The Transformative Power of Authentic Conversations About Cancer.

PubMed

Dozier, David M; Beach, Wayne A; Gutzmer, Kyle; Yagade, Aileen

2017-11-01

Entertainment-education (E-E) assumes that actors performing content should be ethnically and culturally homogeneous with targeted audiences. The present study challenges this basic E-E assumption. Findings are presented from audience members who viewed When Cancer Calls… This theatrical production was constructed from verbatim transcriptions of naturally occurring telephone conversations between White family members as they communicated about and through their cancer journey. Non-White audience members were significantly more likely than White audience members to (a) regard the performance as authentic, (b) find it would influence "people like me," and (c) recommend the production to others. These findings suggest that all people must rely on communication when facing health challenges together. Such interactions that are fundamental to family membership are thus primal for the human social condition, regardless of differences in race and ethnicity. These findings also suggest innovative approaches to E-E health interventions that may contradict traditional market segmentation theories based on cultural differences and the principle of homophily.

Using vignettes to rethink Latino-white disparities in self-rated health

PubMed Central

Bzostek, Sharon; Sastry, Narayan; Goldman, Noreen; Pebley, Anne; Duffy, Denise

2016-01-01

Researchers often rely on respondents’ self-rated health (SRH) to measure social disparities in health, but recent studies suggest that systematically different reporting styles across groups can yield misleading conclusions about disparities in SRH. In this study, we test whether this finding extends to ethnic differences in self-assessments of health in particular domains. We document differences between US-born whites and four Latino subgroups in respondents’ assessments of health in six health domains using data from the second wave of the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Study (N=1468). We use both conventional methods and an approach that uses vignettes to adjust for differential reporting styles. Our results suggest that despite consistent evidence from the literature that Latinos tend to rate their overall health more poorly than whites, and that Latino immigrants report worse SRH than US-born Latinos, this pattern is not true of self-reports in individual health domains. We find that at the bivariate level, US-born whites (and often US-born Mexicans) have significantly more pessimistic reporting styles than Latino immigrants. After adding controls, we find evidence of significantly different reporting styles for only one domain: US-born Mexicans and whites consistently interpret head pain more severely than the other Latino subgroups. Finally, we find that both before and after adjusting for differences in rating styles across groups, non-Mexican Latino immigrants report better social and physical functioning and less pain than other groups. Our findings underscore the advantages of domain-specific ratings when evaluating ethnic differences in self-assessments of health. We encourage researchers studying social disparities in health to consider respondents’ self-assessments in a variety of domains, and to also investigate (when possible) potential biases in their findings due to different reporting styles. The anchoring vignettes approach we use is one potential method for overcoming biases due to different rating styles across groups. PMID:26706402

The interplay between gender, race and weight status: self perceptions and social consequences.

PubMed

Fletcher, Jason M

2014-07-01

This paper uses data from nearly 15,000 young adult respondents to the Add Health survey to examine racial and gender differences in the perceptions and social rewards to weight. The data include information on several typically unmeasured domains: self-perceptions of ideal weight, attractiveness ratings, and measured weight information, along with ties to a series of adult outcomes. Results show important gender and racial differences in ideal weight as well as differences for both self-perceived attractiveness and interviewer rated attractiveness. Findings also suggest the existence of large differences in socio-cultural rewards and sanctions for weight status. Black respondents, particularly women, appear to receive lower "obesity penalties" in both their self-perceived and interviewer accessed attractiveness ratings than other groups. These findings suggest the need to consider new classes of policies directed at shifting relative social benefits and consequences to weight status. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The ability of a sustained within-session finding of pain reduction during traction to dictate improved outcomes from a manual therapy approach on patients with osteoarthritis of the hip.

PubMed

Wright, Alexis A; Abbott, J Haxby; Baxter, Dave; Cook, Chad

2010-09-01

THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS STUDY WERE TO: (1) determine the association of a within-session finding after traction of the hip with self-report of well-being, pain, and self-report of function at 9 weeks; and (2) to determine if the interactions between the within-session finding and the outcome measure are different between groups of patients with hip OA who receive and who do not receive manual therapy. Data were retrospectively analysed in 70 subjects who were part of a randomized control trial. Correlation analyses of within-session findings from the initial visit after traction of a concordantly painful hip were compared to self-report measures for function, pain, and well-being at 9 weeks. A comparison of slope coefficients between manual therapy and non-manual therapy groups was performed to determine the interactive aspects of the within-session finding. Although the correlations for the manual therapy group were higher than for the supervised neglect group, none of the correlational analyses for both groups was strong or significant. Significant differences in the slope coefficients for well-being and pain were found, suggesting that the interactions between the within-session findings and the targeted outcomes were different in the manual therapy group versus supervised neglect group. These findings suggest that within-session findings during the initial evaluation are not strongly related to a positive outcome after manual therapy, although the interaction of the finding of a within-session change and the use of manual therapy is more compelling than the finding in a sample of patients who did not receive manual therapy.

Same-sex cohabiting elders versus different-sex cohabiting and married elders: effects of relationship status and sex of partner on economic and health outcomes.

PubMed

Baumle, Amanda K

2014-01-01

In this article, I use pooled data from the 2008-2010 American Community Surveys to examine outcomes for different-sex married, different-sex cohabiting, and same-sex cohabiting elders across several key economic and health indicators, as well as other demographic characteristics. The findings suggest that elders in same-sex cohabiting partnerships differ from those in different-sex marriages and different-sex cohabiting relationships in terms of both financial and health outcomes, and that women in same-sex cohabiting partnerships fare worse than men or women in other couple types. The results indicate that financial implications related to the sex of one's partner might be more predictive of economic and health outcomes in old age, rather than solely access to legal marriage. Nonetheless, findings suggest that individuals in same-sex cohabiting partnerships might experience worse outcomes in old age as a result of cumulative effects across the life course from both the sex of their partner (in the case of female couples) as well as their lack of access to benefits associated with marriage. Accordingly, these findings demonstrate that persons in same-sex cohabiting partnerships require unique policy considerations to address health and economic concerns in old age. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sex Differences in Vestibular/Ocular and Neurocognitive Outcomes After Sport-Related Concussion.

PubMed

Sufrinko, Alicia M; Mucha, Anne; Covassin, Tracey; Marchetti, Greg; Elbin, R J; Collins, Michael W; Kontos, Anthony P

2017-03-01

To examine sex differences in vestibular and oculomotor symptoms and impairment in athletes with sport-related concussion (SRC). The secondary purpose was to replicate previously reported sex differences in total concussion symptoms, and performance on neurocognitive and balance testing. Prospective cross-sectional study of consecutively enrolled clinic patients within 21 days of a SRC. Specialty Concussion Clinic. Included male (n = 36) and female (n = 28) athletes ages 9 to 18 years. Vestibular symptoms and impairment was measured with the Vestibular/Ocular Motor Screening (VOMS). Participants completed the Immediate Post-concussion Assessment and Cognitive Test (ImPACT), Post-concussion Symptom Scale (PCSS), and Balance Error Scoring System (BESS). Sex differences on clinical measures. Females had higher PCSS scores (P = 0.01) and greater VOMS vestibular ocular reflex (VOR) score (P = 0.01) compared with males. There were no sex differences on BESS or ImPACT. Total PCSS scores together with female sex accounted for 45% of the variance in VOR scores. Findings suggest higher VOR scores after SRC in female compared with male athletes. Findings did not extend to other components of the VOMS tool suggesting that sex differences may be specific to certain types of vestibular impairment after SRC. Additional research on the clinical significance of the current findings is needed.

Materialism and life satisfaction: the role of religion.

PubMed

Rakrachakarn, Varapa; Moschis, George P; Ong, Fon Sim; Shannon, Randall

2015-04-01

This study examines the role of religion and religiosity in the relationship between materialism and life satisfaction. The findings suggests that religion may be a key factor in understanding differences in findings of previous studies regarding the inverserelationship found in the vast majority of previous studies. Based on a large-scale study in Malaysia—a country comprised of several religious subcultures (mainly Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus), the findings suggest that the influence of religiosity on materialism and life satisfaction is stronger among Malays than among Chinese and Indians, and life satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between religiosity and materialism. The paper discusses implications for theory development and further research.

Fact or factitious? A psychobiological study of authentic and simulated dissociative identity states.

PubMed

Reinders, A A T S; Reinders, A A T Simone; Willemsen, Antoon T M; Vos, Herry P J; den Boer, Johan A; Nijenhuis, Ellert R S

2012-01-01

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a disputed psychiatric disorder. Research findings and clinical observations suggest that DID involves an authentic mental disorder related to factors such as traumatization and disrupted attachment. A competing view indicates that DID is due to fantasy proneness, suggestibility, suggestion, and role-playing. Here we examine whether dissociative identity state-dependent psychobiological features in DID can be induced in high or low fantasy prone individuals by instructed and motivated role-playing, and suggestion. DID patients, high fantasy prone and low fantasy prone controls were studied in two different types of identity states (neutral and trauma-related) in an autobiographical memory script-driven (neutral or trauma-related) imagery paradigm. The controls were instructed to enact the two DID identity states. Twenty-nine subjects participated in the study: 11 patients with DID, 10 high fantasy prone DID simulating controls, and 8 low fantasy prone DID simulating controls. Autonomic and subjective reactions were obtained. Differences in psychophysiological and neural activation patterns were found between the DID patients and both high and low fantasy prone controls. That is, the identity states in DID were not convincingly enacted by DID simulating controls. Thus, important differences regarding regional cerebral bloodflow and psychophysiological responses for different types of identity states in patients with DID were upheld after controlling for DID simulation. The findings are at odds with the idea that differences among different types of dissociative identity states in DID can be explained by high fantasy proneness, motivated role-enactment, and suggestion. They indicate that DID does not have a sociocultural (e.g., iatrogenic) origin.

Gender Differences among Contributing Leadership Development Resources

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Michael D.

2012-01-01

Gender differences among contributing student leadership development resources were examined within the context of theory-based perspectives of leadership-related attributes. The findings suggest that students' increased engagement with institutional constituencies cultivates an environment conducive to students' cognitive development toward…

Frequency of verb use in young children who stutter.

PubMed

Wagovich, Stacy A; Bernstein Ratner, Nan

2007-01-01

Several recent studies have suggested that young children who stutter (CWS) tend to show depressed lexical performance relative to peers. Given the developmental literature as well as several studies of verb processing in individuals who stutter, verbs may pose a particular challenge for this group. The purpose of the present study was to examine verb use in CWS. In theory, if young CWS differ in their production of verbs, this finding would partially explain the findings of studies that probed conversational vocabulary skills more generally. Fifteen CWS and 15 children who do not stutter (CWNS) participated in a play-based conversational sample with a parent. Samples were analyzed for the total number of verbs, the number of different verbs, and the proportion of general all-purpose (GAP) verbs within the samples. CWS produced significantly fewer different verbs and total verbs than the CWNS. However, previously reported near-significant differences in utterance length between groups would appear to temper the robustness of this finding. The groups did not differ in the proportion of GAP verbs used, suggesting that the CWS did not over-rely on GAP verbs in conversational language production but rather used these verbs to the same extent as their peers. As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to: (1) relate the purpose and rationale for examining verb use in children who stutter (CWS); (2) summarize the procedures used to assess verb use and GAP verb use in the present study; (3) explain the findings of the present study; (4) relate findings to the extant literature on lexical diversity in CWS.

Intelligence and Complexity of the Averaged Evoked Potential: An Attentional Theory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bates, Tim; And Others

1995-01-01

A study measuring average evoked potentials in 21 college students finds that intelligence test scores correlate significantly with the difference between string length in attended and nonattended conditions, a finding that suggests that previous inconsistencies in reporting string length-intelligence correlations may have resulted from confound…

Somatic and social: Chinese Americans talk about emotion.

PubMed

Tsai, Jeanne L; Simeonova, Diana I; Watanabe, Jamie T

2004-09-01

Empirical findings suggest that Chinese and Americans differ in the ways that they describe emotional experience, with Chinese using more somatic and social words than Americans. No one, however, has investigated whether this variation is related to differences between Chinese and American conceptions of emotion or to linguistic differences between the English and Chinese languages. Therefore, in two studies, the authors compared the word use of individuals who varied in their orientation to Chinese and American cultures (European Americans [EA], more acculturated Chinese Americans [CA], and less acculturated CA) when they were speaking English during emotional events. Across both studies, less acculturated CA used more somatic (e.g., dizzy) and more social (e.g., friend) words than EA. These findings suggest that even when controlling for language spoken, cultural conceptions of emotion may shape how people talk about emotion.

An Alternative to Ability Grouping

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomlinson, Carol Ann

2006-01-01

Ability grouping is a common approach to dealing with student variance in learning. In general, findings suggest that such an approach to dealing with student differences is disadvantageous to students who struggle in school and advantageous to advanced learners. The concept of differentiation suggests that there is another alternative to…

Gender Differences in Online High School Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowes, Susan; Lin, Peiyi; Kinghorn, Brian R. C.

2016-01-01

Prior research has suggested that there may be differences in the ways that male and female students approach their online courses. Using data for 802 high school students enrolled in 14 online courses, this study explored gender differences in the interrelationships among online behaviors and course performance. The findings show that females…

Perspectives about family meals from single-headed and dual-headed households: a qualitative analysis.

PubMed

Berge, Jerica M; Hoppmann, Caroline; Hanson, Carrie; Neumark-Sztainer, Dianne

2013-12-01

Cross-sectional and longitudinal research has shown that family meals are protective for adolescent healthful eating behaviors. However, little is known about what parents think of these findings and whether parents from single- vs dual-headed households have differing perspectives about the findings. In addition, parents' perspectives regarding barriers to applying the findings on family meals in their own homes and suggestions for more widespread adoption of the findings are unknown. The current study aimed to identify single- and dual-headed household parents' perspectives regarding the research findings on family meals, barriers to applying the findings in their own homes, and suggestions for helping families have more family meals. The current qualitative study included 59 parents who participated in substudy of two linked multilevel studies-EAT 2010 (Eating and Activity in Teens) and Families and Eating and Activity in Teens (F-EAT). Parents (91.5% female) were racially/ethnically and socioeconomically diverse. Data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Results from the current study suggest that parents from both single- and dual-headed households have similar perspectives regarding why family meals are protective for healthful eating habits for adolescents (eg, provides structure/routine, opportunities for communication, connection), but provide similar and different reasons for barriers to family meals (eg, single-headed=cost vs dual-headed=lack of creativity) and ideas and suggestions for how to increase the frequency of family meals (eg, single-headed=give fewer options vs dual-headed=include children in the meal preparation). Findings can help inform public health intervention researchers and providers who work with adolescents and their families to understand how to approach discussions regarding reasons for having family meals, barriers to carrying out family meals, and ways to increase family meals depending on family structure. Copyright © 2013 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Perspectives about Family Meals from Single-Headed and Dual-Headed Households: A Qualitative Analysis

PubMed Central

Berge, Jerica M.; Hoppmann, Caroline; Hanson, Carrie; Neumark-Sztainer, Dianne

2013-01-01

Cross-sectional and longitudinal research has shown that family meals are protective for adolescent healthful eating behaviors. However, little is known about what parents think of these findings and whether parents from single- versus dual-headed households have differing perspectives about the findings. Additionally, parents’ perspectives regarding barriers to applying the findings on family meals in their own homes and suggestions for more wide-spread adoption of the findings are unknown. The current study aimed to identify single- and dual-headed household parents’ perspectives regarding the research findings on family meals, barriers to applying the findings in their own homes and suggestions for helping families have more family meals. The current qualitative study included 59 parents who participated in sub-study of two linked multi-level studies—EAT 2010 (Eating and Activity in Teens) and Families and Eating and Activity in Teens (F-EAT). Parents (91.5% female) were racially/ethnically and socio-economically diverse. Data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Results from the current study suggest that parents from both single- and dual-headed households have similar perspectives regarding why family meals are protective for healthful eating habits for adolescents (e.g., provides structure/routine, opportunities for communication, connection), but provide similar and different reasons for barriers to family meals (e.g., single-headed=cost vs. dual-headed=lack of creativity) and ideas and suggestions for how to increase the frequency of family meals (e.g., single-headed=give fewer options vs. dual-headed=include children in the meal preparation). Findings may help inform public health intervention researchers and providers who work with adolescents and their families to understand how to approach discussions regarding reasons for having family meals, barriers to carrying out family meals and ways to increase family meals depending on family structure. PMID:24238144

Consumer Health Information and the Demand for Physician Visits.

PubMed

Schmid, Christian

2015-12-01

The present study empirically investigates the effect of consumer health information on the demand for physician visits. Using a direct information measure based on questions from the Swiss Health Survey, we estimate a Poisson hurdle model for office visits. We find that information has a negative effect on health care utilization, contradicting previous findings in the literature. We consider differences in the used information measures to be the most likely explanation for the different findings. However, our results suggest that increasing consumer health information has the potential to reduce health care expenditures. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Classroom management of situated group learning: A research study of two teaching strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smeh, Kathy; Fawns, Rod

2000-06-01

Although peer-based work is encouraged by theories in developmental psychology and although classroom interventions suggest it is effective, there are grounds for recognising that young pupils find collaborative learning hard to sustain. Discontinuities in collaborative skill during development have been suggested as one interpretation. Theory and research have neglected situational continuities that the teacher may provide in management of formal and informal collaborations. This experimental study, with the collaboration of the science faculty in one urban secondary college, investigated the effect of two role attribution strategies on communication in peer groups of different gender composition in three parallel Year 8 science classes. The group were set a problem that required them to design an experiment to compare the thermal insulating properties of two different materials. This presents the data collected and key findings, and reviews the findings from previous parallel studies that have employed the same research design in different school settings. The results confirm the effectiveness of social role attribution strategies in teacher management of communication in peer-based work.

Understanding and Addressing the Achievement Gap through Individualized Instruction and Formative Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yeh, Stuart S.

2010-01-01

This article synthesizes findings regarding the development of competence and learned helplessness and factors influencing persistence and intrinsic motivation, suggests the process through which small differences in early achievement are magnified by the current structure of schools, and reviews evidence suggesting that the characteristics of a…

The different neighbours around Type-1 and Type-2 active galactic nuclei

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Villarroel, Beatriz; Korn, Andreas J.

2014-06-01

One of the most intriguing open issues in galaxy evolution is the structure and evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGN) that emit intense light believed to come from an accretion disk near a super massive black hole. To understand the zoo of different AGN classes, it has been suggested that all AGN are the same type of object viewed from different angles. This model--called AGN unification--has been successful in predicting, for example, the existence of hidden broad optical lines in the spectrum of many narrow-line AGN. But this model is not unchallenged and it is debatable whether more than viewing angle separates the so-called Type-1 and Type-2 AGN. Here we report the first large-scale study that finds strong differences in the galaxy neighbours to Type-1 and Type-2 AGN with data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS; ref. ) Data Release 7 (DR7; ref. ) and Galaxy Zoo. We find strong differences in the colour and AGN activity of the neighbours to Type-1 and Type-2 AGN and in how the fraction of AGN residing in spiral hosts changes depending on the presence or not of a neighbour. These findings suggest that an evolutionary link between the two major AGN types might exist.

Temperature-dependent reproductive development of Lygus hesperus (Hemiptera: Miridae)

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Recent studies to elucidate relationships between the western tarnished plant bug, L. hesperus Knight, and injury to cotton (Gossypium spp.) have identified important differences in feeding behaviors among adults of different gender and reproductive states. These findings suggest a need for improved...

Lower limb motor restlessness in Asperger's disorder, measured using actometry.

PubMed

Tuisku, Katinka; Tani, Pekka; Nieminen-von Wendt, Taina; von Wendt, Lennart; Holi, Matti Mikael; Porkka-Heiskanen, Tarja; Lauerma, Hannu; Lindberg, Nina; Appelberg, Björn; Wahlbeck, Kristian

2004-08-30

The movement disturbances and brain imaging findings in Asperger's disorder (AD) suggest a dopaminergic deficit in movement regulation. Movement disorders of different etiologies have been quantified and specified with actometry. We compared 10 AD patients with 10 healthy controls, measuring their rest-activities by actometry. The lower limb motor activity was significantly higher in the AD group. They also displayed a rhythmic, periodic movement pattern similar to akathisia. These findings suggest a hypothesis of idiopathic akathisia and a special sensitivity to adverse effects of neuroleptic drugs.

Sex Differences in Social Behavior: Are the Social Role and Evolutionary Explanations Compatible?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Archer, John

1996-01-01

Examines competing claims of two explanations of sex differences in social behavior, social role theory, and evolutionary psychology. Findings associated with social role theory are weighed against evolutionary explanations. It is suggested that evolutionary theory better accounts for the overall pattern of sex differences and for their origins.…

Estrogen receptor status of breast cancer in Ontario

PubMed Central

McKeown-Eyssen, Gail E.; Rogers-Melamed, Iris; Clarke, E. Aileen

1985-01-01

Data from a number of studies of breast cancer have suggested that after the ages associated with the menopause the rates of estrogen-receptor-positive tumours increase with age, whereas the rates of estrogen-receptor-negative tumours do not. Previous investigators studied cases in specific treatment centres, so there was a possibility that the findings were influenced by differences in patterns of case referral by age. A review of all the cases of breast cancer diagnosed in Ontario women in 1981 and assayed for estrogen receptors, however, confirmed the earlier findings. The results showed that the incidence of estrogen-receptor-positive and estrogen-receptor-negative tumours increased at about the same rate before age 45, but thereafter an increase in incidence was seen only for estrogen-receptor-positive tumours. These differences in patterns of incidence suggest the possibility that the two types of tumour may have different etiologic factors. PMID:4063915

The cost of parallel consolidation into visual working memory.

PubMed

Rideaux, Reuben; Edwards, Mark

2016-01-01

A growing body of evidence indicates that information can be consolidated into visual working memory in parallel. Initially, it was suggested that color information could be consolidated in parallel while orientation was strictly limited to serial consolidation (Liu & Becker, 2013). However, we recently found evidence suggesting that both orientation and motion direction items can be consolidated in parallel, with different levels of accuracy (Rideaux, Apthorp, & Edwards, 2015). Here we examine whether there is a cost associated with parallel consolidation of orientation and direction information by comparing performance, in terms of precision and guess rate, on a target recall task where items are presented either sequentially or simultaneously. The results compellingly indicate that motion direction can be consolidated in parallel, but the evidence for orientation is less conclusive. Further, we find that there is a twofold cost associated with parallel consolidation of direction: Both the probability of failing to consolidate one (or both) item/s increases and the precision at which representations are encoded is reduced. Additionally, we find evidence indicating that the increased consolidation failure may be due to interference between items presented simultaneously, and is moderated by item similarity. These findings suggest that a biased competition model may explain differences in parallel consolidation between features.

Differences in paper-and-pencil versus computerized line bisection according to ADHD subtype and hand-use.

PubMed

Rolfe, Mei Hsin Suzanne; Hamm, Jeff P; Waldie, Karen E

2008-03-01

Two versions of the line bisection task, paper-and-pencil and computerized, were administered to non-medicated children (5-12 years) with and without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Fifteen children were classified with ADHD-Inattentive type (ADHD-I), 15 were classified with ADHD-Combined or Hyperactive-Impulsive type (ADHD-C), and 15 children served as controls. During the paper-and-pencil task, and irrespective of hand-use, participants with ADHD-C bisected lines with a right bias, whereas participants with ADHD-I showed a leftwards bias. Interestingly, during the computerized version, an opposite pattern of hemineglect was observed with a leftwards bias for participants with ADHD-C and a rightwards bias for participants with ADHD-I. These findings suggest that different task demands are associated with the paper-and-pencil and computerized tasks. The findings also suggest that the two subtypes differ according to their cognitive profile, and possibly differ as to their underlying neural impairment.

The role of education in explaining racial/ethnic allostatic load differentials in the United States.

PubMed

Howard, Jeffrey T; Sparks, P Johnelle

2015-01-01

This study expands on earlier findings of racial/ethnic and education-allostatic load associations by assessing whether racial/ethnic differences in allostatic load persist across all levels of educational attainment. This study used data from four recent waves of the National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES). Results from this study suggest that allostatic load differs significantly by race/ethnicity and educational attainment overall, but that the race/ethnicity association is not consistent across education level. Analysis of interactions and education-stratified models suggest that allostatic load levels do not differ by race/ethnicity for individuals with low education; rather, the largest allostatic load differentials for Mexican Americans (p < .01) and non-Hispanic blacks (p < .001) are observed for individuals with a college degree or more. These findings add to the growing evidence that differences in socioeconomic opportunities by race/ethnicity are likely a consequence of differential returns to education, which contribute to higher stress burdens among minorities compared to non-Hispanic whites.

Marketing ambulatory care to women: a segmentation approach.

PubMed

Harrell, G D; Fors, M F

1985-01-01

Although significant changes are occurring in health care delivery, in many instances the new offerings are not based on a clear understanding of market segments being served. This exploratory study suggests that important differences may exist among women with regard to health care selection. Five major women's segments are identified for consideration by health care executives in developing marketing strategies. Additional research is suggested to confirm this segmentation hypothesis, validate segmental differences and quantify the findings.

Sex, Gender, and Pain: A Review of Recent Clinical and Experimental Findings

PubMed Central

Fillingim, Roger B.; King, Christopher D.; Ribeiro-Dasilva, Margarete C.; Rahim-Williams, Bridgett; Riley, Joseph L.

2009-01-01

Sex-related influences on pain and analgesia have become a topic of tremendous scientific and clinical interest, especially in the last 10 to 15 years. Members of our research group published reviews of this literature more than a decade ago, and the intervening time period has witnessed robust growth in research regarding sex, gender, and pain. Therefore, it seems timely to revisit this literature. Abundant evidence from recent epidemiologic studies clearly demonstrates that women are at substantially greater risk for many clinical pain conditions, and there is some suggestion that postoperative and procedural pain may be more severe among women than men. Consistent with our previous reviews, current human findings regarding sex differences in experimental pain indicate greater pain sensitivity among females compared with males for most pain modalities, including more recently implemented clinically relevant pain models such as temporal summation of pain and intramuscular injection of algesic substances. The evidence regarding sex differences in laboratory measures of endogenous pain modulation is mixed, as are findings from studies using functional brain imaging to ascertain sex differences in pain-related cerebral activation. Also inconsistent are findings regarding sex differences in responses to pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic pain treatments. The article concludes with a discussion of potential biopsychosocial mechanisms that may underlie sex differences in pain, and considerations for future research are discussed. Perspective This article reviews the recent literature regarding sex, gender, and pain. The growing body of evidence that has accumulated in the past 10 to 15 years continues to indicate substantial sex differences in clinical and experimental pain responses, and some evidence suggests that pain treatment responses may differ for women versus men. PMID:19411059

Child Care and Cortisol across Early Childhood: Context Matters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berry, Daniel; Blair, Clancy; Ursache, Alexandra; Wiloughy, Michael; Garrett-Peters, Patricia; Veron-Feagans, Lynne; Bratsch-Hines, Mary; Mills-Koonce, W. Roger; Granger, Douglas A.

2014-01-01

A considerable body of literature suggests that children's child-care experiences may impact adrenocortical functioning in early childhood. Yet emerging findings also suggest that the magnitude and sometimes the direction of child-care effects on development may be markedly different for children from higher risk contexts. Using data from a large…

Object permanence and method of disappearance: looking measures further contradict reaching measures.

PubMed

Charles, Eric P; Rivera, Susan M

2009-11-01

Piaget proposed that understanding permanency, understanding occlusion events, and forming mental representations were synonymous; however, accumulating evidence indicates that those concepts are not unified in development. Infants reach for endarkened objects at younger ages than for occluded objects, and infants' looking patterns suggest that they expect occluded objects to reappear at younger ages than they reach for them. We reaffirm the latter finding in 5- to 6-month-olds and find similar responses to faded objects, but we fail to find that pattern in response to endarkened objects. This suggests that looking behavior and reaching behavior are both sensitive to method of disappearance, but with opposite effects. Current cognition-oriented (i.e. representation-oriented) explanations of looking behavior cannot easily accommodate these results; neither can perceptual-preference explanations, nor the traditional ecological reinterpretations of object permanence. A revised ecological hypothesis, invoking affordance learning, suggests how these differences could arise developmentally.

Reward Devaluation: Dot-Probe Meta-Analytic Evidence of Avoidance of Positive Information in Depressed Persons

PubMed Central

Winer, E. Samuel; Salem, Taban

2015-01-01

Cognitive theories of depression and anxiety have traditionally emphasized the role of attentional biases in the processing of negative information. The dot-probe task has been widely used to study this phenomenon. Recent findings suggest that biased processing of positive information might also be an important aspect of developing psychopathological symptoms. However, despite some evidence suggesting persons with symptoms of depression and anxiety may avoid positive information, many dot-probe studies have produced null findings. The present review used conventional and novel meta-analytic methods to evaluate dot-probe attentional biases away from positive information and, for comparison, toward negative information, in depressed and anxious individuals. Results indicated that avoidance of positive information is a real effect exhibiting substantial evidential value among persons experiencing psychopathology, with individuals evidencing primary symptoms of depression clearly demonstrating this effect. Different theoretical explanations for these findings are evaluated, including those positing threat-processing structures, even-handedness, self-regulation, and reward devaluation, with the novel theory of reward devaluation emphasized and expanded. These novel findings and theory suggest that avoidance of prospective reward helps to explain the cause and sustainability of depressed states. Suggestions for future research and methodological advances are discussed. PMID:26619211

National Survey Reveals Gaps in the Public's and Parents' Knowledge about Early Childhood Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lally, J. Ronald; Lerner, Claire; Lurie-Hurvitz, Erica

2001-01-01

This article summarizes findings of "What Grown-ups Understand about Child Development," a national survey to gauge America's knowledge about child development. The findings suggest a need for more and better information on topics such as expectations of young children at different ages, theories on spanking and spoiling, and choices of…

Analysis of papillary renal adenocarcinoma.

PubMed

Mydlo, J H; Bard, R H

1987-12-01

A retrospective review was conducted comparing the angiographic findings, tumor volumes, staging, and survival of patients with papillary renal adenocarcinoma as compared with the more common clear and granular cell renal adenocarcinoma. The data suggest that the papillary histopathologic organization confers an improved prognosis, which concurs with previous findings. We speculate on why this tumor behaves differently from clear cell carcinoma.

The Social Distribution of Explanations of Health and Illness among Adolescents in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Moura, Sergio Luiz; Harpham, Trudy; Lyons, Michal

2003-01-01

Investigates explanations of health and illness among adolescents from three socio-economic backgrounds in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The findings showed that adolescents from different socio-economic conditions draw upon similar explanatory models to make sense of health and illness. The findings suggest a need for health professionals to be sensitive to…

The Oft-Neglected Role of Parietal EEG Asymmetry and Risk for Major Depressive Disorder

PubMed Central

Stewart, Jennifer L.; Towers, David N.; Coan, James A.; Allen, John J.B.

2010-01-01

Relatively less right parietal activity may reflect reduced arousal and signify risk for major depressive disorder (MDD). Inconsistent findings with parietal electroencephalographic (EEG) asymmetry, however, suggest issues such as anxiety comorbidity and sex differences have yet to be resolved. Resting parietal EEG asymmetry was assessed in 306 individuals (31% male) with (n = 143) and without (n = 163) a DSM-IV diagnosis of lifetime MDD and no comorbid anxiety disorders. Past MDD+ women displayed relatively less right parietal activity than current MDD+ and MDD- women, replicating prior work. Recent caffeine intake, an index of arousal, moderated the relationship between depression and EEG asymmetry for women and men. Findings suggest that sex differences and arousal should be examined in studies of depression and regional brain activity. PMID:20525011

Relations among symptoms of social phobia subtypes, avoidant personality disorder, panic, and depression.

PubMed

Carter, Shawn A; Wu, Kevin D

2010-03-01

This study's primary goal was to examine relations between symptoms of specific social phobia (SSP), generalized social phobia (GSP), avoidant personality disorder (APD), and panic and depression. Past research has suggested a single social phobia continuum in which SSP displays less symptom severity than GSP or APD. We found SSP symptoms correlated less strongly with depression but more strongly with panic relative to both GSP and APD symptoms. These findings challenge a unidimensional model of social phobia, suggesting a multidimensional model may be more appropriate. These findings also inform current research aimed at classifying mood and anxiety disorders more broadly by identifying that the different factors of fear versus distress appear to underlie different subtypes of social phobia. 2008. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Children’s exposures to water and sand at the beach: Findings from studies of over 80,000 subjects at 13 beaches

EPA Science Inventory

Swimming and recreating in lakes, oceans, and rivers is common among adults and children; some studies have suggested that children may be at greater risk of illness following such exposures. Such differences might be due to differences in immunity or differing behavioral factors...

Adolescents' Goal Orientations and Academic Achievement: Long-Term Relations and Gender Differences.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giota, Joanna

2002-01-01

Studied the predictability of 8 different types of goal orientations as motives for academic achievement in a sample of 7,391 13-year-old students. Findings suggest that students at this age already pursue a variety of academic and nonacademic goals and that different types of goal orientations are differentially related to achievement. (SLD)

Do experts and novices direct attention differently in examining physics diagrams? A study of change detection using the flicker technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morphew, Jason W.; Mestre, Jose P.; Ross, Brian H.; Strand, Natalie E.

2015-12-01

It is known that experts identify or perceive meaningful patterns in visual stimuli related to their domain of expertise. This study explores the speed with which experts and novices detect changes in physics diagrams. Since change detection depends on where individuals direct their attention, differences in the speed with which experts and novices detect changes to diagrams would suggest differences in attention allocation between experts and novices. We present data from an experiment using the "flicker technique," in which both physics experts and physics novices viewed nearly identical pairs of diagrams that are representative of typical introductory physics situations. The two diagrams in each pair contain a subtle difference that either does or does not change the underlying physics depicted in the diagram. Findings indicate that experts are faster at detecting physics-relevant changes than physics-irrelevant changes; however, there is no difference in response time for novices, suggesting that expertise guides attention for experts when inspecting physics diagrams. We discuss the cognitive implications of our findings.

Heart rate variability is associated with social value orientation in males but not females.

PubMed

Lischke, Alexander; Mau-Moeller, Anett; Jacksteit, Robert; Pahnke, Rike; Hamm, Alfons O; Weippert, Matthias

2018-05-09

Phylogenetic and neurobiological theories suggest that inter-individual differences in high frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) are associated with inter-individual differences in social behavior and social cognition. To test these theories, we investigated whether individuals with high and low HF-HRV would show different preferences for cooperative behavior in social contexts. We recorded resting state HF-HRV in 84 healthy individuals before they completed the Social Value Orientation task, a well-established measure of cooperative preferences. HF-HRV was derived from short-term (300 s) and ultra-short-term (60 s, 120 s) recordings of participants' heart rate to determine the robustness of possible findings. Irrespective of recording length, we found a sex-dependent association between inter-individual differences in HF-HRV and inter-individual differences in social value orientation: The preference for cooperation was more pronounced among individuals with high as compared low HF-HRV, albeit only in male and not in female participants. These findings suggest that males with high HF-HRV are more inclined to engage in cooperative behavior than males with low HF-HRV.

Integrative Analysis of Sex-Specific microRNA Networks Following Stress in Mouse Nucleus Accumbens.

PubMed

Pfau, Madeline L; Purushothaman, Immanuel; Feng, Jian; Golden, Sam A; Aleyasin, Hossein; Lorsch, Zachary S; Cates, Hannah M; Flanigan, Meghan E; Menard, Caroline; Heshmati, Mitra; Wang, Zichen; Ma'ayan, Avi; Shen, Li; Hodes, Georgia E; Russo, Scott J

2016-01-01

Adult women are twice as likely as men to suffer from affective and anxiety disorders, although the mechanisms underlying heightened female stress susceptibility are incompletely understood. Recent findings in mouse Nucleus Accumbens (NAc) suggest a role for DNA methylation-driven sex differences in genome-wide transcriptional profiles. However, the role of another epigenetic process-microRNA (miR) regulation-has yet to be explored. We exposed male and female mice to Subchronic Variable Stress (SCVS), a stress paradigm that produces depression-like behavior in female, but not male, mice, and performed next generation mRNA and miR sequencing on NAc tissue. We applied a combination of differential expression, miR-mRNA network and functional enrichment analyses to characterize the transcriptional and post-transcriptional landscape of sex differences in NAc stress response. We find that male and female mice exhibit largely non-overlapping miR and mRNA profiles following SCVS. The two sexes also show enrichment of different molecular pathways and functions. Collectively, our results suggest that males and females mount fundamentally different transcriptional and post-transcriptional responses to SCVS and engage sex-specific molecular processes following stress. These findings have implications for the pathophysiology and treatment of stress-related disorders in women.

Adolescent Perceptions of Dating Violence: A Qualitative Study.

PubMed

Taylor, Sarah; Calkins, Carrie A; Xia, Yan; Dalla, Rochelle L

2017-08-01

Scholars have identified dating violence as a public health issue among adolescents. Yet, minimal research has detailed adolescents' perceptions of dating violence, specifically gender differences in perceptions. Research suggests that in order for dating violence prevention and intervention to be effective, services need to be delivered in a manner that is understood by adolescents. Therefore, this study used a qualitative phenomenology study to investigate adolescents' perceptions of dating violence, including gender differences in adolescents' perceptions. Thirty adolescents between the ages of 14 and 19 from a Midwest public high school participated in focus groups. Focus group participants were asked semistructured interview questions regarding the definition of dating violence, risk and protective factors for dating violence, support for victims and perpetrators, and prevention efforts. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis methods, and common themes were identified. Adolescents' language revealed gender differences in perceptions toward dating violence. Males perceive dating violence through action, perpetration, and physical consequences. Females discuss dating violence by relating to the victim and the victim's emotions. Although gender differences existed in participants' perceptions, both males and females explained that dating violence is more often perpetrated by females, despite the view from society that males are more likely to perpetrate dating violence. Findings suggest that schools, practitioners, and policy makers are not meeting the needs of adolescents in regard to dating violence prevention and intervention. Prevention and intervention efforts could be improved by delivering education and services using language that adolescents find relevant. Findings also suggest that adolescents may benefit from prevention and intervention with gender specific components.

Hemispheric Differences in Indexical Specificity Effects in Spoken Word Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gonzalez, Julio; McLennan, Conor T.

2007-01-01

Variability in talker identity, one type of indexical variation, has demonstrable effects on the speed and accuracy of spoken word recognition. Furthermore, neuropsychological evidence suggests that indexical and linguistic information may be represented and processed differently in the 2 cerebral hemispheres, and is consistent with findings from…

Gender Difference and Student Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flynn, Elizabeth A.

An exploratory study examined gender differences in writing in the essays of five male and five female freshman composition students. The findings suggest parallels between the writing and speaking behaviors of men and women students and between student writing and the work of male and female professional writers. The male students made few…

Can Native and Western Wildlife Managers Find Common Ground?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ambler, Marjane

1996-01-01

Examines different approaches to environmental activism taken by Native Americans and Westerners as a result of their differing views of nature. Describes historical Western-Indian conflicts related to the preservation of bison in Yellowstone Park. Suggests that there is a growing acknowledgment in the scientific community of traditional…

Environmental Correlates of Individual Differences in Language Acquisition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Furrow, David; Nelson, Katherine

1984-01-01

Reports on a study of mothers' uses of nouns and pronouns and their references to objects and persons as environmental variables which might relate to children's nominal preferences. Findings suggest that environmental factors do contribute to stylistic differences in language acquisition and that the communicative functions of language are an…

Health Care Exceptionalism? Performance and Allocation in the US Health Care Sector

PubMed Central

Chandra, Amitabh; Finkelstein, Amy; Sacarny, Adam; Syverson, Chad

2016-01-01

The conventional wisdom for the healthcare sector is that idiosyncratic features leave little scope for market forces to allocate consumers to higher performance producers. However, we find robust evidence - across several different conditions and performance measures - that higher quality hospitals have higher market shares and grow more over time. The relationship between performance and allocation is stronger among patients who have greater scope for hospital choice, suggesting that patient demand plays an important role in allocation. Our findings suggest that healthcare may have more in common with “traditional” sectors subject to market forces than often assumed. PMID:27784907

Motivated reconstruction: The effect of brand commitment on false memories.

PubMed

Montgomery, Nicole Votolato; Rajagopal, Priyali

2018-06-01

Across 5 studies, we examine the effect of prior brand commitment on the creation of false memories about product experience after reading online product reviews. We find that brand commitment and the valence of reviews to which consumers are exposed, interact to affect the incidence of false memories. Thus, highly committed consumers are more susceptible to the creation of false experience memories on exposure to positive versus negative reviews, whereas low commitment consumers exhibit similar levels of false memories in response to both positive and negative reviews. Further, these differences across brand commitment are attenuated when respondents are primed with an accuracy motivation, suggesting that the biasing effects of commitment are likely because of the motivation to defend the committed brand. Finally, we find that differences in false memories subsequently lead to differences in intentions to spread word-of-mouth (e.g., recommend the product to friends), suggesting that the consequences of false product experience memories can be significant for marketers and consumers. Our findings contribute to the literatures in false memory and marketing by documenting a motivated bias in false memories because of brand commitment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Gender differences in global-local perception? Evidence from orientation and shape judgments.

PubMed

Kimchi, Ruth; Amishav, Rama; Sulitzeanu-Kenan, Anat

2009-01-01

Direct examinations of gender differences in global-local processing are sparse, and the results are inconsistent. We examined this issue with a visuospatial judgment task and with a shape judgment task. Women and men were presented with hierarchical stimuli that varied in closure (open or closed shape) or in line orientation (oblique or horizontal/vertical) at the global or local level. The task was to classify the stimuli on the basis of the variation at the global level (global classification) or at the local level (local classification). Women's classification by closure (global or local) was more accurate than men's for stimuli that varied in closure on both levels, suggesting a female advantage in discriminating shape properties. No gender differences were observed in global-local processing bias. Women and men exhibited a global advantage, and they did not differ in their speed of global or local classification, with only one exception. Women were slower than men in local classification by orientation when the to-be-classified lines were embedded in a global line with a different orientation. This finding suggests that women are more distracted than men by misleading global oriented context when performing local orientation judgments, perhaps because women and men differ in their ability to use cognitive schemes to compensate for the distracting effects of the global context. Our findings further suggest that whether or not gender differences arise depends not only on the nature of the visual task but also on the visual context.

Accent Detection and Social Cognition: Evidence of Protracted Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Creel, Sarah C.

2018-01-01

How and when do children become aware that speakers have different accents? While adults readily make a variety of subtle social inferences based on speakers' accents, findings from children are more mixed: while one line of research suggests that even infants may be acutely sensitive to accent unfamiliarity, other studies suggest that 5-year-olds…

Dental amalgam and cognitive function in older women: findings from the Nun Study.

PubMed

Saxe, S R; Snowdon, D A; Wekstein, M W; Henry, R G; Grant, F T; Donegan, S J; Wekstein, D R

1995-11-01

The authors determined the number and surface area of occlusal dental amalgams in a group of 129 Roman Catholic sisters who were 75 to 102 years of age. Findings from this study of women with relatively homogeneous adult lifestyles and environments suggest that existing amalgams are not associated with lower performance on eight different tests of cognitive function.

Incidental and clinically actionable genetic variants in 1005 whole exomes and genomes from Qatar.

PubMed

Jain, Abhinav; Gandhi, Shrey; Koshy, Remya; Scaria, Vinod

2018-03-20

Incidental findings in genomic data have been studied in great detail in the recent years, especially from population-scale data sets. However, little is known about the frequency of such findings in ethnic groups, specifically the Middle East, which were not previously covered in global sequencing studies. The availability of whole exome and genome data sets for a highly consanguineous Arab population from Qatar motivated us to explore the incidental findings in this population-scale data. The sequence data of 1005 Qatari individuals were systematically analyzed for incidental genetic variants in the 59 genes suggested by the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics. We identified four genetic variants which were pathogenic or likely pathogenic. These variants occurred in six individuals, suggesting a frequency of 0.59% in the population, much lesser than that previously reported from European and African populations. Our analysis identified a variant in RYR1 gene associated with Malignant Hyperthermia that has significantly higher frequency in the population compared to global frequencies. Evaluation of the allele frequencies of these variants suggested enrichment in sub-populations, especially in individuals of Sub-Saharan African ancestry. The present study thereby provides the information on pathogenicity and frequency, which could aid in genomic medicine. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive analysis of incidental genetic findings in any Arab population and suggests ethnic differences in incidental findings.

Empathy as a neuropsychological heuristic in social decision-making.

PubMed

Ramsøy, Thomas Zoëga; Skov, Martin; Macoveanu, Julian; Siebner, Hartwig R; Fosgaard, Toke Reinholt

2015-04-01

Decision-making in social dilemmas is suggested to rely on three factors: the valuation of a choice option, the relative judgment of two or more choice alternatives, and individual factors affecting the ease at which judgments and decisions are made. Here, we test whether empathy-an individual's relative ability to understand others' thoughts, emotions, and intentions-acts as an individual factor that alleviates conflict resolution in social decision-making. We test this by using a framed, iterated prisoners' dilemma (PD) game in two settings. In a behavioral experiment, we find that individual differences in empathic ability (the Empathy Quotient, EQ) were related to lower response times in the PD game, suggesting that empathy is related to faster social choices, independent of whether they choose to cooperate or defect. In a subsequent neuroimaging experiment, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we find that EQ is positively related to individual differences in the engagement of brain structures implemented in mentalizing, including the precuneus, superior temporal sulcus, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. These results suggest that empathy is related to the individual difference in the engagement of mentalizing in social dilemmas and that this is related to the efficiency of decision-making in social dilemmas.

Psychiatric Symptoms Among Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico and New York City

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haberman, Paul W.

1976-01-01

Findings suggest that the consistently high rates of survey reported symptoms among Puerto Rican respondents derive primarily from culturally patterned differences in modes of expressing distress. (Author/AM)

Sex and hemisphere differences when mentally rotating meaningful and meaningless stimuli.

PubMed

Rilea, Stacy L

2008-05-01

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the influence of stimulus type and sex on strategy use and hemispheric processing during the mental rotation task. Participants included 67 right-handed men and women who completed three mental rotation tasks, all presented bilaterally. Participants rotated human stick figures, alphanumeric stimuli, and a two-dimensional (2D) meaningless object. No hemispheric differences were observed when rotating human stick figures, suggesting that men and women may rely on the same strategy. A left hemisphere advantage was observed in women when rotating alphanumeric stimuli, suggesting they may be relying on a verbal strategy, whereas no hemispheric differences were observed for men. Finally, inconsistent with predictions, no hemisphere differences were observed when rotating two-dimensional objects. The findings from the current study suggest that both the meaningfulness and the type of stimulus presented may influence strategy use differently for men and women.

Interpreting personality profiles across cultures: bilingual, acculturation, and peer rating studies of Chinese undergraduates.

PubMed

McCrae, R R; Yik, M S; Trapnell, P D; Bond, M H; Paulhus, D L

1998-04-01

Prior research (R.R. McCrae, P.T. Costa, & M.S. Yik, 1996) using a Chinese translation of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory suggested substantial differences between Hong Kong and North American undergraduates. Study 1, with a sample of bilingual Hong Kong students (N = 162), showed that prior findings were not due simply to the translation. Study 2, with undergraduates of European and Chinese ancestry living in Canada (N = 633), suggested that more of the differences were cultural in origin. Study 3, which used peer ratings of Chinese students (N = 99), replicated most Study 2 results, suggesting that exposure to Canadian culture increased openness, cheerfulness, and prosocial behavior and attitudes. Differences in sense of competence and vulnerability to stress appeared to be due to different cultural standards for judging these traits. Together, the 3 studies illustrate an integrated approach to interpreting personality differences across cultures.

A cross-cultural investigation of multiple intelligences in university-level nutrition students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Short, Joy E.

Effective strategies for the recruitment and retention of a diverse student body in undergraduate nutrition and dietetics programs are needed in order for graduates to effectively meet the health and nutrition needs of a diverse clientele. One way to promote diversity and improve teaching methods in dietetics education is through a framework based on Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI). The theory suggests that individuals possess varying degrees of eight different intelligences which are shaped by genetics and cultural context. Relatively little research has been conducted to investigate MI approaches in the areas of higher education, cross-cultural education, or dietetics education. Therefore, this study investigated the MI profiles of students within undergraduate nutrition programs at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, Mexico and Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Data were collected through the Multiple Intelligences Developmental Assessment Scales (MIDAS). The findings provide a profile of the intellectual dispositions for the study population and suggest that dietetics students in this cross-cultural study population score highest for the MIDAS scale measuring interpersonal intelligence, with significant differences occurring between scores for the eight intelligences measured by the MIDAS. Not only were there significant differences between scale scores when analyzing the population as a whole, there were also significant differences in scale scores when comparing American and Mexican students. This phenomenon was also true when scores were grouped into five ordinal categories. In addition, the findings suggest that differences exist among the particular skills associated with the intelligences for the students at each university. Results indicate that skills related to social sensitivity and persuasion are significantly higher than many other skills for dietetics students. Further, when comparing the American and Mexican students, significant differences were found between the two populations with regard to skills associated with the eight intelligences. With the exception of the Instrumental subscale, findings for the subscale scores were similar to those for the main scales, in that Mexican students' averaged higher scores. Recommendations related to dietetics education and suggestions for future research are provided.

Age differences in IDA savings outcomes: findings from the American Dream Demonstration.

PubMed

Putnam, Michelle; Sherraden, Michael; Zhang, Lin; Morrow-Howell, Nancy

2008-01-01

This study aims to develop a greater understanding of age differences in savings outcomes within Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). Participant data from the American Dream Demonstration (ADD) are examined for age differences in accumulated net deposits, average monthly net deposits, and deposit frequency. ADDprogram data are examined for savings match rates, monthly savings targets, direct deposit, and hours of financial education offered. Results indicate that, on average, older IDA participants have better savings outcomes than younger participants. Findings from this study suggest that impoverished middleaged and older adults can save if provided an opportunity and incentives. However, success will depend on the characteristics of the programs.

The scaling structure of the global road network

PubMed Central

Giometto, Andrea; Shai, Saray; Bertuzzo, Enrico; Mucha, Peter J.; Rinaldo, Andrea

2017-01-01

Because of increasing global urbanization and its immediate consequences, including changes in patterns of food demand, circulation and land use, the next century will witness a major increase in the extent of paved roads built worldwide. To model the effects of this increase, it is crucial to understand whether possible self-organized patterns are inherent in the global road network structure. Here, we use the largest updated database comprising all major roads on the Earth, together with global urban and cropland inventories, to suggest that road length distributions within croplands are indistinguishable from urban ones, once rescaled to account for the difference in mean road length. Such similarity extends to road length distributions within urban or agricultural domains of a given area. We find two distinct regimes for the scaling of the mean road length with the associated area, holding in general at small and at large values of the latter. In suitably large urban and cropland domains, we find that mean and total road lengths increase linearly with their domain area, differently from earlier suggestions. Scaling regimes suggest that simple and universal mechanisms regulate urban and cropland road expansion at the global scale. As such, our findings bear implications for global road infrastructure growth based on land-use change and for planning policies sustaining urban expansions. PMID:29134071

The scaling structure of the global road network.

PubMed

Strano, Emanuele; Giometto, Andrea; Shai, Saray; Bertuzzo, Enrico; Mucha, Peter J; Rinaldo, Andrea

2017-10-01

Because of increasing global urbanization and its immediate consequences, including changes in patterns of food demand, circulation and land use, the next century will witness a major increase in the extent of paved roads built worldwide. To model the effects of this increase, it is crucial to understand whether possible self-organized patterns are inherent in the global road network structure. Here, we use the largest updated database comprising all major roads on the Earth, together with global urban and cropland inventories, to suggest that road length distributions within croplands are indistinguishable from urban ones, once rescaled to account for the difference in mean road length. Such similarity extends to road length distributions within urban or agricultural domains of a given area. We find two distinct regimes for the scaling of the mean road length with the associated area, holding in general at small and at large values of the latter. In suitably large urban and cropland domains, we find that mean and total road lengths increase linearly with their domain area, differently from earlier suggestions. Scaling regimes suggest that simple and universal mechanisms regulate urban and cropland road expansion at the global scale. As such, our findings bear implications for global road infrastructure growth based on land-use change and for planning policies sustaining urban expansions.

Focused attention, open monitoring and loving kindness meditation: effects on attention, conflict monitoring, and creativity – A review

PubMed Central

Lippelt, Dominique P.; Hommel, Bernhard; Colzato, Lorenza S.

2014-01-01

Meditation is becoming increasingly popular as a topic for scientific research and theories on meditation are becoming ever more specific. We distinguish between what is called focused Attention meditation, open Monitoring meditation, and loving kindness (or compassion) meditation. Research suggests that these meditations have differential, dissociable effects on a wide range of cognitive (control) processes, such as attentional selection, conflict monitoring, divergent, and convergent thinking. Although research on exactly how the various meditations operate on these processes is still missing, different kinds of meditations are associated with different neural structures and different patterns of electroencephalographic activity. In this review we discuss recent findings on meditation and suggest how the different meditations may affect cognitive processes, and we give suggestions for directions of future research. PMID:25295025

The Association Between Maternal Early Life Forced Sexual Intercourse and Offspring Birth Weight: The Role of Socioeconomic Status.

PubMed

Gavin, Amelia R; Morris, Julia

2017-05-01

This study utilizes a life-course framework to investigate whether maternal early life forced sexual intercourse operates in conjunction with health behaviors during adolescence, young adulthood, and the prenatal period to influence offspring birth weight. Using data from the 1994-2009 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we examined whether early life forced sexual intercourse predicted offspring birth weight through a mediated pathway, including depressive symptoms, substance use, and prenatal cigarette smoking. We stratify our analysis by socioeconomic status (SES) to determine whether the proposed pathways operate similarly, or differently, according to SES. Our findings suggest that the pathways through which forced sexual intercourse affects offspring birth weight differ by SES. Among middle-to-high SES women, we found a mediated pathway linking forced sexual intercourse to offspring birth weight with prenatal cigarette smoking predicting lower offspring birth weight. Among low SES women, however, we did not find a mediated pathway linking forced sexual intercourse to birth weight. Findings suggest that prenatal cigarette smoking was not a mechanism of influence in the pathway between maternal early life forced sexual intercourse and offspring birth weight for low SES women. Our findings suggest that forced sexual intercourse may influence infant birth weight in the next generation. Infants born with a low birth weight are at increased risk for a myriad of adverse outcomes across the life-course. Study results suggest the importance of interventions designed to reduce behavioral risks and to support health promoting behaviors among survivors in the short term, in an effort to prevent long-term consequences among later-born offspring.

