Uncertainties in carbon dioxide radiative forcing in atmospheric general circulation models.

Global warming caused by an increase in the concentrations of greenhouse gases, is the direct result of greenhouse gas-induced radiative forcing. When a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide is considered, this forcing differed substantially among 15 atmospheric general circulation models. Although there are several potential causes, the largest contributor was the carbon dioxide radiation parameterizations of the models.

Predicting abuse-prone parental attitudes and discipline practices in a nationally representative sample.

OBJECTIVE: According to sociological and ecological models of abuse, typically nonabusive parents could behave abusively towards their children under certain circumstances. The purpose of this study was to examine factors that place parents at risk of abusing their children by predicting parents' use of discipline practices and attitudes that may bias parents towards abusive behaviors, which we refer to as abuse-proneness. METHOD: A telephone interview was administered by the Gallup Organization to a nationally representative sample of 1,000 parents. Using a set of theoretically relevant risk factors, multiple regression was used to predict variations in parental attitudes (i.e., attitudes towards physical discipline and attitudes that devalue children) and parental discipline practices (i.e., physical discipline, nonphysical discipline, and verbal abuse). RESULTS: The findings confirmed the importance of examining elements of parental attitudes, history, personality characteristics, as well as religion and ideology in predicting abuse proneness. Child age also was an important predictor in all analyses except predicting parental attitudes that devalue children. The findings suggest also, however, that it may be unduly simplified to regard parents as somewhere on a continuum of nonpunitive to punitive disciplinarians. Social isolation was not a significant predictor in any of the analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Although many important theoretical predictors of abuse proneness were confirmed, many questions arise regarding the diversity of discipline practices that parents use, and the relevance of child's age and social isolation in predicting abuse proneness. Implications for practitioners and future research are discussed.

Women participants in research: assessing progress.

This study reviewed 1,050 articles published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the American Journal of Psychiatry, and the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology in 1982 and 1991/92. The NEJM included the fewest female subjects at both assessments (26.6% in 1982 and 36.5% in 1991/92), and one way analysis of variance showed a significantly smaller percentage of women in the NEJM compared to either the AJP or the JCCP (F = (2,1048) = 11.5, p < .001) in 1991/92. The NEJM did increase the percentage of women participants over the decade (t(534) = 3.0, p = .001), but there was no increase in the proportion of its studies including women. Attempts to encourage the inclusion of women in health-related research have been only modestly successful. Medical research, in particular, continues to underrepresent women in its published studies.