The Pivotal Role of Adolescent Autonomy in Secondary School Classrooms

Student engagement is an important contributor to school success, yet high school students routinely describe themselves as disengaged. Identifying factors that alter (increase) engagement is a key aspect of improving support for student achievement. This study investigated students’ perceptions of autonomy, teacher connection, and academic competence as predictors of changes in student engagement within the classroom from the start to the end of a course. Participants were 578 (58% female) diverse (67.8% White, 25.2% African American, 5.1% Hispanic, 1.2% Asian American) high school students from 34 classrooms who provided questionnaire data both at the start and the end of a single course. Novel results from a cross-lagged model demonstrated that students who perceived their classrooms as allowing and encouraging their own autonomy in the first few weeks increased their engagement throughout the course, rather than the typical decline in engagement that was demonstrated by students in other classrooms. This finding is unique in that it extended to both students’ perceptions of engagement and observations of student engagement, suggesting a fairly robust pattern. The pertinence of this finding to adolescent developmental needs and its relationship to educational practice is discussed.     

Associations Between Fifth Graders’ Gender Atypical Problem Behavior and Peer Relationships: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study

An accruing body of evidence supports associations between self-perceived gender typicality and peer relationship difficulties; however, researchers have yet to evaluate peers' perceptions of problem behaviors to gain insight into the social correlates of gender typicality. A short-term longitudinal study was conducted to evaluate associations between gender atypical problem behavior and subsequent peer relational difficulties for 2,076 fifth graders (M age= 10.27; 53% female). Peer nomination methodology was used to assess participants' classroom peer relationships, problem behaviors, and social-emotional characteristics. Findings showed that youth characterized by gender atypical, compared to gender typical, problem behavior (withdrawn boys/aggressive girls vs. withdrawn girls/aggressive boys, respectively) evidenced higher levels of subsequent peer difficulties; moreover, participation in a mutual friendship was associated with decreased risk for peer relationship maladjustment, particularly among youth characterized by gender atypical problem behavior. Results further revealed that, compared to friendless youth, friended youth earned higher prosocial and peer liking scores and, for withdrawn youth, lower emotional sensitivity scores. The present research contributes to our understanding of the potential short-term consequences of youth's gender atypical problem behavior. Findings underscore the need for supplemental conceptualizations of gender typicality as well as multifaceted interventions designed to promote the acceptance of gender nonnormativity, support the development of adaptive peer relationships, and reduce the occurrence of problem behaviors.     

Risk assessment and suicide prevention in primary care

General practitioners (GPs) are assumed to occupy an important position in the prevention of suicide through the introduction of risk assessment techniques commonly used in psychiatric practice. Despite this theoretical role for primary care services, it remains unclear how frequently GPs implement risk assessment in patients who may be vulnerable to suicide. To address this, a retrospective survey of probable suicides was conducted within a primary care setting utilizing a questionnaire of GPs who had experienced a patient suicide and was augmented by hospital and coroners' records. 85% of questionnaires were returned and 61 deaths were adjudged as suicides during the year long census period. 75% of suicides were male and 54% were aged under 35.28% were in contact with psychiatric services prior to death, although 60% had some diagnosis of mental disorder. GPs had little knowledge of a patient's life circumstances in up to half of cases. Recording of risk assessment occurred in 38% of subjects, was positively associated with prior psychiatric contact (p = 0.001) but negatively associated with presence of physical illness (p = 0.004), older patient age (p = 0.04), and GPs length in practice (p = 0.05). One GP felt their suicide case was preventable. The low rate of risk assessment and limited knowledge of patient lifestyle point to the need for active engagement of GPs in future suicide prevention strategies and should influence the content of training programs in primary care.     

为什么中国的居民收入分配比俄罗斯更不平等?(上)

本文是德国劳动研究所研究人员B.古斯塔夫森、李实以及俄罗斯罗斯托夫国家经济大学的卢德米拉.尼沃若兹基那于2010年12月合作撰写的题为《为什么中国的居民收入分配比俄罗斯更不平等?》的研究论文。文章使用统一的微观数据研究了中俄两     

中国与阿富汗双边关系

2014年3月28日,应四川大学南亚与中国西部合作发展研究中心与南亚研究所的邀请,阿富汗伊斯兰共和国驻华大使馆公使衔参赞、副馆长古尔·侯赛因·艾哈迈迪先生莅临南亚研究所的"南亚论坛"就阿富汗现状和中阿关系议题向四川大学师生发表了相关看法。现将古尔·侯赛因·艾哈迈迪先生此次发言整理如下。     

党校图书馆特色数据库资源共建共享

由于信息技术、网络技术的飞速发展,使得图书馆从观念到实践均发生了一场变革.自给自足,以最大限度地满足读者的所有要求悄然让位于共建、共知、共享,以最大限度地获取信息来满足读者的需求.文献信息资源共享对图书馆今后的发展有着重要的意义.新疆党校图书馆要充分发挥在资源共建共享方面的作用,与各省党校经常进行交流与学习,进而在全国范围内实现文献资源共享.     

苏共二十六大关于成熟社会主义概念的发展

任何一种理论其中包括发达社会主义理论,基本上可归结为二个因素——规律和范畴。因此,发现和研究成熟社会主义的规律以及反映这些客观规律的新概念(新范畴)的科学表达方法乃是成熟社会主义理论的发展趋势。如果个别作者在专著中得出了某些科学结论、原理和概念,而后又反映在党或国家的文件中并加以具体化,也就是说上升为公认的和具有普遍意义的阶段——这是理论发展极重要的因素。对理论研究进行总结并对今后的理论研究提     

Fatal outcome of poisoning with the benzodiazepines flunitrazepam and diazepam

On a wintry day a 29-year-old woman was found dead beside her car showing head injuries and signs of hypothermia. Several empty packets of sedative and hypnotic drugs were lying inside the car. Toxicological analysis revealed the presence of flunitrazepam (heart blood of the left and right chamber 0.033 mg/L each), norflunitrazepam (left heart blood 0.029 mg/L, right heart blood 0.027 mg/L), 7-amino-flunitrazepam (left heart blood 0.090 mg/L, right heart blood 0.104 mg/L), diazepam (left heart blood 0.395 mg/L, right heart blood 0.386 mg/L), nordazepam (left heart blood 0.112 mg/L, right heart blood 0.115 mg/L) and temazepam (left heart blood 0.034 mg/L, right heart blood 0.033 mg/L). Neither alcohol nor other drugs were found. It was concluded that benzodiazepine intake led to a disturbance of consciousness. Whether the woman died in this situation due to the icy temperature as a result of hypothermia or whether she died or would have died solely due to benzodiazepine overdosage could not be clarified.     

Successful DNA typing of a urine sample in a doping control case using human mitochondrial DNA analysis

In a doping control case, a urine sample was tested positive for nandrolon. We were asked by the athlete to perform DNA investigations on the questioned urine sample and compare these to a fresh blood sample taken from the athlete in order to detect or rule out manipulation and/or switching of the samples. The urine sample had been collected nine months prior to the investigation and had been stored at 4 degrees C. In a first approach, nuclear DNA systems were investigated that failed with the exception of the Amelogenin system. Due to the high copy number of mitochondrial DNA molecules and the robustness of the mitochondrial genome, we investigated the HVR I and HVR II regions of mitochondrial DNA and obtained reproducible and clear sequencing results for both the blood and the urine samples. Due to the identical sequences, it could not be excluded that the blood sample and the urine sample were from the same individual or an individual having the same maternal lineage.