Ordered Delinquency: The “Effects” of Birth Order On Delinquency

Science.gov (United States)

Cundiff, Patrick R.

2014-01-01

Juvenile delinquency has long been associated with birth order in popular culture. While images of the middle child acting out for attention or the rebellious youngest child readily spring to mind, little research has attempted to explain why. Drawing from Adlerian birth order theory and Sulloway's born to rebel hypothesis I examine the relationship between birth order and a variety of delinquent outcomes during adolescence. Following some recent research on birth order and intelligence, I use new methods that allow for the examination of both between-individual and within-family differences to better address the potential spurious relationship. My findings suggest that contrary to popular belief the relationship between birth order and delinquency is spurious. Specifically, I find that birth order effects on delinquency are spurious and largely products of the analytic methods used in previous tests of the relationship. The implications of this finding are discussed. PMID:23719623

Birth Order, Schooling, and Earnings.

OpenAIRE

Behrman, Jere R; Taubman, Paul

1986-01-01

Birth-order effects are posited by many to affect earnings and schooling. The authors show how such effects can be interpreted to shift either the earnings possibility frontier for siblings or parental preferences. The authors find empirical evidence for birth- order effects on (age-adjusted) schooling and on earnings for young U.S. adults, though the latter is not robust for all specifications. The examination of intrahousehold allocations suggests that these birth-order differences occur, d...

Intelligence, birth order, and family size.

Science.gov (United States)

Kanazawa, Satoshi

2012-09-01

The analysis of the National Child Development Study in the United Kingdom (n = 17,419) replicates some earlier findings and shows that genuine within-family data are not necessary to make the apparent birth-order effect on intelligence disappear. Birth order is not associated with intelligence in between-family data once the number of siblings is statistically controlled. The analyses support the admixture hypothesis, which avers that the apparent birth-order effect on intelligence is an artifact of family size, and cast doubt on the confluence and resource dilution models, both of which claim that birth order has a causal influence on children's cognitive development. The analyses suggest that birth order has no genuine causal effect on general intelligence.

Methodology, Birth Order, Intelligence, and Personality.

Science.gov (United States)

Michalski, Richard L.; Shackelford, Todd K.

2001-01-01

Critiques recent research on the effects of birth order on intelligence and personality, which found that the between-family design revealed that birth order negatively related to intelligence, while the within-family design revealed that birth order was unrelated to intelligence. Suggests that it may not be intelligence that co-varies with birth…

Birth order, family configuration, and verbal achievement.

Science.gov (United States)

Breland, H M

1974-12-01

Two samples of National Merit Scholarship participants test in 1962 and the entire population of almost 800,000 participants tested in 1965 were examined. Consistent effects in all 3 groups were observed with respect to both birth order and family size (1st born and those of smaller families scored higher). Control of both socioeconomic variables and maternal age, by analysis of variance as well as by analysis of covariance, failed to alter the relationships. Stepdown analyses suggested that the effects were due to a verbal component and that no differences were attributable to nonverbal factors. Mean test scores were computed for detailed sibship configurations based on birth order, family size, sibling spacing, and sibling sex.

Birth order and hospitalization for alcohol and narcotics use in Sweden.

Science.gov (United States)

Barclay, Kieron; Myrskylä, Mikko; Tynelius, Per; Berglind, Daniel; Rasmussen, Finn

2016-10-01

Previous studies have shown that birth order is an important predictor of later life health as well as socioeconomic attainment. In this study, we examine the relationship between birth order and hospitalization for alcohol and narcotics use in Sweden. We study the relationship between birth order and hospitalization related to alcohol and narcotics use before and after the age of 20 using Swedish register data for cohorts born 1987-1994. We apply Cox proportional hazard models and use sibling fixed effects, eliminating confounding by factors shared by the siblings. Before age 20 we find that later born siblings are hospitalized for alcohol use at a higher rate than first-borns, and there is a monotonic increase in the hazard of hospitalization with increasing birth order. Second-borns are hospitalized at a rate 47% higher than first-borns, and third-borns at a rate 65% higher. Similar patterns are observed for hospitalization for narcotics use. After age 20 the pattern is similar, but the association is weaker. These patterns are consistent across various sibling group sizes. Later born siblings are more likely to be hospitalized for both alcohol and narcotics use in Sweden. These birth order effects are substantial in size, and larger than the estimated sex differences for the risk of hospitalization related to alcohol and drug use before age 20, and previous estimates for socioeconomic status differences in alcohol and drug abuse. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Birth order and selected work-related personality variables.

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, A S; Bedeian, A G; Mossholder, K W; Touliatos, J

1988-12-01

A possible link between birth order and various individual characteristics (e. g., intelligence, potential eminence, need for achievement, sociability) has been suggested by personality theorists such as Adler for over a century. The present study examines whether birth order is associated with selected personality variables that may be related to various work outcomes. 3 of 7 hypotheses were supported and the effect sizes for these were small. Firstborns scored significantly higher than later borns on measures of dominance, good impression, and achievement via conformity. No differences between firstborns and later borns were found in managerial potential, work orientation, achievement via independence, and sociability. The study's sample consisted of 835 public, government, and industrial accountants responding to a national US survey of accounting professionals. The nature of the sample may have been partially responsible for the results obtained. Its homogeneity may have caused any birth order effects to wash out. It can be argued that successful membership in the accountancy profession requires internalization of a set of prescribed rules and standards. It may be that accountants as a group are locked in to a behavioral framework. Any differentiation would result from spurious interpersonal differences, not from predictable birth-order related characteristics. A final interpretation is that birth order effects are nonexistent or statistical artifacts. Given the present data and particularistic sample, however, the authors have insufficient information from which to draw such a conclusion.

Birth order and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Green, Ben; Griffiths, Emily C

2014-01-01

To compare the birth order of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and adjustment disorder (AD) with population norms. 83 PTSD patients and 104 AD control patients from a psychiatric trauma clinic were diagnosed according to DCR-10 guidelines. A family history was taken as to number of siblings, and their birth order. We compared the distribution of birth order for each patient group against birth order distributions expected by chance for the same years of birth using UK population-level birth order from the Office for National Statistics. Psychiatric patients with PTSD were more likely to be from a large family, specifically to be the fifth child or later (OR 4.78, p birth order between AD patients and the general population. People with PTSD are more likely to be the youngest children from large families than expected from a random sample of people born in the same years. This association with birth order was not found for another psychiatric diagnosis AD from the same clinic. We discuss possible psychosocial and biological causes, and implications for further research.

BIRTH ORDER AMONG NORTHERN INDIAN MEDICAL STUDENTS

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Vinay Agarwal

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Background: Birth order is claimed to be linked with academic achievement. However, many scientists do not accept it. Objective: To assess the association of birth order in North Indian medical students with number of attempts to cross the competition bar. Study design: Cross sectional study. Setting and participation: M.B.B.S. 1st year students of L.L.R.M. Medical College, Meerut. Statistical analysis used: Chi Square test. Methods: Enquiry of Birth order and number of attempts to crack the medical entrance examination from responded 360 medical students among 494 students admitted during 2005 – 2010. Results: The study revealed insignificant relationship between ages of entrance in medical college in both sexes. of 360 students responded 37% students were of first Birth order. Among those admitted in first attempt, 67% students were of first birth order and proportion of success in first attempt reduced with increasing birth order. Conclusion: Birth Order strongly influences academic achievements.

Birth order and myopia.

Science.gov (United States)

Guggenheim, Jeremy A; McMahon, George; Northstone, Kate; Mandel, Yossi; Kaiserman, Igor; Stone, Richard A; Lin, Xiaoyu; Saw, Seang Mei; Forward, Hannah; Mackey, David A; Yazar, Seyhan; Young, Terri L; Williams, Cathy

2013-12-01

An association between birth order and reduced unaided vision (a surrogate for myopia) has been observed previously. We examined the association between birth order and myopia directly in four subject groups. Subject groups were participants in (1) the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC; UK; age 15 years; N = 4401), (2) the Singapore Cohort Study of Risk Factors for Myopia (SCORM; Singapore; age 13 years; N = 1959), (3) the Raine Eye Health Study (REHS; Australia; age 20 years; N = 1344), and (4) Israeli Defense Force Pre-recruitment Candidates (IDFC; Israel; age 16-22 years; N = 888,277). The main outcome was odds ratios (OR) for myopia in first-born versus non-first-born individuals after adjusting for potential risk factors. The prevalence of myopia was numerically higher in first-born versus non-first-born individuals in all study groups, but the strength of evidence varied widely. Adjusted ORs (95% confidence intervals, CIs) were: ALSPAC, 1.31 (1.05-1.64); SCORM, 1.25 (0.89-1.77); REHS, 1.18 (0.90-1.55); and IDFC, 1.04 (1.03-1.06). In the large IDFC sample, the effect size was greater (a) for the first-born versus fourth- or higher-born comparison than for the first-born versus second/third-born comparison (p 4000 participants provided strong statistical support for the association. The available evidence suggested the relationship was independent of established risk factors such as time outdoors/reading, and thus may arise through a different causal mechanism.

Birth Order, Family Configuration, and Verbal Achievement

Science.gov (United States)

Breland, Hunter M.

1974-01-01

An examination of two samples of National Merit Scholarship participants tested in 1962 and almost all participants (800,000) tested in 1965. Consistent effects in all three groups were observed with respect to both birth order and family size (firstborn and those of smaller families scored higher). (Author/SDH)

Education, Birth Order, and Family Size

OpenAIRE

Bagger, Jesper; Birchenall, Javier A.; Mansour, Hani; Urzua, Sergio

2013-01-01

We introduce a general framework to analyze the trade-off between education and family size. Our framework incorporates parental preferences for birth order and delivers theoretically consistent birth order and family size effects on children's educational attainment. We develop an empirical strategy to identify these effects. We show that the coefficient on family size in a regression of educational attainment on birth order and family size does not identify the family size effect as defined...

Relationship between birth order and birth weight of the pig

OpenAIRE

Charneca, Rui; Freitas, Amadeu; Nunes, José; Le Dividich, Jean

2013-01-01

The objective of this study was to determine whether birth weight of the pig is related to its birth order. The study involved 292 sows from 2 genotypes (Large White x Landrace crossbred (LL), n= 247 and Alentejano (AL), n=45) of mixed parity and their piglets. Most sows farrowed naturally. Each piglet was identified, weighed (± 1g) (mummies excepted) and its birth order (BO) recorded within 2 min of birth. A total of 3418 LL and 375 AL piglets were born of which 43 and 7 were mummified, a...

Association between order of birth and chronic malnutrition of children: a study of nationally representative Bangladeshi sample.

Science.gov (United States)

Rahman, Mosfequr

2016-02-01

This paper examines the net effect of birth order on child nutritional status in Bangladesh using data from the Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey, 2011 (BDHS). Analyses were restricted to 4,120 surviving, lastborn singleton children who were younger than 36 months at the time of the survey. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between birth order and child nutritional status. Results indicate 38.1% children are stunted and 8.2% children are fifth or higher order birth. Order of birth is one of the significant predictors of child being stunted. Third order, fourth order, and fifth or higher order children are 24%, 30%, and 72%, respectively, more likely to be stunted after adjusting for all other variables. Besides birth order, results also indicate that child age, size at birth, birth intention, maternal education, maternal body mass index, wealth index, place of residence and mass media access exert strong influences over child malnutrition. Reducing birth rates which limit number of births and birth order as well may reduce child malnutrition in Bangladesh.

Association between order of birth and chronic malnutrition of children: a study of nationally representative Bangladeshi sample

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mosfequr Rahman

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract This paper examines the net effect of birth order on child nutritional status in Bangladesh using data from the Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey, 2011 (BDHS. Analyses were restricted to 4,120 surviving, lastborn singleton children who were younger than 36 months at the time of the survey. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between birth order and child nutritional status. Results indicate 38.1% children are stunted and 8.2% children are fifth or higher order birth. Order of birth is one of the significant predictors of child being stunted. Third order, fourth order, and fifth or higher order children are 24%, 30%, and 72%, respectively, more likely to be stunted after adjusting for all other variables. Besides birth order, results also indicate that child age, size at birth, birth intention, maternal education, maternal body mass index, wealth index, place of residence and mass media access exert strong influences over child malnutrition. Reducing birth rates which limit number of births and birth order as well may reduce child malnutrition in Bangladesh.

Parental age and birth order in Chinese children with congenital heart disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Tay, J S; Yip, W C; Joseph, R

1982-01-01

Parental age and birth order were studied in 100 Chinese children with congenital heart disease (proven by cardiac catheterisation) and in 100 controls. A higher incidence of congenital heart disease was present in the children with higher birth orders. No relationship was found between the incidence and the paternal or maternal ages. Using the method of multiple regression analysis this birth order effect was significant (p less than 0.01) and independent of parental age. This finding provides indirect evidence of environmental influence in the causation of congenital heart disease, which is known to be inherited in a multifactorial manner. Family planning to limit the size of the family may possibly contribute to the reduction of the incidence of congenital heart disease. PMID:7154041

The Effect of Birth Order on Roommate Compatibility

Science.gov (United States)

Schuh, John H.; Williams, Ondre J.

1977-01-01

A group of students were matched on the basis of compatible birth order; another was matched on the basis of conflicting birth order. After a month's experience in a residence hall their compatibility was examined. Students with conflicting birth order were more compatible than those with the same birth order. (Author)

Birth-Order Complementarity and Marital Adjustment.

Science.gov (United States)

Vos, Cornelia J. Vanderkooy; Hayden, Delbert J.

1985-01-01

Tested the influence of birth-order complementarity on marital adjustment among 327 married women using the Spanier Dyadic Adjustment Scale (1976). Birth-order complementarity was found to be unassociated with marital adjustment. (Author/BL)

Birth order and health of newborns

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brenøe, Anne Ardila; Molitor, Ramona

2017-01-01

We examine birth order differences in health of newborns and follow the children throughout childhood using high-quality administrative data on individuals born in Denmark between 1981 and 2010. Family fixed effects models show a positive and robust effect of birth order on health at birth......; firstborn children are less healthy at birth. During earlier pregnancies, women are more likely to smoke, receive more prenatal care, and are more likely to suffer a medical pregnancy complication, suggesting worse maternal health. We further show that the health disadvantage of firstborns persists...

Linking high parity and maternal and child mortality: what is the impact of lower health services coverage among higher order births?

Science.gov (United States)

Sonneveldt, Emily; DeCormier Plosky, Willyanne; Stover, John

2013-01-01

A number of data sets show that high parity births are associated with higher child mortality than low parity births. The reasons for this relationship are not clear. In this paper we investigate whether high parity is associated with lower coverage of key health interventions that might lead to increased mortality. We used DHS data from 10 high fertility countries to examine the relationship between parity and coverage for 8 child health intervention and 9 maternal health interventions. We also used the LiST model to estimate the effect on maternal and child mortality of the lower coverage associated with high parity births. Our results show a significant relationship between coverage of maternal and child health services and birth order, even when controlling for poverty. The association between coverage and parity for maternal health interventions was more consistently significant across countries all countries, while for child health interventions there were fewer overall significant relationships and more variation both between and within countries. The differences in coverage between children of parity 3 and those of parity 6 are large enough to account for a 12% difference in the under-five mortality rate and a 22% difference in maternal mortality ratio in the countries studied. This study shows that coverage of key health interventions is lower for high parity children and the pattern is consistent across countries. This could be a partial explanation for the higher mortality rates associated with high parity. Actions to address this gap could help reduce the higher mortality experienced by high parity birth.

Birth Order and Child Cognitive Outcomes: An Exploration of the Parental Time Mechanism

Science.gov (United States)

Monfardini, Chiara; See, Sarah Grace

2016-01-01

Higher birth order positions are associated with poorer outcomes due to smaller shares of resources received within the household. Using a sample of Panel Study of Income Dynamics-Child Development Supplement children, we investigate if the negative birth order effect we find in cognitive outcomes is due to unequal allocation of mother and father…

The German Birth Order Register - order-specific data generated from perinatal statistics and statistics on out-of-hospital births 2001-2008

OpenAIRE

Michaela Kreyenfeld; Rembrandt D. Scholz; Frederik Peters; Ines Wlosnewski

2010-01-01

Until 2008, Germany’s vital statistics did not include information on the biological order of each birth. This resulted in a dearth of important demographic indicators, such as the mean age at first birth and the level of childlessness. Researchers have tried to fill this gap by generating order-specific birth rates from survey data, and by combining survey data with vital statistics. This paper takes a different approach by using hospital statistics on births to generate birth order-specific...

Birth order, sibship size, and risk for germ-cell testicular cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Richiardi, Lorenzo; Akre, Olof; Lambe, Mats; Granath, Fredrik; Montgomery, Scott M; Ekbom, Anders

2004-05-01

Several studies have reported an inverse association between birth order and testicular cancer risk, but estimates vary greatly and the biologic mechanism underlying the association is not established. We have evaluated the effect of birth order, sibship size, and the combined effect of these 2 variables in relation to risk for testicular cancer in a large, nested case-control study. Specifically, we compared 3051 patients with germ-cell testicular cancer (diagnosed between 1958 and 1998 and identified through the Swedish Cancer Registry) with 9007 population control subjects. Using record linkage with the Multi-Generation Register and the Census, we obtained information on number, order, and sex of the subjects' siblings, parental age, and paternal socioeconomic status. Both birth order and sibship size had an inverse and monotonically decreasing association with testicular cancer risk after adjusting for parental age, paternal socioeconomic status, and twin status. The associations were modified by subjects' cohort of birth and were not present among those born after 1959. The odds ratio for having at least 3 siblings, compared with none, was 0.63 (95% confidence interval = 0.53-0.75) among subjects born before 1960. Stratified analyses showed that birth order and number of younger siblings had a similar inverse association with the risk for testicular cancer. Sibship size, and not only birth order, is associated with testicular cancer risk. This suggests a higher prevalence of parental subfertility among patients with testicular cancer.

Birth Order, Family Size and Educational Attainment

Science.gov (United States)

de Haan, Monique

2010-01-01

This paper investigates the effect of family size and birth order on educational attainment. An instrumental variables approach is used to identify the effect of family size. Instruments for the number of children are twins at last birth and the sex mix of the first two children. The effect of birth order is identified, by examining the relation…

The Relationship between Birth Order and Academic Achievement.

Science.gov (United States)

Cherry, Crystal M.

This paper reviews the literature on the relationship between birth order and several variables, especially academic achievement. One study found a relationship between leadership skills and birth order for males. Several studies found no relationship between birth order and academic achievement; grade point average; self-esteem; locus of control…

Perinatal mortality in second- vs firstborn twins: a matter of birth size or birth order?

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Zhong-Cheng; Ouyang, Fengxiu; Zhang, Jun; Klebanoff, Mark

2014-08-01

Second-born twins on average weigh less than first-born twins and have been reported at an elevated risk of perinatal mortality. Whether the risk differences depend on their relative birth size is unknown. The present study aimed to evaluate the association of birth order with perinatal mortality by birth order-specific weight difference in twin pregnancies. In a retrospective cohort study of 258,800 twin pregnancies without reported congenital anomalies using the US matched multiple birth data 1995-2000 (the available largest multiple birth dataset), conditional logistic regression was applied to estimate the odds ratio (OR) of perinatal death adjusted for fetus-specific characteristics (sex, presentation, and birthweight for gestational age). Comparing second vs first twins, the risks of perinatal death were similar if they had similar birthweights (within 5%) and were increasingly higher if second twins weighed progressively less (adjusted ORs were 1.37, 1.90, and 3.94 if weighed 5.0-14.9%, 15.0-24.9%, and ≥25.0% less, respectively), and progressively lower if they weighed increasingly more (adjusted ORs were 0.67, 0.63, and 0.36 if weighed 5.0-14.9%, 15.0-24.9%, and ≥25.0% more, respectively) (all P birth size. Vaginal delivery at term is associated with a substantially greater risk of perinatal mortality in second twins. Copyright © 2014 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Birth order and risk of non-hodgkin lymphoma--true association or bias?

Science.gov (United States)

Grulich, Andrew E; Vajdic, Claire M; Falster, Michael O; Kane, Eleanor; Smedby, Karin Ekstrom; Bracci, Paige M; de Sanjose, Silvia; Becker, Nikolaus; Turner, Jenny; Martinez-Maza, Otoniel; Melbye, Mads; Engels, Eric A; Vineis, Paolo; Costantini, Adele Seniori; Holly, Elizabeth A; Spinelli, John J; La Vecchia, Carlo; Zheng, Tongzhang; Chiu, Brian C H; Franceschi, Silvia; Cocco, Pierluigi; Maynadié, Marc; Foretova, Lenka; Staines, Anthony; Brennan, Paul; Davis, Scott; Severson, Richard K; Cerhan, James R; Breen, Elizabeth C; Birmann, Brenda; Cozen, Wendy

2010-09-15

There is inconsistent evidence that increasing birth order may be associated with risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The authors examined the association between birth order and related variables and NHL risk in a pooled analysis (1983-2005) of 13,535 cases and 16,427 controls from 18 case-control studies within the International Lymphoma Epidemiology Consortium (InterLymph). Overall, the authors found no significant association between increasing birth order and risk of NHL (P-trend = 0.082) and significant heterogeneity. However, a significant association was present for a number of B- and T-cell NHL subtypes. There was considerable variation in the study-specific risks which was partly explained by study design and participant characteristics. In particular, a significant positive association was present in population-based studies, which had lower response rates in cases and controls, but not in hospital-based studies. A significant positive association was present in higher-socioeconomic-status (SES) participants only. Results were very similar for the related variable of sibship size. The known correlation of high birth order with low SES suggests that selection bias related to SES may be responsible for the association between birth order and NHL.

Examining the effects of birth order on personality.

Science.gov (United States)

Rohrer, Julia M; Egloff, Boris; Schmukle, Stefan C

2015-11-17

This study examined the long-standing question of whether a person's position among siblings has a lasting impact on that person's life course. Empirical research on the relation between birth order and intelligence has convincingly documented that performances on psychometric intelligence tests decline slightly from firstborns to later-borns. By contrast, the search for birth-order effects on personality has not yet resulted in conclusive findings. We used data from three large national panels from the United States (n = 5,240), Great Britain (n = 4,489), and Germany (n = 10,457) to resolve this open research question. This database allowed us to identify even very small effects of birth order on personality with sufficiently high statistical power and to investigate whether effects emerge across different samples. We furthermore used two different analytical strategies by comparing siblings with different birth-order positions (i) within the same family (within-family design) and (ii) between different families (between-family design). In our analyses, we confirmed the expected birth-order effect on intelligence. We also observed a significant decline of a 10th of a SD in self-reported intellect with increasing birth-order position, and this effect persisted after controlling for objectively measured intelligence. Most important, however, we consistently found no birth-order effects on extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, or imagination. On the basis of the high statistical power and the consistent results across samples and analytical designs, we must conclude that birth order does not have a lasting effect on broad personality traits outside of the intellectual domain.

Birth order and risk of childhood cancer: a pooled analysis from five US States.

Science.gov (United States)

Von Behren, Julie; Spector, Logan G; Mueller, Beth A; Carozza, Susan E; Chow, Eric J; Fox, Erin E; Horel, Scott; Johnson, Kimberly J; McLaughlin, Colleen; Puumala, Susan E; Ross, Julie A; Reynolds, Peggy

2011-06-01

The causes of childhood cancers are largely unknown. Birth order has been used as a proxy for prenatal and postnatal exposures, such as frequency of infections and in utero hormone exposures. We investigated the association between birth order and childhood cancers in a pooled case-control dataset. The subjects were drawn from population-based registries of cancers and births in California, Minnesota, New York, Texas and Washington. We included 17,672 cases confidence intervals using logistic regression, adjusted for sex, birth year, maternal race, maternal age, multiple birth, gestational age and birth weight. Overall, we found an inverse relationship between childhood cancer risk and birth order. For children in the fourth or higher birth order category compared to first-born children, the adjusted OR was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.81, 0.93) for all cancers combined. When we examined risks by cancer type, a decreasing risk with increasing birth order was seen in the central nervous system tumors, neuroblastoma, bilateral retinoblastoma, Wilms tumor and rhabdomyosarcoma. We observed increased risks with increasing birth order for acute myeloid leukemia but a slight decrease in risk for acute lymphoid leukemia. These risk estimates were based on a very large sample size, which allowed us to examine rare cancer types with greater statistical power than in most previous studies, however the biologic mechanisms remain to be elucidated. Copyright © 2010 UICC.

Systemic sclerosis, birth order and parity.

Science.gov (United States)

Russo, Paul A J; Lester, Susan; Roberts-Thomson, Peter J

2014-06-01

A recent study identified increasing birth order to be a risk factor for the development of systemic sclerosis (SSc). This finding supports the theory that transplacental microchimerism may be a key pathological event in the initiation of SSc. We investigated the relationship between birth order and parity and the age of onset of SSc in South Australia. A retrospective analysis of patient data in the South Australian Scleroderma Register was performed. Data were obtained from a mailed questionnaire. Control data was collected prospectively using a similar questionnaire. The relationship between birth order, family size or parity and risk of subsequent development of SSc was analyzed by mixed effects logistic regression analysis. Three hundred and eighty-seven index probands were identified and compared with 457 controls. Controls were well matched for gender, but not for age. No statistically significant relationship was identified between SSc and birth order, parity in females, family size, age at first pregnancy in females or gender of first child in parous females. Our data suggests that parity, age at first pregnancy and the gender of the first child are not relevant factors in our understanding of the epidemiology and pathogenesis of SSc. Birth order and family size in both genders also appears irrelevant. These results argue against microchimerism as being relevant in the pathogenesis of SSc and add further support to the theory that stochastic events may be important in the etiopathogenesis of SSc. © 2013 Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Birth order in a contemporary sample of gay men.

Science.gov (United States)

Purcell, D W; Blanchard, R; Zucker, K J

2000-08-01

The birth order of a contemporary North American sample of 97 gay men was quantified using Slater's Index. For the 84 probands with at least one sibling, the results showed a late mean birth order compared with the expected value of .50. Additional birth order indices derived from Slater's Index suggested that the mean later birth order was accounted for more strongly by the proband's number of older brothers than by his number of older sisters. The present findings constitute a replication of a series of recent studies and add to the growing body of evidence that birth order is a reliable correlate of sexual orientation in males.

221 THE ROLE OF BIRTH ORDER IN SUBSTANCE RELATED ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

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centre. The second objective was to investigate whether psychological birth order (a .... Figure 1: A Bar graph presenting frequencies for Ordinal Birth Order. N. Mean. SD. .... children on ground of birth order or on whatever basis. By making ...

Birth Order, Family Size and Educational Attainment

OpenAIRE

Monique de Haan

2005-01-01

This paper investigates the effect of sibship size and birth order on educational attainment, for the United States and the Netherlands. An instrumental variables approach is used to identify the effect of sibship size. Instruments for the number of children are twins at last birth and the sex mix of the first two children. The effect of birth order is identified, by examining the relation with years of education for different family sizes separately; this avoids the problem that estimated ef...

Multiple sclerosis and birth order.

OpenAIRE

James, W H

1984-01-01

Studies on the birth order of patients with multiple sclerosis have yielded contradictory conclusions. Most of the sets of data, however, have been tested by biased tests. Data that have been submitted to unbiased tests seem to suggest that cases are more likely to occur in early birth ranks. This should be tested on further samples and some comments are offered on how this should be done.

Risk attitudes and birth order.

Science.gov (United States)

Krause, Philipp; Heindl, Johannes; Jung, Andreas; Langguth, Berthold; Hajak, Göran; Sand, Philipp G

2014-07-01

Risk attitudes play important roles in health behavior and everyday decision making. It is unclear, however, whether these attitudes can be predicted from birth order. We investigated 200 mostly male volunteers from two distinct settings. After correcting for multiple comparisons, for the number of siblings and for confounding by gender, ordinal position predicted perception of health-related risks among participants in extreme sports (p < .01). However, the direction of the effect contradicted Adlerian theory. Except for alcohol consumption, these findings extended to self-reported risk behavior. Together, the data call for a cautious stand on the impact of birth order on risk attitudes. © The Author(s) 2013.

Multiple sclerosis and birth order.

Science.gov (United States)

James, W H

1984-01-01

Studies on the birth order of patients with multiple sclerosis have yielded contradictory conclusions. Most of the sets of data, however, have been tested by biased tests. Data that have been submitted to unbiased tests seem to suggest that cases are more likely to occur in early birth ranks. This should be tested on further samples and some comments are offered on how this should be done. PMID:6707558

Birth order, family size and educational attainment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Haan, M.

2010-01-01

This paper investigates the effect of family size and birth order on educational attainment. An instrumental variables approach is used to identify the effect of family size. Instruments for the number of children are twins at last birth and the sex mix of the first two children. The effect of birth

Birth Order and Activity Level in Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Eaton, Warren O.; And Others

1989-01-01

Studied 7,018 children between birth and 7 years and 81 children of 5-8 years to test the hypothesis that birth order is negatively related to motor activity level. Activity level declined linearly across birth position, so that early-borns were rated as more active than later-borns. (RJC)

Birth Order and Openness to Experience: Brief communication

OpenAIRE

Silvio José Lemos Vasconcellos; Felipe Valentini; Nelson Hauck Filho; Claudio Simon Hutz

2014-01-01

Birth order is defined as a person’s rank by age among his or her siblings. Openness to experience is one of five major domains of personality. The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between birth order and openness to experience in a sample of 472 university students (mean age = 24.6 years; SD = 8.8). Results showed distinct effects for men and women regarding the influence of birth order. Authors discuss the results in light of possible cultural features and of the...

Influence of birth order, birth weight, colostrum and serum immunoglobulin G on neonatal piglet survival.

Science.gov (United States)

Cabrera, Rafael A; Lin, Xi; Campbell, Joy M; Moeser, Adam J; Odle, Jack

2012-12-23

Intake of colostrum after birth is essential to stimulate intestinal growth and function, and to provide systemic immunological protection via absorption of Immunoglobulin G (IgG). The birth order and weight of 745 piglets (from 75 litters) were recorded during a one-week period of farrowing. Only pigs weighing greater than 0.68 kg birth weight were chosen for the trial. Sow colostrum was collected during parturition, and piglets were bled between 48 and 72 hours post-birth. Piglet serum IgG and colostral IgG concentrations were determined by radial immunodiffusion. Sow parity had a significant (P birth order accounted for another 4% of the variation observed in piglet serum IgG concentration (P birth weight had no detectable effect. Piglet serum IgG concentration had both a linear (P Birth order had no detectable effect on survival, but birth weight had a positive linear effect (P birth had a 68% survival rate, and those weighing 1.6 kg (n = 158) had an 89% survival. We found that the combination of sow colostrum IgG concentration and birth order can account for 10% of the variation of piglet serum IgG concentration and that piglets with less than 1,000 mg/dl IgG serum concentration and weight of 0.9 kg at birth had low survival rate when compared to their larger siblings. The effective management of colostrum uptake in neonatal piglets in the first 24 hrs post-birth may potentially improve survival from birth to weaning.

Non-Poisson Dichotomous Noise: Higher-Order Correlation Functions and Aging

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Allegrini, Paolo; Grigolini, Paolo; Palatella, Luigi; West, Bruce J

2004-01-01

.... The transition of psi(tau) from the exponential to the nonexponential condition yields the breakdown of the usual factorization condition of higher-order correlation functions, as well as the birth of aging effects...

Fertility by birth order of population in Serbia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mihajlović Vojislav

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Based on fertility by birth order, it is possible to research the level of the reproductive norms in certain population. In the period after World War II there were big changes in the fertility by birth order in Central Serbia and Vojvodina and that is the consequence of the population's reproductive norms decrease in these areas. Therefore, in this article we will analyze the trends of fertility by birth order changes for population in Central Serbia and Vojvodina in the period from 1948 to 2012.

Birth Order and Openness to Experience: Brief communication

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Silvio José Lemos Vasconcellos

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Birth order is defined as a person’s rank by age among his or her siblings. Openness to experience is one of five major domains of personality. The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between birth order and openness to experience in a sample of 472 university students (mean age = 24.6 years; SD = 8.8. Results showed distinct effects for men and women regarding the influence of birth order. Authors discuss the results in light of possible cultural features and of the personality assessment method employed.

Relationship between birth order, birth weight, colostrum intake, acquisition of passive immunity and pre-weaning mortality of piglets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jean Le Dividich

2017-07-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the relation between birth order (BO, birth weight (BW0, colostrum intake (CI, level of passive immunity and pre-weaning mortality of piglets. The animals used were 551 cross-bred piglets [Piétrain × (Large-White × Landrace] born from 40 sows. Colostrum immunoglobulins G (IgG determinations were made from 17 sows. Colostrum samples were obtained at birth of the first piglet then at 3, 6, 12, 24, and 36 h later, and on the first-two and the last-two piglets born. Serum IgG determinations from 68 piglets were made at 2d of age and at weaning. Individual CI was estimated from body weight gain. Relative birth order (RBO and BW0 within-litter were weakly (R20.10 but increased by 26 ± 1.6 g per 100 g increase in BW0 (p0.10. It was concluded that despite last-born piglets obtained less passive immunity than first-born, they were not at higher risk of dying before weaning. Major causes of mortality were low birth weight and insufficient colostrum (energy intake.

The Birth Order Puzzle.

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Zajonc, R. B.; And Others

1979-01-01

Discusses the controversy of the relationship between birth order and intellectual performance through a detailed evaluation of the confluence model which assumes that the rate of intellectual growth is a function of the intellectual environment within the family and associated with the special circumstances of last children. (CM)

Birth Order and Intellectual Development among Zimbabwean Children.

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Wilson, David; And Others

1990-01-01

Discusses the research debate over the question whether intelligence diminishes as a function of birth order. Presents a study of Zimbabwean children confirming the general downward trend of intelligence as a function of birth order. Addresses the influence of family size. (DB)

Siblings of Disabled Children: Birth Order and Age-Spacing Effects.

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Breslau, Naomi

1982-01-01

Siblings (N=237) of disabled children were compared to 248 siblings from a random family sampling to examine the effects of relative birth order and age spacing on psychological functioning. Younger males scored higher than older males on psychological impairment, while younger females were psychologically better off than older females. (CL)

Birth Order and Vocational Interest

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Gandy, Gerald L.

1973-01-01

Investigated birth order differences and the vocational interests of 150 male college students, making use of the Strong Vocational Interest Blank. Sibling sex and interaction effects were also investigated. (DP)

Intelligence and birth order in boys and girls.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boomsma, D.I.; van Beijsterveldt, C.E.M.; Beem, A.L.; Hoekstra, R.A.; Polderman, T.J.C.; Bartels, M.

2008-01-01

The relation between intelligence and birth order was shown in a recent publication [Bjerkedal, T., Kristensen, P., Skjeret, G. A. & Brevik, J. I. (2007). Intelligence test scores and birth order among young Norwegian men (conscripts) analyzed within and between families. Intelligence, 35, 503-514

Birth Order Debate Resolved?

Science.gov (United States)

Zajonc, R. B.

2001-01-01

Critiques Rodgers et al.'s June 2000 research on the relation between birth order and intelligence, which suggests that it is a methodological illusion. Explains how the intellectual environment and the teaching function (whereby older children tutor younger ones) contribute to the growth of intellectual maturity, the first negatively and the…

Separate Influences of Birth Order and Gravidity/Parity on the Development of Systemic Sclerosis

Science.gov (United States)

COCKRILL, TONYA; del JUNCO, DEBORAH J.; ARNETT, FRANK C.; ASSASSI, SHERVIN; TAN, FILEMON K.; McNEARNEY, TERRY; FISCHBACH, MICHAEL; PERRY, MARILYN; MAYES, MAUREEN D.

2010-01-01

Objective Birth order has been valuable in revealing the role of environmental influences on the risk of developing certain diseases such as allergy and atopy. In addition, pregnancy has profound effects on the immune system such as short-term effects that permit fetal survival as well as longer-term effects that could influence late-onset diseases. In order to better evaluate these influences, we studied the association of birth order and gravidity/parity as risk factors for systemic sclerosis (SSc; scleroderma). Methods Data regarding SSc cases and their unaffected sibling controls were obtained from the Scleroderma Family Registry and DNA Repository. The case-sibling design was used to minimize confounding due to differences in age, race, ethnicity, or calendar time. The gravidity/parity analysis was based on sibships with at least one SSc-affected and one unaffected sister. Results Birth order was examined in 974 sibships, comparing SSc cases (n = 987) with their unaffected siblings (n = 3,088). The risk of scleroderma increased with increasing birth order (odds ratio [OR] 1.25, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.06–1.50 for birth order 2–5; OR 2.22, 95% CI 1.57–3.15 for birth order 6–9; and OR 3.53, 95% CI 1.68–7.45 for birth order 10–15). Gravidity/parity was analyzed in 168 sibships (256 unaffected sisters, 172 SSc cases). We found an association between a history of one or more pregnancies and SSc (OR 2.8). Conclusion Birth order and pregnancy were independently associated with a higher risk of developing SSc. These findings suggest that immune development in early childhood and/or pregnancy-associated events, including but not limited to microchimerism, plays a role in SSc susceptibility. PMID:20391489

Separate influences of birth order and gravidity/parity on the development of systemic sclerosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Cockrill, Tonya; del Junco, Deborah J; Arnett, Frank C; Assassi, Shervin; Tan, Filemon K; McNearney, Terry; Fischbach, Michael; Perry, Marilyn; Mayes, Maureen D

2010-03-01

Birth order has been valuable in revealing the role of environmental influences on the risk of developing certain diseases such as allergy and atopy. In addition, pregnancy has profound effects on the immune system such as short-term effects that permit fetal survival as well as longer-term effects that could influence late-onset diseases. In order to better evaluate these influences, we studied the association of birth order and gravidity/parity as risk factors for systemic sclerosis (SSc; scleroderma). Data regarding SSc cases and their unaffected sibling controls were obtained from the Scleroderma Family Registry and DNA Repository. The case-sibling design was used to minimize confounding due to differences in age, race, ethnicity, or calendar time. The gravidity/parity analysis was based on sibships with at least one SSc-affected and one unaffected sister. Birth order was examined in 974 sibships, comparing SSc cases (n = 987) with their unaffected siblings (n = 3,088). The risk of scleroderma increased with increasing birth order (odds ratio [OR] 1.25, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.06-1.50 for birth order 2-5; OR 2.22, 95% CI 1.57-3.15 for birth order 6-9; and OR 3.53, 95% CI 1.68-7.45 for birth order 10-15). Gravidity/parity was analyzed in 168 sibships (256 unaffected sisters, 172 SSc cases). We found an association between a history of one or more pregnancies and SSc (OR 2.8). Birth order and pregnancy were independently associated with a higher risk of developing SSc. These findings suggest that immune development in early childhood and/or pregnancy-associated events, including but not limited to microchimerism, plays a role in SSc susceptibility.

Birth weight and order as risk factors for childhood central nervous system tumors.

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MacLean, Jane; Partap, Sonia; Reynolds, Peggy; Von Behren, Julie; Fisher, Paul Graham

2010-09-01

To determine whether birth characteristics related to maternal-fetal health in utero are associated with the development of childhood central nervous system tumors. We identified, from the California Cancer Registry, 3733 children under age 15 diagnosed with childhood central nervous system tumors between 1988 and 2006 and linked these cases to their California birth certificates. Four controls per case, matched on birth date and sex, were randomly selected from the same birth files. We evaluated associations of multiple childhood CNS tumor subtypes with birth weight and birth order. Low birth weight was associated with a reduced risk of low-grade gliomas (OR=0.67; 95% CI, 0.46 to 0.97) and high birth weight was associated with increased risk of high-grade gliomas (OR=1.57; 95% CI, 1.16 to 2.12). High birth order (fourth or higher) was associated with decreased risk of low-grade gliomas (OR=0.75; 95% CI, 0.56 to 0.99) and increased risk of high-grade gliomas (OR=1.32; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.72 for second order). Factors that drive growth in utero may increase the risk of low-grade gliomas. There may be a similar relationship in high-grade gliomas, although other factors, such as early infection, may modify this association. Additional investigation is warranted to validate and further define these findings. Copyright (c) 2010 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Birth order and suicide in adulthood: evidence from Swedish population data.

