Neighborhood Features and Physiological Risk: An Examination of Allostatic Load

Poor neighborhoods may represent a situation of chronic stress, and may therefore be associated with health-related correlates of stress. We examined whether lower neighborhood income would relate to higher allostatic load, or physiological well-being, through psychological, affective, and behavioral pathways. Using data from the Biomarker Project of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study and the 2000 Census, we demonstrated that people living in lower income neighborhoods have higher allostatic load net of individual income. Moreover, findings indicate that this relation is partially accounted for by anxious arousal symptoms, fast food consumption, smoking, and exercise habits

Relationships between minimum alcohol pricing and crime during the partial privatization of a Canadian government alcohol monopoly

Objective: The purpose of this study was to estimate the independent effects of increases in minimum alcohol prices and densities of private liquor stores on crime outcomes in British Columbia, Canada, during a partial privatization of off-premise liquor sales. Method: A time-series cross-sectional panel study was conducted using mixed model regression analysis to explore associations between minimum alcohol prices, densities of liquor outlets, and crime outcomes across 89 local health areas of British Columbia between 2002 and 2010. Archival data on minimum alcohol prices, per capita alcohol outlet densities, and ecological demographic characteristics were related to measures of crimes against persons, alcohol-related traffic violations, and non–alcohol- related traffic violations. Analyses were adjusted for temporal and regional autocorrelation. Results: A 10% increase in provincial minimum alcohol prices was associated with an 18.81% (95% CI: ±17.99%, p < .05) reduction in alcohol-related traffic violations, a 9.17% (95% CI: ±5.95%, p < .01) reduction in crimes against persons, and a 9.39% (95% CI: ±3.80%, p < .001) reduction in total rates of crime outcomes examined. There was no significant association between minimum alcohol prices and non–alcohol-related traffic violations (p < .05). Densities of private liquor stores were not significantly associated with alcohol involved traffic violations or crimes against persons, though they were with non–alcohol-related traffic violations. Conclusions: Reductions in crime events associated with minimum-alcohol-price changes were more substantial and specific to alcohol-related events than the countervailing increases in densities of private liquor stores. The findings lend further support to the application of minimum alcohol prices for public health and safety objectives

Perceived Neighborhood Cohesion Buffers COVID-19 Impacts on Mental Health in a United States Sample

Objective This study examined whether perceived neighborhood cohesion (the extent to which neighbors trust and count on one another) buffers against the mental health effects of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Methods The XXX University National COVID-19 and Mental Health Study surveyed US adults (N = 3965; M age = 39 years), measuring depressive symptoms, staying home more during than before the 2020 pandemic, and perceived neighborhood cohesion. Results A series of linear regressions indicated that perceiving one\u27s neighborhood as more cohesive was not only associated with fewer depressive symptoms, but also attenuated the relationship between spending more time at home during the pandemic and depressive symptoms. These relationships persisted even after taking into account several individual-level sociodemographic characteristics as well as multiple contextual features, i.e., median household income, population density, and racial/ethnic diversity of the zip codes in which participants resided. Conclusions Neighborhood cohesion may be leveraged to mitigate pandemic impacts on depressive symptoms

Four-Fermion Production in Electron-Positron Collisions

This report summarises the results of the four-fermion working group of the LEP2-MC workshop, held at CERN from 1999 to 2000. Recent developments in the calculation of four-fermion processes in electron-positron collisions at LEP-2 centre-of-mass energies are presented, concentrating on predictions for four main reactions: W-pair production, visible photons in four-fermion events, single-W production and Z-pair production. Based on a comparison of results derived within different approaches, theoretical uncertainties on these predictions are established.Comment: 150 pages, 73 figures, 45 table

Two-Fermion Production in Electron-Positron Collisions

This report summarizes the results of the two-fermion working group of the LEP2-MC workshop, held at CERN from 1999 to 2000. Recent developments in the theoretical calculations of the two fermion production process in the electron-positron collision at LEP2 center of the mass energies are reported. The Bhabha process and the production of muon, tau, neutrino and quark pairs is covered. On the basis of comparison of various calculations, theoretical uncertainties are estimated and compared with those needed for the final LEP2 data analysis. The subjects for the further studies are identified.Comment: 2-fermion working group report of the LEP2 Monte Carlo Workshop 1999/2000, 113 pages, 24 figures, 35 table

