Initial Validation of a Brief Pictorial Measure of Caregiver Aggression: The Family Aggression Screening Tool

In the present study, we report on the development and initial psychometric properties of the Family Aggression Screening Tool (FAST). The FAST is a brief, self-report tool that makes use of pictorial representations to assess experiences of caregiver aggression, including direct victimization and exposure to intimate partner violence. It is freely available on request and takes under 5 minutes to complete. Psychometric properties of the FAST were investigated in a sample of 168 high-risk youth aged 16 to 24 years. For validation purposes, maltreatment history was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire; levels of current psychiatric symptoms were also assessed. Internal consistency of the FAST was good. Convergent validity was supported by strong and discriminative associations with corresponding Childhood Trauma Questionnaire subscales. The FAST also correlated significantly with multi-informant reports of psychiatric symptomatology. Initial findings provide support for the reliability and validity of the FAST as a brief, pictorial screening tool of caregiver aggression

Exploring the Relationship Between Childhood Maltreatment and Addiction: A Review of the Neurocognitive Evidence

Childhood maltreatment has been shown to increase the risk of a range of psychiatric disorders including substance use disorders (SUDs) and is associated with the onset, course and severity of illness. We review the evidence for alterations in brain structure and neurocognitive processing in individuals who have experienced childhood maltreatment, focusing specifically on changes related to reward processing, executive functioning and affect processing. Changes in these neurocognitive systems have been documented in adults presenting with SUDs, who are typically characterized by heightened subcortico-striatal responses to salient stimuli and impairments in fronto-cingulate regulation. Maltreatment-specific effects in these processing domains may account for the particularly severe clinical presentation of SUDs in adults with histories of maltreatment in childhood. The findings are considered in relation to the theory of latent vulnerability, which contends that alterations in these neurocognitive systems may reflect calibration to early risk environments that in turn increases the risk of developing of SUDs later in life

The Influence of a Morton\u27s Foot on Arch Characteristics in Minimally-Shod Runners

Please refer to the pdf version of the abstract located adjacent to the title

Annual Research Review: Childhood maltreatment, latent vulnerability and the shift to preventative psychiatry - the contribution of functional brain imaging

BACKGROUND: Childhood maltreatment is a potent predictor of poor mental health across the life span. We argue that there is a need to improve the understanding of the mechanisms that confer psychiatric vulnerability following maltreatment, if we are to progress from simply treating those with a manifest disorder, to developing effective preventative approaches that can help offset the likelihood that such disorders will emerge in the first place. METHODS: We review extant functional neuroimaging studies of children and adolescents exposed to early neglect and/or maltreatment, including physical, sexual and emotional abuse across four neurocognitive domains: threat processing, reward processing, emotion regulation and executive control. Findings are discussed in the context of 'latent vulnerability', where alterations in neurocognitive function are considered to carry adaptive value in early adverse caregiving environments but confer long-term risk. RESULTS: Studies on threat processing indicate heightened as well as depressed neural responsiveness in maltreated samples, particularly in the amygdala, thought to reflect threat hypervigilance and avoidance respectively. Studies on reward processing generally report blunted neural response to anticipation and receipt of rewards, particularly in the striatum, patterns associated with depressive symptomatology. Studies on emotion regulation report increased activation of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during active emotion regulation, possibly reflecting greater effortful processing. Finally, studies of executive control report increased dorsal ACC activity during error monitoring and inhibition. CONCLUSIONS: An emerging body of work indicates that altered neurocognitive functioning following maltreatment: (a) is evident even in the absence of overt psychopathology; (b) is consistent with perturbations seen in individuals presenting with psychiatric disorder; (c) can predict future psychiatric symptomatology. These findings suggest that maltreatment leads to neurocognitive alterations that embed latent vulnerability to psychiatric disorder, establishing a compelling case for identifying those children at most risk and developing mechanistically informed models of preventative intervention. Such interventions should aim to offset the likelihood of any future psychiatric disorder

A review of childhood maltreatment, latent vulnerability and the brain: implications for clinical practice and prevention

There is a well-established association between childhood maltreatment and later poor mental health and increasing recognition that we need to find ways to support children following such experiences to improve long-term outcomes. We suggest that the rationale for such a preventive approach is directly informed by the emerging findings from the field of functional neuroimaging. Here, we review the evidence from four neurocognitive systems: threat processing, reward processing, emotion regulation and executive control. We briefly summarise what is known about each system, review the evidence that altered functioning is implicated in common mental health problems and describe how the functioning of each system is altered following maltreatment. Across domains, these neurocognitive alterations following child maltreatment are in line with those seen in adults presenting with mental health problems yet most maltreated children studied do not have a presenting ‘disorder’. This suggests that these neurocognitive alterations may potentiate the risk of future psychopathology. We discuss this possibility in the context of the theory of latent vulnerability (McCrory and Viding, 2015). According to this model, children may respond to early adverse environments in ways that are potentially adaptive in the short term but which create vulnerability to future mental health problems in the long term. We also consider the clinical implications of the neuroimaging evidence ‒ in particular, the growing need for a more preventive clinical approach

Antisocial and Callous Behaviour in Children

Antisocial behaviour is one of the most common reasons for a childhood referral to mental health and educational services and represents a substantial public health cost. Callous-unemotional traits can be used to distinguish between children who are capable of pre-meditated antisocial behaviour and violence and children whose antisocial behaviour and violence are primarily impulsive and threat reactive. Decades of developmental psychopathology research have shown that children with antisocial behaviour are thus a heterogeneous group and, for interventions to be successful, it is critical that distinct subgroups of children receive services that best match their profile of vulnerabilities and strengths. Recent advances in genetic and brain imaging research in the field have made important contributions to our understanding of the developmental vulnerability that callous-unemotional traits represent. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the current evidence base with regard to genetic and neuroscience findings of callous-unemotional traits and antisocial behaviour with callous-unemotional traits. We also discuss the implications of these findings for prevention and intervention, and finish by outlining what we consider to be necessary directions for future research

A Comparison of Self-Reported Pain Levels in Minimally-Shod vs Traditionally-Shod Runners

Please see the pdf version of the abstract

The Influence of Proximal versus Distal Strength on Balance Control in Athletes versus Non-Athletes

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Modelling the Fermilab Collider to determine optimal running

A Monte Carlo-type model of the Fermilab Collider has been constructed, the goal of which is to accurately represent the operation of the Collider, incorporating the aspects of the facility which affect operations in order to determine how to run optimally. In particular, downtime for the various parts of the complex are parameterized and included. Also, transfer efficiencies, emittance growths, changes in the luminosity lifetime and other effects are included and randomized in a reasonable manner. This Memo is an outgrowth of TM-1878, which presented an entirely analytical model of the Collider. It produced a framework for developing intuition on the way in which the major components of the collider affect the luminosity, like the stacking rate and the shot set-up time, for example. However, without accurately including downtime effects, it is not possible to say with certainty that the analytical approach can produce accurate guidelines for optimizing the performance of the Collider. This is the goal of this analysis. We first discuss the way the model is written, describing the object-oriented approach taken in C++. The parameters of the simulation are described. Then the potential criteria for ending stores are described and analyzed. Next, a typical store and a typical week are derived. Then, a final conclusion on the best end-of-store criterion is made. Finally, ideas for future analysis are presented