Parent Perspectives on Preparing Students with Intellectual Disabilities for Inclusive Postsecondary Education

There are a greater number of inclusive postsecondary education (PSE) programs for students with intellectual disabilities (ID) in the U.S. than ever before. Consequently, there are a greater number of students with ID who now have the opportunity to participate in fully inclusive PSE programs with the intent of improving their transition outcomes related to employment, independent living, and quality of life. For students with ID to get the most out of these expanding PSE opportunities, it is imperative that they develop the personal competencies that will better prepare them to participate in such programs. The current study began the exploratory process of identifying, from a parent perspective, the personal competencies related to inclusive PSE readiness for students with intellectual disabilities in the broad categories of (a) the personal skills, (b) knowledge, and (c) attributes. This purpose was achieved by using a three-round Delphi survey, administered to a sample of parents of students with ID who have participated in one of the 44 federally funded Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities (TPSIDs). The first round of the survey generated 56 items that participants in Round Two then rated on a 7-point scale of importance related to preparing students with ID for participation in inclusive PSE. In the final round of the Delphi survey, participants were provided with the mean, standard deviation, and frequency distribution for each of the 56 items from Round Two and asked to rerate each item based on the additional information provided. In Round Three the expert panel of parents gained consensus on 33 items related to personal skills, knowledge, and attributes they deemed important for students with ID to develop in order to be prepared for an inclusive PSE program. Results of the study were discussed in the context of the literature related to personal competencies for college readiness for students with and without ID. Additionally, implications, limitations, and recommendations for future research were discussed

Mechanisms of cognitive-behavioral therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder involve robust and extensive increases in brain network connectivity.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD); however, little is understood about its mechanisms related to brain network connectivity. We examined connectivity changes from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data pre-to-post-CBT in 43 OCD participants, randomized to receive either 4 weeks of intensive CBT or 4 weeks waitlist followed by 4 weeks of CBT, and 24 healthy controls before and after 4 weeks of no treatment. Network-based-statistic analysis revealed large-magnitude increases in OCD connectivity in eight networks. Strongest increases involved connectivity between the cerebellum and caudate/putamen, and between the cerebellum and dorsolateral/ventrolateral prefrontal cortices. Connectivity increases were associated with increased resistance to compulsions. Mechanisms of CBT may involve enhanced cross-network integration, both within and outside of classical cortico-striatal-thalamo-cortical regions; those involving cerebellar to striatal and prefrontal regions may reflect acquisition of new non-compulsive goal-directed behaviors and thought patterns. Our findings have implications for identifying targets for enhancing treatment efficacy and monitoring treatment progress

Larger portions make me eat more : awareness of the external factors that influence food intake

There is consistent evidence that the amount of food people consume can be influenced by external factors, such as food portion size or the amount of food others are eating. However research studies to date have suggested that people are generally unaware of the influence that these external factors have on food intake. In the present research we directly tested whether consumers are aware of how external factors can affect their food intake. In Study 1 we re-analysed data from a study in which an effect of portion size on food intake was observed and post-consumption, participants were asked whether they believed portion size had influenced their food intake. In Study 2 participants were asked to indicate whether several different external factors known to increase food intake would be likely to increase, decrease or have no effect on how much they would eat in hypothetical scenarios. In Study 1, a large proportion of participants (56%) believed that their food intake was influenced by portion size. In Study 2, a large proportion of participants accurately identified that external factors known to affect eating behaviour would be likely to increase their food intake: portion size (73%), social influence (40%), food variety (75%), and distraction (59%). Together these results suggest that consumers show awareness of the influence that external factors have on their food intake

Metallochaperones Are Needed for Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Escherichia coli Nicotinamidase-Pyrazinamidase Activity.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis nicotinamidase-pyrazinamidase (PZAse) is a metalloenzyme that catalyzes conversion of nicotinamide-pyrazinamide to nicotinic acid-pyrazinoic acid. This study investigated whether a metallochaperone is required for optimal PZAse activity. M. tuberculosis and Escherichia coli PZAses (PZAse-MT and PZAse-EC, respectively) were inactivated by metal depletion (giving PZAse-MT-Apo and PZAse-EC-Apo). Reactivation with the E. coli metallochaperone ZnuA or Rv2059 (the M. tuberculosis analog) was measured. This was repeated following proteolytic and thermal treatment of ZnuA and Rv2059. The CDC1551 M. tuberculosis reference strain had the Rv2059 coding gene knocked out, and PZA susceptibility and the pyrazinoic acid (POA) efflux rate were measured. ZnuA (200 μM) achieved 65% PZAse-EC-Apo reactivation. Rv2059 (1 μM) and ZnuA (1 μM) achieved 69% and 34.3% PZAse-MT-Apo reactivation, respectively. Proteolytic treatment of ZnuA and Rv2059 and application of three (but not one) thermal shocks to ZnuA significantly reduced the capacity to reactivate PZAse-MT-Apo. An M. tuberculosis Rv2059 knockout strain was Wayne positive and susceptible to PZA and did not have a significantly different POA efflux rate than the reference strain, although a trend toward a lower efflux rate was observed after knockout. The metallochaperone Rv2059 restored the activity of metal-depleted PZAse in vitro Although Rv2059 is important in vitro, it seems to have a smaller effect on PZA susceptibility in vivo. It may be important to mechanisms of action and resistance to pyrazinamide in M. tuberculosis Further studies are needed for confirmation.IMPORTANCE Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis and remains one of the major causes of disease and death worldwide. Pyrazinamide is a key drug used in the treatment of tuberculosis, yet its mechanism of action is not fully understood, and testing strains of M. tuberculosis for pyrazinamide resistance is not easy with the tools that are presently available. The significance of the present research is that a metallochaperone-like protein may be crucial to pyrazinamide's mechanisms of action and of resistance. This may support the development of improved tools to detect pyrazinamide resistance, which would have significant implications for the clinical management of patients with tuberculosis: drug regimens that are appropriately tailored to the resistance profile of a patient's individual strain lead to better clinical outcomes, reduced onward transmission of infection, and reduction of the development of resistant strains that are more challenging and expensive to treat

