Ethical decision making and psychologists' attitudes toward training in ethics.

Discusses the inadequacy of old, and the lack of new guidelines for the protection of the rights of individuals in psychological treatment. A questionnaire containing vignettes of clinical and research situations that required decision-making processes was completed by 113 members of the Division of Clinical Psychology of the American Psychological Association. Data suggest that there is inconsistency in decision making. Suggestions for improving the decision-making process and enhancing consistency are presented. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Comparison of Spawning,Harvested, and Die-Off Rainbow Smelt, Osmerus Mordax, in Eastern Lake Erie

Rainbow smelt were collected in the area of Long Point, Lake Erie from 1) a commercial trawler, 2) spawning runs in streams, and 3) die-offs along beaches. The parasite Glugea hertwigi was found to have no effects on the fecundity or condition of smelt. However, infested smelt grew more slowly than uninfested ones. The percentage of infested smelt in die-offs was not significantly higher than in the spawning stock, suggesting that the parasite was not the primary cause of the mortality. Growth, maximum age, and fecundity of smelt in the samples were lower than in most other smelt populations for which data are available. Since there are no data available for Lake Erie smelt prior to or during the development of the fishery, it is not possible to assess if the observed population structure is the result of exploitation. Sex ratio changes suggest that spawning smelt may remix with the harvested stock gradually throughout the summer.     

Investing in energy conservation: Are homeowners passing up high yields?

Energy conservation is examined as an investment option for homeowners. Conservation technologies produce monetary benefits through reduced fuel costs. Calculations suggest that many conservation measures have rates of return significantly higher than alternative investments in stocks, bonds, and real estate, yet the level of conservation activity is inconsistent with these high yields. Several barriers exist which inhibit investments in conservation; it is perceived as risky and the cost of obtaining reliable information is high. Public policies to encourage conservation should focus on reducing the risk of purchasing energy saving devices by improving the accuracy of energy savings estimates.     

Testing alternative decision approaches for identifying cleanup priorities at contaminated sites

This exploratory study compares two approaches for involving nonexpert stakeholders in difficult policy choices. Both approaches have as their goal informing members of the public about contaminated sites and involving them in decisions regarding their cleanup. The first approach focuses on technical information and seeks to improve the available knowledge base so that participants can make choices informed by detailed scientific data. This approach is similar in intent to many of the science-based initiatives in public involvement now being undertaken by EPA, DOE, and other federal or state agencies. The second approach, in contrast, focuses on values-oriented information and seeks to improve stakeholders' ability to make difficult choices in light of required tradeoffs across a variety of technical and nontechnical concerns. The results demonstrate that although both approaches help to increase participants' knowledge level, a values-based approach is more successful in terms of helping nonexpert participants to make decisions aboutwhat have historically been viewed as primarily technical problems.     

ULP蓝牙开启全新无线应用

2007年6月,Wibree技术被纳入蓝牙技术联盟(SIG),并更名为ULP(超低功耗)蓝牙。这一新的低功耗无线技术可用于小型设备之间的简单数据传输,仅需一枚钮扣电池便可运行     

Local anesthetic treatment significantly attenuates acute pain responding but does not prevent the neonatal injury-induced reduction in adult spinal behavioral plasticity.

Recent findings indicate that neonatal injury results in decreased spinal plasticity in adult subjects (E. E. Young, K. M. Baumbauer, A. E. Elliot, & R. L. Joynes, 2007). Previous research has shown that acute manipulations of pain processing (i.e., administration of formalin, carrageenan, capsaicin) result in a loss of spinal behavioral plasticity (A. R. Ferguson, E. D. Crown, & J. W. Grau, 2006). Moreover, neonatal injury results in a lasting reduction in adult spinally mediated plasticity resembling the deficit seen following acute manipulations in adults (E. E. Young et al., 2007). The present study was designed to determine whether the effects of neonatal injury could be prevented by lidocaine administration during the initial healing period. Subjects (injured or uninjured) received lidocaine or saline on 1 of 4 administration schedules (preinjury only, postinjury only, for 24 hr postsurgery, or for 72 hr postsurgery). Results demonstrated that lidocaine administration did not prevent the hypersensitivity and reduced spinal plasticity associated with neonatal injury. This suggests that (a) the mechanisms underlying neonatal injury are independent of peripheral input in the initial healing period and (b) lidocaine is ineffective at preventing long-term spinal plasticity changes following neonatal injury. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Desire for euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide in palliative cancer care.

Objective: To investigate the attitudes of terminally ill individuals toward the legalization of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide (PAS) and to identify those who would personally desire such a death. Design: In the Canadian National Palliative Care Survey, semistructured interviews were administered to 379 patients who were receiving palliative care for cancer. Patients who expressed a desire for physician-hastened death were followed prospectively. Main Outcome Measures: Attitudes toward the legalization of euthanasia or PAS were determined, as was the personal interest in receiving a hastened death. Demographic and clinical characteristics were also recorded, including a 22-item structured interview of symptoms and concerns. Results: There were 238 participants (62.8%) who believed that euthanasia and/or PAS should be legalized, and 151 (39.8%) who would consider making a future request for a physician-hastened death. However, only 22 (5.8%) reported that, if legally permissible, they would initiate such a request right away, in their current situations. This desire for hastened death was associated with lower religiosity (p = .010), reduced functional status (p = .024), a diagnosis of major depression (p     

Throughput guarantees for multi-priority traffic in ad hoc networks

In this paper, we present MPARC (Multi-Priority Admission and Rate Control), a novel joint admission control and rate policing protocol for multi-priority ad hoc networks. MPARC is based on our novel bandwidth allocation model, which captures the bandwidth allocation for saturated, unsaturated and semi-saturated networks. MPARC guarantees that the throughput of admitted realtime flows will not decrease due to later arriving realtime flows with equal or lower priorities or due to best effort flows. MPARC achieves this goal by performing accurate admission control on every newly arriving realtime flow and appropriate rate policing on all best effort traffic. Through simulation, we demonstrate that MPARC has better performance than existing approaches.     

Modeling coagulation kinetics incorporating fractal theories: comparison with observed data

There are currently four possible approaches in modeling coagulation kinetics: the traditional Euclidean rectilinear; the Euclidean curvilinear; the fractal rectilinear; and the fractal curvilinear. The fractal model includes the Euclidean case as a subset. The primary purpose of this research is to investigate which of the rectilinear models among these best predicts the evolution of experimental observed particle size distribution (PSD). Using a fractal rectilinear model previously developed by the authors, model predictions were compared with a series of observed PSD data obtained from estuarine sediment particles in a 2m settling column, where the average velocity gradient (G) was 20 or 40s(-1). Nonlinear parameter estimation was performed to estimate two free parameters for the fractal model (the fractal dimension, DF, and the collision efficiency factor, a), and one free parameter (the collision efficiency factor, alpha) for the Euclidean model. Compared with the observed PSD, the simulation showed that the fractal rectilinear model was best, and that this model fit better for the larger size particles. The estimated DF was between 2.6 and 3.0. The research demonstrated that the alpha's have multiple values for the same observed data, depending on the coagulation model used. This finding is significant because a is currently used as a single value based on the conventional Euclidean rectilinear model.