The role of mitochondria in conserved mechanisms of aging

The European research project MiMage, supported by the European Community's Sixth Framework for Research and Technological Development, focuses on elucidating the role of mitochondria in conserved mechanisms of aging. This Perspective summarizes a selection of talks presented in April 2006 at the second MiMage symposium by members from participating laboratories and invited speakers.     

新马克思主义美学的适时性

新马克思主义美学通过将审美与作为整体的社会联系起来,用一种充满活力的方式揭示了诸如艺术哲学、自然美学和日常生活审美化理论之类的美学的主要领域。它预见了艺术通过在日常生活中的实现而被扬弃,最终成为人类生活的富足状态。新马克思主义美学的主要倾向在于,根据艺术对社会导向和文化导向所产生的重要改变来讨论和阐明艺术的作用。这种对于将艺术深植于社会之中的关切,使得新马克思主义美学具有高度的适时性。新马克思主义美学的优越性,在于它看到了现代社会总是具有两面性。它之所以优于其他学派如实用主义或解释学,在于它用这样一种方式来反思艺术,即艺术既在社会领域之内又在社会领域之外而存在,艺术既是“社会事实”又是“自律的”。其中,它对自律艺术和对商业化艺术的关注,无论是在罗蒂还是在伽达默尔那里,都没有这种双重轨迹的见解。     

Stress reactions after bank robberies: Psychological and psychosomatic reaction patterns

Within a broad investigation of 221 employees reporting psychological problems after experiencing robberies in banks, data were collected on the nature and distribution of different stress symptoms. This paper deals with a factor analysis of this material as well as with a study of possible differences concerning the ability of the employees to remember these symptoms. No such differences in memory could be found in terms of time elapsed since the robbery. However, women did report more symptoms than men. The factor analysis showed that the symptoms could be described by defined groups in such a way as to present the possibility of meaningful theoretical interpretations of those groupings.     

The Efficacy of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy and Behavioral Couples Therapy: A Meta‐Analysis

Behavioral couple therapy (BCT) and emotionally focused couples therapy (EFCT) are well‐established treatments to reduce couple distress. This meta‐analysis summarizes the current state of knowledge on the efficacy of these two therapy methods by focusing on randomized controlled trials only. A literature search revealed 33 suitable primary studies (2,730 participants in total), all of them measuring relationship satisfaction. Robust‐variance random‐effects meta‐analysis revealed medium effect sizes at post‐test (overall: g = 0.60; BCT: g = 0.53; EFCT: g = 0.73) and small effect sizes of 6 months after treatment (overall: g = 0.44; BCT: g = 0.35; EFCT: g = 0.66), but these gains were not maintained after 12 months (BCT only: g = 0.06). Between the two therapy methods, no significant effect size differences could be found. Results have to be interpreted with caution due to potential publication bias.     

Childhood studies,children's politics and participation: perspectives for processes of democratisation

ABSTRACT

From the early Frankfurt School through to the work of Manuel Castells, there has been a rich body of work on the cleavage between technological and social developments of the twentieth century in respect of the consequences for the constitution of subjectivity. However, little attention is paid to the role of children during their childhoods in attempts to bridge this gap beyond discussions about the democratic actors children will become when they are adults. This paper argues that only the full integration of children, during their childhoods, into democratic development of societies will prevent the deepening of the rift between technological and social progress. The paper traces the correspondence between the new childhood studies and those concepts of politics and politicisation which can support social progress towards an emancipatory social perspective undergirded by particular and democratisation of all areas of everyday life. Drawing on Bourdieu and ideas of participation as action, the paper critically examines the various mechanisms by which children are conventionally excluded from democratic participation and then explores how a deeper consideration of agency in childhood and social actorship opens up alternative mechanisms of inclusion and the concomitant expansion of the concept of democracy.