Ethics in Research

Summary

This article presents an overview of the history of efforts to protect human subjects in research. It discusses the establishment of international, national, organizational, and institutional procedures designed to protect human participants. The article provides a detailed summary of the principal ethical codes for research and their origins. It includes discussions of the most frequently encountered ethical issues ranging from the initial decision to undertake the project, through the selection and application of the various research procedures, to the analysis and interpretation of the data.     

Lean on me: The importance of one's own and partner's intercultural personality for expatriate's and expatriate spouse's successful adjustment abroad

This research explores the role of three intercultural personality traits—emotional stability, social initiative, and open-mindedness—as coping resources for expatriate couples’ adjustment. First, we examined the direct relationships of expatriates’ and expatriate spouses’ personality trait levels with psychological and sociocultural adjustment. Psychological adjustment refers to internal psychological outcomes such as mental health and personal satisfaction, whereas sociocultural adjustment refers to more externally oriented psychological outcomes that link the individual to the new environment. Second, we examined the association of expatriates’ personality trait levels with professional adjustment, which was defined in terms of job performance and organizational commitment. Cross-sectional analyses among 196 expatriates and expatriate spouses (i.e., 98 expatriate couples) revealed that the three dimensions are each associated with specific facets of adjustment. A longitudinal analysis among a subsample (45 couples) partially confirmed these findings. Furthermore, we obtained evidence for a resource compensation effect, that is, the compensatory process whereby one partner's lack of sufficiently high levels of a certain personality trait is compensated for by the other partner's high(er) levels of this traits. Through this resource compensation effect, the negative consequences of a lack of sufficient levels of a personality trait on adjustment can be diminished. Apparently, in the absence of sufficiently high trait levels, individuals can benefit from personality resources in their partners.     

Octogenarian and centenarian performance on the Fuld Object Memory Evaluation

The Fuld Object Memory Evaluation (FOME) has considerable utility for cognitive assessment in older adults, but there are few normative data, particularly for the oldest old. In this study, 80 octogenarians and 244 centenarians from the Georgia Centenarian Study completed the FOME. Total and trial-to-trial performance on the storage, retrieval, repeated retrieval, and ineffective reminder indices were assessed. Additional data stratified by age group, education, and cognitive impairment are provided in the Supplemental data. Octogenarians performed significantly better than centenarians on all FOME measures. Neither age group benefitted from additional learning trials beyond Trial 3 for storage and Trial 2 for retention and retrieval. Ineffective reminders showed no change across learning trials for octogenarians, while centenarians improved only between Trials 1 and 2. This minimal improvement past Trial 2 indicates that older adults might benefit from a truncated version of the test that does not include trials three through five, with the added benefit of reducing testing burden in this population.     

Performances on Symbol Digit Modalities Test,Color Trails Test,and modified Stroop test in a healthy,elderly Danish sample

ABSTRACT

This study presents Danish data for the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), Color Trails Test (CTT), and a modified Stroop test from 100 subjects aged 60–87 years. Among the included demographic variables, age had the highest impact on test performances. Thus, the study presents separate data for different age groups. For SDMT and CTT1, Danish Adult Reading Test (DART) score also had a significant impact on test performances. The incongruent version of the modified Stroop test was significantly correlated to education. Moderate and significant correlations were found between the three tests. Even though the three tests are commonly used, few normative data for elderly exists. SDMT and CTT performances from this study were in the same range as previously published international norms, but the validity of the result from the modified Stroop test could not be investigated.     

长时间相处是亲子关系的保护性因素吗？——疫情背景下基于微博大数据的质性分析

目的：采用大数据技术与质性分析相结合的方式,探索疫情期间青少年长时间与父母相处的条件下,亲子冲突的演变特征。方法：利用Python3.8编写程序,以“亲子冲突、初中生、高中生、青少年、冲突、父母、与父母冲突”等为关键词在微博平台上搜索个人发布的内容,经数据整理,选择286条微博文本纳入文本分析,用NVivo12质性分析软件辅助编码。结果：亲子冲突的表达包含了冲突诱因、冲突类型、冲突领域,和冲突管理策略等四个方面的特征。结论：研究建构了冲突诱因、冲突领域、冲突类型和冲突应对策略之间的关系模型。亲子冲突的发生是在社会文化背景下,由于家庭功能失调引发的亲子互动方式异常。亲子冲突发生以后,取积极应对策略有助于家庭功能的良性调节。     

