501 research outputs found
Prenatal exposure to pyrethroid pesticides and childhood behavior and executive functioning
Several previous studies of pyrethroid biomarkers and behavior have reported associations between concurrent pyrethroid levels and adverse behavioral problems in children. One geospatial study reported associations between prenatal exposure to pyrethroids and autism. However, the association between prenatal pyrethroid biomarkers and childhood behavior is unknown. The Mount Sinai Children's Environmental Health Center is a prospective birth cohort with urinary pyrethroid biomarkers during pregnancy and behavioral measurements at 4, 6, and 7â9 years of age. Primiparous women were enrolled between 1998 and 2002. 162 mother/child pairs with complete exposure and behavioral outcomes data were used to investigate associations between detectable levels of prenatal pyrethroid metabolites and scores on the Behavioral Assessment System for Children and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function. Overall, detection frequencies of pyrethroid metabolites were low (<30%). In longitudinal mixed models, detectable levels of 3-PBA during pregnancy were associated with worse Internalizing (β â4.50, 95% CI â8.05, â0.95), Depression (β â3.21, 95% CI â6.38, â0.05), Somatization (β â3.22, 95% CI â6.38, â0.06), Behavioral Regulation (β â3.59, 95% CI â6.97, â0.21), Emotional Control (β â3.35, 95% CI â6.58, â0.12), Shifting (β â3.42, 95% CI â6.73, â0.11), and Monitoring (β â4.08, 95% CI â7.07, â1.08) scales. Detectable levels of cis-DCCA were associated with worse Externalizing (β â4.74, 95% CI â9.37, â0.10), Conduct Problems (β â5.35, 95% CI â9.90, â0.81), Behavioral Regulation (β â6.42, 95% CI â11.39, â1.45), and Inhibitory Control (β â7.20, 95% CI â12.00, â2.39). Although detection frequencies of pyrethroid metabolites were low, we found suggestive evidence that prenatal exposure to 3-PBA and cis-DCCA may be associated with a variety of behavioral and executive functioning deficits
Parallelization of a Dynamic Monte Carlo Algorithm: a Partially Rejection-Free Conservative Approach
We experiment with a massively parallel implementation of an algorithm for
simulating the dynamics of metastable decay in kinetic Ising models. The
parallel scheme is directly applicable to a wide range of stochastic cellular
automata where the discrete events (updates) are Poisson arrivals. For high
performance, we utilize a continuous-time, asynchronous parallel version of the
n-fold way rejection-free algorithm. Each processing element carries an lxl
block of spins, and we employ the fast SHMEM-library routines on the Cray T3E
distributed-memory parallel architecture. Different processing elements have
different local simulated times. To ensure causality, the algorithm handles the
asynchrony in a conservative fashion. Despite relatively low utilization and an
intricate relationship between the average time increment and the size of the
spin blocks, we find that for sufficiently large l the algorithm outperforms
its corresponding parallel Metropolis (non-rejection-free) counterpart. As an
example application, we present results for metastable decay in a model
ferromagnetic or ferroelectric film, observed with a probe of area smaller than
the total system.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, RevTex; submitted to the Journal of
Computational Physic
Properties of Flares-Generated Seismic Waves on the Sun
The solar seismic waves excited by solar flares (``sunquakes'') are observed
as circular expanding waves on the Sun's surface. The first sunquake was
observed for a flare of July 9, 1996, from the Solar and Heliospheric
Observatory (SOHO) space mission. However, when the new solar cycle started in
1997, the observations of solar flares from SOHO did not show the seismic
waves, similar to the 1996 event, even for large X-class flares during the
solar maximum in 2000-2002. The first evidence of the seismic flare signal in
this solar cycle was obtained for the 2003 ``Halloween'' events, through
acoustic ``egression power'' by Donea and Lindsey. After these several other
strong sunquakes have been observed. Here, I present a detailed analysis of the
basic properties of the helioseismic waves generated by three solar flares in
2003-2005. For two of these flares, X17 flare of October 28, 2003, and X1.2
flare of January 15, 2005, the helioseismology observations are compared with
simultaneous observations of flare X-ray fluxes measured from the RHESSI
satellite. These observations show a close association between the flare
seismic waves and the hard X-ray source, indicating that high-energy electrons
accelerated during the flare impulsive phase produced strong compression waves
in the photosphere, causing the sunquake. The results also reveal new physical
properties such as strong anisotropy of the seismic waves, the amplitude of
which varies significantly with the direction of propagation. The waves travel
through surrounding sunspot regions to large distances, up to 120 Mm, without
significant decay. These observations open new perspectives for helioseismic
diagnostics of flaring active regions on the Sun and for understanding the
mechanisms of the energy release and transport in solar flares.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Ap
Bosonization in Particle Physics
Path integral techniques in collective fields are shown to be a useful
analytical tool to reformulate a field theory defined in terms of microscopic
quark (gluon) degrees of freedom as an effective theory of collective boson
(meson) fields. For illustrations, the path integral bosonization approach is
applied to derive a (non)linear sigma model from a Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL)
quark model. The method can be extended to include higher order derivative
terms in meson fields or heavy-quark symmetries. It is also approximately
applicable to QCD.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, uses lamuphys.sty, 5 LaTeX figures, talk given at
the Workshop "Field Theoretical Tools in Polymer and Particle Physics",
University Wuppertal, June 17-19, 199
Ising model on 3D random lattices: A Monte Carlo study
We report single-cluster Monte Carlo simulations of the Ising model on
three-dimensional Poissonian random lattices with up to 128,000 approx. 503
sites which are linked together according to the Voronoi/Delaunay prescription.
