宗教本质新论

本文对现代意义上的宗教学诞生以来的各种宗教本质观作了回顾,着重探讨了对我国学界影响较大的几种宗教本质观之间的分歧及其各自的理论缺陷,提出了＂宗教是一种特殊形态的精神货币,宗教起源于人类为满足自己物质和精神需要所进行的人与异己力量之间的特殊的交换活动＂的宗教本质观与宗教起源说。并对宗教的核心─－信仰问题发表了独到的见解,认为,宗教的本质是中性的,无褒贬之分,宗教的积极意义与消极意义是宗教与政治挂钩的产物。     

Alteration of cingulate long-term plasticity and behavioral sensitization to inflammation by environmental enrichment

Exposure to an enriched environment (EE) has been shown to induce cortical plasticity. Considerable amount of research is focused on the effects of EE in the hippocampus; however, effects of EE on other brain regions and the mechanisms involved are not well known. To investigate this, we induced cortical plasticity by placing mice in an EE for one month and measured the effects of EE in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Here, we show that EE enhanced the expression of the plasticity gene, egr-1, in the ACC of EE animals accompanied by enhanced cingulate long-term potentiation (LTP) and decreased cingulate long-term depression (LTD). The increased NMDA receptor NR2B/NR2A subunits current ratio is associated with the plasticity seen in the ACC while total protein levels remain unchanged. Furthermore, behavioral experiments show that these mice exposed to EE demonstrate enhanced responses to acute and long-term inflammation. Our findings suggest that exposure to EE alters physiological properties within the ACC which results in enhanced responses to inflammation.     

略论清代前期的五台山藏传佛教

清代前期,因五台山独特的地理优势,博大而悠久的佛教文化和清朝统治者的极力推崇,五台山藏传佛教渐至鼎盛。清初诸帝多次巡幸五台山;蒙藏高僧频繁朝拜;藏传佛教寺院数量、僧人人数迅猛增加;寺院管理制度日趋完善,为清初巩固民族团结和国家统一做出了重要贡献。     

绘画疗法——心理治疗的艺术途径

绘画疗法是以绘画作为治疗师和患者间的中介物来进行治疗的。目前,我国关于这一心理治疗方法的研究和应用都比较少。本文简单介绍了绘画疗法的理论基础、作用机理、实际操作、应用现状及疗效,并初步提出绘画疗法以后的研究方向。     

Wear behaviour of a gradient surface produced by a punching process in a Cu-30 Ni alloy

The grain size variation in a gradient surface produced by a punching and recovery process on a Cu-30Ni alloy has been observed by atomic force microscopy. The friction characteristics of the gradient surface in a 3.5 wt% NaCl solution were investigated using a micro-indenter probe, a pin-on-disc type tribometer, a strain sensor and an optical microscope. The results showed that the hardness and grain size can be well represented by the Hall–Petch relationship when the gain size is more than 30?nm. The wear rate, friction coefficient and adhesive force all increase depth below the surface. These variations are attributed to a gradual increasing grain size with depth. The morphologies of the worn track were also studied to understand further the corrosive wear behaviour of gradient surfaces.     

National Survey of Client's Perceptions of Chinese Psychotherapist Practices

The present study is a cross-sectional survey that investigates ethical practices among Chinese psychotherapists from the perspective of a large representative sample of Chinese clients (N?=?1,100). In reports from clients, we found that psychotherapists did poorly in providing informed consent and had other ethical difficulties in the therapeutic setting and with dual relationships. We conclude that Chinese culture, especially Confucianism, had significant impact on the attitudes toward the psychotherapists' ethical practices, which complicated ethical dilemmas. It is important for cross-cultural psychotherapists to become sensitive to the influences of traditional Chinese culture when counseling Chinese clients.     

How Speech Modifies Visual Attention

Auditory distractions can have serious consequences in critical situations such as driving. Mobile phones, radios, media players, and information devices that interpret and produce speech are increasingly common in vehicles, but the threats to visual attention are not yet fully understood. In three experiments, we found that most speech tasks had relatively small adverse effects on the detection of a briefly presented target among distractors across a 60° subarea of the visual field. Although there was a little impact on detectability, moderately difficult speech tasks slowed responding relative to silence. Our most demanding condition—generating and speaking a word beginning with the last letter of another word—had the greatest effects on accuracy and latency, with responding slowed by about 900 ms. An impairment of this magnitude presents a significant threat to safe driving and calls into question the belief that hands‐free voice‐controlled devices are the answer to the problem of driver distraction. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mapping the time course of the positive classification advantage: An ERP study

The aim of the present study was to investigate the time course of the positive advantage in the expression classification of faces by recording event-related potentials (ERPs). Although neutral faces were classified more quickly than either happy or sad faces, a significant positive classification advantage (PCA)—that is, faster classification for happy than for sad faces—was found. For ERP data, as compared with sad faces, happy faces elicited a smaller N170 and a larger posterior N2 component. The P3 was modulated by facial expressions with higher amplitudes and shorter latencies for both happy and neutral stimuli than for sad stimuli, and the reaction times were significantly correlated with the amplitude and latency of the P3. Overall, these data showed robust PCA in expression classification, starting when the stimulus has been recognized as a face revealed by the N170 component.     

The cognitive advantage for one’s own name is not simply familiarity: An eye-tracking study

Eye-tracking technique and visual search task were employed to examine the cognitive advantage for one’s own name and the possible effect of familiarity on this advantage. The results showed that fewer saccades and an earlier start time of first fixations on the target were associated with trials in which participants were asked to search for their own name, as compared to search for personally familiar or famous names. In addition, the results also demonstrated faster response times and higher accuracy in the former kind of trials. Taken together, these findings provide important evidence that one’s own name has the potential to capture attention and that familiarity cannot account for this advantage.     

A biased-competition approach to spatial cueing: Combining empirical studies and computational modelling

We examined the effects of cue luminance on visual orienting. Experiment 1 established that the commonly-found early facilitation and late inhibition of return (IOR) effects were independent of cue luminance with single cues in terms of their amplitude, although IOR was delayed in the low compared to the high luminance cue condition. In contrast, Experiment 2 revealed that, with dual cues of mixed luminance, both facilitation and IOR effects were found only with bright cues. When cues had equal luminance, however, there were cueing effects for two cued locations but only when the cues were bright. The data were accommodated in a neural network model of biased competition in which cueing effects emerge at more than one location provided input activation is sufficient to overcome competitive damping of the selection system.