The efficacy of a language intervention on the acquisition of past tense in children with Down syndrome

Background: Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) experience difficulties with receptive and expressive grammar and specifically morphosyntax. Despite these difficulties, there have been few studies to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention and limited evidence of generalisation to untaught items. / Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of a language intervention on the acquisition of the regular simple past tense (RSPT) in children with DS aged 7-11 years and to explore whether any gains in the use of this grammatical rule will generalise. / Method: A randomised controlled trial evaluated a 10-week intervention, using explicit and implicit methods, designed for children with DS. Fifty-two children with DS aged 7-11 years were randomly allocated into two groups: 1) intervention group and 2) delayed intervention group. All children were assessed at three timepoints: preintervention (t1), after the intervention group had received the intervention (t2), and 12-14 weeks later (after the delayed intervention group had received the intervention) (t3). The intervention was delivered by trained teaching assistants (TAs) in daily 20-minute sessions. / Results: The intervention group made significantly greater gains at t2 on a composite measure of the use of the RSPT (d=1.63). These gains were maintained 12-14 weeks later at t3 when the delayed intervention group also made similar gains. The use of the RSPT generalised to untaught regular verbs. In addition, the children made errors of overregularisation on irregular verbs demonstrating they had learnt the grammatical rule. Generalisation to other tense morphemes (e.g., the third person singular) did not occur. / Conclusions: An intervention, using explicit and implicit methods, was successful in teaching children with DS to use a grammatical rule. Furthermore, the children were able to generalise this rule to untaught items. This provides evidence for intervention targeting morphosyntax and the feasibility of training TAs to deliver this intervention

The impact of variation in reporting practices on the validity of recommended birdstrike risk assessment processes for aerodromes

AbstractBirdstrikes are a major hazard to aviation; costing millions of pounds a year in damage and delays, as well as occasional hull losses and loss of life. The numbers and species of birds on and around airfields therefore need to be managed. To aid this process, airport staff often use risk assessments to identify which bird species cause the greatest risk and use the outcome to target their bird control effort. To this end, a number of national and international regulators, airports and other organisations recommend, or use, a derivation of a risk assessment process first published in 2006. This was developed using the UK Civil Aviation Authority's birdstrike database, employing data collected between 1976 and 1996. The risk assessment process relies on using the proportion of reported strikes that cause damage to the aircraft as a proxy for the likely severity of the outcome of strike incidents, so any change in the relative level of reporting of damaging and non-damaging strikes may significantly bias the results. The implementation of mandatory birdstrike reporting by the UK CAA in 2004 led to a significant increase in the number of strikes reported. If this involved a disproportionate increase in the number of non-damaging compared to damaging incidents reported, it may have impacted on the accuracy of the risk assessment process. This paper examines how differential reporting of damaging and non-damaging strikes can impact on the risk assessment process. It shows that changes in reporting practices since the original risk assessment was developed have impacted on the apparent birdstrike risk at UK airports, giving a false impression of increasing risk over the period. It makes recommendations for how the process can be better adapted to cope with such changes in the future, and how it should be modified for use in countries with different reporting regimes to that in the UK

A Pilot Study for Enhancing Postpartum Discharge Instructions for Incision Care: Assessment of Comprehension

Literacy and Health Care • 14.5% of United States is illiterate 1 • Reading level of most medical forms is 10th grade 2 Improving Outcomes with a Visual Aid • Cesarean Surgical Site Infection (SSI) rate is 5% 3 • A patient with a SSI can be 2 times as expensive 4 • Visual aids improve information recall 8 and confidence in wound care 5 Study Objectives 1. To evaluate the readability of the cesarean wound care discharge instructions relative to the patient population’s reading level 2. To conduct a pilot Randomized Control Trial (RCT) to evaluate the effectiveness of a visual aid on improving comprehension of the cesarean wound care instructionshttps://jdc.jefferson.edu/cwicposters/1034/thumbnail.jp

The impact of note taking style and note availability at retrieval on mock jurors' recall and recognition of trial information

