Reporting of child maltreatment during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in New York City from March to May 2020

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Background: School closures and other public health responses have decreased the extent that children interact with mandated reporters and other professionals trained to detect child maltreatment. Objective: To assess associations between the pandemic public health response and the number of allegations of child abuse or neglect. Methods: This study analyzed monthly data from New York City of the number of child maltreatment allegations, stratified by reporter type (e.g., mandated reporter, education personnel, healthcare personnel), as well as the number of Child Protective Services (CPS) investigations warranting child welfare preventative services. SARIMA models were trained using data from January 2015 to February 2020 to predict expected values for March, April, and May 2020. Observed values were compared against predicted values at an alpha of .05. Results: Substantially fewer allegations of child maltreatment were reported than expected in March (-28.8 %, deviation: 1848, 95 % CI: [1272, 2423]), April (-51.5 %, deviation: 2976, 95 % CI: [2382, 3570]), and May 2020 (-46.0 %, deviation: 2959, 95 % CI: [2347, 3571]). Significant decreases in child maltreatment reporting were also noted for all reporter subtypes examined for March, April, and May 2020. Fewer CPS investigations warranted preventative services than expected in March 2020 (-43.5 %, deviation: 303, 95 % CI: [132, 475]). Conclusions: Precipitous drops in child maltreatment reporting and child welfare interventions coincided with social distancing policies designed to mitigate COVID-19 transmission. In light of these findings, educators and healthcare providers must be especially vigilant when engaging online with children and their families for signs of child abuse and/or neglect

Non-ergodicity of the motion in three dimensional steep repelling dispersing potentials

It is demonstrated numerically that smooth three degrees of freedom Hamiltonian systems which are arbitrarily close to three dimensional strictly dispersing billiards (Sinai billiards) have islands of effective stability, and hence are non-ergodic. The mechanism for creating the islands are corners of the billiard domain.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Chao

Growing Scale-Free Networks with Tunable Clustering

We extend the standard scale-free network model to include a ``triad formation step''. We analyze the geometric properties of networks generated by this algorithm both analytically and by numerical calculations, and find that our model possesses the same characteristics as the standard scale-free networks like the power-law degree distribution and the small average geodesic length, but with the high-clustering at the same time. In our model, the clustering coefficient is also shown to be tunable simply by changing a control parameter - the average number of triad formation trials per time step.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Controlling cluster synchronization by adapting the topology

We suggest an adaptive control scheme for the control of zero-lag and cluster synchronization in delay-coupled networks. Based on the speed-gradient method, our scheme adapts the topology of a network such that the target state is realized. It is robust towards different initial condition as well as changes in the coupling parameters. The emerging topology is characterized by a delicate interplay of excitatory and inhibitory links leading to the stabilization of the desired cluster state. As a crucial parameter determining this interplay we identify the delay time. Furthermore, we show how to construct networks such that they exhibit not only a given cluster state but also with a given oscillation frequency. We apply our method to coupled Stuart-Landau oscillators, a paradigmatic normal form that naturally arises in an expansion of systems close to a Hopf bifurcation. The successful and robust control of this generic model opens up possible applications in a wide range of systems in physics, chemistry, technology, and life science

Network dynamics of ongoing social relationships

Many recent large-scale studies of interaction networks have focused on networks of accumulated contacts. In this paper we explore social networks of ongoing relationships with an emphasis on dynamical aspects. We find a distribution of response times (times between consecutive contacts of different direction between two actors) that has a power-law shape over a large range. We also argue that the distribution of relationship duration (the time between the first and last contacts between actors) is exponentially decaying. Methods to reanalyze the data to compensate for the finite sampling time are proposed. We find that the degree distribution for networks of ongoing contacts fits better to a power-law than the degree distribution of the network of accumulated contacts do. We see that the clustering and assortative mixing coefficients are of the same order for networks of ongoing and accumulated contacts, and that the structural fluctuations of the former are rather large.Comment: to appear in Europhys. Let

Increased Expression of Tissue Factor and Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells of Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus with Vascular Complications

The aim of the study was to determine the correlation between the expression of tissue factor (TF) and the receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGEs) and vascular complications in patients with longstanding uncontrolled type 2 diabetes (T2D). TF and RAGE mRNAs as well as TF antigen and activity were investigated in 21 T2D patients with and without vascular complications. mRNA expression was assessed by reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in nonstimulated and advanced glycation end product (AGE) albumin–stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). TF antigen expression was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and TF activity by a modified prothrombin time assay. Basal RAGE mRNA expression was 0.2 ± 0.06 in patients with complications and 0.05 ± 0.06 patients without complications (P = .004). Stimulation did not cause any further increase in either group. TF mRNA was 0.58 ± 0.29 in patients with complications and 0.21 ± 0.18 in patients without complications (P = .003). Stimulation resulted in a nonsignificant increase in both groups. Basal TF activity (U/106 PBMCs) was 18.4 ± 13.2 in patients with complications and 6.96 ± 5.2 in patients without complications (P = .003). It increased 3-fold in both groups after stimulation (P = .001). TF antigen (pg/106 PBMCs) was 33.7 ± 28.6 in patients with complications, 10.4 ± 7.8 in patients without complications (P = .02). Stimulation tripled TF antigen in both groups of patients (P = .001). The RAGE/TF axis is up-regulated inT2Dpatients with vascular complications as compared to patients without complications. This suggests a role for this axis in the pathogenesis of vascular complications in T2D

Two-Photon 2s<->1s Transitions during Recombination of Hydrogen in the Universe

Based on the standard cosmological model, we calculate the correction to the rate of two-photon 2s1s transitions in the hydrogen atom under primordial hydrogen plasma recombination conditions that arises when the induced transitions under equilibrium background radiation with a blackbody spectrum and plasma recombination radiation are taken into account.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure