Evaluating the risk of potential acid sulfate soils and habitat modification for mosquito control (runneling) in coastal salt marshes: comparing methods and managing the risk.

Coastal environments in Australia are under development pressures. Human settlement encroaches on disease vector salt marsh mosquito breeding areas that are underlain by potential acid sulfate soils (PASS). Altering the hydrology by runneling solves the mosquito problem but may lead to acid sulfate problems.

Malaria in Indonesia: a summary of recent research into its environmental relationships.

A review of the literature was carried out to evaluate malaria and its environmental relationships. Research, in 6 parts of Indonesia, addressed the relationship between malaria incidence and physical and socioeconomic environmental factors, using longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches. Physical factors, which are generally important for malaria, included rainfall, mosquito breeding and resting sites, their distance from human habitation, and elevation, though the latter was not statistically significant.

Genetic influences in different aspects of language development: the etiology of language skills in 4.5-year-old twins.

The genetic and environmental etiologies of diverse aspects of language ability and disability, including articulation, phonology, grammar, vocabulary, and verbal memory, were investigated in a U.K. sample of 787 pairs of 4.

Genetic influences on early word recognition abilities and disabilities: a study of 7-year-old twins.

Background: A fundamental issue for child psychology concerns the origins of individual differences in early reading development.

Method: A measure of word recognition, the Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE), was administered by telephone to a representative population sample of 3,909 same-sex and opposite-sex pairs of 7-year-old twins. Analyses allowing for sex differences in aetiology were used to estimate the extent to which genetic and environmental influences contribute to normal variation in word recognition and word recognition difficulties, defined by scores below the 5th and 10th percentiles of the unselected sample.

The impact of insulin resistance on the outcome of laparoscopic ovarian electrocautery in infertile women with the polycystic ovary syndrome.

In this study we assessed how insulin resistance affects pregnancy rates in infertile women with the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) treated with laparoscopic ovarian electrocautery. Sixty-four PCOS women were included in the study in a consecutive fashion. Following the CIGMA (continuous infusion of glucose with model assessment) test, 28 women were classified as insulin resistant and 36 women as non-insulin resistant.

Radio-frequency ablation of large, nonresectable hepatic tumors.

Patients with nonresectable hepatic metastases who are not treated survive an average of 6 months. We report our experience with radio-frequency ablation (RFA) of nonresectable hepatic tumors 4 cm or greater in size. A retrospective chart review of all patients undergoing RFA of hepatic tumors 4 cm or greater from October 1, 1999, through August 31, 2002, was performed.

Verbal and nonverbal predictors of early language problems: an analysis of twins in early childhood back to infancy.

We investigated infant precursors of low language scores in early childhood. The sample included 373 probands in 130 monozygotic (MZ) and 109 same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs in which at least one member of the pair scored in the lowest 15th percentile of a control sample on a general language factor derived from tester-administered tests at 4 ; 6. From data at 2 ; 0, 3 ; 0 and 4 ; 0 the antecedents of poor language performance at 4 ; 6 for these probands were compared to 290 control children.

Association analysis of mild mental impairment using DNA pooling to screen 432 brain-expressed single-nucleotide polymorphisms.

We hypothesize that mild mental impairment (MMI) represents the low extreme of the same quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that operate throughout the distribution of intelligence. To detect QTLs of small effect size, we employed a direct association strategy by genotyping 432 presumably functional nonsynonymous single-nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs) identified from public databases on DNA pools of 288 cases and 1025 controls. In total, 288 MMI cases were identified by in-home administration of McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities to 836 twin pairs selected from a community sample of more than 14 000 children previously screened for nonverbal cognitive delay using parentally administered tests.

The language-specific nature of grammatical development: evidence from bilingual language learners.

The fact that early lexical and grammatical acquisition are strongly correlated has been cited as evidence against the view that the language faculty is composed of dissociable and autonomous modules (Bates & Goodman, 1997). However, previous studies have not yet eliminated the possibility that lexical-grammar associations may be attributable to language-general individual differences (e.g.

Impact of overweight and underweight on assisted reproduction treatment.

Background: Underweight and overweight may affect reproduction and interfere with treatment of infertility. The purpose of this report is to describe the independent effect of body weight on treatment with IVF and ICSI.

Methods: Records of 5019 IVF or ICSI treatments in 2660 couples were reviewed.

Development of a predictive model for ross river virus disease in Brisbane, Australia.

This paper describes the development of an empirical model to forecast epidemics of Ross River virus (RRV) disease using the multivariate seasonal auto-regressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) technique in Brisbane, Australia. We obtained computerized data on notified RRV disease cases, climate, high tide, and population sizes in Brisbane for the period 1985-2001 from the Queensland Department of Health, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the Queensland Department of Transport, and Australian Bureau of Statistics, respectively. The SARIMA model was developed and validated by dividing the data file into two data sets: the data between January 1985 and December 2000 were used to construct a model, and those between January and December 2001 to validate it.

The use of phenotypic markers to identify Brassica oleracea genotypes for routine high-throughput Agrobacterium-mediated transformation.

Doubled haploid (DH) genotypes from a genetic mapping population of Brassica oleracea were screened for ease of transformation. Candidate genotypes were selected based on prior knowledge of three phenotypic markers: susceptibility to Agrobacterium tumefaciens, shoot regeneration potential and mode of shoot regeneration. Mode of regeneration was found to be the most significant of the three factors.

