Developmental care for high-risk newborns:Emerging science, clinical application, and continuity from newborn intensive care unit to community

Neonatology has optimized medical outcomes for high-risk newborns yet neurodevelopmental outcomes continue to be a concern. Basic science, clinical research, and environmental design perspectives have shown the impact of the caregiving environment on the developing brain and the role of professional caregivers in providing supportive intervention to both infants and their families. This recognition has prompted a focus on early developmentally supportive care (DSC) for high-risk newborns both in the hospital and in community follow up. DSC has emerged as a recognized standard of care in most neonatal intensive care units. Still, many questions remain and much integrative research is needed.

Why reinvent the wheel? A behaviour analyst's reflections on pedagogy for inclusion for students with intellectual and developmental disability

The number of children identified as having intellectual or developmental disability is rising worldwide and their education has been found wanting. It has been said that “they simply need better teaching.” At the same time, there is an increasing evidence base that pedagogy that is based on the discipline of behaviour analysis offers the best prospect for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. On the basis of this evidence, it is proposed that behaviour analysis should be applied more broadly to improve teaching for all children with intellectual or developmental disability.

New identifications for blue objects towards the Galactic center: post-AGE stars, Be/disk stars and others

As part of a programme to investigate spatial variations in the Galactic chemical composition, we have been searching for normal B-type stars and A-type supergiants near the Galactic center. During this search we have found eleven peculiar stars, and in some cases performed detailed abundance analyses of them which suggest that they may be at a post-AGB evolutionary stage.

Perception of patterns of musical beat distribution in phonological developmental dyslexia:significant longitudinal relations with word reading and reading comprehension

In a recent study, we reported that the accurate perception of beat structure in music ('perception of musical meter') accounted for over 40% of the variance in single word reading in children with and without dyslexia (Huss et al., 2011). Performance in the musical task was most strongly associated with the auditory processing of rise time, even though beat structure was varied by manipulating the duration of the musical notes.

Grading of age-related maculopathy:slit-lamp biomicroscopy versus an accredited grading center

To compare clinical age-related maculopathy (ARM) grading using slit-lamp biomicroscopy (SLB) versus photographic grading of stereoscopically captured fundus photographs (FP) using a high-resolution fundus camera.

A multi-center study of ACE and the risk of late-onset Alzheimer's disease

A key pathological feature of late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) is the abnormal extracellular accumulation of the amyloid-ß (Aß) peptide. Thus, altered Aß degradation could be a major contributor to the development of LOAD. Variants in the gene encoding the Aß-degrading enzyme, angiotensin-1 converting enzyme (ACE) therefore represent plausible candidates for association with LOAD pathology and risk. Following Alzgene meta-analyses of all published case-control studies, the ACE variants rs4291 and rs1800764 showed significant association with LOAD risk. Furthermore ACE haplotypes are associated with both plasma ACE levels and LOAD risk. We tested three ACE variants (rs4291, rs4343, and rs1800764) for association with LOAD in ten Caucasian case-control populations (n = 8,212). No association was found using multiple logistic models (all p > 0.09). We found no population heterogeneity (all p > 0.38) or evidence for association with LOAD risk following meta-analysis of the ten populations for rs4343 (OR = 1.00), rs4291 (OR = 0.97), or rs1800764 (OR = 0.99). Although we found no haplotypic association in our complete dataset (p = 0.51), a significant global haplotypic p-value was observed in one population (p = 0.007) due to an association of the H3 haplotype (OR = 0.72, p = 0.02) and a trend towards an association of H4 (OR = 1.38, p = 0.09) and H7 (OR = 2.07, p = 0.08) although these did not survive Bonferroni correction. Previously reported associations of ACE variants with LOAD will be diminished following this study. At best, ACE variants have modest effect sizes, which are likely part of a complex interaction between genetic, phenotypic and pharmacological effects that would be undetected in traditional case-control studies.