Collateral Reports and Cross-Informant Agreement about Adult Psychopathology in 14 Societies

To advance international mental health assessment, instruments that have been internationally validated are needed. To this end, we analyzed ratings from 14 societies on the Adult Behavior Checklist (ABCL), a collateral-report form parallel to the Adult Self-Report (ASR; Achenbach and Rescorla 2003) for ages 18 to 59. Both the ABCL and the ASR assess problems, personal strengths, and adaptive functioning. For a sample of 8322 see note below collaterals, we found strong consistency across societies regarding which ABCL problem items tended to obtain relatively low, medium, or high ratings. Most societal effect sizes (ESs) for problem scale scores were small to medium (< 13.9 %), but the ES for the ABCL Personal Strengths scale was 25 %. For most of the same participants (N = 8,302), we analyzed cross-informant agreement between self-reports on the ASR and collateral reports on the ABCL. Cross-informant correlations for problem scale scores averaged .47, with considerable societal variation. Problem score means were higher on the ASR than the ABCL in every society, but the size of the difference varied across societies. Mean item ratings on the ABCL and ASR were highly correlated within every society (mean r = .92), but within-dyad item rating agreement varied widely in every society (mean r = .39). In all societies, non-corroboration of self-reported deviance and of collateral-reported deviance was common. Overall findings indicated considerable similarity but also some important differences in collateral-reported problems and adaptive functioning across 14 societies.     

The interaction between social saliency and perceptual saliency

The ability to select visual targets in hierarchical stimuli can be affected by both perceptual saliency and social saliency. However, the functional relations between the effects are not understood. Here we examined whether these two factors interact or combine in an additive way. Participants first learnt to associate geometric shapes with three people (e.g., triangle–self, square–stranger). After learning the associations, participants were presented with compound stimuli (e.g., a global triangle formed by a set of local squares) and had to select a target at the global or local level. In Experiment 1 the task was to identify the person associated with the local or global shape. In Experiment 2 the task was simply to identify the shape. We manipulated perceptual saliency by blurring local elements to form perceptually global salient stimuli or by contrasting the colours of neighbouring local elements (red vs. white) to form perceptually local salient stimuli. In Experiment 1 (person discrimination) there was a strong effect of saliency on local targets (there were faster and more accurate responses to high than to low saliency targets) when social and perceptual saliency occurred at same level. However, both perceptual and social saliency effects were eliminated when the effect of saliency at one level competed with that at the other level. In Experiment 2 (shape discrimination), there were only effects of perceptual saliency. The data indicate that social saliency interacts with perceptual saliency when explicit social categorizations are made, consistent with both factors modulating a common process of visual selection.     

The Impact of the Diffusion of Information and Communication Technology on Health: A Cross-Country Study

This study employed aggregate data drawn from the World Bank database for 61 countries for the period 2000 to 2009 and quantitatively evaluated the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) diffusion on health outcomes. The empirical methodology included a dynamic panel data (DPD) model and a fixed effect (FE) model. The results show that the diffusion of the Internet and fixed and mobile telephones was positively associated with life expectancy. The diffusion of fixed and mobile telephones was associated with a reduction in infant and under-five mortality rates. The diffusion of the Internet was associated with a higher prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The diffusion of mobile phones was associated with decreases in the incidence of tuberculosis. An important policy implication for governments worldwide is that investing in ICT infrastructures and educating the public the use of ICT can be an alternative policy to improve health.     

布鲁默学习测验(BLT)中文测题册试用本的编制报告

布鲁默学习测验（ＢＬＴ）是一项以学习模式为研究内容的学习过程测验。作为ＢＬＴ中文版修订工作的首要阶段,课题组在研究ＢＬＴ理论原理,测验结构和内容和基础上,结合我国中小学教学实际,以简单常用的部首和汉字为主要测验材料编制出ＢＬＴ中文版测题册试用本,并作了试测和数据分析。结果表明,试用本具有较高的信度和效度,并保持了作为学习过程测验的特色,达到了研究目的。     

阅读发展相关的认知技能：汉语和英语的比较

对英语和汉语阅读获得所需要的认知技能及发展性阅读障碍儿童认知缺陷的研究进行了回顾。分析表明阅读发展所需认知资源表现出了跨语言的一致性,都要求有充足的学习与记忆能力和正常的视觉正字法技能,语音和语义知识表征足够精细;阅读障碍儿童的主要认知缺陷也表现出了跨文字的一致性,都包括语音缺陷和一般的学习与记忆问题。然而儿童所面临的语言文字特性会影响到阅读技能获得的难易和发展性阅读障碍的表现     

心理行为干预对乳腺癌患者情绪反应及免疫功能的影响

按随机和匹配原则,将40名乳腺癌放疗患者分入干预组和对照组。对干预组患者进行为期4周的心理行为干预,对照组仅接受相应的医药治疗。以肿瘤病人情绪适应问卷(MAC)和免疫测试法研究患者干预前后的情绪反应和免疫功能,探讨心理行为干预对乳腺癌患者情绪反应和免疫功能的影响。结果发现,心理行为干预有利于提高患者NK细胞活性(NKCA);并有助于维持放疗期间患者的白细胞水平。     

Fourier‐Motzkin elimination method in MOLP problems

This paper introduces a method for finding the non‐dominated set in criterion space of an MOLP problem based on Fourier–Motzkin Elimination. The method incorporates a procedure that eliminates decision variables from constraints and transforms a feasible region from decision space to criterion space. While avoiding characterization of the efficient set in decision space, it finds the non‐dominated set in criterion space. After the decision maker's most preferred criterion vector has been identified, the corresponding efficient solutions can be found by backward substitution. The method was implemented in MATLAB using a tabular form and computational experiments were conducted. The results indicate that although the method performs well for relatively small problems, it can be computationally intensive for larger problems. Nonetheless, the method is intuitively appealing and it provides useful insights into the geometry and theory of MOLP. As such it makes it a valuable educational tool for students of multi‐criteria decision analysis. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

杂谈出家人

去年阳春三月我去杭州,见香客蜂拥,更多于往年。交通堵塞,车行缓慢,不禁感慨系之。假如佛祖菩萨果然大慈大悲,而且法力无边,那么,就把幸福普遍赐予人们,又何必让大家辛苦奔波,非要到寺院进香不可呢!然而这大约只是我这样不信佛者的意见。在香客们看来,他们大约只有朝寺进香,亲自向佛祖菩萨礼拜之后,佛祖菩萨才能应允实现他们的愿望。信仰不同,想法各异,行动自然也就两样。我只是不知道他们中间多少是虔诚的信仰者,多少是临时抱佛脚的功利主义者。说到虔诚信仰,使我进一步想到了出家人。在中国,出家人是信仰宗教的代名词。其实,出家人固然是…