Broadcasting of violence on Spanish television: a quantitative panorama

A quantitative analysis of broadcasted violence by the main television (TV) channels transmitting for Madrid (Spain) was carried out using a novel method that randomly selects fragments of delimited duration from TV broadcasts. The device selects acts of aggression shown in those TV extracts, and classifies them according to their type. There was a high incidence of aggressive acts, especially physical (particularly leading to death), in TV fiction: films, serials and promos. The device also allowed examination of the prominence of aggression in children's programs, as well as showing minimal variation in the number of aggressive acts over screened time intervals. The pattern of the collected data suggests that the broadcasting of violence on TV emphasizes the conflicting elements of social reality, reproducing it in fiction, news reports and children's shows. Aggr. Behav. 32:137–145. 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION,HEALING, AND ALTRUISM: INTRODUCTION TO THE SYMPOSIUM

This essay introduces the five articles that follow, whose aim is to show how altruism emerges out of spiritual transformation and is integral to healing process in four kinds of ritual healing systems—popular, folk, an indigenous religious healing tradition, and complementary and alternative medicine represented by consciousness transformation movements. In this introduction I situate these largely marginalized religious and spiritual practices within the context of the religion‐science discourse, which has focused for the most part on the relationship between the established, mainstream religions and the dominant biomedical system. Antecedents of two of these types of religious practices, Spiritism and consciousness transformation movements, were part of the development of the psychological sciences in the nineteenth century but lost ground in the twentieth. Despite discrimination and persistent negative attitudes on the part of the established religions and biomedicine, these healing traditions have not only survived through the twentieth century but appear to have gained both followers and interest in the twenty‐first. In future decades, at least for complementary and alternative medical practices and perhaps also for spirit healing centers, there may be a reversal in status through greater acceptance of their unique combination of scientific and religious perspectives.     

The Unhappy Marriage of Care Ethics and Virtue Ethics

The proposal that care ethic(s) (CE) be subsumed under the framework of virtue ethic(s) (VE) is both promising and problematic for feminists. Although some attempts to construe care as a virtue are more commendable than others, they cannot duplicate a freestanding feminist CE. Sander‐Staudt recommends a model of theoretical collaboration between VE and CE that retains their comprehensiveness, allows CE to enhance VE as well as be enhanced by it, and leaves CE open to other collaborations.     

Assessment of sensory substitution prosthesis potentialities in minimalist conditions of learning

Pattern recognition with a prosthesis substituting vision by audition was investigated. During 15 1‐hour sessions, nine blindfolded sighted subjects were trained to recognise 2D patterns by trial and error. In addition to a global assessment, recognition of pattern element nature (vertical bars, horizontal bars…), element size and element spatial arrangement were independently assessed for each pattern. Influence of experimental parameters (complexity level of patterns, exploration number of a pattern) on recognition was studied. Performances improved over sessions. As a rule, patterns element nature was less well recognised than element size and spatial arrangement. Experimental parameters influenced pattern recognition performance. Results are discussed in relation with auditory and visual perception as well as in the perspective to implement a learning protocol for future users of prosthesis. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

先秦名家知识论研究

先秦名家通过辨析概念与事物的关系,揭示了一、概念是主观的;二、概念作为实在存在的条件;三、概念的真实意义在于运用;四、事物作为现象存在,其空间性、时间性是主观的;五、作为现象的事物是不确定的;六、现象是主体先验感知模式与外在尘缘的作为;七、现象是静止的;八、理性思维只能关注经验现象,对事物的真正无效。     

政府责任与医疗弱势群体的医疗保障

本文系统探讨政府承担弱势群体医疗保障责任的问题。针对我国的实际情况,首先提出了“医疗弱势群体”的概念;然后以部分发达国家的实际作法为背景探讨了政府承担弱势群体医疗保障责任的理论与法理基础;随后分析了我国政府承担弱势群体医疗保障责任的历史与现状;最后,就我国政府承担医疗弱势群体医疗保障责任的总体思路等问题提出了建议。作者提出,政府不能逃避其应该承担的责任;要改变目前首先为有一定经济能力的人提供医疗保障的做法,优先解决医疗弱势群体的医疗保障问题;目前我国已具备将弱势群体一次性纳入医疗保障体系的财政能力。     

甲状腺占位性病变手术治疗指征的合理选择

近年来,随着超声波的发展,超声波的清晰度越来越高.作为浅表脏器的甲状腺,超声波可发现其内1mm～2mm的占位性病变.由于超声波具有操作简便、快捷、无创性和清晰度高的特点,越来越多的人选择超声波进行甲状腺的常规检查.Mortenson[1]等发现,既往无病史,而解剖中发现有甲状腺占位性病变的高达50%.在超声随机检查中,甲状腺结节的发现率在19%～67%,而其中可以触摸到的结节只有4%～7%,甲状腺结节大部分为良性的,其中5%左右为恶性的[2-3].因此,对超声波检查中发现的占位性病变是否选择治疗以及如何选择治疗方案,从而使需要治疗的患者获得更合理的治疗,就成为人们关注的课题.那么,甲状腺占位性病变手术治疗的指征究竟和什么有关,超声在其中又起了一个什么样的作用呢?     

The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities on Companies With Bad Reputations

Based on theories of attribution and suspicion, three experiments highlight the mediating role of perceived sincerity of motives in determining the effectiveness of CSR activities. CSR activities improve a company's image when consumers attribute sincere motives, are ineffective when sincerity of motives is ambiguous, and hurt the company's image when motives are perceived as insincere. Variables affecting perceived sincerity include the benefit salience of the cause, the source through which consumers learn about CSR, and the ratio of CSR contributions and CSR‐related advertising. High benefit salience of the cause hurts the company, in particular when consumers learn about it from a company source. This backfire effect can be overcome by spending more on CSR activities than on advertising that features CSR.     

Country‐of‐Origin Influences on Product Evaluations: The Impact of Animosity and Perceptions of Industriousness Brutality on Judgments of Typical and Atypical Products

When a product's country of origin has a reputation for manufacturing high‐quality products, there may be a positive impact on product judgments. If people feel animosity toward a country as a result of its political or social policies, they may react negatively to the products it produces. These opposing effects may depend in part on the subset of country‐relevant knowledge that is accessible in memory at the time of judgment. When a product was not one on which Germany or Japan had built its reputation for manufacturing high‐quality products, associating the product with these countries increased its evaluations when industriousness had been activated as part of an unrelated experiment. However, when concepts associated with brutality had been primed, the product's country of origin had a negative effect on judgments. When the product was typical of those manufactured in the country, however, identifying its country of origin increased product evaluations regardless of whether industriousness or brutality had been primed. Thus, animosity toward a product's country of origin had an adverse effect on reactions to it only if the product was not one on which the country's reputation was based.