Normative Patterns Research Articles

Self-esteem and relationship satisfaction during the transition to motherhood.

In the current study, we used 5 waves of longitudinal data from a large representative sample of Norwegian mothers (N = 84,711) to examine the association between romantic relationship satisfaction and self-esteem before and after childbirth in subgroups of first-, second-, third-, and fourth-time mothers. Maternal self-esteem showed a highly similar change pattern across subgroups. Specifically, self-esteem decreased during pregnancy, increased until the child was 6 months old, and then gradually decreased over the following years. The replication of this trajectory across subgroups and pregnancies suggests that this is a normative change pattern. For relationship satisfaction, the birth of the first child seemed to have the strongest impact compared with the birth of subsequent children. In first-time mothers, relationship satisfaction was high during pregnancy, sharply decreased around childbirth, and then gradually decreased in the following years. In second-, third-, and fourth-time mothers, the decrease in relationship satisfaction after childbirth was more gradual and linear compared with the sharp decrease found in first-time mothers. Moderate positive correlated changes between self-esteem and relationship satisfaction indicated that these constructs were linked over time. Discussion focuses on the implications of the results for theory and future research on self-esteem, relationship satisfaction, and personality-relationship transactions. (PsycINFO Database Record

INVESTIGATING THE PHOTOTHERAPY THRESHOLDS IN PRETERM INFANTS

Abstract BACKGROUND Currently there are limited guidelines for the management of hyperbilirubinemia in preterm infants. Current guidelines are limited to individual sites and are consensus-based opinions. The current decrease in chronic bilirubin encephalopathy in preterm infants is a result of liberal use of phototherapy that are not based on evidence from a large dataset of preterm infants. The pattern of bilirubin levels in preterm is unclear and currently based on clinical judgement. Nomograms in term infants has been proven to be beneficial and effective in reducing unnecessary treatment of hyperbilirubinemia. A nomogram designed for preterm infants would allow health professionals to quantify risk based on evidence based methods and reduce the number of test done on preterm infants. OBJECTIVES The objectives of this study are 1) To determine photherapy thresholds in preterm infants and 2) To determine the normative pattern of bilirubin values in preterm infants. DESIGN/METHODS A multi-site retrospective chart review of preterm infants ≤ 35 weeks gestation born between January 2012- November 2017 was conducted. The following data was collected; all TSB, postnatal hours of age, duration of phototherapy, infant characteristics (gestational age, birth weight, outcomes) and maternal history (inter and anter partum medication). TSB samples prior to the initiation of phototherapy were analyzed per hour and stratified by gestational age groups. RESULTS A total of 330 preterm infants were included in the retrospective review (50 24-28 weeks gestation, 100 29-32 weeks gestation, and 180 33–35 weeks gestation). The mean peak bilirubin in infants 33-35 week gestation was 198 umol/L at 4 days. These infants were started on phototherapy at a mean age of 89 hours. At 24 hours of age these infants’ bilirubin was 104 umol/L (72-189umol/L). The mean peak bilirubin in infants 29–32 weeks gestation was 181umol/L at 5 days. At 24 hours of age the mean bilirubin was 109 umol/L. Finally in infants 24–28 weeks gestation the mean peak bilirubin was 127 umol/L at 4 days. These infants were started on phototherapy at 44 hours of age. CONCLUSION Bilirubin values in preterm infants is hetergenous across gestional ages. Phototherapy treatment thresholds are lower in preterm infants between 24–28 weeks gestation. A nomogram for preterm infants maybe possible in infants between 29–35 weeks. Further research is required to determine hour specific bilirubin levels in preterm infants.

Examining life course trajectories of lesbian, gay and bisexual people in England - exploring convergence and divergence among a heterogeneous population of older people.

