Attention deficits predict phenotypic outcomes in syndrome-specific and domain-specific ways

Attentional difficulties, both at home and in the classroom, are reported across a number of neurodevelopmental disorders. However, exactly how attention influences early socio-cognitive learning remains unclear. We addressed this question both concurrently and longitudinally in a cross-syndrome design, with respect to the communicative domain of vocabulary and to the cognitive domain of early literacy, and then extended the analysis to social behavior. Participants were young children (aged 4–9 years at Time 1) with either Williams syndrome (WS, N = 26) or Down syndrome (DS, N = 26) and typically developing controls (N = 103). Children with WS displayed significantly greater attentional deficits (as indexed by teacher report of behavior typical of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than children with DS, but both groups had greater attentional problems than the controls. Despite their attention differences, children with DS and those with WS were equivalent in their cognitive abilities of reading single words, both at Time 1 and 12 months later, at Time 2, although they differed in their early communicative abilities in terms of vocabulary. Greater ADHD-like behaviors predicted poorer subsequent literacy for children with DS, but not for children with WS, pointing to syndrome-specific attentional constraints on specific aspects of early development. Overall, our findings highlight the need to investigate more precisely whether and, if so, how, syndrome-specific profiles of behavioral difficulties constrain learning and socio-cognitive outcomes across different domains

Verification of the Parallel Pin-Wise Core Simulator pCTF/PARCSv3.2 in Operational Control Rod Drop Transient Scenarios

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Nuclear Science and Engineering on 2017, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00295639.2017.1320892[EN] Thanks to advances in computer technology, it is feasible to obtain detailed reactor core descriptions for safety analysis of the light water reactor (LWR), in order to represent realistically the fuel elements design, as is the case for three-dimensional coupled simulations for local neutron kinetics and thermal hydraulics. This scenario requires an efficient thermal-hydraulic code that can produce a response in a reasonable time for large-scale, detailed models. In two-fluid codes, such as the thermal-hydraulic subchannel code COBRA-TF, the time restriction is even more important, since the set of equations to be solved is more complex. We have developed a message passing interface parallel version of COBRA-TF, called pCTF. The parallel code is based on a cell-oriented domain decomposition approach, and performs well in models that consist of many cells. The Jacobian matrix is computed in parallel, with each processor in charge of calculating the coefficients related to a subset of the cells. Furthermore, the resulting system of linear equations is also solved in parallel, by exploiting solvers and preconditioners from PETSc. The goal of this study is to demonstrate the capability of the recently developed pCTF/PARCS coupled code to simulate large cores with a pin-by-pin level of detail in an acceptable computational time, using for this purpose two control rod drop operational transients that took place in the core of a three-loop pressurized water reactor. As a result, the main safety parameters of the core hot channel have been calculated by the coupled code in a pin level of detail, obtaining best estimate results for this transient.This work has been partially supported by the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia under Projects COBRA_PAR (PAID-05-11-2810) and OpenNUC (PAID-05-12), and by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad under Projects SLEPc-HS (TIN2016-75985-P) and NUC-MULTPHYS (ENE2012-34585).Ramos Peinado, E.; Roman Moltó, JE.; Abarca Giménez, A.; Miró Herrero, R.; Bermejo, JA.; Ortego, A.; Posada-Barral, JM. (2017). Verification of the Parallel Pin-Wise Core Simulator pCTF/PARCSv3.2 in Operational Control Rod Drop Transient Scenarios. Nuclear Science and Engineering. 187(3):254-267. https://doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2017.1320892S2542671873Cuervo, D., Avramova, M., Ivanov, K., & Miró, R. (2006). Evaluation and enhancement of COBRA-TF efficiency for LWR calculations. Annals of Nuclear Energy, 33(9), 837-847. doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2006.03.011Ramos, E., Roman, J. E., Abarca, A., Miró, R., & Bermejo, J. A. (2016). Control rod drop transient analysis with the coupled parallel code pCTF-PARCSv2.7. Annals of Nuclear Energy, 87, 308-317. doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2015.09.016T. DOWNAR et al. “PARCS v2.7 U.S. NRC Core Neutronics Simulator: User Manual” (2006).T. DOWNAR et al. “PARCS v2.7 U.S. NRC Core Neutronics Simulator: Theory Manual” (2006)

Stratification of the orbit space in gauge theories. The role of nongeneric strata

Gauge theory is a theory with constraints and, for that reason, the space of physical states is not a manifold but a stratified space (orbifold) with singularities. The classification of strata for smooth (and generalized) connections is reviewed as well as the formulation of the physical space as the zero set of a momentum map. Several important features of nongeneric strata are discussed and new results are presented suggesting an important role for these strata as concentrators of the measure in ground state functionals and as a source of multiple structures in low-lying excitations.Comment: 22 pages Latex, 1 figur

