In this study the impact of socio economic factors in raising a child with mental disability was discussed and explored. There is limited research done on this topic in the world and in South Africa. Studies show that there is a direct link between poverty and mental disability. There are multiple factors that have an influence on a family that have a child that suffers from mental disability. These factors include stress and unresolved emotions regarding the child that suffers from mental disability, financial burdens, dealing with the child’s problematic behaviour and the social stigma associated with disabilities. It was found that there is little support available for families that have to deal with all these factors. Different aspects of mental disability have been discussed in this study in order to create a better understanding of mentally disability and to provide all the necessary information surrounding mental disability. Aspects that were discussed are: a) What is mental disability, b) Levels of mental disability, c) The link between poverty and mental disability, d) Socio-economic and psychosocial factors that have an impact on the family, e) Causes of mental disability, f) Role of the social worker, and g) Services provided to families. These aspects have been discussed through literature and in the empirical study. Findings from this study show that families that have a child with mental disability also have to contend with a lot of socio-economic factors that play a role in the family. Having a child with a mental disability in the house has an influence on all members of the family. Children with a mental disability have serious emotional and behavioural problems. Parents of mentally challenged children commonly experience different emotions. Raising a child with a mental disability may be more expensive than raising a typical child. It was thus concluded that there is a need to explore the impact of socio-economic factors in raising a child with a mental disability. / Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Social Work and Criminology / MSW / Unrestricted

The diploma thesis deals with the issue of sexual education of young people with mild mental disability. Sexuality is seen as a natural part of the human personality. The thesis presents a possible way of informing the clients of the Transit program. The theoretical part of the work is focused on the basic concepts related to mental disabilities. Transit program is described as a service that utilizes a Person Centered Planning. The aim of the diploma thesis is to formulate a procedure for the sexual education and reproductive behaviour for the clients of Transit program. The empirical part uses the qualitative methodology - semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted in four organizations providing the Transit Program in the Czech Republic. The research showed that the current state of enlightenment is insufficient or completely missing. In conclusion, I proposed procedure for introducing sexual education into the Transit Program. Keywords: sexuality, sexual education, mild mental disability

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) effects a large number of individuals, both civilians and military personnel, every year. The neuroinflammatory response mounted in the brain following a head injury continues long after the effects of initial subside. While it was initially thought to only occur in moderate or severe TBI, the deleterious effects of this cascade have recently been identified in patients with mild TBI (mTBI). Hypopituitarism is an often underreported condition and can result from TBI of all severity. The long-term sequelae of TBI can manifest in or exacerbate many other comorbidities of brain injury, such as neuroendocrine dysfunction or mental health conditions. Both TBI and hypopituitarism can present with symptoms similar to some psychiatric disorders, or exacerbation comorbid conditions. Veteran patients presenting to their primary care providers with symptoms of irritability, depression, anxiety, or cognitive and behavioral changes may meet criteria to receive diagnoses of psychiatric illnesses prevalent in the military population, while not being evaluated for pituitary dysfunction, and thus receive inadequate treatment. The proposed study aims to identify the prevalence of patients that are receiving psychiatric treatment that have both a history of mTBI and reduced levels of pituitary hormones on serum assays. By identifying a significant portion of this population, future studies can assess the impact that hormonal replacement has on success of psychotherapy, resolution of symptoms, and impact on functional status, among other factors.

A commercial epoxy was modified by adding fluorinated poly (aryl ether ketone) and in turn metal micro powders (Ni, Al, Zn, and Ag) and coated on mild steel. Two curing agents were used; triethylenetetramine (curing temperatures: 30 oC and 70 oC) and hexamethylenediamine (curing temperature: 80 oC). Variation in tribological properties (dynamic friction and wear) and surface energies with varying metal powders and curing agents was evaluated. When cured at 30 oC, friction and wear decreased significantly due to phase separation reaction being favored but increased when cured at 70 oC and 80 oC due to cross linking reaction being favored. There was a significant decrease in surface energies with the addition of modifiers.

