Widespread, bipartisan aversion exists to neighbors owning AR-15s or storing guns insecurely.

Over 45,000 gun deaths occur annually in the United States, a country with more than 100 million gun owners and more than 350 million guns. Nevertheless, passing legislation to reduce gun violence is difficult because the issue is intensely polarized. Polls asking about general gun policies (e.g., AR-15 restrictions) demonstrate that, at least in the abstract, Americans disagree vehemently about whether civilians should be able to keep and bear arms. It is possible, however, that a hidden consensus exists in America, which has thus far escaped attention-specifically, that when the focus is on their immediate environments and daily lives, even traditionally pro-gun groups may exhibit aversion to certain types of gun ownership and storage practices. To test this, we conducted two preregistered survey experiments with a large national sample. The first was a conjoint analysis where respondents chose between neighbors (n = 33,596 choices) who randomly varied on seven attributes, including gun ownership (none, pistol, AR-15). No group of respondents, not even traditionally pro-gun groups (e.g., Republicans), exhibited a significant preference for living near gun owners, and every group was averse to AR-15-owning neighbors. The second experiment, per debates about safe-storage laws, was a picture-based factorial vignette that randomized a neighbor's gun storage practices (n = 2,098). Every group of respondents was averse to interacting with a neighbor who stored guns outside of a locked safe. Our findings demonstrate that there is widespread agreement that certain types of gun ownership and storage practices are undesirable for communities.

Scientists and scientific journals should adhere to ethical standards for the use and reporting of data from Indigenous people.

Internationally, governments and scientists are bound by legal and treaty rights when working with Indigenous nations. These rights include the right of Indigenous people to control the conduct of science with Indigenous nations. Unfortunately, in some cases, individual scientists and scientific teams working with biological and genetic data collected from Indigenous people have not respected these international rights. Here, we argue that the scientific community should understand and acknowledge the historical harms experienced by Indigenous people under the veil of scientific progress (truth) and implement existing standards for ethical conduct of research and sovereign control of data collected within Indigenous communities (reconciliation). Specifically, we outline the rationale for why scientists, scientific journals and research integrity and institutional review boards/ethics committees should adopt, and be held accountable for upholding, current international standards of Indigenous data sovereignty and ethical use of Indigenous biological samples.

Texture congruence modulates perceptual bias but not sensitivity to visuotactile stimulation during the rubber hand illusion.

The sense of body ownership is the feeling that one's body belongs to oneself. To study body ownership, researchers use bodily illusions, such as the rubber hand illusion (RHI), which involves experiencing a visible rubber hand as part of one's body when the rubber hand is stroked simultaneously with the hidden real hand. The RHI is based on a combination of vision, touch, and proprioceptive information following the principles of multisensory integration. It has been posited that texture incongruence between rubber hand and real hand weakens the RHI, but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. To investigate this, we recently developed a novel psychophysical RHI paradigm. Based on fitting psychometric functions, we discovered the RHI resulted in shifts in the point of subjective equality when the rubber hand and the real hand were stroked with matching materials. We analysed these datasets further by using signal detection theory analysis, which distinguishes between the participants' sensitivity to visuotactile stimulation and the associated perceptual bias. We found that texture incongruence influences the RHI's perceptual bias but not its sensitivity to visuotactile stimulation. We observed that the texture congruence bias effect was the strongest in shorter visuotactile asynchronies (50-100 ms) and weaker in longer asynchronies (200 ms). These results suggest texture-related perceptual bias is most prominent when the illusion's sensitivity is at its lowest. Our findings shed light on the intricate interactions between top-down and bottom-up processes in body ownership, the links between body ownership and multisensory integration, and the impact of texture congruence on the RHI.

Active self-touch restores bodily proprioceptive spatial awareness following disruption by 'rubber hand illusion'.

