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The paper-and-pencil integrity test, which is used in industry as an employee selection device, has been largely developed outside the mainstream of psychological testing. The result has been that some testing programs have inadequately standardized testing conditions and/or other safeguards to ensure valid test results. Studies have shown that response distortion, or faking, is a problem with all types of tests, integrity tests being no exception. A correlation between the construct underlying integrity testing, such as the personality trait of conscientiousness, has yet to be investigated. The primary purpose of the present study was to determine how response distortion on integrity tests is affected by the instructions given by test administrators. Also, the connection between integrity tests and conscientiousness is examined. Finally, comparisons were made between currently published integrity tests/scales. Two hundred and forty-nine college students participated in this study by completing the following three integrity tests and two personality test scales: The London House Personnel Selection Inventory (London House Press, Inc., 1980); The Tescor Survey (Bullard, 1992); The Reid Report (Reid, 1967); The Value Orthodoxy Scale from The Jackson Personality Inventory (Jackson, 1976), and the Work Orientation Scale from the California Personality Inventory (Gough, 1985). The three integrity tests offer a variety of validation studies in support of their scales. Also, all three test publishers participated in a pre-publication review of the 1991 APA Task Force Report on integrity testing (Goldberg, Grenier, Guion, Sechrest, & Wing). Results show that responses were affected by instructions given by the administrator. For example, the analysis shows that in a job application situation, an applicant who believes a prospective employer is using an integrity test to identify undesirable applicants will tend to distort his/her responses on a theft scale to appear more favorable. Also for the theft scales, instructions to deliberately give false responses in a socially desirable way did not differ from a standard job applicant instruction set. Instructions emphasizing the ability of the tests to identify high integrity employees also did not differ from the standard instruction set's results. Results also show that conscientiousness is correlated with integrity test scales. Finally, the integrity tests and personality scales studied here are significantly correlated. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Background   The patient's rights to self-determine their own health care is described in Swedish legislation and guidelines. However, due to infancy, unconsciousness, severe brain damage or certain diseases, some patients might be unable to make such decisions. Ethically difficult situations do occur, not infrequently associated with culture. Since the patient is vulnerable, there is a risk that the patient in the treatment and care can not be bothered to maintain right to autonomy and that the nurse violates patient integrity. Aim                 The aim of this study was to illustrate the nurse's dilemma when the patient refuses vital caring efforts. Method           A literature review of eight scientific articles with a qualitative approach was performed. Results           The results revealed the following domains to describe the nurse's dilemma when the patient refuses vital care interventions: patients’ reasons for treatment refusal, the nurse's understanding of the patient's refusal of care and contradictory legislation Conclusion     More knowledge and discussion of the patient's decision-making competence is needed for both the nursing profession and those who make decisions on legislation.

Bloom syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive disorder that is caused by mutations in the BLM gene. BLM associates with TopoIIIα and RMI1 to form a complex that is essential to maintain genome integrity. This complex catalyzes a dissolution reaction that resolves recombination intermediates containing two Holliday junctions without crossing over of genetic material. Dissolution activity is remarkable because it accounts for the in vivo role of BLM-TopoIIIα-RMI1 in suppressing sister chromatid exchanges. To further understand the biochemical roles that each member of the BLM complex plays in dissolution, I generated single-stranded catenanes that resemble the proposed intermediates at the latest steps of dissolution. Using this substrate, I demonstrated that TopoIIIα is a single-stranded DNA decatenase that is specifically stimulated by BLM and RMI1. Interaction between TopoIIIα and RMI1 is essential for the optimal decatenase activity. Furthermore, binding of RPA to single-stranded DNA substrate inhibits TopoIIIα decatenase activity. However, complex formation between BLM, TopoIIIα and RMI enables TopoIIIα to displace RPA and catalyze decatenation. Since the decatenase activity is presumed to be involved in many aspects of DNA metabolism, I investigated the roles of RMI1 and TopoIIIα in DNA replication in vivo. Using the molecular combing technique, I showed that RMI1 functions downstream of BLM to promote normal replication fork progression. In addition, BLM, TopoIIIα and RMI1 colocalize with one another in response to replication stress. Finally, interaction between TopoIIIα and RMI1 is essential for nuclear localization of the complex and for the complex to promote recovery from replication stress. This work defines molecular functions for RMI1 and TopoIIIα in DNA replication and repair, providing insight into their roles as suppressors of genome instability.

