Driver distraction based lane-keeping assistance

Driver assistance systems could be much more effective, if they were adaptive to the driver’s state. Following the idea of a lane-keeping assistance system, which is adaptive to the use of in-vehicle information systems (IVIS), two field experiments were conducted. The first experiment concerned the influence of typical IVIS tasks on lane-keeping. Most IVIS tasks increased the lateral deviations, but in the majority of cases the drivers were still able to stay in their lane.The second experiment concerned two questions: (1) how much lateral support would be needed and (2) how drivers accept this kind of support. The results show that all lateral support algorithms increased the lane-keeping performance with the algorithms providing a higher amount of assistance proving the most useful. All assistance systems were rated as helpful and were considered to increase driver safety, both by the drivers who did not have problems in lane-keeping without assistance.In light of these results an adaptation of a lateral support system to the IVIS-use seems to be useful and worthwhile.     

Child's behaviour in mother–child interaction predicts later emotional and behavioural problems

The aims were to examine the association of maternal or child interactive behaviour with emotional and behavioural problems of the child simultaneously and 3 years later, and to assess whether there is continuity in children's emotional and behavioural symptoms from 2 to 5 years. Sixty‐five 2‐year‐old children with their mothers were videotaped during a feeding situation. Their mothers completed the CBCL at 2 years and when the children were 5. Simultaneously, there were no strong correlations between child's emotional and behavioural problems and maternal or child interactive behaviour. Subsequently, mothers' higher sensitivity and more optimal structuring, as well as child's higher involvement of the mother, were associated with lower levels of child externalizing and total problem scores. Also, less responsive children showed more externalizing symptoms 3 years later. There was continuity of emotional and behavioural problems from 2 to 5 years. Problems in mother–child interaction may predict behavioural problems in the child subsequently. Besides maternal behaviour, it is important to consider the interactive behaviour of the child. Children who are less responsive and who show less involvement of the mother are more likely to subsequently present more externalizing symptoms, and these children should be recognized and treated early. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

"必要伤害"作为生态伦理规范的合理性

"必要伤害"是在对不伤害原则理论缺陷的反思、挖掘和借鉴西方生态伦理学有关解决人与自然矛盾和冲突的伦理思想的基础上,提出的新的道德规范原则。它包括:人类为了自身的利益对自然界不得不做出的损害;人类为了自然的完整和稳定不得不对自身的权利做出让步、节制而造成的损害。"必要伤害"原则的提出,既丰富和完善生态伦理学的道德原则体系,又为人们的生态道德实践提供了有效的行为指导。     

国有大中型企业职工满意感研究

本文在对山东省国有大中型企业职工进行大规模抽样问卷凋查的基础上．分析了满意感调查表的信度和效度。并探讨了运用该调查表所得出的～些重要结论。对所获数据的分析表明：(1)满意感量表具有良好的再测信度和结构效度;(2)国有大中型企业职工总体满意感和五个方面的具体满意感不太平衡;(3)国有大中型企业职工满意感受到职工个人的性别、年龄、受教育程度、婚姻状况、工作性质、进厂方式,以及职工所属企业所在地区、企业规模、效益、转轨情况等因素的影响。     

See the devil and tame him

Born in 1921, professor of philosophy at the University of Warsaw and art theory in the Polish Academy of Sciences; has published twelve books and more than three hundred articles (bibliography in volume 14 of A. Mercier (ed.).Philosophers on Their Own Work. Bern: 1990) ranging over the history of aesthetics, Marxist and Soviet aesthetics, and issues related to the status of the arts in contemporary Western culture.     

Exposure to community violence and social support as predictors of anxiety and social and emotional behavior among African American children

We examined the effects of exposure to violence and social support on self-reported state and trait anxiety and parental rated problem behaviors among school-aged African-American children in low and high violence areas. Ninety-seven (97) fourth through sixth graders and their parents were interviewed about exposure to community violence, social support, and state and trait anxiety. Results indicate that trait anxiety was correlated positively with exposure to violence and negatively with social support. State anxiety was correlated negatively with family social support. Problem behaviors were correlated negatively with family support and income. Hierarchial multiple regression analyses indicated that children's reports of their exposure to community violence continued to explain significant variability in trait anxiety, and problem behavior after controlling for both income and social support measures. Social support from peers, family and teachers played differential roles in predicting problem behaviors among children from high and lower violence areas. These findings suggest that in planning intervention programs for children exposed to violence, greater attention to empowering parents to support their children, to fostering peer group support, and to bolstering teacher support may be useful, but attention to the underlying socio-political causes of violence exposure is essential.     

Infant state in relation to its environmental context

Two neonatal intensive care units (NICU) were observed every 15 minutes for at least 72 consecutive hours. Although infants on both NICUs were exposed to considerable amounts of stimulation, there were differences between the units for each environmental measure in the amount of stimulation and/or the pattern of circadian periodicity. The two NICUs also differed in the amount of time infants spent in various states and in the pattern of state periodicity. In general, the diurnal rhythms of the infant states were associated with the diurnal rhythms of different environmental events; furthermore, the patterns of association were not the same on the two NICUs. The results point to potential problems in depicting a “typical” NICU. More importantly, they suggest that the environmental of NICUs has a recognizable influence on aspects of their inhabitants' behavior and that the nature of influence is different from NICU to NICU. The effects are potentially significant for physical, social, and cognitive development.