bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Inter‐agency Collaboration in the All‐Wales Strategy: Initial Comments on a Vanguard Area
Authors: McGrath Morag 
Published: February 2007

AbstractA key element in the All‐Wales Strategy (AWS) for Services for Mentally Handicapped People is the collaboration of statutory agencies involved in planning and managing mental handicap services. This paper discusses the experience over the first three years in one county. The inter‐agency county strategic planning group exhibited a high level of consensus reflecting its structure, group processes and the issues discussed. Controversial matters were rarely raised. Further weaknesses were the low input from the Education Department and the poor communication outside the group. This consensus image is contrasted with the considerable conflict in the inter‐agency county operational management group, the failure of which reflected the different management structure and style of the health and local authority, weaknesses in the management structure for AWS developments, and a failure to resolve some crucial issues in the early stages of the strategy. The lessons learnt from these experiences and the necessary ingredients for effective collaboration are explored — a framework for collaboration, including a clear definition of function, authority and the interrelationship of the various parts and a formal system of communication, commitment from those participating and the authority of participants to implement collaborative decisions.
The Moral Dilemmas of Positive Discrimination
Authors: Edwards John 
Published: February 2007

AbstractPositive discrimination is a contentious topic both politically and in social policy terms. Reasoned debate about it has been hampered by a fundamental misunderstanding about what it is and what makes it peculiar, that took hold in the immediate post‐Plowden era. This paper argues that what distinguishes positive discrimination from other practices with which it has been confused, such as selectivity and positive action, can only be understood in terms of basic canons of social or distributive justice.Having established the moral standing of positive discrimination, the paper goes on to examine arguments that attempt to “justify” it either in terms of justice itself or of utility, and to identify the circumstances in which its use might be “justified” in Britain. The questions that surround its proper use are identified as being in large measure moral dilemmas.
Household Claiming Behaviour
Authors: Buckland Sarah , Dawson Patrick 
Published: February 2007

AbstractSocial security benefits provide an essential resource for most families on low incomes. This paper examines the life cycle of claiming activities, from the initial decision to claim through to routine claiming. New empirical evidence is drawn from a study of relatively low income households in South East England carried out by the Alvey DHSS Demonstrator Project. A number of analytical stages which comprise the “claiming process” are identified for the purpose of describing the complex sequence of events associated with claiming behaviour. The paper shows how adequate explanations of the life cycle of claiming activities need to be located within a broader analysis of decision‐making within relatively low income households.
Genetics After the Act: A Specialist Health Service Amid NHS Reform
Authors: Pope Catherine 
Published: February 2007

AbstractThis article considers the impact of the recent reform of the National Health Service (NHS) on specialist regional health services. A case study of medical genetic services is presented to highlight some problems arising from the implementation of the 1990 NHS and Community Care Act. New financial arrangements introduced by the Act have led many regional health authorities to devolve the finance and organization of specialist health services to districts. The introduction of competition and devolved budgets may pose especial problems for some specialist health services. In the case of genetic services these difficulties are exacerbated by new pricing rules. The paper explores these issues and suggests that the imposition of the market model on health care overlooks some vital, human elements which do not fit neatly into such a model.
An Agenda for Welfare Pluralism in Housing
Authors: Lund Brian 
Published: February 2007

