Accumulating evidence suggests that social contexts in early life have important andcomplexeffects on childhood psychopathology. Spurred by the lack of an explicit operational definitionthat could guide the study of such effects, we define a social context operationally as “aset of interpersonal conditions, relevant to a particular behavior or disorder and external to, butshaped and interpreted by, the individual child.” Building on this definition, we offer aseries of recommendations for future research, based on five theoretically derived propositions:(a) Contexts are nested and multidimensional; (b) contexts broaden, differentiate, and deepenwith age, becoming more specific in their effects; (c) contexts and children are mutuallydetermining; (d) a context's meaning to the child determines its effects on the child andarises from the context's ability to provide for fundamental needs; and (e) contexts shouldbe selected for assessment in light of specific questions or outcomes. As reflected in anincreasingly rich legacy of literature on child development and psychopathology, social contextsappear to influence emerging mental disorders through dynamic, bidirectional interactions withindividual children. Future research will benefit from examining not only statistical interactionsbetween child- and context-specific factors, but also the actual transactions betweenchildren and contexts and the transduction of contextual influences into pathways ofbiological mediation. Because adverse contexts exert powerful effects on the mental health ofchildren, it is important for the field to generate new, more theoretically grounded researchaddressing the contextual determinants of psychological well-being and disorder.

Links are important. The providers of electronic astronomical data are linked together the way no other science is. Electronic journals are part of this distributed, linked resource. Permanence is important. The AAS journals use a new publishing process which ensures the ability to maintain permanent access to our electronic journals. Process is important. With the right process, we have been able to add links automatically to our journal; links to references, links to citations (where the electronic material exists) and internal links for ease of navigation within the journal. Readers like this. Links are important.

The prognosis of depression in the elderly was investigated in a mixed-age sample of 242 consecutive referrals, with DSM-III defined unipolar major depressive episode, to a specialist unit for mood disorders. Subjects were followed up at about 1 and 3.8 years. There was no significant difference in outcome between younger (under 40 years), middle aged (40–59 years) and older (60 years or more) depressed patients. For the 61 elderly subjects with depression, prognosis improved with time, with 25% having a lasting recovery at the first and 41% at the second follow-up. Early onset, recurrence, and poor premorbid personality were associated with a worse prognosis. Three (5%) elderly depressives had committed suicide and seven (11%) had died from natural causes by the second follow-up. Despite some methodological limitations, our findings suggest a more optimistic outlook and the need for longer, more assertive treatment for elderly, depressed patients.

Scientific Societies have a broad range of goals, all aimed at advancing their area of science. Journal publishing is but one important task of a society. Subscription prices are normally set within the broad context of all the society’s programs. By using a normalization procedure it is possible to evaluate the relative costs and effectiveness of journals. Normalized costs to libraries of scientific journals vary by nearly 100-fold. In general, society published journals are very cost effective.

The contrast between light and dark areas on Mars has been the subject of two photoelectric studies by Younkin (1966) and McCord (1969), both of which were somewhat limited in scope. Younkin's data are based on one night's observations. McCord had a more suitable instrument for making a comparison between two areas on Mars, but still used only six nights. The agreement between these two studies is excellent. However, there is ample evidence from photographs that there are short-term changes in the contrast and brightness of Martian surface features, especially in the case of blue clearing. Visual observations are unsuitable for investigating these changes, due to the limited wavelength range of the eye's sensitivity, as well as the poor accuracy of the eye as a photometric instrument. Even photography is of limited usefulness when high accuracy is desired. Consequently, a program of continuous photoelectric observation of Mars was set up for the 1969 opposition. The technique of area scanning was chosen as the best method of recording the contrast of Martian surface features.

External affairs have exercised the minds and loyalties of a sizeable section of Singapore's politically articulate population ever since the first preparations towards self-government were taken in 1955. Even though questions of defence and foreign policy were until September 1963 the responsibility of Whitehall exclusively and thereupon transferred to the Malaysian central government, Singapore developed its own informal relationships with several foreign or Commonwealth states during those years and hotly debated international problems which seemed to impinge on the island's political future.

It is now almost sixteen years since R.G, Menzies, then leader of a resurgent parliamentary opposition, informed his colleagues that it would be “the very ecstasy of suicide” for Australians to assist in the elimination of European colonialism from Asia. For better or worse, the right honourable gentleman was unable to stem the tide of Asian nationalism, and with the political facts of life so patently irreversible, most imperial-minded Australians seem to have conditioned themselves, however reluctantly, to some kind of co-existence with Asia. Again and again Australians are informed by their historians, political scientists and poets alike that theirs is the task of reconciling the legacy of a Europocentric history with the immutable and oft-times unpleasant facts of geography.