Following the crowd: brain substrates of long-term memory conformity

Human memory is strikingly susceptible to social influences, yet we know little about the underlying mechanisms. We examined how socially induced memory errors are generated in the brain by studying the memory of individuals exposed to recollections of others. Participants exhibited a strong tendency to conform to erroneous recollections of the group, producing both long-lasting and temporary errors, even when their initial memory was strong and accurate. Functional brain imaging revealed that social influence modified the neuronal representation of memory. Specifically, a particular brain signature of enhanced amygdala activity and enhanced amygdala-hippocampus connectivity predicted long-lasting but not temporary memory alterations. Our findings reveal how social manipulation can alter memory and extend the known functions of the amygdala to encompass socially mediated memory distortions.     

Time-critical social mobilization

The World Wide Web is commonly seen as a platform that can harness the collective abilities of large numbers of people to accomplish tasks with unprecedented speed, accuracy, and scale. To explore the Web's ability for social mobilization, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) held the DARPA Network Challenge, in which competing teams were asked to locate 10 red weather balloons placed at locations around the continental United States. Using a recursive incentive mechanism that both spread information about the task and incentivized individuals to act, our team was able to find all 10 balloons in less than 9 hours, thus winning the Challenge. We analyzed the theoretical and practical properties of this mechanism and compared it with other approaches.     

Novel endotheliotropic herpesviruses fatal for Asian and African elephants

A highly fatal hemorrhagic disease has been identified in 10 young Asian and African elephants at North American zoos. In the affected animals there was ultrastructural evidence for herpesvirus-like particles in endothelial cells of the heart, liver, and tongue. Consensus primer polymerase chain reaction combined with sequencing yielded molecular evidence that confirmed the presence of two novel but related herpesviruses associated with the disease, one in Asian elephants and another in African elephants. Otherwise healthy African elephants with external herpetic lesions yielded herpesvirus sequences identical to that found in Asian elephants with endothelial disease. This finding suggests that the Asian elephant deaths were caused by cross-species infection with a herpesvirus that is naturally latent in, but normally not lethal to, African elephants. A reciprocal relationship may exist for the African elephant disease.     

老年人防跌倒健身体操运动干预的实验研究*

目的 以核心力量训练理论为指导研制一套老年人防跌倒健身体操，并通过12周运动干预实验检验其效果。方法 以56名六七十岁老年人为研究对象。实验组分别在干预前、中(第4、8周)、后进行11项体适能测试。采用2(实验前、后)×2(实验组、对照组)重复测量的方差分析进行差异比较，并采用简单效应及多重比较检验实验组不同干预阶段的锻炼效果。结果 所有指标训练主效应×组间主效应的交互作用显著（P <0.01），且实验组所有的测试结果在干预后均有显著提高（P <0.01）,但只有在运动干预的中期阶段是所有指标均有显著提高。结论 1）12周基于核心力量训练的健身体操运动干预能有效提高老年人的平衡能力、核心肌力等，对预防老年人跌倒具有积极作用；2）运动干预的中期对于改善老年人各项体适能具有重要意义。     

A neuroligin-3 mutation implicated in autism increases inhibitory synaptic transmission in mice

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are characterized by impairments in social behaviors that are sometimes coupled to specialized cognitive abilities. A small percentage of ASD patients carry mutations in genes encoding neuroligins, which are postsynaptic cell-adhesion molecules. We introduced one of these mutations into mice: the Arg451-->Cys451 (R451C) substitution in neuroligin-3. R451C mutant mice showed impaired social interactions but enhanced spatial learning abilities. Unexpectedly, these behavioral changes were accompanied by an increase in inhibitory synaptic transmission with no apparent effect on excitatory synapses. Deletion of neuroligin-3, in contrast, did not cause such changes, indicating that the R451C substitution represents a gain-of-function mutation. These data suggest that increased inhibitory synaptic transmission may contribute to human ASDs and that the R451C knockin mice may be a useful model for studying autism-related behaviors.     

兽医生物制品学实验教学的改革设计与实践研究

通过对兽医生物制品学实验教学的深入研究,严格按照农业高校专业人才培养教学计划的要求,独立进行了实验教学的改革设计与实践研究,提高了学生对兽医生物制品学及其他相关课程的理论知识和实践技能的掌握应用能力,提高了学生就业的职业能力,因而显著提高了教学效果,也为其他课程的实验教学改革提供参考。     

Social components of fitness in primate groups

There is much interest in the evolutionary forces that favored the evolution of large brains in the primate order. The social brain hypothesis posits that selection has favored larger brains and more complex cognitive capacities as a means to cope with the challenges of social life. The hypothesis is supported by evidence that shows that group size is linked to various measures of brain size. But it has not been clear how cognitive complexity confers fitness advantages on individuals. Research in the field and laboratory shows that sophisticated social cognition underlies social behavior in primate groups. Moreover, a growing body of evidence suggests that the quality of social relationships has measurable fitness consequences for individuals.     

Redistributing work in aging Europe

As Europe ages, the proportion of people who work will decline unless older individuals remain in the labor force. Such reform could be part of a more general redistribution of work. If a greater share of the population worked, then the average number of hours worked per week could be reduced. This could particularly help younger people and increase Europe's low birth rates. The challenges facing Germany, Europe's most populous country, are highlighted, but statistics are also given for five other European countries and, for comparison, the United States. Social science research is needed to provide policy-relevant knowledge about life-course options.     

"合作学习"在数学教学中的实证研究

采用教学实验法,在计算机专业学生中进行“合作学习”教学实验。结果表明,采用合作学习教学模式教学的实验班经过一年教学实验后,在知识技能的掌握方面明显优于对照班;实验班学生对数学的兴趣明显提高,亲和力、沟通能力、责任感、协作能力、互动能力和自尊心明显增强。     

The coevolution of cultural groups and ingroup favoritism

Cultural boundaries have often been the basis for discrimination, nationalism, religious wars, and genocide. Little is known, however, about how cultural groups form or the evolutionary forces behind group affiliation and ingroup favoritism. Hence, we examine these forces experimentally and show that arbitrary symbolic markers, though initially meaningless, evolve to play a key role in cultural group formation and ingroup favoritism because they enable a population of heterogeneous individuals to solve important coordination problems. This process requires that individuals differ in some critical but unobservable way and that their markers be freely and flexibly chosen. If these conditions are met, markers become accurate predictors of behavior. The resulting social environment includes strong incentives to bias interactions toward others with the same marker, and subjects accordingly show strong ingroup favoritism. When markers do not acquire meaning as accurate predictors of behavior, players show a markedly reduced taste for ingroup favoritism. Our results support the prominent evolutionary hypothesis that cultural processes can reshape the selective pressures facing individuals and so favor the evolution of behavioral traits not previously advantaged.     

Human voice recognition depends on language ability

The ability to recognize people by their voice is an important social behavior. Individuals differ in how they pronounce words, and listeners may take advantage of language-specific knowledge of speech phonology to facilitate recognizing voices. Impaired phonological processing is characteristic of dyslexia and thought to be a basis for difficulty in learning to read. We tested voice-recognition abilities of dyslexic and control listeners for voices speaking listeners' native language or an unfamiliar language. Individuals with dyslexia exhibited impaired voice-recognition abilities compared with controls only for voices speaking their native language. These results demonstrate the importance of linguistic representations for voice recognition. Humans appear to identify voices by making comparisons between talkers' pronunciations of words and listeners' stored abstract representations of the sounds in those words.     

Identifying influential and susceptible members of social networks

Identifying social influence in networks is critical to understanding how behaviors spread. We present a method that uses in vivo randomized experimentation to identify influence and susceptibility in networks while avoiding the biases inherent in traditional estimates of social contagion. Estimation in a representative sample of 1.3 million Facebook users showed that younger users are more susceptible to influence than older users, men are more influential than women, women influence men more than they influence other women, and married individuals are the least susceptible to influence in the decision to adopt the product offered. Analysis of influence and susceptibility together with network structure revealed that influential individuals are less susceptible to influence than noninfluential individuals and that they cluster in the network while susceptible individuals do not, which suggests that influential people with influential friends may be instrumental in the spread of this product in the network.     

类pinterest模式图片数据库建设研究——以专家学者图片数据库为例

文章阐述基于社交媒体的类pinterest交互模式进行图片数据库建设的思路。在开源社交网络平台上,以类pinterest软件搭建图片数据库平台,以此建立专家学者图片库群,建站者可以轻松构建一个以学者网络关系为核心的交互网络,建站者可以有序的组织图片的上传、布局、展示,站点用户可以通过图片墙等功能模块修订、记录、展示、上传、分享自己拥有的图片,同时了解知识好友图片动态,获取和补充网络性的图片知识源。     

The role of social groups in the persistence of learned fear

Classical fear conditioning investigates how animals learn to associate environmental stimuli with an aversive event. We examined how the mechanisms of fear conditioning apply when humans learn to associate social ingroup and outgroup members with a fearful event, with the goal of advancing our understanding of basic learning theory and social group interaction. Primates more readily associate stimuli from certain fear-relevant natural categories, such as snakes, with a negative outcome relative to stimuli from fear-irrelevant categories, such as birds. We assessed whether this bias in fear conditioning extends to social groups defined by race. Our results indicate that individuals from a racial group other than one's own are more readily associated with an aversive stimulus than individuals of one's own race, among both white and black Americans. This prepared fear response might be reduced by close, positive interracial contact.     