AbstractDuring the 1980s the concepts of “welfare pluralism” and a “mixed economy of welfare” were developed by academics writing from the perspective of the social democratic centre of British politics as a response to the criticisms of state welfare put forward by the New Right and the New Left in the 1970s. Whereas the New Right gave little critical attention to such concepts regarding them as useful supports to an anti‐state stance the New Left claims that they were an attempt to allow the Fabian‐style managers of the old consensus to have some role in the restructuring of welfare to be carried out by the political wing of the New Right. It is argued that the claim of the New Left has limited validity but a more certain case can be made for the contention that the lack of a detailed specification of a social and economic context for welfare pluralism has given credibility to the accusation that welfare pluralism has provided a smokescreen for the introduction of market principles into welfare. Housing policy is here utilized to illustrate the argument and the ingredients of a socio‐economic context for welfare pluralism in housing policy are set out in the hope that similar frameworks will be provided for other domains of welfare.
The Reformed National Health Service: A Commentary
Authors: Appleby John 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThis article presents an overview of the current state of the reforms of the British NHS instigated by the NHS and Community Care Act (1990) following the White Paper Working for Patients (1989) and introduced in England and Wales in 1991 and in Scotland and Northern Ireland in 1992. The reforms were not only wide ranging—affecting virtually all aspects of health care organization and delivery—but also ongoing. Moreover, there has been little systematic evaluation of the impact of the reforms. While making reference to other aspects of the reforms this survey article concentrates on two important issues of central concern to the NHS—efficiency and equity—and highlights some of the associated research and literature.
Leading Article: Welfare Development in the Midst of Political Uncertainty
Authors: Chow Nelson W. S. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTOn 1st July 1997 Hong Kong will be transformed from a British colony into a Special Administration Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China. Although the Basic Law, a mini‐constitution for the future SAR government, states that “Hong Kong's capitalist system and lifestyle will remain unchanged for 50 years after the establishment of the SAR”, changes are perceived to be inevitable, not least in respect of the welfare policies to be implemented by the future SAR government. Indeed, since the signing of the Joint Declaration in 1984 between the British and Chinese Governments on the future of Hong Kong, the existing Colonial Government has been enlarging its role in the social services and making relevant policies more responsive to the needs of the people. These reforms have largely been carried out in line with the democratization process which Hong Kong has been undergoing in recent years.To what extent will these changes in welfare policies continue after 1997? It is argued here that with the enlargement of democracy, and especially the establishment of political parties claiming to represent the interests of the people, it would no longer be possible for Hong Kong to return to residual‐type welfare programmes. While it would be unlikely for Hong Kong to develop into a “welfare state”, the future development of social services in Hong Kong would probably command widest acceptance if policies keep in line with the prevalent welfare ideology which stresses, on the one hand, the self‐reliance of the people and, on the other, the responsibility of government to look after weaker members.
Teaching Quality Audit
Authors: Finer Catherine Jones 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThis paper comments briefly on the experience of the Teaching Quality Audit (social policy) organized by the Higher Educational Funding Council (UK), from the point of view of those who were audited. It is an impressionistic account rather than a survey report. It concludes with recommendations as to hew the operation of Teaching Quality Audit might be rendered more efficient, effective, equitable and credible.
TECHNIQUES OF PLETHYSMOGRAPHY
Authors: Brown Clinton C. , Giddbon Donald B. , Dean E. Douglas 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTFour plethysmographic techniques‐rheoplethysmography, electrical impedance plethysmography, girth plethysmography, and photoplethysmography–are described and their theoretic bases discussed. Advantages and limitations are noted, and particular emphasis is given to the optical methods and the use of glass fiber light guides in the construction of the transducer. Typical examples of current plethysmographic research are presented.
ADAPTIVE VALUE OF AROUSAL SWEATING AND THE EPIDERMAL MECHANISM RELATED TO SKIN POTENTIAL AND SKIN RESISTANCE
Authors: Wilcott R. C. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThe following five experiments are reported.

