Expression of VGLUTs contributes to degeneration and acquisition of learning and memory

Vesicular glutamate transporters (VGLUTs), which include VGLUT1, VGLUT2 and VGLUT3, are responsible for the uploading of L-glutamate into synaptic vesicles. The expression pattern of VGLUTs determines the level of synaptic vesicle filling (i.e., glutamate quantal size) and directly influences glutamate receptors and glutamatergic synaptic transmission; thus, VGLUTs may play a key role in learning and memory in the central nervous system. To determine whether VGLUTs contribute to the degeneration or acquisition of learning and memory, we used an animal model for the age-related impairment of learning and memory, senescence-accelerated mouse/prone 8 (SAMP8). KM mice were divided into groups based on their learning and memory performance in a shuttle-box test. The expression of VGLUTs and synaptophysin (Syp) mRNA and protein in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus were investigated with real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR and western blot, respectively. Our results demonstrate that, in the cerebral cortex, protein expression of VGLUT1, VGLUT2, VGLUT3 and Syp was decreased in SAMP8 with age and increased in KM mice, which displayed an enhanced capacity for learning and memory. The protein expression of VGLUT2 and Syp was decreased in the hippocampus of SAMP8 with aging. The expression level of VGLUT1 and VGLUT2 proteins were highest in KM mouse group with a 76-100% avoidance score in the shuttle-box test. These data demonstrate that protein expression of VGLUT1, VGLUT2 and Syp decreases age-dependently in SAMP8 and increases in a learning- and memory-dependent manner in KM mice. Correlation analysis indicated the protein expression of VGLUT1, VGLUT2 and Syp has a positive correlation with the capacity of learning and memory.     

Online Calibration Methods for the DINA Model with Independent Attributes in CD-CAT

Item replenishing is essential for item bank maintenance in cognitive diagnostic computerized adaptive testing (CD-CAT). In regular CAT, online calibration is commonly used to calibrate the new items continuously. However, until now no reference has publicly become available about online calibration for CD-CAT. Thus, this study investigates the possibility to extend some current strategies used in CAT to CD-CAT. Three representative online calibration methods were investigated: Method A (Stocking in Scale drift in on-line calibration. Research Rep. 88-28, 1988), marginal maximum likelihood estimate with one EM cycle (OEM) (Wainer & Mislevy In H. Wainer (ed.) Computerized adaptive testing: A primer, pp. 65–102, 1990) and marginal maximum likelihood estimate with multiple EM cycles (MEM) (Ban, Hanson, Wang, Yi, & Harris in J. Educ. Meas. 38:191–212, 2001). The objective of the current paper is to generalize these methods to the CD-CAT context under certain theoretical justifications, and the new methods are denoted as CD-Method A, CD-OEM and CD-MEM, respectively. Simulation studies are conducted to compare the performance of the three methods in terms of item-parameter recovery, and the results show that all three methods are able to recover item parameters accurately and CD-Method A performs best when the items have smaller slipping and guessing parameters. This research is a starting point of introducing online calibration in CD-CAT, and further studies are proposed for investigations such as different sample sizes, cognitive diagnostic models, and attribute-hierarchical structures.     

Children’s Depressive Symptoms in Relation to EEG Frontal Asymmetry and Maternal Depression

This study examined the relations of school-age children’s depressive symptoms, frontal EEG asymmetry, and maternal history of childhood-onset depression (COD). Participants were 73 children, 43 of whom had mothers with COD. Children’s EEG was recorded at baseline and while watching happy and sad film clips. Depressive symptoms were measured using parent-report of Children’s Depression Inventory. The key findings are the interaction effects between baseline and film frontal EEG asymmetry on child depressive symptoms. Specifically, relative right frontal EEG asymmetry while watching happy or sad film clip was associated with elevated depressive symptoms for children who also exhibited right frontal EEG asymmetry at baseline. Results suggest that right frontal EEG asymmetry that is consistent across situations may be an marker of depression-prone children.     

The Relationship Between Narcissism and Friendship Qualities in Adolescents: Gender as a Moderator

The present study explored the gender characteristics of narcissism as well as its relationship with friendship quality dimensions (i.e., trust & support, validation, and disclosure & communication) among 485 (197 boys and 288 girls) junior high and high school adolescents in a Southwest province in China. Significant gender differences were found, such that boys were more narcissistic than girls,while girls reported higher levels of friendship qualities, including validation and disclosure & communication. To examine gender moderations in the relationships between narcissism and friendship quality dimensions, multiple-group (by boys and girls) structural equation modeling were conducted. The results revealed the significant gender moderations in the associations between narcissism and friendship quality dimensions, while controlling for adolescent grade level. Specifically, narcissism significantly and positively related to the three aspects of friendship qualities (i.e., trust & support, validation, and disclosure & communication) among boys, but was not related to friendship quality among girls. Discussions are provided for an understanding of the current findings in the Chinese cultural context.     

