The view of Islam from the monasteries of Palestine in the early cAbbasid period: Theodore Abū Qurrah and the Summa theologiae arabica

Christians in the Holy Land, and particularly members of the monastic communities in the Judean desert, were the first to compose original works of theology in Arabic. These writers presented the doctrines of the church in an idiom which was calculated to appeal to the understanding of any speaker of Arabic who was familiar with the Qur'an and with the thought of the early Muslim mutakallimin. From these texts there emerges a view of Islam which makes it dear that the writers very much consider themselves to be doing theology in dialogue. The article discusses the earliest Christian apology in Arabic; two works of Theodore Abu Qurrah; an early Summa Theologiae Arabica; and an essay in apologetics, provocatively entitled Kitab al‐burhan.     

Cocaine—review of current literature and interface with the law

Cocaine use in the United States has currently reached epidemic proportions. This has resulted in syndromes of intoxication, overdose, and withdrawal, meeting all DMS-III criteria for a substance that can cause dependence as well as abuse syndromes. This paper reviews the current epidemiology of cocaine, its history and pharmacology with major focus on clinical syndromes. This is followed by a review of the current knowledge of the relationship between cocaine and violence and the forensic-psychiatric issues surrounding cocaine.     

The associations of cultural worldviews,political orientation,and trust with COVID-19 risk beliefs in the U.S.

Given that risk beliefs predict engagement in behaviors to prevent disease, it is important to understand the factors associated with risk beliefs. In the present paper, we conducted path analyses to investigate the associations of belief systems (political orientation and cultural worldviews of individualism and hierarchy) with COVID-19 risk beliefs (i.e., perceived likelihood, perceived severity, and worry about disease; Studies 1 and 2), and the indirect effect through trust in information sources in these relationships (Study 1). Two online panels of U.S. adults were surveyed at three timepoints during the COVID-19 pandemic (Study 1: baseline n = 1,667, 1-year follow-up n = 551; Study 2: n = 404). Results of path analyses indicated that, across studies and timepoints, when controlling for political orientation, trust, and demographic factors, greater individualism had consistent significant direct effects on lower perceived severity and worry about COVID-19, whereas greater hierarchy had consistent significant direct effects on lower perceived severity. However, after accounting for cultural worldviews of individualism and hierarchy (and trust and demographic factors), none of the associations among political orientation and any of the three COVID-19 risk beliefs were significant. The test of indirect effects indicated that individualism and hierarchy were indirectly associated with lower perceived severity of and worry about COVID-19 through less trust. The findings suggest that cultural worldviews of individualism and hierarchy play a role in shaping people's risk beliefs.     

Disequilibrium in the mind,disharmony in the body

Although it is generally acknowledged that experiences of frustration, confusion, and anxiety are embodied phenomena, very little is known about how these processes modulate presumably unconscious, but constantly present, subtle bodily movement. We addressed this problem by tracking the low-level dynamics of body movement, using 1/f noise, pink noise, or “fractal scaling”, during naturalistic experiences of affect in two studies involving deep learning and effortful problem-solving. Our results indicate that body movement fluctuations of individuals experiencing cognitive equilibrium was characteristic of correlated pink noise, but there was a whitening of the signal when participants experienced states that are diagnostic of cognitive distress such as anxiety, confusion, and frustration. We orient our findings within theories that emphasise the embodied nature of cognition and affect and with perspectives that view affective and cognitive processes as emergent products of a self-organising dynamical system (the brain) that is inextricably coupled to the body.     

Neurocognitive mechanisms of cognitive control: the role of prefrontal cortex in action selection, response inhibition, performance monitoring, and reward-based learning

Convergent evidence highlights the differential contributions of various regions of the prefrontal cortex in the service of cognitive control, but little is understood about how the brain determines and communicates the need to recruit cognitive control, and how such signals instigate the implementation of appropriate performance adjustments. Here we review recent progress from cognitive neuroscience in examining some of the main constituent processes of cognitive control as involved in dynamic decision making: goal-directed action selection, response activation and inhibition, performance monitoring, and reward-based learning. Medial frontal cortex is found to be involved in performance monitoring: evaluating outcome vis-a-vis expectancy, and detecting performance errors or conflicting response tendencies. Lateral and orbitofrontal divisions of prefrontal cortex are involved in subsequently implementing appropriate adjustments.     

DEGREES AND DIMENSIONS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION IN TRIBAL GROUPINGS

On a administré un inventaire de quinze questions sociométriques à onze groupes d'élèves d'écoles primaires et secondaires, d'une école d'instituteurs, et d'une école pour jeunes mineurs de la region minière (Copperbelt) de Zambie (N = 274). Les choix ont été analysés en prenant l'origine tribale comme base de classification pour les groupements dans les classes et pour tous les répondants. l'origine tribale représente une catégorie importante pour l'interaction sociale à l'intérieur des groupes institutionnels quand la distance est grande. Les dimensions de l'inventaire, que fait apparaître une analyse factorielle basée sur les groupements par tribu des répondants, suivent trois axes et pourraient correspondre à l'autorité (leadership) dans un système institutionnel, l'acceptation par les pairs et l'origine ethnique. l'A. discute de ces résultats en se référant à d'autres recherches sur la distance sociale et montre quelles modifications de la théorie traditionnelle ils suggèrent.