Brief Sensation Seeking Scale for Chinese – Cultural adaptation and psychometric assessment

International behavioral research requires instruments that are not culturally-biased to assess sensation seeking. In this study we described a culturally adapted version of the Brief Sensation Seeking Scale for Chinese (BSSS-C) and its psychometric characteristics. The adapted scale was assessed using an adult sample (n = 238) with diverse educational and residential backgrounds. The BSSS-C (Cronbach alpha = 0.90) was correlated with the original Brief Sensation Seeking Scale (r = 0.85, p < 0.01) and fitted the four-factor model well (CFI = 0.98, SRMR = 0.03). The scale scores significantly predicted intention to and actual engagement in a number of health risk behaviors, including alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, and sexual risk behaviors. In conclusion, the BSSS-C has adequate reliability and validity, supporting its utility in China and potential in other developing countries.     

Sartre on the Ontological Need for God

Adherents to the relatively new discipline of neurotheology profess that religious faith has a brain neural substrate, with structural, functional, and genetic elements that “hardwire” us to believe in God. It is argued here that a better way to approach the question of why people believe in a transcendent being would be to interrogate the structure of human being, with the intention of uncovering the meanings that underlie the phenomenon of faith. Jean-Paul Sartre may have already provided a necessary and sufficient explanation for this phenomenon. We are, he concluded, ontologically inclined to identify with a supreme being whose essence and existence transcend the limits of our own finite being. It is one thing to arrive at such a conclusion intuitively, but altogether something else to demonstrate, as Sartre does, how this conclusion follows from the structure of human being itself.     

Duchenne display responses towards sixteen enjoyable emotions: Individual differences between no and fear of being laughed at

The present study aims to identify whether individuals’ with a fear of being laughed at (gelotophobia), respond with less facially displayed joy (Duchenne display) generally towards enjoyable emotions or only those eliciting laughter. Forty participants (no vs. gelotophobia) described their feelings to scenarios prototypical for the 16 enjoyable emotions proposed by Ekman (Emotions revealed: recognizing faces and feelings to improve communication and emotional life. Times Books, New York, 2003), while being unobtrusively filmed. Facial responses were coded using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS, Ekman et al. in Facial Action Coding System: a technique for the measurement of facial movement. Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, 2002). The gelotophobes showed less facial expression of joy compared to the non-gelotophobes (Hypothesis 1) and this effect was stronger for frequency and intensity of Duchenne displays towards laughter-eliciting enjoyable emotions than for no laughter-eliciting enjoyable emotions (Hypothesis 2). Moreover, the no gelotophobia group responded more strongly to laughter-eliciting than to no laughter-eliciting enjoyable emotions. Individuals with marked gelotophobia showed the reverse pattern, displaying less joy in laughter-eliciting emotions which may impact on their social interaction, as communication may break down when positive emotion are not reciprocated.     

Enhancement on the faceted growth and the coarsening of the MnBi primary phase during the directional solidification under a high magnetic field

The effect of a high magnetic field on the morphology of the MnBi primary phase during the directional solidification has been investigated experimentally and the results show that an application of a high magnetic field has enhanced the faceted growth and the coarsening of the MnBi primary phase. This may be attributed to the effect of a high magnetic field on the diffusion of the solute Mn and the growth anisotropy of the MnBi crystal.     

Multisensory self‐motion encoding in parietal cortex

Navigation through the environment requires the brain to process a number of incoming sensory signals, such as visual optical flow on the retina and motion information originating from the vestibular organs. In addition, tactile as well as auditory signals can help to disambiguate the continuous stream of incoming information and determining the signals resulting from one's own set of motion. In this review I will focus on the cortical processing of motion information in one subregion of the posterior parietal cortex, i.e., the ventral intraparietal area (VIP). I will review (1) electrophysiological data from single cell recordings in the awake macaque showing how self‐motion signals across different sensory modalities are represented within this area and (2) data from fMRI recordings in normal human subjects providing evidence for the existence of a functionally equivalent area of macaque area VIP in the human cortex.     

