Effects Of Cultural Variables Research Articles

High and low conflict moral dilemmas resolution: comparing moral judgment from Spanish and Mexican samples

ABSTRACT Objective: Moral dilemmas resolution tasks are a common method to evaluate moral judgement processes. Cultural variables are known to influence these processes. However, performance from different populations has not been directly compared to systematically explore these possible influences. Method: We directly compared the resolution of high and low conflict moral dilemmas in students from two different countries, Spain and México. Each dilemma allowed four possible resolutions, distributed in a continuum from non-utilitarian responses to utilitarian responses: the proposed solution is definitely not acceptable (DNA), it is not acceptable (NA), it is acceptable (A), and it is definitely acceptable (DA). Results: Both samples tend to resolve the low conflict moral dilemmas by DNA (non-utilitarian) responses, with a significantly higher number of DNA responses in the Mexican group. Regarding high conflict moral dilemmas, the number of non-utilitarian responses (DNA and NA) was higher in the Mexican group, with a higher number of utilitarian responses (A) in the Spanish group. Conclusions: These findings suggest that cultural and social differences may influence moral judgements, particularly in relation to non-utilitarian responses in low and high moral conflicts and utilitarian resolutions of high conflict situations. KEY POINTS What is already known about this topic: (1) General cultural variables are considered factors that can influence the utilitarian and non-utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas. (2) Moral judgements have been researched in homogeneous samples throughout different moral dilemmas resolution tasks that include high and low conflict moral dilemmas. (3) These tasks use dichotomous responses (agree or disagree) for the resolution of moral dilemmas, and evidence provided by these tasks on the effect of cultural variables on moral judgement is therefore limited. What this topic adds: (1) Direct comparisons between two different cultures using a no dichotomic moral judgement task that includes high and low conflict moral dilemmas and four possible resolutions in a continuum from non-utilitarian responses to utilitarian responses. (2) This grading in responses to moral dilemmas allowed to detect subtle differences in moral judgement that might have gone unnoticed previously. (3) This method revealed significant differences in the graduation of utilitarian and non-utilitarian responses, both in high and low moral conflict dilemmas, between two different cultures.

Improvement of culture conditions for long-term in vitro culture of Plasmodium vivax.

BackgroundThe study of the biology, transmission and pathogenesis of Plasmodium vivax is hindered due to the lack of a robustly propagating, continuous culture of this parasite. The current culture system for P. vivax parasites still suffered from consistency and difficulties in long-term maintenance of parasites in culture and for providing sufficient biological materials for studying parasite biology. Therefore, further improvement of culture conditions for P. vivax is needed.MethodsClinical samples were collected from patients diagnosed with P. vivax in western Thailand. Leukocyte-depleted P. vivax infected blood samples were cultured in a modified McCoy’s 5A medium at 5% haematocrit under hypoxic condition (5% O2, 5% CO2, and 90% N2). Reticulocytes purified from adult peripheral blood were added daily to maintain 4% reticulocytes. Parasites were detected by microscopic examination of Giemsa-stained smears and molecular methods.ResultsThe effects of culture variables were first analysed in order to improve the culture conditions for P. vivax. Through analysis of the sources of host reticulocytes and nutrients of culture medium, the culture conditions better supporting in vitro growth and maturation of the parasites were identified. Using this system, three of 30 isolates could be maintained in vitro for over 26 months albeit parasite density is low.ConclusionsBased on the analysis of different culture variables, an improved and feasible protocol for continuous culture of P. vivax was developed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12936-015-0815-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Predictors of Obesity Among Métis Children: Socio-economic, Behavioural and Cultural Factors

To examine the socio-economic, behavioural and Métis-specific factors that predict obesity among Métis children aged 6 to 14 years. Socio-economic factors included household structure and income, parental education and food insecurity. Cultural factors included knowledge of an Aboriginal language, participation in cultural activities, time spent with Elders and parental residential school attendance. The 2006 Aboriginal Peoples Survey, Children and Youth component collected data about Métis children, including child height and weight, reported by the person most knowledgeable about the child (PMK). Multivariate binary logistic regression was used to predict obesity, defined using IOTF BMI cut-offs. After testing for interactions, models were stratified by age (6-10, 11-14) and gender. An estimated 18.5% of Métis boys and 14.4% of girls were obese. The effects of socio-economic factors and region varied across age and gender groups, although living in a lone-parent family and rural residence had consistent effects. Many effects of cultural variables were unexpected. Although PMK residential schooling was positively associated with obesity generally, the effects were negative among older girls. As expected, children participating in frequent physical activity generally had lower risk, independent of other factors. Although socio-economic factors are related to risk of obesity among Métis children, the effects may not be the same across age groups and for boys and girls. There is some evidence of independent effects of Métis-specific cultural factors, including parental residential schooling, on the risk of child obesity, but further investigation and better data are needed to understand these relationships.

