Examples Of Things Research Articles

Analysis of narrative assessments of internal medicine resident performance: are there differences associated with gender or race and ethnicity?

BackgroundEquitable assessment is critical in competency-based medical education. This study explores differences in key characteristics of qualitative assessments (i.e., narrative comments or assessment feedback) of internal medicine postgraduate resident performance associated with gender and race and ethnicity.MethodsAnalysis of narrative comments included in faculty assessments of resident performance from six internal medicine residency programs was conducted. Content analysis was used to assess two key characteristics of comments- valence (overall positive or negative orientation) and specificity (detailed nature and actionability of comment) – via a blinded, multi-analyst approach. Differences in comment valence and specificity with gender and race and ethnicity were assessed using multilevel regression, controlling for multiple covariates including quantitative competency ratings.ResultsData included 3,383 evaluations with narrative comments by 597 faculty of 698 residents, including 45% of comments about women residents and 13.2% about residents who identified with race and ethnicities underrepresented in medicine. Most comments were moderately specific and positive. Comments about women residents were more positive (estimate 0.06, p 0.045) but less specific (estimate − 0.07, p 0.002) compared to men. Women residents were more likely to receive non-specific, weakly specific or no comments (adjusted OR 1.29, p 0.012) and less likely to receive highly specific comments (adjusted OR 0.71, p 0.003) or comments with specific examples of things done well or areas for growth (adjusted OR 0.74, p 0.003) than men. Gendered differences in comment specificity and valence were most notable early in training. Comment specificity and valence did not differ with resident race and ethnicity (specificity: estimate 0.03, p 0.32; valence: estimate − 0.05, p 0.26) or faculty gender (specificity: estimate 0.06, p 0.15; valence: estimate 0.02 p 0.54).ConclusionThere were significant differences in the specificity and valence of qualitative assessments associated with resident gender with women receiving more praising but less specific and actionable comments. This suggests a lost opportunity for well-rounded assessment feedback to the disadvantage of women.

Pengembangan Dashboard Kependudukan Berbasis Peta Di Kecamatan Berbah Kabupaten Sleman

Berbah is a sub-district currently called kapenawon, in the Sleman regency of the Special Region of Yogyakarta. Berbah District has a fairly large area and is divided into 4 kelurahan. Large areas require integrated management and ease of monitoring various conditions based on location. Some examples of things that need to be monitored include: UMKM production, the development of a pandemic such as dengue fever, agricultural products and others. So far, the data in Berbah sub-district is spread across various applications so that sometimes it is quite difficult to see the condition of the sub-district in a more integrated manner. This service is aimed at providing solutions to these problems by developing a map-based dashboard application for population data in Berbah sub-district. Access to existing data is done using the Restful Web Service API with JSON format data exchange

Bench Marking Practices and Service Delivery in the National Police Service in Mombasa County, Kenya

Organizations today operate in a highly competitive and rapidly changing environment, which has compelled them to consider adopting and implementing various innovative management programs and techniques. Benchmarking is a modern approach to determining appropriate management measures. Police are presently required to identify various struggles in their networks, forestall or lessen unsettling public influences, and assemble and keep up with advertising. It is basic to perceive that estimating police execution is a troublesome undertaking full of complexities. There is no single metric that can even verge on estimating the viability of all that the police do. This research aims to investigate how benchmarking practices impact service delivery in Kenya's national police service in Mombasa County. The study's specific objectives were to investigate the impact of external, internal, functional, and process benchmarking on service delivery. Resource dependence theory, theory of constraints, and contingency theory guided the research. This study will use a survey research design. The study's target group was Mombasa County, police officers. The respondents for the review will be 65 paper officials and inspectorate individuals. Since the populace has less than 200 respondents, the review took an evaluation of 195. A survey will be the essential information assortment device in this review. This review utilized content legitimacy since it surveys how well the example of things addresses the substance that the test is expected to quantify. Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient was employed to ascertain the questionnaire's validity. In analyzing data, the study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. Regression analysis was used because it is a set of statistical analyses used to estimate the variables' association. The study established that external, internal, functional, and process benchmarking positively and significantly influenced the service delivery in Mombasa County's national police service. The study concluded that process benchmarking demonstrates how top-performing businesses carry out the specific process in question. Similar or identical practices within the same or similar functions outside the immediate sector are compared using functional benchmarking. Internal benchmarking is extremely effective because it assists in ensuring that every department is as efficient, establishing consistency, and setting and meeting standards across the board. The reference point in external benchmarking is established outside of the business environment. The study recommended that the organization's performance should be consistently evaluated, and they should set their own standards and compare their processes and performance to those of recognized organizational leaders or best practices from other industries that operate in a similar environment. The organization should validate and prioritize its strategies to address any gaps between its current performance and future performance. A company must implement a process that encourages idea sharing to be effective at internal benchmarking. Determine which processes should be benchmarked. The organization should collect benchmarking data from other companies through the creation of informal with other organizations in gathering data and comparing operational best practices, examining public monetary filing or purchasing industry reports.