The concrete mixer industry is affected by abrasive wear under both dry and wet conditions. An upgrade of the material inside the drums to high abrasion resistant steel grades can improve the lifetime and offer the possibility to reduce the weight of the drum. A new wear testing apparatus was designed to simulate the wear conditions in a concrete mixer truck with the aim to investigate the relative wear resistance for a number of steel grades. Three tests were performed under wet conditions using 16-25 mm crushed granite. The tests focused on the wear resistance under sliding and impact wear for 30 different steel grades. All of the steel grades were analyzed regarding hardness profile, microstructure and chemical composition prior to testing. Wear losses were investigated by weighing before, during and after testing. Hardness profile and SEM investigations were performed at Swerea Kimab on worn surface and cross-section after testing. Relationship between hardness and wear resistance was found over a certain hardness level. Higher hardness show better wear resistance for this type of application. The shape and degradation of abrasives were found to affect the wear rate. / Betongblandare är en applikation som är utsatt för ett abrasivt slitage under både torra och våta miljöer. Genom att uppgradera materialet inuti trumman till ett slitstarkt stål kan livslängden förlängas och vikten på trumman reduceras. En ny testutrustning utformades för att simulera slitaget och miljöerna inuti en betongbil. Slitstyrkan undersöktes genom att mäta det relativa slitaget för totalt 30 stycken stålsorter. Tre stycken slitagetester genomfördes med en blandning av krossad granit, av storleken 16-25 mm, och vatten. Testerna fokuserade på att simulera både ett glidande slitage och ett lätt stötslitage. Innan testet påbörjades analyserades samtliga stålsorter med avseende på hårdhetsprofilen, mikrostrukturen och kemisk sammansättning. Materialförlusten undersöktes genom vägning före testet, under testet och efter testet. Efter testet analyserades provernas slityta i SEM och hårdheten i tvärsnittet på Swerea Kimab. Ett samband mellan hårdhet och slitstyrka kunde ses över en viss hårdhetsnivå. Testerna visade att en högre hårdhet ger en bättre slitstyrka samt att formen och nötningen av de abrasiva materialet påverkade nötningshastigheten.

<p>Students who have disabilities often face many difficulties throughout their lives and are not always given the same opportunities to learn important daily living skills as their peers. Most research in this area does not account for the need to teach daily living skills to students with mild disabilities, and instead is focused on teaching these skills to students with severe disabilities. In this study, the methods for teaching daily living skills are examined and skills that should be taught to middle school students with mild disabilities are discovered. Key findings from this study indicate that there are many daily living skills that are not being taught to students with mild disabilities, teachers do not often have the time to teach these skills, and there is a lack of resources for teaching daily living skills to middle school students with mild disabilities. The handbook created from this study aims to fill part of the gap by sharing suitable methods for teaching daily living skills and providing a checklist of daily living skills to teach to the students.</p>

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Over 5 million older adults have Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the US, and this number is projected to double by 2050. Clinical trials of potential pharmacological treatments for AD have largely shown that once cognitive decline has occurred, targeting AD pathology in the brain does not improve cognition. Therefore, it is likely that the most effective treatments for AD will need to be administered before cognitive symptoms occur, necessitating a biomarker for the early, preclinical stages of AD. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) is a promising early biomarker for AD. CBF is decreased in individuals with AD compared to their normally aging counterparts, and it has been shown that CBF is altered in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and earlier stages and may occur prior to amyloid or tau aggregation. In addition, CBF can be measured using arterial spin labeled (ASL) MRI, a noninvasive imaging technique that can be safely repeated over time to track prognosis or treatment efficacy. The complex temporal and spatial patterns of altered CBF over the course of AD, as well as the relationships between CBF and AD-specific and -nonspecific factors, will be critical to elucidate in order for CBF to be an effective early biomarker of AD. Here, we begin to characterize the relationships between CBF and risk factors, pathologies, and symptoms of AD. Chapter 1 is a systematic review of published literature that compares CBF in individuals with AD and MCI to CBF in cognitively normal (CN) controls and assesses the relationship between CBF and cognitive function. Chapter 2 reports our original research assessing the relationships between CBF, hypertension, and race/ethnicity in older adults without dementia from the the Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (IADRC) and Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). Chapter 3 reports our original research assessing the relationships between CBF and amyloid beta and tau aggregation measured with PET, as well as whether hypertension or APOEε4 positivity affects these relationships, in older adults without dementia from the IADRC. Chapter 4 reports our original research assessing the relationship between the spatial distribution of tau and subjective memory concerns. / 2023-05-24

