School readiness among children with behavior problems at entrance into kindergarten: results from a US national study.

PubMed

Montes, Guillermo; Lotyczewski, Bohdan S; Halterman, Jill S; Hightower, Alan D

2012-03-01

The impact of behavior problems on kindergarten readiness is not known. Our objective was to estimate the association between behavior problems and kindergarten readiness on a US national sample. In the US educational system, kindergarten is a natural point of entry into formal schooling at age 5 because fewer than half of the children enter kindergarten with prior formal preschool education. Parents of 1,200 children who were scheduled to enter kindergarten for the first time and were members of the Harris Interactive online national panel were surveyed. We defined behavior problems as an affirmative response to the question, "Has your child ever had behavior problems?" We validated this against attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnosis, scores on a reliable socioemotional scale, and child's receipt of early intervention services. We used linear, tobit, and logistic regression analyses to estimate the association between having behavior problems and scores in reliable scales of motor, play, speech and language, and school skills and an overall kindergarten readiness indicator. The sample included 176 children with behavior problems for a national prevalence of 14% (confidence interval, 11.5-17.5). Children with behavior problems were more likely to be male and live in households with lower income and parental education. We found that children with behavior problems entered kindergarten with lower speech and language, motor, play, and school skills, even after controlling for demographics and region. Delays were 0.6-1 SD below scores of comparable children without behavior problems. Parents of children with behavior problems were 5.2 times more likely to report their child was not ready for kindergarten. Childhood behavior problems are associated with substantial delays in motor, language, play, school, and socioemotional skills before entrance into kindergarten. Early screening and intervention is recommended.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Parents of Young Children with Developmental Delays: Implications for Parental Mental Health and Child Behavior Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neece, Cameron L.

2014-01-01

Background: Parents of children with developmental delays (DD) typically report elevated levels of parental stress compared with parents of typically developing children. Children with DD are also at high risk for exhibiting significant behaviour problems. Parental stress has been shown to impact the development of these behaviour problems;…

Parenting Stress and Child Behavior Problems: A Transactional Relationship Across Time

PubMed Central

Neece, Cameron L.; Green, Shulamite A.; Baker, Bruce L.

2016-01-01

Parenting stress and child behavior problems have been posited to have a transactional effect on each other across development. However, few studies have tested this model empirically. The authors investigated the relationship between parenting stress and child behavior problems from ages 3 to 9 years old among 237 children, 144 of whom were typically developing and 93 who were identified as developmentally delayed. Behavior problems and parenting stress covaried significantly across time for both groups of children. Cross-lagged panel analyses generally supported a bidirectional relationship between parenting stress and child behavior problems for mothers and fathers. PMID:22264112

Brief Report: The Relationship between Language Skills, Adaptive Behavior, and Emotional and Behavior Problems in Pre-Schoolers with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Carlie J.; Yelland, Gregory W.; Taffe, John R.; Gray, Kylie M.

2012-01-01

This study investigated the relationship between structural language skills, and communication skills, adaptive behavior, and emotional and behavior problems in pre-school children with autism. Participants were aged 3-5 years with autism (n = 27), and two comparison groups of children with developmental delay without autism (n = 12) and typically…

Sleep Problems and Early Developmental Delay: Implications for Early Intervention Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonuck, Karen; Grant, Roy

2012-01-01

Sleep disorders negatively impact behavior, cognition, and growth--the same areas targeted by early intervention. Conversely, developmental delays and disabilities may themselves precipitate sleep disorders. Young children with developmental delays experience sleep disorders at a higher rate than do typically developing children; the most common…

Family Stress and Children's Language and Behavior Problems: Results from the National Survey of Children's Health

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Long, Carolyn E.; Gurka, Matthew J.; Blackman, James A.

2008-01-01

The impact of language delays and behavior problems in young children on family function was assessed using data from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health. Over 50% of parents who reported concerns regarding their children's language skills also reported concerns regarding their children's behavior. Although parents reported increased…

Prader-Willi-like phenotype: investigation of 1p36 deletion in 41 patients with delayed psychomotor development, hypotonia, obesity and/or hyperphagia, learning disabilities and behavioral problems.

PubMed

D'Angelo, Carla S; Da Paz, José A; Kim, Chong A; Bertola, Débora R; Castro, Claudia I E; Varela, Monica C; Koiffmann, Célia P

2006-01-01

Monosomy 1p36 is one of the most commonly observed mental retardation (MR) syndromes that results in a clinically recognizable phenotype including delayed psychomotor development and/or MR, hypotonia, epilepsy, hearing loss, growth delay, microcephaly, deep-set eyes, flat nasal bridge and pointed chin. Besides, a Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS)-like phenotype has been described in patients with 1p36 monosomy. Forty-one patients presenting hypotonia, developmental delay, obesity and/or hyperphagia and behavioral problems who tested negative for PWS were investigated by FISH and/or microsatellite markers. Twenty-six were analyzed with a 1p-specific subtelomeric probe, and one terminal deletion was identified. Thirty patients (15 of which also studied by FISH) were investigated by microsatellite markers, and no interstitial 1p36 deletion was found. Our patient presenting the 1p36 deletion did not have the striking features of this monosomy, but her clinical and behavioral features were quite similar to those observed in patients with PWS, except for the presence of normal sucking at birth. The extent of the deletion could be limited to the most terminal 2.5 Mb of 1p36, within the chromosomal region 1p36.33-1p36.32, that is smaller than usually seen in monosomy 1p36 patients. Therefore, chromosome 1p36.33 deletion should be investigated in patients with hypotonia, developmental delay, obesity and/or hyperphagia and behavioral problems who test negative for PWS.

The Comprehension and Use of Self-Control Strategies for Delay Tolerance in Adjusted and Behaviorally-Disordered Kindergarten Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gallagher, Richard

In order to investigate the relationship between problems in behavioral control and children's capacity to utilize mediational strategies for self control, the responses of a group of disruptive (N=20) and nondisruptive (N=20) kindergarten children were compared in their approach to delay of gratification tasks. Subjects were compared on three…

Cognitive Delay and Behavior Problems Prior to School Age

PubMed Central

Palta, Mari; Kotelchuck, Milton; Poehlmann, Julie; Witt, Whitney P.

2014-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between cognitive delay (CD) and behavior problems between ages 9 months and 5 years, while adjusting for covariates related to CD. METHODS: Data were from 4 waves of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (n = 8000). Children were classified as typically developing (TD) or as having resolved, newly developed, or persistent CD between 9 and 24 months, based on scores from the Bayley Short Form-Research Edition below or above the 10th percentile. Child behavior was measured by using the Infant/Toddler Symptom Checklist (ages 9 and 24 months) and the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales (ages 4 and 5 years); children in the top 10th percentile were considered to have a behavior problem. Hierarchical linear modeling estimated the effect of CD status on children’s behavioral trajectories, adjusted for confounders. RESULTS: CD resolved for 80.3% of children between 9 and 24 months. Behavior problems at 24 months were detected in 19.3%, 21.8%, and 35.5% of children with resolved, newly developed, and persistent CD, respectively, versus 13.0% of TD children. Behavior problems increased among children with CD over time, and more so among children with persistent CD. By age 5, children with persistent CD had behavior scores moderately (0.59 SD) higher than TD children. CONCLUSIONS: Behavior problems among children with CD are slightly higher at 9 months, clearly evident by 24 months, and increase as children move toward school age. Efforts to promote the earliest identification, evaluation, and service referral may be necessary to improve outcomes for these children. PMID:25113290

ADHD-related symptoms, emotional/behavioral problems, and physical conditions in Taiwanese children with epilepsy.

PubMed

Tsai, Fang-Ju; Liu, Shu-Tsen; Lee, Chi-Mei; Lee, Wang-Tso; Fan, Pi-Chuan; Lin, Wei-Sheng; Chiu, Yen-Nan; Gau, Susan Shur-Fen

2013-07-01

Little is known about whether Asian children with epilepsy have more attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-related symptoms, emotional/ behavioral problems, and physical conditions compared with those described in Western studies. The authors investigated the rates of ADHD-related symptoms, emotional/behavioral problems, and physical conditions among pediatric patients with epilepsy. We recruited 61 patients with epilepsy, aged 6-16 years, and 122 age-, sex-, and parental education-matched school controls. Data on demographics, parental reports on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham, version IV scale (SNAP-IV), and medical records were collected. The average full-scale intelligence quotient of the case group was 95.8. There were 11 (18.0%), 7 (11.5%), 26 (42.6%), and 26 (42.6%) of children with epilepsy ever clinically diagnosed with developmental delay, overt ADHD symptoms, allergies reported by physicians, and behavior problems measured by the CBCL, respectively. Those children with epilepsy had more severe ADHD-related symptoms and a wider range of emotional/behavioral problems than controls (Cohen's d 0.36-0.80). The rate of potential cases of ADHD among children with epilepsy was 24.6%. A history of developmental delay predicted ADHD- related symptoms and internalizing and externalizing problems. Among children with epilepsy, a longer duration of treatment with antiepileptic drugs predicted externalizing problems, and an earlier onset of epilepsy predicted inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. Our findings imply that clinicians should assess physical and emotional/behavioral problems among children with epilepsy in order to provide interventions to offset possible adverse psychiatric outcomes. Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Analysis of Navy Delayed Entry Program and Recruit Training Center Attrition

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-06-01

training which are not consistent with military service (e.g., sleepwalking , suicidal behavior, bedwetting). "Screen" encompasses the prior problems...Non-Academic Psych-Personality Disorder I Behavior 193 Non-Academic Psych-Enuresis I Behavior 194 Non-Academic Psych- Sleepwalk I Behavior 43

Preadoption adversity and long-term clinical-range behavior problems in adopted Chinese girls.

PubMed

Tan, Tony Xing; Camras, Linda A; Kim, Eun Sook

2016-04-01

In this study, we report findings on the role of preadoption adversity on long-term clinical-range problems in adopted Chinese girls. Four waves (2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011) of problem behavior data on 1,223 adopted Chinese girls (M = 4.86 years, SD = 2.82 in 2005) were collected from the adoptive mothers with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). At Wave 1 (2005), data on the following indicators of preadoption adversity was collected: age at adoption, physical signs/symptoms (e.g., sores) of preadoption adversity, developmental delays at arrival, refusal/avoidance behaviors and crying/clinging behaviors toward adoptive parents during the first 3 weeks of adoption. We found that the percentage of clinical-range internalizing problems was 11.1%, 16.5%, 11.3%, and 16.1% at Wave 1, Wave 2, Wave 3, and Wave 4, respectively; the corresponding percentage of clinical-range externalizing problems was 8.4%, 10.5%, 8.4% and 9.9% respectively; and the corresponding percentage of clinical-range total CBCL problems was 9.3%, 13.0%, 9.8% and 12.6% respectively. Analyses with Mplus showed that controlling for demographic variables, indicators of preadoption adversity, except age at adoption, increased the odds for clinical-range behavior problems. Longitudinal path models revealed that controlling for demographic variables and the children's adjustment status in the previous wave, refusal/avoidance remained significant in predicting clinical-range internalizing, externalizing and total CBCL problems at Wave 2, delays at arrival and signs/symptoms were significant in predicting clinical-range internalizing problems at Wave 3. Overall, adoptees with clinical-range CBCL problems in earlier waves were 9-28 times as likely to show clinical-range CBCL problems in subsequent waves. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Brief Report: Effects of Pressure Vest Usage on Engagement and Problem Behaviors of a Young Child with Developmental Delays

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reichow, Brian; Barton, Erin E.; Good, Leslie; Wolery, Mark

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of wearing a pressure vest for a young boy with developmental delays. An A-B-A withdrawal design was used to examine the relation between wearing the pressure vest and child behaviors during a preschool art activity. Although the data showed moderate variability, no systematic differences were…

Recreating the Scene: An Effective Way to Provide Delayed Punishment for Inappropriate Motor Behavior.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Houten, Ron; Rolider, Ahmos

1988-01-01

A mediated punishment procedure that involved recreating a behavioral sequence by guiding the subject through the behavior in the situation in which it occurred was used to suppress several severe behavior problems in two severely handicapped children (ages 4 and 17). (Author/DB)

Barriers to Success in Parent Training for Young Children with Developmental Delay: The Role of Cumulative Risk

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bagner, Daniel M.; Graziano, Paulo A.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of cumulative risk on dropout and treatment outcome in parent training. Participants were 44 families of young children (mean age of 49.59 months) who presented with elevated externalizing behavior problems and developmental delay or borderline developmental delay. All families were offered to…

Gambling, Delay, and Probability Discounting in Adults With and Without ADHD.

PubMed

Dai, Zhijie; Harrow, Sarah-Eve; Song, Xianwen; Rucklidge, Julia J; Grace, Randolph C

2016-11-01

We investigated the relationship between impulsivity, as measured by delay and probability discounting, and gambling-related cognitions and behavior in adults with and without ADHD. Adults who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM-IV) diagnostic criteria for ADHD (n = 31) and controls (n = 29) were recruited from the community. All completed an interview that included an assessment of psychiatric disorders, gambling questionnaires, and simulated gambling, delay, and probability discounting tasks. The ADHD group was more likely to meet the criteria for problem gambling and was more impulsive than controls based on a composite discounting measure. ADHD symptoms were correlated with gambling-related cognitions and behavior. Probability, but not delay discounting, explained significant variance in gambling-related measures after controlling for ADHD symptoms. Results confirm an association between adult ADHD and gambling, and suggest that the facets of impulsivity related to risk proneness may be an independent risk factor for problem gambling in this population. © The Author(s) 2013.

An Examination of Specific Child Behavior Problems as Predictors of Parenting Stress among Families of Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Allyson L.; Neece, Cameron L.

2017-01-01

Introduction: Studies have shown that parents of children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) exhibit higher levels of stress than parents of typically developing children or children with other types of developmental delays (DD). This relationship appears to be mediated by elevated levels of behavior problems observed in children with…

Response inhibition difficulties in preterm children aged 9-12 years: Relations with emotion and behavior.

PubMed

Réveillon, Morgane; Borradori Tolsa, Cristina; Monnier, Maryline; Hüppi, Petra S; Barisnikov, Koviljka

2016-01-01

Previous studies with children have demonstrated inhibition difficulties associated with prematurity, but the question of potentially catching up with a delay in inhibition processes before adolescence still remains. Moreover, preterm adolescents are more at risk than their term-born peers for presenting behavioral problems such as emotional difficulties and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In addition to examining response inhibition, this study addressed, for the first time, the impact of an emotional context on response inhibition abilities and its relation to behavioral problems in late school-aged preterm children. Fifty-eight preterm children aged 9-12 years were compared with 61 controls on two versions of a stop-signal task, the Delay Frustration Task, and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Results showed general difficulties in inhibiting a response, rather than a specific impact of emotional context in preterm children. Compared with controls, these children exhibited more and longer button presses in a delay situation, as well as faster go reaction times associated with lower probability of inhibition in the stop-signal tasks. These difficulties reflected impulsivity and were associated with higher hyperactivity/inattention and conduct problems. Additionally, intrauterine growth restriction was found to be an additional perinatal risk factor for hyperactivity/inattention symptoms. These findings suggest that remaining inhibition difficulties in the preterm population at preadolescence could reveal increasing behavioral issues.

Providing Alternative Reinforcers to Facilitate Tolerance to Delayed Reinforcement Following Functional Communication Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Austin, Jillian E.; Tiger, Jeffrey H.

2015-01-01

The earliest stages of functional communication training (FCT) involve providing immediate and continuous reinforcement for a communicative response (FCR) that is functionally equivalent to the targeted problem behavior. However, maintaining immediate reinforcement is not practical, and the introduction of delays is associated with increased…

Modulating resonance behaviors by noise recycling in bistable systems with time delay

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sun, Zhongkui, E-mail: sunzk2008@gmail.com; Xu, Wei; Yang, Xiaoli

In this paper, the impact of noise recycling on resonance behaviors is studied theoretically and numerically in a prototypical bistable system with delayed feedback. According to the interior cooperating and interacting activity of noise recycling, a theory has been proposed by reducing the non-Markovian problem into a two-state model, wherein both the master equation and the transition rates depend on not only the current state but also the earlier two states due to the recycling lag and the feedback delay. By virtue of this theory, the formulae of the power spectrum density and the linear response function have been foundmore » analytically. And the theoretical results are well verified by numerical simulations. It has been demonstrated that both the recycling lag and the feedback delay play a crucial role in the resonance behaviors. In addition, the results also suggest an alternative scheme to modulate or control the coherence or stochastic resonance in bistable systems with time delay.« less

The Impact of Competing Time Delays in Stochastic Coordination Problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Korniss, G.; Hunt, D.; Szymanski, B. K.

2011-03-01

Coordinating, distributing, and balancing resources in coupled systems is a complex task as these operations are very sensitive to time delays. Delays are present in most real communication and information systems, including info-social and neuro-biological networks, and can be attributed to both non-zero transmission times between different units of the system and to non-zero times it takes to process the information and execute the desired action at the individual units. Here, we investigate the importance and impact of these two types of delays in a simple coordination (synchronization) problem in a noisy environment. We establish the scaling theory for the phase boundary of synchronization and for the steady-state fluctuations in the synchronizable regime. Further, we provide the asymptotic behavior near the boundary of the synchronizable regime. Our results also imply the potential for optimization and trade-offs in stochastic synchronization and coordination problems with time delays. Supported in part by DTRA, ARL, and ONR.

Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for Specific Phobias with a Child Demonstrating Severe Problem Behavior and Developmental Delays

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Thompson E., III; Kurtz, Patricia F.; Gardner, Andrew W.; Carman, Nicole B.

2007-01-01

Cognitive-behavioral treatments (CBTs) are widely used for anxiety disorders in typically developing children; however, there has been no previous attempt to administer CBT for specific phobia (in this case study, one-session treatment) to developmentally or intellectually disabled children. This case study integrates both cognitive-behavioral and…

A Mechanism for Reducing Delay Discounting by Altering Temporal Attention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Radu, Peter T.; Yi, Richard; Bickel, Warren K.; Gross, James J.; McClure, Samuel M.

2011-01-01

Rewards that are not immediately available are discounted compared to rewards that are immediately available. The more a person discounts a delayed reward, the more likely that person is to have a range of behavioral problems, including clinical disorders. This latter observation has motivated the search for ions that reduce discounting. One…

Development and Validation of the Delaying Gratification Inventory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoerger, Michael; Quirk, Stuart W.; Weed, Nathan C.

2011-01-01

Deficits in gratification delay are associated with a broad range of public health problems, such as obesity, risky sexual behavior, and substance abuse. However, 6 decades of research on the construct has progressed less quickly than might be hoped, largely because of measurement issues. Although past research has implicated 5 domains of delay…

Determinants of choice, and vulnerability and recovery in addiction.

PubMed

Lamb, R J; Maguire, David R; Ginsburg, Brett C; Pinkston, Jonathan W; France, Charles P

2016-06-01

Addiction may be viewed as choice governed by competing contingencies. One factor impacting choice, particularly as it relates to addiction, is sensitivity to delayed rewards. Discounting of delayed rewards influences addiction vulnerability because of competition between relatively immediate gains of drug use, e.g. intoxication, versus relatively remote gains of abstinence, e.g. family stability. Factors modifying delay sensitivity can be modeled in the laboratory. For instance, increased delay sensitivity can be similarly observed in adolescent humans and non-human animals. Similarly, genetic factors influence delay sensitivity in humans and animals. Recovery from addiction may also be viewed as choice behavior. Thus, reinforcing alternative behavior facilitates recovery because reinforcing alternative behavior decreases the frequency of using drugs. How reinforcing alternative behavior influences recovery can also be modeled in the laboratory. For instance, relapse risk decreases as abstinence duration increases, and this decreasing risk can be modeled in animals using choice procedures. In summary, addiction in many respects can be conceptualized as a problem of choice. Animal models of choice disorders stand to increase our understanding of the core processes that establish and maintain addiction and serve as a proving ground for development of novel treatments. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Determinants of choice, and vulnerability and recovery in addiction

PubMed Central

Lamb, R.J.; Maguire, David R.; Ginsburg, Brett C.; Pinkston, Jonathan W.; France, Charles P.

2016-01-01

Addiction may be viewed as choice governed by competing contingencies. One factor impacting choice, particularly as it relates to addiction, is sensitivity to delayed rewards. Discounting of delayed rewards influences addiction vulnerability because of competition between relatively immediate gains of drug use, e.g. intoxication, versus relatively remote gains of abstinence, e.g. family stability. Factors modifying delay sensitivity can be modeled in the laboratory. For instance, increased delay sensitivity can be similarly observed in adolescent humans and non-human animals. Similarly, genetic factors influence delay sensitivity in humans and animals. Recovery from addiction may also be viewed as choice behavior. Thus, reinforcing alternative behavior facilitates recovery because reinforcing alternative behavior decreases the frequency of using drugs. How reinforcing alternative behavior influences recovery can also be modeled in the laboratory. For instance, relapse risk decreases as abstinence duration increases, and this decreasing risk can be modeled in animals using choice procedures. In summary, addiction in many respects can be conceptualized as a problem of choice. Animal models of choice disorders stand to increase our understanding of the core processes that establish and maintain addiction and serve as a proving ground for development of novel treatments. PMID:27083500

A Preliminary Analysis of Self-Control with Aversive Events: the Effects of Task Magnitude and Delay on the Choices of Children with Autism

PubMed Central

Lerman, Dorothea C; Addison, Laura R; Kodak, Tiffany

2006-01-01

When faced with a choice between two aversive events, a person exhibits self-control by choosing a smaller, more immediate aversive event over a larger, delayed aversive event. Task demands are often aversive to children with autism and other developmental disabilities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate behavioral sensitivity to differences in the amount and delay of tasks as part of a preliminary study on self-control. Participants were 2 children with autism who engaged in problem behavior maintained by escape. Results indicated a lack of self-control with respect to choosing between two aversive tasks and suggested potential strategies for increasing self-control (i.e., choosing a small immediate task over a large delayed task). PMID:16813043

A preliminary analysis of self-control with aversive events: the effects of task magnitude and delay on the choices of children with autism.

PubMed

Lerman, Dorothea C; Addison, Laura R; Kodak, Tiffany

2006-01-01

When faced with a choice between two aversive events, a person exhibits self-control by choosing a smaller, more immediate aversive event over a larger, delayed aversive event. Task demands are often aversive to children with autism and other developmental disabilities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate behavioral sensitivity to differences in the amount and delay of tasks as part of a preliminary study on self-control. Participants were 2 children with autism who engaged in problem behavior maintained by escape. Results indicated a lack of self-control with respect to choosing between two aversive tasks and suggested potential strategies for increasing self-control (i.e., choosing a small immediate task over a large delayed task).

Adaptive Skills, Behavior Problems, and Parenting Stress in Mothers of Boys with Fragile X Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sarimski, Klaus

2010-01-01

The relationship of temperament, atypical behaviors, and adaptive behavior of young boys with Fragile X syndrome on mothers' parenting stress was analyzed. Twenty-six boys with Fragile X syndrome (30-88 months of age) participated. The overall development of the participants was significantly delayed with a specific profile of adaptive behaviors…

Hydrocephalus

MedlinePlus

... lethargy Nausea or vomiting Unstable balance Poor coordination Poor appetite Seizures Urinary incontinence Behavioral and cognitive changes Irritability Change in personality Decline in school performance Delays or problems with previously acquired skills, such ...

Recreating the scene: an effective way to provide delayed punishment for inappropriate motor behavior.

PubMed Central

Van Houten, R; Rolider, A

1988-01-01

A mediated punishment procedure that involved recreating a behavioral sequence by guiding the subject through the behavior in the situation in which it occurred was used to suppress several severe problem behaviors in two developmentally delayed children. The mediational procedure was first used with a 4-year-old autistic boy for biting and then for foot stomping. Next the procedure was used for stealing and hoarding behavior with a multiply handicapped 17-year-old girl. Results indicated that the procedure was effective and produced relatively rapid results. One advantage of the procedure is that it provides an opportunity for trained personnel to apply restrictive procedures to low frequency behavior that occurs in their absence rather than relying on less qualified staff to implement the procedure immediately after the behavior occurs. PMID:2458333

Recreating the scene: an effective way to provide delayed punishment for inappropriate motor behavior.

PubMed

Van Houten, R; Rolider, A

1988-01-01

A mediated punishment procedure that involved recreating a behavioral sequence by guiding the subject through the behavior in the situation in which it occurred was used to suppress several severe problem behaviors in two developmentally delayed children. The mediational procedure was first used with a 4-year-old autistic boy for biting and then for foot stomping. Next the procedure was used for stealing and hoarding behavior with a multiply handicapped 17-year-old girl. Results indicated that the procedure was effective and produced relatively rapid results. One advantage of the procedure is that it provides an opportunity for trained personnel to apply restrictive procedures to low frequency behavior that occurs in their absence rather than relying on less qualified staff to implement the procedure immediately after the behavior occurs.

Some dynamic resource allocation problems in wireless networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berry, Randall

2001-07-01

We consider dynamic resource allocation problems that arise in wireless networking. Specifically transmission scheduling problems are studied in cases where a user can dynamically allocate communication resources such as transmission rate and power based on current channel knowledge as well as traffic variations. We assume that arriving data is stored in a transmission buffer, and investigate the trade-off between average transmission power and average buffer delay. A general characterization of this trade-off is given and the behavior of this trade-off in the regime of asymptotically large buffer delays is explored. An extension to a more general utility based quality of service definition is also discussed.

A Microdata Model of Delayed Entry Program (DEP) Behavior. Technical Report 666.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phillips, Chester E.; Schmitz, Edward J.

High personnel loss rates among recruits who have signed up for the Army's Delayed Entry Program (DEP) are becoming an increasing problem for DEP program managers. Therefore, a research project was conducted to examine DEP loss as a function of sociodemography and policy variables at the microdata level. Two DEP loss models were created. The first…

Father's role in parent training for children with developmental delay.

PubMed

Bagner, Daniel M

2013-08-01

The current pilot study was a quasi-experimental examination of the impact of father involvement in parent training among 44 families with a young child who presented with elevated externalizing behavior problems and developmental delay. All families were offered to receive Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), an evidence-based parent-training intervention, at a hospital-based outpatient clinic. Single-mother families were significantly more likely to drop out of treatment than two-parent families. Of the families that completed treatment, children from families in which a father participated in treatment had lower levels of parent-reported externalizing behavior problems than children from single-mother families and children from two-parent families in which the father did not participate in treatment. Additionally, children from father-involved families were significantly more compliant during a cleanup task than children from single-mother families following treatment. The current study is consistent with the limited research examining father involvement in parent training and extends the findings to children with developmental delay. These findings highlight the importance of involving fathers in parent training, particularly when working with children with developmental delay. © 2013 American Psychological Association

The Effects of Condom Availability on College Women's Sexual Discounting.

PubMed

Lemley, Shea M; Jarmolowicz, David P; Parkhurst, Daniel; Celio, Mark A

2018-04-01

College students commonly engage in risky sexual behaviors, such as casual sexual encounters and inconsistent condom use. Discounting paradigms that examine how individuals devalue rewards due to their delay or uncertainty have been used to improve our understanding of behavioral problems, including sexual risk. The current study assessed relations between college women's sexual partners discounting and risky sexual behavior. In this study, college women (N = 42) completed two sexual partners delay discounting tasks that assessed how choices among hypothetical sexual partners changed across a parametric range of delays in two conditions: condom availability and condom unavailability. Participants also completed two sexual partners probability discounting tasks that assessed partner choices across a parametric range of probabilities in condom availability and unavailability conditions. Additionally, participants reported risky sexual behavior on the Sexual Risk Survey (SRS). Participants discounted delayed partners more steeply in the condom availability condition, but those differences were significant only for those women with three or fewer lifetime sexual partners. There were no consistent differences in discounting rate across condom availability conditions for probability discounting. Sexual partners discounting measures correlated with risky sexual behaviors as measured by the SRS, but a greater number of significant relations were observed with the condoms-unavailable delay discounting task. These findings suggest the importance of examining the interaction of inconsistent condom use and multiple partners in examinations of sexual decision-making.

Pathways Linking Adverse Childhood Experiences to Cigarette Smoking Among Young Black Men: a Prospective Analysis of the Role of Sleep Problems and Delayed Reward Discounting.

PubMed

Oshri, Assaf; Kogan, Steven; Liu, Sihong; Sweet, Lawrence; Mackillop, James

2017-12-01

African American men experience increases in smoking during the young adult transition. Exposure to childhood adversity, a risk factor which disproportionately affects African American men, has been identified as a robust precursor to health risk behavior in general and cigarette smoking in particular. The intermediate mechanisms that transmit the influence of early adversity to smoking behavior are not well understood. We tested a model of the escalation of smoking behaviors among young adult African American men, investigating sleep disturbance and delayed reward discounting as intermediate factors linking adverse childhood experiences with smoking. Hypotheses were tested with three waves of data (M age-T1  = 20.34, M age-T2  = 21.92, M age-T3  = 23.02) from 505 African American men living in rural counties in South Georgia. Men provided self-report data on their adverse childhood experiences, sleep problems, and smoking behavior using audio-assisted computer self-interviews. Men also completed a computer-based delayed reward discounting task. Structural equation modeling analyses supported our hypotheses: Adverse childhood experiences predicted poor sleep adequacy, which forecast increases in delayed reward discounting; discounting, in turn, predicted increased smoking. Significant indirect pathways were detected linking adversity to discounting via sleep adequacy and linking sleep adequacy to smoking via discounting. Prevention and intervention researchers can draw on these findings to develop programs that focus on sleep adequacy to reduce smoking in African American men exposed to childhood adversity.

Mothers' Perceived Physical Health during Early and Middle Childhood: Relations with Child Developmental Delay and Behavior Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eisenhower, Abbey; Blacher, Jan; Baker, Bruce L.

2013-01-01

The self-perceived physical health of mothers raising children with developmental delay (DD; N = 116) or typical development (TD; N = 129) was examined across child ages 3-9 years, revealing three main findings. First, mothers of children with DD experienced poorer self-rated physical health than mothers of children with TD at each age. Latent…

Significance of a Behavioral Economic Index of Reward Value in Predicting Drinking Problem Resolution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tucker, Jalie A.; Vuchinich, Rudy E.; Black, Bethany C.; Rippens, Paula D.

2006-01-01

This study investigated whether a behavioral economic index of the value of rewards available over different time horizons improved prediction of drinking outcomes beyond established biopsychosocial predictors. Preferences for immediate drinking versus more delayed rewards made possible by saving money were determined from expenditures prior to…

Behavioral Profiles in Phelan-McDermid Syndrome: Focus on Mental Health

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaw, Steven R.; Rahman, Amira; Sharma, Akanksha

2011-01-01

Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS) is a multiple congenital anomalies and intellectual disabilities syndrome associated with a deletion of chromosome 22 terminal band 13.3. The deletion is associated with severe intellectual disabilities, absent or delayed speech, behavior problems, and autism. The objective of this study was to provide a detailed…

Young Offenders: Early Intervention for Students with Behavioral and Emotional Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hammond, Helen; Ingalls, Lawrence

2009-01-01

The value of early intervention programs for children with delays and/or disabilities has been well accepted in the research. Providing appropriate special education services at an early age of detecting academic and behavioral/social problems has proven to be effective at eliminating or decreasing special services at a later age. This…

Early Identification of Developmental Delays through Surveillance, Screening, and Diagnostic Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pizur-Barnekow, Kris; Erickson, Stephanie; Johnston, Mark; Bass, Tamicah; Lucinski, Loraine; Bleuel, Dan

2010-01-01

Developmental and behavioral problems in young children are prevalent in the United States. While young children experience an increased prevalence of such problems, a lack of early identification services continues to exist. Not only are early identification services required under American law, such as the Individual with Disabilities Education…

Associations between depression, distress tolerance, delay discounting, and alcohol-related problems in European American and African American college students.

PubMed

Dennhardt, Ashley A; Murphy, James G

2011-12-01

Although levels of heavy drinking and alcohol-related problems are high in college students, there is significant variability in the number and type of problems experienced, even among students who drink heavily. African American students drink less and experience fewer alcohol-related problems than European American students, but are still at risk, and little research has investigated the potentially unique patterns and predictors of problems among these students. Depression, distress tolerance, and delay discounting have been implicated in adult substance abuse and may be important predictors of alcohol problem severity among college students. We examined the relationship between these variables and alcohol-related problems among African American and European American students (N = 206; 53% female; 68% European American; 28% African American) who reported recent heavy drinking. In regression models that controlled for drinking level, depression, distress tolerance, and delay discounting were associated with alcohol problems among African American students, but only depression was associated with alcohol problems among European American students. These results suggest that negative affect is a key risk factor for alcohol problems among college student drinkers. For African American students, the inability to tolerate negative emotions and to organize their behavior around future outcomes may also be especially relevant risk factors.

Longitudinal and reciprocal relations between delay discounting and crime

PubMed Central

Lee, Christine A.; Derefinko, Karen J.; Milich, Richard; Lynam, Donald R.; DeWall, C. Nathan

2017-01-01

Theorists argue that self-control failure is the underlying cause of criminal behavior, with previous research linking poor self-control to delinquency and drug use. The path from self-control to crime is well-established, but less is known about whether criminal behavior contributes to self-control deficits over time. We investigated bi-directional relations between self-control assessed via a delay discounting task and self-reported crime over a three-year period. During their first, second (73.38% retention rate), and third (63.12% retention rate) years of college, 526 undergraduates completed a delay discounting task and reported on their criminal behavior. In order to maximize variability, participants with conduct problems were overrecruited, comprising 23.1% of the final sample. As expected, more discounting of hypothetical monetary rewards significantly predicted future property crime across a one and two-year period, even when controlling for initial levels of both. This study also demonstrated evidence of a bi-directional relationship; violent crime predicted higher rates of delay discounting one year later. These results suggest that bi-directional relations exist between self-control and types of crime. PMID:28970645

Preschool boys' development of emotional self-regulation strategies in a sample at risk for behavior problems.

PubMed

Supplee, Lauren H; Skuban, Emily Moye; Trentacosta, Christopher J; Shaw, Daniel S; Stoltz, Emilee

2011-01-01

Little longitudinal research has been conducted on changes in children's emotional self-regulation strategy (SRS) use after infancy, particularly for children at risk. In this study, the authors examined changes in boys' emotional SRS from toddlerhood through preschool. Repeated observational assessments using delay of gratification tasks at ages 2, 3, and 4 years were examined with both variable- and person-oriented analyses in a low-income sample of boys (N = 117) at risk for early problem behavior. Results were consistent with theory on emotional SRS development in young children. Children initially used more emotion-focused SRS (e.g., comfort seeking) and transitioned to greater use of planful SRS (e.g., distraction) by 4 years of age. Person-oriented analysis using trajectory analysis found similar patterns from 2 to 4 years, with small groups of boys showing delayed movement away from emotion-focused strategies or delay in the onset of regular use of distraction. The results provide a foundation for future researchers to examine the development of SRS in low-income young children.

Reinforcer pathologies: Predicting alcohol related problems in college drinking men and women.

PubMed

Lemley, Shea M; Kaplan, Brent A; Reed, Derek D; Darden, Alexandria C; Jarmolowicz, David P

2016-10-01

Alcohol use in college is common, and problematic consequences of alcohol may affect college men and women differently. Approaches within behavioral economics have been used to improve our understanding of alcohol use in college students. The current study assessed relations between college students' delay discounting, demand for alcohol, and alcohol problems as measured by the Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (YAACQ). In this study, 80 college drinkers completed a monetary choice questionnaire that assessed delay discounting of money, a novel beer choice questionnaire that evaluated delay discounting of beer, and an alcohol purchase task that measured demand for alcohol. Behavioral economic measures associated with the reinforcer pathologies model (i.e., demand and discounting) predicted alcohol consequences as measured by the YAACQ. For men, these significant predictor variables included money discounting, beer discounting, and intensity of alcohol demand, whereas for women money discounting and essential value were significant predictors. These findings highlight the utility of the reinforcer pathologies approach for the study of alcohol use and the importance of considering gender differences in examining college drinking. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Preschool Boys' Development of Emotional Self-regulation Strategies in a Sample At-risk for Behavior Problems

PubMed Central

Supplee, Lauren H.; Skuban, Emily Moye; Trentacosta, Christopher J.; Shaw, Daniel S.; Stoltz, Emilee

2011-01-01

Little longitudinal research has been conducted on changes in children's emotional self-regulation strategy (SRS) use after infancy, particularly for children at risk. The current study examined changes in boys' emotional SRS from toddlerhood through preschool. Repeated observational assessments using delay of gratification tasks at ages 2, 3, and 4 were examined with both variable- and person-oriented analyses in a low-income sample of boys (N = 117) at-risk for early problem behavior. Results were consistent with theory on emotional SRS development in young children. Children initially used more emotion-focused SRS (e.g., comfort seeking) and transitioned to greater use of planful SRS (e.g., distraction) by age 4. Person-oriented analysis using trajectory analysis found similar patterns from 2–4, with small groups of boys showing delayed movement away from emotion-focused strategies or delay in the onset of regular use of distraction. The results provide a foundation for future research to examine the development of SRS in low-income young children. PMID:21675542

Predictors of healthcare seeking delays among children with chronic musculoskeletal disorders in Nepal.

PubMed

LeBrun, Drake G; Talwar, Divya; Pham, Tuyetnhi A; Banskota, Bibek; Spiegel, David A

2017-12-01

Healthcare seeking behaviors among children with musculoskeletal disorders are poorly understood. We sought to analyze healthcare seeking delays among children with chronic musculoskeletal conditions in Nepal and identify predictors of clinically significant delays. A cross-sectional study was conducted at a large pediatric musculoskeletal rehabilitation center in Nepal. Baseline sociodemographic data and healthcare seeking behaviors were assessed via interviews with 75 randomly selected caregivers. Delays of at least 3 months between disease recognition and presentation to a health worker were considered clinically significant. Predictors of significant delay were assessed via multivariable logistic regression. Clubfoot was the most common condition seen in the study sample (N = 33; 37%). Mean and median presentation delays were 33 months and 14 months, respectively. Sixty-seven percent of children were delayed at least 3 months and 40% were delayed at least 2 years. Caregiver occupation in agriculture or unskilled labor was associated with an increased risk of delayed presentation (adjusted OR = 4.05; 95% CI: 1.36-12.09). Children with chronic musculoskeletal disorders in Nepal face significant delays in accessing healthcare. This poses a major clinical problem as the delayed diagnosis and treatment of childhood musculoskeletal disorders can complicate management options and decrease long-term quality of life. Copyright © 2017 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Formation Control over Delayed Communication Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Secchi, Cristian; Fantuzzi, Cesare

In this Chapter we address the problem of formation control of a group of robots that exchange information over a communication network characterized by a non negligible delay. We consider the Virtual Body Artificial Potential approach for stabilizing a group of robots at a desired formation. We show that it is possible to model the controlled group of robots as a port-Hamiltonian system and we exploit the scattering framework to achieve a passive behavior of the controlled system and to stabilize the robots in the desired formation independently of any communication delay.

Microdeletion/microduplication of proximal 15q11.2 between BP1 and BP2: a susceptibility region for neurological dysfunction including developmental and language delay.

PubMed

Burnside, Rachel D; Pasion, Romela; Mikhail, Fady M; Carroll, Andrew J; Robin, Nathaniel H; Youngs, Erin L; Gadi, Inder K; Keitges, Elizabeth; Jaswaney, Vikram L; Papenhausen, Peter R; Potluri, Venkateswara R; Risheg, Hiba; Rush, Brooke; Smith, Janice L; Schwartz, Stuart; Tepperberg, James H; Butler, Merlin G

2011-10-01

The proximal long arm of chromosome 15 has segmental duplications located at breakpoints BP1-BP5 that mediate the generation of NAHR-related microdeletions and microduplications. The classical Prader-Willi/Angelman syndrome deletion is flanked by either of the proximal BP1 or BP2 breakpoints and the distal BP3 breakpoint. The larger Type I deletions are flanked by BP1 and BP3 in both Prader-Willi and Angelman syndrome subjects. Those with this deletion are reported to have a more severe phenotype than individuals with either Type II deletions (BP2-BP3) or uniparental disomy 15. The BP1-BP2 region spans approximately 500 kb and contains four evolutionarily conserved genes that are not imprinted. Reports of mutations or disturbed expression of these genes appear to impact behavioral and neurological function in affected individuals. Recently, reports of deletions and duplications flanked by BP1 and BP2 suggest an association with speech and motor delays, behavioral problems, seizures, and autism. We present a large cohort of subjects with copy number alteration of BP1 to BP2 with common phenotypic features. These include autism, developmental delay, motor and language delays, and behavioral problems, which were present in both cytogenetic groups. Parental studies demonstrated phenotypically normal carriers in several instances, and mildly affected carriers in others, complicating phenotypic association and/or causality. Possible explanations for these results include reduced penetrance, altered gene dosage on a particular genetic background, or a susceptibility region as reported for other areas of the genome implicated in autism and behavior disturbances.

Multiple response to sound in dysfunctional children.

PubMed

Condon, W S

1975-03-01

Methods and findings derived from over a decade of linguistic-kinesic microanalysis of sound films of human behavior were appled to the analysis of sound films of 25 dysfunctional children. Of the children, 17 were markedly dysfunctional (autistic-like) while 8 had milder reading problems. All of these children appeared to respond to sound more than once: when it actually occurred and again after a delay ranging from a fraction of a second up to a full second, depending on the child. Most of the children did not seem to actually hear the sound more than once; however, there is some indication that a few children may have done so. Evidence was also found suggesting a continuum from the longer delay of autistic-like children to the briefer delay of children with reading problems.

Termination of short term melatonin treatment in children with delayed Dim Light Melatonin Onset: effects on sleep, health, behavior problems, and parenting stress.

PubMed

van Maanen, Annette; Meijer, Anne Marie; Smits, Marcel G; Oort, Frans J

2011-10-01

To investigate the effects of termination of short term melatonin treatment on sleep, health, behavior, and parenting stress in children with delayed Dim Light Melatonin Onset. Forty-one children (24 boys, 17 girls; mean age=9.43 years) entered melatonin treatment for 3 weeks and then discontinued treatment by first taking a half dose for 1 week and then stopping completely for another week. Sleep was measured with sleep diaries filled in by parents and with actometers worn by children. Analyses were conducted with linear mixed models. Sleep latency was longer during the stop week compared to the treatment weeks. Sleep start was later and actual sleep time was shorter during the half dose and stop weeks compared to the treatment weeks. Sleep efficiency deteriorated in the stop week. Dim Light Melatonin Onset was earlier after treatment, but this effect disappeared after the stop week. In addition to the effects on sleep, results from questionnaires completed by parents showed that melatonin treatment also had positive effects on children's health and behavior problems and parenting stress. While health deteriorated after treatment discontinuation, the effects on behavior problems and parenting stress remained. Behavior problems at baseline did not influence the effect of melatonin treatment. This study showed that complete termination of treatment after 4 weeks of melatonin use was too early. However, clinicians may advise a lower dose after a successful treatment trial of several weeks. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of Risperidone and Parent Training on Adaptive Functioning in Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders and Serious Behavioral Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scahill, Lawrence; McDougle, Christopher J.; Aman, Michael G.; Johnson, Cynthia; Handen, Benjamin; Bearss, Karen; Dziura, James; Butter, Eric; Swiezy, Naomi G.; Arnold, L. Eugene; Stigler, Kimberly A.; Sukhodolsky, Denis D.; Lecavalier, Luc; Pozdol, Stacie L.; Nikolov, Roumen; Hollway, Jill A.; Korzekwa, Patricia; Gavaletz, Allison; Kohn, Arlene E.; Koenig, Kathleen; Grinnon, Stacie; Mulick, James A.; Yu, Sunkyung; Vitiello, Benedetto

2012-01-01

Objective: Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDDs) have social interaction deficits, delayed communication, and repetitive behaviors as well as impairments in adaptive functioning. Many children actually show a decline in adaptive skills compared with age mates over time. Method: This 24-week, three-site, controlled clinical trial…

School Start Times, Sleep, Behavioral, Health, and Academic Outcomes: A Review of the Literature

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wheaton, Anne G.; Chapman, Daniel P.; Croft, Janet B.

2016-01-01

Background: Insufficient sleep in adolescents has been shown to be associated with a wide variety of adverse outcomes, from poor mental and physical health to behavioral problems and lower academic grades. However, most high school students do not get sufficient sleep. Delaying school start times for adolescents has been proposed as a policy…

Mother-Child Attachment and Preschool Behavior Problems in Children with Developmental Delay

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LaMont, Mary

2011-01-01

Secure mother-child attachment has been found to be an important factor in the healthy emotional development of children and has been shown to have effects on child, adolescent, and adult behavior. Previous research has primarily focused on attachment in children who are typically developing. However, little research has been conducted in…

Description of a Sleep-Restriction Program to Reduce Bedtime Disturbances and Night Waking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Durand, V. Mark; Christodulu, Kristin V.

2004-01-01

The authors describe a behavioral intervention designed to reduce sleep problems without increasing disruption at bedtime or throughout the evening. Sleep restriction was used to reduce the bedtime and nighttime sleep problems of two children, a 4-year-old girl with autism and a 4-year-old girl with developmental delay. Sleep restriction involved…

Elapsed Time Between the First Symptoms of Breast Cancer and Medical Help-Seeking Behavior and the Affecting Factors.

PubMed

Gözüm, Sebahat; Tuzcu, Ayla

Many studies have determined that the time between women's realization of first symptoms and seeking help from a healthcare professional is more than 1 month. The situation is defined as delay in medical help-seeking behavior (MHSB). The purpose of this study was to determine the time elapsed between the first symptoms of breast cancer and MHSB, as well as the factors contributing to the delay. In this descriptive study, the data were collected from 132 patients who received a diagnosis of breast cancer and are receiving treatment in the Oncology Clinic of Akdeniz University Hospital. The questionnaire used in the study was structured in 3 parts: sociodemographic characteristics, breast cancer history/screening behaviors, and psychological factors affecting MHSB. The elapsed time between patients' first symptoms and MHSB was classified into "normal" when it was less than 1 month, "delay" when it was between 1 and 3 months, "long-term delay" when it was more than 3 months, and "very serious delay" when it was more than 6 months. A total of 59.8% were classified as normal, 16.7% as delayed, 5.3% as a long-term delay, and 18.2% as a very serious delay after first symptoms. The delay in MHSB time was affected 18.55 times by "not caring/minding," 10.73 times by "fear," 7.13 times by "having more important problems," and 4.23 times by "realization of first symptoms" by themselves. Psychological factors were the most important determinants in delay. The MHSB time was less if those first realizing the symptoms were healthcare professionals. Healthcare professionals should direct women to screenings and train them to interpret symptoms correctly.

Predictive Validity of Delay Discounting Behavior in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Twin Study

PubMed Central

Isen, Joshua D.; Sparks, Jordan C.; Iacono, William G.

2014-01-01

A standard assumption in the delay discounting literature is that individuals who exhibit steeper discounting of hypothetical rewards also experience greater difficulty deferring gratification to real-world rewards. There is ample cross-sectional evidence that delay discounting paradigms reflect a variety of maladaptive psychosocial outcomes, including substance use pathology. We sought to determine whether a computerized assessment of hypothetical delay discounting (HDD) taps into behavioral impulsivity in a community sample of adolescent twins (N = 675). Using a longitudinal design, we hypothesized that greater HDD at age 14–15 predicts real-world impulsive choices and risk for substance use disorders in late adolescence. We also examined the genetic and environmental structure of HDD performance. Individual differences in HDD behavior showed moderate heritability, and were prospectively associated with real-world temporal discounting at age 17–18. Contrary to expectations, HDD was not consistently related to substance use or trait impulsivity. Although a significant association between HDD behavior and past substance use emerged in males, this effect was mediated by cognitive ability. In both sexes, HDD failed to predict a comprehensive index of substance use problems and behavioral disinhibition in late adolescence. In sum, we present some of the first evidence that HDD performance is heritable and predictive of real-world temporal discounting of rewards. Nevertheless, HDD might not serve as a valid marker of substance use disorder risk in younger adolescents, particularly females. PMID:24999868

Alcohol Increases Delay and Probability Discounting of Condom-Protected Sex: A Novel Vector for Alcohol-Related HIV Transmission.

PubMed

Johnson, Patrick S; Sweeney, Mary M; Herrmann, Evan S; Johnson, Matthew W

2016-06-01

Alcohol use, especially at binge levels, is associated with sexual HIV risk behavior, but the mechanisms through which alcohol increases sexual risk taking are not well-examined. Delay discounting, that is, devaluation of future consequences as a function of delay to their occurrence, has been implicated in a variety of problem behaviors, including risky sexual behavior. Probability discounting is studied with a similar framework as delay discounting, but is a distinct process in which a consequence is devalued because it is uncertain or probabilistic. Twenty-three, nondependent alcohol users (13 male, 10 female; mean age = 25.3 years old) orally consumed alcohol (1 g/kg) or placebo in 2 separate experimental sessions. During sessions, participants completed tasks examining delay and probability discounting of hypothetical condom-protected sex (Sexual Delay Discounting Task, Sexual Probability Discounting Task) and of hypothetical and real money. Alcohol decreased the likelihood that participants would wait to have condom-protected sex versus having immediate, unprotected sex. Alcohol also decreased the likelihood that participants would use an immediately available condom given a specified level of sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk. Alcohol did not affect delay discounting of money, but it did increase participants' preferences for larger, probabilistic monetary rewards over smaller, certain rewards. Acute, binge-level alcohol intoxication may increase sexual HIV risk by decreasing willingness to delay sex in order to acquire a condom in situations where one is not immediately available, and by decreasing sensitivity to perceived risk of STI contraction. These findings suggest that delay and probability discounting are critical, but heretofore unrecognized, processes that may mediate the relations between alcohol use and HIV risk. Copyright © 2016 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.

School Start Times, Sleep, Behavioral, Health, and Academic Outcomes: a Review of the Literature

PubMed Central

Chapman, Daniel P.; Croft, Janet B.

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND Insufficient sleep in adolescents has been shown to be associated with a wide variety of adverse outcomes, from poor mental and physical health to behavioral problems and lower academic grades. However, most high school students do not get sufficient sleep. Delaying school start times for adolescents has been proposed as a policy change to address insufficient sleep in this population and potentially to improve students’ academic performance, reduce engagement in risk behaviors, and improve health. METHODS This paper reviews 38 reports examining the association between school start times, sleep, and other outcomes among adolescent students. RESULTS Most studies reviewed provide evidence that delaying school start time increases weeknight sleep duration among adolescents, primarily by delaying rise times. Most of the studies saw a significant increase in sleep duration even with relatively small delays in start times of half an hour or so. Later start times also generally correspond to improved attendance, less tardiness, less falling asleep in class, better grades, and fewer motor vehicle crashes. CONCLUSIONS Although additional research is necessary, research results that are already available should be disseminated to stakeholders to enable the development of evidence-based school policies. PMID:27040474

Long-time behavior for suspension bridge equations with time delay

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Sun-Hye

2018-04-01

In this paper, we consider suspension bridge equations with time delay of the form u_{tt}(x,t) + Δ ^2 u (x,t) + k u^+ (x,t) + a_0 u_t (x,t) + a_1 u_t (x, t- τ ) + f(u(x,t)) = g(x). Many researchers have studied well-posedness, decay rates of energy, and existence of attractors for suspension bridge equations without delay effects. But, as far as we know, there is no work about suspension equations with time delay. In addition, there are not many studies on attractors for other delayed systems. Thus we first provide well-posedness for suspension equations with time delay. And then show the existence of global attractors and the finite dimensionality of the attractors by establishing energy functionals which are related to the norm of the phase space to our problem.

Parenting Stress through the Lens of Different Clinical Groups: a Systematic Review & Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

Mendez, Lucybel; Graziano, Paulo A.; Bagner, Daniel M.

2017-01-01

Research has demonstrated an association between parenting stress and child behavior problems, and suggested levels of parenting stress are higher among parents of children at risk for behavior problems, such as those with autism and developmental delay (ASD/DD). The goal of the present study was to conduct a systematic review of parenting stress and child behavior problems among different clinical groups (i.e., ASD/DD, chronic illness, with or at-risk for behavioral and/or mood disorders). We also examined demographic and methodological variables as moderators and differences in overall levels of parenting stress between the clinical groups. This systematic review documents a link between parenting stress and child behavior problems with an emphasis on externalizing behavior. One-hundred thirty-three studies were included for quantitative analysis. Parenting stress was more strongly related to child externalizing (weighted ES r = 0.57, d = 1.39) than internalizing (weighted ES r = 0.37, d = 0.79) problems. Moderation analyses indicated that the association between parenting stress and behavior problems was stronger among studies which had mostly male and clinic-recruited samples. Overall, parenting stress levels were higher for parents of children with ASD/DD compared to parents of children from other clinical groups. Findings document the association between parenting stress and child behavior problems and highlight the importance of assessing parenting stress as part of routine care and throughout behavioral intervention programs, especially for groups of children at high risk for behavior problems, such as children with ASD/DD, in order to identify support for both the parent(s) and child. PMID:28555335

ANALYSES OF RESPONSE–STIMULUS SEQUENCES IN DESCRIPTIVE OBSERVATIONS

PubMed Central

Samaha, Andrew L; Vollmer, Timothy R; Borrero, Carrie; Sloman, Kimberly; Pipkin, Claire St. Peter; Bourret, Jason

2009-01-01

Descriptive observations were conducted to record problem behavior displayed by participants and to record antecedents and consequences delivered by caregivers. Next, functional analyses were conducted to identify reinforcers for problem behavior. Then, using data from the descriptive observations, lag-sequential analyses were conducted to examine changes in the probability of environmental events across time in relation to occurrences of problem behavior. The results of the lag-sequential analyses were interpreted in light of the results of functional analyses. Results suggested that events identified as reinforcers in a functional analysis followed behavior in idiosyncratic ways: after a range of delays and frequencies. Thus, it is possible that naturally occurring reinforcement contingencies are arranged in ways different from those typically evaluated in applied research. Further, these complex response–stimulus relations can be represented by lag-sequential analyses. However, limitations to the lag-sequential analysis are evident. PMID:19949537

Effects of Differential Reinforcement of Short Latencies on Response Latency, Task Completion, and Accuracy of an Adolescent with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Donohue, Melanie M.; Casey, Laura Baylot; Bicard, David F.; Bicard, Sara E.

2012-01-01

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are faced with many challenging behaviors that could impede their learning. One commonly reported problem behavior is noncompliance, which is often defined as a delay in response (latency), decrease in rate of responding (fluency), or failure to complete a task. This failure to comply in an appropriate…

Extreme fluctuations in stochastic network coordination with time delays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hunt, D.; Molnár, F.; Szymanski, B. K.; Korniss, G.

2015-12-01

We study the effects of uniform time delays on the extreme fluctuations in stochastic synchronization and coordination problems with linear couplings in complex networks. We obtain the average size of the fluctuations at the nodes from the behavior of the underlying modes of the network. We then obtain the scaling behavior of the extreme fluctuations with system size, as well as the distribution of the extremes on complex networks, and compare them to those on regular one-dimensional lattices. For large complex networks, when the delay is not too close to the critical one, fluctuations at the nodes effectively decouple, and the limit distributions converge to the Fisher-Tippett-Gumbel density. In contrast, fluctuations in low-dimensional spatial graphs are strongly correlated, and the limit distribution of the extremes is the Airy density. Finally, we also explore the effects of nonlinear couplings on the stability and on the extremes of the synchronization landscapes.

Some aspects of control of a large-scale dynamic system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aoki, M.

1975-01-01

Techniques of predicting and/or controlling the dynamic behavior of large scale systems are discussed in terms of decentralized decision making. Topics discussed include: (1) control of large scale systems by dynamic team with delayed information sharing; (2) dynamic resource allocation problems by a team (hierarchical structure with a coordinator); and (3) some problems related to the construction of a model of reduced dimension.

Fetal Growth and Neurobehavioral Outcomes in Childhood

PubMed Central

Chatterji, Pinka; Lahiri, Kajal; Kim, Dohyung

2014-01-01

Using a sample of sibling pairs from a nationally representative U.S. survey, we examine the effects of the fetal growth rate on a set of neurobehavioral outcomes in childhood measured by parent-reported diagnosed developmental disabilities and behavior problems. Based on models that include mother fixed effects, we find that the fetal growth rate, a marker for the fetal environment, is negatively associated with lifetime diagnosis of developmental delay. We also find that the fetal growth rate is negatively associated with disruptive behaviors among male children. These results suggest that developmental disabilities and problem behaviors may play a role in explaining the well-documented association between birth weight and human capital outcomes measured in adulthood. PMID:25464342

Learning problems, delayed development, and puberty

PubMed Central

Wright, Beverly A.; Zecker, Steven G.

2004-01-01

Language-based learning disorders such as dyslexia affect millions of people, but there is little agreement as to their cause. New evidence from behavioral measures of the ability to hear tones in the presence of background noise indicates that the brains of affected individuals develop more slowly than those of their unaffected counterparts. In addition, it seems that brain changes occurring at ≈10 years of age, presumably associated with puberty, may prematurely halt this slower-than-normal development when improvements would normally continue into adolescence. The combination of these ideas can account for a wide range of previous results, suggesting that delayed brain development, and its interaction with puberty, may be key factors contributing to learning problems. PMID:15210987

Effects of a Responsiveness-Focused Intervention in Family Child Care Homes on Children’s Executive Function

PubMed Central

Merz, Emily C.; Landry, Susan H.; Johnson, Ursula Y.; Williams, Jeffrey M.; Jung, Kwanghee

2016-01-01

Caregiver responsiveness has been theorized and found to support children’s early executive function (EF) development. This study examined the effects of an intervention that targeted family child care provider responsiveness on children’s EF. Family child care providers were randomly assigned to one of two intervention groups or a control group. An intervention group that received a responsiveness-focused online professional development course and another intervention group that received this online course plus weekly mentoring were collapsed into one group because they did not differ on any of the outcome variables. Children (N = 141) ranged in age from 2.5 to 5 years (mean age = 3.58 years; 52% female). At pretest and posttest, children completed delay inhibition tasks (gift delay-wrap, gift delay-bow) and conflict EF tasks (bear/dragon, dimensional change card sort), and parents reported on the children’s level of attention problems. Although there were no main effects of the intervention on children’s EF, there were significant interactions between intervention status and child age for delay inhibition and attention problems. The youngest children improved in delay inhibition and attention problems if they were in the intervention rather than the control group, whereas older children did not. These results suggest that improving family child care provider responsive behaviors may facilitate the development of certain EF skills in young preschool-age children. PMID:26941476

Characterization of the of the Pathological and Biochemical Markers That Correlate to the Clinical Features of Autism. Subproject 2. Contribution of Significant Delay of Neuronal Development and Metabolic Shift of Neurons to Clinical Phenotype of Autism

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-04-01

skills, (e) problems with generalization of previously acquired skills, (f) rigidity and resistance to change, (g) social and communication ...their known role in social behavior, communication , and stereotypic behavior results in identification of a structural component of functional deficits...neurons. These abnormalities may contribute to social and communication deficits, and restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior. 3

Delayed puberty, eroticism, and sense of smell: A psychological study of hypogonadotropinism, osmatic and anosmatic (Kallmann's syndrome).

PubMed

Bobrow, N A; Money, J; Lewis, V G

1971-12-01

In 13 male patients with a diagnosis of hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, associated in five cases with verified hyposmia (Kallmann's syndrome), social development and participation were delayed. The patients associated the lack of visible signs of male puberty with their delayed sociosexual maturation. However, the evidence of physical maturation after treatment did not have the ameliorative effect on their social behavior one would have liked to predict. Dating behavior was limited before and after treatment for all the patients, and sexual interest was low even for the three married ones. The experience of falling in love was notably absent in the relationships described. Two characteristic social reaction patterns were social introversion and hostile rejection of agemates. Intellectual functioning and the incidence of personality pathology were not diagnostically noteworthy. None of the patients had any problems with gender identity except for erotic apathy which extended to masturbation. There was an absence of homosexuality. Possibly hypogonadotropic patients have a primary defect of the hypothalamus, manifesting itself as a dysfunction of the behavioral concomitants of puberty as well as a failure of hormonal puberty.

Problem and Pathological Gambling in Schizophrenia: Exploring Links with Substance Use and Impulsivity.

PubMed

Fortgang, Rebecca G; Hoff, Rani A; Potenza, Marc N

2018-02-16

High rates of both problem and pathological gambling (PPG) and substance-use disorders (SUDs) have been reported in schizophrenia, and yet PPG frequently goes undetected in clinical practice and unexamined in research. Here, we aimed to examine the relationship between PPG and SUDs in a large sample of patients across several factors related to both gambling and substance use, including poly-substance use. Additionally, delay discounting is a form of impulsivity known to positively associate with both PPG and SUDs and thought to underlie mechanisms of addiction in both contexts. We aimed to investigate the relationship between PPG and delay discounting in schizophrenia. 337 individuals with schizophrenia completed structured face-to-face interviews regarding gambling behaviors, substance use, and delay discounting. PPG in schizophrenia was associated with substance use, in particular with poly-substance use, and with delay discounting among males. Factors related to substance use were strongly linked with gambling in this sample, but not always with PPG more than recreational gambling. Our findings overall support the notions that multiple forms of gambling in schizophrenia are clinically relevant, that gambling may share common substrates with substance use, and that delay discounting represents a potential mechanism of this association in males.

Parental Attributions of Control for Child Behaviour and Their Relation to Discipline Practices in Parents of Children with and Without Developmental Delays.

PubMed

Jacobs, Myrthe; Marks Woolfson, Lisa; Hunter, Simon C

2017-01-01

Children with developmental delays (DD) are at risk for developing behavior problems. Research suggests that parents' causal attributions for child behavior are related to parenting. This study investigated this association in parents of children with DD compared to parents of typically developing (TD) children. It specifically focused on attributions of child control by separating these from attributions of responsibility, blame and intent, and from attributions of parent control and responsibility. Fifty-one parents of children with DD and 69 parents of TD children completed two questionnaires. The Written Analogue Questionnaire measured causal attributions. The Parenting Scale measured dysfunctional discipline practices. Parents of children with DD viewed the child's role in problematic behavior more positively while also viewing misbehavior as more fixed than parents of TD children. Parents of TD children who viewed their child as more in control over misbehavior used less dysfunctional discipline, but this association was not found for parents of children with DD. The results advance understanding of how parents perceive behavior problems in children with DD and the important role these perceptions play in parental behavior management strategies. More importantly, these perceptions relate to discipline practices differently for parents of children with DD compared to parents of TD children, highlighting that parent interventions should be adapted to the specific needs of parents of children with DD.

Future so bright? Delay discounting and consideration of future consequences predict academic performance among college drinkers.

PubMed

Acuff, Samuel F; Soltis, Kathryn E; Dennhardt, Ashley A; Borsari, Brian; Martens, Matthew P; Murphy, James G

2017-10-01

College student drinking is a major public health concern and can result in a range of negative consequences, from acute health risks to decreased academic performance and drop out. Harm reduction interventions have been developed to reduce problems associated with drinking but there is a need to identify specific risk/protective factors related to academic performance among college drinkers. Behavioral economics suggests that chronic alcohol misuse reflects a dysregulated behavioral process or reinforcer pathology-alcohol is overvalued and the value of prosocial rewards are sharply discounted due, in part, to their delay. This study examined delay discounting, consideration of future consequences (CFC) and protective behavioral strategies (PBS) as predictors of academic success (grade point average; GPA) and engagement (time devoted to academic activities) among 393 college drinkers (61% female). In multivariate models, PBS were associated with greater academic engagement, but were not with academic success. Lower discounting of delayed rewards and greater CFC were associated with both academic success and engagement among drinkers. Previous research suggests that future time orientation is malleable, and the current results provide support for efforts to enhance future time orientation as part of alcohol harm-reduction approaches. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

School Start Times, Sleep, Behavioral, Health, and Academic Outcomes: A Review of the Literature.

PubMed

Wheaton, Anne G; Chapman, Daniel P; Croft, Janet B

2016-05-01

Insufficient sleep in adolescents has been shown to be associated with a wide variety of adverse outcomes, from poor mental and physical health to behavioral problems and lower academic grades. However, most high school students do not get sufficient sleep. Delaying school start times for adolescents has been proposed as a policy change to address insufficient sleep in this population and potentially to improve students' academic performance, reduce engagement in risk behaviors, and improve health. This article reviews 38 reports examining the association between school start times, sleep, and other outcomes among adolescent students. Most studies reviewed provide evidence that delaying school start time increases weeknight sleep duration among adolescents, primarily by delaying rise times. Most of the studies saw a significant increase in sleep duration even with relatively small delays in start times of half an hour or so. Later start times also generally correspond to improved attendance, less tardiness, less falling asleep in class, better grades, and fewer motor vehicle crashes. Although additional research is necessary, research results that are already available should be disseminated to stakeholders to enable the development of evidence-based school policies. Published 2016. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Neuromechanical tuning of nonlinear postural control dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ting, Lena H.; van Antwerp, Keith W.; Scrivens, Jevin E.; McKay, J. Lucas; Welch, Torrence D. J.; Bingham, Jeffrey T.; DeWeerth, Stephen P.

