President Joe Biden’s fitness to stand trial and his fitness to serve as president are not comparable standards‚ the forensic psychiatrist who led the movement to oust Donald Trump from the presidency via the 25th Amendment contends. Dr. Bandy X. Lee‚ who edited “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President‚” first released in 2017‚ said earlier this month that she did not judge Biden’s cognitive decline to be a danger to his service as a president.  Last week‚ several Republican lawmakers responded to her comments‚ with many alleging a “double standard” for judgments of Trump and Biden.  In a detailed email sent Friday to The Daily Signal‚ Lee responded to both GOP lawmakers’ comments and The Daily Signal’s coverage of her comments in what she called “too many misconceptions” by lawmakers and in the news story.  The investigative report that special counsel Robert Hur released on Feb. 8 looking into Biden’s mishandling of classified documents said Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen” at his home and office.  However‚ Hur said he would not seek charges because Biden would appear to a jury to be an “elderly man with a poor memory” and because his “diminished faculties” make it less likely he intentionally violated the law. “Robert Hur is not a mental health professional‚ and he commented on capacity to stand trial‚ not capacity to serve‚” Lee told The Daily Signal in the detailed email.  Several Republican lawmakers have made the comparison of Biden’s capacity to stand trial and his ability to do the job of president.  Among those lawmakers‚ Rep. Claudia Tenney‚ R-N.Y.‚ argued‚ “Either President Biden is fit to stand trial‚ or he is unfit to serve as president. There is no middle ground.” Lee‚ who has worked for Yale‚ Columbia‚ and Harvard‚ responded‚ “On the contrary‚ fitness to stand trial and fitness to serve are two different standards.” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey‚ a Republican‚ made a similar comment to Tenney‚ to which Lee said‚ “Actually‚ you can [compare fitness to stand trial versus fitness to serve as president]‚ because they are two different standards.” Lee insisted that she and other mental health professionals conducted an evaluation of special counsel Robert Mueller’s 2019 report and determined Trump was not fit to be president. Mueller investigated allegations of a conspiracy between Trump and Russia to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. Lee disagreed with a statement from a previous Daily Signal story on Wednesday that “Neither Trump nor Biden were evaluated by medical professionals for mental fitness‚” which was meant to convey that neither man was personally examined. She contends the review of the Mueller report counted as an actual evaluation.  “Again‚ there was a formal mental capacity evaluation done by a panel of the nation’s top mental health experts‚ for which Donald Trump failed every criterion‚” Lee wrote about her colleagues’ and her review of the Mueller report.  While the Mueller report “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities‚” several aspects of the report indicated temperament issues with Trump.  The press release that accompanied Lee’s and her colleagues’ 2017 evaluation said‚ “Without diagnosing‚ these top experts on mental health demonstrate‚ through a standard procedure‚ that the president clearly poses a danger to the nation and the world in his role as commander in chief.” She also responded on Friday to several Republican members of Congress who said there was a “double standard” among the people who called for ousting Trump for supposed mental health reasons but who apparently have no problem with Biden.  In extended comments in her email to The Daily Signal‚ Lee was also dismissive of a cognitive test that Trump took in person while in office. She said this was a 10-minute screening.  “He [Trump] passed a 10-minute cognitive screen by his personal physician who did not have proper qualifications or the training to do a fitness test‚” Lee told The Daily Signal.  Lee is the co-founder of the Violence Prevention Institute and is the president of the World Mental Health Coalition‚ a coalition specifically created to critique Trump’s mental health and author “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.” Last week‚ Rep. Mary Miller‚ R-Ill.‚ told The Daily Signal‚ “There has been a glaring double standard. … The same people who questioned President Trump’s mental stamina after he passed a cognitive test are now defending Biden’s mental acuity.” Rep. Mike Collins‚ R-Ga.‚ told The Daily Signal‚ “The only reason you’d refuse a cognitive test is if you can’t pass it.” Lee scoffed at this presumption.  “If he [Collins] is referring to the one Donald Trump passed‚ there is another reason: it would be an insult‚ if not a grave concern‚ for a president to have to take that 10-minute screen (not a full test)‚” Lee wrote in the email.  