Farm-related information use and users: A discussion of some European videotex experiences

Current discussions on the utilization of information technologies for agriculture, place emphasis on the collection and processing of information on the farm, through the introduction and use of computers as management support in process control and database management. However, because of farm management's dependency on outside information support for the production control and market engagement, the communication of information and the improvement of its efficiency is of similar, if not greater, importance. This article, therefore, places its main focus on the communication aspect. It provides a classification for “on-farm” communication patterns and highlights, using this classification, a number of European experiences with videotex applications in agriculture. It argues that new information technologies may open the way for new approaches to farm-related communication, and thus for a major change in farm management practices. For this progression to occur, its development and application should base itself upon the basic communication patterns that have evolved in practice, and reflect the actual use of information in agriculture. Mark Wilkinson is a cereal grower. He is editor of the Irish Farmers Association's closed user group, which was established on Agriline, a Videotex system.     

Test of Nyborg's General Trait Covariance (GTC) model for hormonally guided development by means of structural equation modeling

Nyborg's General Trait Covariance (GTC) model for hormonally guided development investigates the influence of gonadal hormones and fluid intelligence on body build, achievement, and socioeconomic variables. According to the model, testosterone should be negatively related to height, fat/muscle ratio, intelligence, income, and education. It is conceived that this influence should be determined to a great extent by mutual relationships between these variables. The model was tested by means of structural equation modeling (SEM) in a sample of 4375 males who had served in the United States Armed Forces. The results largely confirm Nyborg's androtype model but in addition reflect the relationships between the variables included in a quantitative causal manner. It could be shown that testosterone has a negative influence on crystallized intelligence and that this effect is mainly mediated by the negative influence of testosterone on education. An additional multiple group analysis testing for structural invariance across age groups revealed that the mediating role of education is more pronounced in old veterans. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Personality and reciprocal inhibition theory: The link between aggression and sexual reactivity

The study tries to relate two approaches often discussed in the context of aggression and violence in combination with sexual arousal, the reciprocal inhibition theory (Wolpe, 1958) and an approach from personality psychology which emphasizes the psychoticism dimension (P) according to Eysenck and Eysenck (1975) as a mediator of violent sexual offence. The effects of preexposure to a violent vs. neutral movie on sexual reactivity to violent and non-violent sexual stimuli (audioplays and pictures) was studied in a male student population (N=64). Sexual reactivity was measured by self-ratings, inspection time and electrodermal activity. Results could not confirm reciprocal inhibition theory but revealed that sexual reactivity for subjects scoring high vs. low on the psychoticism/aggressiveness dimension were differently affected by preexposure to violence.