An internet survey of emotional health,treatment seeking and barriers to accessing mental health treatment among Chinese-speaking international students in Australia

The present internet survey examined the demographic characteristics of Chinese-speaking international students in Australia, psychological distress levels as measured by the Kessler-10 (K-10) Item scale, help-seeking history and preferences, as well as treatment barriers. Of the 144 respondents, 54% reported high psychological distress (mean K-10 score?=?23.96; SD?=?9.03). However, only 9% of those who were highly distressed reported they had sought mental health services in the past year. While the majority preferred help from informal social networks, they tended to favour mental health services over traditional culture-specific forms of help. Common barriers to accessing mental health services reported by respondents with high psychological distress included costs or transportation concerns, limited knowledge of available services, time constraints, the perception that symptoms were not severe enough to warrant treatment, language difficulties and lack of knowledge of symptoms of psychological distress. Although the majority preferred face-to-face treatments over internet treatments, a considerable percentage of respondents were willing to try either treatment modality. Chinese-speaking international students are a high risk group for developing psychological distress, yet they tend to underuse mental health services. Education about the effectiveness of face-to-face and online treatments may increase treatment seeking by this population.     

Do wild New Caledonian crows (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Corvus moneduloides</Emphasis>) attend to the functional properties of their tools?

New Caledonian crows are the most proficient non-hominin tool manufacturers but the cognition behind their remarkable skills remains largely unknown. Here we investigate if they attend to the functional properties of the tools that they routinely use in the wild. Pandanus tools have natural barbs along one edge that enable them to function as hooking implements when the barbs face backwards from the working tip. In experiment 1 we presented eight crows with either a non-functional (‘upside-down’) or a functional pandanus tool in a baited hole. Four of the crows never flipped the tools. The behaviour of the four flipping birds suggested that they had a strategy of flipping a tool when it was not working. Observations of two of the eight crows picking up pandanus tools at feeding tables in the wild supported the lack of attention to barb direction. In experiment 2 we gave six of the eight crows a choice of either a barbed or a barbless pandanus tool. Five of the crows chose tools at random, which further supported the findings in experiment 1 that the crows paid little or no attention to the barbs. In contrast, a third experiment found that seven out of eight crows flipped non-functional stick tools significantly more than functional ones. Our findings indicate that the crows do not consistently attend to the presence or orientation of barbs on pandanus tools. Successful pandanus tool use in the wild seems to rely on behavioural strategies formed through associative learning, including procedural knowledge about the sequence of operations required to make a successful pandanus tool. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Associations between violence,criminality, and cognitive control deficits among young men living in low resource communities in South Africa

Despite empirical support for “Self-control theory” in criminology, there is controversy about how self-control should be operationalized. Working within the framework of “self-control theory,” we investigated if violence and criminal behaviors are associated with nine distinct dimensions of cognitive control in a community sample of young men (n = 654) living in peri-urban townships in South Africa. Cognitive control was assessed using the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function. Multivariate statistical analysis was used, to identify associations between violence and criminality, and deaggregated measures of nine distinct components of cognitive control. Fifteen percent of the sample reported recent violence, 27% had been in physical fights with family/friends in the preceding 6 months, 10% reported being arrested, 4% reported forced sexual contact, and 26% reported intimate partner violence (IPV). Controlling for substance use and sociodemographic variables, contact with the criminal justice system and violence were associated with deficits in all domains of cognitive control. Forced sexual contact was associated with behavioral dysregulation. IPV was associated with behavior dysregulation and executive control dysfunction. Future studies might utilize deaggregated measures of self-control to provide further insight into links between particular components of cognitive control and various forms of offending and violence.     

Traction-energy balancing adaptive control with slip optimization for wheeled robots on rough terrain

On rough terrain, excessive wheel slippage is easily generated by changes of surface conditions such as soil types and geometries. It induces considerable loss of wheel traction and battery energy. To prevent this, wheeled robots should consistently recognize the current situation generated between wheel and surface. And also wheeled robots are required to optimally control wheel motion in limited wheel traction and battery capacity. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel wheel control algorithm based on slip optimization of traction and energy, which is adaptive to change of surface condition. Proposed wheel control algorithm is called Traction-Energy Balancing Adaptive Control (TEB) in this paper and TEB assigns optimized rotation speed to each wheel by observing wheel slip ratio which is a key parameter of TEB. As functions of TEB, TEB is largely divided into three main parts; (1) slip optimizer (2) slip controller (3) SC-compensator. In the slip optimizer, two optimal slip models were derived as a function of slip ratios regarding maximum traction and tractive efficiency using experimental data about wheel-terrain interaction in three types of soil (grass, gravel and sand). And the optimal slip models were employed in order to determine a desired slip value of wheel with observation of a change in actual robot velocity as control input in the slip controller. For optimal slip control, the proposed slip controller is based on conventional PID controller with compensating disturbance in the controller (SC-compensator) which occurs by change of surface shapes. In the SC-compensator, radial function networks (RBFN) was applied in the slip controller and RBFN was of help to readjust previously set PID gains depending on occurred slip error. Finally, TEB was experimentally verified by controlling a real robot having four wheels on various terrain types.     

