Seeking an ethical and legal way of procuring transplantable organs from the dying without further attempts to redefine human death

Because complex organs taken from unequivocally dead people are not suitable for transplantation, human death has been redefined so that it can be certified at some earlier stage in the dying process and thereby make viable organs available without legal problems. Redefinitions based on concepts of "brain death" have underpinned transplant practice for many years although those concepts have never found universal philosophical acceptance. Neither is there consensus about the clinical tests which have been held sufficient to diagnose the irreversible cessation of all brain function – or as much of it as is deemed relevant – while the body remains alive.     

Time-courses of Fos expression in rat hippocampus and neocortex following acquisition and recall of a socially transmitted food preference

The present study examined expression of the immediate-early gene, c-Fos, following acquisition, 48-h (recent) recall, and 1-week (remote) recall of a socially transmitted food preference (STFP) in multiple brain regions implicated in learning and memory. In comparisons with controls, trained Long-Evans rats had increased Fos immunoreactivity in the ventral hippocampus following acquisition and recent recall. In the parahippocampal cortices, Fos was increased in the lateral entorhinal cortex after acquisition. In the orbitofrontal cortex, increased Fos immunoreactivity was observed in the lateral orbital cortex following both recent and remote recall and in the ventral orbital cortex following remote recall, indicating a role for the orbitofrontal cortex in the remote recall of STFP memory. In contrast, in the medial prefrontal cortex, increased Fos-ir was found following acquisition in the prelimbic cortex and following recent recall in the prelimbic and infralimbic cortices. No differences in Fos expression were found between trained rats and controls in the dorsal hippocampus, posterior parietal cortex, or amygdala. The present findings support a time-limited role of the hippocampus in the acquisition and recall of STFP memory and implicate neocortical regions involved in STFP acquisition, recent, and remote recall.     

Trust

Children rely extensively on others' testimony to learn about the world. However, they are not uniformly credulous toward other people. From an early age, children's reliance on testimony is tempered by selective trust in particular informants. Three- and 4-year-olds monitor the accuracy or knowledge of informants, including those that are familiar. They prefer to seek and endorse information provided by someone who has proved accurate in the past rather than someone who has made mistakes or acknowledged ignorance. Future research is likely to pinpoint other heuristics that children use to filter incoming testimony and may reveal more generalized patterns of trust and mistrust among individual children.     

Rumination, fear, and cortisol: an in vivo study of interpersonal transgressions.

The authors sought to examine whether rumination about psychologically painful, though nontraumatic, interpersonal transgressions is associated with increased salivary cortisol. They measured salivary cortisol, rumination about a transgression, fear and anger regarding the transgressor, perceived painfulness of the transgression, and positive and negative mood in 115 undergraduates who had experienced an interpersonal transgression during the previous 7 days. They obtained measurements on as many as 5 occasions separated by approximately 14 days each. On occasions when participants reported that they had been ruminating to a degree that was greater than was typical for them, they had higher levels of salivary cortisol than was typical for them. The rumination- cortisol association appeared to be mediated by fear of the transgressor. Rumination about even moderately painful but nontraumatic life events and associated emotions are related to biological changes that may subserve social goals such as avoiding social threats. Items from the rumination scale are appended.     

Interpersonal deviance, organizational deviance, and their common correlates: a review and meta-analysis

Interpersonal deviance (ID) and organizational deviance (OD) are highly correlated (R. S. Dalal, 2005). This, together with other empirical and theoretical evidence, calls into question the separability of ID and OD. As a further investigation into their separability, relationships among ID, OD, and their common correlates were meta-analyzed. ID and OD were highly correlated (rho = .62) but had differential relationships with key Big Five variables and organizational citizenship behaviors, which lends support to the separability of ID and OD. Whether the R. J. Bennett and S. L. Robinson (2000) instrument was used moderated some relationships. ID and OD exhibited their strongest (negative) relationships with organizational citizenship, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability. Correlations with organizational justice were small to moderate, and correlations with demographic variables were generally negligible.     

Metacognitive beliefs across the continuum of psychosis: comparisons between patients with psychotic disorders, patients at ultra-high risk and non-patients

BACKGROUND: Recent models of emotional disorders and psychosis implicate metacognitive beliefs in the development and maintenance of psychological distress. We predicted that patients with established psychotic disorders and those meeting at risk mental state (ARMS) criteria (and, thus, at increased risk of developing psychosis) would show higher levels of metacognitive beliefs than non-patient controls. Furthermore, we predicted that patients with psychosis would show higher levels of such beliefs than the at risk group. METHOD: The Metacognitions Questionnaire was administered to 73 patients with psychotic disorders, 43 ARMS patients and 188 non-patients. RESULTS: As predicted, patients with psychotic diagnoses and those at risk scored higher on metacognitive belief dimensions than non-patients. Patients with psychosis showed higher positive metacognitive beliefs than the at risk patients, indicating a greater range of unhelpful metacognitions overall, when compared to non-patients. CONCLUSIONS: These findings are consistent with metacognitive conceptualisations of psychological disorders. The implications of these findings for clinical practice are discussed.     

Categorization reaction time,category structure,and category size in semantic memory using artificial categories

This study examined the effects of category structure and category size on categorization reaction time, artificial categories being used to obtain greater experimental control than is usually found in semantic memory research. Four artificial categories varying in structure (hierarchical and nonhierarchical) and size (8 or 16 instances) were introduced to 20 adolescent subjects over a 12-week period by means of stories, exercises, and discussions. Significantly longer categorization reaction times were required for instances from the hierarchical categories, but no set size effect was found. The application of clustering and multidimensional scaling procedures to subjects’ free recall data revealed that subjects had acquired the hierarchical structures but imposed their own structures on the other categories. These findings were interpreted within a spreading activation framework.     

Attitudes toward women,personality rigidity,and idealized physique preferences in males

The idealized physique preferences of a group of 94 male college students were measured and correlated with scales measuring attitudes toward women and personality rigidity. Three hypotheses, derived from sex-role research, were tested and confirmed: (1) Males who have negative attitudes toward women would like most to have a tapering V physique. (2) Males who have a rigid personality structure have stronger preference for an idealized muscular physique than males with more flexible personalities. (3) Males have a generally greater preference for a tapering V physique than women. It was concluded, from the results of this and other studies, that body preference is related to certain aspects of sex-role attitudes.