THE IMPORTANCE OF {sup 56}Ni IN SHAPING THE LIGHT CURVES OF TYPE II SUPERNOVAE

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

Nakar, Ehud; Poznanski, Dovi; Katz, Boaz

2016-06-01

What intrinsic properties shape the light curves of SNe II? To address this question we derive observational measures that are robust (i.e., insensitive to detailed radiative transfer) and constrain the contribution from {sup 56}Ni as well as a combination of the envelope mass, progenitor radius, and explosion energy. By applying our methods to a sample of SNe II from the literature, we find that a {sup 56}Ni contribution is often significant. In our sample, its contribution to the time-weighted integrated luminosity during the photospheric phase ranges between 8% and 72% with a typical value of 30%. We find that themore » {sup 56}Ni relative contribution is anti-correlated with the luminosity decline rate. When added to other clues, this in turn suggests that the flat plateaus often observed in SNe II are not a generic feature of the cooling envelope emission, and that without {sup 56}Ni many of the SNe that are classified as II-P would have shown a decline rate that is steeper by up to 1 mag/100 days. Nevertheless, we find that the cooling envelope emission, and not {sup 56}Ni contribution, is the main driver behind the observed range of decline rates. Furthermore, contrary to previous suggestions, our findings indicate that fast decline rates are not driven by lower envelope masses. We therefore suggest that the difference in observed decline rates is mainly a result of different density profiles of the progenitors.« less

Mental Toughness and Individual Differences in Learning, Educational and Work Performance, Psychological Well-being, and Personality: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Lin, Ying; Mutz, Julian; Clough, Peter J; Papageorgiou, Kostas A

2017-01-01

Mental toughness (MT) is an umbrella term that entails positive psychological resources, which are crucial across a wide range of achievement contexts and in the domain of mental health. We systematically review empirical studies that explored the associations between the concept of MT and individual differences in learning, educational and work performance, psychological well-being, personality, and other psychological attributes. Studies that explored the genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in MT are also reviewed. The findings suggest that MT is associated with various positive psychological traits, more efficient coping strategies and positive outcomes in education and mental health. Approximately 50% of the variation in MT can be accounted for by genetic factors. Furthermore, the associations between MT and psychological traits can be explained mainly by either common genetic or non-shared environmental factors. Taken together, our findings suggest a 'mental toughness advantage' with possible implications for developing interventions to facilitate achievement in a variety of settings.

Mental Toughness and Individual Differences in Learning, Educational and Work Performance, Psychological Well-being, and Personality: A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Lin, Ying; Mutz, Julian; Clough, Peter J.; Papageorgiou, Kostas A.

2017-01-01

Mental toughness (MT) is an umbrella term that entails positive psychological resources, which are crucial across a wide range of achievement contexts and in the domain of mental health. We systematically review empirical studies that explored the associations between the concept of MT and individual differences in learning, educational and work performance, psychological well-being, personality, and other psychological attributes. Studies that explored the genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in MT are also reviewed. The findings suggest that MT is associated with various positive psychological traits, more efficient coping strategies and positive outcomes in education and mental health. Approximately 50% of the variation in MT can be accounted for by genetic factors. Furthermore, the associations between MT and psychological traits can be explained mainly by either common genetic or non-shared environmental factors. Taken together, our findings suggest a ‘mental toughness advantage’ with possible implications for developing interventions to facilitate achievement in a variety of settings. PMID:28848466

The relationships of family and classroom environments with peer relational victimization: an analysis of their gender differences.

PubMed

Jesús Cava, María; Musitu, Gonzalo; Buelga, Sofia; Murgui, Sergio

2010-05-01

This study analyzes the relationships of adolescents' perceptions of their family and classroom environments with peer relational victimization, taking into account that these relationships could be mediated by adolescents' self-esteem, feelings of loneliness, and sociometric status. These relationships, and their possible gender differences, were analyzed in a sample of 1319 Spanish adolescents (48% boys and 52% girls), ages 11 to 16 years (M = 13.7, SD = 1.5). A structural equation modeling was calculated for boys and girls separately. The findings suggested that the adolescents' self-esteem, loneliness, and sociometric status had a significant direct effect on peer relational victimization for boys, and adolescents' loneliness and sociometric status for girls. Their perceptions of family and classroom environments had a significant indirect effect on peer relational victimization for boys and girls, but the paths were different. Overall, findings suggested that a negative classroom environment had a more relevant effect in relational victimization for boys.

Market structure and competition in the healthcare industry : Results from a transition economy.

PubMed

Lábaj, Martin; Silanič, Peter; Weiss, Christoph; Yontcheva, Biliana

2018-02-14

The present paper provides first empirical evidence on the relationship between market size and the number of firms in the healthcare industry for a transition economy. We estimate market-size thresholds required to support different numbers of suppliers (firms) for three occupations in the healthcare industry in a large number of distinct geographic markets in Slovakia, taking into account the spatial interaction between local markets. The empirical analysis is carried out for three time periods (1995, 2001 and 2010) which characterise different stages of the transition process. Our results suggest that the relationship between market size and the number of firms differs both across industries and across periods. In particular, we find that pharmacies, as the only completely liberalised market in our dataset, experience the largest change in competitive behaviour during the transition process. Furthermore, we find evidence for correlation in entry decisions across administrative borders, suggesting that future market analysis should aim to capture these regional effects.

Intrinsic aspirations and personal meaning across adulthood: conceptual interrelations and age/sex differences.

PubMed

Morgan, Jessica; Robinson, Oliver

2013-05-01

The present study examined adult age and sex differences in self-reported aspirations and personal meaning. Young, midlife, and older adults (N = 2,557) from the United Kingdom or United States completed an online survey of their aspiration striving, aspiration importance, and personal meaning (subscales of Purposeful Life, Exciting Life, Accomplished Life, Principled Life, Valued Life). Predictions were made in line with humanistic and gerontology theories, which suggest that sources of personal meaning consolidate across the life span toward intrinsically motivated pursuits. Findings supported these predictions, showing that although there was a tendency for aspirations to decline with age, the proportion of intrinsically motivated aspirations increased, as did total meaning and the interrelationship between meaning and intrinsic aspirations. There were also gender differences in personal meaning and aspirations, which suggested a more pronounced midlife dip in intrinsic and purposive goal striving for men, and a greater focus on intrinsic aspirations in women. Developmental and cohort interpretations of these findings and directions for further research are discussed.

Can Technologies Make a Difference for Hospitalized Youth: Findings from Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maor, D.; Mitchem, K. J.

2015-01-01

Children and youth who are hospitalized for a short or long term become socially isolated from their family, school and classmates. As their isolation increases, so does their vulnerability as a result of disrupted schooling. Research studies suggest different ways of using technologies to overcome this isolation and support children during this…

Poles Apart? Gender Differences in Proposals for Sexuality Education Content

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Louisa

2008-01-01

Are young women and men's preferences for sexuality education content poles apart? This article explores gender differences in senior school students' suggestions for issues sexuality education should cover. Findings are analysed in relation to debate about mixed and single sex classrooms and boys' perceived disinterest in lessons. It is argued…

Perceived Competence of Women Managers in Public Human Service Organizations: A Comparative View.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ezell, Hazel F.; And Others

1980-01-01

Responses of male and female managers were analyzed for differences existing in perceptions of self-competence and differences in their evaluations of the competence of women managers generally. Findings suggest female managers see themselves as competent but see female managers in general as being less competent. (Author/RC)

Differences among Latino Students in Precollege Multicultural Exposure and the Transition Into an Elite Institution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lopez, J. Derek

2013-01-01

This study examined the within-group differences in adjustment to college among Latino college students. Surveys measured participants for degree of precollege multicultural exposure, current concerns, minority student stress, social resources, and sociocultural orientation. The findings suggested that the transition into a predominately White,…

Cross-Cultural Differences in Cognitive Performance and Spearman's Hypothesis: "g" or "c"?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Helms-Lorenz, Michelle; Fons, J. R. Van de Vijer; Poortinga, Ype H.

2003-01-01

Administered two intelligence batteries and a computer-assisted elementary cognitive test battery to 474 second-generation migrant and 747 majority-group students, aged 6 to 12 years, in the Netherlands. Findings suggest that performance differences between these groups are better predicted by a cultural complexity ("c") factor than by…

Gender and competitive preferences: The role of competition size.

PubMed

Hanek, Kathrin J; Garcia, Stephen M; Tor, Avishalom

2016-08-01

In a series of 8 studies, we examine whether gender differences in competition entry preferences are moderated by the size of the competition. Drawing on theories of gender roles and stereotypes, we show that women, relative to men, prefer to enter smaller compared with larger competitions. Studies 1a and 1b demonstrate this effect in observational data on preferences for working in differently sized firms and applying to differently sized colleges. Studies 2a and 2b replicate the effect with real behavioral decisions in different domains. We also find empirical evidence that prescriptive gender norms and stereotypes underlie this effect. In Study 3, we find experimental evidence that women and men differ in their preferences for differently sized groups under competition, but not in noncompetitive settings. Three additional experimental studies (Studies 4, 5a, and 5b) show that perceptions of comfort in small versus larger competitions underlie women's preferences. These findings suggest that women's preferences for smaller competitions may be driven by an adherence to prescriptive gender norms. We discuss the implications of the current findings for gender inequalities in organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of Maternal Work Incentives on Teen Drug Arrests

PubMed Central

Corman, Hope; Dave, Dhaval; Kalil, Ariel; Reichman, Nancy E.

2017-01-01

Purpose This study exploits differences in the implementation of welfare reform across states and over time in the United States in the attempt to identify causal effects of welfare reform on youth arrests for drug-related crimes between 1990 and 2005, the period during which welfare reform unfolded. Methodology Using monthly arrest data from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports, we estimate the effects of welfare reform implementation on drug-related arrests among 15–17 year olds in the United States between 1990 and 2005. We use a difference-in-differences (DD) approach that exploits the implementation of welfare reform across states and over time to estimate effects for teens exposed to welfare reform. Findings The findings, based on numerous different model specifications, suggest that welfare reform had no statistically significant effect on teen drug arrests. Most estimates were positive and suggestive of a small (3%) increase in arrests. Originality/Value This study investigated the effects of a broad-based policy change that altered maternal employment, family income, and other family characteristics on youth drug arrests. PMID:28989228

Reward devaluation: Dot-probe meta-analytic evidence of avoidance of positive information in depressed persons.

PubMed

Winer, E Samuel; Salem, Taban

2016-01-01

Cognitive theories of depression and anxiety have traditionally emphasized the role of attentional biases in the processing of negative information. The dot-probe task has been widely used to study this phenomenon. Recent findings suggest that biased processing of positive information might also be an important aspect of developing psychopathological symptoms. However, despite some evidence suggesting persons with symptoms of depression and anxiety may avoid positive information, many dot-probe studies have produced null findings. The present review used conventional and novel meta-analytic methods to evaluate dot-probe attentional biases away from positive information and, for comparison, toward negative information, in depressed and anxious individuals. Results indicated that avoidance of positive information is a real effect exhibiting substantial evidential value among persons experiencing psychopathology, with individuals evidencing primary symptoms of depression clearly demonstrating this effect. Different theoretical explanations for these findings are evaluated, including those positing threat-processing structures, even-handedness, self-regulation, and reward devaluation, with the novel theory of reward devaluation emphasized and expanded. These novel findings and theory suggest that avoidance of prospective reward helps to explain the cause and sustainability of depressed states. Suggestions for future research and methodological advances are discussed. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Feature binding and attention in working memory: a resolution of previous contradictory findings.

PubMed

Allen, Richard J; Hitch, Graham J; Mate, Judit; Baddeley, Alan D

2012-01-01

We aimed to resolve an apparent contradiction between previous experiments from different laboratories, using dual-task methodology to compare effects of a concurrent executive load on immediate recognition memory for colours or shapes of items or their colour-shape combinations. Results of two experiments confirmed previous evidence that an irrelevant attentional load interferes equally with memory for features and memory for feature bindings. Detailed analyses suggested that previous contradictory evidence arose from limitations in the way recognition memory was measured. The present findings are inconsistent with an earlier suggestion that feature binding takes place within a multimodal episodic buffer Baddeley, ( 2000 ) and support a subsequent account in which binding takes place automatically prior to information entering the episodic buffer Baddeley, Allen, & Hitch, ( 2011 ). Methodologically, the results suggest that different measures of recognition memory performance (A', d', corrected recognition) give a converging picture of main effects, but are less consistent in detecting interactions. We suggest that this limitation on the reliability of measuring recognition should be taken into account in future research so as to avoid problems of replication that turn out to be more apparent than real.

Are Some Countries More Prone to Pressure Evaluators than Others? Comparing Findings from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pleger, Lyn; Sager, Fritz; Morris, Michael; Meyer, Wolfgang; Stockmann, Reinhard

2017-01-01

Pressure on evaluators has been investigated recently by surveys in the USA, the UK, Germany, and Switzerland. This study compares the results of those studies regarding pressure on evaluators in different countries. The findings suggest that independence of evaluations does not exist for many respondents. Moreover, the person who commissioned the…

The influence of status on satisfaction with relative rewards

PubMed Central

Albrecht, Konstanze; von Essen, Emma; Fliessbach, Klaus; Falk, Armin

2013-01-01

This study investigates how induced relative status affects satisfaction with different relative payoffs. We find that participants with lower status are more satisfied with disadvantageous payoff inequalities than equal or higher status participants. In contrast, when receiving an advantageous payoff, status does not affect satisfaction. Our findings suggest that relative social status has important implications for the acceptance of income inequalities. PMID:24198802

The Role of Multiword Building Blocks in Explaining L1-L2 Differences.

PubMed

Arnon, Inbal; Christiansen, Morten H

2017-07-01

Why are children better language learners than adults despite being worse at a range of other cognitive tasks? Here, we explore the role of multiword sequences in explaining L1-L2 differences in learning. In particular, we propose that children and adults differ in their reliance on such multiword units (MWUs) in learning, and that this difference affects learning strategies and outcomes, and leads to difficulty in learning certain grammatical relations. In the first part, we review recent findings that suggest that MWUs play a facilitative role in learning. We then discuss the implications of these findings for L1-L2 differences: We hypothesize that adults are both less likely to extract MWUs and less capable of benefiting from them in the process of learning. In the next section, we draw on psycholinguistic, developmental, and computational findings to support these predictions. We end with a discussion of the relation between this proposal and other accounts of L1-L2 difficulty. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Sexual Orientation, Objective Height, and Self-Reported Height.

PubMed

Skorska, Malvina N; Bogaert, Anthony F

2017-01-01

Studies that have used mostly self-reported height have found that androphilic men and women are shorter than gynephilic men and women, respectively. This study examined whether an objective height difference exists or whether a psychosocial account (e.g., distortion of self-reports) may explain these putative height differences. A total of 863 participants, recruited at a Canadian university, the surrounding region, and through lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) events across Canada, self-reported their height and had their height measured. Androphilic men were shorter, on average, than gynephilic men. There was no objective height difference between gynephilic, ambiphilic, and androphilic women. Self-reported height, statistically controlling for objective height, was not related to sexual orientation. These findings are the first to show an objective height difference between androphilic and gynephilic men. Also, the findings suggest that previous studies using self-reported height found part of a true objective height difference between androphilic and gynephilic men. These findings have implications for existing biological theories of men's sexual orientation development.

Combinatorial action of Grainyhead, Extradenticle and Notch in regulating Hox mediated apoptosis in Drosophila larval CNS

PubMed Central

Khandelwal, Risha; Govinda Rajan, Sriivatsan; Kumar, Raviranjan

2017-01-01

Hox mediated neuroblast apoptosis is a prevalent way to pattern larval central nervous system (CNS) by different Hox genes, but the mechanism of this apoptosis is not understood. Our studies with Abdominal-A (Abd-A) mediated larval neuroblast (pNB) apoptosis suggests that AbdA, its cofactor Extradenticle (Exd), a helix-loop-helix transcription factor Grainyhead (Grh), and Notch signaling transcriptionally contribute to expression of RHG family of apoptotic genes. We find that Grh, AbdA, and Exd function together at multiple motifs on the apoptotic enhancer. In vivo mutagenesis of these motifs suggest that they are important for the maintenance of the activity of the enhancer rather than its initiation. We also find that Exd function is independent of its known partner homothorax in this apoptosis. We extend some of our findings to Deformed expressing region of sub-esophageal ganglia where pNBs undergo a similar Hox dependent apoptosis. We propose a mechanism where common players like Exd-Grh-Notch work with different Hox genes through region specific enhancers to pattern respective segments of larval central nervous system. PMID:29023471

Combinatorial action of Grainyhead, Extradenticle and Notch in regulating Hox mediated apoptosis in Drosophila larval CNS.

PubMed

Khandelwal, Risha; Sipani, Rashmi; Govinda Rajan, Sriivatsan; Kumar, Raviranjan; Joshi, Rohit

2017-10-01

Hox mediated neuroblast apoptosis is a prevalent way to pattern larval central nervous system (CNS) by different Hox genes, but the mechanism of this apoptosis is not understood. Our studies with Abdominal-A (Abd-A) mediated larval neuroblast (pNB) apoptosis suggests that AbdA, its cofactor Extradenticle (Exd), a helix-loop-helix transcription factor Grainyhead (Grh), and Notch signaling transcriptionally contribute to expression of RHG family of apoptotic genes. We find that Grh, AbdA, and Exd function together at multiple motifs on the apoptotic enhancer. In vivo mutagenesis of these motifs suggest that they are important for the maintenance of the activity of the enhancer rather than its initiation. We also find that Exd function is independent of its known partner homothorax in this apoptosis. We extend some of our findings to Deformed expressing region of sub-esophageal ganglia where pNBs undergo a similar Hox dependent apoptosis. We propose a mechanism where common players like Exd-Grh-Notch work with different Hox genes through region specific enhancers to pattern respective segments of larval central nervous system.

Education and occupational status in 14 countries: the role of educational institutions and labour market coordination.

PubMed

Andersen, Robert; van de Werfhorst, Herman G

2010-06-01

This article explores the role of national institutional factors--more specifically, the level of skill transparency of the education system and labour market coordination--in accounting for cross-national differences in the relationship between education and occupational status. Consistent with previous research, our findings suggest that skill transparency is the primary moderator. Countries with a highly transparent educational system (i.e., extensive tracking, strong vocational orientation, limited tertiary enrolment) tend to be characterized by a strong relationship between education and occupational status. These findings hold even after controlling for the level of labour market coordination. Nevertheless, we also find that labour market coordination plays an independent role by dampening the effect of education on occupational status. Taken together, these results suggest two quite different policy implications: (1) strengthening the skill transparency of the education system by increasing secondary and tertiary-level differentiation may strengthen the relationship between education and occupation, regardless of the level of coordination, and (2) increasing labour market coordination could lead to improved social inclusion and a reduction in inequalities related to educational attainment.

Does neuropsychological performance in OCD relate to different symptoms? A meta-analysis comparing the symmetry and obsessing dimensions.

PubMed

Bragdon, Laura B; Gibb, Brandon E; Coles, Meredith E

2018-06-19

Investigations of neuropsychological functioning in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have produced mixed results for deficits in executive functioning (EF), attention, and memory. One potential explanation for varied findings may relate to the heterogeneity of symptom presentations, and different clinical or neurobiological characteristics may underlie these different symptoms. We investigated differences in neuropsychological functioning between two symptoms groups, obsessing/checking (O/C) and symmetry/ordering (S/O), based on data suggesting an association with different motivations: harm avoidance and incompleteness, respectively. Ten studies (with 628 patients) were included and each investigation assessed at least one of 14 neuropsychological domains. The S/O domain demonstrated small, negative correlations with overall neuropsychological functioning, performance in EF, memory, visuospatial ability, cognitive flexibility, and verbal working memory. O/C symptoms demonstrated small, negative correlations with memory and verbal memory performance. A comparison of functioning between symptom groups identified large effect sizes showing that the S/O dimension was more strongly related to poorer neuropsychological performance overall, and in the domains of attention, visuospatial ability, and the subdomain of verbal working memory. Findings support existing evidence suggesting that different OCD symptoms, and their associated core motivations, relate to unique patterns of neuropsychological functioning, and, potentially dysfunction in different neural circuits. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Understanding the Gender Gap in Introductory Physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Finkelstein, Noah; Kost, Lauren; Pollock, Steven

2008-04-01

While it has been suggested interactive engagement (IE) techniques can eliminate the gender gap (the difference in performance between men and women on measures of conceptual learning), we find that, at our institution, the gender gap persisted from pre to posttest in IE classes (Pollock, Physical Review: ST PER. 3, 010107, 2007). This talk reports on a three-part follow-up study that investigates what factors contribute to the gender gap. First, we analyze student grades in different components of the course and find that men and women's course grades are not significantly different (p>0.1), but men outscore women on exams and women outscore men on homework and participation. Second, we compare average posttest scores of men and women who score similarly on the pretest and find that there are no significant differences between men and women's average posttest scores. Finally, we analyze other factors in addition to the pretest score that could influence the posttest score and find that gender does not account for a majorportion of the variation in posttest scores when a measure of mathematics performance is included. These findings indicate that the gender gap exists in interactive physics classes, but may be due in large part to differences in preparation, background, and math skills as assessed by traditional survey instruments.

Lexical enhancement during prime-target integration: ERP evidence from matched-case identity priming.

PubMed

Vergara-Martínez, Marta; Gómez, Pablo; Jiménez, María; Perea, Manuel

2015-06-01

A number of experiments have revealed that matched-case identity PRIME-TARGET pairs are responded to faster than mismatched-case identity prime-TARGET pairs for pseudowords (e.g., JUDPE-JUDPE < judpe-JUDPE), but not for words (JUDGE-JUDGE = judge-JUDGE). These findings suggest that prime-target integration processes are enhanced when the stimuli tap onto lexical representations, overriding physical differences between the stimuli (e.g., case). To track the time course of this phenomenon, we conducted an event-related potential (ERP) masked-priming lexical decision experiment that manipulated matched versus mismatched case identity in words and pseudowords. The behavioral results replicated previous research. The ERP waves revealed that matched-case identity-priming effects were found at a very early time epoch (N/P150 effects) for words and pseudowords. Importantly, around 200 ms after target onset (N250), these differences disappeared for words but not for pseudowords. These findings suggest that different-case word forms (lower- and uppercase) tap into the same abstract representation, leading to prime-target integration very early in processing. In contrast, different-case pseudoword forms are processed as two different representations. This word-pseudoword dissociation has important implications for neural accounts of visual-word recognition.

Cognitive Functions Buffer Age Differences in Technology Ownership.

PubMed

Kamin, Stefan T; Lang, Frieder R

2016-01-01

Technology plays a major role in enhancing quality of life and everyday competence in old age. Mechanic and pragmatic cognitive functions are known to serve as resources when using technology in everyday life. Not much is known about the differential role of mechanic and pragmatic cognitive functions when moderating reduced technology ownership in old age. In this research, we explored whether perceptual speed or verbal fluency is more important for buffering age differences in technology ownership. We investigate possible moderation effects of cognitive functions relative to demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, and household composition variables. We report findings based on a nationally representative German sample of 3,357 younger and older adults between 18 and 94 years of age (mean = 51.2, SD = 17.3). Interaction and relative importance analyses were conducted to examine the relative importance of perceptual speed and verbal fluency for the moderation of age differences in technology ownership across adulthood. Findings suggest that perceptual speed (B = 0.0008, t = 6.23, p < 0.001) and verbal fluency (B = 0.0003, t = 2.70, p < 0.01) buffered age differences in technology ownership. The moderating role of perceptual speed remained robust (B = 0.0007, t = 5.48, p < 0.001) when including interactions of age with demographic, socioeconomic, and household composition variables; however, the interaction between age and verbal fluency was no longer significant (B = 0.0002, t = 1.82, p = 0.069). Relative importance analysis indicates that perceptual speed was the most important moderator of age differences (DW = 0.0121), whereas verbal fluency was less important for moderating the relation between age and technology ownership (DW = 0.0039). Mechanic and pragmatic cognitive functions may serve differently as moderators of the relation between age and technology ownership. Our findings suggest that perceptual speed was more important for buffering age differences in technology ownership than verbal fluency. Such findings underscore the relevance of information processing for the ownership of technological devices in late life. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Cognitive, psychophysical, and neural correlates of vulvar pain in primary and secondary provoked vestibulodynia: a pilot study.

PubMed

Sutton, Katherine; Pukall, Caroline; Wild, Conor; Johnsrude, Ingrid; Chamberlain, Susan

2015-05-01

Provoked vestibulodynia (PVD) is a common condition characterized by localized, provoked pain that can be present since first vaginal penetration attempt (primary) or can develop after a period of pain-free penetration (secondary). Research has demonstrated psychosocial and psychophysical differences between women with these subtypes of PVD, but the question of whether neural responses to pain also differ remains to be investigated. This study aims to examine whether cognitive, psychophysical, and neural responses to vulvar pressure pain differ between women with PVD1 and PVD2. Women with PVD1 and PVD2 were compared for group differences using multiple modalities, including questionnaires, psychophysical testing, and neuroimaging. Pain ratings were held constant across groups, rather than amount of pressure applied. Demographics, sexual functioning, four questionnaires examining anxiety and catastrophizing, quantitative sensory testing at the vulvar vestibule using a vulvalgesiometer, and functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Findings suggest that women with PVD1 are more anxious and that they catastrophize more about their vulvar and nonvulvar pain than women with PVD2. Overall, MRI results demonstrated structural and functional similarities to other chronic pain findings for both groups of women. Gray matter (GM) density also differed between groups: women with PVD1 showed significant decreases in GM throughout areas associated with pain processing. Functionally, between-groups differences were found during painful vulvar stimulation despite lower pressures applied to the vulva for women with PVD1 because of their heightened sensitivity; the determination of the level of vulvar pressure to elicit pain was based on subjective ratings. Findings are limited by sample size and liberal alpha values; however, future research is certainly warranted based on the preliminary findings of this study suggesting both similarities and differences between PVD1 and PVD2. Overall, women with PVD1 seem to fare worse on several pain-related and psychosocial variables compared with women with PVD2. © 2015 International Society for Sexual Medicine.

A Conceptual Model for Solving Percent Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bennett, Albert B., Jr.; Nelson, L. Ted

1994-01-01

Presents an alternative method to teaching percent problems which uses a 10x10 grid to help students visualize percents. Offers a means of representing information and suggests different approaches for finding solutions. Includes reproducible student worksheet. (MKR)

Sex differences in smoking cue reactivity: craving, negative affect, and preference for immediate smoking.

PubMed

Doran, Neal

2014-01-01

Female smokers have greater difficulty quitting, possibly due to increased reactivity to smoking-related cues. This study assessed sex differences in craving, affect, and preference for immediate smoking after cue exposure. Regular smokers (n = 60; 50% female) were exposed to smoking and neutral cues in separate, counterbalanced sessions. Outcomes included changes in craving and affect and preference for immediate smoking following cue exposure. Findings indicated that women exhibited greater preference for immediate smoking (p = .004), and reported greater cue-induced increases in cigarette craving (p = .046) and negative affect (p = .025). These data suggest that women may have greater difficulty inhibiting smoking after cue exposure, possibly as a consequence of greater increases in craving and negative affect. Findings suggest a mechanism that may contribute to greater cessation failure among female smokers. © American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry.

Dynamics of venom composition across a complex life cycle

PubMed Central

Macrander, Jason; Fridrich, Arie; Modepalli, Vengamanaidu; Reitzel, Adam M; Sunagar, Kartik

2018-01-01

Little is known about venom in young developmental stages of animals. The appearance of toxins and stinging cells during early embryonic stages in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis suggests that venom is already expressed in eggs and larvae of this species. Here, we harness transcriptomic, biochemical and transgenic tools to study venom production dynamics in Nematostella. We find that venom composition and arsenal of toxin-producing cells change dramatically between developmental stages of this species. These findings can be explained by the vastly different interspecific interactions of each life stage, as individuals develop from a miniature non-feeding mobile planula to a larger sessile polyp that predates on other animals and interact differently with predators. Indeed, behavioral assays involving prey, predators and Nematostella are consistent with this hypothesis. Further, the results of this work suggest a much wider and dynamic venom landscape than initially appreciated in animals with a complex life cycle. PMID:29424690

Reversal of the decision for caesarean section in the second stage of labour on the basis of consultant vaginal assessment.

PubMed

Oláh, K S

2005-02-01

During a 5-year period there were 32 cases where the vaginal assessment performed by a specialist registrar in the second stage of labour was re-assessed within 15 minutes by a consultant obstetrician. The examination was prompted by a request for permission to perform a caesarean section in the second stage of labour. The results suggest a significant discrepancy between the consultants and the specialist registrar's findings, with 44% of the cases indicating a difference in the position of the head, and 81% a difference in the station of the head. No comment was made about caput or moulding in the majority of cases (94%). The study findings suggest that vaginal examination, like instrumental delivery, is a skill that is being eroded and will require formal instruction to address this problem.

Corporal punishment and the growth trajectory of children's antisocial behavior.

PubMed

Grogan-Kaylor, Andrew

2005-08-01

Despite considerable research, the relationship between corporal punishment and antisocial behavior is unclear. This analysis examined (a) the functional form of this relationship, (b) the correlation of initial antisocial behavior and changes in antisocial behavior, (c) differences in the relationship of corporal punishment and antisocial behavior by race, and (d) whether this relationship could be accounted for by unmeasured characteristics of children and their families. Data from 6,912 children in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth were analyzed using hierarchical linear models. Findings suggested that corporal punishment has a relationship with children's initial antisocial behavior and with changes in antisocial behavior. No evidence was found for differences in the effect of corporal punishment across racial groups. The relationship between corporal punishment and antisocial behavior persists even when accounting for unmeasured time invariant characteristics of children and families. The findings suggest that corporal punishment is not a preferable technique for disciplining children.

Reproductive ambition predicts partnered, but not unpartnered, women's preferences for masculine men.

PubMed

Watkins, Christopher D

2012-08-01

Changing circumstances alter the costs and benefits of choosing different mates and are thought to be reflected in women's mate preferences. Indeed, several lines of reasoning, and some prior studies, suggest that individual differences in women's preferences for cues of men's underlying health will be more apparent among partnered women than among unpartnered women. The current study shows that preferences for male faces with masculine shape cues, characteristics that are thought to signal men's underlying health, are positively correlated with partnered, but not unpartnered, women's reported reproductive ambition (i.e., their desire to become pregnant). These findings (1) present new evidence for systematic variation in women's mating strategies, (2) suggest that partnership status may be important for potentially adaptive variation in women's mate preferences, and (3) suggest that reproductive ambition may influence women's mate preferences. Alternative explanations for these findings, focusing on the possible effects of a range of variables that may be correlated with reproductive ambition in partnered women and influence their masculinity preferences, are also discussed. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

Neural activation during response inhibition in adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Preliminary findings on the effects of medication and symptom severity

PubMed Central

Congdon, Eliza; Altshuler, Lori L.; Mumford, Jeanette A.; Karlsgodt, Katherine H.; Sabb, Fred W.; Ventura, Joseph; McGough, James J.; London, Edythe D.; Cannon, Tyrone D.; Bilder, Robert M.; Poldrack, Russell A.

2014-01-01

Studies of adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have suggested that they have deficient response inhibition, but findings concerning the neural correlates of inhibition in this patient population are inconsistent. We used the Stop-Signal task and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare neural activation associated with response inhibition between adults with ADHD (N = 35) and healthy comparison subjects (N = 62), and in follow-up tests to examine the effect of current medication use and symptom severity. There were no differences in Stop-Signal task performance or neural activation between ADHD and control participants. Among the ADHD participants, however, significant differences were associated with current medication, with individuals taking psychostimulants (N = 25) showing less stopping-related activation than those not currently receiving psychostimulant medication (N = 10). Follow-up analyses suggested that this difference in activation was independent of symptom severity. These results provide evidence that deficits in inhibition-related neural activation persist in a subset of adult ADHD individuals, namely those individuals currently taking psychostimulants. These findings help to explain some of the disparities in the literature, and advance our understanding of why deficits in response inhibition are more variable in adult, as compared with child and adolescent, ADHD patients. PMID:24581734

Women in the midluteal phase of the menstrual cycle have difficulty suppressing the processing of negative emotional stimuli: An event-related potential study.

PubMed

Lusk, Bethany R; Carr, Andrea R; Ranson, Valerie A; Felmingham, Kim L

2017-08-01

Emotion regulation deficits have been implicated in anxiety and depressive disorders, and these internalising disorders are more prevalent in women than men. Few electrophysiological studies have investigated sex differences in emotional reactivity and emotion regulation controlling for menstrual phase. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 28 early follicular women, 29 midluteal women, and 27 men who completed an emotion regulation task. A novel finding of increased N2 amplitude during suppression was found for midluteal women compared with men. These findings suggest midluteal women may be significantly less able to suppress cortical processing of negative stimuli compared to men. This ERP finding was complemented by behavioral ratings data which revealed that while both early follicular and midluteal women reported more distress than men, midluteal women also reported greater effort when suppressing their responses than men. P1 and N1 components were increased in midluteal women compared to men regardless of instructional set, suggesting greater early attentional processing. No sex or menstrual phase differences were apparent in P3 or LPP. This study underscores the importance of considering menstrual phase when examining sex differences in the cortical processing of emotion regulation and demonstrates that midluteal women may have deficits in down-regulating their neural and behavioural responses.

Intracommunity relationships, dispersal pattern and paternity success in a wild living community of Bonobos (Pan paniscus) determined from DNA analysis of faecal samples.

PubMed Central

Gerloff, U; Hartung, B; Fruth, B; Hohmann, G; Tautz, D

1999-01-01

Differences in social relationships among community members are often explained by differences in genetic relationships. The current techniques of DNA analysis allow explicit testing of such a hypothesis. Here, we have analysed the genetic relationships for a community of wild bonobos (Pan paniscus) using nuclear and mitochondrial DNA markers extracted from faecal samples. Bonobos show an opportunistic and promiscuous mating behaviour, even with mates from outside the community. Nonetheless, we find that most infants were sired by resident males and that two dominant males together attained the highest paternity success. Intriguingly, the latter males are the sons of high-ranking females, suggesting an important influence of mothers on the paternity success of their sons. The molecular data support previous inferences on female dispersal and male philopatry. We find a total of five different mitochondrial haplotypes among 15 adult females, suggesting a frequent migration of females. Moreover, for most adult and subadult males in the group we find a matching mother, while this is not the case for most females, indicating that these leave the community during adolescence. Our study demonstrates that faecal samples can be a useful source for the determination of kinship in a whole community. PMID:10406131

Intracommunity relationships, dispersal pattern and paternity success in a wild living community of Bonobos (Pan paniscus) determined from DNA analysis of faecal samples.

PubMed

Gerloff, U; Hartung, B; Fruth, B; Hohmann, G; Tautz, D

1999-06-07

Differences in social relationships among community members are often explained by differences in genetic relationships. The current techniques of DNA analysis allow explicit testing of such a hypothesis. Here, we have analysed the genetic relationships for a community of wild bonobos (Pan paniscus) using nuclear and mitochondrial DNA markers extracted from faecal samples. Bonobos show an opportunistic and promiscuous mating behaviour, even with mates from outside the community. Nonetheless, we find that most infants were sired by resident males and that two dominant males together attained the highest paternity success. Intriguingly, the latter males are the sons of high-ranking females, suggesting an important influence of mothers on the paternity success of their sons. The molecular data support previous inferences on female dispersal and male philopatry. We find a total of five different mitochondrial haplotypes among 15 adult females, suggesting a frequent migration of females. Moreover, for most adult and subadult males in the group we find a matching mother, while this is not the case for most females, indicating that these leave the community during adolescence. Our study demonstrates that faecal samples can be a useful source for the determination of kinship in a whole community.

Gender differences in personality traits across cultures: robust and surprising findings.

PubMed

Costa, Paul T; Terracciano, Antonio; McCrae, Robert R

2001-08-01

Secondary analyses of Revised NEO Personality Inventory data from 26 cultures (N = 23,031) suggest that gender differences are small relative to individual variation within genders; differences are replicated across cultures for both college-age and adult samples, and differences are broadly consistent with gender stereotypes: Women reported themselves to be higher in Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Warmth, and Openness to Feelings, whereas men were higher in Assertiveness and Openness to Ideas. Contrary to predictions from evolutionary theory, the magnitude of gender differences varied across cultures. Contrary to predictions from the social role model, gender differences were most pronounced in European and American cultures in which traditional sex roles are minimized. Possible explanations for this surprising finding are discussed, including the attribution of masculine and feminine behaviors to roles rather than traits in traditional cultures.

Child environmental exposures to water and sand at the beach: Findings from studies of over 68,000 subjects at 12 beaches

EPA Science Inventory

Swimming and recreating in lakes, oceans, and rivers is common, yet the literature suggests children may be at greater risk of illness following such exposures. These effects might be due to differences in immunity or differing behavioral factors such as poorer hygiene, longer ex...

Exploring Individual Differences among Novices Reading in a Specific Domain: The Case of Law.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deegan, Dorothy H.

1995-01-01

Explores reading strategies used by two groups of readers differentiated in terms of academic performance subsequent to their first year in law school. Finds that students in the top quartile used different strategies than students in the bottom quartile. Suggests that attention should be paid to literacy requirements and practices as students…

University Students' Views on Bullying from the Perspective of Different Participant Roles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Myers, Carrie-Anne; Cowie, Helen

2013-01-01

Sixty university students in three different participant roles--perpetrator, the target and the bystander--took part in a role-play incident of bullying. Participants were asked to describe (i) their perspective on the incident; (ii) their views of the target and the perpetrator and (iii) their solution to the problem. The findings suggest that…

Eyewitness Suggestibility and Source Similarity: Intrusions of Details from One Event into Memory Reports of Another Event

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lindsay, D. Stephen; Allen, Bem P.; Chan, Jason C. K.; Dahl, Leora C.

2004-01-01

We explored the effect of the degree of conceptual similarity between a witnessed event and an extra-event narrative on eyewitness suggestibility. Experiments 1A and 1B replicated Allen and Lindsay's (1998) finding that subjects sometimes intrude details from a narrative description of one event into their reports of a different visual event.…

Ethical challenges in neonatal intensive care nursing.

PubMed

Strandås, Maria; Fredriksen, Sven-Tore D

2015-12-01

Neonatal nurses report a great deal of ethical challenges in their everyday work. Seemingly trivial everyday choices nurses make are no more value-neutral than life-and-death choices. Everyday ethical challenges should also be recognized as ethical dilemmas in clinical practice. The purpose of this study is to investigate which types of ethical challenges neonatal nurses experience in their day-to-day care for critically ill newborns. Data were collected through semi-structured qualitative in-depth interviews. Phenomenological-hermeneutic analysis was applied to interpret the data. Six nurses from neonatal intensive care units at two Norwegian hospitals were interviewed on-site. The study is designed to comply with Ethical Guidelines for Nursing Research in the Nordic Countries and the Helsinki declaration. Findings suggest that nurses experience a diverse range of everyday ethical challenges related to challenging interactions with parents and colleagues, emotional strain, protecting the vulnerable infant, finding the balance between sensitivity and authority, ensuring continuity of treatment, and miscommunication and professional disagreement. A major finding in this study is how different agents involved in caring for the newborn experience their realities differently. When these realities collide, ethical challenges arise. Findings suggest that acting in the best interests of the child becomes more difficult in situations involving many agents with different perceptions of reality. The study presents new aspects which increases knowledge and understanding of the reality of nursing in a neonatal intensive care unit, while also demanding increased research in this field of care. © The Author(s) 2014.

Pustulotic Arthro-Osteitis (Sonozaki Syndrome): A Case Report and Review of Literature

PubMed Central

Kose, Reyhan; Senturk, Taskin; Sargin, Gokhan; Cildag, Songul; Kara, Yasemin

2018-01-01

Pustulotic arthro-osteitis (PAO) is a rare chronic inflammatory disease, which has now been classified as a seronegative spondyloarthritis. The sternoclavicular and sternocostal joints, pelvis, vertebra, hip, and long bones are affected. Skin findings of the disease are accepted as a variant of pustular psoriasis, but some authors have suggested that palmoplantar pustulosis (PPP) is a different entity. The synovitis, acne, pustulosis, hyperostosis, and osteitis (SAPHO) syndrome should be considered in the differential diagnosis. PAO differs from SAPHO by the absence of hyperostosis and the difference in skin manifestations. Here, we aimed to present a 34-year-old female patient with a diagnosis of PAO with typical skin findings and joint involvement. PMID:29531495

A meta-analysis of differences in IQ profiles between individuals with Asperger's disorder and high-functioning autism.

PubMed

Chiang, Hsu-Min; Tsai, Luke Y; Cheung, Ying Kuen; Brown, Alice; Li, Huacheng

2014-07-01

A meta-analysis was performed to examine differences in IQ profiles between individuals with Asperger's disorder (AspD) and high-functioning autism (HFA). Fifty-two studies were included for this study. The results showed that (a) individuals with AspD had significantly higher full-scale IQ, verbal IQ (VIQ), and performance IQ (PIQ) than did individuals with HFA; (b) individuals with AspD had significantly higher VIQ than PIQ; and (c) VIQ was similar to PIQ in individuals with HFA. These findings seem to suggest that AspD and HFA are two different subtypes of Autism. The implications of the present findings to DSM-5 Autism Spectrum Disorder are discussed.

Sex-role identification and violent victimization: gender differences in the role of masculinity.

PubMed

Daigle, Leah E; Mummert, Sadie J

2014-01-01

Although sex-role identification has been found to be associated with crime and delinquency, the link between sex-role identification and violent victimization has remained largely unexplored. Using the Add Health data, this study examines sex-role identification and its relationship to violent victimization. The findings suggest that masculinity increases the risk of violent victimization for males, but does not for females. Other differences in risk factors across gender were also found. These findings indicate that masculinity is an important construct in understanding the complexity of why some persons are violently victimized and others are not.

Vitamin C with metabolites: additional analysis suggests favorable changes in oxalate.

PubMed

Moyad, Mark A; Combs, Maile A; Baisley, Joshua E; Evans, Malkanthi

2009-01-01

A previously published randomized trial found a significant difference in the proportion of individuals experiencing oxalate reduction with a vitamin C with metabolites product compared with ascorbic acid (vitamin C). This represented a notable finding, which argued against the possibility of a chance finding due to the design and consistency of results. However, these researchers believed it was necessary to further analyze this study to continue to garner more insight on the strength or weakness of original findings. All favorable, neutral, and non-favorable changes of 24-hour oxalate from the previous clinical trial were grouped. Oxalate was considered to "decrease" or "increase" with each intervention only if a 10% or larger change occurred in the 24-hour oxalate baseline value when taking one product compared to another. A greater proportion of subjects taking both products at different time periods experienced favorable oxalate changes with vitamin C with metabolites product compared to ascorbic acid. If this reflects the true clinical scenario, this would represent an important clinical finding on a population level because at least 20% more individuals would experience a more favorable change. Regardless, this further analysis continues to suggest that the original observations were valid and could have positive clinical implications for some patients.

Science Majors and Degrees among Asian-American Students: Influences of Race and Sex in "model Minority" Experiences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, Yu; Hanson, Sandra L.

Both race and sex continue to be factors that stratify entry into science education and occupations in the United States. Asian-Americans (men and women) have experienced considerable success in the sciences and have earned the label of "model minority." The complexities and patterns involved in this success remain elusive. We use several concepts coming out of the status attainment framework and a multicultural gender perspective to explore the way in which race and sex come together to influence choices of science major and degree. Our sample consists of Asian-American and white students in the National Educational Longitudinal Study. Findings suggest that being male and being Asian-American are both associated with higher chances of pursuing majors and degrees in science. The male advantage is greater than the Asian-American advantage. Findings also suggest that race and sex interact in the science decision. For example, race differences (with an Asian-American advantage) in choice of science major are significant for women but not men. Sex differences (with a male advantage) in choice of science major are significant in the white, but not the Asian-American sample. A different set of race and sex patterns is revealed in the science degree models. Processes associated with family socioeconomic status and student characteristics help to explain race and sex patterns. Findings suggest that when Asian-American youths have closer ties to the Asian culture, they are more likely to choose science majors and degrees. Implications for policy, practice, and research in science education are discussed.

Zebrafish mutations affecting cilia motility share similar cystic phenotypes and suggest a mechanism of cyst formation that differs from pkd2 morphants

PubMed Central

Sullivan-Brown, Jessica; Schottenfeld, Jodi; Okabe, Noriko; Hostetter, Christine L.; Serluca, Fabrizio C.; Thiberge, Stephan Y.; Burdine, Rebecca D.

2008-01-01

Zebrafish are an attractive model for studying the earliest cellular defects occurring during renal cyst formation because its kidney (the pronephros) is simple and genes that cause cystic kidney diseases (CKD) in humans, cause pronephric dilations in zebrafish. By comparing phenotypes in three different mutants, locke, swt and kurly, we find that dilations occur prior to 48 hpf in the medial tubules, a location similar to where cysts form in some mammalian diseases. We demonstrate that the first observeable phenotypes associated with dilation include cilia motility and luminal remodeling defects. Importantly, we show that some phenotypes common to human CKD, such as an increased number of cells, are secondary consequences of dilation. Despite having differences in cilia motility, locke, swt and kurly share similar cystic phenotypes, suggesting that they function in a common pathway. To begin to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in cyst formation, we have cloned the swt mutation and find that it encodes a novel leucine rich repeat containing protein (LRRC50), which is thought to function in correct dynein assembly in cilia. Finally, we show that knockdown of polycystic kidney disease 2 (pkd2) specifically causes glomerular cysts and does not affect cilia motility, suggesting multiple mechanisms exist for cyst formation. PMID:18178183

Game Plan: Concentrate on Kindness.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeRosa, Bill

1989-01-01

Describes a learning game in which students will find about 40 different ways they can help animals, learn more about animal needs and people's responsibilities for animal welfare. Provides directions, suggested activities, and two copyable pages of game cards. (Author/RT)

Big Five personality traits, job satisfaction and subjective wellbeing in China.

PubMed

Zhai, Qingguo; Willis, Mike; O'Shea, Bob; Zhai, Yubo; Yang, Yuwen

2013-01-01

This paper examines the effect of the Big Five personality traits on job satisfaction and subjective wellbeing (SWB). The paper also examines the mediating role of job satisfaction on the Big Five-SWB relationship. Data were collected from a sample of 818 urban employees from five Chinese cities: Harbin, Changchun, Shenyang, Dalian, and Fushun. All the study variables were measured with well-established multi-item scales that have been validated both in English-speaking populations and in China. The study found only extraversion to have an effect on job satisfaction, suggesting that there could be cultural difference in the relationships between the Big Five and job satisfaction in China and in the West. The study found that three factors in the Big Five--extraversion, conscientiousness, and neuroticism--have an effect on SWB. This finding is similar to findings in the West, suggesting convergence in the relationship between the Big Five and SWB in different cultural contexts. The research found that only the relationship between extraversion and SWB is partially mediated by job satisfaction, implying that the effect of the Big Five on SWB is mainly direct, rather than indirect via job satisfaction. The study also found that extraversion was the strongest predictor of both job satisfaction and SWB. This finding implies that extraversion could be more important than other factors in the Big Five in predicting job satisfaction and SWB in a "high collectivism" and "high power distance" country such as China. The research findings are discussed in the Chinese cultural context. The study also offers suggestions on the directions for future research.

THE PHASE COHERENCE OF INTERSTELLAR DENSITY FLUCTUATIONS

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

Burkhart, Blakesley; Lazarian, A.

2016-08-10

Studies of MHD turbulence often investigate the Fourier power spectrum to provide information on the nature of the turbulence cascade. However, the Fourier power spectrum only contains the Fourier amplitudes and rejects all information regarding the Fourier phases. Here, we investigate the utility of two statistical diagnostics for recovering information on Fourier phases in ISM column density maps: the averaged amplitudes of the bispectrum and the phase coherence index (PCI), a new phase technique for the ISM. We create three-dimensional density and two-dimensional column density maps using a set of simulations of isothermal ideal MHD turbulence with a wide rangemore » of sonic and Alfvénic Mach numbers. We find that the bispectrum averaged along different angles with respect to either the k {sub 1} or k {sub 2} axis is primarily sensitive to the sonic Mach number while averaging the bispectral amplitudes over different annuli is sensitive to both the sonic and Alfvénic Mach numbers. The PCI of density suggests that the most correlated phases occur in supersonic sub-Alfvénic turbulence and near the shock scale. This suggests that nonlinear interactions with correlated phases are strongest in shock-dominated regions, in agreement with findings from the solar wind. Our results suggest that the phase information contained in the bispectrum and PCI can be used to find the turbulence parameters in column density maps.« less

Age differences in emotional reactions: arousal and age-relevance count.

PubMed

Streubel, Berit; Kunzmann, Ute

2011-12-01

Recent findings suggest positivity effects in older adults' attention and memory, but few studies have examined such effects on the level of emotional reactivity. In this study, 52 young and 52 older adults rated 172 pictures of the International Affective Picture System, differing in arousal and age-relevance, in terms of valence and discrete emotions. Age differences in the ratio of pleasantness reactions to pleasant pictures vs. unpleasantness reactions to unpleasant pictures as well as age differences in absolute levels of unpleasantness and pleasantness reactions suggest that positivity effects in older adults' subjective emotional reactions are reduced under high arousal. There is also evidence that positivity effects may be restricted to stimuli with low relevance in old age.

Sensory Cells of the Fish Ear: A Hairy Enigma

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Popper, A. N.; Saidel, W. M.

1995-01-01

Analysis of the structure of the ears in teleost fishes has led to the tentative suggestion that otolithic endorgans may function differently, in different species. Recently, evidence has demonstrated different 'types' of sensory hair cells can be found in the ears of teleost fishes, and individual hair cell types are found in discrete regions of individual sensory, epithelia. The presence of multiple hair cell types in fishes provides strong support to the hypothesis of regional differences in the responses of individual otolithic sensory epithelia. The finding of hair cell types in fishes that closely resemble those found in amniote vestibular endorgans also suggests that hair cell heterogeneity arose earlier in the evolution of the vertebrate ear than previously thought.

No evidence for systematic white matter correlates of dyslexia and dyscalculia.

PubMed

Moreau, David; Wilson, Anna J; McKay, Nicole S; Nihill, Kasey; Waldie, Karen E

2018-01-01

Learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and their comorbid manifestation are prevalent, affecting as much as 15% of the population. Structural neuroimaging studies have indicated that these disorders can be related to differences in white matter integrity, although findings remain disparate. In this study, we used a unique design composed of individuals with dyslexia, dyscalculia, both disorders and controls, to systematically explore differences in fractional anisotropy across groups using diffusion tensor imaging. Specifically, we focused on the corona radiata and the arcuate fasciculus, two tracts associated with reading and mathematics in a number of previous studies. Using Bayesian hypothesis testing, we show that the present data favor the null model of no differences between groups for these particular tracts-a finding that seems to go against the current view but might be representative of the disparities within this field of research. Together, these findings suggest that structural differences associated with dyslexia and dyscalculia might not be as reliable as previously thought, with potential ramifications in terms of remediation.

Sex differences on the competitive place task in the water maze: The influence of peripheral pool time on spatial navigation performance in rats.

PubMed

Devan, Bryan D; Tobin, Elizabeth L; Dunn, Emily N; Magalis, Christopher

2016-11-01

This study investigated sex differences on the competitive place version of the Morris water maze task to determine whether potential strategy differences would emerge during any phase of the study but in particular on the competitive place phase. Previous findings indicate that this version of the task is highly sensitive to measures that disrupt NMDA-dependent synaptic plasticity within the hippocampus during memory consolidation (McDonald et al., 2005). The present findings revealed significant sex differences during all phases of the study, including Phase I with standard place training to located a hidden platform/goal, Phase II mass training to a new place with the platform/goal relocated to the diagonally opposite quadrant and Phase III, competitive place probe test with the platform removed to measure spatial behaviour directed at either location. The findings showed no sex difference in escape latency and other standard performance measures during the first two phases, initial place acquisition and mass training to a new location. A very subtle male advantage in visiting both Old and New place locations during the third phase place competition test was observed, however, in the time spent swimming in the periphery of the pool, the pool wall (Zone C - outer third radial distance) was increased for females during all phases of the study, suggesting a general effect may have influenced place location search behaviour of the females. Increased peripheral pool time may represent a female preference for approaching the wall, a local cue. Alternatively, the possibility that increased peripheral swimming/thigmotaxis may represent hormonal influences interacting with strategic preferences were discussed, though no definitive conclusions about sex differences in cognitive-spatial performance or memory consolidation were inferred from the present findings. The findings suggest that mixed results reported in the literature by others may be due in part to an interaction with a persistent peripheral pool swimming response demonstrated in female rats. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Functions of reminiscence and the psychological well-being of young-old and older adults over time.

