Transitioning to Adulthood in Sweden: Comparing the Priorities of Immigrant Youths with Disabilities and Caregivers, from Middle-Eastern Countries

Background: There is limited knowledge about perceived challenges during the transition to adulthood among immigrant youths who are originally from Arabic-speaking countries but now residing in Sweden. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe self-identified problems encountered by immigrant youths with disabilities from Middle Eastern countries who were living in Sweden during their transition to adulthood and to compare these descriptions to the problems identified by their caregivers.Methods: Seventeen semi-structured interviews using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure were conducted with 17 immigrant youths with intellectual disabilities aged 13-24 years and 16 caregivers, originally from Middle Eastern countries. The participants’ prioritized problems were categorized using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health-Children & Youth Version, focusing on Activity and Participation.Results: A difference in priorities during transition was found when comparing the youths’ and the caregivers’ views. Most of the youths’ priorities were identified in the chapter “Major Life Area” about basic economic transactions and seeking employment, whilst the caregivers thought their youths’ prioritized “self-care”.Conclusion and implications for practice: Planning the best transition for immigrant youths with disabilities involves enabling them to identify their own preferences and needs while collaborating with caregivers and taking into consideration the cultural norms and traditions of collective caregiving

Developing GIS-based water poverty and rainwater harvesting suitability maps for domestic use in the Dead Sea region (West Bank, Palestine)

In the arid region of the Dead Sea, water shortage and the inability to satisfy the increasing domestic water demand threatens sustainable development. In such situations, domestic rainwater harvesting is considered an efficient way to combat water poverty. This paper aims to develop domestic water poverty (DWP) and domestic rainwater harvesting suitability (DRWHS) maps for the West Bank, Palestine. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and the GIS-based weighted overlay summation process (WOSP) were utilized in the development of these maps. Results of the DWP map indicate that 57&thinsp;% of the West Bank is under high to very high poverty of domestic water. The DRWHS map shows that 60&thinsp;% of the West Bank is highly suitable for domestic rainwater harvesting. Spatial intersection (combined mapping) between DWP and DRWHS maps indicates that around 31&thinsp;% of the total West Bank areas could be classified as high potential locations (hotspot areas) for adopting rainwater harvesting techniques for domestic purposes. The developed maps are valuable to the stakeholders to better identify the best areas of rainwater harvesting in the West Bank.</p

The Psychometric Properties of the Arabic Preschool Activity Card Sort

Background. The Preschool Activity Card Sort (PACS) is an interview-based assessment tool to measure participation of preschool children with age range from 3 to 6 years. Objective of Study. The purpose of this study was to establish the psychometric properties of the recently translated Arabic PACS (A-PACS). Methods. One hundred fifty-one Jordanian parents participated in the study representing different geographical areas. Children were almost equally distributed between males and females and into three age groups. Construct and concurrent validity were examined as well as the internal consistency of the scale and the test-retest reliability. Findings. The A-PACS was able to differentiate between the participation level of young and old children in the domains of education, community mobility, and low demand leisure of the A-PACS giving evidence to its construct validity and it significantly correlated with some aspects of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS) giving evidence to its concurrent validity. The A-PACS showed excellent overall internal consistency (α=.859) for all domains and good test-retest reliability (r=.976, p<.001). Conclusion. The A-PACS can be considered as a valid and reliable tool to measure participation of preschool children with normal development from Arabic cultures. Future studies should focus on the validity of the A-PACS for use with children with disabilities

Trispecific antibody targeting HIV-1 and T cells activates and eliminates latently-infected cells in HIV/SHIV infections.

Agents that can simultaneously activate latent HIV, increase immune activation and enhance the killing of latently-infected cells represent promising approaches for HIV cure. Here, we develop and evaluate a trispecific antibody (Ab), N6/αCD3-αCD28, that targets three independent proteins: (1) the HIV envelope via the broadly reactive CD4-binding site Ab, N6; (2) the T cell antigen CD3; and (3) the co-stimulatory molecule CD28. We find that the trispecific significantly increases antigen-specific T-cell activation and cytokine release in both CD4 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; and CD8 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; T cells. Co-culturing CD4 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; with autologous CD8 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; T cells from ART-suppressed HIV &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; donors with N6/αCD3-αCD28, results in activation of latently-infected cells and their elimination by activated CD8 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; T cells. This trispecific antibody mediates CD4 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; and CD8 &lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt; T-cell activation in non-human primates and is well tolerated in vivo. This HIV-directed antibody therefore merits further development as a potential intervention for the eradication of latent HIV infection

Synthesis, docking and evaluation of novel fused pyrimidine compounds as possible lead compounds with antibacterial and antitumor activities

Reaction of a series of hydrazonoyl chlorides with substituted aminopyrimidines afforded good selectivity in most cases leading either to formation of new imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidine derivatives, or regioisomeric hydrazonamide adducts. The compounds were evaluated for antibacterial and anticancer activities. Screening against 'E. Coli', 'P. aeruginosa', 'S. aureus', 'S. epidermidis', 'B. subtilis' and 'K. rhizophila' did identify several different compound types with MIC of 0.1-0.4 mg/mL. Anticancer evaluation against a HeLa cell line identified one imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidine lead. An 'in silico' target fishing analysis suggest three possible high value protein targets, Tankyrase-2 (Tank-2), Cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK2) and Epidermal growth factor tyrosine kinase receptor (EGFR), with modelling fit against co-crystallized known ligands. This provides a new structural family lead for further investigation of molecular targets and potential SAR activity development