2009-06-01

Postural control may be an ideal physiological motor task for elucidating general questions about the organization, diversity, flexibility, and variability of biological motor behaviors using nonlinear dynamical analysis techniques. Rather than presenting "problems" to the nervous system, the redundancy of biological systems and variability in their behaviors may actually be exploited to allow for the flexible achievement of multiple and concurrent task-level goals associated with movement. Such variability may reflect the constant "tuning" of neuromechanical elements and their interactions for movement control. The problem faced by researchers is that there is no one-to-one mapping between the task goal and the coordination of the underlying elements. We review recent and ongoing research in postural control with the goal of identifying common mechanisms underlying variability in postural control, coordination of multiple postural strategies, and transitions between them. We present a delayed-feedback model used to characterize the variability observed in muscle coordination patterns during postural responses to perturbation. We emphasize the significance of delays in physiological postural systems, requiring the modulation and coordination of both the instantaneous, "passive" response to perturbations as well as the delayed, "active" responses to perturbations. The challenge for future research lies in understanding the mechanisms and principles underlying neuromechanical tuning of and transitions between the diversity of postural behaviors. Here we describe some of our recent and ongoing studies aimed at understanding variability in postural control using physical robotic systems, human experiments, dimensional analysis, and computational models that could be enhanced from a nonlinear dynamics approach.

Temporal discounting and heart rate reactivity to stress.

PubMed

Diller, James W; Patros, Connor H G; Prentice, Paula R

2011-07-01

Temporal discounting is the reduction of the value of a reinforcer as a function of increasing delay to its presentation. Impulsive individuals discount delayed consequences more rapidly than self-controlled individuals, and impulsivity has been related to substance abuse, gambling, and other problem behaviors. A growing body of literature has identified biological correlates of impulsivity, though little research to date has examined relations between delay discounting and markers of poor health (e.g., cardiovascular reactivity to stress). We evaluated the relation between one aspect of impulsivity, measured using a computerized temporal discounting task, and heart rate reactivity, measured as a change in heart rate from rest during a serial subtraction task. A linear regression showed that individuals who were more reactive to stress responded more impulsively (i.e., discounted delayed reinforcers more rapidly). When results were stratified by gender, the effect was observed for females, but not for males. This finding supports previous research on gender differences in cardiovascular reactivity and suggests that this type of reactivity may be an important correlate of impulsive behavior. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Feasibility [corrected] of regular physical exercise for patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer disease.

PubMed

Rolland, Y; Rival, L; Pillard, F; Lafont, C; Rivére, D; Albaréde, J; Vellas, B

2000-01-01

Physical activity delays loss of autonomy in the elderly. In patients with Alzheimer disease (AD), physical activity could be a useful strategy in therapeutic management by delaying loss of functional independence and the usual complications of the disease. To determine, using standardized tools, the effects on autonomy (ADL, IADL), cognitive function (MMS), nutritional status (MNA), behavioral problems (NPI) and risk of falls (Tinetti test) of a physical exercise program in patients with AD. Twenty-three subjects (13 men and 10 women, aged 71-92 years, mean 78 years) with AD (mean MMS 16, range 1-23) carried out for a mean of 7 weeks (5-12 weeks) a program of endurance exercise (walking, exercise bicycle) adapted to their individual capacities. Standardized gerontological evaluation was performed before and after the study. No significant change in autonomy (ADL, IADL) was observed. There was an improvement in the MNA (p<0.001) and the MMS (p<0.001). Risk of falls (p<0.01) and behavioral problems (p<0.05) decreased. These results were obtained without increasing family workload. We suggest that physical activity is a therapeutic option which can reduce nutritional and behavioral complications and risk of falls in subjects with AD.

Relative contributions of three descriptive methods: implications for behavioral assessment.

PubMed

Pence, Sacha T; Roscoe, Eileen M; Bourret, Jason C; Ahearn, William H

2009-01-01

This study compared the outcomes of three descriptive analysis methods-the ABC method, the conditional probability method, and the conditional and background probability method-to each other and to the results obtained from functional analyses. Six individuals who had been diagnosed with developmental delays and exhibited problem behavior participated. Functional analyses indicated that participants' problem behavior was maintained by social positive reinforcement (n = 2), social negative reinforcement (n = 2), or automatic reinforcement (n = 2). Results showed that for all but 1 participant, descriptive analysis outcomes were similar across methods. In addition, for all but 1 participant, the descriptive analysis outcome differed substantially from the functional analysis outcome. This supports the general finding that descriptive analysis is a poor means of determining functional relations.

Stage at diagnosis and delay in seeking medical care among women with breast cancer, delhi, India.

PubMed

Pakseresht, Sedigheh; Ingle, Gopal Krishna; Garg, Suneela; Sarafraz, Nahid

2014-12-01

Patients with cancer often delay seeking medical advice in developing countries. It can adversely influence the outcome of disease. The present study was performed to determine the stage at diagnosis and delay in seeking medical care among women with breast cancer in Delhi, India. This was a cross-sectional study based on a census (case series) approach to reach all women (172) diagnosed with primary breast cancer "detected in surgery Out Patient Department (OPD) from January 2007 to December 2009" at Lok Nayak Hospital, Delhi, India. Patients were interviewed using a self-structure questionnaire. Seeking behavior variables were awareness of problem, first consultation, followed physician's advice, detection of problem, system of medicine and gap between knowing the problem and consultation (patient delay). Statistical Analysis was performed using the Microsoft SPSS-pc version 14.0 statistical program. The analytic methods were used (mean, standard deviation, X(2), Fisher's Exact Test, K-S, Kruskal-Wallis) for variables. All statistical tests were performed at a significance level of 5% (P < 0.05). the mean age of women was 46.99 years. 38.4% of women were ≤ 40 years. 61% of women were in stage IV of cancer at the time of diagnosis. The mean duration of gap between knowing the problem and consulting a physician (patients delay) was 10.90 months. There was no significant association between stage of cancer and consultation gap. A significant association was found between the stage of breast cancer and income; women with lower income had a higher stage of breast cancer (P < 005). A significant association was found between ages of women with their delays in consultation. Delay is still prevalent amongst women with breast cancer. It seems necessary to design educating programs for women in both clinical and community settings, about breast cancer and early detection practices.

Natural history of Sanfilippo syndrome type A.

PubMed

Buhrman, Dakota; Thakkar, Kavita; Poe, Michele; Escolar, Maria L

2014-05-01

To describe the natural history of Sanfilippo syndrome type A. We performed a retrospective review of 46 children (21 boys, 25 girls) with Sanfilippo syndrome type A evaluated between January 2000 and April 2013. Assessments included neurodevelopmental evaluations, audiologic testing, and assessment of growth, adaptive behavior, cognitive behavior, motor function, and speech/language skills. Only the baseline evaluation was included for patients who received hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Median age at diagnosis was 35 months, with a median delay between initial symptoms to diagnosis of 24 months. The most common initial symptoms were speech/language delay (48%), dysmorphology (22%), and hearing loss (20%). Early behavioral problems included perseverative chewing and difficulty with toilet training. All children developed sleep difficulties and behavioral changes (e.g., hyperactivity, aggression). More than 93% of the children experienced somatic symptoms such as hepatomegaly (67%), abnormal dentition (39%), enlarged tongue (37%), coarse facial features (76%), and protuberant abdomen (43%). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed a 60% probability of surviving past 17 years of age. Sanfilippo type A is characterized by severe hearing loss and speech delay, followed by a rapid decline in cognitive skills by 3 years of age. Significant somatic disease occurs in more than half of patients. Behavioral difficulties presented between 2 and 4 years of age during a rapid period of cognitive decline. Gross motor abilities are maintained during this period, which results in an active child with impaired cognition. Sleep difficulties are concurrent with the period of cognitive degeneration. There is currently an unacceptable delay in diagnosis, highlighting the need to increase awareness of this disease among clinicians.

Speech comprehension and emotional/behavioral problems in children with specific language impairment (SLI).

PubMed

Gregl, Ana; Kirigin, Marin; Bilać, Snjeiana; Sućeska Ligutić, Radojka; Jaksić, Nenad; Jakovljević, Miro

2014-09-01

This research aims to investigate differences in speech comprehension between children with specific language impairment (SLI) and their developmentally normal peers, and the relationship between speech comprehension and emotional/behavioral problems on Achenbach's Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Caregiver Teacher's Report Form (C-TRF) according to the DSMIV The clinical sample comprised 97preschool children with SLI, while the peer sample comprised 60 developmentally normal preschool children. Children with SLI had significant delays in speech comprehension and more emotional/behavioral problems than peers. In children with SLI, speech comprehension significantly correlated with scores on Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Problems (CBCL and C-TRF), and Pervasive Developmental Problems scales (CBCL)(p<0.05). In the peer sample, speech comprehension significantly correlated with scores on Affective Problems and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Problems (C-TRF) scales. Regression analysis showed that 12.8% of variance in speech comprehension is saturated with 5 CBCL variables, of which Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity (beta = -0.281) and Pervasive Developmental Problems (beta = -0.280) are statistically significant (p < 0.05). In the reduced regression model Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity explains 7.3% of the variance in speech comprehension, (beta = -0.270, p < 0.01). It is possible that, to a certain degree, the same neurodevelopmental process lies in the background of problems with speech comprehension, problems with attention and hyperactivity, and pervasive developmental problems. This study confirms the importance of triage for behavioral problems and attention training in the rehabilitation of children with SLI and children with normal language development that exhibit ADHD symptoms.

Response to Intervention and the Pyramid Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fox, Lise; Carta, Judith; Strain, Phil; Dunlap, Glen; Hemmeter, Mary Louise

2009-01-01

Response to Intervention (RtI) offers a comprehensive model for the prevention of delays in learning and behavior. While this problem-solving framework was initially designed for application within Kindergarten to 12th grade programs, there is substantial research that supports the value of the model for application within early childhood…

Relative Contributions of Three Descriptive Methods: Implications for Behavioral Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pence, Sacha T.; Roscoe, Eileen M.; Bourret, Jason C.; Ahearn, William H.

2009-01-01

This study compared the outcomes of three descriptive analysis methods--the ABC method, the conditional probability method, and the conditional and background probability method--to each other and to the results obtained from functional analyses. Six individuals who had been diagnosed with developmental delays and exhibited problem behavior…

Preschool self regulation predicts later mental health and educational achievement in very preterm and typically developing children.

PubMed

Woodward, Lianne J; Lu, Zhigang; Morris, Alyssa R; Healey, Dione M

2017-02-01

To examine the extent to which preschool emotional and behavioral regulatory difficulties were associated with an increased risk of later mental health and educational problems. Of particular interest was whether early regulatory abilities contributed to later risk once baseline child behavioral adjustment and cognitive function were taken into account. Data were drawn from a prospective longitudinal study of 223 children born very preterm (VPT; <32 weeks gestation, n = 110) and full term (37-40 weeks gestation). At corrected ages 2 and 4 years, children's regulatory abilities were assessed using (1) direct observation of child behavior, (2) a modified version of the Emotion Regulation Checklist, and (3) tester ratings of child behavior during neuropsychological testing. At age 9 years, mental health and educational achievement were assessed using the Development and Well-being Assessment interview and the Woodcock Johnson-III Tests of Achievement. VPT-born children had poorer emotional and behavioral regulation across all measures and time points. They also had higher rates of DSM-IV mental health disorder and educational delay at age 9. Across both study groups, poorer self regulation was associated with an increased risk of ADHD, conduct disorder, anxiety disorders and any disorder net of preschool child behavior problems and social risk. In contrast, only associations between early regulation and later language and any educational delay remained significant after adjustment for preschool cognitive functioning and family social risk. Early assessment of regulation in addition to behavioral screening may improve the early identification of preschool children at mental health risk.

Maternal mind-mindedness and toddler behavior problems: The moderating role of maternal trauma and posttraumatic stress.

PubMed

Easterbrooks, M Ann; Crossman, Molly K; Caruso, Alessandra; Raskin, Maryna; Miranda-Julian, Claudia

2017-10-01

Maternal mind-mindedness (MM) reflects a caregiver's tendency to view a child as an individual with an independent mind. Research has linked higher MM with more favorable parenting and child adaptation. The aim of this study was to examine whether MM was associated with toddlers' behavior problems and competence, and the moderating role of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a sample (N = 212) of adolescent mothers and their toddlers. MM was coded from maternal utterances during free play; mothers completed the University of California at Los Angeles Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index and reported on children's behavior problems and competence using the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment. The majority of mothers (84%) experienced trauma; 45% of these mothers met criteria for partial or full PTSD. Trauma was related to greater behavior problems, and PTSD moderated MM-child functioning relations. When mothers experienced full PTSD, there was no relation between MM and behavior problems. With child competence, when compared to children of mothers with no trauma exposure, children of mothers experiencing partial PTSD symptoms were more likely to have delays in competence when mothers made more MM comments. Results are discussed in light of how MM, in the context of trauma and PTSD, may affect parenting.

The Relations Between Sleep, Personality, Behavioral Problems, and School Performance in Adolescents.

PubMed

Schmidt, Ralph E; Van der Linden, Martial

2015-06-01

According to recent meta-analyses, adolescents across different countries and cultures do not get the recommended amount of sleep. Extracurricular activities, part-time jobs, and use of electronic devices in the evening delay bedtime in adolescents. Early school start times also shorten the time for sleep. Insufficient sleep in adolescents has been associated with weakened emotional-behavioral regulation and poor academic achievement. Multicomponent intervention programs have been developed on the basis of cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia to improve sleep in youth. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Sleep in children with autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Kotagal, Suresh; Broomall, Eileen

2012-10-01

Children with autism spectrum disorder demonstrate an increased prevalence of difficulties with sleep initiation and maintenance. The consequences may include alterations in daytime behavior, memory, and learning in patients, and significant stress in caretakers. The dysregulation of melatonin synthesis, sensitization to environmental stimuli, behavioral insomnia syndromes, delayed sleep phase syndrome, rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, and comorbid anxiety, depression, and epilepsy comprise common etiologic factors. The clinical assessment of sleep problems in this population and a management algorithm are presented. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Decisions in Motion: Decision Dynamics during Intertemporal Choice reflect Subjective Evaluation of Delayed Rewards

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

O'Hora, Denis; Carey, Rachel; Kervick, Aoife; Crowley, David; Dabrowski, Maciej

2016-02-01

People tend to discount rewards or losses that occur in the future. Such delay discounting has been linked to many behavioral and health problems, since people choose smaller short-term gains over greater long-term gains. We investigated whether the effect of delays on the subjective value of rewards is expressed in how people move when they make choices. Over 600 patrons of the RISK LAB exhibition hosted by the Science Gallery DublinTM played a short computer game in which they used a computer mouse to choose between amounts of money at various delays. Typical discounting effects were observed and decision dynamics indicated that choosing smaller short-term rewards became easier (i.e., shorter response times, tighter trajectories, less vacillation) as the delays until later rewards increased. Based on a sequence of choices, subjective values of delayed outcomes were estimated and decision dynamics during initial choices predicted these values. Decision dynamics are affected by subjective values of available options and thus provide a means to estimate such values.

Pericentric inversion of chromosome 11 (p14.3q21) associated with developmental delays, hypopigmented skin lesions and abnormal brain MRI findings - a new case report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zachor, D.A.; Lofton, M.

1994-09-01

We report 3 year old male, referred for evaluation of developmental delays. Pregnancy was complicated by oligohydramnios, proteinuria and prematurity. Medical history revealed: bilateral inguinal hernia, small scrotal sac, undescended testes, developmental delays and behavioral problems. The child had: microcephaly, facial dysmorphic features, single palmar creases, hypopigmented skin lesions of variable size, intermittent exotropia and small retracted testes. Neurological examination was normal. Cognitive level was at the average range with mild delay in his adaptive behavior. Expressive language delays and severe articulation disorder were noted, as well as clumsiness, poor control and precision of gross and fine motor skills. Chromosomalmore » analysis of peripheral leukocytes indicated that one of the number 11 chromosomes had undergone a pericentric inversion with breakpoints on the short (p) arm at band p14.3 and the long (q) arm at band q21. An MRI of the brain showed mild delay in myelinization pattern of white matter. Chromosome 11 inversion in other sites was associated with Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome and several malignancies. To our knowledge this is the first description of inv(11)(p14.3q21) that is associated with microcephaly, dysmorphic features, hypopigmented skin lesions and speech delay. This inversion may disrupt the expression of the involved genes. However, additional cases with the same cytogenetic anomaly are needed to explore the phenotypic significance of this disorder.« less

The 7q11.23 Microduplication Syndrome: A Clinical Report with Review of Literature

PubMed Central

Abbas, Elham; Cox, Devin M.; Smith, Teri; Butler, Merlin G.

2016-01-01

We report a 14-year-old adolescent girl with selective mutism (SM) and a 7q11.23 microduplication detected by chromosomal microarray (CMA) analysis and reviewed the literature from 18 published clinical reports. Our patient had specific phobias, SM, extreme anxiety, obesity, cutis marmorata, and a round appearing face with a short neck and over folded ears. We reviewed the published clinical, cognitive, behavioral, and cytogenetic findings grouped by speech and language delay, growth and development, craniofacial, clinical, and behavior and cognitive features due to the 7q11.23 microduplication. This microduplication syndrome is characterized by speech delay (91%), social anxiety (42%), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, 37%), autism spectrum disorder (29%), and separation anxiety (13%). Other findings include abnormal brain imaging (80%), congenital heart and vascular defects (54%), and mild intellectual disability (38%). We then compared the phenotype with Williams–Beuren syndrome (WBS) which is due to a deletion of the same chromosome region. Both syndromes have abnormal brain imaging, hypotonia, delayed motor development, joint laxity, mild intellectual disability, ADHD, autism, and poor visuospatial skills but opposite or dissimilar findings regarding speech and behavioral patterns, cardiovascular problems, and social interaction. Those with WBS are prone to have hyperverbal speech, lack of stranger anxiety, and supravalvular aortic stenosis while those with the 7q11.23 microduplication have speech delay, SM, social anxiety, and are prone to aortic dilatation. PMID:27617154

The 7q11.23 Microduplication Syndrome: A Clinical Report with Review of Literature.

PubMed

Abbas, Elham; Cox, Devin M; Smith, Teri; Butler, Merlin G

2016-09-01

We report a 14-year-old adolescent girl with selective mutism (SM) and a 7q11.23 microduplication detected by chromosomal microarray (CMA) analysis and reviewed the literature from 18 published clinical reports. Our patient had specific phobias, SM, extreme anxiety, obesity, cutis marmorata, and a round appearing face with a short neck and over folded ears. We reviewed the published clinical, cognitive, behavioral, and cytogenetic findings grouped by speech and language delay, growth and development, craniofacial, clinical, and behavior and cognitive features due to the 7q11.23 microduplication. This microduplication syndrome is characterized by speech delay (91%), social anxiety (42%), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, 37%), autism spectrum disorder (29%), and separation anxiety (13%). Other findings include abnormal brain imaging (80%), congenital heart and vascular defects (54%), and mild intellectual disability (38%). We then compared the phenotype with Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) which is due to a deletion of the same chromosome region. Both syndromes have abnormal brain imaging, hypotonia, delayed motor development, joint laxity, mild intellectual disability, ADHD, autism, and poor visuospatial skills but opposite or dissimilar findings regarding speech and behavioral patterns, cardiovascular problems, and social interaction. Those with WBS are prone to have hyperverbal speech, lack of stranger anxiety, and supravalvular aortic stenosis while those with the 7q11.23 microduplication have speech delay, SM, social anxiety, and are prone to aortic dilatation.

RELATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS OF THREE DESCRIPTIVE METHODS: IMPLICATIONS FOR BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT

PubMed Central

Pence, Sacha T; Roscoe, Eileen M; Bourret, Jason C; Ahearn, William H

2009-01-01

This study compared the outcomes of three descriptive analysis methods—the ABC method, the conditional probability method, and the conditional and background probability method—to each other and to the results obtained from functional analyses. Six individuals who had been diagnosed with developmental delays and exhibited problem behavior participated. Functional analyses indicated that participants' problem behavior was maintained by social positive reinforcement (n  =  2), social negative reinforcement (n  =  2), or automatic reinforcement (n  =  2). Results showed that for all but 1 participant, descriptive analysis outcomes were similar across methods. In addition, for all but 1 participant, the descriptive analysis outcome differed substantially from the functional analysis outcome. This supports the general finding that descriptive analysis is a poor means of determining functional relations. PMID:19949536

Self-reported sleep patterns, sleep problems, and behavioral problems among school children aged 8–11 years

PubMed Central

Hoedlmoser, K.; Kloesch, G.; Wiater, A.; Schabus, M.

2012-01-01

Objectives Investigation of sleep patterns, sleep problems, and behavioral problems in 8- to 11-year-old children. Methods A total of 330 children (age: M=9.52; SD=0.56; range=8–11 years; 47.3% girls) in the 4th grade of elementary school in Salzburg (Austria) completed a self-report questionnaire (80 items) to survey sleep patterns, sleep problems, and behavioral problems. Results Children aged 8–11 years slept approximately 10 h and 13 min on school days (SD=47 min) as well as on weekends (SD=81 min); girls slept significantly longer on weekends than boys. Most common self-reported sleep problems were dryness of the mouth (26.6%), sleep onset delay (21.9%), bedtime resistance (20.3%), and restless legs (19.4%). There was a significant association between watching TV as well as playing computer games prior to sleep with frightful dreams. Daytime sleepiness indicated by difficulty waking up (33.4%) and having a hard time getting out of bed (28.5%) was also very prominent. However, children in Salzburg seemed to be less tired during school (6.6%) or when doing homework (4.8%) compared to other nationalities. Behavioral problems (e.g., emotional symptoms, hyperactivity and inattention, conduct problems, peer problems) and daytime sleepiness were both significantly associated with sleep problems: the more sleep problems reported, the worse behavioral problems and daytime sleepiness were. Moreover, we could show that sharing the bed with a pet was also related to sleep problems. Conclusions Self-reported sleep problems among 8- to 11-year-old children are very common. There is a strong relationship between sleep disorders and behavioral problems. Routine screening and diagnosis as well as treatment of sleep disorders in school children should, therefore, be established in the future. PMID:23162377

The Role of Government and NGO in Promoting Wellness of People with Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jiar, Yeo Kee; Handayani, Lina; Xi, Lu

2014-01-01

People with Down Syndrome (PWDS) experience cognitive delays indicated by difficulties with cognition, long-term memory and non-verbal problem solving skills. PWDS have specific speech and language impairments which affect all aspects of development. Some children develop difficult behaviors which cause family stress and affect social and…

Transactional Problem Content in Cost Discounting: Parallel Effects for Probability and Delay

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Stephen; Oaksford, Mike

2011-01-01

Four experiments investigated the effects of transactional content on temporal and probabilistic discounting of costs. Kusev, van Schaik, Ayton, Dent, and Chater (2009) have shown that content other than gambles can alter decision-making behavior even when associated value and probabilities are held constant. Transactions were hypothesized to lead…

Maternal Sensitivity and Overt Aggression in Young Children with Down Syndrome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Niccols, Alison; Milligan, Karen; Chisholm, Vivienne; Atkinson, Leslie

2011-01-01

Children with genetic syndromes offer a unique opportunity to combine genetic and environmental approaches to the study of aggression. Children with genetic syndromes associated with developmental delay are at increased risk for behavior problems, but little is known about risk and resilience factors. In this study, we examined maternal…

Mental Disorders in Five-Year-Old Children with or without Developmental Delay: Focus on ADHD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, Bruce L.; Neece, Cameron L.; Fenning, Rachel M.; Crnic, Keith A.; Blacher, Jan

2010-01-01

Epidemiological studies of children and adolescents with intellectual disability have found 30 to 50% exhibiting clinically significant behavior problems. Few studies, however, have assessed young children, included a cognitively typical comparison group, assessed for specific disorders, and/or studied family correlates of diagnosis. We assessed…

A randomized controlled trial evaluating a low-intensity interactive online parenting intervention, Triple P Online Brief, with parents of children with early onset conduct problems.

PubMed

Baker, Sabine; Sanders, Matthew R; Turner, Karen M T; Morawska, Alina

2017-04-01

This randomized controlled trial examined the efficacy of Triple P Online Brief, a low-intensity online positive parenting program for parents of children with early onset disruptive behavior problems. Two hundred parents with 2-9-year-old children displaying early onset disruptive behavior difficulties were randomly assigned to either the intervention condition (n = 100) or a Waitlist Control group (n = 100). At 8-week post-assessment, parents in the intervention group displayed significantly less use of ineffective parenting strategies and significantly more confidence in dealing with a range of behavior concerns. These effects were maintained at 9-month follow-up assessment. A delayed effect was found for child behavior problems, with parents in the intervention group reporting significantly fewer and less frequent child behavior problems at follow-up, but not at post-assessment. All effect sizes were in the small to medium range. There were no significant improvements in observed negative parent and child behavior. No change was seen for parents' adjustment, anger, or conflict over parenting. Consumer satisfaction ratings for the program were high. A brief, low-intensity parenting program delivered via the Internet can bring about significant improvements in parenting and child behavior. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development and validation of the Delaying Gratification Inventory.

PubMed

Hoerger, Michael; Quirk, Stuart W; Weed, Nathan C

2011-09-01

Deficits in gratification delay are associated with a broad range of public health problems, such as obesity, risky sexual behavior, and substance abuse. However, 6 decades of research on the construct has progressed less quickly than might be hoped, largely because of measurement issues. Although past research has implicated 5 domains of delay behavior, involving food, physical pleasures, social interactions, money, and achievement, no published measure to date has tapped all 5 components of the content domain. Existing measures have been criticized for limitations related to efficiency, reliability, and construct validity. Using an innovative Internet-mediated approach to survey construction, we developed the 35-item 5-factor Delaying Gratification Inventory (DGI). Evidence from 4 studies and a large, diverse sample of respondents (N = 10,741) provided support for the psychometric properties of the measure. Specifically, scores on the DGI demonstrated strong internal consistency and test-retest reliability for the 35-item composite, each of the 5 domains, and a 10-item short form. The 5-factor structure fit the data well and had good measurement invariance across subgroups. Construct validity was supported by correlations with scores on closely related self-control measures, behavioral ratings, Big Five personality trait measures, and measures of adjustment and psychopathology, including those on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form. DGI scores also showed incremental validity in accounting for well-being and health-related variables. The present investigation holds implications for improving public health, accelerating future research on gratification delay, and facilitating survey construction research more generally by demonstrating the suitability of an Internet-mediated strategy.

Development and validation of the Delaying Gratification Inventory

PubMed Central

Hoerger, Michael; Quirk, Stuart W.; Weed, Nathan C.

2011-01-01

Deficits in gratification delay are associated with a broad range of public health problems, such as obesity, risky sexual behavior, and substance abuse. However, six decades of research on the construct has progressed less quickly than might be hoped, largely due to measurement issues. Although past research implicates five domains of delay behavior, involving food, physical pleasures, social interactions, money, and achievement, no published measure to date has tapped all five components of the content domain. Existing measures have been criticized for limitations related to efficiency, reliability, and construct validity. Using an innovative Internet-mediated approach to survey construction, we developed the 35-item five-factor Delaying Gratification Inventory (DGI). Evidence from four studies and a large, diverse sample of respondents (N = 10,741) provided support for the psychometric properties of the measure. Specifically, scores on the DGI demonstrated strong internal consistency and test-retest reliability for the 35-item composite, each of the five domains, and a 10-item short-form. The five-factor structure fit the data well and had good measurement invariance across subgroups. Construct validity was supported by correlations with scores on closely-related self-control measures, behavioral ratings, Big Five personality trait measures, and measures of adjustment and psychopathology, including those on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF). DGI scores also showed incremental validity in accounting for well-being and health-related variables. The present investigation holds implications for improving public health, accelerating future research on gratification delay, and facilitating survey construction research more generally by demonstrating the suitability of an Internet-mediated strategy. PMID:21480721

Zooming in on children's behavior during delay of gratification: Disentangling impulsigenic and volitional processes underlying self-regulation.

PubMed

Neuenschwander, Regula; Blair, Clancy

2017-02-01

When delaying gratification, both motivational and regulatory processes are likely to be at play; however, the relative contributions of motivational and regulatory influences on delay behavior are unclear. By examining behavioral responses during a delay task, this study sought to examine the motivational (anticipatory behavior) and regulatory mechanisms (executive function and self-control strategies) underlying children's self-regulation. The participants, 65 5- to 9-year-old children (M age =7.19years, SD=0.89), were video-recorded during a delay procedure and later coded for anticipatory behaviors (e.g., gazing intensely at the tablet) and self-control strategies. Children also completed two executive function (EF) tasks. We found that anticipatory behavior was curvilinearly related to delay time. Children showing either very low or very high levels of anticipatory behavior were not able to wait the entire time. Furthermore, our results indicated that anticipatory behavior interacted with EF to predict delay time. Specifically, anticipatory behavior was negatively related to delay time only if EF abilities were low. Finally, self-control strategies also interacted with EF to predict children's ability to delay. Spontaneous engagement in self-control strategies such as fidgeting and engagement in alternative activities were beneficial for children with low EF but were unrelated to delay time for children with high EF. Results indicate the value of examining motivational and regulatory influences on delay behavior. Lapses in self-regulation may be due to the combination of powerful impulsigenic (i.e., anticipatory behavior) and weak volitional processes (i.e., EF, self-control strategies). Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN IMPULSIVE CHOICE AND TIMING IN RATS

PubMed Central

Galtress, Tiffany; Garcia, Ana; Kirkpatrick, Kimberly

2012-01-01

Individual differences in impulsive choice behavior have been linked to a variety of behavioral problems including substance abuse, smoking, gambling, and poor financial decision-making. Given the potential importance of individual differences in impulsive choice as a predictor of behavioral problems, the present study sought to measure the extent of individual differences in a normal sample of hooded Lister rats. Three experiments utilized variations of a delay discounting task to measure the degree of variation in impulsive choice behavior across individual rats. The individual differences accounted for 22–55% of the variance in choice behavior across the three experiments. In Experiments 2 and 3, the individual differences were still apparent when behavior was measured across multiple choice points. Large individual differences in the rate of responding, and modest individual differences in timing of responding were also observed during occasional peak trials. The individual differences in timing and rate, however, did not correlate consistently with individual differences in choice behavior. This suggests that a variety of factors may affect choice behavior, response rate, and response timing. PMID:22851792

Predictors of Poor School Readiness in Children Without Developmental Delay at Age 2

PubMed Central

Dudovitz, Rebecca N.; Coker, Tumaini R.; Barnert, Elizabeth S.; Biely, Christopher; Li, Ning; Szilagyi, Peter G.; Larson, Kandyce; Halfon, Neal; Zimmerman, Frederick J.; Chung, Paul J.

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Current recommendations emphasize developmental screening and surveillance to identify developmental delays (DDs) for referral to early intervention (EI) services. Many young children without DDs, however, are at high risk for poor developmental and behavioral outcomes by school entry but are ineligible for EI. We developed models for 2-year-olds without DD that predict, at kindergarten entry, poor academic performance and high problem behaviors. METHODS: Data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), were used for this study. The analytic sample excluded children likely eligible for EI because of DDs or very low birth weight. Dependent variables included low academic scores and high problem behaviors at the kindergarten wave. Regression models were developed by using candidate predictors feasibly obtainable during typical 2-year well-child visits. Models were cross-validated internally on randomly selected subsamples. RESULTS: Approximately 24% of all 2-year-old children were ineligible for EI at 2 years of age but still had poor academic or behavioral outcomes at school entry. Prediction models each contain 9 variables, almost entirely parental, social, or economic. Four variables were associated with both academic and behavioral risk: parental education below bachelor’s degree, little/no shared reading at home, food insecurity, and fair/poor parental health. Areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curve were 0.76 for academic risk and 0.71 for behavioral risk. Adding the mental scale score from the Bayley Short Form–Research Edition did not improve areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curve for either model. CONCLUSIONS: Among children ineligible for EI services, a small set of clinically available variables at age 2 years predicted academic and behavioral outcomes at school entry. PMID:27432845

Effects of Interactive Voice Response Self-Monitoring on Natural Resolution of Drinking Problems: Utilization and Behavioral Economic Factors

PubMed Central

Tucker, Jalie A.; Roth, David L.; Huang, Jin; Scott Crawford, M.; Simpson, Cathy A.

2012-01-01

Objective: Most problem drinkers do not seek help, and many recover on their own. A randomized controlled trial evaluated whether supportive interactive voice response (IVR) self-monitoring facilitated such “natural” resolutions. Based on behavioral economics, effects on drinking outcomes were hypothesized to vary with drinkers’ baseline “time horizons,” reflecting preferences among commodities of different value available over different delays and with their IVR utilization. Method: Recently resolved untreated problem drinkers were randomized to a 24-week IVR self-monitoring program (n = 87) or an assessment-only control condition (n = 98). Baseline interviews assessed outcome predictors including behavioral economic measures of reward preferences (delay discounting, pre-resolution monetary allocation to alcohol vs. savings). Six-month outcomes were categorized as resolved abstinent, resolved nonabstinent, unresolved, or missing. Complier average causal effect (CACE) models examined IVR self-monitoring effects. Results: IVR self-monitoring compliers (≥70% scheduled calls completed) were older and had greater pre-resolution drinking control and lower discounting than noncompliers (<70%). A CACE model interaction showed that observed compliers in the IVR group with shorter time horizons (expressed by greater pre-resolution spending on alcohol than savings) were more likely to attain moderation than abstinent resolutions compared with predicted compliers in the control group with shorter time horizons and with all noncompliers. Intention-to-treat analytical models revealed no IVR-related effects. More balanced spending on savings versus alcohol predicted moderation in both approaches. Conclusions: IVR interventions should consider factors affecting IVR utilization and drinking outcomes, including person-specific behavioral economic variables. CACE models provide tools to evaluate interventions involving extended participation. PMID:22630807

On the Behavioral Side of Procrastination: Exploring Behavioral Delay in Real-Life Settings

PubMed Central

Svartdal, Frode; Granmo, Sjur; Færevaag, Fredrik S.

2018-01-01

This paper examines how procrastinators behave differently from non-procrastinators in implementing intended behavior. By focusing on time-related attributes of behavior, we demonstrate in five studies (aggregated N = 965) that onset delay seems to be a preferred option for procrastinators in common daily situations. Thus, when an action possibility is available for intended behavior, procrastinators tend to delay behavior onset, both in actual behavior and in onset preferences, often instigating chains of events with negative consequences. We discuss possible mechanisms responsible for such delays and explore how such mechanisms generate and sustain dilatory behavior. We conclude that a better understanding of why behavioral delays occur in early phases of action implementation is of importance in understanding and preventing procrastination. PMID:29867696

On the Behavioral Side of Procrastination: Exploring Behavioral Delay in Real-Life Settings.

PubMed

Svartdal, Frode; Granmo, Sjur; Færevaag, Fredrik S

2018-01-01

This paper examines how procrastinators behave differently from non-procrastinators in implementing intended behavior. By focusing on time-related attributes of behavior, we demonstrate in five studies (aggregated N = 965) that onset delay seems to be a preferred option for procrastinators in common daily situations. Thus, when an action possibility is available for intended behavior, procrastinators tend to delay behavior onset, both in actual behavior and in onset preferences, often instigating chains of events with negative consequences. We discuss possible mechanisms responsible for such delays and explore how such mechanisms generate and sustain dilatory behavior. We conclude that a better understanding of why behavioral delays occur in early phases of action implementation is of importance in understanding and preventing procrastination.

Prevention of problem behavior by teaching functional communication and self-control skills to preschoolers.

PubMed

Luczynski, Kevin C; Hanley, Gregory P

2013-01-01

We evaluated the effects of the preschool life skills program (PLS; Hanley, Heal, Tiger, & Ingvarsson, 2007) on the acquisition and maintenance of functional communication and self-control skills, as well as its effect on problem behavior, of small groups of preschoolers at risk for school failure. Six children were taught to request teacher attention, teacher assistance, and preferred materials, and to tolerate delays to and denial of those events during child-led, small-group activities. Teaching strategies included instruction, modeling, role play, and differential reinforcement. Six additional children randomly assigned to similarly sized control groups participated in small-group activities but did not experience the PLS program. Within-subject and between-groups designs showed that the PLS teaching procedures were functionally related to the improvements and maintenance of the skills and prevention of problem behavior. Stakeholder responses on a social acceptability questionnaire indicated that they were satisfied with the form of the targeted social skills, the improvements in the children's performance, and the teaching strategies. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Primary School Curriculum for Educable Mentally Retarded Children: A Turkish Case

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Demirel, Melek

2010-01-01

Educable mental retardation is a delay in acquiring basic reading, writing and counting skills emerging through late speaking and linguistic development along with social, emotional or behavioral problems. It is pointed out that such children have intelligence in the 45-74 range, and that they are incompetent in terms of language skills,…

Refining the Classification of Children with Selective Mutism: A Latent Profile Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohan, Sharon L.; Chavira, Denise A.; Shipon-Blum, Elisa; Hitchcock, Carla; Roesch, Scott C.; Stein, Murray B.

2008-01-01

The goal of this study was to develop an empirically derived classification system for selective mutism (SM) using parent-report measures of social anxiety, behavior problems, and communication delays. The sample consisted of parents of 130 children (ages 5-12) with SM. Results from latent profile analysis supported a 3-class solution made up of…

The Developmental Outcome of Children Born to Heroin-Dependent Mothers, Raised at Home or Adopted.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ornoy, Asher; And Others

1996-01-01

Children born to heroin-dependent mothers (n=83) were compared to 76 children born to heroin-dependent fathers and to 3 control groups with and without environmental deprivation and health problems. Results found that developmental delays and behavioral disorders found among heroin-exposed children resulted primarily from severe environmental…

Dissonance between Parent-Selected Bedtimes and Young Children's Circadian Physiology Influences Nighttime Settling Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LeBourgeois, Monique K.; Wright, Kenneth P., Jr.; LeBourgeois, Hannah B.; Jenni, Oskar G.

2013-01-01

Nighttime settling difficulties (i.e., bedtime resistance, sleep-onset delay) occur in about 25% of young children and are associated with attentional, behavioral, and emotional problems. We examined whether the timing of internal (endogenous) circadian melatonin phase (i.e., dim light melatonin onset; DLMO) and its relationship with…

Pre-school children with and without developmental delay: behaviour problems and parenting stress over time.

PubMed

Baker, B L; McIntyre, L L; Blacher, J; Crnic, K; Edelbrock, C; Low, C

2003-01-01

Children with intellectual disability are at heightened risk for behaviour problems and diagnosed mental disorder. The present authors studied the early manifestation and continuity of problem behaviours in 205 pre-school children with and without developmental delays. Behaviour problems were quite stable over the year from age 36-48 months. Children with developmental delays were rated higher on behaviour problems than their non-delayed peers, and were three times as likely to score in the clinical range. Mothers and fathers showed high agreement in their rating of child problems, especially in the delayed group. Parenting stress was also higher in the delayed group, but was related to the extent of behaviour problems rather than to the child's developmental delay. Over time, a transactional model fit the relationship between parenting stress and behaviour problems: high parenting stress contributed to a worsening in child behaviour problems over time, and high child behaviour problems contributed to a worsening in parenting stress. Findings for mothers and fathers were quite similar.

Physicians' duties and the non-identity problem.

PubMed

Hope, Tony; McMillan, John

2012-01-01

The non-identity problem arises when an intervention or behavior changes the identity of those affected. Delaying pregnancy is an example of such a behavior. The problem is whether and in what ways such changes in identity affect moral considerations. While a great deal has been written about the non-identity problem, relatively little has been written about the implications for physicians and how they should understand their duties. We argue that the non-identity problem can make a crucial moral difference in some circumstances, and that it has some interesting implications for when it is or is not right for a physician to refuse to accede to a patient's request. If a physician is asked to provide an intervention (identity preserving) that makes a person worse off, then such harm provides a good reason for the physician to refuse to provide the intervention. However, in cases where different (identity-altering) interventions result in different people having a better or worse life, physicians should normally respect patient choice.

Behavioral and cognitive outcomes for clinical trials in children with neurofibromatosis type 1.

PubMed

van der Vaart, Thijs; Rietman, André B; Plasschaert, Ellen; Legius, Eric; Elgersma, Ype; Moll, Henriëtte A

2016-01-12

To evaluate the appropriateness of cognitive and behavioral outcome measures in clinical trials in neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) by analyzing the degree of deficits compared to reference groups, test-retest reliability, and how scores correlate between outcome measures. Data were analyzed from the Simvastatin for cognitive deficits and behavioral problems in patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1-SIMCODA) trial, a randomized placebo-controlled trial of simvastatin for cognitive deficits and behavioral problems in children with NF1. Outcome measures were compared with age-specific reference groups to identify domains of dysfunction. Pearson r was computed for before and after measurements within the placebo group to assess test-retest reliability. Principal component analysis was used to identify the internal structure in the outcome data. Strongest mean score deviations from the reference groups were observed for full-scale intelligence (-1.1 SD), Rey Complex Figure Test delayed recall (-2.0 SD), attention problems (-1.2 SD), and social problems (-1.1 SD). Long-term test-retest reliability were excellent for Wechsler scales (r > 0.88), but poor to moderate for other neuropsychological tests (r range 0.52-0.81) and Child Behavioral Checklist subscales (r range 0.40-0.79). The correlation structure revealed 2 strong components in the outcome measures behavior and cognition, with no correlation between these components. Scores on psychosocial quality of life correlate strongly with behavioral problems and less with cognitive deficits. Children with NF1 show distinct deficits in multiple domains. Many outcome measures showed weak test-retest correlations over the 1-year trial period. Cognitive and behavioral outcomes are complementary. This analysis demonstrates the need to include reliable outcome measures on a variety of cognitive and behavioral domains in clinical trials for NF1. © 2015 American Academy of Neurology.

Decisions in Motion: Decision Dynamics during Intertemporal Choice reflect Subjective Evaluation of Delayed Rewards

PubMed Central

O’Hora, Denis; Carey, Rachel; Kervick, Aoife; Crowley, David; Dabrowski, Maciej

2016-01-01

People tend to discount rewards or losses that occur in the future. Such delay discounting has been linked to many behavioral and health problems, since people choose smaller short-term gains over greater long-term gains. We investigated whether the effect of delays on the subjective value of rewards is expressed in how people move when they make choices. Over 600 patrons of the RISK LAB exhibition hosted by the Science Gallery DublinTM played a short computer game in which they used a computer mouse to choose between amounts of money at various delays. Typical discounting effects were observed and decision dynamics indicated that choosing smaller short-term rewards became easier (i.e., shorter response times, tighter trajectories, less vacillation) as the delays until later rewards increased. Based on a sequence of choices, subjective values of delayed outcomes were estimated and decision dynamics during initial choices predicted these values. Decision dynamics are affected by subjective values of available options and thus provide a means to estimate such values. PMID:26867497

Integrating Behavioral Economics and Behavioral Genetics: Delayed Reward Discounting as an Endophenotype for Addictive Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacKillop, James

2013-01-01

Delayed reward discounting is a behavioral economic index of impulsivity, referring to how much an individual devalues a reward based on its delay in time. As a behavioral process that varies considerably across individuals, delay discounting has been studied extensively as a model for self-control, both in the general population and in clinical…

Neurodevelopmental retardation, as assessed clinically and with magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography, associated with perinatal dioxin exposure.

PubMed

Ten Tusscher, G W; Leijs, M M; de Boer, L C C; Legler, J; Olie, K; Spekreijse, H; van Dijk, B W; Vulsma, T; Briët, J; Ilsen, A; Koppe, J G

2014-09-01

In 1980s Western Europe, human perinatal exposure to background levels of dioxins was rather high. We therefore evaluated the neurodevelopment of our cohort during the prepubertal period and in adolescence. At prepubertal age (7-12 years) 41 children were tested. Both neuromotor functioning and psychological testing were performed (Dutch version of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-R) and the Dutch version of the Child Behavior Checklist for ages 4-18 years (CBCL 4-18) and the Teacher Report Form (TRF)). Neurophysiological tests were performed using magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography. In adolescence (14-18 years) the behavior of 33 children was studied again (CBCL and TRF). And the levels of dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs (dl-PCBs) were measured in serum. At prepubertal age no association was found between perinatal dioxin exposure and verbal, performal and total IQ or with the Touwen's test for neuromotor development. There were behavioral problems associated with both prenatal and postnatal dioxin exposure. In adolescence there were problems associated with the current dioxin levels and dioxin-like-PCBs. Neurophysiological tests revealed clear negative dysfunction. An increase in latency time after a motion stimulus (N2b) of 13 ms (= a delay of 10%) is associated with the higher prenatal dioxin exposure. A similar delay was measured in testing cognitive ability by analyzing the odd ball measurements, N200 and P300, together with an amplitude decrease of 12 %. The delay is indicative of a defective myelinisation and the decrease in amplitude of a loss of neurons. We found effects on behavior in association with the perinatal dioxin exposure and in adolescence in association with the current dioxin levels. Neurophysiological testing is instrumental in the detection of effects of perinatal background levels of chemicals on brain development in normal, healthy children. The clinical, neurological and psychological tests commonly used are not sensitive enough to detect important effects. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Mental and Emotional Well-Being of Children: A Portrait of States and the Nation 2007. The National Survey of Children's Health

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

US Department of Health and Human Services, 2010

2010-01-01

Children, like adults, may have mental health problems, including depression and anxiety. They may also have behavioral conditions, such as conduct disorders; cognitive disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder; or neurological conditions, such as Tourette Syndrome. Children may also be affected by delays in their physical, cognitive, or…

Acetylcholine Esterase Activity and Behavioral Response in Hypoxia Induced Neonatal Rats: Effect of Glucose, Oxygen and Epinephrine Supplementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chathu, Finla; Krishnakumar, Amee; Paulose, Cheramadathikudyil S.

2008-01-01

Brain damage due to an episode of hypoxia remains a major problem in infants causing deficit in motor and sensory function. Hypoxia leads to neuronal functional failure, cerebral palsy and neuro-developmental delay with characteristic biochemical and molecular alterations resulting in permanent or transitory neurological sequelae or even death.…

Measuring Procrastination: Psychometric Properties of the Norwegian Versions of the Irrational Procrastination Scale (IPS) and the Pure Procrastination Scale (PPS)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Svartdal, Frode

2017-01-01

Procrastination has been defined in different ways. Two instruments--the Irrational Procrastination Scale (IPS) and the Pure Procrastination Scale (PPS)--focus on a core problem in procrastination--the irrational delay of intended behavior. The present paper examined the psychometric properties of the Norwegian translations of these scales. In…

Emotional attachment and emotional availability tele-intervention for adoptive families.

PubMed

Baker, Megan; Biringen, Zeynep; Meyer-Parsons, Beatrice; Schneider, Abby

2015-01-01

This study evaluated the new online Emotional Attachment and Emotional Availability (EA2) Intervention for use with adoptive families in enhancing parent-child EA, parental perceptions of EA, child attachment behaviors, parent-child emotional attachment, and reducing parent-reported child behavioral problems and parenting-related stress. Participants in this study were adoptive parents and their adopted children ages 1.5 to 5 years old (N = 15 dyads). Participants were placed in an immediate intervention group (IG) or a delayed intervention group (DG) that would receive the 6-week EA2 Tele-Intervention after the IG. Results revealed significant differences in the IG in child behavioral problems, parent-child EA, parental perceptions of EA, and parent-child emotional attachment, improvements not seen in the DG. Analysis of effects of the DG after receiving the EA2 Tele-Intervention revealed significant differences over time also in most of these qualities. © 2015 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.

Patients' and therapists' experiences of general change mechanisms during bug-in-the-eye and delayed video-based supervised cognitive-behavioral therapy. A randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Probst, Thomas; Jakob, Marion; Kaufmann, Yvonne M; Müller-Neng, Julia M B; Bohus, Martin; Weck, Florian

2018-04-01

This secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial investigated whether bug-in-the-eye (BITE) supervision (live computer-based supervision during a psychotherapy session) affects the manner in which patients and therapists experience general change mechanisms (GCMs) during cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). A total of 23 therapists were randomized either to the BITE condition or the control condition (delayed video-based [DVB] supervision). After each session, both patients (BITE: n = 19; DVB: n = 23) and therapists (BITE: n = 11; DVB: n = 12) completed the Helping Alliance Questionnaire (HAQ) and the Bernese Post Session Report (BPSR). The HAQ total score and the 3 secondary factors of the BPSR (interpersonal experiences, intrapersonal experiences, problem actuation) functioned as GCMs. Multilevel models were performed. For patients, GCMs did not develop differently between BITE and DVB during CBT. Therapists rated the alliance as well as interpersonal and intrapersonal experiences not significantly different between BITE and DVB during CBT, but they perceived problem actuation to increase significantly more in BITE than in DVB (p < .05). BITE supervision might be helpful in encouraging CBT therapists to apply interventions, which focus on the activation of relevant problems and related emotions. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Behavioral Economics of Self-Control Failure

PubMed Central

Heshmat, Shahram

2015-01-01

The main idea in this article is that addiction is a consequence of falling victim to decision failures that lead to preference for the addictive behaviors. Addiction is viewed as valuation disease, where the nervous system overvalues cues associated with drugs or drug-taking. Thus, addiction can be viewed as a diminished capacity to choose. Addicted individuals assign lower values to delayed rewards than to immediate ones. The preference for immediate gratification leads to self-control problems. This article highlights a number of motivational forces that can generate self-control failure. PMID:26339218

A Qualitative Study of Migrant-related Stressors, Psychosocial Outcomes and HIV Risk Behavior among Truck Drivers in Zambia

PubMed Central

Ncube, Nomagugu; Simona, Simona J.; Kansankala, Brian; Sinkala, Emmanuel; Raidoo, Jasmin

2017-01-01

Truck drivers are part of mobile populations which have been noted as a key population at risk of HIV in Zambia. This study was aimed at 1) determining Potentially Traumatic Events (PTEs), labor migrant-related stressors, psychosocial problems and HIV risk behaviors among truck drivers in Zambia and 2) examining the relationship between PTEs, migrant-related stressors, psychosocial outcomes and HIV sexual risk behavior among truck drivers in Zambia. We conducted fifteen semi-structured interviews with purposively sampled male truck drivers at trucking companies in Lusaka, Zambia. Findings indicate that truck drivers experience multiple stressors and potentially traumatic incidences, including delays and long waiting hours at borders, exposure to crime and violence, poverty, stress related to resisting temptation of sexual interactions with sex workers or migrant women, and job-related safety concerns. Multiple psychosocial problems such as intimate partner violence, loneliness, anxiety and depression-like symptoms were noted. Transactional sex, coupled with inconsistent condom use were identified as HIV sexual risk behaviors. Findings suggest the critical need to develop HIV prevention interventions which account for mobility, potentially traumatic events, psychosocial problems, and the extreme fear of HIV testing among this key population. PMID:27681145

How much of reinforcement learning is working memory, not reinforcement learning? A behavioral, computational, and neurogenetic analysis

PubMed Central

Collins, Anne G. E.; Frank, Michael J.

2012-01-01

Instrumental learning involves corticostriatal circuitry and the dopaminergic system. This system is typically modeled in the reinforcement learning (RL) framework by incrementally accumulating reward values of states and actions. However, human learning also implicates prefrontal cortical mechanisms involved in higher level cognitive functions. The interaction of these systems remains poorly understood, and models of human behavior often ignore working memory (WM) and therefore incorrectly assign behavioral variance to the RL system. Here we designed a task that highlights the profound entanglement of these two processes, even in simple learning problems. By systematically varying the size of the learning problem and delay between stimulus repetitions, we separately extracted WM-specific effects of load and delay on learning. We propose a new computational model that accounts for the dynamic integration of RL and WM processes observed in subjects' behavior. Incorporating capacity-limited WM into the model allowed us to capture behavioral variance that could not be captured in a pure RL framework even if we (implausibly) allowed separate RL systems for each set size. The WM component also allowed for a more reasonable estimation of a single RL process. Finally, we report effects of two genetic polymorphisms having relative specificity for prefrontal and basal ganglia functions. Whereas the COMT gene coding for catechol-O-methyl transferase selectively influenced model estimates of WM capacity, the GPR6 gene coding for G-protein-coupled receptor 6 influenced the RL learning rate. Thus, this study allowed us to specify distinct influences of the high-level and low-level cognitive functions on instrumental learning, beyond the possibilities offered by simple RL models. PMID:22487033

Community perceptions of developmental and behavioral problems experienced by children living with epilepsy on the Kenyan coast: A qualitative study.

PubMed

Abubakar, Amina; Kariuki, Symon M; Tumaini, Judith Dzombo; Gona, Joseph; Katana, Khamis; Owen, Jacqueline A Phillips; Newton, Charles R

2015-04-01

Childhood epilepsy is common in Africa. However, there are little data on the developmental and behavioral problems experienced by children living with epilepsy, especially qualitative data that capture community perceptions of the challenges faced by these children. Identifying these perceptions using qualitative approaches is important not only to help design appropriate interventions but also to help adapt behavioral tools that are culturally appropriate. We documented the description of these problems as perceived by parents and teachers of children with or without epilepsy. The study involved 70 participants. Data were collected using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions and were analyzed using NVIVO to identify major themes. Our analysis identified four major areas that are perceived to be adversely affected among children with epilepsy. These included internalizing and externalizing problems such as aggression, temper tantrums, and excessive crying. Additionally, developmental delay, especially cognitive deficits and academic underachievement, was also identified as a major problematic area. There is a need to supplement these findings with quantitative estimates and to develop psychosocial and educational interventions to rehabilitate children with epilepsy who have these difficulties. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Classical conditioning for preserving the effects of short melatonin treatment in children with delayed sleep: a pilot study.

PubMed

van Maanen, Annette; Meijer, Anne Marie; Smits, Marcel G; Oort, Frans J

2017-01-01

Melatonin treatment is effective in treating sleep onset problems in children with delayed melatonin onset, but effects usually disappear when treatment is discontinued. In this pilot study, we investigated whether classical conditioning might help in preserving treatment effects of melatonin in children with sleep onset problems, with and without comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism. After a baseline week, 16 children (mean age: 9.92 years, 31% ADHD/autism) received melatonin treatment for 3 weeks and then gradually discontinued the treatment. Classical conditioning was applied by having children drink organic lemonade while taking melatonin and by using a dim red light lamp that was turned on when children went to bed. Results were compared with a group of 41 children (mean age: 9.43 years, 34% ADHD/autism) who received melatonin without classical conditioning. Melatonin treatment was effective in advancing dim light melatonin onset and reducing sleep onset problems, and positive effects were found on health and behavior problems. After stopping melatonin, sleep returned to baseline levels. We found that for children without comorbidity in the experimental group, sleep latency and sleep start delayed less in the stop week, which suggests an effect of classical conditioning. However, classical conditioning seems counterproductive in children with ADHD or autism. Further research is needed to establish these results and to examine other ways to preserve melatonin treatment effects, for example, by applying morning light.

Statistical Mechanics of the Delayed Reward-Based Learning with Node Perturbation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hiroshi Saito,; Kentaro Katahira,; Kazuo Okanoya,; Masato Okada,

2010-06-01

In reward-based learning, reward is typically given with some delay after a behavior that causes the reward. In machine learning literature, the framework of the eligibility trace has been used as one of the solutions to handle the delayed reward in reinforcement learning. In recent studies, the eligibility trace is implied to be important for difficult neuroscience problem known as the “distal reward problem”. Node perturbation is one of the stochastic gradient methods from among many kinds of reinforcement learning implementations, and it searches the approximate gradient by introducing perturbation to a network. Since the stochastic gradient method does not require a objective function differential, it is expected to be able to account for the learning mechanism of a complex system, like a brain. We study the node perturbation with the eligibility trace as a specific example of delayed reward-based learning, and analyzed it using a statistical mechanics approach. As a result, we show the optimal time constant of the eligibility trace respect to the reward delay and the existence of unlearnable parameter configurations.

Feasibility and potential efficacy of the family-centered Prevent-Teach-Reinforce model with families of children with developmental disorders.

PubMed

Bailey, Kathleen M; Blair, Kwang-Sun Cho

2015-12-01

This study examined the feasibility and potential efficacy of the family-centered Prevent-Teach-Reinforce (PTR) model with three families of young children with an autism spectrum disorder or language delay with sensory processing problems. Particularly, the study assessed the family adherence to the PTR intervention, changes in child behavior, family use of the Individualized Behavior Rating Scale Tool (IBRST), procedural integrity, and social validity. A multiple-baseline design across families was used to examine the functional relation between parent-implemented PTR intervention and changes in child behavior. Results indicated that the family-centered PTR process was successful in promoting parents to design and implement the PTR intervention plans with fidelity, and the parents' implemented intervention plans were effective in increasing replacement behavior and decreasing problem behavior across children. The results also indicated that the parents successfully used the IBRST to monitor their child's progress and were highly satisfied with the PTR intervention process and outcomes for their children. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contributions of circadian tendencies and behavioral problems to sleep onset problems of children with ADHD.

PubMed

Gruber, Reut; Fontil, Laura; Bergmame, Lana; Wiebe, Sabrina T; Amsel, Rhonda; Frenette, Sonia; Carrier, Julie

2012-11-28

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are two to three times more likely to experience sleep problems. The purpose of this study is to determine the relative contributions of circadian preferences and behavioral problems to sleep onset problems experienced by children with ADHD and to test for a moderation effect of ADHD diagnosis on the impact of circadian preferences and externalizing problems on sleep onset problems. After initial screening, parents of children meeting inclusion criteria documented child bedtime over 4 nights, using a sleep log, and completed questionnaires regarding sleep, ADHD and demographics to assess bedtime routine prior to PSG. On the fifth night of the study, sleep was recorded via ambulatory assessment of sleep architecture in the child's natural sleep environment employing portable polysomnography equipment. Seventy-five children (26 with ADHD and 49 controls) aged 7-11 years (mean age 8.61 years, SD 1.27 years) participated in the present study. In both groups of children, externalizing problems yielded significant independent contributions to the explained variance in parental reports of bedtime resistance, whereas an evening circadian tendency contributed both to parental reports of sleep onset delay and to PSG-measured sleep-onset latency. No significant interaction effect of behavioral/circadian tendency with ADHD status was evident. Sleep onset problems in ADHD are related to different etiologies that might require different interventional strategies and can be distinguished using the parental reports on the CSHQ.

Subjective costs drive overly patient foraging strategies in rats on an intertemporal foraging task.

PubMed

Wikenheiser, Andrew M; Stephens, David W; Redish, A David

2013-05-14

Laboratory studies of decision making often take the form of two-alternative, forced-choice paradigms. In natural settings, however, many decision problems arise as stay/go choices. We designed a foraging task to test intertemporal decision making in rats via stay/go decisions. Subjects did not follow the rate-maximizing strategy of choosing only food items associated with short delays. Instead, rats were often willing to wait for surprisingly long periods, and consequently earned a lower rate of food intake than they might have by ignoring long-delay options. We tested whether foraging theory or delay discounting models predicted the behavior we observed but found that these models could not account for the strategies subjects selected. Subjects' behavior was well accounted for by a model that incorporated a cost for rejecting potential food items. Interestingly, subjects' cost sensitivity was proportional to environmental richness. These findings are at odds with traditional normative accounts of decision making but are consistent with retrospective considerations having a deleterious influence on decisions (as in the "sunk-cost" effect). More broadly, these findings highlight the utility of complementing existing assays of decision making with tasks that mimic more natural decision topologies.

Estimating the state of a geophysical system with sparse observations: time delay methods to achieve accurate initial states for prediction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

An, Zhe; Rey, Daniel; Ye, Jingxin; Abarbanel, Henry D. I.

2017-01-01

The problem of forecasting the behavior of a complex dynamical system through analysis of observational time-series data becomes difficult when the system expresses chaotic behavior and the measurements are sparse, in both space and/or time. Despite the fact that this situation is quite typical across many fields, including numerical weather prediction, the issue of whether the available observations are "sufficient" for generating successful forecasts is still not well understood. An analysis by Whartenby et al. (2013) found that in the context of the nonlinear shallow water equations on a β plane, standard nudging techniques require observing approximately 70 % of the full set of state variables. Here we examine the same system using a method introduced by Rey et al. (2014a), which generalizes standard nudging methods to utilize time delayed measurements. We show that in certain circumstances, it provides a sizable reduction in the number of observations required to construct accurate estimates and high-quality predictions. In particular, we find that this estimate of 70 % can be reduced to about 33 % using time delays, and even further if Lagrangian drifter locations are also used as measurements.

Subjective costs drive overly patient foraging strategies in rats on an intertemporal foraging task

PubMed Central

Wikenheiser, Andrew M.; Stephens, David W.; Redish, A. David

2013-01-01

Laboratory studies of decision making often take the form of two-alternative, forced-choice paradigms. In natural settings, however, many decision problems arise as stay/go choices. We designed a foraging task to test intertemporal decision making in rats via stay/go decisions. Subjects did not follow the rate-maximizing strategy of choosing only food items associated with short delays. Instead, rats were often willing to wait for surprisingly long periods, and consequently earned a lower rate of food intake than they might have by ignoring long-delay options. We tested whether foraging theory or delay discounting models predicted the behavior we observed but found that these models could not account for the strategies subjects selected. Subjects’ behavior was well accounted for by a model that incorporated a cost for rejecting potential food items. Interestingly, subjects’ cost sensitivity was proportional to environmental richness. These findings are at odds with traditional normative accounts of decision making but are consistent with retrospective considerations having a deleterious influence on decisions (as in the “sunk-cost” effect). More broadly, these findings highlight the utility of complementing existing assays of decision making with tasks that mimic more natural decision topologies. PMID:23630289

Neural activation during delay discounting is associated with 6-month change in risky sexual behavior in adolescents.

PubMed

Gardiner, Casey K; Karoly, Hollis C; Thayer, Rachel E; Gillman, Arielle S; Sabbineni, Amithrupa; Bryan, Angela D

2018-04-19

Identifying cognitive and neural mechanisms of decision making in adolescence can enhance understanding of, and interventions to reduce, risky health behaviors in adolescence. Delay discounting, or the propensity to discount the magnitude of temporally distal rewards, has been associated with diverse health risk behaviors, including risky sex. This cognitive process involves recruitment of reward and cognitive control brain regions, which develop on different trajectories in adolescence and are also implicated in real-world risky decision making. However, no extant research has examined how neural activation during delay discounting is associated with adolescents' risky sexual behavior. To determine whether a relationship exists between adolescents' risky sexual behavior and neural activation during delay discounting. Adolescent participants completed a delay discounting paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning, and they reported risky sexual behavior at baseline, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month follow-up time points. Latent growth curve models were employed to determine relationships between brain activation during delay discounting and change in risky sexual behavior over time. Greater activation in brain regions associated with reward and cognitive control (caudate, putamen, nucleus accumbens, anterior cingulate, insula, orbitofrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) during delay discounting was associated with lower mean levels of risky sexual behavior but greater growth over the period from baseline to 6 months. Neural activation during delay discounting is cross-sectionally and prospectively associated with risky sexual behavior in adolescence, highlighting a neural basis of risky decision-making as well as opportunities for early identification and intervention.

Determining biosonar images using sparse representations.

PubMed

Fontaine, Bertrand; Peremans, Herbert

2009-05-01

Echolocating bats are thought to be able to create an image of their environment by emitting pulses and analyzing the reflected echoes. In this paper, the theory of sparse representations and its more recent further development into compressed sensing are applied to this biosonar image formation task. Considering the target image representation as sparse allows formulation of this inverse problem as a convex optimization problem for which well defined and efficient solution methods have been established. The resulting technique, referred to as L1-minimization, is applied to simulated data to analyze its performance relative to delay accuracy and delay resolution experiments. This method performs comparably to the coherent receiver for the delay accuracy experiments, is quite robust to noise, and can reconstruct complex target impulse responses as generated by many closely spaced reflectors with different reflection strengths. This same technique, in addition to reconstructing biosonar target images, can be used to simultaneously localize these complex targets by interpreting location cues induced by the bat's head related transfer function. Finally, a tentative explanation is proposed for specific bat behavioral experiments in terms of the properties of target images as reconstructed by the L1-minimization method.

Dynamical Behavior of a Malaria Model with Discrete Delay and Optimal Insecticide Control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kar, Tuhin Kumar; Jana, Soovoojeet

In this paper we have proposed and analyzed a simple three-dimensional mathematical model related to malaria disease. We consider three state variables associated with susceptible human population, infected human population and infected mosquitoes, respectively. A discrete delay parameter has been incorporated to take account of the time of incubation period with infected mosquitoes. We consider the effect of insecticide control, which is applied to the mosquitoes. Basic reproduction number is figured out for the proposed model and it is shown that when this threshold is less than unity then the system moves to the disease-free state whereas for higher values other than unity, the system would tend to an endemic state. On the other hand if we consider the system with delay, then there may exist some cases where the endemic equilibrium would be unstable although the numerical value of basic reproduction number may be greater than one. We formulate and solve the optimal control problem by considering insecticide as the control variable. Optimal control problem assures to obtain better result than the noncontrol situation. Numerical illustrations are provided in support of the theoretical results.

The sleeper effect of intimate partner violence exposure: long-term consequences on young children's aggressive behavior.

PubMed

Holmes, Megan R

2013-09-01

Children who have been exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) experience a wide variety of short-term social adjustment and emotional difficulties, including externalizing behavioral problems such as aggression. While children are affected by IPV at all ages, little is known about the long-term consequences of IPV exposure at younger ages. Because early experiences provide the foundation for later development, children exposed to IPV as an infant or toddler may experience worse negative outcomes over time than children never exposed. Using the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), latent growth curve modeling was conducted to examine whether early IPV exposure occurring between birth and age three (n = 107), compared with no exposure (n = 339), affects the development of aggressive behavior over 5 years. This modeling allowed for empirical exploration of developmental trajectories, and considered whether initial social development trajectories and change over time vary according to early IPV exposure. Children who were exposed to more frequent early IPV did not have significantly different aggressive behavior problems initially than children who were never exposed. However, over time, the more frequently children were exposed between birth and 3 years, the more aggressive behavior problems were exhibited by age eight. Results indicate a long-term negative behavioral effect on children who have been exposed to IPV at an early age. An initial assessment directly following exposure to IPV may not be able to identify behavior problems in young children. Because the negative effects of early IPV exposure are delayed until the child is of school age, early intervention is necessary for reducing the risk of later aggressive behavior. © 2013 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry © 2013 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Evaluation of a class wide teaching program for developing preschool life skills.

