bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Age Differences in Target Detection and Interference Resolution in Working Memory: An Event-related Potential Study
Authors: Tays William J. , Dywan Jane , Mathewson Karen J. , Segalowitz Sidney J.
Published: May 2008

There is growing consensus that a decline in attentional control is a core aspect of cognitive aging. We used event-related potentials to examine the time course of attentional control in older and younger adults as they attempted to resolve familiarity-based and response-based interference during a working memory task. Accuracy was high for both groups but their neural response to targets and to distracters was markedly different. Young adults' early target selection was evident by 300 msec in a differentiated P3a and they responded to interference by generating a medial frontal negativity (MFN) to distracters by 450 msec that was largest when the need for interference resolution was greatest. Dipole source analyses revealed a temporal coactivation of the inferior frontal and anterior cingulate cortex in younger adults, suggesting that these regions may interact during interference resolution. Older adults did not show the early target-selective P3a effect and failed to subsequently produce the MFN in response to distracting stimuli. In fact, older adults showed a large frontal positivity in place of the MFN but, rather than serve a compensatory role, this frontal activation was associated with poorer behavioral performance. These data suggest that aging interferes with a dynamic interplay of early target selection followed by later suppression of distracter-related neural activity—a process central to the efficient control of attention.
Is the Error-related Negativity Amplitude Related to Error Detectability? Evidence from Effects of Different Error Types
Authors: Maier Martin , Steinhauser Marco , Hübner Ronald
Published: May 2008

The present study tested error detection theories of the error-related negativity (ERN) by investigating the relation between ERN amplitude and error detectability. To this end, ERN amplitudes were compared with a behavioral measure of error detectability across two different error types in a four-choice flanker task. If an erroneous response was associated with the flankers, it was considered a flanker error, otherwise it was considered a nonflanker error. Two experiments revealed that, whereas detectability was better for nonflanker errors than for flanker errors, ERN amplitudes were larger for flanker errors than for nonflanker errors. Moreover, undetected errors led to strongly reduced ERN amplitudes relative to detected errors. These results suggest that, although error detection is necessary for an ERN to occur, the ERN amplitude is not related to error detectability but rather to error significance.
Inferences during Story Comprehension: Cortical Recruitment Affected by Predictability of Events and Working Memory Capacity
Authors: Virtue Sandra , Parrish Todd , Jung-Beeman Mark
Published: May 2008

Although it has been consistently shown that readers generate bridging inferences during story comprehension, little is currently known about the neural substrates involved when people generate inferences and how these substrates shift with factors that facilitate or impede inferences, such as whether inferences are highly predictable or unpredictable. In the current study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal increased for highly predictable inferences (relative to events that were previously explicitly stated) bilaterally in both the superior temporal gyri and the inferior frontal gyri. Interestingly, high working memory capacity comprehenders, who are most likely to generate inferences during story comprehension, showed greater signal increases than did low working memory capacity comprehenders in the right superior temporal gyrus and right inferior frontal gyrus. When comprehenders needed to draw unpredictable inferences in a story, fMRI signal increased relative to explicitly stated events in the left inferior gyrus and in the middle frontal gyrus, irrespective of working memory capacity. These results suggest that the predictability of a text (i.e., the causal constraint) and the working memory capacity of the comprehender influence the different neural substrates involved during the generation of bridging inferences.
The Role of Awareness in Processing of Oculomotor Capture: Evidence from Event-related Potentials
Authors: Belopolsky Artem V. , Kramer Arthur F. , Theeuwes Jan
Published: May 2008

Previous research has shown that task-irrelevant onsets trigger an eye movement in their direction. Such oculomotor capture is often impervious to conscious awareness. The present study used event-related brain potentials to examine how such oculomotor errors are detected, evaluated, and compensated for and whether awareness of an error played a role at any of these stages of processing. The results show that the early processes of error detection and correction (as represented by the error-related negativity and the parietal N1) are not directly affected by subjective awareness of making an error. Instead, they seem to be modulated by the degree of temporal overlap between the programming of the correct and erroneous saccade. We found that only a later component (the error-related positivity [Pe]) is modulated by awareness of making an erroneous eye movement. We propose that awareness of oculomotor capture primarily depends on this later process.
Vection Change Exacerbates Simulator Sickness in Virtual Environments
Authors: Bonato Frederick , Bubka Andrea , Palmisano Stephen , Phillip Danielle , Moreno Giselle
Published: May 2008

