Understanding East-West Differences in Social Anxiety: The Roles of Culturally-Tuned Attentional Processes

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2018

Attachment and \u27Hikikomori\u27: A Psychosocial Developmental Model

Background: Hikikomori (acute social withdrawal) is a social issue in Japan that affects both the society and the lives of the individual sufferers. Aims: This study aims to connect attachment theory and hikikomori by using a culturally sensitive psychosocial developmental model that outlines the various stages of attachment throughout the developmental years. Method: Twenty–four hikikomori sufferers and 60 comparison group participants were given questionnaires assessing parent and peer relationships, temperament and school experiences. Results: We found the hikikomori participants had a higher incidence of ambivalent attachment, reported more parental and peer rejection and bullying, and expressed greater temperamental shyness. Path analysis supported our developmental model. We found that shy temperament and parental rejection predicted ambivalent attachment, which when coupled with peer rejection predicted hikikomori. Our model implies that treatment and prevention may require attention to attachment insecurities in early childhood, peer rejection in middle childhood and/or early adolescence. Conclusion: We believe it is helpful in understanding hikikomori to first understand how the attachment system balances security with exploration and the anxiety associated with novelty and challenge. Finally, we examine implications of the model for intervention, treatment and future research

Quality of Floating Car Data

Meanwhile, Floating Car Data (FCD) is a widely available and affordable data source for traffic surveillance. The German Aerospace Center, Institute of Transportation Systems (DLR-TS) receives FCD from taxi-fleets ranging from 300 to 4000 vehicles from various German and European cities since the year 2002. To extract common traffic variables like travel times or travel speeds and generate traffic information out of it, the raw GPS data of the vehicles are matched to a digital road network. However, compared to data from inductive loops, where each vehicle passing a loop generates data and the whole traffic flow is covered, the FCD represent only singular measurements. Thus, they are very noisy (especially when passing signalized intersections) and typically need to be aggregated to yield useful information. This means, a single delivered value is not very reliable and does not necessarily represent the state of the traffic flow on the according street segment. Data from some vehicles have to be aggregated and smoothed for some time interval and/or space to obtain reliable traffic information

Real-Time Detection of Polymerase Activity Using Supercritical Angle Fluorescence

We investigated the incorporation efficiencies of different fluorescently labelled dNTPs with polymerases by complementary strand synthesis. For this reason single stranded DNA was immobilized on a coverslip and the increase of fluorescence due to the synthesis of the corresponding strand with tagged dNTPs was detected with a supercritical angle fluorescence biosensor in real-time. By comparison of the observed signal intensities it was possible to conclude that the system Cy5-dCTP—Klenow (exonuclease free) fragment gives the best incorporation yield of the investigated enzymes and dNTP

“Unpacking” cultural differences in social anxiety between Japanese and European Americans: the roles of threat appraisal and attentional bias

IntroductionCultural differences in self-reported social anxiety between people of East Asian heritage and European heritage may be related to differences in independent and interdependent self-construals, which potentially influence the processing of social threat.MethodsWe examined the roles of two different aspects of threat bias: threat appraisal (Study 1) and attentional bias (Study 2) to explain cultural group differences in social anxiety between Japanese and European American college students.ResultsStudy 1 demonstrated that sequential mediations of lower independent self-construal and higher appraisal of threat among Japanese could explain their higher social anxiety compared to European Americans. However, Study 2 failed to find the relation between cultural group differences in self-construals and attentional bias. In addition, the cultural group differences in attentional bias were unexpectedly due to stronger selective attention toward neutral stimuli among European Americans, rather than bias toward social threat among Japanese. After selective attention was experimentally manipulated, there were significant cultural group differences in self-reported social anxiety and anxious behavior in a speech task.DiscussionThese conflicting findings suggested that an alternative theoretical framework other than the self-construal theory might be needed to fully account for cultural differences in attentional bias in explaining cultural group differences in social anxiety

Sacral Fractures and Associated Injuries.

STUDY DESIGN: Literature review. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this review is to describe the injuries associated with sacral fractures and to analyze their impact on patient outcome. METHODS: A comprehensive narrative review of the literature was performed to identify the injuries associated with sacral fractures. RESULTS: Sacral fractures are uncommon injuries that result from high-energy trauma, and that, due to their rarity, are frequently underdiagnosed and mistreated. Only 5% of sacral fractures occur in isolation. Injuries most often associated with sacral fractures include neurologic injuries (present in up to 50% of sacral fractures), pelvic ring disruptions, hip and lumbar spine fractures, active pelvic/ abdominal bleeding and the presence of an open fracture or significant soft tissue injury. Diagnosis of pelvic ring fractures and fractures extending to the lumbar spine are key factors for the appropriate management of sacral fractures. Importantly, associated systemic (cranial, thoracic, and abdominopelvic) or musculoskeletal injuries should be promptly assessed and addressed. These associated injuries often dictate the management and eventual outcome of sacral fractures and, therefore, any treatment algorithm should take them into consideration. CONCLUSIONS: Sacral fractures are complex in nature and often associated with other often-missed injuries. This review summarizes the most relevant associated injuries in sacral fractures and discusses on their appropriate management

Merkel Cell Polyomavirus DNA in Persons without Merkel Cell Carcinoma

Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) DNA was detected in 88% of Merkel cell carcinomas in contrast to 16% of other skin tumors. MCPyV was also found in anogenital and oral samples (31%) and eyebrow hairs (50%) of HIV-positive men and in forehead swabs (62%) of healthy controls. MCPyV thus appears to be widespread

Chromate-free smart release corrosion inhibitive pigments containing cations

A smart release chrome-free inhibiting system is utilised in an organic coating system to inhibit cathodic disbondment of hot dip galvanised steel. The non-toxic smart release cation system is relatively cheap, easy to process and highly effective. An in-situ scanning Kelvin probe is used to assess the protection offered by the cation containing pigments in a poly-vinyl-butyral model coating. The inhibition of cathodic delamination under the SKP testing conditions exceeds that of hexavalent chromate by the inhibitor system containing magnesium(II) ions