Gender differences in trajectories of depressive symptoms across childhood and adolescence: A multi-group growth mixture model

Background This study sought to identify depression trajectories across childhood and to model a range of child and family predictors of whether a child may be on an increasing trajectory towards depressive disorder in adolescence. Methods Multi-group growth mixture modelling (MGMM) was used on a sample of 4983 children from the Longitudinal Study of Australia Children (LSAC). Depressive symptoms of these children were assessed over 10-years with six time-points, administered every second year commencing at 4 years via the parent report version of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. Predictors of class membership were also examined. Results Four trajectories were found to be the best fitting model characterising low-stable (75%); decreasing (11%); increasing (9%); high and rising (6%) groups. Females were more likely to be in a trajectory of increasing depressive symptoms between 4 and 14 years of age than males. Reactive temperament and maternal depression at four and six years of age were consistent predictors of increasing and high trajectories while persistent temperament acts as a protective factor for females. Limitations The findings should be interpreted in the light of limitations due to common-method variance and the absence of diagnostic indicators of depressive disorder. Conclusions We conclude that there are gender differences in patterns of depressive symptoms from childhood to adolescence and meaningful predictors of these early developmental trajectories. Preventative interventions in childhood targeting parents with depression and children with temperamental difficulties may be indicated

Summary report on the geology of the proposed HS2 Route (3) in the Chesham and Amersham Constituency

This brief open-file report summarises the information available from the British Geological Survey (BGS), a component body of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), on the geology, hydrogeology and potential geological hazards of the proposed HS2 Route 3 within the Chesham and Amersham Constituency, and surrounding areas. The report summarises the geology and hydrogeology of the district and highlights geological and hydrogeological considerations that may need further investigation along the route. Further review and analysis of existing data and possible field investigation would be required to confirm details of the local geology. The report was requested by Mrs Cheryl Gillan MP following a meeting with Dr Martin Smith, Head of Geology & Landscapes programme, on Monday 16th May 2011 at the offices of the Secretary of State for Wales in Whitehall

Future variability of solute transport in a macrotidal estuary

AbstractThe physical controls on salt distribution and river-sourced conservative solutes, including the potential implications of climate change, are investigated referring to model simulations of a macrotidal estuary. In the UK, such estuaries typically react rapidly to rainfall events and, as such, are often in a state of non-equilibrium in terms of solute transport; hence are particularly sensitive to climate extremes. Sea levels are projected to rise over the 21st century, extending the salinity maximum upstream in estuaries, which will also affect downstream solute transport, promoting estuarine trapping and reducing offshore dispersal of material. Predicted ‘drier summers’ and ‘wetter winters’ in the UK will influence solute transport further still; we found that projected river flow climate changes were more influential than sea-level rise, especially for low flow conditions. Our simulations show that projected climate change for the UK is likely to increase variability in estuarine solute transport and, specifically, increase the likelihood of estuarine trapping during summer, mainly due to drier weather conditions. Future changes in solute transport were less certain during winter, since increased river flow will to some extent counter-act the effects of sea-level rise. Our results have important implications for non-conservative nutrient transport, water quality, coastal management and ecosystem resilience

Beetroot Juice Does Not Enhance Altitude Running Performance in Well-Trained Athletes

We hypothesized that acute dietary nitrate (NO3-) provided as concentrated beetroot juice supplement would improve endurance running performance of well-trained runners in normobaric hypoxia. Ten male runners (mean (SD): sea level V�O2max 66 (7) mL.kg^-1.min^-1, 10 km personal best 36 (2) min) completed incremental exercise to exhaustion at 4000 m and a 10 km treadmill time trial at 2500 m simulated altitude on separate days, after supplementation with ~7 mmol NO3- and a placebo, 2.5 h before exercise. Oxygen cost, arterial oxygen saturation, heart rate and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were determined during the incremental exercise test. Differences between treatments were determined using means [95% confidence intervals], paired sample t-tests and a probability of individual response analysis. NO3- supplementation increased plasma [nitrite] (NO3-, 473 (226) nM vs. placebo, 61 (37) nM, P < 0.001) but did not alter time to exhaustion during the incremental test (NO3-, 402 (80) s vs. placebo 393 (62) s, P = 0.5) or time to complete the 10 km time trial (NO3-, 2862 (233) s vs. placebo, 2874 (265) s, P = 0.6). Further, no practically meaningful beneficial effect on time trial performance was observed as the 11 [-60 to 38] s improvement was less than the a priori determined minimum important difference (51 s), and only three runners experienced a ´likely, probable´ performance improvement. NO3- also did not alter oxygen cost, arterial oxygen saturation, heart rate or RPE. Acute dietary NO3- supplementation did not consistently enhance running performance of well-trained athletes in normobaric hypoxia

