Cross-cultural validation

It is often said that affects are extremely difficult to talk about, that our language for describing them is impoverished (e.g., Plutchik, 1980). But for at least many emotions terms, there is little ambiguity about the affective state referred to. Furthermore, terms referring to affects sometimes help in drawing distinctions among emotions. As Sogon and Masutani (1989) showed, these terms show considerable cross-cultural validity. 

Flynn With regard to the cross-cultural validity of IQ tests, the IQ gains over time data show that the Dutch gained 20 IQ points on Raven s over a 30-year period, and the Israeli s 9 points in 15 years. So the cultural distance a society travels over time seems to make IQ tests invalid as measures of... 

Jarvenpaa, S. L., Tractinsky, N. (1999). Consumer trust in an Internet store A cross-cultural validation. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 5(2), Online. 

Medical and sociological gun control advocates have also pointed out that such countries as Britain and Japan, with strict firearm controls, have far lower homicide rates than the United States. Gun rights activists question whether such cross-cultural comparisons are valid, noting that European and Japanese societies are more conformist and that it is social control, not gun control, that is responsible for their low rate of violence. 

Maier W, Gansicke M, Freyberger HJ, et al. Generalized anxiety disorder (ICD-10) in primary care from a cross-cultural perspective a valid diagnostic entity Acta Psychiatr Scand 2000 101 29-36. 

The FAQLQ-PF and -TF were developed and validated in four stages (1) item generation using focus groups with both children and parents, expert opinion, and literature review (2) item reduction, using clinical impact and factor analysis (3) internal and test-retest reliability and construct validity were evaluated and (4) cross-cultural and content validity was examined by administering the questionnaire in a US sample (FAQLQ-PF, only). 

As ASCIv2 becomes established as appropriate for cross-cultural use in studies such as these, we hope that this initial study has drawn attention to issues of item interpretation, and we believe that the principles and procedures described here can be useful to others engaged in similar work. For example, further psychometric evidence can be gathered for the international use of ASClv2 in additional cultural contexts. If the problem for any insfrument, such as the one with item 6, persists in multiple contexts, the problem can potentially be addressed by deleting the item from the instrument or by exploring alternative word pairs, with careful attention to the impact on validity of using the item to measure the intended construct. 

Principlism and the four principles with scope approach to medical ethics is one of the most useful, practical tools to aid decision making in ethical dilemmas within medicine and health care. One significant advantage of this system is its supposed universality. In theory, it is independent of personal philosophy, political beliefs, religion, morality, or life stance. As the principles reflect universally valid norms, they allow intercultural and cross-cultural judgments to be made. 

Table 1 summarizes the PbB, other blood chemistry, medical, electrophysiological, psychometric, behavioural and demographic measures collected from participating children and parents. These measures were chosen to provide convergent information from several different perspectives to elaborate more clearly the subtle and complex effects of asymptomatic lead exposure on CNS development. Several tests were selected on the basis of guidelines later adopted at an International Symposium on Neurobehavioral Methodology in Pediatric Lead Research (Cincinnati OH September 1981). These guidelines included (1) use of standardized, age-normed tests with documented validity and reliability when available (2) use of experimental measures to evaluate areas of function for which standardized measures are not available, and (3) use of instruments with cross-cultural comparison data. 

This method was in fact carried out around two decades ago [30, 31]. However, it was applied only in the fermentation of pure microbial cultures. In a recent report by Acros-Hernandez and coworkers [32], infrared spectroscopy was applied to quantify the PHA produced in microbial mixed cultures. Around 122 spectra from a wide range of production systems were collected and used for calibrating the partial least squares (PLS) model, which relates the spectra with the PHA content (0.03-0.58 w/w) and 3-hydroxyvalerate monomer (0-63 mol%). The calibration models were evaluated by the correlation between the predicted and measured PHA content (R ), root mean square error of calibration, root mean square error of cross validation and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP). The results revealed that the robust PLS model, when coupled with the Fourier-Transform infrared spectrum, was found to be applicable to predict the PHA content in microbial mixed cultures, with a low RMSEP of 0.023 w/w. This is considered to be a reliable method and robust enough for use in the PHA biosynthesis process using mixed microbial cultures, which is far more complex. 

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