•Organizations have provided people with IDD with the most information on COVID-19.•Supports received by people with IDD have been conditioned by their living context.•People with IDD living in ...specific environments had fewer natural supports.•Those living with their family relied on it because of services limitations.•People with IDD have also provided support to other people during the lockdown.
Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) represent a particularly vulnerable group to the threats posed by COVID-19. However, they have not yet been given a voice on how their living conditions have been affected by COVID-19.
This study aims to report the impact on people with IDD of COVID-19 and the response measures applied in Spain during the lockdown.
Data on 582 individuals with IDD were collected through a survey. Seven open questions were included to capture the perspectives of people with IDD on COVID-19 and its consequences. Content analysis was performed to identify themes and categories across participant responses. Chi-square tests were used to analyze the relationship between reporting a specific category and participants’ characteristics.
Supports have been conditioned by the living context. People living in specific settings had fewer natural supports, while those living with their family relied heavily on it. Participants also lacked supports considered necessary. It is worth stressing that persons with IDD have also provided support to others.
Although people with IDD have generally received the assistance they need during the lockdown, it must be ensured that appropriate supports are provided regardless of the context in which they live.
Animal models of Parkinson's disease are useful to evaluate new treatments and to elucidate the etiology of the disease. Hence, it is necessary to have methods that allow quantification of their ...effectiveness. 18FFDOPA‐PET (FDOPA‐PET) imaging is outstanding for this purpose because of its capacity to measure changes in the dopaminergic pathway noninvasively and in vivo. Nevertheless, PET acquisition and quantification is time‐consuming making it necessary to find faster ways to quantify FDOPA‐PET data. This study evaluated Male Wistar rats by FDOPA, before and after being partially injured with 6‐OHDA unilaterally. MicroPET scans with a duration of 120 min were acquired and Patlak reference plots were created to estimate the influx constant Kc in the striatum using the full dynamic scan data. Additionally, simple striatal‐to‐cerebral ratios (SCR) of short static acquisitions were computed and compared with the Kc values. Good correlation (r > 0.70) was obtained between Kc and SCR, acquired between 80–120 min after FDOPA administration with frames of 10 or 20 min and both methods were able to separate the FDOPA‐uptake of healthy controls from that of the PD model (SCR −28%, Kc −71%). The present study concludes that Kc and SCR can be trustfully used to discriminate partially lesioned rats from healthy controls.
Striatal‐to‐cerebellar ratio (SCR) of 18FFDOPA allows to separate lesioned and nonlesioned sides of a 6‐OHDA partial lesion rat model of Parkinson's disease, similarly to Kcerebellar.
ABSTRACT
Inspired by a new compilation of strong-lensing systems, which consist of 204 points in the redshift range 0.0625 < zl < 0.958 for the lens and 0.196 < zs < 3.595 for the source, we ...constrain three models that generate a late cosmic acceleration: the ω-cold dark matter model, the Chevallier–Polarski–Linder, and the Jassal–Bagla–Padmanabhan parametrizations. Our compilation contains only those systems with early-type galaxies acting as lenses, with spectroscopically measured stellar velocity dispersions, estimated Einstein radius, and both the lens and source redshifts. We assume an axially symmetric mass distribution in the lens equation, using a correction to alleviate differences between the measured velocity dispersion (σ) and the dark matter halo velocity dispersion (σDM) as well as other systematic errors that may affect the measurements. We have considered different subsamples to constrain the cosmological parameters of each model. Additionally, we generate a mock data of SLS to asses the impact of the chosen mass profile on the accuracy of Einstein radius estimation. Our results show that cosmological constraints are very sensitive to the selected data: Some cases show convergence problems in the estimation of cosmological parameters (e.g. systems with observed distance ratio Dobs < 0.5), others show high values for the χ2 function (e.g. systems with a lens equation Dobs > 1 or high velocity dispersion σ > 276 km s−1). However, we obtained a fiduciary sample with 143 systems, which improves the constraints on each tested cosmological model.
Brane world models have shown to be promising to understand the late cosmic acceleration, in particular because such acceleration can be naturally derived, mimicking the dark energy behaviour just ...with a five dimensional geometry. In this paper we present a strong lensing joint analysis using a compilation of early-type galaxies acting as a lenses, united with the power of the well studied strong lensing galaxy cluster Abell 1689. We use the strong lensing constraints to investigate a brane model with variable brane tension as a function of the redshift. In our joint analysis we found a value
n
=
7
.
8
-
0.5
+
0.9
, for the exponent related to the brane tension, showing that
n
deviates from a Cosmological Constant (CC) scenario (n=6). We obtain a value for the deceleration parameter,
q
(
z
) today,
q
(
0
)
=
-
1
.
2
-
0.8
+
0.6
, and a transition redshift,
z
t
=
0.60
±
0.06
(when the Universe change from an decelerated phase to an accelerated one). These results are in contrast with previous work that favors CC scenario, nevertheless our lensing analysis is in agreement with a formerly reported conclusion suggesting that the variable brane tension model is able to source a late cosmic acceleration without an extra fluid as in the standard one.
