns of body weight discrimination from representative samples. This study examined experiences of weight/height discrimination in a nationally representative sample of US adults and compared their prevalence and patterns with discrimination experiences based on race and gender. Data were from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, a 1995-1996 community-based survey of English-speaking adults aged 25-74 (N=2290). Reported experiences of weight/height discrimination included a variety of institutional settings and interpersonal relationships. Multivariate regression analyses were used to predict weight/height discrimination controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and body weight status. The prevalence of weight/height discrimination ranged from 5% among men to 10% among women, but these average percentages obscure the much higher risk of weight discrimination among heavier individuals (40% for adults with body mass index (BMI) of 35 and above). Younger individuals with a higher BMI had a particularly high risk of weight/height discrimination regardless of their race, education and weight status. Women were at greater risk for weight/height discrimination than men, especially women with a BMI of 30-35 who were three times more likely to report weight/height discrimination compared to male peers of a similar weight. Weight/height discrimination is prevalent in American society and is relatively close to reported rates of racial discrimination, particularly among women. Both institutional forms of weight/height discrimination (for example, in employment settings) and interpersonal mistreatment due to weight/height (for example, being called names) were common, and in some cases were even more prevalent than discrimination due to gender and race.

Discrimination, work and health in immigrant populations in Spain.

PubMed

Agudelo-Suárez, Andrés; Gil-González, Diana; Ronda-Pérez, Elena; Porthé, Victoria; Paramio-Pérez, Gema; García, Ana M; Garí, Aitana

2009-05-01

One of the most important social phenomena in the global context is the flow of immigration from developing countries, motivated by economic and employment related issues. Discrimination can be approached as a health risk factor within the immigrant population's working environment, especially for those immigrants at greater risk from social exclusion and marginalisation. The aim of this study is to research perceptions of discrimination and the specific relationship between discrimination in the workplace and health among Spain's immigrant population. A qualitative study was performed by means of 84 interviews and 12 focus groups held with immigrant workers in five cities in Spain receiving a large influx of immigrants (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and Huelva), covering representative immigrant communities in Spain (Romanians, Moroccans, Ecuadorians, Colombians and Sub-Saharan Africans). Discourse narrative content analysis was performed using pre-established categories and gradually incorporating other emerging categories from the immigrant interviewees themselves. The participants reported instances of discrimination in their community and working life, characterised by experiences of racism, mistreatment and precarious working conditions in comparison to the Spanish-born population. They also talked about limitations in terms of accessible occupations (mainly construction, the hotel and restaurant trade, domestic service and agriculture), and described major difficulties accessing other types of work (for example public administration). They also identified political and legal structural barriers related with social institutions. Experiences of discrimination can affect their mental health and are decisive factors regarding access to healthcare services. Our results suggest the need to adopt integration policies in both the countries of origin and the host country, to acknowledge labour and social rights, and to conduct further research into individual

Contributions of individual face features to face discrimination.

PubMed

Logan, Andrew J; Gordon, Gael E; Loffler, Gunter

2017-08-01

Faces are highly complex stimuli that contain a host of information. Such complexity poses the following questions: (a) do observers exhibit preferences for specific information? (b) how does sensitivity to individual face parts compare? These questions were addressed by quantifying sensitivity to different face features. Discrimination thresholds were determined for synthetic faces under the following conditions: (i) 'full face': all face features visible; (ii) 'isolated feature': single feature presented in isolation; (iii) 'embedded feature': all features visible, but only one feature modified. Mean threshold elevations for isolated features, relative to full-faces, were 0.84x, 1.08, 2.12, 3.34, 4.07 and 4.47 for head-shape, hairline, nose, mouth, eyes and eyebrows respectively. Hence, when two full faces can be discriminated at threshold, the difference between the eyes is about four times less than what is required when discriminating between isolated eyes. In all cases, sensitivity was higher when features were presented in isolation than when they were embedded within a face context (threshold elevations of 0.94x, 1.74, 2.67, 2.90, 5.94 and 9.94). This reveals a specific pattern of sensitivity to face information. Observers are between two and four times more sensitive to external than internal features. The pattern for internal features (higher sensitivity for the nose, compared to mouth, eyes and eyebrows) is consistent with lower sensitivity for those parts affected by facial dynamics (e.g. facial expressions). That isolated features are easier to discriminate than embedded features supports a holistic face processing mechanism which impedes extraction of information about individual features from full faces. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Recognition of visual stimuli and memory for spatial context in schizophrenic patients and healthy volunteers.

PubMed

Brébion, Gildas; David, Anthony S; Pilowsky, Lyn S; Jones, Hugh

2004-11-01

Verbal and visual recognition tasks were administered to 40 patients with schizophrenia and 40 healthy comparison subjects. The verbal recognition task consisted of discriminating between 16 target words and 16 new words. The visual recognition task consisted of discriminating between 16 target pictures (8 black-and-white and 8 color) and 16 new pictures (8 black-and-white and 8 color). Visual recognition was followed by a spatial context discrimination task in which subjects were required to remember the spatial location of the target pictures at encoding. Results showed that recognition deficit in patients was similar for verbal and visual material. In both schizophrenic and healthy groups, men, but not women, obtained better recognition scores for the colored than for the black-and-white pictures. However, men and women similarly benefited from color to reduce spatial context discrimination errors. Patients showed a significant deficit in remembering the spatial location of the pictures, independently of accuracy in remembering the pictures themselves. These data suggest that patients are impaired in the amount of visual information that they can encode. With regards to the perceptual attributes of the stimuli, memory for spatial information appears to be affected, but not processing of color information.

Technical performance and match-to-match variation in elite football teams.

PubMed

Liu, Hongyou; Gómez, Miguel-Angel; Gonçalves, Bruno; Sampaio, Jaime

2016-01-01

Recent research suggests that match-to-match variation adds important information to performance descriptors in team sports, as it helps measure how players fine-tune their tactical behaviours and technical actions to the extreme dynamical environments. The current study aims to identify the differences in technical performance of players from strong and weak teams and to explore match-to-match variation of players' technical match performance. Performance data of all the 380 matches of season 2012-2013 in the Spanish First Division Professional Football League were analysed. Twenty-one performance-related match actions and events were chosen as variables in the analyses. Players' technical performance profiles were established by unifying count values of each action or event of each player per match into the same scale. Means of these count values of players from Top3 and Bottom3 teams were compared and plotted into radar charts. Coefficient of variation of each match action or event within a player was calculated to represent his match-to-match variation of technical performance. Differences in the variation of technical performances of players across different match contexts (team and opposition strength, match outcome and match location) were compared. All the comparisons were achieved by the magnitude-based inferences. Results showed that technical performances differed between players of strong and weak teams from different perspectives across different field positions. Furthermore, the variation of the players' technical performance is affected by the match context, with effects from team and opposition strength greater than effects from match location and match outcome.

Place of birth effects on self-reported discrimination: Variations by type of discrimination

PubMed Central

Brondolo, Elizabeth; Rahim, Reanne; Grimaldi, Stephanie; Ashraf, Amina; Bui, Nini; Schwartz, Joseph

2016-01-01

Researchers have suggested that perceptions of discrimination may vary depending on place of birth and the length of time spent living in the U.S., variables related to acculturation. However, the existing literature provides a mixed picture, with data suggesting that the effects of acculturation on perceptions of discrimination vary by race and other sociodemographic factors. This study evaluated the role of place of birth (POB: defined as U.S.-born vs. foreign-born), age at immigration, and length of residence in the U.S. on self-reported discrimination in a sample of urban-dwelling Asian and Black adults (n= 1454). Analyses examined POB effects on different types of discrimination including race-related stigmatization, exclusion, threat, and workplace discrimination. Sociodemographic variables (including age, gender, employment status and education level) were tested as potential moderators of the relationship between POB and discrimination. The results revealed a significant main effect for POB on discrimination, with U.S.-born individuals reporting significantly more discrimination than foreign-born individuals, although the effect was reduced when sociodemographic variables were controlled. Across the sample, POB effects were seen only for race-related stigmatization and exclusion, not for threat and workplace discrimination. With the exception of limited effects for gender, sociodemographic variables did not moderate these effects. Younger age at immigration and greater years of residence in the U.S. were also positively associated with higher levels of perceived discrimination. These findings suggest increasing acculturation may shape the experience and perception of racial and ethnic discrimination. PMID:27647943

Place of birth effects on self-reported discrimination: Variations by type of discrimination.

PubMed

Brondolo, Elizabeth; Rahim, Reanne; Grimaldi, Stephanie; Ashraf, Amina; Bui, Nini; Schwartz, Joseph

2015-11-01

Researchers have suggested that perceptions of discrimination may vary depending on place of birth and the length of time spent living in the U.S., variables related to acculturation. However, the existing literature provides a mixed picture, with data suggesting that the effects of acculturation on perceptions of discrimination vary by race and other sociodemographic factors. This study evaluated the role of place of birth (POB: defined as U.S.-born vs. foreign-born), age at immigration, and length of residence in the U.S. on self-reported discrimination in a sample of urban-dwelling Asian and Black adults (n= 1454). Analyses examined POB effects on different types of discrimination including race-related stigmatization, exclusion, threat, and workplace discrimination. Sociodemographic variables (including age, gender, employment status and education level) were tested as potential moderators of the relationship between POB and discrimination. The results revealed a significant main effect for POB on discrimination, with U.S.-born individuals reporting significantly more discrimination than foreign-born individuals, although the effect was reduced when sociodemographic variables were controlled. Across the sample, POB effects were seen only for race-related stigmatization and exclusion, not for threat and workplace discrimination. With the exception of limited effects for gender, sociodemographic variables did not moderate these effects. Younger age at immigration and greater years of residence in the U.S. were also positively associated with higher levels of perceived discrimination. These findings suggest increasing acculturation may shape the experience and perception of racial and ethnic discrimination.

Discrimination of gravitational stimuli

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clark, F. C.

1972-01-01

The construction and installation of an animal centrifuge and its electronic support system was completed. Experimental procedures for obtaining data on the relationship between the discriminability of g differences and location along the continuum of effective weight were initiated. Data were obtained under two successive discriminations showing discrimination among g levels. In addition, there was some indication that the discriminability of differences between g levels associated with reinforcement was the same at two locations along the g continuum, although there were differences in measures of absolute discrimination at these locations.

Social and Cultural Contexts of Alcohol Use

PubMed Central

Sudhinaraset, May; Wigglesworth, Christina; Takeuchi, David T.

2016-01-01

Alcohol use and misuse account for 3.3 million deaths every year, or 6 percent of all deaths worldwide. The harmful effects of alcohol misuse are far reaching and range from individual health risks, morbidity, and mortality to consequences for family, friends, and the larger society. This article reviews a few of the cultural and social influences on alcohol use and places individual alcohol use within the contexts and environments where people live and interact. It includes a discussion of macrolevel factors, such as advertising and marketing, immigration and discrimination factors, and how neighborhoods, families, and peers influence alcohol use. Specifically, the article describes how social and cultural contexts influence alcohol use/misuse and then explores future directions for alcohol research. PMID:27159810

Perceived discrimination and its association with psychological distress among newly arrived immigrants before and after September 11, 2001.

PubMed

Rousseau, Cécile; Hassan, Ghayda; Moreau, Nicolas; Thombs, Brett D

2011-05-01

We compared the evolution of perception of discrimination from 1998 to 2007 among recent Arab (Muslim and non-Muslim) and Haitian immigrants to Montreal; we also studied the association between perception of discrimination and psychological distress in 1998 and 2007. We conducted this cross-sectional comparative research with 2 samples: one recruited in 1998 (n = 784) and the other in 2007 (n = 432). The samples were randomly extracted from the registry of the Ministry of Immigration and Cultural Communities of Quebec. Psychological distress was measured with the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25. The perception of discrimination increased from 1998 to 2007 among the Arab Muslim, Arab non-Muslim, and Haitian groups. Muslim Arabs experienced a significant increase in psychological distress associated with discrimination from 1998 to 2007. These results confirm an increase in perception of discrimination and psychological distress among Arab Muslim recent immigrant communities after September 11, 2001, and highlight the importance this context may have for other immigrant groups.

Perceived Discrimination and Its Association With Psychological Distress Among Newly Arrived Immigrants Before and After September 11, 2001

PubMed Central

Hassan, Ghayda; Moreau, Nicolas; Thombs, Brett D.

2011-01-01

Objectives. We compared the evolution of perception of discrimination from 1998 to 2007 among recent Arab (Muslim and non-Muslim) and Haitian immigrants to Montreal; we also studied the association between perception of discrimination and psychological distress in 1998 and 2007. Methods. We conducted this cross-sectional comparative research with 2 samples: one recruited in 1998 (n = 784) and the other in 2007 (n = 432). The samples were randomly extracted from the registry of the Ministry of Immigration and Cultural Communities of Quebec. Psychological distress was measured with the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25. Results. The perception of discrimination increased from 1998 to 2007 among the Arab Muslim, Arab non-Muslim, and Haitian groups. Muslim Arabs experienced a significant increase in psychological distress associated with discrimination from 1998 to 2007. Conclusions. These results confirm an increase in perception of discrimination and psychological distress among Arab Muslim recent immigrant communities after September 11, 2001, and highlight the importance this context may have for other immigrant groups. PMID:20724695

Racial Discrimination, Ethnic-Racial Socialization, and Crime: A Micro-sociological Model of Risk and Resilience

PubMed Central

Burt, Callie Harbin; Simons, Ronald L.; Gibbons, Frederick X.

2013-01-01

Dominant theoretical explanations of racial disparities in criminal offending overlook a key risk factor associated with race: interpersonal racial discrimination. Building on recent studies that analyze race and crime at the micro-level, we specify a social psychological model linking personal experiences with racial discrimination to an increased risk of offending. We add to this model a consideration of an adaptive facet of African American culture: ethnic-racial socialization, and explore whether two forms—cultural socialization and preparation for bias—provide resilience to the criminogenic effects of interpersonal racial discrimination. Using panel data from several hundred African American male youth from the Family and Community Health Study, we find that racial discrimination is positively associated with increased crime in large part by augmenting depression, hostile views of relationships, and disengagement from conventional norms. Results also indicate that preparation for bias significantly reduces the effects of discrimination on crime, primarily by reducing the effects of these social psychological mediators on offending. Cultural socialization has a less influential but beneficial effect. Finally, we show that the more general parenting context within which preparation for bias takes place influences its protective effects. PMID:24058204

Effects of perceived weight discrimination on willingness to adopt unhealthy behaviours: influence of genomic information.

PubMed

Beekman, Janine B; Ferrer, Rebecca A; Klein, William M P; Persky, Susan

2016-01-01

Weight-based discrimination negatively influences health, potentially via increased willingness to engage in unhealthful behaviours. This study examines whether the provision of genomic obesity information in a clinical context can lead to less willingness to engage in unhealthy eating and alcohol consumption through a mediated process including reduced perceptions of blame and discrimination. A total of 201 overweight or obese women aged 20-50 interacted with a virtual physician in a simulated clinical primary care environment, which included physician-delivered information that emphasised either genomic or behavioural underpinnings of weight and weight loss. Perceived blame and weight discrimination from the doctor, and willingness to eat unhealthy foods and consume alcohol. Controlling for BMI and race, participants who received genomic information perceived less blame from the doctor than participants who received behavioural information. In a serial multiple mediation model, reduced perceived blame was associated with less perceived discrimination, and in turn, lower willingness to eat unhealthy foods and drink alcohol. Providing patients with genomic information about weight and weight loss may positively influence interpersonal dynamics between patients and providers by reducing perceived blame and perceived discrimination. These improved dynamics, in turn, positively influence health cognitions.

Military Discrimination.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunter, Richard W.

1981-01-01

Argues that while a certain level of fairness is necessary in considering the equity of compulsory military service, the most important issue is that of "winning the war." Also asserts that sex, age, and race discrimination are more important than social class discrimination in military service. (Author/GC)

Sex differences in audiovisual discrimination learning by Bengalese finches (Lonchura striata var. domestica).

PubMed

Seki, Yoshimasa; Okanoya, Kazuo

2008-02-01

Both visual and auditory information are important for songbirds, especially in developmental and sexual contexts. To investigate bimodal cognition in songbirds, the authors conducted audiovisual discrimination training in Bengalese finches. The authors used two types of stimulus: an "artificial stimulus," which is a combination of simple figures and sound, and a "biological stimulus," consisting of video images of singing males along with their songs. The authors found that while both sexes predominantly used visual cues in the discrimination tasks, males tended to be more dependent on auditory information for the biological stimulus. Female responses were always dependent on the visual stimulus for both stimulus types. Only males changed their discrimination strategy according to stimulus type. Although males used both visual and auditory cues for the biological stimulus, they responded to the artificial stimulus depending only on visual information, as the females did. These findings suggest a sex difference in innate auditory sensitivity. (c) 2008 APA.

Racial/Ethnic Workplace Discrimination

PubMed Central

Chavez, Laura J.; Ornelas, India J.; Lyles, Courtney R.; Williams, Emily C.

2014-01-01

Background Experiences of discrimination are associated with tobacco and alcohol use, and work is a common setting where individuals experience racial/ethnic discrimination. Few studies have evaluated the association between workplace discrimination and these behaviors, and none have described associations across race/ethnicity. Purpose To examine the association between workplace discrimination and tobacco and alcohol use in a large, multistate sample of U.S. adult respondents to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey Reactions to Race Module (2004–2010). Methods Multivariable logistic regression analyses evaluated cross-sectional associations between self-reported workplace discrimination and tobacco (current and daily smoking) and alcohol use (any and heavy use, and binge drinking) among all participants and stratified by race/ethnicity, adjusting for relevant covariates. Data were analyzed in 2013. Results Among respondents, 70,080 completed the workplace discrimination measure. Discrimination was more common among black non-Hispanic (21%), Hispanic (12%), and other race respondents (11%) than white non-Hispanics (4%) (p<0.001). In the total sample, discrimination was associated with current smoking (risk ratio [RR]=1.32, 95% CI=1.19, 1.47), daily smoking (RR=1.41, 95% CI=1.24, 1.61), and heavy drinking (RR=1.11, 95% CI=1.01, 1.22), but not binge or any drinking. Among Hispanics, workplace discrimination was associated with increased heavy and binge drinking, but not any alcohol use or smoking. Workplace discrimination among black non-Hispanics and white Non-Hispanics was associated with increased current and daily smoking, but not alcohol outcomes. Conclusions Workplace discrimination is common, associated with smoking and alcohol use, and merits further policy attention given the impact of these behaviors on morbidity and mortality. PMID:25441232

Beliefs, stigma and discrimination associated with mental health problems in Uganda: implications for theory and practice.

PubMed

Quinn, Neil; Knifton, Lee

2014-09-01

There are major gaps in knowledge about beliefs, stigma and discrimination in Uganda, including the relationship between different cultural beliefs and stigmatising responses, how stigma and beliefs result in discrimination and the impact of social factors such as gender, poverty and ethnic conflict. This exploratory study aims to understand beliefs, stigma and discrimination associated with mental health in Uganda in more depth from the perspectives of different stakeholders. Focus groups and interviews were undertaken with mental health activists, policymakers, practitioners, non-governmental and human rights organisations, journalists and academics. Stigma was reported by individuals, families, communities and institutions, including health services. The study also found stigmatising beliefs linked to traditional, religious and medical explanatory frameworks, high levels of 'associated stigma', common mental health problems rarely medicalised and discrimination linked to poverty, gender and conflict. The findings suggest the need to address stigma in their cultural and social context, alongside other human rights initiatives. © The Author(s) 2013.

The specter of discrimination: Fear of interpersonal racial discrimination among adolescents in Chicago.

PubMed

Herda, Daniel

2016-01-01

This analysis examines fear of interpersonal racial discrimination among Black, Hispanic, and White adolescents. The extent and correlates of these concerns are examined using survey data from the Project for Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Borrowing from the fear-of-crime literature, the contact hypothesis, and group threat theory, several hypotheses are developed linking discrimination fear to direct personal experience with discrimination, indirect or vicarious experience, and environmental signals of discrimination. Results show that about half of Blacks and Hispanics have feared discrimination in the past year. Multivariate results indicate that fear is most likely if one has experienced victimization first-hand and when one's parent is affected by discrimination. Further, a larger presence neighborhood outgroups produces greater fear. Overall, discrimination fear constitutes an additional obstacle for minority adolescents as they transition to adulthood. The phenomenon warrants increased scholarly attention and represents a fruitful avenue for future research. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Unsupervised learning of discriminative edge measures for vehicle matching between nonoverlapping cameras.

PubMed

Shan, Ying; Sawhney, Harpreet S; Kumar, Rakesh

2008-04-01

This paper proposes a novel unsupervised algorithm learning discriminative features in the context of matching road vehicles between two non-overlapping cameras. The matching problem is formulated as a same-different classification problem, which aims to compute the probability of vehicle images from two distinct cameras being from the same vehicle or different vehicle(s). We employ a novel measurement vector that consists of three independent edge-based measures and their associated robust measures computed from a pair of aligned vehicle edge maps. The weight of each measure is determined by an unsupervised learning algorithm that optimally separates the same-different classes in the combined measurement space. This is achieved with a weak classification algorithm that automatically collects representative samples from same-different classes, followed by a more discriminative classifier based on Fisher' s Linear Discriminants and Gibbs Sampling. The robustness of the match measures and the use of unsupervised discriminant analysis in the classification ensures that the proposed method performs consistently in the presence of missing/false features, temporally and spatially changing illumination conditions, and systematic misalignment caused by different camera configurations. Extensive experiments based on real data of over 200 vehicles at different times of day demonstrate promising results.

Brand Discrimination: An Implicit Measure of the Strength of Mental Brand Representations

PubMed Central

Friedman, Mike; Leclercq, Thomas

2015-01-01

While mental associations between a brand and its marketing elements are an important part of brand equity, previous research has yet to provide a sound methodology to measure the strength of these links. The following studies present the development and validation of an implicit measure to assess the strength of mental representations of brand elements in the mind of the consumer. The measure described in this paper, which we call the Brand Discrimination task, requires participants to identify whether images of brand elements (e.g. color, logo, packaging) belong to a target brand or not. Signal detection theory (SDT) is used to calculate a Brand Discrimination index which gives a measure of overall recognition accuracy for a brand’s elements in the context of its competitors. A series of five studies shows that the Brand Discrimination task can discriminate between strong and weak brands, increases when mental representations of brands are experimentally strengthened, is relatively stable across time, and can predict brand choice, independently and while controlling for other explicit and implicit brand evaluation measures. Together, these studies provide unique evidence for the importance of mental brand representations in marketing and consumer behavior, along with a research methodology to measure this important consumer-based brand attribute. PMID:25803845

Brand discrimination: an implicit measure of the strength of mental brand representations.

