Two approaches to reading instruction with children with disabilities: does program design make a difference?

This study examined the effects on reading achievement of variation in program design and tested the hypothesis this Distar Reading Mastery's (Engelmann & Bruner, 1988b) demonstrated effects with disadvantaged children in Project Follow Through can be generalized to children with disabilities. We compared the effects of two synthetic phonics reading programs, Direct Instruction (DI) Reading Mastery I and II and Addison Wesley's Meet the Superkids and The Superkids' Club, (Rowland, 1982a, 1982b) for 81 children in transitional kindergarten special education classes. No significant achievement differences were evident for the instructional program either at the end of the treatment year, or on follow-up testing 1 year later.

Contributions of cooling and warming rate and developmental stage to the survival of Drosophila embryos cooled to -205 degrees C.

Because of their high susceptibility to chilling injury, permeabilized Drosophila embryos can not be cryobiologically preserved by slow freezing at rates low enough to prevent the formation of intraembryonic ice. Calculations indicated that to outrun the chilling injury they must be cooled and warmed rapidly at an estimated 20,000 degrees C/min or faster. Ordinarily, such cooling rates would inevitably produce lethal intracellular ice.

Friction at the digit-object interface scales the sensorimotor transformation for grip responses to pulling loads.

When restraining a mechanically "active" object (one that exerts unpredictable changes in loading forces) with a precision grip of the digits, we maintain a stable grasp by modulating our grip force using somatosensory information related to the loading forces. The response to ramp load increases consists of an initial fast rise in grip force ("catch-up") followed by a secondary response that steadily increases the grip force in parallel with the load force ("tracking"). The sizes of these response components scale in proportion to the loading rate.

Clinical development of Taxol.

Taxol is the first of a novel class of anticancer drugs, the taxanes. Taxol's unique effects include its ability to polymerize tubulin into stable microtubules in the absence of cofactors and to induce the formation of stable microtubule bundles. During its development, formidable challenges were overcome: a suitable formulation was developed, an adequate supply was ensured, severe hypersensitivity reactions were diminished in incidence and severity, and clinical efficacy was demonstrated.

Cryobiological preservation of Drosophila embryos.

The inability to cryobiologically preserve the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has required that fly stocks be maintained by frequent transfer of adults. This method is costly in terms of time and can lead to loss of stocks. Traditional slow freezing methods do not succeed because the embryos are highly sensitive to chilling.

Structure of the gene encoding potato cytosolic pyruvate kinase.

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been used to generate a series of overlapping genomic clones representing 43 bp of 5' untranslated sequence, 63 bp of 3' untranslated sequence and the entire coding sequence of the gene encoding potato cytosolic pyruvate kinase (PKc). This portion of the gene is approximately 4.5 kb in length and is interrupted by three introns, one of which is present in the 5' untranslated region.

Sensory-motor coordination during grasping and manipulative actions.

Goal-directed grasping and manipulation of objects are human skills that depend on automatic sensory control in which predictive feed-forward mechanisms integrate somatosensory and visual signals with sensory-motor memory systems. Memory representations of physical and task-relevant properties of the object play a pivotal role. Anticipatory strategies are crucial when purposeful actions arise from learned relationships between afferent patterns and efferent commands.

16,16-dimethyl prostaglandin E2 modulates aflatoxin B1-induced injury of rat hepatocytes in primary culture: possible role of cAMP.

The hepatocellular cytoprotective effects of 16,16-dimethyl prostaglandin E2 (dmPGE2), an analogue of PGE2, were investigated using primary cultures of rat hepatocytes and aflatoxin B1 as the hepatotoxin. Lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) release by hepatocytes was used as an index of hepatotoxicity. When aflatoxin-treated hepatocytes were co-cultured with 16,16-dmPGE2 (0.

Coronary artery fistulas: a review and case study.

Coronary artery fistula is a congenital abnormality that can present with a variety of cardiovascular complications. This article presents a patient with a coronary artery fistula outlining the pathophysiology and course of hospitalization, with particular emphasis on nursing management of a patient with coronary artery fistula.

Stability of the intelligence quotient-language quotient relation: is discrepancy modeling based on a myth?

Diagnostic and service eligibility decisions are often made on the basis of the relation between assessments of cognitive ability and assessments of language ability. A discrepancy between cognitive and language performance, with cognition being higher, is thought to be a positive predictor of ability to benefit from intervention. This triage model assumes reasonable stability of cognitive and language measures over time.

Attraction of female fathead minnows,Pimephales promelas, to chemical stimuli from breeding males.

Female fathead minnows,Pimephales promelas, were attracted to water that had contained conspecific males in breeding condition. The attraction was particularly strong in the morning and occurred in both females with mature gonads and gonadally regressed females. Females were also attracted to water that had contained other females but this attraction was weaker than the attraction to breeding males and tended to occur in afternoon trials.

Instability of the intelligence quotient-motor quotient relationship.

The authors evaluated the stability over one- and two-year periods of the relationship between a cognitive measure (McCarthy General Cognitive Index) and a motor measure (McCarthy Motor Scale) to examine whether the cognitive-motor relationship changed significantly over time and whether children remained in the same service eligibility category, based on the cognitive referencing model. Results indicated substantial changes in the cognitive-motor relationship. Over a two-year period, more than 42 per cent of children changed their cognitive-motor relationship by at least 16 points.

Strength increases from the motor program: comparison of training with maximal voluntary and imagined muscle contractions.

