A cross-sectional pilot study of the Scottish early development instrument : a tool for addressing inequality

Early childhood is recognised as a key developmental phase with implications for social, academic, health and wellbeing outcomes in later childhood and indeed throughout the adult lifespan. Community level data on inequalities in early child development are therefore required to establish the impact of government early years' policies and programmes on children's strengths and vulnerabilities at local and national level. This would allow local leaders to target tailored interventions according to community needs to improve children's readiness for the transition to school. The challenge is collecting valid data on sufficient samples of children entering school to derive robust inferences about each local birth cohort's developmental status. This information needs to be presented in a way that allows community stakeholders to understand the results, expediting the improvement of preschool programming to improve future cohorts' development in the early years. The aim of the study was to carry out a pilot to test the feasibility and ease of use in Scotland of the 104-item teacher-administered Early Development Instrument, an internationally validated measure of children's global development at school entry developed in Canada. Phase 1 was piloted in an education district with 14 Primary 1 teachers assessing a cohort of 154 children, following which the instrument was adapted for the Scottish context (Scottish Early Development Instrument: SEDI). Phase 2 was then carried out using the SEDI. Data were analysed from a larger sample of 1090 participants, comprising all Primary 1 children within this school district, evaluated by 68 teachers. The SEDI displayed adequate psychometric and discriminatory properties and is appropriate for use across Scotland without any further modifications. Children in the lowest socioeconomic status quintiles were 2-3 times more likely than children in the most affluent quintile to score low in at least one developmental domain. Even in the most affluent quintile though, 17% of children were 'developmentally vulnerable', suggesting that those in need cannot be identified by socioeconomic status alone. The SEDI offers a feasible means of providing communities with a holistic overview of school readiness for targeting early years' interventions

Target labelling for the detection and profiling of microRNAs expressed in CNS tissue using microarrays

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs (miRNA) are a novel class of small, non-coding, gene regulatory RNA molecules that have diverse roles in a variety of eukaryotic biological processes. High-throughput detection and differential expression analysis of these molecules, by microarray technology, may contribute to a greater understanding of the many biological events regulated by these molecules. In this investigation we compared two different methodologies for the preparation of labelled miRNAs from mouse CNS tissue for microarray analysis. Labelled miRNAs were prepared either by a procedure involving linear amplification of miRNAs (labelled-aRNA) or using a direct labelling strategy (labelled-cDNA) and analysed using a custom miRNA microarray platform. Our aim was to develop a rapid, sensitive methodology to profile miRNAs that could be adapted for use on limited amounts of tissue. RESULTS: We demonstrate the detection of an equivalent set of miRNAs from mouse CNS tissues using both amplified and non-amplified labelled miRNAs. Validation of the expression of these miRNAs in the CNS by multiplex real-time PCR confirmed the reliability of our microarray platform. We found that although the amplification step increased the sensitivity of detection of miRNAs, we observed a concomitant decrease in specificity for closely related probes, as well as increased variation introduced by dye bias. CONCLUSION: The data presented in this investigation identifies several important sources of systematic bias that must be considered upon linear amplification of miRNA for microarray analysis in comparison to directly labelled miRNA

Optical Communication Link Assessment Utilizing a Modulated Retro-Reflector on Mars

This work proposes the duplexing of an optical free-space (FS) communication link while minimizing the required power and complexity by using a modulated retro-reflector (MRR) within a system that is shown for a Mars orbiter and rover scenario. The MRR is placed on a planets surface while the laser source is on the orbiter to achieve satellite communications with surface locations. The information, which varies from raw sensor data to multimedia files such as videos and other media, can be sent through this communication path. Due to the use of an MRR, an alternative modulating scheme is required to interpret a distorted signal. The arrangement suggested to prove the capabilities of the link is a nested pulse-position modulation (PPM) structure. A link budget was derived to show the link characteristics of this proposed system

Perceived Neighborhood Safety and Psychological Distress: Exploring Protective Factors

While a growing body of literature has established a relationship between disordered neighborhoods and psychological distress, less is known about the specific mechanisms at work. Using data collected in the 2008 Arizona Health Survey (N = 4,196), hierarchal linear regression was conducted to assess both the independent effect of perception of neighborhood safety on psychological distress, as well as the mediating effects of powerlessness, social isolation and mistrust. The findings suggest that the more safe individuals feel in their neighborhood, the less psychological distress they experience (b = 1.07, SE = .17, p \u3c .001). This relationship appears to be partially mediated by feelings of powerlessness, social isolation and mistrust, indicating potential risk and protective factors

