Adolescent Triangulation into Parental Conflicts: Longitudinal Implications for Appraisals and Adolescent-Parent Relations

Although triangulation into parental conflict is a risk factor for child and adolescent maladjustment, little is known about how triangulation affects adolescents’ functioning or the factors that lead children to be drawn into parental disagreements. This prospective study examined the relations between triangulation, appraisals of conflict, and parent-child relations in a sample of 171 adolescents, ages 14 to 19 years, at 2 time points. Cross-lagged path analyses revealed that youths who experienced greater threat in response to conflict reported increases in triangulation over time, and triangulation was associated with increased self-blame and diminished parent-adolescent relations. This study highlights links between intrapersonal, dyadic, and triadic processes and suggests a mechanism by which interparental discord spills over into parent-adolescent relations

Electromagnetic Lifshitz formula for small-width mirrors from functional determinants

We extend a recently proposed Quantum Field Theory (QFT) approach to the Lifshitz formula, originally implemented for a real scalar field, to the case of a fluctuating vacuum electromagnetic (EM) field, coupled to two flat, parallel mirrors. The general result is presented in terms of the invariants of the vacuum polarization tensors due to the media on each mirror. We consider mirrors that have small widths, with the zero-width limit as a particular case. We apply the latter to models involving graphene sheets, obtaining results which are consistent with previous ones.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figure

Emotional, Cognitive, and Family Systems Mediators of Children\u27s Adjustment to Interparental Conflict

Emotional, cognitive, and family systems processes have been identified as mediators of the association between interparental conflict and children\u27s adjustment. However, little is known about how they function in relation to one another because they have not all been assessed in the same study. This investigation examined the relations among children\u27s exposure to parental conflict, their appraisals of threat and blame, their emotional reaction, and triangulation into parental disagreements. One hundred fifty ethnically diverse 8- to 12-year-old children and both of their parents participated in the study. Comparisons of 3 models proposing different relations among these processes indicated that they function as parallel and independent mediators of children\u27s adjustment. Specifically, children\u27s self-blaming attributions and emotional distress were uniquely associated with both internalizing and externalizing problems, whereas perceived threat uniquely predicted internalizing problems and triangulation uniquely predicted externalizing problems

Dirichlet boundary conditions in a noncommutative theory

We study the problem of imposing Dirichlet-like boundary conditions along a static spatial curve, in a planar Noncommutative Quantum Field Theory model. After constructing interaction terms that impose the boundary conditions, we discuss their implementation at the level of an interacting theory, with a focus on their physical consequences, and the symmetries they preserve. We also derive the effect they have on certain observables, like the Casimir energies.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figure, pdflate

Non local parity transformations and anomalies

We present an alternative derivation of the parity anomaly for a massless Dirac field in 2+1 dimensions coupled to a gauge field. The anomaly functional, a Chern-Simons action for the gauge field, is obtained from the non-trivial Jacobian corresponding to a non local symmetry of the Pauli-Villars regularized action. That Jacobian is well-defined, finite, and yields the standard Chern-Simons term when the cutoff tends to infinity.Comment: 10 pages, Latex fil

Ambigüedad estratégica en contratos públicos de suministro

En este trabajo se presenta, sobre la base de un modelo de intercambio entre agentes privados de Douglas Bernheim y Michael Whinston (1998), un contrato típico de suministro entre el gobierno y una firma privada, en un contexto dinámico y sin renegociación. La firma debe realizar inversiones (observables, no verificables) para mejorar la calidad o para reducir costos o ambos tipos. Los resultados obtenidos por Bernheim, D. y M. Whinston se aplican cuando el comprador es el gobierno benevolente, siempre que valore por igual las utilidades de los agentes privados y la recaudación de impuestos para pagar el bien no distorsione la asignación de recursos en otros mercados. Cuando la firma debe realizar inversiones para reducir costos, el contrato incompleto que sólo especifica todas las variables verificables es óptimo; y cuando la firma debe realizar inversiones para mejorar la calidad, es óptimo un contrato incompleto por ambigüedad estratégica (no incluye todas las variables verificables). Sin embargo, cuando se incorpora el supuesto de que la inversión en reducción de costos disminuye la calidad del bien, el contrato incompleto tradicional no es óptimo y se alcanza el first best con uno incompleto por ambigüedad estratégica. Lo mismo sucede cuando se combinan ambos modelos y la firma debe realizar ambos tipos de inversión, afecte o no la inversión en reducción de costos el nivel de calidad.

Quantum dissipative effects in graphene-like mirrors

We study quantum dissipative effects due to the accelerated motion of a single, imperfect, zero-width mirror. It is assumed that the microscopic degrees of freedom on the mirror are confined to it, like in plasma or graphene sheets. Therefore, the mirror is described by a vacuum polarization tensor $\Pi_{\alpha\beta}$ concentrated on a time-dependent surface. Under certain assumptions about the microscopic model for the mirror, we obtain a rather general expression for the Euclidean effective action, a functional of the time-dependent mirror's position, in terms of two invariants that characterize the tensor $\Pi_{\alpha\beta}$. The final result can be written in terms of the TE and TM reflection coefficients of the mirror, with qualitatively different contributions coming from them. We apply that general expression to derive the imaginary part of the `in-out' effective action, which measures dissipative effects induced by the mirror's motion, in different models, in particular for an accelerated graphene sheet.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. Minor changes, version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Symmetries and exact solutions of the BPS Skyrme model

The BPS Skyrme model is a specific subclass of Skyrme-type field theories which possesses both a BPS bound and infinitely many soliton solutions (skyrmions) saturating that bound, a property that makes the model a very convenient first approximation to the study of some properties of nuclei and hadrons. A related property, the existence of a large group of symmetry transformations, allows for solutions of rather general shapes, among which some of them will be relevant to the description of physical nuclei. We study here the classical symmetries of the BPS Skyrme model, applying them to construct soliton solutions with some prescribed shapes, what constitutes a further important step for the reliable application of the model to strong interaction physics.Comment: Latex, 17 page