The Assessment of Behavioural Decline in Adults with Down's Syndrome

The present study examines two methods of using the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales as a measure of behavioural change in people with Down syndrome who are at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The first method uses the Vineland scales as the basis of a semi-structured interview and notes all areas of behavioural change identified by staff; the second method scores the Vineland scales using the basal rule outlined in the manual. The comparison of these two methods illustrated that using the second method highlighted a significant decline in scores for the group meeting the criteria for ‘probable Alzheimer’s disease’ on a number of domains between baseline and 12–24 months. However, this scoring method also appeared to miss more subtle changes in behaviour, which may be important early indicators of Alzheimer’s disease, which were picked up by the first method. The implications of the study are discussed

Rheology of confined non-Brownian suspensions

We study the rheology of confined suspensions of neutrally buoyant rigid monodisperse spheres in plane-Couette flow using Direct Numerical Simulations. We find that if the width of the channel is a (small) integer multiple of the sphere's diameter, the spheres self-organize into two-dimensional layers that slide on each other and the suspension's effective viscosity is significantly reduced. Each two-dimensional layer is found to be structurally liquid-like but their dynamics is frozen in time.Comment: Submitted to PRL. Supplemental Material added as an appendix. Includes links to youtube video

An Examination of the Severe Impairment Battery as a Measure of Cognitive Decline in Clients with Down's Syndrome

The present study examined the validity of the Severe Impairment Battery (SIB) as a tool for measuring cognitive decline in clients with Down syndrome. Two groups participated: 10 clients who showed behavioural decline over at least a 2 year period as measured by the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales, and 14 clients who showed no decline on this measure over the same period. No differences were found between the two groups in relation to health or life factors which may have impacted on functional and cognitive decline. The deteriorating group were found to be significantly older than the non-deteriorating group. The comparison of the SIB scores indicated that the deteriorating group showed a significant decline between baseline and 12 months and baseline and 24 months on the orientation factor. By contrast, for the non-deteriorating group, significant increases were found for praxis, orientating to name and total scores

Starting to smoke: a qualitative study of the experiences of Australian indigenous youth

BackgroundAdult smoking has its roots in adolescence. If individuals do not initiate smoking during this period it is unlikely they ever will. In high income countries, smoking rates among Indigenous youth are disproportionately high. However, despite a wealth of literature in other populations, there is less evidence on the determinants of smoking initiation among Indigenous youth. The aim of this study was to explore the determinants of smoking among Australian Indigenous young people with a particular emphasis on the social and cultural processes that underlie tobacco use patterns among this group. MethodsThis project was undertaken in northern Australia. We undertook group interviews with 65 participants and individual in-depth interviews with 11 youth aged 13–20 years led by trained youth ‘peer researchers.’ We also used visual methods (photo-elicitation) with individual interviewees to investigate the social context in which young people do or do not smoke. Included in the sample were a smaller number of non-Indigenous youth to explore any significant differences between ethnic groups in determinants of early smoking experiences. The theory of triadic influence, an ecological model of health behaviour, was used as an organising theory for analysis. ResultsFamily and peer influences play a central role in smoking uptake among Indigenous youth. Social influences to smoke are similar between Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth but are more pervasive (especially in the family domain) among Indigenous youth. While Indigenous youth report high levels of exposure to smoking role models and smoking socialisation practices among their family and social networks, this study provides some indication of a progressive denormalisation of smoking among some Indigenous youth. ConclusionsFuture initiatives aimed at preventing smoking uptake in this population need to focus on changing social normative beliefs around smoking, both at a population level and within young peoples’ immediate social environment. Such interventions could be effectively delivered in both the school and family environments. Specifically, health practitioners in contact with Indigenous families should be promoting smoke free homes and other anti-smoking socialisation behaviours

Blood, fat and tears: an exploration of the relationship between menarche, body attitutde and mood in adolescent girls

As a decisive event in adolescent girls' pubertal development it is suggested that menarche may play an influential role in shaping attitudes toward the body and the self. As body image has been strongly linked to self-esteem in adolescence it is argued that these processes may have an effect on mood and relate to changing patterns of psychological difficulties encountered by females throughout adolescence. The main aims of this study were, firstly to identify if menarche is a pivotal event in terms of a change in attitudes towards the body, secondly to explore the possibility that taking on conflicting societal messages regarding the menstruating woman may be related to low mood and unhelpful attitudes towards the body, thirdly, to identify if increased experience of menstruation is associated with greater comfort with menstruation as a natural and acceptable part of the self and finally to identify relationships between positive and negative attitudes toward menstruation and body image, mood and participation in sexual activity. The attitudes of 354 adolescent girls from a high school population were collected using a self report questionnaire which incorporated measures of menstrual attitudes, body attitudes, mood and information regarding menstrual and menarcheal status. Results did not find a specific change in attitudes towards the body with menarche, but a possibly more complex picture of relationships between variables. Conflicting attitudes were not found to be associated with low mood or unhelpful attitudes towards the body. Increased experience of menstruation was associated with increased perception of menstruation as a socially acceptable event. Positive perceptions of social attitudes towards menstruation and feelings of attractiveness were found to be related to fewer concerns regarding weight and shape of the body, better mood, a tendency to see menstruation as less debilitating and a reduced likelihood to participate in sexual activity

Autofictional Documentary, Situated Knowledges, and Collective Memory: On Dear Chaemin (2020)

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected communities already marginalized in pre-coronavirus societies, aggravated by socio-political technologies of racialization, sexism, homo- and transphobia. Dear Chaemin (directed by Bae, 2020) is an autofictional documentary series of three video letters sent from The Hague to the director's sister in Seoul amid isolation. The film juxtaposes the Korean and Dutch contexts of state surveillance, entangled with the b/ordering technologies against queer communities in Seoul and Asian communities in Europe. This paper explores autofictional documentary as an audiovisual method to engage with contemporary dynamics of international politics. First, I summarize the arguments made in the three chapters of the film Dear Chaemin. Second, I propose autofictional documentary as an effective cinematic mode that accounts for situated knowledges and critiques collective memories. Finally, I explore how the autofictional mode is further contextualized through the use of unconventional, non-lens-based audiovisual material

Main Issues for Setting the Civil Service Reform Agenda in Pakistan

Civil service reform is not new to the development debate in Pakistan. The role of bureaucracy is discussed every now and then. Civil service reform is nowadays quite uniformly discussed as a major problem for development in Pakistan, or at least so it is considered. Most of the blame for policy and programme failures is assigned to the civil service. Recognising the importance, or persistence of the problem, governments over time have attempted to deal with the issue by setting up committees and commissions, many times in this paper I am presenting a discussion of some pre-eminent issues besetting the civil service in Pakistan in my view unless these issues are addressed at the outset no meaningful reform can be formulated or implemented. Addressing them is paramount for setting an agenda for the reform. Civil service reform due to the complex nature of the problem works at various levels simultaneously. As long as this does not over simplify and aggregate problems it can work well. But for good results disaggregating problems will be required. What is required to be done in one branch might not be needed in the other. Legal instruments with a general and most wide ranging application should deal with basic principles of organisation while providing for differential rules to emerge and give detailed structures. A set of actions to deal with the basic structures will be part of any reform but sometimes what remains ignored is that actions are also needed in other spheres of Pakistan’s public life without which the reform in civil service itself will not attain the cherished goals. The paper takes up discussion of issues from these levels of consideration. It begins with the aggregation framework and goes on to highlight the most urgently felt area of local civil service. It ends by highlighting the complementary actions

Bruno Butter

Bruno Butte