The Necessary Limits to Temptation: The Turnkey Project

In case of special engineering projects of important relevance it is interesting to pay attention to several possible risks; some of them are in the field of morality or ethics. Due to the social importance of these risks, additional considerations or even additional warranties are justified.     

Role Stress: Burnout Antecedent in Nursing Professionals

Abstract

Burnout syndrome has been described by different authors as a reaction to work stress. Hence both the role stress components–role ambiguity and role conflict–appear in the literature as burnout antecedent variables. The correlation between these variables is positive. On the other hand, the work social support (from supervisors and colleagues) is a variable with influence on both role stress and burnout, so the people who perceive higher work social support feel lower role stress and lower burnout than the people who perceive lower social support. In this study we present the results of a correlational study of role ambiguity, role conflict, burnout levels (tested with Maslach Burnout Inventory), and the work social support effects on the relations. The sample are 102 nursing professionals, 24 per cent males and 76 per cent females. The results present a positive correlation between both role ambiguity and role conflict, and the emotional exhaustion scale and depersonalization scale, and a negative correlation between both role conflict and role ambiguity, and reduced personal accomplishment and work social support influence on the relations.     

Spatial Working Memory in Aging and Mild Cognitive Impairment: Effects of Task Load and Contextual Cueing

ABSTRACT

Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is characterized by episodic memory deficits, while aspects of working memory may also be implicated, but studies into this latter domain are scarce and results are inconclusive. Using a computerized search paradigm, this study compares 25 young adults, 25 typically aging older adults and 15 amnestic MCI patients as to their working-memory capacities for object-location information and potential differential effects of memory load and additional context cues. An age-related deficit in visuospatial working-memory maintenance was found that became more pronounced with increasing task demands. The MCI group additionally showed reduced maintenance of bound information, i.e., object-location associations, again especially at elevated memory load. No effects of contextual cueing were found. The current findings indicate that working memory should be considered when screening patients for suspected MCI and monitoring its progression.     

Alcohol increases hypnotic susceptibility

One approach to hypnosis suggests that for hypnotic experience to occur frontal lobe activity must be attenuated. For example, cold control theory posits that a lack of awareness of intentions is responsible for the experience of involuntariness and/or the subjective reality of hypnotic suggestions. The mid-dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex and the ACC are candidate regions for such awareness. Alcohol impairs frontal lobe executive function. This study examined whether alcohol affects hypnotisability. We administered 0.8 mg/kg of alcohol or a placebo to 32 medium susceptible participants. They were subsequently hypnotised and given hypnotic suggestions. All participants believed they had received some alcohol. Participants in the alcohol condition were more susceptible to hypnotic suggestions than participants in the placebo condition. Impaired frontal lobe activity facilitates hypnotic responding, which supports theories postulating that attenuation of executive function facilitates hypnotic response, and contradicts theories postulating that hypnotic response involves enhanced inhibitory, attentional or other executive function.     

Egg arrangement in avian clutches covaries with the rejection of foreign eggs

In birds, the colour, maculation, shape, and size of their eggs play critical roles in discrimination of foreign eggs in the clutch. So far, however, no study has examined the role of egg arrangement within a clutch on host rejection responses. We predicted that individual females which maintain consistent egg arrangements within their clutch would be better able to detect and reject foreign eggs than females without a consistent egg arrangement (i.e. whose eggs change positions more often across incubation). We tested this “egg arrangement hypothesis” in blackbirds (Turdus merula) and song thrush (T. philomelos). Both species are suitable candidates for research on egg rejection, because they show high inter-individual variation and individual repeatability in egg rejection responses. As predicted, using our custom-defined metrics of egg arrangement, rejecter females’ clutches showed significantly more consistent patterns in egg arrangement than acceptor females’ clutches. Only parameters related to blunt pole showed consistent differences between rejecters and acceptors. This finding makes biological sense because it is already known that song thrush use blunt pole cues to reject foreign eggs. We propose that a disturbance of the original egg arrangement pattern by the laying parasite may alert host females that maintain a consistent egg arrangement to the risk of having been parasitized. Once alerted, these hosts may shift their discrimination thresholds to be more restrictive so as to reject a foreign egg with higher probability. Future studies will benefit from experimentally testing whether these two and other parasitized rejecter host species may rely on the use of consistent egg arrangements as a component of their anti-parasitic defence mechanisms.     

Identification and Small Sample Estimation of Thurstone's Unrestricted Model for Paired Comparisons Data

The interpretation of a Thurstonian model for paired comparisons where the utilities' covariance matrix is unrestricted proved to be difficult due to the comparative nature of the data. We show that under a suitable constraint the utilities' correlation matrix can be estimated, yielding a readily interpretable solution. This set of identification constraints can recover any true utilities' covariance matrix, but it is not unique. Indeed, we show how to transform the estimated correlation matrix into alternative correlation matrices that are equally consistent with the data but may be more consistent with substantive theory. Also, we show how researchers can investigate the sample size needed to estimate a particular model by exploiting the simulation capabilities of a popular structural equation modeling statistical package.     

Self-deception and self-knowledge

The aim of this paper is to provide an account of a certain variety of self-deception based on a model of self-knowledge. According to this model, one thinks that one has a belief on the basis of one’s grounds for that belief. If this model is correct, then our thoughts about which beliefs we have should be in accordance with our grounds for those beliefs. I suggest that the relevant variety of self-deception is a failure of self-knowledge wherein the subject violates this epistemic obligation. I argue that construing this type of self-deception as a failure of self-knowledge explains two important aspects of it: The tension that we observe between the subject’s speech and her actions, and our inclination to hold the subject responsible for her condition. I compare this proposal with two other approaches to self-deception in the literature; intentionalism and motivationalism. Intentionalism explains the two aspects of self-deception but it runs into the so-called ‘paradoxes’ of self-deception. Motivationalism avoids those paradoxes but it cannot explain the two aspects of self-deception.     

Altered sleep in Borderline Personality Disorder in relation to the core dimensions of psychopathology

The aim of the study was to review the literature regarding sleep disturbances in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and to relate the reported sleep alterations to the underlying core dimensions of BPD pathology. We present a qualitative and theoretical review regarding the empirical studies that investigated objective and subjective sleep quality in BPD and in different psychiatric conditions showing high co‐morbidity with this disorder. We show that disturbed sleep including sleep fragmentation, alterations in Slow Wave Sleep and REM sleep, and dysphoric dreaming are prevalent symptoms in BPD. We provide a framework relating the specific sleep alterations to the core dimensions of BPD pathology in order to clarify the inconsistencies of the different findings. The specific sleep disturbances in BPD seem to be related to different dimensions of psychopathological functioning and may have detrimental consequences on waking affect and cognition. Investigating disturbed sleep in BPD in relation to waking symptoms and underlying neural functioning would shed more light on the nature of this complex disorder. Moreover, a stronger emphasis on sleep disturbances would enrich the treatment protocols of BPD.