PubMed

O'Rourke, Norm; Cappeliez, Philippe; Claxton, Amy

2011-03-01

Existing cross-sectional research demonstrates an association between reminiscence functions and well-being in later life. The results of this study replicate and extend previous findings in separate participant samples above and below 70 years of age. Findings suggest a link between reminiscence functions and psychological well-being, and indirectly between reminiscence and well-being 16 months thereafter. Invariance analyses reveal few differences in association between reminiscence and well-being when young-old (n = 196) and older adults (n = 215) are compared. These findings suggest a direct positive association between self-positive reminiscence functions (identity, death preparation, and problem-solving) and a direct negative association between self-negative functions (boredom reduction, bitterness revival, and intimacy maintenance) and psychological well-being (life satisfaction, depressive, and anxiety symptoms). In contrast, prosocial reminiscence functions (conversation, teach/inform others) appear to have an indirect association with well-being (i.e., via self-positive and self-negative functions). These findings are discussed relative to evolving theory and research linking cognition and health.

Expected time-invariant effects of biological traits on mammal species duration.

PubMed

Smits, Peter D

2015-10-20

Determining which biological traits influence differences in extinction risk is vital for understanding the differential diversification of life and for making predictions about species' vulnerability to anthropogenic impacts. Here I present a hierarchical Bayesian survival model of North American Cenozoic mammal species durations in relation to species-level ecological factors, time of origination, and phylogenetic relationships. I find support for the survival of the unspecialized as a time-invariant generalization of trait-based extinction risk. Furthermore, I find that phylogenetic and temporal effects are both substantial factors associated with differences in species durations. Finally, I find that the estimated effects of these factors are partially incongruous with how these factors are correlated with extinction risk of the extant species. These findings parallel previous observations that background extinction is a poor predictor of mass extinction events and suggest that attention should be focused on mass extinctions to gain insight into modern species loss.

Cuticular hydrocarbon phenotypes do not indicate cryptic species in fungus-growing termites (Isoptera: Macrotermitinae).

PubMed

Marten, Andreas; Kaib, Manfred; Brandl, Roland

2009-05-01

In several termite species, distinct differences in the composition of cuticular hydrocarbons among colonies correspond to high genetic divergence of mitochondrial DNA sequences. These observations suggest that hydrocarbon phenotypes represent cryptic species. Different cuticular hydrocarbon phenotypes also are found among colonies of fungus-growing termites of the genus Macrotermes. To determine if these hydrocarbon differences in Macrotermes also indicate cryptic species, we sequenced the mitochondrial CO I gene from species in West and East Africa. Among individuals of a supposed species but belonging to different cuticular hydrocarbon phenotypes, the genetic distances are much smaller than distances between species. Unlike what has been observed in other termites, Macrotermes hydrocarbon phenotypes do not represent cryptic species. Our findings suggest fundamental differences in the evolution and/or function of cuticular hydrocarbons among different termite lineages.

New daily persistent headache: clinical and serological characteristics in a retrospective study.

PubMed

Meineri, P; Torre, E; Rota, E; Grasso, E

2004-10-01

We present a retrospective clinical study of 18 cases of new daily persistent headache (NDPH), a rare chronic headache, included in the fourth chapter of the II IHS classification; the pathophysiology of NDPH is unknown but a link with viral infections (especially Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)) has been suggested. Comparing our series with the other two published until now, we did not find any particular difference, as regards to clinical aspects. However, our laboratory tests show a recent herpes simplex virus infection in 42% and cytomegalovirus in 11% of cases; moreover we could not find any EBV infection. Our data suggest that viruses other than EBV can play a role in NDPH.

Motivations and usage patterns of Weibo.

PubMed

Zhang, Lixuan; Pentina, Iryna

2012-06-01

Referred to as "Weibo," microblogging in China has witnessed an exponential growth. In addition to the Twitter-like functionality, Weibo allows rich media uploads into user feeds, provides threaded comments, and offers applications, games, and Weibo medals. This expanded functionality, as well as the observed differences in trending content, suggests potentially different user motivations to join Weibo and their usage patterns compared to Twitter. This pioneering study identifies dominant Weibo user motivations and their effects on usage patterns. We discuss the findings of an online survey of 234 Weibo users and suggest managerial implications and future research directions.

Does Electrification Spur the Fertility Transition? Evidence From Indonesia.

PubMed

Grimm, Michael; Sparrow, Robert; Tasciotti, Luca

2015-10-01

We analyze various pathways through which access to electricity affects fertility in Indonesia, using a district difference-in-difference approach. The electrification rate increased by 65 % over the study period, and our results suggest that the subsequent effects on fertility account for about 18 % to 24 % of the overall decline in fertility. A key channel is increased exposure to television. Using in addition several waves of Demographic and Health Surveys, we find suggestive evidence that increased exposure to TV affects, in particular, fertility preferences and increases the effective use of contraception. Reduced child mortality seems to be another important pathway.

The N-terminal strand modulates immunoglobulin light chain fibrillogenesis.

PubMed

del Pozo-Yauner, Luis; Wall, Jonathan S; González Andrade, Martín; Sánchez-López, Rosana; Rodríguez-Ambriz, Sandra L; Pérez Carreón, Julio I; Ochoa-Leyva, Adrián; Fernández-Velasco, D Alejandro

2014-01-10

It has been suggested that the N-terminal strand of the light chain variable domain (V(L)) protects the molecule from aggregation by hindering spurious intermolecular contacts. We evaluated the impact of mutations in the N-terminal strand on the thermodynamic stability and kinetic of fibrillogenesis of the V(L) protein 6aJL2. Mutations in this strand destabilized the protein in a position-dependent manner, accelerating the fibrillogenesis by shortening the lag time; an effect that correlated with the extent of destabilization. In contrast, the effect on the kinetics of fibril elongation, as assessed in seeding experiments was of different nature, as it was not directly dependant on the degree of destabilization. This finding suggests different factors drive the nucleation-dependent and elongation phases of light chain fibrillogenesis. Finally, taking advantage of the dependence of the Trp fluorescence upon environment, four single Trp substitutions were made in the N-terminal strand, and changes in solvent exposure during aggregation were evaluated by acrylamide-quenching. The results suggest that the N-terminal strand is buried in the fibrillar state of 6aJL2 protein. This finding suggest a possible explanation for the modulating effect exerted by the mutations in this strand on the aggregation behavior of 6aJL2 protein. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Different Values, Different Skills? A Comparison of Essay Writing by Students from Arts and Science Backgrounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

North, Sarah

2005-01-01

This article reports the findings of a 3 year research project which investigated disciplinary variation in student writing. Within an Open University course in the history of science, students from an arts background were found to achieve significantly higher grades than those from a science background. Textual and interview data suggest that…

Sex Differences in Mental Abilities: "g" Masks the Dimensions on Which They Lie

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Wendy; Bouchard, Thomas J., Jr.

2007-01-01

Empirical data suggest that there is at most a very small sex difference in general mental ability, but men clearly perform better on visuospatial tasks while women clearly perform better on tests of verbal usage and perceptual speed. In this study, we integrated these overall findings with predictions based on the Verbal-Perceptual-Rotation (VPR)…

Inequalities at the Outset: Racial, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Differences in Parents' Perceptions of Paying for College

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warnock, Deborah M.

2016-01-01

Using NELS data I examine parents' perceptions of paying for college before their students enter high school. Findings suggest that racial wealth disparities may help explain differences in parents' perceptions of paying. In addition, Hispanics and low-income families are less likely to have information about financial aid and more likely to…

Rapid, generalized adaptation to asynchronous audiovisual speech

PubMed Central

Van der Burg, Erik; Goodbourn, Patrick T.

2015-01-01

The brain is adaptive. The speed of propagation through air, and of low-level sensory processing, differs markedly between auditory and visual stimuli; yet the brain can adapt to compensate for the resulting cross-modal delays. Studies investigating temporal recalibration to audiovisual speech have used prolonged adaptation procedures, suggesting that adaptation is sluggish. Here, we show that adaptation to asynchronous audiovisual speech occurs rapidly. Participants viewed a brief clip of an actor pronouncing a single syllable. The voice was either advanced or delayed relative to the corresponding lip movements, and participants were asked to make a synchrony judgement. Although we did not use an explicit adaptation procedure, we demonstrate rapid recalibration based on a single audiovisual event. We find that the point of subjective simultaneity on each trial is highly contingent upon the modality order of the preceding trial. We find compelling evidence that rapid recalibration generalizes across different stimuli, and different actors. Finally, we demonstrate that rapid recalibration occurs even when auditory and visual events clearly belong to different actors. These results suggest that rapid temporal recalibration to audiovisual speech is primarily mediated by basic temporal factors, rather than higher-order factors such as perceived simultaneity and source identity. PMID:25716790

Parent socialization effects in different cultures: significance of directive parenting.

PubMed

Sorkhabi, Nadia

2012-06-01

In this article, the controversy of divergent findings in research on parental socialization effects in different cultures is addressed. Three explanations intended to address divergent findings of socialization effects in different cultures, as advanced by researchers who emphasize cultural differences, are discussed. These include cultural differences in socialization values and goals of parents, parental emotional and cognitive characteristics associated with parenting styles, and adolescents' interpretations or evaluations of their parents' parenting styles. The empirical evidence for and against each of these arguments is examined and an alternative paradigm for understanding and empirical study of developmental outcomes associated with parenting styles in different cultures is suggested. Baumrind's directive parenting style is presented as an alternative to the authoritarian parenting style in understanding the positive developmental effects associated with "strict" parenting in cultures said to have a collectivist orientation. Directions for research on the three explanations are mentioned.

BOLD signal and functional connectivity associated with loving kindness meditation

PubMed Central

Garrison, Kathleen A; Scheinost, Dustin; Constable, R Todd; Brewer, Judson A

2014-01-01

Loving kindness is a form of meditation involving directed well-wishing, typically supported by the silent repetition of phrases such as “may all beings be happy,” to foster a feeling of selfless love. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the neural substrate of loving kindness meditation in experienced meditators and novices. We first assessed group differences in blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal during loving kindness meditation. We next used a relatively novel approach, the intrinsic connectivity distribution of functional connectivity, to identify regions that differ in intrinsic connectivity between groups, and then used a data-driven approach to seed-based connectivity analysis to identify which connections differ between groups. Our findings suggest group differences in brain regions involved in self-related processing and mind wandering, emotional processing, inner speech, and memory. Meditators showed overall reduced BOLD signal and intrinsic connectivity during loving kindness as compared to novices, more specifically in the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus (PCC/PCu), a finding that is consistent with our prior work and other recent neuroimaging studies of meditation. Furthermore, meditators showed greater functional connectivity during loving kindness between the PCC/PCu and the left inferior frontal gyrus, whereas novices showed greater functional connectivity during loving kindness between the PCC/PCu and other cortical midline regions of the default mode network, the bilateral posterior insula lobe, and the bilateral parahippocampus/hippocampus. These novel findings suggest that loving kindness meditation involves a present-centered, selfless focus for meditators as compared to novices. PMID:24944863

Cultural context, obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms, and cognitions: a preliminary study of three Turkish samples living in different countries.

PubMed

Yorulmaz, Orçun; Işık, Bilgen

2011-04-01

Previous research findings have suggested that recent cognitive accounts of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are valid across different cultural contexts for both clinical and nonclinical samples; however, there is evidence that cultural differences may have an impact on a number of cognitive variables. For this reason, immigration provides an exceptional opportunity for an examination of the role of cultural context in cognitions and possible changes in cultural characteristics. To this end, the present study examined the interrelationships between thought-action fusion, thought control strategies and OCD symptoms in three nonclinical samples, taking the immigration factor into consideration. Thus, the current study included three Turkish sample groups: those who remigrated to Turkey from Bulgaria, those still living in Bulgaria, and those that have always resided in Turkey. The findings of the study supported the role of thought and action fusion and control strategies in OCD symptoms in a cross-cultural context. To illustrate, worry, as a thought control strategy for OCD symptoms, was a common factor in all three sample groups. However, differences were also noted between the groups, despite having the same ethnic origin. Although they immigrated back to Turkey and have been living there for a considerable period of time, the Turkish remigrants retained similar characteristics to the respondents in Bulgaria on cognitions in general. Consequently, it may be suggested that cultural context might have a relative impact on certain correlates. A replication of these findings using different immigration groups and examining various cultural factors is strongly encouraged.

Self-organization of globally continuous and locally distributed information representation.

PubMed

Wada, Koji; Kurata, Koji; Okada, Masato

2004-01-01

A number of findings suggest that the preferences of neighboring neurons in the inferior temporal (IT) cortex of macaque monkeys tend to be similar. However, a recent study reports convincingly that the preferences of neighboring neurons actually differ. These findings seem contradictory. To explain this conflict, we propose a new view of information representation in the IT cortex. This view takes into account sparse and local neuronal excitation. Since the excitation is sparse, information regarding visual objects seems to be encoded in a distributed manner. The local excitation of neurons coincides with the classical notion of a column structure. Our model consists of input layer and output layer. The main difference from conventional models is that the output layer has local and random intra-layer connections. In this paper, we adopt two rings embedded in three-dimensional space as an input signal space, and examine how resultant information representation depends on the distance between two rings that is denoted as D. We show that there exists critical value for the distance Dc. When D > Dc the output layer becomes able to form the column structure, this model can obtain the distributed representation within the column. While the output layer acquires the conventional information representation observed in the V1 cortex when D < Dc. Moreover, we consider the origin of the difference between information representation of the V1 cortex and that of the IT cortex. Our finding suggests that the difference in the information representations between the V1 and the IT cortices could be caused by difference between the input space structures.

The BDNFval66met polymorphism and individual differences in temperament in 4-month-old infants: A pilot study.

PubMed

Giusti, Lorenzo; Provenzi, Livio; Tavian, Daniela; Missaglia, Sara; Butti, Niccolò; Montirosso, Rosario

2017-05-01

Individual differences in infants' temperament are under genetic control. We investigated the association between brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor (BDNF val66met ) polymorphism and temperament in 63 full-term infants. Met-carriers (N=25) had lower Regulatory capacities compared to val-homozygotes (N=38). These findings suggest that the BDNF polymorphism affects early temperament individual differences. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Findings of the International Subarachnoid Aneurysm Trial and the National Study of Subarachnoid Haemorrhage in context.

PubMed

Reeves, B C; Langham, J; Lindsay, K W; Molyneux, A J; Browne, J P; Copley, L; Shaw, D; Gholkar, A; Kirkpatrick, P J

2007-08-01

Concern has been expressed about the applicability of the findings of the International Subarachnoid Aneurysm Trial (ISAT) with respect to the relative effects on outcome of coiling and clipping. It has been suggested that the findings of the National Study of Subarachnoid Haemorrhage may have greater relevance for neurosurgical practice. The objective of this paper was to interpret the findings of these two studies in the context of differences in their study populations, design, execution and analysis. Because of differences in design and analysis, the findings of the two studies are not directly comparable. The ISAT analysed all randomized patients by intention-to-treat, including some who did not undergo a repair, and obtained the primary outcome for 99% of participants. The National Study only analysed participants who underwent clipping or coiling, according to the method of repair, and obtained the primary outcome for 91% of participants. Time to repair was also considered differently in the two studies. The comparison between coiling and clipping was susceptible to confounding in the National Study, but not in the ISAT. The two study populations differed to some extent, but inspection of these differences does not support the view that coiling was applied inappropriately in the National Study. Therefore, there are many reasons why the two studies estimated different sizes of effect. The possibility that there were real, systematic differences in practice between the ISAT and the National Study cannot be ruled out, but such explanations must be seen in the context of other explanations relating to chance, differences in design or analysis, or confounding.

Sources of group differences in functional connectivity: an investigation applied to autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Jones, Tyler B; Bandettini, Peter A; Kenworthy, Lauren; Case, Laura K; Milleville, Shawn C; Martin, Alex; Birn, Rasmus M

2010-01-01

An increasing number of fMRI studies are using the correlation of low-frequency fluctuations between brain regions, believed to reflect synchronized variations in neuronal activity, to infer "functional connectivity". In studies of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), decreases in this measure of connectivity have been found by focusing on the response to task modulation, by using only the rest periods, or by analyzing purely resting-state data. This difference in connectivity, however, could result from a number of different mechanisms--differences in noise, task-related fluctuations, task performance, or spontaneous neuronal activity. In this study, we investigate the difference in functional connectivity between adolescents with high-functioning ASD and typically developing control subjects by examining the residual fluctuations occurring on top of the fMRI response to an overt verbal fluency task. We find decreased correlations of these residuals (a decreased "connectivity") in ASD subjects. Furthermore, we find that this decrease was not due to task-related effects, block-to-block variations in task performance, or increased noise, and the difference was greatest when primarily rest periods are considered. These findings suggest that the estimate of disrupted functional connectivity in ASD is likely driven by differences in task-unrelated neuronal fluctuations.

Editorial Decisions May Perpetuate Belief in Invalid Research Findings

PubMed Central

Eriksson, Kimmo; Simpson, Brent

2013-01-01

Social psychology and related disciplines are seeing a resurgence of interest in replication, as well as actual replication efforts. But prior work suggests that even a clear demonstration that a finding is invalid often fails to shake acceptance of the finding. This threatens the full impact of these replication efforts. Here we show that the actions of two key players – journal editors and the authors of original (invalidated) research findings – are critical to the broader public’s continued belief in an invalidated research conclusion. Across three experiments, we show that belief in an invalidated finding falls sharply when a critical failed replication is published in the same – versus different – journal as the original finding, and when the authors of the original finding acknowledge that the new findings invalidate their conclusions. We conclude by discussing policy implications of our key findings. PMID:24023863

A meta-analysis of HLA peptidome composition in different hematological entities: entity-specific dividing lines and “pan-leukemia” antigens

PubMed Central

Walz, Simon; Schuster, Heiko; Berlin, Claudia; Neidert, Marian Christoph; Schemionek, Mirle; Brümmendorf, Tim H.; Vucinic, Vladan; Niederwieser, Dietger; Kanz, Lothar; Salih, Helmut Rainer; Kohlbacher, Oliver; Weisel, Katja; Rammensee, Hans-Georg; Stevanović, Stefan; Walz, Juliane Sarah

2017-01-01

Hematological malignancies (HM) are highly amenable targets for immunotherapeutic intervention and may be effectively treated by antigen-specific T-cell based treatment. Recent studies demonstrate that physiologically occurring anti-cancer T-cell responses in certain HM entities target broadly presented non-mutated epitopes. HLA ligands are thus implied as prime targets for broadly applicable and antigen-specific off-the-shelf compounds. With the aim of assessing the presence of common targets shared among different HM which may enable addressing a larger patient collective we conducted a meta-analysis of 83 mass spectrometry-based HLA peptidome datasets (comprising 40,361 unique peptide identifications) across four major HM (19 AML, 16 CML, 35 CLL, and 13 MM/MCL samples) and investigated similarities and differences within the HLA presented antigenic landscape. We found the cancer HLA peptidome datasets to cluster specifically along entity and lineage lines, suggesting that the immunopeptidome directly reflects the differences in the underlying (tumor-)biology. In line with these findings, we only detected a small set of entity-spanning antigens, which were predominantly characterized by low presentation frequencies within the different patient cohorts. These findings suggest that design of T-cell immunotherapies for the treatment of HM should ideally be conducted in an entity-specific fashion. PMID:28159928

MEASURING EVERYDAY RACIAL/ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION IN HEALTH SURVEYS: How Best to Ask the Questions, in One or Two Stages, Across Multiple Racial/Ethnic Groups?

PubMed

Shariff-Marco, Salma; Breen, Nancy; Landrine, Hope; Reeve, Bryce B; Krieger, Nancy; Gee, Gilbert C; Williams, David R; Mays, Vickie M; Ponce, Ninez A; Alegría, Margarita; Liu, Benmei; Willis, Gordon; Johnson, Timothy P

2011-01-01

While it is clear that self-reported racial/ethnic discrimination is related to illness, there are challenges in measuring self-reported discrimination or unfair treatment. In the present study, we evaluate the psychometric properties of a self-reported instrument across racial/ ethnic groups in a population-based sample, and we test and interpret findings from applying two different widely-used approaches to asking about discrimination and unfair treatment. Even though we found that the subset of items we tested tap into a single underlying concept, we also found that different groups are more likely to report on different aspects of discrimination. Whether race is mentioned in the survey question affects both frequency and mean scores of reports of racial/ethnic discrimination. Our findings suggest caution to researchers when comparing studies that have used different approaches to measure racial/ethnic discrimination and allow us to suggest practical empirical guidelines for measuring and analyzing racial/ethnic discrimination. No less important, we have developed a self-reported measure of recent racial/ethnic discrimination that functions well in a range of different racial/ethnic groups and makes it possible to compare how racial/ethnic discrimination is associated with health disparities among multiple racial/ethnic groups.

Sex differences in common pain events: expectations and anchors.

PubMed

Robinson, Michael E; Gagnon, Christine M; Dannecker, Erin A; Brown, Jennifer L; Jump, Rebecca L; Price, Donald D

2003-02-01

This study examined (1) the effects of sex-related stereotypes in commonly experienced, potentially painful events and (2) differences in events representing the worst pain sensation imaginable for the typical woman and the typical man. Undergraduates (63 women and 54 men) completed the Situational Pain Questionnaire as the typical woman would and as the typical man would. The participants also answered 2 open-ended questions regarding the worst pain sensation imaginable for the typical woman and for the typical man. Our findings demonstrate that sex-related stereotypes extend to common pain events and that men and women expected that men would report less pain for common pain events than women. This suggests a gender-role related learning history that is relatively consistent for both sexes. The worst pain sensation imaginable was perceived to be different for typical men and women. Both sexes chose injury as the class of events men would find most painful and childbirth and menstrual pain as the class of events women would find most painful. Implications of this finding for common pain scaling approaches are discussed. The results of this study were obtained from a fairly uniform group of undergraduate men and women, which may limit the generalizability of our findings.

Gender and respiratory findings in workers occupationally exposed to organic aerosols: a meta analysis of 12 cross-sectional studies.

PubMed

Schachter, E Neil; Zuskin, Eugenija; Moshier, Erin L; Godbold, James; Mustajbegovic, Jadranka; Pucarin-Cvetkovic, Jasna; Chiarelli, Angelo

2009-01-12

Gender related differences in respiratory disease have been documented. The aim of this study was to investigate gender related differences in respiratory findings by occupation. We analyzed data from 12 of our previously published studies. Three thousand and eleven (3011) workers employed in "organic dust" industries (1379 female and 1632 male) were studied. A control group of 806 workers not exposed to any kind of dust were also investigated (male = 419, female = 387). Acute and chronic respiratory symptoms and lung function were measured. The weighted average method and the Mantel-Haentszel method were used to calculate the odds ratios of symptoms. Hedge's unbiased estimations were used to measure lung function differences between men and women. There were high prevalences of acute and chronic respiratory symptoms in all the "dusty" studied groups compared to controls. Significantly less chronic cough, chronic phlegm as well as chronic bronchitis were found among women than among men after the adjustments for smoking, age and duration of employment. Upper respiratory tract symptoms by contrast were more frequent in women than in men in these groups. Significant gender related lung function differences occurred in the textile industry but not in the food processing industry or among farmers. The results of this study suggest that in industries processing organic compounds there are gender differences in respiratory symptoms and lung function in exposed workers. Whether these findings represent true physiologic gender differences, gender specific workplace exposures or other undefined gender variables not defined in this study cannot be determined. These data do not suggest that special limitations for women are warranted for respiratory health reasons in these industries, but the issue of upper respiratory irritation and disease warrants further study.

The Coming-Out Process of Young Lesbian and Bisexual Women: Are There Butch/Femme Differences in Sexual Identity Development?

PubMed Central

Rosario, Margaret; Schrimshaw, Eric W.; Hunter, Joyce; Levy-Warren, Anna

2011-01-01

Research on lesbian and bisexual women has documented various biological and behavioral differences between butch and femme women. However, little research has examined whether differences exist in sexual identity development (i.e., the coming-out process). The present study examined longitudinally potential butch/femme differences in sexual identity formation and integration among an ethnically diverse sample of 76 self-identified lesbian and bisexual young women (ages 14–21 years). A composite measure of butch/femme identity classified 43% as butch and 51% as femme. Initial comparisons found butch/femme differences in sexual identity (i.e., nearly all butches identified as lesbian, but about half of femmes identified as bisexual), suggesting the need to examine this confound. Comparisons of lesbian butches, lesbian femmes, and bisexual femmes found that lesbian butches and femmes generally did not differ on sexual identity formation, but they differed from bisexual femmes. Lesbian butches and femmes had sexual behaviors and a cognitive sexual orientation that were more centered on women than those of bisexual femmes. With respect to sexual identity integration, lesbian butches were involved in more gay social activities, were more comfortable with others knowing about their homosexuality, and were more certain, comfortable, and accepting of their sexual identity than were bisexual femmes. Fewer differences were found between lesbian femmes and bisexual femmes or between lesbian butches and lesbian femmes. The findings suggest that sexual identity formation does not differ between butch or femme women, but differences are linked to sexual identity as lesbian or bisexual. Further, the findings that lesbian femmes sometimes differed from lesbian butches and at other times from bisexual femmes on sexual identity integration suggest that neither sexual identity nor butch/femme alone may explain sexual identity integration. Research examining the intersection between sexual identity and butch/femme is needed. PMID:17896173

The coming-out process of young lesbian and bisexual women: are there butch/femme differences in sexual identity development?

PubMed

Rosario, Margaret; Schrimshaw, Eric W; Hunter, Joyce; Levy-Warren, Anna

2009-02-01

Research on lesbian and bisexual women has documented various biological and behavioral differences between butch and femme women. However, little research has examined whether differences exist in sexual identity development (i.e., the coming-out process). The present study examined longitudinally potential butch/femme differences in sexual identity formation and integration among an ethnically diverse sample of 76 self-identified lesbian and bisexual young women (ages 14-21 years). A composite measure of butch/femme identity classified 43% as butch and 51% as femme. Initial comparisons found butch/femme differences in sexual identity (i.e., nearly all butches identified as lesbian, but about half of femmes identified as bisexual), suggesting the need to examine this confound. Comparisons of lesbian butches, lesbian femmes, and bisexual femmes found that lesbian butches and femmes generally did not differ on sexual identity formation, but they differed from bisexual femmes. Lesbian butches and femmes had sexual behaviors and a cognitive sexual orientation that were more centered on women than those of bisexual femmes. With respect to sexual identity integration, lesbian butches were involved in more gay social activities, were more comfortable with others knowing about their homosexuality, and were more certain, comfortable, and accepting of their sexual identity than were bisexual femmes. Fewer differences were found between lesbian femmes and bisexual femmes or between lesbian butches and lesbian femmes. The findings suggest that sexual identity formation does not differ between butch or femme women, but differences are linked to sexual identity as lesbian or bisexual. Further, the findings that lesbian femmes sometimes differed from lesbian butches and at other times from bisexual femmes on sexual identity integration suggest that neither sexual identity nor butch/femme alone may explain sexual identity integration. Research examining the intersection between sexual identity and butch/ femme is needed.

Reward Structures in the Public High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spuck, Dennis W.

1974-01-01

Examines the relationship between eight categories of rewards available to teachers in high schools and teacher behaviors of absenteeism, recruitment, and retention. Findings emphasize the importance of intrinsic motivators in professional organizations and suggest basic differences in motivational patterns between professional and production…

Sustained Attention of Adults with Mental Retardation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomporowski, Phillip D.; Allison, Pamela

1988-01-01

The sustained attention of 23 young adults with mild mental retardation and nonretarded subjects was assessed. Findings suggested that the sustained attention of the retarded differs from that of the nonretarded on those vigilance tasks that place demands on memory abilities. (Author/DB)

Maternal Stress during Pregnancy Predicts Cognitive Ability and Fearfulness in Infancy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bergman, Kristin; Sarkar, Pampa; O'Connor, Thomas G.; Modi, Neena; Glover, Vivette

2007-01-01

The effects of prenatal stress on cognition and behavioral fearfulness in infants are studied. The findings suggest that mechanisms by which mental development and fearfulness are affected by prenatal stress are different and do not present a consistent relation.

Gender differences in intimate partner violence and alcohol use among Latino-migrant and seasonal farmworkers in rural southeastern North Carolina.

PubMed

Kim-Godwin, Yeoun Soo; Fox, Jane A

2009-07-01

The purpose of this study was to assess intimate partner violence (IPV) and alcohol use among Latino migrant and seasonal farmworkers. The 291 Latino participants were interviewed in Spanish at migrant camps and residences in 3 counties located in southeastern North Carolina. The findings of this study indicate significant gender differences in IPV and alcohol use among the Latino population in the southeastern United States. The findings also indicate that there is a serious problem of IPV and alcohol use among Latinos in the southeastern United States, suggesting the need for routine screening in primary care settings.

Finding False Positives Planet Candidates Due To Background Eclipsing Binaries in K2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mullally, Fergal; Thompson, Susan E.; Coughlin, Jeffrey; DAVE Team

2016-06-01

We adapt the difference image centroid approach, used for finding background eclipsing binaries, to vet K2 planet candidates. Difference image centroids were used with great success to vet planet candidates in the original Kepler mission, where the source of a transit could be identified by subtracting images of out-of-transit cadences from in-transit cadences. To account for K2's roll pattern, we reconstruct out-of-transit images from cadences that are nearby in both time and spacecraft roll angle. We describe the method and discuss some K2 planet candidates which this method suggests are false positives.

Gender differences in moral judgment and the evaluation of gender-specified moral agents.

PubMed

Capraro, Valerio; Sippel, Jonathan

2017-11-01

Whether, and if so, how exactly gender differences are manifested in moral judgment has recently been at the center of much research on moral decision making. Previous research suggests that women are more deontological than men in personal, but not impersonal, moral dilemmas. However, typical personal and impersonal moral dilemmas differ along two dimensions: Personal dilemmas are more emotionally salient than impersonal ones and involve a violation of Kant's practical imperative that humans must never be used as a mere means, but only as ends. Thus, it remains unclear whether the reported gender difference is due to emotional salience or to the violation of the practical imperative. To answer this question, we explore gender differences in three moral dilemmas: a typical personal dilemma, a typical impersonal dilemma, and an intermediate dilemma, which is not as emotionally salient as typical personal moral dilemmas, but contains an equally strong violation of Kant's practical imperative. While we replicate the result that women tend to embrace deontological ethics more than men in personal, but not impersonal, dilemmas, we find no gender differences in the intermediate situation. This suggests that gender differences in these type of dilemmas are driven by emotional salience, and not by the violation of the practical imperative. Additionally, we also explore whether people think that women should behave differently than men in these dilemmas. Across all three dilemmas, we find no statistically significant differences about how people think men and women should behave.

Monozygotic twin differences in school performance are stable and systematic.

PubMed

von Stumm, Sophie; Plomin, Robert

2018-06-19

School performance is one of the most stable and heritable psychological characteristics. Notwithstanding, monozygotic twins (MZ), who have identical genotypes, differ in school performance. These MZ differences result from non-shared environments that do not contribute to the similarity within twin pairs. Because to date few non-shared environmental factors have been reliably associated with MZ differences in school performance, they are thought to be idiosyncratic and due to chance, suggesting that the effect of non-shared environments on MZ differences are age- and trait-specific. In a sample of 2768 MZ twin pairs, we found first that MZ differences in school performance were moderately stable from age 12 through 16, with differences at the ages 12 and 14 accounting for 20% of the variance in MZ differences at age 16. Second, MZ differences in school performance correlated positively with MZ differences across 16 learning-related variables, including measures of intelligence, personality and school attitudes, with the twin who scored higher on one also scoring higher on the other measures. Finally, MZ differences in the 16 learning-related variables accounted for 22% of the variance in MZ differences in school performance at age 16. These findings suggest that, unlike for other psychological domains, non-shared environmental factors affect school performance in systematic ways that have long-term and generalist influence. Our findings should motivate the search for non-shared environmental factors responsible for the stable and systematic effects on children's differences in school performance. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/0bw2Fl_HGq0. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The context of employment discrimination: interpreting the findings of a field experiment.

PubMed

Midtbøen, Arnfinn H

2015-03-01

Although field experiments have documented the contemporary relevance of discrimination in employment, theories developed to explain the dynamics of differential treatment cannot account for differences across organizational and institutional contexts. In this article, I address this shortcoming by presenting the main empirical findings from a multi-method research project, in which a field experiment of ethnic discrimination in the Norwegian labour market was complemented with forty-two in-depth interviews with employers who were observed in the first stage of the study. While the experimental data support earlier findings in documenting that ethnic discrimination indeed takes place, the qualitative material suggests that theorizing in the field experiment literature have been too concerned with individual and intra-psychic explanations. Discriminatory outcomes in employment processes seems to be more dependent on contextual factors such as the number of applications received, whether requirements are specified, and the degree to which recruitment procedures are formalized. I argue that different contexts of employment provide different opportunity structures for discrimination, a finding with important theoretical and methodological implications. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2014.

Neural activation during response inhibition in adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: preliminary findings on the effects of medication and symptom severity.

PubMed

Congdon, Eliza; Altshuler, Lori L; Mumford, Jeanette A; Karlsgodt, Katherine H; Sabb, Fred W; Ventura, Joseph; McGough, James J; London, Edythe D; Cannon, Tyrone D; Bilder, Robert M; Poldrack, Russell A

2014-04-30

Studies of adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have suggested that they have deficient response inhibition, but findings concerning the neural correlates of inhibition in this patient population are inconsistent. We used the Stop-Signal task and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare neural activation associated with response inhibition between adults with ADHD (N=35) and healthy comparison subjects (N=62), and in follow-up tests to examine the effect of current medication use and symptom severity. There were no differences in Stop-Signal task performance or neural activation between ADHD and control participants. Among the ADHD participants, however, significant differences were associated with current medication, with individuals taking psychostimulants (N=25) showing less stopping-related activation than those not currently receiving psychostimulant medication (N=10). Follow-up analyses suggested that this difference in activation was independent of symptom severity. These results provide evidence that deficits in inhibition-related neural activation persist in a subset of adult ADHD individuals, namely those individuals currently taking psychostimulants. These findings help to explain some of the disparities in the literature, and advance our understanding of why deficits in response inhibition are more variable in adult, as compared with child and adolescent, ADHD patients. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dual-process theory and consumer response to front-of-package nutrition label formats.

PubMed

Sanjari, S Setareh; Jahn, Steffen; Boztug, Yasemin

2017-11-01

Nutrition labeling literature yields fragmented results about the effect of front-of-package (FOP) nutrition label formats on healthy food choice. Specifically, it is unclear which type of nutrition label format is effective across different shopping situations. To address this gap, the present review investigates the available nutrition labeling literature through the prism of dual-process theory, which posits that decisions are made either quickly and automatically (system 1) or slowly and deliberately (system 2). A systematically performed review of nutrition labeling literature returned 59 papers that provide findings that can be explained according to dual-process theory. The findings of these studies suggest that the effectiveness of nutrition label formats is influenced by the consumer's dominant processing system, which is a function of specific contexts and personal variables (eg, motivation, nutrition knowledge, time pressure, and depletion). Examination of reported findings through a situational processing perspective reveals that consumers might prefer different FOP nutrition label formats in different situations and can exhibit varying responses to the same label format across situations. This review offers several suggestions for policy makers and researchers to help improve current FOP nutrition label formats. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Life Sciences Institute. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Hypnosis and imaging of the living human brain.

PubMed

Landry, Mathieu; Raz, Amir

2015-01-01

Over more than two decades, studies using imaging techniques of the living human brain have begun to explore the neural correlates of hypnosis. The collective findings provide a gripping, albeit preliminary, account of the underlying neurobiological mechanisms involved in hypnotic phenomena. While substantial advances lend support to different hypotheses pertaining to hypnotic modulation of attention, control, and monitoring processes, the complex interactions among the many mediating variables largely hinder our ability to isolate robust commonalities across studies. The present account presents a critical integrative synthesis of neuroimaging studies targeting hypnosis as a function of suggestion. Specifically, hypnotic induction without task-specific suggestion is examined, as well as suggestions concerning sensation and perception, memory, and ideomotor response. The importance of carefully designed experiments is highlighted to better tease apart the neural correlates that subserve hypnotic phenomena. Moreover, converging findings intimate that hypnotic suggestions seem to induce specific neural patterns. These observations propose that suggestions may have the ability to target focal brain networks. Drawing on evidence spanning several technological modalities, neuroimaging studies of hypnosis pave the road to a more scientific understanding of a dramatic, yet largely evasive, domain of human behavior.

'Rules' for boys, 'guidelines' for girls: Gender differences in symptom reporting during childhood and adolescence.

PubMed

Maclean, Alice; Sweeting, Helen; Hunt, Kate

2010-02-01

The emergence of higher reported morbidity in females compared with males is a feature of adolescent health in a large proportion of the world's industrialised countries. In this paper, qualitative data from twenty-five single-sex focus groups (90 participants in total) conducted with 10-, 13-, and 15-year olds in two Scottish schools is used to explore whether symptom reporting is influenced by perceived societal gender- and age-related expectations and the social context of symptom experiences. The degree to which these factors can help explain quantitative evidence of increases in gender differences in symptom reporting during adolescence is also examined. Accounts suggested gender-related expectations act as strict 'rules' for boys and less prohibitive 'guidelines' for girls. An unexpected finding was the extent of similarity between these 'rules' and 'guidelines'. Both boys and girls presented themselves as pressured to react to symptoms in stoic, controlled and independent ways, particularly when in the company of their peers, and both perceived that boys and girls could incur negative consequences if seen to have physical (e.g. stomach ache) or, especially, psychological symptoms (e.g. feeling like crying). These qualitative findings do not suggest that girls are simply more willing than boys to report their symptoms as they get older, which is one potential explanation for the quantitative evidence of increasing gender differences in symptom reporting in adolescence. Rather, the findings suggest a need to highlight both the potentially damaging effects of gender stereotypes which make boys reluctant to seek help for physical and, particularly, psychological symptoms, and the misconception that girls are not similarly reluctant to report illness. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The neurobiology of pain, affect and hypnosis.

PubMed

Feldman, Jeffrey B

2004-01-01

Recent neuroimaging studies have used hypnotic suggestion to distinguish the brain structures most associated with the sensory and affective dimensions of pain. This paper reviews studies that delineate the overlapping brain circuits involved in the processing of pain and emotions, and their relationship to autonomic arousal. Also examined are the replicated findings of reliable changes in the activation of specific brain structures and the deactivation of others associated with the induction of hypnosis. These differ from those parts of the brain involved in response to hypnotic suggestions. It is proposed that the activation of a portion of the prefrontal cortex in response to both hypnotic suggestions for decreased pain and to positive emotional experience might indicate a more general underlying mechanism. Great potential exists for further research to clarify the relationships among individual differences in reactivity to pain, emotion, and stress, and the possible role of such differences in the development of chronic pain.

Finding shared decisions in stakeholder networks: An agent-based approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le Pira, Michela; Inturri, Giuseppe; Ignaccolo, Matteo; Pluchino, Alessandro; Rapisarda, Andrea

2017-01-01

We address the problem of a participatory decision-making process where a shared priority list of alternatives has to be obtained while avoiding inconsistent decisions. An agent-based model (ABM) is proposed to mimic this process in different social networks of stakeholders who interact according to an opinion dynamics model. Simulations' results show the efficacy of interaction in finding a transitive and, above all, shared decision. These findings are in agreement with real participation experiences regarding transport planning decisions and can give useful suggestions on how to plan an effective participation process for sustainable policy-making based on opinion consensus.

Cross-Field Comparison of Ethics Education: Golden Rules and Particulars.

PubMed

Mulhearn, Tyler J; Watts, Logan L; Torrence, Brett S; Todd, E Michelle; Turner, Megan R; Connelly, Shane; Mumford, Michael D

2017-01-01

Research misconduct negatively impacts the scientific community and society in general. Providing training in the responsible conduct of research (RCR) to researchers is one viable approach to minimizing research misconduct. Although recent evidence suggests ethics training can indeed be effective, little empirical work has examined the similarities and differences across fields. In the present study, we analyzed 62 empirical studies in engineering, biomedical science, social science, and mixed fields. The findings suggest certain instructional principles, or "golden rules," apply generally to all fields. These golden rules include maintaining a field-specific or field-general approach and emphasizing processes in training. The findings also suggest that content areas contributing to instructional effectiveness vary as a function of field. Generally, it appears that all fields may benefit from taking a multi-pronged approach to ethics education wherein the salient field issues are covered. Implications for RCR education are discussed.

Inoculating against eyewitness suggestibility via interpolated verbatim vs. gist testing.

PubMed

Pansky, Ainat; Tenenboim, Einat

2011-01-01

In real-life situations, eyewitnesses often have control over the level of generality in which they choose to report event information. In the present study, we adopted an early-intervention approach to investigate to what extent eyewitness memory may be inoculated against suggestibility, following two different levels of interpolated reporting: verbatim and gist. After viewing a target event, participants responded to interpolated questions that required reporting of target details at either the verbatim or the gist level. After 48 hr, both groups of participants were misled about half of the target details and were finally tested for verbatim memory of all the details. The findings were consistent with our predictions: Whereas verbatim testing was successful in completely inoculating against suggestibility, gist testing did not reduce it whatsoever. These findings are particularly interesting in light of the comparable testing effects found for these two modes of interpolated testing.

Unraveling the covariation of low self-control and victimization: a behavior genetic approach.

PubMed

Boutwell, Brian B; Franklin, Cortney A; Barnes, J C; Tamplin, Amanda K; Beaver, Kevin M; Petkovsek, Melissa

2013-08-01

A growing body of literature examining the antecedents of victimization experiences has suggested that personality constructs play a role in the origins of victimization. Low self-control, in particular, represents a trait thought to directly increase the risk of victimization. At the same time, different lines of evidence suggest that genetic factors account for portions of the variance in both self-control and victimization. These findings leave open the possibility that the two traits might covary because of previously unmeasured genetic factors. The current analysis seeks to test this possibility. Additionally, we examine whether the covariation between self-control and victimization persists once genetic effects are held constant. Our findings suggest a nuanced explanation for the relationship between self-control and experiences of victimization. Copyright © 2013 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Knowing who's boss: implicit perceptions of status from the nonverbal expression of pride.

PubMed

Shariff, Azim F; Tracy, Jessica L

2009-10-01

Evolutionary theory suggests that the universal recognition of nonverbal expressions of emotions functions to enhance fitness. Specifically, emotion expressions may send survival-relevant messages to other social group members, who have the capacity to automatically interpret these signals. In the present research, we used 3 different implicit association methodologies to test whether the nonverbal expression of pride sends a functional, automatically perceived signal about a social group member's increased social status. Results suggest that the pride expression strongly signals high status, and this association cannot be accounted for by positive valence or artifacts of the expression such as expanded size due to outstretched arms. These findings suggest that the pride expression may function to uniquely communicate the high status of those who show it. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for social functions of emotion expressions and the automatic communication of status.

Preliminary evidence that testosterone's association with aggression depends on self-construal.

PubMed

Welker, Keith M; Norman, Rachel E; Goetz, Stefan; Moreau, Benjamin J P; Kitayama, Shinobu; Carré, Justin M

2017-06-01

A contribution to a special issue on Hormones and Human Competition. Previous research and theory suggest testosterone is an important hormone for modulating aggression and self-regulation. We propose that self-construal, a culturally-relevant difference in how individuals define the self in relation to others, may be an important moderator of the relationship between testosterone and behaviors linked to aggression. Within two studies (Study 1 N=80; Study 2 N=237) and an integrated data analysis, we find evidence suggesting that acute testosterone changes in men are positively associated with aggressive behavior for those with more independent self-construals, whereas basal testosterone is negatively associated with aggression when individuals have more interdependent self-construals. Although preliminary, these findings suggest that self-construal moderates the association between testosterone and aggression, thereby paving the way toward future work examining the potential cultural moderation of the behavioral effects of testosterone. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Impact of Stock Market Structure on Intertrade Time and Price Dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuen, Ainslie; Ivanov, Plamen Ch.

2005-08-01

The NYSE and NASDAQ stock markets have very different structures and there is continuing controversy over whether differences in stock price behaviour are due to market structure or company characteristics. As the influence of market structure on stock prices may be obscured by exogenous factors such as demand and supply, we hypothesize that modulation of the flow of transactions due to market operations may carry a stronger imprint of the internal market mechanism. We analyse times between consecutive transactions (ITT) for NYSE and NASDAQ stocks, and we relate the dynamical properties of the ITT with those of the corresponding price fluctuations. We find a robust scale-invariant temporal organisation in the ITT of stocks which is independent of individual company characteristics and industry sector, but which depends on market structure. We find that stocks registered on the NASDAQ exhibit stronger correlations in their transaction timing within a trading day, compared with NYSE stocks. Further, we find that companies that transfer from the NASDAQ to the NYSE show a reduction in the correlation strength of transaction timing within a trading day, after the move, suggesting influences of market structure. Surprisingly, we also observe that stronger power-law correlations in the ITT are coupled with stronger power-law correlations in absolute price returns and higher price volatility, suggesting a strong link between the dynamical properties of ITT and the corresponding price fluctuations over a broad range of time scales. Comparing the NYSE and NASDAQ, we demonstrate that the higher correlations we find in ITT for NASDAQ stocks are matched by higher correlations in absolute price returns and by higher volatility, suggesting that market structure may affect price behaviour through information contained in transaction timing.

What is the source of cultural differences? -- Examining the influence of thinking style on the attribution process.

PubMed

Jen, Chun-Hui; Lien, Yunn-Wen

2010-02-01

The present research is intended to find out whether individuals with analytic or holistic thought have different attribution processes. Cross-cultural research has suggested that East Asians, who tend to have a holistic thought pattern, differ in cognitive process from Westerners, who tend to engage in analytic thought. However, studies that found cultural difference in attribution process may have non-equivalence problems that make it hard to interpret the causal relationship between thinking style and attribution process. The present research extends this by measuring participants' thinking style within a single culture in order to ensure equivalence on potentially confounding variables such as prior knowledge and cognitive capacity. Two experiments demonstrate that both types of thinkers have identical attribution processes and suggest different thinking styles might relate to different tendencies toward situational information, but not to the attribution process itself. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Implicit visual learning and the expression of learning.

PubMed

Haider, Hilde; Eberhardt, Katharina; Kunde, Alexander; Rose, Michael

2013-03-01

Although the existence of implicit motor learning is now widely accepted, the findings concerning perceptual implicit learning are ambiguous. Some researchers have observed perceptual learning whereas other authors have not. The review of the literature provides different reasons to explain this ambiguous picture, such as differences in the underlying learning processes, selective attention, or differences in the difficulty to express this knowledge. In three experiments, we investigated implicit visual learning within the original serial reaction time task. We used different response devices (keyboard vs. mouse) in order to manipulate selective attention towards response dimensions. Results showed that visual and motor sequence learning differed in terms of RT-benefits, but not in terms of the amount of knowledge assessed after training. Furthermore, visual sequence learning was modulated by selective attention. However, the findings of all three experiments suggest that selective attention did not alter implicit but rather explicit learning processes. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Race differences in the relationship between role experiences and well-being.

PubMed

Marcussen, Kristen; Piatt, Liz

2005-07-01

Theory and research generally support the notion that social roles benefit subjective well-being. These conclusions, however, are largely based on studies examining Whites. Studies that have included Blacks have found race differences in the influence of social roles on well-being, yet most of these studies focus on role occupancy. With few exceptions, little attention has been paid to whether there are race differences in how individuals experience their roles, and the extent to which race differences in role experiences relate to differences in well-being. In this article we examine racial variation in the experience of work and family roles. We find that Blacks and Whites are similar in their experiences of role conflict and perceptions of role success and balance, but the association between these experiences and well-being varies, to some extent, by race and gender. The implications of these findings as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.

Effect of Rejoinders in Production Questionnaires.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnston, Bill; Kasper, Gabriele; Ross, Steven

1998-01-01

A study in interlanguage pragmatics investigated the effect of three types of rejoinder (positive, negative, absent) on non-native informants' choices of strategies to perform complaints, requests, and apologies. Results show strategy choice differentially affected by rejoinder type, suggesting that findings from studies using different production…

Voice Messaging.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Barbara D.; Tisdale, Judy Jones; Krapels, Roberta H.

2001-01-01

Surveys corporate use of voice message systems by interviewing employees in four different companies. Finds that all four companies viewed their voicemail systems as a supplement to personal contact (not a replacement) and provided training, but had no formal method to assess customer satisfaction with their system. Suggests business communication…

An Expert Teacher's Thinking and Teaching and Instructional Design Models and Principles: An Ethnographic Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moallem, Mahnaz

1998-01-01

Examines an expert teacher's thinking and teaching processes in order to link them to instructional-design procedures. Findings suggest that there were fundamental differences between the teacher's thinking and teaching processes and microinstructional design models. (Author/AEF)

Social consequences of early socioeconomic adversity and youth BMI trajectories: gender and race/ethnicity differences.

PubMed

Bae, Dayoung; Wickrama, K A S; O'Neal, Catherine Walker

2014-08-01

The present study investigated the mediating effects of adolescent BMI trajectories on socioeconomic continuity over the early life course using a nationally representative sample of 11,075 respondents. This study considered both the initial severity as well as change over time in BMI as psycho-physiological mediators. Consistent with the life course pathway model and the cumulative advantage and disadvantage principle, the results suggested that early socioeconomic adversity is associated with youth BMI trajectories over time, which in turn, impair young adult socioeconomic attainment. The results also revealed important gender and racial/ethnic differences in the hypothesized associations. These findings elucidate how early adversity exerts an enduring long-term influence on social attainment in young adulthood. Further, the findings suggest that effective obesity intervention and prevention programs should focus not only on the severity of obesity but also on growth in BMI over the early years. Copyright © 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Decentralization and equity of resource allocation: evidence from Colombia and Chile.

PubMed Central

Bossert, Thomas J.; Larrañaga, Osvaldo; Giedion, Ursula; Arbelaez, José Jesus; Bowser, Diana M.

2003-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relation between decentralization and equity of resource allocation in Colombia and Chile. METHODS: The "decision space" approach and analysis of expenditures and utilization rates were used to provide a comparative analysis of decentralization of the health systems of Colombia and Chile. FINDINGS: Evidence from Colombia and Chile suggests that decentralization, under certain conditions and with some specific policy mechanisms, can improve equity of resource allocation. In these countries, equitable levels of per capita financial allocations at the municipal level were achieved through different forms of decentralization--the use of allocation formulae, adequate local funding choices and horizontal equity funds. Findings on equity of utilization of services were less consistent, but they did show that increased levels of funding were associated with increased utilization. This suggests that improved equity of funding over time might reduce inequities of service utilization. CONCLUSION: Decentralization can contribute to, or at least maintain, equitable allocation of health resources among municipalities of different incomes. PMID:12751417

Consumers' health perceptions of three types of milk: a survey in Australia.

PubMed

Bus, A E M; Worsley, A

2003-04-01

A survey was conducted among 345 randomly selected shoppers in Melbourne, Australia, to identify their perceptions of the healthiness of whole milk, reduced fat milk and soy milk and to investigate demographic influences on health perceptions and types of milk consumption. The survey revealed major differences in shoppers' perceptions of the three types of milk along the themes of bone health, weight control, disease prevention, and, allergy and disease causation. Generally whole milk was perceived more negatively than soy or reduced fat milk. There were few demographic differences in the shoppers' perceptions of the three products. Reported consumption of reduced fat milk was more frequent among women and elderly people, and whole milk consumption was positively related to parenthood. The findings suggest that previous marketing and education campaigns have been effective but the widespread uncertainty and erroneous beliefs about milk products suggest that many consumers have not assimilated new findings about milk products. This represents a challenge for industry and public health practitioners.

L2 Word Recognition: Influence of L1 Orthography on Multi-syllabic Word Recognition.

PubMed

Hamada, Megumi

2017-10-01

L2 reading research suggests that L1 orthographic experience influences L2 word recognition. Nevertheless, the findings on multi-syllabic words in English are still limited despite the fact that a vast majority of words are multi-syllabic. The study investigated whether L1 orthography influences the recognition of multi-syllabic words, focusing on the position of an embedded word. The participants were Arabic ESL learners, Chinese ESL learners, and native speakers of English. The task was a word search task, in which the participants identified a target word embedded in a pseudoword at the initial, middle, or final position. The search accuracy and speed indicated that all groups showed a strong preference for the initial position. The accuracy data further indicated group differences. The Arabic group showed higher accuracy in the final than middle, while the Chinese group showed the opposite and the native speakers showed no difference between the two positions. The findings suggest that L2 multi-syllabic word recognition involves unique processes.

Schizotypal traits in a non-clinical sample from Hawai'i.

PubMed

Schiffman, Jason

2004-03-01

Most research investigating schizotypal traits, and linking schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) to later schizophrenia, has used Caucasian samples. The lack of cross-cultural comparisons on SPD trait scales inhibits confidence in generalizing the link between SPD and schizophrenia to non-Caucasian populations. The few studies investigating cross-cultural rates of schizotypal traits in non-clinical samples report mixed findings with respect to cultural variation. This study report rates of schizotypal traits in an ethnically and culturally diverse non-clinical sample (N = 353) in the state of Hawaii using the Schizotypai Personality Disorder Questionnaire-B (SPQ-B). Analyses did not detect significantly elevated rates between ethnic groups on the Cognitive/Perceptual, Disorganized, or Total SPQ Score Scales. Significant differences between Caucasians and Asians, as well as between Caucasians and Mixed Ethnicity on the SPQ-B Interpersonal Scale suggest relatively less shyness and more sociability in the Caucasian group. Generally, findings of no significant differences between ethnic groups on the SPQ-B suggest that rates of schizotypy are similar across ethnic groups in Hawaii.

Emotions in cognitive conflicts are not aversive but are task specific.

PubMed

Schacht, Annekathrin; Dimigen, Olaf; Sommer, Werner

2010-09-01

It has been suggested that cognitive conflicts require effortful processing and, therefore, are aversive (Botvinick, 2007). In the present study, we compared conflicts emerging from the inhibition of a predominant response tendency in a go/no-go task with those between incompatible response activations in a Simon task in a within-subjects design, using the same type of stimuli. Whereas no-go trials elicited reduced skin conductance and pupillometric responses, but prolonged corrugator muscle activity, as compared with go trials, incompatible and compatible Simon trials were indistinguishable with respect to these parameters. Furthermore, the conflict-sensitive N2 components of the event-related brain potential were similar in amplitude, but showed significantly different scalp distributions, indicating dissociable neural generator systems. The present findings suggest the involvement of different emotional and cognitive processes in both types of cognitive conflicts-none being aversive, however. In addition, the N2 findings call into question claims of common monitoring systems for all kinds of cognitive conflicts.

