The occurrence and co-occurrences of ACEs and their relationship to mental health in the United States and Ireland

BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have various deleterious effects on mental health but few studies have been conducted in Ireland. The primary objective was to determine if there were significant differences in occurrences of ACEs in U.S. and Irish adults. We also sought to determine if there were unique associations between individual and multiple ACE events and mental health. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Preexisting nationally representative adult samples from the U.S. (n = 1893) and Ireland (n = 1020) were utilized for analysis. METHOD: To determine if there were significant differences in the occurrence of specific ACE events and the mean number of ACEs experienced by U.S. and Irish adults, chi-square difference tests and an independent samples t-test were used, respectively. Binary logistic regression was used to examine the unique associations between ACE events and major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and Complex PTSD (CPTSD). Nationality, sex, age, and educational level were included as covariates and adjusted odds ratios are reported. RESULTS: Irish respondents had a higher rate of ACEs, were more likely to experience specific ACEs, and to meet diagnostic requirements for MDD, GAD, and CPTSD than U.S. RESPONDENTS: Emotional neglect was more strongly related to mental health than all other ACEs, and there was an exceptionally strong dose-response association between ACEs and CPTSD. CONCLUSIONS: ACEs seem to be more common in Ireland than the U.S., and efforts to minimize exposure to ACEs through public policies may lead to beneficial mental health effects

Uncovering Bugs in Distributed Storage Systems during Testing (not in Production!)

Testing distributed systems is challenging due to multiple sources of nondeterminism. Conventional testing techniques, such as unit, integration and stress testing, are ineffective in preventing serious but subtle bugs from reaching production. Formal techniques, such as TLA+, can only verify high-level specifications of systems at the level of logic-based models, and fall short of checking the actual executable code. In this paper, we present a new methodology for testing distributed systems. Our approach applies advanced systematic testing techniques to thoroughly check that the executable code adheres to its high-level specifications, which significantly improves coverage of important system behaviors. Our methodology has been applied to three distributed storage systems in the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform. In the process, numerous bugs were identified, reproduced, confirmed and fixed. These bugs required a subtle combination of concurrency and failures, making them extremely difficult to find with conventional testing techniques. An important advantage of our approach is that a bug is uncovered in a small setting and witnessed by a full system trace, which dramatically increases the productivity of debugging

Matroid and Knapsack Center Problems

In the classic $k$-center problem, we are given a metric graph, and the objective is to open $k$ nodes as centers such that the maximum distance from any vertex to its closest center is minimized. In this paper, we consider two important generalizations of $k$-center, the matroid center problem and the knapsack center problem. Both problems are motivated by recent content distribution network applications. Our contributions can be summarized as follows: 1. We consider the matroid center problem in which the centers are required to form an independent set of a given matroid. We show this problem is NP-hard even on a line. We present a 3-approximation algorithm for the problem on general metrics. We also consider the outlier version of the problem where a given number of vertices can be excluded as the outliers from the solution. We present a 7-approximation for the outlier version. 2. We consider the (multi-)knapsack center problem in which the centers are required to satisfy one (or more) knapsack constraint(s). It is known that the knapsack center problem with a single knapsack constraint admits a 3-approximation. However, when there are at least two knapsack constraints, we show this problem is not approximable at all. To complement the hardness result, we present a polynomial time algorithm that gives a 3-approximate solution such that one knapsack constraint is satisfied and the others may be violated by at most a factor of $1+\epsilon$. We also obtain a 3-approximation for the outlier version that may violate the knapsack constraint by $1+\epsilon$.Comment: A preliminary version of this paper is accepted to IPCO 201

Popular matchings in the marriage and roommates problems

Popular matchings have recently been a subject of study in the context of the so-called House Allocation Problem, where the objective is to match applicants to houses over which the applicants have preferences. A matching M is called popular if there is no other matching M′ with the property that more applicants prefer their allocation in M′ to their allocation in M. In this paper we study popular matchings in the context of the Roommates Problem, including its special (bipartite) case, the Marriage Problem. We investigate the relationship between popularity and stability, and describe efficient algorithms to test a matching for popularity in these settings. We also show that, when ties are permitted in the preferences, it is NP-hard to determine whether a popular matching exists in both the Roommates and Marriage cases

