The social cognition of medical knowledge, with special reference to childhood epilepsy

This paper arose out of an engagement in medical communication courses at a Gulf university. It deploys a theoretical framework derived from a (critical) sociocognitive approach to discourse analysis in order to investigate three aspects of medical discourse relating to childhood epilepsy: the cognitive processes that are entailed in relating different types of medical knowledge to their communicative context; the types of medical knowledge that are constituted in the three different text types analysed; and the relationship between these different types of medical knowledge and the discursive features of each text type. The paper argues that there is a cognitive dimension to the human experience of understanding and talking about one specialized from of medical knowledge. It recommends that texts be studied in medical communication courses not just in terms of their discrete formal features but also critically, in terms of the knowledge which they produce, transmit and reproduce

Anomalous Fisher-like zeros for the canonical partition function of noninteracting fermions

Noninteracting fermions, placed in a system with a continuous density of states, may have zeros in the $N$-fermion canonical partition function on the positive real $\beta$ axis (or very close to it), even for a small number of particles. This results in a singular free energy, and instability in other thermal properties of the system. In the context of trapped fermions in a harmonic oscillator, these zeros are shown to be unphysical. By contrast, similar bosonic calculations with continuous density of states yield sensible results.Noninteracting fermions, placed in a system with a continuous density of states yield sensible results.Comment: 5 pages and 5 figure

USING A CRIS FOR E-INFRASTRUCTURE: E-INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS

Scholarly publications are a major part of the research infrastructure. One way to make output available is to store the publications in Open Access Repositories (OAR). A Current Research Information System (CRIS) that conforms to the standard CERIF (Common European Research Information Format) could be a key component in the e-infrastructure. A CRIS provides the structure and makes it possible to interoperate the CRIS metadata at every stage of the research cycle. The international DRIVER projects are creating a European repository infrastructure. Knowledge Exchange has launched a project to develop a metadata exchange format for publications between CRIS and OAR systems

On the counterfactual nature of gambling near-misses: An experimental study

Research on gambling near-misses has shown that objectively-equivalent outcomes can yield divergent emotional and motivational responses. The subjective processing of gambling outcomes is affected substantially by close but non-obtained outcomes (i.e. counterfactuals). In the current paper, we investigate how different types of near-misses influence self-perceived luck and subsequent betting behavior in a wheel-of-fortune task. We investigate the counterfactual mechanism of these effects by testing the relationship with a second task measuring regret/relief processing. Across two experiments (Experiment 1, $\textit{n}$ = 51; Experiment 2, $\textit{n}$ = 104), we demonstrate that near-wins (neutral outcomes that a reclose to a jackpot) decreased self-perceived luck, whereas near-losses (neutral outcomes that are close to a major penalty) increased luck ratings. The effects of near-misses varied by near-miss position (i.e. whether the spinner stopped just short of, or passed through, the counterfactual outcome), consistent with established distinctions between upward versus downward, and additive versus subtractive, counterfactual thinking. In Experiment 1, individuals who showed stronger counterfactual processing on the regret/relief task were more responsive to near-wins and near-losses on the wheel-of-fortune task. The effect of near-miss position was attenuated when the anticipatory phase (i.e. the spin and deceleration) was removed in Experiment 2. Further differences were observed within the objective gains and losses, between “clear” and “narrow” outcomes. Taken together, these results help substantiate the counterfactual mechanism of near-misses.This work was completed within the University of Cambridge Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute (director: TW Robbins), supported by a consortium award from the Medical Research Council (MRC Ref G1000183) and Wellcome Trust (WT Ref 093875/Z/10/Z). YW was supported by Shenzhen University Research Fund (701/00036973), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31600923, 31271088) and the Treherne Studentship in Biological Sciences from Downing College, Cambridge. The Centre for Gambling Research at UBC (LC) is supported by funding from the British Columbia Lottery Corporation and the Province of British Columbia

Atomic quasi-Bragg diffraction in a magnetic field

We report on a new technique to split an atomic beam coherently with an easily adjustable splitting angle. In our experiment metastable helium atoms in the |{1s2s}^3S_1 M=1> state diffract from a polarization gradient light field formed by counterpropagating \sigma^+ and \sigma^- polarized laser beams in the presence of a homogeneous magnetic field. In the near-adiabatic regime, energy conservation allows the resonant exchange between magnetic energy and kinetic energy. As a consequence, symmetric diffraction of |M=0> or |M=-1> atoms in a single order is achieved, where the order can be chosen freely by tuning the magnetic field. We present experimental results up to 6th order diffraction (24 \hbar k momentum splitting, i.e., 2.21 m/s in transverse velocity) and present a simple theoretical model that stresses the similarity with conventional Bragg scattering. The resulting device constitutes a flexible, adjustable, large-angle, three-way coherent atomic beam splitter with many potential applications in atom optics and atom interferometry.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Царський і республіканський Рим в антикознавчих дослідженнях М.П. Драгоманова

У статті розглянуто особливості вивчення та рецепції римської історії VIII–I ст. до н. е. в антикознавчих студіях М. Драгоманова. Зроблено висновок, що дослідження М. Драгоманова з історії Риму вплинули на формування наукових і суспільно-політичних поглядів вченого, а також Лесі Українки та І. Франка.In the article peculiarities of study and reception of Roman history VIII–I centuries B.C. in M. Drahomanov’s classical researches are highlighted. The author concludes that M. Drahomanov’s Roman classical studies influenced on formation of scientific and political views of M. Drahomanov, Lesya Ukrainka, I. Franko