Comparison of Privacy Consciousness Between Younger and Older Adults

The degree of being conscious about privacy for the self and others is known as privacy consciousness. This study aimed to compare privacy consciousness between younger and older adults. Japanese younger (n = 166) and older (n = 145) adults were requested to rate all items in the Privacy Consciousness Scale, which assessed their degree of consciousness about privacy for the self and others and behaviors for maintaining privacy based on this consciousness. Results indicated that older adults scored lower on Consciousness Regarding Privacy of Others and higher on Behaviors Regarding Privacy of Others than younger adults. However, no significant difference was found in Consciousness and Behaviors Regarding Privacy of the Self between younger and older adults.     

Cognitions, metacognitions, and chronic pain

Purpose: Although the content of thoughts has received a considerable amount of attention in pain research, the importance of thought processes (metacognitions) has received less attention. Method: One hundred twenty-nine individuals with muscular dystrophy and chronic pain completed measures assessing metacognitions and frequency of both catastrophizing and pain control beliefs. Results: Greater use of reappraisal and distraction metacognitions were associated with more perceived control over pain, whereas greater use of worry and punishment metacognitions were associated with more catastrophizing. Conclusions/Implications: The current findings indicate that metacognitions are associated with both pain control beliefs and catastrophizing and therefore may play an important role in the development or maintenance of pain-related cognitive content thought to influence patient functioning. Research is needed to determine whether treatments that encourage changes in both metacognitions and cognitive content are more effective than treatments that focus on cognitive content alone. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Early changes in muscle activation patterns of toddlers during walking

Early locomotor behavior has been the focus of considerable attention by developmentalists over several decades. Few studies have addressed explicitly patterns of muscle activity that underlie this coordination pattern. Our purposes were to illustrate a method to determine objectively the onset and offset of muscle firings during early walking and to investigate the emergence of patterns of activation of the core locomotor muscles. We tested eight toddlers as they walked overground at walking onset (max. of 3-6 independent steps) and after three months of walking experience. Surface electrodes monitored activity of the gastrocnemius, tibialis anterior, quadriceps, and hamstrings. We reduced EMG signals to a frame-by-frame designation of "on-off," followed by muscle state and co-contraction analyses, and probability distributions for each muscle's activity across multiple cycles. Our results clearly show that at walking onset muscle activity was highly variable with few, if any, muscles showing recurring patterns of behavior, within or among toddlers. Variability and co-activation decreased with walking experience but remained inconsistent, in contrast to the significant increase in stability shown for joint coordination and endpoint (foot placement) parameters. We propose this trend emerges because of the high number of options (muscle combinations) available. Toddlers learn first to marshal sufficient force to balance and make forward progress but slowly discover how to optimize these resources.     

Measures of Mentoring,Department Climate,and Graduate Student Preparedness in the Responsible Conduct of Psychological Research

Drawing upon two independent national samples of 201 and 241 psychology graduate students, this article describes the development and psychometric evaluation of 4 Web-based student self-report scales tapping student socialization in the responsible conduct of research (RCR) with human participants. The Mentoring the Responsible Conduct of Research Scale (MRCR) is composed of 2 subscales assessing RCR instruction and modeling by research mentors. The 2 subscales of the RCR Department Climate Scale (RCR-DC) assess RCR department policies and faculty and student RCR practices. The RCR Preparedness scale (RCR-P) and the RCR Field Integrity scale (RCR-FI) measure respectively students' confidence in their ability to conduct research responsibly and their belief in the RCR integrity of psychology as a discipline. Factor analysis, coefficient alphas, correlations, and multiple regression analyses demonstrated each of the scales had good internal consistency and concurrent and construct validity.     

Age-Related Changes in Distance From Center of Mass to Center of Pressure During One-Leg Standing

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study was to clarify the age-related effects of distances from the center of pressure (COP) to the center of mass (COM) (COP-COM distances) during one-leg standing (OLS) task. Healthy old and young adults (n = 11 each) participated in this study. The authors divided the task into 3 phases (accelerated, decelerated, and steady) based on the relationship between COM and COP. COP-COM distances in the older group were significantly reduced during the accelerated phase, then significantly increased during the decelerated and steady phases. Furthermore, distances during these phases correlated inversely with OLS time. The authors conclude that OLS time is shortened by the larger braking response to COM shifts just after leg-lifting, and the production of larger inertial forces to maintain COM position during the OLS in older individuals.     

Characterization and sociocultural predictors of neuropsychological test performance in HIV+ Hispanic individuals

Hispanic individuals in the U.S. have been disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS, yet little is known regarding the neuropsychological sequelae of HIV within the Hispanic population. This study characterized neuropsychological (NP) test performance of HIV+ English-speaking Hispanic participants (n = 51) and investigated the combined roles of sociocultural factors (e.g., ethnicity, socioeconomic status [SES] proxy, and reading level) on NP test performance among our HIV+ Hispanic and non-Hispanic White participants (n = 49). Results revealed that the pattern of NP impairment in HIV+ Hispanic participants is consistent with the frontal-striatal pattern observed in HIV-associated CNS sequelae, and the overall prevalence of global NP impairment was high compared to previous reports with more ethnically homogeneous, non-Hispanic White cohorts. Multivariate prediction models that considered both sociocultural factors and CD4 count revealed that reading level was the only unique predictor of global NP functioning, learning, and attention/working memory. In contrast, ethnicity was the only unique predictor of abstraction/executive functioning. This study provides support for the use of neuropsychological evaluation in detecting HIV-associated NP impairment among HIV+ Hispanic participants and adds to the growing literature regarding the importance of considering sociocultural factors in the interpretation of NP test performance.     

Discovery of the pendulum and spring dynamics in the early stages of walking

The authors investigated the self-selected, overground walking patterns of 7 children (aged 11 months to 1 year, 5 months) at the initiation of walking (brand-new walkers [BNWs]) and for the next 6 months at 1-month intervals. Walking speed, stride length, and stride frequency increased significantly between the first 2 visits without significant changes in height and weight. The authors calculated sagittal plane angular accelerations of the center of mass over the foot for each step as an indicator of the escapement pulse. Results for the acceleration profiles changed after the 1st visit to positive, single-peaked accelerations that occurred < 0.20 s after initial foot contact. Increases in sagittal plane hip angular displacement and decreases in frontal plane pelvic angular displacement were observed. The pattern changes suggest that children quickly discover appropriately timed and directed escapements that initiate and support the conservative sagittal plane pendulum and spring dynamics observed in older children.     

Calculation of alloying effect on formation enthalpy of TiCu intermetallics from first-principles calculations for designing Ti–Cu-system metallic glasses

The effect of alloying on the formation enthalpy of TiCu intermetallics was investigated via first-principles calculations to propose a new design method for Ti–Cu-system metallic glasses. The calculation results showed good agreement with the reported experimental results that Ni, Pd, Sn and Zr improve this system’s glass-forming ability. According to the calculation results, a Ti–Zr–Cu–Ga system was designed as a potential new bulk Ti-based metallic glass, and a bulk sample with a 2-mm diameter was fabricated.