Evaluating Teacher Language Within General and Special Education Classrooms Serving Elementary Students with Autism.

This study examined how teachers and paraprofessionals in 126 kindergarten-second grade general and special education classrooms talked with their 194 students with autism, and further, how individual student characteristics in language, autism symptoms, and social abilities influenced this talk. Using systematic observational methods and factor analysis, we identified a unidimensional model of teacher language for general and special education classrooms yet observed differences between the settings, with more language observed in special education classrooms-much of which included directives and close-ended questions. Students' receptive vocabulary explained a significant amount of variance in teacher language beyond its shared covariance with social impairment and problem behavior in general education classrooms but was non-significant within special education classrooms.

High Psychopathology Subgroup in Young Children With Autism: Associations With Biological Sex and Amygdala Volume.

Objective: The aims of this study were to identify a subset of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and co-occurring symptoms of psychopathology, and to evaluate associations between this subgroup and biological sex and amygdala volume.

Method: Participants included 420 children (ASD: 91 girls, 209 boys; typically developing controls: 57 girls, 63 boys). Latent profile analysis was used to identify ASD subgroups based on symptoms of psychopathology, adaptive functioning, cognitive development, and autism severity.

Understanding Hippocampal Development in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Objective: We examined growth trajectories of hippocampal volume (HV) in early childhood in a longitudinal cohort of male and female participants with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) individuals, and investigated HV in those with large brains. Relations between factors potentially associated with hippocampal size and growth were investigated.

Method: Participants received 1 to 3 structural magnetic resonance imaging scans between ages 25 and 80 months (unique participants: ASD, n =200; TD, n =110; total longitudinal scans, n = 593).

Cluster randomized trial of the classroom SCERTS intervention for elementary students with autism spectrum disorder.

Objective: This cluster randomized trial (CRT) evaluated the efficacy of the Classroom Social, Communication, Emotional Regulation, and Transactional Support (SCERTS) Intervention (CSI) compared with usual school-based education with autism training modules (ATM).

Method: Sixty schools with 197 students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in 129 classrooms were randomly assigned to CSI or ATM. Mean student age was 6.

What will my child's future hold? phenotypes of intellectual development in 2-8-year-olds with autism spectrum disorder.

Unlabelled: We examined phenotypes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) based on trajectories of intellectual development from early (ages 2-3 ½) to middle (ages 5-8) childhood in a recent clinically ascertained cohort. Participants included 102 children (82 males) initially diagnosed with ASD from the Autism Phenome Project longitudinal sample. Latent class growth analysis was used to identify distinct IQ trajectories.

Evaluation of Classroom Active Engagement in Elementary Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

This study evaluated the classroom measure of active engagement (CMAE), an observational tool designed to measure active engagement in students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Participants included 196 students with ASD and their educators (n = 126) who were video-recorded at the beginning of the school year. Findings documented limited active engagement overall, with students spending less than half of the observation well-regulated, productive, or independent and infrequently directing eye gaze and communicating.

Examination of sex differences in a large sample of young children with autism spectrum disorder and typical development.

Despite consistent and substantive research documenting a large male to female ratio in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), only a modest body of research exists examining sex differences in characteristics. This study examined sex differences in developmental functioning and early social communication in children with ASD as compared to children with typical development. Sex differences in adaptive behavior and autism symptoms were also examined in children with ASD.

Rhamnogalactofuranan from the microalga Myrmecia biatorellae, symbiotic partner of Lobaria linita.

A structural study of the cell wall polysaccharides of Myrmecia biatorellae, the symbiotic algal partner of the lichenized fungus Lobaria linita was carried out. It produced a cold-water insoluble rhamnogalactofuranan, with a (1→3)-linked β-d-galactofuranosyl main-chain, substituted at O-6 by single units of β-d-Galf, or by side-chains of 2-O- and 2,4-di-O-linked α-l-Rhap units. The structure of the polysaccharide was established by chemical and NMR spectroscopic analysis.

Glucomannan and branched (1→3)(1→6) β-glucan from the aposymbiotically grown Physcia kalbii mycobiont.

Cultures of the mycobiont Physcia kalbii were obtained from germinated ascospores and cultivated on Sabouraud-Sucrose-agar medium. Alkaline extraction of freeze-dried mycelia provided a branched (1→3),(1→6)-β-glucan and a glucomannan, whose chemical structure was determined by monosaccharide composition, methylation, controlled Smith degradation and NMR spectroscopic analysis. The β-glucan had a (1→3)-linked β-glucopyranosyl backbone, partially substituted (approx.

(1→2) and (1→6)-linked β-D-galactofuranan of microalga Myrmecia biatorellae, symbiotic partner of Lobaria linita.

