Who needs chaplain's visitation in general hospitals? Assessing patients with psychosocial and religious needs

Owing to the declining length of patients' hospital stay in recent years, chaplains need evidence-based criteria to decide which patients are likely to have the greatest psychosocial and/or religious-spiritual needs. Therefore, the present pilot study aims at sorting out evidence-based criteria to assess patients with lack of coping resources. A total of 610 patients in the German-speaking part of Switzerland were surveyed with regard to their psychosocial health. The results suggest that lack of vitality (including health condition), lack of support and lack of faith (including spiritual struggle) are valid and reliable criteria for chaplains as internal triggers for pastoral visitation.     

Grounding, scientific explanation, and Humean laws

It has often been argued that Humean accounts of natural law cannot account for the role played by laws in scientific explanations. Loewer (Philosophical Studies 2012) has offered a new reply to this argument on behalf of Humean accounts—a reply that distinguishes between grounding (which Loewer portrays as underwriting a kind of metaphysical explanation) and scientific explanation. I will argue that Loewer’s reply fails because it cannot accommodate the relation between metaphysical and scientific explanation. This relation also resolves a puzzle about scientific explanation that Hempel and Oppenheim (Philosophy of Science 15:135–75, 1948) encountered.     

The "semiconscious" form of pathologic alcoholic intoxication, its characteristics and differences from "classical" forms of pathologic intoxication

An account of eight forensic-psychiatric reports characterises the special features of the "semiconscious" form of pathological and pathologically biased inebriation, and contrasts them with "classical" pathological forms.     

"Firesetting caused by homesickness"

This account of one of the now rare cases of fire-raising through homesickness brings into clear relief what is peculiar to the abnormal development of the fire-raiser's personality, the abnormal pattern of subjective experience and the abnormal motivation of the criminal act.     

Safeguarding good scientific practice: New institutional approaches in Germany

After summarising three recent case histories of alleged scientific misconduct in Germany, the efforts of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Council) and the Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (German Rectors' Conference) to promote academic and procedural safeguards in favour of professional self-regulation in science and scholarship are described in outline.     

The effect of caffeine on handwriting movements in skilled writers

In laboratory tasks, caffeine has been shown to improve psychomotor performance. The aim of the present experiment was to assess the effects of caffeine on a skilled everyday life task in habitual caffeine consumers. The assessment of handwriting movements of 20 adults was performed following the administration of 0mg/kg (placebo), 1.5mg/kg, 3.0mg/kg or 4.5mg/kg of caffeine. A digitising tablet was used for the assessment of fine motor movements. Participants were asked to perform a simple writing task. Kinematic analysis of handwriting movements showed that, in comparison to placebo administration, high doses of caffeine (i.e., 4.5mg/kg) can produce improvements in handwriting as indicated by more fluent handwriting movements as well as an increase in maximum velocity and maximum positive and negative accelerations. The results suggest that higher doses of caffeine can enhance psychomotor performance.     

Software for generating psychological experiments

This review compares four software packages for generating and running psychological computer experiments. It aims to inform researchers' decisions about which software to choose for their lab. Four widely used general purpose commercial packages available for the Windows platform are considered: DirectRT, E-Prime, Inquisit, and SuperLab. An overview of each package is given, and the implementation of two test experiments is described. Packages are evaluated with regard to the amount of complexity reduction they provide for the task of programming an experiment and the variety of experimental designs they can accommodate.