Enhancing Child Care for Children with Special Needs Through Technical Assistance

Children with special needs often require additional supports in child care settings. The provision of technical assistance (TA) and consultation to child care teachers is an established method for addressing this need. This study expands on existing research by bringing the perspective of different adults (parents, technical assistance consultants, teachers, and child care center directors) together to better understand the experiences of all parties involved in TA cases for children between the ages of three and five. The concerns most frequently leading to the consultation were social-emotional-behavioral (50.5%), developmental (32.3%), medical (28.3%), and environmental risk (14%), and one quarter of parents reported that their child had more than one of these concerns. Parents’ evaluations of the outcomes of the consultation were predicted by the parent’s race, level of education, and whether they saw a behavioral concern as the initial reason for the consultation. Open-ended comments provided more insight into each group of adults’ experiences, some of which included frustration about feeling involved/included in the consultation (for parents) and parents’ not being involved in and/or engaged with the consultation (for other adults). The study’s findings emphasize the importance of all adults working as a team to ensure the best possible care for children with special needs

Identifikation, Charakterisierung und funktionale Untersuchung von putativen Emodepsidrezeptoren bei Nematoden

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Interleukin 10 and transforming growth factor‐beta 1 plasma levels in atopic dogs before and during immunotherapy

Background: Human studies suggest that the cytokines, interleukin 10 (IL-10) and transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-ß1) may play an important role in allergen-specific immunotherapy (ASIT). However, there is little known about the function of these cytokines in atopic dogs. This study compared the plasma levels of IL-10 and TGF-ß1 in atopic and control dogs and investigated their changes during different ASIT approaches. Methods: A total of 54 atopic and 32 control dogs were included. Immunotherapy was performed in 30 atopic dogs. The dogs undergoing immunotherapy were allocated to four groups of different ASIT approaches (namely subcutaneous, intralymphatic, sublingual ASIT and subcutaneous ASIT with recombinant allergens). Blood samples were collected at four timepoints throughout the one year of ASIT. Canine atopic dermatitis extent and severity index, pruritus visual analogue scale and medication score were recorded at each timepoint. Commercially available ELISA kits were used to quantify IL-10 and TGF-ß1 in plasma. Results: There was no significant difference in IL-10 and TGF-ß1 between atopic and control dogs. The IL-10 levels were significantly increased in the intralymphatic group at the end of the study. No significant differences were found in the other groups for both IL-10 and TGF-ß1. Conclusion: The findings of this work suggest that IL-10 and TGF-ß1 cannot be used to monitor the course of the disease during ASIT

Oxidation of manganese in an ancient aquifer, Kimberley formation, Gale crater, Mars

The Curiosity rover observed high Mn abundances (>25 wt % MnO) in fracture‐filling materials that crosscut sandstones in the Kimberley region of Gale crater, Mars. The correlation between Mn and trace metal abundances plus the lack of correlation between Mn and elements such as S, Cl, and C, reveals that these deposits are Mn oxides rather than evaporites or other salts. On Earth, environments that concentrate Mn and deposit Mn minerals require water and highly oxidizing conditions; hence, these findings suggest that similar processes occurred on Mars. Based on the strong association between Mn‐oxide deposition and evolving atmospheric dioxygen levels on Earth, the presence of these Mn phases on Mars suggests that there was more abundant molecular oxygen within the atmosphere and some groundwaters of ancient Mars than in the present day

Helping John to Make Informed Decisions on Using Social Login

Users make two privacy-related decisions when signing up for a new Service Provider (SP): (1) whether to use an existing Single Sign-On (SSO) account of an Identity Provider (IdP), or not, and (2) the information the IdP is allowed to share with the SP under specific conditions. From a privacy point of view, the use of existing social network-based SSO solutions (i.e. social login) is not recommended. This advice, however, comes at the expense of security, usability, and functionality. Thus, in principle, it should be up to the user to consider all advantages and disadvantages of using SSO and to consent to requested permissions, provided that she is well informed. Another issue is that existing social login sign-up interfaces are often not compliant with legal privacy requirements for informed consent and Privacy by Default. Accordingly, our research focuses on enabling informed decisions and consent in this context. To this end, we identified users’ problems and usability issues from the literature and an expert cognitive walkthrough.We also elicited end user and legal privacy requirements for user interfaces (UIs) providing informed consent. This input as used to develop a tutorial to inform users on the pros and cons of sign-up methods and to design SSO sign-up UIs for privacy. A between-subject laboratory study with 80 participants was used to test both the tutorial and the UIs. We demonstrate an increase in the level to which users are informed when deciding and providing consent in the context of social login

