Questionnaire for monitoring auditory and language development in the first year of life

Purpose: To validate a monitoring questionnaire about hearing and language development applied by community health agents in the first year of life. Methods: Seventy six community health agents, previously trained on infant hearing health, administered a questionnaire to the families of 304 children with ages from 0 to 1 year. The questionnaire contains questions regarding hearing and language development and, for all age groups, the question “Does your child hear well?” was presented. The validity of the questionnaire was assessed by analyzing false positive and false negative rates of the identified children. A double-blind study was conducted so that all children assessed by the questionnaire were submitted to hearing evaluation performed by audiologists. Results: Four children (1.32%) were diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss (two unilateral), and 69 (22.7%) with conductive hearing loss. The monitoring questionnaire showed specificity of 96% and sensitivity of 67%, with a false-negative rate of 33% for not identifying the unilateral hearing loss, and a false-positive rate of 4%. Conclusion: The questionnaire used has shown to be feasible and relevant to actions of the community health agents of the Family Health Strategy program, with high specificity and moderate sensitivity. The use of the validated instrument should be considered to complement Newborn Hearing Screening Programs, in order to identify late onset or acquired hearing loss.

Rapid assessment survey for exotic benthic species in the São Sebastião Channel, Brazil

The study of biological invasions can be roughly divided into three parts: detection, monitoring, mitigation. Here, our objectives were to describe the marine fauna of the area of the port of São Sebastião (on the northern coast of the state of São Paulo, in the São Sebastião Channel, SSC) to detect introduced species. Descriptions of the faunal community of the SSC with respect to native and allochthonous (invasive or potentially so) diversity are lacking for all invertebrate groups. Sampling was carried out by specialists within each taxonomic group, in December 2009, following the protocol of the Rapid Assessment Survey (RAS) in three areas with artificial structures as substrates. A total of 142 species were identified (61 native, 15 introduced, 62 cryptogenic, 4 not classified), of which 17 were Polychaeta (12, 1, 1, 3), 24 Ascidiacea (3, 6, 15, 0), 36 Bryozoa (17, 0, 18, 1), 27 Cmdana (2, 1, 24, 0), 20 Crustacea (11, 4, 5, 0), 2 Entoprocta (native), 16 Mollusca (13, 3, 0, 0). Twelve species are new occurrences for the SSC. Among the introduced taxa, two are new for coastal Brazil. Estimates of introduced taxa are conservative as the results of molecular studies suggest that some species previously considered cryptogenic are indeed introduced. We emphasize that the large number of cryptogenic species illustrates the need for a long-term monitoring program, especially in areas most susceptible to bioinvasion. We conclude that rapid assessment studies, even in relatively well-known regions, can be very useful for the detection of introduced species and we recommend that they be carried out on a larger scale in all ports with heavy ship traffic.

Studies of Heavy Baryons in DELPHI and Radiation Monitoring in DØ

Between the years 1992 and 1995 about 3.5 million hadronic Z decays were collected by the DELPHI detector at CERN. This data has been used to measure the production and lifetime of the beauty strange baryon Ξb, in the inclusive decay channel Ξb →Ξ-ℓ- X. The Ξ- baryon was reconstructed through the decay Ξ- → Λ π-, using a constrained fit method for cascade decays. An iterative discriminant analysis was used for the Ξb selection. A search for the Ξb baryon was also performed using an alternative method of reconstructing the Ξ- baryon. A measurement of the production of the charmed strange baryon Ξc in the decay channel Ξc → Ξ-π+ using the same data is also presented. The radiation monitoring system of the Silicon Microstrip Tracker in the DØ detector is studied and used to estimate the radiation dose received by the Silicon detector during normal running conditions of the TeVatron accelerator.

Spatial and temporal variation in settlement, growth and condition of the rockfish species Sebastes caurinus and Sebastes carnatus in the Channel Islands region, Santa Barbara, CA

Survival during the early life stages of marine species, including nearshore temperate reef fishes, is typically very low, and small changes in mortality rates, due to physiological and environmental conditions, can have marked effects on survival of a cohort and, on a larger scale, on the success of a recruitment season. Moreover, trade offs between larval growth and accumulation of energetic resources prior to settlement are likely to influence growth and survival until this critical period and afterwards. Rockfish recruitment rates are notoriously variable between years and across geographic locations. Monitoring of rates of onshore delivery of pelagic juveniles (defined here as settlement) of two species of nearshore rockfishes, Sebastes caurinus and Sebastes carnatus, was done between 2003-2009 years using artificial collectors placed at San Miguel and Santa Cruz Island, off Southern California coast. I investigated spatiotemporal variation in settlement rate, lipid content, pelagic larval duration and larval growth of the newly settled fishes; I assessed relationships between birth date, larval growth, early life-history characteristics and lipid content at settlement, considering also interspecific differences; finally, I attempt to relate interannual patterns of settlement and of early life history traits to easily accessible, local and regional indices of ocean conditions including in situ ocean temperature and regional upwelling, sea surface temperature (SST) and Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration. Spatial variations appeared to be of low relevance, while significant interannual differences were detected in settlement rate, pelagic larval duration and larval growth. The amount of lipid content of the newly settled fishes was highly variable in space and time, but did not differ between the two species and did not show any relationships with early life history traits, indicating that no trade off involved these physiological processes or they were masked by high individual variability in different periods of larval life. Significant interspecific differences were found in the timing of parturition and settlement and in larval growth rates, with S. carnatus growing faster and breeding and settling later than S. caurinus. The two species exhibited also different patterns of correlations between larval growth rates and larval duration. S. carnatus larval duration was longer when the growth in the first two weeks post-hatch was faster, while S. caurinus had a shorter larval duration when grew fast in the middle and in the end of larval life, suggesting different larval strategies. Fishes with longer larval durations were longer in size at settlement and exhibited longer planktonic phase in periods of favourable environmental conditions. Ocean conditions had a low explanatory power for interannual variation in early life history traits, but a very high explanatory power for settlement fluctuations, with regional upwelling strength being the principal indicator. Nonetheless, interannual variability in larval duration and growth were related to great phenological changes in upwelling happened during the period of this study and that caused negative consequences at all trophic levels along the California coast. Despite the low explanatory power of the environmental variables used in this study on the variation of larval biological traits, environmental processes were differently related with early life history characteristics analyzed to species, indicating possible species-specific susceptibility to ocean conditions and local environmental adaptation, which should be further investigated. These results have implications for understanding the processes influencing larval and juvenile survival, and consequently recruitment variability, which may be dependent on biological characteristics and environmental conditions.

Measurement of top quark pairs production cross-section in the semi-leptonic channel with the ATLAS experiment

This thesis is about three major aspects of the identification of top quarks. First comes the understanding of their production mechanism, their decay channels and how to translate theoretical formulae into programs that can simulate such physical processes using Monte Carlo techniques. In particular, the author has been involved in the introduction of the POWHEG generator in the framework of the ATLAS experiment. POWHEG is now fully used as the benchmark program for the simulation of ttbar pairs production and decay, along with MC@NLO and AcerMC: this will be shown in chapter one. The second chapter illustrates the ATLAS detectors and its sub-units, such as calorimeters and muon chambers. It is very important to evaluate their efficiency in order to fully understand what happens during the passage of radiation through the detector and to use this knowledge in the calculation of final quantities such as the ttbar production cross section. The last part of this thesis concerns the evaluation of this quantity deploying the so-called "golden channel" of ttbar decays, yielding one energetic charged lepton, four particle jets and a relevant quantity of missing transverse energy due to the neutrino. The most important systematic errors arising from the various part of the calculation are studied in detail. Jet energy scale, trigger efficiency, Monte Carlo models, reconstruction algorithms and luminosity measurement are examples of what can contribute to the uncertainty about the cross-section.

Analog Signal Acquisition and Conditioning for Near-Field Capacitive Communication and Active Combined EEG-EIT Monitoring

The work of the present thesis is focused on the implementation of microelectronic voltage sensing devices, with the purpose of transmitting and extracting analog information between devices of different nature at short distances or upon contact. Initally, chip-to-chip communication has been studied, and circuitry for 3D capacitive coupling has been implemented. Such circuits allow the communication between dies fabricated in different technologies. Due to their novelty, they are not standardized and currently not supported by standard CAD tools. In order to overcome such burden, a novel approach for the characterization of such communicating links has been proposed. This results in shorter design times and increased accuracy. Communication between an integrated circuit (IC) and a probe card has been extensively studied as well. Today wafer probing is a costly test procedure with many drawbacks, which could be overcome by a different communication approach such as capacitive coupling. For this reason wireless wafer probing has been investigated as an alternative approach to standard on-contact wafer probing. Interfaces between integrated circuits and biological systems have also been investigated. Active electrodes for simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and electrical impedance tomography (EIT) have been implemented for the first time in a 0.35 um process. Number of wires has been minimized by sharing the analog outputs and supply on a single wire, thus implementing electrodes that require only 4 wires for their operation. Minimization of wires reduces the cable weight and thus limits the patient's discomfort. The physical channel for communication between an IC and a biological medium is represented by the electrode itself. As this is a very crucial point for biopotential acquisitions, large efforts have been carried in order to investigate the different electrode technologies and geometries and an electromagnetic model is presented in order to characterize the properties of the electrode to skin interface.

