Does emotional resilience enhance foster placement stability? A qualitative investigation.

Frequent changes of foster placement are known to have a detrimental effect on the long-term well-being of cared for children. Foster carers who take on children with challenging behaviours have to draw on resources, both internal and external, to help them build and maintain a relationship with the child that will last. Not all foster carers are successful in this regard. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the role that the emotional resilience of foster carers plays in promoting placement stability. Seven foster carers, who had a track-record of stable placements (according to national criteria) with children exhibiting challenging behaviours, were recruited from a Local Authority in the North East of England. They attended a focus group and one-to-one interview. Verbatim transcripts were subjected to an inductive grounded theory analysis. Three potential underlying constructs, namely emotional resilience, interpersonal characteristics and external factors, were found to emerge from the data and identified as likely to influence foster placement outcomes. These data provide a springboard for further quantitative investigation with the potential to screen prospective carers to identify those best suited to ‘difficult’ placements in order to maximise success for the benefit of all concerned

estMOI: estimating multiplicity of infection using parasite deep sequencing data.

Individuals living in endemic areas generally harbour multiple parasite strains. Multiplicity of infection (MOI) can be an indicator of immune status and transmission intensity. It has a potentially confounding effect on a number of population genetic analyses, which often assume isolates are clonal. Polymerase chain reaction-based approaches to estimate MOI can lack sensitivity. For example, in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, genotyping of the merozoite surface protein (MSP1/2) genes is a standard method for assessing MOI, despite the apparent problem of underestimation. The availability of deep coverage data from massively parallizable sequencing technologies means that MOI can be detected genome wide by considering the abundance of heterozygous genotypes. Here, we present a method to estimate MOI, which considers unique combinations of polymorphisms from sequence reads. The method is implemented within the estMOI software. When applied to clinical P.falciparum isolates from three continents, we find that multiple infections are common, especially in regions with high transmission

Prototype Common Bus Spacecraft: Hover Test Implementation and Results

In order to develop the capability to evaluate control system technologies, NASA Ames Research Center (Ames) began a test program to build a Hover Test Vehicle (HTV) - a ground-based simulated flight vehicle. The HTV would integrate simulated propulsion, avionics, and sensors into a simulated flight structure, and fly that test vehicle in terrestrial conditions intended to simulate a flight environment, in particular for attitude control. The ultimate purpose of the effort at Ames is to determine whether the low-cost hardware and flight software techniques are viable for future low cost missions. To enable these engineering goals, the project sought to develop a team, processes and procedures capable of developing, building and operating a fully functioning vehicle including propulsion, GN&C, structure, power and diagnostic sub-systems, through the development of the simulated vehicle

The identification of markers of macrophage differentiation in PMA-stimulated THP-1 Cells and monocyte-derived macrophages

Differentiated macrophages are the resident tissue phagocytes and sentinel cells of the innate immune response. The phenotype of mature tissue macrophages represents the composite of environmental and differentiation-dependent imprinting. Phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA) and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (VD3) are stimuli commonly used to induce macrophage differentiation in monocytic cell lines but the extent of differentiation in comparison to primary tissue macrophages is unclear. We have compared the phenotype of the promonocytic THP-1 cell line after various protocols of differentiation utilising VD3 and PMA in comparison to primary human monocytes or monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM). Both stimuli induced changes in cell morphology indicative of differentiation but neither showed differentiation comparable to MDM. In contrast, PMA treatment followed by 5 days resting in culture without PMA (PMAr) increased cytoplasmic to nuclear ratio, increased mitochondrial and lysosomal numbers and altered differentiation-dependent cell surface markers in a pattern similar to MDM. Moreover, PMAr cells showed relative resistance to apoptotic stimuli and maintained levels of the differentiation-dependent anti-apoptotic protein Mcl-1 similar to MDM. PMAr cells retained a high phagocytic capacity for latex beads, and expressed a cytokine profile that resembled MDM in response to TLR ligands, in particular with marked TLR2 responses. Moreover, both MDM and PMAr retained marked plasticity to stimulus-directed polarization. These findings suggest a modified PMA differentiation protocol can enhance macrophage differentiation of THP-1 cells and identify increased numbers of mitochondria and lysosomes, resistance to apoptosis and the potency of TLR2 responses as important discriminators of the level of macrophage differentiation for transformed cells

Abating low-frequency noise using encapsulated gas bubbles

Air bubbles may be used to reduce radiated underwater noise. Two modalities of sound attenuation by air bubbles were shown to provide a reduction in radiated sound: bubble acoustic resonance damping and acoustic impedance mismatching. The bubbles used for acoustic resonance damping were manifested using gas-filled containers coupled to a support, and the acoustic impedance mismatching bubbles were created using a cloud of freely-rising bubbles, which were both used to surround an underwater sound source.Board of Regents, University of Texas Syste

