Conversations with Families of Children with Disabilities creates a space for diverse families of children with disabilities to share their stories with pre-service and in-service teachers. ...Specifically designed for professionals preparing to work with families of children with disabilities, this text invites the reader to listen in as families reflect on their personal journeys in conversation with the authors. This powerful book helps educators develop a deeper understanding of families and enhance their capacity for authentic partnerships.
Malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare disease characterized by a difficult diagnosis, different types of presentation, variable course and poor prognosis.
Eighty-one patients with MPM ...observed in 14 Italian oncology institutions from 1982 to 2007 have been examined with the aim of delineating the history of MPM.
Presentation symptoms were ascites, abdominal pain, asthenia, weight loss, anorexia, abdominal mass, fever, diarrhea and vomiting in various associations. Computed tomography scan and echotomography signs were ascites, abdominal mass and peritoneal thickening. Peritoneal fluid cytology (61 cases) was positive for mesothelioma in 31 and for malignancy, not mesothelioma, in 13. Laparoscopy was carried out in 40 cases and laparotomy in 36. Thrombocytosis was present in 59 cases. Associated tumors diagnosed during the lifetime were colorectal cancer in two cases and cheek carcinoma, thyroid carcinoma, tongue carcinoma, bladder carcinoma and testicular seminoma. Thirty patients were treated with surgery and 45 with chemotherapy. The median survival time from diagnosis is 13 months. Ascites, fever and vomiting were significative variables at presentation; only vomiting holds significance in a multivariate analysis.
MPM is a disease with various types of presentation, frequently associated with thrombocytosis, sometimes with other tumors. Survival and diagnosis time can differ in various types of MPM. Prognosis is poor.
Dengue vaccines will soon provide a new tool for reducing dengue disease, but the effectiveness of widespread vaccination campaigns has not yet been determined. We developed an agent-based dengue ...model representing movement of and transmission dynamics among people and mosquitoes in Yucatán, Mexico, and simulated various vaccine scenarios to evaluate effectiveness under those conditions. This model includes detailed spatial representation of the Yucatán population, including the location and movement of 1.8 million people between 375,000 households and 100,000 workplaces and schools. Where possible, we designed the model to use data sources with international coverage, to simplify re-parameterization for other regions. The simulation and analysis integrate 35 years of mild and severe case data (including dengue serotype when available), results of a seroprevalence survey, satellite imagery, and climatological, census, and economic data. To fit model parameters that are not directly informed by available data, such as disease reporting rates and dengue transmission parameters, we developed a parameter estimation toolkit called AbcSmc, which we have made publicly available. After fitting the simulation model to dengue case data, we forecasted transmission and assessed the relative effectiveness of several vaccination strategies over a 20 year period. Vaccine efficacy is based on phase III trial results for the Sanofi-Pasteur vaccine, Dengvaxia. We consider routine vaccination of 2, 9, or 16 year-olds, with and without a one-time catch-up campaign to age 30. Because the durability of Dengvaxia is not yet established, we consider hypothetical vaccines that confer either durable or waning immunity, and we evaluate the use of booster doses to counter waning. We find that plausible vaccination scenarios with a durable vaccine reduce annual dengue incidence by as much as 80% within five years. However, if vaccine efficacy wanes after administration, we find that there can be years with larger epidemics than would occur without any vaccination, and that vaccine booster doses are necessary to prevent this outcome.
Genetic aspects may influence the effect of early adverse events on psychological well being in adulthood. In particular, a common polymorphism within the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR ...short/long) has been associated to the risk for stress-induced psychopathology. In the present study we investigated the role of childhood traumas and 5-HTTLPR on measures of psychological resilience and depression in a sample of individuals at a high risk for psychological distress (763 male prisoners). The 5-HTTLPR genotype did not influence resilience and depressive severity. However, a significant interaction was observed between 5-HTTLPR and childhood traumas on both resilience and depressive severity. In particular, among subjects exposed to severe childhood trauma only, the long-allele was associated to lower resilience scores and increased current depressive severity as compared to short/short homozygous. Sex specific effects, difference in type and duration of stressors and the specific composition of the sample may explain discrepancy with many studies reporting the short-allele as a vulnerability factor for reactivity to stress. We here speculated that in males the long-allele may confer lower resilience and therefore higher vulnerability for depressive symptoms in subjects exposed to early stress and currently living in stressful environments.