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Rostila, Mikael; Saarela, Jan; Kawachi, Ichiro

2014-06-15

Each year, almost 1 million people die from suicide, which is among the leading causes of death in young people. We studied how birth order was associated with suicide and other main causes of death. A follow-up study based on the Swedish population register was conducted for sibling groups born from 1932 to 1980 who were observed during the period 1981-2002. Focus was on the within-family variation in suicide risk, meaning that we studied sibling groups that consisted of 2 or more children in which at least 1 died from suicide. These family-fixed effects analyses revealed that each increase in birth order was related to an 18% higher suicide risk (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.14, 1.23, P = 0.000). The association was slightly lower among sibling groups born in 1932-1955 (hazard ratio = 1.13, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.21, P = 0.000) than among those born in 1967-1980 (hazard ratio = 1.24, 95% CI: 0.97, 1.57, P = 0.080). Further analyses suggested that the association between birth order and suicide was only modestly influenced by sex, birth spacing, size of the sibling group, own socioeconomic position, own marital status, and socioeconomic rank within the sibling group. Causes of death other than suicide and other external causes were not associated with birth order. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Birth order and Risk of Childhood Cancer: A Pooled Analysis from Five U.S. States

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Von Behren, Julie; Spector, Logan G.; Mueller, Beth A.; Carozza, Susan E.; Chow, Eric J.; Fox, Erin E.; Horel, Scott; Johnson, Kimberly J.; McLaughlin, Colleen; Puumala, Susan E.; Ross, Julie A.; Reynolds, Peggy

2010-01-01

The causes of childhood cancers are largely unknown. Birth order has been used as a proxy for prenatal and postnatal exposures, such as frequency of infections and in utero hormone exposures. We investigated the association between birth order and childhood cancers in a pooled case-control dataset. The subjects were drawn from population-based registries of cancers and births in California, Minnesota, New York, Texas, and Washington. We included 17,672 cases less than 15 years of age who were diagnosed from1980-2004 and 57,966 randomly selected controls born 1970-2004, excluding children with Down syndrome. We calculated odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals using logistic regression, adjusted for sex, birth year, maternal race, maternal age, multiple birth, gestational age, and birth weight. Overall, we found an inverse relationship between childhood cancer risk and birth order. For children in the fourth or higher birth order category compared to first-born children, the adjusted OR was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.81, 0.93) for all cancers combined. When we examined risks by cancer type, a decreasing risk with increasing birth order was seen in the central nervous system (CNS) tumors, neuroblastoma, bilateral retinoblastoma, Wilms tumor, and rhabdomyosarcoma. We observed increased risks with increasing birth order for acute myeloid leukemia but a slight decrease in risk for acute lymphoid leukemia. These risk estimates were based on a very large sample size which allowed us to examine rare cancer types with greater statistical power than in most previous studies, however the biologic mechanisms remain to be elucidated. PMID:20715170

IMPACT OF PRENATAL MATERNAL FACTORS AND BIRTH ORDER ON THE ANTHROPOMETRIC STATUS OF NEWBORNS IN IRAN.

Science.gov (United States)

Kheirouri, Sorayya; Alizadeh, Mohammad

2017-03-01

This cross-sectional study was carried out to capture possible maternal factors affecting newborns' anthropometric measurements. Data were collected from eight public health centres and referral university hospital records in Tabriz and Heriss districts, north-west Iran, for 807 mother-neonate pairs delivering live singleton births and their offspring during the two years up to August 2014. The incidence of low birth weight (LBW) was 5.1%. A close correlation was found between maternal anthropometry and birth order with neonatal anthropometric data. Birth order and maternal height and body mass index (BMI) positively affected neonates' birth size (weight, length and head circumference). The rate of LBW was significantly higher for older (≥35 years), taller (≥170 cm), underweight (BMIbirth neonates. The results indicate that maternal anthropometric indices, age, iron intake and birth order influence the risk of LBW in newborns.

Brief Report: Asperger's Syndrome and Sibling Birth Order

Science.gov (United States)

Schmidt, Karmen; Zimmerman, Andrew; Bauman, Margaret; Ferrone, Christine; Venter, Jacob; Spybrook, Jessaca; Henry, Charles

2013-01-01

Prior investigations suggest that birth order position may be associated with the risk for developing a pervasive developmental disorder. This retrospective chart review examined the birth order status of 29 psychiatrically-referred patients with Asperger's Syndrome (AS). Eighty-six percent of the subjects were first born. The finding was…

Intelligence and Birth Order in Boys and Girls

Science.gov (United States)

Boomsma, Dorret I.; van Beijsterveld, T. C. E. M.; Beem, A. L.; Hoekstra, R. A.; Polderman, T. J. C.; Bartels, M.

2008-01-01

The relation between intelligence and birth order was shown in a recent publication [Bjerkedal, T., Kristensen, P., Skjeret, G. A. & Brevik, J. I. (2007). Intelligence test scores and birth order among young Norwegian men (conscripts) analyzed within and between families. "Intelligence," 35, 503-514] to be negative. Subjects in this…

The association between birth order, sibship size and glioma development in adulthood.

Science.gov (United States)

Amirian, E; Scheurer, Michael E; Bondy, Melissa L

2010-06-01

The etiology of brain tumors is still largely unknown. Previous research indicates that infectious agents and immunological characteristics may influence adult glioma risk. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the effects of birth order and sibship size (total number of siblings), as indicators of the timing and frequency of early life infections, on adult glioma risk using a population of 489 cases and 540 cancer-free controls from the Harris County Brain Tumor Study. Odds ratios for birth order and sibship size were calculated separately from multivariable logistic regression models, adjusting for sex, family history of cancer, education, and age. Each one-unit increase in birth order confers a 13% decreased risk of glioma development in adulthood (OR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.79-0.97). However, sibship size was not significantly associated with adult glioma status (OR = 0.97, 95% CI = 0.91-1.04). Our study indicates that individuals who were more likely to develop common childhood infections at an earlier age (those with a higher birth order) may be more protected against developing glioma in adulthood. More biological and epidemiological research is warranted to clarify the exact mechanisms through which the timing of common childhood infections and the course of early life immune development affect gliomagenesis.

Birth order and risk of childhood cancer in the Danish birth cohort of 1973-2010.

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Schüz, Joachim; Luta, George; Erdmann, Friederike; Ferro, Gilles; Bautz, Andrea; Simony, Sofie Bay; Dalton, Susanne Oksbjerg; Lightfoot, Tracy; Winther, Jeanette Falck

2015-11-01

Many studies have investigated the possible association between birth order and risk of childhood cancer, although the evidence to date has been inconsistent. Birth order has been used as a marker for various in utero or childhood exposures and is relatively straightforward to assess. Data were obtained on all children born in Denmark between 1973 and 2010, involving almost 2.5 million births and about 5,700 newly diagnosed childhood cancers before the age of 20 years. Data were analyzed using Poisson regression models. We failed to observe associations between birth order and risk of any childhood cancer subtype, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia; all rate ratios were close to one. Further analyses stratified by birth cohort (those born between 1973 and 1990, and those born between 1991 and 2010) also failed to show any associations. Considering stillbirths and/or controlling for birth weight and parental age in the analyses had no effect on the results. Analyses by years of birth (those born between 1973 and 1990, and those born between 1991 and 2010) did not show any changes in the overall pattern of no association. In this large cohort of all children born in Denmark over an almost 40-year period, we did not observe an association between birth order and the risk of childhood cancer.

Birth order and mortality: a population-based cohort study.

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Barclay, Kieron; Kolk, Martin

2015-04-01

This study uses Swedish population register data to investigate the relationship between birth order and mortality at ages 30 to 69 for Swedish cohorts born between 1938 and 1960, using a within-family comparison. The main analyses are conducted with discrete-time survival analysis using a within-family comparison, and the estimates are adjusted for age, mother's age at the time of birth, and cohort. Focusing on sibships ranging in size from two to six, we find that mortality risk in adulthood increases with later birth order. The results show that the relative effect of birth order is greater among women than among men. This pattern is consistent for all the major causes of death but is particularly pronounced for mortality attributable to cancers of the respiratory system and to external causes. Further analyses in which we adjust for adult socioeconomic status and adult educational attainment suggest that social pathways only mediate the relationship between birth order and mortality risk in adulthood to a limited degree.

Relation between birth order and interpersonal styles

OpenAIRE

Mauro de Oliveira Magalhães

2009-01-01

Interpersonal style is an aspect of personality related to the particular way individuals participate and gain influence in social contexts. It has its origin in childhood’s first social interactions within the family group. It is suggested that the individual position in the family structure, namely birth order, is an important variable in this process. The present study investigated combined effects of sex and birth order on interpersonal style. A sample of 435 college students (196 men and...

Birth Order and Vocational Preference.

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Lynch, Robert M.; Lynch, Janet

1980-01-01

The relationship between vocational preferences of adolescents and their birth order was examined. Firstborns were found to be overrepresented in the conventional and enterprising areas; later borns were found to be overrepresented in the social and investigative areas. (Author/GK)

Birth order and mortality in two ethno-linguistic groups: Register-based evidence from Finland.

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Saarela, Jan; Cederström, Agneta; Rostila, Mikael

2016-06-01

Previous research has documented an association between birth order and suicide, although no study has examined whether it depends on the cultural context. Our aim was to study the association between birth order and cause-specific mortality in Finland, and whether it varies by ethno-linguistic affiliation. We used data from the Finnish population register, representing a 5% random sample of all Finnish speakers and a 20% random sample of Swedish speakers, who lived in Finland in any year 1987-2011. For each person, there was a link to all children who were alive in 1987. In total, there were 254,059 siblings in 96,387 sibling groups, and 9797 deaths. We used Cox regressions stratified by each siblings group and estimated all-cause and cause-specific mortality risks during the period 1987-2011. In line with previous research from Sweden, deaths from suicide were significantly associated with birth order. As compared to first-born, second-born had a suicide risk of 1.27, third-born of 1.35, and fourth- or higher-born of 1.72, while other causes of death did not display an evident and consistent birth-order pattern. Results for the Finnish-speaking siblings groups were almost identical to those based on both ethno-linguistic groups. In the Swedish-speaking siblings groups, there was no increase in the suicide risk by birth order, but a statistically not significant tendency towards an association with other external causes of death and deaths from cardiovascular diseases. Our findings provided evidence for an association between birth order and suicide among Finnish speakers in Finland, while no such association was found for Swedish speakers, suggesting that the birth order effect might depend on the cultural context. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Social and Academic Consequences of Birth Order: Real, Artifactual, or Both?

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Steelman, Lala Carr; Powell, Brian

1985-01-01

Examined impact of birth order on social skills and academic performance of children and adolescents (N=3,568). Results revealed no significant relationship between birth order and academic performance but did reveal a significant positive relationship between birth order and social skills. Leadership skills were related to birth order for males.…

Maternal age, birth order, and race: differential effects on birthweight

Science.gov (United States)

Swamy, Geeta K; Edwards, Sharon; Gelfand, Alan; James, Sherman A; Miranda, Marie Lynn

2014-01-01

Background Studies examining the influence of maternal age and birth order on birthweight have not effectively disentangled the relative contributions of each factor to birthweight, especially as they may differ by race. Methods A population-based, cross-sectional study of North Carolina births from 1999 to 2003 was performed. Analysis was restricted to 510 288 singleton births from 28 to 42 weeks’ gestation with no congenital anomalies. Multivariable linear regression was used to model maternal age and birth order on birthweight, adjusting for infant sex, education, marital status, tobacco use and race. Results Mean birthweight was lower for non-Hispanic black individuals (NHB, 3166 g) compared with non-Hispanic white individuals (NHW, 3409 g) and Hispanic individuals (3348 g). Controlling for covariates, birthweight increased with maternal age until the early 30s. Race-specific modelling showed that the upper extremes of maternal age had a significant depressive effect on birthweight for NHW and NHB (35+ years, p<0.001), but only age less than 25 years was a significant contributor to lower birthweights for Hispanic individuals, p<0.0001. Among all racial subgroups, birth order had a greater influence on birthweight than maternal age, with the largest incremental increase from first to second births. Among NHB, birth order accounted for a smaller increment in birthweight than for NHW and Hispanic women. Conclusion Birth order exerts a greater influence on birthweight than maternal age, with signficantly different effects across racial subgroups. PMID:21081308

Birth order and human capital development: evidence from Ecuador

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Haan, M.; Plug, E.; Rosero, J.

2012-01-01

In this paper we examine the effect of birth order on human capital development in Ecuador using a large national database together with self-collected survey data. Using family fixed effects models we find significant positive birth order effects; earlier born children stay behind in their human

Birth order and human capital development: evidence from Ecuador

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Haan, M.; Plug, E.; Rosero, J.

2014-01-01

In this paper we examine the effect of birth order on human capital development in Ecuador. Using family fixed effects models we find positive and persistent birth order effects; earlier-born children stay behind in their human capital development from infancy to adolescence. Turning to potential

Birth Order, Child Labor and School Attendance in Brazil

OpenAIRE

Patrick M. Emerson; Andre Portela Souza

2002-01-01

This paper examines the effects of birth order on the child labor incidence and school attendance of Brazilian children. Evidence from the psychology and sociology literature suggests that earlier-born children tend to have higher innate abilities. The economic implications of these findings are that earlier-born children may have more intra-household resources directed to them when they are young, and better outcomes as adults in areas such as education and earnings. However, in the context ...

Maternal factors contributing to under-five mortality at birth order 1 to 5 in India: a comprehensive multivariate study.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Rajvir; Tripathi, Vrijesh

2013-01-01

The objective of the study is to assess maternal factors contributing to under-five mortality at birth order 1 to 5 in India. Data for this study was derived from the children's record of the 2007 India National Family Health Survey, which is a nationally representative cross-sectional household survey. Data is segregated according to birth order 1 to 5 to assess mother's occupation, Mother's education, child's gender, Mother's age, place of residence, wealth index, mother's anaemia level, prenatal care, assistance at delivery , antenatal care, place of delivery and other maternal factors contributing to under-five mortality. Out of total 51555 births, analysis is restricted to 16567 children of first birth order, 14409 of second birth order, 8318 of third birth order, 5021 of fourth birth order and 3034 of fifth birth order covering 92% of the total births taken place 0-59 months prior to survey. Mother's average age in years for birth orders 1 to 5 are 23.7, 25.8, 27.4, 29 and 31 years, respectively. Most mothers whose children died are Hindu, with no formal education, severely anaemic and working in the agricultural sector. In multivariate logistic models, maternal education, wealth index and breastfeeding are protective factors across all birth orders. In birth order model 1 and 2, mother's occupation is a significant risk factor. In birth order models 2 to 5, previous birth interval of lesser than 24 months is a risk factor. Child's gender is a risk factor in birth order 1 and 5. Information regarding complications in pregnancy and prenatal care act as protective factors in birth order 1, place of delivery and immunization in birth order 2, and child size at birth in birth order 4. Prediction models demonstrate high discrimination that indicates that our models fit the data. The study has policy implications such as enhancing the Information, Education and Communication network for mothers, especially at higher birth orders, in order to reduce under

Birth Order and Psychopathology

OpenAIRE

Risal, Ajay; Tharoor, Hema

2012-01-01

Context: Ordinal position the child holds within the sibling ranking of a family is related to intellectual functioning, personality, behavior, and development of psychopathology. Aim: To study the association between birth order and development of psychopathology in patients attending psychiatry services in a teaching hospital. Settings and Design: Hospital-based cross-sectional study. Materials and Methods: Retrospective file review of three groups of patients was carried out. Patient-relat...

Quantifying and modeling birth order effects in autism.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tychele Turner

Full Text Available Autism is a complex genetic disorder with multiple etiologies whose molecular genetic basis is not fully understood. Although a number of rare mutations and dosage abnormalities are specific to autism, these explain no more than 10% of all cases. The high heritability of autism and low recurrence risk suggests multifactorial inheritance from numerous loci but other factors also intervene to modulate risk. In this study, we examine the effect of birth rank on disease risk which is not expected for purely hereditary genetic models. We analyzed the data from three publicly available autism family collections in the USA for potential birth order effects and studied the statistical properties of three tests to show that adequate power to detect these effects exist. We detect statistically significant, yet varying, patterns of birth order effects across these collections. In multiplex families, we identify V-shaped effects where middle births are at high risk; in simplex families, we demonstrate linear effects where risk increases with each additional birth. Moreover, the birth order effect is gender-dependent in the simplex collection. It is currently unknown whether these patterns arise from ascertainment biases or biological factors. Nevertheless, further investigation of parental age-dependent risks yields patterns similar to those observed and could potentially explain part of the increased risk. A search for genes considering these patterns is likely to increase statistical power and uncover novel molecular etiologies.

Effect modification by parental education on the associations of birth order and gender with learning achievement in adolescents.

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Cheng, C-C J; Wang, W-L; Sung, Y-T; Wang, Y-C; Su, S-Y; Li, C-Y

2013-11-01

A child's gender and ordinal position within a family have varied implications on his or her personality and cognitive development. However, little is known about whether or not parental educational level may moderate the effects of birth order and gender. Basic Competence Test (BCT) scores of 290,588 young adolescents aged 15-16 years in Taiwan were analysed. Parental educational level was calculated as the highest educational attainment of the subjects' parents. The multiple linear regression model was used to assess the modification effects of parental educational levels on the associations of interest. After controlling for covariates, we noted a clear inverse relationship between birth order and BCT scores in Mandarin, Mathematics and Science. Additionally, boys had significantly lower mean scores in Mandarin, but had significantly higher mean scores in both Mathematics and Science. We also found the significant interactive effects of birth order, gender and parental educational attainment on BCT scores, in which the birth order and gender effects were more evident in higher-educated families than in lower-educated ones. This large cohort study confirmed that both birth order and gender may pose independent influences on BCT scores; moreover, such influences are significantly modified by parental educational attainment. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

What Research Shows About Birth Order, Personality, and IQ.

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Yahraes, Herbert

This brief report summarizes the findings and conclusions of studies concerning the relation between birth order and various aspects of personality and intellectual development. Major topics discussed are the relation between birth order of the child and: (1) the effects of sex and spacing between siblings on personality characteristics of the…

Examining the effects of birth order on personality

OpenAIRE

Rohrer, Julia M.; Egloff, Boris; Schmukle, Stefan C.

2015-01-01

This study examined the long-standing question of whether a person's position among siblings has a lasting impact on that person's life course. Empirical research on the relation between birth order and intelligence has convincingly documented that performances on psychometric intelligence tests decline slightly from firstborns to laterborns. By contrast, the search for birth-order effects on personality has not yet resulted in conclusive findings. We used data from three large national panel...

Birth order, neuroticism, and psychoticism among Iranian children.

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Makaremi, A

1992-12-01

To investigate the effects of birth order, parents' education, and parents' occupation on four dimensions of the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, 262 elementary school students (100 boys and 162 girls) were selected randomly from four elementary schools in Shiraz. Analyses showed the main effects of birth order were significant on Neuroticism and Lie scales. Further, the effects of mothers' occupation on the Lie scale and fathers' education on the Neuroticism scale were significant.

Influence of birth order, birth weight, colostrum and serum immunoglobulin G on neonatal piglet survival

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Cabrera Rafael A

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Intake of colostrum after birth is essential to stimulate intestinal growth and function, and to provide systemic immunological protection via absorption of Immunoglobulin G (IgG. The birth order and weight of 745 piglets (from 75 litters were recorded during a one-week period of farrowing. Only pigs weighing greater than 0.68 kg birth weight were chosen for the trial. Sow colostrum was collected during parturition, and piglets were bled between 48 and 72 hours post-birth. Piglet serum IgG and colostral IgG concentrations were determined by radial immunodiffusion. Results Sow parity had a significant (P Conclusion We found that the combination of sow colostrum IgG concentration and birth order can account for 10% of the variation of piglet serum IgG concentration and that piglets with less than 1,000 mg/dl IgG serum concentration and weight of 0.9 kg at birth had low survival rate when compared to their larger siblings. The effective management of colostrum uptake in neonatal piglets in the first 24 hrs post-birth may potentially improve survival from birth to weaning.

Birth Order and Sibling Sex Ratio in a Population with High Fertility: Are Turkish Male to Female Transsexuals Different?

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Bozkurt, Ali; Bozkurt, Ozlem Hekim; Sonmez, Ipek

2015-07-01

Western studies have consistently found that androphilic (sexually attracted to men) male-to-female transsexuals have a later birth order and a relative excess of brothers compared with appropriate control participants. However, non-Western studies on birth order and sibling sex ratio in androphilic males (transsexual or non-transsexual) are rare. The objective of the study was to test the hypothesis that androphilic male-to-female transsexuals have a late birth order and a relative excess of brothers in a non-Western culture with a higher fertility rate. The participants were 60 androphilic male-to-female transsexuals and 61 male heterosexual controls. The transsexual participants had significantly more older brothers than the control participants, but the groups did not differ in their numbers of older sisters, younger brothers, or younger sisters. The foregoing pattern is usually referred to as the "fraternal birth order effect." Slater's and Berglin's Indexes both showed that the mean birth order of the control participants was very close to that expected from a random sample drawn from a demographically stable population whereas the mean birth order of the transsexual participants was later. A measure of sibship composition, brothers/all siblings, showed that the transsexual group had a higher proportion of male siblings compared with the control group. In conclusion, the present study found that Turkish androphilic male-to-female transsexuals show the same high fraternal birth order that has been found in comparable androphilic samples in Western Europe, North America, and the South Pacific, which suggests a common underlying biological causal mechanism.

Can Knowledge of Client Birth Order Bias Clinical Judgment?

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Stewart, Allan E.

2004-01-01

Clinicians (N = 308) responded to identical counseling vignettes of a male client that differed only in the client's stated birth order. Clinicians developed different impressions about the client and his family experiences that corresponded with the prototypical descriptions of persons from 1 of 4 birth orders (i.e., first, middle, youngest, and…

Birth order and sport participation | Potgieter | South African Journal ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between birth order and sport participation in terms of the inherent dangers associated with different sport codes. Data collected from 1310 sport science students over a period of more than 15 years failed to support the popular birth-order hypothesis. Keywords: ...

Twin's Birth-Order Differences in Height and Body Mass Index From Birth to Old Age

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yokoyama, Yoshie; Jelenkovic, Aline; Sund, Reijo

2016-01-01

of age was 397,466. As expected, first-born twins had greater birth weight than second-born twins. With respect to height, first-born twins were slightly taller than second-born twins in childhood. After adjusting the results for birth weight, the birth order differences decreased and were no longer...

Birth Order and Maladaptive Behavior in School-Aged Children.

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Carmichael, Karla D.

Drawing on Alfred Adler's theories on the effect of birth order on maladaptive behavior in children, this study focused on the relationship between birth order and the referral to counseling of school-aged children with maladaptive disorder. School-aged children (N=217) with academic or behavioral problems, ages 5 to 18, were referred to the staff…

Strategic parenting, birth order, and school performance.

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Hotz, V Joseph; Pantano, Juan

2015-10-01

Fueled by new evidence, there has been renewed interest about the effects of birth order on human capital accumulation. The underlying causal mechanisms for such effects remain unsettled. We consider a model in which parents impose more stringent disciplinary environments in response to their earlier-born children's poor performance in school in order to deter such outcomes for their later-born offspring. We provide robust empirical evidence that school performance of children in the National Longitudinal Study Children (NLSY-C) declines with birth order as does the stringency of their parents' disciplinary restrictions. When asked how they will respond if a child brought home bad grades, parents state that they would be less likely to punish their later-born children. Taken together, these patterns are consistent with a reputation model of strategic parenting.

The association between height and birth order: evidence from 652,518 Swedish men.

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Myrskylä, Mikko; Silventoinen, Karri; Jelenkovic, Aline; Tynelius, Per; Rasmussen, Finn

2013-07-01

Birth order is associated with outcomes such as birth weight and adult socioeconomic position (SEP), but little is known about the association with adult height. This potential birth order-height association is important because height predicts health, and because the association may help explain population-level height trends. We studied the birth order-height association and whether it varies by family characteristics or birth cohort. We used the Swedish Military Conscription Register to analyse adult height among 652,518 men born in 1951-1983 using fixed effects regression models that compare brothers and account for genetic and social factors shared by brothers. We stratified the analysis by family size, parental SEP and birth cohort. We compared models with and without birth weight and birth length controls. Unadjusted analyses showed no differences between the first two birth orders but in the fixed effects regression, birth orders 2, 3 and 4 were associated with 0.4, 0.7 and 0.8 cm (pbirth order 1, respectively. The associations were similar in large and small and high-SEP and low-SEP families, but were attenuated in recent cohorts. Birth characteristics did not explain these associations. Birth order is an important determinant of height. The height difference between birth orders 3 and 1 is larger than the population-level height increase achieved over 10 years. The attenuation of the effect over cohorts may reflect improvements in living standards. Decreases in family size may explain some of the secular-height increases in countries with decreasing fertility.

Maternal Age at Child Birth, Birth Order, and Suicide at a Young Age: A Sibling Comparison

OpenAIRE

Bjørngaard, Johan Håkon; Bjerkeset, Ottar; Vatten, Lars Johan; Janszky, Imre; Gunnell, David; Romundstad, Pål Richard

2013-01-01

Previous studies have reported strong associations between birth order, maternal age, and suicide, but these results might have been confounded by socioeconomic and other factors. To control for such factors, we compared suicide risk between siblings and studied how maternal age at child birth and birth order influenced risk in a cohort study of 1,690,306 Norwegians born in 1967–1996 who were followed up until 2008. Using stratified Cox regression, we compared suicide risk within families wit...

Appraising Birth Order in Career Assessment: Linkages to Holland's and Super's Models.

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Leong, Frederick T. L.; Hartung, Paul J.; Goh, David; Gaylor, Michael

2001-01-01

Study 1 (n=159) found significant differences in vocational personality types, interests, and values depending on birth order. Study 2 (n=119) found significant differences in occupational interests by birth order. Both results support Alfred Adler's theory that birth order determines aspects of vocational behavior. (Contains 33 references.) (SK)

Sibship size, birth order, and personality.

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Abdel-Khalek, Ahmed; Lester, David

2005-10-01

In a sample of 273 American college students who were administered seven personality tests, only death obsession scores were consistently associated with sibship size and birth order (not optimism, pessimism, anxiety, a Taoist orientation, suicidal ideation, or obsessive-compulsive tendencies).

Birth order and its association with the onset of chronic fatigue syndrome.

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Brimacombe, Michael; Helmer, Drew A; Natelson, Benjamin H

2002-08-01

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a medically unexplained illness that is diagnosed on the basis of a clinical case definition; so it probably is an illness with multiple causes producing the same clinical picture. One way of dealing with this heterogeneity is to stratify patients based on illness onset. We hypothesized that either the whole group of CFS patients or that group which developed CFS gradually would show a relation with birth order, while patients who developed CFS suddenly, probably due to a viral illness, would not show such a relation. We hypothesized the birth order effect in the gradual onset group because those patients have more psychological problems, and birth order effects have been shown for psychological characteristics. We compared birth order in our CFS patients to that in a comparison group derived from U.S. demographic data. We found a tendency that did not reach formal statistical significance for a birth order effect in the gradual onset group, but not in either the sudden onset or combined total group. However, the birth order effect we found was due to relatively increased rates of CFS in second-born children; prior birth order studies of personality characteristics have found such effects to be skewed toward first-born children. Thus, our data do support a birth order effect in a subset of patients with CFS. The results of this study should encourage a larger multicenter study to further explore and understand this relation.

Healthy(?), wealthy, and wise: Birth order and adult health.

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Black, Sandra E; Devereux, Paul J; Salvanes, Kjell G

2016-12-01

While recent research has found that birth order affects outcomes such as education and earnings, the evidence for effects on health is more limited. This paper uses a large Norwegian dataset to focus on the relationship between birth order and a range of health and health-related behaviors, outcomes not previously available in datasets of this magnitude. Interestingly, we find complicated effects of birth order. First-borns are more likely to be overweight, to be obese, and to have high blood pressure and high triglycerides. For example, compared to fifth-borns, first-borns are about 5% points more likely to be obese and 7% points more likely to have high blood pressure. So, unlike education or earnings, there is no clear first-born advantage in health. However, first-borns are about 13% points less likely to smoke daily than fifth-borns and are more likely to report good physical and mental health. Later-borns also score lower on well-being with fifth-borns being about 9% points less likely than first-borns to report that they are happy. Our findings are generally monotonic with middle-borns having outcomes that are intermediate between first- and fifth-borns. We find that these effects are largely unaffected by conditioning on education and earnings, suggesting that these are not the only important pathways to health differentials by birth order. When we explore possible mechanisms, we find that early maternal investment may play a role in birth order effects on health. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Hemoglobin Differences in Uncomplicated Monochorionic Twins in Relation to Birth Order and Mode of Delivery.

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Verbeek, Lianne; Zhao, Depeng P; Te Pas, Arjan B; Middeldorp, Johanna M; Hooper, Stuart B; Oepkes, Dick; Lopriore, Enrico

2016-06-01

To determine the differences in hemoglobin (Hb) levels in the first 2 days after birth in uncomplicated monochorionic twins in relation to birth order and mode of delivery. All consecutive uncomplicated monochorionic pregnancies with two live-born twins delivered at our center were included in this retrospective study. We recorded Hb levels at birth and on day 2, and analyzed Hb levels in association with birth order, mode of delivery, and time interval between delivery of twin 1 and 2. A total of 290 monochorionic twin pairs were analyzed, including 171 (59%) twins delivered vaginally and 119 (41%) twins born by cesarean section (CS). In twins delivered vaginally, mean Hb levels at birth and on day 2 were significantly higher in second-born twins compared to first-born twins: 17.8 versus 16.1 g/dL and 18.0 versus 14.8 g/dL, respectively (p < .01). Polycythemia was detected more often in second-born twins (12%, 20/166) compared to first-born twins (1%, 2/166; p < .01). Hb differences within twin pairs delivered by CS were not statistically or clinically significant. We found no association between inter-twin delivery time intervals and Hb differences. Second-born twins after vaginal delivery have higher Hb levels and more often polycythemia than their co-twin, but not when born by CS.

Structural and psychosocial correlates of birth order anomalies in schizophrenia and homicide.

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Schug, Robert A; Yang, Yaling; Raine, Adrian; Han, Chenbo; Liu, Jianghong

2010-12-01

Birth order--a unique index of both neurodevelopmental and/or psychosocial factors in the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorder--remains largely unexplored in violent schizophrenia. We examined whether murderers with schizophrenia would demonstrate birth order anomalies, distinguishing them from both nonviolent schizophrenia patients and murderers without schizophrenia. Self-report birth order, psychosocial history data (i.e., maternal birth age, family size, parental criminality, parental SES), and structural magnetic resonance imaging data were collected from normal controls, nonviolent schizophrenia patients, murderers with schizophrenia, murderers without schizophrenia, and murderers with psychiatric conditions other than schizophrenia at a brain hospital in Nanjing, China. Results indicated that murderers with schizophrenia were characterized by significantly increased (i.e., later) birth order compared with both nonviolent schizophrenia patients and murderers without schizophrenia. Additionally, birth order was negatively correlated with gray matter volume in key frontal subregions for schizophrenic murderers, and was negatively correlated with parental SES. Findings may suggest biological, psychosocial, or interactional trajectories which may lead to a homicidally violent outcome in schizophrenia.

What Causes Birth Order-Intelligence Patterns? The Admixture Hypothesis, Revived.

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Rodgers, Joseph Lee

2001-01-01

Describes why birth order interests both parents and researchers, discussing what really causes apparent birth order effects on intelligence, examining problems with using cross-sectional intelligence data, and noting how to move beyond cross-sectional inferences. Explains the admixture hypothesis, which finds that family size is much more…

Probing Birth-Order Effects on Narrow Traits Using Specification-Curve Analysis.

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Rohrer, Julia M; Egloff, Boris; Schmukle, Stefan C

2017-12-01

The idea that birth-order position has a lasting impact on personality has been discussed for the past 100 years. Recent large-scale studies have indicated that birth-order effects on the Big Five personality traits are negligible. In the current study, we examined a variety of more narrow personality traits in a large representative sample ( n = 6,500-10,500 in between-family analyses; n = 900-1,200 in within-family analyses). We used specification-curve analysis to assess evidence for birth-order effects across a range of models implementing defensible yet arbitrary analytical decisions (e.g., whether to control for age effects or to exclude participants on the basis of sibling spacing). Although specification-curve analysis clearly confirmed the previously reported birth-order effect on intellect, we found no meaningful effects on life satisfaction, locus of control, interpersonal trust, reciprocity, risk taking, patience, impulsivity, or political orientation. The lack of meaningful birth-order effects on self-reports of personality was not limited to broad traits but also held for more narrowly defined characteristics.

The association between height and birth order: evidence from 652 518 Swedish men

OpenAIRE

Myrskyla, Mikko; Silventoinen, Karri; Jelenkovic, Aline; Tynelius, Per; Rasmussen, Finn

2013-01-01

Background Birth order is associated with outcomes such as birth weight and adult socioeconomic position (SEP), but little is known about the association with adult height. This potential birth order-height association is important because height predicts health, and because the association may help explain population-level height trends. We studied the birth order-height association and whether it varies by family characteristics or birth cohort. Methods We used the Swedish Military Conscrip...

Does lower birth order amplify the association between high socioeconomic status and central adiposity in young adult Filipino males?

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Dahly, D L; Adair, L S

2010-04-01

To test the hypothesis that lower birth order amplifies the positive association between socioeconomic status and central adiposity in young adult males from a lower income, developing country context. The Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey is an ongoing community-based, observational study of a 1-year birth cohort (1983). 970 young adult males, mean age 21.5 years (2005). Central adiposity measured by waist circumference; birth order; perinatal maternal characteristics including height, arm fat area, age and smoking behavior; socioeconomic status at birth and in young adulthood. Lower birth order was associated with higher waist circumference and increased odds of high waist circumference, even after adjustment for socioeconomic status in young adulthood and maternal characteristics that could impact later offspring adiposity. Furthermore, the positive association between socioeconomic status and central adiposity was amplified in individuals characterized by lower birth order. This research has failed to reject the mismatch hypothesis, which posits that maternal constraint of fetal growth acts to program developing physiology in a manner that increases susceptibility to the obesogenic effects of modern environments.

Birth Order Matters: The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Educational Attainment

OpenAIRE

Alison Booth; Hiau Joo Kee

2005-01-01

We use unique retrospective family background data from the 2003 British Household Panel Survey to explore the degree to which family size and birth order affect a child's subsequent educational attainment. Theory suggests a trade off between child quantity and 'quality'. Family size might adversely affect the production of child quality within a family. A number of arguments also suggest that siblings are unlikely to receive equal shares of the resources devoted by parents to their childr...

Birth Order, Family Size, and Self-Esteem: A Filipino Study.

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Watkins, David; Astilla, Estela

1980-01-01

Investigates the relationship between birth order and self-esteem among 209 11- to 13-year-old girls attending a private high school in the central Philippines. The Self-Esteem Inventory was used to measure self-esteem. No evidence of any influence of birth order, family size, or their interaction with self-esteem was found. (Author/RH)

Risk Attitudes and Birth Order

OpenAIRE

Krause, Philipp; Heindl, Johannes; Jung, Andreas; Langguth, Berthold; Hajak, Göran; Sand, Philipp G.

2013-01-01

Risk attitudes play important roles in health behavior and everyday decision making. It is unclear, however, whether these attitudes can be predicted from birth order. We investigated 200 mostly male volunteers from two distinct settings. After correcting for multiple comparisons, for the number of siblings and for confounding by gender, ordinal position predicted perception of health-related risks among participants in extreme sports (p < .01). However, the direction of the effect contradict...

Effects of Birth Order and Spacing on Mother-Infant Interactions.

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Lewis, Michael; Kreitzberg, Valerie S.

1979-01-01

Examines early differences in mother-infant interaction as a function of infant birth order and birth spacing. Mother and infant behaviors were observed and recorded in the home for a two-hour period. (SS)

The Birth Order Factor: Ordinal Position, Social Strata, and Educational Achievement.

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Travis, Russell; Kohli, Vandana

1995-01-01

Explores the relationship between birth order and academic attainment for 817 men and women from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. Suggests that birth order produces an impact on total years of education only among members of the middle class. These findings support a resource-dilution hypothesis. (MJP)

BIRTH ORDER AND ANDROPHILIC MALE-TO-FEMALE TRANSSEXUALISM IN BRAZIL.

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Vanderlaan, Doug P; Blanchard, Ray; Zucker, Kenneth J; Massuda, Raffael; Fontanari, Anna Martha Vaitses; Borba, André Oliveira; Costa, Angelo Bradelli; Schneider, Maiko Abel; Mueller, Andressa; Soll, Bianca Machado Borba; Schwarz, Karine; Da Silva, Dhiordan Cardoso; Lobato, Maria Inês Rodrigues

2017-07-01

Previous research has indicated that biological older brothers increase the odds of androphilia in males. This finding has been termed the fraternal birth order effect. The maternal immune hypothesis suggests that this effect reflects the progressive immunization of some mothers to male-specific antigens involved in fetal male brain masculinization. Exposure to these antigens, as a result of carrying earlier-born sons, is hypothesized to produce maternal immune responses towards later-born sons, thus leading to female-typical neural development of brain regions underlying sexual orientation. Because this hypothesis posits mechanisms that have the potential to be active in any situation where a mother gestates repeated male fetuses, a key prediction is that the fraternal birth order effect should be observable in diverse populations. The present study assessed the association between sexual orientation and birth order in androphilic male-to-female transsexuals in Brazil, a previously unexamined population. Male-to-female transsexuals who reported attraction to males were recruited from a specialty gender identity service in southern Brazil (n=118) and a comparison group of gynephilic non-transsexual men (n=143) was recruited at the same hospital. Logistic regression showed that the transsexual group had significantly more older brothers and other siblings. These effects were independent of one another and consistent with previous studies of birth order and male sexual orientation. The presence of the fraternal birth order effect in the present sample provides further evidence of the ubiquity of this effect and, therefore, lends support to the maternal immune hypothesis as an explanation of androphilic sexual orientation in some male-to-female transsexuals.

The confluence model: birth order as a within-family or between-family dynamic?

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Zajonc, R B; Sulloway, Frank J

2007-09-01

The confluence model explains birth-order differences in intellectual performance by quantifying the changing dynamics within the family. Wichman, Rodgers, and MacCallum (2006) claimed that these differences are a between-family phenomenon--and hence are not directly related to birth order itself. The study design and analyses presented by Wichman et al. nevertheless suffer from crucial shortcomings, including their use of unfocused tests, which cause statistically significant trends to be overlooked. In addition, Wichman et al. treated birth-order effects as a linear phenomenon thereby ignoring the confluence model's prediction that these two samples may manifest opposing results based on age. This article cites between- and within-family data that demonstrate systematic birth-order effects as predicted by the confluence model. The corpus of evidence invoked here offers strong support for the assumption of the confluence model that birth-order differences in intellectual performance are primarily a within-family phenomenon.

Associations of scores on the White-Campbell Psychological Birth Order Inventory and the Kern Lifestyle Scale.

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White, J; Campbell, L; Stewart, A

1995-12-01

This study investigated the relations among psychological birth order, actual birth order, and lifestyle. The study also further examined the convergent validity of the White-Campbell Psychological Birth Order Inventory. This inventory and Kern's Lifestyle Scale were administered to 126 individuals in a southeastern urban university. The several analyses of variance and canonical correlation analysis (1) supported a stronger relationship between psychological birth order and lifestyle than between actual birth order and lifestyle, (2) identified differential relationships between particular birth-order positions and lifestyle scales that were predicted and in accord with Adlerian theory, and (3) further supported the validity of the inventory. The results reaffirmed the lifestyle pattern and birth-order characterizations of Adlerian theory.

Fraternal Birth Order, Handedness, and Sexual Orientation in a Chinese Population.

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Xu, Yin; Zheng, Yong

2017-01-01

We examined the relationship between handedness, fraternal birth order, and sexual orientation in a Chinese population, and analyzed the influence of the components assessing sexual orientation and criteria classifying individuals as homosexual on this relationship. A large sample of heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual men and women participated in a web-based survey. Our results showed that homosexual women are more likely to be non-right-handed than heterosexual women, regardless of how sexual orientation was defined, whereas bisexual women are more likely to be non-right-handed than heterosexual women when sexual orientation was assessed via sexual attraction and sexual identity. Bisexual men are more likely to be non-right-handed than heterosexual men when sexual orientation was assessed via sexual attraction. We found neither a fraternal birth-order effect nor an interaction between sibling sex ratio, handedness, and sexual orientation. The small number of siblings may be the reason why we could not replicate the fraternal birth-order effect in this Chinese population, which highlights the importance of cultural differences in the understanding of handedness, fraternal birth order, and sexual orientation.

A multilevel approach to the relationship between birth order and intelligence.

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Wichman, Aaron L; Rodgers, Joseph Lee; MacCallum, Robert C

2006-01-01

Many studies show relationships between birth order and intelligence but use cross-sectional designs or manifest other threats to internal validity. Multilevel analyses with a control variable show that when these threats are removed, two major results emerge: (a) birth order has no significant influence on children's intelligence and (b) earlier reported birth order effects on intelligence are attributable to factors that vary between, not within, families. Analyses on 7- to 8 - and 13- to 14-year-old children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth support these conclusions. When hierarchical data structures, age variance of children, and within-family versus between-family variance sources are taken into account, previous research is seen in a new light.

Gender Nonconformity and Birth Order in Relation to Anal Sex Role Among Gay Men.

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Swift-Gallant, Ashlyn; Coome, Lindsay A; Monks, D Ashley; VanderLaan, Doug P

2018-05-01

Androphilia is associated with an elevated number of older brothers among natal males. This association, termed the fraternal birth order effect, has been observed among gay men who exhibit marked gender nonconformity. Gender nonconformity has been linked to gay men's preferred anal sex role. The present study investigated whether these two lines of research intersect by addressing whether the fraternal birth order effect was associated with both gender nonconformity and a receptive anal sex role (243 gay men, 91 heterosexual men). Consistent with previous research, we identified the fraternal birth order effect in our sample of gay men. Also, gay men were significantly more gender-nonconforming on adulthood and recalled childhood measures compared to heterosexual men. When gay men were compared based on anal sex role (i.e., top, versatile, bottom), all groups showed significantly greater recalled childhood and adult male gender nonconformity than heterosexual men, but bottoms were most nonconforming. Only gay men with a bottom anal sex role showed evidence of a fraternal birth order effect. A sororal birth order effect was found in our sample of gay men, driven by versatiles. No significant associations were found between fraternal birth order and gender nonconformity measures. These results suggest that the fraternal birth order effect may apply to a subset of gay men who have a bottom anal sex role preference and that this subgroup is more gender-nonconforming. However, there were no significant associations between fraternal birth order and gender nonconformity at the individual level. As such, based on the present study, whether processes underpinning the fraternal birth order effect influence gender nonconformity is equivocal.

Birth Order and Participation in School Sports and Other Extracurricular Activities

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Rees, Daniel I.; Lopez, Elizabeth; Averett, Susan L.; Argys, Laura M.

2008-01-01

Argys, L.M., Rees, D.I., Averett S.L., & Witoonchart, B. (2006). Birth order and risky adolescent behavior. "Economic Inquiry", 44(2), 215-233 demonstrated that a strong link exists between birth order and adolescent risky behavior. Using data on 10th graders from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, we extend the work of Argys et…

Birth Order, Educational Attainment, and Earnings: An Investigation Using the PSID

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Kantarevic, Jasmin; Mechoulan, Stephane

2006-01-01

We examine the implications of being early in the birth order, and whether a pattern exists within large families of falling then rising attainment with respect to birth order. Unlike other studies using U.S. data, we go beyond grade for age and look at racial differences. Drawing from OLS and fixed effects estimations, we find that being…

Birth order and private voluntary immunization--a study of 110,902 children.

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Gavrielov-Yusim, Natalie; Battat, Erez; Neumann, Lily; Friger, Michael; Balicer, Ran D

2012-01-05

Introduction of new private, voluntary immunizations often results in low vaccine uptake among certain sub-groups within the population. Revealing factors associated with underimmunization is crucial in vaccine endorsement and distribution. Our goal was to investigate the effect of child's birth order on private voluntary varicella vaccination. A nested case-control study was conducted on a cohort of 110,902 Israeli children under the age of 5 years. We compared social and demographic factors of immunized and unimmunized participants. Logistic regression models were built to examine the association between birth order and vaccination, controlling for child's age, gender, country of birth, ethnicity, parents' country of birth, area of residence, and socioeconomic status (SES). Ethnicity had the highest association with varicella immunization status. The odds of vaccination in the general Jewish and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish populations were 25.55- (95%CI:20.13;32.42) and 15.04- (95%CI:10.18;22.22) times the odds in Arab population, respectively. Child's birth order was inversely related to vaccination status and presented a nonlinear exposure-response relationship. This relationship was maintained in different ethnicity and SES groups. Child's birth order was associated with vaccination differently in large (> 3 siblings) and small to average-sized sibships (≤ 3 siblings). Other parameters associated with vaccination were child's and parents' country of origin, area of residence and SES. Birth order is an independent risk factor for underimmunization, associated with child's vaccination status beyond economic, social, and demographic parental characteristics. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Birth order: self-injurious and suicidal behaviour among adolescents.

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Kirkcaldy, Bruce; Richardson-Vejlgaard, Randall; Siefen, Georg

2009-01-01

A sample of 2553 children and adolescents in a psychiatry clinic in Germany were assessed using a structured interview inventory that included history of self-injurious behaviour, suicidal intent and socially disruptive and threatening behaviour, and diverse socio-demographic variables (the basis documentation or 'Ba-Do'). Birth order was associated with both suicidal and self-injurious behaviour, middle children being most likely to exhibit such behaviour. Females were more than twice as likely to have self-injured than males. Comparisons of birth order groups within gender found no significant differences in suicidal behaviour between birth positions for males, however among females, middle children were much more likely to have attempted suicide. Conversely, there was no difference in self-injurious behaviour among birth positions in females, but among males, middle children were significantly more likely to have self-injured than firstborns, only children or lastborns. The number of siblings in the family was significantly correlated with both suicidal history (r = 0.12, p < 0.001) and self-injurious behaviour (r = 0.10, p < 0.001). The risk of suicidal behaviour was highest for those with four or more siblings.

The mystery of missing female children in the Caucasus: an analysis of sex ratios by birth order.

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Michael, Marc; King, Lawrence; Guo, Liang; McKee, Martin; Richardson, Erica; Stuckler, David

2013-06-01

Official data on sex ratios at birth suggest a rise in sex-selective abortions in some post-Soviet states following the introduction of ultrasonography. However, questions remain about the validity of official data in these nations as well as whether the high sex ratios at birth are a statistical artifact. Trends in sex ratios at birth from 1985 to 2009 for 12 post-Soviet states were examined using vital registration data. For the three countries that had had a Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) in 2005-2010 (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Moldova), survey data were used to calculate sex ratios at birth according to birth order, and vital registration data for 2010 were used to estimate the number of "missing" female births (if any). Official data revealed elevated sex ratios at birth in Armenia (117), Azerbaijan (116) and Georgia (121), but not in other post-Soviet states. According to DHS data, sex ratios were high in Armenia and Azerbaijan for first births (138 and 113, respectively); if the first child was a girl, the sex ratio in Armenia was even higher for the second birth (154). Overall, the number of girls born in these countries in 2010 was 10% lower than expected, consistent with 1,972 sex-selective abortions in Armenia and 8,381 in Azerbaijan. Sex ratios did not vary by birth order in Moldova. Sex-selective abortion appears to be common in Azerbaijan and Armenia. Family planning and legal interventions are needed to address this issue.

Birth order and physical fitness in early adulthood: evidence from Swedish military conscription data.

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Barclay, Kieron; Myrskylä, Mikko

2014-12-01

Physical fitness at young adult ages is an important determinant of physical health, cognitive ability, and mortality. However, few studies have addressed the relationship between early life conditions and physical fitness in adulthood. An important potential factor influencing physical fitness is birth order, which prior studies associate with several early- and later-life outcomes such as height and mortality. This is the first study to analyse the association between birth order and physical fitness in late adolescence. We use military conscription data on 218,873 Swedish males born between 1965 and 1977. Physical fitness is measured by a test of maximal working capacity, a measure of cardiovascular fitness closely related to V02max. We use linear regression with sibling fixed effects, meaning a within-family comparison, to eliminate the confounding influence of unobserved factors that vary between siblings. To understand the mechanism we further analyse whether the association between birth order and physical fitness varies by sibship size, parental socioeconomic status, birth cohort or length of the birth interval. We find a strong, negative and monotonic relationship between birth order and physical fitness. For example, third-born children have a maximal working capacity approximately 0.1 (p birth order effect does not depend on the length of the birth intervals, in two-child families a longer birth interval strengthens the advantage of the first-born. Our results illustrate the importance of birth order for physical fitness, and suggest that the first-born advantage already arises in late adolescence. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Influence of family size and birth order on risk of cancer: a population-based study.

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Bevier, Melanie; Weires, Marianne; Thomsen, Hauke; Sundquist, Jan; Hemminki, Kari

2011-05-09

Family size and birth order are known to influence the risk of some cancers. However, it is still unknown whether these effects change from early to later adulthood. We used the data of the Swedish Family-Cancer Database to further analyze these effects. We selected over 5.7 million offspring with identified parents but no parental cancer. We estimated the effect of birth order and family size by Poisson regression adjusted for age, sex, period, region and socioeconomic status. We divided the age at diagnosis in two groups, below and over 50 years, to identify the effect of family size and birth order for different age periods. Negative associations for increasing birth order were found for endometrial, testicular, skin, thyroid and connective tissue cancers and melanoma. In contrast, we observed positive association between birth order and lung, male and female genital cancers. Family size was associated with decreasing risk for endometrial and testicular cancers, melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma; risk was increased for leukemia and nervous system cancer. The effect of birth order decreased for lung and endometrial cancer from age at diagnosis below to over 50 years. Combined effects for birth order and family size were marginally significant for thyroid gland tumors. Especially, the relative risk for follicular thyroid gland tumors was significantly decreased for increasing birth order. Our findings suggest that the effect of birth order decreases from early to late adulthood for lung and endometrial cancer.

Influence of family size and birth order on risk of cancer: a population-based study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bevier, Melanie; Weires, Marianne; Thomsen, Hauke; Sundquist, Jan; Hemminki, Kari

2011-01-01

Family size and birth order are known to influence the risk of some cancers. However, it is still unknown whether these effects change from early to later adulthood. We used the data of the Swedish Family-Cancer Database to further analyze these effects. We selected over 5.7 million offspring with identified parents but no parental cancer. We estimated the effect of birth order and family size by Poisson regression adjusted for age, sex, period, region and socioeconomic status. We divided the age at diagnosis in two groups, below and over 50 years, to identify the effect of family size and birth order for different age periods. Negative associations for increasing birth order were found for endometrial, testicular, skin, thyroid and connective tissue cancers and melanoma. In contrast, we observed positive association between birth order and lung, male and female genital cancers. Family size was associated with decreasing risk for endometrial and testicular cancers, melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma; risk was increased for leukemia and nervous system cancer. The effect of birth order decreased for lung and endometrial cancer from age at diagnosis below to over 50 years. Combined effects for birth order and family size were marginally significant for thyroid gland tumors. Especially, the relative risk for follicular thyroid gland tumors was significantly decreased for increasing birth order. Our findings suggest that the effect of birth order decreases from early to late adulthood for lung and endometrial cancer

Influence of family size and birth order on risk of cancer: a population-based study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sundquist Jan

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Family size and birth order are known to influence the risk of some cancers. However, it is still unknown whether these effects change from early to later adulthood. We used the data of the Swedish Family-Cancer Database to further analyze these effects. Methods We selected over 5.7 million offspring with identified parents but no parental cancer. We estimated the effect of birth order and family size by Poisson regression adjusted for age, sex, period, region and socioeconomic status. We divided the age at diagnosis in two groups, below and over 50 years, to identify the effect of family size and birth order for different age periods. Results Negative associations for increasing birth order were found for endometrial, testicular, skin, thyroid and connective tissue cancers and melanoma. In contrast, we observed positive association between birth order and lung, male and female genital cancers. Family size was associated with decreasing risk for endometrial and testicular cancers, melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma; risk was increased for leukemia and nervous system cancer. The effect of birth order decreased for lung and endometrial cancer from age at diagnosis below to over 50 years. Combined effects for birth order and family size were marginally significant for thyroid gland tumors. Especially, the relative risk for follicular thyroid gland tumors was significantly decreased for increasing birth order. Conclusion Our findings suggest that the effect of birth order decreases from early to late adulthood for lung and endometrial cancer.

Respiratory morbidity in twins by birth order, gestational age and mode of delivery.

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Bricelj, Katja; Tul, Natasa; Lasic, Mateja; Bregar, Andreja Trojner; Verdenik, Ivan; Lucovnik, Miha; Blickstein, Isaac

2016-10-01

To evaluate the relationship between respiratory morbidity in twins by gestational age, birth order and mode of delivery. All twin deliveries at birth order and to the mode of delivery. In contrast, RDS was more frequent among the second born twins in the vaginal birth groups born at 30-36 weeks [odds ratio (OR) 2.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2-5.1 and OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.2-3.5 for 33-36 weeks and 30-32 weeks, respectively], whereas this trend was seen in the cesarean birth groups born earlier (OR 3.8, 95% CI 1.1-13.0 for 28-29 weeks). Cesarean delivery significantly increased the frequency of RDS in twin A as well as in twin B compared with vaginal birth, but only at gestational ages birth order have a gestational age dependent effect on the incidence of RDS.

Birth order and number of siblings and their association with overweight and obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

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Meller, Fernanda Oliveira; Loret de Mola, Christian; Assunção, Maria Cecília Formoso; Schäfer, Antônio Augusto; Dahly, Darren Lawrence; Barros, Fernando Celso

2018-02-01

The effect of both birth order and number of siblings on overweight and/or obesity has not been determined. Birth order and sibsize have been mathematically coupled to overweight and/or obesity, but thus far their respective effects have been estimated separately. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the effects of both birth order and number of siblings on the risk of overweight/obesity. The electronic databases MEDLINE, Social Science, SocINDEX, PsycINFO, CINAHL Plus, and Academic Search Complete were searched systematically. Titles and abstracts of 1698 records were examined. After 1504 records were excluded, 2 authors independently assessed the full text of all remaining papers (n = 194); disagreements were resolved by discussion. A standardized form for assessment of study quality and evidence synthesis was used to extract data from the included studies. Twenty studies were included in the systematic review, 14 of which were included in the meta-analysis. Meta-analyses showed that lower (vs higher) birth order and smaller (vs greater) number of siblings were associated with overweight and/or obesity, with ORs of 1.47 (95%CI, 1.12-1.93) and 1.46 (95%CI, 1.17-1.84), respectively. However, among the 9 studies that attempted to separate the effects of birth order and number of siblings in the same analysis, a higher risk of overweight/obesity was consistently found among individuals without siblings than among those with 1 or more siblings, rather than among firstborns more generally. The results show that both lower birth order and lower number of siblings are associated with risk of overweight/obesity, which suggests that only children are at a slightly increased risk of overweight/obesity. PROSPERO registration number CRD42014015135. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Life Sciences Institute. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Birth-Order Effects in the Academically Talented.

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Parker, Wayne D.

1998-01-01

Birth-order position was studied among 828 academically talented sixth-grade students. When compared to census data, the sample was disproportionately composed of first-born students. However, this effect was largely explained by the covariate of family size, with small families over represented among the gifted. Other findings indicated no…

Role of Educational Exposure in the Association Between Myopia and Birth Order.

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Guggenheim, Jeremy A; Williams, Cathy

2015-12-01

Visual impairment due to myopia is an important public health issue. A prior analysis of population-based cohorts aged 15 to 22 years recruited from the United Kingdom and Israel suggested myopia and high myopia were approximately 10% more common in first-born compared with later-born children. To examine whether myopia was associated with birth order in an earlier generation than studied previously and, if so, whether the association was attenuated after adjusting for education exposure, as predicted by the hypothesis that the education of children with later birth orders is less intense. Cross-sectional study of UK Biobank participants recruited from 2006 to 2010. Analysis was restricted to participants aged 40 to 69 years who had a vision assessment, self-reported white ethnicity, and no history of eye disorders (N = 89,120). Myopia and high myopia were defined as autorefraction of -0.75 diopters (D) or less and -6.00 D or less, respectively. Birth order and information on potential confounders including highest educational qualification ascertained using a structured questionnaire. Odds ratios (ORs) for myopia and high myopia by birth order, using logistic regression and adjusting for age and sex (model 1) or age, sex, and highest educational qualification (model 2). In model 1 (no adjustment for education), birth order was associated with both myopia and high myopia (eg, comparing first- vs second-born individuals; OR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.08-1.16; P = 1.40E-11 and OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.11-1.30; P = 3.60E-06 for myopia and high myopia, respectively). The risk for myopia became progressively lower for later birth orders, suggesting a dose response. In model 2 (after adjusting for education), the effect sizes were attenuated by approximately 25% (OR, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.05-1.12; P = 1.30E-06 and OR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.06-1.25; P = 4.60E-04 for myopia and high myopia, respectively) and the apparent dose response was abolished. These data suggest that the

Impact of Birth Order on Procrastination among College Students in Eldoret Town

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Gabriel, Chege Kimani

2015-01-01

The study sought to investigate the impact of birth order on procrastination among college students in Eldoret town. The study sought to achieve the following objectives: (1) to find out the prevalence of procrastination among college students in Eldoret town, (2) to find out the relationship between birth order on procrastination among college…

Higher order multiple pregnancy outcomes in the Maltese islands 2000-2004

OpenAIRE

Savona-Ventura, Charles; Gatt, Miriam; Vella, Katya; Grima, Stephen

2008-01-01

Higher order multiple births have increased significantly in the last decades throughout the developed world. In spite of advances in obstetric care seen throughout the second half of the twentieth century, the perinatal outcomes associated with a multiple pregnancy remain associated with increased morbidity and mortality for the mother and the infants. This study attempts to assess the characteristics and outcomes of these maternities in the Maltese population. The National maternity data fo...

Possible association of first and high birth order of pregnant women with the risk of isolated congenital abnormalities in Hungary - a population-based case-matched control study.

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Csermely, Gyula; Susánszky, Éva; Czeizel, Andrew E; Veszprémi, Béla

2014-08-01

In epidemiological studies at the estimation of risk factors in the origin of specified congenital abnormalities in general birth order (parity) is considered as confounder. The aim of this study was to analyze the possible association of first and high (four or more) birth order with the risk of congenital abnormalities in a population-based case-matched control data set. The large dataset of the Hungarian Case-Control Surveillance of Congenital Abnormalities included 21,494 cases with different isolated congenital abnormality and their 34,311 matched controls. First the distribution of birth order was compared of 24 congenital abnormality groups and their matched controls. In the second step the possible association of first and high birth order with the risk of congenital abnormalities was estimated. Finally some subgroups of neural-tube defects, congenital heart defects and abdominal wall's defects were evaluated separately. A higher risk of spina bifida aperta/cystica, esophageal atresia/stenosis and clubfoot was observed in the offspring of primiparous mothers. Of 24 congenital abnormality groups, 14 had mothers with larger proportion of high birth order. Ear defects, congenital heart defects, cleft lip± palate and obstructive defects of urinary tract had a linear trend from a lower proportion of first born cases to the larger proportion of high birth order. Birth order showed U-shaped distribution of neural-tube defects and clubfoot, i.e. both first and high birth order had a larger proportion in cases than in their matched controls. Birth order is a contributing factor in the origin of some isolated congenital abnormalities. The higher risk of certain congenital abnormalities in pregnant women with first or high birth order is worth considering in the clinical practice, e.g. ultrasound scanning. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Male scarcity is associated with higher prevalence of premature gestation and low birth weight births across the United States.

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Kruger, Daniel J; Clark, Jillian; Vanas, Sarah

2013-01-01

Modern adverse birth outcomes may partially result from mechanisms evolved to evaluate environmental conditions and regulate maternal investment trade-offs. Male scarcity in a population is associated with a cluster of characteristics related to higher mating effort and lower paternal investment. We predicted that modern populations with male scarcity would have shorter gestational times and lower birth weights on average. We compared US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention county-aggregated year 2000 birth records with US Decennial Census data. We combined these data in a path model with the degree of male scarcity and known socio-economic predictors of birth outcomes as exogenous predictors of prematurity and low birth weight, with single mother households as a proportion of families with children as a mediator (N = 450). Male scarcity was directly associated with higher rates of low birth weight. Male scarcity made significant indirect predictions of rates of prematurity and low birth weight, as mediated by the proportion of families headed by single mothers. Aggregate socio-economic status also indirectly predicted birth outcomes, as mediated by the proportion of families headed by single mothers, whereas the proportion African American retained both direct and indirect predictions of adverse birth outcomes. Male scarcity influences life history tradeoffs, with consequences for important social and public health issues such as adverse birth outcomes. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Birth Order and Educational Achievement in Adolescence and Young Adulthood

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Fergusson, David M.; Horwood, L. John; Boden, Joseph M.

2006-01-01

This paper examines the relationship between birth order and later educational outcomes in a birth cohort of more than 1,000 New Zealand young adults studied to the age of twenty-five. Being later born was associated with gaining fewer educational qualifications at secondary level and beyond. The use of nested models to control for the confounding…

Birth order has no effect on intelligence: a reply and extension of previous findings.

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Wichman, Aaron L; Rodgers, Joseph Lee; Maccallum, Robert C

2007-09-01

We address points raised by Zajonc and Sulloway, who reject findings showing that birth order has no effect on intelligence. Many objections to findings of null birth-order results seem to stem from a misunderstanding of the difference between study designs where birth order is confounded with true causal influences on intelligence across families and designs that control for some of these influences. We discuss some of the consequences of not appreciating the nature of this difference. When between-family confounds are controlled using appropriate study designs and techniques such as multilevel modeling, birth order is shown not to influence intelligence. We conclude with an empirical investigation of the replicability and generalizability of this approach.

Older and Wiser? Birth Order and IQ of Young Men. NBER Working Paper No. 13237

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Black, Sandra E.; Devereux, Paul J.; Salvanes, Kjell G.

2007-01-01

While recent research finds strong evidence that birth order affects children's outcomes such as education and earnings, the evidence on the effects of birth order on IQ is decidedly mixed. This paper uses a large dataset on the population of Norway that allows us to precisely measure birth order effects on IQ using both cross-sectional and…

Maternal Behavior by Birth Order in Wild Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Increased Investment by First-Time Mothers.

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Stanton, Margaret A; Lonsdorf, Elizabeth V; Pusey, Anne E; Goodall, Jane; Murray, Carson M

2014-08-01

Parental investment theory predicts that maternal resources are finite and allocated among offspring based on factors including maternal age and condition, and offspring sex and parity. Among humans, firstborn children are often considered to have an advantage and receive greater investment than their younger siblings. However, conflicting evidence for this "firstborn advantage" between modern and hunter-gatherer societies raises questions about the evolutionary history of differential parental investment and birth order. In contrast to humans, most non-human primate firstborns belong to young, inexperienced mothers and exhibit higher mortality than laterborns. In this study, we investigated differences in maternal investment and offspring outcomes based on birth order (firstborn vs. later-born) among wild chimpanzees ( Pan troglodyte schweinfurthii ). During the critical first year of life, primiparous mothers nursed, groomed, and played with their infants more than did multiparous mothers. Furthermore, this pattern of increased investment in firstborns appeared to be compensatory, as probability of survival did not differ by birth order. Our study did not find evidence for a firstborn advantage as observed in modern humans but does suggest that unlike many other primates, differences in maternal behavior help afford chimpanzee first-borns an equal chance of survival.

Earliest Recollections and Birth Order: Two Adlerian Exercises.

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Parrott, Les

1992-01-01

Presents two exercises designed to demonstrate the influence of two Adlerian principles on personality. Includes exercises dealing with birth order and earliest recollection. Concludes that the exercises actively demonstrate major concepts for counseling courses in Adlerian psychotherapy. Reports that students rated both exercises highly, with…

Associations between Birth Order and Personality Traits: Evidence from Self-Reports and Observer Ratings

OpenAIRE

Jefferson, Tyrone; Herbst, Jeffrey H.; McCrae, Robert R.

1998-01-01

Sulloway (1996) proposed that personality traits developed in childhood mediate the association of birth order with scientific radicalism. Birth-order effects on traits within the five-factor model of personality were examined in three studies. Self-reports on brief measures of Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness in a national sample (N= 9664) were unrelated to birth order. Self-reports on the 30 facet scales of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) in an adult sample (N= 612) ...

The Relationship of Birth Order and Gender with Academic Standing and Substance Use Among Youth in Latin America.

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Horner, Pilar; Andrade, Fernando; Delva, Jorge; Grogan-Kaylor, Andy; Castillo, Marcela

2012-01-01

Alfred Adler attempted to understand how family affects youth outcomes by considering the order of when a child enters a family (Adler, 1964). Adler's theory posits that birth order formation impacts individuals. We tested Adler's birth order theory using data from a cross-sectional survey of 946 Chilean youths. We examined how birth order and gender are associated with drug use and educational outcomes using three different birth order research models including: (1) Expedient Research, (2) Adler's birth order position, and (3) Family Size theoretical models. Analyses were conducted with structural equation modeling (SEM). We conclude that birth order has an important relationship with substance use outcomes for youth but has differing effects for educational achievement across both birth order status and gender.

Do Birth Order, Family Size and Gender Affect Arithmetic Achievement in Elementary School?

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Desoete, Annemie

2008-01-01

Introduction: For decades birth order and gender differences have attracted research attention. Method: Birth order, family size and gender, and the relationship with arithmetic achievement is studied among 1152 elementary school children (540 girls, 612 boys) in Flanders. Children were matched on socioeconomic status of the parents and…

Some Relationships Between Birth Order, Sex, Family Size, Sibling Span, and Reading Achievement.

Science.gov (United States)

Grygo, Rosemary E. Cox

Reading scores earned by 286 fifth-grade pupils taking the California Test of Basic Skills were used in a study examining the relationship between reading achievement and birth order and related family factors. Vocabulary scores were significantly related to birth order, family size, and socioeconomic status. Comprehension scores were…

A Review of the Evidence for Birth Order Differences in Anxiety and Affiliation in Stressful Situations.

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Kushnir, T.

1978-01-01

Reviews literature on birth order. An important conclusion is that birth order differences in anxiety level and affiliation are not generalized phenomena. Consistent birth order differences in both variables are found only among females. Firstborns are not habitually more anxious than laterborns and are not generally more affiliative than…

Higher-order Peregrine combs and Peregrine walls for the variable-coefficient Lenells-Fokas equation

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Wang, Zi-Qi; Wang, Xin; Wang, Lei; Sun, Wen-Rong; Qi, Feng-Hua

2017-02-01

In this paper, we study the variable-coefficient Lenells-Fokas (LF) model. Under large periodic modulations in the variable coefficients of the LF model, the generalized Akhmediev breathers develop into the breather multiple births (BMBs) from which we obtain the Peregrine combs (PCs). The PCs can be considered as the limiting case of the BMBs and be transformed into the Peregrine walls (PWs) with a specific amplitude of periodic modulation. We further investigate the spatiotemporal characteristics of the PCs and PWs analytically. Based on the second-order breather and rogue-wave solutions, we derive the corresponding higher-order structures (higher-order PCs and PWs) under proper periodic modulations. What is particularly noteworthy is that the second-order PC can be converted into the Peregrine pyramid which exhibits the higher amplitude and thickness. Our results could be helpful for the design of experiments in the optical fiber communications.

Twin's Birth-Order Differences in Height and Body Mass Index From Birth to Old Age: A Pooled Study of 26 Twin Cohorts Participating in the CODATwins Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Yokoyama, Yoshie; Jelenkovic, Aline; Sund, Reijo; Sung, Joohon; Hopper, John L; Ooki, Syuichi; Heikkilä, Kauko; Aaltonen, Sari; Tarnoki, Adam D; Tarnoki, David L; Willemsen, Gonneke; Bartels, Meike; van Beijsterveldt, Toos C E M; Saudino, Kimberly J; Cutler, Tessa L; Nelson, Tracy L; Whitfield, Keith E; Wardle, Jane; Llewellyn, Clare H; Fisher, Abigail; He, Mingguang; Ding, Xiaohu; Bjerregaard-Andersen, Morten; Beck-Nielsen, Henning; Sodemann, Morten; Song, Yun-Mi; Yang, Sarah; Lee, Kayoung; Jeong, Hoe-Uk; Knafo-Noam, Ariel; Mankuta, David; Abramson, Lior; Burt, S Alexandra; Klump, Kelly L; Ordoñana, Juan R; Sánchez-Romera, Juan F; Colodro-Conde, Lucia; Harris, Jennifer R; Brandt, Ingunn; Nilsen, Thomas Sevenius; Craig, Jeffrey M; Saffery, Richard; Ji, Fuling; Ning, Feng; Pang, Zengchang; Dubois, Lise; Boivin, Michel; Brendgen, Mara; Dionne, Ginette; Vitaro, Frank; Martin, Nicholas G; Medland, Sarah E; Montgomery, Grant W; Magnusson, Patrik K E; Pedersen, Nancy L; Aslan, Anna K Dahl; Tynelius, Per; Haworth, Claire M A; Plomin, Robert; Rebato, Esther; Rose, Richard J; Goldberg, Jack H; Rasmussen, Finn; Hur, Yoon-Mi; Sørensen, Thorkild I A; Boomsma, Dorret I; Kaprio, Jaakko; Silventoinen, Karri

2016-04-01

We analyzed birth order differences in means and variances of height and body mass index (BMI) in monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins from infancy to old age. The data were derived from the international CODATwins database. The total number of height and BMI measures from 0.5 to 79.5 years of age was 397,466. As expected, first-born twins had greater birth weight than second-born twins. With respect to height, first-born twins were slightly taller than second-born twins in childhood. After adjusting the results for birth weight, the birth order differences decreased and were no longer statistically significant. First-born twins had greater BMI than the second-born twins over childhood and adolescence. After adjusting the results for birth weight, birth order was still associated with BMI until 12 years of age. No interaction effect between birth order and zygosity was found. Only limited evidence was found that birth order influenced variances of height or BMI. The results were similar among boys and girls and also in MZ and DZ twins. Overall, the differences in height and BMI between first- and second-born twins were modest even in early childhood, while adjustment for birth weight reduced the birth order differences but did not remove them for BMI.

Associations of Birth Order with Early Adolescent Growth, Pubertal Onset, Blood Pressure and Size: Evidence from Hong Kong?s ?Children of 1997? Birth Cohort

OpenAIRE

Kwok, Man Ki; Leung, Gabriel M.; Schooling, C. Mary

2016-01-01

Background Birth order has been proposed as a cardiovascular risk factor, because the lower birth weight and greater infant weight gain typical of firstborns could programme metabolism detrimentally. Methods We examined the associations of birth order (firstborn or laterborn) with birth weight-for-gestational age, length/height and body mass index (BMI) z-scores during infancy, childhood, and puberty using generalized estimating equations, with age at pubertal onset using interval-censored re...

Distribution of maternal age and birth order groups in cases with unclassified multiple congenital abnormalities according to the number of component abnormalities: a national population-based case-control study.

Science.gov (United States)

Csermely, Gyula; Czeizel, Andrew E; Veszprémi, Béla

2015-02-01

Multiple congenital abnormalities are caused by chromosomal aberrations, mutant major genes and teratogens. A minor proportion of these patients are identified as syndromes but the major part belonging to the group of unclassified multiple CAs (UMCAs). The main objective of this study was to evaluate the maternal age and birth order in pregnant women who had offspring affected with UMCA. The strong association between numerical chromosomal aberrations, e.g., Down syndrome and advanced maternal age is well-known and tested here. The Hungarian Case-Control Surveillance of Congenital Abnormalities, 1980 to 1996, yielded a large population-based national data set with 22,843 malformed newborns or fetuses ("informative cases") included 1349 UMCA cases with their 2407 matched controls. Case-control comparison of maternal age and birth order was made for cases with UMCA, stratified by component numbers and their controls. In addition, 834 cases with Down syndrome were compared to 1432 matched controls. The well-known advanced maternal age with the higher risk for Down syndrome was confirmed. The findings of the study suggest that the young age of mothers associates with the higher risk of UMCA, in addition birth order 4 or more associates with the higher risk for UMCA with 2 and 3 component CAs. This study was the first to analyze the possible maternal and birth order effect for cases with UMCA, and the young age and higher birth order associated with a higher risk for UMCA. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Long-term Impact of Birth Order on Health and Educational Attainment

OpenAIRE

Barclay, Kieron

2014-01-01

This doctoral thesis examines the long-term impact of birth order on health, and educational attainment. Swedish register data is used to link individuals to their siblings, thereby allowing members of the sibling group to be compared to one another. This thesis consists of an introductory chapter summarizing empirical research on the relationship between birth order and educational attainment, intelligence, health, and personality, as well the theoretical frameworks that have been developed ...

Educational Attainment of 25 Year Old Norwegians According to Birth Order and Gender

Science.gov (United States)

Kristensen, Petter; Bjerkedal, Tor

2010-01-01

This register-based longitudinal study of 392 969 Norwegians examined associations between birth order, gender and educational attainment at age 25 years within families (fixed effects regression) and between families (ordinary OLS regression). Data were retrieved from national registers for births of mothers with single births only and a first…

Birth Order and the Language Experience of Bilingual Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Sarah J.

2002-01-01

Investigated the language experience of second-generation immigrant Korean American school-age children (4-18 years) by surveying their parents. Reports responses to a small portion of the questionnaire that specifically addressed the issue of birth order. (Author/VWL)

Aberrant clones: Birth order generates life history diversity in Greater Duckweed, Spirodela polyrhiza.

Science.gov (United States)

Mejbel, Hebah S; Simons, Andrew M

2018-02-01

Environmental unpredictability is known to result in the evolution of bet-hedging traits. Variable dormancy enhances survival through harsh conditions, and is widely cited as a diversification bet-hedging trait. The floating aquatic plant, Spirodela polyrhiza (Greater Duckweed), provides an opportunity to study diversification because although partially reliable seasonal cues exist, its growing season is subject to an unpredictable and literally "hard" termination when the surface water freezes, and overwinter survival depends on a switch from production of normal daughter fronds to production of dense, sinking "turions" prior to freeze-over. The problem for S. polyrhiza is that diversified dormancy behavior must be generated among clonally produced, genetically identical offspring. Variation in phenology has been observed in the field, but its sources are unknown. Here, we investigate sources of phenological variation in turion production , and test the hypothesis that diversification in turion phenology is generated within genetic lineages through effects of parental birth order. As expected, phenotypic plasticity to temperature is expressed along a thermal gradient; more interestingly, parental birth order was found to have a significant and strong effect on turion phenology: Turions are produced earlier by late birth-order parents. These results hold regardless of whether turion phenology is measured as first turion birth order, time to first turion, or turion frequency. This study addresses a question of current interest on potential mechanisms generating diversification, and suggests that consistent phenotypic differences across birth orders generate life history variation.

Higher-order (non-)modularity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Appel, Claus; van Oostrom, Vincent; Simonsen, Jakob Grue

2010-01-01

We show that, contrary to the situation in first-order term rewriting, almost none of the usual properties of rewriting are modular for higher-order rewriting, irrespective of the higher-order rewriting format. We show that for the particular format of simply typed applicative term rewriting...... systems modularity of confluence, normalization, and termination can be recovered by imposing suitable linearity constraints....

Born to Lead? The Effect of Birth Order on Non-Cognitive Abilities

OpenAIRE

Black, Sandra E.; Grönqvist, Erik; Öckert, Björn

2017-01-01

We study the effect of birth order on personality traits among men using population data on enlistment records and occupations for Sweden. We find that earlier born men are more emotionally stable, persistent, socially outgoing, willing to assume responsibility, and able to take initiative than later-borns. In addition, we find that birth order affects occupational sorting; first-born children are more likely to be managers, while later-born children are more likely to be self-employed. We al...

Relationship between birth order of spouses with different degrees of consanguineous relationship.

Science.gov (United States)

Reddy, B M; Malhotra, K C

1991-08-01

The relationship between birth order of spouses with different degrees of consanguinity is examined in a sample of 1826 couples belonging to the endogamous Vadde Fisherfolk of Kolleru Lake, Andhra Pradesh, India. We attempt to explain the wide variation in the frequency of different kinds of consanguineous marriages through the age-sex structure of the population in general and especially of the related families. This structure may also be manifested in the association between the birth orders of spouses. A highly significant and large correlation between the birth orders of spouses in uncle-niece marriages and a gradual decrease in the correlation with increase in remoteness of the relationship between the spouses were observed. Given the distribution of age differences between the spouses and assuming a standard age-sex structure, it seems possible to estimate the optimum frequency with which at least close consanguineous marriages occur in any particular population.

Birth Order, Sibling IQ Differences, and Family Relations.

Science.gov (United States)

Pfouts, Jane H.

The differential impact of birth order and IQ on sibling roles were examined with particular interest focused on achievement outcomes. Subjects were a stratified sample of 37 pairs of near-in-age siblings, all within the normal range in personality and IQ, but differing significantly in scores on the Slosson IQ Test. Results indicate that when the…

Twin’s birth-order differences in height and body mass index from birth to old age: a pooled study of 26 twin cohorts participated in the CODATwins project

Science.gov (United States)

Yokoyama, Yoshie; Jelenkovic, Aline; Sund, Reijo; Sung, Joohon; Hopper, John L; Ooki, Syuichi; Heikkilä, Kauko; Aaltonen, Sari; Tarnoki, Adam D; Tarnoki, David L; Willemsen, Gonneke; Bartels, Meike; van Beijsterveldt, Toos CEM; Saudino, Kimberly J; Cutler, Tessa L; Nelson, Tracy L; Whitfield, Keith E; Wardle, Jane; Llewellyn, Clare H; Fisher, Abigail; He, Mingguang; Ding, Xiaohu; Bjerregaard-Andersen, Morten; Beck-Nielsen, Henning; Sodemann, Morten; Song, Yun-Mi; Yang, Sarah; Lee, Kayoung; Jeong, Hoe-Uk; Knafo-Noam, Ariel; Mankuta, David; Abramson, Lior; Burt, S Alexandra; Klump, Kelly L; Ordoñana, Juan R; Sánchez-Romera, Juan F; Colodro-Conde, Lucia; Harris, Jennifer R; Brandt, Ingunn; Nilsen, Thomas Sevenius; Craig, Jeffrey M; Saffery, Richard; Ji, Fuling; Ning, Feng; Pang, Zengchang; Dubois, Lise; Boivin, Michel; Brendgen, Mara; Dionne, Ginette; Vitaro, Frank; Martin, Nicholas G; Medland, Sarah E; Montgomery, Grant W; Magnusson, Patrik KE; Pedersen, Nancy L; Aslan, Anna K Dahl; Tynelius, Per; Haworth, Claire MA; Plomin, Robert; Rebato, Esther; Rose, Richard J; Goldberg, Jack H; Rasmussen, Finn; Hur, Yoon-Mi; Sørensen, Thorkild IA; Boomsma, Dorret I; Kaprio, Jaakko; Silventoinen, Karri

2016-01-01

We analyzed birth order differences in means and variances of height and body mass index (BMI) in monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins from infancy to old age. The data were derived from the international CODATwins database. The total number of height and BMI measures from 0.5 to 79.5 years of age was 397,466. As expected, first-born twins had greater birth weight than second-born twins. With respect to height, first-born twins were slightly taller than second-born twins in childhood. After adjusting the results for birth weight, the birth order differences decreased and were not statistically significant anymore. First-born twins had greater BMI than the second-born twins over childhood and adolescence. After adjusting the results for birth weight, birth order was still associated with BMI until 12 years of age. No interaction effect between birth order and zygosity was found. Only limited evidence was found that birth order influenced variances of height or BMI. The results were similar among boys and girls and also in MZ and DZ twins. Overall, the differences in height and BMI between first and second born twins were modest even in early childhood, while adjustment for birth weight reduced the birth order differences but did not remove them for BMI. PMID:26996222

Birth order effects on the separation process in young adults: an evolutionary and dynamic approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Ziv, Ido; Hermel, Orly

2011-01-01

The present study analyzes the differential contribution of a familial or social focus in imaginative ideation (the personal fable and imagined audience mental constructs) to the separation-individuation process of firstborn, middleborn, and lastborn children. A total of 160 young adults were divided into 3 groups by birth order. Participants' separation-individuation process was evaluated by the Psychological Separation Inventory, and results were cross-validated by the Pathology of Separation-Individuation Inventory. The Imaginative Ideation Inventory tested the relative dominance of the familial and social environments in participants' mental constructs. The findings showed that middleborn children had attained more advanced separation and were lower in family-focused ideation and higher in nonfamilial social ideation. However, the familial and not the social ideation explained the variance in the separation process in all the groups. The findings offer new insights into the effects of birth order on separation and individuation in adolescents and young adults.

Divergent Response Profile in Activated Cord Blood T cells from First-born Child Implies Birth-order-associated in Utero Immune Programming

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kragh, Marie; Larsen, Jeppe Madura; Thysen, Anna Hammerich

2016-01-01

Background: First-born children are at higher risk for development of a range of immune-mediated diseases. The underlying mechanism of ‘birth-order-effects’ on disease risk is largely unknown, but in utero programming of the child's immune system may play a role. Objective: We studied the associa...... programing may contribute to later development of immune-mediated diseases by increasing overall immune reactivity in first-born children as compared to younger siblings.......Background: First-born children are at higher risk for development of a range of immune-mediated diseases. The underlying mechanism of ‘birth-order-effects’ on disease risk is largely unknown, but in utero programming of the child's immune system may play a role. Objective: We studied...

BIRTH ORDER, FAMILY SIZE, NEUROSIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

AHMAD JALILI

1984-05-01

Full Text Available In an attempt to investigate the relationship of birth rank and family size with the incidence of neurosis in an Iranian culture, case notes of 1029 schizophrenic patients as (497 males and 532 females referred to psychiatric clinic for insured workers were studied. The incidence of neurasis appeared to be significantly more frequent among the first-half position of birth  rders in The families of 5 children and over; this bei-ng more marked-in males than in females; and the first second births comprising the lighest incidence of the illness.

The Relationship of Birth Order and Gender with Academic Standing and Substance Use Among Youth in Latin America

OpenAIRE

Horner, Pilar; Andrade, Fernando; Delva, Jorge; Grogan-Kaylor, Andy; Castillo, Marcela

2012-01-01

Alfred Adler attempted to understand how family affects youth outcomes by considering the order of when a child enters a family (Adler, 1964). Adler’s theory posits that birth order formation impacts individuals. We tested Adler’s birth order theory using data from a cross-sectional survey of 946 Chilean youths. We examined how birth order and gender are associated with drug use and educational outcomes using three different birth order research models including: (1) Expedient Research, (2) A...

Why Are Indian Children So Short? The Role of Birth Order and Son Preference.

Science.gov (United States)

Jayachandran, Seema; Pandi, Rohini

2017-09-01

Child stunting in India exceeds that in poorer regions like sub-Saharan Africa. Data on over 168,000 children show that, relative to Africa, India's height disadvantage increases sharply with birth order. We posit that India’s steep birth order gradient is due to favoritism toward eldest sons, which affects parents' fertility decisions and resource allocation across children. We show that, within India, the gradient is steeper for high-son-preference regions and religions. The gradient also varies with sibling gender as predicted. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that India's steeper birth order gradient can explain over one-half of the India-Africa gap in average child height.

