Note on Medway Discharges

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Inhibitory control in male and female adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

[EMBARGOED UNTIL 6/1/2023] Recent research suggests that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience particular difficulty resisting interference from visual distractors (RIVD) relative to other aspects of inhibitory control (e.g., prepotent response inhibition and resistance to proactive interference). The literature further suggests that the ASD-related disruptions in inhibitory control may be age-related, such that RIVD difficulty may be more pronounced in young verses older adolescents. Much less is known, however, regarding potential sex-related differences in the inhibitory profile (i.e., strengths and weaknesses) in individuals with ASD. The present study was designed to further examine potential age- and sex-related differences in inhibitory ability in individuals with and without ASD. A sample of 44 adolescents (25 males, 19 females) with ASD and 45 adolescents without ASD (22 males, 23 females) participated. Participants completed a computerized flanker visual filtering task and a go/no-go task, which assessed RIVD and prepotent response inhibition, respectively. No significant effect of group (ASD, non-ASD) was observed for the flanker task (F(1,65) [less than] 1, p = .34, [eta]p2= .014) or the go/no-go task (F(1,69) [less than] 1, p = .90, [eta]p2 [less than] .001). There were also no significant interactions between sex and group for either task (F [less than] 1, p [greater than] 0.43, [eta]p2 [less than] 0.01, in both instances). However, a significant relationship between flanker performance and age was observed for the ASD group, with the older children showing smaller flanker effects (i.e., better inhibitory ability) as compared to the younger children (t(25) = 3.24, p = .003, pr2 = 0.30). Consistent with previous research (e.g., Christ et al., 2011), there was no evidence of ASD-related impairment in prepotent response inhibition as measured by the go/no-go task. Also consistent with past findings (e.g., Boland et al., 2019), age-related differences in RIVD ability were evident for the ASD group. Notably, we found no evidence of sex-related differences in the inhibitory profile of individuals with ASD.Includes bibliographical references

Urbanization Impacts on Land Snail Community Composition

Urbanization has tremendous impacts on most native species. Urban ecosystems are becoming increasingly prevalent, while urban ecology is a relatively underdeveloped field. This is especially true for terrestrial mollusks, which are a surprisingly understudied organism. Due to their low mobility and dispersal potential, land snails are valuable indicators of ecosystem disturbance. For this study, land snails were collected in 54 city parks along an urban gradient to understand influences of urbanization on snail communities. Sampled parks include small extensively landscaped downtown parks, neighborhood and community parks, district parks, and large nature parks, each with variable vegetation, soil characteristics, disturbance regimes, and human activities. Sampling recovered 12,153 individual snails, representing 20 families, 43 genera, and 95 species. Seven new Tennessee state and 87 new county occurrences were recorded for Davidson, Knox, Hamilton, and Marion counties. Five non-native and one extra-limital invasive species were found, four of which are new Tennessee state records. Results show that urbanization greatly alters land snail community structure. Nature and district parks have significantly greater species richness, species diversity and species evenness than community, neighborhood, and downtown parks. Degradation of parks, distance from the park to the city center and percent of coarse woody debris explained most of the variation between park types. Non-metric multidimensional scaling shows that downtown snail communities are similar across all three cities, whereas snail communities in nature parks are distinct. This suggests that urbanization promotes homogenization among land snail communities in Tennessee

On prescriptivism and ideology

In this article we explore the prescriptive approach to language use in its relation to ideology, past and present. Before Saussure, prescriptivists formulated rules from an instrumental perspective, which saw formal language as a means to persuade, partly by borrowing authority from august sources. We can now see this view as an ideology, and by analysing the mental components of ideology further we argue that the modern prescriptive approach to language appeals to a hierarchical view of society, and hence of language. This view is in conflict with the more recent ideology of equality, and contemporary processes of standardisation need to be understood by reference to this conflict. We argue at the same time that modern ‘descriptive’ linguistics, by taking the standard as its model, risks contamination from prescriptivism

The dynamics of vortices on S^2 near the Bradlow limit

The explicit solutions of the Bogomolny equations for N vortices on a sphere of radius R^2 > N are not known. In particular, this has prevented the use of the geodesic approximation to describe the low energy vortex dynamics. In this paper we introduce an approximate general solution of the equations, valid for R^2 close to N, which has many properties of the true solutions, including the same moduli space CP^N. Within the framework of the geodesic approximation, the metric on the moduli space is then computed to be proportional to the Fubini- Study metric, which leads to a complete description of the particle dynamics.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure

Follow-up after treatment for head and neck cancer: United Kingdom National Multidisciplinary Guidelines

This is the official guideline endorsed by the specialty associations involved in the care of head and neck cancer patients in the UK. In the absence of high-level evidence base for follow-up practices, the duration and frequency are often at the discretion of local centres. By reviewing the existing literature and collating experience from varying practices across the UK, this paper provides recommendations on the work up and management of lateral skull base cancer based on the existing evidence base for this rare condition

A Dialectological Survey of Northern and Central Kurdish.

This work comprises a survey of the Kurdish dialects spoken in the following northern areas, or by the following tribes of present-day Iraq: Sulaimaniya, Warmawa, Bingird, Pizdar, Arbil, Rawandiz, Xosnaw, Surcir, Akra, Amadiya, Barwari-zor, Gulli, and Zakho. With the sole exception of Sulaimani Kurdish none of these dialects has previously been described individually. A descriptive sketch of the Phonology, Morphology and Syntax of the dialects is therefore given, based on the evidence of the lingusitic material recorded by the writer in 1954-5. Where appropriate, reference is also made to other descriptions of Kurdish dialects, particularly that of the Mukri dialect by Oskar Mann. Certain phonetic and morphological features distinguishing the various dialects are then summarized and on the basis of this summary a division of the dialects into main, viz. Northern and Central, and subsidiary groups is suggested

Nursing assistants’ experiences of administering manual restraint for compulsory nasogastric feeding of young persons with anorexia nervosa

Manual restraint, a type of physical restraint, is a common practice in inpatient mental health settings linked to adverse physical and psychological staff and patient outcomes. However, little is known about the use of manual restraint for compulsory nasogastric feeding of patients with anorexia nervosa within inpatient eating disorder settings. The present phenomenological study aimed to explore nursing assistants’ experiences of administering manual restraint for compulsory nasogastric feeding of young persons with anorexia nervosa. The study followed COREQ guidelines. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight nursing assistants from one UK inpatient child and adolescent eating disorder service. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using Thematic Analysis. Three themes were extracted: An unpleasant practice, Importance of coping, and Becoming desensitised and sensitised. Nursing assistants commonly experienced emotional distress, physical exhaustion, physical injury and physical aggression as a result of their manual restraint use. Nursing assistants appeared to cope with their distress by talking with colleagues and young persons who were further in their recovery, and by detaching themselves during manual restraint incidents. The findings highlight that the use of manual restraint for compulsory nasogastric feeding of young persons with anorexia nervosa in the UK, is a highly distressing practice for nursing assistants. It is therefore important that sufficient supervision, support and training is made available to staff working in these settings