Self-Management in Youth with Spina Bifida: Associations with Parent Factors in the Context of a Summer Camp Intervention

Achieving condition-related independence is an important developmental milestone for youth with spina bifida (SB) that can be impacted by a variety of parent factors. This study aimed to investigate (1) the cross-sectional associations between parent factors (adjustment, perceptions, attitudes, behaviors) and youth self-management (e.g., youth\u27s condition-related responsibility and mastery), (2) relations between these same parent factors and changes in youth self-management following participation in a summer camp intervention for one summer, and (3) associations between parent factors and growth in self-management variables over two summers. Participants were 89 camper-parent dyads recruited at a summer camp for youth with SB (Myouth age=12.2 years); 48 families participated across two years. Campers and parents completed assessments at Time 1 (pre-camp) and Time 3 (post-camp) for one or two summers. Parents reported on demographics, their own adjustment, perceptions, and behaviors, and youth with SB\u27s condition-related responsibility and mastery. Youth also reported on condition-related responsibility, and a composite score across both reporters was created. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses and multilevel modeling were used to examine relationships between parent factors and youth self-management. Without covariates, parental overprotection was significantly associated with both camper responsibility and mastery. with covariates, parents\u27 expectations for future goal attainment was the only parent factor significantly positively associated with camper responsibility (β=.63, p\u3c.01) and mastery (β=.22, p\u3c.05), and these associations were moderated by camper age (such that the association was only significant for older campers). When examining changes over one summer, parental expectations for the future were significantly associated with changes in campers\u27 condition-related mastery (β=.31, p\u3c.05). When examining trajectories, parental perception of child vulnerability (PPCV) was significantly negatively associated with the slope of the responsibility growth curve (β=-.01., p\u3c.05), and parents\u27 expectations for future goal attainment was significantly positively associated with the slope of the mastery growth curve (β=.05., p\u3c.05). Parent adjustment was not related to youth self-management. Parent perceptions and behaviors (overprotection, expectations for the future, PPCV) may be important targets for assessment and intervention when promoting condition-related independence for youth with SB

Theory of Drop Formation

We consider the motion of an axisymmetric column of Navier-Stokes fluid with a free surface. Due to surface tension, the thickness of the fluid neck goes to zero in finite time. After the singularity, the fluid consists of two halves, which constitute a unique continuation of the Navier-Stokes equation through the singular point. We calculate the asymptotic solutions of the Navier-Stokes equation, both before and after the singularity. The solutions have scaling form, characterized by universal exponents as well as universal scaling functions, which we compute without adjustable parameters

Interests, Norms, and Support for the Provision of Global Public Goods: The Case of Climate Cooperation

Mitigating climate change requires countries to provide a global public good. This means that the domestic cleavages underlying mass attitudes toward international climate policy are a central determinant of its provision. We argue that the industry-specific costs of emission abatement and internalized social norms help explain support for climate policy. To evaluate our predictions we develop novel measures of industry-specific interests by cross-referencing individuals? sectors of employment and objective industry-level pollution data and employ- ing quasi-behavioral measures of social norms in combination with both correlational and conjoint-experimental data. We find that individuals working in pollutive industries are 7 percentage points less likely to support climate cooperation than individuals employed in cleaner sectors. Our results also suggest that reciprocal and altruistic individuals are about 10 percentage points more supportive of global climate policy. These findings indicate that both interests and norms function as complementary explanations that improve our under- standing of individual policy preferences

Ultrafast Dynamics of Vibrational Symmetry Breaking in a Charge-ordered Nickelate

The ability to probe symmetry breaking transitions on their natural time scales is one of the key challenges in nonequilibrium physics. Stripe ordering represents an intriguing type of broken symmetry, where complex interactions result in atomic-scale lines of charge and spin density. Although phonon anomalies and periodic distortions attest the importance of electron-phonon coupling in the formation of stripe phases, a direct time-domain view of vibrational symmetry breaking is lacking. We report experiments that track the transient multi-THz response of the model stripe compound La$_{1.75}$Sr$_{0.25}$NiO$_{4}$, yielding novel insight into its electronic and structural dynamics following an ultrafast optical quench. We find that although electronic carriers are immediately delocalized, the crystal symmetry remains initially frozen - as witnessed by time-delayed suppression of zone-folded Ni-O bending modes acting as a fingerprint of lattice symmetry. Longitudinal and transverse vibrations react with different speeds, indicating a strong directionality and an important role of polar interactions. The hidden complexity of electronic and structural coupling during stripe melting and formation, captured here within a single terahertz spectrum, opens new paths to understanding symmetry breaking dynamics in solids.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures; updated version with journal re