Culture and international trade: evidence from Canada

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of culture on international trade.Design/methodology/approachA measure of the cultural distance is incorporated into the Gravity model to test the marginal effects of cultural variables on bilateral trade between Canada and 53 other countries. In addition to the cultural distance and economic factors, other control variables such as religion and language commonalities are included.FindingsAfter controlling for the size of GDP and linguistic commonality, the effects of culture on international trade are found to be insignificant. The empirical analysis shows that while the linguistic commonality has positive implications for international trade, the cultural distance and religion commonality do not seem important.Research limitations/implicationsWhat is true for the Canadian international trade may not be true for other countries, especially for developing nations. Moreover, this study is limited to the Schwartz's cultural dimensions.Practical implicationsManagers should not stay away from culturally dissimilar partners as long as trade is economically beneficial. Instead, they should pay attention to training bilingual agents and standardizing trade procedures in order to streamline the negative effects of linguistic dissimilarity.Originality/valueThis study refutes the generally accepted idea that culture is subversive to any cross‐border business activity.

Cultural Effects on the Mental Number Line

This special issue is the result of a workshop on the cultural effects on the mental number line held in York (U.K.) in July 2009. The workshop was funded by the Experimental Psychology Society (www.eps.ac.uk) and the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (www.escop.eu), and we thank both organisations for sponsoring the event. The aims of the workshop were to bring together experimental psychologists who study effects of cultural variables on numerical cognition, to facilitate insights into the development and flexibility of numerical cognition by comparing across cultures, and to provide an up-to-date cross-disciplinary overview of research into cultural aspects of numerical cognition that encompasses behavioural, observational, Internet-based, and neuroscientific methods. This special issue gives a lively and accurate representation of the breadth and depth of the workshop contributions. Humans are intrinsically driven to represent numerosity in many ways. The “mental number line” in our title is a metaphor for number representations that are not linguistically mediated but spatial in nature. The most common spatial representation of numbers in Western societies is a left-to-right arrangement for numbers of increasing magnitude (such as on rulers). While this is not the only spatial representation of numbers (think of thermometers, hands, clocks, ...), it seems to have a profound effect on our numerical cognition. This has led to the discovery of the SNARC effect and to the relative neglect of other spatial mappings. Several articles in this special issue illustrate the variety of interactions that emerge between number representations and cultural preferences over the time course of our enculturation (see Figure 1). Finger counting, for example, is ontogenetically one of the first methods used to represent numerosity. Lindemann, Alipour, and Fischer show cultural differences in finger counting that persist well into adulthood. The question about what causes those differences is at the heart of this special issue. Evidence for two potential causes is presented: Cultural differences might be driven by the direction of reading or by differences in the existence, structure, or use of number words. Bender and Beller investigate the variability in linguistic structures used in Polynesian and Micronesian languages by documenting the development of those numeration systems and suggest how this development might have influenced spatial representations. Data by Helmreich et al. juxtaposing Germanand Italianspeaking children show that the structure of the numeration system used in a particular language can indeed influence the accuracy of spatial-numerical mappings. And it does not only affect spatial representations: Krinzinger et al., comparing children speaking French, German, or Flemish, show clearly that the consistency of the numeration system has an effect on children’s ease of acquisition of number words and number transcoding. Furthermore, Butterworth et al. show that in a culture that has no number words children use spatial strategies very effectively to solve numerical tasks. They investigated number processing in aboriginal children in Australia and also report the curious lack of finger counting in this population.

Effect of Culture Variables on Mycelial Arachidonic acid Production by Mortierella alpina

