Hamsters' (Mesocricetus auratus) memory in a radial maze analog: the role of spatial versus olfactory cues

The golden hamster's (Mesocricetus auratus) performance on radial maze tasks has not been studied a lot. Here we report the results of a spatial memory task that involved eight food stations equidistant from the center of a circular platform. Each of six male hamsters depleted the food stations along successive choices. After each choice and a 5-s retention delay, the hamster was brought back to the center of the platform for the next choice opportunity. When only one baited station was left, the platform was rotated to evaluate whether olfactory traces guided hamsters' choices. Results showed that despite the retention delay hamsters performed above chance in searching for food. The choice distributions observed during the rotation probes were consistent with spatial memory and could be explained without assuming guidance by olfactory cues. The radial maze analog we devised could be useful in furthering the study of spatial memory in hamsters.     

Friendship, perceived mattering and happiness: a study of American and Turkish college students

Although it is well established that friendship is a consistent correlate of happiness, less is known about how friendship experiences might promote happiness. The current investigation addressed this gap by testing a mediational model proposing that perceived mattering explains the association of friendship quality with happiness among college students in Turkey and the United States. An alternative model suggesting friendship quality as the mediator was also tested to enhance confidence in the proposed model. SEM analyses revealed that perceived mattering mediated the association of friendship with happiness only in the American sample. In the Turkish sample, friendship quality mediated the association between mattering and happiness. Findings highlight the importance of cross-cultural research and suggest that the underlying processes and psychological mechanisms related to the friendship-happiness link might be different in different cultures.     

Priestley Duality for Bilattices

We develop a Priestley-style duality theory for different classes of algebras having a bilattice reduct. A similar investigation has already been realized by B. Mobasher, D. Pigozzi, G. Slutzki and G. Voutsadakis, but only from an abstract category-theoretic point of view. In the present work we are instead interested in a concrete study of the topological spaces that correspond to bilattices and some related algebras that are obtained through expansions of the algebraic language.     

Sécurité des patients et développement des recherches : de la loi Bertrand à la loi Jardé

The legislator has successively adopted two laws amending deeply the legal framework of research. The first one is the law “Bertrand” no. 2011-2012 of 29 December 2011 on strengthening the safety of the drug and health products, which emphasizes the need for transparency of links of interest and opens wider opportunities for using post-marketing authorization trials. The second one is the law “Jardé” no. 2012-300 of March 5, 2012 on researches involving the human person, reforming all the rules governing researches and which establishes a national commission of researches involving the human person. If the first one is a clear move towards strengthening the protection of patients in research, it is possible to be more reserved about the effects of the latter, which seems more oriented towards an easing of constraints on researchers.