Developmental screening in South Africa : comparing the national developmental checklist to a standardized tool

Background: Worldwide, more than 200 million children in low- and middle-income countries have developmental delays and/or disabilities. In South Africa the only nationally implemented developmental 'screening' tool is integrated as part of 'The Road to Health Booklet (RTHB). Method: The study employed a comparative cross-sectional within-subject design to evaluate the accuracy of the RTHB developmental checklist against a standardized international tool i.e. the PEDS tools, consisting of the PEDS and PEDS: DM. A total of 201 participants were included through convenience sampling at primary health care facilities in Tshwane, South Africa. Results: Sensitivity of the RTHB developmental checklist is low, but specificity is high. The RTHB developmental checklist failed to identify more than half the infants at risk of delays or disorders. The nationally implemented developmental checklist is ineffective to identify at-risk infants. It should be adapted and validated or replaced in order to improve identification of at-risk infants

Early detection of communication delays with the PEDS tools in at-risk South African infants

Background: Prevalence of communication delays or disorders is increasing, possibly because of various environmental risk factors. Selection and implementation of effective screening tools are important to detect at-risk infants as early as possible. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of the Parents' Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS), PEDS-Developmental Milestones and PEDS tools to detect communication delays in infants (6-12 months) in a South African primary healthcare context. Method: A comparative study design evaluated the accuracy of the PEDS tools to detect communication delays, using an internationally accepted diagnostic assessment tool, the Rossetti Infant-Toddler Language Scale (RITLS). A convenience sample of 201 infants was selected at primary healthcare clinics. Results: Expressive and receptive language sensitivity scores were low across all three screens (ranging between 14% and 44%). The PEDS tools had high sensitivity (71%) and specificity (73%) ratings for the receptive and expressive language and socio-emotional domain in combination. Conclusion: In the sample population, the PEDS tools did not accurately detect receptive and expressive language delays; however, communication delays in general were identified. Future research determining accuracy of the PEDS, PEDS-Developmental Milestones and PEDS tools for children aged 2-5 years in detecting communication delays should be prioritised

A Causal Comparative Study of the Effects of Physical Activity Course Enrollment on College Students’ Perceived Wellness, Mental Health, and Basic Psychological Needs

On college campuses, there has been an increase in mental health needs among students. In 2019, 56% of students attended counseling for mental health concerns compared to 46% of students who attended in 2010 (The Center for Collegiate Mental Health, 2019). Colleges have begun focusing on student wellness to assist their students with the capability to thrive during their college years and beyond (LaFountaine et al., 2006). Basic psychological needs must be met to achieve psychological growth and wellbeing (Ryan & Deci, 2000b; Zhang et al., 2012). Taliaferro et al. (2009) found evidence of an association between physical activity and reduced risk of hopelessness, depression, and suicidal behavior among college students. The purpose of this study was to assess whether college students currently enrolled in physical activity (PA) courses show better wellness and psychological distress, and basic psychological needs than students who have not taken the courses. This study uses a casual comparative survey design with a convenience sample of recruited undergraduate students (N=172). Half of the participants were enrolled in elective PA courses offered through the university’s PA program. All participants will take the EUROHIS-QOL 8-item (EUROHIS-QOL; Schmidt et al., 2006), the Kessler Psychological Scale -10 (K10; Kessler et al., 2002), and Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale – In General (BPNSFS; Chen et al., 2015) to assess wellness, psychological distress, and basic psychological needs. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis. The findings from this study will provide college health services professionals (e.g., counseling and wellness centers’ staff and faculty) with relevant information on the potential merits of PA programming as an intervention strategy for supporting students’ mental health and wellbeing

Early identification of children with developmental delay and behavioural problems according to parents concerns in the Republic of Serbia

The main goal of this research was to describe the type and level of parents' concerns about child development and behaviour according to the PEDS test (Parents' Evaluation of Developmental Status). The sample included 289 parents of children from three to seven years of age, from two preschool institutions in Serbia. A significantly high correlation was determined between parents' general concerns and expressed concerns with regard to behaviour ((2)=17.86, df=2, p lt .001) and getting along with others ((2)=22.57, df=2, p lt .000). A marginally significant correlation was determined between parents' general concerns and manifested concerns with regard to fine motor skills ((2)=5.90, df=2, p=.052), as well as expressive language ((2)=5.858, df=2, p=.053). According to the criteria of PEDS test, this research identified 56.4% of children whose development needed to be monitored, 27.7% of children who needed to be referred for detailed diagnostic procedures, and 1.7% who needed to be included in treatment or special education support.This is the peer‐reviewed version of the article: Ilić, S. B.; Nikolić, S. J.; Ilić-Stošović, D. D.; Golubović, Š. S. Early Identification of Children with Developmental Delay and Behavioural Problems According to Parents Concerns in the Republic of Serbia. Early Child Development and Care 2020, 190 (16), 2605–2611. [https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2019.1595610

