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Dyslexia

Dyslexia, previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability ('learning difficulty' in the UK ) that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, writing words, "sounding out" words in the head, pronouncing words when reading aloud and understanding what one reads. Often these difficulties are first noticed at school. The difficulties are involuntary, and people with this disorder have a normal desire to learn. People with dyslexia have higher rates of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), developmental language disorders, and difficulties with numbers.

Dyslexia is believed to be caused by the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. Some cases run in families. Dyslexia that develops due to a traumatic brain injury, stroke, or dementia is sometimes called "acquired dyslexia" or alexia. The underlying mechanisms of dyslexia result from differences within the brain's language processing. Dyslexia is diagnosed through a series of tests of memory, vision, spelling, and reading skills. Dyslexia is separate from reading difficulties caused by hearing or vision problems or by insufficient teaching or opportunity to learn.

Treatment involves adjusting teaching methods to meet the person's needs. While not curing the underlying problem, it may decrease the degree or impact of symptoms. Treatments targeting vision are not effective. Dyslexia is the most common learning disability and occurs in all areas of the world. It affects 3–7% of the population; however, up to 20% of the general population may have some degree of symptoms. While dyslexia is more often diagnosed in boys, this is partly explained by a self-fulfilling referral bias among teachers and professionals. It has even been suggested that the condition affects men and women equally. Some believe that dyslexia is best considered as a different way of learning, with both benefits and downsides.

Classification
Dyslexia is divided into developmental and acquired forms. Acquired dyslexia occurs subsequent to neurological insult, such as traumatic brain injury or stroke. People with acquired dyslexia exhibit some of the signs or symptoms of the developmental disorder, but require different assessment strategies and treatment approaches. Pure alexia, also known as agnosic alexia or pure word blindness, is one form of alexia which makes up "the peripheral dyslexia" group.

Signs and symptoms
In early childhood, symptoms that correlate with a later diagnosis of dyslexia include delayed onset of speech and a lack of phonological awareness. A common myth closely associates dyslexia with mirror writing and reading letters or words backwards. These behaviors are seen in many children as they learn to read and write, and are not considered to be defining characteristics of dyslexia.

School-age children with dyslexia may exhibit signs of difficulty in identifying or generating rhyming words, or counting the number of syllables in words—both of which depend on phonological awareness. They may also show difficulty in segmenting words into individual sounds (such as sounding out the three sounds of k, a, and t in cat) or may struggle to blend sounds, indicating reduced phonemic awareness.

Difficulties with word retrieval or naming things is also associated with dyslexia. People with dyslexia are commonly poor spellers, a feature sometimes called dysorthographia or dysgraphia, which depends on the skill of orthographic coding.

Problems persist into adolescence and adulthood and may include difficulties with summarizing stories, memorization, reading aloud, or learning foreign languages. Adults with dyslexia can often read with good comprehension, though they tend to read more slowly than others without a learning difficulty and perform worse in spelling tests or when reading nonsense words—a measure of phonological awareness.

Associated conditions
Dyslexia often co-occurs with other learning disorders, but the reasons for this comorbidity have not been clearly identified. These associated disabilities include:

 * Dysgraphia: A disorder involving difficulties with writing or typing, sometimes due to problems with eye–hand coordination; it also can impede direction- or sequence-oriented processes, such as tying knots or carrying out repetitive tasks. In dyslexia, dysgraphia is often multifactorial, due to impaired letter-writing automaticity, organizational and elaborative difficulties, and impaired visual word forming, which makes it more difficult to retrieve the visual picture of words required for spelling.
 * Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): A disorder characterized by problems sustaining attention, hyperactivity, or acting impulsively. Dyslexia and ADHD commonly occur together. Approximately 15% or 12–24% of people with dyslexia have ADHD; and up to 35% of people with ADHD have dyslexia.
 * Auditory processing disorder: A listening disorder that affects the ability to process auditory information. This can lead to problems with auditory memory and auditory sequencing. Many people with dyslexia have auditory processing problems, and may develop their own logographic cues to compensate for this type of deficit. Some research suggests that auditory processing skills could be the primary shortfall in dyslexia.
 * Developmental coordination disorder: A neurological condition characterized by difficulty in carrying out routine tasks involving balance, fine-motor control and kinesthetic coordination; difficulty in the use of speech sounds; and problems with short-term memory and organization.

Causes
Researchers have been trying to find the neurobiological basis of dyslexia since the condition was first identified in 1881. For example, some have tried to associate the common problem among people with dyslexia of not being able to see letters clearly to abnormal development of their visual nerve cells.

Neuroanatomy
Neuroimaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), have shown a correlation between both functional and structural differences in the brains of children with reading difficulties. Some people with dyslexia show less activation in parts of the left hemisphere of the brain involved with reading, such as the inferior frontal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and the middle and ventral temporal cortex. Over the past decade, brain activation studies using PET to study language have produced a breakthrough in the understanding of the neural basis of language. Neural bases for the visual lexicon and for auditory verbal short-term memory components have been proposed, with some implication that the observed neural manifestation of developmental dyslexia is task-specific (i.e., functional rather than structural). fMRIs of people with dyslexia indicate an interactive role of the cerebellum and cerebral cortex as well as other brain structures in reading.

The cerebellar theory of dyslexia proposes that impairment of cerebellum-controlled muscle movement affects the formation of words by the tongue and facial muscles, resulting in the fluency problems that some people with dyslexia experience. The cerebellum is also involved in the automatization of some tasks, such as reading. The fact that some children with dyslexia have motor task and balance impairments could be consistent with a cerebellar role in their reading difficulties. However, the cerebellar theory has not been supported by controlled research studies.

Genetics
Research into potential genetic causes of dyslexia has its roots in post-autopsy examination of the brains of people with dyslexia. Observed anatomical differences in the language centers of such brains include microscopic cortical malformations known as ectopias, and more rarely, vascular micro-malformations, and microgyrus—a smaller than usual size for the gyrus. The previously cited studies and others suggest that abnormal cortical development, presumed to occur before or during the sixth month of fetal brain development, may have caused the abnormalities. Abnormal cell formations in people with dyslexia have also been reported in non-language cerebral and subcortical brain structures. Several genes have been associated with dyslexia, including DCDC2 and KIAA0319 on chromosome 6, and DYX1C1 on chromosome 15.

Gene–environment interaction
The contribution of gene–environment interaction to reading disability has been intensely studied using twin studies, which estimate the proportion of variance associated with a person's environment and the proportion associated with their genes. Both environmental and genetic factors appear to contribute to reading development. Studies examining the influence of environmental factors such as parental education and teaching quality have determined that genetics have greater influence in supportive, rather than less optimal, environments. However, more optimal conditions may just allow those genetic risk factors to account for more of the variance in outcome because the environmental risk factors have been minimized.

As environment plays a large role in learning and memory, it is likely that epigenetic modifications play an important role in reading ability. Measures of gene expression, histone modifications, and methylation in the human periphery are used to study epigenetic processes; however, all of these have limitations in the extrapolation of results for application to the human brain.

Language
The orthographic complexity of a language directly affects how difficult it is to learn to read it. English and French have comparatively "deep" phonemic orthographies within the Latin alphabet writing system, with complex structures employing spelling patterns on several levels: letter-sound correspondence, syllables, and morphemes. Languages such as Spanish, Italian and Finnish primarily employ letter-sound correspondence—so-called "shallow" orthographies—which makes them easier to learn for people with dyslexia. Logographic writing systems, such as Chinese characters, have extensive symbol use; and these also pose problems for dyslexic learners.

