Safety analysis of pedestrians distracted by mobile phones at street crossings: Field study in Nanjing.

The growing public concern over traffic safety hazards caused by pedestrians' distracted behavior, particularly related to mobile phone usage at pedestrian crossings. Through video recording of pedestrians' street-crossing behaviors on 12 sidewalks across 9 urban road intersections in Nanjing city, 1778 valid pedestrian samples were collected. The study categorizes mobile phone use during the crossing into five distinct types: no use, voice call, screen gaze, screen gaze with operation, and listening to music with headphones. Then, the effects of gender, age and companion conditions on the mobile phone during the crossing were examined by chi-square tests. Utilizing binomial logistic and Relogit regression models, the study analyzed the impact and safety risks of distraction on crossing behavior. Additionally, a random parameters (RP) logit model with heterogeneity in means was used to investigate the determinants affecting mobile phone usage. Notably, individuals aged 18 to 30 years were identified as the random parameter, while factors such as being under 18 years old, having a companion without interaction, having a companion with interaction, weekdays, sidewalk length, and the total number of other pedestrians were identified as fixed parameters. The study also presented significant variables affecting the probability of mobile phone usage through marginal effects, highlighting the potential safety risks associated with mobile phone usage during street crossing. These findings emphasize the need for heightened pedestrian safety awareness and a reduction in distracted behaviors to enhance overall traffic safety.

Modern smartphone usage can negatively impact postural balance while standing on dynamically challenging grounds.

BACKGROUND: While several studies have explored the impacts of smartphone usage on postural balance, their tasks are limited to texting or calling, and the studies were performed on rigid ground. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: METHODS: Sixteen healthy young adults were recruited to perform two smartphone tasks: taking selfies and posting statuses on social media; participants were standing on four different grounds: rigid, foam-based compliant, robot-simulated compliant, and robot-simulated oscillatory grounds. The center-of-pressure (CoP) under each foot was recorded via force plates and the net CoP was calculated. Temporal, spatial, and control aspects of postural balance were analyzed by virtual time-to-contact (VTC), CoP path length (PL) and sway area (SA), and switching rate (SR), respectively. Two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were performed for each dependent variable to compare the mean differences between smartphone tasks and ground conditions and their interaction effect. Paired t-tests with Bonferroni correction were used to determine significant differences in post-hoc analyses. RESULTS: VTC decreased significantly whereas CoP PL and SA increased significantly during smartphone usage (all p-values <0.001). Interaction effects between task and ground condition (all p-values <0.001) were observed in all measures but SR, implying that the effect of smartphone usage on postural balance can significantly change depending on the ground condition. SIGNIFICANCE: These results highlight the potential fall risks due to the impact of modern smartphone usage on standing balance. Understanding the effect of smartphone usage on standing balance and the interaction effect with various ground conditions opens the door for potential balance assistive devices and mobile phone applications to minimize falls.

Measurement of personal radio frequency exposure in Japan: The Hokkaido Study on the Environment and Children's health.

The opportunities for exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) among children are increasing. Children's exposure to RF-EMF in Japan was recorded using a personal exposure meter (ExpoM-RF), and factors associated with the exposure examined. A total of 101 children, aged 10-15 years old, participated in the prospective birth cohort "Hokkaido study". RF-EMF data were recorded in the 700 MHz-5.8 GHz frequency range for 3 days. The recorded data were summarized into six groups of frequency bands: downlink from mobile phone base stations (DL), uplink from mobile phones to a base station (UL), Wireless Local Area Network (LAN), terrestrial digital TV broadcasting (digital TV), 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz Time Division Duplex (TDD), 1.9 GHz TDD, and total (the summation of power density in all measured frequency bands). A questionnaire was used to document the internet environment (at home) and mobile phone usage. Personal RF-EMF exposure in Japanese children was lower than that reported in studies in Europe. The DL signals from mobile phone base stations were the most significant contributors to total exposure, while Wireless LAN and digital TV were only higher at home. The urban residence was consistently associated with increases in the four groups of frequency bands (DL, UL, digital TV, and TDD). TDD level has several associations with mobile phone usage (calls using mobile phones, video viewing, text message service, and online game). The association between inattention/hyperactivity subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and higher Wireless LAN exposure at nighttime was also noted. Further studies with additional data will shed light on factors involved in RF-EMF exposure among Japanese children.

Association of mobile phone usage time with incidence of diabetic retinopathy in type 2 diabetes: a prospective cohort study.

