Extension of Heider's ideas to rehabilitation psychology.

Fritz Heider received the Psychological Science Gold Medal Award at the 1987 Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. This article was prepared for the symposium honoring his contributions. It shows the power of his conceptual framework as a basis for systematizing attitude-change attempts involving disability, as well as the need for affirmative action. The analysis involves such concepts as balance, unit-forming factors, sentiment, and ought. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Declining seroprevalence in a very large HIV epidemic: injecting drug users in New York City, 1991 to 1996

OBJECTIVES: This study assessed recent trends in HIV seroprevalence among injecting drug users in New York City. METHODS: We analyzed temporal trends in HIV seroprevalence from 1991 through 1996 in 5 studies of injecting drug users recruited from a detoxification program, a methadone maintenance program, research storefronts in the Lower East Side and Harlem areas, and a citywide network of sexually transmitted disease clinics. A total of 11,334 serum samples were tested. RESULTS: From 1991 through 1996, HIV seroprevalence declined substantially among subjects in all 5 studies: from 53% to 36% in the detoxification program, from 45% to 29% in the methadone program, from 44% to 22% at the Lower East Side storefront, from 48% to 21% at the Harlem storefront, and from 30% to 21% in the sexually transmitted disease clinics (all P < .002 by chi 2 tests for trend). CONCLUSIONS: The reductions in HIV seroprevalence seen among injecting drug users in New York City from 1991 through 1996 indicate a new phase in this large HIV epidemic. Potential explanatory factors include the loss of HIV-seropositive individuals through disability and death and lower rates of risk behavior leading to low HIV incidence.     

Tribute to Tamara Dembo: May 28, 1942-October 17, 1993.

Item memorializes Tamara Dembo as having had a profound influence on the field of rehabiltation psychology, both as a leader since its early beginnings and as a teacher of critical ideas in rehabilitation. She was one of the founders of the "National Council on Psychological Aspects of Physical Disability" when it became a special interest group of APA in 1949 and then Division 22 in 1958. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sustainable Root Zone Salinity and Shallow Water Table in the Context of Land Retirement

This study uses five years of field data from the Land Retirement Demonstration Project located in western Fresno County of California to develop a comprehensive theoretical and numerical modeling framework to evaluate the specific site conditions required for a sustainable land retirement outcome based on natural drainage. Using field data, principles of mass balance in a control volume, the HYDRUS-1D software package for simulating one-dimensional movement of water, heat, and multiple solutes in variably-saturated media, and a model-independent parameter optimizer, the processes of soil water and solute movement in root zone and deep vadose zone were investigated. The optimization of unsaturated soil hydraulic parameters and downward flux (natural drainage) from the control volume against observed vadose zone salinity levels and shallow groundwater levels yield difficult to obtain natural drainage rate as a function of water table height within the control volume. The results show that the unsaturated soil hydraulic properties and the downward flux from the soil profile are the critical parameters. A “natural drainage approach” to sustainable land management for drainage-impaired land is proposed. With this approach it is feasible to design a sustainable land use regimen for drainage-impaired lands in general and retired lands in particular.     

The national estimates approach to U.S. fire statistics

The development of the National Fire Incident Reporting System in the late 1970s made detailed, representative national fire statistics possible for the first time. However, calculation rules used to produce these statistics have varied among users. The authors present a detailed consensus procedure for such calculations and the supporting rationale.This article was co-written by Ms. Harwood in her official capacity, is in the public domain, and may be freely copied. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Commissioners of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.     

Profiling risk sensibility through association rules

In the last recent years several approaches to risk assessment and risk management have been adopted to reduce the potential for specific risks in working environments. A safety culture has also developed to let workers acquire knowledge and understanding of risks and safety. Notwithstanding, risks still exist in every workplace. One effective way to improve workers’ sensibility to risk, i.e., their ability to effectively assess and control the risks they are exposed to, is risk management training. Unfortunately, people may perceive risks in different ways depending on subjective assessment of the characteristics and severity of the considered risks, and may have tendencies to either take or avoid actions that they feel are risky. Therefore, the knowledge of how workers assess each of the risks they may be exposed to in the workplace is a key factor to conceive effective custom risk management training. In this paper we present a novel approach, based on association rules, to workers’ profiling with respect to risk perception and risk propensity in order to provide each of them with specific customized risk management training.