Japanese Parents’ Explanations of Disabilities to Siblings of Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

One form of support that has been demonstrated to reduce psychological burden in siblings of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities is an explanation of the disability. By clarifying the actual conditions in which parents explain their child’s disability to siblings, the goal of this study is to support parents in promoting open communication in the family environment. A semi-structured interview was conducted with five parents of children with disabilities aged 2–6 years who were attending daycare or preschool at private educational institutions. Interviews were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. A primary reason for parents explaining their child’s disability to siblings was their belief that siblings may already have known about the disability, and they wanted to answer any questions that may have arisen. After parents explained the disability, some mothers noticed no changes in the siblings, but others reported that siblings asked more questions about the child with disabilities and expressed a desire to help support them. It is recommended that Japanese parents of children with disabilities receive information on available support systems provided by educational institutions and government/administrative agencies

Japanese Parents’ Explanations of Disabilities to Siblings of Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

One form of support that has been demonstrated to reduce psychological burden in siblings of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities is an explanation of the disability. By clarifying the actual conditions in which parents explain their child’s disability to siblings, the goal of this study is to support parents in promoting open communication in the family environment. A semi-structured interview was conducted with five parents of children with disabilities aged 2–6 years who were attending daycare or preschool at private educational institutions. Interviews were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. A primary reason for parents explaining their child’s disability to siblings was their belief that siblings may already have known about the disability, and they wanted to answer any questions that may have arisen. After parents explained the disability, some mothers noticed no changes in the siblings, but others reported that siblings asked more questions about the child with disabilities and expressed a desire to help support them. It is recommended that Japanese parents of children with disabilities receive information on available support systems provided by educational institutions and government/administrative agencies

Morbillivirus Receptors and Tropism: Multiple Pathways for Infection

Morbilliviruses, which include measles virus (MeV), canine distemper virus, and rinderpest virus, are among the most important pathogens in their respective hosts and cause severe syndromes. Morbilliviruses are enveloped viruses with two envelope proteins, one of which is hemagglutinin (H) protein, which plays a role in binding to cellular receptors. During morbillivirus infection, the virus initially targets lymphoid cells and replicates efficiently in the lymph nodes. The principal cellular receptor for morbillivirus is signaling lymphocyte activation molecule (SLAM, also called CD150), which is exclusively expressed on immune cells. This feature reflects the strong lymphoid cell tropism and viral spread in the infected body. Morbillivirus infection, however, affects various tissues in the body, including the lung, kidney, gastrointestinal tract, vascular endothelium, and brain. Thus, other receptors for morbilliviruses in addition to SLAM might exist. Recently, nectin-4 has been identified as a novel epithelial cell receptor for MeV. The expression of nectin-4 is localized to polarized epithelial cells, and this localization supports the notion of cell tropism since MeV also grows well in the epithelial cells of the respiratory tract. Although two major receptors for lymphoid and epithelial cells in natural infection have been identified, morbillivirus can still infect many other types of cells with low infectivity, suggesting the existence of inefficient but ubiquitously expressed receptors. We have identified other molecules that are implicated in morbillivirus infection of SLAM-negative cells by alternative mechanisms. These findings indicate that morbillivirus utilizes multiple pathways for establishment of infection. These studies will advance our understanding of morbillivirus tropism and pathogenesis

The origin of MeV gamma-ray diffuse emission from the inner Galactic region

The origin of the inner Galactic emission, measured by COMPTEL with a flux of $\sim ~ 10^{-2}$ MeV cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ sr$^{-1}$ in the 1-30 MeV range, has remained unsettled since its discovery in 1994. We investigate the origin of this emission by taking into account individual sources which are not resolved by COMPTEL and the Galactic diffuse emission. The source contribution is estimated for sources crossmatched between the Swift-BAT and Fermi-LAT catalogs by interpolating the energy spectra in the hard X-ray and GeV gamma-ray ranges, as well as unmatched sources. This results in a flux of $\sim$20% of the COMPTEL excess. The Galactic diffuse emission is calculated by GALPROP to reconcile the cosmic-ray and gamma-ray spectra with observations by AMS-02, Voyager, and Fermi-LAT, resulting in a flux of $\sim$30-80% of the COMPTEL emission. Thus, we show that the COMPTEL emission could be roughly reproduced by a combination of the sources and the Galactic diffuse emission. Furthermore, combined with the extragalactic emission, we construct all-sky images in the MeV gamma-ray range to pinpoint some potential interesting targets for future missions, which would be critical for bridging the MeV gap in the spectra of gamma-ray sources.Comment: Proceedings of Science; 7th Heidelberg International Symposium on High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy (Gamma2022), 4-8 July 2022, Barcelona, Spai

Further Evidence for the ~ 9 s Pulsation in LS 5039 from NuSTAR and ASCA

The present study aims to reinforce the evidence for the ~9 s pulsation in the gamma-ray binary LS 5039, derived with a Suzaku observation in 2007 and that with NuSTAR in 2016 (Yoneda et al 2000). Through a reanalysis of the NuSTAR data incorporating the orbital Doppler correction, the 9.0538 s pulsation was confirmed successfully even in the 3--10 keV range, where it was undetectable previously. This was attained by perceiving an energy-dependent drift in the pulse phase below 10 keV, and correcting the pulse timing of individual photons for that effect. Similarly, an archival 0.7--12 keV data set of LS 5039, taken with the ASCA GIS in 1999 October, was analyzed. The data showed possible periodicity at about 8.882 s, but again the energy-dependent phase drift was noticed below 10 keV. By correcting for this effect, and for the orbital Doppler delays in the LS 5039 system, the 2.8--12 keV periodicity became statistically significant at 8.891+- 0.001 s. The periods measured with ASCA, Suzaku, and NuSTAR approximately follow an average period derivative of dP/dt = 3.0 e-10 s/s. These results provide further evidence for the pulsation in this object, and strengthen the scenario by (Yoneda et al 2000), that the compact object in LS 5039 is a strongly magnetized neutron star.Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Cognitive Abilities Related to Reading and Writing Skills in Chinese Third-grade Children

In this study, we analysed the cognitive abilities that predict reading and writing attainment in the Chinese language for Mandarin-speaking children. A total of 140 Chinese third-graders studying in Ningbo, Zhejiang were evaluated for their visual cognition including visual perception and memory, naming speed, vocabulary knowledge, phonological skills, nonverbal intelligence, and abilities to read and write. The results of multiple regression analyses revealed that word and nonword reading accuracy were predicted to a significant degree by visual memory and phonological awareness, respectively. Naming speed significantly contributed to the reading speeds regarding words, nonwords, and paragraphs. Our results also showed that the scores in word and nonword reading predicted the scores of writing as well. Visual memory and phonological awareness are essential for reading Chinese accurately, while naming speed is an important factor for Chinese reading fluency. The present results have implications regarding the design of useful tasks that screen poor readers of Chinese

Line profile of nuclear de-excitation gamma-ray emission from very hot plasma

De-excitation gamma-ray lines, produced by nuclei colliding with protons, provide information about astrophysical environments where particles have kinetic energies of $10-100$ MeV per nucleon. In general, such environments can be categorized into two types: the interaction between non-thermal MeV cosmic rays and ambient gas, and the other is thermal plasma with a temperature above a few MeV. In this paper, we focus on the latter type and investigate the production of de-excitation gamma-ray lines in very hot thermal plasma, especially the dependence of the line profile on the plasma temperature. We have calculated the line profile of prompt gamma rays from $^{12}$C and $^{16}$O and found that when nuclei have a higher temperature than protons, gamma-ray line profiles can have a complex shape unique to each nucleus species. This is caused by anisotropic gamma-ray emission in the nucleus rest frame. We propose that the spectroscopy of nuclear de-excitation gamma-ray lines may enable to probe energy distribution in very hot astrophysical plasmas. This diagnostics can be a new and powerful technique to investigate the physical state of a two-temperature accretion flows onto a black hole, especially the energy distributions of the protons and nuclei, which are difficult to access for any other diagnostics.Comment: 12 pages, Accepted for publication in MNRA