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We conducted 2 experiments on the framing effect; recording reaction times in the first using a questionnaire and in the second using a computer-programmed procedure. We found that a positive framing effect caused participants to make faster decisions and show an intuitive, heuristic, decision-making pattern; whereas a negative framing effect caused participants to make slower decisions and show a rational, analytical, decision-making pattern. These results suggest that when decision-making time is not strictly controlled, other potential factors such as individual and cultural differences may influence the robustness of the framing effect.

To develop an effective, safe, and convenient vaccine for the prevention of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1, we have constructed a recombinant Bacillus subtilis strain (B.S.-HA) expressing the hemagglutinin (HA) protein. Then we evaluated the immune function in chicken bone marrow derived dendritic cells (BM-DCs), and the immune response after oral immunization. Our results show that the recombinant Bacillus subtilis B.S.-HA could be sampled by BM-DCs in vitro and increase the BM-DCs major histocompatibility complex (MHC) II phenotype. The weight, height of the small intestine villus, and lymphoid tissue area of the ileum increased significantly in B.S.-HA immunized chickens (P P B.S.-HA induced the secretion of cytokines and the expression of Toll-like receptors in the trachea and small intestine (P P B.S.-HA elevated the specific IgA titers in the trachea, IgG and HI antibody titers in serum (P P B.S.-HA provides a potential novel strategy and approach for developing an H5N1 vaccine.

This study aimed to explore Chinese children's social value orientation across different ages and contexts. Revised decomposed games were used to measure the social value orientation of 9-, 11-, and 14-year-old children and college students as an adult group. About half of them were assigned to the hypothetical context of "equal payment group," providing equal compensation for participation in the study, and the others to the "real payment group," who got payment according to their own choices in the games. Results showed that 9- and 11-year-old children's choices differed between the two contexts: They made more prosocial choices in the hypothetical context, and more competitive choices in the "real payment" context. The 14-year-olds' and adults' choices were not significantly different in the two contexts. These results may imply that by 14 years of age, children have stable social value orientation, and their behavior reflects this value.

Probiotics are essential for the prevention of virus invasion and the maintenance of the immune balance. However, the mechanism of competition between probiotics and virus are unknown. The objectives of this study were to isolate the surface layer (S-layer) protein from L. acidophilus ATCC 4356 as a new antiviral material, to evaluate the stimulatory effects of the S-layer protein on mouse dendritic cells (DCs) and to verify its ability to inhibit the invasion of H9N2 avian influenza virus (AIV) in DCs. We found that the S-layer protein induced DCs activation and up-regulated the IL-10 secretion. The invasion and replication of the H9N2 virus in mouse DCs was successfully demonstrated. However, the invasion of H9N2 virus into DCs could be inhibited by treatment with the S-layer protein prior to infection, which was verified by the reduced hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) mRNA expression, and nucleoprotein (NP) protein expression in the DCs. Furthermore, treatment with the S-layer protein increases the Mx1, Isg15, and Ddx58 mRNA expressions, and remits the inflammatory process to inhibit H9N2 AIV infection. In conclusion, the S-layer protein stimulates the activation of mouse DCs, inhibits H9N2 virus invasion of DCs, and stimulates the IFN-I signalling pathway. Thus, the S-layer protein from Lactobacillus is a promising biological antiviral material for AIV prevention.

This study examined judgment about punishment and whether punishment promoted cooperation in the prisoner’s dilemma game (PDG) in children with high-functioning autism (HFA) and typically developing (TD) children. In total, 66 6- to 12-year-olds participated in this study. Children were first asked about judgments regarding rewards and punishment in stories, and then they were asked to play the PDG with a partner in conditions with and without punishment. Results showed that children with HFA believed that hitting others should deserve punishment to a greater extent than TD children did. It indicated that children with HFA understood that bad acts should be punished, suggesting that these children have already acquired the general concept of “punishment.” Children displayed higher levels of cooperation in the condition with punishment than in the condition without punishment in the PDG, suggesting that punishment promoted cooperation in the PDG in both children with HFA and TD children.

