Ethical issues in consulting

Should NSPI establish on Ethics Committee? What is ethics, what are the ethical issues that confront consultants and how do they presently deal with them? This article is based on a year long research effort to identify common ethical dilemmas that arise in consultant-client relationships and the difficulties both parties have in resolving them.     

The accuracy of computational fluid dynamics analysis of the passive drag of a male swimmer

The aim of this study was to build an accurate computer-based model to study the water flow and drag force characteristics around and acting upon the human body while in a submerged streamlined position. Comparisons of total drag force were performed between an actual swimmer, a virtual computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the swimmer, and an actual mannequin based on the virtual model. Drag forces were determined for velocities between 1.5 m/s and 2.25 m/s (representative of the velocities demonstrated in elite competition). The drag forces calculated from the virtual model using CFD were found to be within 4% of the experimentally determined values for the mannequin. The mannequin drag was found to be 18% less than the drag of the swimmer at each velocity examined. This study has determined the accuracy of using CFD for the analysis of the hydrodynamics of swimming and has allowed for the improved understanding of the relative contributions of various forms of drag to the total drag force experienced by submerged swimmers.     

Effects of an Early Family Intervention on Children's Memory: The Mediating Effects of Cortisol Levels

Developmental psychologists have long been concerned with the ways that early adversity influences children's long-term outcomes. In the current study, activity of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis of medically at-risk (e.g., preterm) infants was measured as a result of maternal participation in a novel cognitively based home visitation program (versus a Healthy Start home visitation program). Maternal participation in the cognitive intervention predicted lower basal cortisol levels among infants—with reduced levels of maternal avoidance/withdrawal serving as a mediator of this relation. Lower cortisol levels in infancy, in turn, predicted higher verbal short-term memory (STM) at age 3. STM represents a cognitive ability that has importance for children's later educational outcomes. Findings provide experimental evidence concerning the pathway by which an early intervention may produce hormonal changes that can, in turn, influence children's learning outcomes.