Which daily experiences can foster well-being at work? A diary study on the interplay between flow experiences, affective commitment, and self-control demands.

Science.gov (United States)

Rivkin, Wladislaw; Diestel, Stefan; Schmidt, Klaus-Helmut

2018-01-01

Previous research has provided strong evidence for affective commitment as a direct predictor of employees' psychological well-being and as a resource that buffers the adverse effects of self-control demands as a stressor. However, the mechanisms that underlie the beneficial effects of affective commitment have not been examined yet. Drawing on the self-determination theory, we propose day-specific flow experiences as the mechanism that underlies the beneficial effects of affective commitment, because flow experiences as peaks of intrinsic motivation constitute manifestations of autonomous regulation. In a diary study covering 10 working days with N = 90 employees, we examine day-specific flow experiences as a mediator of the beneficial effects of interindividual affective commitment and a buffering moderator of the adverse day-specific effects of self-control demands on indicators of well-being (ego depletion, need for recovery, work engagement, and subjective vitality). Our results provide strong support for our predictions that day-specific flow experiences a) mediate the beneficial effects of affective commitment on employees' day-specific well-being and b) moderate (buffer) the adverse day-specific effects of self-control demands on well-being. That is, on days with high levels of flow experiences, employees were better able to cope with self-control demands whereas self-control demands translated into impaired well-being when employees experienced lower levels of day-specific flow experiences. We then discuss our findings and suggest practical implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Wanting to maximize the positive and minimize the negative: implications for mixed affective experience in American and Chinese contexts.

Science.gov (United States)

Sims, Tamara; Tsai, Jeanne L; Jiang, Da; Wang, Yaheng; Fung, Helene H; Zhang, Xiulan

2015-08-01

Previous studies have demonstrated that European Americans have fewer mixed affective experiences (i.e., are less likely to experience the bad with the good) compared with Chinese. In this article, we argue that these cultural differences are due to "ideal affect," or how people ideally want to feel. Specifically, we predict that people from individualistic cultures want to maximize positive and minimize negative affect more than people from collectivistic cultures, and as a result, they are less likely to actually experience mixed emotions (reflected by a more negative within-person correlation between actual positive and negative affect). We find support for this prediction in 2 experience sampling studies conducted in the United States and China (Studies 1 and 2). In addition, we demonstrate that ideal affect is a distinct construct from dialectical view of the self, which has also been related to mixed affective experience (Study 3). Finally, in Study 4, we demonstrate that experimentally manipulating the desire to maximize the positive and minimize the negative alters participants' actual experience of mixed emotions during a pleasant (but not unpleasant or combined pleasant and unpleasant) TV clip in the United States and Hong Kong. Together, these findings suggest that across cultures, how people want to feel shapes how they actually feel, particularly people's experiences of mixed affect. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Wanting to Maximize the Positive and Minimize the Negative: Implications for Mixed Affective Experience in American and Chinese Contexts

Science.gov (United States)

Sims, Tamara; Tsai, Jeanne L.; Jiang, Da; Wang, Yaheng; Fung, Helene H.; Zhang, Xiulan

2016-01-01

Previous studies have demonstrated that European Americans have fewer mixed affective experiences (i.e., are less likely to experience the bad with the good) compared to Chinese. In this paper, we argue that these cultural differences are due to “ideal affect,” or how people ideally want to feel. Specifically, we predict that people from individualistic cultures want to maximize positive and minimize negative affect more than people from collectivistic cultures, and as a result, they are less likely to actually experience mixed emotions (reflected by a more negative within-person correlation between actual positive and negative affect). We find support for this prediction in two experience sampling studies conducted in the U.S. and China (Studies 1 and 2). In addition, we demonstrate that ideal affect is a distinct construct from dialectical view of the self, which has also been related to mixed affective experience (Study 3). Finally, in Study 4, we demonstrate that experimentally manipulating the desire to maximize the positive and minimize the negative alters participants' actual experience of mixed emotions during a pleasant (but not unpleasant or combined pleasant and unpleasant) television clip in the U.S. and Hong Kong. Together, these findings suggest that across cultures, how people want to feel shapes how they actually feel, particularly people's mixed affective experience. PMID:26121525

Misremembering Past Affect Predicts Adolescents’ Future Affective Experience during Exercise

Science.gov (United States)

Karnaze, Melissa M.; Levine, Linda J.; Schneider, Margaret

2018-01-01

Purpose Increasing physical activity among adolescents is a public health priority. Because people are motivated to engage in activities that make them feel good, this study examined predictors of adolescents’ feelings during exercise. Method During the first semester of the school year, we assessed sixth grade students’ (N = 136) cognitive appraisals of the importance of exercise. Participants also reported their affect during a cardiovascular fitness test, and recalled their affect during the fitness test later that semester. During the second semester, the same participants rated their affect during a moderate-intensity exercise task. Results Affect reported during the moderate-intensity exercise task was predicted by cognitive appraisals of the importance of exercise, and by misremembering affect during the fitness test as more positive than it actually was. This memory bias mediated the association between appraising exercise as important and experiencing a positive change in affect during the moderate-intensity exercise task. Conclusion These findings highlight the roles of both cognitive appraisals and memory as factors that may influence affect during exercise. Future work should explore whether affect during exercise can be modified by targeting appraisals and memories related to exercise experiences. PMID:28494196

Misremembering Past Affect Predicts Adolescents' Future Affective Experience During Exercise.

Science.gov (United States)

Karnaze, Melissa M; Levine, Linda J; Schneider, Margaret

2017-09-01

Increasing physical activity among adolescents is a public health priority. Because people are motivated to engage in activities that make them feel good, this study examined predictors of adolescents' feelings during exercise. During the 1st semester of the school year, we assessed 6th-grade students' (N = 136) cognitive appraisals of the importance of exercise. Participants also reported their affect during a cardiovascular fitness test and recalled their affect during the fitness test later that semester. During the 2nd semester, the same participants rated their affect during a moderate-intensity exercise task. Affect reported during the moderate-intensity exercise task was predicted by cognitive appraisals of the importance of exercise and by misremembering affect during the fitness test as more positive than it actually was. This memory bias mediated the association between appraising exercise as important and experiencing a positive change in affect during the moderate-intensity exercise task. These findings highlight the roles of both cognitive appraisals and memory as factors that may influence affect during exercise. Future work should explore whether affect during exercise can be modified by targeting appraisals and memories related to exercise experiences.

Age, training, and previous experience predict race performance in long-distance inline skaters, not anthropometry.

Science.gov (United States)

Knechtle, Beat; Knechtle, Patrizia; Rüst, Christoph Alexander; Rosemann, Thomas; Lepers, Romuald

2012-02-01

The association of characteristics of anthropometry, training, and previous experience with race time in 84 recreational, long-distance, inline skaters at the longest inline marathon in Europe (111 km), the Inline One-eleven in Switzerland, was investigated to identify predictor variables for performance. Age, duration per training unit, and personal best time were the only three variables related to race time in a multiple regression, while none of the 16 anthropometric variables were related. Anthropometric characteristics seem to be of no importance for a fast race time in a long-distance inline skating race in contrast to training volume and previous experience, when controlled with covariates. Improving performance in a long-distance inline skating race might be related to a high training volume and previous race experience. Also, doing such a race requires a parallel psychological effort, mental stamina, focus, and persistence. This may be reflected in the preparation and training for the event. Future studies should investigate what motivates these athletes to train and compete.

Exploring Online Game Players' Flow Experiences and Positive Affect

Science.gov (United States)

Chiang, Yu-Tzu; Lin, Sunny S. J.; Cheng, Chao-Yang; Liu, Eric Zhi-Feng

2011-01-01

The authors conducted two studies to explore online game players' flow experiences and positive affect. Our findings indicated that online game are capable of evoking flow experiences and positive affect, and games of violent or nonviolent type may not arouse players' aggression. The players could be placed into four flow conditions: flow,…

Ideal affect in daily life: implications for affective experience, health, and social behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, Jeanne L

2017-10-01

Over the last decade, researchers have increasingly demonstrated that ideal affect-the affective states that people value and ideally want to feel-shapes different aspects of daily life. Here I briefly review Affect Valuation Theory (AVT), which integrates ideal affect into existing models of affect and emotion by identifying the causes and consequences of variation in ideal affect. I then describe recent research that applies AVT to the valuation of negative states as well as more complex states, examines how ideal affect shapes momentary affective experience, suggests that ideal affect has both direct and indirect effects on health, and illustrates that people's ideal affect shapes how they judge and respond to others. Finally, I discuss the implications of cultural and individual differences in ideal affect for clinical, educational, work, and leisure settings. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Effect of Previous Co-Worker Experience on the Survival of Knowledge Intensive Start-Ups

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Timmermans, Bram

The aim of the paper is to investigate the effect of previous co-worker experience on the survival of knowledge intensive start-ups. For the empirical analysis I use the Danish Integrated Database of Labor Market Research (IDA). This longitudinal employer-employee database allows me to identify co-worker...... experience among all members of the firm. In addition, I will make a distinction between ordinary start-ups and entrepreneurial spin-offs. The results show that previous co-worker experience has a positive effect on new firm survival. This effect appears to be valid predominantly for ordinary start-ups than...

Changes in work affect in response to lunchtime walking in previously physically inactive employees: A randomized trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C; Loughren, E A; Kinnafick, F-E; Taylor, I M; Duda, J L; Fox, K R

2015-12-01

Physical activity may regulate affective experiences at work, but controlled studies are needed and there has been a reliance on retrospective accounts of experience. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of lunchtime walks on momentary work affect at the individual and group levels. Physically inactive employees (N = 56; M age = 47.68; 92.86% female) from a large university in the UK were randomized to immediate treatment or delayed treatment (DT). The DT participants completed both a control and intervention period. During the intervention period, participants partook in three weekly 30-min lunchtime group-led walks for 10 weeks. They completed twice daily affective reports at work (morning and afternoon) using mobile phones on two randomly chosen days per week. Multilevel modeling was used to analyze the data. Lunchtime walks improved enthusiasm, relaxation, and nervousness at work, although the pattern of results differed depending on whether between-group or within-person analyses were conducted. The intervention was effective in changing some affective states and may have broader implications for public health and workplace performance. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

How the risky features of previous selection affect subsequent decision-making: evidence from behavioral and fMRI measures.

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, Guangheng; Zhang, Yifen; Xu, Jiaojing; Lin, Xiao; Du, Xiaoxia

2015-01-01

Human decision making is rarely conducted in temporal isolation. It is often biased and affected by environmental variables, particularly prior selections. In this study, we used a task that simulates a real gambling process to explore the effect of the risky features of a previous selection on subsequent decision making. Compared with decision making after an advantageous risk-taking situation (Risk_Adv), that after a disadvantageous risk-taking situation (Risk_Disadv) is associated with a longer response time (RT, the time spent in making decisions) and higher brain activations in the caudate and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Compared with decisions after Risk_Adv, those after Risk_Disadv in loss trials are associated with higher brain activations in the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) and the precuneus. Brain activity and relevant RTs significantly correlated. Overall, people who experience disadvantageous risk-taking selections tend to focus on current decision making and engage cognitive endeavors in value evaluation and in the regulation of their risk-taking behaviors during decision making.

"My math and me": Nursing students' previous experiences in learning mathematics.

Science.gov (United States)

Røykenes, Kari

2016-01-01

In this paper, 11 narratives about former experiences in learning of mathematics written by nursing students are thematically analyzed. Most students had a positive relationship with the subject in primary school, when they found mathematics fun and were able to master the subject. For some, a change occurred in the transition to lower secondary school. The reasons for this change was found in the subject (increased difficulty), the teachers (movement of teachers, numerous substitute teachers), the class environment and size (many pupils, noise), and the student him- or herself (silent and anonymous pupil). This change was also found in the transition from lower to higher secondary school. By contrast, some students had experienced changes that were positive, and their mathematics teacher was a significant factor in this positive change. The paper emphasizes the importance of previous experiences in learning mathematics to nursing students when learning about drug calculation. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The influence of previous subject experience on interactions during peer instruction in an introductory physics course: A mixed methods analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Vondruska, Judy A.

Over the past decade, peer instruction and the introduction of student response systems has provided a means of improving student engagement and achievement in large-lecture settings. While the nature of the student discourse occurring during peer instruction is less understood, existing studies have shown student ideas about the subject, extraneous cues, and confidence level appear to matter in the student-student discourse. Using a mixed methods research design, this study examined the influence of previous subject experience on peer instruction in an introductory, one-semester Survey of Physics course. Quantitative results indicated students in discussion pairs where both had previous subject experience were more likely to answer clicker question correctly both before and after peer discussion compared to student groups where neither partner had previous subject experience. Students in mixed discussion pairs were not statistically different in correct response rates from the other pairings. There was no statistically significant difference between the experience pairs on unit exam scores or the Peer Instruction Partner Survey. Although there was a statistically significant difference between the pre-MPEX and post-MPEX scores, there was no difference between the members of the various subject experience peer discussion pairs. The qualitative study, conducted after the quantitative study, helped to inform the quantitative results by exploring the nature of the peer interactions through survey questions and a series of focus groups discussions. While the majority of participants described a benefit to the use of clickers in the lecture, their experience with their discussion partners varied. Students with previous subject experience tended to describe peer instruction more positively than students who did not have previous subject experience, regardless of the experience level of their partner. They were also more likely to report favorable levels of comfort with

Impact of vocational interests, previous academic experience, gender and age on Situational Judgement Test performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Schripsema, Nienke R; van Trigt, Anke M; Borleffs, Jan C C; Cohen-Schotanus, Janke

2017-05-01

Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) are increasingly implemented in medical school admissions. In this paper, we investigate the effects of vocational interests, previous academic experience, gender and age on SJT performance. The SJT was part of the selection process for the Bachelor's degree programme in Medicine at University of Groningen, the Netherlands. All applicants for the academic year 2015-2016 were included and had to choose between learning communities Global Health (n = 126), Sustainable Care (n = 149), Intramural Care (n = 225), or Molecular Medicine (n = 116). This choice was used as a proxy for vocational interest. In addition, all graduate-entry applicants for academic year 2015-2016 (n = 213) were included to examine the effect of previous academic experience on performance. We used MANCOVA analyses with Bonferroni post hoc multiple comparisons tests for applicant performance on a six-scenario SJT. The MANCOVA analyses showed that for all scenarios, the independent variables were significantly related to performance (Pillai's Trace: 0.02-0.47, p performance on three scenarios (p performance on two scenarios (p performance, as was previous academic experience. Gender and age were related to performance on SJT scenarios in different settings. Especially the first effect might be helpful in selecting appropriate candidates for areas of health care in which more professionals are needed.

Paternal social experience affects male reproductive behaviour in ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

[Dasgupta P., Halder S. and Nandy B. 2016 Paternal social experience affects male reproductive behaviour in Drosophila .... allowed to the competitor male to interact with the female. Following ... conditions including maternal environment.

Affective methodologies and experimenting with affirmative critiques of educational leadership

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Staunæs, Dorthe

concerns suitable methodologies for researching and experiments with affirmative critique of these new forms of educational leadership. In order not to just to ‘quote’, celebrate or reject this affective agenda, I ask how post-human, intra-active and performative approaches developed in Nordic feminist...... and anti-racist education studies may assist in experimenting with concepts and research formats, interrogate the (unforeseen) effects of affects and affective economies intertwined with new forms of educational leadership, and thereby formulate affirmative critiques of these new types of psy-leadership.......This paper will focus upon the identification of suitable and experimental methodologies for interrogating ‘the affective turn’ in European educational leadership. As an answer to the global GERM and the plea for improving learning outcomes, educational leadership in countries like Denmark seems...

Reliability and smallest worthwhile difference in 1RM tests according to previous resistance training experience in young women

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matheus Amarante do Nascimento

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study was to determine the familiarization and smallest worthwhile difference (SWD of one-repetition maximum (1RM tests in detrained women according to their previous resistance training experience. Three groups of women with varying amounts of previous resistance training experience were recruited: Novice (n = 27, 1 to 6 months, Intermediate (n = 13, from 7 to 12 months, and Advanced (n = 20, 13 to 24 months. All participants performed four 1RM test sessions in the bench press (BP, squat (SQ, and arm curl (AC. A significant (p< 0.05 (group vs. time interaction was observed in SQ suggesting that more experienced participants needed fewer 1RM test sessions to reach a stable load compared to the less experienced groups. Strength changes (p 0.05, suggesting that experience had no impact on familiarization for these lifts. SWDs suggest that strength gains greater than 2-4% in these lifts would indicate a meaningful improvement in strength beyond random variation from trial to trial no matter the experience of the subject. Women with limited previous resistance training experience do not require more trials to reach load stabilization than those with more experience. Stability of 1RM loads for BP and AC may require only two sessions, while SQ may require at least three trials.

Previous experience in manned space flight: A survey of human factors lessons learned

Science.gov (United States)

Chandlee, George O.; Woolford, Barbara

1993-01-01

Previous experience in manned space flight programs can be used to compile a data base of human factors lessons learned for the purpose of developing aids in the future design of inhabited spacecraft. The objectives are to gather information available from relevant sources, to develop a taxonomy of human factors data, and to produce a data base that can be used in the future for those people involved in the design of manned spacecraft operations. A study is currently underway at the Johnson Space Center with the objective of compiling, classifying, and summarizing relevant human factors data bearing on the lessons learned from previous manned space flights. The research reported defines sources of data, methods for collection, and proposes a classification for human factors data that may be a model for other human factors disciplines.

Social experiences during adolescence affect anxiety-like behavior but not aggressiveness in male mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Neele; Jenikejew, Julia; Richter, S Helene; Kaiser, Sylvia; Sachser, Norbert

2017-05-30

Adolescence has lately been recognized as a key developmental phase during which an individual's behavior can be shaped. In a recent study with male mice varying in the expression of the serotonin transporter, escapable adverse social experiences during adolescence led to decreased anxiety-like behavior and increased exploratory and aggressive behavior compared to throughout beneficial experiences. Since in this study some behavioral tests took place with a delay of one week after the last social experiences have been made, it was not clear whether the observed effects really reflected the consequences of the experienced different social environments. To test this, the present study focused on the direct effects of beneficial and adverse social experiences on aggressiveness and anxiety-like behavior in C57BL/6J mice. In contrast to the previous study, behavioral testing took place immediately after the last social experiences had been made. Interestingly, whereas individuals from an escapable adverse environment showed significantly lower levels of anxiety-like and higher levels of exploratory behavior than animals from a beneficial environment, aggressive behavior was not affected. From this, we conclude that different social experiences during adolescence exert immediate effects on anxiety-like but not aggressive behavior in male mice. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impact of vocational interests, previous academic experience, gender and age on Situational Judgement Test performance

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schripsema, Nienke R.; Trigt, van Anke M.; Borleffs, Jan C. C.; Cohen-Schotanus, Janke

Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) are increasingly implemented in medical school admissions. In this paper, we investigate the effects of vocational interests, previous academic experience, gender and age on SJT performance. The SJT was part of the selection process for the Bachelor's degree

Experience affects the outcome of agonistic contests without affecting the selective advantage of size.

Science.gov (United States)

Kasumovic, Michael M; Elias, Damian O; Punzalan, David; Mason, Andrew C; Andrade, Maydianne C B

2009-06-01

In the field, phenotypic determinants of competitive success are not always absolute. For example, contest experience may alter future competitive performance. As future contests are not determined solely on phenotypic attributes, prior experience could also potentially alter phenotype-fitness associations. In this study, we examined the influence of single and multiple experiences on contest outcomes in the jumping spider Phidippus clarus. We also examined whether phenotype-fitness associations altered as individuals gained more experience. Using both size-matched contests and a tournament design, we found that both winning and losing experience affected future contest success; males with prior winning experience were more likely to win subsequent contests. Although experience was a significant determinant of success in future contests, male weight was approximately 1.3 times more important than experience in predicting contest outcomes. Despite the importance of experience in determining contest outcomes, patterns of selection did not change between rounds. Overall, our results show that experience can be an important determinant in contest outcomes, even in short-lived invertebrates, and that experience alone is unlikely to alter phenotype-fitness associations.

Effects of mediated social touch on affective experiences and trust

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Erk, S.M.; Toet, A.; Erp, J.B.F. van

2015-01-01

This study investigated whether communication via mediated hand pressure during a remotely shared experience (watching an amusing video) can (1) enhance recovery from sadness, (2) enhance the affective quality of the experience, and (3) increase trust towards the communication partner. Thereto

Effects of mediated social touch on affective experiences and trust.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Erk, Stefanie M.; Toet, Alexander; van Erp, Johannes Bernardus Fransiscus

2015-01-01

This study investigated whether communication via mediated hand pressure during a remotely shared experience (watching an amusing video) can (1) enhance recovery from sadness, (2) enhance the affective quality of the experience, and (3) increase trust towards the communication partner. Thereto

Impact of Vocational Interests, Previous Academic Experience, Gender and Age on Situational Judgement Test Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Schripsema, Nienke R.; van Trigt, Anke M.; Borleffs, Jan C. C.; Cohen-Schotanus, Janke

2017-01-01

Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) are increasingly implemented in medical school admissions. In this paper, we investigate the effects of vocational interests, previous academic experience, gender and age on SJT performance. The SJT was part of the selection process for the Bachelor's degree programme in Medicine at University of Groningen, the…

[Effect of previous experience in reacting to a danger signal on "open field" behavior in the rat].

Science.gov (United States)

Poltyreva, T E; Petrov, E S

1983-01-01

Modification of rats behaviour in an "hopen field" test was investigated, induced by an acoustic stimulus, previously subjected to conditioning in a shuttle chamber in experiments with possibility and impossibility of avoidance from electrical shock. It has been established that presentation of a stimulus having the meaning of a danger signal, in a new situation, significantly suppresses investigating behaviour of rats, whereas the stimulus which had not been subjected to conditioning exerts no marked effect on behaviour. The greatest suppression was observed in rats with "learned helplessness". This fact suggests that the degree of suppression of the behaviour in an open field in response to a danger signal, depends on the animal's previous experience in reacting to this signal.

Do previous sports experiences influence the effect of an enrichment programme in basketball skills?

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Sara; Mateus, Nuno; Sampaio, Jaime; Leite, Nuno

2017-09-01

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of an enrichment programme in motor, technical and tactical basketball skills, when accounting for the age of youth sport specialisation. Seventy-six college students (age: M = 20.4, SD = 1.9) were allocated according to three different paths: (i) non-structured (n = 14), (ii) early specialisation (n = 34), and (iii) late specialisation (n = 28), according to information previously provided by the participants about the quantity and type of sporting activities performed throughout their sporting careers. Then, the participants of each path were randomly distributed across control and experimental groups. Variables under study included agility, technical skills circuit, as well as tactical actions performed in a 4-on-4 full-court basketball game. The results indicated improvements in the early and late specialisation paths namely in the experimental training groups. However, the late specialisation path revealed larger benefits, in contrast with the non-structured path, which showed less sensitivity to the enrichment programme, mostly sustained in physical literacy and differential learning. Higher improvements were observed in agility, and also in reducing the number of unsuccessful actions performed during the game. Overall, this study provided evidence of how early sports experiences affect basketball skill acquisition and contribute to adapt to new contexts with motor and technical-tactical challenges. In addition, a path supported by late specialisation might present several advantages in sport performance achievement.

How Stereotypes Affect Current Collegiate Female Athletes' Athletic Experiences

Science.gov (United States)

James, Melissa

2017-01-01

Stereotype discrimination affects female athletes' athletic experiences. Studies have been conducted of former collegiate female athletes' perceptions of the lesbian stereotype found that they were discriminated against because of their sport participation. These limit the recalling of thoughts and experience from the female athletes' playing…

More intense experiences, less intense forecasts: why people overweight probability specifications in affective forecasts.

Science.gov (United States)

Buechel, Eva C; Zhang, Jiao; Morewedge, Carey K; Vosgerau, Joachim

2014-01-01

We propose that affective forecasters overestimate the extent to which experienced hedonic responses to an outcome are influenced by the probability of its occurrence. The experience of an outcome (e.g., winning a gamble) is typically more affectively intense than the simulation of that outcome (e.g., imagining winning a gamble) upon which the affective forecast for it is based. We suggest that, as a result, experiencers allocate a larger share of their attention toward the outcome (e.g., winning the gamble) and less to its probability specifications than do affective forecasters. Consequently, hedonic responses to an outcome are less sensitive to its probability specifications than are affective forecasts for that outcome. The results of 6 experiments provide support for our theory. Affective forecasters overestimated how sensitive experiencers would be to the probability of positive and negative outcomes (Experiments 1 and 2). Consistent with our attentional account, differences in sensitivity to probability specifications disappeared when the attention of forecasters was diverted from probability specifications (Experiment 3) or when the attention of experiencers was drawn toward probability specifications (Experiment 4). Finally, differences in sensitivity to probability specifications between forecasters and experiencers were diminished when the forecasted outcome was more affectively intense (Experiments 5 and 6).

Does Previous Experience of Floods Stimulate the Adoption of Coping Strategies? Evidence from Cross Sectional Surveys in Nigeria and Tanzania

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sheila A. Boamah

2015-11-01

Full Text Available In sub-Saharan Africa, hydro-meteorological related disasters, such as floods, account for the majority of the total number of natural disasters. Over the past century, floods have affected 38 million people, claimed several lives and caused substantial economic losses in the region. The goal of this paper is to examine how personality disposition, social network, and socio-demographic factors mitigate the complex relationship between stressful life experiences of floods and ocean surges and the adoption of coping strategies among coastal communities in Nigeria and Tanzania. Generalized linear models (GLM were fitted to cross-sectional survey data on 1003 and 1253 individuals in three contiguous coastal areas in Nigeria and Tanzania, respectively. Marked differences in the type of coping strategies were observed across the two countries. In Tanzania, the zero-order relationships between adoption of coping strategies and age, employment and income disappeared at the multivariate level. Only experience of floods in the past year and social network resources were significant predictors of participants’ adoption of coping strategies, unlike in Nigeria, where a plethora of factors such as experience of ocean surges in the past one year, personality disposition, age, education, experience of flood in the past one year, ethnicity, income, housing quality and employment status were still statistically significant at the multivariate level. Our findings suggest that influence of previous experience on adoption of coping strategies is spatially ubiquitous. Consequently, context-specific policies aimed at encouraging the adoption of flood-related coping strategies in vulnerable locations should be designed based on local needs and orientation.

Reading Aloud: Does Previous Trial History Modulate the Joint Effects of Stimulus Quality and Word Frequency?

Science.gov (United States)

O'Malley, Shannon; Besner, Derek

2013-01-01

No one would argue with the proposition that how we process events in the world is strongly affected by our experience. Nonetheless, recent experience (e.g., from the previous trial) is typically not considered in the analysis of timed cognitive performance in the laboratory. Masson and Kliegl (2013) reported that, in the context of the lexical…

How do multi-touchpoint experience affect consumer satisfaction and behavior : a real-time experience tracking approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Li, J.; Konus, U.; Macdonald, E.K.; Wilson, H.N.; Langerak, F.; Warlop, L.; Muylle, S.

2015-01-01

A customer experiences various touchpoints during the shopping trip with a brand, (i.e., traditional advertising, online and WOMs). However, it is still unknown how satisfaction and behavior are affected by customers’ instant touchpoint experiences during the shopping process. Therefore we

The relationship between emotional intelligence, previous caring experience and mindfulness in student nurses and midwives: a cross sectional analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Snowden, Austyn; Stenhouse, Rosie; Young, Jenny; Carver, Hannah; Carver, Fiona; Brown, Norrie

2015-01-01

Emotional Intelligence (EI), previous caring experience and mindfulness training may have a positive impact on nurse education. More evidence is needed to support the use of these variables in nurse recruitment and retention. To explore the relationship between EI, gender, age, programme of study, previous caring experience and mindfulness training. Cross sectional element of longitudinal study. 938year one nursing, midwifery and computing students at two Scottish Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) who entered their programme in September 2013. Participants completed a measure of 'trait' EI: Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire Short Form (TEIQue-SF); and 'ability' EI: Schutte's et al. (1998) Emotional Intelligence Scale (SEIS). Demographics, previous caring experience and previous training in mindfulness were recorded. Relationships between variables were tested using non-parametric tests. Emotional intelligence increased with age on both measures of EI [TEIQ-SF H(5)=15.157 p=0.001; SEIS H(5)=11.388, p=0.044]. Females (n=786) scored higher than males (n=149) on both measures [TEIQ-SF, U=44,931, z=-4.509, pemotional intelligence. Mindfulness training was associated with higher 'ability' emotional intelligence. Implications for recruitment, retention and further research are explored. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Contest experience and body size affect different types of contest decisions.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yu-Ju; Hsu, Yuying

2016-11-01

This study examined the relative importance of contest experience and size differences to behavioral decisions over the course of contests. Using a mangrove rivulus fish, Kryptolebias marmoratus, we showed that although contest experience and size differences jointly determined contest outcomes, they affected contestants' interactions at different stages of contests. Contest experience affected behavioral decisions at earlier stages of contests, including the tendency and latency to launch attacks, the tendency to escalate contests into mutual attacks and the outcome of non-escalated contests. Once contests were escalated into mutual attacks, the degree of size difference affected the fish's persistence in escalation and chance of winning, but contest experience did not. These results support the hypothesis that contest experience modifies individuals' estimation of their fighting ability rather than their actual strength. Furthermore, (1) in contests between two naïve contestants, more than 60 % of fish that were 2-3 mm smaller than their opponent escalated the contest to physical fights, even though their larger opponents eventually won 92 % of escalated fights and (2) fish with a losing experience were very likely to retreat in the face of an opponent 2-3 mm smaller than them without escalating. The result that a 2-3 mm size advantage could not offset the influence of a losing experience on the tendency to escalate suggests that, as well as depending on body size, the fish's physical strength is influenced by other factors which require further investigation.

The experiment of affective web risk communication on HLW geological disposal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kugo, Akihide; Yoshikawa, Eiwa; Wakabayashi, Yasunaga; Shimoda, Hiroshi; Uda, Akinobu; Ito, Kyoko

2006-01-01

Dialog mode web contents regarding the HLW risk is effective to altruism. To make it more effectively, we introduced affective elements such as facial expression of character agents and sympathetic response on the BBS by experts, which brought us smooth risk communication. This paper describes the result of preliminary experiments surrounding the affective ways to communicate on the risk of HLW geological disposal, leading to enhance the social cooperation, and the public open experiment for one month on the Web. (author)

Language Experience Affects Grouping of Musical Instrument Sounds

Science.gov (United States)

Bhatara, Anjali; Boll-Avetisyan, Natalie; Agus, Trevor; Höhle, Barbara; Nazzi, Thierry

2016-01-01

Language experience clearly affects the perception of speech, but little is known about whether these differences in perception extend to non-speech sounds. In this study, we investigated rhythmic perception of non-linguistic sounds in speakers of French and German using a grouping task, in which complexity (variability in sounds, presence of…

Does previous use affect litter box appeal in multi-cat households?

Science.gov (United States)

Ellis, J J; McGowan, R T S; Martin, F

2017-08-01

It is commonly assumed that cats actively avoid eliminated materials (especially in multi-cat homes), suggesting regular litter box cleaning as the best defense against out-of-box elimination. The relationship between previous use and litter box appeal to familiar subsequent users is currently unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between previous litter box use and the identity of the previous user, type of elimination, odor, and presence of physical/visual obstructions in a multi-cat household scenario. Cats preferred a clean litter box to a dirty one, but the identity of the previous user had no impact on preferences. While the presence of odor from urine and/or feces did not impact litter box preferences, the presence of odorless faux-urine and/or feces did - with the presence of faux-feces being preferred over faux-urine. Results suggest neither malodor nor chemical communication play a role in litter box preferences, and instead emphasize the importance of regular removal of physical/visual obstructions as the key factor in promoting proper litter box use. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

IL4 gene polymorphism and previous malaria experiences manipulate anti-Plasmodium falciparum antibody isotype profiles in complicated and uncomplicated malaria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kalambaheti Thareerat

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The IL4-590 gene polymorphism has been shown to be associated with elevated levels of anti-Plasmodium falciparum IgG antibodies and parasite intensity in the malaria protected Fulani of West Africa. This study aimed to investigate the possible impact of IL4-590C/T polymorphism on anti-P. falciparum IgG subclasses and IgE antibodies levels and the alteration of malaria severity in complicated and uncomplicated malaria patients with or without previous malaria experiences. Methods Anti-P.falciparum IgG subclasses and IgE antibodies in plasma of complicated and uncomplicated malaria patients with or without previous malaria experiences were analysed using ELISA. IL4-590 polymorphisms were genotyped using RFLP-PCR. Statistical analyses of the IgG subclass levels were done by Oneway ANOVA. Genotype differences were tested by Chi-squared test. Results The IL4-590T allele was significantly associated with anti-P. falciparum IgG3 antibody levels in patients with complicated (P = 0.031, but not with uncomplicated malaria (P = 0.622. Complicated malaria patients with previous malaria experiences carrying IL4-590TT genotype had significantly lower levels of anti-P. falciparum IgG3 (P = 0.0156, while uncomplicated malaria patients with previous malaria experiences carrying the same genotype had significantly higher levels (P = 0.0206 compared to their IL4-590 counterparts. The different anti-P. falciparum IgG1 and IgG3 levels among IL4 genotypes were observed. Complicated malaria patients with previous malaria experiences tended to have lower IgG3 levels in individuals carrying TT when compared to CT genotypes (P = 0.075. In contrast, complicated malaria patients without previous malaria experiences carrying CC genotype had significantly higher anti-P. falciparum IgG1 than those carrying either CT or TT genotypes (P = 0.004, P = 0.002, respectively. Conclusion The results suggest that IL4-590C or T alleles participated differently in the

Reciprocity, culture and human cooperation: previous insights and a new cross-cultural experiment.

Science.gov (United States)

Gächter, Simon; Herrmann, Benedikt

2009-03-27

Understanding the proximate and ultimate sources of human cooperation is a fundamental issue in all behavioural sciences. In this paper, we review the experimental evidence on how people solve cooperation problems. Existing studies show without doubt that direct and indirect reciprocity are important determinants of successful cooperation. We also discuss the insights from a large literature on the role of peer punishment in sustaining cooperation. The experiments demonstrate that many people are 'strong reciprocators' who are willing to cooperate and punish others even if there are no gains from future cooperation or any other reputational gains. We document this in new one-shot experiments, which we conducted in four cities in Russia and Switzerland. Our cross-cultural approach allows us furthermore to investigate how the cultural background influences strong reciprocity. Our results show that culture has a strong influence on positive and in especially strong negative reciprocity. In particular, we find large cross-cultural differences in 'antisocial punishment' of pro-social cooperators. Further cross-cultural research and experiments involving different socio-demographic groups document that the antisocial punishment is much more widespread than previously assumed. Understanding antisocial punishment is an important task for future research because antisocial punishment is a strong inhibitor of cooperation.

TU-CD-BRD-01: Making Incident Learning Practical and Useful: Challenges and Previous Experiences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ezzell, G.

2015-01-01

It has long been standard practice in radiation oncology to report internally when a patient’s treatment has not gone as planned and to report events to regulatory agencies when legally required. Most potential errors are caught early and never affect the patient. Quality assurance steps routinely prevent errors from reaching the patient, and these “near misses” are much more frequent than treatment errors. A growing number of radiation oncology facilities have implemented incident learning systems to report and analyze both errors and near misses. Using the term “incident learning” instead of “event reporting” emphasizes the need to use these experiences to change the practice and make future errors less likely and promote an educational, non-punitive environment. There are challenges in making such a system practical and effective. Speakers from institutions of different sizes and practice environments will share their experiences on how to make such a system work and what benefits their clinics have accrued. Questions that will be addressed include: How to create a system that is easy for front line staff to access How to motivate staff to report How to promote the system as positive and educational and not punitive or demeaning How to organize the team for reviewing and responding to reports How to prioritize which reports to discuss in depth How not to dismiss the rest How to identify underlying causes How to design corrective actions and implement change How to develop useful statistics and analysis tools How to coordinate a departmental system with a larger risk management system How to do this without a dedicated quality manager Some speakers’ experience is with in-house systems and some will share experience with the AAPM/ASTRO national Radiation Oncology Incident Learning System (RO-ILS). Reports intended to be of value nationally need to be comprehensible to outsiders; examples of useful reports will be shown. There will be ample time set

TU-CD-BRD-01: Making Incident Learning Practical and Useful: Challenges and Previous Experiences

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ezzell, G. [Mayo Clinic Arizona (United States)

2015-06-15

It has long been standard practice in radiation oncology to report internally when a patient’s treatment has not gone as planned and to report events to regulatory agencies when legally required. Most potential errors are caught early and never affect the patient. Quality assurance steps routinely prevent errors from reaching the patient, and these “near misses” are much more frequent than treatment errors. A growing number of radiation oncology facilities have implemented incident learning systems to report and analyze both errors and near misses. Using the term “incident learning” instead of “event reporting” emphasizes the need to use these experiences to change the practice and make future errors less likely and promote an educational, non-punitive environment. There are challenges in making such a system practical and effective. Speakers from institutions of different sizes and practice environments will share their experiences on how to make such a system work and what benefits their clinics have accrued. Questions that will be addressed include: How to create a system that is easy for front line staff to access How to motivate staff to report How to promote the system as positive and educational and not punitive or demeaning How to organize the team for reviewing and responding to reports How to prioritize which reports to discuss in depth How not to dismiss the rest How to identify underlying causes How to design corrective actions and implement change How to develop useful statistics and analysis tools How to coordinate a departmental system with a larger risk management system How to do this without a dedicated quality manager Some speakers’ experience is with in-house systems and some will share experience with the AAPM/ASTRO national Radiation Oncology Incident Learning System (RO-ILS). Reports intended to be of value nationally need to be comprehensible to outsiders; examples of useful reports will be shown. There will be ample time set

Chemical-genetic profile analysis in yeast suggests that a previously uncharacterized open reading frame, YBR261C, affects protein synthesis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eroukova Veronika

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Functional genomics has received considerable attention in the post-genomic era, as it aims to identify function(s for different genes. One way to study gene function is to investigate the alterations in the responses of deletion mutants to different stimuli. Here we investigate the genetic profile of yeast non-essential gene deletion array (yGDA, ~4700 strains for increased sensitivity to paromomycin, which targets the process of protein synthesis. Results As expected, our analysis indicated that the majority of deletion strains (134 with increased sensitivity to paromomycin, are involved in protein biosynthesis. The remaining strains can be divided into smaller functional categories: metabolism (45, cellular component biogenesis and organization (28, DNA maintenance (21, transport (20, others (38 and unknown (39. These may represent minor cellular target sites (side-effects for paromomycin. They may also represent novel links to protein synthesis. One of these strains carries a deletion for a previously uncharacterized ORF, YBR261C, that we term TAE1 for Translation Associated Element 1. Our focused follow-up experiments indicated that deletion of TAE1 alters the ribosomal profile of the mutant cells. Also, gene deletion strain for TAE1 has defects in both translation efficiency and fidelity. Miniaturized synthetic genetic array analysis further indicates that TAE1 genetically interacts with 16 ribosomal protein genes. Phenotypic suppression analysis using TAE1 overexpression also links TAE1 to protein synthesis. Conclusion We show that a previously uncharacterized ORF, YBR261C, affects the process of protein synthesis and reaffirm that large-scale genetic profile analysis can be a useful tool to study novel gene function(s.

Chemical-genetic profile analysis in yeast suggests that a previously uncharacterized open reading frame, YBR261C, affects protein synthesis.

Science.gov (United States)

Alamgir, Md; Eroukova, Veronika; Jessulat, Matthew; Xu, Jianhua; Golshani, Ashkan

2008-12-03

Functional genomics has received considerable attention in the post-genomic era, as it aims to identify function(s) for different genes. One way to study gene function is to investigate the alterations in the responses of deletion mutants to different stimuli. Here we investigate the genetic profile of yeast non-essential gene deletion array (yGDA, approximately 4700 strains) for increased sensitivity to paromomycin, which targets the process of protein synthesis. As expected, our analysis indicated that the majority of deletion strains (134) with increased sensitivity to paromomycin, are involved in protein biosynthesis. The remaining strains can be divided into smaller functional categories: metabolism (45), cellular component biogenesis and organization (28), DNA maintenance (21), transport (20), others (38) and unknown (39). These may represent minor cellular target sites (side-effects) for paromomycin. They may also represent novel links to protein synthesis. One of these strains carries a deletion for a previously uncharacterized ORF, YBR261C, that we term TAE1 for Translation Associated Element 1. Our focused follow-up experiments indicated that deletion of TAE1 alters the ribosomal profile of the mutant cells. Also, gene deletion strain for TAE1 has defects in both translation efficiency and fidelity. Miniaturized synthetic genetic array analysis further indicates that TAE1 genetically interacts with 16 ribosomal protein genes. Phenotypic suppression analysis using TAE1 overexpression also links TAE1 to protein synthesis. We show that a previously uncharacterized ORF, YBR261C, affects the process of protein synthesis and reaffirm that large-scale genetic profile analysis can be a useful tool to study novel gene function(s).

Both Direct and Vicarious Experiences of Nature Affect Children's Willingness to Conserve Biodiversity.

Science.gov (United States)

Soga, Masashi; Gaston, Kevin J; Yamaura, Yuichi; Kurisu, Kiyo; Hanaki, Keisuke

2016-05-25

Children are becoming less likely to have direct contact with nature. This ongoing loss of human interactions with nature, the extinction of experience, is viewed as one of the most fundamental obstacles to addressing global environmental challenges. However, the consequences for biodiversity conservation have been examined very little. Here, we conducted a questionnaire survey of elementary schoolchildren and investigated effects of the frequency of direct (participating in nature-based activities) and vicarious experiences of nature (reading books or watching TV programs about nature and talking about nature with parents or friends) on their affective attitudes (individuals' emotional feelings) toward and willingness to conserve biodiversity. A total of 397 children participated in the surveys in Tokyo. Children's affective attitudes and willingness to conserve biodiversity were positively associated with the frequency of both direct and vicarious experiences of nature. Path analysis showed that effects of direct and vicarious experiences on children's willingness to conserve biodiversity were mediated by their affective attitudes. This study demonstrates that children who frequently experience nature are likely to develop greater emotional affinity to and support for protecting biodiversity. We suggest that children should be encouraged to experience nature and be provided with various types of these experiences.

Previous experiences and emotional baggage as barriers to lifestyle change - a qualitative study of Norwegian Healthy Life Centre participants.

Science.gov (United States)

Følling, Ingrid S; Solbjør, Marit; Helvik, Anne-S

2015-06-23

Changing lifestyle is challenging and difficult. The Norwegian Directorate of Health recommends that all municipalities establish Healthy Life Centres targeted to people with lifestyle issues. Little is known about the background, experiences and reflections of participants. More information is needed about participants to shape effective lifestyle interventions with lasting effect. This study explores how participants in a lifestyle intervention programme describe previous life experiences in relation to changing lifestyle. Semi-structured qualitative in-depth interviews were performed with 23 participants (16 women and 7 men) aged 18 - 70 years. The data were analysed using systematic text condensation searching for issues describing participants' responses, and looking for the essence, aiming to share the basis of life-world experiences as valid knowledge. Participants identified two main themes: being stuck in old habits, and being burdened with emotional baggage from their previous negative experiences. Participants expressed a wish to change their lifestyles, but were unable to act in accordance with the health knowledge they possessed. Previous experiences with lifestyle change kept them from initiating attempts without professional assistance. Participants also described being burdened by an emotional baggage with problems from childhood and/or with family, work and social life issues. Respondents said that they felt that emotional baggage was an important explanation for why they were stuck in old habits and that conversely, being stuck in old habits added load to their already emotional baggage and made it heavier. Behavioural change can be hard to perform as psychological distress from life baggage can influence the ability to change. The study participants' experience of being stuck in old habits and having substantial emotional baggage raises questions as to whether or not Healthy Life Centres are able to help participants who need to make a lifestyle

Psycho-physiological characteristics of students-powerlifters of different training experience, who have affections of muscular skeletal apparatus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V.S. Lobko

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Purpose: study of many years’ power lifting trainings influence on psycho-physiological and other characteristics of students, who have affections of muscular skeletal apparatus. Material: the research covered 73 students of 18-22 yrs. Age, who have different training experience. To exclude influence of previous training on experiment’s results, researches were conducted after 2-3 days of rest. The author studied personality’s features (by T. Elers. Psychological diagnostic was conducted by methodic of M.V. Makarenko. Results: different psycho-physiological characteristics, indicators of psychological state and personality’s features were found in students, depending on their power lifting training experience. Improvement of functional and nervous power indicators under influence of systemic power lifting trainings was detected. Conclusions: it was determined that improvement of students’ sportsmanship is accompanied by noticeable improvement of practically all tested indicators.

Does the patients′ educational level and previous counseling affect their medication knowledge?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdulmalik M Alkatheri

2013-01-01

Conclusions: The education level of the patient and previous counseling are positively linked to medication knowledge. Knowledge of the medications′ side effects proved to be the most difficult task for the participants in this study, requiring the highest level of education, and was improved by previous counseling.

Dealing with Stigma: Experiences of Persons Affected by Disabilities and Leprosy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lusli, M.M.; Zweekhorst, M.B.M.; Miranda Galarza, H.B.; Peters, R.M.H.; Cummings, S.J.R.; Seda, F.S.S.E.; Bunders-Aelen, J.G.F.

2015-01-01

Persons affected by leprosy or by disabilities face forms of stigma that have an impact on their lives. This study seeks to establish whether their experiences of stigma are similar, with a view to enabling the two groups of people to learn from each other. Accounts of experiences of the impact of

Does previous open surgical experience have any influence on robotic surgery simulation exercises?

Science.gov (United States)

Cumpanas, Alin Adrian; Bardan, Razvan; Ferician, Ovidiu Catalin; Latcu, Silviu Constantin; Duta, Ciprian; Lazar, Fulger Octavian

2017-12-01

Within the last years, there has been a trend in many hospitals to switch their surgical activity from open/laparoscopic procedures to robotic surgery. Some open surgeons have been shifting their activity to robotic surgery. It is still unclear whether there is a transfer of open surgical skills to robotic ones. To evaluate whether such transfer of skills occurs and to identify which specific skills are more significantly transferred from the operative table to the console. Twenty-five volunteers were included in the study, divided into 2 groups: group A (15 participants) - medical students (without any surgical experience in open, laparoscopic or robotic surgery); and group B (10 participants) - surgeons with exclusively open surgical experience, without any previous laparoscopic or robotic experience. Participants were asked to complete 3 robotic simulator console exercises structured from the easiest one (Peg Board) to the toughest one (Sponge Suture). Overall scores for each exercise as well as specific metrics were compared between the two groups. There were no significant differences between overall scores of the two groups for the easiest task. Overall scores were better for group B as the exercises got more complex. For the intermediate and high-difficulty level exercises, most of the specific metrics were better for group B, with the exception of the working master space item. Our results suggest that the open surgical skills transfer to robotic skills, at least for the very beginning of the training process.

Out of mind, out of heart: attention affects duration of emotional experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Freund, Alexandra M; Keil, Andreas

2013-01-01

It has been suggested that the extent to which a person maintains attention to pleasant versus unpleasant aspects of a given stimulus has an effect on the self-reported affective state. This assumption was empirically tested in two experiments. In Study 1, participants received the instruction either to focus on a positive emotion-eliciting event (winning a tournament chess game) or to focus their attention on an affectively neutral distraction task (describing drawings). Study 2 used negative performance feedback in a cognitive task to induce unpleasant affect and included three experimental groups (waiting condition, continuing with the same cognitive task, distraction by a different cognitive task). Results converged to show that distracting attention away from the emotion-eliciting event leads to a shorter duration of the emotional experience. These findings support the attention-focus hypothesis.

How training and experience affect the benefits of autonomy in a dirty-bomb experiment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

David J. Bruemmer; Curtis W. Nielsen; David I. Gertman

2008-03-01

A dirty-bomb experiment conducted at the INL is used to evaluate the effectiveness and suitability of three different modes of robot control. The experiment uses three distinct user groups to understand how participants’ background and training affect the way in which they use and benefit from autonomy. The results show that the target mode, which involves automated mapping and plume tracing together with a point and click tasking tool, provides the best performance for each group. This is true for objective performance such as source detection and localization accuracy as well as subjective measures such as perceived workload, frustration and preference. The best overall performance is achieved by the Explosive Ordinance Disposal group which has experience in both robot teleoperation and dirty bomb response. The user group that benefits least from autonomy is the Nuclear Engineers that have no experience with either robot operation or dirty bomb response. The group that benefits most from autonomy is the Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Response Team that has extensive experience related to the task, but no robot training.

Vicarious experience affects patients' treatment preferences for depression.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seth A Berkowitz

Full Text Available Depression is common in primary care but often under-treated. Personal experiences with depression can affect adherence to therapy, but the effect of vicarious experience is unstudied. We sought to evaluate the association between a patient's vicarious experiences with depression (those of friends or family and treatment preferences for depressive symptoms.We sampled 1054 English and/or Spanish speaking adult subjects from July through December 2008, randomly selected from the 2008 California Behavioral Risk Factor Survey System, regarding depressive symptoms and treatment preferences. We then constructed a unidimensional scale using item analysis that reflects attitudes about antidepressant pharmacotherapy. This became the dependent variable in linear regression analyses to examine the association between vicarious experiences and treatment preferences for depressive symptoms.Our sample was 68% female, 91% white, and 13% Hispanic. Age ranged from 18-94 years. Mean PHQ-9 score was 4.3; 14.5% of respondents had a PHQ-9 score >9.0, consistent with active depressive symptoms. Analyses controlling for current depression symptoms and socio-demographic factors found that in patients both with (coefficient 1.08, p = 0.03 and without (coefficient 0.77, p = 0.03 a personal history of depression, having a vicarious experience (family and friend, respectively with depression is associated with a more favorable attitude towards antidepressant medications.Patients with vicarious experiences of depression express more acceptance of pharmacotherapy. Conversely, patients lacking vicarious experiences of depression have more negative attitudes towards antidepressants. When discussing treatment with patients, clinicians should inquire about vicarious experiences of depression. This information may identify patients at greater risk for non-adherence and lead to more tailored patient-specific education about treatment.

Previous International Experience, Cross-Cultural Training, and Expatriates' Cross-Cultural Adjustment: Effects of Cultural Intelligence and Goal Orientation

Science.gov (United States)

Koo Moon, Hyoung; Kwon Choi, Byoung; Shik Jung, Jae

2012-01-01

Although various antecedents of expatriates' cross-cultural adjustment have been addressed, previous international experience, predeparture cross-cultural training, and cultural intelligence (CQ) have been most frequently examined. However, there are few attempts that explore the effects of these antecedents simultaneously or consider the possible…

Elementary Teachers' Experiences of Departmentalized Instruction and Its Impact on Student Affect

Science.gov (United States)

Minott, Robert Charles

2016-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative dissertation was to explore the lived experiences of departmentalized elementary teachers, Grades 1-3, and how they addressed their students' affective needs. The main research question of the study was how do elementary school teachers perceive departmentalized instruction and describe their experiences of this…

Both Direct and Vicarious Experiences of Nature Affect Children’s Willingness to Conserve Biodiversity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Masashi Soga

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Children are becoming less likely to have direct contact with nature. This ongoing loss of human interactions with nature, the extinction of experience, is viewed as one of the most fundamental obstacles to addressing global environmental challenges. However, the consequences for biodiversity conservation have been examined very little. Here, we conducted a questionnaire survey of elementary schoolchildren and investigated effects of the frequency of direct (participating in nature-based activities and vicarious experiences of nature (reading books or watching TV programs about nature and talking about nature with parents or friends on their affective attitudes (individuals’ emotional feelings toward and willingness to conserve biodiversity. A total of 397 children participated in the surveys in Tokyo. Children’s affective attitudes and willingness to conserve biodiversity were positively associated with the frequency of both direct and vicarious experiences of nature. Path analysis showed that effects of direct and vicarious experiences on children’s willingness to conserve biodiversity were mediated by their affective attitudes. This study demonstrates that children who frequently experience nature are likely to develop greater emotional affinity to and support for protecting biodiversity. We suggest that children should be encouraged to experience nature and be provided with various types of these experiences.

Cross-species affective neuroscience decoding of the primal affective experiences of humans and related animals.

