A cryogenic implant for producing reversible functional brain lesions

This paper describes a permanently implanted device for applying cold to localized parts of the brain surface in order to produce reversible functional lesions in behaving animals. It consists of an array of several independently controlled stainless steel tubing loops, each shaped to fit a separate brain area. Cooled alcohol is pumped through the tubing and temperatures are monitored with attached thermocouples. Implanted loops can be cooled to 0°C within 15 sec, and temperatures can be maintained at ±1°C of accuracy. Tissue tolerance is excellent: Implants have been demonstrated to last up to 1 year or more. Methods and materials for construction are discussed.     

A low-force swivel connector for infusing liquids into unrestrained animals

A swivel connector for infusing liquids into catheterized animals is described. The connector turns so freely that restraints and strain relief for the catheter are unnecessary. A cylindrical acrylic body and nylon cap screw hold a rubber O ring in place, and a length of needle tubing rotates within the O ring. The only friction in the swivel is between the needle tubing and the interior of the O ring. Construction time is about 1 h. Swivels of this design have provided trouble-free service for 3 years.     

Instrumentation of a self-luminous fixation annulus

A simple and inexpensive way of constructing a fixation annulus is described. Such a device is important for experiments in which a fixation spot in the test field area is undesirable or when subjects’ experimental tasks preclude their manipulation of a fixation dot brightness control. A luminous compound is inserted into transparent plastic tubing which can be shaped and inserted into a groove milled to fit the tube’s diameter and shape. Annulus luminance is in the scotopic range. Repeated measurement showed that there was no brightness loss over time. Ways of further attenuating brightness are discussed.     

An automated regional taste-testing system

A fully programmable and portable automated regional taste-testing system is described. This system utilizes a glass stimulator held to the surface of the tongue by a mild vacuum. Temporally and spatially discrete trains of stimuli, delivered from a bank of glass reservoirs through microprocessor-controlled Teflon solenoid valves and both glass and Tygon tubing, can be delivered to the lingual surface at millisecond durations. Rinses between stimuli are similarly programmed. The stimulus delivery is monitored at the surface of the tongue, using a capacitance sensor to alert the subject of stimulus delivery. An example of the application of this system is shown, in which we demonstrate that the detection threshold for NaCl is inversely related to stimulus duration by a power function.     

A computer-controlled vapor-dilution olfactometer

A computer-controlled olfactometer with several innovations leading to closer control over the stimulus parameters and minimization of nonolfactory cues is presented. A microcomputer is used to control the stimulus duration and interstimulus interval. Electronic mass flow con-trollers are employed to maintain close control over the flow in the pure air line and the stimulus-bearing line. Both humidity and temperature are closely regulated. Using a nasal catheter, this stimulus delivery system coupled with velopharyngeal closure and oral breathing permits accurate specification of the quantity of stimulus material actually entering a subject’s nares. The design is such that the computer programming, patch panel interface, and threaded tubing allow versatility in the type of olfactometric study that can be conducted. This system is amenable for threshold, electrophysiological, and sensory adaptation studies of olfaction.     

The photo-lickerandum: A device for detecting the licking response,with capability for near-instantaneous programming of variable quantum reinforcement

A combined operandum-feeder is described that eliminates the necessity of passing an electrical sensing current through S while detecting and reinforcing tongue-licking responses. A glass nozzle for dispensing liquid reinforcers is situated just above a small separation in a loop of photo-conducting Sterite tubing; licks at a tiny area below the nozzle break a light beam and are detected via a photo-resistor and associated circuitry. Data are presented from a study in which rats worked at the operandum on a mult FR 40 ext schedule; performance and records are comparable to those obtained via conventional electronic sensing. Applications of the photo-lickerandum and an associated variable-quantum reinforcing system are suggested.     

Conditioned and unconditioned defensive burying in the rat

When rats first encountered a mouse-trap or a flashbulb in a chamber to which they had been habituated, they buried it with bedding material from the floor of the chamber, whereas rats previously habituated to the trap or the flashbulb did not. Conversely, rats did not bury a stationary, wire-wrapped wooden prod or a length of polyethylene tubing, even on first encounter. However, almost every rat struck by the trap, shocked by the prod, exposed to an airblast from the tube, or to a flash of the bulb, buried the respective source of aversive stimulation with the bedding material, even when a comparable control object was present during conditioning and testing. Thus, the phenomenon of defensive burying is not restricted to situations in which neutral objects serve as the source of painful electric shock. Rats seem to enter the experimental environment with an already established tendency to bury some objects (unconditioned defensive burying) but not others, and they readily learn to selectively bury an object that has been the source of any one of a variety of aversive stimuli (conditioned defensive burying).     