PubMed

Hanley, Gregory P; Heal, Nicole A; Tiger, Jeffrey H; Ingvarsson, Einar T

2007-01-01

Recently, nonmaternal center-based child care has been linked to problem behavior in young children (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2003). In response, a comprehensive program to promote prosocial skills was evaluated in a classroom of 16 children between the ages of 3 and 5 years. Classroom observations were conducted during evocative situations to determine the likelihood of problem behavior (noncompliance, vocal or motor disruptions, aggression) and preschool life skills. A classwide teaching program was then implemented in a staggered manner across instruction following, functional communication, delay tolerance, and friendship skills. These four categories of preschool life skills, which included two to four related skills, were selected for classwide teaching because they were either identified by educators as important for early school success, have often been taught following functional assessments of more severe problem behavior, or both. Skills were taught on a classwide basis during typically scheduled activities (circle, free play, transitions, meals) via instructions, modeling, role play, and feedback. A multiple probe design showed that the program resulted in an 74% reduction in problem behavior and a more than four-fold increase in preschool life skills. Similar beneficial effects of the program were evident in questionnaire data gathered prior to and at the close of the evaluation. Finally, the teachers who implemented the program reported overall high levels of satisfaction with the classwide teaching program, the target skills, and the results. Implications for the design of early childhood experiences for preempting the development of serious problem behavior are discussed.

Evaluation of a Classwide Teaching Program for Developing Preschool Life Skills

PubMed Central

Hanley, Gregory P; Heal, Nicole A; Tiger, Jeffrey H; Ingvarsson, Einar T

2007-01-01

Recently, nonmaternal center-based child care has been linked to problem behavior in young children (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2003). In response, a comprehensive program to promote prosocial skills was evaluated in a classroom of 16 children between the ages of 3 and 5 years. Classroom observations were conducted during evocative situations to determine the likelihood of problem behavior (noncompliance, vocal or motor disruptions, aggression) and preschool life skills. A classwide teaching program was then implemented in a staggered manner across instruction following, functional communication, delay tolerance, and friendship skills. These four categories of preschool life skills, which included two to four related skills, were selected for classwide teaching because they were either identified by educators as important for early school success, have often been taught following functional assessments of more severe problem behavior, or both. Skills were taught on a classwide basis during typically scheduled activities (circle, free play, transitions, meals) via instructions, modeling, role play, and feedback. A multiple probe design showed that the program resulted in an 74% reduction in problem behavior and a more than four-fold increase in preschool life skills. Similar beneficial effects of the program were evident in questionnaire data gathered prior to and at the close of the evaluation. Finally, the teachers who implemented the program reported overall high levels of satisfaction with the classwide teaching program, the target skills, and the results. Implications for the design of early childhood experiences for preempting the development of serious problem behavior are discussed. PMID:17624068

A Review of Interventions Designed to Increase Sharing Behaviors in Children with Social Delays or Deficits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lane, Justin D.; Ledford, Jennifer R.

2016-01-01

Sharing materials is a complex social behavior that may lead to long-term development of friendships and concomitant increases in related prosocial behaviors. Given the complexities of sharing behaviors, children with social delays or deficits may not recognize when, how, and with whom to share. Because children with social delays or deficits,…

Consensus of satellite cluster flight using an energy-matching optimal control method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Jianjun; Zhou, Liang; Zhang, Bo

2017-11-01

This paper presents an optimal control method for consensus of satellite cluster flight under a kind of energy matching condition. Firstly, the relation between energy matching and satellite periodically bounded relative motion is analyzed, and the satellite energy matching principle is applied to configure the initial conditions. Then, period-delayed errors are adopted as state variables to establish the period-delayed errors dynamics models of a single satellite and the cluster. Next a novel satellite cluster feedback control protocol with coupling gain is designed, so that the satellite cluster periodically bounded relative motion consensus problem (period-delayed errors state consensus problem) is transformed to the stability of a set of matrices with the same low dimension. Based on the consensus region theory in the research of multi-agent system consensus issues, the coupling gain can be obtained to satisfy the requirement of consensus region and decouple the satellite cluster information topology and the feedback control gain matrix, which can be determined by Linear quadratic regulator (LQR) optimal method. This method can realize the consensus of satellite cluster period-delayed errors, leading to the consistency of semi-major axes (SMA) and the energy-matching of satellite cluster. Then satellites can emerge the global coordinative cluster behavior. Finally the feasibility and effectiveness of the present energy-matching optimal consensus for satellite cluster flight is verified through numerical simulations.

Prospective Analysis of Behavioral Economic Predictors of Stable Moderation Drinking Among Problem Drinkers Attempting Natural Recovery

PubMed Central

Tucker, Jalie A.; Cheong, JeeWon; Chandler, Susan D.; Lambert, Brice H.; Pietrzak, Brittney; Kwok, Heather; Davies, Susan L.

2016-01-01

Background As interventions have expanded beyond clinical treatment to include brief interventions for persons with less severe alcohol problems, predicting who can achieve stable moderation drinking has gained importance. Recent behavioral economic (BE) research on natural recovery has shown that active problem drinkers who allocate their monetary expenditures on alcohol and saving for the future over longer time horizons tend to have better subsequent recovery outcomes, including maintenance of stable moderation drinking. The present study compared the predictive utility of this money-based “Alcohol-Savings Discretionary Expenditure” (ASDE) index with multiple BE analogue measures of behavioral impulsivity and self-control, which have seldom been investigated together, to predict outcomes of natural recovery attempts. Methods Community-dwelling problem drinkers, enrolled shortly after stopping abusive drinking without treatment, were followed prospectively for up to a year (N = 175 [75.4% male], M age = 50.65 years). They completed baseline assessments of pre-resolution drinking practices and problems; analogue behavioral choice tasks (Delay Discounting, Melioration-Maximization, and Alcohol Purchase Tasks); and a Timeline Followback interview including expenditures on alcohol compared to voluntary savings (ASDE index) during the pre-resolution year. Results Multinomial logistic regression models showed that, among the BE measures, only the ASDE index predicted stable moderation drinking compared to stable abstinence or unstable resolutions involving relapse. As hypothesized, stable moderation was associated with more balanced pre-resolution allocations to drinking and savings (OR = 1.77, 95% CI = 1.02 ∼ 3.08, p < .05), suggesting it is associated with longer term behavior regulation processes than abstinence. Conclusions The ASDE's unique predictive utility may rest on its comprehensive representation of contextual elements to support this patterning of behavioral allocation. Stable low risk drinking, but not abstinence, requires such regulatory processes. PMID:27775161

Delay of Gratification and Delay Discounting: A Unifying Feedback Model of Delay-Related Impulsive Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reynolds, Brady; Schiffbauer, Ryan

2005-01-01

Delay of Gratification (DG) and Delay Discounting (DD) represent two indices of impulsive behavior often treated as though they represent equivalent or the same underlying processes. However, there are key differences between DG and DD procedures, and between certain research findings with each procedure, that suggest they are not equivalent. In…

Hypersomnia in children: interface with psychiatric disorders.

PubMed

Kotagal, Suresh

2009-10-01

Patients being evaluated in child psychiatry clinics for behavior and mood disturbances frequently exhibit daytime sleepiness. Conversely, patients being evaluated for hypersomnia by sleep specialists may have depressed mood or hyperactive and aggressive behavior. The etiology of daytime sleepiness in children and adolescents is diverse and includes inadequate sleep hygiene, obstructive sleep apnea, delayed sleep phase syndrome, idiopathic hypersomnia, periodic hypersomnia, narcolepsy, and mood disorders per se. Treatment of a sleep disorder can have a favorable impact on alertness and quality of life. A high index of suspicion for sleep problems should be maintained in children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders.

Speech-language and educational consequences of unilateral hearing loss in children.

PubMed

Lieu, Judith E Cho

2004-05-01

In the past, unilateral hearing loss (UHL) in children was thought to have little consequence because speech and language presumably developed appropriately with one normal-hearing ear. Some studies from the 1980s and 1990s have suggested that a significantly increased proportion of children with UHL may have educational and/or behavioral problems, compared with their normal-hearing peers. Limited data exist about the effect of UHL on acquisition of speech and language skills. To review the current literature about the impact UHL has on the development of speech and language and educational achievement. MEDLINE search between 1966 and June 1, 2003, using the medical subject heading "hearing loss," combined with the textword "unilateral." Studies were limited to those written in English, reporting speech-language and/or educational results in children. Articles were read with attention to study design, population, recruitment of subjects, and outcomes measured. Problems in school included a 22% to 35% rate of repeating at least one grade, and 12% to 41% receiving additional educational assistance. Speech and language delays have been reported in some but not all studies. School-age children with UHL appear to have increased rates of grade failures, need for additional educational assistance, and perceived behavioral issues in the classroom. Speech and language delays may occur in some children with UHL, but it is unclear if children "catch up" as they grow older. Research into this area is necessary to clarify these issues and to determine whether interventions may prevent potential problems.

Using Indirect Turbulence Measurements for Real-Time Parameter Estimation in Turbulent Air

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martos, Borja; Morelli, Eugene A.

2012-01-01

The use of indirect turbulence measurements for real-time estimation of parameters in a linear longitudinal dynamics model in atmospheric turbulence was studied. It is shown that measuring the atmospheric turbulence makes it possible to treat the turbulence as a measured explanatory variable in the parameter estimation problem. Commercial off-the-shelf sensors were researched and evaluated, then compared to air data booms. Sources of colored noise in the explanatory variables resulting from typical turbulence measurement techniques were identified and studied. A major source of colored noise in the explanatory variables was identified as frequency dependent upwash and time delay. The resulting upwash and time delay corrections were analyzed and compared to previous time shift dynamic modeling research. Simulation data as well as flight test data in atmospheric turbulence were used to verify the time delay behavior. Recommendations are given for follow on flight research and instrumentation.

Changing Adolescent Sleep Patterns: Factors Affecting them and the Related Problems.

PubMed

Kaur, Harpreet; Bhoday, Harpreet Singh

2017-03-01

Sleep affects physical growth, behavior and emotional development besides determining cognitive functioning, learning and attention especially of a growing child. Adolescence represents one of the critical transitions in the life span and is characterized by a tremendous pace in growth and change that is second only to that of infancy. Adolescent sleep patterns deserve particular attention because of the potential impact on school performance. Average sleep period in adolescents is reduced during school days to around seven hours. The reasons may be biological mainly the sleep phase delay or psychosocial and environmental. These include academic demands, social activities, sports, internet, television viewing, part-time employment, and use of mobile phone at night, peer and parental influence and socioeconomic status. These changing patterns of sleep in adolescents lead to many behavioral sleep problems like Delayed Sleep-phase Syndrome; Difficulties in falling asleep (insomnia); excessive daytime sleepiness, poor academic performance. Decreased sleep in adolescents also causes obesity and other cardio-metabolic abnormalities. This needs an integrated approach involving adolescents themselves, their parents, teachers and specialized physicians to help improve the sleep quantity and quality and lead to a better quality of life and daytime functioning in adolescents. © Journal of the Association of Physicians of India 2011.

Pathologic aerophagia: a rare cause of chronic abdominal distension

PubMed Central

de Jesus, Lisieux Eyer; Cestari, Ana Beatriz C.S.S.; da Silva, Orli Carvalho; Fernandes, Marcia Antunes; Firme, Livia Honorato

2015-01-01

Objective: To describe an adolescent with pathologic aerophagia, a rare condition caused by excessive and inappropriate swallowing of air and to review its treatment and differential diagnoses. Case description: An 11-year-old mentally impaired blind girl presenting serious behavior problems and severe developmental delay with abdominal distension from the last 8 months. Her past history included a Nissen fundoplication. Abdominal CT and abdominal radiographs showed diffuse gas distension of the small bowel and colon. Hirschsprung's disease was excluded. The distention was minimal at the moment the child awoke and maximal at evening, and persisted after control of constipation. Audible repetitive and frequent movements of air swallowing were observed. The diagnosis of pathologic aerophagia associated to obsessive-compulsive disorder and developmental delay was made, but pharmacological treatment was unsuccessful. The patient was submitted to an endoscopic gastrostomy, permanently opened and elevated relative to the stomach. The distention was resolved, while maintaining oral nutrition. Comments: Pathologic aerophagia is a rare self-limiting condition in normal children exposed to high levels of stress and may be a persisting problem in children with psychiatric or neurologic disease. In this last group, the disease may cause serious complications. Pharmacological and behavioral treatments are ill-defined. Severe cases may demand surgical strategies, mainly decompressive gastrostomy. PMID:26100594

Preliminary Evaluation of BIM-based Approaches for Schedule Delay Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chou, Hui-Yu; Yang, Jyh-Bin

2017-10-01

The problem of schedule delay commonly occurs in construction projects. The quality of delay analysis depends on the availability of schedule-related information and delay evidence. More information used in delay analysis usually produces more accurate and fair analytical results. How to use innovative techniques to improve the quality of schedule delay analysis results have received much attention recently. As Building Information Modeling (BIM) technique has been quickly developed, using BIM and 4D simulation techniques have been proposed and implemented. Obvious benefits have been achieved especially in identifying and solving construction consequence problems in advance of construction. This study preforms an intensive literature review to discuss the problems encountered in schedule delay analysis and the possibility of using BIM as a tool in developing a BIM-based approach for schedule delay analysis. This study believes that most of the identified problems can be dealt with by BIM technique. Research results could be a fundamental of developing new approaches for resolving schedule delay disputes.

Emotional, developmental, and behavioral health of American children and their families: a report from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health.

PubMed

Blanchard, Laura T; Gurka, Matthew J; Blackman, James A

2006-06-01

Recent children's health surveys have documented a high prevalence of emotional, developmental, and behavioral problems among children. Data from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health provide new insights into these problems and their association with family function and community participation. These issues have become a current focus of the World Health Organization. Answers to questions of interest from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health were reported using estimates and SEs of rates. Statistical comparisons of rates with chi2 tests at the 0.05 level were made when relevant. The most commonly diagnosed problems among children 6-17 years of age were learning disabilities (11.5%), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (8.8%), and behavioral problems (6.3%); among preschoolers, speech problems (5.8%) and developmental delay (3.2%) were most common. One in 200 children was diagnosed with autism. In contrast, rates of parental concerns about emotional, developmental, or behavioral problems were much higher; for example, 41% of parents had concerns about learning difficulties and 36% about depression or anxiety. Children with developmental problems had lower self-esteem, more depression and anxiety, more problems with learning, missed more school, and were less involved in sports and other community activities. Their families experienced more difficulty in the areas of childcare, employment, parent-child relationships, and caregiver burden. The most recent National Survey of Children's Health mirrored results of previous surveys regarding rates of diagnosed emotional, developmental, and behavioral problems, including an escalating diagnosis of autism among children. Reported rates of parental concerns about these problems were much higher, suggesting possible underdiagnosis of children's problems. Children with chronic problems had diminished family functioning, more school absences, and less participation in community activities compared with other children. Their parents experienced more difficulty with childcare, employment, and parenting skills. A change in treatment emphasis is needed, away from an exclusive focus on a child's developmental and behavioral problems to one that addresses the impacts of these problems on the family and community participation. A new approach to the way these issues are addressed and managed has the potential to enhance the quality of life for a child, as well as the parents, and to produce more meaningful and tangible solutions to these complex and increasingly evident problems.

Health-related quality of life and emotional problems in children surviving brain tumor treatment: A descriptive study of 2 cohorts.

PubMed

Dessens, Arianne B; van Herwerden, Michael C; Aarsen, Femke K; Birnie, Erwin; Catsman-Berrevoets, Coriene E

2016-08-01

The survival of childhood brain tumors has improved in the past 30 years, but acquired brain injury due to damage caused by tumor invasion and side effects of different treatment modalities frequently occurs. This study focused on residual impairments, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and emotional and behavioral problems in 2 cohorts of survivors diagnosed and treated for various types of brain tumors. Survivors in the 2004 cohort visited the Erasmus Medical Centre for standardized follow-up between 2003 and 2004, and in the 2014 cohort, between 2012 and 2014. Data of neurologically impairments of all children were extracted from medical records. Parents and survivors filled out questionnaires on quality of life and emotional and behavioral problems. In both cohorts, approximately 55% of the survivors displayed neurologic impairments. In comparison with the healthy reference group, a reduced parent-reported quality of life was found on the Motor, Cognition, and Autonomy (Cohort 2004) scales. Comparison between the cohorts showed that parents in the 2004 cohort reported a higher HRQoL on the Motor and Cognitive functioning scales. In the 2014 cohort, children reported less negative emotions than healthy children. No increase in emotional or behavioral problems were reported by children in both cohorts, whereas parents reported problems in social functioning and isolation related to a delay in emotional development. Children surviving brain tumor treatment have a reduced quality of life. The authors therefore recommend regular screening of HRQoL and emotional and behavioral problems and referral to specific aftercare.

Caudate responses to reward anticipation associated with delay discounting behavior in healthy youth

PubMed Central

Benningfield, Margaret M.; Blackford, Jennifer U.; Ellsworth, Melissa E.; Samanez-Larkin, Gregory R.; Martin, Peter R.; Cowan, Ronald L.; Zald, David H.

2014-01-01

Background Choices requiring delay of gratification made during adolescence can have significant impact on life trajectory. Willingness to delay gratification can be measured using delay discounting tasks that require a choice between a smaller immediate reward and a larger delayed reward. Individual differences in the subjective value of delayed rewards are associated with risk for development of psychopathology including substance abuse. The neurobiological underpinnings related to these individual differences early in life are not fully understood. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we tested the hypothesis that individual differences in delay discounting behavior in healthy youth are related to differences in responsiveness to potential reward. Method Nineteen 10 to 14 year-olds performed a monetary incentive delay task to assess neural sensitivity to potential reward and a questionnaire to measure discounting of future monetary rewards. Results Left ventromedial caudate activation during anticipation of potential reward was negatively correlated with delay discounting behavior. There were no regions where brain responses during notification of reward outcome were associated with discounting behavior. Conclusions Brain activation during anticipation of potential reward may serve as a marker for individual differences in ability or willingness to delay gratification in healthy youth. PMID:24309299

Parent–Child Interaction Therapy: current perspectives

PubMed Central

Lieneman, Corey C; Brabson, Laurel A; Highlander, April; Wallace, Nancy M; McNeil, Cheryl B

2017-01-01

Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an empirically supported intervention originally developed to treat disruptive behavior problems in children between the ages of 2 and 7 years. Since its creation over 40 years ago, PCIT has been studied internationally with various populations and has been found to be an effective intervention for numerous behavioral and emotional issues. This article summarizes progress in the PCIT literature over the past decade (2006–2017) and outlines future directions for this important work. Recent PCIT research related to treatment effectiveness, treatment components, adaptations for specific populations (age groups, cultural groups, military families, individuals diagnosed with specific disorders, trauma survivors, and the hearing-impaired), format changes (group and home-based), teacher–child interaction training (TCIT), intensive PCIT (I-PCIT), treatment as prevention (for externalizing problems, child maltreatment, and developmental delays), and implementation are discussed. PMID:28790873

Distributed optimisation problem with communication delay and external disturbance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tran, Ngoc-Tu; Xiao, Jiang-Wen; Wang, Yan-Wu; Yang, Wu

2017-12-01

This paper investigates the distributed optimisation problem for the multi-agent systems (MASs) with the simultaneous presence of external disturbance and the communication delay. To solve this problem, a two-step design scheme is introduced. In the first step, based on the internal model principle, the internal model term is constructed to compensate the disturbance asymptotically. In the second step, a distributed optimisation algorithm is designed to solve the distributed optimisation problem based on the MASs with the simultaneous presence of disturbance and communication delay. Moreover, in the proposed algorithm, each agent interacts with its neighbours through the connected topology and the delay occurs during the information exchange. By utilising Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional, the delay-dependent conditions are derived for both slowly and fast time-varying delay, respectively, to ensure the convergence of the algorithm to the optimal solution of the optimisation problem. Several numerical simulation examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.

Effects of computing time delay on real-time control systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shin, Kang G.; Cui, Xianzhong

1988-01-01

The reliability of a real-time digital control system depends not only on the reliability of the hardware and software used, but also on the speed in executing control algorithms. The latter is due to the negative effects of computing time delay on control system performance. For a given sampling interval, the effects of computing time delay are classified into the delay problem and the loss problem. Analysis of these two problems is presented as a means of evaluating real-time control systems. As an example, both the self-tuning predicted (STP) control and Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control are applied to the problem of tracking robot trajectories, and their respective effects of computing time delay on control performance are comparatively evaluated. For this example, the STP (PID) controller is shown to outperform the PID (STP) controller in coping with the delay (loss) problem.

The role of learning in social development: Illustrations from neglected children.

PubMed

Wismer Fries, Alison B; Pollak, Seth D

2017-03-01

Children who experience early caregiving neglect are very likely to have problems developing and maintaining relationships and regulating their social behavior. One of the earliest manifestations of this problem is reflected in indiscriminate behavior, a phenomenon where young children do not show normative wariness of strangers or use familiar adults as sources of security. To better understand the developmental mechanisms underlying the emergence of these problems, this study examined whether institutionally reared children, who experienced early social neglect, had difficulty associating motivational significance to visual stimuli. Pairing stimuli with motivational significance is presumably one of the associative learning processes involved in establishing discriminate or selective relationships with others. We found that early experiences of neglectful caregiving were associated with difficulties in acquiring such associations, and that delays in this developmental skill were related to children's social difficulties. These data suggest a way in which early social learning experiences may impact the development of processes underlying emotional development. © 2016 The Authors. Developmental Science Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Influence of neurobehavioral incentive valence and magnitude on alcohol drinking behavior

PubMed Central

Joseph, Jane E.; Zhu, Xun; Corbly, Christine R.; DeSantis, Stacia; Lee, Dustin C.; Baik, Grace; Kiser, Seth; Jiang, Yang; Lynam, Donald R.; Kelly, Thomas H.

2014-01-01

The monetary incentive delay (MID) task is a widely used probe for isolating neural circuitry in the human brain associated with incentive motivation. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, 82 young adults, characterized along dimensions of impulsive sensation seeking, completed a MID task. fMRI and behavioral incentive functions were decomposed into incentive valence and magnitude parameters, which were used as predictors in linear regression to determine whether mesolimbic response is associated with problem drinking and recent alcohol use. Alcohol use was best explained by higher fMRI response to anticipation of losses and feedback on high gains in the thalamus. In contrast, problem drinking was best explained by reduced sensitivity to large incentive values in meso-limbic regions in the anticipation phase and increased sensitivity to small incentive values in the dorsal caudate nucleus in the feedback phase. Altered fMRI responses to monetary incentives in mesolimbic circuitry, particularly those alterations associated with problem drinking, may serve as potential early indicators of substance abuse trajectories. PMID:25261001

An effect of immediate reinforcement and delayed punishment, with possible implications for self-control.

PubMed

Epstein, R

1984-12-01

Behavior said to show self-control occurs virtually always as an alternative to behavior that produces conflicting consequences. One class of such consequences, immediate reinforcement and delayed punishment, is especially pervasive. Three experiments are described in which an effect of immediate reinforcement and delayed punishment is demonstrated. The results suggest that when immediate reinforcement and delayed punishment are imminent, the reinforcer alone controls the organism's behavior (in other words the organism behaves "impulsively"). The key to self-control, therefore, may be the acquisition of a large number of avoidance behaviors relevant to reinforcers that are correlated with delayed punishment. Human self-control may indeed involve such a process but undoubtedly involves others as well.

Stochastic parameter estimation in nonlinear time-delayed vibratory systems with distributed delay

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Torkamani, Shahab; Butcher, Eric A.

2013-07-01

The stochastic estimation of parameters and states in linear and nonlinear time-delayed vibratory systems with distributed delay is explored. The approach consists of first employing a continuous time approximation to approximate the delayed integro-differential system with a large set of ordinary differential equations having stochastic excitations. Then the problem of state and parameter estimation in the resulting stochastic ordinary differential system is represented as an optimal filtering problem using a state augmentation technique. By adapting the extended Kalman-Bucy filter to the augmented filtering problem, the unknown parameters of the time-delayed system are estimated from noise-corrupted, possibly incomplete measurements of the states. Similarly, the upper bound of the distributed delay can also be estimated by the proposed technique. As an illustrative example to a practical problem in vibrations, the parameter, delay upper bound, and state estimation from noise-corrupted measurements in a distributed force model widely used for modeling machine tool vibrations in the turning operation is investigated.

Predictive Effects of Good Self-Control and Poor Regulation on Alcohol-Related Outcomes: Do Protective Behavioral Strategies Mediate?

PubMed Central

Pearson, Matthew R.; Kite, Benjamin A.; Henson, James M.

2016-01-01

In the present study, we examined whether use of protective behavioral strategies mediated the relationship between self-control constructs and alcohol-related outcomes. According to the two-mode model of self-control, good self-control (planfulness; measured with Future Time Perspective, Problem Solving, and Self-Reinforcement) and poor regulation (impulsivity; measured with Present Time Perspective, Poor Delay of Gratification, Distractibility) are theorized to be relatively independent constructs rather than opposite ends of a single continuum. The analytic sample consisted of 278 college student drinkers (68% women) who responded to a battery of surveys at a single time point. Using a structural equation model based on the two-mode model of self-control, we found that good self-control predicted increased use of three types of protective behavioral strategies (Manner of Drinking, Limiting/Stopping Drinking, and Serious Harm Reduction). Poor regulation was unrelated to use of protective behavioral strategies, but had direct effects on alcohol use and alcohol problems. Further, protective behavioral strategies mediated the relationship between good self-control and alcohol use. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed. PMID:22663345

A Direct Comparison of Self-Injurious and Stereotyped Motor Behavior Between Preschool-Aged Children With and Without Developmental Delays

PubMed Central

Spofford, Lisa; Dimian, Adele; Tervo, Raymond; MacLean, William E.; Symons, Frank J.

2016-01-01

Objective To compare the prevalence of self-injurious behavior (SIB) and stereotyped motor behavior (STY) of preschool-aged children with developmental delays (DD group) and their peers without developmental delays (TD group) using a standardized caregiver report scale. Methods The Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised was completed by caregivers of children with developmental delays and their peers without developmental delays. Frequency of occurrence and severity ratings for SIB and STY were compared between groups. Results SIB and STY were reported more often and at a greater level of severity in the DD group. Older chronological age was associated with more severe STY in the DD group but not the TD group. Gender was not related to STY or SIB for either group. Conclusions Differences in STY and SIB were evident between preschoolers with and without DD. Findings are discussed from developmental and behavioral psychology perspectives regarding the expression of repetitive behavior in developmentally at-risk pediatric populations. PMID:26514642

Mindfulness-based stress reduction for parents of young children with developmental delays: implications for parental mental health and child behavior problems.

PubMed

Neece, Cameron L

2014-03-01

Parents of children with developmental delays (DD) typically report elevated levels of parental stress compared with parents of typically developing children. Children with DD are also at high risk for exhibiting significant behaviour problems. Parental stress has been shown to impact the development of these behaviour problems; however, it is rarely addressed in interventions aimed at reducing child behaviour problems. The current study examined the efficacy of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) for parents of children with DD by investigating whether this intervention is effective in reducing parenting stress and whether decreases in parenting stress lead to reductions in behaviour problems among children with DD. Forty six parents of children with DD were randomly assigned to an immediate treatment or wait list-control group. Participants completed questionnaires assessing parental stress and child behaviour problems at intake and at a second assessment, which took place after only the immediate treatment group had received the MBSR. Parents who participated in MBSR reported significantly less stress and depression as well as greater life satisfaction compared with wait list-control parents. Regarding child outcomes, children whose parents participated in MBSR were reported to have fewer behaviour problems following the intervention, specifically in the areas of attention problems and ADHD symptomatology. Results indicated that MBSR may be an effective intervention for ameliorating parental stress and mental health problems among parents of children with DD. Additionally, these benefits may 'spill over' and improve behaviour challenges among these children. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Modeling of synchronization behavior of bursting neurons at nonlinearly coupled dynamical networks.

PubMed

Çakir, Yüksel

2016-01-01

Synchronization behaviors of bursting neurons coupled through electrical and dynamic chemical synapses are investigated. The Izhikevich model is used with random and small world network of bursting neurons. Various currents which consist of diffusive electrical and time-delayed dynamic chemical synapses are used in the simulations to investigate the influences of synaptic currents and couplings on synchronization behavior of bursting neurons. The effects of parameters, such as time delay, inhibitory synaptic strengths, and decay time on synchronization behavior are investigated. It is observed that in random networks with no delay, bursting synchrony is established with the electrical synapse alone, single spiking synchrony is observed with hybrid coupling. In small world network with no delay, periodic bursting behavior with multiple spikes is observed when only chemical and only electrical synapse exist. Single-spike and multiple-spike bursting are established with hybrid couplings. A decrease in the synchronization measure is observed with zero time delay, as the decay time is increased in random network. For synaptic delays which are above active phase period, synchronization measure increases with an increase in synaptic strength and time delay in small world network. However, in random network, it increases with only an increase in synaptic strength.

Crane reproductive physiology and conservation

USGS Publications Warehouse

Gee, G.F.

1983-01-01

Some unique features of crane reproduction, management, and conservation are described. Because cranes are sexually monomorphic, sexing is difficult and must be accomplished using behavior, laparoscopy, cloacal examination, genetic techniques, or fecal steroid analysis. Although husbandry techniques for cranes are similar to those used with other nondomestic birds, a number of basic characteristics, such as extreme aggressiveness, imprinting by the crane chick on man, a delayed molt in the immature crane, delayed sexual maturity, and infertility, pose special problems for the propagator. Artificial insemination is a practical solution to crane infertility. Vigorous captive management and propagation efforts must become increasingly important if several endangered crane species are to survive the continuing decline in wild populations. The ultimate goal is the restoration of suitable habitat and sustainable native populations.

The influence of maternal child-rearing attitudes and teaching behaviors on preschoolers' delay of gratification.

PubMed

Mauro, C F; Harris, Y R

2000-09-01

This study was an exploratory examination of the influence of mothers' teaching behaviors, strategies, and child-rearing attitudes on their children's ability to delay gratification. In an externally imposed delay of gratification situation, 30 mothers from a rural university community taught their children strategies that could help them refrain from touching a brightly wrapped present when the mothers left the room. Results showed that mothers of children who did not delay gratification exhibited teaching behaviors and child-rearing attitudes consistent with a permissive parenting style, whereas mothers of children who did delay gratification exhibited teaching behaviors and child-rearing attitudes consistent with an authoritative parenting style. The results of this study are discussed with respect to the development of children's self-control and self-regulatory abilities.

Association between delayed bedtime and sleep-related problems among community-dwelling 2-year-old children in Japan.

PubMed

Kitamura, Shingo; Enomoto, Minori; Kamei, Yuichi; Inada, Naoko; Moriwaki, Aiko; Kamio, Yoko; Mishima, Kazuo

2015-03-13

Although delayed sleep timing causes many socio-psycho-biological problems such as sleep loss, excessive daytime sleepiness, obesity, and impaired daytime neurocognitive performance in adults, there are insufficient data showing the clinical significance of a 'night owl lifestyle' in early life. This study examined the association between habitual delayed bedtime and sleep-related problems among community-dwelling 2-year-old children in Japan. Parents/caregivers of 708 community-dwelling 2-year-old children in Nishitokyo City, Tokyo, participated in the study. The participants answered a questionnaire to evaluate their child's sleep habits and sleep-related problems for the past 1 month. Of the 425 children for whom complete data were collected, 90 (21.2%) went to bed at 22:00 or later. Children with delayed bedtime showed significantly more irregular bedtime, delayed wake time, shorter total sleep time, and difficulty in initiating and terminating sleep. Although this relationship indicated the presence of sleep debt in children with delayed bedtime, sleep onset latency did not differ between children with earlier bedtime and those with delayed bedtime. Rather, delayed bedtime was significantly associated with bedtime resistance and problems in the morning even when adjusting for nighttime and daytime sleep time. Even in 2-year-old children, delayed bedtime was associated with various sleep-related problems. The causal factors may include diminished homeostatic sleep drive due to prolonged daytime nap as well as diurnal preference (morning or night type) regulated by the biological clock.

Health of children adopted from Ethiopia.

PubMed

Miller, Laurie C; Tseng, Beverly; Tirella, Linda G; Chan, Wilma; Feig, Emily

2008-09-01

Since 2000, American families have adopted 1,700 children from Ethiopia. Little is known about the health and development of these children. Retrospective chart review of the arrival health status of all 50 (26F:24M) children from Ethiopia/Eritrea seen in the International Adoption Clinic. Prior to adoption, most children resided with relatives; 36% were >18 months old prior to entry into care. More than 50% were true orphans, often due to HIV. Arrival age ranged from 3 months to 15 years (mean +/- SD 4 years +/- 43.8 months). At arrival, growth z scores were near-average (weight -.59, height -.64, head circumference -.09); significantly better than adopted children Guatemala, China, or Russia seen in our clinic. However, some Ethiopian children were significantly growth delayed (WAZ < or =-2, 8%, HAZ 12%, HCZ 18%). Age at adoption did not relate to growth delays. Medical issues on arrival included intestinal parasites (53%, [14% with > or =3 types]), skin infections (45%), dental caries (25%), elevated liver transaminases (20%), latent tuberculosis (18%), and hepatitis B (2%). Age-appropriate vaccines had been administered in 15-77% of children (depending on specific vaccine). Behavior problems were uncommon. Gross/fine motor and cognitive skills were approximately 86% of expected for age. Age correlated inversely with developmental scores for cognition (r = -.49, P = .003). Five children had age reassignments. Ethiopian/Eritean adoptees differ from other groups of internationally adopted children: they reside for relatively long periods of time with relatives prior to institutionalization, often have uncertain ages, exhibit few behavioral problems at arrival, have better growth, and may have less severe developmental delays. Whether these differences at arrival predict better outcomes for the Ethiopian/Eritrean children is unknown.

Estimating the state of a geophysical system with sparse observations: time delay methods to achieve accurate initial states for prediction

DOE PAGES

An, Zhe; Rey, Daniel; Ye, Jingxin; ...

2017-01-16

The problem of forecasting the behavior of a complex dynamical system through analysis of observational time-series data becomes difficult when the system expresses chaotic behavior and the measurements are sparse, in both space and/or time. Despite the fact that this situation is quite typical across many fields, including numerical weather prediction, the issue of whether the available observations are "sufficient" for generating successful forecasts is still not well understood. An analysis by Whartenby et al. (2013) found that in the context of the nonlinear shallow water equations on a β plane, standard nudging techniques require observing approximately 70 % of themore » full set of state variables. Here we examine the same system using a method introduced by Rey et al. (2014a), which generalizes standard nudging methods to utilize time delayed measurements. Here, we show that in certain circumstances, it provides a sizable reduction in the number of observations required to construct accurate estimates and high-quality predictions. In particular, we find that this estimate of 70 % can be reduced to about 33 % using time delays, and even further if Lagrangian drifter locations are also used as measurements.« less

Estimating the state of a geophysical system with sparse observations: time delay methods to achieve accurate initial states for prediction

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

An, Zhe; Rey, Daniel; Ye, Jingxin

The problem of forecasting the behavior of a complex dynamical system through analysis of observational time-series data becomes difficult when the system expresses chaotic behavior and the measurements are sparse, in both space and/or time. Despite the fact that this situation is quite typical across many fields, including numerical weather prediction, the issue of whether the available observations are "sufficient" for generating successful forecasts is still not well understood. An analysis by Whartenby et al. (2013) found that in the context of the nonlinear shallow water equations on a β plane, standard nudging techniques require observing approximately 70 % of themore » full set of state variables. Here we examine the same system using a method introduced by Rey et al. (2014a), which generalizes standard nudging methods to utilize time delayed measurements. Here, we show that in certain circumstances, it provides a sizable reduction in the number of observations required to construct accurate estimates and high-quality predictions. In particular, we find that this estimate of 70 % can be reduced to about 33 % using time delays, and even further if Lagrangian drifter locations are also used as measurements.« less

Delay and probability discounting of sexual and monetary outcomes in individuals with cocaine use disorders and matched controls.

PubMed

Johnson, Matthew W; Johnson, Patrick S; Herrmann, Evan S; Sweeney, Mary M

2015-01-01

Individuals with cocaine use disorders are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, partly due to higher rates of unprotected sex. Recent research suggests delay discounting of condom use is a factor in sexual HIV risk. Delay discounting is a behavioral economic concept describing how delaying an event reduces that event's value or impact on behavior. Probability discounting is a related concept describing how the uncertainty of an event decreases its impact on behavior. Individuals with cocaine use disorders (n = 23) and matched non-cocaine-using controls (n = 24) were compared in decision-making tasks involving hypothetical outcomes: delay discounting of condom-protected sex (Sexual Delay Discounting Task), delay discounting of money, the effect of sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk on likelihood of condom use (Sexual Probability Discounting Task), and probability discounting of money. The Cocaine group discounted delayed condom-protected sex (i.e., were more likely to have unprotected sex vs. wait for a condom) significantly more than controls in two of four Sexual Delay Discounting Task partner conditions. The Cocaine group also discounted delayed money (i.e., preferred smaller immediate amounts over larger delayed amounts) significantly more than controls. In the Sexual Probability Discounting Task, both groups showed sensitivity to STI risk, however the groups did not differ. The Cocaine group did not consistently discount probabilistic money more or less than controls. Steeper discounting of delayed, but not probabilistic, sexual outcomes may contribute to greater rates of sexual HIV risk among individuals with cocaine use disorders. Probability discounting of sexual outcomes may contribute to risk of unprotected sex in both groups. Correlations showed sexual and monetary results were unrelated, for both delay and probability discounting. The results highlight the importance of studying specific behavioral processes (e.g., delay and probability discounting) with respect to specific outcomes (e.g., monetary and sexual) to understand decision making in problematic behavior.

Delay and Probability Discounting of Sexual and Monetary Outcomes in Individuals with Cocaine Use Disorders and Matched Controls

PubMed Central

Johnson, Matthew W.; Johnson, Patrick S.; Herrmann, Evan S.; Sweeney, Mary M.

2015-01-01

Individuals with cocaine use disorders are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, partly due to higher rates of unprotected sex. Recent research suggests delay discounting of condom use is a factor in sexual HIV risk. Delay discounting is a behavioral economic concept describing how delaying an event reduces that event’s value or impact on behavior. Probability discounting is a related concept describing how the uncertainty of an event decreases its impact on behavior. Individuals with cocaine use disorders (n = 23) and matched non-cocaine-using controls (n = 24) were compared in decision-making tasks involving hypothetical outcomes: delay discounting of condom-protected sex (Sexual Delay Discounting Task), delay discounting of money, the effect of sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk on likelihood of condom use (Sexual Probability Discounting Task), and probability discounting of money. The Cocaine group discounted delayed condom-protected sex (i.e., were more likely to have unprotected sex vs. wait for a condom) significantly more than controls in two of four Sexual Delay Discounting Task partner conditions. The Cocaine group also discounted delayed money (i.e., preferred smaller immediate amounts over larger delayed amounts) significantly more than controls. In the Sexual Probability Discounting Task, both groups showed sensitivity to STI risk, however the groups did not differ. The Cocaine group did not consistently discount probabilistic money more or less than controls. Steeper discounting of delayed, but not probabilistic, sexual outcomes may contribute to greater rates of sexual HIV risk among individuals with cocaine use disorders. Probability discounting of sexual outcomes may contribute to risk of unprotected sex in both groups. Correlations showed sexual and monetary results were unrelated, for both delay and probability discounting. The results highlight the importance of studying specific behavioral processes (e.g., delay and probability discounting) with respect to specific outcomes (e.g., monetary and sexual) to understand decision making in problematic behavior. PMID:26017273

Type 2 diabetes mellitus in children and adolescents: a relatively new clinical problem within pediatric practice.

PubMed

Temneanu, O R; Trandafir, L M; Purcarea, M R

2016-01-01

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a complex, chronic metabolic disease, presents a heterogeneous etiology, with risk factors at the social level and behavioral, environmental, and genetic susceptibility. It is associated with serious complications, but the early diagnosis and initiation of therapy may prevent or delay the onset of long-term complications. In children and adolescents, it was observed in particular increasing the prevalence of T2DM along with obesity, which is associated with insulin resistance. Patient and family education for a young person with T2DM is very important and will focus on behavioral changes (diet and activity).

Modeling behavioral reactivity to losses and rewards on the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART): moderation by alcohol problem severity.

PubMed

Ashenhurst, James R; Bujarski, Spencer; Jentsch, J David; Ray, Lara A

2014-08-01

The relationship between risk-taking behavior and substance dependence has proven to be complex, particularly when examining across participants expressing a range of substance use problem severity. While main indices of risk-taking in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) positively associate with problematic alcohol use in adolescent populations (e.g., MacPherson, Magidson, Reynolds, Kahler, & Lejuez, 2010), several studies have observed a negative relationship when examining behavior within adult substance using populations (Ashenhurst, Jentsch, & Ray, 2011; Campbell, Samartgis, & Crowe, 2013). To examine potential mechanisms that underlie this negative relationship, we implemented multilevel regression models on trial-by-trial BART data gathered from 295 adult problem drinkers. These models accounted for participant behavior on trials following balloon bursts or cash outs as indices of loss and reward reactivity, respectively, and included control variables including age, IQ, and individual delay discounting rate. Results revealed that individual trial pumping was significantly predicted by trial number, and by whether or not the previous trial was a big burst or a big cash out (i.e., large magnitude of potential gains) in a manner consistent with a "near-miss" effect. Furthermore, severity of alcohol problems moderated the effect of a previous trial big burst, but not of a big cash out, on subsequent trial behavior such that those with greater severity demonstrated relative insensitivity to this "near-miss" effect. These results extend previous studies suggesting that alcohol abusers are less risky on the BART by specifying a mechanism underlying this pattern, namely, diminished reactivity to large magnitude losses.

Does personality influence job acquisition and tenure in people with severe mental illness enrolled in supported employment programs?

PubMed

Fortin, Guillaume; Lecomte, Tania; Corbière, Marc

2017-06-01

When employment difficulties in people with severe mental illness (SMI) occur, it could be partly linked to issues not specific to SMI, such as personality traits or problems. Despite the fact that personality has a marked influence on almost every aspect of work behavior, it has scarcely been investigated in the context of employment for people with SMI. We aimed to evaluate if personality was more predictive than clinical variables of different competitive work outcomes, namely acquisition of competitive employment, delay to acquisition and job tenure. A sample of 82 people with a SMI enrolled in supported employment programs (SEP) was recruited and asked to complete various questionnaires and interviews. Statistical analyses included logistic regressions and survival analyses (Cox regressions). Prior employment, personality problems and negative symptoms are significantly related to acquisition of a competitive employment and to delay to acquisition whereas the conscientiousness personality trait was predictive of job tenure. Our results point out the relevance of personality traits and problems as predictors of work outcomes in people with SMI registered in SEP. Future studies should recruit larger samples and also investigate these links with other factors related to work outcomes.

A Comparison of Taped-Problem Interventions to Increase Math Fact Fluency: Does the Length of Time Delay Affect Student Learning Rates?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poncy, Brian C.; Jaspers, Kathryn E.; Hansmann, Paul R.; Bui, Levita; Matthew, William B.

2015-01-01

An alternating treatments design with a control condition was used to evaluate and compare the effects of two taped-problem interventions on addition fact fluency. Both taped-problem interventions were identical with the exception of the time delay between the auditory cue of the problem and the answer. One condition used a 2-s delay and the other…

Psychosocial Profile and Quality of Life in Children With Type 1 Narcolepsy: A Case-Control Study

PubMed Central

Rocca, Francesca Letizia; Finotti, Elena; Pizza, Fabio; Ingravallo, Francesca; Gatta, Michela; Bruni, Oliviero; Plazzi, Giuseppe

2016-01-01

Study Objectives: To investigate behavioral aspects and quality of life in children and adolescents with type 1 narcolepsy (NT1). Methods: We performed a case-control study comparing 29 patients with NT1 versus sex- and age-matched patients with idiopathic epilepsy (n = 39) and healthy controls (n = 39). Behavior and quality of life were evaluated by self-administered questionnaires (Child Behavior Checklist, Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory). Patient groups were contrasted and scale results were correlated with clinical and polysomnographic parameters, and cerebrospinal fluid hypocretin-1 levels. Results: Young patients with NT1 showed increased internalizing problems associated with aggressive behavior. Emotional profile in patients with NT1 positively correlated with age at onset, diagnostic delay, and subjective sleepiness, whereas treatment and disease duration were associated with fewer behavioral problems (attention problems, aggressive behavior, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder). Psychosocial health domains of pediatric NT1 were worse than in healthy controls, whereas the physical health domains were comparable. Conclusions: Young NT1 patients show a discrete pattern of altered behavioral, thought, and mood profile in comparison with healthy controls and with idiopathic epilepsy patients thus suggesting a direct link with sleepiness. Further studies investigating behavior in patients with idiopathic hypersomnia or type 2 narcolepsy are needed to disentangle the role of REM sleep dysfunction and hypocretin deficiency in psychiatric disorders. Symptoms of withdrawal, depression, somatic complaints, thought problems, and aggressiveness were common, NT1 children perceived lower school competencies than healthy children, and their parents also reported worse psychosocial health. Our data suggest that early effective treatment and disease self-awareness should be promoted in NT1 children for their positive effect on behavior and psychosocial health. Citation: Rocca FL, Finotti E, Pizza F, Ingravallo F, Gatta M, Bruni O, Plazzi G. Psychosocial profile and quality of life in children with type 1 narcolepsy: a case-control study. SLEEP 2016;39(7):1389–1398. PMID:27166243

Specifying the Links Between Household Chaos and Preschool Children’s Development

PubMed Central

Martin, Anne; Razza, Rachel; Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne

2011-01-01

Household chaos has been linked to poorer cognitive, behavioral, and self-regulatory outcomes in young children, but the mechanisms responsible remain largely unknown. Using a diverse sample of families in Chicago, the present study tests for the independent contributions made by five indicators of household chaos: noise, crowding, family instability, lack of routine, and television usually on. Chaos was measured at age 2; outcomes measured at age 5 tap receptive vocabulary, attention and behavior problems, and effortful control. Results show that controlling for all other measures of chaos, children with a lack of routine scored lower on receptive vocabulary and delayed gratification, while children whose television was generally on scored higher on aggression and attention problems. The provision of learning materials mediated a small part of the association between television and receptive vocabulary. Family instability, crowding, and noise did not predict any outcomes once other measures of chaos were controlled. PMID:22919120

Analysis of temporal decay of diffuse broadband sound fields in enclosures by decomposition in powers of an absorption parameter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bliss, Donald; Franzoni, Linda; Rouse, Jerry; Manning, Ben

2005-09-01

An analysis method for time-dependent broadband diffuse sound fields in enclosures is described. Beginning with a formulation utilizing time-dependent broadband intensity boundary sources, the strength of these wall sources is expanded in a series in powers of an absorption parameter, thereby giving a separate boundary integral problem for each power. The temporal behavior is characterized by a Taylor expansion in the delay time for a source to influence an evaluation point. The lowest-order problem has a uniform interior field proportional to the reciprocal of the absorption parameter, as expected, and exhibits relatively slow exponential decay. The next-order problem gives a mean-square pressure distribution that is independent of the absorption parameter and is primarily responsible for the spatial variation of the reverberant field. This problem, which is driven by input sources and the lowest-order reverberant field, depends on source location and the spatial distribution of absorption. Additional problems proceed at integer powers of the absorption parameter, but are essentially higher-order corrections to the spatial variation. Temporal behavior is expressed in terms of an eigenvalue problem, with boundary source strength distributions expressed as eigenmodes. Solutions exhibit rapid short-time spatial redistribution followed by long-time decay of a predominant spatial mode.

Firing patterns transition and desynchronization induced by time delay in neural networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Shoufang; Zhang, Jiqian; Wang, Maosheng; Hu, Chin-Kun

2018-06-01

We used the Hindmarsh-Rose (HR) model (Hindmarsh and Rose, 1984) to study the effect of time delay on the transition of firing behaviors and desynchronization in neural networks. As time delay is increased, neural networks exhibit diversity of firing behaviors, including regular spiking or bursting and firing patterns transitions (FPTs). Meanwhile, the desynchronization of firing and unstable bursting with decreasing amplitude in neural system, are also increasingly enhanced with the increase of time delay. Furthermore, we also studied the effect of coupling strength and network randomness on these phenomena. Our results imply that time delays can induce transition and desynchronization of firing behaviors in neural networks. These findings provide new insight into the role of time delay in the firing activities of neural networks, and can help to better understand the firing phenomena in complex systems of neural networks. A possible mechanism in brain that can cause the increase of time delay is discussed.

Optimal Control for Stochastic Delay Evolution Equations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Meng, Qingxin, E-mail: mqx@hutc.zj.cn; Shen, Yang, E-mail: skyshen87@gmail.com

2016-08-15

In this paper, we investigate a class of infinite-dimensional optimal control problems, where the state equation is given by a stochastic delay evolution equation with random coefficients, and the corresponding adjoint equation is given by an anticipated backward stochastic evolution equation. We first prove the continuous dependence theorems for stochastic delay evolution equations and anticipated backward stochastic evolution equations, and show the existence and uniqueness of solutions to anticipated backward stochastic evolution equations. Then we establish necessary and sufficient conditions for optimality of the control problem in the form of Pontryagin’s maximum principles. To illustrate the theoretical results, we applymore » stochastic maximum principles to study two examples, an infinite-dimensional linear-quadratic control problem with delay and an optimal control of a Dirichlet problem for a stochastic partial differential equation with delay. Further applications of the two examples to a Cauchy problem for a controlled linear stochastic partial differential equation and an optimal harvesting problem are also considered.« less

[Pathologic aerophagia: a rare cause of chronic abdominal distension].

PubMed

de Jesus, Lisieux Eyer; Cestari, Ana Beatriz C S S; Filho, Orli Carvalho da Silva; Fernandes, Marcia Antunes; Firme, Livia Honorato

2015-01-01

To describe an adolescent with pathologic aerophagia, a rare condition caused by excessive and inappropriate swallowing of air and to review its treatment and differential diagnoses. An 11 year-old mentally impaired blind girl presenting serious behavior problems and severe developmental delay with abdominal distension from the last 8 months. Her past history included a Nissen fundoplication. Abdominal CT and abdominal radiographs showed diffuse gas distension of the small bowel and colon. Hirschsprung's disease was excluded. The distention was minimal at the moment the child awoke and maximal at evening, and persisted after control of constipation. Audible repetitive and frequent movements of air swallowing were observed. The diagnosis of pathologic aerophagia associated to obsessive compulsive disorder and developmental delay was made, but pharmacological treatment was unsuccessful. The patient was submitted to an endoscopic gastrostomy, permanently opened and elevated relative to the stomach. The distention was resolved, while maintaining oral nutrition Pathologic aerophagia is a rare self-limiting condition in normal children exposed to high levels of stress and may be a persisting problem in children with psychiatric or neurologic disease. In this last group, the disease may cause serious complications. Pharmacological and behavioral treatments are ill-defined. Severe cases may demand surgical strategies, mainly decompressive gastrostomy. Copyright © 2015 Sociedade de Pediatria de São Paulo. Publicado por Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

Behavioral effects of delayed timeouts from reinforcement.

PubMed

Byrne, Tom; Poling, Alan

2017-03-01

Timeouts are sometimes used in applied settings to reduce target responses, and in some circumstances delays are unavoidably imposed between the onset of a timeout and the offset of the response that produces it. The present study examined the effects of signaled and unsignaled timeouts in rats exposed to concurrent fixed-ratio 1 fixed-ratio 1 schedules of food delivery, where each response on one lever, the location of which changed across conditions, produced both food and a delayed 10-s timeout. Delays of 0 to 38 s were examined. Delayed timeouts often, but not always, substantially reduced the number of responses emitted on the lever that produced timeouts relative to the number emitted on the lever that did not produce timeouts. In general, greater sensitivity was observed to delayed timeouts when they were signaled. These results demonstrate that delayed timeouts, like other delayed consequences, can affect behavior, albeit less strongly than immediate consequences. © 2017 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

The Sexual Discounting Task: HIV Risk Behavior and the Discounting of Delayed Sexual Rewards in Cocaine Dependence

PubMed Central

Johnson, Matthew W.; Bruner, Natalie R.

2011-01-01

Background Cocaine dependence is associated with high rates of sexual risk behavior and HIV infection. However, little is known about the responsible mechanism(s). Methods Cocaine-dependent individuals (N=62) completed a novel Sexual Discounting Task assessing decisions between immediate unprotected sex and delayed sex with a condom across four hypothetical partners: most (and least) likely to have a sexually transmitted infection (STI), and most (and least) sexually desirable; a real rewards money delay-discounting task, and self-reported sexual risk behavior using the HIV Risk-Taking Behavior Scale (HRBS). Results Sexual Discounting Task results were largely systematic and showed a strong effect of delay in decreasing condom use. Sexual discounting (preference for immediate unprotected sex) was significantly greater when making responses for partners judged least (compared to most) likely to have an STI, and for partners judged most (compared to least) desirable. Differences in sexual discounting were significant after controlling for differences in condom use (with no delay) between conditions. Greater discounting in 3 or the 4 Sexual Discounting Task conditions, but not in the money discounting task, was associated with greater self-reported sexual risk behavior as measured by the HRBS Conclusions Results suggest that delay is a critical variable strongly affecting HIV sexual risk behavior, and that the Sexual Discounting Task provides a clinically sensitive measure of this phenomenon that may address a variety of questions about HIV risk in future research. The wealth of behavioral and neurobiological data on delay discounting should be brought to bear on HIV education and prevention. PMID:22055012

Delayed Reinforcement of Operant Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lattal, Kennon A.

2010-01-01

The experimental analysis of delay of reinforcement is considered from the perspective of three questions that seem basic not only to understanding delay of reinforcement but also, by implication, the contributions of temporal relations between events to operant behavior. The first question is whether effects of the temporal relation between…

Constant Time Delay: One Way to Provide Positive Behavioral Support for Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stevens, Kay B.; Lingo, Amy S.

2005-01-01

Teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) understand conceptually, emotionally, and legally the importance of using research-based procedures as well as positive behavioral supports. One way to provide positive behavioral support for students with EBD is constant time delay (CTD). CTD is an instructional delivery procedure…

Shock-induced thermal wave propagation and response analysis of a viscoelastic thin plate under transient heating loads

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Chenlin; Guo, Huili; Tian, Xiaogeng

2018-04-01

This paper is devoted to the thermal shock analysis for viscoelastic materials under transient heating loads. The governing coupled equations with time-delay parameter and nonlocal scale parameter are derived based on the generalized thermo-viscoelasticity theory. The problem of a thin plate composed of viscoelastic material, subjected to a sudden temperature rise at the boundary plane, is solved by employing Laplace transformation techniques. The transient responses, i.e. temperature, displacement, stresses, heat flux as well as strain, are obtained and discussed. The effects of time-delay and nonlocal scale parameter on the transient responses are analyzed and discussed. It can be observed that: the propagation of thermal wave is dynamically smoothed and changed with the variation of time-delay; while the displacement, strain, and stress can be rapidly reduced by nonlocal scale parameter, which can be viewed as an important indicator for predicting the stiffness softening behavior for viscoelastic materials.

Clinical characteristics of children with mental retardation of unknown etiology in Korea.

PubMed Central

Yim, S. Y.; Lee, I. Y.

1999-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics of children with mental retardation (MR) of unknown etiology for early recognition and intervention. In this study, we defined children with MR of unknown etiology as those without clear etiologies for MR despite extensive evaluation and were not associated with pathological behavioral problems such as pervasive developmental disorders and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The clinical characteristics of children with MR of unknown etiology were as follows. 1) MR of unknown etiology was 48.8% of all MR. 2) MR of unknown etiology was more common in males. 3) Delayed language development was a leading factor that made the parents of children with MR of unknown etiology seek help from physicians. However, most of the children with MR of unknown etiology showed a relatively uniform delay in several areas of development. 4) Most children with MR of unknown etiology were delayed walkers. 5) Most children with MR of unknown etiology were mild cases. PMID:10331556

Prospective Analysis of Behavioral Economic Predictors of Stable Moderation Drinking Among Problem Drinkers Attempting Natural Recovery.

PubMed

Tucker, Jalie A; Cheong, JeeWon; Chandler, Susan D; Lambert, Brice H; Pietrzak, Brittney; Kwok, Heather; Davies, Susan L

2016-12-01

As interventions have expanded beyond clinical treatment to include brief interventions for persons with less severe alcohol problems, predicting who can achieve stable moderation drinking has gained importance. Recent behavioral economic (BE) research on natural recovery has shown that active problem drinkers who allocate their monetary expenditures on alcohol and saving for the future over longer time horizons tend to have better subsequent recovery outcomes, including maintenance of stable moderation drinking. This study compared the predictive utility of this money-based "Alcohol-Savings Discretionary Expenditure" (ASDE) index with multiple BE analogue measures of behavioral impulsivity and self-control, which have seldom been investigated together, to predict outcomes of natural recovery attempts. Community-dwelling problem drinkers, enrolled shortly after stopping abusive drinking without treatment, were followed prospectively for up to a year (N = 175 [75.4% male], M age = 50.65 years). They completed baseline assessments of preresolution drinking practices and problems, analogue behavioral choice tasks (Delay Discounting, Melioration-Maximization, and Alcohol Purchase Tasks), and a Timeline Followback interview including expenditures on alcohol compared to voluntary savings (ASDE index) during the preresolution year. Multinomial logistic regression models showed that, among the BE measures, only the ASDE index predicted stable moderation drinking compared to stable abstinence or unstable resolutions involving relapse. As hypothesized, stable moderation was associated with more balanced preresolution allocations to drinking and savings (odds ratio = 1.77, 95% confidence interval = 1.02 to 3.08, p < 0.05), suggesting it is associated with longer-term behavior regulation processes than abstinence. The ASDE's unique predictive utility may rest on its comprehensive representation of contextual elements to support this patterning of behavioral allocation. Stable low-risk drinking, but not abstinence, requires such regulatory processes. Copyright © 2016 by the Research Society on Alcoholism.

Obsessive-compulsive symptoms in Prader-Willi and "Prader-Willi-Like" patients.

PubMed

State, M W; Dykens, E M; Rosner, B; Martin, A; King, B H

1999-03-01

To compare obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) and symptoms in a group of patients presenting with "Prader-Willi-like" features but without the genetic abnormalities associated with PWS. 16 patients aged 4 through 20 years were evaluated in a clinic specializing in the assessment and management of behavioral and food-related problems in PWS. Eight patients were found to have key features of the syndrome but did not have a PWS genotype. These PWS-like subjects were matched to 8 clinic patients with a confirmed deletion of the PWS critical region of the paternally derived chromosome 15. All subjects were evaluated for obesity, IQ, food-related problems, maladaptive behaviors, and non-food-related OC symptoms. There were no differences between the 2 groups with respect to measures of obesity, IQ, food-related difficulties, or overall maladaptive behaviors. The PWS group showed significantly greater numbers of OC symptoms and greater symptom severity. Patients with PWS have elevated numbers of OC symptoms and significant symptom-related impairment which are not explained by developmental delay, food-related difficulties, or obesity. OC symptoms are part of a behavioral phenotype that accompanies deletions on the proximal long arm of chromosome 15 in PWS.

Delayed sleep phase disorder: clinical perspective with a focus on light therapy

PubMed Central

Figueiro, Mariana G

2016-01-01

Delayed sleep phase disorder (DSPD) is common among adolescents and further increases their susceptibility to chronic sleep restriction and associated detrimental outcomes, including increased risk of depression, drug and alcohol use, behavioral problems, and poor scholastic performance. DSPD is characterized by sleep onset that occurs significantly later than desired bedtimes and societal norms. Individuals with DSPD exhibit long sleep latencies when attempting to sleep at conventional bedtimes. Circadian sleep disorders such as DSPD can occur when there is misalignment between sleep timing and societal norms. This review discusses studies using light therapy to advance the timing of sleep in adolescents and college students, in particular on those suffering from DSPD. A discussion on how to increase effectiveness of light therapy in the field will also be provided. PMID:27110143

Emotional, behavioral, and developmental features indicative of neglect or emotional abuse in preschool children: a systematic review.

PubMed

Naughton, Aideen Mary; Maguire, Sabine Ann; Mann, Mala Kanthi; Lumb, Rebecca Caroline; Tempest, Vanessa; Gracias, Shirley; Kemp, Alison Mary

2013-08-01

Early intervention for neglect or emotional abuse in preschoolers may mitigate lifelong consequences, yet practitioners lack confidence in recognizing these children. To define the emotional, behavioral, and developmental features of neglect or emotional abuse in preschoolers. A literature search of 18 databases, 6 websites, and supplementary searching performed from January 1, 1960, to February 1, 2011, identified 22 669 abstracts. Standardized critical appraisal of 164 articles was conducted by 2 independent, trained reviewers. Inclusion criteria were children aged 0 to 6 years with confirmed neglect or emotional abuse who had emotional, behavioral, and developmental features recorded or for whom the carer-child interaction was documented. Twenty-eight case-control (matched for socioeconomic, educational level, and ethnicity), 1 cross-sectional, and 13 cohort studies were included. Key features in the child included the following: aggression (11 studies) exhibited as angry, disruptive behavior, conduct problems, oppositional behavior, and low ego control; withdrawal or passivity (12 studies), including negative self-esteem, anxious or avoidant behavior, poor emotional knowledge, and difficulties in interpreting emotional expressions in others; developmental delay (17 studies), particularly delayed language, cognitive function, and overall development quotient; poor peer interaction (5 studies), showing poor social interactions, unlikely to act to relieve distress in others; and transition (6 studies) from ambivalent to avoidant insecure attachment pattern and from passive to increasingly aggressive behavior and negative self-representation. Emotional knowledge, cognitive function, and language deteriorate without intervention. Poor sensitivity, hostility, criticism, or disinterest characterize maternal-child interactions. Preschool children who have been neglected or emotionally abused exhibit a range of serious emotional and behavioral difficulties and adverse mother-child interactions that indicate that these children require prompt evaluation and interventions.

Early protein malnutrition negatively impacts physical growth and neurological reflexes and evokes anxiety and depressive-like behaviors.

PubMed

Belluscio, Laura M; Berardino, Bruno G; Ferroni, Nadina M; Ceruti, Julieta M; Cánepa, Eduardo T

2014-04-22

Malnutrition is a worldwide problem affecting millions of unborn and young children during the most vulnerable stages of their development. In humans, poor maternal nutrition is a major cause of intrauterine growth restriction which is associated with an increased risk of perinatal mortality and long-term morbidity. In addition, intrauterine growth restriction correlates with neurodevelopmental delays and alterations of brain structure and neurochemistry. While there is no doubt that maternal malnutrition is a principal cause of perturbed development of the fetal brain and that all nutrients have certain influence on brain maturation, proteins appear to be the most critical for the development of neurological functions. In the present study we assessed male and female mouse offspring, born to dams protein restricted during pregnancy and lactation, in physical growth and neurobehavioral development and also in social interaction, motivation, anxiety and depressive behaviors. Moreover, we evaluate the impact of the low protein diet on dams in relation to their maternal care and anxiety-related behavior given that these clearly affect pups development. We observed that maternal protein restriction during pregnancy and lactation delayed the physical growth and neurodevelopment of the offspring in a sex-independent manner. In addition, maternal undernutrition negatively affected offspring's juvenile social play, motivation, exploratory activity and risk assessment behaviors. These findings show that protein restriction during critical periods of development detrimentally program progeny behavior. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Probing behavior of aposymbiotic green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) on susceptible Solanum tuberosum and resistant Solanum stoloniferum plants.

PubMed

Machado-Assefh, Cristina Renata; Alvarez, Adriana Elisabet

2018-02-01

The green peach aphid, Myzus persicae Sulzer (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is one of the potato important pests; it is the most efficient vector of potato viruses. Myzus persicae harbors the endosymbiotic bacteria Buchnera aphidicola which supplements their diet. There is increasing evidence that B. aphidicola is involved in plant-aphid interactions and we previously demonstrated that B. aphidicola disruption (aposymbiosis) affected the probing behavior of M. persicae on radish plants, delaying host plant acceptance. In this work, we evaluated the effect of aposymbiosis on the probing behavior of M. persicae on 2 Solanum species with different compatibility with M. persicae, Solanum tuberosum (susceptible) and Solanum stoloniferum (resistant) with the electrical penetration graph technique (EPG). To disrupt B. aphidicola, rifampicin was administered to aphids through artificial diets. Aposymbiotic aphids, on both plant species, showed increased pathway activities, mechanical problems with the stylets, and delayed salivation in the phloem. The extended time in derailed stylet mechanics affected the occurrence of most other probing activities; it delayed the time to the first phloem phase and prevented ingestion from the phloem. The effect of aposymbiosis was more evident in the compatible interaction of M. persicae-S. tuberosum, than in the incompatible interaction with S. stoloniferum, which generated the M. persicae-S. tuberosum interaction to become incompatible. These results confirm that B. aphidicola is involved in the plant-aphid interaction in relation to plant acceptance, presumably through a role in stylets penetration in the plant. © 2016 Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Reduced ventral cingulum integrity and increased behavioral problems in children with isolated optic nerve hypoplasia and mild to moderate or no visual impairment.

