Development of a simple MR-compatible vibrotactile stimulator using a planar-coil-type actuator

For this study, we developed a magnetic resonance (MR)-compatible vibrotactile stimulator using a planar-coil-type actuator. The newly developed vibrotactile stimulator consists of three units: control unit, drive unit, and planar-coil-type actuator. The control unit controls frequency, intensity, time, and channel, and transfers the stimulation signals to the drive unit. The drive unit operates the planar-coil-type actuator in response to commands from the control unit. The planar-coil-type actuator, which uses a planar coil instead of conventional electric wire, generates vibrating stimulation through interaction of the current of the planar coil with the static magnetic field of the MR scanner. Even though the developed tactile stimulating system is small, simple, and inexpensive, it has a wide range of stimulation frequencies (20 ~ 400 Hz, at 40 levels) and stimulation intensities (0 ~ 7 V, at 256 levels). The stimulation intensity does not change due to frequency changes. Since the transient response time is a few microseconds, the stimulation time can be controlled on a scale of microseconds. In addition, this actuator has the advantages of providing highly repeatable stimulation, being durable, being able to assume various shapes, and having an adjustable contact area with the skin. The new stimulator operated stably in an MR environment without affecting the MR images. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we observed the brain activation changes resulting from stimulation frequency and intensity changes.     

Extending the perception of shape from known to unknown shading

Two experiments are reported which demonstrate the effects of light-source position as an intervening variable upon the perception of relief in pictures. In the first experiment, it is shown that the pattern of light (attached shadow) falling upon forms that can be recognized as having unambiguous surface relief (concave and convex parts) influences the perception of forms with ambiguous surface relief. In the second experiment it is demonstrated that cast shadows may also determine the interpretation of ambiguous relief. These findings suggest that light-source position, implicitly or explicitly, mediates the interpretation of surface relief in pictures.     

Promoting the Mental Health of Immigrants: A Multicultural/Social Justice Perspective

Immigration is a major factor that is greatly contributing to the unprecedented demographic changes that are presently occurring in the United States. This article discusses the challenges encountered by immigrants, taking into account the historical, sociopolitical, economic, cultural, and psychological factors that contribute to successful adjustment and adaptation to their new environment. In doing so, it outlines a new theoretical approach to working with this unique cultural group that is embedded in a multicultural/social justice helping perspective.     

Effects of Pinyin and First Language Words in Learning of Chinese Characters as a Second Language

This study examined the roles of pinyin and English words as stimulus prompts in the learning of Chinese characters. Recall for naming of English words and pronunciation was enhanced under conditions in which each character was presented first and its prompts were given as feedback, in contrast to simultaneous presentation conditions. Pronunciation was also recalled more in the written pinyin conditions than the verbal pronunciation conditions. These data were interpreted in terms of (a) interference which can occur when learners attend to multiple inputs simultaneously, and (b) the beneficial effects of attending to character prior to their prompts. It was concluded that the presentation of a character first and the provision of its associated prompts as a feedback improves learning.     

The Selection of Multiattribute Decision Making Methods for Scholarship Student Selection

Selecting scholarship students from a number of competing candidates is a complex decision making process, in which multiple selection criteria have to be considered simultaneously. Multiattribute decision making (MADM) has proven to be an effective approach for ranking or selecting one or more alternatives from a finite number of alternatives with respect to multiple, usually conflicting criteria. This paper formulates the scholarship student selection process as an MADM problem, and presents suitable compensatory methods for solving the problem. A new empirical validity procedure is developed to deal with the inconsistent ranking problem caused by different MADM methods. The procedure aims at selecting a ranking outcome which has a minimum expected value loss, when true attribute weights are not known. An empirical study of a scholarship student selection problem in an Australian university is conducted to illustrate how the selection procedure works.     

