学校危险和保护因素与初中生偏差行为的关系

学校危险因素和保护因素对初中生的偏差行为有重要影响.本研究以1739名初中学生为被试,考察了学校危险因素和保护因素及其与青少年偏差行为的关系.结果表明:(1)学校危险因素和保护因素分别与初中生偏差行为有显著的正相关和负相关;(2)学校危险因素得分随年级升高而增长,保护因素得分随年级升高而降低;(3)“偏差行为榜样”、“教师的支持”、“知觉到积极期望”是对初中生偏差行为有重要影响的三个学校环境因素.     

Computerized perceptual analysis of patients with body dysmorphic disorder: a pilot study

Many factors influence the development of body image, one of which is the perception we have of our body. Perception can refer to actual visual input or the interpretation of vision; in other words, cognitive appraisal. The goal of this preliminary study is to determine if three groups (body dysmorphic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and a non-psychiatric control group) differed in the perception of their faces. Thirty individuals, 10 in each group, were asked to make changes to a computerized image of their face. In addition, affective and perceptual tests were administered. The groups did not differ on affective and perceptual organizational measures, although the obsessive-compulsive disorder group reported a higher level of anxiety than the body dysmorphic disorder group. Imaging software showed that facial features were modified by patients with body dysmorphic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder in about 50% of cases. No modifications were made in the control group. Future studies need to investigate the possible causes of these differences.     

Optimism, pessimism, and positive and negative affectivity in middle-aged adults: a test of a cognitive-affective model of psychological adjustment

This study attempted to address limitations in the understanding of optimism and pessimism among middle-aged adults. Specifically, a model of affectivity as a mediator of the link between outcome expectancies and psychological adjustment (life satisfaction and depressive symptoms) was presented and examined in a sample of 237 middle-aged adults. Consistent with a mediation model, results of path analyses indicated that optimism and pessimism (particularly the former) had significant direct and indirect links (by means of positive and negative affectivity) with depressive symptoms and life satisfaction. These results add to the small but growing literature identifying optimism and pessimism as important concomitants of psychological adjustment in more mature adults.     

Overexpression of and RNA interference with the CCAAT enhancer-binding protein on long-term facilitation of Aplysia sensory to motor synapses

In the marine mollusk Aplysia, the CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein, ApC/EBP, serves as an immediate early gene in the consolidation of long-term facilitation in the synaptic connection between the sensory and motor neurons of the gill-withdrawal reflex. To further examine the role of ApC/EBP as a molecular switch of a stable form of long-term memory, we cloned the full-length coding regions of two alternatively spliced forms, the short and long form of ApC/EBP. Overexpression of each isoform by DNA microinjection resulted in a l6-fold increase in the expression of the coinjected luciferase reporter gene driven by an ERE promoter. In addition, when we overexpressed ApC/EBP in Aplysia sensory neurons, we found that the application of a single pulse of 5-HT that normally induced only short-term facilitation now induced long-term facilitation. Conversely, when we attempted to block the synthesis of native ApC/EBP by microinjecting double-strand RNA or antisense RNA, we blocked long-term facilitation in a sequence-specific manner. These data support the idea that ApC/EBP is both necessary and sufficient to consolidate short-term memory into long-term memory. Furthermore, our results suggest that this double-strand RNA interference provides a powerful tool in the study of the genes functioning in learning and memory in Aplysia by specifically inhibiting both the constitutive and induced expression of the genes.     

Adapting to Context in Community-Based Participatory Research: “Participatory Starting Points” in a Chinese Immigrant Worker Community

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is increasingly being used to better understand and improve the health of diverse communities. A key strength of this research orientation is its adaptability to community contexts and characteristics. To date, however, few studies explicitly discuss adaptations made to CBPR principles and processes in response to community context and partners’ needs. Using data from our CBPR study, the San Francisco Chinatown Restaurant Worker Health and Safety Project, and drawing from literature on immigrant political incorporation, we examine the links between the contexts of the Chinese immigrant worker community, adaptations made by our collaborative, and study outcomes. In particular, we explore the concepts of contexts of reception and participatory starting points, which may be especially relevant for partnerships with immigrant communities whose members have historically had lower rates of civic and political participation in the US. We discuss contextual findings such as worker partner accounts of language barriers, economic and social marginalization, and civic skills and participation, as well as subsequent adaptations made by the partnership. We also describe the relative effectiveness of these adaptations in yielding equitable participation and building partners’ capacity. We conclude by sharing lessons learned and their implications for CBPR and partnerships with immigrant communities more broadly.     