The New Birth Order Book: Why You Are the Way You Are. Revised Edition.

Science.gov (United States)

Leman, Kevin

Based on the premise that birth order powerfully influences one's personality, one's marital partner, and one's parenting style, this book presents personal anecdotes, testimonials, and descriptions of well-known individuals or individuals seen in counseling to illustrate the impact of birth order. The book also presents practical ways to take…

METABOLIC AND BEHAVIORAL PARAMETERS IN NEWBORN PIGLETS IN RELATION TO BIRTH ORDER

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H. SĂRĂNDAN

2008-05-01

Full Text Available The experiment had 2 phases:During the first phase 19 sows were monitored during farrowing; the piglets were numbered according to birth order, they were weighed and there were recorded the time each piglet was born and when it first suckled. There was calculated the time from the beginning of the farrowing until the time each piglet was born (TNPP and the time from birth until the first suckle (TPS. A statistical correlation was established between these parameters.During the second experimental phase, for 49 piglets from 5 sows were determined: birth weight, TPS, glycemia at birth (G0 and after the first suckle (G1, rectal temperature at birth (T0 and after the first suckles (T1. This data was statistically analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test.Respecting the birth order, TPS is shorter for piglets born last (p<0.05. Average TPS was 23.04±2.49 minutes; during this time glycemia rises from 58.35 mg% to 64.35 mg% and rectal temperature drops from 38.58°C to 37.35°C. T0 is positively correlated with G0 (p<0.01 with G1 (p<0.01 and T1 (p<0.01. G0 is highly correlated to G1 (r=0.8855; p=0.

Certified higher-order recursive path ordering

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koprowski, A.; Pfenning, F.

2006-01-01

The paper reports on a formalization of a proof of wellfoundedness of the higher-order recursive path ordering (HORPO) in the proof checker Coq. The development is axiom-free and fully constructive. Three substantive parts that could be used also in other developments are the formalizations of the

Child Home Care Allowance and the Transition to Second- and Third-Order Births in Finland.

Science.gov (United States)

Erlandsson, Anni

2017-01-01

Using register data from the Finnish Census Panel, this paper studies the relationship between the use of the child home care allowance and second and third births among women aged 20-44 in Finland during the period 1992-2007. Discrete-time event-history analysis is applied to examine (i) whether women taking up the child home care allowance while their previous child was under the age of 3 have a higher risk to proceed to subsequent childbearing, (ii) whether these women proceed to a further birth more quickly, and (iii) whether the risk to proceed to a subsequent birth is related to educational level. The results show that women using the allowance have a higher risk of having a second and a third birth than women not using it. The risk of having a second birth is higher than that of having a third birth. Also, women using the allowance get their subsequent child sooner than women not using the allowance. No large educational differences in the effect of allowance use are found for second or third births.

Infant temperament: stability by age, gender, birth order, term status, and socioeconomic status.

Science.gov (United States)

Bornstein, Marc H; Putnick, Diane L; Gartstein, Maria A; Hahn, Chun-Shin; Auestad, Nancy; O'Connor, Deborah L

2015-01-01

Two complementary studies focused on stability of infant temperament across the 1st year and considered infant age, gender, birth order, term status, and socioeconomic status (SES) as moderators. Study 1 consisted of 73 mothers of firstborn term girls and boys queried at 2, 5, and 13 months of age. Study 2 consisted of 335 mothers of infants of different gender, birth order, term status, and SES queried at 6 and 12 months. Consistent positive and negative affectivity factors emerged at all time points across both studies. Infant temperament proved stable and robust across gender, birth order, term status, and SES. Stability coefficients for temperament factors and scales were medium to large for shorter ( 10 months) intervals. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Parent-Child Quality Time: Does Birth Order Matter?

Science.gov (United States)

Price, Joseph

2008-01-01

Using data from the American Time Use Survey, I find that a first-born child receives 20-30 more minutes of quality time each day with his or her parent than a second-born child of the same age from a similar family. The birth-order difference results from parents giving roughly equal time to each child at any point in time while the amount of…

Perfil de natimortalidade de acordo com ordem de nascimento, peso e sexo de leitões Stillbirth pattern according to birth order, birth weight, and gender of piglets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V.F. Borges

2008-10-01

Full Text Available Foram acompanhados 575 partos para avaliar a influência da ordem de nascimento, do sexo e do peso dos leitões na ocorrência de natimortos. Dos 7061 leitões, 90,2%, 6,0% e 3,8% nasceram vivos, natimortos ou mumificados, respectivamente. O percentual de partos com natimortos foi 44,5%. Partos com dois ou mais natimortos foram responsáveis por 63,1% das perdas por natimortalidade, embora tenham sido responsáveis por 17,2% das leitegadas. O percentual de natimortos aumentou com a ordem de nascimento; a maior taxa de natimortos, 21,7%, ocorreu a partir da 14ª ordem. A taxa de natimortalidade foi de 3,6% e 10,1% nos leitões de primeira a nona e de 10ª a 13ª ordem, respectivamente. Em leitões com até 500g a taxa de natimortos foi de 52,1%, mais alta que a de leitões mais pesados. Em leitões com 501 a 1200g foi de 10,1%, maior que entre os com mais de 1200g (4,0%. Não houve efeito de sexo dos leitões na ocorrência de natimortos, que foi de 6,2% e 5,8% para machos e fêmeas, respectivamente. A natimortalidade é maior entre os leitões com baixo peso ou com ordem de nascimento elevada.To examine the influence of birth order, gender, and birth weight of piglets on stillbirth, records of 575 farrowings were analyzed. Out of 7,061 piglets, 90.2%, 6.0%, and 3.8% were born alive, stillborns and mummified, respectively. The percentage of farrowings with stillborns was 44.5%. Farrowings with two or more stillborns accounted for 63.1% of losses, although they produced 17.2% of the litters. Stillbirth rate increased with the increase of the birth order. Piglets born from the 14th order onward had the highest stillbirth rate (21.7%. Piglets born from the 1st to the 9th and from the 10th to the 13th order had stillbirth rates of 3.6% and 10.1%, respectively. For piglets weighting up to 500g, the stillbirth rate was 52.1%, which was higher than that recorded for heavier piglets. Piglets weighting from 501 to 1,200g had a stillbirth rate of 10

Complexities of sibling analysis when exposures and outcomes change with time and birth order.

Science.gov (United States)

Sudan, Madhuri; Kheifets, Leeka I; Arah, Onyebuchi A; Divan, Hozefa A; Olsen, Jørn

2014-01-01

In this study, we demonstrate the complexities of performing a sibling analysis with a re-examination of associations between cell phone exposures and behavioral problems observed previously in the Danish National Birth Cohort. Children (52,680; including 5441 siblings) followed up to age 7 were included. We examined differences in exposures and behavioral problems between siblings and non-siblings and by birth order and birth year. We estimated associations between cell phone exposures and behavioral problems while accounting for the random family effect among siblings. The association of behavioral problems with both prenatal and postnatal exposure differed between siblings (odds ratio (OR): 1.07; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.69-1.66) and non-siblings (OR: 1.54; 95% CI: 1.36-1.74) and within siblings by birth order; the association was strongest for first-born siblings (OR: 1.72; 95% CI: 0.86-3.42) and negative for later-born siblings (OR: 0.63; 95% CI: 0.31-1.25), which may be because of increases in cell phone use with later birth year. Sibling analysis can be a powerful tool for (partially) accounting for confounding by invariant unmeasured within-family factors, but it cannot account for uncontrolled confounding by varying family-level factors, such as those that vary with time and birth order.

Self-efficacy, emotional intelligence and birth order as predictors of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Self-efficacy, emotional intelligence and birth order as predictors of academic performance among secondary school students in Kajola Local Government ... standardized scales and the data obtained was analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and Multiple Regression Statistical analysis of SPSS.

Birth order and Risk of Childhood Cancer: A Pooled Analysis from Five U.S. States

OpenAIRE

Von Behren, Julie; Spector, Logan G.; Mueller, Beth A.; Carozza, Susan E.; Chow, Eric J.; Fox, Erin E.; Horel, Scott; Johnson, Kimberly J.; McLaughlin, Colleen; Puumala, Susan E.; Ross, Julie A.; Reynolds, Peggy

2010-01-01

The causes of childhood cancers are largely unknown. Birth order has been used as a proxy for prenatal and postnatal exposures, such as frequency of infections and in utero hormone exposures. We investigated the association between birth order and childhood cancers in a pooled case-control dataset. The subjects were drawn from population-based registries of cancers and births in California, Minnesota, New York, Texas, and Washington. We included 17,672 cases less than 15 years of age who were...

Learning word order at birth: A NIRS study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Silvia Benavides-Varela

2017-06-01

Full Text Available In language, the relative order of words in sentences carries important grammatical functions. However, the developmental origins and the neural correlates of the ability to track word order are to date poorly understood. The current study therefore investigates the origins of infants’ ability to learn about the sequential order of words, using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS with newborn infants. We have conducted two experiments: one in which a word order change was implemented in 4-word sequences recorded with a list intonation (as if each word was a separate item in a list; list prosody condition, Experiment 1 and one in which the same 4-word sequences were recorded with a well-formed utterance-level prosodic contour (utterance prosody condition, Experiment 2. We found that newborns could detect the violation of the word order in the list prosody condition, but not in the utterance prosody condition. These results suggest that while newborns are already sensitive to word order in linguistic sequences, prosody appears to be a stronger cue than word order for the identification of linguistic units at birth.

Determination of sex-ratio by birth order in an urban community in Manipur.

Science.gov (United States)

Brogen, Akoijam S; Shantibala, K; Rajkumari, Bishwalata; Laishram, Jalina

2009-01-01

To determine the sex ratio by birth order and to assess the sex preference of the couples in an urban community. A cross sectional study, in an urban community in Manipur, was conducted among the currently married couples. Data on background characteristics of the couple, family pedigree chart (of the offspring) including history of abortion, stillbirth, death of child of the couple, sex preference and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act [PNDT Act] were collected through a structured interview. Data were analyzed using descriptive and chi-square statistics. There were a total of 1777 births to the 855 couples interviewed. There were 900 females per 1000 males for the 1st birth order but the sex ratio was favorable towards females in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th birth orders. Among both the husbands and wives, being more educated was significantly associated (p<0.05) with preferring lesser number of children, using new technology for sex selection and having heard of the PNDT Act. Majority of those who wanted to use new technology for sex selection (128, 56.6%) preferred to have male child. Sex ratio in this community was favorable towards females, though it was less among the first born babies.

How Do Children Behave Regarding Their Birth Order in Dental Setting?

Science.gov (United States)

Ghaderi, Faezeh; Fijan, Soleiman; Hamedani, Shahram

2015-12-01

Prediction of child cooperation level in dental setting is an important issue for a dentist to select the proper behavior management method. Many psychological studies have emphasized the effect of birth order on patient behavior and personality; however, only a few researches evaluated the effect of birth order on child's behavior in dental setting. This study was designed to evaluate the influence of children ordinal position on their behavior in dental setting. A total of 158 children with at least one primary mandibular molar needing class I restoration were selected. Children were classified based on the ordinal position; first, middle, or last child as well as single child. A blinded examiner recorded the pain perception of children during injection based on Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Sound, Eye and Movement (SEM) scale. To assess the child's anxiety, the questionnaire known as "Dental Subscale of the Children's Fear Survey Schedule" (CFSS-DS) was employed. The results showed that single children were significantly less cooperative and more anxious than the other children (p<0.001). The middle children were significantly more cooperative in comparison with the other child's position (p< 0.001). Single child may behave less cooperatively in dental setting. The order of child birth must also be considered in prediction of child's behavior for behavioral management.

The interaction of birth order and parental age on sexual orientation: an examination in two samples.

Science.gov (United States)

Bogaert, Anthony F; Cairney, John

2004-01-01

A birth order and sexual orientation relationship has been demonstrated numerous times in men, but a related variable, parental age (i.e. age of parents when the participant was born), has been less studied and has demonstrated contradictory results. In this research, the relations among birth order, parental age and sexual orientation were examined in a national probability sample of the US (Kessler, 1994; Kessler et al., 1994) and in a Canadian sample of homosexual and heterosexual men closely matched on demographic characteristics (Blanchard & Bogaert, 1996a). In both studies, an interaction between birth order and parental age was observed in men, such that there was positive association between number of older siblings and the likelihood of homosexuality, but this association weakened with increasing parental age. No significant effects were observed for women. The results are discussed in relation to recent theories of the birth order/sexual orientation relationship.

Birth order and preschool children's cooperative abilities: A within-family analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Prime, Heather; Plamondon, André; Jenkins, Jennifer M

2017-09-01

There is evidence for a laterborn sibling advantage in some social skills, although this has not been investigated in children's early capacities for cooperation. Using a within-family design, this study compared firstborn and laterborn (i.e., middle and youngest) siblings on their cooperative abilities when they were aged around 3 years. Further, the study investigated whether the association between children's birth order and cooperative abilities was dependent on the prosocial behaviour of other siblings in the home. The sample included 288 ethnically and sociodemographically diverse children clustered within 144 families. Cooperation was directly assessed using a problem-solving paradigm requiring two simultaneous and complementary actions of the child and adult tester to achieve a joint goal. Parents reported on the prosocial behaviour of up to four siblings in the home. Results of a multilevel analysis indicated that youngest children were more advanced in their cooperative abilities, compared to firstborn children, irrespective of their siblings' prosociality. Middle children, in contrast, were only advantaged over firstborn children if their siblings showed high levels of prosociality. The analysis accounted for a number of potential family-wide confounds, providing evidence that this is a child-specific effect related to birth order. Findings are discussed from a social constructivist perspective with an emphasis on the sibling relationship as a context for cooperative interactions that facilitate sociocognitive development. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? There are individual differences in children's early capacities for cooperation. Children's early cooperation has not been considered in relation to birth order and/or sibling interaction quality. What does this study add? Youngest children are advantaged in their cooperation as compared to firstborn children. Middle children are also advantaged, but only if their

Higher Order Expectations in Asset Pricing

OpenAIRE

Philippe BACCHETTA; Eric VAN WINCOOP

2004-01-01

We examine formally Keynes' idea that higher order beliefs can drive a wedge between an asset price and its fundamental value based on expected future payoffs. Higher order expectations add an additional term to a standard asset pricing equation. We call this the higher order wedge, which depends on the difference between higher and first order expectations of future payoffs. We analyze the determinants of this wedge and its impact on the equilibrium price. In the context of a dynamic noisy r...

The birth order and personalities of medical students.

Science.gov (United States)

Chan-Ob, Tinnakorn; Boonyanaruthee, Vudhichai; Pinyopornpanich, Manee; Intaprasert, Suthi; Kuntawongse, Nahathai

2002-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine how birth position i.e. first-born, middle-born, lastborn, and only child, correlates with personality. One hundred and eighty from 186 (97%) 1st year medical students of Chiang Mai Medical School were asked to complete a questionnaire and take a personality test. The data obtained included age, sex, Grade Point Average (GPA), and family background i.e. birth order and the students' personality profiles, which were assessed by the California Psychological Inventory (CPI). The results showed that only children and lastborn had more positive personality factors than other groups. They had more ambition, breadth of interests, versatility, self confidence, clear-thinking, intelligence, and independence than first-born and middle-born (Cs and Ai scale on CPI). In addition, the students whose parents had died, separated, or divorced had some personality profiles that differed from the others. The findings both supported and contradicted other papers.

Birth Order and Susceptibility to Peer Modeling Influences in Young Boys

Science.gov (United States)

Finley, Gordon E.; Cheyne, James A.

1976-01-01

Susceptibility to peer modeling influences as a function of birth order was studied by examining the data of 390 boys from kindergarten through third grade who previously had participated in moral transgression experiments. (MS)

Birth order, family size, and children's use of physician services.

Science.gov (United States)

Tessler, R

1980-01-01

The purpose of this study is to separate out the effects of number of siblings and birth order on children's use of physician services. Prior research has consistently revealed an inverse relationship between family size and physician visits, but the possible confounding influence of the child's ordinal position in the family has been ignored. Later born children may be taken to the doctor less often than first and other early borns because of their parents' increasing knowledgeability in regard to child care as well as their growing understanding of the uses and limitations of physician visits. On the assumption that part of the family size effect observed in prior research may have been due to the clustering of first and early borns in small families, an inverse relationship between birth order and physician utilization is hypothesized. Support for this hypothesis comes from an empirical study of 1,665 children from 587 families in which variation in family size is statistically controlled. PMID:7372499

Birth order and postpartum psychiatric disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Munk-Olsen, Trine; Jones, Ian; Laursen, Thomas Munk

2014-05-01

Primiparity is a well-established and significant risk factor for postpartum psychosis and especially bipolar affective disorders. However, no studies have, to our knowledge, quantified the risk of psychiatric disorders after the first, second, or subsequent births. The overall aim of the present study was to study the risk of first-time psychiatric episodes requiring inpatient treatment after the birth of the first, second, or third child. A cohort comprising 750,127 women was defined using information from Danish population registries. Women were followed individually from the date of birth of their first, second, or third child through the following 12 months over the period 1970-2011. The outcome of interest was defined as first-time admissions to a psychiatric hospital with any type of psychiatric disorder. Women who had a first psychiatric episode which required inpatient treatment after their first (n = 1,327), second (n = 735), or third (n = 238) delivery were included. The highest risk was found in primiparous mothers 10-19 days postpartum [relative risk (RR) = 8.65; 95% confidence interval (CI): 6.89-10.85]. After the second birth, the highest risk was at 60-89 days postpartum (RR = 2.01; 95% CI: 1.52-2.65), and there was no increased risk after the third birth. The effect of primiparity was strongest for bipolar disorders. Primiparity is a significant risk factor for experiencing a first-time episode with a psychiatric disorder, especially bipolar disorders. A second birth was associated with a smaller risk, and there was no increased risk after the third birth. The risk of postpartum episodes after the second delivery increased with increasing inter-pregnancy intervals, a result which warrants further investigation. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Birth Order and Field Dependence-Independence: A Failure to Replicate

Science.gov (United States)

Finley, Gordon E.; Solla, Joseph

1975-01-01

The Children's Embedded Figures Test was individually administered to 116 Caucasian, middle class, second grade children. Results suggest that a child's early experience in a particular birth order position may not be related to the development of field dependence-independence in any unambiguous and simple fashion. (Author/ED)

Learning word order at birth: A NIRS study.

Science.gov (United States)

Benavides-Varela, Silvia; Gervain, Judit

2017-06-01

In language, the relative order of words in sentences carries important grammatical functions. However, the developmental origins and the neural correlates of the ability to track word order are to date poorly understood. The current study therefore investigates the origins of infants' ability to learn about the sequential order of words, using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) with newborn infants. We have conducted two experiments: one in which a word order change was implemented in 4-word sequences recorded with a list intonation (as if each word was a separate item in a list; list prosody condition, Experiment 1) and one in which the same 4-word sequences were recorded with a well-formed utterance-level prosodic contour (utterance prosody condition, Experiment 2). We found that newborns could detect the violation of the word order in the list prosody condition, but not in the utterance prosody condition. These results suggest that while newborns are already sensitive to word order in linguistic sequences, prosody appears to be a stronger cue than word order for the identification of linguistic units at birth. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Associations of Birth Order with Early Adolescent Growth, Pubertal Onset, Blood Pressure and Size: Evidence from Hong Kong's "Children of 1997" Birth Cohort.

Science.gov (United States)

Kwok, Man Ki; Leung, Gabriel M; Schooling, C Mary

2016-01-01

Birth order has been proposed as a cardiovascular risk factor, because the lower birth weight and greater infant weight gain typical of firstborns could programme metabolism detrimentally. We examined the associations of birth order (firstborn or laterborn) with birth weight-for-gestational age, length/height and body mass index (BMI) z-scores during infancy, childhood, and puberty using generalized estimating equations, with age at pubertal onset using interval-censored regression and with age-, sex- and height-standardized blood pressure, height and BMI z-scores at 13 years using linear regression in a population-representative Chinese birth cohort: "Children of 1997" (n = 8,327). Compared with laterborns, firstborns had lower birth weight-for-gestational age (mean difference = -0.18 z-score, 95% confidence interval (CI) -0.23, -0.14), lower infant BMI (-0.09 z-score, 95% CI -0.14, -0.04), greater childhood height (0.10 z-score, 95% CI 0.05, 0.14) and BMI (0.08 z-score, 95% CI 0.03, 0.14), but not greater pubertal BMI (0.05 z-score, 95% CI -0.02, 0.11), adjusted for sex, parental age, birthplace, education and income. Firstborns had earlier onset of pubic hair (time ratio = 0.988, 95% CI 0.980, 0.996), but not breast or genitalia, development. Firstborns had greater BMI (0.07 z-score, 95% CI 0.002, 0.15), but not height (0.05 z-score, 95% CI -0.01, 0.11), at 13 years, but similar blood pressure. Differences by birth order continue into early adolescence with firstborns being heavier with earlier pubic hair development, which could indicate long-term cardiovascular risk.

Associations of Birth Order with Early Adolescent Growth, Pubertal Onset, Blood Pressure and Size: Evidence from Hong Kong's "Children of 1997" Birth Cohort.

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Man Ki Kwok

Full Text Available Birth order has been proposed as a cardiovascular risk factor, because the lower birth weight and greater infant weight gain typical of firstborns could programme metabolism detrimentally.We examined the associations of birth order (firstborn or laterborn with birth weight-for-gestational age, length/height and body mass index (BMI z-scores during infancy, childhood, and puberty using generalized estimating equations, with age at pubertal onset using interval-censored regression and with age-, sex- and height-standardized blood pressure, height and BMI z-scores at 13 years using linear regression in a population-representative Chinese birth cohort: "Children of 1997" (n = 8,327.Compared with laterborns, firstborns had lower birth weight-for-gestational age (mean difference = -0.18 z-score, 95% confidence interval (CI -0.23, -0.14, lower infant BMI (-0.09 z-score, 95% CI -0.14, -0.04, greater childhood height (0.10 z-score, 95% CI 0.05, 0.14 and BMI (0.08 z-score, 95% CI 0.03, 0.14, but not greater pubertal BMI (0.05 z-score, 95% CI -0.02, 0.11, adjusted for sex, parental age, birthplace, education and income. Firstborns had earlier onset of pubic hair (time ratio = 0.988, 95% CI 0.980, 0.996, but not breast or genitalia, development. Firstborns had greater BMI (0.07 z-score, 95% CI 0.002, 0.15, but not height (0.05 z-score, 95% CI -0.01, 0.11, at 13 years, but similar blood pressure.Differences by birth order continue into early adolescence with firstborns being heavier with earlier pubic hair development, which could indicate long-term cardiovascular risk.

Number of Siblings, Sibling Spacing, Sex, and Birth Order: Their Effects on Perceived Parent-Adolescent Relationships.

Science.gov (United States)

Kidwell, Jeannie S.

1981-01-01

Examined the effect of the sibling structures of number and spacing, sex composition, and birth order on adolescents' perceptions of the power and support dimensions of parental behavior. Results suggest that research focusing on birth order must control for number of siblings, spacing, and sex composition of siblings. (Author)

BIRTH ORDER, FAMILY SIZE, NEUROSIS

OpenAIRE

AHMAD JALILI

1984-01-01

In an attempt to investigate the relationship of birth rank and family size with the incidence of neurosis in an Iranian culture, case notes of 1029 schizophrenic patients as (497 males and 532 females) referred to psychiatric clinic for insured workers were studied. The incidence of neurasis appeared to be significantly more frequent among the first-half position of birth  rders in The families of 5 children and over; this bei-ng more marked-in males than in females; and the first s...

Complexities of sibling analysis when exposures and outcomes change with time and birth order

OpenAIRE

Sudan, M; Kheifets, LI; Arah, OA; Divan, HA; Olsen, J

2014-01-01

In this study, we demonstrate the complexities of performing a sibling analysis with a re-examination of associations between cell phone exposures and behavioral problems observed previously in the Danish National Birth Cohort. Children (52,680; including 5441 siblings) followed up to age 7 were included. We examined differences in exposures and behavioral problems between siblings and non-siblings and by birth order and birth year. We estimated associations between cell phone exposures and b...

Birth Order and Intelligence: Together Again for the Last Time?

Science.gov (United States)

Rodgers, Joseph Lee; Cleveland, H. Harrington; van den Oord, Edwin; Rowe, David C.

2001-01-01

The authors respond to critiques of their investigation of whether birth order reliably contributes to variance in intelligence, concluding that little in the critiques challenges the original position that cross-sectional data are suspect as evidence for within-family trends in intelligence. When looking inside families and directly comparing the…

Socio-Economic Status And Birth-Order As Correlates Of Women ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study investigated socio-economic status and birth-order as correlates of women spiritual help-seeking behavior. Five hundred women help-seekers were sampled from 10 spiritual houses within Ibadan metropolis. Their age ranged between 17-70 years. Fifty percent (50 %,) i.e. 250 of the total sample were singles; ...

[Effects of birth order, maternal abortion and mode of delivery on childhood acute leukemia risk: a meta-analysis].

Science.gov (United States)

Zou, Guobin; Sha, Xia

2014-03-01

To evaluate the associations between birth order, maternal abortion and mode of delivery and childhood acute leukemia risk. Multiple electronic databases were searched to identify relevant studies up to March 2013 using the search terms "childhood leukemia", "acute lymphoblastic leukemia", "acute myeloid leukemia","birth order", "abortion", "miscarriage", "cesarean", "birth characteristics" and "prenatal risk factor". Data from cohort and case-control studies were analyzed using the Stata software. Twenty-three studies were included in this meta-analysis according to the selection criteria. No significant associations were identified for birth order and mode of delivery (birth order = 2: OR = 0.97, 95%CI: 0.89-1.05; birth order = 3: OR = 1.00, 95%CI: 0.91-1.11; birth order ≥ 4: OR = 1.02, 95%CI: 0.87-1.20; mode of delivery: OR = 1.05, 95%CI: 0.96-1.15). However, there was a significant association between maternal abortion and childhood acute leukemia risk (spontaneous abortion: OR = 1.21, 95%CI: 1.05-1.41; induced abortion: OR = 1.23, 95%CI: 1.07-1.43). Furthermore, the stratified analysis by disease subtypes showed that spontaneous and induced abortions were significantly associated with the risks of childhood acute myeloid leukemia (OR = 1.71, 95%CI: 1.09-2.70) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (OR = 1.23, 95%CI: 1.05-1.42), respectively. This meta-analysis revealed that maternal abortion might contribute to the childhood acute leukemia risk.

Order-sorted Algebraic Specifications with Higher-order Functions

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Haxthausen, Anne Elisabeth

1995-01-01

This paper gives a proposal for how order-sorted algebraic specification languages can be extended with higher-order functions. The approach taken is a generalisation to the order-sorted case of an approach given by Mller, Tarlecki and Wirsing for the many-sorted case. The main idea in the proposal...

Pregnant Women in Sport Climbing - Is there a Higher Risk for Preterm Birth?

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Drastig, Jan; Hillebrandt, David; Rath, Werner; Küpper, Thomas

2017-02-01

Sport climbing is a popular recreational sport with an increasing proportion of female athletes. International recommendations emphasize the physical and mental benefits of regular sport activity during any uncomplicated pregnancy. In this context, sport climbing is associated with a high risk potential.The aim of this study was to examine if there is a higher risk for preterm birth in active climbing athletes.Original manuscript.A retrospective self-report online survey in the German language collected data between September 2012 and November 2013. In addition to anthropometric and demographic data, data on climbing experience, preferred climbing discipline, skill level and changes of climbing habits during pregnancy, known risk factors for preterm birth and information on delivery and the newborn were requested. The rate of preterm birth of the survey was tested with Fisher's exact test with information from the German Federal Statistical Office.Sample size was 32. 72% had a university degree, 81% were primiparous, all were singleton pregnancies. A 33 rd questionnaire was excluded because of described preeclampsia. Age ranged between 21 and 39 years, climbing experience before pregnancy between 2 and 24 years, and skill level before pregnancy between 4 and 7 on the UIAA scale (International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation). Half of the women climbed until the 36 th week and 90% adjusted their climbing habits mostly by reducing climbing difficulty and doing more top roping. 2 preterm births in the 36 th week of gestation were found (2 from 15, p=0.36). According to the data from the German Federal Statistical Office, 8.9% births in the year 2013 in Germany were preterm.This is the first study investigating the risk of preterm birth in recreational sport climbing athletes. No significantly higher proportion of preterm birth could be found. Limitations are small sample size and high social status of participants. What is known about the subject: Sport

Higher-Order Hierarchies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ernst, Erik

2003-01-01

This paper introduces the notion of higher-order inheritance hierarchies. They are useful because they provide well-known benefits of object-orientation at the level of entire hierarchies-benefits which are not available with current approaches. Three facets must be adressed: First, it must be po...

Association of birth order with cardiovascular disease risk factors in young adulthood: a study of one million Swedish men.

Science.gov (United States)

Jelenkovic, Aline; Silventoinen, Karri; Tynelius, Per; Myrskylä, Mikko; Rasmussen, Finn

2013-01-01

Birth order has been suggested to be linked to several cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, but the evidence is still inconsistent. We aim to determine the associations of birth order with body mass index (BMI), muscle strength and blood pressure. Further we will analyse whether these relationships are affected by family characteristics. BMI, elbow flexion, hand grip and knee extension strength and systolic and diastolic blood pressure were measured at conscription examination in 1,065,710 Swedish young men born between 1951 and 1975. The data were analysed using linear multivariate and fixed effects regression models; the latter compare siblings and account for genetic and social factors shared by brothers. Fixed effect regression analysis showed that birth order was inversely associated with BMI: second and third born had 0.8% and 1.1% (pbirth order though not always significantly. The association between birth order and blood pressure was not significant. Birth order is negatively associated with BMI and knee extension strength, positively with elbow flexion and hand grip strength, and is not associated with blood pressure among young men. Although the effects are small, the link between birth order and some CVD risk factors is already detectable in young adulthood.

Kin and birth order effects on male child mortality: three East Asian populations, 1716-1945.

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Dong, Hao; Manfredini, Matteo; Kurosu, Satomi; Yang, Wenshan; Lee, James Z

2017-03-01

Human child survival depends on adult investment, typically from parents. However, in spite of recent research advances on kin influence and birth order effects on human infant and child mortality, studies that directly examine the interaction of kin context and birth order on sibling differences in child mortality are still rare. Our study supplements this literature with new findings from large-scale individual-level panel data for three East Asian historical populations from northeast China (1789-1909), northeast Japan (1716-1870), and north Taiwan (1906-1945), where preference for sons and first-borns is common. We examine and compare male child mortality risks by presence/absence of co-resident parents, grandparents, and other kin, as well as their interaction effects with birth order. We apply discrete-time event-history analysis on over 172,000 observations of 69,125 boys aged 1-9 years old. We find that in all three populations, while the presence of parents is important for child survival, it is more beneficial to first/early-borns than to later-borns. Effects of other co-resident kin are however null or inconsistent between populations. Our findings underscore the importance of birth order in understanding how differential parental investment may produce child survival differentials between siblings.

Epilepsia e ordem de nascimento Epilepsy and birth order

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Paulo Cesar Sandler

1975-09-01

Full Text Available Mediante o método de Greenwood-Yule e o teste estatístico mais sensível de que se dispõe atualmente, o x² de Halperin, foi testada a possível associação entre a prevalência de epilepsia e a ordem de nascimento de 238 pacientes. Estes pacientes foram obtidos em dois hospitais de São Paulo, na tentativa de se controlar sua classe social; tratava-se de epilépticos com variados transtornos psiquiátricos. Concluiu-se por uma associação estatisticamente significante entre a doença e a ordem de nascimento dos 238 pacientes, com uma sobre-representação nos primeiros e nos últimos nascidos.This paper deals with birth order and epilepsy. The Greenwood-Yule's method was applied, with the most powerful statistical test available, Halperin's modified chi-square. The authors concluded that there is a consistent positive association between this illness prevalence and birth order of the patients, being first and last born over-represented, irrespective of their sibship size. The data were obtained in two psychiatric hospitals in the city of São Paulo, being social class factor qualitatively controlled. All the 238 patients studied suffered a wide range of psychiatric symptoms.

How many gay men owe their sexual orientation to fraternal birth order?

Science.gov (United States)

Cantor, James M; Blanchard, Ray; Paterson, Andrew D; Bogaert, Anthony F

2002-02-01

In men, sexual orientation correlates with the number of older brothers, each additional older brother increasing the odds of homosexuality by approximately 33%. However, this phenomenon, the fraternal birth order effect, accounts for the sexual orientation of only a proportion of gay men. To estimate the size of this proportion, we derived generalized forms of two epidemiological statistics, the attributable fraction and the population attributable fraction, which quantify the relationship between a condition and prior exposure to an agent that can cause it. In their common forms, these statistics are calculable only for 2 levels of exposure: exposed versus not-exposed. We developed a method applicable to agents with multiple levels of exposure--in this case, number of older brothers. This noniterative method, which requires the odds ratio from a prior logistic regression analysis, was then applied to a large contemporary sample of gay men. The results showed that roughly 1 gay man in 7 owes his sexual orientation to the fraternal birth order effect. They also showed that the effect of fraternal birth order would exceed all other causes of homosexuality in groups of gay men with 3 or more older brothers and would precisely equal all other causes in a theoretical group with 2.5 older brothers. Implications are suggested for the gay sib-pair linkage method of identifying genetic loci for homosexuality.

Challenges in higher order mode Raman amplifiers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rottwitt, Karsten; Nielsen, Kristian; Friis, Søren Michael Mørk

2015-01-01

A higher order Raman amplifier model that take random mode coupling into account ispresented. Mode dependent gain and signal power fluctuations at the output of the higher order modeRaman amplifier are discussed......A higher order Raman amplifier model that take random mode coupling into account ispresented. Mode dependent gain and signal power fluctuations at the output of the higher order modeRaman amplifier are discussed...

HIGHER ORDER THINKING IN TEACHING GRAMMAR

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Citra Dewi

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper discussed about how to enhance students’ higher order thinking that should be done by teacher in teaching grammar. Usually teaching grammar was boring and has the same way to learn like change the pattern of sentence into positive, negative and introgative while the students’ need more various way to develop their thinking. The outcome of students’ competence in grammar sometimes not sufficient enough when the students’ occured some test international standart like Test of English Foreign Language, International English Language Testing. Whereas in TOEFL test it needed higher order thinking answer, so teacher should develop students’ higher order thingking in daily teaching grammar in order to make the students’ enhance their thinking are higher. The method was used in this paper by using field study based on the experience of teaching grammar. It can be shown by students’ toefl score was less in stucture and written expression. The result of this paper was after teacher gave some treatments to enhance students’ higher order thinking in teaching grammar, the students’ toefl scores are sufficient enough as a part of stucture and written expression. It can concluded that it needed some strategies to enhancce students higher order thinking by teaching grammar it can make students’ higher toefl score. Teachers should be creative and inovative to teach the students’ started from giving the students’ question or test in teaching grammar.

The influence of birth order and number of siblings on adolescent body composition: evidence from a Brazilian birth cohort study.

Science.gov (United States)

de Oliveira Meller, Fernanda; Assunção, M C F; Schäfer, A A; de Mola, C L; Barros, A J D; Dahly, D L; Barros, F C

2015-07-14

The aim of this study was to estimate the association between birth order and number of siblings with body composition in adolescents. Data are from a birth cohort study conducted in Pelotas, Brazil. At the age of 18 years, 4563 adolescents were located, of whom 4106 were interviewed (follow-up rate 81.3 %). Of these, 3974 had complete data and were thus included in our analysis. The variables used in the analysis were measured during the perinatal period, or at 11, 15 and/or 18 years of age. Body composition at 18 years was collected by air displacement plethysmography (BOD POD®). Crude and adjusted analyses of the association between birth order and number of siblings with body composition were performed using linear regression. All analyses were stratified by the adolescent sex. The means of BMI, fat mass index and fat-free mass index among adolescents were 23.4 (sd 4.5) kg/m², 6.1 (sd 3.9) kg/m² and 17.3 (sd 2.5) kg/m², respectively. In adjusted models, the total siblings remained inversely associated with fat mass index (β = - 0.37 z-scores, 95 % CI - 0.52, - 0.23) and BMI in boys (β = - 0.39 z-scores, 95 % CI - 0.55, - 0.22). Fat-free mass index was related to the total siblings in girls (β = 0.06 z-scores, 95 % CI - 0.04, 0.17). This research has found that number of total siblings, and not birth order, is related to the fat mass index, fat-free mass index and BMI in adolescents. It suggests the need for early prevention of obesity or fat mass accumulation in only children.

Relationship of birth order and the marketing-related variable of materialism.

Science.gov (United States)

Zemanek, J E; Claxton, R P; Zemanek, W H

2000-04-01

The relationship between the birth order and materialism scores was investigated using materialism conceptualized as a consumer value. Data were collected from 275 alumni of a major southwestern university. The analysis indicated that first-borns in this sample scored significantly lower on materialism than younger siblings.

Order-specific fertility estimates based on perinatal statistics and statistics on out-of-hospital births

OpenAIRE

Kreyenfeld, Michaela; Peters, Frederik; Scholz, Rembrandt; Wlosnewski, Ines

2014-01-01

Until 2008, German vital statistics has not provided information on biological birth order. We have tried to close part of this gap by providing order-specific fertility rates generated from Perinatal Statistics and statistics on out-of-hospital births for the period 2001-2008. This investigation has been published in Comparative Population Studies (CPoS) (see Kreyenfeld, Scholz, Peters and Wlosnewski 2010). The CPoS-paper describes how data from the Perinatal Statistics and statistics on out...

Association of birth order with cardiovascular disease risk factors in young adulthood: a study of one million Swedish men.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aline Jelenkovic

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Birth order has been suggested to be linked to several cardiovascular disease (CVD risk factors, but the evidence is still inconsistent. We aim to determine the associations of birth order with body mass index (BMI, muscle strength and blood pressure. Further we will analyse whether these relationships are affected by family characteristics. METHODS: BMI, elbow flexion, hand grip and knee extension strength and systolic and diastolic blood pressure were measured at conscription examination in 1,065,710 Swedish young men born between 1951 and 1975. The data were analysed using linear multivariate and fixed effects regression models; the latter compare siblings and account for genetic and social factors shared by brothers. RESULTS: Fixed effect regression analysis showed that birth order was inversely associated with BMI: second and third born had 0.8% and 1.1% (p<0.001 lower BMI than first-born, respectively. The association pattern differed among muscle strengths. After adjustment for BMI, first-born presented lower elbow flexion and hand grip strength than second-born (-5.9 N and -3.8 N, respectively, p<0.001. Knee extension strength was inversely related to birth order though not always significantly. The association between birth order and blood pressure was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: Birth order is negatively associated with BMI and knee extension strength, positively with elbow flexion and hand grip strength, and is not associated with blood pressure among young men. Although the effects are small, the link between birth order and some CVD risk factors is already detectable in young adulthood.

Sibship size, birth order, and personality among Kuwaiti college students.

Science.gov (United States)

Abdel-Khalek, Ahmed M; Lester, David

2007-08-01

In a sample of 460 (103 men, 357 women) Kuwaiti college students (M age=21.9 yr., SD=3.0), scores on the Arabic Scale of Optimism and Pessimism, the Death Obsession Scale, the Arabic Scale of Obsession-Compulsion, the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale, the Taoist Orientation Scale, and the Suicidal Ideation Scale were not associated with sibship size and birth order.

Higher Prevalence of Left-Handedness in Twins? Not After Controlling Birth Time Confounders.

Science.gov (United States)

Heikkilä, Kauko; Vuoksimaa, Eero; Saari-Kemppainen, Aulikki; Kaprio, Jaakko; Rose, Richard J; Haukka, Jari; Pitkäniemi, Janne; Iivanainen, Matti

2015-10-01

Pregnancy- and birth-related factors may have an effect on handedness. Compared with singletons, twins have a lower birth weight, shorter gestational age, and are at higher risk for birth complications. We tested whether the prevalence of left-handedness is higher among twins than singletons, and if so, whether that difference is fully explained by pregnancy and birth-related differences between twins and singletons. We analyzed Finnish population-based datasets; included were 8,786 twins and 5,892 singletons with information on birth weight (n = 12,381), Apgar scores (n = 11,129), and gestational age (n = 11,811). Two twin cohorts were involved: FinnTwin12 included twins born during 1983-1987, and FinnTwin16 included twins born during 1974-1979. We had two comparison groups of singletons: 4,101 individuals born during 1986-1988 and enrolled in the Helsinki Ultrasound Trial, and 1,791 individuals who were partners of FinnTwin16 twins. We used logistic regression models with writing hand as the outcome for comparison and evaluating effects of covariates. Left-handedness was more common in twins (9.67%) than in singletons (8.27%; p = .004). However, Apgar scores were associated with handedness, and after controlling for covariates, we found no difference in the prevalence of left-handedness between twins and singletons. Increased left-handedness among twins, often reported by others, was evident in our data, but only among our older twin cohorts, and that association disappeared after removing effects of perinatal covariates.

