PubMed İndeksli Yayınlar Koleksiyonu / PubMed Indexed Publications Collection

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11779/1928

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Citation - WoS: 1
Citation - Scopus: 1
Estimated Probabilities of Positive, Vs. Negative, Events Show Separable Correlations With Covid-19 Preventive Behaviours
(Elsevier, 2022) Aksu, Ayça; Booth, Robert W.; Yavuz, Burak Baran; Peker, Müjde
Research has associated optimism with better health-protective behaviours, but few studies have measured optimism or pessimism directly, by asking participants to estimate probabilities of events. We used these probability estimates to examine how optimism and/or pessimism relate to protecting oneself from COVID-19. When COVID-19 first reached Turkey, we asked a snowball sample of 494 Istanbul adults how much they engaged in various COVID-protective behaviours. They also estimated the probabilities of their catching COVID-19, and of other positive and negative events happening to them. Estimated probability of general positive events (optimism) correlated positively with officially-recommended helpful behaviours (e.g. wearing masks), but not with less-helpful behaviours (e.g. sharing ‘alternative’ COVID-related information online). Estimated probabilities of general negative events (pessimism), or of catching COVID, did not correlate significantly with helpful COVID-related behaviours; but they did correlate with psychopathological symptoms, as did less-helpful COVID-related behaviours. This shows important nuances can be revealed by measuring optimism and pessimism, as separate variables, using probability estimates.
Citation - WoS: 5
Citation - Scopus: 8
The Role of Cumulative Risk and Armed Conflict Exposure in Adolescent Psychological Symptoms in Turkey
(Wiley, 2024) Kara, Buket; Selçuk, Bilge
Exposure to risk factors and adversity may cause immediate, and sometimes prolonged, psychological symptoms in adolescents. Identifying universal and specific risk factors in a particular context and examining their cumulative effects is crucial for understanding the mechanisms underlying psychological symptoms and informing about strategies for intervention. Using concurrent measures, the current study aimed to examine the role of armed conflict experiences and cumulation of other risk factors (e.g., maternal psychological symptoms, socioeconomic indicators) in predicting adolescent psychological symptoms in an underresearched community. The sample included 161 adolescents (54.7% female) aged 11-14 years (M = 12.36, SD = 1.27) and their mothers living in the east of Turkey. The cumulative risk index was calculated by summing the standardized scores of the corresponding factors. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to predict internalizing and externalizing symptoms among adolescents by introducing demographic variables (age, gender) in the first step, armed conflict experiences and cumulative risk in the second step, and their interaction in the final step. Results showed that the levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms were predicted by gender, armed conflict experience and cumulative risk. Being a girl was associated with higher levels of internalizing symptoms and lower levels of externalizing symptoms. Higher levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms were predicted by exposure to armed and cumulative risk. After controlling for other factors, the interaction of armed conflict experience and cumulative risk significantly predicted externalizing, but not internalizing symptoms. These findings suggested that cumulative risk was a stronger predictor of psychological symptoms, and further amplified the strength of the association between armed conflict experiences and externalizing symptoms. These findings can be used in the formulation of intervention strategies and policies to promote psychological well-being in adolescents living in armed conflict zones under multiple risks.
Cross-Cultural Data on Romantic Love and Mate Preferences From 117,293 Participants Across 175 Countries
(Nature Research, 2025) Kowal, Marta; Sorokowski, Piotr; Gjoneska, Biljana; Pisanski, Katarzyna; Pfuhl, Gerit; Aguilar, Leonardo; Prazeres, Filipe; Toplu-Demirtaş, Ezgi
Psychological studies on close relationships have often overlooked cultural diversity, dynamic processes, and potentially universal principles that shape intimate partnerships. To address the limited generalizability of previous research and advance our understanding of romantic love experiences, mate preferences, and physical attractiveness, we conducted a large-scale cross-cultural survey study on these topics. A total of 404 researchers collected data in 45 languages from April to August 2021, involving 117,293 participants from 175 countries. Aside from standard demographic questions, the survey included valuable information on variables relevant to romantic relationships: intimate, passionate, and committed love within romantic relationships, physical-attractiveness enhancing behaviors, gender equality endorsement, collectivistic attitudes, personal history of pathogenic diseases, relationship quality, jealousy, personal involvement in sexual and/or emotional infidelity, relational mobility, mate preferences, and acceptance of sugar relationships. The resulting dataset provides a rich resource for investigating patterns within, and associations across, a broad range of variables relevant to romantic relationships, with extensive opportunities to analyze individual experiences worldwide. © The Author(s) 2025.
