An evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Test of Dyslexia and Dysgraphia

The Test of Dyslexia and Dysgraphia (TODD) was designed to provide a comprehensive assessment of dyslexia in a theoretically based and timely manner. It is based on the work of Padget, Knight, and Sawyer (1996) and Wolf (1999) and includes measures of intelligence, academic achievement, and basic cognitive processes believed to be related to reading. The TODD was administered to 105 students ranging in age from 5 to 13 years old. These children were randomly selected from two schools in a school district in East Tennessee. Each child was administered the entire TODD battery. Measures of reliability and construct validity were obtained. Results suggest that the TODD has adequate reliability based on measures of internal consistency. Reliabilities ranged from .97 to .68 and are comparable to other similar assessment instruments. The first measure of construct validity was completed using age-to-raw score correlations. Correlations for each TODD subtest were significant at the .01 level and ranged from .38 to .80. Finally, exploratory factor analyses were conducted to determine the factor structure of the 8 subtests used to measure the basic cognitive processing variables. Data from the initial factor analysis and from the reliability analysis led to the decision to eliminate one subtest-Auditory Gestalt: Closure and to perform a 2 nd exploratory factor analysis. This 2nd factor analysis yielded Two and Three Factor Models that seemed consistent with current reading research. Factor One of the Two Factor Model, called Auditory Processing, included: Memory of Symbols (.81), Phonological Awareness (.80), Word Memory (.77), Auditory Gestalt: Synthesis (.71) and Rapid Symbol Naming (.65). Factor Two, called Visual Processing/Speed, contained Visual Processing: Closure (.94) and Visual Processing: Discrimination (.81). Visual Processing: Discrimination has a secondary loading of .46 on Factor One and Rapid Symbol Naming has a secondary loading of .59 on Factor Two. The Three Factor Model . showed similar loadings but resulted in a separate Memory Factor defined by loadings of the Word Memory (.90), Memory for Symbols (.50), and Rapid Symbol Naming (.47) subtests on a 3 rd factor. Results of this study suggest that the TODD shows promise for providing professionals with a tool that will enhance the assessment and diagnosis of dyslexia

A Dictionary of the Characters of Maria Edgeworth's Novels

A thesis submitted to the Department of English of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

Fruit and Vegetable Bucks: Adams County Grocery Store Snap Incentive Program

Veggie Bucks provides a 50% discount on all fresh fruits and vegetables sold through Kennie’s Market produce department at the point of sale for the 5 highest cost items. The incentive period ran January - April, 2017. Intended outcomes include an increase in the number of fresh fruits and vegetables purchased by SNAP recipients at Kennie’s Market locations in Biglerville and Gettysburg by 10% in January-April 2017 compared to baseline figures obtained in 2016, and to familiarize SNAP recipients with fresh fruits and vegetables and to provide information about the ACFMA markets’ Double Dollars program. SNAP recipients were invited to sign up for the program upon showing their ID and EBT card and were provided a Kennie\u27s Frequent Shopper card if they did not have one already

A FLAMINGOS Deep Near Infrared Imaging Survey of the Rosette Complex I: Identification and Distribution of the Embedded Population

We present the results of a deep near-infrared imaging survey of the Rosette Complex. We studied the distribution of young embedded sources using a variation of the Nearest Neighbor Method applied to a carefully selected sample of near-infrared excess (NIRX) stars which trace the latest episode of star formation in the complex. Our analysis confirmed the existence of seven clusters previously detected in the molecular cloud, and identified four more clusters across the complex. We determined that 60% of the young stars in the complex and 86% of the stars within the molecular cloud are contained in clusters, implying that the majority of stars in the Rosette formed in embedded clusters. We compare the sizes, infrared excess fractions and average extinction towards individual clusters to investigate their early evolution and expansion. We found that the average infrared excess fraction of clusters increases as a function of distance from NGC 2244, implying a temporal sequence of star formation across the complex. This sequence appears to be primordial, possibly resulting from the formation and evolution of the molecular cloud and not from the interaction with the HII region.Comment: Accepted by Astrophysical Journa

Hydroxyl as a Tracer of H2 in the Envelope of MBM40

We observed 51 positions in the OH 1667 MHz main line transitions in the translucent, high latitude cloud MBM40. We detected OH emission in 8 out of 8 positions in the molecular core of the cloud and 24 out of 43 in the surrounding, lower extinction envelope and periphery of the cloud. Using a linear relationship between the integrated OH line intensity and E(B-V), we estimate the mass in the core, the envelope, and the periphery of the cloud to be 4, 8, and 5 solar masses. As much as a third of the total cloud mass may be found in the in the periphery (E(B-V) $<$ 0.12 mag) and about a half in the envelope (0.12 $\le$ E(B-V) $\le$ 0.17 mag). If these results are applicable to other translucent clouds the OH 1667 MHz line is an excellent tracer of gas in very low extinction regions and high-sensitivity mapping of the envelopes of molecular clouds may reveal the presence of significant quantities of molecular mass.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, and 5 table

The motor and cognitive features of Parkinson's disease in patients with concurrent Gaucher disease over 2 years: a case series.

