Ontogenesis of laterality in 3- to 10-yr.-old children: increased unimanual independence grounded on improved bimanual motor function.

Underlying sensorimotor factors, such as intermanual coupling, contributing to optimal laterality, long remain immature. Using the handmotor laterality blackboard, developmental change in symmetric bimanual motor function for 413 children in groups of 3 to 10 years of age shows synchronicity increased between groups 3 and 5 years of age; but between groups 5 and 7 years of age, given immature coupling, one hand may still disturb the movements of the other one. Between groups 7 and 9 years of age, the hands gradually stop disturbing each other and move independently and fluently.

Ontogenetic trends in gnostic hand function in 3- to 12-yr-old children.

The intimate relation between the sensory and motor functions of the hands during object manipulation and exploratory touch, the well-known improvement in object handling and constructive performance in ontogenesis and the emergent laterality thereof, assume changes in morphognostic capabilities in children. In this study we tried to corroborate the hypothesis of Mesker that mature and lateralized finger-thumb opposition is preceded by a stage of two-sided manual form agnosia in preschool children, followed by acquisition of morphognosis of the fingers and, finally, the thumbs. This study examined the development of gnostic hand function in 290 children from 3 to 11 years of age who drew the outlines of a meaningless wooden object passively felt with each hand without visual control.

Five-year clinical performance of porcelain veneers.

Objective: The overall clinical performance of porcelain veneers was evaluated at 5 years.

Method And Materials: Porcelain veneers were placed on 87 maxillary anterior teeth in 25 patients (19 to 69 years) by a single operator following a standardized clinical procedure. At the 5-year recall, esthetics, marginal performance, vitality, fracture rate, and patient satisfaction were recorded.

Development, reliability, and validity testing of the Ethical Behavior Test: a measure for nurses' ethical behavior.

The need for reliable and valid measures for ethical behavior of nurses has encouraged the authors to develop a new instrument to measure students' ethical behavior in daily nursing dilemmas. Characteristic of the instrument presented is the inclusion of two fundamental components of ethical behavior: (1) ethical reasoning (and the resulting decision), and (2) the actual implementation of the ethical decision. As for many instruments, Kohlberg's theory of moral development has been used as the conceptual framework.

Nursing students' responses to ethical dilemmas in nursing practice.

In literature as well as in nursing practice a growing concern about nurses' ethical competence can be observed. Based on the cognitive theory of moral development by Kohlberg, this research examined nursing students' ethical behaviour in five nursing dilemmas. Ethical behaviour refers not only to the ethical reasoning of nursing students but also to the relationship between reasoning and behaviour.

The surface roughness of enamel-to-enamel contact areas compared with the intrinsic roughness of dental resin composites.

The purpose of this study was to determine the surface roughness of enamel-to-enamel contact areas in order to provide a standard for comparison with surface characteristics of commercially available composite restorative materials. In addition, the inherent surface roughness of resin composites was evaluated profilometrically after a toothbrush abrasion procedure. A one-sided t-test analysis was performed to outline significant differences between the surface roughness value of enamel facets and that of the respective composite samples.

Quantitative in vivo wear of human enamel.

In this study, the attrition wear, also called occlusal-contact-area wear, of human enamel was measured quantitatively with a computerized three-dimensional measuring technique over a period of four years. Tooth replicas from a clinical trial were used. A running-in wear period after restorative treatment, followed by steady-state wear, was suggested.

Aerobic power and pubertal peak height velocity in Belgian boys.

To determine the cardiorespiratory response to maximal exercise before, during and after the pubescent growth spurt, thirty boys were tested at yearly intervals over a period of six consecutive years. For each individual, peak height velocity (PHV) was determined. The age at PHV (X = 13.