Theism and Psychological Science: A Call for Rapprochement

The authors offer two arguments for the inclusion of theism in natural science. First, an argument against excluding theism is offered. Though early roots of science promoted a view that it is a way to accumulate knowledge that is untainted by presuppositions and traditions, postmodern critiques call this into question. Scientists have sometimes rejected religion as a context-dependent, tradition-based way of knowing, yet science itself is also context-dependent and tradition-based. Second, an argument for including theism in psychological is offered. Theistic beliefs are relevant insofar as they are part of human experience for many, they represent a form of human diversity, and they have been associated with some positive health outcomes

Load partitioning and evidence of deformation twinning in dual-phase fine-grained zr-2.5%Nb alloy.

In situ neutron diffraction loading experiments were carried out on a cold-rolled dual-phase (a-phase, '"' 10% b-phase) Zr–2.5%Nb alloy at room temperature. The specimens were cut at different angles from the rolling direction (RD) towards the transverse direction (TD), thus the loading axis changes gradually from the rolling to transverse direction. Due to the strong texture of the studied alloy, and unidirectional nature of deformation twinning, the changing loading direction with respect to initial texture has a significant impact on the collaborative slip-twinning deformation mode in the hexagonal close-packed (hcp) a-phase. The present neutron diffraction results provide direct evidence of {1 - 1.2}/1 - 1. - 1S ‘‘tensile’’ twins in the a-phase of dual-phase Zr–2.5%Nb alloy at room temperature. Additionally, TEM analysis was employed to confirm the presence of ‘‘tensile’’ twins, and determine if other type of twins were present. It is further clear from the neutron diffraction results that applied load is gradually transferred from the plastically softer a-phase to the plastically harder b-phase which acts as a reinforcing phase having a yield strength in the range 750–900 MPa depending on the loading direction

Bordism Groups of Immersions and Classes Represented by Self-Intersections

We prove a geometrical version of Herbert's theorem by considering the self-intersection immersions of a self-transverse immersion up to bordism. This generalises Herbert's theorem to additional cohomology theories and gives a commutative diagram in the homotopy of Thom complexes. The proof uses Koschorke and Sanderson's operations and the fact that bordism of immersions gives a functor on the category of smooth manifolds and immersions.Comment: 16 page

Magnetic Moments of Dirac Neutrinos

The existence of a neutrino magnetic moment implies contributions to the neutrino mass via radiative corrections. We derive model-independent "naturalness" upper bounds on the magnetic moments of Dirac neutrinos, generated by physics above the electroweak scale. The neutrino mass receives a contribution from higher order operators, which are renormalized by operators responsible for the neutrino magnetic moment. This contribution can be calculated in a model independent way. In the absence of fine-tuning, we find that current neutrino mass limits imply that $|\mu_\nu| < 10^{-14}$ Bohr magnetons. This bound is several orders of magnitude stronger than those obtained from solar and reactor neutrino data and astrophysical observations.Comment: 3 pages. Talk given at PANIC'0

How Magnetic is the Dirac Neutrino?

We derive model-independent, "naturalness" upper bounds on the magnetic moments \mu_\nu of Dirac neutrinos generated by physics above the scale of electroweak symmetry breaking. In the absence of fine-tuning of effective operator coefficients, we find that current information on neutrino mass implies that |\mu_\nu | < 10^(-14) Bohr magnetons. This bound is several orders of magnitude stronger than those obtained from analyses of solar and reactor neutrino data and astrophysical observations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Majorana case discussion corrected. References updated; replaced to match published versio

An Exploratory Study of Personalization and Learning Systems Continuance

Learning systems are widely adopted by institutions worldwide in the new millennium. The challenge on utilization of learning systems is switched from users’ pre-acceptance behaviours (whether they are likely to adopt learning systems) to post-acceptance behaviours (whether they will continue to use the learning systems). It is commonly expected that successfully adopted learning systems that have, at one time, been perceived as being useful and easy to use would likely achieve a high rate of user continuance. However, reality can be different as user continuance is often not as high as expected. The continuance of learning systems draws our attention because the investment in institutionalizing a learning system is huge. There is also a theoretical gap between technology acceptance and system continuance for which continuance behaviour cannot be explained by traditional technology acceptance models. This study extends a post-adoption model on habit and IS continuance to investigate the effect of personalization (which includes personal content management, personal time management and privacy control) on learning system continuance. Empirical results suggest that personalization has a positive influence on perceived usefulness and habit, but does not directly influence continuance intention

Cost of inpatient rehabilitation care in the Department of Veterans Affairs

Abstract—We investigated the determinants of inpatient rehabilitation costs in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and examined the relationship between length of stay (LOS) and discharge costs using data from VA and community rehabilitation hospitals. We estimated regression models to identify patient characteristics associated with specialized inpatient rehabilitation costs. VA data included 3,535 patients discharged from 63 facilities in fiscal year 2001. We compared VA costs to community rehabilitation hospitals using a sample from the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation of 190,112 patients discharged in 1999 from 697 facilities. LOS was a strong predictor of cost for VA and non-VA hospitals. Functional status, measured by Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scores at admission, was statistically significant but added little explanatory value after controlling for LOS. Although FIM scores were associated with LOS, FIM scores accounted for little variance in cost after controlling for LOS. These results are most applicable to researchers conducting cost-effectiveness analyses.average costs, billing, charges, cost, health economics, micro-cost methods, reimbursement, rehabilitation, VA, veterans

