Evaluation of a Structured Volunteering Programme as an Intervention for Enhancing Resilience Level of Parents of People with Learning Disabilities

The East Asian Archives of Psychiatry can be viewed at: http://easap.asia/journal_file/EASAP-Suppl-2012.pdfPoster session D: Child and Adolescent Mental Health ProblemsConference Theme: Mental Health for AllBackground: Stresses have consistently been found to be higher in parents of people with learning disabilities (LD). However, some parents are able to be more resilient and better adapted in the face of these challenges. It is known that volunteering experience is able to increase one’s resilient protector factors. This study was an initial attempt to evaluate how a structured volunteering programme enhances the resilience level of parents of people with LD. The programme lasted for 6 months and the parent volunteers paid home visits regularly to elderly who were living alone and were invited to attend the debriefing sessions after every visit. Objectives: The researchers examined the effectiveness of the structured volunteering programme in enhancing the resilience level of parents of people with LD, and to identify the specific resilience domains that are correlating with the programme. Methods: A pretest-posttest design was adopted, with the intervention of a 6-month structured volunteering programme. The researchers developed a 24-item scale which extracted from the Resilience Scale – Chinese Version (Chen, 2007; the original scale was developed by Friborg et al. in 2006) and the Purpose in Life Test – Chinese Version (Song, 1992; the original test was developed by Crumbaugh & Maholic in 1964). The scale achieved good reliability (α = 0.935). Data on 36 participants’ measures of 4 resilience domains, namely, self-competence, social skills, social resources, and meaning of life, were analysed. Results: Statistically significant positive changes in the resilience domains of social resources (p = 0.05) and meaning of life (p = 0.04) were found, the domain of social skills also showed positive change. Conclusion: The results suggest the effectiveness of the structured volunteering programme for parents of LD in resilience enhancement. The programme design would be discussed.published_or_final_versio

Direct observation of children’s preferences and activity levels during interactive and on-line electronic games

BACKGROUND: Interactive electronic games have recently been popularized and are believed to help promote children's physical activity (PA). The purpose of the study was to examine preferences and PA levels during interactive and online electronic games among overweight and nonoverweight boys and girls. METHODS: Using a modification of the SOFIT, we systematically observed 70 Hong Kong Chinese children (35 boys, 35 girls; 50 nonoverweight, 20 overweight), age 9 to 12 years, during 2 60-minute recreation sessions and recorded their game mode choices and PA levels. During Session One children could play either an interactive or an online electronic bowling game and during Session Two they could play an interactive or an online electronic running game. RESULTS: Children chose to play the games during 94% of session time and split this time between interactive (52%) and online (48%) versions. They engaged in significantly more moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during interactive games than their online electronic versions (70% vs. 2% of game time). Boys and nonoverweight children expended relatively more energy during the interactive games than girls and overweight children, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: New-generation interactive games can facilitate physical activity in children, and given the opportunity children may select them over sedentary versions.published_or_final_versio

Children’s use of electronic games: Choices of game mode and challenge levels

Introduction. Interactive electronic games are popular and are believed to contribute to physical activity accrual. The purpose of this study was to examine children's electronic game use during conditions in which they had free access to selecting interactive and seated screen-based versions of electronic games and during the interactive versions had free choice in making adjustments to the activity intensity. Methods. We systematically observed 60 Hong Kong primary school children during two 60-minute game sessions while simultaneously recording their game mode choices and physical activity levels using SOFIT (System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time). Results. When given free choice, children spent more than half of their available time participating in interactive versions of games. These versions of games provided significantly more moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and greater energy expenditure than the computer screen versions. Children with the opportunity to modify intensity levels spent more time playing the interactive versions and accrued more physical activity. Conclusions. The tenets of behavioral choice theory were supported. Access to new-generation interactive games, particularly those with modifiable intensity levels, may facilitate children's participation in physical activity.published_or_final_versio

Primary immunodeficiency in Hong Kong and the use of genetic analysis for diagnosis

Objectives. To review the management of primary immunodeficiency and discuss recent advances in genetic analysis. Design. Retrospective study. Setting. University teaching hospital, Hong Kong. Patients. Children diagnosed with primary immunodeficiency and followed up in the immunology clinic during the period 1988 to 2003. Main outcome measures. Demographic data, co-morbidities and treatment of patients, outcome and complications; identification of disease by genetic mutations. Results. Medical records of a total of 117 patients (72 male, 45 female) diagnosed with primary immunodeficiency in the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong during the past 15 years (1988-2003) were reviewed. All patients were followed up in the immunology clinic. Some patients had been referred from the private sector or other hospitals for immunological workup. Six categories of primary immunodeficiency were identified: predominantly humoral defect (n=50), predominantly cellular defect (n=22), combined humoral and cellular defect (n=5), phagocytic defect (n=18), complement disorders (n=4), and others (n=18). Although infection was the underlying cause of most co-morbidities and mortality, autoimmune (n=7) and allergic (n=23) manifestations were common. In addition, three patients developed lymphoma. Recent advances in the genetic diagnosis of several types of primary immunodeficiency were also reviewed: X-linked Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, X-linked chronic granulomatous disease, X-linked agammaglobulinaemia, X-linked lymphoproliferative syndrome, leukocyte adhesion disease type I, and X-linked hyperimmunoglobulin M syndrome. This provides an invaluable means of understanding the molecular basis of primary immunodeficiency and has important clinical applications. Conclusions. Co-morbidities like autoimmune disease and allergic disease are common in patients with primary immunodeficiency and should be carefully evaluated. Likewise, a diagnosis of primary immunodeficiency should be considered when evaluating patients with these conditions. Rapid progress in the field of molecular genetics will enable definite and early diagnosis, and more importantly, potential curative therapy to be administered.published_or_final_versio