Interaction of nanoparticles with lipid membranes: a multiscale perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Montis, Costanza; Maiolo, Daniele; Alessandri, Ivano; Bergese, Paolo; Berti, Debora

2014-05-01

Freestanding lipid bilayers were challenged with 15 nm Au nanospheres either coated by a citrate layer or passivated by a protein corona. The effect of Au nanospheres on the bilayer morphology, permeability and fluidity presents strong differences or similarities, depending on the observation length scale, from the colloidal to the molecular domains. These findings suggest that the interaction between nanoparticles and lipid membranes should be conveniently treated as a multiscale phenomenon.Freestanding lipid bilayers were challenged with 15 nm Au nanospheres either coated by a citrate layer or passivated by a protein corona. The effect of Au nanospheres on the bilayer morphology, permeability and fluidity presents strong differences or similarities, depending on the observation length scale, from the colloidal to the molecular domains. These findings suggest that the interaction between nanoparticles and lipid membranes should be conveniently treated as a multiscale phenomenon. Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: All the experimental details, figures and tables. See DOI: 10.1039/c4nr00838c

The Peculiar Behavior of Halo Coronal Mass Ejections in Solar Cycle 24

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gopalswamy, N.; Xie, H.; Akiyama, S.; Makela, P.; Yashiro, S.; Michalek, G.

2015-01-01

We report on the remarkable finding that the halo coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in cycle 24 are more abundant than in cycle 23, although the sunspot number in cycle 24 has dropped by approx. 40%. We also find that the distribution of halo-CME source locations is different in cycle 24: the longitude distribution of halos is much flatter with the number of halos originating at a central meridian distance greater than or equal to 60deg twice as large as that in cycle 23. On the other hand, the average speed and associated soft X-ray flare size are the same in both cycles, suggesting that the ambient medium into which the CMEs are ejected is significantly different. We suggest that both the higher abundance and larger central meridian longitudes of halo CMEs can be explained as a consequence of the diminished total pressure in the heliosphere in cycle 24. The reduced total pressure allows CMEs to expand more than usual making them appear as halos.

Subsistence strategies in traditional societies distinguish gut microbiomes

PubMed Central

Obregon-Tito, Alexandra J.; Tito, Raul Y.; Metcalf, Jessica; Sankaranarayanan, Krithivasan; Clemente, Jose C.; Ursell, Luke K.; Zech Xu, Zhenjiang; Van Treuren, Will; Knight, Rob; Gaffney, Patrick M.; Spicer, Paul; Lawson, Paul; Marin-Reyes, Luis; Trujillo-Villarroel, Omar; Foster, Morris; Guija-Poma, Emilio; Troncoso-Corzo, Luzmila; Warinner, Christina; Ozga, Andrew T.; Lewis, Cecil M.

2015-01-01

Recent studies suggest that gut microbiomes of urban-industrialized societies are different from those of traditional peoples. Here we examine the relationship between lifeways and gut microbiota through taxonomic and functional potential characterization of faecal samples from hunter-gatherer and traditional agriculturalist communities in Peru and an urban-industrialized community from the US. We find that in addition to taxonomic and metabolic differences between urban and traditional lifestyles, hunter-gatherers form a distinct sub-group among traditional peoples. As observed in previous studies, we find that Treponema are characteristic of traditional gut microbiomes. Moreover, through genome reconstruction (2.2–2.5 MB, coverage depth × 26–513) and functional potential characterization, we discover these Treponema are diverse, fall outside of pathogenic clades and are similar to Treponema succinifaciens, a known carbohydrate metabolizer in swine. Gut Treponema are found in non-human primates and all traditional peoples studied to date, suggesting they are symbionts lost in urban-industrialized societies. PMID:25807110

Variability in emotional responsiveness and coping style during active avoidance as a window onto psychological vulnerability to stress.

PubMed

Gorka, Adam X; LaBar, Kevin S; Hariri, Ahmad R

2016-05-01

Individual differences in coping styles are associated with psychological vulnerability to stress. Recent animal research suggests that coping styles reflect trade-offs between proactive and reactive threat responses during active avoidance paradigms, with proactive responses associated with better stress tolerance. Based on these preclinical findings, we developed a novel instructed active avoidance paradigm to characterize patterns of proactive and reactive responses using behavioral, motoric, and autonomic measures in humans. Analyses revealed significant inter-individual variability not only in the magnitude of general emotional responsiveness but also the likelihood to specifically express proactive or reactive responses. In men but not women, individual differences in general emotional responsiveness were linked to increased trait anxiety while proactive coping style was linked to increased trait aggression. These patterns are consistent with preclinical findings and suggest that instructed active avoidance paradigms may be useful in assessing psychological vulnerability to stress using objective behavioral measures. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Mortality in Patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

PubMed

McManimen, Stephanie L; Devendorf, Andrew R; Brown, Abigail A; Moore, Billie C; Moore, James H; Jason, Leonard A

2016-01-01

There is a dearth of research examining mortality in individuals with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Some studies suggest there is an elevated risk of suicide and earlier mortality compared to national norms. However, findings are inconsistent as other researchers have not found significant increases in all-cause mortality for patients. This study sought to determine if patients with ME or CFS are reportedly dying earlier than the overall population from the same cause. Family, friends, and caregivers of deceased individuals with ME or CFS were recruited through social media, patient newsletters, emails, and advocate websites. This study analyzed data including cause and age of death for 56 individuals identified as having ME or CFS. The findings suggest patients in this sample are at a significantly increased risk of earlier all-cause ( M = 55.9 years) and cardiovascular-related ( M = 58.8 years) mortality, and they had a directionally lower mean age of death for suicide ( M = 41.3 years) and cancer ( M =66.3 years) compared to the overall U.S. population [ M = 73.5 (all-cause), 77.7 (cardiovascular), 47.4 (suicide), and 71.1 (cancer) years of age]. The results suggest there is an increase in risk for earlier mortality in patients with ME and CFS. Due to the small sample size and over-representation of severely ill patients, the findings should be replicated to determine if the directional differences for suicide and cancer mortality are significantly different from the overall U.S. population.

Generalized trust predicts young children's willingness to delay gratification.

PubMed

Ma, Fengling; Chen, Biyun; Xu, Fen; Lee, Kang; Heyman, Gail D

2018-05-01

Young children's willingness to delay gratification by forgoing an immediate reward to obtain a more desirable one in the future predicts a wide range of positive social, cognitive, and health outcomes. Standard accounts of this phenomenon have focused on individual differences in cognitive control skills that allow children to engage in goal-oriented behavior, but recent findings suggest that person-specific trust is also important, with children showing a stronger tendency to delay gratification if they have reason to trust the individual who is promising the future reward. The current research builds on those findings by examining generalized trust, which refers to the extent to which others are generally viewed as trustworthy. A total of 150 3- to 5-year-olds in China were tested. Participants were given the opportunity to obtain one sticker immediately, or wait for 15 min for two stickers. Results showed that participants with high levels of generalized trust waited longer even after controlling for age and level of executive function. These results suggest that trust plays a role in delaying gratification even when children have no information about the individual who is promising the future reward. More broadly, the findings build on recent evidence that there is more to delay of gratification than cognitive capacity, and they suggest that there are individual differences in whether children consider sacrificing for a future outcome to be worth the risk. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Employment Trajectories Beyond Retirement.

PubMed

Burkert, Carola; Hochfellner, Daniela

2017-01-01

Within the political and academic debate on working longer, post-retirement employment is discussed as an alternative to maintain older workers in the labor market. Our article enhances this discussion by studying determinants of transitions into post-retirement jobs within differing work environments of birth cohorts 1940-1942. We estimate proportional subhazard models accounting for competing risks using unique German social security data linked to pension accounts. Our findings suggest that individuals' preferences to take up post-retirement jobs are not mutually exclusive. Our study provides evidence that taking up post-retirement jobs is related to seeking financial security, continuity, and work ability, suggesting that public policy has to develop target-oriented support through a public policy mix of different measures aligned to the different peer groups in the labor market.

Visual Task Demands and the Auditory Mismatch Negativity: An Empirical Study and a Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

Wiens, Stefan; Szychowska, Malina; Nilsson, Mats E.

2016-01-01

Because the auditory system is particularly useful in monitoring the environment, previous research has examined whether task-irrelevant, auditory distracters are processed even if subjects focus their attention on visual stimuli. This research suggests that attentionally demanding visual tasks decrease the auditory mismatch negativity (MMN) to simultaneously presented auditory distractors. Because a recent behavioral study found that high visual perceptual load decreased detection sensitivity of simultaneous tones, we used a similar task (n = 28) to determine if high visual perceptual load would reduce the auditory MMN. Results suggested that perceptual load did not decrease the MMN. At face value, these nonsignificant findings may suggest that effects of perceptual load on the MMN are smaller than those of other demanding visual tasks. If so, effect sizes should differ systematically between the present and previous studies. We conducted a selective meta-analysis of published studies in which the MMN was derived from the EEG, the visual task demands were continuous and varied between high and low within the same task, and the task-irrelevant tones were presented in a typical oddball paradigm simultaneously with the visual stimuli. Because the meta-analysis suggested that the present (null) findings did not differ systematically from previous findings, the available evidence was combined. Results of this meta-analysis confirmed that demanding visual tasks reduce the MMN to auditory distracters. However, because the meta-analysis was based on small studies and because of the risk for publication biases, future studies should be preregistered with large samples (n > 150) to provide confirmatory evidence for the results of the present meta-analysis. These future studies should also use control conditions that reduce confounding effects of neural adaptation, and use load manipulations that are defined independently from their effects on the MMN. PMID:26741815

From striving to thriving: systems thinking, strategy, and the performance of safety net hospitals.

PubMed

Clark, Jonathan; Singer, Sara; Kane, Nancy; Valentine, Melissa

2013-01-01

Safety net hospitals (SNH) have, on average, experienced declining financial margins and faced an elevated risk of closure over the past decade. Despite these challenges, not all SNHs are weakening and some are prospering. These higher-performing SNHs provide substantial care to safety net populations and produce sustainable financial returns. Drawing on the alternative structural positioning and resource-based views, we explore strategic management as a source of performance differences across SNHs. We employ a mixed-method design, blending quantitative and qualitative data and analysis. We measure financial performance using hospital operating margin and quantitatively evaluate its relationship with a limited set of well-defined structural positions. We further evaluate these structures and also explore the internal resources of SNHs based on nine in-depth case studies developed from site visits and extensive interviews. Quantitative results suggest that structural positions alone are not related to performance. Comparative case studies suggest that higher-performing SNH differ in four respects: (1) coordinating patient flow across the care continuum, (2) engaging in partnerships with other providers, (3) managing scope of services, and (4) investing in human capital. On the basis of these findings, we propose a model of strategic action related to systems thinking--the ability to see wholes and interrelationships rather than individual parts alone. Our exploratory findings suggest the need to move beyond generic strategies alone and acknowledge the importance of underlying managerial capabilities. Specifically, our findings suggest that effective strategy is a function of both the internal resources (e.g., managers' systems-thinking capability) and structural positions (e.g., partnerships) of organizations. From this perspective, framing resources and positioning as distinct alternatives misses the nuances of how strategic advantage is actually achieved.

The Facial Appearance of CEOs: Faces Signal Selection but Not Performance.

PubMed

Stoker, Janka I; Garretsen, Harry; Spreeuwers, Luuk J

2016-01-01

Research overwhelmingly shows that facial appearance predicts leader selection. However, the evidence on the relevance of faces for actual leader ability and consequently performance is inconclusive. By using a state-of-the-art, objective measure for face recognition, we test the predictive value of CEOs' faces for firm performance in a large sample of faces. We first compare the faces of Fortune500 CEOs with those of US citizens and professors. We find clear confirmation that CEOs do look different when compared to citizens or professors, replicating the finding that faces matter for selection. More importantly, we also find that faces of CEOs of top performing firms do not differ from other CEOs. Based on our advanced face recognition method, our results suggest that facial appearance matters for leader selection but that it does not do so for leader performance.

Sex differences in the processing of flankers.

PubMed

Stoet, Gijsbert

2010-04-01

The study of sex differences in cognition has often focused on differences in spatial processing. Recently, sex differences in selective attention have been observed by Bayliss, di Pellegrino, and Tipper (2005), showing that women are more influenced than men by irrelevant spatial cues. The current study elaborates on this finding and tests whether sex differences in the processing of irrelevant information also occur in a simpler task, in which there is no need to redirect visual attention and no need to remember multiple spatial stimulus-response associations. Here, attention is studied using a novel combination of a go/no-go task and a flanker task. A total of 80 neurotypical participants were studied, and it was found that responses in women were more strongly affected by flanker information than were responses in men. This suggests that these sex differences were not due to difficulties with spatial reorientation, or remembering spatial stimulus-response relationships. The findings are discussed in the context of the hunter-gatherer theory of sex differences.

Are Some Negotiators Better Than Others? Individual Differences in Bargaining Outcomes

PubMed Central

Elfenbein, Hillary Anger; Curhan, Jared R.; Eisenkraft, Noah; Shirako, Aiwa; Baccaro, Lucio

2008-01-01

The authors address the long-standing mystery of stable individual differences in negotiation performance, on which intuition and conventional wisdom have clashed with inconsistent empirical findings. The present study used the Social Relations Model to examine individual differences directly via consistency in performance across multiple negotiations and to disentangle the roles of both parties within these inherently dyadic interactions. Individual differences explained a substantial 46% of objective performance and 19% of subjective performance in a mixed-motive bargaining exercise. Previous work may have understated the influence of individual differences because conventional research designs require specific traits to be identified and measured. Exploratory analyses of a battery of traits revealed few reliable associations with consistent individual differences in objective performance—except for positive beliefs about negotiation, positive affect, and concern for one's outcome, each of which predicted better performance. Findings suggest that the field has large untapped potential to explain substantial individual differences. Limitations, areas for future research, and practical implications are discussed. PMID:21720453

Gender differences in manifestations of antisocial personality disorder among residential drug abuse treatment clients.

PubMed

Goldstein, R B; Powers, S I; McCusker, J; Mundt, K A; Lewis, B F; Bigelow, C

1996-05-01

We examined gender differences in manifestations of DSM-III-R antisocial personality disorder in 106 male and 34 female drug abusers enrolled in residential relapse prevention/health education treatment. In childhood, compared to males, females had more often run away but less often used weapons in fights, been cruel to animals, and set fires. Females also reported less vandalism. In adulthood, women had more often been irresponsible as parents and in financial matters, engaged in prostitution, made money finding customers for prostitutes, been physically violent against sex partners and children, failed to plan ahead, and lacked remorse. Our findings suggest that addiction treatment programs need to consider gender differences in antisocial symptomatology in the development of individualized treatment programs for both male and female clients.

Nonresponse bias in randomized controlled experiments in criminology: Putting the Queensland Community Engagement Trial (QCET) under a microscope.

PubMed

Antrobus, Emma; Elffers, Henk; White, Gentry; Mazerolle, Lorraine

2013-01-01

The goal of this article is to examine whether or not the results of the Queensland Community Engagement Trial (QCET)-a randomized controlled trial that tested the impact of procedural justice policing on citizen attitudes toward police-were affected by different types of nonresponse bias. We use two methods (Cochrane and Elffers methods) to explore nonresponse bias: First, we assess the impact of the low response rate by examining the effects of nonresponse group differences between the experimental and control conditions and pooled variance under different scenarios. Second, we assess the degree to which item response rates are influenced by the control and experimental conditions. Our analysis of the QCET data suggests that our substantive findings are not influenced by the low response rate in the trial. The results are robust even under extreme conditions, and statistical significance of the results would only be compromised in cases where the pooled variance was much larger for the nonresponse group and the difference between experimental and control conditions was greatly diminished. We also find that there were no biases in the item response rates across the experimental and control conditions. RCTs that involve field survey responses-like QCET-are potentially compromised by low response rates and how item response rates might be influenced by the control or experimental conditions. Our results show that the QCET results were not sensitive to the overall low response rate across the experimental and control conditions and the item response rates were not significantly different across the experimental and control groups. Overall, our analysis suggests that the results of QCET are robust and any biases in the survey responses do not significantly influence the main experimental findings.

Ethnic Differences in Cancer Pain Experience

PubMed Central

Im, Eun-ok

2008-01-01

Background Inconsistent findings on ethnic differences in cancer pain experience suggest the need for further studies on this topic for adequate cancer pain management. Objectives The purpose of this study was to determine ethnic differences in cancer pain experience of 4 ethnic groups in the U.S. Methods A feminist perspective provided the theoretical basis. This was a survey of a multiethnic sample of 480 cancer patients asking questions on sociodemographic characteristics and health/illness status, 3 unidimensional cancer pain scales, 2 multidimensional cancer pain scales, the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale, and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Scale. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics including ANOVA and hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Results The results indicated certain ethnic differences in types of pain and symptoms that patients experienced. Also, the results demonstrated significant ethnic differences in cancer pain and functional status. The VDS, VAS, FS, MPQ, and BPI scores of Non-Hispanic (N-H) Asian participants were significantly lower than those of Hispanic and N-H White participants (p<.01). The VAS and MPQ scores of N-H African American participants were significantly lower than those of Hispanic and N-H White participants (p<.01). The FACT-G scores of N-H Asian participants were significantly lower than Hispanic participants (p<.01). The findings also indicated that being N-H Asian or not was a significant predictor of the VDS, FS, and BPI scores. Discussion The findings suggest further in-depth qualitative exploration on cultural values and beliefs related to cancer pain in each ethnic group and national-scope studies with a larger number of ethnic minorities on this topic. PMID:17846550

Literacy: The Information Superhighway to Success.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Camperell, Kay, Ed.; And Others

1996-01-01

Several of the papers in this collection describe university programs or provide practical suggestions for using technology to enhance literacy instruction; other papers focus on a diverse range of issues, instructional strategies, and research findings related to different aspects of literacy. Papers in the collection are: "A Community of…

Concreteness Effects in Text Recall: Dual Coding or Context Availability?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sadoski, Mark; And Others

1995-01-01

Extends an earlier study by using different materials, ratings for familiarity, and more stringent experimental controls. Finds concreteness effects in two experiments using undergraduate students. Suggests that familiarity and concreteness contribute separately to recall. Supports a dual coding theory. Discusses implications for text design. (RS)

Bat Facts and Fun.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKee, Judith A.

1992-01-01

Describes a unit of study for elementary school science on bats. Students investigate the different types of bats; examine their behavior; find facts that other students are unlikely to know; write stories about bats; and examine the concept of echolocation, the means by which bats navigate. Suggests integrated activities for mathematics…

Boys and Motivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Andrew J.

2003-01-01

This paper explores key gender differences in motivation from a quantitative perspective and presents findings from a qualitative study into boys' perceptions of motivating teachers and motivating pedagogy. Data collected from 3773 high school students suggest that girls score significantly higher than boys in their belief in the value of school,…

Family Transitions during the Adolescent Transition: Implications for Parenting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freeman, Harry S.; Newland, Lisa A.

2002-01-01

Explores how family transitions affect parenting practices in a sample of adolescents. Adolescents from all family types reported significant declines in behavioral control, but not parental responsiveness. Findings suggest that adolescent individuation may overshadow family-type differences during middle adolescence. (Contains 50 references and 3…

Delinquent Behavior, Violent Victimization, and Coping Strategies among Latino Adolescents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGee, Zina T.; Barber, Asha; Joseph, Ebone'; Dudley, Jocelyn; Howell, Robyn

2005-01-01

This study examines differences in reported problems such as peer victimization, indirect victimization, direct victimization, internal symptoms, and external symptoms among Latino youth exposed to violence. Findings suggest that female adolescents display higher levels of indirect victimization (i.e., witnessing violence) and internal symptoms…

Towards a Lakatosian Analysis of the Piagetian and Alternative Conceptions Research Programs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilbert, John K.; Swift, David J.

1985-01-01

Lakatos's methodology of scientific research programs is summarized and discussed for Piagetian schools and alternative conceptions movement. Commonalities/differences between these two rival programs are presented along with fundamental assumptions, auxiliary hypotheses, and research policy. Suggests that research findings should not be merely…

The Effects of Animation Cues on Vocabulary Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Higgins, Norman C.; Cocks, Patricia

1999-01-01

Investigates effectiveness of animated cues in electronic books on children's vocabulary development. Notes that subjects were 15 third-grade students from a suburban elementary school who participated in a one-group pretest-posttest program evaluation. Finds significant differences favoring the posttest. Describes suggestions for using electronic…

A New Look at the Counselor Evaluation Rating Scale.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benshoff, James M.; Thomas, Wayne P.

1992-01-01

Reexamined Counselor Evaluation Rating Scale (CERS) using confirmatory factor analysis. Analyzed 185 self-rated CERs. Findings suggest that, when counselors use CERS to rate themselves, different factors may emerge from those emerging when experienced supervisors use CERS to evaluate supervisee progress and performance. (Author/NB)

Gender Differences Among Military Combatants: Does Social Support, Ostracism, and Pain Perception Influence Psychological Health?

PubMed

McGraw, Kate

2016-01-01

The literature on gender differences related to psychological health among in-theater service members who are deployed in a combatant role is limited. Much focuses on retrospective reports of service members who have returned from deployment. Potential key factors that contribute to gender differences in psychological health among combatants are found in literature across several topic areas, but integration of findings across disciplines is lacking. A growing body of literature on gender differences related to psychological health of postdeployment military populations suggests males and females respond differently to perceived levels of social support pre-and postdeployment. One study on service members who were deployed suggested no significant gender differences related to reported psychological health symptoms, but did appear to find significant gender differences related to reported perception of unit morale. In another related area, research explores how ostracism impacts physical and psychological health of individuals and organizations, and can result in perceptions of physical pain, although research on gender differences related to the impact of ostracism is scarce. Research has also begun to focus on sex differences in pain responses, and has identified multiple biopsychosocial, genetic, and hormonal factors that may contribute as potential underlying mechanisms. In this brief review, we focus on and begin to integrate relevant findings related to the psychological health of females in combat roles, gender differences in the impact of perception of social support on psychological health, the psychological and physical impact of ostracism on individuals and organizations, and the current literature on sex differences in pain perception. We conclude with a synthesis and discussion of research gaps identified through this review, implications for clinical practice, and potential future research directions. In conclusion, there appear to be gender differences related to the presence or absence of social support, the impact of ostracism, and the perception of pain. These differences may play a critical role in the psychological health of female combatants. More research on this topic is needed. Reprint & Copyright © 2016 Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S.

Corruption costs lives: evidence from a cross-country study.

PubMed

Li, Qiang; An, Lian; Xu, Jing; Baliamoune-Lutz, Mina

2018-01-01

This paper investigates the effect of corruption on health outcomes by using cross-country panel data covering about 150 countries for the period of 1995 to 2012. We employ ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed-effects and two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimation methods, and find that corruption significantly increases mortality rates, and reduces life expectancy and immunization rates. The results are consistent across different regions, gender, and measures of corruption. The findings suggest that reducing corruption can be an effective method to improve health outcomes.

Review of Regulatory Emphasis on Transportation Safety in the United States, 2002-2009: Public versus Private Modes.

PubMed

Waycaster, Garrett C; Matsumura, Taiki; Bilotkach, Volodymyr; Haftka, Raphael T; Kim, Nam H

2018-05-01

The U.S. Department of Transportation is responsible for implementing new safety improvements and regulations with the goal of ensuring limited funds are distributed to where they can have the greatest impact on safety. In this work, we conduct a study of new regulations and other reactions (such as recalls) to fatal accidents in several different modes of transportation implemented from 2002 to 2009. We find that in the safest modes of commercial aviation and bus transport, the amount of spending on new regulations is high in relation to the number of fatalities compared to the regulatory attention received by less safe modes of general aviation and private automobiles. Additionally, we study two major fatal accident investigations from commercial aviation and two major automotive recalls associated with fatal accidents. We find differences in the cost per expected fatality prevented for these reactions, with the airline accident investigations being more cost effective. Overall, we observe trends in both the automotive and aviation sectors that suggest that public transportation receives more regulatory attention than private transport. We also observe that the types of safety remedies utilized, regulation versus investigation, have varying levels of effectiveness in different transport modes. We suggest that these differences are indicative of increased public demand for safety in modes where a third party may be held responsible, even for those not participating in the transportation. These findings have important implications for the transportation industry, policymakers, and for estimating the public demand for safety in new transport modes. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

Boys are victims too? Sexual dating violence and injury among high-risk youth✩

PubMed Central

Reidy, Dennis E.; Early, Megan S.; Holland, Kristin M.

2018-01-01

Objective Prior research with youth exposed to violence suggests that, in this high-risk population, boys may be victims of sexual teen dating violence (TDV) and injury as frequently as girls. We sought to replicate these findings with a demographically similar sample and to determine whether the findings could be attributed the high-risk nature of the sample by assessing the impact of violence exposure on sex differences. Methods A cross-sectional sample of 2577 youth (ages 11–18, M = 15.4, SD = 1.9, 52% female, 25% Caucasian) collected in 2004 from a high-risk community reported on history of dating and exposure to multiple forms of violence. We conducted moderation analyses to test whether polyvictimization (PV) and age moderated the potential sex differences in perpetration and victimization of sexual TDV and injury. Results No significant sex differences in victimization were observed regardless of degree of PV. Boys reported more frequent sexual TDV and injury perpetration relative to girls, but only for youth reporting high degree of PV. There were no sex differences in perpetration among low PV youth. Conclusions These findings suggest boys from high-risk communities may disproportionately perpetrate severe acts of TDV but at this early age they are equally likely to be victimized. To interrupt the cycle of violence victimization and perpetration, comprehensive violence prevention interventions targeting high-risk youth should be implemented at schools, in homes, and in the community; and they should recognize the potential for girls and boys to be victims of even the most severe forms of TDV. PMID:28529159

Interlimb Differences in Coordination of Unsupported Reaching Movements

PubMed Central

Schaffer, Jacob E.; Sainburg, Robert L.

2017-01-01

Previous research suggests that interlimb differences in coordination associated with handedness might result from specialized control mechanisms that are subserved by different cerebral hemispheres. Based largely on the results of horizontal plane reaching studies, we have proposed that the hemisphere contralateral to the dominant arm is specialized for predictive control of limb dynamics, while the non-dominant hemisphere is specialized for controlling limb impedance. The current study explores interlimb differences in control of 3-D unsupported reaching movements. While the task was presented in the horizontal plane, participant’s arms were unsupported and free to move within a range of the vertical axis, which was redundant to the task plane. Results indicated significant dominant arm advantages for both initial direction accuracy and final position accuracy. The dominant arm showed greater excursion along a redundant axis that was perpendicular to the task, and parallel to gravitational forces. In contrast, the non-dominant arm better impeded motion out of the task-plane. Nevertheless, left arm task errors varied substantially more with shoulder rotation excursion than did dominant arm task errors. These findings suggest that the dominant arm controller was able to take advantage of the redundant degrees of freedom of the task, while non-dominant task errors appeared enslaved to motion along the redundant axis. These findings are consistent with a dominant controller that is specialized for intersegmental coordination, and a non-dominant controller that is specialized for impedance control. However, the findings are inconsistent with previously documented conclusions from planar tasks, in which non-dominant control leads to greater final position accuracy. PMID:28344068

Frontal dysfunctions of impulse control - a systematic review in borderline personality disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Sebastian, Alexandra; Jung, Patrick; Krause-Utz, Annegret; Lieb, Klaus; Schmahl, Christian; Tüscher, Oliver

2014-01-01

Disorders such as borderline personality disorder (BPD) or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are characterized by impulsive behaviors. Impulsivity as used in clinical terms is very broadly defined and entails different categories including personality traits as well as different cognitive functions such as emotion regulation or interference resolution and impulse control. Impulse control as an executive function, however, is neither cognitively nor neurobehaviorally a unitary function. Recent findings from behavioral and cognitive neuroscience studies suggest related but dissociable components of impulse control along functional domains like selective attention, response selection, motivational control, and behavioral inhibition. In addition, behavioral and neural dissociations are seen for proactive vs. reactive inhibitory motor control. The prefrontal cortex with its sub-regions is the central structure in executing these impulse control functions. Based on these concepts of impulse control, neurobehavioral findings of studies in BPD and ADHD were reviewed and systematically compared. Overall, patients with BPD exhibited prefrontal dysfunctions across impulse control components rather in orbitofrontal, dorsomedial, and dorsolateral prefrontal regions, whereas patients with ADHD displayed disturbed activity mainly in ventrolateral and medial prefrontal regions. Prefrontal dysfunctions, however, varied depending on the impulse control component and from disorder to disorder. This suggests a dissociation of impulse control related frontal dysfunctions in BPD and ADHD, although only few studies are hitherto available to assess frontal dysfunctions along different impulse control components in direct comparison of these disorders. Yet, these findings might serve as a hypothesis for the future systematic assessment of impulse control components to understand differences and commonalities of prefrontal cortex dysfunction in impulsive disorders.

Boys are victims too? Sexual dating violence and injury among high-risk youth.

PubMed

Reidy, Dennis E; Early, Megan S; Holland, Kristin M

2017-08-01

Prior research with youth exposed to violence suggests that, in this high-risk population, boys may be victims of sexual teen dating violence (TDV) and injury as frequently as girls. We sought to replicate these findings with a demographically similar sample and to determine whether the findings could be attributed the high-risk nature of the sample by assessing the impact of violence exposure on sex differences. A cross-sectional sample of 2577 youth (ages 11-18, M=15.4, SD=1.9, 52% female, 25% Caucasian) collected in 2004 from a high-risk community reported on history of dating and exposure to multiple forms of violence. We conducted moderation analyses to test whether polyvictimization (PV) and age moderated the potential sex differences in perpetration and victimization of sexual TDV and injury. No significant sex differences in victimization were observed regardless of degree of PV. Boys reported more frequent sexual TDV and injury perpetration relative to girls, but only for youth reporting high degree of PV. There were no sex differences in perpetration among low PV youth. These findings suggest boys from high-risk communities may disproportionately perpetrate severe acts of TDV but at this early age they are equally likely to be victimized. To interrupt the cycle of violence victimization and perpetration, comprehensive violence prevention interventions targeting high-risk youth should be implemented at schools, in homes, and in the community; and they should recognize the potential for girls and boys to be victims of even the most severe forms of TDV. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Atypical Categorization in Children with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

PubMed Central

Church, Barbara A.; Krauss, Maria S.; Lopata, Christopher; Toomey, Jennifer A.; Thomeer, Marcus L.; Coutinho, Mariana V.; Volker, Martin A.; Mercado, Eduardo

2010-01-01

Children with autism spectrum disorder process many perceptual and social events differently from typically developing children, suggesting that they may also form and recognize categories differently. We used a dot pattern categorization task and prototype comparison modeling to compare categorical processing in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorder and matched typical controls. We were interested in whether there were differences in how children with autism use average similarity information about a category to make decisions. During testing, the group with autism spectrum disorder endorsed prototypes less and was seemingly less sensitive to differences between to-be-categorized items and the prototype. The findings suggest that individuals with high functioning autism spectrum disorder are less likely to use overall average similarity when forming categories or making categorical decisions. Such differences in category formation and use may negatively impact processing of socially relevant information, such as facial expressions. PMID:21169581

Exploring the post-genomic world: differing explanatory and manipulatory functions of post-genomic sciences

PubMed Central

Holmes, Christina; Carlson, Siobhan M.; McDonald, Fiona; Jones, Mavis; Graham, Janice

2016-01-01

Richard Lewontin proposed that the ability of a scientific field to create a narrative for public understanding garners it social relevance. This article applies Lewontin's conceptual framework of the functions of science (manipulatory and explanatory) to compare and explain the current differences in perceived societal relevance of genetics/genomics and proteomics. We provide three examples to illustrate the social relevance and strong cultural narrative of genetics/genomics for which no counterpart exists for proteomics. We argue that the major difference between genetics/genomics and proteomics is that genomics has a strong explanatory function, due to the strong cultural narrative of heredity. Based on qualitative interviews and observations of proteomics conferences, we suggest that the nature of proteins, lack of public understanding, and theoretical complexity exacerbates this difference for proteomics. Lewontin's framework suggests that social scientists may find that omics sciences affect social relations in different ways than past analyses of genetics. PMID:27134568

Gender differences in coping with infertility: a meta-analysis.

PubMed

Jordan, C; Revenson, T A

1999-08-01

Infertility is a stressor that affects both husbands and wives. The literature suggests that infertility is more stressful for women, although most studies have not included men/husbands. If the experience of infertility is different for women and men, the next question is whether women and men cope differently. Meta-analytic procedures were used to review the empirical evidence (1966-1995) on gender differences in coping with infertility among heterosexual married couples; all studies used a standardized coping measure [The Ways of Coping Checklist-Revised (Folkman et al., 1986)]. Significant gender differences were found for half the strategies studied: Women used the strategies of Seeking Social Support, Escape-Avoidance, Planful Problem-Solving, and Positive Reappraisal to a greater degree than their partners. The findings suggest that coping at both the individual and the couple level be considered in the treatment of infertile couples and that gender be considered before planning an intervention.

Exploring the post-genomic world: differing explanatory and manipulatory functions of post-genomic sciences.

PubMed

Holmes, Christina; Carlson, Siobhan M; McDonald, Fiona; Jones, Mavis; Graham, Janice

2016-01-02

Richard Lewontin proposed that the ability of a scientific field to create a narrative for public understanding garners it social relevance. This article applies Lewontin's conceptual framework of the functions of science (manipulatory and explanatory) to compare and explain the current differences in perceived societal relevance of genetics/genomics and proteomics. We provide three examples to illustrate the social relevance and strong cultural narrative of genetics/genomics for which no counterpart exists for proteomics. We argue that the major difference between genetics/genomics and proteomics is that genomics has a strong explanatory function, due to the strong cultural narrative of heredity. Based on qualitative interviews and observations of proteomics conferences, we suggest that the nature of proteins, lack of public understanding, and theoretical complexity exacerbates this difference for proteomics. Lewontin's framework suggests that social scientists may find that omics sciences affect social relations in different ways than past analyses of genetics.

Physically abusive and nonabusive mothers' perceptions of parenting and child behavior.

PubMed

Bradley, E J; Peters, R D

1991-07-01

Physically abusive and nonabusive mothers were studied for differences in perceptions of the parenting role and of child behavior problems. Findings suggested systematic differences in attributional style of the abusive mothers, supporting the hypothesis that such mothers are hyperreactive to their children's misbehavior. These mothers also tended to minimize both their own contribution to negative parent-child interactions and their children's role in positive ones.

Does Biology Justify Ideology? The Politics of Genetic Attribution

PubMed Central

Suhay, Elizabeth; Jayaratne, Toby Epstein

2013-01-01

Conventional wisdom suggests that political conservatives are more likely than liberals to endorse genetic explanations for many human characteristics and behaviors. Whether and to what extent this is true has received surprisingly limited systematic attention. We examine evidence from a large U.S. public opinion survey that measured the extent to which respondents believed genetic explanations account for a variety of differences among individuals as well as groups in society. We find that conservatives were indeed more likely than liberals to endorse genetic explanations for perceived race and class differences in characteristics often associated with socioeconomic inequality (intelligence, math skills, drive, and violence). Different ideological divisions emerged, however, with respect to respondents’ explanations for sexual orientation. Here, liberals were more likely than conservatives to say that sexual orientation is due to genes and less likely to say that it is due to choice or the environment. These patterns suggest that conservative and liberal ideologues will tend to endorse genetic explanations where their policy positions are bolstered by “naturalizing” human differences. That said, debates over genetic influence may be more politicized with respect to race, class, and sexual orientation than population differences generally: We find that left/right political ideology was not significantly associated with genetic (or other) attributions for individual differences in intelligence, math skills, drive, or violence. We conclude that conceptions of the proper role of government are closely intertwined with assumptions about the causes of human difference, but that this relationship is a complex one. PMID:26379311

Does Biology Justify Ideology? The Politics of Genetic Attribution.

PubMed

Suhay, Elizabeth; Jayaratne, Toby Epstein

2013-01-01

Conventional wisdom suggests that political conservatives are more likely than liberals to endorse genetic explanations for many human characteristics and behaviors. Whether and to what extent this is true has received surprisingly limited systematic attention. We examine evidence from a large U.S. public opinion survey that measured the extent to which respondents believed genetic explanations account for a variety of differences among individuals as well as groups in society. We find that conservatives were indeed more likely than liberals to endorse genetic explanations for perceived race and class differences in characteristics often associated with socioeconomic inequality (intelligence, math skills, drive, and violence). Different ideological divisions emerged, however, with respect to respondents' explanations for sexual orientation. Here, liberals were more likely than conservatives to say that sexual orientation is due to genes and less likely to say that it is due to choice or the environment. These patterns suggest that conservative and liberal ideologues will tend to endorse genetic explanations where their policy positions are bolstered by "naturalizing" human differences. That said, debates over genetic influence may be more politicized with respect to race, class, and sexual orientation than population differences generally: We find that left/right political ideology was not significantly associated with genetic (or other) attributions for individual differences in intelligence, math skills, drive, or violence. We conclude that conceptions of the proper role of government are closely intertwined with assumptions about the causes of human difference, but that this relationship is a complex one.

Romantic attraction and conflict negotiation among late adolescent and early adult romantic couples

PubMed Central

Shulman, Shmuel; Mayes, Linda C.; Cohen, Tiffany H.; Swain, James E.; Leckman, James F.

2011-01-01

In a sample of 35 couples (college students, aged 18–24) who were dating for no longer than six months, each partner was given a semi-structured interview to assess the nature and intensity of romantic preoccupation with his or her lover. In addition, partners were jointly given a revealed differences task in which they were asked to discuss the issue of their highest disagreement and to arrive at an agreement. Findings suggested that higher levels of romantic preoccupation are related to partners' inclination to downplay their disagreement and to negotiate their differences less successfully. The same assessment six weeks later showed that where levels of romantic preoccupation among romantic partners stayed stable, the partners showed an increasing capability to recognize and face their disagreements and even a tendency to better negotiate disagreements started to emerge. Findings of this study suggest that two processes operate within a bond between romantic partners. The first process refers to the attraction or preoccupation between partners and the second refers to the quality of conflict negotiation that evolves over time. Where at the initial stage of a romantic bond the attraction process overshadows partners' ability to acknowledge and deal with differences, the two processes develop differently over time. PMID:18835494

Romantic attraction and conflict negotiation among late adolescent and early adult romantic couples.

PubMed

Shulman, Shmuel; Mayes, Linda C; Cohen, Tiffany H; Swain, James E; Leckman, James F

2008-12-01

In a sample of 35 couples (college students, aged 18-24) who were dating for no longer than six months, each partner was given a semi-structured interview to assess the nature and intensity of romantic preoccupation with his or her lover. In addition, partners were jointly given a revealed differences task in which they were asked to discuss the issue of their highest disagreement and to arrive at an agreement. Findings suggested that higher levels of romantic preoccupation are related to partners' inclination to downplay their disagreement and to negotiate their differences less successfully. The same assessment six weeks later showed that where levels of romantic preoccupation among romantic partners stayed stable, the partners showed an increasing capability to recognize and face their disagreements and even a tendency to better negotiate disagreements started to emerge. Findings of this study suggest that two processes operate within a bond between romantic partners. The first process refers to the attraction or preoccupation between partners and the second refers to the quality of conflict negotiation that evolves over time. Where at the initial stage of a romantic bond the attraction process overshadows partners' ability to acknowledge and deal with differences, the two processes develop differently over time.

Alignment strategies for the entrainment of music and movement rhythms.

PubMed

Moens, Bart; Leman, Marc

2015-03-01

Theories of entrainment assume that spontaneous entrainment emerges from dynamic laws that operate via mediators on interactions, whereby entrainment is facilitated if certain conditions are fulfilled. In this study, we show that mediators can be built that affect the entrainment of human locomotion to music. More specifically, we built D-Jogger, a music player that functions as a mediator between music and locomotion rhythms. The D-Jogger makes it possible to manipulate the timing differences between salient moments of the rhythms (beats and footfalls) through the manipulation of the musical period and phase, which affect the condition in which entrainment functions. We conducted several experiments to explore different strategies for manipulating the entrainment of locomotion and music. The results of these experiments showed that spontaneous entrainment can be manipulated, thereby suggesting different strategies on how to embark. The findings furthermore suggest a distinction among different modalities of entrainment: finding the beat (the most difficult part of entrainment), keeping the beat (easier, as a temporal scheme has been established), and being in phase (no entrainment is needed because the music is always adapted to the human rhythm). This study points to a new avenue of research on entrainment and opens new perspectives for the neuroscience of music. © 2014 New York Academy of Sciences.

Rapid, generalized adaptation to asynchronous audiovisual speech.

PubMed

Van der Burg, Erik; Goodbourn, Patrick T

2015-04-07

The brain is adaptive. The speed of propagation through air, and of low-level sensory processing, differs markedly between auditory and visual stimuli; yet the brain can adapt to compensate for the resulting cross-modal delays. Studies investigating temporal recalibration to audiovisual speech have used prolonged adaptation procedures, suggesting that adaptation is sluggish. Here, we show that adaptation to asynchronous audiovisual speech occurs rapidly. Participants viewed a brief clip of an actor pronouncing a single syllable. The voice was either advanced or delayed relative to the corresponding lip movements, and participants were asked to make a synchrony judgement. Although we did not use an explicit adaptation procedure, we demonstrate rapid recalibration based on a single audiovisual event. We find that the point of subjective simultaneity on each trial is highly contingent upon the modality order of the preceding trial. We find compelling evidence that rapid recalibration generalizes across different stimuli, and different actors. Finally, we demonstrate that rapid recalibration occurs even when auditory and visual events clearly belong to different actors. These results suggest that rapid temporal recalibration to audiovisual speech is primarily mediated by basic temporal factors, rather than higher-order factors such as perceived simultaneity and source identity. © 2015 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.

United by Faith? Race/Ethnicity, Congregational Diversity, and Explanations of Racial Inequality

PubMed Central

Cobb, Ryon J.; Perry, Samuel L.; Dougherty, Kevin D.

2016-01-01

This study examines the extent to which the racial composition of a congregation moderates explanations for Black/White inequality among White, Black, and Hispanic congregants. Using nationally representative data from General Social Surveys and National Congregations Studies, we find that religiously affiliated Blacks and Hispanics tend to hold different racial attitudes than religiously affiliated Whites, but these differences largely disappear inside multiracial congregations. Importantly, we find that attending a multiracial congregation is unassociated with Whites’ explanations for racial inequality, and Blacks who attend multiracial congregations are actually less likely to affirm structural explanations for Black/White inequality than Blacks in nonmultiracial congregations or Whites in multiracial congregations. We find little evidence that multiracial congregations promote progressive racial views among attendees of any race or ethnicity. Rather, our findings suggest that multiracial congregations (1) leave dominant White racial frames unchallenged, potentially influencing minority attendees to embrace such frames and/or (2) attract racial minorities who are more likely to embrace those frames in the first place. PMID:27429542

Mommy markets: Racial differences in lesbians' dating preferences for women with children.

PubMed

Rafalow, Matthew H; Kizer, Jessica M

2017-11-22

Recent work shows that race is a critical factor in shaping sexual identities, partner preference, and family formation, suggesting there may be racial differences in whether lesbians already have children at the time that they look for companions. In this study, we draw on a sample of 1,923 lesbians on Match.com to quantitatively test whether there are racial differences in dating preferences for women with children, underscoring implications for family inequality through racial differences in who has children when looking for a partner. We find that Blacks, Latinas, and Asians are more likely than Whites to not only have children but also be open to dating other women with children. This suggests that race differentially structures lesbians' openness to partners with children, and such preferences may be a possible mechanism for racial stratification.

Explicit processing demands reveal language modality-specific organization of working memory.

PubMed

Rudner, Mary; Rönnberg, Jerker

2008-01-01

The working memory model for Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) predicts that processing differences between language modalities emerge when cognitive demands are explicit. This prediction was tested in three working memory experiments with participants who were Deaf Signers (DS), Hearing Signers (HS), or Hearing Nonsigners (HN). Easily nameable pictures were used as stimuli to avoid confounds relating to sensory modality. Performance was largely similar for DS, HS, and HN, suggesting that previously identified intermodal differences may be due to differences in retention of sensory information. When explicit processing demands were high, differences emerged between DS and HN, suggesting that although working memory storage in both groups is sensitive to temporal organization, retrieval is not sensitive to temporal organization in DS. A general effect of semantic similarity was also found. These findings are discussed in relation to the ELU model.

Multisensory integration: flexible use of general operations

PubMed Central

van Atteveldt, Nienke; Murray, Micah M.; Thut, Gregor; Schroeder, Charles

2014-01-01

Research into the anatomical substrates and “principles” for integrating inputs from separate sensory surfaces has yielded divergent findings. This suggests that multisensory integration is flexible and context-dependent, and underlines the need for dynamically adaptive neuronal integration mechanisms. We propose that flexible multisensory integration can be explained by a combination of canonical, population-level integrative operations, such as oscillatory phase-resetting and divisive normalization. These canonical operations subsume multisensory integration into a fundamental set of principles as to how the brain integrates all sorts of information, and they are being used proactively and adaptively. We illustrate this proposition by unifying recent findings from different research themes such as timing, behavioral goal and experience-related differences in integration. PMID:24656248

Exams? Why worry? Interpreting anxiety as facilitative and stress appraisals.

PubMed

Strack, Juliane; Esteves, Francisco

2015-01-01

The present study examined why people differ in how they appraise the same stressful situation (an approaching exam). We explored whether interpreting anxiety as a facilitative emotion can affect the type of stress appraisal people make. One hundred and three undergraduate students took part in this study, which lasted for 10 days (leading up to an exam). The students completed a daily self-reported evaluation of anxiety, emotional exhaustion, and stress experienced. The findings suggest a process by which a stressful time can be experienced as motivating rather than threatening or emotionally exhausting. For example, interpreting anxiety as facilitative moderated the relationship between anxiety and stress appraisals. When interpreting their anxiety as facilitative, individuals showed a higher tendency to make challenge stress appraisals and a lower tendency to appraising the stressor as a threat. These differences were especially visible with high levels of anxiety. Furthermore, interpreting anxiety as facilitative was negatively associated with emotional exhaustion, but positively associated with the academic performance. These findings suggest an explanation why people differ in how they appraise the same stressor: how people interpret their anxiety may to a large part affect how they appraise difficult events and situations.

Sensitivity to ethanol hypnosis and modulation of chloride channels does not cosegregate with pentobarbital sensitivity in HS mice.

PubMed

Allan, A M; Harris, R A

1989-06-01

Several findings suggest that barbiturates and alcohol produce their sedative effects through a common neural and possibly a common genetic mechanism. We tested this hypothesis by examining the correlation between ethanol and pentobarbital sedative effects in individual animals from a genetically heterogeneous population. The duration of pentobarbital-induced hypnosis (sleep-time) was unrelated to the sleep-time produced by ethanol in heterogeneous stock (HS) mice. Therefore, the present study also examined the effect of ethanol, pentobarbital, and flunitrazepam on muscimol-stimulated chloride flux into brain membranes prepared from HS mice selected for differences in pentobarbital- and ethanol-induced sleep-time. Brain membranes from mice selected for differences in ethanol sleep-time were differentially responsive to ethanol- and flunitrazepam-, but not to pentobarbital-induced augmentation of muscimol-stimulated chloride flux. No differences in augmentation of chloride flux by ethanol, pentobarbital, or flunitrazepam were found in membranes prepared from mice differentially sensitive to pentobarbital hypnosis. The ability of muscimol to stimulate chloride uptake was not related to ethanol or pentobarbital sensitivity. These findings suggest that sensitivity to ethanol is not likely to be genetically linked to pentobarbital sensitivity.

Revisiting the role of language in spatial cognition: Categorical perception of spatial relations in English and Korean speakers.

PubMed

Holmes, Kevin J; Moty, Kelsey; Regier, Terry

2017-12-01

The spatial relation of support has been regarded as universally privileged in nonlinguistic cognition and immune to the influence of language. English, but not Korean, obligatorily distinguishes support from nonsupport via basic spatial terms. Despite this linguistic difference, previous research suggests that English and Korean speakers show comparable nonlinguistic sensitivity to the support/nonsupport distinction. Here, using a paradigm previously found to elicit cross-language differences in color discrimination, we provide evidence for a difference in sensitivity to support/nonsupport between native English speakers and native Korean speakers who were late English learners and tested in a context that privileged Korean. Whereas the former group showed categorical perception (CP) when discriminating spatial scenes capturing the support/nonsupport distinction, the latter did not. An additional group of native Korean speakers-relatively early English learners tested in an English-salient context-patterned with the native English speakers in showing CP for support/nonsupport. These findings suggest that obligatory marking of support/nonsupport in one's native language can affect nonlinguistic sensitivity to this distinction, contra earlier findings, but that such sensitivity may also depend on aspects of language background and the immediate linguistic context.

Stochastic model of financial markets reproducing scaling and memory in volatility return intervals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gontis, V.; Havlin, S.; Kononovicius, A.; Podobnik, B.; Stanley, H. E.

2016-11-01

We investigate the volatility return intervals in the NYSE and FOREX markets. We explain previous empirical findings using a model based on the interacting agent hypothesis instead of the widely-used efficient market hypothesis. We derive macroscopic equations based on the microscopic herding interactions of agents and find that they are able to reproduce various stylized facts of different markets and different assets with the same set of model parameters. We show that the power-law properties and the scaling of return intervals and other financial variables have a similar origin and could be a result of a general class of non-linear stochastic differential equations derived from a master equation of an agent system that is coupled by herding interactions. Specifically, we find that this approach enables us to recover the volatility return interval statistics as well as volatility probability and spectral densities for the NYSE and FOREX markets, for different assets, and for different time-scales. We find also that the historical S&P500 monthly series exhibits the same volatility return interval properties recovered by our proposed model. Our statistical results suggest that human herding is so strong that it persists even when other evolving fluctuations perturbate the financial system.

Perceptual-cognitive expertise of handball coaches in their young and middle adult years.

PubMed

Fischer, Lennart; Baker, Joseph; Rienhoff, Rebecca; Strauß, Bernd; Tirp, Judith; Büsch, Dirk; Schorer, Jörg

2016-09-01

There is little research investigating the maintenance of perceptual-cognitive expertise in general and even less comparing coaches of different ages. The aim of this study was to test for perceptual-cognitive differences between age groups, licence levels, and their interaction. This study investigated differences in skilled performance between young and middle-aged coaches of three different skill levels. Participants performed an accuracy-oriented pattern recall (mean distance in pixel) and a time-oriented flicker test (mean detection time in ms). There were some significant differences between age groups and between skill groups for both tests, but no interactions. For the pattern recall test, the effect sizes were larger for skill level differences, while for the flicker test effects were larger for ageing. These results suggest coaches are able to maintain accuracy skills better than reaction timed tasks. This is in line with findings on speeded performance in general populations, which show declines with age. Moreover, results also support findings on perceptual expertise in skills where accuracy was important.

Prosocial behavior and gender

PubMed Central

Espinosa, María Paz; Kovářík, Jaromír

2015-01-01

This study revisits different experimental data sets that explore social behavior in economic games and uncovers that many treatment effects may be gender-specific. In general, men and women do not differ in “neutral” baselines. However, we find that social framing tends to reinforce prosocial behavior in women but not men, whereas encouraging reflection decreases the prosociality of males but not females. The treatment effects are sometimes statistically different across genders and sometimes not but never go in the opposite direction. These findings suggest that (i) the social behavior of both sexes is malleable but each gender responds to different aspects of the social context; and (ii) gender differences observed in some studies might be the result of particular features of the experimental design. Our results contribute to the literature on prosocial behavior and may improve our understanding of the origins of human prosociality. We discuss the possible link between the observed differential treatment effects across genders and the differing male and female brain network connectivity, documented in recent neural studies. PMID:25926783

Sex-Related Differences in Self-Reported Neurocognitive Impairment among High-Risk Cocaine Users in Methadone Maintenance Treatment Program.

PubMed

Shrestha, Roman; Huedo-Medina, Tania B; Copenhaver, Michael M

2015-01-01

Previous research has suggested possible sex-related differences in executive functioning among cocaine users; however, no studies specifically explain sex-related differences in neurocognitive impairment (NCI) among cocaine users receiving clinical care. Knowledge about this association can aid in the development of targeted prevention strategies to reduce adverse health outcomes. This study was designed to examine the sex-related differences in NCI among high-risk cocaine users receiving substance-abuse treatment. The Neuropsychological Impairment Scale (NIS) was administered to 199 cocaine users (98 men; 101 women), receiving methadone maintainance treatment, to assess self-reported NCI by identifying the patients' awareness of neuropsychological symptoms. We used T-test comparison to find differences in NCI between men and women and multiple regression analysis to explore the relative contribution of sex to NCI. Consistent with prior work, high NCI was evident within this sample, as indicated by high scores on most of the NIS subscales. Women reported greater impairment than men, as evidenced by significantly higher scores on several NIS subscales, after controlling for demographic and other confounding variables. Interestingly, cocaine craving significantly predicted NCI among men but not among women, as suggested by the significant association between cocaine craving and all except one of the NIS subscales. These findings suggest that cocaine users enter into treatment with a range of NCI - with women having significantly more neurocognitive deficits than men - that may contribute to differential treatment outcomes. This highlights the need to include additional services such as neuropsychological screening and sex-specific treatment programs to optimally reduce adverse health outcomes in these high-risk, cognitively impaired patients.

Peripheral leukocyte expression of the potential biomarker proteins Bdnf, Sirt1, and Psen1 is not regulated by promoter methylation in Alzheimer's disease patients.