对角线元素与不同复杂度的系统的关系

<正>对角线方法是指德国学者康托尔 ( G. Cantor) 在证明实数集不可数时所运用的一种技术方法。在这种意义上,康托尔的实数集不可数论本身便是对角线方法的一种重要运用。此外,对角线方法还有两种重要运用,即哥德尔对角线定理和汤姆逊引理的证明。哥德尔对角线定理又叫 "哥德尔自指定     

Failed-Art and Failed Art-Theory

An object being non-art appears only trivially informative. Some non-art objects, however, could be saliently ‘almost’ art, and therefore objects for which being non-art is non-trivially informative. I call these kinds of non-art objects ‘failed-art’ objects—non-art objects aetiologically similar to art-objects, diverging only in virtue of some relevant failure. I take failed-art to be the right sort of thing, to result from the right sort of action, and to have the right sort of history required to be art, but to be non-art by having failure where being art requires success. I assume that for something to be art that thing must be the product of intention-directed action. I then offer an account of attempts that captures the success conditions governing the relationship between intention-directed actions and their products. From this, I claim that to be failed-art is to be the product of a failed art-attempt, i.e., to be non-art as the result of the particular way in which that art-attempt failed. An art-attempt I take to be an attempt with success conditions, that, if satisfied, entail the satisfaction of the conditions for being art—whatever those may be. To be art, then, is to be the product of a successful art-attempt. As such, any art theory incompatible with my account of failed-art is an art theory for which the notions of success and failure do not matter, and therefore an art theory for which being art needn't be substantively intention-dependent. So, any theory of art unable to accommodate my account of failed-art is ipso facto false.     

On Gratitude to Nature

In this article, I argue that it cannot be fitting to be grateful to nature. I start by arguing that gratitude to someone/something can be fitting even if they do not intentionally benefit one. I then argue that a recent view on which it can be fitting to be grateful to nature faces counterexamples. Finally, I argue that it cannot be fitting to be grateful to nature, because it is fitting to be grateful to someone/something only if they manifest the right kind of goodwill or care toward one. In particular, I argue that it is fitting to be grateful to someone/something only if they manifest a level of final care toward one beyond what can be legitimately expected or demanded of them. However, because nature does not manifest any level of goodwill or care, it cannot be fitting to be grateful to nature. I end by noting that it can still be fitting to be grateful that certain things are true about nature (e.g. that it provides many benefits to humans).     

对医学基础研究中“确凿证据”的认识

医学基础研究中得到的确切可靠、无可辩驳的结论,可称为“确凿证据”。其重要性在于能对“一般证据”做出判断;可据此设计实验,提出并验证假说。所以准确判断十分重要,判断错误将误导实验,延缓实验进程。可分为两类：直接可见的结果或是经过严密实验设计得出的结论。我们要慎重判断“确凿证据”,也要善于利用其得出结论。     

Assessing the costs, benefits, cost-effectiveness, and cost-benefit of psychological assessment: we should, we can, and here's how

To the extent that assessment improves the effectiveness of treatment, prevention, or other services, it can be said to be effective. If an assessment is as effective as alternatives for improving treatment and less costly, it can be said to be cost-effective. If that improvement in the effectiveness of the service is monetary or monetizable, the assessment can be judged beneficial. And, if the sum of monetary and monetizable benefits of assessment exceeds the sum of the costs of treatment, the assessment can be said to be cost-beneficial. An overview of cost-related issues is followed by practical strategies that researchers and administrators can use to measure incremental costs, incremental effectiveness, and incremental benefits of adding psychological assessments to other psychological interventions.     

Problems for Linguistic Solutions to the Paradox of Analysis

G. E. Moore opined that the paradox of analysis might be avoided if it could be shown that sentences expressing conceptual analyses convey information not only about concepts, but also about the expressions they use. If so, "to be a brother is to be a male sibling" and "to be a brother is to be a brother" might express the same proposition, and yet not be identical in information value as the paradox suggests. How sentences might do this, Moore could not see. Many philosophers have pointed out an obvious way in which sentences might be said to convey information about the expressions they use. Some have suggested this information might be used to develop Moore's intuition and resolve the paradox of analysis. I argue that this approach fails. I present a version of the paradox of analysis that resists this sort of solution.     

