Developmental Differences in Parenting Behavior: Comparing Adolescent, Emerging Adult, and Adult Mothers

The nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth cohort data set was used to compare parenting behaviors of adolescent mothers (\u3c19 years old), emerging adult mothers (19–25 years old), and adult mothers (\u3e25 years old) when their children were 2 years old. Regression models controlling for socioeconomic differences indicate that adolescent mothers exhibited less supportiveness, sensitivity, and positive regard than emerging adult mothers, who exhibited less than adults. Adolescent and emerging adult mothers reported comparable frequencies of spanking and use of time out but significantly more than adults. Age differences in coparenting were largely accounted for by different rates of father coresidence. These finding suggest that age differences in parenting behaviors are not solely explained by sociodemographic factors, and that mothers who gave birth during the emerging adult period are a developmentally distinct group; overall, they are not as prepared for optimal parenting as older mothers but are better equipped than adolescent mothers

Disparities in Early Childhood Caries

Despite remarkable reduction in the prevalence of dental caries in the United States, dental caries is still a highly prevalent disease among children who are socially disadvantaged (racial/ethnic minority, poor, rural, immigrants). Consequently, caries sequelae such as dental pain, need for dental treatment under general anesthesia, and future orthodontic treatment, are also concentrated among the most socially disadvantaged children. To make the situation more appalling, those children who need treatment the most are the ones least likely to visit the dentist. Low income children are less likely to visit the dentist in part because of family's competing needs for limited resources, shortage of pediatric dentists, and dentists not taking uninsured or publicly insured patients. In the same vein, if these children do not have access to dental care, they are deprived from effective caries preventive measures that are dentist-dependent such as sealants and professionally applied fluoride. Dentistry has done well at devising caries preventive and treatment strategies; but these strategies have missed the most needed segment of society: disadvantaged children. The challenge now is to develop innovative strategies to reach these children

Progress in regional PV power forecasting: A sensitivity analysis on the Italian case study

The increasing penetration of PV generation, driven by climate strategies and objectives, calls for accurate production forecasting to mitigate the negative effects associated with inherent variability, such as overgeneration, grid instability, supplementary reserve request. The regional PV power forecasting is crucial for Transmission and Distribution system operators for a better management of energy flows. In this work many aspects of regional PV power forecasting are investigated, by means of a comparison of six different forecasting models applied to predict the hourly production of the following days on six Italian bidding zones for one year. In particular, the work shows that the forecasting accuracy is mainly affected by the algorithm and its pre and post processing, with a range of 30% in performance accuracy, while it is less impacted by the forecasting horizon. It has been verified that the accuracy in the irra- diation prediction, used in input to the power forecasting algorithm, has less impact compared to single plants. The work confirms the performance improvement which can be obtained by increasing the size of the area to which the prediction refers, through a comparison between the forecasting at bidding zone and national level. Finally, we show that the larger the controlled forecast area, the smaller the impact on the forecast accuracy due to the non-uniform spatial and capacity distribution of the PV fleet. This means that as the size of the region increases, the average irradiance progressively becomes the best PV power predictor. We refer to this phenomenon as: “input smoothing effect"

Racial Segregation, Income Inequality, and Mortality in US Metropolitan Areas

Evidence of the association between income inequality and mortality has been mixed. Studies indicate that growing income inequalities reflect inequalities between, rather than within, racial groups. Racial segregation may play a role. We examine the role of racial segregation on the relationship between income inequality and mortality in a cross-section of US metropolitan areas. Metropolitan areas were included if they had a population of at least 100,000 and were at least 10% black (N = 107). Deaths for the time period 1991–1999 were used to calculate age-adjusted all-cause mortality rates for each metropolitan statistical area (MSA) using direct age-adjustment techniques. Multivariate least squares regression was used to examine associations for the total sample and for blacks and whites separately. Income inequality was associated with lower mortality rates among whites and higher mortality rates among blacks. There was a significant interaction between income inequality and racial segregation. A significant graded inverse income inequality/mortality association was found for MSAs with higher versus lower levels of black–white racial segregation. Effects were stronger among whites than among blacks. A positive income inequality/mortality association was found in MSAs with higher versus lower levels of Hispanic–white segregation. Uncertainty regarding the income inequality/mortality association found in previous studies may be related to the omission of important variables such as racial segregation that modify associations differently between groups. Research is needed to further elucidate the risk and protective effects of racial segregation across groups

Determinants of premature mortality in a city population: An eight-year observational study concerning subjects aged 18–64

Background: Premature deaths constitute 31.1% of all deaths in Łódź. Analysis of the causes of premature deaths may be helpful in the evaluation of health risk factors. Moreover, findings of this study may enhance prophylactic measures. Material and Methods: In 2001, 1857 randomly selected citizens, aged 18-64, were included in the Countrywide Integrated Noncommunicable Diseases Intervention (CINDI) Programme. In 2009, a follow-up study was conducted and information on the subjects of the study was collected concerning their health status and if they continued to live in Łódź. The Cox proportional hazards model was used for evaluation of hazard coefficients. We adjusted our calculations for age and sex. The analysis revealed statistically significant associations between the number of premature deaths of the citizens of Łódź and the following variables: a negative self-evaluation of health - HR = 3.096 (95% CI: 1.729-5.543), poor financial situation - HR = 2.811 (95% CI: 1.183‑6.672), occurring in the year preceding the study: coronary pain - HR = 2.754 (95% CI: 1.167-6.494), depression - HR = 2.001 (95% CI: 1.222-3.277) and insomnia - HR = 1.660 (95% CI: 1.029-2.678). Our research study also found a negative influence of smoking on the health status - HR = 2.782 (95% CI: 1.581-4.891). Moreover, we conducted survival analyses according to sex and age with Kaplan-Meier curves. Conclusions: The risk factors leading to premature deaths were found to be highly significant but possible to reduce by modifying lifestyle-related health behaviours. The confirmed determinants of premature mortality indicate a need to spread and intensify prophylactic activities in Poland, which is a post-communist country, in particular, in the field of cardiovascular diseases