The objective of this study was to construct a mammary gland specific gene targeting vector (pLG), which could help the exogenous goat growth hormone (GH) cDNA being integrated into the beta-casein locus of goats and improve the milk production of goat. We cloned the 5' and 3' regulatory sequences of goat's beta-casein gene as homologous arms and inserted them into the Not I/Xho I and Sal I/Cla I multiple clone sites (MCS) of pLoxp II vector respectively, then inserted the GH cDNA into the Xho I MCS of pLoxp II vector and finally got the gene targeting vector pLG. The expression of GH in Bcap-37 cells transfected with plasmid pLG (14.52 ng/mL) was two times higher than that of cells untreated (7.10 ng/mL). While the GH expression of goats injected with plasmid pLG (7.54 ng/mL) was higher than goats untreated or injected with normal saline (6.64 and 6.78 ng/mL). We successfully constructed the mammary gland specific beta-casein gene targeting vector pLG exhibiting bioactivity of transcription and expression of GH both in vitro and in vivo.

We investigated Chinese consumers' perceptions of price fairness by introducing the type of firm ownership (state-owned monopoly, and non-state-owned corporation) as an independent variable, to investigate whether or not people's feelings of price fairness differ between stateand non-state-owned firms. Results showed that our participants tended to accept price rise because of cost increase, but not price rise because of an increase in demand. Participants also regarded as unfair the price remaining high when cost decreased. Auction in the situation of shortage of goods, was also regarded as unfair. State-owned monopolies raising their prices was viewed by participants as being more unfair than a price rise by a non-state-owned corporation.

The development of theory of mind (ToM) was investigated as flexibility of prediction and decision-making in matrix games with 202 13-, 16-, 19-, and 24-year-old participants. The ToM flexibility of prediction and decision-making showed no significant differences among any age group. The ToM flexibility of prediction and decision-making of the 0th-order partner was better than that of the 1st-order partner. The ToM flexibility of prediction was better than the ToM flexibility of decision making. Matrix games are a feasible, effective, and discriminative way to explore higher levels of theory of mind.

Research based on naturalistic and checklist methods has revealed differences between English and Chinese monolingual children in their trajectories of learning nouns and verbs. However, studies based on controlled laboratory designs (e.g., Imai et al., 2008) have yielded a more mixed picture. Guided by a multidimensional view of word learning (in which different mechanisms are weighted and recruited to different extents over development), we examined English- and Mandarin-learning infants' (n = 128) ability to map novel labels to unfamiliar actions and objects. Findings reveal cross-linguistic variations in the mapping of words to actions versus objects that are consistent with those found previously with naturalistic and checklist methods. Specifically, English learners were able to map novel labels to both actions and objects at 18 months but to neither actions nor objects at 14 months. In an identical experimental paradigm, Mandarin learners at both 14 and 18 months of age were able to map novel labels to actions but not to objects. Similar patterns were found when infants were grouped based on their vocabulary size. Combined results lend support for a dynamic view of word learning that take into account multiple mechanisms interacting across developmental time with important cultural constraints.

We investigated how 3-7-year-olds weigh and coordinate information about specific mental states with social norms in the domain of contextually conventional rules. With increasing age, participants increasingly took into account an actor's mental state to predict that actor's behavior. In a criticism judgment task, 7-year-olds could assign criticism conditional on mental state, with response patterns similar to those of adults; 5-year-olds assigned criticism regardless of the actor's mental state. Three-year-olds tended not to assign criticism at all, irrespective of the actor's mental state. Results indicated that the ability to weigh and coordinate information about mental states with understanding of norms depends on age and on the particular type of judgment being made. To some extent, our results may also reflect the influence of culture and parenting. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This study examined the neural basis of framing effects using life-death decision problems framed either positively in terms of lives saved or negatively in terms of lives lost in large group and small group contexts. Using functional MRI we found differential brain activations to the verbal and social cues embedded in the choice problems. In large group contexts, framing effects were significant where participants were more risk seeking under the negative (loss) framing than under the positive (gain) framing. This behavioral difference in risk preference was mainly regulated by the activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus, including the homologue of the Broca's area. In contrast, framing effects diminished in small group contexts while the insula and parietal lobe in the right hemisphere were distinctively activated, suggesting an important role of emotion in switching choice preference from an indecisive mode to a more consistent risk-taking inclination, governed by a kith-and-kin decision rationality.

