The SYBAR system: Integrated recording and display of video, EMG, and force plate data

A new system—called SYBAR—is introduced, that employs digital video for registration of the movements of a patient while simultaneously recording electromyogram signals of relevant muscles and ground reaction forces (for the lower extremities in gait studies). All information is stored in a multimedia record, which can be viewed by the clinician with a simple user interface. This setup allows an integrated and more detailed view of the movement of the patient and related information (i.e., muscle physiology). It is used by clinicians to assess the causes of movement disorders in their patients. This paper describes the SYBAR system and focuses on the employed methods of data synchronization for both the time and the spatial domains. It is concluded that, although SYBAR was developed for clinical gait studies, the technology can be applied in all situations in which the relation between physiological signals and human or animal behavior is studied.     

Organising Learning in Work Contexts

On assiste dans le domaine du développement des ressources humaines à un passage de l’optique formation à la perspective apprentissage. La formation est de plus en plus perçue comme seulement l’une des solutions disponibles pour mettre en place les processus d’apprentissage dans les organisations de travail, et pas toujours comme étant la plus efficace. Les autres formes d’apprentissage ont pris beaucoup d’importance dans la dernière décennie, en particulier celles étroitement reliées au travail quotidien, sur le lieu de travail et dans le cadre élargi de la culture organisationnelle qui devient un puissant outil d’apprentissage. Après avoir retracé l’histoire du passage de la formation à l’apprentissage, l’article propose trois orientations pour de futures investigations: le travail comme facteur potential d’apprentissage, l’apprentissage sur le lieu de travail et les environnements formateurs. A l’intérieur de chacun de ces thèmes, on analyse d’éventuelles pistes de recherche et quelques problématiques stimulantes sont présentées. The field of human resource development is in the process of shifting from a training to a learning orientation. Increasingly, training is viewed as just one possible way to organise learning processes in work organisations, and not always the most effective one. Other ways of organising learning processes have gained much interest in the last decade, particularly those closely related to everyday work, in the context of the workplace, and in the broader organisational culture as a powerful learning environment. After explaining the history of the shift from training to learning, the article proposes three domains for further research: (1) the learning potential of work, (2) learning in the workplace, and (3) learning environments. Within each of these themes, possible research avenues are discussed and some challenging research questions are put forward.     

On the Morality of Having Faith that God Exists

Many theists who identify themselves with the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) maintain that it is perfectly acceptable to have faith that God exists. In this paper, I argue that, when believing that God exists will affect others, it is prima facie wrong to forgo attempting to believe that God exists on the basis of sufficient evidence. Lest there be any confusion: I do not argue that it is always wrong to have faith that God exists, only that, under certain conditions, it can be.     

Transitions in first-year college student drinking behaviors: does pre-college drinking moderate the effects of parent- and peer-based intervention components?

This study used Latent Transition Analysis (LTA) to examine a stage-sequential model of alcohol use among a sample of high-risk matriculating college students (N=1,275). Measures of alcohol use were collected via web-administered surveys during the summer before entering college and followed-up during the fall semester of college. Seven indicators of alcohol use were used in the LTA models, including temporal measures of typical drinking throughout the week. The results indicated that four latent statuses characterized patterns of drinking at both times, though the proportion of students in each status changed during the transition to college: (a) nondrinkers; (b) weekend nonbingers; (c) weekend bingers; and (d) heavy drinkers. Heavy drinkers were distinguished by heavy episodic drinking (HED), and increased likelihood of drinking throughout the week, especially on Thursdays. Covariates were added to the LTA model to examine the main and interaction effects of parent- and peer-based intervention components. Results indicated that participants in the parent and peer conditions were least likely to transition to the heavy drinkers status. Results also indicated that the parent condition was most effective at preventing baseline nondrinkers from transitioning to heavy drinkers whereas the peer condition was most effective at preventing escalation of use among weekend nonbingers. The results underscore the value of considering multiple dimensions of alcohol use within a person-centered approach. Differential treatment effects were found across baseline drinking class, suggesting the benefit for tailored intervention programs to reduce high-risk drinking among college students.     

Ethnic and gender differences in the labour market perceptions of post‐higher education job seekers: ‘Double jeopardy’ or ‘ethnic prominence’?

Ethnic and gender differences in perceptions of graduate job acquisition difficulty among U.K. post‐higher education job seekers were investigated. Two main hypotheses were compared: the double jeopardy hypothesis (DJH), suggesting an additive or interactive increase in perceived difficulty associated with membership of different disadvantaged demographic categories; and the ethnic prominence hypothesis, arguing for the salience of ethnicity over gender in perceptions. Graduates and final year students (N= 800) from Black, Indian, Pakistani/Bangladeshi, and White ethnic backgrounds rated the level of difficulty that a suitably qualified man and woman from their own ethnic background would encounter in attaining 10 graduate jobs. Interactions between participant ethnic background and gender of job seeker rated were examined in the context of the competing hypotheses. The perceptions of men, and Indian and Pakistani/Bangladeshi women, were consistent with the additive DJH, whereas Black women's perceptions were not. It is concluded that: (1) the perceptions of the latter group may reflect knowledge of Black male disadvantage, or negative stereotyping with respect to employment in the U.K. graduate labour market; and (2) perceptions of double jeopardy by some female graduates may have negative effects on their job seeking endeavours.     

Career management: The issue of the millennium

Abstract

The last decade has seen immense changes in the business environment. The globalization of business, its deregulation and the consequent opening up of new markets, the advances in information technology, and the growth of consumerism have all added to the competitive pressures which commercial organizations face (Hamel & Prahalad, 1994). At the same time, changes in social attitudes, especially regarding societal institutions such as government, education, and health, have increased the pressures on the public sector to provide value for taxpayers' money.     

Reappraising the Moral Nature of Emotions in Decision Making: The Case of Shame and Guilt

Emotions play a crucial role in moral behavior. The present paper does not contest this point but argues that qualifications of certain feelings such as shame and guilt as moral emotions should not exclusively be based on a proximal analysis of their function. A proximal analysis details how moral emotions produce moral behavior. Emotions are qualified as moral when they are elicited by concerns for others rather than the self and produce prosocial action tendencies. Although researchers have acknowledged that moral emotions may also have an ultimate function that details why it is in the individual interest that these moral effects occur, they have neglected to translate such ideas into testable hypotheses. Using guilt and shame as an example, we show how an analysis of ultimate functions accommodates recent findings, which contest the view that guilt is more moral than shame and provides new insights as to when and why moral emotions will produce moral effects.