Nachweis forensisch relevanter Spuren mit Hilfe der Lichtquelle Superlite 400

Das Auffinden von forensischen Spuren verschiedenster Größe ist sowohl in der Rechtsmedizin als auch bei der polizeilichen Tatortarbeit von essentieller Bedeutung. Nur konzentrierte bzw. unverdünnte Blut - oder Sekretspuren einer gewissen Größe sind durch ihr charakteristisches Aussehen ohne Hilfsmittel zu erkennen. In der Vergangenheit wurde versucht, kleinste, nicht mit dem bloßen Auge sichtbare Sekretspuren mit UV Licht sichtbar zu machen. Dies führte meist zu unbefriedigenden Ergebnissen. Diese Arbeit beschreibt die Untersuchungen unterschiedlicher Trägermaterialien auf forensisch relevante Spuren mit Hilfe der neuen Tatortlampe Superlite 400. Diese Lampe wurde in Zusammenarbeit mit der bayrischen Polizei entwickelt und optimiert. Ziel dieser Arbeit war, herauszufinden, ob mit dieser Methode eine leichtere, schnellere, exaktere und vor allem spezifische Spurenerkennung möglich ist. Die bekannten und in der forensischen Praxis heute verwendeten chemischen Vortests wurden vergleichend auf ihre Sensitivität ebenso untersucht, wie auch die Auswirkung der Bestrahlung durch die Lampe auf die Qualität der DNA-Profile. Die Ergebnisse wurden mit zwei weiteren, weltweit häufig verwendeten, Tatortlampen, der Polilight und der Projectina SL 350, verglichen. Die Untersuchungen der Spuren auf den unterschiedlichen Trägermaterialien ergaben für Sperma eine spezifische Fluoreszenz bei einer Wellenlänge von 440 - 470nm. Bei den Blutspuren wurde die, aus früheren Studien bekannte, Wellenlänge von 415nm bestätigt. Diese zeigte jedoch deutliche Schwächen in der Kontrastierung und Fluoreszenz bei dunklen Spurenträgern. Speichelspuren konnten mit dem, bei der allgemeinen Suche verwendeten, unspezifischen UVA (320-400nm) sichtbar gemacht werden. Bei der Vergleichsuntersuchung von Blutspuren konnten mit Luminol deutlich höhere Verdünnungen detektiert werden als mit der Tatortlampe. Die chemische Vortests lieferten unterschiedliche Ergebnisse, so dass weiterführenden Tests empfohlen werden. Es wurde herausgefunden, dass die Bestrahlung der Spuren mit der Tatortlampe keinen Einfluss auf die Qualität der DNA-Profile hat. Bei der Arbeit mit reellen Tatortspuren konnten mit dem bloßen Auge nicht sichtbare Spuren detektiert werden und DNA-Profile erstellt werden. Die abschließenden Vergleiche mit anderen Tatortlampen zeigten deutliche Vorteile der Superlite 400 in der Lichtausgangsleistung und der Filtergenauigkeit. Dadurch war eine genauere und bessere Spurenerkennung durch die beschriebenen Detektionswellenlängen möglich. Aufgrund der Ergebnisse konnte festgehalten werden, dass die Kombination der Lampe mit anderen Vortests deutlich Zeit spart und das Übersehen von wichtigen Beweisen minimiert

A Place for the Church within Professional Psychology

There are various reasons why Christian psychologists may resist fully participating in a church community. Among these are historic tensions between science and religion, the complexity of multiple role relationships, cynicism related to clients\u27 negative experiences in religious communities, and differing perspectives on attributions and human nature. Despite these obstacles, there are compelling reasons for psychologists to remain involved in church. Eight of these reasons are described--clustered into professional, relational, and transformational domains--and implications discussed

Antecedents Of Information Systems Habit In Sporadic Use Of Learning Systems: Personalization And Peer Effects

Research on Information Systems (IS) habit formation has been focused mostly on IS habit’s effect on IS continuance. Antecedents of IS habit formation, as reported in the literature, are primarily on users’ prior behavior and comprehensiveness of usage. Most of the literature focus on analyzing the relationship between users’ IS usage behavior and IS habit. Limited work has been reported to investigate genuine and practical ways to develop IS habit, as well as to address the issue of sporadic IS usage, which leads to different interpretations on IS habit and continuance. This study purports to address the theoretical gap on issues related to IS habit antecedents and sporadic IS usage habit in the educational context. Adopting an empirical survey in universities’ (sub-degree and postgraduate settings) learning systems usage, data from cross-sectional survey on learning systems usage on per-course basis is analyzed. Theoretically, our results suggest that IT functionality design (personalization) and social factor (peer effect) have strong and positive relationship on IS habit with respect to the sporadic usage nature of course based learning systems. Practically, we suggest some dimensions for teachers on curriculum design that facilitate IS habit development, e.g., maintaining an online community with substantial student peer input at the early stage of a course