Testing the effects of end-goal during reach-to-grasp movements in Parkinson’s disease

Previous evidence suggests that hand shaping during reaching is modulated by the presence and the nature of the end-goal following object’s grasp. Here we test whether such modulation is maintained in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Six participants with PD and six healthy participants took part in the study. Participants were requested to reach towards a bottle filled with water, and then: (1) grasp it without performing any subsequent action; (2) grasp it and place it accurately on a target area; (3) grasp it and pour its contents within a container. The results showed that participants shaped their hand differently depending on the presence or absence of an action following object’s grasp. However, the request to perform an action after grasp determined a modulation of hand kinematics which was delayed for PD than for control participants. Further, whereas for control participants the nature of the end-goal determined a modulation of hand shaping, for PD patients such modulation was not evident. Data are discussed in terms of the role played by basal ganglia in implementing anticipatory mechanisms for the control of manipulative activities. We contend that in PD patients these mechanisms are not totally compromised, but their implementation depends on the action information that has to be anticipated.     

Horizontal and vertical attentional orienting in Parkinson’s disease

Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) typically suffer from an asymmetric degeneration of dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra, resulting in right-sided (RPD) or left-sided (LPD) predominance of motor symptomatology. As the dopaminergic system is also involved in attention, we examined horizontal and vertical orienting of attention in LPD (N = 10), RPD (N = 9) and controls (N = 10). Four LPD patients demonstrated left neglect and three LPD patients demonstrated neglect for the upper visual field. LPD patients demonstrated a slower performance in detecting targets in the left hemifield and did not demonstrate a validity effect, unlike RPD patients and controls. RPD patients performed similar to controls, with the exception of one patient showing left and another showing right neglect, and two RPD patients demonstrated lower neglect. In sum, horizontal and vertical orienting of attention can be affected in Parkinson’s disease – particularly in LPD – from very subtle slowing to clinically detectable horizontal and/or vertical neglect.     

Syntactic reconstruction and reanalysis,semantic dead ends,and prefrontal cortex

The left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) is crucially has been found to be involved in syntactic processing of various kinds. This study investigates the cortical effects of two types of syntactic processes: (i) Reconstruction in ellipsis (recovery of left-out material given by context, More people have been to Paris than […] to Oslo), using pseudo-elliptical structures (‘dead ends’) as control (More people have been to Paris than I have). (ii) Reanalysis in the face of structural ambiguity in syntactic ‘garden paths’, where the parser initially assigns an incorrect structure and is forced to reanalyze. Reanalysis and reconstruction require additional syntactic processing and were predicted to increase activation in areas otherwise involved in structural computation: LIFG (BA 44, 45), premotor BA 6, and posterior temporal BA 21, 22. This was borne out. The results showed an interaction effect of the types of construction in all three areas reflecting syntactic processing.     

当前中国助产土面临的困境与挑战

针对目前助产工作中出现的诸多困惑,透过现象深入思考,认为这些现象发生的原因是有关部门和管理组织对助产士工作认识模糊、内涵理解不深。助产被医疗和护理两极边缘化,简单地从属于普通护理;行业缺乏有力监督,专业缺乏特色,专业体系、继续教育缺失。     

囚徒困境决策中分离效应验证性与机制研究

Savage于1954年提出"确定事件原则"这一概念,Tversky和Slafir(1992)通过实验发现,人们在不确定条件下的决策过程中,会出现违背确定事件原则的现象,并把这种现象称为"分离效应"。尽管已经有很多对于二次赌博中分离效应的机制研究并产生很多分歧,但对于囚徒困境范式中是否存在分离效应以及其机制并没有一致的结果。本文对囚徒困境中的分离效应进行了验证性实验,虽然整体结果上与Shafir与Tversky(1992)的结论相吻合,但被试专业背景对结果有显著效应。同时,按照Lambdin和Burdsal(2007)对分离效应的操作定义,结果发现分离效应没有出现,文章对其原因进行了讨论。     

The Fortieth Anniversary of Women's Ordination in the Lutheran Church

Abstract : This article offers a perspective on the present and future roles of women in the ELCA. It gives some analysis of women's roles in the trend of declining traditional congregations and rising megachurches while imagining the role of clergywomen in the church's next forty years as new models of ministry emerge.     

In Search of a Reconciliation Between Semiotics,Thermodynamics and Metasystem Transition Theory

The disciplines of cybernetics, semiotics and thermodynamics investigate evolutionary processes quite independently from each other. The aim of this paper is to draw the parallels and point out the possibility and necessity of a reconciliation between these disciplines. The concept of metasystem transition has been proposed by Turchin as a quantum of evolution from a cybernetic point of view. Semiotic processes are of prime importance for the realisation of metasystem transitions in the course of evolution. From a thermodynamic point of view, the emergence of more complex, self-producing agents depends on the emergence of more advanced forms of semiosis. As an evolutionary consequence, more symbolic forms of semiosis that allow higher competence for abstraction and anticipation emerge.     

Optimal behavior and concurrent variable ratio-variable interval schedules

Concurrent variable ratio-variable interval (CONC VRVI) schedules of reinforcement, and the time-based analog of the same schedule (CONC VT*VT), have been used to determine if the matching law accounts for the distribution of choices between the behavior alternatives more accurately than the assumption that subjects distribute time between the alternatives to maximize total reinforcement rate. The results of those experiments leave room for interpretation. One problem is the lack of understanding of the theoretical outcomes associated with maximization in these schedules. A precise understanding of the characteristics of optimal behavior (OB) could help identify experimental evidence of OB. Here we derive equations that describe the optimal times the subject should spend on each alternative of the schedule. We provide a table of the optimal times for a wide range of parameter values of the schedule that experimenters can use to compare easily experimental results to the results expected if subjects behave optimally. We also derive a function m that relates matching and optimal performance and we prove interesting characteristics of the function. Finally, we describe features of OB with CONC VT*VT and with concurrent variable time schedules that can be used to identify evidence of OB.     

Married Women’s Situational Use of Last Names: An Empirical Study

Situational last name use was examined in a sample of 600 married women who responded to a mail survey. The sample was selected from the faculty and staff of a state university in the Midwest with over-sampling of women whose last name differed from their husband’s last name. Overall, 12% of married women reported situational last name use. Women from all last name choices (e.g., changed to husband’s, kept birth surname) reported situational surname use, but the most common occurrence of this practice was among hyphenators. Situational users were most likely to use their husband’s last name in family situations and their birth surname in professional situations. Factors that increase situational last name use included full-time employment, higher levels of educational attainment, and an older age at marriage. Situational last name use by married women can be seen as a manifestation of ambiguity over identity with family and non-family roles.     

TRANSCENDENTALISM OR EMPIRICISM? A DISCUSSION OF A PROBLEM RAISED IN E. O. WILSON'S BOOK CONSILIENCE

Abstract. E. O. Wilson writes that the “choice between transcendentalism and empiricism” is this century's “version of the struggle for men's soul” (1998, 240). The transcendentalist argues for theism—that there is a God, a creator of the world. The empiricist instead makes the point that the notion of God, including morality and ethics, are adaptive structures of human evolution. Before entering the debate of the transcendentalist/empiricist controversy I analyze how things exist and suggest that all that is exists as united diversity, as identity in difference. I argue that oneness by itself is intangible because wholes are concrete only through their tangible parts. I briefly discuss this understanding of existence in the realm of art to show that transcendence and immanence are not mutually exclusive but constitute each other. I conclude that existence, the hypostasis of unity in diversity, might be seen as a gift from absolute existence. In this view, the world might reveal itself as a gift that reflects the trinitarian existence of the Giver.