Adapted design of multimedia-facilitated language learning program for children with autism

The aim of this pilot study is to help researchers construct an appropriate multimedia-supported learning program for students who have autism. The results of this pilot study assisted the multimedia learn program designers to pay attention to the need of the development of a clear and simple layout, multiple level of content presentation, and simple but direct audio instructions. The core conclusion is the significance of the need for caring individual differences of these students during the learn process.published_or_final_versio

Enhancing Spoken Vocabulary Performance in Children with Autism in a Multimedia-supported Context

Adopting a cognitive perspective of information processing theory in multimedia learning, this study attempts to explore how much progress children with autism with limited speech make in their verbal vocabulary acquisition via a tailor-made multimedia software. These children’s speech difference than their typically developed counterparts is assumed an outcome of delayed development in the ability of retrieving appropriate information in their working memory from their long term memory instead of their receptive language capability. This is expected to help these students with the media acting as an external memory to fill the gap and prospective findings may assist professionals in such fields as education, cognitive psychology, information and communication technology, and neuropsychology as well in further investigation in these areas as contributing factors to autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and learning models for ASD students. With an ABA design of single-subject multiple-case with the design experiment approach, five children, whose parents are native Cantonese speakers, from 8 to 14 in their chronological age in a special school have been selected to participate in this investigation of 15-session 35 minutes each. Their performance in the four aspects of language, that is, phonological, semantic, syntactic, and pragmatics, will be examined. In order to obtain a relatively reliable and valid result, a pilot study on preliminary data in three different settings is being conducted. With similar or the same characteristics like those in main study, two kids each with language age of 4 to 5 in these settings, that is, a voluntary association catering for children with learning, another special school than the participating school, and the participating school.published_or_final_versionCentre of Information Technology in Education, University of Hong Kong and Education and Manpower Bureau, the Government of the Hong Kong SA

Efficacy of mycophenolate mofetil in patients with diffuse proliferative lupus nephritis

Background: The combination of cyclophosphamide and prednisolone is effective for the treatment of severe lupus nephritis but has serious adverse effects. Whether mycophenolate mofetil can be substituted for cyclophosphamide is not known. Methods: In 42 patients with diffuse proliferative lupus nephritis we compared the efficacy and side effects of a regimen of prednisolone and mycophenolate mofetil given for 12 months with those of a regimen of prednisolone and cyclophosphamide given for 6 months, followed by prednisolone and azathioprine for 6 months. Complete remission was defined as a value for urinary protein excretion that was less than 0.3 g per 24 hours, with normal urinary sediment, a normal serum albumin concentration, and values for serum creatinine and creatinine clearance that were no more than 15 percent above the base-line values. Partial remission was defined as a value for urinary protein excretion that was between 0.3 and 2.9 g per 24 hours, with a serum albumin concentration of at least 3.0 g per deciliter. Results: Eighty-one percent of the 21 patients treated with mycophenolate mofetil and prednisolone (group 1) had a complete remission, and 14 percent had a partial remission, as compared with 76 percent and 14 percent, respectively, of the 21 patients treated with cyclophosphamide and prednisolone followed by azathioprine and prednisolone (group 2). The improvements in the degree of protelnuria and the serum albumin and creatinine concentrations were similar in the two groups. One patient in each group discontinued treatment because of side effects. Infections were noted in 19 percent of the patients in group 1 and in 33 percent of those in group 2 (P=0.29). Other adverse effects occurred only in group 2; they included amenorrhea (in 23 percent of the patients), hair loss (19 percent), leukopenia (10 percent), and death (10 percent). The rates of relapse were 15 percent and 11 percent, respectively. Conclusions: For the treatment of diffuse proliferative lupus nephritis, the combination of mycophenolate mofetil and prednisolone is as effective as a regimen of cyclophosphamide and prednisolone followed by azathioprine and prednisolone. (C) 2000, Massachusetts Medical Society.published_or_final_versio

Interferon-γ couples CD8+ T cell avidity and differentiation during infection

Effective responses to intracellular pathogens are characterized by T cell clones with a broad affinity range for their cognate peptide and diverse functional phenotypes. How T cell clones are selected throughout the response to retain a breadth of avidities remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that direct sensing of the cytokine IFN-γ by CD8+ T cells coordinates avidity and differentiation during infection. IFN-γ promotes the expansion of low-avidity T cells, allowing them to overcome the selective advantage of high-avidity T cells, whilst reinforcing high-avidity T cell entry into the memory pool, thus reducing the average avidity of the primary response and increasing that of the memory response. IFN-γ in this context is mainly provided by virtual memory T cells, an antigen-inexperienced subset with memory features. Overall, we propose that IFN-γ and virtual memory T cells fulfil a critical immunoregulatory role by enabling the coordination of T cell avidity and fate