Quantum researcher mobility: the wonderful wizard of Oz who paid for Dorothy’s visa fees

Historically, science has benefited greatly through the mobility of researchers, whether it has been due to large-scale conflict, the search for new opportunities or a lack thereof. Today’s world of strict global immigration policies, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, places inordinate hurdles on the mobility of all researchers, let alone quantum ones. Exorbitant visa fees, the difficulty of navigating a foreign immigration system, lack of support for researchers’ families, and explicit government policy targeting selected groups of immigrants are all examples of things that have severely impacted the ability of quantum researchers to cross both physical and scientific borders. Here we clearly identify some key problems affecting quantum researcher mobility and discuss examples of good practice on the governmental, institutional, and societal level that have helped, or might help, overcome these hurdles. The adoption of such practices worldwide can ensure that quantum scientists can reach their fullest potential, irrespective of where they were born.

Pulmonary Hypertension Roundtable: Drug Development and Negative Clinical Trial Results

Pulmonary Hypertension Roundtable: Drug Development and Negative Clinical Trial Results

Facilitating the collective expression of parents of disabled children at a scientific conference

Abstract The European Academy of Childhood Disability is an academic association with over 500 members (health, social work and educational professionals working with children with disability) from some 35 different countries. The Academy wishes to put families at the heart of its agenda. Partnership with families has the potential to improve care and education outcomes and renew practice. It may also facilitate understanding between professionals and families. To this end for the annual conference in Paris a series of structured interactive group activities have been designed to facilitate the sharing of experience and expression of families and to gather their concerns. These activities designed by disability specialists in partnership with family representatives call on small group work “world café” style focus group methodology. They are structured, varied, interactive and take place in a specially organized conference session over 3 hours. Sensitive feedback is provided by experienced pediatricians in the childhood disability field. Parents provide narratives of significant experiences for their children prior to the conference. These are shared in groups of 3. Questions explored include “What matters for the happiness of your children? “Please give examples of things which have happened in your child’s life which seem to be key experiences” Relating to the concept of F-words, (Rosenbaum, Gorter, 2011) parents have also been asked to consider different dimensions of their children’s well-being such as friendship, functioning, fitness, family, fun, and future. Group discussions are noted, recorded, retranscribed and analysed allowing, the gain of insights and providing possible building blocks for professional training. Such qualitative data allows new topics and research on a joint family-professional agenda to emerge. These may be tackled at future conferences thus building bridges between specialists and families.

EVALUASI HEURISTIC DESAIN ANTARMUKA (INTERFACE) WEBSITE PEMASARAN UNIVERSITAS XYZ

<p><em>This research was conducted to improve user comfort and maintain business strategy amid increasingly widespread e-commerce competition. The researcher evaluated the interface of the XYZ University website with the Heuristic method of Nielsen and Molich, as an approach in evaluating a human-machine system (man-machine system) related to ease of use (usability).</em></p><p><em>The study was conducted by evaluating the XYZ University website marketing interface, based on ten studies related to user convenience, namely feedback, metaphor, navigation, consistency, prevention, memory, efficiency, design, recovery and help. Interfaces that correspond to the study points are recorded and sampled accordingly, as well as if there is an interface that is not in accordance with the study points, it will be recorded and examples of things that are not appropriate are taken. The results of this study are in the form of a summary of recommendations for improving the interface design of the XYZ University website.</em></p><p><strong><em> </em></strong></p><p><strong><em>Keywords: </em></strong><em> </em><em>heuristic evaluation, interface, design, website</em></p>

