Showing papers by "San Francisco State University published in 2013"

Ground water and climate change

Abstract: As the world's largest distributed store of fresh water, ground water plays a central part in sustaining ecosystems and enabling human adaptation to climate variability and change. The strategic importance of ground water for global water and food security will probably intensify under climate change as more frequent and intense climate extremes (droughts and floods) increase variability in precipitation, soil moisture and surface water. Here we critically review recent research assessing the impacts of climate on ground water through natural and human-induced processes as well as through groundwater-driven feedbacks on the climate system. Furthermore, we examine the possible opportunities and challenges of using and sustaining groundwater resources in climate adaptation strategies, and highlight the lack of groundwater observations, which, at present, limits our understanding of the dynamic relationship between ground water and climate.

A method for taxonomy development and its application in information systems

Abstract: A fundamental problem in many disciplines is the classification of objects in a domain of interest into a taxonomy. Developing a taxonomy, however, is a complex process that has not been adequately...

Review of lattice results concerning low-energy particle physics

Abstract: We review lattice results related to pion, kaon, D- and B-meson physics with the aim of making them easily accessible to the particle physics community. More specifically, we report on the determination of the light-quark masses, the form factor f+(0), arising in semileptonic K -> pi transition at zero momentum transfer, as well as the decay constant ratio fK/fpi of decay constants and its consequences for the CKM matrix elements Vus and Vud. Furthermore, we describe the results obtained on the lattice for some of the low-energy constants of SU(2)LxSU(2)R and SU(3)LxSU(3)R Chiral Perturbation Theory and review the determination of the BK parameter of neutral kaon mixing. The inclusion of heavy-quark quantities significantly expands the FLAG scope with respect to the previous review. Therefore, for this review, we focus on D- and B-meson decay constants, form factors, and mixing parameters, since these are most relevant for the determination of CKM matrix elements and the global CKM unitarity-triangle fit. In addition we review the status of lattice determinations of the strong coupling constant alpha_s.

Beyond Resistance! : youth activism and community change : new democratic possibilities for practice and policy for America's youth

Abstract: Section 1: Reframing Youth Resistance: Building Theories of Youth Activism 1. Beyond Policy: Ideology, Race and the Re-imagining of Youth 2. Examining Youth Organizing and Identity-Support: Two Civic Activist Approaches for Engaging Youth in Social Justice 3. Teaching and Learning in Youth Activism: A Case for Youth-Centered Apprenticeships 4. Sociopolitical Development: The Missing Link in Research and Policy on Adolescents 5. The Racial Dimensions of Social Capital: Towards a New Understanding of Youth Empowerment & Community Organizing in America's Urban Core Section 2: Learning for Justice: Innovative Pedagogies for Justice in Schools 6. From Hunger Strike to High School: Youth Development, Social Justice and School Formation 7. Youth Initiated Research as a Tool for Advocacy and Change in Urban Schools 8. 'Best of Both Worlds': Youth Poetry as Social Critique and Form of Empowerment 9. Urban Youth, Media Literacy, and Increased Critical Civic Participation Section 3: Street Corner Democracy: Youth, Civil Society and Community Change 10. From Hip Hop to Humanization: Cafe Teatro Batey Urbano, Latino Youth Culture and Community Action 11. Participation in Social Change: Shifting Adolescents' Developmental Pathways 12. Youth of Color Movement for Juvenile Justice 13. 'Taking Their Own Power': Urban Youth, Community-Based Youth Organizations, and Public Efficacy 14. Taking Charge in Lake Wobegon: Youth, Social Justice, and Anti-Racist Organizing in the Twin Cities Section 4: Perspectives on Youth Civic Engagement and Youth Policies 15. Researching and Resisting: Democratic Policy Research By and For Youth 16. Promoting Citizenship and Activism in Today's Youth, Lonnie Sherrod 17. Youth Policy and Institutional Change 18. Youth Participation for Educational Reform in Low-Income Communities of Colors Conclusion: Youth Agency, Resistance, and Civic Activism: the Public Commitment to Social Justice

Effect of comprehensive lifestyle changes on telomerase activity and telomere length in men with biopsy-proven low-risk prostate cancer: 5-year follow-up of a descriptive pilot study.