Gender differences in children's arithmetic performance are accounted for by gender differences in language abilities

Studies have shown that female children, on average, consistently outperform male children in arithmetic. In the research reported here, 1,556 pupils (8 to 11 years of age) from urban and rural regions in the greater Beijing area completed 10 cognitive tasks. Results showed that girls outperformed boys in arithmetic tasks (i.e., simple subtraction, complex multiplication), as well as in numerosity-comparison, number-comparison, number-series-completion, choice reaction time, and word-rhyming tasks. Boys outperformed girls in a mental rotation task. Controlling for scores on the word-rhyming task eliminated gender differences in arithmetic, whereas controlling for scores on numerical-processing tasks (number comparison, numerosity estimation, numerosity comparison, and number-series completion) and general cognitive tasks (choice reaction time, Raven's Progressive Matrices, and mental rotation) did not. These results suggest that girls' advantage in arithmetic is likely due to their advantage in language processing.     

“心学”源流考

说到"心学",人们马上会联想到"陆王心学",其实,"陆王心学"的说法是很晚才有的。在宋代,"心学"最常见、最典型的是指与"十六字心传"相关的传心之学。本文拟先考察 "心学"的原初意义,然后再看其在后代的演变。一在汉语中,"心学"这一概念产生得比较晚,它大概首先是南北朝时在翻译佛教经典中使用的,其中的例子有: "当学三学:谓增上戒学,增上心学,增上慧学。"(《解脱论道》卷一,见《大正藏》卷三十二,四〇〇上) 在佛教语境中,心学一般与禅定相关,意味着摒除杂念、专心致志、观悟四谛。本文所考察的心学是儒家的概念,与上述佛教的心学不同。虽然如此,它还是与佛教有关     

新医改进程中的公立医院管理面临的挑战

新医改政策提出的种种举措使公立医院面临新的利益调整,意味着公立医院要做出相应的变革.通过分析政府与公立医院间的关系、医院行业内外新机遇和新挑战,发现政府增加投入的同时,还应在对公立医院监管手段和程度上多下功夫;公立医院在提高医疗服务质量的同时,在外部形象宣传、维权等方面都要做好准备.     

Media use, face-to-face communication, media multitasking, and social well-being among 8- to 12-year-old girls

An online survey of 3,461 North American girls ages 8-12 conducted in the summer of 2010 through Discovery Girls magazine examined the relationships between social well-being and young girls' media use--including video, video games, music listening, reading/homework, e-mailing/posting on social media sites, texting/instant messaging, and talking on phones/video chatting--and face-to-face communication. This study introduced both a more granular measure of media multitasking and a new comparative measure of media use versus time spent in face-to-face communication. Regression analyses indicated that negative social well-being was positively associated with levels of uses of media that are centrally about interpersonal interaction (e.g., phone, online communication) as well as uses of media that are not (e.g., video, music, and reading). Video use was particularly strongly associated with negative social well-being indicators. Media multitasking was also associated with negative social indicators. Conversely, face-to-face communication was strongly associated with positive social well-being. Cell phone ownership and having a television or computer in one's room had little direct association with children's socioemotional well-being. We hypothesize possible causes for these relationships, call for research designs to address causality, and outline possible implications of such findings for the social well-being of younger adolescents.     

Muscle dysmorphia: Current research and potential classification as a disorder

ObjectiveTo review the literature for scientific evidence in support of inclusion of Muscle Dysmorphia (MD) in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).DesignThe criteria proposed by Blashfield, Sprock, and Fuller (1990) were used for determining whether scientific evidence supports the introduction of MD as a new disorder into a disease classification system.MethodPeer-reviewed journal articles were identified by searching databases for articles published (in print and electronically) from 2001 to 2011.ResultsThe search identified 59 journal articles that specifically focused on MD, of which 39 were empirical journal articles. There is ample literature on MD, including a common set of diagnostic criteria and assessment instruments to measure MD. However, questions remain about the diagnostic reliability and validity, including inter-rater reliability, and whether MD represents a disorder that consists of symptoms that frequently co-occur. Also, evidence of syndrome differentiation is lacking. Only two of the five criteria proposed by Blashfield et al. have been met.ConclusionLiterature suggests that MD is associated with several indicators of clinical significance and distinctiveness. However the current review has found significant limitations and gaps in the scientific literature on MD. Possible options regarding the status of MD in the DSM-5 are proposed, including introducing MD as an example of an eating disorder not otherwise specified, retaining MD as a body dysmorphic disorder, introducing MD as a new disorder, or introducing MD as a provisional diagnosis in need of further study.