时间知觉的脑机制:时钟模型的困境和新导向

长期以来人们认为神经系统是通过类似于时钟的方式来实现对一段时间的知觉的,并认为多巴胺能系统(基地神经节)和时钟的快慢有关。与多巴胺信号有关的药物的动物实验的结果以及帕金森氏症(parkinson’s disease)患者的行为表现被看作是支持以上看法的证据。然而,最近的大量研究对这个理论提出了挑战,结合行为研究和脑机制研究的新成果,研究者提出了知觉信息可以通过神经活动状态或加工中的能量消耗来表达。     

Counselling and psychotherapy,complementary and alternative medicine and the future of healthcare

The counselling and psychotherapy profession is undergoing considerable change as a result of government intervention in the form of regulation, funding and efficacy research. In this paper we argue that these changes, even though they challenge some of the basic ways of thinking which have come to underpin the profession since its inception, also offer an opportunity to stimulate debate and thought in regard to how the profession might contribute to the development of healthcare systems in the future. We argue that this could be enhanced if therapists can learn from the experience of practitioners in the field of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), which has been experiencing similar changes in recent years. Indeed, both fields of clinical activity adopt many similar underlying clinical principles and, according to Samuels (2001), have similar political outlooks. With reference to anthroposophic psychotherapy which, as well as being a form of psychotherapy, is also part of a ‘whole systems’ approach to CAM, we will examine those characteristics of psychotherapy and CAM that can inform the thinking of healthcare systems as a whole.     

Quantum Paradoxes, Time, and Derivation of Thermodynamic Law: Opportunities from Change of Energy Paradigm

Summary  Well known quantum and time paradoxes, and the difficulty to derive the second law of thermodynamics, are proposed to be the result of our historically grown paradigm for energy: it is just there, the capacity to do work, not directly related to change. When the asymmetric nature of energy is considered, as well as the involvement of energy turnover in any change, so that energy can be understood as fundamentally “dynamic”, and time-oriented (new paradigm), these paradoxes and problems dissolve. The most basic consequence concerns the particle-wave dualism. For a reversible inter-conversion of a particle into a wave, subject to a dynamic energy, a self-image of information has to be generated: quantum theory has to be complemented by a theory of information. Then, quantum processes can be derived from classical ones and the second law of thermodynamics with the tendency of increasing entropy follows in a straightforward way.     

Reduction of residential consumption of electricity through simple monthly feedback

Feedback has been widely used in efforts to control the consumption of electricity. Previous efforts, however, have used forms of feedback that seem economically impractical. The present study examined the effects of a feasible program of monthly feedback. Forty matched nonvolunteer participants were randomly divided into two groups: a no-contact control group and a monthly feedback group. In an A-B-A design, the data showed a clear decrease in electricity consumption for the feedback group during the feedback phase. The effect was maintained during a 4-mo intervention period. Withdrawal of the feedback was associated with a return to higher levels of electricity consumption.     

Effects of informational prompts on energy conservation in college classrooms

A multiple-baseline design was used with two target classroom groups (n = 28 and 27) in a study to reduce electrical energy waste in college classrooms. A dittoed letter, signed by a faculty member, was sent to each professor in the prompt condition. In the letter the professor was informed that he or she taught prior to an unscheduled period and was asked to turn off lights following the class. The results showed that after the prompt, the percentage of rooms with lights turned off increased by 13% and 6% in each target group. A further analysis of the 10 classrooms that had the lowest baseline rates of turning lights off indicated a 30% increase after the prompt. This study indicates that a minimum prompt procedure was effective in reducing electrical energy waste. The further significance of these results are also discussed.     

Multiple incentives in encouraging car pool formation on a university campus

The effects of a combined token economy and reserved parking program were evaluated as a means of increasing car pooling among students on a university campus. Following a baseline period, students in two experimental parking lots were notified of the availability of reserved parking and coupons redeemable for 25 cents in merchandise for each occupant of automobiles containing two or more people. Two control lots also were monitored for a comparison of treatment effects. Results indicated variable increases in car pooling in the two experimental lots and no increase in the control lots. Removal of the 25-cent coupons from one treatment lot (reserved parking only) did not adversely affect rates of car pooling. An analysis of individual automobile occupancy rates among car poolers indicated distinct patterns of car pooling and underscored the importance of individual subject data analysis in the present situation. A cost-benefit analysis indicated that even moderately effective car pool programs can be cost-effective on both a public and personal level.     

Dielectric relaxation in ternary systems of alcohols and nitriles in benzene at microwave frequency

The permittivity and the dielectric loss of ternary mixtures of equimolar concentrations of m-cresol, o-cresol with acetonitrile, acrylonitrile and benzonitrile in benzene have been measured at 8.33 GHz and 308 K. The distribution parameter α, the most probable relaxation time τ, the relaxation time for overall rotation of the molecule τ(1), the relaxation time for group rotation τ(2), and the excess dipole moment for various systems have been calculated by the Cole-Cole and Higasi methods. Data has been analyzed in terms of two-relaxation processes: overall rotation and group rotation.