Scientific Self-Regulation—So Good, How Can it Fail?

To be a functional alternative to government regulation, self-regulation of science must be credible to both scientists and the public, accountable, ethical, and effective. According to some, serious problems continue in research ethics in the United States despite a rich history of proposed self-regulatory standards and oversight devices. Successful efforts at self-regulation in stem cell research contrast with unsuccessful efforts in research ethics, particularly conflicts of interest. Part of the cause for a lack of success in self-regulation is fragmented, disconnected oversight, and failure to embody genuine scientific and public consensus. To be accountable, credible and effective, self-regulation must be inclusive and multidisciplinary, publicly engaged, sufficiently disinterested, operationally integrated with institutional goals, and must implement a genuine consensus among scientists and the public. The mechanisms of self-regulation must be sufficiently broad in their oversight, and interconnected with other institutional forces and actors, that they do not create fragmented solutions.

论政治道德的定位

政治生活的整合和政治文明的建设要求对政治道德进行合理的定位。政治道德的定位问题既涉及政治道德体系的内容问题,又关涉什么样的政治道德才是合理的问题。政治道德应该定位于政治公共领域这一客观基础;应该定位于个人权利与公共利益相结合的视角;应该定位于目的（或者功利）与道义（或者义务）的统一。     

Approaching Religious Guidelines for Chimera Policymaking

Recent developments in the use of cow egg cells to clone human somatic cells, and the grafting by researchers at several universities of human neurons into mice, bring the notion of the chimera, a mixture of several living organisms, from myth into reality. In his article “Cross‐Species Chimeras: Exploring a Possible Christian Perspective,” Neville Cobbe considers the religious arguments overlying the creation of human‐nonhuman chimeras. In my commentary I focus on the distinction between germline‐ and tissue transplant‐related chimeric techniques implicit in Cobbe's essay and argue that the former poses more serious moral difficulties than the latter if the chimeric product is brought to term. The substantive view of the imago Dei, or image of God, serves as a scaffold by which to judge the permissibility of chimera creation using stem cell and other tissue implants. While useful for judging the rights of such artificially generated beings, I argue that specific criteria such as proportion of tissue uptake, mental capacity, and adherence with the organism's telos are more appropriately considered within a composite image of the living being reflecting its unique integrality. Human co‐creativity with the Divine will inevitably prompt attempts to generate medically useful chimeras. Religious dialogue, combined with the categories of religious moral argument appearing in Cobbe's essay, will help to establish the outline of feasible policy guidelines addressing the complexities inherent in the creation of chimeras.     

The use of social and salience cues in early word learning

This article explores young infants' ability to learn new words in situations providing tightly controlled social and salience cues to their reference. Four experiments investigated whether, given two potential referents, 15-month-olds would attach novel labels to (a) an image toward which a digital recording of a face turned and gazed, (b) a moving image versus a stationary image, (c) a moving image toward which the face gazed, and (d) a gazed-on image versus a moving image. Infants successfully used the recorded gaze cue to form new word-referent associations and also showed learning in the salience condition. However, their behavior in the salience condition and in the experiments that followed suggests that, rather than basing their judgments of the words' reference on the mere presence or absence of the referent's motion, infants were strongly biased to attend to the consistency with which potential referents moved when a word was heard.     

A note on item information in any direction for the multidimensional three-parameter logistic model

The purpose of this note is twofold: (a) to present the formula for the item information function (IIF) in any direction for the Multidimensional 3-Parameter Logistic (M3-PL) model and (b) to give the equation for the location of maximum item information (θ_max) in the direction of the item discrimination vector. Several corollaries are given. Implications for future research are discussed.This research was supported in part by an Educational Testing Service (ETS) Harold T. Gulliksen Psychometric Research Fellowship to the author.This revised article was published online in August 2005 with the PDF paginated correctly.     

GOLEMS IN THE BIOTECH CENTURY

The legend of the golem, the creation of life through mystical and magical means, is the most famous postbiblical Jewish legend. After noting recent references to the golem legend in fiction, film, art, and scientific literature, I outline three stages of the development of the legend, including its relationship to the story of Frankenstein. I apply teachings about the golem in classical Jewish religious literature to implications of the legend for ethical issues relating to bioengineering, reproductive biotechnology, robotics, artificial intelligence, artificial life, and corporate ethics. The golem legend emerges as a source of prudent guidance through the minefield of ethical and spiritual problems emerging from current and expected developments in biotechnology.     