Spina Bifida

Spina bifida (SB) is a relatively common congenital birth defect that has a pervasive impact on the physical, neurocognitive, psychological, and social functioning of affected individuals and their families. Given the characteristics of this condition as well as the complexities of medical adherence in this population, pediatric psychologists are uniquely qualified to provide assessment and intervention services to these individuals

Studies for a Photon Collider at the ILC

One option at the International Linear Collider is to convert the electron beams into high energy photon beams by Compton scattering a few millimetres in front of the interaction region. Selected physics channels for this option have been analysed and technical issues have been studied. So far no showstoppers for this option have been found.Comment: V2: Minor changes, accepted by NI

Petrographical and organic geochemical study of the lignite from the Smederevsko Pomoravlje field (Kostolac Basin, Serbia)

Three Upper Miocene (Pontian) lignite seams are present in the Smederevsko Pomoravlje field (Kostolac Basin, Serbia). The origin of their organic matter (OM), the characteristics of the depositional environment and certain utilisation properties have been evaluated based on petrographic data, bulk organic geochemical parameters, biomarker patterns and their isotope signatures. Moreover, results of isotopic analysis were used for the investigation of the influence of diagenetic aromatisation on delta C-13 signatures of biomarkers. The studied lignites are typical humic coals. The OM of lignites is derived from woody vegetation and herbaceous peat-forming plants, with a strong prevalence of the former. The peat-forming vegetation is dominated by decay resistant conifers, including gymnosperm families Cupressaceae, Taxodiaceae, and Pinaceae. Angiosperms occurred in lower amounts. Minor contribution of ferns, fungi and emergent aquatic macrophyta to the biomass is also evident. Chemoautotrophic- and heterotrophic bacteria played an import role during diagenesis. Diagenetic alterations, associated with change in the number of carbon atoms, influence delta C-13 ratios. Diagenetic aromatisation of di- and non-hopanoid triterpenoids is accompanied with C-13 depletion, whereas aromatisation of hopanoids displays the opposite trend. Peatification proceeded in a fresh water environment under variable, anoxic to slightly oxic redox conditions. The lowermost coal seam III accumulated in a topogenous fresh water peat mire with open water areas, which changed occasionally into a wet forest swamp. This resulted in the deposition of mineral-rich coal. The characteristics of lignite in coal seam II are similar to those of coal seam III. This is supported also by generally similar delta C-13 values of individual biomarkers. Coal seam I is dominated by xylite-rich coal, formed under mesotrophic to ombrotrophic conditions. Rapid flooding of the bogs stopped peat growth in all three coal seams. The ratios of ring-A-degraded and non-degraded aromatic diterpenoids and non-hopanoid triterpenoids, proposed in this study, as well as degree of aromatisation of these biomarkers, reflect changes in the water table. Calorific values of the samples indicate that they meet basic requirements for utilisation in the thermal power plants. None of the lignite samples is suitable for coal briquetting, whereas, based on petrographic data, lignite from coal seam I possesses certain potential for fluidized bed gasification

WUDAPT: Facilitating advanced urban canopy modeling for weather, climate and air quality applications

Environmental issues and impacts to society will be exacerbated with increased population, diminishing resources and the prospects for extreme weather events and climate changes. Current community-based models available for weather, climate and air quaity applications are powerful state-of-science modeling systems, which, with careful considerations, can be employed to address the impact of these issues fo urban areas. Given the complex and high degree of spatial inhomogeneity of the underlying surface area we will review mesh size, appropriate multi-scale science and morphological descriptions and their data requirements including unique city specific gridded morphology and material composition for their forecasting and climate applications. For this presentation, we discuss, describe and show examples from an ongoing but preliminary prototypic collaborative effort, whose design bases is to provide the experience and recommendations toward extending the scope of the National Urban Database and Access Portal Tools (NUDAPT) to worldwide coverage (WUDAPT). WUDAPT would thus provide requisite gridded data for urban applications of advanced forecast and climate models throughout the world. Strategically, the prototypic efforts will be designed to provide proven protocols for the facilitaton of the data gathering and processing based on available remote sensing and ground-based sampling. Tactically, we employ an iterative approach first obtaining coarse gridded Local Climate Zone (LCZ) classification derived from available Web-based products such as Google-Earth, and Landsat satellite magery. Further sub-class discretization of LCZs and the application of GeoWiki technology facilitates further refinements and ground truthing to yield the desired gridded building morphological distribution parameters and their material composition. Local experts would be encouraged to become involved to ensure factors unique to their area in the world would be incorporated. Finally, given that model applications may require data with different grid resolution we present an outline that employs the new and powerful Multiple Resolution Analyses scheme that can address this need within the scope of WUDAPT