关于功利、理性或关怀--不同理论在评价人类基因组研究中的差异

从功利主义的角度审视治疗性克隆,治疗性克隆研究能够为人类造福,是可以得到辩护的.义务论认为,胚胎不能作为试验的客体,反对治疗性克隆研究.而关怀理论学家则不支持治疗性克隆研究.     

Genomic Databases as Global Public Goods?

Recent discussions of genomics and international justice have adopted the concept of 'global public goods' to support both the view of genomics as a benefit and the sharing of genomics knowledge across nations. Such discussion relies on a particular interpretation of the global public goods argument, facilitated by the ambiguity of the concept itself. Our aim in this article is to demonstrate this by a close examination of the concept of global public goods with particular reference to its use in the context of genomic databases. We content that the argument for construing genomics as a global public good depends on seeing it as a natural good by focusing on features intrinsic to genomics knowledge. We shall argue that social and political arrangements are relevant and that recognising this opens the door to construing the use of global public goods language as a strategic one.     

Tracking talking: dual task costs of planning and producing speech for young versus older adults

A digital pursuit rotor was used to monitor speech planning and production costs by time-locking tracking performance to the auditory wave form produced as young and older adults were describing someone they admire. The speech sample and time-locked tracking record were segmented at utterance boundaries and multilevel modeling was used to determine how utterance-level predictors such as utterance duration or sentence grammatical complexity and person-level predictors such as speaker age or working memory capacity predicted tracking performance. Three models evaluated the costs of speech planning, the costs of speech production, and the costs of speech output monitoring. The results suggest that planning and producing propositionally dense utterances is more costly for older adults and that older adults experience increased costs as a result of having produced a long, informative, or rapid utterance.     

Clarifying boundaries of binge eating disorder and psychiatric comorbidity: a latent structure analysis

Binge eating disorder (BED) presents with substantial psychiatric comorbidity. This latent structure analysis sought to delineate boundaries of BED given its comorbidity with affective and anxiety disorders. A population-based sample of 151 women with BED, 102 women with affective or anxiety disorders, and 259 women without psychiatric disorders was assessed with clinical interviews and self-report-questionnaires. Taxometric analyses were conducted using DSM-IV criteria of BED and of affective and anxiety disorders. The results showed a taxonic structure of BED and of affective and anxiety disorders. Both taxa co-occurred at an above-chance level, but also presented independently with twice-as-large probabilities. Within the BED taxon, diagnostic co-occurrence indicated greater general psychopathology, lower social adaptation, and greater premorbid exposure to parental mood and substance disorder, but not greater eating disorder psychopathology. Eating disorder psychopathology discriminated individuals in the BED taxon from individuals in the affective and anxiety disorders taxon. Diagnostic criteria of BED were more indicative of the BED taxon than were criteria of affective and anxiety disorders. The results show that at the latent level, BED was co-occurring with, yet distinct from, affective and anxiety disorders and was not characterized by an underlying affective or anxiety disorder.     

Comparison of a stimulus equivalence protocol and traditional lecture for teaching single-subject designs

This study compared the effects of a computer-based stimulus equivalence protocol to a traditional lecture format in teaching single-subject experimental design concepts to undergraduate students. Participants were assigned to either an equivalence or a lecture group, and performance on a paper-and-pencil test that targeted relations among the names of experimental designs, design definitions, design graphs, and clinical vignettes was compared. Generalization of responding to novel graphs and novel clinical vignettes, as well as the emergence of a topography-based tact response after selection-based training, were evaluated for the equivalence group. Performance on the paper-and-pencil test following teaching was comparable for participants in the equivalence and lecture groups. All participants in the equivalence group showed generalization to novel graphs, and 6 participants showed generalization to novel clinical vignettes. Three of the 4 participants demonstrated the emergence of a topography-based tact response following training on the stimulus equivalence protocol.     