The background induced by the high penetration power of the radiation is the main limiting factor of the current radio-guided surgery (RGS). To partially mitigate it, a RGS with β(+)-emitting ...radio-tracers has been suggested in literature. Here we propose the use of β(-)-emitting radio-tracers and β(-) probes and discuss the advantage of this method with respect to the previously explored ones: the electron low penetration power allows for simple and versatile probes and could extend RGS to tumours for which background originating from nearby healthy tissue makes probes less effective. We developed a β(-) probe prototype and studied its performances on phantoms. By means of a detailed simulation we have also extrapolated the results to estimate the performances in a realistic case of meningioma, pathology which is going to be our first in-vivo test case. A good sensitivity to residuals down to 0.1 ml can be reached within 1 s with an administered activity smaller than those for PET-scans thus making the radiation exposure to medical personnel negligible.
The advent of high performance microcontrollers equipped with analog and digital peripherals, makes the design of a complete particle detector and a relative acquisition system on a single ...microcontroller chip possible. The existence of a world wide data infrastructure such as the internet, allows for the conception of a distributed network of cheap detectors able to elaborate and send data as well as to respond to setting commands. The internet infrastructure enables the distribution of the absolute time, with precision of a few milliseconds, to all devices independently of their physical location, when the sky view is accessible it possible to use a GPS module to reach synchronization of tens of nanoseconds. These devices can be far apart from each other and their relative distance can range from a few meters to thousands of kilometers. This allows for the design of a crowdsourcing experiment of citizen science, based on the use of many small scintillation-based particle detectors to monitor the high energetic cosmic ray and the radiation environment.
Organic scintillators are often chosen as radiation detectors for their fast decay time and their low Z, while inorganic ones are used when high light yields are required. In this paper we show that ...a para-terphenyl based detector has a blend of properties of the two categories that can be optimal for energy and position measurements of low-energy charged particles. Using 0.1% diphenylbutadiene doped para-terphenyl samples we measured a light attenuation length λ = 4.73 ±0.06 mm, a quenching factor for α particles Q α = (10.7 ±0.6), and a rejection power ranging between 3 - 11% for 660 keV photons, with respect to electrons of the same energy, depending on the signal threshold. A simulation based on FLUKA properly reproduces the experimental data distributions.
In this phenomenological case study, we explore how a toddler with autism (Miguel) becomes a member of an early childhood learning community. Drawing on the right to belong and a social-relational ...model of disability framework, we asked research questions that are fundamental to the rights and agency of the child and how children experience inclusion and belonging in their learning community. By following Miguel during his first year in early care and education, we share depictions of his expressions of interest, initiations, and agency; his ways of relating to children and adults in the classroom; his use of environmental supports and scaffolds to engage with the physical and interpersonal space; and his growing sense of membership in the toddler classroom. In conclusion, we discuss what inclusion means to individual children and the ways in which inclusive practices can unfold in a setting that promotes authentic belonging.
Transitioning into child care can bring complex emotional tensions and have a lasting and powerful impact on future separations and caregiving encounters. Despite the increasing number of children in ...child care programmes and the complexity surrounding the phenomenon, little attention has been given to especially very young children's entry into child care settings and their daily transitional experiences. Using a phenomenological multi-case study approach, we aimed to capture children's daily experiences from their perspectives, by looking closely at their behaviours, movements, and talk, supplemented by parents' and teachers' perceptions and reflections on the children's experiences. Our data illuminate the diverse ways a group of toddlers new to childcare navigated the process of becoming members of the classroom community, the differences in their subtle and overt emotional tensions, verbal and non-verbal communication styles, and evolving identity and agency. Teachers' roles unfolded in response to children's diverse needs and ways of being.
We study the problem of the escape and transport of cosmic rays (CRs) from a source embedded in a fully ionized, hot phase of the interstellar medium (HIM). In particular, we model the CR escape and ...their propagation in the source vicinity taking into account excitation of Alfv´enic turbulence by CR streaming and mechanisms damping the self-excited turbulence itself. Our estimates of escape radii and times result in large values (100 pc, 2 × 105 yr) for particle energies ≲ 20 GeV and smaller values for particles with increasing energies (35 pc and 14 kyr at 1 TeV). These escape times and radii, when used as initial conditions for the CR propagation outside the source, result in relevant suppression of the diffusion coefficient (by a factor 5–10) on time-scales comparable with their (energy dependent) escape time-scale. The damping mechanisms are fast enough that even on shorter time-scales, the Alfv´enic turbulence is efficiently damped, and the ratio between random and ordered component of the magnetic field is δB/B0 ≪ 1, justifying the use of quasi-linear theory. In spite of the suppressed diffusion coefficient, and then the increased residence time in the vicinity (≤200 pc) of their source, the grammage accumulated by CRs after their escape is found to be negligible (at all energies) as compared to the one accumulated while diffusing in the whole Galaxy, due to the low density of the HIM.