A Communication-Based Approach to Adoptive Identity: Theoretical and Empirical Support

The current study uses structural equation modeling to examine adoptive parent communication as it relates to adoptee adjustment directly and indirectly through adoptive identity. Using retrospective accounts of 179 adult adoptees, findings indicate that both adoption- (adoption communication openness) and non-adoption-related (parental confirmation and affectionate communication) parental communication are related to adoptive identity work and positive affect about adoption and birth parents. Preoccupation mediates the relationship between parental communication and adoptee adjustment. The current study integrates research and theorizing from identity, adoption, and communication literatures to develop a communication-centered conceptual model of adoptive identity development to inform future adoption research and practice

Minority Health Disparities in a 21st-century Pandemic: A Comprehensive Report of Project Research Focused on New York

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacted a starkly unequal toll on New Yorkers of color – both in terms of the virus itself and the accompanying social and economic impacts of the pandemic. These are not separate issues. They stem from the structural racism embedded in American society. While our work begins by establishing a statistical baseline for how the virus’s unequal toll played out in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York, any analysis of these disparities that looks solely at hospitalizations and deaths misses a tremendous piece of this tragic and preventable story. Minority health disparities have always existed in the United States. But COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated these disparities in ways policymakers cannot ignore; doing so would mean accepting inequity with life and death consequences. The COVID-19 pandemic also exposed gaps in existing knowledge about the causes of these inequities and, more important, how to end them. We need, for example, more and better data about the toll of the virus in New York’s Indigenous communities and Indigenous communities more generally. Additionally, our work suggests important differences exist in the way different minority groups experience the progression of the disease.More work is needed to fully explore those differences and their causes, particularly as they relate to additional minority communities in New York. This project has been an important initial step toward filling some of these gaps and identifying interventions that, by necessity, must be informed by and rooted in community experiences and insight. The University at Albany began this project at the direction of Gov. Andrew Cuomo with extreme urgency at the height of the most serious public health emergency New York has faced in a century. That urgency led to the creation of a new health equity research ecosystem at UAlbany that will long outlast this project and continue to produce new knowledge, insights, and recommendations to combat future public health threats we have yet to even imagine. The trauma inflicted on New Yorkers by the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be undone. But university researchers and government policymakers should jointly pledge to do everything in their power not to allow the lessons learned from COVID-19’s unequal path across New York to go unheeded

Reliability of Accelerometer-Based Reaction Time Tests

Concussions are traumatic brain injuries that affect the function of the brain. One of the primary symptoms of a concussion is a lack of reaction time. The people that are most susceptible to concussions are athletes; Laker’s (2011) study found that 135,000 patients that suffer concussions from playing sports are expected to be hospitalized each year, with football making up 75% of concussions at high school and college levels. Honda et al. (2018) suggested reaction time as an important biomarker of concussion. Laboratory camera-based motion capture data, while reliable, is not a realistic tool to use outside of a laboratory and requires hardware that makes it impractical in non-laboratory settings. Accelerometers measure linear triaxial accelerations are wireless miniature MEMS devices and can be easily affixed on the hand. If accelerometers were proven to be as accurate as motion capture systems in obtaining reaction time, accelerometer-dependent devices, such as a drop stick, could serve as a reliable and portable tool to diagnose a concussion quickly and easily. Our study, which aims to compare the accuracy of laboratory motion capture to accelerometer data, uses a drop stick test, in which participants had an accelerometer strapped to their wrist and infrared markers placed on three bony landmarks of the hand, as well as on an accelerometer situated on the base of the drop stick. In multiple series of tests, participants stood on both solid ground and a foam pad to measure differences in reaction time. Analysis of data will compare the accuracy of accelerometers to motion capture. If proven accurate, this method of measuring reaction time should yield data that is just as reliable as laboratory camera-based motion capture, while simultaneously being more convenient to use as sideline assessment during play

Time-resolved optical spectroscopy of the pulsating DA white dwarf HS 0507+0434B: New constraints on mode identification and pulsation properties