PubMed

Carboni, Lucia; Lattanzio, Francesca; Candeletti, Sanzio; Porcellini, Elisa; Raschi, Elena; Licastro, Federico; Romualdi, Patrizia

2015-09-25

The identification of Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers is crucial to support drug discovery. Within putative biomarkers, peripheral Bdnf levels correlate with cognitive decline and AD, although conflicting findings are reported. Sirtuin 1 (Sirt1) serum levels are lower in AD patients and Presenilin 1 (Psen1) is expressed by blood cells. DNA methylation is altered in AD patients, suggesting that epigenetic mechanisms play a role in AD pathophysiology. The objective of this study was to investigate promoter methylation levels of potential biomarkers in AD cases and controls. Peripheral blood DNA methylation levels were analysed by methylation-specific primer real-time PCR. Bdnf promoter methylation levels did not differ between AD patients and controls. Similarly, Sirt1 promoter revealed minimal levels of methylation which did not display significant differences between groups. No significant difference was revealed between AD patients and controls also in Psen1 methylation, showing a large variability of values among subjects. Although peripheral Bdnf expression is associated with differential promoter methylation in psychiatric and neurological disorders, our results suggest that different mechanisms take place in AD. The finding that the control of Sirt1 protein levels in blood is not exerted through the repression of mRNA expression by promoter hypermethylation is in agreement with previous data. In contrast, other studies reported that Psen1 methylation may be increased or decreased in AD patients, suggesting that additional studies are required. In conclusion, this study shows that peripheral levels of the potential AD biomarker proteins Bdnf, Sirt1, and Psen1 are not regulated by different promoter methylation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gender differences in trusting strangers: Role of the target's gender.

PubMed

Zhao, Na; Zhang, Jianxin

2016-06-01

Previous findings on gender differences in the behaviors of individuals, including trusting behaviors, are inconsistent. A criticism is that these studies neglect contextual factors. The present study aims to examine how the target's gender, as a primary context factor, influences the trusting behavior of individuals in one survey and two experimental situations. Results indicate that people tend to trust strangers of the opposite gender more than those of the same gender in mixed-gender situations. Furthermore, females trust females much more than males trust males. The results help people understand that when talking about gender differences in interpersonal situations, the gender identity of target persons should be considered. These findings are somewhat in conflict with those of previous studies conducted in Western cultures, and suggest that culture should also be explored in future studies on gender differences in interpersonal relationships. © 2016 The Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

A comparison of repetitive behaviors in Aspergers Disorder and high functioning autism.

PubMed

Cuccaro, Michael L; Nations, Laura; Brinkley, Jason; Abramson, Ruth K; Wright, Harry H; Hall, Alicia; Gilbert, John; Pericak-Vance, Margaret A

2007-04-01

In this study we compared 33 IQ and age matched pairs of individuals with Aspergers Disorder (ASP) and high functioning autism (HFA) on measures of repetitive behavior. On the Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised (RBS-R), the ASP and HFA groups showed no differences in RBS-R Intensity score (severity) score or Frequency score (number of problems present). This suggests that the two groups are similar with respect to the intensity or severity of repetitive behaviors and the presence of repetitive behaviors. At the item level there were no differences on scales typically associated with autism (Stereotyped Behavior) and ASP (Restricted Interests). Similarly, there were no differences between the groups on the Aberrant Behavior Checklist Stereotypy scale. These findings add to the body of literature showing that HFA and ASP fail to differ with respect to repetitive behaviors. The implications of the findings for neurobiologic and genetic studies are discussed.

A Procedure for the Allocation of Your Advertising Budget.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balsmeier, Phillip W.; Barr, Peter B.

1981-01-01

Some preliminary findings on a study conducted by one retailer who was concerned about his advertising budget and the effects his advertising was having on his customers are presented. Results suggest that advertising must consist of a combination of different media. A customer questionnaire is included. (MLW)

An Appraisal of the Training Programmes for Social Education Workers in India

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ansari, N. A.

1971-01-01

A study of the India training programmes for social education workers at different levels was conducted to find out the relative success and impact of these programs on the worker. The study found that the programs were "good" and some suggestions for improvement are discussed. (RR/Author)

The Social Meaning of Leisure in Uganda and America.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crandall, Rich; Thompson, Richard W.

1978-01-01

This paper analyzes cross-culturally the importance of social contact for leisure. The general findings of considerable similarity in evaluating preferences and the importance of social considerations provide a basis for preliminary comparisons and suggest that similar factors can affect leisure preferences in different cultural settings.…

The Effect of the Social Organization of Schools on Teachers' Efficacy and Satisfaction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Valerie E.; And Others

1991-01-01

Finds that teachers' professional efficacy is related to the environment in which they practice. Explains higher levels of efficacy in Catholic schools by organizational differences. Cites principal leadership and communal organization as essential to teacher satisfaction. Suggests fostering cooperative environments and reasonable teacher autonomy…

Multiplying Is More than Math--It's Also Good Management

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foster, Elise; Wiseman, Liz

2015-01-01

Studying more than 400 educational leaders, the authors propose a new model for leadership and management rooted in the belief that there is latent intelligence inside schools and educational organizations. Their findings suggest two dramatically different types of leaders, Multipliers and Diminishers. The five disciplines that distinguish…

Effective Middle Level Teaching: Perceptions on the Preparedness of Newly Hired Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howell, Penny B.; Cook, Chris; Faulkner, Shawn A.

2013-01-01

This interpretive, exploratory study utilized survey methodology to document middle level principals' perceptions of effective teaching practices and the preparedness of newly hired middle level teachers. The findings suggest that principals' descriptions of effective teaching differ from their descriptions of effective teachers. Additionally,…

Coherent Motion Sensitivity Predicts Individual Differences in Subtraction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boets, Bart; De Smedt, Bert; Ghesquiere, Pol

2011-01-01

Recent findings suggest deficits in coherent motion sensitivity, an index of visual dorsal stream functioning, in children with poor mathematical skills or dyscalculia, a specific learning disability in mathematics. We extended these data using a longitudinal design to unravel whether visual dorsal stream functioning is able to "predict"…

Why Involvement Matters: A Review of Research on Student Involvement in the Collegiate Setting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Jody; Lovell, Cheryl D.; McGann, Tammy; Wyrick, Jason

1998-01-01

Highlights different types of student involvement, summarizes key findings, and identifies significant gaps in research regarding how student involvement on college campuses impacts student development and learning. Suggests that student affairs administrators need to continue the exploration on the importance of college student involvement.…

The Social and Political Matrix of Environmental Attitudes: An Analysis of the Vote on the California Coastal Zone Regulation Act.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wohlwill, Joachim F.

1979-01-01

Presents a two-part analysis of the note on Proposition 20. Findings suggest that environmental concern may be more broadly distributed across different socioeconomic and political strata of our society than previous investigators have asserted. (Author/MA)

Exploring Perceptions of University Students Pertaining to Grades over Knowledge and Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hasnain, Asma; Bhamani, Shelina

2014-01-01

The aim of the research was to study the phenomenon surrounding the perspective of university students preferring grades to knowledge and skills. Three currently enrolled participants were selected from different private universities of Karachi. Participants' interviews were examined through thematic analysis. The findings suggested that students…

Choosing recreation settings: Processes, findings, and research directions

Treesearch

Stephen F. McCool; George H. Stankey; Roger N. Clark

1985-01-01

This paper reviews the discussion contained in the 11 presentations given at a symposium on recreation choice behavior. It addresses major points of commonality in the papers, as well as areas where differences exist. It also suggests a number of areas in which additional research on recreation choice behavior is needed.

Levels-of-Processing Effects in Infant Memory?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adler, Scott A.; Gerhardstein, Peter; Rovee-Collier, Carolyn

1998-01-01

Three experiments manipulated 3-month-olds' attention to different components of a training display and assessed the effect on retention. Results suggested that increasing or decreasing attention to an item during encoding produces a corresponding increase or decrease in memorability. Findings were consistent with a levels-of-processing account…

Metacognition and the Influence of Polling Systems: How Do Clickers Compare with Low Technology Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brady, Melanie; Seli, Helena; Rosenthal, Jane

2013-01-01

Recent research suggests that clickers (electronic feedback devices) influence metacognition. This article reports qualitative findings from a quasi-experimental study comparing clickers and low technology polling. We sought to establish how clickers influence metacognition and whether differences exist in how each response system influences…

Working with Difference in Online Collaborative Groups

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Regina O.

2005-01-01

This qualitative cross-case study explored the experiences that learners describe within online collaborative groups. The study context was a fully online graduate course on adult learning. The findings suggest that the small online groups demonstrated dynamics and process that are characteristic of individual growth and development and group…

Discourses of Whiteness: White Students at Catholic Women's Colleges (Dis)Engaging Race

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ropers-Huilman, Rebecca; Winters, Kelly T.; Enke, Kathryn A. E.

2013-01-01

To better understand how White college women understand and are influenced by whiteness, we discursively analyzed data from interviews and focus groups with 25 White seniors at two Catholic women's colleges. Findings suggest that participants understood whiteness through discourses of insignificance, nominal difference, responsibility, and…

Print and Internet Catalog Shopping: Assessing Attitudes and Intentions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vijayasarathy, Leo R.; Jones, Joseph M.

2000-01-01

Findings of an empirical study that compared individuals' attitudes and intentions to shop using print and Internet catalogs suggest that individuals perceived differences between the two catalog media on the shopping factors of reliability, tangibility, and consumer risk. Product value, pre-order information, post-selection information, shopping…

Release the Prisoners Game

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Hecke, Tanja

2011-01-01

This article presents the mathematical approach of the optimal strategy to win the "Release the prisoners" game and the integration of this analysis in a math class. Outline lesson plans at three different levels are given, where simulations are suggested as well as theoretical findings about the probability distribution function and its mean…

A Comprehensive Review of Learner-Control: The Role of Learner Characteristics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Michael D.

This paper reviews findings from over 70 published studies investigating various facets of learner-control in computer-based instruction (CBI). General conclusions about the relative effectiveness of learner-control versus program-control are equivocal. Across these studies, however, are strong suggestions that individual learner differences can…

Public versus Private Schools in Qatar: Is There a Literacy Gap?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheema, Jehanzeb R.

2016-01-01

Recent studies have suggested that performance-related differences between private and public schools disappear once student background characteristics are accounted for. However, given the sometimes significant variation in economic, social and cultural norms across countries these findings may not have universal relevance. The main purpose of…

Critical Multicultural Citizenship Education among Black Immigrant Youth: Factors and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kumi-Yeboah, Alex; Smith, Patriann

2016-01-01

This study uses qualitative interviews with 18 participants across five states to examine the factors that promote enhancement of critical multicultural education for Black immigrant youth. Findings suggest that class discussion, influence of social media and technology, non-educational practices, and cultural and language differences are the…

Anorexia Nervosa: A Misdiagnosis of the Adolescent Male.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Svec, Henry

1987-01-01

Discusses rarity of anorexia nervosa among male population with primary reference to differences from female symptomatology. Presents case which implies that anorexia nervosa in the male may be a marker for other more severe pathology. Presents findings which suggest a diagnostic strategy based on familial, behavioral, environmental, educational,…

Career Ambitions: A Comparison of Youth with and without SLD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kortering, Larry J.; Braziel, Patricia M.; McClannon, Terry W.

2010-01-01

Participants with and without specific learning disabilities (SLD) provided responses as to background and school features, postschool plans, dream career, and most likely job after completing school. Findings suggest that participant groups are similar across most background and school features, with apparent differences for grade level and…

The Time-Crunch Paradox

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gimenez-Nadal, Jose Ignacio; Sevilla-Sanz, Almudena

2011-01-01

Previous research has shown little difference in the average leisure time of men and women. This finding is a challenge to the "second shift" argument, which suggests that increases in female labor market hours have not been compensated by equal decreases in household labor. This paper presents time-use and leisure satisfaction data for…

An Investigation of School Counselor Self-Efficacy with English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Leonissa V.; Ziomek-Daigle, Jolie; Haskins, Natoya Hill; Paisley, Pamela O.

2017-01-01

This exploratory quantitative study described school counselors' self-efficacy with English language learners. Findings suggest that school counselors with exposure to and experiences with English language learners have higher levels of self-efficacy. Statistically significant and practical differences in self-efficacy were apparent by race, U.S.…

Internal Barriers to the Realization of Potential: Correlates and Interrelationships among Gifted and Talented Female Adolescents.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hollinger, Constance L.; Fleming, Elyse S.

1984-01-01

Gifted female adolescents (N=284) completed comprehensive career assessment batteries. Examination of diagnostic criteria and associated personality dimensions revealed commonalities and differences among the six diagnostic groups. Findings suggest the need for encouraging the students with low assertiveness or low achievement motivation to…

Dengue virus type 3, South Pacific Islands, 2013.

PubMed

Cao-Lormeau, Van-Mai; Roche, Claudine; Musso, Didier; Mallet, Henri-Pierre; Dalipanda, Tenneth; Dofai, Alfred; Nogareda, Francisco; Nilles, Eric J; Aaskov, John

2014-06-01

After an 18-year absence, dengue virus serotype 3 reemerged in the South Pacific Islands in 2013. Outbreaks in western (Solomon Islands) and eastern (French Polynesia) regions were caused by different genotypes. This finding suggested that immunity against dengue virus serotype, rather than virus genotype, was the principal determinant of reemergence.

Genetic Contributions to Continuity and Change in Attachment Security: A Prospective, Longitudinal Investigation from Infancy to Young Adulthood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raby, K. Lee; Cicchetti, Dante; Carlson, Elizabeth A.; Egeland, Byron; Collins, W. Andrew

2013-01-01

Background: Longitudinal research has demonstrated that individual differences in attachment security show only modest continuity from infancy to adulthood. Recent findings based on retrospective reports suggest that individuals' genetic variation may moderate the developmental associations between early attachment-relevant relationship…

Vietnamese Refugees' Levels of Distress, Social Support, and Acculturation: Implications for Mental Health Counseling.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chung, Rita Chi-Ying; Bemak, Fred; Wong, Sandra

2000-01-01

Study examines the psychosocial adjustment issues for two groups of Vietnamese refugees and provides recommendations for mental health interventions. Findings show significant differences in levels of distress, social support, and acculturation between the groups. Suggests that mental health professionals be aware of intergroup and gender…

The Swedish Hayling task, and its relation to working memory, verbal ability, and speech-recognition-in-noise.

PubMed

Stenbäck, Victoria; Hällgren, Mathias; Lyxell, Björn; Larsby, Birgitta

2015-06-01

Cognitive functions and speech-recognition-in-noise were evaluated with a cognitive test battery, assessing response inhibition using the Hayling task, working memory capacity (WMC) and verbal information processing, and an auditory test of speech recognition. The cognitive tests were performed in silence whereas the speech recognition task was presented in noise. Thirty young normally-hearing individuals participated in the study. The aim of the study was to investigate one executive function, response inhibition, and whether it is related to individual working memory capacity (WMC), and how speech-recognition-in-noise relates to WMC and inhibitory control. The results showed a significant difference between initiation and response inhibition, suggesting that the Hayling task taps cognitive activity responsible for executive control. Our findings also suggest that high verbal ability was associated with better performance in the Hayling task. We also present findings suggesting that individuals who perform well on tasks involving response inhibition, and WMC, also perform well on a speech-in-noise task. Our findings indicate that capacity to resist semantic interference can be used to predict performance on speech-in-noise tasks. © 2015 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Cognitive costs of encoding novel natural activities: Can "learning by doing" be distracting and deceptive?

PubMed

von Stülpnagel, Rul; Schult, Janette C; Richter, Claudia; Steffens, Melanie C

2016-01-01

Findings from action memory research suggest that the enactment of simple actions and naturalistic activities results in similar memory performance to that from their observation. However, little is known about potential differences between the conditions during the encoding of the to-be-studied actions and activities. We analysed the cognitive costs of encoding two novel naturalistic activities studied via enactment or via observation in four experiments. In addition to memory performance, we measured objective cognitive costs with a secondary task and subjective cognitive costs with repeated ratings of mental effort and estimates of general activity difficulty. Memory performance was comparable across study conditions throughout all experiments. The enactment of activities repeatedly resulted in slower reaction times in the secondary task than did observation, suggesting higher objective costs. In contrast, subjective costs were rated lower after enactment than after observation. Findings from a pantomimic enactment condition suggested that the low ratings of subjective costs after enactment represent a misinterpretation of task demands. Our findings imply that the widespread belief about "learning by doing" as an easy way of learning does not stem from an actual advantage in memory performance, but rather from continuous feedback about one's performance resulting from enactment.

A survey of motif finding Web tools for detecting binding site motifs in ChIP-Seq data

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Abstract ChIP-Seq (chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing) has provided the advantage for finding motifs as ChIP-Seq experiments narrow down the motif finding to binding site locations. Recent motif finding tools facilitate the motif detection by providing user-friendly Web interface. In this work, we reviewed nine motif finding Web tools that are capable for detecting binding site motifs in ChIP-Seq data. We showed each motif finding Web tool has its own advantages for detecting motifs that other tools may not discover. We recommended the users to use multiple motif finding Web tools that implement different algorithms for obtaining significant motifs, overlapping resemble motifs, and non-overlapping motifs. Finally, we provided our suggestions for future development of motif finding Web tool that better assists researchers for finding motifs in ChIP-Seq data. Reviewers This article was reviewed by Prof. Sandor Pongor, Dr. Yuriy Gusev, and Dr. Shyam Prabhakar (nominated by Prof. Limsoon Wong). PMID:24555784

Positive and Negative Affect During Sexual Activity: Differences Between Homosexual and Heterosexual Men and Women, With and Without Sexual Problems.

PubMed

Peixoto, Maria Manuela; Nobre, Pedro

2016-01-02

Empirical research suggests that emotional response during sexual activity discriminates between sexually functional and dysfunctional heterosexual men and women, with clinics presenting lower positive and higher negative affect. However, there is no evidence about the role of emotions in gay men and lesbian women with sexual problems. The present study analyzed affective states during sexual activity in homosexual and heterosexual men and women, with and without sexual problems. Participants in this study were 156 men and 168 women. A 2 (group) × 2 (sexual orientation) multivariate analysis of variance was performed. Participants completed a web-survey assessing sexual functioning and the Positive Affect-Negative Affect Scale. Findings indicated a main effect of group, with groups with sexual problems reporting significantly more negative and lower positive affect compared with men and women without sexual problems, regardless of sexual orientation. However, findings have also shown an interaction effect in the male sample with gay men, contrary to heterosexual men, reporting similar affective responses regardless of having a sexual dysfunction or not. Overall, findings emphasize the role of affective responses during sexual activity in men and women with sexual problems, suggesting the importance of addressing emotional responses in assessment and treatment of sexual problems in individuals with different sexual orientations.

Comparison of singer's formant, speaker's ring, and LTA spectrum among classical singers and untrained normal speakers.

PubMed

Oliveira Barrichelo, V M; Heuer, R J; Dean, C M; Sataloff, R T

2001-09-01

Many studies have described and analyzed the singer's formant. A similar phenomenon produced by trained speakers led some authors to examine the speaker's ring. If we consider these phenomena as resonance effects associated with vocal tract adjustments and training, can we hypothesize that trained singers can carry over their singing formant ability into speech, also obtaining a speaker's ring? Can we find similar differences for energy distribution in continuous speech? Forty classically trained singers and forty untrained normal speakers performed an all-voiced reading task and produced a sample of a sustained spoken vowel /a/. The singers were also requested to perform a sustained sung vowel /a/ at a comfortable pitch. The reading was analyzed by the long-term average spectrum (LTAS) method. The sustained vowels were analyzed through power spectrum analysis. The data suggest that singers show more energy concentration in the singer's formant/speaker's ring region in both sung and spoken vowels. The singers' spoken vowel energy in the speaker's ring area was found to be significantly larger than that of the untrained speakers. The LTAS showed similar findings suggesting that those differences also occur in continuous speech. This finding supports the value of further research on the effect of singing training on the resonance of the speaking voice.

The case for causal influences of action videogame play upon vision and attention.

PubMed

Kristjánsson, Árni

2013-05-01

Over the past decade, exciting findings have surfaced suggesting that routine action videogame play improves attentional and perceptual skills. Apparently, performance during multiple-object tracking, useful-field-of-view tests, and task switching improves, contrast sensitivity and spatial-resolution thresholds decrease, and the attentional blink and backward masking are lessened by short-term training on action videogames. These are remarkable findings showing promise for the training of attention and the treatment of disorders of attentional function. While the findings are interesting, evidence of causal influences of videogame play is not as strong as is often claimed. In many studies, observers with game play experience and those without are tested. Such studies do not address causality, since preexisting differences are not controlled for. Other studies investigate the training of videogame play, with some evidence of training benefits. Methodological shortcomings and potential confounds limit their impact, however, and they have not always been replicated. No longitudinal studies on videogame training exist, but these may be required to provide conclusive answers about any benefits of videogame training and any interaction with preexisting differences. Suggestions for methodological improvement are made here, including recommendations for longitudinal studies. Such studies may become crucial for the field of attentional training to reach its full potential.

Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Epidemiology and Genomics of Lung Cancer.

PubMed

Schabath, Matthew B; Cress, Douglas; Munoz-Antonia, Teresita

2016-10-01

Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world. In addition to the geographical and sex-specific differences in the incidence, mortality, and survival rates of lung cancer, growing evidence suggests that racial and ethnic differences exist. We reviewed published data related to racial and ethnic differences in lung cancer. Current knowledge and substantive findings related to racial and ethnic differences in lung cancer were summarized, focusing on incidence, mortality, survival, cigarette smoking, prevention and early detection, and genomics. Systems-level and health care professional-related issues likely to contribute to specific racial and ethnic health disparities were also reviewed to provide possible suggestions for future strategies to reduce the disproportionate burden of lung cancer. Although lung carcinogenesis is a multifactorial process driven by exogenous exposures, genetic variations, and an accumulation of somatic genetic events, it appears to have racial and ethnic differences that in turn impact the observed epidemiological differences in rates of incidence, mortality, and survival.

Theory of mind, inhibitory control, and preschool-age children's suggestibility in different interviewing contexts.

PubMed

Scullin, Matthew H; Bonner, Karri

2006-02-01

The current study examined the relations among 3- to 5-year-olds' theory of mind, inhibitory control, and three measures of suggestibility: yielding to suggestive questions (yield), shifting answers in response to negative feedback (shift), and accuracy in response to misleading questions during a pressured interview about a live event. Theory of mind aided in the prediction of suggestibility about the live event, and inhibitory control was a moderator variable affecting the consistency of children's sensitivity to social pressure across situations. The findings indicate that theory of mind and inhibitory control predict children's suggestibility about a live event above and beyond yield, shift, and age and that the construct validity of shift may improve as children's inhibitory control develops.

Everyday Discrimination and Mood and Substance Use Disorders: A Latent Profile Analysis with African Americans and Caribbean Blacks

PubMed Central

Clark, Trenette T.; Salas-Wright, Christopher P.; Vaughn, Michael G.; Whitfield, Keith E.

2016-01-01

Perceived discrimination is a major source of health-related stress. The purpose of this study was to model the heterogeneity of everyday-discrimination experiences among African American and Caribbean Blacks and to identify differences in the prevalence of mood and substance use outcomes, including generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, alcohol-use disorder, and illicit drug-use disorder among the identified subgroups. The study uses data from the National Survey of American Life obtained from a sample of African American and Caribbean Black respondents (N = 4,462) between 18 and 65 years. We used latent profile analysis and multinomial regression analyses to identify and validate latent subgroups and test hypotheses, yielding 4 classes of perceived everyday discrimination: Low Discrimination, Disrespect and Condescension, General Discrimination, and Chronic Discrimination. Findings show significant differences exist between the Low Discrimination and General Discrimination classes for major depressive disorder, alcohol-use disorder, and illicit drug-use disorder. Moreover, we find significant differences exist between the Low Discrimination and Chronic Discrimination classes for the four disorders examined. Compared with the Chronic Discrimination class, members of the other classes were significantly less likely to meet criteria for generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, alcohol-use disorder, and illicit drug-use disorder. Findings suggest elevated levels of discrimination increase risk for mood and substance-use disorders. Importantly, results suggest the prevalence of mood and substance-use disorders is a function of the type and frequency of discrimination that individuals experience. PMID:25254321

Women as expert witnesses: a review of the literature.

PubMed

Neal, Tess M S

2014-01-01

This review of women's participation in the legal system as expert witnesses examines the empirical literature on the perceived credibility and persuasiveness of women compared with men experts. The effects of expert gender are complex and sometimes depend on the circumstances of the case. Some studies find no differences, some find favorable effects for women and others for men, and still others find that expert gender interacts with other circumstances of the case. The findings are interpreted through social role theory and the role incongruity theory of prejudice. Future directions for research are identified and implications are considered for attorneys who select and prepare expert witnesses. Suggestions for men's and women's behavior as expert witnesses are provided. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Region-Urbanicity Differences in Locus of Control: Social Disadvantage, Structure, or Cultural Exceptionalism?

PubMed

Shifrer, Dara; Sutton, April

2014-11-01

People with internal rather than external locus of control experience better outcomes in multiple domains. Previous studies on spatial differences in control within America only focused on the South, relied on aggregate level data or historical evidence, or did not account for other confounding regional distinctions (such as variation in urbanicity). Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study, we find differences in adolescents' loci of control depending on their region and urbanicity are largely attributable to differences in their social background, and only minimally to structural differences (i.e., differences in the qualities of adolescents' schools). Differences that persist net of differences across adolescents and their schools suggest the less internal control of rural Southern adolescents, and the more internal control of rural and urban Northeastern adolescents, may be due to cultural distinctions in those areas. Results indicate region is more closely associated than urbanicity with differences in locus of control, with Western and Northeastern cultures seemingly fostering more internal control than Midwestern and Southern cultures. These findings contribute to research on spatial variation in a variety of psychological traits.

Region-Urbanicity Differences in Locus of Control: Social Disadvantage, Structure, or Cultural Exceptionalism?

PubMed Central

Shifrer, Dara; Sutton, April

2014-01-01

People with internal rather than external locus of control experience better outcomes in multiple domains. Previous studies on spatial differences in control within America only focused on the South, relied on aggregate level data or historical evidence, or did not account for other confounding regional distinctions (such as variation in urbanicity). Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study, we find differences in adolescents' loci of control depending on their region and urbanicity are largely attributable to differences in their social background, and only minimally to structural differences (i.e., differences in the qualities of adolescents' schools). Differences that persist net of differences across adolescents and their schools suggest the less internal control of rural Southern adolescents, and the more internal control of rural and urban Northeastern adolescents, may be due to cultural distinctions in those areas. Results indicate region is more closely associated than urbanicity with differences in locus of control, with Western and Northeastern cultures seemingly fostering more internal control than Midwestern and Southern cultures. These findings contribute to research on spatial variation in a variety of psychological traits. PMID:25382875

Facial measurement differences between patients with schizophrenia and non-psychiatric controls.

PubMed

Compton, Michael T; Brudno, Jennifer; Kryda, Aimee D; Bollini, Annie M; Walker, Elaine F

2007-07-01

Several previous reports suggest that facial measurements in patients with schizophrenia differ from those of non-psychiatric controls. Because the face and brain develop in concert from the same ectodermal tissue, the study of quantitative craniofacial abnormalities may give clues to genetic and/or environmental factors predisposing to schizophrenia. Using a predominantly African American sample, the present research question was two-fold: (1) Do patients differ from controls in terms of a number of specific facial measurements?, and (2) Does cluster analysis based on these facial measurements reveal distinct facial morphologies that significantly discriminate patients from controls? Facial dimensions were measured in 73 patients with schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders (42 males and 31 females) and 69 non-psychiatric controls (35 males and 34 females) using a 25-cm head and neck caliper. Due to differences in facial dimensions by gender, separate independent samples Student's t-tests and logistic regression analyses were employed to discern differences in facial measures between the patient and control groups in women and men. Findings were further explored using cluster analysis. Given an association between age and some facial dimensions, the effect of age was controlled. In unadjusted bivariate tests, female patients differed from female controls on several facial dimensions, though male patients did not differ significantly from male controls for any facial measure. Controlling for age using logistic regression, female patients had a greater mid-facial depth (tragus-subnasale) compared to female controls; male patients had lesser upper facial (trichion-glabella) and lower facial (subnasale-gnathion) heights compared to male controls. Among females, cluster analysis revealed two facial morphologies that significantly discriminated patients from controls, though this finding was not evident when employing further cluster analyses using secondary distance measures. When the sample was restricted to African Americans, results were similar and consistent. These findings indicate that, in a predominantly African American sample, some facial measurements differ between patients with schizophrenia and non-psychiatric controls, and these differences appear to be gender-specific. Further research on gender-specific quantitative craniofacial measurement differences between cases and controls could suggest gender-specific differences in embryologic/fetal neurodevelopmental processes underpinning schizophrenia.

Interrogative suggestibility: its relationship with assertiveness, social-evaluative anxiety, state anxiety and method of coping.

PubMed

Gudjonsson, G H

1988-05-01

This paper attempts to investigate empirically in 30 subjects some of the theoretical components related to individual differences that are thought by Gudjonsson & Clark (1986) to mediate interrogative suggestibility as measured by the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS; Gudjonsson, 1984a). The variables studied were: assertiveness, social-evaluative anxiety, state anxiety and the coping methods subjects are able to generate and implement during interrogation. Low assertiveness and high evaluative anxiety were found to correlate moderately with suggestibility, but no significant correlations emerged for 'social avoidance and distress'. State anxiety correlated significantly with suggestibility, particularly after negative feedback had been administered. Coping methods (active-cognitive/behavioural vs. avoidance) significantly predicted suggestibility scores. The findings give strong support to the theoretical model of Gudjonsson & Clark.

Evidence suggesting possible SCA1 gene involvement in schizophrenia

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

Diehl, S.R.; Wange, S.; Sun, C.

Several findings suggest a possible role for the SCA1 gene on chromosome 6p in some cases of schizophrenia. First, linkage analyses in Irish pedigrees provided LOD scores up to 3.0 for one model tested using microsatellites closely linked to SCA1. Reanalysis of these data using affected sibpair methods yielded a significant result (p = 0.01) for one marker. An attempt to replicate this linkage finding was made using 44 NIMH families (206 individuals, 80 affected) and 12 Utah families (120 individuals, 49 affected). LOD scores were negative in these new families, even allowing for heterogeneity, as were results using affectedmore » sibpair methods. However, one Utah family provided a LOD score of 1.3. We also screened the SCA1 trinucleotide repeat to search for expansions characteristic of this disorder in these families and in 38 additional unrelated schizophrenics. We found 1 schizophrenic with 41 repeats, which is substantially larger than the maximum size of 36 repeats observed in previous studies of several hundred controls. We are now assessing whether the distribution of SCA1 repeats differs significantly in schizophrenia versus controls. Recent reports suggest possible anticipation in schizophrenia (also characteristic of SCA1) and a few cases of psychiatric symptoms suggesting schizophrenia have been observed in the highly related disorder DRPLA (SCA2), which is also based on trinucleotide repeat expansion. These findings suggest that further investigations of this gene and chromosome region may be a priority.« less

The Association of Aging and Aerobic Fitness With Memory

PubMed Central

Bullock, Alexis M.; Mizzi, Allison L.; Kovacevic, Ana; Heisz, Jennifer J.

2018-01-01

The present study examined the differential effects of aging and fitness on memory. Ninety-five young adults (YA) and 81 older adults (OA) performed the Mnemonic Similarity Task (MST) to assess high-interference memory and general recognition memory. Age-related differences in high-interference memory were observed across the lifespan, with performance progressively worsening from young to old. In contrast, age-related differences in general recognition memory were not observed until after 60 years of age. Furthermore, OA with higher aerobic fitness had better high-interference memory, suggesting that exercise may be an important lifestyle factor influencing this aspect of memory. Overall, these findings suggest different trajectories of decline for high-interference and general recognition memory, with a selective role for physical activity in promoting high-interference memory. PMID:29593524

Reconceptualizing the classification of PNAS articles

PubMed Central

Airoldi, Edoardo M.; Erosheva, Elena A.; Fienberg, Stephen E.; Joutard, Cyrille; Love, Tanzy; Shringarpure, Suyash

2010-01-01

PNAS article classification is rooted in long-standing disciplinary divisions that do not necessarily reflect the structure of modern scientific research. We reevaluate that structure using latent pattern models from statistical machine learning, also known as mixed-membership models, that identify semantic structure in co-occurrence of words in the abstracts and references. Our findings suggest that the latent dimensionality of patterns underlying PNAS research articles in the Biological Sciences is only slightly larger than the number of categories currently in use, but it differs substantially in the content of the categories. Further, the number of articles that are listed under multiple categories is only a small fraction of what it should be. These findings together with the sensitivity analyses suggest ways to reconceptualize the organization of papers published in PNAS. PMID:21078953

Complex Households and the Distribution of Multiple Resources in Later Life: Findings From a National Survey.

PubMed

Kim, Juyeon; Waite, Linda J

2016-02-01

The availability of social and financial resources has profound implications for health and well-being in later life. Older adults often share resources with others who live with them, sometimes in households including relatives or friends. We examine differences in social support, social connections, money, and the household environment across types of living arrangements, develop hypotheses from two theoretical perspectives, one focusing on obligations toward kin, and one focused on social exchange within households, and test them using data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project. We find that availability of resources is not consistently associated with the presence of grandchildren and other young relatives, but often differs with presence of other adults. These findings suggest that a single type of resource tells us little about the distribution of the resources of older adults, and call on us to examine multiple resources simultaneously. © The Author(s) 2015.

Qualitative Evaluation of Project P.A.T.H.S.: An Integration of Findings Based on Program Participants

PubMed Central

Shek, Daniel T. L.; Sun, Rachel C. F.

2012-01-01

An integration of the qualitative evaluation findings collected in different cohorts of students who participated in Project P.A.T.H.S. (Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programmes) (n = 252 students in 29 focus groups) was carried out. With specific focus on how the informants described the program, results showed that the descriptions were mainly positive in nature, suggesting that the program was well received by the program participants. When the informants were invited to name three metaphors that could stand for the program, positive metaphors were commonly used. Beneficial effects of the program in different psychosocial domains were also voiced by the program participants. The qualitative findings integrated in this paper provide further support for the effectiveness of the Tier 1 Program of Project P.A.T.H.S. in promoting holistic development in Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong. PMID:22666134

The Facial Appearance of CEOs: Faces Signal Selection but Not Performance

PubMed Central

Garretsen, Harry; Spreeuwers, Luuk J.

2016-01-01

Research overwhelmingly shows that facial appearance predicts leader selection. However, the evidence on the relevance of faces for actual leader ability and consequently performance is inconclusive. By using a state-of-the-art, objective measure for face recognition, we test the predictive value of CEOs’ faces for firm performance in a large sample of faces. We first compare the faces of Fortune500 CEOs with those of US citizens and professors. We find clear confirmation that CEOs do look different when compared to citizens or professors, replicating the finding that faces matter for selection. More importantly, we also find that faces of CEOs of top performing firms do not differ from other CEOs. Based on our advanced face recognition method, our results suggest that facial appearance matters for leader selection but that it does not do so for leader performance. PMID:27462986

The effect of colour on children's cognitive performance.

PubMed

Brooker, Alice; Franklin, Anna

2016-06-01

The presence of red appears to hamper adults' cognitive performance relative to other colours (see Elliot & Maier, 2014, Ann. Rev. Psychol. 65, 95). Here, we investigate whether colour affects cognitive performance in 8- and 9-year-olds. Children completed a battery of tasks once in the presence of a coloured screen that was one of eight colours and once in the presence of a grey screen. Performance was assessed for each colour relative to the grey baseline, and differences across colours were compared. We find a significant difference in performance across colours, with significantly worse performance in the presence of red than grey. The effect of colour did not significantly interact with task. The findings suggest that colour can affect children's cognitive performance and that there is a detrimental effect of red. Findings are related to the adult literature and implications for educational contexts are discussed. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

Complex Households and the Distribution of Multiple Resources in Later Life: Findings from A National Survey

PubMed Central

Kim, Juyeon; Link, Arts; Waite, Linda

2016-01-01

The availability of social and financial resources has profound implications for health and well-being in later life. Older adults often share resources with others who live with them, sometimes in households including relatives or friends. We examine differences in social support, social connections, money, and the household environment across types of living arrangements, develop hypotheses from two theoretical perspectives, one focusing on obligations toward kin, and one focused on social exchange within households, and test them using data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project. We find that availability of resources is not consistently associated with the presence of grandchildren and other young relatives, but often differs with presence of other adults. These findings suggest that a single type of resource tells us little about the distribution of the resources of older adults, and call on us to examine multiple resources simultaneously. PMID:25904682

Langevin Dynamics Simulations of Genome Packing in Bacteriophage

PubMed Central

Forrey, Christopher; Muthukumar, M.

2006-01-01

We use Langevin dynamics simulations to study the process by which a coarse-grained DNA chain is packaged within an icosahedral container. We focus our inquiry on three areas of interest in viral packing: the evolving structure of the packaged DNA condensate; the packing velocity; and the internal buildup of energy and resultant forces. Each of these areas has been studied experimentally, and we find that we can qualitatively reproduce experimental results. However, our findings also suggest that the phage genome packing process is fundamentally different than that suggested by the inverse spool model. We suggest that packing in general does not proceed in the deterministic fashion of the inverse-spool model, but rather is stochastic in character. As the chain configuration becomes compressed within the capsid, the structure, energy, and packing velocity all become dependent upon polymer dynamics. That many observed features of the packing process are rooted in condensed-phase polymer dynamics suggests that statistical mechanics, rather than mechanics, should serve as the proper theoretical basis for genome packing. Finally we suggest that, as a result of an internal protein unique to bacteriophage T7, the T7 genome may be significantly more ordered than is true for bacteriophage in general. PMID:16617089

Langevin dynamics simulations of genome packing in bacteriophage.

PubMed

Forrey, Christopher; Muthukumar, M

2006-07-01

We use Langevin dynamics simulations to study the process by which a coarse-grained DNA chain is packaged within an icosahedral container. We focus our inquiry on three areas of interest in viral packing: the evolving structure of the packaged DNA condensate; the packing velocity; and the internal buildup of energy and resultant forces. Each of these areas has been studied experimentally, and we find that we can qualitatively reproduce experimental results. However, our findings also suggest that the phage genome packing process is fundamentally different than that suggested by the inverse spool model. We suggest that packing in general does not proceed in the deterministic fashion of the inverse-spool model, but rather is stochastic in character. As the chain configuration becomes compressed within the capsid, the structure, energy, and packing velocity all become dependent upon polymer dynamics. That many observed features of the packing process are rooted in condensed-phase polymer dynamics suggests that statistical mechanics, rather than mechanics, should serve as the proper theoretical basis for genome packing. Finally we suggest that, as a result of an internal protein unique to bacteriophage T7, the T7 genome may be significantly more ordered than is true for bacteriophage in general.

Rationale for the crystallization of titania polymorphs in solution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kränzlin, N.; Staniuk, M.; Heiligtag, F. J.; Luo, L.; Emerich, H.; van Beek, W.; Niederberger, M.; Koziej, D.

2014-11-01

We use in situ X-ray absorption and diffraction studies to directly monitor the crystallization of different titania polymorphs in one and the same solution. We find that, despite the commonly accepted polymorphic-crossover from anatase to rutile triggered by the critical size of nanoparticles, in the solution their respective nucleation and growth are independent processes. Moreover, we find that 5.9 nm rutile nanoparticles are formed prior to the formation of 8.4 nm anatase nanoparticles. Our results suggest that the origins of this crystallization mechanism lie in the formation of an intermediate non-crystalline phase and in time-dependent changes in the chemical environment.We use in situ X-ray absorption and diffraction studies to directly monitor the crystallization of different titania polymorphs in one and the same solution. We find that, despite the commonly accepted polymorphic-crossover from anatase to rutile triggered by the critical size of nanoparticles, in the solution their respective nucleation and growth are independent processes. Moreover, we find that 5.9 nm rutile nanoparticles are formed prior to the formation of 8.4 nm anatase nanoparticles. Our results suggest that the origins of this crystallization mechanism lie in the formation of an intermediate non-crystalline phase and in time-dependent changes in the chemical environment. Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Detailed instructions on the experimental part including set-up, recorded XAS and PXRD raw data and their details. See DOI: 10.1039/c4nr04346d

History of Reading Struggles Linked to Enhanced Learning in Low Spatial Frequency Scenes

PubMed Central

Schneps, Matthew H.; Brockmole, James R.; Sonnert, Gerhard; Pomplun, Marc

2012-01-01

People with dyslexia, who face lifelong struggles with reading, exhibit numerous associated low-level sensory deficits including deficits in focal attention. Countering this, studies have shown that struggling readers outperform typical readers in some visual tasks that integrate distributed information across an expanse. Though such abilities would be expected to facilitate scene memory, prior investigations using the contextual cueing paradigm failed to find corresponding advantages in dyslexia. We suggest that these studies were confounded by task-dependent effects exaggerating known focal attention deficits in dyslexia, and that, if natural scenes were used as the context, advantages would emerge. Here, we investigate this hypothesis by comparing college students with histories of severe lifelong reading difficulties (SR) and typical readers (TR) in contexts that vary attention load. We find no differences in contextual-cueing when spatial contexts are letter-like objects, or when contexts are natural scenes. However, the SR group significantly outperforms the TR group when contexts are low-pass filtered natural scenes [F(3, 39) = 3.15, p<.05]. These findings suggest that perception or memory for low spatial frequency components in scenes is enhanced in dyslexia. These findings are important because they suggest strengths for spatial learning in a population otherwise impaired, carrying implications for the education and support of students who face challenges in school. PMID:22558210

History of reading struggles linked to enhanced learning in low spatial frequency scenes.

PubMed

Schneps, Matthew H; Brockmole, James R; Sonnert, Gerhard; Pomplun, Marc

2012-01-01

People with dyslexia, who face lifelong struggles with reading, exhibit numerous associated low-level sensory deficits including deficits in focal attention. Countering this, studies have shown that struggling readers outperform typical readers in some visual tasks that integrate distributed information across an expanse. Though such abilities would be expected to facilitate scene memory, prior investigations using the contextual cueing paradigm failed to find corresponding advantages in dyslexia. We suggest that these studies were confounded by task-dependent effects exaggerating known focal attention deficits in dyslexia, and that, if natural scenes were used as the context, advantages would emerge. Here, we investigate this hypothesis by comparing college students with histories of severe lifelong reading difficulties (SR) and typical readers (TR) in contexts that vary attention load. We find no differences in contextual-cueing when spatial contexts are letter-like objects, or when contexts are natural scenes. However, the SR group significantly outperforms the TR group when contexts are low-pass filtered natural scenes [F(3, 39) = 3.15, p<.05]. These findings suggest that perception or memory for low spatial frequency components in scenes is enhanced in dyslexia. These findings are important because they suggest strengths for spatial learning in a population otherwise impaired, carrying implications for the education and support of students who face challenges in school.

Interrogative suggestibility in opiate users.

PubMed

Murakami, A; Edelmann, R J; Davis, P E

1996-09-01

The present study investigated interrogative suggestibility in opiate users. A group of patients undergoing a methadone detoxification programme in an in-patient drug treatment unit (Detox group, n = 21), and a group of residents who had come off drugs and were no longer suffering from withdrawal syndrome (Rehab group, n = 19) were compared on interrogative suggestibility and various other psychological factors. Significant differences were found between the two groups, with the Detox group having more physical and psychological problems, and a higher total suggestibility score in comparison with the Rehab group. These findings are discussed in relation to the context of police interrogations and the reliability of confessions made by suspects and witnesses dependent on opiates.

How much does emotional valence of action outcomes affect temporal binding?

PubMed

Moreton, Joshua; Callan, Mitchell J; Hughes, Gethin

2017-03-01

Temporal binding refers to the compression of the perceived time interval between voluntary actions and their sensory consequences. Research suggests that the emotional content of an action outcome can modulate the effects of temporal binding. We attempted to conceptually replicate these findings using a time interval estimation task and different emotionally-valenced action outcomes (Experiments 1 and 2) than used in previous research. Contrary to previous findings, we found no evidence that temporal binding was affected by the emotional valence of action outcomes. After validating our stimuli for equivalence of perceived emotional valence and arousal (Experiment 3), in Experiment 4 we directly replicated Yoshie and Haggard's (2013) original experiment using sound vocalizations as action outcomes and failed to detect a significant effect of emotion on temporal binding. These studies suggest that the emotional valence of action outcomes exerts little influence on temporal binding. The potential implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Recessions and seniors' health, health behaviors, and healthcare use: analysis of the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey.

PubMed

McInerney, Melissa; Mellor, Jennifer M

2012-09-01

A number of studies report that U.S. state mortality rates, particularly for the elderly, decline during economic downturns. Further, several prior studies use microdata to show that as state unemployment rates rise, physical health improves, unhealthy behaviors decrease, and medical care use declines. We use data on elderly mortality rates and data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey from a time period that encompasses the start of the Great Recession. We find that elderly mortality is countercyclical during most of the 1994-2008 period. Further, as unemployment rates rise, seniors report worse mental health and are no more likely to engage in healthier behaviors. We find suggestive evidence that inpatient utilization increases perhaps because of an increased physician willingness to accept Medicare patients. Our findings suggest that either elderly individuals respond differently to recessions than do working age adults, or that the relationship between unemployment and health has changed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Do multivitamin supplements modify the relationship between prenatal alcohol intake and miscarriage?

PubMed Central

AVALOS, Lyndsay AMMON; KASKUTAS, Lee Ann; BLOCK, Gladys; LI, De-Kun

2009-01-01

Objective To determine whether multivitamin supplements modify the relationship between alcohol consumption during pregnancy and the risk of miscarriage. Study Design We utilized data from a population-based cohort study of pregnant women (n=1061; response rate=39%). Participants were asked about their alcohol consumption and vitamin intake during pregnancy. Results Among multivitamin nonusers, women who drank alcohol during their pregnancy were more likely to have a miscarriage compared to women who abstained (adjusted Hazard Ratio (aHR): 1.67, 95%CI: 1.04, 2.69). However among multivitamin users, there was no difference in the risk of miscarriage between alcohol consumers and abstainers. Results suggest the volume of alcohol as well as the timing of multivitamin supplementation may also be important. Conclusions Our findings suggest that a woman of child-bearing years might decrease her risk of miscarriage associated with alcohol intake by taking multivitamin supplements. However, our findings should be interpreted with caution and future research replicating these findings is necessary. PMID:19846052

Do multivitamin supplements modify the relationship between prenatal alcohol intake and miscarriage?

PubMed

Ammon Avalos, Lyndsay; Kaskutas, Lee Ann; Block, Gladys; Li, De-Kun

2009-12-01

To determine whether multivitamin supplements modify the relationship between alcohol consumption during pregnancy and the risk of miscarriage. We used data from a population-based cohort study of pregnant women (n=1061; response rate=39%). Participants were asked about their alcohol consumption and vitamin intake during pregnancy. Among multivitamin nonusers, women who drank alcohol during their pregnancy were more likely to have a miscarriage compared with women who abstained (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.67; 95% confidence interval, 1.04-2.69). However, among multivitamin users, there was no difference in the risk of miscarriage between alcohol consumers and abstainers. Results suggest the volume of alcohol as well as the timing of multivitamin supplementation may also be important. Our findings suggest that a woman of childbearing years might decrease her risk of miscarriage associated with alcohol intake by taking multivitamin supplements. However, our findings should be interpreted with caution and future research replicating these findings is necessary.

Using fNIRS to Examine Occipital and Temporal Responses to Stimulus Repetition in Young Infants: Evidence of Selective Frontal Cortex Involvement

PubMed Central

Emberson, Lauren L.; Cannon, Grace; Palmeri, Holly; Richards, John E.; Aslin, Richard N.

2016-01-01

How does the developing brain respond to recent experience? Repetition suppression (RS) is a robust and well-characterized response of to recent experience found, predominantly, in the perceptual cortices of the adult brain. We use functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate how perceptual (temporal and occipital) and frontal cortices in the infant brain respond to auditory and visual stimulus repetitions (spoken words and faces). In Experiment 1, we find strong evidence of repetition suppression in the frontal cortex but only for auditory stimuli. In perceptual cortices, we find only suggestive evidence of auditory RS in the temporal cortex and no evidence of visual RS in any ROI. In Experiments 2 and 3, we replicate and extend these findings. Overall, we provide the first evidence that infant and adult brains respond differently to stimulus repetition. We suggest that the frontal lobe may support the development of RS in perceptual cortices. PMID:28012401

Age matters: The effect of onset age of video game play on task-switching abilities.

PubMed

Hartanto, Andree; Toh, Wei Xing; Yang, Hwajin

2016-05-01

Although prior research suggests that playing video games can improve cognitive abilities, recent empirical studies cast doubt on such findings (Unsworth et al., 2015). To reconcile these inconsistent findings, we focused on the link between video games and task switching. Furthermore, we conceptualized video-game expertise as the onset age of active video-game play rather than the frequency of recent gameplay, as it captures both how long a person has played video games and whether the individual began playing during periods of high cognitive plasticity. We found that the age of active onset better predicted switch and mixing costs than did frequency of recent gameplay; specifically, players who commenced playing video games at an earlier age reaped greater benefits in terms of task switching than did those who started at a later age. Moreover, improving switch costs required a more extensive period of video-game experience than did mixing costs; this finding suggests that certain cognitive abilities benefit from different amounts of video game experience.

Co-occurrences Between Adolescent Substance Use and Academic Performance: School Context Inuences a Multilevel-Longitudinal Perspective

PubMed Central

Andrade, Fernando H.

2014-01-01

A growing body of literature has linked substance use and academic performance exploring substance use as a predictor of academic performance or vice versa. This study uses a different approach conceptualizing substance use and academic performance as parallel outcomes and exploring two topics: its multilevel-longitudinal association and school contextual effects on both outcomes. Using multilevel Confirmatory Factor Analysis and multilevel-longitudinal analyses, the empirical estimates relied on 7843 students nested in 114 schools (Add Health study). The main finding suggests that the correlation between substance use and academic performance was positive at the school level in contraposition to the negative relationship at the individual level. Additional findings suggest a positive effect of a school risk factor on substance use and a positive effect of academic pressure on academic performance. These findings represent a contribution to our understanding of how schools could affect the relationship between academic performance and substance use. PMID:25057764

PubMed Central

Lortie-Lussier, M

1991-01-01

The regularity of gender differences reported in the manifest content of dreams has been generally interpreted as a reflection of biological differences and/or early socialization. Research we have conducted on women's dreams reveals that many of their characteristics are linked to social roles. Findings suggest that the new occupational roles of women, combined with the traditional mother role decrease stereotypic feminine dream imagery. Age and life cycle phase from adolescence to old age, also appear to impact on dreams. PMID:1958649

Facial emotion identification in early-onset and first-episode psychosis: a systematic review with meta-analysis.

PubMed

Barkl, Sophie J; Lah, Suncica; Harris, Anthony W F; Williams, Leanne M

2014-10-01

Patients with chronic schizophrenia are characterized by deficits in identifying facial expressions of emotion, and these deficits relate to impaired social and occupational function. It is not yet known if these deficits are trait-like and present at the onset of psychosis, preceding a subsequent diagnosis of schizophrenia. Our objective was to systematically review and analyze the extant literature to assess if there is a consistent profile of emotion identification problems in early-onset and first-episode psychosis. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 12 peer-reviewed studies of facial emotion identification in early-onset and first-episode psychosis, published between 1980 and March 2013. We examined the average mean difference between patients and controls on measures of facial emotion identification. Findings suggest that patients with early-onset and first-episode psychosis have impairment in identifying facial expressions of biologically salient emotion. Across the 12 studies, the onset of psychosis was distinguished by a generalized effect of significantly poorer accuracy for identifying facial expressions of emotion than healthy controls, and this difference had a substantial effect size (d=-0.88, N=378, 95% CI=-1.42 to -0.32). Within this general effect some emotions were also harder for patients to identify than others, with the magnitude of impairment found to be (i) large for disgust, fear and surprise, and (ii) medium for sadness, and happiness. No between groups mean differences were found for anger or neutral facial expressions. Deficits in facial emotion identification are evident at first onset of a psychotic episode. The findings suggest that, over and above a generalized deficit in identifying facial emotion, patients may find some emotions harder to identifying than others. This reflects findings with chronic schizophrenia populations and suggests that emotion identification impairment represents a trait susceptibility marker, rather than a sequeale of illness. They signal the urgent need to treat emotion identification deficits at the onset of illness, which could improve functional outcomes. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mortality in Patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

PubMed Central

McManimen, Stephanie L.; Devendorf, Andrew R.; Brown, Abigail A.; Moore, Billie C.; Moore, James H.; Jason, Leonard A.

2016-01-01

Background There is a dearth of research examining mortality in individuals with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Some studies suggest there is an elevated risk of suicide and earlier mortality compared to national norms. However, findings are inconsistent as other researchers have not found significant increases in all-cause mortality for patients. Objective This study sought to determine if patients with ME or CFS are reportedly dying earlier than the overall population from the same cause. Methods Family, friends, and caregivers of deceased individuals with ME or CFS were recruited through social media, patient newsletters, emails, and advocate websites. This study analyzed data including cause and age of death for 56 individuals identified as having ME or CFS. Results The findings suggest patients in this sample are at a significantly increased risk of earlier all-cause (M = 55.9 years) and cardiovascular-related (M = 58.8 years) mortality, and they had a directionally lower mean age of death for suicide (M = 41.3 years) and cancer (M =66.3 years) compared to the overall U.S. population [M = 73.5 (all-cause), 77.7 (cardiovascular), 47.4 (suicide), and 71.1 (cancer) years of age]. Conclusions The results suggest there is an increase in risk for earlier mortality in patients with ME and CFS. Due to the small sample size and over-representation of severely ill patients, the findings should be replicated to determine if the directional differences for suicide and cancer mortality are significantly different from the overall U.S. population. PMID:28070451

Why Did People Move During the Great Recession?: The Role of Economics in Migration Decisions

PubMed Central

Levy, Brian L.; Mouw, Ted; Daniel Perez, Anthony

2017-01-01

Labor migration offers an important mechanism to reallocate workers when there are regional differences in employment conditions. Whereas conventional wisdom suggests migration rates should increase during recessions as workers move out of areas that are hit hardest, initial evidence suggested that overall migration rates declined during the Great Recession, despite large regional differences in unemployment and growth rates. In this paper, we use data from the American Community Survey to analyze internal migration trends before and during the economic downturn. First, we find only a modest decline in the odds of adults leaving distressed labor market areas during the recession, which may result in part from challenges related to the housing price crash. Second, we estimate conditional logit models of destination choice for individuals who migrate across labor market areas and find a substantial effect of economic factors such as labor demand, unemployment, and housing values. We also estimate latent class conditional logit models that test whether there is heterogeneity in preferences for destination characteristics among migrants. Over all, the latent class models suggest that roughly equal percentages of migrants were motivated by economic factors before and during the recession. We conclude that fears of dramatic declines in labor migration seem to be unsubstantiated. PMID:28547003

Why Did People Move During the Great Recession?: The Role of Economics in Migration Decisions.

