Childhood maltreatment is linked with later depressive symptoms, but not every maltreated child will experience symptoms later in life. Therefore, we investigate whether genetic predisposition for depression (i.e., polygenic score for depression, PGSDEP) modifies the association between maltreatment and depressive symptoms, while accounting for different types of maltreatment and whether it was evaluated through prospective and retrospective reports. The sample included 541–617 participants from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development with information on maltreatment, including threat, deprivation, assessed prospectively (5 months–17 years) and retrospectively (reported at 23 years), PGSDEP and self-reported depressive symptoms (20–23 years). Using hierarchical linear regressions, we found that retrospective, but not prospective indicators of maltreatment (threat/deprivation/cumulative) were associated with later depressive symptoms, above and beyond the PGSDEP. Our findings also show the presence of gene–environment interactions, whereby the association between maltreatment (retrospective cumulative maltreatment/threat, prospective deprivation) and depression was strengthened among youth with higher PGSDEP scores. Consistent with the Diathesis-Stress hypothesis, our findings suggest that a genetic predisposition for depression may exacerbate the putative impact of maltreatment on later depressive symptoms, especially when maltreatment is retrospective. Understanding the gene–environment interplay emerging in the context of maltreatment has the potential to guide prevention efforts.

A recent meta-analytic review demonstrated that retrospective assessments of childhood abuse acquired during adulthood – typically via self-report – demonstrate weak agreement with assessments of maltreatment gathered prospectively. The current report builds on prior findings by investigating the agreement of prospectively documented abuse from birth to age 17.5 years in the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation with retrospective, Adult Attachment Interview-based assessments of childhood abuse administered at ages 19 and 26 years. In this sample, an agreement between prospective and retrospective assessments of childhood abuse was considerably stronger (κ = .56) than was observed meta-analytically. Retrospective assessments identified prospectively documented sexual abuse somewhat better than physical abuse, and the retrospective approach taken here was more sensitive to identifying abuse perpetrated by primary caregivers compared to non-caregivers based on prospective records.

A long-standing practice in clinical and developmental psychology research on childhood maltreatment has been to consider prospective, official court records to be the gold standard measure of childhood maltreatment and to give less weight to adults’ retrospective self-reports of childhood maltreatment, sometimes even treating this data source as invalid. We argue that both formats of assessment – prospective and retrospective – provide important information on childhood maltreatment. Prospective data drawn from court records should not necessarily be considered the superior format, especially considering evidence of structural racism in child welfare. Part I overviews current maltreatment definitions in the context of the developmental psychopathology (DP) framework that has guided maltreatment research for over 40 years. Part II describes the ongoing debate about the disproportionalities of minoritized children at multiple decision-making stages of the child welfare system and the role that racism plays in many minoritized families’ experience of this system. Part III offers alternative interpretations for the lack of concordance between prospective, official records of childhood maltreatment and retrospective self-reports, and for the differential associations between each format of data with health outcomes. Moving forward, we recommend that future DP research on childhood maltreatment apply more inclusive, diversity and equity-informed approaches when assessing and interpreting the effects of childhood maltreatment on lifespan and intergenerational outcomes. We encourage future generations of DP scholars to use assessment methods that affirm the lived experiences of individuals and families who have directly experienced maltreatment and the child welfare system.

To investigate the accuracy of the age-at-onset criterion in those who meet other DSM-5 criteria for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, using a prospective population cohort we compared four different approaches to asking those aged 25 years (n = 138) when their symptoms started. Receiver operating characteristic curves showed variation between the approaches (χ(3) = 8.99, P = 0.03); all four showed low discrimination against symptoms that had been assessed when they were children (area under the curve: 0.57–0.68). Asking adults to recall specific symptoms may be preferable to recalling at what age symptoms started. However, limitations to retrospective recall add to debate on the validity of ADHD age-at-onset assessment.

