Environmental Factors Influence Language Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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What Paves the Way to Conventional Language? The Predictive Value of Babble, Pointing, and Socioeconomic Status

A child's first words mark the emergence of a uniquely human ability. Theories of the developmental steps that pave the way for word production have proposed that either vocal or gestural precursors are key. These accounts were tested by assessing the developmental synchrony in the onset of babbling, pointing, and word production for 46 infants observed monthly between the ages of 9 and 18 months. Babbling and pointing did not develop in tight synchrony and babble onset alone predicted first words. Pointing and maternal education emerged as predictors of lexical knowledge only in relation to a measure taken at 18 months. This suggests a far more important role for early phonological development in the creation of the lexicon than previously thought

Insulin administration protects from paraplegia in the rat aortic occlusion model

The effect of insulin induced hypoglycemia was evaluated in a rat aortic occlusion model of ischemic paraplegia. One hour before aortic occlusion, 200-250 g Sprague-Dawley rats received either 1 cc of saline or 0.5 units regular insulin in 1 cc saline. Rats were then anesthetized, intubated, and ventilated with halothane (1-1.5%). The aortic arch was exposed and snares were placed on the right and left subclavian arteries and the aorta distal to the left subclavian. The three vessels were occluded for 10 min. Lower extremity neurologic deficit was evaluated at 1, 4, 18, and 24 hr postocclusion based on a 15-point scale (0 = normal, 15 = severe deficit). Lower extremity neurologic deficit was significantly decreased in the insulin-treated group at 18 and 24 hr postocclusion (P = 0.005 and 0.006, respectively, Student's t test). Blood glucose concentration was significantly lower at the time of occlusion in the insulin-treated group when compared to the saline-treated group (P = 0.001). We conclude that in this rat model of paraplegia, insulin induced hypoglycemia is associated with a reduction in lower extremity neurologic deficit produced by temporary aortic occlusion.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27360/1/0000385.pd

Measuring the foundations of school readiness: Introducing a new questionnaire for teachers - The Brief Early Skills and Support Index (BESSI).

BACKGROUND: Early work on school readiness focused on academic skills. Recent research highlights the value of also including both children's social and behavioural competencies and family support. AIMS: Reflecting this broader approach, this study aimed to develop a new and brief questionnaire for teachers: The Brief Early Skills and Support Index (BESSI). SAMPLE: The main sample, recruited from the north-west of England, included 1,456 children (49% male), aged 2.5 to 5.5 years. A second sample consisting of 258 children (44% male) aged 3 to 5.5 years was recruited to assess the test-retest reliability of the BESSI across a 1-month interval. METHODS: Following development and pilot work with early years teachers, a streamlined (30 items) version of the BESSI was sent to 98 teachers and nursery staff, who rated the children in their class. RESULTS: The best-fitting model included four latent factors: Three child factors (Behavioural Adjustment, Language and Cognition, and Daily Living Skills) and one Family Support factor. The three child factors exhibited measurement invariance across gender. All four factors showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Structural equation modelling showed that (1) boys had more problems than girls on all three child factors; (2) older children showed better Language and Cognition and Daily Living Skills than younger children; and (3) children eligible for free school meals (an index of financial hardship) had more problems on all four latent factors. Family Support latent scores predicted all three child latent factors and accounted for their correlation with financial hardship. CONCLUSIONS: The BESSI is a promising brief teacher-report screening tool that appears suitable for children aged 2.5 to 5.5 and provides a broader perspective upon school readiness than previous measures.This research was funded by the Westminster Foundation and the Foundation Years Trust. We would like to express our sincere thanks to all the teachers and nursery staff who took part in this study. This study was funded by the Westminster Foundation (Dr Daly), the University of Cambridge Isaac Newton Trust (Dr Devine), and the Foundation Years Trust (Ms Naomi White & Ms Sarah Foley).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/DOI: 10.1111/bjep.1207

Il meticciato nell'Italia contemporanea. Storia, memorie e cultura di massa.

L'idea diffusa degli "italiani brava gente" e della diversit\ue0 della nostra storia rispetto alla storia USA, segnata da razzismo istituzionale, si fonda sul silenziamento del passato coloniale e razzista italiano. Il ripudio della categoria di razza da parte dell'Italia repubblicana e la smentita scientifica dell'esistenza biologica della categoria non hanno cancellato la presenza della razza, formazione storico-culturale che paradossalmente esiste e non esiste. Priva di referenti oggettivi nella realt\ue0, la razza produce in essa effetti significativi, opera sia come categoria sociale e strumento di esclusione, sia come costruzione simbolica e istanza identitaria. A fronte del silenziamento del meticciato storico nell'uso pubblico della storia e nella memoria nazionali del secondo dopoguerra, il saggio sottolinea la presenza diffusa del meticciato nei prodotti della cultura di massa italiani contemporanei e ne indaga i significati con gli strumenti degli studi critici sulla razza e in prospettiva comparata tra Italia e Stati Uniti