Effect of culture conditions on biomass, lipid, and arachidonic acid production was investigated in the oleaginous fungus Mortierella alpina CBS 528.72 under shake flask conditions. Several factors have been found to affect the biomass buildup and lipogenesis in this fungus, complicated by the fact that different strains demonstrate varying optimization conditions. Growth, lipid accumulation, and arachidonic acid production in the strain investigated were influenced by media, pH, temperature, carbon source, nitrogen source, etc. The results indicated that the most effective medium for growth and arachidonic acid production was glucose yeast extract medium. The optimum pH and temperature were found to be 6.5 and 28°C, respectively. On the same weight basis, glucose was the most efficient carbon source for biomass and lipid production in this fungal strain which yielded 6.8 g/L dry biomass and 40.2% (w/w) total lipid after 7 days of cultivation. Maximum arachidonic acid (ARA) production of 40.41% achieved in rhamnose-containing media was not concomitant with higher biomass and lipid yields. Efficacy of organic carbon sources, viz, yeast extract and peptone over inorganic sources like sodium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, etc, was established in the present study. M. alpina CBS 528.72 grown in peptone acquired the highest lipid content (42.0% (w/w)). However, the ARA content (28.74%) proved to be significantly less than that grown in yeast extract (35.28%). Furthermore, it was found that the biomass and ARA production declined drastically in a medium with vegetable oils as the sole carbon source but triggered the lipogenic pathway leading to higher accumulation of total lipids. Under the ideal conditions mentioned above, the maximum biomass, total lipid, and arachidonic acid production were 6.8 g/L, 41.6%, and 35.28% total fatty acid, respectively, in shake flask system.

Organizational Culture Manifesting in Employees Personal Variables: A Study of Associates of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC)

The main objectives of this study have been to determine the relationship of cultural variables with job satisfaction and stress, and also to see the effects of cultural variables on job satisfaction and stress. In order to complete the study a sample comprising 100 associates of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation was selected. The sample consisted of executives and nonexecutives. The study focuses on the various dimensions of organizational culture and their interrelationship with job satisfaction and job stress. Pearson's correlation has been applied to study interrelationship between organizational culture and job satisfaction, cultural variables and also stress. The results reveal that there is a significant negative correlation between power orientedness and job satisfaction to a significant level. At the same time, the study has further revealed a significant positive correlation between organizational risk-taking and stress. Regression was applied to see the effect of power-orientedness on job satisfaction. The study shows a significant positive effect of organizational risk-taking on stress.

Human colon tumor cell line LS174T drug metabolizing system

The effects of culture variables on the specific content and activity of various enzymes of the drug metabolizing system were assessed in colon tumor cell line LS174T. The NADH reduced cytochrome b5 (cyt b5)4 spectrum of these cells was similar to rat liver cyt b5. When released from the membrane by trypsin and concentrated, the cyt b5 was found to cross react with rabbit antibody to rat liver cyt b5 and human liver cyt b5. The enzyme activities were found stable over limited cell passages with control values of 0.03 and 0.13 mumol/min/mg protein for NADPH and NADH cytochrome c (cyt c) reducing activity, 0.05 nmol cyt b5 and 0.013 nmol cytochrome P450 per milligram of microsomal protein. Phenobarbital/hydrocortisone showed a consistent, but not always significant increase in the NADPH and NADH cyt c reduction and benzanthracene an increase in the NADH cyt c reducing activity and cyt b5 content. Griseofulvin lowered the NADH cyt c reducing activity. Delta-aminolevulinic acid (0.5 mM) caused a significant decrease in the specific activity of all enzymes, as judged by a student's t test, with a p less than 0.001.

Fertility Patterns Among Soviet Immigrants To Israel: the Role of Cultural Variables

The conclusion of research on the European fertility decline that cultural vari ables play a significant role is supported by questionnaire data from a study of 1979-1980 Soviet immigrants to Israel. The study was carried out using a causal model with path analysis and latent variables, and revealed that the specific number of children in a Soviet family was determined by family attitudes and values about the role and status of the woman in the family, by the number of children in the parental home, and by the amount of assistance the parents gave to the young couple. The causal model enabled the measurement of the relative direct and indirect effects of cultural variables.

CHILDHOOD CULTURAL EXPERIENCE AND THE INCIDENCE OF CORONARY HEART DISEASE IN HAWAII JAPANESE MEN

Possible effects of cultural variables on the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) were examined in 7705 men of Japanese ancestry living in Hawaii. The six-year incidence of CHD was related to birthplace (Japan or elsewhere), number of years spent in Japan, ability to read and write Japanese, ability to speak Japanese, and to an index of preference for a traditional Japanese diet. Statistically significant inverse relationships were found between CHD incidence and all of these variables which reflect the degree of exposure to Japanese culture during childhood. In multivariate analyses where the major CHD risk factors were taken into account, years spent in Japan and ability to read and write Japanese remained significant. Hence, exposure to Japanese culture during childhood appears to protect against CHD in adulthood. This may explain, in part, the gradient of CHD frequency among Japanese in Japan, Japanese-Americans, and Caucasians that could not be entirely attributed to the established risk factors.