Sleep patterns in children with and without autism spectrum disorders: developmental comparisons

The present study examined age-related changes in the sleep of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) compared to age-related changes in the sleep of typically developing (TD) children. Participants were 108 mothers of children with ASD and 108 mothers of TD children. Participants completed a questionnaire on children's overall sleep quality that also tapped specific sleep-domains (i.e., bedtime resistance, sleep onset delay, sleep duration, sleep anxiety, night wakings, parasomnias, disordered breathing, daytime sleepiness). Results confirm significantly poorer sleep quantity and quality in children with ASD, particularly children age 6-9 years. Unlike TD children, the sleep problems of children with ASD were unlikely to diminish with age. Our findings suggest that it is important to exam specific domains of sleep as well as overall sleep patterns. Finding of significant age-related interactions suggests that the practice of combining children from wide age-ranges into a single category obfuscates potentially important developmental differences.

The frequency of workplace exacerbation among health maintenance organisation members with asthma

OBJECTIVES

Workplace conditions can potentially contribute to the worsening of asthma, yet it is unclear what percentage of adults with asthma experience workplace exacerbation of symptoms. The objective of this investigation was to determine the prevalence of workplace exacerbation of asthma (WEA).

METHODS

Adults with asthma aged 18-44 were enrolled into the baseline survey of a longitudinal study. Members of a health maintenance organisation were considered candidates for participation if they fulfilled membership, diagnostic, and treatment criteria based on automated review of electronic billing, claims, and pharmacy records. Diagnosis and treatment were confirmed by manual review of medical records. A telephone questionnaire was administered. A work related symptom score was assigned to each participant based on responses to questions about work related asthma symptoms, medication use, and symptom triggers. Blinded to participants' answers to these questions, two researchers independently reviewed the self-reported work histories and assigned exposure ratings. A final exposure score was then calculated. Participants with sufficient evidence for work related symptoms and exposure were classified as having WEA.

RESULTS

Of the 598 participants with complete data, 557 (93%) were working, and 136 (23%) fulfilled the criteria for WEA. Those with WEA were more likely to be male and to report that they had been bothered by asthma symptoms during the past seven days.

CONCLUSIONS

Workplace exacerbation of asthma was common in this study population, occurring in over a fifth of these adults with asthma. Physicians should consider that work can contribute to the exacerbation of symptoms when treating adults with asthma.

Women's characteristics and gender role attitudes: support for father involvement with children

Women's (N = 364) personal characteristics and gender role attitudes were examined in relation to their support for father involvement with children. The respondents completed measures of trust, attitudes toward women, hostility, self-esteem, and father involvement. Nontraditional gender role attitudes, positive ratings of their own interpersonal trust, and low hostility toward men were predictive of the respondents' support for father involvement. Participant demographics (including age, marital status, and number of children) were unrelated to their views of father involvement. Results indicate the importance of considering the characteristics and attitudes women bring to the co-parental relationship in the examination of factors influencing father involvement with children. Findings are discussed within the context of mothers' primary child-care and gatekeeping roles.

Maxillary giant cell tumour associated with Paget's disease of bone

A case involving the rare occurrence of a maxillary giant cell tumour in association with Paget's disease is reported. Surgical treatment consisted of a combined intraoral and temporal approach for tumour resection with temporalis muscle flap reconstruction of the maxilla. The postoperative course was complicated by a recurrence.

Steroid acne after orthognathic surgery

Steroid acne is a common unwanted effect in patients undergoing corticosteroid therapy. Eight women in a series of 1276 adult patients had acne after orthognathic surgery in which short-course parenteral corticosteroid therapy was used to reduce postoperative swelling. Steroid-induced acneiform eruption is different from acne vulgaris in that the former usually resolves on its own, without scar formation, after withdrawal of the drug.

The effects of nasomaxillary injury on future facial growth

The appearance of results of injury to the columella, the nasal septum, and the nasal bones, in particular, has been well described. Anomalies of the maxilla and global facial balance secondary to nasomaxillary injury are less well known. Three cases involving children, aged 11, 14, and 17 years, who had suffered nasomaxillary injury at least 8 years earlier as a result of physical beating, were studied with the use of photographs and architectural craniofacial lateral cephalometric radiographic analysis. The architectural craniofacial analysis of Delaire produced a graphic representation of the resultant maxillofacial deformities rather than a description of the deformities in terms of deviation from a statistical mean. Traumatic injury to the nasomaxillary complex provides an experimental model that implicates the role of the cartilaginous nasal septum and local functional conditions in the growth of the nasomaxillary complex. The importance of the functional premaxillary skeletal unit in balanced facial growth allows better understanding of the pathophysiology of malformation of this region.

Comparative Efficiency of Brilliant Green, Bismuth Sulfite, Salmonella-Shigella, Hektoen Enteric, and Xylose Lysine Desoxycholate Agars for the Recovery of Salmonella from Foods: Collaborative Study

The relative efficiency of brilliant green (BG), bismuth sulfite (BS), Salmonella-Shigella (SS), xylose lysine desoxycholate (XLD), and Hektoen enteric (HE) agars for the recovery of Salmonella from 5 foods was collaboratively studied in 11 laboratories. The analytical efficiency of various paired combinations of the 5 agars was statistically compared according to 3 parameters: (1) productivity or recovery of Salmonella, (2) rate of enumeration of cultures that were false positive for Salmonella, and (3) rate of enumeration of false-negative reactions. In descending order of productivity, the sequential rankingwasBS, XLD, HE, BG, and SS agars. In ascending order, the rates of false-positive reactions based on a statistical analysis of paired agar combinations was HE, BS, BG and XLD (tie), and SS agars. Analogously, in ascending order, the sequence of false-negative reaction rates was BS, XLD, HE, BG, and SS agars. The combination of BS, XLD, and HE agars is more efficient for recovery of Salmonella from foods than is the present official combination of BG, BS, and SS agars. The revision of official final action method 46.054 to replace the combination of BG, BS, and SS agars with a combination of BS, XLD, and HE agars has been adopted official first action.

The eye of the very young beholder: sex typing of infants by young children

This study was designed to examine the effects of gender labeling on young children by determining the extent to which the qualities they attribute to an infant depend on whether that infant is identified as a girl or as a boy. 20 boys and 20 girls from each of 3- and 5-year-old age groups were shown a 5-min videotape of a boy and a girl infant engaged in a variety of activities. One of the infants was labeled a "boy" and the other a "girl", with the labels reversed for half of the subjects. Each child was then asked to respond to a series of 12 bipolar adjectives, 9 representing sex-stereotypic dimensions, in a forced-choice manner. The major findings indicate that both 3- and 5-year-old children responded in a significantly stereotypic manner based on the gender labels provided for the infants, regardless of the infant's actual gender. A simple concept-formation paradigm is proposed to account for these findings.