Not lesser but Greater fractional anisotropy in adolescents with alcohol use disorders

AbstractObjectiveThe objective of this study is to examine white matter microstructure using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in a sample of adolescents with alcohol use disorders (AUD) and no psychiatric or substance co-morbidity.MethodsFifty adolescents with AUD and fifty non-alcohol abusing controls matched on gender and age were studied with DTI, neurocognitive testing, and a clinical assessment that included measures of alcohol use and childhood trauma. Maps of fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) were computed, registered to a common template, and voxel-wise statistical analysis used to assess group differences. Associations between regions of altered WM microstructure and clinical or neurocognitive measures were also assessed.ResultsCompared with controls, adolescent drinkers without co-morbid substance abuse or externalizing disorder, showed 1) no regions of significantly lower FA, 2) increased FA in WM tracts of the limbic system; 3) no MD differences; and 4) within the region of higher FA in AUD, there were no associations between FA and alcohol use, cognition, or trauma.DiscussionThe most important observation of this study is our failure to observe significantly smaller FA in this relatively large alcohol abuse/dependent adolescent sample. Greater FA in the limbic regions observed in this study may index a risk for adolescent AUD instead of a consequence of drinking. Drinking behavior may be reinforced in those with higher FA and perhaps greater myelination in these brain regions involved in reward and reinforcement

Torture Approval in Comparative Perspective

Torture is (almost) universally condemned as barbaric and ineffective, yet it persists in the modern world. What factors influence levels of support for torture? Public opinion data from 31 countries in 2006 and 2008 (a total of 44 country-years) are used to test three hypotheses related to the acceptability of torture. The findings, first, show that outright majorities in 31 country-years reject the use of torture. Multiple regression results show that countries with high per capita income and low domestic repression are less likely to support torture. Constraints on the executive have no significant effect on public opinion on torture

Book Review: Helena Cobban, Amnesty after Atrocity? Healing Nations after Genocide and War

Helena Cobban’s Amnesty after Atrocity? offers an exposition of the different ways in which three African states—Rwanda, South Africa, and Mozambique—have responded to crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide and criticizes the prescriptions previously made by international human-rights groups as to the need for prosecution and judgment. Written in a lively style (Cobban is a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor), each chapter begins with quotations from people on the scene and often returns to the judgments of local people

Imperial crime and punishment : the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh and British judgment, 1919-1920

Includes index.A revision of the author's thesis, Columbia University, 1971.Bibliography: p. [235]-241.xviii, 250 p. ill. 22 c