York University

About: York University is a education organization based out in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Politics. The organization has 18899 authors who have published 43357 publications receiving 1568560 citations.

Global-Local and Trail-Making Tasks by Monolingual and Bilingual Children: Beyond Inhibition

Abstract: In three experiments, a total of 151 monolingual and bilingual 6-year-olds performed similarly on measures of language and cognitive ability but bilinguals solved the global-local and trail-making tasks more rapidly than monolinguals. This bilingual advantage was found not only for the traditionally demanding conditions, incongruent global-local trials and Trails B, but also for the conditions not usually considered to be cognitively demanding, congruent global-local trials and Trails A. All the children performed similarly when congruent trials were presented in a single block or perceptually simple stimuli were used, ruling out speed differences between the groups. The results demonstrate a bilingual advantage in processing complex stimuli in tasks that require executive processing components for conflict resolution, including switching and updating, even when no inhibition appears to be involved. They also suggest that simple conditions of the trail-making and global-local tasks involve some level of effortful processing for young children. Finally, the bilingual advantage in the trail-making task suggests that the interpretation of standardized measures of executive control needs to be reconsidered for children with specific experiences such as bilingualism.

Quasar clustering from sdss dr5: dependences on physical properties

Abstract: Using a homogenous sample of 38,208 quasars with a sky coverage of ~4000 deg2 drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release Five quasar catalog, we study the dependence of quasar clustering on luminosity, virial black hole (BH) mass, quasar color, and radio loudness. At z < 2.5, quasar clustering depends weakly on luminosity and virial BH mass, with typical uncertainty levels ~10% for the measured correlation lengths. These weak dependences are consistent with models in which substantial scatter between quasar luminosity, virial BH mass, and the host dark matter halo mass has diluted any clustering difference, where halo mass is assumed to be the relevant quantity that best correlates with clustering strength. However, the most luminous and most massive quasars are more strongly clustered (at the ~2σ level) than the remainder of the sample, which we attribute to the rapid increase of the bias factor at the high-mass end of host halos. We do not observe a strong dependence of clustering strength on quasar colors within our sample. On the other hand, radio-loud quasars are more strongly clustered than are radio-quiet quasars matched in redshift and optical luminosity (or virial BH mass), consistent with local observations of radio galaxies and radio-loud type 2 active galactic nuclei. Thus, radio-loud quasars reside in more massive and denser environments in the biased halo clustering picture. Using the Sheth et al. (2001) formula for the linear halo bias, the estimated host halo mass for radio-loud quasars is ~1013 h –1 M ☉, compared to ~2 × 1012 h –1 M ☉ for radio-quiet quasar hosts at z ~ 1.5.

Are metabolically normal but obese individuals at lower risk for all-cause mortality?

Abstract: OBJECTIVE The clinical relevance of the metabolically normal but obese phenotype for mortality risk is unclear. This study examines the risk for all-cause mortality in metabolically normal and abnormal obese (MNOB and MAOB, respectively) individuals. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The sample included 6,011 men and women from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) with public-access mortality data linkage (follow-up = 8.7 ± 0.2 years; 292 deaths). Metabolically abnormal was defined as insulin resistance (IR) or two or more metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) criteria (excluding waist). RESULTS A total of 30% of obese subjects had IR, and 38.4% had two or more MetSyn factors, whereas only 6.0% (or 1.6% of the whole population) were free from both IR and all MetSyn factors. By MetSyn factors or IR alone, MNOB subjects (hazard ratio [HR] MetSyn 2.80 [1.18–6.65]; HR IR 2.58 [1.00–6.65]) and MAOB subjects (HR MetSyn 2.74 [1.46–5.15]; HR IR 3.09 [1.55–6.15]) had similar elevations in mortality risk compared with metabolically normal, normal weight subjects. CONCLUSIONS Although a rare phenotype, obesity, even in the absence of overt metabolic aberrations, is associated with increased all-cause mortality risk.

Effects of a realistic job preview on job acceptance, job attitudes, and job survival

Abstract: A field experiment was conducted in a telephone company to assess the effects of a realistic job preview vs an unrealistic (i.e., “traditional”) preview. Of 80 newly hired female telephone operators, those who saw a realistic job preview film subsequently had more realistic job expectations, fewer t

Purpose in Life, Satisfaction With Life, and Suicide Ideation in a Clinical Sample

Abstract: This study examined the role of purpose in life and satisfaction with life in protecting against suicide ideation in a clinical psychiatric sample. Forty-nine psychiatric patients completed self-report measures of suicide ideation, purpose in life, satisfaction with life, neuroticism, depression, and social hopelessness. Zero-order correlations indicated significant associations between suicide ideation and the various predictors, in the hypothesized directions. Regression analyses illustrated that purpose in life and satisfaction with life accounted for significant additional variability in suicide ideation scores above and beyond that accounted for by the negative psychological factors alone. Purpose in life also mediated the relation between satisfaction with life and suicide ideation and moderated the relation between depression and suicide ideation. These findings demonstrate the potential value of attending to both resilience and pathology when building predictive models of suicide ideation and of attending to key existential themes when assessing and treating suicidal individuals.