Because of limitations in collecting sexuality data, there are very few studies that quantitatively explore the life courses of lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB) individuals. Likewise it is rare that normative patterns of life course trajectories are assessed in terms of their applicability to LGB individuals. We review the current literature on LGB life course trajectories and discuss potential reasons for gaps in the literature. We explore approaches for defining LGB status. We use data from a cohort of people aged 50 and over (English Longitudinal Study of Ageing) to explore the tempo and occurrences of transitions to adulthood and to older age, and establish some of the differences based on sexual orientation. We examine the connecting health behaviours and life course turning points that may explain some of the differences described above. We show that while the first quartile of transitions to adulthood are experienced fairly uniformly by sexual orientation, differences open up thereafter. LGB people's life course trajectories are marked by different patterns of care, with LGB people less likely to provide care in the form of parenthood, but potentially more likely to provide care earlier to close friends or relatives. Analyses of connecting events suggest that LGB life course trajectories may be marred by higher levels of volatility, including higher risk financial hardship. Caveats to these results are outlined in full in the paper.

198. Identifying Structural Brain Alterations in Adolescent Depression Based on Individual Deviations From Normative Age-Related Patterns of Brain Structure

198. Identifying Structural Brain Alterations in Adolescent Depression Based on Individual Deviations From Normative Age-Related Patterns of Brain Structure

Automatic Setting Procedure for Exoskeleton-Assisted Overground Gait: Proof of Concept on Stroke Population.

Stroke-related locomotor impairments are often associated with abnormal timing and intensity of recruitment of the affected and non-affected lower limb muscles. Restoring the proper lower limbs muscles activation is a key factor to facilitate recovery of gait capacity and performance, and to reduce maladaptive plasticity. Ekso is a wearable powered exoskeleton robot able to support over-ground gait training. The user controls the exoskeleton by triggering each single step during the gait cycle. The fine-tuning of the exoskeleton control system is crucial—it is set according to the residual functional abilities of the patient, and it needs to ensure lower limbs powered gait to be the most physiological as possible. This work focuses on the definition of an automatic calibration procedure able to detect the best Ekso setting for each patient. EMG activity has been recorded from Tibialis Anterior, Soleus, Rectus Femoris, and Semitendinosus muscles in a group of 7 healthy controls and 13 neurological patients. EMG signals have been processed so to obtain muscles activation patterns. The mean muscular activation pattern derived from the controls cohort has been set as reference. The developed automatic calibration procedure requires the patient to perform overground walking trials supported by the exoskeleton while changing parameters setting. The Gait Metric index is calculated for each trial, where the closer the performance is to the normative muscular activation pattern, in terms of both relative amplitude and timing, the higher the Gait Metric index is. The trial with the best Gait Metric index corresponds to the best parameters set. It has to be noted that the automatic computational calibration procedure is based on the same number of overground walking trials, and the same experimental set-up as in the current manual calibration procedure. The proposed approach allows supporting the rehabilitation team in the setting procedure. It has been demonstrated to be robust, and to be in agreement with the current gold standard (i.e., manual calibration performed by an expert engineer). The use of a graphical user interface is a promising tool for the effective use of an automatic procedure in a clinical context.

China’s international student recruitment as ‘outward-oriented’ higher education internationalisation: an exploratory empirical inquiry

This study investigates China’s international student recruitment strategy and policies as a dimension of its present approach of using higher education internationalisation for soft power and image enhancement. An exploratory survey of international graduate students in English instruction programmes in education-related majors in three Chinese universities has been conducted to analyse their attitudes towards China’s approach. Quantitative analysis has been conducted on the survey data based on Holmes’s four-pattern taxonomy for analysing contextual features, which includes normative patterns, sociological laws, national conditions, and deep cultural roots. Qualitative data have been collected and analysed as a supplement. This study attempts to reveal the relations between international students’ source-country contextual features, identified based on Holmes’s taxonomy, and their attitudes towards China’s approach in international student recruitment. Policy suggestions are provided based on these findings.

Comparison of Growth of Healthy Term Infants Fed Extensively Hydrolyzed Protein- and Amino Acid-Based Infant Formulas.

