Insufficient Referral for Genetic Counseling in the Management of Hereditary Haemochromatosis in Portugal: A Study of Perceptions of Health Professionals Requesting HFE Genotyping

There is a general consensus that HFE- related Hereditary Haemochromatosis (HFE-HH) should be diagnosed at early stages in pre-symptomatic individuals, in order to prevent the most severe consequences of iron overload. In Portugal, despite an increasing number of requests for genetic diagnosis of this rare disease, there is not a corresponding increase in requests for genetic counselling. The objective of the present study was to evaluate physicians’ main motivations for requesting HFE genotyping or genetic counselling for HFE-HH. We assessed current medical practices regarding family testing and diagnosis and discuss whether these can be improved in order to increase the effectiveness of disease prevention. Our results show there is a general lack of knowledge about the selection of patient cases that should be sent for genetic counseling or for molecular testing of HFE-HH by physicians (especially by general practitioners). The lack of family-based screening may indirectly compromise the efficiency of disease prevention in terms of early diagnosis and treatment. We concluded it is necessary to circulate more information about Hereditary Haemochromatosis among health professionals in order to improve strategies for its early diagnosis.     

Perceived behavioural control,subjective norms,attitudes and intention to use condom: A longitudinal cross-lagged design

Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the purpose of this investigation was to examine the directionality of the association among condom use, intention, attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. The present study investigated the nature of these relationships using a longitudinal cross-lagged design applied to data from a cohort of 958 randomly selected Italian adults. Using structural equation modelling, two cross-lagged panel analyses revealed reciprocal relationships between intention and attitudes and between intention and condom use. Contrary to expectations, baseline subjective norms and perceived behavioural control did not predict subsequent intention to use condom when controlled for the autoregressive effect of intention at T1 on the same variable at T2. Also, perceived behavioural control at T1 did not influence condom use at T2 after controlling for the effect of baseline intention. The possibility of reciprocity was also tested for all relations and significant results were found. The moderation effect of perceived behavioural control on the relationship between intention and condom use was not significant. The differences in age, gender and partnership status were taken into account in the analyses.     

Additional cross‐cultural evidence on the selective usage of nonmaterial beliefs in explaining life events

Two studies, one conducted in the Netherlands (N=87) and one in Italy with two samples—Catholic Youth (N=41) and Young Communists (N=41)—assessed the cross‐cultural generality of the previously confirmed hypothesis (Pepitone & Saffiotti, 1997) that six universal nonmaterial beliefs—fate, God, luck, chance, just punishment, and just reward—are used selectively to interpret life events. A ‘selective correspondence’ between the six beliefs and the standard life event cases specifically constructed to engage the belief‐specializations was predicted. All three samples showed the predicted correspondence in terms of significant ordinal correlations in a 6 nonmaterial belief ×9 life events classification. In addition, the findings are consistent with the assumption that the degree of selective correspondence depends upon the importance of beliefs in the sample under study. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Community psychology in Europe: More needed,less wanted?

In this paper, we first contend that community psychology in Europe is facing a particularly challenging situation: On the one hand we witness an increase in complex social problems, which would require a community approach in order to be tackled; on the other hand socio‐economic and cultural changes in the era of globalization diminish the demand and the sources of public funding needed to promote and implement community intervention programs. We then outline the main achievements of community psychology in Europe, and discuss future challenges. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Learning in reverse: Eight-month-old infants track backward transitional probabilities

Numerous recent studies suggest that human learners, including both infants and adults, readily track sequential statistics computed between adjacent elements. One such statistic, transitional probability, is typically calculated as the likelihood that one element predicts another. However, little is known about whether listeners are sensitive to the directionality of this computation. To address this issue, we tested 8-month-old infants in a word segmentation task, using fluent speech drawn from an unfamiliar natural language. Critically, test items were distinguished solely by their backward transitional probabilities. The results provide the first evidence that infants track backward statistics in fluent speech.     

Geographical offender profiling: Dragnet's applicability on a Brazilian sample

Even though geographical offender profiling is already widely used and researched in countries such as England, Canada, and United States, it is still severely overlooked in Brazil, as there are no researches on the subject using a Brazilian sample. Therefore, the present paper aims to start filling this gap by analysing the applicability of the geographical offender profiling and Dragnet on a sample of Brazilian serial killers. In order to achieve this objective, the authors collected data through police records on 15 serial killers that were active between June 2009 and June 2015, in the city of Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil. As a result, the circle hypothesis was confirmed, considering that 66.7% of the sample fell into the marauder category. Interestingly, the Dragnet's result accurately informed the area that contained the offender's base in the same cases in which the offender acted according to the marauder model. Also, other important correlations were found such as the influence of age, intelligence, resourcefulness, and method of approach on the distance travelled to commit a murder. Those results show that the geographical offender profiling can be effectively applied in Brazil and thus is a valid investigative tool to aid police officers in serial crimes investigations.     

Isolated words enhance statistical language learning in infancy

Infants are adept at tracking statistical regularities to identify word boundaries in pause-free speech. However, researchers have questioned the relevance of statistical learning mechanisms to language acquisition, since previous studies have used simplified artificial languages that ignore the variability of real language input. The experiments reported here embraced a key dimension of variability in infant-directed speech. English-learning infants (8-10 months) listened briefly to natural Italian speech that contained either fluent speech only or a combination of fluent speech and single-word utterances. Listening times revealed successful learning of the statistical properties of target words only when words appeared both in fluent speech and in isolation; brief exposure to fluent speech alone was not sufficient to facilitate detection of the words' statistical properties. This investigation suggests that statistical learning mechanisms actually benefit from variability in utterance length, and provides the first evidence that isolated words and longer utterances act in concert to support infant word segmentation.     

Role of TRPV1 in consolidation of fear memories depends on the averseness of the conditioning procedure

Despite the fact that TRPV1 receptors are widely expressed in brain structures such as the hippocampus, its functions remain largely unknown. In the present study, we have investigated the possible modulatory role of the hippocampal endovanilloid system upon memory consolidation of two different behavioral tasks in rats. Post-training infusion of the TRPV1 antagonist capsazepine disrupted memory consolidation with a strong training protocol, but not with a weak one in the contextual fear conditioning or in the step-down inhibitory avoidance task. These results provide evidence that the modulation of the hippocampal memory consolidation through TRPV1 receptors takes place only in presence of a strong emotional experience, suggesting that a certain aversiveness level is required in order to recruit endovanilloids to exert this function. A possible synergic role of hippocampal endovanilloid and endocannabinoid system on memory consolidation is discussed.     

The impact of residential context on adolescents' Subjective Well being

The study investigates the impact of residential context on stressful events and Subjective Well being (Emotional and Psychological) in young people living in a deprived geographical area, and the mediating role of personal (Self‐Efficacy) and social (Social Support, Sense of Community) variables. A questionnaire was submitted to 297 subjects (48.5% males): 203 adolescents (14–19 years old) and 94 young adults (20–27 years old), from different socio‐economic (SES) levels. Results confirm the significant impact of the residential context on youngsters' perceived residential quality, Stress and Subjective Well being outcomes; such effect partly differs according to participants' gender and age. Adolescents are less satisfied of their living context and enjoy lower well being than young adults. Social resources (Friend and Family Support) significantly buffer the effect of a deprived residential context of youngsters' Well being, whereas personal resources (Self‐Efficacy) directly increase Well being levels. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.