数字药丸技术的两大伦理问题及解决对策

数字药丸技术能够使医生及其他监护人员通过网页或应用程序监测患者的药物摄入数据及其他生理数据,能够间接地提高患者的药物依从性。但是,数字药丸技术也会侵犯患者自主权与生理隐私。对于患者自主权,医生应最大程度地让自主能力受损的患者参与涉及他们自己的护理决策,特别是应该利用对患者偏爱和价值观的了解,尽可能地确定患者自己会做出什么样的决定;对于生理隐私,解决的核心是无论生产商还是医生与其他监护人员都要明确生理数据信息都是属于患者而非他人,特别是患者应该被告知自己的哪些生理数据被收集,哪些数据被使用以及如何使用数据。

     

数据、信息与生命——文特尔生命观研究

人类对“生命是什么”的探索从未停止,而合成生物学正在成为认知与改造生命的重要方式之一,同时深刻地改变着人类的生命观。以活力论与还原论争论作为历史背景,通过系统地回顾和分析“人造生命之父”克雷格·文特尔开展合成基因组实验、染色体移植实验、合成细胞实验的过程与内容,探讨文特尔“生命是一个信息系统”生命观的内涵并且明确文特尔合成生物学成就的科学意义与社会价值,并以此为案例解读合成生物学中涉及的生物安全和生命伦理问题。

     

Developing an Output‐Oriented Super Slacks‐Based Measure Model with an Application to Third‐Party Reverse Logistics Providers

Outsourcing is an increasingly significant topic pursued via corporations seeking enhanced efficiency. Third‐party reverse logistics involves the employ of external firms to carry out some or all of the firm's logistics activities. Output‐oriented super slacks‐based measure (SBM) model is one of the models in data envelopment analysis (DEA). In many real‐world applications, data are often stochastic. A successful approach to address uncertainty in data is to replace deterministic data via random variables, leading to chance‐constrained DEA. In this paper, a chance‐constrained output‐oriented super SBM model is developed and also its deterministic equivalent, which is a nonlinear program, is derived. Furthermore, it is shown that the deterministic equivalent of the stochastic output‐oriented super SBM model can be converted into a quadratic program. In addition, sensitivity analysis of the stochastic output‐oriented super SBM model is discussed with respect to changes on parameters. Finally, a numerical example demonstrates the application of the proposed model. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Australian Norms and Retest Data for the Rey Auditory and Verbal Learning Test

This article presents normative data for the Rey Auditory and Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). A representative sample of 390 healthy young adults aged between 18 and 34 living within the Sydney metropolitan area, Australia, completed Form AB of the RAVLT as part of the Macquarie University Neurological Normative Study. Retest data were collected from a subsample of 98 participants after an interval of 1 year. Norms were derived for commonly used measures of the RAVLT and are presented for the whole sample as well as separately for males and females with different levels of education. Age was not found to impact significantly on test performance for this group of young adults, and therefore age‐adjusted norms are not provided. An excel program to calculate RAVLT standard scores (mean of 10 and standard deviation of 3) can be downloaded from http://www.psy.mq.edu.au/RAVLT . Poor test–retest reliability raises concerns about the use of the RAVLT in clinical diagnosis.     

单维项目因素分析：CCFA与IRT估计方法的比较

当观测指标变量为二分分类数据时,传统的因素分析方法不再适用。作者简要回顾了SEM框架下的分类数据因素分析模型和IRT框架下的测验题目和潜在能力的关系模型,并对两种框架下主要采用的参数估计方法进行了总结。通过两个模拟研究,比较了SEM框架下GLSc和MGLSc估计方法与IRT框架下MML/EM估计方法的差异。研究结果表明：（1）三种方法中,GLSc得到参数估计的偏差最大,MGLSc和MML/EM估计方法相差不大;（2）随着样本量增大,各种项目参数估计的精度均提高;（3）项目因素载荷和难度估计的精度受测验长度的影响;（4）项目因素载荷和区分度估计的精度受总体因素载荷（区分度）高低的影响;（5）测验项目中阈值的分布会影响参数估计的精度,其中受影响最大的是项目区分度。（6）总体来看,SEM框架下的项目参数估计精度较IRT框架下项目参数估计的精度高。此外,文章还将两种方法在实际应用中应该注意的问题提供了一些建议。