Gender and birth order as parenting moderators / A influência do gênero e ordem de nascimento sobre as práticas educativas parentais

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Izabela Tissot Antunes Sampaio

2010-01-01

Full Text Available This study aimed at assessing gender and birth order influence on parenting and perceived parental favoritism from the children perspective. The participants were 322 adolescents aged between 13 and 17 years old. Two instruments were used to collect data - Parenting Styles Inventory and a questionnaire developed by the authors. Non-parametrical statistics (Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis were used to analyze the obtained data. Results have shown that: (a child gender has significant influence on the score of parenting styles; (b firstborn girls present significantly higher risk of suffering negative parental practices and, (c the perceived parental favoritism is significantly modulated by both gender and birth order.

Sibship size, birth order, family structure and childhood mental disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Carballo, Juan J; García-Nieto, Rebeca; Alvarez-García, Raquel; Caro-Cañizares, Irene; López-Castromán, Jorge; Muñoz-Lorenzo, Laura; de Leon-Martinez, Victoria; Baca-García, Enrique

2013-08-01

The aim of this study was to determine the role that birth order, sibship size and family structure have as risk factors in the development of common childhood mental disorders. A case-control study design was conducted (N = 16,823). The group under study consisted of all those subjects who had consulted with a psychiatrist/psychologist and had received a clinical diagnosis at public mental health centres within the Region of Madrid (Spain), between 1980 and 2008. A multiple logistic regression was used to explore the independent association with each diagnosis: emotional disorders (ED) with onset specific to childhood, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder (CD), mental retardation (MR), and pervasive developmental disorder (PDD). Birth order and family structure significantly predicted the risk of being diagnosed with ED or ADHD. In addition, sibship size and sex predicted the risk of being diagnosed with a childhood mental disorder. We concluded that being the middle child and living with both biological parents appear to be protective factors against the development of ED or ADHD. Living in large families appears to increase the risk of receiving a CD, MR, or PDD diagnosis. Further research is warranted.

Birth Order and Injury-Related Infant Mortality in the U.S.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahrens, Katherine A; Rossen, Lauren M; Thoma, Marie E; Warner, Margaret; Simon, Alan E

2017-10-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the risk of death during the first year of life due to injury, such as unintentional injury and homicide, by birth order in the U.S. Using national birth cohort-linked birth-infant death data (births, 2000-2010; deaths, 2000-2011), risks of infant mortality due to injury in second-, third-, fourth-, and fifth or later-born singleton infants were compared with first-born singleton infants. Risk ratios were estimated using log-binomial models adjusted for maternal age, marital status, race/ethnicity, and education. The statistical analyses were conducted in 2016. Approximately 40%, 32%, 16%, 7%, and 4% of singleton live births were first, second, third, fourth, and fifth or later born, respectively. From 2000 to 2011, a total of 15,866 infants died as a result of injury (approximately 1,442 deaths per year). Compared with first-born infants (2.9 deaths per 10,000 live births), second or later-born infants were at increased risk of infant mortality due to injury (second, 3.6 deaths; third, 4.2 deaths; fourth, 4.8 deaths; fifth or later, 6.4 deaths). The corresponding adjusted risk ratios were as follows: second, 1.84 (95% CI=1.76, 1.91); third, 2.42 (95% CI=2.30, 2.54); fourth, 2.96 (95% CI=2.77, 3.16); and fifth or later, 4.26 (95% CI=3.96, 4.57). Singleton infants born second or later were at increased risk of mortality due to injury during their first year of life in the U.S. This study's findings highlight the importance of investigating underlying mechanisms behind this increased risk. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Family Characteristics and Achievement: Effects of Birth Order and Family Size of the Kalamazoo Brothers Sample. Discussion Papers No. 431-77.

Science.gov (United States)

Olneck, Michael R.; Bills, David B.

Research on the effects of birth order on cognitive ability often fails to control relevant variables related to family background and does not usually investigate the effects of birth order among members of the same family. Consequently, apparently significant birth order effects may in fact be spurious. This study uses a sample of brothers…

Higher-Order Program Generation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rhiger, Morten

for OCaml, a dialect of ML, that provides run-time code generation for OCaml programs. We apply these byte-code combinators in semantics-directed compilation for an imperative language and in run-time specialization using type-directed partial evaluation. Finally, we present an approach to compiling goal......This dissertation addresses the challenges of embedding programming languages, specializing generic programs to specific parameters, and generating specialized instances of programs directly as executable code. Our main tools are higher-order programming techniques and automatic program generation....... It is our thesis that they synergize well in the development of customizable software. Recent research on domain-specific languages propose to embed them into existing general-purpose languages. Typed higher-order languages have proven especially useful as meta languages because they provide a rich...

Frontiers of higher order fuzzy sets

CERN Document Server

Tahayori, Hooman

2015-01-01

Frontiers of Higher Order Fuzzy Sets, strives to improve the theoretical aspects of general and Interval Type-2 fuzzy sets and provides a unified representation theorem for higher order fuzzy sets. Moreover, the book elaborates on the concept of gradual elements and their integration with the higher order fuzzy sets. This book also introduces new frameworks for information granulation based on general T2FSs, IT2FSs, Gradual elements, Shadowed sets and rough sets. In particular, the properties and characteristics of the new proposed frameworks are studied. Such new frameworks are shown to be more capable to be exploited in real applications. Higher order fuzzy sets that are the result of the integration of general T2FSs, IT2FSs, gradual elements, shadowed sets and rough sets will be shown to be suitable to be applied in the fields of bioinformatics, business, management, ambient intelligence, medicine, cloud computing and smart grids. Presents new variations of fuzzy set frameworks and new areas of applicabili...

Birth order and sibship composition as predictors of overweight or obesity among low-income 4- to 8-year-old children.

Science.gov (United States)

Mosli, R H; Miller, A L; Peterson, K E; Kaciroti, N; Rosenblum, K; Baylin, A; Lumeng, J C

2016-02-01

This study aimed to examine the association of birth order and number and sex of siblings with overweight or obesity among 4- to 8-year-olds. This is a cross-sectional study involving 273 low-income mother-child dyads. Questionnaires and anthropometry were completed. Multiple logistic regression was used to examine the association of birth order, having younger siblings, having older siblings, having at least one brother and having at least one sister with odds of overweight or obesity. Analyses were repeated to additionally include non-biological siblings. Models were adjusted for potential confounders and intermediate variables. Prevalence of child overweight or obesity was 42.5%. Adjusting for covariates, only children and youngest siblings had higher odds of overweight or obesity compared with oldest siblings (odds ratio [OR]: 4.18, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.67, 10.46 and OR: 3.21, 95% CI: 1.41, 7.33, respectively). Having one or more younger siblings and having at least one brother were associated with lower odds (OR: 0.38, 95% CI: 0.21, 0.69 and OR: 0.47, 95% CI: 0.28, 0.81, respectively). Including non-biological siblings did not meaningfully change the associations. Birth order and sibship composition are associated with overweight or obesity among 4- to 8-year-olds. Future studies identifying the underlying behavioural mechanism can help inform family-based intervention programmes. © 2015 World Obesity.

Higher order harmonics of reactor neutron equation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Fu; Hu Yongming; Luo Zhengpei

1996-01-01

The flux mapping method using the higher order harmonics of the neutron equation is proposed. Based on the bi-orthogonality of the higher order harmonics, the process and formulas for higher order harmonics calculation are derived via the source iteration method with source correction. For the first time, not only any order harmonics for up-to-3-dimensional geometry are achieved, but also the preliminary verification to the capability for flux mapping have been carried out

XY model with higher-order exchange.

Science.gov (United States)

Žukovič, Milan; Kalagov, Georgii

2017-08-01

An XY model, generalized by inclusion of up to an infinite number of higher-order pairwise interactions with an exponentially decreasing strength, is studied by spin-wave theory and Monte Carlo simulations. At low temperatures the model displays a quasi-long-range-order phase characterized by an algebraically decaying correlation function with the exponent η=T/[2πJ(p,α)], nonlinearly dependent on the parameters p and α that control the number of the higher-order terms and the decay rate of their intensity, respectively. At higher temperatures the system shows a crossover from the continuous Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless to the first-order transition for the parameter values corresponding to a highly nonlinear shape of the potential well. The role of topological excitations (vortices) in changing the nature of the transition is discussed.

Higher-Order Minimal Functional Graphs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jones, Neil D; Rosendahl, Mads

1994-01-01

We present a minimal function graph semantics for a higher-order functional language with applicative evaluation order. The semantics captures the intermediate calls performed during the evaluation of a program. This information may be used in abstract interpretation as a basis for proving...

Higher-Order Generalized Invexity in Control Problems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. K. Padhan

2011-01-01

Full Text Available We introduce a higher-order duality (Mangasarian type and Mond-Weir type for the control problem. Under the higher-order generalized invexity assumptions on the functions that compose the primal problems, higher-order duality results (weak duality, strong duality, and converse duality are derived for these pair of problems. Also, we establish few examples in support of our investigation.

Neural classifiers for learning higher-order correlations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gueler, M.

1999-01-01

Studies by various authors suggest that higher-order networks can be more powerful and biologically more plausible with respect to the more traditional multilayer networks. These architecture make explicit use of nonlinear interactions between input variables in the form of higher-order units or product units. If it is known a priori that the problem to be implemented possesses a given set of invariances like in the translation, rotation, and scale invariant recognition problems, those invariances can be encoded, thus eliminating all higher-order terms which are incompatible with the invariances. In general, however, it is a serious set-back that the complexity of learning increases exponentially with the size of inputs. This paper reviews higher-order networks and introduces an implicit representation in which learning complexity is mainly decided by the number of higher-order terms to be learned and increases only linearly with the input size

Neural Classifiers for Learning Higher-Order Correlations

Science.gov (United States)

Güler, Marifi

1999-01-01

Studies by various authors suggest that higher-order networks can be more powerful and are biologically more plausible with respect to the more traditional multilayer networks. These architectures make explicit use of nonlinear interactions between input variables in the form of higher-order units or product units. If it is known a priori that the problem to be implemented possesses a given set of invariances like in the translation, rotation, and scale invariant pattern recognition problems, those invariances can be encoded, thus eliminating all higher-order terms which are incompatible with the invariances. In general, however, it is a serious set-back that the complexity of learning increases exponentially with the size of inputs. This paper reviews higher-order networks and introduces an implicit representation in which learning complexity is mainly decided by the number of higher-order terms to be learned and increases only linearly with the input size.

Measuring the distribution of adolescent births among 15-19-year-olds in Chile: an ecological study.

Science.gov (United States)

Velarde, Marissa; Zegers-Hochschild, Fernando

2017-10-01

Although within Latin America Chile has one of the lowest birth rates among adolescents, it has a high rate in comparison to other developed nations. To explore trends in birth rates among adolescents by selected demographics in Chile. The national trend in birth rates was examined for women aged 15-19 years between 1992 and 2012. The birth rates for regions and communes were calculated using birth and census data and were analysed to determine its relationship to the regional or communal poverty rate, which were obtained from the Casen Survey. Differences in educational attainment were explored among adolescents with first-order and second-order or higher births using the Chi-square test. The birth rate among adolescents has experienced a 25% decline in the past 20 years. Cross-regional variance in birth rates could not be explained by poverty rates. Within the Metropolitan Region, there is a positive correlation between poverty and adolescent birth rates. Among adolescents giving birth, 67% had completed 10-12 years of school at birth, but there is a significant difference in educational attainment between girls with a first-order and those with a higher-order birth. In Chile, the adolescent birth rate varies greatly among regions and communes. This study found that urban and wealthy areas had lower birth rates than poor and rural ones, and that girls with a first-order birth had completed more years of school than girls with higher-order births. © Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Higher order antibunching in intermediate states

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Verma, Amit; Sharma, Navneet K.; Pathak, Anirban

2008-01-01

Since the introduction of binomial state as an intermediate state, different intermediate states have been proposed. Different nonclassical effects have also been reported in these intermediate states. But till now higher order antibunching is predicted in only one type of intermediate state, which is known as shadowed negative binomial state. Recently we have shown that the higher order antibunching is not a rare phenomenon [P. Gupta, P. Pandey, A. Pathak, J. Phys. B 39 (2006) 1137]. To establish our earlier claim further, here we have shown that the higher order antibunching can be seen in different intermediate states, such as binomial state, reciprocal binomial state, hypergeometric state, generalized binomial state, negative binomial state and photon added coherent state. We have studied the possibility of observing the higher order subpoissonian photon statistics in different limits of intermediate states. The effects of different control parameters on the depth of non classicality have also been studied in this connection and it has been shown that the depth of nonclassicality can be tuned by controlling various physical parameters

A Higher-Order Colon Translation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Danvy, Olivier; Nielsen, Lasse Reichstein

2001-01-01

A lambda-encoding such as the CPS transformation gives rise to administrative redexes. In his seminal article ``Call-by-name, call-by-value and the lambda-calculus'', 25 years ago, Plotkin tackled administrative reductions using a so-called ``colon translation.'' 10 years ago, Danvy and Filinski...... integrated administrative reductions in the CPS transformation, making it operate in one pass. The technique applies to other lambda-encodings (e.g., variants of CPS), but we do not see it used in practice--instead, Plotkin's colon translation appears to be favored. Therefore, in an attempt to link both...... techniques, we recast Plotkin's proof of Indifference and Simulation to the higher-order specification of the one-pass CPS transformation. To this end, we extend his colon translation from first order to higher order...

Sibling Sex Ratio and Birth Order in Early-Onset Gender Dysphoric Adolescents

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schagen, S.E.E.; Delemarre-van de Waal, H.A.; Blanchard, R.; Cohen-Kettenis, P.T.

2012-01-01

Several sibship-related variables have been studied extensively in sexual orientation research, especially in men. Sibling sex ratio refers to the ratio of brothers to sisters in the aggregate sibships of a group of probands. Birth order refers to the probands' position (e.g., first-born,

A Paraconsistent Higher Order Logic

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Villadsen, Jørgen

2004-01-01

of paraconsistent logics in knowledge-based systems, logical semantics of natural language, etc. Higher order logics have the advantages of being expressive and with several automated theorem provers available. Also the type system can be helpful. We present a concise description of a paraconsistent higher order...... of the logic is examined by a case study in the domain of medicine. Thus we try to build a bridge between the HOL and MVL communities. A sequent calculus is proposed based on recent work by Muskens. Many non-classical logics are, at the propositional level, funny toys which work quite good, but when one wants...

Higher-order force gradient symplectic algorithms

Science.gov (United States)

Chin, Siu A.; Kidwell, Donald W.

2000-12-01

We show that a recently discovered fourth order symplectic algorithm, which requires one evaluation of force gradient in addition to three evaluations of the force, when iterated to higher order, yielded algorithms that are far superior to similarly iterated higher order algorithms based on the standard Forest-Ruth algorithm. We gauge the accuracy of each algorithm by comparing the step-size independent error functions associated with energy conservation and the rotation of the Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector when solving a highly eccentric Kepler problem. For orders 6, 8, 10, and 12, the new algorithms are approximately a factor of 103, 104, 104, and 105 better.

Skinner-Rusk unified formalism for higher-order systems

Science.gov (United States)

Prieto-Martínez, Pedro Daniel; Román-Roy, Narciso

2012-07-01

The Lagrangian-Hamiltonian unified formalism of R. Skinner and R. Rusk was originally stated for autonomous dynamical systems in classical mechanics. It has been generalized for non-autonomous first-order mechanical systems, first-order and higher-order field theories, and higher-order autonomous systems. In this work we present a generalization of this formalism for higher-order non-autonomous mechanical systems.

Birth order and risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in multiplex families from Taiwan.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Zhiwei; Coghill, Anna E; Pfeiffer, Ruth M; Hsu, Wan-Lun; Lou, Pei-Jen; Wang, Cheng-Ping; Yu, Kelly J; Niwa, Shelley; Brotzman, Michelle; Ye, Weimin; Chen, Chien-Jen; Hildesheim, Allan

2016-12-01

A small proportion of individuals infected with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) develop nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Timing of initial exposure could alter immunological responses to primary EBV infection and explain variation in cancer risk later in life. We measured early life family structure as a proxy for the timing of primary EBV infection to examine whether earlier age at infection alters NPC risk. We utilized data from 480 NPC cases and 1,291 unaffected siblings from Taiwanese NPC multiplex families (≥ 2 family members with NPC, N = 2,921). Information on birth order within the family was derived from questionnaires. We utilized logistic regression models to examine the association between birth order and NPC, accounting for correlations between relatives. Within these high-risk families, older siblings had an elevated risk of NPC. Compared with being a first-born child, the risk (95% CIs) of NPC associated with a birth order of two, three, four and five or more was 1.00 (0.71, 1.40), 0.88 (0.62, 1.24), 0.74 (0.53, 1.05) and 0.60 (0.43, 0.82), respectively (P for trend = 0.002). We observed no associations between NPC risk and the number of younger siblings or cumulative infant-years exposure. These associations were not modified by underlying genetic predisposition or family size. We observed that early life family structure was important for NPC risk in NPC multiplex families, with older siblings having a greater risk of disease. Future studies focusing on more direct measures of the immune response to EBV in early childhood could elucidate the underlying mechanisms. © 2016 UICC.

Later-borns Don't Give Up: The Temporary Effects of Birth Order on European Earnings.

Science.gov (United States)

Bertoni, Marco; Brunello, Giorgio

2016-04-01

The existing empirical evidence on the effects of birth order on wages does not distinguish between temporary and permanent effects. Using data from 11 European countries for males born between 1935 and 1956, we show that firstborns enjoy on average a 13.7% premium in their entry wage compared with later-borns. This advantage, however, is short-lived and disappears 10 years after labor market entry. Although firstborns start with a better job, partially because of their higher education, later-borns quickly catch up by switching earlier and more frequently to better-paying jobs. We argue that a key factor driving our findings is that later-borns have lower risk aversion than firstborns.

Birth order and sibling sex ratio of children and adolescents referred to a gender identity service.

Science.gov (United States)

Vanderlaan, Doug P; Blanchard, Ray; Wood, Hayley; Zucker, Kenneth J

2014-01-01

In adult male samples, homosexuality is associated with a preponderance of older brothers (i.e., the fraternal birth order effect). In several studies comparing gender dysphoric youth, who are likely to be homosexual in adulthood, to clinical or non-clinical control groups, the findings have been consistent with the fraternal birth order effect in males; however, less is known about unique sibship characteristics of gender dysphoric females. The current study investigated birth order and sibling sex ratio in a large sample of children and adolescents referred to the same Gender Identity Service (N = 768). Probands were classified as heterosexual males, homosexual males, or homosexual females based on clinical diagnostic information. Groups differed significantly in age and sibship size, and homosexual females were significantly more likely to be only children. Subsequent analyses controlled for age and for sibship size. Compared to heterosexual males, homosexual males had a significant preponderance of older brothers and homosexual females had a significant preponderance of older sisters. Similarly, the older sibling sex ratio of homosexual males showed a significant excess of brothers whereas that of homosexual females showed a significant excess of sisters. Like previous studies of gender dysphoric youth and adults, these findings were consistent with the fraternal birth order effect. In addition, the greater frequency of only children and elevated numbers of older sisters among the homosexual female group adds to a small literature on sibship characteristics of potential relevance to the development of gender identity and sexual orientation in females.

Higher-order curvature terms and extended inflation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Yun

1990-01-01

We consider higher-order curvature terms in context of the Brans-Dicke theory of gravity, and investigate the effects of these terms on extended inflationary theories. We find that the higher-order curvature terms tend to speed up inflation, although the original extended-inflation solutions are stable when these terms are small. Analytical solutions are found for two extreme cases: when the higher-order curvature terms are small, and when they dominate. A conformal transformation is employed in solving the latter case, and some of the subtleties in this technique are discussed. We note that percolation is less likely to occur when the higher-order curvature terms are present. An upper bound on α is expected if we are to avoid excessive and inadequate percolation of true-vacuum bubbles

Siblings and Birth Order-Are They Important for the Occurrence of ADHD?

Science.gov (United States)

Reimelt, Charlotte; Wolff, Nicole; Hölling, Heike; Mogwitz, Sabine; Ehrlich, Stefan; Martini, Julia; Roessner, Veit

2018-05-01

The associations of birth order, number of siblings, and ADHD was examined. The analysis based on representative, epidemiological data from the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS) study ( N = 13,488). An increased risk for ADHD in firstborn versus youngest born children (odds ratio [OR] = 1.31, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.09, 1.58]) and also versus children with no sibling (OR = 1.31, 95% CI [1.03, 1.68]) was revealed, while number of siblings was not associated with ADHD. Results remained stable after controlling for confounders. Firstborn children may receive simultaneously less parental resources and more responsibilities if younger siblings are born. This happens during the vulnerable developmental period of ADHD. In addition, due to higher levels of insecurity, parents are assumed to focus more on potential physical or psychological abnormities in their firstborn children. This may result in a diagnostic bias in firstborn children.

Male sexual orientation in independent samoa: evidence for fraternal birth order and maternal fecundity effects.

Science.gov (United States)

VanderLaan, Doug P; Vasey, Paul L

2011-06-01

In Western cultures, male androphiles tend to have greater numbers of older brothers than male gynephiles (i.e., the fraternal birth order effect). In the non-Western nation of Independent Samoa, androphilic males (known locally as fa'afafine) have been shown to have greater numbers of older brothers, older sisters, and younger brothers (Vasey & VanderLaan, 2007). It is unclear, however, whether the observed older brother effect, in the context of the additional sibling category effects, represented a genuine fraternal birth order effect or was simply associated with elevated maternal fecundity. To differentiate between these two possibilities, this study employed a larger, independent replication sample of fa'afafine and gynephilic males from Independent Samoa. Fa'afafine had greater numbers of older brothers and sisters. The replication sample and the sample from Vasey and VanderLaan were then combined, facilitating a comparison that showed the older brother effect was significantly greater in magnitude than the older sister effect. These results suggest that fraternal birth order and maternal fecundity effects both exist in Samoa. The existence of these effects cross-culturally is discussed in the context of biological theories for the development of male androphilia.

Number of siblings, birth order, and childhood overweight: a population-based cross-sectional study in Japan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ochiai Hirotaka

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Although several studies have investigated the relationship between the number of siblings or birth order and childhood overweight, the results are inconsistent. In addition, little is known about the impact of having older or younger siblings on overweight among elementary schoolchildren. The present population-based study investigated the relationship of the number of siblings and birth order with childhood overweight and evaluated the impact of having younger or older siblings on childhood overweight among elementary schoolchildren in Japan. Methods Subjects comprised fourth-grade schoolchildren (age, 9–10 years in Ina Town during 1999–2009. Information about subjects’ sex, age, birth weight, birth order, number of siblings, lifestyle, and parents’ age, height, and weight was collected by a self-administered questionnaire, while measurements of subjects’ height and weight were done at school. Childhood overweight was defined according to age- and sex-specific cut-off points proposed by the International Obesity Task Force. A logistic regression model was used to calculate the odds ratio (OR and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI of "number of siblings" or "birth order" for overweight. Results Data from 4026 children were analyzed. Only children (OR: 2.13, 95% CI: 1.45-3.14 and youngest children (1.56, 1.13-2.16 significantly increased ORs for overweight compared with middle children. A larger number of siblings decreased the OR for overweight (P for trend P for trend  Conclusions Being an only or youngest child was associated with childhood overweight, and having a larger number of younger siblings was negatively associated with overweight. The present study suggests that public health interventions to prevent childhood overweight need to focus on children from these family backgrounds.

Number of siblings, birth order, and childhood overweight: a population-based cross-sectional study in Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Ochiai, Hirotaka; Shirasawa, Takako; Ohtsu, Tadahiro; Nishimura, Rimei; Morimoto, Aya; Obuchi, Ritsuko; Hoshino, Hiromi; Tajima, Naoko; Kokaze, Akatsuki

2012-09-11

Although several studies have investigated the relationship between the number of siblings or birth order and childhood overweight, the results are inconsistent. In addition, little is known about the impact of having older or younger siblings on overweight among elementary schoolchildren. The present population-based study investigated the relationship of the number of siblings and birth order with childhood overweight and evaluated the impact of having younger or older siblings on childhood overweight among elementary schoolchildren in Japan. Subjects comprised fourth-grade schoolchildren (age, 9-10 years) in Ina Town during 1999-2009. Information about subjects' sex, age, birth weight, birth order, number of siblings, lifestyle, and parents' age, height, and weight was collected by a self-administered questionnaire, while measurements of subjects' height and weight were done at school. Childhood overweight was defined according to age- and sex-specific cut-off points proposed by the International Obesity Task Force. A logistic regression model was used to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of "number of siblings" or "birth order" for overweight. Data from 4026 children were analyzed. Only children (OR: 2.13, 95% CI: 1.45-3.14) and youngest children (1.56, 1.13-2.16) significantly increased ORs for overweight compared with middle children. A larger number of siblings decreased the OR for overweight (P for trend < 0.001). Although there was no statistically significant relationship between a larger number of older siblings and overweight, a larger number of younger siblings resulted in a lower OR for overweight (P for trend < 0.001). Being an only or youngest child was associated with childhood overweight, and having a larger number of younger siblings was negatively associated with overweight. The present study suggests that public health interventions to prevent childhood overweight need to focus on children from these

Higher order mode optical fiber Raman amplifiers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rottwitt, Karsten; Friis, Søren Michael Mørk; Usuga Castaneda, Mario A.

2016-01-01

We review higher order mode Raman amplifiers and discuss recent theoretical as well as experimental results including system demonstrations.......We review higher order mode Raman amplifiers and discuss recent theoretical as well as experimental results including system demonstrations....

Intergenerational Correlations in Educational Attainment: Birth Order and Family Size Effects Using Canadian Data

Science.gov (United States)

Sen, Anindya; Clemente, Anthony

2010-01-01

We exploit the 1986, 1994, and 2001 waves of the Canadian general social surveys in order to estimate intergenerational correlations in education. The use of these specific data is important because of available information on the final educational attainment of survey respondents and both parents, as well as family size and birth order. OLS…

Nonlocal higher order evolution equations

KAUST Repository

Rossi, Julio D.

2010-06-01

In this article, we study the asymptotic behaviour of solutions to the nonlocal operator ut(x, t)1/4(-1)n-1 (J*Id -1)n (u(x, t)), x ∈ ℝN, which is the nonlocal analogous to the higher order local evolution equation vt(-1)n-1(Δ)nv. We prove that the solutions of the nonlocal problem converge to the solution of the higher order problem with the right-hand side given by powers of the Laplacian when the kernel J is rescaled in an appropriate way. Moreover, we prove that solutions to both equations have the same asymptotic decay rate as t goes to infinity. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.

Births: final data for 2004.

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Joyce A; Hamilton, Brady E; Sutton, Paul D; Ventura, Stephanie J; Menacker, Fay; Kirmeyer, Sharon

2006-09-29

. The twinning rate increased, but the rate of triplet and higher order multiple births was down slightly.

Does lower birth order amplify the association between high socio-economic status and central adiposity in young adult Filipino males?

OpenAIRE

Dahly, Darren L; Adair, Linda S

2010-01-01

Objective To test the hypothesis that lower birth order amplifies the positive association between socioeconomic status and central adiposity in young adult males from a lower-income, developing country context. Design The Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey is an ongoing community-based, observational study of a one year birth cohort (1983). Subjects 970 young adult males, mean age 21.5 y (2005). Measurements Central adiposity measured by waist circumference; birth order; perinatal...

Family matters: effects of birth order, culture, and family dynamics on surrogate decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Christopher T; McMahan, Ryan D; Williams, Brie A; Sharma, Rashmi K; Sudore, Rebecca L

2014-01-01

Cultural attitudes about medical decision-making and filial expectations may lead some surrogates to experience stress and family conflict. Thirteen focus groups with racially and ethnically diverse English and Spanish speakers from county and Veterans Affairs hospitals, senior centers, and cancer support groups were conducted to describe participants' experiences making serious or end-of-life decisions for others. Filial expectations and family dynamics related to birth order and surrogate decision-making were explored using qualitative, thematic content analysis, and overarching themes from focus group transcripts were identified. The mean age of the 69 participants was 69 ± 14, and 29% were African American, 26% were white, 26% were Asian or Pacific Islander, and 19% were Latino. Seventy percent of participants engaged in unprompted discussions about birth order and family dynamics. Six subthemes were identified within three overarching categories: communication (unspoken expectations and discussion of death as taboo), emotion (emotional stress and feelings of loneliness), and conflict (family conflict and potential solutions to prevent conflict). These findings suggest that birth order and family dynamics can have profound effects on surrogate stress and coping. Clinicians should be aware of potential unspoken filial expectations for firstborns and help facilitate communication between the patient, surrogate, and extended family to reduce stress and conflict. © Published 2013. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the U.S.A.

Family Matters: Effects of Birth Order, Culture, and Family Dynamics on Surrogate Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

Su, Christopher T.; McMahan, Ryan D.; Williams, Brie A.; Sharma, Rashmi K.; Sudore, Rebecca L.

2014-01-01

Cultural attitudes about medical decision making and filial expectations may lead some surrogates to experience stress and family conflict. Thirteen focus groups with racially and ethnically diverse English- and Spanish-speakers from county and Veterans hospitals, senior centers, and cancer support groups were conducted to describe participants’ experiences making serious or end-of-life decisions for others. Filial expectations and family dynamics related to birth order and surrogate decision making were explored using qualitative, thematic content analysis and overarching themes from focus group transcripts were identified. The mean age of the 69 participants was 69 years ± 14 and 29% were African American, 26% were White, 26% were Asian/Pacific Islander, and 19% were Latino. Seventy percent of participants engaged in unprompted discussions about birth order and family dynamics. Six subthemes were identified within 3 overarching categories of communication, emotion, and conflict: Communication – (1) unspoken expectations and (2) discussion of death as taboo; Emotion – (3) emotional stress and (4) feelings of loneliness; and Conflict – (5) family conflict and (6) potential solutions to prevent conflict. These findings suggest that birth order and family dynamics can have profound effects on surrogate stress and coping. Clinicians should be aware of potential unspoken filial expectations for firstborns and help facilitate communication between the patient, surrogate, and extended family to reduce stress and conflict. PMID:24383459

Conceptualizing and Assessing Higher-Order Thinking in Reading

Science.gov (United States)

Afflerbach, Peter; Cho, Byeong-Young; Kim, Jong-Yun

2015-01-01

Students engage in higher-order thinking as they read complex texts and perform complex reading-related tasks. However, the most consequential assessments, high-stakes tests, are currently limited in providing information about students' higher-order thinking. In this article, we describe higher-order thinking in relation to reading. We provide a…

Application of Mass Lumped Higher Order Finite Elements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

J. Chen, H.R. Strauss, S.C. Jardin, W. Park, L.E. Sugiyama, G. Fu, J. Breslau

2005-01-01

There are many interesting phenomena in extended-MHD such as anisotropic transport, mhd, 2-fluid effects stellarator and hot particles. Any one of them challenges numerical analysts, and researchers are seeking for higher order methods, such as higher order finite difference, higher order finite elements and hp/spectral elements. It is true that these methods give more accurate solution than their linear counterparts. However, numerically they are prohibitively expensive. Here we give a successful solution of this conflict by applying mass lumped higher order finite elements. This type of elements not only keep second/third order accuracy but also scale closely to linear elements by doing mass lumping. This is especially true for second order lump elements. Full M3D and anisotropic transport models are studied

Birth Order: An examination of its relationship with the Big Five personality theory and Trait Emotional Intelligence

OpenAIRE

Cole, E.

2014-01-01

This thesis explores the concept of birth order and its relationship with both the Big Five and trait emotional intelligence (EI). These relationships are examined through a series of studies, each differing in sample size and methodology. The hypotheses in this thesis are largely based on the work of Frank Sulloway and his influential book, Born to Rebel. Chapter 3 presents a set of meta-analyses on the relationships between birth order and the Big Five. Results suggest that there is no rela...

Effects of Sex, Social Desirability, and Birth Order on the Defense Mechanisms Inventory.

Science.gov (United States)

Dudley, Gary E.

1978-01-01

Investigated effects of sex difference, social desirability instructions, and birth order of respondents on defense mechanisms inventory (DMI). Sex difference was found in projection only. Social desirability effects were found in turning-against-others, projection, principalization, and reversal. Thus, an interpretive caution is in order…

Birth order and sibling sex ratio of children and adolescents referred to a gender identity service.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Doug P Vanderlaan

Full Text Available In adult male samples, homosexuality is associated with a preponderance of older brothers (i.e., the fraternal birth order effect. In several studies comparing gender dysphoric youth, who are likely to be homosexual in adulthood, to clinical or non-clinical control groups, the findings have been consistent with the fraternal birth order effect in males; however, less is known about unique sibship characteristics of gender dysphoric females. The current study investigated birth order and sibling sex ratio in a large sample of children and adolescents referred to the same Gender Identity Service (N = 768. Probands were classified as heterosexual males, homosexual males, or homosexual females based on clinical diagnostic information. Groups differed significantly in age and sibship size, and homosexual females were significantly more likely to be only children. Subsequent analyses controlled for age and for sibship size. Compared to heterosexual males, homosexual males had a significant preponderance of older brothers and homosexual females had a significant preponderance of older sisters. Similarly, the older sibling sex ratio of homosexual males showed a significant excess of brothers whereas that of homosexual females showed a significant excess of sisters. Like previous studies of gender dysphoric youth and adults, these findings were consistent with the fraternal birth order effect. In addition, the greater frequency of only children and elevated numbers of older sisters among the homosexual female group adds to a small literature on sibship characteristics of potential relevance to the development of gender identity and sexual orientation in females.

Higher-order techniques in computational electromagnetics

CERN Document Server

Graglia, Roberto D

2016-01-01

Higher-Order Techniques in Computational Electromagnetics explains 'high-order' techniques that can significantly improve the accuracy, computational cost, and reliability of computational techniques for high-frequency electromagnetics, such as antennas, microwave devices and radar scattering applications.

Personality, birth order and attachment styles as related to various types of jealousy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buunk, Abraham (Bram)

1997-01-01

The relationships between jealousy, personality, attachment styles and birth order were examined in a sample of 100 Dutch men and 100 Dutch women. Three types of jealousy were examined: reactive jealousy (a negative response to the emotional or sexual involvement of the partner with someone else),

Born to learn or born to win? Birth order effects on achievement goals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Carette, Bernd; Anseel, Frederik; Van Yperen, Nico W.

2011-01-01

Given the widespread use and well-known consequences of achievement goals in different competence-relevant situations, it is important to gain a thorough understanding of how these differences in goal pursuit are formed. Using different analytic approaches, we show that birth order lies at the heart

Higher order Lie-Baecklund symmetries of evolution equations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roy Chowdhury, A.; Roy Chowdhury, K.; Paul, S.

1983-10-01

We have considered in detail the analysis of higher order Lie-Baecklund symmetries for some representative nonlinear evolution equations. Until now all such symmetry analyses have been restricted only to the first order of the infinitesimal parameter. But the existence of Baecklund transformation (which can be shown to be an overall sum of higher order Lie-Baecklund symmetries) makes it necessary to search for such higher order Lie-Baecklund symmetries directly without taking recourse to the Baecklund transformation or inverse scattering technique. (author)

Birth order and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in chronic carriers of hepatitis B virus: a case-control study in The Gambia.

Science.gov (United States)

Shimakawa, Yusuke; Lemoine, Maud; Bottomley, Christian; Njai, Harr Freeya; Ndow, Gibril; Jatta, Abdoulie; Tamba, Saydiba; Bojang, Lamin; Taal, Makie; Nyan, Ousman; D'Alessandro, Umberto; Njie, Ramou; Thursz, Mark; Hall, Andrew J

2015-10-01

Early age at infection with Hepatitis B virus (HBV) increases the risk of chronic infection. Moreover, early HBV infection may further independently increase the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) beyond its effect on chronicity. The distribution of birth order, a proxy for mode and timing of HBV transmission, was compared in The Gambia between hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive HCC cases recruited from hospitals (n = 72) and two HBsAg-positive control groups without HCC: population-based controls from a community HBV screening (n = 392) and hospital-based controls (n = 63). HCC risk decreased with increasing birth order in the population-based case-control analysis. Using first birth order as the reference, the odds ratios were 0.52 (95% CI: 0.20-1.36), 0.52 (0.17-1.56), 0.57 (0.16-2.05) and 0.14 (0.03-0.64) for second, third, fourth and greater than fourth birth order respectively (P = 0.01). A similar inverse association was observed in the hospital-based case-control comparison (P = 0.04). Compared to controls, HCC cases had earlier birth order, a proxy for young maternal age and maternal HBV viraemia at birth. This finding suggests that in chronic HBV carriers perinatal mother-to-infant transmission may increase HCC risk more than horizontal transmission. Providing HBV vaccine within 24 h of birth to interrupt perinatal transmission might reduce the incidence of HCC in The Gambia. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Birth order modifies the effect of IL13 gene polymorphisms on serum IgE at age 10 and skin prick test at ages 4, 10 and 18: a prospective birth cohort study

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

Background Susceptibility to atopy originates from effects of the environment on genes. Birth order has been identified as a risk factor for atopy and evidence for some candidate genes has been accumulated; however no study has yet assessed a birth order-gene interaction. Objective To investigate the interaction of IL13 polymorphisms with birth order on allergic sensitization at ages 4, 10 and 18 years. Methods Mother-infant dyads were recruited antenatally and followed prospectively to age 18 years. Questionnaire data (at birth, age 4, 10, 18); skin prick test (SPT) at ages 4, 10, 18; total serum IgE and specific inhalant screen at age 10; and genotyping for IL13 were collected. Three SNPs were selected from IL13: rs20541 (exon 4, nonsynonymous SNP), rs1800925 (promoter region) and rs2066960 (intron 1). Analysis included multivariable log-linear regression analyses using repeated measurements to estimate prevalence ratios (PRs). Results Of the 1456 participants, birth order information was available for 83.2% (1212/1456); SPT was performed on 67.4% at age 4, 71.2% at age 10 and 58.0% at age 18. The prevalence of atopy (sensitization to one or more food or aeroallergens) increased from 19.7% at age 4, to 26.7% at 10 and 41.1% at age 18. Repeated measurement analysis indicated interaction between rs20541 and birth order on SPT. The stratified analyses demonstrated that the effect of IL13 on SPT was restricted only to first-born children (p = 0.007; adjusted PR = 1.35; 95%CI = 1.09, 1.69). Similar findings were noted for firstborns regarding elevated total serum IgE at age 10 (p = 0.007; PR = 1.73; 1.16, 2.57) and specific inhalant screen (p = 0.034; PR = 1.48; 1.03, 2.13). Conclusions This is the first study to show an interaction between birth order and IL13 polymorphisms on allergic sensitization. Future functional genetic research need to determine whether or not birth order is related to altered expression and methylation of the IL13 gene. PMID:20403202

Birth order modifies the effect of IL13 gene polymorphisms on serum IgE at age 10 and skin prick test at ages 4, 10 and 18: a prospective birth cohort study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ogbuanu Ikechukwu U

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Susceptibility to atopy originates from effects of the environment on genes. Birth order has been identified as a risk factor for atopy and evidence for some candidate genes has been accumulated; however no study has yet assessed a birth order-gene interaction. Objective To investigate the interaction of IL13 polymorphisms with birth order on allergic sensitization at ages 4, 10 and 18 years. Methods Mother-infant dyads were recruited antenatally and followed prospectively to age 18 years. Questionnaire data (at birth, age 4, 10, 18; skin prick test (SPT at ages 4, 10, 18; total serum IgE and specific inhalant screen at age 10; and genotyping for IL13 were collected. Three SNPs were selected from IL13: rs20541 (exon 4, nonsynonymous SNP, rs1800925 (promoter region and rs2066960 (intron 1. Analysis included multivariable log-linear regression analyses using repeated measurements to estimate prevalence ratios (PRs. Results Of the 1456 participants, birth order information was available for 83.2% (1212/1456; SPT was performed on 67.4% at age 4, 71.2% at age 10 and 58.0% at age 18. The prevalence of atopy (sensitization to one or more food or aeroallergens increased from 19.7% at age 4, to 26.7% at 10 and 41.1% at age 18. Repeated measurement analysis indicated interaction between rs20541 and birth order on SPT. The stratified analyses demonstrated that the effect of IL13 on SPT was restricted only to first-born children (p = 0.007; adjusted PR = 1.35; 95%CI = 1.09, 1.69. Similar findings were noted for firstborns regarding elevated total serum IgE at age 10 (p = 0.007; PR = 1.73; 1.16, 2.57 and specific inhalant screen (p = 0.034; PR = 1.48; 1.03, 2.13. Conclusions This is the first study to show an interaction between birth order and IL13 polymorphisms on allergic sensitization. Future functional genetic research need to determine whether or not birth order is related to altered expression and methylation of the IL13 gene.

