Psychology and the moral imperative.

Examines the moral obligations of psychology. An inquiry into the main priorities of academic and professional psychology suggests that contributions to human welfare, its preeminent moral obligation, comes in third after guild issues and professional self-interest, and the pursuit of knowledge. In an effort to reassign moral philosophy a place of prominence and to broaden the ethical discourse of psychology, the authors use the term "moral imperative" (MI). The promotion of the MI entails the exploration of 3 fundamental questions. These concern the extent that the present social order promotes human welfare for everyone, the extent that psychology supports or challenges the present social order, and the contributions that psychology can make to the advent of the "good" society. The MI advances 4 human agency values: self-determination, distributive justice, collaborative and democratic participation, and relationality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of interseed spacing, tissue perfusion, thermoseedtemperatures and catheters in ferromagnetic hyperthermia: results fromsimulations using finite element models of thermoseeds andcatheters

Finite element heat-transfer models of ferromagnetic thermoseeds and catheters are developed for simulating ferromagnetic hyperthermia, These models are implemented into a general purpose, finite element computer program to solve the bioheat transfer equation. The seed and catheter models are unique in that they have fewer modeling constraints than other previously developed thermal models. Simulations are conducted with a 4×4 array of seeds in a multicompartment tissue model. The heat transfer model predicts that fractions of tumor greater than 43°C are between 8 and 40% lower when seed temperatures depend on power versus models which assume a constant seed temperature. Fractions of tumor greater than 42°C, in simulations using seed and catheter models, are between 3.3 and 25% lower than in simulations with bare seeds. It is demonstrated that an array of seeds with Curie points of 62.6°C heats the tumor very well over nearly all blood perfusion cases studied. In summary, results herein suggest that thermal models simulating ferromagnetic hyperthermia should consider the power-temperature dependence of seeds and include explicit models of catheters     

Locus of control and attitudes toward mental illness among mental health volunteers.

Administered Rotter's Internal-External Control (I-E) Scale and Opinions about Mental Illness (OMI) Scale to 30 volunteers at a state mental hospital and 34 undergraduate controls. It was found that the volunteer group was more internal on the I-E Scale and less likely to feel that patients should be restricted in their social functioning. Retest OMI Scale scores of 16 volunteers after 6 mo. indicated that Ss' attitudes toward patients became more benevolent over time, and they may have begun to adopt the ideology of the mental health professional. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Geographic server distribution model for key revocation

Key management is one of the important issues in ensuring the security of network services. The aim of key management is to ensure availability of the keys at both the receiver’s and the sender’s ends. Key management involves two aspects: key distribution and key revocation. Key distribution involves the distribution of keys to various nodes with secrecy to provide authenticity and privacy. Key revocation involves securely and efficiently managing the information about the keys which have been compromised. This paper presents the geographic server distributed model for key revocation which concerns about the security and performance of the system. The concept presented in this paper is more reliable, faster and scalable than the existing Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) framework in various countries, as it provides optimization of key authentication in a network. It proposes auto-seeking of a geographically distributed certifying authority’s key revocation server, which holds the revocation lists by the client, based on the best service availability. The network is divided itself into the strongest availability zones (SAZ), which automatically allows the new receiver to update the address of the authentication server and replace the old address with the new address of the SAZ, in case it moves to another location in the zone, or in case the server becomes unavailable in the same zone. In this way, it reduces the time to gain information about the revocation list and ensures availability and, thus, improvement of the system as a whole. Hence, the proposed system results in scalable, reliable and faster PKI infrastructure and will be attractive for the users who frequently change their location in the network. Our scheme eases out the revocation mechanism and enables key revocation in the legacy systems. It discusses the architecture as well as the performance of our scheme as compared to the existing scheme. However, our scheme does not call for the entire change in PKI, but is compatible with the existing scheme. Our simulations show that the proposed scheme is better for key revocation.     

A Study of the Paramagnetic to Ferromagnetic Transition in the Optimally Doped CMR Compound La0.65Ca0.35MnO3 and Its Dependence on Oxygen Mass

We present a study of the paramagnetic to ferromagnetic transition in the CMR compound La_0.65Ca_0.35MnO₃ and its dependence on magnetic field and oxygen mass. The transition is characterized by two temperatures, the thermodynamic transition temperature at T _c, obtained from specific heat and thermal expansion data, and the resistive transition obtained from the resistivity maximum. The resistive transition occurs well within the paramagnetic range. The magnetic susceptibility in the paramagnetic range is isotope dependent up to 400 K. The magnitude of the Curie-Weiss constant indicates the presence of small clusters of about 4–5 unit cells. The resistive transition occurs when the percolation limit for these clusters is reached.     

