Problem Solving Skill and Obesity in Children

Abstract: Introduction: Childhood obesity is a problem that leads to many serious health effects including early maturation, decreased quality of life and increased risk for cardiovascular disease. In 2012, over one third of children were considered obese (Childhood Obesity Facts 2015). Efforts have been made to reduce this number but they have not been fully successful (Nutrition Standards for School Meals 2015, Prevalence of Childhood obesity in the United States 2011-2012 2015). What other factors are causing kids to choose foods that lead to weight gain. Literature Review: In research regarding psychological motivations of overeating, there has been a correlation between decreased executive function and overeating in a population of middle aged women (Manasse et al. 2014). It was also shown that when asked to complete a complex mental task, a person is more likely to choose an unhealthy food option (Truong and Sterm 2015). The body reacts similarly to the sight of food as it does to substances like cocaine (Cohen 2008, Executive Functions Profile 2012, Imaging Dopamine Transmission in Cocaine Dependence 2011). What makes certain individuals more susceptible to giving in to this urge? Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how a child’s ability to make decisions may correlate with their weight status. H­0: There is no statistically significant correlation between problem solving scores, as tested using “Word Generation” and “Animal Sorting, to BMI in 3rd grade children. Methodology: The population was 3rd grade students at Pea Ridge Elementary School. Problem Solving skill was evaluated using the “Animal Sorting” and “Word Generation” sections of the NEPSY II assessment. These results were compared to Body Mass Index. Results: Out of the 19 students in the final population, 3 were considered overweight, 3 underweight and 13 healthy weight. For the Animal Sorting Test, 3 students scored below average, 12 students scored average, and 3 students scored above average. Data was not recorded for two participants. For the Word Generation Semantic Test 4 students scored below average, 12 students scored average, and 2 students scored above average. For the Word Generation Initial Letter, 1 student scored below average, 12 students scored average and 5 students scored above average. Analysis: Results were analyzed using a one-way ANOVA test. The results were not significant. The null hypothesis could not be accepted or rejected. Conclusion: Because of limitations in population size, additional research would be beneficial to gain further knowledge about the association between problem-solving skill and BMI. Using a different tool for analysis may also provide more conclusive results

Type-II super-Backlund transformation and integrable defects for the N=1 super sinh-Gordon model

A new super-Backlund transformation for the N=1 supersymmetric sinh-Gordon equation is constructed. Based on this construction we propose a type-II integrable defect for the supersymmetric sinh-Gordon model consistent with this new transformation through the Lagrangian formalism. Explicit expressions for the modified conserved energy, momentum and supercharges are also computed. In addition, we show for the model that the type-II defect can also been regarded as a pair of fused defects of a previously introduced type. The explicit derivation of the associated defect matrices is also presented as a necessary condition for the integrability of the model.Comment: Latex 31 pages. Version accepted for publicatio

Wavelength conversion at 10 Gb/s by four-wave mixing over a 30-nm interval

We show that the use of a long semiconductor optical amplifier increases the error-free conversion interval of a four-wave mixing (FWM)-based wavelength converter. 30-nm wavelength down-conversion and 15-nm up-conversion have been obtained at 10 Gb/s. This result is a significant improvement over the previous best performance of a FWM-based wavelength converter and suggests that the full erbium-doped fiber amplifier bandwidth can be covered with FWM wavelength converters

N=1 super sinh-Gordon model with defects revisited

The Lax pair formalism is considered to discuss the integrability of the N=1 supersymmetric sinh-Gordon model with a defect. We derive associated defect matrix for the model and construct the generating functions of the modified conserved quantities. The corresponding defect contributions for the modified energy and momentum of the model are explicitly computed.Comment: Latex 26 page

30-nm wavelength conversion at 10 Gbit/s by four-wave mixing in a semiconductor optical amplifier

Four-wave mixing (FWM) in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) is currently the only available strictly transparent wavelength-conversion technique, which is not penalized by phase matching. The span of the conversion is limited primarily by conversion efficiency and signal-to-noise (SNR) issues, both of which are expected to improve with the use of longer SOAs. In this paper, we demonstrate significantly enhanced performance of long converters in a system experiment at 10 Gbit/s. The experiment shows for the first time, to our knowledge, that FWM wavelength down-conversions can span the full gain bandwidth of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers

Defects in the supersymmetric mKdV hierarchy via Backlund transformations

The integrability of the ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetric modified Korteweg de-Vries (smKdV) hierarchy in the presence of defects is investigated through the construction of its super B\"acklund transformation. The construction of such transformation is performed by using essentially two methods: the B\"acklund-defect matrix approach and the superfield approach. Firstly, we employ the defect matrix associated to the hierarchy which turns out to be the same for the supersymmetric sinh-Gordon (sshG) model. The method is general for all flows and as an example we derive explicitly the B\"acklund equations in components for the first few flows of the hierarchy, namely $t_3$ and $t_5$. Secondly, the supersymmetric extension of the B\"acklund transformation in the superspace formalism is constructed for those flows. Finally, this super B\"acklund transformation is employed to introduce type I defects for the supersymmetric mKdV hierarchy. Further integrability aspects by considering modified conserved quantities are derived from the defect matrix.Comment: 40 pages. Some comments and references added. Version accepted for publication in JHE

Drastic effects of damping mechanisms on the third-order optical nonlinearity

We have investigated the optical response of superradiant atoms, which undergoes three different damping mechanisms: radiative dissipation ($\gamma_r$), dephasing ($\gamma_d$), and nonradiative dissipation ($\gamma_n$). Whereas the roles of $\gamma_d$ and $\gamma_n$ are equivalent in the linear susceptibility, the third-order nonlinear susceptibility drastically depends on the ratio of $\gamma_d$ and $\gamma_n$: When $\gamma_d \ll \gamma_n$, the third-order susceptibility is essentially that of a single atom. Contrarily, in the opposite case of $\gamma_d \gg \gamma_n$, the third-order susceptibility suffers the size-enhancement effect and becomes proportional to the system size.Comment: 5pages, 2figure