Penetrating skull stab.

Fatal skull stabs are rare. In the case reported here, a 28-year-old man sustained an isolated penetrating skull injury from a knife and died two days later. The bone shard with the stab puncture, which was neurosurgically removed before death, later allowed the reproducible exact assignment of the murder knife found at the scene to the stab as well as the estimation of the length of the intracranial stab channel.

The effect of confession evidence on jurors' verdict decisions: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: Over the past 4 decades, discrepant research findings have emerged in the juror-confession literature, prompting the need for a systematic review and meta-analysis that assesses the effect of confession evidence (coerced or noncoerced) on conviction rates and the efficacy of trial safeguards.

Hypotheses: We did not predict any directional hypotheses. Some studies show increased convictions when a confession is present (vs.

Fabricating mesoscale polymer ribbons with tunable mechanical properties evaporative deposition and dewetting.

Synthetic replication of the precise mesoscale control found in natural systems poses substantial experimental challenges due to the need for manipulation across multiple length scales (from nano- to millimeter). We address this challenge by using a 'flow coating' method to fabricate polymer ribbons with precisely tunable dimensions and mechanical properties. Overcoming barriers that previously limited the achievable range of properties with this method, we eliminate the need for substrate patterning and post-processing etching to facilitate the production of high aspect ratio, filament-like ribbons across a range of polymers-from glassy polystyrene to elastomeric poly(butadiene), as well as poly(butadiene--styrene).

Exposure therapy tailored to inhibitory learning principles in a naturalistic setting: an open pilot trial in obsessive-compulsive outpatient care.

Inhibitory learning (IL) theory offers promising therapeutic strategies. However, more evidence is needed, especially regarding OCD treatment in routine care. The present pilot study investigated the positive and negative effects of IL-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in a university outpatient setting.

Efficacy of memory protocols in 9- to 89-year-olds' memory for prior contacts.

Memory for prior contacts has several important applied implications, including contact tracing (for communicable diseases). Incomplete episodic memory reports, which occur across the developmental lifespan but are particularly relevant for children and older adults, may hamper such efforts. Prior research has shown that cognitively informed memory techniques may bolster recall of contacts in adults, but that work has not addressed the developmental efficacy of these techniques.

What helps and what hinders antidepressant discontinuation? Qualitative analysis of patients' experiences and expectations.

Background: Many patients with depressive disorders use antidepressants longer than clinically indicated. Long-term use of antidepressants is associated with high individual and societal costs. Patients often perceive antidepressant discontinuation as challenging.

International study on the prevalence of malnutrition in centralized care for colorectal cancer patients.

Objectives: Patients with different diseases may show signs of malnutrition both before and during the hospital stay. The presence of malnutrition may impact the recovery and length of stay and consequently the costs. Early identification of malnutrition is thus a critical factor.

Prehabilitation in elective surgical interventions - what must the general and abdominal surgeon know.

Objectives: For years, many efforts have been invested to prepare patients, in particular, those with reduced physical and psychic status, much better to provide and finally achieve better outocme if there is time available to provide several beneficial measures.

Methods: Therefore, the objective was to illustrate the concept and various single elements of a complex prehabilitation concept based on (i) selective references from the medical literature and (ii) own clinical experiences from clinical practice in general and abdominal surgery.

Results: Prehabiliation can be considered the solution of the efforts to improve preoperative status for patients in a disadvantageous status for almost all types of surgery and all other operative and/or interventional procedures.

Study protocol: combined N-of-1 trials to assess open-label placebo treatment for antidepressant discontinuation symptoms [FAB-study].

Background: Antidepressant discontinuation is associated with a broad range of adverse effects. Debilitating discontinuation symptoms can impede the discontinuation process and contribute to unnecessary long-term use of antidepressants. Antidepressant trials reveal large placebo effects, indicating a potential use of open-label placebo (OLP) treatment to facilitate the discontinuation process.

The effect of credibility assessment techniques on consistency and subsequent memory for the truth.

Repeated interviews are common during an investigation, and perceived consistency between multiple statements is associated with an interviewee's credibility. Furthermore, research has shown that the act of lying can affect a person's memory for what truthfully occurred. The current study assessed the influence of lying on memory during initial and repeated interviews, as well as how an interviewer's approach might affect between-statement consistency for true and false statements.

Disentangling pharmacological and expectation effects in antidepressant discontinuation among patients with fully remitted major depressive disorder: study protocol of a randomized, open-hidden discontinuation trial.