PubMed

Friedman, Mike; Leclercq, Thomas

2015-01-01

While mental associations between a brand and its marketing elements are an important part of brand equity, previous research has yet to provide a sound methodology to measure the strength of these links. The following studies present the development and validation of an implicit measure to assess the strength of mental representations of brand elements in the mind of the consumer. The measure described in this paper, which we call the Brand Discrimination task, requires participants to identify whether images of brand elements (e.g. color, logo, packaging) belong to a target brand or not. Signal detection theory (SDT) is used to calculate a Brand Discrimination index which gives a measure of overall recognition accuracy for a brand's elements in the context of its competitors. A series of five studies shows that the Brand Discrimination task can discriminate between strong and weak brands, increases when mental representations of brands are experimentally strengthened, is relatively stable across time, and can predict brand choice, independently and while controlling for other explicit and implicit brand evaluation measures. Together, these studies provide unique evidence for the importance of mental brand representations in marketing and consumer behavior, along with a research methodology to measure this important consumer-based brand attribute.

Hidden discriminative features extraction for supervised high-order time series modeling.

PubMed

Nguyen, Ngoc Anh Thi; Yang, Hyung-Jeong; Kim, Sunhee

2016-11-01

In this paper, an orthogonal Tucker-decomposition-based extraction of high-order discriminative subspaces from a tensor-based time series data structure is presented, named as Tensor Discriminative Feature Extraction (TDFE). TDFE relies on the employment of category information for the maximization of the between-class scatter and the minimization of the within-class scatter to extract optimal hidden discriminative feature subspaces that are simultaneously spanned by every modality for supervised tensor modeling. In this context, the proposed tensor-decomposition method provides the following benefits: i) reduces dimensionality while robustly mining the underlying discriminative features, ii) results in effective interpretable features that lead to an improved classification and visualization, and iii) reduces the processing time during the training stage and the filtering of the projection by solving the generalized eigenvalue issue at each alternation step. Two real third-order tensor-structures of time series datasets (an epilepsy electroencephalogram (EEG) that is modeled as channel×frequency bin×time frame and a microarray data that is modeled as gene×sample×time) were used for the evaluation of the TDFE. The experiment results corroborate the advantages of the proposed method with averages of 98.26% and 89.63% for the classification accuracies of the epilepsy dataset and the microarray dataset, respectively. These performance averages represent an improvement on those of the matrix-based algorithms and recent tensor-based, discriminant-decomposition approaches; this is especially the case considering the small number of samples that are used in practice. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploring Discrimination and Mental Health Disparities Faced By Black Sexual Minority Women Using a Minority Stress Framework.

PubMed

Calabrese, Sarah K; Meyer, Ilan H; Overstreet, Nicole M; Haile, Rahwa; Hansen, Nathan B

2015-09-01

Black sexual minority women are triply marginalized due to their race, gender, and sexual orientation. We compared three dimensions of discrimination-frequency (regularity of occurrences), scope (number of types of discriminatory acts experienced), and number of bases (number of social statuses to which discrimination was attributed)-and self-reported mental health (depressive symptoms, psychological well-being, and social well-being) between 64 Black sexual minority women and each of two groups sharing two of three marginalized statuses: (a) 67 White sexual minority women and (b) 67 Black sexual minority men. Black sexual minority women reported greater discrimination frequency, scope, and number of bases and poorer psychological and social well-being than White sexual minority women and more discrimination bases, a higher level of depressive symptoms, and poorer social well-being than Black sexual minority men. We then tested and contrasted dimensions of discrimination as mediators between social status (race or gender) and mental health outcomes. Discrimination frequency and scope mediated the association between race and mental health, with a stronger effect via frequency among sexual minority women. Number of discrimination bases mediated the association between gender and mental health among Black sexual minorities. Future research and clinical practice would benefit from considering Black sexual minority women's mental health in a multidimensional minority stress context.

Quantifying discrimination of Framingham risk functions with different survival C statistics.

PubMed

Pencina, Michael J; D'Agostino, Ralph B; Song, Linye

2012-07-10

Cardiovascular risk prediction functions offer an important diagnostic tool for clinicians and patients themselves. They are usually constructed with the use of parametric or semi-parametric survival regression models. It is essential to be able to evaluate the performance of these models, preferably with summaries that offer natural and intuitive interpretations. The concept of discrimination, popular in the logistic regression context, has been extended to survival analysis. However, the extension is not unique. In this paper, we define discrimination in survival analysis as the model's ability to separate those with longer event-free survival from those with shorter event-free survival within some time horizon of interest. This definition remains consistent with that used in logistic regression, in the sense that it assesses how well the model-based predictions match the observed data. Practical and conceptual examples and numerical simulations are employed to examine four C statistics proposed in the literature to evaluate the performance of survival models. We observe that they differ in the numerical values and aspects of discrimination that they capture. We conclude that the index proposed by Harrell is the most appropriate to capture discrimination described by the above definition. We suggest researchers report which C statistic they are using, provide a rationale for their selection, and be aware that comparing different indices across studies may not be meaningful. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Implicit Age Cues in Resumes: Subtle Effects on Hiring Discrimination

PubMed Central

Derous, Eva; Decoster, Jeroen

2017-01-01

Anonymous resume screening, as assumed, does not dissuade age discriminatory effects. Building on job market signaling theory, this study investigated whether older applicants may benefit from concealing explicitly mentioned age signals on their resumes (date of birth) or whether more implicit/subtle age cues on resumes (older-sounding names/old-fashioned extracurricular activities) may lower older applicants’ hirability ratings. An experimental study among 610 HR professionals using a mixed factorial design showed hiring discrimination of older applicants based on implicit age cues in resumes. This effect was more pronounced for older raters. Concealing one’s date of birth led to overall lower ratings. Study findings add to the limited knowledge on the effects of implicit age cues on hiring discrimination in resume screening and the usefulness of anonymous resume screening in the context of age. Implications for research and practice are discussed. PMID:28848463

Frequency discriminator/phase detector

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Crow, R. B.

1974-01-01

Circuit provides dual function of frequency discriminator/phase detector which reduces frequency acquisition time without adding to circuit complexity. Both frequency discriminators, in evaluated frequency discriminator/phase detector circuits, are effective two decades above and below center frequency.

An intersectional approach for understanding perceived discrimination and psychological well-being among African American and Caribbean Black youth.

PubMed

Seaton, Eleanor K; Caldwell, Cleopatra H; Sellers, Robert M; Jackson, James S

2010-09-01

The present study examined whether combinations of ethnicity, gender, and age moderated the association between perceived discrimination and psychological well-being indicators (depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and life satisfaction) in a nationally representative sample of Black youth. The data were from the National Survey of American Life, which includes 810 African American and 360 Caribbean Black adolescents. The results indicated main effects such that perceived discrimination was linked to increased depressive symptoms and decreased self-esteem and life satisfaction. Additionally, there were significant interactions for ethnicity, gender, and race. Specifically, older Caribbean Black female adolescents exhibited higher depressive symptoms and lower life satisfaction in the context of high levels of perceived discrimination compared with older African American male adolescents.

Perceived Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Mental Health: a Review and Future Directions for Social Epidemiology

PubMed Central

Vines, Anissa I.; Ward, Julia B.; Cordoba, Evette; Black, Kristin Z.

2017-01-01

Purpose of review Recent literature on racial or ethnic discrimination and mental health was reviewed to assess the current science and identify key areas of emphasis for social epidemiology. Objectives of this review were to: 1) Determine whether there have been advancements in the measurement and analysis of perceived discrimination; 2) Identify the use of theories and/or frameworks in perceived discrimination and mental health research; and 3) Assess the extent to which stress buffers are being considered and evaluated in the existing literature. Recent findings Metrics and analytic approaches used to assess discrimination remain largely unchanged. Theory and/or frameworks such as the stress and coping framework continue to be underused in majority of the studies. Adolescents and young adults experiencing racial/ethnic discrimination were at greater risk of adverse mental health outcomes, and the accumulation of stressors over the life course may have an aggregate impact on mental health. Some growth seems evident in studies examining the mediation and moderation of stress buffers and other key factors with the findings suggesting a reduction in the effects of discrimination on mental health. Summary Discrimination scales should consider the multiple social identities of a person, the context where the exposure occurs, how the stressor manifests specifically in adolescents, the historical traumas, and cumulative exposure. Life course theory and intersectionality may help guide future work. Despite existing research, gaps remain in in elucidating the effects of racial and ethnic discrimination on mental health, signaling an opportunity and a call to social epidemiologists to engage in interdisciplinary research to speed research progress. PMID:28920011

Perceived Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Mental Health: a Review and Future Directions for Social Epidemiology.

PubMed

Vines, Anissa I; Ward, Julia B; Cordoba, Evette; Black, Kristin Z

2017-06-01

Recent literature on racial or ethnic discrimination and mental health was reviewed to assess the current science and identify key areas of emphasis for social epidemiology. Objectives of this review were to: 1) Determine whether there have been advancements in the measurement and analysis of perceived discrimination; 2) Identify the use of theories and/or frameworks in perceived discrimination and mental health research; and 3) Assess the extent to which stress buffers are being considered and evaluated in the existing literature. Metrics and analytic approaches used to assess discrimination remain largely unchanged. Theory and/or frameworks such as the stress and coping framework continue to be underused in majority of the studies. Adolescents and young adults experiencing racial/ethnic discrimination were at greater risk of adverse mental health outcomes, and the accumulation of stressors over the life course may have an aggregate impact on mental health. Some growth seems evident in studies examining the mediation and moderation of stress buffers and other key factors with the findings suggesting a reduction in the effects of discrimination on mental health. Discrimination scales should consider the multiple social identities of a person, the context where the exposure occurs, how the stressor manifests specifically in adolescents, the historical traumas, and cumulative exposure. Life course theory and intersectionality may help guide future work. Despite existing research, gaps remain in in elucidating the effects of racial and ethnic discrimination on mental health, signaling an opportunity and a call to social epidemiologists to engage in interdisciplinary research to speed research progress.

Context-Aware Local Binary Feature Learning for Face Recognition.

PubMed

Duan, Yueqi; Lu, Jiwen; Feng, Jianjiang; Zhou, Jie

2018-05-01

In this paper, we propose a context-aware local binary feature learning (CA-LBFL) method for face recognition. Unlike existing learning-based local face descriptors such as discriminant face descriptor (DFD) and compact binary face descriptor (CBFD) which learn each feature code individually, our CA-LBFL exploits the contextual information of adjacent bits by constraining the number of shifts from different binary bits, so that more robust information can be exploited for face representation. Given a face image, we first extract pixel difference vectors (PDV) in local patches, and learn a discriminative mapping in an unsupervised manner to project each pixel difference vector into a context-aware binary vector. Then, we perform clustering on the learned binary codes to construct a codebook, and extract a histogram feature for each face image with the learned codebook as the final representation. In order to exploit local information from different scales, we propose a context-aware local binary multi-scale feature learning (CA-LBMFL) method to jointly learn multiple projection matrices for face representation. To make the proposed methods applicable for heterogeneous face recognition, we present a coupled CA-LBFL (C-CA-LBFL) method and a coupled CA-LBMFL (C-CA-LBMFL) method to reduce the modality gap of corresponding heterogeneous faces in the feature level, respectively. Extensive experimental results on four widely used face datasets clearly show that our methods outperform most state-of-the-art face descriptors.

Longitudinal relationships between antiretroviral treatment adherence and discrimination due to HIV-serostatus, race, and sexual orientation among African-American men with HIV.

PubMed

Bogart, Laura M; Wagner, Glenn J; Galvan, Frank H; Klein, David J

2010-10-01

African-Americans show worse HIV disease outcomes compared to Whites. Health disparities may be aggravated by discrimination, which is associated with worse health and maladaptive health behaviors. We examined longitudinal effects of discrimination on antiretroviral treatment adherence among 152 HIV-positive Black men who have sex with men. We measured adherence and discrimination due to HIV-serostatus, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation at baseline and monthly for 6 months. Hierarchical repeated-measures models tested longitudinal effects of each discrimination type on adherence. Over 6 months, participants took 60% of prescribed medications on average; substantial percentages experienced discrimination (HIV-serostatus, 38%; race/ethnicity, 40%; and sexual orientation, 33%). Greater discrimination due to all three characteristics was significantly bivariately associated with lower adherence (all p's < 0.05). In the multivariate model, only racial discrimination was significant (p < 0.05). Efforts to improve HIV treatment adherence should consider the context of multiple stigmas, especially racism.

Object-based attention modulates the discrimination of level increments in stop-consonant noise bursts

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

This study tested the hypothesis that object-based attention modulates the discrimination of level increments in stop-consonant noise bursts. With consonant-vowel-consonant (CvC) words consisting of an ≈80-dB vowel (v), a pre-vocalic (Cv) and a post-vocalic (vC) stop-consonant noise burst (≈60-dB SPL), we measured discrimination thresholds (LDTs) for level increments (ΔL) in the noise bursts presented either in CvC context or in isolation. In the 2-interval 2-alternative forced-choice task, each observation interval presented a CvC word (e.g., /pæk/ /pæk/), and normal-hearing participants had to discern ΔL in the Cv or vC burst. Based on the linguistic word labels, the auditory events of each trial were perceived as two auditory objects (Cv-v-vC and Cv-v-vC) that group together the bursts and vowels, hindering selective attention to ΔL. To discern ΔL in Cv or vC, the events must be reorganized into three auditory objects: the to-be-attended pre-vocalic (Cv–Cv) or post-vocalic burst pair (vC–vC), and the to-be-ignored vowel pair (v–v). Our results suggest that instead of being automatic this reorganization requires training, in spite of using familiar CvC words. Relative to bursts in isolation, bursts in context always produced inferior ΔL discrimination accuracy (a context effect), which depended strongly on the acoustic separation between the bursts and the vowel, being much keener for the object apart from (post-vocalic) than for the object adjoining (pre-vocalic) the vowel (a temporal-position effect). Variability in CvC dimensions that did not alter the noise-burst perceptual grouping had minor effects on discrimination accuracy. In addition to being robust and persistent, these effects are relatively general, evincing in forced-choice tasks with one or two observation intervals, with or without variability in the temporal position of ΔL, and with either fixed or roving CvC standards. The results lend support to the hypothesis. PMID:29364931

Discrimination Report: ESTCP UXO Discrimination Study, ESTCPProject #MM-0437

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gasperikova, Erika; Smith, J. Torquil; Morrison, H. Frank

2007-12-21

The FY06 Defense Appropriation contains funding for the 'Development of Advanced, Sophisticated, Discrimination Technologies for UXO Cleanup' in the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program. In 2003, the Defense Science Board observed: 'The problem is that instruments that can detect the buried UXOs also detect numerous scrap metal objects and other artifacts, which leads to an enormous amount of expensive digging. Typically 100 holes may be dug before a real UXO is unearthed! The Task Force assessment is that much of this wasteful digging can be eliminated by the use of more advanced technology instruments that exploit modern digital processing andmore » advanced multi-mode sensors to achieve an improved level of discrimination of scrap from UXOs.' Significant progress has been made in discrimination technology. To date, testing of these approaches has been primarily limited to test sites with only limited application at live sites. Acceptance of discrimination technologies requires demonstration of system capabilities at real UXO sites under real world conditions. Any attempt to declare detected anomalies to be harmless and requiring no further investigation require demonstration to regulators of not only individual technologies, but of an entire decision making process. This discrimination study was be the first phase in what is expected to be a continuing effort that will span several years.« less

Genetic discrimination and life insurance: a systematic review of the evidence

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Since the late 1980s, genetic discrimination has remained one of the major concerns associated with genetic research and clinical genetics. Europe has adopted a plethora of laws and policies, both at the regional and national levels, to prevent insurers from having access to genetic information for underwriting. Legislators from the United States and the United Kingdom have also felt compelled to adopt protective measures specifically addressing genetics and insurance. But does the available evidence really confirm the popular apprehension about genetic discrimination and the subsequent genetic exceptionalism? Methods This paper presents the results of a systematic, critical review of over 20 years of genetic discrimination studies in the context of life insurance. Results The available data clearly document the existence of individual cases of genetic discrimination. The significance of this initial finding is, however, greatly diminished by four observations. First, the methodology used in most of the studies is not sufficiently robust to clearly establish either the prevalence or the impact of discriminatory practices. Second, the current body of evidence was mostly developed around a small number of 'classic' genetic conditions. Third, the heterogeneity and small scope of most of the studies prevents formal statistical analysis of the aggregate results. Fourth, the small number of reported genetic discrimination cases in some studies could indicate that these incidents took place due to occasional errors, rather than the voluntary or planned choice, of the insurers. Conclusion Important methodological limitations and inconsistencies among the studies considered make it extremely difficult, at the moment, to justify policy action taken on the basis of evidence alone. Nonetheless, other empirical and theoretical factors have emerged (for example, the prevalence and impact of the fear of genetic discrimination among patients and research participants

Genetic discrimination and life insurance: a systematic review of the evidence.

PubMed

Joly, Yann; Ngueng Feze, Ida; Simard, Jacques

2013-01-31

Since the late 1980s, genetic discrimination has remained one of the major concerns associated with genetic research and clinical genetics. Europe has adopted a plethora of laws and policies, both at the regional and national levels, to prevent insurers from having access to genetic information for underwriting. Legislators from the United States and the United Kingdom have also felt compelled to adopt protective measures specifically addressing genetics and insurance. But does the available evidence really confirm the popular apprehension about genetic discrimination and the subsequent genetic exceptionalism? This paper presents the results of a systematic, critical review of over 20 years of genetic discrimination studies in the context of life insurance. The available data clearly document the existence of individual cases of genetic discrimination. The significance of this initial finding is, however, greatly diminished by four observations. First, the methodology used in most of the studies is not sufficiently robust to clearly establish either the prevalence or the impact of discriminatory practices. Second, the current body of evidence was mostly developed around a small number of 'classic' genetic conditions. Third, the heterogeneity and small scope of most of the studies prevents formal statistical analysis of the aggregate results. Fourth, the small number of reported genetic discrimination cases in some studies could indicate that these incidents took place due to occasional errors, rather than the voluntary or planned choice, of the insurers. Important methodological limitations and inconsistencies among the studies considered make it extremely difficult, at the moment, to justify policy action taken on the basis of evidence alone. Nonetheless, other empirical and theoretical factors have emerged (for example, the prevalence and impact of the fear of genetic discrimination among patients and research participants, the (un)importance of genetic

No evidence for visual context-dependency of olfactory learning in Drosophila

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yarali, Ayse; Mayerle, Moritz; Nawroth, Christian; Gerber, Bertram

2008-08-01

How is behaviour organised across sensory modalities? Specifically, we ask concerning the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster how visual context affects olfactory learning and recall and whether information about visual context is getting integrated into olfactory memory. We find that changing visual context between training and test does not deteriorate olfactory memory scores, suggesting that these olfactory memories can drive behaviour despite a mismatch of visual context between training and test. Rather, both the establishment and the recall of olfactory memory are generally facilitated by light. In a follow-up experiment, we find no evidence for learning about combinations of odours and visual context as predictors for reinforcement even after explicit training in a so-called biconditional discrimination task. Thus, a ‘true’ interaction between visual and olfactory modalities is not evident; instead, light seems to influence olfactory learning and recall unspecifically, for example by altering motor activity, alertness or olfactory acuity.

Optogenetic and pharmacological suppression of spatial clusters of face neurons reveal their causal role in face gender discrimination.

PubMed

Afraz, Arash; Boyden, Edward S; DiCarlo, James J

2015-05-26

Neurons that respond more to images of faces over nonface objects were identified in the inferior temporal (IT) cortex of primates three decades ago. Although it is hypothesized that perceptual discrimination between faces depends on the neural activity of IT subregions enriched with "face neurons," such a causal link has not been directly established. Here, using optogenetic and pharmacological methods, we reversibly suppressed the neural activity in small subregions of IT cortex of macaque monkeys performing a facial gender-discrimination task. Each type of intervention independently demonstrated that suppression of IT subregions enriched in face neurons induced a contralateral deficit in face gender-discrimination behavior. The same neural suppression of other IT subregions produced no detectable change in behavior. These results establish a causal link between the neural activity in IT face neuron subregions and face gender-discrimination behavior. Also, the demonstration that brief neural suppression of specific spatial subregions of IT induces behavioral effects opens the door for applying the technical advantages of optogenetics to a systematic attack on the causal relationship between IT cortex and high-level visual perception.

Technical Writing, Revision, and Language Communities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petersen, Bruce T.

To examine the writing process of personnel who write as part of their jobs and the relation of that process to the context in which they worked, a study was undertaken in a major corporation. Its aim was to research a model for teaching technical writing students that would bridge the gap between the classroom and the probable writing situations…

Adult Discrimination against Children: The Case of Abstinence-Only Education in Twenty-First-Century USA

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greslé-Favier, Claire

2013-01-01

This paper analyses abstinence-only education programmes and discourses within the frame of theories of adult discrimination against children. To begin with, a definition of abstinence-only programmes and of the political context in which they were created will be provided. These programmes will then be analysed through the lens of children's…

Contextual Sensing: Integrating Contextual Information with Human and Technical Geo-Sensor Information for Smart Cities

PubMed Central

Sagl, Günther; Resch, Bernd; Blaschke, Thomas

2015-01-01

In this article we critically discuss the challenge of integrating contextual information, in particular spatiotemporal contextual information, with human and technical sensor information, which we approach from a geospatial perspective. We start by highlighting the significance of context in general and spatiotemporal context in particular and introduce a smart city model of interactions between humans, the environment, and technology, with context at the common interface. We then focus on both the intentional and the unintentional sensing capabilities of today’s technologies and discuss current technological trends that we consider have the ability to enrich human and technical geo-sensor information with contextual detail. The different types of sensors used to collect contextual information are analyzed and sorted into three groups on the basis of names considering frequently used related terms, and characteristic contextual parameters. These three groups, namely technical in situ sensors, technical remote sensors, and human sensors are analyzed and linked to three dimensions involved in sensing (data generation, geographic phenomena, and type of sensing). In contrast to other scientific publications, we found a large number of technologies and applications using in situ and mobile technical sensors within the context of smart cities, and surprisingly limited use of remote sensing approaches. In this article we further provide a critical discussion of possible impacts and influences of both technical and human sensing approaches on society, pointing out that a larger number of sensors, increased fusion of information, and the use of standardized data formats and interfaces will not necessarily result in any improvement in the quality of life of the citizens of a smart city. This article seeks to improve our understanding of technical and human geo-sensing capabilities, and to demonstrate that the use of such sensors can facilitate the integration of different

Contextual Sensing: Integrating Contextual Information with Human and Technical Geo-Sensor Information for Smart Cities.

