142 research outputs found
Early Life Characteristics and Neurodevelopmental Phenotypes in the Mount Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center
Neurodevelopmental outcomes including behavior, executive functioning, and IQ exhibit complex correlational structures, although they are often treated as independent in etiologic studies. We performed a principal components analysis of the behavioral assessment system for children, the behavior rating inventory of executive functioning, and the Wechsler scales of intelligence in a prospective birth cohort, and estimated associations with early life characteristics. We identified seven factors: (1) impulsivity and externalizing, (2) executive functioning, (3) internalizing, (4) perceptual reasoning, (5) adaptability, (6) processing speed, and (7) verbal intelligence. Prenatal fish consumption, maternal education, preterm birth, and the home environment were important predictors of various neurodevelopmental factors. Although maternal smoking was associated with more adverse externalizing, executive functioning, and adaptive composite scores in our sample, of the orthogonally-rotated factors, smoking was only associated with the impulsivity and externalizing factor (β^ − 0.82, 95% CI − 1.42, − 0.23). These differences may be due to correlations among outcomes that were accounted for by using a phenotypic approach. Dimension reduction may improve upon traditional approaches by accounting for correlations among neurodevelopmental traits
Three-body decay of the d* dibaryon
Under certain circumstances, a three-body decay width can be approximated by
an integral involving a product of two off-shell two-body decay widths. This
``angle-average'' approximation is used to calculate the decay width
of the dibaryon in a simple model for the most
important Feynman diagrams describing pion emissions with baryon-baryon recoil
and meson retardation. The decay width is found to be about 0.006 (0.07, 0.5)
MeV at the mass of 2065 (2100, 2150) MeV for input dynamics derived from
the Full Bonn potential. The smallness of this width is qualitatively
understood as the result of the three-body decay being ``third forbidden''. The
concept of forbiddenness and the threshold behavior of a three-body
decay are further studied in connection with the decay of the dibaryon
where the idea of unfavorness has to be introduced.
The implications of these results are briefly discussed.Comment: 15 pages, RevTeX, two-column journal style, six figure
Edge reconstructions in fractional quantum Hall systems
Two dimensional electron systems exhibiting the fractional quantum Hall
effects are characterized by a quantized Hall conductance and a dissipationless
bulk. The transport in these systems occurs only at the edges where gapless
excitations are present. We present a {\it microscopic} calculation of the edge
states in the fractional quantum Hall systems at various filling factors using
the extended Hamiltonian theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect. We find
that at the quantum Hall edge undergoes a reconstruction as the
background potential softens, whereas quantum Hall edges at higher filling
factors, such as , are robust against reconstruction. We present
the results for the dependence of the edge states on various system parameters
such as temperature, functional form and range of electron-electron
interactions, and the confining potential. Our results have implications for
the tunneling experiments into the edge of a fractional quantum Hall system.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures; minor typos corrected; added 2 reference
Edge reconstruction in the fractional quantum Hall regime
The interplay of electron-electron interaction and confining potential can
lead to the reconstruction of fractional quantum Hall edges. We have performed
exact diagonalization studies on microscopic models of fractional quantum Hall
liquids, in finite size systems with disk geometry, and found numerical
evidence of edge reconstruction under rather general conditions. In the present
work we have taken into account effects like layer thickness and Landau level
mixing, which are found to be of quantitative importance in edge physics. Due
to edge reconstruction, additional nonchiral edge modes arise for both
incompressible and compressible states. These additional modes couple to
electromagnetic fields and thus can be detected in microwave conductivity
measurements. They are also expected to affect the exponent of electron Green's
function, which has been measured in tunneling experiments. We have studied in
this work the electric dipole spectral function that is directly related to the
microwave conductivity measurement. Our results are consistent with the
enhanced microwave conductivity observed in experiments performed on samples
with an array of antidots at low temperatures, and its suppression at higher
temperatures. We also discuss the effects of the edge reconstruction on the
single electron spectral function at the edge.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figure
Trapped electron coupled to superconducting devices
We propose to couple a trapped single electron to superconducting structures
located at a variable distance from the electron. The electron is captured in a
cryogenic Penning trap using electric fields and a static magnetic field in the
Tesla range. Measurements on the electron will allow investigating the
properties of the superconductor such as vortex structure, damping and
decoherence. We propose to couple a superconducting microwave resonator to the
electron in order to realize a circuit QED-like experiment, as well as to
couple superconducting Josephson junctions or superconducting quantum
interferometers (SQUIDs) to the electron. The electron may also be coupled to a
vortex which is situated in a double well potential, realized by nearby pinning
centers in the superconductor, acting as a quantum mechanical two level system
that can be controlled by a transport current tilting the double well
potential. When the vortex is trapped in the interferometer arms of a SQUID,
this would allow its detection both by the SQUID and by the electron.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure
Prenatal exposure to organophosphorus pesticides and childhood neurodevelopmental phenotypes
Prenatal exposure to organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) has been associated with different neurodevelopmental outcomes across different cohorts. A phenotypic approach may address some of these differences by incorporating information across scales and accounting for the complex correlational structure of neurodevelopmental outcomes. Additionally, Bayesian hierarchical modeling can account for confounding by collinear co-exposures. We use this framework to examine associations between prenatal exposure to OPs and behavior, executive functioning, and IQ assessed at age 6–9 years in a cohort of 404 mother/infant pairs recruited during pregnancy. We derived phenotypes of neurodevelopment with a factor analysis, and estimated associations between OP metabolites and these phenotypes in Bayesian hierarchical models for exposure mixtures. We report seven factors: 1) Impulsivity and Externalizing, 2) Executive Functioning, 3) Internalizing, 4) Perceptual Reasoning, 5) Adaptability, 6) Processing Speed, and 7) Verbal Intelligence. These, along with the Working Memory Index, were standardized and scaled so that positive values reflected positive attributes and negative values represented adverse outcomes. Standardized dimethylphosphate metabolites were negatively associated with Internalizing factor scores (β^ − 0.13, 95% CI − 0.26, 0.00) but positively associated with Executive Functioning factor scores (β^ 0.18, 95% CI 0.04, 0.31). Standardized diethylphosphate metabolites were negatively associated with the Working Memory Index (β^ − 0.17, 95% CI − 0.33, − 0.03). Associations with factor scores were generally stronger and more precise than associations with individual instrument-specific items. Factor analysis of outcomes may provide some advantages in etiological studies of childhood neurodevelopment by incorporating information across scales to reduce dimensionality and improve precision
A 14-year experience with kidney transplantation.
