Variable Education Exposure and Cognitive Task Performance Among the Tsimane, Forager-Horticulturalists.

At present, we know very little about the transition from traditional learning skills to models of standardized learning, and how it can influence the way one understands and solves problems. This research will examine cognitive performance and the factors affecting variation across communities and between individuals as it changes with age. The objective of this dissertation is to measure cognitive performance among children between 8 and 18 years of age exposed to variable levels of formal schooling in order to investigate three main research questions: (1) Whether exposure to schooling and increased performance in school-based abilities, such as math and reading, are positively correlated with performance on tests that measure cognitive ability. (2) How training to the test affects performance within schooled and unschooled populations. And, (3) how upstream factors, including parental embodied capital and family size, can impact child outcomes in school and on cognitive tests

Promoting children\u27s social and emotional wellbeing in childcare centers within low socioeconomic areas: strategies, facilitators and challenges

Althought childcare centres have a vital role to play in the social and emotional development of children, the strategies used to promote children’s wellbeing in such settings are not well researched. This study aimed to identify the strategies, facilitators and key challenges for promoting children’s social and emotional wellbeing as reported by childcare directors and workers during semi-structured interviews. They reported mainly informal strategies with few formalised policies, curricula or strategies. Staff reported frequent difficulties communicating with parents and/or children due to many families speaking little or no English. Lack of staff training and inadequate resources for activities were other key challenges they identified. Perceived facilitators included staff having strong relationships with each other and sharing a common philosophy, as well as having an open door policy for parents. Systematic development of skills to promote children’s social and emotional wellbeing could help leverage childcare staff’s potential to promote children’s wellbeing during a crucial stage of child development

COVID-19 UK family carers and policy implications

Informal (unpaid) carers are an integral part of all societies and the health and social care systems in the UK depend on them. Despite the valuable contributions and key worker status of informal carers, their lived experiences, wellbeing, and needs have been neglected during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this Health Policy, we bring together a broad range of clinicians, researchers, and people with lived experience as informal carers to share their thoughts on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on UK carers, many of whom have felt abandoned as services closed. We focus on the carers of children and young people and adults and older adults with mental health diagnoses, and carers of people with intellectual disability or neurodevelopmental conditions across different care settings over the lifespan. We provide policy recommendations with the aim of improving outcomes for all carers

Hunter-Gatherer Children at School: A View From the Global South

Universal formal education is a major global development goal. Yet hunter-gatherer communities have extremely low participation rates in formal schooling, even in comparison with other marginalized groups. Here, we review the existing literature to identify common challenges faced by hunter-gatherer children in formal education systems in the Global South. We find that hunter-gatherer children are often granted extensive personal autonomy, which is at odds with the hierarchical culture of school. Hunter-gatherer children face economic, infrastructural, social, cultural, and structural barriers that negatively affect their school participation. While schools have been identified as a risk to the transmission of hunter-gatherer values, languages, and traditional knowledge, they are also viewed by hunter-gatherer communities as a source of economic and cultural empowerment. These observations highlight the need for hunter-gatherer communities to decide for themselves the purpose school serves, and whether children should be compelled to attend

A Cultural Species and its Cognitive Phenotypes: Implications for Philosophy

After introducing the new field of cultural evolution, we review a growing body of empirical evidence suggesting that culture shapes what people attend to, perceive and remember as well as how they think, feel and reason. Focusing on perception, spatial navigation, mentalizing, thinking styles, reasoning (epistemic norms) and language, we discuss not only important variation in these domains, but emphasize that most researchers (including philosophers) and research participants are psychologically peculiar within a global and historical context. This rising tide of evidence recommends caution in relying on one’s intuitions or even in generalizing from reliable psychological findings to the species, Homo sapiens. Our evolutionary approach suggests that humans have evolved a suite of reliably developing cognitive abilities that adapt our minds, information-processing abilities and emotions ontogenetically to the diverse culturally-constructed worlds we confront

The delirium and population health informatics cohort study protocol: ascertaining the determinants and outcomes from delirium in a whole population.

Background: Delirium affects 25% of older inpatients and is associated with long-term cognitive impairment and future dementia. However, no population studies have systematically ascertained cognitive function before, cognitive deficits during, and cognitive impairment after delirium. Therefore, there is a need to address the following question: does delirium, and its features (including severity, duration, and presumed aetiologies), predict long-term cognitive impairment, independent of cognitive impairment at baseline? Methods: The Delirium and Population Health Informatics Cohort (DELPHIC) study is an observational population-based cohort study based in the London Borough of Camden. It is recruiting 2000 individuals aged ≥70 years and prospectively following them for two years, including daily ascertainment of all inpatient episodes for delirium. Daily inpatient assessments include the Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale, the Observational Scale for Level of Arousal, and the Hierarchical Assessment of Balance and Mobility. Data on delirium aetiology is also collected. The primary outcome is the change in the modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status at two years. Discussion: DELPHIC is the first population sample to assess older persons before, during and after hospitalisation. The cumulative incidence of delirium in the general population aged ≥70 will be described. DELPHIC offers the opportunity to quantify the impact of delirium on cognitive and functional outcomes. Overall, DELPHIC will provide a real-time public health observatory whereby information from primary, secondary, intermediate and social care can be integrated to understand how acute illness is linked to health and social care outcomes

