Effects of the range and frequency of vibrations on the momentary riding comfort evaluation of a railway vehicle

When trains pass level-crossings, turnouts, and rail joints, they are momentarily subjected to extreme vibrations. In railway engineering, evaluation of the riding comfort under such occasional vibrations is called the momentary riding comfort evaluation, as distinct from the long-term evaluation, which addresses the riding comfort of passengers for certain lengths of train operation. In order to identify the effective vibrational characteristics of the momentary evaluation, an experiment was performed with a riding comfort simulator. Ten adult subjects for each condition, 80 in total, participated in the experiment. The effects of differences in the range of stimuli, frequency of each stimulus, and scores on a rating scale of discomfort were studied. Differences in the range and frequency affected the evaluation such that subjects tended to make a relative judgment on discomfort. They made almost an absolute judgment when the rating scale was well defined, with a small number of categories.     

Avoidance behavior associated with depressive symptoms in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators

Objective: Many patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators experience depressive symptoms. In addition, avoidance behavior is a common problem among patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators. We examined the association between avoidance behaviors and depressive symptoms in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators. Method: We conducted a single-center, cross-sectional study with self-completed questionnaires between May 2010 and March 2011. We measured avoidance behaviors (avoidance of places, avoidance of objects, and avoidance of situations) and depressive symptoms (using the Beck Depression Inventory, Version II) in 119 participants. An avoidance behaviors instrument was developed for this study and we confirmed its internal consistency reliability. Results: Ninety-two (77.3%) patients were aged older than 50 years, and 86 (72.3%) were men. Fifty-one (42.9%) patients reported “avoidance of places”, 34 (28.6%) reported “avoidance of objects”, and 63 (52.9%) reported “avoidance of activity”. Avoidance behavior was associated with increased odds for the presence of depressive symptoms (OR 1.31; 95% CI 1.06–1.62). Conclusions: This was the first study to identify the relationship between avoidance behavior and depressive symptoms among patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators; however, there are a few methodological limitations.     

Automatic auditory disambiguation of visual awareness

Multisensory integration can play a critical role in producing unified and reliable perceptual experience. When sensory information in one modality is degraded or ambiguous, information from other senses can crossmodally resolve perceptual ambiguities. Prior research suggests that auditory information can disambiguate the contents of visual awareness by facilitating perception of intermodally consistent stimuli. However, it is unclear whether these effects are truly due to crossmodal facilitation or are mediated by voluntary selective attention to audiovisually congruent stimuli. Here, we demonstrate that sounds can bias competition in binocular rivalry toward audiovisually congruent percepts, even when participants have no recognition of the congruency. When speech sounds were presented in synchrony with speech-like deformations of rivalling ellipses, ellipses with crossmodally congruent deformations were perceptually dominant over those with incongruent deformations. This effect was observed in participants who could not identify the crossmodal congruency in an open-ended interview (Experiment 1) or detect it in a simple 2AFC task (Experiment 2), suggesting that the effect was not due to voluntary selective attention or response bias. These results suggest that sound can automatically disambiguate the contents of visual awareness by facilitating perception of audiovisually congruent stimuli.     

Mental Health Inventory for Infants: Scale Development and Japanese Infants’ Characteristics

Early detection and treatment promote positive outcomes in mental health problems among infants. This study developed a simple and reliable screening inventory for infants’ mental health. Participants were 579 primary caregivers who had Japanese infants aged 2–6 years. Participants evaluated their children using the Mental Health Inventory for Infants (MHII; developed in this study), which contains 24 items. Exploratory factorial analysis identified the MHII factor structure; confirmatory factorial analysis examined its factorial validity. Internal consistency and criterion-related validity were also examined. Irritability (8 items), somatic symptoms (6 items), and signs of insecurity (4 items) were identified as factors in the MHII; each of these factors measures a critical aspect of infants’ mental health. The MHII’s internal consistency and scale homogeneity were acceptable; its criterion-related validity was supported. In this study, male infants exhibited greater irritability and less insecurity than females. The present results support the MHII’s reliability and validity; additionally, they indicate that caregivers may use the MHII to quickly screen for three critical aspects of infants’ mental health. We expect that the MHII will be used for early detection of mental health difficulties in infants to facilitate treatment.     

Rorschach Comprehensive System data for a sample of 190 Japanese nonpatient children at five ages

This study is a part of our series of studies of nonpatient, Japanese children. In total, 346 children were administered the Rorschach. Thirty-two children had fewer than 10 responses, 112 children had more than 10 but fewer than 14 responses, and 12 children were maladjusted or mentally retarded, for a total of 156. In this study, we analyzed the remaining 190 children not excluded by the above criteria in the following age groups: 5 years (n = 24), 8 years (n = 43), 9 years (n = 42), 12 years (n = 42), and 14 years (n = 39). Japanese children showed few responses generally, with an average of 18 ~ 20 responses. In addition to having fewer responses, other features of Japanese children are high Lambda, low EA, very high X-%, and low X+%. The fact that the Rorschach test depends on verbal expression may be one factor in all these features, and we should consider this study in view of these Japanese cultural factors. Interrater reliability findings and Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 1995; Matsumoto, 2003; Matsumoto et al., 2002) data are presented.     

Constructing a continuum of predicate extensions of each intermediate propositional logic

Wajsberg and Jankov provided us with methods of constructing a continuum of logics. However, their methods are not suitable for super-intuitionistic and modal predicate logics. The aim of this paper is to present simple ways of modification of their methods appropriate for such logics. We give some concrete applications as generic examples. Among others, we show that there is a continuum of logics (1) between the intuitionistic predicate logic and the logic of constant domains, (2) between a predicate extension ofS4 andS4 with the Barcan formula. Furthermore, we prove that (3) there is a continuum of predicate logics with equality whose equality-free fragment is just the intuitionistic predicate logic.Dedicated to the memory of the late Professor S. MaeharaThis research was supported in part by Grant-in Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists No. 06740140, Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Japan.Presented byHiroakira Ono