Science.gov (United States)

Panksepp, Jaak

2011-01-01

The issue of whether other animals have internally felt experiences has vexed animal behavioral science since its inception. Although most investigators remain agnostic on such contentious issues, there is now abundant experimental evidence indicating that all mammals have negatively and positively-valenced emotional networks concentrated in homologous brain regions that mediate affective experiences when animals are emotionally aroused. That is what the neuroscientific evidence indicates. The relevant lines of evidence are as follows: 1) It is easy to elicit powerful unconditioned emotional responses using localized electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB); these effects are concentrated in ancient subcortical brain regions. Seven types of emotional arousals have been described; using a special capitalized nomenclature for such primary process emotional systems, they are SEEKING, RAGE, FEAR, LUST, CARE, PANIC/GRIEF and PLAY. 2) These brain circuits are situated in homologous subcortical brain regions in all vertebrates tested. Thus, if one activates FEAR arousal circuits in rats, cats or primates, all exhibit similar fear responses. 3) All primary-process emotional-instinctual urges, even ones as complex as social PLAY, remain intact after radical neo-decortication early in life; thus, the neocortex is not essential for the generation of primary-process emotionality. 4) Using diverse measures, one can demonstrate that animals like and dislike ESB of brain regions that evoke unconditioned instinctual emotional behaviors: Such ESBs can serve as 'rewards' and 'punishments' in diverse approach and escape/avoidance learning tasks. 5) Comparable ESB of human brains yield comparable affective experiences. Thus, robust evidence indicates that raw primary-process (i.e., instinctual, unconditioned) emotional behaviors and feelings emanate from homologous brain functions in all mammals (see Appendix S1), which are regulated by higher brain regions. Such findings suggest

Cross-species affective neuroscience decoding of the primal affective experiences of humans and related animals.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaak Panksepp

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The issue of whether other animals have internally felt experiences has vexed animal behavioral science since its inception. Although most investigators remain agnostic on such contentious issues, there is now abundant experimental evidence indicating that all mammals have negatively and positively-valenced emotional networks concentrated in homologous brain regions that mediate affective experiences when animals are emotionally aroused. That is what the neuroscientific evidence indicates. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The relevant lines of evidence are as follows: 1 It is easy to elicit powerful unconditioned emotional responses using localized electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB; these effects are concentrated in ancient subcortical brain regions. Seven types of emotional arousals have been described; using a special capitalized nomenclature for such primary process emotional systems, they are SEEKING, RAGE, FEAR, LUST, CARE, PANIC/GRIEF and PLAY. 2 These brain circuits are situated in homologous subcortical brain regions in all vertebrates tested. Thus, if one activates FEAR arousal circuits in rats, cats or primates, all exhibit similar fear responses. 3 All primary-process emotional-instinctual urges, even ones as complex as social PLAY, remain intact after radical neo-decortication early in life; thus, the neocortex is not essential for the generation of primary-process emotionality. 4 Using diverse measures, one can demonstrate that animals like and dislike ESB of brain regions that evoke unconditioned instinctual emotional behaviors: Such ESBs can serve as 'rewards' and 'punishments' in diverse approach and escape/avoidance learning tasks. 5 Comparable ESB of human brains yield comparable affective experiences. Thus, robust evidence indicates that raw primary-process (i.e., instinctual, unconditioned emotional behaviors and feelings emanate from homologous brain functions in all mammals (see Appendix S1, which are regulated by

Affect and self-efficacy infuse the experience of ambivalent photographs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muth Claudia

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Ambivalent pictures offer several interpretations of different valence-e.g., some photographs by Claudia Otto document scenes which can be perceived as sad or happy, dangerous or sweet, and so on. We show that task experiences influence the experienced valence of these images. Previous work already documented that responses to images are task-dependent and self-created insights heighten pleasure. A resulting positive mood and high self-efficacy might broaden attention to positive valence. In contrast, low self-efficacy leads to the prediction of negative task experiences and strengthens the salience of a positive experience. In our study, participants rated the valence of ambivalent photographs to be more positive after positive feedback regarding the accomplishment of a precedent puzzle. We revealed a trend of positive feedback being more effective when it followed negative experiences. The experience of ambivalent images is strongly linked to mood and self-efficacy and both is influenced by taskexperiences in psycho-aesthetic studies.

Theorizing One Learner’s Perceived Affective Experiences and Performances from a Dynamic Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luanyi Xiao

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the perceptions of one Chinese learner of English at a university. From a Dynamic System Theory (DST perspective, the student’s perceptions, affective experiences and classroom learning will be explored by identifying the non-linear relationships between them. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between the student’s perceived affective experiences and her self-reported performances in a foreign language classroom. The participant was a second-year university student from a foreign language university in China. Diary, questionnaire, semi-structured interview, and class observation were applied to investigate this 6-month longitudinal study. Emotional ambivalence including several different affective patterns and five attractor states, namely, Integrative Disposition, Amotivation, Autonomy, Actual Learning Process and Language Awareness were identified.

Clouds and silver linings: positive experiences associated with primary affective disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Jamison, K R; Gerner, R H; Hammen, C; Padesky, C

1980-02-01

Clinical psychiatry has focused almost entirely on the psychopathology of the affective disorders. The authors studied responses of 61 patients (35 bipolar. 26 unipolar) to questions about perceived short- and long-term benefits (increased sensitivity, sexuality, productivity, creativity, and social outgoingness) they attributed to their affective illness. Bipolar patients strongly indicated positive experiences associated with manic-depressive illness; few unipolar patients perceived their disorder in such a way. Significant sex differences emerged in the attributions made by bipolar patients.

How stimuli presentation format affects visual attention and choice outcomes in choice experiments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Orquin, Jacob Lund; Mueller Loose, Simone

This study analyses visual attention and part-worth utilities in choice experiments across three different choice stimuli presentation formats. Visual attention and choice behaviour in discrete choice experiments are found to be strongly affected by stimuli presentation format. These results...

Orthographic Consistency Affects Spoken Word Recognition at Different Grain-Sizes

Science.gov (United States)

Dich, Nadya

2014-01-01

A number of previous studies found that the consistency of sound-to-spelling mappings (feedback consistency) affects spoken word recognition. In auditory lexical decision experiments, words that can only be spelled one way are recognized faster than words with multiple potential spellings. Previous studies demonstrated this by manipulating…

Affective experience and motivated behavior in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: Evidence from clinical and nonclinical samples.

Science.gov (United States)

Lui, Simon S Y; Shi, Yan-Fang; Au, Angie C W; Li, Zhi; Tsui, Chi F; Chan, Constance K Y; Leung, Meranda M W; Wong, Peony T Y; Wang, Yi; Yan, Chao; Heerey, Erin A; Cheung, Eric F C; Chan, Raymond C K

2016-09-01

Individuals with schizophrenia have been found to exhibit emotion-behavior decoupling, particularly with respect to anticipated, rather than experienced events. However, previous research has focused on how emotion valence translates into motivated behavior, ignoring the fact that emotion arousal should also modulate emotion-behavior coupling. Few studies have examined emotion-behavior coupling in prepsychotic conditions. This investigation aimed to examine the nature and extent of emotion valence- and arousal-behavior coupling across the schizophrenia spectrum. We examine how emotional valence and arousal couple with behavior in 3 groups of individuals (25 individuals with chronic schizophrenia; 27 individuals early in the disease course, and 31 individuals reporting negative schizotypal symptoms). Participants completed a task using slides to elicit emotion and evoke motivated behavior. We compared participants with their respective matched control groups to determine differences in the correspondence between self-reported emotion valence/arousal and motivated behavior. Both groups with schizophrenia reported similar affective experiences as their controls, whereas individuals reporting negative schizotypal symptoms showed "in-the-moment" anhedonia but not emotion-behavior decoupling. In addition, the schizophrenia groups' affective experiences corresponded less well to their behavior relative to controls. Our findings suggest emotion-behavior decoupling along both valence and arousal dimensions in schizophrenia but not in participants with high levels of schizotypal symptoms. Findings appear to support the idea that emotion-behavior decoupling differs in nature and extent across the schizophrenia spectrum. Interventions to recouple emotion and behavior may be particularly helpful in allowing people with schizophrenia to gain functional independence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

"Experience Isn't Everything": How Emotion Affects the Relationship Between Experience and Cue Utilization.

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Crane, Monique Frances; Brouwers, Sue; Wiggins, Mark William; Loveday, Thomas; Forrest, Kirsty; Tan, Suyin Giselle Marianne; Cyna, Allan Michael

2018-04-01

This research examined whether negative and positive arousal emotions modify the relationship between experience level and cue utilization among anesthetists. The capacity of a practitioner to form precise associations between clusters of features (e.g., symptoms) and events (e.g., diagnosis) and then act on them is known as cue utilization. A common assumption is that practice experience allows opportunities for cue acquisition and cue utilization. However, this relationship is often not borne out in research findings. This study investigates the role of emotional state in this relationship. An online tool (EXPERTise 2.0) was used to assess practitioner cue utilization for tasks relevant to anesthesia. The experience of positive and negative arousal emotions in the previous three days was measured, and emotion clusters were generated. Experience was measured as the composite of practice years and hours of practice experience. The moderating role of emotion on the relationship between experience and cue utilization was examined. Data on 125 anesthetists (36% female) were included in the analysis. The predicted interaction between arousal emotions and the experience level emerged. In particular, post hoc analyses revealed that anxiety-related emotions facilitated the likelihood of high cue utilization in less experienced practitioners. The findings suggest a role for emotions in cue use and suggest a functional role for normal range anxiety emotions in a simulated work-relevant task. This research illustrates the importance of understanding the potentially functional effects common negative arousal emotions may have on clinical performance, particularly for those with less experience.

How differentiated do children experience affect? An investigation of the within- and between-person structure of children's affect.

Science.gov (United States)

Leonhardt, Anja; Könen, Tanja; Dirk, Judith; Schmiedek, Florian

2016-05-01

Research on the structure of children's affect is limited. It is possible that children's perception of their own affect might be less differentiated than that of adults. Support for the 2-factor model of positive and negative affect and the pleasure-arousal model suggests that children in middle childhood can distinguish positive and negative affect as well as valence and arousal. Whether children are able to differentiate further aspects of affect, as proposed by the 3-dimensional model of affect (good-bad mood, alertness-tiredness, calmness-tension), is an unresolved issue. The aim of our study was the comparison of these 3 affect models to establish how differentiated children experience their affect and which model best describes affect in children. We examined affect structures on the between- and within-person level, acknowledging that affect varies across time and that no valid interpretation of either level is feasible if both are confounded. For this purpose, 214 children (age 8-11 years) answered affect items once a day for 5 consecutive days on smartphones. We tested all affect models by means of 2-level confirmatory factor analysis. Although all affect models had an acceptable fit, the 3-dimensional model best described affect in children on both the within- and between-person level. Thus, children in middle childhood can already describe affect in a differentiated way. Also, affect structures were similar on the within- and between-person level. We conclude that in order to acquire a thorough picture of children's affect, measures for children should include items of all 3 affect dimensions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Affective monitoring: A generic mechanism for affect elicitation

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Hans ePhaf

2012-03-01

Full Text Available In this paper we sketch a new framework for affect elicitation, which is based on previous evolutionary and connectionist modeling and experimental work from our group. Affective monitoring is considered a local match-mismatch process within a module of the neural network. Negative affect is raised instantly by mismatches, incongruency, disfluency, novelty, incoherence, and dissonance, whereas positive affect follows from matches, congruency, fluency, familiarity, coherence, and resonance, at least when an initial mismatch can be solved quickly. Affective monitoring is considered an evolutionary-early conflict and change detection process operating at the same level as, for instance, attentional selection. It runs in parallel and imparts affective flavour to emotional behavior systems, which involve evolutionary-prepared stimuli and action tendencies related to for instance defensive, exploratory, attachment, or appetitive behavior. Positive affect is represented in the networks by high-frequency oscillations, presumably in the gamma band. Negative affect corresponds to more incoherent lower-frequency oscillations, presumably in the theta band. For affect to become conscious, large-scale synchronization of the oscillations over the network and the construction of emotional experiences are required. These constructions involve perceptions of bodily states and action tendencies, but also appraisals as well as efforts to regulate the emotion. Importantly, affective monitoring accompanies every kind of information processing, but conscious emotions, which result from the later integration of affect in a cognitive context, are much rarer events.

Differences between previously married and never married 'gay' men: family background, childhood experiences and current attitudes.

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Higgins, Daryl J

2004-01-01

Despite a large body of literature on the development of sexual orientation, little is known about why some gay men have been (or remain) married to a woman. In the current study, a self-selected sample of 43 never married gay men ('never married') and 26 gay men who were married to a woman ('previously married') completed a self-report questionnaire. Hypotheses were based on five possible explanations for gay men's marriages: (a) differences in sexual orientation (i.e., bisexuality); (b) internalized homophobia; (c) religious intolerance; (d) confusion created because of childhood/adolescent sexual experiences; and/or (e) poor psychological adjustment. Previously married described their families' religious beliefs as more fundamentalist than never married. No differences were found between married' and never married' ratings of their sexual orientation and identity, and levels of homophobia and self-depreciation. Family adaptability and family cohesion and the degree to which respondents reported having experienced child maltreatment did not distinguish between previously married and never married. The results highlight how little is understood of the reasons why gay men marry, and the need to develop an adequate theoretical model.

Sensibility, Narcissism and Affect: Using Immersive Practices in Design for Embodied Experience

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Jocelyn Spence

2018-04-01

Full Text Available ‘Embodiment’ need not focus on isolated individuals or group interactions. This article articulates the potential for designs that prompt participants to bring relationships with other people to mind. These can be fleeting relationships between participants and unknown others, or remembered relationships with romantic partners, family members, or close friends who are not physically co-present or digitally represented. In either case, it is possible to generate affective responses that profoundly shape participants’ emotional and physical reactions to, and co-creation of, the designed interaction. This article presents existing practices of immersive theatre to frame our exploration of this phenomenon. It introduces three theories—mise-en-sensibilité, narcissistic spectatorship and affect—through which we illuminate both the internally felt and the externally designed experience, whether or not it is explicitly framed as theatrical performance. Through analysis of two immersive performances (one-on-one interactions that could easily be understood in terms of experience design and two designs of our own, we argue that the affect generated by personal relationships in immersive experiences can both shape and drive participation, and we offer a three-point guideline by which one can design for the affective consequences of bringing relationships to mind.

Dealing with Stigma: Experiences of Persons Affected by Disabilities and Leprosy

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Mimi Lusli

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Persons affected by leprosy or by disabilities face forms of stigma that have an impact on their lives. This study seeks to establish whether their experiences of stigma are similar, with a view to enabling the two groups of people to learn from each other. Accounts of experiences of the impact of stigma were obtained using in-depth interviews and focus group discussion with people affected by leprosy and by disabilities not related to leprosy. The analysis shows that there are a lot of similarities in impact of stigma in terms of emotions, thoughts, behaviour, and relationships between the two groups. The main difference is that those affected by leprosy tended to frame their situation in medical terms, while those living with disabilities described their situation from a more social perspective. In conclusion, the similarities offer opportunities for interventions and the positive attitudes and behaviours can be modelled in the sense that both groups can learn and benefit. Research that tackles different aspects of stigmatization faced by both groups could lead to inclusive initiatives that help individuals to come to terms with the stigma and to advocate against exclusion and discrimination.

Intention to breastfeed in low-income pregnant women: the role of social support and previous experience.

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Humphreys, A S; Thompson, N J; Miner, K R

1998-09-01

The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between breastfeeding intention among socioeconomically disadvantaged pregnant women and maternal demographics, previous breastfeeding experience, and social support. A cross-sectional, convenience sampling strategy was employed for data collection. Low-income women (n = 1001) in a public hospital completed a six-page questionnaire about their infant feeding plans, demographics, and social support. Simple regression analyses were conducted to compare maternal breastfeeding intention with the hypothesized correlates. Breastfeeding intention was positively correlated with older maternal age, higher education, more breastfeeding experience, Hispanic ethnicity, and hearing about breastfeeding benefits from family members, the baby's father, and lactation consultants, but not from other health professionals. Health professionals' attitudes were less influential on women's infant feeding decisions than the attitudes and beliefs of members of women's social support networks. When controlling for breastfeeding experience (none vs any), some findings, varied, indicating a need for breastfeeding interventions tailored to women's level of experience. Use of peer counselors and lactation consultants, inclusion of a woman's family members in breastfeeding educational contacts, and creation of breastfeeding classes tailored to influential members of women's social support networks may improve breastfeeding rates among low-income women, especially those with no breastfeeding experience, more effectively than breastfeeding education to pregnant women that is solely conducted by health professionals.

The Relationship between Negative Affect and Reported Cognitive Failures

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Tabitha W. Payne

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to expand our understanding of the range of negative affect associated with reported problems with everyday functions and activities, measured by the cognitive failures questionnaire (CFQ. Evidence from previous research indicates that individuals meeting criteria for mood disorders, such as major depression or seasonal affective disorder, experience cognitive deficits in memory and attention that can lead to problems with everyday activities reported in the CFQ. The Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS was used to assess potential correlations with a wider range of negative emotions. Findings for a sample of 129 college students revealed that negative affective experiences were significantly correlated with failures of memory and attention on the CFQ (fear = .41, hostility = .38, sadness = .28, and guilt = .43. Conversely, positive affect was negatively correlated with distractibility (r=−.21. Additional affective scales on the PANAS (e.g., shyness and fatigue were also associated with higher reports of cognitive failures. The results provide converging evidence of a relationship between negative affective experiences and reported frequency of problems on the cognitive failures questionnaire.

Positive and negative affect produce opposing task-irrelevant stimulus preexposure effects.

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Lazar, Josef; Kaplan, Oren; Sternberg, Terri; Lubow, R E

2012-06-01

In three experiments, groups were exposed to either positive or negative affect video clips, after which they were presented with a series of task-irrelevant stimuli. In the subsequent test task, subjects were required to learn an association between the previously irrelevant stimulus and a consequence, and between a new stimulus and a consequence. Induced positive affect produced a latent inhibition effect (poorer evidence of learning with the previously irrelevant stimulus than with the novel stimulus). In opposition to this, induced negative affect resulted in better evidence of learning with a previously irrelevant stimulus than with a novel stimulus. In general, the opposing effects also were present in participants scoring high on self-report questionnaires of depression (Experiments 2 and 3). These unique findings were predicted and accounted for on the basis of two principles: (a) positive affect broadens the attentional field and negative affect contracts it; and (b) task-irrelevant stimuli are processed in two successive stages, the first encodes stimulus properties, and the second encodes stimulus relationships. The opposing influences of negative and positive mood on the processing of irrelevant stimuli have implications for the role of emotion in general theories of cognition, and possibly for resolving some of the inconsistent findings in research with schizophrenia patients.

Stability of Facial Affective Expressions in Schizophrenia

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H. Fatouros-Bergman

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Thirty-two videorecorded interviews were conducted by two interviewers with eight patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. Each patient was interviewed four times: three weekly interviews by the first interviewer and one additional interview by the second interviewer. 64 selected sequences where the patients were speaking about psychotic experiences were scored for facial affective behaviour with Emotion Facial Action Coding System (EMFACS. In accordance with previous research, the results show that patients diagnosed with schizophrenia express negative facial affectivity. Facial affective behaviour seems not to be dependent on temporality, since within-subjects ANOVA revealed no substantial changes in the amount of affects displayed across the weekly interview occasions. Whereas previous findings found contempt to be the most frequent affect in patients, in the present material disgust was as common, but depended on the interviewer. The results suggest that facial affectivity in these patients is primarily dominated by the negative emotions of disgust and, to a lesser extent, contempt and implies that this seems to be a fairly stable feature.

The Importance of Business Model Factors for Cloud Computing Adoption: Role of Previous Experiences

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Bogataj Habjan Kristina

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Background and Purpose: Bringing several opportunities for more effective and efficient IT governance and service exploitation, cloud computing is expected to impact the European and global economies significantly. Market data show that despite many advantages and promised benefits the adoption of cloud computing is not as fast and widespread as foreseen. This situation shows the need for further exploration of the potentials of cloud computing and its implementation on the market. The purpose of this research was to identify individual business model factors with the highest impact on cloud computing adoption. In addition, the aim was to identify the differences in opinion regarding the importance of business model factors on cloud computing adoption according to companies’ previous experiences with cloud computing services.

Previous experience of family violence and intimate partner violence in pregnancy.

Science.gov (United States)

Ludermir, Ana Bernarda; Araújo, Thália Velho Barreto de; Valongueiro, Sandra Alves; Muniz, Maria Luísa Corrêa; Silva, Elisabete Pereira

2017-01-01

To estimate differential associations between the exposure to violence in the family of origin and victimization and perpetration of intimate partner violence in pregnancy. A nested case-control study was carried out within a cohort study with 1,120 pregnant women aged 18-49 years old, who were registered in the Family Health Strategy of the city of Recife, State of Pernambuco, Brazil, between 2005 and 2006. The cases were the 233 women who reported intimate partner violence in pregnancy and the controls were the 499 women who did not report it. Partner violence in pregnancy and previous experiences of violence committed by parents or other family members were assessed with a standardized questionnaire. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were modeled to identify differential associations between the exposure to violence in the family of origin and victimization and perpetration of intimate partner violence in pregnancy. Having seen the mother suffer intimate partner violence was associated with physical violence in childhood (OR = 2.62; 95%CI 1.89-3.63) and in adolescence (OR = 1.47; 95%CI 1.01-2.13), sexual violence in childhood (OR = 3.28; 95%CI 1.68-6.38) and intimate partner violence during pregnancy (OR = 1.47; 95% CI 1.01 - 2.12). The intimate partner violence during pregnancy was frequent in women who reported more episodes of physical violence in childhood (OR = 2.08; 95%CI 1.43-3.02) and adolescence (OR = 1.63; 95%CI 1.07-2.47), who suffered sexual violence in childhood (OR = 3.92; 95%CI 1.86-8.27), and who perpetrated violence against the partner (OR = 8.67; 95%CI 4.57-16.45). Experiences of violence committed by parents or other family members emerge as strong risk factors for intimate partner violence in pregnancy. Identifying and understanding protective and risk factors for the emergence of intimate partner violence in pregnancy and its maintenance may help policymakers and health service managers to develop intervention strategies.

Size, but not experience, affects the ontogeny of constriction performance in ball pythons (Python regius).

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Penning, David A; Dartez, Schuyler F

2016-03-01

Constriction is a prey-immobilization technique used by many snakes and is hypothesized to have been important to the evolution and diversification of snakes. However, very few studies have examined the factors that affect constriction performance. We investigated constriction performance in ball pythons (Python regius) by evaluating how peak constriction pressure is affected by snake size, sex, and experience. In one experiment, we tested the ontogenetic scaling of constriction performance and found that snake diameter was the only significant factor determining peak constriction pressure. The number of loops applied in a coil and its interaction with snake diameter did not significantly affect constriction performance. Constriction performance in ball pythons scaled differently than in other snakes that have been studied, and medium to large ball pythons are capable of exerting significantly higher pressures than those shown to cause circulatory arrest in prey. In a second experiment, we tested the effects of experience on constriction performance in hatchling ball pythons over 10 feeding events. By allowing snakes in one test group to gain constriction experience, and manually feeding snakes under sedation in another test group, we showed that experience did not affect constriction performance. During their final (10th) feedings, all pythons constricted similarly and with sufficiently high pressures to kill prey rapidly. At the end of the 10 feeding trials, snakes that were allowed to constrict were significantly smaller than their non-constricting counterparts. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

How emotions affect logical reasoning:Evidence from experiments with mood-manipulated participants, spider phobics, and people with exam anxiety

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Nadine eJung

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Recent experimental studies show that emotions can have a significant effect on the way we think, decide, and solve problems. This paper presents a series of four experiments on how emotions affect logical reasoning. In two experiments different groups of participants first had to pass a manipulated intelligence test. Their emotional state was altered by giving them feedback, that they performed excellent, poor or on average. Then they completed a set of logical inference problems (with if p, then q statements either in a Wason selection task paradigm or problems from the logical propositional calculus. Problem content also had either a positive, negative or neutral emotional value. Results showed a clear effect of emotions on reasoning performance. Participants in negative mood performed worse than participants in positive mood, but both groups were outperformed by the neutral mood reasoners. Problem content also had an effect on reasoning performance. In a second set of experiments, participants with exam or spider phobia solved logical problems with contents that were related to their anxiety disorder (spiders or exams. Spider phobic participants’ performance was lowered by the spider-content, while exam anxious participants were not affected by the exam-related problem content. Overall, unlike some previous studies, no evidence was found that performance is improved when emotion and content are congruent. These results have consequences for cognitive reasoning research and also for cognitively oriented psychotherapy and the treatment of disorders like depression and anxiety.

How emotions affect logical reasoning: evidence from experiments with mood-manipulated participants, spider phobics, and people with exam anxiety.

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Jung, Nadine; Wranke, Christina; Hamburger, Kai; Knauff, Markus

2014-01-01

Recent experimental studies show that emotions can have a significant effect on the way we think, decide, and solve problems. This paper presents a series of four experiments on how emotions affect logical reasoning. In two experiments different groups of participants first had to pass a manipulated intelligence test. Their emotional state was altered by giving them feedback, that they performed excellent, poor or on average. Then they completed a set of logical inference problems (with if p, then q statements) either in a Wason selection task paradigm or problems from the logical propositional calculus. Problem content also had either a positive, negative or neutral emotional value. Results showed a clear effect of emotions on reasoning performance. Participants in negative mood performed worse than participants in positive mood, but both groups were outperformed by the neutral mood reasoners. Problem content also had an effect on reasoning performance. In a second set of experiments, participants with exam or spider phobia solved logical problems with contents that were related to their anxiety disorder (spiders or exams). Spider phobic participants' performance was lowered by the spider-content, while exam anxious participants were not affected by the exam-related problem content. Overall, unlike some previous studies, no evidence was found that performance is improved when emotion and content are congruent. These results have consequences for cognitive reasoning research and also for cognitively oriented psychotherapy and the treatment of disorders like depression and anxiety.

How emotions affect logical reasoning: evidence from experiments with mood-manipulated participants, spider phobics, and people with exam anxiety

Science.gov (United States)

Jung, Nadine; Wranke, Christina; Hamburger, Kai; Knauff, Markus

2014-01-01

Recent experimental studies show that emotions can have a significant effect on the way we think, decide, and solve problems. This paper presents a series of four experiments on how emotions affect logical reasoning. In two experiments different groups of participants first had to pass a manipulated intelligence test. Their emotional state was altered by giving them feedback, that they performed excellent, poor or on average. Then they completed a set of logical inference problems (with if p, then q statements) either in a Wason selection task paradigm or problems from the logical propositional calculus. Problem content also had either a positive, negative or neutral emotional value. Results showed a clear effect of emotions on reasoning performance. Participants in negative mood performed worse than participants in positive mood, but both groups were outperformed by the neutral mood reasoners. Problem content also had an effect on reasoning performance. In a second set of experiments, participants with exam or spider phobia solved logical problems with contents that were related to their anxiety disorder (spiders or exams). Spider phobic participants' performance was lowered by the spider-content, while exam anxious participants were not affected by the exam-related problem content. Overall, unlike some previous studies, no evidence was found that performance is improved when emotion and content are congruent. These results have consequences for cognitive reasoning research and also for cognitively oriented psychotherapy and the treatment of disorders like depression and anxiety. PMID:24959160

Out of mind, out of heart: Attention affects duration of emotional experience

OpenAIRE

Freund, Alexandra M; Keil, Andreas

2013-01-01

It has been suggested that the extent to which a person maintains attention to pleasant versus unpleasant aspects of a given stimulus has an effect on the self-reported affective state. This assumption was empirically tested in two experiments. In Study 1, participants received the instruction either to focus on a positive emotion-eliciting event (winning a tournament chess game) or to focus their attention on an affectively neutral distraction task (describing drawings). Study 2 used negativ...

Relationship between premature loss of primary teeth with oral hygiene, consumption of soft drinks, dental care, and previous caries experience.

Science.gov (United States)

López-Gómez, Sandra Aremy; Villalobos-Rodelo, Juan José; Ávila-Burgos, Leticia; Casanova-Rosado, Juan Fernando; Vallejos-Sánchez, Ana Alicia; Lucas-Rincón, Salvador Eduardo; Patiño-Marín, Nuria; Medina-Solís, Carlo Eduardo

2016-02-26

We determine the relationship between premature loss of primary teeth and oral hygiene, consumption of soft drinks, dental care and previous caries experience. This study focused on 833 Mexican schoolchildren aged 6-7. We performed an oral examination to determine caries experience and the simplified oral hygiene index. The dependent variable was the prevalence of at least one missing tooth (or indicated for extraction) of the primary dentition; this variable was coded as 0 = no loss of teeth and 1 = at least one lost primary tooth. The prevalence of at least one missing tooth was 24.7% (n = 206) (95% CI = 21.8-27.7). The variables that were associated with the prevalence of tooth loss (p oral hygiene (OR = 3.24), a lower frequency of brushing (OR = 1.60), an increased consumption of soda (OR = 1.89) and use of dental care (curative: OR = 2.83, preventive: OR = 1.93). This study suggests that the premature loss of teeth in the primary dentition is associated with oral hygiene, consumption of soft drinks, dental care and previous caries experience in Mexican schoolchildren. These data provide relevant information for the design of preventive dentistry programs.

Daily events are important for age differences in mean and duration for negative affect but not positive affect.

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Charles, Susan T; Mogle, Jacqueline; Urban, Emily J; Almeida, David M

2016-11-01

Across midlife and into old age, older adults often report lower levels of negative affect and similar if not higher levels of positive affect than relatively younger adults. Researchers have offered a simple explanation for this result: Age is related to reductions in stressors and increases in pleasurable activities that result in higher levels of well-being. The current study examines subjective reports of emotional experience assessed across 8 days in a large sample of adults (N = 2,022) ranging from 35 to 84 years old. By modeling age differences before and after adjusting for daily positive uplifts and negative stressors, this article assesses the extent to which daily events account for age differences in positive and negative affect reports. Consistent with previous research, the authors found that older age is related to lower mean levels and shorter duration of a negative emotional experience in a model only adjusting for gender, education, and ethnicity. After adjusting for daily events, however, the linear age-related effects were no longer significant. For positive affect, adjusting for daily events did not alter age-related patterns of experiencing higher mean levels and longer positive experience duration, suggesting that other factors underlie age-related increases in positive affect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

How Sensory Experiences of Children With and Without Autism Affect Family Occupations

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Bagby, Molly Shields; Dickie, Virginia A.; Baranek, Grace T.

2012-01-01

We used a grounded theory approach to data analysis to discover what effect, if any, children's sensory experiences have on family occupations. We chose this approach because the existing literature does not provide a theory to account for the effect of children's sensory experiences on family occupations. Parents of six children who were typically developing and six children who had autism were interviewed. We analyzed the data using open, axial, and selective coding techniques. Children's sensory experiences affect family occupations in three ways: (1) what a family chooses to do or not do; (2) how the family prepares; and (3) the extent to which experiences, meaning, and feelings are shared. PMID:22389942

Trait Dissociation and the Subjective Affective, Motivational, and Phenomenological Experience of Self-Defining Memories

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Sutin, Angelina R.; Stockdale, Gary D.

2010-01-01

The present research reports two studies that examine the relation between non-pathological trait dissociation and the subjective affect, motivation, and phenomenology of self-defining memories. In Study 1 (N=293), participants retrieved and rated the emotional and motivational experience of a general and a positive and negative achievement-related memory. Study 2 (N=449) extended these ratings to relationship-related memories and the phenomenological experience of the memory. Dissociation was associated with incongruent affect in valenced memories (e.g., positive affect in a negative memory) and memories that were visually incoherent and saturated with power motivation, hubristic pride, and shame, regardless of valence or domain. The present findings demonstrate that autobiographical memories, which integrate emotional, motivational, and phenomenological components, reflect the emotional and motivational processes inherent to dissociation. PMID:21204840

Investigating Affective Experiences in the Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory: Students' Perceptions of Control and Responsibility

Science.gov (United States)

Galloway, Kelli R.; Malakpa, Zoebedeh; Bretz, Stacey Lowery

2016-01-01

Meaningful learning requires the integration of cognitive and affective learning with the psychomotor, i.e., hands-on learning. The undergraduate chemistry laboratory is an ideal place for meaningful learning to occur. However, accurately characterizing students' affective experiences in the chemistry laboratory can be a very difficult task. While…

Previous experience of family violence and intimate partner violence in pregnancy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Bernarda Ludermir

2017-09-01

Full Text Available ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To estimate differential associations between the exposure to violence in the family of origin and victimization and perpetration of intimate partner violence in pregnancy. METHODS A nested case-control study was carried out within a cohort study with 1,120 pregnant women aged 18–49 years old, who were registered in the Family Health Strategy of the city of Recife, State of Pernambuco, Brazil, between 2005 and 2006. The cases were the 233 women who reported intimate partner violence in pregnancy and the controls were the 499 women who did not report it. Partner violence in pregnancy and previous experiences of violence committed by parents or other family members were assessed with a standardized questionnaire. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were modeled to identify differential associations between the exposure to violence in the family of origin and victimization and perpetration of intimate partner violence in pregnancy. RESULTS Having seen the mother suffer intimate partner violence was associated with physical violence in childhood (OR = 2.62; 95%CI 1.89–3.63 and in adolescence (OR = 1.47; 95%CI 1.01–2.13, sexual violence in childhood (OR = 3.28; 95%CI 1.68–6.38 and intimate partner violence during pregnancy (OR = 1.47; 95% CI 1.01 – 2.12. The intimate partner violence during pregnancy was frequent in women who reported more episodes of physical violence in childhood (OR = 2.08; 95%CI 1.43–3.02 and adolescence (OR = 1.63; 95%CI 1.07–2.47, who suffered sexual violence in childhood (OR = 3.92; 95%CI 1.86–8.27, and who perpetrated violence against the partner (OR = 8.67; 95%CI 4.57–16.45. CONCLUSIONS Experiences of violence committed by parents or other family members emerge as strong risk factors for intimate partner violence in pregnancy. Identifying and understanding protective and risk factors for the emergence of intimate partner violence in pregnancy and its maintenance may help

The Cat Is out of the Bag: The Joint Influence of Previous Experience and Looking Behavior on Infant Categorization

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Kovack-Lesh, Kristine A.; Horst, Jessica S.; Oakes, Lisa M.

2008-01-01

We examined the effect of 4-month-old infants' previous experience with dogs, cats, or both and their online looking behavior on their learning of the adult-defined category of "cat" in a visual familiarization task. Four-month-old infants' (N = 123) learning in the laboratory was jointly determined by whether or not they had experience…

Factors affecting the recreation of a story from a text : A cross-cultural experiment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Stokmans, Mia; el Aissati, Abder; Boogaard, Marianne; van den Bogaerde, Beppie; Bacchini, Sylvia; Curcic, Maja; de Jong, Nivja; le Pichon, Emanuelle; Rasier, Laurent

In this research, we regard a text as a written expression about an extraordinary experience in which the socio-economic, cultural and historical background of an author affects the way this experience is translated into a text that tells the story. From this perspective, the task of a reader is to

The blues broaden, but the nasty narrows: attentional consequences of negative affects low and high in motivational intensity.

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Gable, Philip; Harmon-Jones, Eddie

2010-02-01

Positive and negative affects high in motivational intensity cause a narrowing of attentional focus. In contrast, positive affects low in motivational intensity cause a broadening of attentional focus. The attentional consequences of negative affects low in motivational intensity have not been experimentally investigated. Experiment 1 compared the attentional consequences of negative affect low in motivational intensity (sadness) relative to a neutral affective state. Results indicated that low-motivation negative affect caused attentional broadening. Experiment 2 found that disgust, a high-motivation negative affect not previously investigated in attentional studies, narrowed attentional focus. These experiments support the conceptual model linking high-motivation affective states to narrowed attention and low-motivation affective states to broadened attention.

Working with women survivors of the Holocaust: affective experiences in transference and countertransference.

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Pines, D

1986-01-01

This paper describes and discusses some late effects of massive traumatization on two women survivors of the Holocaust. Both had appeared to recover from their affective experience of psychic death and hopelessness in Auschwitz and to have moved towards a resumption of further stages of the life cycle. The normal transitional crises of adolescence, when children emotionally separate from their parents, led to severe breakdown in both these patients. Analysis showed that denial, repression and splitting had enabled them to distance themselves from the overwhelming horror of their past, but it had also led to concrete thinking as opposed to metaphorical, and to non-differentiation of psychic and somatic pain. Their inability to dream and the absence of fantasy life in the material could neither facilitate the analytic task of working through these patients' unbearable experience, nor enable them at first to face and recover unbearable affects during the course of the analysis. Hence the analyst's acceptance of an unbearable countertransference and careful monitoring of the affects evoked proved to be an invaluable tool.

Effects of mediated social touch on affective experiences and trust

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefanie M. Erk

2015-10-01

Full Text Available This study investigated whether communication via mediated hand pressure during a remotely shared experience (watching an amusing video can (1 enhance recovery from sadness, (2 enhance the affective quality of the experience, and (3 increase trust towards the communication partner. Thereto participants first watched a sad movie clip to elicit sadness, followed by a funny one to stimulate recovery from sadness. While watching the funny clip they signaled a hypothetical fellow participant every time they felt amused. In the experimental condition the participants responded by pressing a hand-held two-way mediated touch device (a Frebble, which also provided haptic feedback via simulated hand squeezes. In the control condition they responded by pressing a button and they received abstract visual feedback. Objective (heart rate, galvanic skin conductance, number and duration of joystick or Frebble presses and subjective (questionnaires data were collected to assess the emotional reactions of the participants. The subjective measurements confirmed that the sad movie successfully induced sadness while the funny movie indeed evoked more positive feelings. Although their ranking agreed with the subjective measurements, the physiological measurements confirmed this conclusion only for the funny movie. The results show that recovery from movie induced sadness, the affective experience of the amusing movie, and trust towards the communication partner did not differ between both experimental conditions. Hence, feedback via mediated hand touching did not enhance either of these factors compared to visual feedback. Further analysis of the data showed that participants scoring low on Extraversion (i.e., persons that are more introvert or low on Touch Receptivity (i.e., persons who do not like to be touched by others felt better understood by their communication partner when receiving mediated touch feedback instead of visual feedback, while the opposite was

Effects of mediated social touch on affective experiences and trust.

Science.gov (United States)

Erk, Stefanie M; Toet, Alexander; Van Erp, Jan B F

2015-01-01

This study investigated whether communication via mediated hand pressure during a remotely shared experience (watching an amusing video) can (1) enhance recovery from sadness, (2) enhance the affective quality of the experience, and (3) increase trust towards the communication partner. Thereto participants first watched a sad movie clip to elicit sadness, followed by a funny one to stimulate recovery from sadness. While watching the funny clip they signaled a hypothetical fellow participant every time they felt amused. In the experimental condition the participants responded by pressing a hand-held two-way mediated touch device (a Frebble), which also provided haptic feedback via simulated hand squeezes. In the control condition they responded by pressing a button and they received abstract visual feedback. Objective (heart rate, galvanic skin conductance, number and duration of joystick or Frebble presses) and subjective (questionnaires) data were collected to assess the emotional reactions of the participants. The subjective measurements confirmed that the sad movie successfully induced sadness while the funny movie indeed evoked more positive feelings. Although their ranking agreed with the subjective measurements, the physiological measurements confirmed this conclusion only for the funny movie. The results show that recovery from movie induced sadness, the affective experience of the amusing movie, and trust towards the communication partner did not differ between both experimental conditions. Hence, feedback via mediated hand touching did not enhance either of these factors compared to visual feedback. Further analysis of the data showed that participants scoring low on Extraversion (i.e., persons that are more introvert) or low on Touch Receptivity (i.e., persons who do not like to be touched by others) felt better understood by their communication partner when receiving mediated touch feedback instead of visual feedback, while the opposite was found for

Come, See and Experience Affective Interactive Art

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijholt, Antinus; Bialoskorski, Leticia S.S.; Westerink, Joyce H.D.M.; Reidsma, Dennis; van den Broek, Egon; Hondorp, G.H.W.

2009-01-01

The progress in the field of affective computing enables the realization of affective consumer products, affective games, and affective art. This paper describes the affective interactive art system Mood Swings, which interprets and visualizes affect expressed by a person. Mood Swings is founded on

Nonverbal synchrony and affect in dyadic interactions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wolfgang eTschacher

2014-11-01

Full Text Available In an experiment on dyadic social interaction, we invited participants to verbal interactions in cooperative, competitive, and 'fun task' conditions. We focused on the link between interactants' affectivity and their nonverbal synchrony, and explored which further variables contributed to affectivity: interactants' personality traits, sex, and the prescribed interaction tasks. Nonverbal synchrony was quantified by the coordination of interactants' body movement, using an automated video-analysis algorithm (Motion Energy Analysis, MEA. Traits were assessed with standard questionnaires of personality, attachment, interactional style, psychopathology and interpersonal reactivity. We included 168 previously unacquainted individuals who were randomly allocated to same-sex dyads (84 females, 84 males, mean age 27.3 years. Dyads discussed four topics of general interest drawn from an urn of eight topics, and finally engaged in a fun interaction. Each interaction lasted five minutes. In between interactions, participants repeatedly assessed their affect. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we found moderate to strong effect sizes for synchrony to occur, especially in competitive and fun task conditions. Positive affect was associated positively with synchrony, negative affect was associated negatively. As for causal direction, data supported the interpretation that synchrony entailed affect rather than vice versa. The link between nonverbal synchrony and affect was strongest in female dyads. The findings extend previous reports of synchrony and mimicry associated with emotion in relationships and suggest a possible mechanism of the synchrony-affect correlation.

Is Accessing of Words Affected by Affective Valence Only? A Discrete Emotion View on the Emotional Congruency Effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Xuqian; Liu, Bo; Lin, Shouwen

2016-01-01

This paper advances the discussion on which emotion information affects word accessing. Emotion information, which is formed as a result of repeated experiences, is primary and necessary in learning and representing word meanings. Previous findings suggested that valence (i.e., positive or negative) denoted by words can be automatically activated and plays a role in many significant cognitive processes. However, there has been a lack of discussion about whether discrete emotion information (i.e., happiness, anger, sadness, and fear) is also involved in these processes. According to the hierarchy model, emotions are considered organized within an abstract-to-concrete hierarchy, in which emotion prototypes are organized following affective valence. By controlling different congruencies of emotion relations (i.e., matches or mismatches between valences and prototypes of emotion), the present study showed both an evaluative congruency effect (Experiment 1) and a discrete emotional congruency effect (Experiment 2). These findings indicate that not only affective valences but also discrete emotions can be activated under the present priming lexical decision task. However, the present findings also suggest that discrete emotions might be activated at the later priming stage as compared to valences. The present work provides evidence that information about discrete emotion could be involved in word processing. This might be a result of subjects' embodied experiences.

Orthographic consistency affects spoken word recognition at different grain-sizes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dich, Nadya

2014-01-01

A number of previous studies found that the consistency of sound-to-spelling mappings (feedback consistency) affects spoken word recognition. In auditory lexical decision experiments, words that can only be spelled one way are recognized faster than words with multiple potential spellings. Previo...

Experiences of School Principals with Newcomers from War-Affected Countries in Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Okoko, Janet Mola

2011-01-01

This article is based on the results of an exploratory study of experiences of 2 urban school principals about leading schools with immigrants from war-affected countries in Africa. It examines how they perceived their preparation for multicultural leadership, and explores lessons that leadership development institutions can learn from their…

The experience of clinical supervision for nurses and healthcare assistants in a secure adolescent service: Affecting service improvement.

Science.gov (United States)

McCarron, R H; Eade, J; Delmage, E

2018-04-01

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Regular and effective clinical supervision for mental health nurses and healthcare assistants (HCAs) is an important tool in helping to reduce stress and burnout, and in ensuring safe, effective and high-quality mental health care. Previous studies of clinical supervision within secure mental health environments have found both a low availability of clinical supervision, and a low level of staff acceptance of its value, particularly for HCAs. WHAT DOES THIS PAPER ADD TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: In previous studies, the understanding shown by HCAs and nurses around the benefits of clinical supervision may have been limited by the methods used. This study was specifically designed to help them best express their views. In contrast to previous studies, both nurses and HCAs showed a good understanding of the function and value of clinical supervision. Significant improvements in the experience of, and access to, clinical supervision for nurses and HCAs working in secure mental health services may be achieved by raising staff awareness, demonstrating organizational support and increasing monitoring of clinical supervision. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Organizations should consider reviewing their approach to supervision to include raising staff awareness, multidisciplinary supervision, group supervision, and recording and tracking of supervision rates. Organizations should be mindful of the need to provide effective clinical supervision to HCAs as well as nurses. Introduction Studies have found a low availability and appreciation of clinical supervision, especially for healthcare assistants (HCAs). Qualitative research is needed to further understand this. Aims Increase understanding of nurses' and HCAs' experiences of, and access to, clinical supervision. Identify nurses' and HCAs' perceptions of the value and function of clinical supervision. Assess how interventions affect staff's experiences of clinical supervision. Methods In

The relationship of previous training and experience of journal peer reviewers to subsequent review quality.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael L Callaham

2007-01-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Peer review is considered crucial to the selection and publication of quality science, but very little is known about the previous experiences and training that might identify high-quality peer reviewers. The reviewer selection processes of most journals, and thus the qualifications of their reviewers, are ill defined. More objective selection of peer reviewers might improve the journal peer review process and thus the quality of published science. METHODS AND FINDINGS: 306 experienced reviewers (71% of all those associated with a specialty journal completed a survey of past training and experiences postulated to improve peer review skills. Reviewers performed 2,856 reviews of 1,484 separate manuscripts during a four-year study period, all prospectively rated on a standardized quality scale by editors. Multivariable analysis revealed that most variables, including academic rank, formal training in critical appraisal or statistics, or status as principal investigator of a grant, failed to predict performance of higher-quality reviews. The only significant predictors of quality were working in a university-operated hospital versus other teaching environment and relative youth (under ten years of experience after finishing training. Being on an editorial board and doing formal grant (study section review were each predictors for only one of our two comparisons. However, the predictive power of all variables was weak. CONCLUSIONS: Our study confirms that there are no easily identifiable types of formal training or experience that predict reviewer performance. Skill in scientific peer review may be as ill defined and hard to impart as is "common sense." Without a better understanding of those skills, it seems unlikely journals and editors will be successful in systematically improving their selection of reviewers. This inability to predict performance makes it imperative that all but the smallest journals implement routine review ratings

Subsequent childbirth after a previous traumatic birth.

Science.gov (United States)

Beck, Cheryl Tatano; Watson, Sue

2010-01-01

Nine percent of new mothers in the United States who participated in the Listening to Mothers II Postpartum Survey screened positive for meeting the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder after childbirth. Women who have had a traumatic birth experience report fewer subsequent children and a longer length of time before their second baby. Childbirth-related posttraumatic stress disorder impacts couples' physical relationship, communication, conflict, emotions, and bonding with their children. The purpose of this study was to describe the meaning of women's experiences of a subsequent childbirth after a previous traumatic birth. Phenomenology was the research design used. An international sample of 35 women participated in this Internet study. Women were asked, "Please describe in as much detail as you can remember your subsequent pregnancy, labor, and delivery following your previous traumatic birth." Colaizzi's phenomenological data analysis approach was used to analyze the stories of the 35 women. Data analysis yielded four themes: (a) riding the turbulent wave of panic during pregnancy; (b) strategizing: attempts to reclaim their body and complete the journey to motherhood; (c) bringing reverence to the birthing process and empowering women; and (d) still elusive: the longed-for healing birth experience. Subsequent childbirth after a previous birth trauma has the potential to either heal or retraumatize women. During pregnancy, women need permission and encouragement to grieve their prior traumatic births to help remove the burden of their invisible pain.

Maternal condition and previous reproduction interact to affect offspring sex in a wild mammal.

Science.gov (United States)

Douhard, Mathieu; Festa-Bianchet, Marco; Pelletier, Fanie

2016-08-01

Trivers and Willard proposed that offspring sex ratio should vary with maternal condition when condition, meant as maternal capacity to care, has different fitness consequences for sons and daughters. In polygynous and dimorphic species, mothers in good condition should preferentially produce sons, whereas mothers in poor condition should produce more daughters. Despite its logical appeal, support for this hypothesis has been inconsistent. Sex-ratio variation may be influenced by additional factors, such as environmental conditions and previous reproduction, which are often ignored in empirical studies. We analysed 39 years of data on bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) that fit all the assumptions of the Trivers-Willard hypothesis. Production of sons increased with maternal condition only for mothers that weaned a son the previous year. This relationship likely reflects a mother's ability to bear the higher reproductive costs of sons. The interaction between maternal condition and previous weaning success on the probability of producing a son was independent of the positive effect of paternal reproductive success. Maternal and paternal effects accounted for similar proportions of the variance in offspring sex. Maternal reproductive history should be considered in addition to current condition in studies of sex allocation. © 2016 The Author(s).

Emotions, trust, and perceived risk: affective and cognitive routes to flood preparedness behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Terpstra, Teun

2011-10-01

Despite the prognoses of the effects of global warming (e.g., rising sea levels, increasing river discharges), few international studies have addressed how flood preparedness should be stimulated among private citizens. This article aims to predict Dutch citizens' flood preparedness intentions by testing a path model, including previous flood hazard experiences, trust in public flood protection, and flood risk perceptions (both affective and cognitive components). Data were collected through questionnaire surveys in two coastal communities (n= 169, n= 244) and in one river area community (n= 658). Causal relations were tested by means of structural equation modeling (SEM). Overall, the results indicate that both cognitive and affective mechanisms influence citizens' preparedness intentions. First, a higher level of trust reduces citizens' perceptions of flood likelihood, which in turn hampers their flood preparedness intentions (cognitive route). Second, trust also lessens the amount of dread evoked by flood risk, which in turn impedes flood preparedness intentions (affective route). Moreover, the affective route showed that levels of dread were especially influenced by citizens' negative and positive emotions related to their previous flood hazard experiences. Negative emotions most often reflected fear and powerlessness, while positive emotions most frequently reflected feelings of solidarity. The results are consistent with the affect heuristic and the historical context of Dutch flood risk management. The great challenge for flood risk management is the accommodation of both cognitive and affective mechanisms in risk communications, especially when most people lack an emotional basis stemming from previous flood hazard events. © 2011 Society for Risk Analysis.

Semantic and Affective Salience: The Role of Meaning and Preference in Attentional Capture and Disengagement

Science.gov (United States)

Biggs, Adam T.; Kreager, Ryan D.; Gibson, Bradley S.; Villano, Michael; Crowell, Charles R.

2012-01-01

Emotion appears to have a substantial impact on a wide variety of attentional functions. However, stimuli that elicit affective responses also tend to be meaningful. Here we attempted to disentangle the effects of meaning from the effects of affect on attentional capture by irrelevant distractors. Experiment 1 used a previously unfamiliar…

Is Accessing of Words Affected by Affective Valence Only? A Discrete Emotion View on the Emotional Congruency Effect

OpenAIRE

Chen, Xuqian; Liu, Bo; Lin, Shouwen

2016-01-01

This paper advances the discussion on which emotion information affects word accessing. Emotion information, which is formed as a result of repeated experiences, is primary and necessary in learning and representing word meanings. Previous findings suggested that valence (i.e., positive or negative) denoted by words can be automatically activated and plays a role in many significant cognitive processes. However, there has been a lack of discussion about whether discrete emotion information (i...

Previous bacterial infection affects textural quality parameters of heat-treated fillets from rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ingerslev, Hans-Christian; Hyldig, Grethe; Przybylska, Dominika Alicja

2012-01-01

Sensory quality of fish meat is influenced by many parameters prior to slaughter. In the present study, it was examined if previous infections or damages in the muscle tissue influence product quality parameters in fish. Fillets from rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) reared in seawater....... This article was the first to describe a correlation between previous infections in fish and changes in sensory-quality parameters. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS. This work contributes with knowledge about sensory-quality parameters of fish meat after recovery from infections and physical-tissue damage. Because...... the results demonstrate an influence on the texture from previous disease, the practical potentials of the results are valuable for the aquaculture industry. In order to minimize the effects of previous diseases on the sensory quality regarding the texture, these fishes should be processed as cold...

The body experience and stigmatizing experiences of two obese women

OpenAIRE

Holen, Helene H.

2015-01-01

Masteroppgave - Norges idrettshøgskole, 2015 This thesis addresses the themes body experiences in obese women and stigmatization of obesity. Both the prevalence of obesity and the prevalence of stigmatization of obesity is increasing. Also the amount of conducted bariatric surgeries is increasing. It has been shown in previous studies that stigmatization may affect obese people in negative manners. The objective of this thesis, is therefore to obtain an increased understandi...

The Impact of Previous Action on Bargaining—An Experiment on the Emergence of Preferences for Fairness Norms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Neumann

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The communication of participants to identify an acceptable bargaining outcome in the Nash bargaining game is all about fairness norms. Participants introduce fairness norms which yield a better outcome for themselves in order to convince the other participant of their bargaining proposal. Typically, these fairness norms are in line with theoretical predictions, which support a wide variety of different but fair outcomes the participants can choose from. In this experiment, we play two treatments of the Nash bargaining game: in one treatment, the participants play a dictator game prior to bargaining, and in the other treatment they do not. We find that participants who have not played the dictator game intensively discuss the outcome of the game and come to solutions closer to the equal split of the pie the longer they chat. This effect vanishes as soon as the participants have previous experience from a dictator game: instead of chatting, they establish the fairness norm introduced in the dictator game. Remarkably, if the dictator is unfair in the dictator game, he also gets a higher share of the pie in the Nash bargaining game.

How the Nature of Information Affects Binding in Visual Working Memory

OpenAIRE

Walt, Nicola

2007-01-01

The question of whether binding information affects the capacity of visual working memory has not been established to date. Different trends in thought have hypothesized different effects for the way information is stored in this memory system. Using a change-detection paradigm this study tested the binding of colour with colour (Experiment 1) and colour with shape (Experiment 2) in visual working memory with the aim of replicating the previously found decrement in binding perf...

