Voters and political candidates increasingly use social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook. This study uses data from an online posttest-only experiment (N = 183) in analyzing how exposure to supportive or challenging user comments on a fictional candidate's Facebook page influenced participants’ perceptions of and willingness to vote for the candidate, as well as whether candidate replies to each type of user comments affected these outcomes. Participants who viewed a page with supportive comments and “likes” reported more favorable perceptions of and greater support for the candidate, relative to participants who viewed a page with challenging comments. Thus, the appearance of interactivity between a candidate and other users on the candidate's Facebook page can shape the responses of those viewing the page. However, exposure to candidate replies to either supportive or challenging comments did not lead to significantly more favorable perceptions or a greater likelihood of voting for the candidate.

Background: Elevated plasma homocysteine concentrations have been associated with both cognitive impairment and dementia. However, it is unclear whether some cognitive domains are more affected than others, or if this relationship is independent of B12 and folate levels, which can also affect cognition. We examined the relationship between plasma homocysteine and cognitive decline in an older hypertensive population.

Methods: 182 older people (mean age 80 years) with hypertension and without dementia, were studied at one center participating in the Study on COgnition and Prognosis in the Elderly (SCOPE). Annual cognitive assessments were performed using a computerized assessment battery and executive function tests, over a 3–5 year period (mean 44 months). Individual rates of decline on five cognitive domains were calculated for each patient. End of study plasma homocysteine, folate and B12 concentrations were measured. The relationship between homocysteine levels and cognitive decline was studied using multivariate regression models, and by comparing high versus low homocysteine quartile groups.

Results: Higher homocysteine showed an independent association with greater cognitive decline in three domains: speed of cognition (β = −27.33, p = 0.001), episodic memory (β = −1.25, p = 0.02) and executive function (β = −0.05, p = 0.04). The association with executive function was no longer significant after inclusion of folate in the regression model (β = −0.032, p = 0.22). Change in working memory and attention were not associated with plasma homocysteine, folate or B12. High homocysteine was associated with greater decline with a Cohen's d effect size of approximately 0.7 compared to low homocysteine.

Conclusions: In a population of older hypertensive patients, higher plasma homocysteine was associated with cognitive decline.

This article reviews research on working memory (WM) and its use in second language (L2) acquisition research. Recent developments in the model and issues surrounding the operationalization of the construct itself are presented, followed by a discussion of various methods of measuring WM. These methods include word and digit span tasks, reading, listening and speaking span tasks. We next outline the role proposed for WM in explaining individual differences in L2 learning processes and outcomes, including sentence processing, reading, speaking, lexical development and general proficiency. Key findings are that WM is not a unitary construct and that its role varies depending on the age of the L2 learners, the task and the linguistic domain. Some tests of WM may in fact be tests of differences in ability to attend to aspects of the L2. Future research will focus on matching tests of WM more closely with linguistic tasks and using more standardized, replicable measures of WM in new areas including writing in non-alphabetic scripts, instructional interventions and cognitive neuropsychology.

A sentence interpretation experiment based on the functionalist Competition Model of speech processing (Bates & MacWhinney, 1982) was administered to three groups of university-age English L1, Japanese ESL, and Japanese L1 subjects (n = 12 per group) in an attempt to elicit evidence for (1) processing strategies characteristic of the Japanese and English L1 groups and, (2) transfer/influence of Japanese L1 strategies on the English sentence interpretations of the Japanese ESL group. Subjects selected the subject/actor of simple sentences incorporating word order, animacy, and stress cues in random converging and competing orders. The English L1 and ESL groups were tested on English sentences and the Japanese L1 group tested on Japanese sentences. The Japanese L1 interpretations were most heavily influenced by animacy cues, while the English L1 group showed a higher overall sensitivity to word order manipulations. The ESL group resembled the Japanese L1 group in reliance on animacy cues, with the exception of allowing inanimate nouns to act as subjects. While the ESL group showed greater sensitivity to word order effects than the Japanese L1 group, no “second-noun” strategy (i.e., systematically interpreting the NNV and VNN orders as left- and right-dislocated SOV and VOS orders) was evident.

Although the findings were generally consistent with previous research, the presence of contrasting response patterns in the English L1 group suggests caution in attempting to typify languages on the basis of processing strategies drawn from probablistic tendencies evident in grouped data, and leaves open the role of such processing strategy typologies as a potential source of variation in inter-language.

