The interaction between monoamine oxidase A and punitive discipline in the development of antisocial behavior: Mediation by maladaptive social information processing.

Previous studies demonstrate that boys' monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) genotype interacts with adverse rearing environments in early childhood, including punitive discipline, to predict later antisocial behavior. Yet the mechanisms by which MAOA and punitive parenting interact during childhood to amplify risk for antisocial behavior are not well understood. In the present study, hostile attributional bias and aggressive response generation during middle childhood, salient aspects of maladaptive social information processing, were tested as possible mediators of this relation in a sample of 187 low-income men followed prospectively from infancy into early adulthood. Given racial-ethnic variation in MAOA allele frequencies, analyses were conducted separately by race. In both African American and Caucasian men, those with the low-activity MAOA allele who experienced more punitive discipline at age 1.5 generated more aggressive responses to perceived threat at age 10 relative to men with the high-activity variant. In the African American subsample only, formal mediation analyses indicated a marginally significant indirect effect of maternal punitiveness on adult arrest records via aggressive response generation in middle childhood. The findings suggest that maladaptive social information processing may be an important mechanism underlying the association between MAOA × Parenting interactions and antisocial behavior in early adulthood. The present study extends previous work in the field by demonstrating that MAOA and harsh parenting assessed in early childhood interact to not only predict antisocial behavior in early adulthood, but also predict social information processing, a well-established social-cognitive correlate of antisocial behavior

Efficient Resource Management Mechanism for 802.16 Wireless Networks Based on Weighted Fair Queuing

Wireless Networking continues on its path of being one of the most commonly used means of communication. The evolution of this technology has taken place through the design of various protocols. Some common wireless protocols are the WLAN, 802.16 or WiMAX, and the emerging 802.20, which specializes in high speed vehicular networks, taking the concept from 802.16 to higher levels of performance. As with any large network, congestion becomes an important issue. Congestion gains importance as more hosts join a wireless network. In most cases, congestion is caused by the lack of an efficient mechanism to deal with exponential increases in host devices. This can effectively lead to very huge bottlenecks in the network causing slow sluggish performance, which may eventually reduce the speed of the network. With continuous advancement being the trend in this technology, the proposal of an efficient scheme for wireless resource allocation is an important solution to the problem of congestion. The primary area of focus will be the emerging standard for wireless networks, the 802.16 or “WiMAX”. This project, attempts to propose a mechanism for an effective resource management mechanism between subscriber stations and the corresponding base station

SIP registration stress test

This paper deals with a benchmarking of SIP infrastructure and improves the methodology of SIP performance evaluation further to better fit into the design of the SIP testing platform, which is being designed in the VSB – Technical University of Ostrava. By separating registrations from calls, we were able to measure both cases without the need of extensive postprocessing of data to ensure the data in one case is not affected by the ones from the other case. Moreover the security vulnerability of the SIP protocol has been harnessed to allow measuring software for performing both registrations and calls together but in individual processes, which builds the basis for planned and already mentioned modular design of the platform. In this paper, we present the results from separate registration stress tests and we explain the usage of the proposed SIP benchmarking methodology

Anger and assaultiveness of male forensic patients with developmental disabilities : links to volatile parents

This study with 107 male forensic patients with developmental disabilities investigated whether exposure to parental anger and aggression was related to anger and assaultiveness in a hospital, controlling for background variables. Patient anger and aggression were assessed by self-report, staff-ratings, and archival records. Exposure to parental anger/aggression, assessed by a clinical interview, was significantly related to patient self-reported anger, staff-rated anger and aggression, and physical assaults in hospital, controlling for age, intelligence quotient, length of hospital stay, violent offense history, and childhood physical abuse. Results are consonant with previous findings concerning detrimental effects of witnessing parental violence and with the theory on acquisition of cognitive scripts for aggression. Implications for clinical assessment and cognitive restructuring in anger treatment are discussed

Do Cash Transfers Improve Birth Outcomes? Evidence from Matched Vital Statistics, Social Security and Program Data

There is limited empirical evidence on whether unrestricted cash social assistance to poor pregnant women improves children's birth outcomes. Using program administrative micro-data matched to longitudinal vital statistics on the universe of births in Uruguay, we estimate that participation in a generous cash transfer program led to a sizeable 15% reduction in the incidence of low birthweight. Improvements in mother nutrition and a fall in labor supply, out-of-wedlock births and mother's smoking all appear to contribute to the effect. We conclude that, by improving child health, unrestricted unconditional cash transfers may help break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.welfare transfers, birth outcomes