We report the cognitive features and progression of Parkinson's disease (PD) in five patients with concurrent Gaucher disease. The patients presented at an earlier age than patients with sporadic PD, as previously noted by others; but in contrast to many previous reports, our patients followed a variable clinical course. While two patients developed early cognitive deficits and dementia, three others remained cognitively intact over the follow-up period. Thus, in this small case series, PD in the context of GD more closely resembles idiopathic PD in terms of its clinical heterogeneity in contrast to PD associated with GBA heterozygote mutations.NIHR BRC and NIHR Senior Investigator, Rosetrees fundin

Effector memory differentiation increases detection of replication-competent HIV-l in resting CD4+ T cells from virally suppressed individuals.

Studies have demonstrated that intensive ART alone is not capable of eradicating HIV-1, as the virus rebounds within a few weeks upon treatment interruption. Viral rebound may be induced from several cellular subsets; however, the majority of proviral DNA has been found in antigen experienced resting CD4+ T cells. To achieve a cure for HIV-1, eradication strategies depend upon both understanding mechanisms that drive HIV-1 persistence as well as sensitive assays to measure the frequency of infected cells after therapeutic interventions. Assays such as the quantitative viral outgrowth assay (QVOA) measure HIV-1 persistence during ART by ex vivo activation of resting CD4+ T cells to induce latency reversal; however, recent studies have shown that only a fraction of replication-competent viruses are inducible by primary mitogen stimulation. Previous studies have shown a correlation between the acquisition of effector memory phenotype and HIV-1 latency reversal in quiescent CD4+ T cell subsets that harbor the reservoir. Here, we apply our mechanistic understanding that differentiation into effector memory CD4+ T cells more effectively promotes HIV-1 latency reversal to significantly improve proviral measurements in the QVOA, termed differentiation QVOA (dQVOA), which reveals a significantly higher frequency of the inducible HIV-1 replication-competent reservoir in resting CD4+ T cells

Transferring methods for vaccine release between the industry, academy and a regulatory agency: Lessons learned

Flublok, developed and manufactured by Protein Sciences Corporation (PSC), is the first recombinant influenza vaccine in the market, which was approved by the FDA in 2013.. In August 2014, Flublok was licensed to Laboratorios Liomont for the Mexican market and, potentially, other Latin American countries. In order to obtain approval in Mexico and begin commercialization, a joint team of PSC, Liomont and LAMMB formed an alliance for registering Flublok in Mexico and transferring the analytical methods needed for vaccine testing and release by CCAYAC and COFEPRIS, respectively,, which are the Mexican agencies responsible for vaccine commercialization control. Flublok was approved in Mexico in October 2015, and method transfers from PSC to LAMMB and CCAYAC began soon afterwards.. Several analytical methods are compendial methods or are routinely performed by CCAYAC, who also releases the traditional influenza vaccines for the Mexican market, but two methods -SRID and DNA- were identified as critical for vaccine release, and thus method transfer protocols were set in place. In this work, an account of the challenges and lessons learned during method and technology transfer between institutions from distinct fields -industry, academy and regulatory- , will be presented. After intense multi-institutional and multidisciplinary team work, method transfer was successfully performed between PSC and both Mexican organizations. This work set the basis for the commercialization of Flublok in Mexico for the 2016-2017 winter season

Parameter identifiability in a class of random graph mixture models

We prove identifiability of parameters for a broad class of random graph mixture models. These models are characterized by a partition of the set of graph nodes into latent (unobservable) groups. The connectivities between nodes are independent random variables when conditioned on the groups of the nodes being connected. In the binary random graph case, in which edges are either present or absent, these models are known as stochastic blockmodels and have been widely used in the social sciences and, more recently, in biology. Their generalizations to weighted random graphs, either in parametric or non-parametric form, are also of interest in many areas. Despite a broad range of applications, the parameter identifiability issue for such models is involved, and previously has only been touched upon in the literature. We give here a thorough investigation of this problem. Our work also has consequences for parameter estimation. In particular, the estimation procedure proposed by Frank and Harary for binary affiliation models is revisited in this article

Should I keep studying? Consequences of a decision to stop learning in young and older adults

In situations of cognitive overload, the role of a metacognitive decision to stop learning is of utmost importance. We investigated how young and older adults decide to stop learning as a strategy for maximizing memory performance when they face to-be-learned material exceeding their memory capability. People may decide to stop learning for two main reasons: they experience a growing feeling of disfluency as a learning episode progresses and/or they perceive such a decision to be beneficial for future memory performance. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants studied lists of 50 words. The majority of young and older adults stopped learning in conditions where they were allowed to do so. This decision, counterintuitively, decreased the number of recalled words. Crucially, a similar number of young and older adults stopped the presentation of to-be-remembered material, and both age groups suffered comparable consequences in their memory performance. In Experiments 3a and 3b, participants read an experimental scenario and decided whether they would stop learning based on this description alone. People in different age groups predicted their metacognitive decisions similarly. However, participants’ forecasted performance did not reflect the negative influence of these decisions. Regardless of their age, people tend to make a suboptimal decision to stop learning, unaware of its negative consequences. Together, our results suggest that young and older adults can exert metamemory control to similar degrees even though their decisions may not be beneficial for memory performance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved