Dog bite prevention:Effect of a short educational intervention for preschool children

This study aimed to investigate whether preschool children can learn how to interpret dogs' behaviours, with the purpose of helping avoid dog bites. Three- to five-year-old children (N = 70) were tested on their ability to answer questions about dogs' emotional states before and after participating in either an educational intervention about dog behaviour (intervention group) or an activity about wild animals (control group). Children who had received training about dog behaviour (intervention group) were significantly better at judging the dogs' emotional states after the intervention compared to before. The frequency with which they referred to relevant behaviours in justifying their judgements also increased significantly. In contrast, the control group's performance did not differ significantly between the two testing times. These results indicate that preschool children can be taught how to correctly interpret dogs' behaviours. This implies that incorporating such training into prevention programmes may contribute to reducing dog bite incidents

Bi-allelic Loss-of-Function CACNA1B Mutations in Progressive Epilepsy-Dyskinesia.

The occurrence of non-epileptic hyperkinetic movements in the context of developmental epileptic encephalopathies is an increasingly recognized phenomenon. Identification of causative mutations provides an important insight into common pathogenic mechanisms that cause both seizures and abnormal motor control. We report bi-allelic loss-of-function CACNA1B variants in six children from three unrelated families whose affected members present with a complex and progressive neurological syndrome. All affected individuals presented with epileptic encephalopathy, severe neurodevelopmental delay (often with regression), and a hyperkinetic movement disorder. Additional neurological features included postnatal microcephaly and hypotonia. Five children died in childhood or adolescence (mean age of death: 9 years), mainly as a result of secondary respiratory complications. CACNA1B encodes the pore-forming subunit of the pre-synaptic neuronal voltage-gated calcium channel Cav2.2/N-type, crucial for SNARE-mediated neurotransmission, particularly in the early postnatal period. Bi-allelic loss-of-function variants in CACNA1B are predicted to cause disruption of Ca2+ influx, leading to impaired synaptic neurotransmission. The resultant effect on neuronal function is likely to be important in the development of involuntary movements and epilepsy. Overall, our findings provide further evidence for the key role of Cav2.2 in normal human neurodevelopment.MAK is funded by an NIHR Research Professorship and receives funding from the Wellcome Trust, Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Charity, and Rosetrees Trust. E.M. received funding from the Rosetrees Trust (CD-A53) and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity. K.G. received funding from Temple Street Foundation. A.M. is funded by Great Ormond Street Hospital, the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and Biomedical Research Centre. F.L.R. and D.G. are funded by Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. K.C. and A.S.J. are funded by NIHR Bioresource for Rare Diseases. The DDD Study presents independent research commissioned by the Health Innovation Challenge Fund (grant number HICF-1009-003), a parallel funding partnership between the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health, and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (grant number WT098051). We acknowledge support from the UK Department of Health via the NIHR comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre award to Guy's and St. Thomas' National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust in partnership with King's College London. This research was also supported by the NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre. J.H.C. is in receipt of an NIHR Senior Investigator Award. The research team acknowledges the support of the NIHR through the Comprehensive Clinical Research Network. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, Department of Health, or Wellcome Trust. E.R.M. acknowledges support from NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, an NIHR Senior Investigator Award, and the University of Cambridge has received salary support in respect of E.R.M. from the NHS in the East of England through the Clinical Academic Reserve. I.E.S. is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (Program Grant and Practitioner Fellowship)

Understanding of causal expressions in skilled and less skilled text comprehenders

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Summary of studies evaluating dog bite prevention programme for children.

<p>Summary of studies evaluating dog bite prevention programme for children.</p

Attitudes of children and adults to dogs in Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom

The aim of this study was to create and carry out a preliminary assessment of an attitude toward dogs scale, for preschool children and adults, in different European countries. Attitudes to animals may differ between different cultures; however, differences in attitudes to pets between European countries have not yet been investigated. Because exchange of information between the European countries is increasing, investigating differences in cultures is important for creating an effective European dog bite prevention program. Two short questionnaires were created, one to measure children’s attitudes and another to measure adults’ attitudes to dogs. These were administered to 107 nursery school children (mean age 5 4.5 years) and 120 University students (mean age 5 21.3 years) in Milan, Barcelona, and Edinburgh. Reliability testing of the questionnaire yielded a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.77 for the children’s questionnaire and of 0.73 for the adults’ questionnaire, suggesting that the questionnaires reliably measure attitudes to dogs. Children who owned dogs were found to have a more positive attitude to dogs than children who did not own dogs (U 5 1347, P , 0.001). Similarly, adults who owned dogs had a more positive attitude to dogs than those who did not own dogs (U 5 4027.5, P , 0.001). No significant differences in attitudes to dogs were found between the different countries and genders. Surprisingly, adults who had been bitten by dogs had a significantly more positive attitude than those who had not been bitten in the past (U 5 770.5, P , 0.05). These results suggest that it is possible to use a questionnaire to measure attitudes of very young children to dogs and, because no differences were found between the different countries, it should be possible to use a single dog bite prevention program for Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, rather than having to modify it to suit different cultures. In addition, the attitudes to dogs’ questionnaire may be used in various other contexts such as to assess the effectiveness in changing attitudes of a welfare education program on dogs