Referring to another lawmaker’s comment‚ Lee wrote‚ “Again‚ Donald Trump did a 10-minute screen‚ which if he did not pass‚ he would be in a nursing home.” She also noted‚ “That was a 10-minute screen‚ on which hospitalized psychiatric patients get perfect scores.” Lee expressed that she was not happy with how Wednesday’s Daily Signal news story came out. The story included comments from several GOP members of Congress.  “I was told that a publication by The Heritage Foundation would at least be intellectual‚” she said (Heritage is the parent organization of The Daily Signal). “There were just too many misconceptions‚ I had to respond.” She took exception to the story’s reference that she “defended” Biden.  “A psychiatrist does not ‘defend’ a president; she detects (or not) signs of unfitness‚ regardless of person‚” Lee said.  She also disputed the previous Daily Signal stories that said making an assessment of either Trump or Biden without an in-person evaluation could violate the “Goldwater Rule.” Lee countered that it actually “fulfills” the rule.    The “Goldwater Rule” prevents psychologists from offering a “professional opinion unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement.” The American Psychiatric Association adopted the rule after a group of partisan Democratic psychology professionals declared that 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater was “psychologically unfit to be president.”  Lee said her previous evaluation of Trump didn’t violate the rule. “Rather‚ it fulfills the ethical guideline that precedes 7.3 (“the Goldwater Rule”)‚ which is 7.1: ‘Psychiatrists are encouraged to serve society by advising and consulting with the executive‚ legislative‚ and judiciary branches of the government.’” Specifically‚ the 25th Amendment to the Constitution allows for the vice president and a majority of presidential Cabinet secretaries to determine whether a president is physically or mentally unfit to carry out the duties of the office. If the president is deemed unfit‚ the vice president would become acting president on a temporary basis.  Under the amendment‚ Congress could remove the president from office permanently with a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate. That is a higher bar than for impeachment‚ which requires only a simple majority in the House to vote for impeachment and a referral to the Senate for a trial and possible removal from office. Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com‚ and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. The post Biden’s Fitness to Stand Trial Irrelevant to Presidency‚ Says Psychiatrist Who Declared Trump Dangerous appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Antidepressant prescriptions for young girls skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic‚ according to research published by the American Academy of Pediatrics Monday. Among young women aged 12 to 17‚ the rate of prescriptions jumped 129.6% per month after March 2020 and for women aged 18 to 25‚ it rose to 56.5% per month‚ the research shows. In March 2020‚ then-President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency‚ resulting in many governors initiating lockdowns to slow the spread of COVID-19‚ including businesses‚ restaurants‚ gyms‚ stores‚ and many schools‚ and many Americans suffered a serious mental health crisis as a result. “Our study provides important information on changes in mental health utilization patterns among young adults after the COVID-19 outbreak‚” the researchers wrote. “As with adolescents‚ changes varied markedly by sex‚ with little change in antidepressant dispensing to males and an increase among females. Although this increase was smaller compared with the increase among female adolescents‚ findings suggest mental health may have similarly worsened among female young adults after the outbreak.” The study pulled the numbers from the “IQVIA Longitudinal Prescription Database‚ an all-payer national database” and focused on Americans between the ages of 12 and 25.  Antidepressant prescriptions for Americans aged 12 to 25 increased overall by 66.3% between January 2016 and December 2022‚ according to the research‚ and the dispensation rate increased by 63.5% following the pandemic. Adolescent males did not see a rise in antidepressant prescriptions and instead actually dropped off in March 2020‚ while prescription levels for young men between the ages of 18 to 25 remained relatively the same‚ according to the research. The dispensing rate was -7.1% lower than predicted in December 2022‚ while female adolescents’ dispensing rate was 12.7% higher than predicted. The researchers claimed that the disparity between the sexes was likely due to young men having access to less care and not that they had improved mental health during the pandemic compared to young women. For females‚ the increase was most notable in the Southern U.S.