The 'COmorBidity in Relation to AIDS' (COBRA) cohort: Design, methods and participant characteristics

BACKGROUND: Persons living with HIV on combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) may be at increased risk of the development of age-associated non-communicable comorbidities (AANCC) at relatively young age. It has therefore been hypothesised that such individuals, despite effective cART, may be prone to accelerated aging. OBJECTIVE: The COmorBidity in Relation to AIDS (COBRA) cohort study was designed to investigate the potential causal link between HIV and AANCC, amongst others, in a cohort of middle-aged individuals with HIV with sustained viral suppression on cART and otherwise comparable HIV-negative controls. METHODS: Longitudinal cohort study of HIV-positive subjects ≥45 years of age, with sustained HIV suppression on cART recruited from two large European HIV treatment centres and similarly-aged HIV-negative controls recruited from sexual health centres and targeted community groups. Both HIV-positive and HIV-negative subjects were assessed at study entry and again at follow-up after 2 years. RESULTS: Of the 134 HIV-positive individuals with a median (IQR) age of 56 (51, 62) years recruited, 93% were male, 88% of white ethnicity and 86% were men who have sex with men (MSM). Similarly, the 79 HIV-negative subjects had a median (IQR) age of 57 (52, 64) and 92% were male, 97% of white ethnicity and 80% were MSM. CONCLUSIONS: The results from the COBRA study will be a significant resource to understand the link between HIV and AANCC and the pathogenic mechanisms underlying this link. COBRA will inform future development of novel prognostic tools for earlier diagnosis of AANCC and of novel interventions which, as an adjunct to cART, may prevent AANCC

Digital Signal Processing

Contains table of contents for Part III, table of contents for Section 1, an introduction and reports on seventeen research projects.National Science Foundation FellowshipNational Science Foundation (Grant ECS 84-07285)National Science Foundation (Grant MIP 87-14969)U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-81-K-0742)Scholarship from the Federative Republic of BrazilU.S. Air Force - Electronic Systems Division (Contract F19628-85-K-0028)AT&T Bell Laboratories Doctoral Support ProgramCanada, Bell Northern Research ScholarshipCanada, Fonds pour la Formation de Chercheurs et I'Aide a la Recherche Postgraduate FellowshipSanders Associates, Inc.OKI Semiconductor, Inc.Tel Aviv University, Department of Electronic SystemsU.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-85-K-0272)Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Science and Engineering Scholarshi

Digital Signal Processing Research Program

Contains table of contents for Part III, table of contents for Section 1, an introduction and reports on seventeen research projects.U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Contract N00014-90-J-1544Charles S. Draper Laboratory Contract DL-H-404158Rockwell Corporation Doctoral FellowshipU.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-89-J-1489U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-90-J-1109The Federative Republic of Brazil ScholarshipLockheed Sanders, Inc.National Science Foundation Grant MIP 87-14969AT&T Bell Laboratories Doctoral ProgramBell Northern Research Ltd.Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Contract N00014-87-K-0825IBM CorporationSloan FoundationU.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research FellowshipU.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Grant AFOSR-91-0034National Science Foundation Graduate FellowshipCanada, Natural Science and Engineering Research Council ScholarshipU.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Grant AFOSR-91-0034Texas Instruments, Inc

Digital Signal Processing

Contains an introduction and reports on fifteen research projects.National Science Foundation FellowshipU.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-81-K-0742)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS 84-07285)Sanders Associates, Inc.U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract F19628-85-K-0028)AT&T Bell Laboratories Doctoral Support ProgramCanada, Bell Northern Research ScholarshipCanada, Fonds pour la Formation de Chercheurs et /'Aide a la Recherche Postgraduate FellowshipCanada, Natural Science and Engineering Research Council Postgraduate FellowshipAmoco Foundation FellowshipFannie and John Hertz Foundation Fellowshi

Signal Processing Research Program

Contains table of contents for Part III, table of contents for Section 1, an introduction and reports on fourteen research projects.Charles S. Draper Laboratory Contract DL-H-404158U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-89-J-1489National Science Foundation Grant MIP 87-14969Battelle LaboratoriesTel-Aviv University, Department of Electronic SystemsU.S. Army Research Office Contract DAAL03-86-D-0001The Federative Republic of Brazil ScholarshipSanders Associates, Inc.Bell Northern Research, Ltd.Amoco Foundation FellowshipGeneral Electric FellowshipNational Science Foundation FellowshipU.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research FellowshipU.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-85-K-0272Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada - Science and Technology Scholarshi