Effects of Language Context on Ratings of Shy and Unsociable Behaviors in English Language Learning Children

Purpose The primary goal of this study was to explore the effect of the language context on the socially withdrawn behaviors of school aged-children who are English Language Learners (ELLs) from middle to high SES backgrounds. This is one of the first studies to address the frequently confused concepts of shyness and unsociability as independent constructs within the ELL population. This study also investigated the feasibility of an experimental parent and child questionnaire that examines shyness and unsociability across native and English speaking contexts. Method Children and parents (34 ELL and 37 native English speaking) were administered an experimental questionnaire examining shy and unsociable behavior in native language and English-speaking contexts. Results Parents and children from the ELL group reported significantly higher ratings of shy behavior in English versus native language contexts, whereas unsociable ratings did not differ across language contexts. Conclusions Shyness and unsociability are distinguishable behaviors in ELL children and these constructs should be considered when examining withdrawal. Additionally, examining ELL children’s behavior across language contexts provides a valuable method for investigating language influenced behavioral problems. This study demonstrates the need for service providers to evaluate behavior across subtype and language context before pathologizing withdrawal in ELL children

Plasma IMS Composition Measurements for Europa and Ganymede

NASA and ESA are planning the joint Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM) to the Jupiter system with specific emphasis to Europa and Ganymede, respectively. The Japanese Space Agency is also planning an orbiter mission to explore Jupiter's magnetosphere and the Galilean satellites. For NASA's Jupiter Europa Orbiter (JEO) we are developing the 3D Ion Mass Spectrometer (IMS) with two main goals which can also be applied to the other Galilean moons, 1) measure the plasma interaction between Europa and Jupiter's magnetosphere and 2) infer the 4n surface composition to trace elemental [1] and significant isotopic levels. The first goal supports the magnetometer (MAG) measurements, primarily directed at detection of Europa's sub-surface ocean, while the second gives information about transfer of material between the Galilean moons, and between the moon surfaces and subsurface layers putatively including oceans. The measurement of the interactions for all the Galilean moons can be used to trace the in situ ion measurements of pickup ions back to either Europa's or Ganymede's surface from the respectively orbiting spacecraft. The IMS instrument, being developed under NASA's Astrobiology Instrument Development Program, would maximally achieve plasma measurement requirements for JEO and EJSM while moving forward our knowledge of Jupiter system composition and source processes to far higher levels than previously envisaged

The Relationship between Intelligence and Anxiety: An Association with Subcortical White Matter Metabolism

We have demonstrated in a previous study that a high degree of worry in patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) correlates positively with intelligence and that a low degree of worry in healthy subjects correlates positively with intelligence. We have also shown that both worry and intelligence exhibit an inverse correlation with certain metabolites in the subcortical white matter. Here we re-examine the relationships among generalized anxiety, worry, intelligence, and subcortical white matter metabolism in an extended sample. Results from the original study were combined with results from a second study to create a sample comprised of 26 patients with GAD and 18 healthy volunteers. Subjects were evaluated using the Penn State Worry Questionnaire, the Wechsler Brief intelligence quotient (IQ) assessment, and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (1H-MRSI) to measure subcortical white matter metabolism of choline and related compounds (CHO). Patients with GAD exhibited higher IQ’s and lower metabolite concentrations of CHO in the subcortical white matter in comparison to healthy volunteers. When data from GAD patients and healthy controls were combined, relatively low CHO predicted both relatively higher IQ and worry scores. Relatively high anxiety in patients with GAD predicted high IQ whereas relatively low anxiety in controls also predicted high IQ. That is, the relationship between anxiety and intelligence was positive in GAD patients but inverse in healthy volunteers. The collective data suggest that both worry and intelligence are characterized by depletion of metabolic substrate in the subcortical white matter and that intelligence may have co-evolved with worry in humans

The effect of personality traits and knowledge on the quality of decisions in supply chains