Bodily self-awareness relies on a constant integration of visual, tactile, proprioceptive, and motor signals. In the 'rubber hand illusion' (RHI), conflicting visuo-tactile stimuli lead to changes in self-awareness. It remains unclear whether other, somatic signals could compensate for the alterations in self-awareness caused by visual information about the body. Here, we used the RHI in combination with robot-mediated self-touch to systematically investigate the role of tactile, proprioceptive and motor signals in maintaining and restoring bodily self-awareness. Participants moved the handle of a leader robot with their right hand and simultaneously received corresponding tactile feedback on their left hand from a follower robot. This self-touch stimulation was performed either before or after the induction of a classical RHI. Across three experiments, active self-touch delivered after-but not before-the RHI, significantly reduced the proprioceptive drift caused by RHI, supporting a restorative role of active self-touch on bodily self-awareness. The effect was not present during involuntary self-touch. Unimodal control conditions confirmed that both tactile and motor components of self-touch were necessary to restore bodily self-awareness. We hypothesize that active self-touch transiently boosts the precision of proprioceptive representation of the touched body part, thus counteracting the visual capture effects that underlie the RHI.

People Have Systematically Different Ownership Intuitions in Seemingly Simple Cases.

Our understanding of ownership influences how we interact with objects and with each other. Here, we studied people's intuitions about ownership transfer using a set of simple, parametrically varied events. We found that people (N = 120 U.S. adults) had similar intuitions about ownership for some events but sharply opposing intuitions for others (Experiment 1). People (N = 120 U.S. adults) were unaware of these conflicts and overestimated ownership consensus (Experiment 2). Moreover, differences in people's ownership intuitions predicted their intuitions about the acceptability of using, altering, controlling, and destroying the owned object (N = 130 U.S. adults; Experiment 3), even when ownership was not explicitly mentioned (N = 130 U.S. adults; Experiment 4). Subject-level analyses suggest that these disagreements reflect at least two underlying intuitive theories, one in which intentions are central to ownership and another in which physical possession is prioritized.

Low long-lasting insecticidal net use in malaria elimination areas in Southern Ethiopia: results from community based cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Despite remarkable progress in malaria burden reduction, malaria continues to be a major public health problem globally. Ethiopia has been distributing long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) for free and nationwide distribution was completed in 2016. However, evidence suggests that the utilization of LLINs varies from setting to setting and from time to time due to different factors, and up-to-date evidence is required for LLIN related decision-making. Hence, this study was designed to assess LLIN utilization and its determinants in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR) of Ethiopia. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Southern Ethiopia in 2019. Using multi-stage sampling, a total of 2466 households were included. The region was stratified based on the annual malaria index as high, moderate, low, and free strata. Cluster sampling was then applied to select households from high, moderate, and low strata. Data on LLIN ownership, utilization and different determinant factors were collected using household questionnaire. SurveyCTO was used to collect data and data was managed using Stata 15. Descriptive statistics and multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression were performed to identify the determinants of utilization of LLINs. Effect measures were reported using adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with 95% CI. RESULTS: From a total of 2466 households, 48.7% of households had at least one LLIN. LLIN adequacy based on family size was 23% while it was15.7% based on universal access and 29.2% based on sleeping space. From 1202 households that possessed LLIN(s), 66.0% of households reported that they slept under LLIN the night preceding the survey. However, when the total population in all surveyed households were considered, only 22.9% of household members slept under LLIN the night preceding the survey. Malaria endemicity, educational status, wealth status, and knowledge about malaria were associated with LLINs utilization. In addition, reasons for non-use included perceived absence of malaria, side effects of LLIN, conditions of LLINs, inconvenient space and low awareness. CONCLUSION: Low LLIN coverage and low utilization were noted. A low level of utilization was associated with malaria endemicity, wealth status and level of awareness. Distribution of LLIN and continuous follow-up with community awareness creation activities are vital to improve coverage and utilization of LLINs, and to ensure the country's malaria elimination goal.

