Emotion processing in infancy: specificity in risk for social anxiety and associations with two year outcomes

The current study examined the specificity of patterns of responding to high and low intensity negative emotional expressions of infants of mothers with social phobia, and their association with child outcomes at two years of age. Infants of mothers with social phobia, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) or no history of anxiety were shown pairs of angry and fearful emotional expressions at 10 weeks of age. Symptoms of social withdrawal, anxiety and sleep problems were assessed at two years of age. Only infants of mothers with social phobia showed a tendency to look away from high intensity fear faces; however infants of mothers with both social phobia and GAD showed a bias towards high intensity angry faces. Among the offspring of mothers with social phobia, anxiety symptoms at two years of age were associated with a preference for high intensity fear faces in infancy. The reverse pattern was found amongst the offspring of non-anxious mothers. These findings suggest a possible specific response to emotional expressions among the children of mothers with social phobia

Effect of sting size on the wake of a sphere at subcritical Reynolds numbers

Vortex shedding and turbulent motion in the wake of a sphere that is supported using a streamwise-aligned cylindrical sting are investigated at a subcritical Reynolds number of Re=3800, using high speed particle image velocimetry. The mechanism by which the presence of a sting of increasing diameter relative to the diameter of the sphere influences the wake, in terms of both the small-scale shear instability and the larger wake instability, is explored and brie y compared with the two-dimensional analog of the splitter plate introduced into a cylinder wake. The difficulties associated with obtaining converged statistics, along with the effect of free stream turbulence and sphere vibrations are detailed. An understanding of the mechanism by which the blockage, or interference, arising from the presence of the sting influences cross-wake communication and downstream development is a necessary precursor to studies of active control of the wake using surface actuation on a sting-mounted sphere

Crack Parameter Characterization by a Neural Network

A neural network with binary outputs is presented to determine the angle and the depth of a surface-breaking crack from ultrasonic backscattering data. The estimation procedure is divided into two steps: (1) The angle of the crack is estimated in the range from 10 to 70 degrees with a precision of 5 degrees. To improve the accuracy of estimation, information on the integral of the backscattered signal is utilized. (2) When the angle of the crack has been estimated, the depth of the crack is determined with a precision of 0.5mm in the range from 2.0mm to 4.0mm. This determination is achieved by employing sets of neural networks corresponding to various angles of the crack

Which better predicts conduct problems? The relationship of trajectories of Conduct Problems, with ODD and ADHD Symptoms from childhood into adolescence

Background: To assess the co-occurrence in deviant trajectories of parent-rated symptoms of conduct disorder (CD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) from age 4 to 18 years old in a general population sample of Dutch children. Methods: Developmental trajectories of CD, ODD, and ADHD were estimatedin a sample of 1,016 males and 1,060 females. Children's disruptive problem behaviors were rated at 5 time-points. The co-occurrence patterns between the deviant CD trajectory, and the high ODD and high ADHD trajectory were studied for males and females separately. Results: Four percent of males and 2% of females followed a deviant CD trajectory. Six percent of the sample followed a high ODD trajectory, and 5% a high ADHD trajectory. Engagement in the deviant CD trajectory was predicted by ODD and ADHD in females, but only by ODD in males. Conclusions: Although ADHD co-occurs with CD, the association between ADHD and CD is largely accounted for by accompanying ODD. Gender differences should be taken into account in understanding the onset of CD. © 2007 The Authors Journal compilation © 2007 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health

Theoretical and Experimental Investigations Regarding Open Volumetric Receivers of CRS

AbstractConcentrated sunlight is absorbed in solar thermal power plants by heat resistant absorbers and converted into usable heat which is transferred to a carrier medium. In solar tower power plants such as the plant in Jülich porous absorbers can reach temperatures up to 1000°C and higher. At this power plant air as heat transfer medium is sucked in through the absorber and heated up to about 700°C. The absorber is composed of highly porous ceramic or metal wire structures. The SIJ investigates the optimization of solar absorption and the convective heat transfer to the air using thermo and fluid mechanical calculations. In such simulations the key quantities are the penetration depth of solar radiation κ and the volumetric heat transfer coefficient αv, which indicates how much energy - depending on the volume and temperature difference - is transferred by convection between solid and fluid. The attenuation of the radiation into the depth of the absorber is described generally by an exponential function with parameter κ. This is accompanied by heat transfer to the structure. Existing models of the key quantities have been validated by experimental data

Genetic and environmental influences on Anxious/Depression during childhood: a study from the Netherlands Twin Register

For a large sample of twin pairs from the Netherlands Twins Register who were recruited at birth and followed through childhood, we obtained parental ratings of Anxious/Depression (A/D). Maternal ratings were obtained at ages 3 years (for 9025 twin pairs), 5 years (9222 pairs), 7 years (7331 pairs), 10 years (4430 pairs) and 12 years (2363 pairs). For 60-90% of the pairs, father ratings were also available. Multivariate genetic models were used to test for rater-independent and rater-specific assessments of A/D and to determine the genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in A/D at different ages. At all ages, monozygotic twins resembled each other more closely for A/D than dizygotic twins, implying genetic influences on variation in A/D. Opposite sex twin pairs resembled each other to same extent as same-sex dizygotic twins, suggesting that the same genes are expressed in boys and girls. Heritability estimates for rater-independent A/D were high in 3-year olds (76%) and decreased in size as children grew up [60% at age 5, 67% at age 7, 53% at age 10 (60% in boys) and 48% at age 12 years]. The decrease in genetic influences was accompanied by an increase in the influence of the shared family environment [absent at ages 3 and 7, 16% at age 5, 20% at age 10 (5% in boys) and 18% at age 12 years]. The agreement between parental A/D ratings was between 0.5 and 0.7, with somewhat higher correlations for the youngest group. Disagreement in ratings between the parents was not merely the result of unreliability or rater bias. Both the parents provided unique information from their own perspective on the behavior of their children. Significant influences of genetic and shared environmental factors were found for the unique parental views. At all ages, the contribution of shared environmental factors to variation in rater-specific views was higher for father ratings. Also, at all ages except age 12, the heritability estimates for the rater-specific phenotype were higher for mother ratings (59% at age 3 and decreasing to 27% at age 12 years) than for father ratings (between 14 and 29%). Differences between children, even as young as 3 years, in A/D are to a large extent due to genetic differences. As children grow up, the variation in A/D is due in equal parts to genetic and environmental influences. Anxious/Depression, unlike many other common childhood psychopathologies, is influenced by the shared family environment. These findings may provide support for why certain family therapeutic approaches are effective in the A/D spectrum of illnesses. Copyright © Blackwell Munksgaard 2005

Child Psychosocial Adjustment and Parenting in Families Affected by Maternal HIV/AIDS

Child adjustment and parenting were examined in 23 9-through 16-year-old youth from families affected by maternal HIV infection and 20 same-age peers whose mothers were not infected. Children whose mothers were seropositive reported significantly more externalizing problems. Infected mothers reported less age-appropriate supervision/monitoring relative to non-infected mothers. Better mother-child relationship quality and less impairment in parental supervision/monitoring of age-appropriate youth behaviors were associated with fewer externalizing difficulties among the HIV-positive group only. Similarly, only among HIV-infected mothers was refraining from engaging in inconsistent disciplinary tactics associated with lower reports of internalizing and externalizing problems. These data highlight the promise of programs targeting parenting skills to prevent or ameliorate child difficulties