The effects of perceived stigma and psychological over-control on the behavioural problems of children with epilepsy

This pilot study finds that parents who think that their child will be stigmatized and who perceive that epilepsy limits their child, report higher levels of four child behavioural problems than reported by other parents of children with epilepsy. Those children with epilepsy who report that their parents use an over-controlling psychological approach to parenting report higher levels of four behavioural problems than those children with epilepsy who do not report over-controlling behaviour from their parents.The effects of simple partial seizures and of seizure severity on children's behavioural problems are completely mediated by perceived stigma, perceived limitations, and perceived parenting. Seizure frequency, absence seizures, and treatment with ethosuximide have direct effects on three children's behavioural problems; the effects of these medical variables are generally unaffected by control for parent's and children's perceptions

Hypersensitivity to Perturbations in the Quantum Baker's Map

We analyze a randomly perturbed quantum version of the baker's transformation, a prototype of an area-conserving chaotic map. By numerically simulating the perturbed evolution, we estimate the information needed to follow a perturbed Hilbert-space vector in time. We find that the Landauer erasure cost associated with this information grows very rapidly and becomes much larger than the maximum statistical entropy given by the logarithm of the dimension of Hilbert space. The quantum baker's map thus displays a hypersensitivity to perturbations that is analogous to behavior found earlier in the classical case. This hypersensitivity characterizes ``quantum chaos'' in a way that is directly relevant to statistical physics.Comment: 8 pages, LATEX, 3 Postscript figures appended as uuencoded fil

Seasonal changes in anthropometric and physical characteristics within English academy rugby league players.

Professional rugby league clubs implement training programmes for the development of anthropometric and physical characteristics within an academy programme. However, research that examines seasonal changes in these characteristics is limited. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the seasonal changes in anthropometric and physical characteristics of academy rugby league players by age category (i.e., under 14, 16, 18, 20). Data were collected on 75 players pre- and postseason over a 6-year period (resulting in a total of 195 assessments). Anthropometric (body mass, sum of 4 skinfolds) and physical (10- and 20-m sprint, vertical jump, Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test and 1 repetition maximum squat, bench press, and prone row) measures were collected. The under 14s and 16s showed greater seasonal improvements in body mass (e.g., under 14s = 7.4 ± 4.3% vs. under 20s = 1.2 ± 3.3%) and vertical jump performance than under 18s and under 20s. In contrast, under 18s and under 20s players showed greater seasonal improvements in Yo-Yo performance and 10-m sprint (e.g., under 14s = 1.3 ± 3.9% vs. under 20s = -1.9 ± 1.2%) in comparison to under 14s and under 16s. Seasonal strength improvements were greater for the under 18s compared with under 20s. This study provides comparative data for seasonal changes in anthropometric and physical characteristics within rugby league players aged 13-20 years. Coaches should be aware that seasonal improvements in speed may not exist within younger age categories, until changes in body mass stabilize and consider monitoring changes in other characteristics (e.g., momentum). Large interplayer variability suggests that player development should be considered on an individual and longitudinal basis

Antibiotic resistant Shigella is a major cause of diarrhoea in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea

Introduction: Diarrhoea remains a major cause of illness in Papua New Guinea (PNG); however, little is known about its aetiology. As a result of the cholera outbreak that spread throughout PNG in 2009-2011, we conducted diarrhoeal surveillance in Eastern Highlands Province. Methodology: Following informed consent and a brief questionnaire, participants provided a stool sample or duplicate rectal swabs. Samples were tested for common bacterial pathogens Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Vibrio spp., Campylobacter spp. and Yersinia enterocolitica using established culture methods. Enteric parasites were detected using microscopy. Results: A total of 216 participants were enrolled; where age was recorded, 42% were under 5 years of age, 6.7% were 5 to 17 years of age and 51.3% ≥18 years of age. One or more pathogens were detected in 68 (31.5%) participants, with Shigella (primarily S. flexneri) being the most commonly isolated (47 of 216 participants). Enteric parasites were detected in 23 of the 216 participants, occurring as a co-infection with another pathogen in 12 of 23 cases. No Vibrio cholerae was detected. Shigella isolates were commonly resistant to ampicillin, tetracycline, co-trimoxazole and chloramphenicol. Conclusions: Shigellae, specifically S. flexneri, are important pathogens in the highlands of PNG. While most studies in low-income settings focus on childhood aetiology, we have demonstrated the importance of Shigella in both children and adults. Enteric parasites remain present and presumably contribute to the burden of gastrointestinal illness. While improvements in sanitation and hygiene would help lower the burden of all aetiologies of infectious diarrhoea, additional control strategies targeting Shigella may also be warranted

Statewide cross-sectional survey of emergency departments\u27 adoption and implementation of the Ohio opioid prescribing guidelines and opioid prescribing practices

