Predictors of English Health Literacy among U.S. Hispanic Immigrants: The importance of language, bilingualism and sociolinguistic environment

In the United States, data confirm that Spanish-speaking immigrants are particularly affected by the negative health outcomes associated with low health literacy. Although the literature points to variables such as age, educational background and language, only a few studies have investigated the factors that may influence health literacy in this group. Similarly, the role that bilingualism and/or multilingualism play in health literacy assessment continues to be an issue in need of further research. The purpose of this study was to examine the predictors of English health literacy among adult Hispanic immigrants whose self-reported primary language is Spanish, but who live and function in a bilingual community. It also explored issues related to the language of the instrument. An analysis of data collected through a randomized controlled study was conducted. Results identified English proficiency as the strongest predictor of health literacy (p < 0.001). The results further point to the importance of primary and secondary language in the assessment of heath literacy level. This study raises many questions in need of further investigation to clarify how language proficiency and sociolinguistic environment affect health literacy in language minority adults; proposes language approaches that may be more appropriate for measuring health literacy in these populations; and recommends further place-based research to determine whether the connection between language proficiency and health is generalizable to border communities

Regional Stratigraphic Framework of Surficial Sediments and Bedrock Beneath Lake Ontario

Approximately 2550 km of single-channel high-resolution seismic reflection profiles have been interpreted and calibrated with lithological and geochronological information from four representative piston cores and one grab sample to provide a regional stratigraphie framework for the subbottom deposits of Lake Ontario. Five units overlying Paleozoic bedrock were identified and mapped. These are classified as informal units and represent, from oldest to youngest: (A) subglacial till (?) deposited by the Port Huron ice at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation; (B) an ice-marginal (?) unit confined to the western part of the lake that was probably deposited during retreat of the Port Huron ice shortly after 13 ka; (C) a regionally extensive unit of laminated glacio-lacustrine clay that accumulated until about 11 ka; (D) a weakly laminated to more massive lake clay deposited during a period of reduced water supply and rising water levels after the drawdown of the high-level glacial lakes (Iroquois and successors); and (E) modern lake clay less than 10 m thick that began accumulating around 6-8 ka with the subsequent return of upper Great Lakes drainage through the Ontario basin. Seismic reflections also define the configuration of the bedrock surface and pre-glacial stream valleys incised in the bedrock surface. Several anomalous bottom and subbottom features in the surficial sediments are mapped, such as discontinuous and offset reflections, furrows, gas pockets, and areas of large subbottom relief. None of these features appear to be spatially correlative with the diffuse seismicity that characterizes the lake area or with deeper structures such as Paleozoic bedrock faults or crustal-penetrating faults in the Precambrian basement.On a interprété et étalonné environ 2550 km de profils de sismique réflexion monocanal à haute résolution selon les données lithologiques et géochronologique de quatre sondages représentatifs faits par carottier à piston et un échantillon prélevé avec une benne afin d'établir le cadre stratigraphique des dépôts accumulés sous le fond du lac Ontario. Cinq unités recouvrant le substratum paiéozoïque ont été identifées et cartographiées. Ces unités informelles, de la plus ancienne à la plus jeune, sont : (A) un till sous-glaciaire (?) déposé par les glaces de Port Huron à la fin de la glaciation wisconsienne; (B) une unité de limite glaciaire (?) confinée à la partie ouest du lac et qui a probablement été déposée pendant le retrait des glaces de Port Huron, peu après 13 ka; (C) une unité d'étendue régionale d'argile glaciolacustre feuilletée qui s'est accumulée jusqu'à environ 11 ka; (D) une argile lacustre, de faiblement feuilletée à massive, mise en place au cours d'une période où il y eut approvisionnement en eau réduit et hausse du niveau de l'eau après l'abaissement des lacs glaciaires (Iroquois et ultérieurs); et (E) une argile lacustre moderne de moins de 10 m d'épaisseur qui a commencé à s'accumuler à partir de 6-8 ka après la reprise du drainage des Grands Lacs par le bassin Ontario. La sismique réflexion a aussi permis de délimiter la configuration de la surface du socle et des vallées pré-glaciaires qui y sont entaillées. Plusieurs éléments des sédiments de surface du fond du lac et sous le fond ont été cartographies, comme des réflexions de discontinuités et de décalages, des rainures, des poches de gaz et des zones de grandes formes enfouies. Aucun de ces éléments ne semble correspondre spatialement à la sis-micité diffuse qui caractérise la région du lac ou aux structures profondes comme les failles de substratum paiéozoïque ou celle du socle précambrien.Ungefàhr 2550 km seismischer Reflexionsprofile wurden interpretiert und kalibiriert mit lithologischen und geochronologischen Informationen von vier repràsentativen Kolbenbohrkernen und einer ausges-chùrften Probe, um den regionalen stratigraphischen Rahmen fur die unter dem Bett des Ontariosees gelegenen Ablagerungen zu erhalten. Man hat fùnf Einheiten, die das anstehende Gestein aus dem Palàozoikum ùberlagern, identifiziert und kartographiert: (A) eine subglaziale Grundmoràne (?), die durch das Eis von Port Huron am Ende der Wisconsin-Vereisung abgelagert wurde; (B) eine auf den westlichen Teil des Sees begrenzte Eisrand (?)-Einheit, die wahrs-cheinlich wàhrend des Rùckzugs des Port Huron-Eises kurz nach 13ka abgelagert wurde; (C) eine regional ausgedehnte Einheit von blâttrigem glaziallimnischem Lehm, die sien bis etwa 11 ka ansammelte, (D) ein schwachbis massivblàttriger Seelehm, der wàhrend einer Période verminderter Wasserzufuhr und steigenden Wasserspiegeln sich ansammelte; und (E) moderner Seelehm von weniger als 10 m Dicke, der sich um etwa 6-8 ka anzusammeln begann, mit der Rùckkehr der Drainage der oberen GroRen Seen durch das Ontariobecken. Seismische Reflexionen las-sen auch die Konfiguration der Sockeloberflàche und der pràglazialen in die Sockeloberflàche eingeschnittenen FluBtàler erkennen. Mehrere unregelmàfîige Grundund Untergrunderscheinungen der Oberflàchensedimente wurden kartographiert, wie Diskontinuitàt und Hôhenunschiede der Reflexionen, Mulden, Gastaschen und Gebiete mit breitem Untergrundrelief. Keine dieser Erscheinungen scheint ràumlich mit der fur das Seen-Gebiet charakteristischen Seismik zu korrelieren oder mit tieferen Strukturen, wie die Verwerfungen des anstehenden Gestems aus dem Palàozoikum order durch die Kruste dringende Verwergungen im pràkambrischen Untergrund

QTL controlling root and shoot traits of maize seedlings under cold stress

The improvement of early vigour is crucial for the adaptation of maize (Zea mays L.) to the climatic conditions of central Europe and the northern Mediterranean, where early sowing is an important strategy for avoiding the effect of summer drought. The objectives of this study were to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling cold-related traits and to investigate the relationships among them. A set of 168 F2:4 families of the Lo964×Lo1016 cross was grown in a sand-vermiculite substrate at 15/13°C (day/night) until the one-leaf stage. Twenty QTL were identified for the four shoot and two seed traits examined. Analysis of root weight and digital measurements of the length and diameter of primary and seminal roots led to the identification of 40 QTL. The operating efficiency of photosystemII (ΦPSII) was related to seedling dry weight at both the phenotypic and genetic level (r=0.46, two matching loci, respectively) but was not related to root traits. Cluster analysis and QTL association revealed that the different root traits were largely independently inherited and that root lengths and diameters were mostly negatively correlated. The major QTL for root traits detected in an earlier study in hydroponics were confirmed in this study. The length of the primary lateral roots was negatively associated with the germination index (r=−0.38, two matching loci). Therefore, we found a large number of independently inherited loci suitable for the improvement of early seedling growth through better seed vigour and/or a higher rate of photosynthesi

Majorana: from atomic and molecular, to nuclear physics

In the centennial of Ettore Majorana's birth (1906-1938?), we re-examine some aspects of his fundamental scientific production in atomic and molecular physics, including a not well known short communication. There, Majorana critically discusses Fermi's solution of the celebrated Thomas-Fermi equation for electron screening in atoms and positive ions. We argue that some of Majorana's seminal contributions in molecular physics already prelude to the idea of exchange interactions (or Heisenberg-Majorana forces) in his later workson theoretical nuclear physics. In all his papers, he tended to emphasize the symmetries at the basis of a physical problem, as well as the limitations, rather than the advantages, of the approximations of the method employed.Comment: to appear in Found. Phy