PubMed

Sagl, Günther; Resch, Bernd; Blaschke, Thomas

2015-07-14

In this article we critically discuss the challenge of integrating contextual information, in particular spatiotemporal contextual information, with human and technical sensor information, which we approach from a geospatial perspective. We start by highlighting the significance of context in general and spatiotemporal context in particular and introduce a smart city model of interactions between humans, the environment, and technology, with context at the common interface. We then focus on both the intentional and the unintentional sensing capabilities of today's technologies and discuss current technological trends that we consider have the ability to enrich human and technical geo-sensor information with contextual detail. The different types of sensors used to collect contextual information are analyzed and sorted into three groups on the basis of names considering frequently used related terms, and characteristic contextual parameters. These three groups, namely technical in situ sensors, technical remote sensors, and human sensors are analyzed and linked to three dimensions involved in sensing (data generation, geographic phenomena, and type of sensing). In contrast to other scientific publications, we found a large number of technologies and applications using in situ and mobile technical sensors within the context of smart cities, and surprisingly limited use of remote sensing approaches. In this article we further provide a critical discussion of possible impacts and influences of both technical and human sensing approaches on society, pointing out that a larger number of sensors, increased fusion of information, and the use of standardized data formats and interfaces will not necessarily result in any improvement in the quality of life of the citizens of a smart city. This article seeks to improve our understanding of technical and human geo-sensing capabilities, and to demonstrate that the use of such sensors can facilitate the integration of different

Prevalence and Correlates of Perceived Ethnic Discrimination in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos Sociocultural Ancillary Study

PubMed Central

Arellano-Morales, Leticia; Roesch, Scott C.; Gallo, Linda C.; Emory, Kristen T.; Molina, Kristine M.; Gonzalez, Patricia; Penedo, Frank J.; Navas-Nacher, Elena L.; Teng, Yanping; Deng, Yu; Isasi, Carmen R.; Schneiderman, Neil; Brondolo, Elizabeth

2015-01-01

Empirical studies examining perceived ethnic discrimination in Latinos of diverse background groups are limited. This study examined prevalence and correlates of discrimination in a diverse sample of U.S. Latinos (N=5,291) from the multi-site Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL) and HCHS/SOL Sociocultural Ancillary Study. The sample permitted an examination of differences across seven groups (Central American, Cuban, Dominican, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South American, and Other/Multiple Background). Most participants (79.5%) reported lifetime discrimination exposure and prevalence rates ranged from 64.9% to 98% across groups. Structural Equation Models (SEM) indicated that after adjusting for sociodemographic covariates most group differences in reports of discrimination were eliminated. However, Cubans reported the lowest levels of discrimination, overall among all groups. Furthermore, regional effects were more important than group effects. Participants from Chicago reported the highest levels of discrimination in comparison to other regions. Group differences among Latinos appear to be primarily a function of sociodemographic differences in education, income, and acculturation. In addition, differences in exposure to discrimination may be tied to variables associated with both immigration patterns and integration to U.S. culture. Results highlight the importance of considering historical context and the intersection of discrimination and immigration when evaluating the mental health of Latinos. PMID:26491624

Improved Discrimination of Visual Stimuli Following Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

PubMed Central

Waterston, Michael L.; Pack, Christopher C.

2010-01-01

Background Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) at certain frequencies increases thresholds for motor-evoked potentials and phosphenes following stimulation of cortex. Consequently rTMS is often assumed to introduce a “virtual lesion” in stimulated brain regions, with correspondingly diminished behavioral performance. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we investigated the effects of rTMS to visual cortex on subjects' ability to perform visual psychophysical tasks. Contrary to expectations of a visual deficit, we find that rTMS often improves the discrimination of visual features. For coarse orientation tasks, discrimination of a static stimulus improved consistently following theta-burst stimulation of the occipital lobe. Using a reaction-time task, we found that these improvements occurred throughout the visual field and lasted beyond one hour post-rTMS. Low-frequency (1 Hz) stimulation yielded similar improvements. In contrast, we did not find consistent effects of rTMS on performance in a fine orientation discrimination task. Conclusions/Significance Overall our results suggest that rTMS generally improves or has no effect on visual acuity, with the nature of the effect depending on the type of stimulation and the task. We interpret our results in the context of an ideal-observer model of visual perception. PMID:20442776

The attentional boost effect and context memory.

PubMed

Mulligan, Neil W; Smith, S Adam; Spataro, Pietro

2016-04-01

Stimuli co-occurring with targets in a detection task are better remembered than stimuli co-occurring with distractors-the attentional boost effect (ABE). The ABE is of interest because it is an exception to the usual finding that divided attention during encoding impairs memory. The effect has been demonstrated in tests of item memory but it is unclear if context memory is likewise affected. Some accounts suggest enhanced perceptual encoding or associative binding, predicting an ABE on context memory, whereas other evidence suggests a more abstract, amodal basis of the effect. In Experiment 1, context memory was assessed in terms of an intramodal perceptual detail, the font and color of the study word. Experiment 2 examined context memory cross-modally, assessing memory for the modality (visual or auditory) of the study word. Experiments 3 and 4 assessed context memory with list discrimination, in which 2 study lists are presented and participants must later remember which list (if either) a test word came from. In all experiments, item (recognition) memory was also assessed and consistently displayed a robust ABE. In contrast, the attentional-boost manipulation did not enhance context memory, whether defined in terms of visual details, study modality, or list membership. There was some evidence that the mode of responding on the detection task (motoric response as opposed to covert counting of targets) may impact context memory but there was no evidence of an effect of target detection, per se. In sum, the ABE did not occur in context memory with verbal materials. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Does perceived race affect discrimination and recognition of ambiguous-race faces? A test of the sociocognitive hypothesis.

PubMed

Rhodes, Gillian; Lie, Hanne C; Ewing, Louise; Evangelista, Emma; Tanaka, James W

2010-01-01

Discrimination and recognition are often poorer for other-race than own-race faces. These other-race effects (OREs) have traditionally been attributed to reduced perceptual expertise, resulting from more limited experience, with other-race faces. However, recent findings suggest that sociocognitive factors, such as reduced motivation to individuate other-race faces, may also contribute. If the sociocognitive hypothesis is correct, then it should be possible to alter discrimination and memory performance for identical faces by altering their perceived race. We made identical ambiguous-race morphed faces look either Asian or Caucasian by presenting them in Caucasian or Asian face contexts, respectively. However, this perceived-race manipulation had no effect on either discrimination (Experiment 1) or memory (Experiment 2) for the ambiguous-race faces, despite the presence of the usual OREs in discrimination and recognition of unambiguous Asian and Caucasian faces in our participant population. These results provide no support for the sociocognitive hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

Racial and Gender Discrimination in the Stress Process: Implications for African American Women's Health and Well-Being

PubMed Central

Perry, Brea L.; Harp, Kathi L. H.; Oser, Carrie B.

2013-01-01

In recent decades, sociologists have increasingly adopted an intersectionality framework to explore and explain the complex and interconnected nature of inequalities in the areas of race, class, and gender. Using an inclusion-centered approach and a sample of 204 low-socioeconomic-status (SES) African American women, the authors theorize and explore the role of racial and gender discrimination in the stress process. Analyses examine relationships between social stressors (racial and gender discrimination) and individual stressors occurring in each of six distinct social contexts. Furthermore, the authors evaluate the effects of racial and gender discrimination as compared to individual stressors on three indicators of mental health and well-being. Findings suggest that racial and gender discrimination increases risk for poor health and low well-being, working both directly and indirectly through increased vulnerability to individual stressors. This research demonstrates the value of a more comprehensive study of stressors that influence the health of low-SES African American women and other multiply disadvantaged groups. PMID:24077024

Racial and Gender Discrimination in the Stress Process: Implications for African American Women's Health and Well-Being.

PubMed

Perry, Brea L; Harp, Kathi L H; Oser, Carrie B

2013-01-01

In recent decades, sociologists have increasingly adopted an intersectionality framework to explore and explain the complex and interconnected nature of inequalities in the areas of race, class, and gender. Using an inclusion-centered approach and a sample of 204 low-socioeconomic-status (SES) African American women, the authors theorize and explore the role of racial and gender discrimination in the stress process. Analyses examine relationships between social stressors (racial and gender discrimination) and individual stressors occurring in each of six distinct social contexts. Furthermore, the authors evaluate the effects of racial and gender discrimination as compared to individual stressors on three indicators of mental health and well-being. Findings suggest that racial and gender discrimination increases risk for poor health and low well-being, working both directly and indirectly through increased vulnerability to individual stressors. This research demonstrates the value of a more comprehensive study of stressors that influence the health of low-SES African American women and other multiply disadvantaged groups.

Natural Mentors, Racial Pride, and Academic Engagement among Black Adolescents: Resilience in the Context of Perceived Discrimination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wittrup, Audrey R.; Hussain, Saida B.; Albright, Jamie N.; Hurd, Noelle N.; Varner, Fatima A.; Mattis, Jacqueline S.

2016-01-01

The current study examined the potential of relational closeness in the natural mentoring relationships (NMRs) of Black students to counter and protect against the noxious effects of school-based discrimination on academic engagement. The study sample included 663 Black students between the ages of 12 and 19 (M = 14.96 years, SD = 1.81 years), all…

Oxford NOTECHS II: a modified theatre team non-technical skills scoring system.

PubMed

Robertson, Eleanor R; Hadi, Mohammed; Morgan, Lauren J; Pickering, Sharon P; Collins, Gary; New, Steve; Griffin, Damian; Griffin, Damien; McCulloch, Peter; Catchpole, Ken C

2014-01-01

We previously developed and validated the Oxford NOTECHS rating system for evaluating the non-technical skills of an entire operating theatre team. Experience with the scale identified the need for greater discrimination between levels of performance within the normal range. We report here the development of a modified scale (Oxford NOTECHS II) to facilitate this. The new measure uses an eight-point instead of a four point scale to measure each dimension of non-technical skills, and begins with a default rating of 6 for each element. We evaluated this new scale in 297 operations at five NHS sites in four surgical specialities. Measures of theatre process reliability (glitch count) and compliance with the WHO surgical safety checklist were scored contemporaneously, and relationships with NOTECHS II scores explored. Mean team Oxford NOTECHS II scores was 73.39 (range 37-92). The means for surgical, anaesthetic and nursing sub-teams were 24.61 (IQR 23, 27); 24.22 (IQR 23, 26) and 24.55 (IQR 23, 26). Oxford NOTECHS II showed good inter-rater reliability between human factors and clinical observers in each of the four domains. Teams with high WHO compliance had higher mean Oxford NOTECHS II scores (74.5) than those with low compliance (71.1) (p = 0.010). We observed only a weak correlation between Oxford NOTECHS II scores and glitch count; r = -0.26 (95% CI -0.36 to -0.15). Oxford NOTECHS II scores did not vary significantly between 5 different hospital sites, but a significant difference was seen between specialities (p = 0.001). Oxford NOTECHS II provides good discrimination between teams while retaining reliability and correlation with other measures of teamwork performance, and is not confounded by technical performance. It is therefore suitable for combined use with a technical performance scale to provide a global description of operating theatre team performance.

The "Big C"-stigma, cancer, and workplace discrimination.

PubMed

Stergiou-Kita, Mary; Pritlove, Cheryl; Kirsh, Bonnie

2016-12-01

Stigma and workplace discrimination have been identified as prominent challenges to employment following cancer. However, there has been limited examination of how stigma develops in work contexts and how it influences cancer survivors' return to work process and their disclosure decisions. In the broader study from which this paper emerges, we used an exploratory qualitative design to examine the return to work process (including workplace supports and accommodations) of cancer survivors. We conducted 40 semi-structured interviews with (i) cancer survivors (n = 16), (ii) health care/vocational service providers (n = 16), and (iii) employer representatives (n = 8). We used thematic analysis methods to analyze the data. In this paper, we present data related specifically to workplace stigma, discrimination, and disclosure. Contrasting perspectives were identified among our stakeholder groups regarding the existence and impact of stigma in the workplace. While most provider and employer representatives believed survivors were not likely to be stigmatized, cancer survivors themselves perceived cancer as a highly stigmatized illness in the workplace. Two inter-related elements were implicated in the development of workplace stigma following cancer: (1) ongoing misconceptions and fears associating cancer with death and (2) misperceptions regarding impacts on the workplace, including survivors' work abilities, productivity, reliability, the costs associated with their continued employment (e.g., workplace accommodations), and future impacts on the workplace related to cancer re-occurrence. Discriminatory behaviors, such as hiring discrimination, bullying, harassment, refusal of workplace accommodations, and limited career advancement opportunities, were also discussed. A supportive workplace, a desire to be open with co-workers, and a need to request supports and manage expectations were reasons provided for disclosure. Conversely, an unsupportive workplace

Neurocognitive assessment of emotional context sensitivity.

PubMed

Myruski, Sarah; Bonanno, George A; Gulyayeva, Olga; Egan, Laura J; Dennis-Tiwary, Tracy A

2017-10-01

Sensitivity to emotional context is an emerging construct for characterizing adaptive or maladaptive emotion regulation, but few measurement approaches exist. The current study combined behavioral and neurocognitive measures to assess context sensitivity in relation to self-report measures of adaptive emotional flexibility and well-being. Sixty-six adults completed an emotional go/no-go task using happy, fearful, and neutral faces as go and no-go cues, while EEG was recorded to generate event-related potentials (ERPs) reflecting attentional selection and discrimination (N170) and cognitive control (N2). Context sensitivity was measured as the degree of emotional facilitation or disruption in the go/no-go task and magnitude of ERP response to emotion cues. Participants self-reported on emotional flexibility, anxiety, and depression. Overall participants evidenced emotional context sensitivity, such that when happy faces were go stimuli, accuracy improved (greater behavioral facilitation), whereas when fearful faces were no-go stimuli, errors increased (disrupted behavioral inhibition). These indices predicted emotional flexibility and well-being: Greater behavioral facilitation following happy cues was associated with lower depression and anxiety, whereas greater disruption in behavioral inhibition following fearful cues was associated with lower flexibility. ERP indices of context sensitivity revealed additional associations: Greater N2 to fear go cues was associated with less anxiety and depression, and greater N2 and N170 to happy and fear no-go cues, respectively, were associated with greater emotional flexibility and well-being. Results suggest that pleasant and unpleasant emotions selectively enhance and disrupt components of context sensitivity, and that behavioral and ERP indices of context sensitivity predict flexibility and well-being.

Engaging with Issues of Cultural Diversity and Discrimination through Critical Emotional Reflexivity in Online Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zembylas, Michalinos

2008-01-01

The purposes of this article are to describe the adult learners' emotional experiences as a result of engaging with issues of cultural diversity and discrimination, and to interrogate the ways in which critical emotional reflexivity emerges in the online format. The analysis is done in the context of an online course on diversity, inequality, and…

Different faces of discrimination: perceived discrimination among homeless adults with mental illness in healthcare settings.

PubMed

Skosireva, Anna; O'Campo, Patricia; Zerger, Suzanne; Chambers, Catharine; Gapka, Susan; Stergiopoulos, Vicky

2014-09-07

Research on discrimination in healthcare settings has primarily focused on health implications of race-based discrimination among ethno-racial minority groups. Little is known about discrimination experiences of other marginalized populations, particularly groups facing multiple disadvantages who may be subjected to other/multiple forms of discrimination. (1) To examine the prevalence of perceived discrimination due to homelessness/poverty, mental illness/alcohol/drug related problems, and race/ethnicity/skin color while seeking healthcare in the past year among racially diverse homeless adults with mental illness; (2) To identify whether perceiving certain types of discrimination is associated with increased likelihood of perceiving other kinds of discrimination; and (3) To examine association of these perceived discrimination experiences with socio-demographic characteristics, self-reported measures of psychiatric symptomatology and substance use, and Emergency Department utilization. We used baseline data from the Toronto site of the At Home/Chez Soi randomized controlled trial of Housing First for homeless adults with mental illness (n = 550). Bivariate statistics and multivariable logistic regression models were used for the analysis. Perceived discrimination related to homelessness/poverty (30.4%) and mental illness/alcohol/substance use (32.5%) is prevalent among ethnically diverse homeless adults with mental illness in healthcare settings. Only 15% of the total participants reported discrimination due to race/ethnicity/skin color. After controlling for relevant confounders and presence of psychosis, all types of discrimination in healthcare settings were associated with more frequent ED use, a greater - 3 - severity of lifetime substance abuse, and mental health problems. Perceiving discrimination of one type was associated with increased likelihood of perceiving other kinds of discrimination. Understanding the experience of discrimination in healthcare

A note on the stability and discriminability of graph-based features for classification problems in digital pathology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cruz-Roa, Angel; Xu, Jun; Madabhushi, Anant

2015-01-01

Nuclear architecture or the spatial arrangement of individual cancer nuclei on histopathology images has been shown to be associated with different grades and differential risk for a number of solid tumors such as breast, prostate, and oropharyngeal. Graph-based representations of individual nuclei (nuclei representing the graph nodes) allows for mining of quantitative metrics to describe tumor morphology. These graph features can be broadly categorized into global and local depending on the type of graph construction method. While a number of local graph (e.g. Cell Cluster Graphs) and global graph (e.g. Voronoi, Delaunay Triangulation, Minimum Spanning Tree) features have been shown to associated with cancer grade, risk, and outcome for different cancer types, the sensitivity of the preceding segmentation algorithms in identifying individual nuclei can have a significant bearing on the discriminability of the resultant features. This therefore begs the question as to which features while being discriminative of cancer grade and aggressiveness are also the most resilient to the segmentation errors. These properties are particularly desirable in the context of digital pathology images, where the method of slide preparation, staining, and type of nuclear segmentation algorithm employed can all dramatically affect the quality of the nuclear graphs and corresponding features. In this paper we evaluated the trade off between discriminability and stability of both global and local graph-based features in conjunction with a few different segmentation algorithms and in the context of two different histopathology image datasets of breast cancer from whole-slide images (WSI) and tissue microarrays (TMA). Specifically in this paper we investigate a few different performance measures including stability, discriminability and stability vs discriminability trade off, all of which are based on p-values from the Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance for local and global

Solidarity through shared disadvantage: Highlighting shared experiences of discrimination improves relations between stigmatized groups.

PubMed

Cortland, Clarissa I; Craig, Maureen A; Shapiro, Jenessa R; Richeson, Jennifer A; Neel, Rebecca; Goldstein, Noah J

2017-10-01

Intergroup relations research has largely focused on relations between members of dominant groups and members of disadvantaged groups. The small body of work examining intraminority intergroup relations, or relations between members of different disadvantaged groups, reveals that salient experiences of ingroup discrimination promote positive relations between groups that share a dimension of identity (e.g., 2 different racial minority groups) and negative relations between groups that do not share a dimension of identity (e.g., a racial minority group and a sexual minority group). In the present work, we propose that shared experiences of discrimination between groups that do not share an identity dimension can be used as a lever to facilitate positive intraminority intergroup relations. Five experiments examining relations among 4 different disadvantaged groups supported this hypothesis. Both blatant (Experiments 1 and 3) and subtle (Experiments 2, 3, and 4) connections to shared experiences of discrimination, or inducing a similarity-seeking mindset in the context of discrimination faced by one's ingroup (Experiment 5), increased support for policies benefiting the outgroup (Experiments 1, 2, and 4) and reduced intergroup bias (Experiments 3, 4, and 5). Taken together, these experiments provide converging evidence that highlighting shared experiences of discrimination can improve intergroup outcomes between stigmatized groups across dimensions of social identity. Implications of these findings for intraminority intergroup relations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Technical change in forest sector models: the global forest products model approach

Treesearch

Joseph Buongiorno; Sushuai Zhu

2015-01-01

Technical change is developing rapidly in some parts of the forest sector, especially in the pulp and paper industry where wood fiber is being substituted by waste paper. In forest sector models, the processing of wood and other input into products is frequently represented by activity analysis (input–output). In this context, technical change translates in changes...

Methodology for Planning Technical Education: With a Case Study of Polytechnics in Bangladesh.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ritzen, Jozef M.; Balderston, Judith B.

A product of research first begun by one of the authors in Bangladesh, this book develops a comprehensive set of methods for planning technical education. Wherever possible, the authors draw on existing tools, fitting them to the specific context of technical education. When faced with planning problems for which existing methods are ill suited…

Workplace discrimination: experiences of practicing physicians.

PubMed

Coombs, Alice A Tolbert; King, Roderick K

2005-04-01

In response to a growing concern regarding physician discrimination in the workplace, this study was developed to: (1) describe the types of discrimination that exist for the practicing physician and (2) determine which groups of physicians are more likely to experience the various forms of discrimination. Surveys were mailed to 1930 practicing physicians in Massachusetts. Participants were asked if they had encountered discrimination, how significant the discrimination was against a specific group, the frequency of personal discrimination, and the type of discrimination. Factor analysis identified four types of discrimination: career advancement, punitive behaviors, practice barriers and hiring barriers. A total of 445 responses were received (a 24% response rate). Sixty-three percent of responding physicians had experienced some form of discrimination. Respondents were women (46%), racial/ethnic minorities (42%) and international medical graduates (IMGs) (40%). In addition, 26% of those classified as white were also IMGs. Over 60% of respondents believed discrimination against IMGs was very or somewhat significant. Almost 27% of males acknowledged that gender bias against females was very or somewhat significant. IMGs were more likely to indicate that discrimination against IMGs was significant in their current organization. Of U.S. medical graduates (USMGs) 44% reported that discrimination against IMGs in their current organization was significant. Nonwhites were more likely to report that discrimination based on race/ethnicity was significant. Nearly 29% of white respondents also believed that such discrimination was very or somewhat significant. Physicians practicing in academic, research, and private practice sectors experience discrimination based on gender, ethnic/racial, and IMG status.

From discrimination to internalized mental illness stigma: The mediating roles of anticipated discrimination and anticipated stigma.

PubMed

Quinn, Diane M; Williams, Michelle K; Weisz, Bradley M

2015-06-01

Internalizing mental illness stigma is related to poorer well-being, but less is known about the factors that predict levels of internalized stigma. This study explored how experiences of discrimination relate to greater anticipation of discrimination and devaluation in the future and how anticipation of stigma in turn predicts greater stigma internalization. Participants were 105 adults with mental illness who self-reported their experiences of discrimination based on their mental illness, their anticipation of discrimination and social devaluation from others in the future, and their level of internalized stigma. Participants were approached in several locations and completed surveys on laptop computers. Correlational analyses indicated that more experiences of discrimination due to one's mental illness were related to increased anticipated discrimination in the future, increased anticipated social stigma from others, and greater internalized stigma. Multiple serial mediator analyses showed that the effect of experiences of discrimination on internalized stigma was fully mediated by increased anticipated discrimination and anticipated stigma. Experiences of discrimination over one's lifetime may influence not only how much future discrimination people with mental illness are concerned with but also how much they internalize negative feelings about the self. Mental health professionals may need to address concerns with future discrimination and devaluation in order to decrease internalized stigma. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Do dimensions of ethnic identity mediate the association between perceived ethnic group discrimination and depressive symptoms?

