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Effects of cobalt sulfate on prenatal development of mice, rats, and rabbits, and on early postnatal development of rats.

The effects of cobalt sulfate administered to pregnant C57BI mice, OFA-SD rats, and New Zealand rabbits was studied on fetal and postnatal offspring. Cobalt concentration in the maternal blood was increased in proportion to the administered doses. Cobalt crossed the placenta and appeared in the fetal blood and amniotic fluid. Regardless of the administered dose of cobalt sulfate, cobalt concentration in the blood peaked 2 h after administration. Cobalt produced dose-dependent maternal toxicity and was found to be embryotoxic in all three species, as evidenced by elevated frequency of fetuses with body weight or skeletal retardation and embryolethality. Cobalt increased the frequency of major anomalies significantly in mice and rats, with anomalies of the eyes, kidneys, skull, spine, and sternum in mice, and anomalies of the urogenital system in rats. Cobalt sulfate was not teratogenic in rabbits. Intra-amnial administration of cobalt sulfate produced a dose-dependent increase of the frequency of dead fetuses, and weight retardation of the live fetuses. The direct cytotoxic effect probably plays a role in the embryotoxic and teratogenic effects of cobalt. The postnatal examinations revealed a decrease of the perinatal index in the treated group. The body weight of the pups in the treated group was lower during wk 1 of life, but no difference was found between the control and treated by the end of wk 2. Eye opening was completed in the usual time period in both groups, while time of appearance of the teeth, descending of the testes, shaping of ears, and development of hearing was delayed in the treated group. The development of muscle strength and of the locomotor system was delayed. All the functions studied (forward movement, swimming, righting reflex) normalized by postnatal d 21, with the exception of muscle strength. It was concluded that cobalt sulfate exposure decreases the perinatal viability of the fetuses, but the functions of the surviving fetuses with perinatal retardation become compensated by postnatal wk 2-3. The development of fetuses is undisturbed thereafter.

Abnormalities, Drug-Induced↗

Development and validation of an ELISA for hemoglobin-A2: a novel method for beta-thalassemia screening in developing countries.

Hemoglobin-A2 (HbA2) measurement in human hemolysates has great significance, since its level can indicate beta-thalassemia carrier status in otherwise healthy individuals. An ELISA for HbA2 using antiserum monospecific to the delta chain of HbA2 and affinity purified antirabbit gamma globulins (ARGG) conjugated to horseradish peroxidase (HRP) have been developed. The monospecific antiserum used does not cross react with other hemoglobins. Hemolysates from volunteers are used for measurement of HbA2. In a limited trial for beta-thalassemia carrier screening (n = 350), the results obtained with the developed ELISA are comparable with those obtained with a micro-column chromatography method (r > or = 0.89). The developed ELISA is simple, accurate, precise, inexpensive, and several samples can be processed simultaneously with ease, making this system a suitable candidate for transforming into a user friendly kit.

Animals↗

EUROMAC. A European concerted action: maternal alcohol consumption and its relation to the outcome of pregnancy and child development at 18 months. Results--child development at age 18 months.

Children seen in the first part of the study in Berlin, Dundee and Odense were followed up at age 18 months and tested using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Five scores were recorded: the Mental Development Index (MDI), the Psychomotor Development Index (PDI) and scores for responsiveness, attention span and activity. The data were analysed for the centres combined and separately, allowing for confounding variables as in the previous chapter. In none of the comparisons was the mean score found to be significantly less in the children of drinkers than in those of abstainers. In many of the comparisons the children of abstainers had the lowest mean scores. In a number of comparisons in Berlin and Dundee, the MDI or PDI was found to be significantly higher in the children of women who had drunk at the upper end of the consumption distribution.

Alcohol Drinking↗

Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries. Prospects for public health benefits in developing countries from new vaccines against enteric infections.

The symposium participants concluded that vaccines with even moderate efficacy can be highly useful to prevent large numbers of severe illness episodes and deaths and that the decision of whether to initiate a vaccine program should be based on measures or estimates of public health effectiveness rather than only on protective efficacy. Studies of protective efficacy are of course critical to establish the vaccine's biologic activity, but additional aspects of public health effectiveness are also crucial in making these decisions. First-generation vaccines are available against typhoid, cholera, and soon rotavirus diarrhea, and vaccines against enterotoxigenic E. coli diarrhea and shigellosis are under development. The problems related to enteric diseases are enormous; the vaccines may soon be produced at low cost and promise to be relatively more easy to distribute than most previous vaccines. The number of illnesses and deaths averted from vaccine programs are potentially great. Pilot programs using the new vaccines should urgently be considered in areas where the disease burden is high, and steps should be taken to monitor effectiveness of the intervention in these programs. Such studies of vaccine effectiveness and costs in a "real world" situation are an essential step of the research process and should be used to guide the organization of larger-scale programs. Finally, many of the necessary research and development activities relevant to public health vaccinology must address country-specific problems. Developing countries should consider the role of vaccine-related research among the priorities for their essential national health research and build the necessary capabilities in applied and basic medical sciences and in the social sciences.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗

Impact of preschool education component in Integrated Child Development Services programme on the cognitive development of children.

