Strategies for Coping With Business Trips: A Qualitative Exploratory Study.

This study aimed to better understand the impact of business trips on the traveler, the family, and the organization; to learn about maximizing the positive aspects of business travel; and to suggest measures to prevent and manage travel stress. Thirty-five business travelers (American, Israeli, and Swedish) were interviewed about the costs and benefits of their traveling, with a focus on gaining insight into coping strategies. Content analysis of the interviews showed that trips consist of 4 phases--(a) pretrip, (b) journey, (c) stay, and (d) posttrip--and that each phase is characterized by different coping strategies. Business travelers reported using proactive individual and organizational coping strategies in the pretrip phase and a combination of proactive and reactive coping strategies in the other phases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pancultural self-enhancement.

The culture movement challenged the universality of the self-enhancement motive by proposing that the motive is pervasive in individualistic cultures (the West) but absent in collectivistic cultures (the East). The present research posited that Westerners and Easterners use different tactics to achieve the same goal: positive self-regard. Study 1 tested participants from differing cultural backgrounds (the United States vs. Japan), and Study 2 tested participants of differing self-construals (independent vs. interdependent). Americans and independents self-enhanced on individualistic attributes, whereas Japanese and interdependents self-enhanced on collectivistic attributes. Independents regarded individualistic attributes, whereas interdependents regarded collectivistic attributes, as personally important. Attribute importance mediated self-enhancement. Regardless of cultural background or self-construal, people self-enhance on personally important dimensions. Self-enhancement is a universal human motive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Category Norms as a Function of Culture and Age: Comparisons of Item Responses to 105 Categories by American and Chinese Adults.

Understanding how aging influences cognition across different cultures has been hindered by a lack of standardized, cross-referenced verbal stimuli. This study introduces a database of such item-level stimuli for both younger and older adults, in China and the United States, and makes 3 distinct contributions. First, the authors specify which item categories generalize across age and/or cultural groups, rigorously quantifying differences among them. Second, they introduce novel, powerful methods to measure between-group differences in freely generated ranked data, the rank-ordered logit model and Hellinger Affinity. Finally, a broad archive of tested, cross-linguistic stimuli is now freely available to researchers: data, similarity measures, and all stimulus materials for 105 categories and 4 culture-by-age groups, comprising over 10,000 fully translated unique item responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Defining Phonological Awareness and Its Relationship to Reading Skills in Low-Literacy Adults.

The main purpose of the study reported here was to investigate the relative importance of complexity of syllable structure and task differences in measuring phonological awareness in low-literacy adults. This study is a replication of a study with children conducted by S. A. Stahl and B. A. Murray (1994). Results indicated that the complexity of syllable structure did indeed better describe the construct of phonological awareness in low-literacy adults. At the same time, the authors also found some differences in the pattern of literacy acquisition for their Spanish adults in comparison with child literacy acquisition in English. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence and adjustment goals: Sources of cultural differences in ideal affect.

Previous studies have found that in American culture high-arousal positive states (HAP) such as excitement are valued more and low-arousal positive states (LAP) such as calm are valued less than they are in Chinese culture. What specific factors account for these differences? The authors predicted that when people and cultures aimed to influence others (i.e., assert personal needs and change others' behaviors to meet those needs), they would value HAP more and LAP less than when they aimed to adjust to others (i.e., suppress personal needs and change their own behaviors to meet others' needs). They test these predictions in 1 survey and 3 experimental studies. The findings suggest that within and across American and Chinese contexts, differences in ideal affect are due to specific interpersonal goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Deviance regulation: A theory of action and identity.