Citation - WoS: 13
Citation - Scopus: 14
Economic Outcomes in Patients With Chemotherapy-Naive Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer Treated With Enzalutamide or Abiraterone Acetate Plus Prednisone
(Springer, 2020) Lechpammer, Stanislav; Ramaswamy, Krishnan; Wang, Li; Mardekian, Jack; George, Daniel J.; Sandin, Rickard; Schultz, Neil M.; Başer, Onur; Huang, Ahong
Introduction: Prostate cancer (PC) is the second leading cause of cancer death among US men and accounts for considerable healthcare expenditures. We evaluated economic outcomes in men with chemotherapy-naı¨ve metastatic castration-resistant PC (mCRPC) treated with enzalutamide or abiraterone acetate plus prednisone (abiraterone). Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis on 3174 men (18 years or older) utilizing the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) database from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2018. Men with mCRPC were included if they had at least one pharmacy claim for enzalutamide or abiraterone (ﬁrst claim date = index date) following surgical or medical castration, had no chemotherapy treatment within 12 months prior to the index date, and had continuous VHA enrollment for at least 12 months pre- and post-index date. Men were followed until death, disenrollment, or end of study and were 1:1 propensity score matched (PSM). All-cause and PC-related resource use and costs per patient per month (PPPM) in the 12 months post index were compared between matched cohorts. Results: We identiﬁed 1229 men with mCRPC prescribed enzalutamide and 1945 prescribed abiraterone with mean ages of 74 and 73 years, respectively. After PSM, each cohort had 1160 patients. The enzalutamide cohort had fewer all-cause (2.51 vs 2.86; p\0.0001) and PC-related outpatient visits (0.86 vs 1.03; p\0.0001), with corresponding lower all-cause ($2588 vs $3115; p\0.0001) and PC-related ($1356 vs $1775; p\0.0001) PPPM outpatient costs compared with the abiraterone cohort. Allcause total costs (medical and pharmacy) PPPM ($8085 vs $9092; p = 0.0002) and PC-related total costs PPPM ($6321 vs $7280; p\0.0001) were signiﬁcantly lower in the enzalutamide cohort compared with the abiraterone cohort. Conclusions: Enzalutamide-treated men with chemotherapy-naı ¨ve mCRPC had signiﬁcantly lower resource utilization and healthcare costs compared with abiraterone-treated men. Plain Language Summary: Plain language summary available for this article.
Citation - WoS: 8
Citation - Scopus: 8
The Use of Decomposition Methods in Real-World Treatment Benefits Evaluation for Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Initiating Different Injectable Therapies: Findings From the Initiator Study
(2017) Ke, Xuehua; Buysman, Erin; Wei, Wenhui; Xie, Lin; Grabner, Michael; Brekke, Lee; Başer, Onur
Background: Determining characteristics of patients likely to benefit from a particular treatment could help physicians set personalized targets. OBJECTIVES: To use decomposition methodology on real-world data to identify the relative contributions of treatment effects and patients' baseline characteristics. METHODS: Decomposition analyses were performed on data from the Initiation of New Injectable Treatment Introduced after Antidiabetic Therapy with Oral-only Regimens (INITIATOR) study, a real-world study of patients with type 2 diabetes started on insulin glargine (GLA) or liraglutide (LIRA). These analyses investigated relative contributions of differences in baseline characteristics and treatment effects to observed differences in 1-year outcomes for reduction in glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and treatment persistence. RESULTS: The greater HbA1c reduction seen with GLA compared with LIRA (-1.39% vs. -0.74%) was primarily due to differences in baseline characteristics (HbA1c and endocrinologist as prescribing physician; P < 0.050). Patients with baseline HbA1c of 9.0% or more or evidence of diagnosis codes related to mental illness achieved greater HbA1c reductions with GLA, whereas patients with baseline polypharmacy (6-10 classes) or hypogylcemia achieved greater reductions with LIRA. Decomposition analyses also showed that the higher persistence seen with GLA (65% vs. 