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Clear-cut Distinction (clear-cut + distinction)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Life Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Two Kinds of Creativity , But Which Ones?

CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2004
Geir Kaufmann
It is argued that Kirton's theory of styles of creativity is conceptually and methodologically unsound. A solution to the conceptual and methodological dilemmas is offered by way of making a clear-cut distinction between novelty on the stimulus and novelty on the response side. This distinction is used as a platform for the development of a new taxonomy of different kinds of creativity and intelligent behaviour. A major feature of this new model is the distinction made between proactive and reactive creativity. The implications of this distinction for opening new avenues for a more differentiated assessment of creativity, as well as for the development of a conceptually firmer and more differentiated platform for developing new practical training programmes in creativity are suggested. [source]

The dimensionality of alcohol use disorders and alcohol consumption in a cross-national perspective

ADDICTION, Issue 2 2010
Guilherme Borges
ABSTRACT Aims To replicate the finding that there is a single dimension trait in alcohol use disorders and to test whether the usual 5+ drinks for men and 4+ drinks for women and other measures of alcohol consumption help to improve alcohol use disorder criteria in a series of diverse patients from emergency departments (EDs) in four countries. Design Cross-sectional surveys of patients aged 18 years and older that reflected consecutive arrival at the ED. The Composite International Diagnostic Interview Core was used to obtain a diagnosis of DSM-IV alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse; quantity and frequency of drinking and drunkenness as well as usual number of drinks consumed during the last year. Setting Participants were 5195 injured and non-injured patients attending seven EDs in four countries: Argentina, Mexico, Poland and the United States (between 1995,2001). Findings Using exploratory factor analyses alcohol use disorders can be described as a single, unidimensional continuum without any clear-cut distinction between the criteria for dependence and abuse in all sites. Results from item response theory analyses showed that the current DSM-IV criteria tap people in the middle,upper end of the alcohol use disorder continuum. Alcohol consumption (amount and frequency of use) can be used in all EDs with the current DSM-IV diagnostic criteria to help tap the middle,lower part of this continuum. Even though some specific diagnostic criteria and some alcohol consumption variables showed differential item function across sites, test response curves were invariant for ED sites and their inclusion would not impact the final (total) performance of the diagnostic system. Conclusions DSM-IV abuse and dependence form a unidimensional continuum in ED patients regardless of country of survey. Alcohol consumption variables, if added, would help to tap patients with more moderate severity. The DSM diagnostic system for alcohol use disorders showed invariance and performed extremely well in these samples. [source]

Architecture of the nervous system in mystacocarida (Arthropoda, crustacea),An immunohistochemical study and 3D reconstruction

JOURNAL OF MORPHOLOGY, Issue 2 2010
Georg Brenneis
Abstract Mystacocarida is a species-poor group of minute crustaceans with unclear phylogenetic affinities. Previous studies have highlighted the putative "primitiveness" of several mystacocarid features, including the architecture of the nervous system. Recent studies on arthropod neuroarchitecture have provided a wealth of characters valuable for phylogenetic reconstructions. To permit and facilitate comparison with these data, we used immunohistochemical labeling (against acetylated ,-tubulin, serotonin and FMRFamide) on the mystacocarid Derocheilocaris remanei, analyzing it with confocal laser-scanning microscopy and 3D reconstruction. The mystacocarid brain is fairly elongated, exhibiting a complicated stereotypic arrangement of neurite bundles. However, none of the applied markers provided evidence of structured neuropils such as a central body or olfactory glomeruli. A completely fused subesophageal ganglion is not present, all segmental soma clusters of the respective neuromeres still being delimitable. The distinct mandibular commissure comprises neurite bundles from more anterior regions, leading us to propose that it may have fused with an ancestral posterior tritocerebral commissure. The postcephalic ventral nervous system displays a typical ladder-like structure with separated ganglia which bears some resemblance to larval stages in other crustaceans. Ganglia and commissures are also present in the first three limbless "abdominal" segments, which casts doubt on the notion of a clear-cut distinction between thorax and abdomen. An unpaired longitudinal median neurite bundle is present and discussed as a potential tetraconate autapomorphy. Additionally, a paired latero-longitudinal neurite bundle extends along the trunk. It is connected to the intersegmental nerves and most likely fulfils neurohemal functions. We report the complete absence of serotonin-ir neurons in the ventral nervous system, which is a unique condition in arthropods and herein interpreted as a derived character. J. Morphol., 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Monkeys and apes: Are their cognitive skills really so different?

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2010
Federica Amici
Abstract Differences in cognitive skills across taxa, and between monkeys and apes in particular, have been explained by different hypotheses, although these often are not supported by systematic interspecific comparisons. Here, we directly compared the cognitive performance of the four great apes and three monkey species (spider monkeys, capuchin monkeys, and long-tailed macaques), differing in their phylogenetic-relatedness and socioecology. We tested subjects on their ability to remember object locations (memory task), track object displacements (transposition task), and obtain out-of-reach rewards (support task). Our results showed no support for an overall clear-cut distinction in cognitive skills between monkeys and apes as species performance varied substantially across tasks. Although we found differences in performance at tracking object displacements between monkeys and apes, interspecific differences in the other two tasks were better explained in terms of differential socioecology, especially differential levels of fission,fusion dynamics. A cluster analysis using mean scores of each condition of the three tasks for each species suggested that the only dichotomy might be between members of the genus Pan and the rest of the tested species. These findings evidence the importance of using multiple tasks across multiple species in a comparative perspective to test different explanations for the enhancement of specific cognitive skills. Am J Phys Anthropol 143:188,197, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]