The Indirect Effects of Family Structure on Drug Use in Adolescents

This paper focuses on explaining the significant relationship between family structure and adolescent drug abuse. Significant differences in drug abuse frequency and patterns among adolescents living in two-parent, step-parent, and single-parent households does not show to be directly related to family structure, but rather attributable to the variation of social controls and family processes that occur among the diverse types of households. My thesis is that adolescents living in two-biological-parent households will be less likely to participate in drug abuse than adolescents living in one-parent or step-parent households because there is more supervision and monitoring as well as a better likelihood of closer bonds between the child and parent in twoparent families. The two mediating factors proven to best explain the link between family structure and drug abuse in adolescents are direct and indirect parental control (Demuth and Brown 2004), although indirect parental control seems to be more of a predictor (Choquet et al. 2008). In this paper, the following background section will give some explanations of various family types, a few definitions, and the topic’s sociological relevance

Performance analysis of electronic structure codes on HPC systems: A case study of SIESTA

We report on scaling and timing tests of the SIESTA electronic structure code for ab initio molecular dynamics simulations using density-functional theory. The tests are performed on six large-scale supercomputers belonging to the PRACE Tier-0 network with four different architectures: Cray XE6, IBM BlueGene/Q, BullX, and IBM iDataPlex. We employ a systematic strategy for simultaneously testing weak and strong scaling, and propose a measure which is independent of the range of number of cores on which the tests are performed to quantify strong scaling efficiency as a function of simulation size. We find an increase in efficiency with simulation size for all machines, with a qualitatively different curve depending on the supercomputer topology, and discuss the connection of this functional form with weak scaling behaviour. We also analyze the absolute timings obtained in our tests, showing the range of system sizes and cores favourable for different machines. Our results can be employed as a guide both for running SIESTA on parallel architectures, and for executing similar scaling tests of other electronic structure codes.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Openness and the case for flexible exchange rates

Models of stabilization in open economy traditionally emphasize the role of exchange rates as a substitute for nominal price flexibility in fostering relative price adjustment. This view has been recently criticized on the ground that, to the extent that prices are sticky in local currency, the exchange rate does not play the stabilizing role envisioned by the received wisdom. An important question is whether, for this very reason, stabilization policies should limit exchange rate movements, or even eliminate them altogether. In this paper, I re-assess this issue by extending the Corsetti and Pesenti (2001) model to allow for home bias in consumption, so that I can exploit the advantages of closed-form solutions. While this extension leaves most properties of the model unaffected, home bias implies that the real exchange rate in an efficient equilibrium is not constant, but fluctuates with the terms of trade. The weight that monetary authorities optimally place on stabilizing domestic marginal costs is increasing in Home bias. With asymmetric shocks, fixed exchange rates are incompatible with efficient monetary rules. Yet, the adverse welfare consequences of exchange rate movements constrain the optimal intensity of monetary responses to domestic shocks. Openness matters: the larger the import content of consumption, the lower the exchange rate volatility implied by optimal stabilization rules.optimal monetary policy, nominal rigidities, exchange rate pass-through, exchange rate regimes, international cooperation

New Open Economy Macroeconomics

The New Open Economy Macroeconomics refers to a vast body of literature embracing a new theoretical framework for policy analysis in open economy, with the goal of overcoming the limitations of the Mundell-Fleming model, while preserving the empirical wisdom and policy friendliness of traditional analysis. Starting in the early 1990s, NOEM contributions have developed general equilibrium models with imperfect competition and nominal rigidities, to reconsider conventional views on the transmission of monetary and exchange rate shocks; they have contributed to the design of optimal stabilization policies, identifying international dimensions of optimal monetary policy; they have raised issues in the desirability of international policy coordination.Open economy models; exchange rates; stabilization policy; Mundell-Fleming

Recent Developments in Supersymmetric Dark Matter

A brief review is given of some of the recent developments in the theoretical analyses of supersymmetric dark matter. These include the effects of uncertainties in the wimp velocity and wimp density and of the effects of uncertainties in the quark densities of the proton. Also analyzed are the effects of non-universalities in the gaugino sector and their effects on determining the nature of cold dark matter, i.e., if the neutralino is bino like, higgsino like, or wino like. The maximum and the minimum elastic neutralino proton cross sections are discussed and a comparison of the direct and the indirect detection arising from the capture and annihilation of neutralinos in the core of the earth and the sun is given. Some of the other recent developments are summarized.Comment: Based on an invited talk at the conference IDM2000, York, UK, 18-22 September, 2000; 12 pages, Latex and 4 figure

Fiscal Shocks and the Exchange Rate in a Generalized Redux Model

This paper studies how the interaction between the monetary policy regime and the degree of home bias in public consumption affects the exchange- rate response to fiscal shocks in a generalized version of the Redux model of Obstfeld and Rogoff (1995). We show that the joint presence of home bias in public consumption and endogenous monetary policy overturns the result of the Redux model implying an exchange-rate appreciation in response to an expansionary fiscal shock

Longwave radiation parameterization for UCLA/GLAS GCM

This document describes the parameterization of longwave radiation in the UCLA/GLAS general circulation model. Transmittances have been computed from the work of Arking and Chou for water vapor and carbon dioxide and ozone absorptances are computed using a formula due to Rodgers. Cloudiness has been introduced into the code in a manner in which fractional cover and random or maximal overlap can be accommodated. The entire code has been written in a form that is amenable to vectorization on CYBER and CRAY computers. Sample clear sky computations for five standard profiles using the 15- and 9-level versions of the model have been included

Negative-U properties for substitutional Au in Si

The isolated substitutional gold impurity in bulk silicon is studied in detail using electronic structure calculations based on density-functional theory. The defect system is found to be a non-spin-polarized negative-U centre, thus providing a simple solution to the long-standing debate over the electron paramagnetic resonance signal for gold in silicon. There is an excellent agreement (within 0.03 eV) between the well-established experimental donor and acceptor levels and the predicted stable charge state transition levels, allowing for the unambiguous assignment of the two experimental levels to the (1+/1-) and (1-/3-) transitions, respectively, in contrast to previously held assumptions about the system.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure