Individual differences in 10‐month‐olds' performance on the A‐not‐B task

This study used the classical A‐not‐B task (Piaget, 1954 ) to explore individual differences in cognitive flexibility in 10‐month‐old infants by: (1) examining how differences in search performance during A trials relate to search performance during B trials; (2) studying the relation between temperamental dimensions and A‐not‐B performance; and (3) investigating differences in search performance between looking and reaching responses within the same task. Forty infants were tested on a fixed‐design‐version of the A‐not‐B task, not allowing for training or individual adjustment, but instead eliciting additional search behaviors than the common correct responses in A trials and perseverative errors in B trials. Infants were also rated by their parents on the temperamental scales Activity level and Attention span. The main findings were: (1) performance on A trials affected B trial performance, with infants being more correct on A trials having more incorrect and less ‘no search’ responses on B trials; (2) activity level, but not attention span, was related to performance on the A‐not‐B task, with infants performing better on A trials having a lower activity level; and (3) there were a few differences in performance with regard to modality, indicating that responding correctly by looking may be less cognitively demanding than doing so by reaching. This study demonstrated that 10‐month‐olds show a wide variation of search behaviors on this A‐not‐B task, resulting in individual differences in performance. These differences are suggested to reflect variation in temperamental activity level as well as maturity of short term/working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility.     

LKB1蛋白在食管鳞癌组织中的表达及意义

为了探讨肝激酶B1（LKB1）蛋白在食管鳞癌组织中的表达水平及其与食管鳞癌临床特征及生存期的关系,应用免疫组化方法检测120例食管鳞癌患者组织中LKB1蛋白表达情况并对诸多临床特征进行相关性分析研究,发现LKB1蛋白在食管癌旁正常组织的阳性表达率高于癌组织;LKB1蛋白表达与患者年龄、性别、肿瘤部位、病变长度及浸润深度无关而与分化程度、淋巴结转移及临床分期（TNM）相关,且LKB1蛋白阴性组预后较阳性组差.可见LKB1视为抑癌基因影响食管鳞癌的预后,可能成为食管鳞癌新型的临床预后指标之一.     

难治性丙型肝炎研究新进展

随着聚乙二醇化干扰素(IFN)的普及应用和慢性丙型肝炎规范化治疗的开展,其治愈率不断提高.但疗效不佳的慢性丙型肝炎患者不断积累,难治性慢性丙型肝炎患者成为临床医生必须面对的挑战.难治性丙型肝炎患者应当分为两类,第一类为“难治疗”性慢性丙型肝炎患者,该类患者由于宿主条件限制,不能耐受IFN联合利巴韦林(RBV)的标准治疗,如儿童和老年人、慢性肾功能衰竭患者等.第二类为“难治愈”性慢性丙型肝炎患者,该类患者可以耐受标准治疗方案,但按照应答指导的治疗原则(RGT)治疗后,效果仍然不佳或复发.本文就近年关于难治性丙型肝炎的研究进展,从难治性丙型肝炎的定义、机制、治疗诸方面作一综述.     

Can Muslims Befriend Non-Muslims? Debating al-walāʾ wa-al-barāʾ (Loyalty and Disavowal) in Theory and Practice

This article analyzes the polemic on the concept of al-walā? wa-al-barā? (commonly translated as “loyalty and disavowal”). While existing academic literature focuses on the usages of this concept by jihad activists, the article centers on the role “loyalty and disavowal” plays in debates between contemporary salafī and wasa?ī jurists and theologians, specifically in their conflicting agendas for Muslims living as minorities. Salafīs, relying on several qur'anic verses and Prophetic traditions, promote an understanding of “loyalty and disavowal” that requires Muslims to refrain from befriending or loving non-Muslims, or imitating their beliefs and customs. Relying on counter-verses and traditions, in particular Q 60.8, wasa?īs have interpreted the concept of “loyalty and disavowal” more narrowly, arguing that it applies only to non-Muslims who fight against Muslims; as part of their integration-oriented doctrine for Muslims in the West, they have in recent years dedicated considerable efforts to refuting the salafī interpretation of al-walā? wa-al-barā?. The article examines the juristic methodologies utilized in the debate, and how it has affected religious decisions (fatwās) on Islamic life in Western societies.     

