The experiences of immigrant parents with a child with a developmental disorder

This study used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to investigate the experiences of African immigrant mothers living in the UK with a child diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Six mothers took part in one-off semi-structured interviews. The results indicated five themes: caring for a child we didn’t expect, the pain of stigma and rejection, making sense of our child’s difficulties and diagnosis, negotiating conflicting belief systems and faith as “key”. Many aspects of the mothers’ experiences appear related to their position as immigrants from cultures with very different belief systems regarding child development and disability. Stigma, blame and social isolation appeared to compound the difficulties they experienced. Conflicts between African cultural beliefs and a western, medical understanding of ASD, appeared to create a feeling of cognitive dissonance for the mothers. The strategies they used to negotiate this appear to map onto Berry’s (2005) acculturation strategies, suggesting the experience of having a child with ASD impacts upon the acculturation process. Implications for clinical practice and policy are discussed, including the importance of raising awareness of ASD among immigrant communities, supporting parents to integrate conflicting belief systems and facilitating the development of peer-support groups within minority communities

TRADEOFFS BETWEEN RURAL DEVELOPMENT POLICIES AND FOREST PROTECTION: SPATIALLY-EXPLICIT MODELING IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS OF VIETNAM

Alleviating rural poverty remains an important objective of development policy in many areas of the world. However, traditional means of increasing rural livelihoods such as increased investments in agricultural intensification measures can have disastrous impacts on natural resources such as forests by greatly increasing incentives for clearing. This paper contains a spatially-explicit model of land use in the Dak Lak province in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Land use is modeled using a reduced-form multinomial logit model, and policy simulations are conducted. These simulations demonstrate that the adoption of yield-increasing inputs requires concomitant forest protection policies, both in terms of forest area and spatial configuration.International Development,

THE DYNAMICS OF LAND-COVER CHANGE IN WESTERN HONDURAS: SPATIAL AUTOCORRELATION AND TEMPORAL VARIATION

This paper presents an econometric analysis of land-cover change in western Honduras. Ground-truthed satellite image analysis indicates that between 1987 and 1996, net reforestation occurred in the 1,015.12 km2 study region. While some reforestation can be attributed to a 1987 ban on logging, the area of reforestation greatly exceeds that of previously clear-cut areas. Further, new area was also deforested between 1987-1996. Thus, the observed land-cover changes most likely represent a complex mosaic of changing land-use patterns across time and space. We estimate a random-effects probit model to capture drivers of land-cover change that are spatial, temporal or both. We employ two techniques to correct for spatial error dependence in econometric analysis suitable to qualitative dependent variables. Lastly, we simulate the impact of anticipated changes in transportation costs on land cover. We find that market accessibility, increase in national coffee prices, and agricultural suitability are the most important determinants of recent land-cover change.Land Economics/Use,

The experiences of African immigrant mothers living in the United Kingdom with a child diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder: an interpretive phenomenological analysis

Interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to investigate the experiences of six African immigrant mothers living in the United Kingdom with a child diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The mothers took part in one-off, semi-structured interviews. Four themes were identified: caring for a child we did not expect, the pain of stigma and rejection, frameworks of meaning, and negotiating conflicting cultural beliefs. Many aspects of the mothers’ experiences appear related to their position as immigrants from cultures with contrasting belief systems regarding child development and disability. Conflicts between African cultural beliefs and a western, medical understanding of ASD appeared to create a feeling of cognitive dissonance for the mothers. The strategies used to negotiate this appear to map onto Berry’s acculturation strategies, suggesting that the experience of having a child with ASD impacts upon the acculturation process. Implications for clinical practice and policy are discussed

THE VARIED IMPACT OF GREENWAYS ON RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY VALUES IN A METROPOLITAN, MICROPOLITAN, AND RURAL AREA: THE CASE OF THE CATAWBA REGIONAL TRAIL

This paper presents hedonic analyses designed to estimate the real estate premium from improved access to a regional greenway system in three distinct counties. The hypothesis is tested that unobservable factors relating to the overall economic structure of each county influence how and to what extent access to open space is effectively capitalized into residential sales prices.Land Economics/Use,

