Patterns of Corporate Philanthropy: A Mandate for Reform

Corporate support for big-government liberal advocacy groups is at an all-time high. This continuing trend underscores the debate over the role of charity sparked earlier this year by the Bush Administration. This article deals with the trends in corporate giving in the US

A novel use of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott Paradigm: Distinguishing between differential memory mechanisms in emotional literature

To current knowledge, the emotional literature has not included the proposal to conceptualize experimental designs in terms of item vs. hippocampal-dependent relational memory representations. Through utilizing the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm the current study targets two memory mechanisms: item-specific memory (i.e., font color) and relational memory. In addition, relational-binding memory was also assessed. The current study consists of three hypotheses: (a) negatively-valenced critical lures will be correctly recalled by participants more than neutrally-valenced critical lures (increased relational memory for negatively-valenced words), (b) participants will more accurately recall studied negatively-valenced words with the correct color compared to neutrally-valenced studied words (increased item-specific memory for negative words), and (c) participants will less likely accurately recall negative critical lures with their correct color compared to neutral critical lures (decreased relational-binding memory for negative words). Both neutrally and negatively-valenced word lists were organized under a non-studied overarching theme (critical lure), and were counterbalanced according to the font color of the word. Once participants viewed each word list during the study phase, they participated in a recognition test in order to determine whether these two memory mechanisms were enhanced for negatively-valenced word lists compared to neutrally-valenced word lists. Results were consistent with the hypotheses in that, participants had increased relational and item-specific memory for negative words yet decreased relational-binding memory for negative words

The Use of the American Heritage New Illustrated History of the United States in an Advanced ESL Class

This report describes the American Heritage New Illustrated History of the United States, which is a sixteen-volume set of chronologically ordered books. It also presents student-teacher objectives devised for its use following a one-semester course in which it was used at the secondary level. In formulating the objectives, I attempted to devise a course very much like a regular secondary or college-level American History course in which ESL students would have an opportunity to experience something more than a superficial or cursory exposure to that history. In evaluating its use, I attempted to identify what part the books and their use might have played in helping advanced ESL students to continue to develop their language skills. An appendix which consists of teacher-prepared study guides for each volume completes the report

Chronic cocaine enhances release of neuroprotective amino acid taurine: a microdialysis study

Cocaine inhibits high-affinity neurotransmitter uptake at the presynaptic nerve terminals to increase synaptic levels of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin^1^. This increase of synaptic dopamine may cause neurotoxicity^2,3^. At least two different mechanisms have been proposed for the development of dopamine-related neurotoxicity: 1) dopamine produces a free radical that may induce cell toxicity^2,3^ and 2) dopamine reduces glutamate transport at its presynaptic sites to increase synaptic levels of this amino acid^4^ and augments glutamate transmission by activating dopamine D1 receptors in different areas of the brain^5-7^. Increase in glutamatergic transmission mediated by the activation on N-methyl dextro-aspartate (NMDA) receptors has been shown to cause excitotoxicity and neuro-degeneration^8^. Others and we have reported protection against different psychotropic drug-induced neurotoxicity that may be achieved by prior or simultaneous administration of various pharmacological agents. For example, repeated treatment of rats with haloperidol induced neuronal damage that is ameliorated by prior administration of either GM1 ganglioside^9^ or the endogenous amino acid, taurine^10^. Similarly, chronic gestational cocaine exposure causes neurotoxicity that could be prevented by co-administration of clozapine^11^. To our knowledge, there is no information if chronic cocaine would enhance release of endogenous protective agents that may oppose the over activation of glutamatergic system. Here we show that repeated cocaine treatment increased synaptic levels of the neuroprotective amino acid taurine that opposes the excessive excitatory actions of the glutamatergic system in the rat brain. Thus, mammalian brain has an auto-protective mechanism to counter excitotoxicity and taurine or its synthetic derivative may be useful in the management and treatment of cocaine addiction and its neurotoxic effect

Structural properties of the ventral reading pathways are associated with morphological processing in adult English readers

Morphological processing, the ability to extract information about word structure, is an essential component of reading. Functional MRI studies have identified several cortical regions involved in morphological processing, but the white matter pathways that support this skill remain unknown. Here, we examine the relationship between behavioral measures of morphological processing and microstructural properties of white matter pathways. Using diffusion MRI (dMRI), we identified the major ventral and dorsal reading pathways in a group of 45 adult English readers. The same participants completed a behavioral battery that included a morphological task and measures of phonological and orthographic processing. We found significant correlations between morphological processing skill and microstructural properties of the ventral, but not dorsal, pathways. These correlations were detected primarily in the left hemisphere, and remained significant after controlling for phonological or orthographic measures, suggesting some level of cognitive specificity. Morphological processing of written words thus appears to rely on ventral pathways, primarily in the left hemisphere. This finding supports the contribution of morphological processing to lexical access and comprehension of complex English words

Additive decomposability of functions over abelian groups

Abelian groups are classified by the existence of certain additive decompositions of group-valued functions of several variables with arity gap 2.Comment: 17 page