Effects of Acute Stress or Centrally Injected Interleukin-1beta on Neuropeptide Expression in the Immune System

Acute stress stimulates the expression and release of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) from the hypothalamus, and the pro-opiomelanocortin products beta-endorphin and ACTH from the anterior pituitary. These neuropeptides are also expressed in immune tissues, and it has been proposed that they may modulate immune responses to stress through paracrine mechanisms. We subjected rats to restraint stress or central injection of interleukin (IL)-1beta to determine whether these acute stimuli can alter the expression of neuropeptides in the spleen and thymus. Restraint stress significantly increased the contents of all these neuropeptides in thymic, but not splenic, extracts. A single icv injection of IL-1beta increased contents of CRH, AVP, ACTH and beta-endorphin in the spleens of both sham-operated and adrenalectomised (ADX) rats. IL-1beta increased thymic contents of CRH and ACTH in sham-operated rats but these increases were not observed in ADX rats. These results suggest that the effects of IL-1beta on neuropeptide expression in the spleen are independent of glucocorticoids, whereas IL-1beta stimulation of neuropeptide expression in the thymus is dependent on circulating glucocorticoids. There were significant correlations between increases in CRH, ACTH and beta-endorphin in the spleen, and between CRH and ACTH in the thymus, consistent with the suggestion that IL-1beta-induced increases in ACTH and beta-endorphin may be mediated through CRH. These results provide evidence that stressors can directly influence neuropeptide expression in immune tissues. Thus stress may influence immune functions through paracrine mechanisms involving locally synthesised neuropeptides as well as through activation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis.     

Antecedents and outcomes of career plateaus: The roles of mentoring others and proactive personality

Although mentoring others and career plateaus are both common experiences for seasoned employees, they are rarely examined together. In this study, we considered mentoring others as an antecedent of career plateaus and emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions as outcomes of career plateaus for mentors. We also examined the moderating role of mentors' proactive personality. Results of hierarchical regression analyses based on 188 mentoring dyads indicated that career-focused mentoring alleviated both hierarchical and job content plateauing perceptions. Mentors' proactive personality moderated the relationship between career-focused mentoring and hierarchical plateauing such that the negative relationship is stronger for low proactive personality mentors. Hierarchical plateaus were positively related to mentors' emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions whereas job content plateaus only positively related to turnover intentions. Proactive personality moderated the relationship between job content plateaus and mentors' work-related attitudes such that the positive relationships were stronger for more proactive mentors. The implications and future research suggestions are discussed.     

Mapping Among Number Words,Numerals, and Nonsymbolic Quantities in Preschoolers

In mathematically literate societies, numerical information is represented in 3 distinct codes: a verbal code (i.e., number words); a digital, symbolic code (e.g., Arabic numerals); and an analogical code (i.e., quantities; Dehaene, 1992). To communicate effectively using these numerical codes, our understanding of number must involve an understanding of each representation as well as how they map to other representations. In the current study, we looked at 3- and 4-year-old children’s understanding of Arabic numerals in relation to both quantities and number words. The results suggest that the mapping between quantities and numerals is more difficult than the mapping between numerals and number words and between number words and quantities. Thus, we compared 2 competing models designed to investigate how children represent the meanings of Arabic numbers—whether numerals are mapped directly to the quantities they represent or instead if numerals are mapped to quantities indirectly via a direct mapping to number words. We found support for the latter suggesting that children may first map numerals to number words (another symbolic representation) and only through this mapping are numerals subsequently tied to the quantities they represent. In addition, unlike both mappings involving quantity, the mapping between the 2 symbolic representations of number (numerals and number words) was not set-size-dependent, therefore providing further evidence that children may map symbols to other symbols in the absence of a quantity referent. Together, the results provide new insight into the important processes involved in how children acquire an understanding of symbolic representations of number.     