Assessment of the Relationship between Recurrent High-risk Pregnancy and Mothers’ Previous Experience of Having an Infant Admitted to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sedigheh Hantoosh Zadeh

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Background & aim:  High-risk pregnancies increase the risk of Intensive Care Unit (ICU and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU admission in mothers and their newborns. In this study, we aimed to identify the association between the recurrence of high-risk pregnancy and mothers’ previous experience of having an infant admitted to NICU. Methods:We performed a cohort, retrospective study to compare subsequent pregnancy outcomes among 232 control subjects and 200 female cases with a previous experience of having a newborn requiring NICU admission due to intrauterine growth retardation, preeclampsia, preterm birth, premature rupture of membranes, and asphyxia. The information about the prevalence of subsequent high-risk pregnancies was gathered via phone calls. Results: As the results indicated, heparin, progesterone, and aspirin were more frequently administered in the case group during subsequent pregnancies, compared to the control group (P

User Experience of Mobile Interactivity: How Do Mobile Websites Affect Attitudes and Relational Outcomes?

Science.gov (United States)

Dou, Xue

2013-01-01

Mobile media offer new opportunities for fostering communications between individuals and companies. Corporate websites are being increasingly accessed via smart phones and companies are scrambling to offer a mobile-friendly user experience on their sites. However, very little is known about how interactivity in the mobile context affects user…

Research Note Effects of previous cultivation on regeneration of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

We investigated the effects of previous cultivation on regeneration potential under miombo woodlands in a resettlement area, a spatial product of Zimbabwe's land reforms. We predicted that cultivation would affect population structure, regeneration, recruitment and potential grazing capacity of rangelands. Plant attributes ...

Fundamental Value Trajectories and Trader Characteristics in an Asset Market Experiment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Breaban, A.G.; Noussair, C.N.

2014-01-01

Abstract: We report results from an asset market experiment, in which we investigate how the time path of the fundamental value trajectory affects the level of adherence to fundamentals. In contrast to previous experiments with long-lived assets, there is a phase in which fundamental values are

What Is the Correct Answer about The Dress' Colors? Investigating the Relation between Optimism, Previous Experience, and Answerability.

Science.gov (United States)

Karlsson, Bodil S A; Allwood, Carl Martin

2016-01-01

The Dress photograph, first displayed on the internet in 2015, revealed stunning individual differences in color perception. The aim of this study was to investigate if lay-persons believed that the question about The Dress colors was answerable. Past research has found that optimism is related to judgments of how answerable knowledge questions with controversial answers are (Karlsson et al., 2016). Furthermore, familiarity with a question can create a feeling of knowing the answer (Reder and Ritter, 1992). Building on these findings, 186 participants saw the photo of The Dress and were asked about the correct answer to the question about The Dress' colors (" blue and black," "white and gold," "other, namely…," or "there is no correct answer" ). Choice of the alternative "there is no correct answer" was interpreted as believing the question was not answerable. This answer was chosen more often by optimists and by people who reported they had not seen The Dress before. We also found that among participants who had seen The Dress photo before, 19%, perceived The Dress as "white and gold" but believed that the correct answer was "blue and black ." This, in analogy to previous findings about non-believed memories (Scoboria and Pascal, 2016), shows that people sometimes do not believe the colors they have perceived are correct. Our results suggest that individual differences related to optimism and previous experience may contribute to if the judgment of the individual perception of a photograph is enough to serve as a decision basis for valid conclusions about colors. Further research about color judgments under ambiguous circumstances could benefit from separating individual perceptual experience from beliefs about the correct answer to the color question. Including the option "there is no correct answer " may also be beneficial.

Effect of available space and previous contact in the social integration of Saint Croix and Suffolk ewes.

Science.gov (United States)

Orihuela, A; Averós, X; Solano, J; Clemente, N; Estevez, I

2016-03-01

Reproduction in tropical sheep is not affected by season, whereas the reproductive cycle of temperate-climate breeds such as Suffolk depends on the photoperiod. Close contact with tropical ewes during the anestrous period might induce Suffolk ewes to cycle, making the use of artificial light or hormonal treatments unnecessary. However, the integration of both breeds within the social group would be necessary to trigger this effect, and so the aim of the experiment was to determine the speed of integration of 2 groups of Saint Croix and Suffolk ewes into a single flock, according to space allowance and previous experience. For this, 6 groups of 10 ewes (half from each breed) from both breeds, housed at 2 or 4 m/ewe (3 groups/treatment) and with or without previous contact with the other breed, were monitored for 3 d. Each observation day, the behavior, movement, and use of space of ewes were collected during 10 min at 1-h intervals between 0900 and 1400 h. Generalized linear mixed models were used to test the effects of breed, space allowance, and previous experience on behavior, movement, and use of space. Net distances, interbreed farthest neighbor distance, mean interbreed distance, and walking frequencies were greater at 4 m/ewe ( ewe were greatest for Saint Croix ewes, whereas the opposite was found for lying down ( ewes showed larger intrabreed nearest neighbor distances, minimum convex polygons, and home range overlapping ( ewes at 4 m/ewe showed longest total distances and step lengths and greatest movement activity ( ewes walked longer total distances during Day 1 and 2 ( ewes kept longer interindividual distances during Day 1 ( ewes did not fully integrate into a cohesive flock, with each breed displaying specific behavioral patterns. Decreasing space allowance and previous experience resulted in limited benefits for the successful group cohesion. Longer cohabitation periods might result in complete integration, although practical implementation might be

Relations Between Self-Reported and Linguistic Monitoring Assessments of Affective Experience in an Extreme Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Nathan

2018-03-01

Approaches for monitoring psychosocial health in challenging environments are needed to maintain the performance and safety of personnel. The purpose of the present research was to examine the relationship between 2 candidate methods (self-reported and linguistics) for monitoring affective experience during extreme environment activities. A single-subject repeated-measures design was used in the present work. The participant was a 46-year-old individual scheduled to complete a self-supported ski expedition across Arctic Greenland. The expedition lasted 28 days, and conditions included severe cold, low stimulation, whiteouts, limited habitability, and threats to life and limb. During the expedition, the participant completed a daily self-report log including assessment of psychological health (perceptions of control and affect) and a video diary (emotion). Video diary entries were subjected to linguistic inquiry and word count analyses before the links between self-report and linguistic data across the expedition period were tested. Similarities in the pattern of self-reported and linguistic assessments emerged across the expedition period. A number of predictable correlations were identified between self-reported and linguistic assessments of affective/emotional experience. Overall, there was better agreement between self-reports and linguistic analytics for indicators of negative affect/emotion. Future research should build on this initial study to further test the links between self-reported affect and emotional states monitored via linguistics. This could help develop methods for monitoring psychological health in extreme environments and support organizational decision making. Crown Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

On the Tengiz petroleum deposit previous study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nysangaliev, A.N.; Kuspangaliev, T.K.

1997-01-01

Tengiz petroleum deposit previous study is described. Some consideration about structure of productive formation, specific characteristic properties of petroleum-bearing collectors are presented. Recommendation on their detail study and using of experience on exploration and development of petroleum deposit which have analogy on most important geological and industrial parameters are given. (author)

Dissociation of past and present experience in problem solving using a virtual environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Sturz, Bradley R; Bodily, Kent D; Katz, Jeffrey S

2009-02-01

An interactive 3D desktop virtual environment task was created to investigate learning mechanisms in human problem solving. Participants were assessed for previous video game experience, divided into two groups (Training and Control), and matched for gender and experience. The Training group learned specific skills within the virtual environment before being presented a problem. The Control group was presented the problem only. Completion time was faster for the Training group and was affected by level of previous video game experience. Results indicated problem solving was a function of specific and general experience and demonstrated a method for dissociating these two facets of experience.

Factors which affect operation of a plasma focus in various gases

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, A.J.

1987-06-01

It is shown that the axial transit time t a and γ, the ratio of specific heats, are the main factors which affect the operation of a plasma focus in various gases. An energy balance theory is used to explore this dependence. The results are consistent with previous calculations and with experiment. (author). 12 refs

The Mechanism of Valence-Space Metaphors: ERP Evidence for Affective Word Processing

Science.gov (United States)

Xie, Jiushu; Wang, Ruiming; Chang, Song

2014-01-01

Embodied cognition contends that the representation and processing of concepts involve perceptual, somatosensory, motoric, and other physical re-experiencing information. In this view, affective concepts are also grounded in physical information. For instance, people often say “feeling down” or “cheer up” in daily life. These phrases use spatial information to understand affective concepts. This process is referred to as valence-space metaphor. Valence-space metaphors refer to the employment of spatial information (lower/higher space) to elaborate affective concepts (negative/positive concepts). Previous studies have demonstrated that processing affective words affects performance on a spatial detection task. However, the mechanism(s) behind this effect remain unclear. In the current study, we hypothesized that processing affective words might produce spatial information. Consequently, spatial information would affect the following spatial cue detection/discrimination task. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to remember an affective word. Then, they completed a spatial cue detection task while event-related potentials were recorded. The results indicated that the top cues induced enhanced amplitude of P200 component while participants kept positive words relative to negative words in mind. On the contrary, the bottom cues induced enhanced P200 amplitudes while participants kept negative words relative to positive words in mind. In Experiment 2, we conducted a behavioral experiment that employed a similar paradigm to Experiment 1, but used arrows instead of dots to test the attentional nature of the valence-space metaphor. We found a similar facilitation effect as found in Experiment 1. Positive words facilitated the discrimination of upper arrows, whereas negative words facilitated the discrimination of lower arrows. In summary, affective words might activate spatial information and cause participants to allocate their attention to corresponding

The mechanism of valence-space metaphors: ERP evidence for affective word processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Xie, Jiushu; Wang, Ruiming; Chang, Song

2014-01-01

Embodied cognition contends that the representation and processing of concepts involve perceptual, somatosensory, motoric, and other physical re-experiencing information. In this view, affective concepts are also grounded in physical information. For instance, people often say "feeling down" or "cheer up" in daily life. These phrases use spatial information to understand affective concepts. This process is referred to as valence-space metaphor. Valence-space metaphors refer to the employment of spatial information (lower/higher space) to elaborate affective concepts (negative/positive concepts). Previous studies have demonstrated that processing affective words affects performance on a spatial detection task. However, the mechanism(s) behind this effect remain unclear. In the current study, we hypothesized that processing affective words might produce spatial information. Consequently, spatial information would affect the following spatial cue detection/discrimination task. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to remember an affective word. Then, they completed a spatial cue detection task while event-related potentials were recorded. The results indicated that the top cues induced enhanced amplitude of P200 component while participants kept positive words relative to negative words in mind. On the contrary, the bottom cues induced enhanced P200 amplitudes while participants kept negative words relative to positive words in mind. In Experiment 2, we conducted a behavioral experiment that employed a similar paradigm to Experiment 1, but used arrows instead of dots to test the attentional nature of the valence-space metaphor. We found a similar facilitation effect as found in Experiment 1. Positive words facilitated the discrimination of upper arrows, whereas negative words facilitated the discrimination of lower arrows. In summary, affective words might activate spatial information and cause participants to allocate their attention to corresponding locations

Does the Unemployement Benefit Institution Affect the Productivity of Workers? Evidence from a Field Experiment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Blanco, M.; Dalton, P.S.; Vargas, J.F.

2013-01-01

Abstract: We investigate whether and how the type of unemployment bene t institution affects productivity. We designed a field experiment to compare workers' productivity under a welfare system, where the unemployed receive an unconditional monetary transfer, with their productivity under a workfare

Life events and hopelessness depression: The influence of affective experience.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lihua Zhou

Full Text Available This study explored the association of the affective experience (AE of life events on hopelessness depression (HD. Undergraduates (N = 301 participating in a 12-week prospective study completed measures of HD, cognitive style, and psychological stress. The results indicate AE is an underlying mechanism influencing the longitudinal link between life events and HD. Negative life events with clear negative AE directly promoted the development of HD. Positive life events with clear positive AE directly impeded the development of HD. Neutral life events with mixed AE directly and interacting with negative cognitive style promoted the development of HD. The results should increase understanding of the hopelessness theory of depression, and suggest that neutral life events should be important elements in depression therapy.

Qualitative analysis of interviews of future non-affective psychotic disorder patients and non-psychiatric controls: preliminary results

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Katya Rubinstein

2014-03-01

Conclusions: The findings of this unique historical-prospective qualitative analysis of interviews performed before the onset of psychosis, confirmed previous findings of premorbid abnormality of future non-affective psychosis patients. Using qualitative analysis enabled obtaining a more in-depth understanding of the real-life experience of the premorbid period among patients with non-affective psychotic disorders.

Implementing the CASPiE course-based research experience at the United States Military Academy: Affective responses and effects on critical thinking

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Chase, Anthony Michael

The Center for Authentic Science Practices in Education (CASPiE) pioneered a course-based research experience approach to teaching chemistry laboratory courses. The method had previously been studied in a variety of institutional settings. Recently, the United States Military Academy at West Point decided to develop CASPiE-style modules for the introductory honors chemistry course. This research setting presents clean experimental-control comparisons and a group of faculty who were completely new to the method. Equipping students with authentic research experiences early in their education is important regardless of the institution. However, cadets at a military academy must make decisions relatively early (the outset of their second year) as to what their career trajectory will be as eventual officers. In the new CASPiE-based experience, cadets are given the opportunity to select from one of three different modules (analytical chemistry, toxicology, and chemical engineering) in which to participate during the course. These three modules represent subsections of an overall Army waste-to-energy research project. Cadets generate unique hypotheses, real data, and research posters towards the advancement of the project. Posters are then presented in a session. that includes an audience of project stakeholders, course instructors, and other academy faculty and staff. Here, I will present my research methods, evaluative procedures, and findings in the affective domain, critical thinking, and laboratory content comprehension.

Socially anxious smokers experience greater negative affect and withdrawal during self-quit attempts.

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Buckner, Julia D; Langdon, Kirsten J; Jeffries, Emily R; Zvolensky, Michael J

2016-04-01

Despite evidence of a strong and consistent relation between smoking and elevated social anxiety, strikingly little empirical work has identified mechanisms underlying the smoking-social anxiety link. Persons with elevated social anxiety may rely on smoking to cope with more severe nicotine withdrawal and post-quit negative mood states; yet, no known studies have investigated the relation of social anxiety to withdrawal severity. The current study examined the relation of social anxiety to post-quit nicotine withdrawal severity among 51 (33.3% female, Mage = 34.6) community-recruited smokers during the first two weeks following an unaided (i.e., no treatment) cessation attempt. Ecological momentary assessment was used to collect multiple daily ratings of withdrawal and negative mood states. Baseline social anxiety was related to increases in negative affect during the monitoring period and remained significantly related to post-quit withdrawal after controlling for negative affect, gender, lapses, and substance use. Persons with elevated social anxiety experience more severe post-quit withdrawal symptoms and increases in negative affect during a cessation attempt and may therefore benefit from intervention and treatment strategies geared toward helping them learn to cope with withdrawal and negative affect to improve cessation rates among these vulnerable smokers.

Methods for interpreting lists of affected genes obtained in a DNA microarray experiment

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Hedegaard Jakob

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The aim of this paper was to describe and compare the methods used and the results obtained by the participants in a joint EADGENE (European Animal Disease Genomic Network of Excellence and SABRE (Cutting Edge Genomics for Sustainable Animal Breeding workshop focusing on post analysis of microarray data. The participating groups were provided with identical lists of microarray probes, including test statistics for three different contrasts, and the normalised log-ratios for each array, to be used as the starting point for interpreting the affected probes. The data originated from a microarray experiment conducted to study the host reactions in broilers occurring shortly after a secondary challenge with either a homologous or heterologous species of Eimeria. Results Several conceptually different analytical approaches, using both commercial and public available software, were applied by the participating groups. The following tools were used: Ingenuity Pathway Analysis, MAPPFinder, LIMMA, GOstats, GOEAST, GOTM, Globaltest, TopGO, ArrayUnlock, Pathway Studio, GIST and AnnotationDbi. The main focus of the approaches was to utilise the relation between probes/genes and their gene ontology and pathways to interpret the affected probes/genes. The lack of a well-annotated chicken genome did though limit the possibilities to fully explore the tools. The main results from these analyses showed that the biological interpretation is highly dependent on the statistical method used but that some common biological conclusions could be reached. Conclusion It is highly recommended to test different analytical methods on the same data set and compare the results to obtain a reliable biological interpretation of the affected genes in a DNA microarray experiment.

Negative Experiences in Physical Education and Sport: How Much Do They Affect Physical Activity Participation Later in Life?

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Cardinal, Bradley J.; Yan, Zi; Cardinal, Marita K.

2013-01-01

People's feelings toward physical activity are often influenced by memories of their childhood experiences in physical education and sport. Unfortunately, many adults remember negative experiences, which may affect their desire to maintain a physically active lifestyle. A survey that asked 293 students about recollections from their childhood…

Does hospital ownership affect patient experience? An investigation into public-private sector differences in England.

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Pérotin, Virginie; Zamora, Bernarda; Reeves, Rachel; Bartlett, Will; Allen, Pauline

2013-05-01

Using patient experience survey data, the paper investigates whether hospital ownership affects the level of quality reported by patients whose care is funded by the National Health Service in areas other than clinical quality. We estimate a switching regression model that accounts for (i) some observable characteristics of the patient and the hospital episode; (ii) selection into private hospitals; and (iii) unmeasured hospital characteristics captured by hospital fixed effects. We find that the experience reported by patients in public and private hospitals is different, i.e. most dimensions of quality are delivered differently by the two types of hospitals, with each sector offering greater quality in certain specialties or to certain groups of patients. However, the sum of all ownership effects is not statistically different from zero at sample means. In other words, hospital ownership in and of itself does not affect the level of quality of the average patient's reported experience. Differences in mean reported quality levels between the private and public sectors are entirely attributable to patient characteristics, the selection of patients into public or private hospitals and unobserved characteristics specific to individual hospitals, rather than to hospital ownership. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

From specificity to sensitivity: affective states modulate visual working memory for emotional expressive faces.

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Maran, Thomas; Sachse, Pierre; Furtner, Marco

2015-01-01

Previous findings suggest that visual working memory (VWM) preferentially remembers angry looking faces. However, the meaning of facial actions is construed in relation to context. To date, there are no studies investigating the role of perceiver-based context when processing emotional cues in VWM. To explore the influence of affective context on VWM for faces, we conducted two experiments using both a VWM task for emotionally expressive faces and a mood induction procedure. Affective context was manipulated by unpleasant (Experiment 1) and pleasant (Experiment 2) IAPS pictures in order to induce an affect high in motivational intensity (defensive or appetitive, respectively) compared to a low arousal control condition. Results indicated specifically increased sensitivity of VWM for angry looking faces in the neutral condition. Enhanced VWM for angry faces was prevented by inducing affects of high motivational intensity. In both experiments, affective states led to a switch from specific enhancement of angry expressions in VWM to an equally sensitive representation of all emotional expressions. Our findings demonstrate that emotional expressions are of different behavioral relevance for the receiver depending on the affective context, supporting a functional organization of VWM along with flexible resource allocation. In VWM, stimulus processing adjusts to situational requirements and transitions from a specifically prioritizing default mode in predictable environments to a sensitive, hypervigilant mode in exposure to emotional events.

Factors affecting experiences of intensive care patients in Turkey: patient outcomes in critical care setting.

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Demir, Yurdanur; Korhan, Esra Akin; Eser, Ismet; Khorshid, Leyla

2013-07-01

To determine the factors affecting a patient's intensive care experience. The descriptive study was conducted at an intensive care unit in the Aegean Region of Turkey, and comprised 158 patients who spent at least 48 hours at the unit between June and November 2009. A questionnaire form and the Intensive Care Experience Scale were used as data collection tools. SPSS 11.5 was used for statistical analysis of the data. Of the total, 86 (54.4%) patients related to the surgical unit, while 72 (45.5%) spent time at the intensive care unit. Most of the subjects (n=113; 71.5%) reported that they constantly experienced pain during hospitalisation. Patients receiving mechanical ventilation support and patients reporting no pain had significantly higher scores on the intensive care experience scale. Patients who reported pain remembered their experiences less than those having no pain. Interventions are needed to make the experiences of patients in intensive care more positive.

Process cells dismantling of EUREX pant: previous activities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gili, M.

1998-01-01

In the '98-'99 period some process cells of the EUREX pant will be dismantled, in order to place there the liquid wastes conditioning plant 'CORA'. This report resumes the previous activities (plant rinsing campaigns and inactive Cell 014 dismantling), run in the past three years and the drawn experience [it

What can a geography as dancing body? language-experience 'gesture-movement-affection' (fragments

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Antonio Carlos Queiroz Filho

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Made of fragments, this paper proposes to think about relations and possible repercussions existing between language and experience from the perspective of some post-structuralist authors. I sought in reflection about body and dance a way to discuss this issue and at the same time, making a geography as something that produces in us affections. “What can a Geography as dancing body?” is beyond a question, an invitation, a proposition: a ballerina geography.

Culturally-Anchored Values and University Education Experience Perception

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Mitsis, Ann; Foley, Patrick

2009-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether business students' gender, age and culturally-anchored values affect their perceptions of their university course experience. Design/methodology/approach: Culturally diverse business students (n 1/4 548) studying at an Australian university were surveyed using previously established scales.…

Factors affecting successful colonoscopy procedures: Single-center experience.

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Kozan, Ramazan; Yılmaz, Tonguç Utku; Baştuğral, Uygar; Kerimoğlu, Umut; Yavuz, Yücel

2018-01-01

Colonoscopy is a gold standard procedure for several colon pathologies. Successful colonoscopy means demonstration of the ileocecal valve and determination of colon polyps. Here we aimed to evaluate our colonoscopy success and results. This retrospective descriptive study was performed in İstanbul Eren hospital endoscopy unit between 2012 and 2015. Colonoscopy results and patient demographics were obtained from the hospital database. All colonoscopy procedures were performed under general anesthesia and after full bowel preparation. In all, 870 patients were included to the study. We reached to the cecum in 850 (97.8%) patients. We were unable to reach the cecum in patients who were old and obese and those with previous lower abdominal operations. Angulation, inability to move forward, and tortuous colon were the reasons for inability to reach the cecum. Total 203 polyp samplings were performed in 139 patients. We performed 1, 2, and 3 polypectomies in 97, 28, and 10 patients, respectively. There were 29 (3.3%) colorectal cancers in our series. There was no mortality or morbidity in our study. General anesthesia and full bowel preparation may be the reason for increased success of colonoscopy. Increased experience and patient-endoscopist cooperation increased the rate of cecum access and polyp resection and decreased the complication rate.

Explaining infant feeding: The role of previous personal and vicarious experience on attitudes, subjective norms, self-efficacy, and breastfeeding outcomes.

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Bartle, Naomi C; Harvey, Kate

2017-11-01

Breastfeeding confers important health benefits to both infants and their mothers, but rates are low in the United Kingdom and other developed countries despite widespread promotion. This study examined the relationships between personal and vicarious experience of infant feeding, self-efficacy, the theory of planned behaviour variables of attitudes and subjective norm, and the likelihood of breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks post-natally. A prospective questionnaire study of both first-time mothers (n = 77) and experienced breastfeeders (n = 72) recruited at an antenatal clinic in South East England. Participants completed a questionnaire at 32 weeks pregnant assessing personal and vicarious experience of infant feeding (breastfeeding, formula-feeding, and maternal grandmother's experience of breastfeeding), perceived control, self-efficacy, intentions, attitudes (to breastfeeding and formula-feeding), and subjective norm. Infant feeding behaviour was recorded at 6-8 weeks post-natally. Multiple linear regression modelled the influence of vicarious experience on attitudes, subjective norm, and self-efficacy (but not perceived control) and modelled the influence of attitude, subjective norm, self-efficacy, and past experience on intentions to breastfeed. Logistic regression modelled the likelihood of breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks. Previous experience (particularly personal experience of breastfeeding) explained a significant amount of variance in attitudes, subjective norm, and self-efficacy. Intentions to breastfeed were predicted by subjective norm and attitude to formula-feeding and, in experienced mothers, self-efficacy. Breastfeeding at 6 weeks was predicted by intentions and vicarious experience of formula-feeding. Vicarious experience, particularly of formula-feeding, has been shown to influence the behaviour of first-time and experienced mothers both directly and indirectly via attitudes and subjective norm. Interventions that reduce exposure to formula

Are affective events richly recollected or simply familiar? The experience and process of recognizing feelings past.

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Ochsner, K N

2000-06-01

The author used the remember/know paradigm and the dual process recognition model of A. P. Yonelinas, N. E. A. Kroll, I. Dobbins, M. Lazzara, and R. T. Knight (1998) to study the states of awareness accompanying recognition of affective images and the processes of recollection and familiarity that may underlie them. Results from all experiments showed that (a) negative stimuli tended to be remembered, whereas positive stimuli tended to be known; (b) recollection, but not familiarity, was boosted for negative or highly arousing and, to a lesser extent, positive stimuli; and (c) across experiments, variations in depth of encoding did not influence these patterns. These data suggest that greater recollection for affective events leads them to be more richly experienced in memory, and they are consistent with the idea that the states of remembering and knowing are experientially exclusive, whereas the processes underlying them are functionally independent.

How do musical tonality and experience affect visual working memory?

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Yang, Hua; Lu, Jing; Gong, Diankun; Yao, Dezhong

2016-01-20

The influence of music on the human brain has continued to attract increasing attention from neuroscientists and musicologists. Currently, tonal music is widely present in people's daily lives; however, atonal music has gradually become an important part of modern music. In this study, we conducted two experiments: the first one tested for differences in perception of distractibility between tonal music and atonal music. The second experiment tested how tonal music and atonal music affect visual working memory by comparing musicians and nonmusicians who were placed in contexts with background tonal music, atonal music, and silence. They were instructed to complete a delay matching memory task. The results show that musicians and nonmusicians have different evaluations of the distractibility of tonal music and atonal music, possibly indicating that long-term training may lead to a higher auditory perception threshold among musicians. For the working memory task, musicians reacted faster than nonmusicians in all background music cases, and musicians took more time to respond in the tonal background music condition than in the other conditions. Therefore, our results suggest that for a visual memory task, background tonal music may occupy more cognitive resources than atonal music or silence for musicians, leaving few resources left for the memory task. Moreover, the musicians outperformed the nonmusicians because of the higher sensitivity to background music, which also needs a further longitudinal study to be confirmed.

Study of some physical aspects previous to design of an exponential experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Caro, R.; Francisco, J. L. de

1961-01-01

This report presents the theoretical study of some physical aspects previous to the design of an exponential facility. The are: Fast and slow flux distribution in the multiplicative medium and in the thermal column, slowing down in the thermal column, geometrical distribution and minimum needed intensity of sources access channels and perturbations produced by possible variations in its position and intensity. (Author) 4 refs

Facial Features Can Induce Emotion: Evidence from Affective Priming Tasks

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Chia-Chen Wu

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Our previous study found that schematic faces with direct gazes, with mouths, with horizontal oval eyes, or without noses, tend to be perceived as in negative emotion. In this study we further explore these factors by the affective priming task. Faces were taking as prime, and positive or negative words were probe. The task was to judge the valence of the probe. If the faces could induce emotions, a target word with the same emotional valence should be judged faster than with opposite valence (the congruency effect. Experiment 1 used the most positive and negative rated faces in previous study as the primes. The positive faces were with vertical oval eyes and without mouth, while the negative faces were with horizontal eyes and with mouth. Results of 34 participants showed that those faces indeed elicited congruency effects. Experiment 2 manipulated gaze directions (N = 16. After the task the participants were asked to rate the prime faces. According to their rating, faces with direct gaze was perceive as positive, and elicited congruency effect with positive words in affective priming task. Our data thus support the conjecture that shape of eyes, the existence of mouths, and gaze directions could induces emotion.

Affected family members' experience of, and coping with, aggression and violence within the context of problematic substance use: a qualitative study.

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McCann, Terence V; Lubman, Dan I; Boardman, Gayelene; Flood, Mollie

2017-06-02

Families have an important role supporting a family member with problematic substance use (PSU), although this can often be challenging and confronting. Previous research has identified high rates of family aggression and violence within the context of PSU, although few studies have examined this issue from the perspective of affected family members (AFMs) supporting a member with PSU. The aims of the current study were to understand AFMs' experience of aggression and violence while supporting a member with PSU, and to explicate the strategies they used to prevent and cope with this behaviour. Semi-structured, audio-recorded qualitative interviews were conducted with 31 AFMs from the state of Victoria in Australia. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to guide data collection and analysis. Almost 70% of participants experienced PSU-related family aggression and/or violence. Two main themes and related sub-themes were abstracted from the data capturing their experiences of this behaviour and the strategies they used to try to prevent and cope in this situation. Aggression and/or violence were variable, changeable and unpredictable; and aggression and/or violence altering social interactions and family dynamics. As a consequence, it was upsetting, stressful and emotionally exhausting to AFMs. In response to this experience, and largely through trial and error, they used several direct strategies to try to prevent and cope with the behaviour; however, most continued to struggle in these circumstances. They also highlighted additional indirect measures, which, if adopted, would enhance their existing direct strategies. More effective primary, secondary and tertiary preventive measures are needed to address family aggression and violence within the context of PSU. More support is needed for family members affected by PSU to enable them to 'stand up to,' to prevent and cope effectively with this behaviour, and to increase their help-seeking and access to

Do Group Decision Rules Affect Trust? A Laboratory Experiment on Group Decision Rules and Trust

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Julie Hassing

2016-01-01

Enhanced participation has been prescribed as the way forward for improving democratic decision making while generating positive attributes like trust. Yet we do not know the extent to which rules affect the outcome of decision making. This article investigates how different group decision rules......-hierarchical decision-making procedures enhance trust vis-à-vis other more hierarchical decision-making procedures....... affect group trust by testing three ideal types of decision rules (i.e., a Unilateral rule, a Representative rule and a 'Non-rule') in a laboratory experiment. The article shows significant differences between the three decision rules on trust after deliberation. Interestingly, however, it finds...

Does previous open renal surgery or percutaneous nephrolithotomy affect the outcomes and complications of percutaneous nephrolithotomy.

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Ozgor, Faruk; Kucuktopcu, Onur; Sarılar, Omer; Toptas, Mehmet; Simsek, Abdulmuttalip; Gurbuz, Zafer Gokhan; Akbulut, Mehmet Fatih; Muslumanoglu, Ahmet Yaser; Binbay, Murat

2015-11-01

In this study, we aim to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of PNL in patients with a history of open renal surgery or PNL by comparing with primary patients and to compare impact of previous open renal surgery and PNL on the success and complications of subsequent PNL. Charts of patients, who underwent PNL at our institute, were analyzed retrospectively. Patients were divided into three groups according to history of renal stone surgery. Patients without history of renal surgery were enrolled into Group 1. Other patients with previous PNL and previous open surgery were categorized as Group 2 and Group 3. Preoperative characteristic, perioperative data, stone-free status, and complication rates were compared between the groups. Stone-free status was accepted as completing clearance of stone and residual fragment smaller than 4 mm. Eventually, 2070 patients were enrolled into the study. Open renal surgery and PNL had been done in 410 (Group 2) and 131 (Group 3) patients, retrospectively. The mean operation time was longer (71.3 ± 33.5 min) in Group 2 and the mean fluoroscopy time was longer (8.6 ± 5.0) in Group 3 but there was no statistically significant difference between the groups. Highest stone clearance was achieved in primary PNL patients (81.62%) compared to the other groups (77.10% in Group 2 and 75.61% in Group 3). Stone-free rate was not significantly different between Group 2 and Group 3. Fever, pulmonary complications, and blood transfusion requirement were not statically different between groups but angioembolization was significantly higher in Group 2. Percutaneous nephrolithotomy is a safe and effective treatment modality for patients with renal stones regardless history of previous PNL or open renal surgery. However, history of open renal surgery but not PNL significantly reduced PNL success.

'Every pregnant woman needs a midwife'--the experiences of HIV affected women in maternity care.

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Kelly, Carmel; Alderdice, Fiona; Lohan, Maria; Spence, Dale

2013-02-01

'Every pregnant woman needs a midwife'-the experiences of HIV affected women in Northern Ireland. to explore HIV positive women's experiences of pregnancy and maternity care, with a focus on their interactions with midwives. a prospective qualitative study. regional HIV unit in Northern Ireland. 22 interviews were conducted with 10 women at different stages of their reproductive trajectories. the pervasive presence of HIV related stigma threatened the women's experience of pregnancy and care. The key staff attributes that facilitated a positive experience were knowledge and experience, empathy and understanding of their unique needs and continuity of care. pregnancy in the context of HIV, whilst offering a much needed sense of normality, also increases woman's sense of anxiety and vulnerability and therefore the need for supportive interventions that affirm normality is intensified. A maternity team approach, with a focus on providing 'balanced care' could meet all of the woman and child's medical needs, whilst also emphasising the normalcy of pregnancy. Crown Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Alexithymia Components Are Differentially Related to Explicit Negative Affect But Not Associated with Explicit Positive Affect or Implicit Affectivity.

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Suslow, Thomas; Donges, Uta-Susan

2017-01-01

Alexithymia represents a multifaceted personality construct defined by difficulties in recognizing and verbalizing emotions and externally oriented thinking. According to clinical observations, experience of negative affects is exacerbated and experience of positive affects is decreased in alexithymia. Findings from research based on self-report indicate that all alexithymia facets are negatively associated with the experience of positive affects, whereas difficulties identifying and describing feelings are related to heightened negative affect. Implicit affectivity, which can be measured using indirect assessment methods, relates to processes of the impulsive system. The aim of the present study was to examine, for the first time, the relations between alexithymia components and implicit and explicit positive and negative affectivity in healthy adults. The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) were administered to two hundred and forty-one healthy individuals along with measures of depression and trait anxiety. Difficulties identifying feelings were correlated with explicit negative trait affect, depressive mood and trait anxiety. Difficulties describing feelings showed smaller but also significant correlations with depressive mood and trait anxiety but were not correlated with explicit state or trait affect as assessed by the PANAS. Externally oriented thinking was not significantly correlated with any of the implicit and explicit affect measures. According to our findings, an externally oriented, concrete way of thinking appears to be generally unrelated to dispositions to develop positive or negative affects. Difficulties identifying feelings seem to be associated with increased conscious negative affects but not with a heightened disposition to develop negative affects at an automatic response level.

Alexithymia Components Are Differentially Related to Explicit Negative Affect But Not Associated with Explicit Positive Affect or Implicit Affectivity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas Suslow

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Alexithymia represents a multifaceted personality construct defined by difficulties in recognizing and verbalizing emotions and externally oriented thinking. According to clinical observations, experience of negative affects is exacerbated and experience of positive affects is decreased in alexithymia. Findings from research based on self-report indicate that all alexithymia facets are negatively associated with the experience of positive affects, whereas difficulties identifying and describing feelings are related to heightened negative affect. Implicit affectivity, which can be measured using indirect assessment methods, relates to processes of the impulsive system. The aim of the present study was to examine, for the first time, the relations between alexithymia components and implicit and explicit positive and negative affectivity in healthy adults. The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS were administered to two hundred and forty-one healthy individuals along with measures of depression and trait anxiety. Difficulties identifying feelings were correlated with explicit negative trait affect, depressive mood and trait anxiety. Difficulties describing feelings showed smaller but also significant correlations with depressive mood and trait anxiety but were not correlated with explicit state or trait affect as assessed by the PANAS. Externally oriented thinking was not significantly correlated with any of the implicit and explicit affect measures. According to our findings, an externally oriented, concrete way of thinking appears to be generally unrelated to dispositions to develop positive or negative affects. Difficulties identifying feelings seem to be associated with increased conscious negative affects but not with a heightened disposition to develop negative affects at an automatic response level.

From Specificity to Sensitivity: Affective states modulate visual working memory for emotional expressive faces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas eMaran

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Previous findings suggest that visual working memory preferentially remembers angry looking faces. However, the meaning of facial actions is construed in relation to context. To date, there are no studies investigating the role of perceiver-based context when processing emotional cues in visual working memory. To explore the influence of affective context on visual working memory for faces, we conducted two experiments using both a visual working memory task for emotionally expressive faces and a mood induction procedure. Affective context was manipulated by unpleasant (Experiment 1 and pleasant (Experiment 2 IAPS pictures in order to induce an affect high in motivational intensity (defensive or appetitive, respectively compared to a low arousal control condition. Results indicated specifically increased sensitivity of visual working memory for angry looking faces in the neutral condition. Enhanced visual working memory for angry faces was prevented by inducing affects of high motivational intensity. In both experiments, affective states led to a switch from specific enhancement of angry expressions in visual working memory to an equally sensitive representation of all emotional expressions. Our findings demonstrate that emotional expressions are of different behavioral relevance for the receiver depending on the affective context, supporting a functional organization of visual working memory along with flexible resource allocation. In visual working memory, stimulus processing adjusts to situational requirements and transitions from a specifically prioritizing default mode in predictable environments to a sensitive, hypervigilant mode in exposure to emotional events.

Does affective touch influence the virtual reality full body illusion?

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de Jong, Jutta R; Keizer, Anouk; Engel, Manja M; Dijkerman, H Chris

2017-06-01

The sense of how we experience our physical body as our own represents a fundamental component of human self-awareness. Body ownership can be studied with bodily illusions which are generated by inducing a visuo-tactile conflict where individuals experience illusionary ownership over a fake body or body part, such as a rubber hand. Previous studies showed that different types of touch modulate the strength of experienced ownership over a rubber hand. Specifically, participants experienced more ownership after the rubber hand illusion was induced through affective touch vs non-affective touch. It is, however, unclear whether this effect would also occur for an entire fake body. The aim of this study was, therefore, to investigate whether affective touch modulates the strength of ownership in a virtual reality full body illusion. To elicit this illusion, we used slow (3 cm/s; affective touch) and fast (30 cm/s; non-affective touch) stroking velocities on the participants' abdomen. Both stroking velocities were performed either synchronous or asynchronous (control condition), while participants viewed a virtual body from a first-person-perspective. In our first study, we found that participants experienced more subjective ownership over a virtual body in the affective touch condition, compared to the non-affective touch condition. In our second study, we found higher levels of subjective ownership for synchronous stimulation, compared to asynchronous, for both touch conditions, but failed to replicate the findings from study 1 that show a difference between affective and non-affective touch. We, therefore, cannot conclude unequivocally that affective touch enhances the full-body illusion. Future research is required to study the effects of affective touch on body ownership.

Hormonal Cycle and Contraceptive Effects on Amygdala and Salience Resting-State Networks in Women with Previous Affective Side Effects on the Pill.

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Engman, Jonas; Sundström Poromaa, Inger; Moby, Lena; Wikström, Johan; Fredrikson, Mats; Gingnell, Malin

2018-02-01

The mechanisms linking ovarian hormones to negative affect are poorly characterized, but important clues may come from the examination of the brain's intrinsic organization. Here, we studied the effects of both the menstrual cycle and oral contraceptives (OCs) on amygdala and salience network resting-state functional connectivity using a double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled design. Hormone levels, depressive symptoms, and resting-state functional connectivity were measured in 35 healthy women (24.9±4.2 years) who had previously experienced OC-related negative affect. All participants were examined in the follicular phase of a baseline cycle and in the third week of the subsequent cycle during treatment with either a combined OC (30 μg ethinyl estradiol/0.15 mg levonorgestrel) or placebo. The latter time point targeted the midluteal phase in placebo users and steady-state ethinyl estradiol and levonorgestrel concentrations in OC users. Amygdala and salience network connectivity generally increased with both higher endogenous and synthetic hormone levels, although amygdala-parietal cortical connectivity decreased in OC users. When in the luteal phase, the naturally cycling placebo users demonstrated higher connectivity in both networks compared with the women receiving OCs. Our results support a causal link between the exogenous administration of synthetic hormones and amygdala and salience network connectivity. Furthermore, they suggest a similar, potentially stronger, association between the natural hormonal variations across the menstrual cycle and intrinsic network connectivity.

Affective theory of mind inferences contextually influence the recognition of emotional facial expressions.

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Stewart, Suzanne L K; Schepman, Astrid; Haigh, Matthew; McHugh, Rhian; Stewart, Andrew J

2018-03-14

The recognition of emotional facial expressions is often subject to contextual influence, particularly when the face and the context convey similar emotions. We investigated whether spontaneous, incidental affective theory of mind inferences made while reading vignettes describing social situations would produce context effects on the identification of same-valenced emotions (Experiment 1) as well as differently-valenced emotions (Experiment 2) conveyed by subsequently presented faces. Crucially, we found an effect of context on reaction times in both experiments while, in line with previous work, we found evidence for a context effect on accuracy only in Experiment 1. This demonstrates that affective theory of mind inferences made at the pragmatic level of a text can automatically, contextually influence the perceptual processing of emotional facial expressions in a separate task even when those emotions are of a distinctive valence. Thus, our novel findings suggest that language acts as a contextual influence to the recognition of emotional facial expressions for both same and different valences.

Previous success and current body condition determine breeding propensity in Lesser Scaup: evidence for the individual heterogeneity hypothesis

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Warren, Jeffrey M.; Cutting, Kyle A.; Takekawa, John Y.; De La Cruz, Susan E. W.; Williams, Tony D.; Koons, David N.

2014-01-01

The decision to breed influences an individual's current and future reproduction, and the proportion of individuals that breed is an important determinant of population dynamics. Age, experience, individual quality, and environmental conditions have all been demonstrated to influence breeding propensity. To elucidate which of these factors exerts the greatest influence on breeding propensity in a temperate waterfowl, we studied female Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis) breeding in southwestern Montana. Females were captured during the breeding seasons of 2007–2009, and breeding status was determined on the basis of (1) presence of an egg in the oviduct or (2) blood plasma vitellogenin (VTG) levels. Presence on the study site in the previous year, a proxy for adult female success, was determined with stable isotope signatures of a primary feather collected at capture. Overall, 57% of females had evidence of breeding at the time of capture; this increased to 86% for females captured on or after peak nest initiation. Capture date and size-adjusted body condition positively influenced breeding propensity, with a declining body-condition threshold through the breeding season. We did not detect an influence of age on breeding propensity. Drought conditions negatively affected breeding propensity, reducing the proportion of breeding females to 0.85 (SE = 0.05) from 0.94 (SE = 0.03) during normal-water years. A female that was present in the previous breeding season was 5% more likely to breed than a female that was not present then. The positive correlation between age and experience makes it difficult to differentiate the roles of age, experience, and individual quality in reproductive success in vertebrates. Our results indicate that individual quality, as expressed by previous success and current body condition, may be among the most important determinants of breeding propensity in female Lesser Scaup, providing further support for the individual heterogeneity hypothesis.

Films, Affective Computing and Aesthetic Experience: Identifying Emotional and Aesthetic Highlights from Multimodal Signals in a Social Setting

OpenAIRE

Kostoulas, Theodoros; Chanel, Guillaume; Muszynski, Michal; Lombardo, Patrizia; Pun, Thierry

2017-01-01

Over the last years, affective computing has been strengthening its ties with the humanities, exploring and building understanding of people’s responses to specific artistic multimedia stimuli. “Aesthetic experience” is acknowledged to be the subjective part of some artistic exposure, namely, the inner affective state of a person exposed to some artistic object. In this work, we describe ongoing research activities for studying the aesthetic experience of people when exposed to movie artistic...

Does a previous prostate biopsy-related acute bacterial prostatitis affect the results of radical prostatectomy?

Science.gov (United States)

Türk, Hakan; Ün, Sitki; Arslan, Erkan; Zorlu, Ferruh

2018-01-01

To The standard technique for obtaining a histologic diagnosis of prostatic carcinomas is transrectal ultrasound guided prostate biopsy. Acute prostatitis which might develop after prostate biopsy can cause periprostatic inflammation and fibrosis. In this study, we performed a retrospective review of our database to determine whether ABP history might affect the outcome of RP. 441 RP patients who were operated in our clinic from 2002 to 2014 were included in our study group. All patients' demographic values, PSA levels, biopsy and radical prostatectomy specimen pathology results and their perioperative/postoperative complications were evaluated. There were 41 patients in patients with acute prostatitis following biopsy and 397 patients that did not develop acute prostatitis. Mean blood loss, transfusion rate and operation period were found to be significantly higher in ABP patients. Hospitalization period and reoperation rates were similar in both groups. However, post-op complications were significantly higher in ABP group. Even though it does not affect oncological outcomes, we would like to warn the surgeons for potential complaints during surgery in ABP patients. Copyright® by the International Brazilian Journal of Urology.

Does a previous prostate biopsy-related acute bacterial prostatitis affect the results of radical prostatectomy?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hakan Türk

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Objective To The standard technique for obtaining a histologic diagnosis of prostatic carcinomas is transrectal ultrasound guided prostate biopsy. Acute prostatitis which might develop after prostate biopsy can cause periprostatic inflammation and fibrosis. In this study, we performed a retrospective review of our database to determine whether ABP history might affect the outcome of RP. Materials and Methods 441 RP patients who were operated in our clinic from 2002 to 2014 were included in our study group. All patients’ demographic values, PSA levels, biopsy and radical prostatectomy specimen pathology results and their perioperative/ postoperative complications were evaluated. Results There were 41 patients in patients with acute prostatitis following biopsy and 397 patients that did not develop acute prostatitis. Mean blood loss, transfusion rate and operation period were found to be significantly higher in ABP patients. Hospitalization period and reoperation rates were similar in both groups. However, post-op complications were significantly higher in ABP group. Conclusion Even though it does not affect oncological outcomes, we would like to warn the surgeons for potential complaints during surgery in ABP patients.

Previous utilization of service does not improve timely booking in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Previous utilization of service does not improve timely booking in antenatal care: Cross sectional study ... Journal Home > Vol 24, No 3 (2010) > ... Results: Past experience on antenatal care service utilization did not come out as a predictor for ...

Does Educator Training or Experience Affect the Quality of Multiple-Choice Questions?

Science.gov (United States)

Webb, Emily M; Phuong, Jonathan S; Naeger, David M

2015-10-01

Physicians receive little training on proper multiple-choice question (MCQ) writing methods. Well-constructed MCQs follow rules, which ensure that a question tests what it is intended to test. Questions that break these are described as "flawed." We examined whether the prevalence of flawed questions differed significantly between those with or without prior training in question writing and between those with different levels of educator experience. We assessed 200 unedited MCQs from a question bank for our senior medical student radiology elective: an equal number of questions (50) were written by faculty with previous training in MCQ writing, other faculty, residents, and medical students. Questions were scored independently by two readers for the presence of 11 distinct flaws described in the literature. Questions written by faculty with MCQ writing training had significantly fewer errors: mean 0.4 errors per question compared to a mean of 1.5-1.7 errors per question for the other groups (P Educator experience alone had no effect on the frequency of flaws; faculty without dedicated training, residents, and students performed similarly. Copyright © 2015 AUR. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Previous Experiences with Epilepsy and Effectiveness of Information to Change Public Perception of Epilepsy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gutteling, Jan M.; Seydel, E.R.; Wiegman, O.

1986-01-01

Differences with regard to the effectiveness of health information and attitude change are suggested between people with direct, behavioral experiences with a health topic and people with indirect, nonbehavioral experiences. The effects of three different methods of health education about epilepsy,

Affective Interaction with a Virtual Character through an fNIRS Brain-Computer Interface

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabor Aranyi

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Affective Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI harness Neuroscience knowledge to develop affective interaction from first principles. In this paper, we explore affective engagement with a virtual agent through Neurofeedback (NF. We report an experiment where subjects engage with a virtual agent by expressing positive attitudes towards her under a NF paradigm. We use for affective input the asymmetric activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DL-PFC, which has been previously found to be related to the high-level affective-motivational dimension of approach/avoidance. The magnitude of left-asymmetric DL-PFC activity, measured using fNIRS and treated as a proxy for approach, is mapped onto a control mechanism for the virtual agent’s facial expressions, in which Action Units are activated through a neural network. We carried out an experiment with 18 subjects, which demonstrated that subjects are able to successfully engage with the virtual agent by controlling their mental disposition through NF, and that they perceived the agent’s responses as realistic and consistent with their projected mental disposition. This interaction paradigm is particularly relevant in the case of affective BCI as it facilitates the volitional activation of specific areas normally not under conscious control. Overall, our contribution reconciles a model of affect derived from brain metabolic data with an ecologically valid, yet computationally controllable, virtual affective communication environment.

Experience with a second language affects the use of fundamental frequency in speech segmentation

Science.gov (United States)

Broersma, Mirjam; Cho, Taehong; Kim, Sahyang; Martínez-García, Maria Teresa; Connell, Katrina

2017-01-01

This study investigates whether listeners’ experience with a second language learned later in life affects their use of fundamental frequency (F0) as a cue to word boundaries in the segmentation of an artificial language (AL), particularly when the cues to word boundaries conflict between the first language (L1) and second language (L2). F0 signals phrase-final (and thus word-final) boundaries in French but word-initial boundaries in English. Participants were functionally monolingual French listeners, functionally monolingual English listeners, bilingual L1-English L2-French listeners, and bilingual L1-French L2-English listeners. They completed the AL-segmentation task with F0 signaling word-final boundaries or without prosodic cues to word boundaries (monolingual groups only). After listening to the AL, participants completed a forced-choice word-identification task in which the foils were either non-words or part-words. The results show that the monolingual French listeners, but not the monolingual English listeners, performed better in the presence of F0 cues than in the absence of such cues. Moreover, bilingual status modulated listeners’ use of F0 cues to word-final boundaries, with bilingual French listeners performing less accurately than monolingual French listeners on both word types but with bilingual English listeners performing more accurately than monolingual English listeners on non-words. These findings not only confirm that speech segmentation is modulated by the L1, but also newly demonstrate that listeners’ experience with the L2 (French or English) affects their use of F0 cues in speech segmentation. This suggests that listeners’ use of prosodic cues to word boundaries is adaptive and non-selective, and can change as a function of language experience. PMID:28738093

Many apples a day keep the blues away--daily experiences of negative and positive affect and food consumption in young adults.

Science.gov (United States)

White, Bonnie A; Horwath, Caroline C; Conner, Tamlin S

2013-11-01

Prior research has focused on the association between negative affect and eating behaviour, often utilizing laboratory or cross-sectional study designs. These studies have inherent limitations, and the association between positive affect and eating behaviour remains relatively unexplored. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the bidirectional relationships between daily negative and positive affective experiences and food consumption in a naturalistic setting among healthy young adults. Daily diary study across 21 days (microlongitudinal, correlational design). A total of 281 young adults with a mean age of 19.9 (± 1.2) years completed an Internet-based daily diary for 21 consecutive days. Each day they reported their negative and positive affect, and their consumption of five specific foods. Hierarchical linear modelling was used to test same-day associations between daily affect and food consumption, and next-day (lagged) associations to determine directionality. Moderating effects of BMI and gender were also examined in exploratory analyses. Analyses of same-day within-person associations revealed that on days when young adults experienced greater positive affect, they reported eating more servings of fruit (p = .002) and vegetables (p positive affect the next day, suggesting that healthy foods were driving affective experiences and not vice versa. Meaningful changes in positive affect were observed with the daily consumption of approximately 7-8 servings of fruit or vegetables. Eating fruit and vegetables may promote emotional well-being among healthy young adults. © 2013 The British Psychological Society.

Climate Change Impact: The Experience of the Coastal Areas of Bangladesh Affected by Cyclones Sidr and Aila

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Russell Kabir

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Bangladesh is considered one of the countries most at risk to the effects of climate change and its coastal area is most vulnerable. This study tries to explore the experiences of cyclones Sidr and Aila affected people living in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. This study was conducted in the cyclone Sidr affected Amtali Upazila of Barguna District and in the cyclone Aila affected Koyra Upazila of Khulna District. Primary data collection was done using Focus Group Interview and then a thematic analysis approach was used for analysis. Three core themes emerged from the analysis and they are, firstly, impacts of climate change on the socioeconomic condition of the people, secondly, the impact on the health status of the population, and finally the impact on vulnerable people. Findings show that the effects of climate change have serious consequences on the livelihood patterns of the affected population and on their overall health status. As a result, the unfavorable health condition of these affected people makes them more vulnerable to various emerging diseases.

On the concept of vulnerability, identity and nostalgia affecting the immigrational experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Dunkas, N

2007-10-01

Τhis paper focuses on the vicissitudes affecting the immigrational experience of Greeks in the United States. It is based on observations and insights emanating from psychotherapeutic work with Greek immigrants at the Transcultural Center of Human Relations in Chicago. These immigrants presented with specific symptomatologies including anxiety, depression, psychophysiologic manifestations and gross stress reactions sometimes culminating in transient psychotic episodes necessitating brief psychiatric hospitalization. This study proposes to elucidate the dynamic factors leading to specific psychopathologies observed including the feeling of increased vulnerability and helplessness felt by the immigrant in the new cultural environment in the host country along with feelings if alienation, the shattering of the sense of identity and the ensuing nostalgia motivating the quest to return to the homeland. The study also describes the treatment approaches including the psychotherapeutic interactions required to bring about significant operational changes to provide symptomatologic relief and stabilization towards an improved adaptation to the current life's circumstances. The presented three ongoing cases in point dramatically portray the intensity and complexity of the actual experiences of these immigrants and their response to the applicable therapeutic modalities.

