Computer graphics tools for radiation treatment planning

The objective of radiation therapy treatment is to eradicate a cancerous tumor while keeping the damage to nearby healthy organs to a minimum. A variety of tools employing computer graphics exist to aid in the planning and verification of treatments. Three-dimensional (3D) image information available from sources such as computerized tomography (CT) scanners is used to define the sizes, shapes, and spatial locations of the tumor and normal structures in the form of transverse contours. These object definitions are displayed in 3D perspective to enable the determination of the best possible directions from which to aim radiation beams at the tumor. The beams may be shaped to match the outline of the tumor, and their intensities may be modified using compensating devices. The results of calculations done to predict the distribution of radiation dose throughout the body due to a given set-up of beams can be displayed to the user in many ways. Dose may be shown in the form of isodose contours overlaid on transverse CT images, or on reconstructed image planes of arbitrary orientation in space. There are also a number of methods of 3D display; dose can be shown on the surface of objects, or in the form of isodose surfaces relative to anatomical structures. Computer-generated beam film images may be used to verify patient set-up and tumor coverage.     

Sigmund Koch as critical humanist.

Just as Sigmund Koch was a good scientist without succumbing to scientism, he was a good humanist without succumbing to the popular distortions trading on the name of humanism. When humanistic psychology was seduced by the touchy–feely encounter group movement, Koch derided its technology of authenticity as shamelessly meretricious. Later, when postmodern humanists of deconstruction and textual analysis began to be heard in psychology, Koch wryly expressed his preference for the old-fashioned kind of humanism. Koch's interests and his conception of the domain of psychology thus transcended scientific and humanistic labels and boundaries. To be good science, human psychological studies have to start with and be guided by openness to all aspects of being human. No less in the present and future than during his lifetime, the implications of Koch's vision of psychological inquiry warrant discerning and disciplined attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nicholas Hobbs (1915–1983).

Presents an obituary for Nicholas Hobbs. Just at the end of his stellar career of public service through psychology, Nick Hobbs received very appropriate honors showing that psychologists and many others knew what a precious national resource his life had been. Only days before his death from cancer on January 23, 1983, he participated in the dedication of the Nicholas Hobbs Laboratory of Human Development of the Peabody College for Teachers of Vanderbilt University, part of the Kennedy Center for Research on Education and Human Development that he founded and directed at its beginning. Two years earlier, he had received two parallel American Psychological Association (APA) awards--one for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest and another for Distinguished Professional Contributions "utilizing psychological knowledge in the public interest and social policy." As the citations and testimonials on these occasions variously noted, Nick gave creative, responsible, and effective service to the institutions that he helped administer, to the Southern region from which he sprang, to the APA, and to the profession of psychology, but above all to the nation's children and youth, especially those who grew up with disadvantage and difficulty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A computational process for choosing the relaxation parameter in nonlinear SOR

We present here a computational process which establishes the convergence of nonlinear successive-overrelaxation in finding the minimum of a strictly convex functional. The algorithm is designed in such a manner that the SOR parameter is computed appropriately to guarantee convergence. Numerical examples are presented.     

Irving L. Janis (1918–1990): Obituary.

Presents the obituary of I. L. Janis, a personality and social psychologist and a recipient of the 1981 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association. Janis's work focused on attitude change, stress and coping, "groupthink," conflict resolution in personal decision making, and international crisis management. Janis's career reflected his intensive exposure to Hovland-style learning theory and Freudian psychodynamics. (0 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Brewster smith replies to James MacKay.

Replies to J. MacKay's commentary (see record 1990-58561-001) on the author's original article (see record 1979-25020-001) that examines selfhood as the criterial features of the human condition from 3 perspectives: evolutionary or phylogenetic, cross-cultural and transhistorical, and developmental or ontogenetic. The current author notes that MacKay's comments on the assets of age, actual and potential, are in tune with what he believes is our emerging understanding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Mental Health" reconsidered: A special case of the problem of values in psychology.

"If we understand 'mental health' not as an unsatisfactory and vague theoretical concept but as a reasonably adequate rubric or label for an evaluative psychological perspective on personality… we can go about our business without wasting our efforts on the search for concensus on a unique set of mental health criteria when concensus is not to be had… . What is to be avoided is the surreptitious advocacy of values disguised under presumptive scientific auspices. The lists of psychological desiderata that psychologists have continued to propose, each reflecting the value commitments of its proponent, have this drawback." From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2IR99S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward scientific and professional responsibility.

The author examines 8 forms of irresponsibility in the social situation of psychology: fixation on means, absolutism of means, absolutism of ends, escape into relativism, isolation of conflicting values, token payments to conscience, parochialism, and professional vanity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment on "The case of William McDougall."

Agrees that R. A. Jones's (see record 1988-03145-001) account of W. McDougall's decline and fall in the field of psychology in terms of the elaboration-likelihood model of R. E. Petty and J. T. Caciappo (1986) is plausible. However, McDougall's negative image surely had more important sources than the mass media. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)