Ownership and use of insecticide-treated nets in Myanmar: insights from a nationally representative demographic and health survey.

BACKGROUND: Malaria poses a substantial public health threat in Myanmar, indicating the need for rigorous efforts to achieve elimination of the disease nationwide by 2030. The use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) forms part of a pivotal strategy for preventing transmission. This study explored the ownership and use of ITNs in Myanmar and identified factors associated with non-use of ITNs. METHODS: Household datasets from the 2015-2016 Myanmar Demographic and Health Survey were utilised, which encompassed all household members except children under the age of five. Descriptive statistics and inferential tests, including simple and multiple logistics regression models and Pearson correlations, were employed for analysis. All analyses, taking the two-stage stratified cluster sampling design into account, used weighting factors and the "svyset" command in STATA. The ownership and use of bed nets were also visualised in QGIS maps. RESULTS: Among the 46,507 participants, 22.3% (95% CI 20.0%, 24.5%) had access to ITNs, with only 15.3% (95% CI 13.7, 17.1%) sleeping under an ITN the night before the survey. Factors associated with the non-use of ITNs included age category (15-34 years-aOR: 1.17, 95% CI 1.01, 1.30; 50+ years-aOR: 1.19, 95% CI 1.06, 1.33), location (delta or lowland-aOR: 5.39, 95% CI 3.94, 7.38; hills-aOR: 1.80, 95% CI 1.20, 2.71; plains-aOR: 3.89, 95% CI 2.51, 6.03), urban residency (aOR: 1.63, 95% CI 1.22, 2.17), and wealth quintile (third-aOR: 1.38, 95% CI 1.08, 1.75; fourth-aOR: 1.65, 95% CI 1.23, 2.23; fifth-aOR: 1.47, 95% CI 1.02, 2.13). A coherent distribution of the ownership and use of ITNs was seen across all states/regions, and a strong correlation existed between the ownership and use of ITNs (r: 0.9795, 95% CI 0.9377, 0.9933, alpha < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study identified relatively low percentages of ITN ownership and use, indicating the need to increase the distribution of ITNs to achieve the target of at least one ITN per every two people. Strengthening the use of ITNs requires targeted health promotion interventions, especially among relatively affluent individuals residing in delta or lowland areas, hills, and plains.

Ownership and usage of insecticide-treated nets in Ghana: a scoping review of facilitators and barriers.

BACKGROUND: Insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) are pivotal tools for malaria prevention in endemic regions like Ghana. Understanding the protective factors and barriers influencing ITN ownership and usage is crucial for designing effective interventions. A scoping review was conducted to identify studies exploring protective factors and barriers related to ITN ownership and usage. METHODS: This review followed the guidelines by Askey and O'Malley. Search was done in four major databases including PubMed, Science Direct, PubMed CENTRAL, and JSTOR. Additional searches were done in Google Scholar and Google. Peer-reviewed and grey literature were included. RESULTS: A total of 24 papers met the eligibility criteria and were included in the review. Included studies found regional disparities in ITN ownership and usage. Furthermore, included studies reported ownership rates between 97.8 and 28% and usage rates between 94 and 20%. Protective factors facilitating ITN ownership were marital status, higher educational attainment, higher income levels, and being aged 25 years or older. In contrast, the factors for its use included community-level campaigns advocating for ITN use and awareness, individuals with secondary education or higher and those residing in urban areas. Missed opportunities in free distribution exercises and the unavailability of subsidized ITNs at health facilities were barriers to ownership. CONCLUSION: Understanding and addressing protective factors and barriers influencing ITN ownership and usage are crucial for enhancing malaria prevention strategies and achieving sustainable progress in combating malaria in endemic areas. Collaborative and evidence-based interventions are essential for addressing these challenges effectively.

Longitudinal effects of dog ownership, dog acquisition, and dog loss on children's movement behaviours: findings from the PLAYCE cohort study.

