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A growing literature has demonstrated that prosodic sensitivity is related to early literacy development; however, the precise nature of this relationship remains unclear. It has been speculated in recent theoretical models that the observed relationship between prosodic sensitivity and early literacy might be partially mediated by children ' s vocabulary knowledge, phonological awareness, and morphological awareness, although such models have yet to be confirmed using advanced statistical techniques. The study reported here uses covariance structure modeling to provide the first direct test of the model proposed by Wood, Wade-Woolley, and Holliman. We also test a modified version of this model that was designed to overcome some of the limitations in the original. Seventy-five 5-7-year-old English-speaking children completed a new measure of prosodic sensitivity and were also assessed for their vocabulary knowledge, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, word reading, and spelling. The results showed that Wood et al. ' s model did not provide an adequate fit to our sample data; however, the new model, which permitted causal connections between the so-called mediator variables, provided an excellent fit. We argue that prosodic sensitivity should be afforded greater importance in models of literacy development, and offer a new theoretical model of the prosody-literacy relationship for future attempts at replication.

Background:The association of the present Chikungunya pandemic with a mutation in the Chik virus is already established in many parts of the world, including Kerala. Kerala was one of the worst-affected states of India in the Chikungunya epidemic of 2006–2007. It is important to discuss the clinical features of patients affected by Chikungunya fever in the context of this change in the epidemiology of the disease.Aim:This study tries to analyze the clinical picture of the Chikungunya patients in Kerala during the epidemic of 2007.Setting and Design:A cross-sectional survey was carried out in five of the most affected districts in Kerala, India.Materials and Methods:A two-stage cluster sampling technique was used to collect the information. Ten clusters each were selected from all the five districts, and the size of the clusters were 18 houses each. A structured interview schedule was used for data collection. Diagnosis based on clinical signs and symptoms was the major case-finding strategy.Results and Conclusion:Of the 3623 residents in the surveyed households, 1913 (52.8%) had Chikungunya clinically. Most of the affected were in the adult age group (73.4%). Swelling of the joints was seen in 69.9% of the patients, followed by headache (64.1%) and itching (50.3%). The knee joint was the most common joint affected (52%). The number of patients with persistence of any of the symptoms even after 1 month of illness was 1388 (72.6%). Taking bed rest till the relief of joint pain was found to be a protective factor for the persistence of the symptoms. Recurrence of symptoms with a period of disease-free interval was complained by 669 (35.0%) people. Older age (>40 years), a presentation of high-grade fever with shivering, involvement of the small joints of the hand, presence of rashes or joint swelling during the first week of fever and fever lasting for more than 1 week were the significant risk factors for recurrence of symptoms predicted by a binary logistic regression model. In conclusion, we found that there is substantial acute and chronic morbidity associated with the Chikungunya epidemic of 2007.

Relationships between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and beliefs identified as relevant to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are investigated among university students and a small clinical sample. One hundred and fifty-four participants completed measures of OCD-related beliefs, OCD symptoms, and anxiety and depression symptoms. Results showed that belief domains were strongly interrelated and were not sufficiently separate to use individually in further analysis. The summed obsessive beliefs score was significantly correlated with all measured obsessional symptom subtypes, after controlling for anxiety and depression. Possible explanations and clinical implications of the results are discussed.

It is possible to improve the QOL of elderly women by providing financial security, ensuring care, and by enhancing social relationships of elderly women.

Background:The foundations of hypertension in a person are laid in childhood and adolescence. The phenomenon of tracking of blood pressure is one where those children and adolescents who are in a high blood pressure category tend to fall in the same category when they become adults. Early diagnosis of hypertension and prehypertension in children and adolescents will help in reducing the prevalence of hypertension and its complications in the future adult population of any country. The objective of this study was to find out the prevalence of hypertension and prehypertension among school children 13-17 years in Thiruvananthapuram City Corporation, Kerala. Methods: A two stage sampling technique was applied; in the first stage the schools were stratified as government, aided and unaided schools using probability proportionate to size. In the second stage, from the selected schools one division or class from each standard was identified at random as a cluster and all the eligible children in the selected cluster were studied. A single BP measurement was taken using a standardized digital sphygmomanometer (OMRON IA1). Hypertension and prehypertension was defined as per national high blood pressure education program (USA), working group on hypertension control in children and adolescents blood pressure tables. The data was entered in MS excel and further analysis was done using SPSS 16.0 version software and proportions of outcomes were analyzed. Results: The total number of children studied were 2438, Boys 1274 (52.3%, 95% CI 50.28-54.32) and girls 1164 (47.7%, 95% CI 45.68-49.72). The prevalence of hypertension was found to be 21.4% (95% CI 19.64% -22.96%). The overall prevalence of systolic hypertension is slightly high among the girls (19.4%) than the boys (18.2%), (P value>0.05). The prevalence of pre-hypertension among the study subjects was 21.3 % (19.65-22.95%). The prevalence of systolic pre-hypertension was found to be 21.4% (95% CI 19.74%-23.06%) and diastolic prehypertension 5.3% (95% CI 4.4%-6.2%). Conclusions:The overall prevalence of pre-hypertension and hypertension was 42.6%. These facts show us that preventive interventions are urgent.

Context: Measles imparts high morbidity and mortality in low-income countries with weak health infrastructure. The coverage of measles vaccination in Kerala which is best performing state of India in indicators of health has also not reached the elimination level and outbreaks of measles continue to occur. Aim: The aim of the paper was to study the profile of measles outbreaks in Kerala during the years 2007-2008. Settings and Designs: The study design was cross-sectional and data of the measles surveillance project of Kerala were analyzed. Results: The total number of clinically suspected measles outbreaks in Kerala during the 2-year period of 2007 and 2008 was 29. But only 15(53.6%) were found to be 'measles only' outbreak. The total number of epidemiologically linked measles cases was 718 (314 in 2007 and 404 in 2008). The cases that were immunized but developed the disease were 187 (28.6%), the number of cases that were not immunized was 355 (54.3%) and those whose immunization status was unknown were 112 (17.1%). The mean age of occurrence of disease was higher in the vaccinated group as compared to not vaccinated group. Two deaths were recorded in the study. Conclusions: Significant morbidity and mortality due to measles do occur in the most developed state of India. The epidemics were clustered in some districts. The study indicated an age shift in occurrence of measles cases among who received the vaccination.