49%) was mainly caused by differences in treatment effects (P < 0.001). Patients 65 years and older, those with HbA1c of 9.0% or more, those taking three oral antidiabetes drugs, and those with polypharmacy of more than 10 classes had higher persistence with GLA; patients 18 to 39 years and those with HbA1c of 7.0% to less than 8.0% had higher persistence with LIRA. CONCLUSIONS: Although decomposition does not demonstrate causal relationships, this method could be useful for examining the source of differences in outcomes between treatments in a real-world setting and could help physicians identify patients likely to respond to a particular treatment. Copyright (C) 2017 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Citation - WoS: 6
Citation - Scopus: 7
The Effects of Ultrasound Parameters and Microbubble Concentration on Acoustic Particle Palpation
(Acoustical Society of America, 2018) Körük, Hasan; Saharkhiz, Niloufar; Choi, James J
The elasticity of tissue—an indicator of disease progression—can be imaged by ultrasound elasticity imaging technologies. An acoustic particle palpation (APP) has recently been developed—the use of ultrasonically driven acoustic particles (e.g., microbubbles)—as an alternative method of tissue deformation. APP has the potential to improve the resolution, contrast, and depth of ultrasound elasticity imaging; but the tissue displacement dynamics and its dependence on acoustic pressure, center frequency, and microbubble concentration remains unknown. Here, displacements of at least 1 μm were produced by applying ultrasound onto a microbubble solution (concentration: 10 × 106 microbubbles ml–1) placed within a tunnel surrounded by a 5% gelatin phantom. Displacements of more than 10 μm were produced using a 1, 3.5, or 5 MHz center frequency pulse with peak-rarefactional pressures of 470, 785, and 1210 kPa, respectively. The deformation of the distal wall varied spatially and temporally according to the different parameters investigated. At low pressures, the deformation increased over several milliseconds until it was held at a nearly constant value. At high pressures, a large deformation occurred within a millisecond followed by a sharp decrease and long stabilization. Ultrasound exposure in the presence of microbubbles produced tissue deformation (p < 0.05) while without microbubbles, no deformation was observed.
Big-5 Personality Traits as Predictors of Allostatic Load in Latino Americans: A Longitudinal Study
(Oxford Univ Press Inc, 2025) Sevi, Baris; Supiyev, Adil; Gutierrez, Angela; Graham, Eileen K.; Mroczek, Daniel K.; Muniz-Terrera, Graciela
Objectives Allostatic load (AL) refers to the measure of cumulative wear and tear resulting from chronic stress and life events. AL presents adverse consequences for a diverse range of health conditions, and Latino populations show a high risk for elevated AL. This study aimed to test the Big-5 personality traits as possible predictors of AL in Latinos.Methods Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we examined the Big-5 and AL connection through three time points in 8 years (Time 1 = 2006/2008; Time 2 = 2010/2012; Time 3 = 2014/2016). Only self-identified Latinos were included in the analysis sample (N = 319). Big-5 and demographics were obtained at baseline, and AL scores were computed for each time point.Results First, separate longitudinal linear mixed-effect models examined the effects of each Big-5 personality trait on AL change over time, then a fully adjusted longitudinal linear mixed-effect model was tested entering the Big-5 personality traits simultaneously. All models controlled for sociodemographic factors. Conscientiousness emerged as the only consistent significant predictor, for the separate and the simultaneous models. In baseline associations, higher conscientiousness was associated with lower AL. For predicting change in AL over time, none of the personality traits had significant associations in any of the models.Discussion The findings bolster prior evidence that conscientious can be a protective factor against elevated AL. Conscientiousness is a possible protective factor and improving related traits can be a path to achieve better health in Latino Americans.
Citation - WoS: 15
Citation - Scopus: 19
Untangling the Relationship Between Internalized Heterosexism and Psychological Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration: a Comparative Study of Lesbians and Bisexual Women in Turkey and Denmark
(SAGE Publications, 2021) Jessen, Reidar Schei; Toplu-Demirtaş, Ezgi; Umak, Esra
Psychological intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration is not limited to heterosexual relationships and can affect all genders and sexual orientations, including lesbians and bisexual women (LB) both in Denmark and Turkey. Internalized heterosexism might be one of the factors increasing the risk of LB's use of psychological IPV perpetration. However, it is still unclear how being LB in Turkey and Denmark interact in the internalized heterosexism and psychological IPV perpetration relationship. The current study, therefore, presents an investigation of (a) the prevalence of sexual orientation (LB) and country (Denmark and Turkey) differences in perpetrating psychological IPV and (b) the moderating roles of sexual orientation and country on the association between internalized heterosexism and psychological IPV perpetration. A sample of 449 LB from Denmark and Turkey completed the Lesbian Internalized Homophobia Scale and the Multidimensional Measure of Emotional Abuse Scale. The results of chi-square analyses indicated that LB from Turkey and bisexual women from both countries reported significantly higher psychological IPV perpetration. The results of moderation analyses revealed that country had direct effects on the use of psychological IPV perpetration. No moderation effects were found for both sexual orientation and country in three of the four types of psychological IPV perpetration. These findings suggest that LB are not an exception to the perpetration of IPV. Furthermore, the findings were discussed from the perspectives of intersectionality and minority stress.
Citation - WoS: 3
Citation - Scopus: 5
Unraveling Neural Pathways of Political Engagement: Bridging Neuromarketing and Political Science for Understanding Voter Behavior and Political Leader Perception
(2023) Çakar, Tuna; Filiz, Gözde
Political neuromarketing is an interdisciplinary field that combines marketing, neuroscience, and psychology to understand voter behavior and political leader perception. This interdisciplinary field offers novel techniques to understand complex phenomena such as voter engagement, political leadership, and party branding. This study aims to understand the neural activation patterns of voters when they are exposed to political leaders using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and machine learning methods. We recruited participants and recorded their brain activity using fNIRS when they were exposed to images of different political leaders. This neuroimaging method (fNIRS) reveals brain regions central to brand perception, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Machine learning methods were used to predict the participants' perceptions of leaders based on their brain activity. The study has identified the brain regions that are involved in processing political stimuli and making judgments about political leaders. Within this study, the best-performing machine learning model, LightGBM, achieved a highest accuracy score of 0.78, underscoring its efficacy in predicting voters' perceptions of political leaders based on the brain activity of the former. The findings from this study provide new insights into the neural basis of political decision-making and the development of effective political marketing campaigns while bridging neuromarketing, political science and machine learning, in turn enabling predictive insights into voter preferences and behavior
Citation - Scopus: 4
Economic Impact and Complications of Treated and Untreated Hepatitis C Virus Patients in Turkey
(2015) Altinbaş, Akif; Baser E; Kariburyo, F; Başer, Onur
Background: According to the Turkish Ministry of Health’s guidelines,standard double therapy, a combination of pegylated interferon-alphaand ribavirin, was the only treatment option for patients withhepatitis C virus (HCV) infection until the end of 2011. Objective: Theprimary objective was to compare risk-adjusted clinical and economicoutcomes between treated and untreated patients with HCV infection.Methods: Patients with HCV infection were identified from theTurkish National Health Insurance Database (2009–2011) using International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification codes.The first prescription date was designated as the index date. Mortalityand hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) rates and health care costs oftreated and untreated patients were compared using propensity scorematching. Baseline demographic and clinical factors were controlledin the models. Subgroup analysis was conducted for patient groupswith and without a cirrhosis diagnosis. Results: Out of 12,990 patientsincluded in the study, 1,583 were treated for HCV infection. Out of2,467 patients who had a cirrhosis diagnosis, 231 were treated,whereas out of 10,523 patients without cirrhosis, 1,352 patients weretreated. Treated patients were younger, less likely to be diagnosedwith comorbid conditions, and less likely to reside in Central orEastern Anatolia. After adjusting for baseline demographic andclinical factors, mortality (2.27% vs. 5.31%; P o 0.001) and HCC rates(0.69% vs. 1.96%; P o 0.001) were found to be lower for treatedpatients. Differences were more significant among patients diagnosedwith cirrhosis. Treated patients incurred higher risk-adjusted annualcosts (€6172 vs. €1680; P o 0.001), mainly because of pharmaceuticalcosts (€4918 vs. €583; P o 0.001). Conclusions: HCV infection treatment, although costly, significantly reduces mortality and HCC ratesin Turkey.