INTRODUCTION: Regular physical activity is important for children's physical and mental health, yet many children do not achieve recommended amounts of physical activity. Dog ownership has been associated with increased physical activity in children, however, there have been no longitudinal studies examining this relationship. This study used data from the Play Spaces and Environments for Children's Physical Activity (PLAYCE) cohort study to examine the longitudinal effects of dog ownership status on children's movement behaviours. METHODS: Change in dog ownership from preschool (wave 1, age 2-5) to fulltime school (wave 2, age 5-7) was used as a natural experiment with four distinct dog ownership groups: continuing non-dog owners (n = 307), continuing dog owners (n = 204), dog acquired (n = 58), and dog loss (n = 31; total n = 600). Daily movement behaviours, including physical activity, sedentary time, sleep, and screen time, were measured using accelerometry and parent-report surveys. Differences between groups over time and by sex were tested using linear mixed effects regression models. RESULTS: Girls who acquired a dog increased their light intensity activities and games by 52.0 min/day (95%CI 7.9, 96.0) and girls who lost a dog decreased their light intensity activities and games by 62.1 min/day (95%CI -119.3, -4.9) compared to no change among non-dog owners. Girls and boys who acquired a dog increased their unstructured physical activity by 6.8 (95%CI 3.2, 10.3) and 7.1 (95%CI 3.9, 10.3) occasions/week, compared to no changes among non-dog owners. Girls and boys who lost a dog reduced their unstructured physical activity by 10.2 (95%CI -15.0, -5.3) and 7.7 (95%CI -12.0, -3.5) occasions/week. Girls who lost a dog decreased their total physical activity by 46.3 min/day (95%CI -107.5, 14.8) compared to no change among non-dog owners. Continuing dog ownership was typically not associated with movement behaviours. Dog ownership group was not associated with changes in sleep and had mixed associations with screen time. CONCLUSION: The positive influence of dog ownership on children's physical activity begins in early childhood and differs by child sex. Further research should examine the specific contributions dog-facilitated physical activity makes to children's overall physical activity, including the intensity and duration of dog walking and play.

Firearm Ownership: A Key Factor to Consider in Firearm Suicide Deaths in Children, Despite State Gun Laws.

INTRODUCTION: Firearm-related suicides among children present a significant public health concern and a tragic loss of young lives. This study explores the relationship between firearm-related suicides, gun ownership, and state-specific gun laws. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study collected data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research on children under 18 who died by firearm-related suicides between 2009 and 2016 in all 50 states and D.C. It also utilized data from the RAND State-Level Estimates of Household Firearm Ownership. The study focused on the rate of child firearm suicide deaths per 100,000 individuals. The key variable of interest was the percentage of guns owned per household in each state. Univariable analysis was conducted to examine the association between individual gun laws and child firearm suicide mortalities, while multivariable regression, adjusting for household gun ownership and significant firearm legislation, was employed to assess connection to child firearm suicide mortality. RESULTS: From 2009 to 2016, 3903 children died from firearm-related suicides in the United States. In our analysis, 15 out of 44 firearm laws were found to be associated with reducing the rates of firearm suicides among children (P < 0.05). However, multivariable regression showed that higher state gun ownership rates were the primary predictor of increased child fatalities from firearms, with children in such states being 325% more likely to die when analyzing handgun laws and 337% more likely when analyzing long gun laws, as indicated by coefficients of 4.25 and 4.37, respectively. No state laws alone notably improved death rates. CONCLUSIONS: Gun ownership has a stronger association with child suicide rates than state-specific gun laws. Given the weight of gun ownership, future research should prioritize comprehensive public health initiatives to prevent child firearm-related suicides.

Firearm-Related Juvenile Death Rates Correlate With Gun Ownership Rates, Measures of Guns in Circulation, and Leniency of Existing Firearm Laws Among U.S. States.