Background: Antidepressants are established as an evidence-based, guideline-recommended treatment for Major Depressive Disorder. Prescriptions have markedly increased in past decades, with a specific surge in maintenance prescribing. Patients often remain on antidepressants longer than clinically necessary.

The impact of alertness vs. fatigue on interrogators in an actigraphic study of field investigations.

Investigative interviews (e.g., interrogations) are a critical component of criminal, military, and civil investigations.

PROTOCOL: Interview and interrogation methods and their effects on true and false confessions: An update and extension.

This is the protocol for a Campbell systematic review. The objective is to assess the effects of interrogation approach on confession outcomes for criminal (mock) suspects.

One-Step Synthesis of Biphasic, Cavity-forming Polymer Particles via Dispersion Copolymerization of Styrene and Sulfobetaine Methacrylate.

A one-step dispersion copolymerization technique is demonstrated to fabricate biphasic particles as an approach to streamline the production of particles with complex morphology. The model system studies a monomer feed of hydrophobic styrene and hydrophilic, zwitterionic sulfobetaine methacrylate (SBMA) in a water/isopropanol cosolvent mixture. The resulting particles have a core-shell morphology that can be transformed, simply by washing the particles with water, into particles with a single surface opening connected to an interior cavity.

Associations Between Mental Health Problems in Adolescence and Educational Attainment in Early Adulthood: Results of the German Longitudinal BELLA Study.

Mental health problems (MHP) in adolescence are a major public health concern of the 21st century. Global prevalence estimates range between 10 and 20%. Most MHP manifest by adolescence and persistence rates are high, often accumulating further impairment in early adulthood and beyond.

The Influence of Acute Sprint Interval Training on Cognitive Performance of Healthy Younger Adults.

There is considerable evidence showing that an acute bout of physical exercises can improve cognitive performance, but the optimal exercise characteristics (e.g., exercise type and exercise intensity) remain elusive.

Enhancing the effectiveness of contact tracing interviews: A randomized controlled experiment of an enhanced cognitive interview protocol.

Objectives: To compare the efficacy of a psychologically-based contact tracing interview protocol to a control protocol that emulated current practices under both interviewer-led and self-led modalities.

Methods: This randomized controlled experiment utilized a 2 × 2 factorial design (Enhanced Cognitive protocol vs Control protocol; Interviewer-led call vs Self-led online survey). Data were collected online (n = 200; M = 44; 56.

Matthew or compensatory effects? Factors that influence the math literacy of primary-school children in Germany.

Background And Aims: This study focuses on individual differences in the math competencies of primary-school children in Germany. It considers whether or not there are Matthew or compensatory effects in math literacy and which factors and background characteristics of primary-school children can affect competence development. Despite the abundant research on this topic, the findings are often ambiguous, and studies in the German context are sparse.

Persistent Pandemics.

We ask whether mortality from historical pandemics has any predictive content for mortality in the Covid-19 pandemic. We find strong persistence in public health performance. Places that performed worse in terms of mortality in the 1918 influenza pandemic also have higher Covid-19 mortality today.

An unusual presentation of Huntington's disease.

We describe the case of a 59-year-old woman who exhibited psychotic symptoms, cognitive dysfunction, and restlessness. While the clinical picture and 18F-FDG PET/CT suggested the presence of a tauopathy, especially frontotemporal dementia or progressive supranuclear palsy, genetic testing eventually revealed Huntington's disease.

GWAS-Top Polymorphisms Associated With Late-Onset Alzheimer Disease in Brazil: Pointing Out Possible New Culprits Among Non-Coding RNAs.

Several genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been carried out with late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD), mainly in European and Asian populations. Different polymorphisms were associated, but several of them without a functional explanation. GWAS are fundamental for identifying loci associated with diseases, although they often do not point to causal polymorphisms.

Improvement of the coherent model function for S-branch Raman linewidth determination in oxygen.

Determination of S-branch Raman linewidths of oxygen from picosecond time-domain pure rotational coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (RCARS) measurements requires consideration of coherence beating. We present an optimization of the established model for fitting the coherence decay in oxygen, which leads to an improvement in Raman linewidth data quality, especially for the challenging small signal intensity and decay constant regime, enabling the application for low oxygen concentrations. Two modifications to the fitting procedure are discussed, which aim at reliably fitting the second coherence beat properly.