Pathophysiology

For most people who are right-hand dominant, the left hemisphere of their brain is more specialized for language processing. With regard to the mechanism of dyslexia, fMRI studies suggest that this specialization is less pronounced or absent in people with dyslexia. In other studies, dyslexia is correlated with anatomical differences in the corpus callosum, the bundle of nerve fibers that connects the left and right hemispheres.

Data via diffusion tensor MRI indicate changes in connectivity or in gray matter density in areas related to reading and language. Finally, the left inferior frontal gyrus has shown differences in phonological processing in people with dyslexia. Neurophysiological and imaging procedures are being used to ascertain phenotypic characteristics in people with dyslexia, thus identifying the effects of dyslexia-related genes.

Dual route theory
The dual-route theory of reading aloud was first described in the early 1970s. This theory suggests that two separate mental mechanisms, or cognitive routes, are involved in reading aloud. One mechanism is the lexical route, which is the process whereby skilled readers can recognize known words by sight alone, through a "dictionary" lookup procedure. The other mechanism is the nonlexical or sublexical route, which is the process whereby the reader can "sound out" a written word. This is done by identifying the word's constituent parts (letters, phonemes, graphemes) and applying knowledge of how these parts are associated with each other, for example, how a string of neighboring letters sound together. The dual-route system could explain the different rates of dyslexia occurrence between different languages (e.g., the consistency of phonological rules in the Spanish language could account for the fact that Spanish-speaking children show a higher level of performance in non-word reading, when compared to English-speakers).

Diagnosis
Dyslexia is a heterogeneous, dimensional learning disorder that impairs accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. Typical—but not universal—features include difficulties with phonological awareness; inefficient and often inaccurate processing of sounds in oral language (phonological processing); and verbal working memory deficits.

Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder, subcategorized in diagnostic guides as a learning disorder with impairment in reading (ICD-11 prefixes "developmental" to "learning disorder"; DSM-5 uses "specific"). Dyslexia is not a problem with intelligence. Emotional problems often arise secondary to learning difficulties. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke describes dyslexia as "difficulty with phonological processing (the manipulation of sounds), spelling, and/or rapid visual-verbal responding".

The British Dyslexia Association defines dyslexia as "a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling" and is characterized by "difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed". Phonological awareness enables one to identify, discriminate, remember (working memory), and mentally manipulate the sound structures of language—phonemes, onsite-rime segments, syllables, and words.

Assessment
The following can be done to assess for dyslexia:

Apply a multidisciplinary team approach involving the child's parent(s) and teacher(s), school psychologist, pediatrician, and, as appropriate, speech and language pathologist (speech therapist), and occupational therapist.

Gain familiarity with typical ages children reach various general developmental milestones, and domain-specific milestones, such as phonological awareness (recognizing rhyming words; identifying the initial sounds in words).

Do not rely on tests exclusively. Careful observation of the child in the school and home environments, and sensitive, comprehensive parental interviews are just as important as tests.

Look at the empirically supported response to intervention (RTI) approach, which "... involves monitoring the progress of a group of children through a programme of intervention rather than undertaking a static assessment of their current skills. Children with the most need are those who fail to respond to effective teaching, and they are readily identified using this approach."

Assessment tests
There is a wide range of tests that are used in clinical and educational settings to evaluate the possibility of dyslexia. If initial testing suggests that a person might have dyslexia, such tests are often followed up with a full diagnostic assessment to determine the extent and nature of the disorder. Some tests can be administered by a teacher or computer; others require specialized training and are given by psychologists. Some test results indicate how to carry out teaching strategies. Because a variety of different cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and environmental factors all could contribute to difficultly learning to read, a comprehensive evaluation should consider these different possibilities. These tests and observations can include:
 * General measures of cognitive ability, such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities, or Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales. Low general cognitive ability would make reading more difficult. Cognitive ability measures also often try to measure different cognitive processes, such as verbal ability, nonverbal and spatial reasoning, working memory, and processing speed. There are different versions of these tests for different age groups. Almost all of these require additional training to give and score correctly, and are done by psychologists. According to Mather and Schneider (2015), a confirmatory profile and/or pattern of scores on cognitive tests confirming or ruling-out reading disorder has not yet been identified.
 * Screening or evaluation for mental health conditions: Parents and teachers can complete rating scales or behavior checklists to gather information about emotional and behavioral functioning for younger people. Many checklists have similar versions for parents, teachers, and younger people old enough to read reasonably well (often 11 years and older) to complete. Examples include the Behavioral Assessment System for Children, and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. All of these have nationally representative norms, making it possible to compare the level of symptoms to what would be typical for the younger person's age and biological sex. Other checklists link more specifically to psychiatric diagnoses, such as the Vanderbilt ADHD Rating Scales or the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED). Screening uses brief tools that are designed to catch cases with a disorder, but they often get false positive scores for people who do not have the disorder. Screeners should be followed up by a more accurate test or diagnostic interview as a result. Depressive disorders and anxiety disorders are two-three times higher in people with dyslexia, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is more common, as well.
 * Review of academic achievement and skills: Average spelling/reading ability for a dyslexic is a percentage ranking <16, well below normal. In addition to reviewing grades and teacher notes, standardized test results are helpful in evaluating progress. These include group administered tests, such as the Iowa Tests of Educational Development, that a teacher may give to a group or whole classroom of younger people at the same time. They also could include individually administered tests of achievement, such as the Wide Range Achievement Test, or the Woodcock-Johnson (which also includes a set of achievement tests). The individually administered tests again require more specialized training.

Screening
Screening procedures seek to identify children who show signs of possible dyslexia. In the preschool years, a family history of dyslexia, particularly in biological parents and siblings, predicts an eventual dyslexia diagnosis better than any test. In primary school (ages 5–7), the ideal screening procedure consists of training primary school teachers to carefully observe and record their pupils' progress through the phonics curriculum, and thereby identify children progressing slowly. When teachers identify such students they can supplement their observations with screening tests such as the Phonics screening check used by United Kingdom schools during Year one.

In the medical setting, child and adolescent psychiatrist M. S. Thambirajah emphasizes that "[g]iven the high prevalence of developmental disorders in school-aged children, all children seen in clinics should be systematically screened for developmental disorders irrespective of the presenting problem/s." Thambirajah recommends screening for developmental disorders, including dyslexia, by conducting a brief developmental history, a preliminary psychosocial developmental examination, and obtaining a school report regarding academic and social functioning.

Management
Through the use of compensation strategies, therapy and educational support, individuals with dyslexia can learn to read and write. There are techniques and technical aids that help to manage or conceal symptoms of the disorder. Reducing stress and anxiety can sometimes improve written comprehension. For dyslexia intervention with alphabet-writing systems, the fundamental aim is to increase a child's awareness of correspondences between graphemes (letters) and phonemes (sounds), and to relate these to reading and spelling by teaching how sounds blend into words. Reinforced collateral training focused on reading and spelling may yield longer-lasting gains than oral phonological training alone. Early intervention can be successful in reducing reading failure.