[Pathway to diagnosis and real-life experience of patients believing they are affected by "chronic Lyme disease"].

Science.gov (United States)

Forestier, E; Gonnet, F; Revil-Signorat, A; Zipper, A C

2018-04-26

Chronic Lyme disease is a subject of scientific and social controversy in both Europe and the United States. The aim of our study was to analyze the pathway to diagnosis of patients believing they were affected by the disease, and to describe their real-life experience. A qualitative study was performed with 13 patients declaring themselves to be affected by chronic Lyme disease. Interviews were analyzed by 2 general medical practice interns, supervised by a general practitioner with a diploma in socio-anthropology and an infectious diseases specialist. Internet and other media played a major role in informing the patients or their doctor about the existence and the characteristics of chronic Lyme disease. The diagnosis was confirmed by features considered objective (chronic infection by Borrelia, tick bite, positive serology, beneficial or worsening effects of antibiotics). The long medical diagnosis and treatment process of those interviewed was marked by a conflicted relationship with the medical profession, caused by a feeling of non-recognition and abandonment. They reported their experience as being very painful, both because of the physical pain and also the psychological consequences of their condition. Improving the diagnosis and therapeutic management of patients believing themselves to be affected by chronic Lyme disease appears highly necessary both to limit their search for diagnosis and their experience of pain. It could be based on existing guidelines concerning medically unexplained symptoms to which the chronic Lyme disease issue appears quite similar on several points. Copyright © 2018 Société Nationale Française de Médecine Interne (SNFMI). Published by Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.

Work stressors and partner social undermining: Comparing negative affect and psychological detachment as mechanisms.

Science.gov (United States)

Meier, Laurenz L; Cho, Eunae

2018-05-14

With the mounting evidence that employees' work experiences spill over into the family domain and cross over to family members, it is important to understand the underlying mechanism through which work experiences affect the family domain and what factors may alleviate the adverse impact of work stress. Expanding previous research that mainly focused on the affect-based mechanism (negative affect), the present research investigated a resource-based mechanism (psychological detachment from work) in the relationship linking two work stressors (high workload and workplace incivility) with social undermining toward the partner at home. We also explored the relative strength of the mediating effects of the two mechanisms. In addition, we tested whether relationship satisfaction moderates the proposed effect of detachment on partner undermining. We tested these research questions using two studies with differing designs: a five-wave longitudinal study (N = 470) and a multisource study (N = 131). The results suggest that stressful work experiences affect the family domain via lack of detachment as well as negative affect, that the two pathways have comparable strength, and that high relationship satisfaction mitigates the negative effect of lack of detachment on partner undermining. In sum, this research extends the spillover-crossover model by establishing that poor psychological detachment from work during leisure time is an additional mechanism that links work and family. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

The trauma of peer abuse: Effects of relational peer victimization and social anxiety disorder on physiological and affective reactions to social exclusion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benjamin eIffland

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Background: Social exclusion elicits emotional distress, negative mood and physiological stress. Recent studies showed that these effects were more intense and persisting in socially anxious subjects. The present study examined whether the abnormal reactions of socially anxious subjects can be traced back to previous experiences of relational peer victimization during childhood and adolescence. Methods: Participants (N = 74 were patients with a diagnosis of social anxiety disorder as well as healthy controls. The patient and control groups were subdivided into two subgroups according to the subject’s reports about previous relational peer victimization. Immediate and delayed physiological (skin conductance level and heart rate and affective reactions to a simulated social exclusion in a ball-toss game (Cyberball were recorded.Results: Overall, subjects’ immediate reactions to social exclusion were an increase in skin conductance and a reduction of positive affect. Regardless of the diagnostic status, subjects with a history of relational peer victimization showed a more intense self-reported affective change that was accompanied by a blunted skin conductance response. However, the mood of the subjects with a history of peer victimization recovered during a 15 min waiting period. A diagnosis of social anxiety disorder did not affect the reactions to social exclusion on any measure.Conclusions: Findings indicate that stress reactions to social exclusion depend more on previous experiences of peer victimization than on a diagnosis of social anxiety disorder. The findings indicate that memories of negative social experiences can determine the initial stress reaction to social threats.

The Impact of an International Cultural Experience on Previously Held Stereotypes by American Student Nurses.

Science.gov (United States)

Heuer, Loretta; Bengiamin, Marlene; Downey, Vicki Wessman

2001-01-01

Examined stereotypes held by U.S. student nurses before and after participating in an educational experience in Russia. The experience was intended to prepare them to be effective nurses in multicultural health care settings. Data from student interviews indicated that the experience changed students' stereotyped attitudes about Russian culture…

What and How You See Affects Your Appetite

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Hsin-I Liao

2011-10-01

Full Text Available We have previously shown that priming by a given color facilitates participant's appetite to that color (Liao, et al., 2010. The current study aims to further examine whether the way participant's experiencing the color affects the effect of color on appetite. In two experiments, participants were primed with a particular color by conducting an active cognitive task, or with a color paper upon which the questionnaire was printed. Participants were asked to complete the questionnaire regarding the sensations of taste/smell/flavor and their consumptive attitude toward sample candies with different colors. We measured their actual initial choice of the colored candy when they answered the questionnaire and the total amount of candy consumption during the experiment. Results showed that active color priming by the pre-executed cognitive task was correlated with initial choice but not explicit attitude. By contrast, no such direct influence of color on appetite was found when the color was primed passively with the printed paper. We conclude that color priming can affect appetite even without conscious evaluation of the relationship between them and this is more so with active priming than passive priming.

When the target may know better : Effects of experience and information asymmetries on value from mergers and acquisitions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cuypers, I.R.P.; Cuypers, Y.K.; Martin, Xavier

2017-01-01

Research Summary: Extending research on the effect of experience on acquisition outcomes, we examine how the differential in previous M&A experience between the target and the acquirer affects the value they respectively obtain when the acquirer takes over the target. Drawing on literature about

Suppressing memories of words and familiar objects results in their affective devaluation: Evidence from Think/No-think tasks.

Science.gov (United States)

De Vito, David; Fenske, Mark J

2017-05-01

Potentially distracting or otherwise-inappropriate stimuli, thoughts, or actions often must be inhibited to prevent interference with goal-directed behaviour. Growing evidence suggests that the impact of inhibition is not limited to reduced neurocognitive processing, but also includes negative affective consequences for any associated stimuli. The link between inhibition and aversive response has primarily been studied using tasks involving attentional- or response-related inhibition of external sensory stimuli. Here we show that affective devaluation also occurs when inhibition is applied to fully-encoded stimulus representations in memory. We first replicated prior findings of increased forgetting of words whose memories were suppressed in a Think/No-think procedure (Experiment 1). Incorporating a stimulus-evaluation task within this procedure revealed that suppressing memories of words (Experiment 2) and visual objects (Experiment 3) also results in their affective devaluation. Given the critical role of memory for guiding thoughts and actions, these results suggest that the affective consequences of inhibition may occur across a far broader range of situations than previously understood. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Affectivity and race

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vitus, Kathrine; Andreassen, Rikke

into the experience of racial difference and the unfolding of political discourses on race in various social spheres. Organised around the themes of the politicisation of race through affect, the way that race produces affect and the affective experience of race, this interdisciplinary collection sheds light...... on the role of feelings in the formation of subjectivities, how race and whiteness are affectively circulated in public life and the ways in which emotions contribute to regimes of inclusion and exclusion. As such it will appeal to scholars across the social sciences, with interests in sociology, anthropology......This book presents new empirical studies of social difference in the Nordic welfare states, in order to advance novel theoretical perspectives on the everyday practices and macro-politics of race and gender in multi-ethnic societies. With attention to the specific political and cultural landscapes...

Yielding to desire: the durability of affective preferences.

Science.gov (United States)

Rapp, David N; Jacovina, Matthew E; Slaten, Daniel G; Krause, Elise

2014-09-01

People's expectations about the future are guided not just by the contingencies of situations but also by what they hope or wish will happen next. These preferences can inform predictions that run counter to what should or must occur based on the logic of unfolding events. Effects of this type have been regularly identified in studies of judgment and decision making, with individuals' choices often reflecting emotional rather than rational influences. Encouraging individuals to rely less on their emotional considerations has proven a challenge as affective responses are generated quickly and are seemingly informative for decisions. In 6 experiments we examined whether individuals could be encouraged to rely less on their affective preferences when making judgments about future events. Participants read stories in which contexts informed the likelihood of events in ways that might run counter to their preferential investments in particular outcomes. While being less than relevant given the logic of events, participants' affective considerations remained influential despite time allotted for predictive reflection. In contrast, instructional warnings helped attenuate the influence of affective considerations, even under conditions previously shown to encourage preferential biases. The findings are discussed with respect to factors that mediate preference effects, and highlight challenges for overcoming people's reliance on affective contributors to everyday judgments and comprehension.

Urban Interaction and Affective Experience

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fritsch, Jonas; Brynskov, Martin

2008-01-01

As interactive digital technologies become a still more integrated and complex part of the everyday physical, social and cultural spaces we inhabit, research into these spaces’ dynamics and struc-tures needs to formulate adequate methods of analysis and dis-course. In this position paper we argue...... in favor of three points in that direction: First we argue that interaction – and the definition of interaction – is central to unfold the potential of digital urban media, from big, shared screens and media facades to small pri-vate, networked mobile and embedded platforms. Then we argue that an affective...... approach holds potential to address important aspects of the design of such blended digital spaces, extending beyond traditional interaction design. And finally we argue for the importance of construction, i.e. actual interventions of consider-able scale....

Reoperative sentinel lymph node biopsy after previous mastectomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Karam, Amer; Stempel, Michelle; Cody, Hiram S; Port, Elisa R

2008-10-01

Sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy is the standard of care for axillary staging in breast cancer, but many clinical scenarios questioning the validity of SLN biopsy remain. Here we describe our experience with reoperative-SLN (re-SLN) biopsy after previous mastectomy. Review of the SLN database from September 1996 to December 2007 yielded 20 procedures done in the setting of previous mastectomy. SLN biopsy was performed using radioisotope with or without blue dye injection superior to the mastectomy incision, in the skin flap in all patients. In 17 of 20 patients (85%), re-SLN biopsy was performed for local or regional recurrence after mastectomy. Re-SLN biopsy was successful in 13 of 20 patients (65%) after previous mastectomy. Of the 13 patients, 2 had positive re-SLN, and completion axillary dissection was performed, with 1 having additional positive nodes. In the 11 patients with negative re-SLN, 2 patients underwent completion axillary dissection demonstrating additional negative nodes. One patient with a negative re-SLN experienced chest wall recurrence combined with axillary recurrence 11 months after re-SLN biopsy. All others remained free of local or axillary recurrence. Re-SLN biopsy was unsuccessful in 7 of 20 patients (35%). In three of seven patients, axillary dissection was performed, yielding positive nodes in two of the three. The remaining four of seven patients all had previous modified radical mastectomy, so underwent no additional axillary surgery. In this small series, re-SLN was successful after previous mastectomy, and this procedure may play some role when axillary staging is warranted after mastectomy.

Affective Beliefs Influence the Experience of Eating Meat

OpenAIRE

Anderson, Eric C.; Barrett, Lisa Feldman

2016-01-01

People believe they experience the world objectively, but research continually demonstrates that beliefs influence perception. Emerging research indicates that beliefs influence the experience of eating. In three studies, we test whether beliefs about how animals are raised can influence the experience of eating meat. Samples of meat were paired with descriptions of animals raised on factory farms or raised on humane farms. Importantly, the meat samples in both conditions were identical. Howe...

Perceived Teacher Credibility and Students' Affect as a Function of Instructors' Use of PowerPoint and Email

Science.gov (United States)

Ledbetter, Andrew M.; Finn, Amber N.

2018-01-01

In this study, we extend previous work on instructors' use of technology by examining how students' perceptions of teacher credibility and affective experience differ depending on how frequently instructors use two common forms of instructional technology: PowerPoint, which is typically used "inside" the classroom; and email, which is…

How emotions affect logical reasoning: evidence from experiments with mood-manipulated participants, spider phobics, and people with exam anxiety

OpenAIRE

Jung, Nadine; Wranke, Christina; Hamburger, Kai; Knauff, Markus

2014-01-01

Recent experimental studies show that emotions can have a significant effect on the way we think, decide, and solve problems. This paper presents a series of four experiments on how emotions affect logical reasoning. In two experiments different groups of participants first had to pass a manipulated intelligence test. Their emotional state was altered by giving them feedback, that they performed excellent, poor or on average. Then they completed a set of logical inference problems (with if p,...

Chinese primiparous women's experiences of early motherhood: factors affecting maternal role competence.

Science.gov (United States)

Ngai, Fei-Wan; Chan, Sally W C; Holroyd, Eleanor

2011-05-01

The aim of this study was to explore Chinese women's perceptions of maternal role competence and factors contributing to maternal role competence during early motherhood. Developing a sense of competence and satisfaction in the maternal role are considered critical components in maternal adaptation, which have a significant impact on parenting behaviours and the psychosocial development of the child. However, qualitative studies that address maternal role competence are limited in the Chinese population. This was an exploratory descriptive study. A purposive sample of 26 Chinese primiparous mothers participated in a childbirth psychoeducation programme and was interviewed at six weeks postpartum. Data were analysed using content analysis. Women perceived a competent mother as being able to make a commitment to caring for the physical and emotional well-being of child, while cultivating appropriate values for childhood. Personal knowledge and experience of infant care, success in breastfeeding, infant's well-being, availability of social support and contradictory information from various sources were major factors affecting maternal role competency. The findings highlight the importance of understanding Chinese cultural attitudes to childrearing and maternal role competence. New Chinese mothers need information on child care, positive experiences of infant care, social support and consistent information to enhance their maternal role competency. Recommendations are made for Chinese culturally specific guidelines and healthcare delivery interventions to enhance maternal role competence in early motherhood. Nursing and midwifery care should always take into account the cultural beliefs and enable adaptation of traditional postpartum practices. Providing consistent information and positive experience on parenting skills and infant behaviour as well as enhancing effective coping strategies could strengthen Chinese women's maternal role competency. © 2011 Blackwell

Nutrient balance affects foraging behaviour of a trap-building predator

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mayntz, David; Toft, Søren; Vollrath, Fritz

2009-01-01

Predator foraging may be affected by previous prey capture, but it is unknown how nutrient balance affects foraging behaviour. Here, we use a trap-building predator to test whether nutrients from previous prey captures affect foraging behaviour. We fed orb-weaving spiders (Zygiella x-notata) prey...

Cyberbullying Among Adolescent Bystanders: Role of Affective Versus Cognitive Empathy in Increasing Prosocial Cyberbystander Behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Barlińska, Julia; Szuster, Anna; Winiewski, Mikołaj

2018-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate if affective (vicarious sharing of emotions) and cognitive empathy (mental perspective taking) induction may stimulate adolescent online bystanders’ intervention in cyberbullying cases. The role of reporting the abuse is crucial because it is a form of active support to the victim, initiated by children, to stop the bullying. The effectiveness of empathy activation in decreasing negative cyberbystander reinforcing behavior has been proved in previous studies. The effects of affective and cognitive empathy activation on positive cyberbystander behavior, defined as reporting the bullying online, were explored in two follow-up studies N = 271 and N = 265. The influence of experiencing cyberbullying as perpetrator, victim, and as determined by gender on prosocial cyberbystander behavior was also controlled. The results indicate that only cognitive empathy activation increases the likelihood of intervening bystander behavior. Neither affective empathy induction, previous experience of cyberperpetration, cybervictimization, nor gender affected the engagement in prosocial bystander behavior. The conclusion of the research is that a program consequently activating more reflective cognitive empathy induction can contribute toward the establishment of healthier behavioral patterns among bystanders to cyberbullying, increasing the probability of their reporting the cyberbullying acts. PMID:29899715

Cyberbullying Among Adolescent Bystanders: Role of Affective Versus Cognitive Empathy in Increasing Prosocial Cyberbystander Behavior

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julia Barlińska

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to investigate if affective (vicarious sharing of emotions and cognitive empathy (mental perspective taking induction may stimulate adolescent online bystanders’ intervention in cyberbullying cases. The role of reporting the abuse is crucial because it is a form of active support to the victim, initiated by children, to stop the bullying. The effectiveness of empathy activation in decreasing negative cyberbystander reinforcing behavior has been proved in previous studies. The effects of affective and cognitive empathy activation on positive cyberbystander behavior, defined as reporting the bullying online, were explored in two follow-up studies N = 271 and N = 265. The influence of experiencing cyberbullying as perpetrator, victim, and as determined by gender on prosocial cyberbystander behavior was also controlled. The results indicate that only cognitive empathy activation increases the likelihood of intervening bystander behavior. Neither affective empathy induction, previous experience of cyberperpetration, cybervictimization, nor gender affected the engagement in prosocial bystander behavior. The conclusion of the research is that a program consequently activating more reflective cognitive empathy induction can contribute toward the establishment of healthier behavioral patterns among bystanders to cyberbullying, increasing the probability of their reporting the cyberbullying acts.

Affective Pictures and the Open Library of Affective Foods (OLAF): Tools to Investigate Emotions toward Food in Adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Miccoli, Laura; Delgado, Rafael; Guerra, Pedro; Versace, Francesco; Rodríguez-Ruiz, Sonia; Fernández-Santaella, M Carmen

2016-01-01

Recently, several sets of standardized food pictures have been created, supplying both food images and their subjective evaluations. However, to date only the OLAF (Open Library of Affective Foods), a set of food images and ratings we developed in adolescents, has the specific purpose of studying emotions toward food. Moreover, some researchers have argued that food evaluations are not valid across individuals and groups, unless feelings toward food cues are compared with feelings toward intense experiences unrelated to food, that serve as benchmarks. Therefore the OLAF presented here, comprising a set of original food images and a group of standardized highly emotional pictures, is intended to provide valid between-group judgments in adults. Emotional images (erotica, mutilations, and neutrals from the International Affective Picture System/IAPS) additionally ensure that the affective ratings are consistent with emotion research. The OLAF depicts high-calorie sweet and savory foods and low-calorie fruits and vegetables, portraying foods within natural scenes matching the IAPS features. An adult sample evaluated both food and affective pictures in terms of pleasure, arousal, dominance, and food craving, following standardized affective rating procedures. The affective ratings for the emotional pictures corroborated previous findings, thus confirming the reliability of evaluations for the food images. Among the OLAF images, high-calorie sweet and savory foods elicited the greatest pleasure, although they elicited, as expected, less arousal than erotica. The observed patterns were consistent with research on emotions and confirmed the reliability of OLAF evaluations. The OLAF and affective pictures constitute a sound methodology to investigate emotions toward food within a wider motivational framework. The OLAF is freely accessible at digibug.ugr.es.

Combining Video, Audio and Lexical Indicators of Affect in Spontaneous Conversation via Particle Filtering.

Science.gov (United States)

Savran, Arman; Cao, Houwei; Shah, Miraj; Nenkova, Ani; Verma, Ragini

2012-01-01

We present experiments on fusing facial video, audio and lexical indicators for affect estimation during dyadic conversations. We use temporal statistics of texture descriptors extracted from facial video, a combination of various acoustic features, and lexical features to create regression based affect estimators for each modality. The single modality regressors are then combined using particle filtering, by treating these independent regression outputs as measurements of the affect states in a Bayesian filtering framework, where previous observations provide prediction about the current state by means of learned affect dynamics. Tested on the Audio-visual Emotion Recognition Challenge dataset, our single modality estimators achieve substantially higher scores than the official baseline method for every dimension of affect. Our filtering-based multi-modality fusion achieves correlation performance of 0.344 (baseline: 0.136) and 0.280 (baseline: 0.096) for the fully continuous and word level sub challenges, respectively.

Accent Imitation Positively Affects Language Attitudes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patti eAdank

2013-05-01

Full Text Available People in conversation tend to accommodate the way they speak. It has been assumed that this tendency to imitate each other’s speech patterns serves to increase liking between partners in a conversation. Previous experiments examined the effect of perceived social attractiveness on the tendency to imitate someone else’s speech and found that vocal imitation increased when perceived attractiveness was higher. The present experiment extends this research by examining the inverse relationship and examines how overt vocal imitation affects attitudes. Participants listened to sentences spoken by two speakers of a regional accent (Glaswegian of English. They vocally repeated (speaking in their own accent without imitating the sentences spoken by a Glaswegian speaker, and subsequently imitated sentences spoken by a second Glaswegian speaker (order counterbalanced across participants. After each repeating or imitation session, participants completed a questionnaire probing the speakers’ perceived power, competence, and social attractiveness. Imitating had a positive effect on the perceived social attractiveness of the speaker compared to repeating. These results are interpreted in light of Communication Accommodation Theory.

Accent imitation positively affects language attitudes.

Science.gov (United States)

Adank, Patti; Stewart, Andrew J; Connell, Louise; Wood, Jeffrey

2013-01-01

People in conversation tend to accommodate the way they speak. It has been assumed that this tendency to imitate each other's speech patterns serves to increase liking between partners in a conversation. Previous experiments examined the effect of perceived social attractiveness on the tendency to imitate someone else's speech and found that vocal imitation increased when perceived attractiveness was higher. The present experiment extends this research by examining the inverse relationship and examines how overt vocal imitation affects attitudes. Participants listened to sentences spoken by two speakers of a regional accent (Glaswegian) of English. They vocally repeated (speaking in their own accent without imitating) the sentences spoken by a Glaswegian speaker, and subsequently imitated sentences spoken by a second Glaswegian speaker (order counterbalanced across participants). After each repeating or imitation session, participants completed a questionnaire probing the speakers' perceived power, competence, and social attractiveness. Imitating had a positive effect on the perceived social attractiveness of the speaker compared to repeating. These results are interpreted in light of Communication Accommodation Theory.

APOE ε4, Rated Life Experiences, and Affect among Centenarians

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Peter; Jazwinski, S. Michal; Davey, Adam; Green, Robert; MacDonald, Maurice; Margrett, Jennifer A.; Siegler, Ilene C.; Arnold, Jonathan; Woodard, John; Johnson, Mary Ann; Kim, Sangkyu; Dai, Jianliang; Li, Li; Batzer, Mark A.; Poon, Leonard W.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between APOE, life events and engagement, and subjective well-being (as measured by positive and negative affect) among centenarians. Based on the life stress paradigm, we predicted that higher levels of stress would allow APOE to influence positive and negative affect. One hundred and ninety six centenarians and near centenarians (98 years and older) of the Georgia Centenarian Study participated in this research. APOE, positive and negative affect, number of recent (last two years) and life-long (more than 20 years prior to testing) events, as well as a number of life engagement tasks were assessed. Results suggested that centenarians carrying the APOE ε4 allele rated lower in positive affect, number of life-long events, and in engaged lifestyle when compared to centenarians without the APOE ε4 allele (t = 3.43, p < .01, t = 3.19, p < .01, and t = 2.33, p < .05, respectively). Blockwise multiple regressions indicated that APOE ε4 predicted positive but not negative affect after controlling for demographics. Gene-environment interactions were obtained for APOE ε4 and life-long events, suggesting that carriers of the APOE ε4 allele had higher scores of negative affect after having experienced more events, whereas non-carriers had reduced negative affect levels after having experienced more events. PMID:23998924

The Affective Experience of Novice Computer Programmers

Science.gov (United States)

Bosch, Nigel; D'Mello, Sidney

2017-01-01

Novice students (N = 99) participated in a lab study in which they learned the fundamentals of computer programming in Python using a self-paced computerized learning environment involving a 25-min scaffolded learning phase and a 10-min unscaffolded fadeout phase. Students provided affect judgments at approximately 100 points (every 15 s) over the…

Pricing decisions from experience: the roles of information-acquisition and response modes.

Science.gov (United States)

Golan, Hagai; Ert, Eyal

2015-03-01

While pricing decisions that are based on experience are quite common, e.g., setting a selling price for a used car, this type of decision has been surprisingly overlooked in psychology and decision research. Previous studies have focused on either choice decisions from experience, or pricing decisions from description. Those studies revealed that pricing involves cognitive mechanisms other than choice, while experience-based decisions involve mechanisms that differ from description-based ones. Thus, the mutual effect of pricing and experience on decision-making remains unclear. To test this effect, we experimentally compared real-money pricing decisions from experience with those from description, and with choices from experience. The results show that the mode of acquiring information affects pricing: the tendency to underprice high-probability prospects and overprice low-probability ones is diminished when pricing is based on experience rather than description. The findings further reveal attenuation of the tendency to underweight rare events, which underlies choices from experience, in pricing decisions from experience. The difference occurs because the response mode affects the search effort and decision strategy in decisions from experience. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bidirectional, Temporal Associations of Sleep with Positive Events, Affect, and Stressors in Daily Life Across a Week.

Science.gov (United States)

Sin, Nancy L; Almeida, David M; Crain, Tori L; Kossek, Ellen Ernst; Berkman, Lisa F; Buxton, Orfeu M

2017-06-01

Sleep is intricately tied to emotional well-being, yet little is known about the reciprocal links between sleep and psychosocial experiences in the context of daily life. The aim of this study is to evaluate daily psychosocial experiences (positive and negative affect, positive events, and stressors) as predictors of same-night sleep quality and duration, in addition to the reversed associations of nightly sleep predicting next-day experiences. Daily experiences and self-reported sleep were assessed via telephone interviews for eight consecutive evenings in two replicate samples of US employees (131 higher-income professionals and 181 lower-income hourly workers). Multilevel models evaluated within-person associations of daily experiences with sleep quality and duration. Analyses controlled for demographics, insomnia symptoms, the previous day's experiences and sleep measures, and additional day-level covariates. Daily positive experiences were associated with improved as well as disrupted subsequent sleep. Specifically, positive events at home predicted better sleep quality in both samples, whereas greater positive affect was associated with shorter sleep duration among the higher-income professionals. Negative affect and stressors were unrelated to subsequent sleep. Results for the reversed direction revealed that better sleep quality (and, to a lesser degree, longer sleep duration) predicted emotional well-being and lower odds of encountering stressors on the following day. Given the reciprocal relationships between sleep and daily experiences, efforts to improve well-being in daily life should reflect the importance of sleep.

Analysis of current research addressing complementary use of life-cycle assessment and risk assessment for engineered nanomaterials: have lessons been learned from previous experience with chemicals?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grieger, Khara D.; Laurent, Alexis; Miseljic, Mirko; Christensen, Frans; Baun, Anders; Olsen, Stig I.

2012-01-01

While it is generally agreed that successful strategies to address the health and environmental impacts of engineered nanomaterials (NM) should consider the well-established frameworks for conducting life-cycle assessment (LCA) and risk assessment (RA), scientific research, and specific guidance on how to practically apply these methods are still very much under development. This paper evaluates how research efforts have applied LCA and RA together for NM, particularly reflecting on previous experiences with applying these methods to chemicals. Through a literature review and a separate analysis of research focused on applying LCA and RA together for NM, it appears that current research efforts have taken into account some key “lessons learned” from previous experience with chemicals while many key challenges remain for practically applying these methods to NM. We identified two main approaches for using these methods together for NM: “LC-based RA” (traditional RA applied in a life-cycle perspective) and “RA-complemented LCA” (conventional LCA supplemented by RA in specific life-cycle steps). Hence, the latter is the only identified approach which genuinely combines LC- and RA-based methods for NM-risk research efforts to date as the former is rather a continuation of normal RA according to standard assessment procedures (e.g., REACH). Both these approaches along with recommendations for using LCA and RA together for NM are similar to those made previously for chemicals, and thus, there does not appear to be much progress made specific for NM. We have identified one issue in particular that may be specific for NM when applying LCA and RA at this time: the need to establish proper dose metrics within both methods.

Health and illness in a connected world: how might sharing experiences on the internet affect people's health?

Science.gov (United States)

Ziebland, Sue; Wyke, Sally

2012-06-01

The use of the Internet for peer-to-peer connection has been one of its most dramatic and transformational features. Yet this is a new field with no agreement on a theoretical and methodological basis. The scientific base underpinning this activity needs strengthening, especially given the explosion of web resources that feature experiences posted by patients themselves. This review informs a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) (UK) research program on the impact of online patients' accounts of their experiences with health and health care, which includes the development and validation of a new e-health impact questionnaire. We drew on realist review methods to conduct a conceptual review of literature in the social and health sciences. We developed a matrix to summarize the results, which we then distilled from a wide and diverse reading of the literature. We continued reading until we reached data saturation and then further refined the results after testing them with expert colleagues and a public user panel. We identified seven domains through which online patients' experiences could affect health. Each has the potential for positive and negative impacts. Five of the identified domains (finding information, feeling supported, maintaining relationships with others, affecting behavior, and experiencing health services) are relatively well rehearsed, while two (learning to tell the story and visualizing disease) are less acknowledged but important features of online resources. The value of first-person accounts, the appeal and memorability of stories, and the need to make contact with peers all strongly suggest that reading and hearing others' accounts of their own experiences of health and illnesss will remain a key feature of e-health. The act of participating in the creation of health information (e.g., through blogging and contributing to social networking on health topics) also influences patients' experiences and has implications for our

Converging evidence that subliminal evaluative conditioning does not affect self‐esteem or cardiovascular activity

Science.gov (United States)

Verkuil, Bart; Brosschot, Jos F.

2017-01-01

Abstract Self‐esteem moderates the relationship between stress and (cardiovascular) health, with low self‐esteem potentially exacerbating the impact of stressors. Boosting self‐esteem may therefore help to buffer against stress. Subliminal evaluative conditioning (SEC), which subliminally couples self‐words with positive words, has previously been successfully used to boost self‐esteem, but the existing studies are in need of replication. In this article, we aimed to replicate and extend previous SEC studies. The first 2 experiments simultaneously examined whether SEC increased self‐esteem (Experiment 1, n = 84) and reduced cardiovascular reactivity to a stressor in high worriers (Experiment 2, n = 77). On the basis of these results, the 3rd experiment was set up to examine whether an adjusted personalized SEC task increased self‐esteem and reduced cardiac activity in high worriers (n = 81). Across the 3 experiments, no effects were found of SEC on implicit or explicit self‐esteem or affect or on cardiovascular (re)activity compared to a control condition in which the self was coupled with neutral words. The results do not support the use of the subliminal intervention in its current format. As stress is highly prevalent, future studies should focus on developing other cost‐effective and evidence‐based interventions. PMID:28795525

Language proficiency and the international postgraduate student experience

OpenAIRE

Weaver, M

2016-01-01

In an increasingly competitive environment, with reduced government funding, full fee-paying international students are an important source of revenue for higher education institutions (HEIs). Although many previous studies have focused on the role of English language proficiency on academic success, there is little known about the extent to which levels of English language proficiency affect these non-native English speaking students’ overall course experience. There have been a wealth of st...

The long-term consequences of previous hyperthyroidism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hjelm Brandt Kristensen, Frans

2015-01-01

Thyroid hormones affect every cell in the human body, and the cardiovascular changes associated with increased levels of thyroid hormones are especially well described. As an example, short-term hyperthyroidism has positive chronotropic and inotropic effects on the heart, leading to a hyperdynamic...... with CVD, LD and DM both before and after the diagnosis of hyperthyroidism. Although the design used does not allow a stringent distinction between cause and effect, the findings indicate a possible direct association between hyperthyroidism and these morbidities, or vice versa....... vascular state. While it is biologically plausible that these changes may induce long-term consequences, the insight into morbidity as well as mortality in patients with previous hyperthyroidism is limited. The reasons for this are a combination of inadequately powered studies, varying definitions...

Preparatory power posing affects nonverbal presence and job interview performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Cuddy, Amy J C; Wilmuth, Caroline A; Yap, Andy J; Carney, Dana R

2015-07-01

The authors tested whether engaging in expansive (vs. contractive) "power poses" before a stressful job interview--preparatory power posing--would enhance performance during the interview. Participants adopted high-power (i.e., expansive, open) poses or low-power (i.e., contractive, closed) poses, and then prepared and delivered a speech to 2 evaluators as part of a mock job interview. All interview speeches were videotaped and coded for overall performance and hireability and for 2 potential mediators: verbal content (e.g., structure, content) and nonverbal presence (e.g., captivating, enthusiastic). As predicted, those who prepared for the job interview with high- (vs. low-) power poses performed better and were more likely to be chosen for hire; this relation was mediated by nonverbal presence, but not by verbal content. Although previous research has focused on how a nonverbal behavior that is enacted during interactions and observed by perceivers affects how those perceivers evaluate and respond to the actor, this experiment focused on how a nonverbal behavior that is enacted before the interaction and unobserved by perceivers affects the actor's performance, which, in turn, affects how perceivers evaluate and respond to the actor. This experiment reveals a theoretically novel and practically informative result that demonstrates the causal relation between preparatory nonverbal behavior and subsequent performance and outcomes. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Dimensions of adult attachment are significantly associated with specific affective temperament constellations in a Hungarian university sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Lang, Andras; Papp, Barbara; Gonda, Xenia; Dome, Peter; Rihmer, Zoltan

2016-02-01

Related to emotion regulation and mental health, adult attachment and affective temperaments are relevant research topics of contemporary psychiatry and clinical psychology. However, to date, only one study investigated the relationship between these two constructs. Thus, we aimed to further reveal adult attachment's association with affective temperaments. Affective temperament and adult attachment dimensions of 1469 Hungarian university students were assessed with self-report measures (Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa and San Diego autoquestionnaire and Experiences in Close Relationships Scale, respectively). Age and measured variables were compared between genders with ANOVAs. Associations between attachment dimensions and affective temperaments were examined with Pearson's correlations and partial correlations; the moderation effect of age and gender on these relationships was tested with PROCESS macro. Using Fisher r-to-z transformation, we also compared our results with the findings of the previous study. Cohen's ds were used to report effect size and Cronbach's alphas were computed as indices of internal reliability. Significant correlations were found between attachment dimensions and affective temperaments. Correlations were especially robust between attachment anxiety and depressive, cyclothymic and anxious temperaments. Contrasted with the results of the previous study, hyperthymic temperament was negatively related to attachment avoidance and anxious temperament was significantly more strongly correlated with attachment anxiety in our study. We used a previous version of the adult attachment measure. Our sample differed from the target sample in several ways. Participants were not screened for mental disorders. Findings highlight that adult attachment dimensions are significantly associated with affective temperaments. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Toward a definition of affective instability.

Science.gov (United States)

Renaud, Suzane M; Zacchia, Camillo

2012-01-01

Affective instability is a psychophysiological symptom observed in some psychopathologies. It is a complex construct that encompasses (1) primary emotions, or affects, and secondary emotions, with each category having its own characteristics, amplitude, and duration, (2) rapid shifting from neutral or valenced affect to intense affect, and (3) dysfunctional modulation of emotions. Affective instability is often confused with mood lability, as in bipolar disorders, as well as with other terms. To clarify the concept, we searched databases for the term affective instability and read related articles on the topic. In this article we situate the term within the current affective nomenclature and human emotional experience, explore its psychophysiological features, and place it within the context of psychopathology. We explain why the term can potentially be confused with mood pathology and then define affective instability as an inherited temperamental trait modulated by developmental experience.

A Questionnaire Study on the Attitudes and Previous Experience of Croatian Family Physicians toward their Preparedness for Disaster Management.

Science.gov (United States)

Pekez-Pavliško, Tanja; Račić, Maja; Jurišić, Dinka

2018-04-01

To explore family physicians' attitudes, previous experience and self-assessed preparedness to respond or to assist in mass casualty incidents in Croatia. The cross-sectional survey was carried out during January 2017. Study participants were recruited through a Facebook group that brings together family physicians from Croatia. They were asked to complete the questionnaire, which was distributed via google.docs. Knowledge and attitudes toward disaster preparedness were evaluated by 18 questions. Analysis of variance, Student t test and Kruskal-Wallis test t were used for statistical analysis. Risk awareness of disasters was high among respondents (M = 4.89, SD=0.450). Only 16.4 of respondents have participated in the management of disaster at the scene. The majority (73.8%) of physicians have not been participating in any educational activity dealing with disaster over the past two years. Family physicians believed they are not well prepared to participate in national (M = 3.02, SD=0.856) and local community emergency response system for disaster (M = 3.16, SD=1.119). Male physicians scored higher preparedness to participate in national emergency response system for disaster ( p =0.012), to carry out accepted triage principles used in the disaster situation ( p =0.003) and recognize differences in health assessments indicating potential exposure to specific agents ( p =0,001) compared to their female colleagues. Croatian primary healthcare system attracts many young physicians, who can be an important part of disaster and emergency management. However, the lack of experience despite a high motivation indicates a need for inclusion of disaster medicine training during undergraduate studies and annual educational activities.

Manipulating affective state influences conditioned appetitive responses.

Science.gov (United States)

Arnaudova, Inna; Krypotos, Angelos-Miltiadis; Effting, Marieke; Kindt, Merel; Beckers, Tom

2017-10-06

Affective states influence how individuals process information and behave. Some theories predict emotional congruency effects (e.g. preferential processing of negative information in negative affective states). Emotional congruency should theoretically obstruct the learning of reward associations (appetitive learning) and their ability to guide behaviour under negative mood. Two studies tested the effects of the induction of a negative affective state on appetitive Pavlovian learning, in which neutral stimuli were associated with chocolate (Experiment 1) or alcohol (Experiment 2) rewards. In both experiments, participants showed enhanced approach tendencies towards predictors of reward after a negative relative to a positive performance feedback manipulation. This increase was related to a reduction in positive affect in Experiment 1 only. No effects of the manipulation on conditioned reward expectancies, craving, or consumption were observed. Overall, our findings support the idea of counter-regulation, rather than emotional congruency effects. Negative affective states might therefore serve as a vulnerability factor for addiction, through increasing conditioned approach tendencies.

Fish quality – linking previous infections to the quality of consumers’ fillet

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

The quality of the fish meat is dependent upon a wide range of biological and non-biological factors. In the present study it has been established that previous infections by Vibrio anguillarum in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) influence the quality of the fish meat (fillet) at slaughter more...... than after the fish have recovered from the infection. The texture of the fillet analysed by sensory analysis showed changes, which could be explained by previous tissue damage caused by the infection. These changes indicated formation of scars in affected tissue during the processes of tissue repair......, which gave rise to a more fibrous, tougher and flaky texture of the fillets....

Human Empathy, Personality and Experience Affect the Emotion Ratings of Dog and Human Facial Expressions

Science.gov (United States)

Kujala, Miiamaaria V.; Somppi, Sanni; Jokela, Markus; Vainio, Outi; Parkkonen, Lauri

2017-01-01

Facial expressions are important for humans in communicating emotions to the conspecifics and enhancing interpersonal understanding. Many muscles producing facial expressions in humans are also found in domestic dogs, but little is known about how humans perceive dog facial expressions, and which psychological factors influence people’s perceptions. Here, we asked 34 observers to rate the valence, arousal, and the six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, surprise, disgust, fear, and anger/aggressiveness) from images of human and dog faces with Pleasant, Neutral and Threatening expressions. We investigated how the subjects’ personality (the Big Five Inventory), empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and experience of dog behavior affect the ratings of dog and human faces. Ratings of both species followed similar general patterns: human subjects classified dog facial expressions from pleasant to threatening very similarly to human facial expressions. Subjects with higher emotional empathy evaluated Threatening faces of both species as more negative in valence and higher in anger/aggressiveness. More empathetic subjects also rated the happiness of Pleasant humans but not dogs higher, and they were quicker in their valence judgments of Pleasant human, Threatening human and Threatening dog faces. Experience with dogs correlated positively with ratings of Pleasant and Neutral dog faces. Personality also had a minor effect on the ratings of Pleasant and Neutral faces in both species. The results imply that humans perceive human and dog facial expression in a similar manner, and the perception of both species is influenced by psychological factors of the evaluators. Especially empathy affects both the speed and intensity of rating dogs’ emotional facial expressions. PMID:28114335

Human Empathy, Personality and Experience Affect the Emotion Ratings of Dog and Human Facial Expressions.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miiamaaria V Kujala

Full Text Available Facial expressions are important for humans in communicating emotions to the conspecifics and enhancing interpersonal understanding. Many muscles producing facial expressions in humans are also found in domestic dogs, but little is known about how humans perceive dog facial expressions, and which psychological factors influence people's perceptions. Here, we asked 34 observers to rate the valence, arousal, and the six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, surprise, disgust, fear, and anger/aggressiveness from images of human and dog faces with Pleasant, Neutral and Threatening expressions. We investigated how the subjects' personality (the Big Five Inventory, empathy (Interpersonal Reactivity Index and experience of dog behavior affect the ratings of dog and human faces. Ratings of both species followed similar general patterns: human subjects classified dog facial expressions from pleasant to threatening very similarly to human facial expressions. Subjects with higher emotional empathy evaluated Threatening faces of both species as more negative in valence and higher in anger/aggressiveness. More empathetic subjects also rated the happiness of Pleasant humans but not dogs higher, and they were quicker in their valence judgments of Pleasant human, Threatening human and Threatening dog faces. Experience with dogs correlated positively with ratings of Pleasant and Neutral dog faces. Personality also had a minor effect on the ratings of Pleasant and Neutral faces in both species. The results imply that humans perceive human and dog facial expression in a similar manner, and the perception of both species is influenced by psychological factors of the evaluators. Especially empathy affects both the speed and intensity of rating dogs' emotional facial expressions.

Improving Dental Experiences by Using Virtual Reality Distraction: A Simulation Study

Science.gov (United States)

Tanja-Dijkstra, Karin; Pahl, Sabine; P. White, Mathew; Andrade, Jackie; Qian, Cheng; Bruce, Malcolm; May, Jon; Moles, David R.

2014-01-01

Dental anxiety creates significant problems for both patients and the dental profession. Some distraction interventions are already used by healthcare professionals to help patients cope with unpleasant procedures. The present study is novel because it a) builds on evidence that natural scenery is beneficial for patients, and b) uses a Virtual Reality (VR) representation of nature to distract participants. Extending previous work that has investigated pain and anxiety during treatment, c) we also consider the longer term effects in terms of more positive memories of the treatment, building on a cognitive theory of memory (Elaborated Intrusions). Participants (n = 69) took part in a simulated dental experience and were randomly assigned to one of three VR conditions (active vs. passive vs. control). In addition, participants were distinguished into high and low dentally anxious according to a median split resulting in a 3×2 between-subjects design. VR distraction in a simulated dental context affected memories a week later. The VR distraction had effects not only on concurrent experiences, such as perceived control, but longitudinally upon the vividness of memories after the dental experience had ended. Participants with higher dental anxiety (for whom the dental procedures were presumably more aversive) showed a greater reduction in memory vividness than lower dental-anxiety participants. This study thus suggests that VR distractions can be considered as a relevant intervention for cycles of care in which people’s previous experiences affect their behaviour for future events. PMID:24621518

Improving dental experiences by using virtual reality distraction: a simulation study.

Science.gov (United States)

Tanja-Dijkstra, Karin; Pahl, Sabine; White, Mathew P; Andrade, Jackie; Qian, Cheng; Bruce, Malcolm; May, Jon; Moles, David R

2014-01-01

Dental anxiety creates significant problems for both patients and the dental profession. Some distraction interventions are already used by healthcare professionals to help patients cope with unpleasant procedures. The present study is novel because it a) builds on evidence that natural scenery is beneficial for patients, and b) uses a Virtual Reality (VR) representation of nature to distract participants. Extending previous work that has investigated pain and anxiety during treatment, c) we also consider the longer term effects in terms of more positive memories of the treatment, building on a cognitive theory of memory (Elaborated Intrusions). Participants (n = 69) took part in a simulated dental experience and were randomly assigned to one of three VR conditions (active vs. passive vs. control). In addition, participants were distinguished into high and low dentally anxious according to a median split resulting in a 3×2 between-subjects design. VR distraction in a simulated dental context affected memories a week later. The VR distraction had effects not only on concurrent experiences, such as perceived control, but longitudinally upon the vividness of memories after the dental experience had ended. Participants with higher dental anxiety (for whom the dental procedures were presumably more aversive) showed a greater reduction in memory vividness than lower dental-anxiety participants. This study thus suggests that VR distractions can be considered as a relevant intervention for cycles of care in which people's previous experiences affect their behaviour for future events.

Improving dental experiences by using virtual reality distraction: a simulation study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karin Tanja-Dijkstra

Full Text Available Dental anxiety creates significant problems for both patients and the dental profession. Some distraction interventions are already used by healthcare professionals to help patients cope with unpleasant procedures. The present study is novel because it a builds on evidence that natural scenery is beneficial for patients, and b uses a Virtual Reality (VR representation of nature to distract participants. Extending previous work that has investigated pain and anxiety during treatment, c we also consider the longer term effects in terms of more positive memories of the treatment, building on a cognitive theory of memory (Elaborated Intrusions. Participants (n = 69 took part in a simulated dental experience and were randomly assigned to one of three VR conditions (active vs. passive vs. control. In addition, participants were distinguished into high and low dentally anxious according to a median split resulting in a 3×2 between-subjects design. VR distraction in a simulated dental context affected memories a week later. The VR distraction had effects not only on concurrent experiences, such as perceived control, but longitudinally upon the vividness of memories after the dental experience had ended. Participants with higher dental anxiety (for whom the dental procedures were presumably more aversive showed a greater reduction in memory vividness than lower dental-anxiety participants. This study thus suggests that VR distractions can be considered as a relevant intervention for cycles of care in which people's previous experiences affect their behaviour for future events.

Effects of previous growth hormone excess and current medical treatment for acromegaly on cognition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brummelman, Pauline; Koerts, Janneke; Dullaart, Robin P. F.; van den Berg, Gerrit; Tucha, Oliver; Wolffenbuttel, Bruce H. R.; van Beek, Andre P.

2012-01-01

Background In untreated acromegaly patients, decreased cognitive functioning is reported to be associated with the degree of growth hormone (GH) and IGF-1 excess. Whether previous GH excess or current medical treatment for acromegaly specifically affects cognition remains unclear. The aim of this

Factors affecting the adoption of green supply chain management practices in Brazil

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

de Sousa Jabbour, A.B.L.; Jabbour, C.J.C.; Govindan, Kannan

2013-01-01

The aim of this study is to identify and analyse the factors that affect the adoption of Green Supply Chain Management practices based on empirical evidence from the Brazilian electronics sector. Data are collected in a survey of 100 electronics companies and analysed using statistical analysis...... of variance and regression methods. The study finds that the size of the company, previous experience with Environmental Management Systems, and the use of hazardous inputs are positively correlated with GSCM practices adoption. Surprisingly, formal pressure from the stronger tier/player in the supply chain...

77 FR 33622 - Airworthiness Directives; Alpha Aviation Concept Limited (Type Certificate Previously Held by...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-06-07

... Airworthiness Directives; Alpha Aviation Concept Limited (Type Certificate Previously Held by Alpha Aviation... Aviation Concept Limited Model R2160 Airplanes. This AD results from mandatory continuing airworthiness... condition on an aviation product. The MCAI describes the unsafe condition as oil lines fitted to affected...

Spatial layout affects speed discrimination

Science.gov (United States)

Verghese, P.; Stone, L. S.

1997-01-01

We address a surprising result in a previous study of speed discrimination with multiple moving gratings: discrimination thresholds decreased when the number of stimuli was increased, but remained unchanged when the area of a single stimulus was increased [Verghese & Stone (1995). Vision Research, 35, 2811-2823]. In this study, we manipulated the spatial- and phase relationship between multiple grating patches to determine their effect on speed discrimination thresholds. In a fusion experiment, we merged multiple stimulus patches, in stages, into a single patch. Thresholds increased as the patches were brought closer and their phase relationship was adjusted to be consistent with a single patch. Thresholds increased further still as these patches were fused into a single patch. In a fission experiment, we divided a single large patch into multiple patches by superimposing a cross with luminance equal to that of the background. Thresholds decreased as the large patch was divided into quadrants and decreased further as the quadrants were maximally separated. However, when the cross luminance was darker than the background, it was perceived as an occluder and thresholds, on average, were unchanged from that for the single large patch. A control experiment shows that the observed trend in discrimination thresholds is not due to the differences in perceived speed of the stimuli. These results suggest that the parsing of the visual image into entities affects the combination of speed information across space, and that each discrete entity effectively provides a single independent estimate of speed.

Is previous disaster experience a good predictor for disaster preparedness in extreme poverty households in remote Muslim minority based community in China?

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Chan, Emily Y Y; Kim, Jean H; Lin, Cherry; Cheung, Eliza Y L; Lee, Polly P Y

2014-06-01

Disaster preparedness is an important preventive strategy for protecting health and mitigating adverse health effects of unforeseen disasters. A multi-site based ethnic minority project (2009-2015) is set up to examine health and disaster preparedness related issues in remote, rural, disaster prone communities in China. The primary objective of this reported study is to examine if previous disaster experience significantly increases household disaster preparedness levels in remote villages in China. A cross-sectional, household survey was conducted in January 2011 in Gansu Province, in a predominately Hui minority-based village. Factors related to disaster preparedness were explored using quantitative methods. Two focus groups were also conducted to provide additional contextual explanations to the quantitative findings of this study. The village household response rate was 62.4 % (n = 133). Although previous disaster exposure was significantly associated with perception of living in a high disaster risk area (OR = 6.16), only 10.7 % households possessed a disaster emergency kit. Of note, for households with members who had non-communicable diseases, 9.6 % had prepared extra medications to sustain clinical management of their chronic conditions. This is the first study that examined disaster preparedness in an ethnic minority population in remote communities in rural China. Our results indicate the need of disaster mitigation education to promote preparedness in remote, resource-poor communities.

Dynamic Musical Communication of Core Affect

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Nicole eFlaig

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Is there something special about the way music communicates feelings? Theorists since Meyer (1956 have attempted to explain how music could stimulate varied and subtle affective experiences by violating learned expectancies, or by mimicking other forms of social interaction. Our proposal is that music speaks to the brain in its own language; it need not imitate any other form of communication. We review recent theoretical and empirical literature, which suggests that all conscious processes consist of dynamic neural events, produced by spatially dispersed processes in the physical brain. Intentional thought and affective experience arise as dynamical aspects of neural events taking place in multiple brain areas simultaneously. At any given moment, this content comprises a unified scene that is integrated into a dynamic core through synchrony of neuronal oscillations. We propose that 1 neurodynamic synchrony with musical stimuli gives rise to musical qualia including tonal and temporal expectancies, and that 2 music-synchronous responses couple into core neurodynamics, enabling music to directly modulate core affect. Expressive music performance, for example, may recruit rhythm-synchronous neural responses to support affective communication. We suggest that the dynamic relationship between musical expression and the experience of affect presents a unique opportunity for the study of emotional experience. This may help elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying arousal and valence, and offer a new approach to exploring the complex dynamics of the how and why of emotional experience.

Previous experiences shape adaptive mate preferences

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fawcett, Tim W.; Bleay, Colin

2009-01-01

Existing models of mate choice assume that individuals have perfect knowledge of their own ability to attract a mate and can adjust their preferences accordingly. However, real animals will typically be uncertain of their own attractiveness. A potentially useful source of information on this is the

False memories, but not false beliefs, affect implicit attitudes for food preferences.

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Howe, David; Anderson, Rachel J; Dewhurst, Stephen A

2017-09-01

Previous studies have found that false memories and false beliefs of childhood experiences can have attitudinal consequences. Previous studies have, however, focused exclusively on explicit attitude measures without exploring whether implicit attitudes are similarly affected. Using a false feedback/imagination inflation paradigm, false memories and beliefs of enjoying a certain food as a child were elicited in participants, and their effects were assessed using both explicit attitude measures (self-report questionnaires) and implicit measures (a Single-Target Implicit Association Test). Positive changes in explicit attitudes were observed both in participants with false memories and participants with false beliefs. In contrast, only participants with false memories exhibited more positive implicit attitudes. The findings are discussed in terms of theories of explicit and implicit attitudes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

War experiences and psychotic symptoms among former child soldiers in Northern Uganda: the mediating role of post-war hardships – the WAYS Study

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Amone-P’Olak, Kennedy; Otim, Balaam Nyeko; Opio, George; Ovuga, Emilio; Meiser-Stedman, Richard

2014-01-01

Psychotic symptoms have been associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and war experiences. However, the relationships between types of war experiences, the onset and course of psychotic symptoms, and post-war hardships in child soldiers have not been investigated. This study assessed whether various types of war experiences contribute to psychotic symptoms differently and whether post-war hardships mediated the relationship between war experiences and later psychotic symptoms. In an ongoing longitudinal cohort study (the War-Affected Youths Survey), 539 (61% male) former child soldiers were assessed for psychotic symptoms, post-war hardships, and previous war experiences. Regression analyses were used to assess the contribution of different types of war experiences on psychotic symptoms and the mediating role of post-war hardships in the relations between previous war experiences and psychotic symptoms. The findings yielded ‘witnessing violence’, ‘deaths and bereavement’, ‘involvement in hostilities’, and ‘sexual abuse’ as types of war experiences that significantly and independently predict psychotic symptoms. Exposure to war experiences was related to psychotic symptoms through post-war hardships (β = .18, 95% confidence interval = [0.10, 0.25]) accounting for 50% of the variance in their relationship. The direct relation between previous war experiences and psychotic symptoms attenuated but remained significant (β = .18, 95% confidence interval = [0.12, 0.26]). Types of war experiences should be considered when evaluating risks for psychotic symptoms in the course of providing emergency humanitarian services in post-conflict settings. Interventions should consider post-war hardships as key determinants of psychotic symptoms among war-affected youths. PMID:24718435

Sexual behavior induction of c-Fos in the nucleus accumbens and amphetamine-stimulated locomotor activity are sensitized by previous sexual experience in female Syrian hamsters.

