Identification,Response, and Referral of Suicidal Youth Following Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training

Gatekeeper training is a public health approach to suicide prevention that encourages community members to identify those at risk for suicide, respond appropriately, and refer for clinical services. Despite widespread use, few studies have examined whether training results in behavior change in participants. This study employed a naturalistic pre–post design to follow 434 participants in Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, finding small but significant increases in self‐reported identification of at‐risk youth, some helpful responses to youth, and numbers of youth referred to treatment from pre‐test to 6‐ to 9‐month follow‐up. Changes in active listening and helping behaviors meant to support treatment referrals (such as convincing a youth to seek treatment) were not observed over time. Additional analyses explored predictors of self‐reported skill utilization including identification as a “natural helper” and attitudes about suicide prevention.     

“Yes,I Have Sometimes Stolen Bikes”: Blindness for Norm‐Violating Behaviors and Implications for Suspect Interrogations

Across two experiments, we studied a phenomenon akin to choice blindness in the context of participants' accounts of their own history of norm‐violating behaviors. In Experiment 1, N = 67 participants filled in an 18‐item questionnaire about their history of norm‐violating behaviors (QHNVB). Subsequently, they were questioned about four of their answers, two of which had covertly been manipulated by the experimenter. Of the 134 manipulations, 20 (14.9%) remained undetected concurrently and 13 were accepted in retrospect (9.7%). In Experiment 2 (N = 37), we inserted a one‐week interval between questionnaire and interview. Twenty‐seven (36.5%) of the 74 manipulations remained undetected concurrently and three were accepted in retrospect (8.1%). Data obtained in a four‐week follow‐up indicated that our manipulations may have long‐term effects on participants' perception of their own history of norm‐violating behaviors. Implications for the occurrence of false confessions during the course of an interrogation are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluation of a social skills program based on social learning theory, implemented in a school setting

Using a sample of 647 Canadian children in kindergarten to Grade 3 (325 boys, 322 girls), the present study evaluated the perceived effectiveness of Skillstreaming (McGinnis & Goldstein, 2003), a widely known social skills program implemented to target the development of four skill sets, i.e., listening, following directions, problem-solving, and knowing when to tell. Results indicated significant postprogram improvements in all skills as well as in ratings of overall prosociality obtained from both classroom teachers and mental health staff, with medium to large effect sizes obtained from teachers' and mental health professionals' ratings, respectively. Additional analyses yielded significant but weak moderator effects of grade and preprogram prosocial functioning for teacher ratings but no consistent moderator effects for children's sex or school location (i.e., urban versus rural) regardless of rater.     

Key questions to consider in stalking cases

Stalkers can inflict severe injury upon and have been known to kill their victims. Based on the detailed responses of 1,565 stalking victims, a set of key questions was produced with the aim of increasing the opportunities of police officers to identify potentially dangerous stalkers. Despite marked methodological differences and the inclusion of a large number of variables, regression analyses for significant correlates for physical assault per se and for severe violence largely reflected the results of earlier works. For severe violence (n=136), the most important correlate was a high level of victim fear, suggesting that victims are adept at assessing their own risk of stalker violence. The set of 11 questions performed well on preliminary tests and is presented here.     

原发性醛固酮增多症的临床实践与分析

探讨原发性醛固酮增多症(原醛)临床特点及诊治方面的经验,以早期诊断、根治,改善预后。对确诊的原醛53例临床资料(临床特征、实验室检查、影像学检查、病理类型、治疗情况)进行回顾性研究。男女比为1：1.65,30～49岁年龄段最多。50.9%高血压首发,15.1%低钾血症首发,并发高心痛9.4%,尿毒症1.9%,脑卒中13.2%。肾素-血管紧张素-醛固酮(RAA)系统激素检查,血浆醛固酮/血浆肾素活性比值(ARR)＞200者80.7%,ARR＞400者占半数,血浆醛固酮(PAC)＞140pg/ml者占84.6%。CT及MRI阳性率高。术后病理肾上腺皮质腺瘤占85%,结节性增生占15%(其中原发性肾上腺增生占12.5%)。手术后血压及血钾均较前改善,非手术者口服安体舒通有效。原醛是可治性内分泌性高血压之一,建议高血压和/或低血钾者应常规检查RAA系统激素,并争取行影像学检查,以使原醛得到早期诊治,改善预后。     

Cyborgs, uploading and immortality — Some serious concerns

Transhumanism and Extropianism are two recent ‘movements’ which aspire to transcend the perceived limitations of human biological evolution. This paper takes a critical look at two of the most controversial aspects of Extropianism—Uploading and Immortality. Uploading is the process by which a human will be able to transfer the entire contents of their brain to a more suitable supercomputational medium. When the newentity exist as software, immortality is virtually assured. This should be possible, it is claimed, within the next fifty years! From both a pragmatic and philosophical perspective, I argue that these claims are at best misguided and at worst absurd.