Research does not suggest that specially-tailored fonts (such as Dyslexie and OpenDyslexic) help with reading. Children with dyslexia read text set in a regular font such as Times New Roman and Arial just as quickly, and they show a preference for regular fonts over specially-tailored fonts. Some research has pointed to increased letter-spacing being beneficial.

There is currently no evidence showing that music education significantly improves the reading skills of adolescents with dyslexia.

There is some evidence from an RCT that atomoxetine might be helpful for dyslexic with or without ADHD.

Prognosis
Dyslexic children require special instruction for word analysis and spelling from an early age. The prognosis, generally speaking, is positive for individuals who are identified in childhood and receive support from friends and family. The New York educational system (NYED) indicates "a daily uninterrupted 90-minute block of instruction in reading" and "instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency" so as to improve the individual's reading ability.

Epidemiology
The prevalence of dyslexia is unknown, but it has been estimated to be as low as 5% and as high as 17% of the population. Dyslexia is diagnosed more often in males.

There are different definitions of dyslexia used throughout the world. Further, differences in writing systems may affect development of written language ability due to the interplay between auditory and written representations of phonemes. Dyslexia is not limited to difficulty in converting letters to sounds, and Chinese people with dyslexia may have difficulty converting Chinese characters into their meanings. The Chinese vocabulary uses logographic, monographic, non-alphabet writing where one character can represent an individual phoneme.

The phonological-processing hypothesis attempts to explain why dyslexia occurs in a wide variety of languages. Furthermore, the relationship between phonological capacity and reading appears to be influenced by orthography.

History
Dyslexia was clinically described by Oswald Berkhan in 1881, but the term dyslexia was coined in 1883 by Rudolf Berlin, an ophthalmologist in Stuttgart. He used the term to refer to the case of a young boy who had severe difficulty learning to read and write, despite showing typical intelligence and physical abilities in all other respects. In 1896, W. Pringle Morgan, a British physician from Seaford, East Sussex, published a description of a reading-specific learning disorder in a report to the British Medical Journal titled "Congenital Word Blindness". The distinction between phonological versus surface types of dyslexia is only descriptive, and without any etiological assumption as to the underlying brain mechanisms. However, studies have alluded to potential differences due to variation in performance. Over time, we have changed from the intelligence-based model to the age-based model, in terms of those with Dyslexia.

Society and culture
As is the case with any disorder, society often makes an assessment based on incomplete information. Before the 1980s, dyslexia was thought to be a consequence of education, rather than a neurological disability. As a result, society often misjudges those with the disorder. There is also sometimes a workplace stigma and negative attitude towards those with dyslexia. If the instructors of a person with dyslexia lack the necessary training to support a child with the condition, there is often a negative effect on the student's learning participation.

Since at least the 1960s in the UK, the children diagnosed with developmental dyslexia have consistently been from privileged families. Although half of prisoners in the UK have significant reading difficulties, very few have ever been evaluated for dyslexia. Access to some special educational resources and funding is contingent upon having a diagnosis of dyslexia. As a result, when Staffordshire and Warwickshire proposed in 2018 to teach reading to all children with reading difficulties, using techniques proven to be successful for most children with a diagnosis of dyslexia, without first requiring the families to obtain an official diagnosis, dyslexia advocates and parents of children with dyslexia were fearful that they were losing a privileged status.

Stigma and success
Due to the various cognitive processes that dyslexia affects and the overwhelming societal stigma around the disability, individuals with dyslexia often employ behaviors of self-stigma and perfectionistic self-presentation in order to cope with their disability. The perfectionist self-presentation is when an individual attempts to present themselves as the perfect ideal image and hides any imperfections. This behavior presents serious risk as it often results in mental health issues and refusal to seek help for their disability.

Research
Most dyslexia research relates to alphabetic writing systems, and especially to European languages. However, substantial research is also available regarding people with dyslexia who speak Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, or other languages. The outward expression of individuals with reading disability, and regular poor readers, is the same in some respects.

title: Dyslexia


text:
Talk:Dyslexia

GA nomination preparation (before review)
below you will find the response I received at the help desk Dyslexia[edit]

hi, some time ago I took over an article (dyslexia) which was a mess, copyvio, etc. Recently Ive done about 100 edits on it and have slashed 12,000 bytes, two other contributors came in and helped as well. At this point where can I go to have someone take a look at the overall quality of the article and give me his/her opinion.i would eventually like to take it for GA nomination thank you--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 13:58, 15 January 2015 (UTC) Hi Ozzie! I skimmed the whole article for a few minutes and I have to say: great work, to you all! Okay so since you think it's ready for a GA nomination, head over to the good article page, make sure the page is up to par, and then head over to the GA nominations page and nominate it. Be aware though, nominations do not happen overnight, it could take weeks to get reviewed. Just be patient and good luck. -A Wild Abigail Appears! Capture me. Moves. 15:03, 15 January 2015 (UTC) thank you, that's very kind of you--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 15:11, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

before taking any steps I would like to get opinions from chris (and basie) thank you--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 15:32, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

Quick review

In my view the sources are mostly too old - with many from the 1990s, and a 9 year old source in German... needs lots of work improving sources and updating content based on them. ...Jytdog (talk) 01:47, 24 January 2015 (UTC)
 * it could be that some dates are more reflective of sources that were "quality" when published, so we may add newer ones via review articles as long as the quality is not altered. Having said that many times one finds that when one is looking at a specific sub topic, there just might not be a available source that is recent. Also

one has to deal with the nature of a source, which might influence whether you pick that latest or something more established. On a side note, two other individuals had gone over the article and didn't mention the sources so im not sure if that opinion is generally viewed.--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 11:25, 24 January 2015 (UTC)
 * I will go over the article and add sources like text books. I do agree that old studies dont help readers much..but they are good sources....I will add real books with detail that all can see... like this -- Moxy (talk) 11:55, 24 January 2015 (UTC)

 * Ozzie please read WP:MEDDATE. That is a well established part of MEDRS and an important one too. If other reviewers didn't notice how old the sources are, that is the result of carelessness.  I will work on updating the sources with you. Jytdog (talk) 12:27, 24 January 2015 (UTC)
 * we here welcome any opportunity from all editors to improve this article of course im certain we are all well versed on "MEDDATE" but again there are many things to weight ,IMO just because something was written today, doesn't mean it is better than an earlier source if the quality is better, in any event, as we go forward we will base each source on its merits as well as all factors. thank you--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 13:15, 24 January 2015 (UTC)

I skimmed through the article text and went through the source to check for compliance with the MOS-related GA criteria (I did a few unrelated MOS compliance checks as well). There were a few minor issues that I saw/fixed, but overall I think the article text/writing quality is decent enough, so it should pass the "well written" GA criteria; although, it may need a few more minor text revisions in a certain sections. Except for the references that I formatted, I haven't looked at the citations, so I don't know yet if any of them need to be replaced with a current medical review to meet the WP:MEDRS standard. In most cases, it's generally pretty simple to find a current MEDRS-quality review to replace older citations. Sometime tomorrow when I have more time, I'll read through the article more thoroughly and check the citations for any issues, and then make any changes I can to help you get through the GA review process.  Seppi  333  (Insert 2¢ | Maintained) 04:07, 29 January 2015 (UTC)
 * thank you for your knowledgeable assistance--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 08:38, 29 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Sepppi, it should not just be a matter of swapping sources out! New sources ~should~ lead to new content. The point is that the article reflects current sure knowledge - not the state of the field 15 years ago.... it may be that nothing has been learned, but that would be disappointing, wouldn't it?  I've been gathering reviews.  There are a lot. Jytdog (talk) 09:58, 29 January 2015 (UTC)
 * I completely agree with you; if I go through the trouble of looking for a replacement source for a statement without a MEDRS-quality review, I almost always end up making some form of text revision if only to ensure that the statement is directly supported (for WP:V compliance) by the replacement review. I usually do add any notable/useful content from replacement reviews if I notice any when I skim through them; when I don't have a lot of time, I usually just put quotes of noteworthy material from the review into the citation quote parameter for adding later.  Seppi  333  (Insert 2¢ | Maintained) 16:46, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

