Prisoners’ competence to die: hunger strike and cognitive competence

Several bioethicists have recently advocated the force-feeding of prisoners, based on the assumption that prisoners have reduced or no autonomy. This assumed lack of autonomy follows from a decrease in cognitive competence, which, in turn, supposedly derives from imprisonment and/or being on hunger strike. In brief, causal links are made between imprisonment or voluntary total fasting (VTF) and mental disorders and between mental disorders and lack of cognitive competence. I engage the bioethicists that support force-feeding by severing both of these causal links. Specifically, I refute the claims that VTF automatically and necessarily causes mental disorders such as depression, and that these mental disorders necessarily or commonly entail cognitive impairment. Instead, I critically review more nuanced approaches to assessing mental competence in hunger strikes, urging that a diagnosis of incompetence be made on a case-by-case basis—a position that is widely shared by the medical community.     

Cleaner fish <Emphasis Type="Italic">Labroides dimidiatus</Emphasis> discriminate numbers but fail a mental number line test

Several species of primates, including humans, possess a spontaneous spatial mental arrangement (i.e. mental number line MNL) of increasing numbers or continuous quantities from left to right. This cognitive process has recently been documented in domestic chicken in a spatial–numerical task, opening the possibility that MNL is a cognitive capacity that has been conserved across vertebrate taxa. In this scenario, fish might possess the MNL as well. Here we investigated whether cleaner fish Labroides dimidiatus show evidence for MNL in two experiments. In Experiment I, we tested fish’s abilities in number discrimination, presenting simultaneously either small (2 vs 5) or large (5 vs 8) continuous quantities where one quantity was systematically rewarded. Experiment II used a protocol of an MNL task similar to the study on chickens. We trained cleaners with a target number (i.e. 5 elements), then we presented them with an identical pair of panels depicting either 2 elements or 8 elements, and we recorded their spontaneous choice for the left or right panel on each presentation. Cleaner fish showed high abilities in discriminating small and large numbers in Experiment I. Importantly, cleaners achieved this discrimination using numerical cues instead of non-numerical cues such as the cumulative surface area, density, and overall space. In contrast, cleaners did not allocate continuous quantities to space in Experiment II. Our findings suggest that cleaner fish possess numbering skills but they do not have an MNL. While similar studies on animals from various clades are needed to trace the evolution of MNL within vertebrates, our results suggest that this cognitive process might not be a capacity conserved across all vertebrate taxa.     

Does the Scale of Funding Matter? Manitoba and British Columbia Before and After the Federal Repatriation of Settlement Services

In the area of immigration, much attention has been paid to the increased participation of civil society organizations in the delivery of public policy. In Canada, since the mid-1990s, numerous studies have researched the impacts of the federal devolution, either to the provinces or to the third sector organizations. However, the effects of the 2012 federal repatriation regarding the management of settlement services have yet to be studied. This article provides such an analysis. It compares the cases of British Columbia and Manitoba and focuses on Francophone minority communities. The results indicate that the scale of funding matters. My conclusion calls for more attention to be paid to the specificities of Francophone service providers when it comes to research, as well as policy-making processes, notably at the evaluation stages.     

Organising Somalian,Congolese and Rwandan Migrants in a Time of Xenophobia in South Africa: Empirical and Methodological Reflections

Xenophobic practices pervade civil society and the state in South Africa. But its victims are not passive. Academic scholarship has not sufficiently recognised the multiple roles of refugees and asylum seekers migrant organisations in a context where refugees are required to “self-settle”. The dominant methodological focus of existing research has been on the migrant as the individual. This paper’s main research objectives are to question this focus and examine evidence of the collective responses to struggles faced by foreign African migrants and refugee groups in Cape Town. Eleven refugee and asylum seeker associations formed by Somalians, Congolese and Rwandan asylum seekers and refugees were investigated, based on extensive interviews with 11 leaders of refugee organisations. These organisations not only strongly defend migrant interests but also project a long-term view of integration into South African society. In addition, the paper concludes by arguing for a shift in the focus of research in order to show that migrant organisations are crucial in an individual’s collective security concerns, in advocacy with government institutions and in initiatives to build relationships with South Africans.     