Abstract: Summary Background Telomere shortness in human beings is a prognostic marker of ageing, disease, and premature morbidity. We previously found an association between 3 months of comprehensive lifestyle changes and increased telomerase activity in human immune-system cells. We followed up participants to investigate long-term effects. Methods This follow-up study compared ten men and 25 external controls who had biopsy-proven low-risk prostate cancer and had chosen to undergo active surveillance. Eligible participants were enrolled between 2003 and 2007 from previous studies and selected according to the same criteria. Men in the intervention group followed a programme of comprehensive lifestyle changes (diet, activity, stress management, and social support), and the men in the control group underwent active surveillance alone. We took blood samples at 5 years and compared relative telomere length and telomerase enzymatic activity per viable cell with those at baseline, and assessed their relation to the degree of lifestyle changes. Findings Relative telomere length increased from baseline by a median of 0·06 telomere to single-copy gene ratio (T/S)units (IQR–0·05 to 0·11) in the lifestyle intervention group, but decreased in the control group (−0·03 T/S units, −0·05 to 0·03, difference p=0·03). When data from the two groups were combined, adherence to lifestyle changes was significantly associated with relative telomere length after adjustment for age and the length of follow-up (for each percentage point increase in lifestyle adherence score, T/S units increased by 0·07, 95% CI 0·02–0·12, p=0·005). At 5 years, telomerase activity had decreased from baseline by 0·25 (–2·25 to 2·23) units in the lifestyle intervention group, and by 1·08 (–3·25 to 1·86) units in the control group (p=0·64), and was not associated with adherence to lifestyle changes (relative risk 0·93, 95% CI 0·72–1·20, p=0·57). Interpretation Our comprehensive lifestyle intervention was associated with increases in relative telomere length after 5 years of follow-up, compared with controls, in this small pilot study. Larger randomised controlled trials are warranted to confirm this finding. Funding US Department of Defense, NIH/NCI, Furlotti Family Foundation, Bahna Foundation, DeJoria Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, Resnick Foundation, Greenbaum Foundation, Natwin Foundation, Safeway Foundation, Prostate Cancer Foundation.

Toward a Theory of Sustainability Management: Uncovering and Integrating the Nearly Obvious

Abstract: The continuing evolution and increasing salience of the concept and practice of sustainability among individuals, organizations, and societies worldwide appears to warrant the development of conceptual approaches to theories of sustainability management for application to management research, education, and practice While other management theories have been employed by many management scholars to help explain the need for and advancement of sustainability management, none of those theories appear to have the unique features, benefits, opportunities, challenges, or orientations to assist individuals, organizations, and societies to move toward sustainability as much and as soon as appears necessary However, since the consideration of theories of sustainability management is relatively new for most management scholars, the authors hope this article begins a dialogue among those stakeholders to better describe, develop, and apply this and related theories of sustainability management as significantly, effe

Patterns and mechanisms of early Pliocene warmth

Abstract: About five to four million years ago, in the early Pliocene epoch, Earth had a warm, temperate climate. The gradual cooling that followed led to the establishment of modern temperature patterns, possibly in response to a decrease in atmospheric CO2 concentration, of the order of 100 parts per million, towards preindustrial values. Here we synthesize the available geochemical proxy records of sea surface temperature and show that, compared with that of today, the early Pliocene climate had substantially lower meridional and zonal temperature gradients but similar maximum ocean temperatures. Using an Earth system model, we show that none of the mechanisms currently proposed to explain Pliocene warmth can simultaneously reproduce all three crucial features. We suggest that a combination of several dynamical feedbacks underestimated in the models at present, such as those related to ocean mixing and cloud albedo, may have been responsible for these climate conditions.

Structure Matters: Twenty-One Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Engagement and Cultivate Classroom Equity.

