New Instrumentation for Roof Bolt Load Measurement

The disadvantages of using torque readings to estimate point-anchored bolt loads have long made it desirable to find an alternate technique that would provide high accuracy at low cost per bolt and not disturb the anchorage. Bureau of Mines research efforts to use electronic means to meet these goals are detailed. A brief history of the techniques considered is presented. Details of the electronic and mechanical development needed to apply this technology to mine roof bolts are presented. Laboratory and field results are illustrated. Current applications potential applications, and limitations are discussed. An instrument that at the present stage of research appears to have the potential to make the desired measurement is discussed.     

Helping behavior in rural and urban environments: A meta-analysis.

A meta-analytic review examined 65 tests of the hypothesis that "country people are more helpful than city people." Results demonstrated a significantly greater nonurban helping response, with an effect size of .29. However, the effect was found to be more clearly a function of context factors than of subject factors, a finding that led to refinement of the initial hypothesis. The data indicate that helping is more likely to occur in a nonurban than an urban context. This effect was found to be robust across variations in helping requests and experimenter and subject variables. Discussion focuses on the unexpected positive relationship found between population size and helping rate in small to medium-size communities. Theoretical models of urban impact and weaknesses in our understanding of differences in rural–urban social behavior are also considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Program evaluation as applied to the goals of a psychology department clinic.

A comprehensive evaluation of a psychology department clinic in relation to its goals, in which goal definition was based on observations of clinical faculty members and students, demonstrated that, overall, clinic goals were determined by departmental priorities that put training before both research and service. An evaluation instrument composed of 5 segments to measure goal attainment is discussed in terms of its assessment of graduate students' evaluation of training through the clinic, faculty members' views of the effects of the training program, adequacy of the training program as reflected in postdoctoral accomplishments of former students, community awareness and attitudes regarding the clinic, and clients' satisfaction with services. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Seventy-two tests of the sequential lineup superiority effect: A meta-analysis and policy discussion.

A decade ago, a meta-analysis showed that identification of a suspect from a sequential lineup versus a simultaneous lineup was more diagnostic of guilt (Steblay, Dysart, Fulero, & Lindsay, 2001). Since then, controversy and debate regarding sequential superiority has emerged. We report the results of a new meta-analysis involving 72 tests of simultaneous and sequential lineups from 23 different labs involving 13,143 participant-witnesses. The results are very similar to the 2001 results in showing that the sequential lineup is less likely to result in an identification of the suspect, but also more diagnostic of guilt than is the simultaneous lineup. An examination of the full diagnostic design dataset (27 tests that used the full simultaneous/sequential × culprit-present/culprit-absent design) showed that the average gap in correct identifications favoring the simultaneous lineup over the sequential lineup—8%—is smaller than the 15% figure obtained from the 2001 meta-analysis (and from the current full 72-test dataset). The lower error rate incurred for culprit-absent lineups with use of a sequential format remains consistent across the years, with 22% fewer errors than simultaneous lineups. A Bayesian analysis shows that the posterior probability of guilt following an identification of the suspect is higher for the sequential lineup across the entire base rate for culprit presence/absence. New ways to think about policy issues are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)