Mapping of the Anatomical Circuit of CaM Kinase-Dependent Courtship Conditioning in Drosophila

Globally inhibiting CaM kinase activity in Drosophila, using a variety of genetic techniques, disrupts associative memory yet leaves visual and chemosensory perception intact. These studies implicate CaM kinase in the plastic processes underlying learning and memory but do not identify the neural circuitry that specifies the behavior. In this study, we use the GAL4/UAS binary expression system to define areas of the brain that require CaM kinase for modulation of courtship conditioning. The CaM kinase-dependent neurons that determine the response to the mated female during conditioning and those involved in formation and expression of memory were found to be located in distinct areas of the brain. This supports the idea that courtship conditioning results in two independent behavioral modifications: a decrement in courtship during the conditioning period and an associative memory of conditioning. This study has allowed us for the first time to genetically determine the circuit of information flow for a memory process in Drosophila. The map we have generated dissects the behavior into multiple components and will provide tools that allow both molecular and electrophysiological access to this circuit.     

Age and Work-Related Outcomes: The Moderating Effects of Status Characteristics

This study examines the extent to which 2 status characteristics—pay level and part-time vs. full-time employment—influence the effectiveness of age as a predictor of work-related attitudes and behaviors. Using a sample of 157 registered nurses, hierarchical regression was used to determine whether pay level or employment classification (part-time vs. full-time) moderated the relationship between chronological age and the following outcomes associated with the process of voluntary turnover: job satisfaction, organizational commitment, withdrawal cognitions, perceived alternatives, search behavior, and actual turnover behavior. Findings indicate that the effects of age on work attitudes and behaviors are moderated to some extent by both status characteristics. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Psychological Factors Associated with Emotional Responses to Receiving Genetic Risk Information

This study identified levels of distress, and predictors of levels of distress, in women undergoing assessment for genetic risk of breast/ovarian cancer based on their family history. It comprised a cohort study following 154 women who completed questionnaires at entry into a cancer genetic assessment programme and following risk provision. Independent significant associates of anxiety following risk provision were age, neuroticism, feeling hopeless about developing cancer, a perceived lack of control over developing cancer, lack of a social confidant, and a coping response involving acceptance/resignation. Depression was associated with age, neuroticism, feeling hopeless about developing cancer, lack of social confidant, and a coping response involving acceptance/resignation. To avoid high levels of psychological morbidity in future cohorts undergoing cancer genetic risk assessment, information should be given that emphasises that some degree of control over health outcomes through behaviour change or increased surveillance is possible.     

Bediüzzaman Said Nursi and Louis Massignon in Pursuit of God's Word: A Muslim and a Christian on the Straight Path

Said Nursi (1876–1960) and Louis Massignon (1883–1962) were contemporaries. Both of them were men of God in whose lives dramatic turning points changed the direction of their thinking and led them to devote themselves to the cause of re-awakening the religious consciousness of the people of their time. This article explores the striking parallels in their personal journeys, offers a comparison of their leading ideas and describes the far-reaching effects their lives and works have had in their respective faith communities. The biographies of faithful witnesses in modern times in both Islam and Christianity have much to teach those of us in the twenty-first century who seek to find the way to a harmonious convivencia for our two, global faith communities.     

Reform of statistical inference in psychology: The case of<Emphasis Type="Italic">Memory &; Cognition</Emphasis>

Geoffrey Loftus, Editor ofMemory & Cognition from 1994 to 1997, strongly encouraged presentation of figures with error bars and avoidance of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST). The authors examined 696Memory & Cognition articles published before, during, and after the Loftus editorship. Use of figures with bars increased to 47% under Loftus’s editorship and then declined. Bars were rarely used for interpretation, and NHST remained almost universal. Analysis of 309 articles in other psychology journals confirmed that Loftus’s influence was most evident in the articles he accepted for publication, but was otherwise limited. An e-mail survey of authors of papers accepted by Loftus revealed some support for his policy, but allegiance to traditional practices as well. Reform of psychologists’ statistical practices would require more than editorial encouragement.     

Rise in landing-related skydiving fatalities

The purpose was to assess whether adoption of potentially dangerous skydiving gear and skydiving practices has led to an increase in fatalities. Beginning in the early 1990s, civilian skydivers began to utilize high performance parachutes that fly much faster and are much more responsive than older style parachutes. Also, skydivers began to fly these parachutes in a more aggressive manner. An analysis of data from the 507 skydiving fatalities in the USA between 1986 and 2001 indicated that this shift toward high performance parachutes and aggressive flying techniques was temporally associated with an increase in parachute-landing deaths. During the same time period, the total number of fatalities remained fairly stable.     

The disclosure dilemma for gay men and lesbians: "coming out" at work

This study examined disclosing sexual orientation at work for 220 gay men and 159 lesbians. Self-acceptance, the centrality of one's identity, how "out" one is to friends and family, employer policies, and perceived employer gay-supportiveness were associated with disclosure behaviors at work for gay/lesbian employees. Disclosing at work and working for an organization perceived to be more gay supportive was related to higher job satisfaction and lower job anxiety. Reactions of coworkers to gay or lesbian workers mediated the relationship between disclosure and gay/lesbian workers' job attitudes. Implications and solutions for management are discussed.     

Individual Differences in Personality Conducive to Engagement in Aggression and Violence

This paper examined empirically the value of a conceptual model in which emotional stability and agreeableness contribute to engagement in aggression and violence (EAV) indirectly through irritability, hostile rumination and moral disengagement. Three hundred and forty young adults (130 male and 190 female) participated in the study. The average age of participants was 21 at time 1 and 25 at time 2. Findings attested to the role of basic traits (i.e. agreeableness and emotional stability) and specific personality dispositions (i.e. irritability and hostile rumination) in predisposing to EAV and to the pivotal role of moral disengagement in giving access to aggressive and violent conduct. In particular, the mediational model attested to the pivotal role of emotional stability and agreeableness in contributing directly to both hostile rumination and irritability and indirectly to moral disengagement, and to EAV. Agreeableness and hostile rumination contribute to moral disengagement that plays a key role in mediating the relations of all examined variables with EAV. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.