Efficacy of a Supplemental Small-Group Early Literacy Intervention Implemented by Early Childhood Educators.

Purpose: Phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge are fundamental building blocks for literacy development. We identified preschoolers with persistent delays in these skills and evaluated the efficacy of a supplemental curriculum to remediate deficits in early literacy skills.

Method: Using a cluster design, 21 classrooms were randomly assigned to early literacy versus language intervention conditions.

New horizons in hearing conditions.

Hearing conditions such as hearing loss, tinnitus and hyperacusis are highly prevalent in the population and can severely impact communication and quality of life. Hearing is affected by multiple factors, including heredity, noise exposure, age, sex, ear disorders and lifestyle factors. Globally, hearing loss affects over 80% of adults aged 80 years and older, is often experienced in combination with other long-term health conditions and is a mid-life risk factor for dementia.

Patient perceptions of cognitive screening in adult audiology services: A qualitative exploration.

Introduction: Both hearing loss and dementia are extremely pervasive, especially amongst older adults. As hearing loss and dementia have common symptoms, misdiagnosis can be common, and failure to address hearing loss for people with dementia could accelerate cognitive decline. The timely detection of cognitive impairment is clinically important, however the use of cognitive assessments in adult audiology services is a hotly debated topic.

What factors are important to whom in what context, when adults are prescribed hearing aids for hearing loss? A realist review protocol.

Introduction: Hearing aids are the gold standard treatment to help manage hearing loss. However, not everyone who needs them has them, and of those who do, a significant proportion of people do not use them at all, or use them infrequently. Despite literature reviews listing key barriers and enablers to the uptake and use of hearing aids, there is little evidence to describe how this varies by population and context.

Achieving Quality and Effectiveness in Dementia Using Crisis Teams (AQUEDUCT): a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial of a Resource Kit.

Background: Improving care at home for people with dementia is a core policy goal in the dementia strategies of many European countries. A challenge to effective home support is the occurrence of crises in the care of people with dementia which arise from changes in their health and social circumstances. Improving the management of these crises may prevent hospital admissions and facilitate better and longer care at home.

AQUEDUCT Intervention for Crisis Team Quality and Effectiveness in Dementia: Protocol for a Feasibility Study.

Background: Specialist community teams often support people with dementia who experience crisis. These teams may vary in composition and models of practice, which presents challenges when evaluating their effectiveness. A best practice model for dementia crisis services could be used by teams to improve the quality and effectiveness of the care they deliver.

Involving the Person with Dementia in Crisis Planning: Focus Groups with Crisis Intervention Teams.

Dementia leads to progressive critical situations that can escalate to a crisis episode if not adequately managed. A crisis may also resolve spontaneously, or not resolve after receiving professional support. Because of the intensity of the crisis, the extent to which the person engages in decision making for their own care is often decreased.

The social value of the arts for care home residents in England: A Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis of the Imagine Arts programme.

Background: Direct involvement in creative activities can have benefits in terms of improved attention and positive engagement for older people. We used the social return on investment (SROI) approach to explore the social and economic benefits of arts activities for older people living in residential homes in England.

Methods: We complied with the CHEERS checklist and followed the six stages of SROI as reported in the literature.

Facilitating Imagine Arts in residential care homes: the artists' perspectives.

Introduction: This study explores factors affecting the successful facilitation of a residential arts programme. The aim was to identify barriers and describe how they could be overcome, this was both formative, to help shape the programme, and summative, to inform best practice and future arts interventions.

Methods: An exploratory qualitative design examined the views of the artists administering the arts programme.

Participatory arts in care settings: A multiple case study: Innovative practice.

This paper describes two case studies of arts interventions in UK care settings. Visual arts and dance movement interventions were regularly held in two settings. This paper draws on data from qualitative interviews, reflective diary sheets and narrative monitoring reports to examine the content, context, and process of the arts interventions within the care settings.

Care staff and the creative arts: exploring the context of involving care personnel in arts interventions.

Background: Arts-based interventions play an important role in the care of people with dementia. Yet, creative arts are seldom implemented as a tool to enhance the care and wellbeing of people with dementia.

Methods: We examined the involvement of care staff in creative arts activities in residential care.

CD98-Mediated Adhesive Signaling Enables the Establishment and Propagation of Acute Myelogenous Leukemia.

Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is an aggressive disease associated with drug resistance and relapse. To improve therapeutic strategies, it is critical to better understand the mechanisms that underlie AML progression. Here we show that the integrin binding glycoprotein CD98 plays a central role in AML.

Comparing blastocyst quality and live birth rates of intravaginal culture using INVOcell™ to traditional in vitro incubation in a randomized open-label prospective controlled trial.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to to compare the efficacy of intravaginal culture (IVC) of embryos in INVOcell™ (INVO Bioscience, MA, USA) to traditional in vitro fertilization (IVF) incubators in a laboratory setting using a mild pre-determined stimulation regimen based solely on anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) and body weight with minimal ultrasound monitoring. The primary endpoint examined was total quality blastocysts expressed as a percentage of total oocytes placed in incubation. Secondary endpoints included percentage of quality blastocysts transferred, pregnancy, and live birth rates.

CD20dim-positive T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia in a patient with concurrent hairy cell leukemia and plasma cell myeloma.

We report a CD20dim- positive T-cell large granular lymphocytic (T-LGL) leukemia in a patient with concurrent hairy cell leukemia and plasma cell myeloma. This patient was first diagnosed with T-LGL leukemia with dim CD20 expression, which by itself was a rare entity. He received no treatment for T-LGL leukemia.

Integration of quantitative DCE-MRI and ADC mapping to monitor treatment response in human breast cancer: initial results.

Purpose: The objective of this study was to assess changes in the water apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and in pharmacokinetic parameters obtained from the fast-exchange regime (FXR) modeling of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) during neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer.

Materials And Methods: Eleven patients with locally advanced breast cancer underwent MRI examination prior to and after chemotherapy but prior to surgery. A 1.

Dose responses for adaption to low doses of (60)Co gamma rays and (3)H beta particles in normal human fibroblasts.

The dose response for adaption to radiation at low doses was compared in normal human fibroblasts (AG1522) exposed to either (60)Co gamma rays or (3)H beta particles. Cells were grown in culture to confluence and exposed at either 37 degrees C or 0 degrees C to (3)H beta-particle or (60)Co gamma-ray adapting doses ranging from 0.1 mGy to 500 mGy.

Adaptation of human fibroblasts to radiation alters biases in DNA repair at the chromosomal level.

Purpose: To determine whether adaptation to ionizing radiation biases repair of radiation-induced chromosomal breaks.

Materials And Methods: Normal human fibroblasts were radiation-adapted by exposure to 10 cGy of gamma-radiation. FISH probes for chromosomes 2, 4, 7, 18 and 19 were used to determine the chromosomal origin of the DNA in micronuclei resulting from a subsequent 4Gy exposure of these cells, and corresponding non-adapted cells.

Role of apoptosis and apoptosis-related proteins in the cisplatin-resistant phenotype of human tumor cell lines.

Since apoptosis is the primary mode of cell death induced by cisplatin, the role of apoptosis and apoptosis-related gene products in cisplatin resistance was investigated in four human cisplatin-resistant cell lines of different tumour type. A common feature of the resistant sublines was a reduced susceptibility to drug-induced apoptosis compared to parental sensitive lines. Loss of wild-type p53 function was not a general event associated with the development of drug resistance.