Study objective To evaluate the implementation of the Ohio Emergency and Acute Care Facility Opioids and Other Controlled Substances Prescribing Guidelines and their perceived impact on local policies and practice. Methods The study design was a cross-sectional survey of emergency department (ED) medical directors, or appropriate person identified by the hospital, perception of the impact of the Ohio ED Opioid Prescribing Guidelines on their departments practice. All hospitals with an ED in Ohio were contacted throughout October and November 2016. Distribution followed Dillman’s Tailored Design Method, augmented with telephone recruitment. Hospital chief executive officers were contacted when necessary to encourage ED participation. Descriptive statistics were used to assess the impact of opioid prescribing policies on prescribing practices. Results A 92% response rate was obtained (150/163 EDs). In total, 112 (75%) of the respondents stated that their ED has an opioid prescribing policy, is adopting one or is implementing prescribing guidelines without a specific policy. Of these 112 EDs, 81 (72%) based their policy on the Ohio ED Opioid Prescribing Guidelines. The majority of respondents strongly agreed/agreed that the prescribing guidelines have increased the use of the prescription drug monitoring programme (86%) and have reduced inappropriate opioid prescribing (71%). Conclusion This study showed that the Ohio ED Opioid Prescribing Guidelines have been widely disseminated and that the majority of EDs in Ohio are using them to develop local policies. The majority of respondents believed that the Ohio opioid prescribing guidelines reduced inappropriate opioid prescribing. However, prescribing practices still varied greatly between EDs

Agricultural trade publications and the 2012 Midwestern U.S. drought: a missed opportunity for climate risk communication

The Midwestern United States experienced a devastating drought in 2012, leading to reduced corn and soybean yields and increased instances of pests and disease. Climate change induced weather variability and extremes are expected to increase in the future, and have and will continue to impact the agricultural sector. This study investigated how agricultural trade publications portrayed the 2012 U.S. Midwestern drought, whether climate change was associated with drought, and whether these publications laid out transformative adaptation measures farmers could undertake in order to increase their adaptive capacity for future climate uncertainty. We performed a content analysis of 1000 media reports between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2014, sampled from ten agricultural trade publications. The results lead us to suggest that trade publications’ 2012 U.S. Midwestern drought discussion lacked information that would allow farmers and agricultural advisors to assess climate change risk and subsequent potential adaptive management strategies. Agricultural risk from climate change is very real, and farmers will need to adapt. The agricultural trade publications studied missed an opportunity to convey risk from climate change and the transformative adaptation practices necessary for a sustainable and resilient agricultural system

Chaos for Liouville probability densities

Using the method of symbolic dynamics, we show that a large class of classical chaotic maps exhibit exponential hypersensitivity to perturbation, i.e., a rapid increase with time of the information needed to describe the perturbed time evolution of the Liouville density, the information attaining values that are exponentially larger than the entropy increase that results from averaging over the perturbation. The exponential rate of growth of the ratio of information to entropy is given by the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy of the map. These findings generalize and extend results obtained for the baker's map [R. Schack and C. M. Caves, Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 3413 (1992)].Comment: 26 pages in REVTEX, no figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Construct validation of the Amblyopia and Strabismus Questionnaire (A&SQ) by factor analysis

Background: The Amblyopia and Strabismus Questionnaire (A&SQ) was previously developed to assess quality of life (QoL) in amblyopia and/or strabismus patients. Here, factor analysis with Varimax rotation was employed to confirm that the questions of the A&SQ correlated to dimensions of quality of life (QoL) in such patients. Methods: Responses on the A&SQ from three groups were analyzed: healthy adults (controls) (n = 53), amblyopia and/or strabismus patients (n = 72), and a historic cohort of amblyopes born between 1962-1972 and occluded between 1968-1974 (n = 173). The correlations among the responses to the 26 A&SQ items were factor-analysed by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). As the development of the A&SQ was intuitive-deductive, it was expected that the pattern of correlation could be explained by the five a priori hypothesized dimensions: fear of losing the better eye, distance estimation, visual disorientation, diplopia, and social contact and cosmetic problems. Distribution of questions along the factors derived by PCA was examined by orthogonal Varimax rotation. Results: Data from 296 respondents were analyzed. PCA provided that six factors (cutoff point eigenvalue >1.0) accumulatively explained 70.5% of the variance. All A&SQ dimensions but one matched with four factors found by Varimax rotation (factor loadings >0.50), while two factors pertained to the fifth dimension. The six factors explained 33.7% (social contact and cosmetic problems); 10.3% (near distance estimation); 8.7% (diplopia); 7.2% (visual disorientation); 6.3% (fear of losing the better eye); and 4.3% (far distance estimation), together 70.48% of the item variance. Conclusion: The highly explained variance in the A&SQ scores by the factors found by the PCA confirmed the a priori hypothesized dimensions of this QoL instrument