Seconding previous comments: it's generally well-written, but if this wants to be a GA, it needs major overhaul of sourcing. Partly to get newer MEDRS-quality ones; but partly because (and this is a problem going way back for Wikipedia's whole coverage of dyslexia-related topics) it's become a linkfarm of statements linked to primary sources, mostly with no way for the reader to verify that any statement, or the overall selection of topics, represents a secondary consensus. Some sources don't even appear to have been checked; earlier today I found that the first sentence in the article (about alexia being a synonym for dyslexia) cited a primary paper that didn't even mention the terms "alexia" and "dyslexia". Gordonofcartoon (talk) 23:08, 10 February 2015 (UTC)
 * As you can tell we are all ready on top of anything that was left without appropriate sourcing, as you might have noticed user:Moxy already went over some points you have raised. Tomorrow I plan to go over the entire article again to finish anything that that might be in question we plan to present a GA quality article and we know the work needed. thank you--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 23:23, 10 February 2015 (UTC)
 * You might check the Dyslexia section, which has a sentence fragment - "A description of phonological and surface types of developmental dyslexia (dysphonetic and dyseidetic, respectively) to classical subtypes of alexia which are classified according to the rate of errors in reading non-words" - that I can't quite see how to fix because it doesn't readily relate to the following citation. Gordonofcartoon (talk) 00:59, 11 February 2015 (UTC)

so therefore lets remember-

1.Well-written: a.the prose is clear and concise, it respects copyright laws, and the spelling and grammar are correct; and b.it complies with the manual of style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation.[2]

2.Verifiable with no original research:[3] a.it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline;[4] b.all in-line citations are from reliable sources, including those for direct quotations, statistics, published opinion, counter-intuitive or controversial statements that are challenged or likely to be challenged, and contentious material relating to living persons—science-based articles should follow the scientific citation guidelines;[5] and c.it contains no original research.

3.Broad in its coverage: a.it addresses the main aspects of the topic;[6] and b.it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style).

4.Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without bias, giving due weight to each. 5.Stable: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute.[7] 6.Illustrated, if possible, by images:[8] a.images are tagged with their copyright status, and valid fair use rationales are provided for non-free content; and b.images are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions.

these are the points we must adhere to--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 00:05, 11 February 2015 (UTC) fwiw, ozzie, gordon took time out of his life to read carefully and give you feedback. "thanks" would be a more appropriate response. and if you presented that list b/c it says nothing about being up-to-date... well hm. Jytdog (talk) 04:11, 11 February 2015 (UTC)
 * the purpose of the list is to understand the goals that must be satisfied, to therefore meet the criteria for a GA review, in this case the 6 main points, thank you--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 10:04, 11 February 2015 (UTC)

 * As mentioned above I have added and changed some sources...will do more if need be. I have made a new section "Further reading" of the books I did not use as sources ,,but are good source of info. -- Moxy (talk) 19:15, 16 February 2015 (UTC)
 * teamwork(im proud to be a part of Moxy's team)--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 19:22, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

 * note - i apologize for not helping with the work so far. I have watched the updating of the sources.   It was good to see them updated, but what i saw in almost every instance, was that the citation was changed, and the content wasn't changed at all. (example of 2 ref updates here) to be frank i have less faith in the article now than i did before.   i believe it was verified but outdated before; now i don't believe the content will verify. i don't think you should put this up for GA. until somebody reads it over carefully for VERIFY.  Jytdog (talk) 20:57, 3 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Not sure I like that lack of good faith being put forth..but o well... Lets look at the example you gave  here)  If one would have taken the time to look one would have seen that it was not properly dated in the first place...a portion of the  edit only corrected the date of publication and added some marital that was removed because it was not sourced..thus a source was added.   I suggest all look at the updated source...see if there are any real problems before commenting. In most cases sources were simply added not replaced.- Moxy (talk) 21:12, 3 March 2015 (UTC)
 * it is not a question of any kind of faith. i observed behavior, which was changing many references and changing the content little. (note, in the bottom half of that dif, content was moved from one side of the ref to the other, but not changed.  just moved) Jytdog (talk) 21:25, 3 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Feel free to look over the changes....not much change to the content as it was all done pretty well ..as in sourced with 21st century  refs and with uptodate info before hand.  What did take place was the additions of sources (not often replaced)  that go into details about the topics at hand.   Medical and journal news articles fail to discuss important issues in detail ..thus  modern medical  books were added to backup the already sourced info that was not out dated...as per the new source added.  High-quality reliable sources generally talk about more then an individual case report or study, thus sources with more info was added.   The best thing we can do for our readers is to allow then access to information.,,,be it with one or two or three refs. -- Moxy (talk) 21:47, 3 March 2015 (UTC)
 * you and i are seeing different articles. but i will try to review this weekend. Jytdog (talk) 21:50, 3 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Jytdog I don't see why we cant see eye to eye, and therefore have a GA article, since our intention is meeting the criteria set forth for such a review, we of course welcome your opinion equally as anyone elses and thank you --Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 22:00, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Writ 2 - Academic Writing
— Assignment last updated by Roach Jefferson (talk) 23:58, 20 March 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Writing 2
— Assignment last updated by A.staleto (talk) 21:31, 24 May 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 12 April 2024
161.142.154.118 (talk) 13:30, 12 April 2024 (UTC) 'Dyslexia is a reading discorder'. This is never mentioned.
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate.  (talk | contribs) 13:34, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Dyslexia


text:
Delft

Delft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, and The Hague, to the northwest. Together with them, it is a part of both the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area and the Randstad.

Delft is a popular tourist destination in the Netherlands, famous for its historical connections with the reigning House of Orange-Nassau, for its blue pottery, for being home to the painter Jan Vermeer, and for hosting Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). Historically, Delft played a highly influential role in the Dutch Golden Age. In terms of science and technology, thanks to the pioneering contributions of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and Martinus Beijerinck, Delft can be considered to be the birthplace of microbiology.

Early history

The city of Delft came into being beside a canal, the 'Delf', which comes from the word delven, meaning to delve or dig, and this led to the name Delft. At the elevated place where this 'Delf' crossed the creek wall of the silted up river Gantel, a Count established his manor, probably around 1075. Partly because of this, Delft became an important market town, the evidence for which can be seen in the size of its central market square.

Having been a rural village in the early Middle Ages, Delft developed into a city, and on 15 April 1246, Count Willem II granted Delft its city charter. Trade and industry flourished. In 1389 the Delfshavensche Schie canal was dug through to the river Maas, where the port of Delfshaven was built, connecting Delft to the sea.