PubMed

Webb, Emma A; O'Reilly, Michelle A; Clayden, Jonathan D; Seunarine, Kiran K; Dale, Naomi; Salt, Alison; Clark, Chris A; Dattani, Mehul T

2013-01-01

To assess the prevalence of behavioral problems in children with isolated optic nerve hypoplasia, mild to moderate or no visual impairment, and no developmental delay. To identify white matter abnormalities that may provide neural correlates for any behavioral abnormalities identified. Eleven children with isolated optic nerve hypoplasia (mean age 5.9 years) underwent behavioral assessment and brain diffusion tensor imaging, Twenty four controls with isolated short stature (mean age 6.4 years) underwent MRI, 11 of whom also completed behavioral assessments. Fractional anisotropy images were processed using tract-based spatial statistics. Partial correlation between ventral cingulum, corpus callosum and optic radiation fractional anisotropy, and child behavioral checklist scores (controlled for age at scan and sex) was performed. Children with optic nerve hypoplasia had significantly higher scores on the child behavioral checklist (p<0.05) than controls (4 had scores in the clinically significant range). Ventral cingulum, corpus callosum and optic radiation fractional anisotropy were significantly reduced in children with optic nerve hypoplasia. Right ventral cingulum fractional anisotropy correlated with total and externalising child behavioral checklist scores (r = -0.52, p<0.02, r = -0.46, p<0.049 respectively). There were no significant correlations between left ventral cingulum, corpus callosum or optic radiation fractional anisotropy and behavioral scores. Our findings suggest that children with optic nerve hypoplasia and mild to moderate or no visual impairment require behavioral assessment to determine the presence of clinically significant behavioral problems. Reduced structural integrity of the ventral cingulum correlated with behavioral scores, suggesting that these white matter abnormalities may be clinically significant. The presence of reduced fractional anisotropy in the optic radiations of children with mild to moderate or no visual impairment raises questions as to the pathogenesis of these changes which will need to be addressed by future studies.

Parent Training With High-Risk Immigrant Chinese Families: A Pilot Group Randomized Trial Yielding Practice-Based Evidence

PubMed Central

Lau, Anna S.; Fung, Joey J.; Ho, Lori Y.; Liu, Lisa L.; Gudiño, Omar G.

2013-01-01

We studied the efficacy and implementation outcomes of a culturally responsive parent training (PT) program. Fifty-four Chinese American parents participated in a wait-list controlled group randomized trial (32 immediate treatment, 22 delayed treatment) of a 14-week intervention designed to address the needs of high-risk immigrant families. Parents were eligible for intervention if they were Chinese-speaking immigrants referred from schools, community clinics, or child protective services with concerns about parenting or child behavior problems. Retention and engagement were high with 83% of families attending 10 or more sessions. Results revealed that the treatment was efficacious in reducing negative discipline, increasing positive parenting, and decreasing child externalizing and internalizing problems. Treatment effects were larger among families with higher levels of baseline behavior problems and lower levels of parenting stress. Further augmentation of PT to address immigrant parent stress may be warranted. Qualitative impressions from group leaders suggested that slower pacing and increased rehearsal of skills may improve efficacy for immigrant parents unfamiliar with skills introduced in PT. PMID:21658524

Parent training with high-risk immigrant chinese families: a pilot group randomized trial yielding practice-based evidence.

PubMed

Lau, Anna S; Fung, Joey J; Ho, Lorinda Y; Liu, Lisa L; Gudiño, Omar G

2011-09-01

We studied the efficacy and implementation outcomes of a culturally responsive parent training (PT) program. Fifty-four Chinese American parents participated in a wait-list controlled group randomized trial (32 immediate treatment, 22 delayed treatment) of a 14-week intervention designed to address the needs of high-risk immigrant families. Parents were eligible for intervention if they were Chinese-speaking immigrants referred from schools, community clinics, or child protective services with concerns about parenting or child behavior problems. Retention and engagement were high with 83% of families attending 10 or more sessions. Results revealed that the treatment was efficacious in reducing negative discipline, increasing positive parenting, and decreasing child externalizing and internalizing problems. Treatment effects were larger among families with higher levels of baseline behavior problems and lower levels of parenting stress. Further augmentation of PT to address immigrant parent stress may be warranted. Qualitative impressions from group leaders suggested that slower pacing and increased rehearsal of skills may improve efficacy for immigrant parents unfamiliar with skills introduced in PT. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Kalman filters for fractional discrete-time stochastic systems along with time-delay in the observation signal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Torabi, H.; Pariz, N.; Karimpour, A.

2016-02-01

This paper investigates fractional Kalman filters when time-delay is entered in the observation signal in the discrete-time stochastic fractional order state-space representation. After investigating the common fractional Kalman filter, we try to derive a fractional Kalman filter for time-delay fractional systems. A detailed derivation is given. Fractional Kalman filters will be used to estimate recursively the states of fractional order state-space systems based on minimizing the cost function when there is a constant time delay (d) in the observation signal. The problem will be solved by converting the filtering problem to a usual d-step prediction problem for delay-free fractional systems.

Interacting shells in AdS spacetime and chaos

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brito, Richard; Cardoso, Vitor; Rocha, Jorge V.

2016-07-01

We study the simplest two-body problem in asymptotically anti-de Sitter spacetime: two, infinitely thin, concentric spherical shells of matter. We include only gravitational interaction between the two shells, but we show that the dynamics of this system is highly nontrivial. We observe prompt collapse to a black hole, delayed collapse and even perpetual oscillatory motion, depending on the initial location of the shells (or their energy content). The system exhibits critical behavior, and we show strong hints that it is also chaotic.

A Direct Comparison of Self-Injurious and Stereotyped Motor Behavior Between Preschool-Aged Children With and Without Developmental Delays.

PubMed

Hoch, John; Spofford, Lisa; Dimian, Adele; Tervo, Raymond; MacLean, William E; Symons, Frank J

2016-06-01

To compare the prevalence of self-injurious behavior (SIB) and stereotyped motor behavior (STY) of preschool-aged children with developmental delays (DD group) and their peers without developmental delays (TD group) using a standardized caregiver report scale. The Repetitive Behavior Scale-Revised was completed by caregivers of children with developmental delays and their peers without developmental delays. Frequency of occurrence and severity ratings for SIB and STY were compared between groups. SIB and STY were reported more often and at a greater level of severity in the DD group. Older chronological age was associated with more severe STY in the DD group but not the TD group. Gender was not related to STY or SIB for either group. Differences in STY and SIB were evident between preschoolers with and without DD. Findings are discussed from developmental and behavioral psychology perspectives regarding the expression of repetitive behavior in developmentally at-risk pediatric populations. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Pediatric Psychology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Turkish Mothers' Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Styles of Interactions with Their Children with Language Delays

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diken, Ibrahim H.

2009-01-01

Turkish mothers' self-efficacy beliefs and their interactional behaviors with their children with language delays are described and explored. Participants included 19 mother-child dyads. Mothers' interaction with their children with language delays was videotaped for 30 minutes in a free-play context. Regarding mothers' interactional behaviors,…

Age of First Use and Delay to First Intoxication in Relation to Trajectories of Heavy Drinking and Alcohol-Related Problems During Emerging Adulthood

PubMed Central

Morean, Meghan E.; Corbin, William R.; Fromme, Kim

2018-01-01

Background Using alcohol at an early age is a well-documented risk factor for heavy drinking and the experience of a range of negative social and health consequences. However, it remains unclear if early consumption of any alcohol or early drinking to intoxication confers the greatest risk. Methods Age of onset (AO) and delay to first intoxication (delay) were examined as independent predictors of heavy drinking and the experience of alcohol-related problems (problems) in a sample of incoming college freshmen (n = 1,160) who completed biannual assessments from the summer following senior year of high school through senior year of college. The sample included more women (66%) than men and a majority were Caucasian (59%). We employed latent growth curve modeling to examine self-reported AO and delay to self-defined first intoxication as predictors of the frequency of heavy drinking and problems during year 4 of college, as well as changes in these alcohol-related outcomes from high school through college. Results An earlier AO and/or a shorter delay was associated with increased frequency of heavy drinking and problems during senior year of college. Although individuals with a later AO and/or a longer delay were at lower risk overall, they showed larger increases in heavy drinking and problems over time. Conclusions The findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between AO and delay to first intoxication. Delay accounted for unique variance in drinking outcomes relative to AO, and the effects of AO were stronger when delay was included as a predictor variable. Results are discussed with regard to potential mechanisms through which an early age of intoxication may confer unique risk relative to AO. The implications for cross-cultural differences in risk for problems attributable to early drinking are also discussed. PMID:22897715

Accelerated long-term forgetting and behavioural difficulties in children with epilepsy.

PubMed

Gascoigne, Michael B; Smith, Mary Lou; Barton, Belinda; Webster, Richard; Gill, Deepak; Lah, Suncica

2018-03-30

Patients with epilepsy have been shown to exhibit a range of memory deficits, including the rapid forgetting of newly-learned material over long, but not short, delays (termed accelerated long-term forgetting; ALF). Behavioural problems, such as mood disorders and social difficulties, are also overrepresented among children with epilepsy, when compared to patients with other chronic diseases and the general population. We investigated whether ALF was associated with behavioural or psychosocial deficits in children with epilepsy. Patients with either idiopathic generalised epilepsy (IGE; n = 20) or temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE; n = 23) and healthy controls (n = 53) of comparable age, sex, and socioeconomic status completed a battery of neuropsychological tests, including a list-learning task that required recall after short (30-min) and long (7-day) delays. Parents or guardians of all participants also completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Compared to control participants, patients with IGE and TLE had higher scores on all but one of the indices of behavioural problems. When patients with IGE and TLE were merged into a single group, they were found to have negative correlations between 7-day recall and internalising, social and total problem behaviour domains, where poorer 7-day recall was associated with behavioural problems of greater severity. These findings suggest that impaired episodic recall is associated with behavioural deficits, including social problems, which are routinely observed in patients with epilepsy. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Social characteristics and health status of children entering foster care centers].

PubMed

Oliván Gonzalvo, G

1999-02-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the social characteristics and health status of children entering foster care. A cross-sectional study was performed over a 6-year period. Data was collected using a standardized entrance form. Using the child's medical history and a physical examination according to standardized protocols their health status was assessed. The following results were obtained on 776 children. Demography: 53.6% males and 46.4% females; mean age 7.3 +/- 5.7 years and predominance of infants/preschoolers (46.1%) and adolescents (32.9%). Family characteristics: living in a single parent family (33.2%) or no parent family (18.4%) before placement; coming from a high-risk family (53.7%) and/or a family with multiple problems (33.9%). Reason for placement: neglect (50.2%), parental incapacity (24.2%), abandonment (22%), physical abuse (20.1%), child disruptive behavior (17%), emotional abuse (11%), sexual abuse (3.2%) and more than one reason (33.1%). Personal history: chronic illness (4.4%), incomplete immunization (20.1%), psychomotor delay (4.2%), special education (3.3%), and delay/precocious school abandonment (34.6%). Health status: abnormality in at least one body system (66.1%) and more than one (42%), the most frequent health problems included problems in odontology (38.1%), dermatology (29.9%), vision (18.4%), respiration (11.6%), orthopedics (10.5%), psychomotor delay (10.3%), otology (8.1%) and ocular (6%). Actions taken included: therapeutic prescription for acute illness (43.7%) and referral to other sanitary services (46.9%). A high rate of children entering foster care present physical and mental health problems. These problems can be identified at the time of entrance into foster care; therefore, early intervention in the treatment and referral of this high-risk population must be undertaken as a great opportunity to solve them.

Commentary: Childhood conduct problems are a public health crisis and require resources: a commentary on Rivenbark et al. ().

PubMed

Burt, S Alexandra; Hyde, Luke W; Frick, Paul J; Jaffee, Sara R; Shaw, Daniel S; Tremblay, Richard

2018-06-01

Conduct problems (CP) are actions that violate societal norms and/or the personal/property rights of others, and include behaviors such as vandalism, theft, bullying, and assault. Roughly 8%-10% of children engage in the more severe childhood-onset form of CP, while another 25% initiate clinically-significant levels of CP during adolescence. As deftly observed in Rivenbark et al. (), however, the high prevalence of CP belies its severity: Youth with CP are at increased risk for a number of deleterious individual outcomes, including academic delay/dropout, low professional achievement, psychopathology, addiction, and family instability. © 2018 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Haploinsufficiency of SOX5 at 12p12.1 is associated with developmental delays with prominent language delay, behavior problems, and mild dysmorphic features.

PubMed

Lamb, Allen N; Rosenfeld, Jill A; Neill, Nicholas J; Talkowski, Michael E; Blumenthal, Ian; Girirajan, Santhosh; Keelean-Fuller, Debra; Fan, Zheng; Pouncey, Jill; Stevens, Cathy; Mackay-Loder, Loren; Terespolsky, Deborah; Bader, Patricia I; Rosenbaum, Kenneth; Vallee, Stephanie E; Moeschler, John B; Ladda, Roger; Sell, Susan; Martin, Judith; Ryan, Shawnia; Jones, Marilyn C; Moran, Rocio; Shealy, Amy; Madan-Khetarpal, Suneeta; McConnell, Juliann; Surti, Urvashi; Delahaye, Andrée; Heron-Longe, Bénédicte; Pipiras, Eva; Benzacken, Brigitte; Passemard, Sandrine; Verloes, Alain; Isidor, Bertrand; Le Caignec, Cedric; Glew, Gwen M; Opheim, Kent E; Descartes, Maria; Eichler, Evan E; Morton, Cynthia C; Gusella, James F; Schultz, Roger A; Ballif, Blake C; Shaffer, Lisa G

2012-04-01

SOX5 encodes a transcription factor involved in the regulation of chondrogenesis and the development of the nervous system. Despite its important developmental roles, SOX5 disruption has yet to be associated with human disease. We report one individual with a reciprocal translocation breakpoint within SOX5, eight individuals with intragenic SOX5 deletions (four are apparently de novo and one inherited from an affected parent), and seven individuals with larger 12p12 deletions encompassing SOX5. Common features in these subjects include prominent speech delay, intellectual disability, behavior abnormalities, and dysmorphic features. The phenotypic impact of the deletions may depend on the location of the deletion and, consequently, which of the three major SOX5 protein isoforms are affected. One intragenic deletion, involving only untranslated exons, was present in a more mildly affected subject, was inherited from a healthy parent and grandparent, and is similar to a deletion found in a control cohort. Therefore, some intragenic SOX5 deletions may have minimal phenotypic effect. Based on the location of the deletions in the subjects compared to the controls, the de novo nature of most of these deletions, and the phenotypic similarities among cases, SOX5 appears to be a dosage-sensitive, developmentally important gene. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Unmet Health Services Needs Among US Children with Developmental Disabilities: Associations with Family Impact and Child Functioning.

PubMed

Lindly, Olivia J; Chavez, Alison E; Zuckerman, Katharine E

To determine associations of unmet needs for child or family health services with (1) adverse family financial and employment impacts and (2) child behavioral functioning problems among US children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), developmental delay (DD), and/or intellectual disability (ID). This was a secondary analysis of parent-reported data from the 2009 to 2010 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs linked to the 2011 Survey of Pathways to Diagnosis and Services. The study sample (n = 3,518) represented an estimated 1,803,112 US children aged 6 to 17 years with current ASD, DD, and/or ID (developmental disabilities). Dependent variables included adverse family financial and employment impacts, as well as child behavioral functioning problems. The independent variables of interest were unmet need for (1) child health services and (2) family health services. Multivariable logistic regression models were fit to examine associations. Unmet need for child and family health services, adverse family financial and employment impacts, and child behavioral functioning problems were prevalent among US children with developmental disabilities. Unmet needs were associated with an increased likelihood of adverse family employment and financial impacts. Unmet needs were associated with an increased likelihood of child behavioral functioning problems the following year; however, this association was not statistically significant. Unmet needs are associated with adverse impacts for children with developmental disabilities and their families. Increased access to and coordination of needed health services following ASD, DD, and/or ID diagnosis may improve outcomes for children with developmental disabilities and their families.

Sexual discounting among high-risk youth ages 18–24: Implications for sexual and substance use risk behaviors

PubMed Central

Dariotis, Jacinda K.; Johnson, Matthew W.

2014-01-01

Youth under 25 show substantial sexual and substance use risk behaviors. One factor associated with risk behaviors is delay discounting, the devaluation of delayed outcomes. This study determined if delay discounting for sexual outcomes is related to sexual risk and substance use among 18–24 year olds. Females (70) and males (56) completed the Sexual Discounting Task, which assessed their likelihood of having unprotected immediate sex vs. waiting for sex with a condom, at various delays, with four hypothetical sexual partners selected from photographs: the person they (1) most wanted to have sex with, (2) least wanted to have sex with, (3) judged most likely to have an STI, and (4) judged least likely to have an STI. They also completed instruments assessing HIV knowledge, sexual behaviors, substance use, risk attitudes, inhibition, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. Condom use likelihood generally decreased with increasing delay. Preference for immediate, unprotected sex was greater for partners whom participants most (vs. least) wanted to have sex with, and judged least (vs. most) likely to have an STI. Preference for immediate, unprotected sex in the 'most want to have sex with' and ‘least likely to have an STI' conditions was related to greater lifetime risky sexual partners, lifetime number of unique substances used, disregard of social approval/danger, disinhibition, and sensation/excitement seeking. Males showed greater likelihood of unprotected sex than females when condom use was un-delayed, but delay affected condom use similarly between sexes. Delay discounting should be considered in strategies to minimize youth risk behavior. PMID:25545764

Opportunity costs of reward delays and the discounting of hypothetical money and cigarettes.

PubMed

Johnson, Patrick S; Herrmann, Evan S; Johnson, Matthew W

2015-01-01

Humans are reported to discount delayed rewards at lower rates than nonhumans. However, nonhumans are studied in tasks that restrict reinforcement during delays, whereas humans are typically studied in tasks that do not restrict reinforcement during delays. In nonhuman tasks, the opportunity cost of restricted reinforcement during delays may increase delay discounting rates. The present within-subjects study used online crowdsourcing (Amazon Mechanical Turk, or MTurk) to assess the discounting of hypothetical delayed money (and cigarettes in smokers) under four hypothetical framing conditions differing in the availability of reinforcement during delays. At one extreme, participants were free to leave their computer without returning, and engage in any behavior during reward delays (modeling typical human tasks). At the opposite extreme, participants were required to stay at their computer and engage in little other behavior during reward delays (modeling typical nonhuman tasks). Discounting rates increased as an orderly function of opportunity cost. Results also indicated predominantly hyperbolic discounting, the "magnitude effect," steeper discounting of cigarettes than money, and positive correlations between discounting rates of these commodities. This is the first study to test the effects of opportunity costs on discounting, and suggests that procedural differences may partially account for observed species differences in discounting. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Münchhausen by proxy syndrome in clinical child neuropsychology: a case presenting with neuropsychological symptoms.

PubMed

Heubrock, D

2001-12-01

Münchhausen by proxy syndrome (MBPS) is a rare but dramatic variant of child abuse. In MBPS adults, mostly the mother, invent, manipulate, or produce the child's illness, and as a consequence the child has to undergo numerous diagnostic or treatment procedures. Typically, valid information about the etiology of the child's illness is withheld by the parents, and reversible symptoms vanish, when the child and the responsible adults are separated. Although valid statistical data about the epidemiology of MBPS are not available, MBPS should be considered more often than normally recognized. Neurological and neuropsychological presentations including developmental delays and learning problems appear to be common among MBPS cases so that clinical child neuropsychologists should be aware of this problem and consider MBPS at least in some of the mysterious cases that come to their attention. The present study describes a case of MBPS in which neurological and neuropsychological symptoms predominate. It presents a MBPS variant that is characterized by developmental delays and learning problems induced by unnecessary isolation at home, hospitalization, and treatment procedures. In the present case MBPS was at first suspected following neuropsychological assessment, since some of the main features of non-authenticity of symptom presentation gave cause for suspecting deceptive behavior on the mother's (and possibly also on the maternal grandmother's) side.

Increasing Social Behaviors in Young Children with Social-Communication Delays in a Group Arrangement in Preschool

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lane, Justin D.; Gast, David L.; Ledford, Jennifer R.; Shepley, Collin

2017-01-01

Young children with disabilities are less likely to display age-appropriate social behaviors than same-age peers with typical social development, especially children who display social-communication delays. In this study, two concurrently operating single case designs were used to evaluate the use of progressive time delay (PTD) to teach children…

Parental Contributions to the Delay of Gratification in Preschool-Aged Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Russell, Beth S.; Londhe, Rucha; Britner, Preston A.

2013-01-01

Delay of gratification in young children has been linked to long-term behavioral and academic outcomes. This study explored parent behavior during a laboratory paradigm as possible associates of delay ability. The sample consisted of 50 two- and three-year-old children and their primary caregivers. A newly created laboratory task, the gift delay…

Public channel cryptography: chaos synchronization and Hilbert's tenth problem.

PubMed

Kanter, Ido; Kopelowitz, Evi; Kinzel, Wolfgang

2008-08-22

The synchronization process of two mutually delayed coupled deterministic chaotic maps is demonstrated both analytically and numerically. The synchronization is preserved when the mutually transmitted signals are concealed by two commutative private filters, a convolution of the truncated time-delayed output signals or some powers of the delayed output signals. The task of a passive attacker is mapped onto Hilbert's tenth problem, solving a set of nonlinear Diophantine equations, which was proven to be in the class of NP-complete problems [problems that are both NP (verifiable in nondeterministic polynomial time) and NP-hard (any NP problem can be translated into this problem)]. This bridge between nonlinear dynamics and NP-complete problems opens a horizon for new types of secure public-channel protocols.

Optimal control of LQR for discrete time-varying systems with input delays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yin, Yue-Zhu; Yang, Zhong-Lian; Yin, Zhi-Xiang; Xu, Feng

2018-04-01

In this work, we consider the optimal control problem of linear quadratic regulation for discrete time-variant systems with single input and multiple input delays. An innovative and simple method to derive the optimal controller is given. The studied problem is first equivalently converted into a problem subject to a constraint condition. Last, with the established duality, the problem is transformed into a static mathematical optimisation problem without input delays. The optimal control input solution to minimise performance index function is derived by solving this optimisation problem with two methods. A numerical simulation example is carried out and its results show that our two approaches are both feasible and very effective.

Happy Now, Tired Later? Extraverted and Conscientious Behavior Are Related to Immediate Mood Gains, but to Later Fatigue.

PubMed

Leikas, Sointu; Ilmarinen, Ville-Juhani

2017-10-01

Experience sampling studies on Big Five-related behavior show that people display the whole spectrum of each trait in their daily behavior, and that desirable Big Five states-especially state Extraversion-are related to positive mood. However, other research lines suggest that extraverted and conscientious behavior may be mentally depleting. The present research examined this possibility by extending the time frame of the measured personality processes. A 12-day experience sampling study (N = 48; observations = 2,328) measured Big Five states, mood, stress, and fatigue five times a day. Extraverted and conscientious behavior were concurrently related to positive mood and lower fatigue, but to higher fatigue after a 3-hour delay. These relations were not moderated by personality traits. The relation between extraverted behavior and delayed fatigue was mediated by the number of people the person had encountered. Whether the person had a goal mediated the relation between conscientious behavior and delayed fatigue. Extraverted and conscientious behavior predict mental depletion after a 3-hour delay. The results help reconcile previous findings regarding the consequences of state Extraversion and provide novel information about the consequences of state Conscientiousness. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Robust optimization for nonlinear time-delay dynamical system of dha regulon with cost sensitivity constraint in batch culture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yuan, Jinlong; Zhang, Xu; Liu, Chongyang; Chang, Liang; Xie, Jun; Feng, Enmin; Yin, Hongchao; Xiu, Zhilong

2016-09-01

Time-delay dynamical systems, which depend on both the current state of the system and the state at delayed times, have been an active area of research in many real-world applications. In this paper, we consider a nonlinear time-delay dynamical system of dha-regulonwith unknown time-delays in batch culture of glycerol bioconversion to 1,3-propanediol induced by Klebsiella pneumonia. Some important properties and strong positive invariance are discussed. Because of the difficulty in accurately measuring the concentrations of intracellular substances and the absence of equilibrium points for the time-delay system, a quantitative biological robustness for the concentrations of intracellular substances is defined by penalizing a weighted sum of the expectation and variance of the relative deviation between system outputs before and after the time-delays are perturbed. Our goal is to determine optimal values of the time-delays. To this end, we formulate an optimization problem in which the time delays are decision variables and the cost function is to minimize the biological robustness. This optimization problem is subject to the time-delay system, parameter constraints, continuous state inequality constraints for ensuring that the concentrations of extracellular and intracellular substances lie within specified limits, a quality constraint to reflect operational requirements and a cost sensitivity constraint for ensuring that an acceptable level of the system performance is achieved. It is approximated as a sequence of nonlinear programming sub-problems through the application of constraint transcription and local smoothing approximation techniques. Due to the highly complex nature of this optimization problem, the computational cost is high. Thus, a parallel algorithm is proposed to solve these nonlinear programming sub-problems based on the filled function method. Finally, it is observed that the obtained optimal estimates for the time-delays are highly satisfactory via numerical simulations.

Theoretical foundations for traditional and generalized sensitivity functions for nonlinear delay differential equations.

PubMed

Banks, H Thomas; Robbins, Danielle; Sutton, Karyn L

2013-01-01

In this paper we present new results for differentiability of delay systems with respect to initial conditions and delays. After motivating our results with a wide range of delay examples arising in biology applications, we further note the need for sensitivity functions (both traditional and generalized sensitivity functions), especially in control and estimation problems. We summarize general existence and uniqueness results before turning to our main results on differentiation with respect to delays, etc. Finally we discuss use of our results in the context of estimation problems.

Maximum principle for a stochastic delayed system involving terminal state constraints.

PubMed

Wen, Jiaqiang; Shi, Yufeng

2017-01-01

We investigate a stochastic optimal control problem where the controlled system is depicted as a stochastic differential delayed equation; however, at the terminal time, the state is constrained in a convex set. We firstly introduce an equivalent backward delayed system depicted as a time-delayed backward stochastic differential equation. Then a stochastic maximum principle is obtained by virtue of Ekeland's variational principle. Finally, applications to a state constrained stochastic delayed linear-quadratic control model and a production-consumption choice problem are studied to illustrate the main obtained result.

Modeling and Classifying Six-Dimensional Trajectories for Teleoperation Under a Time Delay

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

SunSpiral, Vytas; Wheeler, Kevin R.; Allan, Mark B.; Martin, Rodney

2006-01-01

Within the context of teleoperating the JSC Robonaut humanoid robot under 2-10 second time delays, this paper explores the technical problem of modeling and classifying human motions represented as six-dimensional (position and orientation) trajectories. A dual path research agenda is reviewed which explored both deterministic approaches and stochastic approaches using Hidden Markov Models. Finally, recent results are shown from a new model which represents the fusion of these two research paths. Questions are also raised about the possibility of automatically generating autonomous actions by reusing the same predictive models of human behavior to be the source of autonomous control. This approach changes the role of teleoperation from being a stand-in for autonomy into the first data collection step for developing generative models capable of autonomous control of the robot.

Reinforcement of wheel running in BALB/c mice: role of motor activity and endogenous opioids.

PubMed

Vargas-Pérez, Héctor; Sellings, Laurie H L; Paredes, Raúl G; Prado-Alcalá, Roberto A; Díaz, José-Luis

2008-11-01

The authors investigated the effect of the opioid antagonist naloxone on wheel-running behavior in Balb/c mice. Naloxone delayed the acquisition of wheel-running behavior, but did not reduce the expression of this behavior once acquired. Delayed acquisition was not likely a result of reduced locomotor activity, as naloxone-treated mice did not exhibit reduced wheel running after the behavior was acquired, and they performed normally on the rotarod test. However, naloxone-blocked conditioned place preference for a novel compartment paired previously with wheel running, suggesting that naloxone may delay wheel-running acquisition by blocking the rewarding or reinforcing effects of the behavior. These results suggest that the endogenous opioid system mediates the initial reinforcing effects of wheel running that are important in acquisition of the behavior.

Evaluating Behavioral Economic Models of Heavy Drinking Among College Students.

PubMed

Acuff, Samuel F; Soltis, Kathryn E; Dennhardt, Ashley A; Berlin, Kristoffer S; Murphy, James G

2018-05-14

Heavy drinking among college students is a significant public health concern that can lead to profound social and health consequences, including alcohol use disorder. Behavioral economics posits that low future orientation and high valuation of alcohol (alcohol demand) combined with deficits in alternative reinforcement increase the likelihood of alcohol misuse (Bickel et al., 2011). Despite this, no study has examined the incremental utility of all three variables simultaneously in a comprehensive model METHOD: The current study uses structural equation modeling to test the associations between behavioral economic variables - alcohol demand (latent), future orientation (measured with a delay discounting task and the Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) scale), and proportionate substance-related reinforcement - and alcohol consumption and problems among 393 heavy drinking college students. Two models are tested: 1) an iteration of the reinforcer pathology model that includes an interaction between future orientation and alcohol demand; and 2) an alternative model evaluating the interconnectedness of behavioral economic variables in predicting problematic alcohol use RESULTS: The interaction effects in model 1 were nonsignificant. Model 2 suggests that greater alcohol demand and proportionate substance-related reinforcement is associated with greater alcohol consumption and problems. Further, CFC was associated with alcohol-related problems and lower proportionate substance-related reinforcement but was not significantly associated with alcohol consumption or alcohol demand. Finally, greater proportionate substance-related reinforcement was associated with greater alcohol demand CONCLUSIONS: Our results support the validity of the behavioral economic reinforcer pathology model as applied to young adult heavy drinking. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Impact of delayed information in sub-second complex systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manrique, Pedro D.; Zheng, Minzhang; Johnson Restrepo, D. Dylan; Hui, Pak Ming; Johnson, Neil F.

What happens when you slow down the delivery of information in large-scale complex systems that operate faster than the blink of an eye? This question just adopted immediate commercial, legal and political importance following U.S. regulators' decision to allow an intentional 350 microsecond delay to be added in the ultrafast network of financial exchanges. However there is still no scientific understanding available to policymakers of the potential system-wide impact of such delays. Here we take a first step in addressing this question using a minimal model of a population of competing, heterogeneous, adaptive agents which has previously been shown to produce similar statistical features to real markets. We find that while certain extreme system-level behaviors can be prevented by such delays, the duration of others is increased. This leads to a highly non-trivial relationship between delays and system-wide instabilities which warrants deeper empirical investigation. The generic nature of our model suggests there should be a fairly wide class of complex systems where such delay-driven extreme behaviors can arise, e.g. sub-second delays in brain function possibly impacting individuals' behavior, and sub-second delays in navigational systems potentially impacting the safety of driverless vehicles.

Neural Basis of Brain Dysfunction Produced by Early Sleep Problems.

PubMed

Kohyama, Jun

2016-01-29

There is a wealth of evidence that disrupted sleep and circadian rhythms, which are common in modern society even during the early stages of life, have unfavorable effects on brain function. Altered brain function can cause problem behaviors later in life, such as truancy from or dropping out of school, quitting employment, and committing suicide. In this review, we discuss findings from several large cohort studies together with recent results of a cohort study using the marshmallow test, which was first introduced in the 1960s. This test assessed the ability of four-year-olds to delay gratification and showed how this ability correlated with success later in life. The role of the serotonergic system in sleep and how this role changes with age are also discussed. The serotonergic system is involved in reward processing and interactions with the dorsal striatum, ventral striatum, and the prefrontal cortex are thought to comprise the neural basis for behavioral patterns that are affected by the quantity, quality, and timing of sleep early in life.

Associations among Maternal Behavior, Delay of Gratification, and School Readiness across the Early Childhood Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Razza, Rachel A.; Raymond, Kimberly

2013-01-01

This study examined the developmental pathways from maternal behavior to school readiness within a sample of 1007 children, with a specific focus on the mediating role of delay of gratification (DoG). Maternal behavior across the first 36 months of age was explored as a predictor of children's DoG at 54 months as well as their behavioral and…

Decentralized control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Steffen, Chris

1990-01-01

An overview of the time-delay problem and the reliability problem which arise in trying to perform robotic construction operations at a remote space location are presented. The effects of the time-delay upon the control system design will be itemized. A high level overview of a decentralized method of control which is expected to perform better than the centralized approach in solving the time-delay problem is given. The lower level, decentralized, autonomous, Troter Move-Bar algorithm is also presented (Troters are coordinated independent robots). The solution of the reliability problem is connected to adding redundancy to the system. One method of adding redundancy is given.

Agent Reward Shaping for Alleviating Traffic Congestion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tumer, Kagan; Agogino, Adrian

2006-01-01

Traffic congestion problems provide a unique environment to study how multi-agent systems promote desired system level behavior. What is particularly interesting in this class of problems is that no individual action is intrinsically "bad" for the system but that combinations of actions among agents lead to undesirable outcomes, As a consequence, agents need to learn how to coordinate their actions with those of other agents, rather than learn a particular set of "good" actions. This problem is ubiquitous in various traffic problems, including selecting departure times for commuters, routes for airlines, and paths for data routers. In this paper we present a multi-agent approach to two traffic problems, where far each driver, an agent selects the most suitable action using reinforcement learning. The agent rewards are based on concepts from collectives and aim to provide the agents with rewards that are both easy to learn and that if learned, lead to good system level behavior. In the first problem, we study how agents learn the best departure times of drivers in a daily commuting environment and how following those departure times alleviates congestion. In the second problem, we study how agents learn to select desirable routes to improve traffic flow and minimize delays for. all drivers.. In both sets of experiments,. agents using collective-based rewards produced near optimal performance (93-96% of optimal) whereas agents using system rewards (63-68%) barely outperformed random action selection (62-64%) and agents using local rewards (48-72%) performed worse than random in some instances.

Environmental manganese exposure and associations with memory, executive functions, and hyperactivity in Brazilian children.

PubMed

Carvalho, Chrissie Ferreira de; Oulhote, Youssef; Martorelli, Marina; Carvalho, Carla Oliveira de; Menezes-Filho, José Antônio; Argollo, Nayara; Abreu, Neander

2018-02-09

Manganese (Mn) is an essential element, however high levels of Mn have been associated with lower neuropsychological performance and behavioral problems in children. We investigated the associations between hair Mn concentrations and neuropsychological and behavioral performances among children with long-term exposure to airborne Mn aged between 7 and 12 years. Neuropsychological performance included tests of: verbal memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, verbal fluency, and motor function. We used the Conners Abbreviated Rating Scale for teachers to assess students' behaviors of hyperactivity. Hair manganese (MnH) concentrations in children and exposure to airborne manganese from a ferro-manganese alloy plant were analyzed and correlated with tests scores. Multivariable linear models adjusting for potential confounders showed that elevated levels of MnH were associated with lower performance in verbal memory, as measured by the free recall after interference (β = - 1.8; 95% CI: - 3.4, - 0.2), which indicates susceptibility to interference, and Delayed Effect (β = -2.0; 95% CI: -3.7, - 0.2), representing a loss of information over time. Additionally, we found patterns of effect modification by sex in three subtests measuring verbal memory: the free recall after interference score, Interference Effect, and Delayed Effect (all at p < 0.10). Overall, the results suggest that long-term airborne Mn exposure may be associated with lower performance in verbal memory, and hyperactivity behaviors. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dealing with Liars: Misbehavior Identification via Rényi-Ulam Games

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kozma, William; Lazos, Loukas

We address the problem of identifying misbehaving nodes that refuse to forward packets in wireless multi-hop networks. We map the process of locating the misbehaving nodes to the classic Rényi-Ulam game of 20 questions. Compared to previous methods, our mapping allows the evaluation of node behavior on a per-packet basis, without the need for energy-expensive overhearing techniques or intensive acknowledgment schemes. Furthermore, it copes with colluding adversaries that coordinate their behavioral patterns to avoid identification and frame honest nodes. We show via simulations that our algorithms reduce the communication overhead for identifying misbehaving nodes by at least one order of magnitude compared to other methods, while increasing the identification delay logarithmically with the path size.

Complex Source and Radiation Behaviors of Small Elements of Linear and Matrix Flexible Ultrasonic Phased-Array Transducers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amory, V.; Lhémery, A.

2008-02-01

Inspection of irregular components is problematical: maladjustment of transducer shoes to surfaces causes aberrations. Flexible phased-arrays (FPAs) designed at CEA LIST to maximize contact are driven by adapted delay laws to compensate for irregularities. Optimizing FPA requires simulation tools. The behavior of one element computed by FEM is observed at the surface and its radiation experimentally validated. Efforts for one element prevent from simulating a FPA by FEM. A model is proposed where each element behaves as nonuniform source of stresses. Exact and asymptotic formulas for Lamb problem are used as convolution kernels for longitudinal, transverse and head waves; the latter is of primary importance for angle-T-beam inspections.

The Effects of Behavioral Health Reform on Safety-Net Institutions: A Mixed-Method Assessment in a Rural State

PubMed Central

Sommerfeld, David H.; Aarons, Gregory A.; Waitzkin, Howard

2013-01-01

In July 2005, New Mexico initiated a major reform of publicly-funded behavioral healthcare to reduce cost and bureaucracy. We used a mixed-method approach to examine how this reform impacted the workplaces and employees of service agencies that care for low-income adults in rural and urban areas. Information technology problems and cumbersome processes to enroll patients, procure authorizations, and submit claims led to payment delays that affected the financial status of the agencies, their ability to deliver care, and employee morale. Rural employees experienced lower levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment and higher levels of turnover intentions under the reform when compared to their urban counterparts. PMID:23307162

Delay Discounting Mediates Parent-Adolescent Relationship Quality and Risky Sexual Behavior for Low Self-Control Adolescents

PubMed Central

Kahn, Rachel E.; Holmes, Christopher; Farley, Julee P.; Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen

2015-01-01

Parent-adolescent relationship quality and delay discounting may play important roles in adolescents’ sexual decision making processes, and levels of self-control during adolescence could act as a buffer within these factors. This longitudinal study included 219 adolescent (55% male; mean age = 12.66 years at Wave 1; mean age = 15.10 years at Wave 2) and primary caregiver dyads. Structural equation modeling was utilized to determine whether delay discounting mediated the association between parent-adolescent relationship quality and adolescents’ risky sexual behavior and how this mediated association may differ between those with high versus low self-control. The results revealed parent-adolescent relationship quality plays a role in the development of risky sexual behavior indirectly through levels of delay discounting, but only for adolescents with low self-control. These findings could inform sex education policies and health prevention programs that address adolescent risky sexual behavior. PMID:26202153

Does the Organized Sexual Murderer Better Delay and Avoid Detection?

PubMed

Beauregard, Eric; Martineau, Melissa

2016-01-01

According to the organized-disorganized model, organized sexual murderers adopt specific behaviors during the commission of their crimes that contribute to avoiding police detection. The current study examines the effect of sexual murderers' organized behaviors on their ability to both delay and/or avoid police detection. Using a combination of negative binomial and logistic regression analyses on a sample of 350 sexual murder cases, findings showed that although both measures of delaying and avoiding detection are positively correlated, different behavioral patterns were observed. For instance, offenders who moved the victim's body were more likely to avoid detection but the victim's body was likely to be recovered faster. Moreover, victim characteristics have an impact on both measures; however, this effect disappears for the measure of delaying detection once the organized behaviors are introduced. Implications of the findings are discussed. © The Author(s) 2014.

A nonlinear delayed model for the immune response in the presence of viral mutation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Messias, D.; Gleria, Iram; Albuquerque, S. S.; Canabarro, Askery; Stanley, H. E.

2018-02-01

We consider a delayed nonlinear model of the dynamics of the immune system against a viral infection that contains a wild-type virus and a mutant. We consider the finite response time of the immune system and find sustained oscillatory behavior as well as chaotic behavior triggered by the presence of delays. We present a numeric analysis and some analytical results.

Multistability of neural networks with discontinuous non-monotonic piecewise linear activation functions and time-varying delays.

PubMed

Nie, Xiaobing; Zheng, Wei Xing

2015-05-01

This paper is concerned with the problem of coexistence and dynamical behaviors of multiple equilibrium points for neural networks with discontinuous non-monotonic piecewise linear activation functions and time-varying delays. The fixed point theorem and other analytical tools are used to develop certain sufficient conditions that ensure that the n-dimensional discontinuous neural networks with time-varying delays can have at least 5(n) equilibrium points, 3(n) of which are locally stable and the others are unstable. The importance of the derived results is that it reveals that the discontinuous neural networks can have greater storage capacity than the continuous ones. Moreover, different from the existing results on multistability of neural networks with discontinuous activation functions, the 3(n) locally stable equilibrium points obtained in this paper are located in not only saturated regions, but also unsaturated regions, due to the non-monotonic structure of discontinuous activation functions. A numerical simulation study is conducted to illustrate and support the derived theoretical results. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Diagnostic delays in children with early-onset epilepsy: impact, reasons, and opportunities to improve care

PubMed Central

Berg, Anne T.; Loddenkemper, Tobias; Baca, Christine B.

2014-01-01

Purpose Delayed diagnosis of early-onset epilepsy is a potentially important and avoidable complication in epilepsy care. We examined the frequency of diagnostic delays in young children with newly presenting epilepsy, their developmental impact, and reasons for delays. Methods Children who developed epilepsy before their third birthday were identified in a prospective community-based cohort. An interval ≥1 month from second seizure to diagnosis was considered a delay. Testing of development at baseline and for up to three years after and of IQ 8–9 years later was performed. Detailed parental baseline interview accounts and medical records were reviewed to identify potential reasons for delays. Factors associated with delays included the parent, child, pediatrician, neurologist, and scheduling. Results Diagnostic delays occurred in 70/172 (41%) children. Delays occurred less often if children had received medical attention for the first seizure (p<0.0001), previously had neonatal or febrile seizures (p=0.02), had only convulsions before diagnosis (p=0.005) or had a college-educated parent (p=0.01). A ≥1 month diagnostic delay was associated with an average 7.4 point drop (p=0.02) in the Vineland Scales of Adaptive Behavior motor score. The effect was present at diagnosis, persisted for at least three years, and was also apparent in IQ scores 8–9 years later which were lower in association with a diagnostic delay by 8.4 points (p=0.06) for processing speed up to 14.5 points (p=0.004) for full scale IQ, after adjustment for parental education and other epilepsy-related clinical factors. Factors associated with delayed diagnosis included parents not recognizing events as seizures (N=47), pediatricians missing or deferring diagnosis (N=15), neurologists deferring diagnosis (N=7), and scheduling problems (N=11). Significance Diagnostic delays occur in many young children with epilepsy. They are associated with substantial decrements in development and IQ later in childhood. Several factors influence diagnostic delays and may represent opportunities for intervention and improved care. PMID:24313635

CDC Kerala 15: Developmental Evaluation Clinic (2-10 y)--developmental diagnosis and use of home intervention package.

PubMed

Nair, M K C; Lakshmi, M A; Latha, S; Lakshmi, Geetha; Harikumaran Nair, G S; Bhaskaran, Deepa; George, Babu; Leena, M L; Russell, Paul Swamidhas Sudhakar

2014-12-01

To describe the last 5 years' experience of Child Development Centre (CDC), Kerala Developmental Evaluation Clinic II for children between 2 and 10 y, referred for suspicion of developmental lag in the preschool years and scholastic difficulty in the primary classes with specific focus on developmental profile and the experience of the home based intervention package taught to the mothers. A team of evaluators including developmental therapist, preschool teacher with special training in clinical child development, speech therapist, special educator, clinical psychologist and developmental pediatrician assessed all the children referred to CDC Kerala. Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST-II), Vineland Social Maturity Scale (VSMS) and Intelligent Quotient (IQ) tests were administered to all children below 6 y and those above 6 with apparent developmental delay. Speech/delay (35.9%), behavior problem (15.4%), global delay/ intellectual disability (15.4%), learning problem (10.9%), pervasive developmental disorders (7.7%), seizure disorder (1.7%), hearing impairment (0.7%), and visual impairment (0.7%) were the clinical diagnosis by a developmental pediatrician. Each child with developmental problem was offered a home based intervention package consisting of developmental therapy and special education items, appropriate to the clinical diagnosis of the individual child and the same was taught to the mother. The experience of conducting the developmental evaluation clinic for children between 2 and 10 y has shown that a team consisting of developmental therapist, speech therapist, preschool teacher, special educator, clinical child psychologist and developmental pediatrician, using appropriate test results of the child could make a clinical diagnosis good enough for providing early intervention therapy using a home based intervention package.

The Effects of Financial Education on Impulsive Decision Making

PubMed Central

DeHart, William B.; Friedel, Jonathan E.; Lown, Jean M.; Odum, Amy L.

2016-01-01

Delay discounting, as a behavioral measure of impulsive choice, is strongly related to substance abuse and other risky behaviors. Therefore, effective techniques that alter delay discounting are of great interest. We explored the ability of a semester long financial education course to change delay discounting. Participants were recruited from a financial education course (n = 237) and an abnormal psychology course (n = 80). Both groups completed a delay-discounting task for $100 during the first two weeks (Time 1) of the semester as well as during the last two weeks (Time 2) of the semester. Participants also completed a personality inventory and financial risk tolerance scale both times and a delay-discounting task for $1,000 during Time 2. Delay discounting decreased in the financial education group at the end of the semester whereas there was no change in delay discounting in the abnormal psychology group. Financial education may be an effective method for reducing delay discounting. PMID:27442237

The Effects of Financial Education on Impulsive Decision Making.

PubMed

DeHart, William B; Friedel, Jonathan E; Lown, Jean M; Odum, Amy L

2016-01-01

Delay discounting, as a behavioral measure of impulsive choice, is strongly related to substance abuse and other risky behaviors. Therefore, effective techniques that alter delay discounting are of great interest. We explored the ability of a semester long financial education course to change delay discounting. Participants were recruited from a financial education course (n = 237) and an abnormal psychology course (n = 80). Both groups completed a delay-discounting task for $100 during the first two weeks (Time 1) of the semester as well as during the last two weeks (Time 2) of the semester. Participants also completed a personality inventory and financial risk tolerance scale both times and a delay-discounting task for $1,000 during Time 2. Delay discounting decreased in the financial education group at the end of the semester whereas there was no change in delay discounting in the abnormal psychology group. Financial education may be an effective method for reducing delay discounting.

A prospective study of response to name in infants at risk for autism.

PubMed

Nadig, Aparna S; Ozonoff, Sally; Young, Gregory S; Rozga, Agata; Sigman, Marian; Rogers, Sally J

2007-04-01

To assess the sensitivity and specificity of decreased response to name at age 12 months as a screen for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other developmental delays. Prospective, longitudinal design studying infants at risk for ASD. Research laboratory at university medical center. Infants at risk for autism (55 six-month-olds, 101 twelve-month-olds) and a control group at no known risk (43 six-month-olds, 46 twelve-month-olds). To date, 46 at-risk infants and 25 control infants have been followed up to 24 months. Intervention Experimental task eliciting response-to-name behavior. Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Mullen Scales of Early Learning. At age 6 months, there was a nonsignificant trend for control infants to require a fewer number of calls to respond to name than infants at risk for autism. At age 12 months, 100% of infants in the control group "passed," responding on the first or second name call, while 86% in the at-risk group did. Three fourths of children who failed the task were identified with developmental problems at age 24 months. Specificity of failing to respond to name was 0.89 for ASD and 0.94 for any developmental delay. Sensitivity was 0.50 for ASD and 0.39 for any developmental delay. Failure to respond to name by age 12 months is highly suggestive of developmental abnormality but does not identify all children at risk for developmental problems. Lack of responding to name is not universal among infants later diagnosed with ASD and/or other developmental delays. Poor response to name may be a trait of the broader autism phenotype in infancy.

7 CFR 1291.10 - Reporting and oversight requirements.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

..., identify and share the lessons learned to help expedite problem-solving. (6) Contact Person. List the... period to meet measurable outcomes for each project. (2) Problems and Delays. Note unexpected delays or... include the following: (1) Project Summary. An outline of the issue, problem, interest, or need for each...

Robust output feedback H∞ control for networked control systems based on the occurrence probabilities of time delays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Chenyu; Zhang, Weidong; Bao, Jie

2012-02-01

This article is concerned with the problem of robust H ∞ output feedback control for a kind of networked control systems with time-varying network-induced delays. Instead of using boundaries of time delays to represent all time delays, the occurrence probability of each time delay is considered in H∞ stability analysis and stabilisation. The problem addressed is the design of an output feedback controller such that, for all admissible uncertainties, the resulting closed-loop system is stochastically stable for the zero disturbance input and also simultaneously achieves a prescribed H∞ performance level. It is shown that less conservativeness is obtained. A set of linear matrix inequalities is given to solve the corresponding controller design problem. An example is provided to show the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed method.

A Comparison of Teacher and Parent Delivered Consequences: Improving Classroom Behavior in Low-Income Children with ADHD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palcic, Jennette L.; Jurbergs, Nichole; Kelley, Mary Lou

2009-01-01

Both teacher and parent delivered consequences have been shown to be effective in improving the classroom behavior of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). However, there is a delay between the behavior and delivery of parent provided consequences. The delay may make the consequences less salient and effective, for…

Intellectual Profiles in KBG-Syndrome: A Wechsler Based Case-Control Study

PubMed Central

van Dongen, Linde C. M.; Wingbermühle, Ellen; Oomens, Wouter; Bos-Roubos, Anja G.; Ockeloen, Charlotte W.; Kleefstra, Tjitske; Egger, Jos I. M.

2017-01-01

KBG syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) caused by loss-of-function of the ANKRD11 gene. The core phenotype comprises developmental delay (DD)/ intellectual disability (ID) and several specific facial dysmorphisms. In addition, both ADHD- and ASD-related symptoms have been mentioned. For the correct understanding of these developmental and behavioral characteristics however, it is of great importance to apply objective measures, which seldom has been done in patients with KBG syndrome. In this study, intelligence profiles of patients with KBG syndrome (n = 18) were compared with a control group comprising patients with NDD caused by various other genetic defects (n = 17), by means of the Wechsler scales. These scales were also used to measure speed of information processing, working memory, verbal comprehension and perceptual reasoning. No significant differences were found in the global level of intelligence of patients with KBG syndrome as compared to the patient genetic control group. The same was true for Wechsler subtest results. Hence, behavioral problems associated with KBG syndrome cannot directly be related to or explained by a specific intelligence profile. Instead, specific assessment of neurocognitive functions should be performed to clarify the putative behavioral problems as observed in this syndrome. PMID:29311865

Numerical solution of a conspicuous consumption model with constant control delay☆

PubMed Central

Huschto, Tony; Feichtinger, Gustav; Hartl, Richard F.; Kort, Peter M.; Sager, Sebastian; Seidl, Andrea

2011-01-01

We derive optimal pricing strategies for conspicuous consumption products in periods of recession. To that end, we formulate and investigate a two-stage economic optimal control problem that takes uncertainty of the recession period length and delay effects of the pricing strategy into account. This non-standard optimal control problem is difficult to solve analytically, and solutions depend on the variable model parameters. Therefore, we use a numerical result-driven approach. We propose a structure-exploiting direct method for optimal control to solve this challenging optimization problem. In particular, we discretize the uncertainties in the model formulation by using scenario trees and target the control delays by introduction of slack control functions. Numerical results illustrate the validity of our approach and show the impact of uncertainties and delay effects on optimal economic strategies. During the recession, delayed optimal prices are higher than the non-delayed ones. In the normal economic period, however, this effect is reversed and optimal prices with a delayed impact are smaller compared to the non-delayed case. PMID:22267871

Explaining the increasing disability prevalence among mid-life US adults, 2002 to 2016.

PubMed

Zajacova, Anna; Montez, Jennifer Karas

2018-05-24

Several recent studies have documented an alarming upward trend in disability and functional limitations among US adults. In this study, we draw on the sociomedical Disablement Process framework to produce up-to-date estimates of the trends and identify key social and medical precursors of the trends. Using data on US adults aged 45-64 in the 2002-2016 National Health Interview Surveys, we estimate parametric and semiparametric models of disability and functional limitations as a function of interview time. We also determine the impact of socioeconomic resources, health behaviors, and health conditions on the trends. Our results show increasing prevalence of disability and functional limitations. These trends reflect the net result of complex countervailing forces, some associated with increases in functioning problems (unfavorable trends in economic well-being, especially income, and psychological distress) while other factors have suppressed the growth of functioning problems (favorable trends in educational attainment and some health behaviors, such as smoking and alcohol use). The results underscore that disability prevention must expand beyond medical interventions to include fundamental social factors and be focused on preventing or delaying the onset of chronic health problems and functional limitations. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adolescents as health agents and consumers: results of a pilot study of the health and health-related behaviors of adolescents living in a high-poverty urban neighborhood.

PubMed

Atkins, Robert; Bluebond-Langner, Myra; Read, Nichole; Pittsley, Jerri; Hart, Daniel

2010-10-01

Although there is a considerable literature on how adolescents make decisions which lead to risky behaviors (e.g., unprotected sex, drug use) and adversely affect the health and well-being of youth, little is known about the routine behaviors youth engage in which influence their health (e.g., having permanent teeth extracted, discontinuing antibiotics prematurely, delaying or going without treatment of subacute illnesses and minor injuries) and concomitantly the factors which influence these behaviors. In an effort to begin to fill this gap, we have undertaken a study of routine health behaviors and the factors which bear on them in adolescents from a high-poverty urban neighborhood. In this article, we present the results of the pilot phase of the study in which we documented the behavior of 10 adolescents from Camden, New Jersey, the fifth poorest city in the United States, and explored with them their perceptions of the decisions they made and the factors that gave rise to them. We found that participants had an insufficient understanding of their health problems and consequences of their health actions, problems in understanding and being understood by health care professionals, and reluctance to involve parents in routine health care decisions. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to improving the health of vulnerable youth. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Discounting of Condom-Protected Sex as a Measure of High Risk for Sexually Transmitted Infection Among College Students.

PubMed

Collado, Anahí; Johnson, Patrick S; Loya, Jennifer M; Johnson, Matthew W; Yi, Richard

2017-10-01

The study examined sexual delay discounting, or the devaluation of condom-protected sex in the face of delay, as a risk factor for sexually transmitted infection (STI) among college students. Participants (143 females, 117 males) completed the sexual delay discounting task (Johnson & Bruner, 2012) and questionnaires of risky sexual behavior, risk perception, and knowledge. Participants exhibited steeper sexual delay discounting (above and beyond general likelihood of having unprotected sex) when partners were viewed as more desirable or less likely to have a STI, with males demonstrating greater sexual delay discounting than females across most conditions. Importantly, greater self-reported risky sexual behaviors were associated with higher rates of sexual delay discounting, but not with likelihood of using a condom in the absence of delay. These results provide support for considering sexual delay discounting, with particular emphasis on potential delays to condom use, as a risk factor for STI among college students.

Factors Associated with Delayed Tuberculosis Test-seeking Behavior in the Peruvian Amazon

PubMed Central

Ford, Carolyn M.; Bayer, Angela M.; Gilman, Robert H.; Onifade, Dami; Acosta, Colleen; Cabrera, Lilia; Vidal, Carlos; Evans, Carlton A.

2010-01-01

This study aimed to determine the psychosocial factors associated with delayed test-seeking among tuberculosis patients. The duration of symptoms before seeking medical care was assessed by interview for 108 newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis patients in the city of Iquitos in the Peruvian Amazon, which has high tuberculosis incidence. Beliefs associated with test-seeking behavior and delay was assessed in these patients. The median delay from symptom onset to seeking diagnostic testing was 61 days (inter-quartile range 30–91 days). The belief that tuberculosis is curable was associated with a 100% longer test-seeking delay; the perception that tuberculosis was common was associated with a 57% longer delay; male gender was associated with a 48% longer delay; and education less than complete secondary schooling was associated with a 44% longer delay. In conclusion, current health promotion activities that emphasize tuberculosis curability and high prevalence may paradoxically increase test-seeking delay and therefore require prospective evaluation. PMID:19996443

Gender and socio-cultural determinants of delay to diagnosis of TB in Bangladesh, India and Malawi.

PubMed

Gosoniu, G D; Ganapathy, S; Kemp, J; Auer, C; Somma, D; Karim, F; Weiss, M G

2008-07-01

Tuberculosis (TB) control programmes in Bangladesh, India and Malawi. To compare the interval from symptom onset to diagnosis of TB for men and women, and to assess socio-cultural and gender-related features of illness explaining diagnostic delay. Semi-structured Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue (EMIC) interviews were administered to 100 or more patients at each site, assessing categories of distress, perceived causes and help seeking. Based on time from initial symptoms to diagnosis of TB, patients were classified with problem delay (>90 days), timely diagnosis (< or =30 days) or moderate delay. EMIC interview data were analysed to explain problem delay. The median interval from symptom onset to diagnosis was longest in India and shortest in Malawi. With adjustment for confounding, female sex (Bangladesh), and status of married woman (India) and housewife (Malawi) were associated with problem delay. Prominent non-specific symptoms--chest pain (Bangladesh) and breathlessness (Malawi)--were also significant. Cough in India, widely associated with TB, was associated with timely diagnosis. Sanitation as a perceived cause linked to poor urban conditions was associated with delayed diagnosis in India. Specific prior help seeking with circuitous referral patterns was identified. The study identified gender- and illness-related features of diagnostic delay. Further research distinguishing patient and provider delay is needed.

Cognitive-behavioral treatment with behavioral activation for smokers with depressive symptomatology: study protocol of a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Becoña, Elisardo; Martínez-Vispo, Carmela; Senra, Carmen; López-Durán, Ana; Rodríguez-Cano, Rubén; Fernández Del Río, Elena

2017-04-08

Smoking is an important risk factor for mental health-related problems. Numerous studies have supported a bi-directional association between cigarette smoking and depression. Despite the advances in understanding the comorbidity between both problems, the most effective psychological treatment that simultaneously targets smoking and depressive symptomatology remains unclear. The objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral intervention for smoking cessation with components of behavioral activation for managing depressed mood. A single blind, three-arm, superiority randomized controlled trial is proposed. Participants will be smokers over 18 years old, who smoke at least 8 cigarettes per day. Participants will be randomized to one of three conditions, using a 2:2:1 allocation ratio: 1) standard cognitive-behavioral smoking cessation treatment; 2) standard cognitive-behavioral smoking cessation treatment plus behavioral activation; or 3) a three-month delayed treatment control group. The primary outcome measures will be biochemically verified point-prevalence abstinence (carbon monoxide in expired air) and significant change from baseline in depressive symptoms to the end of treatment, and at the 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-up. This study aims to assess the efficacy of a cognitive-behavioral intervention with behavioral activation components for smoking cessation and depressive symptoms, compared to a standard cognitive-behavioral intervention to quit smoking. As the relation between depressive symptoms, even at subclinical levels, and quitting smoking difficulties is well known, we expect that such intervention will allow obtaining higher abstinence rates, lower relapse rates, and mood improvement. ClinicalTrials.gov : NCT02844595 . Retrospectively registered 19th July, 2016. The study started in January 2016, and the recruitment is ongoing.

Formulation and optimization of zinc-pectinate beads for the controlled delivery of resveratrol.

PubMed

Das, Surajit; Ng, Ka-Yun; Ho, Paul C

2010-06-01

Preventive and therapeutic efficacies of resveratrol on several lower gastrointestinal (GI) diseases (e.g., colorectal cancer, colitis) are well documented. To overcome the problems due to its rapid absorption and metabolism at the upper GI tract, a delayed release formulation of resveratrol was designed to treat these lower GI diseases. The current study aimed to develop a delayed release formulation of resveratrol as multiparticulate pectinate beads by varying different formulation parameters. Zinc-pectinate (Zn-pectinate) beads exhibited better delayed drug release pattern than calcium-pectinate (Ca-pectinate) beads. The effects of the formulation parameters were investigated on shape, size, Zn content, moisture content, drug encapsulation efficiency, swelling-erosion, and resveratrol retention pattern of the formulated beads. Upon optimization of the formulation parameters in relative to the drug release profiles, the optimized beads were further subjected to morphological, chemical interaction, enzymatic degradation, and stability studies. Almost all prepared beads were spherical with approximately 1 mm diameter and efficiently encapsulated resveratrol. The formulation parameters revealed great influence on resveratrol retention and swelling-erosion behavior. In most of the cases, the drug release data more appropriately fitted with zero-order equation. This study demonstrates that the optimized Zn-pectinate beads can encapsulate very high amount of resveratrol and can be used as delayed release formulation of resveratrol.

Neurodevelopmental and neurobehavioral characteristics in males and females with CDKL5 duplications.

PubMed

Szafranski, Przemyslaw; Golla, Sailaja; Jin, Weihong; Fang, Ping; Hixson, Patricia; Matalon, Reuben; Kinney, Daniel; Bock, Hans-Georg; Craigen, William; Smith, Janice L; Bi, Weimin; Patel, Ankita; Wai Cheung, Sau; Bacino, Carlos A; Stankiewicz, Paweł

2015-07-01

Point mutations and genomic deletions of the CDKL5 (STK9) gene on chromosome Xp22 have been reported in patients with severe neurodevelopmental abnormalities, including Rett-like disorders. To date, only larger-sized (8-21 Mb) duplications harboring CDKL5 have been described. We report seven females and four males from seven unrelated families with CDKL5 duplications 540-935 kb in size. Three families of different ethnicities had identical 667kb duplications containing only the shorter CDKL5 isoform. Four affected boys, 8-14 years of age, and three affected girls, 6-8 years of age, manifested autistic behavior, developmental delay, language impairment, and hyperactivity. Of note, two boys and one girl had macrocephaly. Two carrier mothers of the affected boys reported a history of problems with learning and mathematics while at school. None of the patients had epilepsy. Similarly to CDKL5 mutations and deletions, the X-inactivation pattern in all six studied females was random. We hypothesize that the increased dosage of CDKL5 might have affected interactions of this kinase with its substrates, leading to perturbation of synaptic plasticity and learning, and resulting in autistic behavior, developmental and speech delay, hyperactivity, and macrocephaly.

Thermally induced delay and reversal of liquid film dewetting on chemically patterned surfaces.

PubMed

Kalpathy, Sreeram K; Francis, Lorraine F; Kumar, Satish

2013-10-15

A thin liquid film resting on a solid substrate that is heated or cooled from below experiences surface tension gradients, which lead to Marangoni flows. We explore the behavior of such a film on a chemically patterned substrate which drives film dewetting in order to determine how surface patterning and applied temperature gradients can be designed to influence the behavior of thin-film coatings. A nonlinear partial differential equation for the film height based on lubrication theory is solved numerically for a broad range of problem parameters. Uniform cooling of the substrate is found to significantly delay dewetting that is driven by wettability gradients. Uniform heating speeds up dewetting but can destroy the near-perfect templating imposed by the surface patterning. However, localized heating and cooling together can accelerate dewetting while maintaining templating quality. Localized heating and cooling can also be used to drive liquid onto areas that it would dewet from in the absence of heating. Overall, these results indicate that applied temperature gradients can significantly influence dewetting driven by surface patterning, and suggest strategies for the creation of spatially patterned thin-film coatings and flow control in microfluidic devices. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A finite difference model for free surface gravity drainage

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Couri, F.R.; Ramey, H.J. Jr.

1993-09-01

The unconfined gravity flow of liquid with a free surface into a well is a classical well test problem which has not been well understood by either hydrologists or petroleum engineers. Paradigms have led many authors to treat an incompressible flow as compressible flow to justify the delayed yield behavior of a time-drawdown test. A finite-difference model has been developed to simulate the free surface gravity flow of an unconfined single phase, infinitely large reservoir into a well. The model was verified with experimental results in sandbox models in the literature and with classical methods applied to observation wells inmore » the Groundwater literature. The simulator response was also compared with analytical Theis (1935) and Ramey et al. (1989) approaches for wellbore pressure at late producing times. The seepage face in the sandface and the delayed yield behavior were reproduced by the model considering a small liquid compressibility and incompressible porous medium. The potential buildup (recovery) simulated by the model evidenced a different- phenomenon from the drawdown, contrary to statements found in the Groundwater literature. Graphs of buildup potential vs time, buildup seepage face length vs time, and free surface head and sand bottom head radial profiles evidenced that the liquid refills the desaturating cone as a flat moving surface. The late time pseudo radial behavior was only approached after exaggerated long times.« less

Behavioral characteristics of very-low-birth-weight infants of varying biologic risk at 6, 15, and 24 months of age.

PubMed

Oehler, J M; Thompson, R J; Goldstein, R F; Gustafson, K E; Brazy, J E

1996-01-01

To explore the relationship between developmental outcome and behavior of very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants (< or = 1500 g) at high and low biologic risk. Descriptive, ex post facto. Clinic for follow-up of infants at high risk. A convenience sample of 102 VLBW infants, free of major congenital anomalies, who completed 6-, 15-, and 24-month developmental testing and who were part of a larger study of 274 VLBW infants. Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Infants at high biologic risk, versus infants at low biologic risk, were less attentive and active through age 15 months and were less adept in gross and fine motor skills through age 24 months (p < or = 0.05-0.001). Infants with continuous delay were less attentive than infants with no delay or late delay through age 24 months, less active through age 15 months (p < or = 0.001-0.001), and less skilled in motor behaviors through age 24 months (p < or = 0.05-0.001). Infants at high biologic risk and infants with developmental delays are less attentive, less active, and less skilled in motor tasks during the first 15-24 months of life, suggesting an association between biologic risk and behavior and developmental delay and behavior.

Tobacco demand, delay discounting, and smoking topography among smokers with and without psychopathology.