We prospectively analyzed the association between mobile phone usage time and the incidence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in type 2 diabetes (T2D) among participants.We included a total of 4,371 patients with T2D among the participants. Mobile phone usage time was quantified at baseline by summing up the hours spent on mobile phone use. The types of mobile phone usage time in our study include game time, TikTok time, WeChat time, watching movies or reading time, and online shopping time. We categorized patients into four groups according to different mobile phone usage time: ≤1.5 h/day (n = 1,101), 1.6-3.5 h/day (n = 1,098), 3.6-7.5 h/day (n = 1,095), and >7.6 h/day (n = 1,077). Fundus photography was performed every year from January 2012 to January 2020. During a follow-up of 8 years, 1,119 were affected by DR, resulting in an overall incidence of 25.6%. The incidences of mild nonproliferative DR (NPDR), moderate NPDR, severe NPDR, and proliferative DR (PDR) were 10.1%, 5.1%, 5.1%, and 5.2%, respectively. In comparisons with participants in the lowest category (≤1.5 h/day), the hazard ratios (HRs) of DR were 1.19 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.07, 1.31, p = 0.040) for 1.6-3.5 h/day, 1.60 (95% CI 1.40, 1.81, p < 0.001) for 3.6-7.5 h/day, and 1.85 (95% CI 1.61, 2.09, p < 0.001) for >7.6 h/day, respectively. Our results provide the general population with a feasible and practical alternative for the reduction of mobile phone use behavior time and new measures to prevent the occurrence of DR.

Cancer awareness & its association with demographic variables & mobile phone usage among the rural population of a district in north India.

Background & objectives: Lack of awareness is one of the major reasons for the high morbidity and mortality associated with cancers. The present study was aimed to evaluate the awareness of prevalent cancers among the rural population in a district of north India and its association specifically with mobile phone usage. Methods: Using a stratified random sampling technique, households in three villages of Gautam Buddh Nagar district of India were selected. A house-to-house survey on cancer awareness was conducted among adults in selected households and data were analyzed to check for the association of such an awareness with sociodemographic factors and internet usage. Results: The study included 59 males and 145 females, with majority (115) being in the age group of 18-30 yr. Although most (96.5%) of the participants were aware of cancer, the common risk factors and warning signs of cancer were known to only a few. Specific risk factors for cervical and breast cancers were, however, not known to a majority (79.9% and 72.2%). A significant association between the awareness of general risk factors and warning signs as well as specific aspects including risk factors for breast, cervical and oral cancer, HPV vaccine and the education level of the participants (P<0.05 for all). Knowledge of risk factors, warning signs and cancer prevention modalities was higher among mobile phone users who accessed internet for health information. There was no significant association between age group and cancer risk factor awareness, though females were more aware of the risk factors for breast cancer (P=0.002). Interpretation & conclusions: The findings of this study highlight the existing low level of awareness of cervical and breast cancers among the rural population. The association of cancer awareness with education level and mobile phone-based internet usage suggests the potential utility of internet-based platforms such as m-health programmes for cancer prevention activities.

Cell Phone Availability and Usage for mHealth and Intervention Delivery to Persons Living With HIV in a Low-Resource Setting: Cross-sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: HIV/AIDS is now a manageable chronic illness owing to effective antiretroviral therapy (ART), which involves routine follow-up care, including regular physical visits to the clinic. In the recent past, and in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been increased need for virtual care and intervention delivery, a modality known as mobile health (mHealth), which includes cell phone-delivered services for medical and public health practice. OBJECTIVE: Here we describe cell phone use and its relationship with alcohol use in a cohort of persons living with HIV and latent tuberculosis (TB). METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from a cohort of persons living with HIV and latent TB in HIV care in southwestern Uganda. We estimated proportions of cell phone and text message use and evaluated their associations with alcohol use-a common modifiable behavior among persons living with HIV. Cell phone use (primary outcome) was defined as owning a cell phone that is turned on at least half of the day. Any alcohol use was defined as any self-reported alcohol use in the prior 3 months or a phosphatidylethanol (an alcohol biomarker) level of ≥8 ng/mL. RESULTS: A total of 300 participants (median age 40 years; n=146, 48.7% male) were included in the analysis. Most (n=267, 89.0%) participants had access to a phone and of them, 26 (9.7%) shared the phone with someone else. In total, 262/300 (87.3%) of participants owned a cell phone that is turned on at least half of the time; the majority (n=269, 89.7%) rarely or never sent text messages, and over two-thirds (n=200, 66.9%) rarely or never received text messages. Most (n=214, 71.3%) had any alcohol use in the prior 3 months. In adjusted analyses, any alcohol use was not significantly associated with cell phone use (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0.48, 95% CI 0.18-1.25; P=.13) or sending (aOR 0.82, 95% CI 0.28-2.37; P=.71) or receiving (aOR 1.31, 95% CI 0.70-2.47; P=.40) text messages. CONCLUSIONS: There is hope that mHealth interventions in this population can be carried out using cell phones owing to their popularity; however, the interventions may need to employ methods that do not rely on the sending and receiving of text messages only.

