The roles of adult siblings in the lives of people with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities

BACKGROUND: Siblings of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) often assume key roles to support their brothers and sisters. For people with more significant support needs, siblings may undertake additional roles and responsibilities throughout their lives. The purpose of the present study was to identify and describe the roles of adult siblings who have a brother or sister with severe IDD. METHOD: Seventy‐nine adult siblings from 19 to 72 years of age completed an online survey with open‐ended questions about the roles they play in their relationships with their brother or sister. RESULTS: Thematic analysis resulted in identification of several roles including caregiver, friend (social partner), advocate, legal representative, sibling (teacher/role model), leisure planner and informal service coordinator. CONCLUSION: Siblings assume key roles in the lives of people with IDD and need support from family and professionals to perform these roles.Accepted manuscrip

Patterns of adult sibling role involvement with brothers and sisters with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Adult siblings of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are increasingly involved in family care, yet, adult siblings consistently report needing more information and support to engage in these roles. Knowing more about which roles siblings are likely to assume may help address this need. Thus, we further examined the most common roles assumed by adult siblings (N = 171), the demographic variables related to an increased likelihood of assuming specific roles, and the potential clusters in patterns of role assumption. We transformed qualitative data from an online survey with four open-ended questions about sibling relationships and roles into quantitative presence data for role-related codes in order to examine relationships between assumed roles and demographic variables. The most common roles assumed by adult siblings were friend, advocate, caregiver, and sibling. Key demographic variables related to role assumption included disability severity, emotional closeness, and age of the brother or sister with IDD. Cluster analyses indicated five potential categories of adult sibling role involvement: Companion, Least Involved, Highly Involved, Needs Focused, and Professional. Implications and future areas of research are shared.Accepted manuscrip

Strongly isospectral manifolds with nonisomorphic cohomology rings

For any $n\geq 7$, $k\geq 3$, we give pairs of compact flat $n$-manifolds $M, M'$ with holonomy groups $\mathbb Z_2^k$, that are strongly isospectral, hence isospectral on $p$-forms for all values of $p$, having nonisomorphic cohomology rings. Moreover, if $n$ is even, $M$ is K\"ahler while $M'$ is not. Furthermore, with the help of a computer program we show the existence of large Sunada isospectral families; for instance, for $n=24$ and $k=3$ there is a family of eight compact flat manifolds (four of them K\"ahler) having very different cohomology rings. In particular, the cardinalities of the sets of primitive forms are different for all manifolds.Comment: 25 pages, to appear in Revista Matem\'atica Iberoamerican

Spectra of lens spaces from 1-norm spectra of congruence lattices

To every $n$-dimensional lens space $L$, we associate a congruence lattice $\mathcal L$ in $\mathbb Z^m$, with $n=2m-1$ and we prove a formula relating the multiplicities of Hodge-Laplace eigenvalues on $L$ with the number of lattice elements of a given $\|\cdot\|_1$-length in $\mathcal L$. As a consequence, we show that two lens spaces are isospectral on functions (resp.\ isospectral on $p$-forms for every $p$) if and only if the associated congruence lattices are $\|\cdot\|_1$-isospectral (resp.\ $\|\cdot\|_1$-isospectral plus a geometric condition). Using this fact, we give, for every dimension $n\ge 5$, infinitely many examples of Riemannian manifolds that are isospectral on every level $p$ and are not strongly isospectral.Comment: Accepted for publication in IMR

Non-strongly isospectral spherical space forms

In this paper we describe recent results on explicit construction of lens spaces that are not strongly isospectral, yet they are isospectral on $p$-forms for every $p$. Such examples cannot be obtained by the Sunada method. We also discuss related results, emphasizing on significant classical work of Ikeda on isospectral lens spaces, via a thorough study of the associated generating functions

Understanding decision making among individuals With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) and their siblings

Many siblings anticipate fulfilling caregiving roles for their brothers and sisters with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Given these roles and the importance of supported decision-making, it is crucial to understand how individuals with IDD and their siblings make decisions. Using dyadic interviews, we examined the perspectives of nine sibling dyads (N = 18) about decision-making in relation to self-determination, independent living, and employment. The ages of participants ranged from 19 to 57. Data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis to identify themes. Decision-making was characterized by: parents and siblings primarily identifying courses of action; the probability of respective consequences based on the person-environment fit; and the role of the sibling in making the final decision. Characteristics related to the individual with IDD, the family, the sibling, and the environment impacted decision-making. Individuals with IDD were more likely to make their own decisions about leisure activities, however, siblings were more likely to make formal decisions for their brothers and sisters.Accepted manuscrip

Parcela, número de repetições e área de experimentos de campo com fruteiras e outras plantas arbóreas.

bitstream/CNPAT-2010/7343/1/Dc-050.pd