The authors propose a behavioral decision theory relevant to the maintenance of desirable identities. The theory, termed deviance regulation theory (DRT), predicts that actions translate into meaningful identities to the extent that they cause the individual to deviate from reference group norms. This straightforward proposition is used to predict the patterning of behavior across a wide array of social contexts. The authors present evidence that predictions generalize across Eastern and Western cultures and to both personal and collective identities. Finally, they show how DRT alters current theoretical assumptions about social motives and social and cultural influence, and they illustrate how it can help explain the structure of both informal and formal social forces. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neutral fitness landscapes in signalling networks

Biological and technological systems process information by means of cascades of signals. Be they interacting genes, spiking neurons or electronic transistors, information travels across these systems, producing, for each set of external conditions, an appropriate response. In technology, circuits performing specific complex tasks are designed by humans. In biology, however, design has to be ruled out, confronting us with the question of how these systems could have arisen by accumulation of small changes. The key factor is the genotype-phenotype map. With the exception of RNA folding, not much is known about the exact nature of this mapping. Here, we show that structure of the genotype-phenotype map of simple feed-forward circuits is very close to the ones found in RNA; they have a large degree of neutrality, by which a circuit can be completely rewired keeping its input-output function intact, and there is a relatively small neighbourhood of a given circuit containing almost all the phenotypes.     

Male honor and female fidelity: Implicit cultural scripts that perpetuate domestic violence.

Two studies explored how domestic violence may be implicitly or explicitly sanctioned and reinforced in cultures where honor is a salient organizing theme. Three general predictions were supported: (a) female infidelity damages a man's reputation, particularly in honor cultures; (b) this reputation can be partially restored through the use of violence; and (c) women in honor cultures are expected to remain loyal in the face of jealousy-related violence. Study 1 involved participants from Brazil (an honor culture) and the United States responding to written vignettes involving infidelity and violence in response to infidelity. Study 2 involved southern Anglo, Latino, and northern Anglo participants witnessing a "live" incident of aggression against a woman (actually a confederate) and subsequently interacting with her. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analysis of color symbology from the perspective of cultural semiotics focused on Korean costume colors according to the cultural changes

The purpose of this study was to analyze the symbolization of colors as cultural codes, based on costume colors. In order to study the significance of colors in cultural changes, we carried out a quantitative analysis and interpreted it from the perspective of cultural semiotics. The range of this study was focused on Korean costume colors, over diverse diachronic stages of Korean culture. For this study 1535 color samples were collected, measured with a spectrophotometer, and analyzed quantitatively according their diachronic stages of origin. As a result, red, blue, and yellow were found to be the most frequently used colors during the Chosun Dynasty, a period based on Confucianism. These colors acted as cultural codes with cultural significance. During the Modern times pink, light blue, and black increased in frequency and represented the reception of western culture, the changing sex role of women in society, and utilitarianism. In these days, neutral colors and grayish tones of all colors are the most significant colors of high frequency. The use of such colors is closely related to industrialization, mechanization, functionalism, and the changes of women's sex roles in the societies. They are used as cultural codes, especially to emphasize a rational and masculine image rather than a feminine image. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 32, 71–79, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.20290     

Marmaray project: Tunnels and stations in BC contract

Istanbul is one of the most famous historical cities in the world. However, the project alignment selected as the best of a range of alignments cannot avoid passing beneath the historical and cultural heritages of Istanbul as well as under ancient and densely inhabited areas of the city. This paper will explain some of the challenges related to the bored tunnels.

Historical buildings are vulnerable. Yet many existing residential and office buildings are old and constructed on minimal foundations. As a consequence, it is vital that any drawdown of groundwater and any ground settlements have to be minimized.

In addition, the connection between the immersed and bored tunnels will be made directly and totally underground, without the usual intermediate shafts and beneath the deep waters of the Bosphorus Strait. This operation needs the utmost control of the tunnel excavation face to ensure its stability and to minimize water ingress. Based on such considerations, tunnel excavation by tunnel boring machine (TBM) using a slurry shield and having the ability to operate under high pore pressures was recommended as the method of excavation for the main running tunnels.

The paper will explain how the design team from Avrasyaconsult – the Employer’s Representative – arrived at the final minimum, specific and functional requirements of the bored tunneling works which are to be carried out using the ‘FIDIC EPC/Turnkey Project’ conditions.