Evaluating Medical Marijuana Dispensary Policies: Spatial Methods for the Study of Environmentally-Based Interventions

In 1996, California was the first state to pass a Compassionate Use Act allowing for the legal use of marijuana for medical purposes. Here we review several current policy and land use environmental interventions designed to limit problems related to the influx of medical marijuana dispensaries across California cities. Then we discuss the special challenges, solutions, and techniques used for studying the effects of these place-based policies. Finally, we present some of the advanced spatial analytic techniques that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental interventions, such as those related to reducing problems associated with the proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries. Further, using data from a premise survey of all the dispensaries in Sacramento, this study will examine what characteristics and practices of these dispensaries are related to crime within varying distances from the dispensaries (e.g., 100, 250, 500, and 1,000 feet). We find that some security measures, such as security cameras and having a door man outside, implemented by medical marijuana dispensary owners might be effective at reducing crime within the immediate vicinity of the dispensaries.     

The Idea of an Exact Number: Children's Understanding of Cardinality and Equinumerosity

Understanding what numbers are means knowing several things. It means knowing how counting relates to numbers (called the cardinal principle or cardinality); it means knowing that each number is generated by adding one to the previous number (called the successor function or succession), and it means knowing that all and only sets whose members can be placed in one‐to‐one correspondence have the same number of items (called exact equality or equinumerosity). A previous study (Sarnecka & Carey, 2008) linked children's understanding of cardinality to their understanding of succession for the numbers five and six. This study investigates the link between cardinality and equinumerosity for these numbers, finding that children either understand both cardinality and equinumerosity or they understand neither. This suggests that cardinality and equinumerosity (along with succession) are interrelated facets of the concepts five and six, the acquisition of which is an important conceptual achievement of early childhood.     

What do people think about changes in health behaviors? Differential perceptions of consequences of increases and decreases in health behaviors

Most health decision-making models posit that cost-benefit analyses underlie decisions to make changes in health-related behavioral practices. In a series of studies, participants imagined either increasing or decreasing the frequency of a variety of health behaviors and estimated the consequences of those changes. In Studies 1 and 2, individuals consistently estimated that increasing a health behavior produced greater consequences than did decreasing the behavior by an equivalent amount. The results of Study 3 demonstrated that this effect is due to differences in how individuals judge the impact of health behavior changes which involve not engaging in the behavior at all versus other types of changes. Taken together, these findings suggest that perceptions of the outcomes afforded by health behavior changes depend on both the behavioral frequency and direction of changes in behavior an individual is considering. This asymmetry has the potential to help explain patterns of behavior in a range of important health domains and may impact the effectiveness of behavior change interventions.     

Interpreting cross-sectional data on stages of change

Abstract

The vast majority of studies investigating stage theories of health behaviour such as the transtheoretical model have used a cross-sectional research design. Participants are classified into stages and compared on theoretically relevant variables. This paper discusses the proper interpretation of cross-sectional data on stages of change. Linear patterns are not consistent with the stage model assumption that different causal factors are important at different stages but discontinuity patterns (patterns that do not show consistent increments or decrements across stages) can be diagnostic of a stage model. Researchers who use cross-sectional designs should specify predictions concerning the patterns to be expected under a stage model and under possible rival models, and interpret their data accordingly. Wherever possible, they should conduct prospective longitudinal and experimental studies which enable stronger inferences to be drawn.     

Impact of genetic testing on causal models of heart disease and arthritis: An analogue study

Abstract

An analogue study investigated the impact of genetic testing on perceptions of disease. Using a 2 × 2 design, participants (n = 212) imagined receiving the information that they were at increased risk for either heart disease or arthritis. The type of risk information was either genetic or unspecified. Presentation of genetic risk information resulted in the condition being perceived as less preventable. Causal models of disease where investigated using principal components analysis. When hem disease was the stimulus condition, attributions to genes and chance were positively associated following unspecified risk information, and negatively associated following genetic risk information. When arthritis was the stimulus condition, presentation of genetic risk information was associated with attributions to genes becoming separated from the other attributions. One explanation for this is that providing genetic risk information may decrease perceptions of a sense of randomness or uncertainty in disease causation. The extent to which these effects occur in clinical populations. and their behavioural consequences. needs to be established.     

Counter-Closure

The focus of this paper is the prima facie plausible view, expressed by the principle of Counter-Closure, that knowledge-yielding competent deductive inference must issue from known premises. I construct a case that arguably falsifies this principle and consider five available lines of response that might help retain Counter-Closure. I argue that three are problematic. Of the two remaining lines of response, the first relies on non-universal intuitions and forces one to view the case I construct as exhibiting a justified, true belief to which none of the usual diagnoses of knowledge failure in Gettier cases apply. The second line involves claiming that Fake Barns and its ilk are misdiagnosed by epistemological orthodoxy as Gettier cases. We are thus confronted by a trilemma: either the case I discuss undermines the first-blush plausible principle of Counter-Closure; or the case I discuss instantiates a novel kind of Gettier case; or a popular conception of a key range of alleged Gettier cases must be rejected. No matter which horn we choose, the case points to a philosophically curious conclusion.     

Physicians' Silent Decisions: Because Patient Autonomy Does Not Always Come First

Physicians make some medical decisions without disclosure to their patients. Nondisclosure is possible because these are silent decisions to refrain from screening, diagnostic or therapeutic interventions. Nondisclosure is ethically permissible when the usual presumption that the patient should be involved in decisions is defeated by considerations of clinical utility or patient emotional and physical well-being. Some silent decisions—not all—are ethically justified by this standard. Justified silent decisions are typically dependent on the physician's professional judgment, experience and knowledge, and are not likely to be changed by patient preferences. We condemn the inappropriate exclusion of the patient from the decision-making process. However, if a test or treatment is unlikely to yield a net benefit, disclosure and discussion are at times unnecessary. Appropriate silent decisions are ethically justified by such considerations as patient benefit or economy of time.     

Coping mediates between social support,neuroticism, and depression after earthquake and examination stress among adolescents

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the mediating role of coping strategies in the relationships between neuroticism, social support, and depression in two groups of adolescents: earthquake group and examination group. Adolescents facing earthquake stress (earthquake group, N=219) completed measures of neuroticism, perceived social support, coping strategies, and self-rating depression. Similarly, adolescents facing examination stress (examination group, N=241) completed the same measures. Results indicated that the earthquake group reported more use of secondary control engagement coping, whereas the examination group reported more use of primary control engagement coping. In addition, neuroticism was more strongly associated with coping in earthquake group and coping strategies explained significantly larger part of the relationship between neuroticism and depression. In contrary, perceived social support was more strongly associated with coping in examination group, and coping strategies explained significantly larger part of the relationship between perceived social support and depression.