Farming cultivates a community-level shared culture through collective activities: Examining contextual effects with multilevel analyses.

It has been suggested that the well-known cultural differences in interdependence across cultures are linked to economic activities, such as farming. However, the underlying processes of how such psychological tendencies are shared among people in a society has not been sufficiently investigated. This article addresses the multilevel processes of how psychological characteristics are shared among people.

Ultrafast proton/deuteron dynamics in KTaO observed with infrared pump-probe spectroscopy: Toward understanding of proton conduction mechanism in solid oxides.

Infrared pump-probe measurement for the OD stretching mode in KTaO has been performed. We observed the induced absorption signal corresponding to the 1-2 transition for the first time in oxide crystals in addition to the bleaching signal of the 0-1 transition. Both signals show long decay time of ∼200 ps, and the potential anharmonicity is found to be 3.

Estimating metabolic equivalents for activities in daily life using acceleration and heart rate in wearable devices.

Background: Herein, an algorithm that can be used in wearable health monitoring devices to estimate metabolic equivalents (METs) based on physical activity intensity data, particularly for certain activities in daily life that make MET estimation difficult.

Results: Energy expenditure data were obtained from 42 volunteers using indirect calorimetry, triaxial accelerations and heart rates. The proposed algorithm used the percentage of heart rate reserve (%HRR) and the acceleration signal from the wearable device to divide the data into a middle-intensity group and a high-intensity group (HIG).

Effect of diurnal variations in the carbohydrate and fat composition of meals on postprandial glycemic response in healthy adults: a novel insight for the second-meal phenomenon.

Background: Meals, particularly carbohydrate intake, determine diurnal blood glucose (BG) excursions. However, the effect of meals with variable carbohydrate content on diurnal BG excursions remains poorly understood, despite routine consumption of meals that vary daily.

Objective: The aim of this study was to verify our hypothesis that glycemic response is elevated when a meal with a higher carbohydrate content follows a meal with a lower carbohydrate content.

Electron Transfer Pathways of Cyclobutane Pyrimidine Dimer Photolyase Revisited.

The photoinduced electron transfer (ET) reaction of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer (CPD) photolyase plays an essential role in its DNA repair reaction, and the molecular mechanism of the ET reaction has attracted a large number of experimental and theoretical studies. We investigated the quantum mechanical nature of their ET reactions, characterized by multiple ET pathways of the CPD photolyase derived from Anacystis nidulans. Using the generalized Mulliken-Hush (GMH) method and the bridge green function (GF) methods, we estimated the electronic coupling matrix element, T, to be 36 ± 30 cm from the donor (FADH) to the acceptor (CPD).

Culture and social hierarchy: Self- and other-oriented correlates of socioeconomic status across cultures.

Current theorizing on socioeconomic status (SES) focuses on the availability of resources and the freedom they afford as a key determinant of the association between high SES and stronger orientation toward the self and, by implication, weaker orientation toward others. However, this work relies nearly exclusively on data from Western countries where self-orientation is strongly sanctioned. In the present work, we predicted and found that especially in East Asian countries, where other-orientation is strongly sanctioned, high SES is associated with stronger other-orientation as well as with self-orientation.

Behavioral Adjustment Moderates the Link Between Neuroticism and Biological Health Risk: A U.S.-Japan Comparison Study.

Neuroticism, a broad personality trait linked to negative emotions, is consistently linked to ill health when self-report is used to assess health. However, when health risk is assessed with biomarkers, the evidence is inconsistent. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the association between neuroticism and biological health risk is moderated by behavioral adjustment, a propensity to flexibly adjust behaviors to environmental contingencies.

Culture and Healthy Eating: The Role of Independence and Interdependence in the United States and Japan.

Healthy eating is important for physical health. Using large probability samples of middle-aged adults in the United States and Japan, we show that fitting with the culturally normative way of being predicts healthy eating. In the United States, a culture that prioritizes and emphasizes independence, being independent predicts eating a healthy diet (an index of fish, protein, fruit, vegetables, reverse-coded sugared beverages, and reverse-coded high fat meat consumption; Study 1) and not using nonmeat food as a way to cope with stress (Study 2a).

Examining the Disability Model From the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health Using a Large Data Set of Community-Dwelling Malaysian Older Adults.

Objective: This study examines the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health model (ICF) using a data set of 2,563 community-dwelling elderly with disease-independent measures of mobility, physical activity, and social networking, to represent ICF constructs.

Method: The relationship between chronic disease and disability (independent and dependent variables) was examined using logistic regression. To demonstrate variability in activity performance with functional impairment, graphing was used.

Validity and reproducibility of a novel method for time-course evaluation of diet-induced thermogenesis in a respiratory chamber.

We developed a novel method for computing diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT) in a respiratory chamber and evaluated the validity and reproducibility of the method. We hypothesized that DIT may be calculated as the difference between postprandial energy expenditure (EE) and estimated EE (sum of basal metabolic rate and physical activity (PA)-related EE). The estimated EE was derived from the regression equation between EE from respiration and PA intensity in the fasting state.

Culture, inequality, and health: evidence from the MIDUS and MIDJA comparison.

This article seeks to forge scientific connections between three overarching themes (culture, inequality, health). Although the influence of cultural context on human experience has gained notable research prominence, it has rarely embraced another large arena of science focused on the influence social hierarchies have on how well and how long people live. That literature is increasingly focused psychosocial factors, working interactively with biological and brain-based mechanisms, to account for why those with low socioeconomic standing have poorer health.

Multisensory perception of the six basic emotions is modulated by attentional instruction and unattended modality.

