1,315 research outputs found
Characterizing the early vocabulary profiles of preverbal and minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder
Abstract
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have significant language delays. But do they learn language differently than neurotypical toddlers? We compared the lexical skills of 64 preverbal and minimally verbal children with ASD, to 461 vocabulary-size-matched typically developing (TD) toddlers. We also examined social features of verb knowledge using a novel collection of social ratings. Children with ASD produced proportionally more verbs than TD toddlers. Children with ASD produced proportionally more action and food words, while TD toddlers produced proportionally more animal, people words, and animal sounds and sound effects. Children with ASD also produced âmommyâ and âdaddyâ at lower rates. We discuss how these differences may reflect an association between lexical development and weaknesses in social communication.
Lay abstract
Although preverbal and minimally verbal (PV-MV) children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) represent a significant portion of the ASD population, we have a limited understanding of and characterization of them. Though it is a given that their lexical profiles contain fewer words, it is important to determine whether: a) the words PV-MV children with ASD produce are similar to the first words typically developing (TD) children produce, or b) there are unique features of the limited words that PV-MV children with ASD produce. The current study compared the early word profiles of PV-MV children with ASD to vocabulary-matched TD toddlers. Children with ASD produced proportionally more verbs than TD toddlers. Also, children with ASD produced proportionally more action and food words, while TD toddlers produced proportionally more animal words, animal sounds and sound effects, and people words. Children with ASD also produced âmommyâ and âdaddyâ at lower rates. Our findings identified several areas of overlap in early word learning; however, our findings also point to differences that may be connected to core weaknesses in social communication (i.e., people words). The findings highlight words and categories that could serve as useful targets for communication intervention with PV-MV children with ASD
An explanation for metallicity effects on X-ray Binary properties
We show that irradiation induced stellar winds can explain two important
metallicity effects in X-ray binaries - the higher numbers and the softer
spectra of the X-ray binaries in metal rich globular clusters compared to the
metal poor ones. As has been previously noted by Iben, Tutukov and Fedorova,
the winds should be stronger at lower metallicity due to less efficient line
cooling. This will speed up the evolution of the LMXBs in metal poor clusters,
hence reducing their numbers. These winds can also provide extra material near
the accreting object which may create an intrinsic absorber to harden the X-ray
spectra of the metal poor cluster systems relative to the metal rich ones, as
suggested by observations. We outline some additional observational predictions
of the model.Comment: 6 pages, no figures, accepted to Ap
PErineal Assessment and Repair Longitudinal Study (PEARLS): protocol for a matched pair cluster trial
Background: The Perineal Assessment and Repair Longitudinal Study (PEARLS) is a national clinical quality
improvement initiative designed to improve the assessment and management of perineal trauma. Perineal trauma
affects around 85% of women who have a vaginal birth in the UK each year and millions more world-wide.
Continuous suturing techniques compared with traditional interrupted methods are more effective in reducing
pain and postnatal morbidity, however they are not widely used by clinicians despite recommendations of
evidence based national clinical guidelines. Perineal suturing skills and postnatal management of trauma remain
highly variable within and between maternity units in the UK as well as worldwide. Implementation of a
standardised training package to support effective perineal management practices could reduce perineal pain and
other related postnatal morbidity for a substantial number of women.
Methods/Design: PEARLS is a matched pair cluster trial, which is being conducted in maternity units across the
UK. Units within a matched pair will be randomised to implement the study intervention either early or late in the
study period. The intervention will include the cascading of a multi-professional training package to enhance
midwifery and obstetric skills in the assessment, repair and postnatal management of perineal trauma. Women
who have had an episiotomy or second degree perineal tear will be eligible for recruitment. Prior to developing
the intervention and deciding on study outcomes, a Delphi survey and a consensus conference were held to
identify what women, who previously suffered perineal trauma during childbirth, considered to be important
outcomes for them. Findings from this preliminary work (which will be reported elsewhere) and other outcomes
including womenâs experiences of perineal pain and pain on activity, breastfeeding uptake and duration and
psychological well-being as assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) will be assessed at 10
days and three months post-birth.