Surface tension of substantially undercooled liquid Ti–Al alloy

It is usually difficult to undercool Ti–Al alloys on account of their high reactivity in the liquid state. This results in a serious scarcity of information on their thermophysical properties in the metastable state. Here, we report on the surface tension of a liquid Ti–Al alloy under high undercooling condition. By using the electromagnetic levitation technique, a maximum undercooling of 324 K (0.19 T _L) was achieved for liquid Ti-51 at.% Al alloy. The surface tension of this alloy, which was determined over a broad temperature range 1429–2040 K, increases linearly with the enhancement of undercooling. The experimental value of the surface tension at the liquidus temperature of 1753 K is 1.094 N m^?1 and its temperature coefficient is ?1.422 × 10^?4 N m^?1 K^?1. The viscosity, solute diffusion coefficient and Marangoni number of this liquid Ti–Al alloy are also derived from the measured surface tension.     

Singapore's Cultural Experimentation: Gay Rights,Stem Cells,Casinos and the Evangelical Response

Abstract

Since the early 1990s the Singapore government has been taking a more liberal stance on controversial issues such as gay rights, embryonic stem cell research and the gaming industry. My paper analyses the Singapore state's utilitarian justification and its authoritarian enactment of these liberal policies. The first part looks at the underlying motivation for the cultural makeover. I frame my analysis around the reaction of the Singapore Christian community to these developments. I focus on the criticisms of the state's ‘liberal’ agenda made by Evangelicals, and describe how the People's Action Party (PAP) regime has defended these policies on utilitarian grounds. The first part ends with a comparative analysis of how the ‘cultural war’ debate was played out in Singapore and the USA. In the second part I examine the procedural aspects of this cultural experimentation. I start with a review of Singapore's political reform. I show that civil society in Singapore has attained a new openness. Yet there remain constraints, leading critics to label the PAP-led government as a ‘soft-authoritarian’ democracy. Singapore's cultural policies, I explain, are essentially an ‘elitist’ state-engineered top-down development. This is in contrast to the experience in the USA, where grassroots activists exercise tangible bottom-up influence on how cultural contests are resolved. My main thesis is to argue that Singapore's recent cultural liberalisation is guided by social–economic expediency notwithstanding the alleged moral risks, and that these are state-commanded liberal experimentations, imposed by the ruling elite upon a constituency that is still largely conservative in moral outlook.     

The Relation Between Mothers’ Attitudes Toward Maternal Employment and Social Competence of 36-Month-Olds: The Roles of Maternal Psychological Well-Being and Sensitivity

The relation of mothers’ attitudes on the effects of maternal employment on children, psychological well-being, sensitivity of the mother, and children’s socioemotional development were examined in mothers who worked full time (consistently) and mothers who were unemployed during their children’s early years of growth from 6 months of age. Longitudinal observations of 1,213 mothers and children from age 1 to 36 months from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care were analyzed using structural equation models. Mothers and children benefited when maternal attitudes were consistent with the mothers’ actual employment status. Among consistently employed mothers, those with positive attitudes about employment had better psychological well-being. When mothers who were unemployed, they believed that maternal employment would have positive consequences for their children’s development, they preferred working outside home and they were more likely to show a low level of psychological well-being and poor quality of mother-child relation. Additionally, maternal well-being mediated the relation between a mother’s attitudes and a child’s social competence. For both groups, better psychological well-being of mothers was positively related to better child’s socioemotional outcome. Maternal sensitivity, however, did not mediate the relation between maternal attitudes and child’s social outcomes. The findings shed light on the need for a sensitive measure of characterizing mothers who work versus those who stay at home in order to better understand the effects on a child’s development.     

The immediate and sustained effects of acute exercise on planning aspect of executive function

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to clarify the immediate and sustained effects of an acute bout of exercise on the planning aspects of executive function.DesignThis study used a 2 × 4 true experimental design.MethodForty participants were randomly assigned to either the exercise or control groups and completed the Tower of London task prior to, immediately following, 30 min after, and 60 min after cessation of a 30 min, moderate intensity cycling exercise.ResultsAcute exercise positively impacted the total move score, which reflects planning efficiency, immediately after the cessation of exercise. Acute exercise also led to longer total initiation times, which were linked to better response inhibition of planning at 30 and 60 min after the cessation of exercise.ConclusionAcute exercise benefits planning, and the types of planning and the time points at which they were assessed modulate the relationship between acute exercise and executive function. Exercise-induced physiological and biological fluctuations have been proposed to explain the effects present immediately after exercise, and the mechanisms of such effects warrant further exploration.     

Mutual Interactions Between Speech and Finger Movements

Speech output and finger movements were recorded as right-handed males repeated a syllable while making cyclical finger movements in three experimental conditions: (a) maintaining constant amplitude in both response systems; (b) alternating speech amplitude while attempting to maintain constant finger movement amplitude; and (c) alternating finger movement amplitude while attempting to maintain constant speech amplitude. Observations showed that output of the two response systems was coupled (one syllable was uttered with each finger movement) and entrained in amplitude (the amplitude pattern of the response that the subject attempted to keep constant followed that of the concurrently-active amplitude-modulated response).

These interactions were bidirectional and were present with both left-handed and right-handed finger movements. The interactions are more extensive and subtle than mere interference with one response system by the other, and apparently do not depend on anatomical overlap of the responding neural systems.