‚ while adolescent males saw more antidepressant prescriptions in the Midwest. Many Americans have been unable to make appointments with mental health professionals since the COVID-19 pandemic‚ with nearly 56% of psychologists unable to take on new patients due to the demand and the rise in the mental health crisis. Several studies published in January found that religious communities’ mental health fared better in the U.S. and the United Kingdom during the pandemic due to the practice of their faith during lockdowns. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com‚ and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.  The post Antidepressant Prescriptions for Adolescent Girls Spiked During COVID-19‚ Research Shows appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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My colleagues and I have built a robot composed of many building blocks like the cells of a multicellular organism. Without a “brain” or a central controller in the system‚ our robot‚ dubbed Loopy‚ relies on the collective behavior of all of its cells to interact with the world.In this sense‚ we call Loopy a robotic swarm. But Loopy can also be seen as a single robot since all the cells are connected; therefore‚ Loopy is also “a swarm of one.” This research could lead to adaptive robots that tailor their shapes and movements to their environments – for example‚ in environmental cleanup applications.Loopy is a primitive form of multicellular robot that is made of a ring of 36 cells. Each cell has a rotary servo – an electric motor that rotates a shaft with precise controlled angle of rotation – and sensors. Each cell reacts on its own without input from any of the others except for its two immediate neighbors. As the servos move‚ the angles between the cells determine Loopy’s overall shape.Loopy is free to morph into various shapes and exhibit a range of motions. But random shapes and motions are not useful. We were hoping something interesting would emerge from self-organization; that is‚ the spontaneous creation of order from disorder‚ without us telling Loopy what to do directly. It turned out that Loopy forms stable shapes that recover after Loopy bumps into obstacles.Loopy exhibiting spontaneous shapes and motions.Famed mathematician Alan Turing was interested in the idea of self-organization back in 1952. He even envisioned a ring of cells. Turing hypothesized the existence of chemicals that diffuse and react with each other‚ leading to the creation of patterns in nature like those on bird’s feathers and seashells. This self-organization approach using simulated chemicals enabled Loopy to form and transition between various lobed shapes spontaneously.Why it mattersEngineered systems‚ and robots in particular‚ are predominantly designed with a top-down approach‚ where human designers anticipate the conditions the system may encounter and plan ahead through hardware designs‚ software programs‚ or both. The problem is‚ the designers are not likely to be there when the robot encounters an unanticipated situation.This micromanagement approach in robot design is like giving kids a detailed manual when sending them to school the first day. A better way of parenting would be to provide general guidelines and feedback‚ and expect the kids to solve problems on their own. Similarly‚ a key motivation of developing Loopy is to unleash the power of bottom-up collective “intelligence” so Loopy can find new solutions on its own when a new situation arises; for example‚ finding the right shape for self to adapt to the environment.What other research is being done?The vision of programmable matter has been around for decades‚ yet tangible examples have been scarce. While researchers have explored complex shape formation through self-assembly or reconfigurable robotic systems‚ these often depend on predetermined shapes.Similar to Loopy‚ researchers have applied Turing’s self-organization concept to swarms of robots‚ such as the small‚ simple‚ autonomous Kilobots‚ leading to the emergence of complex shapes. However‚ unlike Loopy‚ the physical forces between “cells” are not used to influence the final shape and behavior of the collective.What’s next?We would like Loopy to develop more lifelike traits‚ such as navigating unforeseen situations‚ seeking out better conditions‚ acquiring resources‚ and mitigating threats. This vision extends to eventually enabling Loopy to perform tasks assigned by people‚ thereby bridging the gap between the open-ended creativity of self-organization and human guidance.The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.Yu Gu‚ Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering‚ West Virginia University and Trevor Smith‚ PhD Candidate in Mechanical Engineering‚ West Virginia UniversityThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.