Relationships between working memory, expressive vocabulary and arithmetical reasoning in children with and without intellectual disabilities.

This experiment examined the relationships between working memory and two measures of achievement, namely expressive vocabulary and arithmetical reasoning, in children with and without intellectual disabilities (ID). For 11-12-year-old children with intellectual disabilities, memory measures tapping the central executive were the most important predictors of both expressive vocabulary and arithmetical reasoning, with phonological memory making a small additional contribution to expressive vocabulary. For mainstream 11-12-year-old children, phonological memory was the best predictor of expressive vocabulary, whereas, arithmetical reasoning ability was predicted by visual memory and to a lesser extent phonological memory. The third group of children, 7-8-year-old mainstream children, had been matched on mental age with the intellectual disability group. For these children the most important predictor of expressive vocabulary was phonological memory, with a small additional contribution from visual memory. Arithmetical reasoning was best predicted by memory measures tapping the central executive with an additional contribution from phonological memory. These results suggest that different working memory resources are used by children of varying ages and ability levels to carry out at least some cognitive tasks

Family Law and Social Welfare: Toward a New Equality

The rising divorce rate in Canada has had a differential economic impact upon men and women, and the author speculates ready divorce has been a major contributing factor in the \u27feminization of poverty . Principles in family law which have emerged for determining eligibility for support upon divorce or separation are not consistent with the principles of social assistance legislation. Future reforms must address the different economic positions of former husbands and wives following marital breakdown if the principles of equality and independence espoused as ideal are to apply to everyone

Multimedia technology and the acquisition of reading skills: An evaluation of Talking Stories.

Multimedia technology is bringing a new dimension to literacy-related educational software. Talking Book software is designed to support young children in independent reading practice.\ud This study took Talking Stories software, a constituent of the Oxford Reading Tree scheme, into the classroom to evaluate its effectiveness in supporting the acquisition of literacy skills with normal, beginning readers.\ud Reading practice with the computer was compared with reading practice with an equivalent printed book on 2 measures.\ud The results indicate significant benefits, particularly for less able and emergent readers on single word reading.\u

Accident frequency and unrealistic optimism: children's assessment of risk

Accidental injury is a major cause of mortality and morbidity among children, warranting research on their risk perceptions. Three hundred and seven children aged 10-11 years assessed the frequency, danger and personal risk likelihood of 8 accidents. Two socialcognitive biases were manifested. The frequency of rare accidents (e.g. drowning) was overestimated, and the frequency of common accidents (e.g. bike accidents) underestimated; and the majority of children showed unrealistic optimism tending to see themselves as less likely to suffer these accidents in comparison to their peers, offering superior skills or parental control of the environment as an explanation. In the case of pedestrian accidents, children recognised their seriousness, underestimated the frequency of this risk and regarded their own road crossing skill as protection. These findings highlight the challenging task facing safety educators who, when teaching conventional safety knowledge and routines, also need to alert children to the danger of over-confidence without disabling them though fear

Leadership in Compassionate Care: Final Report 2012

This report reflects the initiation, planning, running and the important outcomes emerging from the Leadership in Compassionate Care Programme. The team worked in close partnership across the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Care, Edinburgh Napier University and NHS Lothian. This report also shares the highlights, challenges and solutions to embed compassionate care education and nursing practice.Additional co-authors: Fiona Smith, Stephen DM Smith, Ria Tocher, and Anne Waug

One-year outcomes in a multicentre cohort study of incident rare diffuse parenchymal lung disease in children (ChILD)

We performed a prospective, observational, cohort study of children newly diagnosed with children's interstitial lung disease (ChILD), with structured follow-up at 4, 8, 12 weeks and 6 and 12 months. 127 children, median age 0.9 (IQR 0.3-7.9) years had dyspnoea (68%, 69/102), tachypnoea (75%, 77/103) and low oxygen saturation (SpO(2)) median 92% (IQR 88-96). Death (n=20, 16%) was the most common in those <6 months of age with SpO(2)<94% and developmental/surfactant disorders. We report for the first time that ChILD survivors improved multiple clinical parameters within 8-12 weeks of diagnosis. These data can inform family discussions and support clinical trial measurements

