bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Motion Planning in Dynamic Environments Using Velocity Obstacles
Authors: Fiorini Paolo , Shiller Zvi 
Published: March 2007

This paper presents a method for robot motion planning in dynamic environments. It consists of selecting avoidance maneuvers to avoid static and moving obstacles in the velocity space, based on the cur rent positions and velocities of the robot and obstacles. It is a first- order method, since it does not integrate velocities to yield positions as functions of time. The avoidance maneuvers are generated by selecting robot ve locities outside of the velocity obstacles, which represent the set of robot velocities that would result in a collision with a given obstacle that moves at a given velocity, at some future time. To ensure that the avoidance maneuver is dynamically feasible, the set of avoidance velocities is intersected with the set of admissible velocities, defined by the robot's acceleration constraints. Computing new avoidance maneuvers at regular time intervals accounts for general obstacle trajectories. The trajectory from start to goal is computed by searching a tree of feasible avoidance maneuvers, computed at discrete time intervals. An exhaustive search of the tree yields near-optimal trajectories that either minimize distance or motion time. A heuristic search of the tree is applicable to on-line planning. The method is demonstrated for point and disk robots among static and moving obstacles, and for an automated vehicle in an intelligent vehicle highway system scenario.
Pupil-Centred Learning in Piano Lessons: An Evaluated Action-Research Programme Focusing on the Psychology of the Individual
Authors: Mackworth-Young Lucinda 
Published: March 2007

Despite evidence that piano teachers recognise the importance of psycho- logical and emotional factors in the piano lesson, there is very little research or discussion about these factors in the profession. The conventional style of piano lesson is highly teacher-directed, the pupil being seen as a subordinate, dependent learner. This study drew on developments within the psychology of education on pupil-directed learning, on negotiated learning and on the emotional aspects of education and found that the lesson style of four pupils of secondary school age was easily adaptable to allow for the heightened awareness of psychological and emotional factors. This resulted in increased enjoyment, interest, positive attitudes, motivation and progress for three pupils, and in a better teacher-pupil relationship for all four pupils. "All attempts to educate must fain be full of mistakes, and when one realises it is the growing child who suffers more than his teacher, it fills one with apprehension. But... if we face this fact with all humility and an ever- readiness to adjust, the child, sensing this empirical approach guides us himself, and the errors are less fatal, the co-operation of spirit more certain, and the joy of teaching a wonderful thing." (Menuhin, 1969)
The Human Record
Authors: Forde Daryll 
Published: March 2007

Anthropology, as it developed in the latter part of the last century, took as its central, if not sole, field of interest the attempt to discover and explain human progress from the emergence of man before the Ice Age many millennia ago down to the complex life of civilised peoples in the modern world. It sought not only to range both living races and fossil remains of extinct forms in a succession of advancing forms, but to formulate broad sequences of discovery and invention by which new crafts and ways of life developed, and to trace the birth and development of cosmological, religious and moral ideas, and the elaboration of social institutions from the family to the state.Such a programme was not new. It had been the subject of considerable speculation in classical thought and of more critical elaboration by the rationalist philosophers of the eighteenth century, who shared Hume's view that the history of mankind had been one of “gradual improvement from rude beginnings to a state of greater perfection.” The nineteenth century anthropologists had, however, the great advantage of being able to set their studies within the wider framework of the considerable geological and archaeological knowledge that was then accumulating and of the theories concerning biological evolution that were then being elaborated.
Literary Problems
Authors: Noulet Emilie 
Published: March 2007

Modern literature, viewed superficially, presents two phenomena that attest its vitality rather than its decline, at least in our Vestern countries: the anormal development of the novel and the advent of criticism as a genre.The novel today appears to be omniscient and does not always succeed in disguising its didactic intent. Formerly, the various disciplines—once their methods were acquired and their end discerned—detached themselves from literature, leaving to it exclusively the domain of fiction. Devoured by the voracity of the novel, not only the young and as yet uncertain sciences such as psychoanalysis, ethnology, and criminology, but older ones as well, like philosophy, history or law, come back to it and use it readily in maintaining their theses and in emphasizing their needs. Thus the novel takes over their diverse ambitions.
The Group Matrix as a Holomovement and Quantum Field
Authors: Dick Barbara 
Published: March 2007