大学二年级学生人际宽恕与报复心理及其与抑郁的关系研究

采用沉思量表、报复动机量表、宽恕倾向量表、宽恕态度量表和流调中心用抑郁量表对236名大二学生进行问卷调查,综合探讨大学生人际宽恕和报复心理及其与抑郁的关系。研究发现:(1)男大学生的报复倾向显著高于女大学生。(2)宽恕倾向与报复倾向及对侵犯的沉思程度显著负相关。沉思程度和抑郁显著正相关。(3)沉思程度和宽恕倾向对抑郁分别具有显著的正向和负向的预测作用。(4)大学生的宽恕倾向和宽恕态度的相互作用以及宽恕倾向和报复倾向之间的交互作用对抑郁均没有显著预测作用。     

What happens in a psychoanalysis?

A group of experienced analysts has developed scales and a coding manual illustrated with clinical examples to evaluate recorded analyses and psychodynamic therapies. The analytic process scales (APS) assesses three dimensions: (1) the contribution of the analyst: helping to develop a relationship in which the analyst can provide clarification and interpretation of transference and resistance; (2) the contribution of the patient: the communication of experience and the expression of feeling in ways which provide information about needs, wishes and conflicts, accompanied by self-reflection; and (3) interactional characteristics of the emerging relationship, explored by studying sessions divided into psychoanalytically coherent segments. A preliminary study of nine sessions has established that the variables assessed by the APS can be rated reliably. Study of the analysts' contributions illuminated their varied and complexstructure. Important differences emerged among the three patient-analyst pairs studied, and changes in scores over time tracked developments in the analytic work which would imply different treatment outcomes. The APS appears to be a reliable tool facilitating the systematic study of psychoanalyses.     

Interdisziplin?re Systemintegration und Innovationsgenese: Ein methodologischer Zugang f��r die interdisziplin?re Forschung

The increasing significance of inter- and transdisciplinary research raises the demand for principles with respect to methodology and philosophy of science. The discussion of this question leads to the development of an interdisciplinary research process with two methodic core areas: system integration and inducement of innovation. It will be shown that interdisciplinary research can be understood as a discipline of its own, while its potential of synthesis cannot be declared as a central distinctive feature relative to other disciplines. In fact the developed methodology is firstly aligned analytically, with a focus on the research potential from the area of tension between individual disciplines. This results in an interdisciplinary methodology, generating epistemological progress, which can be applied to complex and cooperation intensive research in academia as well as industry and society.     

Improving adolescent contraceptive use: evaluation of a theory-driven classroom-based intervention

The aim of the research was to evaluate the impact of intervention materials, designed to enhance self-efficacy and anticipated regret, on contraceptive behaviour and antecedents of contraceptive use in a sample of adolescents. It was hypothesised that materials designed to enhance self-efficacy and anticipated regret would lead to improvements in outcome measures compared with controls. A 4(intervention condition) × 3(time) mixed design was used to assess the impact of intervention materials. Participants (N = 414) were recruited from five secondary schools in the north of England. They were assigned to an active control group, an anticipated regret (AR) manipulation, a self-efficacy (SE) manipulation or both AR and SE manipulations. Outcome measures included psychological antecedents of contraceptive behaviour change, intentions and behaviour. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed increases across several outcome measures over time (F[14,287] = 8.99, P < 0.001, η(p)(2) = 0.305) including intentions, but these did not differ by condition (F[42,852] = 1.35, P = 0.07, η(p)(2) = 0.062). There was evidence that the questionnaires may have caused reactivity in participants. Amongst sexually active participants with relatively low levels of intention to use contraception at the outset, increases in several outcome measures including intention and behaviour were observed (F[3,35] = 10.359, P < 0.001, η(p)(2) = 0.47). Findings support the potential for effective delivery of behaviour change theory-driven interventions in classroom settings. The possibility that the questionnaires may have acted as a form of intervention contributes to recent discussion of this issue in the literature, and the findings also strengthen the case for post-decisional and behavioural skills interventions to enhance behaviour amongst those already motivated to use contraception.