A longitudinal genetic analysis of low verbal and nonverbal cognitive abilities in early childhood.

By middle childhood, the same genetic factors are largely responsible for individual differences in verbal and nonverbal abilities, suggesting a genetic basis for general cognitive ability ("g"). Our previous work on verbal and nonverbal abilities throughout the normal range of variation during infancy and early childhood suggests that genetic influences show domain-specific as well as domain-general effects, implying that the switch to nearly complete domain-general effects occurs later in development. Much less is known about the genetic structure of low cognitive performance, although our previous work has shown that a composite measure of low "g" is highly heritable at 2, 3 and 4 years of age.

The endangered Illidge's ant blue butterfly (Acrodipsas illidgei) from an intertidal habitat managed for mosquito control.

Acrodipsas illidgei is an endangered butterfly inhabiting mangrove forests in southeastern Queensland, Australia. Concern over the effects of mosquito control activities prompted a broad-scale survey for the species at Coomera Island, in southeastern Queensland. The butterfly was recorded on the edge of an old-growth mangrove forest in close proximity to mosquito control runnels.

The genetic and environmental origins of language disability and ability.

This study investigated whether genes affect language impairment to the same extent as they affect differences in language ability following up an earlier study of 579 four-year-old twins with low language performance and their cotwins (Viding et al., in press). The present study selected low-language twins from 6,963 pairs of twins from the Twins Early Development Study assessed for vocabulary and grammar by their parents at 2, 3, and 4 years of age.

Mapping of transposable element Dissociation inserts in Brassica oleracea following plant regeneration from streptomycin selection of callus.

To investigate the potential of heterologous transposons as a gene-tagging system in broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica), we have introduced a Dissociation ( Ds)-based two-element transposon system. Ds has been cloned into a 35S-SPT excision-marker system, with transposition being driven by an independent 35S-transposase gene construct.

Genetic and environmental influence on language impairment in 4-year-old same-sex and opposite-sex twins.

Background: We investigated the aetiology of language impairment in 579 four-year-old twins with low language performance and their co-twins, members of 160 MZ twin pairs, 131 same-sex DZ pairs and 102 opposite-sex DZ pairs.

Methods: Language impairment in 4-year-olds was defined by scores below the 15th percentile on a general factor derived from an extensive language test battery. Language impairment of different degrees of severity was investigated by using multiple cut-offs below the 15th percentile.

Impact of a surgical oncologist on general surgery residency training program.

Background: To assess the impact of adding a surgical oncologist to our faculty we examined the operative experience in our program before and after the addition.

Methods: Operative case numbers reported to the American Board of Surgery over a 10-year period were analyzed. This time period encompassed 5 years before and after the addition of a surgical oncologist to our faculty.

Parent-reported language skills in relation to otitis media during the first 3 years of life.

As part of a larger study of the potential impact of early-life otitis media (OM) on speech, language, cognition, and behavior, we studied the degree of association between parent-reported language scores at ages 1, 2, and 3 years and the cumulative duration of middle-ear effusion (MEE) during the first 3 years of life in a demographically diverse sample of 621 children. We estimated the cumulative percentage of days with MEE from prospective monthly observations of middle-ear status and interpolations for periods between visits. For each child, parents completed the appropriate inventory of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDI; L.

Genetic and environmental mediation of the relationship between language and nonverbal impairment in 4-year-old twins.

This study of 4-year-old twins investigated the genetic and environmental origins of comorbidity between language impairment and nonverbal ability by testing the extent to which language impairment in one twin predicted nonverbal ability in the co-twin. Impairment of language ability was defined as scores below the 15th percentile on a general language scale derived from a battery of diverse language tests. Four hundred thirty-six children, members of 160 monozygotic (MZ) and 131 same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs, were identified as language impaired.

Outcomes of early language delay: II. Etiology of transient and persistent language difficulties.

Genes are known to play an important role in causing specific language impairment, but it is unclear how far a similar etiology is implicated in transient language delay in early childhood. Two-year-old children with vocabulary scores below the 10th centile were selected from a cohort of over 2,800 same-sex twin pairs whose language was assessed by parental report at 2, 3, and 4 years of age. These children with early language delay (ELD) were divided into cases of transient and persistent language difficulties on the basis of outcome at 3 and 4 years.

Outcomes of early language delay: I. Predicting persistent and transient language difficulties at 3 and 4 years.

Parent-based assessments of vocabulary, grammar, nonverbal ability, and use of language to refer to post and future (displaced reference) were obtained for 8,386 twin children at 2 years of age. Children with 2 year vocabulary scores below the 10th centile were designated the early language delay (ELD) group, and their outcomes at 3 and 4 years were contrasted with the remainder of the sample, the typical language (TL) group. At 3 and 4 years old, children were designated as language impaired if their scores fell below the 15th centile on at least 2 of the 3 parent-provided language measures: vocabulary, grammar, and use of abstract language.

Genetic analysis of in vitro shoot regeneration from cotyledonary petioles of Brassica oleracea.

Diallel analysis was used to investigate the genetic control of in vitro shoot regeneration in Brassica oleracea. Twelve doubled haploid (DH) lines, selected to include a range of genotypes with differing shoot regeneration potentials, were crossed reciprocally to produce 132 F(1) and 12 selfed, DH families. Cotyledonary petioles from 4-day-old seedlings, from all families, were excised and maintained on MS medium supplemented with 2 mg/l BAP.