Autism is a global phenomenon. Yet, there is a dearth of knowledge of how it is understood and its impact in low-income countries. We examined parents' and professionals' understanding of autism in one low-income country, Nepal. We conducted focus groups and semi-structured interviews with parents of autistic and non-autistic children and education and health professionals from urban and rural settings ( n = 106), asking questions about typical and atypical development and presenting vignettes of children to prompt discussion. Overall, parents of typically developing children and professionals had little explicit awareness of autism. They did, however, use some distinctive terms to describe children with autism from children with other developmental conditions. Furthermore, most participants felt that environmental factors, including in-utero stressors and birth complications, parenting style and home or school environment were key causes of atypical child development and further called for greater efforts to raise awareness and build community capacity to address autism. This is the first study to show the striking lack of awareness of autism by parents and professionals alike. These results have important implications for future work in Nepal aiming both to estimate the prevalence of autism and to enhance support available for autistic children and their families.
The purposes of this study were: 1) to examine how predictive three types of childhood teasing (competency, weight, and appearance) were of later self-esteem; and 2) to examine how predictive these same three variables were of later body image. Additionally, the pattern of relations for each gender was be explored. Each of these questions will be explored for males and females separately. The participants in this study were 89 female and 75 male undergraduates from two midwestern universities, with a mean age of 20. Results showed that more frequent teasing in childhood was significantly predictive of lower self-esteem and poorer body image among females and males. However, the findings varied by teasing types. Certain types of teasing were found to be related to self-esteem and body image while other types of teasing were not. Different patterns emerged for each gender. Implications of these findings and applications for professionals are discussed.
A search for Beyond the Standard Model double-β decay modes of 76Ge has been performed with data collected during the Phase II of the GERmanium Detector Array (Gerda) experiment, located at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN (Italy). Improved limits on the decays involving Majorons have been obtained, compared to previous experiments with 76Ge, with half-life values on the order of 1023 yr. For the first time with 76Ge, limits on Lorentz invariance violation effects in double-β decay have been obtained. The isotropic coefficient åof (3), which embeds Lorentz violation in double-β decay, has been constrained at the order of 10-6 GeV. We also set the first experimental limits on the search for light exotic fermions in double-β decay, including sterile neutrinos.
We search for tri-nucleon decays of $$^{76}$$ 76 Ge in the dataset from the GERmanium Detector Array (GERDA) experiment. Decays that populate excited levels of the daughter nucleus above the threshold for particle emission lead to disintegration and are not considered. The ppp-, ppn-, and pnn-decays lead to $$^{73}$$ 73 Cu, $$^{73}$$ 73 Zn, and $$^{73}$$ 73 Ga nuclei, respectively. These nuclei are unstable and eventually proceed by the beta decay of $$^{73}$$ 73 Ga to $$^{73}$$ 73 Ge (stable). We search for the $$^{73}$$ 73 Ga decay exploiting the fact that it dominantly populates the 66.7 keV $$^{73m}$$ 73 m Ga state with half-life of 0.5 s. The nnn-decays of $$^{76}$$ 76 Ge that proceed via $$^{73m}$$ 73 m Ge are also included in our analysis. We find no signal candidate and place a limit on the sum of the decay widths of the inclusive tri-nucleon decays that corresponds to a lower lifetime limit of 1.2$$\times $$ × 10$$^{26}$$ 26 yr (90% credible interval). This result improves previous limits for tri-nucleon decays by one to three orders of magnitude.
There has been a recent proliferation of video cameras on the World Wide Web. Ordinary people and places are instantly subject to becoming part of the mass culture and are also potentially subject to cultural recycling. The Multi-Cultural Recycler puts a tongue-in-cheek spin on this phenomenon.When a visitor accesses the Multi-Cultural Recycler, the Recycler selects two or three camera websites at random and captures the live or latest image from their cameras. The Recycler then performs digital image processing on these images to "recycle" them into a new image. Since the actual process used is also selected at random, each access to the Recycler site produces a unique image.Visitors can also look in "The Recycling Bin" to see the source images that comprise their recycled image and link to the images' original websites to learn their original context.
Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a global phenomenon. While in Western countries such as the US and UK, prevalence estimates of ASD are around 1%, much less is known about its prevalence in other settings. Cross-cultural differences (e.g., in eye gaze processing) have caused some researchers to call for the need to determine culturally specific understandings of ASD, especially in developing and underserved populations like Nepal. Aims To examine parents and professionals’ understanding of typical and atypical development in both rural (Makwanpur District) and urban (Kathmandu Valley) Nepal, focusing specifically on ASD. Methods In collaboration with our community partners, Autism Care Nepal and Mother and Infant Activities Nepal, we conducted 9 focus groups with health workers, junior and senior paediatricians, primary school teachers and parents of autistic and non-autistic children and 9 semi-structured interviews with early childhood development (ECD) teachers, faith healers, paediatricians and other people working in the disability sector in Makwanpur. The focus group and interview schedules included questions about typical development and vignettes of typically and atypically developing children. Results Overall, those parents and professionals who were not directly involved with atypically developing children had very little awareness of autism. Participants, particularly parents of non-autistic children, used terms such as “doggedly child”, “lonely child”, “introvert, “egoistic”, “dumb”, or “mental patient” to describe vignettes of children with autism. Most participants felt that environmental factors (e.g., parenting style, home or school environment) were key causes of atypical child development. Health and education professionals reported they had received limited training in identification and in particular management of children with atypical development. Many participants called for wider awareness of autism in the community through special schools or media awareness campaigns. Conclusions This is the first study to examine parents and professionals’ understanding of typical and atypical child behaviour and development in rural and urban Nepal. These findings clearly show the lack of awareness of developmental disorders, such as autism, from both parents and professionals alike. These results have important implications for future work aiming to increase awareness and enhance support available for autistic children and families in Nepal.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.