The Relationship Between Child-Reported Positive Affect and Parent-Reported Emotional and Behavioral Problems in ADHD Youth

Although the adaptive role of positive affect (PA) in childhood internalizing disorders is well-established, less is known about PA in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In this cross-sectional study, we examined associations between child-reported PA and parent-reported emotional and behavioral problems in youth with ADHD using multiple hierarchical regression analyses. Participants included 848 ethnically diverse youth (253 youth with ADHD, 595 with other or no diagnoses; age range 6.12–19.65) referred for mental health assessments. Study measures included the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale for Children (PANAS-C). Results indicated that higher levels of child-reported PA were associated with greater parental reports of total and internalizing problems among youth with ADHD but not in other clinic-referred youth. Specifically, child self-reports of PA were positively associated with parental reports of anxious/depressed and somatic problems in youth with ADHD. In addition, associations between child-reported PA and parent-reported problems differed by type of ADHD comorbidity. Findings suggest that at higher levels, PA in youth with ADHD might exert a paradoxical effect and be a subtle risk factor for or an indicator of parent-reported internalizing problems among youth with ADHD only and youth with ADHD and a comorbid externalizing disorder but not for youth with ADHD and a comorbid internalizing disorder or youth without ADHD. Discrepancies between child-reported PA and parent-reported problems may influence treatment planning and treatment response. Further clinical and theoretical implications for child therapists and parents are discussed.     

Shuffle-set dislocation nucleation in semiconductor silicon device

We have found that a shuffle-set dislocation is nucleated in a semiconductor silicon device subjected to severe thermal processing. The dislocation transforms into a dissociated glide-set dislocation after annealing at 500°C. A possible mechanism for the nucleation of a perfect shuffle-set dislocation during thermal processing is that the dislocation nucleus was nucleated at a low temperature during prior ion-implantation processing.     

The effect of marker frequency disparity on the discrimination of gap duration in monkeys

Duration-discrimination thresholds of the silent interval (gap) between two successive tones (markers) were measured in four Japanese monkeys. The task was serial discrimination, and monkeys were required to release the lever when the gap duration decreased from 200 ms. Monkeys successfully acquired the task, and gap thresholds of monkeys were revealed to be larger than previous data with human subjects. Gap thresholds were not affected by marker frequency when the two markers were identical in frequency, though the thresholds increased when large frequency differences existed between markers. The effect of marker frequency disparity on gap thresholds in monkeys is discussed in terms of the difficulty in integrating information from discrete frequency channels.     

When family enters the picture: the model of cultural negotiation and gendered experiences of Japanese academic sojourners in the United States

A grounded-theory study aimed at reconceptualizing cultural adaptation processes from gender role and family/couple perspectives while critically drawing from acculturation and culture and self literatures. In-depth interviews with 34 Japanese academic sojourners (international students, scholars) and their spouses (a total of 50 interviews with select longitudinal interviews) were conducted. The author earlier developed the Model of Cultural Negotiation (2001; 2006) capturing uneven and cyclical processes of dealing with multiple cultural contexts. The current study further develops more tailored versions of this model, Family-Based (Couple-Based) Cultural Negotiation and Individual-Based Cultural Negotiation, highlighting the impacts of family/couple and gender roles, especially for female spouses. These conceptualizations afford a sophisticated understanding of the processes of culture.     

Local Division of Labor in Rehabilitation Team Conferences

This study investigates rehabilitation team members’ interactive accomplishments of their domains of work and responsibility in rehabilitation team conferences in Japan. A combination of membership categorization analysis and sequential analysis is adopted to systematically illustrate the situated productions of professional sense-making practices. Analysis focuses on the segment in which a physician asks a series of questions regarding a patient’s functional status and disability coded in the functional assessment record (FAR). A close examination of data shows that a physician does not always choose a respondent with his or her gaze when asking a question because s/he is continuously reading the FAR displayed on a computer screen. Despite this, a physician’s mention of a topic generates a professional’s domain of work and responsibility in a local division of labor which is used by members to assume who the relevant categorial respondent is. Further, members demonstrate these assumptions by shifting their gazes toward the computer screen, back to the document on the desk, and turning toward co-participants, thus embodying professional roles and responsibilities in situ. This study utilizes the analyst’s ethnographic understanding of the routines and division of labor at the rehabilitation ward as a resource to explicate professional sense-making practices, thus utilizing Garfinkel’s ethnomethodological studies of work. Together with sequential and categorial resources offered by Sacks, this study elucidates inferences and normative expectations which rehabilitation team members bring together to reproduce the endogenous logic of rehabilitation culture in actual occasions of the institutional life.     

How Do Organizations and Social Policies ‘Acculturate’ to Immigrants? Accommodating Skilled Immigrants in Canada

While the idea of acculturation (Berry 1997) was originally proposed as the mutual change of both parties (e.g., immigrants and the host society), the change processes of host societies are neglected in research. A grounded theory study explored the efforts of human service organizations to 'acculturate' to an increasingly diverse immigrant population, through interviews conducted with service providers serving Mainland Chinese immigrants. Acculturation efforts of human service organizations (mezzo-level acculturation) were often needs-driven and affected by the political will and resultant funding programs (macro-level forces). Even with limitations, human service organizations commonly focused on hiring Mainland Chinese immigrants to reflect the changing demographics of their clientele and creating new programs to meet the language and cultural backgrounds of the clients. To contextualize these organizational efforts, an analysis of how policy changes (macro-level acculturation) interact with organizational practice is presented. Finally, the meaning of acculturation for the host society is discussed.     

Relative pitch perception in Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata).

To investigate whether monkeys perceive relative pitch, the author trained 3 Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata) to detect changes from rising to falling contours of 3-tone sequences. Tone sequences were presented serially with transposition, so monkeys were urged to attend to cues other than the absolute frequency of a component tone. Results from probe tests with novel sequences showed that monkeys discriminated by the relative pitch when the frequency ranges of sequences were within the training range, showing a similar tendency as birds in previous studies (e.g., S. H. Hulse, J. Cynx, & J. Humpal, 1984).     

The Search for Discharge Facilities in Japanese Rehabilitation Team Interaction

Human Studies - Using conversation analysis, this study investigates how Japanese rehabilitation team members use their geographic knowledge to search for long-term care facilities for stroke...     

Judgments of Processing Load in Japanese: The Effect of NP-ga Sequences

This study reports an effect of more than two consecutive noun phrases (NPs) with the same nominative case marker, -ga, on ratings of processability for Japanese multiply center-embedded sentences. The findings imply that the processing overload theory of Babyonyshev and Gibson (1995) requires modification. Although that theory sets the critical limit (beyond which parser breakdown occurs) at four processing load units (PLUs), it appears that the parser is overloaded by anything over five PLUs. where a three NP-ga sequence contributes roughly an additional PLU to processing cost. The evidence also suggests that inherently cased NPs are not cost free.