Citation - Scopus: 1
Validation of the Short Version (tls-15) of the Triangular Love Scale (tls-45) Across 37 Languages (oct, 10.1007/S10508-023-02702-7, 2023)
(Springer/plenum Publishers, 2024) Sorokowski, Piotr; Frederick, David A.; Pisanski, Katarzyna; Kowal, Marta; Dinic, Bojana M.; Sternberg, Robert J.; Gjoneska, Biljana; Demirtaş, Ezgi Toplu
[No Abstract Available]
Underlining Neighbourhood Perception: a Possible Risk Factor for Dementia That Deserves More Attention
(Oxford Univ Press, 2024) Gutierrez, Angela; Sevi, Barış; Muniz-Terrera, Graciela
This essay highlights the interplay between the neighbourhood structural environment and neighbourhood perceptions on dementia by articulating how an individual's perception of neighbourhood, with respect to their individual differences, may provide key insights to understand the link between the neighbourhood and dementia.
Citation - WoS: 17
Citation - Scopus: 23
Benefit of Early Discharge Among Patients With Low-Risk Pulmonary Embolism
(2017) Wang, Li; Wells, Phil; Fermann, Gregory J; Peacock, W. Frank; Schein, Jeff; Coleman, Craig I; Crivera, Concetta; Başer, Onur
Clinical guidelines recommend early discharge of patients with low-risk pulmonary embolism (LRPE). This study measured the overall impact of early discharge of LRPE patients on clinical outcomes and costs in the Veterans Health Administration population. Adult patients with >= 1 inpatient diagnosis for pulmonary embolism (PE) (index date) between 10/2011-06/2015, continuous enrollment for >= 12 months pre-and 3 months post-index date were included. PE risk stratification was performed using the simplified Pulmonary Embolism Stratification Index. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to compare 90-day adverse PE events (APEs) [recurrent venous thromboembolism, major bleed and death], hospital-acquired complications (HACs), healthcare utilization, and costs among short (<= 2 days) versus long length of stay (LOS). Net clinical benefit was defined as 1 minus the combined rate of APE and HAC. Among 6,746 PE patients, 95.4% were men, 22.0% were African American, and 1,918 had LRPE. Among LRPE patients, only 688 had a short LOS. After 1:1 PSM, there were no differences in APE, but short LOS had fewer HAC (1.5% vs 13.3%, 95% CI: 3.77-19.94) and bacterial pneumonias (5.9% vs 11.7%, 95% CI: 1.24-3.23), resulting in better net clinical benefit (86.9% vs 78.3%, 95% CI: 0.84-0.96). Among long LOS patients, HACs (52) exceeded APEs (14 recurrent DVT, 5 bleeds). Short LOS incurred lower inpatient ($2,164 vs $5,100, 95% CI: $646.8-$5225.0) and total costs ($9,056 vs $12,544, 95% CI: $636.6-$6337.7). LRPE patients with short LOS had better net clinical outcomes at lower costs than matched LRPE patients with long LOS.
Citation - WoS: 1
Citation - Scopus: 3
Brief Time Course of Trait Anxiety-Related Attentional Bias To Fearconditioned Stimuli: Evidence From the Dual-Rsvp Task
(Elsevier, 2016) Booth, Robert William
Background and objectives Attentional bias to threat is a much-studied feature of anxiety; it is typically assessed using response time (RT) tasks such as the dot probe. Findings regarding the time course of attentional bias have been inconsistent, possibly because RT tasks are sensitive to processes downstream of attention. Methods Attentional bias was assessed using an accuracy-based task in which participants detected a single digit in two simultaneous rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) streams of letters. Before the target, two coloured shapes were presented simultaneously, one in each RSVP stream; one shape had previously been associated with threat through Pavlovian fear conditioning. Attentional bias was indicated wherever participants identified targets in the threat’s RSVP stream more accurately than targets in the other RSVP stream. Results In 87 unselected undergraduates, trait anxiety only predicted attentional bias when the target was presented immediately following the shapes, i.e. 160 ms later; by 320 ms the bias had disappeared. This suggests attentional bias in anxiety can be extremely brief and transitory. Limitations This initial study utilised an analogue sample, and was unable to physiologically verify the efficacy of the conditioning. The next steps will be to verify these results in a sample of diagnosed anxious patients, and to use alternative threat stimuli. Conclusions The results of studies using response time to assess the time course of attentional bias may partially reflect later processes such as decision making and response preparation. This may limit the efficacy of therapies aiming to retrain attentional biases using response time tasks.
