Is the apparent U-shape of well-being over the life course a result of inappropriate use of control variables? A commentary on Blanchflower and Oswald (66: 8, 2008, 1733–1749)

In their article in this journal “Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle?” Blanchflower and Oswald (Blanchflower, D.G., & Oswald, A.J. (2008). Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle? Social Science & Medicine, 66, 1733–1749) report the results of an ambitious cross-national study of age and well-being and conclude that in most societies studied the well-being of adults tends to be high in young adulthood and old age and lowest around age 40. I argue that the appearance of this U-shaped curve of well-being is the result of the use of inappropriate and questionable control variables. The most clearly inappropriate control variable is marital status, the control of which to a large extent accounts for the U-shaped curve. Most researchers who have studied the relationship between being married and being happy believe that happiness affects marital status (happier people are more likely to marry and stay married), and of course a variable that is affected by the dependent variable should not be included as a control variable in a simple recursive model. Such control variables as income and education are suspect because the relationship between them and well-being is likely to be partially spurious, and such variables as race and whether or not persons lived with both parents at age 16 should not be controlled, because they cannot affect or be affected by age. Finally, year of survey should not be controlled because of the age-period-cohort conundrum, which makes including age, period, and cohort all as predictor variables in a regression inappropriate (and impossible if the three variables are measured precisely and comparably). The only clearly appropriate control variable is birth cohort, and when only it is controlled, the regression data become estimates of how the well-being of persons has actually changed as they have gone through the life course. I argue that such estimates are much more useful than the counterfactual abstractions provided by Blanchflower and Oswald (Blanchflower, D.G., & Oswald, A.J. (2008). Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle? Social Science & Medicine, 66, 1733–1749), and I conclude that those authors (or someone else) could make a very important contribution by redoing their analyses with birth cohort as the only control variable. I do that with the American happiness data and find that the results do not come close to the U-shaped pattern.     

大学生抑郁障碍与父母教养方式的关系

目的探讨父母教养方式和生活事件与大学生抑郁障碍的关系,为家庭教育提供指导。方法应用父母教养方式评价量表(EMBU)与青少年生活事件量表(ASLEC)对30名患抑郁障碍的大学生和30名正常对照进行调查。结果两组学生在生活事件量表总分;父母情感温暖、理解;惩罚、严厉;拒绝、否认;过度保护等方面有显著性差异,患者组母亲还表现出较强的过分干涉(P<0.05)。结论父母教养方式影响着大学生的情绪和对生活事件的态度,不良的教养方式会增加大学生发生抑郁障碍的可能。     

Changing health status and health expectancies among older adults in China: Gender differences from 1992 to 2002

Numerous studies document improvements in health status and health expectancies among older adults over time. However, most evidence is from developed nations and gender differences in health trends are often inconsistent. It remains unknown whether changes in health in developing countries resemble Western trends or whether patterns of health improvement are unique to the country's epidemiologic transition and gender norms. Using two nationally representative samples of non-institutionalized adults in China aged 65 years and older, this study investigates gender differences in the improvements in disability, chronic disease prevalence, and self-rated health from 1992 to 2002. Results from multivariate logistic regression models show that all three indicators of health improved over the 10-year period, with the largest improvement in self-rated health. With the exception of disability, the health of women improved more than men. Using Sullivan's decomposition methods, we also show that active life expectancy, disease-free life expectancy, and healthy life expectancy increased over this decade and were patterned differently according to gender. Overall, the findings demonstrate that China experienced broad health improvements during its early stages of the epidemiologic transition and that these changes were not uniform by gender. We discuss the public health implications of the findings in the context of China's rapidly aging population.     

十二指肠溃疡生活事件及社会支持的对照研究

目的 探讨十二指肠溃疡与生活事件及社会支持的关系。方法 采用生活事件量表（LES），社会支持评定量表（SSRS）对十二指肠溃疡患者（58例）与健康对照（67例）进行问卷测试与评价分析。结果 十二指肠溃疡患者在生活事件里正性刺激量，负性刺激量和总刺激量都明显高于健康对照组，十二指肠溃疡患者受到的主观支持比一般人群多；而客观支持比一般人群少，但十二指肠溃疡患者受到的总支持量并不比一般人多，而且，十二指肠溃疡患者对支持的利用度也不比一般人高。结论 十二指肠溃疡患者有明显的生活事件和不足的社会支持，对生活事件的刺激尤为敏感。     

《野叟曝言》创作人格批判

《野叟曝言》的“文格”与夏敬渠的创作人格有一致性，但存在明显的、不可忽视的矛盾，这种矛盾对《野叟曝言》的文本价值产生了极复杂的影响。导致夏敬渠“人格”与《野叟曝言》“文格”矛盾的原因是多方面的，研究视角不能简单化、绝对化。     

Study of the measurement of defense style using Bond's Defense Style Questionnaire

Two hundred and seventy healthy university students were surveyed in December 1995 using Bond's Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) to measure the subjects' defense mechanisms. At the same time, a survey using Byrne's R-S Scale (Repression–Sensitization Scale) of the MMPI (Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory) and five psychiatric symptom indexes (anxiety, sense of inadequacy, sensitivity, depression and impulsive anger) selected from the CMI (Cornell Medical Index-Health Questionnaire) was conducted. Three factors were extracted from the DSQ through factor analysis: immature defenses, neurotic defenses, and mature defenses. The results of analysis of variance revealed the following: (i) for anxiety and anxiety related symptoms, both immature defenses and neurotic defenses indicated principal effect; (ii) for impulsive anger and depression, immature defenses presented principal effect; and (iii) for sensitivity and impulsive anger, interaction between a mature defense style and neurotic defense style was noted. The relationship between defense styles and psychiatric symptoms in healthy people is studied in this paper.     

Enhancement of blood-brain barrier permeability to sodium fluorescein by stimulation of µ opioid receptors in mice

Summary The effects of opioids on the permeability of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) were examined in mice with sodium fluorescein as an indicator of the permeability. The brain was perfused with saline 30 min after injection of sodium fluorescein (40 mg/kg, i. v.) and examined by fluorometry. Morphine hydrochloride (0.3–10 mg/kg, s. c.) markedly increased the brain level of sodium fluorescein dose-dependently without influencing the plasma level, when administered 20 min before sodium fluorescein injection. Intracerebroventricularly (i. c. v.) injected morphine hydrochloride (0.5 and 1.0 Erg) increased the brain sodium fluorescein level. Buprenorphine (0.1 and 0.5 mg/kg, s. c.) was also effective. However, pentazocine, ethylketazocine, U-50488H and SKF-10047 had no significant influence. The i.c.v. administration of [D-Ala², McPhe⁴, Gly(ol)⁵]enkephalin (0.1 g) and [D-Ala², D-Leu⁵]enkephalin (0.5 g) but not of [D-Thr², Leu⁵]enkephalin-Thr increased the brain level of sodium fluorescein significantly. A small dose of naloxone (i. p.) significantly inhibited the effects of morphine, buprenorphine, [D-Ala², McPhe⁴, Gly(ol)⁵]enkephalin and [D-Ala³, D-Leu⁵]enkephalin. ICI-174864 co-administered i. c. v. with [D-Ala², D-Leu⁵]enkephalin was ineffective in antagonizing the effect of the latter. These findings suggest that the stimulation of µ opioid receptors results in an increase in BBB permeability to sodium fluorescein. Send offprint requests to K. Saeki     

In the hippocampus in vivo,nitric oxide does not appear to function as an endogenous antiepileptic agent

Using a reverberatory epilepiform discharge of hippocampal-parahippocampal circuits termed maximal dentate activation, this study investigated whether the local release of nitric oxide within these circuits functions as an antiepileptic agent. Two nitric oxide synthase inhibitors (l-nitro-arginine methyl ester and 7-nitro-indazole) and a guanylate cyclase inhibitor (methylene blue) were tested, and none had a significant effect on the time to onset or duration of maximal dentate activation. A membrane-permeable analogue of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP), 8-bromo-cGMP, caused an increase in the time to onset and a decrease in the duration of maximal dentate activation. The number of neurons expressing NADPH diaphorase activity (a marker for nitric oxide synthase) was also examined after repeated elicitation of maximal dentate activation. After 18 seizures there was a significant, but transient, decrease in the number of hilar/subgranular neurons that were NADPH diaphorase-positive. The decrease was only seen at 1 h after the last seizure. There was no induction of NADPH diaphorase activity. These results are not consistent with the hypothesis that, in hippocampal-parahippocampal circuits in vivo, nitric oxide is released in response to neuronal activity and then acts to terminate the neuronal activity.     

Fresh gas flow in the Bain circuit during laparoscopy

Twenty-two women were studied during laparoscopy with abdominal insufflation of carbon dioxide. A bain anaesthetic breathing circuit was used with a fresh gas flow (VFG) of 110 ml.min-1.kg-1, and controlled ventilation was applied with a minute ventilation (VE) of 175 ml.min-1.kg-1. Arterial blood gases were analysed at the end of the operation. Nineteen of the women (86 per cent) were found to have a PaCO2 within the range for normocapnia (i.e., 4.7-5.9 kPa (35-45 mmHg), two were hypocapnic with a PaCO2 of 4.4 and 4.5 kPa (33 and 34 mmHg) respectively and one was found to have a PaCO2 of 6.2 kPa (46.5 mmHg). It was concluded that the carbon dioxide absorbed from the abdomen during laparoscopy demands fresh gas flows that are higher than normally used in the Bain circuit if a PaCO2 within the normal range is to be obtained. A simultaneous increase in VFG and VE of about 45 per cent is sufficient to achieve normocapnia.