Scientific Peer Review to Inform Regulatory Decision Making: Leadership Responsibilities and Cautions

The article offers insights on the peer-review process as it relates to scientific and technical reports used to inform regulatory decisions. Used effectively, peer review is a powerful tool for advising organizational leaders whether the scientific foundations of their decisions can be expected to withstand scrutiny as rule-making products move through interagency reviews, public comment and stakeholder processes, congressional oversight, and judicial review. The emphasis is "heads up" rather than "how to." That is, without delving into myriad technical and administrative details, the discussion highlights nine fundamental "leadership responsibilities" that determine the nature and course of peer review.     

Psychosocial effects of war experiences among displaced children in southern Darfur

This study focused on assessing the psychosocial effects of the long standing, high intensity, and guerrilla-style of warfare among displaced children in Southern Darfur. The goal was to better understand the etiology, prognosis, and treatment implications for traumatic reactions, depression, and grief symptoms in this population. Three hundred thirty-one children aged 6-17 from three IDP Camps were selected using a quota sampling approach and were administered a Demographic Questionnaire, Child Post Traumatic Stress Reaction Index, Child Depression Inventory, and the Expanded Grief Inventory. Forty-three percent were girls and 57% were boys. The mean age of the children was 12 years. Results found that children were exposed to a very large number of war experiences with no significant differences between genders for types of exposure, including rape, but with older children (13-17 years) facing a larger number of exposures than younger children (6-12 years). Out of the 16 possible war experiences, the mean number was 8.94 (SD = 3.27). Seventy-five percent of the children met the DSM-IV criteria for PTSD, and 38% exhibited clinical symptoms of depression. The percentage of children endorsing significant levels of grief symptoms was 20%. Increased exposure to war experiences led to higher levels of: (1) traumatic reactions; (2) depression; and (3) grief symptoms. Of the 16 war experiences, abduction, hiding to protect oneself, being raped, and being forced to kill or hurt family members were most predictive of traumatic reactions. Being raped, seeing others raped, the death of a parent/s, being forced to fight, and having to hide to protect oneself were the strongest predictors of depressive symptoms. War experiences such as abduction, death of one's parent/s, being forced to fight, and having to hide to protect oneself were the most associated with the child's experience of grief. In addition to Total Grief, Traumatic Grief, Existential Grief, and Continuing Bonds were measured in these children. Although trauma, depression, and grief often exist as co-morbid disorders, the mechanisms and pathways of these is less understood. In this study we used Structural Equation Modeling to better understand the complex interaction and trajectories of these three symptoms evolving from war exposure and loss. This study is the first of its kind to assess the psychosocial effects of war experiences among children currently living in war zone areas within Sudan. It identifies some of the most prevalent war-related atrocities and their varying impact on the children's psychological well-being and overall adjustment. Implications for planning mental health interventions are discussed.     

Bulimia: A false self identity

This article is based on the author's clinical experience with fifteen bulimic women over the past five years. It covers the family origins, unique characteristics, internal dynamics, and treatment of bulimia. Bulimics have a cohesive, albeit pathological, identity based on the False Self. Relying on D.W. Winnicott's theory of ego splitting between the True Self and False Self, the author elaborates the components of False Self identity. The author concludes with a comparison of the effects of group and individual therapy, and suggests that group is generally more effective than individual, and that a combination of group and individual treatment is optimal.     

