Clients who stalk psychologists: prevalence, methods, and motives

There is emerging recognition that psychologists are susceptible to various forms of intrusiveness by clients, including stalking. Information regarding the contexts in which stalking emerges and the behaviors to which clinicians are subjected is limited. A random sample of Australian psychologists (N = 1,750) was surveyed to ascertain the prevalence, nature, and occupational impact of stalking by clients. Of the 830 respondents, 19.5% had been stalked for 2 weeks or more. Psychologists typically perceived the stalking to be motivated by resentment (42%) or infatuation (19%). Most practitioners altered their professional practice as a consequence of the harassment and 29% considered leaving the profession. Stalking by clients is a salient professional issue that requires greater attention to better manage conduct that is potentially damaging to both therapists and clients.

Facile synthesis of NiCo2O4 nanorod arrays on Cu conductive substrates as superior anode materials for high-rate Li-ion batteries

In this work, we report a mild and cost-effective solution method to directly grow Ni-substituted Co3O4 (ternary NiCo2O4) nanorod arrays on Cu substrates. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements show that the values of the electrolyte resistance Re and charge-transfer resistance Rct of NiCo2O4 are 6.8 and 63.5 Ω, respectively, which are significantly lower than those of binary Co3O4 (10.4 and 122.4 Ω). This EIS characterization strongly confirms that the ternary NiCo2O4 anode has much higher electrical conductivity than that of the binary Co3O4 electrode materials, which should greatly enhance the lithium storage performances. Due to the well-aligned 1D nanorod microstructure and a higher electrical conductivity, these ternary NiCo2O4 nanorod arrays manifest high specific capacity, excellent cycling stability (a high reversible capacity of about 830 mA h g−1 was achieved after 30 cycles at 0.5 C) and high rate capability (787, 695, 512, 254, 127 mA h g−1 at 1 C, 2 C, 6 C 50 C and 110 C, respectively).

Low health-related quality of life in school-aged children in Tonga, a lower-middle income country in the South Pacific

Background:
Ensuring a good life for all parts of the population, including children, is high on the public health agenda in most countries around the world. Information about children’s perception of their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and its socio-demographic distribution is, however, limited and almost exclusively reliant on data from Western higher income countries.

Objectives:
To investigate HRQoL in schoolchildren in Tonga, a lower income South Pacific Island country, and to compare this to HRQoL of children in other countries, including Tongan children living in New Zealand, a high-income country in the same region.

Design:
A cross-sectional study from Tonga addressing all secondary schoolchildren (11–18 years old) on the outer island of Vava’u and in three districts of the main island of Tongatapu (2,164 participants). A comparison group drawn from the literature comprised children in 18 higher income and one lower income country (Fiji). A specific New Zealand comparison group involved all children of Tongan descendent at six South Auckland secondary schools (830 participants). HRQoL was assessed by the self-report Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0.

Results:
HRQoL in Tonga was overall similar in girls and boys, but somewhat lower in children below 15 years of age. The children in Tonga experienced lower HRQoL than the children in all of the 19 comparison countries, with a large difference between children in Tonga and the higher income countries (Cohen’s d 1.0) and a small difference between Tonga and the lower income country Fiji (Cohen’s d 0.3). The children in Tonga also experienced lower HRQoL than Tongan children living in New Zealand (Cohen’s d 0.6).

Conclusion:
The results reveal worrisome low HRQoL in children in Tonga and point towards a potential general pattern of low HRQoL in children living in lower income countries, or, alternatively, in the South Pacific Island countries.

A landscape-scale, applied fire management experiment promotes recovery of a population of the threatened Gouldian Finch, Erythrura gouldiae, in Australia's tropical savannas

Fire is an integral part of savanna ecology and changes in fire patterns are linked to biodiversity loss in savannas worldwide. In Australia, changed fire regimes are implicated in the contemporary declines of small mammals, riparian species, obligate-seeding plants and grass seed-eating birds. Translating this knowledge into management to recover threatened species has proved elusive. We report here on a landscape-scale experiment carried out by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) on Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary in northwest Australia. The experiment was designed to understand the response of a key savanna bird guild to fire, and to use that information to manage fire with the aim of recovering a threatened species population. We compared condition indices among three seed-eating bird species-one endangered (Gouldian finch) and two non-threatened (long-tailed finch and double-barred finch)-from two large areas (> 2,830 km2) with initial contrasting fire regimes ('extreme': frequent, extensive, intense fire; versus 'benign': less frequent, smaller, lower intensity fires). Populations of all three species living with the extreme fire regime had condition indices that differed from their counterparts living with the benign fire regime, including higher haematocrit levels in some seasons (suggesting higher levels of activity required to find food), different seasonal haematocrit profiles, higher fat scores in the early wet season (suggesting greater food uncertainty), and then lower muscle scores later in the wet season (suggesting prolonged food deprivation). Gouldian finches also showed seasonally increasing stress hormone concentrations with the extreme fire regime. Cumulatively, these patterns indicated greater nutritional stress over many months for seed-eating birds exposed to extreme fire regimes. We tested these relationships by monitoring finch condition over the following years, as AWC implemented fire management to produce the 'benign' fire regime throughout the property. The condition indices of finch populations originally living with the extreme fire regime shifted to resemble those of their counterparts living with the benign fire regime. This research supports the hypothesis that fire regimes affect food resources for savanna seed-eating birds, with this impact mediated through a range of grass species utilised by the birds over different seasons, and that fire management can effectively moderate that impact. This work provides a rare example of applied research supporting the recovery of a population of a threatened species.