An online hazard perception training course reduces heavy braking,speeding, and over-revving rates during everyday driving

In essence, driver training involves learning the skills required to drive safely and avoid dangerous events. However, in traditional on-road driver instruction, drivers virtually never accrue experience of the most significant types of events that they are learning to avoid: crashes. One means of providing this experience safely is to present novice drivers with video clips of real crashes, as part of structured learning exercises. A six-week automated online hazard perception training course for drivers, incorporating evidence-based training methods and over a hundred crash clips, was previously found to improve novice drivers’ hazard perception skill, which is known to be an important attribute for avoiding crashes. However, since hazard perception was measured using computer-based methods, the possibility remained that the training effect might not transfer to actual driving. We report a randomized control trial in which novice drivers were recruited to assess everyday driving behaviour objectively, using g-force triggered dashcams and GPS trackers installed in their vehicles. On-road data were collected for a one-month baseline period, and for a further two months after half of the sample completed the hazard perception training course. Drivers who completed the course significantly reduced their rate of heavy-braking events, their speeding behaviour, and their rate of over-revving events. These findings support the proposal that a relatively inexpensive and highly scalable hazard perception training intervention can improve on-road driving behaviour, with the clear potential to impact real-world driver safety.     

Les préjudices professionnels des jeunes victimes de dommages corporels. Partie 2 : Les difficultés liées à l’évaluation des pertes de gains professionnels

Though professional damages in respect of young personal injury victims are recognized in principle by the Dintilhac group, and confirmed by the Court of Cassation in terms of full compensation for damages suffered, the assessment of such professional damages remains difficult, and the source of myriad legal disputes. Assessment of lost future earnings requires a specific approach: As regards the benchmark salary, judges base this on the average or median salary in France, taking into account the social and family environment which may represent a loss of opportunity. The jurisprudence recognizes that the permanent incapacity of the victim entitles them to lifetime compensation, mostly in the form of an annuity. However, while the civil judge considers that the payment of an allowance for disabled adults (AAH) or an educational allowance for disabled children (AEEH) does not interfere with the calculation of lost professional earnings, the administrative judge takes the opposite stance.     

Do Parent–Adolescent Discrepancies in Family Functioning Increase the Risk of Hispanic Adolescent HIV Risk Behaviors?

In the family‐based prevention science literature, family functioning, defined as positive parenting, parental involvement, family cohesion, family communication, parental monitoring of peers, and parent–adolescent communication, has been shown to ameliorate HIV risk behaviors in Hispanic youth. However, the majority of studies have relied solely on parent or adolescent reports and we know very little about parent–adolescent family functioning discrepancies. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether and to what extent parent–adolescent discrepancies in family functioning increased the risk of HIV risk behaviors, including substance use and sexual risk behaviors, and whether these associations vary as a function of acculturation and youth gender. A total of 746 Hispanic 8th grade youth and their primary caregivers were included in the study. Structural equation modeling findings indicate that parent–adolescent family functioning discrepancies are associated with an increased risk of Hispanic adolescent HIV risk behaviors, including lifetime and past 90‐day alcohol and illicit drug use, and early sex initiation. In addition, study findings indicate that results vary by acculturation and youth gender. Findings are discussed in the context of existing family‐based research and practice in preventing and reducing HIV risk behaviors among Hispanic youth and their families.     

The impact of a rural or urban context in eating awareness and self‐regulation strategies in children and adolescents from eight European countries

Complex relationships exist between eating behaviour and personal and environmental factors. Rural and urban geographic contexts seem to play a role in eating behaviour, and therefore deserve a deeper study. A healthy eating behaviour and the conditions that promote it are a major issue in the promotion of adolescent health. The study aims to investigate the associations between the area of residence (urban vs. rural), self‐regulation strategies (TESQ‐E) and eating behaviours among children and adolescents. A total of 11,820 adolescents (50.6% girls) participated in the study, with a mean age of 13.30 years (SD= 2.13). Nine countries (The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Poland, Portugal, Denmark, Romania, Germany, Finland and Belgium) completed a questionnaire in the school context, asking about the use of self‐regulation strategies, eating behaviour awareness/care and sociodemographic questions such as age, gender and residential area. Both areas of residence (urban vs. rural) are associated with eating awareness/care in Romania and Portugal, controlling for age, gender and self‐regulation strategies. In some European countries at least, and most probably around the world, health promotion should focus on an ecological approach that includes the understanding of the effect of both environmental factors and personal skills on eating behaviour/awareness.     