The aim of this narrative review was to assess published growth data for healthy, term, infants consuming extensively hydrolyzed protein-based (EHF), or amino acid-based formulas (AAF). These data may be of use to clinicians managing infants with medical conditions consuming these products. A search was conducted using key terms: amino acid-based, hydrolysate, hydrolyzed, hydrolysed, infant formula, infant formulae or formulas, baby formula, or formulae or formulas, infant, infants, infantile, and growth. Seven controlled, randomized, prospective growth trials of healthy term infants fed EHFs or AAFs at similar time points during the first four months of age met these and other criteria, including that the trial was published in a peer-reviewed journal, subjects were enrolled by ≤14 days of age and were exclusively formula-fed at entry and throughout the duration of the trial, and infants were assessed at regular intervals with weight measures available ideally at 14 days, one, two, three, and four months of age. Results suggested that healthy infants receiving commonly available EHFs and AAFs do not appear to experience accelerated growth as reported for infants fed many standard formulas. Differences in growth patterns were observed with some formulas supporting normative growth patterns during the first four months but others appearing to support markedly lower growth patterns. These observations should be confirmed in well-designed prospective randomized trials. Until that time, it is recommended that EHFs and AAFs be chosen carefully with individual patient needs considered.

Contested Global Governance

AbstractThis article aims to contribute to the third generation of global governance research by unfolding the concept of a global governance system consisting of normative principles and patterns of authority relationships and legitimation. The goal is to formulate a positive theory that goes beyond the negative descriptions of global governance as post‐internationalist and helps to move global governance beyond its embryonic state. The major theoretical claim is that the features of the current global governance system have endogenously produced the politicization and counter‐institutionalization of international authorities. Internal tensions of the system fuel legitimation problems and demands for change, which in the end lead – in some cases – to the decline of global governance arrangements or – in other cases – to its deepening via appropriate institutional responses.

Cultural fit of emotions and health implications: A psychosocial resources model

AbstractEmerging evidence on cultural differences in health implications of emotions suggests that the cultural fit of emotions (i.e., accordance with culturally normative and prevalent patterns of emotions) is associated with better health. However, the mechanisms underlying the links between culture, emotions, and health are not clear. In this paper, we propose a psychosocial resources model of cultural fit as an integrative framework to guide the future work in this area. Following the review of cultural differences in emotions, we next review the accumulating evidence showing that culture modulates the link between emotions and health in such a way that the cultural fit of emotions positively predicts health. We then propose that psychosocial resources (e.g., resilience, meaning in life, and social support) play an important role in linking the cultural fit of emotions to health. The psychosocial resources model proposes that the emotion–health link is modulated and sustained via the relevance of emotions to resources and coping in a given cultural context. The model is supported by a line of research suggesting the role of cultural fit in the attainment of resources and another line of research showing the importance of psychosocial resources in health. Lastly, future directions will be discussed for research incorporating culture into the study of emotion and health.

Definiendo patrones de ocupación mediante la monitorización de edificios existentes

Para determinar el comportamiento energético de los edificios los programas de simulación dinámica son utilizados como métodos de cálculo. Sin embargo, numerosos estudios han mostrado que existen diferencias notables entre el comportamiento esperado y real de los edificios. Uno de los factores identificados como fuente de incertidumbre en la simulación de edificios es la ocupación y el comportamiento de los usuarios. Estos parámetros son definidos habitualmente con estándares que no reflejan la realidad de los ocupantes. En este artículo, se presenta una investigación sobre la influencia del comportamiento y la presencia de los usuarios de edificios residenciales en la demanda de energía. Para ello se generan modelos de simulación energética cuyos valores de entrada están ajustados con datos monitorizados de edificios reales. El estudio se realiza en dos casos de estudio ubicados en Madrid, España.