Supply chain and operations management requires frequent decision making, and decisions are importantly influenced by the personality traits and knowledge of the decision maker. Thus, we analyse the effect of those factors on the confidence and quality of decisions taken in the context of supply chain management. The data were gathered via an online supply chain simulation game where subjects needed to make several decisions. Personality traits of the participants were tested using the Big Five model. The structural model was estimated using the partial least squares structural equation modelling approach. We found that decision-makers with lower levels of extraversion and agreeableness and higher levels of conscientiousness and openness make better decisions. On the other hand, neuroticism and agreeableness negatively affect confidence in decisions. Tested knowledge positively influences both decision-makers’ confidence in and the quality of their decisions while self-reported knowledge has no significant effect. Therefore, the companies should carefully consider how an individual’s personality matches the type of job at hand and rely on tested instead of self-reported knowledge

Stability of the Autism Diagnostic Interview—Revised from Pre-School to Elementary School Age in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

This study examined the stability of scores on the ADI-R from pre-school to elementary school age in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Participants were 35 children who, at T1, all had a clinical diagnosis of ASD. On initial assessment (mean age 3.5 years; SD 0.6), all met ADI-R algorithm criteria for autism. ADI-R assessments were repeated at follow up (FU; mean age 10.5 years; SD 0.8). Changes in ADI-R total, domain and ADI-R algorithm item scores were assessed. Twentyeight children continued to score above the ADI-R cut-off for autism at FU, although significant decreases in ADI-R domain and item scores were also found. In conclusion, while classification of children according to ADI-R criteria, generally remained stable between pre-school and elementary school age, many children demonstrated significant improvements in symptom severity

Elevated cerebrospinal fluid 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid in macaques following early life stress and inverse association with hippocampal volume: preliminary implications for serotonin-related function in mood and anxiety disorders

Background: Early life stress (ELS) is cited as a risk for mood and anxiety disorders, potentially through altered serotonin neurotransmission. We examined the effects of ELS, utilizing the variable foraging demand (VFD) macaque model, on adolescent monoamine metabolites. We sought to replicate an increase in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) observed in two previous VFD cohorts. We hypothesized that elevated cisternal 5-HIAA was associated with reduced neurotrophic effects, conceivably due to excessive negative feedback at somatodendritic 5-HT1A autoreceptors. A putatively decreased serotonin neurotransmission would be reflected by reductions in hippocampal volume and white matter (WM) fractional anisotropy (FA).Methods: When infants were 2-6 months of age, bonnet macaque mothers were exposed to VFD. We employed cisternal CSF taps to measure monoamine metabolites in VFD (N = 22) and non-VFD (N = 14) offspring (mean age = 2.61 years). Metabolites were correlated with hippocampal volume obtained by MRI and WM FA by diffusion tensor imaging in young adulthood in 17 males [10 VFD (mean age = 4.57 years)].Results: VFD subjects exhibited increased CSF 5-HIAA compared to non-VFD controls. An inverse correlation between right hippocampal volume and 5-HIAA was noted in VFD- but not controls. CSF HVA and MHPG correlated inversely with hippocampal volume only in VFD. CSF 5-HIAA correlated inversely with FA of the VVM tracts of the anterior limb of the internal capsule (ALIC) only in VFD.Conclusions: Elevated cisternal 5-HIAA in VFD may reflect increased dorsal raphe serotonin, potentially inducing excessive autoreceptor activation, inducing a putative serotonin deficit in terminal fields. Resultant reductions in neurotrophic activity are reflected by smaller right hippocampal volume. Convergent evidence of reduced neurotrophic activity in association with high CSF 5-HIAA in VFD was reflected by reduced FA of the ALIC.NIMHSuny Downstate Med Ctr, Nonhuman Primate Lab, Dept Psychiat & Behav Sci, Brooklyn, NY 11203 USANew York State Psychiat Inst & Hosp, New York, NY 10032 USASuny Downstate Med Ctr, Coll Med, Brooklyn, NY 11203 USAUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Psychiat & Neuroradiol, São Paulo, BrazilFranklin Beha Hlh Consultants, Bronx, NY USANew York State Psychiat Inst & Hosp, Dept Mol Imaging & Neuropathol, New York, NY 10032 USAIcahn Sch Med Mt Sinai, Dept Psychiat, New York, NY 10029 USAIcahn Sch Med Mt Sinai, Dept Neurosci, New York, NY 10029 USAIcahn Sch Med Mt Sinai, Dept Radiol, New York, NY 10029 USAIcahn Sch Med Mt Sinai, Fishberg Dept Neurosci, New York, NY 10029 USAIcahn Sch Med Mt Sinai, Friedman Brain Inst, New York, NY 10029 USAYale Univ, Sch Med, Dept Psychiat, New Haven, CT USAMichael E Debakey VA Med Ctr, Mental Hlth Care Line, Houston, TX USABaylor Coll Med, Menninger Dept Psychiat & Behav Sci, Houston, TX 77030 USAYale Univ, Sch Med, Ctr Child Study, New Haven, CT 06510 USAUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Psychiat & Neuroradiol, São Paulo, BrazilNIMH: R21MH066748NIMH: R01 MH059990Web of Scienc

