Psychometric Properties of the Dutch BIS/BAS Scales

This study examined the reliability, factor structure, and convergent validity of the Dutch version of C. S. Carver and T. L. Whites (1994) Behavioral Approach System and Behavioral Inhibition System Scales (BIS/BAS Scales). For this purpose, the BIS/BAS Scales, a shortened version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), and the Dickman Impulsivity Inventory (DII) were administered to 246 undergraduate students in The Netherlands. The internal consistency of the BIS/BAS Scales was sufficient. Further, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis showed that the Dutch BIS/BAS Scales have a factor structure similar to the English version. Finally, BIS/BAS Scales were found to correlate in a theoretically meaningful way with extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism, and impulsivity.     

Semantic Analysis of some Variants of Anderson-like Ontological Proofs

The aim of this paper is to prove strong completeness theorems for several Anderson-like variants of Gödels theory wrt. classes of modal structures, in which: (i). 1st order terms order receive only rigid extensions in the constant objectual 1st order domain; (ii). 2nd order terms receive non-rigid extensions in preselected world-relative objectual domains of 2nd order and rigid intensions in the constant conceptual 2nd order domain.     

The Atomistic Self versus the Holistic Self in Structural Relation to the Other

I argue that meaning or significanceper se, along with the capacity to be conscious thereof, and the values, motives and aspirations, etc. central to the constitution of our intrinsic personal identities, arise, as indeed do our extrinsic social identities, and our very self-consciousness as such, from socio-cultural structures and relations to others. However, so far from our identities and behavior therefore being determined, I argue that the capacity for critical reflection and evaluation emerge from these same structural relations, the more complex and quintessentially human aspects of our behavior being explained not in terms of responses to stimuli but as choices reflecting our evaluation of meaningful or significant alternatives. Finally I provide theoretical grounds for accepting the existence of other subjects and give a holistic, as opposed to a dialectical, account of the way individuals may challenge and change the very socio-cultural ways of relating to and interacting with others so central to constituting their capacities and identities.     

Figures of Time in Evolution of Complex Systems

Owing to intensive development of the theory of self-organization of complex systems called also synergetics, profound changes in our notions of time occur. Whereas at the beginning of the 20th century, natural sciences, by picking up the general spirit of Einstein's theory of relativity, consider a geometrization as an ideal, i.e. try to represent time and force interactions through space and the changes of its properties, nowadays, at the beginning of the 21st century, time turns to be in the focus of attention. It turns to be possible to represent space through time, because synergetics shows that historical and evolutionary stages of development of a complex structure can be found now, in its present spatial configuration. A whole series of paradoxical notions, such as “the influence of the future upon the present”, a “possibility of touching of a rather remote future today”, “availability of the past and the future now, in praesenti”, “irreversibility and elements of reversibility in the course of evolutionary processes in time”, “discrete unites, quanta of time”, appear in synergetics.     

Defensive emotions and evaluative judgements: Sensitivity to anger and fear predicts moral judgements,whereas sensitivity to disgust predicts aesthetic judgements

Aesthetic and moral evaluations engage appetitive and defensive emotions. While the role played by pleasure in positive aesthetic and moral judgements has been extensively researched, little is known about how defensive emotions influence negative aesthetic and moral judgements. Specifically, it is unknown which defensive emotions such judgements tap into, and whether both kinds of judgement share a common emotional root. Here, we investigated how participants' individual sensitivity to disgust, fear, anger and sadness predicted subjective judgements of aesthetic and moral stimuli. Bayesian modelling revealed that participants who were more sensitive to anger and fear found conventional and moral transgressions more wrong. In contrast, participants who were more sensitive to disgust disliked asymmetrical geometric patterns and untidy rooms more. These findings suggest that aesthetic and moral evaluations engage multiple defensive emotions, not just disgust, and that they may rely on different defensive emotions as part of their computational mechanism.     