Faktory volby dopravního prostředku – podstatný aspekt proměny současných měst

The aim of the paper is to answer questions related to the explanation of the travel mode choice used by people for regular commuting and what role in their decision making can be attributed to location of their residence, i.e. how the travel mode choice differs in case of traditional urban residents and suburban residents. The reason why to study everyday commuting is the fact that people currently living in western cities spend a lot of time and money commuting and the aggregate of everyday individual mobility generates a significant environmental impact. I study the travel mode choice from two perspectives: a) statistical and b) behavioural. Using the statistical analysis I explain the travel mode choice based on situational constraints and differences between social groups. The statistical analysis, however, is unable to explain how the situational constraints lead to different behaviour in different individuals and also the part of behaviour that cannot be explained using the constraints, thus I add a qualitative study. Summarizing both types of findings, I conclude that the everyday travel mode choice depends to a large extent on constraints that cannot be influenced by individuals: i) the amount of time and money available to the individual, ii) public transport services, civic facilities in the place of residence, and iii) required mobility for job related reasons. In the qualitative study I focus on what type of residence people prefer. Looking into preferred characteristics of people’s place of residence and actual travel behaviour I generate general classification of rationality related to the travel mode choice: 1) travel mode choice rationality based on constraints, 2) a consistent lifestyle including travel mode as well as nature of residence choice, and 3) the travel mode choice as an unreflected habit. According to the three types of rationality we can identify different factors of individual transport development: a) differences in the nature of individual travel modes and their attractiveness related to individual economic and professional constraints, b) real willingness of many people to live in residential locations with a lower accessibility and lower level of services, and c) a habit to drive a car automatically regardless of conditions as a natural part of habitus of economic middle and upper classes. Differentiation of these factors leads to different implications when considering possibilities of overturning the current increasing trend of car transport. Firstly, it is a question of price or other regulation changing attractiveness of the individual alternatives. Secondly, there are factors related to preference of suburban lifestyle including not only normative and cultural patterns but also significant differences in real estate prices in internal cities and suburban locations. In the last case of the habit to use a car regardless of available alternatives as a part of habitus of economic middle and upper classes the discussion about possible changes is the most demanding. However, this study shows that majority of people make their travel mode choices taking into account real possibilities and constraints and thus that it is possible to influence their behaviour through economic and other types of regulation.

Gifting, exchange and reciprocity in Thai annual reports: Towards a Buddhist relational theory of Thai accounting practice

Abstract This paper analyses the inter-relationship of human agency and socio-economic structure in the determination of Thai accounting. It demonstrates that determination of accounting practice lies neither in the individual agency of human practice, nor in the forces of socio- economic structure per se, but rather in patterns of relational practice. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Mauss (1925) to analyse accounting practice as revealed in Thai company annual reports, this paper elaborates a Buddhist relational theory of accounting practice that focuses on the importance of patterns of practice generated by gifting, exchange and reciprocity. It studies the ways that accounting as evidenced in the relational practices of Thai annual reports creates patterns of corporate, societal and state identity in late 20th and early 21st-century Thailand. The article also relates this Thai Buddhist conceptualisation of practice to other theoretical approaches, particularly Foucault, Giddens and Latour, which accounting historians have adapted to express the interaction of human and structural agency in practice. In doing so, the paper seeks to highlight some of the limitations in such accounting theorisation and emphasise the importance of a focus on normative patterns of relational practice as an explanation of accounting formation.

Gay Fathers on the Margins: Race, Class, Marital Status, and Pathway to Parenthood

ObjectiveTo investigate stratification within gay fatherhood communities.BackgroundAs laws and attitudes have become friendlier to queer families in recent decades, gay fathers have experienced increased visibility in and through both media and scholarship. However, this visibility has been distributed unevenly along normative patterns of marital status, race, class, and kinship.MethodParticipant observation of gay fathers groups was conducted in California, Texas, and Utah over a period of 61 months. Using theoretical sampling of group members, 56 gay fathers also participated in semistructured interviews. Themes were identified and refined through a 3‐stage iterative coding process, consistent with a grounded theory approach.ResultsFindings suggest that single gay fathers, gay fathers of color, and gay fathers who had children in heterosexual contexts occupy marginalized statuses within the gay fatherhood community. Gay fathers develop distinct mechanisms of resilience to respond to the challenges associated with their marginalization.ConclusionThe experiences of gay fathers on the margins highlight the negative consequences of gay fatherhood discourses that reproduce family normativity. The resources available through gay parenting groups simultaneously played a role in gay fathers' well‐being, resilience, and marginalization.ImplicationsEfforts to expand opportunities for gay families should consider coalitions with other marginalized family forms. Gay parents who had children in heterosexual unions should be specifically targeted through gay parenting outreach.