Patient perspectives of managing fatigue in ankylosing spondylitis, and views on potential interventions: a qualitative study

<p>Background: Fatigue is a major component of living with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), though it has been largely over-looked, and currently there are no specific agreed management strategies.</p> <p>Methods: This qualitative exploratory study involved participants who are members of an existing population-based ankylosing spondylitis (PAS) cohort. Participants residing in South West Wales were invited to participate in a focus group to discuss; (1) effects of fatigue, (2) self-management strategies and (3) potential future interventions. The focus groups were audio-recorded and the transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis.</p> <p>Results: Participants consisted of 3 males/4 females (group 1) and 4 males/3 females (group 2), aged between 35 and 73 years (mean age 53 years). Three main themes were identified: (1) The effects of fatigue were multi-dimensional with participants expressing feelings of being ‘drained’ (physical), ‘upset’ (emotional) and experiencing ‘low-mood’ (psychological); (2) The most commonly reported self-management strategy for fatigue was a balanced combination of activity (exercise) and rest. Medication was reluctantly taken due to side-effects and worries over dependency; (3) Participants expressed a preference for psychological therapies rather than pharmacological for managing fatigue. Information on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was received with interest, with recommendations for delivery in a group format with the option of distance-based delivery for people who were not able to attend a group course.</p> <p>Conclusions: Patients frequently try and manage their fatigue without any formal guidance or support. Our research indicates there is a need for future research to focus on psychological interventions to address the multi-faceted aspects of fatigue in AS.</p&gt

Unlocking the health system barriers to maximise the uptake and utilisation of molecular diagnostics in low- and middle- income country setting

The study was funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), grant TWENDE-EDCTP-CSA-2014-283.Background : Early access to diagnosis is crucial for effective management of any disease including tuberculosis (TB). We investigated the barriers and opportunities to maximise uptake and utilisation of molecular diagnostics in routine healthcare settings. Methods : Using the implementation of World Health Organisation approved TB diagnostics, Xpert MTB/RIF and Line Probe Assay (LPA) as a benchmark we evaluated the barriers and how they could be unlocked to maximise uptake and utilisation of molecular diagnostics. Results : Health officers representing 190 districts/counties participated in the survey across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The survey findings were corroborated by 145 healthcare facility (HCF) audits and 11 policymaker engagement workshops. Xpert MTB/RIF coverage was 66%, falling behind microscopy and clinical diagnosis by 33% and 1% respectively. Stratified by HCF type, Xpert MTB/RIF implementation was 56%, 96% and 95% at district-, regional- and national referral- hospital levels. LPA coverage was 4%, 3% below culture across the three countries. Out of 111 HCFs with Xpert MTB/RIF, 37 (33%) utilised it to full capacity, performing ≥8 tests per day of which 51% of these were level five (zonal consultant and national referral) HCFs. Likewise, 75% of LPA was available at level five HCFs. Underutilisation of Xpert MTB/RIF and LPA was mainly attributed to inadequate- utilities, 26% and human resource, 22%. Underfinancing was the main reason underlying failure to acquire molecular diagnostics. Second to underfinancing was lack of awareness with 33% healthcare administrators and 49% practitioners were unaware of LPA as TB diagnostic. Creation of a health tax and decentralising its management was proposed by policymakers as a booster of domestic financing needed to increase access to diagnostics. Conclusion : Our findings suggest higher uptake and utilisation of molecular diagnostics at tertiary level HCFs contrary to the WHO recommendation. Country-led solutions are crucial for unlocking barriers to increase access to diagnostics.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Statistical Characterization of the Chandra Source Catalog

The first release of the Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) contains ~95,000 X-ray sources in a total area of ~0.75% of the entire sky, using data from ~3,900 separate ACIS observations of a multitude of different types of X-ray sources. In order to maximize the scientific benefit of such a large, heterogeneous data-set, careful characterization of the statistical properties of the catalog, i.e., completeness, sensitivity, false source rate, and accuracy of source properties, is required. Characterization efforts of other, large Chandra catalogs, such as the ChaMP Point Source Catalog (Kim et al. 2007) or the 2 Mega-second Deep Field Surveys (Alexander et al. 2003), while informative, cannot serve this purpose, since the CSC analysis procedures are significantly different and the range of allowable data is much less restrictive. We describe here the characterization process for the CSC. This process includes both a comparison of real CSC results with those of other, deeper Chandra catalogs of the same targets and extensive simulations of blank-sky and point source populations.Comment: To be published in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (Fig. 52 replaced with a version which astro-ph can convert to PDF without issues.

HLA-Associated Phenotypes in Youth with Autoimmune Diabetes: HLA and clinical features of diabetes

To examine HLA DRB1-DQB1 haplotypes within a multi-ethnic cohort and assess their association with characteristics of diabetes onset