Maternal depression and early positive parenting predict future conduct problems in young children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at risk for adverse outcomes such as substance abuse and criminality, particularly if they develop conduct problems. Little is known about early predictors of the developmental course of conduct problems among children with ADHD, however. Parental psychopathology and parenting were assessed in 108 children who first met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.) criteria for ADHD at 4-7 years old. When demographic variables and baseline ADHD and conduct problems were controlled, maternal depression predicted conduct problems 2-8 years following the initial assessment, whereas positive parenting during the structured parent- child interaction task predicted fewer future conduct problems. These findings suggest that maternal depression is a risk factor, whereas early positive parenting is a protective factor, for the developmental course of conduct problems among children with ADHD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

DSM-IV field trials for oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder in children and adolescents

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the field trials for oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder was to select valid diagnostic thresholds for these disorders and to compare the psychometric properties of DSM-IV criteria for oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder with previous DSM diagnostic formulations. METHOD: Structured diagnostic interviews, standardized clinician's validation diagnoses, and multiple measures of impairment were obtained for 440 clinic-referred children and adolescents aged 4-17 years. RESULTS: A diagnostic threshold of four symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder optimized identification of impaired children, improved agreement somewhat with the clinician's validation diagnosis, and had somewhat better test-retest agreement than DSM-III-R. In the case of conduct disorder, the optimal time window for ascertainment of symptoms was clarified. A diagnostic threshold of three symptoms of conduct disorder maximized accurate identification of impaired children and agreement with the clinician's validation diagnosis and resulted in slightly better test-retest agreement than DSM-III-R. Compared with the DSM-III-R definition, the DSM-IV definition of oppositional defiant disorder was somewhat more prevalent, but the prevalence of conduct disorder was essentially unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: DSM-IV definitions of oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder are somewhat better than DSM-III-R definitions in terms of internal consistency and test-retest agreement, and the validity of the DSM-IV definition of oppositional defiant disorder is slightly better than that of DSM-III-R.     

Predicting Future Antisocial Personality Disorder in Males From a Clinical Assessment in Childhood.

It is essential to identify childhood predictors of adult antisocial personality disorder (APD) to target early prevention. It has variously been hypothesized that APD is predicted by childhood conduct disorder (CD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or both disorders. To test these competing hypotheses, the authors used data from a single childhood diagnostic assessment of 163 clinic-referred boys to predict future APD during early adulthood. Childhood Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev.; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) CD, but not ADHD, significantly predicted the boys' subsequent APD. An interaction between socioeconomic status (SES) and CD indicated that CD predicted APD only in lower SES families, however. Among children who met criteria for CD, their number of covert but not overt CD symptoms improved prediction of future APD, controlling for SES. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

AN ANALYSIS OF PHASE DISTRIBUTION AND TURBULENCE IN DISPERSED PARTICLE/LIQUID FLOWS

An analysis of dilute, turbulent particle/liquid two-phase flow is presented. The three-dimensional conservation equations that govern turbulent motion in solid/fluid flows are derived using ensemble averaging, and the unknown terms in these equations are constituted to achieve closure. These closure terms include the shear stress due to interparticle collisions, the corresponding terms in the Reynolds stress equation, the force and dissipation due to particle-wall collisions, and the interfacial work due to particle/turbulent eddy interaction. The resultant two-fluid model was then evaluated using a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) solver and the predictions were compared with experimental data. Good agreement was observed for a variety of flow conditions.     

Interactions between early parenting and a polymorphism of the child's dopamine transporter gene in predicting future child conduct disorder symptoms.

Mounting evidence suggests that genetic risks for mental disorders often interact with the social environment, but most studies still ignore environmental moderation of genetic influences. The authors tested interactions between maternal parenting and the variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphism in the 3′ untranslated region of the dopamine transporter gene in the child to increase understanding of gene–environment interactions involving early parenting. Participants were part of a 9-year longitudinal study of 4- to 6-year-old children who met criteria for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and demographically matched controls. Maternal parenting was observed during standard mother–child interactions in Wave 1. The child's conduct disorder (CD) symptoms 5–8 years later were measured using separate structured diagnostic interviews of the mother and youth. Controlling for ADHD symptoms and child disruptive behavior during the mother–child interaction, there was a significant inverse relation between levels of both positive and negative parenting at 4–6 years and the number of later CD symptoms, but primarily among children with 2 copies of the 9-repeat allele of the VNTR. The significant interaction with negative parenting was replicated in parent and youth reports of CD symptoms separately. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A survey of serious aircraft accidents involving fatigue fracture

A world-wide survey of serious aircraft accidents involving fatigue fracture has been carried out. The study includes not only fatal accidents, but also those in which the damage to the airframe was substantial or greater. The accidents cover civil and, to a limited extent, military aircraft. A total of 1885 accidents since 1927 were identified as having fatigue fracture as a related cause, and these accidents resulted in 2240 deaths. Engine/transmission failure and landing-gear failure were the most common cause of recent fixed-wing accidents, while the most prevalent rotary-wing problems were failure of the engine/transmission and of the tail-rotor. Currently there is a yearly average of about 100 serious fatigue accidents (69 fixed-wing and 31 rotary-wing).     

Evidence incompatible with a cognitive compatibility theory of rating behavior.

Assessed the cognitive complexity of 96 undergraduates with the group version of the Role Construct Repertory (REP) Test, a factor analysis of REP test data, and a sorting task. Performance ratings for 3 of the Ss' instructors were obtained with behaviorally anchored rating scales, mixed standard rating scales, graphic rating scales, and simple "alternate" 3-point rating scales. No differences in leniency, halo, or range restriction emerged either as a function of raters' cognitive complexity or a Cognitive Complexity?×?Scale Format interaction. Raters' confidence in their ratings was not associated with either cognitive complexity or rating scale format. It is concluded that researchers of performance ratings should exercise restraint before confidently conferring moderator variable status on a cognitive complexity construct. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A sub-grid air entrainment model for breaking bow waves and naval surface ships

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of air entrainment by the breaking bow waves of naval surface ships are outside of the computational reach of the most powerful computers in the foreseeable future. This creates a need for physically-based models of air entrainment for applications in numerical simulations for ship design. Due to the non-linear dependence of the terminal bubble velocity with diameter most air entrainment flows have a high void fraction region immediately below the free surface. We present a model that locates this region employing the local liquid velocity and the distance to the interface. Using this model and the bubble size distributions measured by Deane and Stokes [Deane BD, Stokes MD. Scale dependence of bubble creation mechanisms in breaking waves. Nature 2002;418:839-44] we have simulated the air entrainment in the breaking wave experiments of Wanieski et al. [Waniewski TA, Brennen CE, Raichlen F. Measurement of air entrainment by bow waves. J Fluids Eng 2001;123:57-63]. Comparison against these experimental data is good. We then apply this model to simulate the flow around naval combatant DTMB 5415 and the research vessel Athena. The model predicts air entrainment in regions where it was actually observed at sea, namely the breaking bow wave, along the water/air/hull contact line and in the near-wake. To the best of our knowledge this is the first model of air entrainment that compares favorably with data at laboratory scale and also presents the right trends at full-scale.