Towards a resolution of some outstanding issues in transitive research: an empirical test on middle childhood

Transitive Inference (deduce B > D from B > C and C > D) can help us to understand other areas of sociocognitive development. Across three experiments, learning, memory, and the validity of two transitive paradigms were investigated. In Experiment 1 (N = 121), 7-year-olds completed a three-term nontraining task or a five-term task requiring extensive-training. Performance was superior on the three-term task. Experiment 2 presented 5–10-year-olds with a new five-term task, increasing learning opportunities without lengthening training (N = 71). Inferences improved, suggesting children can learn five-term series rapidly. Regarding memory, the minor (CD) premise was the best predictor of BD-inferential performance in both task-types. However, tasks exhibited different profiles according to associations between the major (BC) premise and BD inference, correlations between the premises, and the role of age. Experiment 3 (N = 227) helped rule out the possible objection that the above findings simply stemmed from three-term tasks with real objects being easier to solve than computer-tasks. It also confirmed that, unlike for five-term task (Experiments 1 & 2), inferences on three-term tasks improve with age, whether the age range is wide (Experiment 3) or narrow (Experiment 2). I conclude that the tasks indexed different routes within a dual-process conception of transitive reasoning: The five-term tasks indexes Type 1 (associative) processing, and the three-term task indexes Type 2 (analytic) processing. As well as demonstrating that both tasks are perfectly valid, these findings open up opportunities to use transitive tasks for educability, to investigate the role of transitivity in other domains of reasoning, and potentially to benefit the lived experiences of persons with developmental issues

Congenital and childhood atrioventricular blocks: pathophysiology and contemporary management

Atrioventricular block is classified as congeni- tal if diagnosed in utero, at birth, or within the first month of life. The pathophysiological process is believed to be due to immune-mediated injury of the conduction system, which occurs as a result of transplacental pas- sage of maternal anti-SSA/Ro-SSB/La antibodies. Childhood atrioventricular block is therefore diagnosed between the first month and the 18th year of life. Genetic variants in multiple genes have been described to date in the pathogenesis of inherited progressive car- diac conduction disorders. Indications and techniques of cardiac pacing have also evolved to allow safe perma- nent cardiac pacing in almost all patients, including those with structural heart abnormalities

Advanced photocatalysts: Pinning single atom co-catalysts on titania nanotubes

Single atom (SA) catalysis, over the last 10 years, has become a forefront in heterogeneous catalysis, electrocatalysis, and most recently also in photocatalysis. Most crucial when engineering a SA catalyst/support system is the creation of defined anchoring points on the support surface to stabilize reactive SA sites. Here, a so far unexplored but evidently very effective approach to trap and stabilize SAs on a broadly used photocatalyst platform is introduced. In self-organized anodic TiO2 nanotubes, a high degree of stress is incorporated in the amorphous oxide during nanotube growth. During crystallization (by thermal annealing), this leads to a high density of Ti3+-O-v, surface defects that are hardly present in other common titania nanostructures (as nanoparticles). These defects are highly effective for SA iridium trapping. Thus a SA-Ir photocatalyst with a higher photocatalytic activity than for any classic co-catalyst arrangement on the semiconductive substrate is obtained. Hence, a tool for SA trapping on titania-based back-contacted platforms is provided for wide application in electrochemistry and photoelectrochemistry. Moreover, it is shown that stably trapped SAs provide virtually all photocatalytic reactivity, with turnover frequencies in the order of 4 x 10(6) h(-1) in spite of representing only a small fraction of the initially loaded SAs.Web of Science3130art. no. 210284

Ageing and brain white matter structure in 3513 UK Biobank participants

Quantifying the microstructural properties of the human brain's connections is necessary for understanding normal ageing and disease. Here we examine brain white matter magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data in 3,513 generally healthy people aged 44.64–77.12 years from the UK Biobank. Using conventional water diffusion measures and newer, rarely studied indices from neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging, we document large age associations with white matter microstructure. Mean diffusivity is the most age-sensitive measure, with negative age associations strongest in the thalamic radiation and association fibres. White matter microstructure across brain tracts becomes increasingly correlated in older age. This may reflect an age-related aggregation of systemic detrimental effects. We report several other novel results, including age associations with hemisphere and sex, and comparative volumetric MRI analyses. Results from this unusually large, single-scanner sample provide one of the most extensive characterizations of age associations with major white matter tracts in the human brain

Sex-specific relevance of diabetes to occlusive vascular and other mortality: a collaborative meta-analysis of individual data from 980793 adults from 68 prospective studies