Between November, 1962 and August, 1975, 668 kidney transplants were done in 556 consecutive patients at Denver, Colorado. The Denver experience has been divided into 7 periods of time, according to the conditions of care during each period. The results in related transplantation have changed little during the decade beginning in 1966. The results in unrelated transplantation have not materially changed since 1968. The long-term patient survival after related transplantation has been better than after cadaver transplantation. The results of transplantation in 57 children ages 3 to 18 years have been slightly better than the results of adult transplantation. The outcome of kidney transplantation and the feasibility of improving this therapy with present techniques are limited by our inability to accurately match each patient with the immunologically best donor and by our inability to precisely control the immune system of the recipient. Rejection is still the main reason for graft loss, and sepsis remains the main cause of patient mortality. More specific and less toxic means of achieving graft acceptance are needed before a higher level of patient service can be realized. However, even with the tools now available, thousands of recipients throughout the world have been returned to useful lives
Forest Biodiversity Assessment in Peruvian Andean Montane Cloud Forest
Cloud forests are unusual and fragile habitats, being one of the least studied and least understood ecosystems. The tropical Andean dominion is considered one of the most significant places in the world as rega rds biological diversity, with a very high level of endemism. The biodiversity was analysed in an isolated remnant area of a tropical montane cloud forest known as the ?Bosque de Neblina de Cuyas?, in the North of the Peruvian Andean range. Composition, structure and dead wood were measured or estimated. The values obtained were compared with other cloud forests. The study revealed a high level of forest biodiversity, although the level of biodiversity differs from one area to another: in the inner areas, where human pressure is almost inexistent, the biodiversity values increase. The high species richness and the low dominance among species bear testimony to this montane cloud forest as a real enclave of biodiversity
Phylogeny of snakes (Serpentes): combining morphological and molecular data in likelihood Bayesian and parsimony analyses
Copyright © 2007 The Natural history MuseumThe phylogeny of living and fossil snakes is assessed using likelihood and parsimony approaches and a dataset combining 263 morphological characters with mitochondrial (2693 bp) and nuclear (1092 bp) gene sequences. The ‘no common mechanism’ (NCMr) and ‘Markovian’ (Mkv) models were employed for the morphological partition in likelihood analyses; likelihood scores in the NCMr model were more closely correlated with parsimony tree lengths. Both models accorded relatively less weight to the molecular data than did parsimony, with the effect being milder in the NCMr model. Partitioned branch and likelihood support values indicate that the mtDNA and nuclear gene partitions agree more closely with each other than with morphology. Despite differences between data partitions in phylogenetic signal, analytic models, and relative weighting, the parsimony and likelihood analyses all retrieved the following widely accepted groups: scolecophidians, alethinophidians, cylindrophiines, macrostomatans (sensu lato) and caenophidians. Anilius alone emerged as the most basal alethinophidian; the combined analyses resulted in a novel and stable position of uropeltines and cylindrophiines as the second-most basal clade of alethinophidians. The limbed marine pachyophiids, along with Dinilysia and Wonambi, were always basal to all living snakes. Other results stable in all combined analyses include: Xenopeltis and Loxocemus were sister taxa (fide morphology) but clustered with pythonines (fide molecules), and Ungaliophis clustered with a boine-erycine clade (fide molecules). Tropidophis remains enigmatic; it emerges as a basal alethinophidian in the parsimony analyses (fide molecules) but a derived form in the likelihood analyses (fide morphology), largely due to the different relative weighting accorded to data partitions.Michael S. Y. Lee, Andrew F. Hugall, Robin Lawson & John D. Scanlo
A General Approach for the Exact Solution of the Schrodinger Equation
The Schr\"{o}dinger equation is solved exactly for some well known
potentials. Solutions are obtained reducing the Schr\"{o}dinger equation into a
second order differential equation by using an appropriate coordinate
transformation. The Nikiforov-Uvarov method is used in the calculations to get
energy eigenvalues and the corresponding wave functions.Comment: 20 page
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