The optic flow patterns generated by virtual reality (VR) systems typically produce visually induced experiences of self-motion (vection). While this vection can enhance presence in VR, it is often accompanied by a variant of motion sickness called simulator sickness (SS). However, not all vection experiences are the same. In terms of perceived heading and/or speed, visually simulated self-motion can be either steady or changing. It was hypothesized that changing vection would lead to more SS. Participants viewed an optic flow pattern that either steadily expanded or alternately expanded and contracted. In one experiment, SS was measured pretreatment and after 5 min of viewing using the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire. In a second experiment employing the same stimuli, vection onset and magnitude were measured using a computer-interfaced slide indicator. The steadily expanding flow pattern, compared to the expanding and contracting pattern, led to: 1) significantly less SS, 2) lower subscores for nausea, oculomotor, and disorientation symptoms, 3) more overall vection magnitude, and 4) less changing vection. Collectively, these results suggest that changing vection exacerbates SS.
Orographic Flow Response to Variations in Upstream Humidity
Authors: Reeves Heather Dawn , Rotunno Richard
Published: May 2008

The effects of upstream relative humidity (RH) on low-level wind and precipitation patterns for low-speed, statically stable flows over a mountain are investigated using idealized two- and three-dimensional numerical-simulation experiments in which RH is increased from 0% to 100%. For RH less than some critical threshold, the flow upstream becomes less decelerated as RH is increased; for RH greater than this threshold, the flow upstream becomes more decelerated as RH is increased. This increasing deceleration with RH is due to locally enhanced static stability resulting from enhanced condensation near the freezing level. Analyses from the simulations indicate that the lifted condensation level and the height of the freezing level are significant control parameters for the upstream-flow deceleration in the steady-state solutions. Dimensional analysis using these control parameters (as well as others) brings forth new nondimensional parameters that are shown to enter into analytic formulas for the orographic upstream-flow deceleration in a moist atmosphere.
Influence of Spatial Resolution on Diurnal Variability during the North American Monsoon
Authors: Li J. , Sorooshian S. , Higgins W. , Gao X. , Imam B. , Hsu K.
Published: May 2008

Diurnal variability is an important yet poorly understood aspect of the warm-season precipitation regime over southwestern North America. In an effort to improve its understanding, diurnal variability is investigated numerically using the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University (PSU)–NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5). The goal herein is to determine the possible influence of spatial resolution on the diurnal cycle.

The model is initialized every 48 h using the operational NCEP Eta Model 212 grid (40 km) model analysis. Model simulations are carried out at horizontal resolutions of both 9 and 3 km. Overall, the model reproduces the basic features of the diurnal cycle of rainfall over the core monsoon region of northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States. In particular, the model captures the diurnal amplitude and phase, with heavier rainfall at high elevations along the Sierra Madre Occidental in the early afternoon that shifts to lower elevations along the west slopes in the evening. A comparison to observations (gauge and radar data) shows that the high-resolution (3 km) model generates better rainfall distributions on time scales from monthly to hourly than the coarse-resolution (9 km) model, especially along the west slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental. The model has difficulty with nighttime rainfall along the slopes, over the Gulf of California, and over Arizona.

A comparison of surface wind data from three NCAR Integrated Sounding System (ISS) stations and the Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) to the model reveals a low bias in the strength of the Gulf of California low-level jet, even at high resolution. The model results indicate that outflow from convection over northwestern Mexico can modulate the low-level jet, though the extent to which these relationships occur in nature was not investigated.
Midlatitude Cyclone Compositing to Constrain Climate Model Behavior Using Satellite Observations
Authors: Field P. R. , Gettelman A. , Neale R. B. , Wood R. , Rasch P. J. , Morrison H.
Published: May 2008

Identical composite analysis of midlatitude cyclones over oceanic regions has been carried out on both output from the NCAR Community Atmosphere Model, version 3 (CAM3) and multisensor satellite data. By focusing on mean fields associated with a single phenomenon, the ability of the CAM3 to reproduce realistic midlatitude cyclones is critically appraised. A number of perturbations to the control model were tested against observations, including a candidate new microphysics package for the CAM. The new microphysics removes the temperature-dependent phase determination of the old scheme and introduces representations of microphysical processes to convert from one phase to another and from cloud to precipitation species. By subsampling composite cyclones based on systemwide mean strength (mean wind speed) and systemwide mean moisture the authors believe they are able to make meaningful like-with-like comparisons between observations and model output. All variations of the CAM tested overestimate the optical thickness of high-topped clouds in regions of precipitation. Over a system as a whole, the model can both over- and underestimate total high-topped cloud amounts. However, systemwide mean rainfall rates and composite structure appear to be in broad agreement with satellite estimates. When cyclone strength is taken into account, changes in moisture and rainfall rates from both satellite-derived observations and model output as a function of changes in sea surface temperature are in accordance with the Clausius–Clapeyron equation. The authors find that the proposed new microphysics package shows improvement to composite liquid water path fields and cloud amounts.
Upstream Nonoscillatory Advection Schemes
Authors: Li Jian-Guo
Published: May 2008

