Examining the Role of Carbon Capture and Storage Through an Ethical Lens

The risk posed by anthropogenic climate change is generally accepted, and the challenge we face to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to a tolerable limit cannot be underestimated. Reducing GHG emissions can be achieved either by producing less GHG to begin with or by emitting less GHG into the atmosphere. One carbon mitigation technology with large potential for capturing carbon dioxide at the point source of emissions is carbon capture and storage (CCS). However, the merits of CCS have been questioned, both on practical and ethical grounds. While the practical concerns have already received substantial attention, the ethical concerns still demand further consideration. This article aims to respond to this deficit by reviewing the critical ethical challenges raised by CCS as a possible tool in a climate mitigation strategy and argues that the urgency stemming from climate change underpins many of the concerns raised by CCS.     

Cognitive, Dispositional, and Psychophysiological Correlates of Dependent Slot Machine Gambling in Young People

In Study 1, young dependent and nondependent slot machine gamblers were interviewed, assessed for locus of control and administered the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Dependent gamblers were revealed as reliably more internal in terms of locus of control than their nondependent counterparts, and, in the interview, were much more likely to affirm that they could exercise control over the slot machines they played. Dependent gamblers registered higher psychoticism scores than both the nondependent gamblers and appropriate age-group norms. Their high psychoticism scores resonated well with interview revelations that boredom mitigation frequent underlay dependent gambling.
In Study 2, blood pressure was monitored in dependent and nondependent gamblers at rest and before, during and after slot machine play. Subjects were given £5 for this purpose and the time it took them to use up this money was recorded, as was the extent of any returns they received. They were also asked how much they expected to recoup. The £5 lasted a similar amount of time for the two groups, and they managed similar rates of return on their stake. However, the dependent gamblers expected to win more than the nondependent gamblers and their estimates of returns exceeded what they actually recouped. Slot machine play was associated with an increase in blood pressure, and while groups did not differ in terms of the magnitude of the rise provoked, there was a general trend for dependent gamblers to show lower basal levels of cardiovascular activity, although this was statistically reliable only in the case of diastolic blood pressure.     

Clinical correlates of anhedonia and perceptual aberration in first-episode patients with schizophrenia and affective disorder.

We examined the association between scales measuring physical anhedonia, social anhedonia, and perceptual aberration and premorbid functioning, clinical state, and current level of adjustment in 91 psychotic subjects. The patients were examined at the onset of their first psychotic episode and again 18 months later. For patients with schizophrenia, anhedonia was significantly related to premorbid functioning. No association was found between the scales and clinical state or level of adjustment at intake or follow-up. In affective disorder patients, no correlation was found between premorbid functioning (a stable characteristic) and scale scores, but moderately large correlations emerged between the scales and clinical state and level of adjustment at both assessment times. These results suggest that schizophrenic and affective disorder patients endorse items on these scales for different reasons. We hypothesize that for patients with schizophrenia, the scales assess enduring personality characteristics, whereas for the affective disorder patients, they assess clinical condition at the time of testing.     

Shopping for clothes: Body satisfaction, appearance investment, and functions of clothing among female shoppers

The present study aimed to investigate the link between clothing and body experience in women of different ages. Participants were 162 female clothes shoppers between the ages of 18 and 55 who completed questionnaire measures of body image, functions of clothing, self-esteem, and enjoyment of clothes shopping. It was found that clothing was worn primarily for assurance and fashion by women of all ages. On the other hand, BMI and body dissatisfaction were related to the use of clothing for camouflage purposes and to a more negative clothes shopping experience. Both components of appearance investment were related to choice of clothes for fashion and assurance. However, the self-evaluative salience component was negatively related, while the motivational salience was positively related, to enjoyment of clothes shopping. It was concluded that although clothing is an under-researched aspect of body image, it represents an important part of women's appearance management, whatever their age.     