The reliability and predictive ability of the Test of Infant Motor Performance (TIMP) in a community-based study in Bhaktapur,Nepal

AimIn a Nepalese setting, to measure the reliability of the Test of Infant Motor Performance (TIMP) and its ability to predict development scores at 6 months.MethodsNepalese infants (n = 705) were assessed by the TIMP when they were 8–12 weeks old and the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, 3rd edition (Bayley-III) at 6 months. Inter-rater agreement was expressed by intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), the internal consistency by Cronbach’s alphas and Pearson correlation coefficients. Predictive ability was estimated in linear regression models.ResultsInter-rater agreement was excellent (ICCs > 0.93). Alphas for the TIMP total scores were 0.76 for infants born to term and 0.72 in those born preterm. Correlation coefficients between TIMP total and Bayley-III subscale-scores ranged from 0.05 to 0.28 for term infants and from 0.15 to 0.43 for preterm infants. Using American norms, 56.3 % had TIMP scores within average and 43.7 % below average range. Bayley-III subscale scores were lower in children with TIMP scores below the average range, with the strongest estimates for Gross motor and Socio-emotional development.InterpretationThe reliability of the TIMP was acceptable, and the TIMP could be a feasible tool to monitor infant motor development in low-resource settings. Properties of the TIMP differed according to gestational age.     

Rethinking Intrinsic Value

According to the dominant philosophical tradition, intrinsic value must depend solely upon intrinsic properties. By appealing to various examples, however, I argue that we should at least leave open the possibility that in some cases intrinsic value may be based in part on relational properties. Indeed, I argue that we should even be open to the possibility that an object's intrinsic value may sometimes depend (in part) on its instrumental value. If this is right, of course, then the traditional contrast between intrinsic value and instrumental value is mistaken.     

Stability of heartbeat interval distributions in chronic high altitude hypoxia

Recent studies of nonlinear dynamics of the long-term variability of heart rate have identified nontrivial long-range correlations and scale-invariant power-law characteristics (1/f noise) that were remarkably consistent between individuals and were unrelated to external or environmental stimuli (Meyer et al., 1998a). The present analysis of complex nonstationary heartbeat patterns is based on the sequential application of the wavelet transform for elimination of local polynomial nonstationary behavior and an analytic signal approach by use of the Hilbert transform (Cumulative Variation Amplitude Analysis). The effects of chronic high altitude hypoxia on the distributions and scaling functions of cardiac intervals over 24 hr epochs and 4 hr day/nighttime subepochs were determined from serial heartbeat interval time series of digitized 24 hr ambulatory ECGs recorded in 9 healthy subjects (mean age 34 yrs) at sea level and during a sojourn at high altitude (5,050 m) for 34 days (Ev-K2-CNR Pyramid Laboratory, Sagarmatha National Park, Nepal). The results suggest that there exists a hidden, potentially universal, common structure in the heterogeneous time series. A common scaling function with a stable Gamma distribution defines the probability density of the amplitudes of the fluctuations in the heartbeat interval time series of individual subjects. The appropriately rescaled distributions of normal subjects at sea level demonstrated stable Gamma scaling consistent with a single scaled plot (data collapse). Longitudinal assessment of the rescaled distributions of the 24 hr recordings of individual subjects showed that the stability of the distributions was unaffected by the subject’s exposure to a hypobaric (hypoxic) environment. The rescaled distributions of 4 hr subepochs showed similar scaling behavior with a stable Gamma distribution indicating that the common structure was unequivocally applicable to both day and night phases and, furthermore, did not undergo systematic changes in response to high altitude. In contrast, a single function stable over a wide range of time scales was not observed in patients with congestive heart failure or patients after cardiac transplantation. The functional form of the scaling in normal subjects would seem to be attributable to the underlying nonlinear dynamics of cardiac control. The results suggest that the observed Gamma scaling of the distributions in healthy subjects constitutes an intrinsic dynamical property of normal heart function that would not undergo early readjustment or late acclimatization to extrinsic environmental physiological stress, e.g., chronic hypoxia.     

对大学生审美意识的调查分析

本研究采用自拟问卷,调查分析了731名不同背景条件的中国大学生审美意识发展的水平和特点。结果表明:1)中国大学生能较准确地把握各种形式的美的实质,审美认知具有特殊性、多样性、丰富性、主导性及发展性等特点;2)中国大学生审美情趣的发展总体上是积极健康的,表现出层次性、倾向性、深刻性、多样性及差异性等特点。     

Negative Existentials in Metaphysical Debate

There are statements of the form “There are no Fs” that we would like to count as true, yet it is hard to see how they could be true (at least, operating within the semantic framework of structured propositions). The relevant Fs are general terms that we take to be semantically fundamental or primitive, especially those native to metaphysical discourse. A case can be made the problem is no less difficult than the corresponding problem for singular terms.