A programme for the prevention of post-traumatic stress disorder in midwifery (POPPY): indications of effectiveness from a feasibility study

Background: Midwives can experience events they perceive as traumatic when providingcare. As a result, some will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with adverse implications for their mental health, the quality of care provided for women and the employing organizations. POPPY (Programme for the prevention of PTSD in midwifery) is a package of educational and supportive resources comprising an educational workshop, information leaflet, peer support and access to trauma-focused clinical psychology intervention. A feasibility study of POPPY implementation was completed. Objective: This study aimed to identify potential impacts of POPPY on midwives’ understandingof trauma, their psychological well-being and job satisfaction. Method: POPPY was implemented in one hospital site. Before taking part in the POPPY workshop (T1) midwives (N = 153) completed self-report questionnaires, which measured exposure to work-related trauma, knowledge and confidence of managing trauma responses, professional impacts, symptoms of PTSD, burnout and job satisfaction. Measures were repeated (T2) approximately 6 months after training (n = 91, 62%). Results: Midwives’ confidence in recognizing (p = .001) and managing early traumaresponses in themselves and their colleagues significantly improved (both p < .001). There was a trend towards reduced levels of PTSD symptomatology, and fewer midwives reported sub clinical levels of PTSD (from 10% at T1 to 7% at T2). The proportion of midwives reporting high and moderate levels of depersonalization towards care was reduced (33% to 20%) and midwives reported significantly higher levels of job satisfaction at T2 (p < .001). Reductions in self-reported stress-related absenteeism (12% to 5%), long-term changes to clinical allocation (10% to 5%) and considerations about leaving midwifery (34% to 27%) were identified. Conclusions: In conclusion, POPPY shows very positive potential to improve midwives’ mental health and the sensitivity of care they provide, and reduce service disruption and costs for trusts. Large-scale longitudinal evaluation is required

Physical Characteristics, Sensors and Applications of 2D/3DIntegrated CMOS Photodiodes

Two-dimensional photodiodes are reversely biased at a reasonable voltage whereas 3D photodiodes are likely operated at the Geiger mode. How to design integrated 2D and 3D photodiodes is investigated in terms of quantum efficiency, dark current, crosstalk, response time and so on. Beyond photodiodes, a charge supply mechanism provides a proper charge for a high dynamic range of 2D sensing, and a feedback pull-down mechanism expedites the response time of 3D sensing for time-of-flight applications. Particularly, rapid parallel reading at a 3D mode is developed by a bus-sharing mechanism. Using the TSMC 0.35μm 2P4M technology, a 2D/3D-integrated image sensor including P-diffusion_N-well_P-substrate photodiodes, pixel circuits, correlated double sampling circuits, sense amplifiers, a multi-channel time-to-digital converter, column/row decoders, bus-sharing connections/decoders, readout circuits and so on was implemented with a die size of 12mm×12mm. The proposed 2D/3D-integrated image sensor can perceive a 352×288-pixel 2D image and an 88×72-pixel 3D image with a dynamic range up to 100dB and a depth resolution of around 4cm, respectively. Therefore, our image sensor can effectively capture gray-level and depth information of a scene at the same location without additional alignment and post-processing. Finally, the currently available 2D and 3D image sensors are discussed and presented

Vertical flow in the Southern Ocean estimated from individual moorings

In this study, we demonstrate that oceanic vertical velocities can be estimated from individual mooring measurements, even for non-stationary flow. This result is obtained under three assumptions: i. weak diffusion (Péclet number ≫1), ii. weak friction (Reynolds number ≫1), and iii. small inertial terms (Rossby number ≪1). The theoretical framework is applied to a set of 4 moorings located in the Southern Ocean. For this site, the diagnosed vertical velocities are highly variable in time, their standard deviation being one-to-two orders of magnitude greater than their mean. We demonstrate that the time-averaged vertical velocities are largely induced by geostrophic flow, and can be estimated from the time-averaged density and horizontal velocities. This suggests that local time-mean vertical velocities are primarily forced by the time-mean ocean dynamics, rather than by e.g. transient eddies or internal waves. We also show that, in the context of these four moorings, the time-mean vertical flow is consistent with stratified Taylor column dynamics in the presence of a topographic obstacle