For each lattice size quenched averages are performed over 96 realizations. By
using reweighting techniques and finite-size scaling analyses we investigate
the critical properties of the model in the close vicinity of the phase
transition point. Our random lattice data provide strong evidence that, for the
available system sizes, the resulting effective critical exponents are
indistinguishable from recent high-precision estimates obtained in Monte Carlo
studies of the Ising model and \phi^4 field theory on three-dimensional regular
cubic lattices.Comment: 35 pages, LaTex, 8 tables, 8 postscript figure
Sleep onset problems and subcortical development in infants later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder
Objective: Sleep patterns in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) appear to diverge from typical development in the second or third year of life. Little is known, however, about the occurrence of sleep problems in infants who later develop ASD and possible effects on early brain development. In a longitudinal neuroimaging study of infants at familial high or low risk for ASD, parent-reported sleep onset problems were examined in relation to subcortical brain volumes in the first 2 years of life. Methods: A total of 432 infants were included across three study groups: infants at high risk who developed ASD (N=71), infants at high risk who did not develop ASD (N=234), and infants at low risk (N=127). Sleep onset problem scores (derived from an infant temperament measure) were evaluated in relation to longitudinal high-resolution T1 and T2 structural imaging data acquired at 6, 12, and 24 months of age. Results: Sleep onset problems were more common at 6â12 months among infants who later developed ASD. Infant sleep onset problems were related to hippocampal volume trajectories from 6 to 24 months only for infants at high risk who developed ASD. Brain-sleep relationships were specific to the hippocampus; no significant relationships were found with volume trajectories of other subcortical structures examined (the amygdala, caudate, globus pallidus, putamen, and thalamus). Conclusions: These findings provide initial evidence that sleep onset problems in the first year of life precede ASD diagnosis and are associated with altered neurodevelopmental trajectories in infants at high familial risk who go on to develop ASD. If replicated, these findings could provide new insights into a potential role of sleep difficulties in the development of ASD
Evidence for softening of first-order transition in 3D by quenched disorder
We study by extensive Monte Carlo simulations the effect of random bond
dilution on the phase transition of the three-dimensional 4-state Potts model
which is known to exhibit a strong first-order transition in the pure case. The
phase diagram in the dilution-temperature plane is determined from the peaks of
the susceptibility for sufficiently large system sizes. In the strongly
disordered regime, numerical evidence for softening to a second-order
transition induced by randomness is given. Here a large-scale finite-size
scaling analysis, made difficult due to strong crossover effects presumably
caused by the percolation fixed point, is performed.Comment: LaTeX file with Revtex, 4 pages, 4 eps figure
Manageable creativity
This article notes a perception in mainstream management theory and practice that creativity has shifted from being disruptive or destructive to 'manageable'. This concept of manageable creativity in business is reflected in a similar rhetoric in cultural policy, especially towards the creative industries. The article argues that the idea of 'manageable creativity' can be traced back to a 'heroic' and a 'structural' model of creativity. It is argued that the 'heroic' model of creativity is being subsumed within a 'structural' model which emphasises the systems and infrastructure around individual creativity rather than focusing on raw talent and pure content. Yet this structured approach carries problems of its own, in particular a tendency to overlook the unpredictability of creative processes, people and products. Ironically, it may be that some confusion in our policies towards creativity is inevitable, reflecting the paradoxes and transitions which characterise the creative process
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