Attachment relationships and psychological outcomes: a comparison of Singaporean and Australian young adults

The impact close relationships have on development, functioning, and wellbeing makes its research important in enriching understanding about the social conditions that support better socio-emotional functioning. While the literature has seen voluminous research on close relationships, cross-cultural research on the topic has received relatively less attention. This dissertation addresses this literature gap by studying close relationships across two cultures, using attachment theory as the theoretical framework. A review of available adult attachment studies between Western and East Asian populations show that: 1) East Asians typically score higher culture level means in attachment insecurity (i.e., attachment anxiety and avoidance) on survey measures, and 2) attachment insecurity appears to more strongly predict worse psychological functioning among East Asians, than Westerners. These differences have been largely attributed to East-West differences in individualism and collectivism levels or related reasons, which are often vaguely defined and not systematically evaluated in existing studies. Current cross-cultural studies also almost overwhelmingly examine individual differences but not attachment normative processes. These findings informed two cross-cultural, cross-sectional studies that sampled college students from Western (Australian) and Eastern/Asian (Singaporean) backgrounds to examine if attachment differences are associated with individualism and collectivism at the individual level. The first study assessed participants’ (Australian n = 143; Singaporean n = 146) personal endorsement of individualism and collectivism, their associations with attachment orientation, and their roles in moderating the relation between attachment and psychological outcomes (i.e., attachment-psychological outcomes link). It also compared the attachment networks and transfer between Singaporeans and Australians. The second study (Australian n = 206; vii Singaporean n = 322) used two complementary approaches to assess culture to tease apart the separate associations of personal endorsement and perceived norms of individualism and collectivism with attachment, and assessed the moderating role of person-culture fit in the attachment-psychological outcomes link. Results showed that, across two studies using different attachment scales, the two populations did not score reliably differently in their culture level means of individualism and collectivism or attachment constructs. The two studies corroborated results showing that individual differences in personal endorsement of individualism and collectivism (also perceived norm of collectivism) were associated with individual differences in avoidance, in directions consistent with their conceptual definitions. However, personal endorsement and perceived norm of individualism and collectivism showed non-significant associations with attachment anxiety. At the individual level, there was qualified support that personal endorsement of individualism and collectivism and person-culture fit moderated the attachment-psychological outcomes association. Comparisons of attachment network and transfer showed that Singaporean and Australian late adolescents/young adults showed typical sequential attachment transfer. Romantic partners appeared to play a central role as attachment figures among individuals in a romantic relationship. Entering a romantic relationship seemed to accentuate differences in young adults’ preferences towards different relationship targets as attachment figures between cultures. Overall, results highlighted more similarities than differences in attachment patterns between the cultures examined. It is argued that cultural influences on attachment is better understood through directly examining associations between them rather than comparisons of culture level means. Implications of results, limitations of studies, and future directions for research are discussed

Optimal common manufacturing cycle length for a multi-product inventory system with rework and an outside contractor

Facing global market’s rigid competition, today’s manufacturers need not only to satisfy the timely demands of multiproduct, but also to ensure quality of their goods. For the purpose of reducing fabrication cycle time so as to meet timely demands, outsourcing is always a helpful option in production planning. To address the aforementioned real issues, the present study derives the optimal common manufacturing cycle length for a multi-product inventory system, wherein a part of lot-size of each end product is supplied by an outside contractor, and in each cycle a rework process repairs random defects produced by the in-house process. The schedule of receipt time for outsourced items is practically assumed to be in the end of rework. A specific decision model is built to cautiously portray such a hybrid inventory problem. Through modeling, analysis, and derivation the expected annual system cost is obtained, and using optimization technique the optimal cycle length that minimizes system cost is gained. The proposed decision model not only can help find optimal solution to the problem, but also enables manufacturers to obtain diverse essential information, such as the critical outsourcing rate, individual manufacturing related cost for each end product, and influence or joint effects of variations in different system factor(s) on the problem. Without our in-depth exploration, the aforementioned information will still be unavailable to support managerial decision makings

Exploring Taiwan citizens’ scientific literacy, interest in, and engagement in learning science

This study explored Taiwan citizens' scientific literacy, interest in, and engagement in learning science. By using the stratified random sampling strategy, 1,831 citizens in the age group of 18-70 years were selected to respond to a questionnaire survey along with a paper-pencil test. For exploring the relationship between Taiwan citizens' scientific literacy and their interest in science, the participants were divided into four groups on the basis of their scores for scientific literacy and interest in science. According to the essential results, the high scientific literacy and high science interest (HH) group was mainly represented by males, young citizens, and citizens with higher educational degrees. Conversely, the low scientific literacy and low science interest (LL) group was dominated by females, elderly citizens, and citizens with only a secondary school diploma. Among the four groups, citizens in the HH and LH groups exhibited higher frequency of engagement in science activities. Finally, citizens with high science interest tended to be enthusiastic in learning science and technology. This study contributed a novel insight that the interest in learning science plays a critical role in promoting adults' engagement in learning science. Future studies are recommended for focusing on the citizens in the LH group to investigate how high engagement in learning science influences their scientific literacy

1,1′-Dimethyl-1,1′-(butane-1,4-di­yl)dipyrrolidinium dibromide methanol disolvate