PubMed

Farris, Samantha G; Aston, Elizabeth R; Abrantes, Ana M; Zvolensky, Michael J

2017-10-01

Tobacco demand (i.e., relative value attributed to a given reinforcer) and delay discounting (i.e., relative preference for smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards) are two behavioral economic processes that are linked to the progression of problematic substance use. These processes have not been studied among those with psychopathology, a vulnerable group of smokers. The current study examined differences in tobacco demand and delay discounting, and their association with smoking topography among smokers with (n=43) and without (n=64) past-year psychopathology. Adult daily smokers (n=107,M age =43.5; SD=9.7) participated in a study on "smoking behavior." Past-year psychological disorders were assessed via a clinician-administered diagnostic assessment. All subjects participated in an ad libitum smoking trial and then completed an assessment of delay discounting (Monetary Choice Questionnaire) and tobacco demand (Cigarette Purchase Task) approximately 45-60min post-smoking. Smokers with psychopathology, compared to those without, had significantly higher demand intensity and maximum expenditure on tobacco (O max ), but did not differ on other demand indices or delay discounting. Smokers with psychopathology had shorter average inter-puff intervals and shorter time to cigarette completion than smokers without psychopathology. Tobacco demand and delay discounting measures were significantly intercorrelated among smokers with psychopathology, but not those without. Both behavioral economic measures were associated with specific aspects of smoking topography in smokers with psychopathology. The association between tobacco demand and delay discounting is evident among smokers with psychopathology and both measures were most consistently related to smoking behavior. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Stability and synchronization analysis of inertial memristive neural networks with time delays.

PubMed

Rakkiyappan, R; Premalatha, S; Chandrasekar, A; Cao, Jinde

2016-10-01

This paper is concerned with the problem of stability and pinning synchronization of a class of inertial memristive neural networks with time delay. In contrast to general inertial neural networks, inertial memristive neural networks is applied to exhibit the synchronization and stability behaviors due to the physical properties of memristors and the differential inclusion theory. By choosing an appropriate variable transmission, the original system can be transformed into first order differential equations. Then, several sufficient conditions for the stability of inertial memristive neural networks by using matrix measure and Halanay inequality are derived. These obtained criteria are capable of reducing computational burden in the theoretical part. In addition, the evaluation is done on pinning synchronization for an array of linearly coupled inertial memristive neural networks, to derive the condition using matrix measure strategy. Finally, the two numerical simulations are presented to show the effectiveness of acquired theoretical results.

Developmental Risk and Goodness of Fit in the Mother-Child Relationship: Links to Parenting Stress and Children's Behaviour Problems.

PubMed

Newland, Rebecca P; Crnic, Keith A

2017-01-01

Despite the compelling nature of goodness of fit, empirical support has lagged for this construct. The present study examined an interactional approach to measuring goodness of fit and prospectively explored associations with mother-child relationship quality, child behavior problems, and parenting stress across the preschool period. In addition, as goodness of fit might be particularly important for children at developmental risk, the presence of early developmental delay was considered as a moderator of goodness of fit processes. Children with ( n = 110) and without ( n = 137) developmental delays and their mothers were coded while interacting in the lab at child age 36 months and during naturalistic home observations at child ages 36 and 48 months. Mothers also completed questionnaires at child age 60 months. Results highlight the effects of child developmental risk as a moderator of mother-child goodness of fit processes across the preschool period. There was also evidence that the goodness of fit between maternal scaffolding and child activity level at 36 months influenced both mother and child functioning at 60 months. Findings call for more precise models and expanded developmental perspectives to fully capture the transactional and dynamic nature of goodness of fit.

Language, Arithmetic Word Problems, and Deaf Students: Linguistic Strategies Used To Solve Tasks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zevenbergen, Robyn; Hyde, Merv; Power, Des

2001-01-01

Examines the performance of deaf and hearing-impaired students in Queensland, Australia when solving arithmetic word problems. Subjects' solutions of word problems confirmed trends for learning students but their performance was delayed in comparison. Confirms other studies in which deaf and hearing-impaired students are delayed in their language…

Team play with a powerful and independent agent: a full-mission simulation study.

PubMed

Sarter, N B; Woods, D D

2000-01-01

One major problem with pilot-automation interaction on modern flight decks is a lack of mode awareness; that is, a lack of knowledge and understanding of the current and future status and behavior of the automation. A lack of mode awareness is not simply a pilot problem; rather, it is a symptom of a coordination breakdown between humans and machines. Recent changes in automation design can therefore be expected to have an impact on the nature of problems related to mode awareness. To examine how new automation properties might affect pilot-automation coordination, we performed a full-mission simulation study on one of the most advanced automated aircraft, the Airbus A-320. The results of this work indicate that mode errors and "automation surprises" still occur on these advanced aircraft. However, there appear to be more opportunities for delayed or missing interventions with undesirable system activities, possibly because of higher system autonomy and coupling.

Relations of Maternal Socialization and Toddlers' Effortful Control to Children's Adjustment and Social Competence

PubMed Central

Spinrad, Tracy L.; Eisenberg, Nancy; Gaertner, Bridget; Popp, Tierney; Smith, Cynthia L.; Kupfer, Anne; Greving, Karissa; Liew, Jeffrey; Hofer, Claire

2007-01-01

The authors examined the relations of maternal supportive parenting to effortful control and internalizing problems (i.e., separation distress, inhibition to novelty), externalizing problems, and social competence when toddlers were 18 months old (n = 256) and a year later (n = 230). Mothers completed the Coping With Toddlers' Negative Emotions Scale, and their sensitivity and warmth were observed. Toddlers' effortful control was measured with a delay task and adults' reports (Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire). Toddlers' social functioning was assessed with the Infant/Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment. Within each age, children's regulation significantly mediated the relation between supportive parenting and low levels of externalizing problems and separation distress, and high social competence. When using stronger tests of mediation, controlling for stability over time, the authors found only partial evidence for mediation. The findings suggest these relations may be set at an early age. PMID:17723043

The temptation of suicide: striatal gray matter, discounting of delayed rewards, and suicide attempts in late-life depression

PubMed Central

Dombrovski, Alexandre Y.; Siegle, Greg J.; Szanto, Katalin; Clark, Luke; Reynolds, Charles F.; Aizenstein, Howard

2012-01-01

Background Converging evidence implicates basal ganglia alterations in impulsivity and suicidal behavior. For example, D2/D3 agonists and subthalamic nucleus stimulation in Parkinson’s disease trigger impulse control disorders and possibly suicidal behavior. Further, suicidal behavior has been associated with structural basal ganglia abnormalities. Finally, low-lethality, unplanned suicide attempts are associated with increased discounting of delayed rewards, a behavior dependent upon the striatum. Thus, we tested whether, in late-life depression, changes in the basal ganglia were associated with suicide attempts and with increased delay discounting. Methods Fifty-two persons aged ≥60 underwent extensive clinical and cognitive characterization: 33 with major depression (13 suicide attempters [SA], 20 non-suicidal depressed elderly), and 19 non-depressed controls. Participants had high-resolution T1-weighted MPRAGE MRI scans. Basal ganglia gray matter voxel counts were estimated using atlas-based segmentation, with a highly-deformable automated algorithm. Discounting of delayed rewards was assessed using the Monetary Choice Questionnaire, and delay aversion with the Cambridge Gamble Task. Results SA had lower putamen but not caudate or pallidum gray matter voxel counts, compared to the control groups. This difference persisted after accounting for substance use disorders and possible brain injury from suicide attempts. SA with lower putamen gray matter voxel counts displayed higher delay discounting on the MCQ, but not delay aversion on the CGT. Secondary analyses revealed that SA had lower voxel counts in associative and possibly ventral, but not sensorimotor striatum. Conclusions Our findings, while limited by small sample size and case-control design, suggest that striatal lesions could contribute to suicidal behavior by increasing impulsivity. PMID:21999930

The temptation of suicide: striatal gray matter, discounting of delayed rewards, and suicide attempts in late-life depression.

PubMed

Dombrovski, A Y; Siegle, G J; Szanto, K; Clark, L; Reynolds, C F; Aizenstein, H

2012-06-01

Converging evidence implicates basal ganglia alterations in impulsivity and suicidal behavior. For example, D2/D3 agonists and subthalamic nucleus stimulation in Parkinson's disease (PD) trigger impulse control disorders and possibly suicidal behavior. Furthermore, suicidal behavior has been associated with structural basal ganglia abnormalities. Finally, low-lethality, unplanned suicide attempts are associated with increased discounting of delayed rewards, a behavior dependent upon the striatum. Thus, we tested whether, in late-life depression, changes in the basal ganglia were associated with suicide attempts and with increased delay discounting. Fifty-two persons aged ≥ 60 years underwent extensive clinical and cognitive characterization: 33 with major depression [13 suicide attempters (SA), 20 non-suicidal depressed elderly] and 19 non-depressed controls. Participants had high-resolution T1-weighted magnetization prepared rapid acquisition gradient-echo (MPRAGE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Basal ganglia gray matter voxel counts were estimated using atlas-based segmentation, with a highly deformable automated algorithm. Discounting of delayed rewards was assessed using the Monetary Choice Questionnaire (MCQ) and delay aversion with the Cambridge Gamble Task (CGT). SA had lower putamen but not caudate or pallidum gray matter voxel counts, compared to the control groups. This difference persisted after accounting for substance use disorders and possible brain injury from suicide attempts. SA with lower putamen gray matter voxel counts displayed higher delay discounting but not delay aversion. Secondary analyses revealed that SA had lower voxel counts in associative and ventral but not sensorimotor striatum. Our findings, although limited by small sample size and the case-control design, suggest that striatal lesions could contribute to suicidal behavior by increasing impulsivity.

Robustness of delayed multistable systems with application to droop-controlled inverter-based microgrids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Efimov, Denis; Schiffer, Johannes; Ortega, Romeo

2016-05-01

Motivated by the problem of phase-locking in droop-controlled inverter-based microgrids with delays, the recently developed theory of input-to-state stability (ISS) for multistable systems is extended to the case of multistable systems with delayed dynamics. Sufficient conditions for ISS of delayed systems are presented using Lyapunov-Razumikhin functions. It is shown that ISS multistable systems are robust with respect to delays in a feedback. The derived theory is applied to two examples. First, the ISS property is established for the model of a nonlinear pendulum and delay-dependent robustness conditions are derived. Second, it is shown that, under certain assumptions, the problem of phase-locking analysis in droop-controlled inverter-based microgrids with delays can be reduced to the stability investigation of the nonlinear pendulum. For this case, corresponding delay-dependent conditions for asymptotic phase-locking are given.

Optimal estimation of parameters and states in stochastic time-varying systems with time delay

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Torkamani, Shahab; Butcher, Eric A.

2013-08-01

In this study estimation of parameters and states in stochastic linear and nonlinear delay differential systems with time-varying coefficients and constant delay is explored. The approach consists of first employing a continuous time approximation to approximate the stochastic delay differential equation with a set of stochastic ordinary differential equations. Then the problem of parameter estimation in the resulting stochastic differential system is represented as an optimal filtering problem using a state augmentation technique. By adapting the extended Kalman-Bucy filter to the resulting system, the unknown parameters of the time-delayed system are estimated from noise-corrupted, possibly incomplete measurements of the states.

The magnetosphere as system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siscoe, G. L.

2012-12-01

What is a system? A group of elements interacting with each other so as to create feedback loops. A system gets complex as the number of feedback loops increases and as the feedback loops exhibit time delays. Positive and negative feedback loops with time delays can give a system intrinsic time dependence and emergent properties. A system generally has input and output flows of something (matter, energy, money), which, if time variable, add an extrinsic component to its behavior. The magnetosphere is a group of elements interacting through feedback loops, some with time delays, driven by energy and mass inflow from a variable solar wind and outflow into the atmosphere and solar wind. The magnetosphere is a complex system. With no solar wind, there is no behavior. With solar wind, there is behavior from intrinsic and extrinsic causes. As a contribution to taking a macroscopic view of magnetospheric dynamics, to treating the magnetosphere as a globally integrated, complex entity, I will discus the magnetosphere as a system, its feedback loops, time delays, emergent behavior, and intrinsic and extrinsic behavior modes.

Control system estimation and design for aerospace vehicles with time delay

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allgaier, G. R.; Williams, T. L.

1972-01-01

The problems of estimation and control of discrete, linear, time-varying systems are considered. Previous solutions to these problems involved either approximate techniques, open-loop control solutions, or results which required excessive computation. The estimation problem is solved by two different methods, both of which yield the identical algorithm for determining the optimal filter. The partitioned results achieve a substantial reduction in computation time and storage requirements over the expanded solution, however. The results reduce to the Kalman filter when no delays are present in the system. The control problem is also solved by two different methods, both of which yield identical algorithms for determining the optimal control gains. The stochastic control is shown to be identical to the deterministic control, thus extending the separation principle to time delay systems. The results obtained reduce to the familiar optimal control solution when no time delays are present in the system.

Optimal Integration of Departures and Arrivals in Terminal Airspace

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Xue, Min; Zelinski, Shannon Jean

2013-01-01

Coordination of operations with spatially and temporally shared resources, such as route segments, fixes, and runways, improves the efficiency of terminal airspace management. Problems in this category are, in general, computationally difficult compared to conventional scheduling problems. This paper presents a fast time algorithm formulation using a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA). It was first applied to a test problem introduced in existing literature. An experiment with a test problem showed that new methods can solve the 20 aircraft problem in fast time with a 65% or 440 second delay reduction using shared departure fixes. In order to test its application in a more realistic and complicated problem, the NSGA algorithm was applied to a problem in LAX terminal airspace, where interactions between 28% of LAX arrivals and 10% of LAX departures are resolved by spatial separation in current operations, which may introduce unnecessary delays. In this work, three types of separations - spatial, temporal, and hybrid separations - were formulated using the new algorithm. The hybrid separation combines both temporal and spatial separations. Results showed that although temporal separation achieved less delay than spatial separation with a small uncertainty buffer, spatial separation outperformed temporal separation when the uncertainty buffer was increased. Hybrid separation introduced much less delay than both spatial and temporal approaches. For a total of 15 interacting departures and arrivals, when compared to spatial separation, the delay reduction of hybrid separation varied between 11% or 3.1 minutes and 64% or 10.7 minutes corresponding to an uncertainty buffer from 0 to 60 seconds. Furthermore, as a comparison with the NSGA algorithm, a First-Come-First-Serve based heuristic method was implemented for the hybrid separation. Experiments showed that the results from the NSGA algorithm have 9% to 42% less delay than the heuristic method with varied uncertainty buffer sizes.

Three Positive Parenting Practices and Their Correlation with Risk of Childhood Developmental, Social, or Behavioral Delays: An Analysis of the National Survey of Children's Health.

PubMed

Cprek, Sarah E; Williams, Corrine M; Asaolu, Ibitola; Alexander, Linda A; Vanderpool, Robin C

2015-11-01

(1) Investigate the relationship between three specific positive parenting practices (PPP)-reading to children, engaging in storytelling or singing, and eating meals together as a family-and parent-reported risk of developmental, behavioral, or social delays among children between the ages of 1-5 years in the US. (2) Determine if a combination of these parenting practices has an effect on the outcome. Chi square and multiple logistic regression analyses were used to analyze cross-sectional data from the National Survey of Children's Health 2011/2012 in regards to the relationship between each of the three individual PPP as well as a total PPP score and the child's risk of being developmentally, socially, or behaviorally delayed (N = 21,527). Risk of delay was calculated using the Parents' Evaluation of Developmental Status Questionnaire, which is a parental self-report measure that has been correlated with diagnosed child delays. These analyses controlled for poverty and parental education. All analyses were completed using SAS Version 9.3. A strong correlation was found between each of the three PPP as well as the total PPP score and the child's risk of developmental, social, or behavioral delays (p < 0.05 for each test). These associations were found to have a dose-response relationship (p < 0.05 in all but one analysis). Daily engagement in PPP could possibly reduce children's risk of delay, and specifically engaging in all three PPP may have greater benefit.

Convergence behavior of delayed discrete cellular neural network without periodic coefficients.

PubMed

Wang, Jinling; Jiang, Haijun; Hu, Cheng; Ma, Tianlong

2014-05-01

In this paper, we study convergence behaviors of delayed discrete cellular neural networks without periodic coefficients. Some sufficient conditions are derived to ensure all solutions of delayed discrete cellular neural network without periodic coefficients converge to a periodic function, by applying mathematical analysis techniques and the properties of inequalities. Finally, some examples showing the effectiveness of the provided criterion are given. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Delay Discounting as an Index of Sustainable Behavior: Devaluation of Future Air Quality and Implications for Public Health.

PubMed

Berry, Meredith S; Nickerson, Norma P; Odum, Amy L

2017-09-01

Poor air quality and resulting annual deaths represent significant public health concerns. Recently, rapid delay discounting (the devaluation of future outcomes) of air quality has been considered a potential barrier for engaging in long term, sustainable behaviors that might help to reduce emissions (e.g., reducing private car use, societal support for clean air initiatives). Delay discounting has been shown to be predictive of real world behavior outside of laboratory settings, and therefore may offer an important framework beyond traditional variables thought to measure sustainable behavior such as importance of an environmental issue, or environmental attitudes/values, although more research is needed in this area. We examined relations between discounting of air quality, respiratory health, and monetary gains and losses. We also examined, relations between discounting and self-reported importance of air quality and respiratory health, and nature relatedness. Results showed rapid delay discounting of all outcomes across the time frames assessed, and significant positive correlations between delay discounting of air quality, respiratory health, and monetary outcomes. Steeper discounting of monetary outcomes relative to air quality and respiratory health outcomes was observed in the context of gains; however, no differences in discounting were observed across losses of monetary, air quality, and respiratory health. Replicating the sign effect, monetary outcomes were discounted more steeply than monetary losses. Importance of air quality, respiratory health and nature relatedness were significantly and positively correlated with one another, but not with degree of delay discounting of any outcome, demonstrating the need for more comprehensive measures that predict pro-environmental behaviors that might benefit individuals and public health over time. These results add to our understanding of decision-making, and demonstrate alarming rates of delay discounting of air quality and health. These results implicate a major public health concern and potential barriers to individual and societal behavior that reduce pollution and emissions for conservation of clean air.

Delay Discounting as an Index of Sustainable Behavior: Devaluation of Future Air Quality and Implications for Public Health

PubMed Central

Berry, Meredith S.; Nickerson, Norma P.; Odum, Amy L.

2017-01-01

Poor air quality and resulting annual deaths represent significant public health concerns. Recently, rapid delay discounting (the devaluation of future outcomes) of air quality has been considered a potential barrier for engaging in long term, sustainable behaviors that might help to reduce emissions (e.g., reducing private car use, societal support for clean air initiatives). Delay discounting has been shown to be predictive of real world behavior outside of laboratory settings, and therefore may offer an important framework beyond traditional variables thought to measure sustainable behavior such as importance of an environmental issue, or environmental attitudes/values, although more research is needed in this area. We examined relations between discounting of air quality, respiratory health, and monetary gains and losses. We also examined, relations between discounting and self-reported importance of air quality and respiratory health, and nature relatedness. Results showed rapid delay discounting of all outcomes across the time frames assessed, and significant positive correlations between delay discounting of air quality, respiratory health, and monetary outcomes. Steeper discounting of monetary outcomes relative to air quality and respiratory health outcomes was observed in the context of gains; however, no differences in discounting were observed across losses of monetary, air quality, and respiratory health. Replicating the sign effect, monetary outcomes were discounted more steeply than monetary losses. Importance of air quality, respiratory health and nature relatedness were significantly and positively correlated with one another, but not with degree of delay discounting of any outcome, demonstrating the need for more comprehensive measures that predict pro-environmental behaviors that might benefit individuals and public health over time. These results add to our understanding of decision-making, and demonstrate alarming rates of delay discounting of air quality and health. These results implicate a major public health concern and potential barriers to individual and societal behavior that reduce pollution and emissions for conservation of clean air. PMID:28862671

Analysis and experiments for delay compensation in attitude control of flexible spacecraft

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sabatini, Marco; Palmerini, Giovanni B.; Leonangeli, Nazareno; Gasbarri, Paolo

2014-11-01

Space vehicles are often characterized by highly flexible appendages, with low natural frequencies which can generate coupling phenomena during orbital maneuvering. The stability and delay margins of the controlled system are deeply affected by the presence of bodies with different elastic properties, assembled to form a complex multibody system. As a consequence, unstable behavior can arise. In this paper the problem is first faced from a numerical point of view, developing accurate multibody mathematical models, as well as relevant navigation and control algorithms. One of the main causes of instability is identified with the unavoidable presence of time delays in the GNC loop. A strategy to compensate for these delays is elaborated and tested using the simulation tool, and finally validated by means of a free floating platform, replicating the flexible spacecraft attitude dynamics (single axis rotation). The platform is equipped with thrusters commanded according to the on-off modulation of the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) control law. The LQR is based on the estimate of the full state vector, i.e. including both rigid - attitude - and elastic variables, that is possible thanks to the on line measurement of the flexible displacements, realized by processing the images acquired by a dedicated camera. The accurate mathematical model of the system and the rigid and elastic measurements enable a prediction of the state, so that the control is evaluated taking the predicted state relevant to a delayed time into account. Both the simulations and the experimental campaign demonstrate that by compensating in this way the time delay, the instability is eliminated, and the maneuver is performed accurately.

Impulsive aggression, delay discounting, and adolescent suicide attempts: effects of current psychotropic medication use and family history of suicidal behavior.

PubMed

Bridge, Jeffrey A; Reynolds, Brady; McBee-Strayer, Sandra M; Sheftall, Arielle H; Ackerman, John; Stevens, Jack; Mendoza, Kristen; Campo, John V; Brent, David A

2015-03-01

Impulsive-aggressive behaviors have been consistently implicated in the phenomenology, neurobiology, and familial aggregation of suicidal behavior. The purpose of this study was to extend previous work by examining laboratory behavioral measures of delayed reward impulsivity and impulsive aggression in adolescent suicide attempters and never-suicidal comparison subjects. Using the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP) and the Delay Discounting Task (DDQ), the authors examined delay discounting and impulsive aggression in 40 adolescent suicide attempters, ages 13-18, and 40 never-suicidal, demographically matched psychiatric comparison subjects. Overall, suicide attempters and comparison subjects performed similarly on the PSAP and DDQ. There was a significant group by current psychotropic medication use interaction (p=0.013) for mean aggressive responses on the PSAP. Group comparisons revealed that attempters emitted more aggressive responses per provocation than comparison subjects, only in those not on psychotropic medication (p=0.049), whereas for those currently treated with psychotropic medication, there were no group differences (p>0.05). This interaction effect was specific to current antidepressant use. Among all subjects, family history of suicidal behavior (suicide or suicide attempt) in first degree relatives was significantly correlated with both delay discounting (r=-0.22, p=0.049), and aggressive responding (r=0.27, p=0.015). Family history of suicidal behavior was associated with delay discounting, but not with aggressive responding on the PSAP, after controlling for relevant covariates. In this study, impulsive-aggressive responding was associated with suicide attempt only in those not being treated with antidepressants. Future work to replicate and extend these findings could have important therapeutic implications for the treatment of depressed suicide attempters, many of whom are affected by impulsive aggression.

Impulsive Aggression, Delay Discounting, and Adolescent Suicide Attempts: Effects of Current Psychotropic Medication Use and Family History of Suicidal Behavior

PubMed Central

Reynolds, Brady; McBee-Strayer, Sandra M.; Sheftall, Arielle H.; Ackerman, John; Stevens, Jack; Mendoza, Kristen; Campo, John V.; Brent, David A.

2015-01-01

Abstract Objective: Impulsive-aggressive behaviors have been consistently implicated in the phenomenology, neurobiology, and familial aggregation of suicidal behavior. The purpose of this study was to extend previous work by examining laboratory behavioral measures of delayed reward impulsivity and impulsive aggression in adolescent suicide attempters and never-suicidal comparison subjects. Methods: Using the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP) and the Delay Discounting Task (DDQ), the authors examined delay discounting and impulsive aggression in 40 adolescent suicide attempters, ages 13–18, and 40 never-suicidal, demographically matched psychiatric comparison subjects. Results: Overall, suicide attempters and comparison subjects performed similarly on the PSAP and DDQ. There was a significant group by current psychotropic medication use interaction (p=0.013) for mean aggressive responses on the PSAP. Group comparisons revealed that attempters emitted more aggressive responses per provocation than comparison subjects, only in those not on psychotropic medication (p=0.049), whereas for those currently treated with psychotropic medication, there were no group differences (p>0.05). This interaction effect was specific to current antidepressant use. Among all subjects, family history of suicidal behavior (suicide or suicide attempt) in first degree relatives was significantly correlated with both delay discounting (r=−0.22, p=0.049), and aggressive responding (r=0.27, p=0.015). Family history of suicidal behavior was associated with delay discounting, but not with aggressive responding on the PSAP, after controlling for relevant covariates. Conclusions: In this study, impulsive-aggressive responding was associated with suicide attempt only in those not being treated with antidepressants. Future work to replicate and extend these findings could have important therapeutic implications for the treatment of depressed suicide attempters, many of whom are affected by impulsive aggression. PMID:25745870

Effects of delay to reinforcement on the choice between cocaine and food in rhesus monkeys.

PubMed

Woolverton, William L; Anderson, Karen G

2006-05-01

Although a delay between behavior and reinforcer has been shown to weaken behavior, little is known about the effects of delay on drug choice. The present study examined effects of delay between lever press and reinforcer presentation on the choice between a drug and non-drug reinforcer and between different drug doses. Monkeys (n=4) were allowed to choose 32 times/day between cocaine and four food pellets. The delay between lever press and a preferred dose of cocaine (0.05 mg/kg/injection) was increased systematically from 0 to 240 s, while the delay to food remained at 0 s. A second group of monkeys (n=4) was allowed to choose between 0.05 mg/kg/injection and a lower dose of cocaine (0.025 mg/kg/injection). Next, a delay that resulted in less than 20% choice of 0.05 mg/kg/injection cocaine was selected and delay to the alternative was varied. Results were similar across groups. The choice of 0.05 mg/kg/injection approximated 100% at 0 delay and decreased to near 0 as delay increased. As the delay to alternative was subsequently increased from 0 to 240 s, choice of 0.05 mg/kg/injection increased, though full cocaine choice was not generally restored. The delay estimated to maintain 50% choice (indifference point) was lower for the cocaine-food choice (mean=64 s) than for the cocaine-cocaine choice (mean=207 s). This experiment demonstrates that the choice between cocaine and a non-drug or drug alternative can be modified by increasing the interval between behavior and drug injection. Overall, the results are consistent with a temporal discounting model of drug choice.

Texting while driving as impulsive choice: A behavioral economic analysis

PubMed Central

Hayashi, Yusuke; Russo, Christopher T.; Wirth, Oliver

2015-01-01

The goal of the present study was to examine the utility of a behavioral economic analysis to investigate the role of delay discounting in texting while driving. A sample of 147 college students completed a survey to assess how frequently they send and read text messages while driving. Based on this information, students were assigned to one of two groups: 19 students who frequently text while driving and 19 matched-control students who infrequently text while driving but were similar in gender, age, years of education, and years driving. The groups were compared on the extent to which they discounted, or devalued, delayed hypothetical monetary rewards using a delay-discounting task. In this task, students made repeated choices between $1000 available after a delay (ranging from 1 week to 10 years) and an equal or lesser amount of money available immediately. The results show that the students who frequently text while driving discounted delayed rewards at a greater rate than the matched control students. The study supports the conclusions that texting while driving is fundamentally an impulsive choice made by drivers, and that a behavioral economic approach may be a useful research tool for investigating the decision-making processes underlying risky behaviors. PMID:26280804

Delay Discounting Mediates Parent-Adolescent Relationship Quality and Risky Sexual Behavior for Low Self-Control Adolescents.

PubMed

Kahn, Rachel E; Holmes, Christopher; Farley, Julee P; Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen

2015-09-01

Parent-adolescent relationship quality and delay discounting may play important roles in adolescents' sexual decision making processes, and levels of self-control during adolescence could act as a buffer within these factors. This longitudinal study included 219 adolescent (55 % male; mean age = 12.66 years at Wave 1; mean age = 15.10 years at Wave 2) and primary caregiver dyads. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to determine whether delay discounting mediated the association between parent-adolescent relationship quality and adolescents' risky sexual behavior and how this mediated association may differ between those with high versus low self-control. The results revealed parent-adolescent relationship quality plays a role in the development of risky sexual behavior indirectly through levels of delay discounting, but only for adolescents with low self-control. These findings could inform sex education policies and health prevention programs that address adolescent risky sexual behavior.

Factors influencing abstinence, anticipation, and delay of sex among adolescent boys in high-sexually transmitted infection prevalence communities.

PubMed

Cummings, Teresa; Auerswald, Colette L; Ott, Mary A

2014-05-01

Abstinence is a core pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention strategy. We explore the attitudinal, behavioral, and family contexts relating to abstinence and the decision to delay sex among adolescent boys. Adolescent boys ages 14-17 years were recruited from community sites using a venue-based sampling method. All eligible boys at venues were invited to participate in an electronic survey. Question items included sexual behaviors, attitudes related to sex, relationships, masculine values, and family contextual items. We enrolled 667 participants, mean age 15.7 years, of diverse ethnicity. A total of 252 were abstinent (38%). Abstinent participants were younger and less likely to report non-coital behaviors, and reported lower conventional masculine values. Among abstinent participants, 62% planned to delay sex, whereas 38% anticipated sex in the next year. Participants with lower conventional masculine values and more religious or moral motivations for abstinence were more likely to plan to delay sex. Abstinence among boys is common, even in high-STI risk communities. For these boys, abstinence appears to be a complex behavioral decision influenced by demographic, behavioral, attitudinal, and contextual factors such as age, race, non-coital sexual behaviors, and masculine values. Understanding the attitudes and contexts of abstinence, including plans to delay sex, can inform the development of public health programs for early fatherhood and STI prevention. Copyright © 2014 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PERIPARTUM DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY AS AN INTEGRATIVE CROSS DOMAIN TARGET FOR PSYCHIATRIC PREVENTATIVE MEASURES

PubMed Central

Babb, Jessica A.; Deligiannidis, Kristina M.; Murgatroyd, Christopher A.

2014-01-01

Exposure to high levels of early life stress has been identified as a potent risk factor for neurodevelopmental delays in infants, behavioral problems and autism in children, but also for several psychiatric illnesses in adulthood, such as depression, anxiety, autism, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Despite having robust adverse effects on both mother and infant, the pathophysiology of peripartum depression and anxiety are poorly understood. The objective of this review is to highlight the advantages of using an integrated approach addressing several behavioral domains in both animal and clinical studies of peripartum depression and anxiety. It is postulated that a greater focus on integrated cross domain studies will lead to advances in treatments and preventative measures for several disorders associated with peripartum depression and anxiety. PMID:24709228

BCDP: Budget Constrained and Delay-Bounded Placement for Hybrid Roadside Units in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

PubMed Central

Li, Peng; Huang, Chuanhe; Liu, Qin

2014-01-01

In vehicular ad hoc networks, roadside units (RSUs) placement has been proposed to improve the the overall network performance in many ITS applications. This paper addresses the budget constrained and delay-bounded placement problem (BCDP) for roadside units in vehicular ad hoc networks. There are two types of RSUs: cable connected RSU (c-RSU) and wireless RSU (w-RSU). c-RSUs are interconnected through wired lines, and they form the backbone of VANETs, while w-RSUs connect to other RSUs through wireless communication and serve as an economical extension of the coverage of c-RSUs. The delay-bounded coverage range and deployment cost of these two cases are totally different. We are given a budget constraint and a delay bound, the problem is how to find the optimal candidate sites with the maximal delay-bounded coverage to place RSUs such that a message from any c-RSU in the region can be disseminated to the more vehicles within the given budget constraint and delay bound. We first prove that the BCDP problem is NP-hard. Then we propose several algorithms to solve the BCDP problem. Simulation results show the heuristic algorithms can significantly improve the coverage range and reduce the total deployment cost, compared with other heuristic methods. PMID:25436656

The Effects Of A Seatbelt-gearshift Delay Prompt On The Seatbelt Use Of Motorists Who Do Not Regularly Wear Seatbelts

PubMed Central

Malenfant, J.E. Louis; Austin, John; Lebbon, Angie

2005-01-01

A seatbelt-gearshift delay was evaluated in two U.S. and three Canadian vehicles using a reversal design. The seatbelt-gearshift delay required unbelted drivers either to buckle their seatbelts or to wait a specified time before they could put the vehicle in gear. After collecting behavioral prebaseline data, a data logger was installed in all five vehicles to collect automated data on seatbelt use. Next the seatbelt-gearshift delay was introduced. The results showed that the delay increased all 5 drivers' seatbelt use, and that the duration of the delay that produced relatively consistent seatbelt use varied across drivers from 5 to 20 s. When the device was deactivated in four of the five vehicles, behavior returned to baseline levels. PMID:16033166

Investigating the Influences of Language Delay and/or Familial Risk for Dyslexia on Brain Structure in 5-Year-Olds

PubMed Central

Raschle, Nora Maria; Becker, Bryce Larkin Chessell; Smith, Sara; Fehlbaum, Lynn Valérie; Wang, Yingying; Gaab, Nadine

2017-01-01

Abstract Early language delay has often been associated with atypical language/literacy development. Neuroimaging studies further indicate functional disruptions during language and print processing in school-age children with a retrospective report of early language delay. Behavioral data of 114 5-year-olds with a retrospective report of early language delay in infancy (N = 34) and those without (N = 80) and with a familial risk for dyslexia and those without are presented. Behaviorally, children with a retrospective report of early language delay exhibited reduced performance in language/reading-related measures. A voxel-based morphometry analysis in a subset (N = 46) demonstrated an association between reduced gray matter volume and early language delay in left-hemispheric middle temporal, occipital, and frontal regions. Alterations in middle temporal cortex in children with a retrospective report of early language delay were observed regardless of familial risk for dyslexia. Additionally, while children with isolated familial risk for dyslexia showed gray matter reductions in temporoparietal and occipitotemporal regions, these effects were most profound in children with both risk factors. An interaction effect of early language delay and familial risk was revealed in temporoparietal, occipital, and frontal cortex. Our findings support a cumulative effect of early behavioral and genetic risk factors on brain development and may ultimately inform diagnosis/treatment. PMID:26585334

Impaired flexibility in decision making in rats after administration of the pharmacological stressor yohimbine.

PubMed

Schwager, Andrea L; Haack, Andrew K; Taha, Sharif A

2014-10-01

Stress-induced disruption of decision making has been hypothesized to contribute to drug-seeking behaviors and addiction. Noradrenergic signaling plays a central role in mediating stress responses. However, the effects of acute stress on decision making, and the role of noradrenergic signaling in regulating these effects, have not been well characterized. To characterize changes in decision making caused by acute pharmacological stress, the effects of yohimbine (an α2-adrenergic antagonist) were examined in a delay discounting task. Noradrenergic contributions to decision making were further characterized by examining the effects of propranolol (a β antagonist), prazosin (an α1 antagonist), and guanfacine (an α2 agonist). Sprague-Dawley rats were administered drugs prior to performance on a delay discounting task, in which the delay preceding the large reward increased within each session (ascending delays). To dissociate drug-induced changes in delay sensitivity from behavioral inflexibility, drug effects were subsequently tested in a modified version of the discounting task, in which the delay preceding the large reward decreased within each session (descending delays). Yohimbine increased choice of the large reward when tested with ascending delays but decreased choice of the same large reward when tested with descending delays, suggesting that drug effects could be attributed to perseverative choice of the lever preferred at the beginning of the session. Propranolol increased choice of the large reward when tested with ascending delays. Prazosin and guanfacine had no effect on reward choice. The stress-like effects of yohimbine administration may impair decision making by causing inflexible, perseverative behavior.

A random utility model of delay discounting and its application to people with externalizing psychopathology.

PubMed

Dai, Junyi; Gunn, Rachel L; Gerst, Kyle R; Busemeyer, Jerome R; Finn, Peter R

2016-10-01

Previous studies have demonstrated that working memory capacity plays a central role in delay discounting in people with externalizing psychopathology. These studies used a hyperbolic discounting model, and its single parameter-a measure of delay discounting-was estimated using the standard method of searching for indifference points between intertemporal options. However, there are several problems with this approach. First, the deterministic perspective on delay discounting underlying the indifference point method might be inappropriate. Second, the estimation procedure using the R2 measure often leads to poor model fit. Third, when parameters are estimated using indifference points only, much of the information collected in a delay discounting decision task is wasted. To overcome these problems, this article proposes a random utility model of delay discounting. The proposed model has 2 parameters, 1 for delay discounting and 1 for choice variability. It was fit to choice data obtained from a recently published data set using both maximum-likelihood and Bayesian parameter estimation. As in previous studies, the delay discounting parameter was significantly associated with both externalizing problems and working memory capacity. Furthermore, choice variability was also found to be significantly associated with both variables. This finding suggests that randomness in decisions may be a mechanism by which externalizing problems and low working memory capacity are associated with poor decision making. The random utility model thus has the advantage of disclosing the role of choice variability, which had been masked by the traditional deterministic model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Automatic recording of mediating behavior in delayed matching- and nonmatching-to-position procedures in rats.

PubMed

Panlilio, Leigh V; Yasar, Sevil; Thorndike, Eric B; Goldberg, Steven R; Schindler, Charles W

2011-03-01

Delayed matching-to-position and nonmatching-to-position procedures are widely used to model working memory in rodents. Mediating behavior-which enhances performance but is not explicitly required by the task-is generally considered an obstacle to the measurement of memory, but often occurs despite attempts to prevent it. The ubiquitous nature of mediating behavior suggests it might be analogous to rehearsal, an important component of learning and memory in humans. The aim was to study an easily recordable, rehearsal-like mediating response in rats under baseline conditions and after treatment with amnestic drugs [scopolamine (0.1-0.3 mg/kg) and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC; 1-5.6 mg/kg)]. Lighted nosepoke holes were used to present position cues and record delayed matching or nonmatching responses. Performance of a distractor task was required to prevent simply waiting at the correct choice, but the nosepoke holes were left accessible during the delay. Each rat trained with the nonmatching task exhibited one of two mediating "strategies" that increased the odds of a correct choice: responding in the to-be-correct hole during the delay or responding in the opposite hole during the delay. Rats trained with the matching task all showed the former strategy. Treatment with scopolamine disrupted performance of the mediating response. Scopolamine and THC both decreased the effectiveness of the mediating response, increasing errors even on trials when the "appropriate" mediating behavior did occur. The procedures and data analysis approach used here provide an objective, automated means of measuring mediating behavior, which might be useful as an animal model of memory rehearsal.

Event-triggered synchronization for reaction-diffusion complex networks via random sampling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Tao; Wang, Aijuan; Zhu, Huiyun; Liao, Xiaofeng

2018-04-01

In this paper, the synchronization problem of the reaction-diffusion complex networks (RDCNs) with Dirichlet boundary conditions is considered, where the data is sampled randomly. An event-triggered controller based on the sampled data is proposed, which can reduce the number of controller and the communication load. Under this strategy, the synchronization problem of the diffusion complex network is equivalently converted to the stability of a of reaction-diffusion complex dynamical systems with time delay. By using the matrix inequality technique and Lyapunov method, the synchronization conditions of the RDCNs are derived, which are dependent on the diffusion term. Moreover, it is found the proposed control strategy can get rid of the Zeno behavior naturally. Finally, a numerical example is given to verify the obtained results.

Predicting flight delay based on multiple linear regression

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ding, Yi

2017-08-01

Delay of flight has been regarded as one of the toughest difficulties in aviation control. How to establish an effective model to handle the delay prediction problem is a significant work. To solve the problem that the flight delay is difficult to predict, this study proposes a method to model the arriving flights and a multiple linear regression algorithm to predict delay, comparing with Naive-Bayes and C4.5 approach. Experiments based on a realistic dataset of domestic airports show that the accuracy of the proposed model approximates 80%, which is further improved than the Naive-Bayes and C4.5 approach approaches. The result testing shows that this method is convenient for calculation, and also can predict the flight delays effectively. It can provide decision basis for airport authorities.

Sex-dependent impacts of low-level lead exposure and prenatal stress on impulsive choice behavior and associated biochemical and neurochemical manifestations.

PubMed

Weston, Hiromi I; Weston, Douglas D; Allen, Joshua L; Cory-Slechta, Deborah A

2014-09-01

A prior study demonstrated increased overall response rates on a fixed interval (FI) schedule of reward in female offspring that had been subjected to maternal lead (Pb) exposure, prenatal stress (PS) and offspring stress challenge relative to control, prenatal stress alone, lead alone and lead+prenatal stress alone (Virgolini et al., 2008). Response rates on FI schedules have been shown to directly relate to measures of self-control (impulsivity) in children and in infants (Darcheville et al., 1992, 1993). The current study sought to determine whether enhanced effects of Pb±PS would therefore be seen in a more direct measure of impulsive choice behavior, i.e., a delay discounting paradigm. Offspring of dams exposed to 0 or 50ppm Pb acetate from 2 to 3 months prior to breeding through lactation, with or without immobilization restraint stress (PS) on gestational days 16 and 17, were trained on a delay discounting paradigm that offered a choice between a large reward (three 45mg food pellets) after a long delay or a small reward (one 45mg food pellet) after a short delay, with the long delay value increased from 0s to 30s across sessions. Alterations in extinction of this performance, and its subsequent re-acquisition after reinforcement delivery was reinstated were also examined. Brains of littermates of behaviorally-trained offspring were utilized to examine corresponding changes in monoamines and in levels of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), the serotonin transporter (SERT) and the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) 2A in brain regions associated with impulsive choice behavior. Results showed that Pb±PS-induced changes in delay discounting occurred almost exclusively in males. In addition to increasing percent long delay responding at the indifference point (i.e., reduced impulsive choice behavior), Pb±PS slowed acquisition of delayed discounting performance, and increased numbers of both failures to and latencies to initiate trials. Overall, the profile of these alterations were more consistent with impaired learning/behavioral flexibility and/or with enhanced sensitivity to the downshift in reward opportunities imposed by the transition from delay discounting training conditions to delay discounting choice response contingencies. Consistent with these behavioral changes, Pb±PS treated males also showed reductions in brain serotonin function in all mesocorticolimbic regions, broad monoamine changes in nucleus accumbens, and reductions in both BDNF and NMDAR 2A levels and increases in SERT in frontal cortex, i.e., in regions and neurotransmitter systems known to mediate learning/behavioral flexibility, and which were of greater impact in males. The current findings do not fully support a generality of the enhancement of Pb effects by PS, as previously seen with FI performance in females (Virgolini et al., 2008), and suggest a dissociation of the behaviors controlled by FI and delay discounting paradigms, at least in response to Pb±PS in rats. Collectively, however, the findings remain consistent with sex-dependent differences in the impacts of both Pb and PS and with the need to understand both the role of contingencies of reinforcement and underlying neurobiological effects in these sex differences. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Evaluation and Treatment of Delayed Ejaculation.

PubMed

Shin, Daniel H; Spitz, Aaron

2014-10-01

Delayed ejaculation is a small but important subsection of ejaculatory dysfunction, with prevalence estimated at 1-4%. It is most commonly defined by DSM-IV-TR criteria, as "a persistent delay in, or absence of, orgasm in a male following a normal sexual excitement phase during sexual activity that the clinician, taking into account the person's age, judges to be adequate in focus, intensity, and duration." The pathophysiology of delayed ejaculation is related to disruptions in ejaculatory apparatus, nervous transmission, hormonal or neurochemical ejaculatory control, or psychosocial factors. To update the clinician on the evaluation and treatment of delayed ejaculation. The keywords "delayed ejaculation" and "retarded ejaculation" were utilized to search Pubmed for relevant publications. 319 results were generated from the search, and those publications judged relevant to the pathophysiology, epidemiology, evaluation, and treatment of delayed ejaculation were included in the review. 110 articles were ultimately selected for inclusion in this review. The evaluation of this condition requires a focused history and physical, which includes a detailed sexual history, examination of the genitalia, and inquiry into the status of the partner. Laboratory tests are aimed at the detection of abnormalities in the blood count, glucose level, hormone levels, or kidney function. If a correctable etiology is discovered, treatment is directed towards the reversal of this condition. In some cases, the delayed ejaculation may be a lifelong problem. Also, in some cases the etiology of the delayed ejaculation may be irreversible, such as in the case of age-related sensation loss or diabetes-related neuropathy. In these instances treatment may require a combination of behavioral modification, sexual therapy, or perhaps pharmaceutical drugs. Participation of the partner in therapy may sometimes be necessary. Future investigations will continue to elucidate the complex biological and psychosocial factors which contribute to delayed ejaculation, leading to more effective treatments. Shin DH and Spitz A. The evaluation and treatment of delayed ejaculation. Sex Med Rev 2014;2:121-133. Copyright © 2014 International Society for Sexual Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Intolerance to Delayed Reward in Girls with Multiple Suicide Attempts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mathias, Charles W.; Dougherty, Donald M.; James, Lisa M.; Richard, Dawn M.; Dawes, Michael A.; Acheson, Ashley; Hill-Kapturczak, Nathalie

2011-01-01

Impulsivity has been conceptualized as influencing the expression of suicidal behavior. Adolescence is a developmental period characterized both by a relatively high rate of suicide attempts and a high level of impulsivity. The current study examined two behavioral measures (delay reward and disinhibition) and one self-report measure of…

Motivational Control of Impulsive Behavior Interacts with Choice Opportunities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tanno, Takayuki; Kurashima, Ryo; Watanabe, Shigeru

2011-01-01

Impulsive behavior has been investigated through choice between a smaller/immediate reinforcer and a larger/delayed reinforcer, or through performance on a differential reinforcement of low rate (DRL) schedule. In the present study, we investigated a methodological divergence between these two procedures: in the former procedure, delay is a…

Daily Interactions in the Parent-Adult Child Tie: Links between Children’s Problems and Parents’ Diurnal Cortisol Rhythms

PubMed Central

Birditt, Kira S.; Kim, Kyungmin; Zarit, Steven H.; Fingerman, Karen L.; Loving, Timothy J.

2016-01-01

Studies have established that grown children’s problems affect parental well-being, but a dearth of research has addressed daily interactions and biological systems that may underlie these associations. This study examined whether parents have different types of daily interactions with adult children who have problems and whether those interactions are associated with variations in parents’ diurnal cortisol rhythms. Middle-aged parents (n = 197) reported their interactions with adult children for seven consecutive days and provided saliva, analyzed for cortisol, three times a day (wake, 30 minutes after wake, bedtime) for four of those days. Parents were more likely to report negative encounters but not less likely to report positive interactions or contact with adult children who suffered from problems. Interactions with adult children who had physical-emotional problems had more immediate same day associations with cortisol whereas interactions with adult children who had lifestyle-behavioral problems had more delayed, or next day associations with cortisol. Daily interactions and their associations with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis may be important mechanisms by which adult children with problems negatively affect parental well-being. PMID:26476176

Daily interactions in the parent-adult child tie: Links between children's problems and parents' diurnal cortisol rhythms.

PubMed

Birditt, Kira S; Kim, Kyungmin; Zarit, Steven H; Fingerman, Karen L; Loving, Timothy J

2016-01-01

Studies have established that grown children's problems affect parental well-being, but a dearth of research has addressed daily interactions and biological systems that may underlie these associations. This study examined whether parents have different types of daily interactions with adult children who have problems and whether those interactions are associated with variations in parents' diurnal cortisol rhythms. Middle-aged parents (n=197) reported their interactions with adult children for seven consecutive days and provided saliva, analyzed for cortisol, three times a day (wake, 30 min after wake, bedtime) for four of those days. Parents were more likely to report negative encounters but not less likely to report positive interactions or contact with adult children who suffered from problems. Interactions with adult children who had physical-emotional problems had more immediate same day associations with cortisol whereas interactions with adult children who had lifestyle-behavioral problems had more delayed, or next day associations with cortisol. Daily interactions and their associations with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis may be important mechanisms by which adult children with problems negatively affect parental well-being. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Learning problems, delayed perceptual development, and puberty

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wright, Beverly A.; Zecker, Steven G.; Reid, Miriam D.

2003-04-01

Language-based learning problems affect approximately one person in twelve with no other obvious signs of disorder. Many of these individuals have accompanying deficits in nonlinguistic perception. To determine whether age influences the magnitude of these deficits, thresholds on a set of auditory masking tasks were measured in individuals with learning problems and controls ranging in age from 6 years to adult. Performance improved with increasing age in both groups. However, the thresholds of the individuals with learning problems were most similar to those of controls approximately 2-4 years younger on every task, suggesting that the perceptual development of the affected individuals was delayed by a constant amount. Further, on the subset of conditions on which controls reached adult levels of performance after 10 years of age, the improvement of affected individuals halted at 10 years of age, suggesting that puberty may play a critical role in human perceptual development. Taken together, these data support the idea that some learning problems result from a neuromaturational delay, of unknown breadth, and indicate that neurological changes associated with puberty prevent the complete resolution of delayed perceptual development. [Work supported by NIH/NIDCD.

Delay Discounting in C57BL/6J and DBA/2J Mice: Adolescent-Limited and Life-Persistent Patterns of Impulsivity

PubMed Central

Pinkston, Jonathan W.; Lamb, R. J.

2011-01-01

Impulsivity is a defining characteristic of adolescence. Compared to adults, for example, adolescents engage in higher rates of drug and alcohol experimentation, risky sexual practices, and criminal activity. Such behavior may reflect reduced sensitivity to long-term consequences for behavior during adolescence. Recently, our lab has attempted to refine mouse procedures to study developmental trends in decision making in the laboratory. In the present experiment, we examined sensitivity to delayed rewards in C57BL/6J (B6) and DBA/2J (D2) mice during adolescence and adulthood using an adaptation of a two-week delay discounting procedure developed by Adriani & Laviola (2003) [Behavioral Neuroscience, 117, 695-703]. During training, mice could choose between a 20- or 100-ul drop of milk delivered after a 1-s delay. During testing, the delay to the large drop of milk was increased from 1 to 100 seconds. As the delay to the larger volume increased, preference shifted to the smaller, more immediate option. In adolescence, both strains showed similar shifts in preference. In contrast, adult B6 mice were less sensitive to increasing delays than were adult D2 mice, who continued to perform much as their adolescent counterparts. A subsequent resistance-to-extinction test ruled out the possibility that the slower change in the adult B6 mice was due to perseverative responding. The present findings suggest that B6 and D2 strains may be differentially suited to uncovering the biological mechanism of short-term and long-term patterns of impulsive behavior. PMID:21463022

Communication Delays Impact Behavior and Performance Aboard the International Space Station.

PubMed

Kintz, Natalie M; Palinkas, Lawrence A

Long-duration space explorations will involve significant communication delays that will likely impact individual and team outcomes. However, the extent of these impacts and the appropriate countermeasures for their mitigation remain largely unknown. This study examined the feasibility and acceptability of utilizing the International Space Station (ISS) as a research platform to assess the impacts of communication delays on individual and team behavior and performance. For this study, 3 ISS crewmembers and 18 mission support personnel performed 10 tasks identified by subject matter experts as meeting study criteria, 6 tasks without a delay in communication and 4 tasks with a 50-s one-way delay. Assessments of individual and team performance and behavior were obtained after each task. The completion rate of posttask assessments and postmission interviews with astronauts were used to assess feasibility and acceptability. Posttask assessments were completed in 100% of the instances where a crewmember was assigned to a task and in 83% where mission support personnel were involved. Qualitative analysis of postmission interviews found the study to be important and acceptable to the three astronauts. However, they also reported the study was limited in the number and type of tasks included, limitations in survey questions, and preference for open-ended to scaled items. Although the ISS is considered a high fidelity analog for long-duration space missions, future studies of communication delays on the ISS must take into considerations the constraints imposed by mission operations and subject preferences and priorities. Kintz KM, Palinkas LA. Communication delays impact behavior and performance aboard the International Space Station. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2017; 87(11):940-946.

Three Positive Parenting Practices and Their Correlation with Risk of Childhood Developmental, Social, or Behavioral Delays: An Analysis of the National Survey of Children's Health

PubMed Central

Cprek, Sarah E.; Williams, Corrine M.; Asaolu, Ibitola; Alexander, Linda A.; Vanderpool, Robin C.

2016-01-01

Objectives (1) Investigate the relationship between three specific positive parenting practices (PPP)—reading to children, engaging in storytelling or singing, and eating meals together as a family—and parent-reported risk of developmental, behavioral, or social delays among children between the ages of 1–5 years in the US. (2) Determine if a combination of these parenting practices has an effect on the outcome. Methods Chi square and multiple logistic regression analyses were used to analyze cross-sectional data from the National Survey of Children's Health 2011/2012 in regards to the relationship between each of the three individual PPP as well as a total PPP score and the child's risk of being developmentally, socially, or behaviorally delayed (N = 21,527). Risk of delay was calculated using the Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status Questionnaire, which is a parental self-report measure that has been correlated with diagnosed child delays. These analyses controlled for poverty and parental education. All analyses were completed using SAS Version 9.3. Results A strong correlation was found between each of the three PPP as well as the total PPP score and the child's risk of developmental, social, or behavioral delays (p < 0.05 for each test). These associations were found to have a dose–response relationship (p < 0.05 in all but one analysis). Conclusions Daily engagement in PPP could possibly reduce children's risk of delay, and specifically engaging in all three PPP may have greater benefit. PMID:26100132

Neurodevelopment of children under 3 years of age with Smith-Magenis syndrome.

PubMed

Wolters, Pamela L; Gropman, Andrea L; Martin, Staci C; Smith, Michaele R; Hildenbrand, Hanna L; Brewer, Carmen C; Smith, Ann C M

2009-10-01

Systematic data regarding early neurodevelopmental functioning in Smith-Magenis syndrome are limited. Eleven children with Smith-Magenis syndrome less than 3 years of age (mean, 19 months; range, 5-34 months) received prospective multidisciplinary assessments using standardized measures. The total sample scored in the moderately to severely delayed range in cognitive functioning, expressive language, and motor skills and exhibited generalized hypotonia, oral-motor abnormalities, and middle ear dysfunction. Socialization skills were average, and significantly higher than daily living, communication, and motor abilities, which were below average. Mean behavior ratings were in the nonautistic range. According to exploratory analyses, the toddler subgroup scored significantly lower than the infant subgroup in cognition, expressive language, and adaptive behavior, suggesting that the toddlers were more delayed than the infants relative to their respective peers. Infants aged approximately 1 year or younger exhibited cognitive, language, and motor skills that ranged from average to delayed, but with age-appropriate social skills and minimal maladaptive behaviors. At ages 2 to 3 years, the toddlers consistently exhibited cognitive, expressive language, adaptive behavior, and motor delays and mildly to moderately autistic behaviors. Combining age groups in studies may mask developmental and behavioral differences. Increased knowledge of these early neurodevelopmental characteristics should facilitate diagnosis and appropriate intervention.

A comparative study of the behavioral, personality, and fire history characteristics of residential and outpatient adolescents (ages 12-17) with firesetting behaviors.

PubMed

Pollinger, Joyce; Samuels, Laura; Stadolnik, Robert

2005-01-01

Juvenile firesetting behavior has received relatively little research attention and previous attempts to systematically classify this heterogeneous population of children has been only partially successful. Currently there is no literature available that defines treatment and intervention needs of adolescents in residential treatment with problematic firesetting behavior and whether these needs differ from their outpatient cohorts. Data were gathered from a residential (N=17) and outpatient (N=30) sample detailing firesetting history, behavioral functioning, aggression, and personality traits associated with behavioral difficulties. Study subjects were asked to complete the Youth Self Report (Achenbach), Aggression Questionnaire, and Jesness Inventory and to participate in a structured firesetting history interview by project directors. Parents/guardians were asked to complete a Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach). Adolescents in residential care were significantly more likely to come from a single-parent home, display increased delinquent behaviors, greater depressive symptoms, and report significantly more aggressive thoughts and attitudes than those in outpatient settings. Few differences were found on personality characteristics associated with behavior and conduct problems and few differences were found relative to fire history and firesetting characteristics. Implications for treatment and intervention within a residential setting are discussed as well as factors possibly associated with delaying and/or avoiding initial residential placement.

The Utility of Behavioral Economics in Expanding the Free-Feed Model of Obesity

PubMed Central

Rasmussen, Erin B.; Robertson, Stephen H.; Rodriguez, Luis R.

2016-01-01

Animal models of obesity are numerous and diverse in terms of identifying specific neural and peripheral mechanisms related to obesity; however, they are limited when it comes to behavior. The standard behavioral measure of food intake in most animal models occurs in a free-feeding environment. While easy and cost-effective for the researcher, the free-feeding environment omits some of the most important features of obesity-related food consumption—namely, properties of food availability, such as effort and delay to obtaining food. Behavior economics expands behavioral measures of obesity animal models by identifying such behavioral mechanisms. First, economic demand analysis allows researchers to understand the role of effort in food procurement, and how physiological and neural mechanisms are related. Second, studies on delay discounting contribute to a growing literature that shows that sensitivity to delayed food- and food-related outcomes is likely a fundamental process of obesity. Together, these data expand the animal model in a manner that better characterizes how environmental factors influence food consumption. PMID:26923097

Language, arithmetic word problems, and deaf students: Linguistic strategies used to solve tasks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zevenbergen, Robyn; Hyde, Merv; Power, Des

2001-12-01

There has been limited examination of the intersection between language and arithmetic in the performance of deaf students, although some previous research has shown that deaf and hearing-impaired1 students are delayed in both their language acquisition and arithmetic performance. This paper examines the performance of deaf and hearing-impaired students in South-East Queensland, Australia, in solving arithmetic word problems. It was found that the subjects' solutions of word problems confirmed trends for hearing students, but that their performance was delayed in comparison. The results confirm other studies where deaf and hearing-impaired students are delayed in their language acquisition and this impacts on their capacity to successfully undertake the resolution of word problems.

Navigating complex decision spaces: Problems and paradigms in sequential choice

PubMed Central

Walsh, Matthew M.; Anderson, John R.

2015-01-01

To behave adaptively, we must learn from the consequences of our actions. Doing so is difficult when the consequences of an action follow a delay. This introduces the problem of temporal credit assignment. When feedback follows a sequence of decisions, how should the individual assign credit to the intermediate actions that comprise the sequence? Research in reinforcement learning provides two general solutions to this problem: model-free reinforcement learning and model-based reinforcement learning. In this review, we examine connections between stimulus-response and cognitive learning theories, habitual and goal-directed control, and model-free and model-based reinforcement learning. We then consider a range of problems related to temporal credit assignment. These include second-order conditioning and secondary reinforcers, latent learning and detour behavior, partially observable Markov decision processes, actions with distributed outcomes, and hierarchical learning. We ask whether humans and animals, when faced with these problems, behave in a manner consistent with reinforcement learning techniques. Throughout, we seek to identify neural substrates of model-free and model-based reinforcement learning. The former class of techniques is understood in terms of the neurotransmitter dopamine and its effects in the basal ganglia. The latter is understood in terms of a distributed network of regions including the prefrontal cortex, medial temporal lobes cerebellum, and basal ganglia. Not only do reinforcement learning techniques have a natural interpretation in terms of human and animal behavior, but they also provide a useful framework for understanding neural reward valuation and action selection. PMID:23834192

Lithium, but not Valproate, Reduces Impulsive Choice in the Delay-Discounting Task in Mice

PubMed Central

Halcomb, Meredith E; Gould, Todd D; Grahame, Nicholas J

2013-01-01

Both lithium and valproate are well-established treatments for bipolar disorder. Studies have also found that lithium is effective at reducing suicidal behaviors in patients with mood disorders. Impulsivity is a validated endophenotype of both bipolar disorder and suicidal behavior. We assessed effects of treatment with lithium or valproate on cognitive impulsivity in selectively bred mice previously shown to manifest relatively high levels of cognitive impulsivity. Mice were trained in the delay-discounting paradigm, a measure of cognitive impulsivity reflecting a behavioral bias towards immediacy, and then treated with lithium, valproate, or control chow. After 3 weeks of drug treatment, mice were tested at various delays to a large, delayed reward. Drug treatment continued during this time. Lithium reduced impulsivity, whereas valproate had no effect on choice behavior. Both drugs increased the number of choice trials and reinforcer intake, but effects on choice behavior did not depend on these motivational changes. To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating lithium's effects to reduce cognitive impulsivity. Future studies may focus on the ability of putative pharmacotherapies for patients at risk for bipolar disorder or suicide to modify the impulsive choice dimension of this diseases. PMID:23584261

Behavioral modeling of human choices reveals dissociable effects of physical effort and temporal delay on reward devaluation.

PubMed

Klein-Flügge, Miriam C; Kennerley, Steven W; Saraiva, Ana C; Penny, Will D; Bestmann, Sven

2015-03-01

There has been considerable interest from the fields of biology, economics, psychology, and ecology about how decision costs decrease the value of rewarding outcomes. For example, formal descriptions of how reward value changes with increasing temporal delays allow for quantifying individual decision preferences, as in animal species populating different habitats, or normal and clinical human populations. Strikingly, it remains largely unclear how humans evaluate rewards when these are tied to energetic costs, despite the surge of interest in the neural basis of effort-guided decision-making and the prevalence of disorders showing a diminished willingness to exert effort (e.g., depression). One common assumption is that effort discounts reward in a similar way to delay. Here we challenge this assumption by formally comparing competing hypotheses about effort and delay discounting. We used a design specifically optimized to compare discounting behavior for both effort and delay over a wide range of decision costs (Experiment 1). We then additionally characterized the profile of effort discounting free of model assumptions (Experiment 2). Contrary to previous reports, in both experiments effort costs devalued reward in a manner opposite to delay, with small devaluations for lower efforts, and progressively larger devaluations for higher effort-levels (concave shape). Bayesian model comparison confirmed that delay-choices were best predicted by a hyperbolic model, with the largest reward devaluations occurring at shorter delays. In contrast, an altogether different relationship was observed for effort-choices, which were best described by a model of inverse sigmoidal shape that is initially concave. Our results provide a novel characterization of human effort discounting behavior and its first dissociation from delay discounting. This enables accurate modelling of cost-benefit decisions, a prerequisite for the investigation of the neural underpinnings of effort-guided choice and for understanding the deficits in clinical disorders characterized by behavioral inactivity.

Behavioral Modeling of Human Choices Reveals Dissociable Effects of Physical Effort and Temporal Delay on Reward Devaluation

PubMed Central

Klein-Flügge, Miriam C.; Kennerley, Steven W.; Saraiva, Ana C.; Penny, Will D.; Bestmann, Sven

2015-01-01

There has been considerable interest from the fields of biology, economics, psychology, and ecology about how decision costs decrease the value of rewarding outcomes. For example, formal descriptions of how reward value changes with increasing temporal delays allow for quantifying individual decision preferences, as in animal species populating different habitats, or normal and clinical human populations. Strikingly, it remains largely unclear how humans evaluate rewards when these are tied to energetic costs, despite the surge of interest in the neural basis of effort-guided decision-making and the prevalence of disorders showing a diminished willingness to exert effort (e.g., depression). One common assumption is that effort discounts reward in a similar way to delay. Here we challenge this assumption by formally comparing competing hypotheses about effort and delay discounting. We used a design specifically optimized to compare discounting behavior for both effort and delay over a wide range of decision costs (Experiment 1). We then additionally characterized the profile of effort discounting free of model assumptions (Experiment 2). Contrary to previous reports, in both experiments effort costs devalued reward in a manner opposite to delay, with small devaluations for lower efforts, and progressively larger devaluations for higher effort-levels (concave shape). Bayesian model comparison confirmed that delay-choices were best predicted by a hyperbolic model, with the largest reward devaluations occurring at shorter delays. In contrast, an altogether different relationship was observed for effort-choices, which were best described by a model of inverse sigmoidal shape that is initially concave. Our results provide a novel characterization of human effort discounting behavior and its first dissociation from delay discounting. This enables accurate modelling of cost-benefit decisions, a prerequisite for the investigation of the neural underpinnings of effort-guided choice and for understanding the deficits in clinical disorders characterized by behavioral inactivity. PMID:25816114

Insensitivity of synchronization to network structure in chaotic pendulum systems with time-delay coupling.

PubMed

Yao, Chenggui; Zhan, Meng; Shuai, Jianwei; Ma, Jun; Kurths, Jürgen

2017-12-01

It has been generally believed that both time delay and network structure could play a crucial role in determining collective dynamical behaviors in complex systems. In this work, we study the influence of coupling strength, time delay, and network topology on synchronization behavior in delay-coupled networks of chaotic pendulums. Interestingly, we find that the threshold value of the coupling strength for complete synchronization in such networks strongly depends on the time delay in the coupling, but appears to be insensitive to the network structure. This lack of sensitivity was numerically tested in several typical regular networks, such as different locally and globally coupled ones as well as in several complex networks, such as small-world and scale-free networks. Furthermore, we find that the emergence of a synchronous periodic state induced by time delay is of key importance for the complete synchronization.