The good discipline of the police is not only the foundation of the quality of their work, but also the key to people¡¦s trust on them. Therefore, it¡¦s to studied and discussed that how to strengthen the supervision function of the ethics organizations in the police institutions, and that how to improve its work to achieve the expected goal of anti-corruption. This article is trying to use national and international theory and successful practical experiences of anti-corruption to discuss the positioning of the ethics organizations in the police institutions, the coordination and cooperation between the above organizations, and the functions and possible challenges of ethics organizations, with the example of Kaohsiung City Police Department. This study is theoretically based on the New Institutionalism, and uses the study methods of ¡§documentary analysis¡¨, ¡¨comparative analysis¡¨, and ¡¨in-depth discussion¡¨ to analyze and conclude the related official documents, the work of worldwide scholars and experts, periodicals, theses, and the primary source obtained by in-depth discussion. The results are as follow: 1. The authority and responsibility of the ethics organizations and the inspection departments in the police institutions still needs clarification in improving police discipline and investigation of the corruption. 2. The government ethics officials should improve their professional skills in their own jobs and to know the police¡¦s work better. 3. The ethics organizations should enhance communication and coordination continuously to combine the internal and the external forces to push their anti-corruption job. 4. While investigating, the government ethics officials do not have compulsory power; it may affect the execution of corruption investigation. 5. There are no Ethics Organizations in the affiliated institutions of the Police Department, which may affect the implementing of anti-corruption business. According to the findings of related researches, this article makes some concrete suggestions about how to promote the anti-corruption business of the ethics organizations in the police institutions. There are also some suggestions of policy-making. All of them can be used as references for the establishment of ethics organizations in other police institutions, and for the implementing of their business, too.

This research studies the degree of publicity made by Kaoshiung City Government and the anti-corruption condition caused by the degree of administrative transparency. This study also provides further understanding about present Kaoshiung City Government immediate online services, including people¡¦s requests and claims to Mayor¡¦s inbox and the anti-corruption advocated by the Department of Civil Service and Ethics: To explore how fast and how responses are made to citizens through Internet, and also to become the basis of anti-corruption index. To understand the expectations of civilians towards the overall government¡¦s publicity system. To establish a anti-corruption documentation system to provide sources of subsequent denotation of policy and knowledge transformation To design and suggest Kaoshiung¡¦s future anti-corruption policy, improve present file management and increase degree of publicity in order to achieve the goal of high quality and high efficiency To interview officials or others who involve with the administrative procedure, and provide concrete suggestions based on the content from the interview

Since Jorn Barger advanced the new noun, weblog, in 1997, until now blog has become one of necessary web services for almost everyone besides email. Friendly interface increases personal channel. And also, blog readers¡¦ trust information in blogs. They believe content in blogs is more useful than traditional mass media. Such trust has important impact not only on traditional mass media, but also on individuals, politics, business, society and so on. However, the appearance of fake blogs has challenged readers¡¦ trust toward blogs, thus shows the importance of trust in this wave and becomes one of the issues which can not be ignored. This study attempts to realize the relation between readers¡¦ trust and their trust related behaviors, trust constructors, and observe the moderating role of blog categories in this relationship. According to the result of literature review, this study takes ¡§competence¡¨, ¡§integrity¡¨, ¡§benevolence¡¨, and ¡§familiarity¡¨ as for major constructors of trust, and develops questionnaire from readers¡¦ angle. Quantity research method was used by distributing online questionnaire to observe whether readers have such personal behaviors as ¡§information dependence¡¨, ¡§follow advice¡¨, and ¡§recommendation¡¨. This study discovered that trust does have obvious impact on readers¡¦ trust related behaviors. Nevertheless, exclude integrity doesn¡¦t have significant impact on readers¡¦ recommendation behavior, the other constructors all have different importance in different blog categories. Competence is the most important constructor, but its influence is smaller than the negative impact of benevolence in master blog type. Benevolence has significant negative impact, especially in blogs which evaluate personal style. The impact of familiarity on readers to recommend others is greater than on readers¡¦ personal behaviors, but its impact on readers¡¦ personal behavior does not reach significant standard in information sharing blog type.