An Exonic Splicing Enhancer within a Bidirectional Coding Sequence Regulates Alternative Splicing of an Antisense mRNA

The discovery of increasing numbers of genes with overlapping sequences highlights the problem of expression in the context of constraining regulatory elements from more than one gene. This study identifies regulatory sequences encompassed within two genes that overlap in an antisense orientation at their 3’ ends. The genes encode the α-thyroid hormone receptor gene (TRα or NR1A1) and Rev-erbα (NR1D1). In mammals TRα pre-mRNAs are alternatively spliced to yield mRNAs encoding functionally antagonistic proteins: TRα1, an authentic thyroid hormone receptor; and TRα2, a non-hormone-binding variant that acts as a repressor. TRα2-specific splicing requires two regulatory elements that overlap with Rev-erbα sequences. Functional mapping of these elements reveals minimal splicing enhancer elements that have evolved within the constraints of the overlapping Rev-erbα sequence. These results provide insight into the evolution of regulatory elements within the context of bidirectional coding sequences. They also demonstrate the ability of the genetic code to accommodate multiple layers of information within a given sequence, an important property of the code recently suggested on theoretical grounds

Transport critical current density in Fe-sheathed nano-SiC doped MgB2 wires

The nano-SiC doped MgB2/Fe wires were fabricated using a powder-in-tube method and an in-situ reaction process. The depression of Tc with increasing SiC doping level remained rather small due to the counterbalanced effect of Si and C co-doping. The high level SiC co-doping allowed creation of the intra-grain defects and nano-inclusions, which act as effective pinning centers, resulting in a substantial enhancement in the Jc(H) performance. The transport Jc for all the wires is comparable to the magnetic Jc at higher fields despite the low density of the samples and percolative nature of current. The transport Ic for the 10wt% SiC doped MgB2/Fe reached 660A at 5K and 4.5T (Jc = 133,000A/cm2) and 540A at 20K and 2T (Jc = 108,000A/cm2). The transport Jc for the 10wt% SiC doped MgB2 wire is more than an order of magnitude higher than for the state-the-art Fe-sheathed MgB2 wire reported to date at 5K and 10T and 20K and 5T respectively. There is a plenty of room for further improvement in Jc as the density of the current samples is only 50%.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures, presented at ASC 2002, Housto

Development of real-time PCR and hybridization methods for detection and identification of thermophilic Campylobacter spp. in pig faecal samples

Aims: To develop a real-time (rt) PCR for species differentiation of thermophilic Campylobacter and to develop a method for assessing co-colonization of pigs by Campylobacter spp. Methods and results: The specificity of a developed 5’nuclease rt-PCR for species-specific identification of C. jejuni, C. coli, C. lari, C. upsaliensis and of a hipO gene nucleotide probe for detection of C. jejuni by colony-blot hybridization were determined by testing a total of 75 reference strains of Campylobacter spp. and related organisms. The rt-PCR method allowed species-specific detection of Campylobacter spp. in naturally infected pig faecal samples after an enrichment step, whereas the hybridization approach enhanced the specific isolation of C. jejuni (present in minority to C. coli) from pigs. Conclusions: The rt-PCR was specific for Campylobacter jejuni, C. coli, C. lari, and C. upsaliensis and the colony-blot hybridization approach provided an effective tool for isolation of C. jejuni from pig faecal samples typically dominated by C. coli. Significance and impact of study: Species differentiation between thermophilic Campylobacter is difficult by phenotypic methods and the developed rt-PCR provides an easy and fast method for such differentiation. Detection of C. jejuni by colony hybridization may increase the isolation rate of this species from pig feces

Substitution induced pinning in MgB_2 superconductor doped with SiC nano-particles

By doping MgB_2 superconductor with SiC nano-particles, we have successfully introduced pinning sites directly into the crystal lattice of MgB_2 grains (intra-grain pinning). It became possible due to the combination of counter-balanced Si and C co-substitution for B, leading to a large number of intra-granular dislocations and the dispersed nano-size impurities induced by the substitution. The magnetic field dependence of the critical current density was significantly improved in a wide temperature range, whereas the transition temperature in the sample MgB_2(SiC)_x having x = 0.34, the highest doping level prepared, dropped only by 2.6 K.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure