The Influence of Childhood Trauma and PTSD Symptoms on Attention and ADHD Symptoms in Adulthood: An EEG Study

Objective: The influence of childhood trauma on clinical and cognitive functioning, specifically attention, has a large research base. However, the majority of studies have examined response inhibition to measure attention, and very few studies have evaluated how childhood trauma influences attentional control behavior and brain activity. Additionally, I aimed to integrate the use of the Allostatic Load Theory (ALT) to examine the outcome of negative attentional outcomes through the input of traumatic stressors. I addressed the above limitation and incorporated the ALT by investigating the influence of childhood trauma, community violence, and PTSD symptoms on attention performance and brain activity specifically during the Flanker task, which measures attentional control. I also examined how these factors influence symptoms of ADHD. Method: In the present study, participants (n = 22) completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire – Short Form (CTQ-SF), the Survey of Exposure to Community Violence (SECV), the Barkley Adult ADHD Rating Scale (BAARS-IV), and the Eriksen Flanker task. Participants who endorsed traumatic childhood or community violence experiences completed the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for the DSM-5 (PCL-5; n = 10). The P300, an electrical waveform indicating brain activity during focused attention states, was measured during the Flanker task using Electroencephalogram (EEG). I predicted that traumatic childhood experiences, community violence, and resultant PTSD symptoms would predict P300 brain activity, ADHD symptoms, and Flanker task response time and accuracy. Results: When examined together, the collective influence of traumatic childhood experiences, community violence exposure, and PTSD symptoms did not significantly predict brain activity, ADHD symptoms, or attention behaviors. However, when PTSD symptoms and childhood trauma experiences were examined without the influence of community violence, they significantly predicted reaction time on the Flanker task. Also, when traumatic childhood experiences and PTSD symptoms were controlled for, they both became significant coefficient predictors of P300 peak amplitude during incongruent Flanker trials and reaction time during incongruent Flanker trials. Last, PTSD symptoms were able to significantly increase the systematic variance accounted for when added to models examining the influence of the P3000 and RT during incongruent trials. Conclusion: This study has several implications. First, I provide evidence that attentional control may also be influenced by childhood trauma and symptoms of PTSD, which adds to the body of literature surrounding the influence of trauma on interference suppression processes. Also, community violence may not be a major predictor of attentional control outcomes when examined in the context of the ALT. Importantly, in the context of the ALT, these negative outcomes may only result in those who experienced a direct personal traumatic experience and are still impacted by that event (specifically those who are displaying symptoms of PTSD from that event). Thus, childhood trauma may not be sufficient enough to result in allostatic overload, as many individuals are able to cope and potentially recover from that event. The combination of PTSD symptoms and direct childhood trauma combined may be more reliable predictors of brain activity than either concept alone. Together, these results may have clinical implications, such as the importance of diagnostic clarity in clinical settings, the utility of applying the ALT in the context of trauma, and collecting information about stressors from more than one source

Performance-based Design of Tall Building Envelopes using Competing Wind Load and Wind Flow Criteria

© 2017 The Authors. This paper investigates performance-based tall building design and the development of a combined architectural-urban design method focusing on the effects of wind loads on- and wind flows around tall buildings. The paper provides an overview of related buildings codes and city development design guidelines that define requirements for structural façade wind loading and urban ventilation. A review of performance-based design methods for the generation, analysis and optimization of buildings is also presented. Within this frame, an approach to performance-based tall building envelope design is proposed. The approach is aimed at addressing wind loading and wind impact requirements based on generative parametric modelling and performance analysis that integrates physical parameters at the architectural and urban scales and performance criteria can support filtering and optimization relative to prevailing wind conditions

A Statistical Analysis of Surface Pressure Measurements with Particular Reference to Vortex Breakdown. G.U. Aero Report 9806

This paper describes and presents results from static wind tunnel tests conducted on a 60° delta wing at a root chord Reynolds number of 2.7 x 10[sup]6. In these tests, the wing was instrumented with 192 miniature pressure transducers which, in conjunction with a powerful multi-channel data-logging system, allowed the distribution of timevarying surface pressures to be measured at high temporal resolution. Analysis indicates that the distribution of root-mean-square pressure on the leeward surface of the wing can provide considerable insight into the behaviour of both the primary and secondary vortex structures. In addition, it has been established that the frequency content of pressure signals measured in the vicinity of these vortex structures is sensitive to the vortex state. It is suggested that these data features can be directly attributed to previously observed behavioural characteristics of the vortex breakdown process

A Preliminary Study of the Flow around a Delta Wing using High Resolution Pressure Measurements. G. U. Aero Report no. 9720

A study of the flow around delta wings has been carried out in a series of experiments in the University’s Handley-Page Wind-Tunnel facility. The objective of the experiments was to capture high spatial and temporal resolution pressure measurements on a specially designed 60° delta wing model. This project has been devised to analyse the results of the study with a view to determining a reliable method of vortex breakdown detection on delta wings using data obtained from pressure measurements alone. A fundamental requirement of the proposed method is that it should apply equally under static and dynamic conditions. In order to achieve the aim of the project, a broad understanding of the physics of vortical flows is required. This is to be achieved in two ways; firstly, by carrying out a literature research exercise on the nature, causes and effects of vortex breakdown, secondly, to validate the findings of the pressure data analysis by carrying out further experiments using smoke visualisation techniques. The findings of the literature research exercise are presented, together with a description of the wind-tunnel experiments and the preliminary results from the analysis of the pressure data. The models to be used in the forthcoming smoke visualisation experiments have been built and a series of tests have been carried out to evaluate their design. A description of the smoke tunnel models and the results of these tests are also presented. The work of this project has so far highlighted a number of issues to be dealt with in future research as part of this project. To conclude this report, a series of proposals are presented detailing the work required to resolve these issues

P4_5 Atmospheric ODSTs

In this paper the maximum acceleration on the ODST and the pod was found to be $-4g$, with a braking thrusters force of $14100$ N during the last $50$ m of descent. This deceleration brings the impact velocity of the pod to below velocity of $1$ ms$^{-1}$, should the braking thrusters fail to fire the pod will hit the ground with a velocity of $43.2$ ms$^{-1}$ killing the trooper

P4_3 Light Ordnance

In this paper we consider a weapon system that fires a laser at an interplanetary vessel. We calculate the energy required to melt through a vessel’s armoured hull, of thickness 0.254 m, from a shot from a laser with a calibre of 16 inches. The energy required is found to be E = 34449 J. Using this energy, the recoil of the laser firing was calculated to be ρ = 1.15x10−4 kgms−1

P4_6 Wind swept

This paper discusses the plausibility of the thruster in the Iron Man suit being used as weapons to push a human back. It was determined that the shock-wave produced by the change in temperature due to the thrusters would produce a force of $183$ kN on a person it was shot at, this would cause the person to accelerate at $2614$ ms$^{-2}$ killing the person

P4_2 How to fly your dragon

In this paper we calculate the minimum area and length of a dragon’s wing for it to be able to fly. The minimum area was calculated to be 224m^2 and the length was 35.6m