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Bradley, K C; Meisel, R L

2001-03-15

Dopamine transmission in the nucleus accumbens can be activated by drugs, stress, or motivated behaviors, and repeated exposure to these stimuli can sensitize this dopamine response. The objectives of this study were to determine whether female sexual behavior activates nucleus accumbens neurons and whether past sexual experience cross-sensitizes neuronal responses in the nucleus accumbens to amphetamine. Using immunocytochemical labeling, c-Fos expression in different subregions (shell vs core at the rostral, middle, and caudal levels) of the nucleus accumbens was examined in female hamsters that had varying amounts of sexual experience. Female hamsters, given either 6 weeks of sexual experience or remaining sexually naive, were tested for sexual behavior by exposure to adult male hamsters. Previous sexual experience increased c-Fos labeling in the rostral and caudal levels but not in the middle levels of the nucleus accumbens. Testing for sexual behavior increased labeling in the core, but not the shell, of the nucleus accumbens. To validate that female sexual behavior can sensitize neurons in the mesolimbic dopamine pathway, the locomotor responses of sexually experienced and sexually naive females to an amphetamine injection were then compared. Amphetamine increased general locomotor activity in all females. However, sexually experienced animals responded sooner to amphetamine than did sexually naive animals. These data indicate that female sexual behavior can activate neurons in the nucleus accumbens and that sexual experience can cross-sensitize neuronal responses to amphetamine. In addition, these results provide additional evidence for functional differences between the shell and core of the nucleus accumbens and across its anteroposterior axis.

Converging evidence that subliminal evaluative conditioning does not affect self-esteem or cardiovascular activity.

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Versluis, Anke; Verkuil, Bart; Brosschot, Jos F

2018-04-01

Self-esteem moderates the relationship between stress and (cardiovascular) health, with low self-esteem potentially exacerbating the impact of stressors. Boosting self-esteem may therefore help to buffer against stress. Subliminal evaluative conditioning (SEC), which subliminally couples self-words with positive words, has previously been successfully used to boost self-esteem, but the existing studies are in need of replication. In this article, we aimed to replicate and extend previous SEC studies. The first 2 experiments simultaneously examined whether SEC increased self-esteem (Experiment 1, n = 84) and reduced cardiovascular reactivity to a stressor in high worriers (Experiment 2, n = 77). On the basis of these results, the 3rd experiment was set up to examine whether an adjusted personalized SEC task increased self-esteem and reduced cardiac activity in high worriers (n = 81). Across the 3 experiments, no effects were found of SEC on implicit or explicit self-esteem or affect or on cardiovascular (re)activity compared to a control condition in which the self was coupled with neutral words. The results do not support the use of the subliminal intervention in its current format. As stress is highly prevalent, future studies should focus on developing other cost-effective and evidence-based interventions. © 2017 The Authors. Stress and Health Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Robotic colorectal surgery: previous laparoscopic colorectal experience is not essential.

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Sian, Tanvir Singh; Tierney, G M; Park, H; Lund, J N; Speake, W J; Hurst, N G; Al Chalabi, H; Smith, K J; Tou, S

2018-06-01

A background in minimally invasive colorectal surgery (MICS) has been thought to be essential prior to robotic-assisted colorectal surgery (RACS). Our aim was to determine whether MICS is essential prior to starting RACS training based on results from our initial experience with RACS. Two surgeons from our centre received robotic training through the European Academy of Robotic Colorectal Surgery (EARCS). One surgeon had no prior formal MICS training. We reviewed the first 30 consecutive robotic colorectal procedures from a prospectively maintained database between November 2014 and January 2016 at our institution. Fourteen patients were male. Median age was 64.5 years (range 36-82) and BMI was 27.5 (range 20-32.5). Twelve procedures (40%) were performed by the non-MICS-trained surgeon: ten high anterior resections (one conversion), one low anterior resection and one abdomino-perineal resection of rectum (APER). The MICS-trained surgeon performed nine high and four low anterior resections, one APER and in addition three right hemicolectomies and one abdominal suture rectopexy. There were no intra-operative complications and two patients required re-operation. Median post-operative stay was five days (range 1-26). There were two 30-day re-admissions. All oncological resections had clear margins and median node harvest was 18 (range 9-39). Our case series demonstrates that a background in MICS is not essential prior to starting RACS training. Not having prior MICS training should not discourage surgeons from considering applying for a robotic training programme. Safe and successful robotic colorectal services can be established after completing a formal structured robotic training programme.

Assessment of Habitat Suitability Is Affected by Plant-Soil Feedback: Comparison of Field and Garden Experiment.

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Lucie Hemrová

Full Text Available Field translocation experiments (i.e., the introduction of seeds or seedlings of different species into different localities are commonly used to study habitat associations of species, as well as factors limiting species distributions and local abundances. Species planted or sown in sites where they naturally occur are expected to perform better or equally well compared to sites at which they do not occur or are rare. This, however, contrasts with the predictions of the Janzen-Connell hypothesis and commonly reported intraspecific negative plant-soil feedback. The few previous studies indicating poorer performance of plants at sites where they naturally occur did not explore the mechanisms behind this pattern.In this study, we used field translocation experiments established using both seeds and seedlings to study the determinants of local abundance of four dominant species in grasslands. To explore the possible effects of intraspecific negative plant-soil feedback on our results, we tested the effect of local species abundance on the performance of the plants in the field experiment. In addition, we set up a garden experiment to explore the intensity of intraspecific as well as interspecific feedback between the dominants used in the experiment.In some cases, the distribution and local abundances of the species were partly driven by habitat conditions at the sites, and species performed better at their own sites. However, the prevailing pattern was that the local dominants performed worse at sites where they naturally occur than at any other sites. Moreover, the success of plants in the field experiment was lower in the case of higher intraspecific abundance prior to experimental setup. In the garden feedback experiment, two of the species performed significantly worse in soils conditioned by their species than in soils conditioned by the other species. In addition, the performance of the plants was significantly correlated between the two

Personality and Stressor-Related Affect

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Leger, Kate A.; Charles, Susan T.; Turiano, Nicholas A.; Almeida, David M.

2015-01-01

Greater increases in negative affect and greater decreases in positive affect on days stressors occur portend poorer mental and physical health years later. Although personality traits influence stressor-related affect, only neuroticism and extraversion among the Big Five personality traits have been examined in any detail. Moreover, personality traits may shape how people appraise daily stressors, yet few studies have examined how stressor-related appraisals may account for associations between personality and stressor-related affect. Two studies used participants (N=2022, age 30–84) from the National Study of Daily Experiences II (NSDE II) to examine the associations between Big Five personality traits and stressor-related affect, in addition to how appraisals may account for these relationships. Results from Study 1 indicate that higher levels of extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience, and lower levels of neuroticism, are related to less stressor-related negative affect. Only agreeableness was associated with stressor-related positive affect, such that higher levels were related to greater decreases in positive affect on days stressors occur. The second study found that stressor-related appraisals partially accounted for the significant associations between stressor-related negative affect and personality. Implications for these findings in relation to how personality may influence physical and emotional health are discussed. PMID:26796984

77 FR 15980 - Airworthiness Directives; Alpha Aviation Concept Limited (Type Certificate Previously Held by...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-19

... Concept Limited (Type Certificate Previously Held by Alpha Aviation Design Limited) Airplanes AGENCY... rulemaking (NPRM). SUMMARY: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for Alpha Aviation Concept... condition on an aviation product. The MCAI describes the unsafe condition as oil lines fitted to affected...

Physical activity and negative affective reactivity in daily life.

Science.gov (United States)

Puterman, Eli; Weiss, Jordan; Beauchamp, Mark R; Mogle, Jacqueline; Almeida, David M

2017-12-01

The results from experimental studies indicate that physically active individuals remain calmer and report less anxiety after the induction of a standardized stressor. The current study extends this research to real life, and examines whether daily physical activity attenuates negative affect that occurs in response to naturally occurring daily stressors. The current study used data from the second wave of the National Study of Daily Experiences, a sub-study of the second wave of the Midlife in the United States Study (MIDUS-II) of 2,022 individuals aged 33-84 questioned nightly for eight consecutive days about their general affect and affective responses to stressful events and their engagement in physical activity. Results indicated that while negative affect is significantly elevated on days with stressful events compared to days free of events in all individuals, these effects are attenuated in those who remain physically active when compared to those who were underactive. This was also true for any day participants were physically active. Importantly, negative affect in response to any specific stressor was reduced the closer in time that the stressor occurred to the bout of exercise in underactive participants, while, in active participants, negative affect in response to any stressor remained low throughout the entire day that participants reported that they were active. Given the significant mental and physical health implications of elevated affective reactivity observed in previous studies, the current study sheds further light on the importance of remaining physically active in times of stress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Factors affecting physical therapists' job satisfaction: questionnaire survey targeting first-year physical therapists.

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Kota, Munetsugu; Kudo, Hiroyuki; Okita, Kazuhiko

2018-04-01

[Purpose] The survey aimed to clarify the factors that affect physiotherapists' job satisfaction. [Subjects and Methods] To examine factors affecting physical therapists' job satisfaction using a cross-sectional study with a questionnaire survey. Subjects were 193 first-year physical therapists who participated in a newcomer orientation at Hiroshima Prefectural Physical Therapy Association. The questionnaire comprised items concerning physical therapists' satisfaction with their work, motives for becoming physical therapists, education in school, internships, the workplace, and comfort in the workplace. [Results] Subjects were divided into two groups according to their satisfaction with their occupation. The "high satisfaction" group included 157 subjects, and the group "low satisfaction" group included 36 subjects. Using logistic regression analysis, items concerning comfort in the workplace, motives for becoming physical therapists, and learning in school were analysed. [Conclusion] Factors affecting physical therapists' job satisfaction were primarily influenced by previous experience and working conditions.

Caring for women wanting a vaginal birth after previous caesarean section: A qualitative study of the experiences of midwives and obstetricians.

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Foureur, Maralyn; Turkmani, Sabera; Clack, Danielle C; Davis, Deborah L; Mollart, Lyndall; Leiser, Bernadette; Homer, Caroline S E

2017-02-01

One of the greatest contributors to the overall caesarean section rate is elective repeat caesarean section. Decisions around mode of birth are often complex for women and influenced by the views of the doctors and midwives who care for and counsel women. Women may be more likely to choose a repeat elective caesarean section (CS) if their health care providers lack skills and confidence in supporting vaginal birth after caesarean section (VBAC). To explore the views and experiences of providers in caring for women considering VBAC, in particular the decision-making processes and the communication of risk and safety to women. A descriptive interpretive method was utilised. Four focus groups with doctors and midwives were conducted. The central themes were: 'developing trust', 'navigating the system' and 'optimising support'. The impact of past professional experiences; the critical importance of continuity of carer and positive relationships; the ability to weigh up risks versus benefits; and the language used were all important elements. The role of policy and guidelines on providing standardised care for women who had a previous CS was also highlighted. Midwives and doctors in this study were positively oriented towards assisting and supporting women to attempt a VBAC. Care providers considered that women who have experienced a prior CS need access to midwifery continuity of care with a focus on support, information-sharing and effective communication. Copyright © 2016 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sexual Experience Enhances Drosophila melanogaster Male Mating Behavior and Success

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Saleem, Sehresh; Ruggles, Patrick H.; Abbott, Wiley K.; Carney, Ginger E.

2014-01-01

Competition for mates is a wide-spread phenomenon affecting individual reproductive success. The ability of animals to adjust their behaviors in response to changing social environment is important and well documented. Drosophila melanogaster males compete with one another for matings with females and modify their reproductive behaviors based on prior social interactions. However, it remains to be determined how male social experience that culminates in mating with a female impacts subsequent male reproductive behaviors and mating success. Here we show that sexual experience enhances future mating success. Previously mated D. melanogaster males adjust their courtship behaviors and out-compete sexually inexperienced males for copulations. Interestingly, courtship experience alone is not sufficient in providing this competitive advantage, indicating that copulation plays a role in reinforcing this social learning. We also show that females use their sense of hearing to preferentially mate with experienced males when given a choice. Our results demonstrate the ability of previously mated males to learn from their positive sexual experiences and adjust their behaviors to gain a mating advantage. These experienced-based changes in behavior reveal strategies that animals likely use to increase their fecundity in natural competitive environments. PMID:24805129

Sexual experience enhances Drosophila melanogaster male mating behavior and success.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sehresh Saleem

Full Text Available Competition for mates is a wide-spread phenomenon affecting individual reproductive success. The ability of animals to adjust their behaviors in response to changing social environment is important and well documented. Drosophila melanogaster males compete with one another for matings with females and modify their reproductive behaviors based on prior social interactions. However, it remains to be determined how male social experience that culminates in mating with a female impacts subsequent male reproductive behaviors and mating success. Here we show that sexual experience enhances future mating success. Previously mated D. melanogaster males adjust their courtship behaviors and out-compete sexually inexperienced males for copulations. Interestingly, courtship experience alone is not sufficient in providing this competitive advantage, indicating that copulation plays a role in reinforcing this social learning. We also show that females use their sense of hearing to preferentially mate with experienced males when given a choice. Our results demonstrate the ability of previously mated males to learn from their positive sexual experiences and adjust their behaviors to gain a mating advantage. These experienced-based changes in behavior reveal strategies that animals likely use to increase their fecundity in natural competitive environments.

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

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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.

Factors Affecting Optimal Surface Roughness of AISI 4140 Steel in Turning Operation Using Taguchi Experiment

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Novareza, O.; Sulistiyarini, D. H.; Wiradmoko, R.

2018-02-01

This paper presents the result of using Taguchi method in turning process of medium carbon steel of AISI 4140. The primary concern is to find the optimal surface roughness after turning process. The taguchi method is used to get a combination of factors and factor levels in order to get the optimum surface roughness level. Four important factors with three levels were used in experiment based on Taguchi method. A number of 27 experiments were carried out during the research and analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) method. The result of surface finish was determined in Ra type surface roughness. The depth of cut was found to be the most important factors for reducing the surface roughness of AISI 4140 steel. On the contrary, the other important factors i.e. spindle speed and rake side angle of the tool were proven to be less factors that affecting the surface finish. It is interesting to see the effect of coolant composition that gained the second important factors to reduce the roughness. It may need further research to explain this result.

Dissociation in decision bias mechanism between probabilistic information and previous decision

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Yoshiyuki eKaneko

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Target detection performance is known to be influenced by events in the previous trials. It has not been clear, however, whether this bias effect is due to the previous sensory stimulus, motor response, or decision. Also it remains open whether or not the previous trial effect emerges via the same mechanism as the effect of knowledge about the target probability. In the present study, we asked normal human subjects to make a decision about the presence or absence of a visual target. We presented a pre-cue indicating the target probability before the stimulus, and also a decision-response mapping cue after the stimulus so as to tease apart the effect of decision from that of motor response. We found that the target detection performance was significantly affected by the probability cue in the current trial and also by the decision in the previous trial. While the information about the target probability modulated the decision criteria, the previous decision modulated the sensitivity to target-relevant sensory signals (d-prime. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we also found that activation in the left intraparietal sulcus was decreased when the probability cue indicated a high probability of the target. By contrast, activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus was increased when the subjects made a target-present decision in the previous trial, but this change was observed specifically when the target was present in the current trial. Activation in these regions was associated with individual-difference in the decision computation parameters. We argue that the previous decision biases the target detection performance by modulating the processing of target-selective information, and this mechanism is distinct from modulation of decision criteria due to expectation of a target.

Dissociation in decision bias mechanism between probabilistic information and previous decision

Science.gov (United States)

Kaneko, Yoshiyuki; Sakai, Katsuyuki

2015-01-01

Target detection performance is known to be influenced by events in the previous trials. It has not been clear, however, whether this bias effect is due to the previous sensory stimulus, motor response, or decision. Also it remains open whether or not the previous trial effect emerges via the same mechanism as the effect of knowledge about the target probability. In the present study, we asked normal human subjects to make a decision about the presence or absence of a visual target. We presented a pre-cue indicating the target probability before the stimulus, and also a decision-response mapping cue after the stimulus so as to tease apart the effect of decision from that of motor response. We found that the target detection performance was significantly affected by the probability cue in the current trial and also by the decision in the previous trial. While the information about the target probability modulated the decision criteria, the previous decision modulated the sensitivity to target-relevant sensory signals (d-prime). Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we also found that activation in the left intraparietal sulcus (IPS) was decreased when the probability cue indicated a high probability of the target. By contrast, activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was increased when the subjects made a target-present decision in the previous trial, but this change was observed specifically when the target was present in the current trial. Activation in these regions was associated with individual-difference in the decision computation parameters. We argue that the previous decision biases the target detection performance by modulating the processing of target-selective information, and this mechanism is distinct from modulation of decision criteria due to expectation of a target. PMID:25999844

"You're Facing That Machine but There's a Human Being behind It": Students' Affective Experiences on an Online Doctoral Programme

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Kennedy, Eileen; Gray, Morag

2016-01-01

Online students use highly emotional language to describe their experiences, indicating that learners do feel a great deal online. This paper draws on Wetherell's exploration of affective practice to theorise learners' responses to the pedagogical and technological online environment. Findings of a research project that focused on two cohorts of…

How culture affects management?

OpenAIRE

Billi, Lorena

2012-01-01

The study is about how culture affects management. Culture can have many different meanings. Management has also many different ways to be approached. While doing research about cultures, the study will try to analyze how the culture affects the management. The study starts with a full explanation of the meaning of culture. Some previous analysis and studies are added to illustrate my study on the subject. The effect culture has on management is studied at different levels. The study does not...

Response to health insurance by previously uninsured rural children.

Science.gov (United States)

Tilford, J M; Robbins, J M; Shema, S J; Farmer, F L

1999-08-01

To examine the healthcare utilization and costs of previously uninsured rural children. Four years of claims data from a school-based health insurance program located in the Mississippi Delta. All children who were not Medicaid-eligible or were uninsured, were eligible for limited benefits under the program. The 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey (NMES) was used to compare utilization of services. The study represents a natural experiment in the provision of insurance benefits to a previously uninsured population. Premiums for the claims cost were set with little or no information on expected use of services. Claims from the insurer were used to form a panel data set. Mixed model logistic and linear regressions were estimated to determine the response to insurance for several categories of health services. The use of services increased over time and approached the level of utilization in the NMES. Conditional medical expenditures also increased over time. Actuarial estimates of claims cost greatly exceeded actual claims cost. The provision of a limited medical, dental, and optical benefit package cost approximately $20-$24 per member per month in claims paid. An important uncertainty in providing health insurance to previously uninsured populations is whether a pent-up demand exists for health services. Evidence of a pent-up demand for medical services was not supported in this study of rural school-age children. States considering partnerships with private insurers to implement the State Children's Health Insurance Program could lower premium costs by assembling basic data on previously uninsured children.

Coloured leg bands affect male mate-guarding behaviour in the bluethroat

Science.gov (United States)

Johnsen; Lifjeld; Rohde

1997-07-01

Artificial traits such as coloured leg bands may affect an individual's mating success, as shown for some birds. One explanation is that colour-matching with a sexual ornament affects the individual's sexual attractiveness. This study reports a colour-band experiment with free-living bluethroats, Luscinia s. svecicaa species where males have a distinct blue and chestnut throat and upper breast. There was no apparent difference in pairing success between males with ornament-matching colour bands (blue and orange) and males with non-ornamental colour bands. However, males with ornamental bands guarded their mates less intensely and spent more time singing, performing song flights and intruding into neighbours' territories than males with non-ornamental bands. We conclude that colour bands affect the trade-off between mate guarding and advertisement behaviour in a way that is consistent with the hypothesis that bands with ornamental colours improve a male's attractiveness. The results are in concordance with a previous study of the same population, showing that males with experimentally reduced attractiveness guarded their mates more closely and advertised less for additional mates, than non-manipulated males.

Emotion and the affective turn: Towards an integration of cognition and affect in real life experience

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Cornel W. du Toit

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Emotion is caused by many factors, some of which are evolutionary, neurological, chemical, environmental, societal, personal and religious. Mostly, however, we are oblivious of the causal factors, many of which may function on a biological level or subconsciously, although the emotional effect is experienced physically and consciously. Emotions change as the trigger mechanisms in the cultural context change. This usually happens unnoticed over long periods. Internet databases have now made it possible to study the use of emotive words; this point is discussed. Of particular interest is the interaction between emotion and reason. Models that reduce emotion to the physical level are scrutinised critically. Reason is not emotionless and emotion is not always irrational. The close interrelationship of emotion and reason often makes it difficult to distinguish accurately between the two. The so-called affective turn takes cognisance of cultural, social, religious and other environmental factors; this broader approach clarifies the importance of affect’s role in rationality. One way of viewing emotion and affect is to look at the accompanying language; here the role of metaphor and narrative is pertinent. The traditional elevation of reason above emotion is examined critically as part of the affective turn that broadens the meaning and scope of emotions. I focus on the role of emotion in religion and factors that influence it, and explore the accent of affect in new spiritualities.

How nurses and their work environment affect patient experiences of the quality of care: a qualitative study

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Background Healthcare organisations monitor patient experiences in order to evaluate and improve the quality of care. Because nurses spend a lot of time with patients, they have a major impact on patient experiences. To improve patient experiences of the quality of care, nurses need to know what factors within the nursing work environment are of influence. The main focus of this research was to comprehend the views of Dutch nurses on how their work and their work environment contribute to positive patient experiences. Methods A descriptive qualitative research design was used to collect data. Four focus groups were conducted, one each with 6 or 7 registered nurses in mental health care, hospital care, home care and nursing home care. A total of 26 nurses were recruited through purposeful sampling. The interviews were audiotaped, transcribed and subjected to thematic analysis. Results The nurses mentioned essential elements that they believe would improve patient experiences of the quality of nursing care: clinically competent nurses, collaborative working relationships, autonomous nursing practice, adequate staffing, control over nursing practice, managerial support and patient-centred culture. They also mentioned several inhibiting factors, such as cost-effectiveness policy and transparency goals for external accountability. Nurses feel pressured to increase productivity and report a high administrative workload. They stated that these factors will not improve patient experiences of the quality of nursing care. Conclusions According to participants, a diverse range of elements affect patient experiences of the quality of nursing care. They believe that incorporating these elements into daily nursing practice would result in more positive patient experiences. However, nurses work in a healthcare context in which they have to reconcile cost-efficiency and accountability with their desire to provide nursing care that is based on patient needs and preferences, and

Total hip arthroplasty after a previous pelvic osteotomy: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Shigemura, T; Yamamoto, Y; Murata, Y; Sato, T; Tsuchiya, R; Wada, Y

2018-06-01

There are several reports regarding total hip arthroplasty (THA) after a previous pelvic osteotomy (PO). However, to our knowledge, until now there has been no formal systematic review and meta-analysis published to summarize the clinical results of THA after a previous PO. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of results of THA after a previous PO. We focus on these questions as follows: does a previous PO affect the results of subsequent THA, such as clinical outcomes, operative time, operative blood loss, and radiological parameters. Using PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library, we searched for relevant original papers. The pooling of data was performed using RevMan software (version 5.3, Cochrane Collaboration, Oxford, UK). A p-value50%, significant heterogeneity was assumed and a random-effects model was applied for the meta-analysis. A fixed-effects model was applied in the absence of significant heterogeneity. Eleven studies were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled results indicated that there was no significant difference in postoperative Merle D'Aubigne-Postel score (I 2 =0%, SMD=-0.15, 95% CI: -0.36 to 0.06, p=0.17), postoperative Harris hip score (I 2 =60%, SMD=-0.23, 95% CI: -0.50 to 0.05, p=0.10), operative time (I 2 =86%, SMD=0.37, 95% CI: -0.09 to 0.82, p=0.11), operative blood loss (I 2 =82%, SMD=0.23, 95% CI: -0.17 to 0.63, p=0.25), and cup abduction angle (I 2 =43%, SMD=-0.08, 95% CI: -0.25 to 0.09, p=0.38) between THA with and without a previous PO. However, cup anteversion angle of THA with a previous PO was significantly smaller than that of without a previous PO (I 2 =77%, SMD=-0.63, 95% CI: -1.13 to -0.13, p=0.01). Systematic review and meta-analysis of results of THA after a previous PO was performed. A previous PO did not affect the results of subsequent THA, except for cup anteversion. Because of the low quality evidence currently available, high-quality randomized controlled trials are required

Workplace Environment Characteristics as Antecedents of Affective Well-being in the Workplace

OpenAIRE

Waratta Authayarat; Hiroyuki Umemuro

2012-01-01

Workplace environment characteristics may positively or negatively evoke an individual’s affective experiences, and these experiences can influence affective experiences of others. This study investigates the relations between employees’ affective experiences and workplace environment characteristics. A questionnaire-based investigation was conducted with employees in Thai companies. Participants were asked to evaluate various aspects of their own workplace environments and their affective we...

Church Attendance and Religious Experience

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marianne Nilsen Kvande

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Previous studies have shown that gender may moderate the relationship between religiousness and mental health in most countries, but few studies have been conducted in Norway and Denmark. This study examined gender differences in religious experiences and church attendance as predictors of existential well-being among 295 women and 233 men from the general Norwegian population. Analyses showed that the structural equation models for women and men did not differ significantly on the global level. The models for women and men, however, showed different patterns. Among men, church attendance and negative religious experiences predicted existential well-being; among women, positive and negative religious experiences were related to existential well-being, but church attendance was not. The present findings suggest that men may benefit more from active religiousness, whereas women may benefit more from affective religiousness. Comparing these results with research in other cultural contexts, we find that different operationalizations of church attendance yield the same types of patterns across cultural contexts. Consequently, the benefits of religiousness may be similar for women and men irrespective of cultural context.

Affective and physiological correlates of the perception of unimodal and bimodal emotional stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosa, Pedro J; Oliveira, Jorge; Alghazzawi, Daniyal; Fardoun, Habib; Gamito, Pedro

2017-08-01

Despite the multisensory nature of perception, previous research on emotions has been focused on unimodal emotional cues with visual stimuli. To the best of our knowledge, there is no evidence on the extent to which incongruent emotional cues from visual and auditory sensory channels affect pupil size. To investigate the effects of audiovisual emotional information perception on the physiological and affective response, but also to determine the impact of mismatched cues in emotional perception on these physiological indexes. Pupil size, electrodermal activity and affective subjective responses were recorded while 30 participants were exposed to visual and auditory stimuli with varied emotional content in three different experimental conditions: pictures and sounds presented alone (unimodal), emotionally matched audio-visual stimuli (bimodal congruent) and emotionally mismatched audio-visual stimuli (bimodal incongruent). The data revealed no effect of emotional incongruence on physiological and affective responses. On the other hand, pupil size covaried with skin conductance response (SCR), but the subjective experience was partially dissociated from autonomic responses. Emotional stimuli are able to trigger physiological responses regardless of valence, sensory modality or level of emotional congruence.

Association between previously identified loci affecting telomere length and coronary heart disease (CHD in Han Chinese population

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ding H

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Hui Ding,1 Fen Yan,1 Lin-Lin Zhou,2 Xiu-Hai Ji,3 Xin-Nan Gu,1 Zhi-Wei Tang,1 Ru-Hua Chen11Department of Pulmonary Medicine, The Affiliated Yixing People's Hospital, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, 2Department of Cardiology, Affiliated Cixi Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, 3Department of Oncology, Affiliated Taicang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, People's Republic of ChinaPurpose: To replicate previously confirmed telomere-length loci in a Chinese Han population with coronary heart disease (CHD, and investigate these loci and the possibility of and age at onset of CHD.Patients and methods: 1514 CHD patients and 2470 normal controls were recruited. Medical data including age, sex, body mass index, lipid profiles, history of hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia were collected from all the participants. Seven previously identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs related to leucocyte telomere length were genotyped, including rs10936599 in TERC, rs2736100 in TERT, rs7675998 in NAF1, rs9420907 in OBFC1, rs8105767 in ZNF208, rs755017 in RTEL1, and rs11125529 in ACYP2.Results: No significant difference in genotype frequencies from the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium test was noted for all tested SNPs both in the CHD patients and the normal controls. No polymorphism was observed for rs9420907, and AA genotype was noted in both the CHD patients and the controls. Neither the genotype nor the allele frequencies of rs2736100, rs8105767, rs11125529, and rs2967374 were significantly different between the CHD patients and the normal controls. For rs10936599 and rs755017, statistical difference was found for the allele frequency but not genotype. Distributions of genotype and allele were significantly different between the two groups for rs7675998. The odds ratio for carriers of CHD was 2.127 (95% confidence interval: 1.909–2.370 for the A allele of rs

Categorization in the Affective Domain

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sauciuc, Gabriela-Alina

2011-01-01

Data collected in Romance and Scandinavian languages (N=474) in a superordinate category name production task indicate that a multiple-strategy approach would be more suitable for accounting of categorization in the affective domain instead of a prototype approach as suggested by previous studies....... This paper will highlight performance aspects which appear to be consistent with such an interpretation, as well as an important layman- expert knowledge asymmetry in affective categorization....

Sex-Specific Effect of Recalled Parenting on Affective and Cognitive Empathy in Adulthood.

Science.gov (United States)

Lyons, Minna T; Brewer, Gayle; Bethell, Emily J

2017-01-01

Previous research has demonstrated the influence of parenting on the development of children's empathy. However, few studies have considered the impact of parents on empathy in adulthood, specific components of empathy, or the importance of parent and child biological sex. In the present study, 226 participants (71 men) completed online versions of the Parental Bonding Instrument (Parker et al. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 52, 1-10 1979), Empathy Quotient (Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34, 163-175 2004), and Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 10, 85 1980). Paternal care and overprotection influenced affective empathy in men, whilst maternal overprotection predicted affective empathy in women. Further, maternal care related to cognitive empathy in men, whilst none of the parental care variables related to cognitive empathy in women. Findings are discussed in relation to sex differences in childhood parenting experiences on adult cognitive and affective empathy.

Factors affecting credibility in a simulated sexual harassment hearing.

Science.gov (United States)

Gibbs, M; Sigal, J; Friedman, C R; Orosy-fildes, C

1995-12-01

This paper presents two studies investigating judgments in a simulated sexual harassment hearing in which 240 male and female undergraduates participated. The transcript presented a female student's allegations of sexual harassment against a male professor. In the first experiment, 4 versions of a transcript were created, varying the aggressiveness of the attack on the female student complainant and the status of the accused professor. The findings supported the hypothesis that an aggressive attack negatively affects believability of the victim. The findings are also consistent with previous studies, which found out that denial was an effective technique for handling attacks. In the second experiment, the case was modified as to the emotionality of both the victim and the accused and the time of the between the occurrence and the reporting of the alleged harassment incident (1 month vs. 6 months). The results indicated that emotionality was important to decisions about the severity of punishment and guilt; when the victim was emotional, the defendant was punished more severely. Both experiments indicated that process variables (e.g., aggressiveness of attack) might be important in the perception of sexual harassment.

The structure of affective action representations: temporal binding of affective response codes.

Science.gov (United States)

Eder, Andreas B; Müsseler, Jochen; Hommel, Bernhard

2012-01-01

Two experiments examined the hypothesis that preparing an action with a specific affective connotation involves the binding of this action to an affective code reflecting this connotation. This integration into an action plan should lead to a temporary occupation of the affective code, which should impair the concurrent representation of affectively congruent events, such as the planning of another action with the same valence. This hypothesis was tested with a dual-task setup that required a speeded choice between approach- and avoidance-type lever movements after having planned and before having executed an evaluative button press. In line with the code-occupation hypothesis, slower lever movements were observed when the lever movement was affectively compatible with the prepared evaluative button press than when the two actions were affectively incompatible. Lever movements related to approach and avoidance and evaluative button presses thus seem to share a code that represents affective meaning. A model of affective action control that is based on the theory of event coding is discussed.

The Factors that Affect Science Teachers' Participation in Professional Development

Science.gov (United States)

Roux, Judi Ann

Scientific literacy for our students and the possibilities for careers available in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) areas are important topics for economic growth as well as global competitiveness. The achievement of students in science learning is dependent upon the science teachers' effectiveness and experienced science teachers depend upon relevant professional development experiences to support their learning. In order to understand how to improve student learning in science, the learning of science teachers must also be understood. Previous research studies on teacher professional development have been conducted in other states, but Minnesota science teachers comprised a new and different population from those previously studied. The purpose of this two-phase mixed methods study was to identify the current types of professional development in which experienced, Minnesota secondary science teachers participated and the factors that affect their participation in professional development activities. The mixed-methods approach s utilized an initial online survey followed by qualitative interviews with five survey respondents. The results of the quantitative survey and the qualitative interviews indicated the quality of professional development experiences and the factors which affected the science teachers' participation in professional development activities. The supporting and inhibiting factors involved the availability of resources such as time and money, external relationships with school administrators, teacher colleagues, and family members, and personal intrinsic attributes such as desires to learn and help students. This study also describes implications for science teachers, school administrators, policymakers, and professional development providers. Recommendations for future research include the following areas: relationships between and among intrinsic and extrinsic factors, science-related professional development activities

Affective Urbanism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Samson, Kristine

Urban design and architecture are increasingly used as material and affective strategies for setting the scene, for manipulation and the production of urban life: The orchestration of atmospheres, the framing and staging of urban actions, the programming for contemplation, involvement, play......, experience and consumption are all strategic design tools applied by planners and architects. Whereas urban design in former modernist planning served merely functional or political means, urban design has increasingly become an aesthetical mediator of ideologies embedded in the urban field of life forces....... Under these circumstances affective aesthetics operate strategically within the urban field of interests, capital flows and desires of the social. This ‘affective urbanism’ (Anderson & Holden 2008) is linked to a society influenced by new kinds of information flows, where culture is mediated and enacted...

Books average previous decade of economic misery.

Science.gov (United States)

Bentley, R Alexander; Acerbi, Alberto; Ormerod, Paul; Lampos, Vasileios

2014-01-01

For the 20(th) century since the Depression, we find a strong correlation between a 'literary misery index' derived from English language books and a moving average of the previous decade of the annual U.S. economic misery index, which is the sum of inflation and unemployment rates. We find a peak in the goodness of fit at 11 years for the moving average. The fit between the two misery indices holds when using different techniques to measure the literary misery index, and this fit is significantly better than other possible correlations with different emotion indices. To check the robustness of the results, we also analysed books written in German language and obtained very similar correlations with the German economic misery index. The results suggest that millions of books published every year average the authors' shared economic experiences over the past decade.

Intelligence, previous convictions and interrogative suggestibility: a path analysis of alleged false-confession cases.

Science.gov (United States)

Sharrock, R; Gudjonsson, G H

1993-05-01

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between interrogative suggestibility and previous convictions among 108 defendants in criminal trials, using a path analysis technique. It was hypothesized that previous convictions, which may provide defendants with interrogative experiences, would correlate negatively with 'shift' as measured by the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (Gudjonsson, 1984a), after intelligence and memory had been controlled for. The hypothesis was partially confirmed and the theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Pituitary-adrenocortical adjustments to transport stress in horses with previous different handling and transport conditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Fazio

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Aim: The changes of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA axis response to a long distance transportation results in increase of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH and cortisol levels. The purpose of the study was to quantify the level of short-term road transport stress on circulating ACTH and cortisol concentrations, related to the effect of previous handling and transport experience of horses. Materials and Methods: The study was performed on 56 healthy horses after short-term road transport of 30 km. The horses were divided into four groups, Groups A, B, C, and D, with respect to the handling quality: Good (Groups A and B, bad (Group D, and minimal handling (Group C conditions. According to the previous transport, experience horses were divided as follows: Horses of Groups A and D had been experienced long-distance transportation before; horses of Groups B and C had been limited experience of transportation. Results: One-way RM-ANOVA showed significant effects of transport on ACTH changes in Groups B and C and on cortisol changes in both Groups A and B. Groups A and B showed lower baseline ACTH and cortisol values than Groups C and D; Groups A and B showed lower post-transport ACTH values than Groups C and D. Groups A, B, and C showed lower post-transport cortisol values than Group D. Only Groups A and B horses have shown an adequate capacity of stress response to transportation. Conclusion: The previous transport experience and quality of handling could influence the HPA axis physiological responses of horses after short-term road transport.

Mapping emotions through time: how affective trajectories inform the language of emotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Kirkland, Tabitha; Cunningham, William A

2012-04-01

The words used to describe emotions can provide insight into the basic processes that contribute to emotional experience. We propose that emotions arise partly from interacting evaluations of one's current affective state, previous affective state, predictions for how these may change in the future, and the experienced outcomes following these predictions. These states can be represented and inferred from neural systems that encode shifts in outcomes and make predictions. In two studies, we demonstrate that emotion labels are reliably differentiated from one another using only simple cues about these affective trajectories through time. For example, when a worse-than-expected outcome follows the prediction that something good will happen, that situation is labeled as causing anger, whereas when a worse-than-expected outcome follows the prediction that something bad will happen, that situation is labeled as causing sadness. Emotion categories are more differentiated when participants are required to think categorically than when participants have the option to consider multiple emotions and degrees of emotions. This work indicates that information about affective movement through time and changes in affective trajectory may be a fundamental aspect of emotion categories. Future studies of emotion must account for the dynamic way that we absorb and process information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

Cognitive-Affective Dimensions of Female Orgasm: The Role of Automatic Thoughts and Affect During Sexual Activity

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tavares, Inês M.; Laan, Ellen T. M.; Nobre, Pedro J.

2017-01-01

Cognitive-affective factors contribute to female sexual dysfunctions, defined as clinically significant difficulties in the ability to respond sexually or to experience sexual pleasure. Automatic thoughts and affect presented during sexual activity are acknowledged as maintenance factors for these

Course and cognitive outcome in major affective disorder

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kessing, Lars Vedel

2015-01-01

analyses conducted without survival models and without paying attention to diagnostic instability or the individual heterogeneity of the course of episodes. Totally, these drawbacks and pitfalls affect the results of previous studies in unpredictable ways and make it hazardous to draw conclusions about...... as an expression of an affective episode. On average, a progressive course with increasing risk of recurrence with every new episode was found for unipolar and bipolar affective disorders. Initially, the two types of disorders followed markedly different courses, but later in the course of the illness the risk...... a progressive course of episodes. Initially in the course of affective disorders, socio-demographic variables such as gender, age at onset, and marital status and co-morbidity with alcoholism acted as risk factors for further recurrence. Later, however, particularly variables related to the previous course...

Attitudes towards "disorders of sex development" nomenclature among affected individuals.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Emilie K; Rosoklija, Ilina; Finlayson, Courtney; Chen, Diane; Yerkes, Elizabeth B; Madonna, Mary Beth; Holl, Jane L; Baratz, Arlene B; Davis, Georgiann; Cheng, Earl Y

2017-12-01

Although now commonly used in medicine, the updated "disorders of sex development" (DSD) nomenclature formally introduced in 2006 has never been universally accepted by members of the affected community, particularly advocacy groups. Use of this nomenclature by medical professionals may unintentionally negatively affect access to healthcare and research for individuals with DSD conditions. Among individuals affected by various DSD diagnoses, this study sought to (1) evaluate attitudes towards potentially controversial DSD terminology, (2) determine potential impact of terminology on how affected individuals access healthcare, and (3) explore alternate terms. A web-based survey was developed in collaboration with the AIS-DSDSG (Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome-DSD Support Group) leadership. AIS-DSDSG members (caregivers and affected individuals) were surveyed about attitudes towards DSD, potential impact on healthcare utilization, and alternate terms. A qualitative analysis of reasons for using/avoiding specific terms was performed. Surveys were completed by 202 out of 580 (35%) AIS-DSDSG members (61% affected, 39% caregivers; 16% non-gender binary; age range of affected individuals 0-86 years). Only 24% use disorder of sex development to describe themselves/their child. A majority (69%) had a negative emotional experience because of clinical use of nomenclature; 81% changed their care because of it. Preferred and non-preferred terms for clinical care and research are illustrated in the figure. Preferred diagnostic terms were intersex, variation in sex development, and difference of sex development (55%, 52%, and 50% liked/strongly liked, respectively). Disorder of sex development was not preferred (17% liked/strongly liked). About one-third reported that they would not attend a clinic named the Disorder of Sex Development Clinic. Overall, 81% provided qualitative comments; flexible terminology use was a key theme. These study findings are consistent with previous

Grass-clover undersowing affects nitrogen dynamics in a grain legume–cereal arable cropping system

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hauggaard-Nielsen, Henrik; Mundus, Simon; Jensen, Erik Steen

2012-01-01

A field experiment was carried out in an arable organic cropping system and included a sequence with sole cropped fababean (Vicia faba L.), lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.), pea (Pisum sativum L.), oat (Avena sativa L.) and pea–oat intercropping with or without an undersown perennial ryegrass...... N2 fixation and 15N labeling technique to determine the fate of pea and oat residue N recovery in the subsequent crop. The subsequent spring wheat and winter triticale crop yields were not significantly affected by the previous main crop, but a significant effect of catch crop undersowing...

Effect of previous exhaustive exercise on metabolism and fatigue development during intense exercise in humans

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Iaia, F. M.; Perez-Gomez, J.; Nordsborg, Nikolai

2010-01-01

The present study examined how metabolic response and work capacity are affected by previous exhaustive exercise. Seven subjects performed an exhaustive cycle exercise ( approximately 130%-max; EX2) after warm-up (CON) and 2 min after an exhaustive bout at a very high (VH; approximately 30 s), high...

Factors Affecting Social Network Use by Students in Indonesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Budhi Kristianto

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Background: Although Indonesia is one of the world’s most populated countries with a high penetration of internet usage there has been little research on SNS usage in Indonesia, especially involving children. Instead, SNS research in Indonesia has focused on university students and political, marketing, and disaster mitigation issues. Aim/Purpose: In order to address this gap a theoretical model is formulated from a review of previous studies incorporating basic constructs found in the Technology Acceptance Model (Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and Attitude as well as other influences, motivations, and individual characteristics that affect a child’s attitude toward the use of SNS. Methodology\t: The model is evaluated and developed using data collected from 460 children in primary school grades 4, 5, and 6 in five cities in Indonesia. The statistical techniques implemented with SPSS and Amos computer software (t-tests, correlation coefficients, principal component factor analysis, Cronbach alpha coefficients, and structural equation modeling (SEM analysis. Findings: The results confirm many of the effects on a child’s attitude toward SNS reported in previous studies due to: the usefulness and ease of use of SNS; parental influence; feelings of flow experience and risk; and the child’s level of access, technical expertise, and experience with SNS. New findings include significant correlations and causal effects involving: the influences of peers and parents; the child’s level of technical expertise; and feelings of flow experience. Contribution: Despite limitations related to sampling and the administration of a questionnaire among young children, the findings contribute to theory as well as practice and provide guidance on effective ways to improve children’s attitudes towards the use of SNS.

Affect Consciousness in children with internalizing problems: Assessment of affect integration.

Science.gov (United States)

Taarvig, Eva; Solbakken, Ole André; Grova, Bjørg; Monsen, Jon T

2015-10-01

Affect integration was operationalized through the Affect Consciousness (AC) construct as degrees of awareness, tolerance, nonverbal expression and conceptual expression of 11 affects. These aspects are assessed through a semi-structured Affect Consciousness Interview (ACI) and separate rating scales (Affect Consciousness Scales (ACSs)) developed for use in research and clinical work with adults with psychopathological disorders. Age-adjusted changes were made in the interview and rating system. This study explored the applicability of the adjusted ACI to a sample of 11-year-old children with internalizing problems through examining inter-rater reliability of the adjusted ACI, along with relationships between the AC aspects and aspects of mental health as symptoms of depression, symptoms of anxiety, social competence, besides general intelligence. Satisfactory inter-rater reliability was found, as well as consistent relationships between the AC aspects and the various aspects of mental health, a finding which coincides with previous research. The finding indicates that the attainment of the capacity to deal adaptively with affect is probably an important contributor to the development of adequate social competence and maybe in the prevention of psychopathology in children. The results indicate that the adjusted ACI and rating scales are useful tools in treatment planning with children at least from the age of 11 years. © The Author(s) 2014.

Books Average Previous Decade of Economic Misery

Science.gov (United States)

Bentley, R. Alexander; Acerbi, Alberto; Ormerod, Paul; Lampos, Vasileios

2014-01-01

For the 20th century since the Depression, we find a strong correlation between a ‘literary misery index’ derived from English language books and a moving average of the previous decade of the annual U.S. economic misery index, which is the sum of inflation and unemployment rates. We find a peak in the goodness of fit at 11 years for the moving average. The fit between the two misery indices holds when using different techniques to measure the literary misery index, and this fit is significantly better than other possible correlations with different emotion indices. To check the robustness of the results, we also analysed books written in German language and obtained very similar correlations with the German economic misery index. The results suggest that millions of books published every year average the authors' shared economic experiences over the past decade. PMID:24416159

The Affective Consequences of Cognitive Inhibition: Devaluation or Neutralization?

Science.gov (United States)

Frischen, Alexandra; Ferrey, Anne E.; Burt, Dustin H. R.; Pistchik, Meghan; Fenske, Mark J.

2012-01-01

Affective evaluations of previously ignored visual stimuli are more negative than those of novel items or prior targets of attention or response. This has been taken as evidence that inhibition has negative affective consequences. But inhibition could act instead to attenuate or "neutralize" preexisting affective salience, predicting opposite…

A narrative investigation into the meaning and experience of career success: Perspectives from women participants

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Willie T. Chinyamurindi

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Orientation: In South Africa opportunities are being created that encourage more women to enter the workforce. Understanding how women conceptualise and experience career success affects not only their individual career development but also their general outlook in life. Research purpose: To investigate how a sample of previously disadvantaged women distance learners conceptualise and experience the notion of career success. Motivation for the study: Calls have been made for research incorporating a subjective understanding regarding career success, especially amongst minority groups. Research approach, design and method: An interpretive approach was employed aimed at understanding individual experience and the interpretation of it. Unstructured interviews were conducted shaped by the objectives of the study amongst a sample of women (n = 25. Main findings: Through narratives and stories, findings revealed career success to be conceptualised and experienced as (1 a means of professional attainment and recognition, (2 a contribution to society and (3 evident in material and non-material artefacts. Further, from the sample of women used in this research, the experience of career success considered not only socio-historical issues and community but also the cultural milieu. Education emerged as an enabler of individual pursuit and goals leading to career success. Practical/managerial implications: An understanding of how career success is conceptualised and experienced by previously disadvantaged women can serve as a forerunner to individual specific career development interventions. The results of the study are therefore useful to both academics and practitioners in their formulation of interventions that enable individual career development. Contribution: The experience of career success as found in this study through participant narratives and stories gave a picture of career development processes amongst previously disadvantaged groups in South

The effectiveness of external beam radiotherapy for acromegaly is not affected by previous pituitary ablative treatments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reed, P.I.; Joplin, G.F.; Speirs, C.J.; Morrison, R.; Aber, V.

1990-01-01

Thirty-three acromegalic patients were treated with radiotherapy and followed up for at least 3 years (mean 6 years, range 3 to 12). Seventeen had not had previous pituitary ablative therapy and 16 had. The mean GH level for these two groups before radiotherapy was comparable at 98 and 119 mlU/l. The observed frequency of reaching <10 mlU/L was 53% and 75% of patients in the two groups, respectively, the mean observed falls in growth hormone level were 81 and 85% of the initial level, and the calculated exponential decline rate of GH level was 72 and 52% per fyear. Considering all 35 patients, requirement for pituitary hormone replacement therapy increased from 15 patients before radiotherapy to 20 after radiotherapy, being mostly those who had had prior ablative therapies. There were no complications attributable to the radiotherapy treatment. It appears that radiotherapy is equally efficacious whether a prior unsuccessful ablative procedure had been used or not. (author)

The effectiveness of external beam radiotherapy for acromegaly is not affected by previous pituitary ablative treatments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Reed, P.I.; Joplin, G.F. (Department of Medicine, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, London (UK)); Speirs, C.J. (Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, London (UK)); Morrison, R. (Department of Radiotherapy, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, London (UK)); Aber, V. (Department of Medical Physics, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, London (UK))

1990-01-01

Thirty-three acromegalic patients were treated with radiotherapy and followed up for at least 3 years (mean 6 years, range 3 to 12). Seventeen had not had previous pituitary ablative therapy and 16 had. The mean GH level for these two groups before radiotherapy was comparable at 98 and 119 mlU/l. The observed frequency of reaching <10 mlU/L was 53% and 75% of patients in the two groups, respectively, the mean observed falls in growth hormone level were 81 and 85% of the initial level, and the calculated exponential decline rate of GH level was 72 and 52% per fyear. Considering all 35 patients, requirement for pituitary hormone replacement therapy increased from 15 patients before radiotherapy to 20 after radiotherapy, being mostly those who had had prior ablative therapies. There were no complications attributable to the radiotherapy treatment. It appears that radiotherapy is equally efficacious whether a prior unsuccessful ablative procedure had been used or not. (author).

Effects of pre-experience of social exclusion on hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis and catecholaminergic responsiveness to public speaking stress.

Science.gov (United States)

Weik, Ulrike; Kuepper, Yvonne; Hennig, Juergen; Deinzer, Renate

2013-01-01

Being socially excluded is associated with a variety of psychological changes and with an increased risk of disease. Today, the immediate physiological consequences of being socially excluded are not well understood. In two recent studies employing a standardized exclusion paradigm (Cyberball) we found social exclusion in this virtual game did not alter cortisol secretion directly. However, exclusion pre-experience suppresses the normal cortisol response to public speaking stress in women. The present study aims to replicate our previous finding and further elucidate it by analyzing for the first time whether this alteration of cortisol-responsiveness is associated to ACTH and whether the catecholaminergic system is affected as well. Women were randomly assigned to Cyberball-induced exclusion (SE, n = 22) or inclusion (SI, n = 21), respectively. Immediately afterwards they were subjected to public speaking stress. Salivary cortisol, plasma ACTH, catecholamines and estradiol were assessed as were psychological distress and mood. Cyberball exclusion led to a highly significant immediate increase in negative affect in excluded women. After public speaking negative affect in included women increased as well and groups no longer differed. We replicate our previous finding of cortisol non-responsiveness to public speaking stress after exclusion pre-experience and find this effect to be significantly correlated with ACTH alterations. No such effects are observed for catecholamines. We replicated our previous study result of a suppressed cortisol stress response after a short exclusion experience via Cyberball, thereby underlining the profound effects of social exclusion on a subsequent cortisol stress response. This further demonstrates that these alterations are associated with ACTH. Lack of effects on catecholamines is discussed in view of the tend-and-befriend hypothesis but also from a methodological perspective.

Navigation and Comprehension of Digital Expository Texts: Hypertext Structure, Previous Domain Knowledge, and Working Memory Capacity

Science.gov (United States)

Burin, Debora I.; Barreyro, Juan P.; Saux, Gastón; Irrazábal, Natalia C.

2015-01-01

Introduction: In contemporary information societies, reading digital text has become pervasive. One of the most distinctive features of digital texts is their internal connections via hyperlinks, resulting in non-linear hypertexts. Hypertext structure and previous knowledge affect navigation and comprehension of digital expository texts. From the…

Affects and assemblages

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Samson, Kristine

the paper raises the questions where to locate aesthetics when planners and architects wishes to design for aesthetical experiences and sensations rather than formal objects. The paper will proceed through a brief outline of the recent notion of assemblage and affect in urban studies, planning theory...... happens to aesthetics and how does it change the existing social and geographical understanding of urban space? The paper sets out to reintroduce aesthetical aspects of affects and assemblages in relation to urban space and urban planning. It presupposes urban space as a continuous state of becoming where...

Developing Affective Mental Imagery Stimuli with Multidimensional Scaling

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Matthew J. Facciani

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The goal of this paper is to provide an example of how multidimensional scaling (MDS can be used for stimuli development. The study described in this paper illustrates this process by developing affective mental imagery stimuli using the circumplex model of affect as a guide. The circumplex model of affect argues that all emotions can be described in terms of two underlying primary dimensions: valence and arousal (Russel, 1980. We used MDS to determine if affective mental imagery stimuli obtained from verbal prompts could be separated by arousal and valence to create four distinct categories (high –positive, low-positive, high-negative, and low-negative as seen in other stimuli. 60 students from the University of South Carolina participated in the first experiment to evaluate three sets of stimuli. After being analyzed using MDS, selected stimuli were then assessed again in a second experiment to validate their robust valence and arousal distinctions. The second experiment was conducted with 34 subjects to validate 40 of the best stimuli from experiment 1. It was found that mental imagery stimuli can produce a reliable affective response for the dimensions of valence and arousal and that MDS can be an effective tool for stimuli development.

The first OSCE; does students' experience of performing in public affect their results?

