Infant vocabulary development assessed with a British communicative development inventory

Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) were collected from 669 British children aged between 1;0 and 2;1. Comprehension and production scores in each age group are calculated. This provides norming data for the British infant population. The influence of socioeconomic group on vocabulary scores is considered and shown not to have a significant effect. The data from British infants is compared to data from American infants (Fenson, Dale, Reznick, Bates, Thal & Pethick, 1994). It is found that British infants have lower scores on both comprehension and production than American infants of the same age

HEALTHY LIFESTYLES OF ADULTS IN A WORK SETTING

Nurses have a key role in promoting healthy lifestyles to reduce incidence of disease in adults. Since the 1980¿s, researchers have recognized readiness as a key component of adopting healthy lifestyle change. Prochaska¿s transtheoretical model, which contains readiness, or stage of change, served as the theoretical framework for the current study. The purpose of this study was to test an exercise behavior model, and in so doing: (a) compare the concurrence rates of exercise stage of change classifications obtained from the four selected exercise stage of change self-report measures; and (b) determine the relative strength of the predictive factors of exercise stage of change and of exercise performance, in healthy adults in a work setting. This correlational study used a one-group design. Ninety-five subjects, aged 19 to 62, completed six questionnaires and two structured interviews about healthy lifestyles. The first stage of change, precontemplation, was not used in data analysis due to few subjects classified in this stage. Agreement of stage classification by four measures of exercise stage of change was determined, with most agreement found between five answer choice and ladder (k = 0.82, p \u3c .01), and between ladder and the structured interview (k = 0.86, p \u3c .01). Using multinomial logistic regression, exercise self-efficacy (p = .003) and behavioral processes of change (p = .005) were significant predictors of stage classification. Differences in mean exercise performance across the stages were found, with exercise performance significantly (p \u3c .05) lower in contemplation than in maintenance. Using multiple regression, exercise self-efficacy was the strongest positive predictor of exercise performance (β = .39, p \u3c .01), followed by behavioral processes of change (β = .30, p = .021). Decisional balance pros was a significant negative predictor of exercise performance (β = -.22, p = .031). The results from this study may help to identify accurate measures which enable more correct classification of an individual¿s exercise stage of change. Revisions to enhance clarity of wording and directions and further testing of selected instruments are recommended

Meson-loop contributions to the quark condensate from the instanton vacuum

We investigate the quark condensate of the QCD vacuum within the instanton vacuum model. We calculate the meson-loop contributions to the dynamical quark mass and quark condensate to ${\cal O}(1/N_c)$-, ${\cal O}(m/N_c)$-, and ${\cal O}((m\ln m) /N_c)$-order corrections. We find that the meson (especially pion) loops provide substantial contributions to the dynamical quark mass and as a result to the quark condensate. The results indicate that the $1/N_c$ corrections should be reconsidered in the systematical way. The present results are consistent with those from chiral perturbation theory.Comment: Final version accepted for publication in Phys. Lett. B. The title was changed. Small corrections were adde

Funneling and frustration in the energy landscapes of some designed and simplified proteins

We explore the similarities and differences between the energy landscapes of proteins that have been selected by nature and those of some proteins designed by humans. Natural proteins have evolved to function as well as fold, and this is a source of energetic frustration. The sequence of Top7, on the other hand, was designed with architecture alone in mind using only native state stability as the optimization criterion. Its topology had not previously been observed in nature. Experimental studies show that the folding kinetics of Top7 is more complex than the kinetics of folding of otherwise comparable naturally occurring proteins. In this paper, we use structure prediction tools, frustration analysis, and free energy profiles to illustrate the folding landscapes of Top7 and two other proteins designed by Takada. We use both perfectly funneled (structure-based) and predictive (transferable) models to gain insight into the role of topological versus energetic frustration in these systems and show how they differ from those found for natural proteins. We also study how robust the folding of these designs would be to the simplification of the sequences using fewer amino acid types. Simplification using a five amino acid type code results in comparable quality of structure prediction to the full sequence in some cases, while the two-letter simplification scheme dramatically reduces the quality of structure prediction

Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Screw Fastener Spacing on the Local and Distortional Buckling Behavior of Built-Up Cold-Formed Steel Columns