Discussion: Implementation of evidence-based perineal assessment and management practices, could lead to
significantly improved physical and psychological health outcomes for women in the UK and world-wide
Small Worlds and Semantic Network Growth in Typical and Late Talkers
Network analysis has demonstrated that systems ranging from social networks to electric power grids often involve a small world structure-with local clustering but global ac cess. Critically, small world structure has also been shown to characterize adult human semantic networks. Moreover, the connectivity pattern of these mature networks is consistent with lexical growth processes in which children add new words to their vocabulary based on the structure of the language-learning environment. However, thus far, there is no direct evidence that a child's individual semantic network structure is associated with their early language learning. Here we show that, while typically developing children's early networks show small world structure as early as 15 months and with as few as 55 words, children with language delay (late talkers) have this structure to a smaller degree. This implicates a maladaptive bias in word acquisition for late talkers, potentially indicating a preference for âoddballâ words. The findings provide the first evidence of a link between small-world connectivity and lexical development in individual children
A randomized assessment of adding the kinase inhibitor lestaurtinib to first-line chemotherapy for FLT3-mutated AML
The clinical benefit of adding FMS-like tyrosine kinase-3 (FLT3)-directed small molecule therapy to standard first-line treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has not yet been established. As part of the UK AML15 and AML17 trials, patients with previously untreated AML and confirmed FLT3-activating mutations, mostly younger than 60 years, were randomly assigned either to receive oral lestaurtinib (CEP701) or not after each of 4 cycles of induction and consolidation chemotherapy. Lestaurtinib was commenced 2 days after completing chemotherapy and administered in cycles of up to 28 days. The trials ran consecutively. Primary endpoints were overall survival in AML15 and relapse-free survival in AML17; outcome data were meta-analyzed. Five hundred patients were randomly assigned between lestaurtinib and control: 74% had FLT3-internal tandem duplication mutations, 23% FLT3âtyrosine kinase domain point mutations, and 2% both types. No significant differences were seen in either 5-year overall survival (lestaurtinib 46% vs control 45%; hazard ratio, 0.90; 95% CI 0.70-1.15; P = .3) or 5-year relapse-free survival (40% vs 36%; hazard ratio, 0.88; 95% CI 0.69-1.12; P = .3). Exploratory subgroup analysis suggested survival benefit with lestaurtinib in patients receiving concomitant azole antifungal prophylaxis and gemtuzumab ozogamicin with the first course of chemotherapy. Correlative studies included analysis of in vivo FLT3 inhibition by plasma inhibitory activity assay and indicated improved overall survival and significantly reduced rates of relapse in lestaurtinib-treated patients who achieved sustained greater than 85% FLT3 inhibition. In conclusion, combining lestaurtinib with intensive chemotherapy proved feasible in younger patients with newly diagnosed FLT3-mutated AML, but yielded no overall clinical benefit. The improved clinical outcomes seen in patients achieving sustained FLT3 inhibition encourage continued evaluation of FLT3-directed therapy alongside front-line AML treatment. The UK AML15 and AML17 trials are registered at www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN17161961 and www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN55675535 respectively
The political process of constructing a sustainable London Olympics sports development legacy
This study attempts to develop a research agenda for understanding the process of constructing a sustainable Olympic sports development legacy. The research uses a social constructivist perspective to examine the link between the 2012 London Olympic Games and sustainable sports development. The first part of the paper provides justification for the study of sport policy processes using a constructivist lens. This is followed by a section which critically unpacks sustainable sports development drawing on Mosseâs (1998) ideas of process-oriented research and Searleâs conceptualisation of the construction of social reality. Searleâs (1995) concepts of the assignment of function, collective intentionality, collective rules, and human capacity to cope with the environment are considered in relation to the events and discourses emerging from the legacy vision(s) associated with the 2012 London Olympic Games. The paper concludes by proposing a framework for engaging in process oriented research and highlights key elements, research questions, and methodological issues. The proposed constructivist approach can be used to inform policy, practice, and research on sustainable Olympic sports development legacy
Atmospheric Acetaldehyde: Importance of Air-Sea Exchange and a Missing Source in the Remote Troposphere.
We report airborne measurements of acetaldehyde (CH3CHO) during the first and second deployments of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom). The budget of CH3CHO is examined using the Community Atmospheric Model with chemistry (CAM-chem), with a newly-developed online air-sea exchange module. The upper limit of the global ocean net emission of CH3CHO is estimated to be 34 Tg a-1 (42 Tg a-1 if considering bubble-mediated transfer), and the ocean impacts on tropospheric CH3CHO are mostly confined to the marine boundary layer. Our analysis suggests that there is an unaccounted CH3CHO source in the remote troposphere and that organic aerosols can only provide a fraction of this missing source. We propose that peroxyacetic acid (PAA) is an ideal indicator of the rapid CH3CHO production in the remote troposphere. The higher-than-expected CH3CHO measurements represent a missing sink of hydroxyl radicals (and halogen radical) in current chemistry-climate models
A binary model for the UV-upturn of elliptical galaxies (MNRAS version)
The discovery of a flux excess in the far-ultraviolet (UV) spectrum of
elliptical galaxies was a major surprise in 1969. While it is now clear that
this UV excess is caused by an old population of hot helium-burning stars
without large hydrogen-rich envelopes, rather than young stars, their origin
has remained a mystery. Here we show that these stars most likely lost their
envelopes because of binary interactions, similar to the hot subdwarf
population in our own Galaxy. We have developed an evolutionary population
synthesis model for the far-UV excess of elliptical galaxies based on the
binary model developed by Han et al (2002, 2003) for the formation of hot
subdwarfs in our Galaxy. Despite its simplicity, it successfully reproduces
most of the properties of elliptical galaxies with a UV excess: the range of
observed UV excesses, both in and , and their evolution
with redshift. We also present colour-colour diagrams for use as diagnostic
tools in the study of elliptical galaxies. The model has major implications for
understanding the evolution of the UV excess and of elliptical galaxies in
general. In particular, it implies that the UV excess is not a sign of age, as
had been postulated previously, and predicts that it should not be strongly
dependent on the metallicity of the population, but exists universally from
dwarf ellipticals to giant ellipticals.Comment: accepted for publication in MNRAS, 24 pages, 15 figures, 2 table
The impact of NHS based primary care complementary therapy services on health outcomes and NHS costs: a review of service audits and evaluations
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of this study was to review evaluations and audits of primary care complementary therapy services to determine the impact of these services on improving health outcomes and reducing NHS costs. Our intention is to help service users, service providers, clinicians and NHS commissioners make informed decisions about the potential of NHS based complementary therapy services.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We searched for published and unpublished studies of NHS based primary care complementary therapy services located in England and Wales from November 2003 to April 2008. We identified the type of information included in each document and extracted comparable data on health outcomes and NHS costs (e.g. prescriptions and GP consultations).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twenty-one documents for 14 services met our inclusion criteria. Overall, the quality of the studies was poor, so few conclusions can be made. One controlled and eleven uncontrolled studies using SF36 or MYMOP indicated that primary care complementary therapy services had moderate to strong impact on health status scores. Data on the impact of primary care complementary therapy services on NHS costs were scarcer and inconclusive. One controlled study of a medical osteopathy service found that service users did not decrease their use of NHS resources.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>To improve the quality of evaluations, we urge those evaluating complementary therapy services to use standardised health outcome tools, calculate confidence intervals and collect NHS cost data from GP medical records. Further discussion is needed on ways to standardise the collection and reporting of NHS cost data in primary care complementary therapy services evaluations.</p
Detection of subtelomere imbalance using MLPA: validation, development of an analysis protocol, and application in a diagnostic centre
BACKGROUND: Commercial MLPA kits (MRC-Holland) are available for detecting imbalance at the subtelomere regions of chromosomes; each kit consists of one probe for each subtelomere. METHODS: For validation of the kits, 208 patients were tested, of which 128 were known to be abnormal, corresponding to 8528 genomic regions overall. Validation samples included those with trisomy 13, 18 and 21, microscopically visible terminal deletions and duplications, sex chromosome abnormalities and submicroscopic abnormalities identified by multiprobe FISH. A robust and sensitive analysis system was developed to allow accurate interpretation of single probe results, which is essential as breakpoints may occur between MLPA probes. RESULTS: The validation results showed that MLPA is a highly efficient technique for medium-throughput screening for subtelomere imbalance, with 95% confidence intervals for positive and negative predictive accuracies of 0.951-0.996 and 0.9996-1 respectively. A diagnostic testing strategy was established for subtelomere MLPA and any subsequent follow-up tests that may be required. The efficacy of this approach was demonstrated during 15 months of diagnostic testing when 455 patients were tested and 27 (5.9%) abnormal cases were detected. CONCLUSION: The development of a robust, medium-throughput analysis system for the interpretation of results from subtelomere assays will be of benefit to other Centres wishing to implement such an MLPA-based service
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