Mythbusters: C-L Psychiatrists Separate Fact From Fiction

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Annual MeetingFull AccessMythbusters: C-L Psychiatrists Separate Fact From FictionRobert Boland,M.D.Robert Boland,Search for more papers by this authorM.D.Published Online:15 Mar 2018https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2018.3b18AbstractConsultation-liaison psychiatrists seem to encounter more than their share of myths due to the collaborative nature of their work with other fields of medicine.In this “post-factual” age of “fake news,” we have become all too familiar with the power of half-truths, opinions, and assertions to take on the appearance of facts. This is not new—medicine has a long history of taking anecdotes and repeating them so frequently that they become accepted dogma. One recent example was the unusual warning added to a 1980s letter to the editor in the New England Journal of Medicine that purported to show that the risk of iatrogenic addictions from opioid prescriptions is rare, warning that this modest letter has been “heavily and uncritically cited”. Robert Boland, M.D., is president of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine.Most doctors have their pet peeves about something they were told or read in a textbook that might not have stood up to scrutiny. Although this pervades medicine, we consultation-liaison psychiatrists feel particularly drawn to this subject, working as we do between psychiatry and other fields of medicine, and in this interface half-truths and frank misunderstandings seem particularly common. With this in mind, when the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine—soon to be the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry—was invited by our APA president to present a presidential symposium, I chose to ask representative members to present a favorite example of a myth that they have encountered. I purposely asked psychiatrists at different stages of their careers, so we have both the wisdom of prominent psychiatrists in our field as well as the new experiences of midcareer and younger consultation-liaison psychiatrists.For example, among leaders of our field, Peter Shapiro, M.D., at Columbia University has devoted much of his career to understanding the interface between cardiology and psychiatry. He will critically review the “accepted” idea that QTc intervals are the best method for predicting whether psychotropics will cause arrhythmias.Similarly, Sejal Shah, M.D., and in this regard David Gitlin, M.D., will examine whether the belief that psychiatrists are the best suited for performing suicide evaluations is itself a myth. Alcohol use and abuse seem particularly prone to fake news, and Sparsha Reddy, M.D., will examine the relationship between Wernicke’s encephalopathy and alcohol use, whereas I will take on the age-old question of whether alcohol really kills brain cells. These are just a few examples of the myths, legends, and “old wives’ tales” that can occur in a field that is both a science and an art. We have no doubt that many members of the audience will have their own examples of things that “just ain’t so,” and we hope to save time to share those as well. ■“Mythbusters: Consultation-Liaison Doc-tors Separate Medical Fact From Fiction” will be held on Wednesday, May 9, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. For location, download the APA Meetings App (see ad below) or check the program guide distributed on site at the meeting. ISSUES NewArchived

Digital Solidarity or Complacent Clicktivism?