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Chan, Michael; Bax, Nigel; Woodley, Caroline; Jennings, Michael; Nicolson, Rod; Chan, Philip

2015-03-26

Personal qualities have been shown to affect students' exam results. We studied the effect of experience, and level, of public performance in music, drama, dance, sport, and debate at the time of admission to medical school as a predictor of student achievement in their first objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). A single medical school cohort (n = 265) sitting their first clinical exam in 2011 as third year students were studied. Pre-admission statements made at the time of application were coded for their stated achievements in the level of public performance; participation in each activity was scored 0-3, where 0 was no record, 1 = leisure time activity, 2 = activity at school or local level, 3 = activity at district, regional or national level. These scores were correlated to OSCE results by linear regression and t-test. Comparison was made between the highest scoring students in each area, and students scoring zero by t-test. There was a bell shaped distribution in public performance score in this cohort. There was no significant linear regression relationship between OSCE results and overall performance score, or between any subgroups. There was a significant difference between students with high scores in theatre, debate and vocal music areas, grouped together as verbal performance, and students scoring zero in these areas. (p < 0.05, t-test) with an effect size of 0.4. We found modest effects from pre-admission experience of verbal performance on students' scores in the OSCE examination. As these data are taken from students' admission statements, we call into question the received wisdom that such statements are unreliable.

Undergraduate African American females in the sciences: A qualitative study of student experiences affecting academic success and persistence

Science.gov (United States)

Essien-Wood, Idara R.

Given the lack of literature on Undergraduate African American females in the sciences (UAAFS), this study sought to explicate their experiences at one large, predominantly White, Research I institution in the southwestern United States. In particular, the purpose of this study was to identify factors that affect the academic success and persistence of Black females in the natural and physical sciences. Data was collected via in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 15 Black female science majors. Findings from this study identified several supportive mechanisms for academic success: family, religion, teaching assistants and friends. Also identified were seven barriers to academic success: employment, lack of diversity, cultural dissonance, unwelcoming Research I environment, faculty, advisors, classmates, and lab groups. Further, an analysis of students' responses revealed numerous instances of racial and gender micro-aggressions. Recommendations are provided to address factors identified as affecting student academic success and persistence as well as a culture of micro-aggressive behavior.

Navigating cancer using online communities: a grounded theory of survivor and family experiences.

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Harkin, Lydia Jo; Beaver, Kinta; Dey, Paola; Choong, Kartina

2017-12-01

People affected by cancer often have unmet emotional and social support needs. Online cancer communities are a convenient channel for connecting cancer survivors, allowing them to support one another. However, it is unclear whether online community use makes a meaningful contribution to cancer survivorship, as little previous research has examined the experience of using contemporary cancer communities. We aimed to explore the experiences of visitors to online cancer communities. Twenty-three in-depth interviews were conducted with online cancer community visitors, including cancer survivors (n = 18), family members (n = 2), and individuals who were both a survivor and family member (n = 3). Interviews were analysed using a grounded theory approach. A theory developed explaining how individuals 'navigated' the experience of cancer using online cancer communities. Online advice and information led participants on a 'journey to become informed'. Online friendships normalised survivorship and cast participants on a 'journey to recreate identity'. Participants navigated a 'journey through different worlds' as they discovered relevant and hidden communities. This theory highlights virtual paths people affected by cancer can take to self-manage their experience of the disease. Online community experiences can be improved by promoting online evaluation skills and signposting visitors to bereavement support. Cancer survivors can benefit through both lurking and posting in online communities. However, individuals risk becoming distressed when they befriend individuals who may soon die. Additionally, people affected by rarer cancers can struggle to find shared experiences online and may need to look elsewhere for support.

Laparoscopy After Previous Laparotomy

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Zulfo Godinjak

2006-11-01

Full Text Available Following the abdominal surgery, extensive adhesions often occur and they can cause difficulties during laparoscopic operations. However, previous laparotomy is not considered to be a contraindication for laparoscopy. The aim of this study is to present that an insertion of Veres needle in the region of umbilicus is a safe method for creating a pneumoperitoneum for laparoscopic operations after previous laparotomy. In the last three years, we have performed 144 laparoscopic operations in patients that previously underwent one or two laparotomies. Pathology of digestive system, genital organs, Cesarean Section or abdominal war injuries were the most common causes of previouslaparotomy. During those operations or during entering into abdominal cavity we have not experienced any complications, while in 7 patients we performed conversion to laparotomy following the diagnostic laparoscopy. In all patients an insertion of Veres needle and trocar insertion in the umbilical region was performed, namely a technique of closed laparoscopy. Not even in one patient adhesions in the region of umbilicus were found, and no abdominal organs were injured.

Working with previously anonymous gamete donors and donor-conceived adults: recent practice experiences of running the DNA-based voluntary information exchange and contact register, UK DonorLink.

Science.gov (United States)

Crawshaw, Marilyn; Gunter, Christine; Tidy, Christine; Atherton, Freda

2013-03-01

This article describes recent practice experiences with donor conceived adults, donors, non-donor-conceived adult children of donors using the voluntary DNA-based register, UK DonorLink. It highlights additional complexities faced when using DNA rather than paper records for searching, in particular from the risk of false positives, low chances of success and potential inclusion of biological parents' DNA. Professionals' experiences in supporting those being "linked" suggest challenges as well as rewards. Registration carries the potential to be therapeutic for donor-conceived adults and donors and to enhance their political awareness regardless of links being made. Registrants value both peer and professional support, providing the latter can respond flexibly and be delivered by staff experienced in intermediary work. Given that the majority of those affected by donor conception internationally come from anonymous donation systems, these findings are highly pertinent and argue the need for political and moral debate about such service provision.

Evaluation of factors that affect rutting resistance of asphalt mixes by orthogonal experiment design

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Guilian Zou

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Rutting has been one of the major distresses observed on asphalt pavement in China, due to increasing traffic volume, heavy axle load, continuous hot weather, etc., especially in long-steep-slope section, bus stops, etc. Many factors would affect rutting resistance of asphalt pavement, including material properties, climatic condition, traffic volumes, speed, and axle types, and construction quality.The orthogonal experimental design method was used in this study to reduce the number of tests required, without comprising the validity of the test results. The testing variables and their levels were selected according to investigations and field test results. Effects of various factors on asphalt pavement rutting performance were evaluated, including the asphalt binders, mixture type (aggregate gradation, axle load, vehicle speed and temperature.In this study, the wheel tracking test was used to evaluate rutting performance, as represented by the parameter Dynamic Stability (DS, of the various asphalt mixes. Test results were analyzed using range analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA. All four factors evaluated in this study had significant effects on pavement rutting performance. The ranking of the significance was asphalt mixture type, temperature, loading frequency, and tire-pavement contact pressure. Asphalt mixture type was the most important factor that affects rutting resistance. Within the asphalt mixtures, asphalt binder had significant effects on rutting performance of mixes more than aggregate gradation. Rutting resistance of SBS modified asphalt mixes was significantly better than neat asphalt mixes, and skeleton dense structure mixes were better than suspended dense structure mixes. Keywords: Asphalt mixes, Rutting resistance, Effect factor, Orthogonal experiment design

[The influence of affect on satisfaction with conversations and interpersonal impressions from the perspective of dyadic affective combinations].

Science.gov (United States)

Ken, Fujiwara; Daibo, Ikuo

2013-12-01

This study examined the influence of affect on interpersonal relationships in a dyadic communication context. The combination of speakers' affective states was considered, as compared to previous studies which considered only the individual's affective state. The independent variables, in a between-subjects design, were affective condition (positive vs. negative) and affective combination (similar vs. dissimilar). Participants (N = 86) took a test on creative thinking and were given false feedback. Then they had a 6-minute conversation and answered questions about their satisfaction with the conversation and their impressions of their partner. Results showed that the two-factor interactions were significant for satisfaction with the conversation and interpersonal impressions (social desirability) of the partner. The scores for these variables in the positive affect condition were higher than in the negative affect condition only when the affective combination was dissimilar. These results show that individual's affect could not predict conversational outcomes. The results were discussed in terms of incorrect inferences about the partner's affective state and imbalanced conversation activity.

Influence of previous administration of trans-phenylcyclopropylamine on radioprotective and hypothermic effects of serotonin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Misustova, J.; Hosek, B.; Novak, L.; Kautska, J.

1978-01-01

The influence of a previous administration of trans-phenylcyclopropylamine (t-PCPA) on radioprotective and hypothermic effects of serotonin was studied in male mice of the H strain, which were given t-PCPA in the dose of 4 mg/kg intraperitoneally 2 or 7 hours before application of serotonin (40 mg/kg, i.p.). The time course of protection was studied for exposures to 800 and 900 R. The results have shown that a previous administration of t-PCPA does not alter the short-time protective effect of serotonin, but that it significantly prolongs the time course of protection. The administration of t-PCPA also affects the starting speed and the duration of the serotonin-induced hypothermic reaction. The established correlation between prolongation of the radioprotective and hypothermic effects of serotonin induced by previous application of t-PCPA supplements the results with the existence of mutual relationship between changes of the energetic exchange and radioresistance of the organism. (author)

Competition between free-floating plants is strongly driven by previously experienced phosphorus concentrations in the water column

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Peeters, E.T.H.M.; Neefjes, Rozemarijn; Zuidam, van B.G.

2016-01-01

Nutrients can determine the outcome of the competition between different floating plant species. The response of floating plants to current phosphorus levels may be affected by previously experienced phosphorus concentrations because some species have the ability to store excess phosphorus for later

Attention in natural scenes: Affective-motivational factors guide gaze independently of visual salience.

Science.gov (United States)

Schomaker, Judith; Walper, Daniel; Wittmann, Bianca C; Einhäuser, Wolfgang

2017-04-01

In addition to low-level stimulus characteristics and current goals, our previous experience with stimuli can also guide attentional deployment. It remains unclear, however, if such effects act independently or whether they interact in guiding attention. In the current study, we presented natural scenes including every-day objects that differed in affective-motivational impact. In the first free-viewing experiment, we presented visually-matched triads of scenes in which one critical object was replaced that varied mainly in terms of motivational value, but also in terms of valence and arousal, as confirmed by ratings by a large set of observers. Treating motivation as a categorical factor, we found that it affected gaze. A linear-effect model showed that arousal, valence, and motivation predicted fixations above and beyond visual characteristics, like object size, eccentricity, or visual salience. In a second experiment, we experimentally investigated whether the effects of emotion and motivation could be modulated by visual salience. In a medium-salience condition, we presented the same unmodified scenes as in the first experiment. In a high-salience condition, we retained the saturation of the critical object in the scene, and decreased the saturation of the background, and in a low-salience condition, we desaturated the critical object while retaining the original saturation of the background. We found that highly salient objects guided gaze, but still found additional additive effects of arousal, valence and motivation, confirming that higher-level factors can also guide attention, as measured by fixations towards objects in natural scenes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Visual Working Memory Supports the Inhibition of Previously Processed Information: Evidence from Preview Search

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Aidroos, Naseem; Emrich, Stephen M.; Ferber, Susanne; Pratt, Jay

2012-01-01

In four experiments we assessed whether visual working memory (VWM) maintains a record of previously processed visual information, allowing old information to be inhibited, and new information to be prioritized. Specifically, we evaluated whether VWM contributes to the inhibition (i.e., visual marking) of previewed distractors in a preview search.…

Reward priming eliminates color-driven affect in perception.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Kesong

2018-01-03

Brain and behavior evidence suggests that colors have distinct affective properties. Here, we investigated how reward influences color-driven affect in perception. In Experiment 1, we assessed competition between blue and red patches during a temporal-order judgment (TOJ) across a range of stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). During the value reinforcement, reward was linked to either blue (version 1) or red (version 2) in the experiment. The same stimuli then served as test ones in the following unrewarded, unspeeded TOJ task. Our analysis showed that blue patches were consistently seen as occurring first, even when objectively appearing 2nd at short SOAs. This accelerated perception of blue over red was disrupted by prior primes related to reward (vs. neutral) but not perceptional (blue vs. red) priming. Experiment 2 replicated the findings of Experiment 1 while uncoupling action and stimulus values. These results are consistent with the blue-approach and red-avoidance motivation hypothesis and highlight an active nature of the association of reward priming and color processing. Together, the present study implies a link between reward and color affect and contributes to the understanding of how reward influences color affect in visual processing.

Previous Experience a Model of Practice UNAE

OpenAIRE

Ormary Barberi Ruiz; María Dolores Pesántez Palacios

2017-01-01

The statements presented in this article represents a preliminary version of the proposed model of pre-professional practices (PPP) of the National University of Education (UNAE) of Ecuador, an urgent institutional necessity is revealed in the descriptive analyzes conducted from technical support - administrative (reports, interviews, testimonials), pedagogical foundations of UNAE (curricular directionality, transverse axes in practice, career plan, approach and diagnostic examination as subj...

Previous Experience a Model of Practice UNAE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ormary Barberi Ruiz

2017-02-01

Full Text Available The statements presented in this article represents a preliminary version of the proposed model of pre-professional practices (PPP of the National University of Education (UNAE of Ecuador, an urgent institutional necessity is revealed in the descriptive analyzes conducted from technical support - administrative (reports, interviews, testimonials, pedagogical foundations of UNAE (curricular directionality, transverse axes in practice, career plan, approach and diagnostic examination as subject nature of the pre professional practice and the demand of socio educational contexts where the practices have been emerging to resize them. By relating these elements allowed conceiving the modeling of the processes of the pre-professional practices for the development of professional skills of future teachers through four components: contextual projective, implementation (tutoring, accompaniment (teaching couple and monitoring (meetings at the beginning, during and end of practice. The initial training of teachers is inherent to teaching (academic and professional training, research and links with the community, these are fundamental pillars of Ecuadorian higher education.

Preoperative screening: value of previous tests.

Science.gov (United States)

Macpherson, D S; Snow, R; Lofgren, R P

1990-12-15

To determine the frequency of tests done in the year before elective surgery that might substitute for preoperative screening tests and to determine the frequency of test results that change from a normal value to a value likely to alter perioperative management. Retrospective cohort analysis of computerized laboratory data (complete blood count, sodium, potassium, and creatinine levels, prothrombin time, and partial thromboplastin time). Urban tertiary care Veterans Affairs Hospital. Consecutive sample of 1109 patients who had elective surgery in 1988. At admission, 7549 preoperative tests were done, 47% of which duplicated tests performed in the previous year. Of 3096 previous results that were normal as defined by hospital reference range and done closest to the time of but before admission (median interval, 2 months), 13 (0.4%; 95% CI, 0.2% to 0.7%), repeat values were outside a range considered acceptable for surgery. Most of the abnormalities were predictable from the patient's history, and most were not noted in the medical record. Of 461 previous tests that were abnormal, 78 (17%; CI, 13% to 20%) repeat values at admission were outside a range considered acceptable for surgery (P less than 0.001, frequency of clinically important abnormalities of patients with normal previous results with those with abnormal previous results). Physicians evaluating patients preoperatively could safely substitute the previous test results analyzed in this study for preoperative screening tests if the previous tests are normal and no obvious indication for retesting is present.

A flexible influence of affective feelings on creative and analytic performance.

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Huntsinger, Jeffrey R; Ray, Cara

2016-09-01

Considerable research shows that positive affect improves performance on creative tasks and negative affect improves performance on analytic tasks. The present research entertained the idea that affective feelings have flexible, rather than fixed, effects on cognitive performance. Consistent with the idea that positive and negative affect signal the value of accessible processing inclinations, the influence of affective feelings on performance on analytic or creative tasks was found to be flexibly responsive to the relative accessibility of different styles of processing (i.e., heuristic vs. systematic, global vs. local). When a global processing orientation was accessible happy participants generated more creative uses for a brick (Experiment 1), successfully solved more remote associates and insight problems (Experiment 2) and displayed broader categorization (Experiment 3) than those in sad moods. When a local processing orientation was accessible this pattern reversed. When a heuristic processing style was accessible happy participants were more likely to commit the conjunction fallacy (Experiment 3) and showed less pronounced anchoring effects (Experiment 4) than sad participants. When a systematic processing style was accessible this pattern reversed. Implications of these results for relevant affect-cognition models are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Family Caregivers' Patterns of Positive and Negative Affect

Science.gov (United States)

Robertson, Suzanne M.; Zarit, Steven H.; Duncan, Larissa G.; Rovine, Michael J.; Femia, Elia E.

2007-01-01

Stressful and positive family caregiving experiences were examined as predictors of caregivers' patterns of positive and negative affect in a sample of families providing care for a relative with dementia (N = 234). Four affect pattern groups were identified: (a) Well Adjusted (i.e., high positive affect, low negative affect); (b) Ambiguous (i.e.,…

Effects of previous ionization and excitation on the ionization wave propagation along the dielectric tube

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xia, Yang; Liu, Dongping; Bi, Zhenhua; Wang, Xueyang; Niu, Jinhai; Ji, Longfei; Song, Ying; Qi, Zhihua; Wang, Wenchun

2016-01-01

In this paper, by using a high precision synchronization system, the ignition time, velocity, and propagation properties of the ionization waves (IWs) have been investigated in detail from the 1st high voltage (HV) pulse to the sequential ones over a large range of the pulse-off time. In order to clarify the effects of previous ionization and excitation on the IW propagation, the density of the residual charges are controlled by varying the pulse-off time from 199 μs to 15 μs. The results show that the formation and propagation of IWs can be strongly affected by previous discharge. For a longer pulse-off time (100 μs–190 μs), the propagation velocity of plasma bullets are decreased from the 1st to the 10th HV pulse, then increased after the 10th pulse, and finally become stable after about 500 pulses. When the pulse-off time is reduced to 15 μs, the propagation velocity of plasma bullets will rapidly increase and become stable after the 1st HV pulse. The ignition voltage is significantly reduced after the 1st HV pulse with the decrease in pulse-off time. Consequently, the generation and propagation of IWs in the tube are strongly affected by the accumulation of long-lived metastable helium (He) species and residual charges from previous discharges, which is important for understanding the plasma bullet behavior. (paper)

An Experience Sampling Study of Physical Activity and Positive Affect: Investigating the Role of Situational Motivation and Perceived Intensity Across Time.

Science.gov (United States)

Guérin, Eva; Fortier, Michelle S; Sweet, Shane N

2013-04-18

The nature of the association between physical activity and positive affect is complex, prompting experts to recommend continued examination of moderating variables. The main purpose of this 2-week field study was to examine the influence of situational motivational regulations from self-determination theory (SDT) on changes in positive affect from pre- to post- to 3-hours post-physical activity. Another purpose was to clarify the relationship between physical activity intensity [i.e., Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE)] and positive affect at the stated time points. This study employed an experience sampling design using electronic questionnaires. Sixty-six healthy and active, multiple-role women provided recurrent assessments of their physical activity, situational motivation, and positive affect in their everyday lives over a 14-day period. Specifically, measures were obtained at the three time points of interest (i.e., pre-, post-, 3-hours post-physical activity). The data were analyzed using multilevel modeling. Results showed that intrinsic motivation was related to post-physical activity positive affect while the influence of identified regulation appeared 3-hours post-physical activity. In addition, RPE, which was significantly predicted by levels of introjection, was more strongly associated with an increase in positive affect post-physical activity than three hours later. The theoretical implications of these findings vis-à vis SDT, namely in regards to a viable motivational sequence predicting the influence of physical activity on affective states, are discussed. The findings regarding the differential influences of RPE and motivational regulations carries applications for facilitating women's well-being.

An experience sampling study of physical activity and positive affect: investigating the role of situational motivation and perceived intensity across time

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eva Guérin

2013-06-01

Full Text Available The nature of the association between physical activity and positive affect is complex, prompting experts to recommend continued examination of moderating variables. The main purpose of this 2-week field study was to examine the influence of situational motivational regulations from self-determination theory (SDT on changes in positive affect from pre- to post- to 3-hours post-physical activity. Another purpose was to clarify the relationship between physical activity intensity [i.e., Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE] and positive affect at the stated time points. This study employed an experience sampling design using electronic questionnaires. Sixty-six healthy and active, multiple-role women provided recurrent assessments of their physical activity, situational motivation, and positive affect in their everyday lives over a 14-day period. Specifically, measures were obtained at the three time points of interest (i.e., pre-, post-, 3-hours post-physical activity. The data were analyzed using multilevel modeling. Results showed that intrinsic motivation was related to post-physical activity positive affect while the influence of identified regulation appeared 3-hours post-physical activity. In addition, RPE, which was significantly predicted by levels of introjection, was more strongly associated with an increase in positive affect post-physical activity than three hours later. The theoretical implications of these findings vis-à vis SDT, namely in regards to a viable motivational sequence predicting the influence of physical activity on affective states, are discussed. The findings regarding the differential influences of RPE and motivational regulations carries applications for facilitating women’s well-being.

The Effects of "Mere Exposure" on Learning and Affect.

Science.gov (United States)

Stang, David J.

The mediating role of learning in the relationship between repeated exposure and affect was explored and supported in three experiments involving a total of 229 undergraduate participants. It was found that both learning and affect measures behaved in essentially the same way as a function of exposure duration (experiments I and III), serial…

"Preparatory power posing affects nonverbal presence and job interview performance": Correction to Cuddy et al. (2015).

Science.gov (United States)

2018-05-01

Reports an error in "Preparatory power posing affects nonverbal presence and job interview performance" by Amy J. C. Cuddy, Caroline A. Wilmuth, Andy J. Yap and Dana R. Carney ( Journal of Applied Psychology , 2015[Jul], Vol 100[4], 1286-1295). In the article, the degrees of freedom associated with the three F-tests noted on pages 1289 and 1290 should be 1 and 59 (and not 1 and 60, as previously reported). Also, on p. 1290, in the first sentence under the "Mediation" heading, it should be noted that the dependent variables were regressed onto the mediators, and not the other way around. Finally, in Figures 2 and 3 (on p.interview-preparatory power posing-would enhance performance during the interview. Participants adopted high-power (i.e., expansive, open) poses or low-power (i.e., contractive, closed) poses, and then prepared and delivered a speech to 2 evaluators as part of a mock job interview. All interview speeches were videotaped and coded for overall performance and hireability and for 2 potential mediators: verbal content (e.g., structure, content) and nonverbal presence (e.g., captivating, enthusiastic). As predicted, those who prepared for the job interview with high- (vs. low-) power poses performed better and were more likely to be chosen for hire; this relation was mediated by nonverbal presence, but not by verbal content. Although previous research has focused on how a nonverbal behavior that is enacted during interactions and observed by perceivers affects how those perceivers evaluate and respond to the actor, this experiment focused on how a nonverbal behavior that is enacted before the interaction and unobserved by perceivers affects the actor's performance, which, in turn, affects how perceivers evaluate and respond to the actor. This experiment reveals a theoretically novel and practically informative result that demonstrates the causal relation between preparatory nonverbal behavior and subsequent performance and outcomes. (PsycINFO Database

Affective biasing of choices in gambling task decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Hinson, John M; Whitney, Paul; Holben, Heather; Wirick, Aaron K

2006-09-01

The proponents of the somatic marker hypothesis presume that rational decision making is guided by emotional reactions that are developed from prior experience. Supporting evidence for the hypothesis comes almost exclusively from the short-term affective reactions that are learned during the course of a hypothetical decision-making task--the gambling task (GT). We examined GT performance and affective reactions to choices when those choices were biased by words that had preexisting affective value. In one experiment, affectively valued words directly signaled good and bad choices. A congruent relation between affective value of word and choice outcome improved GT performance, whereas an incongruent relation greatly interfered with performance. In another experiment, affectively valued words were maintained as a working memory (WM) load between GT choices. A WM load with affectively positive words somewhat improved GT performance, whereas affectively negative words interfered with performance. Somatic markers-indicated by differential anticipatory skin conductance response (SCR) amplitude for good and bad choices-appeared at a point in the GT session when choice performance was superior. However, differential SCR developed during the session after good choice performance was already established. These results indicate that preexisting affective biases can influence GT decision making. In addition, the somatic markers that are regular accompaniments of GT decision making appeared to be temporally lagging indicators of choice performance.

Life history affects how species experience succession in pen shell metacommunities.

Science.gov (United States)

Munguia, Pablo

2014-04-01

In nature, very few species are common and broadly distributed. Most species are rare and occupy few sites; this pattern is ubiquitous across habitats and taxa. In spatially structured communities (metacommunities), regional distribution and local abundance may change as the relative effects of within-habitat processes (e.g., species interactions) and among-habitat processes (e.g., dispersal) may vary through succession. A field experiment with the marine benthic inhabitants of pen shells (Atrina rigida) tested how common and rare species respond to succession and metacommunity size. I followed community development through time and partitioned species into sessile and motile based on their natural history. Rare species drive diversity patterns and are influenced by metacommunity size: there are strong abundance-distribution differences between common and rare species in large metacommunities, but motile species show lower rates of change than sessile species. In small metacommunities both common and rare species have similar changes through time; the dichotomous distinction of common and rare species is not present. Edge effects in metacommunities affect species' changes in distribution and abundance. In large metacommunities diversity is higher in edge habitats relative to small metacommunities during early succession. However, edge effects benefit motile species over time in small metacommunities showing a rapid increase in diversity. Individual mobility is sensitive to regional community size and allows individuals to sort among different communities. In contrast, sessile species do not show this edge effect. Metacommunity theory is a useful framework for understanding spatially structured communities, but the natural history of coexisting species cannot be ignored.

Reducing the impact bias in judgments of post-decisional affect

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nick Sevdalis

2009-06-01

Full Text Available People overestimate their affective reactions to future events and decisions --- a phenomenon that has been termed ``impact bias.'' Evidence suggests that completing a diary detailing events contemporaneous with the focal one de-biases judgments of affect. It is generally assumed that this is because diary completion helps people to realize that they will be distracted from the focal event. However, there is another possibility: de-biasing may occur because diary completion interferes with the processing responsible for the bias. In a first experiment, we showed that diary completion also lowers affect associated with past decisions. In a second experiment, we showed that solving anagrams has the same effect. A third experiment demonstrates that this is not because affect judgments are influenced by mood changes brought about by solving anagrams. Indeed, monitoring moods lowered affect in the same way as diary completion. It appears that cognitive tasks of any sort interfere with the processing required by judgments of affect.

Affect and subsequent physical activity: An ambulatory assessment study examining the affect-activity association in a real-life context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christina eNiermann

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Traditionally, cognitive, motivational and volitional determinants have been used to explain and predict health behaviors such as physical activity. Recently, the role of affect in influencing and regulating health behaviors received more attention. Affects as internal cues may automatically activate unconscious processes of behavior regulation. The aim of our study was to examine the association between affect and physical activity in daily life. In addition, we studied the influence of the habit of being physically active on this relationship.An ambulatory assessment study in 89 persons (33.7% male, 25 to 65 years, M=45.2, SD=8.1 was conducted. Affect was assessed in the afternoon on 5 weekdays using smartphones. Physical activity was measured continuously objectively using accelerometers and subjectively using smartphones in the evening. Habit strength was assessed at the beginning of the diary period. The outcomes were objectively and subjectively measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA performed after work. Multilevel regression models were used to analyze the association between affect and after work MVPA. In addition, the cross-level interaction of habit strength and affect on after work MVPA was tested.Positive affect was positively related to objectively measured and self-reported after work MVPA: the greater the positive affect the more time persons subsequently spent on MVPA. An inverse relationship was found for negative affect: the greater the negative affect the less time persons spent on MVPA. The cross-level interaction effect was significant only for objectively measured MVPA. A strong habit seems to strengthen both the positive influence of positive affect and the negative influence of negative affect.The results of this study confirm previous results and indicate that affect plays an important role for the regulation of physical activity behavior in daily life. The results for positive affect were consistent

Affect and Subsequent Physical Activity: An Ambulatory Assessment Study Examining the Affect-Activity Association in a Real-Life Context.

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Niermann, Christina Y N; Herrmann, Christian; von Haaren, Birte; van Kann, Dave; Woll, Alexander

2016-01-01

Traditionally, cognitive, motivational, and volitional determinants have been used to explain and predict health behaviors such as physical activity. Recently, the role of affect in influencing and regulating health behaviors received more attention. Affects as internal cues may automatically activate unconscious processes of behavior regulation. The aim of our study was to examine the association between affect and physical activity in daily life. In addition, we studied the influence of the habit of being physically active on this relationship. An ambulatory assessment study in 89 persons (33.7% male, 25 to 65 years, M = 45.2, SD = 8.1) was conducted. Affect was assessed in the afternoon on 5 weekdays using smartphones. Physical activity was measured continuously objectively using accelerometers and subjectively using smartphones in the evening. Habit strength was assessed at the beginning of the diary period. The outcomes were objectively and subjectively measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) performed after work. Multilevel regression models were used to analyze the association between affect and after work MVPA. In addition, the cross-level interaction of habit strength and affect on after work MVPA was tested. Positive affect was positively related to objectively measured and self-reported after work MVPA: the greater the positive affect the more time persons subsequently spent on MVPA. An inverse relationship was found for negative affect: the greater the negative affect the less time persons spent on MVPA. The cross-level interaction effect was significant only for objectively measured MVPA. A strong habit seems to strengthen both the positive influence of positive affect and the negative influence of negative affect. The results of this study confirm previous results and indicate that affect plays an important role for the regulation of physical activity behavior in daily life. The results for positive affect were consistent. However, in

Previous Gardening Experience and Gardening Enjoyment Is Related to Vegetable Preferences and Consumption Among Low-Income Elementary School Children.

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Evans, Alexandra; Ranjit, Nalini; Fair, Cori N; Jennings, Rose; Warren, Judith L

2016-10-01

To examine if gardening experience and enjoyment are associated with vegetable exposure, preferences, and consumption of vegetables among low-income third-grade children. Cross-sectional study design, using baseline data from the Texas! Grow! Eat! Go! Twenty-eight Title I elementary schools located in different counties in Texas. Third-grade students (n = 1,326, 42% Hispanic) MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Gardening experience, gardening enjoyment, vegetable exposure, preference, and consumption. Random-effects regression models, adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, and body mass index percentile of child, estimated means and standard errors of vegetable consumption, exposure, and preference by levels of gardening experience and enjoyment. Wald χ 2 tests evaluated the significance of differences in means of outcomes across levels of gardening experience and enjoyment. Children with more gardening experience had greater vegetable exposure and higher vegetable preference and consumed more vegetables compared with children who reported less gardening experience. Those who reported that they enjoyed gardening had the highest levels of vegetable exposure, preference, and consumption. Garden-based interventions can have an important and positive effect on children's vegetable consumption by increasing exposure to fun gardening experiences. Copyright © 2016 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Factors Affecting Jordanian School Adolescents' Experience of Being Bullied.

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Shaheen, Abeer M; Hammad, Sawsan; Haourani, Eman M; Nassar, Omayyah S

The purpose of this study was to identify the Jordanian school adolescents' experience of being bullied, and to examine its association with selected socio-demographic variables. This cross sectional descriptive study used multi-stages cluster sampling technique to recruit a sample of in-school adolescents in Jordan (N=436). The Personal Experiences Checklist was used to measure the experience of bullying. Descriptive statistics and parametric tests were used in the analysis. Relational-verbal bullying was the most common form of bullying while cyber bullying was the least common type. Male adolescents experienced bullying more than females. In addition, adolescents belonging to low-income families experienced bullying more than those from moderate-income families. Finally, being bullied was negatively correlated with academic performance of students. This study indicated that risk factors for bullying are multifaceted which necessitate the development of prevention and intervention strategies to combat bullying taking into consideration these factors. Schools should introduce environmental changes to discourage bullying and establish a policy with specific guidelines of what constitutes bullying behavior and expected disciplinary procedures. Staff training on information about the definition of bullying, current trends, and the effects of bullying is also recommended. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Negative affect varying in motivational intensity influences scope of memory.

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Threadgill, A Hunter; Gable, Philip A

2018-04-06

Emotions influence cognitive processes involved in memory. While some research has suggested that cognitive scope is determined by affective valence, recent models of emotion-cognition interactions suggest that motivational intensity, rather than valence, influences these processes. The present research was designed to clarify how negative affects differing in motivational intensity impact memory for centrally or peripherally presented information. Experiments 1 & 2 found that, relative to a neutral condition, high intensity negative affect (anger) enhances memory for centrally presented information. Experiment 3 replicated this effect using another high intensity negative affect (threat). Experiment 4 extended this by finding that, relative to a neutral condition, low intensity negative affect (sadness) enhanced memory for peripherally presented information. Finally, in Experiment 5, the effects of sadness and threat on scope of memory were directly compared, finding that threat narrowed scope of memory, while sadness broadened scope of memory. Together, these results provide additional support for the motivational dimensional model of cognitive scope, in that high intensity emotions narrow cognitive scope, while low intensity emotions broaden cognitive scope.

The Belle II Experiment

CERN Document Server

Kahn, J

2017-01-01

Set to begin data taking at the end of 2018, the Belle II experiment is the next-generation B-factory experiment hosted at KEK in Tsukuba, Japan. The experiment represents the cumulative effort from the collaboration of experimental and detector physics, computing, and software development. Taking everything learned from the previous Belle experiment, which ran from 1998 to 2010, Belle II aims to probe deeper than ever before into the field of heavy quark physics. By achieving an integrated luminosity of 50 ab−1 and accumulating 50 times more data than the previous experiment across its lifetime, along with a rewritten analysis framework, the Belle II experiment will push the high precision frontier of high energy physics. This paper will give an overview of the key components and development activities that make the Belle II experiment possible.

Experiences of parenting and clinical intervention for mothers affected by personality disorder: a pilot qualitative study combining parent and clinician perspectives.

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Wilson, Ruth; Weaver, Tim; Michelson, Daniel; Day, Crispin

2018-05-25

Evidence-based parenting programmes are recommended for the treatment of child mental health difficulties. Families with complex psychosocial needs show poorer retention and outcomes when participating in standard parenting programmes. The Helping Families Programme (HFP) is a 16-week community-based parenting intervention designed to meet the needs of these families, including families with parental personality disorder. This study aimed to explore the help seeking and participatory experiences of parents with a diagnosis of personality disorder. It further aimed to examine the acceptability of referral and intervention processes for the HFP from the perspectives of (i) clinicians referring into the programme; and (ii) referred parents. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents recruited to receive HFP (n = 5) as part of a research case series and the referring NHS child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) clinicians (n = 5). Transcripts were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Four themes were identified for parents: (i) the experience of parenthood, (ii) being a parent affected by personality disorder, (iii) experience of the intervention, and (iv) qualities of helping. Three themes emerged for clinicians: (i) challenges of addressing parental need, (ii) experience of engaging parents with personality disorders and (iii) limited involvement during HFP. Comparison of parent and clinician themes led to the identification of two key interlinked themes: (i) concerns prior to receiving the intervention, and (ii) the challenges of working together without a mutual understanding. This pilot study identifies potentially significant challenges of working with parents affected by personality disorder and engaging them in HFP and other similar interventions. Results have important wider clinical implications by highlighting potential barriers to engagement and participation and providing insights on how these barriers might be

Negative affect impairs associative memory but not item memory.

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Bisby, James A; Burgess, Neil

2013-12-17

The formation of associations between items and their context has been proposed to rely on mechanisms distinct from those supporting memory for a single item. Although emotional experiences can profoundly affect memory, our understanding of how it interacts with different aspects of memory remains unclear. We performed three experiments to examine the effects of emotion on memory for items and their associations. By presenting neutral and negative items with background contexts, Experiment 1 demonstrated that item memory was facilitated by emotional affect, whereas memory for an associated context was reduced. In Experiment 2, arousal was manipulated independently of the memoranda, by a threat of shock, whereby encoding trials occurred under conditions of threat or safety. Memory for context was equally impaired by the presence of negative affect, whether induced by threat of shock or a negative item, relative to retrieval of the context of a neutral item in safety. In Experiment 3, participants were presented with neutral and negative items as paired associates, including all combinations of neutral and negative items. The results showed both above effects: compared to a neutral item, memory for the associate of a negative item (a second item here, context in Experiments 1 and 2) is impaired, whereas retrieval of the item itself is enhanced. Our findings suggest that negative affect impairs associative memory while recognition of a negative item is enhanced. They support dual-processing models in which negative affect or stress impairs hippocampal-dependent associative memory while the storage of negative sensory/perceptual representations is spared or even strengthened.

Spatial working memory load affects counting but not subitizing in enumeration.

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Shimomura, Tomonari; Kumada, Takatsune

2011-08-01

The present study investigated whether subitizing reflects capacity limitations associated with two types of working memory tasks. Under a dual-task situation, participants performed an enumeration task in conjunction with either a spatial (Experiment 1) or a nonspatial visual (Experiment 2) working memory task. Experiment 1 showed that spatial working memory load affected the slope of a counting function but did not affect subitizing performance or subitizing range. Experiment 2 showed that nonspatial visual working memory load affected neither enumeration efficiency nor subitizing range. Furthermore, in both spatial and nonspatial memory tasks, neither subitizing efficiency nor subitizing range was affected by amount of imposed memory load. In all the experiments, working memory load failed to influence slope, subitizing range, or overall reaction time. These findings suggest that subitizing is performed without either spatial or nonspatial working memory. A possible mechanism of subitizing with independent capacity of working memory is discussed.

Effects of pre-experience of social exclusion on hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis and catecholaminergic responsiveness to public speaking stress.

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Ulrike Weik

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Being socially excluded is associated with a variety of psychological changes and with an increased risk of disease. Today, the immediate physiological consequences of being socially excluded are not well understood. In two recent studies employing a standardized exclusion paradigm (Cyberball we found social exclusion in this virtual game did not alter cortisol secretion directly. However, exclusion pre-experience suppresses the normal cortisol response to public speaking stress in women. The present study aims to replicate our previous finding and further elucidate it by analyzing for the first time whether this alteration of cortisol-responsiveness is associated to ACTH and whether the catecholaminergic system is affected as well. METHODS: Women were randomly assigned to Cyberball-induced exclusion (SE, n = 22 or inclusion (SI, n = 21, respectively. Immediately afterwards they were subjected to public speaking stress. Salivary cortisol, plasma ACTH, catecholamines and estradiol were assessed as were psychological distress and mood. RESULTS: Cyberball exclusion led to a highly significant immediate increase in negative affect in excluded women. After public speaking negative affect in included women increased as well and groups no longer differed. We replicate our previous finding of cortisol non-responsiveness to public speaking stress after exclusion pre-experience and find this effect to be significantly correlated with ACTH alterations. No such effects are observed for catecholamines. CONCLUSIONS: We replicated our previous study result of a suppressed cortisol stress response after a short exclusion experience via Cyberball, thereby underlining the profound effects of social exclusion on a subsequent cortisol stress response. This further demonstrates that these alterations are associated with ACTH. Lack of effects on catecholamines is discussed in view of the tend-and-befriend hypothesis but also from a methodological

Hold it! memory affects attentional dwell time

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Parks, Emily L.; Hopfinger, Joseph B.

2008-01-01

The allocation of attention, including the initial orienting and the subsequent dwell time, is affected by several bottom-up and top-down factors. How item memory affects these processes, however, remains unclear. Here, we investigated whether item memory affects attentional dwell time by using a modified version of the attentional blink (AB) paradigm. Across four experiments, our results revealed that the AB was significantly affected by memory status (novel vs. old), but critically, this ef...

Undergraduate nursing students' experience related to their clinical learning environment and factors affecting to their clinical learning process.

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Arkan, Burcu; Ordin, Yaprak; Yılmaz, Dilek

2018-03-01

Clinical education is an essential part of nursing education. The purpose of this study was to explore nurse students' experiences related to cinical learning environments, factors effecting to clinical learning process. Descriptive qualitative design was used in this study, and data were collected from 2nd class nursing student (n = 14). The study took the form of in-depth interviews between August-October 2015. The qualitative interviews were analyzed by using simple content analysis. Data were analyzed manually. Experiences nurse students are described five themes. The themes of the study are (1) effecting persons to clinical learning, (2) educational atmosphere, (3) students' personal charactering, (4) the impact of education in school, and (5) students' perceptions related to clinical learning. Participants stated that they experienced many difficulties during clinical learning process. All students importantly stated that nurse teacher is very effecting to clinical learning. This study contributes to the literature by providing data on beginner nursing student' experiences about clinical learning process. The data of this present study show to Turkish nursing student is affecting mostly from persons in clinical learning. The data of this present study will guide nurse teacher when they plan to interventions to be performed to support student during clinical learning process. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Eight previously unidentified mutations found in the OA1 ocular albinism gene

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Dufier Jean-Louis

2006-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Ocular albinism type 1 (OA1 is an X-linked ocular disorder characterized by a severe reduction in visual acuity, nystagmus, hypopigmentation of the retinal pigmented epithelium, foveal hypoplasia, macromelanosomes in pigmented skin and eye cells, and misrouting of the optical tracts. This disease is primarily caused by mutations in the OA1 gene. Methods The ophthalmologic phenotype of the patients and their family members was characterized. We screened for mutations in the OA1 gene by direct sequencing of the nine PCR-amplified exons, and for genomic deletions by PCR-amplification of large DNA fragments. Results We sequenced the nine exons of the OA1 gene in 72 individuals and found ten different mutations in seven unrelated families and three sporadic cases. The ten mutations include an amino acid substitution and a premature stop codon previously reported by our team, and eight previously unidentified mutations: three amino acid substitutions, a duplication, a deletion, an insertion and two splice-site mutations. The use of a novel Taq polymerase enabled us to amplify large genomic fragments covering the OA1 gene. and to detect very likely six distinct large deletions. Furthermore, we were able to confirm that there was no deletion in twenty one patients where no mutation had been found. Conclusion The identified mutations affect highly conserved amino acids, cause frameshifts or alternative splicing, thus affecting folding of the OA1 G protein coupled receptor, interactions of OA1 with its G protein and/or binding with its ligand.

Repeated Surgical or Endoscopic Myotomy for Recurrent Dysphagia in Patients After Previous Myotomy for Achalasia.

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Fumagalli, Uberto; Rosati, Riccardo; De Pascale, Stefano; Porta, Matteo; Carlani, Elisa; Pestalozza, Alessandra; Repici, Alessandro

2016-03-01

Surgical myotomy of the lower esophageal sphincter has a 5-year success rate of approximately 91 %. Peroral endoscopic myotomy can provide similar results for controlling dysphagia. Some patients experience either persistent or recurrent dysphagia after myotomy. We present here a retrospective analysis of our experience with redo myotomy for recurrent dysphagia in patients with achalasia. From March 1996 to February 2015, 234 myotomies for primary or recurrent achalasia were performed in our center. Fifteen patients (6.4 %) had had a previous myotomy and were undergoing surgical redo myotomy (n = 9) or endoscopic redo myotomy (n = 6) for recurrent symptoms. Patients presented at a median of 10.4 months after previous myotomy. Median preoperative Eckardt score was 6. Among the nine patients undergoing surgical myotomy, three esophageal perforations occurred intraoperatively (all repaired immediately). Surgery lasted 111 and 62 min on average (median) in the surgical and peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) groups, respectively. No postoperative complications occurred in either group. Median postoperative stay was 3 and 2.5 days in the surgical and POEM groups, respectively. In the surgical group, Eckardt score was dysphagia. Preliminary results using POEM indicate that the technique can be safely used in patients who have undergone previous surgical myotomy.

Searching for Affective and Cognitive Restoration: Examining the Restorative Effects of Casual Video Game Play.

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Rupp, Michael A; Sweetman, Richard; Sosa, Alejandra E; Smither, Janan A; McConnell, Daniel S

2017-11-01

We investigated the effects of a passive break, relaxation activity, and casual video game on affect, stress, engagement, and cognitive performance. Reducing stress and improving cognitive performance is critical across many domains. Previous studies investigated taking a break, relaxation techniques, or playing a game; however, these methods have not been compared within a single experiment. Participants completed a baseline affective and cognitive assessment (ACA), which included the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, shortened version of the Dundee Stress State Questionnaire, and backward digit-span. Next, participants completed a vigilance task, followed by another ACA. Participants were then assigned at random to complete a break or relaxation activity or play a casual video game, followed by a final ACA. Participants who played the casual video game exhibited greater engagement and affective restoration than the relaxation condition. The break condition slightly decreased affect and prevented cognitive restoration. Playing a casual video game even briefly can restore individuals' affective abilities, making it a suitable activity to restore mood in response to stress. However, future research is needed to find activities capable of cognitive restoration. Many activities in life require sustained cognitive demand, which are stressful and decrease performance, especially for workers in performance-critical domains. Our research suggests some leisure activities are better than others for restoring fatigued affective processes.

Oral contraceptive use changes brain activity and mood in women with previous negative affect on the pill--a double-blinded, placebo-controlled randomized trial of a levonorgestrel-containing combined oral contraceptive.

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Gingnell, Malin; Engman, Jonas; Frick, Andreas; Moby, Lena; Wikström, Johan; Fredrikson, Mats; Sundström-Poromaa, Inger

2013-07-01

Most women on combined oral contraceptives (COC) report high levels of satisfaction, but 4-10% complain of adverse mood effects. The aim of this randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial was to investigate if COC use would induce more pronounced mood symptoms than placebo in women with previous history of COC-induced adverse mood. A second aim was to determine if COC use is associated with changes in brain reactivity in regions previously associated with emotion processing. Thirty-four women with previous experience of mood deterioration during COC use were randomized to one treatment cycle with a levonorgestrel-containing COC or placebo. An emotional face matching task (vs. geometrical shapes) was administered during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) prior to and during the COC treatment cycle. Throughout the trial, women recorded daily symptom ratings on the Cyclicity Diagnoser (CD) scale. During the last week of the treatment cycle COC users had higher scores of depressed mood, mood swings, and fatigue than placebo users. COC users also had lower emotion-induced reactivity in the left insula, left middle frontal gyrus, and bilateral inferior frontal gyri as compared to placebo users. In comparison with their pretreatment cycle, the COC group had decreased emotion-induced reactivity in the bilateral inferior frontal gyri, whereas placebo users had decreased reactivity in the right amygdala. COC use in women who previously had experienced emotional side effects resulted in mood deterioration, and COC use was also accompanied by changes in emotional brain reactivity. These findings are of relevance for the understanding of how combined oral contraceptives may influence mood. Placebo-controlled fMRI studies in COC sensitive women could be of relevance for future testing of adverse mood effects in new oral contraceptives. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

CAPTCHA – Security affecting User Experience

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Ruti Gafni

2016-05-01

Full Text Available CAPTCHA - Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart - is a test with the aim to distinguish between malicious automatic software and real users in the era of Cyber security threats. Various types of CAPTCHA tests were developed, in order to address accessibility while implementing security. This research focuses on the users’ attitudes and experiences related to use of the different kinds of tests. A questionnaire accompanied by experiencing five different CAPTCHA tests was performed among 212 users. Response times for each test and rate of success were collected automatically. The findings demonstrate that none of the existing tests are ideal. Although the participants were familiar with the Text-based test, they found it the most frustrating and non-enjoyable. Half of the participants failed in the Arithmetic-based test. While most of the participants found the picture and game based test enjoyable, their response time for those tests was the largest. The age factor was encountered as influencing both the attitude of the user and the performance, while younger users are more tolerant, have a better success rate, and are faster, the elder users found the tests annoying and time-consuming.

Attributions of responsibility and affective reactions to decision outcomes.

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Zeelenberg, M; van der Pligt, J; de Vries, N K

2000-06-01

Immediate affective reactions to outcomes are more intense following decisions to act than following decisions not to act. This finding holds for both positive and negative outcomes. We relate this "actor-effect" to attribution theory and argue that decision makers are seen as more responsible for outcomes when these are the result of a decision to act as compared to a decision not to act. Experiment 1 (N = 80) tests the main assumption underlying our reasoning and shows that affective reactions to decision outcomes are indeed more intense when the decision maker is seen as more responsible. Experiment 2 (N = 40) tests whether the actor effect can be predicted on the basis of differential attributions following action and inaction. Participants read vignettes in which active and passive actors obtained a positive or negative outcome. Action resulted in more intense affect than inaction, and positive outcomes resulted in more intense affect than negative outcomes. Experiment 2 further shows that responsibility attributions and affective reactions to outcomes are highly correlated; that is, more extreme affective reactions are associated with more internal attributions. We discuss the implications for research on post-decisional reactions.

Negative Affect during a Collective (but Not an Individual Task Is Associated with Holistic Attention in East Asian Cultural Context

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Hitoshi Tominaga

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Previous studies have suggested that individuals from East Asian cultures are more likely to show holistic attention—a pattern of attention that incorporates contextual information into focal stimuli—than individuals from North American cultures. Holistic attention is also prevalent in communities that require close cooperation. However, it is not yet known how cooperation is related to holistic attention. We theorized that holistic attention increases when people experience negative affect (e.g., worry, sadness, and frustration during collective tasks (but not during individual tasks because negative affect in social contexts signals the existence of potential threats to social harmony, thus indicating a need to restore social harmony. To examine this hypothesis, an experiment was conducted in which participants performed a musical duet either with another participant (a collective task requiring cooperation, or individually with a computer (an individual task. After the musical task, the Framed Line Task (FLT was administered to examine their holistic attention. Participants also reported their emotional states both before and after the music task. Results suggested that negative affect in the collective task—but not the individual task—was positively correlated with a holistic pattern of attention. The function of negative affect in social contexts as motivation to restore relationships and how this enhances holistic attention is discussed. The moderating effect of social context on the link between negative affect and cognition is also discussed.

[The effect of goal framing on the activation of affective representations].

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Takehashi, Hiroki; Karasawa, Kaori

2007-10-01

Guided by regulatory focus theory, this study examined the effects of goal framing on the subjective experience of affect and the accessibility of affective representations. Study I examined lay persons' beliefs concerning the relationship between goal framing and certain kinds of affective experiences. The results indicated that a promotion focus was associated with happiness and disappointment, whereas a prevention focus was associated with relaxation and tension. Study 2 examined the effect of goal framing on the activation of affective representations, and found that a promotion focus activated both gain-related representations (happy and disappointment) and loss-related representations (relaxation and tension), whereas a prevention focus activated only loss-related representations. These results suggest that goal framing activates particular affective representations, and the activated affective representations may influence the interpretation of positive or negative experiences. The discussion considered the function of the activation of affective representations as a mediator between goal framing and its cognitive and behavioral consequences.

Motion and emotion: depression reduces psychomotor performance and alters affective movements in caregiving interactions

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Katherine S Young

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Background: Impaired social functioning is a well-established feature of depression. Evidence to date suggests that disrupted processing of emotional cues may constitute part of this impairment. Beyond processing of emotional cues, fluent social interactions require that people physically move in synchronised, contingent ways. Disruptions to physical movements are a diagnostic feature of depression (psychomotor disturbance but have not previously been assessed in the context of social functioning. Here we investigated the impact of psychomotor disturbance in depression on physical responsive behaviour in both an experimental and observational setting.Methods: In Experiment 1, we examined motor disturbance in depression in response to salient emotional sounds, using a laboratory-based effortful motor task. In Experiment 2, we explored whether psychomotor disturbance was apparent in real-life social interactions. Using mother-infant interactions as a model affective social situation, we compared physical behaviours of mothers with and without postnatal depression (PND.Results: We found impairments in precise, controlled psychomotor performance in adults with depression relative to healthy adults (Experiment 1. Despite this disruption, all adults showed enhanced performance following exposure to highly salient emotional cues (infant cries. Examining real-life interactions, we found differences in physical movements, namely reduced affective touching, in mothers with PND responding to their infants, compared to healthy mothers (Experiment 2.Conclusions: Together, these findings suggest that psychomotor disturbance may be an important feature of depression that can impair social functioning. Future work investigating whether improvements in physical movement in depression could have a positive impact on social interactions would be of much interest.

Elevated ozone negatively affects photosynthesis of current-year leaves but not previous-year leaves in evergreen Cyclobalanopsis glauca seedlings

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Zhang, Weiwei; Feng, Zhaozhong; Wang, Xiaoke; Niu, Junfeng

2014-01-01

To assess the effects of leaf age/layer on the response of photosynthesis to chronic ozone (O 3 ), Cyclobalanopsis glauca seedlings, a dominant evergreen broadleaf tree species in sub-tropical regions, were exposed to either ambient air (AA) or elevated O 3 (AA + 60 ppb O 3 , E-O 3 ) for two growing seasons in open-top chambers. Chlorophyll content, gas exchange and chlorophyll a fluorescence were investigated three times throughout the 2nd year of O 3 exposure. Results indicated that E-O 3 decreased photosynthetic parameters, particularly light-saturated photosynthesis rate, stomatal conductance and effective quantum yield of PSII photochemistry of current-year leaves but not previous-year leaves. Stomatal conductance of plants grown under ambient conditions partially contributed to the different response to E-O 3 between leaf layers. Light radiation or other physiological and biochemical processes closely related to photosynthesis might play important roles. All suggested that leaf ages or layers should be considered when assessing O 3 risk on evergreen woody species. -- Highlights: • Response of evergreen Cyclobalanopsis glauca to O 3 was investigated. • Elevated O 3 significantly reduced photosynthesis of current-year leaves. • Previous-year leaves showed little response to O 3 . • Stomatal conductance contributes to the response difference to O 3 among leaf ages. -- Impacts of elevated O 3 on photosynthesis of evergreen woody species depend on leaf ages

Expectations affect psychological and neurophysiological benefits even after a single bout of exercise.

