Local spectroscopic evidence for a nodeless magnetic kagome superconductor CeRu2

We report muon spin rotation (µSR) experiments on the microscopic properties of superconductivity and magnetism in the kagome superconductor CeRu₂withTc≃5 K. From the measurements of the temperature-dependent magnetic penetration depthλ, the superconducting order parameter exhibits nodeless pairing, which fits best to an anisotropics-wave gap symmetry. We further show that theTc/λ^-2ratio is comparable to that of unconventional superconductors. Furthermore, the powerful combination of zero-field (ZF)-µSR and high-fieldµSR has been used to uncover magnetic responses across three characteristic temperatures, identified asT1∗≃110 K,T2∗≃65 K, andT3∗≃40 K. Our experiments classify CeRu₂as an exceedingly rare nodeless magnetic kagome superconductor.

Assessment Criteria for Severe Intellectual Disability in Various Cultural Settings

Professional review teams in nine Third World countries assessed a sample of children referred as probable cases (or as controls) from a door to door household survey of 1000+ children aged 3 to 9 years. Retrospectively each team specified the criteria they had used to decide on whether or not individuals should be classified as "severely mentally retarded" (intellectually disabled). The paper analyses these criteria in terms of the behavioural domains to which they refer, the measures with which they were operationalised and the ways in which they were coordinated to arrive at a "diagnosis". Substantial consensus was found on the importance of five broad domains, although the precise measures used varied across the teams. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Prevalence and correlates of mental retardation among children in Karachi, Pakistan

This paper reports estimates of the prevalence of mental retardation and associated factors based on a population survey of 2- to 9-year-old children in Greater Karachi, Pakistan. A two-phase survey was implemented during the years 1988-1989. In the first phase, a cluster sample of 6,365 children (5,748 from urban areas and 617 from rural areas) was screened for disabilities using a parental report known as the Ten Questions instrument. In the second phase, all children with positive screening results and a 10% sample of those with negative results were referred for structured medical and psychological assessments. Estimates of the prevalence of mental retardation were 19.0/1,000 children (95% confidence interval (CI) 13.5-24.4) for serious retardation and 65.3/1,000 children (95% CI 48.9-81.8) for mild retardation. Both estimates were considerably higher than respective prevalence estimates obtained in industrialized countries and in selected less developed countries. In this population, lack of maternal education was strongly associated with the prevalence of both serious (odds ratio = 3.26, 95% CI 1.26-8.43) and mild (odds ratio = 3.08, 95% CI 1.85-5.14) retardation. Other factors that were independently associated with mental retardation in Karachi included histories of perinatal difficulties, neonatal infections, postnatal brain infections, and traumatic brain injury, as well as current malnourishment. Further research is needed to assess the contribution of consanguineous marriage, improvements in child survival, and other factors to the unusually high prevalence of mental retardation in this population.

The ten questions screen for childhood disabilities: its uses and limitations in Pakistan

OBJECTIVE

To assess the accuracy of the ten questions screen as a measure of childhood disability for epidemiologic studies in populations lacking resources for professional assessment of children's development and functioning.

DESIGN

Household survey and screening of children in phase one followed by clinical assessments in phase two.

SETTING

Karachi, Pakistan.

PARTICIPANTS

A cluster sample of 6365 children, aged 2 to 9 years, screened using the ten questions and a subsample referred for clinical assessments.

MAIN RESULTS

Although the sensitivity of the ten questions as a global screen for serious cognitive, motor, and seizure disabilities is high (84-100%), its sensitivity for identifying and distinguishing specific types of disability and for detecting vision, hearing, and mild disabilities, overall, is limited (generally < 80% and as low as 4% for mild vision disability). The predictive value of a positive screening result is also limited-using the ten questions in surveys without clinical confirmation results in overestimation of the prevalence of serious disability by more than 300%.

CONCLUSIONS

The ten questions screen is not an assessment tool. Its utility lies in its ability to screen or select a fraction of the population at high risk for serious disability. As a screening tool, it allows scarce diagnostic and other professional resources to be efficiently directed toward those at high risk.