1. This study addressed potential neural mechanisms of the strength increase that occur before muscle hypertrophy. In particular we examined whether such strength increases may result from training-induced changes in voluntary motor programs.

Critical factors affecting the permeabilization of Drosophila embryos by alkanes.

Because of waxes in the vitelline membrane, the Drosophila egg is effectively impermeable to liquid water and to aqueous solutes, and consequently it cannot be cryopreserved unless it can be permeabilized. The more successful of the few published permeabilization procedures involve the removal of the chorion mechanically or by hypochlorite solution, the removal of all surrounding water by air drying or alcohol, the exposure of eggs to pure alkanes like octane or hexane for some 30 s, the removal of the alkane and the transfer of the eggs to aqueous culture medium without their desiccation, and lastly incubation of the permeabilized embryos under mineral oil. In following these procedures we opted for a somewhat different approach to applying hypochlorite, water, alcohol, and alkane; namely, eggs were placed between two Nucleopore filters, and the fluids drawn sequentially through the filters by vacuum.

Early efferent innervation of the developing rat cochlea studied with a carbocyanine dye.

The olivocochlear pathway in the developing rat was visualized in fixed material. The fluorescent carbocyanine dye 1,1'-Dioctadecyl-3,3,3',3'-tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate (DiI) was applied to the cut central axons of the olivocochlear neurones at the floor of the fourth ventricle, and the termination pattern within the cochlea was examined after dye diffusion. From the day of birth (P0) to postnatal day 2 (P2), efferent innervation of the cochlea was exclusively in the region of the inner hair cells.

Further analyses of human kidney cell populations separated on the Space Shuttle.

Cultured human embryonic kidney cells were separated into electrophoretic subpopulations in laboratory experiments and in two separation experiments on the STS-8 (Challenger) Space Shuttle flight using the mid-deck Continuous Flow Electrophoretic Separator (CFES). Populations of cells from each fraction were cultured for the lifetime of the cells, and supernatant medium was withdrawn and replaced at 4-day intervals. Withdrawn medium was frozen at -120 degrees C for subsequent analysis.

Grasp force control in older adults.

Diminished tactile sensibility and impaired hand dexterity have been reported for elderly individuals. Reports that younger adults with severely impaired tactile sensibility use excessive grasp force during routine grasp and manipulation tasks raise the possibility that elderly persons likewise produce large grasp forces that may contribute to impaired dexterity. Impaired pseudomotor functioning also occurs in elderly subjects and may yield a slipperier skin surface that enhances the possibility for excessive grasp force.

Family dynamics and caregiver burden in home health care.

Planning an intervention involves the assessment of medical needs followed by an analysis of the family composition, dynamics, role allocations, coping mechanisms, mode of emotional expression, and the point in the family's developmental sequence. Therapeutic targets should be identified and prioritized. At that point, a behavioral probe or some specific recommendation that the family can easily follow should be made.

Change in metabolic control and functional status after hospitalization. Impact of patient activation intervention in diabetic patients.

Objective: To determine whether a short intervention to enhance patient information seeking and decision making during hospitalization results in improved metabolic control and functional status in patients with diabetes mellitus.

Research Design And Methods: A randomized clinical trial was conducted in which control patients received a comprehensive 3-day evaluation and educational program, whereas experimental patients received a 45-min patient activation intervention and a 1-h self-administered booster in addition to the program. Metabolic control and functional status were measured at baseline and 4 mo postdischarge.

Effect of preschool integration for children with disabilities.

This study examined the effects of integration and segregation in a special education preschool program for children with mild to moderate disabilities to determine whether initial level of development differentially influenced gains achieved. No main-effect differences between the two groups appeared on several pretest and posttest measures. Aptitude-by-Treatment analyses revealed than higher performing students gained more from integrated classes, whereas lower performing students gained more from segregated classes.

Purification of plasmid and high molecular mass DNA using PEG-salt two-phase extraction.

A method for the rapid preparation of DNA is described. The method utilizes a polymer (polyethylene glycol) and salt solution to form a two-phase system. A crude source of DNA is added to a phase-forming mixture, it is mixed and phase separation occurs.

Rat mast cell carboxypeptidase: amino acid sequence and evidence of enzyme activity within mast cell granules.

The amino acid sequence of rat mast cell carboxypeptidase has been determined. The major form has 308 residues; a minor form has an additional (glutamyl) residue at the amino terminus that may indicate an alternate cleavage site during zymogen activation. The enzyme is homologous to pancreatic carboxypeptidases A and B, with conservation of the functional amino acid residues of the active site.

In vitro methods to determine the biological activities of particulate mineral pollutants.

The biological effects of mineral particles in both macrophage-like and fibroblast cell lines are described. The several macrophage-like cell lines available are all sensitive to the toxic effects of silica, but not all are equally affected by mineral fibres. The effects of the fibres are partially determined by their ability to interact with the cell surface and this has been monitored by density gradient centrifugation of cell-fibre mixtures.

Physiologic loading of the anterior cruciate ligament does not activate quadriceps or hamstrings in the anesthetized cat.

We attempted to elicit quadriceps and hamstring electromyographic responses in seven chloralose-anesthetized cats by loading the ACL with controlled anterior displacement of the tibia on the femur using rigid fixation and an MTS testing machine. We did not detect reflex activity in the quadriceps or hamstring muscles of any of the cats in response to anterior tibial displacements of up to 4 mm, with rise times ranging from 1.0 to 0.