Quantitative utilization of prior biological knowledge in the Bayesian network modeling of gene expression data

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bayesian Network (BN) is a powerful approach to reconstructing genetic regulatory networks from gene expression data. However, expression data by itself suffers from high noise and lack of power. Incorporating prior biological knowledge can improve the performance. As each type of prior knowledge on its own may be incomplete or limited by quality issues, integrating multiple sources of prior knowledge to utilize their consensus is desirable.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We introduce a new method to incorporate the quantitative information from multiple sources of prior knowledge. It first uses the Naïve Bayesian classifier to assess the likelihood of functional linkage between gene pairs based on prior knowledge. In this study we included cocitation in PubMed and schematic similarity in Gene Ontology annotation. A candidate network edge reservoir is then created in which the copy number of each edge is proportional to the estimated likelihood of linkage between the two corresponding genes. In network simulation the Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling algorithm is adopted, and samples from this reservoir at each iteration to generate new candidate networks. We evaluated the new algorithm using both simulated and real gene expression data including that from a yeast cell cycle and a mouse pancreas development/growth study. Incorporating prior knowledge led to a ~2 fold increase in the number of known transcription regulations recovered, without significant change in false positive rate. In contrast, without the prior knowledge BN modeling is not always better than a random selection, demonstrating the necessity in network modeling to supplement the gene expression data with additional information.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>our new development provides a statistical means to utilize the quantitative information in prior biological knowledge in the BN modeling of gene expression data, which significantly improves the performance.</p

Global, regional, and national progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 for neonatal and child health : all-cause and cause-specific mortality findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 has targeted elimination of preventable child mortality, reduction of neonatal death to less than 12 per 1000 livebirths, and reduction of death of children younger than 5 years to less than 25 per 1000 livebirths, for each country by 2030. To understand current rates, recent trends, and potential trajectories of child mortality for the next decade, we present the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 findings for all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality in children younger than 5 years of age, with multiple scenarios for child mortality in 2030 that include the consideration of potential effects of COVID-19, and a novel framework for quantifying optimal child survival. Methods We completed all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality analyses from 204 countries and territories for detailed age groups separately, with aggregated mortality probabilities per 1000 livebirths computed for neonatal mortality rate (NMR) and under-5 mortality rate (USMR). Scenarios for 2030 represent different potential trajectories, notably including potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential impact of improvements preferentially targeting neonatal survival. Optimal child survival metrics were developed by age, sex, and cause of death across all GBD location-years. The first metric is a global optimum and is based on the lowest observed mortality, and the second is a survival potential frontier that is based on stochastic frontier analysis of observed mortality and Healthcare Access and Quality Index. Findings Global U5MR decreased from 71.2 deaths per 1000 livebirths (95% uncertainty interval WI] 68.3-74-0) in 2000 to 37.1 (33.2-41.7) in 2019 while global NMR correspondingly declined more slowly from 28.0 deaths per 1000 live births (26.8-29-5) in 2000 to 17.9 (16.3-19-8) in 2019. In 2019,136 (67%) of 204 countries had a USMR at or below the SDG 3.2 threshold and 133 (65%) had an NMR at or below the SDG 3.2 threshold, and the reference scenario suggests that by 2030,154 (75%) of all countries could meet the U5MR targets, and 139 (68%) could meet the NMR targets. Deaths of children younger than 5 years totalled 9.65 million (95% UI 9.05-10.30) in 2000 and 5.05 million (4.27-6.02) in 2019, with the neonatal fraction of these deaths increasing from 39% (3.76 million [95% UI 3.53-4.021) in 2000 to 48% (2.42 million; 2.06-2.86) in 2019. NMR and U5MR were generally higher in males than in females, although there was no statistically significant difference at the global level. Neonatal disorders remained the leading cause of death in children younger than 5 years in 2019, followed by lower respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, congenital birth defects, and malaria. The global optimum analysis suggests NMR could be reduced to as low as 0.80 (95% UI 0.71-0.86) deaths per 1000 livebirths and U5MR to 1.44 (95% UI 1-27-1.58) deaths per 1000 livebirths, and in 2019, there were as many as 1.87 million (95% UI 1-35-2.58; 37% [95% UI 32-43]) of 5.05 million more deaths of children younger than 5 years than the survival potential frontier. Interpretation Global child mortality declined by almost half between 2000 and 2019, but progress remains slower in neonates and 65 (32%) of 204 countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia, are not on track to meet either SDG 3.2 target by 2030. Focused improvements in perinatal and newborn care, continued and expanded delivery of essential interventions such as vaccination and infection prevention, an enhanced focus on equity, continued focus on poverty reduction and education, and investment in strengthening health systems across the development spectrum have the potential to substantially improve USMR. Given the widespread effects of COVID-19, considerable effort will be required to maintain and accelerate progress