Nonperturbative Coherent Population Trapping: An Analytic Model

Coherent population trapping is shown to occur in a driven symmetric double-well potential in the strong-field regime. The system parameters have been chosen to reproduce the $0^{-}\leftrightarrow 3^{+}$ transition of the inversion mode of the ammonia molecule. For a molecule initially prepared in its lower doublet we find that, under certain circumstances, the $3^{+}$ level remains unpopulated, and this occurs in spite of the fact that the laser field is resonant with the $0^{-}\leftrightarrow 3^{+}$ transition and intense enough so as to strongly mix the $0^{+}$ and $0^{-}$ ground states. This counterintuitive result constitutes a coherent population trapping phenomenon of nonperturbative origin which cannot be accounted for with the usual models. We propose an analytic nonperturbative model which accounts correctly for the observed phenomenon.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

The Problem of Mass: Mesonic Bound States Above T_c

We discuss the problem of mass, noting that meson masses decrease with increasing scale as the dynamically generated condensate of "soft glue" is melted (Brown/Rho scaling). We then extend the Bielefeld LGS color singlet interaction computed for heavy quarks in a model-dependent way by including the Ampere law velocity-velocity interaction. Parameterizing the resulting interaction in terms of effective strength of the potential and including screening, we find that the masses of pi, sigma, rho and A1 excitations, 32 degrees of freedom in all, go to zero (in the chiral limit) as T goes to Tc essentially independently of the input quark (thermal) masses in the range of 1-2 GeV, calculated also in Bielefeld. We discuss other LGS which show q-bar q bound states, which we interpret as our chirally restored mesons, for T > Tc.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures (Table 2 is added

CPT\cal CPT-invariant two-fermion Dirac equation with extended hyperfine operator

For the S-states of muonium and positronium, the hyperfine shifts to the order $\alpha^6$ of a recently derived two-fermion equation with explicit $\cal CPT$-invariance are checked against the results of a nonrelativistic reduction, and the leading $\alpha^8$ shifts are calculated. An additional hyperfine operator is discovered which can milden the singularity for $r\to 0$ of the Dirac hyperfine operator, such that the resulting extended operator can be used nonperturbatively. The binding correction to magnetic moments is mentioned

Estimating Systemic Risk in the International Financial System

Using a unique and comprehensive dataset, this paper develops and uses three distinct methods to quantify the risk of a systemic failure in the global banking system. We examine a sample of 334 banks (representing 80% of global bank equity) in 28 countries around 6 global financial crises (such as the Asian and Russian crises and September 11, 2001), and show that these crises did not create large probabilities of global financial system failure. First, we show that cumulative negative abnormal returns for the subset of banks not directly exposed to a negative shock (unexposed banks) rarely exceed a few percent. Second, we use structural models to obtain more precise point estimates of the likelihood of systemic failure. These estimates suggest that systemic risk is limited even during major financial crises. For example, maximum likelihood estimation of bank failure probabilities implied by equity prices suggests the Asian crisis induced less than a 1% increase in the probability of systemic failure. Third, we also obtain estimates of systemic risk implied by equity option prices of U.S. and European banks. The largest values are obtained for the Russian crisis and September 11 and these show increases in estimated average default probabilities of only around 1-2%. Taken together our results suggest statistically significant, but economically small, increases in systemic risk around even the worst financial crises of the last 10 years. Although policy responses are endogenous, the low estimated probabilities suggest that the distress of central bankers, regulators and politicians about the events we study may be overstated, and that current policy responses to financial crises and the existing institutional framework may be adequate to handle major macroeconomic events

Hybridization of Surface Waves with Organic Adlayer Librations: A Helium Atom Scattering and Density Functional Perturbation Theory Study of Methyl-Si(111)

The interplay of the librations of a covalently bound organic adlayer with the lattice waves of an underlying semiconductor surface was characterized using helium atom scattering in conjunction with analysis by density functional perturbation teory. The Rayleigh wave dispersion relation of CH_(3)- and CD_(3)-terminated Si(111) surfaces was probed across the entire surface Brillouin zone by the use of inelastic helium atom time-of-flight experiments. The experimentally determined Rayleigh wave dispersion relations were in agreement with those predicted by density functional perturbation theory. The Rayleigh wave for the CH_(3)- and CD_(3)-terminated Si(111) surfaces exhibited a nonsinusoidal line shape, which can be attributed to the hybridization of overlayer librations with the vibrations of the underlying substrate. This combined synthetic, experimental, and theoretical effort clearly demonstrates the impact of hybridization between librations of the overlayer and the substrate lattice waves in determining the overall vibrational band structure of this complex interface