After palmar sweating is abolished by atropine, the skin is easier to drill with a dental burr. This suggests that arousal sweating protects the skin against mechanical injury.
Intracutaneous injection of acetylcholine or mecholyl at the forearm will produce skin potential (SP) effects of both negative and positive polarity and also a reduction in skin resistance (SR). This suggests that a cholinergic substance is involved in the production of SP and SR.
Intracutaneous injection of mecholyl at the forearm will either lower or raise the pain threshold to a needle prick. A lowering of the pain threshold was associated with the presence of an SP negative effect and a rise was associated with an SP positive effect. It is concluded that the adaptive value of the cholinergic substance related to SP and SR is to modulate cutaneous sensitivity.
The pain threshold to an electric shock can be lowered or raised by mecholyl injection. This may show that the pain threshold can be varied by mecholyl injection independently of its effects on sweating.
Lowering of the electric shock pain threshold at the palm is associated with the appearance of both SP negative and positive responses. This further demonstrates a relation between SP activity and pain sensitivity but indicates that the direction of the change in the pain threshold is not dependent on SP response polarity.
OPERANT SALIVARY CONDITIONING IN MAN
Authors: Brown Clinton C. , Katz Ruth A. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTOperant conditioning of the human parotid salivary response was attempted in order to bypass some of the difficulties encountered in classical conditioning procedures. Spontaneous, unstimulated parotid saliva was collected from two groups of human subjects under two reward conditions. One group was rewarded for salivary peaks, defined as an increase in on‐going salivary rate to a criterion of 3 drops/5 sec; the other was rewarded only at times of non‐peaking or minimal salivation. A significant increase in the number of peaks was found in the “peak reward” group, hut there was no change in salivary rate in the “non‐peak reward” group. The data demonstrate salivary conditioning in human subjects by means of operant reward technique.
SQUARE‐WAVE ANALYSIS OF SKIN IMPEDANCE
Authors: Lykken David T. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTA method is described for studying skin impedance phenomena, based on analysis of waveforms of current through the skin produced by square voltage pulses. In several experiments, the method is used to provide data relevant to the choice of an appropriate equivalent circuit for skin. Removal of the stratum corneum eliminates the parallel resistive and capacitative elements, and slightly reduces the series or ‘ohmic’ resistance. During healing the source of skin potential recovers before the other electrodermal parameters have returned to normal. The relationship of these parameters to electrode area, current density, and site temperature is studied. It is argued that the capacitance of skin may not vary with the frequency of the measuring current, in contrast to traditional views. The main purpose of the paper is to illustrate and advocate the square‐wave method of analysis.
THE EFFECTS OF UCS TEMPORAL UNCERTAINTY ON HEART RATE AND PAIN
Authors: Bowers Kenneth S. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTEvery one of the 8 Ss in this experiment showed lower heart rate in anticipation of a temporally uncertain UCS than he did during anticipation of a temporally certain one. Vigilance for uncertainty removing cues during UCS uncertain trials was offered as an explanation for the reduced heart rate of this condition. Previous investigations showing acceleration in heart rate under conditions of UCS temporal uncertainty were criticized, particularly with respect to the adequacy of the cardiac baseline employed. One unexpected and unexplained finding of this study was that 7 out of 8 Ss rated shocks as more painful when the UCS was certain than when it was uncertain.
EXPLICITLY‐UNPAIRED AND TRULY‐RANDOM CS—CONTROLS IN HUMAN CLASSICAL DIFFERENTIAL AUTONOMIC CONDITIONING
Authors: Furedy John J. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThe conventionally used explicitly‐unpaired CS– (euCS–) of the differential conditioning paradigm, a stimulus which is negatively correlated with the US, may generate inhibition and hence be an inappropriate control for CS+ conditioning. An implication of this possibility is that the CS+:euCS– performance difference should exceed the difference between CS+ performance and performance to a truly‐random CS– (trCS–), a stimulus which is uncorrelated with US occurrence. This implication was tested in a 5‐sec delay conditioning skin resistance response study (Exp. I, N = 32) and an 8‐sec delay conditioning plethysmographic digital pulse volume response study (Exp. II, N = 48). While highly reliable discrimination between CS+ and the two control CSs (euCS– and trCS–) was obtained in both experiments, neither experiment yielded the outcome expected from the position that euCS– generates inhibition.
A Method for Storing a Program of Stimuli and Responses on Magnetic Tape Using Frequency Coding
Authors: Hartley L. R. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTA system for encoding and storing a program of stimuli on magnetic tape is described. The system uses tones of different frequency recorded on magnetic tape as the code. The decoder is a frequency selective integrated circuit capable of recognizing a wide range of frequencies. A number of these devices may be combined in parallel to decode tones signalling different contingencies to the subjects. The device may be readily interfaced with integrated circuit logic to generate the stimuli and process behavioral responses.
The Effects of Immediate Feedback Upon Voluntary Control of Salivary Rate
Authors: Wells David T. , Feather Ben W. , Headrick Mary W. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThirteen human subjects (Ss) were given immediate auditory feedback concerning their salivary rates and were asked both to increase and to decrease their rates during a series of 30‐sec trials. Significant decreases, but not increases, in salivary rate were obtained relative to baseline. During the second half of the experiment, when feedback was omitted until the end of each trial, Ss maintained significant differential response rates between increase and decrease trials, but the reliability of decreases from expected baseline was reduced. Thirteen control Ss, who received feedback only at the end of each trial during both halves of the experiment, were unable to alter their rates during either half. Salivation on increase and decrease trials was not systematically correlated with changes in either heart rate or breathing rate in the immediate feedback group.
The Latency of the Skin Resistance Response and Reaction Time
Authors: Cowles Michael P. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTSkin conductance level (SCL) and skin resistance response (SRR) latency to a foreperiod warning light were shown to be related to a measure of simple reaction time performance. Other physiological measures monitored immediately prior to the task were not related to performance nor were they interrelated. Speculation is offered on the possible mechanism whereby a central facilitation system is related to SRR latency and to performance.
The Relationship Between Respiration Phase and Reaction Time
