65 research outputs found
The personal belief in a just world and domain-specific beliefs about justice at school and in the family: A longitudinal study with adolescents
No full textThis article investigates the relationship between the personal belief in a just world (BJW) and domain-specific beliefs about justice and examines how justice cognitions impact on adolescents' development, particularly on their achievement at school and their subjective well-being. A longitudinal questionnaire study with German adolescents aged 14-19 years was conducted over a period of five to eight months. The pattern of results revealed that evaluations of the school climate and of the family climate as being just were two distinct phenomena, both of which impacted on the personal BJW, which in turn affected the domain-specific beliefs about justice. However, the domain-specific beliefs about justice did not impact on each other directly. Moreover, an evaluation of the family climate (but not of the school climate) as being just reduced depressive symptoms, whereas depressive symptoms did not weaken the evaluation of one's family as being just. The evaluation of the school climate as being just improved the grades received in the next school report, whereas the grades received did not affect the justice evaluation of the school climate. Finally, all relationships persisted when controlling for age and gender. In sum, the pattern of findings supports the notion that justice cognitions impact on development during adolescence
[Application of extra- and intracochlear electrocochleography during and after cochlear implantation].
No full textElectrocochleography (ECochG) represents a promising approach for monitoring cochlear function during cochlear implantation and for investigating the causes of residual cochlear function loss after implantation. This paper provides an overview of the current research and application status of ECochG, both during and after cochlear implantation. Intraoperative ECochG can be conducted either via the implant itself or an extracochlear measuring electrode. Postoperative ECochG recordings are also feasible via the implant. Various studies have demonstrated that a significant decrease in ECochG amplitude during electrode insertion correlates with an increased risk of losing residual cochlear function, with critical cochlear events occurring primarily towards the end of the insertion. Postoperative data suggest that the loss of cochlear function mainly occurs in the early postoperative phase. Future research directions include the automation and objectification of signal analysis, as well as a more in-depth investigation into the underlying mechanisms of these signal changes
The belief in a just world and distress at school
No full textThis article investigates the relationship between the belief in a just world (BJW) and distress at school. On the basis of just world theory, the authors argue that strong student BJW should be associated with low school distress. Two questionnaire studies with German secondary school students attending grades 7–13 are reported. Both studies found strong BJW to be associated with less distress at school, better grades, and the evaluation of grades and teachers as more just. Moreover, the relationship between strong BJW and low school distress persisted when controlled for grades, justice of grades, and teacher justice. This relationship held for all students, independently of their school track, grade level, or gender. Overall, the pattern of results reveals school distress to have a unique association with BJW and school-specific justice cognitions
Objectification of intracochlear electrocochleography using machine learning
No full textIntroduction: Electrocochleography (ECochG) measures inner ear potentials in response to acoustic stimulation. In patients with cochlear implant (CI), the technique is increasingly used to monitor residual inner ear function. So far, when analyzing ECochG potentials, the visual assessment has been the gold standard. However, visual assessment requires a high level of experience to interpret the signals. Furthermore, expert-dependent assessment leads to inconsistency and a lack of reproducibility. The aim of this study was to automate and objectify the analysis of cochlear microphonic (CM) signals in ECochG recordings.
Methods: Prospective cohort study including 41 implanted ears with residual hearing. We measured ECochG potentials at four different electrodes and only at stable electrode positions (after full insertion or postoperatively). When stimulating acoustically, depending on the individual residual hearing, we used three different intensity levels of pure tones (i.e., supra-, near-, and sub-threshold stimulation; 250–2,000 Hz). Our aim was to obtain ECochG potentials with differing SNRs. To objectify the detection of CM signals, we compared three different methods: correlation analysis, Hotelling's T2 test, and deep learning. We benchmarked these methods against the visual analysis of three ECochG experts.
Results: For the visual analysis of ECochG recordings, the Fleiss' kappa value demonstrated a substantial to almost perfect agreement among the three examiners. We used the labels as ground truth to train our objectification methods. Thereby, the deep learning algorithm performed best (area under curve = 0.97, accuracy = 0.92), closely followed by Hotelling's T2 test. The correlation method slightly underperformed due to its susceptibility to noise interference.
Conclusions: Objectification of ECochG signals is possible with the presented methods. Deep learning and Hotelling's T2 methods achieved excellent discrimination performance. Objective automatic analysis of CM signals enables standardized, fast, accurate, and examiner-independent evaluation of ECochG measurement
Packaging Technology for an Implantable Inner Ear MEMS Microphone
No full textCurrent cochlear implant (CI) systems provide substantial benefits for patients with severe hearing loss. However, they do not allow for 24/7 hearing, mainly due to the external parts that cannot be worn in all everyday situations. One of the key missing parts for a totally implantable CI (TICI) is the microphone, which thus far has not been implantable. The goal of the current project was to develop a concept for a packaging technology for state-of-the-art microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphones that record the liquid-borne sound inside the inner ear (cochlea) as a microphone signal input for a TICI. The packaging concept incorporates requirements, such as biocompatibility, long-term hermeticity, a high sensing performance and a form factor that allows sensing inside the human cochlea and full integration into the existing CI electrode array. The present paper (1) describes the sensor packaging concept and the corresponding numerical and experimental design verification process and (2) gives insight into new engineering solutions for sensor packaging. Overall, a packaging concept was developed that enables MEMS microphone technology to be used for a TICI system
An intracochlear electrocochleography dataset - from raw data to objective analysis using deep learning.