Until the 17th century, Delft was one of the major cities of the then county (and later province) of Holland. In 1400, for example, the city had 6,500 inhabitants, making it the third largest city after Dordrecht (8,000) and Haarlem (7,000). In 1560, Amsterdam, with 28,000 inhabitants, had become the largest city, followed by Delft, Leiden and Haarlem, which each had around 14,000 inhabitants.

In 1536, a large part of the city was destroyed by the great fire of Delft.

The town's association with the House of Orange started when William of Orange (Willem van Oranje), nicknamed William the Silent (Willem de Zwijger), took up residence in 1572 in the former Saint-Agatha convent (subsequently called the Prinsenhof). At the time he was the leader of growing national Dutch resistance against Spanish occupation, known as the Eighty Years' War. By then Delft was one of the leading cities of Holland and was equipped with the necessary city walls to serve as a headquarters. In October 1573, an attack by Spanish forces was repelled in the Battle of Delft.

After the Act of Abjuration was proclaimed in 1581, Delft became the de facto capital of the newly independent Netherlands, as the seat of the Prince of Orange.

When William was shot dead on 10 July 1584 by Balthazar Gerards in the hall of the Prinsenhof (now the Prinsenhof Museum), the family's traditional burial place in Breda was still in the hands of the Spanish. Therefore, he was buried in the Delft Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), starting a tradition for the House of Orange that has continued to the present day.

Around this time, Delft also occupied a prominent position in the field of printing.

A number of Italian glazed earthenware makers settled in the city and introduced a new style. The tapestry industry also flourished when famous manufacturer François Spierincx moved to the city. In the 17th century, Delft experienced a new heyday, thanks to the presence of an office of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) (opened in 1602) and the manufacture of Delft Blue china.

A number of notable artists based themselves in the city, including Leonard Bramer, Carel Fabritius, Pieter de Hoogh, Gerard Houckgeest, Emanuel de Witte, Jan Steen, and Johannes Vermeer. Reinier de Graaf and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek received international attention for their scientific research.

Explosion

The Delft Explosion, also known in history as the Delft Thunderclap, occurred on 12 October 1654 when a gunpowder store exploded, destroying much of the city. Over a hundred people were killed and thousands were injured.

About 30 t of gunpowder were stored in barrels in a magazine in a former Clarist convent in the Doelenkwartier district, where the Paardenmarkt is now located. Cornelis Soetens, the keeper of the magazine, opened the store to check a sample of the powder and a huge explosion followed. Luckily, many citizens were away, visiting a market in Schiedam or a fair in The Hague.

Today, the explosion is primarily remembered for killing Rembrandt's most promising pupil, Carel Fabritius, and destroying almost all of his works.

Delft artist Egbert van der Poel painted several pictures of Delft showing the devastation.

The gunpowder store (Dutch: Kruithuis) was subsequently re-housed, a 'cannonball's distance away', outside the city, in a new building designed by architect Pieter Post.

Sights
The city centre retains a large number of monumental buildings, while in many streets there are canals of which the banks are connected by typical bridges, altogether making this city a notable tourist destination.

Historical buildings and other sights of interest include:
 * Oude Kerk (Old Church), constructed between 1246 and 1350. Buried here: Piet Hein, Johannes Vermeer, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek.
 * Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), constructed between 1381 and 1496. It contains the Dutch royal family's burial vault which, between funerals, is sealed with a 5000 kg cover stone.
 * A statue of Hugo Grotius created by Franciscus Leonardus Stracké in 1886, located on the Markt near the Nieuwe Kerk.
 * The Prinsenhof (Princes' Court), now a museum.
 * City Hall on the Markt.
 * The Oostpoort (Eastern gate), built around 1400. This is the only remaining gate of the old city walls.
 * The Gemeenlandshuis Delfland, or Huyterhuis, built in 1505, which has housed the Delfland regional water authority since 1645.
 * The Vermeer Centre in the re-built Guild house of St. Luke.
 * The historical "Waag" building (Weigh house).
 * Windmill De Roos, a tower mill built c. 1760. Restored to working order in 2013. Another windmill that formerly stood in Delft, Het Fortuyn, was dismantled in 1917 and re-erected at the Netherlands Open Air Museum, Arnhem, Gelderland in 1920.
 * Royal Delft also known as De Porceleyne Fles, is a great place which showcases Delft ware.
 * Science Center attracts kids as well as adults.

Culture

Delft is well known for the Delft pottery ceramic products which were styled on the imported Chinese porcelain of the 17th century. The city had an early start in this area since it was a home port of the Dutch East India Company. It can still be seen at the pottery factories De Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles (or Royal Delft) and De Delftse Pauw, while new ceramics and ceramic art can be found at the Gallery Terra Delft.

The painter Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) was born in Delft. Vermeer used Delft streets and home interiors as the subject or background in his paintings. Several other famous painters lived and worked in Delft at that time, such as Pieter de Hoogh, Carel Fabritius, Nicolaes Maes, Gerard Houckgeest and Hendrick Cornelisz. van Vliet. They were all members of the Delft School. The Delft School is known for its images of domestic life and views of households, church interiors, courtyards, squares and the streets of Delft. The painters also produced pictures showing historic events, flowers, portraits for patrons and the court as well as decorative pieces of art.

Delft supports creative arts' companies. From 2001 the Bacinol (building), a building that had been disused since 1951, began to house small companies in the creative arts sector. Its demolition started in December 2009, making way for the new railway tunnel in Delft. The occupants of the building, as well as the name 'Bacinol', moved to another building in the city. The name Bacinol relates to Dutch penicillin research during WWII.

Education
Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) is one of four universities of technology in the Netherlands. It was founded as an academy for civil engineering in 1842 by King William II. As of 2022, well over 27,000 students are enrolled.

The UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, providing postgraduate education for people from developing countries, draws on the strong tradition in water management and hydraulic engineering of the Delft university.

The Hague University of Applied Sciences has a building on the Delft University of Technology campus. It opened in 2009 and offers several bachelor degrees for the Faculty of Technology, Innovation & Society.

Inholland University of Applied Sciences also has a building on the Delft University of Technology campus. Several bachelor degrees for the Agri, Food & Life Sciences faculty and the Engineering, Design and Computing faculty are being taught at the Delft campus.

Economy
In the local economic field, essential elements are:
 * education; (amongst others Delft University of Technology) ( 21.651 students and 4.939 full-time employees),
 * scientific research; (amongst others "TNO" Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research), Stichting Deltares, Nederlands Normalisatie-Instituut, UNESCO-IHE Institute for water education, Technopolis Innovation Park;
 * tourism; (about one million registered visitors a year),
 * industry; (DSM Gist Services BV, (Delftware) earthenware production by De Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles, Exact Software Nederland BV, TOPdesk, Ampelmann)
 * retail; (IKEA (Inter IKEA Systems B.V., owner and worldwide franchisor of the IKEA Concept, is based in Delft), Makro, Eneco Energy NV).

Nature and recreation
East of Delft lies a relatively large nature and recreation area called the "Delftse Hout" ("Delft Wood"). Through the forest lie bike, horse-riding and footpaths. It also includes a vast lake (suitable for swimming and windsurfing), narrow beaches, a restaurant, and community gardens, plus camping ground and other recreational and sports facilities. (There is also a facility for renting bikes from the station.)

Inside the city, apart from a central park, there are several smaller town parks, including "Nieuwe Plantage", "Agnetapark", "Kalverbos". There is also the Botanical Garden of the TU and an arboretum in Delftse Hout.