Two aerospace superalloys, Inconel 718 and IMI 318, were machined with different grades of PVD (KC730 and KC732) and CVD (KC950) coated tools in order to evaluate their performance under various cutting conditions and to further investigate the effect of the machining conditions on surface finish and surface integrity of the work materials. A self-propelled rotary tool was also developed and used for machining under the finishing conditions. Tool wear, component forces and surface roughness were recorded and analysed during the machining trials. Study of the surface integrity involved physical as well as metallographic examination and analysis of the machined surfaces. The results of the machining trials show that the multi-layer (TiN/TiCN/TiN) PVD coated KC732 tools gave the best overall performance when machining both Inconel 718 and IMI 318, especially at lower feed conditions. Flank wear, excessive chipping, flaking of tool materials close to the cutting edge or on the rake face were the dominant failure modes when machining with the PVD coated tools while flank wear and notching were dominant when cutting with the CVD coated tools. These failure modes are associated with attrition, abrasion, diffusion and plastic deformation wear mechanisms acting individually or in combination during machining. The statistical regression analysis of the tool life data shows that wear of the PVD and CVD coated tools used for machining Inconel 718 was mainly affected by cutting speeds employed while cutting speed and feed rate exhibited similar influence on tool performance when machining IMI 318 with PVD coated tools. Tool life equations for each of the three coated grades when machining both superalloys under the cutting conditions investigated were derived. Severe plastic deformation and hardening of the machined surfaces occurred after machining both materials due to a combined action of increased component forces, thus increased stresses, and high temperature. Softening of the top surface layer when machining IMI 318 can be attributed to overaging of the titanium as a result of highly localised surface heating during machining. Tearing of the machined surfaces occurred when machining IMI 318 with the PVD coated tools, particularly with KC732 tools as a result of irregular flank wear and excessive chipping of KC732 tools. The self-propelled rotary tool (SPRT) incorporating K68 straight grade carbide exhibited superior wear-resistance when machining IMI 318 due to the absence of thermally related wear mechanisms caused by reduced temperature and the use of the entire edge of a round insert during rotary cutting. The minimal subsurface alterations (such as plastic deformation and hardness) when machining Inconel 718 and IMI 318 with the SPRT can also be attributed to lower cutting temperature with rotary action.

The purpose of this study was to examine the similarity of outcomes from three different treatment integrity (TI) methods, and to identify the method which best corresponded to the assessment of a child’s behavior. Six raters were recruited through individual contact via snowball sampling. A modified intervention component list and 19 video clips were derived from Stahr’s (2005) study, “An Intervention for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) who Have Food Selectivity.” The raters, randomly and evenly assigned to three dyads. Each dyad received an average of six hours training and reached 85% interobserver agreement (IOA) with a 0.60 kappa score. After training, each dyad watched 5 video clips per day and measured both the child’s behavior and TI. The percentages of IOA, kappas, and indices of dependability for assessment of the child’s behavior and TI were analyzed. The data revealed that all raters reached over 80% IOA and the whole interval (WI) and yes/no (Y/N) dyads reached .60 kappa, but the two raters in the Likert-type (LIK) dyad could not reach .60 kappa. The indices of dependability indicated that the six raters consistently observed and rated both the child’s behavior and TI, but there was a discrepancy in scores (i.e., percentages of TI) between the two raters in the two indirect measure dyads (i.e., Y/N and LIK). An analysis of the percentages of total variance showed that the two indirect TI methods may affect the discrepancy between the two raters’ rating scores. A comparison of the three different TI methods and correlation between the child’s behavior and TI were examined using the PASW Statistics 18 software program. There was no significant difference between the WI and the Y/N dyads, while the assessments from the LIK dyad indicated a significant difference from the other two dyads. Both the WI and the Y/N dyads showed correlations between the degree of the child’s behavior and the degree of TI, but there was no significant difference between the two correlation coefficients. Questions about reliability with the indirect TI measures suggest one should be careful in considering these results.

The current program of research investigated factors that influence students’ perceptions of everyday moral violations, as well as their own inclinations to engage in immoral behaviours. In Experiment 1, I demonstrated that participants’ evaluations of a hypothetical student who contemplated plagiarizing an assignment depended on both the choice that was ultimately made and the length of time spent deliberating about it (cf., Tetlock et al., 2000). Specifically, when participants were informed that the student ultimately elected to refrain from cheating, the length of time that this individual spent considering the decision had no impact on their subsequent behavioural or character evaluations. However, when participants were informed that the student had succumbed to the temptation to cheat, they evaluated the individual more harshly if the decision to cheat had been made after a period of deliberation than if the decision had been made blithely, without any forethought. Experiment 2 extended this program of research by showing that stable and transient variations in construal level interact to influence participants’ perceptions of students who engage in acts of plagiarism. Specifically, participants with low levels of personal agency evaluated a hypothetical student who had plagiarized an assignment relatively charitably, regardless of how they were prompted to construe the situation. Furthermore, these participants felt a greater affinity for the student after being induced to construe the student’s actions in low-level terms. On the other hand, participants with high levels of personal agency who were induced to construe the student’s actions in high-level terms were less positive in their evaluations, and also felt less of an affinity for the student. Experiment 3 assessed the extent to which stable and transient variations in construal level interact to predict actual cheating behaviour during an evaluative task. The results of this investigation revealed that priming participants with low levels of personal agency to adopt high-level construals lessened the incidence of cheating among members of this group. In sum, the results associated with the current program of research suggest that transient shifts in construal level interact with stable levels of personal agency to influence students’ perceptions of peers who engage in academic dishonesty. Furthermore, they provide evidence that these two factors play a role in the extent to which students behave dishonestly in evaluative settings themselves. Potential applications that could be derived from the current findings and possible avenues for future research are discussed. / Thesis (Ph.D, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2010-01-12 12:56:11.965