A study of personality in children aged 8-12 years: Comparing self- and partents' ratings

This study was designed to investigate personality development with children aged 8 to 12. For this purpose, Children's self-perceptions were compared to parent's ratings. 506 children and their parents completed a selection of 38 questions from the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (HiPIC). Results showed an age-related increase in the structural congruence of children's ratings compared to parents' ratings and a highly significant increase in the reliabilities of both parents' and children's assessments. The mean correlation between the children's self-descriptions and parents' ratings were higher for Conscientiousness and Imagination than for Extraversion, Benevolence and Emotional Stability and significantly increased with the children's age. Mean-levels decreased with age for Imagination in parents' ratings and for Benevolence, Conscientiousness, and Imagination, in children's ratings. This study showed that personality development from 8 to 12 years goes along with an increase in the agreement between the children's self-perceptions and the parents' perceptions of the children's personality.

Fathers of girls, fathers of boys: influence of child's gender on fathers' experience of, engagement in, and representations of paternity.

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of child's gender on several dimensions-of paternity: the fathers' personal experience of paternity, their involvement in child rearing, and their representations. A total of 147 Swiss fathers of 18-month-old children (65 girls and 82 boys) relationship to the child or relationship with the child's completed questionnaires. The child's gender had little influence on paternal experience, mother. Globally, the fathers took on few responsibilities which were largely devolved to mothers. Fathers of boys were more involved in child care than fathers of girls. Finally, a discrepancy was found between the fathers representations of paternal roles in rearing girls and boys and the actual level of responsibility that fathers adopted in their relationship with their child.

Assessment of needs, health-related quality of life, and satisfaction with care in breast cancer patients to better target supportive care.

BACKGROUND: This study assessed whether breast cancer (BC) patients express similar levels of needs for equivalent severity of symptoms, functioning difficulties, or degrees of satisfaction with care aspects. BC patients who did (or not) report needs in spite of similar difficulties were identified among their sociodemographic or clinical characteristics. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Three hundred and eighty-four (73% response rate) BC patients recruited in ambulatory or surgery hospital services completed the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life questionnaire (EORTC QLQ)-C30 quality of life [health-related quality of life (HRQOL)], the EORTC IN-PATSAT32 (in-patient) or OUT-PATSAT35 (out-patient) satisfaction with care, and the supportive care needs survey short form 34-item (SCNS-SF34) measures. RESULTS: HRQOL or satisfaction with care scale scores explained 41%, 45%, 40% and 22% of variance in, respectively, psychological, physical/daily living needs, information/health system, and care/support needs (P < 0.001). BC patients' education level, having children, hospital service attendance, and anxiety/depression levels significantly predicted differences in psychological needs relative to corresponding difficulties (adjusted R(2) = 0.11). Medical history and anxiety/depression levels significantly predicted differences in information/health system needs relative to degrees of satisfaction with doctors, nurses, or radiotherapy technicians and general satisfaction (adjusted R(2) = 0.12). Unmet needs were most prevalent in the psychological domains across hospital services. CONCLUSIONS: Assessment of needs, HRQOL, and satisfaction with care highlights the subgroups of BC patients requiring better supportive care targeting.

Self and cross-velocity correlation functions and diffusion coefficients in liquids: a molecular dynamics study of binary mixtures of soft spheres

Molecular dynamics simulation is applied to the study of the diffusion properties in binary liquid mixtures made up of soft-sphere particles with different sizes and masses. Self- and distinct velocity correlation functions and related diffusion coefficients have been calculated. Special attention has been paid to the dynamic cross correlations which have been computed through recently introduced relative mean molecular velocity correlation functions which are independent on the reference frame. The differences between the distinct velocity correlations and diffusion coefficients in different reference frames (mass-fixed, number-fixed, and solvent-fixed) are discussed.

