Pediatric Developmental Screening: Understanding and Selecting Screening Instruments

Based on a review of research on developmental screening instruments, provides a manual for selecting and applying tools for screening for both general and specific problems. Includes an interactive questionnaire that links to the recommended instrument

Topical Review: Building Competency: Professional Skills for Pediatric Psychologists in Integrated Primary Care Settings

Objectives In the midst of large-scale changes across our nation’s health care system, including the Affordable Care Act and Patient-Centered Medical Home initiatives, integrated primary care models afford important opportunities for those in the field of pediatric psychology. Despite the extensive and growing attention, this subspecialty has received in recent years, a comprehensive set of core professional competencies has not been established. Methods A subset of an Integrated Primary Care Special Interest Group used two well-established sets of core competencies in integrated primary care and pediatric psychology as a basis to develop a set of integrated pediatric primary care-specific behavioral anchors. Conclusions The current manuscript describes these behavioral anchors and their development in the context of professional training as well as with regard to Triple Aim goals and securing psychology’s role in integrated pediatric primary care settings

Predictors of Long-Term Victimization After Early Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury

Pediatric traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) adversely affect long-term functional and social outcomes. Limited research suggests children with TBI are more likely to be victimized by peers than noninjured children. Deficits in social information processing (SIP), cognitive ability, and executive functioning (EF) may contribute to increased victimization risk. This study examined rates of peer victimization/bullying in children with early TBI compared with children with orthopedic injuries (OIs) and the role of processing speed, executive function (EF), and SIP as mediators of the association of TBI and peer victimization

Piston core record of Late Paleogene (31 Ma) to recent seafloor hydrothermal activity in the Southwest Pacific Basin

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/94790/1/palo1386.pd

Integrating Blue Energy in Maritime Spatial Planning of Mediterranean Regions

Blue Energy (BE) is expected to play a strategic role in the energy transition of Europe, particularly toward the 2050 horizon. It refers to a set of Marine Energy Sources (MES), including offshore wind, waves, tides, marine currents, sea thermal energy, salinity gradients, and marine biomass, which are exploited by different BE technologies. Nevertheless, the implementation of integrated solutions to exploit MES in marine areas does not just concern technological issues; it requires inclusive planning practices considering different aspects regarding climate and environmental impacts, landscape compatibility, interference with other marine activities (such as shipping, fishing, and tourism), and social acceptance. A replicable BE planning framework has been developed based on interdisciplinary knowledge in three Mediterranean sites in Greece, Croatia, and Cyprus, under the scope of the Interreg Med BLUE DEAL project. It has been implemented by some interdisciplinary experts through a collaborative and iterative process of data elaboration, mapping, evaluation, and visualization. Results concern the localization of suitable sites to install BE plants and the estimation of potential energy production and avoided emissions in selected scenarios. Together with visual simulations, this study shows the potential effects of the implementation of BE in specific marine areas, with a special focus on the most promising offshore floating wind farms and wave energy converters (WECs), as basic information for participative design and stakeholder engagement initiatives, including public authorities, businesses, and citizens

Six years beyond pediatric trauma: child and parental ratings of children’s health-related quality of life in relation to parental mental health

Purpose: To examine the relationship between child self-report and parent proxy report of health-related quality of life (HRQL) and how parents’ mental health status relates to the HRQL ratings 6 years after minor to severe injury of the child. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional cohort study was performed at a regional pediatric trauma center in Stockholm, Sweden. The PedsQL 4.0 versions for ages 5–7, 8–12, and 13–18 years were completed by 177 child–parent dyads 6 years after injury to the child. The parents also rated their own mental health through the mental health domain (MH) in the SF-36 Health Survey. Results: The children’s median age was 13 years (IQR 10–16 years), 54 % were males, and the median ISS was 5 (IQR 2–9). Most of the parents were female (77 %), born in Sweden (79 %), and half had university degrees. There was no statistically significant difference between child self-report and parent proxy report in any of the PedsQL 4.0 scales or summary scales. The levels of agreement between child self-report and parent proxy reports were excellent (ICC ≥ 0.80) for all scales with the exception of emotional functioning (ICC 0.53) which also was the scale with the lowest internal consistency in child self-report (α 0.60). Multiple regression analyses showed that worse parental mental health status correlated with worse child self-report and parent proxy report of children’s HRQL. Conclusions: Children and their parents’ reports on child’s HRQL were in agreement. Decreased mental health in parents was associated with lower scores on parent proxy reports and child self-reports of HRQL after injury. The current investigation highlights the possible relationship between parent’s mental health status and children’s HRQL long after an injury, which should be considered in future investigations and in clinical care

Measuring health-related quality of life for child maltreatment: a systematic literature review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Child maltreatment causes substantial morbidity and mortality in the U.S. Morbidity associated with child maltreatment can reduce health-related quality of life. Accurately measuring the reduction in quality of life associated with child maltreatment is essential to the economic evaluation of educational programs and interventions to reduce the incidence of child maltreatment. The objective of this study was to review the literature for existing approaches and instruments for measuring quality-of-life for child maltreatment outcomes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We reviewed the current literature to identify current approaches to valuing child maltreatment outcomes for economic evaluations. We also reviewed available preference-based generic QOL instruments (EQ-5D, HUI, QWB, SF-6D) for appropriateness in measuring change in quality of life due to child maltreatment.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We did not identify any studies that directly evaluated quality-of-life in maltreated children. We identified 4 studies that evaluated quality of life for adult survivors of child maltreatment and 8 studies that measured quality-of-life for pediatric injury not related to child maltreatment. No study reported quality-of-life values for children younger than age 3.</p> <p>Currently available preference-based QOL instruments (EQ-5D, HUI, QWB, SF-6D) have been developed primarily for adults with the exception of the Health Utilities Index. These instruments do not include many of the domains identified as being important in capturing changes in quality of life for child maltreatment, such as potential for growth and development or psychological sequelae specific to maltreatment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Recommendations for valuing preference-based quality-of-life for child maltreatment will vary by developmental level and type of maltreatment. In the short-term, available multi-attribute utility instruments should be considered in the context of the type of child maltreatment being measured. However, if relevant domains are not included in existing instruments or if valuing health for children less than 6 years of age, direct valuation with a proxy respondent is recommended. The choice of a proxy respondent is not clear in the case of child maltreatment since the parent may not be a suitable proxy. Adult survivors should be considered as appropriate proxies. Longer-term research should focus on identifying the key domains for measuring child health and the development of preference-based quality-of-life instruments that are appropriate for valuing child maltreatment outcomes.</p

EEG Signal Multichannel Frequency-Domain Ratio Indices for Drowsiness Detection Based on Multicriteria Optimization

Drowsiness is a risk to human lives in many occupations and activities where full awareness is essential for the safe operation of systems and vehicles, such as driving a car or flying an airplane. Although it is one of the main causes of many road accidents, there is still no reliable definition of drowsiness or a system to reliably detect it. Many researchers have observed correlations between frequency-domain features of the EEG signal and drowsiness, such as an increase in the spectral power of the theta band or a decrease in the spectral power of the beta band. In addition, features calculated as ratio indices between these frequency-domain features show further improvements in detecting drowsiness compared to frequency-domain features alone. This work aims to develop novel multichannel ratio indices that take advantage of the diversity of frequency-domain features from different brain regions. In contrast to the state-of-the-art, we use an evolutionary metaheuristic algorithm to find the nearly optimal set of features and channels from which the indices are calculated. Our results show that drowsiness is best described by the powers in delta and alpha bands. Compared to seven existing single-channel ratio indices, our two novel six-channel indices show improvements in (1) statistically significant differences observed between wakefulness and drowsiness segments, (2) precision of drowsiness detection and classification accuracy of the XGBoost algorithm and (3) model performance by saving time and memory during classification. Our work suggests that a more precise definition of drowsiness is needed, and that accurate early detection of drowsiness should be based on multichannel frequency-domain features