This Monograph uses a developmental function approach to describe age-related change and individual differences in infant information processing during the first year of life. The Visual Expectation Paradigm (VExP) is used to measure speed of information processing, response variability, and expectancy formation. Eye-movement reaction times and anticipatory saccades were gathered from 13 infants assessed monthly from 2 to 9 months and then again at 12 months. Analysis of response patterns demonstrated the applicability of the paradigm throughout the age range studied. Converging operations strongly indicate that the traditional estimate of the minimum time required for infants to initiate a saccade to a peripheral stimulus may be as much as 100 milliseconds (ms) too long. Moreover, the newly estimated minimum of 133 ms does not appear to change during the 2-12-month period. Reanalysis of the present data and past research reveals that the new, shorter minimum reaction time is unlikely to affect findings based on mean reaction time. However, using the traditional minimum reaction time will inflate estimates of percentage anticipation, especially in infants older than 5 months. Group and individual growth curves are described through quantitative models of four variables: reaction time, standard deviation of reaction time, percentage anticipation, and anticipation latency. Developmental change in reaction time was best described by an asymptotic exponential function, and evidence for a local asymptote during infancy is presented. Variability in reaction time was found to decline with age, independent of mean reaction time, and was best described by a polynomial function with linear and quadratic terms. Anticipation showed little lawful change during any portion of the age span, but latency to anticipate declined linearly throughout the first year. Stability of individual differences was strong between consecutive assessments of mean reaction time. For nonconsecutive assessments, stability was found only for the 6-12-month period. Month-to-month stability was inconsistent for reaction-time variability and weak for both anticipation measures. Analyses of individual differences in growth curves were carried out using random regressions for the polynomial models. The only significant individual difference (in growth curves) was found for reaction-time variability. Parameter estimates from the exponential models for reaction time suggested two or three developmental patterns with different exponential trajectories. This finding indicates that the strong form of the exponential growth hypothesis, which states that processing speed develops at the same rate for all individuals, does not hold for the first year of life. In the concluding chapter, Grice's Variable Criterion Model (Grice, 1968) is used to integrate three key findings: regular age changes in mean reaction time and variability but no age change in the minimum reaction time. It is argued that the rate of growth of sensory-detection information is developmentall...

The presence of domestic violence may limit the effectiveness of interventions to reduce incidence of child abuse and neglect. JAMA. 2000;284:1385-1391.

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WHAT'S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT: Income inequality is positively associated with several adverse child health and well-being outcomes. There is no existing research investigating the relationship between income inequality and child maltreatment rates. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS:This study is the first to demonstrate that increases in income inequality are associated with increases in child maltreatment rates at the county level. abstract OBJECTIVE: To examine the relation between county-level income inequality and rates of child maltreatment. METHODS:Data on substantiated reports of child abuse and neglect from 2005 to 2009 were obtained from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System. County-level data on income inequality and children in poverty were obtained from the American Community Survey. Data for additional control variables were obtained from the American Community Survey and the Health Resources and Services Administration Area Resource File. The Gini coefficient was used as the measure of income inequality. Generalized additive models were estimated to explore linear and nonlinear relations among income inequality, poverty, and child maltreatment. In all models, state was included as a fixed effect to control for statelevel differences in victim rates.RESULTS: Considerable variation in income inequality and child maltreatment rates was found across the 3142 US counties. Income inequality, as well as child poverty rate, was positively and significantly correlated with child maltreatment rates at the county level. Controlling for child poverty, demographic and economic control variables, and state-level variation in maltreatment rates, there was a significant linear effect of inequality on child maltreatment rates (P , .0001). This effect was stronger for counties with moderate to high levels of child poverty. CONCLUSIONS:Higher income inequality across US counties was significantly associated with higher county-level rates of child maltreatment. The findings contribute to the growing literature linking greater income inequality to a range of poor health and well-being outcomes in infants and children. Pediatrics 2014;133:454-461

In the northern Great Lakes region, limestone sediments deposited some 400 million ybp during the Devonian era have experienced erosion, creating karst features such as caves and sinkholes. The groundwater chemical constituents of the shallow seas that produced these rock formations now contribute to the formation of a unique physical (sharp density gradients), chemical (dissolved oxygen-depleted, sulfate-rich) and biological (microbe-dominated) environment in a submerged sinkhole near Middle Island in freshwater Lake Huron. A variety of methods including aerial photography, physico-chemical mapping, time series measurements, remotely operated vehicle (ROV) survey, diver observations and bathymetric mapping were employed to obtain a preliminary understanding of sinkhole features and to observe physical interactions of the system's groundwater with Lake Huron. High conductivity ground water of relatively constant temperature hugs the sinkhole floor creating a distinct sub-ecosystem within this Great Lakes ecosystem. Extensive photosynthetic purple cyanobacterial benthic mats that characterize the benthos of this shallow sinkhole were strictly limited to the zone of ground water influence.