Rapid management of Serratia marcescens outbreak in neonatology unit in Singapore: Risk factors and infection control measures.

BACKGROUND: We describe the investigations for control of two consecutive Serratia marcescens outbreaks in neonatology unit of Singapore General Hospital. METHODS: Epidemiological investigations, environmental sampling and risk-factors analysis were performed to guide infection control measures. Active surveillance sampling of nasopharyngeal aspirate and/or stool from neonates was conducted during both outbreaks. Whole-genome-sequencing was done to determine clonal links. Retrospective case-control study was conducted for second outbreak to identify risk factors for S marcescens acquisition. RESULTS: In 2022, two genetically unrelated S marcescens outbreaks were managed involving five neonates in March 2022 (outbreak 1) and eight neonates in November 2022 (outbreak 2). A link to positive isolates from sinks in intensive care units and milk preparation room was identified during outbreak 1. Neonatal jaundice (aOR, 16.46; p-value= 0.023) and non-formula milk feeding (aOR, 13.88; p-value= 0.02) were identified as risk factors during second outbreak. Multiple interventions adopted were cohorting of positive cases, carriage-screening, enhanced environmental cleaning, and emphasis on alcohol-based handrubs for hand-hygiene. CONCLUSION: The two outbreaks were likely due to infection prevention practices lapses and favourable environmental conditions. Nosocomial S marcescens outbreaks in neonatology units are difficult to control and require multidisciplinary approach with strict infection prevention measures to mitigate risk factors.

Development of a robotic cluster for automated and scalable cell therapy manufacturing.

BACKGROUND AIMS: The production of commercial autologous cell therapies such as chimeric antigen receptor T cells requires complex manual manufacturing processes. Skilled labor costs and challenges in manufacturing scale-out have contributed to high prices for these products. METHODS: We present a robotic system that uses industry-standard cell therapy manufacturing equipment to automate the steps involved in cell therapy manufacturing. The robotic cluster consists of a robotic arm and customized modules, allowing the robot to manipulate a variety of standard cell therapy instruments and materials such as incubators, bioreactors, and reagent bags. This system enables existing manual manufacturing processes to be rapidly adapted to robotic manufacturing, without having to adopt a completely new technology platform. Proof-of-concept for the robotic cluster's expansion module was demonstrated by expanding human CD8+ T cells. RESULTS: The robotic cultures showed comparable cell yields, viability, and identity to those manually performed. In addition, the robotic system was able to maintain culture sterility. CONCLUSIONS: Such modular robotic solutions may support scale-up and scale-out of cell therapies that are developed using classical manual methods in academic laboratories and biotechnology companies. This approach offers a pathway for overcoming manufacturing challenges associated with manual processes, ultimately contributing to the broader accessibility and affordability for personalized immunotherapies.

Job search in a difficult labour market: linking goal orientation to job search strategies and outcomes with the moderating role of self-control.

This study addresses how goal orientation relates to different job search strategies to increase the chance of finding employment and quality jobs. We integrate the goal orientation theory with self-control to examine how the orientation of goals (i.e., performance-prove goal orientation (PPGO), performance-avoid goal orientation (PAGO) and learning goal orientation (LGO)) are associated with job search strategies (i.e., Focused Job Search Strategy- FJSS, Exploratory Job Search Strategy-EJSS, and Haphazard Job Search Strategy-HJSS) and how self-control moderates the process. In a three-wave study (nT1= 859; nT2 = 720; nT3 = 418), the hypotheses were tested using unemployed job seekers in Ghana. The results from the structural equation model show that learning goal oriented job seekers were inclined to search more focused and exploratory but engaged in less haphazard search. While PPGO facilitated EJSS, job seekers with PAGO searched more haphazardly but their search behaviour was less focused and exploratory. In addition, EJSS contributed to attending more job interviews, but HJSS decreased the chance of obtaining job interviews. Also, the interviews attended were associated with job offered, which in turn led to obtaining employment. Both FJSS and EJSS were related to employment quality but HJSS decreased employment quality. Interestingly, individual differences in self-control were found to moderate the relation between goal orientation and job search strategy. The use of EJSS was found to be more beneficial in difficult labour markets.

Correlates of Acceptance of Wealth Inequality: A Moderated Mediation Model.

Wealth inequality is a prevalent social issue. The present study focuses on acceptance of wealth inequality, and considers personal income, perceived upward mobility, and future time perspective as its antecedents, and collective action intention as its outcome. With reference to the social identity literature and socioemotional selectivity theory, we posit a conditional indirect effect of income on collective action intention through acceptance of wealth inequality: only when mobility and future time perspective are relatively high, higher income is associated with higher acceptance of wealth inequality and in turn, lower collective action intention. Moderated mediation findings, based on territory-wide phone survey data from 866 Hong Kong adults, supported this prediction. This work indicates the relevance of an individual-level instrumental perspective to the understanding of acceptance of wealth inequality as well as collective action intention.

Will You Forgive Your Supervisor's Wrongdoings? The Moral Licensing Effect of Ethical Leader Behaviors.

Moral licensing theory suggests that observers may liberate actors to behave in morally questionable ways due to the actors' history of moral behaviors. Drawing on this view, a scenario experiment with a 2 (high vs. low ethical) × 2 (internal vs. external motivation) between-subject design (N = 455) was conducted in the current study. We examined whether prior ethical leader behaviors cause subordinates to license subsequent abusive supervision, as well as the moderating role of behavior motivation on such effects. The results showed that when supervisors demonstrated prior ethical behaviors, subordinates, as victims, liberated them to act in abusive ways. Specifically, subordinates showed high levels of tolerance and low levels of condemnation toward abusive supervision and seldom experienced emotional responses to supervisors' abusive behaviors. Moreover, subordinates tended to attribute abusive supervision, viewed as a kind of mistreatment without an immediate intent to cause harm, to characteristics of the victims and of the organization rather than of the supervisors per se. When supervisors behaved morally out of internal rather than external motivations, the aforementioned licensing effects were stronger.

Meta-analyzing dependent correlations with correction for artifacts that multiplicatively attenuate the true correlation.

Previous procedures for meta-analyzing dependent correlations have been found to overestimate or underestimate the true variation in effect sizes. Samplewise-adjusted procedures have been shown to perform better than simple within-study means when meta-analyzing dependent correlations. However, such procedures cannot be applied when correction for artifacts such as unreliability is desired. In the present study, we extended the procedures to correct for attenuation due to artifacts when meta-analyzing dependent correlations. Monte Carlo simulation was conducted in order to examine conditions with various degrees of dependence, degrees of heterogeneity, sample sizes, and numbers of studies, among other factors. The previous procedures, including the samplewise-adjusted procedures without correction, yielded biased point estimates and confidence intervals with low coverage probabilities of the population mean correlation and degree of heterogeneity. More importantly, the bias and undercoverage of the confidence interval increased with the mean sample size and number of studies in many conditions. The new samplewise-adjusted procedures with correction for attenuation yielded negligible biases when estimating the mean population correlation, even in the presence of dependent correlations. Given that the need for correction for attenuation due to artifacts is becoming more recognized in meta-analysis, our findings highlight the importance of such considerations when meta-analyzing dependent correlations. Conditions under which these procedures can be further improved are also discussed.

Comparing Effects of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Social Values Between Younger and Older Employees.

Socioemotional selectivity theory proposes that older adults emphasize emotional goals and interpersonal closeness to a greater extent than do younger adults, suggesting that holding social work-related values (SWVs) may be beneficial to older employees. This project aimed at examining two dimensions of SWVs, intrinsic and extrinsic SWVs, and tested whether age and work situation would moderate their effects on self-rated job performance. A cross-sectional survey (Study 1, N = 357) and a 14-day experience sampling study (Study 2, N = 77) were conducted among Chinese managerial employees. Study 1 showed that the direct effect of intrinsic SWVs on self-rated job performance was stronger in older employees than in younger employees. Study 2 demonstrated that older employees who valued intrinsic SWVs while being in social situations performed much better than when they did not value intrinsic SWVs but being in social situations; however such positive effect was not shown in younger employees. Findings of this project reveal that the effect of SWVs varies across locus of effect (intrinsic versus extrinsic), age, and work situation. Among older employees, the positive effect of intrinsic SWVs is more crucial than that of extrinsic SWVs on self-rated job performance. Findings of this project imply that intrinsically rewarding incentives would be more effective in motivating older employees to reach peak performance.