Abstract: A host of simple teaching strategies—referred to as “equitable teaching strategies” and rooted in research on learning—can support biology instructors in striving for classroom equity and in teaching all their students, not just those who are already engaged, already participating, and perhaps already know the biology being taught.

Genome of Acanthamoeba castellanii highlights extensive lateral gene transfer and early evolution of tyrosine kinase signaling

Abstract: Background: The Amoebozoa constitute one of the primary divisions of eukaryotes, encompassing taxa of both biomedical and evolutionary importance, yet its genomic diversity remains largely unsampled. Here we present an analysis of a whole genome assembly of Acanthamoeba castellanii (Ac) the first representative from a solitary freeliving amoebozoan. Results: Ac encodes 15,455 compact intron-rich genes, a significant number of which are predicted to have arisen through inter-kingdom lateral gene transfer (LGT). A majority of the LGT candidates have undergone a substantial degree of intronization and Ac appears to have incorporated them into established transcriptional programs. Ac manifests a complex signaling and cell communication repertoire, including a complete tyrosine kinase signaling toolkit and a comparable diversity of predicted extracellular receptors to that found in the facultatively multicellular dictyostelids. An important environmental host of a diverse range of bacteria and viruses, Ac utilizes a diverse repertoire of predicted pattern recognition receptors, many with predicted orthologous functions in the innate immune systems of higher organisms. Conclusions: Our analysis highlights the important role of LGT in the biology of Ac and in the diversification of microbial eukaryotes. The early evolution of a key signaling facility implicated in the evolution of metazoan multicellularity strongly argues for its emergence early in the Unikont lineage. Overall, the availability of an Ac genome should aid in deciphering the biology of the Amoebozoa and facilitate functional genomic studies in this important model organism and environmental host.

Topological creation and destruction of edge states in photonic graphene.

Abstract: We experimentally demonstrate a topological transition of classical light in ``photonic graphene'': an array of waveguides arranged in the honeycomb geometry. As the system is uniaxially strained (compressed), the two unique Dirac points (present in the spectrum of conventional graphene) merge and annihilate each other, and a band gap forms. As a result, edge states are created on the zigzag edge and destroyed on the bearded edge. These results are applicable for any 2D honeycomb-type structure, from carbon-based graphene to photonic lattices and crystals.

Joint Analysis of Cluster Observations: II. Chandra/XMM-Newton X-ray and Weak Lensing Scaling Relations for a Sample of 50 Rich Clusters of Galaxies

Abstract: We present a study of multiwavelength X-ray and weak lensing scaling relations for a sample of 50 clusters of galaxies. Our analysis combines Chandra and XMM-Newton data using an energy-dependent cross-calibration. After considering a number of scaling relations, we find that gas mass is the most robust estimator of weak lensing mass, yielding 15% {plusmn} 6% intrinsic scatter at r_${$500$}$^{}${$WL$}$ (the pseudo-pressure Y$_X$ yields a consistent scatter of 22% {plusmn} 5%). The scatter does not change when measured within a fixed physical radius of 1 Mpc. Clusters with small brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) to X-ray peak offsets constitute a very regular population whose members have the same gas mass fractions and whose even smaller ({lt}10%) deviations from regularity can be ascribed to line of sight geometrical effects alone. Cool-core clusters, while a somewhat different population, also show the same ({lt}10%) scatter in the gas mass-lensing mass relation. There is a good correlation and a hint of bimodality in the plane defined by BCG offset and central entropy (or central cooling time). The pseudo-pressure Y$_X$ does not discriminate between the more relaxed and less relaxed populations, making it perhaps the more even-handed mass proxy for surveys. Overall, hydrostatic masses underestimate weak lensing masses by 10% on the average at r_${$500$}$^{}${$WL$}$; but cool-core clusters are consistent with no bias, while non-cool-core clusters have a large and constant 15%-20% bias between r_${$2500$}$^{}${$WL$}$ and r_${$500$}$^{}${$WL$}$, in agreement with N-body simulations incorporating unthermalized gas. For non-cool-core clusters, the bias correlates well with BCG ellipticity. We also examine centroid shift variance and power ratios to quantify substructure; these quantities do not correlate with residuals in the scaling relations. Individual clusters have for the most part forgotten the source of their departures from self-similarity.