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is India's most comprehensive programme to increase the survival rate and enhance the health, nutrition, and learning opportunities of pre-school children and their mothers through a package of services. The present study was carried out to measure the impact of the preschool education component of the ICDS on the cognitive development of children in the age group of 3-5 years. The study design used was case/control (ICDS attending children v. Non-ICDS). Results of the study revealed the ICDS Anganwadi attendance had positive influence on the cognitive development of children. The mean cognitive score of the attenders was 40.7 as against a mean score of 30.3 in the case of non-attenders.

Age Factors↗

The Minnesota Child Development Inventory: a valid maternal-report form for assessing development in infancy.

The concurrent validity of the Minnesota Child Development Inventory (MCDI) was assessed by comparing the MCDI General Development Scale score and each of the seven area subscale scores to mental age on the Bayley Mental Scale. Subjects were 115 infants (8-30 months old) with suspected developmental delay who were referred to one of two hospitals' pediatric psychology services by their physicians. Correlations were obtained for the entire sample as well as for three chronological age (CA) groups within the sample. Overall validity was supported by significant correlations ranging from 0.75 to 0.91 in the total sample. Variations in the magnitude and patterns of correlations within CA were noted, and suggested groups for which certain scales of the MCDI may be less comparable to the Bayley. Overall results suggest that the MDCI may yield consistent information about the development of infants' skills.

Child Development↗

Jaw muscle development as evidence for embryonic repatterning in direct-developing frogs.

The Puerto Rican direct-developing frog Eleutherodactylus coqui (Leptodactylidae) displays a novel mode of jaw muscle development for anuran amphibians. Unlike metamorphosing species, several larval-specific features never form in E. coqui; embryonic muscle primordia initially assume an abbreviated, mid-metamorphic configuration that is soon remodelled to form the adult morphology before hatching. Also lacking are both the distinct population of larval myofibres and the conspicuous, larval-to-adult myofibre turnover that are characteristic of muscle development in metamorphosing species. These modifications are part of a comprehensive alteration in embryonic cranial patterning that has accompanied life history evolution in this highly speciose lineage. Embryonic 'repatterning' in Eleutherodactylus may reflect underlying developmental mechanisms that mediate the integrated evolution of complex structures. Such mechanisms may also facilitate, in organisms with a primitively complex life cycle, the evolutionary dissociation of embryonic, larval, and adult features.

Animals↗

Development of a positive youth development program: promoting the mental health of stressful adolescents using principles of Problem Solving Therapy.

This paper outlines the proposal for the development, implementation, and evaluation of a positive youth development program that attempts to promote the mental health of stressful Chinese adolescents using principles of Problem Solving Therapy (PST). There are two general aims of PST: to help clients identify life difficulties and resolve them, as well as to teach them skills on how to deal with future problems. The proposed project will utilize the principles of PST as the guiding framework to run two mental health promotion courses for adolescents who are experiencing disturbing stressful responses and students who want to improve their stress management style. Both objective and subjective outcome evaluation strategies will be carried out to assess the effectiveness of the intervention to promote the psychological well-being in adolescents who are experiencing stress. A related sample proposal is described that can give social workers some insight on how to prepare a proposal for developing the Tier 2 Program of the Project PATHS (Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programs).

Adolescent↗

Dwarfism, impaired skin development, skeletal muscle atrophy, delayed bone development, and impeded adipogenesis in mice lacking Akt1 and Akt2.

