Interdisciplinary and Interorganizational Concerns in the Development of Technology for Physically Disabled Persons

This paper focuses on interdisciplinary and interorganizational concerns which are involved in the development of technology which will be of use to physically disabled persons. The paper is divided into five parts: (1) The concepts, 'interdisciplinary' and 'interorganizational' are described and defined. (2) Then, a number of concerns and problems involved in interdisciplinary and interorganizational work are identified. (3) From parts 1 and 2, an interdisciplinary/interorganizational framework is developed. (4) This framework is then used to analyze some problems and to examine possible solutions, focusing on the development of technology for physically disabled persons. (5) The paper ends with conclusions and recommendations.     

Media Coverage of Hazard Events: Analyzing the Assumptions*

Despite the widespread conviction that the mass media tend to “blow risks out of proportion,” the question has received little systematic attention. The mass-media literature also presents the opposite argument, namely that the media minimize the kinds of reporting that might upset large-scale capitalistic industries. Still other perspectives hold, on the one hand, that media reports tend to have more subtle anti-technology effects, created by “even-handed” coverage and on the other hand, that reporters give “establishment” figures the opportunity to “keynote” or “put the facts in perspective” in ways that exert a subtly pro-technology effect. Drawing on a systematic sample of 128 hazard events developed by researchers at another university and factually summarized by Lexis -Nexis , we analyze the effects of emotionalism on actual levels of coverage; a variety of analyses show that the only variables to exert significant effects are those that involve objective information, such as the number of casualties or the level of damage created. Given the argument that the effects of emotionalism can be conveyed in ways that are largely independent of the facts, e.g., by headlines, photographs, and “loaded” words, we next compare the emotionalism conveyed by factual summaries vs. the original stories and headlines. Even for incidents involving nuclear and/or toxic hazards, we find the net effect of the full stories is to lessen the emotionalism. Overall, the hypothesis receiving strongest support is that the “keynoting” helps create an overall impression that the “responsible authorities” are acting more responsibly than might be assumed on the basis of factual summaries alone. The widespread impression within the technical community, while understandable, may well have as much to do with the selective perceptions of scientists and engineers as with the actual pattern of media reporting.     

Compulsive gambling and the changing military law

Military courts have had to face the issue of compulsive gambling in criminal court-martial proceedings. The military recently switched from the liberal ALI definition of insanity to the much more stringent standards of the federal Insanity Defense Reform Act. However, military courts have not even allowed in expert testimony, holding the relevance of compulsive gambling has not been generally accepted in the scientific community. The rules involving extenuation or mitigation in sentencing allow much more leeway. Although compulsive gambling cannot be used as the basis for a defense of insanity in military courts, defense lawyers will continue to raise the issue in attempting to obtain lesser punishments for their military clients.B.S. Loyola College, J.D. Univ. of MD, Active duty Judge Advocate General's Corps, four years currently selected for promotion to Colonel, USAR. Partner, Stark and Little.B.A. 1982, Gettysburg College; J.D., 1987, Univ. of Balto.; Associate, Stark and Little, Baltimore, MD; member of the Baltimore City, Md. State, and Am. Bar Associations.     

Partial-order analysis of fiscal capacity of states

A methodology for partially ordering a set of multivariate observations is introduced. The method depends on an iterative reapplication of singular value decomposition (SVD) to partition the data into simply ordered subsets. Five measures of the fiscal capacity of states are analyzed to decide whether a majority can be simply ordered. Partial-order analysis uncovers a group of 38 states which can be simply ordered, a second group of five which can also be simply ordered, but not with the other 38. The remaining eight have no simply-ordered subgroup.     

Credit play and casinos: Profitability,legitimacy, and social responsibility

The purpose of this paper is to explore casino granted credit in both the business operation of a casino and the regulatory and statutory structure in which casinos operate. How credit policy is developed, how it is implemented, and how it might be abused are explored for the existing statutory and regulatory structures which prevail for the Nevada and Atlantic City casino industries. Casino credit policy in other countries is discussed, and various alternative approaches to the casino credit issue are examined. Parallels to other forms of credit allowed in other businesses, such as bank credit and retail credit, are made. Finally, alternative regulatory policies to deal with credit play are outlined, in terms of their likely effect on both the business and economic performance of casino operations, and the likely effects on players, the regulatory process, and the general image of the gaming industry.     

Testing for heteroscedasticity in regression models

A new test for heteroscedasticity in regression models is presented based on the Goldfeld-Quandt methodology. Its appeal derives from the fact that no further regressions are required, enabling widespread use across all types of regression models. The distribution of the test is computed using the Imhof method and its power is assessed by performing a Monte Carlo simulation. We compare our results with those of Griffiths & Surekha (1986) and show that our test is more powerful than the wide range of tests they examined. We introduce an estimation procedure using a neural network to correct the heteroscedastic disturbances.     

康德的道德哲学与先发制人战争问题

本文从康德的道德哲学出发 ,回应了当代处境中的现实问题。本文认为 ,尽管时代处境较之于康德所处时代已经有所变化 ,但康德的一些基本立场不会改变 ,比如 ,他仍然会反对先发制人战争 ,如伊拉克战争 ,而不会如斯克拉顿所认为的那样转而支持这样的战争 ,况且当代的一些问题在康德的时代并不是没有出现 ,而只是在当代具有了更加全球化的特征。文章还指出罗尔斯并不是一个完全彻底的康德主义者 ,因为他并没有坚持康德的普遍性原则。     

Family Therapy in a Psychiatric Hospital: A Case-Controlled Evaluation

Thirty-five patients (20 women) treated by a Family Therapy Unit based in a psychiatric hospital were compared with 35 matched control inpatients who were not treated by the Unit. Family Therapy averaged 4.5 one hour sessions and was cybernetic rather than behavioural or psychoeducational. The main outcome measure was days spent in the hospital in the year after family therapy. Women, but not men, showed a significant improvement after family therapy, reducing their days in hospital from a mean of 50 in the year before family therapy to 18 in the year after. The best response was shown by women with affective disorder. Control men and women showed a slight increase in days spent in hospital. Improvement after family therapy was associated with a markedly positive change in key relatives' attitudes to the patient, and a strongly positive attitude towards family therapy.