Mental Health Symptoms and Parenting Stress of Parents of Court-Involved Youth

Youth involved in the juvenile justice system are at risk for emotional and behavioral problems. However, research with court-involved adolescents has neglected to examine the mental health of their parents, who may also have significant personal and parenting stress. This sample consisted of 144 parent–adolescent dyads. Adolescents (aged 11–17 years) identified by court officials were referred to the study to receive mental health treatment. Parents and adolescents completed surveys about their mental health diagnoses, treatment, and family relationships. Using the clinical cut-off for the global severity index of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised, bivariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to examine group differences between parents with and without significant mental health symptoms. Results indicated that 35% of parents endorsed clinically significant mental health symptoms. Parents with clinically significant symptoms, compared to those without, reported significantly greater parenting stress (p?<?.05), and were more likely to have received prior mental health treatment (54 vs. 25%; p?<?.05) and a psychiatric diagnosis (52 vs. 19%; p?<?.05). Our findings revealed that more than one in three parents of court-involved adolescents are currently experiencing significant mental health symptoms. Improved mental health screening and intervention that incorporates the unique needs of families is recommended, including the possible use of family-based approaches as well as individualized treatment for the parents of court-involved youth.     

Psychologists' Experiences with the Better Access Initiative: A Pilot Study

The Australian Government's Better Access initiative was introduced in late 2006 to increase treatment rates for people with mental disorders. It provides for reimbursement of psychologists' services through Medicare. The current pilot study examines the experiences of psychologists with this initiative. A random sample of 204 of 4,235 psychologists in private practice was approached and 73 psychologists (36%) were interviewed. The current study suggests that psychologists have had positive experiences with Better Access. They have appreciated the greater security of income and greater variety of work afforded by the initiative, and they have observed flow‐on benefits in terms of increased access and reduced stigma for their clients. Additional research is required to corroborate these findings with a larger sample of psychologists, but the current findings provide indicative evidence that Better Access is assisting psychologists to meet a previously unmet community need for mental health care.     

Facilitative and inhibitory effects of cuing sound duration, intensity, and timbre

Two experiments are reported in which the possibility that auditory attention may be controlled in a stimulus-driven manner by duration, intensity, and timbre cues was examined. In both experiments, listeners were presented with a cue followed, after a variable time period of a 150-, 450-, or 750-msec stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), by a target. In three different conditions for each experiment, the duration, intensity, or timbre relation between the cue and the target was varied so that, on 50% of the trials, the two sounds were identical and, on 50% of the trials, the two sounds were different in the manipulated feature. The two experiments differed only in the judgment required, with listeners in Experiment 1 identifying the duration, intensity, or timbre of the target and listeners in Experiment 2 indicating whether the target incorporated a brief silent gap. In both experiments, performance was observed to depend on both the similarity of and the time between the cue and the target. Specifically, whereas at the 150-msec SOA performance was best when the target was identical to the preceding cue, at the 750-msec SOA performance was best when the cue and the target differed. This pattern establishes the existence of duration-, intensity-, and timbre-based auditory inhibition of return. The theoretical implications of these results are considered.     

Spatial ontology and physical modalities

Conclusion Most relational theories assert both that spatial discourse is reducible to talk about physical objects and their spatial relations, and that the relation of congruence derives from a non-metrical relation which intervals bear or possibly bear to measuring instruments. We have shown that there are serious logical difficulties involved in maintaining both these positions and the thesis of the continuity of space. We have also shown that Grünbaum's motivating argument for the reduction of congruence is unsound, and, moreover, that the prospects of formulating the kind of definition which this reduction requires seem to rest upon a wholly vague notion of physical possibility. Alternatively, if congruence is taken as primitive, it seems plausible that spatial discourse can be reconstructed so that there is no ontological commitment to spatial objects other than physical objects. Whether or not this relational thesis is ultimately defensible requires more elaboration of the relational theory, and investigation of its role in the formalizations of current physical theories. It is odd, considering the wide currency of relational theories, that this work has never been done.Preparation of this paper was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Grant No. SOC75-08464) to the first author.