Reducing elevator energy use: A comparison of posted feedback and reduced elevator convenience

The effects of two different procedures for reducing elevator energy use were assessed using a multiple-baseline design. In the first procedure, feedback about the amount of energy consumed by the elevators each week was posted on each elevator door. Later, signs advocating the use of stairs to save energy and improve health were posted next to the feedback signs. In the second procedure, the time required to travel between floors was increased by adding a delay to the elevator door closing mechanisms. Results indicated that neither feedback alone nor feedback plus educational signs reduced the amount of energy consumed by the elevators. However, use of the door delay reduced consumption by one-third in all elevators.A second experiment replicated the effect of the door delay on energy consumption and, in addition, demonstrated that the door delay also produced a reduction in the number of persons using the elevator. The second experiment also showed that, following an initial period during which a full delay was in effect, a gradual reduction of the delay interval resulted in continued energy conservation. Reduced convenience as a general strategy for energy conservation is discussed.     

MATURE CONTEMPLATION

Abstract. This chapter extends biogenetic structural theory to a consideration of the biopsychological principles underlying higher phases of consciousness, particularly those attained by the systematic exploration of consciousness called contemplation. The concepts of psychic energy, flow, centeredness, energy circulation, and dreambody are explored as presented in various mystical traditions, and a model of the underlying neurophysiology is presented in terms of ergotropic-trophotropic tuning. The psychophysiology of various forms of meditation together with emergent peak experiences is examined and integrated into the ergotropic-trophotropic tuning model. Structural invariance of ergotropic-trophotropic tuning as well as invariant aspects of contemplation across different cultures and associated with different symbol systems is considered. Finally the nature and implications of Void Consciousness, God Consciousness, or Abssolute Unitary Being are examined.     

WHAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE DOING TO US AND FOR US?

What are we doing to our climate? Emissions from fossil fuel burning have raised carbon dioxide concentrations 35 percent higher than in the past millions of years. This increase is warming our planet via the greenhouse effect. What is climate change doing to and for us ? Dry regions are drier and wet ones wetter. Wildfires have increased threefold, hurricanes more violent, floods setting record heights, glaciers melting, and seas rising. Parts of Earth are increasingly uninhabitable. Climate change requires us to act as a global community. Climate justice enjoins emitters to pay the social‐environmental costs of fossil fuel burning. This would expedite green solar, wind, and next‐generation nuclear energy sources. Individuals should conserve resources, waste less food, and eat a plant‐rich diet.     

The personal life of the behavior analyst

The human species faces crises of critical proportions. Excessive population, global warming, and the anticipated descent from peak fossil-fuel extraction promise to change our future in far-reaching ways. Operant conditioning prepares the individual for a world similar to the selecting past, but our world is changing more rapidly than our adaptation. As individuals, we cannot make substantial changes in the world at large because we do not control enough reinforcers, but we can turn to the sources of our personal behavior and manipulate them. We will need help. Better organized social networks and the self-management techniques they support can promote immediate changes in consumption at home, work, and moving about in our personal worlds. Surprisingly, consuming less can lead to more satisfying and happier lives, but a better understanding of reinforcement contingencies is necessary. We can recover the strengthening effects of personal daily accomplishments that are eroded when conditioned generalized reinforcers intervene. When we get our own personal lives in order we can reduce our carbon footprints, restore the connections between our behavior and its strengthening effects, and become models worthy of imitation.     

The glow of Telesphoros: a brief enquiry into the sense of the term ‘mana personality’ and the dynamic of experiences behind it

In this article, I begin by outlining the qualities and attributes associated with experiences of mana, focusing particularly on the way the term ‘mana’ was used by C.G. Jung in his published work. I note that Jung associated mana with the accumulation and transfer of psychic energy (libido), with the appearance and appropriation of elemental fire, and by extension, with the metamorphic experience of constellating consciousness. In this context, informed by Jung’s accounts and modes of expression, the term mana personality becomes a provisional designation for a recurrent dynamic of archetypal experiential configurations whose telos appears to be the reorientation of consciousness to its origin.     

制度化建设推动医学人文走进临床

人文关怀是医学实践的核心精神,是医学“以人为本”的思维模式、道德观念、精神价值的具体体现,它与医药卫生制度化建设密切相关,已成为我国当代医学发展的核心议题之一。简介了北京北亚骨科医院多年来对医学人文与医疗实际相结合的探索经验,从社会发展需求、医院制度化建设、医生道德行为培养三个层面进行了探索性的尝试,对举办研修班、创建急救绿色通道、医风十大禁令、患者满意度评价、数字化信息建设、常态化义诊、师承式教育模式、特色诊疗体系、慈善活动等取得的成绩进行了总结和介绍。     

中医目的方法之人文科学性——兼与魏鲁霞、申俊龙、叶盛平商榷

学派间方法论差异影响中医发展方向。中医学的目的和现代医学目的的一致性,要求人文和科学方法不能矛盾,应整合在系统科学视角下;经典注疏、生成论、文化基因论在追求自洽圆融中迷失医学目标方向;质疑隐性知识创造式思维,对中医学要做批判性的继承。阴阳和谐解释为阴阳协调,与健康概念条件等效或等价,是用现代科学观念论证、而非语法词句注疏的结果;公理化设计不失为一种科学方法。