This paper links the new quantum mechanical field theories to Sigmund Freud's concepts of unconscious process, to the collective unconscious and alchemical symbols and archetypes of C.J. Jung, and to the domain of the mystical experience which unites East and West. Contemporary quantum physicists show mounting evidence to suggest that in the space between all matter, there are waves which release energy in excess of the entire known energy of the universe, and which being atemporal and aspacial create a holistic reality of body, mind and spirit. This paper examines the structure, process and content of an analytic group, with the hypothesis that they are part of a holomovement, a quantum field.
Teaching Transactional Analysis in a Senior Center
Authors: Kruse Thomas L. 
Published: March 2007

An introduction to TA in a senior center is described and analyzed. Approximately 30 people attended the presentations, and evaluated them positively. Among important general considerations in teaching TA to older people are common visual and auditory impairments, wide variation among participants and their level of functioning, and access to senior populations. The importance of using the collective life experience and wisdom of older participants is emphasized. Ego states, strokes, time structuring, transactions, and life positions were introduced. Specific attention was given to the Parent ego state, stroking and isolation, structuring time in retirement, games in group environments, Parent-Child transactions, and age as related to life positions. It was concluded that more attention should be given to applying TA to older populations.
Privatization and the Penal System: Britain Misinterprets the American Experience
Authors: Ryan Mick , Ward Tony 
Published: March 2007

The building and management of penal institutions by private corporations has been adopted by governments in both the United States and Britain as a possible solution to the problems of their overburdened prison systems. British advocates of privatization have looked to the United States to demonstrate the success of privatization, but they have seriously distorted the evidence and have paid scant attention to the constitutional, administrative, and political differences between the two countries. The authors examine these differences and conclude that many of the practical incentives to privatization which exist in the United States are absent in Britain, and so too are some of the legal protections which prisoners in American private jails enjoy. While not advocating the privatization of penal institutions in either country, the authors are critical of those opponents of privatization, particularly in Britain, who assert that there is, or should be, a fixed relationship between the state and the penal system. They contrast this with the earlier attitude of progressives in both countries who saw the expansion of private, nonprofit involvement in noncustodial forms of punishment as an important means of promoting change.
Comparative Analysis of Program Development Processes in Six Professions
Authors: Pennington Floyd , Green Joseph 
Published: March 2007

This study was designed to examine and describe planning strategies used by persons developing continuing professional edu cation (CPE) programs for six professional fields. From the descrip tion of practice in the six professions, a general model portraying the program development process was developed. The research methods used to guide the inquiry were those of grounded theory. Results indicate planners attend to at least six clusters of activities in their program development processes in a fairly con sistent sequence. Results also indicate that there is limited use of knowledge resources available in the literature. Planners did, however, use a wide variety of resources available inside the uni versity and outside the university to plan programs. Differences in strategies of program development in various professional fields did exist, most often in the order of activities and the emphasis given to specific activities in the program devel opment clusters.
Subjective Estimation of Adult Learning: the Development of a Magnitude Estimation Scale
Authors: Blunt Adrian 
Published: March 2007

The psycho-physical technique of magnitude estimation was used to determine whether there is a social consensus concerning the magnitude of learning that occurs in adult learning activities. Previous research using magnitude estimation suggested that it is possible to develop ratio scales to quantify certain social norms, opinions and attitudes which frequently defy quantification by direct scaling procedures. Subjective estimates of learning in 26 adult learning activities were obtained from 191 community college credit course participants, 147 university adult education depart ment students and faculty members and 165 participants in a school district adult education program. The Subjective Estimation of Adult Learning Scale (SEALS) was found to be reliable by test re-test and cross modal matching techniques. Evidence of a consensus was found when geometric mean esti mates for each activity were compared between the three groups of respondents. Analysis of covariance revealed age and years of schooling to be significant sources of variance on several scale items. Sex and an interaction of sex and years of schooling com pleted, were found to have a significant effect on one scale item. Further research is needed to determine the validity of the study findings and to determine whether the SEALS has ratio properties. There is a need to replicate the study using different populations and alternate means of obtaining the subjective esti mates of respondents. Additional applications of magnitude esti mation techniques in adult education research are proposed.
Reading to Learn: Theory, Strategies and Instructional Research
Authors: Anders Patricia L. 
Published: March 2007

This article provides three arguments for the pervasive use of textbooks to transmit knowledge to adolescents in secondary schools. In turn, four common problems with the use of textbooks are counter-argued. These problems are responded to from a theoretical perspective that is based in schema theory and psycholinguistics. Adolescents' interaction with text can be improved with concommitant improvements in reading comprehension and content learning by teacher choice of appropriate pedagogy. Recommendations for teacher developed activities before students read are provided. Likewise, a teacher developed activity for students use during reading and immediately after reading is provided. Finally, a sample activity for after reading is explained. The rationale for these activities is based on the assumptions of schema theory and psycholinguistics. Instructional research demonstrating the efficacy of these activities within the content area classroom is sparse. However, four studies supporting the use of one of the before reading activities, semantic feature analysis, are summarized. Further instructional research is called for.
Drug Testing: Constitutional And Policy Implications
Authors: Giglio Ernest 
Published: March 2007