空间情境模型建立和更新的影响因素

采用混合实验设计,以含有空间信息的语篇为实验材料,选取不同视空间工作记忆广度的大学生作为被试,利用新的实验范式分离了空间情境模型的建立过程和更新过程,对这两个过程在不同时间模式下的加工特点进行分析,考察了空间情境模型建立和更新的影响因素。研究发现：（1）视空间工作记忆广度影响空间情境模型的建立,但不影响空间情境模型的更新。（2）时间模式既影响空间情境模型的建立又影响空间情境模型的更新。（3）方位对空间情境模型的建立有显著影响,对空间模型的更新没有显著影响。在空间情境模型的建立和更新过程中,前后判断的准确性不易受限时的影响,而左右判断的准确性则易受到限时的影响而显著降低,前后方位效应具有稳定性和优势性     

文字线索浏览方向、空间位置与移动光标对伪忽视的影响

采用线段平分任务,以无文字线索作为基线条件,考察文字线索的浏览方向、空间位置和移动光标对具有两种不同方向阅读经验的熟练双语者伪忽视的影响。结果发现,无文字线索条件下,光标从左往右方向移动时被试的判断偏向于线段中点的右侧,而从右往左移动时,偏向于线段中点的左侧。在有文字线索条件下发现,文字线索的浏览方向和空间位置的交互作用显著,简单效应检验显示文字线索的浏览方向和空间位置一致时伪忽视明显,不一致时伪忽视消失。结果表明,文字线索浏览方向、空间位置与移动光标能够影响伪忽视。伪忽视的存在和消失,不仅与眼球运动有关,还有与大脑两半球的激活水平有关。研究结果支持了视觉扫描假设和激活朝向假设。     

The role of motion platform on postural instability and head vibration exposure at driving simulators

This paper explains the effect of a motion platform for driving simulators on postural instability and head vibration exposure. The sensed head level-vehicle (visual cues) level longitudinal and lateral accelerations (a_x,sensed = a_{x_head} and a_y,sensed = a_{y_head}, a_yv = a_{y_veh} and a_yv = a_{y_veh}) were saved by using a motion tracking sensor and a simulation software respectively. Then, associated vibration dose values (VDVs) were computed at head level during the driving sessions. Furthermore, the postural instabilities of the participants were measured as longitudinal and lateral subject body centre of pressure (X_CP and Y_CP, respectively) displacements just after each driving session via a balance platform. The results revealed that the optic-head inertial level longitudinal accelerations indicated a negative non-significant correlation (r = −.203, p = .154 > .05) for the static case, whereas the optic-head inertial longitudinal accelerations depicted a so small negative non-significant correlation (r = −.066, p = .643 > .05) that can be negligible for the dynamic condition. The X_CP for the dynamic case indicated a significant higher value than the static situation (t(47), p < .0001). The VDV_x for the dynamic case yielded a significant higher value than the static situation (U(47), p < .0001). The optic-head inertial lateral accelerations resulted a negative significant correlation (r = −.376, p = .007 < .05) for the static platform, whereas the optic-head inertial lateral accelerations showed a positive significant correlation (r = .418, p = .002 < .05) at dynamic platform condition. The VDV_y for the static case indicated a significant higher value rather than the dynamic situation (U(47), p < .0001). The Y_CP for the static case yielded significantly higher than the dynamic situation (t(47), p = .001 < 0.05).     

Confronting Deep Moral Disagreement: The President's Council on Bioethics,Moral Status,and Human Embryos

The report of the President's Council on Bioethics, Human Cloning and Human Dignity, addresses the central ethical, political, and policy issue in human embryonic stem cell research: the moral status of extracorporeal human embryos. The Council members were in sharp disagreement on this issue and essentially failed to adequately engage and respectfully acknowledge each others' deepest moral concerns, despite their stated commitment to do so. This essay provides a detailed critique of the two extreme views on the Council (i.e., embryos have full moral status or they have none at all) and then gives theoretical grounding for our judgment about the intermediate moral status of embryos. It also supplies an account of how to address profound moral disagreements in the public arena, especially by way of constructing a middle ground that deliberately pays sincere respect to the views of those with whom it has deep disagreements.