佛法与国法:规范合力与意义勾连——佛教与传统法律研究述评

佛教与传统法律的关系在学界一直受到关注,从宏观到微观的专题研究也取得了越来越丰富的成果。这些成果对二者的关系从静态描述到动态发展阐述,从单向性影响到双向性互动,从大传统到小传统,从历史现象到现实意义,各个领域都有了一定的积累。在进一步的研究中,规范分析方法的运用、民间文本的重视和司法领域的关注,是取得新突破的有效途径。     

Average group behavior does not represent individual behavior in classical conditioning of the honeybee

Conditioned behavior as observed during classical conditioning in a group of identically treated animals provides insights into the physiological process of learning and memory formation. However, several studies in vertebrates found a remarkable difference between the group-average behavioral performance and the behavioral characteristics of individual animals. Here, we analyzed a large number of data (1640 animals) on olfactory conditioning in the honeybee (Apis mellifera). The data acquired during absolute and differential classical conditioning differed with respect to the number of conditioning trials, the conditioned odors, the intertrial intervals, and the time of retention tests. We further investigated data in which animals were tested for spontaneous recovery from extinction. In all data sets we found that the gradually increasing group-average learning curve did not adequately represent the behavior of individual animals. Individual behavior was characterized by a rapid and stable acquisition of the conditioned response (CR), as well as by a rapid and stable cessation of the CR following unrewarded stimuli. In addition, we present and evaluate different model hypotheses on how honeybees form associations during classical conditioning by implementing a gradual learning process on the one hand and an all-or-none learning process on the other hand. In summary, our findings advise that individual behavior should be recognized as a meaningful predictor for the internal state of a honeybee--irrespective of the group-average behavioral performance.     

Post-training intra-basolateral amygdala infusions of norepinephrine block sevoflurane-induced impairment of memory consolidation and activity-regulated cytoskeletal protein expression inhibition in rat hippocampus

Considerable evidence indicates that the noradrenergic system of the basolateral amygdala (BLA) participates in the consolidation of various types of emotionally arousing memories. We previously reported that administration of an anesthetic-dose of sevoflurane immediately after continuous multiple-trail inhibition avoidance (CMIA) training impaired memory consolidation. This experiment investigated whether posttraining noradrenergic activation of the BLA is sufficient to reverse the memory impairing effect of sevoflurane. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats received bilateral injections of norepinephrine (NE 0.3, 1.0, or 3.0 μg/0.5 μl) or normal saline (NS 0.5 μl) immediately after training in a CMIA paradigm. Subsequently, the rats were exposed to sevoflurane (2% inspired) or air for 2h. Norepinephrine produced a dose-dependent enhancement of memory consolidation on a 24-h retention test. The highest dose of NE tested (3.0 μg/0.5 μl) blocked sevoflurane-induced impairment of memory consolidation and reversed the inhibitory effect of sevoflurane on activity-regulated cytoskeletal protein (Arc) expression in the hippocampus 2h after training. These findings provide evidence that the mechanism mediating the memory-impairing effect of sevoflurane involves a network interaction between the BLA noradrenergic system and modulation of Arc protein expression in the hippocampus.     

Perceptions of parent-adolescent communication within families: it is a matter of perspective

This study examined the concordance between parental and youth's perceptions regarding open communication in their families and its association with youth's psychosocial adjustment. The relative importance of parental and adolescents' perceptions of open family communication in relation to youth's psychosocial adjustment was also investigated. Participants were 336 parent-youth dyads from inner-city low-income communities in an eastern city in the United States. Both parental and youth's perceptions of open communication in the family were categorized into "high" and "low" groups using a median split in scores. Four parent-youth concordance groups (i.e. high-high, high-low, low-high and low-low) were derived based on the combination of the levels of parental and youth's perceptions. Parental and youth's perceptions about open communication were modestly correlated (r = 0.129, p < 0.05). The level of concordance differed by youth gender with male adolescents and their parents being more likely to perceive lower levels of open communication (i.e. "low-low") than females and their parents (32% versus 19%, p < 0.05). In general, youth demonstrated poorer psychosocial adjustment if they perceived a lower level of open communication between them and their parents, independent of the level of their parents' perceptions (e.g. "high" or "low"). The findings suggest an important role of adolescents' own perceptions of the openness of the family communication in relation to adolescent psychosocial adjustment. Developmentally and gender appropriate intervention programs are needed to improve the openness of parent-adolescent communication, to help both parents and youth to recognize the significant preventive role of open communication in the family, especially, the socioeconomically disadvantaged families.     

Emotional reactions to scandals: When does moral character make a difference?

