We present the first unbiased survey of neutral hydrogen absorption in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The survey utilises pilot neutral hydrogen observations with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope as part of the Galactic Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder neutral hydrogen project whose dataset has been processed with the Galactic Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder-HI absorption pipeline, also described here. This dataset provides absorption spectra towards 229 continuum sources, a 275% increase in the number of continuum sources previously published in the Small Magellanic Cloud region, as well as an improvement in the quality of absorption spectra over previous surveys of the Small Magellanic Cloud. Our unbiased view, combined with the closely matched beam size between emission and absorption, reveals a lower cold gas faction (11%) than the 2019 ATCA survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud and is more representative of the Small Magellanic Cloud as a whole. We also find that the optical depth varies greatly between the Small Magellanic Cloud’s bar and wing regions. In the bar we find that the optical depth is generally low (correction factor to the optically thin column density assumption of $\mathcal{R}_{\mathrm{HI}} \sim 1.04$ ) but increases linearly with column density. In the wing however, there is a wide scatter in optical depth despite a tighter range of column densities.

We present the most sensitive and detailed view of the neutral hydrogen ( ${\rm H\small I}$ ) emission associated with the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), through the combination of data from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and Parkes (Murriyang), as part of the Galactic Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (GASKAP) pilot survey. These GASKAP-HI pilot observations, for the first time, reveal ${\rm H\small I}$ in the SMC on similar physical scales as other important tracers of the interstellar medium, such as molecular gas and dust. The resultant image cube possesses an rms noise level of 1.1 K ( $1.6\,\mathrm{mJy\ beam}^{-1}$ ) $\mathrm{per}\ 0.98\,\mathrm{km\ s}^{-1}$ spectral channel with an angular resolution of $30^{\prime\prime}$ ( ${\sim}10\,\mathrm{pc}$ ). We discuss the calibration scheme and the custom imaging pipeline that utilises a joint deconvolution approach, efficiently distributed across a computing cluster, to accurately recover the emission extending across the entire ${\sim}25\,\mathrm{deg}^2$ field-of-view. We provide an overview of the data products and characterise several aspects including the noise properties as a function of angular resolution and the represented spatial scales by deriving the global transfer function over the full spectral range. A preliminary spatial power spectrum analysis on individual spectral channels reveals that the power law nature of the density distribution extends down to scales of 10 pc. We highlight the scientific potential of these data by comparing the properties of an outflowing high-velocity cloud with previous ASKAP+Parkes ${\rm H\small I}$ test observations.

Three arguments are advanced from human and nonhuman primate infancy research for the exaptation of ingestive mouth movements (tongue protrusion and lip smacking) for the purposes of social communication: their relation to affiliative behaviours, their sensitivity to social context, and their role in social development. Although these behaviours may have an aerodigestive function, such an account of their occurrence is only partial.

A considerable body of evidence suggests that early caregiving may affect the short-term functioning and longer term development of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical axis. Despite this, most research to date has been cross-sectional in nature or restricted to relatively short-term longitudinal follow-ups. More important, there is a paucity of research on the role of caregiving in low- and middle-income countries, where the protective effects of high-quality care in buffering the child's developing stress regulation systems may be crucial. In this paper, we report findings from a longitudinal study (N = 232) conducted in an impoverished periurban settlement in Cape Town, South Africa. We measured caregiving sensitivity and security of attachment in infancy and followed children up at age 13 years, when we conducted assessments of hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenocortical axis reactivity, as indexed by salivary cortisol during the Trier Social Stress Test. The findings indicated that insecure attachment was predictive of reduced cortisol responses to social stress, particularly in boys, and that attachment status moderated the impact of contextual adversity on stress responses: secure children in highly adverse circumstances did not show the blunted cortisol response shown by their insecure counterparts. Some evidence was found that sensitivity of care in infancy was also associated with cortisol reactivity, but in this case, insensitivity was associated with heightened cortisol reactivity, and only for girls. The discussion focuses on the potentially important role of caregiving in the long-term calibration of the stress system and the need to better understand the social and biological mechanisms shaping the stress response across development in low- and middle-income countries.

Transportation is a vital element in our daily lives. Access to jobs, shopping, and other services depends upon some form of transportation. The principal means of transportation in the United States continues to be the automobile. Census figures show that in 1975, 84.7 percent of all workers in this country and 84.5 percent of the workers in non-metropolitan areas used the automobile to get to work (U.S. Bureau of the Census).

Anxious mothers' parenting, particularly transfer of threat information, has been considered important in their children's risk for social anxiety disorder (SAnxD), and maternal narratives concerning potential social threat could elucidate this contribution. Maternal narratives to their preschool 4- to 5-year-old children, via a picture book about starting school, were assessed in socially anxious (N = 73), and nonanxious (N = 63) mothers. Child representations of school were assessed via doll play (DP). After one school term, mothers (Child Behavior Checklist [CBCL]) and teachers (Teacher Report Form) reported on child internalizing problems, and child SAnxD was assessed via maternal interview. Relations between these variables, infant behavioral inhibition, and attachment, were examined. Socially anxious mothers showed more negative (higher threat attribution) and less supportive (lower encouragement) narratives than controls, and their children's DP representations SAnxD and CBCL scores were more adverse. High narrative threat predicted child SAnxD; lower encouragement predicted negative child CBCL scores and, particularly for behaviorally inhibited children, Teacher Report Form scores and DP representations. In securely attached children, CBCL scores and risk for SAnxD were affected by maternal anxiety and threat attributions, respectively. Low encouragement mediated the effects of maternal anxiety on child DP representations and CBCL scores. Maternal narratives are affected by social anxiety and contribute to adverse child outcome.