A two-question method for assessing gender categories in the social and medical sciences.

Abstract: Three studies (N = 990) assessed the statistical reliability of two methods of determining gender identity that can capture transgender spectrum identities (i.e., current gender identities different from birth-assigned gender categories). Study 1 evaluated a single question with four response options (female, male, transgender, other) on university students. The missing data rate was higher than the valid response rates for transgender and other options using this method. Study 2 evaluated a method of asking two separate questions (i.e., one for current identity and another for birth-assigned category), with response options specific to each. Results showed no missing data and two times the transgender spectrum response rate compared to Study 1. Study 3 showed that the two-question method also worked in community samples, producing near-zero missing data. The two-question method also identified cisgender identities (same birth-assigned and current gender identity), making it a dynamic and desirable measurement tool for the social and medical sciences.

Physiological Responses to Shifts in Multiple Environmental Stressors: Relevance in a Changing World

Abstract: Population response to global change will depend on responses to a multivariate set of changes in abiotic habitat characteristics and biotic interactions. Organismal biologists seeking to make ecological inferences about the impacts of global change by studying physiological performance have traditionally performed carefully controlled experimental studies that examine one variable at a time. Those studies, while of high value, may not lead to accurate predictions of organismal responses in the natural habitat, where organisms experience concomitant changes in multiple environmental factors. The symposium "Physiological Responses to Simultaneous Shifts in Multiple Environmental Stressors: Relevance in a Changing World" focused on physiological studies in which multiple environmental variables were simultaneously examined and brought together an international group of early-career and established speakers with unique perspectives on studies of multistressors. In doing so, the objective of the symposium was to frame the necessary next steps for increasing predictive capacity of organismal responses to environmental shifts in the natural habitat, establish novel collaborations among researchers actively investigating physiological responses to a multivariate environment, and broaden the number of researchers conducting such studies.

Assessing Cross-Cultural Competence: A Review of Available Tests

Abstract: Recent years have witnessed the emergence of a number of tests that measure cross-cultural competence; yet to date there is no review of their validity and reliability. This article addresses this gap in the literature. We discuss issues associated with evaluation of the content, construct, and ecological validity of such tests, and review the evidence for 10 tests. We evaluate that evidence, draw conclusions about the tests with the best evidence for ecological validity, and provide recommendations for future research in this area.

Comparing Three Methods to Measure a Balanced Time Perspective: The Relationship Between a Balanced Time Perspective and Subjective Well-Being

Abstract: The goals of this study were to determine the relations between having a balanced time perspective (BTP) with various measures of subjective well-being (SWB) and to test how various operationalizations of a BTP might impact the relation between having a BTP and SWB We operationalized a balanced time perspective using: (a) Drake et al’s Time Soc 17(1):47–61, (2008) cut-off-point method, (b) Boniwell et al’s J Posit Psychol 5(1):24–40, (2010) suggestion of using a hierarchical cluster analysis, and (c) a deviation from a balanced time perspective (DBTP; Stolarski et al Time Soc, 2011) The results demonstrated that having a BTP is related to increased satisfaction with life, happiness, positive affect, psychological need satisfaction, self-determination, vitality, and gratitude as well as decreased negative affect Also, the DBTP was the best predictor of SWB We discuss why individuals with a BTP are likely to be happier in life

Social insect genomes exhibit dramatic evolution in gene composition and regulation while preserving regulatory features linked to sociality

