Germline Manipulation and Our Future Worlds

Two genetic technologies capable of making heritable changes to the human genome have revived interest in, and in some quarters a very familiar panic concerning, so-called germline interventions. These technologies are: most recently the use of CRISPR/Cas9 to edit genes in non-viable IVF zygotes and Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy (MRT) the use of which was approved in principle in a landmark vote earlier this year by the United Kingdom Parliament. The possibility of using either of these techniques in humans has encountered the most violent hostility and suspicion. However it is important to be aware that much of this hostility dates back to the fears associated with In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and other reproductive technologies and by cloning; fears which were baseless at the time concerning both IVF and cloning the use of both of which have proved to be highly beneficial to humanity and which have been effectively regulated and controlled. This paper argues that CRISPR should by pursued through researh until it is safe enough for use in humans but there is no reason to suppose at this stage that such use will be unsafe or unethical (Collins 2015).     

The Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales: Reference data from a large psychiatric outpatient sample

The published norms for the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) give results for clinical populations that largely fall in the severe to very severe categories. As a result, within this population, the ability to compare the comparative contributions of the underlying emotional components is reduced. The present study presents results from a large general psychiatric outpatient population and provides percentile norms with confidence intervals for both the original DASS and the shorter 21‐item form. It is noted that both forms have high validity but that the correlations between scales are higher than those reported in non‐clinical populations. There was little variation between sexes but some variation of results with age with both younger and older cohorts having lower scores except for the Stress scale where there were higher scores in the older group. There is some evidence of a ceiling effect in the Depression and Stress scales. It was noted that nearly a quarter of patient scores fell within the originally defined normal range suggesting that the DASS would not be a particularly sensitive instrument in its previously reported use as a screening instrument for psychiatric illness.     

What Can We Learn from the Study of Mexican‐Origin Families in the United States?

Mexican‐origin families are a large and rapidly increasing subgroup of the U.S. population, but they remain underrepresented in family scholarship. This paper introduces a special section of four papers on Mexican‐origin families designed to contribute to the advancement of research on how cultural, family, and gender socialization processes unfold across key developmental periods and life transitions in this cultural context. Two longitudinal studies of Mexican‐origin families provided the data for these four papers: (a) The Juntos Project, an 8‐year longitudinal study of mothers, fathers, and adolescent sibling pairs in 246 Mexican‐origin families; and (b) The Supporting MAMI Project, a study following 204 adolescent mothers and their mother figures from the third trimester of pregnancy through their young children's 5th birthdays. In this introductory paper, we highlight four themes, including (a) differential acculturation and reciprocal socialization, (b) interdependence in families, (c) the intersection of culture and gender, and (d) methodological issues. We end with suggestions for future research.     

Coping orientation and psychological distress in healthcare professionals: The utility of appraising coping acceptability

The purpose of this study was to examine interaction effects of healthcare professionals' coping orientation (i.e., engagement versus disengagement) and appraisal of coping acceptability (ACA) on psychological distress, taking into account the individuals' job specificity and the psychological climate in their work environment. A cross‐sectional survey was conducted, and Japanese healthcare professionals (N = 189; 117 female; mean age: 40.1 ± 11.2 years) reported the coping strategies that they employed for task‐related or interpersonal stressors, their cognitive appraisal of the stressors, their ACA, and the psychological distress evoked by the stressors. The results showed that adding consideration of the ACA to the variable of coping orientation significantly improved predictions of psychological distress for both task and interpersonal stressors. There was no significant interaction between the coping orientation and the use of coping strategies that incorporated the ACA. These results suggest that considering the ACA, in addition to the coping orientation, would be useful for understanding individual differences in the mediators of healthcare professionals' coping in stressful situations.     

Conditional same/different concept learning in the short‐beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus)

Echidnas have evolved separately from other mammalian groups for around 200 million years and incorporate a mixture of reptilian and mammalian features. Because of these attributes, they have historically been considered “primitive” animals. However, they have successfully adapted to a wide variety of ecological niches and their neurophysiology demonstrates a number of unusual and apparently sophisticated characteristics, including a relatively large brain and cerebral cortex and a comparatively massive frontal cortex. Studies of learning in the echidna have thus far been limited to only a handful of experiments which demonstrated relatively basic abilities such as forming a position habit in a T‐maze, successive habit‐reversal learning, and simple visual and instrumental discrimination. This study aimed to expand on these results and test the “primitive” echidna on what are generally considered more advanced cognitive tasks—same/different and conditional same/different concept learning. The results demonstrated that echidnas are able to discriminate on the basis of a relational same/different concept, using simultaneously presented multi‐element stimuli, and transfer that discrimination to novel stimuli. After further training, they were then able to repeat the performance when the correct choice was conditional on the background color of the stimulus panels.     

JPSSM since the beginning: intellectual cornerstones,knowledge structure,and thematic developments

Bibliometric analyses are applied to 35,975 citations from 721 articles published in the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, spanning the journal’s first 35 years of existence (1980–2015). For each of three time periods (1980s, 1990s, and 2000s), the sales literature’s most influential article publications are objectively identified. Multidimensional scaling is then used to identify key intellectual themes across time. Based on the citation data, historical developments in the literature regarding (1) relationship marketing, (2) sales force technology, (3) sales force control systems, and (4) salesperson role stress are traced and briefly explored in some article-level depth. Co-citation trends and recently influential papers are used to identify opportunities for future research. Altogether, this paper presents a first-of-its-kind view of sales literature’s intellectual cornerstones, knowledge structure, and thematic developments over 35 years.     

A virtue ethical approach to decisional capacity and mental health

It is a common assumption that lack of autonomy is incompatible with decisional capacity and mental health. However, there are two general conceptions of autonomy, one value-neutral and the other value-laden, which imply different notions of mental health. I argue that the value-neutral notion of autonomy is independently inadequate and that it also provides an inadequate foundation for judging whether someone is decisionally incapable or mentally disordered. I propose an alternative, value-laden account which posits ten capabilities required for basic human functioning. I then defend this account against objections and highlight its practical utility in designing optimal treatment.     

急性心理性应激对自我参照记忆的影响

已有研究表明急性心理性应激会导致个体的自传体记忆受损,然而急性心理性应激如何影响个体加工当前的自我相关信息,还没有研究结论,本研究旨在丰富和拓展这一领域的研究,从而更加全面深入的了解急性心理性应激对自我相关信息的影响。本研究将自我参照记忆的R/K(记得/知道)范式与特里尔社会应激测试(Trier Social Stress Test:TSST)相结合,考察59名处在不同急性心理性应激状态下的被试自我参照记忆的成绩。结果发现高应激反应组自我参照的R回忆率值显著低于低应激反应组,研究结果发现,被试在特里尔社会应激测试过程中的急性心理性应激反应越强,自我参照的R回忆率越低。结果表明急性心理性应激会抑制个体对当前自我相关信息的加工,削弱了自我参照记忆。