International management platform for children's interstitial lung disease (chILD-EU)

BACKGROUND: Children's interstitial lung diseases (chILD) cover many rare entities, frequently not diagnosed or studied in detail. There is a great need for specialised advice and for internationally agreed subclassification of entities collected in a register.Our objective was to implement an international management platform with independent multidisciplinary review of cases at presentation for long-term follow-up and to test if this would allow for more accurate diagnosis. Also, quality and reproducibility of a diagnostic subclassification system were assessed using a collection of 25 complex chILD cases. METHODS: A web-based chILD management platform with a registry and biobank was successfully designed and implemented. RESULTS: Over a 3-year period, 575 patients were included for observation spanning a wide spectrum of chILD. In 346 patients, multidisciplinary reviews were completed by teams at five international sites (Munich 51%, London 12%, Hannover 31%, Ankara 1% and Paris 5%). In 13%, the diagnosis reached by the referring team was not confirmed by peer review. Among these, the diagnosis initially given was wrong (27%), imprecise (50%) or significant information was added (23%).The ability of nine expert clinicians to subcategorise the final diagnosis into the chILD-EU register classification had an overall exact inter-rater agreement of 59% on first assessment and after training, 64%. Only 10% of the 'wrong' answers resulted in allocation to an incorrect category. Subcategorisation proved useful but training is needed for optimal implementation. CONCLUSIONS: We have shown that chILD-EU has generated a platform to help the clinical assessment of chILD. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: Results, NCT02852928

Aprendendo a ler e a escrever: a narrativa das crianças sobre a alfabetização

Esse estudo examina as narrativas orais feitas por crianças da primeira série escolar acerca da alfabetização. Foram entrevistadas 38 crianças vindas de famílias de baixa renda e que freqüentavam uma escola pública da cidade do Rio de Janeiro. A maioria das crianças que encontraram dificuldade durante o processo de alfabetização produziu narrativas que se referiam à descrição da rotina escolar ou de atividade relacionada à leitura e à escrita sem menção ao desempenho do protagonista da história. Por outro lado, as crianças que foram bem-sucedidas produziram um número significativo de histórias relatando o sucesso do protagonista durante o aprendizado inicial da leitura e da escrita. Poucas histórias foram produzidas, por ambos os grupos, narrando o insucesso do protagonista. Os resultados foram discutidos com relação às representações acerca da experiência de sucesso ou fracasso experimentado pela criança em seu aprendizado

Cdc37 goes beyond Hsp90 and kinases

Cdc37 is a relatively poorly conserved and yet essential molecular chaperone. It has long been thought to function primarily as an accessory factor for Hsp90, notably directing Hsp90 to kinases as substrates. More recent discoveries challenge this simplistic view. Cdc37 client proteins other than kinases have now been found, and Cdc37 displays a variety of Hsp90-independent activities both in vitro and in vivo. It can function as a molecular chaperone by itself, interact with other Hsp90 cochaperones in the absence of Hsp90, and even support yeast growth and protein folding without its Hsp90-binding domain. Thus, for many substrates, there may be many alternative chaperone pathways involving Cdc37, Hsp90, or both

Family Law and Social Welfare: Toward a New Equality

The rising divorce rate in Canada has had a differential economic impact upon men and women, and the author speculates ready divorce has been a major contributing factor in the \u27feminization of poverty . Principles in family law which have emerged for determining eligibility for support upon divorce or separation are not consistent with the principles of social assistance legislation. Future reforms must address the different economic positions of former husbands and wives following marital breakdown if the principles of equality and independence espoused as ideal are to apply to everyone