Wireless Sensor Networks for Monitoring Applications

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are getting wide-spread attention since they became easily accessible with their low costs. One of the key elements of WSNs is distributed sensing. When the precise location of a signal of interest is unknown across the monitored region, distributing many sensors randomly/uniformly may yield with a better representation of the monitored random process than a traditional sensor deployment. In a typical WSN application the data sensed by nodes is usually sent to one (or more) central device, denoted as sink, which collects the information and can either act as a gateway towards other networks (e.g. Internet), where data can be stored, or be processed in order to command the actuators to perform special tasks. In such a scenario, a dense sensor deployment may create bottlenecks when many nodes competing to access the channel. Even though there are mitigation methods on the channel access, concurrent (parallel) transmissions may occur. In this study, always on the scope of monitoring applications, the involved development progress of two industrial projects with dense sensor deployments (eDIANA Project funded by European Commission and Centrale Adritica Project funded by Coop Italy) and the measurement results coming from several different test-beds evoked the necessity of a mathematical analysis on concurrent transmissions. To the best of our knowledge, in the literature there is no mathematical analysis of concurrent transmission in 2.4 GHz PHY of IEEE 802.15.4. In the thesis, experience stories of eDIANA and Centrale Adriatica Projects and a mathematical analysis of concurrent transmissions starting from O-QPSK chip demodulation to the packet reception rate with several different types of theoretical demodulators, are presented. There is a very good agreement between the measurements so far in the literature and the mathematical analysis.

Marine biodiversity survey in the Northern Red Sea: a large-scale monitoring carried out in collaboration with volunteer divers

Concerns over global change and its effect on coral reef survivorship have highlighted the need for long-term datasets and proxy records, to interpret environmental trends and inform policymakers. Citizen science programs have showed to be a valid method for collecting data, reducing financial and time costs for institutions. This study is based on the elaboration of data collected by recreational divers and its main purpose is to evaluate changes in the state of coral reef biodiversity in the Red Sea over a long term period and validate the volunteer-based monitoring method. Volunteers recreational divers completed a questionnaire after each dive, recording the presence of 72 animal taxa and negative reef conditions. Comparisons were made between records from volunteers and independent records from a marine biologist who performed the same dive at the same time. A total of 500 volunteers were tested in 78 validation trials. Relative values of accuracy, reliability and similarity seem to be comparable to those performed by volunteer divers on precise transects in other projects, or in community-based terrestrial monitoring. 9301 recreational divers participated in the monitoring program, completing 23,059 survey questionnaires in a 5-year period. The volunteer-sightings-based index showed significant differences between the geographical areas. The area of Hurghada is distinguished by a medium-low biodiversity index, heavily damaged by a not controlled anthropic exploitation. Coral reefs along the Ras Mohammed National Park at Sharm el Sheikh, conversely showed high biodiversity index. The detected pattern seems to be correlated with the conservation measures adopted. In our experience and that of other research institutes, citizen science can integrate conventional methods and significantly reduce costs and time. Involving recreational divers we were able to build a large data set, covering a wide geographic area. The main limitation remains the difficulty of obtaining an homogeneous spatial sampling distribution.

Outcomes of antiretroviral treatment programs in rural Southern Africa

Data on outcomes of antiretroviral treatment (ART) programs in rural sub-Saharan African are scarce. We describe early losses and long-term outcomes in 6 rural programs in Southern Africa with limited access to viral load monitoring and second-line ART.

Monitoring and Modeling of the Hydraulic and Sediment Processes at In-Stream Restoration Structures in the Vicinity of a Bridge Crossing

The long-term performance of infrastructure depends on reliable and sustainable designs. Many of Pennsylvania’s streams experience sediment transport problems that increase maintenance costs and lower structural integrity of bridge crossings. A stream restoration project is one common mitigation measure used to correct such problems at bridge crossings. Specifically, in an attempt to alleviate aggradation problems with the Old Route 15 Bridge crossing on White Deer Creek, in White Deer, PA, two in-stream structures (rock cross vanes) and several bank stabilization features were installed along with a complete channel redevelopment. The objectives of this research were to characterize the hydraulic and sediment transport processes occurring at the White Deer Creek site, and to investigate, through physical and mathematical modeling, the use of instream restoration structures. The goal is to be able to use the results of this study to prevent aggradation or other sediment related problems in the vicinity of bridges through improved design considerations. Monitoring and modeling indicate that the study site on White Deer Creek is currently unstable, experiencing general channel down-cutting, bank erosion, and several local areas of increased aggradation and degradation of the channel bed. An in-stream structure installed upstream of the Old Route 15 Bridge failed by sediment burial caused by the high sediment load that White Deer Creek is transporting as well as the backwater effects caused by the bridge crossing. The in-stream structure installed downstream of the Old Route 15 Bridge is beginning to fail because of the alignment of the structure with the approach direction of flow from upstream of the restoration structure.

Estimation of vertical groundwater fluxes into a streambed through continuous temperature profile monitoring and the relationship of groundwater fluxes to coaster brook trout spawning habitat

We hypothesized that the spatial distribution of groundwater inflows through river bottom sediments is a critical factor associated with the selection of coaster brook trout (a life history variant of Salvelinus fontinalis,) spawning sites. An 80-m reach of the Salmon Trout River, in the Huron Mountains of the upper peninsula of Michigan, was selected to test the hypothesis based on long-term documentation of coaster brook trout spawning at this site. Throughout this site, the river is relatively similar along its length with regard to stream channel and substrate features. A monitoring well system consisting of an array of 27 wells was installed to measure subsurface temperatures underneath the riverbed over a 13-month period. The monitoring well locations were separated into areas where spawning has and has not been observed. Over 200,000 total temperature measurements were collected from 5 depths within each of the 27 monitoring wells. Temperatures within the substrate at the spawning area were generally cooler and less variable than river temperatures. Substrate temperatures in the non-spawning area were generally warmer, more variable, and closely tracked temporal variations in river temperatures. Temperature data were inverted to obtain subsurface groundwater velocities using a numerical approximation of the heat transfer equation. Approximately 45,000 estimates of groundwater velocities were obtained. Estimated velocities in the spawning and non-spawning areas confirmed that groundwater velocities in the spawning area were primarily in the upward direction, and were generally greater in magnitude than velocities in the non-spawning area. In the non-spawning area there was a greater occurrence of velocities in the downward direction, and velocity estimates were generally lesser in magnitude than in the spawning area. Both the temperature and velocity results confirm the hypothesis that spawning sites correspond to areas of significant groundwater influx to the river bed.

Idiographic Self-Monitoring Instruments to Empower Client Participation and Evaluate Outcome in Intensive Family Preservation Services

Intensive Family Preservation Services seek to reflect the values of focusing on client strengths and viewing clients as colleagues. To promote those values, Intensive Family Preservation Programs should include a systematic form of client self monitoring in their packages of outcome measures. This paper presents a model of idiographic self-monitoring used in time series, single system research design developed for Family Partners, a family preservation program of the School for Contemporary Education in Annandale, Virginia. The evaluation model provides a means of empowering client families to utilize their strengths and promote their status as colleague in determining their own goals, participating in the change process, and measuring their own progress.

CATCH across Texas: Building a model for the diffusion of effective school-based health promotion programs

The impact of health promotion programs is related to both program effectiveness and the extent to which the program is implemented among the target population. The purpose of this dissertation was to describe the development and evaluation of a school-based program diffusion intervention designed to increase the rate of dissemination and adoption of the Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health, or CATCH program (recently renamed the Coordinated Approach to Child Health). ^ The first study described the process by which schools across the state of Texas spontaneously began to adopt the CATCH program after it was tested and proven effective in a multi-site randomized efficacy trial. A survey of teachers and administrator representatives of all schools on record that purchased the CATCH program, but were not involved in the efficacy trial, was used to find out who brought CATCH into the schools, how they garnered support for its adoption, why they decided to adopt the program, and what was involved in deciding to adopt. ^ The second study described how the Intervention Mapping framework guided the planning, development and implementation of a program for the diffusion of CATCH. An iterative process was used to integrate theory, literature, the experience of project staff and data from the target population into a meaningful set of program determinants and performance objectives. Proximal program objectives were specified and translated into both media and interpersonal communication strategies for program diffusion. ^ The third study assessed the effectiveness of the diffusion program in a case-comparison design. Three of the twenty Education Service Center regions in Texas were chosen, selected based on similar demographic criteria, and were followed for adoption of the CATCH curriculum. One of these regions received the full media and interpersonal channel intervention; a second received a reduced media-only intervention, and a third received no intervention. Results suggested the use of the interpersonal channels with media follow-up is an effective means to facilitate program dissemination and adoption. The media-alone condition was not effective in facilitating program adoption. ^