Upstream nonoscillatory (UNO) advection schemes are derived by optimizing existing classical advection schemes and combining them in different monotonic zones to avoid flux limiters for simplicity. The UNO schemes are extended to irregular grids in the form of upstream midflux linear interpolation with symmetrical gradients and are adapted to multidimensions with an advective–conservative operator. They are given in finite-volume flux form and hence are consistent and conservative. They also preserve constancy and linear correlation. Implicit numerical diffusivity of these schemes is also derived and used as a guideline for the selection of advection schemes. One- and two-dimesional tests are used for comparisons with their classical counterparts. Multiple-cell grids are used to test the irregular grid formulation and demonstrate their performance. The simple second-order UNO2 scheme may be accurate enough when the physical diffusion or numerical smoothing term is larger than the numerical diffusion. The third-order UNO3 scheme has very small self-constrained numerical diffusion and is suitable for general atmospheric and oceanic tracer advection.
The Clock-Drawing Test: Time for a Change?
Authors: Chan Amy , Remington Ruth , Paskavitz James , Shea Thomas B.
Published: May 2008

Clock-drawing tests are simple and rapid screening devices for dementia. It was observed that individuals <60 years of age showed similar performance with a digital prompt (“ . . .make the clock read 12:45”) or an analog prompt (“ . . .quarter to 1”), whereas individuals >70 years of age showed improved performance with an analog prompt. The digital prompt has routinely been used to force participants to recode the prompt via conceptualization. Differential scoring across a range of ages has likely derived from the advent and increase of digital clocks with the younger segment of the population. This implies the need for as-yet undetermined alteration in the nature of prompts to force recoding as the current younger population ages.
Standardized Note Template Improves Screening of Firearm Access and Driving Among Veterans With Dementia
Authors: LoConte Noelle K. , Gleason Carey E. , Gunter-Hunt Gail , Carlsson Cynthia M. , Siebers Michael
Published: May 2008

Little is known about screening used in clinical practice to assess driving and firearm safety among patients with dementia. A case-controlled study was performed, including 22 patients with dementia seen in a geriatric evaluation and management clinic and 22 matched patients with dementia seen in a memory assessment clinic. Data about prevalence of firearm use and driving were obtained. In geriatric evaluation and management clinic, 57.9% of patients had dementia, compared with 71.0% in memory assessment clinic, and more patients were diagnosed with Alzheimer dementia in memory assessment clinic ( P = .005). In geriatric evaluation and management clinic, 65% of patients had driving screening compared with 100% in memory assessment clinic ( P = .07). Four percent in geriatric evaluation and management clinic were screened for firearm access versus 100% in memory assessment clinic ( P < .001). In memory assessment clinic, 31.8% had firearms access and 50% were driving. Many patients continued to drive and have access to firearms. The use of templates for the progress note was effective in increasing the screening rate.
Neuropsychiatric Impairments as Predictors of Mild Cognitive Impairment, Dementia, and Alzheimer's Disease
Authors: Stepaniuk Janet , Ritchie Lesley J. , Tuokko Holly
Published: May 2008

In this study, the relations between cognitive status and neuropsychiatric impairments in nondemented older adults in cross section and over time is examined. Using data from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging (CSHA), a longitudinal, nation-wide study in which data were collected 3 times (ie, CSHA-1, CSHA-2, CSHA-3) at 5-year intervals, individuals were classified with (n = 240) and without (n = 386) cognitive impairment at CSHA-2. Loss of interest, changes in personality and mood, and depression were reported by a knowledgeable informant (ie, family or friends) more frequently for those with cognitive impairment than for those without cognitive impairment. After controlling for initial cognitive status, loss of interest and depression contributed significantly to the prediction of mild cognitive impairment, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease over time. These findings suggest that these neuropsychiatric impairments play significant roles throughout the course of cognitive decline and should be taken into consideration even before cognitive impairment is evident.
The Mahoney Pain Scale: Examining Pain and Agitation in Advanced Dementia
Authors: Mahoney Alison E. J. , Peters Lorna
Published: May 2008