Abstract: Genomes of eusocial insects code for dramatic examples of phenotypic plasticity and social organization. We compared the genomes of seven ants, the honeybee, and various solitary insects to examine whether eusocial lineages share distinct features of genomic organization. Each ant lineage contains ∼4000 novel genes, but only 64 of these genes are conserved among all seven ants. Many gene families have been expanded in ants, notably those involved in chemical communication (e.g., desaturases and odorant receptors). Alignment of the ant genomes revealed reduced purifying selection compared with Drosophila without significantly reduced synteny. Correspondingly, ant genomes exhibit dramatic divergence of noncoding regulatory elements; however, extant conserved regions are enriched for novel noncoding RNAs and transcription factor-binding sites. Comparison of orthologous gene promoters between eusocial and solitary species revealed significant regulatory evolution in both cis (e.g., Creb) and trans (e.g., fork head) for nearly 2000 genes, many of which exhibit phenotypic plasticity. Our results emphasize that genomic changes can occur remarkably fast in ants, because two recently diverged leaf-cutter ant species exhibit faster accumulation of species-specific genes and greater divergence in regulatory elements compared with other ants or Drosophila. Thus, while the "socio-genomes" of ants and the honeybee are broadly characterized by a pervasive pattern of divergence in gene composition and regulation, they preserve lineage-specific regulatory features linked to eusociality. We propose that changes in gene regulation played a key role in the origins of insect eusociality, whereas changes in gene composition were more relevant for lineage-specific eusocial adaptations.

Trichodesmium – a widespread marine cyanobacterium with unusual nitrogen fixation properties

Abstract: The last several decades have witnessed dramatic advances in unfolding the diversity and commonality of oceanic diazotrophs and their N2-fixing potential. More recently, substantial progress in diazotrophic cell biology has provided a wealth of information on processes and mechanisms involved. The substantial contribution by the diazotrophic cyanobacterial genus Trichodesmium to the nitrogen influx of the global marine ecosystem is by now undisputable and of paramount ecological importance, while the underlying cellular and molecular regulatory physiology has only recently started to unfold. Here, we explore and summarize current knowledge, related to the optimization of its diazotrophic capacity, from genomics to ecophysiological processes, via, for example, cellular differentiation (diazocytes) and temporal regulations, and suggest cellular research avenues that now ought to be explored.

Optimization or Bricolage? Overcoming Resource Constraints in Global Social Entrepreneurship

Abstract: Resources play a vital role in the development of an entrepreneurial venture. For ventures operating in the public interest, the process of effective resource mobilization can be especially critical to the social mission. However, there has been limited empirical examination of the approaches used by social ventures to mobilize critical resources. We study two processes of resource mobilization—optimization and bricolage, and examine the antecedent conditions that influence a venture's selection of these processes. Our theory predicts that environmental munificence and organizational prominence have U-shaped associations with the use of bricolage and positive associations with the use of optimization. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 202 technology social ventures from 42 countries and discuss implications for the social entrepreneurship and broader entrepreneurship literatures. Copyright © 2013 Strategic Management Society.

Isotropic band gaps and freeform waveguides observed in hyperuniform disordered photonic solids

Abstract: Recently, disordered photonic media and random textured surfaces have attracted increasing attention as strong light diffusers with broadband and wide-angle properties. We report the experimental realization of an isotropic complete photonic band gap (PBG) in a 2D disordered dielectric structure. This structure is designed by a constrained optimization method, which combines advantages of both isotropy due to disorder and controlled scattering properties due to low-density fluctuations (hyperuniformity) and uniform local topology. Our experiments use a modular design composed of Al2O3 walls and cylinders arranged in a hyperuniform disordered network. We observe a complete PBG in the microwave region, in good agreement with theoretical simulations, and show that the intrinsic isotropy of this unique class of PBG materials enables remarkable design freedom, including the realization of waveguides with arbitrary bending angles impossible in photonic crystals. This experimental verification of a complete PBG and realization of functional defects in this unique class of materials demonstrate their potential as building blocks for precise manipulation of photons in planar optical microcircuits and has implications for disordered acoustic and electronic band gap materials.