Ethical Considerations for Volunteer Recruitment of Visual Prosthesis Trials

With the development of visual prostheses research from the engineering phase to clinical trials, volunteer recruitment for the early visual prosthesis trials needs to be carefully considered. In this article, we mainly discuss several issues related to volunteer recruitment that had posed serious challenges to the visual prosthesis trials, such as low rates of participants, high expectations and underlying motivations to participate in the visual prosthesis trials as well as the importance of informed consent. When recruiting volunteers for visual prosthesis implants, it is critical that the visual prosthesis researchers should not only take into account the patient’s expectations and motivations, but also make the patients fully aware of the possible benefits and risks involved with their participation, and help patients establish realistic expectations for the early phase of visual prosthesis implantation. Based on these considerations to the challenges, eligible volunteers may be recruited in the preliminary stages of visual prosthesis trials.     

Local/foreign status,cultural background,and organizational citizenship behaviour: A study among foreign and local workers in The Netherlands

A study in Singapore (Ang et al., 2003 Ang, S., van Dyne, L. and Begley, T. M. 2003. The employment relationship of foreign workers versus local employees: A field study of organizational justice, job satisfaction, performance, and OCB. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 24: 561–583. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) found that foreign employees displayed a lower tendency to engage in Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) than their local counterparts. The explanation was that foreign employees often experience their employment relation as more disadvantageous. The present study attempted to investigate possible differences in OCB between foreign and local workers in The Netherlands. In addition, it aimed to ascertain what role the cultural dimension of “individualism–collectivism” plays in this connection. Contrasting the expectations, the foreign employees reported a higher propensity to pursue OCB than local workers. The difference in behaviour could not be explained by cultural differences. It was argued that economic and personal motives of foreign workers might have affected the self-reports of their organizational behaviour.     

Neuropsychological findings in two children diagnosed with hamartoses: evidence of a NLD phenotypic profile.

Hamartoses (HM) are defined as disorders involving nonneoplastic tissue overgrowth. Studies have examined the neuropsychological profiles of children with common HM, such as neurofibromatosis type 1. Limited information is known regarding neuropsychological profiles of rare HM such as Osteochondromatosis Syndrome (OS) and Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome (KTS). The current investigation is, to our knowledge, the first attempt to define the cognitive phenotypes in two boys with OS and KTS. Results revealed significantly greater impairments involving sensorimotor and visuospatial skills, while verbal memory and language skills appeared relatively preserved. Significant neurobehavioral problems and marked social difficulties were evident. These findings suggest that these syndromes are on a Nonverbal Learning Disorder (NLD) continuum, with varying degrees of severity.     

The Catholic Diocese: A Transversalized Institution

The Catholic Church is built, on the one hand, upon a hierarchical structure and vertical relationships, with stratified duties, centered around an organizational culture which is based on strict obedience to institutional directives and which has a monopoly on the administration of the goods and resources concerning salvation. On the other hand, since the Second Vatican Council, the Church has proposed to incorporate lay people into God's Kingdom, a development which represents an opening to the active participation of diverse groups and a redistribution of access to the goods of salvation. Analysts may take a position one way or the other regarding their definition of the Church, and some even state the existence of a dominant church and a people's church. In contrast to both these perspectives, this paper looks at a methodological and theoretical model for studying diversity within Catholic unity. The model is based on the concept of the 'transversalized institution' as it is applied to the way in which Guadalajara's diocese functions.     

简论韩愈、柳宗元与佛学的关系

本文探究韩愈、柳宗元与佛学之关系。韩愈立足于儒家,引释入儒,启后世道统儒学的先声;而柳宗元对佛学则是另外一种态度:他糅合儒释,游刃于中。笔者认为,韩愈等人的融释入儒与柳宗元等人的糅合儒释,构成了佛学对中国士大夫影响的两种基本形式。