The association between parity, infant gender, higher level of paternal education and preterm birth in Pakistan: a cohort study

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Shaikh Kiran

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background High rates of antenatal depression and preterm birth have been reported in Pakistan. Self reported maternal stress and depression have been associated with preterm birth; however findings are inconsistent. Cortisol is a biological marker of stress and depression, and its measurement may assist in understanding the influence of self reported maternal stress and depression on preterm birth. Methods In a prospective cohort study pregnant women between 28 to 30 weeks of gestation from the Aga Khan Hospital for Women and Children completed the A-Z Stress Scale and the Centre for Epidemiology Studies Depression Scale to assess stress and depression respectively, and had a blood cortisol level drawn. Women were followed up after delivery to determine birth outcomes. Correlation coefficients and Wilcoxon rank sum test was used to assess relationship between preterm birth, stress, depression and cortisol. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the key factors predictive of preterm birth. Results 132 pregnant women participated of whom 125 pregnant women had both questionnaire and cortisol level data and an additional seven had questionnaire data only. Almost 20% of pregnant women (19·7%, 95% CI 13·3-27·5 experienced a high level of stress and nearly twice as many (40·9%, 95% CI 32·4-49·8% experienced depressive symptoms. The median of cortisol level was 27·40 ug/dl (IQR 22·5-34·2. The preterm birth rate was 11·4% (95% CI 6·5-18. There was no relationship between cortisol values and stress scale or depression. There was a significant positive relationship between maternal depression and stress. Preterm birth was associated with higher parity, past delivery of a male infant, and higher levels of paternal education. Insufficient numbers of preterm births were available to warrant the development of a multivariable logistic regression model. Conclusions Preterm birth was associated with higher parity, past delivery

The association between parity, infant gender, higher level of paternal education and preterm birth in Pakistan: a cohort study.

Science.gov (United States)

Shaikh, Kiran; Premji, Shahirose S; Rose, Marianne S; Kazi, Ambreen; Khowaja, Shaneela; Tough, Suzanne

2011-11-02

High rates of antenatal depression and preterm birth have been reported in Pakistan. Self reported maternal stress and depression have been associated with preterm birth; however findings are inconsistent. Cortisol is a biological marker of stress and depression, and its measurement may assist in understanding the influence of self reported maternal stress and depression on preterm birth. In a prospective cohort study pregnant women between 28 to 30 weeks of gestation from the Aga Khan Hospital for Women and Children completed the A-Z Stress Scale and the Centre for Epidemiology Studies Depression Scale to assess stress and depression respectively, and had a blood cortisol level drawn. Women were followed up after delivery to determine birth outcomes. Correlation coefficients and Wilcoxon rank sum test was used to assess relationship between preterm birth, stress, depression and cortisol. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the key factors predictive of preterm birth. 132 pregnant women participated of whom 125 pregnant women had both questionnaire and cortisol level data and an additional seven had questionnaire data only. Almost 20% of pregnant women (19·7%, 95% CI 13·3-27·5) experienced a high level of stress and nearly twice as many (40·9%, 95% CI 32·4-49·8%) experienced depressive symptoms. The median of cortisol level was 27·40 ug/dl (IQR 22·5-34·2). The preterm birth rate was 11·4% (95% CI 6·5-18). There was no relationship between cortisol values and stress scale or depression. There was a significant positive relationship between maternal depression and stress. Preterm birth was associated with higher parity, past delivery of a male infant, and higher levels of paternal education. Insufficient numbers of preterm births were available to warrant the development of a multivariable logistic regression model. Preterm birth was associated with higher parity, past delivery of a male infant, and higher levels of paternal education. There

Analogy, higher order thinking, and education.

Science.gov (United States)

Richland, Lindsey Engle; Simms, Nina

2015-01-01

Analogical reasoning, the ability to understand phenomena as systems of structured relationships that can be aligned, compared, and mapped together, plays a fundamental role in the technology rich, increasingly globalized educational climate of the 21st century. Flexible, conceptual thinking is prioritized in this view of education, and schools are emphasizing 'higher order thinking', rather than memorization of a cannon of key topics. The lack of a cognitively grounded definition for higher order thinking, however, has led to a field of research and practice with little coherence across domains or connection to the large body of cognitive science research on thinking. We review literature on analogy and disciplinary higher order thinking to propose that relational reasoning can be productively considered the cognitive underpinning of higher order thinking. We highlight the utility of this framework for developing insights into practice through a review of mathematics, science, and history educational contexts. In these disciplines, analogy is essential to developing expert-like disciplinary knowledge in which concepts are understood to be systems of relationships that can be connected and flexibly manipulated. At the same time, analogies in education require explicit support to ensure that learners notice the relevance of relational thinking, have adequate processing resources available to mentally hold and manipulate relations, and are able to recognize both the similarities and differences when drawing analogies between systems of relationships. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Maternal and paternal age at delivery, birth order, and risk of childhood onset type 1 diabetes: population based cohort study

Science.gov (United States)

Stene, Lars C; Magnus, Per; Lie, Rolv T; Søvik, Oddmund; Joner, Geir

2001-01-01

Objective To estimate the associations of maternal and paternal age at delivery and of birth order with the risk of childhood onset type 1 diabetes. Design Cohort study by record linkage of the medical birth registry and the national childhood diabetes registry in Norway. Setting Norway. Subjects All live births in Norway between 1974 and 1998 (1.4 million people) were followed for a maximum of 15 years, contributing 8.2 million person years of observation during 1989-98. 1824 cases of type 1 diabetes diagnosed between 1989 and 1998 were identified. Main outcome measures Incidence of type 1 diabetes. Results There was no association between maternal age at delivery and type 1 diabetes among firstborn children, but among fourthborn children there was a 43.2% increase in incidence of diabetes for each five year increase in maternal age (95% confidence interval 6.4% to 92.6%). Each increase in birth order was associated with a 17.9% reduction in incidence (3.2% to 30.4%) when maternal age was 20-24 years, but the association was weaker when maternal age was 30 years or more. Paternal age was not associated with type 1 diabetes after maternal age was adjusted for. Conclusions Intrauterine factors and early life environment may influence the risk of type 1 diabetes. The relation of maternal age and birth order to risk of type 1 diabetes is complex. What is already known on this topicMaternal age at birth is positively associated with risk of childhood onset type 1 diabetesStudies of the effect of birth order on risk of type 1 diabetes have given inconsistent resultsWhat does this study add?In a national cohort, risk of diabetes in firstborn children was not associated with maternal ageIncreasing maternal age was a risk factor in children born second or laterThe strength of the association increased with increasing birth order PMID:11509426

Effect of sibling number in the household and birth order on prevalence of Helicobacter pylori: a cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Ford, Alexander C; Forman, David; Bailey, Alastair G; Goodman, Karen J; Axon, Anthony T R; Moayyedi, Paul

2007-12-01

Infection with Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is acquired mainly in childhood, with studies demonstrating this is related to living conditions. Effects of sibling number and birth order on prevalence of infection have not been extensively studied. The authors performed a cross-sectional survey of adults, aged between 50 and 59 years, previously involved in a community-screening programme for H. pylori in Leeds and Bradford, UK. Prevalence of H. pylori was assessed at baseline with urea breath test. All individuals who were alive, and could be traced, were contacted by postal questionnaire in 2003 obtaining information on number of siblings and birth order. Data concerning childhood socioeconomic conditions were stored on file from the original study. 3928 (47%) of 8407 original participants provided data. Prevalence of infection increased according to sibling number (20% in those with none vs 63% with eight or more). Controlling for childhood socioeconomic conditions and birth order using multivariate logistic regression, infection odds were substantially increased with three siblings compared with none [odds ratio (OR) 1.51; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.06-2.15], and a gradient of effect continued up to eight or more siblings (OR 5.70; 95% CI 2.92-11.14). Odds of infection also increased substantially with birth order, but the positive gradient disappeared on adjustment for sibling number and childhood socioeconomic conditions. : In this cross section of UK adults, aged 50-59 years, sibling number in the household, but not birth order, was independently associated with prevalence of H. pylori infection.

Electromagnetic cloaking in higher order spherical cloaks

Science.gov (United States)

Sidhwa, H. H.; Aiyar, R. P. R. C.; Kulkarni, S. V.

2017-06-01

The inception of transformation optics has led to the realisation of the invisibility devices for various applications, one of which is spherical cloaking. In this paper, a formulation for a higher-order spherical cloak has been proposed to reduce its physical thickness significantly by introducing a nonlinear relation between the original and transformed coordinate systems and it has been verified using the ray tracing approach. Analysis has been carried out to observe the anomalies in the variation of refractive index for higher order cloaks indicating the presence of poles in the relevant equations. Furthermore, a higher-order spherical cloak with predefined values of the material characteristics on its inner and outer surfaces has been designed for practical application.

Higher-order Jordan Osserman pseudo-Riemannian manifolds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gilkey, Peter B; Ivanova, Raina; Zhang Tan

2002-01-01

We study the higher-order Jacobi operator in pseudo-Riemannian geometry. We exhibit a family of manifolds so that this operator has constant Jordan normal form on the Grassmannian of subspaces of signature (r, s) for certain values of (r, s). These pseudo-Riemannian manifolds are new and non-trivial examples of higher-order Osserman manifolds

Higher-order Jordan Osserman pseudo-Riemannian manifolds

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gilkey, Peter B [Mathematics Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403 (United States); Ivanova, Raina [Mathematics Department, University of Hawaii - Hilo, 200 W Kawili St, Hilo, HI 96720 (United States); Zhang Tan [Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Murray State University, Murray, KY 42071 (United States)

2002-09-07

We study the higher-order Jacobi operator in pseudo-Riemannian geometry. We exhibit a family of manifolds so that this operator has constant Jordan normal form on the Grassmannian of subspaces of signature (r, s) for certain values of (r, s). These pseudo-Riemannian manifolds are new and non-trivial examples of higher-order Osserman manifolds.

Birth Order and Sibling Gender Ratio of a Clinical Sample of Children and Adolescents Diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

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Ahmad Ghanizadeh

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Objective: It is not clear whether sibling’s gender ratio is associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD. This study examines whether inattentiveness severity and hyperactivity/impulsivity severity are associated with birth order of children with ADHD.Method: Participants are a clinical sample of 173 children and adolescents with ADHD and 43 ones without ADHD. Diagnoses were made using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders forth edition-Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR, diagnostic criteria according to face-to-face interview with the children and their parents. ADHD DSM-IV checklist was used to measure inattentiveness and hyperactivity/impulsivity scores.Results: The association of birth order and diagnosis of ADHD was not statistically significant after adjusting for covariate factors. The gender ratio of siblings is not associated with ADHD.Conclusion: Birth order and siblings gender ratio are independent of ADHD diagnosis. The results of this study support the fact that genetic factors rather than environmental factor of birth order is associated with ADHD. Moreover, contrary to autism, the current results do not suggest the androgen theory for ADHD.

Middleborns disadvantaged? Testing birth-order effects on fitness in pre-industrial Finns.

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Charlotte Faurie

Full Text Available Parental investment is a limited resource for which offspring compete in order to increase their own survival and reproductive success. However, parents might be selected to influence the outcome of sibling competition through differential investment. While evidence for this is widespread in egg-laying species, whether or not this may also be the case in viviparous species is more difficult to determine. We use pre-industrial Finns as our model system and an equal investment model as our null hypothesis, which predicts that (all else being equal middleborns should be disadvantaged through competition. We found no overall evidence to suggest that middleborns in a family are disadvantaged in terms of their survival, age at first reproduction or lifetime reproductive success. However, when considering birth-order only among same-sexed siblings, first-, middle- and lastborn sons significantly differed in the number of offspring they were able to rear to adulthood, although there was no similar effect among females. Middleborn sons appeared to produce significantly less offspring than first- or lastborn sons, but they did not significantly differ from lastborn sons in the number of offspring reared to adulthood. Our results thus show that taking sex differences into account is important when modelling birth-order effects. We found clear evidence of firstborn sons being advantaged over other sons in the family, and over firstborn daughters. Therefore, our results suggest that parents invest differentially in their offspring in order to both preferentially favour particular offspring or reduce offspring inequalities arising from sibling competition.

Difference equations in massive higher order calculations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bierenbaum, I.; Bluemlein, J.; Klein, S.; Schneider, C.

2007-07-01

The calculation of massive 2-loop operator matrix elements, required for the higher order Wilson coefficients for heavy flavor production in deeply inelastic scattering, leads to new types of multiple infinite sums over harmonic sums and related functions, which depend on the Mellin parameter N. We report on the solution of these sums through higher order difference equations using the summation package Sigma. (orig.)

Behaviour and growth performance of low-birth-weight piglets cross-fostered in multiparous sows with piglets of higher birth weights

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L.P. Souza

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The aim of the study was to evaluate the behaviour, pre-weaning survival rate and growth performance of low birth weight (BW piglets cross-fostered with piglets of higher weights. Piglets were transferred to 60 foster sows, and divided in three groups (G; n=20: G1- 12 low BW piglets (0.80 - 1.25kg; G2- six low BW piglets and six intermediate BW piglets (1.40 - 1.60kg, and G3- six low BW piglets and six high BW piglets (>1.70kg. For the analysis, groups G2 and G3 were subdivided in LG2 (six G2 light piglets; IG2 (six G2 intermediate piglets, LG3 (six G3 light piglets, and HG3 (six G3 heavy piglets. Behavioural observations were carried out on days 1, 2, 4 and 6 (visual direct observation and on days 3 and 5 (video recording after birth. The percentage of missed nursings was higher in LG3 piglets than in LG1, IG2 and HG3 piglets, on days 1 and 2. On day 4, light piglets (LG1, LG2 and LG3 missed more nursings than IG2 and HG3 piglets. On day 3, video recording showed a higher percentage of missed nursings in LG1, LG2, and LG3 piglets as compared to HG3 piglets. On day 1, the number of fights during nursing was higher in IG2 than in LG1 and LG3 piglets. Also on day 1, number of fights and percentage of piglets engaged in fights, during 15min after nursing, were higher in LG1, LG3 and HG3 than in LG2 piglets. More playful behaviours were observed on day 2 in IG2 and HG3 piglets compared to LG1, LG2 and LG3 piglets. Light piglets (LG1, LG2, and LG3 presented similar body weight on days 4, 8, 12 and 16 after birth, regardless of being mixed with piglets of higher weights or not; however, the survival rate until day 16 was most compromised in LG3 piglets compared to the other groups. Despite the lack of influence of littermates' weight on the growth of low BW piglets, their survival rate indicates that they should not be mixed with high BW piglets.

Higher-order harmonics of general limited diffraction Bessel beams

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ding De-Sheng; Huang Jin-Huang

2016-01-01

In this paper, we extensively study the higher-order harmonic generation of the general limited diffraction m -th-order Bessel beam. The analysis is based on successive approximations of the Khokhlov–Zabolotskaya–Kuznetsov (KZK) equation. Asymptotic expansions are presented for higher-order harmonic Bessel beams in near and far fields. The validity of asymptotic approximation is also analyzed. The higher-order harmonic of the Bessel beam with the lowest zero-order is taken as a special example. (special topic)

Association of Birth Order with Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Young Adulthood: A Study of One Million Swedish Men

OpenAIRE

Jelenkovic, Aline; Silventoinen, Karri; Tynelius, Per; Myrskylä, Mikko; Rasmussen, Finn

2013-01-01

BACKGROUND: Birth order has been suggested to be linked to several cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, but the evidence is still inconsistent. We aim to determine the associations of birth order with body mass index (BMI), muscle strength and blood pressure. Further we will analyse whether these relationships are affected by family characteristics. METHODS: BMI, elbow flexion, hand grip and knee extension strength and systolic and diastolic blood pressure were measured at conscription ...

Birth Order Positions and Personality Traits.

Science.gov (United States)

Tharbe, Ida Hartini Ahmad; Harun, Lily Mastura Hj.

The growing concern for the development of teenagers has brought up issues regarding the role of the family system in shaping the personality traits of children. Alfred Adler (1870-1937), an Austrian psychiatrist who introduced the psychological/therapeutic model, "Individual Psychology," highlighted the importance of birth order…

Maternal age at delivery and order of birth are risk factors for type 1 diabetes mellitus in Upper Silesia, Poland.

Science.gov (United States)

Polańska, Joanna; Jarosz-Chobot, Przemysława

2006-04-01

Parental age and birth order as risk factors for childhood type 1 diabetes mellitus were investigated using data from the Regional Diabetic Center for Upper Silesia, Poland, in a population-based study of 398 children with type 1 DM aged 0-14 years born between 1979-1996. Noting differences in the proportions of children of different birth order between cases and controls, the data were stratified by birth order. For each stratum, odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated to assess risks related to the mother's age. The homogeneity of the odds ratios related to the mother's age between strata was evaluated by the Mantel-Haenszel method. Risks related to mother's age and birth order were also estimated jointly by multivariable logistic regression. Decreased risk in later children compared with firstborns was noted. Increased maternal age was found to be a risk factor for type 1 DM. An increase in the mother's age by one year increases the risk of the child being affected by type 1 DM 1.07 times, and children born as the nth in the family are 1.59 times less exposed to the same risk than those born as the (n-1)th. Children of different birth order have different risks of being affected by type 1 DM. Increased maternal age at the time of delivery is a risk factor for type 1 DM in Upper Silesia, Poland. To avoid bias in estimating risks, the mother's age and child's sequence number should be analyzed jointly.

Higher-order harmonics of general limited diffraction Bessel beams

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, De-Sheng; Huang, Jin-Huang

2016-12-01

In this paper, we extensively study the higher-order harmonic generation of the general limited diffraction m-th-order Bessel beam. The analysis is based on successive approximations of the Khokhlov-Zabolotskaya-Kuznetsov (KZK) equation. Asymptotic expansions are presented for higher-order harmonic Bessel beams in near and far fields. The validity of asymptotic approximation is also analyzed. The higher-order harmonic of the Bessel beam with the lowest zero-order is taken as a special example. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11074038 and 11374051).

Higher order QCD corrections in small x physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chachamis, G.

2006-11-01

We study higher order QCD corrections in small x Physics. The numerical implementation of the full NLO photon impact factor is the remaining necessary piece for the testing of the NLO BFKL resummation against data from physical processes, such as γ * γ * collisions. We perform the numerical integration over phase space for the virtual corrections to the NLO photon impact factor. This, along with the previously calculated real corrections, makes feasible in the near future first estimates for the γ*γ* total cross section, since the convolution of the full impact factor with the NLO BFKL gluon Green's function is now straightforward. The NLO corrections for the photon impact factor are sizeable and negative. In the second part of this thesis, we estimate higher order correction to the BK equation. We are mainly interested in whether partonic saturation delays or not in rapidity when going beyond the leading order. In our investigation, we use the so called 'rapidity veto' which forbid two emissions to be very close in rapidity, to 'switch on' higher order corrections to the BK equation. From analytic and numerical analysis, we conclude that indeed saturation does delay in rapidity when higher order corrections are taken into account. In the last part, we investigate higher order QCD corrections as additional corrections to the Electroweak (EW) sector. The question of whether BFKL corrections are of any importance in the Regge limit for the EW sector seems natural; although they arise in higher loop level, the accumulation of logarithms in energy s at high energies, cannot be dismissed without an investigation. We focus on the process γγ→ZZ. We calculate the pQCD corrections in the forward region at leading logarithmic (LL) BFKL accuracy, which are of the order of few percent at the TeV energy scale. (orig.)

Higher order QCD corrections in small x physics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chachamis, G.

2006-11-15

We study higher order QCD corrections in small x Physics. The numerical implementation of the full NLO photon impact factor is the remaining necessary piece for the testing of the NLO BFKL resummation against data from physical processes, such as {gamma}{sup *}{gamma}{sup *} collisions. We perform the numerical integration over phase space for the virtual corrections to the NLO photon impact factor. This, along with the previously calculated real corrections, makes feasible in the near future first estimates for the {gamma}*{gamma}* total cross section, since the convolution of the full impact factor with the NLO BFKL gluon Green's function is now straightforward. The NLO corrections for the photon impact factor are sizeable and negative. In the second part of this thesis, we estimate higher order correction to the BK equation. We are mainly interested in whether partonic saturation delays or not in rapidity when going beyond the leading order. In our investigation, we use the so called 'rapidity veto' which forbid two emissions to be very close in rapidity, to 'switch on' higher order corrections to the BK equation. From analytic and numerical analysis, we conclude that indeed saturation does delay in rapidity when higher order corrections are taken into account. In the last part, we investigate higher order QCD corrections as additional corrections to the Electroweak (EW) sector. The question of whether BFKL corrections are of any importance in the Regge limit for the EW sector seems natural; although they arise in higher loop level, the accumulation of logarithms in energy s at high energies, cannot be dismissed without an investigation. We focus on the process {gamma}{gamma}{yields}ZZ. We calculate the pQCD corrections in the forward region at leading logarithmic (LL) BFKL accuracy, which are of the order of few percent at the TeV energy scale. (orig.)

Nonlocal higher order evolution equations

KAUST Repository

Rossi, Julio D.; Schö nlieb, Carola-Bibiane

2010-01-01

In this article, we study the asymptotic behaviour of solutions to the nonlocal operator ut(x, t)1/4(-1)n-1 (J*Id -1)n (u(x, t)), x ∈ ℝN, which is the nonlocal analogous to the higher order local evolution equation vt(-1)n-1(Δ)nv. We prove

Unambiguous formalism for higher order Lagrangian field theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Campos, Cedric M; De Leon, Manuel; De Diego, David MartIn; Vankerschaver, Joris

2009-01-01

The aim of this paper is to propose an unambiguous intrinsic formalism for higher order field theories which avoids the arbitrariness in the generalization of the conventional description of field theories, and implies the existence of different Cartan forms and Legendre transformations. We propose a differential-geometric setting for the dynamics of a higher order field theory, based on the Skinner and Rusk formalism for mechanics. This approach incorporates aspects of both the Lagrangian and the Hamiltonian description, since the field equations are formulated using the Lagrangian on a higher order jet bundle and the canonical multisymplectic form on its affine dual. As both of these objects are uniquely defined, the Skinner-Rusk approach has the advantage that it does not suffer from the arbitrariness in conventional descriptions. The result is that we obtain a unique and global intrinsic version of the Euler-Lagrange equations for higher order field theories. Several examples illustrate our construction.

The Effects of Birth Order on Personality Traits and Feelings of Academic Sibling Rivalry

Science.gov (United States)

Badger, Julia; Reddy, Peter

2009-01-01

The influence of birth order on personality and sibling rivalry is controversial; little research has been conducted into academic sibling rivalry, and none into the connection with personality traits. This study considers the interaction of all three factors. Firstborns (N=22) and lastborns (N=24) completed online personality tests and an…

Birth order and sibship size: evaluation of the role of selection bias in a case-control study of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Science.gov (United States)

Mensah, F K; Willett, E V; Simpson, J; Smith, A G; Roman, E

2007-09-15

Substantial heterogeneity has been observed among case-control studies investigating associations between non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and familial characteristics, such as birth order and sibship size. The potential role of selection bias in explaining such heterogeneity is considered within this study. Selection bias according to familial characteristics and socioeconomic status is investigated within a United Kingdom-based case-control study of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosed during 1998-2001. Reported distributions of birth order and maternal age are each compared with expected reference distributions derived using national birth statistics from the United Kingdom. A method is detailed in which yearly data are used to derive expected distributions, taking account of variability in birth statistics over time. Census data are used to reweight both the case and control study populations such that they are comparable with the general population with regard to socioeconomic status. The authors found little support for an association between non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and birth order or family size and little evidence for an influence of selection bias. However, the findings suggest that between-study heterogeneity could be explained by selection biases that influence the demographic characteristics of participants.

Birth order and childhood type 1 diabetes risk: a pooled analysis of 31 observational studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Cardwell, Chris R; Stene, Lars C; Joner, Geir; Bulsara, Max K; Cinek, Ondrej; Rosenbauer, Joachim; Ludvigsson, Johnny; Svensson, Jannet; Goldacre, Michael J; Waldhoer, Thomas; Jarosz-Chobot, Przemyslawa; Gimeno, Suely Ga; Chuang, Lee-Ming; Roberts, Christine L; Parslow, Roger C; Wadsworth, Emma Jk; Chetwynd, Amanda; Brigis, Girts; Urbonaite, Brone; Sipetic, Sandra; Schober, Edith; Devoti, Gabriele; Ionescu-Tirgoviste, Constantin; de Beaufort, Carine E; Stoyanov, Denka; Buschard, Karsten; Radon, Katja; Glatthaar, Christopher; Patterson, Chris C

2011-04-01

The incidence rates of childhood onset type 1 diabetes are almost universally increasing across the globe but the aetiology of the disease remains largely unknown. We investigated whether birth order is associated with the risk of childhood diabetes by performing a pooled analysis of previous studies. Relevant studies published before January 2010 were identified from MEDLINE, Web of Science and EMBASE. Authors of studies provided individual patient data or conducted pre-specified analyses. Meta-analysis techniques were used to derive combined odds ratios (ORs), before and after adjustment for confounders, and investigate heterogeneity. Data were available for 6 cohort and 25 case-control studies, including 11,955 cases of type 1 diabetes. Overall, there was no evidence of an association prior to adjustment for confounders. After adjustment for maternal age at birth and other confounders, a reduction in the risk of diabetes in second- or later born children became apparent [fully adjusted OR = 0.90 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.83-0.98; P = 0.02] but this association varied markedly between studies (I² = 67%). An a priori subgroup analysis showed that the association was stronger and more consistent in children birth order, particularly in children aged < 5 years. This finding could reflect increased exposure to infections in early life in later born children.

Birth Satisfaction Scale/Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS/BSS-R): A large scale United States planned home birth and birth centre survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Fleming, Susan E; Donovan-Batson, Colleen; Burduli, Ekaterina; Barbosa-Leiker, Celestina; Hollins Martin, Caroline J; Martin, Colin R

2016-10-01

to explore the prevalence of birth satisfaction for childbearing women planning to birth in their home or birth centers in the United States. Examining differences in birth satisfaction of the home and birth centers; and those who birthed in a hospital using the 30-item Birth Satisfaction Scale (BSS) and the 10-item Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R). a quantitative survey using the BSS and BSS-R were employed. Additional demographic data were collected using electronic linkages (Qualtrics ™ ). a convenience sample of childbearing women (n=2229) who had planned to birth in their home or birth center from the US (United States) participated. Participants were recruited via professional and personal contacts, primarily their midwives. the total 30-item BSS score mean was 128.98 (SD 16.92) and the 10-item BSS-R mean score was 31.94 (SD 6.75). Sub-scale mean scores quantified the quality of care provision, women's personal attributes, and stress experienced during labour. Satisfaction was higher for women with vaginal births compared with caesareans deliveries. In addition, satisfaction was higher for women who had both planned to deliver in a home or a birth centre, and who had actually delivered in a home or a birth center. total and subscale birth satisfaction scores were positive and high for the overall sample IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: the BSS and the BSS-R provide a robust tool to quantify women's experiences of childbirth between variables such as birth types, birth settings and providers. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Childhood cancer among twins and higher order multiples

OpenAIRE

Puumala, Susan E.; Carozza, Susan E.; Chow, Eric J.; Fox, Erin E.; Horel, Scott; Johnson, Kimberly J.; McLaughlin, Colleen; Mueller, Beth A.; Reynolds, Peggy; Von Behren, Julie; Spector, Logan G.

2009-01-01

Although several studies have found no change or a decreased risk of childhood cancer in twins, few have controlled for potential confounders such as birth weight. We examined the association of birth plurality and childhood cancer in pooled data from five U.S. states (California, Minnesota, New York, Texas, and Washington) using linked birth-cancer registry data. The data, excluding children with Down syndrome or who died before 28 days of life, included 17,672 cases diagnosed 1980–2004 at a...

Time-Discrete Higher-Order ALE Formulations: Stability

KAUST Repository

Bonito, Andrea; Kyza, Irene; Nochetto, Ricardo H.

2013-01-01

on the stability of the PDE but may influence that of a discrete scheme. We examine this critical issue for higher-order time stepping without space discretization. We propose time-discrete discontinuous Galerkin (dG) numerical schemes of any order for a time

The Meaning of Higher-Order Factors in Reflective-Measurement Models

Science.gov (United States)

Eid, Michael; Koch, Tobias

2014-01-01

Higher-order factor analysis is a widely used approach for analyzing the structure of a multidimensional test. Whenever first-order factors are correlated researchers are tempted to apply a higher-order factor model. But is this reasonable? What do the higher-order factors measure? What is their meaning? Willoughby, Holochwost, Blanton, and Blair…

Blind adolescents' birth order as a determinant of their perception of family functioning dimensions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stanimirović Dragana

2013-01-01

Full Text Available While other theoreticians of personality stressed only the influence of parents in early childhood, Adler paid particular attention to a psychological position of a child among brothers/sisters. There is some empirical evidence that birth order may influence vocational choice, characteristic style of interacting with others, affiliation, anxiety, perception of parents' authority, and even intellectual capabilities. Visual impairment of a family member affects a family system and a sibling subsystem in a specific way. The goal of the research was to determine whether birth order influences perception of dimensions of family functioning in families with a blind adolescent and in families with an adolescent of typical development. The sample included 32 blind (experimental group and 32 subjects of typical development (control group aged 14 to 26, who lived in complete families with two or three children and without serious personal, marrital or family problems. The groups were paired by sex, age, professional status and birth order of adolescents, number of children in the family, type of family (nuclear; extended and environment (rural; urban. A Questionnaire of socio-demographic information and a Questionnaire of situation and family relationships RADIR by Knežević were applied for data collection. First-borns made lower appraisals of each dimension of family functioning than second-born respondents. There were no statistically significant differences in the control group. Differences in the experimental group were statistically significant in the following dimensions: Activity, Democracy and Structuring time and activity. Thus, the results show that first-born child's 'dethronement' has more effect if it is associated with blindness. This can be explained by fact that it is more difficult for a blind first-born child to catch up with a second-born 'rival'.

Nil Bohr-sets and almost automorphy of higher order

CERN Document Server

Huang, Wen; Ye, Xiangdong

2016-01-01

Two closely related topics, higher order Bohr sets and higher order almost automorphy, are investigated in this paper. Both of them are related to nilsystems. In the first part, the problem which can be viewed as the higher order version of an old question concerning Bohr sets is studied: for any d\\in \\mathbb{N} does the collection of \\{n\\in \\mathbb{Z}: S\\cap (S-n)\\cap\\ldots\\cap (S-dn)\

Sibling Variation and Family Language Policy: The Role of Birth Order in the Spanish Proficiency and First Names of Second-Generation Latinos

Science.gov (United States)

Parada, Maryann

2013-01-01

The effects of birth order have been debated in many disciplines and have been shown to be important for a number of outcomes. However, studies examining the significance of birth order in language development and practices, particularly with regard to minority languages, are few. This article reports on two sets of data collected among Spanish…

Birth order and childhood type 1 diabetes risk: a pooled analysis of 31 observational studies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cardwell, Chris R; Stene, Lars C; Joner, Geir

2011-01-01

The incidence rates of childhood onset type 1 diabetes are almost universally increasing across the globe but the aetiology of the disease remains largely unknown. We investigated whether birth order is associated with the risk of childhood diabetes by performing a pooled analysis of previous...

Higher order cumulants in colorless partonic plasma

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cherif, S. [Sciences and Technologies Department, University of Ghardaia, Ghardaia, Algiers (Algeria); Laboratoire de Physique et de Mathématiques Appliquées (LPMA), ENS-Kouba (Bachir El-Ibrahimi), Algiers (Algeria); Ahmed, M. A. A. [Department of Physics, College of Science, Taibah University Al-Madinah Al-Mounawwarah KSA (Saudi Arabia); Department of Physics, Taiz University in Turba, Taiz (Yemen); Laboratoire de Physique et de Mathématiques Appliquées (LPMA), ENS-Kouba (Bachir El-Ibrahimi), Algiers (Algeria); Ladrem, M., E-mail: mladrem@yahoo.fr [Department of Physics, College of Science, Taibah University Al-Madinah Al-Mounawwarah KSA (Saudi Arabia); Laboratoire de Physique et de Mathématiques Appliquées (LPMA), ENS-Kouba (Bachir El-Ibrahimi), Algiers (Algeria)

2016-06-10

Any physical system considered to study the QCD deconfinement phase transition certainly has a finite volume, so the finite size effects are inevitably present. This renders the location of the phase transition and the determination of its order as an extremely difficult task, even in the simplest known cases. In order to identify and locate the colorless QCD deconfinement transition point in finite volume T{sub 0}(V), a new approach based on the finite-size cumulant expansion of the order parameter and the ℒ{sub m,n}-Method is used. We have shown that both cumulants of higher order and their ratios, associated to the thermodynamical fluctuations of the order parameter, in QCD deconfinement phase transition behave in a particular enough way revealing pronounced oscillations in the transition region. The sign structure and the oscillatory behavior of these in the vicinity of the deconfinement phase transition point might be a sensitive probe and may allow one to elucidate their relation to the QCD phase transition point. In the context of our model, we have shown that the finite volume transition point is always associated to the appearance of a particular point in whole higher order cumulants under consideration.

Inequality in access to health care in Cambodia: socioeconomically disadvantaged women giving birth at home assisted by unskilled birth attendants.

Science.gov (United States)

Hong, Rathavuth; Them, Rathnita

2015-03-01

Cambodia faces major challenges in its effort to provide access to health care for all. Although there is a sharp improvement in health and health care in Cambodia, 6 in 10 women still deliver at home assisted by unskilled birth attendants. This practice is associated with higher maternal and infant deaths. This article analyzes the 2005 Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey data to examine the relationship between socioeconomic inequality and deliveries at home assisted by unskilled birth attendants. It is evident that babies in poorer households are significantly more likely to be delivered at home by an unskilled birth attendant than those in wealthier households. Moreover, delivery at home by an unskilled attendant is associated with mothers who have no education, live in a rural residence, and are farmers, and with higher birth order children. Results from this analysis demonstrate that socioeconomic inequality is still a major factor contributing to ill health in Cambodia. © 2011 APJPH.

The higher temperature in the areola supports the natural progression of the birth to breastfeeding continuum.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vincenzo Zanardo

Full Text Available Numerous functional features that promote the natural progression of the birth to breastfeeding continuum are concentrated in the human female's areolar region. The aim of this study was to look more closely into the thermal characteristics of areola, which are said to regulate the local evaporation rate of odors and chemical signals that are uniquely important for the neonate's 'breast crawl'. A dermatological study of the areolae and corresponding intern breast quadrants was undertaken on the mothers of 70 consecutive, healthy, full-term breastfed infants. The study took place just after the births at the Policlinico Abano Terme, in Italy from January to February 2014. Temperature, pH and elasticity were assessed one day postpartum using the Soft Plus 5.5 (Callegari S.P.A., Parma, Italy. The mean areolar temperature was found to be significantly higher than the corresponding breast quadrant (34.60 ±1.40°C vs. 34.04 ±2.00°C, p<0.001 and the pH was also significantly higher (4.60±0.59 vs. 4.17±0.59, p<0.001. In contrast, the elasticity of the areolar was significantly lower (23.52±7.83 vs. 29.02±8.44%, p<0.003. Our findings show, for the first time, that the areolar region has a higher temperature than the surrounding breast skin, together with higher pH values and lower elasticity. We believe that the higher temperature of the areolar region may act as a thermal signal to guide the infant directly to the nipple and to the natural progression of the birth to breastfeeding continuum.

On the expressiveness and decidability of higher-order process calculi

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lanese, Ivan; Perez, Jorge A.; Sangiorgi, Davide; Schmitt, Alan

In higher-order process calculi, the values exchanged in communications may contain processes. A core calculus of higher-order concurrency is studied; it has only the operators necessary to express higher-order communications: input prefix, process output, and parallel composition. By exhibiting a

Multilevel Fast Multipole Method for Higher Order Discretizations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Borries, Oscar Peter; Meincke, Peter; Jorgensen, Erik

2014-01-01

The multi-level fast multipole method (MLFMM) for a higher order (HO) discretization is demonstrated on high-frequency (HF) problems, illustrating for the first time how an efficient MLFMM for HO can be achieved even for very large groups. Applying several novel ideas, beneficial to both lower...... order and higher order discretizations, results from a low-memory, high-speed MLFMM implementation of a HO hierarchical discretization are shown. These results challenge the general view that the benefits of HO and HF-MLFMM cannot be combined....

Parental investments in child health - maternal health behaviours and birth outcomes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wüst, Miriam

consumption, exercise and diet during pregnancy on birth outcomes and considers the problem of identifying the causal effect of these endogenous maternal health behaviours. The analysis controls for a wide range of covariates and exploits sibling variation in the Danish National Birth Cohort. The paper...... the ways in which child health is generated, and - for children of higher birth order - earlier children's outcomes will shape parental investments in child health....

The Implications of Family Size and Birth Order for Test Scores and Behavioral Development

Science.gov (United States)

Silles, Mary A.

2010-01-01

This article, using longitudinal data from the National Child Development Study, presents new evidence on the effects of family size and birth order on test scores and behavioral development at age 7, 11 and 16. Sibling size is shown to have an adverse causal effect on test scores and behavioral development. For any given family size, first-borns…

Birth Order and Sibling Sex Ratio in Homosexual Male Adolescents and Probably Prehomosexual Feminine Boys.

Science.gov (United States)

Blanchard, Ray; And Others

1995-01-01

Examined the hypothesis that male homosexuals have a greater than average proportion of male siblings and a later than average birth order, by comparing a group of prehomosexual boys (individuals exhibiting cross-gender behaviors) and homosexual adolescents with a control group. Both predicted results were confirmed. (MDM)

Higher-order modulation instability in nonlinear fiber optics.

Science.gov (United States)

Erkintalo, Miro; Hammani, Kamal; Kibler, Bertrand; Finot, Christophe; Akhmediev, Nail; Dudley, John M; Genty, Goëry

2011-12-16

We report theoretical, numerical, and experimental studies of higher-order modulation instability in the focusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation. This higher-order instability arises from the nonlinear superposition of elementary instabilities, associated with initial single breather evolution followed by a regime of complex, yet deterministic, pulse splitting. We analytically describe the process using the Darboux transformation and compare with experiments in optical fiber. We show how a suitably low frequency modulation on a continuous wave field induces higher-order modulation instability splitting with the pulse characteristics at different phases of evolution related by a simple scaling relationship. We anticipate that similar processes are likely to be observed in many other systems including plasmas, Bose-Einstein condensates, and deep water waves. © 2011 American Physical Society

Birth order dependent growth cone segregation determines synaptic layer identity in the Drosophila visual system.

Science.gov (United States)

Kulkarni, Abhishek; Ertekin, Deniz; Lee, Chi-Hon; Hummel, Thomas

2016-03-17

The precise recognition of appropriate synaptic partner neurons is a critical step during neural circuit assembly. However, little is known about the developmental context in which recognition specificity is important to establish synaptic contacts. We show that in the Drosophila visual system, sequential segregation of photoreceptor afferents, reflecting their birth order, lead to differential positioning of their growth cones in the early target region. By combining loss- and gain-of-function analyses we demonstrate that relative differences in the expression of the transcription factor Sequoia regulate R cell growth cone segregation. This initial growth cone positioning is consolidated via cell-adhesion molecule Capricious in R8 axons. Further, we show that the initial growth cone positioning determines synaptic layer selection through proximity-based axon-target interactions. Taken together, we demonstrate that birth order dependent pre-patterning of afferent growth cones is an essential pre-requisite for the identification of synaptic partner neurons during visual map formation in Drosophila.

Higher-order rewriting and partial evaluation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Danvy, Olivier; Rose, Kristoffer H.

1998-01-01

We demonstrate the usefulness of higher-order rewriting techniques for specializing programs, i.e., for partial evaluation. More precisely, we demonstrate how casting program specializers as combinatory reduction systems (CRSs) makes it possible to formalize the corresponding program...

Fraternal Birth Order, Family Size, and Male Homosexuality: Meta-Analysis of Studies Spanning 25 Years.

Science.gov (United States)

Blanchard, Ray

2018-01-01

The fraternal birth order effect is the tendency for older brothers to increase the odds of homosexuality in later-born males. This study compared the strength of the effect in subjects from small versus large families and in homosexual subjects with masculine versus feminine gender identities. Meta-analyses were conducted on 30 homosexual and 30 heterosexual groups from 26 studies, totaling 7140 homosexual and 12,837 heterosexual males. The magnitude of the fraternal birth order effect was measured with a novel variable, the Older Brothers Odds Ratio, computed as (homosexuals' older brothers ÷ homosexuals' other siblings) ÷ (heterosexuals' older brothers ÷ heterosexuals' other siblings), where other siblings = older sisters + younger brothers + younger sisters. An Older Brothers Odds Ratio of 1.00 represents no effect of sexual orientation; values over 1.00 are positive evidence for the fraternal birth order effect. Evidence for the reliability of the effect was consistent. The Older Brothers Odds Ratio was significantly >1.00 in 20 instances, >1.00 although not significantly in nine instances, and nonsignificantly <1.00 in 1 instance. The pooled Older Brothers Odds Ratio for all samples was 1.47, p < .00001. Subgroups analyses showed that the magnitude of the effect was significantly greater in the 12 feminine or transgender homosexual groups than in the other 18 homosexual groups. There was no evidence that the magnitude of the effect differs according to family size.

Higher-Order Separation Logic in Isabelle/HOLCF

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Varming, Carsten; Birkedal, Lars

2008-01-01

We formalize higher-order separation logic for a first-order imperative language with procedures and local variables in Isabelle/HOLCF. The assertion language is modeled in such a way that one may use any theory defined in Isabelle/HOLCF to construct assertions, e.g., primitive recursion, least o...

