Discourse on medicine: meditative and calculative approaches to ethics from an international perspective

Heidegger’s two modes of thinking, calculative and meditative, were used as the thematic basis for this qualitative study of physicians from seven countries (Canada, China, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, & Thailand). Focus groups were conducted in each country with 69 physicians who cared for the elderly. Results suggest that physicians perceived ethical issues primarily through the lens of calculative thinking (76%) with emphasis on economic concerns. Meditative responses represented 24% of the statements and were mostly generated by Canadian physicians whose patients typically were not faced with economic barriers to treatment due to Canada’s universal health care system.     

Ethical Perceptions of Field Sales Personnel: An Empirical Assessment

Much research attention has been directed over the past twenty-five years to ethical issues in marketing. One area of marketing that is gaining research interest is the selling arena. Despite the extant literature on selling ethics, few studies have focused on identifying situations that pose ethical problems for field sales personnel. This paper reports results of an investigation that examined salespeople's perceptions concerning what selling situations or practices are ethical questions, what situations are presently addressed by company policies, and what situations should be addressed by company policies. Findings reveal that salespersons seemingly are desirous of receiving more management guidance than they currently are receiving regarding their ethical concerns. Implications for managers and researchers are provided.     

Perceptions of Motivational Components: Salesmen and Saleswomen Revisited

Although empirical work has examined differences between salesmen and saleswomen on various aspects, no comprehensive study has examined gender-based distinctions in salespeople's work motivation. The paucity of research attention on this topic is surprising given the plethora of literature in organizational behavior. This paper reports the results of an investigation that explored male and female salespeople's perceptions of expectancies, instrumentalities, and valence for rewards. Findings reveal minimal contrast between the two groups. Implications for practitioners and researchers are provided.     

Modality of postural movement in men and women with both arms flexed during standing.

We investigated postural movement associated with bilateral arm flexion in response to a light signal during standing in 179 healthy men and women to assess whether individual and sex differences arc evident in the postural movement pattern. The following results were obtained. (a) A correlation of -.87 was noted between movement angles of the foot-leg and leg-trunk. (b) Individual differences in movement angle were approximately twice as large in the hip joint as in the ankle and knee joints, and the movement angle of the leg trunk showed approximately half the number of extension as flexion movements. (c) The postural movement pattern was categorized on the basis of the movement angle of the foot leg and leg trunk into the following three patterns: hip flexion, backward leaning, and hip extension. The percentages of subjects showing these patterns were 59.2%, 33.5%, and 7.3%, respectively. (d) The inclination angle reflecting the righting response showed a gradual increase in size in the order of trunk, head, and neck. However, the righting response was not controlled precisely enough to enable subjects to maintain the inclination angle in a quiet standing posture. (e) We identified a significant sex difference in the relative frequency of subjects in the postural movement pattern.     

Sense of agency over thought: external misattribution of thought in a memory task and proneness to auditory hallucination

Previous studies have suggested that auditory hallucination is closely related to thought insertion. In this study, we investigated the relationship between the external misattribution of thought and auditory hallucination-like experiences. We used the AHES-17, which measures auditory hallucination-like experiences in normal, healthy people, and the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm, in which false alarms of critical lure are regarded as spontaneous external misattribution of thought. We found that critical lures elicited increased the number of false alarms as AHES-17 scores increased and that scores of AHES-17 predicted the rate of false memory of critical lures. Furthermore, we revealed that the relationship between AHES-17 scores and the rates of false alarms to critical lures was strictly linear. Therefore, it might be said that individual differences in auditory hallucination-like experiences are highly related to the external misattribution of thought. We discussed these results from the perspective of the sense of agency over thought.     

Control of lateral weight-transfer initiation during sitting

Whereas many researchers have examined the transition from quiet posture to dynamic state, study of the initiation of lateral weight-transfer during sitting has only begun recently. This action is included in many tasks performed in our daily living, i.e., reaching, dressing, looking backwards, lying down, and shuffling the buttocks. The present study was designed to describe lateral weight-transfer movements of healthy adults, kinematically and kinetically, and to clarify the strategies and speed dependency of lateral weight-transfer initiation during sitting. Seven healthy Japanese male students without orthopaedic or neurological disorders participated. Their lateral weight-transfer movements were measured during sitting, using two force platforms and a 3-dimensional analysis system. Analysis showed that there appear to be two strategies for the initiation of the task: one is the lateral bending of trunk toward the weight-transfer side, and the other is a coordinated reciprocal leg action of both legs. A combination of these strategies is used in a trade-off fashion during natural motions. These results are clinically important for the assessment and therapy of patients with sitting problems.     

