College Students’ Reasons for Depression Nondisclosure in Primary Care

Unwillingness to share depression experiences with primary care physicians contributes to the undertreatment of depression. This project examined college students’ reasons for depression nondisclosure to primary care providers (PCPs). Undergraduate participants read a vignette describing someone with depression and completed measures of disclosure barriers. Analyses indicated 26% of respondents would NOT disclose depression symptoms to PCPs. Reasons for nondisclosure included difficulty initiating the depression conversation, medication aversion, and fear of referral to a psychologist. Also, anger toward the vignette character varied with disclosure willingness, suggesting that nondisclosers feel more stigma than disclosers and are less likely to engage in psychotherapy. Because engagement in pharmacological and/or psychotherapeutic treatment requires identification of depression in healthcare settings, increased understanding of disclosure barriers could increase students’ access to depression treatment.     

WOMBAT A tool for mixed model analyses in quantitative genetics by restricted maximum likelihood （REML）

WOMBAT is a software package for quantitative genetic analyses of continuous traits, fitting a linear, mixed model; estimates of covariance components and the resulting genetic parameters are obtained by restricted maximum likelihood. A wide range of models, comprising numerous traits, multiple fixed and random effects, selected genetic covariance structures, random regression models and reduced rank estimation are accommodated. WOMBAT employs up-to-date numerical and computational methods. Together with the use of efficient compilers, this generates fast executable programs, suitable for large scale analyses. Use of WOMBAT is illustrated for a bivariate analysis. The package consists of the executable program, available for LINUX and WINDOWS environments, manual and a set of worked example, and can be downloaded free of charge from http://agbu. une.edu.au/~kmeyer/wombat.html     

Infant joint attention, temperament, and social competence in preschool children

Infant joint attention has been observed to be related to social-emotional outcomes in at-risk children. To address whether this relation is also evident in typically developing children, 52 children were tested at 12, 15, 24, and 30 months to examine associations between infant joint attention and social outcomes. Twelve-month initiating and responding to joint attention were related to 30-month social competence and externalizing behavior, even when accounting for 15-month temperament ratings, 24-month cognition and language, and demographic variables. These results suggest that, in addition to associations with language and cognition, infant joint attention reflects robust aspects of development that are related to individual differences in the emergence of social and behavioral competence in childhood.     

唉!我的中国同学呀!

"双语视窗"栏目从2006年开办至今,已经走过了2年的历程,这些由在华外国友人撰写的小文章,以他们在华所见所闻为切入点,生动具体地反映出东西方观念、习俗的异同,也向我们提出了一个个既有趣又值得深思的问题。栏目一再连载得益于读者反馈中的正面回应。"不识庐山真面目,只缘身在此山中",换一个角度,从外国友人目光的折射中审视一下自己,更有助于全面地了解我们自身。同时,本栏目采用英汉对照形式,这些原汁原味的英文不仅有助于加深对作者原意的理解,也是一本学习现代英语的鲜活教材。     

Nutrition for the young athlete

Athletics is a popular sport among young people. To maintain health and optimize growth and athletic performance, young athletes need to consume an appropriate diet. Unfortunately, the dietary intake of many young athletes follows population trends rather than public health or sports nutrition recommendations. To optimize performance in some disciplines, young athletes may strive to achieve a lower body weight or body fat content and this may increase their risk for delayed growth and maturation, amenorrhoea, reduced bone density, and eating disorders. Although many of the sports nutrition principles identified for adults are similar to those for young athletes, there are some important differences. These include a higher metabolic cost of locomotion and preferential fat oxidation in young athletes during exercise. Young athletes, particularity children, are at a thermoregulatory disadvantage due to a higher surface area to weight ratio, a slower acclimatization, and lower sweating rate. An appropriate dietary intake rather than use of supplements (except when clinically indicated) is recommended to ensure young athletes participate fully and safely in athletics.     

The Poverty of Constructivism

Constructivism claims to be a postepistemology that replaces 'traditional' concepts of knowledge. Supporters of constructivism have argued that progress requires that pre-service teachers be weaned off traditional approaches and that they should adopt constructivist views of knowledge. Constructivism appears to be gaining ground rapidly and should no longer be viewed as an exercise in radical thinking primarily aimed at generating innovative teaching. It has become an integral part of the pedagogic mainstream. Close examination of the theoretical foundations of constructivism, however, reveals that the basic assumptions of constructivism are flawed. Far from being a postepistemology, constructivism simply regresses to a pre-Renaissance mindset with theology replaced with a psychologism. Constructivists should be aware that the implications of constructivism for future generations may be both profound and non-benign.