Past empirical work has repeatedly revealed that positive social interactions including expressing gratitude and socializing are associated with greater happiness. However, this work predominantly ...focused on prolonged interactions with close relationship partners. Only a few studies demonstrated hedonic benefits of forming social connections with strangers. The present research investigated whether minimal social interactions with strangers—just taking a moment to greet, thank, and express good wishes to strangers—contribute to happiness of individuals who initiate these interactions. Study 1 (
N
= 856) provided correlational evidence that commuters who reported engaging in minimal positive social interactions with shuttle drivers experienced greater subjective well-being (life satisfaction and positive affect). Moreover, hedonic benefits of positive social interactions went beyond relatively more neutral social interactions, Big-Five personality factors, and age, speaking to the robustness of the effect. Study 2 (
N
= 265) provided experimental evidence that commuters who greeted, thanked, or expressed good wishes to shuttle drivers experienced greater momentary positive affect than those who did not speak with drivers. These findings add to the burgeoning literature on hedonic benefits of interacting with strangers by showing that even very minimal social interactions with strangers contribute to subjective well-being in everyday life.
Past work has shown that perceived responsiveness is a key predictor of relational outcomes. However, this work has focused solely on average levels of responsiveness and never studied the role of ...responsiveness variability (consistency of responsiveness) in intimate relationships. The present study addressed this gap by investigating the long-held but scarcely tested tenet that responsiveness variability and average responsiveness play differential roles in romantic attachment. New romantic couples (N = 151) reported partner-specific attachment anxiety and avoidance in six sessions. Every evening during the 3-week period in between the first two sessions, participants reported perceived partner responsiveness, allowing us to assess both average responsiveness and responsiveness variability. Our findings provided the first empirical evidence that responsiveness variability uniquely predicted increases in partner-specific attachment anxiety, whereas average responsiveness uniquely predicted decreases in partner-specific attachment avoidance. Average responsiveness and responsiveness variability continued to predict attachment orientations assessed about half a year later.
Decades of research indicate that individuals adhere to existing states (“status quo bias”) and value them more (“endowment effect”). The present work is the first to investigate status quo ...preference within the context of trade-offs in mate choice. Across seven studies (total N = 1,567), participants indicated whether they would prefer remaining with a current partner possessing a particular set of traits (e.g., high trustworthiness, low attractiveness) or switching to an alternative partner possessing opposite traits. Preference for a given trait was highest when the individual representing the status quo (one’s romantic partner or an interaction partner) possessed that trait. Concerns about hurting the partner, ambiguity avoidance, and biased construal of the partner and the alternative predicted status quo preference and disapproval of the current partner by network members eliminated this effect. These findings indicate that when it comes to matters of the heart, we tend to love what we currently have.
Integrating the suffocation model of marriage with research on residential mobility, the current studies examined for the first time whether long-term romantic relationships are more central for ...residentially mobile (vs. stable) individuals (total N across three studies = 5,366; age range = 18–95). In Study 1, individuals who moved away from their place of birth (vs. not) were more likely to first confide in their spouse over other network members on important matters. In Study 2, history of frequent residential moves was associated with greater importance ascribed to romantic partners in the attachment hierarchy. In Study 3, the slope of perceived partner responsiveness predicting eudaimonic well-being got steeper as residential mobility increased. By showing the role of residential mobility in romantic relationships, our findings highlight the importance of studying socioecological factors to gain a deeper understanding of how relationship processes unfold.
It is well established that negative financial events during macroeconomic crises have a significant impact on individuals’ mental health. Much less is known about how and for whom economic crises ...impact mental health. Using data from the Midlife in the United States study, we examine the mental health impact of the Great Recession in the U.S. Drawing on predictions from the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation Model of Marriage and the Family Stress Model, we examined whether increases in marital disagreements mediated the link between recession adversities (e.g., unemployment, increased debt, loss of a home) and mental health following the recession (2013–2014), controlling for prerecession marital disagreements and mental health (2004–2006). We found that those who experienced a greater number of recession adversities showed increased marital disagreements following the Great Recession, which were in turn associated with poorer mental health (negative affect and affective disorder). These associations held after controlling for prerecession levels of gender, age, race, and education. Furthermore, those who had lower income before the recession experienced greater increases in negative affect following the recession. These findings highlight the importance of marital processes in how the Great Recession is linked to mental health.