Piglet diarrhea causes large economic losses to the swine industry. Epidemiological investigations show that piglet diarrhea is often caused by mixed infections, but the mechanisms by which multiple microorganisms cause disease are unclear. Because transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli K88 (ETEC K88) are important contributors to piglet diarrhea, coinfection experiments were conducted using porcine intestinal columnar epithelial cells (IPEC-J2) as a model system. LC–MS/MS coupled to iTRAQ was used to profile expressed proteins in IPEC-J2 cells infected by TGEV alone, ETEC K88 alone, and by both agents together. We identified 77, 89, and 136 differentially expressed proteins in TGEV infected, ETEC K88 infected, and coinfected cells, respectively. Based on these data, we suspected that integrin α5 might enable TGEV to promote ETEC K88 adhesion. In TGEV pre-infected IPEC-J2 cells, ETEC K88 adhesion was enhanced over uninfected cells. ETEC K88 was also found to inhibit the proliferation of TGEV. Additionally, cytokine levels (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-α) in coinfected cells were lower than cells infected by TGEV alone, and higher than cells infected by ETEC K88 alone. Our study is the first to analyze piglet diarrhea caused by TGEV-ETEC K88 coinfection using high-throughput quantitative proteomics. The results advance our understanding of coinfection and its role in causing piglet diarrhea. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

The study explored how Chinese children spontaneously explained the causes of illness. Two groups of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children from different socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds were recruited, with 30 children in each age group. A group of 30 college students were also recruited and their responses compared to those produced by the children. Participants’ responses were coded as belonging to one of five mutually exclusive categories: psychogenic, biological, behavioral, symptomatic, or other. Results indicated that children’s causal explanations were mostly behavioral and symptomatic, with more biological explanations for older children than for younger. In contrast, adults’ explanations were mostly biological and psychogenic. Although adults were influenced by concepts in Chinese traditional medicine that tie negative emotions to illness, Chinese children did not mention emotional causes for illness. Nonetheless, Chinese children also offered some explanations based on concepts of “wind” and “cold,” which may be a result of cultural experience with some aspects of traditional Chinese medicine.

This study contributes to the critical need for safety assessment tools for existing reinforced concrete structures. Of particular concern is the possibility of collapse due to shear failure followed by axial failure of columns supporting gravity loads. This is a potential threat to a number of existing buildings in seismically active regions. Due to unavoidable uncertainties, drift capacity predictions can only be made in a probabilistic manner. This is addressed by the development of probabilistic drift capacity models at two performance levels: lateral strength degradation and axial load failure. First, a classification method is proposed to approximately distinguish between shear-dominated columns and flexure-dominated columns. Second, for each type of column, a probabilistic shear capacity model is developed by applying an existing Bayesian methodology to an experimental database. The focus of the presentation is on the physical insight gained from the model development. Third, a probabilistic model ...

Prior research demonstrates that understanding of theory of mind develops at different paces in children raised in different cultures. Are these differences simply differences in timing, or do they represent different patterns of cultural learning? That is, to what extent are sequences of theory-of-mind understanding universal, and to what extent are they culture-specific? We addressed these questions by using a theory-of-mind scale to examine performance of 140 Chinese children living in Beijing and to compare their performance with that of 135 English-speaking children living in the United States and Australia. Results reveal a common sequence of understanding, as well as sociocultural differences in children's developing theories of mind.