PubMed

Brittian, Aerika S; Kim, Su Yeong; Armenta, Brian E; Lee, Richard M; Umaña-Taylor, Adriana J; Schwartz, Seth J; Villalta, Ian K; Zamboanga, Byron L; Weisskirch, Robert S; Juang, Linda P; Castillo, Linda G; Hudson, Monika L

2015-01-01

Ethnic group discrimination represents a notable risk factor that may contribute to mental health problems among ethnic minority college students. However, cultural resources (e.g., ethnic identity) may promote psychological adjustment in the context of group-based discriminatory experiences. In the current study, we examined the associations between perceptions of ethnic group discrimination and depressive symptoms, and explored dimensions of ethnic identity (i.e., exploration, resolution, and affirmation) as mediators of this process among 2,315 ethnic minority college students (age 18 to 30 years; 37% Black, 63% Latino). Results indicated that perceived ethnic group discrimination was associated positively with depressive symptoms among students from both ethnic groups. The relationship between perceived ethnic group discrimination and depressive symptoms was mediated by ethnic identity affirmation for Latino students, but not for Black students. Ethnic identity resolution was negatively and indirectly associated with depressive symptoms through ethnic identity affirmation for both Black and Latino students. Implications for promoting ethnic minority college students' mental health and directions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Atmospheric evidence for a global secular increase in isotopic discrimination of land photosynthesis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keeling, R. F.; Graven, H. D.; Welp, L.; Piper, S. C.; Bollenbacher, A.; Resplandy, L.; Meijer, H. A. J.

2016-12-01

A decrease in the 13C/12C ratio of atmospheric CO2 owing to the addition of fossil-fuel derived CO2, known as the 13C-Suess effect, has been documented by direct observations since 1977 and from ice-core measurements since the industrial revolution. Measurements of this decrease have previously been used to constrain land and ocean carbon sinks. Here we show, however, that no plausible combination of land and ocean sinks can explain the 13C/12C decrease unless an increase has occurred in the isotopic discrimination of land photosynthesis, i.e. the tendency of land plants to preferentially assimilate 12CO2 compared to 13CO2. A trend toward greater discrimination at higher CO2 levels is broadly consistent with geological evidence for the response of C3 plants at times of altered atmospheric CO2 as well as with tree-ring studies over the past century. The discrimination trend will be discussed in the context of theories for optimal stomatal behavior under changing atmospheric CO2.

Pattern vision of the honeybee (Apis mellifera): blue and green receptors in the discrimination of translocation.

PubMed

Horridge, A

2000-07-01

The visual discrimination of horizontal gratings by the honeybee (Apis mellifera) was studied in a Y-choice apparatus with fixed patterns presented vertically at a set range. Translocation in this context is the exchange of the positions of two different colored or black areas. This paper investigates what cues the bees have learned in this task. The patterns, made from combinations of calibrated colored papers, are designed to explore the parts played by the blue and green receptors when the boundary between the two colors provides contrast to only one receptor type. Horizontal translocation is not discriminated without contrast to the green receptors, but up/down translocation can be discriminated whatever the contrast at the boundary. The trained bees were tested on the same patterns made with different papers that included extreme changes in contrast. The results show that discrimination of up/down translocation involves green receptors and also blue receptors. When bees discriminate a translocation that shows contrast to only one type of receptor, they do not use the apparent brightness or the direction of the contrast to that receptor type acting alone. Instead, they discriminate the locations of colored areas irrespective of intensity differences or directions of contrasts. They use some measure of the photon flux at both receptor types and remember the difference between the colors and their locations. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

Multiple Levels of Suffering: Discrimination in Health-Care Settings is Associated With Enhanced Laboratory Pain Sensitivity in Sickle Cell Disease.

PubMed

Mathur, Vani A; Kiley, Kasey B; Haywood, Carlton; Bediako, Shawn M; Lanzkron, Sophie; Carroll, C Patrick; Buenaver, Luis F; Pejsa, Megan; Edwards, Robert R; Haythornthwaite, Jennifer A; Campbell, Claudia M

2016-12-01

People living with sickle cell disease (SCD) experience severe episodic and chronic pain and frequently report poor interpersonal treatment within health-care settings. In this particularly relevant context, we examined the relationship between perceived discrimination and both clinical and laboratory pain. Seventy-one individuals with SCD provided self-reports of experiences with discrimination in health-care settings and clinical pain severity, and completed a psychophysical pain testing battery in the laboratory. Discrimination in health-care settings was correlated with greater clinical pain severity and enhanced sensitivity to multiple laboratory-induced pain measures, as well as stress, depression, and sleep. After controlling for relevant covariates, discrimination remained a significant predictor of mechanical temporal summation (a marker of central pain facilitation), but not clinical pain severity or suprathreshold heat pain response. Furthermore, a significant interaction between experience with discrimination and clinical pain severity was associated with mechanical temporal summation; increased experience with discrimination was associated with an increased correlation between clinical pain severity and temporal summation of pain. Perceived discrimination within health-care settings was associated with pain facilitation. These findings suggest that discrimination may be related to increased central sensitization among SCD patients, and more broadly that health-care social environments may interact with pain pathophysiology.

Perceived weight discrimination and obesity.

PubMed

Sutin, Angelina R; Terracciano, Antonio

2013-01-01

Weight discrimination is prevalent in American society. Although associated consistently with psychological and economic outcomes, less is known about whether weight discrimination is associated with longitudinal changes in obesity. The objectives of this research are (1) to test whether weight discrimination is associated with risk of becoming obese (Body Mass Index≥30; BMI) by follow-up among those not obese at baseline, and (2) to test whether weight discrimination is associated with risk of remaining obese at follow-up among those already obese at baseline. Participants were drawn from the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative longitudinal survey of community-dwelling US residents. A total of 6,157 participants (58.6% female) completed the discrimination measure and had weight and height available from the 2006 and 2010 assessments. Participants who experienced weight discrimination were approximately 2.5 times more likely to become obese by follow-up (OR = 2.54, 95% CI = 1.58-4.08) and participants who were obese at baseline were three times more likely to remain obese at follow up (OR = 3.20, 95% CI = 2.06-4.97) than those who had not experienced such discrimination. These effects held when controlling for demographic factors (age, sex, ethnicity, education) and when baseline BMI was included as a covariate. These effects were also specific to weight discrimination; other forms of discrimination (e.g., sex, race) were unrelated to risk of obesity at follow-up. The present research demonstrates that, in addition to poorer mental health outcomes, weight discrimination has implications for obesity. Rather than motivating individuals to lose weight, weight discrimination increases risk for obesity.

Workplace discrimination: experiences of practicing physicians.

PubMed Central

Coombs, Alice A. Tolbert; King, Roderick K.

2005-01-01

BACKGROUND: In response to a growing concern regarding physician discrimination in the workplace, this study was developed to: (1) describe the types of discrimination that exist for the practicing physician and (2) determine which groups of physicians are more likely to experience the various forms of discrimination. METHODS: Surveys were mailed to 1930 practicing physicians in Massachusetts. Participants were asked if they had encountered discrimination, how significant the discrimination was against a specific group, the frequency of personal discrimination, and the type of discrimination. Factor analysis identified four types of discrimination: career advancement, punitive behaviors, practice barriers and hiring barriers. RESULTS: A total of 445 responses were received (a 24% response rate). Sixty-three percent of responding physicians had experienced some form of discrimination. Respondents were women (46%), racial/ethnic minorities (42%) and international medical graduates (IMGs) (40%). In addition, 26% of those classified as white were also IMGs. Over 60% of respondents believed discrimination against IMGs was very or somewhat significant. Almost 27% of males acknowledged that gender bias against females was very or somewhat significant. IMGs were more likely to indicate that discrimination against IMGs was significant in their current organization. Of U.S. medical graduates (USMGs) 44% reported that discrimination against IMGs in their current organization was significant. Nonwhites were more likely to report that discrimination based on race/ethnicity was significant. Nearly 29% of white respondents also believed that such discrimination was very or somewhat significant. CONCLUSIONS: Physicians practicing in academic, research, and private practice sectors experience discrimination based on gender, ethnic/racial, and IMG status. Images Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 PMID:15868767

Assessing Citizenship Behavior in Educational Contexts: The Role of Personality, Motivation, and Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Sylvia Xiaohua; Carey, Timothy Patrick

2009-01-01

The present study developed a measure to assess citizenship behavior in educational settings and examined its antecedents and consequences in the cultural context. The results of this study provided discriminant validity for the newly extracted two-factor structure, that is, self-regulation and other-orientation. The authors identified both…

Experiences of Transgender-Related Discrimination and Implications for Health: Results From the Virginia Transgender Health Initiative Study

PubMed Central

Reisner, Sari L.; Honnold, Julie A.; Xavier, Jessica

2013-01-01

Objectives. We examined relationships between social determinants of health and experiences of transgender-related discrimination reported by transgender people in Virginia. Methods. In 2005 through 2006, 387 self-identified transgender people completed a statewide health needs assessment; 350 who completed eligibility questions were included in this examination of factors associated with experiences of discrimination in health care, employment, or housing. We fit multivariate logistic regression models using generalized estimating equations to adjust for survey modality (online vs paper). Results. Of participants, 41% (n = 143) reported experiences of transgender-related discrimination. Factors associated with transgender-related discrimination were geographic context, gender (female-to male spectrum vs male-to-female spectrum), low socioeconomic status, being a racial/ethnic minority, not having health insurance, gender transition indicators (younger age at first transgender awareness), health care needed but unable to be obtained (hormone therapy and mental health services), history of violence (sexual and physical), substance use health behaviors (tobacco and alcohol), and interpersonal factors (family support and community connectedness). Conclusions. Findings suggest that transgender Virginians experience widespread discrimination in health care, employment, and housing. Multilevel interventions are needed for transgender populations, including legal protections and training for health care providers. PMID:23153142

Experiences of transgender-related discrimination and implications for health: results from the Virginia Transgender Health Initiative Study.

PubMed

Bradford, Judith; Reisner, Sari L; Honnold, Julie A; Xavier, Jessica

2013-10-01

We examined relationships between social determinants of health and experiences of transgender-related discrimination reported by transgender people in Virginia. In 2005 through 2006, 387 self-identified transgender people completed a statewide health needs assessment; 350 who completed eligibility questions were included in this examination of factors associated with experiences of discrimination in health care, employment, or housing. We fit multivariate logistic regression models using generalized estimating equations to adjust for survey modality (online vs paper). Of participants, 41% (n = 143) reported experiences of transgender-related discrimination. Factors associated with transgender-related discrimination were geographic context, gender (female-to male spectrum vs male-to-female spectrum), low socioeconomic status, being a racial/ethnic minority, not having health insurance, gender transition indicators (younger age at first transgender awareness), health care needed but unable to be obtained (hormone therapy and mental health services), history of violence (sexual and physical), substance use health behaviors (tobacco and alcohol), and interpersonal factors (family support and community connectedness). Findings suggest that transgender Virginians experience widespread discrimination in health care, employment, and housing. Multilevel interventions are needed for transgender populations, including legal protections and training for health care providers.

Association of discrimination-related trauma with sexual risk among HIV-positive African American men who have sex with men.

PubMed

Fields, Errol L; Bogart, Laura M; Galvan, Frank H; Wagner, Glenn J; Klein, David J; Schuster, Mark A

2013-05-01

We investigated whether 1 form of traumatic stress, discrimination-related trauma (e.g., physical assault because of race), was associated with unprotected anal intercourse, especially when compared with non-discrimination-related trauma, among African American men who have sex with men. A convenience sample of 131 HIV-positive African American men who have sex with men receiving antiretroviral treatment completed audio computer-assisted self-interviews that covered unprotected anal intercourse, interpersonal trauma, and whether trauma was because of discrimination on the basis of race/ethnicity, HIV serostatus, or sexual orientation. Sixty percent reported at least 1 interpersonal trauma; they attributed at least 1 trauma to being gay (47%), African American (17%), or HIV positive (9%). In a multivariate regression, experiencing discrimination-related trauma was significantly associated with unprotected anal intercourse (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.4; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.0, 5.7; P = .04), whereas experiencing non-discrimination-related trauma was not (AOR = 1.3; 95% CI = 0.6, 3.1; P = .53). HIV-positive African American men who have sex with men experience high levels of discrimination-related trauma, a stressor associated with greater risk taking. HIV prevention interventions should consider the potential damaging effects of discrimination in the context of trauma.

From Discrimination to Internalized Mental Illness Stigma: The Mediating Roles of Anticipated Discrimination and Anticipated Stigma

PubMed Central

Quinn, Diane M.; Williams, Michelle K.; Weisz, Bradley M.

2015-01-01

Objective Internalizing mental illness stigma is related to poorer well-being, but less is known about the factors that predict levels of internalized stigma. This study explored how experiences of discrimination relate to greater anticipation of discrimination and devaluation in the future, and how anticipation of stigma, in turn predicts greater stigma internalization. Method Participants were 105 adults with mental illness who self-reported their experiences of discrimination based on their mental illness, their anticipation of discrimination and social devaluation from others in the future, and their level of internalized stigma. Participants were approached in several locations and completed surveys on laptop computers. Results Correlational analyses indicated that more experiences of discrimination due to one’s mental illness were related to increased anticipated discrimination in the future, increased anticipated social stigma from others, and greater internalized stigma. Multiple serial mediator analyses showed that the effect of experiences of discrimination on internalized stigma was fully mediated by increased anticipated discrimination and anticipated stigma. Conclusion and Implications for Practice Experiences of discrimination over the lifetime may influence not only how much future discrimination people with mental illness are concerned with but also how much they internalize negative feelings about the self. Mental health professionals may need to address concerns with future discrimination and devaluation in order to decrease internalized stigma. PMID:25844910

Social determinants of health--a comparative study of Bosnian adolescents in different cultural contexts.

PubMed

Sujoldzić, Anita; Peternel, Lana; Kulenović, Tarik; Terzić, Rifet

2006-12-01

This study investigated the effects of sociocultural contexts on health and the psychological well-being of immigrant adolescents, aged 15 to 18 years, originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina and now living as displaced persons either in Bosnia, or immigrants in Croatia and Austria. The study addresses the social determinants of health with a specific focus on five factors in the social environment that might have an influence on health status: gender, socio-economic status (SES), perceived discrimination and exposure to violence, social support and religious commitment. Dependent variables included self-rated health, a count of self-reported objective health problems and a range of indices of psychological well-being (somatic stress, anxiety, depression and self-esteem). The purpose of the study was to examine whether social risk factors have an effect on health, which factors mediate these effects on self-rated health and to assess whether these effects differ by gender Results indicate that perceived discrimination and violence are related to poor health through psychological stress as a major mechanism with stronger effects for girls in the study. Differences across the three socio-cultural contexts reveal the complexity and specificity of the relationships between analyzed factors as the association between discrimination and health was attenuated for some groups due to the protective resources of immigrants.

Technical and Professional Communication Programs and the Small College Setting: Opportunities and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Latterell, Catherine G.

2003-01-01

This article argues that the small school context has been a relatively unexamined or under-examined context for technical and professional communication program development. While graduate program development holds a large share of the field's attention in recent national forums, growth in graduate programs is a consequence of demand in the job…

The Effect of Context Change on Simple Acquisition Disappears with Increased Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leon, Samuel P.; Abad, Maria J. F.; Rosas, Juan M.

2010-01-01

The goal of this experiment was to assess the impact that experience with a task has on the context specificity of the learning that occurs. Participants performed an instrumental task within a computer game where different responses were performed in the presence of discriminative stimuli to obtain reinforcers. The number of training trials (3,…

Assessing Technical Writing in Institutional Contexts: Using Outcomes-Based Assessment for Programmatic Thinking.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carter, Michael; Anson, Chris M.; Miller, Carolyn R.

2003-01-01

Notes that technical writing instruction often operates in isolation from other components of students' communication education. Argues for altering this isolation by moving writing instruction to a place of increased programmatic perspective, which may be attained through a means of assessment based on educational outcomes. Discusses two models…

Learning health 'safety' within non-technical skills interprofessional simulation education: a qualitative study.

PubMed

Gordon, Morris; Fell, Christopher W R; Box, Helen; Farrell, Michael; Stewart, Alison

2017-01-01

Healthcare increasingly recognises and focusses on the phenomena of 'safe practice' and 'patient safety.' Success with non-technical skills (NTS) training in other industries has led to widespread transposition to healthcare education, with communication and teamwork skills central to NTS frameworks. This study set out to identify how the context of interprofessional simulation learning influences NTS acquisition and development of 'safety' amongst learners. Participants receiving a non-technical skills (NTS) safety focussed training package were invited to take part in a focus group interview which set out to explore communication, teamwork, and the phenomenon of safety in the context of the learning experiences they had within the training programme. The analysis was aligned with a constructivist paradigm and took an interactive methodological approach. The analysis proceeded through three stages, consisting of open, axial, and selective coding, with constant comparisons taking place throughout each phase. Each stage provided categories that could be used to explore the themes of the data. Additionally, to ensure thematic saturation, transcripts of observed simulated learning encounters were then analysed. Six themes were established at the axial coding level, i.e., analytical skills, personal behaviours, communication, teamwork, context, and pedagogy. Underlying these themes, two principal concepts emerged, namely: intergroup contact anxiety - as both a result of and determinant of communication - and teamwork, both of which must be considered in relation to context. These concepts have subsequently been used to propose a framework for NTS learning. This study highlights the role of intergroup contact anxiety and teamwork as factors in NTS behaviour and its dissipation through interprofessional simulation learning. Therefore, this should be a key consideration in NTS education. Future research is needed to consider the role of the affective non-technical

Religious identification and politicization in the face of discrimination: support for political Islam and political action among the Turkish and Moroccan second generation in Europe.

PubMed

Fleischmann, Fenella; Phalet, Karen; Klein, Olivier

2011-12-01

Taking an approach from religion as a social identity and using large-scale comparative surveys in five European cities, we investigate when and how perceived discrimination is associated with religious identification and politicization among the second generation of Turkish and Moroccan Muslims. We distinguish support for political Islam from political action as distinct forms of politicization. In addition, we test the mediating role of religious identification in processes of politicization. Study 1 estimates multi-group structural equation models of support for political Islam in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. In line with a social identity model of politicization and across nine inter-group contexts, Muslims who perceived more discrimination identified (even) more strongly as Muslims; and high Muslim identifiers were most ready to support political Islam. In support of a competing social stigma hypothesis, however, negative direct and total effects of perceived discrimination suggest predominant depoliticization. Using separate sub-samples across four inter-group contexts in Belgium, Study 2 adds political action tendencies as a distinct form of politicization. Whereas religious identification positively predicts both forms of politicization, perceived discrimination has differential effects: Muslims who perceived more discrimination were more weary of supporting political Islam, yet more ready to engage in political action to defend Islamic values. Taken together, the studies reveal that some Muslim citizens will politicize and others will depoliticize in the face of discrimination as a function of their religious identification and of prevailing forms of politicization. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

Behavioral Assessment of Emotion Discrimination, Emotion Regulation, and Cognitive Control in Childhood, Adolescence, and Adulthood

PubMed Central

Tottenham, Nim; Hare, Todd A.; Casey, B. J.

2011-01-01

Emotion discrimination, emotion regulation, and cognitive control are three related, yet separable processes that emerge over the course of development. The current study tested 100 children, adolescents, and adults on an Emotional Go/Nogo task, illustrating the ability of this paradigm to identify the unique developmental patterns for each of these three processes in the context of both positive (happy) and negative emotions (fear, sad, and anger), across three different age groups. Consistent with previous literature, our findings show that emotion discrimination and regulatory abilities (both cognitive control and emotion regulation) improve steadily for each age group, with each age group showing unique patterns of performance. The findings suggest that emotion regulation is constructed from basic cognition control and emotion discrimination skills. The patterns of behavior from the Emotional Go/Nogo task provide normative benchmark data across a wide range of emotions that can be used for future behavioral and neuroimaging studies that examine the developmental construction of emotion regulatory processes. PMID:21716604

The time-course of activation in the dorsal and ventral visual streams during landmark cueing and perceptual discrimination tasks.

PubMed

Lambert, Anthony J; Wootton, Adrienne

2017-08-01

Different patterns of high density EEG activity were elicited by the same peripheral stimuli, in the context of Landmark Cueing and Perceptual Discrimination tasks. The C1 component of the visual event-related potential (ERP) at parietal - occipital electrode sites was larger in the Landmark Cueing task, and source localisation suggested greater activation in the superior parietal lobule (SPL) in this task, compared to the Perceptual Discrimination task, indicating stronger early recruitment of the dorsal visual stream. In the Perceptual Discrimination task, source localisation suggested widespread activation of the inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) and fusiform gyrus (FFG), structures associated with the ventral visual stream, during the early phase of the P1 ERP component. Moreover, during a later epoch (171-270ms after stimulus onset) increased temporal-occipital negativity, and stronger recruitment of ITG and FFG were observed in the Perceptual Discrimination task. These findings illuminate the contrasting functions of the dorsal and ventral visual streams, to support rapid shifts of attention in response to contextual landmarks, and conscious discrimination, respectively. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Technical writing versus technical writing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dillingham, J. W.

1981-01-01

Two terms, two job categories, 'technical writer' and 'technical author' are discussed in terms of industrial and business requirements and standards. A distinction between 'technical writing' and technical 'writing' is made. The term 'technical editor' is also considered. Problems inherent in the design of programs to prepare and train students for these jobs are discussed. A closer alliance between industry and academia is suggested as a means of preparing students with competent technical communication skills (especially writing and editing skills) and good technical skills.

Hierarchical Discriminant Analysis.

PubMed

Lu, Di; Ding, Chuntao; Xu, Jinliang; Wang, Shangguang

2018-01-18

The Internet of Things (IoT) generates lots of high-dimensional sensor intelligent data. The processing of high-dimensional data (e.g., data visualization and data classification) is very difficult, so it requires excellent subspace learning algorithms to learn a latent subspace to preserve the intrinsic structure of the high-dimensional data, and abandon the least useful information in the subsequent processing. In this context, many subspace learning algorithms have been presented. However, in the process of transforming the high-dimensional data into the low-dimensional space, the huge difference between the sum of inter-class distance and the sum of intra-class distance for distinct data may cause a bias problem. That means that the impact of intra-class distance is overwhelmed. To address this problem, we propose a novel algorithm called Hierarchical Discriminant Analysis (HDA). It minimizes the sum of intra-class distance first, and then maximizes the sum of inter-class distance. This proposed method balances the bias from the inter-class and that from the intra-class to achieve better performance. Extensive experiments are conducted on several benchmark face datasets. The results reveal that HDA obtains better performance than other dimensionality reduction algorithms.

