1,477 research outputs found
Early-Life Temperamental Differences as Longitudinal Predictors of Unintentional Injuries
Objective: Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of hospitalization and death among children. Compared to environmental factors, less attention in injury preventive efforts has been paid to how individual characteristics relate to the risk of injury. Using a large prospective cohort, the current study assessed the longitudinal impact of early-life temperament on the cumulative number of injuries until mid-Adolescence. Methods: The data came from the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC-CZ). Temperament was evaluated by mothers when children were 3 years old (N = 3,545). The main outcome was the pediatrician-reported sum of child's injuries from age 3 to 15 (seven timepoints). Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to determine classes based on temperamental dimensions and then extended to a mixture model with a distal count outcome. The covariates included maternal conflict and attachment, sex, family structure, and maternal education. Results: The LPA determined the existence of three classes: shy children (8.1% of the sample; lowest activity/highest shyness), outgoing children (50.8%; highest activity/lowest shyness), and average: children (41.1%; middle values). Results from a mixture model showed that the outgoing temperament was associated with the highest longitudinal risk for injuries, as both average children (IRR = 0.89 [0.80, 0.99]), and the shy children (IRR = 0.80 [0.68, 0.95]) had lower risk. Conclusions: Early childhood temperamental differences can have long-Term effects on injury risk. Highly active children showed the highest risk for future injuries, suggesting that these characteristics make them more likely to be involved in novel and potentially dangerous situations
p-species integrable reaction-diffusion processes
We consider a process in which there are p-species of particles, i.e.
A_1,A_2,...,A_p, on an infinite one-dimensional lattice. Each particle
can diffuse to its right neighboring site with rate , if this site is not
already occupied. Also they have the exchange interaction A_j+A_i --> A_i+A_j
with rate We study the range of parameters (interactions) for which
the model is integrable. The wavefunctions of this multi--parameter family of
integrable models are found. We also extend the 2--species model to the case in
which the particles are able to diffuse to their right or left neighboring
sites.Comment: 16 pages, LaTe
An interacting spin flip model for one-dimensional proton conduction
A discrete asymmetric exclusion process (ASEP) is developed to model proton
conduction along one-dimensional water wires. Each lattice site represents a
water molecule that can be in only one of three states; protonated,
left-pointing, and right-pointing. Only a right(left)-pointing water can accept
a proton from its left(right). Results of asymptotic mean field analysis and
Monte-Carlo simulations for the three-species, open boundary exclusion model
are presented and compared. The mean field results for the steady-state proton
current suggest a number of regimes analogous to the low and maximal current
phases found in the single species ASEP [B. Derrida, Physics Reports, {\bf
301}, 65-83, (1998)]. We find that the mean field results are accurate
(compared with lattice Monte-Carlo simulations) only in the certain regimes.
Refinements and extensions including more elaborate forces and pore defects are
also discussed.Comment: 13pp, 6 fig
Lexical Analysis in Schizophrenia: How Emotion and Social Word Use Informs Our Understanding of Clinical Presentation
Background
The words people use convey important information about internal states, feelings, and views of the world around them. Lexical analysis is a fast, reliable method of assessing word use that has shown promise for linking speech content, particularly in emotion and social categories, with psychopathological symptoms. However, few studies have utilized lexical analysis instruments to assess speech in schizophrenia. In this exploratory study, we investigated whether positive emotion, negative emotion, and social word use was associated with schizophrenia symptoms, metacognition, and general functioning in a schizophrenia cohort.
Methods
Forty-six participants generated speech during a semi-structured interview, and word use categories were assessed using a validated lexical analysis measure. Trained research staff completed symptom, metacognition, and functioning ratings using semi-structured interviews.
Results
Word use categories significantly predicted all variables of interest, accounting for 28% of the variance in symptoms and 16% of the variance in metacognition and general functioning. Anger words, a subcategory of negative emotion, significantly predicted greater symptoms and lower functioning. Social words significantly predicted greater metacognition.
