University of Haifa

About: University of Haifa is a education organization based out in Haifa, Israel. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 7558 authors who have published 27141 publications receiving 711629 citations. The organization is also known as: Haifa University & Universiṭat Ḥefah.

Terrorism—A (self) love story: Redirecting the significance quest can end violence.

Abstract: Jean-Jacques Rousseau's concepts of self-love (amour propre) and love of self (amour de soi meme) are applied to the psychology of terrorism. Self-love is concern with one's image in the eyes of respected others, members of one's group. It denotes one's feeling of personal significance, the sense that one's life has meaning in accordance with the values of one's society. Love of self, in contrast, is individualistic concern with self-preservation, comfort, safety, and the survival of self and loved ones. We suggest that self-love defines a motivational force that when awakened arouses the goal of a significance quest. When a group perceives itself in conflict with dangerous detractors, its ideology may prescribe violence and terrorism against the enemy as a means of significance gain that gratifies self-love concerns. This may involve sacrificing one's self-preservation goals, encapsulated in Rousseau's concept of love of self. The foregoing notions afford the integration of diverse quantitative and qualitative findings on individuals' road to terrorism and back. Understanding the significance quest and the conditions of its constructive fulfillment may be crucial to reversing the current tide of global terrorism.

Standing balance and functional recovery of patients with right and left hemiparesis in the early stages of rehabilitation.

Abstract: The objective was to determine the effects of the side of brain lesion on recovery of functional abilities and balance control among subjects 2 months following a stroke. There were 104 patients admitted consecutively to a geriatric rehabilitation center following their first stroke to the anterior brain circulation who were followed for 2 months. Fifteen age-matched individuals with no known impairments served as the control group. Functional ability was assessed with the Barthel Index and the Functional Ambulation Category. Posturographic testing was used to determine total sway and symmetry of weight distribution with eyes open and closed. Tests were performed 1 and 2 months poststroke. The results show that lesion side affects the recovery of independent stance 2 months following a stroke, with more patients with right hemiparesis able to reach this milestone. However, no difference was found in functional ability and balance control between patients with left and right hemiparesis who are able to sta...

Revisiting collaboration through mixed reality: The evolution of groupware

Abstract: Collaborative Mixed Reality (MR) systems are at a critical point in time as they are soon to become more commonplace. However, MR technology has only recently matured to the point where researchers can focus deeply on the nuances of supporting collaboration, rather than needing to focus on creating the enabling technology. In parallel, but largely independently, the field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) has focused on the fundamental concerns that underlie human communication and collaboration over the past 30-plus years. Since MR research is now on the brink of moving into the real world, we reflect on three decades of collaborative MR research and try to reconcile it with existing theory from CSCW, to help position MR researchers to pursue fruitful directions for their work. To do this, we review the history of collaborative MR systems, investigating how the common taxonomies and frameworks in CSCW and MR research can be applied to existing work on collaborative MR systems, exploring where they have fallen behind, and look for new ways to describe current trends. Through identifying emergent trends, we suggest future directions for MR, and also find where CSCW researchers can explore new theory that more fully represents the future of working, playing and being with others.

Stress-induced dynamic routing of hippocampal connectivity: a hypothesis.

Abstract: Recent observations have caused a drastic shift in the conception of the hippocampus as a homogeneous structure that subserves cognitive functions, either spatial maps or short term episodic memory, to a structure that is associated with both cognitive and emotional functions. In fact, the assignment of cognitive functions to the hippocampus is restricted to its dorsal sector. In contrast, the ventral hippocampus (VH) appears to be associated with control of behavioral inhibition, stress and emotional memory, but not with strictly cognitive functions. Curiously, the VH but not the dorsal hippocampus (DH) is associated with the development of affective disorders. In line with these collective observations, we and others have found that the ability to evoke a sustained long term potentiation (LTP), a cellular correlate of learning and memory, is much lower in the VH compared to the DH. Strikingly, acute stress as well as direct exposure to corticosterone affect DH and VH in an opposite manner; causing facilitation of LTP in the VH and its suppression in the DH. This double dissociative action results from activation of different steroid receptor species in the DH and VH. Since the DH and VH differ in efferent connectivity, and since the strength of LTP can be considered as an indicator of strength of synaptic connectivity, these results suggest that stress regulates the routes by which the hippocampus is functionally linked to the rest of the brain such that under stress, the ventral route to the amygdala is enabled while the dorsal route to the neocortex is suppressed. This selective routing may underlie the complex outcome of stress on hippocampal and amygdala physiology and behavior. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.