Timolol has been demonstrated to be efficacious in the topical treatment of superficial infantile hemangiomas (IHs). We conducted a prospective study to evaluate the short-term efficacy and safety of timolol in the treatment of superficial IH in Chinese infants. From March to November 2012, 124 patients with superficial IHs were included in the prospective study. The patients were divided into two groups: treatment (101 patients, the timolol drops were administered on the surface of the lesions three times daily, and erythromycin ointment was applied around the lesions) and observation (23 patients, without treatment). The results were categorized into three grades: class 1 (ineffective), class 2 (controlled growth) and class 3 (promoted regression). Within one week of the initiation of timolol treatment, a number of the lesions became softer and lighter in color. Four months following the initiation of timolol treatment, the overall response was class 1 in eight patients (7.9%), class 2 in 36 patients (35.6%) and class 3 in 57 patients (56.4%). Complete tumor regression was observed in 12 patients. No adverse effects were recorded during the treatment period. Among the patients in the observation group, there were 15 class 1 patients (65.2%), seven class 2 patients (30.4%) and only one class 3 patient (4.3%). In conclusion, timolol is an effective and safe treatment for superficial IH. In addition, it may be used in the treatment of proliferative superficial IH, particularly in infants within 6 months of age.

Background Porcine circovirus-associated disease (PCVAD) is caused by a small pathogenic DNA virus, Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2), and is responsible for severe economic losses. PCV2-associated enteritis appears to be a distinct clinical manifestation of PCV2. Most studies of swine enteritis have been performed in animal infection models, but none have been conducted in vitro using cell lines of porcine intestinal origin. An in vitro system would be particularly useful for investigating microfilaments, which are likely to be involved in every stage of the viral lifecycle. Methods We confirmed that PCV2 infects the intestinal porcine epithelial cell line IPEC-J2 by means of indirect immunofluorescence, transmission electron microscopy, flow cytometry and qRT-PCR. PCV2 influence on microfilaments in IPEC-J2 cells was detected by fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry. We used Cytochalasin D or Cucurbitacin E to reorganize microfilaments, and observed changes in PCV2 invasion, replication and release in IPEC-J2 cells by qRT-PCR. Results PCV2 infection changes the ultrastructure of IPEC-J2 cells. PCV2 copy number in IPEC-J2 cells shows a rising trend as infection proceeds. Microfilaments are polymerized at 1 h p.i., but densely packed actin stress fibres are disrupted and total F-actin increases at 24, 48 and 72 h p.i. After Cytochalasin D treatment, invasion of PCV2 is suppressed, while invasion is facilitated by Cucurbitacin E. The microfilament drugs have opposite effects on viral release. Conclusion PCV2 infects and proliferates in IPEC-J2 cells, demonstrating that IPEC-J2 cells can serve as a cell intestinal infection model for PCV2 pathogenesis. Furthermore, PCV2 rearranges IPEC-J2 microfilaments and increases the quantity of F-actin. Actin polymerization may facilitate the invasion of PCV2 in IPEC-J2 cells and the dissolution of cortical actin may promote PCV2 egress.

We examined predictors of media multitasking in Chinese adolescents from 3 contexts: characteristics of the media user, types of media use and family media contexts. Three hundred and twenty adolescents, 11-18 years of age, completed questionnaires to measure media use, impulsivity, sensation seeking, time management disposition and family media environment. The results showed that media multitasking was positively correlated with age and total media use time. Participants with high levels of impulsivity and sensation seeking reported more multitasking behaviour. Multitasking was negatively correlated with time management. Children from media-oriented families often engage in more multitasking. What's more, social networking sites use and music use can mediate the effect of individual and family factors on media multitasking.

This study investigated moral judgment in children with high-functioning autism and their cooperation in prisoner's dilemma game with partners of different moralities. Thirty-eight 6- to 12-year-old high-functioning autistic (HFA) children and 31 typically developing (TD) children were recruited. Children were asked to judge story protagonists' morality. After making this moral judgment correctly, they were asked to play with the morally nice and the morally naughty child in a repeated prisoner's dilemma game. Results showed that both HFA and TD children made correct moral judgments, and that HFA children might even have more rigid criteria for what constitutes morally naughty acts. HFA children's cooperation did not differ depending on the morality of the interaction partner, while TD children showed higher cooperation when interacting with the morally nice than the morally naughty child did. Thus, partner's morality did influence TD children's but not HFA children's subsequent cooperation.