Perceptibility of body position in anteroposterior direction while standing with eyes closed.

The perception of body position in the anteroposterior direction was investigated by evaluating the reproducibility of the position from a quiet standing posture to forward or backward leaning posture with eyes closed. The subjects were 10 healthy male undergraduates, aged 20 to 28 years. The standing position was represented by the pressure center of the foot, which was shown by the relative distance (%) from the heel to the length of the foot. The reference positions of the pressure center of the foot were set at 10% increments from 20 to 80% of the length of the foot. The subjects attempted to reproduce each reference position 10 times, and the absolute and constant errors of the reproduced position were analyzed. The absolute errors at reference positions of 30 to 60% were distinctly larger than those at the other reference positions. This indicated that the perception of standing positions from 30 to 60% was less accurate. The constant errors at the reference positions of 40 to 60% were significantly positive, which meant that the reproduced position was located farther forward than the reference position.     

Should We Aim to Create a Perfect Healthy Utopia? Discussions of Ethical Issues Surrounding the World of Project Itoh’s Harmony

Science and Engineering Ethics - To consider whether or not we should aim to create a perfect healthy utopia on Earth, we focus on the SF novel Harmony (2008), written by Japanese writer Project...     

Dopamine D1 receptors regulate protein synthesis-dependent long-term recognition memory via extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 in the prefrontal cortex

Several lines of evidence suggest that extracellular signal-regulated kinase1/2 (ERK1/2) and dopaminergic system is involved in learning and memory. However, it remains to be determined if the dopaminergic system and ERK1/2 pathway contribute to cognitive function in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The amount of phosphorylated ERK1/2 was increased in the PFC immediately after exposure to novel objects in the training session of the novel object recognition test. An inhibitor of ERK kinase impaired long-term recognition memory 24 h after the training although short-term memory tested 1 h after the training was not affected by the treatment. The dopamine D1 receptor agonist increased ERK1/2 phosphorylation in the PFC in vivo as well as in cortical neurons in vitro. Microinjection of the dopamine D1 receptor antagonist into the PFC impaired long-term recognition memory whereas the D2 receptor antagonist had no effect. Immunohistochemistry revealed that exposure to novel objects resulted in an increase in c-Fos expression in the PFC. Microinjection of the protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin into the PFC impaired the long-term recognition memory. These results suggest that the activation of ERK1/2 following the stimulation of dopamine D1 receptors is necessary for the protein synthesis-dependent long-term retention of recognition memory in the PFC.     

A cross‐cultural study of environmental belief structures in USA,Japan, Mexico,and Peru

Throughout history, the way in which people conceive nature/human relationships has dramatically changed, and different cultures also have divergent notions regarding the role humans play in nature. In Western societies a “new environmental paradigm” (NEP) of ecological nature has apparently replaced the old “human exception paradigm” (HEP), which conceives of humans as being superior and apart from nature. Previous research has shown that, in those societies, a marked dichotomy exist between these two apparently contradictory paradigms, meaning that people who accept the NEP reject the HEP. Countries other than Western ones also exhibit a bias towards the ecological paradigm; however, their world‐views are not necessarily dualistic, since they may adhere to the NEP and, simultaneously, believe that human beings are “special.” This study compares world‐views in four different countries. Responses of 1358 undergraduates from USA, Japan, Mexico, and Peru to the HEP and the NEP scale were analysed to see if they confirmed three factors previously found: (1) a vision of separation from nature (HEP), (2) a necessary “balance” between human needs and nature preservation, and (3) the need to impose “limits” on the human impact on nature. This trifactorial structure was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. USA students exhibited two dimensions (HEP‐NEP) and the other samples showed the expected three factors, although they intercorrelated differentially, depending on the national sample. In all samples “balance” and “limits” were positively correlated. In the Peruvian and Japanese samples the HEP and “balance” were negatively correlated while the USA sample produced a negative covariance between HEP and NEP. In the Japanese sample HEP and “limits” were uncorrelated but in Peru these factors covaried negatively, while in the Mexican sample they were positively correlated. The HEP‐NEP two‐factor structure would seem to be limited to Western nations. More countries need to be measured.