3,209 research outputs found
Does better education mitigate risky health behavior? A mendelian randomization study
Education and risky health behaviors are strongly negatively correlated. Education may affect health behaviors by enabling healthier choices through higher disposable income, increasing information about the harmful effects of risky health behaviors, or altering time preferences. Alternatively, the observed negative correlation may stem from reverse causality or unobserved confounders. Based on the data from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study linked to register-based information on educational attainment and family background, this paper identifies the causal effect of education on risky health behaviors. To examine causal effects, we used a genetic score as an instrument for years of education. We found that individuals with higher education allocated more attention to healthy habits. In terms of health behaviors, highly educated people were less likely to smoke. Some model specifications also indicated that the highly educated consumed more fruit and vegetables, but the results were imprecise in this regard. No causal effect was found between education and abusive drinking. In brief, inferences based on genetic instruments showed that higher education leads to better choices in some but not all dimensions of health behaviors
Creatine and entrepreneurship
Creatine is a nitrogenous organic acid which supplies energy to body cells and enhances physical performance. Using the Young Finns Study combined with the Finnish Linked employer-employee data we show that quantities of creatine measured in 1980 prior to labour market entry affect entrepreneurial success as measured by capital income accumulation over the period 1993–2010 (in particular for females). However, we do not find evidence that creatine affects the propensity to become an entrepreneur. Our study contributes to the emerging literature on biomarkers and entrepreneurship
The serum copper/zinc ratio in childhood and educational attainment: a population-based study
BACKGROUND: Micronutrients are potentially important determinants of adult outcomes such as educational attainment. Copper and zinc have known effects on several medical conditions and cognitive development. Elevated copper and depressed zinc is a common trace metal imbalance. METHODS: We estimate the correlation between the copper/zinc ratio (Cu/Zn) in childhood (year 1980) and educational attainment in adulthood (year 2010). We use the Young Finns Study (YFS) combined with the Finnish Linked Employer-Employee Data (FLEED). The regression models account for confounders such as other biomarkers and parental observables. RESULTS: We report a sizeable, negative correlation between Cu/Zn and educational attainment as measured by education in years, grades as well as the likelihood of completing university education. For example, a one standard deviation increase in Cu/Zn decreases the probability of university education by ∼4%. CONCLUSIONS: The findings are consistent with a Cu/Zn effect influencing cognitive functioning early in life. Future research should explore more deeply the precise mechanisms by which Cu/Zn affects educational attainment
Technical Design Report for the Upgrade of the ALICE Time Projection Chamber
An interaction rate of 50 kHz is expected for the Pb-Pb periods after the luminosity upgrade of the LHC during LS2, and the ALICE upgrade plans foresee to operate the experiment at these interaction rates. For this purpose, the MWPC-based TPC readout chambers will be replaced by Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs), allowing a continuous readout of the TPC. The details of this upgrade are described in this Technical Design Report
The biometric antecedents to happiness
It has been suggested that biological markers are associated with human happiness. We contribute to the empirical literature by examining the independent association between various aspects of biometric wellbeing measured in childhood and happiness in adulthood. Using Young Finns Study data (n = 1905) and nationally representative linked data we examine whether eight biomarkers measured in childhood (1980) are associated with happiness in adulthood (2001). Using linked data we account for a very rich set of confounders including age, sex, body size, family background, nutritional intake, physical activity, income, education and labour market experiences. We find that there is a negative relationship between triglycerides and subjective well-being but it is both gender-and age-specific and the relationship does not prevail using the later measurements (1983/1986) on triglycerides. In summary, we conclude that none of the eight biomarkers measured in childhood predict happiness robustly in adulthood
Multiplicity dependence of jet-like two-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions at = 5.02 TeV
Two-particle angular correlations between unidentified charged trigger and
associated particles are measured by the ALICE detector in p-Pb collisions at a
nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The transverse-momentum
range 0.7 5.0 GeV/ is examined,
to include correlations induced by jets originating from low
momen\-tum-transfer scatterings (minijets). The correlations expressed as
associated yield per trigger particle are obtained in the pseudorapidity range
. The near-side long-range pseudorapidity correlations observed in
high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions are subtracted from both near-side
short-range and away-side correlations in order to remove the non-jet-like
components. The yields in the jet-like peaks are found to be invariant with
event multiplicity with the exception of events with low multiplicity. This
invariance is consistent with the particles being produced via the incoherent
fragmentation of multiple parton--parton scatterings, while the yield related
to the previously observed ridge structures is not jet-related. The number of
uncorrelated sources of particle production is found to increase linearly with
multiplicity, suggesting no saturation of the number of multi-parton
interactions even in the highest multiplicity p-Pb collisions. Further, the
number scales in the intermediate multiplicity region with the number of binary
nucleon-nucleon collisions estimated with a Glauber Monte-Carlo simulation.Comment: 23 pages, 6 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 17,
published version, figures at
http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/161
Multi-particle azimuthal correlations in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
Measurements of multi-particle azimuthal correlations (cumulants) for charged
particles in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions are presented. They help address the
question of whether there is evidence for global, flow-like, azimuthal
correlations in the p-Pb system. Comparisons are made to measurements from the
larger Pb-Pb system, where such evidence is established. In particular, the
second harmonic two-particle cumulants are found to decrease with multiplicity,
characteristic of a dominance of few-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions.
However, when a gap is placed to suppress such correlations,
the two-particle cumulants begin to rise at high-multiplicity, indicating the
presence of global azimuthal correlations. The Pb-Pb values are higher than the
p-Pb values at similar multiplicities. In both systems, the second harmonic
four-particle cumulants exhibit a transition from positive to negative values
when the multiplicity increases. The negative values allow for a measurement of
to be made, which is found to be higher in Pb-Pb collisions at
similar multiplicities. The second harmonic six-particle cumulants are also
found to be higher in Pb-Pb collisions. In Pb-Pb collisions, we generally find
which is indicative of a Bessel-Gaussian
function for the distribution. For very high-multiplicity Pb-Pb
collisions, we observe that the four- and six-particle cumulants become
consistent with 0. Finally, third harmonic two-particle cumulants in p-Pb and
Pb-Pb are measured. These are found to be similar for overlapping
multiplicities, when a gap is placed.Comment: 25 pages, 11 captioned figures, 3 tables, authors from page 20,
published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/87
Networks of Emotion Concepts
The aim of this work was to study the similarity network and hierarchical clustering of Finnish emotion concepts. Native speakers of Finnish evaluated similarity between the 50 most frequently used Finnish words describing emotional experiences. We hypothesized that methods developed within network theory, such as identifying clusters and specific local network structures, can reveal structures that would be difficult to discover using traditional methods such as multidimensional scaling (MDS) and ordinary cluster analysis. The concepts divided into three main clusters, which can be described as negative, positive, and surprise. Negative and positive clusters divided further into meaningful sub-clusters, corresponding to those found in previous studies. Importantly, this method allowed the same concept to be a member in more than one cluster. Our results suggest that studying particular network structures that do not fit into a low-dimensional description can shed additional light on why subjects evaluate certain concepts as similar. To encourage the use of network methods in analyzing similarity data, we provide the analysis software for free use (http://www.becs.tkk.fi/similaritynets/)
- …