Pain and distress are widespread for people with dementia. However, effective pain management is limited by the quality of assessment tools. In this study, the development and trial of the Mahoney Pain Scale, which aims to assess pain in advanced dementia and distinguish it from agitation is described. A total of 112 participants with advanced dementia who experienced either pain, agitation, neither or both were assessed via the Mahoney Pain Scale during a pleasant and aversive activity. The Mahoney Pain Scale demonstrated adequate interrater reliability and internal consistency. As predicted, participants experiencing pain and/or agitation obtained higher Mahoney Pain Scale scores during the aversive activity. Participants also differed with respect to their pattern of scores, and consequently, the Mahoney Pain Scale differentiated pain states from non-pain ones. The clinical impressions of nurses who trialed the tool were favorable; they reported that it seemed accurate and easy to use. Thus, the Mahoney Pain Scale may be useful for assessing pain in dementia.
What the Seller Won't Tell You: Persuasion and Disclosure in Markets
Authors: Milgrom Paul
Published: May 2008

Imagine that you are considering an investment in a new public offering of a firm's shares. The firm's officers make a presentation that includes an audited financial statement, an earnings forecast reviewed by its prestigious investment bankers, and an impressive demonstration of its new technology. Or suppose that you are buying a new furnace to replace an old one that is not working well. The salesman displays a chart showing that the projected total life-cycle cost of one particular model, including capital costs and fuel usage over the projected lifetime of the furnace, is lower than that of some competing models you have considered. This paper reviews the theoretical arguments about how sellers disclose information in an attempt to encourage buyers, and the potential role for regulation in encouraging efficient disclosure of information. How well does a system of private reporting work? When should we expect all the relevant information to be reported? If testing and reporting by the seller are costly, will too little testing and reporting be done? Or too much? When some information is withheld, what sort of information is withheld? How do rational buyers respond to such withholding? How are prices and welfare affected? What role is there for laws and regulations to improve the functioning of markets? We address these questions by studying the theory of persuasion games—games in which one or more sellers provide verifiable information to buyers to influence the actions they take.
Identity Theft
Authors: Anderson Keith B , Durbin Erik , Salinger Michael A
Published: May 2008

Identity theft is made possible by the nature of modern payment systems. In the modern economy, sellers are willing to offer goods and services to strangers in exchange for a promise to pay, provided the promise is backed up by data that link the buyer to a specific account or credit history. Identity theft involves acquiring enough data about another person to counterfeit this link, enabling the thief to acquire goods while attributing the charge to another person's account. In this article, we discuss what is (and is not) known about the prevalence and cost of identity theft, describe the institutional framework in which identity theft takes place, and consider some of the main policy issues associated with the problem.
Markets: Transparency and the Corporate Bond Market
Authors: Bessembinder Hendrik , Maxwell William
Published: May 2008

For decades, corporate bonds primarily traded in an opaque environment. Quotations, which indicate prices at which dealers are willing to transact, were available only to market professionals, most often by telephone. Prices at which bond transactions were completed were not made public. The U.S. corporate bond market became much more transparent with the introduction of the Transaction Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE) in July 2002. Beginning that date, bond dealers were required to report all trades in publicly issued corporate bonds to the National Association of Security Dealers, which in turn made transaction data available to the public. In this paper, we describe trading protocols in the corporate bond market and assess the impact of the increase in transparency on the market. We review how TRACE has affected the costs that corporate bond investors paid to bond dealers for their transactions. We canvass the opinions of a variety of finance professionals and consider articles in the trade press to obtain a broader view of the impact of transparency on the corporate bond market
Income, Health, and Well-Being around the World: Evidence from the Gallup World Poll
Authors: Deaton Angus
Published: May 2008

During 2006, the Gallup Organization conducted a World Poll that used an identical questionnaire for national samples of adults from 132 countries. I analyze the data on life satisfaction and on health satisfaction and look at their relationships with national income, age, and life-expectancy. The analysis confirms a number of earlier findings and also yields some new and different results. Average life satisfaction is strongly related to per capita national income. High-income countries have greater life-satisfaction than low-income countries. Each doubling of income is associated with almost a one-point increase in life satisfaction on a scale from 0 to 10 and, unlike most previous findings, the effect holds across the range of international incomes; if anything, it is slightly stronger among rich countries. Conditional on the level of national per capita income, the effects of economic growth on life satisfaction are negative, not positive as would be predicted by previous discussion and previous micro-based empirical evidence. Neither life satisfaction nor health satisfaction responds strongly to objective measures of health, such as life expectancy or the prevalence of HIV infection, so that neither provides a reliable indicator of population well-being over all domains, or even over health.
The Quality of Medical Advice in Low-Income Countries
Authors: Das Jishnu , Hammer Jeffrey , Leonard Kenneth
Published: May 2008