Background Several studies have shown that diabetes confers a higher relative risk of vascular mortality among women than among men, but whether this increased relative risk in women exists across age groups and within defined levels of other risk factors is uncertain. We aimed to determine whether differences in established risk factors, such as blood pressure, BMI, smoking, and cholesterol, explain the higher relative risks of vascular mortality among women than among men. Methods In our meta-analysis, we obtained individual participant-level data from studies included in the Prospective Studies Collaboration and the Asia Pacific Cohort Studies Collaboration that had obtained baseline information on age, sex, diabetes, total cholesterol, blood pressure, tobacco use, height, and weight. Data on causes of death were obtained from medical death certificates. We used Cox regression models to assess the relevance of diabetes (any type) to occlusive vascular mortality (ischaemic heart disease, ischaemic stroke, or other atherosclerotic deaths) by age, sex, and other major vascular risk factors, and to assess whether the associations of blood pressure, total cholesterol, and body-mass index (BMI) to occlusive vascular mortality are modified by diabetes. Results Individual participant-level data were analysed from 980 793 adults. During 9·8 million person-years of follow-up, among participants aged between 35 and 89 years, 19 686 (25·6%) of 76 965 deaths were attributed to occlusive vascular disease. After controlling for major vascular risk factors, diabetes roughly doubled occlusive vascular mortality risk among men (death rate ratio [RR] 2·10, 95% CI 1·97–2·24) and tripled risk among women (3·00, 2·71–3·33; χ2 test for heterogeneity p<0·0001). For both sexes combined, the occlusive vascular death RRs were higher in younger individuals (aged 35–59 years: 2·60, 2·30–2·94) than in older individuals (aged 70–89 years: 2·01, 1·85–2·19; p=0·0001 for trend across age groups), and, across age groups, the death RRs were higher among women than among men. Therefore, women aged 35–59 years had the highest death RR across all age and sex groups (5·55, 4·15–7·44). However, since underlying confounder-adjusted occlusive vascular mortality rates at any age were higher in men than in women, the adjusted absolute excess occlusive vascular mortality associated with diabetes was similar for men and women. At ages 35–59 years, the excess absolute risk was 0·05% (95% CI 0·03–0·07) per year in women compared with 0·08% (0·05–0·10) per year in men; the corresponding excess at ages 70–89 years was 1·08% (0·84–1·32) per year in women and 0·91% (0·77–1·05) per year in men. Total cholesterol, blood pressure, and BMI each showed continuous log-linear associations with occlusive vascular mortality that were similar among individuals with and without diabetes across both sexes. Interpretation Independent of other major vascular risk factors, diabetes substantially increased vascular risk in both men and women. Lifestyle changes to reduce smoking and obesity and use of cost-effective drugs that target major vascular risks (eg, statins and antihypertensive drugs) are important in both men and women with diabetes, but might not reduce the relative excess risk of occlusive vascular disease in women with diabetes, which remains unexplained. Funding UK Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, European Union BIOMED programme, and National Institute on Aging (US National Institutes of Health)

Study of transfer and breakup reactions with the plastic box

The study of transfer reactions with heavy-ion projectiles is complicated by the frequent presence of three or more nuclei in the final state. One prolific source of three-body reactions is the production of a primary ejectile in an excited state above a particle threshold. A subset of transfer reactions, viz., those producing ejectiles in bound states, can be identified experimentally. This has been accomplished with a 4..pi.. detector constructed of one-millimeter-thick scintillator paddles of dimension 20 cm x 20 cm. The paddles are arranged in the form of a cube centered around the target with small entrance and exit apertures for the beam and the projectile-like fragments, (PLF). The detection of a light particle (e.g., a proton or an alpha particle) in coincidence with a PLF indicates a breakup reaction. The absence of any such coincidence indicates a reaction in which all the charge lost by the projectile was transferred to the target. With this technique we have studied the transfer and breakup reactions induced by 220 and 341 MeV /sup 20/Ne ions on a gold target. Ejectiles from Li to Ne have been measured at several scattering angles. The absolute cross sections, angular distributions and energy spectra for the transfer and breakup reactions are presented. Relatively large cross sections are observed for the complete transfer of up to seven units of charge (i.e., a nitrogen nucleus). The gross features and trends in the energy spectra for transfer and breakup reactions are similar. However, small differences, in particular for the widths of the energy spectra, are significant. 20 references

3-body final states in peripheral heavy-ion collisions: nuclear clustering structure and projectile excitation revisited

Even though peripheral heavy-ion collisions are less violent than their central counterparts, the large energy exchange between the reactants often leaves the primary products in excited particle-unstable states whose subsequent decay leads to 3 or more nuclei emerging in the final exit channel. These post-reaction, predominantly sequential de-excitation processes can sometimes provide interesting structural information about the parent nuclei. In fact, provided these processes are well understood, one can employ them as probes for studying initial properties of the fragments. This report discusses results of two experiments that deal with (1) nonstatistical, rare decay modes of the projectile, and (2) internal excitation energy of the projectile- and target-like fragments in peripheral collisions. The physics addressed in each is different, but the experimental and data-analysis techniques are so similar that it is relevant to join them together

The Application of Position-Sensitive Phoswich Detectors for Low-Mass Fragment Detection in an Array Environment

Large solid angle position-sensitive phoswich detectors have been constructed to replace smaller units in an array for detecting medium mass fragments (Z less than or equal to 15) in nuclear experiments. The position information was obtained from a time analysis method. 5 refs., 9 figs

Study of transfer and breakup reactions with the plastic box

The study of transfer reactions with heavy-ion projectiles is complicated by the frequent presence of three or more nuclei in the final state. One prolific source of three-body reactions is the production of a primary ejectile in an excited state above a particle threshold. A subset of transfer reactions, viz., those producing ejectiles in bound states, can be identified experimentally. This has been accomplished with a 4..pi.. detector constructed of one-millimeter-thick scintillator paddles of dimension 20 cm x 20 cm. The paddles are arranged in the form of a cube centered around the target with small entrance and exit apertures for the beam and the projectile-like fragments, (PLF). The detection of a light particle (e.g., a proton or an alpha particle) in coincidence with a PLF indicates a breakup reaction. The absence of any such coincidence indicates a reaction in which all the charge lost by the projectile was transferred to the target. With this technique we have studied the transfer and breakup reactions induced by 220 and 341 MeV /sup 20/Ne ions on a gold target. Ejectiles from Li to Ne have been measured at several scattering angles. The absolute cross sections, angular distributions and energy spectra for the transfer and breakup reactions are presented. Relatively large cross sections are observed for the complete transfer of up to seven units of charge (i.e., a nitrogen nucleus). The relatively large probabilities for ejectiles to be produced in particle-bound states suggest that on the average, most of the excitation energy in a collision resides in the heavy fragment when mass is transferred from the lighter to the heavier fragment. The gross features and trends in the energy spectra for transfer and breakup reactions are similar. 20 references