24 | International Union Rights | 25/3 FOCUS | INDUSTRY 4.0 Nearly 7000 people supported the Turkish TÜMTIS union campaign.The company caved in to the union’s demands. But the workers on the picket line have to be given full credit for their victory Digital Solidarity or Complacent Clicktivism? ERIC LEE is the founding editor of LabourStart, the news and campaigning platform of the international trade union movement Trade unions have been using information technology to promote global solidarity for more than three decades. When I began researching and writing about this in the early 1990s, I found an already existing community of activists who had been using email and other online tools for years. In fact, by the early 1990s, they had already held a couple of international conferences to discuss what had been done and where to go next. So we’ve learned a lot, and we have decades of experience behind us. We’ve learned about some tools that work very well, and others that don’t. LabourStart has been a laboratory of sorts, where we’ve tried out many of the new technologies. What works, and what doesn’t Let me start by giving a couple of examples of things that did not work out very well. One was called ‘Second Life’ – an immersive, 3-D online environment which was all the rage a few years back. Some unions decided that this ‘virtual world’ was the next big thing and didn’t want to be left behind. Something called ‘Union Island’ was created to much fanfare. I tried to be supportive, and signed up to use ‘Second Life’ only to discover that I couldn’t figure out how to equip my online avatar with clothing. As a result, my unclothed character stood neck-deep in the sea surrounding ‘Union Island’ cheering on those few who had managed to get ashore with their clothes on. ‘Union Island’ quickly disappeared under the virtual waves and has not been heard of since. When Facebook took off, many of us realised some of its limitations – more on this in a moment – and thought it would be better to build a social network owned and controlled by unions. Thus UnionBook was born. Using a platform that replicated much of Facebook’s functionality, it struggled to get even 5000 trade unionists to sign up. The problem was a chicken-and-egg one: without vast numbers of trade unionists there, the network was useless. It limped along for several years until it was finally shut down. So, what does work? It turns out that two of the older technologies, which have been in use for a quarter century or more, remain potent tools for trade unions. One is email. As we have repeatedly learned, there is nothing more effective than a mass mailing in order to promote an online campaign. We see this all the time whenever we launch a new campaign on LabourStart. If we share it with our tens of thousands of followers on social networks (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) we’ll get a small trickle of responses. But when we send out a message to our 130,000 email subscribers, we get a flood. This simple point is still not widely understood in unions. Often when we ask a union to give publicity to a campaign – even to a campaign which they requested – what we get is a posting on Facebook and Twitter which has little demonstrable effect on the campaign. Why is this the case? I think it’s because we treat our email inboxes differently from how we treat our Facebook news feeds or Twitter feeds. If a message comes into my inbox, it’s something I need to read, or act on, or delete. This is absolutely not the case with Twitter or Facebook; I can happily not visit social networks for days and no one necessarily expects me to be responding to their posts. The other tool that still works very well is the website. Though we live in an age of smartphones and apps, the reality is that websites remain incredibly powerful tools. Just ask Amazon. So we have found that the most potent...

Paper in architecture: Research by design, engineering and prototyping

Paper is a fascinating material that we encounter every day in different variants: tissues, paper towels, packaging material, wall paper or even fillers of doors. Despite radical changes in production technology, the material, which has been known to mankind for almost two thousand years, still has a natural composition, being made up of fibres of plant origin (particularly wood fibres). Thanks to its unique properties, relatively high compression strength and bending stiffness, low production costs and ease of recycling, paper is becoming more and more popular in many types of industry. Mass-produced paper products such as special paper, paperboard, corrugated cardboard, honeycomb panels, tubes and L- and U-shapes are suitable for use as a building material in the broad sense of these words – i.e., in design and architecture. Objects for everyday use, furniture, interior design elements and partitions are just a few examples of things in which paper can be employed. Temporary events such as festivals, exhibitions or sporting events like the Olympics require structures that only need to last for a limited period of time. When they are demolished after a few days or months, their leftovers can have a significant impact on the local environment. In the context of growing awareness of environmental threats and the efforts undertaken by local and international organisations and governments to counter these threats, the use of natural materials that can be recycled after their lifespan is becoming increasingly widespread. Paper and its derivatives fascinate designers and architects, who are always looking for new challenges and trying to meet the market’s demands for innovative and proecological solutions. Being a low-cost and readily available material, paper is suited to the production of emergency shelters for victims of natural and man-made disasters, as well as homeless persons. In order to gain a better understanding of paper’s potential in terms of architecture, its material properties were researched on a micro, meso and macro level. This research of the possible applications of paper in architecture was informed by two main research questions: What is paper and to what extent can it be used in architecture? What is the most suitable way to use paper in emergency architecture? To answer the first research question, fundamental and material research on paper and paper products had to be conducted. The composition of the material, production methods and properties of paper were researched. Then paper products with the potential to be used in architecture were examined. The history of the development of paper and its influence on civilisation helped the author gain a better understanding of the nature of this material, which we encounter in our lives every day. Research on objects for everyday use, furniture, pavilions and architecture realised in the last 150 years allowed the author to distinguish various types of paper design and paper architecture. Analysis of realised buildings in which paper products were used as structural elements and parts of the building envelope resulted in a wide array of possible solutions. Structural systems, types of connections between the various elements, impregnation methods and the functionalities and lifespan of different types of buildings were systematised. The knowledge thus collected allowed the author to conduct a further exploration of paper architecture in the form of designs and prototypes. To answer the second research question, the analysed case studies were translated into designs and prototypes of emergency shelters. During the research-by-design, engineering and prototyping phases, more than a dozen prototypes were built. The prototypes differed in terms of structural systems, used materials, connections between structural elements, impregnation methods, functionality and types of building. The three versions of the Transportable Emergency Cardboard House project presented in the final chapter form the author’s final answer to the second research question. Paper will never replace traditional building materials such as timber, concrete, steel, glass or plastic. It can, however, complement them to a significant degree.

