Lifetime Alcohol Abuse Prevalence: Role of Childhood and Adult Religion

Findings presented regarding childhood and adult religiosity/spirituality as protective factors against Lifetime Alcohol Abuse

Distal and Proximal Religiosity as Protective Factors for Adolescent and Emerging Adult Alcohol Use

Data from emerging adults (ages 18-29, N = 900) in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Study was used to examine the influence of childhood and emerging adult religiosity and religious-based decision-making, and childhood adversity, on alcohol use. Childhood religiosity was protective against early alcohol use and progression to later abuse or dependence, but did not significantly offset the influence of childhood adversity on early patterns of heavy drinking in adjusted logistic regression models. Religiosity in emerging adulthood was negatively associated with alcohol use disorders. Protective associations for religiosity varied by gender, ethnicity and childhood adversity histories. Higher religiosity may be protective against early onset alcohol use and later development of alcohol problems, thus, should be considered in prevention programming for youth, particularly in faith-based settings. Mental health providers should allow for integration of clients\u27 religiosity and spirituality beliefs and practices in treatment settings if clients indicate such interest

Disparities in Child and Adolescent Psychoactive Medication Prescription Practices by Race and Ethnicity

Key Points: (1) Compared to their non-Latino white counterparts, children and adolescents from racial-ethnic minority groups in the U.S. are less likely to receive prescriptions for psychoactive medication; (2) Racial-ethnic minority children and adolescents are also significantly less likely to receive mental health care; (3) Controlling for access to mental health care and for geographic variation reduces but does not eliminate variations in psychoactive prescriptions by race and ethnicity; (4) Controlling for mental health need and level of impairment does not eliminate variations in psychoactive prescriptions by race and ethnicity; (5) Reducing disparities will require coordinated efforts to educate families and providers, promotion of evidence-based practices, steps to overcome geographic and language barriers, and additional research for understanding the underlying reasons for variations in prescription patterns

The stochastic resonance mechanism in the Aerosol Index dynamics

We consider Aerosol Index (AI) time-series extracted from TOMS archive for an area covering Italy $(7-18^o E ; 36-47^o N)$. The missing of convergence in estimating the embedding dimension of the system and the inability of the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) in separating the fluctuations from deterministic component of the signals are evidences of an intrinsic link between the periodic behavior of AI and its fluctuations. We prove that these time series are well described by a stochastic dynamical model. Moreover, the principal peak in the power spectrum of these signals can be explained whereby a stochastic resonance, linking variable external factors, such as Sun-Earth radiation budget and local insolation, and fluctuations on smaller spatial and temporal scale due to internal weather and antrophic components

Constraints on Cosmic Strings from the LIGO-Virgo Gravitational-Wave Detectors

Cosmic strings can give rise to a large variety of interesting astrophysical phenomena. Among them, powerful bursts of gravitational waves (GWs) produced by cusps are a promising observational signature. In this Letter we present a search for GWs from cosmic string cusps in data collected by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors between 2005 and 2010, with over 625 days of live time. We find no evidence of GW signals from cosmic strings. From this result, we derive new constraints on cosmic string parameters, which complement and improve existing limits from previous searches for a stochastic background of GWs from cosmic microwave background measurements and pulsar timing data. In particular, if the size of loops is given by the gravitational backreaction scale, we place upper limits on the string tension Gμ below 10−8 in some regions of the cosmic string parameter space

Search for gravitational radiation from intermediate mass black hole binaries in data from the second LIGO-Virgo joint science run

This paper reports on an unmodeled, all-sky search for gravitational waves from merging intermediate mass black hole binaries (IMBHB). The search was performed on data from the second joint science run of the LIGO and Virgo detectors (July 2009–October 2010) and was sensitive to IMBHBs with a range up to ∼200 Mpc, averaged over the possible sky positions and inclinations of the binaries with respect to the line of sight. No significant candidate was found. Upper limits on the coalescence-rate density of nonspinning IMBHBs with total masses between 100 and 450 M⊙ and mass ratios between 0.25 and 1 were placed by combining this analysis with an analogous search performed on data from the first LIGO-Virgo joint science run (November 2005–October 2007). The most stringent limit was set for systems consisting of two 88 M⊙ black holes and is equal to 0.12 Mpc−3 Myr−1 at the 90% confidence level. This paper also presents the first estimate, for the case of an unmodeled analysis, of the impact on the search range of IMBHB spin configurations: the visible volume for IMBHBs with nonspinning components is roughly doubled for a population of IMBHBs with spins aligned with the binary’s orbital angular momentum and uniformly distributed in the dimensionless spin parameter up to 0.8, whereas an analogous population with antialigned spins decreases the visible volume by ∼20%

Parameter estimation for compact binary coalescence signals with the first generation gravitational-wave detector network

Compact binary systems with neutron stars or black holes are one of the most promising sources for ground-based gravitational-wave detectors. Gravitational radiation encodes rich information about source physics; thus parameter estimation and model selection are crucial analysis steps for any detection candidate events. Detailed models of the anticipated waveforms enable inference on several parameters, such as component masses, spins, sky location and distance, that are essential for new astrophysical studies of these sources. However, accurate measurements of these parameters and discrimination of models describing the underlying physics are complicated by artifacts in the data, uncertainties in the waveform models and in the calibration of the detectors. Here we report such measurements on a selection of simulated signals added either in hardware or software to the data collected by the two LIGO instruments and the Virgo detector during their most recent joint science run, including a “blind injection” where the signal was not initially revealed to the collaboration. We exemplify the ability to extract information about the source physics on signals that cover the neutron-star and black-hole binary parameter space over the component mass range 1 M⊙–25 M⊙ and the full range of spin parameters. The cases reported in this study provide a snapshot of the status of parameter estimation in preparation for the operation of advanced detectors

A catalogue of young runaway Hipparcos stars within 3kpc from the Sun

Traditionally runaway stars are O and B type stars with large peculiar velocities.We want to extend this definition to young stars (up to ~50 Myr) of any spectral type and identify those present in the Hipparcos catalogue applying different selection criteria such as peculiar space velocities or peculiar one-dimensional velocities. Runaway stars are important to study the evolution of multiple star systems or star clusters as well as to identify origins of neutron stars. We compile distances, proper motions, spectral types, luminosity classes, V magnitudes and B-V colours and utilise evolutionary models from different authors to obtain star ages and study a sample of 7663 young Hipparcos stars within 3 kpc from the Sun. Radial velocities are obtained from the literature. We investigate the distributions of the peculiar spatial velocity, the peculiar radial velocity as well as the peculiar tangential velocity and its one-dimensional components and obtain runaway star probabilities for each star in the sample. In addition, we look for stars that are situated outside any OB association or OB cluster and the Galactic plane as well as stars of which the velocity vector points away from the median velocity vector of neighbouring stars or the surrounding local OB association/ cluster although the absolute velocity might be small. We find a total of 2547 runaway star candidates (with a contamination of normal Population I stars of 20 per cent at most). Thus, after subtraction of those 20 per cent, the runaway frequency among young stars is about 27 per cent. We compile a catalogue of runaway stars which will be available via VizieR.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS old version replaced due to change of the title after journal proof-readin