Situational influences on ethical decision-making in an IT context

Processes of ethical decision-making are thought to depend on the issue faced when making the decision. We examined the processes by examining student's reactions to five scenarios involving IT use. Data were collected using a questionnaire following a group discussion. The results showed that ethical decision-making processes did indeed vary by scenario, suggesting that a single-issue approach is inadequate for studying ethical decision-making. Perceived importance of the ethical issue was a factor in the scenarios, but it did not have an all-inclusive influence on the decision-making of the participants. The results were considered in the context of theories and Mason's ethical issues of the information age. We offer advice to managers on how to limit unethical behavior.     

Computer-mediated group influence on ethical behavior

Drawing on previous research in ethical behavior in information technology, this study examines the effects of group discussion, using virtual teams, on an individual’s intention to behave ethically/unethically. It was hypothesized that behavioral intention would be influenced by an individual’s attitude (toward ethical behavior), personal normative beliefs, ego strength, locus of control, perceived importance, gender and the scenario, and that computer-mediated group discussion would impact an individual’s ethical behavioral intention. This was tested through an experiment using five different ethical scenarios involving information technology. The results show that for two of the five scenarios, individual behavioral intention was significantly more unethical after computer-mediated group discussion than before, while for one scenario, individual behavioral intention was significantly more ethical after computer-mediated group discussion than before. The results of this study may help organizations to develop realistic training programs for IT professionals that account for changes in employee’s personal ethical models after interacting with others.     

Virtual Human versus Human Administration of Photographic Lineups

One solution to mistaken identification by a crime's victims and eyewitnesses is to use a virtual officer to conduct identification procedures. Results from a study comparing a virtual officer with a live human investigator indicate that the virtual officer performs comparably to the human in terms of identification accuracy, emotional affect, and ease of use.     

Parent-child interactions during the initial weeks following brain injury in young children.

Objective: To understand how traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects parent-child interactions acutely following injury. Participants: Young children hospitalized for TBI (n = 80) and orthopedic injuries (OI; n = 113). Method: Raters coded videotaped interactions during free play and structured tasks for parental warmth/responsiveness and negativity and child warmth, behavior regulation, and cooperation. Raters also counted parental directives, critical/restricting statements, and scaffolds. Results: Parents of children with TBI exhibited less warm responsiveness and made more directive statements during a structured task than parents in the OI group. Children with TBI displayed less behavior regulation than children with OI. Parental warm responsiveness was more strongly related to child cooperativeness in the OI group than in the TBI group. Child behavior also mediated group differences in parental responsiveness and directiveness. TBI accounted for as much variance in parental behaviors as or more than did sociodemographic factors. Conclusion: TBI-related changes in child behavior may negatively influence parent-child interactions and disrupt the reciprocity between parent and child. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral medicine and aging.

A brief history of behavioral medicine and aging is followed by a series of perspectives that help to understand how age is used as a variable in this research, the relative importance of age to declines in cognitive functioning, and the impact of behavioral risk indicators on healthy survival. The authors discuss Alzheimer's disease and the role of age in clinical practice. Also discussed are potential problems in age-related research, ways to improve the knowledge base in behavioral medicine and aging, and thoughts about future challenges to enhance work in behavioral medicine and aging. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of encoding task on age-related differences in the functional neuroanatomy of face memory.

Age-related differences in brain activity mediating face recognition were examined using positron emission tomography. Participants encoded faces using a pleasant-unpleasant judgement, a right-left orientation task, and intentional learning. Scans also were obtained during recognition. Both young and old groups showed significant effects of encoding task on recognition accuracy, but older adults showed reduced accuracy overall. Increased brain activity in older adults was similar to that seen in young adults during conditions associated with deeper processing, but was reduced during the shallow encoding and recognition conditions. Differential correlations of brain activity and behavior were found that suggest older adults use unique neural systems to facilitate face memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Density,production, and survival of walleye (Sander vitreus) eggs in the Muskegon River,Michigan

