Media ratings for violence and sex. Implications for policymakers and parents

This article reviews research on the implementation of media-rating systems, parents' use and evaluation of them, and the impact of ratings on children. Although half or more of parents report using media-rating systems, understanding of various components of the systems is low, particularly for television ratings. A meta-analysis of national polls shows that parents overwhelmingly prefer that ratings specify content, rather than giving age recommendations. A second meta-analysis, of experiments testing the effects of ratings on children's interest in programs, shows that ratings indicating restricted or controversial content have a deterrent effect for children under age 8 but that, by age 11 and especially for boys, the ratings show a small enticement effect. This effect occurs for both age-based and content-based ratings. Implications for policymakers and parents are discussed.     

The problem-solving strategies of kindergarten and first-grade children during discrimination learning

Kindergarten and first-grade children (6 and 7 years of age, respectively) were given specially designed discrimination tasks with introtact probes preceding each trial. One group (CON) was given the criterion task without prior training. A second group (LTL) received three pretraining tasks of the same type as the criterion task. A third group (HYP) received the same pretraining tasks, but with explicit instructions designed to teach a simple hypothesis-testing strategy. Several indices, designed to reflect the use of win-stay and lose-shift rules, as well as memory for disconfirmed hypotheses, were computed from the protocols of the criterion task. The indices for Group CON suggested that most of these children were using a guessing strategy that involved quite frequent changes in hypotheses. Moreover, many of these children restricted their hypotheses to the irrelevant cues. The indices for Group LTL revealed a spontaneous use of the hypothesis-testing strategy by nearly half of the children. The results for Group HYP indicated that over four-fifths of these children became highly efficient in the use of the problem-solving strategy.     

Barbour's Fourfold Way: Problems with His Taxonomy of Science-religion Relationships

In this paper several problems are raised concerning Ian Barbour's four ways of interrelating science and religion—Conflict, Independence, Dialogue, and Integration—as put forward in such publications as his highly influential Religion in an Age of Science (1990) and widely adopted by other writers in this field. The authors argue that this taxonomy is not very useful or analytically helpful, especially to historians seeking to understand past engagements between science and religion.     

Effect of Nb on nanoquasicrystalline Al-based alloys

Nanoquasicrystalline Al-based alloys, containing icosahedral particles in an α-Al matrix, exhibit high strength at elevated temperature. The metastability of the quasicrystals can limit the use of these alloys. In the present work, the microstructural evolution of Al₉₃(Fe₃Cr₂)₇ and Al₉₃Fe₃Cr₂Nb₂ (at%) alloys was studied using heat treatments and structural characterization by XRD, TEM and STEM-EDX analysis. It was observed that the Nb is dissolved in the Al–Fe–Cr icosahedral phase. This provides higher thermal stability, retaining the fine nanoquasicrystalline microstructure for longer times at high temperature.     

Education and testing strategy for large-scale cystic fibrosis carrier screening

Population-based screening for cystic fibrosis carrier mutations presents a number of challenges for genetic counselors, owing primarily to the inability of current DNA testing technology to identify all possible mutations and the difficulty involved in conveying the concept of residual risk to those patients who test negative. To address these issues, we are conducting a pilot study, as part of a consortium established by the National Center for Human Genome Research, to explore the efficacy, acceptance, and psychosocial impact of various approaches to carrier screening in an ethnically diverse Southern California population. This article reports the patient instructional and screening strategies we developed in the initial phase of the project in order to optimize our chances of answering these questions and delivering this service on a large scale.