Voices from practice:When is the gap between diagnosis and intervention apparent?

Aim: In this manuscript an overview is provided of the current state of psycho-educational practice in the Netherlands, in particular the role of test outcomes considered. In order to detect clues for bridging the gap between diagnosis and intervention, one should investigate the ecology in which this gap is apparent. Method: Two in vivo studies have been carried out. In a first study, a questionnaire has been administered to a total of 36 school psychologists, 21 special care coordinators, and 44 teachers. Results: A qualitative analysis of the answers, by means of a classification scheme (κ.82), revealed questions about the specific role of intelligence tests and its consequences to educational practices. Therefore, a case study has been carried out in a second study. The case study provided in-depth information about the targeted care process around a grade 1 student. Conclusion: Results indicated a gap between diagnosis and intervention that followed after the administration of the intelligence test. Suggestions are proposed for improvement, and the need for interventions at the level of educational professionals is highlighted

Voices from practice:When is the gap between diagnosis and intervention apparent?

Aim: In this manuscript an overview is provided of the current state of psycho-educational practice in the Netherlands, in particular the role of test outcomes considered. In order to detect clues for bridging the gap between diagnosis and intervention, one should investigate the ecology in which this gap is apparent. Method: Two in vivo studies have been carried out. In a first study, a questionnaire has been administered to a total of 36 school psychologists, 21 special care coordinators, and 44 teachers. Results: A qualitative analysis of the answers, by means of a classification scheme (κ.82), revealed questions about the specific role of intelligence tests and its consequences to educational practices. Therefore, a case study has been carried out in a second study. The case study provided in-depth information about the targeted care process around a grade 1 student. Conclusion: Results indicated a gap between diagnosis and intervention that followed after the administration of the intelligence test. Suggestions are proposed for improvement, and the need for interventions at the level of educational professionals is highlighted

A novel bead-based assay to detect specific antibody responses against Toxoplasma gondii and Trichinella spiralis simultaneously in sera of experimentally infected swine

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A novel, bead-based flow cytometric assay was developed for simultaneous determination of antibody responses against <it>Toxoplasma gondii </it>and <it>Trichinella spiralis </it>in pig serum. This high throughput screening assay could be an alternative for well known indirect tests like ELISA. One of the advantages of a bead-based assay over ELISA is the possibility to determine multiple specific antibody responses per single sample run facilitated by a series of antigens coupled to identifiable bead-levels. Furthermore, inclusion of a non-coupled bead-level in the same run facilitates the determination of, and correction for non-specific binding. The performance of this bead-based assay was compared to one <it>T. spiralis </it>and three <it>T. gondii </it>ELISAs. For this purpose, sera from <it>T. gondii </it>and <it>T. spiralis </it>experimentally infected pigs were used. With the experimental infection status as gold standard, the area under the curve, Youden Index, sensitivity and specificity were determined through receiver operator curve analysis. Marginal homogeneity and inter-rater agreement between bead-based assay and ELISAs were evaluated using McNemar's Test and Cohen's kappa, respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results indicated that the areas under the curve of the bead-based assay were 0.911 and 0.885 for <it>T. gondii </it>and <it>T. spiralis</it>, respectively, while that of the <it>T. gondii </it>ELISAs ranged between 0.837 and 0.930 and the <it>T. spiralis </it>ELISA was 0.879. Bead-based <it>T. gondii </it>assay had a sensitivity of 86% and specificity of 96%, while the ELISAs ranged between 64-84% and 93-99%, respectively. The bead-based <it>T. spiralis </it>assay had a sensitivity of 68% and specificity of 100% while the ELISA scored 72% and 95%, respectively. Marginal homogeneity was found between the <it>T. gondii </it>bead-based test and one of the <it>T. gondii </it>ELISAs. Moreover, in this test combination and between <it>T. spiralis </it>bead-based assay and respective ELISA, an excellent inter-rater agreement was found. When results of samples before expected seroconversion were removed from evaluation, notably higher test specifications were found.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This new bead-based test, which detects <it>T. gondii </it>and <it>T. spiralis </it>antibodies simultaneously within each sample, can replace two indirect tests for the determination of respective antibodies separately, while performing equally well or better.</p

Neurocognitive Profiles in Children With ADHD and Their Predictive Value for Functional Outcomes

OBJECTIVE: We examined whether neurocognitive profiles could be distinguished in children with ADHD and typically developing (TD) children, and whether neurocognitive profiles predicted externalizing, social, and academic problems in children with ADHD. METHOD: Neurocognitive data of 81 children with ADHD and 71 TD children were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis. The resulting factors were used for community detection in the ADHD and TD group. RESULTS: Four subgroups were detected in the ADHD group, characterized by (a) poor emotion recognition, (b) poor interference control, (c) slow processing speed, or (d) increased attentional lapses and fast processing speed. In the TD group, three subgroups were detected, closely resembling Subgroups (a) to (c). Neurocognitive subgroups in the ADHD sample did not differ in externalizing, social, and academic problems. CONCLUSION: We found a neurocognitive profile unique to ADHD. The clinical validity of neurocognitive profiling is questioned, given the lack of associations with functional outcomes