Meta-Logical Reasoning in Higher-Order Logic

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Villadsen, Jørgen; Schlichtkrull, Anders; Hess, Andreas Viktor

The semantics of first-order logic (FOL) can be described in the meta-language of higher-order logic (HOL). Using HOL one can prove key properties of FOL such as soundness and completeness. Furthermore, one can prove sentences in FOL valid using the formalized FOL semantics. To aid...

Effects of gender difference and birth order on perceived parenting styles, measured by the EMBU scale, in Japanese two-sibling subjects.

Science.gov (United States)

Someya, T; Uehara, T; Kadowaki, M; Tang, S W; Takahashi, S

2000-02-01

The relationship between Egna Minnen av Barndoms Uppforstran (EMBU) scaling and gender, birth order and parents' gender was previously investigated in a large volunteer sample; significant interactions among the variables were found. In the present study, 730 Japanese volunteers with one sibling were used as subjects in order to control the number of siblings: the effect of gender of subjects and siblings and birth order on the perceived parenting style was examined. Based on gender and birth orders, 730 subjects were grouped into the following categories: (i) male with a younger brother; (ii) male with a younger sister; (iii) male with an older brother; (iv) male with an older sister; (v) female with a younger brother; (vi) female with a younger sister; (vii) female with an older brother; and (viii) female with an older sister. One-way ANOVA was performed with each EMBU subscale used as a dependent variable and these eight groups as independent variables. The scores for rejection and emotional warmth of father were influenced significantly by the pattern of siblings (Pchildren strongly experienced parenting style as more rejecting than others, and female children (elder sisters with brother, or younger sisters with sister) recognized parenting style as more caring and demonstrated more warmth than others. The results confirmed a significant interaction of gender of subjects and siblings and birth order of perceived parental rearing behavior.

Higher Rates of DZ Twinning in a Twenty-First Century Birth Cohort.

Science.gov (United States)

Rhea, Sally Ann; Corley, Robin P; Heath, Andrew C; Iacono, William G; Neale, Michael C; Hewitt, John K

2017-09-01

The Colorado Twin Registry is a population based registry initiated in 1984 with the involvement of the Colorado Department of Health, Division of Vital Statistics. Recruitment includes birth cohorts several years prior to 1984 and all subsequent years. As part of a recent evaluation of Colorado birth records for the years 2006 through 2008 we became aware of a shifting trend in the proportion of MZ and DZ twins in the Colorado population. Historically (Bulmer 1970 The biology of twinning in man, Clarendon, Oxford) we have expected a 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 ratio of MZ, same-sex DZ and opposite sex DZ twins in Caucasian populations. An excess of MZ pairs in most studies was assumed to be due to selection bias. Somewhat more recently, Hur et al.(1995 Behav Genet 25, 337-340) provided evidence that the DZ twinning rate was falling and that therefore selection bias was not the reason for higher MZ enrollment in most twin studies. They suggested that twin researchers might consider strategies to over-enroll DZ pairs to maximize statistical power. In contrast, we now find that of the 3217 twin births in Colorado from 2006 to 2008 with identified sex information the MZ rate is estimated at only 22%, and we have corroborating reports from other states of similar estimates. These were calculated applying Weinberg's rule which assumes an equal birth rate for same sex and opposite sex DZ pairs so that the proportion of MZ in a sample is the proportion of same sex (MM + FF) minus the proportion of opposite-sex (MF, FM). We explore factors, such as an increase in the proportion of non-Caucasian parents and an increase in average maternal age, which may contribute to this shift.

Risk factors and birth prevalence of birth defects and inborn errors of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

raoul

2011-02-23

Feb 23, 2011 ... methylmalonic aciduria, and maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) had their diagnoses confirmed by enzyme assay. The diagnosis of all ... Personal information like date of birth, sex, area of residence, mother's age at birth, father's age, order of birth, birth weight, gestational age on birth, medical history and ...

Gender Differences in Intrahousehold Schooling Outcomes: The Role of Sibling Characteristics and Birth-Order Effects

Science.gov (United States)

Rammohan, Anu; Dancer, Diane

2008-01-01

In this paper we examine the influence of gender, sibling characteristics and birth order on the schooling attainment of school-age Egyptian children. We use multivariate analysis to simultaneously examine three different schooling outcomes of a child having "no schooling", "less than the desired level of schooling", and an…

Implementation of an Automatic Stop Order and Initial Antibiotic Exposure in Very Low Birth Weight Infants.

Science.gov (United States)

Tolia, Veeral N; Desai, Sujata; Qin, Huanying; Rayburn, Polli D; Poon, Grace; Murthy, Karna; Ellsbury, Dan L; Chiruvolu, Arpitha

2017-01-01

Objective  To evaluate if an antibiotic automatic stop order (ASO) changed early antibiotic exposure (use in the first 7 days of life) or clinical outcomes in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants. Study Design  We compared birth characteristics, early antibiotic exposure, morbidity, and mortality data in VLBW infants (with birth weight  48 hours. Secondary outcomes included mortality, early mortality, early onset sepsis (EOS), and necrotizing enterocolitis. Results  Birth characteristics were similar between the two groups. We observed reduced median antibiotic exposure (pre-ASO: 6.5 DOT vs. Post-ASO: 4 DOT; p   48 hours (63.4 vs. 41.3%; p  < 0.001). There were no differences in mortality (12.1 vs 10.2%; p  = 0.44), early mortality, or other reported morbidities. EOS accounted for less than 10% of early antibiotic use. Conclusion  Early antibiotic exposure was reduced after the implementation of an ASO without changes in observed outcomes. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Relationship of Cord Blood Immunoglobulin E and Maternal Immunoglobulin E with Birth Order and Maternal History of Allergy in Albanian Mother/Neonate Pairs.

Science.gov (United States)

Latifi-Pupovci, Hatixhe; Lokaj-Berisha, Violeta; Lumezi, Besa

2017-10-15

Previous studies reported that familial factors such as birth order and mothers atopy might influence cord blood levels and development of allergies. The aim of the study was to evaluate the relationship of cord blood IgE and maternal IgE with birth order and mothers history of allergy in Albanian mother/neonate pairs. Study population represented 291 mother-infant pairs. Mothers were interviewed with a questionnaire for personal history of allergy and pregnancy history whereas serum IgE levels were determined using sandwich IRMA assay. The mean level of cIgE in neonates with detectable levels was 1.59 (n = 78). No significant difference in means of cIgE was found between first born and later born neonates (p = 0.232) and between neonates of mothers with a negative and positive history of allergy (p = 0.125). Also, no significant difference was found between means of mIgE by birth order, whereas there was a significant difference of mIgE between mothers with and without a history of allergy (p = 0.01). In a group of neonates with detectable cIgE levels, maternal IgE levels were moderately correlated with cIgE levels. Cord blood IgE is not affected by birth order and mothers history of allergy, whereas mothers IgE are affected by the history of allergy but not by birth order.

STUDY CONCERNING THE COSTS OF BIRTH BY CAESAREAN SECTION COMPARED TO NATURAL BIRTH

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diana UIVAROȘAN

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The birth by caesarean section has become an expanding phenomenon in the recent years, natural births being more and more rare in Romania. The increasing incidence of these operations has been observed in the recent years, in the conditions of more effective fetal monitoring, modification of the malpractice law and increasing degree of information of the women. In Romania, depending on the hospital, the percentage of births by caesarean section ranges between 20-80%, even 90% (these latter percentage being valid especially in private clinics. The percentage of the operations is higher in big cities, and in Bucharest about 70% of the births are done by C-section. The World Health Organization recommends a maximum percentage surgical intervention of 10-15%. Fearing the labor pain, more and more women are choosing to bring their children into the world by Caesarean section. Also the number of doctors who claim that cesarean section is a better option is increasing. Both persons involved in the birth process have the responsibility of that decision - meaning both mother and doctor. The option of the mother is very important, but the recommendation of the doctor can make the difference. The decision is not only of the doctor, he just presents the information that the mother does not know, mother's wish being the most important. In this paper we conducted a study to determine the comparative costs of the vaginal births with those by Caesarean section. The retrospective study was conducted between 01.01.2015 - 31.12.2015, on 3607 births registered in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinics of Clinical Emergency County Hospital Oradea. Gemellary births were excluded from the study. We analyzed the comparative costs of a vaginal birth and of a birth by caesarean section in order to highlight the share of cesarean births compared to vaginal births.

Higher-Order and Symbolic Computation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Danvy, Olivier; Mason, Ian

2008-01-01

a series of implementaions that properly account for multiple invocations of the derivative-taking opeatro. In "Adapting Functional Programs to Higher-Order Logic," Scott Owens and Konrad Slind present a variety of examples of terminiation proofs of functional programs written in HOL proof systems. Since......-calculus programs, historically. The anaylsis determines the possible locations of ambients and mirrors the temporla sequencing of actions in the structure of types....

Big brothers and little sisters? Sex selection and birth order.

Science.gov (United States)

Salmon, Catherine

2007-09-01

Should you be allowed to choose the sex of your child? Even before the advent of modern reproductive technologies, people have expressed interest in producing a child of a specific sex, trying everything from herbal treatments to sexual positions that have been claimed to produce a male or female child. Modern technologies such as flow cytometry make this a realistic possibility but what might the consequences be? In India and China, a preference for male offspring has led (via abortion) to a significant sex-ratio imbalance in those populations. Do other countries express strong preferences for male or female offspring? This article will address the possible birth order implications. Will we live in a world of first-born boys and second-born girls?

All-fiber Raman Probe using Higher Order Modes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Stine Højer Møller; Rishøj, Lars Søgaard; Rottwitt, Karsten

2013-01-01

We demonstrate the first all-fiber Raman probe utilizing higher order modes for the excitation. The spectrum of cyclohexane is measured using both the fundamental mode as well as in-fiber-generated Bessel-like modes.......We demonstrate the first all-fiber Raman probe utilizing higher order modes for the excitation. The spectrum of cyclohexane is measured using both the fundamental mode as well as in-fiber-generated Bessel-like modes....

Asymptotic Expansions for Higher-Order Scalar Difference Equations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pituk Mihály

2007-01-01

Full Text Available We give an asymptotic expansion of the solutions of higher-order Poincaré difference equation in terms of the characteristic solutions of the limiting equation. As a consequence, we obtain an asymptotic description of the solutions approaching a hyperbolic equilibrium of a higher-order nonlinear difference equation with sufficiently smooth nonlinearity. The proof is based on the inversion formula for the z -transform and the residue theorem.

On the origin of higher braces and higher-order derivations

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Markl, Martin

2015-01-01

Roč. 10, č. 3 (2015), s. 637-667 ISSN 2193-8407 Institutional support: RVO:67985840 Keywords : Koszul braces * Börjeseon braces * higher-order derivation Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 0.600, year: 2015 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40062-014-0079-2

Higher order correlations in computed particle distributions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hanerfeld, H.; Herrmannsfeldt, W.; Miller, R.H.

1989-03-01

The rms emittances calculated for beam distributions using computer simulations are frequently dominated by higher order aberrations. Thus there are substantial open areas in the phase space plots. It has long been observed that the rms emittance is not an invariant to beam manipulations. The usual emittance calculation removes the correlation between transverse displacement and transverse momentum. In this paper, we explore the possibility of defining higher order correlations that can be removed from the distribution to result in a lower limit to the realizable emittance. The intent is that by inserting the correct combinations of linear lenses at the proper position, the beam may recombine in a way that cancels the effects of some higher order forces. An example might be the non-linear transverse space charge forces which cause a beam to spread. If the beam is then refocused so that the same non-linear forces reverse the inward velocities, the resulting phase space distribution may reasonably approximate the original distribution. The approach to finding the location and strength of the proper lens to optimize the transported beam is based on work by Bruce Carlsten of Los Alamos National Laboratory. 11 refs., 4 figs

Perturbative theory of higher-order collision-enhanced wave mixing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trebino, R.; Rahn, L.A.

1989-01-01

This paper reports on collision-enhanced resonances which represent an interesting class of nonlinear- optical processes. They occur because collisional dephasing can rephase quantum-mechanical amplitudes that ordinarily cancel out exactly, thereby allowing otherwise unobservable wave-mixing resonances to be seen. This is an especially interesting phenomenon because these resonances are coherent effects that are induced by an incoherent process (collisional dephasing). First predicted in the late 1970s and eventually observed in 1981, these novel effects have now been seen in a wide variety of four-wave-mixing experiments, ranging from self-focusing to coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy. Recently, the authors have extended these observations to higher order, where the authors have shown both experimentally and theoretically the higher-order, collision-enhanced effects exist in nonlinear optics, appearing as subharmonics of two-photon resonances. Indeed, the authors have found that collision-enhanced processes are ideal systems for studying higher-order, nonlinear-optical effects because very high orders can be made to contribute with little or no saturation braodening. Experiments on sodium in a flame using six- and eight-wave-mixing geometries have revealed still higher-order effects (at least as high- order as χ (13) )

Classical higher-order processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Montesi, Fabrizio

2017-01-01

Classical Processes (CP) is a calculus where the proof theory of classical linear logic types processes à la Π-calculus, building on a Curry-Howard correspondence between session types and linear propositions. We contribute to this research line by extending CP with process mobility, inspired...... by the Higher-Order Π-calculus. The key to our calculus is that sequents are asymmetric: one side types sessions as in CP and the other types process variables, which can be instantiated with process values. The controlled interaction between the two sides ensures that process variables can be used at will......, but always respecting the linear usage of sessions expected by the environment....

Asymptotic Expansions for Higher-Order Scalar Difference Equations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ravi P. Agarwal

2007-04-01

Full Text Available We give an asymptotic expansion of the solutions of higher-order Poincaré difference equation in terms of the characteristic solutions of the limiting equation. As a consequence, we obtain an asymptotic description of the solutions approaching a hyperbolic equilibrium of a higher-order nonlinear difference equation with sufficiently smooth nonlinearity. The proof is based on the inversion formula for the z -transform and the residue theorem.

Higher-Order Cyclostationarity Detection for Spectrum Sensing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julien Renard

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Recent years have shown a growing interest in the concept of Cognitive Radios (CRs, able to access portions of the electromagnetic spectrum in an opportunistic operating way. Such systems require efficient detectors able to work in low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR environments, with little or no information about the signals they are trying to detect. Energy detectors are widely used to perform such blind detection tasks, but quickly reach the so-called SNR wall below which detection becomes impossible Tandra (2005. Cyclostationarity detectors are an interesting alternative to energy detectors, as they exploit hidden periodicities present in man-made signals, but absent in noise. Such detectors use quadratic transformations of the signals to extract the hidden sine-waves. While most of the literature focuses on the second-order transformations of the signals, we investigate the potential of higher-order transformations of the signals. Using the theory of Higher-Order Cyclostationarity (HOCS, we derive a fourth-order detector that performs similarly to the second-order ones to detect linearly modulated signals, at SNR around 0 dB, which may be used if the signals of interest do not exhibit second-order cyclostationarity. More generally this paper reviews the relevant aspects of the cyclostationary and HOCS theory, and shows their potential for spectrum sensing.

Higher-order tensors in diffusion imaging

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schultz, T.; Fuster, A.; Ghosh, A.; Deriche, R.; Florack, L.M.J.; Lim, L.H.; Westin, C.-F.; Vilanova, A.; Burgeth, B.

2014-01-01

Diffusion imaging is a noninvasive tool for probing the microstructure of fibrous nerve and muscle tissue. Higher-order tensors provide a powerful mathematical language to model and analyze the large and complex data that is generated by its modern variants such as High Angular Resolution Diffusion

Theorem Proving In Higher Order Logics

Science.gov (United States)

Carreno, Victor A. (Editor); Munoz, Cesar A.; Tahar, Sofiene

2002-01-01

The TPHOLs International Conference serves as a venue for the presentation of work in theorem proving in higher-order logics and related areas in deduction, formal specification, software and hardware verification, and other applications. Fourteen papers were submitted to Track B (Work in Progress), which are included in this volume. Authors of Track B papers gave short introductory talks that were followed by an open poster session. The FCM 2002 Workshop aimed to bring together researchers working on the formalisation of continuous mathematics in theorem proving systems with those needing such libraries for their applications. Many of the major higher order theorem proving systems now have a formalisation of the real numbers and various levels of real analysis support. This work is of interest in a number of application areas, such as formal methods development for hardware and software application and computer supported mathematics. The FCM 2002 consisted of three papers, presented by their authors at the workshop venue, and one invited talk.

Exact solutions to two higher order nonlinear Schroedinger equations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu Liping; Zhang Jinliang

2007-01-01

Using the homogeneous balance principle and F-expansion method, the exact solutions to two higher order nonlinear Schroedinger equations which describe the propagation of femtosecond pulses in nonlinear fibres are obtained with the aid of a set of subsidiary higher order ordinary differential equations (sub-equations for short)

Association between birth order and emergency room visits and acute hospital admissions following pediatric vaccination: a self-controlled study.

Science.gov (United States)

Hawken, Steven; Kwong, Jeffrey C; Deeks, Shelley L; Crowcroft, Natasha S; Ducharme, Robin; Manuel, Douglas G; Wilson, Kumanan

2013-01-01

We investigated the association between a child's birth order and emergency room (ER) visits and hospital admissions following 2-,4-,6- and 12-month pediatric vaccinations. We included all children born in Ontario between April 1(st), 2006 and March 31(st), 2009 who received a qualifying vaccination. We identified vaccinations, ER visits and admissions using health administrative data housed at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. We used the self-controlled case series design to compare the relative incidence (RI) of events among 1(st)-born and later-born children using relative incidence ratios (RIR). For the 2-month vaccination, the RIR for 1(st)-borns versus later-born children was 1.37 (95% CI: 1.19-1.57), which translates to 112 additional events/100,000 vaccinated. For the 4-month vaccination, the RIR for 1(st)-borns vs. later-borns was 1.70 (95% CI: 1.45-1.99), representing 157 additional events/100,000 vaccinated. At 6 months, the RIR for 1(st) vs. later-borns was 1.27 (95% CI: 1.09-1.48), or 77 excess events/100,000 vaccinated. At the 12-month vaccination, the RIR was 1.11 (95% CI: 1.02-1.21), or 249 excess events/100,000 vaccinated. Birth order is associated with increased incidence of ER visits and hospitalizations following vaccination in infancy. 1(st)-born children had significantly higher relative incidence of events compared to later-born children.

Self-similarity of higher-order moving averages

Science.gov (United States)

Arianos, Sergio; Carbone, Anna; Türk, Christian

2011-10-01

In this work, higher-order moving average polynomials are defined by straightforward generalization of the standard moving average. The self-similarity of the polynomials is analyzed for fractional Brownian series and quantified in terms of the Hurst exponent H by using the detrending moving average method. We prove that the exponent H of the fractional Brownian series and of the detrending moving average variance asymptotically agree for the first-order polynomial. Such asymptotic values are compared with the results obtained by the simulations. The higher-order polynomials correspond to trend estimates at shorter time scales as the degree of the polynomial increases. Importantly, the increase of polynomial degree does not require to change the moving average window. Thus trends at different time scales can be obtained on data sets with the same size. These polynomials could be interesting for those applications relying on trend estimates over different time horizons (financial markets) or on filtering at different frequencies (image analysis).

Compiler-Directed Transformation for Higher-Order Stencils

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Basu, Protonu [Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States); Hall, Mary [Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States); Williams, Samuel [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Straalen, Brian Van [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Oliker, Leonid [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Colella, Phillip [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

2015-07-20

As the cost of data movement increasingly dominates performance, developers of finite-volume and finite-difference solutions for partial differential equations (PDEs) are exploring novel higher-order stencils that increase numerical accuracy and computational intensity. This paper describes a new compiler reordering transformation applied to stencil operators that performs partial sums in buffers, and reuses the partial sums in computing multiple results. This optimization has multiple effect son improving stencil performance that are particularly important to higher-order stencils: exploits data reuse, reduces floating-point operations, and exposes efficient SIMD parallelism to backend compilers. We study the benefit of this optimization in the context of Geometric Multigrid (GMG), a widely used method to solvePDEs, using four different Jacobi smoothers built from 7-, 13-, 27-and 125-point stencils. We quantify performance, speedup, andnumerical accuracy, and use the Roofline model to qualify our results. Ultimately, we obtain over 4× speedup on the smoothers themselves and up to a 3× speedup on the multigrid solver. Finally, we demonstrate that high-order multigrid solvers have the potential of reducing total data movement and energy by several orders of magnitude.

Higher-Order Components for Grid Programming

CERN Document Server

Dünnweber, Jan

2009-01-01

Higher-Order Components were developed within the CoreGRID European Network of Excellence and have become an optional extension of the popular Globus middleware. This book provides the reader with hands-on experience, describing a collection of example applications from various fields of science and engineering, including biology and physics.

Higher order aberrations of the eye: Part one

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marsha Oberholzer

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This article is the first in a series of two articles that provide a comprehensive literature review of higher order aberrations (HOAs of the eye. The present article mainly explains the general principles of such HOAs as well as HOAs of importance, and the measuring apparatus used to measure HOAs of the eye. The second article in the series discusses factors contributing to variable results in measurements of HOAs of the eye. Keywords: Higher order aberrations; wavefront aberrations; aberrometer

Lagrangian-Hamiltonian unified formalism for autonomous higher order dynamical systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prieto-Martinez, Pedro Daniel; Roman-Roy, Narciso

2011-01-01

The Lagrangian-Hamiltonian unified formalism of Skinner and Rusk was originally stated for autonomous dynamical systems in classical mechanics. It has been generalized for non-autonomous first-order mechanical systems, as well as for first-order and higher order field theories. However, a complete generalization to higher order mechanical systems is yet to be described. In this work, after reviewing the natural geometrical setting and the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalisms for higher order autonomous mechanical systems, we develop a complete generalization of the Lagrangian-Hamiltonian unified formalism for these kinds of systems, and we use it to analyze some physical models from this new point of view. (paper)

Higher Order Lagrange Finite Elements In M3D

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, J.; Strauss, H.R.; Jardin, S.C.; Park, W.; Sugiyama, L.E.; Fu, G.; Breslau, J.

2004-01-01

The M3D code has been using linear finite elements to represent multilevel MHD on 2-D poloidal planes. Triangular higher order elements, up to third order, are constructed here in order to provide M3D the capability to solve highly anisotropic transport problems. It is found that higher order elements are essential to resolve the thin transition layer characteristic of the anisotropic transport equation, particularly when the strong anisotropic direction is not aligned with one of the Cartesian coordinates. The transition layer is measured by the profile width, which is zero for infinite anisotropy. It is shown that only higher order schemes have the ability to make this layer converge towards zero when the anisotropy gets stronger and stronger. Two cases are considered. One has the strong transport direction partially aligned with one of the element edges, the other doesn't have any alignment. Both cases have the strong transport direction misaligned with the grid line by some angles

An Algorithm for Higher Order Hopf Normal Forms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A.Y.T. Leung

1995-01-01

Full Text Available Normal form theory is important for studying the qualitative behavior of nonlinear oscillators. In some cases, higher order normal forms are required to understand the dynamic behavior near an equilibrium or a periodic orbit. However, the computation of high-order normal forms is usually quite complicated. This article provides an explicit formula for the normalization of nonlinear differential equations. The higher order normal form is given explicitly. Illustrative examples include a cubic system, a quadratic system and a Duffing–Van der Pol system. We use exact arithmetic and find that the undamped Duffing equation can be represented by an exact polynomial differential amplitude equation in a finite number of terms.

The influence of rearing order on personality development within two adoption cohorts.

Science.gov (United States)

Beer, J M; Horn, J M

2000-08-01

There is an extensive literature on the relationship between birth order and psychological traits, but no previous study has investigated the influence of ordinal position on personality development within adoptive siblings. Such a design is important because it effectively separates the effects of biological birth order and rearing order. Here we report data from two adoption cohorts in which subjects were biological first-borns reared in various ordinal positions. Data were analyzed with reference to Sulloway's (1996) evolutionarily based sibling rivalry theory of birth order effects. Between- and within-family analyses indicated that rearing order's influence on personality was very weak. The only clear difference was for conscientiousness, on which first-reared siblings scored higher. We draw possible implications for Sulloway's theory and speculate upon an alternative, prenatal biological process that may produce birth order differences.

Higher-Order Hybrid Gaussian Kernel in Meshsize Boosting Algorithm

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In this paper, we shall use higher-order hybrid Gaussian kernel in a meshsize boosting algorithm in kernel density estimation. Bias reduction is guaranteed in this scheme like other existing schemes but uses the higher-order hybrid Gaussian kernel instead of the regular fixed kernels. A numerical verification of this scheme ...

Higher Order and Fractional Diffusive Equations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. Assante

2015-07-01

Full Text Available We discuss the solution of various generalized forms of the Heat Equation, by means of different tools ranging from the use of Hermite-Kampé de Fériet polynomials of higher and fractional order to operational techniques. We show that these methods are useful to obtain either numerical or analytical solutions.

Implications of Birth Order for Motivational and Achievement-Related Characteristics of Adults Enrolled in Non-Traditional Instruction

Science.gov (United States)

Farley, Frank; And Others

1974-01-01

The present study was designed to investigate the relationship of birth order to achievement motivation and achievement-related variables employing a random sample of students enrolled in the courses offered through the United States Armed Forces Institute (USAFI) in 1970. (Author)

Effect of marital distance on birth weight and length of offspring

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kozieł Sławomir

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Marital distance (MD, the geographical distance between birthplaces of spouses, is considered an agent favouring occurrence of heterosis and can be used as a measure of its level. Heterosis itself is a phenomenon of hybrid vigour and seems to be an important factor regulating human growth and development. The main aim of the study is to examine potential effects of MD on birth weight and length of offspring, controlling for socioeconomic status (SES, mother’s age and birth order. Birth weight (2562 boys and 2572 girls and length (2526 boys, 2542 girls of children born in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski (Poland in 1980, 1983, 1985 and 1988 were recorded during cross-sectional surveys carried out between 1994-1999. Data regarding the socio-demographic variables of families were provided by the parents. Analysis of covariance showed that MD significantly affected both birth weight and length, allowing for sex, birth order, mother’s age and SES of family. For both sexes, a greater marital distance was associated with a higher birth weight and a longer birth length. Our results support the hypothesis that a greater geographical distance between the birth places of parents may contribute to the heterosis effects in offspring. Better birth outcomes may be one of the manifestations of these effects.

Generating higher-order Lie algebras by expanding Maurer-Cartan forms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Caroca, R.; Merino, N.; Salgado, P.; Perez, A.

2009-01-01

By means of a generalization of the Maurer-Cartan expansion method, we construct a procedure to obtain expanded higher-order Lie algebras. The expanded higher-order Maurer-Cartan equations for the case G=V 0 +V 1 are found. A dual formulation for the S-expansion multialgebra procedure is also considered. The expanded higher-order Maurer-Cartan equations are recovered from S-expansion formalism by choosing a special semigroup. This dual method could be useful in finding a generalization to the case of a generalized free differential algebra, which may be relevant for physical applications in, e.g., higher-spin gauge theories.

Modular specification and verification for higher-order languages with state

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svendsen, Kasper

The overall topic of this thesis is modular reasoning for higher-order languages with state. The thesis consists of four mostly independent chapters that each deal with a different aspect of reasoning about higher-order languages with state. The unifying theme throughout all four chapters is higher....... The third chapter of the thesis is a case study of the C# joins library. What makes this library interesting as a case study is that it combines a lot of advanced features (higher-order code with effects, concurrency, recursion through the store, shared mutable state, and fine-grained synchronization...

Finding Higher Order Differentials of MISTY1

Science.gov (United States)

Tsunoo, Yukiyasu; Saito, Teruo; Kawabata, Takeshi; Nakagawa, Hirokatsu

MISTY1 is a 64-bit block cipher that has provable security against differential and linear cryptanalysis. MISTY1 is one of the algorithms selected in the European NESSIE project, and it is recommended for Japanese e-Government ciphers by the CRYPTREC project. In this paper, we report on 12th order differentials in 3-round MISTY1 with FL functions and 44th order differentials in 4-round MISTY1 with FL functions both previously unknown. We also report that both data complexity and computational complexity of higher order differential attacks on 6-round MISTY1 with FL functions and 7-round MISTY1 with FL functions using the 46th order differential can be reduced to as much as 1/22 of the previous values by using multiple 44th order differentials simultaneously.

Practical implementation of a higher order transverse leakage approximation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prinsloo, Rian H.; Tomašević

2011-01-01

Transverse integrated nodal diffusion methods currently represent the standard in full core neutronic simulation. The primary shortcoming in this approach, be it via the Analytic Nodal Method or Nodal Expansion Method, is the utilization of the quadratic transverse leakage approximation. This approach, although proven to work well for typical LWR problems, is not consistent with the formulation of nodal methods and can cause accuracy and convergence problems. In this work an improved, consistent quadratic leakage approximation is formulated, which derives from the class of higher order nodal methods developed some years ago. In this new approach, only information relevant to describing the transverse leak- age terms in the zero-order nodal equations are obtained from the higher order formalism. The method yields accuracy comparable to full higher order methods, but does not suffer from the same computational burden which these methods typically incur. (author)

Higher class groups of Eichler orders

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guo Xuejun; Kuku, Aderemi

2003-11-01

In this paper, we prove that if A is a quaternion algebra and Λ an Eichler order in A, then the only p-torsion possible in even dimensional higher class groups Cl 2n (Λ) (n ≥ 1) are for those rational primes p which lie under prime ideals of O F at which Λ are not maximal. (author)

Higher-Order Integral Equation Methods in Computational Electromagnetics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Erik; Meincke, Peter

Higher-order integral equation methods have been investigated. The study has focused on improving the accuracy and efficiency of the Method of Moments (MoM) applied to electromagnetic problems. A new set of hierarchical Legendre basis functions of arbitrary order is developed. The new basis...

Time-Discrete Higher-Order ALE Formulations: Stability

KAUST Repository

Bonito, Andrea

2013-01-01

Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) formulations deal with PDEs on deformable domains upon extending the domain velocity from the boundary into the bulk with the purpose of keeping mesh regularity. This arbitrary extension has no effect on the stability of the PDE but may influence that of a discrete scheme. We examine this critical issue for higher-order time stepping without space discretization. We propose time-discrete discontinuous Galerkin (dG) numerical schemes of any order for a time-dependent advection-diffusion-model problem in moving domains, and study their stability properties. The analysis hinges on the validity of the Reynold\\'s identity for dG. Exploiting the variational structure and assuming exact integration, we prove that our conservative and nonconservative dG schemes are equivalent and unconditionally stable. The same results remain true for piecewise polynomial ALE maps of any degree and suitable quadrature that guarantees the validity of the Reynold\\'s identity. This approach generalizes the so-called geometric conservation law to higher-order methods. We also prove that simpler Runge-Kutta-Radau methods of any order are conditionally stable, that is, subject to a mild ALE constraint on the time steps. Numerical experiments corroborate and complement our theoretical results. © 2013 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

The Effect of Birth Order and Sex on Perceptions of the Sibling Relationship among College Students

Science.gov (United States)

Van Volkom, Michele; Beaudoin, Elizabeth

2016-01-01

The current study examined demographic factors (e.g., parental marital status) as well as sex and birth order effects on emerging adults' views of their sibling relationships. One hundred sixty-seven participants completed a demographic and sibling relationship questionnaire designed for the purposes of this study. Factors of the sibling…

Direct and Indirect Effects of Birth Order on Personality and Identity: Support for the Null Hypothesis

Science.gov (United States)

Dunkel, Curtis S.; Harbke, Colin R.; Papini, Dennis R.

2009-01-01

The authors proposed that birth order affects psychosocial outcomes through differential investment from parent to child and differences in the degree of identification from child to parent. The authors conducted this study to test these 2 models. Despite the use of statistical and methodological procedures to increase sensitivity and reduce…

Family Configuration and Achievement: Effects of Birth Order and Family Size in a Sample of Brothers.

Science.gov (United States)

Olneck, Michael R.; Bills, David B.

1979-01-01

Birth order effects in brothers were found to derive from difference in family size. Effects for family size were found even with socioeconomic background controlled. Nor were family size effects explained by parental ability. The importance of unmeasured preferences or economic resources that vary across families was suggested. (Author/RD)

The Higher Order Structure of Environmental Attitudes: A Cross-Cultural Examination

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taciano L. Milfont

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Past research has suggested that Preservation and Utilization are the two higher order dimensions forming the hierarchical structure of environmental attitudes. This means that these two higher order dimensions could group all kinds of perceptions or beliefs regarding the natural environment people have. A crosscultural study was conducted in Brazil, New Zealand, and South Africa to test this hierarchical structure of environmental attitudes. Results from single- and multi-group confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that environmental attitudes are a multidimensional construct, and that their first-order factors associate to each other to form a vertical structure. However, the question whether the vertical structure comprise a single higher order factor or two higher order factors still remains unanswered. These results are discussed and directions for future research trying to demonstrate that Preservation and Utilization, taken as distinct second-order environmental attitudes factors, are more empirically meaningful than a single and generalised environmental attitudes higher order factor are presented.

A population-based study of effect of multiple birth on infant mortality in Nigeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Uthman Mubashir B

2008-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Multi-foetal pregnancies and multiple births including twins and higher order multiples births such as triplets and quadruplets are high-risk pregnancy and birth. These high-risk groups contribute to the higher rate of childhood mortality especially during early period of life. Methods We examined the relationship between multiple births and infant mortality using univariable and multivariable survival regression procedure with Weibull hazard function, controlling for child's sex, birth order, prenatal care, delivery assistance; mother's age at child birth, nutritional status, education level; household living conditions and several other risk factors. Results Children born multiple births were more than twice as likely to die during infancy as infants born singleton (hazard ratio = 2.19; 95% confidence interval: 1.50, 3.19 holding other factors constant. Maternal education and household asset index were associated with lower risk of infant mortality. Conclusion Multiple births are strongly negatively associated with infant survival in Nigeria independent of other risk factors. Mother's education played a protective role against infant death. This evidence suggests that improving maternal education may be key to improving child survival in Nigeria. A well-educated mother has a better chance of satisfying important factors that can improve infant survival: the quality of infant feeding, general care, household sanitation, and adequate use of preventive and curative health services.

Higher-order stochastic differential equations and the positive Wigner function

Science.gov (United States)

Drummond, P. D.

2017-12-01

General higher-order stochastic processes that correspond to any diffusion-type tensor of higher than second order are obtained. The relationship of multivariate higher-order stochastic differential equations with tensor decomposition theory and tensor rank is explained. Techniques for generating the requisite complex higher-order noise are proved to exist either using polar coordinates and γ distributions, or from products of Gaussian variates. This method is shown to allow the calculation of the dynamics of the Wigner function, after it is extended to a complex phase space. The results are illustrated physically through dynamical calculations of the positive Wigner distribution for three-mode parametric downconversion, widely used in quantum optics. The approach eliminates paradoxes arising from truncation of the higher derivative terms in Wigner function time evolution. Anomalous results of negative populations and vacuum scattering found in truncated Wigner quantum simulations in quantum optics and Bose-Einstein condensate dynamics are shown not to occur with this type of stochastic theory.

Higher-order gravity in higher dimensions: geometrical origins of four-dimensional cosmology?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Troisi, Antonio [Universita degli Studi di Salerno, Dipartimento di Fisica ' ' E.R. Caianiello' ' , Salerno (Italy)

2017-03-15

Determining the cosmological field equations is still very much debated and led to a wide discussion around different theoretical proposals. A suitable conceptual scheme could be represented by gravity models that naturally generalize Einstein theory like higher-order gravity theories and higher-dimensional ones. Both of these two different approaches allow one to define, at the effective level, Einstein field equations equipped with source-like energy-momentum tensors of geometrical origin. In this paper, the possibility is discussed to develop a five-dimensional fourth-order gravity model whose lower-dimensional reduction could provide an interpretation of cosmological four-dimensional matter-energy components. We describe the basic concepts of the model, the complete field equations formalism and the 5-D to 4-D reduction procedure. Five-dimensional f(R) field equations turn out to be equivalent, on the four-dimensional hypersurfaces orthogonal to the extra coordinate, to an Einstein-like cosmological model with three matter-energy tensors related with higher derivative and higher-dimensional counter-terms. By considering the gravity model with f(R) = f{sub 0}R{sup n} the possibility is investigated to obtain five-dimensional power law solutions. The effective four-dimensional picture and the behaviour of the geometrically induced sources are finally outlined in correspondence to simple cases of such higher-dimensional solutions. (orig.)

Breast cancer risk associations with birth order and maternal age according to breast-feeding status in infancy

Science.gov (United States)

Nichols, Hazel B.; Trentham-Dietz, Amy; Sprague, Brian L.; Hampton, John M.; Titus-Ernstoff, Linda; Newcomb, Polly A.

2009-01-01

Background Early life risk factors for breast cancer have been investigated in relation to hormonal, nutritional, infectious, and/or genetic hypotheses. Recently, studies of potential health effects associated with exposure to environmental contaminants in breastmilk have been considered. Methods We analyzed data from a population-based case-control study of female Wisconsin residents. Cases (N=2,016) had an incident diagnosis of invasive breast cancer in 2002−2006 reported to the statewide tumor registry. Controls (N=1,960) of similar ages were randomly selected from driver's license lists. Risk factor information was collected during structured telephone interviews. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated from multivariable logistic regression. Results In multivariable models, maternal age and birth order were not associated with breast cancer risk in the full study population. The odds ratio for breast cancer risk associated with having been breastfed in infancy was 0.83 (95% CI 0.72−0.96). In analyses restricted to breastfed women, maternal age associations with breast cancer were null (p-value=0.2). Increasing maternal age was negatively associated with breast cancer risk among women who were not breastfed; the odds ratio for breast cancer associated with each 5-year increase in maternal age was 0.90 (95% CI 0.82−1.00). Higher birth order was inversely associated with breast cancer risk among breastfed women (OR=0.58; 95% CI 0.39−0.86 for women with ≥3 older siblings compared to first-born women) but not among non-breastfed women (OR=1.13; 95% CI 0.81−1.57). Conclusion These findings suggest that early life risk factor associations for breast cancer may differ according to breastfeeding status in infancy. PMID:18379425

Higher-order chaotic oscillator using active bessel filter

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lindberg, Erik; Mykolaitis, Gytis; Bumelien, Skaidra

2010-01-01

A higher-order oscillator, including a nonlinear unit and an 8th-order low-pass active Bessel filter is described. The Bessel unit plays the role of "three-in-one": a delay line, an amplifier and a filter. Results of hardware experiments and numerical simulation are presented. Depending...

Higher order multipoles and splines in plasma simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okuda, H.; Cheng, C.Z.

1978-01-01

The reduction of spatial grid effects in plasma simulations has been studied numerically using higher order multipole expansions and the spline method in one dimension. It is found that, while keeping the higher order moments such as quadrupole and octopole moments substantially reduces the grid effects, quadratic and cubic splines in general have better stability properties for numerical plasma simulations when the Debye length is much smaller than the grid size. In particular the spline method may be useful in three-dimensional simulations for plasma confinement where the grid size in the axial direction is much greater than the Debye length. (Auth.)

Higher-order multipoles and splines in plasma simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okuda, H.; Cheng, C.Z.

1977-12-01

Reduction of spatial grid effects in plasma simulations has been studied numerically using higher order multipole expansions and spline method in one dimension. It is found that, while keeping the higher order moments such as quadrupole and octopole moments substantially reduces the grid effects, quadratic and cubic splines in general have better stability properties for numerical plasma simulations when the Debye length is much smaller than the grid size. In particular, spline method may be useful in three dimensional simulations for plasma confinement where the grid size in the axial direction is much greater than the Debye length

The association of birth order with later body mass index and blood pressure: a comparison between prospective cohort studies from the United Kingdom and Brazil.

Science.gov (United States)

Howe, L D; Hallal, P C; Matijasevich, A; Wells, J C; Santos, I S; Barros, A J D; Lawlor, D A; Victora, C G; Smith, G D

2014-07-01

Previous studies have found greater adiposity and cardiovascular risk in first born children. The causality of this association is not clear. Examining the association in diverse populations may lead to improved insight. We examine the association between birth order and body mass index (BMI), systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP/DBP) in the 2004 Pelotas cohort from southern Brazil and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) from Bristol, south-west England, restricting analysis to families with two children in order to remove confounding by family size. No consistent differences in BMI, SBP or DBP were observed comparing first and second born children. Within the Pelotas 2004 cohort, first born females were thinner, with lower SBP and DBP; for example, mean difference in SBP comparing first with second born was -0.979 (95% confidence interval -2.901 to 0.943). In ALSPAC, first born females had higher BMI, SBP and DBP. In both cohorts, associations tended to be in the opposite direction in males, although no statistical evidence for gender interactions was found. The findings do not support an association between birth order and BMI or blood pressure. Differences to previous studies may be explained by differences in populations and/or confounding by family size in previous studies.

