Addiction and the New Psychology

A look at the 'New Psychology' (Embodied, Discursive, Situated, and Distributed Cognition) to see what relevance it has to the 'addiction debate'

Driver Distraction by Advertising: Genuine Risk or Urban Myth?

Drivers operate in an increasingly complex visual environment,and yet there has been little recent research on the effects this might have on driving ability and accident rates. This paper is based on research carried out for the Scottish Executive’s Central Research Unit on the subject of external-to-vehicle driver distraction. A literature review/meta-analysis was carried out with a view to answering the following questions: is there a serious risk to safe driving caused by features in the external environment, and if there is, what can be done about it? Review of the existing literature suggests that, although the subject is under-researched, there is evidence that in some cases overcomplex visual fields can distract drivers and that it is unlikely that existing guidelines and legislation adequately regulate this. Theoretical explanations for the phenomenon are offered and areas for future research highlighted. likely to be distracting? Contemporary advertisements, forexample, are increasingly eye-catching, provocative and ‘explicit’. Does this have an effect on driving capability, and if so, what can we do about it

The Application of the Hermeneutic Process to Qualitative Safety Data: A Case Study using Data from the CIRAS project

This article describes the new qualitative methodology developed for use in CIRAS (Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis System), the confidential database set up for the UK railways by the University of Strathclyde. CIRAS is a project in which qualitative safety data are disidentified and then stored and analysed in a central database. Due to the confidential nature of the data provided, conventional (positivist) methods of checking their accuracy are not applicable; therefore a new methodology was developed - the Applied Hermeneutic Methodology (AHM). Based on Paul Ricoeur's `hermeneutic arc', this methodology uses appropriate computer software to provide a method of analysis that can be shown to be reliable (in the sense that consensus in interpretations between different interpreters can be demonstrated). Moreover, given that the classifiers of the textual elements can be represented in numeric form, AHM crosses the `qualitative-quantitative divide'. It is suggested that this methodology is more rigorous and philosophically coherent than existing methodologies and that it has implications for all areas of the social sciences where qualitative texts are analysed

Information Processing Models: Benefits and Limitations

This paper looks at the three main information processing models from the point of view of researchers in confidential human factors databases. It explores conceptual problems with two of these information processing models, and goes on to explore possible advantages of adopting a ‘connectionist’ paradigm. Links between connectionism and ‘situated cognition’ are demonstrated. Practical work carried out using a connectionist/situated cognition model is described, and the way in which the ‘situatedness’ of discourse can influence the kind of data that can be collected is discussed. Finally it is argued that more emphasis should be placed in ergonomics on sociation, situatedness and embodiment, and that this might help to deal with problems faced in creation and interrogating databases: especially as regards the creation of coherent and reliable ‘coding taxonomies’

Aspirin and glyceryl trinitrate effects on polyamine uptake and smooth muscle cell growth

This paper looks at aspirin and glyceryl trinitrate effects on polyamine uptake and smooth muscle cell growt

The origins of British modernism: A study of literary theory and practice from Walter Pater and Ezra Pound

This thesis deals with the development of Anglo-American Modernism in London in the early twentieth century. It begins by depicting the economic and social position of the artist in the early nineteenth century, and agrees with Raymond Williams and E.P. Thompson that the changing relationship between the artist and the market was responsible for what we call Romanticism. I then go on to argue that Romanticism explored the problems of artistic creation at a time when it seemed that aesthetic values were being sidelined in favour of materialism or utilitarianism, and that this raised the spectre of aesthetic relativism. I then argue that these central problems were essentially the same as the problems facing the first generation of British Modernists, and that this can be shown by studying the transitional figure of Pater. By tracing Pater's vacillations between objectivism and relativism (in terms of the 'early' and 'later' Pater), we can identify two strands of modernist thought: one which emphasises a materialist, relativist aesthetic, and another Idealist, Neo-Platonic element that more obviously derives from Romanticism. Following both of these elements into the twentieth century, I then demonstrate that W.B. Yeats belongs to this latter tradition, and that by the late 1890s he had formulated an Idealist metaphysic, which saw poetry as consisting of temporal 'moments' in which a spatial Neo- Platonic metaphysical universe could be glimpsed. Under the influence of Nietzsche and Synge, Yeats went on to modernise his diction and emphasise 'hardness' and 'precision' in his verse, a process that was beginning by 1902. I then show that Ezra Pound followed in Yeats's footsteps in this respect, that his early poetry also deals with the Neo-Romantic 'moment', and that Pound 'modernised' his poetry under the influence of Yeats. I then discuss the theorising of T.E. Hulme and argue that this follows in the footsteps of the 'early' relativist Pater. Hulme's earliest poetry posits a non-metaphysical aesthetic, which, nevertheless, resembles Yeats's in its emphasis on precise descriptions of poetic vision. Hulme, however, found this world view emotionally unacceptable (on the grounds that materialism is deterministic, and leads to aesthetic and moral relativism), and so (just as with Pater), as soon as he has stated his materialist poetic, he attempts to get beyond it, and affirm aesthetic value, and free will. His project, is, therefore, an attempt to create an objectivist but non-metaphysical way of thinking. Neo-Classicism and Anti-Humanism are his attempts to do this. I then show that the 'Forgotten School' of Imagism develops out of this way of thinking, and that this school (contrary to what the poets involved claimed at the time), has little to do with Pound's later school of 'Imagisme'. 'Imagisme' develops instead, out of Yeatsian Symbolism, and consists of Pound's attempts to 'modernise' his own poetry (following Yeats) and work out a form that will structure the epic poem he was already planning. To Pound, the work of Richard Aldington and H.D. (nominally the other Imagistes) was of less importance than his relationship to Yeats. Finally I explore the influence of Bergson on the early work of Wyndham Lewis, and show that Lewis's Vorticism is his attempt to work beyond what he saw as the basic flaws of Bergsonism, whereas for Pound, it was, again, an attempt to find a solution to his problem of poetic form

The Role of Urinary Modulators in the Development of Infectious Kidney Stones

The pathogenesis of infectious kidney stones is poorly understood, while equally unclear is the role of urinary modulators and bacteria. An experimental model was created and utilized to test a variety of urinary modulators and bacterial strains commonly associated with struvite and calcium phosphate stones to evaluate their potential roles in influencing crystal formation. Modulators such as acids, citrate, and osteopontin had strong inhibitory effects on infectious crystal formation while the remaining modulators had neutral, mixed, or positive effects. Lastly, it was determined that the presence of urease may not directly lead to calcium phosphate and struvite stones in all cases, and in the absence of urease, bacteria may promote calcium phosphate stone formation. Ultimately, this model will help to provide researchers with the ability to rapidly test a wider range of urinary modulators with infectious kidney stone formation and how they relate to individual bacterial species

More haste, less speed? : an evaluation of fast track policies to tackle persistent youth offending in Scotland

In 2003 the Scottish Executive introduced a new 'Fast Track' policy on a pilot basis, which was intended to speed up the processing of persistent youth offending cases and reduce rates of persistent offending. Additional resources were provided to promote access to dedicated programmes, as well as quicker assessment, report delivery and decision making. This paper, based on a multi-stranded comparative evaluation, describes how the policy was welcomed by a wide range of practitioners, decision makers and managers involved with children's hearings who mostly thought it was a positive innovation consistent with the hearing system's commitment to a welfare-based approach. 'Fast Track' cases were handled more quickly than others. After two years, however, the policy was discontinued, largely because of negative evidence about re-offending