The metric‐frequency measure of similarity for ill‐structured data sets,with an application to family therapy

Similarity measures have been studied extensively in many domains, but usually with well‐structured data sets. In many psychological applications, however, such data sets are not available. It often cannot even be predicted how many items will be observed, or what exactly they will entail. This paper introduces a similarity measure, called the metric‐frequency (MF) measure, that can be applied to such data sets. If it is not known beforehand how many items will be observed, then the number of items actually observed in itself carries information. A typical feature of the MF is that it incorporates such information. The primary purpose of our measure is that it should be pragmatic, widely applicable, and tractable, even if data are complex. The MF generalizes Tversky's set‐theoretic measure of similarity to cases where items may be present or absent and at the same time can be numerical as with Shepard's metric measure, but need not be so. As an illustration, we apply the MF to family therapy where it cannot be predicted what issues the clients will raise in therapy sessions. The MF is flexible enough to be applicable to idiographic data.     

The other other: when the exotic other subjugates the familiar other

In this paper, the theme of the other will be examined and it will be argued that it is important to differentiate between two distinct types of other--the 'exotic' other which is distant and very different from the subject, and the 'familiar' other which is closer to the subject. The dynamic relationship between these two others will be investigated, and emphasis will be given to the process through which the exotic other tends to subjugate the familiar other. This relationship will then be discussed in its various applied forms, in the contexts of clinical practice and socio-political dimensions. In particular, a new reading of Jung's approach to the 'primitive' will be developed, based on the subjugation of the 'familiar' other by the 'exotic' other. A similar line of investigation will be followed to examine the concept of psychological trauma. In addition, Freud's 'narcissism of minor differences' and Bion's distinction between 'narcissism' and 'socialism' will be considered in the light of this differentiation between these two others.     

Aristotle on Modality: Nicholas DenyerNever Will and Cannot

In De Caelo 1: 11-12 Aristotle argued that whatever is and always will be true is necessarily true. His argument works, once we grant him the highly plausible principle that if something is true, then it can be false if and only if it can come to be false. For example, assume it true that the sun is and always will be hot. No proposition of this form can ever will be hot. No proposition of this form can ever come to be false. Hence this proposition cannot be false. Hence it is necessarily true, and so too is anything that follows from it. In particular, it is necessarily true that the sun is hot. Moreover, if the sun not only is and always will be hot, but also always has been, then it follows by similar reasoning that the sun not only cannot now fail to be hot, but also never could have failed. Anything everlastingly true is therefore, in the strictest sense of the term, necessarily true.     

A multidimensional item response model: Constrained latent class analysis using the gibbs sampler and posterior predictive checks

In this paper it will be shown that a certain class of constrained latent class models may be interpreted as a special case of nonparametric multidimensional item response models. The parameters of this latent class model will be estimated using an application of the Gibbs sampler. It will be illustrated that the Gibbs sampler is an excellent tool if inequality constraints have to be taken into consideration when making inferences. Model fit will be investigated using posterior predictive checks. Checks for manifest monotonicity, the agreement between the observed and expected conditional association structure, marginal local homogeneity, and the number of latent classes will be presented.This paper is supported by grant S40-645 of the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).     

Additivity of risk in portfolios

A collection of gambles constituting a portfolio may itself be represented as a single gamble played once. A portfolio may be constructed by requiring each component gamble to be played once, and there is a theory of additive risk which requires that the perceived risk of the portfolio be an additive function of the perceived riskiness of the component gambles. Alternatively, a portfolio may be constructed as a probability mixture of the component gambles, and there is a theory of expected risk which requires that the perceived risk of the portfolio be the average of the riskiness of the component gambles. Existing evidence suggests that both of these theories cannot be true. A test of additivity of portfolios under both kinds of composition functions was made under two forms of display, the components displayed separately and fused as a single gamble. This experiment supports expected risk and rejects additive risk, especially under fused display.     

坚持科学发展观 促进中医药学现代化

中西医各有短长都不要无限夸大自身的优势。中西医互补整合是现代医学发展的潮流。学术争论不要政治化,科技管理要法制化,学者必须从浮华世态中醒悟过来,重建学者应有的人格和道德,纯洁科学的神圣殿堂。坚持科学发展观,中医药学才有长足的进步。