School Based Responses to Non-Suicidal Self Injury and Suicide: Literature Considerations When Framing a Policy Response

Deliberate Non-Suicidal Self Injury (NSSI) and suicide present distinct but related concerns for schools. An Australian study of over 6,300 families containing children/ adolescents aged 4 to 17 years found that one in 10 young people had engaged with NSSI – with three quarters of this cohort having harmed themselves in the previous twelve months (Lawrence, 2015). The same study found that within the 12 to 17 year old age group, one in 13 individuals had considered suicide in the previous 12 months, with one in 40 having made attempts (Lawrence, 2015). This article seeks to articulate key themes from literature that demand consideration by schools seeking to construct their own framework or pastoral response, balancing the prioritization of student safety whilst also attending to the realities of staff competencies. Given the age group presented in the Lawrence (2015) study, it should not be surprising that adolescents in the school context may disclosure the presence of intrusive thoughts pertaining to at-risk behaviours. Consequently, schools are well placed to deliver prevention services and simultaneously, need to be prepared to respond to situations of NSSI and suicide attempts. Drawing on the expertise of staff from an Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA) school located in Brisbane, this paper draws links to existing policy determinants of pastoral care from within this Catholic school, whilst considering the issue of risk-to-self with relevant themes organized according to the three action areas outlined by the Queensland Suicide Action Prevention Plan (Queensland Mental Health Commission, 2015) namely: prevention; intervention; and postvention

Shannon-R\'enyi entropies and participation spectra across 3d O(3)O(3) criticality

Universal features in the scalings of Shannon-R\'enyi entropies of many-body groundstates are studied for interacting spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ systems across (2+1) dimensional $O(3)$ critical points, using quantum Monte Carlo simulations on dimerized and plaquettized Heisenberg models on the square lattice. Considering both full systems and line shaped subsystems, $SU(2)$ symmetry breaking on the N\'eel ordered side of the transition is characterized by the presence of a logarithmic term in the scaling of Shannon-R\'enyi entropies, which is absent in the disordered gapped phase. Such a difference in the scalings allows to capture the quantum critical point using Shannon-R\'enyi entropies for line shaped subsystems of length $L$ embedded in $L\times L$ tori, as the smaller subsystem entropies are numerically accessible to much higher precision than for the full system. Most interestingly, at the quantum phase transition an additive subleading constant $b_\infty^{*\rm line}=0.41(1)$ emerges in the critical scaling of the line Shannon-R\'enyi entropy $S_\infty^\text{line}$. This number appears to be universal for 3d $O(3)$ criticality, as confirmed for the finite-temperature transition in the 3d antiferromagnetic spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ Heisenberg model. Additionally, the phases and phase transition can be detected in several features of the participation spectrum, consisting of the diagonal elements of the reduced density matrix of the line subsystem. In particular the N\'eel ordering transition can be simply understood in the $\{S^z\}$ basis by a confinement mechanism of ferromagnetic domain walls.Comment: 16 pages, 19 figure

Conceptual model of communication of information for informational interaction studies based on conversational competencies in a reference service

O objetivo deste artigo é discutir um modelo conceitual de comunicação da informação aplicável a estudos de interação entre usuário e bibliotecário, baseado em "competências conversacionais" em serviço de referência. Na ciência da informação, o fenômeno das "competências conversacionais" estaria no âmbito da transferência ou da comunicação da informação? Seria o modelo de Shannon e Weaver o mais apropriado para explicar esse fenômeno? Refletindo-se sobre a primeira pergunta, parece haver certa confusão conceitual, quando o assunto é comunicação da informação em ciência da informação. Utilizou-se Barreto (2005) e Pinheiro e Loureiro (1995), como base para a discussão desse aspecto. Com relação à segunda pergunta, talvez, a explicação da adoção do modelo de Shannon e Weaver na ciência da informação se dê pelo estudo dos paradigmas. Como as pesquisas iniciais da ciência da informação, em meados dos anos 50, estavam mais focadas no paradigma físico da recuperação da informação e o modelo de Shannon e Weaver surge mais ou menos na mesma época, a apropriação foi quase imediata. Mas, com a inserção de outros paradigmas, como o cognitivo e o social nos estudos na ciência da informação, o modelo de Shannon e Weaver passou a ser desconstruído e reconstruído sob novas óticas.The aim of this paper is to discuss a conceptual model of communication of information applicable to studies of the interaction between user and librarian based on "conversational competencies" in a reference service. In information science would the phenomenon of "conversational skills" be in the transfer or communication of information? Would Shannon and Weaver 's model be the most appropriate to explain this phenomenon? Reflecting on that first question, there seems to be a conceptual confusion when the subject is communication of information in information science. We used Barreto (2005) and Pinheiro and Loureiro (1995) as a basis for the discussion of the first question. Regarding the second question, perhaps explaining the adoption of the model of Shannon and Weaver in information science is given through the study of paradigms. Since the early research of information science in the mid-50s were more focused on the physical paradigm of information retrieval and the model of Shannon and Weaver appears at approximately the same time its appropriation was almost immediate. But, with the inclusion of other paradigms such as cognitive and social paradigms in the studies of information science, and also with the emergence of other theories in science communication, the model of Shannon and Weaver came to be deconstructed and rebuilt under new perspectives

Differential entropy and time

We give a detailed analysis of the Gibbs-type entropy notion and its dynamical behavior in case of time-dependent continuous probability distributions of varied origins: related to classical and quantum systems. The purpose-dependent usage of conditional Kullback-Leibler and Gibbs (Shannon) entropies is explained in case of non-equilibrium Smoluchowski processes. A very different temporal behavior of Gibbs and Kullback entropies is confronted. A specific conceptual niche is addressed, where quantum von Neumann, classical Kullback-Leibler and Gibbs entropies can be consistently introduced as information measures for the same physical system. If the dynamics of probability densities is driven by the Schr\"{o}dinger picture wave-packet evolution, Gibbs-type and related Fisher information functionals appear to quantify nontrivial power transfer processes in the mean. This observation is found to extend to classical dissipative processes and supports the view that the Shannon entropy dynamics provides an insight into physically relevant non-equilibrium phenomena, which are inaccessible in terms of the Kullback-Leibler entropy and typically ignored in the literature.Comment: Final, unabridged version; http://www.mdpi.org/entropy/ Dedicated to Professor Rafael Sorkin on his 60th birthda