Development of a tablet application for the screening of receptive vocabulary skills in multilingual children: A pilot study

For professionals working with multi-lingual children, detecting language deficits in a child’s home language can present a challenge. This is largely due to the scarcity of standardised assessments in many children’s home languages and missing normative data on multilingual language acquisition. A common approach is to translate existing English language vocabulary measures into other languages. However, this approach does not take into account the cultural and linguistic differences between languages. This pilot study explored whether English and home language receptive vocabulary skills can be objectively and reliably screened using a tablet application. Preliminary data on mono- and multilingual vocabulary skills was collected from 139 children aged 6-7 years. A tablet application was designed to assess children’s receptive vocabulary in both English, and an additional eight languages using a four choice picture paradigm. Linguistically controlled and pre-recorded target items are presented orally via the tablet in each language and responses are made via the touchscreen and automatically scored. The English version of the test was administered to 67 mono- and 72 multilingual children, while 38 multilingual children also completed the test in their home language. Test criteria measures, including reliability and concurrent validity showed satisfactory results. These findings suggest that the tablet application could be a useful tool for professionals to screen receptive vocabulary skills in mono- and multilingual children. Limitations of the first version of the RVS and future steps are discussed

Sex-biased incidental mortality of albatrosses and petrels in longline fisheries: differential distributions at sea or differential access to baits mediated by sexual size dimorphism?

Skewed adult sex ratio (ASR) has been proposed as a common pattern in birds, frequently biased towards males and with larger biases in globally threatened species. In albatrosses and petrels, it has been suggested that differential mortality of one gender in fisheries is caused either by sexual size dimorphism giving males a competitive advantage, which allows more access of the larger sex (i.e. males) to discards and/or baits, or to at sea segregation of sexes. Here, we tested these hypotheses by determining ASRs in albatrosses and petrels trapped at sea when attending longline fishing vessels for discards in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean, and searched in the literature for patterns in ASR in albatrosses and petrels killed by fisheries in this area and elsewhere. We show that skewed ASR is common in albatrosses and petrels in the community attending vessels for discards, confirming results found for birds in general. There was no correlation between skewed ASR and conservation status, or between ASR and sexual size dimorphism. Our review of the sex of birds incidentally killed in fisheries found skewed ASR toward males, females or parity to be equally reported. Thus, sexual dimorphism in size does not explain skewed ASR in the community we sampled or in incidental captures in fisheries in the review. Differential at-sea distribution of sexes appears to be a better explanation of the patterns found in the community sampled at sea as well as skewed ASR in seabird fatalities, particularly distant from breeding areas

The genetic relationship between educational attainment and cognitive performance in major psychiatric disorders

Cognitive deficits are a core feature of psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Evidence supports a genome-wide polygenic score (GPS) for educational attainment (GPSEDU) can be used to explain variability in cognitive performance. We aimed to identify different cognitive domains associated with GPSEDU in a transdiagnostic clinical cohort of chronic psychiatric patients with known cognitive deficits. Bipolar and schizophrenia patients from the PsyCourse cohort (N = 730; 43% female) were used. Likewise, we tested whether GPSs for schizophrenia (GPSSZ) and bipolar disorder (GPSBD) were associated with cognitive outcomes. GPSEDU explained 1.5% of variance in the backward verbal digit span, 1.9% in the number of correctly recalled words of the Verbal Learning and Memory Test, and 1.1% in crystallized intelligence. These effects were robust to the influences of treatment and diagnosis. No significant associations between GPSSZ or GPSBD with cognitive outcomes were found. Furthermore, these risk scores did not confound the effect of GPSEDU on cognitive outcomes. GPSEDU explains a small fraction of cognitive performance in adults with psychiatric disorders, specifically for domains related to linguistic learning and working memory. Investigating such a proxy-phenotype longitudinally, could give intriguing insight into the disease course, highlighting at what time genes play a more influential role on cognitive performance. Better understanding the origin of these deficits might help identify those patients at risk for lower levels of functioning and poor social outcomes. Polygenic estimates may in the future be part of predictive models for more personalized interventions.peerReviewe