In the Wake of a Veto: What Do Oregon Psychologists Think and Know about Prescription Privileges for Psychologists?

Clinical psychology continues to grapple with a contentious debate surrounding prescriptive authority. With over half of all states having considered legislating prescriptive authority, an immense amount of time and money has been invested. This study aims to assess knowledge and attitudes of licensed psychologists in Oregon following a veto that prevented it from becoming the third state with prescription privileges for psychologists. From a list of 1,318 licensed Oregon clinical psychologists, 60% were randomly selected to participate. Of the 130 participants invited thus far, 83 have completed the survey, yielding a respectable response rate (64%). Perceived familiarity with current training models revealed lacking awareness with 75.2% and 72% expressing they were not familiar with the DOD and APA models, respectively. Only 5% knew which three states/territories currently have prescriptive authority and 77% were unfamiliar with any of the three prerequisites for postdoctoral training in psychopharmacology. Arguments in favor of prescription privileges garnering the most support related to perceptions of improved access and treatment enhancement. In contrast, the strongest arguments against prescription privileges involved professional issues (e.g., altered identity). Reflecting division, 43.9% were in favor, 20.7% were undecided, and 36% were in opposition to broadening privileges for psychologists. However, only 15.9% expressed interest in completing training and only 7.2% plan to pursue training and become a prescriber. Overall, these findings suggest legislative efforts should be mindful of the controversy within the field and the low numbers of professionals interested in pursuing prescription privileges, which undercut arguments for improved access and care

Internal and External Factors Associated with Illicit Prescription Drug Use in College Students

With data suggesting emerging adulthood is a time of increased risk for illicit prescription drug use, it is essential that factors contributing to this be understood to guide prevention efforts. Internal factors (stress, GPA, gender) and external factors (type of institution, living situation) were assessed in tandem with perceptions of harm and illicit prescription drug use. In accordance with nationwide research (SAMSHA, 2006), 14% of our sample of Oregon college students reported illicitly using prescription drugs. While rates of use did not vary by gender, females held higher perceptions of harm. Perceived harm was high for our sample and inversely correlated with use. Those living on campus reported higher perceptions of harm and less use than those living off campus. Those attending private academic institutions reported higher perceptions of harm and less use than those attending public institutions. Previous studies suggest a heightened sense of community within schools, comparatively present within private institutions, can reduce drug use (Battistich, & Hom, 1997). Stress was positively correlated with use and GPA was negatively correlated with use. While numerous studies have examined various correlates of prescription drug use, few have sampled beyond a single institution, most within public universities. Thus, the inclusion of private institutions offers unique and a more holistic insight. As drug use continues to increase in college populations even with prevention programs in place, it is imperative to translate these findings into prevention targeting both genders, at times of stress, particularly those living off campus, at public universities, with lower GPAs

Data-Driven Change in Oregon Psychologists’ Knowledge and Attitudes about Prescriptive Authority

With over half of all states having considered legislating prescriptive authority, an immense amount of time and money has been invested. The literature is limited in terms of understanding if opinions toward prescriptive authority are grounded in knowledge and what implications that has for altering these opinions. Following a veto of a prescriptive authority bill in Oregon, 160 licensed Oregon clinical psychologists were surveyed regarding their attitudes and knowledge. In terms of knowledge, only 5.6% knew which three states/territories currently have prescriptive authority and 70.4% were unfamiliar with any of the prerequisites for postdoctoral training in psychopharmacology. Reflecting division, 42.8% were in favor, 20.1% were undecided, and 37.1% were in opposition to broadening privileges for psychologists. Further, only 15.1% expressed interest in pursuing training or 6.4% in becoming a prescriber. Data on access, training, and legislative costs were presented to participants in the education condition. These participants showed significant gains in their knowledge across all domains and their opinions shifted only in these specific areas leaving their general stance on the issue unchanged. In contrast to ardent supporters who argue that their “data should provide reassurance to psychologists spearheading legislative initiatives” because of high approval ratings (Sammons et al., 2000, p. 608), our data suggest disagreement amongst a group of professionals who are not particularly well-informed, nor interested in becoming prescribers. Future work should investigate whether expanding the data relevant to other facets of the argument contributes to further targeted change or an overall change in opinion toward prescriptive authority

Lattice-Based High-Dimensional Gaussian Filtering and the Permutohedral Lattice

High-dimensional Gaussian filtering is a popular technique in image processing, geometry processing and computer graphics for smoothing data while preserving important features. For instance, the bilateral filter, cross bilateral filter and non-local means filter fall under the broad umbrella of high-dimensional Gaussian filters. Recent algorithmic advances therein have demonstrated that by relying on a sampled representation of the underlying space, one can obtain speed-ups of orders of magnitude over the naïve approach. The simplest such sampled representation is a lattice, and it has been used successfully in the bilateral grid and the permutohedral lattice algorithms. In this paper, we analyze these lattice-based algorithms, developing a general theory of lattice-based high-dimensional Gaussian filtering. We consider the set of criteria for an optimal lattice for filtering, as it offers a good tradeoff of quality for computational efficiency, and evaluate the existing lattices under the criteria. In particular, we give a rigorous exposition of the properties of the permutohedral lattice and argue that it is the optimal lattice for Gaussian filtering. Lastly, we explore further uses of the permutohedral-lattice-based Gaussian filtering framework, showing that it can be easily adapted to perform mean shift filtering and yield improvement over the traditional approach based on a Cartesian grid.Stanford University (Reed-Hodgson Fellowship)Nokia Research Cente

