Does Early Yogācāra Have a Theory of Meaning? Sthiramati’s Arguments on Metaphor in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Triṃśikā-bhāṣya</Emphasis>

Can the early Yogācāra be said to present a systematic theory of meaning? The paper argues that Sthiramati’s bhā?ya on Vasubandhu’s Tri??ikā (Treatise in Thirty Verses), in which he argues that all language-use is metaphorical, indeed amounts to such a theory, both because of the text’s engagement with the wider Indian philosophical conversation about reference and meaning and by virtue of the questions it addresses and its motivations. Through a translation and analysis of key sections of Sthiramati’s commentary I present the main features of this theory of meaning and discuss the ways in which it is distinct from Vasubandhu’s ideas. I demonstrate how this theory of meaning enabled Sthiramati to present a unique understanding of discourse that distinguishes between varying levels of truth within the conventional realm. This understanding sat well with the Yogācāra soteriological and theoretical needs, and most importantly, enabled him to establish the meaningfulness of the school’s own metaphysical discourse. Securing this meaningfulness was especially important to Sthiramati in meeting the challenge posed by the radical conventionalism of the Madhyamaka, and his response as I interpret it suggests that one of the main disputes between the early Yogācāra with the Mādhyamika, at least as reflected in the Tri??ikā-bhā?ya, in fact turns on linguistic rather than ontological issues.     

Photodegradation and laser desorption mass spectrometry for the characterization of dyes used in red pen inks

Photodegradation and laser desorption mass spectrometry (LDMS) is a powerful combination of methods capable of characterizing dyes found in pen inks. Rhodamine dyes in pens that contain red ink were analyzed directly from paper (no extraction step is necessary). Inks exposed to incandescent light form photodegradation products (compounds with lower molecular weights than that of the intact dye) and in some instances, photoproducts (compounds with higher molecular weights than that of the intact dye). The degradation products and photoproducts can be detected with LDMS, and the results can be used for dye identification. Advantages include: (1) the instrumental analysis takes less than a minute; (2) sample preparation is minimal; (3) LDMS is a minimally destructive technique; (4) incandescent light sources are inexpensive, safe to use, and readily available; and (5) isomeric dyes can be distinguished.     

Suicide associated with the Antichrist delusion

The Antichrist delusion is a relatively infrequently observed religious delusion. Some cases of the Antichrist delusion have been associated with violence toward others. The aim of this article is to document a case of suicide secondary to the delusion. At age 17 a woman with no history of mental illness developed the belief that she was the Antichrist. For several years she did not discuss this with anyone and functioned appropriately in society. Then, at age 32, after the birth of her first child, her delusion intensified and she ultimately committed suicide to protect others from the harm she felt she was destined to cause them. The Antichrist delusion as a misidentification state may involve danger to a patient who harbors the delusion, as well as to other individuals.     

Patterns of Practice in Mental Health Courts: A National Survey

Mental health courts (MHCs) represent an important new development at the interface of the criminal justice and mental health systems. MHCs are criminal courts for persons with mental illness that were in part created to divert this population from jail/prison into community treatment. MHCs are proliferating rapidly despite limited knowledge regarding their characteristics or their efficacy. We surveyed the entire population of adult MHCs in the United States, n = 90. In the past 8 years, MHCs have been created in 34 states, with an aggregate current caseload of 7,560 clients in MHCs nationally. Most courts (92%) reported using jail as a sanction for noncompliance, if only rarely. Further, jail sanction use was significantly predicted by increased judicial supervision and number of felons in the court. Implications for MHCs and social monitoring are discussed.     

