Spiritual development in church schools—a survey of Welsh head teachers’ perceptions

A questionnaire to assess views about spiritual development was completed by 112 of the 174 head teachers of church primary schools in Wales. The findings indicated that despite the seemingly ambiguous nature of the term ‘spiritual development’, head teachers had clear views about its meaning. While most head teachers emphasised the need for pupils to engage in their own personal spiritual search, their views differed in the extent to which they felt that promoting spiritual development meant encouraging pupils to adopt Christian beliefs. While the age and sex of head teachers was found to have no significant impact on their views; and the location and category of the school for which head teachers were responsible had only a limited impact on their view, the language of the school and the religiosity of the head teacher had a considerable impact on views regarding these matters.     

The human sense of the head's polarity is influenced by changes in the magnitude of gravity

The present investigation concerns the integrity of a primary mental function, the egocentric frame of reference and the sense of polarity of one's own head. The visually perceived eye level (VPEL) and the subjective antero-posterior axis of the head were measured by means of a visual indicator in darkness during two stimulus conditions: static pitch (sagittal-plane) tilting in the 1-g environment and gondola centrifugation (2G). It is demonstrated that an increase in the magnitude of the gravitoinertial (G) force, acting in the direction of the head and body long (z) axis, causes a substantial change not only in the VPEL but also in the perceived direction of the antero-posterior axis of the head.     

慢性应激对大鼠行为和免疫细胞热休克蛋白70表达的影响

目的：研究慢性不确定应激对大鼠急性整体热水浴后外周血和脾脏免疫细胞热休克蛋白70（Heat shock protein 70, HSP70）表达的影响。方法：随机将大鼠分成慢性应激组和控制组（每组14只）。通过4周的慢性不确定性应激诱发实验组大鼠明显的抑郁行为,此期间控制组大鼠正常饲养。随后给予大鼠42度整体热水浴刺激,维持直肠温度41度25min。热刺激后6h,采用流式细胞仪测定大鼠外周血和脾脏免疫细胞HSP70 水平。结果：与控制组大鼠相比,慢性应激大鼠在急性热刺激后HSP70合成明显减少。控制组大鼠的所有被检测的免疫细胞热应激后HSP70合成均明显增加。相反,慢性应激大鼠仅在外周血的单核细胞和粒细胞检测到HSP70合成增加,同时升高的水平明显低于控制组大鼠。结论：慢性应激降低大鼠免疫细胞HSP70的热诱导反应,提示HSP70保护性作用减弱可能参与了慢性应激损害免疫细胞功能的生物学过程     

Gaze direction affects visuo-spatial short-term memory

Hemispheric asymmetries were investigated by changing the horizontal position of stimuli that had to be remembered in a visuo-spatial short-term memory task. Observers looked at matrices containing a variable number of filled squares on the left or right side of the screen center. At stimulus offset, participants reproduced the positions of the filled squares in an empty response matrix. Stimulus and response matrices were presented in the same quadrant. We observed that memory performance was better when the matrices were shown on the left side of the screen. We distinguished between recall strategies that relied on visual or non-visual (verbal) cues and found that the effect of gaze position occurred more reliably in participants using visual recall strategies. Overall, the results show that there is a solid enhancement of visuo-spatial short-term memory when observers look to the left. In contrast, vertical position had no influence on performance. We suggest that unilateral gaze to the left activates centers in the right hemisphere contributing to visuo-spatial memory.     

The Politics of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research in South Korea: Contesting National Sociotechnical Imaginaries

To many commentators outside South Korea, the Hwang Woo Suk scandal involving human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research was just another spectacular case of misconduct in the life sciences. As such, it is generally assumed to have revealed the drawbacks of research in scientifically and ethically less-developed societies. Such thinking ignores the history, sophistication, and distinctive features of the public debate over hESC research in South Korea. Disputes over the social and ethical implications of hESC research had taken place for some time before the scandal erupted. Moreover, unlike in some other countries, where resistance to hESC research was prompted by religious conservatives, the most serious critique of the country's rapid move into the field came from progressive social movement activists—including feminists and environmentalists. These activists were, in fact, part of the non-governmental organization coalition to impose stricter social controls on biotechnology. This campaign was motivated by broader political and social concerns beyond specific biosafety or bioethical issues. The activists involved in the coalition feared that the capitalist–developmentalist drive toward biotechnology would threaten the public interest and democracy, and ultimately block South Korea's road to becoming a democratic nation founded on the values of social justice, equality, participation, and sustainability. In contesting South Korea's prevailing approaches to hESC research, they challenged, albeit unsuccessfully, the dominant ‘national sociotechnical imaginary’ that articulates the role of science and technology in relation to the future survival and well-being of the nation primarily in terms of its industrial competitiveness.     

