Multisystemic influences on substance use behavior among internalizing and externalizing Hispanic adolescents

Longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses were used to investigate the development of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use in adolescents. The sample was predominantly immigrant Hispanic adolescents from a high-density, impoverished neighborhood of Miami. The cross-sectional samples of 566 6th grade students and 547 8th grade students yielded a longitudinal sample of 238 adolescents. The pathways toward negative developmental outcomes were evaluated with respect to depressive symptoms, conduct disorder behaviors, the number of substance using peers, substance use by adults important to the youth, and the amount of perceived family support. Adolescents self-reported internalizing symptoms of depression, rates of drug involvement for themselves, for peers, and for adults. Parents reported externalizing symptoms of conduct disorder. Adolescents with increased levels of either intrapersonal risk factor demonstrated significantly greater alcohol use two years later than their peers. Increased levels of conduct disorder behavior were also associated with increased numbers of tobacco and marijuana using peers, while greater depressive symptoms predicted more alcohol and marijuana using peers. Increased substance use by adults important to the adolescent longitudinally predicted greater adolescent substance use; peer modeling did not predict any type of adolescent substance use over time. Family support was associated with decreased substance use, after controlling for depressive symptoms or conduct disorder behaviors. However, high levels of family support were not able to reduce the number of alcohol or tobacco using peers for adolescents with elevated conduct disorder or depressive symptoms

Lithographic alignment and overlay by projection moiré interferometry

As device structures advance into the extreme submicrometer regime, decreased alignment and overlay budgets, conservatively to 50 nm, will be required. The alignment scheme must demonstrate significantly better performance. Present alignment schemes are based on relatively large alignment marks’ or on coarse gratings.2 We report an alignment scheme based on projection moire interferometry with a resolution to better than 2 nm. The alignment scheme involves illuminating a grating on the wafer with two coherent laser sources from opposite directions arranged so that the diffraction orders are near normal to the wafer surface. Various alternative geometries have also been investigated. The interference between these two diffraction orders produces a projected moire interference pattern with a phase that contains the alignment information. This phase is periodic in the position of the wafer with a period of 1 /2 the Si grating. By monitoring the intensity of the central fringe, an alignment sensitivity of 2.5 nm for a 1 pm pitch grating and of 1 nm for a 340 nm pitch grating has been demon­strated with He-Ne laser illumination (633 nm). Similar sensitivities are observed in overlay measurement for superimposed gratings. A novel approach to spatial period doubling is demonstrated for double-exposed gratings offset by 1/2 the grating period.</jats:p

La función autorreguladora del habla privada infantil: un análisis crítico de las recientes discusiones de la teoría de Vygotski

Recent empirical findings have challenged Vygotsky�s theory regarding the selfregulatory functions of children�s private speech. First, the majority of studies in the field report occurrences of private speech on only half of the children in their samples.studies indeed minimizes children�s production of private speech and that failure in tasks is associated with greater production of self-regulatory speech. As the number of self-regulatory utterances declined the number of whispers and mutterings increased, supporting Vygotski�s notion that private speech does not disappear with age but �goes underground� to constitute inner speech Furthermore, those children who usually talk emit so few utterances that the possible relevance of private speech to the problem-solving process is seriously questioned. Second, a large number of studies have failed to show a functional relationship between children�s production of private speech and success in cognitive tasks. The present study hypothesized that the scarcity of private speech is an artifact of the typical research paradigm used in recent investigations. Also, it is argued that, within a Vygotskian framework, private speech will tend to co-occur with failure in cognitive tasks because both private speech and the likelihood of failure increase with task difficulty. A total of 32 preschoolers were videotaped while performing semantic and perceptual tasks, and their verbalizations were transcribed and coded into social and private speech categories. The results indicated that the condition most frequently used in recentRecientes hallazgos empíricos han puesto en duda la teoría de Vygotski acerca de la función autorreguladora del habla privada infantil. En primer lugar, la mayoría de los estudios en este campo señalan la aparición de habla privada sólo en la mitad de los niños de sus muestras. Además, esos niños que efectivamente hablan emiten pocas verbalizaciones, de modo que la posible relevancia del habla privada en los procesos de solución de problemas queda seriamente cuestionada. Por otra parte, un gran número de estudios han tratado sin éxito de evidenciar una relación funcional entre el habla privada producida por los niños y el logro en las tareas cognitivas. El presente estudio se basa en la hipótesis de que la escasez de habla privada es un artefacto del paradigma de investigación usado habitualmente en los estudios recientes. También argumentamos que, desde la perspectiva vygotskiana, ésta tiende a aparecer asociada al fracaso en las tareas cognitivas porque tanto el habla privada como la probabilidad de fracaso se incrementan ante tareas difíciles. Un total de 32 preescolares fueron filmados en vídeo mientras realizaban tareas semánticas y perceptivas y sus verbalizaciones fueron transcritas y codificadas en categorías de habla social y privada. Los resultados indican que la condición más frecuentemente usada en los estudios recientes de hecho minimiza la producción de habla privada por parte de los niños y que los fracasos en las tareas se asocian con niveles más elevados de habla autorreguladora. A medida que el número de verbalizaciones autorreguladoras declina, aumentan los susurros y el habla musitada, apoyando la idea de Vygotski de que el habla privada no desaparece con la edad, sino que se va interiorizando hasta constituir el habla interior

The Arms Race, Played by SDP

Interest in the arms race has been growing in recent years as shown by coverage in the media and in political campaigns. Many students coming to class are already preconditioned either for or against increased defense spending. This participatory exercise allows them to test their ideas, and it helps make their minds more receptive to new concepts being explored in the class, such as: Is detente in the best interests of the Unted States? Should a new SALT Treaty be negotiated? What is the best ratio of expenditures for domestic programs and national defense?SDB stands for Secret Defense Budgets. In the SDB exercise, or game as it is called, the class is divided into groups of two students sitting next to each other.</jats:p