Read This Article, but Don’t Print It: Organizational Citizenship Behavior Toward the Environment

Abstract: This article contributes to the growing research interest on sustainability-directed citizenship behaviors by helping to develop the construct of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) toward the environment, defined as voluntary behavior not specified in official job descriptions that, through the combined efforts of individual employees, help to make the organization and/or society more sustainable. Hypotheses predict the extent to which employees’ beliefs about their organization and about sustainability in general will be associated with OCBs toward the environment. The hypotheses are tested via a field survey of 733 employees working in a variety of occupations. Regression results indicated that OCBs toward the environment were related to, yet distinct from, OCBs in general, perceived organizational support (POS), affective commitment (AC), and beliefs that sustainability is important both in general and for one’s current organization. The article concludes with theoretical implications for rese...

Detecting Insect Pollinator Declines on Regional and Global Scales

Abstract: Recently there has been considerable concern about declines in bee communities in agricultural and natural habitats. The value of pollination to agriculture, provided primarily by bees, is >$200 billion/year worldwide, and in natural ecosystems it is thought to be even greater. However, no monitoring program exists to accurately detect declines in abundance of insect pollinators; thus, it is difficult to quantify the status of bee communities or estimate the extent of declines. We used data from 11 multiyear studies of bee communities to devise a program to monitor pollinators at regional, national, or international scales. In these studies, 7 different methods for sampling bees were used and bees were sampled on 3 different continents. We estimated that a monitoring program with 200-250 sampling locations each sampled twice over 5 years would provide sufficient power to detect small (2-5%) annual declines in the number of species and in total abundance and would cost U.S.$2,000,000. To detect declines as small as 1% annually over the same period would require >300 sampling locations. Given the role of pollinators in food security and ecosystem function, we recommend establishment of integrated regional and international monitoring programs to detect changes in pollinator communities.

Treating Fossils as Terminal Taxa in Divergence Time Estimation Reveals Ancient Vicariance Patterns in the Palpimanoid Spiders

Abstract: Incorporation of fossils into biogeographic studies can have a profound effect on the conclusions that result, particularly when fossil ranges are nonoverlapping with extant ranges. This is the case in archaeid spiders, where there are known fossils from the Northern Hemisphere, yet all living members are restricted to the Southern Hemisphere. To better understand the biogeographic patterns of archaeid spiders and their palpimanoid relatives, we estimate a dated phylogeny using a relaxed clock on a combined molecular and morphological data set. Dating information is compared with treating the archaeid fossil taxa as both node calibrations and as noncontemporaneous terminal tips, both with and without additional calibration points. Estimation of ancestral biogeographic ranges is then performed, using likelihood and Bayesian methods to take into account uncertainty in phylogeny and in dating. We find that treating the fossils as terminal tips within a Bayesian framework, as opposed to dating the phylogeny based only on molecular data with the dates coming from node calibrations, removes the subjectivity involved in assigning priors, which has not been possible with previous methods. Our analyses suggest that the diversification of the northern and southern archaeid lineages was congruent with the breakup of Pangaea into Laurasia and Gondwanaland. This analysis provides a rare example, and perhaps the most strongly supported, where a dated phylogeny confirms a biogeographical hypothesis based on vicariance due to the breakup of the ancient continental plates. (Biogeography; divergence time estimation; fossils; Gondwana; molecular clock; Pangaea; total evidence; vicariance.)

Continuity and Resurgence: Towards a continuum definition of the C P ( N − 1 ) model

Abstract: We introduce a nonperturbative continuum framework to study the dynamics of quantum field theory (QFT), applied here to the $CP(N\ensuremath{-}1)$ model. We show that the ambiguities in perturbation theory due to infrared renormalons are exactly canceled by corresponding ambiguities in the nonperturbative sector coming from amplitudes of certain nonperturbative objects: neutral bions and bion-antibions. This provides an explicit weak-coupling interpretation of the IR-renormalons. We use \'Ecalle's theory of resurgent trans-series and the physical principle of continuity to continuously connect QFT to quantum mechanics, while preventing all intervening rapid crossovers or phase transitions. The quantum mechanics contains the germ of all nonperturbative data, e.g., mass gap, of the QFT, all of which are calculable. For $CP(N\ensuremath{-}1)$, the results obtained at arbitrary $N$ are consistent with lattice and large-$N$ results. The trans-series expansion, in which perturbative and nonperturbative effects are intertwined, encapsulates the multilength-scale nature of the theory, and eliminates all perturbative and nonperturbative ambiguities under consistent analytic continuation of the coupling. A theorem by Pham et al. implies that the mass gap is a resurgent function, for which resummation of the semiclassical expansion yields finite exact results in the weakly coupled domain.