Intercultural bridges in teenagers' theatrical events : performing self and constructing cultural identity through a creative drama process

The overriding aim of this drama educational case study is to deepen the understanding of meaning making in a creative intercultural youth theatre process and to examine it in the context of the 10th European Children's TheatreEncounter. The research task is to give a theoretical description of some key features of a creative drama process as the basis for theory about meaning makingin physical theatre. The first task is to illuminate the culture-historical connections of the multilayered practice of the EDERED-association. The second taskis to analyse and interpret theatrical meaning making. The ethnographical research site is regarded as a theatrical event. The analysis of the theatrical eventis divided into four segments: cultural contexts, contextual theatricality, theatrical playing and playing culture. These segments are connected with four research questions: What are the cultural contexts of a creative drama process? How can the organisation of the Encounter, genres, aesthetic codes and perception ofcodes be seen to influence the lived experiences of the participants? What are some of the key phases and characteristics in a creative practice? What kind of cultural learning can be interpreted from the performance texts? The interpretative question concerns identity and community (re)construction. How are the categories, `community´ and `child´ constructed in the Encounter culture? In this drama educational case study the research material (transcribed interviews, coded questionnaire answers, participant drawings, videotaped process text and performance texts) are examined in a multi-method analysis in the meta-theoretical framework of Dewey's naturalistic pragmatism. A three-dimensional research interest through a combination of lived experiences, social contexts and cultural-aesthetical practices compared with drama-educational practices required the methodological project of cultural studies. Furthermore, the critical interpretation of cultural texts is divided into three levels of analyses which are called description, structural analysis and theoretical interpretation. Dialogic validity (truthfulness, self-reflexivity and polyvocality) is combined with contextual validity (sensitivity to social context and awareness of historicity) and with deconstructive validity (awareness of the social discourses). My research suggests that itis possible, by means of physical theatre, to construct symbolic worlds where questions about intercultural identity and multilingual community are examined and where provisional answers are constructed in social interaction.

The Broken "I" : fragmentation of self and otherness in modern urban narratives

Ce mémoire mélange théorie et fiction pour explorer la technique narrative du “nous” performatif. Le premier chapitre démontre le role du discours dans le processus de formation d’identité, pour éventuellement démontrer que la nature performative du langage est responsable de la creation des constructions sociales du soi et de l’autre. En étudiant les failles de ce système, cet essai tentera de créer une entité narrative libre de ces contraintes. Un second chapitre théorique, après des exemples de fiction, se penchera sur l’entité narrative du flâneur, qui à travers sa relation intime avec la cité, souligne une dichotomie présente dans la relation entre le soi et l’autre. Le flâneur emergera comme un site de traduction dans lequel le “nous” performatif peut prendre action. Toutefois, les limites du flâneur en tant qu’outil narratif l’empêchera d’être la representation ultime de cette dichotomie. Après d’autres exemples de fiction, un troisième chapitre combinera ce qui aura été apprit dans les chapitres précédents pour démontrer que le “nous” performatif et sa dissolution du “je” et du “tu” mène à une narration qui est responsable, consciente d’elle-même et représentative de la réalité urbaine moderne et ses effets sur la création de l’identité.

Personal self-concept and satisfaction with life in adolescence, youth and adulthood

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n

Shared neural circuits for mentalizing about the self and others

Although many examples exist for shared neural representations of self and other, it is unknown how such shared representations interact with the rest of the brain. Furthermore, do high-level inference-based shared mentalizing representations interact with lower level embodied/simulation-based shared representations? We used functional neuroimaging (fMRI) and a functional connectivity approach to assess these questions during high-level inference-based mentalizing. Shared mentalizing representations in ventromedial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate/precuneus, and temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) all exhibited identical functional connectivity patterns during mentalizing of both self and other. Connectivity patterns were distributed across low-level embodied neural systems such as the frontal operculum/ventral premotor cortex, the anterior insula, the primary sensorimotor cortex, and the presupplementary motor area. These results demonstrate that identical neural circuits are implementing processes involved in mentalizing of both self and other and that the nature of such processes may be the integration of low-level embodied processes within higher level inference-based mentalizing.

