Phonetic radicals, not phonological coding systems, support orthographic learning via self-teaching in Chinese.

According to the self-teaching hypothesis (Share, 1995), phonological decoding is fundamental to acquiring orthographic representations of novel written words. However, phonological decoding is not straightforward in non-alphabetic scripts such as Chinese, where words are presented as characters. Here, we present the first study investigating the role of phonological decoding in orthographic learning in Chinese.

End-stage renal disease: in vivo diffusion-tensor imaging of silent white matter damage.

Purpose: To characterize and compare regional differences in anisotropy in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and in control subjects to understand the effect of ESRD and hemodialysis on the microstructures of white matter.

Materials And Methods: This study was approved by an institutional review board; written informed consent was obtained. From March 2007 to December 2007, 34 patients (16 men, 18 women; mean age, 40.