Explosive Population Growth in Tropical Africa: Crucial Omission in Development Forecasts—Emerging Risks and Way Out

Our article draws attention to a crucial factor frequently omitted from the global development agenda, namely the explosive population growth inevitably expected in Tropical Africa in the nearest decades as a result of the region's laggardness in fertility transition. Population doubling (or even tripling) in the next decades can seriously undermine the development prospects of Tropical African countries and lead to sociopolitical destabilization or even large-scale violent conflicts with possibly global consequences. Bringing down the population growth rates (mainly through substantially reducing the fertility rates) appears to be crucial for the achievement of the 1977 “Goals for Mankind,” as well as the Millennium Development Goals, and, as we proceed to show, can be most effectively achieved through substantially increasing female secondary education, which, in turn, should be achieved by introducing compulsory secondary education and making it the first-rate development priority.     

Working With Clients Who Self‐Injure: A Grounded Theory Approach

This article presents the findings of a qualitative study examining the experiences of counselors in their work with clients who self‐injure. Using grounded theory methodology, the authors established 6 categories to explain the counselors’ conceptualization of self‐injury and their process of working with these clients: (a) external factors to self‐injury, (b) defining self‐injury, (c) potential for harm, (d) conditions for treatment, (e) counselors’ reactions to working with clients who self‐injure, and (f) clients’ response to treatment.     

Austrian MEPs: between privatisation and politicisation of religion

This contribution investigates the role of religion in the work and attitudes of Austrian members of the European Parliament (MEPs). It is based on the Austrian results of a large-scale survey of MEPs, RelEP, and on the analysis of parliamentary questions. The study argues that the attitudes of Austrian MEPs to religion are characterised by two seemingly contradictory phenomena: the privatisation and the politicisation of religion. The privatisation of religion expresses itself in the MEPs’ refusal to disclose information about their religiosity and in the absence from the political agenda of topics related to the role of churches and majority religions within European societies. By contrast, human rights abuses against Christian minorities abroad, the religious dimension of Turkey’s candidacy to the European Union and the difficulties of integrating Islam in Europe are all highly politicised topics. In short, the religion of the Other is politicised, while the religion of the majority is privatised. In this context, it is the attribution of religious belonging to the Other which serves the symbolic function of drawing identity boundaries, whereas the Self is envisaged as secular.     

Cofinal Stable Logics

We generalize the \({(\wedge, \vee)}\)-canonical formulas to \({(\wedge, \vee)}\)-canonical rules, and prove that each intuitionistic multi-conclusion consequence relation is axiomatizable by \({(\wedge, \vee)}\)-canonical rules. This yields a convenient characterization of stable superintuitionistic logics. The \({(\wedge, \vee)}\)-canonical formulas are analogues of the \({(\wedge,\to)}\)-canonical formulas, which are the algebraic counterpart of Zakharyaschev’s canonical formulas for superintuitionistic logics (si-logics for short). Consequently, stable si-logics are analogues of subframe si-logics. We introduce cofinal stable intuitionistic multi-conclusion consequence relations and cofinal stable si-logics, thus answering the question of what the analogues of cofinal subframe logics should be. This is done by utilizing the \({(\wedge,\vee,\neg)}\)-reduct of Heyting algebras. We prove that every cofinal stable si-logic has the finite model property, and that there are continuum many cofinal stable si-logics that are not stable. We conclude with several examples showing the similarities and differences between the classes of stable, cofinal stable, subframe, and cofinal subframe si-logics.     

Secret Agent Society: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Transdiagnostic Youth Social Skills Group Treatment

Group programs are key for targeting social skills (SS) for children with developmental disorders and/or mental illness. Despite promising evidence regarding efficacy of group treatments, there are several limitations to current research regarding generalizability and effectiveness across diagnoses. This randomized control trial assessed whether the Secret Agent Society (SAS) group program was superior to treatment as usual (TAU) in improving social-emotional functioning for children with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and/or anxiety. Eighty-nine youth (8–12) with ADHD, ASD, and/or an anxiety disorder receiving treatment at hospital-based outpatient clinics were randomized to receive SAS (n?=?47) or TAU (n?=?42) over a three-month period, at which point TAU participants were offered the SAS intervention. Parent report showed significant improvement in Emotion Regulation (ER) and Social Skills (SS) for youth in SAS vs. TAU (Fs?≥?6.79, ps?≤?01). Gains for the SAS condition were maintained at 6-months. Intent-to-treat analysis of teacher report indicated youth in SAS had positive gains in SS (F?=?0.41, p?=?0.475) and ER (F?=?0.99, p?=?0.322), though not significantly better than youth in TAU. Clinically reliable improvement rates were significantly higher for SAS participants than TAU for parent and teacher reported SS and ER. Improvements were significant for youth with single and comorbid diagnoses. Results suggest that SAS was superior to TAU in improving SS and ER for youth aged 8–12 with ADHD, ASD, and/or anxiety. Gains maintained in the medium-term. Trial registration number NCT02574273, registered 10/12/2015.

     

Holistic reasoning on the other side of the world: validation of the analysis-holism scale in Mexicans

The universality of cognitive processes has been called into question. Research suggests that individuals from Eastern cultures (e.g., China, Korea) when compared to individuals from Western cultures (e.g., the United States) prefer to reason holistically. This line of research has not been extended to cultural groups far removed from cultures traditionally surveyed in cross-cultural research such as Hispanics. We conducted two studies to understand: 1) the generalizability of the construct of holistic reasoning in Mexicans, and 2) the preferred reasoning style of Mexicans when compared to U.S. Americans. Results support the generalization of the factor structure of holistic reasoning as originally hypothesized by Choi, Koo, and Choi (2007). The results of Study 2 suggest that Mexicans scored higher than U.S. Americans on certain aspects of holistic reasoning.     

Rowlands,Rawlsian Justice and Animal Experimentation

Mark Rowlands argues that, contrary to the dominant view, a Rawlsian theory of justice can legitimately be applied to animals. One of the implications of doing so, Rowlands argues, is an end to animal experimentation. I will argue, contrary to Rowlands, that under a Rawlsian theory there may be some circumstances where it is justifiable to use animals as experimental test subjects (where the individual animals are benefited by the experiments).     

Distraction while driving: The case of older drivers

As the impairment of older drivers is especially found in perception and attention, one could assume that they are especially prone to distraction effects of secondary tasks performed while driving. The aim of the study was to examine the effect of age on driving performance as well as the compensation strategies of older drivers under distraction. 10 middle-aged and 10 older drivers drove in a simulator with and without a secondary task. To assess driving performance the Lane Change Task (Mattes, 2003) was used. This method aims at estimating driver demand while a secondary task is being performed, by measuring performance degradation on a primary driving-like task in a standardized manner. The secondary task – a self-developed computer-based version of “d2 Test of Attention” was presented both with and without time pressure. The results show that older participants’ overall driving performance (mean deviation from an ideal path) was worse in all conditions as compared to the younger ones. With regard to lane change reaction time both age groups were influenced by distraction in a comparable manner. However, when the lane keeping performance (standard deviation of the lateral position) was examined, the older participants were more affected than the younger ones. This pattern could be explained by compensation strategies of the older drivers. They focused on the most relevant part of the driving task, the lane change manoeuvres and were able to maintain their performance level in a similar way as did younger drivers. The driving performance of the older participants was not additionally impaired when the secondary task imposed time pressure. Overall, subjective rating of driving performance, perceived workload and perceived distraction was found to be similar for both age groups. The observed trends and patterns associated with distraction while driving should contribute to the further research or practical work regarding in-vehicle technologies and older drivers.