Issues in Bilingualism and Heritage Language Maintenance: Perspectives of Minority-Language Mothers of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Abstract: Purpose The author investigated the language practices of 10 bilingual, Chinese/English-speaking, immigrant mothers with their children with autism spectrum disorders. The aim was to understand (a)...

Racial and Ethnic Minority College Students' Stigma Associated with Seeking Psychological Help: Examining Psychocultural Correlates.

Abstract: Many college students underuse professional psychological help for mental health difficulties. The stigma associated with seeking such help appears to be one of the reasons for this underuse. Levels of psychological distress and past use of counseling/psychotherapy have been found to be important correlates of stigma associated with seeking psychological help (Obasi & Leong, 2009; Vogel, Wade, & Haake, 2006). For racial and ethnic minorities, the hindering effects of self-stigma and perceived stigmatization by others on treatment seeking may further be compounded by their relationships with their own ethnic groups, with other ethnic groups, and with the dominant society. This study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to test a model that explored the effects of psychological distress and psychocultural variables (i.e., ethnic identity, other-group orientation, perceived discrimination) on perceived stigmatization by others and self-stigma for seeking psychological help, controlling for past use of counseling/psychotherapy. The sample consisted of 260 African American, 166 Asian American, and 183 Latino American students. SEM multigroup analyses indicated measurement invariance, but partial structural invariance, across racial/ethnic groups. Across all 3 groups, higher levels of psychological distress and perceived racial/ethnic discrimination, respectively, predicted higher levels of perceived stigmatization by others for seeking psychological help, which, in turn, predicted greater self-stigma for seeking psychological help. Higher levels of other-group orientation predicted lower levels of self-stigma of seeking psychological help across groups. Higher levels of ethnic identity predicted lower levels of self-stigma of seeking psychological help only for African Americans. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Resurgence theory, ghost-instantons, and analytic continuation of path integrals

Abstract: A general quantum mechanical or quantum field theoretical system in the path integral formulation has both real and complex saddles (instantons and ghost-instantons). Resurgent asymptotic analysis implies that both types of saddles contribute to physical observables, even if the complex saddles are not on the integration path i.e., the associated Stokes multipliers are zero. We show explicitly that instanton-anti-instanton and ghost-anti-ghost saddles both affect the expansion around the perturbative vacuum. We study a self-dual model in which the analytic continuation of the partition function to negative values of coupling constant gives a pathological exponential growth, but a homotopically independent combination of integration cycles (Lefschetz thimbles) results in a sensible theory. These two choices of the integration cycles are tied with a quantum phase transition. The general set of ideas in our construction may provide new insights into non-perturbative QFT, string theory, quantum gravity, and the theory of quantum phase transitions.

The role of locomotion in psychological development.

Abstract: The psychological revolution that follows the onset of independent locomotion in the latter half of the infant's first year provides one of the best illustrations of the intimate connection between action and psychological processes. In this paper, we document some of the dramatic changes in perception-action coupling, spatial cognition, memory, and social and emotional development that follow the acquisition of independent locomotion. We highlight the range of converging research operations that have been used to examine the relation between locomotor experience and psychological development, and we describe recent attempts to uncover the processes that underlie this relation. Finally, we address three important questions about the relation that have received scant attention in the research literature. These questions include: (1) What changes in the brain occur when infants acquire experience with locomotion? (2) What role does locomotion play in the maintenance of psychological function? (3) What implications do motor disabilities have for psychological development? Seeking the answers to these questions can provide rich insights into the relation between action and psychological processes and the general processes that underlie human development.