Wear of surface engineered metal-on-metal hip prostheses

The wear of existing metal-on-metal (MOM) hip prostheses (1 mm3/million cycles) is much lower than the more widely used polyethylene-on-metal bearings (30-100 mm3/million cycles). However, there remain some potential concerns about the toxicity of metal wear particles and elevated metal ion levels, both locally and systemically in the human body. The aim of this study was to investigate the wear, wear debris and ion release of fully coated surface engineered MOM bearings for hip prostheses. Using a physiological anatomical hip joint simulator, five different bearing systems involving three thick (8-12 microm) coatings, TiN, CrN and CrCN, and one thin (2 microm) coating diamond like carbon (DLC) were evaluated and compared to a clinically used MOM cobalt chrome alloy bearing couple. The overall wear rates of the surface engineered prostheses were at least 18-fold lower than the traditional MOM prostheses after 2 million cycles and 36-fold lower after 5 million cycles. Consequently, the volume of wear debris and the ion levels in the lubricants were substantially lower. These parameters were also much lower than in half coated (femoral heads only) systems that have been reported previously. The extremely low volume of wear debris and concentration of metal ions released by these surface engineered systems, especially with CrN and CrCN coatings, have considerable potential for the clinical application of this technology.     

Temporal aspects of female musk shrew (Suncus murinus) sexual behavior.

The effects of testing condition on sexual behavior were examined in female musk shrews (Suncus murinus). Females were tested in 2 conditions, a pair test and a paced test. The pair test was similar to traditional sex test conditions in which the female and male are placed into the same chamber together until mating occurs. The paced condition allowed the female to leave the male's chamber and revisit him at will, thus pacing the interaction. Females displayed receptivity continuously for 14 days in both conditions. In the paced condition, females were less likely to become receptive within 30 min and mate to ejaculation. However, few additional differences were found between test conditions. Because this is the 1st experiment to use a pacing test paradigm in a species with induced ovulation, the authors speculate that the absence of pacing behavior during mating may be shown by other species that have induced ovulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpretation of Genetic Risk Feedback Among African American Smokers With Low Socioeconomic Status.

The authors report on factors related to interpretation of feedback on genetic susceptibility to lung cancer among 371 African American smokers receiving care in a community health clinic, with a focus on whether smokers were interpreting feedback consistent with a defensive processing or an accuracy orientation. Smokers were given feedback on the absence (indicating increased risk) or presence (indicating average risk) of the gene for the mu isoform of glutathione S-transferase . Smokers who were told they were at higher risk were more likely to inaccurately recall the result than those deemed at average risk. Smokers who inaccurately recalled the result, regardless of risk status, were most likely to misinterpret the meaning of the result. Perceived lung cancer risks and worries were not associated with comprehension of the test result. The authors suggest additional research is needed to develop more effective strategies for communicating genetic risk feedback to motivate smoking cessation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spatially resolved imaging of charge collection efficiency in polycrystalline CVD diamond by the use of ion beam induced current

Diamond based detectors have potential applications in high energy physics experiments. These detectors can be fabricated from synthetic Chemical Vapour Deposited (CVD) polycrystalline diamond films. Previously it has been shown by the Turin group and their coworkers in Zagreb that it is possible to investigate the electrical characteristics of high quality polycrystalline CVD diamond films by Ion Beam Induced Current (IBIC). The present work describes IBIC images obtained using 2 MeV He⁺ irradiation of 250 μm thick polycrystalline diamond films through a thin gold surface contact layer biased positively relative to the grounded rear surface of the film. In contrast to previous experiments the present spectra of collected charge display a clearly defined peak from the induced charge. Images obtained by separating these spectra into different regions of interest allow the identification of regions in the sample of different charge collection efficiency. In particular the presence of some grains in which no charge collection appears possible and the reduction in charge collection efficiency at the grain boundaries is evident.     

Values and assumptions about values and assumptions.

Responds to comments by I. A. M. Nicholson, E. H. McWhirter, D. R. Ramm, and R. N. Sollod (see records 1998-00122-009, 1998-00122-010, 1998-00122-011, and 1998-00122-012) regarding I. Prilleltensky's (see record 1997-04451-002) article on the moral implications of psychological discourse and action. It is stated that these 4 authors, by commenting in a respectful fashion, show that they share the value of mutual understanding and the assumption that the best way to make progress in a discussion is through dialogue rather than moral exclusion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)