Effectiveness of the ADEC as a level 2 screening test for young children with suspected autism spectrum disorders in a clinical setting

Background The Autism Detection in Early Childhood (ADEC) is a clinician-administered, Level 2 screening tool. A retrospective file audit was used to investigate its clinical effectiveness. Method Toddlers referred to an Australian child development service between 2008 and 2010 (N?=?53, M age?=?32.2 months) were screened with the ADEC. Their medical records were reviewed in 2013 when their mean age was 74.5 months, and the original ADEC screening results were compared with later diagnostic outcomes. Results The ADEC had good sensitivity (87.5%) and moderate specificity (62%). Three behaviours predicted autism spectrum disorders (ASDs): response to name, gaze switching, and gaze monitoring (p???.001). Conclusions The ADEC shows promise as a screening tool that can discriminate between young children with ASDs and those who have specific communication disorders or developmental delays that persist into middle childhood but who do not meet the criteria for ASDs

GISS Analysis of Surface Temperature Changes

We describe the current GISS analysis of surface temperature change based primarily on meteorological station measurements. The global surface temperature in 1998 was the warmest in the period of instrumental data. The rate of temperature change is higher in the past 25 years than at any previous time in the period of instrumental data. The warmth of 1998 is too large and pervasive to be fully accounted for by the recent El Nino, suggesting that global temperature may have moved to a higher level, analogous to the increase that occurred in the late 1970s. The warming in the United States over the past 50 years is smaller than in most of the world, and over that period there is a slight cooling trend in the Eastern United States and the neighboring Atlantic ocean. The spatial and temporal patterns of the temperature change suggest that more than one mechanism is involved in this regional cooling

Modeling Biodegradation and Reactive Transport: Analytical and Numerical Models

The computational modeling of the biodegradation of contaminated groundwater systems accounting for biochemical reactions coupled to contaminant transport is a valuable tool for both the field engineer/planner with limited computational resources and the expert computational researcher less constrained by time and computer power. There exists several analytical and numerical computer models that have been and are being developed to cover the practical needs put forth by users to fulfill this spectrum of computational demands. Generally, analytical models provide rapid and convenient screening tools running on very limited computational power, while numerical models can provide more detailed information with consequent requirements of greater computational time and effort. While these analytical and numerical computer models can provide accurate and adequate information to produce defensible remediation strategies, decisions based on inadequate modeling output or on over-analysis can have costly and risky consequences. In this chapter we consider both analytical and numerical modeling approaches to biodegradation and reactive transport. Both approaches are discussed and analyzed in terms of achieving bioremediation goals, recognizing that there is always a tradeoff between computational cost and the resolution of simulated systems

Constrained classification for infrastructure threat assessment

Abstract not provide

Addendum to High Pressure Burn Rate Measurements on an Ammonium Perchlorate Propellant

As part of a small follow-on study, the burn rate of the ammonium perchlorate (AP) based material TAL-1503 was studied at a relatively mild pressure. The goal of this final experiment was to burn TAL-1503 at the lowest pressures possible using the LLNL High Pressure Strand Burner (LLNL-HPSB). The following is a description of the experiment and the results with a brief discussion of data and a comparison to the higher pressure data. This is not meant to be a stand-alone report and readers should refer to the main report for experimental details and discussion. High pressure deflagration rate measurements of a unique AP/HTPB based material (TAL-1503) were performed using the LLNL high pressure strand burner apparatus. The material burns in a well behaved, laminar fashion between 20 and 300 MPa with a burn law of B = (0.6 {+-} 0.1) x P{sup (1.05{+-}0.02)} that was calculated based on the best data available from the experiments. In the pressure range of 2 and 10 MPa the material burned laminarly with a burn law of B = (2.0 {+-} 0.2) x P{sup (0.66{+-}0.05)}. In these results, B is the burn rate in mm/s and P is the pressure in units of MPa. Comparison of the TAL-1503 results with similar propellants that contain micrometer sized aluminum indicate that the burn rates are relatively unaffected by the aluminum. However, the pressure change is significantly larger when aluminum is present, most likely due to the high temperatures achieved from burning aluminum