Ribose 2′-O-methylation provides a molecular signature for the distinction of self and non-self mRNA dependent on the RNA sensor Mda5

The 5'-cap-structures of higher eukaryote mRNAs are ribose 2'-O-methylated. Likewise, a number of viruses replicating in the cytoplasm of eukayotes have evolved 2'-O-methyltransferases to modify autonomously their mRNAs. However, a defined biological role of mRNA 2'-O-methylation remains elusive. Here we show that viral mRNA 2'-O-methylation is critically involved in subversion of type-I-interferon (IFN-I) induction. We demonstrate that human and murine coronavirus 2'-O-methyltransferase mutants induce increased IFN-I expression, and are highly IFN-I sensitive. Importantly, IFN-I induction by 2'-O-methyltransferase-deficient viruses is dependent on the cytoplasmic RNA sensor melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5). This link between MDA5-mediated sensing of viral RNA and mRNA 2'-O-methylation suggests that RNA modifications, such as 2'-O-methylation, provide a molecular signature for the discrimination of self and non-self mRNA.

Pensamos que somos historia porque sabemos que somos historia: context, self and self-construction in women's testimonial writing from revolutionary Cuba

This article presents a group of women-authored testimonial texts published between 1959–1989 in revolutionary Cuba. Despite the recent scholarly debates within Latin American Cultural Studies regarding Latin American testimonio, these texts have received little or no critical or theoretical attention within or outside Cuba. The article therefore starts by situating them within the specific context of revolutionary culture, especially with reference to questions of gender, genre and publication. Having established that the texts as a whole privilege the collective revolutionary context and revolutionary experience over gendered or generic aspects, the seven texts are then grouped under a more specific contextual category, as narratives of voluntary work (participation and observation), in order to provide a clearer structure for their description and analysis. Each of the texts is then described within its sub-group, and the article ends by indicating how such texts challenge testimonio paradigms by positing a relational notion of subjectivity.

Automatic and objective assessment of alternating tapping performance in Parkinson’s disease

This paper presents the development and evaluation of a method for enabling quantitative and automatic scoring of alternating tapping performance of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Ten healthy elderly subjects and 95 patients in different clinical stages of PD have utilized a touch-pad handheld computer to perform alternate tapping tests in their home environments. First, a neurologist used a web-based system to visually assess impairments in four tapping dimensions (‘speed’, ‘accuracy’, ‘fatigue’ and ‘arrhythmia’) and a global tapping severity (GTS). Second, tapping signals were processed with time series analysis and statistical methods to derive 24 quantitative parameters. Third, principal component analysis was used to reduce the dimensions of these parameters and to obtain scores for the four dimensions. Finally, a logistic regression classifier was trained using a 10-fold stratified cross-validation to map the reduced parameters to the corresponding visually assessed GTS scores. Results showed that the computed scores correlated well to visually assessed scores and were significantly different across Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale scores of upper limb motor performance. In addition, they had good internal consistency, had good ability to discriminate between healthy elderly and patients in different disease stages, had good sensitivity to treatment interventions and could reflect the natural disease progression over time. In conclusion, the automatic method can be useful to objectively assess the tapping performance of PD patients and can be included in telemedicine tools for remote monitoring of tapping.

Postural control as a function of self- and object-motion perception

The goals of this study were to examine the visual information influence on body sway as a function of self- and object-motion perception and visual information quality. Participants that were aware (object-motion) and unaware (self-motion) of the movement of a moving room were asked to stand upright at five different distances from its frontal wall. The visual information effect on body sway decreased when participants were aware about the sensory manipulation. Moreover, while the visual influence on body sway decreased as the distance increased in the self-motion perception, no effects were observed in the object-motion mode. The overall results indicate that postural control system functioning can be altered by prior knowledge, and adaptation due to changes in sensory quality seem to occur in the self- but not in the object-motion perception mode. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V.. All rights reserved.