We present a detailed analysis of time-resolved optical spectra of the ZZ Ceti white dwarf, HS 0507+0434B. Using the wavelength dependence of observed mode amplitudes, we deduce the spherical degree, l, of the modes, most of which have l=1. The presence of a large number of combination frequencies (linear sums or differences of the real modes) enabled us not only to test theoretical predictions but also to indirectly infer spherical and azimuthal degrees of real modes that had no observed splittings. In addition to the above, we measure line-of-sight velocities from our spectra. We find only marginal evidence for periodic modulation associated with the pulsation modes: at the frequency of the strongest mode in the lightcurve, we measure an amplitude of 2.6+/-1.0 km/s, which has a probability of 2% of being due to chance; for the other modes, we find lower values. Our velocity amplitudes and upper limits are smaller by a factor of two compared to the amplitudes found in ZZ Psc. We find that this is consistent with expectations based on the position of HS 0507+0434B in the instability strip. Combining all the available information from data such as ours is a first step towards constraining atmospheric properties in a convectionally unstable environment from an observational perspective.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figs.; accepted for publication in A&

Discovery of a cataclysmic variable with a sub-stellar companion

We find that the ROSAT source 1RXS J105010.3-140431 is a cataclysmic variable with orbital period of 88.6 minutes and a spectrum closely resembling WZ Sge. In particular, emission lines are flanked by Stark-broadened absorption wings probably originating in the photosphere of a compact object. The Balmer absorption lines can be modeled by the spectrum of a DA white dwarf with 13 000 $< T_{eff} <$ 24 000 K. The strong absorption lines allowed us to obtain direct radial velocities of the white dwarf using the cross-correlation technique. We find an extremely low white dwarf radial velocity half amplitude, $K_{wd}$ = 4 $\pm$ 1 km s$^{-1}$. This is consistent with the upper limit obtained from the H$\alpha$ emission line wing K < 20 km s$^{-1}$. The corresponding mass function is incompatible with a main sequence secondary, but is compatible with a post orbital period minimum cataclysmic variable with a brown dwarf-like secondary. The formal solution gives a secondary mass of 10-20 jovian masses. Doppler maps for the emission lines and the hypothesis of black-body emission indicate a steady state (T $\sim r^{-3/4}$) accretion disk mainly emitting in H$\alpha$ and an optically thicker hotspot with a strong contribution to the higher order Balmer lines and \ion{He}{I} 5875. As in other long cycle length dwarf novae, evidence for inner disk removal is found from the analysis of the emission lines.Comment: 14 figures, 2 of them composed. Total 20 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Coherent states and geodesics: cut locus and conjugate locus

The intimate relationship between coherent states and geodesics is pointed out. For homogenous manifolds on which the exponential from the Lie algebra to the Lie group equals the geodesic exponential, and in particular for symmetric spaces, it is proved that the cut locus of the point $0$ is equal to the set of coherent vectors orthogonal to $\vert 0>$. A simple method to calculate the conjugate locus in Hermitian symmetric spaces with significance in the coherent state approach is presented. The results are illustrated on the complex Grassmann manifold.Comment: 19 pages, enlarged version, 14 pages, Latex + some macros from Revtex + some AMS font

Pre-diagnostic circulating concentrations of fat-soluble vitamins and risk of glioma in three cohort studies

Few prospective studies have evaluated the relation between fat-soluble vitamins and glioma risk. Using three cohorts—UK Biobank (UKB), Nurses’ Health Study (NHS), and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS), we investigated associations of pre-diagnostic concentrations of fat-soluble vitamins D, A, and E with incident glioma. In 346,785 participants (444 cases) in UKB, associations with vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D]) were evaluated by Cox proportional hazards regression. In NHS (52 cases, 104 controls) and HPFS (32 cases, 64 controls), associations with 25(OH)D, vitamin A (retinol), and vitamin E (α- and γ-tocopherol) were assessed using conditional logistic regression. Our results suggested plasma concentrations of 25(OH)D and retinol were not associated with glioma risk. Comparing the highest to lowest tertile, the multivariable hazard ratio (MVHR) for 25(OH)D was 0.87 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.68–1.11) in UKB and the multivariable risk ratio (MVRR) was 0.97 (95% CI 0.51–1.85) in NHS and HPFS. In NHS and HPFS, the MVRR for the same comparison for retinol was 1.16 (95% CI 0.56–2.38). Nonsignificant associations were observed for α-tocopherol (MVRRtertile3vs1 = 0.61, 95% CI 0.29–1.32) and γ-tocopherol (MVRR tertile3vs1 = 1.30, 95% CI 0.63–2.69) that became stronger in 4-year lagged analyses. Further investigation is warranted on a potential association between α- and γ-tocopherol and glioma risk.publishedVersio