Research and development (R&D) planners in homeland security agencies would like to be able to prioritize investments in projects based on costs versus future safety and security benefits. While costs are often readily available, estimates of safety and security benefits are fraught with uncertainty. To address these challenges, a benefit–cost model of technological change is adapted to the homeland security context. Data are sparse; therefore, estimation is facilitated by developing a familiar linear welfare model using derivatives of cost and risk reduction functions to estimate areas of costs and benefits. The theoretical model is applied to two homeland security projects involving airport patrols and the assignment of U.S. federal air marshals to international flights. Retrospective data are available for most periods. Welfare-based rates of return are reported for the two cases, each of which is estimated to return large present value net benefits. Extensive sensitivity and Monte Carlo simulation explores uncertainties. Two important findings are that (i) given the rationality assumption, relative increases in security levels can be valued, even if the absolute level of security is not known; and (ii) large uncertainties about risk reduction exist but can be bounded by parametric sensitivity and uncertainty analysis.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a final regulation in 2004 that requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to place linear bar codes on certain human drug and biological products. The intent was that bar codes would be part of a system where healthcare professionals would use bar code scanning equipment and software to electronically verify against a patient’s medication regimen that the correct medication is being given to the patient before it is administered, which could ultimately reduce medication errors. In the 2004 prospective regulatory impact analysis, FDA anticipated that the rule would stimulate widespread adoption of bar code medication administration technology among hospitals and other facilities, thereby generating public health benefits in the form of averted medication errors. FDA estimated that annualized net benefits would be $5.3 billion. In this retrospective analysis, we reassess the costs and benefits of the bar code rule and our original model and assumptions. Employing the most recent data available on actual adoption rates of bar code medication administration technology since 2004 and other key determinants of the costs and benefits, we examine the impacts of the bar code rule since its implementation and identify approaches to improve the accuracy of future analyses. In this retrospective study, we use alternative models of health information technology diffusion to create counterfactual scenarios against which we compare the benefits and costs of the bar code rule. The magnitudes of the costs and benefits of the 2004 rule are sensitive to assumptions about the counterfactual technology adoption rate, with the upper-bound range of calculated annualized net benefits between $2.7 billion and $6.6 billion depending on the baseline scenario considered.

Disclaimer: The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the authors in their private capacities, and they do not represent the views of the Food and Drug Administration.

Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability in Nova Scotia. TBI occurs in approximately 50% of major trauma seen annually in the province. The purpose of this study was to describe the characteristics and patterns of major TBI seen in Nova Scotia over a 12-year period. Methods: This was a retrospective case series. Data were obtained from the Nova Scotia Trauma Registry for all patients presenting with major TBI (abbreviated injury score [AIS] head ≥3) between 2002 and 2013. Injury rates were calculated on the basis of 100,000 population (all ages) using population estimates from Statistics Canada. Results: Overall, 4152 major TBI patients were seen in Nova Scotia hospitals during the study period. Mean age of TBI patients was 51±25 years; 73% were male. The majority of injuries were the result of blunt trauma (93%), with relatively few major TBIs resulting from penetrating trauma (7%). The most common mechanisms of injury were falls (44%) and motor vehicle crashes (27%). Analysis of census-based subpopulations of the province showed that injury rates varied significantly among counties (from 25 to 63 per 100,000 population). We observed an increase in the number of major TBI patients over twelve years. Conclusion: Our findings suggest significant regional variation in major TBI rates in Nova Scotia. There are ongoing needs for prevention and intervention efforts that focus on unintentional falls and motor vehicle crashes, especially in older adults. These results also suggest that geographically targeted efforts may be warranted.

Background: Ependymomas are rare tumors of the central nervous system whose management is controversial. This population-based study of adults and children with ependymoma aims to (1) identify clinical and treatment-related factors that impact survival and (2) determine if postoperative radiotherapy (RT) can improve survival of patients with subtotal resection (STR) to levels similar to patients who had gross total resection (GTR). Methods: This retrospective population-based study evaluated 158 patients with ependymoma diagnosed between 1975-2007 in Alberta, Canada. Results: Younger patients (<7 years of age) were more likely to be diagnosed with grade III tumors compared with adults in whom grade I tumors were more common (p=0.003). Adults were more likely to have spinally located tumors compared to young children whose tumors were typically found in the brain. Overall, young children with ependymoma were more likely to die than older children or adults (p=0.001). An equivalent number of patients underwent GTR as compared with STR (48% vs 45%, respectively). Overall, older age, spinal tumor location, lower grade, and GTR were associated with improved progression free survival but only GTR was associated with significant improvement in overall survival. Median survival after STR and RT was 82 months compared with 122 months in patients who had GTR (p=0.0022). Conclusions: This is the first Canadian population-based analysis of patients with ependymoma including adults and children. Extent of resection appears to be the most important factor determining overall survival. Importantly, the addition of RT to patients initially treated with STR does not improve survival to levels similar to patients receiving GTR.