A scandal can evoke public outrage when it is widely publicized and involves an individual who is perceived to have a high level of cultural representativeness. Two experiments showed that when the scandalous target's moral character was highlighted, emotional responses towards the target were least negative when the scandal was widely circulated and when the target was seen as a representative of his culture. These results suggest that when a cultural symbol is implicated in a widely‐circulated scandal, the negative emotions directed towards the scandalous individual can be alleviated when the public remains confident in his or her commitment to morality.     

Motivational climate interventions in physical education: A meta-analysis

Objective

The purpose of this study was to synthesize findings from motivational climate interventions employing [Ames, 1992a] and [Ames, 1992b] and [Epstein, 1988] and [Epstein, 1989] TARGET framework within school-based physical education contexts.

Design

The present study employed a quantitative research synthesis design. Meta-analysis uses empirical studies to summarize past research by drawing overall conclusions from separate investigations. This research design highlights important and unsolved issues related to motivational climate interventions within physical education.

Methods

Standard meta-analytic procedures incorporating inclusion and exclusion criteria, literature search, coding procedures, and statistical methods were used to identify and synthesize 22 studies with 24 independent samples. Cohen’s (1988) criteria for effect sizes were used to interpret and evaluate results.

Results

There was an overall small positive treatment effect (g = 0.103) for groups exposed to mastery motivational climates. Outcome analyses identified the most consistent and largest overall treatment effects for behavioral outcomes (g = 0.39–0.49) followed by affective outcomes (g = −0.27 to 0.59) and cognitive outcomes (g = −0.25 to 0.32). Moderator analyses were directed by study heterogeneity and identified several trends in intervention features and study features with the most substantial trend for participant features as elementary students had the largest overall treatment effect (g = 0.41).

Conclusions

Outcome and moderator analyses identified several trends in methodological features, participant features, and study features that should be addressed in future physical education motivational climate interventions.     

Contextual self-organizing map: software for constructing semantic representations

In this article, we introduce a software package that applies a corpus-based algorithm to derive semantic representations of words. The algorithm relies on analyses of contextual information extracted from a text corpus—specifically, analyses of word co-occurrences in a large-scale electronic database of text. Here, a target word is represented as the combination of the average of all words preceding the target and all words following it in a text corpus. The semantic representation of the target words can be further processed by a self-organizing map (SOM; Kohonen, Self-organizing maps, 2001), an unsupervised neural network model that provides efficient data extraction and representation. Due to its topography-preserving features, the SOM projects the statistical structure of the context onto a 2-D space, such that words with similar meanings cluster together, forming groups that correspond to lexically meaningful categories. Such a representation system has its applications in a variety of contexts, including computational modeling of language acquisition and processing. In this report, we present specific examples from two languages (English and Chinese) to demonstrate how the method is applied to extract the semantic representations of words.     

The concept of voluntary consent

Our primary focus is on analysis of the concept of voluntariness, with a secondary focus on the implications of our analysis for the concept and the requirements of voluntary informed consent. We propose that two necessary and jointly sufficient conditions must be satisfied for an action to be voluntary: intentionality, and substantial freedom from controlling influences. We reject authenticity as a necessary condition of voluntary action, and we note that constraining situations may or may not undermine voluntariness, depending on the circumstances and the psychological capacities of agents. We compare and evaluate several accounts of voluntariness and argue that our view, unlike other treatments in bioethics, is not a value-laden theory. We also discuss the empirical assessment of individuals' perceptions of the degrees of noncontrol and self-control. We propose use of a particular Decision Making Control Instrument. Empirical research using this instrument can provide data that will help establish appropriate policies and procedures for obtaining voluntary consent to research.     

3-9年级儿童能力观干预比较研究

摘要：Dweck研究提出,通过蕴含特定能力观的故事和表扬可以形成儿童相应的能力和目标取向。作者认为,随着儿童能力的自我意识发展,干预会产生不同的效果。本研究以3-9年级885名学生为被试,采取“天分”、“努力”、“无关”三组故事和“聪明”、“努力”、“潜能”、“不表扬”四种评价方式进行能力观干预,将目标得分变化作为干预效果的指标。实验结果显示了年龄和干预方式的交互作用效应,在一定程度上支持了Dweck的研究结论,验证并丰富了作者关于能力观干预发展性效应的设想。     

从管理伦理看人口计划生育公共服务网络的构建

人口计划生育协会是我国最大的社团组织,它的主要职能是广泛宣传国家人口政策、影响公众生育观念、服务相关人群等,它正在成为构建人口计划生育公共服务网络的主体.本文引入管理伦理的视角,重申了人口计划生育协会的组织目标和管理架构,通过厘清围绕计生协会的主要伦理议题,为人口计划生育公共服务网络建设提供必不可少的管理伦理尺度.