Adolescent Decisional Autonomy Regarding Participation in an Emergency Department Youth Violence Interview

Much attention has been given to determining whether an adolescent patient has the capacity to consent to research. This study explores the factors that influence adolescents' decisions to participate in a research study about youth violence and to determine positive or negative feelings elicited by being a research subject. The majority of subjects perceived their decision to participate to be free of coercion, and few felt badly about having participated. However, adolescents who were alone in the room during the assent process were more likely to report that they chose freely to be a research subject. This study may influence the ways physicians communicate with adolescent patients around research assent within a clinical care environment.     

AN EVALUATION OF A PROGRESSIVE HIGH-PROBABILITY INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE COMBINED WITH LOW-PROBABILITY DEMAND FADING IN THE TREATMENT OF FOOD SELECTIVITY

Few studies have examined the effects of the high‐probability instructional sequence in the treatment of food selectivity, and results of these studies have been mixed (e.g., Dawson et al., 2003 ; Patel et al., 2007 ). The present study extended previous research on the high‐probability instructional sequence by combining this procedure with low‐probability demand fading with 2 boys with autism (9 and 10 years old) who had a history of food selectivity and engaged in active food refusal behaviors when presented with novel foods. Response requirements were faded gradually from responses the child would tolerate (e.g., touching the food) to the final requirement of chewing and swallowing the food. The antecedent‐based intervention was implemented in the absence of escape extinction and was effective in increasing food consumption for both participants. Possible mechanisms responsible for the effectiveness of the intervention are discussed along with directions for future research.     

Unintelligibility or Defeat: The Issue of Engagement in Philosophical Debates

A recognition of the acutely terministic and agonistic character of philosophizing has led to the perception of a dilemma in philosophical debates: differing positions are capable of being maintained only at the expense of mutual unintelligibility, and a real contact of minds could never be achieved without one side of the controversy abandoning its position and the enabling argumentative tension ceasing to exist. This perception is sustainable, however, only if we continue to accept the assumption that a direct, unmediated confrontation between disputants personifying two sets of rigidly defined terms is the mode of philosophical argumentation. A triadic rather than diadic conception of a typical debate between opposing schools of thought, which differentiates between the opponent and the audience, would address the theoretical misgivings caused by the perceived predicament.     

Integrity of Literature on Expressed Emotion and Relapse in Patients with Schizophrenia Verified by a p‐Curve Analysis

There is growing concern that much published research may have questionable validity due to phenomena such as publication bias and p‐hacking. Within the psychiatric literature, the construct of expressed emotion (EE) is widely assumed to be a reliable predictor of relapse across a range of mental illnesses. EE is an index of the family climate, measuring how critical, hostile, and overinvolved a family member is toward a mentally ill patient. No study to date has examined the evidential value of this body of research as a whole. That is to say, although many studies have shown a link between EE and symptom relapse, the integrity of the literature from which this claim is derived has not been tested. In an effort to confirm the integrity of the literature of EE predicting psychiatric relapse in patients with schizophrenia, we conducted a p‐curve analysis on all known studies examining EE (using the Camberwell Family Interview) to predict psychiatric relapse over a 9‐ to 12‐month follow‐up period. Results suggest that the body of literature on EE is unbiased and has integrity, as there was a significant right skew of p‐values, a nonsignificant left skew of p‐values, and a nonsignificant test of flatness. We conclude that EE is a robust and valuable predictor of symptom relapse in schizophrenia.     

Students’ knowledge about the value of discussions for teaching and learning

We are particularly interested in looking at teaching and learning from students perspectives. Focussed interviews and written responses from a number of linked investigations with middle-school and tertiary students highlighted that students perceive discussion to be a valuable teaching -- learning technique. This paper provides text extracts, organised into six key themes, to illustrate students understandings about how discussion helps them to learn. We conclude that, across the whole participant group, knowledge about the various potentials of discussion for learning is wide ranging. However, at the individual level, some students perspectives appear limited. We propose that specific attention to enhancing students pedagogical knowledge about techniques such as discussion should accompany subject matter instruction.     

The Eye of Suffering: Reflections on <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Passion of the Christ</Emphasis>

This reflection on Mel Gibsons Passion views the movie as myth and takes an archetypal perspective on the role of suffering in the deep transformation of both person and God. My approach is intentionally in contrast to most liberal reviewers who have taken issue with the movie from historical perspectives.     

-autonomous Lattices

-autonomous lattices are the algebraic exponentials and without additive constants. In this paper, we investigate the structure theory of this variety and some of its subvarieties, as well as its relationships with other classes of algebras.     

The Primary and Secondary Factors That Promote Destructive Personalities

The ability of behavioral scientists to assist society deal competently with destructive behavior relies upon a recognition of its causes. Despite the pervasiveness of violence in American society, the roots of destructiveness are still poorly understood. Five primary and five secondary factors found in the developmental histories of people who have become involved in serious destruction are identified and discussed. The confluence of these factors in the steps toward destructive acts are traced.     

系统论视野下的心力衰竭与限钠利尿

综述心力衰竭时的神经、内分泌激活与血钠浓度的关系,血钠浓度在心力衰竭时的神经、内分泌的影响,并且运用系统论的观点重新认识心力衰竭与限钠利尿的关系,以便更好地处理这个治疗矛盾,打断心力衰竭发生发展的恶性循环,促使疾病向好的方向发展.同时,也为心力衰竭研究提出一种新思路和新的方法.