Inner Speech during Silent Reading Reflects the Reader's Regional Accent

While reading silently, we often have the subjective experience of inner speech. However, there is currently little evidence regarding whether this inner voice resembles our own voice while we are speaking out loud. To investigate this issue, we compared reading behaviour of Northern and Southern English participants who have differing pronunciations for words like ‘glass’, in which the vowel duration is short in a Northern accent and long in a Southern accent. Participants' eye movements were monitored while they silently read limericks in which the end words of the first two lines (e.g., glass/class) would be pronounced differently by Northern and Southern participants. The final word of the limerick (e.g., mass/sparse) then either did or did not rhyme, depending on the reader's accent. Results showed disruption to eye movement behaviour when the final word did not rhyme, determined by the reader's accent, suggesting that inner speech resembles our own voice

High school boys' and girls' writing conceptions and writing self-efficacy beliefs : what is their role in writing performance?

ABSTRACT: This study investigated the conceptions about writing and writing self-efficacy beliefs held by high school students in relation to the students’ gender as well as their associations with writing achievement. The results show that female students have more sophisticated writing conceptions than their male counterparts but no gender differences were found in writing self-efficacy beliefs. In addition, results reveal that writing self-efficacy beliefs and gender play an important role in predicting writing performance and that writing performance is moderated by students’ writing conceptions. Educational implications and further research are discussed

How to improve the peer review method: Free-selection vs assigned-pair protocol evaluated in a computer networking course

This study provides field research evidence on the efficiency of a “free-selection” peer review assignment protocol as compared to the typically implemented “assigned-pair” protocol. The study employed 54 sophomore students who were randomly assigned into three groups: Assigned-Pair (AP) (the teacher assigns student works for review to student pairs), Free-Selection (FS) (students are allowed to freely explore and select peer work for review), and No Review (NR) (control group). AP and FS student groups studied and reviewed peer work in the domain of Computer Networking, supported by a web-based environment designed to facilitate the two peer review protocols. Our results indicate that students following the Free Selection protocol demonstrate (a) better domain learning outcomes, and (b) better reviewer skills, compared to the AP condition. Overall, the study analyzes the benefits and shortcomings of the FS vs AP review assignment protocol, providing evidence that the FS condition can be multiply beneficial to students who engage in peer review activities

Probable vertical transmission of Alpha variant of concern (B.1.1.7) with evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the syncytiotrophoblast, a case report

IntroductionDefinitive vertical transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has been rarely reported. We present a case of a third trimester pregnancy with fetal distress necessitating cesarean section that demonstrated maternal, placental, and infant infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant/B.1.1.7.MethodsCDC's Influenza SARS-CoV-2 Multiplex RT-PCR Assay was used to test for SARS-CoV-2 in a maternal NP swab, maternal plasma, infant NP swab, and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) placental tissue specimens. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) was performed on maternal plasma, infant, and placental specimens to determine the SARS-CoV-2 genotype. Histopathological evaluation, SARS-CoV-2 immunohistochemistry testing (IHC), and electron microscopy (EM) analysis were performed on placenta, umbilical cord, and membrane FFPE blocks.ResultsAll specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR. WGS further revealed identical SARS-CoV-2 sequences from clade 20I/501Y.V1 (lineage Alpha/B.1.1.7) in maternal plasma, infant, and placental specimens. Histopathologic evaluation of the placenta showed histiocytic and neutrophilic intervillositis with fibrin deposition and trophoblast necrosis with positive SARS-CoV-2 immunostaining in the syncytiotrophoblast and electron microscopy evidence of coronavirus.DiscussionThese findings suggest vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2, supported by clinical course timing, identical SARS-CoV-2 genotypes from maternal, placental, and infant samples, and IHC and EM evidence of placental infection. However, determination of the timing or distinction between prepartum and peripartum SARS-CoV-2 transmission remains unclear