Monolithic Integration of Collimating Fresnel Lens for Beam Quality Enhancement in Tapered High Power Laser Diode

We demonstrate, for the first time, a monolithic integrated lens for wide aperture gain-guided tapered laser beam quality enhancement by compensating the quadratic phase curvature. The 3mm long tapered laser with an output aperture of 170µm adopted in this design consists of a gain-guided tapered section and an index-guided ridge section and operated at 980nm. The lens design is implemented by focus ion beam etching (FIBE) technique, whereby the laser diode is mounted p-side up in order to facilitate the etching process. The lens is located 600µm away from the junction of the tapered and ridge sections, and is 40µm wide and 300µm long with a focal length of 800µm. The laser diode is characterised by light-current characteristics together with near- and far- field measurements before and after etching. The device is biased by current pulses of 1µs width and 0.1% duty cycle. Light-current measurement shows a drop of 10.5% in threshold current from 380mA to 340mA after the inclusion of lens. This is an evidence that the lens effectively equalised the curved phase in order to reduce the laser cavity loss by improving the coupling efficiency of backward travelling wave at the output facet. Throughout the whole current range tested, the width of near-field at waist is broadened by an average of 36% after the inclusion of lens. By successfully compensating the quadratic phase curvature of the mode, the beam divergence in the far-field is significantly narrowed by an average of 28.5%. M2 factor is improved by an average of 12

Application of Healthcare 'Big Data' in CNS Drug Research: The Example of the Neurological and mental health Global Epidemiology Network (NeuroGEN)

Neurological and psychiatric (mental health) disorders have a large impact on health burden globally. Cognitive disorders (including dementia) and stroke are leading causes of disability. Mental health disorders, including depression, contribute up to one-third of total years lived with disability. The Neurological and mental health Global Epidemiology Network (NeuroGEN) is an international multi-database network that harnesses administrative and electronic medical records from Australia, Asia, Europe and North America. Using these databases NeuroGEN will investigate medication use and health outcomes in neurological and mental health disorders. A key objective of NeuroGEN is to facilitate high-quality observational studies to address evidence-practice gaps where randomized controlled trials do not provide sufficient information on medication benefits and risks that is specific to vulnerable population groups. International multi-database research facilitates comparisons across geographical areas and jurisdictions, increases statistical power to investigate small subpopulations or rare outcomes, permits early post-approval assessment of safety and effectiveness, and increases generalisability of results. Through bringing together international researchers in pharmacoepidemiology, NeuroGEN has the potential to be paradigm-changing for observational research to inform evidence-based prescribing. The first focus of NeuroGEN will be to address evidence-gaps in the treatment of chronic comorbidities in people with dementia

Novel organic-inorganic hybrid nanoparticles as non-viral gene vector

Novel hybrid biomaterial of gelatin-siloxane nanoparticles (GS NPs), with positive surface potential and lower cytotoxicity, was synthesized through a 2-step sol-gel process. The pDNA-GS NPs complex was formulated with high encapsulation efficiency, and exhibited and efficient transfection in vitro. We thus envision that the GS NPs material could serve as non-viral gene vectors for gene therapy

Near-IR sensitive Au-Au2S nanoparticles with biocompatibility for drug delivery

The near-infrared (NIR) sensitive Au-Au2S nanoparticles (NPs) have shown many advantages as potential drug delivery systems. To further investigate biological safety of Au-Au2S NPs, cytotoxicity was estimated by calcein AM/EthD-1 fluorescence staining and the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release. The effects of NPs on apoptosis of CHL cells were determined by flow cytometry with Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining. It is evident that the Au-Au2S NPs are non-cytotoxic below IC50 dosage

Breast Cancer Exosome-like Microvesicles and Salivary Gland Cells Interplay Alters Salivary Gland Cell-Derived Exosome-like Microvesicles In Vitro

Saliva is a useful biofluid for the early detection of disease, but how distal tumors communicate with the oral cavity and create disease-specific salivary biomarkers remains unclear. Using an in vitro breast cancer model, we demonstrated that breast cancer-derived exosome-like microvesicles are capable of interacting with salivary gland cells, altering the composition of their secreted exosome-like microvesicles. We found that the salivary gland cells secreted exosome-like microvesicles encapsulating both protein and mRNA. We also showed that the interaction with breast cancer-derived exosome-like microvesicles communicated and activated the transcriptional machinery of the salivary gland cells. Thus, the interaction altered the composition of the salivary gland cell-derived exosome-like microvesicles on both the transcriptomically and proteomically