How much self-presentation behavior do applicants from the United Arab Emirates exhibit?

Applicants from different cultures vary in their self-presentation behavior during job interviews. This study investigates self-presentation behavior in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the second largest economy in the Arab world. Specifically, it examines self-presentation behavior of applicants from the UAE and compares it to the behavior of American, European, and Chinese applicants from previous studies. The randomized response technique was used to gather self-presentation prevalence data of 111 UAE applicants regarding self-presentation behavior in their last job interview. Prevalence rates were lower than those from the United States and from China but higher than those from Iceland and from Switzerland. Results indicate that though UAE culture values modesty, UAE applicants still engage in distinct self-presentation behavior.     

Effects of Acute Stress or Centrally Injected Interleukin-1beta on Neuropeptide Expression in the Immune System

Acute stress stimulates the expression and release of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) from the hypothalamus, and the pro-opiomelanocortin products beta-endorphin and ACTH from the anterior pituitary. These neuropeptides are also expressed in immune tissues, and it has been proposed that they may modulate immune responses to stress through paracrine mechanisms. We subjected rats to restraint stress or central injection of interleukin (IL)-1beta to determine whether these acute stimuli can alter the expression of neuropeptides in the spleen and thymus. Restraint stress significantly increased the contents of all these neuropeptides in thymic, but not splenic, extracts. A single icv injection of IL-1beta increased contents of CRH, AVP, ACTH and beta-endorphin in the spleens of both sham-operated and adrenalectomised (ADX) rats. IL-1beta increased thymic contents of CRH and ACTH in sham-operated rats but these increases were not observed in ADX rats. These results suggest that the effects of IL-1beta on neuropeptide expression in the spleen are independent of glucocorticoids, whereas IL-1beta stimulation of neuropeptide expression in the thymus is dependent on circulating glucocorticoids. There were significant correlations between increases in CRH, ACTH and beta-endorphin in the spleen, and between CRH and ACTH in the thymus, consistent with the suggestion that IL-1beta-induced increases in ACTH and beta-endorphin may be mediated through CRH. These results provide evidence that stressors can directly influence neuropeptide expression in immune tissues. Thus stress may influence immune functions through paracrine mechanisms involving locally synthesised neuropeptides as well as through activation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis.     

The Jerusalem TeleRehabilitation System, a new low-cost, haptic rehabilitation approach.

Survivors of brain injury or stroke can improve movement ability with intensive, supervised practice. Since the hours of supervised therapy with a physical or occupational therapist are limited, telerehabilitation will enable patients to greatly expand the hours that they practice therapeutic exercises. The Jerusalem TeleRehabilitation System (JTRS) consists of patient and therapist systems plus a central server and database connected via the internet. The system can work in two modes: (1) a cooperative mode in which the therapist and patient are online at the same time, and (2) a stand-alone mode in which the patient uses the system on his own. In both cases, the system will monitor the status and progress of the patient and various parameters of his movement abilities, and prepare reports for the patient and for the therapist. From the clinic, the therapist will be able to change the screen seen by the patient and change the level and types of tasks, as needed. Compared to existing systems, our system will have the following advantages: (1) inexpensive and easy to use; (2) remote monitoring and control of the patient's computer by the therapist in the clinic; (3) more detailed analysis of patient status and progress; (4) a "smart" system which self-adapts to the patient's capabilities in real time, increasing or decreasing the difficulty of the exercise as needed; and (5) a central, international database which, by gathering data on many patients over time, will provide the basis for "smart" therapy and will also facilitate coordinated multicenter research studies.     

Defining stuttering for research purposes

This is a response to a Letter to the Editor entitled “Stuttering prevalence, incidence and recovery rates depend on how we define it: Comment on Yairi & Ambrose’ article Epidemiology of Stuttering: 21st Century advances” by Paul Brocklehurst (2013). The criticism was directed specifically toward Yairi and Ambrose’ conclusions, based on review of recent studies, regarding the incidence and prevalence of stuttering. In this response, Brocklehurst's arguments and suggestions of criteria for incidence research are discussed and negated.     

Matters temporal

Current evidence suggests that neural Hebbian learning in cortical and hippocampal synapses is fundamentally predictive rather than conventionally correlational. Much attention is focussing on what sort of predictions are acquired, and in what neural architectures. A recent paper by Rao and Sejnowski has suggested an interesting interpretation in terms of a popular predictive algorithm that has roots in psychology, computer science and engineering.     

An analysis of speech disfluencies in down''s syndrome and in normally intelligent subjects

Spontaneous speech samples were obtained from 19 institutionalized mongoloids and from 19 normally intelligent individuals. All subjects were evaluated by a panel of speech pathologists to be nonstutterers. Subjects' speech samples were analyzed to determine (a) frequency of occurance of seven disfluency categories per 100 words spoken, (b) the proportion of each category in the total number of disfluencies. Statistically significant differences indicated that the mongoloids were more disfluent both absolutely and relatively, on categories that have been regarded as most typical to speech of stutterers. Interpretations were made to reflect on factors which may enhance the high prevalence of stuttering among Down's Syndrome patients.     

What children infer from social categories

Children hold the belief that social categories have essences. We investigated what kinds of properties children feel licensed to infer about a person based on social category membership. Seventy-two 4-6-year-olds were introduced to novel social categories defined as having one internal - psychological or biological - and one external - behavioral or physical - property. For half of the participants, the internal property was described as causing the external one; for the others, no causal relationship between properties was mentioned. Children were asked to choose as a novel exemplar of a category one with only the internal or only the external property. Children inferred that exemplars had a psychological property irrespective of causal status, but they inferred the presence of a biological property only when described as causal. Children did not draw systematic inferences regarding either of the two external properties. These findings indicate that children treat psychological and causal properties as central - and perhaps essential - to human kinds.