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Mothes, Hendrik; Leukel, Christian; Jo, Han-Gue; Seelig, Harald; Schmidt, Stefan; Fuchs, Reinhard

2017-04-01

The study investigated whether typical psychological, physiological, and neurophysiological changes from a single exercise are affected by one's beliefs and expectations. Seventy-six participants were randomly assigned to four groups and saw different multimedia presentations suggesting that the subsequent exercise (moderate 30 min cycling) would result in more or less health benefits (induced expectations). Additionally, we assessed habitual expectations reflecting previous experience and beliefs regarding exercise benefits. Participants with more positive habitual expectations consistently demonstrated both greater psychological benefits (more enjoyment, mood increase, and anxiety reduction) and greater increase of alpha-2 power, assessed with electroencephalography. Manipulating participants' expectations also resulted in largely greater increases of alpha-2 power, but not in more psychological exercise benefits. On the physiological level, participants decreased their blood pressure after exercising, but this was independent of their expectations. These results indicate that habitual expectations in particular affect exercise-induced psychological and neurophysiological changes in a self-fulfilling manner.

Ecthyma gangrenosum in the periorbital region in a previously healthy immunocompetent woman without bacteremia

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Somenath Sarkar

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Ecthyma gangrenosum (EG is a cutaneous lesion classically associated with potentially fatal Pseudomonas septicemia in immunocompromised patients. Other bacterial and fungal pathogens have also been implicated. Although EG typically occurs in immunocompromised or neutropenic patients, it may occasionally affect a previously healthy person. The cutaneous findings are characteristic with small indurated papulovesicles progressing rapidly to necrotic ulcers with surrounding erythema and a central black Eschar. While lesions can occur at any site, most are commonly found over the buttocks, perineum, limbs, and axillae. We describe a case of EG in periorbital region in a previously healthy woman who responded to appropriate antibiotic treatment for Pseudomonas. It is very important to establish the diagnosis early so that appropriate systemic antibiotic therapy can be initiated to reduce morbidity and potential mortality.

Free to help? An experiment on free will belief and altruism.

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Job Harms

Full Text Available How does belief in free will affect altruistic behavior? In an online experiment we undermine subjects' belief in free will through a priming task. Subjects subsequently conduct a series of binary dictator games in which they can distribute money between themselves and a charity that supports low-income people in developing countries. In each decision task, subjects choose between two different distributions, one of which is more generous towards the charity. In contrast to previous experiments that report a negative effect of undermining free will on honest behavior and self-reported willingness to help, we find an insignificant average treatment effect. However, we do find that our treatment reduces charitable giving among non-religious subjects, but not among religious subjects. This could be explained by our finding that religious subjects associate more strongly with social norms that prescribe helping the poor, and might therefore be less sensitive to the effect of reduced belief in free will. Taken together, these findings indicate that the effects of free will belief on prosocial behavior are more nuanced than previously suggested.

Free to help? An experiment on free will belief and altruism.

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Harms, Job; Liket, Kellie; Protzko, John; Schölmerich, Vera

2017-01-01

How does belief in free will affect altruistic behavior? In an online experiment we undermine subjects' belief in free will through a priming task. Subjects subsequently conduct a series of binary dictator games in which they can distribute money between themselves and a charity that supports low-income people in developing countries. In each decision task, subjects choose between two different distributions, one of which is more generous towards the charity. In contrast to previous experiments that report a negative effect of undermining free will on honest behavior and self-reported willingness to help, we find an insignificant average treatment effect. However, we do find that our treatment reduces charitable giving among non-religious subjects, but not among religious subjects. This could be explained by our finding that religious subjects associate more strongly with social norms that prescribe helping the poor, and might therefore be less sensitive to the effect of reduced belief in free will. Taken together, these findings indicate that the effects of free will belief on prosocial behavior are more nuanced than previously suggested.

Mass transfer experiments for the heat load during in-vessel retention of core melt

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, Hae Kyun; Chung, Bum Jin [Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2016-08-15

We investigated the heat load imposed on the lower head of a reactor vessel by the natural convection of the oxide pool in a severe accident. Mass transfer experiments using a CuSO{sub 4}–H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} electroplating system were performed based on the analogy between heat and mass transfer. The Ra′{sub H} of 10{sup 14} order was achieved with a facility height of only 0.1 m. Three different volumetric heat sources were compared; two had identical configurations to those previously reported, and the other was designed by the authors. The measured Nu's of the lower head were about 30% lower than those previously reported. The measured angular heat flux ratios were similar to those reported in existing studies except for the peaks appearing near the top. The volumetric heat sources did not affect the Nu of the lower head but affected the Nu of the top plate by obstructing the rising flow from the bottom.

[How do Affected Children and Adolescents Experience their Short Stature, and what is the Point of View of their Parents?].

Science.gov (United States)

Quitmann, Julia; Rohenkohl, Anja; Sommer, Rachel; Petzold, Sophie; Bullinger-Naber, Monika

2014-01-01

How do Affected Children and Adolescents Experience their Short Stature, and what is the Point of View of their Parents? Despite a large number of publications on the psychosocial situation of short statured children and their parents only a few qualitative studies focus on the perspective of the affected families. Within the European QoLISSY study ("Quality of Life in Short Stature Youth") an instrument to assess the health related quality of life of short statured children was developed. The aim of this project was to examine the self-perceived quality of life of the children themselves in comparison to their parents' perspective. During the development of the QoLISSY instrument, focus groups were conducted as a first step of this study. A total of 23 short statured children and 31 parents participated and discussed their experiences in separate groups with trained moderators. The discussions were analyzed qualitatively und results were used to generate a first list of items for the questionnaire to be developed. While parents focused on socio-emotional problems, children talked much more about their growth hormone treatment and problems in their social environment. In comparison to other studies children rated their quality of life worse than their parents. Not only medical treatment but also a psychological and socio-emotional intervention seems to be indicated.

Factors Affecting Furfural as a Nematicide on Turf

OpenAIRE

Luc, J. E.; Crow, W. T.

2013-01-01

Recently a furfural nematicide Multiguard Protect EC was launched for use on turfgrasses in the United States. A series of greenhouse experiments were conducted to determine the concentration and exposure time required for this formulation to irreversibly affect Belonolaimus longicaudatus, and to study factors that might affect the practicality of furfural use in turfgrass systems. One experiment exposed B. longicaudatus to increasing concentrations of furfural (0 to 990 ppm) in vitro for eit...

The role of sleep in adolescents' daily stress recovery: Negative affect spillover and positive affect bounce-back effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Chue, Amanda E; Gunthert, Kathleen C; Kim, Rebecca W; Alfano, Candice A; Ruggiero, Aria R

2018-07-01

The present study examined the role of sleep in daily affective stress recovery processes in adolescents. Eighty-nine American adolescents recorded their emotions and stress through daily surveys and sleep with Fitbit devices for two weeks. Results show that objectively measured sleep (sleep onset latency and sleep debt) moderated negative affective responses to previous-day stress, such that stress-related negative affect spillover effects became more pronounced as amount of sleep decreased. Total sleep time and sleep debt moderated cross-day positive affect "bounce-back" effects. With more sleep, morning positive affect on days following high stress tended to bounce back to the levels that were common following low stress days. Conversely, if sleep was short following high stress days, positive affect remained low the next morning. No evidence for subjective sleep quality as a moderator of spillover/bounce-back effects was found. This research suggests that sleep quantity could relate to overnight affective stress recovery. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Affective agnosia: Expansion of the alexithymia construct and a new opportunity to integrate and extend Freud's legacy.

Science.gov (United States)

Lane, Richard D; Weihs, Karen L; Herring, Anne; Hishaw, Alex; Smith, Ryan

2015-08-01

We describe a new type of agnosia consisting of an impairment in the ability to mentally represent or know what one is feeling. Freud the neurologist coined the term "agnosia" in 1891 before creating psychoanalysis in 1895 but the term has not been previously applied to the domain of affective processing. We propose that the concept of "affective agnosia" advances the theory, measurement and treatment of what is now called "alexithymia," meaning "lack of words for emotion." We trace the origin of the alexithymia construct and discuss the strengths and limitations of extant research. We review evidence that the ability to represent and put emotions into words is a developmental achievement that strongly influences one's ability to experience, recognize, understand and use one's own emotional responses. We describe the neural substrates of emotional awareness and affective agnosia and compare and contrast these with related conditions. We then describe how this expansion of the conceptualization and measurement of affective processing deficits has important implications for basic emotion research and clinical practice. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Framework of product experience

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Desmet, P.; Hekkert, P.

2007-01-01

In this paper, we introduce a general framework for product experience that applies to all affective responses that can be experienced in human-product interaction. Three distinct components or levels of product experiences are discussed: aesthetic experience, experience of meaning, and emotional

Auditory top-down control and affective theory of mind in schizophrenia with and without hallucinations.

Science.gov (United States)

Rominger, Christian; Bleier, Angelika; Fitz, Werner; Marksteiner, Josef; Fink, Andreas; Papousek, Ilona; Weiss, Elisabeth M

2016-07-01

Social cognitive impairments may represent a core feature of schizophrenia and above all are a strong predictor of positive psychotic symptoms. Previous studies could show that reduced inhibitory top-down control contributes to deficits in theory of mind abilities and is involved in the genesis of hallucinations. The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between auditory inhibition, affective theory of mind and the experience of hallucinations in patients with schizophrenia. In the present study, 20 in-patients with schizophrenia and 20 healthy controls completed a social cognition task (the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test) and an inhibitory top-down Dichotic Listening Test. Schizophrenia patients with greater severity of hallucinations showed impaired affective theory of mind as well as impaired inhibitory top-down control. More dysfunctional top-down inhibition was associated with poorer affective theory of mind performance, and seemed to mediate the association between impairment to affective theory of mind and severity of hallucinations. The findings support the idea of impaired theory of mind as a trait marker of schizophrenia. In addition, dysfunctional top-down inhibition may give rise to hallucinations and may further impair affective theory of mind skills in schizophrenia. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The time between intention and action affect the experience of action

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Mikkel C. Vinding

2015-06-01

Full Text Available We present a study investigating how the delay between the intention to act and the following action, influenced the experience of action. In experiments investigating sense of agency and experience of action, the contrast is most often between voluntary and involuntary actions. It is rarely asked whether different types of intentions influence the experience of action differently. To investigate this we distinguished between proximal intentions (i.e. intentions for immediate actions and delayed intentions (i.e. intentions with a temporal delay between intention and action. The distinction was implemented in an intentional binding paradigm, by varying the delay between the time where participants formed the intention to act and the time at which they performed the action. The results showed that delayed intentions were followed by a stronger binding effect for the tone following the action compared to proximal intentions. The actions were reported to have occurred earlier for delayed intentions than for proximal intentions. This effect was independent of the binding effect usually found in intentional binding experiments. This suggests that two perceptual shifts occurred in the contrast between delayed intentions and proximal intentions: The first being the binding effect, the second a general shift in the perceived time of action. Neither the stronger binding effect for tone, nor the earlier reports of action, differed across delays for delayed intentions. The results imply that delayed intentions and proximal intentions have a different impact on the experience of action.

Visual working memory supports the inhibition of previously processed information: evidence from preview search.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Aidroos, Naseem; Emrich, Stephen M; Ferber, Susanne; Pratt, Jay

2012-06-01

In four experiments we assessed whether visual working memory (VWM) maintains a record of previously processed visual information, allowing old information to be inhibited, and new information to be prioritized. Specifically, we evaluated whether VWM contributes to the inhibition (i.e., visual marking) of previewed distractors in a preview search. We evaluated this proposal by testing three predictions. First, Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that preview inhibition is more effective when the number of previewed distractors is below VWM capacity than above; an effect that can only be observed at small preview set sizes (Experiment 2A) and when observers are allowed to move their eyes freely (Experiment 2B). Second, Experiment 3 shows that, when quantified as the number of inhibited distractors, the magnitude of the preview effect is stable across different search difficulties. Third, Experiment 4 demonstrates that individual differences in preview inhibition are correlated with individual differences in VWM capacity. These findings provide converging evidence that VWM supports the inhibition of previewed distractors. More generally, these findings demonstrate how VWM contributes to the efficiency of human visual information processing--VWM prioritizes new information by inhibiting old information from being reselected for attention.

Lesion type and reader experience affect the diagnostic accuracy of breast MRI: A multiple reader ROC study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baltzer, Pascal A.T., E-mail: patbaltzer@gmail.com [Department of Biomedical Imaging and Imge-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna (Austria); Kaiser, Werner Alois [Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Jena, Erlanger Allee 101, 07740 Jena (Germany); Dietzel, Matthias, E-mail: dietzelmatthias2@hotmail.com [Department of Neuroradiology, University Hospital Erlangen, Schwabachanlage 6, 91054 Erlangen (Germany)

2015-01-15

reader experience (P = 0.005) on diagnostic performance. Conclusions: Non-mass lesion type and low reader experience negatively affect the diagnostic performance of breast MRI in a non-screening setting.

Maternal affect and quality of parenting experiences are related to amygdala response to infant faces.

Science.gov (United States)

Barrett, Jennifer; Wonch, Kathleen E; Gonzalez, Andrea; Ali, Nida; Steiner, Meir; Hall, Geoffrey B; Fleming, Alison S

2012-01-01

We examined how individual differences in mood and anxiety in the early postpartum period are related to brain response to infant stimuli during fMRI, with particular focus on regions implicated in both maternal behavior and mood/anxiety, that is, the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) and the amygdala. At approximately 3 months postpartum, 22 mothers completed an affect-rating task (ART) during fMRI, where their affective response to infant stimuli was explicitly probed. Mothers viewed/rated four infant face conditions: own positive (OP), own negative (ON), unfamiliar positive (UP), and unfamiliar negative (UN). Mood and anxiety were measured by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EDPS) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait Version (STAI-T); maternal factors related to parental stress and attachment were also assessed. Brain-imaging data underwent a random-effects analysis, and cluster-based statistical thresholding was applied to the following contrasts: OP-UP, ON-UN, OP-ON, and UP-UN. Our main finding was that poorer quality of maternal experience was significantly related to reduced amygdala response to OP compared to UP infant faces. Our results suggest that, in human mothers, infant-related amygdala function may be an important factor in maternal anxiety/mood, in quality of mothering, and in individual differences in the motivation to mother. We are very grateful to the staff at the Imaging Research Center of the Brain-Body Institute for their contributions to this project. This work was supported by an Ontario Mental Health Foundation operating grant awarded to Alison Fleming and a postdoctoral fellowship awarded to Jennifer Barrett.

Categorical Perception of Affective and Linguistic Facial Expressions

Science.gov (United States)

McCullough, Stephen; Emmorey, Karen

2009-01-01

Two experiments investigated categorical perception (CP) effects for affective facial expressions and linguistic facial expressions from American Sign Language (ASL) for Deaf native signers and hearing non-signers. Facial expressions were presented in isolation (Experiment 1) or in an ASL verb context (Experiment 2). Participants performed ABX…

Study on Customer Experience Dimension Based on Online Shopping reviews of MI’s Products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Lin

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This study has selected sorts of comments about MI’s products from its customers’ as research objects, then we used the theory of Rooting to analyze those objects, and explored the Customer Experience Dimensions’ type, characteristics and the way to impact others. The results come as follows: First of all, the Customers Experience Dimensions are consisted of nine major categories defined as Value Perception Experience, Sensory Experience, Quality Assurance Experience, Parts Experience, Purchase Experience, Service Experience, Brand Comparison Experience, Compensating Experience, Brand Reliance Experience respectively. Secondly, we put these nine major categories above all to compare the conclusions with the previous research, then we analyzed and integrated them, and finally obtained seven major categories containing Purchasing Website, Product Rendering, Delivery Experience, Transaction Convenience, Safety and Security, Brand Reliance, Marketing Communications respectively. In addition, we have conducted a further investigation to draw three types about the Customer Experience named Function Experience, Purchasing and Service Experience, and Brand Experience. Last but not the least, this paper has definitely provided the basis theory of how does the Customer Experience affect the Brand Loyalty for future research, as well as guided a definite orientation.

Mood-dependent integration in discourse comprehension: happy and sad moods affect consistency processing via different brain networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Egidi, Giovanna; Caramazza, Alfonso

2014-12-01

According to recent research on language comprehension, the semantic features of a text are not the only determinants of whether incoming information is understood as consistent. Listeners' pre-existing affective states play a crucial role as well. The current fMRI experiment examines the effects of happy and sad moods during comprehension of consistent and inconsistent story endings, focusing on brain regions previously linked to two integration processes: inconsistency detection, evident in stronger responses to inconsistent endings, and fluent processing (accumulation), evident in stronger responses to consistent endings. The analysis evaluated whether differences in the BOLD response for consistent and inconsistent story endings correlated with self-reported mood scores after a mood induction procedure. Mood strongly affected regions previously associated with inconsistency detection. Happy mood increased sensitivity to inconsistency in regions specific for inconsistency detection (e.g., left IFG, left STS), whereas sad mood increased sensitivity to inconsistency in regions less specific for language processing (e.g., right med FG, right SFG). Mood affected more weakly regions involved in accumulation of information. These results show that mood can influence activity in areas mediating well-defined language processes, and highlight that integration is the result of context-dependent mechanisms. The finding that language comprehension can involve different networks depending on people's mood highlights the brain's ability to reorganize its functions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Fear of childbirth: mothers' experiences of team-midwifery care - a follow-up study.

Science.gov (United States)

Lyberg, Anne; Severinsson, Elisabeth

2010-05-01

The aim of this study was to illuminate mothers' fear of childbirth and their experiences of the team-midwifery care model during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period. Maternal anxiety and fear of childbirth lead to emotional suffering and affected women's well-being. A previous negative experience of childbirth may result in postnatal depression or avoidance of future pregnancies. This hermeneutic study comprised interviews with 13 women, which were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim, after which interpretative content analysis was performed. Ethical approval was granted. The findings revealed one main theme: The woman's right to ownership of the pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal care as a means of maintaining dignity and three themes; Being aware of barriers and reasons for fear; Being prepared for childbirth and Being confirmed and treated with dignity by the midwife. Each theme contained several sub-themes. The findings contribute insights into how midwives can be educated to reduce fear of childbirth and promote positive birth experiences, despite the existence of negative memories of previous births. In order to achieve continuity and a trusting relationship it is necessary to organise leadership and to adopt models that are flexible and support women's health.

Gluconeogenesis during starvation and refeeding phase is affected by previous dietary carbohydrates levels and a glucose stimuli during early life in Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii

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Xiaofang Liang

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Gluconeogenesis responses was assessed during a short starvation period and subsequent refeeding in Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii previously fed different dietary carbohydrates levels and experienced to a glucose stimuli during early life. The sturgeon larvae were previously fed either a high glucose diet (G or a low glucose diet (F from the first feeding to yolk absorption (8 to 12 d post-hatching [dph]. Each group of fish was sub-divided into 2 treatments at 13 dph and was fed either a high-carbohydrate diet (H or a low carbohydrate diet (L until 20 wk. In the current study, the fish in 4 groups (GL, FL, GH and FH were experienced to starvation for 21 d following by re-feeding of their corresponding diets for 21 d. Fish were sampled at postprandial 6 and 24 h before starvation (P6h and P24h, starvation 7, 14 and 21 d (S7, S14 and S21 and 1, 7, 14 and 21 d during refeeding (R1, R7, R14 and R21. Plasma samples during refeeding were taken at P6h at each time point. Glycaemia levels, liver and muscle glycogen contents, activities and mRNA levels of hepatic gluconeogenic enzymes were examined. We found that both dietary carbohydrate levels and early glucose stimuli significantly affected the metabolic responses to starvation and refeeding in Siberian sturgeon (P < 0.05. During prolonged starvation, Siberian sturgeon firstly mobilized the liver glycogen and then improved gluconeogenesis when the dietary carbohydrates were abundant, whereas preserved the liver glycogen stores at a stable level and more effectively promoted gluconeogenesis when the dietary carbohydrates are absent to maintain glucose homoeostasis. During refeeding, as most teleostean, Siberian sturgeon failed controlling the activities and mRNA levels of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase cytosolic forms (PEPCK-C, fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (FBPase, but particularly controlled phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase mitochondrial forms (PEPCK-M activities and mRNA expression

Integrative processing of touch and affect in social perception: an fMRI study

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Sjoerd eEbisch

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Social perception commonly employs multiple sources of information. The present study aimed at investigating the integrative processing of affective social signals. Task-related and task-free functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 26 healthy adult participants during a social perception task concerning dynamic visual stimuli simultaneously depicting facial expressions of emotion and tactile sensations that could be either congruent or incongruent. Confounding effects due to affective valence, inhibitory top-down influences, cross-modal integration, and conflict processing were minimized. The results showed that the perception of congruent, compared to incongruent stimuli, elicited enhanced neural activity in a set of brain regions including left amygdala, bilateral posterior cingulate cortex (PCC, and left superior parietal cortex. These congruency effects did not differ as a function of emotion or sensation. A complementary task-related functional interaction analysis preliminarily suggested that amygdala activity depended on previous processing stages in fusiform gyrus and PCC. The findings provide support for the integrative processing of social information about others' feelings from manifold bodily sources (sensory-affective information in amygdala and PCC. Given that the congruent stimuli were also judged as being more self-related and more familiar in terms of personal experience in an independent sample of participants, we speculate that such integrative processing might be mediated by the linking of external stimuli with self-experience. Finally, the prediction of task-related responses in amygdala by intrinsic functional connectivity between amygdala and PCC during a task-free state implies a neuro-functional basis for an individual predisposition for the integrative processing of social stimulus content.

INVESTIGATING AND COMMUNICATING TECHNOLOGY MATHEMATICS PROBLEM SOLVING EXPERIENCE OF TWO PRESERVICE TEACHERS

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Ana Kuzle

2012-04-01

Full Text Available In this paper, I report on preservice teachers’ reflections and perceptions on theirproblem-solving process in a technological context. The purpose of the study was to to investigatehow preservice teachers experience working individually in a dynamic geometry environment andhow these experiences affect their own mathematical activity when integrating content (nonroutineproblems and context (technology environment. Careful analysis of participants’ perceptionsregarding their thinking while engaged in problem solving, provided an opportunity to explorehow they explain the emergence of problem solving when working in a dynamic geometryenvironment. The two participants communicated their experience both through the lenses ofthemselves as problem solvers and as future mathematics educators. Moreover, the results of thestudy indicated that problem solving in a technology environment does not necessarily allow focuson decision-making, reflection, and problem solving processes as reported by previous research.

Influence of Previous Crop on Durum Wheat Yield and Yield Stability in a Long-term Experiment

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Anna Maria Stellacci

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Long-term experiments are leading indicators of sustainability and serve as an early warning system to detect problems that may compromise future productivity. So the stability of yield is an important parameter to be considered when judging the value of a cropping system relative to others. In a long-term rotation experiment set up in 1972 the influence of different crop sequences on the yields and on yield stability of durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf. was studied. The complete field experiment is a split-split plot in a randomized complete block design with two replications; the whole experiment considers three crop sequences: 1 three-year crop rotation: sugar-beet, wheat + catch crop, wheat; 2 one-year crop rotation: wheat + catch crop; 3 wheat continuous crop; the split treatments are two different crop residue managements; the split-split plot treatments are 18 different fertilization formulas. Each phase of every crop rotation occurred every year. In this paper only one crop residue management and only one fertilization treatment have been analized. Wheat crops in different rotations are coded as follows: F1: wheat after sugar-beet in three-year crop rotation; F2: wheat after wheat in three-year crop rotation; Fc+i: wheat in wheat + catch crop rotation; Fc: continuous wheat. The following two variables were analysed: grain yield and hectolitre weight. Repeated measures analyses of variance and stability analyses have been perfomed for the two variables. The stability analysis was conducted using: three variance methods, namely the coefficient of variability of Francis and Kannenberg, the ecovalence index of Wricke and the stability variance index of Shukla; the regression method of Eberhart and Russell; a method, proposed by Piepho, that computes the probability of one system outperforming another system. It has turned out that each of the stability methods used has enriched of information the simple variance analysis. The Piepho�

Processing of Words Related to the Demands of a Previously Solved Problem

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Kowalczyk Marek

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Earlier research by the author brought about findings suggesting that people in a special way process words related to demands of a problem they previously solved, even when they do not consciously notice this relationship. The findings concerned interference in the task in which the words appeared, a shift in affective responses to them that depended on sex of the participants, and impaired memory of the words. The aim of this study was to replicate these effects and to find out whether they are related to working memory (WM span of the participants, taken as a measure of the individual’s ability to control attention. Participants in the experimental group solved a divergent problem, then performed an ostensibly unrelated speeded affective classification task concerning each of a series of nouns, and then performed an unexpected cued recall task for the nouns. Afterwards, a task measuring WM span was administered. In the control group there was no problem-solving phase. Response latencies for words immediately following problem-related words in the classification task were longer in the experimental than in the control group, but there was no relationship between this effect and WM span. Solving the problem, in interaction with sex of the participants and, independently, with their WM span, influenced affective responses to problem-related words. Recall of these words, however, was not impaired in the experimental group.

Genomic Regions Affecting Cheese Making Properties Identified in Danish Holsteins

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gregersen, Vivi Raundahl; Bertelsen, Henriette Pasgaard; Poulsen, Nina Aagaard

The cheese renneting process is affected by a number of factors associated to milk composition and a number of Danish Holsteins has previously been identified to have poor milk coagulation ability. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify genomic regions affecting the technological...

Survival of dental implants placed in sites of previously failed implants.

Science.gov (United States)

Chrcanovic, Bruno R; Kisch, Jenö; Albrektsson, Tomas; Wennerberg, Ann

2017-11-01

To assess the survival of dental implants placed in sites of previously failed implants and to explore the possible factors that might affect the outcome of this reimplantation procedure. Patients that had failed dental implants, which were replaced with the same implant type at the same site, were included. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the patients and implants; survival analysis was also performed. The effect of systemic, environmental, and local factors on the survival of the reoperated implants was evaluated. 175 of 10,096 implants in 98 patients were replaced by another implant at the same location (159, 14, and 2 implants at second, third, and fourth surgeries, respectively). Newly replaced implants were generally of similar diameter but of shorter length compared to the previously placed fixtures. A statistically significant greater percentage of lost implants were placed in sites with low bone quantity. There was a statistically significant difference (P = 0.032) in the survival rates between implants that were inserted for the first time (94%) and implants that replaced the ones lost (73%). There was a statistically higher failure rate of the reoperated implants for patients taking antidepressants and antithrombotic agents. Dental implants replacing failed implants had lower survival rates than the rates reported for the previous attempts of implant placement. It is suggested that a site-specific negative effect may possibly be associated with this phenomenon, as well as the intake of antidepressants and antithrombotic agents. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Effects of the Previous Outcome on Probabilistic Choice in Rats

Science.gov (United States)

Marshall, Andrew T.; Kirkpatrick, Kimberly

2014-01-01

This study examined the effects of previous outcomes on subsequent choices in a probabilistic-choice task. Twenty-four rats were trained to choose between a certain outcome (1 or 3 pellets) versus an uncertain outcome (3 or 9 pellets), delivered with a probability of .1, .33, .67, and .9 in different phases. Uncertain outcome choices increased with the probability of uncertain food. Additionally, uncertain choices increased with the probability of uncertain food following both certain-choice outcomes and unrewarded uncertain choices. However, following uncertain-choice food outcomes, there was a tendency to choose the uncertain outcome in all cases, indicating that the rats continued to “gamble” after successful uncertain choices, regardless of the overall probability or magnitude of food. A subsequent manipulation, in which the probability of uncertain food varied within each session as a function of the previous uncertain outcome, examined how the previous outcome and probability of uncertain food affected choice in a dynamic environment. Uncertain-choice behavior increased with the probability of uncertain food. The rats exhibited increased sensitivity to probability changes and a greater degree of win–stay/lose–shift behavior than in the static phase. Simulations of two sequential choice models were performed to explore the possible mechanisms of reward value computations. The simulation results supported an exponentially decaying value function that updated as a function of trial (rather than time). These results emphasize the importance of analyzing global and local factors in choice behavior and suggest avenues for the future development of sequential-choice models. PMID:23205915

Results and analysis of the TMX electron-beam injection experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Poulsen, P.; Grubb, D.P.

1980-01-01

Electron beams (e-beams) were injected into the Tandem Mirror Experiment (TMX) plasma in order to investigate the effect on the ion cyclotron fluctuations of the plasma. The power level of the e-beams was comparable to that of the injected neutral beams. It was found that injection of the e-beams produced no significant effect on the ion cyclotron fluctuations, the measured plasma parameters, or the particle and power flow of the plasma. The increase in bulk electron temperature and the production of mirror-confined electrons found in previous experiments in which e-beams were injected into a mirror-confined plasma were not observed in this experiment. Analysis of the regions and frequencies of wave creation and absorption within the plasma shows that the plasma density and magnetic field profiles through the plasma strongly affect the resonances encountered by the waves. The steep axial density profiles produced by neutral-beam injection in the TMX experiment are not conducive to efficient coupling of the e-beam energy to the plasma

Long-Term Experience with Chinese Language Shapes the Fusiform Asymmetry of English Reading

Science.gov (United States)

Mei, Leilei; Xue, Gui; Lu, Zhong-Lin; Chen, Chuansheng; Wei, Miao; He, Qinghua; Dong, Qi

2015-01-01

Previous studies have suggested differential engagement of the bilateral fusiform gyrus in the processing of Chinese and English. The present study tested the possibility that long-term experience with Chinese language affects the fusiform laterality of English reading by comparing three samples: Chinese speakers, English speakers with Chinese experience, and English speakers without Chinese experience. We found that, when reading words in their respective native language, Chinese and English speakers without Chinese experience differed in functional laterality of the posterior fusiform region (right laterality for Chinese speakers, but left laterality for English speakers). More importantly, compared with English speakers without Chinese experience, English speakers with Chinese experience showed more recruitment of the right posterior fusiform cortex for English words and pseudowords, which is similar to how Chinese speakers processed Chinese. These results suggest that long-term experience with Chinese shapes the fusiform laterality of English reading and have important implications for our understanding of the cross-language influences in terms of neural organization and of the functions of different fusiform subregions in reading. PMID:25598049

Acute lesions that impair affective empathy

Science.gov (United States)

Oishi, Kenichi; Hsu, John; Lindquist, Martin; Gottesman, Rebecca F.; Jarso, Samson; Crainiceanu, Ciprian; Mori, Susumu

2013-01-01

Functional imaging studies of healthy participants and previous lesion studies have provided evidence that empathy involves dissociable cognitive functions that rely on at least partially distinct neural networks that can be individually impaired by brain damage. These studies converge in support of the proposal that affective empathy—making inferences about how another person feels—engages at least the following areas: prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal gyrus, anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, temporal pole, amygdala and temporoparietal junction. We hypothesized that right-sided lesions to any one of these structures, except temporoparietal junction, would cause impaired affective empathy (whereas bilateral damage to temporoparietal junction would be required to disrupt empathy). We studied 27 patients with acute right hemisphere ischaemic stroke and 24 neurologically intact inpatients on a test of affective empathy. Acute impairment of affective empathy was associated with infarcts in the hypothesized network, particularly temporal pole and anterior insula. All patients with impaired affective empathy were also impaired in comprehension of affective prosody, but many patients with impairments in prosodic comprehension had spared affective empathy. Patients with impaired affective empathy were older, but showed no difference in performance on tests of hemispatial neglect, volume of infarct or sex distribution compared with patients with intact affective empathy. PMID:23824490

Momentary affect predicts bodily movement in daily life: an ambulatory monitoring study.

Science.gov (United States)

Schwerdtfeger, Andreas; Eberhardt, Ragna; Chmitorz, Andrea; Schaller, Eva

2010-10-01

There is converging evidence that physical activity influences affective states. It has been found that aerobic exercise programs can significantly diminish negative affect. Moreover, among healthy individuals, moderate levels of physical activity seem to increase energetic arousal and positive affect. However, the predictive utility of affective states for bodily movement has rarely been investigated. In this study, we examined whether momentarily assessed affect is associated with bodily movement in everyday life. Using a previously published data set (Schwerdtfeger, Eberhardt, & Chmitorz, 2008), we reanalyzed 12-hr ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data from 124 healthy volunteers. Electronic momentary positive-activated affect (EMA-PAA) and negative affect (EMA-NA) were assessed via handheld computers, and bodily movement was recorded via accelerosensors. Generalized linear mixed models were calculated. Results indicated that EMAPAA increases were accompanied by bodily movement increases of varying intensity. EMA-NA was also positively associated with increases in certain kinds of bodily movement. In light of previous research, this finding suggests that affect and bodily movement may have circular effects on each other.

Culture and drug susceptibility testing among previously treated tuberculosis patients in the Dominican Republic, 2014

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katia J. Romero Mercado

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB is a major public health concern that threatens global progress toward effective TB control. The risk of MDR-TB is increased in patients who have received previous TB treatment. This article describes the performance of culture and drug susceptibility testing (DST in patients registered as previously treated TB patients in the Dominican Republic in 2014, based on operational research that followed a retrospective cohort design and used routine program data. Under the current system of TB culturing and DST, the majority of patients with previously treated TB do not undergo DST, and those who do often experience considerable delay in obtaining their results. The lack of DST and delay in receiving DST results leads to underestimation of the number of MDR-TB cases and hinders the timely initiation of MDR-TB treatment.

Fewer ups and downs: daily stressors mediate age differences in negative affect.

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Charles, Susan Turk; Luong, Gloria; Almeida, David M; Ryff, Carol; Sturm, Maggie; Love, Gayle

2010-05-01

The current study examined age differences in daily stressors, positive events (uplifts), and their associations with emotional experience among healthy older women. Women (N = 101, 63-93 years old) reported their daily experiences across 1 week. Older age was related to fewer stressors and less frequent negative affect. However, the association between negative affect and age was no longer significant after accounting for the occurrence of daily stressors. Older age was not significantly related to positive affect, although positive uplifts were reported less frequently with age. Findings provide a contextual explanation for emotional experience in very late life, where reduced exposure to stressors partially explains age-related reductions in negative affect.

Correlates of postpartum depression in first time mothers without previous psychiatric contact.

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Sylvén, S M; Thomopoulos, T P; Kollia, N; Jonsson, M; Skalkidou, A

2017-02-01

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a common disorder after childbirth. The strongest known predictors are a history of depression and/or a history of PPD. However, for a significant proportion of women, PPD constitutes their first depressive episode. This study aimed to gain further insight into the risk factors for PPD in first time mothers without previous psychiatric contact. Women delivering in Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden, from May 2006 to June 2007, were asked to participate and filled out questionnaires five days and six weeks postpartum, containing inter alia the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Univariate logistic regression models, as well as a path analysis, were performed to unveil the complex interplay between the study variables. Of the 653 participating primiparas, 10.3% and 6.4% reported depressive symptoms (EPDS≥12 points) five days and six weeks postpartum, respectively. In the path analysis, a positive association between anxiety proneness and depressive symptoms at five days and six weeks postpartum was identified. For depressive symptoms six weeks after delivery, additional risk factors were detected, namely depressive symptoms five days postpartum and subjective experience of problems with the baby. Caesarean section and assisted vaginal delivery were associated with fewer depressive symptoms at 6 six weeks postpartum. Identification of anxiety proneness, delivery mode and problems with the baby as risk factors for self-reported depressive symptoms postpartum in this group of primiparas can be important in helping health care professionals identify women at increased risk of affective disorders in the perinatal period, and provide a base for early intervention. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Sliding into happiness: A new tool for measuring affective responses to words

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Warriner, Amy Beth; Shore, David I.; Schmidt, Louis A.; Imbault, Constance L.; Kuperman, Victor

2016-01-01

Reliable measurement of affective responses is critical for research into human emotion. Affective evaluation of words is most commonly gauged on multiple dimensions—including valence (positivity) and arousal—using a rating scale. Despite its popularity, this scale is open to criticism: it generates ordinal data that is often misinterpreted as interval, it does not provide the fine resolution that is essential by recent theoretical accounts of emotion, and its extremes may not be properly calibrated. In five experiments, we introduce a new slider tool for affective evaluation of words on a continuous, well-calibrated and high-resolution scale. In Experiment 1, participants were shown a word and asked to move a manikin representing themselves closer to or farther away from the word. The manikin’s distance from the word strongly correlated with the word’s valence. In Experiment 2, individual differences in shyness and sociability elicited reliable differences in distance from the words. Experiment 3 validated the results of Experiments 1 and 2 using a demographically more diverse population of responders. Finally, Experiment 4 (along with Experiment 2) suggested that task demand is not a potential cause for scale recalibration. In Experiment 5, men and women placed a manikin closer or farther from words that showed sex differences in valence, highlighting the sensitivity of this measure to group differences. These findings shed a new light on interactions among affect, language, and individual differences, and demonstrate the utility of a new tool for measuring word affect. PMID:28252996

Affective empathy in schizophrenia: a meta-analysis.

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Bonfils, Kelsey A; Lysaker, Paul H; Minor, Kyle S; Salyers, Michelle P

2016-08-01

Affective empathy, or the emotional response one has to the experiences or emotional states of others, contributes to relationship-maintaining behaviors and is key in fostering social connections, yet no work has synthesized the body of literature for people with schizophrenia. The aim of the present meta-analysis was to determine the extent to which those diagnosed with schizophrenia experience deficits in affective empathy. A literature search was conducted of studies examining empathy. Data were analyzed using a random effects meta-analytic model with Hedges' g standardized mean difference effect size. Individuals with schizophrenia exhibited significant, medium deficits in affective empathy (k=37). Measurement type moderated the affective empathy deficit such that performance-based measures showed larger schizophrenia group deficits than self-report measures. Consistent, significant deficits in affective empathy were found comparing people with schizophrenia to healthy controls, especially when using performance-based assessments. The medium effect suggests an important role for empathy in the realm of social cognitive research, and points to the need for further investigation of measurement techniques and associations with functional outcomes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Corrective emotional experience in an integrative affect-focused therapy: Building a preliminary model using task analysis.

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Nakamura, Kaori; Iwakabe, Shigeru

2018-03-01

The present study constructed a preliminary process model of corrective emotional experience (CEE) in an integrative affect-focused therapy. Task analysis was used to analyse 6 in-session events taken from 6 Japanese clients who worked with an integrative affect-focused therapist. The 6 events included 3 successful CEEs and 3 partially successful CEEs for comparison. A rational-empirical model of CEE was generated, which consisted of two parallel client change processes, intrapersonal change and interpersonal change, and the therapist interventions corresponding to each process. Therapist experiential interventions and therapist affirmation facilitated both intrapersonal and interpersonal change processes, whereas his relational interventions were associated with the interpersonal change process. The partially successful CEEs were differentiated by the absence of the component of core painful emotions or negative beliefs in intrapersonal change process, which seemed crucial for the interpersonal change process to develop. CEE is best represented by a preliminary model that depicts two parallel yet interacting change processes. Intrapersonal change process is similar to the sequence of change described by the emotional processing model (Pascual-Leone & Greenberg, ), whereas interpersonal change process is a unique contribution of this study. Interpersonal change process was facilitated when the therapist's active stance and use of immediacy responses to make their relational process explicit allowed a shared exploration. Therapist affirmation bridged intrapersonal change to interpersonal change by promoting an adaptive sense of self in clients and forging a deeper emotional connection between the two. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Modelling audiovisual integration of affect from videos and music.

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Chuanji; Wedell, Douglas H; Kim, Jongwan; Weber, Christine E; Shinkareva, Svetlana V

2018-05-01

Two experiments examined how affective values from visual and auditory modalities are integrated. Experiment 1 paired music and videos drawn from three levels of valence while holding arousal constant. Experiment 2 included a parallel combination of three levels of arousal while holding valence constant. In each experiment, participants rated their affective states after unimodal and multimodal presentations. Experiment 1 revealed a congruency effect in which stimulus combinations of the same extreme valence resulted in more extreme state ratings than component stimuli presented in isolation. An interaction between music and video valence reflected the greater influence of negative affect. Video valence was found to have a significantly greater effect on combined ratings than music valence. The pattern of data was explained by a five parameter differential weight averaging model that attributed greater weight to the visual modality and increased weight with decreasing values of valence. Experiment 2 revealed a congruency effect only for high arousal combinations and no interaction effects. This pattern was explained by a three parameter constant weight averaging model with greater weight for the auditory modality and a very low arousal value for the initial state. These results demonstrate key differences in audiovisual integration between valence and arousal.

Interfacial modulation of urban affect

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Samson, Kristine

Urban culture can increasingly be understood as interface culture (Munster) in which urban design, cultural institutions and architecture increasingly operate as affective interfaces distributing and mediating human perception, consumption and social encounters. As noted by Amin and Thrift (2002......, Massey 2006), they also exclude in depth social and human interaction. Through analysis of three examples of urban affective interfaces (The High Line in New York, Superkilen in Copenhagen and Stålsat By, Frederiksværk, the paper examines how affective urban interfaces modulate and mediate urban...... environments as bodily and sensorial experiences. It asks what is mediated through the interface – whether the. It also asks, what is excluded when urban environments become affective interfaces in the global networked city. Whereas urban interface collect and distribute the bodily and sensible in relational...

Walk on the bright side: physical activity and affect in major depressive disorder.

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Mata, Jutta; Thompson, Renee J; Jaeggi, Susanne M; Buschkuehl, Martin; Jonides, John; Gotlib, Ian H

2012-05-01

Although prescribed exercise has been found to improve affect and reduce levels of depression, we do not know how self-initiated everyday physical activity influences levels of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) in depressed persons. Fifty-three individuals diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and 53 never-depressed controls participated in a seven-day experience sampling study. Participants were prompted randomly eight times per day and answered questions about their physical activity and affective state. Over the week, the two groups of participants did not differ in average level of physical activity. As expected, participants with MDD reported lower average PA and higher average NA than did never-depressed controls. Both participants with MDD and controls reported higher levels of PA at prompts after physical activity than at prompts after inactive periods; moreover, for both groups of participants, PA increased from a prompt after an inactive period to a subsequent prompt at which activity was reported. Depressed participants in particular showed a dose-response effect of physical activity on affect: longer duration and/or higher intensity of physical activity increased their PA significantly more than did short duration and/or lower intensity physical activity. Physical activity did not influence NA in either group. In contrast to previous treatment studies that examined the effects of prescribed structured exercise, this investigation showed that self-initiated physical activity influences PA. These findings also underscore the importance of distinguishing between PA and NA to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of physical activity on affect in MDD.

Affect and craving: positive and negative affect are differentially associated with approach and avoidance inclinations.

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Schlauch, Robert C; Gwynn-Shapiro, Daniel; Stasiewicz, Paul R; Molnar, Danielle S; Lang, Alan R

2013-04-01

Research on reactivity to alcohol and drug cues has either ignored affective state altogether or has focused rather narrowly on the role of negative affect in craving. Moreover, until recently, the relevant analyses of affect and craving have rarely addressed the ambivalence often associated with craving itself. The current study investigated how both negative and positive affect moderate approach and avoidance inclinations associated with cue-elicited craving in a clinical sample diagnosed with substance use disorders. One hundred forty-four patients (age range of 18-65, mean 42.0; n=92 males) were recruited from an inpatient detoxification unit for substance abuse. Participants completed a baseline assessment of both positive and negative affect prior to completing a cue-reactivity paradigm for which they provided self-report ratings of inclinations to approach (use) and avoid (not use) alcohol, cigarettes, and non-psychoactive control substances (food and beverages). Participants with elevated negative affect reported significantly higher approach ratings for cigarette and alcohol cues, whereas those high in positive affect showed significantly higher levels of avoidance inclinations for both alcohol and cigarette cues and also significantly lower approach ratings for alcohol cues, all relative to control cues. Results for negative affect are consistent with previous cue reactivity research, whereas results for positive affect are unique and call attention to its clinical potential for attenuating approach inclinations to substance use cues. Further, positive affect was related to both approach and avoidance inclinations, underscoring the utility of a multidimensional conceptualization of craving in the analysis. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Increased temperatures negatively affect Juniperus communis seeds: evidence from transplant experiments along a latitudinal gradient.

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Gruwez, R; De Frenne, P; Vander Mijnsbrugge, K; Vangansbeke, P; Verheyen, K

2016-05-01

With a distribution range that covers most of the Northern hemisphere, common juniper (Juniperus communis) has one of the largest ranges of all vascular plant species. In several regions in Europe, however, populations are decreasing in size and number due to failing recruitment. One of the main causes for this failure is low seed viability. Observational evidence suggests that this is partly induced by climate warming, but our mechanistic understanding of this effect remains incomplete. Here, we experimentally assess the influence of temperature on two key developmental phases during sexual reproduction, i.e. gametogenesis and fertilisation (seed phase two, SP2) and embryo development (seed phase three, SP3). Along a latitudinal gradient from southern France to central Sweden, we installed a transplant experiment with shrubs originating from Belgium, a region with unusually low juniper seed viability. Seeds of both seed phases were sampled during three consecutive years, and seed viability assessed. Warming temperatures negatively affected the seed viability of both SP2 and SP3 seeds along the latitudinal gradient. Interestingly, the effect on embryo development (SP3) only occurred in the third year, i.e. when the gametogenesis and fertilisation also took place in warmer conditions. We found strong indications that this negative influence mostly acts via disrupting growth of the pollen tube, the development of the female gametophyte and fertilisation (SP2). This, in turn, can lead to failing embryo development, for example, due to nutritional problems. Our results confirm that climate warming can negatively affect seed viability of juniper. © 2015 German Botanical Society and The Royal Botanical Society of the Netherlands.

The role of affects and emotions in physical activity maintenance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benjamin Wienke

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Although previous research has shown that affective variables are consistently associated with physical activity behavior, the working mechanisms are not understood to the extent of creating an intervention. The aim of this study is to identify situations and aspects of physical activity, which lead to positive affective reactions in people taking part in regular and long-term exercise. In this study 24 adults (12 female, 12 male distributed over three age groups (young, middle, and late adulthood that took part in sport programs (individual or team sport for at least five years. Semi-structured in depth interviews with questions about physical activity, long term participation and affective response in a sporting environment were conducted in order to ascertain those situations and aspects of the exercise program triggering positive affective states. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and followed Grounded Theory principles. Emerging concepts were grouped and merged into different categories representing the key aspects of exercise. Four factors were identified which are associated with emergence of positive emotions in sport and exercise. Firstly, perceived competence is one of the major factors influencing affective states during physical activity representing individual and collective success and progress, competition and challenge. Secondly, perceived social interaction is another factor comprising of all sorts of peer-related aspects such as communication with others, being part of a group and creating close relationships or friendships. Thirdly, novelty experience in contrast to other none-sporting activities such as work, family or other leisure activities was another factor. The last factor found was the perceived physical exertion comprising the degree of exhaustion, a possibly delayed turnaround in the affective response and the aspect of sport being a physical compensation for everyday sedentary life. The results of this study

Affect Theory and Autoethnography in Ordinary Information Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bødker, Mads; Chamberlain, Alan

2016-01-01

This paper uses philosophical theories of affect as a lens for exploring autoethnographic renderings of everyday experience with information technology. Affect theories, in the paper, denote a broad trend in post-humanistic philosophy that explores sensation and feeling as emergent and relational...

Review of experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chang, C.; Yodh, G.; Cutts, D.; Lanou, R.; Engels, E.; Kramer, M.; Danby, G.

1977-01-01

A study was made to examine the effects which raising the ISA from 200 x 200 GeV to 400 x 400 GeV would have on the ''canonical'' experiments. These were ''canonical'' in the sense that they span the full range of foreseeable physics and have served as topics in previous Summer Studies and Workshops which resulted in quite explicit hardware designs and experimental goals. The study results indicate that all of the ''canonical'' experiments survive. Some are actually improved, some are unaffected, and some require changes which are suggested. In general, the 90 0 experiments are relatively unaffected. The single arm small angle spectrometer, the wide aperture (FATS-WASP) spectrometer and the Coulomb interference experiment have the largest number of modifications suggested. No uniqueness to these solutions are claimed, and there may be more desirable radical approaches. It is, however, felt that the 400 x 400 GeV ISA not only permits the work on conceptual experiments from previous Summer Studies to be taken over entirely, but indicates areas of improvement in many of them. Specifics of the individual experiments are discussed

The effects of the concreteness of differently valenced words on affective priming.

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Yao, Zhao; Wang, Zhenhong

2013-07-01

This study aimed to determine whether affective priming is influenced by the concreteness of emotional words. To address this question, we conducted three experiments using lexical decision-priming task. In Experiment 1, positive-abstract (PA) and positive-concrete (PC) words were used as primes to examine the effect of the concreteness of positive words on affective priming, and in Experiment 2, negative-abstract (NA) and negative-concrete (NC) words were used as primes to examine the effect of the concreteness of negative words on affective priming. Results showed that participants responded faster to affectively congruent-abstract trails than incongruent-abstract trails in PA prime conditions, but for PC or negative word (NC and NA) prime conditions, there were no differences between the response times of congruent trails and incongruent trails. To examine the reliability of the priming effects observed in Experiments 1 and 2, we set up a neutral condition as a baseline in Experiment 3, through which we confirmed the difference in the affective priming effect between positive and negative primes in a concrete-abstract dimension. PA words were found to have the tendency to possess more emotional load and facilitate affective association between the prime and the target. The study finding suggests that aside from arousal and valence, the concreteness of positive words also has an impact on affective priming effect. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Perceptual, semantic and affective dimensions of experience of abstract and representational paintings

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Marković Slobodan

2011-01-01

Full Text Available In this study the difference between representational and abstract paintings in judgments on perceptual, semantic and affective dimensions was investigated. Two groups of participants judged the sets of representational and abstract paintings on three groups of dimensions: perceptual (Form, Color, Space and Complexity, semantic (Illusion-Construction of Reality, Expression, Ideology and Decoration, and affective (Hedonic Tone, Arousal, Relaxation and Regularity. The results have shown that representational paintings have higher judgments on the perceptual dimensions of Form and Complexity, the semantic dimension of the Illusion of Reality (the opposite pole of the Construction of Reality, and the affective dimension of Regularity. On the other hand, abstract paintings have higher judgments on the perceptual dimension of Color, the semantic dimensions of Construction of Reality (the opposite pole of the Illusion of Reality and Expression, and the affective dimension Arousal. A discriminant analysis indicated that all three sets of dimensions are relatively good predictors of the classification of representational and abstract paintings (61-100%. The results suggest that the subjective categorization of paintings is generally based on the recognizability of pictorial content (representational vs. abstract, but some formal or stylistic properties play a role in the categorization, as well: some expressionistic representational paintings were classified in an abstract category, and some geometrically abstract paintings were classified as representational.

How about a vegan dessert? : men and women's attitudes towards vegan desserts, and how the appearance of vegan desserts affects the experience

OpenAIRE

Olsson, Tora

2018-01-01

Background: Women prefer to eat plant-based food more frequently than men. Previous studies show that there is a difference in what we eat depending on which gender we belong to. The experience of food can be influenced by various aspects such as colour, shape, serving, and food information. Objectives: The purpose of the study was to investigate if there were any differences between men and women's attitudes towards vegan desserts. Moreover, four vegan desserts were developed using creative ...

Realistic Affective Forecasting: The Role of Personality

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Hoerger, Michael; Chapman, Ben; Duberstein, Paul

2016-01-01

Affective forecasting often drives decision making. Although affective forecasting research has often focused on identifying sources of error at the event level, the present investigation draws upon the ‘realistic paradigm’ in seeking to identify factors that similarly influence predicted and actual emotions, explaining their concordance across individuals. We hypothesized that the personality traits neuroticism and extraversion would account for variation in both predicted and actual emotional reactions to a wide array of stimuli and events (football games, an election, Valentine’s Day, birthdays, happy/sad film clips, and an intrusive interview). As hypothesized, individuals who were more introverted and neurotic anticipated, correctly, that they would experience relatively more unpleasant emotional reactions, and those who were more extraverted and less neurotic anticipated, correctly, that they would experience relatively more pleasant emotional reactions. Personality explained 30% of the concordance between predicted and actual emotional reactions. Findings suggest three purported personality processes implicated in affective forecasting, highlight the importance of individual-differences research in this domain, and call for more research on realistic affective forecasts. PMID:26212463

The role of affective evaluation in conflict adaptation: An LRP study.

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Fröber, Kerstin; Stürmer, Birgit; Frömer, Romy; Dreisbach, Gesine

2017-08-01

Conflict between incompatible response tendencies is typically followed by control adjustments aimed at diminishing subsequent conflicts, a phenomenon often called conflict adaptation. Dreisbach and Fischer (2015, 2016) recently proposed that it is not the conflict per se but the aversive quality of a conflict that originally motivates this kind of sequential control adjustment. With the present study we tested the causal role of aversive signals in conflict adaptation in a more direct way. To this end, after each trial of a vertical Simon task participants rated whether they experienced the last trial as rather pleasant or unpleasant. Conflict adaptation was measured via lateralized readiness potentials as a measure of early motor-related activation that were computed on the basis of event-related brain potentials. Results showed the typical suppression of automatic response activation following trials rated as unpleasant, whereas suppression was relaxed following trials rated as pleasant. That is, sequential control adaptation was not based on previous conflict but on the subjective affective experience. This is taken as evidence that negative affect even in the absence of actual conflict triggers subsequent control adjustments. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Factors affecting microbial activity in compacted clay-based sealing materials proposed for use in a deep geologic repository for used nuclear fuel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stroes-Gascoyne, S.; Hamon, C.J.; Dixon, D.A.; Kjartanson, B.K.