Paper in architecture: Research by design, engineering and prototyping

Paper is a fascinating material that we encounter every day in different variants: tissues, paper towels, packaging material, wall paper or even fillers of doors. Despite radical changes in production technology, the material, which has been known to mankind for almost two thousand years, still has a natural composition, being made up of fibres of plant origin (particularly wood fibres). Thanks to its unique properties, relatively high compression strength and bending stiffness, low production costs and ease of recycling, paper is becoming more and more popular in many types of industry. Mass-produced paper products such as special paper, paperboard, corrugated cardboard, honeycomb panels, tubes and L- and U-shapes are suitable for use as a building material in the broad sense of these words – i.e., in design and architecture. Objects for everyday use, furniture, interior design elements and partitions are just a few examples of things in which paper can be employed. Temporary events such as festivals, exhibitions or sporting events like the Olympics require structures that only need to last for a limited period of time. When they are demolished after a few days or months, their leftovers can have a significant impact on the local environment. In the context of growing awareness of environmental threats and the efforts undertaken by local and international organisations and governments to counter these threats, the use of natural materials that can be recycled after their lifespan is becoming increasingly widespread. Paper and its derivatives fascinate designers and architects, who are always looking for new challenges and trying to meet the market’s demands for innovative and proecological solutions. Being a low-cost and readily available material, paper is suited to the production of emergency shelters for victims of natural and man-made disasters, as well as homeless persons. In order to gain a better understanding of paper’s potential in terms of architecture, its material properties were researched on a micro, meso and macro level. This research of the possible applications of paper in architecture was informed by two main research questions: What is paper and to what extent can it be used in architecture? What is the most suitable way to use paper in emergency architecture? To answer the first research question, fundamental and material research on paper and paper products had to be conducted. The composition of the material, production methods and properties of paper were researched. Then paper products with the potential to be used in architecture were examined. The history of the development of paper and its influence on civilisation helped the author gain a better understanding of the nature of this material, which we encounter in our lives every day. Research on objects for everyday use, furniture, pavilions and architecture realised in the last 150 years allowed the author to distinguish various types of paper design and paper architecture. Analysis of realised buildings in which paper products were used as structural elements and parts of the building envelope resulted in a wide array of possible solutions. Structural systems, types of connections between the various elements, impregnation methods and the functionalities and lifespan of different types of buildings were systematised. The knowledge thus collected allowed the author to conduct a further exploration of paper architecture in the form of designs and prototypes. To answer the second research question, the analysed case studies were translated into designs and prototypes of emergency shelters. During the research-by-design, engineering and prototyping phases, more than a dozen prototypes were built. The prototypes differed in terms of structural systems, used materials, connections between structural elements, impregnation methods, functionality and types of building. The three versions of the Transportable Emergency Cardboard House project presented in the final chapter form the author’s final answer to the second research question. Paper will never replace traditional building materials such as timber, concrete, steel, glass or plastic. It can, however, complement them to a significant degree.

Communication in Clinical Handover: Improving the Safety and Quality of the Patient Experience.

Abstract not available.

