Maternal caregivers have confluence of altered cortisol, high reward-driven eating, and worse metabolic health.

Animal models have shown that chronic stress increases cortisol, which contributes to overeating of highly palatable food, increased abdominal fat and lower cortisol reactivity. Few studies in humans have simultaneously examined these trajectories. We examined premenopausal women, either mothers of children with a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder (n = 92) or mothers of neurotypical children (n = 91). At baseline and 2-years, we assessed hair cortisol, metabolic health, and reward-based eating. We compared groups cross-sectionally and prospectively, accounting for BMI change. Caregivers, relative to controls, had lower cumulative hair cortisol at each time point, with no decreases over time. Caregivers also had stable levels of poor metabolic functioning and greater reward-based eating across both time points, and evidenced increased abdominal fat prospectively (all ps ≤.05), independent of change in BMI. This pattern of findings suggest that individuals under chronic stress, such as caregivers, would benefit from tailored interventions focusing on better regulation of stress and eating in tandem to prevent early onset of metabolic disease, regardless of weight status

Two-point correlation properties of stochastic "cloud processes''

We study how the two-point density correlation properties of a point particle distribution are modified when each particle is divided, by a stochastic process, into an equal number of identical "daughter" particles. We consider generically that there may be non-trivial correlations in the displacement fields describing the positions of the different daughters of the same "mother" particle, and then treat separately the cases in which there are, or are not, correlations also between the displacements of daughters belonging to different mothers. For both cases exact formulae are derived relating the structure factor (power spectrum) of the daughter distribution to that of the mother. These results can be considered as a generalization of the analogous equations obtained in ref. [1] (cond-mat/0409594) for the case of stochastic displacement fields applied to particle distributions. An application of the present results is that they give explicit algorithms for generating, starting from regular lattice arrays, stochastic particle distributions with an arbitrarily high degree of large-scale uniformity.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure

Tiling Spaces are Inverse Limits

Let M be an arbitrary Riemannian homogeneous space, and let Omega be a space of tilings of M, with finite local complexity (relative to some symmetry group Gamma) and closed in the natural topology. Then Omega is the inverse limit of a sequence of compact finite-dimensional branched manifolds. The branched manifolds are (finite) unions of cells, constructed from the tiles themselves and the group Gamma. This result extends previous results of Anderson and Putnam, of Ormes, Radin and Sadun, of Bellissard, Benedetti and Gambaudo, and of G\"ahler. In particular, the construction in this paper is a natural generalization of G\"ahler's.Comment: Latex, 6 pages, including one embedded figur

First Order Phase Transition of a Long Polymer Chain

We consider a model consisting of a self-avoiding polygon occupying a variable density of the sites of a square lattice. A fixed energy is associated with each $90^\circ$-bend of the polygon. We use a grand canonical ensemble, introducing parameters $\mu$ and $\beta$ to control average density and average (total) energy of the polygon, and show by Monte Carlo simulation that the model has a first order, nematic phase transition across a curve in the $\beta$-$\mu$ plane.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Impact testing to determine the mechanical properties of articular cartilage in isolation and on bone

The original publication is available at www.springerlink.comNon peer reviewedPostprin

Statistical mechanics of glass transition in lattice molecule models

Lattice molecule models are proposed in order to study statistical mechanics of glass transition in finite dimensions. Molecules in the models are represented by hard Wang tiles and their density is controlled by a chemical potential. An infinite series of irregular ground states are constructed theoretically. By defining a glass order parameter as a collection of the overlap with each ground state, a thermodynamic transition to a glass phase is found in a stratified Wang tiles model on a cubic lattice.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure

Correction: Maternal caregivers have confluence of altered cortisol, high reward-driven eating, and worse metabolic health.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216541.]

Fiduciary Duties of Corporate Directors in Uncertain Times

Directors addressing new political uncertainties, a host of heightened challenges and asserted “best practices” from many sources may understandably ask whether their fiduciary duties have changed as well. This paper synthesizes the latest decisions of the Delaware courts on the standards of conduct for directors and the standards by which their conduct is reviewed. While directors should expect uncertainty to be a fact of corporate life for the foreseeable future, this paper emphasizes that neither the fiduciary duties of directors nor the protections afforded them have changed. Disinterested and independent directors acting in good faith continue to have broad protections under the business judgment rule. The legal framework thus enables and, indeed, encourages directors to act proactively and make hard choices when they need to do so. In an accompanying article, former Delaware Chief Justice E. Norman Veasey and Ira M. Millstein elaborate upon how directors, under existing law, are both empowered and have the freedom to make decisions they deem in the best interests of the corporation. The article urges directors, in reliance on this framework, to have the courage to work towards securing the long-term future of their corporations

Fluid/solid transition in a hard-core system

We prove that a system of particles in the plane, interacting only with a certain hard-core constraint, undergoes a fluid/solid phase transition