PubMed

Levy, Brian L; Mouw, Ted; Daniel Perez, Anthony

2017-04-01

Labor migration offers an important mechanism to reallocate workers when there are regional differences in employment conditions. Whereas conventional wisdom suggests migration rates should increase during recessions as workers move out of areas that are hit hardest, initial evidence suggested that overall migration rates declined during the Great Recession, despite large regional differences in unemployment and growth rates. In this paper, we use data from the American Community Survey to analyze internal migration trends before and during the economic downturn. First, we find only a modest decline in the odds of adults leaving distressed labor market areas during the recession, which may result in part from challenges related to the housing price crash. Second, we estimate conditional logit models of destination choice for individuals who migrate across labor market areas and find a substantial effect of economic factors such as labor demand, unemployment, and housing values. We also estimate latent class conditional logit models that test whether there is heterogeneity in preferences for destination characteristics among migrants. Over all, the latent class models suggest that roughly equal percentages of migrants were motivated by economic factors before and during the recession. We conclude that fears of dramatic declines in labor migration seem to be unsubstantiated.

Humans recognize emotional arousal in vocalizations across all classes of terrestrial vertebrates: evidence for acoustic universals.

PubMed

Filippi, Piera; Congdon, Jenna V; Hoang, John; Bowling, Daniel L; Reber, Stephan A; Pašukonis, Andrius; Hoeschele, Marisa; Ocklenburg, Sebastian; de Boer, Bart; Sturdy, Christopher B; Newen, Albert; Güntürkün, Onur

2017-07-26

Writing over a century ago, Darwin hypothesized that vocal expression of emotion dates back to our earliest terrestrial ancestors. If this hypothesis is true, we should expect to find cross-species acoustic universals in emotional vocalizations. Studies suggest that acoustic attributes of aroused vocalizations are shared across many mammalian species, and that humans can use these attributes to infer emotional content. But do these acoustic attributes extend to non-mammalian vertebrates? In this study, we asked human participants to judge the emotional content of vocalizations of nine vertebrate species representing three different biological classes-Amphibia, Reptilia (non-aves and aves) and Mammalia. We found that humans are able to identify higher levels of arousal in vocalizations across all species. This result was consistent across different language groups (English, German and Mandarin native speakers), suggesting that this ability is biologically rooted in humans. Our findings indicate that humans use multiple acoustic parameters to infer relative arousal in vocalizations for each species, but mainly rely on fundamental frequency and spectral centre of gravity to identify higher arousal vocalizations across species. These results suggest that fundamental mechanisms of vocal emotional expression are shared among vertebrates and could represent a homologous signalling system. © 2017 The Author(s).

Clarifying the relation between spirituality and well-being.

PubMed

Migdal, Lori; MacDonald, Douglas A

2013-04-01

Koenig (J Nerv Ment Dis 196:349-355, 2008) and others have asserted that measures of spirituality used to investigate its association with health seem to present a misleading picture of the relationship because of evidence suggesting that spirituality has become conceptually confounded with well-being. To evaluate this claim, the present study used a sample of 247 university students to explore the relation of a multidimensional model of spirituality with several different forms of well-being and the association of both with a two-factor model of social desirability. Correlational and regression analyses revealed that, although there is some evidence of an association, it is generally of low effect size and seems to differ as a function of how spirituality is defined. More importantly, however, there was the finding that existential well-being, a concept often incorporated into definitions of spirituality and a part of the measurement model used in this study, is virtually uncorrelated with explicitly spiritual and religious variables but shows a pattern of association with measures of well-being and social desirability, which suggests that it would be better conceptualized as a form of well-being and not spirituality. The article concludes with a discussion of the meaning of the findings for understanding the spirituality-health literature and suggestions for future research.

Using the prisms of gender and rank to interpret research collaboration power dynamics.

PubMed

Gaughan, Monica; Bozeman, Barry

2016-08-01

Collaboration is central to modern scientific inquiry, and increasingly important to the professional experiences of academic scientists. While the effects of collaboration have been widely studied, much less is understood about the motivations to collaborate and collaboration dynamics that generate scientific outcomes. A particular interest of this study is to understand how collaboration experiences differ between women and men, and the attributions used to explain these differences. We use a multi-method study of university Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics faculty research collaborators. We employ 177 anonymous open-ended responses to a web-based survey, and 60 semi-structured interviews of academic scientists in US research universities. We find similarities and differences in collaborative activity between men and women. Open-ended qualitative textual analysis suggests that some of these differences are attributed to power dynamics - both general ones related to differences in organizational status, and in power dynamics related specifically to gender. In analysis of semi-structured interviews, we find that both status and gender were used as interpretive frames for collaborative behavior, with more emphasis placed on status than gender differences. Overall, the findings support that gender structures some part of the collaborative experience, but that status hierarchy exerts more clear effects.

He Says, She Says: Gender and Cohabitation*

PubMed Central

Huang, Penelope M.; Smock, Pamela J.; Manning, Wendy D.; Bergstrom-Lynch, Cara A.

2010-01-01

Cohabitation has become the modal path to marriage in the United States. However, little is known about what cohabitation means to young adults today. Drawing on data from 18 focus groups (N=138) and 54 in-depth interviews with young adults, this exploratory study investigates motivations to cohabit, and examines potential gender differences in those motivations and the meanings attached to them. We find that primary motives to cohabit include spending time together, sharing expenses, and evaluating compatibility. Strong gender differences emerge in how respondents discuss these themes and how they characterize the drawbacks of cohabitation, with men more concerned about loss of freedom and women with delays in marriage. Overall, our findings suggest that gendered cultural norms governing intimate relationships extend to cohabiting unions, and point to gender differences in the perceived role of cohabitation in union formation processes. PMID:21643456

Hemispheric asymmetries in discourse processing: evidence from false memories for lists and texts.

PubMed

Ben-Artzi, Elisheva; Faust, Miriam; Moeller, Edna

2009-01-01

Previous research suggests that the right hemisphere (RH) may contribute uniquely to discourse and text processing by activating and maintaining a wide range of meanings, including more distantly related meanings. The present study used the word-lists false memory paradigm [Roediger, H. L., III, & McDermott, K. B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21, 803-814.] to examine the hypothesis that difference between the two cerebral hemispheres in discourse processing may be due, at least partly, to memory representations for implicit text-related semantic information. Specifically, we tested the susceptibility of the left hemisphere (LH) and RH to unpresented target words following the presentation of semantically related words appearing in either word lists or short texts. Findings showed that the RH produced more false alarms than the LH for unpresented target words following either word lists or texts. These findings reveal hemispheric differences in memory for semantically related information and suggest that RH advantage in long-term maintenance of a wide range of text-related word meanings may be one aspect of its unique contribution to the construction of a discourse model. The results support the RH coarse semantic coding theory [Beeman, M. (1998). Coarse semantic coding and discourse comprehension. In M. Beeman & C. Chiarello (Eds.), Right hemisphere language comprehension: Perspectives from cognitive neuroscience (pp. 255-284). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.] and suggest that hemispheric differences in semantic processing during language comprehension extend also to verbal memory.

Attention bias to threat faces in severe mood dysregulation.

PubMed

Hommer, Rebecca E; Meyer, Allison; Stoddard, Joel; Connolly, Megan E; Mogg, Karin; Bradley, Brendan P; Pine, Daniel S; Leibenluft, Ellen; Brotman, Melissa A

2014-07-01

We used a dot-probe paradigm to examine attention bias toward threat (i.e., angry) and happy face stimuli in severe mood dysregulation (SMD) versus healthy comparison (HC) youth. The tendency to allocate attention to threat is well established in anxiety and other disorders of negative affect. SMD is characterized by the negative affect of irritability, and longitudinal studies suggest childhood irritability predicts adult anxiety and depression. Therefore, it is important to study pathophysiologic connections between irritability and anxiety disorders. SMD patients (N = 74) and HC youth (N = 42) completed a visual probe paradigm to assess attention bias to emotional faces. Diagnostic interviews were conducted and measures of irritability and anxiety were obtained in patients. SMD youth differed from HC youth in having a bias toward threatening faces (P < .01). Threat bias was positively correlated with the severity of the SMD syndrome and depressive symptoms; degree of threat bias did not differ between SMD youth with and without co-occurring anxiety disorders or depression. SMD and HC youth did not differ in bias toward or away from happy faces. SMD youth demonstrate an attention bias toward threat, with greater threat bias associated with higher levels of SMD symptom severity. Our findings suggest that irritability may share a pathophysiological link with anxiety and depressive disorders. This finding suggests the value of exploring further whether attention bias modification treatments that are effective for anxiety are also helpful in the treatment of irritability. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

On the seclusion of psychiatric patients.

PubMed

Brown, J S; Tooke, S K

1992-09-01

The seclusion of psychiatric patients is viewed by some as a violation of basic human rights, by others as a necessity for the control of violence, and by still others as a therapeutic modality. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the findings from the limited and descriptive research on this controversial practice. The major conclusions suggested by the findings are: (1) The reason cited for seclusion is more often agitation than violence, raising questions as to its necessity. The lack of relationship between the reason for seclusion and its duration indicates loose and arbitrary criteria and raises the question of bias. (2) The tendency to seclude on admission suggests failure to follow the legal stipulation that less restrictive measures be employed first. (3) Psychotic, involuntary and younger patients are at higher risk for seclusion than other patients. (4) Incidence and duration of seclusion differ widely across institutions indicating unnecessary and excessive use in some units. Differences may be better explained by hospital factors such as location, staff attitudes and treatment philosophy than by patient characteristics. (5) Systematic studies of the effectiveness of seclusion are lacking, as is research on events transpiring during seclusion. (6) Attitudes of patients and staff toward seclusion differ greatly. Patients' attitudes are generally negative, whereas staff members believe seclusion benefits patients and preserves the unit's smooth functioning. Changes in procedures are suggested to reduce the frequency of seclusion, and to make seclusion more rational, effective and humane. Research and clinical implications are discussed.

Qualitative research and the epidemiological imagination: a vital relationship.

PubMed

Popay, J

2003-01-01

This paper takes as its starting point the assumption that the 'Epidemiological Imagination' has a central role to play in the future development of policies and practice to improve population health and reduce health inequalities within and between states but suggests that by neglecting the contribution that qualitative research can make epidemiology is failing to deliver this potential. The paper briefly considers what qualitative research is, touching on epistemological questions--what type of "knowledge" is generated--and questions of methods--what approaches to data collection, analysis and interpretation are involved). Following this the paper presents two different models of the relationship between qualitative and quantitative research. The enhancement model (which assumes that qualitative research findings add something extra to the findings of quantitative research) suggests three related "roles" for qualitative research: generating hypothesis to be tested by quantitative research, helping to construct more sophisticated measures of social phenomena and explaining unexpected research from quantitative research. In contrast, the Epistemological Model suggests that qualitative research is equal but different from quantitative research making a unique contribution through: researching parts other research approaches can't reach, increasing understanding by adding conceptual and theoretical depth to knowledge, shifting the balance of power between researchers and researched and challenging traditional epidemiological ways of "knowing" the social world. The paper illustrates these different types of contributions with examples of qualitative research and finally discusses ways in which the "trustworthiness" of qualitative research can be assessed.

Does the Friel Anaerobic Threshold Test Accurately Detect Heart Rate Deflection in Trained Cyclists?

PubMed

Yuen, Willie K; Schreiner, Shad R; Hoover, Donald L; Loudon, Janice K; Billinger, Sandra A

The Friel Anaerobic Threshold Test (FATT) has been used to determine anaerobic threshold (AT). The FATT suggests AT occurs near the heart rate deflection point (HRDP) at a rating of perceived exertion (RPE) of 17. The primary purpose of this study was to determine 1) whether the HRDP could be determined using the FATT, 2) examine differences between HRVT and HR that coincided Borg's rating of perceived exertion (RPE) of 17, and 3) if riding position (hoods or aero) would influence performance. Fourteen male cyclists (30.4 ± 7.41years of age; 151.8 ± 60.4 cycled miles/week) participated in the study. Each subject performed the FATT on two occasions within one week. The findings of this study suggest that the FATT can determine HRDP in trained cyclists while riding in the hoods position but not the aero position. No significant difference was found between the hoods and aero position for HRVT as measured by the metabolic cart. Our data suggest that HR at an RPE of 15 more accurately reflects the HRVT than the RPE of 17. A low, non-significant correlation was found for both the hoods and aero (0.41 and 0.44, respectively; p > 0.20) for the HR at RPE of 17. The findings of this study suggest that the FATT can determine HRDP in trained cyclists. However, HRDP was identified in the cyclists preferred riding position. When performing the FATT, HRVT at an RPE of 15 should be used to estimate VT over the suggested RPE of 17.

Underlying neural alpha frequency patterns associated with intra-hemispheric inhibition during an interhemispheric transfer task.

PubMed

Simon-Dack, Stephanie L; Kraus, Brian; Walter, Zachary; Smith, Shelby; Cadle, Chelsea

2018-05-18

Interhemispheric transfer measured via differences in right- or left-handed motoric responses to lateralized visual stimuli, known as the crossed-uncrossed difference (CUD), is one way of identifying patterns of processing that are vital for understanding the transfer of neural signals. Examination of interhemispheric transfer by means of the CUD is not entirely explained by simple measures of response time. Multiple processes contribute to wide variability observed in CUD reaction times. Prior research has suggested that intra-hemispheric inhibitory processes may be involved in regulation of speed of transfer. Our study examined electroencephalography recordings and time-locked alpha frequency activity while 18 participants responded to lateralized targets during performance of the Poffenberger Paradigm. Our results suggest that there are alpha frequency differences at fronto-central lateral electrodes based on target, hand-of-response, and receiving hemisphere. These findings suggest that early motoric inhibitory mechanisms may help explain the wide range of variability typically seen with the CUD. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cultural Variation in Implicit Mental Illness Stigma.

PubMed

Cheon, Bobby K; Chiao, Joan Y

2012-10-01

Culture shapes how individuals perceive and respond to others with mental illness. Prior studies have suggested that Asians and Asian Americans typically endorse greater stigma of mental illness compared to Westerners (White Europeans and Americans). However, whether these differences in stigma arise from cultural variations in automatic affective reactions or deliberative concerns of the appropriateness of one's reactions to mental illness remains unknown. Here we compared implicit and explicit attitudes toward mental illness among Asian and Caucasian Americans. Asian Americans showed stronger negative implicit attitudes toward mental illness relative to Caucasian Americans, suggesting that cultural variation in stigma of mental illness can be observed even when concerns regarding the validity and appropriateness of one's attitudes toward mental illness are minimized. Asian Americans also explicitly endorsed greater desire for social distance from mental illness relative to Caucasian Americans. These findings suggest that cultural variations in mental illness stigma may arise from cultural differences in automatic reactions to mental illness, though cultural variations in deliberative processing may further shape differences in these immediate reactions to mental illness.

Oscillatory mechanisms of process binding in memory.

PubMed

Klimesch, Wolfgang; Freunberger, Roman; Sauseng, Paul

2010-06-01

A central topic in cognitive neuroscience is the question, which processes underlie large scale communication within and between different neural networks. The basic assumption is that oscillatory phase synchronization plays an important role for process binding--the transient linking of different cognitive processes--which may be considered a special type of large scale communication. We investigate this question for memory processes on the basis of different types of oscillatory synchronization mechanisms. The reviewed findings suggest that theta and alpha phase coupling (and phase reorganization) reflect control processes in two large memory systems, a working memory and a complex knowledge system that comprises semantic long-term memory. It is suggested that alpha phase synchronization may be interpreted in terms of processes that coordinate top-down control (a process guided by expectancy to focus on relevant search areas) and access to memory traces (a process leading to the activation of a memory trace). An analogous interpretation is suggested for theta oscillations and the controlled access to episodic memories. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neuroanatomy of the vmPFC and dlPFC predicts individual differences in cognitive regulation during dietary self-control across regulation strategies.

PubMed

Schmidt, Liane; Tusche, Anita; Manoharan, Nicolas; Hutcherson, Cendri; Hare, Todd; Plassmann, Hilke

2018-06-04

Making healthy food choices is challenging for many people. Individuals differ greatly in their ability to follow health goals in the face of temptation, but it is unclear what underlies such differences. Using voxel-based morphometry (VBM), we investigated in healthy humans (i.e., men and women) links between structural variation in gray matter volume and individuals' level of success in shifting toward healthier food choices. We combined MRI and choice data into a joint dataset by pooling across three independent studies that employed a task prompting participants to explicitly focus on the healthiness of food items before making their food choices. Within this dataset, we found that individual differences in gray matter volume in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) predicted regulatory success. We extended and confirmed these initial findings by predicting regulatory success out of sample and across tasks in a second dataset requiring participants to apply a different regulation strategy that entailed distancing from cravings for unhealthy, appetitive foods. Our findings suggest that neuroanatomical markers in the vmPFC and dlPFC generalized to different forms of dietary regulation strategies across participant groups. They provide novel evidence that structural differences in neuroanatomy of two key regions for valuation and its control, the vmPFC and dlPFC, predict an individual's ability to exert control in dietary choices. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Dieting involves regulating food choices in order to eat healthier foods and fewer unhealthy foods. People differ dramatically in their ability to achieve or maintain this regulation, but it is unclear why. Here, we show that individuals with more gray matter volume in the dorsolateral and ventromedial prefrontal cortex are better at exercising dietary self-control. This relationship was observed across four different studies examining two different forms of dietary self-regulation, suggesting that neuroanatomical differences in the vmPFC and dlPFC may represent a general marker for self-control abilities. These results identify candidate neuroanatomical markers for dieting success and failure, and suggest potential targets for therapies aimed at preventing or treating obesity and related eating disorders. Copyright © 2018 the authors.

The N-terminal strand modulates immunoglobulin light chain fibrillogenesis

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

Pozo-Yauner, Luis del, E-mail: ldelpozo@inmegen.gob.mx; Wall, Jonathan S.; González Andrade, Martín

2014-01-10

Highlights: •We evaluated the impact of mutations in the N-terminal strand of 6aJL2 protein. •Mutations destabilized the protein in a position-dependent manner. •Destabilizing mutations accelerated the fibrillogenesis by shortening the lag time. •The effect on the kinetic of fibril elongation by seeding was of different nature. •The N-terminal strand is buried in the fibrillar state of 6aJL2 protein. -- Abstract: It has been suggested that the N-terminal strand of the light chain variable domain (V{sub L}) protects the molecule from aggregation by hindering spurious intermolecular contacts. We evaluated the impact of mutations in the N-terminal strand on the thermodynamic stabilitymore » and kinetic of fibrillogenesis of the V{sub L} protein 6aJL2. Mutations in this strand destabilized the protein in a position-dependent manner, accelerating the fibrillogenesis by shortening the lag time; an effect that correlated with the extent of destabilization. In contrast, the effect on the kinetics of fibril elongation, as assessed in seeding experiments was of different nature, as it was not directly dependant on the degree of destabilization. This finding suggests different factors drive the nucleation-dependent and elongation phases of light chain fibrillogenesis. Finally, taking advantage of the dependence of the Trp fluorescence upon environment, four single Trp substitutions were made in the N-terminal strand, and changes in solvent exposure during aggregation were evaluated by acrylamide-quenching. The results suggest that the N-terminal strand is buried in the fibrillar state of 6aJL2 protein. This finding suggest a possible explanation for the modulating effect exerted by the mutations in this strand on the aggregation behavior of 6aJL2 protein.« less

Enhanced functional expression of transient outward current in hypertrophied feline myocytes.

PubMed

Ten Eick, R E; Zhang, K; Harvey, R D; Bassett, A L

1993-08-01

Cardiac hypertrophy can decrease myocardial contractility and alter the electrophysiological activity of the heart. It is well documented that action potentials recorded from hypertrophied feline ventricular cells can exhibit depressed plateau voltages and prolonged durations. Similar findings have been made by others in rabbit, rat, guinea pig, and human heart. Whole-cell patch voltage-clamp studies designed to explain these changes in the action potential suggest that the only component of the membrane current recorded from feline right ventricular (RV) myocytes found to be substantially different from normal is the 4-amino-pyridine-sensitive transient outward current (I(to)). However, it was not clear if the change in I(to) could explain the changes in the action potential of hypertrophied cardiocytes, nor was it clear if these changes reflect an alteration in the electrophysiological character of the channels underlying I(to). A kinetic comparison of I(to) elicited by hypertrophied RV myocytes with that elicited by comparable normal RV myocytes previously revealed no differences, suggesting that the increased magnitude of the peak I(to) recorded from hypertrophied myocytes arises because the current density increases and not because of any alteration in the kinetic parameters governing the current. This finding suggests that in hypertrophy additional normal channels are expressed rather than a kinetically different channel subtype emerging. Investigations designed to determine if enhancement of I(to) could explain the hypertrophy-induced changes in plateau voltage and action potential duration suggest that a change in I(to) density can indeed explain the entire effect of hypertrophy on RV action potentials. If this notion is correct, the likelihood of "sudden death" in patients with myocardial hypertrophy might be decreased by a blocker selective for cardiac I(to).

The role of sex and gender socialization in stress reactivity.

PubMed

Dedovic, Katarina; Wadiwalla, Mehereen; Engert, Veronika; Pruessner, Jens C

2009-01-01

Individual health is determined by a myriad of factors. Interestingly, simply being male or female is one such factor that carries profound implications for one's well-being. Intriguing differences between men and women have been observed with respect to vulnerability to and prevalence of particular illnesses. The activity of the major stress hormone axis in humans, the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis, is directly and indirectly associated with the onset and propagation of these conditions. Previous studies have shown differences between men and women at the level of stress hormone regulation, suggesting that the metabolic effects of stress may be related to susceptibility for stress-related disease. While the majority of studies have suggested that biological differences are responsible, few have also considered the role of gender socialization. In this selective review, the authors summarize evidence on sex differences and highlight some recent results from endocrinological, developmental, and neuroimaging studies that suggest an important role of gender socialization on the metabolic effects of stress. Finally, a model is proposed that integrates these specific findings, highlighting gender socialization and stress responsivity.

The relation between navigation strategy and associative memory: An individual differences approach.

PubMed

Ngo, Chi T; Weisberg, Steven M; Newcombe, Nora S; Olson, Ingrid R

2016-04-01

Although the hippocampus is implicated in both spatial navigation and associative memory, very little is known about whether individual differences in the 2 domains covary. People who prefer to navigate using a hippocampal-dependent place strategy may show better performance on associative memory tasks than those who prefer a caudate-dependent response strategy (Bohbot, Gupta, Banner, & Dahmani, 2011), but not all studies suggest such an effect (Woollett & Maguire, 2009, 2012). Here we tested nonexpert young adults and found that preference for a place strategy positively correlated with spatial (object-location) associative memory performance but did not correlate with nonspatial (face-name) associative memory performance. Importantly, these correlations differed from each other, indicating that the relation between navigation strategy and associative memory is specific to the spatial domain. In addition, the 2 associative memory tasks significantly correlated, suggesting that object-location memory taps into processes relevant to both hippocampal-dependent navigation and nonspatial associative memory. Our findings also suggest that individual differences in spatial associative memory may account for some of the variance in navigation strategies. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Deconstructing Planning Ability in Children and Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa.

PubMed

Rose, Mark; Reville, Marie-Claire; Iszatt, Amber; Levinson, Simon; Frampton, Ian; Lask, Bryan

2017-01-01

Weaknesses in planning by patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) have been noted (e.g., Zakzanis, Campbell, & Polsinelli, 2010 ) and are generally based on adults. This study explored D-KEFS Tower Test performance to better understand learning styles and strategies used by child and adolescent patients with AN compared to healthy controls. Overall, no significant differences were found in achievement; however, Item 5 predicted performance across harder items. The AN group was significantly faster to move their first disc suggesting patients with AN did not spend as much time planning their strategies for item completion. The findings of this study in conjunction with other studies investigating planning in AN may suggest the existence of subtle differences in learning style and strategy, such as faster initiation times, rather than gross planning differences. Further research is required to better understand the relationship between these subtle differences and clinical presentations.

Prenatal selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor use and the risk of autism spectrum disorder in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Kaplan, Yusuf C; Keskin-Arslan, Elif; Acar, Selin; Sozmen, Kaan

2016-12-01

To determine whether an up-to-date systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies would support the previously suggested associations regarding prenatal selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) use and the risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in children. PubMed/MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and Reprotox databases were searched; observational studies with an exposed and unexposed group were included. The meta-analysis of case-control studies demonstrated a significantly increased risk of ASD in the children whose mothers were prenatally exposed to SSRIs during different exposure time windows (except third trimester). The qualitative review of the cohort studies suggested inconsistent findings. The significant association between preconception-only SSRI exposure and ASD in the children and negative/inconsistent findings among cohort studies weaken the significant associations detected in this meta-analysis. We suggest that confounding by indication still cannot be ruled out regarding prenatal SSRI exposure and ASD in children. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Nature of Elementary Science Teachers' Experiences with Synchronous Online, Asynchronous Online and Face-to-Face Coaching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gilbert, Amanda M.

This study investigated the nature of instructional coaching interactions in three formats: online synchronous, online asynchronous, and face-to-face. Knight's (2007) Seven Partnership Principles of Instructional Coaching were used as a framework to analyze and compare the coaching interactions between coach and teacher to determine whether online coaching may be a viable option to provide support for the teachers unprepared to teach the new science standards. Some previous research has suggested that online communication can result in deeper personal interactions (Walther, 1996), while other studies suggest that interactions are more natural and easier in formats that are more similar to face-to-face interactions (Kock, 2005). The findings of this study support the media naturalness theory (Kock, 2005) and suggest that collaboration may be especially difficult in asynchronous online communication. Although differences were noted in the actual interactions, teacher perception remained fairly consistently positive across the three formats. Research beyond this exploratory study is needed to make findings generalizable.

From mind wandering to involuntary retrieval: Age-related differences in spontaneous cognitive processes.

PubMed

Maillet, David; Schacter, Daniel L

2016-01-08

The majority of studies that have investigated the effects of healthy aging on cognition have focused on age-related differences in voluntary and deliberately engaged cognitive processes. Yet many forms of cognition occur spontaneously, without any deliberate attempt at engaging them. In this article we review studies that have assessed age-related differences in four such types of spontaneous thought processes: mind-wandering, involuntary autobiographical memory, intrusive thoughts, and spontaneous prospective memory retrieval. These studies suggest that older adults exhibit a reduction in frequency of both mind-wandering and involuntary autobiographical memory, whereas findings regarding intrusive thoughts have been more mixed. Additionally, there is some preliminary evidence that spontaneous prospective memory retrieval may be relatively preserved in aging. We consider the roles of age-related differences in cognitive resources, motivation, current concerns and emotional regulation in accounting for these findings. We also consider age-related differences in the neural correlates of spontaneous cognitive processes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

From mind wandering to involuntary retrieval: Age-related differences in spontaneous cognitive processes

PubMed Central

Maillet, David; Schacter, Daniel L.

2015-01-01

The majority of studies that have investigated the effects of healthy aging on cognition have focused on age-related differences in voluntary and deliberately engaged cognitive processes. Yet many forms of cognition occur spontaneously, without any deliberate attempt at engaging them. In this article we review studies that have assessed age-related differences in four such types of spontaneous thought processes: mind-wandering, involuntary autobiographical memory, intrusive thoughts, and spontaneous prospective memory retrieval. These studies suggest that older adults exhibit a reduction in frequency of both mind-wandering and involuntary autobiographical memory, whereas findings regarding intrusive thoughts have been more mixed. Additionally, there is some preliminary evidence that spontaneous prospective memory retrieval may be relatively preserved in aging. We consider the roles of age-related differences in cognitive resources, motivation, current concerns and emotional regulation in accounting for these findings. We also consider age-related differences in the neural correlates of spontaneous cognitive processes. PMID:26617263

Inhibition processes are dissociable and lateralized in human prefrontal cortex.

PubMed

Cipolotti, Lisa; Spanò, Barbara; Healy, Colm; Tudor-Sfetea, Carina; Chan, Edgar; White, Mark; Biondo, Francesca; Duncan, John; Shallice, Tim; Bozzali, Marco

2016-12-01

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is known to make fundamental contributions to executive functions. However, the precise nature of these contributions is incompletely understood. We focused on a specific executive function, inhibition, the ability to suppress a pre-potent response. Functional imaging and animal studies have studied inhibition. However, there are only few lesion studies, typically reporting discrepant findings. For the first time, we conducted cognitive and neuroimaging investigations on patients with focal unilateral PFC lesions across two widely used inhibitory tasks requiring a verbal response: The Hayling Part 2 and Stroop Colour-Word Tests. We systematically explored the relationship between inhibition, fluid intelligence and lesion location using voxel-based lesion symptom mapping (VLSM). We found that PFC patients were significantly impaired compared with healthy comparison group (HC) on both suppression measures of the Hayling and on the Stroop, even when performance on a fluid intelligence test was covaried. No significant relationship was found between patients' performance on each Hayling suppression measure and the Stroop, once fluid intelligence was partialled out, suggesting that the two tests may involve different kinds of inhibition. After accounting for fluid intelligence, we found a significant interaction between tests, Hayling or Stroop, and site, left or right, of PFC damage. This finding suggesting lateralized functional organization was complemented and extended by our VLSM results. We found that performance on both Hayling suppression measures significantly relied on the integrity of a similar and relatively circumscribed region within the right lateral PFC, in the right lateral superior and middle frontal gyri. In stark contrast, performance on the Stroop relies on the integrity of left lateral superior and middle frontal gyri. Thus, lesion location, right or left PFC, is critical in producing impairments on two inhibitory tasks loading similarly on verbal control. This suggests that the two suppression measures of the Hayling and the Stroop are likely to assess dissociable components of executive functions, related to anatomically defined and lateralized PFC circuits. Our findings also suggest that inhibition may actually comprise qualitatively different forms with different neural substrates. This has clinical implications for the diagnosis and treatment of disinhibition impairments, a common behavioural problem caused by PFC lesions. Our results highlight the need to assess inhibition using a variety of tasks and to develop different types of treatments. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Frontal Dysfunctions of Impulse Control – A Systematic Review in Borderline Personality Disorder and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

PubMed Central

Sebastian, Alexandra; Jung, Patrick; Krause-Utz, Annegret; Lieb, Klaus; Schmahl, Christian; Tüscher, Oliver

2014-01-01

Disorders such as borderline personality disorder (BPD) or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are characterized by impulsive behaviors. Impulsivity as used in clinical terms is very broadly defined and entails different categories including personality traits as well as different cognitive functions such as emotion regulation or interference resolution and impulse control. Impulse control as an executive function, however, is neither cognitively nor neurobehaviorally a unitary function. Recent findings from behavioral and cognitive neuroscience studies suggest related but dissociable components of impulse control along functional domains like selective attention, response selection, motivational control, and behavioral inhibition. In addition, behavioral and neural dissociations are seen for proactive vs. reactive inhibitory motor control. The prefrontal cortex with its sub-regions is the central structure in executing these impulse control functions. Based on these concepts of impulse control, neurobehavioral findings of studies in BPD and ADHD were reviewed and systematically compared. Overall, patients with BPD exhibited prefrontal dysfunctions across impulse control components rather in orbitofrontal, dorsomedial, and dorsolateral prefrontal regions, whereas patients with ADHD displayed disturbed activity mainly in ventrolateral and medial prefrontal regions. Prefrontal dysfunctions, however, varied depending on the impulse control component and from disorder to disorder. This suggests a dissociation of impulse control related frontal dysfunctions in BPD and ADHD, although only few studies are hitherto available to assess frontal dysfunctions along different impulse control components in direct comparison of these disorders. Yet, these findings might serve as a hypothesis for the future systematic assessment of impulse control components to understand differences and commonalities of prefrontal cortex dysfunction in impulsive disorders. PMID:25232313

Gendered Perceptions of Intimate Partner Violence Normality: An Experimental Study.

PubMed

Kuijpers, Karlijn F; Blokland, Arjan A J; Mercer, Natalie C

2017-12-01

Knowledge on young adults' perceptions of intimate partner violence (IPV) is important as these are the ages at which most people form their first serious intimate relationships and begin to develop norms about how to communicate within a relationship. This study uses an experimental vignette design to examine whether the type of violence employed and the gender dynamics within the couple (male perpetrator and female victim vs. female perpetrator and male victim) affect young adults' perceptions of IPV normality. Gender differences in these perceptions are assessed and moreover, we explore whether these differences can be attributed to respondents' prior IPV experiences. Young adults ( N = 599) were recruited from various schools and universities throughout the Netherlands. They were randomly assigned to one of 10 experimental vignettes. Findings demonstrate that, generally, scenarios describing more serious types of IPV as well as those describing a male perpetrator and a female victim received lower ratings of normality. Gender differences in perceptions were found and, moreover, the direction of these gender differences appeared to depend on the actual gender dynamics described in the IPV scenario. Prior IPV experiences increased perceptions of IPV normality among female respondents in particular. Moreover, the suggestion that respondents' prior IPV experiences may better explain respondents' IPV perceptions than respondents' gender, was only partly supported. Our findings suggest that this is true for respondents' prior psychological, but not physical IPV experiences and for the manipulations of the gender dynamics within the couple, but not so much for the type of violence employed. Implications of these findings are discussed. From a prevention perspective, greater insight into these perceptions is relevant as they have been shown to be related to help-seeking and reporting behavior in the case of experiencing or witnessing IPV.

Pathways for diffusion in the potential energy landscape of the network glass former SiO2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Niblett, S. P.; Biedermann, M.; Wales, D. J.; de Souza, V. K.

2017-10-01

We study the dynamical behaviour of a computer model for viscous silica, the archetypal strong glass former, and compare its diffusion mechanism with earlier studies of a fragile binary Lennard-Jones liquid. Three different methods of analysis are employed. First, the temperature and time scale dependence of the diffusion constant is analysed. Negative correlation of particle displacements influences transport properties in silica as well as in fragile liquids. We suggest that the difference between Arrhenius and super-Arrhenius diffusive behaviour results from competition between the correlation time scale and the caging time scale. Second, we analyse the dynamics using a geometrical definition of cage-breaking transitions that was proposed previously for fragile glass formers. We find that this definition accurately captures the bond rearrangement mechanisms that control transport in open network liquids, and reproduces the diffusion constants accurately at low temperatures. As the same method is applicable to both strong and fragile glass formers, we can compare correlation time scales in these two types of systems. We compare the time spent in chains of correlated cage breaks with the characteristic caging time and find that correlations in the fragile binary Lennard-Jones system persist for an order of magnitude longer than those in the strong silica system. We investigate the origin of the correlation behaviour by sampling the potential energy landscape for silica and comparing it with the binary Lennard-Jones model. We find no qualitative difference between the landscapes, but several metrics suggest that the landscape of the fragile liquid is rougher and more frustrated. Metabasins in silica are smaller than those in binary Lennard-Jones and contain fewer high-barrier processes. This difference probably leads to the observed separation of correlation and caging time scales.

Gender, multiple roles, role meaning, and mental health.

PubMed

Simon, R W

1995-06-01

This paper examines gender differences in the consequences of combining spouse, parent, and worker roles for mental health. I suggest that work and family roles have different meanings for males and females, and that differences in the meaning of these roles may be partially responsible for why the mental health advantages of holding multiple roles are fewer for women than for men. Based on qualitative analyses of follow-up, in-depth interviews with 40 employed married parents who participated in a community panel study of mental health, I find that sex differences in the perceived relationship between work and family roles may help account for sex differences in distress by contributing to male-female differences in both the extent and nature of work-parent conflicts, attributions of responsibility for marital problems, feelings of guilt, and self-evaluations as parents and spouses. By identifying gender differences in the meaning of roles among individuals who have the same multiple role configuration, and suggesting how these differences can help explain sex differences in well-being; this research may expand existing theories about the mental health consequences of multiple role involvements.

The Conditional Nature of High Impact/Good Practices on Student Learning Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seifert, Tricia A.; Gillig, Benjamin; Hanson, Jana M.; Pascarella, Ernest T.; Blaich, Charles F.

2014-01-01

Using a multi-institutional sample of undergraduate students, this study found that the relationships between engaging in high impact/good practices and liberal arts outcomes differ based on students' precollege and background characteristics. Findings suggest that high impact/good practices are not a panacea and require a greater degree of…

The Contribution of Encoding and Retrieval Processes to Proactive Interference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kliegl, Oliver; Pastötter, Bernhard; Bäuml, Karl-Heinz T.

2015-01-01

Proactive interference (PI) refers to the finding that memory for recently studied (target) material can be impaired by the prior study of other (nontarget) material. Previous accounts of PI differed in whether they attributed PI to impaired retrieval or impaired encoding. Here, we suggest an integrated encoding-retrieval account, which assigns a…

An analysis of the determinants of HMO reenrollment behavior: implications for theory and policy.

PubMed

Scotti, D J; Bonner, P G; Wiman, A R

1986-06-01

Understanding the evaluative criteria used to select a health plan is central to effective marketing of an HMO. The determinant criteria that guide the reenrollment decision are shown to differ from those that drive initial enrollment. The authors' findings suggest several operational and strategic policy implications for HMO management.

A deconstruction of the I-M-L commitment segmentation of forest recreationists

Treesearch

James D. Absher; Gerard T. Kyle

2007-01-01

Previous work has established the general utility of segmenting forest recreationists according to their commitment profiles into Indifferents, Moderates, and Loyalists (IML) groups. Observed differences between these segments suggest that place identity and affect are more central to management than previously thought. This study extends this finding through the use...

Where Poems Hide: Finding Reflective, Critical Spaces inside Writing Workshop

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flint, Amy Seely; Laman, Tasha Tropp

2012-01-01

Research and teaching resources are replete with ideas for creating a more culturally responsive and critical curricula (Allen, 2010; Bomer & Bomer, 2001; Lewison, Leland, & Harste, 2008). Many have suggested that by offering a curriculum that is authentic and meaningful to children, real differences will be made in teaching and learning.…

University Offer Rates for Candidates from Different Ethnic Categories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Noden, Philip; Shiner, Michael; Modood, Tariq

2014-01-01

Previous research suggested that candidates from some black and minority ethnic groups were less likely to receive an offer of a place from an "old" university. These findings were disputed in a re-analysis carried out for HEFCE which found that only Pakistani candidates were significantly less likely to receive offers (from both…

Similarities and Differences between Phrase Structure and Morphosyntactic Violations in Spanish: An Event-Related Potentials Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hinojosa, Jose A.; Martin-Loeches, Manuel; Casado, Pilar; Munoz, Francisco; Rubia, Francisco J.

2003-01-01

Event-related potentials (EPRs) were employed to compare word category and verb inflection violations in Spanish. A similar frontal negativity was found between 250-400 ms for both violation types, suggesting that they equally disrupt initial syntactic analyses. These and other findings are discussed in detail. (VWL)

Finding the Right Fit: A Comparison of Process Assumptions Underlying Popular Drift-Diffusion Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ashby, Nathaniel J. S.; Jekel, Marc; Dickert, Stephan; Glöckner, Andreas

2016-01-01

Recent research makes increasing use of eye-tracking methodologies to generate and test process models. Overall, such research suggests that attention, generally indexed by fixations (gaze duration), plays a critical role in the construction of preference, although the methods used to support this supposition differ substantially. In two studies…

Comparing Instructional and Assessment Strategy Use in Graduate- and Undergraduate-Level Leadership Studies: A Global Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jenkins, Daniel M.

2018-01-01

This study compares the differences in instructional and assessment strategy use between instructors who teach undergraduate- and graduate-level face-to-face, academic credit-bearing leadership studies courses. Findings suggest that, overall, discussion-based pedagogies, case studies, and self-assessments are the most frequently used instructional…

The Impact of Occupational Stress on Academic and Administrative Staff, and on Students: An Empirical Case Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ablanedo-Rosas, Jose Humberto; Blevins, Randall C.; Gao, Hongman; Teng, Wen-Yuan; White, Joann

2011-01-01

This article examines the impact of occupational stress among academic staff, administrative staff, and students in a well-established US university environment. The results show that there are different correlations associated with stress such as organisational demand, health issues, and stress management. Findings suggest that occupational…

Measuring the Early Adulthood Outcomes of Young Adults with Disabilities: Developing Constructs Using NLTS2 Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shogren, Karrie A.; Shaw, Leslie A.; Little, Todd D.

2016-01-01

Secondary data analysis was used to develop and examine disability-related differences in outcome constructs from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2. Findings suggest that outcome constructs could be created that represented key elements of quality of life domains including social relationships, financial independence, financial…

Measuring the Early Adulthood Outcomes of Young Adults with Disabilities: Developing Constructs Using NLTS2 Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shogren, Karrie A.; Shaw, Leslie A.; Little, Todd D.

2016-01-01

Secondary data analysis was used to develop and examine disability-related differences in outcome constructs from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2). Findings suggest that outcome constructs could be created that represented key elements of quality of life domains including social relationships, financial independence, financial…

Families, Homes and Environmental Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Payne, Phillip G.

2005-01-01

The findings from a study of how Green families construct and practise versions of an environmental ethic and ecopolitic in the home are suggestive of how environmental education in schools might be revised. In this study, the green home proved to be a very different form of environmental education and practice of sustainability. Children's…

An Examination of Parents' and Preschool Workers' Perspectives on Bullying in Preschool

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cameron, David Lansing; Kovac, Velibor Bobo

2016-01-01

Parents (n = 141) and preschool workers (n = 81) completed a survey regarding their perspectives towards: (a) the existence of bullying in preschool, (b) interpretations of bullying, (c) the roles of bullies and victims, and (d) gender differences. Findings suggest that both groups largely believe that bullying occurs in preschool. Excluding…

Bridging Differences into Strengths: Strategies for Celebrating Uniqueness and Empathetic Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinett, Jeremy; Scheunemann, Jarrod

2016-01-01

It has been suggested that collaborative research often involves bridging divides that may exist between academics, practitioners, and community agencies. The purpose of this article is to outline strategies we find beneficial for negotiating spaces where everyone involved has some claim as an expert. Our goal is to provide examples of specific…

Using Strengthsfinder to Identify Relationships between Marketing Graduate Strengths and Career Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomkovick, Chuck; Swanson, Scott

2014-01-01

The present study seeks to better understand how marketing graduates' strengths, and utilization of those strengths in the workplace, may be associated with a variety of academic and career outcomes. Respondents completed two different questionnaires. Findings suggest that marketing graduates whose strengths are not being utilized with their work…

Bullying amongst University Students in the UK

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cowie, Helen; Myers, Carrie-Anne

2014-01-01

This study with 20 university students examined perspectives in three different participant roles: the perpetrator, the target and the bystander. The purpose of the exercise was to resolve the outcome of an alleged incident of cyberbullying using a social network site via the means of a restorative conference. The findings suggest that the power…

Motor Abilities in Autism: A Review Using a Computational Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gowen, Emma; Hamilton, Antonia

2013-01-01

Altered motor behaviour is commonly reported in Autism Spectrum Disorder, but the aetiology remains unclear. Here, we have taken a computational approach in order to break down motor control into different components and review the functioning of each process. Our findings suggest abnormalities in two areas--poor integration of information for…

Goals and Characteristics of Long-Term Care Programs: An Analytic Model.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Braun, Kathryn L.; Rose, Charles L.

1989-01-01

Used medico-social analytic model to compare five long-term care programs: Skilled Nursing Facility-Intermediate Care Facility (SNF-ICF) homes, ICF homes, foster homes, day hospitals, and home care. Identified similarities and differences among programs. Preliminary findings suggest that model is useful in the evaluation and design of long-term…

A Second Look at Second-Order Belief Attribution in Autism.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tager-Flusberg, Helen; Sullivan, Kate

1994-01-01

Twelve students with autism and 12 with mental retardation, who had passed a first-order test of false belief, were given a second-order reasoning task. No intergroup performance differences were seen. Findings suggest that the difficulty for both groups with the second-order task lies in information processing demands rather than conceptual…

Land of Misfit Toys: Mothers' Perceptions of Educational Environments for Their Children with Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lalvani, Priya

2013-01-01

In this qualitative study, 19 mothers discussed the education of their children with Down syndrome. Mothers reflected on their expectations and perceptions of different educational environments, focussing particularly on their understanding of inclusive education. The findings suggest that mothers' beliefs and decisions related to the education of…

Gestalt Therapy with Parents When a Child is Presented as the Problem.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Little, Linda F.

1986-01-01

Findings suggest that parents (N=23) who sought therapy because of "problematic" children differed in valuing style (e.g., rejection, extrinsic valuing, overprotection) from two samples of parents from normal populations. Parents who participated in Gestalt therapy groups made significant changes in their reported parenting styles. (Author/ABB)

Math Talk and Student Strategy Trajectories: The Case of Two First Grade Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murata, Aki; Siker, Jody; Kang, Bona; Baldinger, Evra M.; Kim, Hee-Jeong; Scott, Mallika; Lanouette, Kathryn

2017-01-01

This study investigated different math-talk facilitations, and conceptualized the teachers' talk moves for productive student mathematics discussions. Our findings suggest that students' strategy development is supported by talk moves coordinating a wide range of student strategies, representations and discussions that are at a process-level and…

Poor Performance on Serial Visual Tasks in Persons with Reading Disabilities: Impaired Working Memory?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ram-Tsur, Ronit; Faust, Miriam; Zivotofsky, Ari Z.

2008-01-01

The present study investigates the performance of persons with reading disabilities (PRD) on a variety of sequential visual-comparison tasks that have different working-memory requirements. In addition, mediating relationships between the sequential comparison process and attention and memory skills were looked for. Our findings suggest that PRD…

"Correlates of Affectionate and Angry Behavior." Practitioner Perspective.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moberly, Deborah

1999-01-01

Notes that the most comforting finding in Mill and Romano- White's study was the high level of affectionate caregiver behaviors in early childhood settings. Suggests that a broader definition of anger might yield different results. Argues that the lack of a relationship between caregivers' self-esteem and angry or affectionate behavior contradicts…

Videotutoring, Non-Verbal Communication and Initial Teacher Training.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nichol, Jon; Watson, Kate

2000-01-01

Describes the use of video tutoring for distance education within the context of a post-graduate teacher training course at the University of Exeter. Analysis of the tapes used a protocol based on non-verbal communication research, and findings suggest that the interaction of participants was significantly different from face-to-face…

Researching the Educational Benefits of Diversity. Research Report No. 2005-4

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaw, Emily J.

2005-01-01

There are many different ways to research the educational benefits of diversity. Most of the findings from the research in this field suggest that experiences with diversity in higher education result in significant benefits on learning and democracy outcomes. This paper offers several examples of previous studies, as well as recommendations and…

Refusals and Rejections: Designing Messages to Serve Multiple Goals.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saeki, Mimako; O'Keefe, Barbara J.

1994-01-01

Tests a rational model of the elaboration of themes found in rejection messages, using Japanese and American participants. Finds partial support for the initial rational model but notes two key revisions: identifies two new themes in rejection messages and suggests substantial differences in the way Americans and Japanese elaborate themes to serve…

Perceptions of Authorial Identity in Academic Writing among Undergraduate Accounting Students: Implications for Unintentional Plagiarism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ballantine, Joan; McCourt Larres, Patricia

2012-01-01

The current study explores first, second and third-year UK accounting students' perceptions of authorial identity and their implications for unintentional plagiarism. The findings suggest that, whilst all students have reasonably positive perceptions of their authorial identity, there is room for improvement. Significant differences in second-year…

Assessing and Cultivating Support for Strategic Planning: Searching for Best Practices in a Reform Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Welsh, John F.; Nunez, William J.; Petrosko, Joseph

2006-01-01

This study examines the similarities and differences in faculty and administrator perspectives on strategic planning in Kentucky, a state in the United States undergoing extensive reform of its public, postsecondary system. The findings suggest that three variables are critical to faculty and administrative support for strategic planning…

[The classification of ceramics according to its chemical nature and its method of production].

PubMed

Moureau, Thomas; Bouhy, Alice; Raepsaet, Nicolas; Vanheusden, Alain

2006-01-01

Nowadays, we find on the market a huge amount of design and manufactured system that allows the realisation of all-ceramics restorations, using different ceramics. The purpose of this article is suggesting a classification of mostly used ceramics and a few laboratory process used in our university.

Interactive Effects of Emotional Dissonance and Self-Control Demands on Burnout, Anxiety, and Absenteeism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diestel, Stefan; Schmidt, Klaus-Helmut

2010-01-01

Two specific sources of stress at work have recently received increasing attention in organizational stress research: emotional dissonance (ED) and self-control demands (SCDs). Both theoretical arguments and experimental findings in basic research strongly suggest that ED and different SCDs draw on a common limited regulatory resource.…

Disentangling the effects of working memory, language, parental education, and non-verbal intelligence on children’s mathematical abilities

PubMed Central

Pina, Violeta; Fuentes, Luis J.; Castillo, Alejandro; Diamantopoulou, Sofia

2014-01-01

It is assumed that children’s performance in mathematical abilities is influenced by several factors such as working memory (WM), verbal ability, intelligence, and socioeconomic status. The present study explored the contribution of those factors to mathematical performance taking a componential view of both WM and mathematics. We explored the existing relationship between different WM components (verbal and spatial) with tasks that make differential recruitment of the central executive, and simple and complex mathematical skills in a sample of 102 children in grades 4–6. The main findings point to a relationship between the verbal WM component and complex word arithmetic problems, whereas language and non-verbal intelligence were associated with knowledge of quantitative concepts and arithmetic ability. The spatial WM component was associated with the subtest Series, whereas the verbal component was with the subtest Concepts. The results also suggest a positive relationship between parental educational level and children’s performance on Quantitative Concepts. These findings suggest that specific cognitive skills might be trained in order to improve different aspects of mathematical ability. PMID:24847306

Understanding elementary teacher motivations for science fieldtrips

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kisiel, James

2005-11-01

This investigation sought to identify the motivations that comprise teachers' agendas when leading student fieldtrips to science museums or similar sites. A survey distributed to upper elementary teachers resulted in a variety of open-ended responses that were analyzed and coded to identify recurring themes. In addition, ten teachers planning to lead a school trip to a natural history museum were interviewed and observed. Interview and observation data were used to triangulate findings and refine descriptions of actual practice. Eight fieldtrip motivations were identified including to connect with the classroom curriculum, to provide a general learning experience, to encourage lifelong learning, to enhance interest and motivation, to provide exposure to new experiences, to provide a change in setting or routine, for enjoyment, and to meet school expectations. Results indicated that connecting to the classroom curriculum was an important consideration, although teachers had different interpretations of what this meant. Further examination of the teachers' agendas suggested the influence of different contexts, including that of the school and the museum site. These findings lead to suggestions for facilitating school visits to informal settings by considering the teachers' fieldtrip perspectives and agendas.

Arousal and affective differences between student gamblers and non-gamblers during a card game.

PubMed

Pascual-Leone, Antonio; Campeau, Jennifer L; Harrington, Shawn J

2012-12-01

The current study examined the differences in arousal (physiologically and subjectively) between gamblers and non-gamblers. Thirty students from a mid-sized university took part in the study for a chance to win money in a gambling task. Nearly half of the participants identified themselves as non-gamblers and slightly more than half of the participants considered themselves gamblers. Findings indicated that gamblers experienced a significantly higher increase in physiological arousal (heart rate) compared to non-gamblers during the gambling experience. The results suggests the possibility that physiological arousal may play a role in the appeal of gambling to certain types of people. Furthermore, when gamblers suffered a loss at the end of the game, they reported feeling worse as compared to the non-gamblers and relative to their state before playing. Moreover, this affective change explained 28.6% of the variance in gambling behavior according to self-reports. Findings suggest that gamblers in our study may have been more personally invested in the gambling tasks, such that losing was more disappointing to the habitual gamblers than the non-gamblers.

A preliminary, controlled investigation of magnesium L-aspartate hydrochloride for illicit cocaine and opiate use in methadone-maintained patients.

PubMed

Margolin, Arthur; Kantak, Kathleen; Copenhaver, Michael; Avants, S Kelly

2003-01-01

Based on pre-clinical studies suggesting that magnesium (Mg) reduces cocaine self-administration and potentiates the antinociceptive effects of morphine, we conducted a preliminary randomized clinical trial investigating Mg for the treatment of illicit cocaine and opiate use. Eighteen methadone-maintained patients who used illicit opiates and cocaine received either Mg (732 mg/day) or placebo for 12 weeks. Overall, findings showed that the percentage of urine screens testing positive for opiates in the Mg group (22.6%) was half that of the placebo group (46.4%), p = .04; the difference was even greater in the "medication compliant" sample (Mg: 16.3%, placebo: 47.9%), p = .02. Cocaine craving was lower in the Mg compared to the placebo group, but there was no difference between groups in cocaine use. These preliminary findings suggest that Mg may have a beneficial effect for reducing illicit opiate use. It is possible that a higher dose of Mg than was used in this study may be needed to decrease cocaine use.

The Role of Task-Related Learned Representations in Explaining Asymmetries in Task Switching

PubMed Central

Barutchu, Ayla; Becker, Stefanie I.; Carter, Olivia; Hester, Robert; Levy, Neil L.

2013-01-01

Task switch costs often show an asymmetry, with switch costs being larger when switching from a difficult task to an easier task. This asymmetry has been explained by difficult tasks being represented more strongly and consequently requiring more inhibition prior to switching to the easier task. The present study shows that switch cost asymmetries observed in arithmetic tasks (addition vs. subtraction) do not depend on task difficulty: Switch costs of similar magnitudes were obtained when participants were presented with unsolvable pseudo-equations that did not differ in task difficulty. Further experiments showed that neither task switch costs nor switch cost asymmetries were due to perceptual factors (e.g., perceptual priming effects). These findings suggest that asymmetrical switch costs can be brought about by the association of some tasks with greater difficulty than others. Moreover, the finding that asymmetrical switch costs were observed (1) in the absence of a task switch proper and (2) without differences in task difficulty, suggests that present theories of task switch costs and switch cost asymmetries are in important ways incomplete and need to be modified. PMID:23613919

Vulnerability factors in OCD symptoms: cross-cultural comparisons between Turkish and Canadian samples.

PubMed

Yorulmaz, Orçun; Gençöz, Tülin; Woody, Sheila

2010-01-01

Recent findings have suggested some potential psychological vulnerability factors for development of obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms, including cognitive factors of appraisal and thought control, religiosity, self-esteem and personality characteristics such as neuroticism. Studies demonstrating these associations usually come from Western cultures, but there may be cultural differences relevant to these vulnerability factors and OC symptoms. The present study examined the relationship between putative vulnerability factors and OC symptoms by comparing non-clinical samples from Turkey and Canada, two countries with quite different cultural characteristics. The findings revealed some common correlates such as neuroticism and certain types of metacognition, including appraisals of responsibility/threat estimation and perfectionism/need for certainty, as well as thought-action fusion. However, culture-specific factors were also indicated in the type of thought control participants used. For OC disorder symptoms, Turkish participants were more likely to utilize worry and thought suppression, while Canadian participants tended to use self-punishment more frequently. The association with common factors supports the cross-cultural validity of some factors, whereas unique factors suggest cultural features that may be operative in cognitive processes relevant to OC symptoms.

Comparing visual search and eye movements in bilinguals and monolinguals

PubMed Central

Hout, Michael C.; Walenchok, Stephen C.; Azuma, Tamiko; Goldinger, Stephen D.

2017-01-01

Recent research has suggested that bilinguals show advantages over monolinguals in visual search tasks, although these findings have been derived from global behavioral measures of accuracy and response times. In the present study we sought to explore the bilingual advantage by using more sensitive eyetracking techniques across three visual search experiments. These spatially and temporally fine-grained measures allowed us to carefully investigate any nuanced attentional differences between bilinguals and monolinguals. Bilingual and monolingual participants completed visual search tasks that varied in difficulty. The experiments required participants to make careful discriminations in order to detect target Landolt Cs among similar distractors. In Experiment 1, participants performed both feature and conjunction search. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants performed visual search while making different types of speeded discriminations, after either locating the target or mentally updating a constantly changing target. The results across all experiments revealed that bilinguals and monolinguals were equally efficient at guiding attention and generating responses. These findings suggest that the bilingual advantage does not reflect a general benefit in attentional guidance, but could reflect more efficient guidance only under specific task demands. PMID:28508116

PubMed Central

SERDAROGLU OFLAZER, P.; DEYMEER, F.; PARMAN, Y.

2011-01-01

SUMMARY In a muscle biopsy based study, only 9 out of 5450 biopsy samples, received from all parts of greater Istanbul area, had typical clinical and most suggestive light microscopic sporadic-inclusion body myositis (s-IBM) findings. Two other patients with and ten further patients without characteristic light microscopic findings had referring diagnosis of s-IBM. As the general and the ageadjusted populations of Istanbul in 2010 were 13.255.685 and 2.347.300 respectively, the calculated corresponding ‘estimated prevalences' of most suggestive s-IBM in the Istanbul area were 0.679 X 10-6 and 3.834 X 10-6. Since Istanbul receives heavy migration from all regions of Turkey and ours is the only muscle pathology laboratory in Istanbul, projection of these figures to the Turkish population was considered to be reasonable and an estimate of the prevalence of s-IBM in Turkey was obtained. The calculated ‘estimated prevalence' of s-IBM in Turkey is lower than the previously reported rates from other countries. The wide variation in the prevalence rates of s-IBM may reflect different genetic, immunogenetic or environmental factors in different populations. PMID:21842592

IL-10 and IL-12B gene polymorphisms in a multiethnic Malaysian population.

PubMed

Sam, S S; Teoh, B T; AbuBakar, S

2015-04-13

Inheritance of polymorphisms in the interleukin (IL)-10 promoter and IL-12B genes, which influence cytokine production and activities, may define the balance in T helper response in infection and autoimmune diseases. In the present study, we investigated the distribution of the IL-10 promoter and IL-12B gene polymorphisms in a multiethnic Malaysian population. Overall, our findings suggest that the IL-12B and IL-10 -592 genotypes were distributed homogenously across all major ethnic groups, including Malays, Chinese, and Indians, except for polymorphisms at IL-10 -1082. At this gene locus, the ethnic Chinese showed a significantly lower allele frequency of -1082G (2.1%) compared to the Malay (12.2%) and Indian (15.3%) populations. Results for the IL-12B and IL-10 gene polymorphisms were consistent with those reported for the Asian population, but markedly different from those of the African and Caucasian populations. Our findings suggest that there are specific genetic variations between different ethnic groups, which should be examined in all gene population-based association studies.

The political economy of urban homicide: assessing the relative impact of gender inequality on sex-specific victimization.

PubMed

DeWees, Mari A; Parker, Karen F

2003-02-01

This research examines the ways in which the changing political economy of urban areas has contributed differently to the homicide victimization rates of females and males across US cities. Recent research, while relatively limited, has presented disparate results regarding the effect of gender inequality on urban sex-specific victimization. Our work further explores this relationship by taking into account relative gender disparities in income, education, labor market opportunities, and politics in an examination of sex-specific homicide victimization in 1990. Key to this current investigation is the evaluation of feminist and lifestyle arguments that suggest that structural gender inequality has a unique effect on female victimization. Overall, our findings reveal gender inequality to be a significant predictor of both male and female urban homicide. While these findings suggest mixed support for theoretical arguments regarding gender inequality, further analyses reveal significant differences in specific types of gender inequality on victimization patterns across genders. These additional results highlight the need for greater attention toward both methodological and theoretical issues when examining the interconnections between gender, political economy, and violence in research.

No better moment to score a goal than just before half time? A soccer myth statistically tested

PubMed Central

Amez, Simon

2018-01-01

We test the soccer myth suggesting that a particularly good moment to score a goal is just before half time. To this end, rich data on 1,179 games played in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League are analysed. In contrast to the myth, we find that, conditional on the goal difference and other game characteristics at half time, the final goal difference at the advantage of the home team is 0.520 goals lower in case of a goal just before half time by this team. We show that this finding relates to this team’s lower probability of scoring a goal during the second half. PMID:29518165

An Initial Investigation of Sexual Minority Youth Involvement in School-Based Extracurricular Activities.

PubMed

Toomey, Russell B; Russell, Stephen T

2013-06-01

Sexual minority youth are at risk for negative school-based experiences and poor academic outcomes. Yet, little is known about their experiences in positive school-based contexts. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (1,214 sexual minority and 11,427 heterosexual participants), this study compared participation rates in, predictors of, and outcomes associated with three types of school-based extracurricular activities - sports, arts, and school clubs - by sexual orientation and gender. Findings revealed several significant sexual orientation and gender differences in participation rates in school-based sports, clubs, and arts activities. Further, findings suggested that the outcomes associated with extracurricular activity involvement do not differ by sexual orientation and gender; however, predictors of participation in these domains varied across groups.

The Rise and Fall of Type Ia Supernova Light Curves in the SDSS-II Supernova Survey

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

Hayden, Brian T.; /Notre Dame U.; Garnavich, Peter M.

2010-01-01

We analyze the rise and fall times of Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) light curves discovered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) Supernova Survey. From a set of 391 light curves k-corrected to the rest-frame B and V bands, we find a smaller dispersion in the rising portion of the light curve compared to the decline. This is in qualitative agreement with computer models which predict that variations in radioactive nickel yield have less impact on the rise than on the spread of the decline rates. The differences we find in the rise and fall properties suggest that amore » single 'stretch' correction to the light curve phase does not properly model the range of SN Ia light curve shapes. We select a subset of 105 light curves well observed in both rise and fall portions of the light curves and develop a '2-stretch' fit algorithm which estimates the rise and fall times independently. We find the average time from explosion to B-band peak brightness is 17.38 {+-} 0.17 days, but with a spread of rise times which range from 13 days to 23 days. Our average rise time is shorter than the 19.5 days found in previous studies; this reflects both the different light curve template used and the application of the 2-stretch algorithm. The SDSS-II supernova set and the local SNe Ia with well-observed early light curves show no significant differences in their average rise-time properties. We find that slow-declining events tend to have fast rise times, but that the distribution of rise minus fall time is broad and single peaked. This distribution is in contrast to the bimodality in this parameter that was first suggested by Strovink (2007) from an analysis of a small set of local SNe Ia. We divide the SDSS-II sample in half based on the rise minus fall value, t{sub r} - t{sub f} {approx}< 2 days and t{sub r} - t{sub f} > 2 days, to search for differences in their host galaxy properties and Hubble residuals; we find no difference in host galaxy properties or Hubble residuals in our sample.« less

OBSERVATIONAL SIGNATURES OF A MASSIVE DISTANT PLANET ON THE SCATTERING DISK

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

Lawler, S. M.; Kavelaars, J. J.; Shankman, C.

The orbital element distribution of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) with large pericenters has been suggested to be influenced by the presence of an undetected, large planet at >200 au from the Sun. To find additional observables caused by this scenario, we present here the first detailed emplacement simulation in the presence of a massive ninth planet on the distant Kuiper Belt. We perform 4 Gyr N -body simulations with the currently known solar system planetary architecture, plus a 10  M {sub ⊕} planet with similar orbital parameters to those suggested by Trujillo and Sheppard or Batygin and Brown, and 10{sup 5} testmore » particles in an initial planetesimal disk. We find that including a distant super-Earth-mass planet produces a substantially different orbital distribution for the scattering and detached TNOs, raising the pericenters and inclinations of moderate semimajor axis (50 <  a  < 500 au) objects. We test whether this signature is detectable via a simulator with the observational characteristics of four precisely characterized TNO surveys. We find that the qualitatively very distinct solar system models that include a ninth planet are essentially observationally indistinguishable from an outer solar system produced solely by the four giant planets. We also find that the mass of the Kuiper Belt’s current scattering and detached populations is required to be 3–10 times larger in the presence of an additional planet. We do not find any evidence for clustering of orbital angles in our simulated TNO population. Wide-field, deep surveys targeting inclined high-pericenter objects will be required to distinguish between these different scenarios.« less

Training-Dependent Associative Learning Induced Neocortical Structural Plasticity: A Trace Eyeblink Conditioning Analysis

PubMed Central

Chau, Lily S.; Prakapenka, Alesia V.; Zendeli, Liridon; Davis, Ashley S.; Galvez, Roberto

2014-01-01

Studies utilizing general learning and memory tasks have suggested the importance of neocortical structural plasticity for memory consolidation. However, these learning tasks typically result in learning of multiple different tasks over several days of training, making it difficult to determine the synaptic time course mediating each learning event. The current study used trace-eyeblink conditioning to determine the time course for neocortical spine modification during learning. With eyeblink conditioning, subjects are presented with a neutral, conditioned stimulus (CS) paired with a salient, unconditioned stimulus (US) to elicit an unconditioned response (UR). With multiple CS-US pairings, subjects learn to associate the CS with the US and exhibit a conditioned response (CR) when presented with the CS. Trace conditioning is when there is a stimulus free interval between the CS and the US. Utilizing trace-eyeblink conditioning with whisker stimulation as the CS (whisker-trace-eyeblink: WTEB), previous findings have shown that primary somatosensory (barrel) cortex is required for both acquisition and retention of the trace-association. Additionally, prior findings demonstrated that WTEB acquisition results in an expansion of the cytochrome oxidase whisker representation and synaptic modification in layer IV of barrel cortex. To further explore these findings and determine the time course for neocortical learning-induced spine modification, the present study utilized WTEB conditioning to examine Golgi-Cox stained neurons in layer IV of barrel cortex. Findings from this study demonstrated a training-dependent spine proliferation in layer IV of barrel cortex during trace associative learning. Furthermore, findings from this study showing that filopodia-like spines exhibited a similar pattern to the overall spine density further suggests that reorganization of synaptic contacts set the foundation for learning-induced neocortical modifications through the different neocortical layers. PMID:24760074

What #theDress reveals about the role of illumination priors in color perception and color constancy

PubMed Central

Aston, Stacey; Hurlbert, Anya

2018-01-01

The disagreement between people who named #theDress (the Internet phenomenon of 2015) “blue and black” versus “white and gold” is thought to be caused by individual differences in color constancy. It is hypothesized that observers infer different incident illuminations, relying on illumination “priors” to overcome the ambiguity of the image. Different experiences may drive the formation of different illumination priors, and these may be indicated by differences in chronotype. We assess this hypothesis, asking whether matches to perceived illumination in the image and/or perceived dress colors relate to scores on the morningness-eveningness questionnaire (a measure of chronotype). We find moderate correlations between chronotype and illumination matches (morning types giving bluer illumination matches than evening types) and chronotype and dress body matches, but these are significant only at the 10% level. Further, although inferred illumination chromaticity in the image explains variation in the color matches to the dress (confirming the color constancy hypothesis), color constancy thresholds obtained using an established illumination discrimination task are not related to dress color perception. We also find achromatic settings depend on luminance, suggesting that subjective white point differences may explain the variation in dress color perception only if settings are made at individually tailored luminance levels. The results of such achromatic settings are inconsistent with their assumed correspondence to perceived illumination. Finally, our results suggest that perception and naming are disconnected, with observers reporting different color names for the dress photograph and their isolated color matches, the latter best capturing the variation in the matches. PMID:28793353

Development of Preferences for Differently Aged Faces of Different Races.

PubMed

Heron-Delaney, Michelle; Quinn, Paul C; Damon, Fabrice; Lee, Kang; Pascalis, Olivier

2018-02-01

Children's experiences with differently aged faces changes in the course of development. During infancy, most faces encountered are adult, however as children mature, exposure to child faces becomes more extensive. Does this change in experience influence preference for differently aged faces? The preferences of children for adult versus child, and adult versus infant faces were investigated. Caucasian 3- to 6-year-olds and adults were presented with adult/child and adult/infant face pairs which were either Caucasian or Asian (race consistent within pairs). Younger children (3 to 4 years) preferred adults over children, whereas older children (5 to 6 years) preferred children over adults. This preference was only detected for Caucasian faces. These data support a "here and now" model of the development of face age processing from infancy to childhood. In particular, the findings suggest that growing experience with peers influences age preferences and that race impacts on these preferences. In contrast, adults preferred infants and children over adults when the faces were Caucasian or Asian, suggesting an increasing influence of a baby schema, and a decreasing influence of race. The different preferences of younger children, older children, and adults also suggest discontinuity and the possibility of different mechanisms at work during different developmental periods.

Red Brain, Blue Brain: Evaluative Processes Differ in Democrats and Republicans

PubMed Central

Schreiber, Darren; Fonzo, Greg; Simmons, Alan N.; Dawes, Christopher T.; Flagan, Taru; Fowler, James H.; Paulus, Martin P.

2013-01-01

Liberals and conservatives exhibit different cognitive styles and converging lines of evidence suggest that biology influences differences in their political attitudes and beliefs. In particular, a recent study of young adults suggests that liberals and conservatives have significantly different brain structure, with liberals showing increased gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, and conservatives showing increased gray matter volume in the in the amygdala. Here, we explore differences in brain function in liberals and conservatives by matching publicly-available voter records to 82 subjects who performed a risk-taking task during functional imaging. Although the risk-taking behavior of Democrats (liberals) and Republicans (conservatives) did not differ, their brain activity did. Democrats showed significantly greater activity in the left insula, while Republicans showed significantly greater activity in the right amygdala. In fact, a two parameter model of partisanship based on amygdala and insula activations yields a better fitting model of partisanship than a well-established model based on parental socialization of party identification long thought to be one of the core findings of political science. These results suggest that liberals and conservatives engage different cognitive processes when they think about risk, and they support recent evidence that conservatives show greater sensitivity to threatening stimuli. PMID:23418419

Ethnic group differences in police notification about intimate partner violence.

PubMed

Ackerman, Jeffrey; Love, Tony P

2014-02-01

We analyzed data from the National Crime Victimization Survey to test whether individuals from different ethnic groups differentially notify the police after incidents of partner violence. After finding that minority groups notified the police about intimate partner violence (IPV) events more than non-minorities, we found that socioeconomic status differences between minorities and non-minorities explained a statistically significant proportion of the reasons underlying the differences in notification. We suggest that the pattern of our results supports a structural perspective and has potential implications about the subjective and objective efficacy of police involvement in IPV.

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

Lim, Dongwook; Han, Sang-Il; Lee, Young-Wook

There is increasing evidence for the presence of multiple red giant branches (RGBs) in the color-magnitude diagrams of massive globular clusters (GCs). In order to investigate the origin of this split on the RGB, we have performed new narrow-band Ca photometry and low-resolution spectroscopy for M22, NGC 1851, and NGC 288. We find significant differences (more than 4σ) in calcium abundance from the spectroscopic HK' index for M22 and NGC 1851. We also find more than 8σ differences in CN-band strength between the Ca-strong and Ca-weak subpopulations for these GCs. For NGC 288, however, a large difference is detected onlymore » in the CN strength. The calcium abundances of RGB stars in this GC are identical to within the errors. This is consistent with the conclusion from our new Ca photometry where the RGB splits are confirmed in M22 and NGC 1851, but not in NGC 288. We also find interesting differences in the CN-CH correlations among these GCs. While CN and CH are anti-correlated in NGC 288, they show a positive correlation in M22. NGC 1851, however, shows no difference in CH between the two groups of stars with different CN strengths. We suggest that all of these systematic differences would be best explained by how strongly Type II supernovae enrichment has contributed to the chemical evolution of these GCs.« less

Capital Investment by Independent and System-Affiliated Hospitals

PubMed Central

Carroll, Nathan W.; Smith, Dean G.; Wheeler, John R. C.

2015-01-01

Capital expenditures are a critical part of hospitals’ efforts to maintain quality of patient care and financial stability. Over the past 20 years, finding capital to fund these expenditures has become increasingly challenging for hospitals, particularly independent hospitals. Independent hospitals struggling to find ways to fund necessary capital investment are often advised that their best strategy is to join a multi-hospital system. There is scant empirical evidence to support the idea that system membership improves independent hospitals’ ability to make capital expenditures. Using data from the American Hospital Association and Medicare Cost Reports, we use difference-in-difference methods to examine changes in capital expenditures for independent hospitals that joined multi-hospital systems between 1997 and 2008. We find that in the first 5 years after acquisition, capital expenditures increase by an average of almost $16 000 per bed annually, as compared with non-acquired hospitals. In later years, the difference in capital expenditure is smaller and not statistically significant. Our results do not suggest that increases in capital expenditures vary by asset age or the size of the acquiring system. PMID:26105571

Time well spent: the duration of foster care and early adult labor market, educational, and health outcomes.

PubMed

Fallesen, Peter

2013-12-01

Individuals who spent time in foster care as children fare on average worse than non-placed peers in early adult life. Recent research on the effect of foster care placement on early adult life outcomes provides mixed evidence. Some studies suggest negative effects of foster care placement on early adult outcomes, others find null effects. This study shows that differences in the average duration of foster care stays explain parts of these discordant findings and then test how foster care duration shapes later life outcomes using administrative data on 7220 children. The children experienced different average durations of foster care because of differences in exposure to a reform. Later born cohorts spent on average 3 months longer in foster care than earlier born cohorts. Isolating exogenous variation in duration of foster care, the study finds positive effects of increased duration of foster care on income and labor market participation. Copyright © 2013 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mass Incarceration Through a Different Lens: Race, Subcontext, and Perceptions of Punitiveness of Correctional Alternatives When Compared to Prison

PubMed Central

Irizarry, Yasmiyn; May, David C.; Davis, Adrienne; Wood, Peter B.

2016-01-01

In spite of documented harmful effects of mass incarceration, evidence to date suggests that Blacks perceive the experience of prison as less punitive than Whites. While these findings are well documented, little is known about the role of sociodemographic or contextual factors in shaping this pattern. Utilizing a quantitative intersectional framework, we analyze data from over 1000 Kentucky prison inmates who were within 12 months of their parole hearing or release date to examine the differential effects of various sociodemographic and contextual factors on perceptions of the punitiveness of regular probation, community service, and electronic monitoring (as opposed to prison) for Blacks and Whites. Findings confirm the presence of a racial gap in perceptions of the punitiveness of various alternatives to incarceration; however, results from models disaggregated by race highlight important differences in the effects of gender, parenting, and childhood locale on these perceptions. These findings demonstrate the role of various factors in shaping Blacks’ and Whites’ differential perceptions and reveal the contexts where these differences are most likely to be found. PMID:27284494

Capital Investment by Independent and System-Affiliated Hospitals.

PubMed

Carroll, Nathan W; Smith, Dean G; Wheeler, John R C

2015-01-01

Capital expenditures are a critical part of hospitals' efforts to maintain quality of patient care and financial stability. Over the past 20 years, finding capital to fund these expenditures has become increasingly challenging for hospitals, particularly independent hospitals. Independent hospitals struggling to find ways to fund necessary capital investment are often advised that their best strategy is to join a multi-hospital system. There is scant empirical evidence to support the idea that system membership improves independent hospitals' ability to make capital expenditures. Using data from the American Hospital Association and Medicare Cost Reports, we use difference-in-difference methods to examine changes in capital expenditures for independent hospitals that joined multi-hospital systems between 1997 and 2008. We find that in the first 5 years after acquisition, capital expenditures increase by an average of almost $16,000 per bed annually, as compared with non-acquired hospitals. In later years, the difference in capital expenditure is smaller and not statistically significant. Our results do not suggest that increases in capital expenditures vary by asset age or the size of the acquiring system. © The Author(s) 2015.

Does money matter in inflation forecasting?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Binner, J. M.; Tino, P.; Tepper, J.; Anderson, R.; Jones, B.; Kendall, G.

2010-11-01

This paper provides the most fully comprehensive evidence to date on whether or not monetary aggregates are valuable for forecasting US inflation in the early to mid 2000s. We explore a wide range of different definitions of money, including different methods of aggregation and different collections of included monetary assets. In our forecasting experiment we use two nonlinear techniques, namely, recurrent neural networks and kernel recursive least squares regression-techniques that are new to macroeconomics. Recurrent neural networks operate with potentially unbounded input memory, while the kernel regression technique is a finite memory predictor. The two methodologies compete to find the best fitting US inflation forecasting models and are then compared to forecasts from a naïve random walk model. The best models were nonlinear autoregressive models based on kernel methods. Our findings do not provide much support for the usefulness of monetary aggregates in forecasting inflation. Beyond its economic findings, our study is in the tradition of physicists’ long-standing interest in the interconnections among statistical mechanics, neural networks, and related nonparametric statistical methods, and suggests potential avenues of extension for such studies.

The Flynn Effect within Subgroups in the U.S.: Gender, Race, Income, Education, and Urbanization Differences in the NLSY-Children Data.

PubMed

Ang, Siewching; Rodgers, Joseph Lee; Wänström, Linda

2010-07-01

Although the Flynn Effect has been studied widely across cultural, geographic, and intellectual domains, and many explanatory theories have been proposed, little past research attention has been paid to subgroup differences. Rodgers and Wänström (2007) identified an aggregate-level Flynn Effect (FE) at each age between 5 and 13 in the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSYC) PIAT-Math data. FE patterns were not obtained for Reading Recognition, Reading Comprehension, or Digit Span, consistent with past FE research suggesting a closer relationship to fluid intelligence measures of problem solving and analytic reasoning than to crystallized measures of verbal comprehension and memory. These prior findings suggest that the NLSYC data can be used as a natural laboratory to study more subtle FE patterns within various demographic subgroups. We test for subgroup Flynn Effect differences by gender, race/ethnicity, maternal education, household income, and urbanization. No subgroups differences emerged for three demographic categories. However, children with more educated (especially college educated) mothers and/or children born into higher income households had an accelerated Flynn effect in their PIAT-M scores compared to cohort peers with lower educated mothers or lower income households. We interpret both the positive and the null findings in relation to previous theoretical explanations.

A Neural Circuit Mechanism for the Involvements of Dopamine in Effort-Related Choices: Decay of Learned Values, Secondary Effects of Depletion, and Calculation of Temporal Difference Error

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Abstract Dopamine has been suggested to be crucially involved in effort-related choices. Key findings are that dopamine depletion (i) changed preference for a high-cost, large-reward option to a low-cost, small-reward option, (ii) but not when the large-reward option was also low-cost or the small-reward option gave no reward, (iii) while increasing the latency in all the cases but only transiently, and (iv) that antagonism of either dopamine D1 or D2 receptors also specifically impaired selection of the high-cost, large-reward option. The underlying neural circuit mechanisms remain unclear. Here we show that findings i–iii can be explained by the dopaminergic representation of temporal-difference reward-prediction error (TD-RPE), whose mechanisms have now become clarified, if (1) the synaptic strengths storing the values of actions mildly decay in time and (2) the obtained-reward-representing excitatory input to dopamine neurons increases after dopamine depletion. The former is potentially caused by background neural activity–induced weak synaptic plasticity, and the latter is assumed to occur through post-depletion increase of neural activity in the pedunculopontine nucleus, where neurons representing obtained reward exist and presumably send excitatory projections to dopamine neurons. We further show that finding iv, which is nontrivial given the suggested distinct functions of the D1 and D2 corticostriatal pathways, can also be explained if we additionally assume a proposed mechanism of TD-RPE calculation, in which the D1 and D2 pathways encode the values of actions with a temporal difference. These results suggest a possible circuit mechanism for the involvements of dopamine in effort-related choices and, simultaneously, provide implications for the mechanisms of TD-RPE calculation. PMID:29468191

A study of medical and health queries to web search engines.

PubMed

Spink, Amanda; Yang, Yin; Jansen, Jim; Nykanen, Pirrko; Lorence, Daniel P; Ozmutlu, Seda; Ozmutlu, H Cenk

2004-03-01

This paper reports findings from an analysis of medical or health queries to different web search engines. We report results: (i). comparing samples of 10000 web queries taken randomly from 1.2 million query logs from the AlltheWeb.com and Excite.com commercial web search engines in 2001 for medical or health queries, (ii). comparing the 2001 findings from Excite and AlltheWeb.com users with results from a previous analysis of medical and health related queries from the Excite Web search engine for 1997 and 1999, and (iii). medical or health advice-seeking queries beginning with the word 'should'. Findings suggest: (i). a small percentage of web queries are medical or health related, (ii). the top five categories of medical or health queries were: general health, weight issues, reproductive health and puberty, pregnancy/obstetrics, and human relationships, and (iii). over time, the medical and health queries may have declined as a proportion of all web queries, as the use of specialized medical/health websites and e-commerce-related queries has increased. Findings provide insights into medical and health-related web querying and suggests some implications for the use of the general web search engines when seeking medical/health information.

Do not let death do us part: 'find-me' signals in communication between dying cells and the phagocytes.

PubMed

Medina, C B; Ravichandran, K S

2016-06-01

The turnover and clearance of cells is an essential process that is part of many physiological and pathological processes. Improper or deficient clearance of apoptotic cells can lead to excessive inflammation and autoimmune disease. The steps involved in cell clearance include: migration of the phagocyte toward the proximity of the dying cells, specific recognition and internalization of the dying cell, and degradation of the corpse. The ability of phagocytes to recognize and react to dying cells to perform efficient and immunologically silent engulfment has been well-characterized in vitro and in vivo. However, how apoptotic cells themselves initiate the corpse removal and also influence the cells within the neighboring environment during clearance was less understood. Recent exciting observations suggest that apoptotic cells can attract phagocytes through the regulated release of 'find-me' signals. More recent studies also suggest that these find-me signals can have additional roles outside of phagocyte attraction to help orchestrate engulfment. This review will discuss our current understanding of the different find-me signals released by apoptotic cells, how they may be relevant in vivo, and their additional roles in facilitating engulfment.

Do not let death do us part: ‘find-me' signals in communication between dying cells and the phagocytes

PubMed Central

Medina, C B; Ravichandran, K S

2016-01-01

The turnover and clearance of cells is an essential process that is part of many physiological and pathological processes. Improper or deficient clearance of apoptotic cells can lead to excessive inflammation and autoimmune disease. The steps involved in cell clearance include: migration of the phagocyte toward the proximity of the dying cells, specific recognition and internalization of the dying cell, and degradation of the corpse. The ability of phagocytes to recognize and react to dying cells to perform efficient and immunologically silent engulfment has been well-characterized in vitro and in vivo. However, how apoptotic cells themselves initiate the corpse removal and also influence the cells within the neighboring environment during clearance was less understood. Recent exciting observations suggest that apoptotic cells can attract phagocytes through the regulated release of ‘find-me' signals. More recent studies also suggest that these find-me signals can have additional roles outside of phagocyte attraction to help orchestrate engulfment. This review will discuss our current understanding of the different find-me signals released by apoptotic cells, how they may be relevant in vivo, and their additional roles in facilitating engulfment. PMID:26891690

Benefit-finding intervention for Alzheimer caregivers: conceptual framework, implementation issues, and preliminary efficacy.

PubMed

Cheng, Sheung-Tak; Lau, Rosanna W L; Mak, Emily P M; Ng, Natalie S S; Lam, Linda C W

2014-12-01

To describe an intervention promoting benefit-finding in Alzheimer caregivers, to discuss key issues in implementation and ways to resolve them, and to examine whether the intervention reduced burden and depression in a small randomized trial. Twenty-five caregivers were randomized into benefit-finding and psychoeducation groups. Both groups had eight weekly sessions. Outcome measures including role overload, Zarit Burden Interview, and Hamilton depression scale were collected at baseline and after treatment. Results were analyzed using analysis of covariance. Additionally, the challenges of implementing such interventions, some of which related to cultural issues, were analyzed qualitatively. Controlling for pretest, the benefit-finding group had lower depression than the psychoeducation group at post-test, despite the fact that some caregivers found benefit-finding challenging. The two groups did not differ on overload and burden. However, within-group analysis suggested that both groups showed significant reductions in overload from pretest to post-test. In addition, we discussed participants' difficulties in grasping the technique of thought modification for benefit-finding, recording such exercises at home, and sharing their thoughts and experiences in groups. We described measures undertaken in the main trial to overcome these issues. Cognitive approaches focusing on benefit-finding are feasible among Chinese caregivers, with preliminary evidence suggesting an effect on alleviating depression. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Structural adaptations to diverse fighting styles in sexually selected weapons

PubMed Central

McCullough, Erin L.; Tobalske, Bret W.; Emlen, Douglas J.

2014-01-01

The shapes of sexually selected weapons differ widely among species, but the drivers of this diversity remain poorly understood. Existing explanations suggest weapon shapes reflect structural adaptations to different fighting styles, yet explicit tests of this hypothesis are lacking. We constructed finite element models of the horns of different rhinoceros beetle species to test whether functional specializations for increased performance under species-specific fighting styles could have contributed to the diversification of weapon form. We find that horns are both stronger and stiffer in response to species-typical fighting loads and that they perform more poorly under atypical fighting loads, which suggests weapons are structurally adapted to meet the functional demands of fighting. Our research establishes a critical link between weapon form and function, revealing one way male–male competition can drive the diversification of animal weapons. PMID:25201949

Structural adaptations to diverse fighting styles in sexually selected weapons.

PubMed

McCullough, Erin L; Tobalske, Bret W; Emlen, Douglas J

2014-10-07

The shapes of sexually selected weapons differ widely among species, but the drivers of this diversity remain poorly understood. Existing explanations suggest weapon shapes reflect structural adaptations to different fighting styles, yet explicit tests of this hypothesis are lacking. We constructed finite element models of the horns of different rhinoceros beetle species to test whether functional specializations for increased performance under species-specific fighting styles could have contributed to the diversification of weapon form. We find that horns are both stronger and stiffer in response to species-typical fighting loads and that they perform more poorly under atypical fighting loads, which suggests weapons are structurally adapted to meet the functional demands of fighting. Our research establishes a critical link between weapon form and function, revealing one way male-male competition can drive the diversification of animal weapons.

Dissociated control as a signature of typological variability in high hypnotic suggestibility.

PubMed

Terhune, Devin Blair; Cardeña, Etzel; Lindgren, Magnus

2011-09-01

This study tested the prediction that dissociative tendencies modulate the impact of a hypnotic induction on cognitive control in different subtypes of highly suggestible individuals. Low suggestible (LS), low dissociative highly suggestible (LDHS), and high dissociative highly suggestible (HDHS) participants completed the Stroop color-naming task in control and hypnosis conditions. The magnitude of conflict adaptation (faster response times on incongruent trials preceded by an incongruent trial than those preceded by a congruent trial) was used as a measure of cognitive control. LS and LDHS participants displayed marginally superior up-regulation of cognitive control following a hypnotic induction, whereas HDHS participants' performance declined. These findings indicate that dissociative tendencies modulate the influence of a hypnotic induction on cognitive control in high hypnotic suggestibility and suggest that HS individuals are comprised of distinct subtypes with dissimilar cognitive profiles. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Autism-related neuroligin-3 mutation alters social behavior and spatial learning.

PubMed

Jaramillo, Thomas C; Liu, Shunan; Pettersen, Ami; Birnbaum, Shari G; Powell, Craig M

2014-04-01

Multiple candidate genes have been identified for autism spectrum disorders. While some of these genes reach genome-wide significance, others, such as the R451C point mutation in the synaptic cell adhesion molecule neuroligin-3, appear to be rare. Interestingly, two brothers with the same R451C point mutation in neuroligin-3 present clinically on seemingly disparate sides of the autism spectrum. These clinical findings suggest genetic background may play a role in modifying the penetrance of a particular autism-associated mutation. Animal models may contribute additional support for such mutations as functionally relevant and can provide mechanistic insights. Previously, in collaboration with the Südhof laboratory, we reported that mice with an R451C substitution in neuroligin-3 displayed social deficits and enhanced spatial learning. While some of these behavioral abnormalities have since been replicated independently in the Südhof laboratory, observations from the Crawley laboratory failed to replicate these findings in a similar neuroligin-3 mutant mouse model and suggested that genetic background may contribute to variation in observations across laboratories. Therefore, we sought to replicate our findings in the neuroligin-3 R451C point mutant knock-in mouse model (NL3R451C) in a different genetic background. We backcrossed our NL3R451C mouse line onto a 129S2/SvPasCrl genetic background and repeated a subset of our previous behavioral testing. NL3R451C mice on a 129S2/SvPasCrl displayed social deficits, enhanced spatial learning, and increased locomotor activity. These data extend our previous findings that NL3R451C mice exhibit autism-relevant behavioral abnormalities and further suggest that different genetic backgrounds can modify this behavioral phenotype through epistatic genetic interactions. © 2014 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

From molecule to market: steroid hormones and financial risk-taking.

PubMed

Coates, John M; Gurnell, Mark; Sarnyai, Zoltan

2010-01-27

Little is known about the role of the endocrine system in financial decision-making. Here, we survey research on steroid hormones and their cognitive effects, and examine potential links to trader performance in the financial markets. Preliminary findings suggest that cortisol codes for risk and testosterone for reward. A key finding of this endocrine research is the different cognitive effects of acute versus chronic exposure to hormones: acutely elevated steroids may optimize performance on a range of tasks; but chronically elevated steroids may promote irrational risk-reward choices. We present a hypothesis suggesting that the irrational exuberance and pessimism observed during market bubbles and crashes may be mediated by steroid hormones. If hormones can exaggerate market moves, then perhaps the age and sex composition among traders and asset managers may affect the level of instability witnessed in the financial markets.

A cross-syndrome evaluation of a new attention rating scale: The Scale of Attention in Intellectual Disability.

PubMed

Freeman, Nerelie C; Gray, Kylie M; Taffe, John R; Cornish, Kim M

2016-10-01

Whilst neuropsychological research has enhanced our understanding of inattentive and hyperactive behaviours among children with intellectual disability (ID), the absence of rating scales developed for this group continues to be a gap in knowledge. This study examined these behaviours in 176 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Down Syndrome (DS), or idiopathic ID using a newly developed teacher rating scale, the Scale of Attention in Intellectual Disability. Findings suggested that children with ASD had a significantly greater breadth of hyperactive/impulsive behaviours than those with DS or idiopathic ID. These findings support existing research suggesting differing profiles of attention and activity across groups. Understanding disorder-specific profiles has implications for developing strategies to support students with ID in the classroom. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

GENERALITY OF THE MATCHING LAW AS A DESCRIPTOR OF SHOT SELECTION IN BASKETBALL

PubMed Central

Alferink, Larry A; Critchfield, Thomas S; Hitt, Jennifer L; Higgins, William J

2009-01-01

Based on a small sample of highly successful teams, past studies suggested that shot selection (two- vs. three-point field goals) in basketball corresponds to predictions of the generalized matching law. We examined the generality of this finding by evaluating shot selection of college (Study 1) and professional (Study 3) players. The matching law accounted for the majority of variance in shot selection, with undermatching and a bias for taking three-point shots. Shot-selection matching varied systematically for players who (a) were members of successful versus unsuccessful teams, (b) competed at different levels of collegiate play, and (c) served as regulars versus substitutes (Study 2). These findings suggest that the matching law is a robust descriptor of basketball shot selection, although the mechanism that produces matching is unknown. PMID:20190921

Selective attention to signs of success: social dominance and early stage interpersonal perception.

PubMed

Maner, Jon K; DeWall, C Nathan; Gailliot, Matthew T

2008-04-01

Results from two experiments suggest that observers selectively attend to male, but not female, targets displaying signs of social dominance. Participants overestimated the frequency of dominant men in rapidly presented stimulus arrays (Study 1) and visually fixated on dominant men in an eyetracking experiment (Study 2). When viewing female targets, participants attended to signs of physical attractiveness rather than social dominance. Findings fit with evolutionary models of mating, which imply that dominance and physical attractiveness sometimes tend to be prioritized preferentially in judgments of men versus women, respectively. Findings suggest that sex differences in human mating are observed not only at the level of overt mating preferences and choices but also at early stages of interpersonal perception. This research demonstrates the utility of examining early-in-the-stream social cognition through the functionalist lens of adaptive thinking.

Major influences on buying decision processes by international university students. Differences by continent of origin.

PubMed

Tirelli, Christian; Pilar Martínez-Ruiz, María; Gómez-Ladrón-De-Guevara, Ricardo

2013-12-01

To analyze how food values and other variables related to dietary acculturation affect international university students' food buying decisions, this article provides an in-depth review of relevant literature related to the food buying decisions of groups of sojourners, which suggest several research hypotheses. The data collection targeted international university students in Spain and used factorial analysis of the main components together with linear parametric regressions. The resulting findings offer distinct insights, according to sojourners' continent of origin. Specifically, whereas European students exhibit a higher propensity to value sustainable production practices in the food choices, American students emphasize flavor and exhibit a greater degree of adaptation. These findings in turn suggest some key managerial recommendations and research guidelines for both private and public operators in related fields. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Switch junction sequences in PMS2-deficient mice reveal a microhomology-mediated mechanism of Ig class switch recombination

PubMed Central

Ehrenstein, Michael R.; Rada, Cristina; Jones, Anne-Marie; Milstein, César; Neuberger, Michael S.

2001-01-01

Isotype switching involves a region-specific, nonhomologous recombinational deletion that has been suggested to occur by nonhomologous joining of broken DNA ends. Here, we find increased donor/acceptor homology at switch junctions from PMS2-deficient mice and propose that class switching can occur by microhomology-mediated end-joining. Interestingly, although isotype switching and somatic hypermutation show many parallels, we confirm that PMS2 deficiency has no major effect on the pattern of nucleotide substitutions generated during somatic hypermutation. This finding is in contrast to MSH2 deficiency. With MSH2, the altered pattern of switch recombination and hypermutation suggests parallels in the mechanics of the two processes, whereas the fact that PMS2 deficiency affects only switch recombination may reflect differences in the pathways of break resolution. PMID:11717399

Maternity Leave and Mothers' Long-Term Sickness Absence: Evidence From West Germany.

PubMed

Guertzgen, Nicole; Hank, Karsten

2018-04-01

Exploiting unique German administrative data, we estimate the association between an expansion in maternity leave duration from two to six months in 1979 and mothers' postbirth long-term sickness absence over a period of three decades after childbirth. Adopting a difference-in-difference approach, we first assess the reform's labor market effects and, subsequently, prebirth and postbirth maternal long-term sickness absence, accounting for the potential role of the reform in mothers' selection into employment. Consistent with previous research, our estimates show that the leave extension caused mothers to significantly delay their return to work within the first year after childbirth. We then provide difference-in-difference estimates for the number and length of spells of long-term sickness absence among returned mothers. Our findings suggest that among those returned, mothers subject to the leave extension exhibit a higher incidence of long-term sickness absence compared with mothers who gave birth before the reform. This also holds true after we control for observable differences in prebirth illness histories. At the same time, we find no pronounced effects on mothers' medium-run labor market attachment following the short-run delay in return to work, which might rationalize a negative causal health effect. Breaking down the results by mothers' prebirth health status suggests that the higher incidence of long-term sickness absence among mothers subject to the reform may be explained by the fact that the reform facilitated the reentry of a negative health selection into the labor market.

Women experience greater heat pain adaptation and habituation than men.

PubMed

Hashmi, Javeria A; Davis, Karen D

2009-10-01

It is not clear how males and females cope with pain over time and how sensory and emotional qualities fluctuate from moment to moment, although studies of pain at discrete time points suggest that women are more pain sensitive than men. Therefore, we developed a new broader-based pain model that incorporates a temporally continuous assessment of multiple pain dimensions across sensory and affective dimensions, and normalized peak pain intensity to unmask sex differences that may otherwise be confounded by inter-individual variability in pain sensitivity. We obtained continuous ratings of pain, burning, sharp, stinging, cutting, and annoyance evoked by repeated prolonged noxious heat stimuli in 32 subjects. Strikingly, females reported more pain than males at the outset of the first exposure to pain, but then experienced less pain and annoyance than males as a painful stimulus was sustained and with repeated stimulation. Patterns of pain and annoyance attenuation in women resembled the attenuation of sharp, stinging and cutting sensations, whereas patterns of pain and annoyance in men resembled burning sensations. Taken together, these data demonstrate a prominent sex difference in the time course of pain. Notably only females demonstrate adaptation and habituation that allow them to experience less pain over time. These findings suggest a sexual dichotomy in mechanisms underlying pain intensity and annoyance that could involve specific quality-linked mechanisms. Importantly, temporal processing of pain differs between males and females when adjusted for sex differences in pain sensitivity. Our findings provide insight into sex differences in tonic and possibly chronic pains.

Folding time dependence of the motions of a molecular motor in an amorphous medium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ciobotarescu, Simona; Bechelli, Solene; Rajonson, Gabriel; Migirditch, Samuel; Hester, Brooke; Hurduc, Nicolae; Teboul, Victor

2017-12-01

We investigate the dependence of the displacements of a molecular motor embedded inside a glassy material on its folding characteristic time τf. We observe two different time regimes. For slow foldings (regime I) the diffusion evolves very slowly with τf, while for rapid foldings (regime II) the diffusion increases strongly with τf(D ≈τf-2 ), suggesting two different physical mechanisms. We find that in regime I the motor's displacement during the folding process is counteracted by a reverse displacement during the unfolding, while in regime II this counteraction is much weaker. We notice that regime I behavior is reminiscent of the scallop theorem that holds for larger motors in a continuous medium. We find that the difference in the efficiency of the motor's motion explains most of the observed difference between the two regimes. For fast foldings the motor trajectories differ significantly from the opposite trajectories induced by the following unfolding process, resulting in a more efficient global motion than for slow foldings. This result agrees with the fluctuation theorems expectation for time reversal mechanisms. In agreement with the fluctuation theorems we find that the motors are unexpectedly more efficient when they are generating more entropy, a result that can be used to increase dramatically the motor's motion.

Reflections on the challenges of understanding racial, cultural and sexual differences in couple relationship research

PubMed Central

Gabb, Jacqui; Singh, Reenee

2015-01-01

In the field of systemic psychotherapy there has been much recent interest in the areas of culture and reflexivity, and in working with couples. In this article we reflect on the process of conducting research in these areas. Drawing on findings from a large, national, empirical mixed-methods study on long-term relationships, we use two examples from the data to illustrate the complexity of researching across racial, cultural and sexual differences, in terms of research design and sampling, fieldwork and research practice, and making sense of multidimensional data. We point to findings that suggest that notions of coupledom are culturally constructed and thus challenge straightforward ideas of the procreative, sexually active couple dyad, separate from intergenerational extended families. The clinical significance of the findings for both lesbian, gay, bisexual or queer and culturally diverse couples and families are discussed. Practitioner points Cultural or racial matching is not a sufficient condition for engagement and empathy with couples and families. Critical reflexivity about similarity and difference is essential in cross-cultural systemic practice. ‘The couple’ and its distance from the extended family may be defined differently in different cultures. One research tool used in this project, the emotion map, appears to have utility in clinical practice with couples and families. PMID:25820766

Gender differences in lateralization of mismatch negativity in dichotic listening tasks.

PubMed

Ikezawa, Satoru; Nakagome, Kazuyuki; Mimura, Masaru; Shinoda, Junko; Itoh, Kenji; Homma, Ikuo; Kamijima, Kunitoshi

2008-04-01

With the aim of investigating gender differences in the functional lateralization subserving preattentive processing of language stimuli, we compared auditory mismatch negativities (MMNs) using dichotic listening tasks. Forty-four healthy volunteers, including 23 males and 21 females, participated in the study. MMNs generated by pure-tone and phonetic stimuli were compared, to check for the existence of language-specific gender differences in lateralization. Both EEG amplitude and scalp current density (SCD) data were analyzed. With phonetic MMNs, EEG findings revealed significantly larger amplitude in females than males, especially in the right hemisphere, while SCD findings revealed left hemisphere dominance and contralateral dominance in males alone. With pure-tone MMNs, no significant gender differences in hemispheric lateralization appeared in either EEG or SCD findings. While males exhibited left-lateralized activation with phonetic MMNs, females exhibited more bilateral activity. Further, the contralateral dominance of the SCD distribution associated with the ear receiving deviant stimuli in males indicated that ipsilateral input as well as interhemispheric transfer across the corpus callosum to the ipsilateral side was more suppressed in males than in females. The findings of the present study suggest that functional lateralization subserving preattentive detection of phonetic change differs between the genders. These results underscore the significance of considering the gender differences in the study of MMN, especially when phonetic stimulus is adopted. Moreover, they support the view of Voyer and Flight [Voyer, D., Flight, J., 2001. Gender differences in laterality on a dichotic task: the influence of report strategies. Cortex 37, 345-362.] in that the gender difference in hemispheric lateralization of language function is observed in a well-managed-attention condition, which fits the condition adopted in the MMN measurement; subjects are required to focus attention to a distraction task and thereby ignore the phonetic stimuli that elicit MMN.

Implicit learning seems to come naturally for children with autism, but not for children with specific language impairment: Evidence from behavioral and ERP data.

PubMed

Zwart, Fenny S; Vissers, Constance Th W M; Kessels, Roy P C; Maes, Joseph H R

2018-04-20

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and specific language impairment (SLI) are two neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by deficits in verbal and nonverbal communication skills. These skills are thought to develop largely through implicit-or automatic-learning mechanisms. The aim of the current paper was to investigate the role of implicit learning abilities in the atypical development of communication skills in ASD and SLI. In the current study, we investigated Response Times (RTs) and Event Related Potentials (ERPs) during implicit learning on a Serial Reaction Time (SRT) task in a group of typically developing (TD) children (n = 17), a group of autistic children (n = 16), and a group of children with SLI (n = 13). Findings suggest that learning in both ASD and SLI are similar to that in TD. However, electrophysiological findings suggest that autistic children seem to rely mainly on more automatic processes (as reflected by an N2b component), whereas the children with SLI seem to rely on more controlled processes (as reflected by a P3 component). The TD children appear to use a combination of both learning mechanisms. These findings suggest that clinical interventions should aim at compensating for an implicit learning deficit in children with SLI, but not in children with ASD. Future research should focus on developmental differences in implicit learning and related neural correlates in TD, ASD, and SLI. Autism Res 2018. © 2018 The Authors Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Autism and Specific Language Impairment (SLI) are two disorders characterized by problems in social communication and language. Social communication and language are believed to be learned in an automatic way. This is called "implicit learning." We have found that implicit learning is intact in autism. However, in SLI there seems different brain activity during implicit learning. Maybe children with SLI learn differently, and maybe this different learning makes it more difficult for them to learn language. © 2018 The Authors Autism Research published by International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Bipolar disorder type I and II show distinct relationships between cortical thickness and executive function.

PubMed

Abé, C; Rolstad, S; Petrovic, P; Ekman, C-J; Sparding, T; Ingvar, M; Landén, M

2018-06-15

Frontal cortical abnormalities and executive function impairment co-occur in bipolar disorder. Recent studies have shown that bipolar subtypes differ in the degree of structural and functional impairments. The relationships between cognitive performance and cortical integrity have not been clarified and might differ across patients with bipolar disorder type I, II, and healthy subjects. Using a vertex-wise whole-brain analysis, we investigated how cortical integrity, as measured by cortical thickness, correlates with executive performance in patients with bipolar disorder type I, II, and controls (N = 160). We found focal associations between executive function and cortical thickness in the medial prefrontal cortex in bipolar II patients and controls, but not in bipolar I disorder. In bipolar II patients, we observed additional correlations in lateral prefrontal and occipital regions. Our findings suggest that bipolar disorder patients show altered structure-function relationships, and importantly that those relationships may differ between bipolar subtypes. The findings are line with studies suggesting subtype-specific neurobiological and cognitive profiles. This study contributes to a better understanding of brain structure-function relationships in bipolar disorder and gives important insights into the neuropathophysiology of diagnostic subtypes. © 2018 The Authors Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Care-givers' reflections on an ethics education immersive simulation care experience: A series of epiphanous events.

PubMed

Gallagher, Ann; Peacock, Matthew; Zasada, Magdalena; Coucke, Trees; Cox, Anna; Janssens, Nele

2017-07-01

There has been little previous scholarship regarding the aims, options and impact of ethics education on residential care-givers. This manuscript details findings from a pragmatic cluster trial evaluating the impact of three different approaches to ethics education. The focus of the article is on one of the interventions, an immersive simulation experience. The simulation experience required residential care-givers to assume the profile of elderly care-recipients for a 24-hr period. The care-givers were student nurses. The project was reviewed favourably by a university ethics committee, and participants provided informed consent. Data from six postsimulation experience focus groups were analysed thematically and three themes were identified: the experience of vulnerability, dignity in care and the organisation of care. Findings suggest that the immersive simulation experience had a powerful immediate impact as participants described epiphanous insights relating to their care experiences. It is suggested that reflecting on and recording epiphanous events has the potential to sustain ethical care practices. Further research is required to evaluate the impact of different ethics education interventions in different cultural contexts. Exploration is also required regarding the meaning and significance of care epiphanies, those "most delicate and evanescent of moments," for the sustainability of ethical care. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Adaptive collective foraging in groups with conflicting nutritional needs

PubMed Central

Senior, Alistair M.; Lihoreau, Mathieu; Charleston, Michael A.; Buhl, Jerome; Raubenheimer, David; Simpson, Stephen J.

2016-01-01

Collective foraging, based on positive feedback and quorum responses, is believed to improve the foraging efficiency of animals. Nutritional models suggest that social information transfer increases the ability of foragers with closely aligned nutritional needs to find nutrients and maintain a balanced diet. However, whether or not collective foraging is adaptive in a heterogeneous group composed of individuals with differing nutritional needs is virtually unexplored. Here we develop an evolutionary agent-based model using concepts of nutritional ecology to address this knowledge gap. Our aim was to evaluate how collective foraging, mediated by social retention on foods, can improve nutrient balancing in individuals with different requirements. The model suggests that in groups where inter-individual nutritional needs are unimodally distributed, high levels of collective foraging yield optimal individual fitness by reducing search times that result from moving between nutritionally imbalanced foods. However, where nutritional needs are highly bimodal (e.g. where the requirements of males and females differ) collective foraging is selected against, leading to group fission. In this case, additional mechanisms such as assortative interactions can coevolve to allow collective foraging by subgroups of individuals with aligned requirements. Our findings indicate that collective foraging is an efficient strategy for nutrient regulation in animals inhabiting complex nutritional environments and exhibiting a range of social forms. PMID:27152206

A pilot evaluation of the Arts for Life project in end-of-life care.

PubMed

Gallagher, Ann

To explore and evaluate the experience of the 'Arts for Life' project among patients or residents with terminal illness in nursing homes and the community, their relatives and practitioners. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with five patients/residents and two relatives. Five practitioners including a music therapist and a digital artist were involved in the study. The evaluation discusses the perceived benefits and challenges of the Arts for Life project from the perspectives of a small sample of patients/residents, relatives, nurses and arts facilitators. The findings suggested that the Arts for Life project provided opportunities for participants to express their creativity and individuality. A range of benefits was identified. Participants described their involvement in the project as providing a means of escapism, relief from pain and anxiety, and as helping them to engage with loss. The findings should be interpreted with caution as a result of the small sample size. The evaluation suggests that people with different diagnoses benefit in different ways from participation in the arts. An understanding of the role of the arts enables nurses to appreciate different responses to end-of-life care. Larger scale research is required with focused evaluation objectives to explore further the issues raised.