Help-seeking behaviours for psychological distress amongst Chinese patients

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Pulmonary artery sarcoma diagnosed by endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration

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Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry for rapid identification of mold and yeast cultures of Penicillium marneffei

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High recurrence rate supports need for secondary prophylaxis in non-HIV patients with disseminated mycobacterium avium complex infection: a multi-center observational study

© 2016 Sridhar et al.Background: Long-term outcomes in non-HIV immunocompromised patients with disseminated Mycobacterium avium complex (dMAC) infections are unknown and the need for post-treatment secondary prophylaxis against MAC is uncertain in this setting. The objective of this study was to determine the need of continuing secondary anti-MAC prophylaxis in non-HIV patients after completing treatment of the primary dMAC episode. Methods: We conducted a ten-year multi-center analysis of non-HIV immunosuppressed patients with dMAC infections in Hong Kong. Results: We observed sixteen patients with dMAC during the study period of which five (31 %) were non-HIV immunosuppressed patients. In the non-HIV immunosuppressed group, three patients completed a treatment course without secondary prophylaxis, one patient received azithromycin-based secondary prophylaxis and one patient was still receiving therapy for the first dMAC episode. All the three patients who completed treatment without being given secondary prophylaxis developed recurrent dMAC infection requiring retreatment. Conclusions: In view of the high rate of dMAC infection recurrence in non-HIV immunocompromised patients following treatment completion, our data support long-term anti-MAC suppression therapy after treatment of the first dMAC infection episode in immunocompromised non-HIV patients, as is recommended for patients with advanced HIV. Tests of cell mediated immune function need to be evaluated to guide prophylaxis discontinuation in non-HIV patients.published_or_final_versio

Safe and Adaptive 3D Locomotion via Constrained Task-Space Imitation Learning

Bipedal locomotion has been widely studied in recent years, where passive safety (i.e., a biped rapidly brakes without falling) is deemed to be a pivotal problem. To realize safe 3-D walking, existing works resort to nonlinear optimization techniques based on simplified dynamics models, requiring hand-tuned reference trajectories. In this article, we propose to integrate safety constraints into constrained task-space imitation learning, endowing a humanoid robot with adaptive walking capability. Specifically, unlike previous work using nonlinear and coupled capturability dynamics, we first linearize the 3-D capture conditions using appropriate extreme values and then seamlessly incorporate them into constrained imitation learning. Furthermore, we propose novel heuristic rules to define control points, enabling adaptive locomotion learning. The resulting framework allows robots to learn locomotion skills from a few demonstrations efficiently and apply the learned skills to unseen 3-D scenarios while satisfying the constraints for passive safety. Unlike deep enforcement learning, our framework avoids the need of a large number of iterations or sim-to-real transfer. By virtue of the task-space adaptability, the proposed imitation learning framework can reuse collected demonstrations in a new robot platform. We validate our method by hardware experiments on Walker2 robot and simulations on COMAN robot.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Learning & Autonomous Contro

MSH2 c.1452-1455delAATG Is a Founder Mutation and an Important Cause of Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer in the Southern Chinese Population

Hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) accounts for ∼2% of all colorectal cancer (CRC) cases and is the most common hereditary CRC syndrome. We have previously reported a high incidence of microsatellite instability (MSI) and germline mismatch repair (MMR) gene mutations in young Hong Kong Chinese with CRC. Ongoing studies at the Hereditary Gastrointestinal Cancer Registry in Hong Kong have revealed a unique germline MSH2 c.1452-1455delAATG mutation that has not been reported in other ethnic groups. Detailed analysis showed that this specific MSH2 mutation constituted 21% of all germline MMR gene mutations and 36% of all MSH2 germline mutations identified. We designed a specific PCR-based diagnostic test on paraffin-embedded tissues and identified this germline mutation in 2 1.5%) of 138 consecutive patients with early-onset CRC (93 million. Further analysis suggested that this founder mutation may date back to between 22 and 103 generations ago. The identification of this MSH2 founder mutation has important implications for the design of mutation-detection strategies for the southern Chinese population. Since there were major emigrations from Hong Kong and Guangdong province during the 19th and 20th centuries, this finding is also significant for Chinese communities worldwide.published_or_final_versio