Prenatal Cardiac Function and Postnatal Cognitive Development: An Exploratory Study

Fetal cardiac function was measured at 24, 30, and 36 weeks gestation and quantified in terms of heart rate, variability, and episodic accelerations. Children's representational capacity was evaluated at 27 months in terms of language and play. Thirty‐ and 36‐wcek‐old fetuses that displayed greater heart‐rate variability and more episodic accelerations, and fetuses that exhibited a more precipitous increase in heart‐rate variability and acceleration over gestation achieved higher levels of language competence. Thirty‐six‐week‐old fetuses with higher heart‐rate variability and accelerations, and steeper growth trajectories over gestation, achieved higher levels of symbolic play. Cardiac patterning during gestation may reflect an underlying neural substrate that persists through early childhood: Individual variation in rate of development could be stable, or efficient cardiac function could positively influence the underlying neural substrate to enhance cognitive performance.     

The negative social network: when friends are foes

In this study, three factors appear to influence significantly whether a child in foster care would be returned to the parent. The factors proved to be the number of persons in the parent's home, the number of friends in the neighborhood, and the frequency with which the parent saw those friends.     

Design of Developmental Toxicity Studies for Assessing Joint Effects of Dose and Duration

In the assessment of developmental and reproductive effects, the timing and duration of exposures to chemical compounds or other environmental contaminants are of particular interest, as the gestational cycle is known to have periods of increased sensitivity. The goal of this research is to identify optimal experimental designs for conducting developmental toxicity studies when the effects of both exposure level and duration of exposure are of interest. The elements of the study design considered in this evaluation are the allocation of animals to dose-duration exposure groups and the determination of the most efficient intermediate exposure levels. The optimality of various designs is assessed via the accuracy of the estimated excess risk as well as testing criteria. Simulation studies are conducted to compare these criteria and determine optimal design strategies under various underlying dose-response patterns. Asymptotic results are also derived to lend support to the simulation studies.     

The interdisciplinary care of children with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus

This paper discusses the advances in care of children with diabetes mellitus, with particular reference to ocular disease, and its prevention in children. Emphasis is upon the inter-disciplinary care of children. Suggested ways of preventing later diabetic problems.     

War-wounded refugees in Sweden

Sixty-one newly arrived war-wounded refugees were interviewed about their background and flight while treated at the Medical Center for Refugees, University Hospital, Linköping, Sweden. They came from 9 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Spinal cord injuries, nerve lesions, amputations and fractures were the most frequent injuries. The group was heavily burdened with regard to factors that might be of significance for wellbeing and integration in Swedish society: torture (51%), imprisonment (49%), loss of kin in war (62%), difficulties while growing up (54%), little or no schooling (48%), not having made the decision to flee oneself (46%) and having to leave the family behind (90%). This study is a first step in a longitudinal research project to shed light upon the situation of war-wounded refugees on arrival in Sweden and after 2 years.     

遗传算法在活动网络有限资源分配问题中的应用

有限资源合理分配是网络计划中一个复杂的组合优化问题。应用遗传算法,本文建立了描述有限资源合理分配问题的染色体结构和适应度函数,设计了问题的遗传运算,并举例说明了该遗传算法的有效性。这一工作对于处理工程项目施工安排问题具有重要意义。     

Contemporaneous Versus Retrospective Reports of Cohabitation in the Fragile Families Survey

We compare contemporaneous and retrospective reports of cohabitation among unmarried mothers in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing survey (N =2,524). We find that (a) many mothers revise their reports of whether they cohabited at the time of the birth of their child and (b) revisions in reports are systematically related to individuals’ characteristics and the quality and trajectory of parents’ relationships. These results have important implications for analyses of determinants and consequences of family structure using these data and, potentially, any retrospective data on relationships and family structure.     

Costs of reproduction in common eiders ( Somateria mollissima ): An assessment of relationships between reproductive effort and future survival and reproduction based on observational and experimental studies

The two traditional approaches to the study of costs of reproduction, correlational and experimental, have been used in parallel in a breeding colony of common eiders ( Somateria mollissima ) and were compared in this paper. The analysis of the observational data was based on a two-strata capture-recapture model, the strata being defined on the basis of the clutch size laid by individual females in a given year. The best model according to AIC C indicated substantial variation in survival, recapture and transition rates, but overall a pattern emerged: females laying large clutches have a somewhat higher survival and much higher capture rate than females laying small clutches, and transition from large to small clutch size occurs much more frequently than the reverse transition. The analysis of the experimental data (adding/removing one egg) showed that no clear effect was found on either survival or transition rates. We conclude by suggesting (1) that condition should be included in multi-strata models in addition to reproductive effort; (2) that a specific study design for estimating the proportion of non-breeding females should be implemented, and (3) that non-breeding (a non-observable state in this study) may be influenced by previous reproduction events.