Notable people
Delft is the birthplace of:

Dutch Golden Age

 * Jacob Willemsz Delff the Elder, (ca. 1550–1601), portrait painter
 * Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt (1567–1641), painter
 * Willem van der Vliet (c. 1584–1642), painter
 * Adriaen van de Venne (1589–1662), painter
 * Adriaen Cornelisz van Linschoten (1590–1677), painter
 * Daniël Mijtens (ca. 1590–1647/48), portrait painter
 * Leonaert Bramer (1596–1674), painter of genre, religious, and history paintings
 * Pieter Jansz van Asch (1603–ca. 1678), painter
 * Evert van Aelst (1602–1657), still life painter
 * Hendrick Cornelisz. van Vliet (ca. 1611–1675), painter of church interiors
 * Harmen Steenwijck (ca. 1612–ca. 1656), painter of still lifes and fruit
 * Jacob Willemsz Delff the Younger (1619–1661), portrait painter
 * David Beck (1621–1656), portrait painter
 * Egbert van der Poel (1621–1664), genre and landscape painter
 * Daniel Vosmaer (1622–1666), painter
 * Willem van Aelst (1627–1683), artist of still-lifes
 * Hendrick van der Burgh (1627–after 1664), genre painter
 * Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675), painter of domestic interior scenes
 * Ary de Milde (1634–1708), ceramist

Public thinking and service

 * Christian van Adrichem (1533—1585), Catholic priest and theological writer
 * Jan Joosten van Lodensteijn (1556–1623), one of the first Dutchmen in Japan
 * Hugo Grotius (1583–1645), humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian and jurist who laid the foundations for international law
 * Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (1584–1647), sovereign prince of Orange and stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders & Overijssel from 1625 to 1647
 * Philippus Baldaeus (1632–1671), minister in Jaffna
 * Diederik Durven (1676–1740), Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1729 to 1732
 * Abraham van der Weijden (1743–1773), ship's captain, initiated of Freemasonry in South Africa
 * Gerrit Paape (1752–1803), painter of earthenware and stoneware, poet, journalist, novelist, judge, columnist and finally a ministerial civil servant
 * Aegidius van Braam (1758–1822), naval vice-admiral
 * Agneta Matthes (1847–1909), entrepreneur, manufactured yeast using the cooperative movement and housed workers at Agnetapark
 * Henk Zeevalking (1922–2005), politician and jurist
 * Piet Bukman (born 1934), politician and diplomat
 * Klaas de Vries (born 1943), politician and jurist
 * Atzo Nicolaï (born 1960), politician
 * Marja van Bijsterveldt (born 1961), politician, Mayor of Delft since 2016
 * Alexander Pechtold (born 1965), politician and art historian

Science and business

 * Adolphus Vorstius (1597–1663), physician and botanist
 * Martin van den Hove (1605–1639), astronomer and mathematician
 * Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), father of microbiology and developer of the microscope
 * Nicolaas Kruik (1678–1754), land surveyor, cartographer, astronomer, weatherman and eponym of the Museum De Cruquius
 * Bernard Romans (ca. 1720-ca. 1783), land surveyor, artist, naturalist, and author
 * Martin van Marum (1750–1837), physician, inventor, scientist and teacher
 * Jacob Gijsbertus Samuël van Breda (1788–1867), biologist and geologist
 * Philippe-Charles Schmerling (1791–1836), prehistorian, geologist and pioneer in paleontology
 * Martinus Beijerinck (1851–1931), microbiologist, discovered viruses, lived and worked in Delft
 * Guillaume Daniel Delprat CBE (1856–1937), metallurgist, mining engineer and businessman
 * Frederik H. Kreuger (1928–2015), high-voltage scientist, academic and inventor
 * Marjo van der Knaap (born 1958), professor of pediatric neurology, white matter researcher
 * Antoni Folkers (born 1960), architect, humanist
 * Peter Schrijver (born 1963), historical linguist
 * Ionica Smeets (born 1979), mathematician, science journalist, TV presenter and academic
 * Boyan Slat (born 1994), inventor and entrepreneur, CEO of The Ocean Cleanup

Art

 * Suzanne Manet (1829–1906), pianist, wife and model of painter Édouard Manet
 * Betsy Perk (1833–1906), author of novels and plays, pioneer of the Dutch women's movement
 * Ton Lutz (1919–2009) and Pieter Lutz (1927–2009), brothers and actors
 * Bram Bogart (1921–2012), expressionist painter of the COBRA group
 * Cor Dam (born 1935), sculptor, painter, illustrator and ceramist
 * Kader Abdolah (born 1954), poet and columnist
 * Michèle Van de Roer (born 1956), artist, designer, photographer and engraver
 * Mariska Hulscher (born 1964), TV presenter
 * Emma Kirchner (1830 - 1909), first woman photographer in Delft area
 * Wessel van Diepen (born 1966), radio host, music producer and former TV presenter
 * Rob Das (born 1969), film and TV actor, director and writer
 * Jan-Willem van Ewijk (born 1970), film director, actor and screenwriter
 * Ricky Koole (born 1972) a Dutch singer and film actress
 * Vincent de Moor (born 1973), trance musician and remixer
 * Roel van Velzen (born 1978), singer
 * Marly van der Velden (born 1988), actress and fashion designer
 * Rose Schmits (born c. 1988), potter and trans activist

Sport

 * Jan Thomée (1886–1954), footballer, team bronze medallist at the 1908 Summer Olympics
 * Henri van Schaik (1899–1991), horse rider, team silver medallist in the 1936 Summer Olympics
 * Tinus Osendarp (1916–2002), sprint runner, twice bronze medallist at the 1936 Summer Olympics
 * Stien Kaiser (born 1938), speed skater, twice bronze medallist at the 1968 Winter Olympics and gold and silver medallist in the 1972 Winter Olympics
 * Pieter van der Kruk (born 1941), heavyweight weightlifter and shot putter, competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics
 * Jan Timman (born 1951), chess grandmaster, raised in Delft
 * Ria Stalman (born 1951), discus thrower and shot putter, gold medallist in the discus at the 1984 Summer Olympics
 * Frank Leistra (born 1960), field hockey goalkeeper, team bronze medallist at the 1988 Summer Olympics
 * Ken Monkou (born 1964), football player with 356 club caps
 * Eeke van Nes (born 1969), rower, team bronze medallist at the 1996 Summer Olympics and team silver medallist at the 2000 Summer Olympics
 * Thamar Henneken (born 1979), freestyle swimmer, team silver medallist at the 2000 Summer Olympics
 * Ard van Peppen (born 1985), footballer with over 350 club caps
 * Sytske de Groot (born 1986), rower, team bronze medallist at the 2012 Summer Olympics
 * Aaron Meijers (born 1987), footballer with almost 400 club caps
 * Michaëlla Krajicek (born 1989), tennis player
 * Arantxa Rus (born 1990), tennis player
 * Kelly Vollebregt (born 1995), handball player
 * Victoria Pelova (born 1999), football player
 * Tijmen van der Helm (born 2004), racing driver

Miscellaneous

 * Nuna is a series of crewed solar-powered vehicles, built by students at the Delft University of Technology, that won the World solar challenge in Australia seven times in the last nine competitions (in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2013, 2015 and 2017).
 * The so-called "Superbus" project aims to develop high-speed coaches capable of speeds of up to 250 km/h together with the supporting infrastructure including special highway lanes constructed separately next to the nation's highways; this project was led by Dutch astronaut professor Wubbo Ockels of the Delft University of Technology.
 * Members of both Delft Student Rowing Clubs Proteus-Eretes and Laga have won many international trophies, including Olympic medals, in the past.
 * Formula Student Team Delft is a student racing team that has won the Formula Student competition format in Germany three times in a row, their workplace is located along the shie.
 * The Human Power Team Delft & Amsterdam, a team consisting mainly of students from the Delft University of Technology, has won The World Human Powered Speed Challenge (WHPSC) four times. This is an international contest for recumbents in the US state of Nevada, the aim of which is to break speed records. They set the world record of 133.78 kilometres an hour (83.13 mph) in 2013.