When Love Meets Money: Priming the Possession of Money Influences Mating Strategies.

Money is an important factor that influences the development of romantic relationships. The current paper examines how the feeling of having relatively more or less money influences human mating strategies in long-term and short-term mating contexts under the framework of evolutionary psychology. We recruited mainland Chinese college students involved in steady, heterosexual romantic relationships to participate in two experiments. In each study, we experimentally triggered participants' feelings of having relatively more or less money and then examined their thoughts and behaviors related to mating. Results of Study 1 showed that men who were primed to feel that they had relatively more money were less satisfied with their partners' physical attractiveness than those primed to feel that they had less money, suggesting that the subjective feeling of having more or less money may affect men's preferences regarding the physical appearance of a mate in a long-term relationship. Interestingly, this difference was not significant for women. Results of Study 2 indicated that both men and women who were primed to feel that they had relatively more money exhibited a greater "behavioral approach tendency" toward an attractive member of the opposite sex than those primed to feel that they had less money. This finding suggests that people who feel they have relatively more money may have more interest in an attractive alternative than those who feel they have relatively less money. The differences in mating strategies between and within the genders brought about by money support the evolutionary hypothesis that individuals adopt conditional mating strategies in response to environmental conditions. Additionally, the results of experimental studies provide evidence for the causal effects of money on mating strategies. These findings have both conceptual and practical implications for the psychology of evolution and romantic relationships.

Chinese Employees' Psychological Responses to Abusive Supervisors: The Roles of Gender and Self-Esteem.

Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, the relations between abusive supervision and emotional exhaustion and intent to leave were examined, as well as the gender differences in these relations. Moreover, the moderating effect of self-esteem was tested in an integrated model stipulating that the gender-moderating effect was mediated by the abusive supervision × self-esteem interaction. Data were collected from 264 employees (111 men; M age = 32.0 years; M tenure = 9.2 years). Results of regression analyses indicated that abusive supervision was positively correlated to emotional exhaustion and intent to leave. Women reported higher emotional exhaustion and intent to leave than men. The relations of interest were stronger among employees with higher self-esteem (emotional exhaustion: ß = 0.44; intent to leave: ß = 0.53). The interaction of abusive supervision × self-esteem mediated the gender-moderating effect. Women's stronger responses to abusive supervision may be related to their higher self-esteem, possibly because of the importance of employment to Chinese women.

Positive effect of social work-related values on work outcomes: the moderating role of age and work situation.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the effect of social work-related values on job performance through job satisfaction and tested whether age and work situation would moderate such associations. METHODS: This study consists of two parts: Part 1 is a cross-sectional survey among 299 Chinese clerical employees aged 19-60 years and Part 2 is a 14-day experience sampling study in a subsample of Part 1 (N = 67). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Part 1 revealed that age moderated the effect of social work-related values on job performance through job satisfaction, with a stronger positive effect in older workers than in younger workers. Part 2 demonstrated that the moderating effect of age shown in Part 1 also varied across work situations. In particular, holding momentary social work-related values was beneficial to the task performance of older workers, and the effect was significantly stronger when they were in social situations than in nonsocial situations, whereas the effect remained weak among younger workers regardless of work context. Moreover, the moderating effect of age could be accounted for by future time perspective. This study supports socioemotional selectivity theory that goal orientation shifts toward the emphasis of interpersonal closeness when one perceives future time as increasingly limited.

Physical attractiveness, attitudes toward career, and mate preferences among young Chinese women.

We examined young Chinese women's mate preferences as a function of their self-perceived attractiveness and career attitudes. A total of 264 young Chinese women rated their own attractiveness, reported their attitudes toward career, and rated the importance of 20 mate characteristics. The characteristics encompassed four facets that individuals typically consider when seeking a long-term mate: good-genes indicators, good investment ability indicators, good parenting indicators, and good partner indicators. We found that both self-perceived attractiveness and attitudes toward career were positively associated with the importance attached to several of the characteristics. Moreover, women who had high career focus but low self-perceived attractiveness attached more value to intelligence, ambition, and industriousness than women who had low career focus but high self-perceived attractiveness; women with low career focus but high self-perceived attractiveness attached more value to physical attractiveness in a mate than women with high career focus but low self-perceived attractiveness. We discussed the limitations of our research and directions for future research.

Meta-analyzing dependent correlations: an SPSS macro and an R script.

The presence of dependent correlation is a common problem in meta-analysis. Cheung and Chan (2004, 2008) have shown that samplewise-adjusted procedures perform better than the more commonly adopted simple within-sample mean procedures. However, samplewise-adjusted procedures have rarely been applied in meta-analytic reviews, probably due to the lack of suitable ready-to-use programs. In this article, we compare the samplewise-adjusted procedures with existing procedures to handle dependent effect sizes, and present the samplewise-adjusted procedures in a way that will make them more accessible to researchers conducting meta-analysis. We also introduce two tools, an SPSS macro and an R script, that researchers can apply to their meta-analyses; these tools are compatible with existing meta-analysis software packages.

Factors associated with stress of conscience among emergency medical technicians in China.

The current study was designed to investigate factors related to stress of conscience among emergency medical technicians in China. One hundred and seventy-five doctors and nurses from emergency departments completed questionnaires measuring demographic information, two personality traits (i.e. responsibility and logical-affective orientation), stress of conscience and colleagues' stress of conscience. Important findings include the following: (i) Stress of conscience varied as a function of age, years of work, and marital status; (ii) Participants' stress of conscience was highly associated with colleagues' stress of conscience; and (iii) Both responsibility and a logical orientation were negatively associated with stress of conscience.

Cultural Differences in Attitudes Toward Action and Inaction: The Role of Dialecticism.

The current research examined whether nations differ in their attitudes toward action and inaction. It was anticipated that members of dialectical East Asian societies would show a positive association in their attitudes toward action/inaction. However, members of non-dialectical European-American societies were expected to show a negative association in their attitudes toward action/inaction. Young adults in 19 nations completed measures of dialectical thinking and attitudes toward action/inaction. Results from multi-level modeling showed, as predicted, that people from high dialecticism nations reported a more positive association in their attitudes toward action and inaction than people from low dialecticism nations. Furthermore, these findings remained after controlling for cultural differences in individualism-collectivism, neuroticism, gross-domestic product, and response style. Discussion highlights the implications of these findings for action/inaction goals, dialecticism, and culture.

Regulatory focus influences perseveration and distractibility in task switching.

In two experiments, we investigated the effect of regulatory focus (Higgins, Am Psychol, 52, 1280-1300, 1997) on people's maintenance and switching behavior. In the experimental tasks, participants were asked to react selectively to one category of stimuli while ignoring the other. After several practice trials, participants had to switch either to new stimuli which were paired with former target stimuli (i.e., in the perseveration condition), or switch to former distracter stimuli which were paired with new stimuli (i.e., in the learned irrelevance condition). Results from both experiments indicated that a promotion focus promoted switching to new stimuli in the perseveration condition, at the cost of poorer performance on switching to former distracters in the learned irrelevance condition. This pattern of results applied to both chronic individual differences in regulatory focus (Experiment 1), and regulatory focus temporarily manipulated in the laboratory (Experiment 2). It suggests that whereas a promotion focus indeed promotes cognitive flexibility, it also incurs a cost in terms of increased likelihood of being distracted.

Transfer of attachment functions and adjustment among young adults in China.

This study was designed to examine the process of attachment transfer from parents to peers, as well as factors related to this transfer process among Mainland Chinese. A total of 147 Chinese college students (with a mean age of 21.44) completed questionnaires that measured attachment style, attachment transfer, attachment support from various figures, loneliness, positive/negative affects, and self-esteem. Major findings of the current study include the following: (a) Hazan and Shaver's sequential model of attachment transfer was generalized to the Chinese sample; (b) the extent of attachment transfer was found to be associated with participants' emotional states (loneliness and positive affect) and was a significant predictor of these emotional states beyond the effects of attachment style and attachment support. As one of the first studies exploring the phenomenon of attachment transfer among young Chinese adults, conceptual and applied implications of these findings are discussed.

Differences between tight and loose cultures: a 33-nation study.

With data from 33 nations, we illustrate the differences between cultures that are tight (have many strong norms and a low tolerance of deviant behavior) versus loose (have weak social norms and a high tolerance of deviant behavior). Tightness-looseness is part of a complex, loosely integrated multilevel system that comprises distal ecological and historical threats (e.g., high population density, resource scarcity, a history of territorial conflict, and disease and environmental threats), broad versus narrow socialization in societal institutions (e.g., autocracy, media regulations), the strength of everyday recurring situations, and micro-level psychological affordances (e.g., prevention self-guides, high regulatory strength, need for structure). This research advances knowledge that can foster cross-cultural understanding in a world of increasing global interdependence and has implications for modeling cultural change.

Goal conflict and the moderating effects of intention stability in intention-behavior relations: physical activity among Hong Kong chinese.

This study examined how goal conflict influences the pattern of the moderating effects of intention stability on the intention-behavior relations in the context of physical activity participation. A longitudinal study of 136 young adult students with three waves of data collection (a 2-week interval between waves) was conducted. Results showed a significant three-way interaction among intention, goal conflict,& intention stability in explaining vigorous-intensity physical activity (Beta = -.25, p < .05). Consistent with our expectation, the pattern of the three-way interaction revealed that when the level of goal conflict was low, the intention-behavior relations were stronger with stable intentions and weaker with unstable intentions. However, when the level of goal conflict was high, the intention-behavior relations were weaker with stable intentions and stronger with unstable intentions. Possible underlying processes of goal conflict and intention stability on the intention-behavior relations are discussed.

The use of cyberpornography by young men in Hong Kong: some psychosocial correlates.

This study examined the prevalence of online pornography viewing and its psychosocial correlates among a sample of young Chinese men in Hong Kong. A total of 229 participants completed a questionnaire designed to measure their online pornography viewing, peer and parental influences, openness to experience, and various types of sex-related attitudes. Results showed that online pornography viewing was common and was strongly associated with peer influence and susceptibility to peer pressure. Moreover, participants who reported to have more online pornography viewing were found to score higher on measures of premarital sexual permissiveness and proclivities toward sexual harassment. Conceptual and applied implications of these findings are discussed.

Qualities of online friendships with different gender compositions and durations.

This study was designed to examine the qualities of online friendships with different gender compositions that had been maintained for varying periods of time. A total of 167 Hong Kong Internet-users rated the qualities of their same-sex and cross-sex online friendships on measures such as intimacy, trust, self-disclosure, and relational satisfaction. A 2 (gender of respondents: male vs. female) x 2 (gender of online friends: same-sex vs. opposite-sex) x 3 (duration of friendships: less than 1 year vs. 1-2 years vs. more than 2 years) factorial design was adopted. MANOVA results reveal the three-way interaction effect on intimacy, trust, and relational satisfaction. Specifically, the qualities of male-female, female-male, and female-female online friendships were generally higher for those with a longer duration than those at the early stage of friendship development. However, the qualities of male-male friendships that had been maintained for more than 2 years were lower than those maintained for 2 years or less. These findings suggest that qualities of online friendships are subject to effects of gender composition and duration. The conceptual implications of these results are discussed.