American Roulette: The Effect of Reminders of Death on Support for George W. Bush in the 2004 Presidential Election

An experiment was conducted to assess the effect of a subtle reminder of death on voting intentions for the 2004 U.S. presidential election. On the basis of terror management theory and previous research, we hypothesized that a mortality salience induction would increase support for President George W. Bush and decrease support for Senator John Kerry. In late September 2004, following a mortality salience or control induction, registered voters were asked which candidate they intended to vote for. In accord with predictions, Senator John Kerry received substantially more votes than George Bush in the control condition, but Bush was favored over Kerry following a reminder of death, suggesting that President Bush's re-election may have been facilitated by nonconscious concerns about mortality in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.     

Project VOGUE: A Partnership for Increasing HIV Knowledge and HIV Vaccine Trial Awareness Among House Ball Leaders in Western New York

Men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender individuals of color, the largest demographic in the House Ball Community (HBC), are amongst the group at highest risk for HIV infection in the United States. The HBC have limited access to culturally appropriate HIV education. This study aimed to develop a partnership with HBC leaders to uncover strategies for increasing HIV prevention knowledge, including participation in HIV vaccine trials. To this end a research institution-community-HBC partnership was established. In-depth qualitative and quantitative data were collected from the 14 HBC leaders in Western New York, revealing that knowledge of HIV and related vaccine trials was limited. Barriers to increasing HIV knowledge included fear of peer judgment, having inaccurate information about HIV, and lack of education. Among the HBC, community partnerships will further aid in the development of future HIV prevention programs and increase individuals’ willingness to participate in future HIV vaccine trials.     

Letters to the editor

This article proposes that an assessment of commercial feasibility should be integrated as a prerequisite for human clinical testing to improve the quality and relevance of materials being investigated, as an ethical aspect for human subject protection, and as a means of improving accountability where clinical development is funded on promises of successful translational research. A commercial feasibility analysis is not currently required to justify human clinical testing, but is assumed to have been conducted by industry participants, and use of public funds for clinical trials should be defensible in the same manner. Plant-made vaccines (PMVs) are offered in this discussion as a model for evaluating the relevance of commercial feasibility before human clinical testing. PMVs have been proposed as a potential solution for global health, based on a vision of immunizing the world against many infectious diseases. Such a vision depends on translating current knowledge in plant science and immunology into a potent vaccine that can be readily manufactured and distributed to those in need. But new biologics such as PMVs may fail to be manufactured due to financial or logistical reasons—particularly for orphan diseases without sufficient revenue incentive for industry investment—regardless of the effectiveness which might be demonstrated in human clinical testing. Moreover, all potential instruments of global health depend on translational agents well beyond the lab in order to reach those in need. A model comprising five criteria for commercial feasibility is suggested for inclusion by regulators and ethics review boards as part of the review process prior to approval of human clinical testing. Use of this model may help to facilitate safe and appropriate translational research and bring more immediate benefits to those in need.     

Ethical issues in editing scholarly journals

Various ethical issues that often involve dilemmas to face editors of scholarly journals. These issues are treated via discussions of treatment of colleagues’ submissions; paradigm-based decisions, and decisions based on personal sociological predilections and commitments; “reasonable” referee-assignment policies; policies with respect to how referees’ judgments are used; and “privileged” treatment of categories of authors relative to other categories. He has served terms as editor of the American Sociological Review, Sociometry (now Social Psychology Quarterly) and the Rose Monograph series.     

Health and Social Services Planning

The authors outline joint planning between health and social services since 1974, examining the joint planning meetings of two different types. They identify certain features of small group meetings which could ease joint planning arrangements.     

Addressing the Dependency Problem in Access Security System Architecture Design

The objective of this research is to present a method for evaluating the performance of access control security systems, such as airport security operations. This requires the examination of security system architectures, which involve security technology devices and the algorithms that coordinate their operations. Dependence between device responses in multiple-device systems is a critical practical issue in assessing the performance of such architectures, though no results on this problem have appeared in the literature. This paper presents a method for evaluating when multipledevice security systems with overlapping capabilities are cost-effective. This is achieved using a dependency structure for security system devices to quantify how various technologies interact and to measure the impact of device dependence on system error probabilities. A measure of device response dependence for a two-device system is defined and its properties are explored, including bounds on the dependency measure. The effect of dependence on the system Type I and Type II error probabilities is examined for the two-device system. System performance is compared for independent vs. dependent device responses and desirable dependence relationships are identified. Results are also presented for a cascading sequence of devices. An example is presented to illustrate the results for the two-device system. Implications of these results are discussed, such as how they can be used to identify the optimal use of security devices and to determine whether new technologies warrant investment.     

Civil religion and the arms race

Dans cette communication, l'auteur examine l'interaction entre la religion civile et la politique dans la course aux armements nucléaires à la lumière de la théorie de Bellah selon laquelle la religion civile s'élabore dans les ‘temps difficiles’. Pour l'auteur, la bombe atomique a posé des problèmes particuliers pour les valeurs américaines, problèmes qu'on a surmontés en l'alignant symboliquement sur certains éléments de la religion civile américaine. Ainsi, le monopole nucléaire a fini par être considéré comme un ‘devoir sacré, à la fois une conséquence du caractère unique des États-Unis et la preuve de sa ‘destinée particulière’. Cependant, les Soviétiques ont contesté ce devoir sacré en faisant exploser leur propre bombe atomique, tout comme ils ont mis en doute la notion de la destinée particulière des États-Unis en lançant les satellites Sputnik. Les prétensions américaines à l'unicitéétant contredites devant le monde entier, la destinée particulière des Américains est devenue de plus en plus associée à leur supériorité technologique, d'où le développement paradoxal d'une technocratie aux États-Unis qui contraste nettement avec les réactions canadiennes à la menace nucléaire soviétique. Following Bellah's notion that civil religion is elaborated in ‘times of trial, this paper examines the interaction between civil religion and politics in the nuclear arms race. It argues that the bomb posed special difficulties to American values, and that these were overcome by symbolically aligning it with elements of American civil religion. The nuclear monopoly was viewed as a ‘sacred trust, the result of the United States' uniqueness and proof of its special destiny. However, a Soviet atomic explosion challenged the sacred trust, while the subsequent launch of the Sputnik satellites violated the tenets of the special destiny of the U.S. As the claim of the U.S. to uniqueness was undermined before the whole world, the nation's special destiny was associated particularly with its technological superiority. The upshot was the paradoxical development of an American technocracy, which contrasts sharply with Canadian responses to the Soviet nuclear threat.     

Scientific Misconduct in Social Welfare Research: Preventive Lessons from Other Fields

This article examines instances of scientific misconduct which have occurred in recent years from an international perspective and explores their implications for the burgeoning social work research enterprise. Although the majority of cases of scientific misconduct which have received international publicity are confined to the hard sciences, there are important implications to be derived for the growing productivity in social welfare research. A comprehensive search was conducted of press reports for the time frame of 1995–2002 for both US and international stories about research misconduct. Using qualitative analysis, themes related to scientific conduct were identified. These cases reveal serious consequences to individual researchers and to their employing institutions. The motivating factors for the wrongdoing are applicable to researchers of any discipline and include perceived pressure to document positive outcomes and the rush to publish findings. The authors urge development of standards of research conduct specific to social work and social welfare and increased dialogue about the issues involved.