Reduction in saturated fat intake for cardiovascular disease

BACKGROUND: Reducing saturated fat reduces serum cholesterol, but effects on other intermediate outcomes may be less clear. Additionally, it is unclear whether the energy from saturated fats eliminated from the diet are more helpfully replaced by polyunsaturated fats, monounsaturated fats, carbohydrate or protein. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of reducing saturated fat intake and replacing it with carbohydrate (CHO), polyunsaturated (PUFA), monounsaturated fat (MUFA) and/or protein on mortality and cardiovascular morbidity, using all available randomised clinical trials. SEARCH METHODS: We updated our searches of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE (Ovid) and Embase (Ovid) on 15 October 2019, and searched Clinicaltrials.gov and WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) on 17 October 2019. SELECTION CRITERIA: Included trials fulfilled the following criteria: 1) randomised; 2) intention to reduce saturated fat intake OR intention to alter dietary fats and achieving a reduction in saturated fat; 3) compared with higher saturated fat intake or usual diet; 4) not multifactorial; 5) in adult humans with or without cardiovascular disease (but not acutely ill, pregnant or breastfeeding); 6) intervention duration at least 24 months; 7) mortality or cardiovascular morbidity data available. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently assessed inclusion, extracted study data and assessed risk of bias. We performed random-effects meta-analyses, meta-regression, subgrouping, sensitivity analyses, funnel plots and GRADE assessment. MAIN RESULTS: We included 15 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) (16 comparisons, ~59,000 participants), that used a variety of interventions from providing all food to advice on reducing saturated fat. The included long-term trials suggested that reducing dietary saturated fat reduced the risk of combined cardiovascular events by 21% (risk ratio (RR) 0.79; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.66 to 0.93, 11 trials, 53,300 participants of whom 8% had a cardiovascular event, I² = 65%, GRADE moderate-quality evidence). Meta-regression suggested that greater reductions in saturated fat (reflected in greater reductions in serum cholesterol) resulted in greater reductions in risk of CVD events, explaining most heterogeneity between trials. The number needed to treat for an additional beneficial outcome (NNTB) was 56 in primary prevention trials, so 56 people need to reduce their saturated fat intake for ~four years for one person to avoid experiencing a CVD event. In secondary prevention trials, the NNTB was 32. Subgrouping did not suggest significant differences between replacement of saturated fat calories with polyunsaturated fat or carbohydrate, and data on replacement with monounsaturated fat and protein was very limited. We found little or no effect of reducing saturated fat on all-cause mortality (RR 0.96; 95% CI 0.90 to 1.03; 11 trials, 55,858 participants) or cardiovascular mortality (RR 0.95; 95% CI 0.80 to 1.12, 10 trials, 53,421 participants), both with GRADE moderate-quality evidence. There was little or no effect of reducing saturated fats on non-fatal myocardial infarction (RR 0.97, 95% CI 0.87 to 1.07) or CHD mortality (RR 0.97, 95% CI 0.82 to 1.16, both low-quality evidence), but effects on total (fatal or non-fatal) myocardial infarction, stroke and CHD events (fatal or non-fatal) were all unclear as the evidence was of very low quality. There was little or no effect on cancer mortality, cancer diagnoses, diabetes diagnosis, HDL cholesterol, serum triglycerides or blood pressure, and small reductions in weight, serum total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and BMI. There was no evidence of harmful effects of reducing saturated fat intakes. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this updated review suggest that reducing saturated fat intake for at least two years causes a potentially important reduction in combined cardiovascular events. Replacing the energy from saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat or carbohydrate appear to be useful strategies, while effects of replacement with monounsaturated fat are unclear. The reduction in combined cardiovascular events resulting from reducing saturated fat did not alter by study duration, sex or baseline level of cardiovascular risk, but greater reduction in saturated fat caused greater reductions in cardiovascular events

The Role of Linguistic Experience in the Child's Acquisition of Syntax.

This research examined the relationship between mothers' speech and their children's syntax development in order to provide data from which inferences could be drawn about the manner in which the child's linguistic experience contributes to her acquisition of language. The present study added specificity to previous research by explicitly addressing the influence of time parameters on input-acquisition relationships and by investigating the role of the syntactic properties of discourse features which have been found related to language growth in previous studies. The data base consisted of transcripts of one half-hour of mother-child conversation audio-recorded at two month intervals over a six-month period for 22 children aged 2 to 2 and 1/2 years. Correlations or partial correlations (validated on split halves of the data) tested the strength of the linear relationships between the measured properties of maternal speech and child language growth. Partial correlations were used when they were necessary to hold constant properties of the child's language use at the initial sample that were related to both predictor and outcome variables. The relationships which appeared suggested that linguistic experience contributes to syntax development by providing data for the child's structural analysis of input. The frequency in maternal speech of self-repetitions which altered at least one major constituent of the prior utterance was positively related to early child growth in verb use. It was argued that the child learns constituent structure from her distributional analyses of such sequences in discourse. The frequency in maternal speech of wh- questions was preposed the auxiliary verb was related to child growth in auxiliary usage and was not significantly related to the child's concurrent status on that measure. This result, in combination with previously-found relationships between yes/no questions in input and auxiliary growth, suggests multiple bases to the contribution of mothers' questions to their children's auxiliary development. The results of this study also suggest that the contribution of input depends on the linguistic level of the child and that the time required for that contribution to be evidenced is different for different syntactic developments. Thus the relationships to be observed in any study of linguistic input and language growth depend on when and for how long the subjects are studied.Ph.D.Developmental psychologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/158654/1/8204673.pd