Citation - WoS: 4
Citation - Scopus: 5
Monitoring of Intracerebral Hemorrhage With a Linear Microwave Imaging Algorithm
(Springer, 2022) Dilman, Ismail; Dogu, Semih; Bilgin, Egemen; Akinci, Mehmet Nuri; Cosgun, Sema; Çayören, Mehmet; Akduman, Ibrahim
Intracerebral hemorrhage is a life-threatening condition where conventional imaging modalities such as CT and MRI are indispensable in diagnosing. Nevertheless, monitoring the evolution of intracerebral hemorrhage still poses a technological challenge. We consider continuous monitoring of intracerebral hemorrhage in this context and present a differential microwave imaging scheme based on a linearized inverse scattering. Our aim is to reconstruct non-anatomical maps that reveal the volumetric evolution of hemorrhage by using the differences between consecutive electric field measurements. This approach can potentially allow the monitoring of intracerebral hemorrhage in a real-time and cost-effective manner. Here, we devise an indicator function, which reveals the position, volumetric growth, and shrinkage of hemorrhage. Later, the method is numerically tested via a 3D anthropomorphic dielectric head model. Through several simulations performed for different locations of intracerebral hemorrhage, the indicator function-based technique is demonstrated to be capable of detecting the changes accurately. Finally, the robustness under noisy conditions is analyzed to assess the feasibility of the method. This analysis suggests that the method can be used to monitor the evolution of intracerebral hemorrhage in real-world scenarios. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]. © 2022, International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Citation - WoS: 4
Citation - Scopus: 6
Measurement Invariance of the Moral Vitalism Scale Across 28 Cultural Groups
(Public Library of Science, 2020) Bilewicz, Michal; Kuppens, Peter; Crespo, Carla; Collier-Baker, Emma; Fischer, Ronald; Pelay, Cesar; Peker, Müjde; Pina, Afroditi; Karasawa, Minoru; Hooper, Nic; Vauclair, Christin-Melanie; Friese, Malte; AminihajibashiI, Samira; Wailan Yeung, Victoria; Rudnev, Maksim; Eastwic, Paul; Luis Castellanos Guevara, Jose; Saguy, Tamar; Silfver-Kuhalampi, Mia; Gomez, Angel; Becker, Maja; Loughnan, Steve; Bastian, Brock; Swann, William; Tong, Jennifer (Yuk-Yue); Sortheix, Florencia; Guerra, Valeschka; Huang, Li-li; Shi, Junqi; Hanke, Katja; Sachkova, Marianna
Moral vitalism refers to a tendency to view good and evil as actual forces that can influence people and events. The Moral Vitalism Scale had been designed to assess moral vitalism in a brief survey form. Previous studies established the reliability and validity of the scale in US-American and Australian samples. In this study, the cross-cultural comparability of the scale was tested across 28 different cultural groups worldwide through measurement invariance tests. A series of exact invariance tests marginally supported partial metric invariance, however, an approximate invariance approach provided evidence of partial scalar invariance for a 5-item measure. The established level of measurement invariance allows for comparisons of latent means across cultures. We conclude that the brief measure of moral vitalism is invariant across 28 cultures and can be used to estimate levels of moral vitalism with the same precision across very different cultural settings.
Citation - WoS: 10
Citation - Scopus: 12
Social Competence in Children With Autism
(Taylor & Francis, 2019) Yavuz, H. Melis; Selçuk, Bilge; Korkmaz, Barış
Objectives: This paper investigates the associations of social competence with cognitive representation and communication skills in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), by measuring these skills in an expansive way through assessing both mental and internal-state understanding, and verbal and non-verbal communication. Methods: The data were collected from 45 Turkish children (Mage=8.52 years, SD=3.05, min-max=3–14) with a diagnosis of ASD. Individual assessments were used to measure mental- and internal-state understanding. Teacher-rated scales were used to assess child’s verbal and non-verbal communication skills, and social competence. Results: The results showed that social competence, cognitive representation, verbal and non-verbal communication skills were all significantly associated, but over and above cognitive representation skills and verbal communication, non-verbal communication had a salient role in adaptive social relationships of children with ASD. Conclusions: These findings have important applied implications for intervention studies and suggest that improvements of non-verbal communication skills in children with ASD might be important for increasing their positive social relations.