INTRODUCTION: Firearms now represent the leading cause of death in U.S. children. Therefore, this study aimed to determine if state-level rates of gun ownership, guns in circulation, and strictness of firearm-related laws are related to firearm-related mortality among both juveniles and overall populations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: State firearm mortality rates among the juvenile and overall populations were obtained from 2010 to 2020. The number of weapons registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and federal firearms licensees for each state were also recorded. Giffords Law Center Scorecard Rankings, a relative measure of the restrictiveness of each state's gun laws, were also collected. Unadjusted linear regressions modeled the relationships between firearm-associated mortality and ATF-registered weapons, federal firearm licensees, Giffords Center rankings, and gun ownership rates. Multivariable (adjusted) analyses were performed to control for poverty, unemployment, and poor mental health. RESULTS: Unadjusted analyses demonstrated that higher gun ownership rates and more lenient gun laws were associated with increased firearm-associated mortality among juveniles. Similarly, these measures as well as increased ATF-registered weapons and ATF federal firearm licensees were associated with increased firearm mortality in the overall population. In the adjusted analyses, more ATF-registered weapons, more ATF federal firearm licensees, higher gun ownership rates, and more lenient firearm laws were associated with increased firearm-related mortality in the overall population, while increased gun ownership and higher Giffords Center rankings were associated with increased firearm-associated mortality in the pediatric population. CONCLUSIONS: To reduce the toll of gun violence in the United States, policymakers should focus on implementing more restrictive firearm laws and reducing the prevalence of guns in their communities.

The role of object ownership on online inhibition in peripersonal space.

Peripersonal space (PPS), as opposed to extrapersonal space (EPS), refers to the area surrounding the body within which individuals interact with objects or conspecifics. However, objects in PPS can belong to oneself or to others, which was found to influence how these objects are encoded. We analyzed the performances of motor responses in a reachability judgment task concerning self-owned and other-owned objects (cups) presented in PPS or EPS. EMG activities were recorded on the thumbs (flexor pollicis brevis) to detect correct and erroneous motor activations. Behavioral data showed that motor responses were shorter and longer for self-owned cups compared to other-owned cups in PPS and EPS, respectively. Ten percent of trials showed initial response errors, which were higher in the EPS for self-owned cups and in the PPS for other-owned cups. Eighty-two percent of these errors were corrected online, with corrections being more efficient for self-owned cups in the PPS. Overall, the data revealed that reachability judgments were faster and more accurate in the PPS, with more efficient inhibition processes in the presence of motor errors. Motor selection and correction are thus modulated by the social context of object ownership, highlighting the specific role of the PPS in encoding self-relevant objects for action.

Primary Care Practice Characteristics Associated With Medical Assistant Staffing Ratios.

This study characterized adult primary care medical assistant (MA) staffing. National Survey of Healthcare Organizations and Systems (n = 1,252) data were analyzed to examine primary care practice characteristics associated with MA per primary care clinician (PCC) staffing ratios. In 2021, few practices (11.4%) had ratios of 2 or more MAs per PCCs. Compared with system-owned practices, independent (odds ratio [OR] = 1.76, P <0.05) and medical group-owned (OR = 2.09, P <0.05) practices were more likely to have ratios of 2 or more MAs per PCCs, as were practices with organizational cultures oriented to innovation (P <0.05). Most primary care practices do not have adequate MA staffing.

A Statistical Analysis of the Impact of Gun Ownership on Mass Shootings in the USA Between 2013 and 2022.

