Language ability and concurrent predictors of pragmatic communication in children with williams syndrome or 7q11.23 duplication syndrome.

The present project examined the language abilities of children with two reciprocal neurogenetic disorders: Williams syndrome (WS), which is caused by a hemideletion of 26 - 28 genes on chromosome 7q11.23, and 7q11.23 duplication syndrome (Dup7), which results from an extra copy of the same 26 - 28 genes. Appraising the language of children with WS and Dup7 helps in understanding the communication difficulties they encounter. There were three research goals. The first was to determine the overall level of language and communication ability as measured by the Children’s Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2; Bishop, 2006) for each syndrome, relative to chronological age expectations. The second was to determine the pattern of relative strengths and weaknesses in language form and content, pragmatic communication, and autism-related behaviors for each syndrome. The final goal was to determine the concurrent predictors of pragmatic communication ability for each syndrome. The sample consisted of 247 children with WS (126 females, 121 males) aged 6.01 – 15.50 years (M = 10.57 years, SD = 2.96) and 56 children (28 females, 28 males) with Dup7 aged 6.08 – 15.29 years (M = 10.33 years, SD = 2.82). Findings indicated that although there was considerable variability in overall language and communication ability, more than 60% of the children in each group met the CCC-2 criterion for language impairment. For most children, performance on the Language Form and Content scales was similar to performance on the Pragmatic Communication scales, a pattern characteristic of children in the general population. Each syndrome demonstrated a pattern of relative strengths and weaknesses on the CCC-2 scales. For the Language Form and Content scales, children with WS evidenced a significant relative weakness on the Coherence scale in comparison to their performance on the Speech, Syntax, and Semantics scales. In contrast, children with Dup7 evidenced a significant relative weakness on the Speech scale. Furthermore, children with Dup7 earned a significantly lower scaled score than children with WS on the Speech scale. For the Pragmatic Communication scales, children with WS demonstrated relative weaknesses on the Initiation and Use of Context scales in comparison to the Scripted Language and Nonverbal Communication scales. Children with Dup7 demonstrated a partially overlapping pattern, with relative weaknesses on the Initiation and Nonverbal Communication scales. On the Autism-related scales, children with WS demonstrated a relative strength on the Social Relations scale compared to the Interests scale. Children with Dup7 demonstrated the opposite pattern. For both syndromes, Pragmatic Communication ability was predicted by concurrent Language Form and Content ability, behavior and emotion regulation ability, and chronological age. For the WS group, sex also was a significant predictor. The effects of gene dosage on language and communication ability and implications of the findings for interventions designed to improve pragmatic communication abilities are discussed

Public health approach to prevent cervical cancer in HIV-infected women in Kenya : issues to consider in the design of prevention programs

Women living with HIV in Africa are at increased risk to be co-infected with Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), persistent high risk (HR) HPV infection and bacterial vaginosis (BV), which compounds HPV persistence, thereby increasing the risk for cervical dysplasia. New guidance from WHO in 2014 advocating for a "screen and treat" approach in resource poor settings is becoming a more widely recommended screening tool for cervical cancer prevention programs in such contexts. This review article summarizes the risk factors to be considered when designing a primary and secondary cervical prevention program in a post-vaccination era for HIV-infected women in Kenya. This review article is based on our prior research on the epidemiology of pHR/HR-HPV genotypes in HIV-infected women and CIN 2+ in Kenya and other sub-Saharan contexts. In order to contextualize the findings, a literature search was carried out in March 2017 by means of four electronic databases: PUBMED, EMBASE, SCOPUS, and PROQUEST. Risk factors for potential (pHR)/HR HPV acquisition, including CD4 count, HAART initiation, Female Sex Worker status (FSW) and BV need to be considered. Furthermore, there may be risk factors for abnormal cytology, including FSW status, multiple potential (p) HR/HR HPV genotypes, which may require that HIV-infected women be subjected to screening at more frequent intervals than the three year recommended by the WHO. The quadruple synergistic interaction between HIV, HPV and BV and its related cervicitis may need to be reflected within a larger prevention framework at the community level. The opportunities brought forth by the roll out of HAART could lead to task shifting of HIV-HPV-BV care to nurses, which may increase access in poorly-served areas

A Brief Survey of the Biblical Integration of Engineering and Missions with Emphasis on Appropriate Technologies

A Biblical foundation for the integration of engineering and missions, an overview of appropriate technology in a Christian context, a survey of projects at other Christian engineering programs, and proposed engineering projects are discussed for remote areas and developing countries. At the core of the Biblical integration of engineering and missions is the desire to use engineering skills and resources to assist others, especially those in the Christian family, improve their lives, help them obtain Biblical information, and encourage personal responsibility. Engineering topics are proposed that will help people gain access to information, improve agricultural methods, improve their health, and grow in the Word. Through engineering efforts, Godly relationships between engineers and others in developing countries can be fostered to help spread the Gospel. The specific categories of topics that are considered are electrical engineering focused and are in the areas of electrical power, instrumentation and data logging, telecommunications, remote sensing, radio, agriculture, medical equipment, and security systems. Emphasis is placed on appropriate technologies that are small-scale, can be fabricated with local inexpensive materials, and can be maintained locally by the people

A Method for Determining Optimum Re-entry Trajectories

Determining optimum atmospheric reentry trajectories using Pontryagin maximum principl

Hybrid Gauss Pseudospectral and Generalized Polynomial Chaos Algorithm to Solve Stochastic Optimal Control Problems

A numerical algorithm combining the Gauss Pseudospectral Method (GPM) with a Generalized Polynomial Chaos (gPC) method to solve nonlinear stochastic optimal control problems with constraint uncertainties is presented. The GPM and gPC have been shown to be spectrally accurate numerical methods for solving deterministic optimal control problems and stochastic differential equations, respectively. The gPC uses collocation nodes to sample the random space, which are then inserted into the differential equations and solved using standard solvers to generate a set of deterministic solutions used to characterize the distribution of the solution by constructing a polynomial representation of the output as a function of uncertain parameters. The proposed algorithm investigates using GPM optimization software in place of deterministic differential equation solvers traditionally used in the gPC, providing minimum cost deterministic solutions that meet path, control, and boundary constraints. A trajectory optimization problem is considered where the objectives are to find the path through a two-dimensional space that minimizes the probability a vehicle will be ’killed’ by lethal threats whose locations are uncertain and to characterize the effects those uncertainties have on the solution by estimating the statistical properties

Induced radioactivity in LDEF components

A systematic study of the induced radioactivity of the Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) is being carried out in order to gather information about the low earth orbit radiation environment and its effects on materials. The large mass of the LDEF spacecraft, its stabilized configuration, and long mission duration have presented an opportunity to determine space radiation-induced radioactivities with a precision not possible before. Data presented include preliminary activities for steel and aluminum structural samples, and activation subexperiment foils. Effects seen in the data show a clear indication of the trapped proton anisotropy in the South Atlantic Anomaly and suggest contributions from different sources of external radiation fluxes