Bedtime Smart Phone Usage and Its Effects on Work-Related Behaviour at Workplace.

The over usage and over dependency on digital devices, like smartphones, has been considered as a growing international epidemic. The increased dependency on gadgets, especially smartphones for personal and official uses, has also brought many detrimental effects on individual users. Hence it is vital to understand the negative effects of smartphone usage on human. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effects of bedtime smartphone usage on work performances, interpersonal conflicts, and work engagement, via the mediating role of sleep quality among employees. Using a cross-sectional study design, a questionnaire-based field survey was conducted on 315 employees who participated as respondents. The results confirmed the negative effects of bedtime smartphone usage on sleep quality. Along with it, the effects of sleep quality on work performances, work engagements and interpersonal conflicts were also proven to be statistically significant. Regarding the mediating role of sleep quality, it was empirically evident that sleep quality mediates the relationship between bedtime smartphone usage with work performances and interpersonal conflicts. The findings revealed that bedtime smartphone usage reduces sleep quality among the employees, resulting in lower work performances and engagements while contributing to higher interpersonal conflicts. The findings concluded that smartphone usage before sleep increases the prospects of employees to be less productive, less engaged, and have more workplace conflicts. The findings warrant the continued managerial as well as academic research attention, as the smartphones are now used by many organisations to run businesses as well.

Mental Health and Behavior of College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Mobile Smartphone and Ecological Momentary Assessment Study, Part II.

BACKGROUND: Since late 2019, the lives of people across the globe have been disrupted by COVID-19. Millions of people have become infected with the disease, while billions of people have been continually asked or required by local and national governments to change their behavioral patterns. Previous research on the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that it is associated with large-scale behavioral and mental health changes; however, few studies have been able to track these changes with frequent, near real-time sampling or compare these changes to previous years of data for the same individuals. OBJECTIVE: By combining mobile phone sensing and self-reported mental health data in a cohort of college-aged students enrolled in a longitudinal study, we seek to understand the behavioral and mental health impacts associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, measured by interest across the United States in the search terms coronavirus and COVID fatigue. METHODS: Behaviors such as the number of locations visited, distance traveled, duration of phone use, number of phone unlocks, sleep duration, and sedentary time were measured using the StudentLife mobile smartphone sensing app. Depression and anxiety were assessed using weekly self-reported ecological momentary assessments, including the Patient Health Questionnaire-4. The participants were 217 undergraduate students. Differences in behaviors and self-reported mental health collected during the Spring 2020 term, as compared to previous terms in the same cohort, were modeled using mixed linear models. RESULTS: Linear mixed models demonstrated differences in phone use, sleep, sedentary time and number of locations visited associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. In further models, these behaviors were strongly associated with increased interest in COVID fatigue. When mental health metrics (eg, depression and anxiety) were added to the previous measures (week of term, number of locations visited, phone use, sedentary time), both anxiety and depression (P<.001) were significantly associated with interest in COVID fatigue. Notably, these behavioral and mental health changes are consistent with those observed around the initial implementation of COVID-19 lockdowns in the spring of 2020. CONCLUSIONS: In the initial lockdown phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, people spent more time on their phones, were more sedentary, visited fewer locations, and exhibited increased symptoms of anxiety and depression. As the pandemic persisted through the spring, people continued to exhibit very similar changes in both mental health and behaviors. Although these large-scale shifts in mental health and behaviors are unsurprising, understanding them is critical in disrupting the negative consequences to mental health during the ongoing pandemic.

Differences in Visual Working and Mobile Phone Usage Distance according to the Job Profile.