Twin towns
Delft is twinned with:

Transport
Trains stopping at these stations connect Delft with, among others, the nearby cities of Rotterdam and The Hague, as often as every five minutes, for most of the day.
 * Delft railway station; (As of February 2015, located in a new building.)
 * Delft Campus railway station

There are several bus routes from Delft to similar destinations. Trams frequently travel between Delft and The Hague via special double tracks crossing the city.

The whole city center and adjacent areas are a paid on-street parking area. In 2018, with the day parking fee of 29.5 Euro, it was the most expensive on-street parking area in the Netherlands, with the city centers of Deventer and Dordrecht being second and third, respectively.

title: Delft


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Duesberg hypothesis

The Duesberg hypothesis is the claim that AIDS is not caused by HIV, but instead that AIDS is caused by noninfectious factors such as recreational and pharmaceutical drug use and that HIV is merely a harmless passenger virus. The hypothesis was popularized by Peter Duesberg, a professor of biology at University of California, Berkeley, from whom the hypothesis gets its name. The scientific consensus is that the Duesberg hypothesis is incorrect and that HIV is the cause of AIDS. The most prominent supporters of the hypothesis are Duesberg himself, biochemist and vitamin proponent David Rasnick, and journalist Celia Farber. The scientific community generally contends that Duesberg's arguments in favor of the hypothesis are the result of cherry-picking predominantly outdated scientific data and selectively ignoring evidence that demonstrates HIV's role in causing AIDS.

Role of legal and illegal drug use
Duesberg argues that there is a statistical correlation between trends in recreational drug use and trends in AIDS cases. He argues that the epidemic of AIDS cases in the 1980s corresponds to a supposed epidemic of recreational drug use in the United States and Europe during the same time frame.

These claims are not supported by epidemiologic data. The average yearly increase in opioid-related deaths from 1990 to 2002 was nearly three times the yearly increase from 1979 to 1990, with the greatest increase in 2000–2002, yet AIDS cases and deaths fell dramatically during the mid-to-late-1990s. Duesberg's claim that recreational drug use, rather than HIV, was the cause of AIDS has been specifically examined and found to be false. Cohort studies have found that only HIV-positive drug users develop opportunistic infections; HIV-negative drug users do not develop such infections, indicating that HIV rather than drug use is the cause of AIDS.

Duesberg has also argued that nitrite inhalants were the cause of the epidemic of Kaposi sarcoma (KS) in gay men. However, this argument has been described as an example of the fallacy of a statistical confounding effect; it is now known that a herpesvirus, potentiated by HIV, is responsible for AIDS-associated KS.

Moreover, in addition to recreational drugs, Duesberg argues that anti-HIV drugs such as zidovudine (AZT) can cause AIDS. Duesberg's claim that antiviral medication causes AIDS is regarded as disproven within the scientific community. Placebo-controlled studies have found that AZT as a single agent produces modest and short-lived improvements in survival and delays the development of opportunistic infections; it certainly did not cause AIDS, which develops in both treated and untreated study patients. With the subsequent development of protease inhibitors and highly active antiretroviral therapy, numerous studies have documented the fact that anti-HIV drugs prevent the development of AIDS and substantially prolong survival, further disproving the claim that these drugs "cause" AIDS.

Scientific study and rejection of Duesberg's risk-AIDS hypothesis
Several studies have specifically addressed Duesberg's claim that recreational drug abuse or sexual promiscuity were responsible for the manifestations of AIDS. An early study of his claims, published in Nature in 1993, found Duesberg's drug abuse-AIDS hypothesis to have "no basis in fact."

A large prospective study followed a group of 715 homosexual men in the Vancouver, Canada, area; approximately half were HIV-seropositive or became so during the follow-up period, and the remainder were HIV-seronegative. After more than eight years of follow-up, despite similar rates of drug use, sexual contact, and other supposed risk factors in both groups, only the HIV-positive group suffered from opportunistic infections. Similarly, CD4 counts dropped in the patients who were HIV-infected, but remained stable in the HIV-negative patients, despite similar rates of risk behavior. The authors concluded that "the risk-AIDS hypothesis ... is clearly rejected by our data," and that "the evidence supports the hypothesis that HIV-1 has an integral role in the CD4 depletion and progressive immune dysfunction that characterise AIDS."

Similarly, the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) and the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS)—which between them observed more than 8,000 Americans—demonstrated that "the presence of HIV infection is the only factor that is strongly and consistently associated with the conditions that define AIDS." A 2008 study found that recreational drug use (including cannabis, cocaine, poppers, and amphetamines) had no effect on CD4 or CD8 T-cell counts, providing further evidence against a role of recreational drugs as a cause of AIDS.

Current AIDS definitions
Duesberg argued in 1989 that a significant number of AIDS victims had died without proof of HIV infection. However, with the use of modern culture techniques and polymerase chain reaction testing, HIV can be demonstrated in virtually all patients with AIDS. Since AIDS is now defined partially by the presence of HIV, Duesberg claims it is impossible by definition to offer evidence that AIDS does not require HIV. However, the first definitions of AIDS mentioned no cause and the first AIDS diagnoses were made before HIV was discovered. The addition of HIV positivity to surveillance criteria as an absolutely necessary condition for case reporting occurred only in 1993, after a scientific consensus was established that HIV caused AIDS.

AIDS in Africa
According to the Duesberg hypothesis, AIDS is not found in Africa. What Duesberg calls "the myth of an African AIDS epidemic," among people" exists for several reasons, including:
 * The need, according to Duesberg, of the CDC, the WHO, and other health organizations to justify their existences, resulting in their "manufacturing contagious plagues out of noninfectious medical conditions."
 * Media sensationalism, with stories that "helped shape the Western impression of an AIDS problem out of control," resulting in high levels of funding.
 * Willing participation in deception by local doctors who wish to take advantage of this aid money: "African doctors themselves participate in building the myth of the AIDS pandemic."
 * Confusion or incompetence on the part of African doctors: "Many common Third World diseases are confused with AIDS even if they are not part of its official definition."

Duesberg states that African AIDS cases are "a collection of long-established, indigenous diseases, such as chronic fevers, weight loss, alias "slim disease," diarrhea, and tuberculosis" that result from malnutrition and poor sanitation. African AIDS cases, though, have increased in the last three decades as HIV's prevalence has increased but as malnutrition percentages and poor sanitation have declined in many African regions. In addition, while HIV and AIDS are more prevalent in urban than in rural settings in Africa, malnutrition and poor sanitation are found more commonly in rural than in urban settings.

