Recognition bias for critical faces in social phobia: a replication and extension

Studies using linguistic stimuli have provided little support for explicit memory biases among individuals with social phobia (SP). However, using facial stimuli rated on their criticalness, Lundh and Ost (1996) found that individuals with SP recognized more critical than accepting faces, whereas non-anxious controls tended to show the opposite pattern. Since the publication of Lundh and Ost's findings, additional studies using a variety of facial stimuli have produced inconsistent findings (J. Anxiety Disord. 14 (2000) 501; Behav. Res. Ther. 39 (2001) 967). Unfortunately, these inconsistencies are difficult to reconcile given great variation in methods and stimuli. Therefore, we designed a study to replicate and extend the work of Lundh and Ost (Behav. Res. Ther. 34 (1996) 787). Similar to Lundh and Ost, individuals with SP identified a significantly higher proportion of old critical faces as old than did non-anxious controls. Further, extending the work of Lundh and Ost, signal detection analyses revealed group differences on response bias according to face type. Specifically, controls showed a response bias towards indicating that accepting faces were previously seen, whereas individuals with SP did not. Finally, signal detection analyses failed to reveal group differences in the accuracy of memory.     

This new science of ours: a more or less systematic history of consciousness and transcendence. Part II

Part I of this paper having postulated the locus of consciousness as residing in a field between primitive mind in participation mystique with the world and a transcendent ground of being, Part II takes up the nature of mind itself in this field in terms of in vivo experiences. Operations and manifestations of consciousness are inexhaustively explored in four venues: 1) Jung's life experiences, 2) Joseph Henderson's theory of psychic development, 3) Eric Voegelin's theory of consciousness and 4) the experiences of analytic patients in far reaches of very long analyses.     

蛋白质化学与分子生物学携手前进

蛋白质化学的发展历经了几次重大的转变,分析仪器的商品化使蛋白质从实验室走向市场;一级结构信息促进了多肽的合成与改造;分子生物学技术的成熟使人们从设计改造功能蛋白转向设计基因,并尝试进行基因治疗和ＤＮＡ免疫。这些转变,使蛋白质化学技术与分子生物学技术成为人们手中的工具,为人们研究生命拓宽了思路。     

Pigeons' choices in situations of diminishing returns: fixed- versus progressive-ratio schedules.

In two different discrete-trial procedures, pigeons were faced with choices between fixed-ratio and progressive-ratio schedules. The latter schedules entail diminishing returns, a feature analogous to foraging situations in the wild. In the first condition (no reset), subjects chose between a progressive-ratio schedule that increased in increments of 20 throughout a session and a fixed-ratio schedule that was constant across blocks of sessions. The size of the fixed ratio was varied parametrically through an ascending and then a descending series. In the reset condition, the same fixed-ratio values were used, but each selection (and completion) of the fixed ratio reset the progressive-ratio schedule back to its minimal value. In the no-reset procedure, the pigeons tended to cease selecting the progressive ratio when it equaled or slightly exceeded the fixed-ratio value, whereas in reset, they chose the fixed ratio well in advance of that equality point. These results indicate sensitivity to molar as well as to molecular reinforcement rates, and those molar relationships are similar to predictions based on the marginal value theorem of optimal foraging theory (e.g., Charnov, 1976). However, although previous results with monkeys (Hineline & Sodetz, 1987) appeared to minimize responses per reinforcement, the present results corresponded more closely to predictions based on sums-of-reciprocals of distance from point of choice to each of the next four reinforcers. Results obtained by Hodos and Trumbule (1967) with chimpanzees in a similar procedure were intermediate between these two relationships. Variability of choices, as well as median choice points, differed between the reset and no-reset conditions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Deformation twinning-mediated pseudoelasticity in metal–graphene nanolayered membrane

In this study, we investigated the deformation behaviour of metal–graphene nanolayered composites for five face-centred cubic metals under compression using molecular dynamics simulations. It was found that by increasing the thickness of the individual metal layers, the composite strength increased, while the deformation mechanism changed from buckling to deformation twining in Cu, Au and Ag, which was absent in the monolithic form of those metals of the same orientation and size. The deformation twinning was found to be enabled by the graphene layer, which introduced pseudoelasticity and shape memory effects in the nanolayered membrane with more than 15% recoverable compressive strain.