Electronic and Optical Properties of La-Doped Sr\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3eIr\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3eO\u3csub\u3e7\u3c/sub\u3e Epitaxial Thin Films

We have investigated structural, transport, and optical properties of tensile strained (Sr1−xLax)3Ir2O7 (x = 0, 0.025, 0.05) epitaxial thin films. While high-Tc superconductivity is predicted theoretically in the system, we have observed that all of the samples remain insulating with finite optical gap energies and Mott variable-range hopping characteristics in transport. Cross-sectional scanning transmission electron microscopy indicates that structural defects such as stacking faults appear in this system. The insulating behavior of the La-doped Sr3Ir2O7 thin films is presumably due to disorder-induced localization and ineffective electron doping of La, which brings to light the intriguing difference between epitaxial thin films and bulk single crystals of the iridates

The influence of anesthetics, neurotransmitters and antibiotics on the relaxation processes in lipid membranes

In the proximity of melting transitions of artificial and biological membranes fluctuations in enthalpy, area, volume and concentration are enhanced. This results in domain formation, changes of the elastic constants, changes in permeability and slowing down of relaxation processes. In this study we used pressure perturbation calorimetry to investigate the relaxation time scale after a jump into the melting transition regime of artificial lipid membranes. This time corresponds to the characteristic rate of domain growth. The studies were performed on single-component large unilamellar and multilamellar vesicle systems with and without the addition of small molecules such as general anesthetics, neurotransmitters and antibiotics. These drugs interact with membranes and affect melting points and profiles. In all systems we found that heat capacity and relaxation times are related to each other in a simple manner. The maximum relaxation time depends on the cooperativity of the heat capacity profile and decreases with a broadening of the transition. For this reason the influence of a drug on the time scale of domain formation processes can be understood on the basis of their influence on the heat capacity profile. This allows estimations of the time scale of domain formation processes in biological membranes.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Enhanced Metallic Properties of SrRuO\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e Thin Films via Kinetically Controlled Pulsed Laser Epitaxy

Metal electrodes are a universal element of all electronic devices. Conducting SrRuO3 (SRO) epitaxial thin films have been extensively used as electrodes in complex-oxide heterostructures due to good lattice mismatches with perovskite substrates. However, when compared to SRO single crystals, SRO thin films have shown reduced conductivity and Curie temperatures (TC), which can lead to higher Joule heating and energy loss in the devices. Here, we report that high-quality SRO thin films can be synthesized by controlling the plume dynamics and growth rate of pulsed laser epitaxy (PLE) with real-time optical spectroscopic monitoring. The SRO thin films grown under the kinetically controlled conditions, down to ca. 16 nm in thickness, exhibit both enhanced conductivity and TC as compared to bulk values, due to their improved stoichiometry and a strain-mediated increase of the bandwidth of Ru 4d electrons. This result provides a direction for enhancing the physical properties of PLE-grown thin films and paves a way to improved device applications

Enhanced Metallic Properties of SrRuO\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e Thin Films via Kinetically Controlled Pulsed Laser Epitaxy

Metal electrodes are a universal element of all electronic devices. Conducting SrRuO3 (SRO) epitaxial thin films have been extensively used as electrodes in complex-oxide heterostructures due to good lattice mismatches with perovskite substrates. However, when compared to SRO single crystals, SRO thin films have shown reduced conductivity and Curie temperatures (TC), which can lead to higher Joule heating and energy loss in the devices. Here, we report that high-quality SRO thin films can be synthesized by controlling the plume dynamics and growth rate of pulsed laser epitaxy (PLE) with real-time optical spectroscopic monitoring. The SRO thin films grown under the kinetically controlled conditions, down to ca. 16 nm in thickness, exhibit both enhanced conductivity and TC as compared to bulk values, due to their improved stoichiometry and a strain-mediated increase of the bandwidth of Ru 4d electrons. This result provides a direction for enhancing the physical properties of PLE-grown thin films and paves a way to improved device applications