Jurors forget critical trial information and what they do recall can be inaccurate. Jurors' recall of trial information can be enhanced by permitting them to take notes during a trial onto blank sheets of paper (henceforth called freestyle note taking). A recent innovation is the trial-ordered-notebook (TON) for jurors, which is a notebook containing headings outlining the trial proceedings and which has space beneath each heading for notes. In a direct comparison, TON note takers recalled more trial information than freestyle note takers. This study investigated whether or not note taking improves recall as a result of enhanced encoding or as a result of note access at retrieval. To assess this, mock jurors watched and freely recalled a trial video with one-fifth taking no notes, two-fifths taking freestyle notes and two-fifths using TONs. During retrieval, half of the freestyle and TON note takers could access their notes. Note taking enhanced recall, with the freestyle note takers and TON note takers without note access performing equally as well. Note taking therefore enhances encoding. Recall was greatest for the TON note takers with note access, suggesting a retrieval enhancement unique to this condition. The theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed

Role of the major histocompatibility complex in immune responsiveness in a Holstein Charolais cattle cross population

Infectious disease is a major issue facing the livestock industry. Further understanding of the role of genetic factors in the observed phenotypic variability of the immune response to pathogens and vaccination could assist in designing improved preventative measures such as more efficacious vaccines and targeted breeding strategies to select for disease resistance. Major candidate genes for controlling immune responsiveness are located within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). The highly polymorphic classical MHC genes are key determinants in the strength and type of immune response. However, it has proved difficult to establish genotyping approaches to define functionally relevant allelic variations for outbred species such as cattle, not least because the peptide binding clefts (PBC) of classical MHC molecules are highly polymorphic, and the genes within the MHC complex are closely linked. The overall aim of this project was to investigate the role of MHC genes in immune responsiveness in approximately 200 F2 and backcross Holstein-Charolais cattle. These animals were generated as part of the Roslin Bovine Genome (RoBoGen) herd, established through a quantitative trait loci (QTL) project, in which a number of phenotypic traits including immune traits were measured. The immune traits included responses to a Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) peptide, and vaccines against bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV), para-influenza virus 3 (PIV-3) and bovine herpes virus-1 (BHV-1), as well as T cell response to Staphylococcus aureus. The immune phenotypes measured included IgG and interferon- (IFN- ) levels and T cell proliferation. The cattle MHC region, known as bovine leukocyte antigens (BoLA), resides on bovine chromosome 23. The BoLA region contains approximately 200 genes most of which are immune-related. Class II gene polymorphisms were considered to be the most likely to influence the immune traits measured, and the project primarily focused on the best defined gene, BoLA-DRB3. A sequence-based typing technique was successfully improved to facilitate genotyping of the PBC of BoLA-DRB3 in all generations of the RoBoGen herd (approximately 400 animals) and identified 24 distinct alleles. The sequence information obtained also enabled further analysis of the role of defined ‘pockets’ within the PBC, which directly determine peptide binding affinity. All datasets were statistically analysed using a residual maximum likelihood (REML) model and it was shown that several of the DRB3 alleles within the RoBoGen herd had highly significant (p<0.05) associations with the immune response to the FMDV peptide. In addition DRB3 alleles were identified which had significant associations with the response to the respiratory pathogen vaccinations and exposure to S. aureus. The pocket analysis also enabled the identification of several amino acid positions within the PBC which were significantly associated with the immune response traits. In order to explore whether DQ Class II gene polymorphisms also played a role in the variability of responses and whether BoLA Class I-Class II haplotypes could be discerned, microarrays which utilized allele specific oligonucleotides for BoLA Class I and Class II DQ genes were employed. In addition, to investigate whether the number of DQ gene pairs per chromosome influenced the responses, a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay to determine DQA gene dosage was developed. However, due to the extremely complex nature of the BoLA region both, techniques would require improving to be used for large-scale studies. Nonetheless, information about haplotypes was determined from the microarray results and the qPCR technique lays the foundations for future development to investigate DQ gene dosage. The MHC region in cattle is very complex due the high level of polymorphisms and gene duplications. It is likely that many genes play a role in the immune response to both pathogens and vaccines. However, from the evidence presented here, polymorphisms in the PBC of BoLA-DRB3, particularly within the pockets, are significantly associated with variation in immune response to many different antigens and this information could be exploited in the design of vaccines or breeding cattle for improved disease resistance

Vulnerability of ex vivo α-motor nerve terminals to hypoxia-reperfusion injury.