Walleye (Sander vitreus) is an important sport fish in the Great Lakes that is experiencing low reproductive success after severe population declines starting in the late 1940s. In the Muskegon River, Michigan, natural reproduction of walleyes remains low and is largely supplemented by stocking. To determine factors influencing walleye reproductive success in the Muskegon River, we estimated walleye egg survival using insitu egg incubators covered with nitex screening (2003–2004) and estimated density and survival of fertilized eggs caught on furnace filter traps across different substrate types (2005–2006). We compared physical habitat suitability for walleye eggs under high and low flow scenarios. Density of walleye eggs was highest in regions of gravel/cobble substrates. Egg survival was higher in egg incubators (24–49.5%) than on furnace filter traps (2.0%), suggesting predation is an important source of walleye egg mortality in the Muskegon River. Cold water temperatures that extended developmental stage durations may also be an important source of egg mortality. The dynamic habitat suitability model predicted low suitability for eggs due to poor temperature and velocity conditions. Despite low egg survival rates, 40 million to 1 billion eggs were estimated to hatch. The low natural reproduction of walleyes in the Muskegon River is likely due to a combination of low walleye egg survival and failure of walleye larvae to reach their nursery grounds in Muskegon Lake.     

Detonation Failure Characterization of Homemade Explosives

Typically characterizing home made explosives (HMEs) requires many large scale experiments, which is prohibitive given the large number of materials in use. A small scale experiment was developed to characterize HMEs such as ammonium nitrate‐fuel oil mixtures. A microwave interferometer is applied to small scale confined transient experiments, yielding time resolved characterization of a failing detonation that is initiated with an ideal explosive booster charge. Experiments were performed with ammonium nitrate and two fuel compositions (diesel fuel and mineral oil). It was observed that the failure dynamics were influenced by factors such as the chemical composition, confiner thickness, and applied shock wave strength. Thin steel walled confiners with 0.71 mm wall thickness experienced detonation failure and decoupling of the shock wave from the reaction zone. Confiners with a wall thickness of 34.9 mm showed a decrease in propagation speed and a steady reactive wave was achieved. Varying the applied shock strength by using an attenuator showed corresponding changes in the initial overdriven reactive wave velocity in the HMEs. The distance to detonation failure was also shown to depend on the attenuator length when thin wall confinement was used. This experimental method is shown to be repeatable and can be performed with little required material (about 2 g). The data obtained could be useful to model development and validation, as well as quantifying detonability of materials.     

Composite Propellant Based on a New Nitrate Ester

Composite propellants based on the solid nitrate ester 2,3‐hydroxymethyl‐2,3‐dinitro‐1,4‐butanediol tetranitrate (SMX) were theoretically and experimentally examined and compared to formulations based on ammonium perchlorate (AP). Thermochemical equilibrium calculations show that aluminized SMX‐based formulations can achieve theoretical sea level specific impulse values upwards of 260 s. Both ignition sensitivity (tested via drop weight impact, electrostatic discharge, and BAM friction) and physical properties (hardness and thermal properties) are comparable to those of the AP‐based formulations. However, the SMX‐based formulation could be detonated using a high explosive donor charge in contact with the propellant. Differential scanning calorimetry of the SMX‐based propellant indicated an exotherm onset of 140 °C, which corresponds to the known decomposition temperature of SMX. The propellant has a high burning rate of 1.57 cm s⁻¹ at 6.89 MPa, with a pressure exponent of 0.85. This high pressure sensitivity might be addressed using various energetic and/or stabilizing additives. With good performance and high density, SMX‐based composite propellants may offer a promising perchlorate‐free alternative to existing AP‐based formulations.     

Oxidative dehydrogenation of propane over vanadium oxide based catalysts Effect of support and alkali promoter

The oxidative dehydrogenation of propane was investigated using vanadia type catalysts supported on Al₂O₃, TiO₂, ZrO₂ and MgO. The promotion of V₂O₅/Al₂O₃ catalyst with alkali metals (Li, Na, K) was also attempted. Evaluation of temperature programmed reduction patterns showed that the reducibility of V species is affected by the support acid–base character. The catalytic activity is favored by the V reducibility of the catalyst as it was confirmed from runs conducted at 450–550°C. V₂O₅/TiO₂ catalyst exhibits the highest activity in oxydehydrogenation of propane. The support’s nature also affects the selectivity to propene; V₂O₅ supported on Al₂O₃ catalyst exhibits the highest selectivity. Reaction studies showed that addition of alkali metals decreases the catalytic activity in the order non-doped>Li>Na>K. Propene selectivity significantly increases in the presence of doped catalysts.