Evaluating a ten questions screen for childhood disability: reliability and internal structure in different cultures

This paper uses five strategies to evaluate the reliability and other measurement qualities of the Ten Questions screen for childhood disability. The screen was administered for 22,125 children, aged 2-9 years, in Bangladesh, Jamaica and Pakistan. The test-retest approach involving small sub-samples was useful for assessing reliability of overall screening results, but not of individual items with low prevalence. Alternative strategies focus on the internal consistency and structure of the screen as well as item analyses. They provide evidence of similar and comparable qualities of measurement in the three culturally divergent populations, indicating that the screen is likely to produce comparable data across cultures. One of the questions, however, correlates with the other questions differently in Jamaica, where it appears to "over-identify" children as seriously disabled. The methods and findings reported here have general applications for the design and evaluation of questionnaires for epidemiologic research, particularly when the goal is to gather comparable data in geographically and culturally diverse settings.

Measures of socioeconomic status for child health research: comparative results from Bangladesh and Pakistan

This paper examines the reliability and validity of several hypothesized indicators of socioeconomic status for use in epidemiologic research, particularly in studies of child health in the less developed world. Population-based surveys of child health and disability were completed in Bangladesh and Pakistan using standard questionnaires designed to measure four domains of household socioeconomic status: wealth, housing, parental education and occupation. Test-retest data indicate moderate to excellent reliability of most of the socioeconomic indicators in both countries. Loadings from factor analyses of the survey data provide further evidence of the reliability of the data, and confirm that the questionnaire measures housing and wealth as distinct domains in both countries. Parental education and occupation are correlated with housing and/or wealth in these data sets. Bivariate logistic regression analyses show that, although 11 of 12 dichotomous indicators of low socioeconomic status constructed from the data are predictive of child death in at least one of the four sub-populations studied (rural and urban Bangladesh, and rural and urban areas of Karachi, Pakistan), no single indicator is predictive of child death in all four sub-populations. These along with multivariate results demonstrate the importance of including multiple measures of distinct domains if the research aims include investigation and/or control of the effects of socioeconomic status on health in diverse populations.

Validity of the ten questions screened for childhood disability: results from population-based studies in Bangladesh, Jamaica, and Pakistan

An international study to validate the Ten Questions screen for serious childhood disability was undertaken in communities in Bangladesh, Jamaica, and Pakistan, where community workers screened more than 22,000 children ages 2-9 years. All children who screened positive, as well as random samples of those who screened negative, were referred for clinical evaluations. Applying comparable diagnostic criteria, the sensitivity of the screen for serious cognitive, motor, and seizure disabilities is acceptable (80-100%) in all three populations, whereas the positive predictive values range from 3 to 15%. These results confirm the usefulness of the Ten Questions as a low-cost and rapid screen for these disabilities, although not for vision and hearing disabilities, in populations where few affected children have previously been identified and treated. They also show that the value of the Ten Questions for identifying disability in underserved populations is limited to that of a screen; more thorough evaluations of children screened positive are necessary to distinguish true- from false-positive results and to identify the nature of the disability if present.

Estimates of the prevalence of childhood seizure disorders in communities where professional resources are scarce: results from Bangladesh, Jamaica and Pakistan

Although numerous estimates of the prevalence of seizure disorders in populations in the less developed world have now been published, these estimates are difficult to interpret due to lack of comparability of study methods and criteria for case definition. The results reported in this paper are from a large, collaborative study of disabilities in 2- to 9-year-old children in which standard research procedures and case definitions were used in three diverse populations (located in Bangladesh, Jamaica and Pakistan). A two-phase study design (screening followed by professional evaluations) was used in this study allowing for the professional evaluation to serve as the criterion in the estimation of prevalence, even for rare disorders. As a result, the prevalence estimates reported here have a high degree of comparability across populations and exhibit unusually strong validity for population surveys. Febrile seizures were the most common type of seizure history in all three populations, with point estimates of lifetime prevalence ranging from 10.9 to 62.8 per 1000. The lifetime prevalence rates of epilepsy (recurrent unprovoked seizures) ranged from 5.8 to 15.5 per 1000. Lifetime prevalence rates of neonatal, all provoked and all unprovoked seizures, as well as estimates of the prevalence of active epilepsy, are also reported.