Memory functioning in children with reading disabilities and/or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a clinical investigation of their working memory and long-term memory functioning.

We examined memory functioning in children with reading disabilities (RD), Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and RD/ADHD using a clinic sample with a clinical instrument: the Children\u27s Memory Scale, enhancing its generalizability. Participants included 23 children with RD, 30 with ADHD, 30 with RD/ADHD, and 30 controls. Children with RD presented with reduced verbal short-term memory (STM) but intact visual STM, central executive (CE), and long-term memory (LTM) functioning. Their deficit in STM appeared specific to tasks requiring phonetic coding of material. Children with ADHD displayed intact CE and LTM functioning but reduced visual-spatial STM, especially when off stimulant medication. Children with RD/ADHD had deficits consistent with both disorders

Speech Analysis

Contains reports on two research projects

Spreading of sexually transmitted diseases in heterosexual populations

The spread of sexually transmitted diseases (e.g. Chlamydia, Syphilis, Gonorrhea, HIV) across populations is a major concern for scientists and health agencies. In this context, both data collection on sexual contact networks and the modeling of disease spreading, are intensively contributing to the search for effective immunization policies. Here, the spreading of sexually transmitted diseases on bipartite scale-free graphs, representing heterosexual contact networks, is considered. We analytically derive the expression for the epidemic threshold and its dependence with the system size in finite populations. We show that the epidemic outbreak in bipartite populations, with number of sexual partners distributed as in empirical observations from national sex surveys, takes place for larger spreading rates than for the case in which the bipartite nature of the network is not taken into account. Numerical simulations confirm the validity of the theoretical results. Our findings indicate that the restriction to crossed infections between the two classes of individuals (males and females) has to be taken into account in the design of efficient immunization strategies for sexually transmitted diseases.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures and 2 table

A Parameterization Invariant Approach to the Statistical Estimation of the CKM Phase α\alpha

In contrast to previous analyses, we demonstrate a Bayesian approach to the estimation of the CKM phase $\alpha$ that is invariant to parameterization. We also show that in addition to {\em computing} the marginal posterior in a Bayesian manner, the distribution must also be {\em interpreted} from a subjective Bayesian viewpoint. Doing so gives a very natural interpretation to the distribution. We also comment on the effect of removing information about $\mathcal{B}^{00}$.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, minor revision; to appear in JHE

Information Sharing in a Long-Term Supply Chain Relationship: The Role of Customer Review Strategy

In this paper, we study the practice of forecast sharing and supply chain coordination with a game-theoretical model. We find that in a one-shot version of the game, forecasts are not shared truthfully by the customer. The supplier will rationally discount the forecast information in her capacity allocation. This results in Pareto suboptimality for both supply chain parties. However, we show that a more efficient, truth-sharing outcome can emerge as an equilibrium from a long-term relationship. In this equilibrium, forecast information is transmitted truthfully and trusted by the supplier, who in turn allocates the system-optimal capacity. This leaves both the customer and the supplier better-off, compared to the nontruthful-sharing equilibrium. We identify a multiperiod review strategy profile that supports the truthful-sharing equilibrium. The key element of this strategy is that the supplier computes a scoring index of the customer\u27s behavior that is updated over time and used to evaluate if the customer has sufficient incentive to share his private information truthfully in each transaction of the repeated game. Compared to trigger strategies, review strategies are more tolerant but require diligence and more monitoring effort

CVD of CrO2: towards a lower temperature deposition process

We report on the synthesis of highly oriented a-axis CrO2 films onto (0001) sapphire by atmospheric pressure CVD from CrO3 precursor, at growth temperatures down to 330 degree Celsius, i.e. close to 70 degrees lower than in published data for the same chemical system. The films keep the high quality magnetic behaviour as those deposited at higher temperature, which can be looked as a promising result in view of their use with thermally sensitive materials, e.g. narrow band gap semiconductors.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

There are laterality effects in memory functioning in children/adolescents with focal epilepsy.

In a sample of individuals with childhood focal epilepsy, children/adolescents with left hemisphere foci outperformed those with right foci on both measures of nonverbal learning. Participants with left foci performed worse than controls on paired associate delayed recall and semantic memory, and they had greater laterality effects in IQ. Participants with right foci performed worse than controls on delayed facial recognition. Both groups displayed reduced focused attention and poor passage retention over time. Although participants with bilateral foci displayed poor learning and lower IQ than controls, they did not have worse impairment than those with a unilateral focus