Authors: Beh Helen C. , Nix‐James Dawn R. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThe relationship between phase of normal respiration and reaction time (RT) was studied. Ss were required to respond by pressing a switch each time a simple auditory signal was presented. Averages of response times were calculated for signals occurring during each of three identifiable phases of normal respiration. It was found that mean RT for signals presented during the inhalation phase of respiration was significantly less than for signals presented during either the exhalation phase or the pause between exhalation and inhalation.
Equating Individual Differences For Auditory Input
Authors: McGuinness Diane 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTWhile the level of intensity of a stimulus is highly controlled in most psychological experiments, there has never been a corresponding demonstration that the level of stimulus intensity is perceived by different subjects as being equivalent. That this is not the case has been demonstrated here. Both individual differences and a strong effect of sex were observed. A formula is given whereby control of input can be related to perceived loudness.
The Effects on Subsequent Sleep of an Acute Restriction of Sleep Length
Authors: Webb W. B. , Agnew H. W. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThis experiment was designed to test the effects on subsequent sleep of a restriction in sleep length on the previous night. Eight male subjects were studied. After baseline recordings were made, sleep was restricted to either a period between 4‐8 am or to a period between 6–8 am. On the night following the restriction of sleep the subjects retired at 11 pm and they were permitted to sleep ad lib in the morning.The restricted sleep periods resulted in differential sleep deprivation. Stages REM and 2 were markedly reduced whereas stages 3 and 4 showed little or no reduction in amount. There were significant reductions in sleep latencies and in the amount of lime spent in stages 0 and 1. The first 8 hrs of ad lib sleep following the 2 restricted sleep periods did not differ in any significant way from the 8 hrs of baseline sleep. When sleep was permitted to continue until the subjects awakened spontaneously, the sleep after the restriction of sleep to‘i hrs was significantly longer and displayed significantly more of stages REM and 2 when compared with the baseline ad lib sleep condition. The ad lib sleep period following the 4 hr condition showed similar changes although the differences were not statistically significant.The significant reductions in stages KEM and 2 during the restricted sleep periods were attributed to the effects of reduced steep length per se. The increases in sleep length and specifically the increases in stages REM and 2 during the ad lib sleep periods were attributed to a differential sleep “debt” accruing from restricted sleep length.
Stimulus and Temporal Variables in the “Below‐Zero” Habituation of the Orienting Response
Authors: Waters William F. , McDonald David G. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThree groups of 15 male undergraduate subjects experienced three different habituation conditions: Extended Habituation (20 “below‐zero” trials), Habituation (no “below‐zero” trials), and Spontaneous Recovery Control (no “below‐zero” trials; additional spontaneous recovery time equal to that taken to present 20 “below‐zero” trials). The extended Habituation group showed no signs of strengthened habituation, as spontaneous recovery and trials to rehabituation were not less than in the Habituation group. In fact, the Extended Habituation condition mitigated the effects of habituation, since there was greater spontaneous recovery and more trials to rehabituation relative to the Habituation condition. These paradoxical findings were due primarily to sensitization effects attributable to the “below‐zero” stimuli. Further, it was found that increased spontaneous recovery time also facilitated spontaneous recovery and inhibited rehabituation. The data were seen as providing a link between “below‐zero” habituation and “overhabituation,” and also as providing support for the “dual process” theory of habituation.
Evidence of High and Low Levels of Physiological Arousal in Schizophrenics
Authors: Gruzelier J. H. , Venables P. H. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThere is a long history of debate as to whether schizophrenics are over or under aroused physiologically. In this report evidence is presented that schizophrenics differ widely on measures of electrodermal activity, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and finger skin temperature. Two extreme physiological groups may be defined by the presence or absence of skin conductance orienting responses to tones of moderate intensity.
Individual Differences in the Orienting Reflex and Children&s Discriminiation Learning
Authors: Cousins Laurence R. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTThe relationship between individual differences in the Magnitude of the cardiac components of the orienting reflex and learning rate on a two‐choice discrimination task was investigated. This was done by assessing the heart rate response of 128 9 to 11‐yr‐old male subjects to a habituation‐dishabituation series of 24 non‐signal tactual stimuli. These same subjects were then administered a tactual discrimination learning task in which trials to criterion were recorded as the dependent variable. The overall heart rate analyses suggested that the orienting reflex was elicited by the stimulus series, that it habituated over the course of the first 20 presentations and then dishabituated on the presentation of a novel stimulus. The cardiac data of fast and slow learners suggested that there were clear‐cut differences in the heart rate response between these two groups, with the former group showing a larger magnitude OR and slower habituation than the latter group.learning rate was discussed within a two‐stage learning theory framework.
The Effects of Deep Physical Relaxation and Low‐Frequency‐Alpha Brainwaves on Alpha Subjective Reports
Authors: Marshall Marie Sage , Bentler Peter M. 
Published: February 2007

ABSTRACTMany biofeedback studies link alpha brainwaves to calmness, tranquility. inner peace, and altered stales of consciousness (hereinafter called “alpha subjective reports” or “ASRs”), but other studies do not. This experiment explores the possibility this conflict is based on: 1) varying levels of physical relaxation of subjects in different studies (relaxation hypothesis) although all subjects were in alpha brainwaves, and/or 2) the subjects' dominant alpha frequency within the alpha brainwave bandwidth (alpha‐frequency‐level hypothesis). Previous studies have not controlled these variables. Highly subjects received 50 min of biofeedback contingent on alpha brainwaves (N=32), muscle relaxation (N=32), or randomly (N=16) and reported their mental states and feelings during training. The relaxation hypothesis received very strong support–deeply relaxed subjects reported significantly more ASRs than less relaxed subjects–indicating that relaxation level could easily explain the conflict in the literature regarding ASRs. The alpha‐frequency‐level hypothesis training paradigm was not completely successful; future studies are planned to further investigate the relationship of ASRs with alpha brainwaves.