Developing Maintenance Cultures in UN Police Peacekeeping Operations

This report provides an analysis and evaluation of maintenance cultures in United Nations Police Contributing Countries (PCC) receiving funding for Formed Police Units from the United States. The US Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) recognized a marked lack of research on maintenance cultures in police agencies receiving foreign funding and sought to build a base of knowledge to aid in creating and sustaining maintenance cultures within these organizations. The INL also requested analysis and evaluation of maintenance cultures in five specific African PCCs (Cameroon, Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal, and Togo), as well as recommendations to create and sustain maintenance cultures specific to these countries. By establishing effective maintenance cultures, INL seeks to ensure that equipment purchased with funding from the United States will operate effectively throughout the manufacturer's estimated life-span

Hard X-ray Emission Associated with White Dwarfs

We have used the WGACAT to search for hard X-ray sources associated with white dwarfs (WDs) from the catalog of McCook & Sion (1999). We find 17 X-ray sources coincident with WDs showing significant hard X-ray emission at energies >0.5 keV. Twelve of these WDs are in known binary systems, in two of which the accretion of the close companion's material onto the white dwarf produces the hard X-ray emission, and in the other ten of which the late-type companions' coronal activity emits hard X-rays. One WD is projected near an AGN which is responsible for the hard X-ray emission. The remaining four WDs and two additional white dwarfs with hard X-ray emission appear single. The lack of near-IR excess from the apparently single WDs suggests that either X-ray observations are more effective than near-IR photometry in diagnosing faint companions or a different emission mechanism is needed. It is intriguing that 50% of the six apparently single WDs with hard X-ray emission are among the hottest WDs. We have compared X-ray properties of 11 hot WDs with different spectral types, and conclude that stellar pulsation and fast stellar winds are not likely the origin of the hard X-ray emission, but a leakage of the high-energy Wien tail of emission from deep in the stellar atmosphere remains a tantalizing source of hard X-ray emission from hot DO and DQZO WDs. (This abstract is an abridged version.)Comment: 35 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in AJ, April issu

Dexamethasone impairs the expression of antimicrobial mediators in lipopolysaccharide-activated primary macrophages by inhibiting both expression and function of interferon β

Glucocorticoids potently inhibit expression of many inflammatory mediators, and have been widely used to treat both acute and chronic inflammatory diseases for more than seventy years. However, they can have several unwanted effects, amongst which immunosuppression is one of the most common. Here we used microarrays and proteomic approaches to characterise the effect of dexamethasone (a synthetic glucocorticoid) on the responses of primary mouse macrophages to a potent pro-inflammatory agonist, lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Gene ontology analysis revealed that dexamethasone strongly impaired the lipopolysaccharide-induced antimicrobial response, which is thought to be driven by an autocrine feedback loop involving the type I interferon IFNβ. Indeed, dexamethasone strongly and dose-dependently inhibited the expression of IFNβ by LPS-activated macrophages. Unbiased proteomic data also revealed an inhibitory effect of dexamethasone on the IFNβ-dependent program of gene expression, with strong down-regulation of several interferon-induced antimicrobial factors. Surprisingly, dexamethasone also inhibited the expression of several antimicrobial genes in response to direct stimulation of macrophages with IFNβ. We tested a number of hypotheses based on previous publications, but found that no single mechanism could account for more than a small fraction of the broad suppressive impact of dexamethasone on macrophage type I interferon signaling, underlining the complexity of this pathway. Preliminary experiments indicated that dexamethasone exerted similar inhibitory effects on primary human monocyte-derived or alveolar macrophages.</p