Association between birth order and emergency room visits and acute hospital admissions following pediatric vaccination: a self-controlled study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven Hawken

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: We investigated the association between a child's birth order and emergency room (ER visits and hospital admissions following 2-,4-,6- and 12-month pediatric vaccinations. METHODS: We included all children born in Ontario between April 1(st, 2006 and March 31(st, 2009 who received a qualifying vaccination. We identified vaccinations, ER visits and admissions using health administrative data housed at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. We used the self-controlled case series design to compare the relative incidence (RI of events among 1(st-born and later-born children using relative incidence ratios (RIR. RESULTS: For the 2-month vaccination, the RIR for 1(st-borns versus later-born children was 1.37 (95% CI: 1.19-1.57, which translates to 112 additional events/100,000 vaccinated. For the 4-month vaccination, the RIR for 1(st-borns vs. later-borns was 1.70 (95% CI: 1.45-1.99, representing 157 additional events/100,000 vaccinated. At 6 months, the RIR for 1(st vs. later-borns was 1.27 (95% CI: 1.09-1.48, or 77 excess events/100,000 vaccinated. At the 12-month vaccination, the RIR was 1.11 (95% CI: 1.02-1.21, or 249 excess events/100,000 vaccinated. CONCLUSIONS: Birth order is associated with increased incidence of ER visits and hospitalizations following vaccination in infancy. 1(st-born children had significantly higher relative incidence of events compared to later-born children.

The Effect of Birth Order on Neonatal Morbidity and Mortality in Very Preterm Twins.

Science.gov (United States)

Mei-Dan, Elad; Shah, Jyotsna; Lee, Shoo; Shah, Prakesh S; Murphy, Kellie E

2017-07-01

Objective  This retrospective cohort study examined the effect of birth order on neonatal morbidity and mortality in very preterm twins. Study Design  Using 2005 to 2012 data from the Canadian Neonatal Network, very preterm twins born between 24 0/7 and 32 6/7 weeks of gestation were included. Odds of morbidity and mortality of second-born cotwins compared with first-born cotwins were examined by matched-pair analysis. Outcomes were neonatal death, severe brain injury (intraventricular hemorrhage grade 3 or 4 or persistent periventricular echogenicity), bronchopulmonary dysplasia, severe retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) (> stage 2), necrotizing enterocolitis (≥ stage 2), and respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). Multivariable analysis was performed adjusting for confounders. Result  There were 6,636 twins (3,318 pairs) included with a mean gestational age (GA) of 28.9 weeks. A higher rate of small for GA occurred in second-born twins (10 vs. 6%). Mortality was significantly lower for second-born twins (4.3 vs. 5.3%; adjusted odds ratio: 0.75; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.59-0.95). RDS (66 vs. 60%; adjusted odds ratio: 1.40; 95% CI: 1.29-1.52) and severe retinopathy (9 vs. 7%; adjusted odds ratio: 1.46; 95% CI: 1.07-2.01) were significantly higher in second-born twins. Conclusion  Thus, while second-born twins had reduced odds of mortality, they also had increased odds of RDS and ROP. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Higher Order Multiple Births in Nigeria: Experiences, Challenges ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

women in Nigeria,[10] ... of three or more babies in one pregnancy. ... Objectives: The aim of this study is to describe the experience and outcome ... and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new ..... trend of women pursuing careers earlier in life and .... Achebe C. Things Fall Apart.

Higher-order dynamical effects in Coulomb dissociation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Esbensen, H.

1994-06-01

We study the effect of higher-order processes in Coulomb dissociation of 11 Li by numerically solving the three-dimensional time-dependent Schroedinger equation for the relative motion of a di-neutron and the 9 Li core. Comparisons are made to first-order perturbation theory and to measurements. The calculated Coulomb reacceleration effects improve the agreement with experiment, but some discrepancy remains. The effects are much smaller in the dissociation of 11 Be, and they decrease with increasing beam energy. (orig.)

Higher Order Mode Fibers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Israelsen, Stine Møller

This PhD thesis considers higher order modes (HOMs) in optical fibers. That includes their excitation and characteristics. Within the last decades, HOMs have been applied both for space multiplexing in optical communications, group velocity dispersion management and sensing among others......-radial polarization as opposed to the linear polarization of the LP0X modes. The effect is investigated numerically in a double cladding fiber with an outer aircladding using a full vectorial modesolver. Experimentally, the bowtie modes are excited using a long period grating and their free space characteristics...... and polarization state are investigated. For this fiber, the onset of the bowtie effect is shown numerically to be LP011. The characteristics usually associated with Bessel-likes modes such as long diffraction free length and selfhealing are shown to be conserved despite the lack of azimuthal symmetry...

Beyond the genetic basis of sensation seeking: The influence of birth order, family size and parenting styles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Feij, Jan A,

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Genetic analyses of sensation seeking have shown fairly high heritabilities for measures of this trait. However, 40 to 60% of the variance remains unexplained by genetic factors. This longitudinal study examines the influence of characteristics of the family environment -- birth order, family size, socio-economic status and parenting styles -- on two dimensions of sensation seeking: disinhibition and boredom susceptibility. Previous research has shown that these dimensions load on the same factor, are related to biologically based impulsive disorders, and have a common genetic basis. Questionnaire and biographical data obtained from 532 female and 479 male young adults (age between 18 and 30 years were analyzed using structural modeling. The results show that participants who experienced little parental care and much control were more likely to have high scores on disinhibition and boredom susceptibility. It appears that these family factors may partly explain the previously reported effects of birth order and family size on sensation seeking.

Interactions, strings and isotopies in higher order anisotropic superspaces

CERN Document Server

Vacaru, Sergiu Ion

2001-01-01

The monograph summarizes the author's results on the geometry of anholonomic and locally anisotropic interactions, published in J. Math. Phys., Nucl. Phys. B, Ann. Phys. (NY), JHEP, Rep. Math. Phys., Int. J. Theor. Phys. and in some former Soviet Union and Romanian scientific journals. The main subjects are in the theory of field interactions, strings and diffusion processes on spaces, superspaces and isospaces with higher order anisotropy and inhomogeneity. The approach proceeds by developing the concept of higher order anisotropic (super)space which unifies the logical and manthematical aspects of modern Kaluza--Klein theories and generalized Lagrange and Finsler geometry and leads to modeling of physical processes on higher order fiber (super)bundles provided with nonlinear and distinguished connections and metric structures. This book can be also considered as a pedagogical survey on the mentioned subjects.

The differential geometry of higher order jets and tangent bundles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

De Leon, M.; Rodrigues, P.R.

1985-01-01

This chapter is devoted to the study of basic geometrical notions required for the development of the main object of the text. Some facts about Jet theory are reviewed. A particular case of Jet manifolds is considered: the tangent bundle of higher order. It is shown that this jet bundle possesses in a canonical way a certain kind of geometric structure, the so called almost tangent structure of higher order, and which is a generalization of the almost tangent geometry of the tangent bundle. Another important fact examined is the extension of the notion of 'spray' to higher order tangent bundles. (Auth.)

Intelligence Test Scores and Birth Order among Young Norwegian Men (Conscripts) Analyzed within and between Families

Science.gov (United States)

Bjerkedal, Tor; Kristensen, Petter; Skjeret, Geir A.; Brevik, John I.

2007-01-01

The present paper reports the results of a within and between family analysis of the relation between birth order and intelligence. The material comprises more than a quarter of a million test scores for intellectual performance of Norwegian male conscripts recorded during 1984-2004. Conscripts, mostly 18-19 years of age, were born to women for…

Linear matrix differential equations of higher-order and applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mustapha Rachidi

2008-07-01

Full Text Available In this article, we study linear differential equations of higher-order whose coefficients are square matrices. The combinatorial method for computing the matrix powers and exponential is adopted. New formulas representing auxiliary results are obtained. This allows us to prove properties of a large class of linear matrix differential equations of higher-order, in particular results of Apostol and Kolodner are recovered. Also illustrative examples and applications are presented.

Paternal age at birth and the risk of obesity in young adulthood: a register-based birth cohort study of Norwegian males.

Science.gov (United States)

Eriksen, Willy; Sundet, Jon M; Tambs, Kristian

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between paternal age at birth and the risk of obesity in young adulthood. Data from the medical birth register of Norway were linked with register data from the Norwegian National Conscript Service and the national statistics agency, Statistics Norway. This study used the data on 346,609 registered males who were born at term in single birth without physical anomalies during 1967-1984 and who were examined at the time of the mandatory military conscription (age 18-20 years). The relationship between paternal age at birth and the occurrence of obesity (body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30.0 kg/m(2) ) at conscription was examined using a multinomial logistic regression analysis with BMI birth but did not increase (P = 0.52) with maternal age at birth. Men born when their fathers were 50 years or older had a 55% (95% confidence interval (CI): 14%, 110%) higher relative risk of obesity than men born when their fathers were younger than 20 years of age, after adjustment for age at conscription, birth order, birth year, maternal age at birth, the mother's total number of children, and maternal and paternal education levels. The risk of obesity in young Norwegian men increases with advancing paternal age at birth but does not increase with advancing maternal age at birth. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Higher order corrections in quantum electrodynamics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rafael, E.

1977-01-01

Theoretical contributions to high-order corrections in purely leptonic systems, such as electrons and muons, muonium (μ + e - ) and positronium (e + e - ), are reviewed to establish the validity of quantum electrodynamics (QED). Two types of QED contributions to the anomalous magnetic moments are considered, from diagrams with one fermion type lines and those witn two fermion type lines. The contributions up to eighth order are compared to the data available with a different accuracy. Good agreement is stated within the experimental errors. The experimental accuracy of the muonium hyperfine structure and of the radiative corrections to the decay of positronium are compared to the one attainable in theoretical calculations. The need for a higher precision in both experimental data and theoretical calculations is stated

Errors of first-order probe correction for higher-order probes in spherical near-field antenna measurements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Laitinen, Tommi; Nielsen, Jeppe Majlund; Pivnenko, Sergiy

2004-01-01

An investigation is performed to study the error of the far-field pattern determined from a spherical near-field antenna measurement in the case where a first-order (mu=+-1) probe correction scheme is applied to the near-field signal measured by a higher-order probe.......An investigation is performed to study the error of the far-field pattern determined from a spherical near-field antenna measurement in the case where a first-order (mu=+-1) probe correction scheme is applied to the near-field signal measured by a higher-order probe....

MIMO processing based on higher-order Poincaré spheres

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandes, Gil M.; Muga, Nelson J.; Pinto, Armando N.

2017-08-01

A multi-input multi-output (MIMO) algorithm based on higher-order Poincaré spheres is demonstrated for space-division multiplexing (SDM) systems. The MIMO algorithm is modulation format agnostic, robust to frequency offset and does not require training sequences. In this approach, the space-multiplexed signal is decomposed in sets of two tributary signals, with each set represented in a higher-order Poincaré sphere. For any arbitrary complex modulation format, the samples of two tributaries can be represented in a given higher-order Poincaré sphere with a symmetry plane. The crosstalk along propagation changes the spatial orientation of this plane and, therefore, it can be compensated by computing and realigning the best fit plane. We show how the transmitted signal can be successfully recovered using this procedure for all possible combinations of tributaries. Moreover, we analyze the convergence speed for the MIMO technique considering several optical-to-noise ratios.

Ward identities of higher order Virasoro algebra

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zha Chaozeng; Dolate, S.

1994-11-01

The general formulations of primary fields versus quasi-primary ones in the context of high order Virasoro algebra (HOVA) and the corresponding Ward identity are explored. The primary fields of conformal spins up to 8 are given in terms of quasi-primary fields, and the general features of the higher order expressions are also discussed. It is observed that the local fields, either primary of quasi-primary, carry the same numbers of central charges, and not all the primary fields contribute to the anomalies in the Ward identities. (author). 6 refs

Child Home Care Allowance: Transition to Second- and Third-Order Births in Finland

OpenAIRE

Pajunen, Anni

2012-01-01

In this study, I study the relationship between the use of the child home care allowance and second and third births among women aged 19-44 in Finland. I use register data from the Finnish Census Panel (FCP) on 254 465 women who had a second or third child during 1993 to 2007. I apply discrete-time event-history analysis to examine whether women using the child home care allowance while their previous child was under the age of three have a higher risk to proceed to subsequent childbearing – ...

Siblings, Birth Order, and Cooperative-Competitive Social Behavior: A Comparison of Anglo-American and Mexican-American Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Knight, George P.; Kagan, Spencer

1982-01-01

Tested the hypothesis that differences in cooperative-competitive social behavior between Anglo-Americans and Mexican Americans is a result of larger family size among the latter group. Found that, even after controlling for number of siblings and birth order, statistically significant differences in such behavior remained between the two groups.…

Higher order perturbation theory - An example for discussion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewins, J.D.; Parks, G.; Babb, A.L.

1986-01-01

Higher order perturbation theory is developed in the form of a Taylor series expansion to third order to calculate the thermal utilization of a nonuniform cell. The development takes advantage of the self-adjoint property of the diffusion operator to provide a simple development of this illustration of generalized perturbation theory employing scalar perturbation parameters. The results show how a designer might employ a second-order theory to quantify proposed design improvements, together with the limitations of second- and third-order theory. The chosen example has an exact optimization solution and thus provides a clear understanding of the role of perturbation theory at its various orders. Convergence and the computational advantages and disadvantages of the method are discussed

Application of Higher-Order Cumulant in Fault Diagnosis of Rolling Bearing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shen, Yongjun; Yang, Shaopu; Wang, Junfeng

2013-01-01

In this paper a new method of pattern recognition based on higher-order cumulant and envelope analysis is presented. The core of this new method is to construct analytical signals from the given signals and obtain the envelope signals firstly, then compute and compare the higher-order cumulants of the envelope signals. The higher-order cumulants could be used as a characteristic quantity to distinguish these given signals. As an example, this method is applied in fault diagnosis for 197726 rolling bearing of freight locomotive. The comparisons of the second-order, third-order and fourth-order cumulants of the envelope signals from different vibration signals of rolling bearing show this new method could discriminate the normal and two fault signals distinctly

Neighbourhood socioeconomic status and maternal factors at birth as moderators of the association between birth characteristics and school attainment: a population study of children attending government schools in Western Australia.

Science.gov (United States)

Malacova, E; Li, J; Blair, E; Mattes, E; de Klerk, N; Stanley, F

2009-10-01

This article investigates whether reading and writing skills among children of equivalent perinatal characteristics differ by neighbourhood socioeconomic status and maternal factors. Notifications of births for all non-Aboriginal singletons born in 1990-7 in Western Australia subsequently attending government primary schools were linked to the State literacy tests in grade three and with information on socioeconomic status of the school and the residential area. Using multilevel modelling, the associations between birth characteristics (gestational age, intrauterine growth, birth order and Apgar score at 5 minutes) and literacy attainment in grade three were examined in models that included socioeconomic and demographic factors of the child, mother and community. Higher percentages of optimal head circumference and birth length and term birth were positively and independently associated with literacy scores. A higher percentage of optimal birth weight was associated with higher reading scores especially for children born to mothers residing in educationally advantaged areas. First birth was positively associated with reading and writing attainment: this association was stronger for children born to single mothers and additional advantage in writing was also associated with first birth in children living in disadvantaged areas. These findings suggest that having suboptimal growth in utero or an older sibling at birth increases vulnerability to poor literacy attainment especially among children born to single mothers or those in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. These data provide evidence for advocating lifestyles compatible with optimum fetal growth and socioeconomic conditions conducive to healthy lifestyles, particularly during pregnancy.

Higher-order risk preferences in social settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Heinrich, Timo; Mayrhofer, Thomas

2018-01-01

We study prudence and temperance (next to risk aversion) in social settings. Previous experimental studies have shown that these higher-order risk preferences affect the choices of individuals deciding privately on lotteries that only affect their own payoff. Yet, many risky and financially relevant decisions are made in the social settings of households or organizations. We elicit higher-order risk preferences of individuals and systematically vary how an individual's decision is made (alone or while communicating with a partner) and who is affected by the decision (only the individual or the partner as well). In doing so, we can isolate the effects of other-regarding concerns and communication on choices. Our results reveal that the majority of choices are risk averse, prudent, and temperate across social settings. We also observe that individuals are influenced significantly by the preferences of a partner when they are able to communicate and choices are payoff-relevant for both of them.

Mathematics Teachers’ Interpretation of Higher-Order Thinking in Bloom’s Taxonomy

OpenAIRE

Tony Thompson

2008-01-01

This study investigated mathematics teachers’ interpretation of higher-order thinking in Bloom’s Taxonomy. Thirty-two high school mathematics teachers from the southeast U.S. were asked to (a) define lower- and higher-order thinking, (b) identify which thinking skills in Bloom’s Taxonomy represented lower- and higher-order thinking, and (c) create an Algebra I final exam item representative of each thinking skill. Results indicate that mathematics teachers have difficulty interpreting the thi...

Twin birth order, birthweight and birthweight discordance: any relationship

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Onyiriuka A.N.

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Background: It is widely believed that in twin pairs, at birth, the first-born weigh more than the second-born but this concept has been challenged. Objective: To assess the truthfulness of this common concept that first-born twins are usually heavier than their second-born siblings at birth. Methods: In a series of 104 sets of live-born twins, the birth weights of first-born twins were compared with those of their second-born siblings, after controlling for gender. Their intra-pair birthweight differences were determined and twin pairs whose birthweight difference was 15% or more were designated as discordant. Results: Twin I was heavier than Twin II in 61.5% of cases while Twin II was heavier than Twin I in 28.9% of cases. Twins I and II had equal birthweights in 9.6% of cases. Comparing the mean birthweight of the first-born-male twin with that of second-born- male twin, it was 2515+427g (95% Confidence Interval, CI=2402-2628 versus 2432 +435g (95% CI=2321-2543 p>0.05. The mean birthweight of first-born-female twin was 2326+445g (95% CI=2214-2439 while that of the second-born-female twin was 2325+501g (95% CI=2197-2453 p>0.05. When the birthweight difference exceeded 750g, the probability that Twin I will be heavier than Twin II was 83.3% (5 of 6. Conclusion: Although the first-born twin was more often heavier than their second-born siblings, either could weigh more or less at birth. The larger the birthweight difference between growth-discordant twin pair, the greater the probability that the heavier twin would be delivered first

Infectious exposure in the first years of life and risk of central nervous system tumours in children: analysis of birth order, childcare attendance and seasonality of birth.

Science.gov (United States)

Schmidt, L S; Kamper-Jørgensen, M; Schmiegelow, K; Johansen, C; Lähteenmäki, P; Träger, C; Stokland, T; Grell, K; Gustafson, G; Kogner, P; Sehested, A; Schüz, J

2010-05-25

An infective, mostly viral basis has been found in different human cancers. To test the hypothesis of a possible infectious aetiology for central nervous system (CNS) tumours in children, we investigated the associations with proxy measures of exposure to infectious disease. In a large case-control study nested in the populations of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland of 4.4 million children, we studied the association of birth order and seasonal variation of birth with subsequent risk for CNS tumours. We identified 3983 children from the national cancer registries, and information on exposure was obtained from the high-quality national administrative health registries. We investigated the association between childcare attendance during the first 2 years of life and the risk for CNS tumours in a subset of Danish children with CNS tumours, using information from the Danish Childcare database. We observed no association between birth order and risk of CNS tumours overall (odds ratio (OR) for second born or later born vs first born, 1.03; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.96-1.10) or by histological subgroup, and children with CNS tumours did not show a seasonal variation of birth that was distinct from that of the background population. Childcare attendance compared with homecare showed a slightly increased OR (1.29; 95% CI, 0.90-1.86) for CNS tumours, with the highest risk observed in children attending a crèche. The strongest association was observed for embryonal CNS tumours. We found no effect of age at enrolment or duration of enrolment in childcare. These results do not support the hypothesis that the burden of exposure to infectious disease in early childhood has an important role in the aetiology of paediatric CNS tumours.

Infectious exposure in the first years of life and risk of central nervous system tumours in children: analysis of birth order, childcare attendance and seasonality of birth

Science.gov (United States)

Schmidt, L S; Kamper-Jørgensen, M; Schmiegelow, K; Johansen, C; Lähteenmäki, P; Träger, C; Stokland, T; Grell, K; Gustafson, G; Kogner, P; Sehested, A; Schüz, J

2010-01-01

Background: An infective, mostly viral basis has been found in different human cancers. To test the hypothesis of a possible infectious aetiology for central nervous system (CNS) tumours in children, we investigated the associations with proxy measures of exposure to infectious disease. Methods: In a large case–control study nested in the populations of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland of 4.4 million children, we studied the association of birth order and seasonal variation of birth with subsequent risk for CNS tumours. We identified 3983 children from the national cancer registries, and information on exposure was obtained from the high-quality national administrative health registries. We investigated the association between childcare attendance during the first 2 years of life and the risk for CNS tumours in a subset of Danish children with CNS tumours, using information from the Danish Childcare database. Results: We observed no association between birth order and risk of CNS tumours overall (odds ratio (OR) for second born or later born vs first born, 1.03; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.96–1.10) or by histological subgroup, and children with CNS tumours did not show a seasonal variation of birth that was distinct from that of the background population. Childcare attendance compared with homecare showed a slightly increased OR (1.29; 95% CI, 0.90–1.86) for CNS tumours, with the highest risk observed in children attending a crèche. The strongest association was observed for embryonal CNS tumours. We found no effect of age at enrolment or duration of enrolment in childcare. Conclusion: These results do not support the hypothesis that the burden of exposure to infectious disease in early childhood has an important role in the aetiology of paediatric CNS tumours. PMID:20461079

Ansiedade, sexo, nível sócio-econômico e ordem de nascimento Anxiety, sex, socioeconomic status, and birth order

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jorge La Rosa

1998-01-01

Full Text Available O objetivo do estudo foi verificar o efeito do sexo, nível sócio-econômico (NSE e ordem de nascimento em ansiedade traço-estado. Participaram 437 estudantes do 1° e 2° graus, de ambos os sexos, de níveis sócio-econômicos médio-alto e baixo, primogênitos e não-primogênitos. No que se refere à ansiedade estado (AE, observaram-se efeitos principais de sexo e NSE. As mulheres apresentaram escores mais altos que os homens, e também os sujeitos de NSE baixo com relação aos de NSE médio-alto. Houve interação entre NSE e ordem de nascimento. Os estudantes primogênitos de NSE médio-alto evidenciaram menor AE que os primogênitos e não-primogênitos de NSE baixo. Em outra interação, as mulheres primogênitas de NSE baixo apresentaram maior AE que os homens de NSE médio-alto, primogênitos e não-primogênitos, e, também, que as mulheres primogênitas de NSE médio-alto. Nos resultados de ansiedade-traço, as mulheres obtiveram pontuação mais alta que os homens, e também os sujeitos de NSE baixo com relação aos de NSE médio-alto. Não houve interações. Discutem-se os resultados enfatizando-se a importância do sexo, nível sócio-econômico e ordem de nascimento nos níveis de ansiedade traço-estado.The objective of this study was to verify the effect of sex, socioeconomic status (SES and birth order on state-trait anxiety. The subjects were 437 primary and secondary school students of both sexes, firt-borns and non-first-borns, belonging to both upper-middle and lower socioeconomic levels. Regarding state-anxiety (SA, main effects of the variables sex and SES could be observed. Women presented higher scores than men, and so did the subjects from lower SES in relation to the subjects of upper-middle SES. There was an interaction between SES and birth order. Students who were first-borns of the upper-middle SES showed lower SA than first-borns and non first-borns of lower SES. In another interaction, female first-borns of

Higher-Order Finite Element Solutions of Option Prices

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Raahauge, Peter

2004-01-01

Kinks and jumps in the payoff function of option contracts prevent an effectiveimplementation of higher-order numerical approximation methods. Moreover, thederivatives (the greeks) are not easily determined around such singularities, even withstandard lower-order methods. This paper suggests...... for prices as well as for first and second order derivatives(delta and gamma). Unlike similar studies, numerical approximation errors aremeasured both as weighted averages and in the supnorm over a state space includingtime-to-maturities down to a split second.KEYWORDS: Numerical option pricing, Transformed...

International comparisons of preterm birth: higher rates of late preterm birth are associated with lower rates of stillbirth and neonatal death.

Science.gov (United States)

Lisonkova, S; Sabr, Y; Butler, B; Joseph, K S

2012-12-01

To examine international rates of preterm birth and potential associations with stillbirths and neonatal deaths at late preterm and term gestation. Ecological study. Canada, USA and 26 countries in Europe. All deliveries in 2004. Information on preterm birth (Statistics Canada, the EURO-PERISTAT project and the National Center for Health Statistics. Pearson correlation coefficients and random-intercept Poisson regression were used to examine the association between preterm birth rates and gestational age-specific stillbirth and neonatal death rates. Rate ratios with 95% confidence intervals were estimated after adjustment for maternal age, parity and multiple births. Stillbirths and neonatal deaths ≥ 32 and ≥ 37 weeks of gestation. International rates of preterm birth (births. Preterm birth rates at 32-36 weeks were inversely associated with stillbirths at ≥ 32 weeks (adjusted rate ratio 0.94, 95% CI 0.92-0.96) and ≥ 37 weeks (adjusted rate ratio 0.88, 95% CI 0.85-0.91) of gestation and inversely associated with neonatal deaths at ≥ 32 weeks (adjusted rate ratio 0.88, 95% CI 0.85-0.91) and ≥ 37 weeks (adjusted rate ratio 0.82, 95% CI 0.78-0.86) of gestation. Countries with high rates of preterm birth at 32-36 weeks of gestation have lower stillbirth and neonatal death rates at and beyond 32 weeks of gestation. Contemporary rates of preterm birth are indicators of both perinatal health and obstetric care services. © 2012 The Authors BJOG An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology © 2012 RCOG.

The Cauchy problem for higher order abstract differential equations

CERN Document Server

Xiao, Ti-Jun

1998-01-01

This monograph is the first systematic exposition of the theory of the Cauchy problem for higher order abstract linear differential equations, which covers all the main aspects of the developed theory. The main results are complete with detailed proofs and established recently, containing the corresponding theorems for first and incomplete second order cases and therefore for operator semigroups and cosine functions. They will find applications in many fields. The special power of treating the higher order problems directly is demonstrated, as well as that of the vector-valued Laplace transforms in dealing with operator differential equations and operator families. The reader is expected to have a knowledge of complex and functional analysis.

Birth order and childhood type 1 diabetes risk: a pooled analysis of 31 observational studies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cardwell, Chris R; Stene, Lars C; Joner, Geir

2010-01-01

BACKGROUND: The incidence rates of childhood onset type 1 diabetes are almost universally increasing across the globe but the aetiology of the disease remains largely unknown. We investigated whether birth order is associated with the risk of childhood diabetes by performing a pooled analysis...... and after adjustment for confounders, and investigate heterogeneity. RESULTS: Data were available for 6 cohort and 25 case-control studies, including 11¿955 cases of type 1 diabetes. Overall, there was no evidence of an association prior to adjustment for confounders. After adjustment for maternal age...... at birth and other confounders, a reduction in the risk of diabetes in second- or later born children became apparent [fully adjusted OR¿=¿0.90 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.83-0.98; P¿=¿0.02] but this association varied markedly between studies (I(2)¿=¿67%). An a priori subgroup analysis showed...

Comparing higher order models for the EORTC QLQ-C30

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gundy, Chad M; Fayers, Peter M; Grønvold, Mogens

2012-01-01

To investigate the statistical fit of alternative higher order models for summarizing the health-related quality of life profile generated by the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire.......To investigate the statistical fit of alternative higher order models for summarizing the health-related quality of life profile generated by the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire....

Scalar brane backgrounds in higher order curvature gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Charmousis, Christos; Davis, Stephen C.; Dufaux, Jean-Francois

2003-01-01

We investigate maximally symmetric brane world solutions with a scalar field. Five-dimensional bulk gravity is described by a general lagrangian which yields field equations containing no higher than second order derivatives. This includes the Gauss-Bonnet combination for the graviton. Stability and gravitational properties of such solutions are considered, and we particularly emphasise the modifications induced by the higher order terms. In particular it is shown that higher curvature corrections to Einstein theory can give rise to instabilities in brane world solutions. A method for analytically obtaining the general solution for such actions is outlined. Generically, the requirement of a finite volume element together with the absence of a naked singularity in the bulk imposes fine-tuning of the brane tension. A model with a moduli scalar field is analysed in detail and we address questions of instability and non-singular self-tuning solutions. In particular, we discuss a case with a normalisable zero mode but infinite volume element. (author)

Effects of birth order and maternal age on breast cancer risk: modification by whether women had been breast-fed.

Science.gov (United States)

Nichols, Hazel B; Trentham-Dietz, Amy; Sprague, Brian L; Hampton, John M; Titus-Ernstoff, Linda; Newcomb, Polly A

2008-05-01

Early life risk factors for breast cancer have been investigated in relation to hormonal, nutritional, infectious, and genetic hypotheses. Recent studies have also considered potential health effects associated with exposure to environmental contaminants in breastmilk. We analyzed data from a population-based case-control study of women living in Wisconsin. Cases (n = 2016) had an incident diagnosis of invasive breast cancer in 2002-2006 reported to the statewide tumor registry. Controls (n = 1960) of similar ages were randomly selected from driver's license lists. Risk-factor information was collected during structured telephone interviews. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated from multivariable logistic regression. In multivariable models, maternal age and birth order were not associated with breast cancer risk in the full study population. The odds ratio for breast cancer risk associated with having been breast-fed in infancy was 0.83 (95% CI = 0.72-0.96). In analyses restricted to breast-fed women, maternal age associations with breast cancer were null (P = 0.2). Increasing maternal age was negatively associated with breast cancer risk among women who were not breast-fed; the odds ratio for breast cancer associated with each 5-year increase in maternal age was 0.90 (0.82-1.00). Higher birth order was inversely associated with breast cancer risk among breast-fed women (for women with 3 or more older siblings compared with first-born women, OR = 0.58 [CI = 0.39-0.86]) but not among nonbreast-fed women (1.13 [0.81-1.57]). These findings suggest that early life risk factor associations for breast cancer may differ according to breast-feeding status in infancy.

Twin's Birth-Order Differences in Height and Body Mass Index From Birth to Old Age: A Pooled Study of 26 Twin Cohorts Participating in the CODATwins Project

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Yokoyama, Y.; Jelenkovic, A.; Sund, R.; Sung, J.; Hopper, J.L.; Ooki, S.; Heikkilä, K.; Aaltonen, S.; Tarnoki, A.D.; Tarnoki, D.L.; Willemsen, G.; Bartels, M.; van Beijsterveldt, C.E.M.; Saudino, K.J.; Cutler, T.L.; Nelson, T.L.; Whitfield, K.E.; Wardle, J.; Llewellyn, C.H.; Fisher, A.; He, M.; Ding, X.; Bjerregaard-Andersen, M.; Beck-Nielsen, H.; Sodemann, M.; Song, Y.M.; Yang, S.; Lee, K.; Jeong, H.U.; Knafo-Noam, A.; Mankuta, D.; Abramson, L.; Burt, S.A.; Klump, K.L.; Ordonana, J.R.; Sanchez-Romera, J.F.; Colodro-Conde, L.; Harris, J.R.; Brandt, I.; Sevenius Nilsen, T.; Craig, J.M.; Saffery, R.; Ji, F.; Ning, F.; Pang, Z.; Dubois, L.; Boivin, M.; Brendgen, M.; Dionne, G.; Vitaro, F.; Martin, N.G.; Medland, S.E.; Montgomery, G.W.; Magnusson, P.K.E.; Pedersen, N.L.; Dahl Aslan, A.K.; Tynelius, P.; Haworth, C.M.A.; Plomin, R.; Rebato, E.; Rose, R.J.; Goldberg, J.H.; Rasmussen, F.; Hur, Y.M.; Sørensen, T.I.A.; Boomsma, D.I.; Kaprio, J.; Silventoinen, K.

2016-01-01

We analyzed birth order differences in means and variances of height and body mass index (BMI) in monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins from infancy to old age. The data were derived from the international CODATwins database. The total number of height and BMI measures from 0.5 to 79.5 years of

Higher-order RANS turbulence models for separated flows

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Higher-order Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) models are developed to overcome the shortcomings of second-moment RANS models in predicting separated flows....

Higher order mode damping of a higher harmonic superconducting cavity for SSRF

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu Haibo; Liu Jianfei; Hou Hongtao; Ma Zhenyu; Feng Xiqiang; Mao Dongqing

2012-01-01

Adopting a higher harmonic cavity on a synchrotron radiation facility can increase the beam lifetime and suppress the beam instability. In this paper, we report the simulation and preliminary design on higher order modes (HOMs) damping of the designed and fabricated higher harmonic superconducting cavity for Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF). The requirements for the HOM damping are analyzed, and the length and location of the HOM damper are optimized by using the SEAFISH code. The results show that the design can provide heavy damping for harmful HOMs with decreased impedance, and the beam instability requirement of SSRF can be satisfied. By using the ABCI code, the loss factor is obtained and the HOM power is estimated. (authors)

The power of non-determinism in higher-order implicit complexity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kop, Cynthia Louisa Martina; Simonsen, Jakob Grue

2017-01-01

We investigate the power of non-determinism in purely functional programming languages with higher-order types. Specifically, we consider cons-free programs of varying data orders, equipped with explicit non-deterministic choice. Cons-freeness roughly means that data constructors cannot occur...... in function bodies and all manipulation of storage space thus has to happen indirectly using the call stack. While cons-free programs have previously been used by several authors to characterise complexity classes, the work on non-deterministic programs has almost exclusively considered programs of data order...... 0. Previous work has shown that adding explicit non-determinism to consfree programs taking data of order 0 does not increase expressivity; we prove that this—dramatically—is not the case for higher data orders: adding non-determinism to programs with data order at least 1 allows...

PRE-SERVICE MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ CONCEPTION OF HIGHER-ORDER THINKING LEVEL IN BLOOM'S TAXONOMY

OpenAIRE

Damianus D Samo

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to explore pre-service mathematics teachers' conception of higher-order thinking in Bloom's Taxonomy, to explore pre-service mathematics teachers' ability in categorizing six cognitive levels of Bloom's Taxonomy as lower-order thinking and higher-order thinking, and pre-service mathematics teachers' ability in identifying some questionable items as lower-order and higher-order thinking. The higher-order thinking is the type of non-algorithm thinking which include ...

Wigner higher-order spectra: definition, properties, computation and application to transient signal analysis

OpenAIRE

Rodríguez Fonollosa, Javier; Nikias, Chrysostomos L.

1993-01-01

The Wigner higher order moment spectra (WHOS) are defined as extensions of the Wigner-Ville distribution (WD) to higher order moment spectra domains. A general class of time-frequency higher order moment spectra is also defined in terms of arbitrary higher order moments of the signal as generalizations of the Cohen’s general class of time-frequency representations. The properties of the general class of time-frequency higher order moment spectra can be related to the properties...

The Effects of Family Size, Birth Order, Sibling Separation and Crowding on the Academic Achievement of Boys and Girls

Science.gov (United States)

Nuttall, Ena Vazquez; And Others

1976-01-01

Family constellation variables such as family size, birth order, spacing of children, and crowding were significantly associated with academic achievement when IQ was controlled. The effects of family constellation variables were found to be sex specific. (RC)

Higher-order Skyrme hair of black holes

Science.gov (United States)

Gudnason, Sven Bjarke; Nitta, Muneto

2018-05-01

Higher-order derivative terms are considered as replacement for the Skyrme term in an Einstein-Skyrme-like model in order to pinpoint which properties are necessary for a black hole to possess stable static scalar hair. We find two new models able to support stable black hole hair in the limit of the Skyrme term being turned off. They contain 8 and 12 derivatives, respectively, and are roughly the Skyrme-term squared and the so-called BPS-Skyrme-term squared. In the twelfth-order model we find that the lower branches, which are normally unstable, become stable in the limit where the Skyrme term is turned off. We check this claim with a linear stability analysis. Finally, we find for a certain range of the gravitational coupling and horizon radius, that the twelfth-order model contains 4 solutions as opposed to 2. More surprisingly, the lowest part of the would-be unstable branch turns out to be the stable one of the 4 solutions.

Higher order mode damping in Kaon factory RF cavities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Enegren, T.; Poirier, R.; Griffin, J.; Walling, L.; Thiessen, H.A.; Smythe, W.R.

1989-05-01

Proposed designs for Kaon factory accelerators require that the rf cavities support beam currents on the order of several amperes. The beam current has Fourier components at all multiples of the rf frequency. Empty rf buckets produce additional components at all multiples of the revolution frequency. If a Fourier component of the beam coincides with the resonant frequency of a higher order mode of the cavity, which is inevitable if the cavity has a large frequency swing, significant excitation of this mode can occur. The induced voltage may then excite coupled bunch mode instabilities. Effective means are required to damp higher order modes without significantly affecting the fundamental mode. A mode damping scheme based on coupled transmission lines has been investigated and is report

Higher Order, Hybrid BEM/FEM Methods Applied to Antenna Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Fink, P. W.; Wilton, D. R.; Dobbins, J. A.

2002-01-01

In this presentation, the authors address topics relevant to higher order modeling using hybrid BEM/FEM formulations. The first of these is the limitation on convergence rates imposed by geometric modeling errors in the analysis of scattering by a dielectric sphere. The second topic is the application of an Incomplete LU Threshold (ILUT) preconditioner to solve the linear system resulting from the BEM/FEM formulation. The final tOpic is the application of the higher order BEM/FEM formulation to antenna modeling problems. The authors have previously presented work on the benefits of higher order modeling. To achieve these benefits, special attention is required in the integration of singular and near-singular terms arising in the surface integral equation. Several methods for handling these terms have been presented. It is also well known that achieving he high rates of convergence afforded by higher order bases may als'o require the employment of higher order geometry models. A number of publications have described the use of quadratic elements to model curved surfaces. The authors have shown in an EFIE formulation, applied to scattering by a PEC .sphere, that quadratic order elements may be insufficient to prevent the domination of modeling errors. In fact, on a PEC sphere with radius r = 0.58 Lambda(sub 0), a quartic order geometry representation was required to obtain a convergence benefi.t from quadratic bases when compared to the convergence rate achieved with linear bases. Initial trials indicate that, for a dielectric sphere of the same radius, - requirements on the geometry model are not as severe as for the PEC sphere. The authors will present convergence results for higher order bases as a function of the geometry model order in the hybrid BEM/FEM formulation applied to dielectric spheres. It is well known that the system matrix resulting from the hybrid BEM/FEM formulation is ill -conditioned. For many real applications, a good preconditioner is required

Higher Order Thinking Skills among Secondary School Students in Science Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Saido, Gulistan Mohammed; Siraj, Saedah; Bin Nordin, Abu Bakar; Al Amedy, Omed Saadallah

2015-01-01

A central goal of science education is to help students to develop their higher order thinking skills to enable them to face the challenges of daily life. Enhancing students' higher order thinking skills is the main goal of the Kurdish Science Curriculum in the Iraqi-Kurdistan region. This study aimed at assessing 7th grade students' higher order…

Student's Perceived Level and Teachers' Teaching Strategies of Higher Order Thinking Skills: A Study on Higher Educational Institutions in Thailand

Science.gov (United States)

Shukla, Divya; Dungsungnoen, Aj Pattaradanai

2016-01-01

Higher order thinking skills (HOTS) has portrayed immense industry demand and the major goal of educational institution in imparting education is to inculcate higher order thinking skills. This compiles and mandate the institutions and instructor to develop the higher order thinking skills among students in order to prepare them for effective…

Vaginal birth after cesarean: neonatal outcomes and United States birth setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Tilden, Ellen L; Cheyney, Melissa; Guise, Jeanne-Marie; Emeis, Cathy; Lapidus, Jodi; Biel, Frances M; Wiedrick, Jack; Snowden, Jonathan M

2017-04-01

Women who seek vaginal birth after cesarean delivery may find limited in-hospital options. Increasing numbers of women in the United States are delivering by vaginal birth after cesarean delivery out-of-hospital. Little is known about neonatal outcomes among those who deliver by vaginal birth after cesarean delivery in- vs out-of-hospital. The purpose of this study was to compare neonatal outcomes between women who deliver via vaginal birth after cesarean delivery in-hospital vs out-of-hospital (home and freestanding birth center). We conducted a retrospective cohort study using 2007-2010 linked United States birth and death records to compare singleton, term, vertex, nonanomolous, and liveborn neonates who delivered by vaginal birth after cesarean delivery in- or out-of-hospital. Descriptive statistics and multivariate regression analyses were conducted to estimate unadjusted, absolute, and relative birth-setting risk differences. Analyses were stratified by parity and history of vaginal birth. Sensitivity analyses that involved 3 transfer status scenarios were conducted. Of women in the United States with a history of cesarean delivery (n=1,138,813), only a small proportion delivered by vaginal birth after cesarean delivery with the subsequent pregnancy (n=109,970; 9.65%). The proportion of home vaginal birth after cesarean delivery births increased from 1.78-2.45%. A pattern of increased neonatal morbidity was noted in unadjusted analysis (neonatal seizures, Apgar score birthing their second child by vaginal birth after cesarean delivery in out-of-hospital settings had higher odds of neonatal morbidity and death compared with women of higher parity. Women who had not birthed vaginally prior to out-of-hospital vaginal birth after cesarean delivery had higher odds of neonatal morbidity and mortality compared with women who had birthed vaginally prior to out-of-hospital vaginal birth after cesarean delivery. Sensitivity analyses generated distributions of plausible

Higher gestational weight gain is associated with increasing offspring birth weight independent of maternal glycemic control in women with type 1 diabetes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)