According to Duesberg, common diseases are easily misdiagnosed as AIDS in Africa because "the diagnosis of African AIDS is arbitrary" and does not include HIV testing. A definition of AIDS agreed upon in 1985 by the World Health Organization in Bangui did not require a positive HIV test, but since 1985, many African countries have added positive HIV tests to the Bangui criteria for AIDS or changed their definitions to match those of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. One of the reasons for using more HIV tests despite their expense is that, rather than overestimating AIDS as Duesberg suggests, the Bangui definition alone excluded nearly half of African AIDS patients."

Duesberg notes that diseases associated with AIDS differ between African and Western populations, concluding that the causes of immunodeficiency must be different. Tuberculosis is much more commonly diagnosed among AIDS patients in Africa than in Western countries, while PCP conforms to the opposite pattern. Tuberculosis, though, had higher prevalence in Africa than in the West before the spread of HIV. In Africa and the United States, HIV has spurred a similar percentage increase in tuberculosis cases. PCP may be underestimated in Africa: since machinery "required for accurate testing is relatively rare in many resource-poor areas, including large parts of Africa, PCP is likely to be underdiagnosed in Africa. Consistent with this hypothesis, studies that report the highest rates of PCP in Africa are those that use the most advanced diagnostic methods" Duesberg also claims that Kaposi's sarcoma is "exclusively diagnosed in male homosexual risk groups using nitrite inhalants and other psychoactive drugs as aphrodisiacs", but the cancer is fairly common among heterosexuals in some parts of Africa, and is found in heterosexuals in the United States as well.

Because reported AIDS cases in Africa and other parts of the developing world include a larger proportion of people who do not belong to Duesberg's preferred risk groups of drug addicts and male homosexuals, Duesberg writes on his website that "There are no risk groups in Africa, like drug addicts and homosexuals." However, many studies have addressed the issue of risk groups in Africa and concluded that the risk of AIDS is not equally distributed. In addition, AIDS in Africa largely kills sexually active working-age adults.

South African president Thabo Mbeki accepted Duesberg's hypothesis and, through the mid-2000s, rejected offers of medical assistance to fight HIV infection, a policy of inaction that cost over 300,000 lives.

Duesberg claims that retroviruses like HIV must be harmless to survive
Duesberg argues that retroviruses like HIV must be harmless to survive: they do not kill cells and they do not cause cancer, he maintains. Duesberg writes, "retroviruses do not kill cells because they depend on viable cells for the replication of their RNA from viral DNA integrated into cellular DNA." Duesberg elsewhere states that "the typical virus reproduces by entering a living cell and commandeering the cell's resources in order to make new virus particles, a process that ends with the disintegration of the dead cell."

Duesberg also rejects the involvement of retroviruses and other viruses in cancer. To him, virus-associated cancers are "freak accidents of nature" that do not warrant research programs such as the war on cancer. Duesberg rejects a role in cancer for numerous viruses, including leukemia viruses, Epstein–Barr virus, human papilloma virus, hepatitis B, feline leukemia virus, and human T-lymphotropic virus.

Duesberg claims that the supposedly innocuous nature of all retroviruses is supported by what he considers to be their normal mode of proliferation: infection from mother to child in utero. Duesberg does not suggest that HIV is an endogenous retrovirus, a virus integrated into the germline and genetically heritable:

"...[a mother] provides her child with a nine-month continuous exposure to her blood and therefore has at least a 50 percent chance of passing HIV to the baby."

Scientific response to the Duesberg hypothesis
The consensus in the scientific community is that the Duesberg hypothesis has been refuted by a large and growing mass of evidence showing that HIV causes AIDS, that the amount of virus in the blood correlates with disease progression, that a plausible mechanism for HIV's action has been proposed, and that anti-HIV medication decreases mortality and opportunistic infection in people with AIDS.

In issue of Science (Vol. 266, No. 5191), Duesberg's methods and claims were evaluated in a group of articles. The authors concluded that
 * It is abundantly evident that HIV causes disease and death in hemophiliacs, a group generally lacking Duesberg's proposed risk factors.
 * HIV fulfills Koch's postulates, which are one set of criteria for demonstrating a causal relationship between a microbe and a disease. (Subsequently, additional data further demonstrated the fulfillment of Koch's postulates.  )
 * the AIDS epidemic in Thailand cited by Duesberg as confirmation of his hypothesis is in fact evidence of the role of HIV in AIDS.
 * According to researchers who conducted large-scale studies of AZT, the drug does not cause AIDS. Furthermore, researchers acknowledged that recreational drugs do cause immune abnormalities, though not the type of immunodeficiency seen in AIDS.

Effectiveness of antiretroviral medication
The vast majority of people with AIDS have never received antiretroviral drugs, including those in developed countries prior to the licensure of AZT (zidovudine) in 1987, and people in developing countries today where very few individuals have access to these medications.

The NIAID reports that "in the mid-1980s, clinical trials enrolling patients with AIDS found that AZT given as single-drug therapy conferred a modest survival advantage compared [with] placebo. Among HIV-infected patients who had not yet developed AIDS, placebo-controlled trials found that AZT given as single-drug therapy delayed, for a year or two, the onset of AIDS-related illnesses. Significantly, long-term follow-up of these trials did not show a prolonged benefit of AZT, but also did not indicate that the drug increased disease progression or mortality. The lack of excess AIDS cases and death in the AZT arms of these placebo-controlled trials in effect counters the argument that AZT causes AIDS. Subsequent clinical trials found that patients receiving two-drug combinations had up to 50 percent improvements in time to progression to AIDS and in survival when compared with people receiving single-drug therapy. In more recent years, three-drug combination therapies have produced another 50 to 80 percent improvement in progression to AIDS and in survival when compared with two-drug regimens in clinical trials.""Use of potent anti-HIV combination therapies has contributed to dramatic reductions in the incidence of AIDS and AIDS-related deaths in populations where these drugs are widely available, an effect which clearly would not be seen if antiretroviral drugs caused AIDS."

Opponents claim that nearly all HIV-positive people will develop AIDS
Duesberg claims as support for his idea that many drug-free HIV-positive people have not yet developed AIDS; HIV/AIDS scientists note that many drug-free HIV-positive people have developed AIDS, and that, in the absence of medical treatment or rare genetic factors postulated to delay disease progression, it is very likely that nearly all HIV-positive people will eventually develop AIDS. Scientists also note that HIV-negative drug users do not suffer from immune system collapse.

title: Duesberg hypothesis


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DSL (disambiguation)

DSL or digital subscriber line is a family of technologies that provide digital data transmission over the wires of a local telephone network.

DSL may also refer to:
 * Damn Small Linux, a very small Linux distribution
 * Danish Sign Language
 * Data Security Law of the People's Republic of China
 * Definitive software library
 * Design Science License, a copyleft license for intellectual property
 * Diagnostic Systems Laboratories, a company now part of Beckman-Coulter
 * Dictionary of the Scots Language
 * Doctor of Strategic Leadership
 * Domain-specific language, a specialized computer language
 * Digital subscriber line, a device used to connect a computer or router to a telephone line
 * Dominican Summer League of baseball
 * DSL, a musical artist signed to Ed Banger Records
 * Deutsche Schule Lagos, or the German School Lagos
 * "Don't Say Love", a 2023 song by Leigh-Anne
 * Digital Site License

title: DSL (disambiguation)