Mass shootings (incidents with four or more people shot in a single event, not including the shooter) are becoming more frequent in the United States, posing a significant threat to public health and safety in the country. In the current study, we intended to analyze the impact of state-level prevalence of gun ownership on mass shootings-both the frequency and severity of these events. We applied the negative binomial generalized linear mixed model to investigate the association between gun ownership rate, as measured by a proxy (i.e., the proportion of suicides committed with firearms to total suicides), and population-adjusted rates of mass shooting incidents and fatalities at the state level from 2013 to 2022. Gun ownership was found to be significantly associated with the rate of mass shooting fatalities. Specifically, our model indicated that for every 1-SD increase-that is, for every 12.5% increase-in gun ownership, the rate of mass shooting fatalities increased by 34% (p value < 0.001). However, no significant association was found between gun ownership and rate of mass shooting incidents. These findings suggest that restricting gun ownership (and therefore reducing availability to guns) may not decrease the number of mass shooting events, but it may save lives when these events occur.

Body ownership and kinaesthetic illusions: Dissociated bodily experiences for distinct levels of body consciousness?

Seeing an embodied humanoid avatar move its arms can induce in the observer the illusion that its own (static) arms are moving accordingly, the kinematic signals emanating from this avatar thus being considered like those from the biological body. Here, we investigated the causal relationship between these kinaesthetic illusions and the illusion of body ownership, manipulated through visuomotor synchronisation. The results of two experiments revealed that the sense of body ownership over an avatar seen from a first-person perspective was intimately linked to visuomotor synchrony. This was not the case for kinaesthetic illusions indicating that when superimposed on the biological body, the avatar is inevitably treated at the sensorimotor level as one's own body, whether consciously considered as such or not. The question of whether these two bodily experiences (body ownership and kinaesthetic illusion) are underpinned by distinct representations, the body image, and the body schema, is discussed.

Ethical Implications of Artificial Intelligence in Gastroenterology: The Co-pilot or the Captain?

Though artificial intelligence (AI) is being widely implemented in gastroenterology (GI) and hepatology and has the potential to be paradigm shifting for clinical practice, its pitfalls must be considered along with its advantages. Currently, although the use of AI is limited in practice to supporting clinical judgment, medicine is rapidly heading toward a global environment where AI will be increasingly autonomous. Broader implementation of AI will require careful ethical considerations, specifically related to bias, privacy, and consent. Widespread use of AI raises concerns related to increasing rates of systematic errors, potentially due to bias introduced in training datasets. We propose that a central repository for collection and analysis for training and validation datasets is essential to overcoming potential biases. Since AI does not have built-in concepts of bias and equality, humans involved in AI development and implementation must ensure its ethical use and development. Moreover, ethical concerns regarding data ownership and health information privacy are likely to emerge, obviating traditional methods of obtaining patient consent that cover all possible uses of patient data. The question of liability in case of adverse events related to use of AI in GI must be addressed among the physician, the healthcare institution, and the AI developer. Though the future of AI in GI is very promising, herein we review the ethical considerations in need of additional guidance informed by community experience and collective expertise.

Malleability of the sense of bodily self in early childhood: 5- and 6-year-old children show the enfacement illusion.

The mechanisms underlying the developing sense of bodily self are debated. Whereas some scholars stress the role of sensory factors, others propose the importance of contextual factors. By manipulating multisensory stimulation and social familiarity with the other person, we explored two factors that are proposed to relate to young children's developing sense of bodily self. Including an adult sample allowed us to investigate age-related differences of the malleability of the bodily self. To this end, the study implemented an enfacement illusion with children (N = 64) and adults (N = 33). Participants were exposed to one trial with synchronous interpersonal multisensory stimulation and one trial with asynchronous interpersonal multisensory stimulation-either with a stranger or with the mother as the other person. A self-recognition task using morph videos of self and other and an enfacement questionnaire were implemented as dependent measures. Results revealed evidence for the presence of the enfacement effect in children in both measures. The identity of the other person had a significant effect on the self-recognition task. Contrary to our hypothesis, the effect was significantly smaller in the caregiver condition. No significant differences between children and adults emerged. Our results demonstrate the role of both multisensory stimulation and contextual-here social familiarity-factors for the construction and development of a bodily self. The study provides developmental science with a novel approach to the bodily self by showing the validity of the self-recognition task in a child sample. Overall, the study supports proposals that the sense of bodily self is malleable early in development.

