The subject of the current work is a highly polymorphic region on the gene coding for D4 type dopamine receptors (DRD4) consisting of a variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) of a 48 base pair sequence. Convergent evidence from psychology, population genetics and animal behavior research support the important role the DRD4 VNTR polymorphism plays in promoting exploratory behavior.

Awe is an emotion felt in the presence of vast stimuli that are not accounted for by existing mental schema (Keltner & Haidt, 2003). In the current work I made the claim that awe signals the opportunity for exploration. Given the demonstrated relationship between the DRD4 VNTR polymorphism and exploratory behavior, the main aim of the current work is to test the relationship between this polymorphism and emotional reactivity to awe-eliciting situations. Specifically, I hypothesized that people with DRD4 VNTR variants that have been associated with exploratory behavior (carriers) would experience more awe than people who do not have those variants (non-carriers) across a range of situations.

Study 1 used a college sample to test this hypothesis, both in a controlled laboratory environment and in people’s daily lives using diary methodology. Specifically, in a laboratory setting, carriers reported more awe than non-carriers in response to a film clip that had been validated as a reliable elicitor or awe, but no differences were found between groups in response to film clips that elicited compassion and amusement. Furthermore, analyses of daily diary data showed a trend such that carriers reported more awe across a 14-day diary period than non-carriers. Study 2, an ecologically valid test of my hypothesis, found that in a sample of adolescents from underserved communities who went white-water rafting, carriers reported more awe than non-carriers. Importantly, DRD4 VNTR did not have a consistent effect on any of the other emotions measured across these three contexts. I discussed the implications these findings have for our understanding of the emotion of awe and programs that aim to increase well-being through the experience of awe.

Failure is a crucial part of a game experience. Players expect to be challenged to a level that invites failure, showing lower engagement if they don’t fail at all. While an important aspect of the game experience, the ways video games frame failure and how players react while playing remains understudied. Borrowing from literature in psychology, this dissertation uses mastery orientation, a measure of how individuals react to failure, to develop a behavioral measure which observes how 56 individuals reacted to failure while playing notoriously challenging video game, Cuphead for two weeks.

Results validate this measure, showing that those who reported higher mastery orientation scores also show more mastery-oriented behaviors in-game, show more mastery-oriented behaviors sequentially, and are less likely to abandon a level before completing it. No change in mastery orientation towards game contexts was initially found after playing Cuphead for two weeks, although closer inspection shows a leveling out of mastery orientation scores as those who started on the lower end of the scale increased while those who started in the higher end of the scale decreased. This is shown in women significantly increasing in their mastery orientation scores after playing Cuphead for two weeks while men significantly decreased. Visualizing these effects suggest that some women began the study underconfident in their ability to persist through failure while some men began the study overconfident, with mastery orientation scores leveling out through the course of the study. Finally, distribution of gameplay behaviors shows that players persist for longer when further into the game, suggesting that the more time and effort the player expends, the more likely they are to continue to persist through failure. This sheds some light on how players react to failure depending on where in the game they currently are.

This study opens a new perspective for how researchers and game developers can understand the behaviors players take when they encounter failure, develops a new methodology to gauge mastery orientation, and begins to show where and why in a game players begin to give up. The implications of these results and areas for further investigation are discussed.

Objective: To determine the point prevalence of urine bilirubin, urine hemoglobin and urobilinogen in blunt trauma patients, and to evaluate its utility as a screening tool for intra-abdominal injury.

Methods: Data analysis of 986 consecutive trauma patients of which 698 were adult blunt trauma patients. Five-hundred sixteen subjects had a urinalysis and a CT scan of the abdomen/pelvis or exploratory laparotomy. We reviewed initial urinalysis results from trauma patients in the emergency department (ED) for the presence of urine hemoglobin, uroblinogen and urine bilirubin. Computed tomography (CT) scan results and operative reports were reviewed from the trauma registry for evidence of liver laceration, spleen laceration, bowel or mesenteric injuries.

Results: There were 73 injuries and 57/516 patients (11%) with intra-abdominal injury. Urinalysis was positive for urobilinogen in 28/516 (5.4%) patients, urine bilirubin in 15/516 (2.9%) patients and urine hemoglobin in 313/516 (61%) patients. Nineteen/forty-seven (4%) subjects had liver lacerations, 28/56 (5%) splenic lacerations, and 15/5 (3%) bowel or mesenteric injury. Comparing the proportion of patients that had urobilinogen detected in the group with and without intra-abdominal injury, 8/28 (29%) subjects with urobilinogen, 5/15 (33%) subjects with bilirubin and 47/313 (15%) subjects with urine hemoglobin were found to have liver lacerations, spleen lacerations, or bowel/mesenteric injuries. Preexisting liver or biliary conditions were not statistically associated with elevation of urine bilirubin, urine hemoglobin or urobilinogen on initial urinalysis after blunt abdominal trauma. Point prevalence for urobilinogen, urine bilirubin and urine hemoglobin are 5.43% (28/516), 2.91% (15/516) and 60.7% (313/516) respectively.

Conclusions: The utility of the initial routine urinalysis in the ED for adult blunt abdominal trauma patients should not be used as a screening tool for the evaluation of intra-abdominal injury. [WestJEM. 2009;10:85-88.]

This report describes the progress made from April, 2002 through January, 2003 in the UC-Irvine evaluation of the California Safe Routes to School construction program. The UC-Irvine research is a pre- and post-evaluation of selected California SR2S sites to determine the effectiveness of physical changes to the local environment in (1) improving the perceived and actual safety of the walk and bicycle trip to school, and (2) enhancing the viability of the walking and bicycling environment. The goal of the research is to assess the impact of the SR2S construction program on pedestrian, bicyclist, and motorist behavior tied to safety, perceived safety, and the amount of non-motorized travel to and from school sites participating in the SR2S program.

This report describes the selection of sixteen school sites, the methods use to collect data at those school sites, and an initial description of the data at the first twelve schools included in this research.

Background

Objective

Methods

Inclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria

Results

Conclusion

Study Objectives: Three of the most commonly used agents for conscious sedation in the Emergency Department (ED) are ketamine, fentanyl/versed, and propofol. In this study, we measured and compared the total times spent in the ED with each of these agents. Our objective was to determine whether the use of propofol for conscious sedation was associated with a shorter length of ED stay as compared to the other two agents. Methods: This was a consecutive case series. All patients who required procedural conscious sedation who presented to the ED at University of California, Irvine Medical Center from January 2003 through April 2004 were included in the study. The attending ED physician evaluated the patient and determined which medication(s) would be administered. All patients underwent procedural sedation according to the ED’s standardized sedation protocol. The times and dosages of administered medications and the sedation/ consciousness level (SCL) scores were recorded by ED nurses at 3-5 minute intervals. Data was abstracted prospectively. The time to sedation (first dose of agent to SCL score of 2 or less) and time to recovery (last dose of agent to SCL score of 4) of the different regimens were then analyzed and compared. Results: Thirty-eight patients received propofol, 38 received ketamine, and 14 received fentanyl/versed. The mean times to sedation (minutes) were: propofol 4.5 (95% CI: 3.3-5.7), ketamine 10.6 (95% CI: 5.8 –15.4), fentanyl/versed 11.5 (95% CI: 3.5-19.4). The mean times to recovery were: propofol 21.6 (95% CI: 16.1-27.1), ketamine 55.4 (95% CI: 46.2-64.5), fentanyl/versed 59.9 (95% CI: 20.3-99.5). Propofol had a statistically significant shorter time to sedation than both ketamine (p<.001) and fentanyl/versed (p=.022). Propofol also produced shorter recovery times than both ketamine (p<.001) and fentanyl/versed (p=.002). Conclusion: In this study, sedation and recovery times were shorter with propofol than with ketamine or fentanyl/versed. The use of propofol for conscious sedation in this non-randomized study was associated with a shorter ED length of stay.

Communities are traditionally built with one transportation mode and user in mind—the adult automobile driver. Recently, however, there has been an international focus on the trip to school as an opportunity to enhance children’s independent active travel. Several factors must be considered when designing programs to promote walking and bicycling. This paper examined the influence of child sex on caregivers’ decisions about travel mode choice to school.

Caregivers of children in grades three to five from ten California Safe Routes to School communities were surveyed on their child’s normal travel mode to school and factors that determined travel decisions. Results indicate that the odds of walking and bicycling to school are 40 percent lower in girls than boys; however, this relationship is significantly moderated by the caregiver’s own walking behavior. The findings suggest that programs that focus on increasing children’s active travel to school should consider multiple influences on health behavior, including the neighborhood physical activity of parents.