Investigative interviewing of children with intellectual disabilities

This research was designed to examine two broad issues in relation to the investigative interviewing of children (aged 9 to 13 years) with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities. First, how do children with intellectual disabilities perform (relative to children matched for chronological and mental age) when recalling an event in response to various questions? Second, what question types and interview strategies do police officers and caregivers use to elicit accurate and detailed accounts about an event from children with intellectual disabilities? The rationale for exploring each of these issues was to determine possible ways of improving the elicitation of evidence from children with intellectual disabilities. While children with intellectual disabilities constitute a high proportion of all child victims of abuse (Conway, 1994; Goldman, 1994; Morse, et ah, 1970), they rarely provide formal reports of abuse and of those incidents that are reported, few cases progress to court (Henry & Gudjonsson, 1999). Study 1 used a standard interview protocol containing a variety of questions and an interview structure commonly used in investigative interviews. Specifically, the memory and suggestibility of eighty children with either a mild and moderate intellectual disability (M age = 10.85 years) was examined when recalling an innocuous event that was staged at their school. The children\u27s performance was compared with that of two control groups; a group of mainstream children matched for mental age and a group of mainstream children matched for chronological age. Overall, this study showed that children with both mild and moderate intellectual disabilities can provide accurate and highly specific event-related information hi response to questions recommended in best-practice guidelines. However, their recall was less complete and less clear in response to free-narrative prompts and less accurate in response to specific questions when compared to both mainstream age-matched groups. Study 2 provided an in-depth analysis of the types of questions and strategies used by twenty-eight police officers and caregivers when interviewing children with either mild or moderate intellectual disabilities (M age = 11.13 years) about a repeated event that was staged at their school. The results revealed that while the approach used by the police officers was generally consistent with best-practice recommendations (i.e., their interviews contained few leading, coercive or negative strategies), there were many ways in which their approach could be improved. This study also showed that the caregivers used a high proportion of direct and negative strategies to elicit information from their children. Even when caregivers used open-ended questions, their children provided less event-related information than they did to police interviewers. The results of both studies were discussed in relation to current \u27best-practice\u27 guidelines for interviewing children and recommendations were offered for improving the quality of field interviews with children who have intellectual disabilities

If you go down to the woods today ...

This article describes:the context for design and technology in a special school for children with a variety of disabilitiesa design and technology project with children with severe learning disabilitiesFairfields School is a special school catering for pupils with physical disabilities between the ages of two and eleven. There are currently 59 pupils on roll and over 75% of the pupils have severe or moderate learning difficulties. Most pupils have additional difficulties, which are present as profound and complex disabilities, and have statements of special educational needs. However, a few of nursery age are still in the process of being assessed

Stable habitable zones of single Jovian planet systems

With continued improvement in telescope sensitivity and observational techniques, the search for rocky planets in stellar habitable zones is entering an exciting era. With so many exoplanetary systems available for follow-up observations to find potentially habitable planets, one needs to prioritise the ever-growing list of candidates. We aim to determine which of the known planetary systems are dynamically capable of hosting rocky planets in their habitable zones, with the goal of helping to focus future planet search programs. We perform an extensive suite of numerical simulations to identify regions in the habitable zones of single Jovian planet systems where Earth mass planets could maintain stable orbits, specifically focusing on the systems in the Catalog of Earth-like Exoplanet Survey Targets (CELESTA). We find that small, Earth-mass planets can maintain stable orbits in cases where the habitable zone is largely, or partially, unperturbed by a nearby Jovian, and that mutual gravitational interactions and resonant mechanisms are capable of producing stable orbits even in habitable zones that are significantly or completely disrupted by a Jovian. Our results yield a list of 13 single Jovian planet systems in CELESTA that are not only capable of supporting an Earth-mass planet on stable orbits in their habitable zone, but for which we are also able to constrain the orbits of the Earth-mass planet such that the induced radial velocity signals would be detectable with next generation instruments.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for publication by MNRA

Mutual indwelling: exploring untapped performance potential in both Biblical performance criticism and the Letter to the Romans

All biblical scholars engage with the Bible through a dynamic interplay of sensory-­‐motor, affective, and relational interpretive processes, as well as cognition, because all biblical scholars are human beings. Most biblical scholarship, however, privileges the interpretive work of the intellect, of rational and objective cognition, in a hierarchical dualism that diminishes the human person and understanding of biblical compositions. This thesis seeks to foreground the fullness of embodied ways in which humans make meaning, in the particular task of biblical interpretation. It does so through an auto-­‐ ethnographic study of the author’s practice as a performer-­‐interpreter, and introduces a new method of exegesis with an Embodied Performance Analysis of the letter to the Romans. The Analysis will highlight a theme of mutuality in the letter, through gesture, voice, audience-­‐shaped translations and abridgements, and the love-­‐filled and joyful call to enact mutual embrace that is heard in the climax at Rom 16. The thesis will offer to performers, scholars, and leaders of corporate worship a method and practice through which to understand and communicate how their body, emotions, and listeners are shaping their interpretations. All scholars do feel emotion, have an audience in mind, and are embodied beings. This thesis brings the full human person to the task of biblical scholarship, encouraging an attitude of mutual indwelling for more complete interpretations, with the inherently mutual Embodied Performance Analysis