Let us assume the following three scenarios. Scenario one involves a professional football player who tests positive for drugs for the third time and under National Football League rules is suspended indefinitely. The second scenario concerns a railroad engineer whose urinalysis sample taken after a serious accident reveals drug usage and who is subsequently dismissed from his Conrail job. The final scenario includes a recent college graduate who applies for a position with a Fortune 500 company but does not get the job because she fails the required pre-employment drug test. What do these three people share in common? They all tested positive for drug use and suffered economic loss, and possibly psychological pain, as a consequence. But were their rights violated? Was their privacy intruded upon? Was the testing procedure fair and accurate? Did the testing violate the American legal principle that guilt is individual rather than collective? These are some of the questions raised by government-mandated, as well as employer-required, drug testing. As courts and legislative bodies wrestle with these questions, the policy consequences of their decisions and enactments need to be considered. This paper purports to examine the constitutional issues raised by drug testing, how the courts have resolved them, and the policy implications that have resulted from their actions.
Crime Control Ideology And Policy Positions In A State Legislature (Revisited)*
Authors: Flanagan Timothy J. , Brennan Pauline Gasdow , Cohen Debra 
Published: March 2007

Urbanism and criminal crime control ideology are important correlates to state legislators' attitudes and positions on criminal justice policy issues. Three characteristics of New York state lawmakers—party affiliation, urbanism and crime control ideology—were consistently related to legislators' positions on capital punishment, handgun control, and expansion of the parole system. These findings are based on a survey of members of the New York State legislature conducted in 1991, and affirm the conclusion of a similar survey conducted in 1985. We argue that better understanding of the relationship between ideology and criminal justice policy has important and practical benefits, including improved public policy development, more effective monitoring of criminal justice legislation in legislatures, and fuller communication between lawmakers and their constituents. In addition, knowledge of the attributes of lawmakers that are related to crime control ideology may foreshadow changes in crime control policy over time.
Uncertainty in the Transition: Post-communism in Hungary
Authors: Bunce Valerie , Csanádi Mária 
Published: March 2007

Often the feeling prevails that everything is falling apart. In a way, this is true. The former centralist, bureaucratic, and dysfunctional system of support for order cannot be self-supporting and is collapsing. The new system, in all its aspects, is being born, prepared, thought through. But it is not yet up and working. Václav Havel
The first casualty: the war over psychoanalysis and the poverty of historiography
Authors: Skues Richard 
Published: March 2007

Many recent discussions of the early history of psychoanalysis have claimed that Freud's work was methodologically (and hence scientifically) flawed. It is suggested that such criticisms are often based on studies that are deficient in the way they approach historiography. The work of Adolf Grünbaum and Frederick Crews (as, respectively, specialist and populist) is used to illustrate both this and the consequent theses that dehistoricized approaches to Freud lead to anachronistic blunders and that anti-Freudian tendentiousness clothed in the illusion of historiographical expertise is no substitute for scholarly rigour. It is concluded that when criticizing Freud it is often a good idea to read him first, but no optimism is entertained about the prospects of raising the standard of debate about psychoanalysis and its origins. '... the attempt to rebut this argument [in this way] is an abuse of the privilege of writing confidently about authors without reading them...' (J. S. MILL, A System of Logic, 1898, p. 241) 'The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice.' (MARK TWAIN, 'Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar', Following the Equator, 1897)
'Colony' under a Microscope: The Medical Works of W.M. Haffkine
Authors: Kumar Deepak 
Published: March 2007

This paper attempts a prosopographical study of an important bacteriologist who made sincere efforts to combat cholera and plague in India through vaccination As an ardent follower of the Pasteurian 'revolution', W.M. Haffkine devoted his life to a series of carefully-controlled and parallel experiments on laboratory animals, and per fected new vaccines. But then, how to transfer laboratory results to actual use for human being? This raised questions relating to the ethics and efficacy of controlled field trials, the reliability of animal models, problems of transference, technical innovations, teamwork, etc. The present paper proposes to analyse the ups and downs in Haffkine's research career in India and through it try to capture the dynamics of medical research and preventive medicine in a colonial setting. In addition, this paper takes into account Haffkine as 'a man of action', his social views, his plague work, his complex relations with the British offi cials in India, and his care and concern for ordinary Indians.
The Challenge of Infectious Disease: Time to Take Gender into Account
Authors: Tolhurst R. , de Koning K. , Price J. , Kemp J. , Theobald S. , Squire S.B. 
Published: March 2007