A growing body of evidence shows that presynaptic nerve terminals throughout the nervous system are vulnerable to a range of traumatic, toxic and disease-related neurodegenerative stimuli. The aim of this study was to further characterise this vulnerability by examining the response of mouse α-motor nerve terminals at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) to hypoxia-reperfusion injury. To address this aim, a novel model system was generated in which ex vivo skeletal muscle preparations could be maintained in an hypoxic environment, at an O2 concentration below in vivo normoxic values (<0.25% O2), for 2hr followed by 2hr reperfusion (2H-2R). Using this model system combined with quantitative assessment of immunohistological preparations as well as some ultrastructural observations, I present evidence to show that α-motor nerve terminals are rapidly and selectively vulnerable to hypoxia-reperfusion injury with no apparent perturbations to postsynaptic endplates or muscle fibres. I show that the severity of α-motor nerve terminal pathology is age and muscle type/location dependent: in 8-12wk old mice, nerve terminals in fast-twitch lumbrical muscles are more vulnerable than predominantly slow-twitch transversus abdominis and triangularis sterni. In 5-6 week old mice however, there is an age dependent increase in vulnerability of α-motor nerve terminals from the predominantly slow-twitch muscles while the fast-twitch lumbricals remained unaffected by age. The functional, morphological and ultrastructural pathology observed in α-motor nerve terminals following 2H-2R is indicative of selective and ongoing nerve terminal disassembly but, occurs via a mechanism distinct from Wallerian degeneration, as the neuroprotective slow Wallerian degeneration (Wlds) gene did not protect nerve terminals from these pathological changes. I also provide provisional evidence to show that 1A/II muscle spindle afferents and γ-motor nerve terminals are more resistant to hypoxia-reperfusion injury compared with α-motor nerve terminals. In addition to this, I also report preliminary finding that indicate that the oxygen storing protein, neuroglobin, maybe expressed at the mouse NMJ and report the difficulties of using mice that express yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) in their neurons for repeat/live imaging studies. Overall, these data show that the model of hypoxia-reperfusion injury developed in this study is robust and repeatable, that it induces rapid, quantitative changes in α-motor nerve terminals and that it can be used to further examine the mechanisms regulating nerve terminal vulnerability in response to hypoxia-reperfusion injuries. These findings have clinical implications for the use of surgical tourniquets and in the aetiology of many neurodegenerative diseases and neuropathic sequelae where mechanisms relating to hypoxia and hypoxia-reperfusion injury have been implicated

Factors contributing to high performance of sows in free farrowing systems

BackgroundPressure to abolish farrowing crates is increasing, and producers are faced with decisions about which alternative system to adopt. For sow welfare, well designed free farrowing systems without close confinement are considered optimal but producers have concerns about increased piglet mortality, particularly crushing by the sow. Reporting accurate performance figures from commercial farms newly operating such systems could inform the transition process. This study investigated performance on three commercial farms operating four different zero-confinement systems, three of which were newly installed. A total of 3212 litters from 2920 sows were followed from farrowing to weaning over a three-year period with key performance indicators (KPIs) recorded. Mixed Models (LMMs, GLMMs) determined the influence of different factors (e.g. farrowing system, sow parity, management aspects) and litter characteristics on performance, including levels and causes of piglet mortality.ResultsPiglet mortality was significantly influenced by farm/system. Live-born mortality ranged from 10.3 to 20.6% with stillbirths ranging from 2.5 to 5.9%. A larger litter size and higher parity resulted in higher levels of mortality regardless of system. In all systems, crushing was the main cause of piglet mortality (59%), but 31% of sows did not crush any piglets, whilst 26% crushed only one piglet and the remaining sows (43%) crushed two or more piglets. System significantly influenced crushing as a percentage of all deaths, with the system with the smallest spatial footprint (m2) compared to the other systems, recording the highest levels of crushing. Time from the start of the study influenced mortality, with significant reductions in crushing mortality (by ~ 4%) over the course of the three-year study. There was a highly significant effect of length of time (days) between moving sows into the farrowing accommodation and sows farrowing on piglet mortality (P &lt; 0.001). The less time between sows moving in and farrowing, the higher the levels of piglet mortality, with ~ 3% increase in total mortality every five days. System effects were highly significant after adjusting for parity, litter size, and days pre-farrowing.ConclusionThese results from commercial farms demonstrate that even sows that have not been specifically selected for free farrowing are able, in many cases, to perform well in these zero-confinement systems, but that a period of adaptation is to be expected for overall farm performance. There are performance differences between the farms/systems which can be attributed to individual farm/system characteristics (e.g. pen design and management, staff expertise, pig genotypes, etc.). Higher parity sows and those producing very large litters provide a greater challenge to piglet mortality in these free farrowing systems (just as they do in crate systems). Management significantly influences performance, and ensuring sows have plenty of time to acclimatise between moving in to farrowing accommodation and giving birth is a critical aspect of improving piglet survival