In the title compound, C14H30N2 2+·2Br−·2CH3OH, two terminal C atoms of the butane chain are connected to two N atoms of the 1-methyl­pyrollidines, forming a linear diquaternary ammonium cation. The cation lies across a centre of inversion located between the two central C atoms of the butane chain. The asymmetric unit therefore comprises one half-cation, a bromide anion and a methanol solvent mol­ecule. In the crystal structure, the bromide anions are linked to the methanol solvent mol­ecules by O—H⋯Br hydrogen bonds

Peritoneal metastatic adenocarcinoma possibly due to a gastric duplication cyst: a case report and literature review

BACKGROUND: Gastric duplication cysts are rare congenital abnormalities, and malignant transformation of these duplications is also thought to be rare. CASE PRESENTATION: During a routine health checkup, a 28-year-old man underwent abdominal sonography followed by computed tomography (CT) with contrast agent, which revealed a cystic lesion with no enhancement. Laparoscopic surgery showed a 10 × 10 cm cyst adhering to the gastric corpus. However, attempts to remove the lesion en bloc were unsuccessful, and the ruptured cyst had contaminated the peritoneal cavity. Gastric duplication was diagnosed from microscopic examination of the cyst. Seven months later, the patient suffered a progressive increase in ascites, and repeated cytological analysis showed small nests of adenocarcinoma cells, with primary lesion unknown. Diagnostic laparoscopy showed multiple white nodules scattered over the surface of the liver, greater omentum, and peritoneum. Biopsy of the omental nodules confirmed adenocarcinoma, while carcinomatosis was diagnosed in the peritoneum. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical presentation and chronological developments indicated that the malignancy probably originated from the gastric duplication cyst. This case highlights the importance of accurate preoperative diagnosis and optimal surgical management for gastric duplication as well as considering the potential existence of malignant transformation during surgical evaluation of adult patients with gastric duplication cysts

Alleviating Interference through Cognitive Radio for LTE-Advanced Network

In the LTE-Advanced network, some femtocells are deployed within a macroecell for improving throughput of indoor user equipments (UEs), which are referred to as femtocell UEs (FUEs). Cross-tier interference is an important issue in this deployment, which may significantly impact signal quality between Macrocell Base Stations (MBSs) and Macrocell User Equipments (MUEs), especially for MUEs near the femtocell. To relieve this problem, the Third Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution-Advanced (3GPP LTE-Advanced) de fined the cognitive radio enhanced femtocell to coordinate interference for LTE-Advanced Network. Cognitive radio femtocells have the ability to sense radio environment to obtain radio parameters. In this paper, we investigated the performance of existing schemes based on fractional frequency reuse. Therefore, we proposed a scheme with cognitive radio technology to improve the performance of fractional fre-quency reuse scheme. Simulation results showed that our scheme can effectively enhance average downlink throughput of FUEs as well as the total downlink throughput in LTE-Advanced Networks

A Novel Animal Model for Subarachnoid Hemorrhage in Rabbits - Pathology due to Hemorrhage

The Pathophysiological course of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is not completely understood, such as  how and why blood or its lysate can influence the brain. Although many SAH animal models have previously  been reported, none are suitable for research in this field. The aim of the present study was to establish  such an animal model. Twenty New Zealand rabbits were divided into two groups, a control group and  a SAH group (n=10). Blood was lysed using an in vitro freeze-thaw method. After anesthesia, 0.9 ml of  cerebrospinal fluid was drawn from both groups. An identical volume of heparinized hemolysate was then  slowly injected into the cisterna magna of the SAH group animals. Control group animals while the control  group received heparinized isotonic sodium chloride solution. Forty-eight hours post-injection, samples  were excised after perfusion fixation for further determinations. The degree of cerebral vasospasm was  evaluated by measuring the cross-sectional area of the basilar arterial lumen, and brain damage was examined  by TUNEL staining. Weight, blood pressure and saturation of blood oxygen showed no statistical differences  between groups. The cross-sectional area of the arterial lumen in the SAH group was roundly  0.402 mm2, which was statistically the same as that for the control group (0.435 mm2). The apoptosis index  for the SAH group was significantly higher than that for the control group. Taken together, our results show  that this model is effective in reproducing the influence of blood on the brain after SAH and, at the same  time, strictly excludes influences on the brain by other factors. Thus, this model can effectively be applied  to investigate blood-related neuropathophysiology following SAH.

High Sensitivity Refractive Index Sensor by D-Shaped Fibers and Titanium Dioxide Nanofilm

This paper presents a high sensitivity liquid refractive index (RI) sensor based on lossy mode resonance (LMR) effect. The D-shaped fibers coated with nanosized titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin film as a sensing head were submerged into different refractive index solutions. The variations in the optical spectrum of the proposed RI sensor with different refractive index solutions were measured. The LMR resonance peaks were used to determine the wavelength shifts with different refractive index solutions. The results show that the optical spectrum peaks shifted towards the longer wavelength side with increasing the refractive index. For the proposed fiber sensing head with a polishing residual thickness of 72 μm, the maximum shift of the absorption peak was 264 nm. The sensitivity of the proposed RI sensor was 4122 nm/RIU for the refractive index range from 1.333 to 1.398