Long-Term Health Effects of the 9/11 Disaster

The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, also referred as 9/11, was an iconic event in US history that altered the global and political response to terrorism. The attacks, which involved two planes hitting the twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, resulted in the collapse of the buildings and over 2800 deaths of occupants of the buildings, fire, police and other responders and persons on the street in the vicinity of the collapsing buildings. The destroyed towers and the surrounding buildings have since been replaced but the health effects that resulted from the release of tons of dust, gases and debris as well as the life threat trauma are ongoing, and represent a major health burden among persons directly exposed. Hundreds of scientific publications have documented the physical and mental health effects attributed to the disaster. The current state-of-the-art in understanding the ongoing interactions of physical and mental health, especially PTSD, and the unique mechanisms by which pollutants from the building collapse, have resulted in long term pulmonary dysfunction, course of previously reported conditions, potential emerging conditions (e.g., heart disease and autoimmune diseases), as well as quality of life, functioning and unmet health care needs would be in the purview of this Special Issue on the 9/11 Disaster

Second Language Impacts On First Language Processing

This line of research investigates attrition (loss of fluency) of native Mandarin language (L1) proficiency with increasing proficiency in English. English uses pitch to denote intonation (e.g., “it’s there?” versus “it’s there!”), while Mandarin uses pitch to indicate word meanings; e.g., /he/ means “drink” with a high, level tone, or “river” with a rising tone. The present study delineates between two alternative explanations for the prior finding (Quam & Creel, 2017) that English proficiency correlates with attrition of Mandarin tones, but not vowels. This pattern could be explained by 1) language assimilability (L1-L2 Assimilability Hypothesis), or 2) by tone being uniquely prone to attrition regardless of assimilability (Tone-Uniqueness Hypothesis). To distinguish these, participants completed an eye-tracked word-recognition task. They heard a spoken Mandarin word while viewing two images, and selected which image matched that word. The two images represent words which differ in tone only (tone trials), vowel only (vowel trials), or are completely different words (baseline trials). Vowel trials are further categorized as easy, medium, or hard difficulty based on the vowels’ assimilability into English. Preliminary results support the assimilability hypothesis, as proficiency in Mandarin is correlated with performance in (more difficult) vowel trials, not just tone trials

Genome-wide linkage using the Social Responsiveness Scale in Utah autism pedigrees

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Autism Spectrum Disorder<b>s </b>(ASD) are phenotypically heterogeneous, characterized by impairments in the development of communication and social behaviour and the presence of repetitive behaviour and restricted interests. Dissecting the genetic complexity of ASD may require phenotypic data reflecting more detail than is offered by a categorical clinical diagnosis. Such data are available from the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) which is a continuous, quantitative measure of social ability giving scores that range from significant impairment to above average ability.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We present genome-wide results for 64 multiplex and extended families ranging from two to nine generations. SRS scores were available from 518 genotyped pedigree subjects, including affected and unaffected relatives. Genotypes from the Illumina 6 k single nucleotide polymorphism panel were provided by the Center for Inherited Disease Research. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were done using MCLINK, a software package that uses Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to perform multilocus linkage analysis on large extended pedigrees.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>When analysed as a qualitative trait, linkage occurred in the same locations as in our previous affected-only genome scan of these families, with findings on chromosomes 7q31.1-q32.3 [heterogeneity logarithm of the odds (HLOD) = 2.91], 15q13.3 (HLOD = 3.64), and 13q12.3 (HLOD = 2.23). Additional positive qualitative results were seen on chromosomes 6 and 10 in regions that may be of interest for other neuropsychiatric disorders. When analysed as a quantitative trait, results replicated a peak found in an independent sample using quantitative SRS scores on chromosome 11p15.1-p15.4 (HLOD = 2.77). Additional positive quantitative results were seen on chromosomes 7, 9, and 19.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The SRS linkage peaks reported here substantially overlap with peaks found in our previous affected-only genome scan of clinical diagnosis. In addition, we replicated a previous SRS peak in an independent sample. These results suggest the SRS is a robust and useful phenotype measure for genetic linkage studies of ASD. Finally, analyses of SRS scores revealed linkage peaks overlapping with evidence from other studies of neuropsychiatric diseases. The information available from the SRS itself may, therefore, reveal locations for autism susceptibility genes that would not otherwise be detected.</p

