Marshall Boswell and Stephen J. Burn eds. A Companion to David Foster Wallace Studies. Marshall Boswell ed. David Foster Wallace and “The Long Thing”: New Essays on the Novels.

Well before his death, in 2008, the importance of David Foster Wallace in the world of contemporary American letters had overcome the boundaries of his reputation as both a virtuoso of postmodern encyclopedic fiction and the author of a diverse and impressive corpus of essays. The admiration for his technical and intellectual eclecticism had given way to a shared feeling that his work constituted a brave and authentic reaction to the problems of postmodernity. Here was an author that did not ..

Outcomes, Developmental Processes and Protective Factors in Different Conduct Problems Trajectories

Conduct problems in youth are very common and have high financial and societal costs. Conduct problems can have different age of onset and developmental course and often predict later adjustment problems. In this work, I investigated the psychosocial outcomes of different trajectories of conduct problems. Then, I examined the developmental processes underlying poor academic achievement, a common risk factor in youth with conduct problems. To do this, I tested a developmental cascade model in two early-onset subgroups of conduct problems individuals. I have also investigated whether school experience could mediate the association between conduct problems trajectories and not being in education, employment or training (NEET) at age 20. Finally, I explored a number of school-level factors that could predict the development of conduct problems in early to mid-adolescence. I used several statistical methods including meta-analysis, structural equation modelling, counterfactual-based mediation analysis and longitudinal latent growth curve modelling. I have shown that an early-onset persistent pattern of conduct problems is associated with a greater risk of poor psychosocial outcomes compared to other trajectories (adolescent-onset and childhood-limited). The developmental cascade model I tested showed discrete differences across the two groups of early-onset conduct problems individuals, but I did not find an indirect effect carried through prenatal and postnatal risk factors that could explain poor academic achievement in adolescence. In terms of mediating factors, I found that positive school experience decreased the risk in early-onset persistent youth to become NEET in early adulthood. Finally, a positive school climate was associated with a lower risk of exhibiting persistent patterns of conduct problems in adolescence, in both males and females. These results shed light on outcomes, processes and mediating factors that have the potential to change the development of conduct problems across life and may guide prevention and intervention programs, particularly within schools

Associations between socio-economic status (including school- and pupil-level interactions) and student perceptions of school environment and health in English secondary schools

This article examines interactions between school-level and pupil-level measures of socio-economic status for pupil reports of the school environment and a range of risk behaviours and health outcomes. The baseline survey for the INCLUSIVE trial provided data on pupil affluence and pupil reports of the school environment, smoking, drinking, anti-social behaviour at school, quality of life and psychological wellbeing for over 6,000 pupils (aged 11–12 years) in 40 schools within a 1-hour train journey from central London. The level of socio-economic disadvantage of the school was measured using the percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals. Multilevel regression models examined the association between pupil affluence, the socio-economic composition of the school and the interaction between these with the school environment, risk behaviours and health outcomes. Our findings provide some evidence for interactions, suggesting that less affluent pupils reported lower psychological wellbeing and quality of life in schools with more socio-economically advantaged intakes. There appears to be a complex relationship for anti-social behaviour. Where pupil affluence and school socio-economic composition were discordant, pupils reported a higher number of anti-social behaviours. This article provides further evidence that less affluent pupils are more likely to engage in a variety of risk behaviours and experience worse health outcomes when they attend schools with more socio-economically advantaged intakes, supporting some of the mechanisms described in the theory of human functioning and school organisation

A design method for improving assembly and environmental sustainability in packaging solutions: a case study in household appliances

By using a functional requirement analysis, through Design for Manufacture and Assembly and Design for Environment principles, this paper aims at showing a new design method to improve the overall assembly features and environmental sustainability of a packaging solution. This method provides to rank functional requirements according to three different design specifications and also to the number of relationships they have with each other. At the same time, a ranked order of importance for the packaging parts has been realised, considering the number of performed functions. The purpose of this method is to support the designers in focusing their attention on the most important packaging parts and, at the same time, giving them a clear idea of which are the most important functional requirements to be satisfied. This study has been focused on domestic household packaging, but the provided method can be extended to any particular packaging solution and its findings are still valid. According to the Design for Environmental perspective, the actual and the new resulting packaging solutions have been then compared through Life Cycle Assessment method. The results have shown the new packaging solution being able to cut down the environmental impacts, on average, of approximately 30%

Modelling of Thermal Hyperemia in the Skin of Type 2 Diabetic Patients

The microcirculatory response to thermal stimulation involves both an axon reflex and NO-mediated activation. The analysis of the microcirculatory flow following thermal stimulation may therefore enhance the detection of any impairment of the small unmyelinated fibres that are involved in the axon reflex. The aim of this work is to establish a method of non-invasive measurement of small fibre impairment. The microcirculatory flow in response to local heating is measured by using a laser Doppler instrument, and mathematically modelled to extract a set of quantitative parameters. The results confirm that there is a significant difference in the parameters modelling the axon reflex between diabetic and control subjects, while no significant difference is found in the parameters modelling the NO-mediated activation

Ferromagnetic contamination of Ultra-Low-Field-NMR sample containers. Quantification of the problem and possible solutions

The presence of a weak remanence in Ultra-Low-Field (ULF) NMR sample containers is investigated on the basis of proton precession. The high-sensitivity magnetometer used for the NMR detection, enables simultaneously the measurement of the static field produced in the sample proximity by ferromagnetic contaminants. The presence of the latter is studied by high resolution chemical analyses of the surface, based on X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and secondary ions mass spectroscopy. Methodologies to reduce the contamination are explored and characterized. This study is of relevance in any ULF-NMR experiment, as in the ULF regime spurious ferromagnetism becomes easily a dominant cause of artefacts.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures

Adverse childhood experiences and early life inflammation in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children

BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with poorer health across the life course. Previous studies have used cumulative risk scores (ACE scores) or individual ACEs but these two approaches have important shortcomings. ACE scores assume that each adversity is equally important for the outcome of interest and the single adversity approach assumes that ACEs do not co-occur. Latent class analysis (LCA) is an alternative approach to operationalising ACEs data, identifying groups of people co-reporting similar ACEs. Here we apply these three approaches for ACEs operationalisation with inflammation in childhood with the aim of identifying particular ACEs or ACE combinations that are particularly associated with higher inflammation in early life. METHODS: Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) we compare ACE scores, single adversities and LCA-derived ACE clusters in their relationships with Interleukin-6 at age 9 (n = 4935) and C-Reactive Protein (CRP) at age 9 (n = 4887). ACEs included were parental separation/divorce, parental alcohol problems, parental mental health problems, parental offending, inter-parental violence, parental drug misuse, and physical, emotional and sexual abuse. RESULTS: Two thirds of the sample reported at least one ACE. Mother’s mental health problems was the most frequently reported ACE (32.3 %). LCA identified four ACE classes – ‘Low ACEs’ (81.1 %), ‘Maternal mental health problems’ (10.3 %), ‘Maternal mental health problems and physical abuse’ (6.3 %) and ‘Parental conflict, mental health problems and emotional abuse’ (2.4 %). Parental separation/divorce was associated with higher IL-6. Parental alcohol problems, paternal mental health problems, parental convictions and emotional abuse were associated with lower levels of IL-6. Associations for paternal mental health problems and emotional abuse were only observed for boys. ACE score and LCA-derived ACE classes were not associated with differences in IL-6. Girls in the ‘Maternal mental health problems’ cluster had lower CRP levels. CONCLUSIONS: Specific adversities and adversity combinations are important for differences in childhood inflammation. Some associations were only observed for girls or boys