Intersecting Cultures in Deaf Mental Health: An Ethnographic Study of NHS Professionals Diagnosing Autism in D/deaf Children

Autism assessments for children who are deaf are particularly complex for a number of reasons, including overlapping cultural and clinical factors. We capture this in an ethnographic study of National Health Service child and adolescent mental health services in the United Kingdom, drawing on theoretical perspectives from transcultural psychiatry, which help to understand these services as a cultural system. Our objective was to analyse how mental health services interact with Deaf culture, as a source of cultural-linguistic identity. We ground the study in the practices and perceptions of 16 professionals, who have conducted autism assessments for deaf children aged 0–18. We adopt a framework of intersectionality to capture the multiple, mutually enforcing factors involved in this diagnostic process. We observed that professionals working in specialist Deaf services, or with experience working with the Deaf community, had intersectional understandings of assessments: the ways in which cultural, linguistic, sensory, and social factors work together to produce diagnoses. Working with a diagnostic system that focuses heavily on ‘norms’ based on populations from a hearing culture was a key source of frustration for professionals. We conclude that recognising the intersectionality of mental health and Deaf culture helps professionals provide sensitive diagnoses that acknowledge the multiplicity of D/deaf experiences.     

英国多克隐花植物保护区森林土壤和凋落叶特性及其与真菌的关系

报道了英国独特的真菌保护区里真菌的生态学和生物多样性,而该保护区内有关物种构成的数据自1994年就开始进行收集了。关于真菌的生态学相互关系以及它们在总的生态系统功能中的作用可以作为生物多样性数据的补充。5~8月期间,在8块覆盖着不同植被（山毛榉,桦树,桦栎山毛榉,禾本科植物）实验区里,研究了森林凋落叶和叶本层土壤的特性和构成,测量了细菌种群数量和真菌的生物量（针对麦角固醇而言）。用相关分析和分段回归建模方法,结合可通过并行研究采集到的原生动物和线虫数据,得到了一系列结果。这些结果强调了某些因素的复杂性,这些因素影响着森林土壤和森林凋落叶中真菌生物量空间可变性的时间动态。大多数的相互作用看起来是瞬时的,在解释环境观测记录时应该对这一点给予充分考虑。最后,解释了若干具体关系,给出了进一步研究的方向,讨论了对整个生态系统功能研究的必要性。     

Simultaneous fine mapping of closely linked epistatic quantitative trait loci using combined linkage disequilibrium and linkage with a general pedigree

Causal mutations and their intra- and inter-locus interactions play a critical role in complex trait variation. It is often not easy to detect epistatic quantitative trait loci (QTL) due to complicated population structure requirements for detecting epistatic effects in linkage analysis studies and due to main effects often being hidden by interaction effects. Mapping their positions is even harder when they are closely linked. The data structure requirement may be overcome when information on linkage disequilibrium is used. We present an approach using a mixed linear model nested in an empirical Bayesian approach, which simultaneously takes into account additive, dominance and epistatic effects due to multiple QTL. The covariance structure used in the mixed linear model is based on combined linkage disequilibrium and linkage information. In a simulation study where there are complex epistatic interactions between QTL, it is possible to simultaneously map interacting QTL into a small region using the proposed approach. The estimated variance components are accurate and less biased with the proposed approach compared with traditional models.