Young children's interpersonal trust consistency as a predictor of future school adjustment

Young children’s interpersonal trust consistency was examined as a predictor of future school adjustment. One hundred and ninety two (95 male and 97 female, M age = 6 years 2 months, SD age = 6 months) children from school years 1 and 2 in the United Kingdom were tested twice over one-year. Children completed measures of peer trust and school adjustment and teachers completed the Short-Form Teacher Rating Scale of School Adjustment. Longitudinal quadratic relationships emerged between consistency of children’s peer trust beliefs and peer-reported trustworthiness and school adjustment and these varied according to social group, facet of trust, and indictor of school adjustment. The findings support the conclusion that interpersonal trust consistency, especially for secret-keeping, predicts aspects of young children’s school adjustment

Collective consciousness and its pathologies: Understanding the failure of AIDS control and treatment in the United States

We address themes of distributed cognition by extending recent formal developments in the theory of individual consciousness. While single minds appear biologically limited to one dynamic structure of linked cognitive submodules instantiating consciousness, organizations, by contrast, can support several, sometimes many, such constructs simultaneously, although these usually operate relatively slowly. System behavior remains, however, constrained not only by culture, but by a developmental path dependence generated by organizational history, in the context of market selection pressures. Such highly parallel multitasking – essentially an institutional collective consciousness – while capable of reducing inattentional blindness and the consequences of failures within individual workspaces, does not eliminate them, and introduces new characteristic malfunctions involving the distortion of information sent between workspaces and the possibility of pathological resilience – dysfunctional institutional lock-in. Consequently, organizations remain subject to canonical and idiosyncratic failures analogous to, but more complicated than, those afflicting individuals. Remediation is made difficult by the manner in which pathological externalities can write images of themselves onto both institutional function and corrective intervention. The perspective is applied to the failure of AIDS control and treatment in the United States

Compton scattering beyond the impulse approximation

We treat the non-relativistic Compton scattering process in which an incoming photon scatters from an N-electron many-body state to yield an outgoing photon and a recoil electron, without invoking the commonly used frameworks of either the impulse approximation (IA) or the independent particle model (IPM). An expression for the associated triple differential scattering cross section is obtained in terms of Dyson orbitals, which give the overlap amplitudes between the N-electron initial state and the (N-1) electron singly ionized quantum states of the target. We show how in the high energy transfer regime, one can recover from our general formalism the standard IA based formula for the cross section which involves the ground state electron momentum density (EMD) of the initial state. Our formalism will permit the analysis and interpretation of electronic transitions in correlated electron systems via inelastic x-ray scattering (IXS) spectroscopy beyond the constraints of the IA and the IPM.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figur