Walk or be walked by the dog? The attachment role.

BACKGROUND: The human-animal bond has been recognized as having positive effects on the health and well-being of both humans and pets. The present study aims to explore the influence of attachment on physical activity (PA), lifestyle, and health outcomes of dog owners (DO), highlighting the mutual benefits resulting from the relationship between DO and dogs. METHODS: Thirty-eight DO and their dogs participated in this study. Socio-demographic data, the Self-Rated Health (SRH), FANTASTICO Lifestyle Scale, and the Lexington Attachment Pet Scale (LAPS) were assessed. PA was measured in both the DO and the dogs, using an ActiGraph GT3X accelerometer in the context of daily routine. Descriptive statistics and Spearman rank correlation analyses were performed to examine the associations between LAPS, PA levels, socio-demographic variables, lifestyle behaviors, and SRH. RESULTS: Significant correlations were found between the dog owners' light-level PA and the pets' vigorous level of PA (rho = 0.445, p = 0.01). Furthermore, the importance of the pets' health (rho = -0.785, p = 0.02) and the LAPS subscales, namely proximity (rho = 0.358, p = 0.03), and attachment (rho = 0.392, p = 0.01), were related to taking the pet for a walk. Regarding lifestyle, DO with a healthier lifestyle had a better self-assessment of their health using the SRH (rho = 0.39, p = 0.02). Moreover, DO with better lifestyles also exhibited greater concern for their pet's health (rho = 0.398, p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: This study emphasizes that individuals who adopt healthier habits tend to perceive themselves as healthier and exhibit greater concern for their pets' health. The attachment between DO and dogs is important in promoting healthy lifestyle behaviors and engagement in PA. Our results highlight that the presence of a dog is associated with a higher level of PA in DO, depending on the strength of the human-animal bond.

The ownership memory self-reference effect shifts recognition criterion but not recognition sensitivity.

Information referenced to the self is retrieved more accurately than information referenced to others, known as the memory self-reference effect. It is unclear, however, whether social context (identity of the other) or task factors alter decision-making processes. In a virtual object allocation task, female participants sorted objects into their own or another's (stranger or mother) basket based on a colour cue. Subsequently, they performed a recognition memory task in which they first indicated whether each object was old or new, and then whether it had been allocated to themselves or to the other. We obtained owner-specific hit rates and false-alarm rates and applied signal detection theory to derive separate recognition sensitivity (d') and recognition criterion parameters (c) for self- and other-owned objects. While there was no clear evidence of a recognition self-reference effect, or a change in sensitivity, participants adopted a more conservative recognition criterion for self- compared with other-owned objects, and particularly when the other-referent was the participant's mother compared with the stranger. Moreover, when discriminating whether the originally presented objects were self- or other-owned, participants were biased toward ascribing ownership to the 'other'. We speculate that these findings reflect ownership-based changes in decisional processing during the recognition memory self-reference paradigm.

Firearm ownership and storage among US college students: results from the healthy minds study, 2021-2022.

The purpose of this study is to address a significant gap in knowledge on firearm ownership rates and storage characteristics in a national sample of college students. We used 2021-2022 survey data from the Healthy Minds Study, which included approximately 88,500 students at over 100 US colleges and universities. We conducted analyses using descriptive statistics and two-sample proportion tests. About 4% of respondents reported having a firearm on or around campus. Among firearm owners, 68.8% reported storing firearms at their permanent address within an hour's drive from campus, and 43.1% reported storing their firearms unloaded and locked. Firearm ownership rates were significantly higher for respondents who were positive for specific risk factors (i.e., in a relationship, suicide ideation, recent binge drinking, and having been physically assaulted) versus those who were negative. These findings support the need for targeted messaging and firearm safety training for college students to reduce firearm-related risks.