Concurrent tobacco use and risky drinking in South Africa: Results from the South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

The aim of this study was to examine socio-demographic and psychosocial correlates of concurrent tobacco use and risky drinking. We analysed data from the cross-sectional South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (SANHANES-1) 2011–2012. The sample included 14 764 adolescents and adults aged 15 years and older. They responded to questions on tobacco and alcohol use, psychosocial, and socio-demographic indicators. Results indicate that 9.6% (16.8% among men and 3.5% among women) of South Africans were involved in concurrent tobacco use and risky drinking, 18.2% in current tobacco use only, and 20.3% in risky drinking only. In covariate adjusted analysis, being 25 to 64 years, being male, belonging to the coloured population group, residing in urban areas, having experienced three or more traumatic events, and poor self-rated health were associated with concurrent tobacco use and risky drinking. Findings suggest socio-demographic and health factors are important for public health interventions in addressing concurrent tobacco and alcohol use in South Africa.     

UNDERSTANDING PARENTING STRESS AND CHILDREN'S BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS AMONG HOMELESS,SUBSTANCE‐ABUSING MOTHERS

This article tested a model of parenting stress as a mediator between maternal depressive symptoms, emotion regulation, and child behavior problems using a sample of homeless, substance‐abusing mothers. Participants were 119 homeless mothers (ages 18–24 years) and their young children (ages 0–6 years). Mothers responded to questions about their depressive symptoms, emotion regulation, parenting stress, and child behavior problems. A path analysis showed that maternal depressive symptoms were positively associated with child behavior problems through increased parenting stress whereas maternal cognitive reappraisal was negatively associated with child behavior problems through decreased parenting stress. Moreover, maternal expressive suppression was negatively related to child externalizing problems. Findings support the parenting stress theory and highlight maternal parenting stress as a mechanism associated with homeless children's mental health risk. This study has significant implications for understanding the parenting processes underlying child's resilience in the context of homelessness and maternal substance use.     

Frequency of finger looking during finger counting is related to children's working memory capacities

Finger counting can be useful in solving arithmetic problems, noticeably because it reduces the working memory demand of mental calculations. However, proprioceptive information might not be sufficient to keep track of the number of fingers raised during problem solving, and visual input may play an important role in this process. The present study was designed to address this question and shows that 8-year-old children look at their fingers in 60% of the trials during finger counting when solving additive problems. Moreover, our results reveal that the frequency of finger looking is negatively correlated with working memory capacities and is higher for more difficult problems. These findings suggest that finger looking is recruited in managing the cognitive demand of the arithmetic task, probably by providing additional external cues to monitor the number of steps that have to be incremented during finger counting.     

Heuristics versus direct calculation,and age-related differences in multiplication: an evidence accumulation account of plausibility decisions in arithmetic

We offer a new theoretical angle for cognitive arithmetic, which is that evidence accumulation may play a role in problem plausibility decisions. We build upon previous studies that have considered such a hypothesis, and here formally evaluate the paradigm. We develop the finding that performance differences, due to variations in strategy use and aging effects, can indeed be reasonably explained through these accumulation-to-bound cognitive models. Results suggest that these models may be effectively used to learn more about the underlying cognitive processes. In this study, we modelled young (18–24) and older (68–82) adults’ solution times in performing arithmetic verification (e.g. whether 8?×?5?=?41 is true/false). The domain-relevant factors in strategy use (problem-verification heuristics) and aging differences (older/younger adult groups) were analyzed by a response process model of the latency data, that is fit by participant and item. Lower thresholds accounted for the faster response times (RTs) for problems solved with heuristics (arithmetic rule-violation checking strategies), as opposed to problems solved by calculation approaches. A more rapid accumulation accounted for faster RTs on problems in which two arithmetic rules were violated (strategy combination) rather than one. Third, higher thresholds (i.e. preferring to have greater certainty before responding) accounted for older adults’ slower speed. These findings are in support of accumulation models being relevant for more complex cognitive tasks, as well as to account for the age-related differences therein.     

Substance use treatment programs in the active duty US military: A narrative review

Substance use disorders (SUDs) are a growing problem for the U.S. military. Each branch of the military has its own dedicated substance abuse treatment program. However, there has been limited attention to the research conducted on these programs. The purpose of this narrative review is to describe SUD treatment programs in the U.S. military and to review the extant research published between 2001–2015. Fourteen peer-reviewed articles, 2 official reports, 1 book chapter, 1 thesis, and 1 dissertation were identified. Most SUD treatment programs are nonconfidential, although a confidential program is being piloted by the Army. Recently, the programs have increased their focus on assessment and treatment of comorbid psychological disorders. Further research is required to examine the efficacy, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of the treatment programs.     

Does mediator use contribute to the spacing effect for cued recall? Critical tests of the mediator hypothesis

When study is spaced across sessions (versus massed within a single session), final performance is greater after spacing. This spacing effect may have multiple causes, and according to the mediator hypothesis, part of the effect can be explained by the use of mediator-based strategies. This hypothesis proposes that when study is spaced across sessions, rather than massed within a session, more mediators will be generated that are longer lasting and hence more mediators will be available to support criterion recall. In two experiments, participants were randomly assigned to study paired associates using either a spaced or massed schedule. They reported strategy use for each item during study trials and during the final test. Consistent with the mediator hypothesis, participants who had spaced (as compared to massed) practice reported using more mediators on the final test. This use of effective mediators also statistically accounted for some – but not all of – the spacing effect on final performance.