Impact of Panel Gene Testing for Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer on Patients

Recent advances in next generation sequencing have enabled panel gene testing, or simultaneous testing for mutations in multiple genes for a clinical condition. With more extensive and widespread genetic testing, there will be increased detection of genes with moderate penetrance without established clinical guidelines and of variants of uncertain significance (VUS), or genetic variants unknown to either be disease-causing or benign. This study surveyed 232 patients who underwent genetic counseling for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer to examine the impact of panel gene testing on psychological outcomes, patient understanding, and utilization of genetic information. The survey used standardized instruments including the Impact of Event Scale (IES), Multidimensional Impact of Cancer Risk Assessment (MICRA), Satisfaction with Decision Instrument (SWD), Ambiguity Tolerance Scale (AT-20), genetics knowledge, and utilization of genetic test results. Study results suggested that unaffected individuals with a family history of breast or ovarian cancer who received positive results were most significantly impacted by intrusive thoughts, avoidance, and distress. However, scores were also modestly elevated among unaffected patients with a family history of breast and ovarian cancer who received VUS, highlighting the impact of ambiguous results that are frequent among patients undergoing genetic testing with large panels of genes. Potential risk factors for increased genetic testing-specific distress in this study included younger age, black or African American race, Hispanic origin, lower education level, and lower genetic knowledge and highlight the need for developing strategies to provide effective counseling and education to these communities, particularly when genetic testing utilizes gene panels that more commonly return VUS. More detailed pre-test education and counseling may help patients appreciate the probability of various types of test results and how results would be used clinically, and allow them to make more informed decisions about the type of genetic testing to select.     

How does reading direction modulate perceptual asymmetry effects?

Left-side bias effects refer to a bias towards the left side of the stimulus/space in perceptual/visuospatial judgments, and are argued to reflect dominance of right hemisphere processing. It remains unclear whether reading direction can also account for the bias effect. Previous studies comparing readers of languages read from left to right with those read from right to left (e.g., French vs. Hebrew) have obtained inconsistent results. As a language that can be read from left to right or from right to left, Chinese provides a unique opportunity for a within-culture examination of reading direction effects. Chinese participants performed a perceptual judgment task (with both face and Chinese character stimuli; Experiment 1) and two visuospatial attention tasks (the greyscales and line bisection tasks; Experiment 2) once before and once after a reading task, in which they read Chinese passages either from left to right or from right to left for about 20 min. After reading from right to left, participants showed significantly reduced left-side bias in Chinese character perceptual judgments but not in the other three tasks. This effect suggests that the role of reading direction on different forms of left-side bias may differ, and its modulation may be stimulus-specific.     

“White” or “European American”? Self-identifying labels influence majority group members' interethnic attitudes

Multiculturalism (i.e., the recognition and celebration of cultural differences) has many potential benefits for society, including reduced prejudice among nonminorities and increased psychological well-being among ethnic minorities. Yet nonminorities generally tend to resist multiculturalism more than do minorities and believe that it is irrelevant to them. Two studies were conducted to examine why and under what conditions this is the case. In both studies, nonminority participants were randomly assigned to mark their race/ethnicity as either “White” or “European American” on a demographic survey, before answering questions about their interethnic attitudes. Results demonstrated that nonminorities primed to think of themselves as White (versus European American) were subsequently less supportive of multiculturalism and more racially prejudiced, due to decreases in identification with ethnic minorities. Implications for how to improve nonminorities' attitudes toward multiculturalism are discussed.     

EMG and kinematics analysis of the trunk and lower extremity during the sit-to-stand task while wearing shoes with different heel heights in healthy young women

This study investigated the EMG characteristics and the kinematics of the trunk and lower extremity during the sit-to-stand (STS) task while wearing 1-, 4-, and 8-cm high-heeled shoes. We examined differences in the EMG data of the internal oblique, erector spinae, medial hamstring, and rectus femoris muscles during the STS task. The motion of the hip joint during an STS task was measured with a NorAngle Electrogoniometer System. Twelve young healthy women were recruited to this study. EMG characteristics and the hip joint angle were recorded during the performance of an STS task by subjects wearing high-heeled shoes of three different heel heights. The muscle onset time and EMG activity during this task were analyzed. In 8-cm high-heeled shoes, the onset time for the erector spinae muscle was significantly delayed, and the onset latency for the medial hamstring and the rectus femoris was significantly decreased. There was increased activity in the erector spinae and rectus femoris muscle during this task when wearing 8-cm high-heeled shoes. The initial hip flexion angle at the start point of the STS task did not differ among the 1-, 4-, and 8-cm heel-height conditions, but the trunk flexion angle, corresponding to the displacement between the peak hip flexion and initial hip flexion, was significantly larger in the 8-cm heel-height condition than in the 1- and 4-cm heel-height conditions. The findings suggest that excessive heel height has the potential to induce muscle imbalance during the STS task.