ARB: a software environment for sequence data.

The ARB (from Latin arbor, tree) project was initiated almost 10 years ago. The ARB program package comprises a variety of directly interacting software tools for sequence database maintenance and analysis which are controlled by a common graphical user interface. Although it was initially designed for ribosomal RNA data, it can be used for any nucleic and amino acid sequence data as well.

Construct validity of the test of infant motor performance.

Background And Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the construct validity of the Test of Infant Motor Performance (TIMP), specifically the test's sensitivity for assessing age-related changes in motor skill and correlation with risk for developmental abnormality.

Subjects: Subjects were 137 term and preterm infants stratified by postconceptional age, medical complications score on the Problem-Oriented Perinatal Risk Assessment System, and ethnicity and race (non-Latino Caucasian, African-American, and Latino).

Methods: Subjects were tested on the TIMP at ages ranging from 32 weeks postconceptional age to 3.

The Minnesota Child Development Inventory: validity and reliability for assessing development in infancy.

The concurrent validity and reliability of the Minnesota Child Development Inventory (MCDI) was assessed by comparing the MCDI general development index score, and each of the seven subscale scores, with the mental and psychomotor age equivalents achieved on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. In addition, the co-positivity, co-negativity, positive and negative predictive values of the MCDI in identifying infants with a mental development index (MDI), or psychomotor development index (PDI) of greater than 2 SD below the mean were assessed. Subjects were 101 infants (8 to 19 months old) who were seen at a neonatal developmental follow-up clinic after discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit.