The effect of sex on social cognition and functioning in schizophrenia

Social cognitive impairment is a core feature of schizophrenia and plays a critical role in poor community functioning in the disorder. However, our understanding of the relationship between key biological variables and social cognitive impairment in schizophrenia is limited. This study examined the effect of sex on the levels of social cognitive impairment and the relationship between social cognitive impairment and social functioning in schizophrenia. Two hundred forty-eight patients with schizophrenia (61 female) and 87 healthy controls (31 female) completed five objective measures and one subjective measure of social cognition. The objective measures included the Facial Affect Identification, Emotion in Biological Motion, Self-Referential Memory, MSCEIT Branch 4, and Empathic Accuracy tasks. The subjective measure was the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), which includes four subscales. Patients completed measures of social and non-social functional capacity and community functioning. For objective social cognitive tasks, we found a significant sex difference only on one measure, the MSCEIT Branch 4, which in both patient and control groups, females performed better than males. Regarding the IRI, females endorsed higher empathy-related items on one subscale. The moderating role of sex was found only for the association between objective social cognition and non-social functional capacity. The relationship was stronger in male patients than female patients. In this study, we found minimal evidence of a sex effect on social cognition in schizophrenia across subjective and objective measures. Sex does not appear to moderate the association between social cognition and functioning in schizophrenia.

Measuring the Impact of Tax Inspection on Firms' Performance

The tax compliance problem is an imminent issue in a self-assessment taxation system in Indonesia. Tax audit is an important tool used by the tax authority to address the problem. Several studies showed that tax inspection might change the behavior of the taxpayers. Therefore, it is interesting to see how tax inspection will affect taxpayers' behavior related to their subjective measure of firms' performance. This research uses the difference-in-difference approach combine with the entropy balancing method to estimate the causal impact of tax inspection on firms’ performance. The findings showed that the inspected firms showed an increase in their perception of capital utilization which can be explained using tax evasion model or managerial benefits concept.

Bayesianism: Objections and Rebuttals

While the laws of probability are rarely disputed, the question of how we should interpret probability judgments is less straightforward. Broadly, there are two ways to conceive of probability—either as an objective feature of the world, or as a subjective measure of our uncertainty. Both notions have their place in science, but it is the latter subjective notion (the Bayesian approach) that is crucial in legal reasoning. This chapter explains the advantages of using Bayesian networks in adjudicative factfinding. It addresses a number of common objections to the Bayesian approach, such as “There is no such thing as a probability of a single specified event”; “The Bayesian approach only works with statistical evidence”; “The Bayesian approach is too difficult for legal factfinders to comprehend”; and “A Bayesian network can never capture the full complexity of a legal case.” Fenton and Lagnado offer rebuttals to each of these objections.

Sleepiness is a signal to go to bed: data and model simulations

Study Objectives Assess the validity of a subjective measure of sleepiness as an indicator of sleep drive by quantifying associations between intra-individual variation in evening sleepiness and bedtime, sleep duration, and next morning and subsequent evening sleepiness, in young adults. Methods Sleep timing and sleepiness were assessed in 19 students in late autumn and late spring on a total of 771 days. Karolinska Sleepiness Scales (KSS) were completed at half-hourly intervals at fixed clock times starting four hours prior to participants’ habitual bedtime, and in the morning. Associations between sleepiness and sleep timing were evaluated by mixed model and non-parametric approaches and simulated with a mathematical model for the homeostatic and circadian regulation of sleepiness. Results Intra-individual variation in evening sleepiness was very large, covering four or five points on the 9-point KSS scale, and was significantly associated with subsequent sleep timing. On average, a one point higher KSS value was followed by 20 min earlier bedtime, which led to 11 min longer sleep, which correlated with lower sleepiness next morning and following evening. Associations between sleepiness and sleep timing were stronger in early compared to late sleepers. Model simulations indicated that the directions of associations between sleepiness and sleep timing are in accordance with their homeostatic and circadian regulation, even though much of the variance in evening sleepiness and details of its time course remain unexplained by the model. Conclusion Subjective sleepiness is a valid indicator of the drive for sleep which, if acted upon, can reduce insufficient sleep.

The Construct of Subjective Economic Inequality

Economic inequality has been associated with a host of social ills, but most research has focused on objective measures of inequality. We argue that economic inequality also has a subjective component, and understanding the effects of economic inequality will be deepened by considering the ways that people perceive inequality. In an American sample ( N = 1,014), we find that some of the key variables that past research has found to correlate with objective inequality also correlate with a subjective measure of inequality. Across six countries ( N = 683), we find that the relationship between subjective inequality and different psychological variables varies by country. Subjective inequality shows only modest correlations with objective inequality and varies by sociodemographic background.

Explicitation and cognitive load in simultaneous interpreting

This article investigates the correlation between explicitation and increased cognitive load in simultaneous interpreting by trainee interpreters. It has been hypothesised, on the one hand, that certain explicitating shifts in simultaneous interpreting may be caused by increased cognitive load and they may be performed in an attempt to mask processing problems; and, on the other, that performing explicitating shifts may lead to increased cognitive load and trigger processing problems. The study triangulates product analysis (manual comparison of source and target texts) with process analysis (retrospective protocols of the participants). In the product the correlation between the occurrence of explicitating shifts and increased cognitive load is sought by identifying problem indicators in the form of three types of disfluency: hesitation markers, false starts and anomalous pauses exceeding two seconds (performance measure). Retrospective protocols are analysed in search of reports of explicitating shifts and/or increased cognitive load experienced and/or the cognitive effort expended (subjective measure). The product analysis shows the correlation between explicitating shifts and cognitive load at the level of 31%. The Spearman’s rank-order correlation coefficient r = 0.48 indicates that there is a positive association between these two variables. This finding is further confirmed by 122 retrospective comments of the subjects in the study.

The impact of ‘cluster maintenance TMS’ on irritability occurring in major depressive disorder

Objective: To determine the impact of clustered maintenance transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) on irritability occurring in treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (MDD). Method: A naturalistic study of 106 courses that includes pre- and posttreatment assessments of subjective and objective depression and a subjective measure of irritability developed for this study. Results: Forty-six participants (35 females), mean age 43.2 years (14.3), completed 106 courses. There was a significant reduction in irritability and depression scores ( p < .001). The change in irritability scores was significantly correlated with the change in depression scores, r = .40, p < .001. Conclusion: TMS has the capacity to reduce the irritability co-occurring with treatment-resistant MDD, known to be responsive to TMS. This increases the possibility of using TMS in the treatment of irritability co-occurring with other disorders or standing alone (should irritability be categorized as a stand-alone disorder).

Case study: Effect of acoustic characteristics of interior aircraft noise on pilot

The influence of acoustic characteristics of in-flight noise on airplane operations and sound impression has been investigated through objective and subjective measure including the flight simulation. The authors verified the influence of the noise conditions including seven conditions, in which the sound pressure levels and frequency characteristics of them were parametrically changed, on the airplane operations using shortterm flight simulation. Resultantly, the change of the sound pressure levels of the in-flight noise did not greatly affect the operation accuracy although clearly affected the subjective impressions. On the other hand, it has been suggested that the change of the frequency characteristics of in-flight noise affected not only the subjective impressions but also the operation accuracy.

Socioeconomic differences in the adolescent mental health time trend: what do we refer to?

Background The long-term increase in adolescent internalizing mental health problems in many countries has raised the question of potential socioeconomic status (SES) differences in this trend. Inconsistencies in how SES and mental health are operationalized hamper this question to be addressed. We examined variation in the adolescent mental health trend across different SES groups using different ways of operationalizing SES and mental health. Methods We used six waves (1993-2013) of Swedish data from the Health Behaviour of School-aged Children (HBSC) study, an international repeated cross-sectional study. We used three proxy indicators of SES: an objective measure and two subjective measures (adolescents’ perceptions of their own and their family’s economic situation). The mental health indicator was psychosomatic symptoms. For each SES indicator, we analyzed the mental health trend using two standards of dividing SES subgroups (absolute vs. relative standard) and mental health (mean vs. top 90% cut-off score). Results The long-term trend of adolescent mental health varied by the SES indicator used. The objective SES measure did not differentiate mental health across different SES groups and the subjective measure of adolescents’ own economic situation did so in terms of the level but not the trend. The subjective measure of the family’s economic situation revealed SES gaps in mental health in terms of both the level and the trend. Conclusions Adolescents’ perceptions of their family’s economic situation has a greater discriminant value than the other SES measures to identify SES gaps in mental health in Sweden. Thus, the trend in adolescent mental health across different SES groups varies depending on how SES and mental health are operationalized. We call for efforts in other countries to report trends with varying measures of SES and mental health. This will help identify vulnerable groups in each country and facilitate well-informed international comparisons. Key messages This study shows that the long-term trend in adolescent mental health according to one’s SES may meaningfully differ depending on how SES and mental health are operationalized. This study calls for future studies in other countries for a more precise identification of vulnerable groups and for a facilitation of well-informed international comparison.