'Sordid details': Ariel Castro's alleged kidnapping victims want case to be over , Massive child porn bust in Atlantic Canada, Dissociative Mental States on Spectral Analysis of EEG

'Sordid details': Ariel Castro's alleged kidnapping victims want case to be over
By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News 6/26/13

The three young women allegedly held captive for a decade in a Cleveland home where they were raped and tortured want to get the case to court as quickly as possible, their attorneys said on Wednesday, adding that they want “this whole thing behind them.”

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight escaped Castro’s home on May 6 after Berry broke through a front door and screamed to neighbors for help.

“The longer this process lasts, the more painful it is for them. And the more sordid details of this horror that get disclosed in this process, the more painful it is for them,” attorney Kathy Joseph, who is representing Knight, said in a statement.

Ariel Castro, who is accused of keeping three women captive for a decade in his Cleveland home, appeared before Judge Michael J. Russo for a pre-trial hearing.

“Again, they have faith in the process, but the simple, honest truth is they would like it to be over,” said James Wooley, attorney for Berry and DeJesus. “They want this whole thing behind them. Any date by which this may end is like light at the end of a tunnel.”

Ariel Castro has pleaded not guilty to 329 charges including kidnapping and rape. On Wednesday, Judge Michael Russo in Cuyahoga County ordered Castro to undergo a competency evaluation regarding his ability to understand the trial proceedings and work with his attorney.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/26/19154558-sordid-details-ariel-castros-alleged-kidnapping-victims-want-case-to-be-over



Massive child porn bust in Atlantic Canada
By QMI Agency June 26, 2013 

DARTMOUTH, N.S. — Police have arrested 22 people and rescued two children in a massive bust of suspected child predators that reached across Atlantic Canada.

At a news conference in Dartmouth, N.S., Wednesday, police said they seized 43 computers and millions of child porn images in Operation Snapshot 2, which targeted "high-risk offenders who collect, possess and/or distribute child sexual exploitation material online."

"These are not images of a 16-year-old standing topless at a swimming pool, these are images of children being raped, some are in diapers, this is the worst of the worst," Det. Const. Chris Purchas of the Toronto Police said.

A total of 64 charges have been laid or are pending, including, among others, making child pornography and voyeurism.

Police said one of the suspects is a registered sex offender and another worked with children. The suspects range in age from their 20s to 60s....
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2013/06/26/20929226.html


Dissociative Mental States Are Canonically Associated with Decreased Temporal Theta Activity on Spectral Analysis of EEG

Christa Krüger MBBCh MMed(Psych) MD FCPsych(SA)ad*, Peter Bartel PhDbe & Lizelle Fletcher BCom MSc PhDc
Journal of Trauma & Dissociation  Volume 14, Issue 4, 2013  pages 473-491 DOI:  10.1080/15299732.2013.769480

Abstract

Quantitative electroencephalographic (QEEG) changes relating to dissociative experiences have only rarely been demonstrated, and dissociative states were not quantified in those studies. The aim of this study was to explore concurrent associations between quantified dissociative states and QEEG spectral parameters, in particular theta activity, in psychiatric patients.

Fifty psychiatric patients completed the State Scale of Dissociation (SSD) immediately after a 15-min EEG recording. The EEG was assessed by conventional clinical visual analysis as well as by quantitative (QEEG) spectral analysis. Canonical analysis was performed between the set of SSD subscale scores and the following QEEG parameters: alpha–theta magnitude ratios, and relative as well as absolute theta magnitude obtained from right and left mid- to posterior-temporal and parieto-occipital derivations. The SSD transferred well to the present data in terms of reliability and internal criterion-related validity. The SSD and Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) correlated significantly (r = .73, p < .001). Conventional EEG analysis identified 29 EEGs (58%) as abnormal.

The main abnormality in 23 EEGs was slowing, maximal temporally in half of these cases. Canonical analyses confirmed a statistically significant relationship between the dissociation variables (especially conversion and depersonalization symptoms) and the QEEG variables (especially relative theta magnitude in the temporal regions; R = .72, p = .03, for SSD–QEEG; and R = .66, p = .04, for DES–QEEG).

Quantified dissociative mental states are positively canonically associated with decreased temporal theta activity and increased alpha–theta ratios on QEEG in psychiatric patients with a high tendency to dissociate. The potential implications of the dissociation–theta–alpha relationship for understanding normal attentional processes need to be studied further.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15299732.2013.769480