This paper addresses an ongoing experimental and computational effort on the buckling and strength of built-up cold-formed steel (CFS) columns. Specifically, two 6 in. (152 mm) deep lipped channel sections (i.e. the 600S137-54 and 600S162-54 using AISI S200-12 nomenclature) are studied here in a back-to-back, screw-connected form and were chosen for their local and distortional slenderness to study the effect of fastener spacing and layout on local and distortional buckling and collapse behavior. Thirty column tests are completed with concentric loading. The screw spacing is varied from L to L/6, where L is the column length, with and without varying lengths of End Fastener Groups (EFG), which are a prescriptive layout of fasteners at the ends of built-up columns that is required by AISI S100-12 and is intended to insure end rigidity and increase composite action. Results yield two general types of deformation modes: compatible (where the connected webs conform to the same buckling shape) and isolated stud buckling. Buckling loads and half-wavelengths of deformation are shown to be affected by the tighter screw spacings. EFGs increase compatibility of buckling, but prove to be an inefficient (costly) method of fastening studs together. Future work includes expanding the design methods for built-up CFS columns to explicitly account for local and distortional buckling behavior of the built-up section, and to develop efficient numerical tools supporting a new design method under development

A test of the instanton vacuum with low-energy theorems of the axial anomaly

We revisit the QCD+QED axial anomaly low-energy theorems which give an exact relation between the matrix elements of the gluon and photon parts of the axial anomaly operator equation within the framework of the {\em effective action} derived from the instanton vacuum. The matrix elements between the vacuum and two photon states and between the vacuum and two gluon states are investigated for arbitrary $N_f$ in the chiral limit. Having gauged the effective action properly, we show that the model does exactly satisfy the low-energy theorems.Comment: 9 pages, no figure, final version which will appear in Phys. Lett.

Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Screw Fastener Spacing on the Local and Distortional Buckling Behavior of Built-Up Cold-Formed Steel Columns

This paper addresses an ongoing experimental and computational effort on the buckling and strength of built-up cold-formed steel (CFS) columns. Specifically, two 6 in. (152 mm) deep lipped channel sections (i.e. the 600S137-54 and 600S162-54 using AISI S200-12 nomenclature) are studied here in a back-to-back, screw-connected form and were chosen for their local and distortional slenderness to study the effect of fastener spacing and layout on local and distortional buckling and collapse behavior. Thirty column tests are completed with concentric loading. The screw spacing is varied from L to L/6, where L is the column length, with and without varying lengths of End Fastener Groups (EFG), which are a prescriptive layout of fasteners at the ends of built-up columns that is required by AISI S100-12 and is intended to insure end rigidity and increase composite action. Results yield two general types of deformation modes: compatible (where the connected webs conform to the same buckling shape) and isolated stud buckling. Buckling loads and half-wavelengths of deformation are shown to be affected by the tighter screw spacings. EFGs increase compatibility of buckling, but prove to be an inefficient (costly) method of fastening studs together. Future work includes expanding the design methods for built-up CFS columns to explicitly account for local and distortional buckling behavior of the built-up section, and to develop efficient numerical tools supporting a new design method under development

Towards photophoretically levitating macroscopic sensors in the stratosphere

Photophoretic forces could levitate thin 10 centimeter-scale structures in Earth$'$s stratosphere indefinitely. We develop models of the thermal transpiration lofting force on a bilayer sandwich structure under stratospheric conditions driven by radiative fluxes in the thermal-infrared and solar-band. Similar structures have been levitated in the laboratory. Lofting is maximized when the layers are separated by an air gap equal to the mean free path (MFP), when about half of the layers$'$ surface area consists of holes with radii < MFP, and when the top layer is solar-transmissive and infrared-emissive while the bottom layer is solar-absorptive and infrared-transmissive. We describe a preliminary design of a 10 cm diameter device that combines a levitating structure made of two membranes 2 $\mu$m apart with the support structure required for stiffness and orientation control. We limit the design to components that could be fabricated with available methods. Structural analysis suggests that the device would have sufficient strength to withstand forces that might be encountered in transport, deployment, and flight. Our models predict a payload capacity of about 300 mg at 25 km altitude and our analysis suggests it could support bidirectional radio communication at over 10 Mb/s and could have limited navigational abilities. Such devices could be useful for atmospheric science or telecommunications, and similar devices might be useful on Mars. Structures a few times larger might have payloads of a few grams.Comment: Main: 14 pages, 4 figures. Supporting information: 7 pages, 13 figure