Factors That Promote Motivation and Academic Engagement in a Career Technical Education Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loera, Gustavo; Nakamoto, Jonathan; Oh, Youn Joo; Rueda, Robert

2013-01-01

Drawing on social cognitive theory, this study examined the relationship between student and school-based factors (e.g., educational aspirations, quality of the program of study, and adults' impact on college enrollment) and students' academic engagement and satisfaction with student life in a career technical education (CTE) setting. This study…

Mexican Origin Youths’ Trajectories of Perceived Peer Discrimination from Middle Childhood to Adolescence: Variation by Neighborhood Ethnic Concentration

PubMed Central

White, Rebecca M. B.; Zeiders, Katharine H.; Knight, George P.; Roosa, Mark W.; Tein, Jenn-Yun

2014-01-01

Developmentally salient research on perceived peer discrimination among minority youths is limited. Little is known about trajectories of perceived peer discrimination across the developmental period ranging from middle childhood to adolescence. Ethically concentrated neighborhoods are hypothesized to protect minority youths from discrimination, but strong empirical tests are lacking. The first aim of the current study was to estimate trajectories of perceived peer discrimination from middle childhood to adolescence, as youths transitioned from elementary to middle and to high school. The second aim was to examine the relationship between neighborhood ethnic concentration and perceived peer discrimination over time. Using a diverse sample of 749 Mexican origin youths (48.9% female), a series of growth models revealed that youths born in Mexico, relative to those born in the U.S., perceived higher discrimination in the 5th grade and decreases across time. Youths who had higher averages on neighborhood ethnic concentration (across the developmental period) experienced decreases in perceived peer discrimination over time; those that had lower average neighborhood ethnic concentration levels showed evidence of increasing trajectories. Further, when individuals experienced increases in their own neighborhood ethnic concentration levels (relative to their own cross-time averages), they reported lower levels of perceived peer discrimination. Neighborhood ethnic concentration findings were not explained by the concurrent changes youths were experiencing in school ethnic concentrations. The results support a culturally-informed developmental view of perceived peer discrimination that recognizes variability in co-ethnic neighborhood contexts. The results advance a view of ethnic enclaves as protective from mainstream threats. PMID:24488094

Discrimination and common mental disorder among migrant and ethnic groups: findings from a South East London Community sample.

PubMed

Hatch, S L; Gazard, B; Williams, D R; Frissa, S; Goodwin, L; Hotopf, M

2016-05-01

Few studies have examined discrimination and mental health in the UK, particularly by migrant status and in urban contexts with greater demographic diversity. This study aims to (1) describe the prevalence of discrimination experiences across multiple life domains; (2) to describe associations between discrimination experiences and common mental disorder (CMD); (3) to determine whether or not the relationship between discrimination and CMD varies by migrant status and ethnicity. Data on major, anticipated and everyday discrimination and CMD symptoms were collected from an ethnically diverse prospective sample of 1052 participants followed up from 2008 to 2013 in the South East London Community Health study, a population-based household survey. With few exceptions, discrimination was most prevalent among those in the Black Caribbean group. However, those in the White Other ethnic group had similar or greater reporting major and anticipated discrimination to Black or mixed ethnic minority groups. The effects of discrimination on CMD were most pronounced for individuals who had recently migrated to the UK, an ethnically heterogeneous group, and for Black and Mixed ethnic minority groups in partially adjusted models. Prior CMD accounted for differences between the Mixed and White British ethnic groups, but the strength of the association for the most recent migrant group and the Black ethnic groups remained two or more times greater than the reference groups. The strength of the relationship suggests a need for more consideration of migration status along with ethnicity in examining the impact of discrimination on mental disorder in community and clinical samples.

Mexican origin youths' trajectories of perceived peer discrimination from middle childhood to adolescence: variation by neighborhood ethnic concentration.

PubMed

White, Rebecca M B; Zeiders, Katharine H; Knight, George P; Roosa, Mark W; Tein, Jenn-Yun

2014-10-01

Developmentally salient research on perceived peer discrimination among minority youths is limited. Little is known about trajectories of perceived peer discrimination across the developmental period ranging from middle childhood to adolescence. Ethically concentrated neighborhoods are hypothesized to protect minority youths from discrimination, but strong empirical tests are lacking. The first aim of the current study was to estimate trajectories of perceived peer discrimination from middle childhood to adolescence, as youths transitioned from elementary to middle and to high school. The second aim was to examine the relationship between neighborhood ethnic concentration and perceived peer discrimination over time. Using a diverse sample of 749 Mexican origin youths (48.9% female), a series of growth models revealed that youths born in Mexico, relative to those born in the U.S., perceived higher discrimination in the 5th grade and decreases across time. Youths who had higher averages on neighborhood ethnic concentration (across the developmental period) experienced decreases in perceived peer discrimination over time; those that had lower average neighborhood ethnic concentration levels showed evidence of increasing trajectories. Further, when individuals experienced increases in their own neighborhood ethnic concentration levels (relative to their own cross-time averages), they reported lower levels of perceived peer discrimination. Neighborhood ethnic concentration findings were not explained by the concurrent changes youths were experiencing in school ethnic concentrations. The results support a culturally-informed developmental view of perceived peer discrimination that recognizes variability in co-ethnic neighborhood contexts. The results advance a view of ethnic enclaves as protective from mainstream threats.

Optogenetic and pharmacological suppression of spatial clusters of face neurons reveal their causal role in face gender discrimination

PubMed Central

Afraz, Arash; Boyden, Edward S.; DiCarlo, James J.

2015-01-01

Neurons that respond more to images of faces over nonface objects were identified in the inferior temporal (IT) cortex of primates three decades ago. Although it is hypothesized that perceptual discrimination between faces depends on the neural activity of IT subregions enriched with “face neurons,” such a causal link has not been directly established. Here, using optogenetic and pharmacological methods, we reversibly suppressed the neural activity in small subregions of IT cortex of macaque monkeys performing a facial gender-discrimination task. Each type of intervention independently demonstrated that suppression of IT subregions enriched in face neurons induced a contralateral deficit in face gender-discrimination behavior. The same neural suppression of other IT subregions produced no detectable change in behavior. These results establish a causal link between the neural activity in IT face neuron subregions and face gender-discrimination behavior. Also, the demonstration that brief neural suppression of specific spatial subregions of IT induces behavioral effects opens the door for applying the technical advantages of optogenetics to a systematic attack on the causal relationship between IT cortex and high-level visual perception. PMID:25953336

Theory of Technical Systems--Educational Tool for Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eder, Wolfgang Ernst

2016-01-01

Hubka's theory of technical systems (TTS) is briefly outlined. It describes commonalities in all engineering devices, whatever their physical principles of action. This theory is based on a general transformation system (TrfS), which can be used to show engineering in the contexts of society, economics and historic developments. The life cycle of…

Chemosensory age discrimination in the snake Boa constrictor (Serpentes: Boidae).

PubMed

Gabirot, Marianne; Picerno, Pablo; Valencia, Jorge; Lopez, Pilar; Martin, José

2012-12-01

Many snakes are able to use their chemosensory system to detect scent of conspecifics, which is important in many social contexts. Age discrimination based on chemical cues may be especially important to ensure access to sexually mature potential partners. In this study, we used 24 individual Boa constrictor snakes (12 adults mature and 12 non-mature individuals) that had been captured in different areas of Ecuador, and were maintained in captivity at the Vivarium of Quito. We used tongue-flick experiments to examine whether these snakes were able to discriminate between scents from mature and non-mature individuals. Results showed that B. constrictor snakes used chemical cues to recognize conspecifics and that the scent of individuals of different ages elicited chemosensory responses of different magnitudes. The scents from adult conspecifics elicited the quickest and highest chemosensory responses (i.e., short latency times and high tongue-flick rates), although we did not find differential responses to scent of males and females. The magnitude of the responses was lower to scent of sub adult individuals, and then even lower to scent of juvenile snakes, but in all cases the scent of snakes was discriminated from a blank control. We discuss the potential chemical mechanisms that may allow age recognition and its implications for social and sexual behavior of this snake species.

Infant discrimination of humanoid robots

PubMed Central

Matsuda, Goh; Ishiguro, Hiroshi; Hiraki, Kazuo

2015-01-01

Recently, extremely humanlike robots called “androids” have been developed, some of which are already being used in the field of entertainment. In the context of psychological studies, androids are expected to be used in the future as fully controllable human stimuli to investigate human nature. In this study, we used an android to examine infant discrimination ability between human beings and non-human agents. Participants (N = 42 infants) were assigned to three groups based on their age, i.e., 6- to 8-month-olds, 9- to 11-month-olds, and 12- to 14-month-olds, and took part in a preferential looking paradigm. Of three types of agents involved in the paradigm—a human, an android modeled on the human, and a mechanical-looking robot made from the android—two at a time were presented side-by-side as they performed a grasping action. Infants’ looking behavior was measured using an eye tracking system, and the amount of time spent focusing on each of three areas of interest (face, goal, and body) was analyzed. Results showed that all age groups predominantly looked at the robot and at the face area, and that infants aged over 9 months watched the goal area for longer than the body area. There was no difference in looking times and areas focused on between the human and the android. These findings suggest that 6- to 14-month-olds are unable to discriminate between the human and the android, although they can distinguish the mechanical robot from the human. PMID:26441772

Flash-Type Discrimination

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Koshak, William J.

2010-01-01

This viewgraph presentation describes the significant progress made in the flash-type discrimination algorithm development. The contents include: 1) Highlights of Progress for GLM-R3 Flash-Type discrimination Algorithm Development; 2) Maximum Group Area (MGA) Data; 3) Retrieval Errors from Simulations; and 4) Preliminary Global-scale Retrieval.

Impression Management in the Job Interview: An Effective Way of Mitigating Discrimination against Older Applicants?

PubMed Central

Gioaba, Irina; Krings, Franciska

2017-01-01

The increasingly aging population in most industrialized societies, coupled with the rather age-diverse current workforce makes discrimination against older employees a prevalent issue, especially in employment contexts. This renders research on ways for reducing this type of discrimination a particularly pressing concern. Drawing on theories of social identity and impression management, our research examines the role of impression management, aimed at refuting common older worker stereotypes, in diminishing bias against older job applicants during the job interview. The study consisted in an experimental hiring simulation conducted on a sample of 515 undergraduate students. Results show that older applicants who used impression management to contradict common older worker stereotypes were perceived as more hirable than those who did not. However, despite this positive effect, discrimination persisted: older applicants were consistently rated as less hirable than their younger counterparts when displaying the same IM behavior. Taken together, this research demonstrates that older job seekers can indeed ameliorate biased interview outcomes by engaging in impression management targeting common age stereotypes; however, it also shows that this strategy is insufficient for overcoming age discrimination entirely. The current study has important implications for theory, by expanding research on the use of impression management in mitigating age discrimination, as well as for practice, by offering older employees a hands-on strategy to reduce bias and stereotyping against them. PMID:28559869

Impression Management in the Job Interview: An Effective Way of Mitigating Discrimination against Older Applicants?

PubMed

Gioaba, Irina; Krings, Franciska

2017-01-01

The increasingly aging population in most industrialized societies, coupled with the rather age-diverse current workforce makes discrimination against older employees a prevalent issue, especially in employment contexts. This renders research on ways for reducing this type of discrimination a particularly pressing concern. Drawing on theories of social identity and impression management, our research examines the role of impression management, aimed at refuting common older worker stereotypes, in diminishing bias against older job applicants during the job interview. The study consisted in an experimental hiring simulation conducted on a sample of 515 undergraduate students. Results show that older applicants who used impression management to contradict common older worker stereotypes were perceived as more hirable than those who did not. However, despite this positive effect, discrimination persisted: older applicants were consistently rated as less hirable than their younger counterparts when displaying the same IM behavior. Taken together, this research demonstrates that older job seekers can indeed ameliorate biased interview outcomes by engaging in impression management targeting common age stereotypes; however, it also shows that this strategy is insufficient for overcoming age discrimination entirely. The current study has important implications for theory, by expanding research on the use of impression management in mitigating age discrimination, as well as for practice, by offering older employees a hands-on strategy to reduce bias and stereotyping against them.

Addiction-Related Stigma and Discrimination: A Qualitative Study in Treatment Centers in Mexico City.

PubMed

Mora-Ríos, Jazmín; Ortega-Ortega, Miriam; Medina-Mora, Maria Elena

2017-04-16

Social rejection of drug use is greater than that directed at other psychiatric conditions, like depression and anxiety, which may lead to social exclusion of substance users and prevent them from seeking and receiving treatment. The objective of this study is to investigate the stigma and discrimination related to addiction in treatment centers in Mexico City. Data are from a broad mixed methods study. The present study is a qualitative analysis of 35 in-depth interviews of drug users, family members, and providers, using guidelines for the exploration of experiences of stigma and discrimination related to substance abuse. A thematic analysis was carried out using specialized software (Atlas.ti 6.2.23). The common practices of stigma and discrimination (e.g., judging, mockery, inappropriate comments, overprotection, and hostile looks), were identified in participant testimonies. The narratives provide evidence of varied conditions of social and gender inequality, as well as experience of violence and abuse, that refer to a structural context of discrimination surrounding addiction, and that constitute obstacles to treatment. The findings allow for a description of the stigmatization process surrounding addiction as a shared problem that requires the implementation of coordinated treatment strategies. They also suggest the need for more comprehensive policies of inclusion, based on human rights, which favor prevention and treatment.

Selective Attention: A Comparative Study on Argentine Students from Different Socioeconomic Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ison, Mirta S.; Greco, Carolina; Korzeniowski, Celina; Morelato, Gabriela

2015-01-01

Introduction: Attentional Efficiency (AE) is defined as the accuracy with which a child discriminates, from a group of similar stimuli, those which are identical to a model, within a certain time period. Various factors may be associated with a higher or lower AE, among which is socioeconomic context. The goals of this study were: 1) To describe…

Mass discrimination during weightlessness

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ross, H.

1981-01-01

An experiment concerned with the ability of astronauts to discriminate between the mass of objects when both the objects and the astronauts are in weightless states is described. The main object of the experiment is to compare the threshold for weight-discrimination on Earth with that for mass-discrimination in orbit. Tests will be conducted premission and postmission and early and late during the mission while the crew is experiencing weightlessness. A comparison of early and late tests inflight and postflight will reveal the rate of adaptation to zero-gravity and 1-g. The mass discrimination box holds 24 balls which the astronaut will compare to one another in a random routine.

Discriminating languages in bilingual contexts: the impact of orthographic markedness

PubMed Central

Casaponsa, Aina; Carreiras, Manuel; Duñabeitia, Jon A.

2014-01-01

Does language-specific orthography help language detection and lexical access in naturalistic bilingual contexts? This study investigates how L2 orthotactic properties influence bilingual language detection in bilingual societies and the extent to which it modulates lexical access and single word processing. Language specificity of naturalistically learnt L2 words was manipulated by including bigram combinations that could be either L2 language-specific or common in the two languages known by bilinguals. A group of balanced bilinguals and a group of highly proficient but unbalanced bilinguals who grew up in a bilingual society were tested, together with a group of monolinguals (for control purposes). All the participants completed a speeded language detection task and a progressive demasking task. Results showed that the use of the information of orthotactic rules across languages depends on the task demands at hand, and on participants' proficiency in the second language. The influence of language orthotactic rules during language detection, lexical access and word identification are discussed according to the most prominent models of bilingual word recognition. PMID:24860536

Patients’ perceptions of discrimination during hospitalization

PubMed Central

Hudelson, Patricia; Kolly, Véronique; Perneger, Thomas

2009-01-01

Abstract Objective  To identify sources of perceived discrimination during hospitalization and examine the relationship of perceived discrimination to patient and hospital stay characteristics, and to patient ratings of care. Background  Patient experiences of discrimination within the health‐care system are associated with delays in care seeking, non‐adherence to medical advice and poorer health status. Most research to date has focused on race and ethnicity‐based discrimination, and few studies have included hospitalized patients. Methods  Questions about patients’ experiences of discrimination were added to a regular patient opinion survey conducted at the Geneva University Hospitals. Participants were 1537 adult residents of Switzerland discharged from the hospital between 15 February and 15 March 2007. Results  A total of 171 (11.1%) respondents reported at least one source of discrimination. Most (93, 54.4%) reported a single cause of discrimination. The most frequent causes of discrimination were language, age, nationality and having a disease that is viewed negatively by others. Fifteen percentage of non‐European respondents reported at least one of the following types of discrimination: language, nationality, religion and skin colour. Reporting discrimination from any cause was associated with higher Picker Patient Experience problem scores, and patients who reported discrimination were less likely to describe their care as very good or excellent and less likely to recommend the hospital to others. Conclusions  Patient experiences of discrimination during hospitalization are relatively frequent and are associated with lower patient ratings of care. Collection of data on patient experiences of discrimination may contribute to the development of interventions aimed at ensuring respectful, quality care for all patients. PMID:19788555

Reader-Centered Technical Writing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Narayanan, M.

2012-12-01

Technical writing is an essential part of professional communication and in recent years it has shifted from a genre-based approach. Formerly, technical writing primarily focused on generating templates of documents and sometimes it was creating or reproducing traditional forms with minor modifications and updates. Now, technical writing looks at the situations surrounding the need to write. This involves deep thinking about the goals and objectives of the project on hand. Furthermore, one observes that it is very important for any participatory process to have the full support of management. This support needs to be well understood and believed by employees. Professional writing may be very persuasive in some cases. When presented in the appropriate context, technical writing can persuade a company to improve work conditions ensuring employee safety and timely production. However, one must recognize that lot of professional writing still continues to make use of reports and instruction manuals. Normally, technical and professional writing addresses four aspects. Objective: The need for generating a given professionally written technical document and the goals the document is expected to achieve and accomplish. Clientele: The clientele who will utilize the technical document. This may include the people in the organization. This may also include "unintended readers." Customers: The population that may be affected by the content of the technical document generated. This includes the stakeholders who will be influenced. Environment: The background in which the document is created. Also, the nature of the situation that warranted the generation of the document. Swiss Psychologist Jean Piaget's view of Learning focuses on three aspects. The author likes to extend Jean Piaget's ideas to students, who are asked to prepare and submit Reader-Centered Technical Writing reports and exercises. Assimilation: Writers may benefit specifically, by assimilating a new object into

Exploring Discrimination and Mental Health Disparities Faced By Black Sexual Minority Women Using a Minority Stress Framework

PubMed Central

Calabrese, Sarah K.; Meyer, Ilan H.; Overstreet, Nicole M.; Haile, Rahwa; Hansen, Nathan B.

2015-01-01

Black sexual minority women are triply marginalized due to their race, gender, and sexual orientation. We compared three dimensions of discrimination—frequency (regularity of occurrences), scope (number of types of discriminatory acts experienced), and number of bases (number of social statuses to which discrimination was attributed)—and self-reported mental health (depressive symptoms, psychological well-being, and social well-being) between 64 Black sexual minority women and each of two groups sharing two of three marginalized statuses: (a) 67 White sexual minority women and (b) 67 Black sexual minority men. Black sexual minority women reported greater discrimination frequency, scope, and number of bases and poorer psychological and social well-being than White sexual minority women and more discrimination bases, a higher level of depressive symptoms, and poorer social well-being than Black sexual minority men. We then tested and contrasted dimensions of discrimination as mediators between social status (race or gender) and mental health outcomes. Discrimination frequency and scope mediated the association between race and mental health, with a stronger effect via frequency among sexual minority women. Number of discrimination bases mediated the association between gender and mental health among Black sexual minorities. Future research and clinical practice would benefit from considering Black sexual minority women's mental health in a multidimensional minority stress context. PMID:26424904

Colour discrimination ellipses in choroideremia.

PubMed

Seitz, Immanuel P; Jolly, Jasleen K; Dominik Fischer, M; Simunovic, Matthew P

2018-04-01

The purpose of this study was to characterise alterations in colour discrimination in a cohort of patients with choroideremia prior to gene therapy, using a test previously validated for use in patients with retinal dystrophies. We tested 20 eyes of 10 patients with a diagnosis of choroideremia and an age-matched cohort of 10 eyes of 10 normal controls using the "Cambridge Colour Test" (CCT), in which subjects are required to distinguish the gap in a C presented in one of 4 orientations in a Stilling-type array. Colour discrimination was probed along eight axes in the CIE L*u*v* colour space, and the resulting data were plotted in the CIE 1976 chromaticity diagram and fitted with least-squares ellipses. Subsequently, we estimated the achromatic area for each subject by calculating the area of the resultant discrimination ellipse and calculated sensitivity thresholds along relevant colour confusion axes. Colour discrimination-as quantified by log 10 of the ellipse area expressed in square 1/1000th 2 units in CIE 1976-was 2.26 (range 1.82 to 2.67) for normal subjects and 3.85 (range 2.35 to 5.41) for choroideremia patients. There was a statistically significant correlation between both achromatic area and red-green colour discrimination at the CCT and BCVA, and to a lesser degree between blue colour discrimination at the CCT and BCVA. The majority of ellipses in choroideremia were aligned close to the tritan axis, and loss of sensitivity was significantly larger in the tritan direction than in the red-green. The majority of our patients demonstrated greater loss in tritan discrimination than in red-green colour discrimination using the CCT. There was a significant correlation between achromatic area and BCVA. In keeping with our current understanding of the machinery of colour vision, there was a significant correlation between BCVA and colour discrimination thresholds, which was stronger for red-green colour discrimination, than for tritan colour discrimination. We

20 CFR 405.30 - Discrimination complaints.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Discrimination complaints. 405.30 Section 405... INITIAL DISABILITY CLAIMS Introduction, General Description, and Definitions § 405.30 Discrimination... that an adjudicator has improperly discriminated against you, you may file a discrimination complaint...

20 CFR 405.30 - Discrimination complaints.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Discrimination complaints. 405.30 Section 405... INITIAL DISABILITY CLAIMS Introduction, General Description, and Definitions § 405.30 Discrimination... that an adjudicator has improperly discriminated against you, you may file a discrimination complaint...

20 CFR 405.30 - Discrimination complaints.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Discrimination complaints. 405.30 Section 405... INITIAL DISABILITY CLAIMS Introduction, General Description, and Definitions § 405.30 Discrimination... that an adjudicator has improperly discriminated against you, you may file a discrimination complaint...

20 CFR 405.30 - Discrimination complaints.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Discrimination complaints. 405.30 Section 405... INITIAL DISABILITY CLAIMS Introduction, General Description, and Definitions § 405.30 Discrimination... that an adjudicator has improperly discriminated against you, you may file a discrimination complaint...

20 CFR 405.30 - Discrimination complaints.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Discrimination complaints. 405.30 Section 405... INITIAL DISABILITY CLAIMS Introduction, General Description, and Definitions § 405.30 Discrimination... that an adjudicator has improperly discriminated against you, you may file a discrimination complaint...

[Mental health implications of workplace discrimination against sexual and gender minorities: A literature review].

PubMed

Geoffroy, Marie; Chamberland, Line

Despite legislative advances in terms of workplace equality for sexual and gender minorities (SGM), available data ascertains the persistence of workplace discrimination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and especially of transgender/transsexual employees. This article, based on an extensive literature review, explores the relationship between different types of workplace discrimination experiences and their impacts on the mental health of SGM and of different sub-populations: men who have sex with men, non-heterosexual women, lesbian and gay parents, and trans people. Furthermore, the article explores certain individual and systemic protection and risk factors that have an impact on this relationship, such as coming-out at work and organisational support. Finally, the existing literature on workplace discrimination and mental health of sexual and gender minorities highlights the importance, in the current legal and social context, of intersectional approaches and of research on homo- and trans-negative microaggressions. The article ends with a discussion on the implications for practice, research, and workplace settings, as well as with several recommendations for these settings.

