Multimodal Communication Training in Aphasia: A Pilot Study.

Management of patients with aph asia often focuses on training nonverbal augmentative communication strategies; however, these strategies frequently do not generalize to natural situations. The limited success may be because training waS not sufficient to produce an integrated multimodal semantic representation. The purpose of this study was to examine whether simultaneous training of stimuli in both verbal and nonverbal modalities would solidify the links within the semantic network and improve switching among modalities as needed in conversation.

Parental Knowledge and Substance Use among African American Adolescents: Influence of Gender and Grade Level.

Parental knowledge is defined as parental awareness and information about a child's activities, whereabouts, and associations that is obtained through parental monitoring, parental solicitation, or self-disclosure. Increased parental knowledge is generally associated with lower adolescent substance use; however, the influence of various contextual factors, such as adolescent gender and grade level is not well understood, particularly for different racial or ethnic groups. In the present study, we used Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling (HGLM) analyses to examine the longitudinal relationship of parental knowledge to adolescent substance use in the context of adolescent gender and grade level among 207 urban African American adolescents in grades 6-11.

Effects of neurofibromatosis type 1 on children's development.

In-depth study of the human genome holds the potential to provide needed focus on genetic disorders that affect hundreds of thousands of children and significantly affect their development. Neurofibromatosis Type-1 (NF-1) is one of the most common genetic disorders that affect neurological, cognitive, social, and physical development. NF-1 affects all racial groups and both genders equally.

Effects of time between trials on rats' and pigeons' choices with probabilistic delayed reinforcers.

Parallel experiments with rats and pigeons examined reasons for previous findings that in choices with probabilistic delayed reinforcers, rats' choices were affected by the time between trials whereas pigeons' choices were not. In both experiments, the animals chose between a standard alternative and an adjusting alternative. A choice of the standard alternative led to a short delay (1 s or 3 s), and then food might or might not be delivered.

Challenges of transitioning from a faculty to an administrative role: part 3, from solving problems to managing polarities.

Many new nursing leaders assuming deanships, assistant, or interim deanships have limited education, experience, or background to prepare them for the job. To assist new deans and those aspiring to be deans, Jana L. Pressler, PhD, RN, and Carole A.

Phonetic variability in residual speech sound disorders: Exploration of subtypes.

PURPOSE: To explore whether subgroups of children with residual speech sound disorders (R-SSDs) can be identified through multiple measures of token-to-token phonetic variability. METHOD: Children with R-SSDs were recorded during a rapid multisyllabic picture naming task and an oral diadochokinetic task. Transcription-based and acoustic measures of token-to-token variability were derived.

Narratives of melancholy: a humanities approach to depression.

This paper explores narrative literature as a means of inquiry into the sense of self in depression. Described as a disease, an identity and a way of life, depression is influenced by both internal and external factors. Although brain research has provided new insight into the relationship between neurotransmitter function and depression, the symptoms are experienced by individuals whose lives are intertwined with historical and sociocultural interpretations of illness and its manifestations.

Challenges of transitioning from a faculty to an administrative role: part 2, moving from individual contributor to group leader.

Many new nursing leaders assuming deanships, assistant, or interim deanships have limited education, experience, or background to prepare them for the job. To assist new deans and those aspiring to be deans, Jana L. Pressler, PhD, RN, and Carole A.

Nurses with sensory disabilities: their perceptions and characteristics.

A survey design was used to explore the perceptions and characteristics of registered nurses (RNs) with sensory disabilities and their risk for leaving their jobs. An earlier study found that nurses with disabilities are leaving nursing and that employers do not appear to support these nurses. Work instability and the mismatch between a nurse's perceptions of his or her ability and the demands of their work increase risk for job retention problems.

Transitioning from a faculty to an administrative role: part 1, moving from individual to collective accountability.

Many new nursing leaders assuming deanships, assistant, or interim deanships have limited education, experience, or background to prepare them for the job. To assist new deans and those aspiring to be deans, Jana L. Pressler, PhD, RN, and Carole A.

Facilitating trust engenderment in secondary school nurse interactions with students.

School nurses are involved in a complex framework of interactions with students, other professionals, parents, and administrators. Trust between nurse and student is critical for interaction effectiveness. The goal of this study was to understand through phenomenology the process of engendering trust in school nurse-high school student interactions.

Out of the mouths of babes: vocal production in infant siblings of children with ASD.

Background: Younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are at higher risk for acquiring these disorders than the general population. Language development is usually delayed in children with ASD. The present study examines the development of pre-speech vocal behavior in infants at risk for ASD due to the presence of an older sibling with the disorder.

Education in Juvenile Detention Facilities in the State of Connecticut: A Glance at the System.

The state of Connecticut detained 7,444 children and youth and committed approximately 270 to the Department of Children and Families for out of home placement in the 2007-2008 calendar year. A significant number of children and youth have special education needs that are often unidentified by home school districts. State and federal law mandate the provision of special education and related services to this population.

Commodification and privacy: a Lockean perspective.

This paper defends the thesis that privacy as a right is derived from fundamental rights to life, liberty, and property and does not permit restricting the commodification of bodily material; however, privacy as life, liberty, property does require conventions that ensure a robust and just market in bodily material. The analysis proceeds by defending a general commitment to liberty and markets, but not in the manner one might expect from a 'doctrinaire' libertarian. Ethical concerns about commodification are legitimate in the context of new medical and information technologies, but these concerns are not sufficiently well defined to justify political conclusions, since not every ethical concern is in itself a political concern, and the best way to resolve certain ethical difficulties is to draw up political boundaries that facilitate the discovery and testing of various solutions to our ethical puzzles.

Distributed versus exclusive preference in discrete-trial choice.

Two experiments on discrete-trial choice examined the conditions under which pigeons would exhibit exclusive preference for the better of two alternatives as opposed to distributed preference (making some choices for each alternative). In Experiment 1, pigeons chose between red and green response keys that delivered food after delays of different durations, and in Experiment 2 they chose between red and green keys that delivered food with different probabilities. Some conditions of Experiment 1 had fixed delays to food and other conditions had variable delays.

Attentional regulation in young twins with probable stuttering, high nonfluency, and typical fluency.

Purpose: Using a sample of 20,445 Dutch twins, this study examined the relationship between speech fluency and attentional regulation in children. A secondary objective was to identify etiological overlap between nonfluency and poor attention using fluency-discordant twin pairs.

Method: Three fluency groups were created at age 5 using a parent questionnaire: (a) probable stuttering (PS; N=826; 4.

Biotechnological potential of aquatic plant-microbe interactions.

The rhizosphere in terrestrial systems is the region of soil surrounding plant roots where there is increased microbial activity; in aquatic plants, this definition may be less clear because of diffusion of nutrients in water, but there is still a zone of influence by plant roots in this environment [1]. Within that zone chemical conditions differ from those of the surrounding environment as a consequence of a range of processes that were induced either directly by the activity of plant roots or by the activity of rhizosphere microflora. Recently, there are a number of new studies related to rhizospheres of aquatic plants and specifically their increased potential for remediation of contaminants, especially remediation of metals through aquatic plant-microbial interaction.

Impact of chromosome 4p- syndrome on communication and expressive language skills: a preliminary investigation.

Purpose: The purpose of this investigation was to examine the impact of Chromosome 4p- syndrome on the communication and expressive language phenotype of a large cross-cultural population of children, adolescents, and adults.

Method: A large-scale survey study was conducted and a descriptive research design was used to analyze quantitative and qualitative data regarding the communication and expressive language manifestations of 200 children, youth, and adults from 16 countries and Puerto Rico who had been diagnosed with 4p conditions, including Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome (WHS), Pitt-Rogers-Danks syndrome (PRDS), Proximal 4p Deletion syndrome, and complex chromosomal rearrangements associated with 4p-.

Results: Individuals with Chromosome 4p- syndrome represent a heterogeneous population with complex phenotypic profiles.

The impact of youth and family risk factors on service recommendations and delivery in a school-based system of care.

The present study examines the impact of child and family risk factors on service access for youth and families in a school-based system of care. Regression analyses examined the relationships between risk factors and services recommended, services received, and dosage of services received. Logistic regression analyses examined the relationship between risk factors and whether or not youth received specific types of services within the system of care.

Trends in alcohol consumption among undergraduate students at a northeastern public university, 2002-2008.

Objective: This study examined alcohol consumption patterns and trends at a public university in the Northeast from 2002 to 2008.

Participants: Stratified random sampling was used to select undergraduate students enrolled in courses during spring semesters in 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008.

Methods: Data were collected during regularly scheduled classes for 4 measures of alcohol consumption and 5 demographic categories using the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey.

The common factors model: implications for transtheoretical clinical social work practice.

Direct practice social workers today are challenged to address the requirements of the complex array of professional, organizational, institutional, and regulatory demands placed on them in the broader socioeconomic context of fewer resources and diminished public support for social welfare services in the United States. The common factors model provides an accessible, transtheoretical, empirically supported conceptual foundation for practice that may help to resolve this conundrum and support effective practice. Common factors are conditions and processes activated and facilitated by strategies and skills that positively influence practice outcomes across a range ofpractice theories.

Patterns in Office Referral Data by Grade, Race/Ethnicity and Gender.

Research supports that office referral data is useful in informing programmatic decisions and in planning interventions such as Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). Knowledge of the different patterns of office referrals may facilitate the development of interventions that are targeted to specific groups of students. This study examines patterns in office referrals within an urban district by gender, race/ethnicity and grade.

Effect of increased extracellular ca on microvesicle production and tumor spheroid formation.

Research on the composition of the tumor micro-environment has demonstrated that membrane delimited microvesicles are shed from many types of malignant tumors, in the peripheral blood of cancer patients as well as in culture media of tumor cells propagated in vitro (Ginestra et al. Anticancer Res 18:3433-3437, 1998). Their documented effects involve the activation of signal transduction pathways by cellular cross-talk that are associated with epigenetic mechanisms that may be important in tumor progression, metastasis, and the activation of angiogenesis (Distler et al.

Delay-amount tradeoffs in choices by pigeons and rats: hyperbolic versus exponential discounting.

An adjusting-delay procedure was used to study the choices of pigeons and rats when both delay and amount of reinforcement were varied. In different conditions, the choice alternatives included one versus two reinforcers, one versus three reinforcers, and three versus two reinforcers. The delay to one alternative (the standard alternative) was kept constant in a condition, and the delay to the other (the adjusting alternative) was increased or decreased many times a session so as to estimate an indifference point--a delay at which the two alternatives were chosen about equally often.

Postnatal development of NT3 and TrkC in mouse ventral cochlear nucleus.

In the developing nervous system, neurotrophin 3 (NT3) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) have been shown to interact with each other and with different parts of a neuron or glia and over considerable distances in time and space. The auditory system provides a useful model for analyzing these events, insofar as it is subdivided into well-defined groups of specific neuronal types that are readily related to each other at each stage of development. Previous work in our laboratory suggested that NT3 and its receptor TrkC in the mouse cochlear nucleus (CN) may be involved in directing neuronal migration and initial targeting of inputs from cochlear nerve axons in the embryo.