Intergenerational transmission of neuropsychological executive functioning

Relationships between parent and child executive functioning were examined, controlling for the critical potential confound of IQ, in a family study involving 434 children (130 girls and 304 boys) and 376 parents from 204 community recruited families at high risk for the development of substance use disorder. Structural equation modeling found evidence of separate executive functioning and intelligence (IQ) latent variables. Mother’s and father’s executive functioning were associated with child’s executive functioning (beta = 0.34 for father–child and 0.51 for mother–child), independently of parental IQ, which as expected was associated with child’s IQ (beta = 0.52 for father–child and 0.54 for mother–child). Familial correlations also showed a significant relationship of executive functioning between parents and offspring. These findings clarify that key elements of the executive functioning construct are reliably differentiable from IQ, and are transmitted in families. This work supports the utility of the construct of executive function in further study of the mechanisms and etiology of externalizing psychopathologies.     

实践社区成员的成就动机对知识传播的影响

为了研究成就动机对实践社区及其成员的知识传播过程的影响,采用自编实践社区成员成就动机问卷以及知识传播过程与效果问卷对重庆、银川、南京、上海等地企业的430名实践社区成员进行测量,研究了成就动机对知识传播的影响.结果表明:问卷具有良好的信度和效度;不同性别被试的社会取向成就动机存在显著差异;工作年限为11-15年的被试社会取向成就动机识显著高于其他组别;自我取向成就动机对知识传播的路径系数除"自我取向-区内吸收"外均达到显著性水平,即对"知识传播投入程度"、"社区外知识获取能力"及"知识传播效果"的预测作用都是正向的;社会取向成就动机仅对知识传播效果产生显著影响.     

Disaggregating the Distal,Proximal, and Time-Varying Effects of Parent Alcoholism on Children’s Internalizing Symptoms

We tested whether children show greater internalizing symptoms when their parents are actively abusing alcohol. In an integrative data analysis, we combined observations over ages 2 through 17 from two longitudinal studies of children of alcoholic parents and matched controls recruited from the community. Using a mixed modeling approach, we tested whether children showed elevated mother- and child-reported internalizing symptoms (a) at the same time that parents showed alcohol-related consequences (time-varying effects), (b) if parents showed greater alcohol-related consequences during the study period (proximal effects), and (c) if parents had a lifetime diagnosis of alcoholism that predated the study period (distal effects). No support for time-varying effects was found; proximal effects of mothers' alcohol-related consequences on child-reported internalizing symptoms were found and distal effects of mother and father alcoholism predicted greater internalizing symptoms among children of alcoholic parents. Implications for the time-embedded relations between parent alcoholism and children's internalizing symptoms are discussed.     

Correlates of Self-reported Attachment (In)security in Children: The Role of Parental Romantic Attachment Status and Rearing Behaviors

We investigated the influence of self-reported parental romantic attachment status and rearing behaviors on children’s self-reported attachment (in)security towards father and mother in a sample of 237 non-clinical children aged 9–12. All children and their parents completed a single-item measure of attachment style. The parents further completed an index of their authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive rearing behaviors. Results showed that the attachment status of the father was significantly related to the child’s attachment style to the father. Further, children who portray themselves as insecurely attached to their fathers have fathers with lower average authoritative scores compared to children who are securely attached to their fathers. In examining the relative contribution of attachment style and rearing behaviors of the parents, insecure attachment status of the father was still significantly related to insecure attachment style of the child but the effect of authoritative rearing behaviors of the father on attachment (in)security of children was not statistically significant anymore. Altogether, these results support the notion that attachment status of the father was most substantially associated with self-reported insecure attachment of children.     

Language evolution by iterated learning with bayesian agents

Languages are transmitted from person to person and generation to generation via a process of iterated learning: people learn a language from other people who once learned that language themselves. We analyze the consequences of iterated learning for learning algorithms based on the principles of Bayesian inference, assuming that learners compute a posterior distribution over languages by combining a prior (representing their inductive biases) with the evidence provided by linguistic data. We show that when learners sample languages from this posterior distribution, iterated learning converges to a distribution over languages that is determined entirely by the prior. Under these conditions, iterated learning is a form of Gibbs sampling, a widely-used Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm. The consequences of iterated learning are more complicated when learners choose the language with maximum posterior probability, being affected by both the prior of the learners and the amount of information transmitted between generations. We show that in this case, iterated learning corresponds to another statistical inference algorithm, a variant of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. These results clarify the role of iterated learning in explanations of linguistic universals and provide a formal connection between constraints on language acquisition and the languages that come to be spoken, suggesting that information transmitted via iterated learning will ultimately come to mirror the minds of the learners.     

Cross-generational transmission of aggressive parent behavior: a prospective,mediational examination

The intergenerational transmission of aggressive parenting behavior was examined within the context of a prospective longitudinal study of adolescent and young adult adjustment. Thirty-nine young adults (G2; 33 females, 6 males) who had participated in early phases of this study with their parents (G1) continued their involvement with their young children (G3; 17 females, 22 males, mean age = 2.6) several years later. Data included direct observation of parent–adolescent (G1–G2) and parent–child (G2–G3) interactions as well as self-reports. Analyses demonstrated directly observed cross-generational continuity in aggressive parenting from G1 to G2 some 6–7 years later. However, the results also showed that adolescent aggressive behavior served as the mediational link reducing the direct path from G1 to G2 aggressive parenting to nonsignificant levels. The results are consistent with a social interactional model of intergenerational continuity of parenting behavior.     

Bond modulus and stability of covalent solids

The chemical stabilities of molecules are determined by their LUMO–HOMO energy gaps. For solids, the analogues of these are their energy band gaps. However, solids are aggregates of molecules, so an energy alone cannot characterize their stabilities. An intensive parameter is needed. Such a parameter is the gap energy per molecular volume. The author has coined the name ‘bond modulus’ for this parameter because it tends to be proportional to elastic moduli and it has the same dimensions. It applies primarily to covalent solids with localized bonding. It is proportional to chemical hardnesses and bulk moduli, as well as octahedral shear moduli and inverse polarizabilities.     

The state of order in Fe–Al studied by precession electron diffraction

Precession electron diffraction (PED) has been carried out on a fully ordered Fe–40at.%Al solid solution in order to explore its suitability for determining the state of order. The integrated intensity ratio of a superlattice reflection with respect to a fundamental reflection was measured as a function of the sample thickness and the results are well fitted by dynamical simulations. It is proposed that, in addition to conventional X-ray diffraction, PED may provide access to the state of order at microscopic and nanoscopic scales.     

Changes in electrical resistivity during isothermal annealing of thermally disordered Cu-15at.%Pd alloys

The changes in the electrical resistivity of thermally disordered Cu-15at.%Pd alloys during isothermal annealing at various temperatures has been investigated. The results obtained are compared with the changes in electrical resistivity calculated under the assumption that ordering proceeds only during isothermal annealing. The electrical resistivity in this alloy first increases and then decreases during isothermal annealing, and the magnitude of the increase decreases as the annealing temperature is lowered. A comparison between the results of measurement and calculation shows that the increase in electrical resistivity is considerably larger than that deduced at the early stage of ordering and occurs after the start of the ordering. An electron micrograph of a sample annealed at 643K for 42000s (11.7h) revealed that not only swirl-like antiphase domains but also fine domains with narrow stripes are present. Furthermore, it is shown that the electron diffraction pattern from the fine domains includes somewhat diffuse extra spots, which have never been observed in the L1 2 -type ordered structure, and that the fine domains disappear after a long anneal. These results indicate that the formation and disappearance of any quasistable phase influence the large increase and subsequent decrease in electrical resistivity during isothermal annealing.     

Severe-to-mild wear transition at higher temperatures in Al-17Si-5Cu alloy after short-duration isothermal heat treatment

ABSTRACT

The wear behaviour of hypereutectic Al–Si alloys, which are suitable for use in automobile engines as a replacement for cast iron, has not been explored at higher temperatures. In the present study, the wear behaviour of Al-17Si-5Cu alloy (AR alloy) has been studied in as-received condition as well as after applying a short-duration isothermal heat treatment developed by the present research team. It was found that AR alloy exhibits severe wear, whereas heat-treated alloy (HT alloy) shows mild wear at higher temperatures (up to 300°C) at all applied loads. This severe-to-mild wear transition is addressed here.