Perceived age discrimination in older adults

PubMed Central

Rippon, Isla; Kneale, Dylan; de Oliveira, Cesar; Demakakos, Panayotes; Steptoe, Andrew

2014-01-01

Objectives: to examine perceived age discrimination in a large representative sample of older adults in England. Methods: this cross-sectional study of over 7,500 individuals used data from the fifth wave of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a longitudinal cohort study of men and women aged 52 years and older in England. Wave 5 asked respondents about the frequency of five everyday discriminatory situations. Participants who attributed any experiences of discrimination to their age were treated as cases of perceived age discrimination. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the odds ratios of experiencing perceived age discrimination in relation to selected sociodemographic factors. Results: approximately a third (33.3%) of all respondents experienced age discrimination, rising to 36.8% in those aged 65 and over. Perceived age discrimination was associated with older age, higher education, lower levels of household wealth and being retired or not in employment. The correlates of age discrimination across the five discriminatory situations were similar. Conclusion: understanding age discrimination is vital if we are to develop appropriate policies and to target future interventions effectively. These findings highlight the scale of the challenge of age discrimination for older adults in England and illustrate that those groups are particularly vulnerable to this form of discrimination. PMID:24077751

Perceived age discrimination in older adults.

PubMed

Rippon, Isla; Kneale, Dylan; de Oliveira, Cesar; Demakakos, Panayotes; Steptoe, Andrew

2014-05-01

to examine perceived age discrimination in a large representative sample of older adults in England. this cross-sectional study of over 7,500 individuals used data from the fifth wave of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a longitudinal cohort study of men and women aged 52 years and older in England. Wave 5 asked respondents about the frequency of five everyday discriminatory situations. Participants who attributed any experiences of discrimination to their age were treated as cases of perceived age discrimination. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the odds ratios of experiencing perceived age discrimination in relation to selected sociodemographic factors. approximately a third (33.3%) of all respondents experienced age discrimination, rising to 36.8% in those aged 65 and over. Perceived age discrimination was associated with older age, higher education, lower levels of household wealth and being retired or not in employment. The correlates of age discrimination across the five discriminatory situations were similar. understanding age discrimination is vital if we are to develop appropriate policies and to target future interventions effectively. These findings highlight the scale of the challenge of age discrimination for older adults in England and illustrate that those groups are particularly vulnerable to this form of discrimination.

14 CFR 372.22 - Discrimination.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Discrimination. 372.22 Section 372.22... REGULATIONS OVERSEAS MILITARY PERSONNEL CHARTERS Conditions and Limitations § 372.22 Discrimination. No... any unjust discrimination or any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect...

14 CFR 372.22 - Discrimination.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Discrimination. 372.22 Section 372.22... REGULATIONS OVERSEAS MILITARY PERSONNEL CHARTERS Conditions and Limitations § 372.22 Discrimination. No... any unjust discrimination or any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect...

14 CFR 372.22 - Discrimination.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Discrimination. 372.22 Section 372.22... REGULATIONS OVERSEAS MILITARY PERSONNEL CHARTERS Conditions and Limitations § 372.22 Discrimination. No... any unjust discrimination or any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect...

14 CFR 372.22 - Discrimination.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Discrimination. 372.22 Section 372.22... REGULATIONS OVERSEAS MILITARY PERSONNEL CHARTERS Conditions and Limitations § 372.22 Discrimination. No... any unjust discrimination or any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect...

14 CFR 372.22 - Discrimination.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Discrimination. 372.22 Section 372.22... REGULATIONS OVERSEAS MILITARY PERSONNEL CHARTERS Conditions and Limitations § 372.22 Discrimination. No... any unjust discrimination or any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect...

Discrimination of acoustically similar conspecific and heterospecific vocalizations by black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus).

PubMed

Hahn, Allison H; Campbell, Kimberley A; Congdon, Jenna V; Hoang, John; McMillan, Neil; Scully, Erin N; Yong, Joshua J H; Elie, Julie E; Sturdy, Christopher B

2017-07-01

Chickadees produce a multi-note chick-a-dee call in multiple socially relevant contexts. One component of this call is the D note, which is a low-frequency and acoustically complex note with a harmonic-like structure. In the current study, we tested black-capped chickadees on a between-category operant discrimination task using vocalizations with acoustic structures similar to black-capped chickadee D notes, but produced by various songbird species, in order to examine the role that phylogenetic distance plays in acoustic perception of vocal signals. We assessed the extent to which discrimination performance was influenced by the phylogenetic relatedness among the species producing the vocalizations and by the phylogenetic relatedness between the subjects' species (black-capped chickadees) and the vocalizers' species. We also conducted a bioacoustic analysis and discriminant function analysis in order to examine the acoustic similarities among the discrimination stimuli. A previous study has shown that neural activation in black-capped chickadee auditory and perceptual brain regions is similar following the presentation of these vocalization categories. However, we found that chickadees had difficulty discriminating between forward and reversed black-capped chickadee D notes, a result that directly corresponded to the bioacoustic analysis indicating that these stimulus categories were acoustically similar. In addition, our results suggest that the discrimination between vocalizations produced by two parid species (chestnut-backed chickadees and tufted titmice) is perceptually difficult for black-capped chickadees, a finding that is likely in part because these vocalizations contain acoustic similarities. Overall, our results provide evidence that black-capped chickadees' perceptual abilities are influenced by both phylogenetic relatedness and acoustic structure.

Stimulus function in simultaneous discrimination1

PubMed Central

Biederman, Gerald B.

1968-01-01

In discrimination learning, the negativity of the stimulus correlated with nonreinforcement (S−) declines after 100 training trials while the stimulus correlated with reinforcement (S+) is paradoxically more positive with lesser amounts of discrimination training. Training subjects on two simultaneous discrimination tasks revealed a within-subjects overlearning reversal effect, where a more-frequently presented discrimination problem was better learned in reversal than was a discrimination problem presented less frequently during training. PMID:5672254

Hiring discrimination against people with disabilities under the ADA: characteristics of employers.

PubMed

McMahon, Brian T; Rumrill, Philip D; Roessler, Richard; Hurley, Jessica E; West, Steven L; Chan, Fong; Carlson, Linnea

2008-06-01

This article describes findings from a causal comparative study of the characteristics of employers against whom allegations of hiring discrimination were filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) between 1992 and 2005. Employer characteristics derived from 19,527 closed Hiring allegations are compared and contrasted to 259,680 closed allegations aggregated from six other prevalent forms of discrimination including Discharge and Constructive Discharge, Reasonable Accommodation, Disability Harassment and Intimidation, and Terms and Conditions of Employment. Tests of Proportion distributed as chi-square are used to form comparisons along a variety of factors including industry classification, size of workforce, and location. As compared to non-hiring allegations, hiring allegations were more likely to be filed against employers with 15-100 employees, in the West U.S. Census track region, or in industries including educational services; public administration; transportation and warehousing; professional, scientific, and technical services; agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting; and construction. More outreach regarding ADA responsibilities appears indicated for those employers who share the aforementioned characteristics.

Neighbourhood poverty, perceived discrimination, and central adiposity: Independent associations in a repeated measures analysis

PubMed Central

Kwarteng, Jamila L.; Schulz, Amy J.; Mentz, Graciela B.; Israel, Barbara A.; Shanks, Trina R.; White Perkins, Denise

2018-01-01

SUMMARY This study examines the independent effects of neighbourhood context (i.e. neighbourhood poverty) and exposure to perceived discrimination in shaping risk of obesity over time. Weighted 3-level hierarchical linear regression models for a continuous outcome were used to assess independent effects of neighbourhood poverty and perceived discrimination on obesity over time in a sample of 157 Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic White, and Hispanic adults 2002/2003 and 2007/2008. Independent associations were found between neighbourhood poverty and perceived discrimination with central adiposity over time. Residents of neighbourhoods with high concentrations of poverty were more likely to show increases in central adiposity compared to those in neighbourhoods with lower concentrations of poverty. In models adjusted for BMI, neighbourhood poverty at baseline was associated with greater change in central adiposity among participants who lived in neighbourhoods in the second (B=3.79, P=0.025) and third (B=3.73, P=0.024) quartiles, compared with those in the lowest poverty neighbourhoods. Results from models that included both neighbourhood poverty and perceived discrimination showed that both neighbourhood poverty and discrimination were associated with increased risk of increased central adiposity over time. Residents of neighbourhoods in the second (B=9.58, P<0.001), third (B=8.25, P=0.004), and fourth (B=7.66, P=0.030) quartiles of poverty remained more likely to show greater increases in central adiposity over time, compared with those in the lowest poverty quartile, mean discrimination at baseline independently and positively associated with increases in central adiposity over time (B= 2.36, P=0.020). These results suggest that neighbourhood poverty and perceived discrimination are independently associated with heightened risk of increases in central adiposity over time. Efforts to address persistent disparities in the central adiposity in the USA should include

14 CFR 399.36 - Unreasonable discrimination.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Unreasonable discrimination. 399.36 Section... Unreasonable discrimination. (a) As used in this section: (1) Unreasonable discrimination means unjust discrimination or unreasonable preference or prejudice; and (2) Rate means rate, fare, or charge. (b) Except in...

14 CFR 399.36 - Unreasonable discrimination.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Unreasonable discrimination. 399.36 Section... Unreasonable discrimination. (a) As used in this section: (1) Unreasonable discrimination means unjust discrimination or unreasonable preference or prejudice; and (2) Rate means rate, fare, or charge. (b) Except in...

14 CFR 399.36 - Unreasonable discrimination.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Unreasonable discrimination. 399.36 Section... Unreasonable discrimination. (a) As used in this section: (1) Unreasonable discrimination means unjust discrimination or unreasonable preference or prejudice; and (2) Rate means rate, fare, or charge. (b) Except in...

Experimental tests and radiometric calculations for the feasibility of fluorescence LIDAR-based discrimination of oil spills from UAV

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raimondi, Valentina; Palombi, Lorenzo; Lognoli, David; Masini, Andrea; Simeone, Emilio

2017-09-01

This paper presents experimental tests and radiometric calculations for the feasibility of an ultra-compact fluorescence LIDAR from an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) for the characterisation of oil spills in natural waters. The first step of this study was to define the experimental conditions for a LIDAR and its budget constraints on the basis of the specifications of small UAVs already available on the market. The second step consisted of a set of fluorescence LIDAR measurements on oil spills in the laboratory in order to propose a simplified discrimination method and to calculate the oil fluorescence conversion efficiency. Lastly, the main technical specifications of the payload were defined and radiometric calculations carried out to evaluate the performances of both the payload and the proposed discrimination method.

Features versus context: An approach for precise and detailed detection and delineation of faces and facial features.

PubMed

Ding, Liya; Martinez, Aleix M

2010-11-01

The appearance-based approach to face detection has seen great advances in the last several years. In this approach, we learn the image statistics describing the texture pattern (appearance) of the object class we want to detect, e.g., the face. However, this approach has had limited success in providing an accurate and detailed description of the internal facial features, i.e., eyes, brows, nose, and mouth. In general, this is due to the limited information carried by the learned statistical model. While the face template is relatively rich in texture, facial features (e.g., eyes, nose, and mouth) do not carry enough discriminative information to tell them apart from all possible background images. We resolve this problem by adding the context information of each facial feature in the design of the statistical model. In the proposed approach, the context information defines the image statistics most correlated with the surroundings of each facial component. This means that when we search for a face or facial feature, we look for those locations which most resemble the feature yet are most dissimilar to its context. This dissimilarity with the context features forces the detector to gravitate toward an accurate estimate of the position of the facial feature. Learning to discriminate between feature and context templates is difficult, however, because the context and the texture of the facial features vary widely under changing expression, pose, and illumination, and may even resemble one another. We address this problem with the use of subclass divisions. We derive two algorithms to automatically divide the training samples of each facial feature into a set of subclasses, each representing a distinct construction of the same facial component (e.g., closed versus open eyes) or its context (e.g., different hairstyles). The first algorithm is based on a discriminant analysis formulation. The second algorithm is an extension of the AdaBoost approach. We provide

Associations Between Multiple Forms of Discrimination and Tobacco Use Among People Living With HIV: The Mediating Role of Avoidance Coping.

PubMed

Crockett, Kaylee B; Rice, Whitney S; Turan, Bulent

2018-05-01

People living with HIV (PLWH) have higher levels of tobacco use compared with the general population, increasing their risk of morbidity and mortality. PLWH also face potential chronic stressors related to the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV and other characteristics (eg, race and sexual orientation). These experiences may be associated with harmful health behaviors, such as tobacco use. The purpose of the current study is to explore the psychosocial context of tobacco use in PLWH, examining avoidance coping as a mediator in the relationship between multiple forms of discrimination and tobacco use. Participants included 202 PLWH recruited from an HIV primary care clinic in Birmingham, AL, between 2013 and 2015. Participants responded to parallel items assessing experiences of discrimination related to HIV status, race, and sexual orientation, as well as items assessing avoidance coping. Data on current tobacco use were obtained from participants' clinic records. Mediation models for each form of discrimination (HIV, race and sexual orientation) adjusting for demographic variables and the other forms of discrimination were evaluated. The indirect effect of HIV-related discrimination on likelihood of tobacco use through avoidance coping was significant, suggesting that avoidance coping mediates the association between HIV-related discrimination and tobacco use. However, the indirect effects of the other forms of discrimination were not significant. Given the disparity in tobacco use in PLWH, behavioral scientists and interventionists should consider including content specific to coping with experiences of discrimination in tobacco prevention and cessation programs for PLWH.

14 CFR 380.26 - Discrimination.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Discrimination. 380.26 Section 380.26... REGULATIONS PUBLIC CHARTERS Requirements Applicable to Charter Operators § 380.26 Discrimination. No charter... unjust discrimination or any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever. ...

14 CFR 380.26 - Discrimination.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Discrimination. 380.26 Section 380.26... REGULATIONS PUBLIC CHARTERS Requirements Applicable to Charter Operators § 380.26 Discrimination. No charter... unjust discrimination or any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever. ...

14 CFR 380.26 - Discrimination.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Discrimination. 380.26 Section 380.26... REGULATIONS PUBLIC CHARTERS Requirements Applicable to Charter Operators § 380.26 Discrimination. No charter... unjust discrimination or any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever. ...

14 CFR 380.26 - Discrimination.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Discrimination. 380.26 Section 380.26... REGULATIONS PUBLIC CHARTERS Requirements Applicable to Charter Operators § 380.26 Discrimination. No charter... unjust discrimination or any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever. ...

14 CFR 380.26 - Discrimination.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 4 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Discrimination. 380.26 Section 380.26... REGULATIONS PUBLIC CHARTERS Requirements Applicable to Charter Operators § 380.26 Discrimination. No charter... unjust discrimination or any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever. ...

Stigma, discrimination and HIV outcomes among people living with HIV in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: The intersection of multiple social inequalities.

PubMed

Kerrigan, Deanna; Vazzano, Andrea; Bertoni, Neilane; Malta, Monica; Bastos, Francisco Inacio

2017-02-01

Limited research has examined the social context surrounding stigma and discrimination and HIV outcomes among people living with HIV (PLHIV). We surveyed 900 PLHIV in Brazil and examined the relationship between stigma, discrimination and HIV outcomes utilising multivariable logistic regression. HIV stigma and discrimination were inversely associated with age (AOR Stigma 0.65, 95% CI 0.49-0.88; AOR Discrimination 0.72, 95% CI 0.54-0.95) and income (AOR Stigma 0.74, 95% CI 0.55-0.99; AOR Discrimination 0.62, 95% CI 0.46-0.82). Stigma was inversely associated with education (AOR 0.71, 95% CI 0.52-0.96) and no history of sex work (AOR 0.56, 95% CI 0.35-0.90), and positively associated with having children (AOR 1.71, 95% CI 1.18-2.48). Discrimination was inversely associated with no history of drug use (AOR 0.63, 95% CI 0.42-0.95). Stigma and discrimination were found to be inversely associated with overall health (AOR Stigma 0.54, 95% CI 0.40-0.74; AOR Discrimination 0.71, 95% CI 0.52-0.97). Discrimination was associated with having a sexually transmitted infection since HIV diagnosis (AOR 1.63, 95% CI 1.14-2.32). Findings suggest that future interventions should address multiple social inequalities faced by PLHIV to reduce HIV stigma and discrimination and improve health and HIV outcomes.

45 CFR 1624.4 - Discrimination prohibited.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 4 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Discrimination prohibited. 1624.4 Section 1624.4... AGAINST DISCRIMINATION ON THE BASIS OF DISABILITY § 1624.4 Discrimination prohibited. (a) No qualified... the benefits of, or otherwise be subjected to discrimination by any legal services program, directly...

45 CFR 1624.4 - Discrimination prohibited.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 4 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Discrimination prohibited. 1624.4 Section 1624.4... AGAINST DISCRIMINATION ON THE BASIS OF DISABILITY § 1624.4 Discrimination prohibited. (a) No qualified... the benefits of, or otherwise be subjected to discrimination by any legal services program, directly...

45 CFR 1624.4 - Discrimination prohibited.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 4 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Discrimination prohibited. 1624.4 Section 1624.4... AGAINST DISCRIMINATION ON THE BASIS OF DISABILITY § 1624.4 Discrimination prohibited. (a) No qualified... the benefits of, or otherwise be subjected to discrimination by any legal services program, directly...

Derivation of Human Chromatic Discrimination Ability from an Information-Theoretical Notion of Distance in Color Space.

PubMed

da Fonseca, María; Samengo, Inés

2016-12-01

The accuracy with which humans detect chromatic differences varies throughout color space. For example, we are far more precise when discriminating two similar orange stimuli than two similar green stimuli. In order for two colors to be perceived as different, the neurons representing chromatic information must respond differently, and the difference must be larger than the trial-to-trial variability of the response to each separate color. Photoreceptors constitute the first stage in the processing of color information; many more stages are required before humans can consciously report whether two stimuli are perceived as chromatically distinguishable. Therefore, although photoreceptor absorption curves are expected to influence the accuracy of conscious discriminability, there is no reason to believe that they should suffice to explain it. Here we develop information-theoretical tools based on the Fisher metric that demonstrate that photoreceptor absorption properties explain about 87% of the variance of human color discrimination ability, as tested by previous behavioral experiments. In the context of this theory, the bottleneck in chromatic information processing is determined by photoreceptor absorption characteristics. Subsequent encoding stages modify only marginally the chromatic discriminability at the photoreceptor level.

Factors influencing physical and technical variability in the English Premier League.

PubMed

Bush, Michael D; Archer, David T; Hogg, Robert; Bradley, Paul S

2015-10-01

To investigate match-to-match variability of physical and technical performances in English Premier League players and quantify the influence of positional and contextual factors. Match data (N = 451) were collected using a multicamera computerized tracking system across multiple seasons (2005-06 to 2012-13). The coefficient of variation (CV) was calculated from match to match for physical and technical performances in selected positions across different match contexts (location, standard, and result). Wide midfielders demonstrated the greatest CVs for total distance (4.9% ± 5.9%) and central midfielders the smallest (3.6% ± 2.0%); nevertheless, all positions exhibited CVs <5% (P > .05, effect size [ES] 0.1-0.3). Central defenders demonstrated the greatest CVs and wide midfielders the lowest for both high-intensity running (20.2% ± 8.8% and 13.7% ± 7.7%, P < .05, ES 0.4-0.8) and sprint distance (32.3% ± 13.8% and 22.6% ± 11.2%, P < .05, ES 0.5-0.8). Technical indicators such as tackles (83.7% ± 42.3%), possessions won (47.2% ± 27.9%), and interceptions (59.1% ± 37.3%) illustrated substantial variability for attackers compared with all other positions (P < .05, ES 0.4-1.1). Central defenders demonstrated large variability for the number of times tackled per match (144.9% ± 58.3%) and passes attempted and received compared with other positions (39.2% ± 17.5% and 46.9% ± 20.2%, P < .001, ES 0.6-1.8). Contextual factors had limited impact on the variability of physical and technical parameters. The data demonstrate that technical parameters varied more from match to match than physical parameters. Defensive players (fullbacks and central defenders) displayed higher CVs for offensive technical variables, while attacking players (attackers and wide midfielders) exhibited higher CVs for defensive technical variables. Physical and technical performances are variable per se regardless of context.

Different parameters support generalization and discrimination learning in Drosophila at the flight simulator.

PubMed

Brembs, Björn; Hempel de Ibarra, Natalie

2006-01-01

We have used a genetically tractable model system, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to study the interdependence between sensory processing and associative processing on learning performance. We investigated the influence of variations in the physical and predictive properties of color stimuli in several different operant-conditioning procedures on the subsequent learning performance. These procedures included context and stimulus generalization as well as color, compound, and conditional discrimination (colors and patterns). A surprisingly complex dependence of the learning performance on the colors' physical and predictive properties emerged, which was clarified by taking into account the fly-subjective perception of the color stimuli. Based on estimates of the stimuli's color and brightness values, we propose that the different tasks are supported by different parameters of the color stimuli; generalization occurs only if the chromaticity is sufficiently similar, whereas discrimination learning relies on brightness differences.

Employment Discrimination and Organizational Efficiency.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salipante, Paul F., Jr.

Managers' claims that reducing employment discrimination will lead to higher costs and decreased personnel efficiency in organizations are not supported by theory or empirical evidence. Economic theories, in fact, indicate that discrimination does not have a rational economic basis and that reducing discrimination should lead to increased, rather…

Price Discrimination: A Classroom Experiment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aguiló, Paula; Sard, Maria; Tugores, Maria

2016-01-01

In this article, the authors describe a classroom experiment aimed at familiarizing students with different types of price discrimination (first-, second-, and third-degree price discrimination). During the experiment, the students were asked to decide what tariffs to set as monopolists for each of the price discrimination scenarios under…

Third-Degree Price Discrimination Revisited

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kwon, Youngsun

2006-01-01

The author derives the probability that price discrimination improves social welfare, using a simple model of third-degree price discrimination assuming two independent linear demands. The probability that price discrimination raises social welfare increases as the preferences or incomes of consumer groups become more heterogeneous. He derives the…

Children's perceptions of gender discrimination.

PubMed

Spears Brown, Christia; Bigler, Rebecca S

2004-09-01

Children (N = 76; ages 5-10 years) participated in a study designed to examine perceptions of gender discrimination. Children were read scenarios in which a teacher determined outcomes for 2 students (1 boy and 1 girl). Contextual information (i.e., teacher's past behavior), the gender of the target of discrimination (i.e., student), and the gender of the perpetrator (i.e., teacher) were manipulated. Results indicated that older children were more likely than younger children to make attributions to discrimination when contextual information suggested that it was likely. Girls (but not boys) were more likely to view girls than boys as victims of discrimination, and children with egalitarian gender attitudes were more likely to perceive discrimination than were their peers. Copyright 2004 American Psychological Association

Social context of HIV risk behaviours among male-to-female transgenders of colour.