Conclusions
These findings indicate that lexical analysis instruments have the potential to play a vital role in psychosocial assessments of schizophrenia. Future research should replicate these findings and examine the relationship between word use and additional clinical variables across the schizophrenia-spectrum
Comparison of Assertive Community Treatment Fidelity Assessment Methods: Reliability and Validity
Assertive community treatment is known for improving consumer outcomes, but is difficult to implement. On-site fidelity measurement can help ensure model adherence, but is costly in large systems. This study compared reliability and validity of three methods of fidelity assessment (on-site, phone-administered, and expert-scored self-report) using a stratified random sample of 32 mental health intensive case management teams from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Overall, phone, and to a lesser extent, expert-scored self-report fidelity assessments compared favorably to on-site methods in inter-rater reliability and concurrent validity. If used appropriately, these alternative protocols hold promise in monitoring large-scale program fidelity with limited resources
Empowerment or Engagement? Digital Health Technologies for Mental Healthcare
We argue that while digital health technologies (e.g. artificial intelligence, smartphones, and virtual reality) present significant opportunities for improving the delivery of healthcare, key concepts that are used to evaluate and understand their impact can obscure significant ethical issues related to patient engagement and experience. Specifically, we focus on the concept of empowerment and ask whether it is adequate for addressing some significant ethical concerns that relate to digital health technologies for mental healthcare. We frame these concerns using five key ethical principles for AI ethics (i.e. autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and explicability), which have their roots in the bioethical literature, in order to critically evaluate the role that digital health technologies will have in the future of digital healthcare
Asymmetric exclusion process with next-nearest-neighbor interaction: some comments on traffic flow and a nonequilibrium reentrance transition
We study the steady-state behavior of a driven non-equilibrium lattice gas of
hard-core particles with next-nearest-neighbor interaction. We calculate the
exact stationary distribution of the periodic system and for a particular line
in the phase diagram of the system with open boundaries where particles can
enter and leave the system. For repulsive interactions the dynamics can be
interpreted as a two-speed model for traffic flow. The exact stationary
distribution of the periodic continuous-time system turns out to coincide with
that of the asymmetric exclusion process (ASEP) with discrete-time parallel
update. However, unlike in the (single-speed) ASEP, the exact flow diagram for
the two-speed model resembles in some important features the flow diagram of
real traffic. The stationary phase diagram of the open system obtained from
Monte Carlo simulations can be understood in terms of a shock moving through
the system and an overfeeding effect at the boundaries, thus confirming
theoretical predictions of a recently developed general theory of
boundary-induced phase transitions. In the case of attractive interaction we
observe an unexpected reentrance transition due to boundary effects.Comment: 12 pages, Revtex, 7 figure
âWhat if There's Something Wrong with Her?ââHow Biomedical Technologies Contribute to Epistemic Injustice in Healthcare
While there is a steadily growing literature on epistemic injustice in healthcare, there are few discussions of the role that biomedical technologies play in harming patients in their capacity as knowers. Through an analysis of newborn and pediatric genetic and genomic sequencing technologies (GSTs), I argue that biomedical technologies can lead to epistemic injustice through two primary pathways: epistemic capture and value partitioning. I close by discussing the larger ethical and political context of critical analyses of GSTs and their broader implications for just and equitable healthcare delivery
Persistence in the One-Dimensional A+B -> 0 Reaction-Diffusion Model
The persistence properties of a set of random walkers obeying the A+B -> 0
reaction, with equal initial density of particles and homogeneous initial
conditions, is studied using two definitions of persistence. The probability,
P(t), that an annihilation process has not occurred at a given site has the
asymptotic form , where is the
persistence exponent (``type I persistence''). We argue that, for a density of
particles , this non-trivial exponent is identical to that governing
the persistence properties of the one-dimensional diffusion equation, where
. In the case of an initially low density, , we find asymptotically. The probability that a site
remains unvisited by any random walker (``type II persistence'') is also
investigated and found to decay with a stretched exponential form, , provided . A heuristic argument
for this behavior, based on an exactly solvable toy model, is presented.Comment: 11 RevTeX pages, 19 EPS figure
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