Meehl revisited: A look at paradigms in psychology.

Comments on Meehl's (see record 1979-25042-001) article on the nature of psychological debates. The author is in agreement with Meehl that there is a need to reconsider how research is designed and carried out within psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young infants' retention of information about bisyllabic utterances.

This study examined 2- to 3-month-olds' representations of bisyllables. In 3 experiments, infants were familiarized with sets of bisyllables that either did or did not share a common consonant–vowel (CV) syllable. In Experiment 1, infants detected the presence of a new bisyllable in the test phase except when it shared a common initial CV syllable. A modified version of the high-amplitude sucking procedure, incorporating a 2-min delay period, tested infants' retention of information about bisyllables in the remaining 2 experiments. In Experiment 2, infants were significantly more likely to retain information about bisyllables that shared the same initial CV syllable. Finally, the authors investigated whether infants simply benefited from the presence of 2 common phonetic segments, regardless of whether these came from the same CV syllable. The results showed that CV syllable organization is important in infants' ability to encode and retain information about bisyllables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The expression of regenerative growth factors in chronic liver injury and repair

The outcomes of surgical reconstruction for patients who have undergone extensive tumor resection of the mandible and associated soft tissue have been less than desirable for many reasons: lack of cancer cure, radiation problems, as well as inadequate functional reconstructive results. These patients traditionally have undergone multiple surgical procedures for restoration of the surgical deformity. With the advent of new donor sites and successful transfer of microvascular hard and soft tissue, one can restore the largest defects created during cancer excision. Combining these techniques with biocompatible dental implants and reconstructive bone plates, technology has advanced to the point of predictable outcomes. The restoration of appearance, mandibular function, and mastication is mandated by patients. Dental implants are now placed in vascularized bone reconstruction of the mandible immediately at the time of ablative surgery. This obviates the need for additional surgical reconstructive procedures, adjunctive hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and problems associated with the placement of dental implants in irradiated tissue.     

Effectiveness of culturally focused and generic skills training approaches to alcohol and drug abuse prevention among minority youths.

Tested the effectiveness of 2 alcohol and drug abuse prevention programs among 639 inner-city minority 7th-grade students in New York City. Ss were randomly assigned to receive (1) a generic skills training prevention approach, (2) a culturally focused prevention approach, or (3) an information-only control. Results indicate that Ss in both prevention approaches had lower intentions to drink beer or wine in the future relative to Ss in the control group. The generic skills training approach also showed promise in terms of intention to drink hard liquor and use illicit drugs. Both prevention programs influenced several mediating variables in a direction consistent with nondrug use. Results provide preliminary support for the 2 approaches with respect to alcohol and drug use prevention among minority youths in New York City. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Termination guidelines for a magnet school review committee: Application of decision theory.

The purpose of a magnet school is to assist the school system in reaching its desegregation goals while providing a quality education. One of the roles of the magnet review committee is to evaluate the degree of success of particular magnets and make recommendations to the United States District Court, Eastern District of Missouri, about proposals to terminate magnet schools. The committee members have found it difficult to reach consensus on these proposals. We conducted an empirical case study of the process by which applied experimental psychology consultants helped to develop the review procedure. We constructed a decision guideline by quantitatively modeling the attitudes, beliefs, and legal positions of the decision makers and representing them as a series of weighted utility functions. The decision aid was accepted by the magnet review committee and the federal court and is currently being used by the committee to evaluate schools for termination. In this article we discuss the development of the decision aid from methodological and consultative perspectives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alterations of phospholipids in ischemic canine myocardium during acute arrhythmia

Myocardial ischemia was produced in the left ventricle of the canine heart by a Harris two-stage occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery. The lipid content in the ischemic myocardium was analyzed and compared with the control tissue. No significant change in total phospholipid and cholesterol was detected. A 2-fold elevation in the levels of the major lysophospholipids was observed during acute ventricular arrhythmias at 24hr after the onset of ischemia. Such increases were not caused by preferential hydrolysis of phospholipid plasmalogens from the parent phospholipids.     

African Americans and anxiety disorders research: Development of a testable theoretical framework.

Examines research conducted with African Americans suffering with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-diagnosed anxiety disorder. Authors first examine previous epidemiological and treatment outcome studies in an effort to ascertain the consistencies and inconsistencies that exist within the literature. A preliminary theoretical framework is provided which can account for previous discrepant findings, and, by incorporating both racial identity and acculturation into its definition of ethnicity, also allows investigators to generate testable hypotheses regarding the manifestation and presentation of anxious symptoms, and to evaluate the efficacy of psychological interventions among African Americans. Suggestions for future investigations in this area are also offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Defining a Requirements Process Improvement Model

Both software organisations and the academic community are aware that the requirements phase of software development is in need of further support. We address this problem by creating a specialised Requirements Capability Maturity Model (R-CMM¹). The model focuses on the requirements engineering process as defined within the established Software Engineering Institute’s (SEI’s) software process improvement framework. Our empirical work with software practitioners is a primary motivation for creating this requirements engineering process improvement model. Although all organisations in our study were involved in software process improvement (SPI), they all showed a lack of control over many requirement engineering activities.This paper describes how the requirements engineering (RE) process is decomposed and prioritised in accordance with maturity goals set by the SEI’s Software Capability Maturity Model (SW CMM). Our R-CMM builds on the SEI’s framework by identifying and defining recommended RE sub-processes that meet maturity goals. This new focus will help practitioners to define their RE process with a view to setting realistic goals for improvement.Sarah Beecham is a research fellow in the Department of Maths and Computing in The Open University in the UK. She is currently working on the EPSRC funded CRESTES project () looking into modelling resource estimation for long-lived software. She has recently completed her PhD for a program of work entitled “A Requirements-based Software Process Maturity Model”. Current research interests are in estimation for software evolution and maintenance and in the general areas of software process improvement. Her particular research interests are in empirical methods in software engineering and requirements engineering.Tracy Hall leads the Systems & Software Research Group in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Hertfordshire. She specialises in the empirical investigation of technical and non-technical issues within software engineering. During the past ten years Tracy has successfully collaborated with many companies on a variety of research projects. She is very active in the Empirical Software Engineering community and is regularly invited to talk about empirical methods both in the UK and abroad. Tracy is an accomplished researcher having published over twenty high quality journal papers.Austen Rainer Austen Rainer is a senior lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire. He studied for his PhD at Bournemouth University, in conjunction with IBM Hursley Park. His current research interests include open source software development, longitudinal case study research, and the credibility of empirical evidence for researchers and software practitioners.     

Estimated neutron dose to embryo and foetus during commercial flight

A study has been carried out to assess the radiation exposure from cosmic-ray neutrons to the embryo and foetus of pregnant aircrew and air travellers in consideration of the radiation exposure from cosmic-ray neutrons to the embryo and foetus. A Monte Carlo analysis was performed to determine the equivalent dose from neutrons to the brain and body of an embryo at 8 weeks and to the foetus at the 3, 6 and 9 month periods. Neutron fluence-to-absorbed dose conversion coefficients for the foetal brain and for the entire foetal body (isotropic irradiation geometry) have been determined at the four developmental stages. The equivalent dose rate to the foetus during commercial flights has been further evaluated considering the fluence-to-absorbed dose conversion coefficients, a neutron spectrum measured at an altitude of 11.3 km and an ICRP-92 radiation-weighting factor for neutrons. This study indicates that the foetus can exceed the annual dose limit of 1 mSv for the general public after, for example, 15 round trips on commercial trans-Atlantic flights.