A Mechanism for Reducing Delay Discounting by Altering Temporal Attention

PubMed Central

Radu, Peter T; Yi, Richard; Bickel, Warren K; Gross, James J; McClure, Samuel M

2011-01-01

Rewards that are not immediately available are discounted compared to rewards that are immediately available. The more a person discounts a delayed reward, the more likely that person is to have a range of behavioral problems, including clinical disorders. This latter observation has motivated the search for interventions that reduce discounting. One surprisingly simple method to reduce discounting is an “explicit-zero” reframing that states default or null outcomes. Reframing a classical discounting choice as “something now but nothing later” versus “nothing now but more later” decreases discount rates. However, it is not clear how this “explicit-zero” framing intervention works. The present studies delineate and test two possible mechanisms to explain the phenomenon. One mechanism proposes that the explicit-zero framing creates the impression of an improving sequence, thereby enhancing the present value of the delayed reward. A second possible mechanism posits an increase in attention allocation to temporally distant reward representations. In four experiments, we distinguish between these two hypothesized mechanisms and conclude that the temporal attention hypothesis is superior for explaining our results. We propose a model of temporal attention whereby framing affects intertemporal preferences by modifying present bias. PMID:22084496

Delay time in a single barrier for a movable quantum shutter

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hernandez, Alberto

2010-05-15

The transient solution and delay time for a {delta} potential scatterer with a movable quantum shutter is calculated by solving analytically the time-dependent Schroedinger equation. The delay time is analyzed as a function of the distance between the shutter and the potential barrier and also as a function of the distance between the potential barrier and the detector. In both cases, it is found that the delay time exhibits a dynamical behavior and that it tends to a saturation value {Delta}t{sub sat} in the limit of very short distances, which represents the maximum delay produced by the potential barrier nearmore » the interaction region. The phase time {tau}{sub {theta},} on the other hand, is not an appropriate time scale for measuring the time delay near the interaction region, except if the shutter is moved far away from the potential. The role played by the antibound state of the system on the behavior of the delay time is also discussed.« less

Physiological Profiles During Delay of Gratification: Associations with Emotionality, Self-regulation, and Adjustment Problems

PubMed Central

Wilson, Anna C.; Lengua, Liliana J.; Tininenko, Jennifer; Taylor, Adam; Trancik, Anika

2009-01-01

This longitudinal study utilized a community sample of children (N=91, 45% female, 8–11 years at time 1) to investigate physiological responses (heart rate reactivity [HRR] and electrodermal responding [EDR]) during delay of gratification in relation to emotionality, self-regulation, and adjustment problems. Cluster analyses identified three profiles among children who successfully delayed: children who waited easily with low EDR and moderate HRR, children who had difficulty waiting with high EDR and moderate HRR, and children who had difficulty waiting with low EDR and low HRR. The 3 clusters and children who did not wait were compared. Children with low EDR-low HRR had the lowest self-regulation, and like the no-wait group, demonstrated the greatest baseline adjustment problems. The high EDR-moderate HRR group demonstrated highest self-regulation and increases in depression across one year. Distinct profiles among children in delay contexts point to children who are over- and under-regulated with implications for adjustment problems. PMID:20046898

Integrating Behavioral Economics and Behavioral Genetics: Delayed Reward Discounting as an Endophenotype for Addictive Disorders

PubMed Central

MacKillop, James

2013-01-01

Delayed reward discounting is a behavioral economic index of impulsivity, referring to how much an individual devalues a reward based on its delay in time. As a behavioral process that varies considerably across individuals, delay discounting has been studied extensively as a model for self-control, both in the general population and in clinical samples. There is growing interest in genetic influences on discounting and, in particular, the prospect of discounting as an endophenotype for addictive disorders (i.e., a heritable mechanism partially responsible for conferring genetic risk). This review assembles and critiques the evidence supporting this hypothesis. Via numerous cross-sectional studies and a small number of longitudinal studies, there is considerable evidence that impulsive discounting is associated with addictive behavior and appears to play an etiological role. Moreover, there is increasing evidence from diverse methodologies that impulsive delay discounting is temporally stable, heritable, and that elevated levels are present in nonaffected family members. These findings suggest that impulsive discounting meets the criteria for being considered an endophenotype. In addition, recent findings suggest that genetic variation related to dopamine neurotransmission is significantly associated with variability in discounting preferences. A significant caveat, however, is that the literature is modest in some domains and, in others, not all the findings have been supportive or consistent. In addition, important methodological considerations are necessary in future studies. Taken together, although not definitive, there is accumulating support for the hypothesis of impulsive discounting as an endophenotype for addictive behavior and a need for further systematic investigation. PMID:23344986

Texting while driving as impulsive choice: A behavioral economic analysis.

PubMed

Hayashi, Yusuke; Russo, Christopher T; Wirth, Oliver

2015-10-01

The goal of the present study was to examine the utility of a behavioral economic analysis to investigate the role of delay discounting in texting while driving. A sample of 147 college students completed a survey to assess how frequently they send and read text messages while driving. Based on this information, students were assigned to one of two groups: 19 students who frequently text while driving and 19 matched-control students who infrequently text while driving but were similar in gender, age, years of education, and years driving. The groups were compared on the extent to which they discounted, or devalued, delayed hypothetical monetary rewards using a delay-discounting task. In this task, students made repeated choices between $1000 available after a delay (ranging from 1 week to 10 years) and an equal or lesser amount of money available immediately. The results show that the students who frequently text while driving discounted delayed rewards at a greater rate than the matched control students. The study supports the conclusions that texting while driving is fundamentally an impulsive choice made by drivers, and that a behavioral economic approach may be a useful research tool for investigating the decision-making processes underlying risky behaviors. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pricing of Claims in Discrete Time with Partial Information

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rognlien Dahl, Kristina, E-mail: kristrd@math.uio.no

2013-10-15

We consider the pricing problem of a seller with delayed price information. By using Lagrange duality, a dual problem is derived, and it is proved that there is no duality gap. This gives a characterization of the seller's price of a contingent claim. Finally, we analyze the dual problem, and compare the prices offered by two sellers with delayed and full information respectively.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, delay discounting, and risky financial behaviors: A preliminary analysis of self-report data.

PubMed

Beauchaine, Theodore P; Ben-David, Itzhak; Sela, Aner

2017-01-01

Delay discounting-often referred to as hyperbolic discounting in the financial literature-is defined by a consistent preference for smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards, and by failure of future consequences to curtail current consummatory behaviors. Previous research demonstrates (1) excessive delay discounting among individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), (2) common neural substrates of delay discounting and hyperactive-impulsive symptoms of ADHD, and (3) associations between delay discounting and both debt burden and high interest rate borrowing. This study extends prior research by examining associations between ADHD symptoms, delay discounting, and an array of previously unevaluated financial outcomes among 544 individuals (mean age 35 years). Controlling for age, income, sex, education, and substance use, ADHD symptoms were associated with delay discounting, late credit card payments, credit card balances, use of pawn services, personal debt, and employment histories (less time spent at more jobs). Consistent with neural models of reward processing and associative learning, more of these relations were attributable to hyperactive-impulsive symptoms than inattentive symptoms. Implications for financial decision-making and directions for future research are discussed.

Evaluation of child development: beyond the neuromotor aspect.

PubMed

Eickmann, Sophie Helena; Emond, Alan Martin; Lima, Marilia

2016-01-01

To review the epidemiology and update the scientific knowledge on the problems of development and behavior in childhood, and the recommendations for the role of the pediatrician in identifying and managing delays and disturbances in child development and mental health. A search for relevant literature was performed in the PubMed and Scopus databases and publications of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. With the decline in the incidence of communicable diseases in children, problems with development, behavior, and emotional regulation are increasingly becoming a part of the work of pediatricians, yet many are not trained and feel uncomfortable about this extension of their role. The available screening tools for child development and behavior are reviewed, and a 'school readiness' checklist is presented, together with recommendations on how the pediatrician can incorporate developmental surveillance into routine practice, aware of the need for children to acquire social, emotional, and cognitive skills so that they can develop their full potential. The pediatrician's role in the future will include both physical and mental health, recognizing that social development, resilience, and emotional maturity are as important as physical growth and neuromotor skills in a child's life course. Copyright © 2016 Sociedade Brasileira de Pediatria. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

Analysis of a dc bus system with a nonlinear constant power load and its delayed feedback control.

PubMed

Konishi, Keiji; Sugitani, Yoshiki; Hara, Naoyuki

2014-02-01

This paper tackles a destabilizing problem of a direct-current (dc) bus system with constant power loads, which can be considered a fundamental problem of dc power grid networks. The present paper clarifies scenarios of the destabilization and applies the well-known delayed-feedback control to the stabilization of the destabilized bus system on the basis of nonlinear science. Further, we propose a systematic procedure for designing the delayed feedback controller. This controller can converge the bus voltage exactly on an unstable operating point without accurate information and can track it using tiny control energy even when a system parameter, such as the power consumption of the load, is slowly varied. These features demonstrate that delayed feedback control can be considered a strong candidate for solving the destabilizing problem.

[Delayed reactions of active avoidance in white rats under conditions of an alternative choice].

PubMed

Ioseliani, T K; Sikharulidze, N I; Kadagishvili, A Ia; Mitashvili, E G

1995-01-01

It was shown that if the rats had been learned and then tested using conventional pain punishment of erroneous choice they were able to solve the problem of alternative choice only in the period of immediate action of conditioned stimuli. If the pain punishment for erroneously chosen compartment had not been applied in animal learning and testing, rats successfully solved the problem of alternative choice even after 5-second delay. Introduction of pain punishment led to the frustration of earlier elaborated delayed avoidance reactions. Analysis of the obtained results allows us to argue that the apparent incapability of white rats for solving the problems of delayed avoidance is caused by simultaneous action of two different mechanisms, i.e., those of the active and passive avoidance rather than short-term memory deficit.

Knowing When to Be "Rational": Flexible Economic Decision Making and Executive Function in Preschool Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Wendy S. C.; Carlson, Stephanie M.

2015-01-01

Failure to delay gratification may not indicate poor control or irrationality, but might be an adaptive response. Two studies investigated 3.5- and 4.5-year-old children's ability to adapt their delay and saving behavior when their preference (e.g., to delay or not delay) became nonadaptive. In Study 1 (N = 140), children's delay preference was…

Stochastic resonance enhancement of small-world neural networks by hybrid synapses and time delay

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Haitao; Guo, Xinmeng; Wang, Jiang

2017-01-01

The synergistic effect of hybrid electrical-chemical synapses and information transmission delay on the stochastic response behavior in small-world neuronal networks is investigated. Numerical results show that, the stochastic response behavior can be regulated by moderate noise intensity to track the rhythm of subthreshold pacemaker, indicating the occurrence of stochastic resonance (SR) in the considered neural system. Inheriting the characteristics of two types of synapses-electrical and chemical ones, neural networks with hybrid electrical-chemical synapses are of great improvement in neuron communication. Particularly, chemical synapses are conducive to increase the network detectability by lowering the resonance noise intensity, while the information is better transmitted through the networks via electrical coupling. Moreover, time delay is able to enhance or destroy the periodic stochastic response behavior intermittently. In the time-delayed small-world neuronal networks, the introduction of electrical synapses can significantly improve the signal detection capability by widening the range of optimal noise intensity for the subthreshold signal, and the efficiency of SR is largely amplified in the case of pure chemical couplings. In addition, the stochastic response behavior is also profoundly influenced by the network topology. Increasing the rewiring probability in pure chemically coupled networks can always enhance the effect of SR, which is slightly influenced by information transmission delay. On the other hand, the capacity of information communication is robust to the network topology within the time-delayed neuronal systems including electrical couplings.

Effects of Phytoplankton Growth Phase on Delayed Settling Behavior of Marine Snow Aggregates at Sharp Density Transitions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Proctor, K. W.; Montgomery, Q. W.; Prairie, J. C.

2016-02-01

Marine snow aggregates play a fundamental role in the marine carbon cycle. Since marine snow aggregates are larger and thus sink faster than individual phytoplankton, aggregates often dominate carbon flux. Previous studies have shown that marine snow aggregates will significantly decrease their settling velocity when passing through sharp density transitions within the ocean, a phenomenon defined as delayed settling. Given the importance of aggregate settling to carbon export, these small-scale changes in aggregate settling dynamics may have significant impacts on the efficiency of the biological pump. However, there is still a lack of knowledge about how different physical properties of aggregates can affect this delayed settling. In this study, we investigated the effect of phytoplankton growth phase on delayed settling behavior. Using phytoplankton cultures stopped at four different growth phases, we formed marine snow aggregates in the laboratory in rotating cylindrical tanks. We then observed individual aggregates as they settled through a stratified tank. We will present data which illustrates that aggregates experience greatly reduced settling rates when passing through sharp density gradients and that the growth phase of the phytoplankton used to form these aggregates has a significant effect on this delayed settling behavior. A thorough understanding of the impact of phytoplankton growth phase on the delayed settling behavior of marine snow will offer insight into the way phytoplankton growth phase may influence the efficiency of the biological pump, carbon flux, and the carbon cycle as a whole.

Contexts and Individual Differences as Influences on Consumers' Delay Discounting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foxall, Gordon R.; Doyle, John R.; Yani-de-Soriano, Mirella; Wells, Victoria K.

2011-01-01

Delay discounting is often considered a universal feature of human choice behavior, but there is controversy over whether it is an individual difference that reflects an underlying psychological trait or a domain-specific behavior. Trait influence on discounting would manifest in (a) highly correlated discount rates for all decisions, regardless…

Delay test generation for synchronous sequential circuits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Devadas, Srinivas

1989-05-01

We address the problem of generating tests for delay faults in non-scan synchronous sequential circuits. Delay test generation for sequential circuits is a considerably more difficult problem than delay testing of combinational circuits and has received much less attention. In this paper, we present a method for generating test sequences to detect delay faults in sequential circuits using the stuck-at fault sequential test generator STALLION. The method is complete in that it will generate a delay test sequence for a targeted fault given sufficient CPU time, if such a sequence exists. We term faults for which no delay test sequence exists, under out test methodology, sequentially delay redundant. We describe means of eliminating sequential delay redundancies in logic circuits. We present a partial-scan methodology for enhancing the testability of difficult-to-test of untestable sequential circuits, wherein a small number of flip-flops are selected and made controllable/observable. The selection process guarantees the elimination of all sequential delay redundancies. We show that an intimate relationship exists between state assignment and delay testability of a sequential machine. We describe a state assignment algorithm for the synthesis of sequential machines with maximal delay fault testability. Preliminary experimental results using the test generation, partial-scan and synthesis algorithm are presented.

Dopaminergic lesions of the dorsolateral striatum in rats increase delay discounting in an impulsive choice task.

PubMed

Tedford, Stephanie E; Persons, Amanda L; Napier, T Celeste

2015-01-01

Dysregulated dopamine transmission in striatal circuitry is associated with impulsivity. The current study evaluated the influence of dopaminergic inputs to the dorsolateral striatum on impulsive choice, one aspect of impulsive behavior. We implemented an operant task that measures impulsive choice in rats via delay discounting wherein intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) was used as the positive reinforcer. To do so, rats were anesthetized to allow implanting of a stimulating electrode within the lateral hypothalamus of one hemisphere and bilateral dorsal striatal injections of the dopaminergic toxin, 6-OHDA (lesioned) or its vehicle (sham). Following recovery, rats were trained in a delay discounting task wherein they selected between a small ICSS current presented immediately after lever pressing, and a large ICSS current presented following a 0 to 15 s delay upon pressing the alternate lever. Task acquisition and reinforcer discrimination were similar for lesioned and sham rats. All rats exhibited an initial preference for the large reinforcer, and as the delay was increased, preference for the large reinforcer was decreased indicating that the subjective value of the large reinforcer was discounted as a function of delay time. However, this discounting effect was significantly enhanced in lesioned rats for the longer delays. These data reveal a contribution of dopaminergic inputs to the dorsolateral striatum on impulsive choice behavior, and provide new insights into neural substrates underlying discounting behaviors.

Dopaminergic Lesions of the Dorsolateral Striatum in Rats Increase Delay Discounting in an Impulsive Choice Task

PubMed Central

Tedford, Stephanie E.; Persons, Amanda L.; Napier, T. Celeste

2015-01-01

Dysregulated dopamine transmission in striatal circuitry is associated with impulsivity. The current study evaluated the influence of dopaminergic inputs to the dorsolateral striatum on impulsive choice, one aspect of impulsive behavior. We implemented an operant task that measures impulsive choice in rats via delay discounting wherein intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) was used as the positive reinforcer. To do so, rats were anesthetized to allow implanting of a stimulating electrode within the lateral hypothalamus of one hemisphere and bilateral dorsal striatal injections of the dopaminergic toxin, 6-OHDA (lesioned) or its vehicle (sham). Following recovery, rats were trained in a delay discounting task wherein they selected between a small ICSS current presented immediately after lever pressing, and a large ICSS current presented following a 0 to 15s delay upon pressing the alternate lever. Task acquisition and reinforcer discrimination were similar for lesioned and sham rats. All rats exhibited an initial preference for the large reinforcer, and as the delay was increased, preference for the large reinforcer was decreased indicating that the subjective value of the large reinforcer was discounted as a function of delay time. However, this discounting effect was significantly enhanced in lesioned rats for the longer delays. These data reveal a contribution of dopaminergic inputs to the dorsolateral striatum on impulsive choice behavior, and provide new insights into neural substrates underlying discounting behaviors. PMID:25927685

Neurodevelopmental and neurobehavioral characteristics in males and females with CDKL5 duplications

PubMed Central

Szafranski, Przemyslaw; Golla, Sailaja; Jin, Weihong; Fang, Ping; Hixson, Patricia; Matalon, Reuben; Kinney, Daniel; Bock, Hans-georg; Craigen, William; Smith, Janice L; Bi, Weimin; Patel, Ankita; Wai Cheung, Sau; Bacino, Carlos A; Stankiewicz, Paweł

2015-01-01

Point mutations and genomic deletions of the CDKL5 (STK9) gene on chromosome Xp22 have been reported in patients with severe neurodevelopmental abnormalities, including Rett-like disorders. To date, only larger-sized (8–21 Mb) duplications harboring CDKL5 have been described. We report seven females and four males from seven unrelated families with CDKL5 duplications 540–935 kb in size. Three families of different ethnicities had identical 667kb duplications containing only the shorter CDKL5 isoform. Four affected boys, 8–14 years of age, and three affected girls, 6–8 years of age, manifested autistic behavior, developmental delay, language impairment, and hyperactivity. Of note, two boys and one girl had macrocephaly. Two carrier mothers of the affected boys reported a history of problems with learning and mathematics while at school. None of the patients had epilepsy. Similarly to CDKL5 mutations and deletions, the X-inactivation pattern in all six studied females was random. We hypothesize that the increased dosage of CDKL5 might have affected interactions of this kinase with its substrates, leading to perturbation of synaptic plasticity and learning, and resulting in autistic behavior, developmental and speech delay, hyperactivity, and macrocephaly. PMID:25315662

Association Between Moderate and Late Preterm Birth and Neurodevelopment and Social-Emotional Development at Age 2 Years.

PubMed

Cheong, Jeanie L; Doyle, Lex W; Burnett, Alice C; Lee, Katherine J; Walsh, Jennifer M; Potter, Cody R; Treyvaud, Karli; Thompson, Deanne K; Olsen, Joy E; Anderson, Peter J; Spittle, Alicia J

2017-04-03

Moderate and late preterm (MLPT) births comprise most preterm infants. Therefore, long-term developmental concerns in this population potentially have a large public health influence. While there are increasing reports of developmental problems in MLPT children, detail is lacking on the precise domains that are affected. To compare neurodevelopment and social-emotional development between MLPT infants and term-born control infants at age 2 years. This investigation was a prospective longitudinal cohort study at a single tertiary hospital. Participants were MLPT infants (32-36 weeks' completed gestation) and healthy full-term controls (≥37 weeks' gestation) recruited at birth. During a 3-year period between December 7, 2009, and November 7, 2012, MLPT infants were recruited at birth from the neonatal unit and postnatal wards of the Royal Women's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. The term control recruitment extended to March 26, 2014. The dates of the data developmental assessments were February 23, 2012, to April 8, 2016. Moderate and late preterm birth. Cerebral palsy, blindness, and deafness assessed by a pediatrician; cognitive, language, and motor development assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-Third Edition (developmental delay was defined as less than -1 SD relative to the mean in controls in any domain of the scales); and social-emotional and behavioral problems assessed by a parent questionnaire (Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment). Outcomes were compared between birth groups using linear and logistic regression, adjusted for social risk. In total, 198 MLPT infants (98.5% of 201 recruited) and 183 term-born controls (91.0% of 201 recruited) were assessed at 2 years' corrected age. Compared with controls, MLPT children had worse cognitive, language, and motor development at age 2 years, with adjusted composite score mean differences of -5.3 (95% CI, -8.2 to -2.4) for cognitive development, -11.4 (95% CI, -15.3 to -7.5) for language development, and -7.3 (95% CI, -10.6 to -3.9) for motor development. The odds of developmental delay were higher in the MLPT group compared with controls, with adjusted odds ratios of 1.8 (95% CI, 1.1-3.0) for cognitive delay, 3.1 (95% CI, 1.8-5.2) for language delay, and 2.4 (95% CI, 1.3-4.5) for motor delay. Overall social-emotional competence was worse in MLPT children compared with controls (t statistic mean difference, -3.6 (95% CI, -5.8 to -1.4), but other behavioral domains were similar. The odds of being at risk for social-emotional competence were 3.9 (95% CI, 1.4-10.9) for MLPT children compared with controls. Moderate and late preterm children exhibited developmental delay compared with their term-born peers, most marked in the language domain. This knowledge of developmental needs in MLPT infants will assist in targeting surveillance and intervention.

Impulsive choice and pre-exposure to delays: iv. effects of delay- and immediacy-exposure training relative to maturational changes in impulsivity.

PubMed

Renee Renda, C; Rung, Jillian M; Hinnenkamp, Jay E; Lenzini, Stephanie N; Madden, Gregory J

2018-04-23

Impulsive choice describes preference for smaller, sooner rewards over larger, later rewards. Excessive delay discounting (i.e., rapid devaluation of delayed rewards) underlies some impulsive choices, and is observed in many maladaptive behaviors (e.g., substance abuse, gambling). Interventions designed to reduce delay discounting may provide therapeutic gains. One such intervention provides rats with extended training with delayed reinforcers. When compared to a group given extended training with immediate reinforcers, delay-exposed rats make significantly fewer impulsive choices. To what extent is this difference due to delay-exposure training shifting preference toward self-control or immediacy-exposure training (the putative control group) shifting preference toward impulsivity? The current study compared the effects of delay- and immediacy-exposure training to a no-training control group and evaluated within-subject changes in impulsive choice across 51 male Wistar rats. Delay-exposed rats made significantly fewer impulsive choices than immediacy-exposed and control rats. Between-group differences in impulsive choice were not observed in the latter two groups. While delay-exposed rats showed large, significant pre- to posttraining reductions in impulsive choice, immediacy-exposed and control rats showed small reductions in impulsive choice. These results suggest that extended training with delayed reinforcers reduces impulsive choice, and that extended training with immediate reinforcers does not increase impulsive choice. © 2018 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Estimation of nonlinear pilot model parameters including time delay.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schiess, J. R.; Roland, V. R.; Wells, W. R.

1972-01-01

Investigation of the feasibility of using a Kalman filter estimator for the identification of unknown parameters in nonlinear dynamic systems with a time delay. The problem considered is the application of estimation theory to determine the parameters of a family of pilot models containing delayed states. In particular, the pilot-plant dynamics are described by differential-difference equations of the retarded type. The pilot delay, included as one of the unknown parameters to be determined, is kept in pure form as opposed to the Pade approximations generally used for these systems. Problem areas associated with processing real pilot response data are included in the discussion.

Peripartum depression and anxiety as an integrative cross domain target for psychiatric preventative measures.

PubMed

Babb, Jessica A; Deligiannidis, Kristina M; Murgatroyd, Christopher A; Nephew, Benjamin C

2015-01-01

Exposure to high levels of early life stress has been identified as a potent risk factor for neurodevelopmental delays in infants, behavioral problems and autism in children, but also for several psychiatric illnesses in adulthood, such as depression, anxiety, autism, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Despite having robust adverse effects on both mother and infant, the pathophysiology of peripartum depression and anxiety are poorly understood. The objective of this review is to highlight the advantages of using an integrated approach addressing several behavioral domains in both animal and clinical studies of peripartum depression and anxiety. It is postulated that a greater focus on integrated cross domain studies will lead to advances in treatments and preventative measures for several disorders associated with peripartum depression and anxiety. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Developmental Risk and Goodness of Fit in the Mother–Child Relationship: Links to Parenting Stress and Children’s Behaviour Problems

PubMed Central

Newland, Rebecca P.; Crnic, Keith A.

2016-01-01

Despite the compelling nature of goodness of fit, empirical support has lagged for this construct. The present study examined an interactional approach to measuring goodness of fit and prospectively explored associations with mother-child relationship quality, child behavior problems, and parenting stress across the preschool period. In addition, as goodness of fit might be particularly important for children at developmental risk, the presence of early developmental delay was considered as a moderator of goodness of fit processes. Children with (n = 110) and without (n = 137) developmental delays and their mothers were coded while interacting in the lab at child age 36 months and during naturalistic home observations at child ages 36 and 48 months. Mothers also completed questionnaires at child age 60 months. Results highlight the effects of child developmental risk as a moderator of mother-child goodness of fit processes across the preschool period. There was also evidence that the goodness of fit between maternal scaffolding and child activity level at 36 months influenced both mother and child functioning at 60 months. Findings call for more precise models and expanded developmental perspectives to fully capture the transactional and dynamic nature of goodness of fit. PMID:28943806

An experimental and modeling study investigating the ignition delay in a military diesel engine running hexadecane (cetane) fuel

DOE PAGES

Cowart, Jim S.; Fischer, Warren P.; Hamilton, Leonard J.; ...

2013-02-01

In an effort aimed at predicting the combustion behavior of a new fuel in a conventional diesel engine, cetane (n-hexadecane) fuel was used in a military engine across the entire speed–load operating range. The ignition delay was characterized for this fuel at each operating condition. A chemical ignition delay was also predicted across the speed–load range using a detailed chemical kinetic mechanism with a constant pressure reactor model. At each operating condition, the measured in-cylinder pressure and predicted temperature at the start of injection were applied to the detailed n-hexadecane kinetic mechanism, and the chemical ignition delay was predicted withoutmore » any kinetic mechanism calibration. The modeling results show that fuel–air parcels developed from the diesel spray with an equivalence ratio of 4 are the first to ignite. The chemical ignition delay results also showed decreasing igntion delays with increasing engine load and speed, just as the experimental data revealed. At lower engine speeds and loads, the kinetic modeling results show the characteristic two-stage negative temperature coefficient behavior of hydrocarbon fuels. However, at high engine speeds and loads, the reactions do not display negative temperature coefficient behavior, as the reactions proceed directly into high-temperature pathways due to higher temperatures and pressure at injection. A moderate difference between the total and chemical ignition delays was then characterized as a phyical delay period that scales inversely with engine speed. This physical delay time is representative of the diesel spray development time and is seen to become a minority fraction of the total igntion delay at higher engine speeds. In addition, the approach used in this study suggests that the ignition delay and thus start of combustion may be predicted with reasonable accuracy using kinetic modeling to determine the chemical igntion delay. Then, in conjunction with the physical delay time (experimental or modeling based), a new fuel’s acceptability in a conventional engine could be assessed by determining that the total ignition delay is not too short or too long.« less

Delayed Maturation in Brain Electrical Activity Partially Explains the Association Between Early Environmental Deprivation and Symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

PubMed Central

McLaughlin, Katie A.; Fox, Nathan A.; Zeanah, Charles H.; Sheridan, Margaret A.; Marshall, Peter; Nelson, Charles A.

2010-01-01

Background Children raised in institutional settings are exposed to social and environmental circumstances that may deprive them of expected environmental inputs during sensitive periods of brain development that are necessary to foster healthy development. This deprivation is thought to underlie the abnormalities in neurodevelopment that have been found in previously institutionalized children. It is unknown whether deviations in neurodevelopment explain the high rates of developmental problems evident in previously institutionalized children, including psychiatric disorders. Methods We present data from a sample of children raised in institutions in Bucharest, Romania (n = 117) and an age- and sex-matched sample of community control subjects (n = 49). Electroencephalogram data were acquired following entry into the study at age 6 to 30 months, and a structured diagnostic interview of psychiatric disorders was completed at age 54 months. Results Children reared in institutions evidenced greater symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, depression, and disruptive behavior disorders than community controls. Electroencephalogram revealed significant reductions in alpha relative power and increases in theta relative power among children reared in institutions in frontal, temporal, and occipital regions, suggesting a delay in cortical maturation. This pattern of brain activity predicted symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity at age 54 months, and significantly mediated the association between institutionalization and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. Electroencephalogram power was unrelated to depression, anxiety, or disruptive behaviors. Conclusions These findings document a potential neurodevelopmental mechanism underlying the association between institutionalization and psychiatric morbidity. Deprivation in social and environmental conditions may perturb early patterns of neurodevelopment and manifest as psychiatric problems later in life. PMID:20497899

OPPORTUNITY COSTS OF REWARD DELAYS AND THE DISCOUNTING OF HYPOTHETICAL MONEY AND CIGARETTES

PubMed Central

Johnson, Patrick S.; Herrmann, Evan S.; Johnson, Matthew W.

2015-01-01

Humans are reported to discount delayed rewards at lower rates than nonhumans. However, nonhumans are studied in tasks that restrict reinforcement during delays, whereas humans are typically studied in tasks that do not restrict reinforcement during delays. In nonhuman tasks, the opportunity cost of restricted reinforcement during delays may increase delay discounting rates. The present within-subjects study used online crowdsourcing (Amazon Mechanical Turk, or MTurk) to assess the discounting of hypothetical delayed money (and cigarettes in smokers) under four hypothetical framing conditions differing in the availability of reinforcement during delays. At one extreme, participants were free to leave their computer without returning, and engage in any behavior during reward delays (modeling typical human tasks). At the opposite extreme, participants were required to stay at their computer and engage in little other behavior during reward delays (modeling typical nonhuman tasks). Discounting rates increased as an orderly function of opportunity cost. Results also indicated predominantly hyperbolic discounting, the “magnitude effect,” steeper discounting of cigarettes than money, and positive correlations between discounting rates of these commodities. This is the first study to test the effects of opportunity costs on discounting, and suggests that procedural differences may partially account for observed species differences in discounting. PMID:25388973

The Value of Clean Air: Comparing Discounting of Delayed Air Quality and Money Across Magnitudes.

PubMed

Berry, Meredith S; Friedel, Jonathan E; DeHart, William B; Mahamane, Salif; Jordan, Kerry E; Odum, Amy L

2017-06-01

The detrimental health effects of exposure to air pollution are well established. Fostering behavioral change concerning air quality may be challenging because the detrimental health effects of exposure to air pollution are delayed. Delay discounting, a measure of impulsive choice, encapsulates this process of choosing between the immediate conveniences of behaviors that increase pollution and the delayed consequences of prolonged exposure to poor air quality. In Experiment 1, participants completed a series of delay-discounting tasks for air quality and money. We found that participants discounted delayed air quality more than money. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether the common finding that large amounts of money are discounted less steeply than small amounts of money generalized to larger and smaller improvements in air quality. Participants discounted larger improvements in air quality less steeply than smaller improvements, indicating that the discounting of air quality shares a similar process as the discounting of money. Our results indicate that the discounting of delayed money is strongly related to the discounting of delayed air quality and that similar mechanisms may be involved in the discounting of these qualitatively different outcomes. These data are also the first to demonstrate the malleability of delay discounting of air quality, and provide important public health implications for decreasing delay discounting of air quality.

The Dynamical Behaviors for a Class of Immunogenic Tumor Model with Delay

PubMed Central

Muthoni, Mutei Damaris; Pang, Jianhua

2017-01-01

This paper aims at studying the model proposed by Kuznetsov and Taylor in 1994. Inspired by Mayer et al., time delay is introduced in the general model. The dynamic behaviors of this model are studied, which include the existence and stability of the equilibria and Hopf bifurcation of the model with discrete delays. The properties of the bifurcated periodic solutions are studied by using the normal form on the center manifold. Numerical examples and simulations are given to illustrate the bifurcation analysis and the obtained results. PMID:29312457

A national profile of the health care experiences and family impact of autism spectrum disorder among children in the United States, 2005-2006.

PubMed

Kogan, Michael D; Strickland, Bonnie B; Blumberg, Stephen J; Singh, Gopal K; Perrin, James M; van Dyck, Peter C

2008-12-01

We sought to examine the health care experiences of children with autism spectrum disorder and the impact of autism spectrum disorder on the family and to assess whether having a medical home is associated with less family impact. We used the 2005-2006 National Survey of Children With Special Health Care Needs to compare 2088 children with special health care needs, aged 3 to 17 years, reported by their parents to have autism spectrum disorder, with children with special health care needs with "other emotional, developmental, or behavioral problems" (excluding autism spectrum disorder; n=9534) and 26751 other children with special health care needs. We used weighted logistic regression to examine unmet needs for specific health care and support services, delayed care, no usual care source or personal physician, difficulty receiving referrals, and financial, employment, or time problems because of child's care. Nationally, an estimated 535000 children have special health care needs and autism spectrum disorder, a prevalence of 86 per 10000 children aged 3 to 17 years. Among children with special health care needs, 5.6% have autism spectrum disorder. Compared with other children with special health care needs without emotional, developmental, or behavioral problems, children with special health care needs with autism spectrum disorder were more likely to have unmet needs for specific health care services, family support services, delayed or foregone care, difficulty receiving referrals, and care that is not family centered. Children with special health care needs with autism spectrum disorder were more likely to live in families that report financial problems, need additional income for the child's medical care, reduce or stop work because of the child's condition, spend >or=10 hours per week providing or coordinating care, and paid more than $1000 in the previous year for the child's care. The financial impacts of autism spectrum disorder were significantly more burdensome when children with special health care needs did not have a medical home. Children with special health care needs with autism spectrum disorder are significantly more likely to have problems regarding access to care and unmet needs, and their families have greater financial, employment, and time burdens compared with other children with special health care needs. Receipt of primary care in a medical home may reduce these burdens.

Queues with Choice via Delay Differential Equations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pender, Jamol; Rand, Richard H.; Wesson, Elizabeth

Delay or queue length information has the potential to influence the decision of a customer to join a queue. Thus, it is imperative for managers of queueing systems to understand how the information that they provide will affect the performance of the system. To this end, we construct and analyze two two-dimensional deterministic fluid models that incorporate customer choice behavior based on delayed queue length information. In the first fluid model, customers join each queue according to a Multinomial Logit Model, however, the queue length information the customer receives is delayed by a constant Δ. We show that the delay can cause oscillations or asynchronous behavior in the model based on the value of Δ. In the second model, customers receive information about the queue length through a moving average of the queue length. Although it has been shown empirically that giving patients moving average information causes oscillations and asynchronous behavior to occur in U.S. hospitals, we analytically and mathematically show for the first time that the moving average fluid model can exhibit oscillations and determine their dependence on the moving average window. Thus, our analysis provides new insight on how operators of service systems should report queue length information to customers and how delayed information can produce unwanted system dynamics.

Sexual behavior, neuroendocrine, and neurochemical aspects in male rats exposed prenatally to stress.

PubMed

Gerardin, Daniela C C; Pereira, Oduvaldo C M; Kempinas, Wilma G; Florio, Jorge C; Moreira, Estefânia G; Bernardi, Maria M

2005-01-31

The present study was designed to examine some short- and long-term effects of maternal restraint stress--during the period of sexual brain differentiation--on reproductive and endocrine systems, sexual behavior, and brain neurotransmitters in male rat descendants. Pregnant rats were exposed to restraint stress for 1 h/day from gestational days (GDs) 18 to 22. Prenatal stress did not influence the wet weight of sexual organs and the quantity of germ cells in adult male pups; however, these animals showed reduced testosterone levels, delayed latency to the first mount and first intromission, and also decreased number of ejaculations. Additionally, there was an increase in the dopamine and serotonin levels in the striatum. Our results indicate that prenatal stress had a long-term effect on neurotransmitter levels and sexual behavior. In this sense, reproductive problems caused by injuries during the fetal period can compromise the later success of mating as well as the capacity to generate descendants.

Parenting education for parents with intellectual disabilities: a review of outcome studies.

PubMed

Feldman, M A

1994-01-01

Parents with intellectual disabilities (i.e., IQ < 80; mental retardation) are overrepresented in child maltreatment cases and have a variety of parenting skill deficits. Their children are at risk for neglect, developmental delay, and behavioral disorders. This review of parenting education interventions for such parents identified 20 published studies with adequate outcome data. A total of 190 such parents (188 mothers, 2 fathers), with IQs ranging from 50 to 79 were involved. Parenting skills trained included basic child-care, safety, nutrition, problem solving, positive parent-child interactions, and child behavior management. The most common instructional approach was behavioral (e.g., task analysis, modeling, feedback, reinforcement). Overall, initial training, follow-up, and social validity results are encouraging. Generalization and child outcome data are weak. Further research is needed to (a) identify variables associated with responsiveness to intervention, and (b) develop and compare innovative programs that teach parents with cognitive disabilities the necessary generalized skills to demonstrate long-term beneficial effects on their children.

Psychosocial Outcomes in Long-Term Cochlear Implant Users.

PubMed

Castellanos, Irina; Kronenberger, William G; Pisoni, David B

The objectives of this study were to investigate psychosocial outcomes in a sample of prelingually deaf, early-implanted children, adolescents, and young adults who are long-term cochlear implant (CI) users and to examine the extent to which language and executive functioning predict psychosocial outcomes. Psychosocial outcomes were measured using two well-validated, parent-completed checklists: the Behavior Assessment System for Children and the Conduct Hyperactive Attention Problem Oppositional Symptom. Neurocognitive skills were measured using gold standard, performance-based assessments of language and executive functioning. CI users were at greater risk for clinically significant deficits in areas related to attention, oppositional behavior, hyperactivity-impulsivity, and social-adaptive skills compared with their normal-hearing peers, although the majority of CI users scored within average ranges relative to Behavior Assessment System for Children norms. Regression analyses revealed that language, visual-spatial working memory, and inhibition-concentration skills predicted psychosocial outcomes. Findings suggest that underlying delays and deficits in language and executive functioning may place some CI users at a risk for difficulties in psychosocial adjustment.

Human-in-the-Loop Operations over Time Delay: NASA Analog Missions Lessons Learned

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rader, Steven N.; Reagan, Marcum L.; Janoiko, Barbara; Johnson, James E.

2013-01-01

Teams at NASA have conducted studies of time-delayed communications as it effects human exploration. In October 2012, the Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) Analog Missions project conducted a Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) with the primary stakeholders to share information and experiences of studying time delay, to build a coherent picture of how studies are covering the problem domain, and to determine possible forward plans (including how to best communicate study results and lessons learned, how to inform future studies and mission plans, and how to drive potential development efforts). This initial meeting s participants included personnel from multiple NASA centers (HQ, JSC, KSC, ARC, and JPL), academia, and ESA. It included all of the known studies, analog missions, and tests of time delayed communications dating back to the Apollo missions including NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO), Desert Research and Technology Studies (DRATS/RATS), International Space Station Test-bed for Analog Research (ISTAR), Pavilion Lake Research Project (PLRP), Mars 520, JPL Mars Orbiters/Rovers, Advanced Mission Operations (AMO), Devon Island analog missions, and Apollo experiences. Additionally, the meeting attempted to capture all of the various functional perspectives via presentations by disciplines including mission operations (flight director and mission planning), communications, crew, Capcom, Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA), Behavioral Health and Performance (BHP), Medical/Surgeon, Science, Education and Public Outreach (EPO), and data management. The paper summarizes the descriptions and results from each of the activities discussed at the TIM and includes several recommendations captured in the meeting for dealing with time delay in human exploration along with recommendations for future development and studies to address this issue.

Cold-Induced Impairment of Delayed Matching in Rats

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-01-01

rather than a decrease at longer delay intervals (cf. Roitblat & Harley, 1988; White, 1985). However, the contribution of interference, either...Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes. 4, 219-236. Roitblat , H. L., & Harley, H. E. (1988). Spatial delayed matching-to-sample

A Study of Commuters’ Decision-Making When Delaying Departure for Work-Home Trips

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Que, Fangjie; Wang, Wei

2017-12-01

Studies on the travel behaviors and patterns of residents are important to the arrangement of urban layouts and urban traffic planning. However, research on the characteristics of the decision-making behavior regarding departure time is not fully expanded yet. In this paper, the research focuses on commuters’ decision-making behavior regarding departure delay. According to the 2013 travel survey data of Suzhou City, a nested logit (NL) model was built to represent the probabilities of individual choices. Parameter calibration was conducted, so that the significant factors influencing the departure delay were obtained. Ultimately, the results of the NL model indicated that it performed better and with higher precision, compared to the traditional multinomial logit (MNL) model.

Total delay impact study : a comprehensive assessment of the costs and impacts of flight delay in the United States

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-10-01

Flight delay is a serious and widespread problem in the United States. Increasing flight delays place a significant strain on the US air travel system and cost airlines, passengers, and society at many billions of dollars each year. While a number of...

Steep Delay Discounting and Addictive Behavior: A Meta-Analysis of Continuous Associations

PubMed Central

Amlung, Michael; Vedelago, Lana; Acker, John; Balodis, Iris; MacKillop, James

2016-01-01

Aims To synthesize continuous associations between delayed reward discounting (DRD) and both addiction severity and quantity-frequency (QF); to examine moderators of these relationships; and to investigate publication bias. Methods Meta-analysis of published studies examining continuous associations between DRD and addictive behaviors. Published, peer-reviewed studies on addictive behaviors (alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, stimulants, opiates, and gambling) were identified via PubMed, MEDLINE, and PsycInfo. Studies were restricted to DRD measures of monetary gains. Random effects meta-analysis was conducted using Pearson’s r as the effect size. Publication bias was evaluated using fail-safe N, Begg-Mazumdar and Egger’s tests, meta-regression of publication year and effect size, and imputation of missing studies. Results The primary meta-analysis revealed a small magnitude effect size that was highly significant (r = 0.14, p < 10−14). Significantly larger effect sizes were observed for studies examining severity compared with QF (p = 0.01), but not between the type of addictive behavior (p = 0.30) or DRD assessment (p = 0.90). Indices of publication bias suggested a modest impact of unpublished findings. Conclusions Delayed reward discounting is robustly associated with continuous measures of addiction severity and quantity-frequency. This relation is generally robust across type of addictive behavior and delayed reward discounting assessment modality. PMID:27450931

MODEST - JPL GEODETIC AND ASTROMETRIC VLBI MODELING AND PARAMETER ESTIMATION PROGRAM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sovers, O. J.

1994-01-01

Observations of extragalactic radio sources in the gigahertz region of the radio frequency spectrum by two or more antennas, separated by a baseline as long as the diameter of the Earth, can be reduced, by radio interferometry techniques, to yield time delays and their rates of change. The Very Long Baseline Interferometric (VLBI) observables can be processed by the MODEST software to yield geodetic and astrometric parameters of interest in areas such as geophysical satellite and spacecraft tracking applications and geodynamics. As the accuracy of radio interferometry has improved, increasingly complete models of the delay and delay rate observables have been developed. MODEST is a delay model (MOD) and parameter estimation (EST) program that takes into account delay effects such as geometry, clock, troposphere, and the ionosphere. MODEST includes all known effects at the centimeter level in modeling. As the field evolves and new effects are discovered, these can be included in the model. In general, the model includes contributions to the observables from Earth orientation, antenna motion, clock behavior, atmospheric effects, and radio source structure. Within each of these categories, a number of unknown parameters may be estimated from the observations. Since all parts of the time delay model contain nearly linear parameter terms, a square-root-information filter (SRIF) linear least-squares algorithm is employed in parameter estimation. Flexibility (via dynamic memory allocation) in the MODEST code ensures that the same executable can process a wide array of problems. These range from a few hundred observations on a single baseline, yielding estimates of tens of parameters, to global solutions estimating tens of thousands of parameters from hundreds of thousands of observations at antennas widely distributed over the Earth's surface. Depending on memory and disk storage availability, large problems may be subdivided into more tractable pieces that are processed sequentially. MODEST is written in FORTRAN 77, C-language, and VAX ASSEMBLER for DEC VAX series computers running VMS. It requires 6Mb of RAM for execution. The standard distribution medium for this package is a 1600 BPI 9-track magnetic tape in DEC VAX BACKUP format. It is also available on a TK50 tape cartridge in DEC VAX BACKUP format. Instructions for use and sample input and output data are available on the distribution media. This program was released in 1993 and is a copyrighted work with all copyright vested in NASA.

Genetic basis of delay discounting in frequent gamblers: examination of a priori candidates and exploration of a panel of dopamine-related loci

PubMed Central

Gray, Joshua C; MacKillop, James

2014-01-01

Introduction Delay discounting is a behavioral economic index of impulsivity that reflects preferences for small immediate rewards relative to larger delayed rewards. It has been consistently linked to pathological gambling and other forms of addictive behavior, and has been proposed to be a behavioral characteristic that may link genetic variation and risk of developing addictive disorders (i.e., an endophenotype). Studies to date have revealed significant associations with polymorphisms associated with dopamine neurotransmission. The current study examined associations between delay discounting and both previously linked variants and a novel panel of dopamine-related variants in a sample of frequent gamblers. Methods Participants were 175 weekly gamblers of European ancestry who completed the Monetary Choice Questionnaire to assess delay discounting preferences and provided a DNA via saliva. Results In a priori tests, two loci previously associated with delayed reward discounting (rs1800497 and rs4680) were not replicated, however, the long form of DRD4 VNTR was significantly associated with lower discounting of delayed rewards. Exploratory analysis of the dopamine-related panel revealed 11 additional significant associations in genes associated with dopamine synthesis, breakdown, reuptake, and receptor function (DRD3, SLC6A3, DDC, DBH, and SLC18A2). An aggregate genetic risk score from the nominally significant loci accounted for 17% of the variance in discounting. Mediational analyses largely supported the presence of indirect effects between the associated loci, delay discounting, and pathological gambling severity. Conclusions These findings do not replicate previously reported associations but identify several novel candidates and provide preliminary support for a systems biology approach to understand the genetic basis of delay discounting. PMID:25365808

Stimuli inevitably generated by behavior that avoids electric shock are inherently reinforcing.

PubMed Central

Dinsmoor, J A

2001-01-01

A molecular analysis based on the termination of stimuli that are positively correlated with shock and the production of stimuli that are negatively correlated with shock provides a parsimonious count for both traditional discrete-trial avoidance behavior and the data derived from more recent free-operant procedures. The necessary stimuli are provided by the intrinsic feedback generated by the subject's behavior, in addition to those presented by the experimenter. Moreover, all data compatible with the molar principle of shock-frequency reduction as reinforcement are also compatible with a delay-of-shock gradient, but some data compatible with the delay gradient are not compatible with frequency reduction. The delay gradient corresponds to functions relating magnitude of behavioral effect to the time between conditional and unconditional stimuli, the time between conditioned and primary reinforcers, and the time between responses and positive reinforcers. PMID:11453621

Multistability of memristive Cohen-Grossberg neural networks with non-monotonic piecewise linear activation functions and time-varying delays.

PubMed

Nie, Xiaobing; Zheng, Wei Xing; Cao, Jinde

2015-11-01

The problem of coexistence and dynamical behaviors of multiple equilibrium points is addressed for a class of memristive Cohen-Grossberg neural networks with non-monotonic piecewise linear activation functions and time-varying delays. By virtue of the fixed point theorem, nonsmooth analysis theory and other analytical tools, some sufficient conditions are established to guarantee that such n-dimensional memristive Cohen-Grossberg neural networks can have 5(n) equilibrium points, among which 3(n) equilibrium points are locally exponentially stable. It is shown that greater storage capacity can be achieved by neural networks with the non-monotonic activation functions introduced herein than the ones with Mexican-hat-type activation function. In addition, unlike most existing multistability results of neural networks with monotonic activation functions, those obtained 3(n) locally stable equilibrium points are located both in saturated regions and unsaturated regions. The theoretical findings are verified by an illustrative example with computer simulations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The model of root graviresponse with retarded arguments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kondrachuk, Alexander

The graviperception mechanism (GPM) of the roots of higher plants localized in the cap region of a root and supposedly related to statoliths sedimentation produces the signals in response to the change of the root axis orientation relative to the gravity vector G. Meanwhile, the regions (Distal Elongation Zone -DEZ and Central Elongation Zone-CEZ), where the signals initiate the changes of the growth rates of the upper and lower flanks of the root, are located at the significant distances from the cap (thousands microns for some plants). It causes the time delays between the relocation of statoliths in statocytes and the change of the growth rates in elongation zones. It is suggested that the signal targeting the CEZ modulates the initially uniform lateral distribution of some specific substances (S) in the cap region. Then already nonhomogeneous lateral distribution of S is transferred to the CEZ to initiate the change of the growth rates of the opposite flanks. It results in the bending of the root in the line of G and thus in the change of the GPM signal in the cap region. In the present model the kinetics of a root apex bending (angle A) in response to the time (t)-dependent change of the G orientation is described by the integro-differential equation in A(t). The main peculiarity of this model is the presence of retarded (time-delayed) arguments t-TCEZ and t-TDEZ . In this case the solutions of this equation depend on the preceding kinetics of A(t) during the time delays TCEZ and TDEZ . It is suggested that the signals activating the CEZ and DEZ are of different nature. The work is focused on two problems concerning the modeling of the effects of time-delay(s) on the root bending. The first problem supposes the existence of one zone (CEZ) and one time-delay TCEZ . This equation was studied and solved using analytical and numerical methods. We analyzed the model as to whether it can be used to describe the kinetics of root graviresponse in the case of different orientations of the root apex relative to the G vector during the time interval equal to TCEZ (TCEZ > TDEZ ) that precedes the beginning of gravistimultion. Also we explored the conditions of the overshooting (the vertical) and non-overshooting regimes of gravistimulated root bending. Good correlation between the results of the modeling and known experimental data (Barlow et al, 1993, Stochkus, 1994, Mullen, 1998) was found. This allowed us to estimate and analyze the parameters of the model. The second problem supposed the existence of two zones of growth (CEZ and DEZ) and two corresponding time-delays. The effects of the second time-delay connected with the presence of the DEZ on the behavior of the model equation of the root graviresponse kinetics were analyzed and discussed.

The role of strategic attention deployment in development of self-regulation: predicting preschoolers' delay of gratification from mother-toddler interactions.

PubMed

Sethi, A; Mischel, W; Aber, J L; Shoda, Y; Rodriguez, M L

2000-11-01

Toddlers' use of effective attention deployment strategies to cope with separation from the mother and with maternal behavior predicted the use of effective delay-of-gratification strategies at age 5, even though the contexts, measures, and manifest behaviors were different. Toddlers who used distraction strategies during a brief separation from the mother were able, at age 5, to delay immediate gratification longer for more valued rewards. Toddlers who explored at a distance from a controlling mother when she tried to engage the child also delayed longer and used more effective delay strategies at age 5, compared with toddlers who did not distance themselves. Toddlers whose mothers were not controlling showed the opposite pattern: Those who did not distance themselves from the mother's bids had longer preschool delay times and more effective strategies. Strategic attention deployment was shown to be an enduring self-regulatory skill visible in early development across domains, measures, and over time.

Signal-Detection Analyses of Conditional Discrimination and Delayed Matching-to-Sample Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alsop, Brent

2004-01-01

Quantitative analyses of stimulus control and reinforcer control in conditional discriminations and delayed matching-to-sample procedures often encounter a problem; it is not clear how to analyze data when subjects have not made errors. The present article examines two common methods for overcoming this problem. Monte Carlo simulations of…

Physiological Profiles during Delay of Gratification: Associations with Emotionality, Self-Regulation, and Adjustment Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Anna C.; Lengua, Liliana J.; Tininenko, Jennifer; Taylor, Adam; Trancik, Anika

2009-01-01

This longitudinal study utilized a community sample of children (N = 91, 45% female, 8-11 years at time 1) to investigate physiological responses (heart rate reactivity [HRR] and electrodermal responding [EDR]) during delay of gratification in relation to emotionality, self-regulation, and adjustment problems. Cluster analyses identified three…

Gastrointestinal Problems in Children with Autism, Developmental Delays or Typical Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chaidez, Virginia; Hansen, Robin L.; Hertz-Picciotto, Irva

2014-01-01

To compare gastrointestinal (GI) problems among children with: (1) autism spectrum disorder (ASD), (2) developmental delay (DD) and (3) typical development (TD), GI symptom frequencies were obtained for 960 children from the CHildhood Autism Risks from Genetics and Environment (CHARGE) study. We also examined scores on five Aberrant Behavior…

Are Survivors Who Report Cancer-Related Financial Problems More Likely to Forgo or Delay Medical Care?

PubMed Central

Kent, Erin E.; Forsythe, Laura P.; Yabroff, K. Robin; Weaver, Kathryn E.; de Moor, Janet S.; Rodriguez, Juan L.; Rowland, Julia H.

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND Financial problems caused by cancer and its treatment can substantially affect survivors and their families and create barriers to seeking health care. METHODS The authors identified cancer survivors diagnosed as adults (n = 1556) from the nationally representative 2010 National Health Interview Survey. Using multivariable logistic regression analyses, the authors report sociodemographic, clinical, and treatment-related factors associated with perceived cancer-related financial problems and the association between financial problems and forgoing or delaying health care because of cost. Adjusted percentages using the predictive marginals method are presented. RESULTS Cancer-related financial problems were reported by 31.8% (95% confidence interval, 29.3%–34.5%) of survivors. Factors found to be significantly associated with cancer-related financial problems in survivors included younger age at diagnosis, minority race/ethnicity, history of chemotherapy or radiation treatment, recurrence or multiple cancers, and shorter time from diagnosis. After adjustment for covariates, respondents who reported financial problems were more likely to report delaying (18.3% vs 7.4%) or forgoing overall medical care (13.8% vs 5.0%), prescription medications (14.2% vs 7.6%), dental care (19.8% vs 8.3%), eyeglasses (13.9% vs 5.8%), and mental health care (3.9% vs 1.6%) than their counterparts without financial problems (all P<.05). CONCLUSIONS Cancer-related financial problems are not only disproportionately represented in survivors who are younger, members of a minority group, and have a higher treatment burden, but may also contribute to survivors forgoing or delaying medical care after cancer. PMID:23907958

Are survivors who report cancer-related financial problems more likely to forgo or delay medical care?

PubMed

Kent, Erin E; Forsythe, Laura P; Yabroff, K Robin; Weaver, Kathryn E; de Moor, Janet S; Rodriguez, Juan L; Rowland, Julia H

2013-10-15

Financial problems caused by cancer and its treatment can substantially affect survivors and their families and create barriers to seeking health care. The authors identified cancer survivors diagnosed as adults (n=1556) from the nationally representative 2010 National Health Interview Survey. Using multivariable logistic regression analyses, the authors report sociodemographic, clinical, and treatment-related factors associated with perceived cancer-related financial problems and the association between financial problems and forgoing or delaying health care because of cost. Adjusted percentages using the predictive marginals method are presented. Cancer-related financial problems were reported by 31.8% (95% confidence interval, 29.3%-34.5%) of survivors. Factors found to be significantly associated with cancer-related financial problems in survivors included younger age at diagnosis, minority race/ethnicity, history of chemotherapy or radiation treatment, recurrence or multiple cancers, and shorter time from diagnosis. After adjustment for covariates, respondents who reported financial problems were more likely to report delaying (18.3% vs 7.4%) or forgoing overall medical care (13.8% vs 5.0%), prescription medications (14.2% vs 7.6%), dental care (19.8% vs 8.3%), eyeglasses (13.9% vs 5.8%), and mental health care (3.9% vs 1.6%) than their counterparts without financial problems (all P<.05). Cancer-related financial problems are not only disproportionately represented in survivors who are younger, members of a minority group, and have a higher treatment burden, but may also contribute to survivors forgoing or delaying medical care after cancer. Copyright © 2013 American Cancer Society.

COMT genotype, gambling activity, and cognition.

PubMed

Grant, Jon E; Leppink, Eric W; Redden, Sarah A; Odlaug, Brian L; Chamberlain, Samuel R

2015-09-01

Neuropsychological studies of adults with problem gambling indicate impairments across multiple cognitive domains. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) plays a unique role in the regulation of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex, and has been implicated in the cognitive dysfunction evident in problem gambling. This study examined adults with varying levels of gambling behavior to determine whether COMT genotype was associated with differences in gambling symptoms and cognitive functioning. 260 non-treatment-seeking adults aged 18-29 years with varying degrees of gambling behavior provided saliva samples for genotyping COMT val158met (rs4680). All subjects underwent clinical evaluations and neurocognitive assessment of decision-making, working memory, and impulsivity. The Val/Val COMT genotype was associated with the largest percentage of subjects with gambling disorder (31.8%), a rate significantly different from the Val/Met (13.2%) group (p = 0.001). The Val/Val COMT group was also associated with significantly more gambling disorder diagnostic criteria being met, greater frequency of gambling behavior, and significantly worse cognitive performance on the Cambridge Gamble Task (risk adjustment and delay aversion) and the Spatial Working Memory task (total errors). This study adds to the growing literature on the role of COMT in impulsive behaviors by showing that the Val/Val genotype was associated with specific clinical and cognitive elements among young adults who gamble, in the absence of differences on demographic measures and other cognitive domains. Future work should consider using genotyping to explore whether certain polymorphisms predict subsequent development of impulsive behaviors including gambling disorder, and treatment outcomes. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, delay discounting, and risky financial behaviors: A preliminary analysis of self-report data

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Delay discounting—often referred to as hyperbolic discounting in the financial literature—is defined by a consistent preference for smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards, and by failure of future consequences to curtail current consummatory behaviors. Previous research demonstrates (1) excessive delay discounting among individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), (2) common neural substrates of delay discounting and hyperactive-impulsive symptoms of ADHD, and (3) associations between delay discounting and both debt burden and high interest rate borrowing. This study extends prior research by examining associations between ADHD symptoms, delay discounting, and an array of previously unevaluated financial outcomes among 544 individuals (mean age 35 years). Controlling for age, income, sex, education, and substance use, ADHD symptoms were associated with delay discounting, late credit card payments, credit card balances, use of pawn services, personal debt, and employment histories (less time spent at more jobs). Consistent with neural models of reward processing and associative learning, more of these relations were attributable to hyperactive-impulsive symptoms than inattentive symptoms. Implications for financial decision-making and directions for future research are discussed. PMID:28481903

Time delay estimation using new spectral and adaptive filtering methods with applications to underwater target detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hasan, Mohammed A.

1997-11-01

In this dissertation, we present several novel approaches for detection and identification of targets of arbitrary shapes from the acoustic backscattered data and using the incident waveform. This problem is formulated as time- delay estimation and sinusoidal frequency estimation problems which both have applications in many other important areas in signal processing. Solving time-delay estimation problem allows the identification of the specular components in the backscattered signal from elastic and non-elastic targets. Thus, accurate estimation of these time delays would help in determining the existence of certain clues for detecting targets. Several new methods for solving these two problems in the time, frequency and wavelet domains are developed. In the time domain, a new block fast transversal filter (BFTF) is proposed for a fast implementation of the least squares (LS) method. This BFTF algorithm is derived by using data-related constrained block-LS cost function to guarantee global optimality. The new soft-constrained algorithm provides an efficient way of transferring weight information between blocks of data and thus it is computationally very efficient compared with other LS- based schemes. Additionally, the tracking ability of the algorithm can be controlled by varying the block length and/or a soft constrained parameter. The effectiveness of this algorithm is tested on several underwater acoustic backscattered data for elastic targets and non-elastic (cement chunk) objects. In the frequency domain, the time-delay estimation problem is converted to a sinusoidal frequency estimation problem by using the discrete Fourier transform. Then, the lagged sample covariance matrices of the resulting signal are computed and studied in terms of their eigen- structure. These matrices are shown to be robust and effective in extracting bases for the signal and noise subspaces. New MUSIC and matrix pencil-based methods are derived these subspaces. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated on the problem of detection of multiple specular components in the acoustic backscattered data. Finally, a method for the estimation of time delays using wavelet decomposition is derived. The sub-band adaptive filtering uses discrete wavelet transform for multi- resolution or sub-band decomposition. Joint time delay estimation for identifying multi-specular components and subsequent adaptive filtering processes are performed on the signal in each sub-band. This would provide multiple 'look' of the signal at different resolution scale which results in more accurate estimates for delays associated with the specular components. Simulation results on the simulated and real shallow water data are provided which show the promise of this new scheme for target detection in a heavy cluttered environment.

Compulsion or chronobiology? A case of severe obsessive-compulsive disorder treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy augmented with chronotherapy.

PubMed

Coles, Meredith E; Sharkey, Katherine M

2011-06-15

Individuals with treatment-resistant obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) have elevated rates of delayed sleep phase. This report describes a patient with severe OCD who had failed prior trials of pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy, and whose symptoms were associated with delayed bedtimes and delays in the time she initiated her nighttime compulsions. Case report. A 54 year-old woman with OCD kept sleep/symptom logs as an adjunct to traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy for OCD. At presentation, she reported habitual bedtime = 06:00, wake time = 13:00, sleep latency ' 5 min, and total sleep time = 6.5-7.5 h. Later time of initiating her compulsions was associated with longer time performing the compulsions (r = 0.86, p < 0.001). Cognitive-behavioral therapy with adjunctive chronotherapy was associated with substantial improvement. OCD patients with nighttime compulsions may receive light exposure that results in delayed sleep times/circadian phase. Chronotherapy may enhance outcomes for refractory OCD patients, particularly those who perform compulsions at night.

Preparation of delayed release tablet dosage forms by compression coating: effect of coating material on theophylline release.

PubMed

El-Malah, Yasser; Nazzal, Sami

2010-06-01

In this study, compression-coated tablets were prepared and examined by real-time swelling/erosion analysis and dissolution studies. Of the coating materials, PVP showed no swelling behavior and had no impact on theophylline release. Polyox(®) exhibited swelling behavior of an entangled polymer, which was reflected in its > 14-hour delayed-release profile. Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), which revealed the characteristics of a disentangled polymer, caused a 2-h delay in theophylline release. Based on preliminary texture analysis data, Polyox(®)/PVP blends were used as coating materials to manipulate the onset of drug release from the compression-coated tablets. Of the blends, at a 1:1 ratio, for example, resulted in a burst release after 10 h, which demonstrated the feasibility of preparing delayed release dosage forms by compression coating. Furthermore, it was feasible to predict the dissolution behavior of polymers from their swelling/erosion data, which were generated from texture analysis.

Optimal Integration of Departure and Arrivals in Terminal Airspace

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Xue, Min; Zelinski, Shannon Jean

2012-01-01

Coordination of operations with spatially and temporally shared resources such as route segments, fixes, and runways improves the efficiency of terminal airspace management. Problems in this category include scheduling and routing, thus they are normally difficult to solve compared with pure scheduling problems. In order to reduce the computational time, a fast time algorithm formulation using a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA) was introduced in this work and applied to a test case based on existing literature. The experiment showed that new method can solve the whole problem in fast time instead of solving sub-problems sequentially with a window technique. The results showed a 60% or 406 second delay reduction was achieved by sharing departure fixes (more details on the comparison with MILP results will be presented in the final paper). Furthermore, the NSGA algorithm was applied to a problem in LAX terminal airspace, where interactions between 28% of LAX arrivals and 10% of LAX departures are resolved by spatial segregation, which may introduce unnecessary delays. In this work, spatial segregation, temporal segregation, and hybrid segregation were formulated using the new algorithm. Results showed that spatial and temporal segregation approaches achieved similar delay. Hybrid segregation introduced much less delay than the other two approaches. For a total of 9 interacting departures and arrivals, delay reduction varied from 4 minutes to 6.4 minutes corresponding flight time uncertainty from 0 to 60 seconds. Considering the amount of flights that could be affected, total annual savings with hybrid segregation would be significant.

Delayed changes in auditory status in cochlear implant users with preserved acoustic hearing.

PubMed

Scheperle, Rachel A; Tejani, Viral D; Omtvedt, Julia K; Brown, Carolyn J; Abbas, Paul J; Hansen, Marlan R; Gantz, Bruce J; Oleson, Jacob J; Ozanne, Marie V

2017-07-01

This retrospective review explores delayed-onset hearing loss in 85 individuals receiving cochlear implants designed to preserve acoustic hearing at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics between 2001 and 2015. Repeated measures of unaided behavioral audiometric thresholds, electrode impedance, and electrically evoked compound action potential (ECAP) amplitude growth functions were used to characterize longitudinal changes in auditory status. Participants were grouped into two primary categories according to changes in unaided behavioral thresholds: (1) stable hearing or symmetrical hearing loss and (2) delayed loss of hearing in the implanted ear. Thirty-eight percent of this sample presented with delayed-onset hearing loss of various degrees and rates of change. Neither array type nor insertion approach (round window or cochleostomy) had a significant effect on prevalence. Electrode impedance increased abruptly for many individuals exhibiting precipitous hearing loss; the increase was often transient. The impedance increases were significantly larger than the impedance changes observed for individuals with stable or symmetrical hearing loss. Moreover, the impedance changes were associated with changes in behavioral thresholds for individuals with a precipitous drop in behavioral thresholds. These findings suggest a change in the electrode environment coincident with the change in auditory status. Changes in ECAP thresholds, growth function slopes, and suprathreshold amplitudes were not correlated with changes in behavioral thresholds, suggesting that neural responsiveness in the region excited by the implant is relatively stable. Further exploration into etiology of delayed-onset hearing loss post implantation is needed, with particular interest in mechanisms associated with changes in the intracochlear environment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Razumikhin-Type Stability Criteria for Differential Equations with Delayed Impulses.

PubMed

Wang, Qing; Zhu, Quanxin

2013-01-01

This paper studies stability problems of general impulsive differential equations where time delays occur in both differential and difference equations. Based on the method of Lyapunov functions, Razumikhin technique and mathematical induction, several stability criteria are obtained for differential equations with delayed impulses. Our results show that some systems with delayed impulses may be exponentially stabilized by impulses even if the system matrices are unstable. Some less restrictive sufficient conditions are also given to keep the good stability property of systems subject to certain type of impulsive perturbations. Examples with numerical simulations are discussed to illustrate the theorems. Our results may be applied to complex problems where impulses depend on both current and past states.

