Influence of Emotion Processing and Affect Intensity on the Engagement of Inhibitory Control in Young Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

How individuals process different affective cues, as well as how intensely they experience different emotions, may influence how efficient they are at engaging inhibitory control. To date, it is unclear if these influences differ among young adults with and without ADHD. The current study tested the variation in young adults’ inhibitory control to three affective cues (i.e., fear, happy, and neutral) in an Emotion Go/Nogo task. Results suggest better inhibitory control in response to more distinct cues (i.e., fear Nogo/happy Go). The order in which cues were presented also mattered, such that participants displayed enhanced inhibitory control when first presented with expressions that had similar valence. This task order was particularly helpful for inhibitory control engagement among young adults with ADHD. Furthermore, self-report measures suggest that young adults with ADHD were associated with higher levels of affect intensity. However, no additional relations were found in the processing of affective cues, affect intensity, and inhibitory control between young adults with and without ADHD. Results provide evidence for how affective cues and contexts differentially influence behavioral responses in young adults. Individuals with and without ADHD also appear to differ in the intensity with which they experience different emotions. Overall, the current study provides a framework for how to further explore how emotional cues and affect intensity influence inhibitory control

Religion and the Equal Protection Clause

This article argues that state action that discriminates on the basis of religion is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Doctrine even if it does not violate the Establishment Clause or the Free Exercise Clause as incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment. State action that discriminates on the basis of religion should be subject to strict scrutiny and should almost always be held unconstitutional. We thus challenge the Supreme Court\u27s recent decision in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez in which a 5 to 4 majority of the Court wrongly allowed a California state school to discriminate against a Christian Legal Society chapter on the basis of religion. We defend our argument that the Fourteenth Amendment bans discrimination on the basis of religion as being: 1) consistent with and mandated by the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment; 2) as following logically from the seminal logic in United States v. Caroline Products Footnote Four which specifically mentions religion as a suspect classification; 3) as not being precluded by any prior Supreme Court caselaw; 4) as reflecting the fact that religious affiliation is in some faiths hereditary and immutable; and 5) as being consistent with the ban on discrimination on the basis of religion in almost every equal protection clause in every foreign constitution or international human rights document that we have surveyed. We analyze the impact our equal protection argument might have on Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause caselaw, and we explain why in our view State constitutional Blaine amendments forbidding government money from going to religious entities violate the Fourteenth Amendment. We conclude, perhaps most strikingly, by arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment\u27s ban on discrimination on the basis of religion renders the current system of funding the public schools unconstitutional. In our view, the Fourteenth Amendment obligates the states to provide students with education vouchers that they can redeem either at a secular or at a religious school depending on parental choice. Forcing religious students to attend a state funded school that is permeated with an atmosphere that is hostile to religion violates the Fourteenth Amendment

Religion and the Equal Protection Clause: Why the Constitution Requires School Vouchers

Ask anyone whether the Constitution permits discrimination on the basis of religion, and the response will undoubtedly be no. Yet the modern Supreme Court has not recognized that the antidiscrimination command of the Fourteenth Amendment protects religion in the same way that the Amendment protects against discrimination on the basis of race or gender. In fact, the Supreme Court has permitted the legislature to facially discriminate against religion in funding programs. To make matters worse, thirty-seven state constitutions and the District of Columbia’s Code openly discriminate on the basis of religion in so-called Blaine Amendments

Religion and the Equal Protection Clause

This article argues that state action that discriminates on the basis of religion is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Doctrine even if it does not violate the Establishment Clause or the Free Exercise Clause as incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment. State action that discriminates on the basis of religion should be subject to strict scrutiny and should almost always be held unconstitutional. We thus challenge the Supreme Court\u27s recent decision in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez in which a 5 to 4 majority of the Court wrongly allowed a California state school to discriminate against a Christian Legal Society chapter on the basis of religion. We defend our argument that the Fourteenth Amendment bans discrimination on the basis of religion as being: 1) consistent with and mandated by the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment; 2) as following logically from the seminal logic in United States v. Caroline Products Footnote Four which specifically mentions religion as a suspect classification; 3) as not being precluded by any prior Supreme Court caselaw; 4) as reflecting the fact that religious affiliation is in some faiths hereditary and immutable; and 5) as being consistent with the ban on discrimination on the basis of religion in almost every equal protection clause in every foreign constitution or international human rights document that we have surveyed. We analyze the impact our equal protection argument might have on Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause caselaw, and we explain why in our view State constitutional Blaine amendments forbidding government money from going to religious entities violate the Fourteenth Amendment. We conclude, perhaps most strikingly, by arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment\u27s ban on discrimination on the basis of religion renders the current system of funding the public schools unconstitutional. In our view, the Fourteenth Amendment obligates the states to provide students with education vouchers that they can redeem either at a secular or at a religious school depending on parental choice. Forcing religious students to attend a state funded school that is permeated with an atmosphere that is hostile to religion violates the Fourteenth Amendment

