The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Influenza epidemiology and immunization during pregnancy: Final report of a World Health Organization working group

From 2014 to 2017, the World Health Organization convened a working group to evaluate influenza disease burden and vaccine efficacy to inform estimates of maternal influenza immunization program impact. The group evaluated existing systematic reviews and relevant primary studies, and conducted four new systematic reviews. There was strong evidence that maternal influenza immunization prevented influenza illness in pregnant women and their infants, although data on severe illness prevention were lacking. The limited number of studies reporting influenza incidence in pregnant women and infants under six months had highly variable estimates and underrepresented low- and middle-income countries. The evidence that maternal influenza immunization reduces the risk of adverse birth outcomes was conflicting, and many observational studies were subject to substantial bias. The lack of scientific clarity regarding disease burden or magnitude of vaccine efficacy against severe illness poses challenges for robust estimation of the potential impact of maternal influenza immunization programs

Community-based Agency Delivery of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy: Comparing Outcomes for Children with and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder and/or Developmental Delays

While externalizing behaviors are common among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is a shortage of specialist community-based clinicians to provide treatment. Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), an intervention designed to reduce child disruptive behaviors, may be effective for families of children with ASD but has rarely been studied outside of university-based research settings. We examined the effectiveness of PCIT delivered for children with (N = 109) and without (N = 2,324) ASD/developmental delays (DD) across community-based agencies in Oregon. Findings revealed significant reductions in disruptive behavior and positive changes in the parent-child relationship in both groups. These findings support PCIT as an efficacious intervention for children with ASD/DD and demonstrate PCIT’s promise in community-based agencies with non-specialized clinicians

Parent-child interaction therapy for children in foster care and children with posttraumatic stress: Exploring behavioral outcomes and graduation rates in a large state-wide sample

Objective Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an evidence-based treatment to reduce child disruptive behaviors and has been used for children with co-occurring posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS). However, many families are faced with barriers that interfere with treatment completion. Engagement and attrition issues remain a continuous concern for families accessing needed services for youth. Furthermore, these issues are exacerbated for children in foster care. Methods The present study explored differences in behavioral outcomes and graduation rates for children in foster care, (n = 206), non-foster care children with a history of trauma (n = 249), and non-foster care children without a history of trauma (n = 1,522) who participated in PCIT. Data was collected in community mental health agencies across the state of Oregon. Results There was a significant decrease in caregiver reported disruptive behavior scores for all groups following PCIT. There were no significant differences found in graduation rates and average number of sessions attended between the groups; however, the graduation rate for this sample was low (17.8%). Conclusions Results demonstrate that PCIT can be similarly effective in reducing problematic behaviors for children placed in foster care when compared to children not in foster care. Practical Implications: Given the low graduation rate, is imperative that we continue to investigate strategies to enhance treatment engagement and reduce barriers to services

Reconceptualizing attrition in Parent–Child Interaction Therapy: “dropouts” demonstrate impressive improvements

Purpose: Behavior disorders in early childhood are linked to a variety of negative outcomes for both children and families. Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), an evidence-based parent-training program, demonstrates large effect sizes in reducing child problem behavior for dyads who complete treatment; however, a high number of families seeking treatment in community-based settings terminate from PCIT prior to meeting the protocol’s strict graduation criteria. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of PCIT on child behavior problems for families who received at least a small dose of PCIT but not enough to meet the strict mastery criteria required for graduation.Patients and methods: This study employed one of the largest community research samples conducted with PCIT (2,787 children and their families across the state of Oregon, 1,318 with usable data) to determine how PCIT impacts both graduates and early terminators.Results: While families who graduated from PCIT (17.7% of the sample) demonstrated a very large effect size in problem behavior intensity improvements (d=1.65), families who terminated treatment early, but after attending at least four treatment sessions (51.7% of the sample), still showed significant improvements in behavior problems with a medium-to-large effect size (d=0.70). In contrast, very early terminators (those attending fewer than four treatment sessions, 0.3% of the sample), demonstrated little improvement at the time of dropout from services (d=0.12).Conclusion: Though early terminators in PCIT have previously been identified as treatment failures, the present study discusses the reconceptualization of “dropouts” in relation to some positive evidence of treatment outcomes, the implications for community-based service delivery, and possible future directions