Adolescents' responses to anti-tobacco advertising: exploring the role of adolescents' smoking status and advertisement theme.

PubMed

Sutfin, Erin L; Szykman, Lisa R; Moore, Marian Chapman

2008-01-01

Anti-smoking media directed at adolescents use many different message themes, but little evidence exists as to which is most effective. Additionally, little is known about how teens who smoke respond to anti-tobacco ads. This study examined smoking and nonsmoking adolescents' responses to three popular thematic approaches: (1) endangering others, (2) negative life circumstances, and (3) industry manipulation. Sixteen groups of high school students (total N=488) were randomly assigned in a balanced fashion to one of three anti-tobacco ad conditions or a control condition. Outcome variables included adolescents' immediate emotional and cognitive responses, and intentions to smoke. Adolescents exposed to negative life circumstances ads reported lower intentions to smoke than those exposed to control and industry manipulation ads. Additionally, adolescents' responses differed based on smoking status. Smokers liked the ads less and had fewer positive and more negative thoughts. Findings suggest a media campaign focusing on negative life circumstances can be an effective component of a tobacco control program aimed at adolescents. Mechanisms through which the negative life circumstances ads influence adolescents' intentions to smoke are discussed. Findings also suggest that smokers respond differently to anti-tobacco ads, and their responses need to be considered when developing effective anti-tobacco advertising campaigns.

The Effect of Race/Ethnicity on the Relation between Substance Use Disorder Diagnosis and Substance Use Treatment Receipt among Male Serious Adolescent Offenders.

PubMed

Mansion, Andre D; Chassin, Laurie

2016-02-01

The high rates of substance disorders in the juvenile justice system, as well as the relation between substance use and reoffending, suggest the importance of substance use treatment service and understanding the factors that influence treatment provision. The current study tested whether race/ethnicity affects the relation between substance use disorder diagnosis and the receipt of substance use treatment services among a sample of male serious juvenile offenders (N=638). Findings showed that among adolescents with a substance use disorder diagnosis, there were no race/ethnicity differences in substance use treatment receipt. However, among adolescents without a substance use disorder diagnosis, non-Hispanic Caucasians were more likely to receive substance use treatment than were Hispanics or African-Americans. Additionally, findings showed that there were race/ethnicity differences in service receipt at moderate levels of substance use problems, such that non-Hispanic Caucasians were more likely to receive substance use treatment than Hispanics or African-Americans. There were no race/ethnicity differences in treatment receipt when substance use problems were either very severe or very low. Results suggest that race/ethnicity may play a role in service provision in the juvenile justice system when levels of need are less clear.

Sex differences in the relationship between white matter connectivity and creativity.

PubMed

Ryman, Sephira G; van den Heuvel, Martijn P; Yeo, Ronald A; Caprihan, Arvind; Carrasco, Jessica; Vakhtin, Andrei A; Flores, Ranee A; Wertz, Christopher; Jung, Rex E

2014-11-01

Creative cognition emerges from a complex network of interacting brain regions. This study investigated the relationship between the structural organization of the human brain and aspects of creative cognition tapped by divergent thinking tasks. Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) was used to obtain fiber tracts from 83 segmented cortical regions. This information was represented as a network and metrics of connectivity organization, including connectivity strength, clustering and communication efficiency were computed, and their relationship to individual levels of creativity was examined. Permutation testing identified significant sex differences in the relationship between global connectivity and creativity as measured by divergent thinking tests. Females demonstrated significant inverse relationships between global connectivity and creative cognition, whereas there were no significant relationships observed in males. Node specific analyses revealed inverse relationships across measures of connectivity, efficiency, clustering and creative cognition in widespread regions in females. Our findings suggest that females involve more regions of the brain in processing to produce novel ideas to solutions, perhaps at the expense of efficiency (greater path lengths). Males, in contrast, exhibited few, relatively weak positive relationships across these measures. Extending recent observations of sex differences in connectome structure, our findings of sexually dimorphic relationships suggest a unique topological organization of connectivity underlying the generation of novel ideas in males and females. Published by Elsevier Inc.

On the move: Exploring the impact of residential mobility on cannabis use.

PubMed

Morris, Tim; Manley, David; Northstone, Kate; Sabel, Clive E

2016-11-01

A large literature exists suggesting that residential mobility leads to increased participation in risky health behaviours such as cannabis use amongst youth. However, much of this work fails to account for the impact that underlying differences between mobile and non-mobile youth have on this relationship. In this study we utilise multilevel models with longitudinal data to simultaneously estimate between-child and within-child effects in the relationship between residential mobility and cannabis use, allowing us to determine the extent to which cannabis use in adolescence is driven by residential mobility and unobserved confounding. Data come from a UK cohort, The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Consistent with previous research we find a positive association between cumulative residential mobility and cannabis use when using multilevel extensions of conventional logistic regression models (log odds: 0.94, standard error: 0.42), indicating that children who move houses are more likely to use cannabis than those who remain residentially stable. However, decomposing this relationship into within- and between-child components reveals that the conventional model is underspecified and misleading; we find that differences in cannabis use between mobile and non-mobile children are due to underlying differences between these groups (between-child log odds: 3.56, standard error: 1.22), not by a change in status of residential mobility (within-child log odds: 1.33, standard error: 1.02). Our findings suggest that residential mobility in the teenage years does not place children at an increased risk of cannabis use throughout these years. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Everyday discrimination and mood and substance use disorders: a latent profile analysis with African Americans and Caribbean Blacks.

PubMed

Clark, Trenette T; Salas-Wright, Christopher P; Vaughn, Michael G; Whitfield, Keith E

2015-01-01

Perceived discrimination is a major source of health-related stress. The purpose of this study was to model the heterogeneity of everyday-discrimination experiences among African American and Caribbean Blacks and to identify differences in the prevalence of mood and substance use outcomes, including generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, alcohol-use disorder, and illicit drug-use disorder among the identified subgroups. The study uses data from the National Survey of American Life obtained from a sample of African American and Caribbean Black respondents (N=4,462) between 18 and 65 years. We used latent profile analysis and multinomial regression analyses to identify and validate latent subgroups and test hypotheses, yielding 4 classes of perceived everyday discrimination: Low Discrimination, Disrespect and Condescension, General Discrimination, and Chronic Discrimination. Findings show significant differences exist between the Low Discrimination and General Discrimination classes for major depressive disorder, alcohol-use disorder, and illicit drug-use disorder. Moreover, we find significant differences exist between the Low Discrimination and Chronic Discrimination classes for the four disorders examined. Compared with the Chronic Discrimination class, members of the other classes were significantly less likely to meet criteria for generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, alcohol-use disorder, and illicit drug-use disorder. Findings suggest elevated levels of discrimination increase risk for mood and substance-use disorders. Importantly, results suggest the prevalence of mood and substance-use disorders is a function of the type and frequency of discrimination that individuals experience. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sex-specific gray matter volume differences in females with developmental dyslexia.

PubMed

Evans, Tanya M; Flowers, D Lynn; Napoliello, Eileen M; Eden, Guinevere F

2014-05-01

Developmental dyslexia, characterized by unexpected reading difficulty, is associated with anomalous brain anatomy and function. Previous structural neuroimaging studies have converged in reports of less gray matter volume (GMV) in dyslexics within left hemisphere regions known to subserve language. Due to the higher prevalence of dyslexia in males, these studies are heavily weighted towards males, raising the question whether studies of dyslexia in females only and using the same techniques, would generate the same findings. In a replication study of men, we obtained the same findings of less GMV in dyslexics in left middle/inferior temporal gyri and right postcentral/supramarginal gyri as reported in the literature. However, comparisons in women with and without dyslexia did not yield left hemisphere differences, and instead, we found less GMV in right precuneus and paracentral lobule/medial frontal gyrus. In boys, we found less GMV in left inferior parietal cortex (supramarginal/angular gyri), again consistent with previous work, while in girls differences were within right central sulcus, spanning adjacent gyri, and left primary visual cortex. Our investigation into anatomical variants in dyslexia replicates existing studies in males, but at the same time shows that dyslexia in females is not characterized by involvement of left hemisphere language regions but rather early sensory and motor cortices (i.e., motor and premotor cortex, primary visual cortex). Our findings suggest that models on the brain basis of dyslexia, primarily developed through the study of males, may not be appropriate for females and suggest a need for more sex-specific investigations into dyslexia.

Face processing in autism: Reduced integration of cross-feature dynamics.

PubMed

Shah, Punit; Bird, Geoffrey; Cook, Richard

2016-02-01

Characteristic problems with social interaction have prompted considerable interest in the face processing of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Studies suggest that reduced integration of information from disparate facial regions likely contributes to difficulties recognizing static faces in this population. Recent work also indicates that observers with ASD have problems using patterns of facial motion to judge identity and gender, and may be less able to derive global motion percepts. These findings raise the possibility that feature integration deficits also impact the perception of moving faces. To test this hypothesis, we examined whether observers with ASD exhibit susceptibility to a new dynamic face illusion, thought to index integration of moving facial features. When typical observers view eye-opening and -closing in the presence of asynchronous mouth-opening and -closing, the concurrent mouth movements induce a strong illusory slowing of the eye transitions. However, we find that observers with ASD are not susceptible to this illusion, suggestive of weaker integration of cross-feature dynamics. Nevertheless, observers with ASD and typical controls were equally able to detect the physical differences between comparison eye transitions. Importantly, this confirms that observers with ASD were able to fixate the eye-region, indicating that the striking group difference has a perceptual, not attentional origin. The clarity of the present results contrasts starkly with the modest effect sizes and equivocal findings seen throughout the literature on static face perception in ASD. We speculate that differences in the perception of facial motion may be a more reliable feature of this condition. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Sex-specific Gray Matter Volume Differences in Females with Developmental Dyslexia

PubMed Central

Evans, Tanya M.; Flowers, D. Lynn; Napoliello, Eileen M.; Eden, Guinevere F.

2013-01-01

Developmental dyslexia, characterized by unexpected reading difficulty, is associated with anomalous brain anatomy and function. Previous structural neuroimaging studies have converged in reports of less gray matter volume (GMV) in dyslexics within left hemisphere regions known to subserve language. Due to the higher prevalence of dyslexia in males, these studies are heavily weighted towards males, raising the question whether studies of dyslexia in females only and using the same techniques, would generate the same findings. In a replication study of men we obtained the same findings of less GMV in dyslexics in left middle/inferior temporal gyri and right postcentral/supramarginal gyri as reported in the literature. However, comparisons in women with and without dyslexia did not yield left hemisphere differences and instead we found less GMV in right precuneus and paracentral lobule/medial frontal gyrus. In boys, we found less GMV in left inferior parietal cortex (supramarginal/angular gyri), again consistent with previous work, while in girls differences were within right central sulcus, spanning adjacent gyri, and left primary visual cortex. Our investigation into anatomical variants in dyslexia replicates existing studies in males, but at the same time shows that dyslexia in females is not characterized by involvement of left hemisphere language regions but rather early sensory and motor cortices (i.e. motor and premotor cortex, primary visual cortex). Our findings suggest that models on the brain basis of dyslexia, primarily developed through the study of males, may not be appropriate for females and suggest a need for more sex-specific investigations into dyslexia. PMID:23625146

Variability and reduced performance of preschool- and early school-aged children on psychoacoustic tasks: What are the relevant factors?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allen, Prudence

2003-04-01

Young children typically perform more poorly on psychoacoustic tasks than do adults, with large individual differences. When performance is averaged across children within age groups, the data suggest a gradual change in performance with increasing age. However, an examination of individual data suggests that the performance matures more rapidly, although at different times for different children. The mechanisms of development responsible for these changes are likely very complex, involving both sensory and cognitive processes. This paper will discuss some previously suggested mechanisms including attention and cue weighting, as well as possibilities suggested from more recent studies in which learning effects were examined. In one task, a simple frequency discrimination was required, while in another the listener was required to extract regularities in complex sequences of sounds that varied from trial to trial. Results suggested that the ability to select and consistently employ an effective listening strategy was especially important in the performance of the more complex task, while simple stimulus exposure and motivation contributed to the simpler task. These factors are important for understanding the perceptual development and for the subsequent application of psychoacoustic findings to clinical populations. [Work supported by the NSERC and the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network.

Developmental Change and Time-Specific Variation in Global and Specific Aspects of Self-Concept in Adolescence and Association with Depressive Symptoms

PubMed Central

Kuzucu, Yasar; Bontempo, Daniel E.; Hofer, Scott M.; Stallings, Michael C.; Piccinin, Andrea M.

2014-01-01

Previous research has demonstrated that adolescents make differential self-evaluations in multiple domains that include physical appearance, academic competence, and peer acceptance. We report growth curve analyses over a seven year period from age 9 to age 16 on the six domains of the Harter Self-Perception Profile for Children. In general, we find little change in self-concept, on average, but do find substantial individual differences in level, rate of change, and time-specific variation in these self- evaluations. The results suggest that sex differences and adoptive status were related to only certain aspects of the participants’ self-concept. Depressive symptoms were found to have significant effects on individual differences in rate of change and on time-specific variation in general self-concept, as well as on some of the specific domains of self-concept. PMID:25143664

Friendship characteristics and activity patterns of adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Kuo, Melissa H; Orsmond, Gael I; Cohn, Ellen S; Coster, Wendy J

2013-07-01

This study compared perceptions of adolescents' friendships between adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their parents, examined factors associated with friendship qualities, and investigated the adolescents' reports on the activities they did with friends and how activity patterns differed by gender. Ninety-one adolescents with an ASD and their parents completed mail-based surveys during the summer months. Adolescents with an ASD identified more friends than did their parents, but they agreed on the friends' characteristics. About half of the adolescents spent an average of 4 hours per day with friends during the summer months. Male adolescents with an ASD most frequently played video games with friends, whereas females most frequently had conversations with friends. The findings suggest that adolescents with an ASD and their parents identify different peers as the adolescent's friends. The findings also reveal similarities and differences in friendships between adolescents with an ASD and typically developing adolescents.

'I'm good, but not that good': digitally-skilled young people's identity in computing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wong, Billy

2016-12-01

Computers and information technology are fast becoming a part of young people's everyday life. However, there remains a difference between the majority who can use computers and the minority who are computer scientists or professionals. Drawing on 32 semi-structured interviews with digitally skilled young people (aged 13-19), we explore their views and aspirations in computing, with a focus on the identities and discourses that these youngsters articulate in relation to this field. Our findings suggest that, even among digitally skilled young people, traditional identities of computing as people who are clever but antisocial still prevail, which can be unattractive for youths, especially girls. Digitally skilled youths identify with computing in different ways and for different reasons. Most enjoy doing computing but few aspired to being a computer person. Implications of our findings for computing education are discussed especially the continued need to broaden identities in computing, even for the digitally skilled.

"It Happens to Girls All the Time": Examining Sexual Assault Survivors' Reasons for Not Using Campus Supports.

PubMed

Holland, Kathryn J; Cortina, Lilia M

2017-03-01

Sexual assault is a prevalent problem in higher education, and despite the increasing availability of formal supports on college campuses, few sexual assault survivors use them. Experiencing sexual assault can have devastating consequences on survivors' psychological and educational wellbeing, which may intensify if survivors do not receive adequate care. Drawing from existing theoretical frameworks and empirical research, this study used a mixed methodological approach to examine why survivors did not use three key campus supports-the Title IX Office, the sexual assault center, and housing staff-and if these reasons differed across the three supports. Using data from 284 women who experienced sexual assault in college, our qualitative findings identified four overarching themes, including logistical issues (e.g., lacking time and knowledge), feelings, beliefs, and responses that made it seem unacceptable to use campus supports, judgments about the appropriateness of the support, and alternative methods of coping. Quantitative findings revealed that survivors' reasons for not seeking help differed across supports. Collectively, our findings suggest that community norms and institutional policies can make it challenging for survivors to use campus supports. We propose several suggestions for institutional change (e.g., taking a stronger stance against "less serious" forms of sexual assault, reducing a quasi-criminal justice approach to investigation and adjudication, limiting mandated reporting). © Society for Community Research and Action 2017.

Cognitive strategies regulate fictive, but not reward prediction error signals in a sequential investment task.

PubMed

Gu, Xiaosi; Kirk, Ulrich; Lohrenz, Terry M; Montague, P Read

2014-08-01

Computational models of reward processing suggest that foregone or fictive outcomes serve as important information sources for learning and augment those generated by experienced rewards (e.g. reward prediction errors). An outstanding question is how these learning signals interact with top-down cognitive influences, such as cognitive reappraisal strategies. Using a sequential investment task and functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that the reappraisal strategy selectively attenuates the influence of fictive, but not reward prediction error signals on investment behavior; such behavioral effect is accompanied by changes in neural activity and connectivity in the anterior insular cortex, a brain region thought to integrate subjective feelings with high-order cognition. Furthermore, individuals differ in the extent to which their behaviors are driven by fictive errors versus reward prediction errors, and the reappraisal strategy interacts with such individual differences; a finding also accompanied by distinct underlying neural mechanisms. These findings suggest that the variable interaction of cognitive strategies with two important classes of computational learning signals (fictive, reward prediction error) represent one contributing substrate for the variable capacity of individuals to control their behavior based on foregone rewards. These findings also expose important possibilities for understanding the lack of control in addiction based on possibly foregone rewarding outcomes. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Cultural variation is part of human nature : Literary universals, context-sensitivity, and "shakespeare in the bush".

PubMed

Sugiyama, Michelle Scalise

2003-12-01

In 1966, Laura Bohannan wrote her classic essay challenging the supposition that great literary works speak to universal human concerns and conditions and, by extension, that human nature is the same everywhere. Her evidence: the Tiv of West Africa interpret Hamlet differently from Westerners. While Bohannan's essay implies that cognitive universality and cultural variation are mutually exclusive phenomena, adaptationist theory suggests otherwise. Adaptive problems ("the human condition") and cognitive adaptations ("human nature") are constant across cultures. What differs between cultures is habitat: owing to environmental variation, the means and information relevant to solving adaptive problems differ from place to place. Thus, we find differences between cultures not because human minds differ in design but largely because human habitats differ in resources and history. On this view, we would expect world literature to express both human universals and cultural particularities. Specifically, we should expect to find literary universality at the macro level (e.g., adaptive problems, cognitive adaptations) and literary variation at the micro level (e.g., local solutions to adaptive problems).

Do capability and functioning differ? A study of U.K. survey responses

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Summary A core feature of the capability approach is that a person's capabilities (what they are able to do and be in their life) can differ from their functionings (what they actually do and are in their life). However, the degree to which capability and functioning differ in practice is unclear. This paper investigates this issue, focusing on capability and functioning differences (CFD) across different aspects of life and different individuals. In the study, the ICECAP‐A capability questionnaire was modified to measure both functionings and capabilities and was completed by U.K.‐based convenience sample of 943 people. Around one third of people reported CFD in at least one area of their life, most commonly in terms of their “achievement.” People were more likely to report CFD when they had a degree‐level education and when they had impaired health. An additional finding was that capability varied more with education whereas functioning varied more with health status. This finding needs further examination, but it suggests that the choice of evaluative space may influence how priorities are set for public spending. PMID:28944529

Identifying protein β-turns with vibrational Raman optical activity.

PubMed

Weymuth, Thomas; Jacob, Christoph R; Reiher, Markus

2011-04-18

β-turns belong to the most important secondary structure elements in proteins. On the basis of density functional calculations, vibrational Raman optical activity signatures of different types of β-turns are established and compared as well as related to other signatures proposed in the literature earlier. Our findings indicate that there are much more characteristic ROA signals of β-turns than have been hitherto suggested. These suggested signatures are, however, found to be valid for the most important type of β-turns. Moreover, we compare the influence of different amino acid side chains on these signatures and investigate the discrimination of β-turns from other secondary structure elements, namely α- and 3(10)-helices. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Ethnic Variation in Depressive Symptoms in a Community Sample in Hawai‘i

PubMed Central

Kanazawa, Asako; White, Patricia M.; Hampson, Sarah E.

2008-01-01

A modified CES-D was administered to a community sample of 176 European Americans (EA), 209 Native Hawaiians (NH), and 357 Japanese Americans (JA), yielding measures of depression, positive affect, depressed affect, somatic disturbance and disturbed interpersonal relations. Positive affect was lower in JA relative to EA, consistent with findings among Native Japanese, a pattern attributed to cultural variation in emotion regulation. NH reported lower positive affect than EA, accompanied by elevated negative affect and somatic disturbance, suggesting generally higher levels of depressive symptoms. The three ethnic groups varied in mental healthcare usage with differing associations between depressive symptoms and experiences of stressful life events. Taken together, these results suggest ethnic variation in depressive symptoms may arise from differing cultural beliefs. PMID:17227175

Infants' preferences for toys, colors, and shapes: sex differences and similarities.

PubMed

Jadva, Vasanti; Hines, Melissa; Golombok, Susan

2010-12-01

Girls and boys differ in their preferences for toys such as dolls and trucks. These sex differences are present in infants, are seen in non-human primates, and relate, in part, to prenatal androgen exposure. This evidence of inborn influences on sex-typed toy preferences has led to suggestions that object features, such as the color or the shape of toys, may be of intrinsically different interest to males and females. We used a preferential looking task to examine preferences for different toys, colors, and shapes in 120 infants, ages 12, 18, or 24 months. Girls looked at dolls significantly more than boys did and boys looked at cars significantly more than girls did, irrespective of color, particularly when brightness was controlled. These outcomes did not vary with age. There were no significant sex differences in infants' preferences for different colors or shapes. Instead, both girls and boys preferred reddish colors over blue and rounded over angular shapes. These findings augment prior evidence of sex-typed toy preferences in infants, but suggest that color and shape do not determine these sex differences. In fact, the direction of influence could be the opposite. Girls may learn to prefer pink, for instance, because the toys that they enjoy playing with are often colored pink. Regarding within sex differences, as opposed to differences between boys and girls, both boys and girls preferred dolls to cars at age 12-months. The preference of young boys for dolls over cars suggests that older boys' avoidance of dolls may be acquired. Similarly, the sex similarities in infants' preferences for colors and shapes suggest that any subsequent sex differences in these preferences may arise from socialization or cognitive gender development rather than inborn factors.

Microbiome alterations observed in liver diseases present opportunities for potential fecal transplantation.

PubMed

Heath, Ryan D; Mir, Fazia; Ibdah, Jamal A; Tahan, Veysel

2016-11-01

Many disease processes lead to chronic liver disease, however, progress has been made regarding common findings amongst these disease processes that may suggest a path forward for treatment. In particular, common alterations in the intestinal microflora of patients with different etiologies of liver disease may provide a clue as to the pathogenesis of these disorders as well a potential therapy. Data is still scant at this point, however, what is available suggests a promising opportunity for future studies to expand upon what has been demonstrated.

The concomitant effects of phrase length and informational content in sentence comprehension.

PubMed

Thornton, R; MacDonald, M C; Arnold, J E

2000-03-01

Recent evidence suggests that phrase length plays a crucial role in modification ambiguities. Using a self-paced reading task, we extended these results by examining the additional pragmatic effects that length manipulations may exert. The results demonstrate that length not only modulates modification preferences directly, but that it also necessarily changes the informational content of a sentence, which itself affects modification preferences. Our findings suggest that the same length manipulation affects multiple sources of constraints, both structural and pragmatic, which can each exert differing effects on processing.

Concentrating on beauty: sexual selection and sociospatial memory.

PubMed

Becker, D Vaughn; Kenrick, Douglas T; Guerin, Stephen; Maner, Jon K

2005-12-01

In three experiments, location memory for faces was examined using a computer version of the matching game Concentration. Findings suggested that physical attractiveness led to more efficient matching for female faces but not for male faces. Study 3 revealed this interaction despite allowing participants to initially see, attend to, and match the attractive male faces in the first few turns. Analysis of matching errors suggested that, compared to other targets, attractive women were less confusable with one another. Results are discussed in terms of the different functions that attractiveness serves for men and women.

Awareness of environmental risks and protective actions among minority women in Northern Manhattan.

PubMed

Evans, David Thompson; Fullilove, Mindy Thompson; Green, Lesley; Levison, Moshe

2002-04-01

We report findings of a survey of 555 women 18-35 years of age living in Northern Manhattan in New York City. The survey was conducted by the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) to learn what community women knew about environmental risks to health and what they did to protect themselves and their families, to validate the findings of focus groups held with community women, and to provide information for planning the Healthy Home, Healthy Child campaign sponsored by CCCEH. Survey findings showed that overall awareness of environmental risks to children's health was high, with more than 95% of respondents identifying lead, household pests, pesticides, environmental tobacco smoke, and drugs as harmful to health. Similarly, more than 95% of respondents reported taking one or more protective actions to reduce these risks, suggesting that these factors significantly concern women living in Northern Manhattan. The reported levels of specific protective actions to reduce these risks, however, varied greatly. In each area of risk the most frequently reported actions were effective ones, but many other important protective actions were rarely mentioned, suggesting that there was room for an educational campaign to teach women new ways to protect their families. Survey respondents and CCCEH scientists differed in the priorities they placed on the importance of key protective actions, confirming earlier focus group findings and suggesting the importance of incorporating community concerns into the planning of environmental campaigns.

A systematic review of the literature on family functioning across all eating disorder diagnoses in comparison to control families.

PubMed

Holtom-Viesel, Anita; Allan, Steven

2014-02-01

The objectives of this review were to systematically identify and evaluate quantitative research comparing family functioning (a) in eating disorder families with control families, (b) in families with different eating disorder diagnoses (c) perceptions of different family members and (d) the relationship between family functioning and recovery. This adds to the findings of previous reviews of family functioning by including data from control families, the range of diagnoses, and focusing on recovery. Findings were considered in relation to models of family functioning. Using specific search criteria, 17 research papers were identified and evaluated. Findings indicated that eating disorder families reported worse family functioning than control families but there was little evidence for a typical pattern of family dysfunction. A consistent pattern of family dysfunction for different diagnoses was not suggested but patients consistently rated their family as more dysfunctional than one or both of their parents. With respect to outcome and recovery, those with more positive perceptions of family functioning generally had more positive outcomes, irrespective of severity of eating disorder. Conclusions were limited by inconsistent findings and methodological issues. Further research is needed into the relationship between family functioning and outcome and the assessment of family functioning beyond self-report. © 2013.

Sensitivity to scale of willingness-to-pay within the context of menorrhagia.

PubMed

Sanghera, Sabina; Frew, Emma; Gupta, Janesh Kumar; Kai, Joe; Roberts, Tracy Elizabeth

2017-04-01

Willingness-to-pay (WTP) provides a broad assessment of well-being, capturing benefits beyond health. However, the validity of the approach has been questioned and the evidence relating to the sensitivity of WTP to changes in health status is mixed. Using menorrhagia (heavy menstrual bleeding) as a case study, this exploratory study assesses the sensitivity to scale of WTP to change in health status as measured by a condition-specific measure, MMAS, which includes both health and non-health benefits. The relationship between EQ-5D and change in health status is also assessed. Baseline EQ-5D and MMAS values were collected from women taking part in a randomized controlled trial for pharmaceutical treatment of menorrhagia. Following treatment, these measures were administered along with a WTP exercise. The relationship between the measures was assessed using Spearman's correlation analysis, and the sensitivity to scale of WTP was measured by identifying differences in WTP alongside differences in MMAS and EQ5D values. Our exploratory findings indicated that WTP, and not EQ-5D, was significantly positively correlated with change in MMAS, providing some evidence for convergent validity. These findings suggest that WTP is capturing the non-health benefits within the MMAS measure. Mean WTP also increased with percentage improvements in MMAS, suggesting sensitivity to scale. When compared to quality of life measured using the condition-specific MMAS measure, the convergent validity and sensitivity to scale of WTP is indicated. The findings suggest that WTP is more sensitive to change in MMAS, than with EQ-5D. © 2016 The Authors Health Expectations Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Posture does not matter! Paw usage and grasping paw preference in a small-bodied rooting quadrupedal mammal.

PubMed

Joly, Marine; Scheumann, Marina; Zimmermann, Elke

2012-01-01

Recent results in birds, marsupials, rodents and nonhuman primates suggest that phylogeny and ecological factors such as body size, diet and postural habit of a species influence limb usage and the direction and strength of limb laterality. To examine to which extent these findings can be generalised to small-bodied rooting quadrupedal mammals, we studied trees shrews (Tupaia belangeri). We established a behavioural test battery for examining paw usage comparable to small-bodied primates and tested 36 Tupaia belangeri. We studied paw usage in a natural foraging situation (simple food grasping task) and measured the influence of varying postural demands (triped, biped, cling, sit) on paw preferences by applying a forced-food grasping task similar to other small-bodied primates. Our findings suggest that rooting tree shrews prefer mouth over paw usage to catch food in a natural foraging situation. Moreover, we demonstrated that despite differences in postural demand, tree shrews show a strong and consistent individual paw preference for grasping across different tasks, but no paw preference at a population level. Tree shrews showed less paw usage than small-bodied quadrupedal and arboreal primates, but the same paw preference. Our results confirm that individual paw preferences remain constant irrespective of postural demand in some small-bodied quadrupedal non primate and primate mammals which do not require fine motoric control for manipulating food items. Our findings suggest that the lack of paw/hand preference for grasping food at a population level is a universal pattern among those species and that the influence of postural demand on manual lateralisation in quadrupeds may have evolved in large-bodied species specialised in fine manipulations of food items.

Early Predictors of Attachment in Infants with Cleft Lip and/or Palate.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Speltz, Matthew L.; And Others

1997-01-01

Examined attachment classification of children with cleft lip and palate (CLP) and isolated cleft palate (ICP) and comparison group at 12 months of age; found no significant differences. Findings suggest that infants with clefts, despite special needs and caregiving requirements, seem not to have elevated risk for insecure attachments at the end…

A Meta-Analysis of Morphological Interventions in English: Effects on Literacy Outcomes for School-Age Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodwin, Amanda P.; Ahn, Soyeon

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of morphological instruction on language and literacy outcomes by synthesizing 92 standardized mean differences (d) from 30 independent studies. Findings show a moderate overall effect of morphological instruction ([d-bar] = 0.32), suggesting that children receiving morphological instruction…

A Different Kind of Animal: Liminal Experiences of Social Work Doctoral Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adorno, Gail; Cronley, Courtney; Smith, Kenneth Scott

2015-01-01

Evidence suggests that social and academic integration is a vital factor in doctoral student retention. This paper describes findings from a qualitative study which explored the experiences of a cohort of social work doctoral students during the first year in their programme of study. We used the anthropological concept of liminality which…

Students' Perceptions of Resilience Promoting Factors in Chinese and American Middle Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ni, Hong; Li, Chieh; Wang, Cixin

2016-01-01

The current study first examined the applicability of the ClassMaps Survey (CMS)--a measurement of resilience in classroom/school settings developed in the US with Chinese middle school students and then compared the group differences on student perceptions of the resilience factors in the CMS across the two cultures. The findings suggest that the…

The Clinical Features of Binge Eating Disorder and Bulimia Nervosa: What Are the Differences?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sullivan, Keri A.

2001-01-01

Compares the clinical characteristics of binge eating disorder (BED) and the related syndrome bulimia nervosa (BN). Findings suggest individuals with BED are distinguishable from those with BN on a number of traits, including higher rates of obesity and lower levels of eating concern and dietary restraint. (Contains 29 references and 2 tables.)…

The Parent Perspective: Disabilities and Jewish Day Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Uhrman, Abigail L.

2017-01-01

The following study describes the experiences of parents with a child with a disability in Jewish day schools. The findings suggest marked differences in the experiences of parents whose child was able to remain in the day school and those who left as a result of their child's disability. In the latter group, the themes of loneliness and…

Comparing Male and Female Juveniles Charged with Homicide: Child Maltreatment, Substance Abuse, and Crime Details

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roe-Sepowitz, Dominique Eve

2009-01-01

This study examines a sample of 136 male and female juveniles charged with attempted homicide or homicide. The purpose of this study is to explore the differences between nondirect file male and female juvenile homicide offenders regarding individual, family, and crime circumstances. Findings suggest that compared to male juvenile offenders,…

Are Small Schools Better? School Size Considerations for Safety & Learning. Policy Brief.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McRobbie, Joan

New studies from the 1990s have strengthened an already notable consensus on school size: smaller is better. This policy brief outlines research findings on why size makes a difference, how small is small enough, effective approaches to downsizing, and key barriers. No agreement exists at present on optimal school size, but research suggests a…

Visual Barriers to Prevent Ambulatory ALzheimer's Patients from Exiting through an Emergency Door.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Namazi, Kevan H.; And Others

1989-01-01

Conducted study on Alzheimer's unit to test seven different visual barrier conditions for reducing patient exits. Findings indicated that exiting was eliminated under two conditions. Results suggest visual agnosia, the inability to interpret what the eye sees, may be used as tool in managing wandering behavior of Alzheimer's patients. (Author/NB)

Evaluation of the Big Two-Factor Theory of Academic Motivation Orientations: An Evaluation of the Jingle-Jangle Fallacies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marsh, Herbert W.; Craven, Rhonda G.; Hinkley, John W.; Debus, Raymond L.

2003-01-01

Collected test-retest data from 606 students in grades 3 through 6 in Australia to evaluate a Big Two-Factor Theory of academic motivation orientation. Findings provide reasonable support for the Big Two-Factor theory but suggest it is still useful to collect data from different motivation scales. (SLD)

Delay of Gratification and Delay Discounting: A Unifying Feedback Model of Delay-Related Impulsive Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reynolds, Brady; Schiffbauer, Ryan

2005-01-01

Delay of Gratification (DG) and Delay Discounting (DD) represent two indices of impulsive behavior often treated as though they represent equivalent or the same underlying processes. However, there are key differences between DG and DD procedures, and between certain research findings with each procedure, that suggest they are not equivalent. In…

Understanding the Racial Transfer Gap: Modeling Underrepresented Minority and Nonminority Students' Pathways from Two-to Four-Year Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crisp, Gloria; Nuñez, Anne-Marie

2014-01-01

This study models student-and institutional-level factors that influence vertical transfer among a national sample of White and underrepresented minority (URM) community college students. Results indicate that the predictors of transfer are different in many ways for White and URM students. Most notably, findings suggest that enrolling in…

Dopaminergic Modulation of Incentive Motivation in Adolescence: Age-Related Changes in Signaling, Individual Differences, and Implications for the Development of Self-Regulation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luciana, Monica; Wahlstrom, Dustin; Porter, James N.; Collins, Paul F.

2012-01-01

Behavioral activation that is associated with incentive-reward motivation increases in adolescence relative to childhood and adulthood. This quadratic developmental pattern is generally supported by behavioral and experimental neuroscience findings. It is suggested that a focus on changes in dopamine neurotransmission is informative in…

Early Behavioral Self-Regulation, Academic Achievement, and Gender: Longitudinal Findings from France, Germany, and Iceland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gestsdottir, Steinunn; von Suchodoletz, Antje; Wanless, Shannon B.; Hubert, Blandine; Guimard, Philippe; Birgisdottir, Freyja; Gunzenhauser, Catherine; McClelland, Megan

2014-01-01

Research suggests that behavioral self-regulation skills are critical for early school success, but few studies have explored such links among young children in Europe. This study examined the contribution of early self-regulation to academic achievement gains among children in France, Germany, and Iceland. Gender differences in behavioral…

Use of the Mid-Lecture Break in Chemistry Teaching: A Survey and Some Suggestions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, David K.

2006-01-01

This article uses student feedback to explore student attitudes towards the use of lecture breaks. The survey illustrates that undergraduates genuinely value such breaks, finding them educationally useful and enhancing their enjoyment of the lecture experience. By comparing and contrasting the perceived value of different types of lecture breaks,…

Skin Color in Transracial and Inracial Adoptive Placements: Implications for Special Needs Adoptions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McRoy, Ruth G.; Grape, Helen

1999-01-01

Explores interview excerpts of African-American adults adopted either transracially or interracially to discuss implications of color for special-needs adoptions. Finds that the issue of color extends beyond racial differences to include skin tone and that children are aware of and internalize color at an early age. Suggests that adoption agencies…

The Role of Behavioral Self-Regulation in Learning to Read: A 2-Year Longitudinal Study of Icelandic Preschool Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Birgisdóttir, Freyja; Gestsdóttir, Steinunn; Thorsdóttir, Fanney

2015-01-01

Research Findings: Research suggests that behavioral self-regulation skills are critical for early school success, including success in literacy, but few studies have explored the relations that behavioral self-regulation may have with different components of early literacy development. The present study investigated the longitudinal contribution…

Reconsidering Findings of "No Effects" in Randomized Control Trials: Modeling Differences in Treatment Impacts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chaney, Bradford

2016-01-01

The primary technique that many researchers use to analyze data from randomized control trials (RCTs)--detecting the average treatment effect (ATE)--imposes assumptions upon the data that often are not correct. Both theory and past research suggest that treatments may have significant impacts on subgroups even when showing no overall effect.…

Levels of Death Anxiety in Terminally Ill Men: A Pilot Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayslip, Bert, Jr.; And Others

1992-01-01

Administered measures of overt and covert fear of death to 20 healthy men and 13 men diagnosed with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Groups did not differ significantly on overt measure; AIDS group had higher total scores on covert measure. Findings suggest that one's life trajectory is redefined when the diagnosis of terminal illness…

The Effects of a "Don't Know" Response on Palmore's Facts on Aging Quizzes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Courtenay, Bradley C.; Weidman, Craig

1985-01-01

Undergraduates (N=141) completed different versions of Palmore's Facts on Aging (FAQ) quizzes to test effects of "don't know" (DK) answers. Findings suggest the DK option yields more accurate knowledge scores, eliminates guessing, enhances the use of FAQ as a research instrument and for pre/post evaluation of training in aging.…

Predictors of Parental Use of Corporal Punishment in Ukraine.

PubMed

Grogan-Kaylor, Andrew; Burlaka, Viktor; Ma, Julie; Lee, Shawna; Castillo, Berenice; Churakova, Iuliia

2018-05-01

Despite a great deal of evidence that corporal punishment is harmful, corporal punishment is still very prevalent worldwide. We examine predictors of different types of corporal punishment among Ukrainian mothers in 12 communities across Ukraine. Findings suggest that maternal spirituality, maternal coping styles, family communication, and some demographic characteristics are predictive of mothers' use of corporal punishment.

Education and Signaling: Evidence from a Highly Competitive Labor Market

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heywood, John S.; Wei, Xiangdong

2004-01-01

This paper directly tests for differences in returns to education between the employed and self-employed in Hong Kong. Using a step-function, we find significantly smaller returns for the self-employed, suggesting that in the highly competitive labor market of Hong Kong education plays a signaling role. This pattern persists for both genders, when…

Socioeconomic Status and Asian American and Pacific Islander Students' Transition to College: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Museus, Samuel D.; Vue, Rican

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study is to examine socioeconomic differences in the interpersonal factors that influence college access among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). Data on 1,460 AAPIs from the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS: 02/06) were analyzed using structural equation modeling techniques. Findings suggest that parental…

Pardon Me, Can I Talk Now?: A Look at the Roles of Interruptions in Conversation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ringer, R. Jeffrey

Several theories exist to explain the differences in the interruptive behavior of men and women. Early research suggested that men interrupt more than women, and this finding was attributed to the dominant/submissive relationship traditional in relationships among men and women. Later studies, however, found that either there were no significant…

Assessment, Marking and Feedback: Understanding the Lecturers' Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norton, Lin; Norton, Bill; Sadler, Ian

2012-01-01

This study is part of a larger research project originally funded by the Write Now CETL looking at assessment, marking and feedback from the lecturers' perspective. Earlier findings have suggested that with new lecturers at least, there are some discipline differences in how able they feel they can put into practice what they have learned about…

Who Is Schooled in Developing Countries? The Roles of Income, Parental Schooling, Sex, Residence and Family Size.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolfe, Barbara L.; Behrman, Jere R.

1984-01-01

This paper explores supply and demand determinants of the amount and distribution of schooling in prerevolution Nicaragua (1977-78). Findings suggest that the difference between rural and urban areas significantly affects schooling availability, but family background also accounts for variance in schooling here and in similar societies. (TE)

Stages of Drug Use Acquisition among College Students: Implications for the Prevention of Drug Abuse.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Werch, Chudley E.; And Others

1993-01-01

Examined stages of drug use acquisition among college students (n=669) and relationship between stage status and motivation to avoid drugs and frequency of drug use. College students differed with regard to their stage of habit acquisition across five drugs. Findings suggest that acquisition stage heuristic holds promise in increasing…

Individual Differences in (Non-Visual) Processing Style Predict the Face Inversion Effect

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wyer, Natalie A.; Martin, Douglas; Pickup, Tracey; Macrae, C. Neil

2012-01-01

Recent research suggests that individuals with relatively weak global precedence (i.e., a smaller propensity to view visual stimuli in a configural manner) show a reduced face inversion effect (FIE). Coupled with such findings, a number of recent studies have demonstrated links between an advantage for feature-based processing and the presentation…

Amygdala Volume Differences in Autism Spectrum Disorder Are Related to Anxiety

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herrington, John D.; Maddox, Brenna B.; Kerns, Connor M.; Rump, Keiran; Worley, Julie A.; Bush, Jennifer C.; McVey, Alana J.; Schultz, Robert T.; Miller, Judith S.

2017-01-01

Recent studies suggest that longstanding findings of abnormal amygdala morphology in ASD may be related to symptoms of anxiety. To test this hypothesis, fifty-three children with ASD (mean age = 11.9) underwent structural MRI and were divided into subgroups to compare those with at least one anxiety disorder diagnosis (n = 29) to those without (n…

Student Background and Student Achievement: What Is the Right Question?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heyneman, Stephen P.

2005-01-01

For half a century there have been reports that children of the poor or of some ethnic minorities on average perform worse in school. Some have suggested that these findings demonstrate a failing of education to reduce gaps in adult income and differences in adult socioeconomic status. This article reviews the research internationally and…

Fewer Marriages, More Divergence: Marriage Projections for Millennials to Age 40

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Steven P.; Astone, Nan Marie; Peters, H. Elizabeth

2014-01-01

Declining marriage rates suggest a growing fraction of millennials will remain unmarried through age 40. In this brief, we use data from the American Community Survey to estimate age-specific marriage rates and project the percentage of millennials who will marry by age 40 in different scenarios. We find that the percentage of millennials marrying…

Educational Differences in Age-Related Patterns of Disease: Reconsidering the Cumulative Disadvantage and Age-as-Leveler Hypotheses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dupre, Matthew E.

2007-01-01

Some studies suggest that the relationship between education and health strengthens with age (cumulative disadvantage hypothesis), while other studies find that it weakens (age-as-leveler hypothesis). This research addresses this inconsistency by differentiating individual-level changes in health from those occurring at the aggregate level due to…

Individual Differences in Relative Metacomprehension Accuracy: Variation within and across Task Manipulations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chiang, Evelyn S.; Therriault, David J.; Franks, Bridget A.

2010-01-01

In recent decades, increasing numbers of studies have focused on metacomprehension accuracy, or readers' ability to distinguish between texts comprehended more vs. less well. Following early findings that suggested readers are fairly poor at doing so, a number of studies have identified specific tasks to supplement a single reading of text that…

Brain structure predicts risk for obesity ☆

PubMed Central

Smucny, Jason; Cornier, Marc-Andre; Eichman, Lindsay C.; Thomas, Elizabeth A.; Bechtell, Jamie L.; Tregellas, Jason R.

2014-01-01

The neurobiology of obesity is poorly understood. Here we report findings of a study designed to examine the differences in brain regional gray matter volume in adults recruited as either Obese Prone or Obese Resistant based on self-identification, body mass index, and personal/family weight history. Magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 28 Obese Prone (14 male, 14 female) and 25 Obese Resistant (13 male, 12 female) healthy adults. Voxel-based morphometry was used to identify gray matter volume differences between groups. Gray matter volume was found to be lower in the insula, medial orbitofrontal cortex and cerebellum in Obese Prone, as compared to Obese Resistant individuals. Adjusting for body fat mass did not impact these results. Insula gray matter volume was negatively correlated with leptin concentration and measures of hunger. These findings suggest that individuals at risk for weight gain have structural differences in brain regions known to be important in energy intake regulation, and that these differences, particularly in the insula, may be related to leptin. PMID:22963736

Regional biases in absolute sea-level estimates from tide gauge data due to residual unmodeled vertical land movement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

King, Matt A.; Keshin, Maxim; Whitehouse, Pippa L.; Thomas, Ian D.; Milne, Glenn; Riva, Riccardo E. M.

2012-07-01

The only vertical land movement signal routinely corrected for when estimating absolute sea-level change from tide gauge data is that due to glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA). We compare modeled GIA uplift (ICE-5G + VM2) with vertical land movement at ˜300 GPS stations located near to a global set of tide gauges, and find regionally coherent differences of commonly ±0.5-2 mm/yr. Reference frame differences and signal due to present-day mass trends cannot reconcile these differences. We examine sensitivity to the GIA Earth model by fitting to a subset of the GPS velocities and find substantial regional sensitivity, but no single Earth model is able to reduce the disagreement in all regions. We suggest errors in ice history and neglected lateral Earth structure dominate model-data differences, and urge caution in the use of modeled GIA uplift alone when interpreting regional- and global- scale absolute (geocentric) sea level from tide gauge data.

Gender Difference of Unconscious Attentional Bias in High Trait Anxiety Individuals

PubMed Central

Tan, Jieqing; Ma, Zheng; Gao, Xiaochao; Wu, Yanhong; Fang, Fang

2011-01-01

By combining binocular suppression technique and a probe detection paradigm, we investigated attentional bias to invisible stimuli and its gender difference in both high trait anxiety (HTA) and low trait anxiety (LTA) individuals. As an attentional cue, happy or fearful face pictures were presented to HTAs and LTAs for 800 ms either consciously or unconsciously (through binocular suppression). Participants were asked to judge the orientation of a gabor patch following the face pictures. Their performance was used to measure attentional effect induced by the cue. We found gender differences of attentional effect only in the unconscious condition with HTAs. Female HTAs exhibited difficulty in disengaging attention from the location where fearful faces were presented, while male HTAs showed attentional avoidance of it. Our results suggested that the failure to find attentional avoidance of threatening stimuli in many previous studies might be attributed to consciously presented stimuli and data analysis regardless of participants' gender. These findings also contributed to our understanding of gender difference in anxiety disorder. PMID:21647221

Gender difference of unconscious attentional bias in high trait anxiety individuals.

PubMed

Tan, Jieqing; Ma, Zheng; Gao, Xiaochao; Wu, Yanhong; Fang, Fang

2011-01-01

By combining binocular suppression technique and a probe detection paradigm, we investigated attentional bias to invisible stimuli and its gender difference in both high trait anxiety (HTA) and low trait anxiety (LTA) individuals. As an attentional cue, happy or fearful face pictures were presented to HTAs and LTAs for 800 ms either consciously or unconsciously (through binocular suppression). Participants were asked to judge the orientation of a gabor patch following the face pictures. Their performance was used to measure attentional effect induced by the cue. We found gender differences of attentional effect only in the unconscious condition with HTAs. Female HTAs exhibited difficulty in disengaging attention from the location where fearful faces were presented, while male HTAs showed attentional avoidance of it. Our results suggested that the failure to find attentional avoidance of threatening stimuli in many previous studies might be attributed to consciously presented stimuli and data analysis regardless of participants' gender. These findings also contributed to our understanding of gender difference in anxiety disorder.

Premarital first births: The influence of the timing of sexual onset versus post-onset risks in the United States.

PubMed

Wu, Lawrence L; Martin, Steven P

2015-01-01

Motivated by long-standing debates between abstinence proponents and sceptics, we examine how socio-economic factors influence premarital first births via: (i) age at first sexual intercourse and (ii) the risk of a premarital first birth following the onset of sexual activity. Factors associated with an earlier age at first intercourse will imply more premarital first births owing to increased exposure to risk, but many of these same factors will also be associated with higher risks of a premarital first birth following onset. Our analyses confirm previous findings that women from disadvantaged backgrounds are younger at first intercourse and have higher premarital first-birth risks than women from more advantaged backgrounds. However, differences in onset timing have a strikingly smaller influence on premarital first-birth probabilities than do differences in post-onset risks. Our findings thus suggest that premarital first births result primarily from differences in post-onset risk behaviours as opposed to differences in onset timing.

Grade-Level Differences in Future-Oriented Self-Concept During Early Adolescence: Potential Relevance to School Nursing

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

The middle school and early high school years are a time of significant development, including an increasing ability to envision oneself in the future. Little is known about how adolescents’ future-oriented self-concept (i.e., possible selves) differs across grade levels, although this knowledge may aid in establishing rapport with students and building effective health-promotion and risk reduction interventions. Therefore, this study explored grade-level differences in hoped for and feared possible selves in a sample of 6th – 9th grade students (n = 2,498; Mage = 12.72, SD = 1.15; 51.3% female). Findings suggest that adolescents list a variety of possible selves, and the content differs according to grade-level. These findings offer helpful insight for intervention work aimed at improving student outcomes and preventing risk behavior. Understanding what adolescents hope and fear for themselves in the future may be particularly beneficial for school nurses in identifying the unique challenges students experience and tailoring health-promotion efforts. PMID:27222444

Linking admiration and adoration to self-expansion: different ways to enhance one's potential.

PubMed

Schindler, Ines; Paech, Juliane; Löwenbrück, Fabian

2015-01-01

How is admiration different from adoration? We provided one answer to this question by examining the pathways through which admiration and adoration linked to self-expansion in a questionnaire and an experimental (autobiographical recall of emotion episodes) study. Both emotions were associated with increased potential efficacy to accomplish goals (i.e., self-expansion), but different action tendencies accounted for these links. While our emotion inductions did not successfully distinguish between admiration and adoration, we could statistically disentangle their effects through mediator models. In both studies, self-reported admiration linked to self-expansion through the tendency to emulate admired others. Adoration related to self-expansion through the tendency to affiliate with adored others. These findings were obtained after controlling for other emotions in response to the target person (awe, love, hope, benign envy) and mutuality of the relationship. Our findings also suggest that considering specific emotions (rather than undifferentiated positive affect) helps uncover different pathways to self-expansion.

Premarital first births: The influence of the timing of sexual onset versus post-onset risks in the United States

PubMed Central

Wu, Lawrence L.; Martin, Steven P.

2015-01-01

Motivated by long-standing debates between abstinence proponents and skeptics, we examine how socioeconomic factors influence premarital first births via: (1) age at first sexual intercourse and (2) the risk of a premarital first birth following onset. Factors associated with an earlier age at first intercourse will imply more premarital first births due to increased exposure to risk, but many of these same factors will also be associated with higher risks of a premarital first birth following onset. Our analyses confirm previous findings that women from disadvantaged backgrounds are younger at first intercourse and have higher premarital first birth risks relative to those from more advantaged backgrounds. However, differences in onset timing have a strikingly smaller influence on premarital first birth probabilities than do differences in post-onset risks. Our findings thus suggest that premarital first births result primarily from differences in post-onset risk behaviors as opposed to differences in onset timing. PMID:26585183

Grade-Level Differences in Future-Oriented Self-Concept During Early Adolescence: Potential Relevance to School Nursing.

PubMed

Stoddard, Sarah A; Pierce, Jennifer; Schmidt, Carissa J

2016-12-01

The middle school and early high school years are a time of significant development, including an increasing ability to envision oneself in the future. Little is known about how adolescents' future-oriented self-concept (i.e., possible selves) differs across grade levels, although this knowledge may aid in establishing rapport with students and building effective health promotion and risk reduction interventions. Therefore, this study explored grade-level differences in hoped for and feared possible selves in a sample of sixth- to ninth-grade students (n = 2,498; M age = 12.72, SD = 1.15; 51.3% female). Findings suggest that adolescents list a variety of possible selves, and the content differs according to grade level. These findings offer helpful insight for intervention work aimed at improving student outcomes and preventing risk behavior. Understanding what adolescents hope and fear for themselves in the future may be particularly beneficial for school nurses in identifying the unique challenges students experience and tailoring health promotion efforts. © The Author(s) 2016.

Cross-cultural differences in memory: the role of culture-based stereotypes about aging.

PubMed

Yoon, C; Hasher, L; Feinberg, F; Rahhal, T A; Winocur, G

2000-12-01

The extent to which cultural stereotypes about aging contribute to age differences in memory performance is investigated by comparing younger and older Anglophone Canadians to demographically matched Chinese Canadians, who tend to hold more positive views of aging. Four memory tests were administered. In contrast to B. Levy and E. Langer's (1994) findings, younger adults in both cultural groups outperformed their older comparison group on all memory tests. For 2 tests, which made use of visual stimuli resembling ideographic characters in written Chinese, the older Chinese Canadians approached, but did not reach, the performance achieved by their younger counterparts, as well as outperformed the older Anglophone Canadians. However, on the other two tests, which assess memory for complex figures and abstract designs, no differences were observed between the older Chinese and Anglophone Canadians. Path analysis results suggest that this pattern of findings is not easily attributed to a wholly culturally based account of age differences in memory performance.

Sexual orientation and fear at night: gender differences among sexual minorities and heterosexuals.

PubMed

Meyer, Doug; Grollman, Eric Anthony

2014-01-01

Using data from the 2000-2010 General Social Survey, a nationally representative sample of 5,086 adults in the United States, the authors examine sexual orientation and gender differences in reports of being afraid to walk alone at night. Results indicate that sexual minorities are significantly more likely to report fear at night than heterosexuals, and women are significantly more likely to report such fear than men. Further, our findings suggest that these sexual orientation and gender differences are due to sexual minority men being more likely than heterosexual men to report fear at night. Thus, the results of this study reveal that three groups--heterosexual women, sexual minority women, and sexual minority men--do not differ from one another in reporting fear, yet these groups are all more likely than heterosexual men to report fear at night. These findings give weight to the importance of investigating the intersection of sexual orientation and gender in individuals' reports of fear.