Behavioural outcomes and psychopathology during adolescence

Preterm birth is associated with a high risk of residual neurodevelopmental disability and cognitive impairment. These problems are closely associated with psychiatric disorders and thus it is unsurprising that preterm birth also confers high risk for poor long term mental health. The risk associated with preterm birth is not a general one, but appears to be specific to symptoms and disorders associated with anxiety, inattention and social and communication problems, and manifest in a significantly higher prevalence of emotional disorders, ADHD and Autism. Adolescence is a key period for mental health and studies have shown that problems evident in childhood persist over this time and are more stable amongst preterm individuals than term-born peers. There is also modest evidence for an increased prevalence of psychotic symptoms in preterm adolescents. The high prevalence of psychiatric disorders, present in around 25% of preterm adolescents, requires long term screening and intervention

The dynamic relationship between the Euro overnight rate, the ECB´s policy rate and the term spread

This paper investigates how the dynamic adjustment of the European overnight rate Eonia to the term spread and the ECB’s policy rate has been affected by rate expectations and the operational framework of the ECB. In line with recent evidence found for the US and Japan, the reaction of the Eonia to the term spread is non-symmetric. Moreover, the response of the Eonia to the policy rate depends on both, the repo auction format and the position of the Eonia in the ECB’s interest rate corridor. JEL - Klassifikation: E43 , E52Für viele Zentralbanken wie z.B. die Europäische Zentralbank (EZB) und die US-amerikanische Notenbank, ist der Interbankenmarkt für Tagesgeld der Haupttransmissionkanal ihrer geldpolitischen Maßnahmen. Der Zinssatz für Tagesgeld ist das operationelle Ziel der Geldpolitik, das die Zinsstrukturkurve verankert. Das Verständnis von Bestimmungsfaktoren und Dynamik des Tagesgeldsatzes ist daher von entscheidender Bedeutung für die effiziente Implementierung der Geldpolitik. Dieses Papier untersucht, wie die dynamische Anpassung des europäischen Zinssatzes für Tagesgeld, Eonia, an die Zinsstrukturkurve sowie an den Politikzins der EZB durch Zinsänderungserwartungen und den operationellen Rahmen der EZB beeinflußt wird. In unserem empirischen Ansatz zur Analyse der Dynamik des Eonia-Tagesgeldsatzes wird die Bedeutung von zwei separaten Beziehungen, die das Langfristverhalten des Eonia bestimmen, betont. Zum einen ist der Politikzins der Zentralbank eine wichtige Determinante des Niveaus des Tagesgeldsatzes. Dieser Politikzins ist definiert als der Reposatz aus den Hauptrefinanzierungsgeschäften der EZB. Zum anderen impliziert die Erwartungshypothese der Zinsstrukturkurve die Anpassung des Tagesgeldsatzes an einen längerfristigen Zinssatz. Unser empirischesModell beinhaltet beide Einflüsse und berücksichtigt dabei persistente Abweichungen zwischen Eonia und Politikzins am Ende der monatlichen Reservehaltungsperiode. Diese Abweichungen beruhen auf der kontraintuitiven Reaktion des Eonia auf Zinsänderungserwartungen, die jedoch durch den verzerrenden Einfluß erklärt werden kann, den das Unter- und Überbieten von Banken bei Offenmarktgeschäften vor der Reform der EZB im März 2004 auf den Interbankenmarkt ausgeübt hatte. Ähnlich wie das Zinsziel für die US-amerikanische Federal funds rate ist der Reposatz der EZB ein symmetrischer Politikzins. Im Gegensatz dazu ist zu erwarten, daß ein Mindestbietungssatz, wie er von der EZB seit Juni 2000 angewendet wird, vorrangig als untere Grenze für den Tagesgeldsatz wirkt. Darüberhinaus legt das Auftreten von Unter- und Überbietungsverhalten in den Hauptrefinanzierungsgeschäften der EZB nahe, daß auch die Richtung von Zinsänderungserwartungen die Entwicklung des Eonia bestimmt hat. Wir erweitern daher unseren Ansatz und modellieren eine nicht-symmetrische Anpassung des Eonia an beide Langfristbeziehungen. Dabei wird der potentielle Einfluß der Implementierung der Geldpolitik durch die EZB berücksichtigt. Insbesondere untersuchen wir, wie sich die Änderung im Auktionsverfahren der EZB im Juni 2000 auf die dynamische Anpassung des Eonia an seine langfristigen Bestimmungsfaktoren ausgewirkt hat. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, daß die Entwicklung des Eonia-Tagesgeldsatz innerhalb der monatlichen Reservehaltungsperiode vom Auktionsformat abhängt. Allerdings hat die Einführung des Zinstenders mit Mindestbietungssatz nicht zu einer geringeren Kontrolle uber den Eonia durch die EZB geführt. Eine asymmetrische Reaktion auf Zinsänderungserwartungen kann für die Eurozone unterstützt werden, obwohl diese zum Teil die Probleme des Unter- und Überbietens in den untersuchten Zeiträumen widerspiegeln dürfte