Doxycycline delays aneurysm rupture in a mouse model of Marfan syndrome

ObjectivesThoracic aneurysms are the main cardiovascular complication of Marfan syndrome (MFS) resulting in premature death. MFS has been associated with mutations of the gene encoding fibrillin-1 (FBN1), a major constituent of the elastic fibers. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are important in the pathogenesis of abdominal aortic aneurysms but their precise role in MFS is not clear. Doxycycline is a nonspecific MMP inhibitor. The objective of the study was to determine whether docycycline can attenuate matrix degradation and prolong the survival of mice with MFS.MethodsThe study employed a well-characterized animal model of MFS, namely fibrillin-1 under-expressing mice (mgR/mgR mice) that die spontaneously from rupture of the thoracic aorta between 2 to 4 months of age. Mutant and wild type mice were given doxycycline in their drinking water at a concentration designed to provide 100 mg/kg/day beginning at postnatal day (PD) 1, whereas control mice were given water. Treated mice were divided into two groups. One group of animals was followed until death or for 7 months to determine lifespan. In the second group of mice, the ascending thoracic aortas were collected for histological analysis (H&E staining, trichrome staining) and zymography for examining MMP-2 and MMP-9 levels at 6 weeks.ResultsMMP-2 and MMP-9 levels were higher in the thoracic aorta of mgR/mgR mice compared with wild type littermates. Doxycycline-treated mgR/mgR mice lived 132 ± 14.6 days (n = 16) or significantly longer than untreated mutant mice (79 ± 6.7 days, n = 30) (P < 0.01). Connective tissue staining showed that doxycycline treatment decreased elastic fiber degradation in mgR/mgR mice. Furthermore, mgR/mgR mice treated with doxycycline had lower MMP-2 and MMP-9 levels compared with untreated mgR/mgR mice.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that doxycycline significantly delays aneurysm rupture in MFS-like mice by inhibiting expression of tissue MMP-2 and MMP-9 and thus, degradation of the elastic matrix. The results suggest that MMPs contribute to the progression of thoracic aneurysm in MFS and that doxycycline has the potential to significantly alter the course of the disease.Clinical RelevanceAortic aneurysms are the main cardiovascular complication of Marfan syndrome (MFS) resulting in premature death. β-blockers offer some benefit but do not address the underlying cause of the progressive aortic degradation. Medical treatment that actually targets recently identified pathogenic factors leading to progressive matrix destruction could significantly impact the clinical course of the disease. A recent study using a mouse model of MFS has demonstrated that TGF- β antibodies or the angiotensin II type I receptor (AT1) antagonist losartan can both effectively rescue aneurysm progression. We have found that doxycycline, a nonspecific inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), can decrease elastin degradation and prolong the lifespan of genetically engineered mice that mimic the human disease process. Based on these results, further testing may be warranted to determine if doxycycline could favorable impact the natural history of Marfan syndrome