Behavioral Economic Indicators of Drinking Problem Severity and Initial Outcomes Among Problem Drinkers Attempting Natural Recovery: A Cross-sectional Naturalistic Study

PubMed Central

Tucker, Jalie A.; Cheong, JeeWon; Chandler, Susan D.; Lambert, Brice H.; Kwok, Heather; Pietrzak, Brittney

2016-01-01

Background and aims Research using different behavioral economic (BE) and time perspective (TP) measures suggests that substance misusers show greater sensitivity to shorter term contingencies than normal controls, but multiple measures have seldom been investigated together. This study evaluated the extent to which multiple BE and TP measures were associated with drinking problem severity, distinguished initial outcomes of natural recovery attempts, and shared common variance. Hypotheses were (1) greater problem severity would be associated with greater impulsivity and demand for alcohol and shorter TPs; and (2) low-risk drinking would be associated with greater sensitivity to longer term contingencies compared with abstinence. Design Cross-sectional naturalistic field study. Setting Southern United States. Participants Problem drinkers, recently resolved without treatment (N = 191 [76.4% male], M age = 50.1 years) recruited using media advertisements. Measurements Drinking practices, dependence levels, and alcohol-related problems prior to stopping problem drinking were assessed during structured field interviews. Measures included the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory; BE analogue choice tasks (Delay Discounting [DD], Melioration-Maximization [MM], Alcohol Purchase Task [APT]); and the Alcohol-Savings Discretionary Expenditure (ASDE) index, derived from real spending on alcohol and voluntary savings during the year before problem cessation. Findings Measures of demand based on real (ASDE) and hypothetical (APT) spending on alcohol were associated with problem severity (ps < .05), but DD, MM, and TP measures were not. More balanced pre-resolution spending on alcohol versus saving for the future distinguished low-risk drinking from abstinent resolutions (ASDE OR = 5.59; p < .001). BE measures did not share common variance. Conclusions Two behavioural assessment tools that measure spending on alcohol, the Alcohol Purchase Task and the Alcohol-Savings Discretionary Expenditure index, appear to be reliable in assessing the severity of drinking problems. The ASDE index also may aid choices between low-risk and abstinent drinking goals. PMID:27318078

Stability analysis for a delay differential equations model of a hydraulic turbine speed governor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Halanay, Andrei; Safta, Carmen A.; Dragoi, Constantin; Piraianu, Vlad F.

2017-01-01

The paper aims to study the dynamic behavior of a speed governor for a hydraulic turbine using a mathematical model. The nonlinear mathematical model proposed consists in a system of delay differential equations (DDE) to be compared with already established mathematical models of ordinary differential equations (ODE). A new kind of nonlinearity is introduced as a time delay. The delays can characterize different running conditions of the speed governor. For example, it is considered that spool displacement of hydraulic amplifier might be blocked due to oil impurities in the oil supply system and so the hydraulic amplifier has a time delay in comparison to the time control. Numerical simulations are presented in a comparative manner. A stability analysis of the hydraulic control system is performed, too. Conclusions of the dynamic behavior using the DDE model of a hydraulic turbine speed governor are useful in modeling and controlling hydropower plants.

Validity of false belief tasks in blind children.

PubMed

Brambring, Michael; Asbrock, Doreen

2010-12-01

Previous studies have reported that congenitally blind children without any additional impairment reveal a developmental delay of at least 4 years in perspective taking based on testing first-order false-belief tasks. These authors interpret this delay as a sign of autism-like behavior. However, the delay may be caused by testing blind children with false-belief tasks that require visual experience. Therefore, the present study gave alternative false-belief tasks based on tactile or auditory experience to 45 congenitally blind 4-10-year-olds and 37 sighted 3-6-year-olds. Results showed criterion performance at 80 months (6; 8 years) in blind children compared with 61 months (5; 1 years) in sighted controls. It is concluded that this 19-month (1; 7 year) difference, which is comparable with delays in other developmental areas, is a developmental delay caused by the fact of congenital blindness rather than a sign of a psychopathological disorder of autism-like behavior.

When good news leads to bad choices.

PubMed

McDevitt, Margaret A; Dunn, Roger M; Spetch, Marcia L; Ludvig, Elliot A

2016-01-01

Pigeons and other animals sometimes deviate from optimal choice behavior when given informative signals for delayed outcomes. For example, when pigeons are given a choice between an alternative that always leads to food after a delay and an alternative that leads to food only half of the time after a delay, preference changes dramatically depending on whether the stimuli during the delays are correlated with (signal) the outcomes or not. With signaled outcomes, pigeons show a much greater preference for the suboptimal alternative than with unsignaled outcomes. Key variables and research findings related to this phenomenon are reviewed, including the effects of durations of the choice and delay periods, probability of reinforcement, and gaps in the signal. We interpret the available evidence as reflecting a preference induced by signals for good news in a context of uncertainty. Other explanations are briefly summarized and compared. © 2016 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Delay and probability discounting among payday and title loan recipients.

PubMed

Mahoney, Colin T; Lawyer, Steven R

2016-04-01

Payday and title loans are short-term loans associated with significant economic impact. Behavioral theories of impulsive choice may provide insight into behavioral processes that underlie the propensity to take out payday and title loans. Adults between the ages of 18 and 30 recruited from the community completed delay and probability discounting tasks for hypothetical money as well as measures of substance use. Patterns of discounting were characterized using a hyperbolic decay model and area under the curve. Participants who took out a payday and/or title loan in the past (n=41) exhibited more impulsive choice patterns on the delay discounting task than did those who did not (n=255). Substance use mediated this relationship between payday and title loan retention and delay discounting. These findings suggest potentially important relationships between payday/title loan borrowing, substance use, and delay discounting. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of risperidone and parent training on adaptive functioning in children with pervasive developmental disorders and serious behavioral problems

PubMed Central

Scahill, Lawrence; McDougle, Christopher J.; Aman, Michael G.; Johnson, Cynthia; Handen, Benjamin; Bearss, Karen; Dziura, James; Butter, Eric; Swiezy, Naomi B.; Arnold, L. Eugene; Stigler, Kimberly A.; Sukhodolsky, Denis D.; Lecavalier, Luc; Pozdol, Stacie L.; Nikolov, Roumen; Ritz, Louise; Hollway, Jill A.; Korzekwa, Patrcia; Gavaletz, Allison; Kohn, Arlene E.; Koenig, Kathleen; Grinnon, Stacie; Mulick, James A.; Yu, Sunkyung; Vitiello, Benedetto

2012-01-01

Objective Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDDs) have deficits in social interaction, delayed communication and repetitive behavior as well as impairments in adaptive functioning. Many children actually show decline in adaptive skills compared to age mates over time. Method This 24-week, three-site, controlled clinical trial randomized 124 children (4 through 13 years of age) with PDDs and serious behavior problems to medication alone (MED; N=49; risperidone 0.5 to 3.5 mg/day (if ineffective, switch to aripiprazole was permitted) or medication plus parent training (PT) (COMB; N=75). Parents of children in COMB received an average of 11.4 PT sessions. Standard scores and Age Equivalent scores on Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales were the outcome measures of primary interest. Results Seventeen subjects did not have a post-randomization Vineland. Thus, we used a mixed model with outcome conditioned on the baseline Vineland scores. Both groups showed improvement over the 24-week trial on all Vineland domains. Compared to MED, Vineland Socialization and Adaptive Composite Standard scores showed greater improvement in the COMB group (p = 0.01 and 0.05; effect sizes = 0.35.and 0.22, respectively). On Age Equivalent scores, Socialization and Communication domains showed greater improvement in COMB versus MED (p=0.03, 0.05; effect sizes = 0.33 and 0.14 respectively). Using logistic regression, children in the COMB group were twice as likely to make at least 6 months gain (equal to the passage of time) in the Vineland Communication Age Equivalent score compared to MED (p = 0.02). After controlling for IQ, this difference was no longer significant. Conclusion Reduction of serious maladaptive behavior promotes improvement in adaptive behavior. Medication plus PT shows modest additional benefit over medication alone. PMID:22265360

The German version of the Child Behavior Checklist 1.5-5 to identify children with a risk of autism spectrum disorder.

PubMed

Limberg, Katharina; Gruber, Karolin; Noterdaeme, Michele

2017-04-01

A long delay between the first registered symptoms of autism spectrum disorder and a final diagnosis has been reported. The reasons for this are the spare use of specialized autism instruments, missing clinical expertise, and the late referral to specialized centers in primary care. Previous studies recommending the Child Behavior Checklist 1.5-5 for screening have requested additional research. A total of 183 children aged 25-71 months participated in this study. The Child Behavior Checklist scales of 80 children with autism spectrum disorder were compared with 103 children diagnosed with other psychiatric disorders. In the logistic regression analysis, the Withdrawn and Pervasive Developmental Problems Child Behavior Checklist scales with a significant predictive value of risk for an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis were identified. The optimal cutoff points T = 64.5 on the Pervasive Developmental Problems scale (area under the curve = 0.781, sensitivity = 0.83, specificity = 0.60, positive predictive value = 0.62, negative predictive value = 0.82, odds ratio = 7) and T = 60.5 on the Withdrawn scale (area under the curve = 0.809, sensitivity = 0.88, specificity = 0.63, positive predictive value = 0.65, negative predictive value = 0.87, odds ratio = 12) were evaluated in the receiver operating characteristics analysis. The present study confirms the utility of the German version of the Child Behavior Checklist 1.5-5 as a level 1 screening tool to identify children with a risk of autism spectrum disorder; however, a risk of over-identifying should be considered. The Child Behavior Checklist 1.5-5 can complement the pediatric examination as a quick and cost-effective questionnaire.

Longitudinal Assessment of Stereotypic, Proto-Injurious, and Self-Injurious Behavior Exhibited by Young Children with Developmental Delays

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richman, David M.; Lindauer, Steven E.

2005-01-01

Twelve children (CA, 12 to 32 months) with developmental delay were observed in their homes during monthly analogue functional analysis probes to document patterns of emerging self-injurious behavior. Two patterns of emerging self-injury were observed for 5 participants: (a) The topography and functional analysis pattern remained the same, but the…

Changing delay discounting in the light of the competing neurobehavioral decision systems theory: a review.

PubMed

Koffarnus, Mikhail N; Jarmolowicz, David P; Mueller, E Terry; Bickel, Warren K

2013-01-01

Excessively devaluing delayed reinforcers co-occurs with a wide variety of clinical conditions such as drug dependence, obesity, and excessive gambling. If excessive delay discounting is a trans-disease process that underlies the choice behavior leading to these and other negative health conditions, efforts to change an individual's discount rate are arguably important. Although discount rate is often regarded as a relatively stable trait, descriptions of interventions and environmental manipulations that successfully alter discount rate have begun to appear in the literature. In this review, we compare published examples of procedures that change discount rate and classify them into categories of procedures, including therapeutic interventions, direct manipulation of the executive decision-making system, framing effects, physiological state effects, and acute drug effects. These changes in discount rate are interpreted from the perspective of the competing neurobehavioral decision systems theory, which describes a combination of neurological and behavioral processes that account for delay discounting. We also suggest future directions that researchers could take to identify the mechanistic processes that allow for changes in discount rate and to test whether the competing neurobehavioral decision systems view of delay discounting is correct. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

The neuroeconomics of nicotine dependence: a preliminary functional magnetic resonance imaging study of delay discounting of monetary and cigarette rewards in smokers.

PubMed

MacKillop, James; Amlung, Michael T; Wier, Lauren M; David, Sean P; Ray, Lara A; Bickel, Warren K; Sweet, Lawrence H

2012-04-30

Neuroeconomics integrates behavioral economics and cognitive neuroscience to understand the neurobiological basis for normative and maladaptive decision making. Delay discounting is a behavioral economic index of impulsivity that reflects capacity to delay gratification and has been consistently associated with nicotine dependence. This preliminary study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine delay discounting for money and cigarette rewards in 13 nicotine dependent adults. Significant differences between preferences for smaller immediate rewards and larger delayed rewards were evident in a number of regions of interest (ROIs), including the medial prefrontal cortex, anterior insular cortex, middle temporal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and cingulate gyrus. Significant differences between money and cigarette rewards were generally lateralized, with cigarette choices associated with left hemisphere activation and money choices associated with right hemisphere activation. Specific ROI differences included the posterior parietal cortex, medial and middle frontal gyrus, ventral striatum, temporoparietal cortex, and angular gyrus. Impulsivity as measured by behavioral choices was significantly associated with both individual ROIs and a combined ROI model. These findings provide initial evidence in support of applying a neuroeconomic approach to understanding nicotine dependence. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Alcohol Demand, Delayed Reward Discounting, and Craving in relation to Drinking and Alcohol Use Disorders

PubMed Central

MacKillop, James; Miranda, Robert; Monti, Peter M.; Ray, Lara A.; Murphy, James G.; Rohsenow, Damaris J.; McGeary, John E.; Swift, Robert M.; Tidey, Jennifer W.; Gwaltney, Chad J.

2010-01-01

A behavioral economic approach to alcohol use disorders (AUDs) emphasizes both individual and environmental determinants of alcohol use. The current study examined individual differences in alcohol demand (i.e., motivation for alcohol under escalating conditions of price) and delayed reward discounting (i.e., preference for immediate small rewards compared to delayed larger rewards) in 61 heavy drinkers (62% with an AUD). In addition, based on theoretical accounts that emphasize the role of craving in reward valuation and preferences for immediate rewards, craving for alcohol was also examined in relation to these behavioral economic variables and the alcohol-related variables. Intensity of alcohol demand and delayed reward discounting were significantly associated with AUD symptoms, but not with quantitative measures of alcohol use, and were also moderately correlated with each other. Likewise, craving was significantly associated with AUD symptoms, but not with alcohol use, and was also significantly correlated with both intensity of demand and delayed reward discounting. These findings further emphasize the relevance of behavioral economic indices of motivation to alcohol use disorders and the potential importance of craving for alcohol in this relationship. PMID:20141247

Density and delay of punishment of free-operant avoidance1

PubMed Central

Baron, Alan; Kaufman, Arnold; Fazzini, Dan

1969-01-01

In two experiments, the free-operant shock-avoidance behavior of rats was punished by electric shock. Two aspects of the schedule of response-produced shock were varied: the frequency of punishment over time (punishment density) and the temporal interval between the punished response and the punishment (punishment delay). The general finding was that response-produced shock suppressed avoidance responding under most of the density-delay combinations studied, and suppression increased as a function of increases in density and decreases in delay. Rate increases of small magnitude also were observed, usually as an initial reaction to the lesser densities and longer delays. Response suppression, while decreasing the number of punishment shocks received, also increased the number of avoidance shocks, so that the total number of shocks received usually was greater than the minimal number possible. The results were discussed from the standpoint of similarities between the effects of punishing positively and negatively reinforced behavior. The finding that subjects did not minimize the total number of shocks suggested that when avoidance behavior is punished, responding is controlled more by the local consequences of responding than by overall shock frequencies during the course of the session. PMID:16811408

Architectural Analysis of Dynamically Reconfigurable Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lindvall, Mikael; Godfrey, Sally; Ackermann, Chris; Ray, Arnab; Yonkwa, Lyly

2010-01-01

oTpics include: the problem (increased flexibility of architectural styles decrease analyzability, behavior emerges and varies depending on the configuration, does the resulting system run according to the intended design, and architectural decisions can impede or facilitate testing); top down approach to architecture analysis, detection of defects and deviations, and architecture and its testability; currently targeted projects GMSEC and CFS; analyzing software architectures; analyzing runtime events; actual architecture recognition; GMPUB in Dynamic SAVE; sample output from new approach; taking message timing delays into account; CFS examples of architecture and testability; some recommendations for improved testablity; and CFS examples of abstract interfaces and testability; CFS example of opening some internal details.

A necessary and sufficient condition for well-posedness of initial value problems of retarded functional differential equations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nishiguchi, Junya

2017-09-01

We introduce the retarded functional differential equations (RFDEs) with general delay structure to treat various delay differential equations (DDEs) in a unified way and to clarify the delay structure in those dynamics. We are interested in the question as to which space of histories is suitable for the dynamics of each DDE, and investigate the well-posedness of the initial value problems (IVPs) of the RFDEs. A main theorem is that the IVP is well-posed for any ;admissible; history functional if and only if the semigroup determined by the trivial RFDE x ˙ = 0 is continuous. We clarify the meaning of the Hale-Kato axiom (Hale & Kato [12]) by applying this result to RFDEs with infinite delay. We also apply the result to DDEs with unbounded time- and state-dependent delays.

Preventing delayed diagnosis of cancer: clinicians’ views on main problems and solutions

PubMed Central

Car, Lorainne Tudor; Papachristou, Nikolaos; Urch, Catherine; Majeed, Azeem; El–Khatib, Mona; Aylin, Paul; Atun, Rifat; Car, Josip; Vincent, Charles

2016-01-01

Background Delayed diagnosis is a major contributing factor to the UK’s lower cancer survival compared to many European countries. In the UK, there is a significant national variation in early cancer diagnosis. Healthcare providers can offer an insight into local priorities for timely cancer diagnosis. In this study, we aimed to identify the main problems and solutions relating to delay cancer diagnosis according to cancer care clinicians. Methods We developed and implemented a new priority–setting approach called PRIORITIZE and invited North West London cancer care clinicians to identify and prioritize main causes for and solutions to delayed diagnosis of cancer care. Results Clinicians identified a number of concrete problems and solutions relating to delayed diagnosis of cancer. Raising public awareness, patient education as well as better access to specialist care and diagnostic testing were seen as the highest priorities. The identified suggestions focused mostly on the delays during referrals from primary to secondary care. Conclusions Many identified priorities were feasible, affordable and converged around common themes such as public awareness, care continuity and length of consultation. As a timely, proactive and scalable priority–setting approach, PRIORITZE could be implemented as a routine preventative system for determining patient safety issues by frontline staff. PMID:28028437

Altering impulsive decision making with an acceptance-based procedure.

PubMed

Morrison, Kate L; Madden, Gregory J; Odum, Amy L; Friedel, Jonathan E; Twohig, Michael P

2014-09-01

Delay discounting is one facet of impulsive decision making and involves subjectively devaluing a delayed outcome. Steeply discounting delayed rewards is correlated with substance abuse and other problematic behaviors. To the extent that steep delay discounting underlies these clinical disorders, it would be advantageous to find psychosocial avenues for reducing delay discounting. Acceptance-based interventions may prove useful as they may help to decrease the distress that arises while waiting for a delayed outcome. The current study was conducted to determine if a 60-90 minute acceptance-based training would change delay discounting rates among 30 undergraduate university students in comparison to a waitlist control. Measures given at pre- and posttraining included a hypothetical monetary delay discounting task, the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II), and the Distress Tolerance Scale. Those assigned to the treatment group decreased their discounting of delayed money, but not distress intolerance or psychological inflexibility when compared to the waitlist control group. After the waiting period, the control group received the intervention. Combining all participants' pre- to posttreatment data, the acceptance-based treatment significantly decreased discounting of monetary rewards and increased distress tolerance. The difference in AAQ-II approached significance. Acceptance-based treatments may be a worthwhile option for decreasing delay discounting rates and, consequently, affecting the choices that underlie addiction and other problematic behaviors. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The Value of Clean Air: Comparing Discounting of Delayed Air Quality and Money Across Magnitudes

PubMed Central

Friedel, Jonathan E.; DeHart, William B.; Mahamane, Salif; Jordan, Kerry E.; Odum, Amy L.

2018-01-01

The detrimental health effects of exposure to air pollution are well established. Fostering behavioral change concerning air quality may be challenging because the detrimental health effects of exposure to air pollution are delayed. Delay discounting, a measure of impulsive choice, encapsulates this process of choosing between the immediate conveniences of behaviors that increase pollution and the delayed consequences of prolonged exposure to poor air quality. In Experiment 1, participants completed a series of delay-discounting tasks for air quality and money. We found that participants discounted delayed air quality more than money. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether the common finding that large amounts of money are discounted less steeply than small amounts of money generalized to larger and smaller improvements in air quality. Participants discounted larger improvements in air quality less steeply than smaller improvements, indicating that the discounting of air quality shares a similar process as the discounting of money. Our results indicate that the discounting of delayed money is strongly related to the discounting of delayed air quality and that similar mechanisms may be involved in the discounting of these qualitatively different outcomes. These data are also the first to demonstrate the malleability of delay discounting of air quality, and provide important public health implications for decreasing delay discounting of air quality. PMID:29606776

The relation of eating problems and amenorrhea in ballet dancers.

PubMed

Brooks-Gunn, J; Warren, M P; Hamilton, L H

1987-02-01

Exercise-induced amenorrhea has received considerable attention in the medical literature. The combination of exercise and low body weight is thought to exert synergistic effects in the pathogenesis of amenorrhea, while the role of dieting and eating problems, another possible causative mechanism, has not been examined. A sample of 55 adult dancers in national and regional classical ballet companies was studied; their mean age was 24.7 yr. Fifty-six percent of the dancers had delayed menarche (age 14 or later) and 19% of the sample were currently amenorrheic (5 months or longer). One-third of the dancers reported having had an eating problem (self-reported anorexia nervosa or bulimia). Amenorrhea and reported eating problems were significantly related: 50% of amenorrheics reported anorexia nervosa while 13% of the normals did. In addition, prolonged amenorrhea was significantly related to dieting (as measured by EAT-26 scales, a measure of dieting behavior). As expected, leanness and absolute weight also were related to prolonged amenorrhea. Amenorrhea in this sample of adult dancers was not related to current activity level or age at which training began. Thus, eating problems may be one factor in the pathogenesis of prolonged amenorrhea in certain athletic groups.

An investigation on a two-dimensional problem of Mode-I crack in a thermoelastic medium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kant, Shashi; Gupta, Manushi; Shivay, Om Namha; Mukhopadhyay, Santwana

2018-04-01

In this work, we consider a two-dimensional dynamical problem of an infinite space with finite linear Mode-I crack and employ a recently proposed heat conduction model: an exact heat conduction with a single delay term. The thermoelastic medium is taken to be homogeneous and isotropic. However, the boundary of the crack is subjected to a prescribed temperature and stress distributions. The Fourier and Laplace transform techniques are used to solve the problem. Mathematical modeling of the present problem reduces the solution of the problem into the solution of a system of four dual integral equations. The solution of these equations is equivalent to the solution of the Fredholm's integral equation of the first kind which has been solved by using the regularization method. Inverse Laplace transform is carried out by using the Bellman method, and we obtain the numerical solution for all the physical field variables in the physical domain. Results are shown graphically, and we highlight the effects of the presence of crack in the behavior of thermoelastic interactions inside the medium in the present context, and its results are compared with the results of the thermoelasticity of type-III.

Dynamic remapping decisions in multi-phase parallel computations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nicol, D. M.; Reynolds, P. F., Jr.

1986-01-01

The effectiveness of any given mapping of workload to processors in a parallel system is dependent on the stochastic behavior of the workload. Program behavior is often characterized by a sequence of phases, with phase changes occurring unpredictably. During a phase, the behavior is fairly stable, but may become quite different during the next phase. Thus a workload assignment generated for one phase may hinder performance during the next phase. We consider the problem of deciding whether to remap a paralled computation in the face of uncertainty in remapping's utility. Fundamentally, it is necessary to balance the expected remapping performance gain against the delay cost of remapping. This paper treats this problem formally by constructing a probabilistic model of a computation with at most two phases. We use stochastic dynamic programming to show that the remapping decision policy which minimizes the expected running time of the computation has an extremely simple structure: the optimal decision at any step is followed by comparing the probability of remapping gain against a threshold. This theoretical result stresses the importance of detecting a phase change, and assessing the possibility of gain from remapping. We also empirically study the sensitivity of optimal performance to imprecise decision threshold. Under a wide range of model parameter values, we find nearly optimal performance if remapping is chosen simply when the gain probability is high. These results strongly suggest that except in extreme cases, the remapping decision problem is essentially that of dynamically determining whether gain can be achieved by remapping after a phase change; precise quantification of the decision model parameters is not necessary.

A Mixed Presentation of Serotonin Syndrome vs Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome in a 12-Year-Old Boy.

PubMed

Sun, Christie; Sweet, Hannah; Minns, Alicia B; Shapiro, Desiree; Jenkins, Willough

2018-04-24

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) and serotonin syndrome (SS) are serious medical conditions associated with commonly prescribed psychiatric medications. Although the mechanisms differ, they can be clinically difficult to distinguish. We report a case of a pediatric patient with complicated psychiatric history that developed features of both syndromes in the setting of polypharmacy. A 12-year-old boy with a history of developmental delay, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder presented to the emergency department with behavior changes consisting of delayed reactions, gait instability, drooling, and slowed movements. Ten days before presentation, his outpatient psychiatrist had made multiple medication changes including discontinuation of cyproheptadine (an appetite stimulant) and initiation of aripiprazole. On arrival, the patient was noted to be tachycardia and hypertensive for age. He was disoriented, intermittently agitated, and tremulous with increased tonicity, clonus in the lower extremities, and mydriasis. He was supportively treated with lorazepam and intravenous fluids while discontinuing potential offending agents. His course was complicated by hypertension and agitation managed with dexmedetomidine infusion and benzodiazepines. His mental status, tremors, and laboratory values began to improve over the next 2 days, and eventually transitioned to the inpatient psychiatric unit on hospital day 7. Diagnosis of NMS or SS can be difficult when there is overlap between syndromes, particularly in the setting of multiple potential offending agents or underlying developmental delay. In addition, pediatric patients may present atypically as compared with adult patients with the same condition. The use of antipsychotic medications for young children with behavioral problems has risen dramatically in the last decade, increasing their risk for developing SS or NMS.

An Altered Perception of Normal: Understanding Causes for Treatment Delay in Women with Symptomatic Uterine Fibroids.

PubMed

Ghant, Marissa S; Sengoba, Katherine S; Vogelzang, Robert; Lawson, Angela K; Marsh, Erica E

2016-08-01

Uterine fibroids are benign tumors that are the leading cause of hysterectomy in the United States. Despite their high prevalence and associated morbidity, there are little qualitative data characterizing what drives women's treatment-seeking behavior for their fibroids. Women with symptomatic or recently treated uterine fibroids completed in-depth interviews and demographic surveys. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and uploaded to NVivo version 10 for data management and thematic coding. Coders identified major themes and subthemes that emerged from the interviews. Sixty women (n = 60) completed the interviews. The kappa among coders was 0.94. The mean age of participants was 43.0 ± 6.8. 61.7% of participants self-identified as African American, 25.0% as Caucasian, 8.3% as Hispanic, and 5.0% as Asian. Many women reported obtaining a delayed diagnosis for their uterine fibroids despite experiencing severe symptoms. There were five subthemes that identified why women delayed seeking treatment, which included the perception that their symptoms were "normal," they had a low knowledge of fibroids, they did not perceive themselves to be at risk for fibroids, they engaged in avoidance-based coping strategies, and/or they dissociated themselves from their fibroids. Many women with symptomatic fibroids live with this condition chronically without seeking care. It appears that for some, limited knowledge regarding fibroids and normal menstruation may lead to a distorted view of what is normal with regard to uterine bleeding, resulting in limited treatment seeking behavior. Others know their symptoms are abnormal but simply avoid the problem. There is a need for patient-centered and community-based education to improve women's knowledge of fibroids and symptoms and to promote treatment options.

Sleep Habits and Sleep Problems in Healthy Preschoolers.

PubMed

Murthy, C L Srinivasa; Bharti, Bhavneet; Malhi, Prahbhjot; Khadwal, Alka

2015-07-01

To describe the sleep patterns and problems in children aged between 12 and 36 mo of age. This cross sectional survey was collected over a span of 1 y in Advanced Pediatric Centre, PGIMER, Chandigarh and crèches of Chandigarh. Children in the age group of 12 to 36 mo were included in study. Children with chronic illness, developmental delay, seizure disorder and lack of consent were excluded. A total of 368 children were enrolled. Main outcome measures were sleep duration over 1 to 3 y of life; sleep behavior at onset, during and waking of sleep and parent reported sleep problems and their predictors. The average duration of sleep was 12.5 h (S.D = 1.9). The mean total sleep duration and mean day time sleep duration decreased, while mean night time sleep increased as the age advanced from 12 to 36 mo. Following were the frequency of sleep habits seen in the index study; bed time routine was seen only in 68(18.5 %), a regular bed time ritual was seen in 281(76.4 %), 329(89.4 %) children frequently required 0-20 min time to fall asleep, 11(3 %) parents used sleep inducing drugs. Night waking (1 to 3 times a night) was seen in 297(80.7 %) and its frequency declined with age. Parent reported sleep problems were seen in 12.8 % (47/368). Lack of co-sleeping and night waking were considered as strongest predictors of parent reported sleep problems. Toddlers' sleep duration, night waking behavior, and day time naps decrease as the age progress while night time sleep duration increases with age. Lack of co-sleeping and night waking are considered as strongest predictors of parent reported sleep problems.

Introduction to Focus Issue: Time-delay dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Erneux, Thomas; Javaloyes, Julien; Wolfrum, Matthias; Yanchuk, Serhiy

2017-11-01

The field of dynamical systems with time delay is an active research area that connects practically all scientific disciplines including mathematics, physics, engineering, biology, neuroscience, physiology, economics, and many others. This Focus Issue brings together contributions from both experimental and theoretical groups and emphasizes a large variety of applications. In particular, lasers and optoelectronic oscillators subject to time-delayed feedbacks have been explored by several authors for their specific dynamical output, but also because they are ideal test-beds for experimental studies of delay induced phenomena. Topics include the control of cavity solitons, as light spots in spatially extended systems, new devices for chaos communication or random number generation, higher order locking phenomena between delay and laser oscillation period, and systematic bifurcation studies of mode-locked laser systems. Moreover, two original theoretical approaches are explored for the so-called Low Frequency Fluctuations, a particular chaotical regime in laser output which has attracted a lot of interest for more than 30 years. Current hot problems such as the synchronization properties of networks of delay-coupled units, novel stabilization techniques, and the large delay limit of a delay differential equation are also addressed in this special issue. In addition, analytical and numerical tools for bifurcation problems with or without noise and two reviews on concrete questions are proposed. The first review deals with the rich dynamics of simple delay climate models for El Nino Southern Oscillations, and the second review concentrates on neuromorphic photonic circuits where optical elements are used to emulate spiking neurons. Finally, two interesting biological problems are considered in this Focus Issue, namely, multi-strain epidemic models and the interaction of glucose and insulin for more effective treatment.

Isolating Behavioral Mechanisms of Inter-Temporal Choice: Nicotine Effects on Delay Discounting and Amount Sensitivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Locey, Matthew L.; Dallery, Jesse

2009-01-01

Many drugs of abuse produce changes in impulsive choice, that is, choice for a smaller-sooner reinforcer over a larger-later reinforcer. Because the alternatives differ in both delay and amount, it is not clear whether these drug effects are due to the differences in reinforcer delay or amount. To isolate the effects of delay, we used a titrating…

Nucleus accumbens core lesions induce sub-optimal choice and reduce sensitivity to magnitude and delay in impulsive choice tasks

PubMed Central

Steele, Catherine C.; Peterson, Jennifer R.; Marshall, Andrew T.; Stuebing, Sarah L.; Kirkpatrick, Kimberly

2017-01-01

The nucleus accumbens core (NAc) has long been recognized as an important contributor to the computation of reward value that is critical for impulsive choice behavior. Impulsive choice refers to choosing a smaller-sooner (SS) over a larger-later (LL) reward when the LL is more optimal in terms of the rate of reward delivery. Two experiments examined the role of the NAc in impulsive choice and its component processes of delay and magnitude processing. Experiment 1 delivered an impulsive choice task with manipulations of LL reward magnitude, followed by a reward magnitude discrimination task. Experiment 2 tested impulsive choice under manipulations of LL delay, followed by temporal bisection and progressive interval tasks. NAc lesions, in comparison to sham control lesions, produced suboptimal preferences that resulted in lower reward earning rates, and led to reduced sensitivity to magnitude and delay within the impulsive choice task. The secondary tasks revealed intact reward magnitude and delay discrimination abilities, but the lesion rats persisted in responding more as the progressive interval increased during the session. The results suggest that the NAc is most critical for demonstrating good sensitivity to magnitude and delay, and adjusting behavior accordingly. Ultimately, the NAc lesions induced suboptimal choice behavior rather than simply promoting impulsive choice, suggesting that an intact NAc is necessary for optimal decision making. PMID:29146281

Taste perception and sensory sensitivity: Relationship to feeding problems in boys with Barth Syndrome.

PubMed

Reynolds, Stacey; Kreider, Consuelo M; Meeley, Lauren E; Bendixen, Roxanna M

2015-03-01

Feeding problems are common in boys with Barth syndrome and may contribute to the population's propensity for growth delay and muscle weakness. The purpose of this study was to quantify and describe these feeding issues and examine altered taste perception and sensory sensitivity as contributing factors. A cross-sectional, two-group comparison design was used to examine feeding preferences and behaviors, chemical taste perception, and sensory sensitivities in fifty boys with (n=24) and without (n=26) Barth ages 4-17 years. Taste perception was measured using chemical test strips saturated with phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) and sodium benzoate (NaB). Feeding problems were documented by parents using a Food Inventory, while sensory sensitivities were recorded using a Short Sensory Profile. Boys with Barth differed significantly from typical peers with regards to problem feeding behaviors. For boys with Barth, food refusal and food selectivity were identified as being present in 50% the sample, while 70% of had identified problems related to gagging or swallowing foods. About half of all Barth families noted that their child's eating habits did not match the family's and that separate meals were often prepared. As demonstrated in previous research, about 50% of boys with Barth demonstrated probable or definite differences in taste/smell sensitivity, which was significantly higher than controls. On tests of chemical taste perception, boys with Barth were significantly more likely to be supertasters to PTC and non-tasters to NaB. Taster-status did not directly relate to the presence of feeding problems, however, taste/smell sensitivity did significantly relate to food selectivity by type and texture. Results indicate feeding problems in at least 50-70% of boys with Barth syndrome, and suggest that behaviors are often present before 6 months of age. Differences in taste perception may influence dietary choices in boys with Barth, particularly their craving of salty foods. Taste/smell sensitivity also appears to influence food selectivity, and therefore may be important to consider in this population, particularly in light of dietary influences on cardiac function, energy consumption, and overall growth.

Effects of a videotape feedback package on the peer interactions of children with serious behavioral and emotional challenges.

PubMed Central

Kern-Dunlap, L; Dunlap, G; Clarke, S; Childs, K E; White, R L; Stewart, M P

1992-01-01

Peer interactions are among the greatest challenges experienced by children who have severe emotional and behavioral problems. This study evaluated an intervention package designed to increase the ratio of these children's desirable to undesirable interactions. The package included three principal components: (a) observation of videotapes following regularly scheduled peer activity sessions; (b) self-evaluation of the children's peer interactions observed on the videotapes; and (c) delayed feedback and reinforcement for desirable peer interactions. Five students from two elementary schools participated. Multiple baseline designs and one reversal were used to evaluate the effects of the intervention package. The results showed that the intervention produced lower levels of undesirable peer interactions and higher ratios of desirable to undesirable interactions for all participants. The results are discussed in regard to their conceptual and applied implications and in terms of specific directions for future research. PMID:1634428

Slow-onset myocardial infarction and its influence on help-seeking behaviors.

PubMed

O'Donnell, Sharon; Moser, Debra K

2012-01-01

Patient decision delay continues to be a major factor of delay along the pathway of care for patients with myocardial infarction (MI). Although potentially modifiable, efforts to reduce these delays through educational and media interventions have been relatively unsuccessful. This failure has been due, in part, to the lack of understanding about the complex sociopsychological and clinical dimensions associated with the phenomenon of help-seeking behavior. The aims of this study were to (1) perform an in-depth analysis of patients' MI symptom experiences and (2) describe their help-seeking behavior in response to these symptom experiences. In-depth interviews were used to examine the symptom experiences and help-seeking behavior of men and women with MI. Participants (n = 42) were interviewed 2 to 4 days after their admission to 1 of 2 hospitals in Dublin, Ireland. Two new discrete MI categories emerged from the findings-slow-onset MI and fast-onset MI. Slow-onset MI is characterized by the gradual onset of mild symptoms, whereas fast-onset MI describes the sudden onset of severe chest pain. Most participants (n = 27) experienced slow-onset MI but expected the symptom presentation associated with fast-onset MI. The mismatch of expected and experienced symptoms for participants with slow-onset MI led to the mislabeling of symptoms to a noncardiac cause and protracted help-seeking delays. Participants with fast-onset MI (n = 15) quickly attributed their symptoms to a cardiac cause, which expedited appropriate help-seeking behaviors. Definitions of MI and the educational information provided to the public need to be reviewed. Slow-onset MI and fast-onset MI provide plausible definition alternatives and, possibly, a more authentic version of real MI events than what is currently used. They also provide a unique "delay" perspective, which may inform future educational initiatives targeted at decision delay reduction.

Mathematical problems in children with developmental coordination disorder.

PubMed

Pieters, Stefanie; Desoete, Annemie; Van Waelvelde, Hilde; Vanderswalmen, Ruth; Roeyers, Herbert

2012-01-01

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a heterogeneous disorder, which is often co-morbid with learning disabilities. However, mathematical problems have rarely been studied in DCD. The aim of this study was to investigate the mathematical problems in children with various degrees of motor problems. Specifically, this study explored if the development of mathematical skills in children with DCD is delayed or deficient. Children with DCD performed significantly worse for number fact retrieval and procedural calculation in comparison with age-matched control children. Moreover, children with mild DCD differed significantly from children with severe DCD on both number fact retrieval and procedural calculation. In addition, we found a developmental delay of 1 year for number fact retrieval in children with mild DCD and a developmental delay of 2 years in children with severe DCD. No evidence for a mathematical deficit was found. Diagnostic implications are discussed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Delay-distribution-dependent H∞ state estimation for delayed neural networks with (x,v)-dependent noises and fading channels.

PubMed

Sheng, Li; Wang, Zidong; Tian, Engang; Alsaadi, Fuad E

2016-12-01

This paper deals with the H ∞ state estimation problem for a class of discrete-time neural networks with stochastic delays subject to state- and disturbance-dependent noises (also called (x,v)-dependent noises) and fading channels. The time-varying stochastic delay takes values on certain intervals with known probability distributions. The system measurement is transmitted through fading channels described by the Rice fading model. The aim of the addressed problem is to design a state estimator such that the estimation performance is guaranteed in the mean-square sense against admissible stochastic time-delays, stochastic noises as well as stochastic fading signals. By employing the stochastic analysis approach combined with the Kronecker product, several delay-distribution-dependent conditions are derived to ensure that the error dynamics of the neuron states is stochastically stable with prescribed H ∞ performance. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained results. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mittag-Leffler synchronization of fractional neural networks with time-varying delays and reaction-diffusion terms using impulsive and linear controllers.

PubMed

Stamova, Ivanka; Stamov, Gani

2017-12-01

In this paper, we propose a fractional-order neural network system with time-varying delays and reaction-diffusion terms. We first develop a new Mittag-Leffler synchronization strategy for the controlled nodes via impulsive controllers. Using the fractional Lyapunov method sufficient conditions are given. We also study the global Mittag-Leffler synchronization of two identical fractional impulsive reaction-diffusion neural networks using linear controllers, which was an open problem even for integer-order models. Since the Mittag-Leffler stability notion is a generalization of the exponential stability concept for fractional-order systems, our results extend and improve the exponential impulsive control theory of neural network system with time-varying delays and reaction-diffusion terms to the fractional-order case. The fractional-order derivatives allow us to model the long-term memory in the neural networks, and thus the present research provides with a conceptually straightforward mathematical representation of rather complex processes. Illustrative examples are presented to show the validity of the obtained results. We show that by means of appropriate impulsive controllers we can realize the stability goal and to control the qualitative behavior of the states. An image encryption scheme is extended using fractional derivatives. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sports participation of children with or without developmental delay: prediction from child and family factors.

PubMed

Marquis, Willa A; Baker, Bruce L

2015-02-01

Sports participation is beneficial to health and socioemotional adjustment in youth across development. While there is some evidence indicating lower sports participation for children with developmental delays (DD) as compared with their typically developing (TD) peers, little is known as to the predictors of this differential participation. Given the increased risk of physical and mental health difficulties for children with DD, understanding more about this disparity is important. We examined sports participation in elementary school-aged children with or without DD and examined child and family predictors of three indices of sports participation: number of sports and highest relational sport at ages 6 and 8, and consistent sports from 6 to 8. Children with TD were significantly higher on all three indicators. Mother and child factors related significantly to sports participation indices. The number of sports related positively to mother education and positive perceptions and negatively to mother employment. Relational sports were higher in boys, children with higher social skills, and lower behavior problems. In regression analyses at child age 8 that included these other variables, delay status (DD or TD) did not have a significant effect. Perspectives on varying influences on sports participation and implications for intervention are discussed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

School-based programs to reduce sexual risk behaviors: a review of effectiveness.

PubMed Central

Kirby, D; Short, L; Collins, J; Rugg, D; Kolbe, L; Howard, M; Miller, B; Sonenstein, F; Zabin, L S

1994-01-01

This review was undertaken in recognition of the mounting public health and social problems associated with adolescent sexual behavior and the importance of basing school-affiliated programs designed to reduce sexual risk-taking behavior on sound research. The authors were commissioned by the Division of Adolescent and School Health within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Service, to review carefully the research on these programs and to assess their impact on behavior. The authors identified 23 studies of school-based programs that were published in professional journals and measured program impact on behavior. They then summarized the results of those studies, identifying the distinguishing characteristics of effective programs, and citing important research questions to be addressed in the future. Not all sex and AIDS education programs had significant effects on adolescent sexual risk-taking behavior, but specific programs did delay the initiation of intercourse, reduce the frequency of intercourse, reduce the number of sexual partners, or increase the use of condoms or other contraceptives. These effective programs have the potential to reduce exposure to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, including HIV infection. These programs should be replicated widely in U.S. schools. Additional research is needed to improve the effectiveness of programs and to clarify the most important characteristics of effective programs. PMID:8190857

Sensory features and repetitive behaviors in children with autism and developmental delays.

PubMed

Boyd, Brian A; Baranek, Grace T; Sideris, John; Poe, Michele D; Watson, Linda R; Patten, Elena; Miller, Heather

2010-04-01

This study combined parent and observational measures to examine the association between aberrant sensory features and restricted, repetitive behaviors in children with autism (N=67) and those with developmental delays (N=42). Confirmatory factor analysis was used to empirically validate three sensory constructs of interest: hyperresponsiveness, hyporesponsiveness, and sensory seeking. Examining the association between the three derived sensory factor scores and scores on the Repetitive Behavior Scales--Revised revealed the co-occurrence of these behaviors in both clinical groups. Specifically, high levels of hyperresponsive behaviors predicted high levels of repetitive behaviors, and the relationship between these variables remained the same controlling for mental age. We primarily found non-significant associations between hyporesponsiveness or sensory seeking and repetitive behaviors, with the exception that sensory seeking was associated with ritualistic/sameness behaviors. These findings suggest that shared neurobiological mechanisms may underlie hyperresponsive sensory symptoms and repetitive behaviors and have implications for diagnostic classification as well as intervention.

Steep delay discounting and addictive behavior: a meta-analysis of continuous associations.

PubMed

Amlung, Michael; Vedelago, Lana; Acker, John; Balodis, Iris; MacKillop, James

2017-01-01

To synthesize continuous associations between delayed reward discounting (DRD) and both addiction severity and quantity-frequency (QF); to examine moderators of these relationships; and to investigate publication bias. Meta-analysis of published studies examining continuous associations between DRD and addictive behaviors. Published, peer-reviewed studies on addictive behaviors (alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, stimulants, opiates and gambling) were identified via PubMed, MEDLINE and PsycInfo. Studies were restricted to DRD measures of monetary gains. Random-effects meta-analysis was conducted using Pearson's r as the effect size. Publication bias was evaluated using fail-safe N, Begg-Mazumdar and Egger's tests, meta-regression of publication year and effect size and imputation of missing studies. The primary meta-analysis revealed a small magnitude effect size that was highly significant (r = 0.14, P < 10 -14 ). Significantly larger effect sizes were observed for studies examining severity compared with QF (P = 0.01), but not between the type of addictive behavior (P = 0.30) or DRD assessment (P = 0.90). Indices of publication bias suggested a modest impact of unpublished findings. Delayed reward discounting is associated robustly with continuous measures of addiction severity and quantity-frequency. This relation is generally robust across type of addictive behavior and delayed reward discounting assessment modality. © 2016 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Questionnaire-based assessment of executive functioning: Case studies.

PubMed

Kronenberger, William G; Castellanos, Irina; Pisoni, David B

2018-01-01

Delays in the development of executive functioning skills are frequently observed in pediatric neuropsychology populations and can have a broad and significant impact on quality of life. As a result, assessment of executive functioning is often relevant for the development of formulations and recommendations in pediatric neuropsychology clinical work. Questionnaire-based measures of executive functioning behaviors in everyday life have unique advantages and complement traditional neuropsychological measures of executive functioning. Two case studies of children with spina bifida are presented to illustrate the clinical use of a new questionnaire measure of executive and learning-related functioning, the Learning, Executive, and Attention Functioning Scale (LEAF). The LEAF emphasizes clinical utility in assessment by incorporating four characteristics: brevity in administration, breadth of additional relevant content, efficiency of scoring and interpretation, and ease of availability for use. LEAF results were consistent with another executive functioning checklist in documenting everyday behavior problems related to working memory, planning, and organization while offering additional breadth of assessment of domains such as attention, processing speed, and novel problem-solving. These case study results demonstrate the clinical utility of questionnaire-based measurement of executive functioning in pediatric neuropsychology and provide a new measure for accomplishing this goal.

Implementing a Primary Prevention Social Skills Intervention in Urban Preschools: Factors Associated with Quality and Fidelity

PubMed Central

Wenz-Gross, Melodie; Upshur, Carole

2012-01-01

Research Findings Preschool behavior problems are of increasing concern to early childhood educators. Preventive interventions are being developed, but implementation in under-resourced child care programs is challenging. This study describes the implementation of an adapted Second Step curriculum to increase children’s social skills and decrease behavior problems in preschool classrooms. Teacher training/coaching, organizational supports, and procedures for sustainability are described. Measures included baseline classroom characteristics, lesson completion and fidelity, and teacher satisfaction. Teachers completed 88% of the lessons across two years. Follow-up monitoring in Year 3, once all training was terminated, found 95% of lessons were delivered with higher fidelity than the first two years. Teachers were satisfied with training, felt the curriculum improved children’s social skills, and stated they would continue to use the curriculum. Lesson completion and fidelity were associated with various teacher characteristics, training attendance, classroom characteristics, teacher and child turnover, and the percent of children with developmental delays in the classroom. Practice Results support the implementation strategy and suggest that paying attention to teacher morale, general skill development, and a period of on-going support for training is important and will lead to sustainable and high implementation rates. PMID:22791957

Weekly Energy Drink Use Is Positively Associated with Delay Discounting and Risk Behavior in a Nationwide Sample of Young Adults

PubMed Central

Sweeney, Mary M.; Johnson, Patrick S.; Johnson, Matthew W.; Griffiths, Roland R.

2016-01-01

Background: Energy drink use is associated with increased risk behavior among adolescents and college students. This study examined this relationship in a nationwide sample of young adults and also examined relations between energy drink use and delay discounting. Methods: Participants were 874 U.S. adults 18–28 years of age with past 30-day consumption of caffeine and alcohol. Participants completed an online survey of energy drink use, drug use, sexual activity, alcohol misuse (alcohol use disorders identification test [AUDIT]), sensation seeking (four-item Brief Sensation Seeking Scale [BSSS-4]), and delay discounting of monetary rewards and condom use. Results: Over one-third of participants (n = 303) reported consuming energy drinks at least once per week. Weekly energy drink users were more likely than less-than-weekly energy drink users to report a recent history of risk behaviors, including cigarette smoking (56% vs. 28%, p < 0.0001), illicit stimulant use (22% vs. 6%, p < 0.0001), and unprotected sex (63% vs. 45%, p < 0.0001). Covariate-adjusted analyses found that weekly energy drink users did not have significantly higher BSSS-4 scores (3.5 vs. 3.1, p = 0.098), but they had higher mean AUDIT scores (8.0 vs. 4.8, p < 0.0001), and they more steeply discounted delayed monetary rewards. Although weekly energy drink users did not show steeper discounting of delayed condom use, they showed a lower likelihood of using a condom when one was immediately available. Conclusions: This study extends findings that energy drink use is associated with risk behavior, and it is the first study to show that energy drink use is associated with monetary delay discounting. PMID:26989563

Weekly Energy Drink Use Is Positively Associated with Delay Discounting and Risk Behavior in a Nationwide Sample of Young Adults.

PubMed

Meredith, Steven E; Sweeney, Mary M; Johnson, Patrick S; Johnson, Matthew W; Griffiths, Roland R

2016-03-01

Background: Energy drink use is associated with increased risk behavior among adolescents and college students. This study examined this relationship in a nationwide sample of young adults and also examined relations between energy drink use and delay discounting. Methods: Participants were 874 U.S. adults 18-28 years of age with past 30-day consumption of caffeine and alcohol. Participants completed an online survey of energy drink use, drug use, sexual activity, alcohol misuse (alcohol use disorders identification test [AUDIT]), sensation seeking (four-item Brief Sensation Seeking Scale [BSSS-4]), and delay discounting of monetary rewards and condom use. Results: Over one-third of participants ( n  = 303) reported consuming energy drinks at least once per week. Weekly energy drink users were more likely than less-than-weekly energy drink users to report a recent history of risk behaviors, including cigarette smoking (56% vs. 28%, p  < 0.0001), illicit stimulant use (22% vs. 6%, p  < 0.0001), and unprotected sex (63% vs. 45%, p  < 0.0001). Covariate-adjusted analyses found that weekly energy drink users did not have significantly higher BSSS-4 scores (3.5 vs. 3.1, p  = 0.098), but they had higher mean AUDIT scores (8.0 vs. 4.8, p  < 0.0001), and they more steeply discounted delayed monetary rewards. Although weekly energy drink users did not show steeper discounting of delayed condom use, they showed a lower likelihood of using a condom when one was immediately available. Conclusions: This study extends findings that energy drink use is associated with risk behavior, and it is the first study to show that energy drink use is associated with monetary delay discounting.

Time delay can facilitate coherence in self-driven interacting-particle systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Yongzheng; Lin, Wei; Erban, Radek

2014-12-01

Directional switching in a self-propelled particle model with delayed interactions is investigated. It is shown that the average switching time is an increasing function of time delay. The presented results are applied to studying collective animal behavior. It is argued that self-propelled particle models with time delays can explain the state-dependent diffusion coefficient measured in experiments with locust groups. The theory is further generalized to heterogeneous groups where each individual can respond to its environment with a different time delay.

IMPACT OF INTERNET GAMBLING ON MENTAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH OF CHILDREN OF VARIOUS AGES.

PubMed

Khundadze, M; Geladze, N; Kapanadze, N

2017-03-01

The aim of the study was to assess the impact of internet gambling on children's mental and physical health and find correlation between the age, duration of internet use and type of comorbidity associated with internet gambling. The study assessed 50 patients with internet gambling (35 boys, 15 girls) from 2013-2016 y. The age range was 3-15 years. 15 patients were from 3-7 y of age, 20 patients from 7-12 y and 15 - from 12-15 y of age. The core problem common for all patients were internet overuse by computer games, mobile device and other gadgets. The main problem occurring in these children were insomnia, language delay, stuttering, behavioral disturbances, aggressive behavior phobias. These complaints were correlated with age of patients. The group of patients from 3-7 years of age exhibited sleep disturbances and language impairment, mainly presented with stuttering. The complaints occurring in children from 7-12 y of age are: tics, insomnia, phobias, emotional disturbances, daily fatigue, and attention-deficit. The group of children aged 12-15 years mainly revealed poor academic performance, refuse to play sport games, refuse to play music, insomnia, aggressive behavior, attention deficit, conflict with parents, coprolalia. Thus internet overuse affects physical and psychological aspects of child development which has to be managed by parental and psychologist's joint effort.

Noonan syndrome.

PubMed

Bhambhani, Vikas; Muenke, Maximilian

2014-01-01

Noonan syndrome is a common genetic disorder that causes multiple congenital abnormalities and a large number of potential health conditions. Most affected individuals have characteristic facial features that evolve with age; a broad, webbed neck; increased bleeding tendency; and a high incidence of congenital heart disease, failure to thrive, short stature, feeding difficulties, sternal deformity, renal malformation, pubertal delay, cryptorchidism, developmental or behavioral problems, vision problems, hearing loss, and lymphedema. Familial recurrence is consistent with an autosomal dominant mode of inheritance, but most cases are due to de novo mutations. Diagnosis can be made on the basis of clinical features, but may be missed in mildly affected patients. Molecular genetic testing can confirm diagnosis in 70% of cases and has important implications for genetic counseling and management. Most patients with Noonan syndrome are intellectually normal as adults, but some may require multidisciplinary evaluation and regular follow-up care. Age-based Noonan syndrome-specific growth charts and treatment guidelines are available.

H∞ control problem of linear periodic piecewise time-delay systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, Xiaochen; Lam, James; Li, Panshuo

2018-04-01

This paper investigates the H∞ control problem based on exponential stability and weighted L2-gain analyses for a class of continuous-time linear periodic piecewise systems with time delay. A periodic piecewise Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional is developed by integrating a discontinuous time-varying matrix function with two global terms. By applying the improved constraints to the stability and L2-gain analyses, sufficient delay-dependent exponential stability and weighted L2-gain criteria are proposed for the periodic piecewise time-delay system. Based on these analyses, an H∞ control scheme is designed under the considerations of periodic state feedback control input and iterative optimisation. Finally, numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed conditions.

Regret Expression and Social Learning Increases Delay to Sexual Gratification.

PubMed

Quisenberry, Amanda J; Eddy, Celia R; Patterson, David L; Franck, Christopher T; Bickel, Warren K

2015-01-01

Modification and prevention of risky sexual behavior is important to individuals' health and public health policy. This study employed a novel sexual discounting task to elucidate the effects of social learning and regret expression on delay to sexual gratification in a behavioral task. Amazon Mechanical Turk Workers were assigned to hear one of three scenarios about a friend who engages in similar sexual behavior. The scenarios included a positive health consequence, a negative health consequence or a negative health consequence with the expression of regret. After reading one scenario, participants were asked to select from 60 images, those with whom they would have casual sex. Of the selected images, participants chose one image each for the person they most and least want to have sex with and person most and least likely to have a sexually transmitted infection. They then answered questions about engaging in unprotected sex now or waiting some delay for condom-protected sex in each partner condition. Results indicate that the negative health outcome scenario with regret expression resulted in delayed sexual gratification in the most attractive and least STI partner conditions, whereas in the least attractive and most STI partner conditions the negative health outcome with and without regret resulted in delayed sexual gratification. Results suggest that the sexual discounting task is a relevant laboratory measure and the framing of information to include regret expression may be relevant for prevention of risky sexual behavior.

Regret Expression and Social Learning Increases Delay to Sexual Gratification

PubMed Central

Quisenberry, Amanda J.; Eddy, Celia R.; Patterson, David L.; Franck, Christopher T.; Bickel, Warren K.

2015-01-01

Objective Modification and prevention of risky sexual behavior is important to individuals’ health and public health policy. This study employed a novel sexual discounting task to elucidate the effects of social learning and regret expression on delay to sexual gratification in a behavioral task. Methods Amazon Mechanical Turk Workers were assigned to hear one of three scenarios about a friend who engages in similar sexual behavior. The scenarios included a positive health consequence, a negative health consequence or a negative health consequence with the expression of regret. After reading one scenario, participants were asked to select from 60 images, those with whom they would have casual sex. Of the selected images, participants chose one image each for the person they most and least want to have sex with and person most and least likely to have a sexually transmitted infection. They then answered questions about engaging in unprotected sex now or waiting some delay for condom-protected sex in each partner condition. Results Results indicate that the negative health outcome scenario with regret expression resulted in delayed sexual gratification in the most attractive and least STI partner conditions, whereas in the least attractive and most STI partner conditions the negative health outcome with and without regret resulted in delayed sexual gratification. Conclusions Results suggest that the sexual discounting task is a relevant laboratory measure and the framing of information to include regret expression may be relevant for prevention of risky sexual behavior. PMID:26280349

Domain-Specific Relationships in Sexual Measures of Impulsive Behavior.

PubMed

Mahoney, Colin T; Lawyer, Steven R

2018-04-25

Impulsivity is an important construct for understanding sexual behaviors, but behavioral and self-report measures of impulsivity often are not correlated. One possible explanation for this is that there is little shared variance in the measures because behavioral measures index impulsivity by asking questions about monetary preferences, while self-report measures index impulsivity by asking about a broad range of real-world outcomes (including those of a sexual nature) largely unrelated to money-related preferences. Undergraduate students (total N = 105; female n = 77, male n = 28) completed laboratory measures-delay discounting (DD) and probability discounting (PD)-for two different outcomes-money and sexual activity. Participants also completed the Delaying Gratification Inventory (DGI), which measures difficulty with delaying gratification (i.e., impulsivity) across different domains, including money and physical pleasures. Findings indicated that DD and PD for money were not related to any of the DGI subscales. However, DD for sexual activity was significantly related to the DGI Physical Pleasures subscale, but not other subscales. These findings suggest that the relationship between behavioral and self-report measures of impulsive choice may be stronger when both are measuring domain-specific rather than domain-general behavioral patterns, but further research is warranted.

Synchronous Spike Patterns in Macaque Motor Cortex during an Instructed-Delay Reach-to-Grasp Task

PubMed Central

Torre, Emiliano; Quaglio, Pietro; Denker, Michael; Brochier, Thomas; Riehle, Alexa

2016-01-01

The computational role of spike time synchronization at millisecond precision among neurons in the cerebral cortex is hotly debated. Studies performed on data of limited size provided experimental evidence that low-order correlations occur in relation to behavior. Advances in electrophysiological technology to record from hundreds of neurons simultaneously provide the opportunity to observe coordinated spiking activity of larger populations of cells. We recently published a method that combines data mining and statistical evaluation to search for significant patterns of synchronous spikes in massively parallel spike trains (Torre et al., 2013). The method solves the computational and multiple testing problems raised by the high dimensionality of the data. In the current study, we used our method on simultaneous recordings from two macaque monkeys engaged in an instructed-delay reach-to-grasp task to determine the emergence of spike synchronization in relation to behavior. We found a multitude of synchronous spike patterns aligned in both monkeys along a preferential mediolateral orientation in brain space. The occurrence of the patterns is highly specific to behavior, indicating that different behaviors are associated with the synchronization of different groups of neurons (“cell assemblies”). However, pooled patterns that overlap in neuronal composition exhibit no specificity, suggesting that exclusive cell assemblies become active during different behaviors, but can recruit partly identical neurons. These findings are consistent across multiple recording sessions analyzed across the two monkeys. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Neurons in the brain communicate via electrical impulses called spikes. How spikes are coordinated to process information is still largely unknown. Synchronous spikes are effective in triggering a spike emission in receiving neurons and have been shown to occur in relation to behavior in a number of studies on simultaneous recordings of few neurons. We recently published a method to extend this type of investigation to larger data. Here, we apply it to simultaneous recordings of hundreds of neurons from the motor cortex of macaque monkeys performing a motor task. Our analysis reveals groups of neurons selectively synchronizing their activity in relation to behavior, which sheds new light on the role of synchrony in information processing in the cerebral cortex. PMID:27511007

Synchronous Spike Patterns in Macaque Motor Cortex during an Instructed-Delay Reach-to-Grasp Task.

PubMed

Torre, Emiliano; Quaglio, Pietro; Denker, Michael; Brochier, Thomas; Riehle, Alexa; Grün, Sonja

2016-08-10

The computational role of spike time synchronization at millisecond precision among neurons in the cerebral cortex is hotly debated. Studies performed on data of limited size provided experimental evidence that low-order correlations occur in relation to behavior. Advances in electrophysiological technology to record from hundreds of neurons simultaneously provide the opportunity to observe coordinated spiking activity of larger populations of cells. We recently published a method that combines data mining and statistical evaluation to search for significant patterns of synchronous spikes in massively parallel spike trains (Torre et al., 2013). The method solves the computational and multiple testing problems raised by the high dimensionality of the data. In the current study, we used our method on simultaneous recordings from two macaque monkeys engaged in an instructed-delay reach-to-grasp task to determine the emergence of spike synchronization in relation to behavior. We found a multitude of synchronous spike patterns aligned in both monkeys along a preferential mediolateral orientation in brain space. The occurrence of the patterns is highly specific to behavior, indicating that different behaviors are associated with the synchronization of different groups of neurons ("cell assemblies"). However, pooled patterns that overlap in neuronal composition exhibit no specificity, suggesting that exclusive cell assemblies become active during different behaviors, but can recruit partly identical neurons. These findings are consistent across multiple recording sessions analyzed across the two monkeys. Neurons in the brain communicate via electrical impulses called spikes. How spikes are coordinated to process information is still largely unknown. Synchronous spikes are effective in triggering a spike emission in receiving neurons and have been shown to occur in relation to behavior in a number of studies on simultaneous recordings of few neurons. We recently published a method to extend this type of investigation to larger data. Here, we apply it to simultaneous recordings of hundreds of neurons from the motor cortex of macaque monkeys performing a motor task. Our analysis reveals groups of neurons selectively synchronizing their activity in relation to behavior, which sheds new light on the role of synchrony in information processing in the cerebral cortex. Copyright © 2016 Torre, et al.

Steady states and outbreaks of two-phase nonlinear age-structured model of population dynamics with discrete time delay.

PubMed

Akimenko, Vitalii; Anguelov, Roumen

2017-12-01

In this paper we study the nonlinear age-structured model of a polycyclic two-phase population dynamics including delayed effect of population density growth on the mortality. Both phases are modelled as a system of initial boundary values problem for semi-linear transport equation with delay and initial problem for nonlinear delay ODE. The obtained system is studied both theoretically and numerically. Three different regimes of population dynamics for asymptotically stable states of autonomous systems are obtained in numerical experiments for the different initial values of population density. The quasi-periodical travelling wave solutions are studied numerically for the autonomous system with the different values of time delays and for the system with oscillating death rate and birth modulus. In both cases it is observed three types of travelling wave solutions: harmonic oscillations, pulse sequence and single pulse.

Disparate cocaine-induced locomotion as a predictor of choice behavior in rats trained in a delay-discounting task

PubMed Central

Stanis, Jessica J.; Burns, Randi M.; Sherrill, Luke K.; Gulley, Joshua M.

2008-01-01

Heightened impulsivity and differential sensitivity to a drug's behavioral effects are traits that, individually, have been associated with chronic drug use and dependence. Here, we used an animal model to test whether individual differences in cocaine-induced activity are predictive of impulsive choice behavior. Adult, male Sprague-Dawley rats were given cocaine (10 mg/kg, i.p.) and classified into low or high cocaine responders (LCRs and HCRs, respectively) based on their locomotor response in an open-field arena. Rats were then trained in a delay-discounting task that offers a choice between immediately delivered, but smaller reinforcements, or larger reinforcements that are delivered after a delay. We also examined the effects of amphetamine (AMPH; 0.3-1.0 mg/kg) and the 5-HT1A agonist 8-OH-DPAT (0.3-1.0 mg/kg) on delay discounting. Lastly, all rats were retested in the open-field to determine if phenotypes were stable. We observed baseline differences in choice behavior between the groups, with HCRs behaving more impulsively (i.e., choosing the small reinforcement) compared to LCRs. AMPH decreased choice of the large reinforcement in LCRs, but did not alter choice in HCRs. Impulsive choice was increased in both phenotypes following 8-OH-DPAT, with LCRs exhibiting changes across a wider range of delays. When cocaine-induced open-field behavior was retested, responses in LCRs were similar whereas HCRs showed evidence of tolerance. Our results suggest that differential sensitivity to cocaine-induced locomotion is predictive of impulsivity and the potential neurobiological differences in LCRs and HCRs may provide insight into mechanisms contributing to vulnerability for chronic drug use and/or dependence. PMID:18539407

Multi-Cone Model for Estimating GPS Ionospheric Delays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sparks, Lawrence; Komjathy, Attila; Mannucci, Anthony

2009-01-01

The multi-cone model is a computational model for estimating ionospheric delays of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals. It is a direct descendant of the conical-domain model. A primary motivation for the development of this model is the need to find alternatives for modeling slant delays at low latitudes, where ionospheric behavior poses an acute challenge for GPS signal-delay estimates based upon the thin-shell model of the ionosphere.

Knowledge, care-seeking behavior, and factors associated with patient delay among newly-diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis patients, Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria, 2010.

PubMed

Biya, Oladayo; Gidado, Saheed; Abraham, Ajibola; Waziri, Ndadilnasiya; Nguku, Patrick; Nsubuga, Peter; Suleman, Idris; Oyemakinde, Akin; Nasidi, Abdulsalami; Sabitu, Kabir

2014-01-01

Early treatment of Tuberculosis (TB) cases is important for reducing transmission, morbidity and mortality associated with TB. In 2007, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nigeria recorded low TB case detection rate (CDR) of 9% which implied that many TB cases were undetected. We assessed the knowledge, care-seeking behavior, and factors associated with patient delay among pulmonary TB patients in FCT. We enrolled 160 newly-diagnosed pulmonary TB patients in six directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) hospitals in FCT in a cross-sectional study. We used a structured questionnaire to collect data on socio-demographic variables, knowledge of TB, and care-seeking behavior. Patient delay was defined as > 4 weeks between onset of cough and first hospital contact. Mean age was 32.8 years (± 9 years). Sixty two percent were males. Forty seven percent first sought care in a government hospital, 26% with a patent medicine vendor and 22% in a private hospital. Forty one percent had unsatisfactory knowledge of TB. Forty two percent had patient delay. Having unsatisfactory knowledge of TB (p = 0.046) and multiple care-seeking (p = 0.02) were significantly associated with patient delay. After controlling for travel time and age, multiple care-seeking was independently associated with patient delay (Adjusted Odds Ratio = 2.18, 95% CI = 1.09-4.35). Failure to immediately seek care in DOTS centers and having unsatisfactory knowledge of TB are factors contributing to patient delay. Strategies that promote early care-seeking in DOTS centers and sustained awareness on TB should be implemented in FCT.

