IRB and Research Regulatory Delays Within the Military Health System: Do They Really Matter? And If So,Why and for Whom?

Institutional review board (IRB) delays may hinder the successful completion of federally funded research in the U.S. military. When this happens, time-sensitive, mission-relevant questions go unanswered. Research participants face unnecessary burdens and risks if delays squeeze recruitment timelines, resulting in inadequate sample sizes for definitive analyses. More broadly, military members are exposed to untested or undertested interventions, implemented by well-intentioned leaders who bypass the research process altogether. To illustrate, we offer two case examples. We posit that IRB delays often appear in the service of managing institutional risk, rather than protecting research participants. Regulators may see more risk associated with moving quickly than risk related to delay, choosing to err on the side of bureaucracy. The authors of this article, all of whom are military-funded researchers, government stakeholders, and/or human subject protection experts, offer feasible recommendations to improve the IRB system and, ultimately, research within military, veteran, and civilian populations.     

A Critical Examination of Anselm's Ontological Argument

This paper argues that St.Anselm's distinction of the two senses of existence in his ontological argument for the existence of God renders Paul Tillich's refutation of it invalid.At the same time,Anselm misuses the two types of existence in his ontological comparison,leading to a logical contradiction between the different kinds and degrees of existence.Since Anselm's idea of different reference subjects does not coherently solve this logical absurdity,Anselm's ontological argument falls well short of being a successful approach to establishing the existence of God.     

Stimulus complexity and prospective timing: clues for a parallel process model of time perception

Whereas many studies have considered the role of attention in prospective timing, fewer have established relations between movement complexity and prospective timing. The present study aims at assessing to what extent motion complexity interferes with prospective timing and at delineating a neuropsychophysical plausible model. We have thus designed a visual paradigm presenting stimuli in sequential pairs (reference comparison interval). Stimuli are motionless or moving according to different complexities, and stimulus complexities are intermixed within each pair. To prevent a possible attention-sharing effect, no concurrent task was required. Our study suggests that movement complexity is a key component of duration perception, and that the relative judgement of durations depends on spatio-temporal features of stimuli. In particular, it shows that movement complexity can bias subjects’ perception and performance, and that subjects detect that comparison intervals are longer than reference before their end. In the discussion, we advocate that the classical internal clock model cannot easily account for our results. Consequently, we propose a model for time perception, based on a parallel processing between comparison interval perception and the reconstruction of the reference duration.     

父母受教育水平与青少年学业适应的关系：父母教养与亲子沟通的中介作用

选取716名高一和高三青少年为被试考察父母受教育水平与青少年学业适应之间的关系,揭示父母教养行为与亲子沟通在其中的中介作用。结果发现,（1）父母受教育水平、亲子沟通、教养行为以及学业适应之间均存在显著相关。（2）父母教养行为的接纳/参与、严厉/监督维度以及亲子沟通在父母受教育水平与青少年学业适应之间起中介作用。（3）直接效应模型和中介模型具有跨性别、城乡和年级等同性。因此,既应关注父母受教育水平与青少年学业适应的直接关系,也应重视亲子互动在其中的重要作用。     

医学人体试验中受试者权益保护问题探微——对《赫尔辛基宣言》修订的几点思考

《赫尔辛基宣言》自颁行以来已六次修订,为适应医学研究领域的新情势,世界医学会征询中华医学会对2008年版《赫尔辛基宣言》的修改意见,中华医学会委托医学伦理学分会组织专家进行意见征集与调研活动。在整理和总结上述修订意见的基础上,进一步研究探讨了关于受试者知情同意、受试者风险评估、受试者权益保障、医学伦理委员会伦理监督职能、程序伦理等问题,并提出了基于中国国情的考虑与建议,以期借鉴国际医学伦理典籍,共谋我国医学伦理的发展,为保护受试者方面贡献力量。     

论社会主义荣辱观的主体层次性

对社会主义荣辱观进行主体层次性划分,不仅是构建和谐社会的客观要求,而且是道德层次性研究的内在呼唤。胡锦涛同志提出的“八荣八耻”社会主义荣辱观应针对不同的道德主体各有侧重,并针对不同的道德主体切实加强社会主义荣辱观教育。