PubMed

Nemoto, T; Operario, D; Keatley, J; Villegas, D

2004-08-01

To explore the social context of drug use and sexual behaviours that put male-to-female (MTF) transgenders at risk for HIV, focus groups were conducted consisting of African American, Latina and Asian and Pacific Islander MTF transgenders (N = 48) who reside or work in San Francisco, California. Participants were likely to report having unprotected sex with primary partners to signify love and emotional connection, as well as to receive gender validation from their partners. In contrast, viewing sex work with customers as a business encouraged intentious to use condoms. Safer sex intentions with customers were frequently undermined by urgent financial needs, which stemmed from transphobia, employment discrimination and costly procedures associated with gender transition. Participants reported using drugs as a way to cope with or escape life stresses associated with relationships, sex work, transphobia and financial hardship. Interventions with at-risk MTF transgenders should address the interpersonal and social context of unsafe sex and drug use, particularly the unique roles of relationship issues with male partners, stigma, discrimination and community norms regarding sex work and drug use.

Benefits and Costs of Context Reinstatement in Episodic Memory: An ERP Study.

PubMed

Bramão, Inês; Johansson, Mikael

2017-01-01

This study investigated context-dependent episodic memory retrieval. An influential idea in the memory literature is that performance benefits when the retrieval context overlaps with the original encoding context. However, such memory facilitation may not be driven by the encoding-retrieval overlap per se but by the presence of diagnostic features in the reinstated context that discriminate the target episode from competing episodes. To test this prediction, the encoding-retrieval overlap and the diagnostic value of the context were manipulated in a novel associative recognition memory task. Participants were asked to memorize word pairs presented together with diagnostic (unique) and nondiagnostic (shared) background scenes. At test, participants recognized the word pairs in the presence and absence of the previously encoded contexts. Behavioral data show facilitated memory performance in the presence of the original context but, importantly, only when the context was diagnostic of the target episode. The electrophysiological data reveal an early anterior ERP encoding-retrieval overlap effect that tracks the cost associated with having nondiagnostic contexts present at retrieval, that is, shared by multiple previous episodes, and a later posterior encoding-retrieval overlap effect that reflects facilitated access to the target episode during retrieval in diagnostic contexts. Taken together, our results underscore the importance of the diagnostic value of the context and suggest that context-dependent episodic memory effects are multiple determined.

Contextualize Technical Writing Assessment to Better Prepare Students for Workplace Writing: Student-Centered Assessment Instruments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yu, Han

2008-01-01

To teach students how to write for the workplace and other professional contexts, technical writing teachers often assign writing tasks that reflect real-life communication contexts, a teaching approach that is grounded in the field's contextualized understanding of genre. This article argues to fully embrace contextualized literacy and better…

Linking Bibliographic Data Bases: A Discussion of the Battelle Technical Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, C. Lee

This document establishes the context, summarizes the contents, and discusses the Battelle technical report, noting certain constraints of the study. Further steps for the linking of bibliographic databases for use by academic and public libraries are suggested. (RAA)

Racial identity, social context, and race-related social cognition in African Americans during middle childhood.

PubMed

Rowley, Stephanie J; Burchinal, Margaret R; Roberts, Joanne E; Zeisel, Susan A

2008-11-01

This study examined the effect of changes in racial identity, cross-race friendships, same-race friendships, and classroom racial composition on changes in race-related social cognition from 3rd to 5th grade for 73 African American children. The goal of the study was to determine the extent to which preadolescent racial identity and social context predict expectations of racial discrimination in cross-race social interactions (social expectations). Expectations of racial discrimination were assessed using vignettes of cross-race social situations involving an African American child in a social interaction with European Americans. There were 3 major findings. First, expectations for discrimination declined slightly from 3rd to 5th grade. Second, although racial composition of children's classrooms, number of European American friends, gender, and family poverty status were largely unrelated to social expectations, having more African American friends was associated with expecting more discrimination in cross-racial interactions from 3rd to 5th grade. Third, increases in racial centrality were related to increases in discrimination expectations, and increases in public regard were associated with decreases in discrimination expectations. These data suggest that as early as 3rd grade, children are forming attitudes about their racial group that have implications for their cross-race social interactions.

Transgender Discrimination and the Law

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trotter, Richard

2010-01-01

An emerging area of law is developing regarding sex/gender identity discrimination, also referred to as transgender discrimination, as distinguished from discrimination based on sexual orientation. A transgendered individual is defined as "a person who has a gender-identity disorder which is a persistent discomfort about one?s assigned sex or…

The mediating effect of self-esteem on the relationship between perceived discrimination and psychological well-being in immigrants.

PubMed

Urzúa, Alfonso; Ferrer, Rodrigo; Godoy, Nidia; Leppes, Francisca; Trujillo, Carlos; Osorio, Camila; Caqueo-Urízar, Alejandra

2018-01-01

The aim of the study is to analyze the mediating effect of self-esteem on the relationship between perceived discrimination and psychological well-being in South American immigrants in Chile. An analytical, cross sectional, non-experimental design was used. We evaluated 853 Peruvians and Colombians living in the northern cities of Arica, Antofagasta, and Santiago de Chile, the capital located in the center of the country. The instruments used were the Ryff Psychological Well-being Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Perceived Discrimination Scale by Basabe, Paez, Aierdi and Jiménez-Aristizabal. We used the estimation method (RWLS) and polychoric correlation matrices, to estimate the effect size and overall fit of the direct effect models of discrimination and self-esteem on psychological well-being, and indirect and total effects of discrimination mediated by self-esteem. While both populations reported similar levels of perceived discrimination, it was found that the means in psychological well-being and self-esteem of the Colombian population were significantly higher than that of the Peruvian population. Regarding self-esteem, the results provided evidence for the possible mediating effect on the relationship between perceived discrimination and psychological well-being. This research aims to contribute to the development of interventions seeking to strengthen self-esteem in order to circumvent possible negative consequences of perceived discrimination, as a consequent, improving immigrants´ personal resources to successfully cope with the diverse demands of their new context.

Muslim American adolescents' explanations of changing religious practices: Cultural tools in cultural contexts.

PubMed

Cain, Kathleen M; Schiro, Isabella N; Gregory, Wesley E; Westberg, Lindsay M; Lee, Samantha R; Boyle, Colleen D

2017-03-01

To examine the culturally embedded nature of religious practices, we conducted a mixed-methods study in which Muslim American adolescents described how and why their religious practices had changed in recent years (see Etengoff & Daiute, 2013, J. Adolesc. Res., 28, 690). Participants included 201 Muslim adolescents (ages 13-19) from predominantly immigrant families; all were contestants in a Muslim Inter-Scholastic Tournament regional competition. Participants completed surveys including an item regarding whether their religious practices had changed, and for those who answered affirmatively, open-ended questions about the change. Additional measures assessed ethnic identity and perceived discrimination. As hypothesized, the 60% of participants who reported a change in religious practices described this shift as a response to new contexts, people, and religious knowledge. Those who reported a change also reported higher levels of ethnic identity exploration and perceived discrimination. Overall, Muslim American adolescents' descriptions portrayed religious practices as developing through reciprocal interactions with culture. More generally, participants' descriptions point to the viability of a model in which religious practices change and in turn are changed by cultural contexts. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Religious development is viewed as taking place in relational systems with reciprocity between individuals and surrounding contexts. Variations in contexts predict variations in religious development, but mechanisms of development are not well understood. Muslim Americans, including adolescents, show high levels of religious involvement and experience unique cultural and religious contexts. Muslim American emerging adults describe their religious practices as responsive to sociocultural contexts. What does the study add? This study focuses on Muslim American adolescents, a group that has received little research attention

Context-aware and locality-constrained coding for image categorization.

PubMed

Xiao, Wenhua; Wang, Bin; Liu, Yu; Bao, Weidong; Zhang, Maojun

2014-01-01

Improving the coding strategy for BOF (Bag-of-Features) based feature design has drawn increasing attention in recent image categorization works. However, the ambiguity in coding procedure still impedes its further development. In this paper, we introduce a context-aware and locality-constrained Coding (CALC) approach with context information for describing objects in a discriminative way. It is generally achieved by learning a word-to-word cooccurrence prior to imposing context information over locality-constrained coding. Firstly, the local context of each category is evaluated by learning a word-to-word cooccurrence matrix representing the spatial distribution of local features in neighbor region. Then, the learned cooccurrence matrix is used for measuring the context distance between local features and code words. Finally, a coding strategy simultaneously considers locality in feature space and context space, while introducing the weight of feature is proposed. This novel coding strategy not only semantically preserves the information in coding, but also has the ability to alleviate the noise distortion of each class. Extensive experiments on several available datasets (Scene-15, Caltech101, and Caltech256) are conducted to validate the superiority of our algorithm by comparing it with baselines and recent published methods. Experimental results show that our method significantly improves the performance of baselines and achieves comparable and even better performance with the state of the arts.

The Role of Discrimination in Care Postponement Among Trans-Feminine Individuals in the U.S. National Transgender Discrimination Survey.

PubMed

Glick, Jennifer L; Theall, Katherine P; Andrinopoulos, Katherine M; Kendall, Carl

2018-04-01

This study examines the associations between discrimination experiences (types and locations) and care postponement among trans-feminine individuals in the United States. This secondary, cross-sectional study utilized a subset of the data from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (n = 2248), specifically for trans-feminine individuals. In this analysis, we examined the relationship between discrimination and primary care postponement. Twenty-six percent (26.25%) of the study sample reported delaying preventive care due to fear of discrimination; 23.98%-46.66% of respondents reported past experiences of discrimination (setting dependent). Discrimination in health and non-health settings and different types of discrimination-being denied services, verbally harassed, or physically assaulted-were all significantly associated with delaying care; respondents reporting discrimination were up to 20 times more likely to postpone care. While discrimination at a health location had the strongest association with care postponement (adjusted odds ratio = 9.65, confidence interval = 7.60-12.24), discrimination in all non-health-related locations was also important. Individuals reporting discrimination in greater numbers of locations and multiple types of discrimination were more likely to postpone care. To promote preventive care-seeking, these results affirm the importance of interventions that promote discrimination-free environments for gender minorities.

Critical consciousness, racial and gender discrimination, and HIV disease markers in African American women with HIV.

PubMed

Kelso, Gwendolyn A; Cohen, Mardge H; Weber, Kathleen M; Dale, Sannisha K; Cruise, Ruth C; Brody, Leslie R

2014-07-01

Critical consciousness, the awareness of social oppression, is important to investigate as a buffer against HIV disease progression in HIV-infected African American women in the context of experiences with discrimination. Critical consciousness comprises several dimensions, including social group identification, discontent with distribution of social power, rejection of social system legitimacy, and a collective action orientation. The current study investigated self-reported critical consciousness as a moderator of perceived gender and racial discrimination on HIV viral load and CD4+ cell count in 67 African American HIV-infected women. Higher critical consciousness was found to be related to higher likelihood of having CD4+ counts over 350 and lower likelihood of detectable viral load when perceived racial discrimination was high, as revealed by multiple logistic regressions that controlled for highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) adherence. Multiple linear regressions showed that at higher levels of perceived gender and racial discrimination, women endorsing high critical consciousness had a larger positive difference between nadir CD4+ (lowest pre-HAART) and current CD4+ count than women endorsing low critical consciousness. These findings suggest that raising awareness of social oppression to promote joining with others to enact social change may be an important intervention strategy to improve HIV outcomes in African American HIV-infected women who report experiencing high levels of gender and racial discrimination.

Critical Consciousness, Racial and Gender Discrimination, and HIV Disease Markers in African American Women with HIV

PubMed Central

Kelso, Gwendolyn A.; Cohen, Mardge H.; Weber, Kathleen M.; Dale, Sannisha K.; Cruise, Ruth C.; Brody, Leslie R.

2014-01-01

Critical consciousness, the awareness of social oppression, is important to investigate as a buffer against HIV disease progression in HIV-infected African American women in the context of experiences with discrimination. Critical consciousness comprises several dimensions, including social group identification, discontent with distribution of social power, rejection of social system legitimacy, and a collective action orientation. The current study investigated self-reported critical consciousness as a moderator of perceived gender and racial discrimination on HIV viral load and CD4+ cell count in 67 African American HIV-infected women. Higher critical consciousness was found to be related to higher likelihood of having CD4+ counts over 350 and lower likelihood of detectable viral load when perceived racial discrimination was high, as revealed by multiple logistic regressions that controlled for highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) adherence. Multiple linear regressions showed that at higher levels of perceived gender and racial discrimination, women endorsing high critical consciousness had a larger positive difference between nadir CD4+ (lowest pre-HAART) and current CD4+ count than women endorsing low critical consciousness. These findings suggest that raising awareness of social oppression to promote joining with others to enact social change may be an important intervention strategy to improve HIV outcomes in African American HIV-infected women who report experiencing high levels of gender and racial discrimination. PMID:24077930

Racial discrimination and the stress process.

PubMed

Ong, Anthony D; Fuller-Rowell, Thomas; Burrow, Anthony L

2009-06-01

The unique and combined effects of chronic and daily racial discrimination on psychological distress were examined in a sample of 174 African American doctoral students and graduates. Using a daily process design, 5 models of the stress process were tested. Multilevel random coefficient modeling analyses revealed that chronic exposure to racial discrimination predicted greater daily discrimination and psychological distress. Further, results show that differences in daily discrimination and negative events accounted for meaningful variation in daily distress responses. Finally, findings indicate that daily discrimination and negative events mediated the relationship between chronic discrimination and psychological distress. The study provides support for the need to measure chronic strains as distinctive from daily stressors in the lives of African Americans.

Drug use Discrimination Predicts Formation of High-Risk Social Networks: Examining Social Pathways of Discrimination.

PubMed

Crawford, Natalie D; Ford, Chandra; Rudolph, Abby; Kim, BoRin; Lewis, Crystal M

2017-09-01

Experiences of discrimination, or social marginalization and ostracism, may lead to the formation of social networks characterized by inequality. For example, those who experience discrimination may be more likely to develop drug use and sexual partnerships with others who are at increased risk for HIV compared to those without experiences of discrimination. This is critical as engaging in risk behaviors with others who are more likely to be HIV positive can increase one's risk of HIV. We used log-binomial regression models to examine the relationship between drug use, racial and incarceration discrimination with changes in the composition of one's risk network among 502 persons who use drugs. We examined both absolute and proportional changes with respect to sex partners, drug use partners, and injecting partners, after accounting for individual risk behaviors. At baseline, participants were predominately male (70%), black or Latino (91%), un-married (85%), and used crack (64%). Among those followed-up (67%), having experienced discrimination due to drug use was significantly related to increases in the absolute number of sex networks and drug networks over time. No types of discrimination were related to changes in the proportion of high-risk network members. Discrimination may increase one's risk of HIV acquisition by leading them to preferentially form risk relationships with higher-risk individuals, thereby perpetuating racial and ethnic inequities in HIV. Future social network studies and behavioral interventions should consider whether social discrimination plays a role in HIV transmission.

The association between discrimination and depressive symptoms among older African Americans: the role of psychological and social factors.

PubMed

Nadimpalli, Sarah B; James, Bryan D; Yu, Lei; Cothran, Fawn; Barnes, Lisa L

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: Several studies have demonstrated a link between perceived discrimination and depression in ethnic minority groups, yet most have focused on younger or middle-aged African Americans and little is known about factors that may moderate the relationship. Participants were 487 older African Americans (60-98 years old) enrolled in the Minority Aging Research Study. Discrimination, depressive symptoms, and psychological and social resources were assessed via interview using validated measures. Ordinal logistic regression models were used to assess (1) the main relationship between discrimination and depression and (2) resilience, purpose in life, social isolation, and social networks as potential moderators of this relationship. In models adjusted for age, sex, education, and income, perceived discrimination was positively associated with depressive symptoms (odds ratio [OR]: 1.20, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.10-1.31; p < .001). However, there was no evidence of effect modification by resilience, purpose in life, social isolation, or social networks (all ps ≤ .05). Findings provide support for accumulating evidence on the adverse mental health effects of discrimination among older African Americans. Because the association was not modified by psychological or social factors, these findings do not support a role for a buffering effect of resources on discrimination and depressive symptoms. Further studies are needed to examine a wider range of coping resources among older adults.

Large number discrimination by mosquitofish.

PubMed

Agrillo, Christian; Piffer, Laura; Bisazza, Angelo

2010-12-22

Recent studies have demonstrated that fish display rudimentary numerical abilities similar to those observed in mammals and birds. The mechanisms underlying the discrimination of small quantities (<4) were recently investigated while, to date, no study has examined the discrimination of large numerosities in fish. Subjects were trained to discriminate between two sets of small geometric figures using social reinforcement. In the first experiment mosquitofish were required to discriminate 4 from 8 objects with or without experimental control of the continuous variables that co-vary with number (area, space, density, total luminance). Results showed that fish can use the sole numerical information to compare quantities but that they preferentially use cumulative surface area as a proxy of the number when this information is available. A second experiment investigated the influence of the total number of elements to discriminate large quantities. Fish proved to be able to discriminate up to 100 vs. 200 objects, without showing any significant decrease in accuracy compared with the 4 vs. 8 discrimination. The third experiment investigated the influence of the ratio between the numerosities. Performance was found to decrease when decreasing the numerical distance. Fish were able to discriminate numbers when ratios were 1:2 or 2:3 but not when the ratio was 3:4. The performance of a sample of undergraduate students, tested non-verbally using the same sets of stimuli, largely overlapped that of fish. Fish are able to use pure numerical information when discriminating between quantities larger than 4 units. As observed in human and non-human primates, the numerical system of fish appears to have virtually no upper limit while the numerical ratio has a clear effect on performance. These similarities further reinforce the view of a common origin of non-verbal numerical systems in all vertebrates.

The role of socially prescribed perfectionism in the link between perceived racial discrimination and African American adolescents' depressive symptoms.

PubMed

Lambert, Sharon F; Robinson, W LaVome; Ialongo, Nicholas S

2014-05-01

Research examining the social origins of perfectionism has focused on negative evaluative experiences in the family, with less attention to negative social evaluations in other contexts and situations relevant for African American adolescents. The experience of racial discrimination is common for African American youth, and may trigger maladaptive perfectionistic beliefs if the youth perceive that they do not meet others' standards (socially prescribed perfectionism) or internalize discriminatory messages. Thus, the present study examined longitudinal associations among racial discrimination, socially prescribed perfectionism, and depressive symptoms among a community sample of urban and predominantly low income African American adolescents (n = 492; 46.7 % female). In each of grades 7, 8 and 9, participants reported their experiences with racial discrimination, perfectionistic beliefs, and depressive symptoms. Analyses revealed that experiences with racial discrimination in grade 7 were associated with socially prescribed perfectionism in grade 8 which, in turn, was linked with depressive symptoms in grade 9. Results suggest that prospective associations between the experience of racial discrimination and depressive symptoms are due, in part, to increased socially prescribed perfectionism. Implications for interventions targeting depression in African American are discussed.

The role of socially prescribed perfectionism in the link between perceived racial discrimination and African American adolescents’ depressive symptoms

PubMed Central

Lambert, Sharon F.; Robinson, W. LaVome; Ialongo, Nicholas S.

2013-01-01

Research examining the social origins of perfectionism has focused on negative evaluative experiences in the family, with less attention to negative social evaluations in other contexts and situations relevant for African American adolescents. The experience of racial discrimination is common for African American youth, and may trigger maladaptive perfectionistic beliefs if the youth perceive that they do not meet others’ standards (socially prescribed perfectionism) or internalize discriminatory messages. Thus, the present study examined longitudinal associations among racial discrimination, socially prescribed perfectionism, and depressive symptoms among a community sample of urban and predominantly low income African American adolescents (n = 492; 46.7% female). In each of grades 7, 8 and 9, participants reported their experiences with racial discrimination, perfectionistic beliefs, and depressive symptoms. Analyses revealed that experiences with racial discrimination in grade 7 were associated with socially prescribed perfectionism in grade 8 which, in turn, was linked with depressive symptoms in grade 9. Results suggest that prospective associations between the experience of racial discrimination and depressive symptoms are due, in part, to increased socially prescribed perfectionism. Implications for interventions targeting depression in African American are discussed. PMID:24150863

Technical efficiency of women's health prevention programs in Bucaramanga, Colombia: a four-stage analysis.

PubMed

Ruiz-Rodriguez, Myriam; Rodriguez-Villamizar, Laura A; Heredia-Pi, Ileana

2016-10-13

Primary Health Care (PHC) is an efficient strategy to improve health outcomes in populations. Nevertheless, studies of technical efficiency in health care have focused on hospitals, with very little on primary health care centers. The objective of the present study was to use the Data Envelopment Analysis to estimate the technical efficiency of three women's health promotion and disease prevention programs offered by primary care centers in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Efficiency was measured using a four-stage data envelopment analysis with a series of Tobit regressions to account for the effect of quality outcomes and context variables. Input/output information was collected from the institutions' records, chart reviews and personal interviews. Information about contextual variables was obtained from databases from the primary health program in the municipality. A jackknife analysis was used to assess the robustness of the results. The analysis was based on data from 21 public primary health care centers. The average efficiency scores, after adjusting for quality and context, were 92.4 %, 97.5 % and 86.2 % for the antenatal care (ANC), early detection of cervical cancer (EDCC) and family planning (FP) programs, respectively. On each program, 12 of the 21 (57.1 %) health centers were found to be technically efficient; having had the best-practice frontiers. Adjusting for context variables changed the scores and reference rankings of the three programs offered by the health centers. The performance of the women's health prevention programs offered by the centers was found to be heterogeneous. Adjusting for context and health care quality variables had a significant effect on the technical efficiency scores and ranking. The results can serve as a guide to strengthen management and organizational and planning processes related to local primary care services operating within a market-based model such as the one in Colombia.

Human research ethics committees in technical universities.

PubMed

Koepsell, David; Brinkman, Willem-Paul; Pont, Sylvia

2014-07-01

Human research ethics has developed in both theory and practice mostly from experiences in medical research. Human participants, however, are used in a much broader range of research than ethics committees oversee, including both basic and applied research at technical universities. Although mandated in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, non-medical research involving humans need not receive ethics review in much of Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Our survey of the top 50 technical universities in the world shows that, where not specifically mandated by law, most technical universities do not employ ethics committees to review human studies. As the domains of basic and applied sciences expand, ethics committees are increasingly needed to guide and oversee all such research regardless of legal requirements. We offer as examples, from our experience as an ethics committee in a major European technical university, ways in which such a committee provides needed services and can help ensure more ethical studies involving humans outside the standard medical context. We provide some arguments for creating such committees, and in our supplemental article, we provide specific examples of cases and concerns that may confront technical, engineering, and design research, as well as outline the general framework we have used in creating our committee. © The Author(s) 2014.

