Pope Benedict XVI and the Church in China

ABSTRACT

Pope Benedict XVI’s letter to the Church in China in 2007 emphasises the importance of papal authority, the relationship between local and universal churches, and the appointment of bishops. This article highlights Pope Benedict’s centrist ecclesiology, which had been normative for the Catholic Church since he was the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1981 to 2005). In spite of his conservative stance regarding church doctrine, he was open to dialogue with the Chinese authorities. He understood the complexities of the Chinese Church, the hardship and predicament faced by the faithful.     

Efficacy of Two Mathematics Interventions for Enhancing Fluency with Elementary Students

An alternating treatments design was used to evaluate two curriculum-based mathematics interventions designed to enhance fluency with three elementary school students. Results indicate that both the Math to Mastery (MTM) intervention and the Cover, Copy, Compare (CCC) intervention were effective at increasing mathematics fluency, as measured by digits correct per min, for all students. However, MTM was more effective than CCC for two of the three students. Follow-up data taken 6 and 18 days following termination of the intervention phase indicated that all participants achieving mastery performance maintained mastery levels across both interventions.     

An Examination of Potential Attractions of Women's Marital Infidelity

Due to the growing prevalence and potential negative effects of marital infidelity, it is important for both clinicians and researchers to understand its occurrence. This study focused on examining the process an individual goes through when making the decision to have an affair. Semi-structured interviews were audio taped, transcribed, and analyzed using the transcendental phenomenological model (Moustakas, 1994). The women reported developing relationships outside of their marriage, having support from family/friends for the extramarital relationship, and receiving positive attention from their affair partner. Clinical and research implications are discussed as well as the limitations of the current study.     

Functional brain activation differences in stuttering identified with a rapid fMRI sequence

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether brain activity related to the presence of stuttering can be identified with rapid functional MRI (fMRI) sequences that involved overt and covert speech processing tasks. The long-term goal is to develop sensitive fMRI approaches with developmentally appropriate tasks to identify deviant speech motor and auditory brain activity in children who stutter closer to the age at which recovery from stuttering is documented. Rapid sequences may be preferred for individuals or populations who do not tolerate long scanning sessions. In this report, we document the application of a picture naming and phoneme monitoring task in 3 min fMRI sequences with adults who stutter (AWS). If relevant brain differences are found in AWS with these approaches that conform to previous reports, then these approaches can be extended to younger populations. Pairwise contrasts of brain BOLD activity between AWS and normally fluent adults indicated the AWS showed higher BOLD activity in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), right temporal lobe and sensorimotor cortices during picture naming and higher activity in the right IFG during phoneme monitoring. The right lateralized pattern of BOLD activity together with higher activity in sensorimotor cortices is consistent with previous reports, which indicates rapid fMRI sequences can be considered for investigating stuttering in younger participants.Educational objectives: The reader will learn about and be able to describe the: (1) use of functional MRI to study persistent developmental stuttering; (2) differences in brain activation between persons who stutter and normally fluent speakers; and (3) potential benefit of time efficient fMRI sequences combined with a range of speech processing tasks for investigating stuttering in younger populations.     

The relationship between justice and attitudes: An examination of justice effects on event and system-related attitudes

Research in organizational justice has always been interested in the relationship between justice and attitudes. This research often examines how different types of justice affect different attitudes, with distributive justice predicted to affect attitudes about specific events (e.g., performance evaluation) and procedural justice predicted to affect attitudes about organizations (e.g., organizational commitment). However, there is mixed support for these predictions. Moreover, this approach generally ignores the relationship between attitudes about the specific event and attitudes toward the organization. In this study we identify three alternative models of justice and attitudes. We use customer responses to complaint handling to test these alternative conceptualizations. Results generally support a mediated model, wherein event attitudes mediate the effect of justice perceptions on system-related attitudes. The implication of these findings for organizations and justice researchers are discussed.     

Legal Coercion,Respect & Reason-Responsive Agency

Legal coercion seems morally problematic because it is susceptible to the Hegelian objection that it fails to respect individuals in a way that is ‘due to them as men’. But in what sense does legal coercion fail to do so? And what are the grounds for this requirement to respect? This paper is an attempt to answer these questions. It argues that (a) legal coercion fails to respect individuals as reason-responsive agents; and (b) individuals ought to be respected as such in virtue of the fact that they are human beings. Thus it is in this sense that legal coercion fails to treat individuals with the kind of respect ‘due to them as men’.     

Individual differences in the anterior insula are associated with the likelihood of financially helping versus harming others

The neural basis of individual differences in positive and negative social decisions and behaviors in healthy populations is yet undetermined. Recent work has focused on the potential role of the anterior insula in guiding social and nonsocial decision making, but the specific nature of its activation during such decision making remains unclear. To identify the neural regions mediating individual differences in helpful and harmful decisions and to assess the nature of insula activation during such decisions, in the present study we used a novel fMRI task featuring intentional and unintentional decisions to financially harm or help persons in need. Based on a whole-brain, unbiased approach, our findings indicate that individual differences in dorsal anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and right temporo-parietal junction activation are associated with behavioral tendencies to financially harm or help another. Furthermore, activity in the dorsal anterior insula and ACC was greatest during unintended outcomes, whether these were gains or losses for a charity or for oneself, supporting models of the role of these regions in salience prediction error signaling. Together, the results suggest that individual differences in risk anticipation, as reflected in the dorsal anterior insula and dorsal ACC, guide social decisions to refrain from harming others.     

Immediate Psychological Impact of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Symptoms of PTSD and Coping Skills

Five hundred eighty-eight participants completed the Short Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Rating Interview (SPRINT; Connor &; Davidson, 2001 Connor, K. and Davidson, J. 2001. SPRINT: A brief global assessment of post-traumatic stress disorder. International Clinical Psychopharmacology, 16(5): 279–284. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and the Brief COPE (Carver, 1997 Carver, C. S. 1997. You want to measure coping but your protocol's too long: Consider the Brief COPE. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 4(1): 92–100. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) to determine the psychological impacts and coping styles of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Gulf Coast residents. Participants were divided into at-risk and nonrisk groups based on their occupations. Results indicated that 28% of the respondents scored above the SPRINT cutoff score, indicating significant levels of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Furthermore, the Brief COPE results revealed that the at-risk group showed a negative correlation between active coping and the level of PTSD-related symptoms. The at-risk respondents also showed negative correlations of PTSD-related symptoms with coping strategies such as acceptance, planning, positive reframing, humor, and religion. Future research directions are also discussed.     

Can business and economics students perform elementary arithmetic?

Business and economics majors (N=146) were tested on the D'Amore Test of Elementary Arithmetic, which employs third-grade test items from 1932. Only 40% of the subjects passed the test by answering 10 out of 10 items correctly. Self-predicted scores were a good predictor of actual scores, but performance was not associated with demographic variables, grades in calculus courses, liking for science or computers, or mathematics anxiety. Scores decreased over the subjects' initial years on campus. The hardest test item, with an error rate of 23%, required the subject to evaluate (36 x 7) + (33 x 7). The results are similar to those of Standing in 2006, despite methodological changes intended to maximize performance.