Gender differences in the mitigating effect of co-parenting on parental burnout:The gender dimension applied to COVID-19 restrictions and parental burnout levels

Parenting is recognized as a complex and stressful activity, which in recent years has been linked to the potential development of parental burnout among mothers and fathers. With the spread of COVID-19 around the globe, not only have situations of health emergency and economic difficulty emerged, but also tremendous impacts on individual lives and family role divisions, which continue to be experienced today. As lockdown measures have affected unemployment rates, financial insecurity levels, social support, amount of leisure time, and the number of caring responsibilities, parents are expected to be at higher risk for developing parental burnout. Co-parenting is presented as a factor which can mitigate the effect between COVID-19 lockdown measures and the levels of experienced parental burnout. Nevertheless, we argue that the role of co-parenting in association with the implications of COVID-19 on parental stress differs between men and women. As parenthood remains an activity that is largely gender-based, co-parenting is hypothesized to be of more crucial importance in attenuating the effect between COVID-19 lockdown measures and parental burnout for fathers in comparison to mothers. Our results confirm previous findings that COVID-19 has increased levels of parental burnout. The relationship between state-imposed COVID-19 lockdown measures and levels of parental burnout was not found to be significantly affected by co-parenting. However, when assessing this two-way interaction separately for men and women, we saw that this mitigating effect was significant for fathers and non-significant for mothers

Viscoelastic liquid crystal colloids for the continuous processing of twisted nematic electro-optical cells

Liquid crystal colloid materials are described based on the liquid crystal (LC) E7 and submicron sized poly(methyl methacrylate-co-divinylbenzene) particles. Application of a thermal treatment to the composite material produces a finely dispersed network of the internally crosslinked polymeric inclusions in the LC-E7. Dynamic rheological measurements on the LC colloids show that the presence of this network imposes pronounced viscoelastic behavior on the material, which may be exploited in the manufacturing of large-area twisted nematic (TN) electro-optical cells via continuous methods as an alternative to the currently available batchwise routes. The electro-optical characteristics of TN cells based on the composite material are approximately comparable to the electro-optical characteristics of a reference cell filled with pure LC E7, which ensures that the largely increased viscoelasticity of the composite does not lead to a degradation of electro-optical propertie

Nano-second laser interference photoembossed microstructures for enhanced cell alignment

Photoembossing is a powerful photolithographic technique to prepare surface relief structures relying on polymerization-induced diffusion in a solventless development step. Conveniently, surface patterns are formed by two or more interfering laser beams without the need for a lithographic mask. The use of nanosecond pulsed light-based interference lithography strengthens the pattern resolution through the absence of vibrational line pattern distortions. Typically, a conventional photoembossing protocol consists of an exposure step at room temperature that is followed by a thermal development step at high temperature. In this work, we explore the possibility to perform the pulsed holographic exposure directly at the development temperature. The surface relief structures generated using this modified photoembossing protocol are compared with those generated using the conventional one. Importantly, the enhancement of surface relief height has been observed by exposing the samples directly at the development temperature, reaching approximately double relief heights when compared to samples obtained using the conventional protocol. Advantageously, the light dose needed to reach the optimum height and the amount of photoinitiator can be substantially reduced in this modified protocol, demonstrating it to be a more efficient process for surface relief generation in photopolymers. Kidney epithelial cell alignment studies on substrates with relief-height optimized structures generated using the two described protocols demonstrate improved cell alignment in samples generated with exposure directly at the development temperature, highlighting the relevance of the height enhancement reached by this method. Although cell alignment is well-known to be enhanced by increasing the relief height of the polymeric grating, our work demonstrates nano-second laser interference photoembossing as a powerful tool to easily prepare polymeric gratings with tunable topography in the range of interest for fundamental cell alignment studies

Correcting for the Effects of Interstellar Extinction

This paper addresses the issue of how best to correct astronomical data for the wavelength-dependent effects of Galactic interstellar extinction. The main general features of extinction from the IR through the UV are reviewed, along with the nature of observed spatial variations. The enormous range of extinction properties found in the Galaxy, particularly in the UV spectral region, is illustrated. Fortunately, there are some tight constraints on the wavelength dependence of extinction and some general correlations between extinction curve shape and interstellar environment. These relationships provide some guidance for correcting data for the effects of extinction. Several strategies for dereddening are discussed along with estimates of the uncertainties inherent in each method. In the Appendix, a new derivation of the wavelength dependence of an average Galactic extinction curve from the IR through the UV is presented, along with a new estimate of how this extinction law varies with the parameter R = A(V)/E(B-V). These curves represent the true monochromatic wavelength dependence of extinction and, as such, are suitable for dereddening IR--UV spectrophotometric data of any resolution, and can be used to derive extinction relations for any photometry system.Comment: To appear in PASP (January 1999) 14 pages including 4 pages of figures Uses emulateapj style. PASP, in press (January 1999

