Affect Variability and Predictability: Using Recurrence Quantification Analysis to Better Understand How the Dynamics of Affect Relate to Health

Changes in affect over time have been associated with health outcomes. However, previously utilized measurement methods focus on variability of affect (e.g., standard deviation, root mean squared successive difference) and ignore the more complex temporal patterns of affect over time. These patterns may be an important feature in understanding how the dynamics of affect relate to health. Recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) may help alleviate this problem by assessing temporal characteristics unassessed by past methods. RQA metrics, such as determinism and recurrence, can provide a measure of the predictability of affect over time, indexing how often patterns within affective experiences repeat. In Study 1, we first contrasted RQA metrics with commonly used measures of variability to demonstrate that RQA can further differentiate among patterns of affect. In Study 2, we analyzed the associations between these new metrics and health, namely, depressive and somatic symptoms. We found that RQA metrics predicted health above and beyond mean levels and variability of affect over time. The most desirable health outcomes were observed in people who had high mean positive affect, low mean negative affect, low affect variability, and high affect predictability. These studies are the first to demonstrate the utility of RQA for determining how temporal patterns in affective experiences are important for health outcomes

Entry in the ADHD drugs market: Welfare impact of generics and me-toos

Recent decades have seen a growth in treatments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) including many branded and generic drugs. In the early 2000's, new drug entry dramatically altered market shares. We estimate a demand system for ADHD drugs and assess the welfare impact of new drugs. We find that entry induced large welfare gains by reducing prices of substitute drugs, and by providing alternative delivery mechanisms for existing molecules. Our results suggest that the success of follow-on patented drugs may come from unanticipated innovations like delivery mechanisms, a factor ignored by proposals to retard new follow-on drug approvals

A study of the mechanism of chemical reactivity of nitrogen tetroxide with titanium alloy Final report, 26 Jan. 1969 - 31 Mar. 1970

Reactions between liquid dinitrogen tetraoxide and titanium alloy that result in stress corrosion crackin

The Social and Cultural Context of Coping with Sickle Cell Disease: III. Stress, Coping Tasks, Family Functioning, and Children’s Adjustment

Conceptions of individual and family coping with sickle cell disease (SCD) must incorporate several disease and sociocultural factors. This article proposes an integrative model and tests the relative contribution of model parameters to the prediction of social, academic, and psychological adjustment of children with SCD. The individual coping and family functioning variables most highly predictive of the child’s psychological outcomes (anxiety, depression, and positive mood) include parental psychological functioning, maturity demands made of the ill child, and the quality of relations with parents and siblings. Academic adjustment was significantly predicted by parental academic expectations and by the child’s rejection of a restrictive sick role. Competent social functioning also was predicted by the extent to which the ill child rejected the role of being sick.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67288/2/10.1177_0095798499025003006.pd

A Membrane Defect in the Pathogenesis of the Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome

The Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLOS) is an often lethal birth defect resulting from mutations in the gene responsible for the synthesis of the enzyme 3beta-hydroxy-steroid-Delta7-reductase, which catalyzes the reduction of the double bond at carbon 7 on 7-dehydrocholesterol (7-DHC) to form unesterified cholesterol. We hypothesize that the deficiency in cholesterol biosynthesis and subsequent accumulation of 7-DHC in the cell membrane leads to defective composition, organization, dynamics, and function of the cell membrane. Using skin fibroblasts obtained from SLOS patients, we demonstrate that the SLOS membrane has increased 7-DHC and reduced cholesterol content and abnormal membrane fluidity. X-ray diffraction analyses of synthetic membranes prepared to mimic SLOS membranes revealed atypical membrane organization. In addition, calcium permeability is markedly augmented, whereas membrane-bound Na+/K+ATPase activity, folate uptake, inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate signaling, and cell proliferation rates are markedly suppressed. These data indicate that the disturbance in membrane sterol content in SLOS, likely at the level of membrane caveolae, directly contributes to the widespread tissue abnormalities in this disease

Memory and comprehension for health information among older adults: distinguishing the effects of domain-general and domain-specific knowledge

While there is evidence that knowledge influences understanding of health information, less is known about the processing mechanisms underlying this effect and its impact on memory. We used the moving window paradigm to examine how older adults varying in domain-general crystallised ability (verbal ability) and health knowledge allocate attention to understand health and domain-general texts. Participants (n = 107, age: 60-88 years) read and recalled single sentences about hypertension and about non-health topics. Mixed-effects modelling of word-by-word reading times suggested that domain-general crystallised ability increased conceptual integration regardless of text domain, while health knowledge selectively increased resource allocation to conceptual integration at clause boundaries in health texts. These patterns of attentional allocation were related to subsequent recall performance. Although older adults with lower levels of crystallised ability were less likely to engage in integrative processing, when they did, this strategy had a compensatory effect in improving recall. These findings suggest that semantic integration during reading is an important comprehension process that supports the construction of the memory representation and is engendered by knowledge. Implications of the findings for theories of text processing and memory as well as for designing patient education materials are discussed

Do columnar defects produce bulk pinning?

From magneto-optical imaging performed on heavy-ion irradiated YBaCuO single crystals, it is found that at fields and temperatures where strong single vortex pinning by individual irradiation-induced amorphous columnar defects is to be expected, vortex motion is limited by the nucleation of vortex kinks at the specimen surface rather than by half-loop nucleation in the bulk. In the material bulk, vortex motion occurs through (easy) kink sliding. Depinning in the bulk determines the screening current only at fields comparable to or larger than the matching field, at which the majority of moving vortices is not trapped by an ion track.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter