Beidler’s theory and human taste stimulation

Beidler’s fundamental taste equation, relating response magnitude and stimulus concentration, was found to be a useful means of expressing data derived from chemoreception experiments with man. Seven L-amino acids and glycine were studied over a wide range in concentration. To a first approximation, the data are in accord with Beidler’s taste equation. Interestingly, the change in free energy (ΔF) for each stimulus was found to be small, in agreement with earlier published conclusions that the initial step in chemoreception is most likely one of adsorption. Several means of depicting these data are evaluated and their contribution to a better understanding of chemoreception is discussed.     

Black, Hispanic, and White American mothers of adolescents: construction of a national standard

Black, Hispanic, and White American mothers (n = 739) and adolescents (n = 806) completed the Parent Success Indicator to rate maternal performance on subscales of Communication, Use of Time, Teaching, Frustration, Satisfaction, and Information Needs. A weighted method corresponding to ethnic proportions in the American population was applied to construct a national standard for comparative reference. In general, both generations perceived mother performance as favorable. Teaching received the highest rating followed by Satisfaction levels. Mothers felt that Information Needs were their greatest limitation while adolescents reported that their mothers were prone to frustration. The amount of time mothers and adolescents spent together was the most significant independent variable influencing parent performance. Other variables such as income and marital status had limited impact.     

The effect of cues on young children's abilities to discriminate among thoughts, feelings and behaviours

OBJECTIVE: To determine if cues help young children discriminate among thoughts, feelings and behaviours. PARTICIPANTS: Ninety-six children aged 4-7 years from three schools in Norwich, UK. DESIGN: Within each age band (4, 5, 6, 7), children were randomised to the cue or the no cue condition on a stratified basis ensuring that equal numbers of boys and girls from each school were in each of the eight cells (cue condition x age). Cues were glove puppets and post boxes. The effect of IQ was controlled. MEASURES: A discrimination task, in which children were asked to identify a thought, a feeling and a behaviour from each of six brief stories, and a brief IQ assessment were administered to children individually. RESULTS: There was a significant effect of age and cue condition on performance; older children and those who were presented with the cue performed better. There were no gender differences and no interaction between cue condition and age. CONCLUSION: Many young children discriminated among thoughts, feelings and behaviours suggesting that they may be able to engage in this aspect of cognitive behaviour therapy. Simple cues (puppets and posting boxes) improved children's performance and these may be useful therapeutic tools with young children.     

Essential ethics — embedding ethics into an engineering curriculum

Ethical decision-making is essential to professionalism in engineering. For that reason, ethics is a required topic in an ABET approved engineering curriculum and it must be a foundational strand that runs throughout the entire curriculum. In this paper the curriculum approach that is under development at the Padnos School of Engineering (PSE) at Grand Valley State University will be described. The design of this program draws heavily from the successful approach used at the service academies — in particular West Point and the United States Naval Academy. As is the case for the service academies, all students are introduced to the “Honor Concept” (which includes an Honor Code) as freshmen. As an element of professionalism the PSE program requires 1500 hours of co-op experience which is normally divided into three semesters of full-time work alternated with academic semesters during the last two years of the program. This offers the faculty an opportunity to teach ethics as a natural aspect of professionalism through the academic requirements for co-op. In addition to required elements throughout the program, the students are offered opportunities to participate in service projects which highlight responsible citizenship. These elements and other parts of the approach will be described.

King Solomon

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the “Ethics and Social Responsibility in Engineering and Technology” meeting, New Orleans, 2003.     

Childhood maltreatment associated with adult personality disorders: findings from the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study

Adverse childhood experiences such as abuse and neglect are frequently implicated in the development of personality disorders (PDs); however, research on the childhood histories of most PD groups remains limited. In this multisite investigation, we assessed self-reported history of abuse and neglect experiences among 600 patients diagnosed with either a PD (borderline, schizotypal, avoidant, or obsessive-compulsive) or major depressive disorder without PD. Results indicate that rates of childhood maltreatment among individuals with PDs are generally high (73% reporting abuse; 82% reporting neglect). As expected, borderline PD was more consistently associated with childhood abuse and neglect than other PD diagnoses. However, even when controlling for the effect of borderline PD, other PD diagnoses were associated with specific types of maltreatment.