A Randomized Phase 2 Study of Long-Acting TransCon GH vs Daily GH in Childhood GH Deficiency.

Context: TransCon Growth Hormone (GH) (Ascendis Pharma) is a long-acting recombinant sustained-release human GH prodrug in development for children with GH deficiency (GHD).

Objective: To compare the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, safety, and efficacy of weekly TransCon GH to that of daily GH in prepubertal children with GHD.

Design: Randomized, open-label, active-controlled study of three doses of weekly TransCon GH versus daily Genotropin (Pfizer).

Combined evaluations of competency to stand trial and mental state at the time of the offense: An overlooked methodological consideration?

Combined evaluations of competency to stand trial (CST; competency) and mental state at the time of the offense (MSO; sanity) frequently co-occur. However, most research examines the 2 as discrete constructs without considering 4 potential combined evaluation outcomes: competent-sane, incompetent-sane, competent-insane, and incompetent-insane. External validity can be improved if research more closely mirrored practice.

Diagnostic Changes to DSM-5: The Potential Impact on Juvenile Justice.

Legal decision-makers have discretion at every stage of processing in the juvenile justice system, and individual youth characteristics (e.g., a particular psychiatric diagnosis) influence how a youth progresses through the system.

Enhancing the Value of Expert Assistance in Pro Se Competence Determinations.

Forensic mental health practitioners are comfortable assessing criminal defendants' competence to stand trial. They have a long history of making such assessments and a large body of research and scholarship to guide them. In recent years, however, the courts have drawn a distinction between general trial competence (i.

Parsing the Behavioral and Brain Mechanisms of Third-Party Punishment.

Unlabelled: The evolved capacity for third-party punishment is considered crucial to the emergence and maintenance of elaborate human social organization and is central to the modern provision of fairness and justice within society. Although it is well established that the mental state of the offender and the severity of the harm he caused are the two primary predictors of punishment decisions, the precise cognitive and brain mechanisms by which these distinct components are evaluated and integrated into a punishment decision are poorly understood. Using fMRI, here we implement a novel experimental design to functionally dissociate the mechanisms underlying evaluation, integration, and decision that were conflated in previous studies of third-party punishment.

Juvenile Sex Offenders.

Sexual offending by juveniles accounts for a sizable percentage of sexual offenses, especially against young children. In this article, recent research on female juvenile sex offenders (JSOs), risk factors for offending in juveniles, treatment, and the ways in which these youth may differ from general delinquents will be reviewed. Most JSOs do not go on to develop paraphilic disorders or to commit sex offenses during adulthood, and as a group, they are more similar to nonsexual offending juvenile delinquents than to adult sex offenders.

Addressing challenges for future strategic-level emergency management: reframing, networking, and capacity-building.

The mounting frequency and intensity of natural hazards, alongside growing interdependencies between social-technical and ecological systems, are placing increased pressure on emergency management. This is particularly true at the strategic level of emergency management, which involves planning for and managing non-routine, high-consequence events. Drawing on the literature, a survey, and interviews and workshops with Australia's senior emergency managers, this paper presents an analysis of five core challenges that these pressures are creating for strategic-level emergency management.

Determining firms׳ utility functions and competitive roles from data on market shares using Lotka-Volterra models.

In this article, we include data on historical and estimated market shares of two markets. In particular, we include annual data on the market shares of the Japanese beer market (1963-2000) and biannual data on the market shares of the mobile phones market in Greece (1998-2007). In addition, we estimate monthly data on market shares for both markets.

Precision medicine: opportunities, possibilities, and challenges for patients and providers.

Precision medicine approaches disease treatment and prevention by taking patients' individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle into account. Although the ideas underlying precision medicine are not new, opportunities for its more widespread use in practice have been enhanced by the development of large-scale databases, new methods for categorizing and representing patients, and computational tools for analyzing large datasets. New research methods may create uncertainty for both healthcare professionals and patients.

Five-year all-cause mortality rates across five categories of substantiated elder abuse occurring in the community.

Elder abuse increases the likelihood of early mortality, but little is known regarding which types of abuse may be resulting in the greatest mortality risk. This study included N = 1,670 cases of substantiated elder abuse and estimated the 5-year all-cause mortality for five types of elder abuse (caregiver neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse, financial exploitation, and polyvictimization). Statistically significant differences in 5-year mortality risks were found between abuse types and across gender.

Taiwan Regulation of Biobanks.