To elucidate the functions of the serine/threonine kinase Akt/PKB in vivo, we generated mice lacking both akt1 and akt2 genes. Akt1/Akt2 double-knockout (DKO) mice exhibit severe growth deficiency and die shortly after birth. These mice display impaired skin development because of a proliferation defect, severe skeletal muscle atrophy because of a marked decrease in individual muscle cell size, and impaired bone development. These defects are strikingly similar to the phenotypes of IGF-1 receptor-deficient mice and suggest that Akt may serve as the most critical downstream effector of the IGF-1 receptor during development. In addition, Akt1/Akt2 DKO mice display impeded adipogenesis. Specifically, Akt1 and Akt2 are required for the induced expression of PPARgamma, the master regulator of adipogenesis, establishing a new essential role for Akt in adipocyte differentiation. Overall, the combined deletion of Akt1 and Akt2 establishes in vivo roles for Akt in cell proliferation, growth, and differentiation. These functions of Akt were uncovered despite the observed lower level of Akt activity mediated by Akt3 in Akt1/Akt2 DKO cells, suggesting that a critical threshold level of Akt activity is required to maintain normal cell proliferation, growth, and differentiation.

Abnormalities, Multiple↗

Communicative development in Swedish children 16-28 months old: the Swedish early communicative development inventory--words and sentences.

To describe the development of words and sentences in Swedish children 16-28 months old, 900 parental reports on 336 children were analyzed. Subjects were randomly selected from the national birth register, and there was a response rate of 88%. The assessments were made using the Swedish Early Communicative Development Inventory--words and sentences (SECDI--w&s). Age-based norms for productive vocabulary, pragmatic skills, grammar skills, and maximum length of utterance (MaxLU) were determined. We describe the development of feedback morphemes, semantic categories, and single words and tasks. Correlation across measures was significant, and especially strong between vocabulary size and grammar skills. Optimized positive predictive values were high for 25 to 28 month predictions (71%-88%), and vocabulary scores were found to be of particular predictive importance. No significant gender differences were detected. The clinical relevance of the instrument is discussed.

Age Factors↗

The health development organization: an organizational approach to achieving child health development.

The health development organization (HDO) is a new approach to the organization and delivery of children's health and social services. The HDO would combine the best features of vertically integrated HMOs with horizontally integrated, child-focused social services and longitudinally integrated health promotion strategies. Its mandate would be to develop the health of children in a community. The impetus for creating HDOs is a growing body of evidence in chronic disease epidemiology, developmental psychopathology, early intervention research, and life course cohort studies that point to childhood as the period of life during which adult health status is determined and the opportunities for health capital formation are highest. Thus, a new kind of health care organization or framework, like the HDO, is needed to integrate a full range of critical services for promoting children's development.

Child↗

Developing child mental health services in developing countries.

There is an urgent need to pay attention to the mental health of children in developing countries. Professionals confronted with this task face a number of challenges. Services have to be planned in a rational way, keeping in mind the needs of local populations. These needs will often exceed the available resources, and it will be necessary to set priorities. Feasible and cost-effective models of service delivery then have to be developed to meet these needs. This annotation provides a framework within which mental health needs of children can be assessed, priorities established, and services organised. This is illustrated with examples of relevant activities undertaken in low-income developing countries over the last two decades.

Child↗

Sexual development and activity of men with disturbances of somatic development.

By means of Questionnaires HTDM and SAM the heterosexual development and sexual activity were investigated in the following groups of males: 1. the control group consists of 345 married men from sterile marriages, who were adequately developed somatosexually, had normozoospermia in the ejaculate and a good potency; 2. in 48 unilateral and 57 bilateral adult cryptorchids; 3. in 101 married men with a distinct testicular hypoplasia, the long axis of both sexual glands being shorter than 30 mm; 4. in 110 patients with a Klinefelter's syndrome; 5. in 14 patients with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. Whereas the retardation of heterosexual development was found only in two groups (group 4 and 5), a distinctly lowered activity in sex life was ascertained in all four pathological samples.

Adult↗

The growth of the nasal septum in the 6-9 week period of foetal development--Warfarin embryopathy offers a new insight into prenatal facial development.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to de the role of the nasal septum in embryonic facial development. METHODS: Nasal septal growth and facial development were examined in sagittally-sectioned 6-9 week human foetuses and compared to previously published data for later prenatal periods. To complement this data a cephalometric study of a child with untreated warfarin embryopathy was undertaken since a previous study in rats had shown warfarin exposure interferes with septal growth. RESULTS: The results showed that prenatal septal growth was maximal during the 6-9 week period and resulted in the establishment of a facial profile that was maintained until birth. This critical of growth corresponds to the period of warfarin exposure of the human foetus that results warfarin embryopathy. The cephalometric examination of a child with untreated warfarin embryopathy showed a combination of short anterior cranial base and a short maxilla had contributed to a significant retrusion of the maxilla suggestive of failure of the midface to devel the 6-9 week period. CONCLUSION: These findings would support the hypothesis that the nasal septum plays an active role in embryonic midfacial development.

