Citation delay in interdisciplinary knowledge exchange

As part of a larger project to investigate knowledge flows between fields of science, westudied the differences in speed of knowledge transfer within and across disciplines. The agedistribution of references in three selections of articles was analysed, including almost 800.000references in journal publications of the United Kingdom in 1992, 700.000 references inpublications of Germany in 1992, and more than 11 million references in the world total ofpublications in 1998.The rate of citing documented knowledge from other disciplines appears to differ sharplyamong disciplines. For most of the disciplines the same ratio's are found in the three data sets.Exceptions show interesting differences in the interdisciplinary nature of a field in a country. Wefind a general tendency of a citation delay in case of knowledge transfer between different fieldsof science: citations to work of the own discipline show less of a time lag than citations to work ina foreign discipline. Between disciplines typical differences in the speed of incorporatingknowledge from other disciplines are observed, which appear to be relatively independent of timeand place: for each discipline the same pattern is found in the three data sets. The disciplinespecific characteristics found in the speed of interdisciplinary knowledge transfer may be point ofdeparture for further investigations. Results may contribute to explanations of differences incitation rates of interdisciplinary research.     

Effects of adding an automated monitoring device to the health screening of postpartum Holstein cows on survival and productive and reproductive performances

Automated monitoring devices (AMD) have become more affordable, and consequently more popular among dairy producers. We hypothesized that the addition of AMD-generated health alerts to a health-screening program improves survival, milk production, and reproductive success. In addition, we hypothesized that cows diagnosed with clinical disease that have AMD alerts are at greater risk of culling, lower milk production, and decreased risk of pregnancy than cows without AMD alerts. Holstein cows (nulliparous = 282, parous = 328) were enrolled at ?60 ± 3 d (d 0 = calving), when they were fitted with an AMD and assigned randomly to 1 of 2 health-screening strategies: (1) control: AMD alerts not provided to farm personnel; and (2) automated device: AMD alerts provided to farm personnel. Twice daily, study personnel determined which cows had AMD alerts (health index ≤79, rumination <200 min/d, or difference between current rumination and the average of the 3 preceding days <0) and provided the information to farm personnel. Farm personnel examined cows at 3, 5, and 9 d in milk (DIM) and when daily milk yield decreased ≥25% on consecutive days. We detected no differences between health-screening strategies regarding morbidity (control = 49.7 ± 3.3%, automated device = 52.8 ± 3.2%), but the interaction between health-screening strategy and parity tended to be associated with the number of clinical diseases per cow (primiparous: control = 0.46 ± 0.06, automated device = 0.65 ± 0.07 cases/cow; multiparous: 0.88 ± 0.08, automated device = 0.86 ± 0.08 cases/cow). Cows enrolled in the automated device strategy were more likely to be treated with supportive therapy (64.4 ± 3.1 vs. 55.0 ± 3.2%), whereas primiparous cows in the automated device strategy were more likely to be treated with anti-inflammatory drugs than those in the control strategy (41.6 ± 4.7 vs. 23.8 ± 4.0%). Health-screening strategy did not affect survival or total milk yield up to 22 wk postpartum, but cows in the automated device strategy had reduced risk of pregnancy after the first 2 services (54.5 ± 3.0 vs. 46.2 ± 3.2%). Cows diagnosed with a clinical disease without AMD alerts had reduced risk of removal from the herd by 150 DIM (5.7 ± 2.0 vs. 19.0 ± 3.3%), greater risk of pregnancy after the first 2 services (49.6 ± 4.5 vs. 33.6 ± 3.9%), and greater milk by 22 wk postpartum (6.7 ± 0.2 vs. 5.3 ± 0.2 × 10³ kg) than cows diagnosed with a clinical disease that had an AMD alert. Adding AMD-generated health alerts to the health screening of postpartum cows in a herd with an existing screening program did not improve survival, milk yield, or reproductive success. In addition, AMD alerts in cows diagnosed with a clinical disease may be indicative of the future success of such cows.     

