Joseph Priestley's soda water

This year is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Priestley. The occasion has been celebrated with many commemorative meetings and publications, swelling an already substantial and comprehensive literature devoted to his life and work. In this article marking the occasion the author has chosen to describe an interesting facet of Priestley's work which is not generally familiar.     

Rubrics: Design and Use in Science Teacher Education

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Correlates of Attachment at School Age: Maternal Reported Stress, Mother-Child Interaction, and Behavior Problems

The contribution of attachment, maternal reported stress, and mother-child interaction to the prediction of teacher-reported behavior problems was examined for a French-Canadian sample of 121 school-age children. Attachment classifications were assigned on the basis of reunion behavior with mother when the children were between 5 and 7 years of age. Maternal reported stress and mother-child interaction patterns were assessed concurrent to the attachment measure, whereas behavior problems were evaluated both at ages 5 to 7 and 7 to 9 years. Security of attachment significantly predicted the likelihood of school-age behavior problems: Controlling/other children were most at risk for both externalizing and internalizing problems across both age periods. Younger ambivalent children presented clinical cut-off levels of externalizing problems, and older avoidant boys had higher internalizing scores. Patterns of maternal-reported stress and mother-child interaction differed across attachment groups and contributed to prediction of school-age behavior problems, partially mediating the relation between attachment and adaptation. Results support the importance of attachment in explaining school-age adaptation and validity of attachment coding for children of this age.     

Four dialogues and metalogues about the nature of science

We analyse and explore, in the form of dialogues and metalogues questions about the dialogic nature of beliefs and students belief talk about the nature of science and scientific knowledge. Following recent advances in discursive psychology, this study focuses not on students' claims but on the discursive resources and dialogical practices that support the particular claims they make. We argue that students' discourse is better understood as a textual bricolage that is sensitive to conversational context, common sense, interpretive repertoires, and textual resources available in the conversational situation. Our text is reflexive as it embodies the discursive construction of knowledge and undercuts any claims to authoritative knowledge. The very conception of “belief” is itself an expression or construction from within the mundane idiom.... We learn to use “belief” in conditions when the “objective facts” are unknown or problematic and we want to indicate the tenuous character of our claim.... The notion of “real world” or “objective reality” is embedded in an extensive, pervasive language game which includes as an intelligible move or possibility the use of the very concept of “belief” itself. (Pollner, 1987, p. 21)     

印刷企业积极进取的力量

Julie：在过去的几周里,美国和世界金融市场经历了非常困难的时期。世界上一些大型的银行机构和投资公司纷纷破产或由政府接管。在未来的几周里,世界各地可能会有更多的金融公司带来更多的坏消息。许多金融专家们对世界经济充满沮丧和悲观的情绪。     

Criterion‐Related and construct validity of the pervasive developmental disorders rating scale and the autism behavior checklist

This study investigated the validity of the Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC; Krug, Arick, & Almond, 1993) and the Pervasive Developmental Disorders Rating Scale (PDDRS; Eaves, 1993a). Both instruments are screening devices designed to measure characteristics of individuals with autistic disorder or, more broadly, pervasive developmental disorders. Results showed that the total scores of the ABC and PDDRS measure significantly overlapping constructs (r= .80). Further, both instruments significantly discriminated between participants with autistic disorder and children with diagnoses frequently confused with autistic disorder. Both instruments provided respectable indices for classification accuracy (PDDRS overall accuracy = 88%, ABC overall accuracy = 80%). Finally, the ABC and PDDRS agreed in their classifications of 85% of the 136 participants; a phi coefficient based on the instruments' nominal classifications of the participants equaled .68 (p< .001). © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Perceived efficacy and attitudes towards genetic science and science governance

Arguments for public involvement in science and technology are often based on ideas of developing a more capable public and the assumed effects this may have for science. However, such a relationship is yet to be sufficiently explored and recent work indicates that a more involved public may have counterintuitive effects. Using nationally representative survey data for the U.K. and Northern Ireland, the effects of the public's own beliefs about involvement are explored. Developing the concept of "belief in public efficacy," findings suggest those who believe that the public might be able to affect the course of decision making have less approving attitudes towards future applications of genetic science; however, an individual's political efficacy does not significantly influence these attitudes. Furthermore, political efficacy and belief in public efficacy have some distinct and opposing relationships with the principles of governance people prefer. Overall, findings provide support for suggestions that it is simplistic to consider increasing public involvement as a way of increasing the approval of risky new technologies.