Chinese preschoolers’ understandings of the biological phenomena “growth” and “aliveness” were investigated. Seventy-two 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old subjects with equal numbers of boys and girls in each age group were selected from different socioeconomic backgrounds. The same children participated in the three experiments reported in this study so that both individual and intra-individual differences could be explored. Multiple methods, including picture-choice, retrieval, and classification tasks were used. The results show that 6-year-old children could distinguish living and nonliving things on both the growth and aliveness tasks, even when tested by different methods, whereas 4- and 5-year-olds’ performance varied across tasks and methods. Children whose parents had higher levels of formal education performed better than their counterparts, but the difference declined as age increased.

This study aimed to examine how family income and social distance influence young rural Chinese children's altruistic behavior in the dictator game (DG). A total of 469 four-year-old children from eight rural areas in China, including many children left behind by parents who had migrated to urban areas for work, played the DG. Stickers comprised the resource, while recipients in the game were assumed to be either their friends or strangers, with the social distance (i.e., strangers compared to friends) as a between-subjects variable. Children donated significantly more stickers to their friends than to strangers. Moreover, children from lower income families donated more stickers than children from higher income families. However, no gender and parental migrant status differences in children's prosocial behaviors were evident in this sample. Findings of this study suggest that children's altruistic behaviours to peers are influenced by family characteristics since preschool age. The probable influence of local socialization practices on development and the possible adaptive significance were discussed.

Can traces of rapid socio-economic changes within a society be reflected in experimental games? The post-Mao reforms in China provide a unique natural quasi-experiment to study people from the same society who were raised with radically different values about distribution of wealth and altruistic behavior. We tested whether the size of offers in the ultimatum and dictator games are an increasing function of the number of years Chinese citizens experienced of the Mao era ("planned economy"). For the cohort that lived throughout the entire Mao era, we found that mean offers in the two games were substantially higher than what is typically offered in laboratory studies. These offers were also higher than those of two younger Chinese cohorts. In general, the amount offered decreased with less time spent under Mao, while in the oldest group in which every member spent the same amount of time under Mao, the younger members tended to offer more, suggesting an additional effect of early education under Mao and contradicting the alternative hypothesis that generosity increases with age. These results suggest that some of the observed individual differences in the offers made in experimental games can be traced back to the values of the socio-economic era in which individuals grew up.

Glucose transporter (GLUT) 4 is a major mediator of blood glucose levels and a key regulator of whole-body glucose homeostasis. This study aimed at evaluating the function of goat GLUT4 on glucose absorption and the effect of GLUT4 on lactose synthesis in goat mammary gland epithelial (GMGE) cells. Currently, the cDNA of GLUT4, a putative facilitative GLUT, was cloned from goat. To investigate the function of goat GLUT4, we constructed the eukaryotic expression vector pcDNA3.1-GLUT4 and used it to transfect GMGE cells, and then GLUT4 transfected GMGE (G4T-GMGE) cells were generated. The deduced GLUT4 sequence comprised 509 amino acids, what meant that a putative protein with a molecular weight of approximately 55 kDa would be produced. Both glucose uptake and lactose synthesis increased in the G4T-GMGE cells compared with the GMGE cells. At the transcriptional level, GLUT4 expression increased by nearly 55-fold in the G4T-GMGE cells, and the expression of amino acid transporters (SLC1A5, SLC3A2 and SLC7A5) enhanced as well; in contrast, GLUT1 expression decreased by more than 50 % in the G4T-GMGE cells. These results suggest that goat GLUT4 functions in the transport of glucose and it may play a positive role in amino acid uptake in mammary glands.

Previous studies have demonstrated that reactions to unfair offers in the ultimatum game are correlated with negative emotion. However, little is known about the difference in neural activity between a proposer's decision-making in the ultimatum game compared with the dictator game. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study revealed that proposing fair offers in the dictator game elicited greater activation in the right supramarginal gyrus, right medial frontal gyrus and left anterior cingulate cortex compared with proposing fair offers in the ultimatum game in 23 Chinese undergraduate and graduate students from Beijing Normal University in China. However, greater activation was found in the right superior temporal gyrus and left cingulate gyrus for the reverse contrast. The results indicate that proposing fair offers in the dictator game is more strongly associated with cognitive control and conflicting information processing compared with proposing fair offers in the ultimatum game.

