Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Reports of behavioral frequencies are informative for gauging unemployment and crime rates, the epidemiology of illnesses, neighborhood and community service provision, transport infrastructure effectiveness, consumer behavior, government health resource allocation, and more. Hence, researchers often measure the frequency with which people perform behaviors that are executed regularly throughout their daily lives. Whereas some investigators have asked respondents about their behavior during a “typical” day, week, or month, others sought to describe the same sorts of behavior patterns by asking about the most recent day, week, or month. Because there are strong rationales and empirical evidence supporting both approaches, it is not obvious a priori whether questions about particular recent time periods will yield more accurate reports than questions asking directly about typical behavior patterns.

We compared the validity of “typical” week and “past” week reports from the 1989 National Election Study Pilot, in which respondents were randomly assigned to report TV news program and newspaper exposure during either a typical week or the past week. We also explored the possibility that differences between typical week reports and past week reports might vary with the education level of the respondent. The predictive validity of the measures was assessed using objective tests of current events knowledge and identification of political figures, as well as self-assessments of political knowledge. Convergent trends across four different dependent variables suggested that typical week reports were more accurate because they tended to be more representative and reliable than past week reports. The typical week questions consistently manifested superior predictive validity, especially among the respondents with at least some college education. Our findings also point to the importance of considering the interaction between exposure and attention when studying information acquisition. Limitations on the implications of our evidence will be reviewed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Social scientists often measure the frequency with which people perform behaviors executed regularly throughout their daily lives, but there is no standard approach to this measurement task: some investigators have asked respondents about their behavior during a “usual” or “typical” day, week, or month, whereas others sought to describe the same sorts of behavior patterns by asking about the most recent day, week, or month. This paper compares the validity of “typical” week and “past” week reports for assessing habitual behavior patterns using data from the 1989 National Election Study Pilot, in which respondents were randomly assigned to report TV news program and newspaper exposure during either a typical week or the past week. The predictive validity of the measures was assessed using objective tests of current events knowledge and identification of political figures, as well as self-assessments of political knowledge. The typical week questions consistently manifested superior predictive validity, especially among the most educated respondents.

Publication Type: Individual Poster
Abstract: Objectives : Our purpose was to study the levels of maternal trait anxiety and to determine the stress hormone in pregnant women at 30 weeks of gestation.
Methods : The study population consisted of 24 pregnant women who were admitted to the Obstetrical Clinic of Tokyo Women,s Medical University between October 1, 2004 and August 31, 2005. This protocol was approved by the Human Investigational Review Board for our University. Written agreement was obtained from all participants before this study. To assess maternal stress, we used the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and measured the stress hormone i.e. corticotropin releaseing hormone(CRH), adrenocorticotrophic hormone(ACTH), cortisol and chromogranin(CgA). Simultaneously, we measured fetal heart rate (FHR) pattern before and after the vibratory acoustic stimulation (VAS) and divided four response type:positive, triphasic, negative and non response. VAS was performed a single 3-second over the fetal vertex with (75Hz, 75 dB) after quiet phase.
Results : In state anxiety, response types after VAS were not significant in pregnant women with high and low anxiety. The response types after VAS were significant recognized in low trait anxiety (p< 0.01). On the other hand, the triphasic types were recognized in high trait anxiety (p< 0.05). The mean values of maximum acceleration in FHR after VAS was significantly lower in high trait than low trait anxiety (8.4 ± 2.1 vs. 17.6 ± 7.3 bpm, rspectively). The FHR response after VAS in pregnant women with high trait anxiety showed poor response and the rsponse pattern was recognised triphasic rather than normal response.
Conclusions : These findings suggest that the stress in pregnant women with high trait anxiety might influence FHR after VBS.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper, I analyze 35 children's picture books that focus on the death of a child's pet to determine how they portray the relationship between a child and a pet, what they describe as memorable about a pet, whether the book encourages any compassion for the dying animal, and how the animal's death is described. I found that the majority of these books treat the death as less worthy of grief and less fear-producing that human death and therefore a good way for the child to learn about death and the life cycle.

Publication Type: Individual Poster
Abstract: Background and aim: In human infants the ability to smoothly pursuit a moving object develops rather rapidly between 6 and 15 weeks of age. During this period the developmental improvement of gain is approximately similar between infants. It has been shown that children born preterm (<32 week) often have reduced gain in smooth pursuit at 5 years of age (Langaas et al 1998, Vis Res 38). The aim of our study was to measure eye movements in young infants born before week 32 and to relate the result to the presence of retinopathy and/or leucomalacia.
Methods: A prospective study of all infants born<32 weeks with a planned size of 100 was initiated. The measurements of eye movements were performed at 2 and 4 months corrected age when the infants were tracking a moving object. The method was similar to earlier published studies in full born infants (von Hofsten Rosander 1996,1997). At each occasion the eye movements were measured with electroculography and head/object movements with an optoelectronic system. The smooth eye movement component was defined as the measured , calibrated eye movement remaining after eliminating the saccades.
Key results: The results of the first 25 infants are presented. As compared to controls, the gain of smooth pursuit was significantly lower at 2 and 4 months of age, although some (5 of 25) infants showed values similar to controls. Furthermore, at 4 months of age the lag of smooth eye movement relative to the head slip was lower than in controls with a factor of 2 to 3. Eleven of the 25 infants were not able to suppress the vestibular-ocular response at 2 months: these infants had considerable head movements causing the smooth eye movement to counterrotate. In this sub group 4 infants were diagnosed with intraventricular hemorrhages or retinopathy. The corresponding number for the whole group was 11.
Conclusions: It seems that the smooth pursuit gain does not follow the schedule of corrected age in a group of infants born < 32 weeks. However, the gain improves between 2 and 4 months of corrected age.