Background: Inflammation is proposed to play a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease, and may also be involved in the pathogenesis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This study examined the association of inflammatory markers in serum or plasma with prevalent MCI and MCI subtypes in a population-based sample. Methods: Olmsted County, MN, residents aged 70-89 years on October 1, 2004, were evaluated using the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale, a neurological evaluation, and neuropsychological testing. Information ascertained for each participant was reviewed by an expert panel of neuropsychologists, physicians, and nurses, and a diagnosis of normal cognition, MCI, or dementia was made by consensus. C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis alpha (TNFα), and adiponectin were measured at baseline. Results: Among 313 subjects with MCI and 1570 cognitively normal subjects, a CRP level in the upper quartile (>3.3 mg/L) was significantly associated with MCI (odds ratio [OR], 1.42; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.00-2.01) and with nonamnestic MCI (OR, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.12-3.78) after adjusting for age, sex, and years of education. However, there was no association with amnestic MCI (OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 0.81-1.82). No association was observed with the other inflammatory markers. Conclusions: Plasma CRP is associated with prevalent MCI and with nonamnestic MCI in elderly, nondemented persons in a population-based setting. These findings suggest the involvement of inflammation in the pathogenesis of MCI.

A simple method is reported to synthesize an anticancer drug, NCX 4040, conveniently in mild conditions using silicon chemistry. A starting material, 4-hydroxybenzyl alcohol, was silylated selectively first to give t-butyldimethylsilyl 4-hydroxybenzyl ether, which was then converted to NCX 4040 by esterification, desilylation, hydrochlorination and nitration.

Blast-related mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a common injury among Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) veterans due to the frequent use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). A significant minority of veterans with blast-related mTBI complain of postconcussion symptoms (PCS) and cognitive difficulties, even years after the injury. Studies have suggested that these behavioral sequelae are primarily linked to mental health disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, mTBI is associated with neural changes and the impact of these changes on behavioral sequelae is unclear. As such, this dissertation had three goals. First, this dissertation assessed whether the severity of PCS in blast-exposed individuals is associated with the extent of mTBI-related neural injury. Results revealed that individuals with mTBI with loss of consciousness (LOC) had significantly more white matter abnormalities than no-TBI controls and that these white matter abnormalities were spatially variable across individuals. Importantly, the extent of white matter abnormality was associated with physical PCS severity and mediated the relationship between mTBI with LOC and physical PCS. Second, this dissertation examined whether these white matter abnormalities were also associated with overall cognitive impairment. In light of the observed variability in white matter injury, a measure of overall cognitive status that takes into account heterogeneity of cognitive impairment was used. Results showed that the extent of white matter abnormality was associated with cognitive status and mediated the relationship between mTBI with LOC and cognitive impairment. Third, this dissertation examined performance and brain function in the context of an experimental measure of cognitive control known to be sensitive to residual effects of mTBI. Results revealed that although behavioral performance was similar across groups, the mTBI group had enhanced functional connectivity between brain networks important for task performance, suggesting a potential compensatory mechanism in mTBI. Together, the findings of this dissertation suggest that mTBI is associated with structural and functional connectivity alterations years after the injury. Further, this dissertation suggests that whereas structural connectivity changes may have negative behavioral consequences, changes in functional connectivity may serve as a compensatory mechanism for successful performance.