Glucose transport, mediated by glucose transporters, is necessary for mammary gland development and lactation. GLUT1 and GLUT12 could both be expressed in the pregnant and lactating mammary gland to participate in the glucose uptake process. In this study, the goat GLUT1 and GLUT12 genes were cloned from Saanen dairy goats and transfected into goat mammary gland epithelial cells to assess their biological functions and distributions. The results showed that both goat GLUT1 and GLUT12 had 12 predicted membrane-spanning helices. Goat GLUT1 and GLUT12 each influenced the mRNA expression of the other transporter and increased the glucose consumption and lactose yield in GLUT1- and GLUT12-transfected goat mammary gland epithelial cells, respectively. The overexpression of GLUT1 or GLUT12 also increased the expression of amino acid transporters SLC1A5, SLC3A2 and SLC7A5 and affected genes expressions in GMGE cells. Using immunofluorescence staining, GLUT1 was detected throughout the cytoplasm and localized to the Golgi apparatus around the nuclear membrane, whereas GLUT12 was mainly distributed in the perinuclear region and cytoplasm. This study contributes to the understanding of how GLUT1 and GLUT12 cooperate in the incorporation of nutrient uptake into mammary gland epithelial cells and the promotion of milk synthesis in the goat mammary gland during lactation.

Cell junctions are the gatekeepers of the paracellular route and defend the mucosal barrier. Several enteropathogenic bacteria can invade intestinal epithelial cells by targeting and damaging cell junctions. It is not well understood how Salmonella typhimurium is able to overcome the intestinal barrier and gain access to the circulation, nor is it understood how Lactobacillus prevents the invasion of S. typhimurium. Therefore, we sought to determine whether infection with S. typhimurium SL1344 could regulate the molecular composition of cell junctions and whether Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. lactis R4 could affect this modification. Our data demonstrated that infection of Caco-2 cells with S. typhimurium over 2 h resulted in a redistribution of claudin-1, ZO-1, occluding, and E-cadherin. Western blot analysis of epithelial cell lysates demonstrated that S. typhimurium could decrease the expression of cell junction proteins. However, L. delbrueckii ssp. lactis R4 ameliorated this destruction and induced increased expression of ZO-1, occludin, and E-cadherin relative to the levels in the control group. The results of these experiments implied that S. typhimurium may facilitate its uptake and distribution within the host by regulating the molecular composition of cell junctions. Furthermore, Lactobacillus may prevent the adhesion and invasion of pathogenic bacteria by maintaining cell junctions and the mucosal barrier.

This study explored the influence of social value orientation on cooperative behavior. The cooperative behavior of 14-year-old children and adults was measured in prisoner dilemma. Results showed that prosocial adults had higher expectation on others' cooperative behavior. Social value orientation does influence people's cooperative behavior.

English-speaking children understand and produce generic expressions in the preschool years, but there are cross-linguistic differences in how generics are expressed. Three studies examined interpretation of generic noun phrases in three- to seven-year-old child (N=192) and adult speakers (N=163) of Mandarin Chinese. Contrary to suggestions by Bloom (1981), Chinese-speaking adults honor a clear distinction between generics (expressed as bare NPs) and other quantified expressions (‘all’/suo3you3 and ‘some’/you3de). Furthermore, Mandarin-speaking children begin to distinguish generics from ‘all’ or ‘some’ as early as five years, as shown in both confirmation (Study 2) and property-generation (Study 3) tasks. Nonetheless, the developmental trajectory for Chinese appears prolonged relative to English and this seems to reflect difficulty with ‘all’ and ‘some’ rather than difficulty with generics. Altogether these results suggest that generics are primary, and that the consistency of markings affects the rate at which non-generic NPs are distinguished from generics.

The current study was based on Kahneman (1986) and Campbell (1999) to investigate Chinese consumers' price fairness, by introducing a new variable, that is the nature of the enterprise ownership, to investigate whether people's feeling of fairness between state- and non state-owned firms' price change differ. The study included three parts, which were "Fairness perception on price raising due to cost increasing v. s. demand increasing", "Fairness perception on price keeping stable while cost decreasing" and "Fairness perception on auction in shortage of goods with auction intention out of public interests or not)". We varied the nature of the firms (state-owned, monopoly, non-state-owned) as independent variable. Results showed that subjects tended to accept the price raising based on cost increasing, perceiving it as fair, they tended not to accept price raising based on demand increasing; After price raising due to cost increasing, it was regarded as unfair if the price kept high when cost decreased. Subjects wouldn't accept auction in shortage of goods, regarding it as unfair. For firms with good fame, subjects have stronger feeling of unfairness on their auction behavior. But if the auction was due to public interests, instead of maximizing its profit, subjects thought it acceptable.

The study constructed a model and measurement on External Employer Branding based on job pursuit attraction, by an exploratory factor analysis with 110 participants of MBA students and a confirmative factor analysis with 225 participants of MBA students. We constructed 8 dimensions of instrumental attributes with 28 items and 6 symbolic attributes with 25 items. The questionnaire showed good constructive validity and reliability.

Aims: To examine the relationship between alcohol outlet density and violent crime controlling for neighbourhood sociostructural characteristics and the effects of spatially autocorrelated error. Design: The sample for this ecologic study comprised 188 census tracts from the City of Austin, Texas and 263 tracts from the City of San Antonio, Texas. Data pertaining to neighbo urhood social structure, alcohol density and violent crime were collected from archival sources, and analysed using bivariate, multiva riate and geospatial analyses. Results: Using ordinary least squares analysis, the neighbourhood sociostructural covariates explained close to 59% of the variability in violent crime rates in Austin and close to 39% in San Antonio. Adding alcohol outlet density in the target and adjacent census tracts improved the explanatory power of both models. Alcohol outlet density in the target census tract remaine d a significant predictor of violent crime rates in both cities when the effects of autocorrelated error were controlled for. In Austin, the effects of alcohol outlet density in the adjacent census tracts also remained significant. The final model explains 71% of the variance in violent crime in Austin and 56% in San Antonio. Conclusions: The findings show a clear association between alcohol outlet density and violence, and suggest that the issues of alcohol availability and access are fundamental to the prevention of alcohol-relat ed problems within communities.

Can children reason the Bayesian way? We argue that the answer to this question depends on how numbers are represented, because a representation can do part of the computation. We test, for the first time, whether Bayesian reasoning can be elicited in children by means of natural frequencies. We show that when information was presented to fourth, fifth, and sixth graders in terms of probabilities, their ability to estimate the Bayesian posterior probability was zero. Yet when the same information was presented in natural frequencies, Bayesian reasoning showed a steady increase from fourth to sixth grade, reaching an average level of 19, 39, and 53%, respectively, in two studies. Sixth graders' performance with natural frequencies matched the performance of adults with probabilities. But this general increase was accompanied by striking individual differences. More than half of the sixth graders solved most or all problems, whereas one third could not solve a single one. An analysis of the children's responses provides evidence for the use of three non-Bayesian strategies. These follow an overlapping wave model of development and continue to be observed in the minds of adults. More so than adults' probabilistic reasoning, children's reasoning depends on a proper representation of information.

Pictorial stimuli standardized for Chinese children are still absent although it is needed in order to test the development of children's cognitive functions. This study presents normative measures for Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures, viewed by 4- and 6-year old Chinese children. Name agreement, familiarity, and visual complexity were obtained for each age group. The data indicate substantial differences between young and older children in name agreement based on expected name, familiarity and visual complexity. The correlation pattern of the variables collected in the present study were consistent with children's norms in other languages and norms of Chinese adults, while there are cross-age and cross-culture differences in specific variables. The obtained measures represent a useful tool for further research on Chinese children's pictorial processing and constitute the first picture normative study for children in this language.