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Little is known whether differences exist in motivation and reactive/instrumental offense behaviors between murder offenders with and without psychotic disorder. To contribute to better prevention strategies, the aim of this study was to investigate offense characteristics in murder offenders with a psychotic, nonpsychotic or no psychiatric diagnosis, and whether these factors differ according to sex. This data study examined the population of murder offenders between 1997 and 2005 ( N = 435) in Victoria, Australia. Apparent motive for murder was allocated to one of six classifications. Assignations of reactive versus instrumental offense categories, co-offending, victim-offender relationship were determined by review of case material. Mental health service usage and prevalence of mental illnesses were identified through data with the statewide register of contacts with the public mental health system. Of the 435 offenders, 43 (9.9%) had been diagnosed with a psychotic illness. Gender differences between and within offenders with and without a psychotic disorder were analyzed. Murder offenders with a psychotic disorder were 3.19 (95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.27, 8.03]) times more likely to be motivated by revenge than nonpsychotic offenders and those with no diagnosis (odds ratio [OR] = 2.46, 95% CI = [1.10, 5.53]). The diagnostic groups did not differ on premeditation of their offenses or prior convictions. Perpetrators with psychotic illness were significantly more likely to kill family members and others known to them. It appears that for the psychotic disorder group, the perception of having been wronged in some way is a potential risk marker for planning and committing a serious offense. Care should be taken to improve adherence and access to care to avoid possible future serious violence especially in female patients with a high burden of mental illness like schizophrenia or severe mood disorders.

Nanotechnology holds great potential as an enabler of a wide range of biotechnologies that will change the face of medicine and may eventually alter the very definition of human health. Deb Bennett-Woods argues that these changes will also pose unprecedented challenges regarding access to health-related technologies, the meaning of consent, and the nature of human identity. Development (2006) 49, 54–59. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100297

For years the government has been concerned about terrorists and unconventional weapons – but is the threat real? The threat is definitely real, but may not be from the source you would expect. The threat is not from biological and chemical weapons as experts seems to think – yes the information is readily available, but production and dissemination are far more complicated than what the public has been lead to believe. Even the threat from radiological devices, otherwise known as ‘dirty bombs’, is not realistic. The weapon is extremely dangerous to make, very heavy and produces a low mass casualty rate. Instead the threat stems from terrorists acquiring, producing or stealing nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons today are small enough that we would never be able to find them, and they can be remotely detonated.

25 older adults with vision loss participated in a communication screen which included hearing, speech-language, and a self-assessment of communication. 64% failed at least two of the three screenings, suggesting that routine screening might identify older adults with vision loss who need rehabilitation in communication as a complement to visual rehabilitation.

Analyses of response relationships offer the potential for designing treatment procedures that are more economical and entail less risk for misuse than many we currently employ. The present study investigated whether previous results indicating the reduction of problem behaviors by reinforcing compliance in fact occurred because of the contingent relationship between compliance and the presumed reinforcing events. A clinic analogue procedure consisting of a standard set of adult requests was employed in a multiple baseline design across subjects with three children receiving three conditions — no reinforcement, noncontingent reinforcement, and reinforcement contingent on compliance — and a fourth child receiving the first and third conditions to assess possible order effects. The data indicated that: (1) compliance covaried inversely with some, but not all, of the problem behaviors measured; (2) sustained covariation occurred only when reinforcement was contingent on compliance; (3) substantially large but transient increases in compliance and decreases in problem behavior during noncontingent reinforcement occurred for those children who initially demonstrated high compliance and low levels of aberrant behavior during baseline; and (4) the problem behaviors that inversely covaried with compliance were idiosyncratic across children. The results suggest that treatment procedures based on response relationship strategies should consider that children's individual learning histories may determine which behaviors covary and the likelihood that large, initial changes can occur with noncontingent reinforcement.

The extent to which immune processes contribute to senescence-related neurological/behavioral impairment was examined using an adoptive transfer procedure. C57BL/6 mice aged 22 to 24 months showed impaired ability for acquisition of an active avoidance response when compared with younger mice aged 3 months. An immunofluorescence assay of the sera of these mice indicated that only sera from the senescent mice reacted with brain antigen. When tested three months following irradiation and receipt of bone marrow/spleen cell suspensions from senescent mice, young mice showed senescence-like serum-brain reactivity and declines in their abilities to acquire learning. Young control mice receiving cell suspensions from age-matched donors showed no evidence of serum-brain reactivity or learning deficits, suggesting that impaired learning was related to acquisition of aged immunity and not a nonspecific effect of the transfer procedure. These findings indicate that immune processes may be involved in the etiology of senescence-related neurological/behavioral dysfunctions.

Previous studies have indicated an increase in brain-reactive antibodies (BRA) in sera of aging mammals and an autoimmune disorder underlying senescence has been suggested. Since New Zealand Black (NZB) mice have a shorter lifespan and greater propensity for autoimmune diseases than C57BL/6 mice, various age groups from both strains of mice were investigated for simultaneous occurrence of BRA serum titer and deficits in learning. NZB mice exhibited a marked learning deficit as well as higher BRA levels at all ages. C57BL/6 mice showed increased BRA and a learning deficit only at advanced ages. The findings of “precocious” BRA titers along with marked learning deficits, both occurring at young ages in NZB mice and both similar to defects seen in the normal mice at senescence and in patients with senile-dementia, suggest that NZB mice may serve as a useful animal model or pre-senile dementia.