Współczesne oblicza anomii

W ostatnich latach wielopłaszczyznowa i wielowątkowa zmiana społeczna stała się stanem nie tyle przejściowym, ile ciągłym, a proces dekompozycji obowiązujących regulacji normatywnych i wzorów zachowań wyraźnie wyprzedza konstruowanie nowych stabilnych i trwałych ich form. Społeczny świat znalazł się stanie permanentnej anomii, nie zawsze łatwo dostrzegalnej, zarówno przez samych uczestników rozmaitych społecznych przestrzeni, jak i z zewnątrz, przez ich obserwatorów. W otaczającej nas współczesności normatywne rozregulowanie stało się normą. Niniejszy tekst stanowi próbę wstępnej diagnozy naszkicowanych powyżej przemian, a tok analizy podporządkowany zostanie perspektywie połączonych ze sobą trzech teorii średniego zasięgu: teorii socjalizacji, teorii kontroli społecznej i teorii anomii.

Narrative and Institutional Economics

This article addresses a range of questions associated with the occurrence of a new field of study - narrative economics, which is considered in the context of modern institutionalism. Pioneering works of R. Shiller, G. Akerlof, and D. Snower spotlighted the importance of analyzing narratives and narrative influence when studying economic processes. In this paper, a qualitative study of narratives is seen through the prism of an answer to the question: How do prescribed narratives influence institutions and change them?. Narratives have much in common with institutions since very often, explicitly or implicitly, they contain value judgments about social interactions or normative aspects shaping behavioral patterns. The identification of dominating narratives enables us to understand better how institutions influence economic (social) action. Repeated interactions among social actors are structured through understanding and learning the rules. Understanding of social rules comes from the language - we articulate and perceive the rules drawing on common narratives. Narratives and institutions are helpful when actors gain knowledge about various forms of social communication. Digital technologies, mass media, and social networking sites facilitate the spread of narratives, values, and beliefs; this process is characterized by increasing returns. Studying narratives and institutions is crucial for modern economic theory because it helps to improve qualitative and quantitative methods of analyzing empirical evidence and enables researchers to understand complex economic processes.

A Postmodern Public Man and His Mental-Cultural Markers

AbstractThe article aims to describe the fundamental principles of the postmodern concepts of public life viewed from the perspective of neuroscience and cognitive science. Considering the fact that both systems of theories are focused on the psychobiological aspects of human mind and body, and in consequence they both endeavor to understand and explain the relations between brain, mind, and social environment (sphere), I decided to use this particular assumption as a starting point to analyse categories such as: public man, public sphere, space of life, modern and postmodern normative patterns, and heuristic paradigms of relationships between Nature, Society, and Culture. As a leading cognitive and interpretative approach I selected the theory of mental and cultural markers, based on somatic marker hypothesis presented by Antonio R. Damasio and the first-person ontology developed by John R. Searle. Ultimately, both concepts support a more extensive and complex approach in explaining direction of contemporary public debate and associated with it expectations to reorganize people’s life in terms of their physical and spiritual needs. The crucial role of the aforementioned changes has the embodied self – a source of unique and everyday experiences that stimulate the thoughts and emotions of men.

The impact of negative affect on attention patterns to threat across the first 2 years of life.

