The concept of dependency, Platt asserts, is “scarcely sustainable” because its historical foundation is unconvincing. “Students of chrono-politics (history),” he implies, find unacceptable the notion that “development and expansion” of Western Europe's economy dominated and conditioned that of Latin America since the conquest. The fact that Dos Santos' definition of dependency denies the presence of autonomous development in Latin America is “critical.” Economic autonomy, according to Platt, is the leitmotif of Latin America's evolution, certainly to the close of the nineteenth century, when there “finally awoke metropolitan interest in the neglected periphery.”

Clinical and empirical reports suggest that individuals use non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) not only to ameliorate dysphoria, but to curb suicidal ideation or avoid suicidal behaviour. To date, however, no study has quantitatively assessed whether NSSI leads to short-term reductions in suicidal ideation. Using real-time monitoring over 7 days in a sample with borderline personality disorder, we found evidence that NSSI is followed by reductions in suicidal ideation in the subsequent hours. This suggests that NSSI may serve as an effective, albeit maladaptive, coping strategy for suicidal states. These findings have important implications for the management of suicide risk and self-harm.

Worldwide, early intervention services for young people with recent-onset psychosis have been associated with improvements in outcomes, including reductions in hospitalization, symptoms, and improvements in treatment engagement and work/school participation. States have received federal mental health block grant funding to implement team-based, multi-element, evidence-based early intervention services, now called coordinated specialty care (CSC) in the USA. New York State’s CSC program, OnTrackNY, has grown into a 23-site, statewide network, serving over 1800 individuals since its 2013 inception. A state-supported intermediary organization, OnTrackCentral, has overseen the growth of OnTrackNY. OnTrackNY has been committed to quality improvement since its inception. In 2019, OnTrackNY was awarded a regional hub within the National Institute of Mental Health-sponsored Early Psychosis Intervention Network (EPINET). The participation in the national EPINET initiative reframes and expands OnTrackNY’s quality improvement activities. The national EPINET initiative aims to develop a learning healthcare system (LHS); OnTrackNY’s participation will facilitate the development of infrastructure, including a systematic approach to facilitating stakeholder input and enhancing the data and informatics infrastructure to promote quality improvement. Additionally, this infrastructure will support practice-based research to improve care. The investment of the EPINET network to build regional and national LHSs will accelerate innovations to improve quality of care.

Depression is a common disorder among adolescents and is associated with a high risk of suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among adolescents in the United States. Currently, there are only two evidence-based psychotherapies for adolescence depression: cognitive-behavioral therapy and interpersonal psychotherapy. Furthermore, psychosocial interventions that specifically target suicidal behavior in adolescents are even fewer in number than treatments for depression. This article will review the psychosocial interventions for depression and suicidality in adolescents and will describe a recently developed treatment that is under study for depressed suicidal adolescents.

Suicide remains a leading cause of death among youth, and suicide ideation and behavior are relatively common in both normal and clinical populations. Clinicians working with young people must assess for the presence of suicidal ideation, suicidal behavior, and other risk factors, in order to determine the level of risk. This paper provides the clinician with a summary of risk factors for youth suicide, as well as providing standardized terminology to enhance assessment of suicidal ideation and behavior.

The cognitive profile of early onset Parkinson’s disease (EOPD) has not been clearly defined. Mutations in the parkin gene are the most common genetic risk factor for EOPD and may offer information about the neuropsychological pattern of performance in both symptomatic and asymptomatic mutation carriers. EOPD probands and their first-degree relatives who did not have Parkinson’s disease (PD) were genotyped for mutations in the parkin gene and administered a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Performance was compared between EOPD probands with (N = 43) and without (N = 52) parkin mutations. The same neuropsychological battery was administered to 217 first-degree relatives to assess neuropsychological function in individuals who carry parkin mutations but do not have PD. No significant differences in neuropsychological test performance were found between parkin carrier and noncarrier probands. Performance also did not differ between EOPD noncarriers and carrier subgroups (i.e., heterozygotes, compound heterozygotes/homozygotes). Similarly, no differences were found among unaffected family members across genotypes. Mean neuropsychological test performance was within normal range in all probands and relatives. Carriers of parkin mutations, whether or not they have PD, do not perform differently on neuropsychological measures as compared to noncarriers. The cognitive functioning of parkin carriers over time warrants further study. (JINS, 2011, 17, 1–10)

Subtidal columnar stromatolites up to 2.5 m high near Lee Stocking Island in the Exuma Cays, Bahamas, have surface mats approximately equally composed of algae and cyanobacteria. The stromatolites are composed of fine–medium oöid and peloid sand. This sediment is supplied to the growing stromatolite surfaces by strong tidal currents which lift grains into suspension and sweep migrating dunes over the columns. The algae include an unidentified filamentous chlorophyte, and numerous diatom species mostly belonging to Mastogloia, Nitzschia and Navicula. The dominant cyanobacteria are two oscillatoriacean species, both probably belonging to Schizothrix. Trapping of sediment is mainly effected by the unidentified chlorophyte which is veneered by epiphytic diatoms. Grains are bound into a mucilaginous mat composed of diatoms and cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria alone would not be able to trap and bind coarse sediment so effectively in this environment. In being coarse-grained and having a significant eualgal component to their mats, these stromatolites are similar to subtidal columnar stromatolites at Shark Bay, Western Australia. The Lee Stocking stromatolites are physically stressed by high velocity tidal currents and mobile sediment. The Shark Bay stromatolites are stressed by hypersalinity. In both cases stress deters grazers, encrusters and bioeroders. These coarse-grained eualgal stromatolites contrast with micritic and predominantly prokaryotic stromatolites of most Recent marine environments, and are not analogues for most pre-Phanerozoic stromatolites. They appear to be a response to changing stromatolitic mat components in the Cenozoic.