Modern medicine and biotechnology: an ethical conflict of interest?

When confronting the issues related to developments in modern medicine and biotechnology, we must repeatedly ask ourselves anew what can and cannot be justified in an ethical sense. For radically new ethical questions seem to arise through innovative techniques such as stem cell research or preimplantation diagnosis — and with them new areas of conflicting interests. If one scrutinizes the previous positions related to this subject, it becomes conspicuous that a multitude of questions has quickly piled up — however, (as in the case of Germany) comprehensive and differentiated views have mostly been lacking. An earlier version of this paper was presented at an International Conference on “Conflict of Interest and its Significance in Science and Medicine” held in Warsaw, Poland on 5–6 April, 2002.     

The effects of late acquisition of L2 and the consequences of immigration on L1 for semantic and morpho-syntactic language aspects

It has been hypothesized that some aspects of a second language (L2) might be learned easier than others if a language is learned late. On the other hand, non-use might result in a loss of language skills in one's native, i.e. one's first language (L1) (language attrition). To study which, if any, aspects of language are affected by either late acquisition or non-use, long-term German immigrants to the US and English native speakers who are long-term immigrants to Germany as well as two additional control groups of native German speakers were tested with an auditory semantic and morpho-syntactic priming paradigm. German adjectives correctly or incorrectly inflected for gender and semantically associated or not associated with the target noun served as primes. Participants made a lexical decision on the target word. All groups of native German speakers gained from semantically and morpho-syntactically congruent primes. Evidence for language attrition was neither found for semantic nor morpho-syntactic priming effects in the German immigrants. In contrast, English native speakers did not gain from a morpho-syntactic congruent prime, whereas semantic priming effects were similar as for the remaining groups. The present data suggest that the full acquisition of at least some syntactic functions may be restricted to limited periods in life while semantic and morpho-syntactic functions seem to be relatively inured to loss due to non-use.     

Connection-Driven Inductive Theorem Proving

We present a method for integrating rippling-based rewriting into matrix-based theorem proving as a means for automating inductive specification proofs. The selection of connections in an inductive matrix proof is guided by symmetries between induction hypothesis and induction conclusion. Unification is extended by decision procedures and a rippling/reverse-rippling heuristic. Conditional substitutions are generated whenever a uniform substitution is impossible. We illustrate the integrated method by discussing several inductive proofs for the integer square root problem as well as the algorithms extracted from these proofs.     

Activation of nociceptin opioid peptide (NOP) receptor impairs contextual fear learning in mice through glutamatergic mechanisms

The present study investigated whether the selective nociceptin opioid peptide (NOP) receptor agonist, Ro64-6198, impairs acquisition of fear conditioning through glutamatergic mechanisms. Systemic administration of Ro64-6198 (0.3 and 1 mg/kg) or the non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist, MK-801 (0.03 and 0.1 mg/kg) prior to conditioning severely impaired contextual but not cued fear learning in C57BL/6N mice. When administered together at sub-effective doses, Ro64-6198 (0.5 mg/kg) and MK-801 (0.05 mg/kg), synergistically impaired contextual fear learning, but left cued fear learning intact. We next used the immediate shock deficit paradigm (ISD) to examine the effects of Ro64-6198 and MK-801 on contextual memory formation in the absence of the foot-shock. As expected, naive mice that were shocked briefly after being placed in the training chamber displayed no contextual fear conditioning. This learning deficit was elevated by prior exposure of mice to the training context. Furthermore, administration of Ro64-6198 and MK-801, either separately at amnesic doses (1 mg/kg and 0.1 mg/kg, respectively) or concomitantly at sub-effective doses (0.5 mg/kg and 0.05 mg/kg, respectively) significantly reduced the facilitating effects of context preexposure. These findings demonstrate the existence of functional antagonism between NOP and NMDA receptors that predominantly contributes to modulation of conditioned fear learning which involves spatial-processing demands.     

Le pouvoir d’agir à l’épreuve de la souffrance au travail : émotions,recherche et construction de sens

Work may support personnalization and creation when subjects can transfer and develop in their professional environment what they do, value, plan or got in other domains of life. By contrast, suffering at work traps the subject in a reciprocal causality loop in which agency decrease and loss of meaning go hand in hand. Both depend on work experience’s disconnection from other subject’s life experiences. We hypothesize that emotion, as an antecedent of meaning search (Rime, 2005) and a vehicle for behaviors intersignification, is a means for re-appropriating an identity of “homme capable” (Ricoeur, 2004). An action-research at Purpan’s hospital “Suffering at work” consulting, considers those statements at individual and collective levels by comparing two Groups of Work Situations Analyze.     

Pragmatic Unification, Observation and Realism in Astroparticle Physics

Astroparticle physics is a recent sub-discipline of physics that emerged from early cosmic ray studies, astrophysics, and particle physics. Its theoretical foundations range from quantum field theory to general relativity, but the underlying “standard models” of cosmology and particle physics are far from being unified. The paper explores the pragmatic strategies employed in astroparticle physics in order to unify a disunified research field, the concept of observation involved in these strategies, and their relations to scientific realism.     

The Role of Affect in the Relationship Between Distributive Justice Expectations and Applicants' Recommendation and Litigation Intentions

This paper examined the moderating role of positive and negative affect in the relationship between distributive justice expectations and applicants' intentions to recommend the organization or to litigate. Specifically, it was suggested and supported in two samples of, respectively, 1,409 and 486 applicants, that the positive relationship between distributive justice expectations and recommendation intentions was stronger for applicants high in positive affect. In the second sample, it was further found that the negative relationship between distributive justice expectations and litigation intentions was stronger among applicants high in negative affect. This research is the first to identify the distinct roles of positive and negative affect in shaping responses to expectations of (un)fairness in the personnel selection literature. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Children's action-control behaviors (coping): A longitudinal validation of the behavioral inventory of strategic control

Abstract

Integrating multi-axial models with an action-theory perspective, we propose that children's coping strategies vary along four dimensions of strategic behavioral control: Direct Action, Indirect Action, Prosocial Action, and Antisocial Action. The Behavioral Inventory of Strategic Control (BISC) assesses these four general dimensions of strategic control. We contrast these four axial dimensions with six specific strategic combinations: Avoidance (Indirect-Antisocial), Emotional Support Seeking (Indirect-Prosocial), Social Exploitation (Indirect-Antisocial), Social Cooperation (Direct-Prosocial), Aggressive Individualism (Direct-Antisocial) and Hostility (Indirect-Antisocial). In a short-term longitudinal study (three occasions over four months) of 318 children (grades 2–6), we examined the validity of the BISC, showing that the hypothesized dimensional structure of children's strategic control behavior was strongly supported.