Variations In Juvenile Offending in Louisiana: Demographic, Behavioral, Geographic, and School-Related Predictors

This study examines the relative impacts of demographic, behavioral, and school-related factors on juvenile justice contact of varying magnitudes (felony, misdemeanor, and status offenses) across a large, and non-selective sample of youths. The sample includes Deep South public school students examined from 1996 to 2012 (N &equals;615,515). Data were obtained through state administrative databases. Noteworthy findings are that school expulsion, male gender, prior Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice (LOJJ) contact, and grade failure are major predictors, though their relative impact varies based on the severity of offense. Further, being African American loses much of its practical significance in all models once other factors are taken into account. Implications for policy and subsequent research efforts are discussed

Examining the Influence of Risk Factors Across Rural and Urban Communities

Objective: Juvenile offending persists as a problem across geographic contexts, yet policymakers and social work practitioners have traditionally relied solely on urban research due to the lack of literature on rural delinquency. The purpose of this study is to examine the differential influence of demographic, behavioral, and school-related factors on juvenile offending in rural and urban settings. Method: The sample included kindergarten through 12th grade students (N = 615,297) who attended Louisiana public schools between 1996 and 2012. Data were obtained from state-wide administrative databases. Contact with the juvenile justice system, offense severity, and offending trajectory comparisons between youth in rural and urban environments were examined using multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression models and average adjusted predictive margins. Results: Factors that significantly increased the odds of juvenile justice contact in all models were African American race, male gender, grade retention, receiving free lunch (a proxy for poverty), birth year (cohort control), average yearly absences from school, and previous juvenile justice contact. The relative influences of these variables were similar across rural and urban contexts. In the overall model, odds were greater that rural students would encounter the juvenile justice system than urban students would. Conclusions: The increased odds of juvenile justice contact among rural youth contradicts much of the existing literature. Researchers must direct more attention to youth crime across geographic contexts to understand trends in rural areas and adapt interventions accordingly

Examining the Influence of Risk Factors Across Rural and Urban Communities

Objective: Juvenile offending persists as a problem across geographic contexts, yet policymakers and social work practitioners have traditionally relied solely on urban research due to the lack of literature on rural delinquency. The purpose of this study is to examine the differential influence of demographic, behavioral, and school-related factors on juvenile offending in rural and urban settings. Method: The sample included kindergarten through 12th grade students (N = 615,297) who attended Louisiana public schools between 1996 and 2012. Data were obtained from state-wide administrative databases. Contact with the juvenile justice system, offense severity, and offending trajectory comparisons between youth in rural and urban environments were examined using multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression models and average adjusted predictive margins. Results: Factors that significantly increased the odds of juvenile justice contact in all models were African American race, male gender, grade retention, receiving free lunch (a proxy for poverty), birth year (cohort control), average yearly absences from school, and previous juvenile justice contact. The relative influences of these variables were similar across rural and urban contexts. In the overall model, odds were greater that rural students would encounter the juvenile justice system than urban students would. Conclusions: The increased odds of juvenile justice contact among rural youth contradicts much of the existing literature. Researchers must direct more attention to youth crime across geographic contexts to understand trends in rural areas and adapt interventions accordingly

Editorial for “Long-Term Health Effects of the 9/11 Disaster” in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019

The call for articles on the long term health effects of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks (9/11) has resulted in twenty-three papers that add a significant amount of information to the growing body of research on the effects of the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster almost two decades later [...

Correlates of Educational Success: Predictors of School Dropout and Graduation for Urban Students in the Deep South

This study examined a sample of primary and secondary school students with alternate school outcomes of high school graduation and school dropout. Using secondary administrative data from a state department of education and a state department of juvenile justice, two models are examined in the current study. Utilizing hierarchical mixed-effects logistic regression models, the relative impacts of demographic characteristics (race, gender, birth year), school-related factors (grade failure, free lunch status, average number of days missed per year, expulsions) and juvenile justice involvement were examined on graduation and dropout outcomes. Across models, juvenile justice contact and school expulsion were the best predictors of negative school outcomes; The findings also demonstrate that race was not as predictive of dropout as were other factors. Findings suggest that interventions, practices, and policies in schools that may prevent negative behavior and subsequent consequences (expulsion and/or juvenile justice contact) may impact the more distal outcomes of high school graduation and dropout