Predicting thermal pleasure experienced in dynamic environments from simulated cutaneous thermoreceptor activity

Research into human thermal perception indoors has focused on “neutrality” under steady-state conditions. Recent interest in thermal alliesthesia has highlighted the hedonic dimension of our thermal world that has been largely overlooked by science. Here, we show the activity of sensory neurons can predict thermal pleasure under dynamic exposures. A numerical model of cutaneous thermoreceptors was applied to skin temperature measurements from 12 human subjects. A random forest model trained on simulated thermoreceptor impulses could classify pleasure responses (F1 score of 67%) with low false positives/negatives (4%). Accuracy increased (83%) when excluding the few extreme (dis)pleasure responses. Validation on an independent dataset confirmed model reliability. This is the first empirical demonstration of the relationship between thermoreceptors and pleasure arising from thermal stimuli. Insights into the neurophysiology of thermal perception can enhance the experience of built environments through designs that promote sensory excitation instead of neutrality.     

Reexamining adaptation and the set point model of happiness: Reactions to changes in marital status.

According to adaptation theory, individuals react to events but quickly adapt back to baseline levels of subjective well-being. To test this idea, the authors used data from a 15-year longitudinal study of over 24,000 individuals to examine the effects of marital transitions on life satisfaction. On average, individuals reacted to events and then adapted back toward baseline levels. However, there were substantial individual differences in this tendency. Individuals who initially reacted strongly were still far from baseline years later, and many people exhibited trajectories that were in the opposite direction to that predicted by adaptation theory. Thus, marital transitions can be associated with long-lasting changes in satisfaction, but these changes can be overlooked when only average trends are examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The conflict in Northern Ireland: Causes, consequences, and controls.

The conflict in Northern Ireland is at its most basic a struggle between those who wish to see Northern Ireland remain part of the United Kingdom and those who wish to see the reunification of the island of Ireland. It is underpinned by historical, religious, political, economic, and psychological elements. These elements underlie the violence that has spanned the past 25 years and that has led to death and injury, led to increased community divisions, and impacted on the population's mental health. In an attempt to transform the conflict, various policy initiatives have been pursued, including attempts to reduce inequality and to improve community relations, in particular through educational initiatives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychopathy in instrumental and reactive violent offenders.

Can violent offenders who commit acts of instrumental aggression for goal-oriented purposes such as robbery be distinguished from those who commit acts of reactive (or hostile) aggression in response to provocation? Because violent offenders often have a history of both instrumental and reactive aggression, this study distinguished between offenders with a history of at least 1 instrumental violent offense and offenders with a history of reactive violent offenses. Two studies tested the hypothesis that instrumental offenders would score higher than reactive offenders and nonviolent offenders on R. D. Hare's (1991) Psychopathy Checklist. The first study sample consisted of 106 violent and nonviolent offenders recruited from a medium-security correctional facility. The second study sample consisted of 50 violent offenders referred for pretrial forensic evaluation. In both samples, instrumental offenders could be reliably distinguished from reactive offenders on the basis of violent crime behavior and level of psychopathy. Group differences could not be attributed to participant age, race, length of incarceration, or extent of prior criminal record. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal ideology polarity: Its emotional foundation and its manifestation in individual value systems, religiosity, political orientation, and assumptions concerning human nature.

Personal ideology is an individual's philosophy of how life should be lived and of what forces influence human living. In this study S. S. Tomkins's (1963, 1965, 1978, 1987) polarity theory of ideology was used to examine the manifestation of personal ideology in 4 value-laden domains of personality. Tomkins's theoretical postulates concerning the emotional foundation of personal ideology also were tested. Analyses revealed that the 2 defining dimensions of polarity theory—humanism and normativism—are related in the predicted meaningful ways to value systems, assumptions concerning human nature, religiosity, and political orientation. Evidence also was found for Tomkins's contention that specific affect clusters serve as the foundation of personal ideology. Participants who scored high in humanism ideology related autobiographical memories containing the emotion cluster of joy, distress, fear, and shame, whereas the memories of participants with normative ideologies contained relatively more anger. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Epistemic uncertainty and stochastic time reliability correlations

A time reliability correlation is a stochastic model used in quantifying human response to offnormal events in a risk analysis. This article examines this type of model in light of the recent concern with separating models of randomness and uncertainty. It is shown that the separation may only be conceptual or numerical but not mathematical. On the way a direct proof of an old intuition is offered and two errors in previous documentation of TRCs are corrected.