Standardization of driving cycles for shunting locomotives – reduction of energy consumption and optimized selection of new powertrain solutions

Modern rail vehicles are facing a lot of different challenges in order to be successful established on the market. Besides the primary requirements safety, fulfillment of the scope of performance and low investment costs, there are increasing requirements such as energy consumption, local emissions (global warming gases, harmful substances and noise), non-operation periods and maintenance intervals. All these requirements are crucial in case of customer satisfaction. For train operating companies as well as for locomotive manufactures one challenge in the development process is the meaningful simulation of real service profiles. For mainline traffic as well as for existing rail vehicles some mathematical-physical models already exist. These models are based on track topology and timetables. They show results for energy consumption and driving times. In the field of shunting, the fact that the topology, the towing capacity and a concrete timetable cannot be determined exactly, leads to a problem for the simulation and the evaluation of new powertrain solutions for shunting locomotives. This shows the need of an approved method to create standardized driving cycles. In the future there will be still the need of shunting locomotives for the passenger traffic and of course for rail cargo. This is shown by the constant number of shunting locomotives during the last years. As a consequence the field of shunting has a clearly recognizable share of the whole railroad energy consumption. Therefore it is obvious that optimized powertrain systems for shunting locomotives will have a clear influence on the reduction of CO2-Emissions and other exhaust emissions. The generation of standardized driving cycles is a necessary step for an efficient and reliable analysis of vehicles and powertrain systems. With the basis of defined characteristics and determined values, it is possible to create synthetic driving cycles with the use of mathematic algorithms for shunting locomotives. With this method the big range of operation profiles for shunting locomotives can be transferred into universal driving cycles without changing characteristics. The following method of creating driving cycles is validated by measurements with a H3-Hybrid locomotive from Alstom. With the development of new alternative powertrain solutions for rail vehicles the requirements, especially for the interfaces and the interaction between vehicle components, will increase. Standardized driving cycles will be helpful to adjust vehicle components and operating strategies and can increase the reliability of railroad vehicles

Repetition of attempted suicide among immigrants in Europe

Objectives: To compare frequencies of suicide attempt repetition in immigrants and local European populations, and the timing of repetition in these groups. Method: Data from 7 European countries, comprising 10 574 local and 3032 immigrant subjects, were taken from the World Health Organization European Multicentre Study on Suicidal Behaviour and the ensuing Monitoring Suicidal Behaviour in Europe (commonly referred to as MONSUE) project. The relation between immigrant status and repetition of suicide attempt within 12-months following first registered attempt was analyzed with binary logistic regression, controlling for sex, age, and method of attempt. Timing of repetition was controlled for sex, age, and the recommended type of aftercare. Results: Lower odds of repeating a suicide attempt were found in Eastern European (OR 0.50; 95% CI 0.41 to 0.61, P < 0.001) and non-European immigrants (OR 0.68; 95% CI 0.51 to 0.90, P < 0.05), compared with the locals. Similar patterns were identified in the sex-specific analysis. Eastern European immigrants tended to repeat their attempt much later than locals (OR 0.58; 95% CI 0.35 to 0.93, P < 0.05). In general, 32% of all repetition occurred within 30 days. Repetition tended to decrease with age and was more likely in females using harder methods in their index attempt (OR 1.29; 95% CI 1.08 to 1.54, P < 0.01). Large variations in the general repetition frequency were identified between the collecting centres, thus influencing the results. Conclusions: The lower repetition frequencies in non-Western immigrants, compared with locals, in Europe stands in contrast to their markedly higher tendency to attempt suicide in general, possibly pointing to situational stress factors related to their suicidal crisis that are less persistent over time. Our findings also raise the possibility that suicide attempters and repeaters constitute only partially overlapping populations