Previous studies have shown that the perception of facial and vocal affective expressions interacts with each other. Facial expressions usually dominate vocal expressions when we perceive the emotions of face-voice stimuli. In most of these studies, participants were instructed to pay attention to the face or voice.

Expression of anger and ill health in two cultures: an examination of inflammation and cardiovascular risk.

Expression of anger is associated with biological health risk (BHR) in Western cultures. However, recent evidence documenting culturally divergent functions of the expression of anger suggests that its link with BHR may be moderated by culture. To test this prediction, we examined large probability samples of both Japanese and Americans using multiple measures of BHR, including pro-inflammatory markers (interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein) and indices of cardiovascular malfunction (systolic blood pressure and ratio of total to HDL cholesterol).

Subjective and Objective Hierarchies and Their Relations to Psychological Well-Being: A U.S/Japan Comparison.

Hierarchy can be conceptualized as objective social status (e.g., education level) or subjective social status (i.

Just how bad negative affect is for your health depends on culture.

Pressman, Lopez and Gallagher (2013) conclude that across the globe negative emotions are bad for one’s health. Yet, just how bad negative emotions are for health depends on culture. In U.

A cultural perspective on emotional experiences across the life span.

Past research suggests that older adults place a greater priority on goals of maintaining positive experiences and distancing from negative experiences. We hypothesized that these aging-related differences in emotional experiences are more pronounced in Western cultures that encourage linear approaches to well-being compared with Eastern cultures that encourage more dialectic approaches to well-being. We compared reports of positive and negative emotional experiences from random samples of Americans (a culture characterized by focus on positive and distancing from negative experiences) and Japanese (a culture characterized by its endorsement of dialectical experiences).

Social status and anger expression: the cultural moderation hypothesis.

Individuals with lower social status have been reported to express more anger, but this evidence comes mostly from Western cultures. Here, we used representative samples of American and Japanese adults and tested the hypothesis that the association between social status and anger expression depends on whether anger serves primarily to vent frustration, as in the United States, or to display authority, as in Japan. Consistent with the assumption that lower social standing is associated with greater frustration stemming from life adversities and blocked goals, Americans with lower social status expressed more anger, with the relationship mediated by the extent of frustration.

[Differential diagnosis between dissociative disorders and schizophrenia].

The differential diagnosis of dissociative disorders includes many psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorders (especially bipolar II disorder), depressive disorder (especially atypical depression), epilepsy, Asperger syndrome, and borderline personality disorder. The theme of this paper is the differential diagnosis between dissociative disorders and schizophrenia. Schneiderian first-rank symptoms in schizophrenia are common in dissociative disorders, especially in dissociative identity disorder (DID).

Cultural perspectives on aging and well-being: a comparison of Japan and the United States.

This study investigated age differences in multiple aspects of psychological well-being among midlife and older adults in Japan (N = 482) and the United States (N = 3,032) to test the hypothesis that older Japanese adults would rate aspects of their well-being (personal growth, purpose in life, positive relations with others) more highly that older U.S. adults.

Lateral biases and reading direction: a dissociation between aesthetic preference and line bisection.

Perceptual asymmetries for tasks involving aesthetic preference or line bisection can be affected by asymmetrical neurological mechanisms or left/right reading habits. This study investigated the relative contribution of these mechanisms in 100 readers of Japanese and English. Participants made aesthetic judgments between pairs of mirror-reversed pictures showing: (a) static objects, (b) moving objects and (c) landscapes.

Experimental evaluation of usability and accessibility of heading elements.

Purpose: To evaluate if marking up heading elements of Web sites improves usability and accessibility.

Method: Task completion times and questionnaire responses were collected from sighted and blind users for two kinds of Web sites: sites marked up appropriately with heading elements, and sites with the same visual appearance but with no heading elements marked up. The experiment was carried out with user agents that could navigate through heading elements.

Current issues on ageing in Japan: a comparison with Australia.

Japan's demography has changed dramatically, and with it, Japanese society and the circumstances of older people. These changes include shifts in family roles and functions, employment and social relations. Traditionally, families provided financial, physical and psychological support to their parents in the same household.

Cryptic species in the fern Ceratopteris thalictroides (Parkeriaceae). III. Referential diagnostic characters of three cryptic species.

Three cryptic species of Ceratopteris thalictroides, named the south type, the north type and the third type, were examined for their morphological characteristics, using sporophytes cultivated under common conditions. The discriminant analysis for leaf characters followed by one-way layout ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis test for selected combinations of characters revealed that the following characters may be effective for identifying the three types: the relative lengths of stipe to blade and to pinna, the degree of dissection, the segment densities on rachis and pinna rachis, and the elongation degree of ultimate segments. The number of annulus cells on sporangia also proved to be a possible distinguishing character.

[An attempt to integrate the dual route cascaded model and the triangle model for reading English words aloud].

In this article, I discuss the implementation of neural network models for reading English words aloud. Since 1989, there has been existing a debate about the models of reading English words aloud. One is the Dual Route Cascaded (DRC) model.

Cryptic species in the fern Ceratopteris thalictroides (L.) Brongn. (Parkeriaceae). I. Molecular analyses and crossing tests.

For the taxonomic revision of the problematic species Ceratopteris thalictroides, molecular analyses and crossing tests were conducted for 16 sources in the world. An analysis of allozyme composition of five enzymes revealed the presence of three intraspecific entities, which were called the south type, the north type, and the third type. An analysis of the nucleotide sequences of chloroplast DNA also distinguished the same entities.