Cyber medicine enables remote neuromonitoring during aortic surgery

This study assessed the feasibility and effectiveness of remote neuromonitoring as an adjunct to spinal cord protection during surgical repair of descending thoracic aortic aneurysms and thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms.

Selection and influence effects in defending a victim of bullying: The moderating effects of school context

In this paper we examined whether defenders of victims of school bullying befriended similar peers, and whether the similarity is due to selection or influence processes or both. We examined whether these processes result in different degrees of similarity between peers depending on teachers’ self-efficacy and the school climate. We analyzed longitudinal data of 478 Swiss school students employing actor-based stochastic models. Our analyses showed that similarity in defending behavior among friends was due to selection rather than influence. The extent to which adolescents selected peers showing similar defending behavior was related to contextual factors. In fact, lower self-efficacy of teachers and positive school climate were associated with increased selection effects in terms of defending behavior.

Pathways to vicimization. Lessons learned from research in kindergarten

During the last decade interest in bully/victim problems has grown tremendously and still, studies addressing this issue in the years preceding elementary school areextremely rare. Despite obvious methodological challenges, the study of bullying and victimization in settings such as kindergarten opens up unique opportunities to understand early processes in the pathways to victimization, and to investigate different social and individual risk factors and their interactions in the very beginnings of bullying patterns. In this presentation, key findings that shed light on early vulnerability factors for victimization and factors that may maintain bullying patterns will be addressed. First, results from our and others’ studies in kindergarten are generally consistent with results in school. Second, our studies show that patterns of reactions when children witness victimization are already present in kindergarten settings. Third, all findings confirm that bully-victims must be regarded as being distinct from passive victims and other aggressive children (i.e. bullies) already at kindergarten age. Our studies indicate that bully-victims have significantly more problems associated with ADHD or with a lack of behavioral regulation than all their peers and that they clearly differ from bullies in terms of the type of aggression they display. Furthermore, our longitudinal data show different pathways to victimization for victims and bully-victims. This knowledge of early risk factors and pathways mustbe taken into consideration in future research and may contribute to the improvement of prevention programs.

Socioeconomic determinants of health related quality of life in childhood and adolescence: results from a European study

STUDY OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of two different socioeconomic status (SES) measures on child and adolescent self reported health related quality of life (HRQoL). The European KIDSCREEN project aims at simultaneous developing, testing, and implementing a generic HRQoL instrument. DESIGN AND SETTING: The pilot version of the questionnaire was applied in school surveys to students from 8 to 18 years of age, as well as to their parents, together with such determinants of health status as two SES indicators, the parental educational status and the number of material goods in the family (FAS, family affluence scale). PARTICIPANTS: Students from seven European countries: 754 children (39.8%; mean: 9.8 years), and 1142 adolescents (60.2 %; mean: 14.1 years), as well as their respective parents. MAIN RESULTS: In children, a higher parental educational status was found to have a significant positive impact on the KIDSCREEN dimensions: physical wellbeing, psychological wellbeing, moods and emotions, bullying and perceived financial resources. Increased risk of low HRQoL was detected for adolescents in connection with their physical wellbeing. Family wealth plays a part for children's physical wellbeing, parent relations and home life, and perceived financial resources. For adolescents, family wealth furthermore predicts HRQoL on all KIDSCREEN dimensions. CONCLUSIONS: There is evidence to suggest that exposure to low parental educational status may result in a decreased HRQoL in childhood, whereas reduced access to material (and thereby social) resources may lead to a lower HRQoL especially in adolescence.

Do victimization experiences accentuate reactions to ostracism? An experiment using cyberball

Based on the notion that the history of victimization has an impact on the sensitivity to current victimization situations this study investigated whether victims of bullying show more pronounced responses to single episodes of social exclusion. We examined whether victimization experiences in school are associated with responses to ostracism in a virtual ball tossing game (Cyberball). We compared two groups of students: 26 victims of bullying and 32 students not involved in bully/victim problems (mean age = 12.12). After playing Cyberball, the victimized students in the ostracism condition scored significantly lower on feelings of meaningful existence compared to the ostracized students not involved in bully/victim problems. These results strongly support the idea that previously victimized students are more affected by experiences of social exclusion than students who are not involved in bully/victim problems.

Always on: Cybermobbing in der modernen Gesellschaft

Cybermobbing ist ein brisantes Thema, das seit über einem Jahrzehnt weltweit für Aufsehen sorgt. Es handelt sich um eine elektronische Mobbingvariante, die vom Versenden einer beleidigenden SMS bis hin zum Veröffentlichen von peinlichen Videos auf YouTube oder Facebook geht. Cybermobbing kann als ungünstiges Nebenprodukt des gesellschaftlichen Wandels hin zur digitalen Kommunikation gesehen werden. Cybermobbing ist deswegen nicht nur ein individuelles, sondern auch ein gesellschaftliches Problem, das in diesem größeren Rahmen betrachtet werden muss. Sowohl das Individuum als auch die Familie, die Gleichaltrigen, die Schule und der gesellschaftliche Kontext sind wichtige Akteure einerseits bei Entstehung und Aufrechterhaltung von Cybermobbing, andererseits bei dessen Prävention und Intervention.

Rechtsordnung

Der Bundesrat unterzeichnete ein Abkommen über den Austausch von Polizeidaten mit den USA. – Das Bundesgericht hiess die Beschwerde von Google Streetview teilweise gut. – Der Bundesrat stellte die Strategie zum Schutz der Schweiz vor Cyber-Risiken vor. – Das Bundesgericht hiess den Deal in Causa Tinner gut. – In Bern haben 10‘000 Jugendliche gegen die Trägheit des Berner Nachtlebens demonstriert. – Das Parlament beschloss die Wiedereinführung der verdeckten Ermittlungen. – Cannabiskonsum wird künftig mit einer Busse von 100 Franken bestraft. – Das Parlament verabschiedete ein Bundesgesetz betreffend die Unverjährbarkeit pornographischer Straftaten an Kinder. – Der Bundesrat präsentierte einen Gegenvorschlag zur Volksinitiative „Pädophile sollen nicht mehr mit Kindern arbeiten dürfen“. – Die SVP lancierte eine Volksinitiative zur Durchsetzung der Ausschaffung krimineller Ausländer. – Die Konferenz der kantonalen Justiz- und Polizeidirektoren verabschiedete eine Verschärfung des Hooligan-Konkordats. – Das Parlament beschloss ein Bundesgesetz über die Massnahmen gegen Zwangsheiraten.