Efforts to address infectious diseases have long been hindered by the failure to take into account the social aspects of these diseases. Gender is a fundamental dimension of these social aspects. There is currently a focus in international health on the import ance of addressing diseases of poverty. Attention to gender is a crucial part of a poverty-focused response to the challenges posed by infectious disease. In this article we provide a framework for analysing gender inequities in infectious disease in developing countries, and briefly draw implications for policy and practice. Gender identities, status, roles and responsibilities influence vulnerability to dis ease, access to health care, and the impact of disease for women, men, girls and boys. Women's and men's roles affect their risk of infection with specific diseases, whilst gender relations influence their ability to protect their own health. Gender differences in access to and control over resources, in decision-making power in the household and in roles and activities can limit women's ability to access health care for them selves and their children. Gendered norms and identities influence both women's and men's willingness and ability to seek care. The social consequences of infectious disease are often more severe for women than for men, and illness imposes a parti cularly heavy labour burden upon women. Health services need to adjust their practices to improve the appropriateness of preventive and curative services for infectious disease control for both women and men amongst the poor and disadvantaged. However, measures to reduce gender inequities in health cannot be limited to the health sector alone.
Denzin on Rational Choice Theory
Authors: Abell Peter 
Published: March 2007

The Forum consists of comments on previously published papers and responses by authors. Unlike the Comment section in many other academic journals, the Forum includes solicited as well as unsolicited contributions. We encourage debates by actively seeking points of view contrary to those expressed in articles published in the journal. The Forum section is intended to promote an open and critical debate that contributes to the intellectual vitality and further development of rational-choice-based theory and research. Forum contributions should follow the form used by Rationality and Society and should not exceed five double-spaced pages.
Pseudomuscular Gel Actuators for Advanced Robotics
Authors: De Rossi D. , Suzuki M. , Osada Y. , Morasso P. 
Published: March 2007

The demand for muscle-like actuators in advanced robotics has, in the last few years, stimulated a growth in research activities on contractile polymer gels and on mechanisms for their electric drive. In this article, the different classes of polymeric gels which have been shown to be capable of reversible contraction and expansion under physicochemical stimuli are re viewed. In view of the ongoing development of direct-drive polymeric actuators, continuum and lumped parameter models used to describe their dynamical properties under electrical ex citation are analyzed. Control schemes for single actuators and computational architectures which have been proposed to command redundant, multiactuator systems are also illustrated.
Intelligent Polymers for Opto-Electronic Applications
Authors: Ogata Naoya 
Published: March 2007

Thin films of poly(benzothiazole) containing thiophene in main chains were success fully prepared at air/water interface by using Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) method and they were transferred onto quartz plate as multi-layers built-up films. Third harmonic generation of the thin film was measured as χ3 = 10-11 esu which was 10 times higher than that of normal poly(ben zothiazole) without having thiophene. New ion conductive polymer complexes were formed by dissolving poly(1-butyl-4-vinylpyri dinium) salts into room temperature molten salts consisting of 1-butylpyridinium salts and aluminium chloride. The viscoelastic films were fabricated from the molten salts added at least 10 mol % of the polypyridinium salts. The ionic conductivities of the polymer complexes were in the range of 10-3-10-4 Scm-1 at room temperature and were affected by their composition.
The Government's Role As Stakeholder In Industrial Crises
Authors: Zimmerman Rae 
Published: March 2007

Industrial crises involving chemical releases into the environment are trans forming the way that government regulates industry in general, and emer gencies and crises of industrial origins in particular. Statistics on the occur ence of accidents over the past decade show numbers of accidents in the thousands, many with severe consequences, indicating a potentially severe problem. The major thesis explored here is that traditional governmental regula tory and financial policies and programs for health and safety are aimed at more frequent and predictable events rather than rare catastrophic ones. Even the antecedents of accidents have not been regarded as predictable or within the purview of most governmental programs. As a result of ap proaching accidents with great uncertainty, government's estimates and al location of organizational, human, and financial resource needs both before and after a crisis, are characterized by a high degree of variation. This creates deficiencies in the management scheme for industrial crises. Gov ernment can partly overcome this problem by drawing on traditional man agement strategies to cope with the uncertainty posed by industrial crises.