Abnormalities, Drug-Induced↗

Development and technical basis of simplified guidelines for emergency triage assessment and treatment in developing countries. WHO Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) Referral Care Project.

Simplified guidelines for the emergency care of children have been developed to improve the triage and rapid initiation of appropriate emergency treatments for children presenting to hospitals in developing countries. The guidelines are part of the effort to improve referral level paediatric care within the World Health Organisation/Unicef strategy integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI), based on evidence of significant deficiencies in triage and emergency care. Existing emergency guidelines have been modified according to resource limitations and significant differences in the epidemiology of severe paediatric illness and preventable death in developing countries with raised infant and child mortality rates. In these settings, it is important to address the emergency management of diarrhoea with severe dehydration, severe malaria, severe malnutrition, and severe bacterial pneumonia, and to focus attention on sick infants younger than 2 months of age. The triage assessment relies on a few clinical signs, which can be readily taught so that it can be used by health workers with limited clinical background. The assessment has been designed so that it can be carried out quickly if negative, making it functional for triaging children in queues.

Case Management↗

["Specific" versus "audiogenic" speech development disorder. Quantitative speech development index in a controlled group comparison].

The language development of hearing-impaired children is disordered, especially in children with impairment before starting linguistic development. Binaural sensorineural-impaired children are likely to acquire a deficient oral vocabulary. Two population samples between the ages of 2 and 5 years (n = 110 specific language-impaired children vs. n = 34 bilateral sensorineural-impaired children with individual hearing aids) were compared with 66 normal children of similar age with respect to their expressive vocabulary. All groups were tested with a nonverbal intelligence test and reached average or better scores. The two clinical samples showed no significant difference in their lexical performance, but there was a difference in comparison with the normal children. The results are discussed on the background of degree, onset of hearing impairment and attending kindergarten. It is suggested that specific language impairment is a more serve development disorder than audiogenic language impairment because it seems to be neurobiologically founded. Early diagnosis by a phoniatrician is important.

Child, Preschool↗

Proceedings of the workshop on food-consumption surveys in developing countries: methodologic considerations in descriptive food-consumption surveys in developing countries.

This paper reviews some methodologic issues relative to food-consumption studies in developing countries, including sampling considerations; capturing temporal variation in food consumption; choice of dietary instruments and protocols; and food-composition databases and needs for adequate software interfaces. Increasingly, issues of cross-country and regional comparability in food-consumption data are now coming into the decision mix. Comparability of data across countries requires comparability of several fundamental systems. Specific countries and cultural contexts must tackle problems of how to estimate individual intakes when one-dish serving is the norm; how to keep up with rapidly changing food supplies; how to capture ingredients added at the table that may be concentrated sources of nutrients or other components of interest; and how to document out-of-home eating. Assumptions about error, bias, and intra-individual variation in food intake need to be thoroughly tested in developing-country contexts. There is an urgent need for improvement in the availability of appropriate food-composition databases and software interfaces for developing-country use.

Data Collection↗

Health, development and the Millennium Development Goals.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which emerged from the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, are increasingly recognized as the over-arching development framework. As such, the MDG are increasingly guiding the policies of poor countries and aid agencies alike. This article reviews the challenges and opportunities for health presented by the MDG. The opportunities include that three of the eight MDG relate to health--a recognition that health is central to global agenda of reducing poverty, as well as an important measure of human well-being in its own right. A related point is that the MDG help to focus attention on those health conditions that disproportionally affect the poor (communicable disease, child health and maternal health), which should, in turn, help to strengthen the equity focus of health policies in low-income countries. Further, because the MDG are concrete, it is possible to calculate the cost of achieving them, which in turn strengthens the long-standing calls for higher levels of aid for health. The challenges include that, while the MDG focus on specific diseases and conditions, they cannot be achieved without strengthening health systems. Similarly, progress towards the MDG will require health to be prioritized within overall development and economic policies. In practice, this means applying a health 'lens' to processes such as civil-service reform, decentralization and the drawing-up of frameworks of national expenditure. Finally, the MDG cannot be met with the resources available in low-income countries. While the MDG framework has created pressure for donors to commit to higher levels of aid, the challenge remains to turn these commitments into action. Data are presented to show that, at current rates of progress, the health-related MDG will not be achieved. This disappointing trend could be reversed, however, if the various challenges outlined are met.

Developing Countries↗