AVALIANDO JULGAMENTOS NÃO VERBAIS DE IGUALDADE/DIFERENÇA ENTRE ESTÍMULOS AUDITIVOS EM INDIVÍDUOS COM DEFICIÊNCIAS INTELECTUAIS: UMA INVESTIGAÇÃO METODOLÓGICA

This methodological paper reports an initial attempt to evaluate the feasibility and utility of a nonverbal task for assessing generalized same/different judgments of auditory stimuli in individuals with intellectual disabilities. Study 1 asked whether participants could readily acquire a baseline of auditory same/different, go-left/go-right performance with minimal prompting. Sample stimuli consisted of pairs of successively presented sine-wave tones. If the tones were identical, selections of a visual stimulus on the left side of the computer screen were reinforced. If the tones were different, selections of a visual stimulus on the right side of the computer screen were reinforced. Two of five participants readily acquired the task, generalized performance to other stimuli, and completed a rudimentary protocol for examining auditory discriminations that are potentially more difficult than those used to establish the initial task. In Study 2, two participants who could not perform the “go-left/go-right” task with tone stimuli, but could do so with spoken-word stimuli, successfully transferred control by spoken words to tones via an auditory superimposition-and-fading procedure. The findings support the feasibility of using the task as a general-purpose auditory discrimination assessment.Keywords: auditory discrimination, go-left/go-right, intellectual disabilities, matching to sample, superimposition and fading.O presente artigo metodológico relata uma tentativa inicial de avaliar a viabilidade e a utilidade de uma tarefa não verbal para avaliar o julgamento generalizado de igualdade/diferença entre estímulos auditivos em indivíduos com deficiências intelectuais. O Estudo 1 investigou se os participantes poderiam prontamente adquirir uma linha de base de desempenho discriminativo de igualdade/diferença, em tarefa de “go-left/go-right” (responder à esquerda/responder à direita) com ajuda mínima. Os estímulos-modelo consistiam em pares de sons de frequência única apresentados sucessivamente. Se os sons fossem idênticos, seleções de um estímulo visual no lado esquerdo da tela do computador eram reforçadas. Se os sons fossem diferentes, seleções de um estímulo visual no lado direito da tela do computador eram reforçadas. Dois dos cinco participantes aprenderam prontamente a tarefa, generalizaram o desempenho para outros estímulos e completaram um protocolo rudimentar para avaliar discriminações auditivas que são potencialmente mais difíceis do que aquelas usadas para estabelecer a tarefa inicial. No Estudo 2, dois participantes que não puderam desempenhar a tarefa “go-left/go-right” com os sons de única frequência, mas puderam fazê-lo com palavras faladas como estímulos, transferiram com sucesso o controle das palavras faladas para os sons via um procedimento de esmaecimento e sobreposição de estímulos auditivos. Os achados apoiam a viabilidade de se usar a tarefa como uma avaliação de discriminação auditiva em geral. Palavras-chave: discriminação auditiva, procedimento de resposta à esquerda/resposta à direita, deficiência intelectual, emparelhamento ao modelo, sobreposição e esmaecimento

Childhood Conditions that Predict Survival to Advanced Ages Among African Americans

This paper investigates the social and economic circumstances of childhood that predict the probability of survival to age 85. It uses a unique study design in which survivors are linked to their records in U.S. Censuses of 1900 and 1910. A control group of age and race-matched children is drawn from Public Use Samples for these censuses. It concludes that the factors most predictive of survival are farm background, having literate parents, and living in a two-parent household. Results support the interpretation that death risks are positively correlated over the life cycle

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) Mission

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is a Lunar science orbiter mission currently under development to address the goals of the National Research Council decadal surveys and the recent "Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon" (SCEM) [1] report to study the pristine state of the lunar atmosphere and dust environment prior to significant human activities. LADEE will determine the composition of the lunar atmosphere and investigate the processes that control its distribution and variability, including sources, sinks, and surface interactions. LADEE will also determine whether dust is present in the lunar exosphere, and reveal the processes that contribute to its sources and variability. These investigations are relevant to our understanding of surface boundary exospheres and dust processes throughout the solar system, address questions regarding the origin and evolution of lunar volatiles, and have potential implications for future exploration activities. LADEE employs a high heritage science instrument payload including a neutral mass spectrometer, ultraviolet spectrometer, and dust sensor. In addition to the science payloads, LADEE will fly a laser communications system technology demonstration that could provide a building block for future space communications architectures. LADEE is an important component in NASA's portfolio of near-term lunar missions, addressing objectives that are currently not covered by other U.S. or international efforts, and whose observations must be conducted before large-scale human or robotic activities irrevocably perturb the tenuous and fragile lunar atmosphere. LADEE will also demonstrate the effectiveness of a low-cost, rapid-development program utilizing a modular bus design launched on the new Minotaur V launch vehicle. Once proven, this capability could enable future lunar missions in a highly cost constrained environment. This paper describes the LADEE objectives, mission design, and technical approach