This paper documents the quality of medical advice in low-income countries. Our evidence on health care quality in low-income countries is drawn primarily from studies in four countries: Tanzania, India, Indonesia, and Paraguay. We provide an overview of recent work that uses two broad approaches: medical vignettes (in which medical providers are presented with hypothetical cases and their responses are compared to a checklist of essential procedures) and direct observation of the doctor–patient interaction These two approaches have proved quite informative. For example, doctors in Tanzania complete less than a quarter of the essential checklist for patients with classic symptoms of malaria, a disease that kills 63,000–96,000 Tanzanians each year. A public-sector doctor in India asks one (and only one) question in the average interaction: “What's wrong with you?” We present systematic evidence in this paper to show that these isolated facts represent common patterns. We find that the quality of care in low-income countries as measured by what doctors know is very low, and that the problem of low competence is compounded due to low effort—doctors provide lower standards of care for their patients than they know how to provide. We discuss how the properties and correlates of measures based on vignettes and observation may be used to evaluate policy changes. Finally, we outline the agenda in terms of further research and measurement.
“The Brain - is wider than the Sky - ” or: Re-Cognizing Emily Dickinson
Authors: Sielke Sabine
Published: May 2008

Many of Emily Dickinson’s poems present operations of the human mind as physiological processes. These poems invite us to re-cognize Dickinson, that is, first, to reflect on what it can mean to approach her poetry by way of the cognitive sciences and secondly, to situate her poetics at the threshold of fundamental transformations of our media ecology and thus of common ways of perceiving, remembering, and creating the world. Interrogating how interactions between brain, mind, world, and media figure in Dickinson’s poems, this essay explores cognition as both individually embodied and embedded in a history of metaphor and mediation.
A Long Late Antiquity?: Considerations on a Controversial Periodization
Authors: Marcone Arnaldo
Published: May 2008

Late Antiquity as a period has a complex history with moments when the issues pertaining to it seem to intensify. One of these was without a doubt the aftermath of World War I and reached its apex in 1923 during the International Congress of Historical Sciences in Brussels. The tragic events that had shaken Europe had a deep impact on historiography. In the aftermath of World War II, this trend was reversed on account of a progressive change of perspective and sensibility. The new trend in late antique studies is linked especially to the work of Henri-Irénée Marrou and, more recently, Peter Brown. Marrou is responsible for the acquisition of esthetic standards that promoted an appreciation for the literary and artistic values of Late Antiquity. The very innovative reading of Late Antiquity (“a long Late Antiquity”) proposed by Brown also has had a great impact: on the one hand, Brown’s reading has made useless a periodization based on historical events, and, on the other, it has rendered impossible the concepts of crisis and decline. Recently, however, periodization has made a comeback and the decline and fall of the Roman Empire again seems worthy of consideration.
Caught in the Storm of Progress: Timoteos Saprichian, Ethiopia, and the Modernity of Christianity
Authors: De Lorenzi James
Published: May 2008

This article examines how European concepts of progress and race transformed relations
between non-European Christians in the nineteenth century. The travel narrative
of Timoteos Saprichian, an Armenian visitor to Ethiopia from the Ottoman Empire,
suggests that some Orthodox Christians set themselves apart from their African coreligionists
by using new ideas about the hierarchy of human communities to reorder
the Christian ecumene. The article concludes by using Walter Benjamin’s model of
progress to understand changes in religious identity during the imperial age.
The Observer Effect in International Politics: Evidence from a Natural Experiment
Authors: Hyde Susan D.
Published: May 2008

By pressuring governments to hold democratic elections and by becoming directly involved in the electoral process through technical assistance and funding or as election monitors, international actors now play a visible role in domestic elections and other democratic processes throughout the developing world. Although scholars have documented several macrolevel relationships between international-level variables and movement toward democracy, there has been little attention paid to the microlevel effects of international involvement in the democratization process. This article examines the effects of international election observation as a prominent form of international involvement in domestic elections and exploits a natural experiment in order to test whether international observers reduce election fraud. Using data from the 2003 presidential elections in Armenia, the article demonstrates that although observers may not eliminate election fraud, they can reduce election-day fraud at the polling stations they visit. The unusual advantage of experiment-like conditions for this study offers unique causal evidence that international actors can have direct, measurable effects on the level of election-day fraud and, by extension, on the democratization process.
Low-Intensity Democracy Revisited: The Effects of Economic Liberalization on Political Activity in Latin America
Authors: Arce Moises , Bellinger Paul T.
Published: May 2008

Existing literature emphasizes the disorganizing or weakening effects of economic liberalization on civil society, whereby free-market policies are said to demobilize and depoliticize collective actors. The article evaluates the effects of economic liberalization on large-scale societal mobilizations across seventeen Latin American countries for the period 1970–2000. The article further tests the effects of economic liberalization on individual political participation across sixteen Latin American countries for the period 1980–2000. In contrast to the atomization literature, this article provides strong evidence that economic liberalization leads to greater levels of societal mobilization in the context of free-market democratization. The article also demonstrates that economic liberalization does not induce a decline in political participation. Collectively, these results cast doubt on the theoretical underpinnings and empirical findings presented in Kurtz (2004).
Strengthening Mental Health Programs for Secondary School Students With High Support Needs: A Framework for Effective School Case Management
Authors: de Jong Terry
Published: May 2008