Alerting enhances attentional bias for salient stimuli: Evidence from a global/local processing task

The present study examined the role of alerting in modulating attentional bias to salient events. In a global/local processing task, participants were presented with a large arrow (global level) comprised of smaller arrows (local level) pointing in the same or opposite directions and had to indicate the direction of the large or small arrows in different blocks. Saliency of the global and local levels was manipulated, creating global-salient and local-salient conditions. Alerting signals were presented in half of the trials prior to the target. Results revealed a double dissociation in the effects of alerting on global/local interference effects. In a global salient condition, alerting increased global interference and decreased local interference. In a local salient condition, alerting reduced global interference and increased local interference. We demonstrate that within a single task, alerting can increase and reduce conflict based on perceptual saliency. These findings help to better understand disorders like hemispatial neglect in which both arousal and attention to salient events are impaired. These results also challenge previous theories suggesting that alerting acts to increase conflict interference. We argue that alerting is an adaptive mechanism that diverts attention to salient events, but comes at a cost when selective attention to less salient details is required.     

A Probabilistic and Individualized Approach for Predicting Treatment Gains: An Extension and Application to Anxiety Disordered Youth

The objective of this study was to extend the probability of treatment benefit method by adding treatment condition as a stratifying variable, and illustrate this extension of the methodology using the Child and Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Study data. The probability of treatment benefit method produces a simple and practical way to predict individualized treatment benefit based on pretreatment patient characteristics. Two pretreatment patient characteristics were selected in the production of the probability of treatment benefit charts: baseline anxiety severity, measured by the Pediatric Anxiety Rating Scale, and treatment condition (cognitive-behavioral therapy, sertraline, their combination, and placebo). We produced two charts as exemplars which provide individualized and probabilistic information for treatment response and outcome to treatments for child anxiety. We discuss the implications of the use of the probability of treatment benefit method, particularly with regard to patient-centered outcomes and individualized decision-making in psychology and psychiatry.     

Why Jesus?

Jesus plays potentially a uniquely important role in relation to the world's greatest needs. To respond to the global crisis, we need historical consciousness. The source of historical consciousness is the prophetic tradition. Through Jesus the prophetic tradition became widely available and important. However, this consciousness has been responsible for great evil as well as great good, often bound up with we/they thinking and the use of violence. Jesus’ teaching of love of the enemy in principle overcomes this tendency and points to way forward.     

The View from Way Below: Inter‐Species Encounter,Membranes, and the Reality of Christ

Viewing modern life from the perspective and world of those whose lives are treated as expendable commodities in our current economic systems—humans and creatures of every other species—creates, Bonhoeffer asserts, the most reliable hermeneutical standpoint for seeing and living in reality. This essay attempts to fashion in broad strokes a Christian theology of creaturely re‐engagement: learning to live again “way below,” in literal and metaphoric touch with reality. I assert that Bonhoeffer's theology of I/Thou encounter as the means of humans’ ethical formation has the potential to ground a broader theology of inter‐species encounter as well.     

Examining the Meaning of Training Animals: A Photovoice Study With At-Risk Youth

Using the photovoice method, we explored the benefits of engaging in a rescue-animal training program for at-risk youth. While participating in the community-based program, five adolescent males in residential care took pictures and shared their experiences through interview and focus groups. Six themes emerged: Gaining patience, forming an attachment to the dog, wanting to better themselves or make better choices, helping others or volunteering, teaching, and relating to the dog. Individually and collectively, the themes suggest that training rescue animals may be a meaningful occupation for at-risk youth and may provide therapeutic benefits.