Beyond the literal meaning of words in children with klinefelter syndrome: two case studies

Literature on children with Klinefelter Syndrome (KS) points to general linguistic difficulties in both comprehension and production among other cognitive functions, and in the majority of cases, these coexist with an intellectual level within the norms. In these conditions, children having language delay generally engage in language therapy and are systematically monitored across ages. In this article, we present the profiles of two children with KS (47, XXY), aged 9.1 (Child S) and 13 (Child D), whose language development was assessed as adequate at age 3, and for this reason, did not receive any language treatment. At the present stage, their IQ, as measured by Wechsler Scales (Child S: 92; Child D: 101), is within the norm, but they both present marked weaknesses in pragmatic skills such as figurative language comprehension. The analysis of these two cases points to the need to go beyond global indexes of verbal abilities, as the same global index may mask a wide diversification of individual profiles. In addition, this study underlines the importance of monitoring the developmental trajectories of children like Child D and Child S, because weaknesses in pragmatic skills that are relevant for both academic achievement and social adaptation could emerge at later stages

Is any job really better than no job at all?

Lord Layard posed the question is “any job is better than no job” in a seminal paper in which he concluded that “human happiness is more affected by whether or not one has a job than by what kind of job it is”. This may have been true in the years leading up to the new millennium, but what about the poor quality jobs of today? Do these remain springboards to better quality jobs later on in a person’s career, just as they were in the 1990’s

Affective and Cognitive Effects of Awe in Predicting Hopelessness and Brooding Rumination

This study investigated the effects of awe, as a positive emotion, in ameliorating depressive symptoms such as hopelessness and rumination. Previous research indicates that awe is unique compared to other positive emotions in that is elicited by information rich-stimuli that facilitate shifts in cognition as one attempts to accommodate this new information to their current frame of reference. In addition, awe was found incite a self- diminishing effect that contrast the inflated significance one places on the self, during negative self-referential thinking (e.g. hopelessness). We hypothesized that exposure to an awe stimuli (video) would prompt subjects to feel less hopeless than those exposed to an amusing stimuli (video), with amusement as a control. Furthermore, we hypothesized that levels of awe could predict hopelessness above and beyond demographics and neuroticism, a predictor of negative affect. Lastly, we explored if being in the awe condition effects brooding rumination as the tendency to focus on the negative outcomes of a situation. We tested these hypothesis with an online sample (N=271) and did not find a significant mean difference in hopelessness between conditions, however we did find that being in the awe condition and experiencing higher levels of awe does predict hopelessness beyond neuroticism. Furthermore, we discovered that awe does marginally predict brooding rumination. While strictly experimental research is encouraged to further test these results, the current findings offer evidence that greater experiences of awe are promising predictors of depressive symptoms

A study of prevalence of urogenital problem among menopausal women attending the OPD at tertiary care hospital in Bhopal

Background: The interest in menopausal problems has increased in recent years, due to the expansion of human life span. Women are spending more than one-third of their lives in menopausal period. Due to this fact, estrogen deprivation can cause vaginal atrophy symptoms and vasomotor symptoms, which critically diminish quality of life (QOL) in postmenopausal women.Methods: This study is a retrospective observational/analytical study conducted in the menopausal specialty clinic in J. K. Hospital, L. N. Medical College, Bhopal over a period of 1 year. All the women who attained menopause either naturally or surgically who presented first time to the clinic for any complaints were evaluated for the UG symptoms with the help of face to face interview.Results: Out of the 300 women with menopausal symptoms, 182 i.e. 60.6% were married and 52% (156) were illiterate. The most prevalent menopausal symptom in present study was vaginal dryness 240 (80%).Conclusions: There is association with lower educational levels. Hence efforts should be made educate women about the symptoms and provide care at all the levels of health care delivery.

Unreliable estimation of prevalence of fetal alcohol syndrome

Svetlana Popova and colleagues (March, 2017)1 sought to estimate the global, regional, and national prevalence of alcohol use during pregnancy and fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). The authors reviewed inter-national literature from 1984 for country-specific quantitative studies and for countries with one or no studies they predicted gestational alcohol use prevalence by fractional response regression modelling and prevalence of FAS by an estimated quotient for the average number of women consuming alcohol during pregnancy per one case of FAS. For estimation of FAS prevalence, Italy was reported to be among the five countries worldwide with the highest prevalence of FAS per 10000 peopl