MindMatters Plus (MM+) is a program that focuses on building the capacity of secondary schools to meet the needs of students who have high support needs in the area of mental health. A necessity to supplement this work with specific strategies and processes allied to the delivery of mental health programs in secondary schools was identified. Effective school case management was one key strategy of MM+ that subsequently was targeted for further identification and development. To this end, the Australian Guidance and Counselling Association was commissioned to produce a resource on effective school case management for staff who work with secondary school students who have high support needs in the area of mental health. This article briefly describes the School Case Management Project that was established to achieve this aim, and presents a work-in-progress framework of the principles, definition, aims and strategies of effective school case management. This framework is the basis upon which the resource, a tool kit designed to appraise and improve the quality of a school's case management practices, is currently being developed. The project is due for completion by the end of October 2005.
Transitions and Loss: Illuminating Parameters of Young Adults' Mental Health
Authors: Rowling Louise , Weber Zita , Scanlon Lesley
Published: May 2008

Different disciplinary groups are increasingly questioning current conceptualisations of young adults' educational, social and personal lives after compulsory schooling. New perspectives are being advanced on the life trajectories of choice and complexity now experienced by school leavers. A consistent theme is the changed nature of young adults' lives, reflecting social and economic pressures on educational, work and personal life goals. This age group has the highest incidence of mental disorders of any age cohort (Andrews, Hall, Teesson, & Henderson, 1999). The changed learning environment in the move to university entails life and environmental events that create risk conditions for young adults. In these circumstances varying degrees of loss, challenge and personal growth exist. Concurrent personal losses, such as death of a peer or family member, broken love relationships, and failure to achieve the dream of a future career, can create particular vulnerabilities. Loss may interfere with the natural progression of intellectual–emotional–psychological growing up (Kastenbaum, 2001). In this article the mental health of young adults is viewed through the lens of loss experiences within a context of change in their life trajectory. Data is drawn from a mixed method study involving questionnaire completion and in-depth interviews of students in four university campuses in New South Wales.
Bullying in Schools and the Mental Health of Children
Authors: Rigby Ken
Published: May 2008

There has been a remarkable growth of interest throughout the world in the phenomena of bullying or peer victimisation in schools (Smith, Morita, Junger-Tas, Olweus, Catalano, & Slee, 1999; Smith, Pepler, & Rigby, 2004). It has been repeatedly claimed that involvement in bully/victim problems at school, either as a bully or as a victim or as both, constitutes a significant mental health risk for children. This article examines the research evidence for this contention, drawing largely upon relevant cross-sectional survey results and retrospective and longitudinal studies, and discusses factors that may impinge on the suggested relationships.
Student and Staff Mental Health Literacy and MindMatters Plus
Authors: Anderson Sarah , Doyle Martha
Published: May 2008

This article examines the literature and the experience of the MindMatters Plus demonstration schools in regard to improving student and staff mental health literacy. The aim of the MindMatters Plus initiative is to build the capacity of secondary schools to increase their support of students with high mental health needs. This is achieved in various ways including the embedding of strategies that support students into the curriculum and ethos of the school, creating processes that effectively identify students at risk, and building community partnerships. A foundation for these strategies is to strengthen staff and student awareness of mental health issues and to create an environment in which students are more willing to seek assistance. This article explores how schools can increase student and staff mental health literacy, and includes examples gained from the experience of the MindMatters Plus demonstration schools.
Key Factors in Supporting Students With High Needs in Mental Health: Discussions With the MindMatters Plus Demonstration Schools
Authors: Anderson Sarah
Published: May 2008

This article describes some key lessons from the MindMatters Plus (MM+) initiative, as a best practice approach to improving the mental health outcomes of secondary school students with high support mental health needs. The MindMatters Plus initiative focuses on early identification of students with mental health needs, implementation of preventative and other interventions, refining processes, policies and strategies to support students at risk, and encouraging the development of community partnerships to enhance the support of student wellbeing. Specifically, this article will examine the key factors that enabled the MindMatters Plus demonstration schools to achieve these outcomes. As part of the initiative, an interview was conducted with staff from each of the 17 MindMatters Plus demonstration schools. Staff members were asked to describe what they had learned as a result of their participation in the initiative and to identify factors that they believed were significant in their ability to improve the support they provided for students at risk. The responses to these interviews, as outlined in the present article, will serve as invaluable guidelines for other schools that want to improve the support they provide for students with high mental health needs.
Intervention and Prevention Programs to Support Student Mental Health: The Literature and Examples From the MindMatters Plus Initiative
Authors: Anderson Sarah , Doyle Martha
Published: May 2008