PURPOSE: To analyze and characterize the pattern of visual working distance (WD) and mobile phone usage distance (MPD) in a large population, analyzing the differences in these parameters according to the job profile. METHODS: Cross-sectional study consisting of a screening campaign evaluating the visual status of professionals from seven different environments. A total of 454 participants with a mean age of 41.5 years (range, 22-64 years) were revised. The screening campaign consisted of several rapid tests performed in a single session in the usual work environment of each participant, including measurement of WD, arm length, and MPD (VisionApp, VisionApp Solutions S.L.). RESULTS: WD was significantly longer than MPD (82.5 ± 150.6 vs. 31.9 ± 6.3 cm, p < .001), whereas no significant differences were found between arm length (74.3 ± 4.8 cm) and WD (p = .493). WD was below 80 cm in 89.6% (407/454) of participants, whereas MPD was below 40 cm in 89.0% (404/454). No significant correlation was found between WD and MPD (r = 0.126, p = .117). Statistically significant differences were detected among job profile subgroups in WD (p < .001), with military personnel showing significantly longer WD than other professionals (p ≤ 0.018). Significant differences were also found between job profile subgroups in MPD (p = .006), with shorter MPDs for shoe factory professionals compared to sellers (p = .046). CONCLUSIONS: WD and MPD vary significantly among individuals, but always showing a shorter MPD. WD varies significantly also according to the job profile, being necessary to consider this information when selecting the most optimal optical aid in each case, especially for the compensation of presbyopia.

Mental Health and Behavior of College Students During the Early Phases of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Smartphone and Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

BACKGROUND: The vast majority of people worldwide have been impacted by coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In addition to the millions of individuals who have been infected with the disease, billions of individuals have been asked or required by local and national governments to change their behavioral patterns. Previous research on epidemics or traumatic events suggests that this can lead to profound behavioral and mental health changes; however, researchers are rarely able to track these changes with frequent, near-real-time sampling or compare their findings to previous years of data for the same individuals. OBJECTIVE: By combining mobile phone sensing and self-reported mental health data among college students who have been participating in a longitudinal study for the past 2 years, we sought to answer two overarching questions. First, have the behaviors and mental health of the participants changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic compared to previous time periods? Second, are these behavior and mental health changes associated with the relative news coverage of COVID-19 in the US media? METHODS: Behaviors such as the number of locations visited, distance traveled, duration of phone usage, number of phone unlocks, sleep duration, and sedentary time were measured using the StudentLife smartphone sensing app. Depression and anxiety were assessed using weekly self-reported ecological momentary assessments of the Patient Health Questionnaire-4. The participants were 217 undergraduate students, with 178 (82.0%) students providing data during the Winter 2020 term. Differences in behaviors and self-reported mental health collected during the Winter 2020 term compared to previous terms in the same cohort were modeled using mixed linear models. RESULTS: During the first academic term impacted by COVID-19 (Winter 2020), individuals were more sedentary and reported increased anxiety and depression symptoms (P<.001) relative to previous academic terms and subsequent academic breaks. Interactions between the Winter 2020 term and the week of the academic term (linear and quadratic) were significant. In a mixed linear model, phone usage, number of locations visited, and week of the term were strongly associated with increased amount of COVID-19-related news. When mental health metrics (eg, depression and anxiety) were added to the previous measures (week of term, number of locations visited, and phone usage), both anxiety (P<.001) and depression (P=.03) were significantly associated with COVID-19-related news. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with prior academic terms, individuals in the Winter 2020 term were more sedentary, anxious, and depressed. A wide variety of behaviors, including increased phone usage, decreased physical activity, and fewer locations visited, were associated with fluctuations in COVID-19 news reporting. While this large-scale shift in mental health and behavior is unsurprising, its characterization is particularly important to help guide the development of methods to reduce the impact of future catastrophic events on the mental health of the population.

Cell Thumb Replaces Writer's Bump: Changing Times, Changing Callouses.

Common callouses are formed by the accumulation of keratinocytes in the stratum corneum in response to excess pressure or friction. We report 2 cases of unusual callous formation and an additional 25 more sequential cases that were due to excessive cell phone grip.

The Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies on Problematic Smartphone Use: Comparison between Problematic and Non-Problematic Adolescent Users.