Bullying among siblings

Background: Parents are often concerned about repeated conflicts between their daughters and sons. However, there is little empirical research of sibling bullying. Objective: To conduct a review of existing studies of sibling bullying. Are there any associations between sibling bullying and peer bullying at school? What are the consequences of sibling bullying? Is there good justification why sibling bullying has been so neglected in research? Method: Studies of sibling relationships were reviewed. Four quantitative studies were identified that report on both sibling and peer bullying. Results: Sibling bullying is frequent with up to 50% involved in sibling bullying every month and between 16% and 20% involved in bullying several times a week. Experience of sibling bullying increases the risk of involvement in bullying in school. Both, bullying between siblings and school bullying make unique contributions to explaining behavioral and emotional problems. There is a clear dose-effect relationship of involvement of bullying at home and at school and behavioral or emotional problems. Those involved in both have up to 14 times increased odds of behavioral or emotional problems compared to those involved in only one context or not at all. Conclusions: The empirical evidence is limited and studies are mostly cross-sectional studies. Nevertheless, the review suggests that for those victimized at home and at school behavioral and emotional problems are highly increased. Sibling relationships appear to be a training ground with implications for individual well-being. Strengthening families and parenting skills and increasing sibling support is likely to reduce bullying and increase well-being

Cigarette smoking history is associated with poorer recovery in multiple neurocognitive domains following treatment for an alcohol use disorder.

Cigarette smoking is associated with neurocognitive dysfunction in various populations, including those seeking treatment for an alcohol use disorder (AUD). This study compared the rate and extent of recovery on measures of processing speed, executive functions, general intelligence, visuospatial skills and working memory in treatment-seeking alcohol dependent individuals (ALC) who were never-smokers (nvsALC), former-smoker (fsALC), and active smokers (asALC), over approximately 8 months of abstinence from alcohol. Methods: ALC participants were evaluated at approximately 1 month of abstinence (AP1; n = 132) and reassessed after 8 months of sobriety (AP2; n = 54). Never-smoking controls (CON; n = 33) completed a baseline and follow-up (n = 19) assessment approximately 9 months later. Domains evaluated were executive functions, general intelligence, processing speed, visuospatial skills and working memory; a domain composite was formed from the arithmetic average of the foregoing domains. nvsALC showed greater improvement than fsALC, asALC and CON on most domains over the AP1-AP2 interval. fsALC demonstrated greater recovery than asALC on all domains except visuospatial skills; fsALC also showed greater improvements than CON on general intelligence, working memory and domain composite. asALC did not show significant improvement on any domain over the AP1-AP2 interval. At 8 months of abstinence, asALC were inferior to CON and nvsALC on multiple domains, fsALC performed worse than nvsALC on several domains, but nvsALC were not different from CON on any domain. Our results provide robust evidence that smoking status influenced the rate and extent of neurocognitive recovery between 1 and 8 months of abstinence in this ALC cohort. Chronic smoking in AUD likely contributes to the considerable heterogeneity observed in neurocognitive recovery during extended abstinence. The findings provide additional strong support for the benefits of smoking cessation and the increasing clinical movement to offer smoking cessation resources concurrent with treatment for AUD

Changes of frontal cortical subregion volumes in alcohol dependent individuals during early abstinence: associations with treatment outcome.