The confirmatory nature of the empirical evidence used to establish UG effects in L2 development is considered. Specific issues are also raised concerning the internal validity of Epstein et al.'s findings. It is concluded that the role of UG in adult L2 development will only be established when researchers better understand the interaction between the development of UG-constrained structural knowledge and the development of overall L2 proficiency.

A structured respondent-based version of the SADS-L interview was compared with a semi-structured investigator-based version of the same interview in terms of efficiency in assessing lifetime psychopathology. There was substantial agreement across most Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) categories, but there was less agreement on the rating of symptoms. The implications of these similarities and differences between the techniques are discussed.

This article presents an overview of work conducted at the Institute of Psychiatry over the past 30 years on childhood depression. The work began with the basic question of definition and measurement. Epidemiological studies showed that depressive symptoms were quite common in children and were a good, if nonspecific, indicator of psychological disturbance. Further work in both epidemiological and clinical samples provided some evidence for the validity of a depressive syndrome. However, this work also showed that these depressive syndromes represented a heterogeneous group of phenomena. The validity of major depressive disorder in children was therefore tested further in longitudinal and family-genetic studies. These studies supported the validity of the concept but confirmed that there was heterogeneity in respect to both developmental stage at the time of onset and comorbidity with conduct disorder. We concluded that there are probably several different kinds of depressive syndromes in children. Some are strongly linked with depressive disorders in adulthood, but others are probably better conceptualized as part of another psychopathological problem altogether.

As H. Douglas Brown pointed out in his review (1980), the field of second language acquisition [SLA] has emerged as its own discipline in the 1980s. A somewhat eclectic discipline, research in SLA involves methodologies drawn from linguistics, sociolinguistics, education, and psychology. Theoretical models are equally diverse (McLaughlin 1987), but in general a distinction is possible between representational and processing approaches (Carroll in press). Representational approaches focus on the nature and organization of second-language knowledge and how this information is represented in the mind of the learner. Processing approaches focus on the integration of perceptual and cognitive Processes with the learner's second-languages knowledge. This distinction is used here for purposes of exposition, although it is recognized that some approaches combine both representational and processing features, as any truly adequate model of second-language learning must.

The complexity of the modern systems providing health care presents a unique challenge in delivering care of the required quality in a safe environment. Issues of safety have been thrust into the limelight because of adverse events highly publicized in the general media.

In the United States of America, improving the safety and quality in health care has been set forth as a priority for improvements in the 21st century in the report from the Institute of Medicine. Many measures have now been initiated for improving the safety of patients at hospital, regional, and national level, and through initiatives sponsored by governments and private organizations. In this review, we summarize known concepts and current issues on the safety of patients, and their applicability to children with congenital cardiac disease. Prior to examining the issues of medical error and safety, it is important to define the terminology.

An error is defined as the failure of a planned action to be completed as intended, also known as an execution error, or the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim, this representing a planning error. An active error is an error that occurs at the level of the frontline operator, and the effects of which are felt immediately. A latent error is an error in the design, organization, training and maintenance, that leads to operator errors, and the effects of which are typically dormant in the system for lengthy periods of time. Latent errors may cause harm given the right circumstances and environment.

An adverse event is defined as an injury resulting from medical intervention. A preventable adverse event is an adverse event that occurs due to medical error. Negligent adverse events are a subset of preventable adverse events where the care provided did not meet the standard of care expected of that practitioner.

The study of improving the delivery of safe care for our patients is a rapidly growing field. Important components for development of programmes to improve the safety of patients include the leadership for the programme, the implementation of process design based on human limitations, the promotion of teamwork and function, the anticipation of unexpected events, and the creation of a learning environment.

Much is yet to be learned about the risk and incidence of adverse events during hospitalization of children with congenital cardiac disease. Errors due to human factors, such as poor communication, poor coordination, and suboptimal team work, have shown to be important causes of adverse outcomes in children undergoing cardiac surgery, and should be a focus for improvement. Future research on evaluating causes and prevention of medical errors and adverse events in this population at high risk, and consuming high resources, is essential.

Issues of inadequate safeguards for patients have been prominent in the media, and have been highlighted in reports from the Institute of Medicine. Our review discusses research on the causes of medical error, and proposes concepts to design successful programmes to improve safety for the patients on a local level.