From State to Market: A Survey of Empirical Studies on Privatization

This study surveys the academic and professional literature examining the privatisation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), with a focus on empirical studies. Privatisation has been instrumental in reducing state ownership in many countries and had a transforming effect on global stock markets, although the role of SOEs in many other countries is similar to what it was two decades ago. Countries have adopted large-scale privatisation programs primarily for two reasons: first, the conclusive evidence that privately-owned firms outperform SOEs and, second, the empirical evidence clearly shows that privatisation significantly (often dramatically) improves the operating and financial performance of divested firms. Governments can also raise significant revenues by selling SOEs. While the choice between privatisation via public share offering versus through asset sales is still imperfectly understood, factors such as firm size, government fiscal condition, and the state of national economic development are important influences. Further, those countries which have chosen the mass (voucher) privatisation route have done so largely out of necessity--and face ongoing efficiency problems as a result. Governments have great discretion in pricing the SOEs they sell, especially those being sold via public share offering, and they use this discretion to pursue political and economic ends. Finally, investors who purchase the shares of firms being privatised earn significantly positive excess returns both in the short-run (due to deliberate underpricing of share issues by the government) and over one, three, and five-year investment horizons.Capital, Investment, Employment, Financing policy, Ownership structure, Investment banking, Venture capital, Brokerage, Public economics, Sources of revenue, Public enterprises, Boundaries of public and private enterprise, Privatisation, Contracting out

Continuous Risk Management Course

This document includes a course plan for Continuous Risk Management taught by the Software Assurance Technology Center along with the Continuous Risk Management Guidebook of the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University and a description of Continuous Risk Management at NASA

Do Cash Transfers Improve Birth Outcomes? Evidence from Matched Vital Statistics, Social Security and Program Data

There is limited empirical evidence on whether unrestricted cash social assistance to poor pregnant women improves children’s birth outcomes. Using program administrative micro-data matched to longitudinal vital statistics on the universe of births in Uruguay, we estimate that participation in a generous cash transfer program led to a sizeable 15% reduction in the incidence of low birthweight. Improvements in mother nutrition and a fall in labor supply, out-of-wedlock births and mother’s smoking all appear to contribute to the effect. We conclude that, by improving child health, unrestricted unconditional cash transfers may help break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.

Social Status Differences In Hostile Attribution Biases and Reactive Aggression

A person\u27s standing within a social hierarchy can have a pervasive influence on patterns of attribution,especially when presented with an ambiguous social provocation. Those with low social status are devalued by society and this sense of threatened social worth motivates social vigilance and influences patterns of social cognition and behavior. Integrating Attribution Theory (e.g., Heider 1958; Weiner, 1986} with predictions of Social Information Processing Theory (SIP;Crick & Dodge, 1994; Dodge & Pettit, 2003) and Stigma Compensation Theory (STC; Henry, 2009; 2011), this research suggests the possibility that status-based differences in hostile attributions and reactive aggression are mediated by threatened social worth. Using survey methodology, Study 1demonstrates that non-Whites and those with lower SES reported significantly greater hostile a ttributions than Whites and those with higher SES even when controlling for relevant covariates. Additionally, non-Whites reported significantly greater reactive aggression than Whites even when controlling for trait aggression, relational aggression and normative beliefs about aggression. Social status is negatively associated with threatened social worth and together, threatened social worth and vigilance toward threats significantly mediated the relationship between social status and hostile attributions for ethnicity, SES and subjective status. Study 2 employed a modified Lexical Decision Task to test for status-based differences in activation of hostility related knowledge structures following ambiguous provocation stimuli. The results were mixed; regardless of social status, participants were generally faster to respond to benign compared to hostile words, indicating the ambiguous provocation sentences either facilitated processing of benign stimuli and/or inhibited processing of hostile stimuli. However, there was a significant interaction between ethnicity and reaction time, indicating that the ambiguous provocation sentences may have inhibited processing of hostile words for Whites only. Non-Whites were equally as fast to respond to benign and hostile words. Study 3 examined the effects of a social worth affirmation on the relationships between social status, hostile attributions and reactive aggression. If threatened social worth drives these processes, then affirming social worth should render the status differences on hostile attributions and reactive aggression non­ significant (compared to control). The results of Study 3 did not support this hypothesis. This research makes an important step toward understanding the influence of social status on hostile attributions and reactive aggression. Low social status can push people to be vigilant toward threats to social value, and thus increases their likelihood of interpreting ambiguous provocations as intentionally hostile. These data represent an integration of three relatively separate literatures and can provide an empirical foundation for research investigating the relationship between social status and a bias toward attributing hostile intent and reactive aggression. Additionally,this research makes theoretical advancements in terms of exploring predictions of both SIP and STC theory. Finally, these data can foster applied research aimed toward reducing reactive aggression, by highlighting the potential effects of low social status on psychological defensiveness and information processing