公共财政支出与农民增收的实证分析

从公共财政支出视角来看,制约农民收入增长的因素主要有：（1）落后的基础教育,制约了农民智力素质的提升;（2）落后的交通环境和市场交易环境袁使农村发展面临较高的成本;（3）水利设施严重不足,降低了民族地区农村抵御自然灾害的能力,使农业生产面临较大风险。从理论上来看,公共财政支出对农民收入的影响是通过两大途径发挥作用的：（1）通过社会支出提高农民的健康水平和知识水平,从而增加农民的人力资本积累,增强农民的自我发展能力,提升农民获得更多收入的机会和能力,而且社会支出还通过再分配途径为那些收入特别低下的农民提升社会保障;（2）通过投资于农业、农村基础设施和农业科技,从而促进农业经济增长。利用我国1978-2009年有关统计资料进行实证分析,结果表明,公共财政支出对农业增收有较大影响。因此,促进农民增收、缩小城乡差异的一个重要途径就是加大对农业的财政支持。     

浅谈教学秘书的知识结构、修养和才能

高等学校应有一批具有一定水平、一定素质与修养的教学秘书。面对管理科学的日新月异和日益繁重的工作量，教学秘书必须不断学习，充实完善自我，提高应具备的知识结构、修养和才能。     

农科高校研究生服务社会能力研究——以中国农业大学为例

农科高校研究生在服务社会方面发挥着重要作用.研究生的社会服务包含传播新理念、提供新信息、收集新问题、指导新技术四个方面.与此相应的是研究生需要有知识理论的储备、调查研究能力、信息搜集处理能力与新技术应用能力.最后,以中国农业大学的实践为例,探讨了提升研究生服务社会能力的具体方法.     

农民创业能力评价与比较

基于蒂蒙斯-克里斯蒂安创业过程等相关理论及文献,结合浙江省实地访谈和问卷调查相关数据,构建了农民创业能力评价指标体系,并将农民创业分为农产品生产为主、农产品加工为主、农产品销售为主和其他等4种类型,比较了不同类型农民创业者创业能力差异并分析了差异原因。结果表明:由于农民社会网络、知识体系以及思想观念等局限,农民创业能力总体偏低,得分最高的是资源整合能力、最低的是机会识别能力,而创业能力可以通过系统教育、学习、交流等形式加以培养和提升,但对不同类别农民创业能力提升在内容和方法上要有差异性,特别是得分较低的能力要针对性的培养,以提升农民创业整体能力。本研究完善了农民创业能力评价理论基础,为政府及农民自身针对不同类型农民创业者提升其创业能力提供理论依据和实践指导。     

浅谈动物科学系本科生的培养规格及措施保证

伴随着我国的社会进步及高等教育的不断发展,我系的学生特点也发生了相应的变化.为了更好地完成社会需要的复合型本科专业人才的培养任务,动物科学及动物医学专业的教学均有必要进一步加强学生吃苦耐劳精神、实践动手能力、综合获取知识能力及开拓意识的培养,以便适应专业的人才需求特点.     

中国亚洲象损害地区农户受偿意愿调查

为了保护亚洲象(Elephas maximus),解决当地农户在亚洲象对保护区周边社区的侵扰和损害的补偿标准同受偿意愿相差过大问题,使用条件价值评估法(CVM),从探查补偿的角度,以亚洲象损害地区为平台,通过入户调查的方式,了解保护区周边农户对亚洲象损害的受偿意愿(WA)。调查结果显示:69.96%的农户愿意自发保护亚洲象,而不愿意自发保护亚洲象的农户中,90.79%可以通过给予合理补偿让农户满意而支持亚洲象保护工作。如果实行农户支持的亚洲象损害补偿方案,94.1%的农户将支持亚洲象保护工作。经多元线性回归模型分析结果表明,农户的受偿意愿同被调查者家庭人口数以及亚洲象的损害额度成正相关,同被调查者居住地状况以及被调查者家庭种植橡胶数目成负相关。农户家庭对补偿政策的平均受偿意愿为:保护区内居住的1 337.30元/(年.人);保护区边缘居住的1 129.20元/(年.人);保护区外居住的921.11元/(年.人)。