The current study examined the relations between individual differences in attention to emotion faces and temperamental negative affect across the first 2 years of life. Infant studies have noted a normative pattern of preferential attention to salient cues, particularly angry faces. A parallel literature suggests that elevated attention bias to threat is associated with anxiety, particularly if coupled with temperamental risk. Examining the emerging relations between attention to threat and temperamental negative affect may help distinguish normative from at-risk patterns of attention. Infants (N = 145) ages 4 to 24 months (M = 12.93 months, SD = 5.57) completed an eye-tracking task modeled on the attention bias "dot-probe" task used with older children and adults. With age, infants spent greater time attending to emotion faces, particularly threat faces. All infants displayed slower latencies to fixate to incongruent versus congruent probes. Neither relation was moderated by temperament. Trial-by-trial analyses found that dwell time to the face was associated with latency to orient to subsequent probes, moderated by the infant's age and temperament. In young infants low in negative affect longer processing of angry faces was associated with faster subsequent fixation to probes; young infants high in negative affect displayed the opposite pattern at trend. Findings suggest that although age was directly associated with an emerging bias to threat, the impact of processing threat on subsequent orienting was associated with age and temperament. Early patterns of attention may shape how children respond to their environments, potentially via attention's gate-keeping role in framing a child's social world for processing. (PsycINFO Database Record

Composição Instantânea: formação coreográfica do artista da dança e de seu corpo-realidade

Resumo: O artigo se propõe a discutir a formação e a preparação do corpo-real do artista da dança, a partir das práticas corporais relacionadas com o trabalho de composição instantânea, segundo a concepção do coreógrafo britânico Julyen Hamilton. Para tanto, realizou-se um estudo de prática artística em que o campo privilegiado foi o próprio estúdio e workshops. Da análise dos dados, emergiram categorias como: qualidade de movimento, arenas reflexivas e presença. O estudo sugere maneiras de se trabalhar o corpo e a formação coreográfica, almejando construir um corpo autônomo, de modo que os exercícios se transformem em performances que fujam aos padrões normativos.

The natural history of risky drinking and associated harms from adolescence to young adulthood: findings from the Australian Temperament Project.

We aimed to describe the natural history of heavy episodic drinking (HED) and associated harms from adolescence to young adulthood in a large Australian population cohort study. The Australian Temperament Project consists of mothers and babies (4-8 months) recruited from Infant Welfare Centres and followed every 2 to 4 years until age 28 years. Analyses were based on data from 1156 young people (497 male; 659 female) surveyed repeatedly at ages 16, 18, 20, 24 and 28 years. We used dual processes latent class growth analysis to estimate trajectories of HED and associated harms, employing a piecewise approach to model the hypothesized rise and subsequent fall across adolescence and the late twenties, respectively. We identified four sex-specific trajectories and observed little evidence of maturing-out across the twenties. In males, a normative pattern of increasing HED across the twenties with little related harm was observed (40% of the male sample). Early and late starter groups that peaked in harms at age 20 years with only minor attenuation in binging thereafter were also observed (6.1% and 35%, respectively). In females, a normative pattern of increasing, but moderate, HED with little related harm was observed (44% of the female sample). Early and late starter groups were also identified (18% and 17%, respectively); however, unlike males, the female late starter group showed a pattern of increasing HED and related harms. Continued patterns of risky alcohol use and related harms are apparent for both males and females across the twenties.

He's more katakana than kanji: Indexing identity and self‐presentation through script selection in Japanese manga (comics)

This paper examines the role of script selection in indexing identities and styles of self‐presentation within a Japanese manga (comic). By cataloguing where the kanji, hiragana, and katakana scripts are used to represent first person pronouns, I establish the contexts where each script/pronoun combination serves as a locally normative representation. These norms are compared against non‐normative representations to gain insight into the local meanings associated with the various scripts. Analysis of the variant forms is combined with an interview with the manga's author. Ultimately, the results reveal that the contribution of script to the meaning of a Japanese text goes beyond any single marked selection, and involves interactions between both locally normative patterns of script use and meaningful local violations of these norms. Selections of script are seen to convey nuances in how meaning is constructed in the text, as well as reflecting wider ideologies about language use in Japan.