This paper introduces legal framework and governance structure in relation to the management and development of biobanks in Taiwan. At first, we briefly describe Taiwan's population, political system and health care system. Secondly, this research introduces biobanking framework of Taiwan including 25 biobanks established with the approval of the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Application and Utility of Psychodynamic Principles in Forensic Assessment.

Effective practice of forensic psychiatry is dependent on a clinical recognition and understanding of core psychodynamic principles and theory. Practice guidelines, rooted in the ethics-based imperative to strive for honesty and objectivity, demand that practitioners remain vigilant to the development of bias and appreciate interpersonal dynamics that may be re-enacted in the forensic setting. Although it is not feasible to maintain complete impartiality, especially when confronted with the nature of certain offenses, knowledge of both conscious and unconscious responses can bolster the intellectual integrity of the clinical assessment.

Juvenile Sex Offenders.

Public policy has tended to treat juvenile sex offenders (JSOs) as adult sex offenders in waiting, despite research that contradicts this notion. Although as a group, JSOs are more similar to general delinquents than to adult sex offenders, atypical sexual interests and sexual victimization during childhood may be a pathway for sexual offending that differentiates some JSOs from their nonsexually delinquent peers. Developmental considerations must be considered in risk assessment evaluations of these youth.

Psychopathy Checklist-Revised Use and Reporting Practices in Sexually Violent Predator Evaluations.

We surveyed evaluators who conduct sexually violent predator evaluations ( N = 95) regarding the frequency with which they use the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), their rationale for use, and scoring practices. Findings suggest that evaluators use the PCL-R in sexually violent predator cases because of its perceived versatility, providing information about both mental disorder and risk. Several findings suggested gaps between research and routine practice.

The communication of forensic science in the criminal justice system: A review of theory and proposed directions for research.

Clear communication about forensic science is essential to the effectiveness and perceived trustworthiness of the criminal justice system. Communication can be seen as a meaning-making process that involves different components such as the sender of a message, the message itself, the channel in which a message is sent, and the receiver of the message. Research conducted to date on the communication between forensic scientists and non-scientists in the criminal justice system has focused on different components of the communication process as objects of study.

Is serotonin an upper or a downer? The evolution of the serotonergic system and its role in depression and the antidepressant response.

The role of serotonin in depression and antidepressant treatment remains unresolved despite decades of research. In this paper, we make three major claims. First, serotonin transmission is elevated in multiple depressive phenotypes, including melancholia, a subtype associated with sustained cognition.

The impact of relationship dynamics on the detection and reporting of elder abuse occurring in domestic settings.

There is a keen desire to increase the detection and reporting of elder abuse. The purpose of this study was to describe the circumstances under which abuse is detected and reported and to identify the relationship dynamics that might be impacting detection and reporting decisions. Interviews were conducted with 71 Adult Protective Services (APS) caseworkers, 55 of their elderly clients, and 32 third-party adults.

Static-99R reporting practices in sexually violent predator cases: Does norm selection reflect adversarial allegiance?

We surveyed experts (N = 109) who conduct sexually violent predator (SVP) evaluations to obtain information about their Static-99R score reporting and interpretation practices. Although most evaluators reported providing at least 1 normative sample recidivism rate estimate, there were few other areas of consensus. Instead, reporting practices differed depending on the side for which evaluators typically performed evaluations.

Gestational exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls and dibenzofurans induced asymmetric hearing loss: Yucheng children study.

Introduction: In 1979, approximately 2000 people in central Taiwan were exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls and dibenzofurans (PCBs/PCDFs) due to ingestion of contaminated rice oil. The children born to mothers exposed to PCBs/PCDFs were called Yucheng children. We conducted a follow-up study to examine the association between gestational PCBs/PCDFS exposure and auditory function in Yucheng children's early adulthood.

Using research evidence to reframe the policy debate around mental illness and guns: process and recommendations.

Recent mass shootings have prompted a national dialogue around mental illness and gun policy. To advance an evidence-informed policy agenda on this controversial issue, we formed a consortium of national gun violence prevention and mental health experts. The consortium agreed on a guiding principle for future policy recommendations: restricting firearm access on the basis of certain dangerous behaviors is supported by the evidence; restricting access on the basis of mental illness diagnoses is not.

How likely is "likely to reoffend" in sex offender civil commitment trials?

Many sexually violent predator (SVP) laws are ambiguous regarding the degree of reoffense risk that would indicate that an offender is sufficiently "likely to reoffend" to justify civil commitment. We review how SVP statutes operationalize likelihood of reoffending. We then examine what likelihood of recidivism actual SVP jurors considered to indicate that an offender was likely to reoffend.