Laboratory misdiagnosis of von Willebrand disease in post- menarchal females: A multi- center study

Increased awareness of von Willebrand Disease (VWD) has led to more frequent diagnostic laboratory testing, which insurers often dictate be performed at a facility with off- site laboratory processing, instead of a coagulation facility with onsite processing. Off- site processing is more prone to preanalytical variables causing falsely low levels of von Willebrand Factor (VWF) due to the additional transport required. Our aim was to determine the percentage of discordance between off- site and onsite specimen processing for VWD in this multicenter, retrospective study. We enrolled females aged 12 to 50- years who had off- site specimen processing for VWF assays, and repeat testing performed at a consulting institution with onsite coagulation phlebotomy and processing. A total of 263 females from 17 institutions were included in the analysis. There were 251 subjects with both off- site and onsite VWF antigen (VWF:Ag) processing with 96 (38%) being low off- site and 56 (22%) low onsite; 223 subjects had VWF ristocetin co- factor (VWF:RCo), 122 (55%) were low off- site and 71 (32%) were low onsite. Similarly, 229 subjects had a Factor VIII (FVIII) assay, and 67 (29%) were low off- site with less than half, 29 (13%) confirmed low with onsite processing. Higher proportions of patients demonstrated low VWF:Ag, VWF:RCo, and/or FVIII with off- site processing compared to onsite (McNemarʼs test P- value <.0005, for all assays). These results emphasize the need to decrease delays from sample procurement to processing for VWF assays. The VWF assays should ideally be collected and processed at the same site under the guidance of a hematologist.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156476/2/ajh25869.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156476/1/ajh25869_am.pd

Glucocorticoids regulate mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation in fetal cardiomyocytes

Abstract: The late gestational rise in glucocorticoids contributes to the structural and functional maturation of the perinatal heart. Here, we hypothesized that glucocorticoid action contributes to the metabolic switch in perinatal cardiomyocytes from carbohydrate to fatty acid oxidation. In primary mouse fetal cardiomyocytes, dexamethasone treatment induced expression of genes involved in fatty acid oxidation and increased mitochondrial oxidation of palmitate, dependent upon a glucocorticoid receptor (GR). Dexamethasone did not, however, induce mitophagy or alter the morphology of the mitochondrial network. In vivo, in neonatal mice, dexamethasone treatment induced cardiac expression of fatty acid oxidation genes. However, dexamethasone treatment of pregnant C57Bl/6 mice at embryonic day (E)13.5 or E16.5 failed to induce fatty acid oxidation genes in fetal hearts assessed 24 h later. Instead, at E17.5, fatty acid oxidation genes were downregulated by dexamethasone, as was GR itself. PGC-1α, required for glucocorticoid-induced maturation of primary mouse fetal cardiomyocytes in vitro, was also downregulated in fetal hearts at E17.5, 24 h after dexamethasone administration. Similarly, following a course of antenatal corticosteroids in a translational sheep model of preterm birth, both GR and PGC-1α were downregulated in heart. These data suggest that endogenous glucocorticoids support the perinatal switch to fatty acid oxidation in cardiomyocytes through changes in gene expression rather than gross changes in mitochondrial volume or mitochondrial turnover. Moreover, our data suggest that treatment with exogenous glucocorticoids may interfere with normal fetal heart maturation, possibly by downregulating GR. This has implications for clinical use of antenatal corticosteroids when preterm birth is considered a possibility. Key points: Glucocorticoids are steroid hormones that play a vital role in late pregnancy in maturing fetal organs, including the heart. In fetal cardiomyocytes in culture, glucocorticoids promote mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation, suggesting they facilitate the perinatal switch from carbohydrates to fatty acids as the predominant energy substrate. Administration of a synthetic glucocorticoid in late pregnancy in mice downregulates the glucocorticoid receptor and interferes with the normal increase in genes involved in fatty acid metabolism in the heart. In a sheep model of preterm birth, antenatal corticosteroids (synthetic glucocorticoid) downregulates the glucocorticoid receptor and the gene encoding PGC-1α, a master regulator of energy metabolism. These experiments suggest that administration of antenatal corticosteroids in anticipation of preterm delivery may interfere with fetal heart maturation by downregulating the ability to respond to glucocorticoids

Can Systemic Interventions Designed to Reduce Reoffending by Youth also Reduce their Victimization?

Previous research indicates considerable overlap between populations of boys who are victimized and boys who victimize others. This study was concerned with whether a systems-focused treatment program designed to address individual and systemic risk factors associated with the perpetration of sexual and violent crimes might also be successful in reducing boys’ victimization by others. Boys adjudicated for sexual offences who received ‘treatment as usual’ (TAU; n = 335) were compared with similarly adjudicated boys who completed the treatment program (n = 200) on their histories of contact with police either as offenders or victims. Despite their higher rates of pre-intervention victimization, the treatment group were victimized less frequently post-intervention than the TAU group. Continued offending was the strongest predictor of victimization post-intervention. These findings suggest that offending and victimization share common risk factors that may be addressed simultaneously within offence-focused treatment