Effects of pyramidal behavior skills training on the procedural integrity of school staff when delivering functional communication training to students.

Behavioral skills training (BST) is a commonly used, well-researched method for delivering training that has been shown to generate mastery and fidelity across multiple populations and skills. Despite the evidence supporting its use across multiple settings with a variety of populations, few studies have examined the use of pyramidal BST to train educators in a public school setting in the implementation of functional communication training (FCT). This study utilized a concurrent multiple probe across participants design to examine the effects of pyramidal BST on the procedural integrity of general education teachers providing FCT as part of an intervention plan. BST was provided by the researcher to a special education teacher participant in one training session; the special education teacher then utilized BST to provide FCT implementation training to general education staff in single subsequent training sessions. No additional coaching was provided beyond these training sessions. Data collected throughout the study indicated that pyramidal BST provided in one session resulted in an increase in procedural integrity across all general education teacher participants with strong positive effect sizes (dp estimates range: 11.97 – 16.56). Social validity data indicate that the teacher participants viewed the training as valuable and expressed an interest in receiving further training. The results of this study support the use of pyramidal BST to train general education teachers in the implementation of FCT

Book Review

Reviewing George C. Newman, ed., Children in the Courts - The Question of Representation, Institute of Continuing Legal Education, 196

Technological style, chaîne opératoire, and labor investment of early Neolithic pottery

Se presentan los datos tecnológicos derivados del muestreo del conjunto cerámico del Neolítico antiguo de las comarcas centrales valencianas. A través de ellos se realiza una aproximación al estilo tecnológico a través del concepto de "cadena operativa" al tiempo que se discute el grado de inversión de trabajo en algunas de las producciones específicas que definen este horizonte cultural. Todo ello nos permite, entre otros aspectos, aproximarnos a la relación entre secuenca productiva, tecnología y estilo decorativo

Constraints on the distance to SGR 1806-20 from HI absorption

The giant flare detected from the magnetar SGR 1806-20 on 2004 December 27 had a fluence more than 100 times higher than the only two other SGR flares ever recorded. Whereas the fluence is independent of distance, an estimate for the luminosity of the burst depends on the source's distance, which has previously been argued to be ~15 kpc. The burst produced a bright radio afterglow, against which Cameron et al. (2005) have measured an HI absorption spectrum. This has been used to propose a revised distance to SGR 1806-20 of between 6.4 and 9.8 kpc. Here we analyze this absorption spectrum, and compare it both to HI emission data from the Southern Galactic Plane Survey and to archival 12-CO survey data. We confirm ~6 kpc, as a likely lower limit on the distance to SGR 1806-20, but argue that it is difficult to place an upper limit on the distance to SGR 1806-20 from the HI data currently available. The previous value of ~15 kpc thus remains the best estimate of the distance to the source.Comment: 3 pages, 1 embedded EPS figure. Added sentences to end of Abstract and Conclusion, clarifying that most likely distance is 15 kpc. ApJ Letters, in pres