This article examines the literature regarding prevention and intervention programs that are aimed at supporting student mental health. It will also examine the practical use of these types of programs in schools, as reflected by the experiences of the MindMatters Plus demonstration schools. The aim of the MindMatters Plus initiative is to build the capacity of secondary schools to increase their support of students with high mental health needs. The implementation of programs that support student mental health is one component of this whole school aim that includes the embedding of a range of strategies to support students with high mental health needs, creating processes that effectively identify students at risk, and the building of community partnerships. As will be demonstrated, the use of intervention and prevention programs in schools can be an effective way of positively supporting student mental health that can be successfully integrated into the school curriculum.
Developing Community Partnerships to Support Student Wellbeing: What Have We Learned From the MindMatters Plus Demonstration Schools
Authors: Anderson Sarah , Doyle Martha
Published: May 2008

The aim of the MM+ initiative is to build the capacity of secondary schools to ensure optimal mental health outcomes for all students at risk. This is achieved in a number of ways, including early identification, implementation of preventative and early interventions, refining processes, policies and strategies, and encouraging the development of community partnerships. This article will focus on the latter of these strategies: how schools can further develop partnerships with their local community in order to build their capacity to support student mental health. Research indicates that it is beneficial for schools to work with individuals and agencies in the community, as it can result in more resources and services for students than are possible when schools work alone. This article will outline research in the area of building community partnerships including an examination of the types of partnerships, that can be formed and the issues to be considered. In addition, the article will provide a practical discussion of what the MindMatters Plus demonstration schools have learned as a result of their experience in building community relationships.
Staff Voices: What Helps Students With High Mental Health Support Needs Connect to School?
Authors: Anderson Sarah , Kerr-Roubicek Helen , Rowling Louise
Published: May 2008

Research indicates that an important determinant of mental health is the degree to which someone feels connected to his or her environment. For young people, how they feel about ‘fitting in’ at school, in terms of peers, staff and the curriculum, is an important factor in their wellbeing. An effective whole school mental health promotion approach will therefore involve the creation of a school environment that encourages a sense of belonging and connection for its students. While the theory behind student connection to school has received a significant level of attention in the education, health and crime prevention literature, not so much is known about how school staff understand the process of ‘students connecting to school’ and what they do to enable it. Even less is reported about the experiences and views of students with high mental health support needs themselves on the issue (see Unheard Voices, Holdsworth & Blanchard, 2005). Therefore, the following study was conducted to seek understanding of the perspectives of school staff about how students connect to school and the implications for enabling the connection of students with high mental health support needs. Qualitative analysis of interviews revealed the emergence of a number of themes that align with previous research on connection to school. This study formed part of the MindMatters Plus initiative, a combined health and education best practice approach to improving the mental health outcomes of secondary school students with high support needs. The findings of this study have practical implications for school staff who are looking for ways to further enable student connection to school. They also add a complementary perspective to those of students as extrapolated in Holdsworth and Blanchard (2005).
Evaluation of a Group CBT Early Intervention Program for Adolescents With Comorbid Depression and Behaviour Problems
Authors: Wignall Ann
Published: May 2008

Depression and externalising behaviour disorders frequently occur together in adolescence and are associated with a marked increase in symptom severity and poorer outcome. Clinical treatment research and early intervention programs for depression have not addressed the specific cognitive and interpersonal deficits associated with comorbidity. This study presents a pilot evaluation of modifications to the ACE (Adolescents Coping with Emotions) early intervention group program for depression for 17 students attending four special behaviour schools. The modified program, m-ACE, included content to address cognitive distortions, anger management and interpersonal problems. Participants reported improvements in depression symptoms and externalising behaviours. The program achieved high satisfaction ratings from participants and the drop-out rate was low. This is a promising approach for further development and targeting of early intervention programs for this complex population.
The Role of Alternative Education Programs in Meeting the Needs of Adolescent Students With Challenging Behaviour: Characteristics of Best Practice
Authors: de Jong Terry , Griffiths Coosje
Published: May 2008

Recently the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) conducted a nationwide survey on programs that exhibit best practice in addressing student behaviour issues (de Jong, 2004). Seven themes related to the characteristics of best practice were identified in this survey. Alternative education programs (AEPs) was one of them. Although contentious in the context of inclusive education, this survey indicated that, provided they are embedded in best practice, AEPs are still considered to be a creditable means of meeting the needs of adolescent students with challenging behaviour in most Australian education jurisdictions. This being so, what constitutes best practice in the construction and delivery of an AEP? This is the main focus of our article. We briefly define AEPs, submit a continuum of types of AEPs, consider the cases against and in favour of AEPs, and conclude by presenting the characteristics of quality AEPs according to three categories, namely: (1) organisation and partnerships, (2) pastoral care and ethos, and (3) curriculum and pedagogy.
New Solutions for Addressing Indigenous Mental Health: A Call to Counsellors to Introduce the New Positive Psychology of Success
Authors: Craven Rhonda G. , Bodkin-Andrews Gawain
Published: May 2008

