Physician duties in the conduct of human subject research

In this article, I examine a skeptical argument against the possibility of ethically justifying risky human subject research (rHSR). That argument asserts that such research is unethical because it holds the possibility of wronging subjects who are harmed and whose consent to participate was less than fully voluntary. I conclude that the skeptical argument is not in the end sufficient to undermine the ethical foundation of rHSR because it fails to take account of the special positive duty researchers owe their clients and future patients. Although the skeptical argument is defeated, it exacts certain novel concessions from the pro‐research position. Of particular importance are the admissions (a) that researchers presumptively owe a fiduciary duty to research subjects, (b) that because the most important risks of rHSR are unknown and unquantifiable that duty must be explicitly waived by all subjects before they participate in any protocol, and (c) that such waivers must be made by individuals who satisfy objective criteria of competence for giving fully voluntary consent. The implementation of procedures responsive to these concerns might have a dampening effect on the conduct of research. However, the article concludes with a consideration of the likely benefits to researchers and society of a more cautious ethical regime.     

A time series approach to life table construction

This paper deals with the construction of the life table. A discussion of basic facts about the life table is followed by the proposal of a nonstationary, autoregressive model for the life table. The moment structure of the nonstationary, autoregressive model is developed. Some estimation procedures are proposed followed by several examples.     

TARGETING WORKING PROFESSIONALS: A MASTER'S OF ARTS IN GERONTOLOGY

This overview of an online degree programme aims to develop a concrete illustration of an exploding array of courses and programmes. The approach at the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, at the University of Southern California, seeks to address a targeted audience and to build on the special strengths and more unique degree programmes of the University.     

Mixture structure analysis using the Akaike Information Criterion and the bootstrap

Given i.i.d. observations x1,x2,x3,...,xn drawn from a mixture of normal terms, one is often interested in determining the number of terms in the mixture and their defining parameters. Although the problem of determining the number of terms is intractable under the most general assumptions, there is hope of elucidating the mixture structure given appropriate caveats on the underlying mixture. This paper examines a new approach to this problem based on the use of Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) based pruning of data driven mixture models which are obtained from resampled data sets. Results of the application of this procedure to artificially generated data sets and a real world data set are provided.     

Ascertaining the effect of planned organizational change on the work environment

In a dynamic environment, organizations often are required to effect major changes in operations. The success of such changes invariably depends upon numerous factors one of which is how the change affects the work environment. Therefore, in planning organizational change it is important to consider the work environment and to objectively evaluate changes in the work environment in a timely fashion so that corrective actions may be formulated if needed. Such framing and monitoring of the organizational change facilitates successful implementation of the organizational change. This paper suggests a measure which may be used in evaluating an organization's work environment. A case is discussed.     

Everyday mobilities and the construction of subjective spiritual geographies in ‘Non-places’

Traditional geographic approaches depict sacred spaces, religion and spirituality as places of stillness and tranquillity, this paper challenges such fixity and instead uses the mobilities lens to analyse the dynamic and fluid nature of contemporary spirituality. It builds on recent work that draws on mobilities and geographies of religion by shifting focus away from the extraordinary journeys of pilgrimage to the ordinary, the mundane and everyday routines and movements; trips for economic, recreational or utilitarian purposes. The findings illustrate the activities that people do when they are on the move that can be related to their personal sense of spirituality and the ways in which religion interweaves in the movements and routines of everyday life and mobilities – from the radio playing in the car to the use of meditation. Often, activities became associated with specific parts of the journey and are threaded together to form ‘subjective spiritual geographies’ and significant elements of individual spirituality challenging secular pre-conceptions of mobilities time-spaces and characterisation of ‘non-places’.     

A Review of the Computerized Version of the Self-Directed Search

This article discusses general issues and concerns relative to the adaptation of paper-pencil assessment instruments to computerized formats. The computerized form of the Self-Directed Search is described and evaluated. Strengths and weaknesses of the SDS-CV are presented and recommendations regarding its use are discussed. In that additional research is needed regarding the reliability and validity of scores attained on the computerized SDS, we concluded that information from this version of the instrument should be interpreted cautiously. The computerized SDS, however, has the potential of becoming a useful instrument in the career counseling field.     

Iterated full partitions

Algebraic calculations that depend upon a full partition can be automated through the use of an operator P for the derivation of such a partition. Calculations that require the repeated use of P are automated by simply iterating the operator. The resulting output is general and contains sufficient structure to identify the result of a calculation for a variety of settings.