A structural study of the cell wall polysaccharides of Myrmecia biatorellae, the symbiotic algal partner of the lichenized fungus Lobaria linita was carried out. It produced a rhamnogalactofuranan, with a (1→6)-β-D-galactofuranose in the main-chain, substituted at O-2 by single units of β-D-Galf, α-L-Rhap or by side chains of 2-O-linked β-D-Galf units. The structure of the polysaccharide was established by chemical and NMR spectroscopic analysis, and is new among natural polysaccharides.

The profound impact of negative power law noise on statistical estimation.

This paper investigates the profound impact of negative power law (neg-p) noise - that is, noise with a power spectral density L(p)(f) proportional variant | f |(p) for p < 0 - on the ability of practical implementations of statistical estimation or fitting techniques, such as a least squares fit (LSQF) or a Kalman filter, to generate valid results. It demonstrates that such negp noise behaves more like systematic error than conventional noise, because neg-p noise is highly correlated, non-stationary, non-mean ergodic, and has an infinite correlation time tau(c). It is further demonstrated that stationary but correlated noise will also cause invalid estimation behavior when the condition T >> tau(c) is not met, where T is the data collection interval for estimation.

Approximation of slow attracting manifolds in chemical kinetics by trajectory-based optimization approaches.

Many common kinetic model reduction approaches are explicitly based on inherent multiple time scales and often assume and directly exploit a clear time scale separation into fast and slow reaction processes. They approximate the system dynamics with a dimension-reduced model after eliminating the fast modes by enslaving them to the slow ones. The corresponding restrictive assumption of full relaxation of fast modes often renders the resulting approximation of slow attracting manifolds inaccurate as a representation of the reduced model and makes the numerical solution of the nonlinear "reduction equations" particularly difficult in many cases where the gap in intrinsic time scales is not large enough.

[Presence of anti hepatitis E virus antibodies in swine: is it an animal reservoir for hepatitis E?].

Background: Swine hepatitis E virus (HEV) has a cross-reaction with human anti-HEV antibodies. Therefore, pigs could be an animal reservoir, rendering hepatitis E as a zoonosis. The spread of this infection among infected pigs across countries would be possible through trading.

The myth of the aggressive monkey.

Captive rhesus macaques are not naturally aggressive, but poor husbandry and handling practices can trigger their aggression toward conspecifics and toward the human handler. The myth of the aggressive monkey probably is based on often not taking into account basic ethological principles when managing rhesus macaques in the research laboratory setting.

Hair pulling: a review.

Hair pulling has been reported in humans, six different non-human primate species, mice, guineapigs, rabbits, sheep and muskox, dogs and cats. This behaviour seems to occur only in subjects who are confined in an artificial environment. It has been classified as a mental disorder in humans, as a behavioural pathology in animals.

Common husbandry-related variables in biomedical research with animals.

Common, often overlooked, variables in biomedical research with animals are reviewed. The barren primary enclosure is an abnormal living environment for laboratory animals. Species-appropriate enrichment attenuates some of the distress resulting from chronic understimulation.

Working with rather than against macaques during blood collection.

Training macaques to cooperate during blood collection is a practicable and safe alternative to the traditional procedure implying forced restraint. It takes a cumulative total of about 1 hr to train an adult female or adult male rhesus macaque successfully to present a leg voluntarily and accept venipuncture in the homecage. Cooperative animals do not show the significant cortisol response and defensive reactions that typically occur in animals who are forcibly restrained during this common procedure.

Compassion for animals in the laboratory: impairment or refinement of research methodology?

There are now signs in the United States as well as in Europe that the importance of a positive human-nonhuman animal relationship in research laboratories is appreciated more seriously. In addition to knowledge and skills, primary attributes of animal research personnel must be feelings of compassion and sensitivity toward animals to safeguard the reliability of scientific research data.

The attending veterinarian's contract of employment: curse or blessing for animals in research institutions?

When attending veterinarians are not provided adequate job security by research in-stitutions, there is no guarantee that they are reliable allies of nonhuman animals and implement the provisions set forth in the federal animal welfare regulations.

Artificial weaning of Old World monkeys: benefits and costs.

Permanent mother-infant separation prior to natural weaning is a common hus-bandry practice in monkey breeding colonies. In the United States, all eight Re-gional Primate Research Centers have such colonies. Under undisturbed conditions, Old World monkey mothers wean their infants at the age of about 1 year (Hall & DeVore, 1965; Poirier, 1970; Roonwal & Mohnot, 1977; Southwick, Beg, & Siddiqi, 1965).

Is stereotactic biopsy a reliable method to differentiate tumor from radiation necrosis?

We report a case of a 37-year-old female who suffered from seizures and underwent external beam radiotherapy due to a suspected low-grade astrocytoma in the left hemisphere. After 7 years free of seizures under antiepileptic treatment and no signs of change in the yearly performed control MRI, she developed a progressive right-sided hemiparesis. MRI now showed an enhancing lesion with space occupying perifocal edema in the entire left hemisphere.