Structural stability of W2B5 under high pressure

High-pressure structural stability studies have been carried out on tungsten boride W₂B₅ up to maximum pressure of 36 GPa using a Mao-Bell diamond-anvil cell at beamline BR-12 of the ELETTRA synchrotron facility (λ = 0.68881 Å). The hexagonal phase (S.G:P6₃/mmc) of W₂B₅ is stable up to the maximum pressure studied. The bulk modulus is estimated to be ~347 GPa using the Birch–Murnaghan equation of state. The variation of lattice parameters and bond lengths B–B and W–B have been studied and the c-axis is seen to be marginally more compressible than the a-axis.     

Religious beliefs,patient–doctor interaction and resilience as predictors for treatment decisions and health outcomes of heart patients

Treatment decision-making in chronic illness poses long-lasting effects on the health status of patients. In Western individualistic cultures, they are independently taken by the individual in collaboration with doctors contrary to the collectivistic Indian context, where it’s decided by families with little or no involvement of patients. Religious beliefs, patient–doctor interaction, and resilience measures of 100 CAD patients were used to assess their religious beliefs, patient–doctor interaction, and resilience (predictors). Hierarchical Regression Analysis was conducted to test for the significance of the proposed model. Religious beliefs, patient–doctor interaction, and resilience collectively predicted the significant change in decision-making styles, somatic symptoms, anxiety, social dysfunctions, depression, and general health total of the participants. While the treatment decision-making is heavily contingent upon the social factors namely – religious beliefs, patient–doctor interaction, and resilience, there may yet be some underlying psychological factors that have not been explored in the present study.     

Cognitive engagement with AI-enabled technologies and value creation in healthcare

Despite the potential for artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled technologies in healthcare, their benefits are limited owing to the numerous challenges of cognitive engagement. This research paper explores the factors of “cognitive engagement with AI-enabled technologies” and its impact on the customers' benefits and value creation. A mixed-method study was utilized in the Indian health-care setup where AI-based technology is developing. The qualitative findings shed light on the factors of cognitive engagement with AI-enabled technologies. Grounded on the theories of customer benefit, an integrative framework of customer-perceived financial, experiential, psychological, and functional benefits, alongside perceived instrumental and terminal values, was developed. The quantitative findings of PLS-SEM explain the dynamics of the patients' cognitive engagement with AI-enabled technologies. The results enrich a more nuanced understanding of how the patient benefits of AI applications have different impacts on perceived value. The study concludes with theoretical and practical implications.     

Permissible killing and the irrelevance of being human

This is a review essay of Jeff McMahan's recent book The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life (OUP: 2002). In the first part, I lay out the central features of McMahan's account of the wrongness of killing and its implications for when it is permissible to kill. In the second part of the essay, I argue that we ought not to accept McMahan's rejection of species membership as having any bearing on whether it is permissible to kill a particular individual, as there are ways of understanding its relevance that are more plausible than McMahan allows. A review essay of Jeff McMahan. The Ethics of Killing: Problems at the Margins of Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).     

The India Experience

This article featuring India constitutes one of five articles in a collection of essays on local capacity-building in research ethics by graduates from the University of Toronto’s Joint Centre for Bioethics MHSc in Bioethics, International Stream program funded by the Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences. Research ethics is a growing area of work and interest in India. Ethics review remains the weakest component in the mechanism of good clinical practice, and there is a severe dearth of professionals trained in ethics who can provide leadership. Although the Indian Good Clinical Practice Guidelines, the Indian Medical Council Act, and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act require that the Indian Council of Medical Research’s ethical guidelines be followed as a mandatory requirement for physicians who conduct research, there is a pervasive lack of awareness of basic requirements guiding the ethical conduct of research. There is a great need to strengthen India’s research ethics capacity and regulatory framework for research.     

Posttraumatic stress and panic psychopathology: clinical import, research advances, and future directions--introduction to the special issue

There has been a relative dearth of empirical attention focused on the study of the co-occurrence of posttraumatic stress and panic psychopathology. Since these conditions represent two prevalent and impairing psychiatric conditions, the study of their diagnostic and phenomenological comorbidity is clinically meaningful and theoretically warranted. The articles in this series discuss the possible cognitive-affective mechanisms relevant to both conditions and elucidate innovations in applicable clinical intervention approaches. Thus, the overarching purpose of this series is to underscore key empirical questions, to showcase emerging research, and to stimulate further scientific inquiry into the co-occurrence of posttraumatic stress and panic psychopathology.     

A multi-factorial framework for understanding reckless driving—appraisal indicators and perceived environmental determinants

The current study adopted an approach, in which reckless driving is perceived as related to both personal and environmental factors. Young drivers (N = 295) reported on reckless driving related threat and challenge appraisals, their perceived control over reckless driving, their disregard for negative consequences of this specific behavior, positive feedback received on their driving, environmental driving-climate and negative driving modeling. The dependent measure was self-reported frequency of reckless driving. Findings indicated that challenge and self-efficacy appraisals, along with negative environmental influences were related to higher frequency of risky driving, whereas threat appraisals, as well as positive feedback, were related to a lower frequency of reckless driving. In addition, whereas for men, self-efficacy in driving strongly predicted reckless driving, disregard for negative consequences was an important predictor for women. The results are discussed in view of an evaluating process of personal cognitive-emotional resources and environmental support proposed by Lazarus. Recommendations are made regarding the potential effectiveness of using positive appeals in prevention interventions.     

Can Facilitation Imagery Alter the Effects of Semantic Priming?

This study examined if task motivational imagery suggestions could facilitate a semantic priming effect, relative to general relaxation suggestions and no specific suggestions; and if the participants’ hypnotizablity moderated the effects of the three types of instructions. Participants (n = 127) were assigned randomly in groups to one of the three instructional conditions (imagery, relaxation, or control) and two versions of a stimulus list for counterbalancing. A 3-way analysis of variance suggested that the semantic priming effect was found to be stronger for stimulus list version 2 than for version 1. A stronger semantic priming effect was found for the high, relative to the low and medium, hypnotizable groups. When medium hypnotizable participants were excluded, an instructional group X hypnotizability group interaction was found for list 1 suggesting that while the low hypnotizable participants benefited more from the relaxation suggestion, the high hypnotizables benefited more from the imagery instruction. The results suggest that imagery instructions may moderate automatic processes for highly hypnotizable individuals.     

Emotional processing in anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex

Negative emotional stimuli activate a broad network of brain regions, including the medial prefrontal (mPFC) and anterior cingulate (ACC) cortices. An early influential view dichotomized these regions into dorsal-caudal cognitive and ventral-rostral affective subdivisions. In this review, we examine a wealth of recent research on negative emotions in animals and humans, using the example of fear or anxiety, and conclude that, contrary to the traditional dichotomy, both subdivisions make key contributions to emotional processing. Specifically, dorsal-caudal regions of the ACC and mPFC are involved in appraisal and expression of negative emotion, whereas ventral-rostral portions of the ACC and mPFC have a regulatory role with respect to limbic regions involved in generating emotional responses. Moreover, this new framework is broadly consistent with emerging data on other negative and positive emotions.