Influence of communicative competence on peer preferences in a preschool classroom.

Recent research suggests that children's linguistic competence may play a central role in establishing social acceptance. That possibility was evaluated by examining children's peer relationships in a preschool classroom attended by children with varying degrees of communication ability. Three groups of children were compared: children with normally developing language skills (ND), children with speech and/or language impairments (S/LI), and children learning English as a second language (ESL).

Fast space-filling molecular graphics using dynamic partitioning among parallel processors.

We present a novel algorithm for the efficient generation of high-quality space-filling molecular graphics that is particularly appropriate for the creation of the large number of images needed in the animation of molecular dynamics. Each atom of the molecule is represented by a sphere of an appropriate radius, and the image of the sphere is constructed pixel-by-pixel using a generalization of the lighting model proposed by Porter (Comp. Graphics 1978, 12, 282).