Prior work has suggested that individuals with deficits in emotion regulation skills are prone to compulsive behaviour and to following maladaptive coping strategies, such as smartphone overuse, to manage negative moods. Adolescence is a vulnerable developmental stage for deficits in emotion regulation, and these are linked to excessive smartphone use. The present study is the first to examine the links between the use of specific cognitive emotion regulation (CER) strategies and problematic smartphone use in a sample of adolescents. A total of 845 Spanish adolescents (455 females) completed the Spanish versions of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the Smartphone Addiction Scale, along with a socio-demographic survey. The adolescents were divided into two groups: Non-problematic smartphone users (n = 491, 58.1%) and problematic smartphone users (n = 354, 41.9%). Significant group differences were found, with the problematic users reporting significantly higher scores for all maladaptive CER strategies, including higher self-blame, rumination, blaming of others and catastrophising. The results from logistic regression analyses show that rumination, catastrophising and blaming of others were the most important variables for distinguishing between the two groups, along with gender and parental control outside the home. In summary, these findings suggest the importance of specific maladaptive CER strategies in problematic smartphone use and provide insight for relevant targets for intervention designs.

Reducing adolescent cell phone usage using an interdependent group contingency.

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of an interdependent group contingency on cell phone usage in an alternative high school classroom. We used an ABAB reversal design to test the effects of the contingency on the cell phone usage of the entire class and an individual student. Results showed a reduction in the cell phone use of the class and the individual when the group contingency was in effect, demonstrating a functional relation between the contingency and student cell phone usage. These findings suggest that group contingencies may be efficacious for teachers to use within their classrooms to curb cell phone usage. Further study of this intervention is warranted to determine its generality.

Pattern of Mobile Phone Use among Students of an Institution.

INTRODUCTION: The charm of mobile phone is more among young generation and the increasing use can lead to various harmful effects and may result in dependence. The objective of the study is to evaluate the pattern of mobile phone use among medical students. METHODS: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted on a total of 229 medical students aged between 18 and 25 years who were using mobile phones for more than 1 year by using simple random sampling technique. Students were requested to complete a pre-tested self-administered questionnaire which comprised their socio-demographic characteristics and pattern of mobile phone usage. RESULTS: Among the total 229 students, all of them had their own smart phones. Major purpose of using mobile was for calling, listening music, taking photos/videos and internet use. Most of the students 97 (42.4%) have owned mobile phones since 4-6 years. The median time spent by the students on the mobile phone using different features of mobile phone was 3.5 hours. Majority of the students i.e. 157 (68.5%) use mobile phones at night. The median amount of money spent on recharge per month was 500. Age of student was significantly (P <0.05) associated with calls per day. There was no significant association of pattern of mobile phone use with other selected socio-demographic variables Conclusions: Students were found to use mobile phone excessively. The pattern of mobile phone usage among the students in this study may signal the evolution of mobile phone use from a habit to an addiction.

The Effect of Technological Devices on Cervical Lordosis.

PURPOSE: There is a need for cervical flexion and even cervical hyperflexion for the use of technological devices, especially mobile phones. We investigated the effect of this use on the cervical lordosis angle. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A group of 156 patients who applied with only neck pain between 2013-2016 and had no additional problems were included. Patients are specifically questioned about mobile phone, tablet, and other devices usage. The value obtained by multiplying the year of usage and the average usage (hour) in daily life was determined as the total usage value (an average hour per day x year: hy). Cervical lordosis angles were statistically compared with the total time of use. RESULTS: In the general ROC analysis, the cut-off value was found to be 20.5 hy. When the cut-off value is tested, the overall accuracy is very good with 72.4%. The true estimate of true risk and non-risk is quite high. The ROC analysis is statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The use of computing devices, especially mobile telephones, and the increase in the flexion of the cervical spine indicate that cervical vertebral problems will increase even in younger people in future. Also, to using with attention at this point, ergonomic devices must also be developed.

Predicting Negative Emotions Based on Mobile Phone Usage Patterns: An Exploratory Study.