Citation - WoS: 13
Citation - Scopus: 17
Acoustic Streaming in a Soft Tissue Microenvironment
(Elsevier, 2019) El Ghamrawy, Ahmed; Mohammed, Ali; Jones, Julian R; Körük, Hasan; Choi, James J; de Comtes, Florentina
We demonstrated that sound can push fluid through a tissue-mimicking material. Although acousticstreaming in tissue has been proposed as a mechanism for biomedical ultrasound applications, such as neuromodu-lation and enhanced drug penetration, streaming in tissue or acoustic phantoms has not been directly observed. Wedeveloped a material that mimics the porous structure of tissue and used a dye and a video camera to track fluidmovement. When applied above an acoustic intensity threshold, a continuous focused ultrasound beam (spatialpeak time average intensity: 238 W/cm2, centre frequency: 5 MHz) was found to push the dye axially, that is, in thedirection of wave propagation and in the radial direction. Dye clearance increased with ultrasound intensity andwas modelled using an adapted version of Eckart’s acoustic streaming velocity equation. No microstructuralchanges were observed in the sonicated region when assessed using scanning electron microscopy. Our study indi-cates that acoustic streaming can occur in soft porous materials and provides a mechanistic basis for future use ofstreaming for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes.
Citation - WoS: 15
Citation - Scopus: 19
Perceiving Societal Pressure To Be Happy Is Linked To Poor Well-Being, Especially in Happy Nations
(Nature Research, 2022) Rhee, J Joshua; Peker, Müjde; Becker, Maja; Bilewicz, Michal; Bastian, Brock; Baguma, K Peter; Barry, Oumar; Dejonckheere, Egon
Happiness is a valuable experience, and societies want their citizens to be happy. Although this societal commitment seems laudable, overly emphasizing positivity (versus negativity) may create an unattainable emotion norm that ironically compromises individual well-being. In this multi-national study (40 countries; 7443 participants), we investigate how societal pressure to be happy and not sad predicts emotional, cognitive and clinical indicators of well-being around the world, and examine how these relations differ as a function of countries' national happiness levels (collected from the World Happiness Report). Although detrimental well-being associations manifest for an average country, the strength of these relations varies across countries. People's felt societal pressure to be happy and not sad is particularly linked to poor well-being in countries with a higher World Happiness Index. Although the cross-sectional nature of our work prohibits causal conclusions, our findings highlight the correlational link between social emotion valuation and individual well-being, and suggest that high national happiness levels may have downsides for some.
Citation - WoS: 12
Citation - Scopus: 14
Elastic Deformation of Soft Tissue-Mimicking Materials Using a Single Microbubble and Acoustic Radiation Force
(Elsevier, 2020) Körük, Hasan; Bezer, James H.; J Rowlands, Christopher; Choi, James J.
Mechanical effects of microbubbles on tissues are central to many emerging ultrasound applications. Here, we investigated the acoustic radiation force a microbubble exerts on tissue at clinically relevant therapeutic ultrasound parameters. Individual microbubbles administered into a wall-less hydrogel channel (diameter: 25–100 µm, Young's modulus: 2–8.7 kPa) were exposed to an acoustic pulse (centre frequency: 1 MHz, pulse length: 10 ms, peak-rarefactional pressures: 0.6–1.0 MPa). Using high-speed microscopy, each microbubble was tracked as it pushed against the hydrogel wall. We found that a single microbubble can transiently deform a soft tissue-mimicking material by several micrometres, producing tissue loading–unloading curves that were similar to those produced using other indentation-based methods. Indentation depths were linked to gel stiffness. Using a mathematical model fitted to the deformation curves, we estimated the radiation force on each bubble (typically tens of nanonewtons) and the viscosity of the gels. These results provide insight into the forces exerted on tissues during ultrasound therapy and indicate a potential source of bio-effects.