Space Networking Implementation for Lunar Operations

The High-Rate Delay Tolerant Networking (HDTN) project at NASA has developed a performance optimized and open-source Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) implementation. The primary goal is to create a scalable networking solution to increase the scientific data return rate of space missions. To reach this goal, HDTN must span multiple edge cases in space networking by including tools and configurations to accommodate a wide range of space systems. Typically, HDTN evaluations are conducted on a laboratory emulation test bed, made up of hardware accelerated x86 based systems capable of data rates over 10 Gbps. HDTN must have an effective implementation process on a wide range of systems to increase the sustainability of the design. One important implementation option is with low-level embedded systems which could be used on small robotic missions. This paper details the implementation process, benchmark testing, and performance results of HDTN in multiple configurations on Raspberry Pi 4 devices. By implementing HDTN on a Raspberry Pi 4, a process for building HDTN onto ARM processors was developed and utilized to conduct benchmark tests in multiple network configurations, achieving a data rate performance exceeding 600 Mbps. Based on these results, HDTN proved to run on small ARM based systems with slight modifications to the build procedure. These results were then extended to evaluating an implementation of the HDTN software parsed across several Raspberry Pi 4 nodes. To test this capability, HDTN was configured in a simplified cut-through setup and distributed among multiple Raspberry Pi 4 processors. This distributed architecture was benchmark tested in a similar fashion to the testing of a singular HDTN implementation. The results from the benchmark testing are used to examine how these implementation options and capabilities can expand the use cases for DTN, and particularly with small robotic missions

Estimating reproductive costs in marine mammal bioenergetic models : a review of current knowledge and data availability

This review was funded by the Office of Naval Research (N000142012392), with support from the Marine Mammal Commission (MMC 19-173).Reproductive costs represent a significant proportion of a mammalian female's energy budget. Estimates of reproductive costs are needed for understanding how alterations to energy budgets, such as those from environmental variation or human activities, impact maternal body condition, vital rates and population dynamics. Such questions are increasingly important for marine mammals, as many populations are faced with rapidly changing and increasingly disturbed environments. Here we review the different energetic costs that marine mammals incur during gestation and lactation and how those costs are typically estimated in bioenergetic models. We compiled data availability on key model parameters for each species across all six marine mammal taxonomic groups (mysticetes, odontocetes, pinnipeds, sirenians, mustelids and ursids). Pinnipeds were the best-represented group regarding data availability, including estimates of milk intake, milk composition, lactation duration, birth mass, body composition at birth and growth. There were still considerable data gaps, particularly for polar species, and good data were only available across all parameters in 45\poor, with some species having little or no data for any parameters, particularly beaked whales. Even for species with moderate data coverage, many parameter estimates were tentative or based on indirect approaches, necessitating reevaluation of these estimates. We discuss mechanisms and factors that affect maternal energy investment or prey requirements during reproduction, such as prey supplementation by offspring, metabolic compensation, environmental conditions and maternal characteristics. Filling the existing data gaps highlighted in this review, particularly for parameters that are influential on bioenergetic model outputs, will help refine reproductive costs estimated from bioenergetic models and better address how and when energy imbalances are likely to affect marine mammal populations.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Application of “omics” to Prion Biomarker Discovery

The advent of genomics and proteomics has been a catalyst for the discovery of biomarkers able to discriminate biological processes such as the pathogenesis of complex diseases. Prompt detection of prion diseases is particularly desirable given their transmissibility, which is responsible for a number of human health risks stemming from exogenous sources of prion protein. Diagnosis relies on the ability to detect the biomarker PrPSc, a pathological isoform of the host protein PrPC, which is an essential component of the infectious prion. Immunochemical detection of PrPSc is specific and sensitive enough for antemortem testing of brain tissue, however, this is not the case in accessible biological fluids or for the detection of recently identified novel prions with unique biochemical properties. A complementary approach to the detection of PrPSc itself is to identify alternative, “surrogate” gene or protein biomarkers indicative of disease. Biomarkers are also useful to track the progress of disease, especially important in the assessment of therapies, or to identify individuals “at risk”. In this review we provide perspective on current progress and pitfalls in the use of “omics” technologies to screen body fluids and tissues for biomarker discovery in prion diseases

Codesign for People with Aphasia Through Tangible Design Languages

Codesign techniques encourage designers and end-users to work together in the creation of design solutions, but often make assumptions about the ways in which participants will be able to communicate. This can lead to the unwitting exclusion of people with communication impairments from the design of technologies that have the potential to transform their lives. This paper reports our research into codesign techniques for people whose communication skills are impaired. A variety of techniques were explored on two projects; some were adaptations of existing codesign techniques, others were created specially. In both cases, the emphasis was on creating tangible design languages. The results illustrate how people with communication impairments can be given a voice in design and demonstrate the benefits of doing so