Preventing Suicide at Suicide Hotspots: A Case Study from Australia

The Gap Park Self‐Harm Minimisation Masterplan project is a collaborative attempt to address jumping suicides at Sydney's Gap Park through means restriction, encouraging help‐seeking, and increasing the likelihood of third‐party intervention. We used various data sources to describe the Masterplan project's processes, impacts, and outcomes. There have been reductions in reported jumps and confirmed suicides, although the trends are not statistically significant. There has been a significant increase in police call‐outs to intervene with suicidal people who have not yet reached the cliff's edge. The collaborative nature of the Masterplan project and its multifaceted approach appear to be reaping benefits.     

Comparative Analysis of Suicide,Accidental, and Undetermined Cause of Death Classification

Suicide determination is not standardized across medical examiners, and many suspected suicides are later classified as accidental or undetermined. The present study investigated patterns between these three groups using a medical examiner database and 633 structured interviews with next of kin. There were similarities across all three classification groups, including rates of mental illness and psychiatric symptoms. Those classified suicide were more likely to be male, to have died in a violent fashion, and have a stronger family history of suicide. Chronic pain was very common across all three groups, but significantly higher in the accidental and undetermined groups.     

Suicide Risk Among Wounded U.S. Service Members

The association between suicide and combat injuries sustained during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was examined. A retrospective population‐based cohort design was conducted using official military records to identify combat injuries (October 7, 2001, to December 31, 2007). Those who were injured during combat had higher crude suicide rates than those who deployed and were not injured (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.50; confidence interval [CI] = 1.06, 2.12), or never deployed (IRR = 1.46; CI = 1.04, 2.06). After adjusting for demographics, these findings were no longer statistically significant. Although our data did not support an elevated suicide risk among wounded service members, additional research is needed to examine the impact of injury severity.     

Learning to Troubleshoot: Multistrategy Learning of Diagnostic Knowledge for a Real-World Problem-Solving Task

This article presents a computational model of the learning of diagnostic knowledge, based on observations of human operators engaged in real-world troubleshooting tasks. We present a model of problem solving and learning in which the reasoner introspects about its own performance on the problem-solving task, identifies what it needs to learn to improve its performance, formulates learning goals to acquire the required knowledge, and pursues its learning goals using multiple learning strategies. The model is implemented in a computer system which provides a case study based on observations of troubleshooting operators and protocol analysis of the data gathered in the test area of an operational electronics manufacturing plant. The model not only addresses issues in human learning, but, in addition, is computationally justified as a uniform, extensible framework for multistrategy learning.