We previously reported that at 1-and-4 weeks of sobriety, those who relapsed after treatment demonstrated significantly smaller total frontal cortical volume than individuals who maintained abstinence for at least 12 months post treatment. The segmentation method employed did not permit examination of frontal subregions that serve as nodes of the executive, salience and emotional regulation networks; structural abnormalities in these circuits are associated with relapse in those seeking treatment for alcohol use disorders (AUD). The primary goal of this study was to determine if frontal cortical subregion volume recovery during early abstinence is associated with long-term abstinence from alcohol. We compared bilateral components of the dorsal prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and insula volumes, at 1 and 4 weeks of abstinence, between individuals who resumed drinking within 12 months of treatment (Relapsers) those who showed sustained abstinence over 12 months following treatment (Abstainers) and healthy Controls. At 1 and 4 weeks of sobriety, Relapsers demonstrated significantly smaller volumes than Controls in 15 of 20 regions of interest, while Abstainers only had smaller volumes than Controls in 5 of 20 regions. In Relapsers, increasing volumes over 1 month in multiple frontal subregions and the insula were associated with longer duration of abstinence after treatment. The persistent bilateral frontal and insula volume deficits in Relapsers over 4 weeks from last alcohol use may have implications for neurostimulation methods targeting anterior frontal/insula regions, and represent an endophenotype that differentiates those who respond more favorably to available psychosocial and pharmacological interventions

Non-geometric Kaluza-Klein monopoles and magnetic duals of M-theory R-flux backgrounds

We introduce a magnetic analogue of the seven-dimensional nonassociative octonionic R-flux algebra that describes the phase space of M2-branes in four-dimensional locally non-geometric M-theory backgrounds. We show that these two algebras are related by a Spin(7) automorphism of the 3-algebra that provides a covariant description of the eight-dimensional M-theory phase space. We argue that this algebra also underlies the phase space of electrons probing a smeared magnetic monopole in quantum gravity by showing that upon appropriate contractions, the algebra reduces to the noncommutative algebra of a spin foam model of three-dimensional quantum gravity, or to the nonassociative algebra of electrons in a background of uniform magnetic charge. We realise this set-up in M-theory as M-waves probing a delocalised Kaluza-Klein monopole, and show that this system also has a seven-dimensional phase space. We suggest that the smeared Kaluza-Klein monopole is non-geometric because it cannot be described by a local metric. This is the magnetic analogue of the local non-geometry of the R-flux background and arises because the smeared Kaluza-Klein monopole is described by a U(1)-gerbe rather than a U(1)-fibration.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures; v2: dimensionful factors corrected throughout, exposition improved; Final version to be published in JHE

The dynamic relationship between the Euro overnight rate, the ECB´s policy rate and the term spread

This paper investigates how the dynamic adjustment of the European overnight rate Eonia to the term spread and the ECB's policy rate has been affected by rate expectations and the operational framework of the ECB. In line with recent evidence found for the US and Japan, the reaction of the Eonia to the term spread is non-symmetric. Moreover, the response of the Eonia to the policy rate depends on both, the repo auction format and the position of the Eonia in the ECB's interest rate corridor. --Monetary Policy Implementation,Term Structure of Interest Rates,Nonlinear Cointegration

Precoding for coded communication on block fading channels and cooperative communications

We study precoding for the outage probability minimization of block fading (BF) channels and BF relay channels. Recently, an upper bound on the outage probability with precoding was established for BF channels, but only for high instantaneous SNR. This upper bound is much easier to minimize than the actual outage probability, so that optimal precoding matrices can be determined without much computational effort. Here, we provide a proof for the upper bound on the outage probability at low instantaneous SNR. Next, the structure of the precoding matrix is simplified so that it can be easily constructed for an arbitrary number of blocks in the BF channel. Finally, we apply this technique to cooperative communications