Taking the Lead in School Settings

Taking the Lead in School Settings

Expressive processing: digital fictions, computer games, and software studies

What matters in understanding digital media? Is looking at the external appearance and audience experience of software enoughor should we look further? In Expressive Processing, Noah Wardrip-Fruin argues that understanding what goes on beneath the surface, the computational processes that make digital media function, is essential. Wardrip-Fruin suggests that it is the authors and artists with knowledge of these processes who will use the potential of computation to define the future of fiction and games. He also explores how computational processes themselves express meanings through distinctive designs, histories, and intellectual kinships that may not be visible to audiences. Wardrip-Fruin looks at expressive processing by examining specific works of digital media ranging from the simulated therapist Eliza and the first major story-generation system Tale-Spin to the complex city-planning game SimCity. Digital media, he contends, offer particularly intelligible examples of things we need to understand about software in general; if we understand, for instance, the capabilities and histories of artificial intelligence techniques in the context of a computer game, we can use that understanding to judge the use of similar techniques in such higher-stakes social contexts as surveillance. Most books on digital media focus on what the machines of digital media look like from the outside but ignore the computational machines that make digital media possible. With this book--the first to approach computational processes from the perspective of media, games, and fiction--Wardrip-Fruin examines both the outside and the inside of digital media's machines. Software Studies series

Acting Intentionally and Acting for a Reason

This paper explores the question whether whatever is done intentionally is done for a reason. Apart from helping us to think about those concepts, the question is interesting because it affords an opportunity to identify a number of misconceptions about reasons. In the paper I argue that there are things that are done intentionally but not done for a reason. I examine two different kinds of example: things done “because one wants to” and “purely expressive actions”. Concerning the first, I argue that the tendency to think that things done because one wants to are things done for a reason derives from conflating the reason that explains why someone did something with their reason for doing it. While these sometimes coincide, they need not always do so. And although the fact that someone wanted to do something can contribute to explaining the person's action, it is not normally that person's reason for doing that thing. Purely expressive actions also provide examples of things done intentionally but not for a reason. I argue that, although those actions are spontaneous, they are nonetheless intentional and that, since they are mere expressions of emotions, they are not done for reasons – although there are reasons why we do them.

Closer but not there yet: models in child injury research

Medicine is full of examples of things we measure as proxies for things we can’t measure directly because of unacceptable risk or cost, limitations in technology, or ethical constraints. End-tidal CO2 is a reasonably good proxy for alveolar CO2, unless you have, say, an air embolus. In that case, a second proxy, arterial PCO2, may give you close enough information to effectively guide clinical care. Other proxy measurements are further removed from the actual target of interest. Anesthesiologists wishing to avoid recall in their patients may use a combination of measurement of the percent of end-tidal anesthetic agent concentration, patient vital signs, physiological changes such as sweating, and computer processed electroencephalography to approximate the risk of recall during a given procedure, but none of these proxy measures directly measure likelihood of recall. An indirect, or proxy, measurement has value in proportion to its ability to predict the presence or likelihood of the target event, and most such measurements have inherent limitations. Mathematical models for prediction also appear frequently in medicine. Pharmacokinetic modeling predicts optimal drug dosing, generally with excellent but not perfect results. Mathematical modeling for hydrocephalus has become more sophisticated and takes into account an increasing number of factors but, as yet, has not resulted in perfect treatments for this condition. In their paper in this issue, Coats and Margulies continue a long line of efforts to use anthropomorphic models to answer some of the fundamental questions about loading conditions and prediction of injury in human in fants. This paper has a narrow focus: to use a more refined model of a 6-week-old human infant, with skull and neck properties that more closely replicate those physical features in actual infants, to measure the impact forces and angular decelerations in 3 dimensions from occiput-first drops from low heights onto various surfaces. These “worst-case scenario” data will be incorporated into existing mathematical models that are then validated against witnessed low-height falls analyzed in actual children. In this way the mathematical model can be refined continuously to improve its ability to predict the injuries resulting from documented clinical cases. In this instance, the specific injury type targeted is the prediction of skull fracture. Models, whether in anesthesia, pharmacology, or surgery, are not static. They are constantly refined, tested against other proxy measurements of what is difficult or impossible to measure directly and, hopefully, improved so that they get increasingly closer to a reliable prediction of complex biological phenomena. Although the experience of many clinicians with anthropomorphic models is limited to their training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation or some lay familiarity with crash test dummies, this modeling scheme is used widely in many biomedical applications. In this specific instance, the authors fully acknowledge, and are actively engaged in, the steps necessary to get from anthropomorphic models used for measurement of loading conditions, to an understanding of specific tissue and location injury thresholds, to mathematical modeling, to model validation against a large series of welldocumented witnessed events in human children. Only when this circuit is complete does this approach have a chance of correctly “working backwards” from a history of an event to a prediction of the probability that the witnessed injuries would be likely to arise from a reported mechanism. For those who have been waiting for a model of an infant that correctly predicts all injuries, the wait isn’t over yet. For those who believe that modeling as an approach is fundamentally flawed, a look at how much proxy measurement and modeling in practice that we use and accept daily may be helpful to put models in perspective. In child injury, we’re not there yet. But for those who are interested, this paper gives a glimpse into the steps that get us closer.