This research is a summary of the published research interests of Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologists over the past 25 years. The terms used in the title and keywords describing research published in The Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist (AEDP) over the past 25 years were analysed. In total, 105 individual words or terms were derived from 233 articles published in the AEDP. These words and terms were used 707 times as title words and 820 times as keywords to describe the research of the journal. The most frequent individual title words were children (n = 70), adolescents (n = 44), assessment (n = 29), development/developmental (n = 28), and disability (n = 27). The reduction of these title words and keywords resulted in six categories: Stages of Development, Relating and Roles, Educational and Vocational, Presenting Problems—Clinical, Presenting Problems—General, and Methods and Practice. Analyses of the frequency of the title words and keywords led to the conclusion that many of the words and the subsequent categories were exclusively Educational and Developmental in definition, with a large proportion of the content of the journal also shared with other specialisations and areas of psychology. Finally, the title words and keywords were subdivided into 5-year periods and small, significant effects were found between the five time periods for some categories of keywords and terms. The differences were very weak and non-systematic, trends indicating the relative consistency of the contents of the journal over time.

The idea of δοξα is a crucial theme of the Fourth Gospel and a test case for scholarly approaches. Starting from two recent monographs, the article develops the central issues to be discussed. In debate with the approaches of Bultmann, Käsemann, and Bornkamm, it is shown that the Johannine narrative is focussed on the act of ‘glorification’ in Jesus' hour, which the author considers foretold in Isaiah and in which the universal salvation is rooted. The Johannine image of Christ as revealing his glory during his earthly ministry is, therefore, a retrojection from the post-Easter perspective. Even more is the notion of his preexistent glory a final consequence rooted in the view of the glorification of the crucified one in his ‘hour’.

Introduction:No epidemiological data exist concerning the influence of an earthquake on the risk of stroke. Whether the incidence of cerebrovascular stroke increased after the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji earthquake (EQ) in Japan and whether seismic intensity affected stroke risk dose-dependently was examined.

Methods:A retrospective cohort study was conducted among residents, who were living in two towns on the island of Awaji and were participants of the National Health Insurance (NHI) program. The two towns were divided into 11 districts and their respective damage and socioeconomic states were investigated. Reviewing the NHI documents issued before and after the EQ, people who had strokes (9th International Classification of Diseases, codes 430–431 or 433–434.9) were identified. Risk of stroke in relation to the seismic intensities, was assessed with the Cox proportional hazard model.

Results:Among subjects aged 40 to 99 years, 45 of 8,758 (0.514%) had a stroke the year before the EQ, 72 of 8,893 (0.810%) had a stroke in the first year following the EQ, and 49 of 8,710 (0.566%) had a stroke in the second year following the EQ. In districts where the earthquake's intensity was ≤9.5 on the modified Mercalli intensity (MMI), compared with the year prior to the EQ, the relative risk (RR) of stroke was 2.4 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.1, 5.0) in the first year following the EQ, after adjusting for age, gender, and income. In that year, compared with MMI of <8.5–9.0, RRs for 9.0–9.5 and ≥9.5 were 1.6 (CI 0.9, 2.1) and 2.0 (CI 1.1, 3.7), respectively (p for trend 0.02). No trend for the RR was observed in the year before the EQ or in the second year following the EQ.

Conclusion Stroke increased in the first year following the EQ. The increase was associated with seismic intensity in a dose-response manner. Results suggest a potential threshold for RR of >2.0 in areas near 9.5 on the MMI scale.