Eating with a smaller spoon decreases bite size, eating rate and ad libitum food intake in healthy young males

There is a paucity of data examining the effect of cutlery size on the microstructure of within-meal eating behaviour or food intake. Therefore, the present studies examined how manipulation of spoon size influenced these eating behaviour measures in lean young men. In study one, subjects ate a semi-solid porridge breakfast ad libitum, until satiation. In study two, subjects ate a standardised amount of porridge, with mean bite size and mean eating rate covertly measured by observation through a one-way mirror. Both studies involved subjects completing a familiarisation visit and two experimental visits, where they ate with a teaspoon (SMALL) or dessert spoon (LARGE), in randomised order. Subjective appetite measures (hunger, fullness, desire to eat and satisfaction) were made before and after meals. In study one, subjects ate 8 % less food when they ate with the SMALL spoon (SMALL 532 (SD 189) g; LARGE 575 (SD 227) g; P=0·006). In study two, mean bite size (SMALL 10·5 (SD 1·3) g; LARGE 13·7 (SD 2·6) g; P<0·001) and eating rate (SMALL 92 (SD 25) g/min; LARGE 108 (SD 29) g/min; P<0·001) were reduced in the SMALL condition. There were no condition or interaction effects for subjective appetite measures. These results suggest that eating with a small spoon decreases ad libitum food intake, possibly via a cascade of effects on within-meal eating microstructure. A small spoon might be a practical strategy for decreasing bite size and eating rate, likely increasing oral processing, and subsequently decreasing food intake, at least in lean young men

Recent progress in computing four-loop massive correlators

We report about recent progress in computing four-loop massive correlators. The expansion of these correlators in the external momentum leads to vacuum integrals. The calculation of these vacuum integrals can be used to determine Taylor expansion coefficients of the vacuum polarization function and decoupling functions in perturbative Quantum chromodynamics. New results at four-loop order for the lowest Taylor expansion coefficient of the vacuum polarization function and for the decoupling relation are presented.Comment: 4 pages, talk given at the 12th International Conference on Quantum Chromodynamics, Montpellier, 4-8th July 200

Relation between the pole and the minimally subtracted mass in dimensional regularization and dimensional reduction to three-loop order

We compute the relation between the pole quark mass and the minimally subtracted quark mass in the framework of QCD applying dimensional reduction as a regularization scheme. Special emphasis is put on the evanescent couplings and the renormalization of the epsilon-scalar mass. As a by-product we obtain the three-loop on-shell renormalization constants Zm(OS) and Z2(OS) in dimensional regularization and thus provide the first independent check of the analytical results computed several years ago.Comment: 22 page

Social determinants of content selection in the age of (mis)information

Despite the enthusiastic rhetoric about the so called \emph{collective intelligence}, conspiracy theories -- e.g. global warming induced by chemtrails or the link between vaccines and autism -- find on the Web a natural medium for their dissemination. Users preferentially consume information according to their system of beliefs and the strife within users of opposite narratives may result in heated debates. In this work we provide a genuine example of information consumption from a sample of 1.2 million of Facebook Italian users. We show by means of a thorough quantitative analysis that information supporting different worldviews -- i.e. scientific and conspiracist news -- are consumed in a comparable way by their respective users. Moreover, we measure the effect of the exposure to 4709 evidently false information (satirical version of conspiracy theses) and to 4502 debunking memes (information aiming at contrasting unsubstantiated rumors) of the most polarized users of conspiracy claims. We find that either contrasting or teasing consumers of conspiracy narratives increases their probability to interact again with unsubstantiated rumors.Comment: misinformation, collective narratives, crowd dynamics, information spreadin

Polyurethane Elastomers as Maxillofacial Prosthetic Materials

A series of polyurethane elastomers based on an aliphatic diisocyanate and a polyether macroglycol was polymerized with various crosslink densities and OH/NCO ratios. Stoichiometries yielding between 8,600 and 12,900 gm/ mole/crosslink and an OH/NCO ratio of 1.1 resulted in polymers with the low modulus, yet high strength and elongation necessary for maxillofacial applications.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68299/2/10.1177_00220345780570040501.pd

QCD Decoupling at Four Loops

We present the matching condition for the strong coupling contant alpha_s at a heavy quark threshold to four loops in the modified minimal subtraction scheme. Our results lead to further decrease of the theoretical uncertainty of the evolution of the strong coupling constant through heavy quark thresholds. Using a low energy theorem we furthermore derive the effective coupling of the Higgs boson to gluons (induced by a virtual heavy quark) in four- and (partially) through five-loop approximation.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures, the complete paper is also available via the www at http://www-ttp.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/Preprints