A defining feature of passionate love is idealization--evaluating romantic partners in an overly favorable light. Although passionate love can be expected to color how favorably individuals represent ...their partner in their mind, little is known about how passionate love is linked with visual representations of the partner. Using reverse correlation techniques for the first time to study partner representations, the present study investigated whether women who are passionately in love represent their partner's facial appearance more favorably than individuals who are less passionately in love. In a within-participants design, heterosexual women completed two forced-choice classification tasks, one for their romantic partner and one for a male acquaintance, and a measure of passionate love. In each classification task, participants saw two faces superimposed with noise and selected the face that most resembled their partner (or an acquaintance). Classification images for each of high passion and low passion groups were calculated by averaging across noise patterns selected as resembling the partner or the acquaintance and superimposing the averaged noise on an average male face. A separate group of women evaluated the classification images on attractiveness, trustworthiness, and competence. Results showed that women who feel high (vs. low) passionate love toward their partner tend to represent his face as more attractive and trustworthy, even when controlling for familiarity effects using the acquaintance representation. Using an innovative method to study partner representations, these findings extend our understanding of cognitive processes in romantic relationships.
Objective:
To evaluate the presence of SARS-CoV-2 virus in the cerumen of patients with COVID-19.
Methods:
A prospective study was conducted in a tertiary care pandemic hospital. Sixty COVID-19 ...patients with cerumen in their external auditory canals were included in the study. Swabs were taken from the external auditory canal of the patients by an experienced otolaryngologist with the test swab. Sampling was done by rotating the sample swab 360° 10 times in each external auditory canal for a total of 20 times. After collection, swabs were placed into 2 mL of the sterile viral transport medium (various manufacturers), then transported and tested as soon as possible after collection.
Results:
SARS-CoV-2 was not detected in the cerumen polymerase chain reaction (PCR) samples of any of the 60 patients with positive nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs.
Conclusion:
Cerumen cleaning is one of the most common procedures performed by otolaryngologists, and care should be taken during the procedure or due to the possibility of infection from the resulting contaminants. The cerumen contains the secretions of the glands in the external auditory canal and may contain certain pathogens that are actively found in the body. The presence of hepatitis B virus in the cerumen was examined and isolated in the cerumen. In our study, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 virus in the cerumen was evaluated in SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive patients. SARS-CoV-2 virus was not detected in the cerumen samples of any of the patients.
Over the last few years scientists have been the targets for cybercrime in a few different ways. Hijacked or fake journals and predatory journals have emerged, and many scientists have been ...victimized by these journals. Those journals are trying to deceive authors and readers intentionally by not doing what they say they are doing, but still charging the authors for the services that they do not provide like peer review or editorial review. They also do not follow traditional standards for the acceptance of articles. Our goal is to disseminate knowledge and awareness about such journals and offer some basic skills to the authors so that they avoid fake or predatory publishers. One must be careful because predatory journals may take away not only your money but also, more importantly, your prestige and reputation. (JAEM 2015; 14:94-6) Keywords: Publishing, fake journal, predatory journal
Recently scientists have been targets of pseudo journals (fake, hijacked or predatory journals). These journals provide a low barrier to publication and quick publication times compared to high ...quality journals and exploit the pay-to-publish system in order to charge publication fees but they provide no formal peer-review. We aim to increase awareness among emergency physicians about pseudo journals.
Trying to list all of fake, hijacked or predatory journals is not the solution because new journals are launched almost everyday and the fast proliferation of journals makes it difficult to identify and list all of them. Only an understanding of the practices and markers of legitimate and predatory publishers will allow the researcher to keep pace with danger because fraud is an ever-changing field.
In this review we offer basic information (our top list of strategies and potential red flags) to recognize these journals to avoid submission and suggest some solutions if a paper has already been submitted or published in these journals.
Aim: In patients with suspected acute hemorrhage in the emergency department, the first-line of treatment is intravenous fluid therapy. The most frequently used parameters to estimate the amount of ...hemorrhage and to plan the management are the vital signs, hemoglobin (Hb), and hematocrit (Hct) values. In this study, we aimed to define possible changes in the vital signs, Hb, and Hct values after intravenous infusion of 1 L normal saline in non-hemorrhagic patients to interpret the Hb and Hct values in hemorrhagic patients who receive the same treatment.Materials and Methods: One hundred patients who presented to the emergency department of a training and research hospital between December 1 and 31, 2012, were included in the study. One liter of normal saline was given to patients who consented to participate in the study. The complete blood count parameters and vital signs were recorded before and after administration of saline.Results: Statistically significant decreases in pulse, systolic blood pressure, white blood cell count, Hb, and Hct values were observed after the administration of saline (p<0.001). The median Hb and Hct values decreased from 14.2 to 13 g/dL (p<0.001) and from 42.4% to 38.3% (p<0.001), respectively.Conclusion: In the follow-up of patients who are given intravenous fluids, emergency department physicians should consider that some changes may occur in vital signs and complete blood count parameters due to hemodilution.Cite this article as: Gokcen E, Cevik Y, Pamukcu Gunaydin G, Dogan NO, Tekin M. Changes in Complete Blood Count Parameters and Vital Signs After Intravenous Infusion of 1 Liter of Normal Saline. Eurasian J Emerg Med. 2018; 17: 71-4.
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