A novel therapeutic diet can significantly reduce the medication score and pruritus of dogs with atopic dermatitis during a nine‐month controlled study

Background: Canine atopic dermatitis (cAD) is a common chronic relapsing pruritic skin disease for which management commonly relies on life-long use of immunomodulatory drugs. A number of the medications used are associated with adverse effects and the potential for complications during long-term use. Hypothesis: The goal of the study was to determine if a complete and balanced diet formulated for therapeutic benefit could contribute towards management of cAD. We hypothesised that the diet would reduce pruritus while also reducing the requirement for medication during the study period. Animals, materials and methods: Forty privately owned dogs, having undergone a comprehensive diagnosis for cAD, were randomly allocated to two groups, each group being fed one of two diets (test or control) for up to nine months. We assessed pruritus, Canine Atopic Dermatitis Extent and Severity Index-(4th iteration) and medication score, the latter reflecting the medication required to maintain a satisfactory quality of life for the animal. Results: Both diets were well-accepted and -tolerated. There was a significant improvement in the pruritus score after three months of feeding the therapeutic diet (P = 0.0001). No such improvement was observed at any time point in the group of dogs given the control diet. There was a reduced drug requirement for dogs receiving the therapeutic diet after three months (P = 0.058), and that decrease was significant at six months (P = 0.021) and nine months (P = 0.018). No improvement was seen at any time point in the control group. Conclusion: The results suggest that a novel therapeutic diet can assist in the management of cAD by helping to control pruritus and reducing reliance on medication

Measuring system competence in education for sustainable development

This paper presents the development of an instrument for the assessment of system competence in the field of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Based on an already existing, more complex model of system competence for the school subject geography, we have developed a test that refers to central themes and principles of ESD using exclusively closed answer formats. Building on the results of cognitive laboratories and expert feedback from various fields, the instrument was (further) developed in an iterative process of feedback and revision. We conducted a quantitative pilot study with N = 366 8th and 9th grade students. The results indicate that the development of our system competence test was successful-the overall test yielded a high reliability and only very few items were not working as intended. Furthermore, the difficulties of the items were appropriate for the ability levels of the students and the results of a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) suggest that the newly developed test measures system competence with one dimension. As the test is compact, easy to interpret, and yet reliable, it is particularly suitable for monitoring purposes in the field of ESD. (DIPF/Orig.

Interactions of the chemokines CXCL11 and CXCL12 in human tumor cells

BACKGROUND The chemokines, CXCL12 and CXCL11, are upregulated in tumors from many organs and control their progression. CXCL12 and CXCL11 affect tumor cell functions by either binding their prime receptors, CXCR4 and CXCR3, respectively, and/or CXCR7 as a common second chemokine receptor. In humans, CXCR3 exists in the functional splice variants, CXCR3A and CXCR3B, which either have pro- or anti-tumor activity, respectively. Despite the intimate crosstalk between the CXCL12- and CXCL11-system, the impact of a combination of CXCL12 and CXCL11 on tumor progression remains vague. METHODS In the present work, we have analyzed CXCL12 and CXCL11 for combined effects on migration, invasion, proliferation, and cytostatic-induced apoptosis of the human tumor cells, A549, A767, A772, DLD-1, and MDA-MB-231. RESULTS We demonstrate that the mode of interaction differs with respect to cell type and function and allows for either potentiation, attenuation or no changes of cellular responses. The divergent responses are not the result of the distinct use of different CXCL12- and CXCL11-receptors by the respective tumor cells, but in case of cell migration seem to be associated with the activation of p38 signaling pathways. CONCLUSIONS Our findings point to therapeutic limitations of ongoing efforts to selectively target CXCR3, CXCR4, or CXCR7 in cancer patients, and rather favor individualized targeting strategies