Delay discounting and impulsivity traits in young and older gambling disorder patients.

PubMed

Steward, Trevor; Mestre-Bach, Gemma; Fernández-Aranda, Fernando; Granero, Roser; Perales, José C; Navas, Juan Francisco; Soriano-Mas, Carles; Baño, Marta; Fernández-Formoso, Jose A; Martín-Romera, Virginia; Menchón, José M; Jiménez-Murcia, Susana

2017-08-01

Impulsivity is understood to be a multidimensional construct involving aspects such as impulsive choice and impulsive traits. Delay discounting, the tendency to place greater value in immediate rewards over larger, long-term rewards, has been associated with maladaptive choices in gambling disorder (GD). Delay discounting is known to evolve with age; though no study to date has evaluated the interactions between impulsivity, GD severity and age in treatment-seeking patients. We aimed to examine whether associations between delay discounting and impulsivity traits differed between younger and older-aged GD patients. Secondly, we sought to untangle the mediating role of impulsivity in determining gambling behavior in these two age groups. GD patients (N=335) were evaluated using the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale and a delay discounting task. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to explore associations between impulsivity measures and gambling severity in young (18-30years) and old (31-70) GD patients. No differences in delay discounting were found between young and old GD patients. Significant correlations between delay discounting and urgency levels (the tendency to act rashly under emotional states) were identified only in the young GD group. Path analyses also revealed both positive and negative urgency to be a mediator of GD severity levels in young GD patients. Significant associations between impulsive choice and positive urgency are only present in young gamblers, suggesting that positive urgency influence choice behavior to a greater degree at younger ages. Implications for targeted interventions are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Energy Partitioning of Seismic Phases: Current Datasets and Techniques Aimed at Improving the Future of Event Identification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonner, J.

2006-05-01

Differences in energy partitioning of seismic phases from earthquakes and explosions provide the opportunity for event identification. In this talk, I will briefly review teleseismic Ms:mb and P/S ratio techniques that help identify events based on differences in compressional, shear, and surface wave energy generation from explosions and earthquakes. With the push to identify smaller yield explosions, the identification process has become increasingly complex as varied types of explosions, including chemical, mining, and nuclear, must be identified at regional distances. Thus, I will highlight some of the current views and problems associated with the energy partitioning of seismic phases from single- and delay-fired chemical explosions. One problem yet to have a universally accepted answer is whether the explosion and earthquake populations, based on the Ms:mb discriminants, should be separated at smaller magnitudes. I will briefly describe the datasets and theory that support either converging or parallel behavior of these populations. Also, I will discuss improvement to the currently used methods that will better constrain this problem in the future. I will also discuss the role of regional P/S ratios in identifying explosions. In particular, recent datasets from South Africa, Scandinavia, and the Western United States collected from earthquakes, single-fired chemical explosions, and/or delay-fired mining explosions have provide new insight into regional P, S, Lg, and Rg energy partitioning. Data from co-located mining and chemical explosions suggest that some mining explosions may be used for limited calibration of regional discriminants in regions where no historic explosion data is available.

Observer design for compensation of network-induced delays in integrated communication and control systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Luck, R.; Ray, A.

1988-01-01

A method for compensating the effects of network-induced delays in integrated communication and control systems (ICCS) is proposed, and a finite-dimensional time-invariant ICCS model is developed. The problem of analyzing systems with time-varying and stochastic delays is circumvented by the application of a deterministic observer. For the case of controller-to-actuator delays, the observed design must rely on an extended model which represents the delays as additional states.

Drawing Conclusions: Confusion between Data and Theory in the Traumatic Memory Debate

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Silberg, Joyanna

2003-01-01

This paper examines one of the chief problems in the ongoing debate about the nature and prevalence of the various memory mechanisms that may operate in determining whether a victim/survivor of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) will have delayed recall of the victimization. One of the key problems in the debate about delayed or suppressed memory of…

24-Month-Olds Use Conceptual Similarity to Solve New Problems after a Delay

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayne, Harlene; Gross, Julien

2015-01-01

In this experiment, we used the deferred imitation paradigm to assess 24-month-olds' ability to use conceptual similarity to solve new problems after a delay. Infants in the experimental condition participated in four sessions that were each separated by 24 h. In Session 1, the experimenter modeled three target actions using one set of stimuli and…

Understanding consumer decisions using behavioral economics.

PubMed

Zandstra, Elizabeth H; Miyapuram, Krishna P; Tobler, Philippe N

2013-01-01

Consumers make many decisions in everyday life involving finances, food, and health. It is known from behavioral economics research that people are often driven by short-term gratification, that is, people tend to choose the immediate, albeit smaller reward. But choosing the delayed reward, that is, delaying the gratification, can actually be beneficial. How can we motivate consumers to resist the "now" and invest in their future, leading to sustainable or healthy habits? We review recent developments from behavioral and neuroimaging studies that are relevant for understanding consumer decisions. Further, we present results from our field research that examined whether we can increase the perceived value of a (delayed) environmental benefit using tailored communication, that is, change the way it is framed. More specifically, we investigated whether we can boost the value of an abstract, long-term "green" claim of a product by expressing it as a concrete, short-term benefit. This is a new application area for behavioral economics. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A variation of noncontingent reinforcement in the treatment of aberrant behavior.

PubMed

Britton, L N; Carr, J E; Kellum, K K; Dozier, C L; Weil, T M

2000-01-01

We examined the effectiveness of a variation of noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) that incorporated a stimulus-delay procedure in the reduction of aberrant behavior maintained by positive reinforcement. Functional analyses for three individuals diagnosed with developmental disabilities indicated that their behaviors were maintained by positive reinforcement: one in the form of access to a tangible item, another by attention, and the third by physical contact. We implemented NCR with the delay procedure with two participants using reversal designs to evaluate effects. We also compared this NCR variation and DRO with the third participant to evaluate reinforcer-delivery rates. The variation of NCR was successful in reducing all aberrant behavior to near-zero levels. A comparison of reinforcer delivery between NCR with the stimulus-delay procedure and DRO demonstrated that the participant accessed more reinforcement with NCR. Results are discussed in the context of enhancing decelerative interventions with emphases on minimizing response effort for caregivers and maximizing access to reinforcement for the individuals.

Impatience and Grades: Delay-Discount Rates Correlate Negatively with College Gpa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirby, K.N.; Winston, G.C.; Santiesteban, M.

2005-01-01

Because the rewards of academic performance in college are often delayed, the delay-discounting model of impulsiveness (Ainslie (1975) [Ainslie, G. Specious reward: A behavioral theory of impulsiveness and impulse control. Psychological Bulletin, 82 (4), 463-496] predicts that academic performance should tend to decrease as people place less…

Validity of False Belief Tasks in Blind Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brambring, Michael; Asbrock, Doreen

2010-01-01

Previous studies have reported that congenitally blind children without any additional impairment reveal a developmental delay of at least 4 years in perspective taking based on testing first-order false-belief tasks. These authors interpret this delay as a sign of autism-like behavior. However, the delay may be caused by testing blind children…

Effects of a Social Story Intervention with a Modified Perspective Sentence on Preschool-Age Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krasch, Delilah Jean

2013-01-01

Young children with autism often experience delays in social skills and social competence. These delays result in poor relationships and decreased social interactions and engagement, and eventually, social isolation and withdrawal. Social skills deficits are also correlated to behavioral and emotional difficulties. Addressing these delays is…

Pramipexole-induced disruption of behavioral processes fundamental to intertemporal choice.

PubMed

Johnson, Patrick S; Stein, Jeffrey S; Smits, Rochelle R; Madden, Gregory J

2013-05-01

Evaluating the effects of presession drug administration on intertemporal choice in nonhumans is a useful approach for identifying compounds that promote impulsive behavior in clinical populations, such as those prescribed the dopamine agonist pramipexole (PPX). Based on the results of previous studies, it is unclear whether PPX increases rats' impulsive choice or attenuates aspects of stimulus control. The present study was designed to experimentally isolate behavioral processes fundamental to intertemporal choice and challenge them pharmacologically with PPX administration. In Experiment 1, the hypothesis that PPX increases impulsive choice as a result of enhanced sensitivity to reinforcer delays was tested and disconfirmed. That is, acute PPX diminished delay sensitivity in a manner consistent with disruption of stimulus control whereas repeated PPX had no effect on delay sensitivity. Experiments 2 and 3 elaborated upon this finding by examining the effects of repeated PPX on rats' discrimination of response-reinforcer contingencies and reinforcer amounts, respectively. Accuracy of both discriminations was reduced by PPX. Collectively these results provide no support for past studies that have suggested PPX increases impulsive choice. Instead, PPX impairs stimulus control over choice behavior. The behavioral approach adopted herein could be profitably integrated with genetic and other biobehavioral models to advance our understanding of impulsive behavior associated with drug administration. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

How long do the short-term violent video game effects last?

PubMed

Barlett, Christopher; Branch, Omar; Rodeheffer, Christopher; Harris, Richard

2009-01-01

How long do the effects of the initial short-term increase in aggression and physiological arousal last after violent video game play? Study 1 (N=91) had participants complete pre- and postvideo game measures of aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings, and heart rate. Then, participants completed Time 3 measures after 4 min or 9 min of delay. Study 2 employed a similar procedure, but had participants (N=91) complete the hot sauce paradigm to assess aggressive behavior after a 0, 5, or 10 min delay. First, results indicated that aggressive feelings, aggressive thoughts, aggressive behavior, and heart rate initially increased after violent video game play. Second, results of the delay condition revealed that the increase in aggressive feelings and aggressive thoughts lasted less than 4 min, whereas heart rate and aggressive behavior lasted 4-9 min. Copyright 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Trait impulsivity and change in mental health problems after violent crime victimization: a prospective analysis of the dutch longitudinal internet studies for the social sciences database.

PubMed

Kunst, Maarten; Van Wilsem, Johan

2013-05-01

Violent crime victimization can have serious mental health consequences, but what it is that makes victims at risk of mental health problems or delayed recovery from such problems is largely unknown. Previous research has focused on, amongst other things, the disabling impact of personality factors involved in the regulation of emotions. Using data from the Dutch Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences (LISS) panel (n = 2628), this study explored whether the association between violent crime victimization and change in mental health problems over a 1-year time span also varies by trait impulsivity (TI)--a personality factor involved in regulating behavior. TI may serve as a risk factor for mental health problems, but research into this topic is scarce and inconsistent. Results suggested that low TI subjects are prone to experience an increase in mental health problems following victimization. As a possible explanation for this finding, it was speculated that subjects with low TI do not perceive themselves at risk of victimization and thus see this positive assumption shattered when victimization does occur. Results were further discussed in terms of study limitations and strengths and implications for future research.

Minimizing the Delay at Traffic Lights

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Hecke, Tanja

2009-01-01

Vehicles holding at traffic lights is a typical queuing problem. At crossings the vehicles experience delay in both directions. Longer periods with green lights in one direction are disadvantageous for the vehicles coming from the other direction. The total delay for getting through the traffic point is what counts. This article presents an…

Periodic or chaotic bursting dynamics via delayed pitchfork bifurcation in a slow-varying controlled system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Yue; Zhang, Zhengdi; Han, Xiujing

2018-03-01

In this work, we aim to demonstrate the novel routes to periodic and chaotic bursting, i.e., the different bursting dynamics via delayed pitchfork bifurcations around stable attractors, in the classical controlled Lü system. First, by computing the corresponding characteristic polynomial, we determine where some critical values about bifurcation behaviors appear in the Lü system. Moreover, the transition mechanism among different stable attractors has been introduced including homoclinic-type connections or chaotic attractors. Secondly, taking advantage of the above analytical results, we carry out a study of the mechanism for bursting dynamics in the Lü system with slowly periodic variation of certain control parameter. A distinct delayed supercritical pitchfork bifurcation behavior can be discussed when the control item passes through bifurcation points periodically. This delayed dynamical behavior may terminate at different parameter areas, which leads to different spiking modes around different stable attractors (equilibriums, limit cycles, or chaotic attractors). In particular, the chaotic attractor may appear by Shilnikov connections or chaos boundary crisis, which leads to the occurrence of impressive chaotic bursting oscillations. Our findings enrich the study of bursting dynamics and deepen the understanding of some similar sorts of delayed bursting phenomena. Finally, some numerical simulations are included to illustrate the validity of our study.

A Preliminary Study of Bully and Victim Behavior in Old-for-Grade Students: Another Potential Hidden Cost of Grade Retention or Delayed School Entry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crothers, Laura M.; Schreiber, James B.; Schmitt, Ara J.; Bell, G. Ronald; Blasik, Jessica; Comstock, Leigh A.; Greisler, Michael J.; Keener, Dana; King, Jamie M.; Lipinski, John

2010-01-01

Mounting evidence suggests that being an old-for-grade student, as a result of grade retention or delayed school entry, is related to negative outcomes across various domains of functioning. No known study has examined the relations between old-for-grade status and specific childhood/adolescent bully and victim behaviors. The first purpose of this…

Prelinguistic Behavior of Infants of Assisted Reproductive Techniques

PubMed Central

Noori, Soudabeh; Nedaeifard, Leila; Agarasouli, Zahra; Koohpaiehzadeh, Jalil; Kermani, Ramin Mozafari; Fazeli, Abolhasan Shahzadeh

2012-01-01

Objective The aim of this study is assessment of effects of different assisted reproductive techniques (ART) like in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) on prelinguistic behavior of infants conceived by these techniques. Methods In this descriptive, cross sectional study, prelinguistic behavior of 151 full term ART infants of Royan Institute have been assessed in Children's Health and Development Research Center of Tehran from August 2007 until August 2009. Questionnaires were completed by parents at 9 months old. The questionnaire was standard according to Early Language Milestone Scale-2 (ELM-2). Data were analyzed by SPSS version 16 and using chi-square test. Findings Twenty-two (14.5%) of infants were conceived by IVF and 129 (85.4%) by ICSI. Number of infants with delay in reduplicated babbling in ICSI method was more than in IVF. There was only a significant difference in echolalia delay in the two sexes. Echolalia was delayed more in boys. Delay of reduplicated babbling was more in infants of younger mothers. There was no relation between speech and language defect of parents and infants. Conclusion This study showed that prelingustic behavior of ART infants are affected by kind of ART method, infant sex, and mother's age at the time of pregnancy. PMID:23431035

Engineering Sensorial Delay to Control Phototaxis and Emergent Collective Behaviors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mijalkov, Mite; McDaniel, Austin; Wehr, Jan; Volpe, Giovanni

2016-01-01

Collective motions emerging from the interaction of autonomous mobile individuals play a key role in many phenomena, from the growth of bacterial colonies to the coordination of robotic swarms. For these collective behaviors to take hold, the individuals must be able to emit, sense, and react to signals. When dealing with simple organisms and robots, these signals are necessarily very elementary; e.g., a cell might signal its presence by releasing chemicals and a robot by shining light. An additional challenge arises because the motion of the individuals is often noisy; e.g., the orientation of cells can be altered by Brownian motion and that of robots by an uneven terrain. Therefore, the emphasis is on achieving complex and tunable behaviors from simple autonomous agents communicating with each other in robust ways. Here, we show that the delay between sensing and reacting to a signal can determine the individual and collective long-term behavior of autonomous agents whose motion is intrinsically noisy. We experimentally demonstrate that the collective behavior of a group of phototactic robots capable of emitting a radially decaying light field can be tuned from segregation to aggregation and clustering by controlling the delay with which they change their propulsion speed in response to the light intensity they measure. We track this transition to the underlying dynamics of this system, in particular, to the ratio between the robots' sensorial delay time and the characteristic time of the robots' random reorientation. Supported by numerics, we discuss how the same mechanism can be applied to control active agents, e.g., airborne drones, moving in a three-dimensional space. Given the simplicity of this mechanism, the engineering of sensorial delay provides a potentially powerful tool to engineer and dynamically tune the behavior of large ensembles of autonomous mobile agents; furthermore, this mechanism might already be at work within living organisms such as chemotactic cells.

Longitudinal Outcomes of Start Time Delay on Sleep, Behavior, and Achievement in High School

PubMed Central

Thacher, Pamela V.; Onyper, Serge V.

2016-01-01

Study Objectives: To establish whether sleep, health, mood, behavior, and academics improved after a 45-minute delay in high school start time, and whether changes persisted longitudinally. Methods: We collected data from school records and student self-report across a number of domains at baseline (May 2012) and at two follow-up time points (November 2012 and May 2013), at a public high school in upstate New York. Students enrolled during academic years (AY) 2011–2012 and 2012–2013 completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; the DASS-21; the “Owl-Lark” Scale; the Daytime Sleepiness Index; and a brief self-report of health. Reports from school records regarding attendance, tardiness, disciplinary violations, and academic performance were collected for AY 2010–2011 through 2013–2014. Results: Students delayed but did not extend their sleep period; we found lasting improvements in tardiness and disciplinary violations after the start-time delay, but no changes to other variables. At the first follow-up, students reported 20 minutes longer sleep, driven by later rise times and stable bed times. At the second follow-up, students maintained later rise times but delayed bedtimes, returning total sleep to baseline levels. A delay in rise time, paralleling the delay in the start time that occurred, resulted in less tardiness and decreased disciplinary incidents, but larger improvements to sleep patterns may be necessary to affect health, attendance, sleepiness, and academic performance. Conclusions: Later start times improved tardiness and disciplinary issues at this school district. A delay in start time may be a necessary but not sufficient means to increase sleep time and may depend on preexisting individual differences. Commentary: A commentary on this article appears in this issue on page 267. Citation: Thacher PV, Onyper SV. Longitudinal outcomes of start time delay on sleep, behavior, and achievement in high school. SLEEP 2016;39(2):271–281. PMID:26446106

Pathways from neurocognitive vulnerability to co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems among women with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder followed prospectively for 16 years.

PubMed

Owens, Elizabeth B; Hinshaw, Stephen P

2016-11-01

Using a sample of 228 females with and without childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder followed prospectively across 16 years, we measured childhood neurocognitive vulnerability via executive dysfunction using teacher-reported cognitive and learning problems. We then ascertained relations between dimensionally measured internalizing and externalizing psychopathology during adulthood and showed that childhood neurocognitive vulnerability reliably predicted such associated psychopathology. We identified six serial mediation pathways from childhood neurocognitive vulnerability to adult psychopathology through three early- and late-adolescent domains: individual (self-control and delay of gratification), peer (rejection/conflict and acceptance/friendship), and school (academic performance and school failure). The serial indirect effects occurred for the pathways from childhood neurocognitive vulnerability through early-adolescent academic performance, to late-adolescent school failure, to adult associated psychopathology, and from neurocognitive vulnerability through adolescent self-control and then the ability to delay gratification, to adult psychopathology. Furthermore, these indirect effects, plus two others, were moderated by parental distress during childhood and early adolescence, such that under conditions of high distress, the serial indirect effects were weaker than when parental distress was low. We discuss the potential importance of behavioral self-regulation and educational success for later psychological functioning, especially among girls, as well as implications for ontogenic process models of psychopathology.

Clinical Factors and Disease Course Related to Diagnostic Delay in Korean Crohn's Disease Patients: Results from the CONNECT Study.

PubMed

Moon, Chang Mo; Jung, Sung-Ae; Kim, Seong-Eun; Song, Hyun Joo; Jung, Yunho; Ye, Byong Duk; Cheon, Jae Hee; Kim, You Sun; Kim, Young-Ho; Kim, Joo Sung; Han, Dong Soo

2015-01-01

Diagnostic delay frequently occurs in Crohn's disease (CD) patients because of diagnostic limitations. However, diagnostic delay and its related factors remain poorly defined. Therefore, we aimed to identify the predictors associated with diagnostic delay and to evaluate the impact of diagnostic delay on clinical course in a Korean CD patient cohort. We performed a multicenter retrospective analysis of 1,047 CD patients registered in the Crohn's Disease Clinical Network and Cohort study in Korea. The mean interval of diagnostic delay was 16.0 ± 33.1 months. Multivariate analysis showed that older age at diagnosis (≥40 years) (p = 0.014), concomitant upper gastrointestinal (UGI) disease (p = 0.012) and penetrating disease behavior at diagnosis (p = 0.001) were positively associated with long diagnostic delay (≥18 months). During the longitudinal follow-up, long diagnostic delay was independently predictive of further development of intestinal stenosis (hazard ratio [HR], 1.43; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07-1.93; p = 0.017), internal fistulas (HR, 1.62; 95% CI, 1.12-2.33; p = 0.011), and perianal fistulas (HR, 1.38; 95% CI, 1.06-1.80; p = 0.016). However, as for the risk of abscess formation, bowel perforation, and CD-related abdominal surgery, no significant association with diagnostic delay was observed. Older age at diagnosis, UGI involvement, and penetrating behavior are associated with long diagnostic delay in Korean CD patients. Moreover, diagnostic delay is associated with an increased risk of CD-related complications such as intestinal stenosis, internal fistulas, and perianal fistulas.

The influence of spirituality and religiosity on breast cancer screening delay in African American women: application of the Theory of Reasoned Action and Planned Behavior (TRA/TPB).

PubMed

Gullate, Mary

2006-01-01

African American women (AAW) are 25% more likely to present with late stage breast cancer and 20% more likely to die from their disease than Caucasian women. Researchers report that a treatment delay of 3 months is a significant factor in breast cancer mortality. Socioeconomic factors, lack of access and knowledge, spiritual and religious beliefs, fear and fatalism are reported as contributing factors to screening delays. Studies have primarily applied the Health Belief Model (HBM) and modified versions like the Champion HBM to preventive health practices. Neither have significant inclusion of spirituality or religiosity. The TRA/TPB focus on beliefs, intent and attitude as individual determinants of the likelihood of performing a specific behavior; but have not had wide utility in studies related to screening delays among AAW. This paper explores the utility of applying the TRA/TPB as the theoretical framework for determining cultural relevance of spirituality and religiosity to screening delays among AAW.

Biphasic Effects of Alcohol on Delay and Probability Discounting

PubMed Central

Bidwell, L. Cinnamon; MacKillop, James; Murphy, James G.; Grenga, Andrea; Swift, Robert M.; McGeary, John E.

2014-01-01

Delay discounting and probability discounting are behavioral economic indices of impulsive and risky decision making that have been associated with addictive behavior, but the acute biphasic effects of alcohol on these decision-making processes are not well understood. This study sought to investigate the biphasic effects of alcohol on delay and probability discounting across the ascending and descending limbs of the breath alcohol concentration (BAC) curve, which are respectively characterized by the stimulant and sedative effects of alcohol. Delay and probability discounting were measured at four time points (Baseline, Ascending, Descending, and Endpoint) across the BAC curve at two target alcohol doses (40 mg/dl and 80 mg/dl) in healthy adults (N = 23 and 27, for both doses, respectively). There was no significant effect of alcohol on delay discounting at either dose. Alcohol significantly affected probability discounting, such that reduced discounting for uncertain rewards was evident during the descending limb of the BAC curve at the lower dose (p<.05) and during both the ascending and descending limb of the BAC curve at the higher dose (p<.05). Thus, alcohol resulted in increased risky decision making, particularly during the descending limb which is primarily characterized by the sedative effects of alcohol. These findings suggest that the biphasic effects of alcohol across the ascending and descending limbs of the BAC have differential effects on behavior related to decision-making for probabilistic, but not delayed, rewards. Parallels to and distinctions from previous findings are discussed. PMID:23750692

[Behavioral and cognitive profile of corpus callosum agenesia - Review].

PubMed

Lábadi, Beatrix; Beke, Anna Maria

2016-11-30

Agenesis of corpus callosum is a relatively frequent congenital cerebral malformation including dysplasia, total or partial absence of corpus callosum. The agenesis of corpus callosum can be occured in isolated form without accompanying somatic or central nervous system abnormalities and it can be associated with other central nervus system malformations. The behavioral and cognitive outcome is more favorable for patients with isolated agenesis of corpus callous than syndromic form of corpus callosum. The aim of this study is to review recent research on behavioral and social-cognitive functions in individuals with agenesis of corpus callosum. Developmental delay is common especially in higher-order cognitive and social functions. An internet database search was performed to identify publications on the subject. Fifty-five publications in English corresponded to the criteria. These studies reported deficits in language, social cognition and emotions in individuals with agenesis of corpus callosum which is known as primary corpus callous syndrome. The results indicate that individuals with agenesis of corpus callosum have deficiency in social-cognitive domain (recognition of emotions, weakness in paralinguistic aspects of language and mentalizing abilities). The impaired social cognition can be manifested in behavioral problems like autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Improved work zone design guidelines and enhanced model of travel delays in work zones : Phase I, portability and scalability of interarrival and service time probability distribution functions for different locations in Ohio and the establishment of impr

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2006-01-01

Problem: Work zones on heavily traveled divided highways present problems to motorists in the form of traffic delays and increased accident risks due to sometimes reduced motorist guidance, dense traffic, and other driving difficulties. To minimize t...

The Effects of Inflation and Interest Rates on Delay Discounting in Human Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kawashima, Kentaro

2006-01-01

Interest and inflation rates may be major determinants of delay discounting, but these variables have not been controlled in past experiments because they depend on macroeconomic conditions. This study uses a computer game-like task to investigate the effects of inflation rates on people's subjective valuation of delayed rewards. During the task,…

Changing Delay Discounting in the Light of the Competing Neurobehavioral Decision Systems Theory: A Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koffarnus, Mikhail N.; Jarmolowicz, David P.; Mueller, E. Terry; Bickel, Warren K.

2013-01-01

Excessively devaluing delayed reinforcers co-occurs with a wide variety of clinical conditions such as drug dependence, obesity, and excessive gambling. If excessive delay discounting is a trans-disease process that underlies the choice behavior leading to these and other negative health conditions, efforts to change an individual's discount rate…

Delay of Gratification in Two- and Three-Year-Olds: Associations with Attachment, Personality, and Temperament

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mittal, Renu; Russell, Beth S.; Britner, Preston A.; Peake, Philip K.

2013-01-01

Delay of gratification in young children has been linked to long-term behavioral and academic outcomes. This study explored temperament, personality, and child-parent attachment as possible associates of delay ability. The sample consisted of 50 2- and 3-year-old children and their primary caregivers. Two laboratory tasks, the Preschool Strange…

Infant and Maternal Sensitivity to Interpersonal Timing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henning, Anne; Striano, Tricia

2011-01-01

A perturbation paradigm was employed to assess 3- and 6-month-old infants' and their mothers' sensitivity to a 3-s temporal delay implemented in an ongoing televised interaction. At both ages, the temporal delay affected infant but not maternal behavior and only when implementing the temporal delay in maternal (Experiment 1, N = 64) but not infant…

Experimental verification of arm-locking for LISA using electronic phase delay [rapid communication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thorpe, J. I.; Mueller, G.

2005-07-01

We present results of an electronic model of arm-locking, a proposed technique for reducing the laser phase noise in the laser interferometer space antenna (LISA). The model is based on a delay of 500 ms, achieved using the electronic phase delay (EPD) method. The observed behavior is consistent with predictions.

Stability and Bifurcation Analysis in a Maglev System with Multiple Delays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Lingling; Huang, Jianhua; Huang, Lihong; Zhang, Zhizhou

This paper considers the time-delayed feedback control for Maglev system with two discrete time delays. We determine constraints on the feedback time delays which ensure the stability of the Maglev system. An algorithm is developed for drawing a two-parametric bifurcation diagram with respect to two delays τ1 and τ2. Direction and stability of periodic solutions are also determined using the normal form method and center manifold theory by Hassard. The complex dynamical behavior of the Maglev system near the domain of stability is confirmed by exhaustive numerical simulation.

Distributed Optimal Consensus Control for Multiagent Systems With Input Delay.

PubMed

Zhang, Huaipin; Yue, Dong; Zhao, Wei; Hu, Songlin; Dou, Chunxia; Huaipin Zhang; Dong Yue; Wei Zhao; Songlin Hu; Chunxia Dou; Hu, Songlin; Zhang, Huaipin; Dou, Chunxia; Yue, Dong; Zhao, Wei

2018-06-01

This paper addresses the problem of distributed optimal consensus control for a continuous-time heterogeneous linear multiagent system subject to time varying input delays. First, by discretization and model transformation, the continuous-time input-delayed system is converted into a discrete-time delay-free system. Two delicate performance index functions are defined for these two systems. It is shown that the performance index functions are equivalent and the optimal consensus control problem of the input-delayed system can be cast into that of the delay-free system. Second, by virtue of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equations, an optimal control policy for each agent is designed based on the delay-free system and a novel value iteration algorithm is proposed to learn the solutions to the HJB equations online. The proposed adaptive dynamic programming algorithm is implemented on the basis of a critic-action neural network (NN) structure. Third, it is proved that local consensus errors of the two systems and weight estimation errors of the critic-action NNs are uniformly ultimately bounded while the approximated control policies converge to their target values. Finally, two simulation examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the developed method.

Predictors of avoiding medical care and reasons for avoidance behavior.

PubMed

Kannan, Viji Diane; Veazie, Peter J

2014-04-01

Delayed medical care has negative health and economic consequences; interventions have focused on appraising symptoms, with limited success in reducing delay. To identify predictors of care avoidance and reasons for avoiding care. Using the Health Information National Trends Survey (2007), we conducted logistic regressions to identify predictors of avoiding medical visits deemed necessary by the respondents; and, we then conducted similar analyses on reasons given for avoidance behavior. Independent variables included geographic, demographic, socioeconomic, personal health, health behavior, health care system, and cognitive characteristics. Approximately one third of adults avoided doctor visits they had deemed necessary. Although unadjusted associations existed, avoiding needed care was not independently associated with geographic, demographic, and socioeconomic characteristics. Avoidance behavior is characterized by low health self-efficacy, less experience with both quality care and getting help with uncertainty about health, having your feelings attended to by your provider, no usual source of care, negative affect, smoking daily, and fatalistic attitude toward cancer. Reasons elicited for avoidance include preference for self-care or alternative care, dislike or distrust of doctors, fear or dislike of medical treatments, time, and money; respondents also endorsed discomfort with body examinations, fear of having a serious illness, and thoughts of dying. Distinct predictors distinguish each of these reasons. Interventions to reduce patient delay could be improved by addressing the health-related behavioral, belief, experiential, and emotional traits associated with delay. Attention should also be directed toward the interpersonal communications between patients and providers.

Clinical characteristic and risk factors of recurrent sexual abuse and delayed reported sexual abuse in childhood.

PubMed

Hu, Mei-Hua; Huang, Go-Shine; Huang, Jing-Long; Wu, Chang-Teng; Chao, An-Shine; Lo, Fu-Sung; Wu, Han-Ping

2018-04-01

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a global problem that affects children of all ages, and the evaluation of these victims by psychologic and gynecologic experts in pediatric emergency departments is an important issue. Few data are available on the characteristics of children admitted to pediatric emergency department with recurrent CSA and delayed reported CSA. The aim of the present study was to describe the clinical features of, and risk factors for, recurrent CSA and delayed reported CSA. The study retrospectively analyzed victims of CSA who were admitted to a pediatric emergency department. Chi-square tests and univariate analyses were performed to assess the risk factors of recurrent or delayed reported CSA. Of the 91 CSA cases, 32 (35.2%) were recurrent assaults. Of the 70 cases recorded the duration of the event, 22 (31.4%) were delayed report cases. Comparisons of the non-recurrent and recurrent CSA assault groups revealed a significant increase in comorbidities (odds ratio [OR]: 4.46, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.54-12.93), acute psychiatric problems (OR: 3.18, CI: 1.26-8.06), attempted suicide (OR: 4.23, CI: 1.28-13.99), and the need for treatment with antipsychotic medications (OR: 5.57, CI: 1.37-22.65). Compared with non-delayed reported cases, the delay reported cases of CSA were significantly more likely to have anxiety (P < .05). The CSA victims in the present study exhibited acute medical and/or psychosocial problems, which indicate that pediatric emergency professionals have a responsibility to look for and recognize particular characteristics in these victims.

Synchronization in networks with heterogeneous coupling delays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Otto, Andreas; Radons, Günter; Bachrathy, Dániel; Orosz, Gábor

2018-01-01

Synchronization in networks of identical oscillators with heterogeneous coupling delays is studied. A decomposition of the network dynamics is obtained by block diagonalizing a newly introduced adjacency lag operator which contains the topology of the network as well as the corresponding coupling delays. This generalizes the master stability function approach, which was developed for homogenous delays. As a result the network dynamics can be analyzed by delay differential equations with distributed delay, where different delay distributions emerge for different network modes. Frequency domain methods are used for the stability analysis of synchronized equilibria and synchronized periodic orbits. As an example, the synchronization behavior in a system of delay-coupled Hodgkin-Huxley neurons is investigated. It is shown that the parameter regions where synchronized periodic spiking is unstable expand when increasing the delay heterogeneity.

Effects of intrinsic stochasticity on delayed reaction-diffusion patterning systems.

PubMed

Woolley, Thomas E; Baker, Ruth E; Gaffney, Eamonn A; Maini, Philip K; Seirin-Lee, Sungrim

2012-05-01

Cellular gene expression is a complex process involving many steps, including the transcription of DNA and translation of mRNA; hence the synthesis of proteins requires a considerable amount of time, from ten minutes to several hours. Since diffusion-driven instability has been observed to be sensitive to perturbations in kinetic delays, the application of Turing patterning mechanisms to the problem of producing spatially heterogeneous differential gene expression has been questioned. In deterministic systems a small delay in the reactions can cause a large increase in the time it takes a system to pattern. Recently, it has been observed that in undelayed systems intrinsic stochasticity can cause pattern initiation to occur earlier than in the analogous deterministic simulations. Here we are interested in adding both stochasticity and delays to Turing systems in order to assess whether stochasticity can reduce the patterning time scale in delayed Turing systems. As analytical insights to this problem are difficult to attain and often limited in their use, we focus on stochastically simulating delayed systems. We consider four different Turing systems and two different forms of delay. Our results are mixed and lead to the conclusion that, although the sensitivity to delays in the Turing mechanism is not completely removed by the addition of intrinsic noise, the effects of the delays are clearly ameliorated in certain specific cases.

Integrating biology, field logistics, and simulations to optimize parameter estimation for imperiled species

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lanier, Wendy E.; Bailey, Larissa L.; Muths, Erin L.

2016-01-01

Conservation of imperiled species often requires knowledge of vital rates and population dynamics. However, these can be difficult to estimate for rare species and small populations. This problem is further exacerbated when individuals are not available for detection during some surveys due to limited access, delaying surveys and creating mismatches between the breeding behavior and survey timing. Here we use simulations to explore the impacts of this issue using four hypothetical boreal toad (Anaxyrus boreas boreas) populations, representing combinations of logistical access (accessible, inaccessible) and breeding behavior (synchronous, asynchronous). We examine the bias and precision of survival and breeding probability estimates generated by survey designs that differ in effort and timing for these populations. Our findings indicate that the logistical access of a site and mismatch between the breeding behavior and survey design can greatly limit the ability to yield accurate and precise estimates of survival and breeding probabilities. Simulations similar to what we have performed can help researchers determine an optimal survey design(s) for their system before initiating sampling efforts.

Intensive Quality Assurance of Therapist Adherence to Behavioral Interventions for Adolescent Substance Use Problems.

PubMed

Holth, Per; Torsheim, Torbjørn; Sheidow, Ashli J; Ogden, Terje; Henggeler, Scott W

2011-01-01

This study was a crosscultural replication of a study that investigated therapist adherence to behavioral interventions as a result of an intensive quality assurance system which was integrated into Multisystemic Therapy. Thirty-three therapists and eight supervisors participated in the study and were block randomized to either an Intensive Quality Assurance or a Workshop Only condition. Twenty-one of these therapists treated 41 cannabis-abusing adolescents and their families. Therapist adherence and youth drug screens were collected during a five-month baseline period prior to the workshop on contingency management and during 12 months post workshop. The results replicated the previous finding that therapist adherence to the cognitive-behavioral interventions, but not to contingency management, showed a strong positive difference in trend in favor of the intensive quality assurance condition. While the clinical impact of such quality assurance may be delayed and remains to be demonstrated, cannabis abstinence increased as a function of time in therapy, and was more likely with stronger therapy adherence to contingency management, but did not differ across quality assurance interventions.

Extended child and caregiver benefits of behavior-based child contingency learning games.

PubMed

Dunst, Carl J; Raab, Melinda; Trivette, Carol M; Wilson, Linda L; Hamby, Deborah W; Parkey, Cindy

2010-08-01

Findings from 2 studies of the relationship between response-contingent child behavior and child, caregiver-child, and caregiver behavior not directly associated with child contingency learning are described. The participants were 19 children with significant developmental delays and their mothers in 1 study and 22 children with significant developmental delays and their teachers in the second study. Caregivers engaged the children in learning games characterized by behavior-based contingencies for 15 weeks. Research staff observed the children and their caregivers in everyday routines and activities and rated child and caregiver behavior while the children and caregivers were not playing the games. Results from both studies showed that the degree of response-contingent responding during the games was related to child and caregiver behavior, not the focus of the contingency learning opportunities afforded the children. Implications for practice are described.

Study of Relationship Between Illness Perception and Delay in Seeking Help for Breast Cancer Patients Based on Leventhal's Self-Regulation Model.

PubMed

Attari, Seyedeh Maryam; Ozgoli, Giti; Solhi, Mahnaz; Alavi Majd, Hamid

2016-01-01

One of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in breast cancer patients is delay in seeking help. Leventhal's self-regulation model provides an appropriate framework to assess delay in seeking help. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between "illness perception" and "help seeking delay" in breast cancer patients based on Leventhal's self-regulation model. In this correlational descriptive study with convenience sampling conducted in 2013, participants were 120 women with breast cancer who were diagnosed in the last year and referred to chemotherapy and radiotherapy centers in Rasht, Iran. Data collection scales included demographic data, Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R)and a researcher made questionnaire to measure the delay in seeking help. Pre-hospital delay (help seeking delay) was evaluated in 3 phases (assessment, disease, behavior). The data were analyzed using SPSS-19. The mean (SD) age calculated for the patients was 47.3±10.2. Some 43% of the patients had a high school or higher education level and 82% were married. The "pre-hospital delay" was reported ≥3 months. Logistic regression analysis showed that none of the illness perception components were correlated with appraisal and behavioral delay phases. In the illness delay phase, "time line" (p-value =0.04) and "risk factors"(p-value=0.03) had significant effects on reducing and "psychological attributions" had significant effects on increasing the delay (p-value =0.01). "Illness coherence" was correlated with decreased pre-hospital patient delay (p-value<0.01). Women's perceptions of breast cancer influences delay in seeking help. In addition to verifying the validity of Leventhal's self-regulation model in explaining delay in seeking help, the results signify the importance of the "illness delay phase" (decision to seek help) and educational interventions-counseling for women in the community.

Direct SQP-methods for solving optimal control problems with delays

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Goellmann, L.; Bueskens, C.; Maurer, H.

The maximum principle for optimal control problems with delays leads to a boundary value problem (BVP) which is retarded in the state and advanced in the costate function. Based on shooting techniques, solution methods for this type of BVP have been proposed. In recent years, direct optimization methods have been favored for solving control problems without delays. Direct methods approximate the control and the state over a fixed mesh and solve the resulting NLP-problem with SQP-methods. These methods dispense with the costate function and have shown to be robust and efficient. In this paper, we propose a direct SQP-method formore » retarded control problems. In contrast to conventional direct methods, only the control variable is approximated by e.g. spline-functions. The state is computed via a high order Runge-Kutta type algorithm and does not enter explicitly the NLP-problem through an equation. This approach reduces the number of optimization variables considerably and is implementable even on a PC. Our method is illustrated by the numerical solution of retarded control problems with constraints. In particular, we consider the control of a continuous stirred tank reactor which has been solved by dynamic programming. This example illustrates the robustness and efficiency of the proposed method. Open questions concerning sufficient conditions and convergence of discretized NLP-problems are discussed.« less

Air Traffic Control: Economics of Flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murphy, James R.

2004-01-01

Contents include the following: 1. Commercial flight is a partnership. Airlines. Pilots. Air traffic control. 2. Airline schedules and weather problems can cause delays at the airport. Delays are inevitable in de-regulated industry due to simple economics. 3.Delays can be mitigated. Build more runways/technology. Increase airspace supply. 4. Cost/benefit analysis determine justification.

Complex Word Reading in Dutch Deaf Children and Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van Hoogmoed, Anne H.; Knoors, Harry; Schreuder, Robert; Verhoeven, Ludo

2013-01-01

Children who are deaf are often delayed in reading comprehension. This delay could be due to problems in morphological processing during word reading. In this study, we investigated whether 6th grade deaf children and adults are delayed in comparison to their hearing peers in reading complex derivational words and compounds compared to…

Small-Scale Hydroelectric Power in the Southwest: New Impetus for an old Energy Source

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1980-06-01

A forum was provided for state legislators and other interested persons to discuss the problems facing small scale hydro developers, and to recommend appropriate solutions to resolve those problems. Alternative policy options were recommended for consideration by both state and federal agencies. Emphasis was placed on the legal, institutional, environmental and economic barriers at the state level, as well as the federal delays associated with licensing small scale hydro projects. Legislative resolution of the problems and delays in small scale hydro licensing and development were also stressed.

Salivary Alpha Amylase and Cortisol Levels in Children with Global Developmental Delay and Their Relation with the Expectation of Dental Care and Behavior during the Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

dos Santos, Marcio Jose Possari; Bernabe, Daniel Galera; Nakamune, Ana Claudia de Melo Stevanato; Perri, Silvia Helena Venturoli; de Aguiar, Sandra Maria Herondina Coelho Avila; de Oliveira, Sandra Helena Penha

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to analyze the alpha-amylase (sAA) and cortisol levels in children with Global developmental delay (GDD) before and after dental treatment and its association with the children's behavior during treatment. The morning salivary cortisol levels and activity of sAA of 33 children with GDD were evaluated before and after…

The amount effect and marginal value.

PubMed

Rachlin, Howard; Arfer, Kodi B; Safin, Vasiliy; Yen, Ming

2015-07-01

The amount effect of delay discounting (by which the value of larger reward amounts is discounted by delay at a lower rate than that of smaller amounts) strictly implies that value functions (value as a function of amount) are steeper at greater delays than they are at lesser delays. That is, the amount effect and the difference in value functions at different delays are actually a single empirical finding. Amount effects of delay discounting are typically found with choice experiments. Value functions for immediate rewards have been empirically obtained by direct judgment. (Value functions for delayed rewards have not been previously obtained.) The present experiment obtained value functions for both immediate and delayed rewards by direct judgment and found them to be steeper when the rewards were delayed--hence, finding an amount effect with delay discounting. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

[Dental treatment under general anaesthesia in young children].

PubMed

Oomens, M A E-M; Booij, L H D; Baart, J A

2016-05-01

General anaesthesia in children younger than 4 years of age can cause brain damage with cognitive and behavioral problems as a result. The chance of these side effects is small, but increases with prolonged duration of the anaesthesia or when the general anaesthesia is provided more frequently. It goes without saying that the indication for anaesthesia should be very strictly set. In order to reduce the chance of damage, the anaesthesia itself should be performed in consultation between the anaesthesiologist and care provider, according to a set protocol. The parents need to be informed of the potential risks of general anaesthesia. Delayed treatment (and thereby provision of the anaesthesia) should be considered.

Delay discounting and response disinhibition under acute experimental stress in women with borderline personality disorder and adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

PubMed

Krause-Utz, A; Cackowski, S; Daffner, S; Sobanski, Esther; Plichta, Michael M; Bohus, M; Ende, G; Schmahl, C

2016-11-01

Impulsivity is a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In BPD, impulsive behavior primarily occurs under acute stress; impulse control deficits under non-stress conditions may be partly related to co-morbid ADHD. We aimed to investigate whether acute experimental stress has an impact on self-reported impulsivity, response inhibition (action withholding, action cancelation) and delay discounting in BPD compared to ADHD. Thirty female BPD patients, 28 female ADHD patients (excluding patients with co-morbid BPD and ADHD), and 30 female healthy controls (HC) completed self-reports and behavioral measures of impulsivity (IMT, assessing action withholding; GoStop, measuring action cancelation, Delay Discounting Task) under baseline conditions and after an experimental stress induction (Mannheim Multicomponent Stress Test). Both patient groups reported higher impulsivity than HC, ADHD reported higher trait impulsivity than BPD. On the IMT, ADHD showed significant action-withholding deficits under both conditions, while BPD performed significantly worse than HC under stress. In BPD but not ADHD and HC, action-withholding deficits (IMT) were significantly increased under stress compared to baseline, while no group/stress effects were found for action cancelation (GoStop). Delay discounting was significantly more pronounced in BPD than in HC (no stress effect was found). In BPD, behavioral deficits in action withholding (but not in action cancelation) appear to be influenced by acute experimental stress. Delay discounting seems to be a general feature of BPD, independent of co-morbid ADHD and acute stress, possibly underlying typical expressions of behavioral impulsivity in the disorder.

Prospective associations between measures of gross and fine motor coordination in infants and objectively measured physical activity and sedentary behavior in childhood

PubMed Central

Sánchez, Guillermo F López; Williams, Genevieve; Aggio, Daniel; Vicinanza, Domenico; Stubbs, Brendon; Kerr, Catherine; Johnstone, James; Roberts, Justine; Smith, Lee

2017-01-01

Abstract One important determinant of childhood physical activity and sedentary behavior may be that of motor development in infancy. The present analyses aimed to investigate whether gross and fine motor delays in infants were associated with objective and self-reported activity in childhood. Data were from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, a prospective cohort study, involving UK children born on or around the millennium (September 2000 and January 2002). When children were 9 months old, parents reported children's fine and gross motor-coordination, and at 7 years, sports club attendance and daily TV viewing time. Children's physical activity was measured using accelerometers at 7 years. Adjusted regression models were used to examine associations between delayed motor development and accelerometry measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and sedentary behavior, and parent-reported sport club attendance and TV viewing time. In this sample (n = 13,021), gross motor delay in infancy was associated with less time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (B −5.0 95% confidence interval [CI] −6.8, −3.2) and more time sedentary (B 13.5 95% CI 9.3, 17.8) in childhood. Gross and fine motor delays during infancy were associated with a reduced risk of having high attendance at sports clubs in childhood (both relative risk [RR] 0.7, 95% CI 0.6, 0.9). Fine motor delays, but not gross delays, were also associated with an increased risk of having high TV viewing time (RR 1.3 95% CI 1.0, 1.6). Findings from the present study suggest that delays in motor development in infancy are associated with physical activity and sedentary time in childhood. PMID:29145249

Prospective associations between measures of gross and fine motor coordination in infants and objectively measured physical activity and sedentary behavior in childhood.

PubMed

Sánchez, Guillermo F López; Williams, Genevieve; Aggio, Daniel; Vicinanza, Domenico; Stubbs, Brendon; Kerr, Catherine; Johnstone, James; Roberts, Justin; Smith, Lee

2017-11-01

One important determinant of childhood physical activity and sedentary behavior may be that of motor development in infancy. The present analyses aimed to investigate whether gross and fine motor delays in infants were associated with objective and self-reported activity in childhood. Data were from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, a prospective cohort study, involving UK children born on or around the millennium (September 2000 and January 2002). When children were 9 months old, parents reported children's fine and gross motor-coordination, and at 7 years, sports club attendance and daily TV viewing time. Children's physical activity was measured using accelerometers at 7 years. Adjusted regression models were used to examine associations between delayed motor development and accelerometry measured moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and sedentary behavior, and parent-reported sport club attendance and TV viewing time. In this sample (n = 13,021), gross motor delay in infancy was associated with less time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (B -5.0 95% confidence interval [CI] -6.8, -3.2) and more time sedentary (B 13.5 95% CI 9.3, 17.8) in childhood. Gross and fine motor delays during infancy were associated with a reduced risk of having high attendance at sports clubs in childhood (both relative risk [RR] 0.7, 95% CI 0.6, 0.9). Fine motor delays, but not gross delays, were also associated with an increased risk of having high TV viewing time (RR 1.3 95% CI 1.0, 1.6). Findings from the present study suggest that delays in motor development in infancy are associated with physical activity and sedentary time in childhood.

Young pigs exhibit differential exploratory behavior during novelty preference tasks in response to age, sex, and delay.

PubMed

Fleming, Stephen A; Dilger, Ryan N

2017-03-15

Novelty preference paradigms have been widely used to study recognition memory and its neural substrates. The piglet model continues to advance the study of neurodevelopment, and as such, tasks that use novelty preference will serve especially useful due to their translatable nature to humans. However, there has been little use of this behavioral paradigm in the pig, and previous studies using the novel object recognition paradigm in piglets have yielded inconsistent results. The current study was conducted to determine if piglets were capable of displaying a novelty preference. Herein a series of experiments were conducted using novel object recognition or location in 3- and 4-week-old piglets. In the novel object recognition task, piglets were able to discriminate between novel and sample objects after delays of 2min, 1h, 1 day, and 2 days (all P<0.039) at both ages. Performance was sex-dependent, as females could perform both 1- and 2-day delays (P<0.036) and males could perform the 2-day delay (P=0.008) but not the 1-day delay (P=0.347). Furthermore, 4-week-old piglets and females tended to exhibit greater exploratory behavior compared with males. Such performance did not extend to novel location recognition tasks, as piglets were only able to discriminate between novel and sample locations after a short delay (P>0.046). In conclusion, this study determined that piglets are able to perform the novel object and location recognition tasks at 3-to-4 weeks of age, however performance was dependent on sex, age, and delay. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Behavioral, cognitive, and motor performance and physical development of five-year-old children who were born after intracytoplasmic sperm injection with the use of testicular sperm.

PubMed

Meijerink, Aukje M; Ramos, Liliana; Janssen, Anjo J W M; Maas-van Schaaijk, Nienke M; Meissner, Andreas; Repping, Sjoerd; Mochtar, Monique H; Braat, Didi D M; Fleischer, Kathrin

2016-12-01

To evaluate at the age of 5 years the behavioral, cognitive, and motor performance and physical development of children born after testicular sperm extraction (TESE) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). A prospective longitudinal cohort study. Two university medical centers. A total of 103 5-year-olds who were born after TESE-ICSI. The follow-up of the children was performed by questionnaires at birth and again at 1 year and at 4 years of age. Five-year-old children were invited for individual assessment. Behavioral performance was assessed with the use of the Child Behavior Checklist for parents and teachers. Cognitive performance was assessed with the use of the Dutch Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence test, 3rd version. Motor performance was assessed with the use of the Dutch Movement Assessment Battery for Children, 2nd version. Physical development was assessed by means of physical examination and medical history. Behavioral, cognitive, and motor performance and physical development. Eighty-nine children were completely assessed, and 14 were partially assessed at the age of 5 years. The 5-year-old cohort assessed significantly better on behavioral and cognitive performance and significantly worse on motor performance-but still in the normal range-compared with the theoretic distribution in the general population. Four children (3.8%) of the 5-year-old cohort had developmental problems/delays. Two of them were previously diagnosed with a form of autism (pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified). Two children had developmental problems based on our behavioral, cognitive, and/or motor assessments. The long-term effects on development and health in children born after TESE-ICSI procedures seem to be reassuring. Copyright © 2016 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A mental health intervention for schoolchildren exposed to violence: a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Stein, Bradley D; Jaycox, Lisa H; Kataoka, Sheryl H; Wong, Marleen; Tu, Wenli; Elliott, Marc N; Fink, Arlene

2003-08-06

No randomized controlled studies have been conducted to date on the effectiveness of psychological interventions for children with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that has resulted from personally witnessing or being personally exposed to violence. To evaluate the effectiveness of a collaboratively designed school-based intervention for reducing children's symptoms of PTSD and depression that has resulted from exposure to violence. A randomized controlled trial conducted during the 2001-2002 academic year. Sixth-grade students at 2 large middle schools in Los Angeles who reported exposure to violence and had clinical levels of symptoms of PTSD. Students were randomly assigned to a 10-session standardized cognitive-behavioral therapy (the Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools) early intervention group (n = 61) or to a wait-list delayed intervention comparison group (n = 65) conducted by trained school mental health clinicians. Students were assessed before the intervention and 3 months after the intervention on measures assessing child-reported symptoms of PTSD (Child PTSD Symptom Scale; range, 0-51 points) and depression (Child Depression Inventory; range, 0-52 points), parent-reported psychosocial dysfunction (Pediatric Symptom Checklist; range, 0-70 points), and teacher-reported classroom problems using the Teacher-Child Rating Scale (acting out, shyness/anxiousness, and learning problems; range of subscales, 6-30 points). Compared with the wait-list delayed intervention group (no intervention), after 3 months of intervention students who were randomly assigned to the early intervention group had significantly lower scores on symptoms of PTSD (8.9 vs 15.5, adjusted mean difference, - 7.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], - 10.8 to - 3.2), depression (9.4 vs 12.7, adjusted mean difference, - 3.4; 95% CI, - 6.5 to - 0.4), and psychosocial dysfunction (12.5 vs 16.5, adjusted mean difference, - 6.4; 95% CI, -10.4 to -2.3). Adjusted mean differences between the 2 groups at 3 months did not show significant differences for teacher-reported classroom problems in acting out (-1.0; 95% CI, -2.5 to 0.5), shyness/anxiousness (0.1; 95% CI, -1.5 to 1.7), and learning (-1.1, 95% CI, -2.9 to 0.8). At 6 months, after both groups had received the intervention, the differences between the 2 groups were not significantly different for symptoms of PTSD and depression; showed similar ratings for psychosocial function; and teachers did not report significant differences in classroom behaviors. A standardized 10-session cognitive-behavioral group intervention can significantly decrease symptoms of PTSD and depression in students who are exposed to violence and can be effectively delivered on school campuses by trained school-based mental health clinicians.

Emotion Discourse, Social Cognition, and Social Skills in Children with and without Developmental Delays

PubMed Central

Fenning, RM; Baker, BL; Juvonen, J

2009-01-01

This study examined parent-child emotion discourse, children’s independent social information processing, and social skills outcomes in 146 families of 8-year-olds with and without developmental delays. Children’s emergent social-cognitive understanding (internal state understanding, perspective taking, and causal reasoning/problem solving) was coded in the context of parent-child conversations about emotion, and children were interviewed separately to assess social problem solving. Mothers, fathers, and teachers reported on children’s social skills. The proposed strengths-based model partially accounted for social skills differences between typically developing children and children with delays. A multigroup analysis of the model linking emotion discourse to social skills through children’s prosocial problem solving suggested that processes operated similarly across the two groups. Implications for ecologically focused prevention and intervention are discussed. PMID:21410465

Emergence of delayed behavioral effects in offspring mice exposed to low levels of mercury vapor during the lactation period.

PubMed

Yoshida, Minoru; Watanabe, Chiho; Honda, Akiko; Satoh, Masahiko; Yasutake, Akira

2013-02-01

This study examined the emergence of delayed behavioral effects in offspring mice exposed to low levels of mercury vapor (Hg(0)) during the lactation period. Female offspring of mice were repeatedly exposed to Hg(0) at 0.057 mg/m(3), similar to the current threshold value (TLV), for 24 hr until the 20(th) day postpartum. The behavioral effects were evaluated with locomotor activity in the open field (OPF), learning activity in the passive avoidance response (PA) and spatial learning ability in the Morris water maze (MM) at the ages of 3 and 15 months. Hg(0)-exposed mice did not differ from controls in the three behavioral measurements at 3 months of age, and no neurobehavioral effects were observed. On the other hand, the mice exhibited significantly more central locomotion in the OPF task when tested at 15 months of age, but no abnormality in other behavioral performance. Immediately after postnatal exposure, the brain mercury concentration of offspring was about 150 times that of the control, in which the concentrations were approximately 0.4 µg/g. The results indicate that mice exposed to Hg(0) at concentrations around TLV during the developing period resulted in the emergence of delayed behavioral effects at a later stage in life.

Longitudinal assessment of stereotypic, proto-injurious, and self-injurious behavior exhibited by young children with developmental delays.

PubMed

Richman, David M; Lindauer, Steven E

2005-11-01

Twelve children (CA, 12 to 32 months) with developmental delay were observed in their homes during monthly analogue functional analysis probes to document patterns of emerging self-injurious behavior. Two patterns of emerging self-injury were observed for 5 participants: (a) The topography and functional analysis pattern remained the same, but the behavior eventually caused tissue damage; or (b) a new topography emerged that was similar to an established stereotypic motor behavior. Functional analysis results were inconclusive for the majority of target behaviors across participants due to undifferentiated responding across conditions. One participant exhibited two topographies that appeared to become sensitive to positive reinforcement over time. Results are discussed in terms of implications for future research on early intervention and prevention of self-injury.

Determinants of choice for pigeons and humans on concurrent-chains schedules of reinforcement.

PubMed

Belke, T W; Pierce, W D; Powell, R A

1989-09-01

Concurrent-chains schedules of reinforcement were arranged for humans and pigeons. Responses of humans were reinforced with tokens exchangeable for money, and key pecks of 4 birds were reinforced with food. Variable-interval 30-s and 40-s schedules operated in the terminal links of the chains. Condition 1 exposed subjects to variable-interval 90-s and variable-interval 30-s initial links, respectively. Conditions 2 and 3 arranged equal initial-link schedules of 40 s or 120 s. Experimental conditions tested the descriptive adequacy of five equations: reinforcement density, delay reduction, modified delay reduction, matching and maximization. Results based on choice proportions and switch rates during the initial links showed that pigeons behaved in accord with delay-reduction models, whereas humans maximized overall rate of reinforcement. As discussed by Logue and associates in self-control research, different types of reinforcement may affect sensitivity to delay differentially. Pigeons' responses were reinforced with food, a reinforcer that is consumable upon presentation. Humans' responses were reinforced with money, a reinforcer exchanged for consumable reinforcers after it was earned. Reinforcers that are immediately consumed may generate high sensitivity to delay and behavior described as delay reduction. Reinforces with longer times to consumption may generate low sensitivity to delay and behavior that maximizes overall payoff.

A twofold quantum delayed-choice experiment in a superconducting circuit

PubMed Central

Liu, Ke; Xu, Yuan; Wang, Weiting; Zheng, Shi-Biao; Roy, Tanay; Kundu, Suman; Chand, Madhavi; Ranadive, Arpit; Vijay, Rajamani; Song, Yipu; Duan, Luming; Sun, Luyan

2017-01-01

Wave-particle complementarity lies at the heart of quantum mechanics. To illustrate this mysterious feature, Wheeler proposed the delayed-choice experiment, where a quantum system manifests the wave- or particle-like attribute, depending on the experimental arrangement, which is made after the system has entered the interferometer. In recent quantum delayed-choice experiments, these two complementary behaviors were simultaneously observed with a quantum interferometer in a superposition of being closed and open. We suggest and implement a conceptually different quantum delayed-choice experiment by introducing a which-path detector (WPD) that can simultaneously record and neglect the system’s path information, but where the interferometer itself is classical. Our experiment is realized with a superconducting circuit, where a cavity acts as the WPD for an interfering qubit. Using this setup, we implement the first twofold delayed-choice experiment, which demonstrates that the system’s behavior depends not only on the measuring device’s configuration that can be chosen even after the system has been detected but also on whether we a posteriori erase or mark the which-path information, the latter of which cannot be revealed by previous quantum delayed-choice experiments. Our results represent the first demonstration of both counterintuitive features with the same experimental setup, significantly extending the concept of quantum delayed-choice experiment. PMID:28508079

A twofold quantum delayed-choice experiment in a superconducting circuit.

PubMed

Liu, Ke; Xu, Yuan; Wang, Weiting; Zheng, Shi-Biao; Roy, Tanay; Kundu, Suman; Chand, Madhavi; Ranadive, Arpit; Vijay, Rajamani; Song, Yipu; Duan, Luming; Sun, Luyan

2017-05-01

Wave-particle complementarity lies at the heart of quantum mechanics. To illustrate this mysterious feature, Wheeler proposed the delayed-choice experiment, where a quantum system manifests the wave- or particle-like attribute, depending on the experimental arrangement, which is made after the system has entered the interferometer. In recent quantum delayed-choice experiments, these two complementary behaviors were simultaneously observed with a quantum interferometer in a superposition of being closed and open. We suggest and implement a conceptually different quantum delayed-choice experiment by introducing a which-path detector (WPD) that can simultaneously record and neglect the system's path information, but where the interferometer itself is classical. Our experiment is realized with a superconducting circuit, where a cavity acts as the WPD for an interfering qubit. Using this setup, we implement the first twofold delayed-choice experiment, which demonstrates that the system's behavior depends not only on the measuring device's configuration that can be chosen even after the system has been detected but also on whether we a posteriori erase or mark the which-path information, the latter of which cannot be revealed by previous quantum delayed-choice experiments. Our results represent the first demonstration of both counterintuitive features with the same experimental setup, significantly extending the concept of quantum delayed-choice experiment.

Ionospheric Slant Total Electron Content Analysis Using Global Positioning System Based Estimation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Komjathy, Attila (Inventor); Mannucci, Anthony J. (Inventor); Sparks, Lawrence C. (Inventor)

2017-01-01

A method, system, apparatus, and computer program product provide the ability to analyze ionospheric slant total electron content (TEC) using global navigation satellite systems (GNSS)-based estimation. Slant TEC is estimated for a given set of raypath geometries by fitting historical GNSS data to a specified delay model. The accuracy of the specified delay model is estimated by computing delay estimate residuals and plotting a behavior of the delay estimate residuals. An ionospheric threat model is computed based on the specified delay model. Ionospheric grid delays (IGDs) and grid ionospheric vertical errors (GIVEs) are computed based on the ionospheric threat model.

The continuing problem of missed test results in an integrated health system with an advanced electronic medical record.

PubMed

Wahls, Terry; Haugen, Thomas; Cram, Peter

2007-08-01

Missed results can cause needless treatment delays. However, there is little data about the magnitude of this problem and the systems that clinics use to manage test results. Surveys about potential problems related to test results management were developed and administered to clinical staff in a regional Veterans Administration (VA) health care network. The provider survey, conducted four times between May 2005 and October 2006, sampling VA staff physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and internal medicine trainees, asked questions about the frequency of missed results and diagnosis or treatment delays seen in the antecedent two weeks in their clinics, or if a trainee, the antecedent month. Clinical staff survey response rate was 39% (143 of 370), with 40% using standard operating procedures to manage test results. Forty-four percent routinely reported all results to patients. The provider survey response rate was 50% (441 of 884) overall, with responses often (37% overall; range 29% to 46%) indicating they had seen patients with diagnosis or treatment delays attributed to a missed result; 15% reported two or more such encounters. Even in an integrated health system with an advanced electronic medical record, missed test results and associated diagnosis or treatment delays are common. Additional study and measures of missed results and associated treatment delays are needed.

Williams Syndrome and 15q Duplication: Coincidence versus Association.

PubMed

Khokhar, Aditi; Agarwal, Swashti; Perez-Colon, Sheila

2017-01-01

Williams syndrome is a multisystem disorder caused by contiguous gene deletion in 7q11.23, commonly associated with distinctive facial features, supravalvular aortic stenosis, short stature, idiopathic hypercalcemia, developmental delay, joint laxity, and a friendly personality. The clinical features of 15q11q13 duplication syndrome include autism, mental retardation, ataxia, seizures, developmental delay, and behavioral problems. We report a rare case of a girl with genetically confirmed Williams syndrome and coexisting 15q duplication syndrome. The patient underwent treatment for central precocious puberty and later presented with primary amenorrhea. The karyotype revealed 47,XX,+mar. FISH analysis for the marker chromosome showed partial trisomy/tetrasomy for proximal chromosome 15q (15p13q13). FISH using an ELN -specific probe demonstrated a deletion in the Williams syndrome critical region in 7q11.23. To our knowledge, a coexistence of Williams syndrome and 15q duplication syndrome has not been reported in the literature. Our patient had early pubertal development, which has been described in some patients with Williams syndrome. However, years later after discontinuing gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogue treatment, she developed primary amenorrhea.

Use of Developmental Milestones in Pediatric Residency Training and Practice: Time to Rethink the Meaning of the Mean

PubMed Central

Sices, Laura

2009-01-01

Objective Pediatricians frequently report the use of developmental milestones in monitoring young children’s development, despite evidence that use of screening tools improves detection of developmental delays. Methods Core texts in the field of pediatrics and developmental-behavioral pediatrics were reviewed for content and presentation on child development. Most texts included and many focused on developmental milestones, many with an emphasis on 50th percentile milestone data. Problems and limitations in the use of 50th percentile milestones to monitor young children’s development and to identify children whose development is suspicious for delay, include questionable utility in clinical decision making and the potential to increase parental anxiety. Results The recommendation is made to reconsider a focus on 50th percentile milestone data in pediatric training and practice, in favor of measures that have better clinical utility and are more psychometrically sound. Conclusion A conceptual approach to the presentation of developmental milestones differentiates the use of the 10th, 50th, and 90th percentiles of age of achievement of skills, based on the clinical purpose of surveillance. PMID:17353732