Detection of Neuron Membranes in Electron Microscopy Images Using Multi-scale Context and Radon-Like Features

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Seyedhosseini, Mojtaba; Kumar, Ritwik; Jurrus, Elizabeth R.

2011-10-01

Automated neural circuit reconstruction through electron microscopy (EM) images is a challenging problem. In this paper, we present a novel method that exploits multi-scale contextual information together with Radon-like features (RLF) to learn a series of discriminative models. The main idea is to build a framework which is capable of extracting information about cell membranes from a large contextual area of an EM image in a computationally efficient way. Toward this goal, we extract RLF that can be computed efficiently from the input image and generate a scale-space representation of the context images that are obtained at the output ofmore » each discriminative model in the series. Compared to a single-scale model, the use of a multi-scale representation of the context image gives the subsequent classifiers access to a larger contextual area in an effective way. Our strategy is general and independent of the classifier and has the potential to be used in any context based framework. We demonstrate that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms in detection of neuron membranes in EM images.« less

Evolving a Regionally-Based Mechanism for the Provision of Technical Knowledge to SMEs: Lessons for Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lean, Jonathan; Tucker, Jonathan

2005-01-01

This paper describes and evaluates a pilot project undertaken in the South West of England to develop a computer-based system for facilitating effective technical knowledge transfer to small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs). It explores the problem of technical knowledge transfer to SMEs, focusing in particular on the policy context. The…

Quantum-state comparison and discrimination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayashi, A.; Hashimoto, T.; Horibe, M.

2018-05-01

We investigate the performance of discrimination strategy in the comparison task of known quantum states. In the discrimination strategy, one infers whether or not two quantum systems are in the same state on the basis of the outcomes of separate discrimination measurements on each system. In some cases with more than two possible states, the optimal strategy in minimum-error comparison is that one should infer the two systems are in different states without any measurement, implying that the discrimination strategy performs worse than the trivial "no-measurement" strategy. We present a sufficient condition for this phenomenon to happen. For two pure states with equal prior probabilities, we determine the optimal comparison success probability with an error margin, which interpolates the minimum-error and unambiguous comparison. We find that the discrimination strategy is not optimal except for the minimum-error case.

Setting Performance Standards for Technical and Nontechnical Competence in General Surgery.

PubMed

Szasz, Peter; Bonrath, Esther M; Louridas, Marisa; Fecso, Andras B; Howe, Brett; Fehr, Adam; Ott, Michael; Mack, Lloyd A; Harris, Kenneth A; Grantcharov, Teodor P

2017-07-01

The objectives of this study were to (1) create a technical and nontechnical performance standard for the laparoscopic cholecystectomy, (2) assess the classification accuracy and (3) credibility of these standards, (4) determine a trainees' ability to meet both standards concurrently, and (5) delineate factors that predict standard acquisition. Scores on performance assessments are difficult to interpret in the absence of established standards. Trained raters observed General Surgery residents performing laparoscopic cholecystectomies using the Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skill (OSATS) and the Objective Structured Assessment of Non-Technical Skills (OSANTS) instruments, while as also providing a global competent/noncompetent decision for each performance. The global decision was used to divide the trainees into 2 contrasting groups and the OSATS or OSANTS scores were graphed per group to determine the performance standard. Parametric statistics were used to determine classification accuracy and concurrent standard acquisition, receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves were used to delineate predictive factors. Thirty-six trainees were observed 101 times. The technical standard was an OSATS of 21.04/35.00 and the nontechnical standard an OSANTS of 22.49/35.00. Applying these standards, competent/noncompetent trainees could be discriminated in 94% of technical and 95% of nontechnical performances (P < 0.001). A 21% discordance between technically and nontechnically competent trainees was identified (P < 0.001). ROC analysis demonstrated case experience and trainee level were both able to predict achieving the standards with an area under the curve (AUC) between 0.83 and 0.96 (P < 0.001). The present study presents defensible standards for technical and nontechnical performance. Such standards are imperative to implementing summative assessments into surgical training.

Enhanced discrimination between threatening and safe contexts in high-anxious individuals

PubMed Central

Glotzbach-Schoon, Evelyn; Tadda, Regina; Andreatta, Marta; Tröger, Christian; Ewald, Heike; Grillon, Christian; Pauli, Paul; Mühlberger, Andreas

2014-01-01

Trait anxiety, a stable personality trait associated with increased fear responses to threat, is regarded as a risk factor for the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Although the effect of trait anxiety has been examined with regard to explicit threat cues, little is known about the effect of trait anxiety on contextual threat learning. To assess this issue, extreme groups of low and high trait anxiety underwent a contextual fear conditioning protocol using virtual reality. Two virtual office rooms served as the conditioned contexts. One virtual office room (CXT+) was paired with unpredictable electrical stimuli. In the other virtual office room, no electrical stimuli were delivered (CXT−). High-anxious participants tended to show faster acquisition of startle potentiation in the CXT+ versus the CXT− than low-anxious participants. This enhanced contextual fear learning might function as a risk factor for anxiety disorders that are characterized by sustained anxiety. PMID:23384512

Individual differences in attention strategies during detection, fine discrimination, and coarse discrimination

PubMed Central

Hecker, Elizabeth A.; Serences, John T.; Srinivasan, Ramesh

2013-01-01

Interacting with the environment requires the ability to flexibly direct attention to relevant features. We examined the degree to which individuals attend to visual features within and across Detection, Fine Discrimination, and Coarse Discrimination tasks. Electroencephalographic (EEG) responses were measured to an unattended peripheral flickering (4 or 6 Hz) grating while individuals (n = 33) attended to orientations that were offset by 0°, 10°, 20°, 30°, 40°, and 90° from the orientation of the unattended flicker. These unattended responses may be sensitive to attentional gain at the attended spatial location, since attention to features enhances early visual responses throughout the visual field. We found no significant differences in tuning curves across the three tasks in part due to individual differences in strategies. We sought to characterize individual attention strategies using hierarchical Bayesian modeling, which grouped individuals into families of curves that reflect attention to the physical target orientation (“on-channel”) or away from the target orientation (“off-channel”) or a uniform distribution of attention. The different curves were related to behavioral performance; individuals with “on-channel” curves had lower thresholds than individuals with uniform curves. Individuals with “off-channel” curves during Fine Discrimination additionally had lower thresholds than those assigned to uniform curves, highlighting the perceptual benefits of attending away from the physical target orientation during fine discriminations. Finally, we showed that a subset of individuals with optimal curves (“on-channel”) during Detection also demonstrated optimal curves (“off-channel”) during Fine Discrimination, indicating that a subset of individuals can modulate tuning optimally for detection and discrimination. PMID:23678013

Structural Discrimination is Associated With Smoking Status Among a National Sample of Transgender Individuals.

PubMed

Shires, Deirdre A; Jaffee, Kim D

2016-06-01

Limited evidence suggests that transgender individuals smoke at significantly higher rates than the general population. We aimed to determine whether structural or everyday discrimination experiences predict smoking behavior among transgender individuals when sociodemographic, health, and gender-specific factors were controlled. Data from the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (N = 4781), a cross-sectional online and paper survey distributed to organizations serving the transgender community, were analyzed in order to determine the association between current smoking and discrimination experiences and other potential predictors. Logistic regression models were used to establish factors that predict smoking. Participants reported experiencing both structural (80.4%) and everyday (65.9%) discrimination. Multivariate analyses showed that participants who reported attending some college, graduating college, or having a graduate degree were less likely to smoke compared to those with a high school degree or less. Uninsured participants were more likely to report smoking compared to those with private insurance. Those who used alcohol or drugs for coping were also more likely to smoke. Participants whose IDs and records listed their preferred gender were less likely to smoke (OR = 0.84); those who had experienced structural discrimination were more like to report smoking (OR = 1.65). Further research is needed in order to explore the relationship between smoking and legal transition among transgender individuals. Strategies to prevent smoking and encourage cessation among this vulnerable population are also needed. In addition, comprehensive collection of gender identity data in the context of national surveys, tobacco-related research, and clinical settings is sorely needed. This study establishes a link between experiences of structural discrimination among transgender individuals and smoking status. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on

The development and validation of the Questionnaire on Anticipated Discrimination (QUAD).

PubMed

Gabbidon, Jheanell; Brohan, Elaine; Clement, Sarah; Henderson, R Claire; Thornicroft, Graham

2013-11-07

The anticipation of mental health-related discrimination is common amongst people with mental health problems and can have serious adverse effects. This study aimed to develop and validate a measure assessing the extent to which people with mental health problems anticipate that they will personally experience discrimination across a range of contexts. The items and format for the Questionnaire on Anticipated Discrimination (QUAD) were developed from previous versions of the Discrimination and Stigma Scale (DISC), focus groups and cognitive debriefing interviews which were used to further refine the content and format. The resulting provisional version of the QUAD was completed by 117 service users in an online survey and reliability, validity, precision and acceptability were assessed. A final version of the scale was agreed and analyses re-run using the online survey data and data from an independent sample to report the psychometric properties of the finalised scale. The provisional version of the QUAD had 17 items, good internal consistency (alpha = 0.86) and adequate convergent validity as supported by the significant positive correlations with the Stigma Scale (SS) (r = 0.40, p < 0.001) and the Internalised Stigma of Mental Illness Scale (ISMI) (r = 0.40, p < 0.001). Three items were removed due to low endorsements, high inter-correlation or conceptual concerns. The finalised 14 item QUAD had good internal consistency (alpha = 0.86), good test re-test reliability (ρ(c) = 0.81) and adequate convergent validity: correlations with the ISMI (r = 0.45, p < 0.001) and with the SS (r = 0.39, p < 0.001). Reading ease scores indicated good acceptability for general adult populations. Cross-replication in an independent sample further indicated good internal consistency (alpha = 0.88), adequate convergent validity and revealed two factors summarised by institutions/services and interpersonal/professional relationships. The QUAD expanded upon previous versions of the

Does Protecting Older Workers From Discrimination Make It Harder to Get Hired? Evidence From Disability Discrimination Laws.

PubMed

Neumark, David; Song, Joanne; Button, Patrick

2017-01-01

We explore the effects of disability discrimination laws on hiring of older workers. A concern with antidiscrimination laws is that they may reduce hiring by raising the cost of terminations and-in the specific case of disability discrimination laws-raising the cost of employment because of the need to accommodate disabled workers. Moreover, disability discrimination laws can affect nondisabled older workers because they are fairly likely to develop work-related disabilities, but are generally not protected by these laws. Using state variation in disability discrimination protections, we find little or no evidence that stronger disability discrimination laws lower the hiring of nondisabled older workers. We similarly find no evidence of adverse effects of disability discrimination laws on hiring of disabled older workers.

Repositioning the Facilities in Technical College Workshops for Efficiency: A Case Study of North Central Nigeria

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Umar, Ibrahim Y.; Ma'aji, Abdullahi S.

2010-01-01

This article focuses on assessing the facilities in Government Technical College workshops in the context of a developing country. A descriptive survey design was adopted. Two research questions and a hypothesis were formulated to guide the study. A 35-item questionnaire was developed based on the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE)…

Age discrimination in the workplace: validation of the Nordic Age Discrimination Scale (NADS).

PubMed

Furunes, Trude; Mykletun, Reidar J

2010-02-01

Due to population ageing, older workers will make up a larger proportion of the workforce. However, recent reports show an increase in perceived age discrimination among older employees. Previous research found that age discrimination may result in negative feelings, such as uselessness, powerlessness and lower self-esteem. This study develops and validates a scale for monitoring age discrimination in the workplace. The validation study draws on three datasets, from Norway, Sweden and Finland respectively. The study provides a psychometric contribution to the study of the behavioral component of ageism.

Enlightened Use of Passive Voice in Technical Writing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Trammell, M. K.

1981-01-01

The passive voice as a normal, acceptable, and established syntactic form in technical writing is defended. Passive/active verb ratios, taken from sources including 'antipassivist' text books, are considered. The suitability of the passive voice in technical writing which involves unknown or irrelevant agents is explored. Three 'myths' that the passive (1) utilizes an abnormal and artificial word order, (2) is lifeless, and (3) is indirect are considered. Awkward and abnormal sounding examples encountered in text books are addressed in terms of original context. Unattractive or incoherent passive sentences are explained in terms of inappropriate conversion from active sentences having (1) short nominal or pronominal subjects or (2) verbs with restrictions on their passive use.

Patient-reported racial/ethnic healthcare provider discrimination and medication intensification in the Diabetes Study of Northern California (DISTANCE).

PubMed

Lyles, Courtney R; Karter, Andrew J; Young, Bessie A; Spigner, Clarence; Grembowski, David; Schillinger, Dean; Adler, Nancy

2011-10-01

Racial/ethnic minority patients are more likely to report experiences with discrimination in the healthcare setting, potentially leading to reduced access to appropriate care; however, few studies evaluate reports of discrimination with objectively measured quality of care indicators. To evaluate whether patient-reported racial/ethnic discrimination by healthcare providers was associated with evidence of poorer quality care measured by medication intensification. Baseline data from the Diabetes Study of Northern California (DISTANCE), a random, race-stratified sample from the Kaiser Permanente Diabetes Registry from 2005-2006, including both survey and medical record data. Self-reported healthcare provider discrimination (from survey data) and medication intensification (from electronic prescription records) for poorly controlled diabetes patients (A1c ≥9.0%; systolic BP ≥140 mmHg or diastolic BP ≥90 mmHg; low-density lipoprotein (LDL) ≥130 mg/dl). Of 10,409 eligible patients, 21% had hyperglycemia, 14% had hyperlipidemia, and 32% had hypertension. Of those with hyperglycemia, 59% had their medications intensified, along with 40% with hyperlipidemia, 33% with hypertension, and 47% in poor control of any risk factor. In adjusted log-binomial GEE models, discrimination was not associated with medication intensification [RR = 0.96 (95% CI: 0.74, 1.24) for hyperglycemia, RR = 1.23 (95% CI: 0.93, 1.63) for hyperlipidemia, RR = 1.06 (95% CI: 0.69, 1.61) for hypertension, and RR = 1.08 (95% CI: 0.88, 1.33) for the composite cohort]. We found no evidence that patient-reported healthcare discrimination was associated with less medication intensification. While not associated with this technical aspect of care, discrimination could still be associated with other aspects of care (e.g., patient-centeredness, communication).

A comparison of EEOC closures involving hiring versus other prevalent discrimination issues under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

PubMed

McMahon, Brian T; Hurley, Jessica E; West, Steven L; Chan, Fong; Roessler, Richard; Rumrill, Phillip D

2008-06-01

This article describes findings from a causal comparative study of the Merit Resolution rate for allegations of Hiring discrimination that were filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) between 1992 and 2005. An allegation is the Charging Party's perception of discrimination, but a Merit Resolution is one in which the EEOC has determined that a discriminatory event did indeed occur. A Non-Merit Resolution is an allegation that is closed due to a technicality or lacks sufficient evidence to conclude that discrimination occurred. Merit favors the Charging Party; Non-Merit favors the Employer. The Merit Resolution rate of 19,527 closed Hiring allegations is compared and contrasted to that of 259,680 allegations aggregated from six other prevalent forms of discrimination including Discharge and Constructive Discharge, Reasonable Accommodation, Disability Harassment and Intimidation, and Terms and Conditions of Employment. Tests of Proportion distributed as chi-square are used to form comparisons along a variety of subcategories of Merit and Non-Merit outcomes. The overall Merit Resolution rate for Hiring is 26% compared to Non-Hiring at 20.6%. Employers are less likely to settle claims of hiring discrimination without mediation, and less likely to accept the remedies recommended by the EEOC when hiring discrimination has been determined. Hiring is not an unusual discrimination issue in that the overwhelming majority of allegations are still closed in favor of the Employer. However, it is counterintuitive that hiring has a higher merit resolution rate than other prevalent issues. This finding contradicts the assumption that hiring is an "invisible process." Considering that the EEOC makes merit determinations at a competitive rate, it is clear that hiring is sufficiently transparent.

Angular velocity discrimination

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kaiser, Mary K.

1990-01-01

Three experiments designed to investigate the ability of naive observers to discriminate rotational velocities of two simultaneously viewed objects are described. Rotations are constrained to occur about the x and y axes, resulting in linear two-dimensional image trajectories. The results indicate that observers can discriminate angular velocities with a competence near that for linear velocities. However, perceived angular rate is influenced by structural aspects of the stimuli.

29 CFR 500.9 - Discrimination prohibited.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 29 Labor 3 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Discrimination prohibited. 500.9 Section 500.9 Labor... SEASONAL AGRICULTURAL WORKER PROTECTION General Provisions § 500.9 Discrimination prohibited. (a) It is a... Secretary alleging such discrimination. ...

28 CFR 35.149 - Discrimination prohibited.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Discrimination prohibited. 35.149 Section... STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICES Program Accessibility § 35.149 Discrimination prohibited. Except as... subjected to discrimination by any public entity. ...

28 CFR 35.149 - Discrimination prohibited.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Discrimination prohibited. 35.149 Section... STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICES Program Accessibility § 35.149 Discrimination prohibited. Except as... subjected to discrimination by any public entity. ...

29 CFR 500.9 - Discrimination prohibited.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 29 Labor 3 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Discrimination prohibited. 500.9 Section 500.9 Labor... SEASONAL AGRICULTURAL WORKER PROTECTION General Provisions § 500.9 Discrimination prohibited. (a) It is a... Secretary alleging such discrimination. ...

29 CFR 500.9 - Discrimination prohibited.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 29 Labor 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Discrimination prohibited. 500.9 Section 500.9 Labor... SEASONAL AGRICULTURAL WORKER PROTECTION General Provisions § 500.9 Discrimination prohibited. (a) It is a... Secretary alleging such discrimination. ...

28 CFR 35.149 - Discrimination prohibited.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Discrimination prohibited. 35.149 Section... STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICES Program Accessibility § 35.149 Discrimination prohibited. Except as... subjected to discrimination by any public entity. ...

28 CFR 35.149 - Discrimination prohibited.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Discrimination prohibited. 35.149 Section... STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICES Program Accessibility § 35.149 Discrimination prohibited. Except as... subjected to discrimination by any public entity. ...

28 CFR 35.149 - Discrimination prohibited.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Discrimination prohibited. 35.149 Section... STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERVICES Program Accessibility § 35.149 Discrimination prohibited. Except as... subjected to discrimination by any public entity. ...

29 CFR 500.9 - Discrimination prohibited.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 29 Labor 3 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Discrimination prohibited. 500.9 Section 500.9 Labor... SEASONAL AGRICULTURAL WORKER PROTECTION General Provisions § 500.9 Discrimination prohibited. (a) It is a... Secretary alleging such discrimination. ...

29 CFR 500.9 - Discrimination prohibited.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 29 Labor 3 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Discrimination prohibited. 500.9 Section 500.9 Labor... SEASONAL AGRICULTURAL WORKER PROTECTION General Provisions § 500.9 Discrimination prohibited. (a) It is a... Secretary alleging such discrimination. ...

Perceived discrimination, psychological distress and health

PubMed Central

Todorova, Irina L.G.; Falcón, Luis; Lincoln, Alisa K.; Price, Lori Lyn

2015-01-01

Racism and discrimination can have significant implications for health, through complex biopsychosocial interactions. Latino groups, and particularly Puerto Ricans, are an understudied population in the United States in terms of the prevalence of discrimination and its relevance to health. Participants in our study were 45-75- year- old (N=1122) Puerto Ricans. The measures were perceived discrimination, depressive symptomatology, (CES-D), perceived stress (PSS), self-rated health, medical conditions, blood pressure, smoking and drinking behaviours, demographics. Our findings show that 36.9 per cent of participants had experienced discrimination, with men, those with more years of education, currently employed and with higher incomes being more likely to report it. Experiences of discrimination were associated with increased levels of depressive symptoms and perceived stress. When controlling for covariates, perceived discrimination was predictive of the number of medical conditions, of ever having smoked and having been a drinker, higher values of diastolic pressure. Depressive symptoms are a mediator of the effect of perceived discrimination on medical conditions, confirmed by the Sobel test: z=3.57, p < 0.001. Mediating roles of perceived stress, smoking and drinking behaviours were not confirmed. Increased depressive symptoms might be the main pathway through which perceived discrimination is associated with a greater number of medical diagnoses. PMID:20649891

Discrimination theory of rule-governed behavior

PubMed Central

Cerutti, Daniel T.

1989-01-01

In rule-governed behavior, previously established elementary discriminations are combined in complex instructions and thus result in complex behavior. Discriminative combining and recombining of responses produce behavior with characteristics differing from those of behavior that is established through the effects of its direct consequences. For example, responding in instructed discrimination may be occasioned by discriminative stimuli that are temporally and situationally removed from the circumstances under which the discrimination is instructed. The present account illustrates properties of rule-governed behavior with examples from research in instructional control and imitation learning. Units of instructed behavior, circumstances controlling compliance with instructions, and rule-governed problem solving are considered. PMID:16812579

Score-moment combined linear discrimination analysis (SMC-LDA) as an improved discrimination method.

PubMed

Han, Jintae; Chung, Hoeil; Han, Sung-Hwan; Yoon, Moon-Young

2007-01-01

A new discrimination method called the score-moment combined linear discrimination analysis (SMC-LDA) has been developed and its performance has been evaluated using three practical spectroscopic datasets. The key concept of SMC-LDA was to use not only the score from principal component analysis (PCA), but also the moment of the spectrum, as inputs for LDA to improve discrimination. Along with conventional score, moment is used in spectroscopic fields as an effective alternative for spectral feature representation. Three different approaches were considered. Initially, the score generated from PCA was projected onto a two-dimensional feature space by maximizing Fisher's criterion function (conventional PCA-LDA). Next, the same procedure was performed using only moment. Finally, both score and moment were utilized simultaneously for LDA. To evaluate discrimination performances, three different spectroscopic datasets were employed: (1) infrared (IR) spectra of normal and malignant stomach tissue, (2) near-infrared (NIR) spectra of diesel and light gas oil (LGO) and (3) Raman spectra of Chinese and Korean ginseng. For each case, the best discrimination results were achieved when both score and moment were used for LDA (SMC-LDA). Since the spectral representation character of moment was different from that of score, inclusion of both score and moment for LDA provided more diversified and descriptive information.

29 CFR 32.26 - Discrimination prohibited.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 29 Labor 1 2014-07-01 2013-07-01 true Discrimination prohibited. 32.26 Section 32.26 Labor Office... RECEIVING FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE Accessibility § 32.26 Discrimination prohibited. No qualified... discrimination under any program or activity to which this part applies. ...

29 CFR 32.26 - Discrimination prohibited.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 29 Labor 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Discrimination prohibited. 32.26 Section 32.26 Labor Office... RECEIVING FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE Accessibility § 32.26 Discrimination prohibited. No qualified... discrimination under any program or activity to which this part applies. ...