The time course of metabolic and cardiovascular changes with weight gain and subsequent weight loss has not been elucidated. The goal of the present study was to determine how weight gain, weight loss and altered body fat distribution affected metabolic and cardiovascular changes in an obese dog model. Testing was performed when the dogs were lean (scores 4–5 on a nine-point scale), after ad libitum feeding for 12 and 32 weeks to promote obesity (>5 score), and after weight loss. Measurements included serum glucose and insulin, plasma leptin, adiponectin and C-reactive protein, echocardiography, flow-mediated dilation and blood pressure. Body fat distribution was assessed by computed tomography. Fasting serum glucose concentrations increased significantly with obesity (P< 0·05). Heart rate increased by 22 (se 5) bpm after 12 weeks of obesity (P= 0·003). Systolic left ventricular free wall thickness increased after 12 weeks of obesity (P= 0·002), but decreased after weight loss compared with that observed in the lean phase (P= 0·03). Ventricular free wall thickness was more strongly correlated with visceral fat (r 0·6, P= 0·001) than with total body fat (r 0·4, P= 0·03) and was not significantly correlated with subcutaneous body fat (r 0·3, P= 0·1). The present study provides evidence that metabolic and cardiovascular alterations occur within only 12 weeks of obesity in an obese dog model and are strongly predicted by visceral fat. These results emphasise the importance of obesity prevention, as weight loss did not result in the return of all metabolic indicators to their normal levels. Moreover, systolic cardiac muscle thickness was reduced after weight loss compared with the pre-obesity levels, suggesting possible acute adverse cardiovascular effects.

The development of emotional regulation capacities in children at high versus low risk for externalizing disorder was examined in a longitudinal study investigating: (a) whether disturbances in emotion regulation precede and predict the emergence of externalizing symptoms and (b) whether sensitive maternal behavior is a significant influence on the development of child emotion regulation. Families experiencing high (n = 58) and low (n = 63) levels of psychosocial adversity were recruited to the study during pregnancy. Direct observational assessments of child emotion regulation capacities and maternal sensitivity were completed in early infancy, at 12 and 18 months, and at 5 years. Key findings were as follows. First, high-risk children showed poorer emotion regulation capacities than their low-risk counterparts at every stage of assessment. Second, from 12 months onward, emotion regulation capacities showed a degree of stability and were associated with behavioral problems, both concurrently and prospectively. Third, maternal sensitivity was related to child emotion regulation capacities throughout development, with poorer emotion regulation in the high-risk group being associated with lower maternal sensitivity. The results are consistent with a causal role for problems in the regulation of negative emotions in the etiology of externalizing psychopathology and highlight insensitive parenting as a potentially key developmental influence.

Mothers talked to their infants via a video system designed so that each partner saw a full-face, life-size image of the other on a screen before them, perfect eye-to-eye contact being possible. They were presented either with live, real-time video sequences of their infants, where communication was therefore potentially mutually responsive, or else with the same sequence replayed some minutes later. The mother's babytalk differed consistently between live and replay sequences. Since the infants' acts were identical in form in the two conditions, the only difference being the infant's potential responsiveness to the mother, these results are evidence for the infant's active role in contributing to the nature of interactions with adults.

Objectives: This study reports the cost-effectiveness of a preventive intervention, consisting of counseling and specific support for the mother–infant relationship, targeted at women at high risk of developing postnatal depression.

Methods: A prospective economic evaluation was conducted alongside a pragmatic randomized controlled trial in which women considered at high risk of developing postnatal depression were allocated randomly to the preventive intervention (n = 74) or to routine primary care (n = 77). The primary outcome measure was the duration of postnatal depression experienced during the first 18 months postpartum. Data on health and social care use by women and their infants up to 18 months postpartum were collected, using a combination of prospective diaries and face-to-face interviews, and then were combined with unit costs (£, year 2000 prices) to obtain a net cost per mother–infant dyad. The nonparametric bootstrap method was used to present cost-effectiveness acceptability curves and net benefit statistics at alternative willingness to pay thresholds held by decision makers for preventing 1 month of postnatal depression.

Results: Women in the preventive intervention group were depressed for an average of 2.21 months (9.57 weeks) during the study period, whereas women in the routine primary care group were depressed for an average of 2.70 months (11.71 weeks). The mean health and social care costs were estimated at £2,396.9 per mother–infant dyad in the preventive intervention group and £2,277.5 per mother–infant dyad in the routine primary care group, providing a mean cost difference of £119.5 (bootstrap 95 percent confidence interval [CI], −535.4, 784.9). At a willingness to pay threshold of £1,000 per month of postnatal depression avoided, the probability that the preventive intervention is cost-effective is .71 and the mean net benefit is £383.4 (bootstrap 95 percent CI, −£863.3–£1,581.5).

Conclusions: The preventive intervention is likely to be cost-effective even at relatively low willingness to pay thresholds for preventing 1 month of postnatal depression during the first 18 months postpartum. Given the negative impact of postnatal depression on later child development, further research is required that investigates the longer-term cost-effectiveness of the preventive intervention in high risk women.