“Ghosts in the Nursery:” Infant sleep and sleep‐related cognitions of parents raised under communal sleeping arrangements

In an experiment of nature, a normal cohort of parents who were raised under communal sleeping arrangements (CSA) in Israeli kibbutzim are raising their infants at home under home‐based family sleeping arrangements. The present study focused on exploring the links between the early sleep experiences of CSA parents and their present sleep‐related beliefs and behaviors. In particular, the study assessed whether the cognitions of CSA parents regarding infant sleep differ from cognitions of parents who were raised under home‐based family sleeping arrangements. Furthermore, parental soothing methods and infant sleep patterns were compared. One hundred forty‐one families participated in this study. The children's ages ranged between 4.5 to 30 months. Parental cognitions were evaluated by two questionnaires. Infant sleep was assessed by a questionnaire and by daily parental reports. As expected, CSA parents were more likely than were control parents to: (a) interpret infant night wakings as a sign of distress and (b) actively soothe their infants at bedtime, co‐sleep with them, and report more night wakings of their infants. These findings support the hypothesis that early childhood sleep‐related experiences of parents (“Ghosts in the Nursery”) influence their parental sleep‐related cognitions that in turn affect infant sleep patterns.     

A combined fMRI and DTI examination of functional language lateralization and arcuate fasciculus structure: Effects of degree versus direction of hand preference

The present study examined the relationship between hand preference degree and direction, functional language lateralization in Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, and structural measures of the arcuate fasciculus. Results revealed an effect of degree of hand preference on arcuate fasciculus structure, such that consistently-handed individuals, regardless of the direction of hand preference, demonstrated the most asymmetric arcuate fasciculus, with larger left versus right arcuate, as measured by DTI. Functional language lateralization in Wernicke’s area, measured via fMRI, was related to arcuate fasciculus volume in consistent-left-handers only, and only in people who were not right hemisphere lateralized for language; given the small sample size for this finding, future investigation is warranted. Results suggest handedness degree may be an important variable to investigate in the context of neuroanatomical asymmetries.     

The Effect of Parental Responsiveness on Differences in Psychological Distress and Delinquency between Singleton and Non-Singleton Chinese Adolescents

We assessed the differences in psychological distress and delinquent participation between singleton and non-singleton Chinese adolescents and the extent to which parental responsiveness (mother’s vs. father’s) might account for such differences. Using survey reports of 1,924 7th and 8th graders from three middle schools in the outskirts of Fuzhou, China, we observed small but significant differences between singleton and non-singleton adolescents. Singletons reported lower levels of psychological distress and delinquent participation than non-singleton adolescents. Furthermore, singletons received higher levels of parental responsiveness, which was inversely related to psychological distress and delinquent participation, respectively. The difference in psychological distress between singletons and non-singletons was completely mediated by both maternal and paternal responsiveness. Paternal responsiveness alone fully mediated the difference in delinquent participation between singleton and non-singleton adolescents. We discussed these results in light of both theoretical literature and empirical implications.     

Using self-determination theory to explain sport persistence and dropout in adolescent athletes

Motivational characteristics are influential in shaping adolescents' desire to persist in sport or to discontinue their sport participation. Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) was utilized as the theoretical framework for this study. This theory examines whether sustained participatory involvement, defined as continued participation in the sport through the next year, was influenced by individuals' self-determined motivation and by the fulfillment of the three basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Four hundred ninety two soccer players between the ages of 13 and 17 years comprised the sample. Results indicated sport dropout was explained by higher levels of amotivation, external regulation, and introjected regulation and by lower satisfaction of relatedness and autonomy needs. The findings of this study contribute to the knowledge base on sport dropout as they supported many of self-determination theory.     

Habitual negative body image thinking as psychological risk factor in adolescents

Negative body image thinking can be broken down into cognitive content (body dissatisfaction thoughts) and the way such thoughts occur. The present study focused on negative body image thinking as mental habit, i.e., the degree to which such thinking occurs frequently and automatically [Verplanken, Friborg, Wang, Trafimow, & Woolf, 2007]. In a sample of 250 adolescents (age 12-15) it was found that negative body image thinking habit uniquely accounted for variance in self-esteem and eating disturbance propensity over and above body image dissatisfaction. Considering negative body image thinking as a mental habit contributes to a deeper understanding of body dissatisfaction in adolescents, and may have implications for interventions to deal with such attitudes and their potentially harmful consequences.