Anode phenomena in a collision-dominated plasma

Anodes display either a glow mode or a constricted mode in plasmas of interest for MHO generator applications. The purpose of this paper is to outline the conditions underlying the existence of anode constrictions or anode spots in conjunction with criteria governing the anode glow. A steady current flowing through velocity and thermal boundary layers is investigated. The sheath and the ambipolar region are considered from an approximation theory viewpoint, and then the nonexistence of a one-dimensional Cartesian or diffuse mode for a nonreacting anode region is shown using the continuum equations for electrostatic probes.This work is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research

Oregon Psychologists on Prescriptive Authority: Divided Views and Little Knowledge

With over half of all states having considered legislating prescriptive authority, an immense amount of time and money has been invested. The literature is limited in terms of understanding if opinions toward prescriptive authority are grounded in knowledge and what implications that has for altering these opinions. Following a veto of a prescriptive authority bill in Oregon, 399 licensed Oregon clinical psychologists were surveyed regarding their attitudes and knowledge. In terms of knowledge, only 6.5% knew which three states/territories currently have prescriptive authority and 70.4% were unfamiliar with any of the prerequisites for postdoctoral training in psychopharmacology. Reflecting division, 43.4% were in favor, 25.4% were undecided, and 31.2% were in opposition to broadening privileges for psychologists. Further, only 15.2% expressed interest in pursuing training or 6.7% in becoming prescribers. Data on access, training, and legislative costs were presented to participants in the education condition. These participants showed significant gains in their knowledge across all domains and their opinions shifted only in these specific areas leaving their general stance on the issue unchanged. In contrast to ardent supporters who argue that their “data should provide reassurance to psychologists spearheading legislative initiatives” because of high approval ratings (Sammons et al., 2000, p. 608), our data suggest disagreement amongst a group of professionals who are not particularly well-informed, nor interested in becoming prescribers. Future work should investigate whether expanding the data relevant to other facets of the argument contributes to further targeted change or an overall change in opinion toward prescriptive authority

Speech Melody Properties in English, Czech and Czech English: Reference and Interference

Two major objectives were set for the present study: to provide reference data for the description of Czech and English F0 contours, and to investigate the limits of the ‘interference hypothesis’ on Czech English data. Altogether, the production of 40 speakers in 2392 breath-group F0 contours was analyzed. The speech of 32 professional speakers of English and Czech provides reference values for various acoustic correlates of pitch level, pitch span and downtrend gradient. These values were subsequently used as a benchmark for a confirmation of the interference hypothesis through comparison with a further sample of 8 non-professional speakers of English and Czech-accented English. The native English speakers of both genders produced significantly higher pitch level indicators, wider pitch span and a steeper downtrend gradient than the reference native speakers of Czech. Although the pitch level of the Czech-accented material lies in between the two reference groups, the pitch span of this group is the narrowest, which indicates that factors of foreign-accentedness other than simply interference are in effect

Video Altimeter and Obstruction Detector for an Aircraft

Video-based altimetric and obstruction detection systems for aircraft have been partially developed. The hardware of a system of this type includes a downward-looking video camera, a video digitizer, a Global Positioning System receiver or other means of measuring the aircraft velocity relative to the ground, a gyroscope based or other attitude-determination subsystem, and a computer running altimetric and/or obstruction-detection software. From the digitized video data, the altimetric software computes the pixel velocity in an appropriate part of the video image and the corresponding angular relative motion of the ground within the field of view of the camera. Then by use of trigonometric relationships among the aircraft velocity, the attitude of the camera, the angular relative motion, and the altitude, the software computes the altitude. The obstruction-detection software performs somewhat similar calculations as part of a larger task in which it uses the pixel velocity data from the entire video image to compute a depth map, which can be correlated with a terrain map, showing locations of potential obstructions. The depth map can be used as real-time hazard display and/or to update an obstruction database

Pocket ACE: Neglect of Child Sexual Abuse Survivors in the ACEs Study Questionnaire

In 1998, a seminal study on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and subsequent health risks catapulted ACEs and the study questionnaire into the zeitgeist. However, its childhood sexual abuse (CSA) item is problematic as it requires the perpetrator have been 5-years or older than the victim. To assess whether some survivors’ CSA is not identified by the current item, whether their exclusion prevents access to services requiring a four-threshold ACE score, and how their health outcomes compared to other CSA groups and controls, an international sample of 974 women completed an online survey assessing their current health and CSA history using the original item and an experimental item without the 5-year modifier. Results indicated many CSA survivors are not identified by a 5-year modifier, exclusion has service implications for some, and on most variables, they had increased adverse health outcomes compared to controls. Means of assessing CSA must be thoughtfully revised

The Pole Behaviour of the Phase Derivative of the Short-Time Fourier Transform

The short-time Fourier transform (STFT) is a time-frequency representation widely used in applications, for example in audio signal processing. Recently it has been shown that not only the amplitude, but also the phase of this representation can be successfully exploited for improved analysis and processing. In this paper we describe a rather peculiar pole phenomenon in the phase derivative, a recurring pattern that appears in a characteristic way in the neighborhood around any of the zeros of the STFT, a negative peak followed by a positive one. We describe this phenomenon numerically and provide a complete analytical explanation.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures; Applied and Computational Harmonic Analysis (in press), available online 22 October 201