Australia's ‘black’ history has had and continues to have a pervasive and adverse impact on Indigenous Australians. In fact, Indigenous Australians are the most disadvantaged Australians based on all socioeconomic indicators that serve to drive life potential. There is also a dearth of scholarly research available, particularly in relation to Indigenous children in the schooling sector and mental health. However, recent research with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations offers new, potentially potent, solutions. In this article we provide (a) a rationale for Indigenous mental health being a significant social issue of our time, (b) a summary of some recent research findings pertaining to mental health of young Indigenous Australians, (c) outline why a positive psychology approach offers a new solution for intervention with specific reference to the importance of the self-concept construct for Indigenous students, and (d) call upon counsellors, practitioners, and policy makers to implement and evaluate the latter approach.
School-Based Intervention: Examining a Universal Approach to Anxiety Management
Authors: Barrett Paula M. , Pahl Kristine M.
Published: May 2008

Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health problems affecting children and adolescents. Current estimates indicate that 1 in 5 children or 4 to 6 students within a classroom of 30 children are at risk for developing an anxiety disorder (Boyd, Kostanski, Gullone, Ollendick, & Shek, 2000). Of these children, many will not receive clinical intervention. The school environment is the optimal setting to address this issue and to minimise the risk and prevent the development of anxiety disorders. This article examines the importance of early intervention and prevention within the school setting through an examination of the risk and protective factors of anxiety and the comparability of three approaches to prevention in schools — selective, indicated, and universal approaches. All three prevention approaches are discussed along with the advantages and disadvantages of each. The applicability of the universal approach to prevention is discussed in relation to the FRIENDS for Life (FRIENDS) program (Barrett, 2004, 2005) and its implementation within schools. The FRIENDS program is an evidence-based, cognitive–behavioural anxiety program for children and youth. It is the only evidence-based program endorsed by the World Health Organization as an effective program for the prevention and treatment of anxiety and depression in children and youth.
A Review of the Impact of Marital Conflict on Child Adjustment
Authors: Barletta John , O'Mara Bernie
Published: May 2008

This article presents a review of research literature regarding the association between marital conflict and child adjustment in intact families. Factors such as the child temperament and gender, the relational dynamics between parent/s and child, the child's developmental stage and cognitive appraisal of the conflict — including aspects of the child's physiological system, as well as parenting practices — are explored to outline contributions to the understanding of issues associated with this aspect of family process. Developmental psychopathology is offered as a useful resource in terms of a process oriented theoretical framework providing a multi-dimensional approach to exploring and explaining the impact of marital conflict on children.
Survival and Dispersal of Hatchery-Raised Rainbow Trout in a River Basin Undergoing Urbanization
Authors: Runge Jonathan P. , Peterson James T. , Martin Christopher R.
Published: May 2008

We evaluated the effect of urbanization on water temperature and the survival of rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss that support a popular coldwater fishery in the Chattahoochee River near Atlanta, Georgia. Using multistratum tag recovery models, we estimated the monthly survival, dispersal, and angler harvest reporting rates of stocked trout in two study reaches from March to October 2006. The best-approximating models indicated that the monthly survival of stocked trout was negatively related to angler effort and the amount of time that water temperature exceeded 20°C. We found that trout survival was more sensitive to high water temperature than to angler effort. Dispersal rates from a warmer downstream to a cooler upstream reach were 6–7 times those from upstream to downstream. Empirical temperature–discharge models indicated that water temperatures in the river downstream of Morgan Falls Dam have increased from 1976 to 2006, urbanization being a likely contributing factor. We estimate that on average 60 m3/s of additional discharge in summer are needed under current (2006) conditions to maintain water temperatures similar to those prior to urbanization (1976). Increased water use from the river accounted for less than one-fourth of the 60 m3/s, suggesting that other factors, such as a higher percentage of impervious surfaces, were primarily responsible for the higher temperatures. Using these models, we estimate that on average 20% of the stocked trout were lost during the summer months owing to angling and other sources (e.g., high temperature) under preurbanized conditions, whereas 70% of the fish are lost under current conditions. Our models suggest that increasing the hypolimnetic releases from an upstream dam could mitigate the effects of urbanization on water temperature during the summer.