2006-01-01

Microbial activity in clay-based barriers immediately adjacent to metal used-fuel containers in a repository could affect the longevity of such containers. The current emphasis is, therefore, on reducing or minimizing microbial activity in such clay-based barriers through material composition design. Factors affecting microbial activity in clay-based materials were studied in large-scale and smaller-scale experiments. Results suggested that keeping water activity (a w ) values below ∼0.95 may minimize microbial activity in clay-based barrier materials. A considerably higher effective montmorillonite dry density (EMDD), which partially controls a w , is achievable for 100% bentonite than for previously proposed reference buffer materials, which contain only 50% bentonite. (author)

Variables affecting the propensity to buy branded beef among groups of Australian beef buyers.

Science.gov (United States)

Morales, L Emilio; Griffith, Garry; Wright, Victor; Fleming, Euan; Umberger, Wendy; Hoang, Nam

2013-06-01

Australian beef consumers have different preferences given their characteristics and the effect on expected quality of cues related to health, production process and eating experience. Beef brands using Meat Standards Australia (MSA) grades can help to signal quality and reduce consumers' uncertainty when shopping. The objective of this study is to identify the characteristics of beef buyers and their perceptions about product attributes that affect the propensity to buy branded beef. Binary logistic models were applied identifying differences between all respondents and the potential target market, including buyers in medium to high income segments, and between buyers in the target market who would buy branded beef for taste and health reasons. Variables increasing the propensity to buy branded beef include previous experience, appreciation for branded cuts and concern about quality more than size. Finally, variations in preferences for marbling and cut were found between buyers who would buy branded beef for taste and health reasons. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Affective temperaments play an important role in the relationship between child abuse and the diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

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Toda, Hiroyuki; Inoue, Takeshi; Tanichi, Masaaki; Saito, Taku; Nakagawa, Shin; Masuya, Jiro; Tanabe, Hajime; Yoshino, Aihide; Kusumi, Ichiro

2018-04-01

In previous studies, various components such as environmental and genetic factors have been shown to contribute to the development of bipolar disorder (BD). This study investigated how multiple factors, including child abuse, adult life events, and affective temperaments, are interrelated and how they affect the diagnosis of BD. A total of 170 healthy controls and 75 BD patients completed the following self-administered questionnaires: the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 evaluating the severity of depressive symptoms; the Child Abuse and Trauma Scale (CATS) evaluating child abuse; the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris, and San Diego autoquestionnaire (TEMPS-A) evaluating affective temperaments; and the Life Experiences Survey (LES) evaluating negative and positive adult life events. The data were subjected to univariate analysis, multivariable analysis, and structural equation modeling. The structural equation modeling showed that the diagnosis of BD was indirectly predicted by the neglect and sexual abuse scores of the CATS through four affective temperaments (depressive, cyclothymic, irritable, and anxious) of the TEMPS-A and directly predicted by these four affective temperaments. This study suggested that affective temperament plays an important role as a mediator in the influence of child abuse on BD diagnosis. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Perceptions of job satisfaction relating to affective organisation commitment.

Science.gov (United States)

Papinczak, Tracey

2012-10-01

Affective organisation commitment, which refers to a psychological attachment to, and involvement with, an employing institution, is regarded as important because of its effects on employee identification with the employer and its causal effects on work effort and staff retention. This paper explores the experiences of casual tutors facilitating problem-based learning (PBL) tutorials and aims to identify aspects of their role that strengthen and detract from employee job satisfaction and affective commitment. Qualitative data were gathered from first- and second-year tutors (N = 13) through 2 focus groups. Both clinicians and non-clinicians were recruited, including highly experienced staff and those with job-related factors; job-involvement characteristics; professional challenges and responsibilities, and mentoring for learning and support. The first 2 themes are congruent with previous literature on organisation commitment; novel findings include the supportive and compensatory nature of the collegial relationships formed between casual tutors. Role attenuation, a job-related factor, was a predominant perception as it related to dysfunctional groups and increasing student disengagement with PBL. Within the unique learning environment of PBL, positive factors relating to job satisfaction may have an important role to play in improving tutors' commitment to their employing organisation. Aspects of the role which are viewed most negatively and relate most significantly to affective commitment need to be addressed promptly. Attention should be directed to supporting tutors to maximise the perceived benefits and providing professional development and improved communication to better address issues associated with difficult or disengaged students as well as isolation from decision-makers. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2012.

Reacquisition of cocaine conditioned place preference and its inhibition by previous social interaction preferentially affect D1-medium spiny neurons in the accumbens corridor.

Science.gov (United States)

Prast, Janine M; Schardl, Aurelia; Schwarzer, Christoph; Dechant, Georg; Saria, Alois; Zernig, Gerald

2014-01-01

We investigated if counterconditioning with dyadic (i.e., one-to-one) social interaction, a strong inhibitor of the subsequent reacquisition of cocaine conditioned place preference (CPP), differentially modulates the activity of the diverse brain regions oriented along a mediolateral corridor reaching from the interhemispheric sulcus to the anterior commissure, i.e., the nucleus of the vertical limb of the diagonal band, the medial septal nucleus, the major island of Calleja, the intermediate part of the lateral septal nucleus, and the medial accumbens shell and core. We also investigated the involvement of the lateral accumbens core and the dorsal caudate putamen. The anterior cingulate 1 (Cg1) region served as a negative control. Contrary to our expectations, we found that all regions of the accumbens corridor showed increased expression of the early growth response protein 1 (EGR1, Zif268) in rats 2 h after reacquisition of CPP for cocaine after a history of cocaine CPP acquisition and extinction. Previous counterconditioning with dyadic social interaction inhibited both the reacquisition of cocaine CPP and the activation of the whole accumbens corridor. EGR1 activation was predominantly found in dynorphin-labeled cells, i.e., presumably D1 receptor-expressing medium spiny neurons (D1-MSNs), with D2-MSNs (immunolabeled with an anti-DRD2 antibody) being less affected. Cholinergic interneurons or GABAergic interneurons positive for parvalbumin, neuropeptide Y or calretinin were not involved in these CPP-related EGR1 changes. Glial cells did not show any EGR1 expression either. The present findings could be of relevance for the therapy of impaired social interaction in substance use disorders, depression, psychosis, and autism spectrum disorders.

Current role of endovascular therapy in Marfan patients with previous aortic surgery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ibrahim Akin

2008-02-01

Full Text Available Ibrahim Akin, Stephan Kische, Tim C Rehders, Tushar Chatterjee, Henrik Schneider, Thomas Körber, Christoph A Nienaber, Hüseyin InceDepartment of Medicine, Division of Cardiology at the University Hospital Rostock, Rostock School of Medicine, Ernst-Heydemann-Str. 6, 18057 Rostock, GermanyAbstract: The Marfan syndrome is a heritable disorder of the connective tissue which affects the cardiovascular, ocular, and skeletal system. The cardiovascular manifestation with aortic root dilatation, aortic valve regurgitation, and aortic dissection has a prevalence of 60% to 90% and determines the premature death of these patients. Thirty-four percent of the patients with Marfan syndrome will have serious cardiovascular complications requiring surgery in the first 10 years after diagnosis. Before aortic surgery became available, the majority of the patients died by the age of 32 years. Introduction in the aortic surgery techniques caused an increase of the 10 year survival rate up to 97%. The purpose of this article is to give an overview about the feasibility and outcome of stent-graft placement in the descending thoracic aorta in Marfan patients with previous aortic surgery.Keywords: Marfan syndrome, aortic dissection, root replacement, stent-graft, previous aortic surgery

Male goat vocalizations stimulate the estrous behavior and LH secretion in anestrous goats that have been previously exposed to bucks.

Science.gov (United States)

Delgadillo, José Alberto; Vielma, Jesús; Hernandez, Horacio; Flores, José Alfredo; Duarte, Gerardo; Fernández, Ilda Graciela; Keller, Matthieu; Gelez, Hélène

2012-09-01

We investigated whether live vocalizations emitted by bucks interacting with anestrous females stimulate secretion of LH, estrous behavior and ovulation in anestrous goats. In experiment 1, bucks rendered sexually active by exposure to long days followed by natural photoperiod were exposed in a light-proof-building to five anestrous females. Buck vocalizations were reproduced through a microphone-amplifier-loudspeaker system to an open pen where one group of goats (n=6) was exposed for 10 days to these live vocalizations. Another group of females (n=6) was isolated from males and vocalizations. The proportion of goats displaying estrous behavior was significantly higher in females exposed to buck vocalizations than in females isolated from males. The proportion of goats that ovulated did not differ between the 2 groups (exposed to males versus isolated). In experiment 2, female goats that either had previous contact with males (n=7), or no previous contact with males (n=7) were exposed to live buck vocalizations, reproduced as described in experiment 1, for 5 days. The number and amplitude of LH pulses did not differ between groups before exposition to buck vocalizations. Five days of exposure to male vocalizations significantly increased LH pulsatility only in females that had previous contact with males, while LH pulse amplitude was not modified. We concluded that live buck vocalizations can stimulate estrous behavior and LH secretion in goats if they have had previous contact with bucks. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The affective shift model of work engagement.

Science.gov (United States)

Bledow, Ronald; Schmitt, Antje; Frese, Michael; Kühnel, Jana

2011-11-01

On the basis of self-regulation theories, the authors develop an affective shift model of work engagement according to which work engagement emerges from the dynamic interplay of positive and negative affect. The affective shift model posits that negative affect is positively related to work engagement if negative affect is followed by positive affect. The authors applied experience sampling methodology to test the model. Data on affective events, mood, and work engagement was collected twice a day over 9 working days among 55 software developers. In support of the affective shift model, negative mood and negative events experienced in the morning of a working day were positively related to work engagement in the afternoon if positive mood in the time interval between morning and afternoon was high. Individual differences in positive affectivity moderated within-person relationships. The authors discuss how work engagement can be fostered through affect regulation. (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

Happiness is pleasant, or is it? Implicit representations of affect valence are associated with contrahedonic motivation and mixed affect in daily life.

Science.gov (United States)

Riediger, Michaela; Wrzus, Cornelia; Wagner, Gert G

2014-10-01

People typically want to feel good. At times, however, they seek to maintain or enhance negative affect or to dampen positive affect. The prevalence of such contrahedonic motivation has been related to simultaneous experiences of positive and negative (i.e., mixed) affect. We investigated the role that implicit mental representations of affect valence may play in this regard in a study with N = 400 participants aged 11-88 years. Results demonstrated the age-fairness and reliability of the affect-valence Implicit Association Test, a newly developed implicit measure of interindividual differences in mental representations of affect valence. The older participants were, the more distinctively they implicitly associated happiness with pleasantness and/or unhappiness with unpleasantness. Participants furthermore carried mobile phones as assessment instruments with them for 3 weeks while pursuing their daily routines. The phones prompted participants on average 54 times to report their momentary affective experience and affect-regulation motivation. Contrahedonic motivation and mixed affect were most prevalent among adolescents and least prevalent among older adults, and thus showed a similar pattern of age differences as the affect-valence Implicit Association Test. Furthermore, the more distinctive participants' implicit associations of happiness with pleasantness, and/or unhappiness with unpleasantness, the less likely participants were to report contrahedonic motivation and mixed affect in their daily lives. These findings contribute to a refined understanding of the mixed-affect perspective on contrahedonic motivation by demonstrating the respective role of implicit affect-valence representations. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Analysis of current research addressing complementary use of life-cycle assessment and risk assessment for engineered nanomaterials: have lessons been learned from previous experience with chemicals?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Grieger, Khara Deanne; Laurent, Alexis; Miseljic, Mirko

2012-01-01

of research focused on applying LCA and RA together for NM, it appears that current research efforts have taken into account some key ‘‘lessons learned’’ from previous experience with chemicals while many key challenges remain for practically applying these methods to NM. We identified two main approaches...... for using these methods together for NM: ‘‘LC-based RA’’ (traditional RA applied in a life-cycle perspective) and ‘‘RA-complemented LCA’’ (conventional LCA supplemented by RA in specific life-cycle steps). Hence, the latter is the only identified approach which genuinely combines LC- and RA-based methods......While it is generally agreed that successful strategies to address the health and environmental impacts of engineered nanomaterials (NM) should consider the well-established frameworks for conducting life-cycle assessment (LCA) and risk assessment (RA), scientific research, and specific guidance...

Accent imitation positively affects language attitudes

OpenAIRE

Adank, Patti; Stewart, Andrew J.; Connell, Louise; Wood, Jeffrey

2013-01-01

People in conversation tend to accommodate the way they speak. It has been assumed that this tendency to imitate each other's speech patterns serves to increase liking between partners in a conversation. Previous experiments examined the effect of perceived social attractiveness on the tendency to imitate someone else's speech and found that vocal imitation increased when perceived attractiveness was higher. The present experiment extends this research by examining the inverse relationship an...

Accent Imitation Positively Affects Language Attitudes

OpenAIRE

Patti eAdank; Patti eAdank; Andrew J. Stewart; Louise eConnell; Jeffrey eWood

2013-01-01

People in conversation tend to accommodate the way they speak. It has been assumed that this tendency to imitate each other’s speech patterns serves to increase liking between partners in a conversation. Previous experiments examined the effect of perceived social attractiveness on the tendency to imitate someone else’s speech and found that vocal imitation increased when perceived attractiveness was higher. The present experiment extends this research by examining the inverse relationship an...

Mediastinal involvement in lymphangiomatosis: a previously unreported MRI sign

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shah, Vikas; Shah, Sachit; Barnacle, Alex; McHugh, Kieran [Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, Department of Radiology, London (United Kingdom); Sebire, Neil J. [Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, Department of Histopathology, London (United Kingdom); Brock, Penelope [Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, Department of Oncology, London (United Kingdom); Harper, John I. [Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, Department of Dermatology, London (United Kingdom)

2011-08-15

Multifocal lymphangiomatosis is a rare systemic disorder affecting children. Due to its rarity and wide spectrum of clinical, histological and imaging features, establishing the diagnosis of multifocal lymphangiomatosis can be challenging. The purpose of this study was to describe a new imaging sign in this disorder: paraspinal soft tissue and signal abnormality at MRI. We retrospectively reviewed the imaging, clinical and histopathological findings in a cohort of eight children with thoracic involvement from this condition. Evidence of paraspinal chest disease was identified at MRI and CT in all eight of these children. The changes comprise heterogeneous intermediate-to-high signal parallel to the thoracic vertebrae on T2-weighted sequences at MRI, with abnormal paraspinal soft tissue at CT and plain radiography. Multifocal lymphangiomatosis is a rare disorder with a broad range of clinicopathological and imaging features. MRI allows complete evaluation of disease extent without the use of ionising radiation and has allowed us to describe a previously unreported imaging sign in this disorder, namely, heterogeneous hyperintense signal in abnormal paraspinal tissue on T2-weighted images. (orig.)

How does the revelation of previous bid affect new bid?

OpenAIRE

Li, Yingzi; Gallardo, R. Karina; McCracken, Vicki A.; Yue, Chengyan; Luby, James; McFerson, James R.

2014-01-01

This study investigates the effect of the revelation of posted bids in second-price experimental auctions for apple quality attributes under the experimental design where information is added progressively across rounds. We find that the revelation of posted bids does not bias the following bids and that increased information about the apple increases the accuracy of participants’ following bids. Therefore, the final round bids are used to evaluate consumers’ willingness to pay for the apple ...

Affect Intensity: An Individual Difference Response to Advertising Appeals.

OpenAIRE

Moore, David J; Harris, William D; Chen, Hong C

1995-01-01

The Affect Intensity Measurement (AIM) scale assesses the strength of the emotions with which individuals respond to an affect-laden stimulus. This study investigated the extent to which individual differences in affect intensity influence the message recipient's responses to emotional advertising appeals. In two experiments high affect intensity individuals, compared with those who scored low on the AIM scale, (1) manifested significantly stronger emotional responses to the emotional adverti...

Competition between Free-Floating Plants Is Strongly Driven by Previously Experienced Phosphorus Concentrations in the Water Column.

Science.gov (United States)

Peeters, Edwin T H M; Neefjes, Rozemarijn E M; Zuidam, Bastiaan G van

2016-01-01

Nutrients can determine the outcome of the competition between different floating plant species. The response of floating plants to current phosphorus levels may be affected by previously experienced phosphorus concentrations because some species have the ability to store excess phosphorus for later use. This might have an impact on their competition. Here, we investigate the effect of previous and actual phosphorus concentrations on the growth rate of free-floating plant species (Azolla filiculoides, Lemna minor/gibba and Ricciocarpus natans)and the effect of phosphorus history on the competition between L. minor/gibba and A. filiculoides and between L. minor/gibba and R. natans. As expected, plant growth was lower when previously kept at low instead of high phosphorus concentrations. Growth of L. minor/gibba and A. filiculoides with a phosphorus rich history was comparable for low and high actual phosphorus concentrations, however, internal phosphorus concentrations were significantly lower with low actual phosphorus concentration. This indicates that both species perform luxury phosphorus uptake. Furthermore, internal P concentration in Azolla and Lemna increased within two weeks after a period of P deficit without a strong increase in growth. A. filiculoides in a mixture with L. minor/gibba grew faster than its monoculture. Morphological differences may explain why A. filiculoides outcompeted L. minor/gibba and these differences may be induced by phosphorus concentrations in the past. Growth of L. minor/gibba was only reduced by the presence of A. filiculoides with a high phosphorus history. Growth of L. minor/gibba and R. natans in mixtures was positively affected only when they had a high phosphorus history themselves and their competitor a low phosphorus history. These observations clearly indicate that phosphorus history of competing plants is important for understanding the outcome of the competition. Therefore, actual and previously experienced phosphorus

A method for acetylcholinesterase staining of brain sections previously processed for receptor autoradiography.

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, M M; Hammock, E A D; Young, L J

2004-02-01

Receptor autoradiography using selective radiolabeled ligands allows visualization of brain receptor distribution and density on film. The resolution of specific brain regions on the film often can be difficult to discern owing to the general spread of the radioactive label and the lack of neuroanatomical landmarks on film. Receptor binding is a chemically harsh protocol that can render the tissue virtually unstainable by Nissl and other conventional stains used to delineate neuroanatomical boundaries of brain regions. We describe a method for acetylcholinesterase (AChE) staining of slides previously processed for receptor binding. AChE staining is a useful tool for delineating major brain nuclei and tracts. AChE staining on sections that have been processed for receptor autoradiography provides a direct comparison of brain regions for more precise neuroanatomical description. We report a detailed thiocholine protocol that is a modification of the Koelle-Friedenwald method to amplify the AChE signal in brain sections previously processed for autoradiography. We also describe several temporal and experimental factors that can affect the density and clarity of the AChE signal when using this protocol.

Mind Invasion: Situated Affectivity and the Corporate Life Hack.

Science.gov (United States)

Slaby, Jan

2016-01-01

In view of the philosophical problems that vex the debate on situated affectivity, it can seem wise to focus on simple cases. Accordingly, theorists often single out scenarios in which an individual employs a device in order to enhance their emotional experience, or to achieve new kinds of experience altogether, such as playing an instrument, going to the movies, or sporting a fancy handbag. I argue that this narrow focus on cases that fit a "user/resource model" tends to channel attention away from more complex and also more problematic instances of situated affectivity. Among these are scenarios in which a social domain draws individuals into certain modes of affective interaction, often by way of attunement and habituation to affective styles and interaction patterns that are normative in the domain in question. This can lead to a phenomenon that is not so much "mind extension" than "mind invasion": affectivity is dynamically framed and modulated from without, often contrary to the prior orientations of the individuals in question. As an example, I discuss affective patterns prevalent in today's corporate workplace. I claim that workplace affect sometimes contributes to what is effectively a "hack" of employees' subjectivity.

An Experience Sampling Study of Learning, Affect, and the Demands Control Support Model

Science.gov (United States)

Daniels, Kevin; Boocock, Grahame; Glover, Jane; Hartley, Ruth; Holland, Julie

2009-01-01

The demands control support model (R. A. Karasek & T. Theorell, 1990) indicates that job control and social support enable workers to engage in problem solving. In turn, problem solving is thought to influence learning and well-being (e.g., anxious affect, activated pleasant affect). Two samples (N = 78, N = 106) provided data up to 4 times per…

Affectivity in the Preschool Classroom: Reflections from Teaching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carmen María Villalobos González

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This essay reflects on those teaching experiences that have a strong influence on students and allow teachers to grow as individuals as well as professionals.  The author approaches positive affection towards students, which allows children to be emotionally well adjusted, consequently, promoting their desire to learn, attend classes, and have good social relationships with their peers, and allows teachers to have confidence and high self-esteem. Emphasis is placed on the fact that educators must treat students well, know their family environment, solve their emotional deficiencies, if any, and show empathy towards them. In short, teachers are encouraged to give priority to affective relationships in their pedagogical practice.  The author also includes some experiences from her professional practices, where affection towards children was essential.

Neutron spectral characterization of the NRC-HSST experiments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stallmann, F. W.; Kam, F. B.K.

1979-01-01

Irradiation experiments are being performed for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Heavy Section Steel Technology (HSST) program. Results of dosimetry performed in the second experiment have been previously reported. Similar procedures were followed in the third experiment. The experiences gained in these two experiments have led to modifications in the composition and distribution of foil dosimeters which monitor the neutron flux-spectra in the irradiated steel specimens. It is expected that in the new experiments much higher accuracies than previously possible can be achieved in the determination of irradiation damage parameters.

Neutron spectral characterization of the NRC-HSST experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stallmann, F.W.; Kam, F.B.K.

1979-01-01

Irradiation experiments are being performed for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Heavy Section Steel Technology (HSST) program. Results of dosimetry performed in the second experiment have been previously reported. Similar procedures were followed in the third experiment. The experiences gained in these two experiments have led to modifications in the composition and distribution of foil dosimeters which monitor the neutron flux-spectra in the irradiated steel specimens. It is expected that in the new experiments much higher accuracies than previously possible can be achieved in the determination of irradiation damage parameters

Shadow Affect in Urban Digital (Post Screen) Art

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toft, Tanya Søndergaard

2014-01-01

The paper considers an affective turn in artistic practices with interactive urban digital screen-based art that evokes a behavioral response in the audience, which I propose as a symptom of the post screen. I propose the affective experience as a mode of exploring presence in the artwork through...

Perception of Affective Body Movements in HRI Across Age Groups

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rehm, Matthias; Krogsager, Anders; Segato, Nicolaj

2016-01-01

robots and the signals they produce. In this paper we focus on affective connotations of body movements and investigate how the perception of body movements of robots is related to age. Inspired by a study from Japan, we introduce culture as a variable in the experiment and discuss the difficulties...... of cross-cultural comparisons. The results show that there are certain age-related differences in the perception of affective body movements, but not as strong as in the original study. A follow up experiment puts the affective body movements into context and shows that recognition rates deteriorate...

Genetic search feature selection for affective modeling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Martínez, Héctor P.; Yannakakis, Georgios N.

2010-01-01

Automatic feature selection is a critical step towards the generation of successful computational models of affect. This paper presents a genetic search-based feature selection method which is developed as a global-search algorithm for improving the accuracy of the affective models built....... The method is tested and compared against sequential forward feature selection and random search in a dataset derived from a game survey experiment which contains bimodal input features (physiological and gameplay) and expressed pairwise preferences of affect. Results suggest that the proposed method...

Previous exercise training has a beneficial effect on renal and cardiovascular function in a model of diabetes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kleiton Augusto dos Santos Silva

Full Text Available Exercise training (ET is an important intervention for chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus (DM. However, it is not known whether previous exercise training intervention alters the physiological and medical complications of these diseases. We investigated the effects of previous ET on the progression of renal disease and cardiovascular autonomic control in rats with streptozotocin (STZ-induced DM. Male Wistar rats were divided into five groups. All groups were followed for 15 weeks. Trained control and trained diabetic rats underwent 10 weeks of exercise training, whereas previously trained diabetic rats underwent 14 weeks of exercise training. Renal function, proteinuria, renal sympathetic nerve activity (RSNA and the echocardiographic parameters autonomic modulation and baroreflex sensitivity (BRS were evaluated. In the previously trained group, the urinary albumin/creatinine ratio was reduced compared with the sedentary diabetic and trained diabetic groups (p<0.05. Additionally, RSNA was normalized in the trained diabetic and previously trained diabetic animals (p<0.05. The ejection fraction was increased in the previously trained diabetic animals compared with the diabetic and trained diabetic groups (p<0.05, and the myocardial performance index was improved in the previously trained diabetic group compared with the diabetic and trained diabetic groups (p<0.05. In addition, the previously trained rats had improved heart rate variability and BRS in the tachycardic response and bradycardic response in relation to the diabetic group (p<0.05. This study demonstrates that previous ET improves the functional damage that affects DM. Additionally, our findings suggest that the development of renal and cardiac dysfunction can be minimized by 4 weeks of ET before the induction of DM by STZ.

Varicella in Europe-A review of the epidemiology and experience with vaccination

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Helmuth, Ida Glode; Poulsen, Anja; Suppli, Camilla Hiul

2015-01-01

adults. Hospitalisation due to varicella is not common, but complications and hospitalisation mainly affect previously healthy children, which underlines the importance of not dismissing varicella as a disease of little importance. The experience with universal vaccination in Europe shows......There is no consensus as regards the European varicella immunisation policy; some countries have introduced varicella vaccination in their routine childhood immunisation programs whereas others have decided against or are debating. With the aim of providing an overview of the epidemiology...... that vaccination leads to a rapid reduction of disease incidence. Vaccine effectiveness is high and a protective herd effect is obtained. Experience with vaccination in Europe has not been long enough, though, to draw conclusions on benefits and drawbacks with vaccination as well as the capacity for national...

Inferring Group Processes from Computer-Mediated Affective Text Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schryver, Jack C [ORNL; Begoli, Edmon [ORNL; Jose, Ajith [Missouri University of Science and Technology; Griffin, Christopher [Pennsylvania State University

2011-02-01

Political communications in the form of unstructured text convey rich connotative meaning that can reveal underlying group social processes. Previous research has focused on sentiment analysis at the document level, but we extend this analysis to sub-document levels through a detailed analysis of affective relationships between entities extracted from a document. Instead of pure sentiment analysis, which is just positive or negative, we explore nuances of affective meaning in 22 affect categories. Our affect propagation algorithm automatically calculates and displays extracted affective relationships among entities in graphical form in our prototype (TEAMSTER), starting with seed lists of affect terms. Several useful metrics are defined to infer underlying group processes by aggregating affective relationships discovered in a text. Our approach has been validated with annotated documents from the MPQA corpus, achieving a performance gain of 74% over comparable random guessers.

Do romantic partners' responses to entry dyspareunia affect women's experience of pain? The roles of catastrophizing and self-efficacy.

Science.gov (United States)

Lemieux, Ashley J; Bergeron, Sophie; Steben, Marc; Lambert, Bernard

2013-09-01

Entry dyspareunia is a sexual health concern which affects about 21% of women in the general population. Characterized by pain provoked during vaginal penetration, introital dyspareunia has been shown by controlled studies to have a negative impact on the psychological well-being, sexual function, sexual satisfaction, and quality of life of afflicted women. Many cognitive and affective variables may influence the experience of pain and associated psychosexual problems. However, the role of the partner's cognitive responses has been studied very little. The aim of the present study was to examine the associations between partners' catastrophizing and their perceptions of women's self-efficacy at managing pain on one side and women's pain intensity, sexual function, and sexual satisfaction on the other. One hundred seventy-nine heterosexual couples (mean age for women = 31, SD = 10.0; mean age for men = 33, SD = 10.6) in which the woman suffered from entry dyspareunia participated in the study. Both partners completed quantitative measures. Women completed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale and the Painful Intercourse Self-Efficacy Scale. Men completed the significant-other versions of these measures. Dependent measures were women's responses to (i) the Pain Numeric Visual Analog Scale; (ii) the Female Sexual Function Index; and (iii) the Global Measure of Sexual Satisfaction scale. Controlled for women's pain catastrophizing and self-efficacy, results indicate that higher levels of partner-perceived self-efficacy and lower levels of partner catastrophizing are associated with decreased pain intensity in women with entry dyspareunia, although only partner catastrophizing contributed unique variance. Partner-perceived self-efficacy and catastrophizing were not significantly associated with sexual function or satisfaction in women. The findings suggest that partners' cognitive responses may influence the experience of entry dyspareunia for women, pointing

Individual language experience modulates rapid formation of cortical memory circuits for novel words

Science.gov (United States)

Kimppa, Lilli; Kujala, Teija; Shtyrov, Yury

2016-01-01

Mastering multiple languages is an increasingly important ability in the modern world; furthermore, multilingualism may affect human learning abilities. Here, we test how the brain’s capacity to rapidly form new representations for spoken words is affected by prior individual experience in non-native language acquisition. Formation of new word memory traces is reflected in a neurophysiological response increase during a short exposure to novel lexicon. Therefore, we recorded changes in electrophysiological responses to phonologically native and non-native novel word-forms during a perceptual learning session, in which novel stimuli were repetitively presented to healthy adults in either ignore or attend conditions. We found that larger number of previously acquired languages and earlier average age of acquisition (AoA) predicted greater response increase to novel non-native word-forms. This suggests that early and extensive language experience is associated with greater neural flexibility for acquiring novel words with unfamiliar phonology. Conversely, later AoA was associated with a stronger response increase for phonologically native novel word-forms, indicating better tuning of neural linguistic circuits to native phonology. The results suggest that individual language experience has a strong effect on the neural mechanisms of word learning, and that it interacts with the phonological familiarity of the novel lexicon. PMID:27444206

Windfarm design in the light of previous experience

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lloyd, A.

1997-01-01

Significant impacts to birds have been claimed at both Californian and Spanish windfarms, but in the United Kingdom the current evidence is that avian impact, where it does occur, is minimal. Examination of differences in design and location of wind energy installations worldwide in relation to differences in avian impact is leading towards the establishment of design principles which can help ensure that impacts remain at negligible. These principles are based on locational, technical and ecological factors taken either singly or in combination. (author)

Uncovering the Affective Core of Conscientiousness: The Role of Self-Conscious Emotions

OpenAIRE

Fayard, Jennifer V.; Roberts, Brent W.; Robins, Richard W.; Watson, David

2012-01-01

We conducted 3 studies to test the idea that guilt is a key affective component of Conscientiousness and that it can account for the relation between Conscientiousness and negative affect. Study 1 used meta-analysis to show that Conscientiousness was associated with specific emotions and overall negative affect but was most strongly associated with guilt. Conscientiousness was negatively related to guilt experience but positively related to guilt proneness. Also, guilt experience mediated the...

The quantum walk search algorithm: Factors affecting efficiency

OpenAIRE

Lovett, Neil B.; Everitt, Matthew; Heath, Robert M.; Kendon, Viv

2011-01-01

We numerically study the quantum walk search algorithm of Shenvi, Kempe and Whaley [PRA \\textbf{67} 052307] and the factors which affect its efficiency in finding an individual state from an unsorted set. Previous work has focused purely on the effects of the dimensionality of the dataset to be searched. Here, we consider the effects of interpolating between dimensions, connectivity of the dataset, and the possibility of disorder in the underlying substrate: all these factors affect the effic...

How Does This Make You Feel? A Comparison of Four Affect Induction Procedures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xuan eZhang

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Affect is a fundamental aspect of the human mind. An increasing number of experiments attempt to examine the influence of affect on other psychological phenomena. To accomplish this research, it is necessary to experimentally modify participants’ affective states. In the present experiment, we compared the effectiveness of four commonly used affect induction procedures. Participants were randomly assigned to either a pleasant or an unpleasant affect induction group, and then underwent four different affect induction procedures: (1 recall of an affectively salient event accompanied by affectively congruent music, (2 script-driven guided imagery, (3 viewing images while listening to affectively congruent music, and (4 posing affective facial actions, body postures, and vocal expressions. All four affect induction methods were successful in inducing both pleasant and unpleasant affective states. The combined image/music and recall/music procedures were most effective in enhancing pleasant affect, whereas the combined image/music procedure was most effective in enhancing unpleasant affect. Implications for the scientific study of affect are discussed.

Cerebral Metastasis from a Previously Undiagnosed Appendiceal Adenocarcinoma

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antonio Biroli

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Brain metastases arise in 10%–40% of all cancer patients. Up to one third of the patients do not have previous cancer history. We report a case of a 67-years-old male patient who presented with confusion, tremor, and apraxia. A brain MRI revealed an isolated right temporal lobe lesion. A thorax-abdomen-pelvis CT scan showed no primary lesion. The patient underwent a craniotomy with gross-total resection. Histopathology revealed an intestinal-type adenocarcinoma. A colonoscopy found no primary lesion, but a PET-CT scan showed elevated FDG uptake in the appendiceal nodule. A right hemicolectomy was performed, and the specimen showed a moderately differentiated mucinous appendiceal adenocarcinoma. Whole brain radiotherapy was administrated. A subsequent thorax-abdomen CT scan revealed multiple lung and hepatic metastasis. Seven months later, the patient died of disease progression. In cases of undiagnosed primary lesions, patients present in better general condition, but overall survival does not change. Eventual identification of the primary tumor does not affect survival. PET/CT might be a helpful tool in detecting lesions of the appendiceal region. To the best of our knowledge, such a case was never reported in the literature, and an appendiceal malignancy should be suspected in patients with brain metastasis from an undiagnosed primary tumor.

Determining the Factors Affecting Labor Productivity of Nurses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yurdanur Dikmen

2016-12-01

Results: It was found that the 45.5% of nurses participated in the study were in the 23-53 age group, 79.5% were women, 76.9% married, 41.1% associate degree graduates. 42.3% of nurses' durations of professional experience were 0-5 years, 22.4% of nurses were clinical chief, 69.2% were working as shifts. Participants believe that the factors affecting the labor productivity were respectively organizational factors, ergonomic factors and personal factors. When organizational factors was examined; nurses stated that the lack of working personnel in the section, the low wages and unequal wages for the same work, the long working hours and the system which based on personal relations instead of merit were affecting productivity. The factors affecting labor productivity of nurses were not different according to age, gender, education level and marital status (p>0.05, but different according to mode of operation and years of experience (p<0.05. Conclusion: According to this study, it was found that there are many factors that affect the efficiency of the nurses. The most important factors affecting nurses' efficiency were determined as wage and working conditions. [J Contemp Med 2016; 6(4.000: 334-342

Deepwater Gulf of Mexico more profitable than previously thought

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Craig, M.J.K.; Hyde, S.T.

1997-01-01

Economic evaluations and recent experience show that the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is much more profitable than previously thought. Four factors contributing to the changed viewpoint are: First, deepwater reservoirs have proved to have excellent productive capacity, distribution, and continuity when compared to correlative-age shelf deltaic sands. Second, improved technologies and lower perceived risks have lowered the cost of floating production systems (FPSs). Third, projects now get on-line quicker. Fourth, a collection of other important factors are: Reduced geologic risk and associated high success rates for deepwater GOM wells due primarily to improved seismic imaging and processing tools (3D, AVO, etc.); absence of any political risk in the deepwater GOM (common overseas, and very significant in some international areas); and positive impact of deepwater federal royalty relief. This article uses hypothetical reserve distributions and price forecasts to illustrate indicative economics of deepwater prospects. Economics of Shell Oil Co.'s three deepwater projects are also discussed

Pre-learning stress differentially affects long-term memory for emotional words, depending on temporal proximity to the learning experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Zoladz, Phillip R; Clark, Brianne; Warnecke, Ashlee; Smith, Lindsay; Tabar, Jennifer; Talbot, Jeffery N

2011-07-06

Stress exerts a profound, yet complex, influence on learning and memory and can enhance, impair or have no effect on these processes. Here, we have examined how the administration of stress at different times before learning affects long-term (24-hr) memory for neutral and emotional information. Participants submerged their dominant hand into a bath of ice cold water (Stress) or into a bath of warm water (No stress) for 3 min. Either immediately (Exp. 1) or 30 min (Exp. 2) after the water bath manipulation, participants were presented with a list of 30 words varying in emotional valence. The next day, participants' memory for the word list was assessed via free recall and recognition tests. In both experiments, stressed participants exhibited greater blood pressure, salivary cortisol levels, and subjective pain and stress ratings than non-stressed participants in response to the water bath manipulation. Stress applied immediately prior to learning (Exp. 1) enhanced the recognition of positive words, while stress applied 30 min prior to learning (Exp. 2) impaired free recall of negative words. Participants' recognition of positive words in Experiment 1 was positively associated with their heart rate responses to the water bath manipulation, while participants' free recall of negative words in Experiment 2 was negatively associated with their blood pressure and cortisol responses to the water bath manipulation. These findings indicate that the differential effects of pre-learning stress on long-term memory may depend on the temporal proximity of the stressor to the learning experience and the emotional nature of the to-be-learned information. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Previous Homelessness as a Risk Factor for Recovery from Serious Mental Illnesses.

Science.gov (United States)

Castellow, Jennifer; Kloos, Bret; Townley, Greg

2015-08-01

This paper argues that the experience of homelessness is inherently traumatic and thus has the potential to affect the manifestation of mental illness. The experiences related to being homeless might act as specific and unique sources of vulnerability. This study included 424 people diagnosed with serious mental illnesses living in supported housing programs in South Carolina. Three hierarchical regression analyses measuring the impact of homelessness on three types of outcomes revealed the following: (1) ever experiencing homelessness as well as the amount of time spent homeless were related to higher levels of psychiatric distress, (2) ever experiencing homelessness was related to higher levels of reported alcohol use, and (3) total amount of time spent homeless was related to lower perceived recovery from mental illness. These findings suggest that experiencing homelessness might contribute to psychosocial vulnerability to negative mental health outcomes. Future investigations examining this concept of risk and vulnerability as a result of homelessness are in order.

Network Diversity and Affect Dynamics: The Role of Personality Traits.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aamena Alshamsi

Full Text Available People divide their time unequally among their social contacts due to time constraints and varying strength of relationships. It was found that high diversity of social communication, dividing time more evenly among social contacts, is correlated with economic well-being both at macro and micro levels. Besides economic well-being, it is not clear how the diversity of social communication is also associated with the two components of individuals' subjective well-being, positive and negative affect. Specifically, positive affect and negative affect are two independent dimensions representing the experience (feeling of emotions. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the daily diversity of social communication and dynamic affect states that people experience in their daily lives. We collected two high-resolution datasets that capture affect scores via daily experience sampling surveys and social interaction through wearable sensing technologies: sociometric badges for face-to-face interaction and smart phones for mobile phone calls. We found that communication diversity correlates with desirable affect states--e.g. an increase in the positive affect state or a decrease in the negative affect state--for some personality types, but correlates with undesirable affect states for others. For example, diversity in phone calls is experienced as good by introverts, but bad by extroverts; diversity in face-to-face interaction is experienced as good by people who tend to be positive by nature (trait but bad for people who tend to be not positive by nature. More broadly, the moderating effect of personality type on the relationship between diversity and affect was detected without any knowledge of the type of social tie or the content of communication. This provides further support for the power of unobtrusive sensing in understanding social dynamics, and in measuring the effect of potential interventions designed to improve well-being.

Network Diversity and Affect Dynamics: The Role of Personality Traits

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Alshamsi, Aamena; Pianesi, Fabio; Lepri, Bruno; Pentland, Alex; Rahwan, Iyad

2016-01-01

People divide their time unequally among their social contacts due to time constraints and varying strength of relationships. It was found that high diversity of social communication, dividing time more evenly among social contacts, is correlated with economic well-being both at macro and micro levels. Besides economic well-being, it is not clear how the diversity of social communication is also associated with the two components of individuals’ subjective well-being, positive and negative affect. Specifically, positive affect and negative affect are two independent dimensions representing the experience (feeling) of emotions. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the daily diversity of social communication and dynamic affect states that people experience in their daily lives. We collected two high-resolution datasets that capture affect scores via daily experience sampling surveys and social interaction through wearable sensing technologies: sociometric badges for face-to-face interaction and smart phones for mobile phone calls. We found that communication diversity correlates with desirable affect states–e.g. an increase in the positive affect state or a decrease in the negative affect state–for some personality types, but correlates with undesirable affect states for others. For example, diversity in phone calls is experienced as good by introverts, but bad by extroverts; diversity in face-to-face interaction is experienced as good by people who tend to be positive by nature (trait) but bad for people who tend to be not positive by nature. More broadly, the moderating effect of personality type on the relationship between diversity and affect was detected without any knowledge of the type of social tie or the content of communication. This provides further support for the power of unobtrusive sensing in understanding social dynamics, and in measuring the effect of potential interventions designed to improve well-being. PMID:27035904

Network Diversity and Affect Dynamics: The Role of Personality Traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Alshamsi, Aamena; Pianesi, Fabio; Lepri, Bruno; Pentland, Alex; Rahwan, Iyad

2016-01-01

People divide their time unequally among their social contacts due to time constraints and varying strength of relationships. It was found that high diversity of social communication, dividing time more evenly among social contacts, is correlated with economic well-being both at macro and micro levels. Besides economic well-being, it is not clear how the diversity of social communication is also associated with the two components of individuals' subjective well-being, positive and negative affect. Specifically, positive affect and negative affect are two independent dimensions representing the experience (feeling) of emotions. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between the daily diversity of social communication and dynamic affect states that people experience in their daily lives. We collected two high-resolution datasets that capture affect scores via daily experience sampling surveys and social interaction through wearable sensing technologies: sociometric badges for face-to-face interaction and smart phones for mobile phone calls. We found that communication diversity correlates with desirable affect states--e.g. an increase in the positive affect state or a decrease in the negative affect state--for some personality types, but correlates with undesirable affect states for others. For example, diversity in phone calls is experienced as good by introverts, but bad by extroverts; diversity in face-to-face interaction is experienced as good by people who tend to be positive by nature (trait) but bad for people who tend to be not positive by nature. More broadly, the moderating effect of personality type on the relationship between diversity and affect was detected without any knowledge of the type of social tie or the content of communication. This provides further support for the power of unobtrusive sensing in understanding social dynamics, and in measuring the effect of potential interventions designed to improve well-being.

Negative Affectivity, Role Stress, and Work-Family Conflict.

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Stoeva, Albena Z.; Chiu, Randy K.; Greenhaus, Jeffrey H.

2002-01-01

Measures of job and family stress and negative affectivity were completed by 148 (of 400) Hong Kong civil service employees. Persons with high negative affectivity experience more work and family stress. Job stress was associated with extensive interference of work with family, and family stress with extensive interference of family with work.…

49 CFR 173.23 - Previously authorized packaging.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Previously authorized packaging. 173.23 Section... REQUIREMENTS FOR SHIPMENTS AND PACKAGINGS Preparation of Hazardous Materials for Transportation § 173.23 Previously authorized packaging. (a) When the regulations specify a packaging with a specification marking...

22 CFR 40.91 - Certain aliens previously removed.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Certain aliens previously removed. 40.91... IMMIGRANTS UNDER THE IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY ACT, AS AMENDED Aliens Previously Removed § 40.91 Certain aliens previously removed. (a) 5-year bar. An alien who has been found inadmissible, whether as a result...

Mutation update and genotype-phenotype correlations of novel and previously described mutations in TPM2 and TPM3 causing congenital myopathies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Marttila, Minttu; Lehtokari, Vilma-Lotta; Marston, Steven; Nyman, Tuula A.; Barnerias, Christine; Beggs, Alan H.; Bertini, Enrico; Ceyhan-Birsoy, Ozge; Cintas, Pascal; Gerard, Marion; Gilbert-Dussardier, Brigitte; Hogue, Jacob S.; Longman, Cheryl; Eymard, Bruno; Frydman, Moshe; Kang, Peter B.; Klinge, Lars; Kolski, Hanna; Lochmüller, Hans; Magy, Laurent; Manel, Véronique; Mayer, Michèle; Mercuri, Eugenio; North, Kathryn N.; Peudenier-Robert, Sylviane; Pihko, Helena; Probst, Frank J.; Reisin, Ricardo; Stewart, Willie; Taratuto, Ana Lia; de Visser, Marianne; Wilichowski, Ekkehard; Winer, John; Nowak, Kristen; Laing, Nigel G.; Winder, Tom L.; Monnier, Nicole; Clarke, Nigel F.; Pelin, Katarina; Grönholm, Mikaela; Wallgren-Pettersson, Carina

2014-01-01

Mutations affecting skeletal muscle isoforms of the tropomyosin genes may cause nemaline myopathy, cap myopathy, core-rod myopathy, congenital fiber-type disproportion, distal arthrogryposes, and Escobar syndrome. We correlate the clinical picture of these diseases with novel (19) and previously

Factors affecting smartphone adoption for accessing information in medical settings.

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Tahamtan, Iman; Pajouhanfar, Sara; Sedghi, Shahram; Azad, Mohsen; Roudbari, Masoud

2017-06-01

This study aimed to acquire knowledge about the factors affecting smartphone adoption for accessing information in medical settings in Iranian Hospitals. A qualitative and quantitative approach was used to conduct this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 medical residents and interns in 2013 to identify determinant factors for smartphone adoption. Afterwards, nine relationships were hypothesised. We developed a questionnaire to test these hypotheses and to evaluate the importance of each factor. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the causal relations between model parameters and to accurately identify determinant factors. Eight factors were identified in the qualitative phase of the study, including perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, training, internal environment, personal experience, social impacts, observability and job related characteristics. Among the studied factors, perceived usefulness, personal experience and job related characteristics were significantly associated with attitude to use a smartphone which accounted for 64% of the variance in attitude. Perceived usefulness had the strongest impact on attitude to use a smartphone. The factors that emerged from interviews were consistent with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and some previous studies. TAM is a reliable model for understanding the factors of smartphone acceptance in medical settings. © 2017 Health Libraries Group.

The Affective Dimensions of Mathematical Difficulties in Schoolchildren

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Morena Lebens

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Mathematical difficulties (MDs are frequently characterised by cognitive deficits such as ineffective problem solving strategies and a lack of computational fluency. The established literature indicates that mathematical achievement is not only a function of cognitive factors but it also points to the importance of affective factors for the development of mathematical achievement. In the light of this evidence, the exploration of children's affective responses towards mathematics becomes a central issue. Whereas previous studies tended to research affective motivational constructs such as self-efficacy in isolation from other related constructs, the literature suffers from a shortage of research on the relationship between different affective motivational variables and their impact on mathematical achievement in different age and achievement bands. The present paper aims to address this aim by employing a newly developed instrument to measure affective motivational variables. Overall, the present findings support the assumption that children of average ability are less influenced by affective factors than children with mathematical difficulties.

Directive and incentive functions of affective action consequences: an ideomotor approach.

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Eder, Andreas B; Rothermund, Klaus; De Houwer, Jan; Hommel, Bernhard

2015-07-01

Five experiments examined whether affective consequences become associated with the responses producing them and whether anticipations of positive and negative action outcomes influence action control differently. In a learning phase, one response produced pleasant and another response unpleasant visual effects. In a subsequent test phase, the same actions were carried out in response to a neutral feature of affective stimuli. Results showed that responses were faster when the irrelevant valence of the response cue matched the valence of the response outcome, but only when the responses still produced outcomes. These results suggest that affective action consequences have a directive function in that they facilitate the selection of the associated response over other responses, even when the response outcome is unpleasant (Experiment 4A). Results of another experiment showed that affective action consequences can also have an incentive function in that responses with pleasant outcomes are generally facilitated relative to responses with unpleasant outcomes. However, this motivational effect was seen only in a free-choice test (Experiment 5). The results suggest that behavioral impulses induced by ideomotor processes are constrained by the motivational evaluation of the anticipated action outcome. A model that integrates motivational factors into ideomotor theory is presented.

Initial results of CyberKnife treatment for recurrent previously irradiated head and neck cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Himei, Kengo; Katsui, Kuniaki; Yoshida, Atsushi

2003-01-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of CyberKnife for recurrent previously irradiated head and neck cancer. Thirty-one patients with recurrent previously irradiated head and neck cancer were treated with a CyberKnife from July 1999 to March 2002 at Okayama Kyokuto Hospital were retrospectively studied. The accumulated dose was 28-80 Gy (median 60 Gy). The interval between CyberKnife treatment and previous radiotherapy was 0.4-429.5 months (median 16.3 months). Primary lesions were nasopharynx: 7, maxillary sinus: 6, tongue: 5, ethmoid sinus: 3, and others: 1. The pathology was squamous cell carcinoma: 25, adenoid cystic carcinoma: 4, and others: 2. Symptoms were pain: 8, and nasal bleeding: 2. The prescribed dose was 15.0-40.3 Gy (median 32.3 Gy) as for the marginal dose. The response rate (complete response (CR)+partial response (PR)) and local control rate (CR+PR+no change (NC)) was 74% and 94% respectively. Pain disappeared for 4 cases, relief was obtained for 4 cases and no change for 2 cases and nasal bleeding disappeared for 2 cases for an improvement of symptoms. An adverse effects were observed as mucositis in 5 cases and neck swelling in one case. Prognosis of recurrent previously irradiated head and neck cancer was estimated as poor. Our early experience shows that CyberKnife is expected to be feasible treatment for recurrent previously irradiated head and neck cancer, and for the reduction adverse effects and maintenance of useful quality of life (QOL) for patients. (author)

Effects of previous ovarian surgery for endometriosis on the outcome of assisted reproduction treatment.

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Geber, Selmo; Ferreira, Daniela Parreiras; Spyer Prates, Luis Felipe Víctor; Sales, Liana; Sampaio, Marcos

2002-01-01

Endometriosis affects 2-50% of women at reproductive age. Surgery is an option for treatment, but there is no convincing evidence that it promotes a significant improvement in fertility. Also, the removal of ovarian endometrioma might lead to a reduction in the follicular reserve and response to stimulation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of previous ovarian surgery for endometriosis on the ovarian response in assisted reproduction treatment cycles and its pregnancy outcome. A total of 61 women, with primary infertility and previously having undergone ovarian surgery for endometriosis, who had received 74 IVF/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycles, were studied (study group). A further 74 patients with primary infertility who underwent 77 IVF/ICSI cycles within#10; the same period of time, at the same clinic and without previous ovarian surgery or endometriosis were studied as a control group. Patients were matched for age and treatment performed. Patients 35 years with previous ovarian surgery needed more ampoules for ovulation induction (P = 0.017) and had fewer follicles and oocytes than women in the control group (P = 0.001). Duration of folliculogenesis was similar in both groups, as was fertilization rate. A total of 10 patients achieved pregnancy in the study group (34.5%) and 14 (48.3%) in the control group. Although a lower pregnancy rate was observed in patients who had undergone previous ovarian surgery, this difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.424). In conclusion, ovarian surgery for the treatment of endometriosis reduces the ovarian outcome in IVF/ICSI cycles in women >35 years old, and might also decrease pregnancy rates. Therefore, for infertile patients, non-surgical treatment might be a better option to avoid reduction of the ovarian response.

Mind Invasion: Situated Affectivity and the Corporate Life Hack

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jan eSlaby

2016-02-01

Full Text Available In view of the philosophical problems that vex the debate on situated affectivity, it can seem wise to focus on simple cases. Accordingly, theorists often single out scenarios in which an individual employs a device in order to enhance their emotional experience, or to achieve new kinds of experience altogether, such as playing an instrument, going to the movies or sporting a fancy handbag. I argue that this narrow focus on cases that fit a ‘user/resource model’ tends to channel attention away from more complex and also more problematic instances of situated affectivity. Among these are scenarios in which a social domain draws individuals into certain modes of affective interaction, often by way of attunement and habituation to affective styles and interaction patterns that are normative in the domain in question. This can lead to a phenomenon that is not so much ‘mind extension’ than ‘mind invasion’: affectivity is dynamically framed and modulated from without, often contrary to the prior orientations of the individuals in question. As an example, I discuss affective patterns prevalent in today’s corporate workplace. I claim that workplace affect sometimes contributes to what is effectively a ‘hack’ of employees’ subjectivity.

DIRAC in Large Particle Physics Experiments

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Stagni, F.; Tsaregorodtsev, A.; Arrabito, L.; Sailer, A.; Hara, T.; Zhang, X.; Consortium, DIRAC

2017-10-01

The DIRAC project is developing interware to build and operate distributed computing systems. It provides a development framework and a rich set of services for both Workload and Data Management tasks of large scientific communities. A number of High Energy Physics and Astrophysics collaborations have adopted DIRAC as the base for their computing models. DIRAC was initially developed for the LHCb experiment at LHC, CERN. Later, the Belle II, BES III and CTA experiments as well as the linear collider detector collaborations started using DIRAC for their computing systems. Some of the experiments built their DIRAC-based systems from scratch, others migrated from previous solutions, ad-hoc or based on different middlewares. Adaptation of DIRAC for a particular experiment was enabled through the creation of extensions to meet their specific requirements. Each experiment has a heterogeneous set of computing and storage resources at their disposal that were aggregated through DIRAC into a coherent pool. Users from different experiments can interact with the system in different ways depending on their specific tasks, expertise level and previous experience using command line tools, python APIs or Web Portals. In this contribution we will summarize the experience of using DIRAC in particle physics collaborations. The problems of migration to DIRAC from previous systems and their solutions will be presented. An overview of specific DIRAC extensions will be given. We hope that this review will be useful for experiments considering an update, or for those designing their computing models.