Book reviews/Comptes rendus

Lisa Gilad, Ginger and Salt: Yemeni Jewish Women in an Israeli Town. Boulder D.W. Attwood and B.S. Baviskar (eds.), Who Shares? Co-operatives and Rural Development Francis Robinson (ed.), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and The Maldives Richard C. Davis (ed.), Rupert's Land: A Cultural Tapestry Tom Bottomore and Robert J. Brym (eds.), The Capitalist Class: An International Study Raymond Murphy, Social Closure: A theory of Monopolization and Exclusion Richard Flacks, Making History. Kevin D. Carriere and Richard V. Ericson, Crime Stoppers: A Study in the Organization of Community Policing. Dany Lacombe, Ideology and Public Policy: The Case Against Pornography Robert J. Brym with Bonnie J. Fox, From Culture to Power: The Sociology of English Canada. Barry Wellman and S.D. Berkowitz (eds.), Social Structures: a network approach John Van Willigen, Barbara Rylko-Bauer, and Ann Mcelroy (eds.), Making Our Research Useful Grahame Clark, Prehistory at Cambridge and beyond Theresa R. Richardson, The Century of the Child: The Mental Hygiene Movement and Social Policy in the United States and Canada Anne Edwards, Regulation and Repression: The Study of Social Control Michael V. Angrosino, Documents of Interaction: Biography, Autobiography, and Life History in Social Science Perspective Michael Hechter, Principles of Group Solidarity Partrick Kierans, Glenn Drover and David Williams, Welfare and Worker Participation Mary Mccannery Gergen (ed.), Feminist Thought and the Structure of Knowledge Richard V. Ericson, Patricia M. Baranek and Janet B.L. Chan, Visualizing Deviance: A Study of New Organizations Sheila Allen and Carol Wolkowitz, Homeworking: Myths and Realities Calvin W. Redekop and Samuel J. Steiner (eds.), Mennonite Identity: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives Robert A. Stebbins, Canadian Football: The View From The Helmet Anne Innis Dagg and Patricia J. Thompson, MisEducation: Women & Canadian Universities Cyril H. Levitt and William Shaffir, The Riots at Christie Pits     

A Novel Eigenvector Technique for Large Scale Combinatorial Problems in VLSI Layout

Modern integrated circuit design involves laying out circuits which consist of millions of switching elements or transistors. Due to the sheer complexity, optimizing the connectivity between transistors is a very difficult problem. How a circuit is interconnected is the single most important factor in performance criteria such as signal delay, power dissipation, circuit size and cost. These factors dictate that interconnections—wires, be made as short as possible. The wire–minimization problem is formulated as a sequence of discrete optimization subproblems. These problems are known to be NP-hard, hence they can only be solved approximately using meta-heuristics or linear programming techniques. Nevertheless, these methods are computationally expensive and the quality of solution depends to a great extent on an appropriate choice of starting configuration. A matrix reordering technique for solving very hard discrete optimization problems in Very Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) design which overcomes some of these shortcomings is proposed. In particular, the computational cost is reasonable—of the order of n ^1.4 running time.     

Qualitative psychological autopsy interviews on suicide in post-conflict Northern Uganda: the participants' perceptions

Participants' perceptions of psychological autopsy interviews were investigated in post-conflict Northern Uganda. Data were derived out of their responses in the debriefing session after the formal interviews. These responses were subjected to Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The majority of the participants were positive about the interview as reflected in the two broad themes: positivation of the situation through the possibility of helping others and opportunity for personal development through sharing. To some few participants the interview aroused guilt, self-reproach, and anger and reactivated painful memories. As regards suicide postvention, the findings implied that not much has been done to help the bereaved by suicide in this region, and few resources for such efforts are currently available. However, the bereaved are ready to contribute toward the fight against suicide in their communities. Hence, it is argued that a community-based mental health and Primary Health Care approaches should be encouraged in this context.     

HIDING CRIMES IN CYBERSPACE

Criminals have at their disposal a variety of technologies for hiding communications and evidence stored on computers from law enforcement. These include encryption, passwords, digital compression, steganography, remote storage, and audit disabling. They can also hide crimes through anonymity tools and techniques such as anonymous remailers, anonymous digital cash, looping, cloned cellular phones, and cellular phone cards. This paper discusses use of these technologies by criminals and terrorists, and how that use has affected investigations and prosecutions. Options available to law enforcement for dealing with the technologies, especially encryption, are also discussed. Numerous case studies are presented for illustration.     

The relationship between marriage and family therapists and complementary and alternative medicine approaches: a national survey

Respondents to a mail survey of a random sample (N = 424) of Clinical Members of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy provided information about their contexts of practice, use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and relationships with CAM providers. Consistent with both national trends and the experience of psychologists as reported in a similar survey, the results of this survey suggest that marriage and family therapists have been affected significantly by and have a growing awareness of CAM practices. Limitations of the study and implications for the field are discussed.