Is there a relationship between prenatal cannabis exposure and the development of aggressive behaviour?

Treball Final de Grau en Psicologia. Codi: PS1048. Curs: 2018/2019.Numerous studies focusing on the effects of cannabis use at the psychobiological level have shown cognitive impairment as well as memory and attention deficits. However, very few studies have investigated the effects that cannabis use, during pregnancy, may have on future offspring, particularly with regards to aggressive or violent behaviour. Here, we reviewed the literature with the aim of drawing conclusions on this topic. To do so, four databases were searched (Pubmed, PubPsych, Psynet and Science Direct) with the key words: cannabis, pregnancy and aggressive behaviour. Clear inclusion criteria (only research articles published between 2008 and 2019 that focused on marijuana and human sample) was used. The studies found showed certain common denominators with respect to the sample: low educational and socio-economic levels, as well as comorbidity with alcohol and tobacco use. With respect to the offspring; in children of cannabis users, a lower than average fetal somatometry was observed.Between 1 and 3 years old, low levels of attention and high impulsivity were found, as well as a high presence of externalizing behaviours (hyperactivity, irritability and aggressiveness), which are more frequent in girls. At the neurobiological level, possible mechanisms are proposed, highlighting the role of the stress axis (hypothalamicpituitary-adrenal; HPA) and of brain areas with structural alterations and connectivity deficits due to prenatal exposure (prefrontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus). Despite the low number of investigations, the data show a relationship between cannabis use during gestation and the presence of behavioural alterations in childhood. These disturbances may be related to the development of aggressive and violent behaviour in later stages of development.Numerosas investigaciones centradas en el estudio de los efectos que produce el consumo de cannabis a nivel psicobiológico han demostrado deterioro cognitivo, afectación de la memoria y de la atención. Sin embargo, muy pocos estudios han investigado los efectos que el consumo de cannabis durante el embarazo pudiera producir en la futura descendencia, en particular respecto a la conducta agresiva o violenta. En el presente trabajo se realizó una revisión bibliográfica que tuvo como objetivo intentar obtener conclusiones a este respecto. Para ello ser realizó una búsqueda en cuatro bases de datos (Pubmed, PubPsych, Psynet y Science Direct), con las palabras clave: cannabis, pregnancy y aggressive behavior, y siguiendo unos criterios de inclusión claros (solo artículos de investigación, publicados entre 2008 y 2019, centrados en la marihuana y con muestra humana). Los estudios encontrados muestran ciertos denominadores comunes respecto a la muestra: bajos niveles educativos y socio-económicos, así como comorbilidad con el consumo de alcohol y tabaco. Respecto a la descendencia; en hijo/as de consumidoras de cannabis, se observa una somatometría fetal inferior a la media. Entre los 1 y 3 años se observan niveles bajos de atención y altos en impulsividad así como una elevada presencia de conductas externalizantes (hiperactividad, irritabilidad y agresividad), las cuales son más frecuentes en niñas. A nivel neurobiológico, se proponen posibles mecanismos implicados, destacando el papel del eje del estrés (hipotalámico-pituitario-adrenal; HPA) y de áreas cerebrales con deterioro tanto a nivel estructural como de conectividad a causa de la exposición prenatal (córtex prefrontal, amígdala e hipocampo). A pesar del bajo número de investigaciones realizadas de esta índole, los datos muestran una relación entre el consumo de cannabis durante la gestación y la presencia de alteraciones de conducta en la niñez. Estas alteraciones pudieran relacionarse con el desarrollo de conducta agresiva y violenta en etapas posteriores del desarrollo

A linear optimization based method for data privacy in statistical tabular data

National Statistical Agencies routinely disseminate large amounts of data. Prior to dissemination these data have to be protected to avoid releasing confidential information. Controlled tabular adjustment (CTA) is one of the available methods for this purpose. CTA formulates an optimization problem that looks for the safe table which is closest to the original one. The standard CTA approach results in a mixed integer linear optimization (MILO) problem, which is very challenging for current technology. In this work we present a much less costly variant of CTA that formulates a multiobjective linear optimization (LO) problem, where binary variables are pre-fixed, and the resulting continuous problem is solved by lexicographic optimization. Extensive computational results are reported using both commercial (CPLEX and XPRESS) and open source (Clp) solvers, with either simplex or interior-point methods, on a set of real instances. Most instances were successfully solved with the LO-CTA variant in less than one hour, while many of them are computationally very expensive with the MILO-CTA formulation. The interior-point method outperformed simplex in this particular application.Peer ReviewedPreprin

Political Business Cycles and Inflation Stabilization

When the choice of the nominal anchor and timing of inflation stabilization is analyzed with models of political business cycles, there is room for political opportunism of policymakers. The different business cycles associated with exchange rate-based (ERBS) and money-based stabilizations (MBS) imply that the decision regarding the timing and nominal anchor of stabilization may be affected by the timing of elections. Namely, an opportunistic policymaker is more likely to implement an ERBS than a MBS before elections, while the opposite happens after elections. Empirical results obtained when estimating a multinomial logit model for a sample of 35 stabilization programs implemented in chronic inflation countries clearly support this hypothesis.Inflation stabilization, nominal anchors, political business cycles.

Self-organized electronic superlattices in layered materials

We show that in layered systems with electronic phase separation tendency, the long-range Coulomb interaction can drive the spontaneous formation of unidirectional superlattices of electronic charge in a completely homogeneous crystalline background. In this self-organized electronic heterostructure, the ratio among the number of crystalline planes in the minority and majority electronic phases corresponds to Farey fractions with the superlattice period controlled by the background charge density and the frustrating Coulomb interaction strength. The phase diagram displays Arnold tongues obeying a modified Farey tree hierarchy and a devil's staircase typical of systems with frustration among different scales. We further discuss the competition of these electronic superlattices, recently observed in iron-based superconductors and mixed valence compounds, with in-plane electronically modulated phases.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

World Equity Markets: A New Approach for Segmentation (in English)

This paper is an assessment of international equity-market integration and uses an innovative approach to segment equity markets into related geographic areas. The authors´ focus is on the relationships among the returns of the dominant national equity indexes by continent. To understand how these indexes have evolved, the authors will concentrate on a reduced number of dimensions extracted from principal components analysis. They will demonstrate that each one of these components is particularly associated with certain groups of nations and less associated with others.interaction, principal components analysis, returns

On the computation of Bernstein–Sato ideals

In this paper we compare the approach of Brianc¸onand Maisonobe for computing Bernstein–Sato ideals—based on computations in a Poincar´e–Birkhoff–Witt algebra—with the readily available method of Oaku and Takayama. We show that it can deal with interesting examples that have proved intractable so far.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología BFM-2001-3164Junta de Andalucía FQM-33

Explicit Comparison Theorems for D -modules

We prove in an explicit way a duality formula between two A2-modules Mlog and Mflog associated to a plane curve and we give an application of this duality to the comparison between Mflog and the A2-module of rational functions along the curve. We treat the analytic case as well