Mental stress as a causal factor in the development of hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

Chronic mental stress can come in a variety of forms, and may originate in the external environment, as an interaction between the individual and the environment, or from within the individual. Examples of things causing mental stress include earthquakes, job stress, and several measures of negative affect; all have been shown in prospective studies to have adverse effects on the development of hypertension and coronary artery disease. After the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake in Japan, there were increases of blood pressure and deaths from myocardial infarction that persisted for several months. Job strain, which is defined as a combination of low control and high demands at work, has been associated with increased blood pressure and coronary heart disease outcomes, particularly in men. Negative affect, which may manifest itself as depression, anxiety, anger, or hostility, has similarly been related to hypertension and coronary heart disease. Depression is emerging as the most important component with respect to cardiovascular disease. A common link for all these factors is a perceived loss of control over one's environment.

Death, Badness, and the Impossibility of Experience

Some have argued (following Epicurus) that death cannot be a bad thing for an individual who dies. They contend that nothing can be a bad for an individual unless the individual is able to experience it as bad. I argue against this “Epicurean” view, offering examples of things that an individual cannot experience as bad but are nevertheless bad for the individual. Further, I argue that death is relevantly similar.

Gender differences in the semantics of ownership: A quantitative phenomenological survey study

Gender differences in the meaning of ownership were sought in phenomenological data from 320 respondents from three Eastern Ontario samples (ferry queue, adult undergraduates, law students). Inspired by Husserl's psychology and Frege's semiotics, the study asked respondents to list examples of things they own but for which they have little sense of ownership and examples of things they do not own but for which they have some sense of ownership, and then to describe their sense of ownership. Responses were categorized by literal content analysis, and gender differences were determined by phi coefficient tests. Results showed men to be more focused on property as rights, with emphasis on absolute autonomy and exclusivity. Women more frequently reported ownership to entail responsibility, self-connection, and pride, and accordingly reported feeling ownership of familiar people and their possessions. Following Gilligan (1982), the argument is made that women's appreciation and understanding of ownership has not been well represented in traditional property discourse.

The role of ethology in animal production: new challenges for the behavioral biologist

The process of keeping domestic animals, whether for the production of food or for companionship, must fulfil various criteria: ( 1 ) the end product must be of superior quality; (2) the end product must be reasonably priced; (3) the production process must be environmentally sound; (4) the production process must be ethically sound. Although only the latter criterion concerns the behaviorist directly, improvement in animal husbandry procedures can only be achieved in collaboration with producers, economists, and ecologists. In this presentation, examples are given where further progress is needed. Although the study of companion animal behavior has been established as a scientific discipline, horse husbandry and management appears to be an area where more work is needed, not only to improve the conditions for the modern type of horse, but also to make horse handling safer. Better understanding of animal behavior is important not only for companion animals but also for farm animals. An example of the latter is the weaning of piglets which, under modern methods of pig husbandry, is a very sudden and consequently traumatic experience, often resulting in health problems for both piglets and sows. Whether a more natural (i.e. gradual ) process of weaning would alleviate such problems remains to be investigated systematically. Complete avoidance of stress situations such as sudden weaning, apart from being an impossible task, may not be the most desirable approach, as discussed in a third example of things to be done. From studies on laboratory animals it is known that neonatal stress renders animals more resistant to stress later in life. If the same principle operates in farm animals, early stress could result in animals that adapt more easily to modern husbandry procedures.