Pilot Testing Behavior Therapy for Chronic Tic Disorders in Neurology and Developmental Pediatrics Clinics

Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT) is an efficacious treatment with limited regional availability. As neurology and pediatric clinics are often the first point of therapeutic contact for individuals with tics, the present study assessed preliminary treatment response, acceptability, and feasibility of an abbreviated version, modified for child neurology and developmental pediatrics clinics. Fourteen youth (9-17) with Tourette disorder across 2 child neurology clinics and one developmental pediatrics clinic participated in a small case series. Clinician-rated tic severity (Yale Global Tic Severity Scale) decreased from pre- to posttreatment, z = –2.0, P \u3c .05, r = –.48, as did tic-related impairment, z = –2.4, P \u3c .05, r = –.57. Five of the 9 completers (56%) were classified as treatment responders. Satisfaction ratings were high, and therapeutic alliance ratings were moderately high. Results provide guidance for refinement of this modified CBIT protocol

Ernst Freund as Precursor of the Rational Study of Corporate Law

Gindis, David, Ernst Freund as Precursor of the Rational Study of Corporate Law (October 27, 2017). Journal of Institutional Economics, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2905547, doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2905547The rise of large business corporations in the late 19th century compelled many American observers to admit that the nature of the corporation had yet to be understood. Published in this context, Ernst Freund's little-known The Legal Nature of Corporations (1897) was an original attempt to come to terms with a new legal and economic reality. But it can also be described, to paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes, as the earliest example of the rational study of corporate law. The paper shows that Freund had the intuitions of an institutional economist, and engaged in what today would be called comparative institutional analysis. Remarkably, his argument that the corporate form secures property against insider defection and against outsiders anticipated recent work on entity shielding and capital lock-in, and can be read as an early contribution to what today would be called the theory of the firm.Peer reviewe

Unified Structural Representation of the southern California crust and upper mantle

We present a new, 3D description of crust and upper mantle velocity structure in southern California implemented as a Unified Structural Representation (USR). The USR is comprised of detailed basin velocity descriptions that are based on tens of thousands of direct velocity (Vp, Vs) measurements and incorporates the locations and displacement of major fault zones that influence basin structure. These basin descriptions were used to developed tomographic models of crust and upper mantle velocity and density structure, which were subsequently iterated and improved using 3D waveform adjoint tomography. A geotechnical layer (GTL) based on Vs30 measurements and consistent with the underlying velocity descriptions was also developed as an optional model component. The resulting model provides a detailed description of the structure of the southern California crust and upper mantle that reflects the complex tectonic history of the region. The crust thickens eastward as Moho depth varies from 10 to 40 km reflecting the transition from oceanic to continental crust. Deep sedimentary basins and underlying areas of thin crust reflect Neogene extensional tectonics overprinted by transpressional deformation and rapid sediment deposition since the late Pliocene. To illustrate the impact of this complex structure on strong ground motion forecasting, we simulate rupture of a proposed M 7.9 earthquake source in the Western Transverse Ranges. The results show distinct basin amplification and focusing of energy that reflects crustal structure described by the USR that is not captured by simpler velocity descriptions. We anticipate that the USR will be useful for a broad range of simulation and modeling efforts, including strong ground motion forecasting, dynamic rupture simulations, and fault system modeling. The USR is available through the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) website (http://www.scec.org)

The United States COVID-19 Forecast Hub dataset

Academic researchers, government agencies, industry groups, and individuals have produced forecasts at an unprecedented scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. To leverage these forecasts, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with an academic research lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to create the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub. Launched in April 2020, the Forecast Hub is a dataset with point and probabilistic forecasts of incident cases, incident hospitalizations, incident deaths, and cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 at county, state, and national, levels in the United States. Included forecasts represent a variety of modeling approaches, data sources, and assumptions regarding the spread of COVID-19. The goal of this dataset is to establish a standardized and comparable set of short-term forecasts from modeling teams. These data can be used to develop ensemble models, communicate forecasts to the public, create visualizations, compare models, and inform policies regarding COVID-19 mitigation. These open-source data are available via download from GitHub, through an online API, and through R packages

Subcortical brain volume, regional cortical thickness, and cortical surface area across disorders: findings from the ENIGMA ADHD, ASD, and OCD Working Groups

Objective Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are common neurodevelopmental disorders that frequently co-occur. We aimed to directly compare all three disorders. The ENIGMA consortium is ideally positioned to investigate structural brain alterations across these disorders. Methods Structural T1-weighted whole-brain MRI of controls (n=5,827) and patients with ADHD (n=2,271), ASD (n=1,777), and OCD (n=2,323) from 151 cohorts worldwide were analyzed using standardized processing protocols. We examined subcortical volume, cortical thickness and surface area differences within a mega-analytical framework, pooling measures extracted from each cohort. Analyses were performed separately for children, adolescents, and adults using linear mixed-effects models adjusting for age, sex and site (and ICV for subcortical and surface area measures). Results We found no shared alterations among all three disorders, while shared alterations between any two disorders did not survive multiple comparisons correction. Children with ADHD compared to those with OCD had smaller hippocampal volumes, possibly influenced by IQ. Children and adolescents with ADHD also had smaller ICV than controls and those with OCD or ASD. Adults with ASD showed thicker frontal cortices compared to adult controls and other clinical groups. No OCD-specific alterations across different age-groups and surface area alterations among all disorders in childhood and adulthood were observed. Conclusion Our findings suggest robust but subtle alterations across different age-groups among ADHD, ASD, and OCD. ADHD-specific ICV and hippocampal alterations in children and adolescents, and ASD-specific cortical thickness alterations in the frontal cortex in adults support previous work emphasizing neurodevelopmental alterations in these disorders

A method for dynamic earthquake rupture simulation with applications to a large Southern San Andreas scenario

Given the scarcity of near-source recordings for large earthquakes, numerical simulations play an important roll in the prediction of possible ground motion from future events. Simulations also give insight to physical processes of fault rupture that are difficult or impossible to empirically measure. In this dissertation I develop a numerical method to simulate spontaneous shear crack propagation within a heterogeneous, three- dimensional, viscoelastic medium. The implementation is highly scalable, enabling large scale, multi-processor calculations. Wave motions are computed on a logically rectangular hexahedral mesh, using the generalized finite difference method of Support Operators. This approach enables the modeling on nonplanar boundaries, as well as nonplanar ruptures. Computations are second-order in space and time. Stiffness and viscous hourglass corrections are employed to suppress suppress zero-energy grid oscillation modes. Model boundaries may be reflective or absorbing, where absorbing boundaries are handled using the method of perfectly matched layers (PML). Three well known test problems are used to verify various aspects of the numerical method: wave propagation in a layered medium; surface amplification due to a semi-cylindrical canyon; and spontaneous rupture of a rectangular fault. Tests are repeated with varying amounts of simple shear deformation of the mesh. Sufficient accuracy is preserved under high- angle mesh shearing to permit modeling of thrust- earthquake geometries. The method is used to simulate a large (M[omega]7.6) earthquake scenarios along the southern San Andreas fault, using a piecewise planar fault representation and true topography of the ground surface. The crustal velocity structure is taken from the Southern California Earthquake Center Community Velocity Model (SCEC-CVM), which is currently the most complete three- dimensional model available for the region. Heterogeneous initial traction conditions are derived from an inversion of the M7.3 1992 Landers strong ground motion records. Heterogeneity in the traction model leads to focusing of the rupture front, in many cases producing super-shear rupture velocity in areas of high initial traction (asperities). Focusing sometimes occurs between the asperities, with the notable result that highest peak slip rates occur in areas of low initial traction. The overall distribution of simulated peak ground velocities is consistent with those derived from the current empirical models, with some important deviations associated with basin wave-guide and directivity effect

A support-operator method for viscoelastic wave modelling in 3-D heterogeneous media

We apply the method of support operators (SOM) to solve the 3-D, viscoelastic equations of motion for use in earthquake simulations. SOM is a generalized finite-difference method that can utilize meshes of arbitrary structure and incorporate irregular geometry. Our implementation uses a 3-D, logically rectangular, hexahedral mesh. Calculations are second-order in space and time. A correction term is employed for suppression of spurious zero-energy modes (hourglass oscillations). We develop a free surface boundary condition, and an absorbing boundary condition using the method of perfectly matched layers (PML). Numerical tests using a layered material model in a highly deformed mesh show good agreement with the frequency-wavenumber method, for resolutions greater than 10 nodes per wavelength. We also test a vertically incident P wave on a semi-circular canyon, for which results match boundary integral solutions at resolutions greater that 20 nodes per wavelength. We also demonstrate excellent parallel scalability of our code