No full textElectrocochleography (ECochG) measures electrophysiological inner ear potentials in response to acoustic stimulation. These potentials reflect the state of the inner ear and provide important information about its residual function. For cochlear implant (CI) recipients, we can measure ECochG signals directly within the cochlea using the implant electrode. We are able to perform these recordings during and at any point after implantation. However, the analysis and interpretation of ECochG signals are not trivial. To assist the scientific community, we provide our intracochlear ECochG data set, which consists of 4,924 signals recorded from 46 ears with a cochlear implant. We collected data either immediately after electrode insertion or postoperatively in subjects with residual acoustic hearing. This data descriptor aims to provide the research community access to our comprehensive electrophysiological data set and algorithms. It includes all steps from raw data acquisition to signal processing and objective analysis using Deep Learning. In addition, we collected subject demographic data, hearing thresholds, subjective loudness levels, impedance telemetry, radiographic findings, and classification of ECochG signals
Comparing continuous and dichotomous scoring of the balanced inventory of desirable responding
No full textThe Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR; Paulhus, 1994) is a widely used instrument to measure the 2 components of social desirability: self-deceptive enhancement and impression management. With respect to scoring of the BIDR, Paulhus (1994) authorized 2 methods, namely continuous scoring (all answers on the continuous answer scale are counted) and dichotomous scoring (only extreme answers are counted). In this article, we report 3 studies with student samples, and continuous and dichotomous scoring of BIDR subscales are compared with respect to reliability, convergent validity, sensitivity to instructional variations, and correlations with personality. Across studies, the scores from continuous scoring (continuous scores) showed higher Cronbach's alphas than those from dichotomous scoring (dichotomous scores). Moreover, continuous scores showed higher convergent correlations with other measures of social desirability and more consistent effects with self-presentation instructions (fake-good vs. fake-bad instructions). Finally, continuous self-deceptive enhancement scores showed higher correlations with those traits of the Five-factor model for which substantial correlations were expected (i.e., Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness). Consequently, these findings indicate that continuous scoring may be preferable to dichotomous scoring when assessing socially desirable responding with the BID
De la croissance duale à l’expérimentation sociale
No full textLa crise économique va durer, le chômage persister : un rapport officiel du gouvernement français le reconnaît. Cette situation explique la multiplication des recherches qui tendent à définir, à travers de nouveaux modes de répartition du travail un compromis social compatible avec une intégration compétitive dans la division internationale du travail. Puisqu’il n’est pas question d’une baisse massive de la durée du travail, on est conduit à inventer des formules qui combinent la recherche de la rentabilité maximum dans le secteur exposé à la concurrence internationale avec l’aménagement de vastes parkings à chômeurs de types divers.C’est pourquoi les promoteurs d’une « société duale » tentent de faire coexister deux secteurs contradictoires, favorisent l’« expérimentation sociale » comme source alternative d’occupation, comme embryon d’une « nouvelle société ».Si le « dualisme » est socialement inacceptable, à quelles conditions peut-on participer à l’expérimentation sociale à laquelle l’ampleur de la crise va contraindre bon nombre de travailleurs ?The economic crisis is with us for a while to come. Unemployment is not going to be dropping off. These are some of the conclusions of an official report of the French governement. The author suggests that this situation helps explain the efforts that are being poured in to finding ways of implementing a new social division of labour compatible with competitive status on international markets. Since there can be no question of drastically reducing the number of working hours for the employed, the government is forced to look for ways that can combine maximum performance in the areas exposed to international competition while at the same time dealing with large pockets of various types of more or less disguised unemployment.This is why the advocates of a "dual society" try to encourage co-existence between conflicting sectors of the society. Through "social experimentation" they seek alternative forms of employment which can be the germs of a "new society".If this type of "dualism" is unacceptable, on what conditions can we participate in the social experimentation that the present economic crisis is forcing on an ever larger number of workers?La crisis económica perdurará, y también el desempleo; un informe oficial del gobierno francés lo reconoce. Esta situación explica la multiplicación de investigaciones que buscan el definir, por medio de nuevas formas de división del trabajo, un compromiso social compatible con una integración competitiva en la división internacional del trabajo. Como no se plantea una disminución masiva de la duración del trabajo, no hay más que tratar de inventar fórmulas que puendan combinar la búsqueda de una rentabilidad maxima en el sector expuesto a la competencia internacional con la organización de vastos terrenos de estacionamiento de cesantes de diversos tipos. Es por ello que los promotores de una "nueva sociedad".Si el dualismo es socialmente inacceptable, bajo qué condiciones es lícito de participar en la experimentación social en la que las dimensiones de la crisis va a forzar un buen número de trabajadores
Reduced concreteness of worry in generalized anxiety disorder: Findings from a therapy study
No full textA sample of clients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) provided descriptions of the two major problems they worried about and of potential negative consequences associated with these problems, once before and once after they received cognitive-behavioral therapy. When descriptions were rated for concreteness and compared to those of normal controls, results showed that untreated GAD clients provided less concrete descriptions of their major worries relative to controls. After successful therapy, problem descriptions of GAD clients showed the same level of concreteness as those of controls. These findings add further support to the reduced-concreteness theory of worry. Moreover; they; indicate that concretization of worries may play a prominent role in the reduction of pathological worr
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