干细胞纠缠

干细胞生物学的研究目前还处于一个“灰箱”的状态,阻止机制阐明的最大障碍之一可能是因为缺少一个行之有效且又不会改变干细胞自然属性的研究平台。这个平台的中心是要有一个像“薛定谔的猫”那样能即时报告干细胞属性的作用角色。目前,主要有两方面阻碍了干细胞研究的进一步深化,一个是干细胞如何不对称分裂,另一个是干细胞巢的结构组成。其实,在微观世界的许多研究中,如物理学中的量子论,都是因为缺少那只“薛定谔的猫”才使研究的钟摆停在原地不动。     

Treatment of Patients with Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma using Stem Cell Differentiation Stage Factors

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represents the third leading cause of cancer-related death. Because HCC is multicentric with time, excluding the few transplanted patients, sooner or later it becomes untreatable with loco-regional therapies and, until some years ago, it was not responsive to systemic therapies. In 2005 a randomized trial indicated the efficacy of a product containing stem cell differentiation stage factors (SCDSF) taken from zebrafish embryos during the stage in which the totipotent stem cells are differentiating into the pluripotent adult stem cells. In such a trial the patients, with “intermediate” and “advanced” HCC according to Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer/American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (BCLC/AASLD) guidelines, presented benefit in terms of performance status and objective tumoral response, with some cases (2.4%) of complete response, that is, sustained disappearance of the neoplastic areas or blood supply therein, accompanied by normalization of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels (complete response [CR]). A second study reporting the experience of a tertiary referral center on patients with “advanced” stage confirmed the possibility to obtain CR. Out of 38 patients, 5 presented a sustained CR (13.1%). Improvement on PS was obtained in 17 patients (34.6%). No side effects occurred.     

Social influence on metacognitive evaluations: The power of nonverbal cues

Metacognitive evaluations refer to the processes by which people assess their own cognitive operations with respect to their current goal. Little is known about whether this process is susceptible to social influence. Here we investigate whether nonverbal social signals spontaneously influence metacognitive evaluations. Participants performed a two-alternative forced-choice task, which was followed by a face randomly gazing towards or away from the response chosen by the participant. Participants then provided a metacognitive evaluation of their response by rating their confidence in their answer. In Experiment 1, the participants were told that the gaze direction was irrelevant to the task purpose and were advised to ignore it. The results revealed an effect of implicit social information on confidence ratings even though the gaze direction was random and therefore unreliable for task purposes. In addition, nonsocial cues (car) did not elicit this effect. In Experiment 2, the participants were led to believe that cue direction (face or car) reflected a previous participant's response to the same question—that is, the social information provided by the cue was made explicit, yet still objectively unreliable for the task. The results showed a similar social influence on confidence ratings, observed with both cues (car and face) but with an increased magnitude relative to Experiment 1. We additionally showed in Experiment 2 that social information impaired metacognitive accuracy. Together our results strongly suggest an involuntary susceptibility of metacognitive evaluations to nonverbal social information, even when it is implicit (Experiment 1) and unreliable (Experiments 1 and 2).     

MATERNAL DEPRESSION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXECUTIVE FUNCTION AND BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS IN HEAD START: INDIRECT EFFECTS THROUGH PARENTING

The present study used a large, nationally representative sample of Head Start children (N=3,349) from the Family and Child Experiences Survey of 2009 (FACES) to examine associations among maternal depression (measured when children were ?36 months old) and children's executive function (EF) and behavior problems (measured when children were ?48 months old). Preliminary analyses revealed that 36% of mothers in the sample had clinically significant levels of depressive symptoms. Furthermore, a path analysis with demographic controls showed a mediation effect that was significant and quite specific; mother‐reported warmth (and not mother–child reading) mediated the path between maternal depression, children's EF, and behavior problems. Findings provide empirical support for a family process model in which warm, sensitive parenting supports children's emerging self‐regulation and reduces the likelihood of early onset behavior problems in families in which children are exposed to maternal depression.