The relationship between mandated community treatment and perceived barriers to care in persons with severe mental illness

OBJECTIVE: In recent decades debate has intensified over both the ethics and effectiveness of mandated mental health treatment for persons residing in the community. Perceived barriers to care among persons subjected to mandated community treatment, and the possibility that fear of involuntary treatment may actually create or strengthen such barriers rather than dissolve them, are key issues relevant to this debate but have been little studied. This article explores the link between receipt of mandated (or "leveraged") community treatment and reasons for avoiding or delaying treatment reported by persons with severe mental illness. It also examines the potential moderating effect of social support on the association between mandated treatment experiences and barriers attributable to fear of involuntary commitment or forced treatment. METHOD: Data are presented from a survey of 1011 persons with psychiatric disorders being treated in public-sector mental health service systems in five U.S. cities. Logistic and negative binomial regression analyses were used to examine the association between mandated community treatment and perceptions of barriers to care, controlling for demographic and clinical characteristics. RESULTS: Across sites, 32.4% to 46.3% of respondents reported barriers attributed to fear of forced treatment. Whereas 63.7% to 76.1% reported at least one non-mandate-related barrier to care; the mean number of non-mandated barriers to care ranged from 1.6 to 2.3 (range 0-7). Between 44.1% and 59.0% of participants had experienced at least one type of leveraged treatment. Persons experiencing multiple forms of mandated treatment were more likely to report barriers to care in comparison to those not reporting mandated treatment. Findings also indicated that social support moderates the relationship between multiple leverages (three or four forms) and mandate-related barriers to care. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived barriers to care associated with mandated treatment experience have the potential to adversely affect both treatment adherence and therapeutic alliance. Awareness of potential barriers to care and how they interact with patients' perceived social support may lead to improved outcomes associated with mandated treatment.     

Modeling eligibility under national systems of compensation for treatment injury

How can different schemes of compensation for treatment injury be evaluated? This article offers an empirical approach to assessment based on the simulation of alternative models of eligibility using real-world data. It draws on information about adverse events generated from a representative survey of public hospital admissions in New Zealand and classifies these under a range of eligibility criteria for different possible compensation systems. These are then evaluated according to a number of policy design considerations, using variables available from the New Zealand study.     

Understanding the risk factors for violence and criminality in women: the concurrent validity of the PCL-R and HCR-20

This study explores the performance of 132 female maximum-security inmates on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and the HCR-20 (Historical, Clinical, and Risk Management Scheme) to examine the concordance between these two risk assessment instruments, and to assess their potential usefulness in determining level of risk for violent behavior and other forms of criminality. The two instruments demonstrated consistent and highly significant correlations across total scores, factor scores, and subscale scores. When the two instruments were entered into a multiple regression analysis to predict violent and non-violent crime, the HCR-20 did not add to the variance explained by the PCL-R. These results confirm earlier research that suggests that there is little or no difference between these two risk assessment instruments in their relationship to community or institutional violence. Further, Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analyses show that both instruments demonstrated an inverse ability to predict convictions for murder, a close to chance ability to predict violent crime, but a shared ability to predict property and minor crime. Broadly, these results suggest that psychopathic women are involved in chronic patterns of non-violent criminality, while women charged and convicted of murder generally do not have elevated scores on the PCL-R or HCR-20. The relevance of these findings to rehabilitation and treatment is discussed.     

PC_Eyewitness and the Sequential Superiority Effect: Computer-Based Lineup Administration

Computer technology has become an increasingly important tool for conducting eyewitness identifications. In the area of lineup identifications, computerized administration offers several advantages for researchers and law enforcement. PC_Eyewitness is designed specifically to administer lineups. To assess this new lineup technology, two studies were conducted in order to replicate the results of previous studies comparing simultaneous and sequential lineups. One hundred twenty university students participated in each experiment. Experiment 1 used traditional paper-and-pencil lineup administration methods to compare simultaneous to sequential lineups. Experiment 2 used PC_Eyewitness to administer simultaneous and sequential lineups. The results of these studies were compared to the meta-analytic results reported by N. Steblay, J. Dysart, S. Fulero, and R. C. L. Lindsay (2001). No differences were found between paper-and-pencil and PC_Eyewitness lineup administration methods. The core findings of the N. Steblay et al. (2001) meta-analysis were replicated by both administration procedures. These results show that computerized lineup administration using PC_Eyewitness is an effective means for gathering eyewitness identification data.