Determination of ceftiofur derivatives in serum, endometrial tissue, and lochia in puerperal dairy cows after subcutaneous administration of ceftiofur crystalline free acid

Puerperal uterine infections are often associated with decreased reproductive performance in dairy cows. Routine treatment protocols include the systemic administration of antibiotics. Antibiotic drugs, however, should be administered daily over at least 5 d. The objective of this study was to determine concentrations of ceftiofur derivatives in serum, endometrial tissue, and lochia after subcutaneous administration of ceftiofur crystalline free acid in 6 clinically healthy puerperal dairy cows with normal parturition. Samples were taken immediately before treatment, 2 h after, and then every 24 h over a 7-d period. Concentrations of ceftiofur derivatives were quantified using an HPLC assay. In serum and endometrial tissue, ceftiofur derivatives could be detected above the reported minimum drug concentrations required to inhibit relevant pathogens such as Escherichia coli and Arcanobacterium pyogenes over a 7-d period. Concentrations of desfuroylceftiofuracetamide at 5 d after administration of ceftiofur crystalline free acid were 1.21±0.61 μg/mL in serum, 0.86±0.61 μg/mg in endometrial tissue, and 0.96±1.15 μg/mL in lochia. In lochia, mean concentrations of ceftiofur derivatives also remained above the minimal inhibitory concentration of relevant pathogens, but showed greater variations between cows

The BeHealthyR Study: A randomized trial of a multicomponent intervention to reduce stress, smoking and improve financial health of low-income residents in Rotterdam

Background: Compared to higher socioeconomic status (SES) groups, those in lower SES groups are financially strained, experience higher rates of smoking-related morbidity, are in poorer health and have reduced life expectancy. This is especially true for the city of Rotterdam, where a large inequality in health is observed between low and high SES groups. The BeHealthyR study (Dutch: Grip en Gezondheid) is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) which will evaluate the impact of a theory-based multicomponent behavior intervention aiming to reduce stress, smoking, and improve financial health by means of a group-based stress management program combining cognitive and behavioral techniques, and nudges in low-SES residents living in Rotterdam. Methods: The BeHealthyR study is a three-arm RCT. Between February 2018 and July 2019, low-SES participants who perceive stress, smoke, are financially strained and reside in Rotterdam (one of the four largest cities in The Netherlands) are recruited. Subsequently, participants are randomly assigned to either a stress management condition (SM), stress management with a buddy condition (SM-B) or a control condition (CC). Participants in the SM and SM-B conditions will attend four weekly group sessions (1.5 h/session) and a follow-up session eight weeks later. The SM condition includes psychoeducation and exercises, and cognitive and behavioral intervention techniques. Demographic data and objective measures will be collected at baseline (T0), four weeks post-baseline (T1), and twelve weeks post-baseline (T2). Primary outcome measures are to reduce stress, smoking and improve financial health. We hypothesize that low-SES participants in the intervention conditions, compared with those in the control condition, will experience less stress, smoke less and have improved financial health. Discussion: This study is a group-based intervention which aims to investigate the effects of a theory-based behavioral change intervention employing several components on reducing stress, smoking, and improving financial health in low-SES residents living in Rotterdam. If effective, the findings from the present study will serve to inform future directions of research and clinical practice with regard to behavioral change interventions for low-SES groups. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov (ID: NCT03553979). Registered on January 1 2018

Therapeutic and educational objectives in robot assisted play for children with autism

“This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder." “Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.” DOI: 10.1109/ROMAN.2009.5326251This article is a methodological paper that describes the therapeutic and educational objectives that were identified during the design process of a robot aimed at robot assisted play. The work described in this paper is part of the IROMEC project (Interactive Robotic Social Mediators as Companions) that recognizes the important role of play in child development and targets children who are prevented from or inhibited in playing. The project investigates the role of an interactive, autonomous robotic toy in therapy and education for children with special needs. This paper specifically addresses the therapeutic and educational objectives related to children with autism. In recent years, robots have already been used to teach basic social interaction skills to children with autism. The added value of the IROMEC robot is that play scenarios have been developed taking children's specific strengths and needs into consideration and covering a wide range of objectives in children's development areas (sensory, communicational and interaction, motor, cognitive and social and emotional). The paper describes children's developmental areas and illustrates how different experiences and interactions with the IROMEC robot are designed to target objectives in these areas.Final Published versio