Death anxiety,altruism, self‐efficacy,and organ donation intention among Japanese college students: A moderated mediation analysis

The shortage of organs for transplantation in Japan has alerted health professionals to the low organ donation rate among Japanese people. The unique cultural view of death and altruism has been suggested leading to their low intent to donate cadaveric organs. A cross‐sectional survey was conducted in Japan to investigate the interplay of death anxiety, altruism, and self‐efficacy in influencing Japanese college students' intention to sign donor cards, in order to mobilise this large potential source of organ donors in the future. Six hundred and seven Japanese non‐donor card signers voluntarily completed a self‐administered questionnaire. The results of mediation and moderated mediation analyses with bootstrap approach suggest that death anxiety indirectly hinders Japanese people's intention to become a donor card signer through lowering of self‐efficacy, while altruism intensifies the positive impact of self‐efficacy on signing intention. These findings provide useful insights for organ procurement organisations seeking behavioural change not only in Japan but also in multi‐ethnic societies with a substantial Japanese population.     

Mapping the central structure core in social representation of pain

Previous evidence had revealed gender differences in perception of pain and its socialization. The present research studies gender differences by mapping the central structure core in social representation of pain. Eighty males and eighty females participated in a free evocation task for collecting cognitive elements of “pain.” By defining the elements as nodes and their co‐occurrences as lines, structural characteristics of social representation are analyzed by network analysis. Females have a central structure core in their network structure of social representation of pain. In contrast, males have no such core. These results suggest gender differences in socialization processes around the concept of pain and extend practical methods for studies of the central nucleus theory of social representation.     

Refining the two‐parameter testlet response model by introducing testlet discrimination parameters

For testlet response data, traditional item response theory (IRT) models are often not appropriate due to local dependence presented among items within a common testlet. Several testlet‐based IRT models have been developed to model examinees' responses. In this paper, a new two‐parameter normal ogive testlet response theory (2PNOTRT) model for dichotomous items is proposed by introducing testlet discrimination parameters. A Bayesian model parameter estimation approach via a data augmentation scheme is developed. Simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed 2PNOTRT model. The results indicated that the estimation of item parameters is satisfactory overall from the viewpoint of convergence. Finally, the proposed 2PNOTRT model is applied to a set of real testlet data.     

Measuring Situation Awareness in Virtual Environment-Based Training

We evaluated the efficacy of a computer-based situation awareness (SA) measurement system for training dismounted infantry SA in an urban terrain virtual reality (VR) simulation. Based on past research, we hypothesized that the SA measures would be sensitive to individual (squad leader) differences, and that the frequency of specific probes would reveal differences in critical SA requirements among scenarios. Three infantry squads performed multiple trials across two different scenarios. A confederate platoon leader posed probes to squad leaders during trials and experts made ratings afterward. Results revealed squad leaders had similar responses to probes, despite differences in combat experience. Analysis of probe frequency revealed different high priority SA elements and decisions for each scenario. The SA behavior and communication ratings revealed differences among squads, which trended with experience. Measures of SA were also consistent across the test scenario as a result of similar mission types and task difficulties. We discuss the implication of our findings for future research and theory within this area.     

Promoting School Students’ Physical Activity: A Social Ecological Perspective

Guided by a social ecological perspective, the aim of this study was to investigate the predictive strength of individual (barrier self-efficacy), social environmental (support from parents, friends, physical education teachers), and physical environmental variables (equipment accessibility, neighborhood safety) toward physical activity among school students. Participants were 285 students enrolled in a suburban public school. Hierarchical linear regression analysis highlighted the influence of self-efficacy, social support from parents, friends, physical education teachers, and accessible equipment on students’ physical activity. The findings indicated that physical educators and health promoters need to consider multiple factors as they design effective interventions to promote physical activity and prevent physical inactivity among school students. This study also supported the use of a social ecological perspective to investigate students’ physical activity.     

Analyzing Longitudinal Item Response Data via the Pairwise Fitting Method

Multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) models can be applied to longitudinal educational surveys where a group of individuals are administered different tests over time with some common items. However, computational problems typically arise as the dimension of the latent variables increases. This is especially true when the latent variable distribution cannot be integrated out analytically, as with MIRT models for binary data. In this article, based on the pseudolikelihood theory, we propose a pairwise modeling strategy to estimate item and population parameters in longitudinal studies. Our pairwise method effectively reduces the dimensionality of the problem and hence is applicable to longitudinal IRT data with high-dimensional latent variables, which are challenging for classical methods. And in the low-dimensional case, our simulation study shows that it performs comparably with the classical methods. We further illustrate the implementation of the pairwise method using a development study of mathematics levels of junior high school students in which the response data are collected from 65 classes of 8 schools from 4 different school districts in China.     

胰岛再生治疗的前景

胰岛β细胞数量减少和功能障碍是糖尿病的根本原因,现有的治疗手段主要以维持正常血糖水平为主要目的,尚无有效恢复受损胰岛功能的治愈性治疗手段.胰岛再生治疗将是一种可以恢复受损胰岛功能、改变糖尿病自然病程的崭新治疗手段.目前现有的噻唑烷二酮、肠促胰岛素及类似物、二肽基肽酶-4抑制剂等治疗,虽然不是一类新的胰岛再生药物,但其具有一定的促进胰岛再生、改善胰岛功能的作用.体外诱导β细胞再生也将为胰岛移植提供新的来源,为治愈糖尿病带来曙光.     

塑形文化与颌面外科——社会身份认同的基础外形需求

100多年来,明星文化（电影带来的影述文化）,精神分析学说和整形外科三大现象相互作用,形成了塑形文化,在个人与社会之间的身份认同中,不断提高着个人的呈现价值,处于世界文化发展的核心位置。在塑形文化中,整形外科直接影响着人的形象,其中,颌面整形外科占据着整形外科最重要的位置。其中的硬组织整形,即正颌外科,为人进行正常的面部骨骼塑形和重建,是建立面部美容的基础,也是个人社会身份认同的外形基础。     

儿童英汉口语词汇知识与英语语音意识的关系

以120名母语为汉语的四、五年级小学儿壹为被试.探讨英语和母语口语词汇知识与英语语音意识的关系.结果表明: (1)英语和母语口语词汇知识与英语语音意识之间存在密切关系. (2)英语口语词汇产生对英语音节、首音一韵脚和音位意识具有显著的独立预测作用,英语口语词汇理解对英语语音意识的独立贡献性不显著. (3)汉语口语词汇产生对英语音节意识具有显著的预测作用,汉语口语词汇理解对英语音位意识具有显著的预测作用;汉语口语词汇产生既可以直接作用于英语音节意识,也可以通过汉语语音意识的中介发挥间接作用:汉语口语词汇理解则完全通过汉语语音意识和英语口语词汇产生的中介间接作用于英语旨位意识.     

认知诊断计算机化自适应测验中在线标定方法的开发

项目增补对认知诊断计算机化自适应测验(CD-CAT)中的题库维护至关重要。在传统CAT中, 在线标定方法经常用于估计新题的项目参数。然而直到现在, 在CD-CAT领域还没有任何关于在线标定的论文公开发表。为将传统CAT中3种有代表性的在线标定方法(Method A、OEM和 MEM)推广至CD-CAT (CD-Method A、CD-OEM和CD-MEM)建立分析基础, 并采用模拟方法对这3种方法进行比较。研究表明：CD-Method A方法在项目参数的返真性方面优于其它两种方法; 自适应标定设计较随机标定设计可以提高项目参数的返真质量。