Association of polymorphisms in BDNF, MTHFR, and genes involved in the dopaminergic pathway with memory in a healthy Chinese population

The contribution of genetic factors to the memory is widely acknowledged. Research suggests that these factors include genes involved in the dopaminergic pathway, as well as the genes for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR). The activity of the products of these genes is affected by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the genes. This study investigates the association between memory and SNPs in genes involved in the dopaminergic pathway, as well as in the BDNF and MTHFR genes, in a sample of healthy individuals. The sample includes 134 Taiwanese undergraduate volunteers of similar cognitive ability. The Chinese versions of the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS-III) and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-III) were employed. Our findings indicate that the BDNF Met66Val polymorphism and dopamine receptor D3 (DRD3) Ser9Gly polymorphism are associated significantly with long-term auditory memory. Further analysis detects no significant associations in the other polymorphisms and indices. Future replicated studies with larger sample sizes, and studies that consider different ethnic groups, are encouraged.     

Goal Commitment Buffers the Negative Effects of Perceived Abusive Supervision

Abstract

The effects of abusive supervision may be more intricate than what reason would suggest. To examine why individuals may respond differently to perceptions of supervisor abusive, this study relies on goal-setting theory to present a model that accounts for the influence of abusive supervision on job performance and organizational deviance. To be precise, motivation control and self-defeating cognition are proposed to mediate the interaction of perceived abusive supervision with goal commitment in predicting organizational deviance and job performance. In particular, the extent to which goal commitment alleviates the deleterious effects of abusive supervision is examined such that when goal commitment is high, the indirect effects of perceived abusive supervision on job performance and organizational deviance via motivation control and self-defeating cognition were predicted to be weaker. The proposed model was supported by multisource and multiwave data. The understanding of when the deleterious effects of supervisor abuse as perceived by followers are likely might help the human resource personnel to adopt measures that buffer against such outcomes.     

高层管理者的心智模式研究

高层管理者的心智模式对企业经营及绩效有着非常重要的影响.本文首先对不同学派关于心智模式的定义进行了简要的回顾,在此基础上,对高层管理者心智模式的内涵进行了界定.其次,从知识的视角,进一步把高层管理者心智模式的构成要素分为知识体系、信念体系和改善体系等三类.最后,从企业决策、企业文化与管理风格、组织设计、战略决策等四个方面阐述了高层管理者心智模式对企业管理活动的影响.     

Visually induced reorientation illusions.

It is known that rotation of a furnished room around the roll axis of erect subjects produces an illusion of 360 degrees self-rotation in many subjects. Exposure of erect subjects to stationary tilted visual frames or rooms produces only up to 20 degrees of illusory tilt. But, in studies using static tilted rooms, subjects remained erect and the body axis was not aligned with the room. We have revealed a new class of disorientation illusions that occur in many subjects when placed in a 90 degrees or 180 degrees tilted room containing polarised objects (familiar objects with tops and bottoms). For example, supine subjects looking up at a wall of the room feel upright in an upright room and their arms feel weightless when held out from the body. We call this the levitation illusion. We measured the incidence of 90 degrees or 180 degrees reorientation illusions in erect, supine, recumbent, and inverted subjects in a room tilted 90 degrees or 180 degrees. We report that reorientation illusions depend on the displacement of the visual scene rather than of the body. However, illusions are most likely to occur when the visual and body axes are congruent. When the axes are congruent, illusions are least likely to occur when subjects are prone rather than supine, recumbent, or inverted.     

简析休谟的自由观

休谟关于自由有三种表述:自发自由、中立自由和自由.其中,自发自由就是自由,两者都与强制对立,与必然一致,而中立自由则是必然的缺无.他采取相容论立场,认为一个行动既是有原因的,又是自由的,一方面通过批驳中立自由巩固心理决定论,另一方面通过反驳彻底决定论在宗教上的运用以巩固自由学说,最终让心理决定论和自由学说一起为责任奠基.然而,他所肯定的不受强制反而模糊了自由的含义,并且,他的调和策略由于避开了相容论的关键问题,因而也值得商榷.这一切都源于他的经验论立场.     

启蒙的吊诡与启蒙的反思——以中国现代思想中的"启蒙反思"论说为中心

17-18世纪兴起于西欧北美的启蒙运动,是人类发展史上一座划时代的里程碑.启蒙思想家接续在欧洲中世纪社会内部所萌蘖的文艺复兴、宗教改革以及实验科学等异端思潮,进一步高扬理性、人权、自由、平等、民主、法治、科学、进步等价值理念,对禁锢人们头脑的神学教条和束缚人们身心的王权制度进行了深刻批判乃至猛烈抨击,在观念领域发生了极大的祛蔽作用和解放效应.     

Why and when cognitive job insecurity relates to affective job insecurity? A three-study exploration of negative rumination and the tendency to negative gossip

ABSTRACT

The job insecurity literature distinguishes between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity where cognitive job insecurity reflects perceptions regarding the likelihood of total job loss or job features loss and affective job insecurity refers to emotional reactions to that potential loss. Indeed, affective job insecurity is demonstrated to be an affective reaction to cognitive job insecurity. However, the relationship between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity may be neither direct nor unconditional. Drawing from cognitive appraisal theory, this research takes a nuanced approach to exploring the mediating role of negative work rumination and the moderating role of the tendency to negative gossip in the relationship between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity. We examined our hypotheses using three time-lagged survey studies with employees recruited from the U.S. and China. These studies found that negative work rumination mediated the relation between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity (Studies 1–3) and the tendency to negative gossip attenuated the positive relation between cognitive job insecurity and affective job insecurity (Studies 1 and 2). Thus, this research advances the job insecurity literature by identifying a mediator and a moderator in the process of how employees may experience job insecurity.     

齐都临淄空间形态演变的功能性导向

战国时期临淄小城的修筑,是临淄城市空间发展的重要节点,使其空间形态出现了功能性导向的演变:在布局形式上,由宫城、郭城内外相套演变为小城、大城相互衔联。在功能配置上,以宫廷、官府为中心的政治性功能设施,部署于小城,形成以宫为核心的政治功能区;而市、手工业作坊等经济性功能设施,分布在大城,形成以市为核心的经济功能区。在地形利用上,将宫城布置在西南部地势高亢处,以利于防守和排水。这种演变趋向,表明我国古代都城空间形态,越来越贴近政治、军事、经济功能的实际需要,逐渐从形式上的规范走向功能上的实用。