Psychometric Characteristics of the Wish to Be Dead Scale (WDS) in Iranian Psychiatric Outpatients

The Wish to be Dead Scale (WDS) was administered to a convenience sample of 200 Iranian psychiatric outpatients. Using a Principal Component Analysis, two factors were identified, labeled Lack of purpose in life (F1), and Lack of interest in living (F2). The WDS had good reliability and significant positive correlations with scores on the Beck Suicide Ideation Scale and with other measures of mental ill-health. This study provides evidence of the usefulness of the WDS for assessing psychiatric patients.     

Flow experience and the mobilization of attentional resources

The present study attempts to better identify the neurophysiological changes occurring during flow experience and how this can be related to the mobilization of attentional resources. Self-reports of flow (using a flow feelings scale) and attention (using thought probes), autonomic activity (heart rate, heart rate variability, and breathing rate), and cerebral oxygenation (using near-infrared spectroscopy) in two regions of the frontoparietal attention network (right lateral frontal cortex and right inferior parietal lobe) were measured during the practice of two simple video games (Tetris and Pong) played at different difficulty conditions (easy, optimal, hard, or self-selected). Our results indicated that an optimal level of difficulty, compared with an easy or hard level of difficulty led to greater flow feelings and a higher concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin in the regions of the frontoparietal network. The self-selected, named autonomy condition did not lead to more flow feelings than the optimal condition; however, the autonomy condition led to greater sympathetic activity (reduced heart rate variability and greater breathing rate) and higher activation of the frontoparietal regions. Our study suggests that flow feelings are highly connected to the mobilization of attentional resources, and all the more in a condition that promotes individuals’ choice and autonomy.     

Psychological Hardiness Predicts Success in a Norwegian Armed Forces Border Patrol Selection Course

The present study investigates the effects of psychological hardiness and successful completion of a rigorous 250‐km ski march over 9 days in Arctic winter conditions. This ski march is the final portion of a selection program for border rangers in the Norwegian Armed Forces. Study participants were N = 178 soldiers with a mean age of 19.9 years (range 18–23). Hierarchical regression results showed that successful completion of the ski march was predicted by total hardiness scores, after controlling for nutrition factors, physical fitness and sensation seeking. A second hierarchical regression found that the commitment facet of hardiness was the most significant predictor of ski march success, again controlling for nutrition, physical fitness and sensation seeking. Analyses of daily participant surveys showed that the high commitment group reported the highest levels of positive daily coping, and also evaluated their performance more positively. This group also showed increasingly positive self‐evaluations as the exercise went on. Together, these results indicate that hardiness commitment is a key factor influencing performance in a rigorous and stressful endurance task requiring sustained effort, perhaps by enhancing active coping skills and self‐efficacy beliefs.     

Concordance between patients' information preferences and general practitioners' perceptions

Brief planning interventions, usually delivered within paper and pencil questionnaires, have been found to be effective in changing health behaviours. Using a double-blind randomised controlled trial, this study examined the efficacy of two types of planning interventions (action plans and coping plans) in increasing physical activity levels when they are delivered via the internet. Following the completion of self-reported physical activity (primary outcome) and theory of planned behaviour (TPB) measures at baseline, students (N = 1273) were randomised into one of four conditions on the basis of a 2 (received instructions to form action plans or not) × 2 (received instructions to form coping plans or not) factorial design. Physical activity (primary outcome) and TPB measures were completed again at two-month follow-up. An objective measure (attendance at the university's sports facilities) was employed 6 weeks after a follow-up for a duration of 13 weeks (secondary outcome). The interventions did not change self-reported physical activity, attendance at campus sports facilities or TPB measures. This might be due to low adherence to the intervention protocol (ranging from 58.8 to 76.7%). The results of this study suggest that the planning interventions under investigation are ineffective in changing behaviour when delivered online to a sample of participants unaware of the allocation to different conditions. Possible moderators of the effectiveness of planning interventions in changing health behaviours are discussed.