Tisha B’Av, “Ghetto Day,” and producing “authentic” Jews at postwar Jewish summer camps

The postwar period brought sweeping changes for American Jews. Communal socioeconomic transitions and the aftermath of the Holocaust triggered intense anxieties among Jewish leaders regarding the preservation of so-called Jewish “authenticity,” and to an increased focus on the moulding of American Jewish youth. This article considers how Jewish summer camps used Tisha B’Av and secular, alternative memorial days, to lead campers toward various, ideologically imbued visions of Jewish authenticity. Through fostering an aura of tragedy in what was otherwise a world of play, songs, and enjoyment, Jewish educators used memorial days as transformative educational tools. Though camps’ ceremonies looked remarkably similar, often including a carefully crafted sombre atmosphere, dirges, and responsive readings, the message of the days proved malleable to different ideological perspectives. This article considers how Zionist, Yiddishist, Reform and Conservative camps came to use memorial days to produce “real,” “ideal,” or “authentic” Jews in accordance with their ideological visions in the decades immediately following the Holocaust.     

Caring for the Suffering: Meeting the Ebola Crisis Responsibly

The current Ebola virus epidemic in Western Africa appears to be spiraling out of control. The worst-case projections suggested that the unchecked spread could result in almost 1.4 million cases by the end of January 2015 with a case fatality rate of at least 50%. The United States and European nations have begun to respond in earnest with promises of supplies, isolation beds, and trained health care personnel in an effort to contain the epidemic and care for the sick. However, there is neither a vaccine nor specific treatment for Ebola infection, and therapy is ideally centered on supportive care. I have previously argued that the provision of palliative care is obligatory during an overwhelming health catastrophe, notably pandemic influenza. Since affected Ebola patients have best outcomes with technologically advanced intensive care—resources in scarce supply in the area—I suggest that the only acceptable approach to large numbers of very sick, dying, and suffering Ebola patients who overwhelm the resources available to successfully manage them is effective palliative care. However, this could hasten death in this vulnerable population and hence, while ethically and medically justifiable, is not without social risk.     

Epistemic Norms and Democracy: a Response to Talisse

John Rawls argued that democracy must be justifiable to all citizens; otherwise, a democratic society is oppressive to some. In A Pragmatist Philosophy of Democracy ( 2007 ), Robert B. Talisse attempts to meet the Rawlsian challenge by drawing from Charles S. Peirce's pragmatism. This article first briefly canvasses the argument of Talisse's book and then criticizes its key premise concerning (normative) reasons for belief by offering a competing reading of Peirce's “The Fixation of Belief” ( 1877 ). It then proceeds to argue that Talisse's argument faces a dilemma: his proposal of epistemic perfectionism either is substantive and can be reasonably disagreed about or is minimal but insufficient to ground a democratic society. Consequently, it suggests that the Rawlsian challenge can only be solved by abandoning Rawls's own notion of reasonableness, and that an interesting alternative notion of reasons can be derived from Peirce's “Fixation.”     

Hostilidad,patrón de conducta tipo A y reactividad cardíaca

Resumen

La presente investigación tuvo como objetivo estudiar el efecto de la hostilidad autoinformada en la reactividad cardíaca de sujetos Tipo A/B. Los sujetos fueron 40 estudiantes varones repartidos en cuatro grupos: (1) Tipo A con alta Hostilidad, (2) Tipo A con baja Hostilidad, (3) Tipo B con alta Hostilidad y (4) Tipo B con baja Hostilidad. Todos ellos pasaron por tres pruebas de reactividad psicofisiológica: El Test de la Respuesta Cardíaca de Defensa ante estimulación auditiva intensa, una Tarea de Aritmética Mental y una Tarea de Juego de Vídeo Competitivo. La variable dependiente registrada fue la tasa cardíaca. Los resultados indican que en las tres pruebas no se observan diferencias en la reactividad de la tasa cardíaca entre sujetos Tipo A y B con alta Hostilidad autoinformada. Sin embargo, sí se observan diferencias entre sujetos Tipo A y B con baja Hostilidad autoinformada, siendo los sujetos Tipo A los que muestran mayores incrementos en tasa cardíaca durante la Respuesta Cardíaca de Defensa y el Juego de Vídeo Competitivo. En la Tarea de Aritmética Mental se observa esta tendencia, aunque no llegan a ser diferencias significativa s. Estos resultados sugieren que la supresión o negación de la hostilidad en sujetos Tipo A está asociada con un incremento en la reactividad cardiovascular.     

A case of subcortical dementia due to sarcoidosis of the hypothalamus and fornices

A patient with sarcoidosis involving predominantly the hypothalamus and fornices was evaluated for dementia. He showed a relative sparing of fund of knowledge and orientation. Memory skills, particularly short-term memory, were severely impaired. Behavioral changes included apathy and a lack of spontaneity. Insight was relatively preserved. The pattern of his deficits showed some similarities to the pattern reported in patients with Huntington's disease and was different from that described in Alzheimer's disease. The dementia caused by subcortical pathology may differ in important respects from that caused by diffuse cortical dysfunction.