PROBABILITAS RISIKO TERKENA PENYAKIT JANTUNG DAN TB BERDASARKAN FAKTOR SOSIO-EKONOMI DAN DEMOGRAFI

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji pengaruh status sosio-ekonomi dan demografi terhadap probabilitas status kesehatan yang direpresentasikan oleh penyakit jantung dan tuberculosis (TB). Penelitian ini menggunakan data dari Survei Aspek Kehidupan Rumah Tangga Indonesia (SAKERTI), sebuah survei longitudinal yang masih berlangsung di indonesia. Terdapat beberapa variabel bebas dalam penelitian ini seperti jumlah konsumsi rokok, status gizi dan juga tekanan darah, dengan efek marginal sebagai ukuran hubungan. Dalam penelitian ini terdapat dua variabel dependen yaitu penyakit jantung dan TB dengan variabel independen yang sama, hal ini dilakukan untuk mengukur dan membandingkan seberapa besar pengaruh variabel independen terhadap kedua model variabel dependen. Jumlah observasi dalam penelitian ini adalah 8.895 individu. Studi ini menemukan bahwa faktor sosial ekonomi seperti jenjang pendidikan memiliki pengaruh positif signifikan terhadap risiko individu terkena penyakit jantung dan TB. Individu yang dikategorikan miskin tidak signifikan memengaruhi probabilitas seseorang risiko terkena penyakit jantung sebesar 0,13 persen dan TB sebesar 0,33 persen. Berbagai faktor lain seperti status gizi dan tekanan darah juga memiliki pengaruh terhadap risiko terkena penyakit jantung dan TB

Parental migration, intergenerational obligations and the paradox for left-behind boys in rural China

Drawing on in-depth interviews with caregivers of left-behind children (LBC) in rural China, this article seeks to explore their understanding of migration motives and the social process of taking on care-giving roles for LBC. The authors argue that there are underlying socio-cultural explanations pertaining to economic motives for migration; such as, making contributions to social events (weddings and funerals) in village life, and fulfilling social obligations for left-behind sons’ futures. Parents migrate to save for sons’, but not daughters’, adult lives. Grandparents, particularly on the paternal side, are expected to fulfil social obligations to care for left-behind grandchildren, even without immediate financial returns. These suggest that left-behind boys, and in particular boys cared for by paternal grandparents, may be at greater risk than other LBC, as they may receive even fewer resources in the form of remittances from migrant parents in their early childhood

Flood impacts on a water distribution network

Floods cause damage to people, buildings and infrastructures. Water distribution systems are particularly exposed, since water treatment plants are often located next to the rivers. Failure of the system leads to both direct losses, for instance damage to equipment and pipework contamination, and indirect impact, since it may lead to service disruption and thus affect populations far from the event through the functional dependencies of the network. In this work, we present an analysis of direct and indirect damages on a drinking water supply system, considering the hazard of riverine flooding as well as the exposure and vulnerability of active system components. The method is based on interweaving, through a semi-automated GIS procedure, a flood model and an EPANET-based pipe network model with a pressure-driven demand approach, which is needed when modelling water distribution networks in highly off-design conditions. Impact measures are defined and estimated so as to quantify service outage and potential pipe contamination. The method is applied to the water supply system of the city of Florence, Italy, serving approximately 380 000 inhabitants. The evaluation of flood impact on the water distribution network is carried out for different events with assigned recurrence intervals. Vulnerable elements exposed to the flood are identified and analysed in order to estimate their residual functionality and to simulate failure scenarios. Results show that in the worst failure scenario (no residual functionality of the lifting station and a 500-year flood), 420 km of pipework would require disinfection with an estimated cost of EUR 21 million, which is about 0.5 % of the direct flood losses evaluated for buildings and contents. Moreover, if flood impacts on the water distribution network are considered, the population affected by the flood is up to 3 times the population directly flooded

Autoimmune polyendocrine syndromes in the pediatric age

Autoimmune polyendocrine syndromes (APSs) encompass a heterogeneous group of rare diseases characterized by autoimmune activity against two or more endocrine or non-endocrine organs. Three types of APSs are reported, including both monogenic and multifactorial, heterogeneous disorders. The aim of this manuscript is to present the main clinical and epidemiological characteristics of APS-1, APS-2, and IPEX syndrome in the pediatric age, describing the mechanisms of autoimmunity and the currently available treatments for these rare conditions

Do gender and socioeconomic status matter when combining work and family:Could control at work and at home help? Results from the Whitehall II study

Work and family are sources of both satisfaction and conflicting demands. A challenge is to identify individuals at risk for conflict and factors that potentially reduce conflict. This study investigated how gender and socioeconomic status (SES) were associated with work–family interference (WFI) and family–work interference (FWI) and how control at work and at home related to WFI and FWI. Data from 1991–1993 and 1997–1999 of the Whitehall II study of British civil servants, including 3484 (827 women and 2657 men) employees in three SES-levels, were analysed. Women reported a higher risk for WFI and FWI. High SES employees reported higher WFI. Less control at home increased risks for WFI and FWI as did low control at work but only for WFI. This suggests that high SES women are especially at risk for conflict and that aspects from the spheres of both work and home should be considered in further research and practice