Neural stem cells (NSCs) are regarded as a promising therapeutic approach to protecting and restoring damaged neurons in neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's ...disease (PD and AD, respectively). However, new research suggests that NSC differentiation is required to make this strategy effective. Several studies have demonstrated that melatonin increases mature neuronal markers, which reflects NSC differentiation into neurons. Nevertheless, the possible involvement of mitochondria in the effects of melatonin during NSC differentiation has not yet been fully established. We therefore tested the impact of melatonin on NSC proliferation and differentiation in an attempt to determine whether these actions depend on modulating mitochondrial activity. We measured proliferation and differentiation markers, mitochondrial structural and functional parameters as well as oxidative stress indicators and also evaluated cell transplant engraftment. This enabled us to show that melatonin (25 μM) induces NSC differentiation into oligodendrocytes and neurons. These effects depend on increased mitochondrial mass/DNA/complexes, mitochondrial respiration, and membrane potential as well as ATP synthesis in NSCs. It is also interesting to note that melatonin prevented oxidative stress caused by high levels of mitochondrial activity. Finally, we found that melatonin enriches NSC engraftment in the ND mouse model following transplantation. We concluded that a combined therapy involving transplantation of NSCs pretreated with pharmacological doses of melatonin could efficiently restore neuronal cell populations in PD and AD mouse models depending on mitochondrial activity promotion.
Taxonomy of Dark Energy Models Motta, Verónica; García-Aspeitia, Miguel A.; Hernández-Almada, Alberto ...
Universe (Basel),
05/2021, Letnik:
7, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The accelerated expansion of the Universe is one of the main discoveries of the past decades, indicating the presence of an unknown component: the dark energy. Evidence of its presence is being ...gathered by a succession of observational experiments with increasing precision in its measurements. However, the most accepted model for explaining the dynamic of our Universe, the so-called Lambda cold dark matter, faces several problems related to the nature of such energy component. This has led to a growing exploration of alternative models attempting to solve those drawbacks. In this review, we briefly summarize the characteristics of a (non-exhaustive) list of dark energy models as well as some of the most used cosmological samples. Next, we discuss how to constrain each model’s parameters using observational data. Finally, we summarize the status of dark energy modeling.
The construct of support needs has become a key aspect for the diagnostics, classification, and interventional management of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). However, instruments specifically ...designed to assess support needs in this population are not available. Currently, the Supports Intensity Scale for Children (SIS-C), which could be administered to assess students with any type of intellectual disability (ID), is the only valid tool able to assess support needs in Spain. Our aim was to verify whether the SIS-C is useful for assessing the support needs of students with ASD, regardless of whether or not they present ID. The participants were subdivided into two groups. One group included students with ASD and ID (n = 248), and the other comprised participants with ASD without an ID (n = 44). The results of the two groups were compared with those reported in the original validation sample of the SIS-C, which involved participants with ID without ASD (n = 566). The results showed that this scale could be useful for assessing support needs in the three subgroups, but it appeared that different standardized norms based on the characteristics of each specific population would be appropriate.
The impact on support services for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities of the socioeconomic movements and theoretical reformulations of the last decades has generated the ...necessity, in order to guarantee their sustainability, to carry out processes of profound change in their organizational culture, intervening in the elements that compose it. Among them are professional practices as the best way to intervene in culture, with the use of comparative analysis between an organization's current practices and those expected with culture change. In this line, the organizational self-assessment tool "Organizational Effectiveness and Efficiency Scale" (OEES) is applied in a study with 24 organizations, which uses a collaborative assessment approach in the service of a set of evidence-based practices identified as standards in key aspects that guide culture change, specifically, a person-centered approach, participative structures, use of information systems and data management, implementation of quality systems and participative and transformational leadership. The results obtained show that a large majority of organizations have significant discrepancies between their current practices and evidence-based practices. The descriptive analysis allows affirming the usefulness of the scale for an organizational diagnosis and identification of strategies to guide transformational change.
•Intellectual and developmental disability organizations must respond to their current challenges through transformational change processes that guarantee their sustainability.•Professional practices have been identified as the most facilitating element of organizational culture to initiate transformational change processes.•The measurement of organizational effectiveness and efficiency through evidence-based practices on the OEES scale allows IDD organizations to plan transformational change processes.•The results of the participating entities in organizational effectiveness show a medium degree of implementation of evidence-based practices.•The standard practices of organizational efficiency present a low level of implantation in the organizations.•The diagnosis of organizations evaluated shows the need to undertake transformational processes that guarantee their sustainability in the medium term.
The implications of the individual quality of life (QoL) model of Schalock and Verdugo have made it the most cited QoL model in the field of disability. The QoL model is understood as a conceptual ...and applied framework for action that allows the materialization of the rights of persons with disabilities through the multidimensional assessment of these persons using QoL indicators, and the development of actions guided by these values and supported by evidence. The purpose of this work is to present the foundations of this model and offer a step-by-step guide to developing standardized QoL assessment instruments and providing evidence that supports their use to implement the model in practice. This paper explores relevant topics such as: (a) the need to identify critical population groups and contexts; (b) the identification of QoL indicators for said groups and contexts; (c) the development of items focused on the assessment of personal outcomes; (d) provision to the items of validity evidence based on content and pilot measure design and (e) validation process to gather evidence that supports the uses of the instrument. Last, a framework that allows using the evidence on personal outcomes as disaggregated and aggregated data at different levels of the social system is presented, thus highlighting the role of the model as a change agent regarding individuals, organizations and schools, and public policy.
PDF