BACKGROUND: Prompt recognition and intervention of negative emotions is crucial for patients with depression. Mobile phones and mobile apps are suitable technologies that can be used to recognize negative emotions and intervene if necessary. OBJECTIVE: Mobile phone usage patterns can be associated with concurrent emotional states. The objective of this study is to adapt machine-learning methods to analyze such patterns for the prediction of negative emotion. METHODS: We developed an Android-based app to capture emotional states and mobile phone usage patterns, which included call logs (and use of apps). Visual analog scales (VASs) were used to report negative emotions in dimensions of depression, anxiety, and stress. In the system-training phase, participants were requested to tag their emotions for 14 consecutive days. Five feature-selection methods were used to determine individual usage patterns and four machine-learning methods were tested. Finally, rank product scoring was used to select the best combination to construct the prediction model. In the system evaluation phase, participants were then requested to verify the predicted negative emotions for at least 5 days. RESULTS: Out of 40 enrolled healthy participants, we analyzed data from 28 participants, including 30% (9/28) women with a mean (SD) age of 29.2 (5.1) years with sufficient emotion tags. The combination of time slots of 2 hours, greedy forward selection, and Naïve Bayes method was chosen for the prediction model. We further validated the personalized models in 18 participants who performed at least 5 days of model evaluation. Overall, the predictive accuracy for negative emotions was 86.17%. CONCLUSION: We developed a system capable of predicting negative emotions based on mobile phone usage patterns. This system has potential for ecological momentary intervention (EMI) for depressive disorders by automatically recognizing negative emotions and providing people with preventive treatments before it escalates to clinical depression.

Is problematic mobile phone use explained by chronotype and personality?

In this study, the relationships among problematic mobile phone use, age, gender, personality and chronotype of Turkish university students were examined. The study included 902 university students (73% female, 27% male) and their participation in the study was anonymous and voluntary. Data were collected from each participant by assessing a demographic questionnaire, Composite Scale of Morningness (CSM) as a measure of chronotype, the Big Five Inventory (BIG-5) for personality assessment and Mobile Phone Problem Usage Scale (MPPUS). The most important result was that CSM scores were the best predictor for problematic mobile phone usage, and as a consequence, evening-oriented university students scored higher on the MPPUS. This result remained, even when compared with the most influential personality predictor, conscientiousness. In addition, while extraversion positively predicted, emotional stable and chronotype negatively predicted problematic mobile phone use. Lastly, age and gender were not predictors of problematic mobile phone use.

Disentangling the influence of cell phone usage in the dilemma zone: An econometric approach.

This paper focuses on developing an analysis framework to study the impact of cell phone treatment (cell phone type and call status) on driver behavior in the presence of a dilemma zone. Specifically, we examine how the treatment influences the driver maneuver decision at the intersection (stop or cross) and the eventual success of the maneuver. For a stop maneuver, success is defined as stopping before the stop line. Similarly, for a cross maneuver, success is defined as clearing the intersection safely before the light turns red. The eventual success or failure of the driver's decision process is dependent on the factors that affected the maneuver decision. Hence it is important to recognize the interconnectedness of the stop or cross decision with its eventual success (or failure). Toward this end, we formulate and estimate a joint framework to analyze the stop/cross decision with its eventual success (or failure) simultaneously. The study is conducted based on driving simulator data provided online for the 2014 Transportation Research Board Data Contest at http://depts.washington.edu/hfsm/upload.php. The model is estimated to analyze drivers' behavior at the onset of yellow by employing exogenous variables from three broad categories: driver characteristics, cell phone attributes and driving attributes. We also generate probability surfaces to identify dilemma zone distribution associated with different cell phone treatment types. The plots clearly illustrate the impact of various cellphone treatments on driver dilemma zone behavior.

A preliminary investigation into the prevalence and prediction of problematic cell phone use.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Likening mobile phone use dependency to the classification of excessive behaviors may be necessarily equivalent in seriousness to previously established addictions such as problematic computing or excessive gambling. The aim of the study explores into the behavior of excessive use of mobile phones as a pathological behavior. METHODS: Two studies investigated criteria for problematic mobile phone usage by examining student (Study 1, N = 301) and nonstudent (Study 2, N = 362) responses to a set of adapted mobile phone addiction inventories. Study 1 investigated cell phone addiction inventories as constructs designed to measure problematic cell phone use. Additionally, Study 2 sought to predict age, depression, extraversion, emotional stability, impulse control, and self-esteem as independent variables that augment respondents' perceptions of problematic use. RESULTS: The results from Study 1 and Study 2 indicate that 10 to 25% of the participants tested exhibited problematic cell phone usage. Additionally, age, depression, extraversion, and low impulse control are the most suitable predictors for problematic use. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the two studies indicate that problematic mobile phone use does occur and ought to be taken seriously by the psychological community. Presently, there is limited data providing conclusive evidence for a comprehensible categorization of cell phone addiction, as well as a unified explanatory model specific to problematic mobile phone use. Studies such as this one may contribute substantial findings, adding scientific significance, and offering a valuable submission for the ongoing progress of creating intervention frameworks relative to "virtual addictions".