InP-based two-dimensional photonic crystals filled with polymers

Polymer filling of the air holes of Indium Phosphide based two-dimensional photonic crystals is reported. After infiltration of the holes with a liquid monomer and solidification of the infill in situ by thermal polymerization, complete filling is proven using scanning electron microscopy. Optical transmission measurements of a filled photonic crystal structure exhibit a redshift of the air band, confirming the complete filling.Comment: To be published in Appl. Phys. Let

Phase diagram of the restricted solid-on-solid model coupled to the Ising model

We study the phase transitions of a restricted solid-on-solid model coupled to an Ising model, which can be derived from the coupled XY-Ising model. There are two kinds of phase transition lines. One is a Ising transition line and the other is surface roughening transition line. The latter is a KT transition line from the viewpoint of the XY model. Using a microcanonical Monte Carlo technique, we obtain a very accurate two dimensional phase diagram. The two transition lines are separate in all the parameter space we study. This result is strong evidence that the fully frustrated XY model orders by two separate transitions and that roughening and reconstruction transitions of crystal surfaces occur separately.Comment: 17 pages, source RevTeX file and 8 PS figures are tarred and compressed via uufile

Affect fluctuations examined with ecological momentary assessment in patients with current or remitted depression and anxiety disorders

BACKGROUND: There is increasing interest in day-to-day affect fluctuations of patients with depressive and anxiety disorders. Few studies have compared repeated assessments of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) across diagnostic groups, and fluctuation patterns were not uniformly defined. The aim of this study is to compare affect fluctuations in patients with a current episode of depressive or anxiety disorder, in remitted patients and in controls, using affect instability as a core concept but also describing other measures of variability and adjusting for possible confounders. METHODS: Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data were obtained from 365 participants of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety with current (n = 95), remitted (n = 178) or no (n = 92) DSM-IV defined depression/anxiety disorder. For 2 weeks, five times per day, participants filled-out items on PA and NA. Affect instability was calculated as the root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD). Tests on group differences in RMSSD, within-person variance, and autocorrelation were performed, controlling for mean affect levels. RESULTS: Current depression/anxiety patients had the highest affect instability in both PA and NA, followed by remitters and then controls. Instability differences between groups remained significant when controlling for mean affect levels, but differences between current and remitted were no longer significant. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with a current disorder have higher instability of NA and PA than remitted patients and controls. Especially with regard to NA, this could be interpreted as patients with a current disorder being more sensitive to internal and external stressors and having suboptimal affect regulation

Disordered Flat Phase and Phase Diagram for Restricted Solid on Solid Models of Fcc(110) Surfaces

We discuss the results of a study of restricted solid-on-solid models for fcc (110) surfaces. These models are simple modifications of the exactly solvable BCSOS model, and are able to describe a $(2\times 1)$ missing-row reconstructed surface as well as an unreconstructed surface. They are studied in two different ways. The first is by mapping the problem onto a quantum spin-1/2 one-dimensional hamiltonian of the Heisenberg type, with competing $S^z_iS^z_j$ couplings. The second is by standard Monte Carlo simulations. We find phase diagrams with the following features, which we believe to be quite generic: (i) two flat, ordered phases (unreconstructed and missing-row reconstructed); a rough, disordered phase; an intermediate disordered flat (DF) phase, characterized by monoatomic steps, whose physics is shown to be akin to that of a dimer spin state. (ii) a transition line from the $(2\times 1)$ reconstructed phase to the DF phase showing exponents which appear to be close, within our numerical accuracy, to the 2D-Ising universality class. (iii) a critical (preroughening) line with variable exponents, separating the unreconstructed phase from the DF phase. Possible signatures and order parameters of the DF phase are investigated.Comment: Revtex (22 pages) + 15 figures (uuencoded file

Abundances and Physical Conditions in the Warm Neutral Medium Towards mu Columbae

We present ultraviolet interstellar absorption line measurements for the sightline towards the O9.5 V star mu Columbae obtained with the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. These archival data represent the most complete GHRS interstellar absorption line measurements for any line of sight towards an early-type star. The 3.5 km/s resolution of the instrument allow us to accurately derive the gas-phase column densities of many important ionic species in the diffuse warm neutral medium using a combination of apparent column density and component fitting techniques, and we study in detail the contamination from ionized gas along this sightline. The low-velocity material shows gas-phase abundance patterns similar to the warm cloud (cloud A) towards the disk star zeta Oph, while the component at v = +20.1 km/s shows gas-phase abundances similar to those found in warm halo clouds. We find the velocity-integrated gas-phase abundances of Zn, P, and S relative to H along this sightline are indistinguishable from solar system abundances. We discuss the implications of our gas-phase abundance measurements for the composition of interstellar dust. The relative ionic column density ratios of the intermediate velocity components show the imprint both of elemental incorporation into grains and (photo)ionization. The components at v = -30 and -48 km/s along this sightline likely trace shocked gas with very low hydrogen column densities. Appendices include a new derivation of the GHRS instrumental line spread function, and a new very accurate determination of the total H I column along this sightline. (Abridged)Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. 80 pages including 19 embedded figures and 12 embedded tables. Version with higher resolution figures can be downloaded from http://fuse.pha.jhu.edu/~howk/Papers/papers.htm