Lessons for emerging state Children's Health Insurance Premium Assistance programs: Case study of the Massachusetts Masshealth Family Assistance Program (MHFAP)

Providing health insurance coverage for vulnerable populations such as low-income high-risk children with limited access to health care is a challenge for many states. Over the past decade, higher private insurance premiums and unpredictable labor markets have increased the number of uninsured and underinsured children nationwide. Due to recent economic downfalls, many states such as Texas, have expressed interest in using premium assistance programs to increase enrollment of low income children and families in private coverage through employer sponsored health insurance. Massachusetts has been especially successful in reducing the number of uninsured children through the implementation of MassHealth Family Assistance Program (MHFAP), an employer based premium assistance program. The purpose of this study is to identify key implementation factors of a fully established premium assistance program which may provide lessons and facilitate implementation of emerging premium assistance programs. ^ The case study of the fully established MassHealth Family Assistance Program (MHFAP) has illustrated the ability of states to expand their Medicaid and SCHIP programs in order to provide affordable health coverage to uninsured and underinsured low income children and their families. As demonstrated by MHFAP, the success of a premium assistance program depends on four key factors: (1) determination of participant and employer eligibility; (2) determination of employer benefits meeting benchmark equivalency (Medicaid or State Children's Health Insurance Program); (3) the use of appropriate marketing and outreach strategies; and (4) establishment of adequate monitoring and reporting techniques. Successful implementation strategies, revealed by the case study of the Massachusetts MassHealth Family Assistance Program, may be used by emerging premium assistance programs, such as Texas Children's Health Insurance Premium Assistance Program (CHIP-PA) toward establishment of an effective, efficient, and equitable employer sponsored health program.^

Monitoring of industrial exposure for chloracne

This study (1) established comedogenicity dose response curves for the pure compounds of 3,3$\sp\prime$,4,4$\sp\prime$-tetrachloroazobenzene (TCAB) and 3,3$\sp\prime$,4,4$\sp\prime$-tetrachloroazoxybenzene (TCAOB) individually and as a couple-compound using a rabbit ear model; (2) used a rabbit ear model to establish comedogenicity potential for TCAB and TCAOB as they existed in a given industrial herbicide manufacture process; (3) evaluated actual environmental contamination in a herbicide industrial setting by air monitoring and wipe sampling; (4) biologically monitored potentially exposed workers for alterations in follicular orifice size as an index of actual exposure to chloracnegenic compounds; and (5) biologically monitored potentially exposed workers for changes in weight, cholesterol, triglycerides and blood sugar.^ A silastic monomer mold (an objective measure) was used to measure change in follicular orifice size over time. This required taking impressions of (1) skin of the forehead and right and left malar crescents of workers and (2) the skin of the external ear of the rabbit. Molds were stained using a solution of hematoxylin and digitized using a Nikon UFX microscope (magnification 300 X), a drawing tube and a digitizing tablet attached to an IBM Personal Computer. Comedogenicity assays were used to establish dose-response curves for TCAB, TCAOB and the couple-compound TCAB + TCAOB.^ No evidence of chloracne or toxicity was observed in any of the workers. Nor, was there a statistically significant increase in size of follicular orifice means measured over time. This was attributed to extensive personal and environmental hygiene programs along with teaching the workers about chloracne, its cause and its prevention. These programs may have been the greatest factor in preventing the development of chloracne in this group of workers. Monitoring of the plant environment showed relatively high concentrations of the couple-compound (TCAB + TCAOB). Comedogenicity assays showed a linear dose-response relationship over time for TCAB, TCAOB and the couple-compound. An antagonistic action was found for the TCAB/TCAOB of the couple-compound; such action may provide some protection to workers in this type of setting. It is speculated that the observed antagonistic action may be due to the difference in binding affinities of TCAB/TCAOB for receptor sites. ^