Emerging Language Comprehension in Toddlers with Significant Developmental Delays

Language comprehension is critical to a wide variety of child outcomes, including academic success and emotional and social well-being. Effective intervention relies on valid, reliable language comprehension data to determine the intensity and techniques that are appropriate for an individual child. The present study investigated language comprehension in a sample of 113 toddlers with significant developmental delays using IRT methods. We found that the aggregate data adequately fit the Rasch model, though each measure also contained items with poor fit. Analyses of the correspondence between item difficulties and participant abilities generally supported the appropriateness of the measures for our sample, and indicated acceptable measurement precision for the majority of participants. Examination of the relative difficulty of items revealed patterns that were largely consistent with the literature on typically developing children, with a few exceptions. Investigation of individual items showing the highest proportions of change in our sample indicated that parent-report items of moderate difficulty were most likely to reflect language comprehension improvement. Our findings inform clinical practice by underscoring the strengths and limitations of currently available measures. They also inform future measure development by emphasizing the benefits of integrating IRT methods in order to maximize both measurement precision and testing efficiency. Finally, they add to knowledge about language comprehension development in atypical populations

Parenting Stress and its Relationship to Adaptive Behavior and Child Behavior Observed During Language Interventions

The purpose of this study was to examine parenting stress over time and its relationship to adaptive behavior and observed child behavior during language interventions in a sample of 113 toddlers with significant developmental delays. The data included are from two longitudinal studies of language outcomes following augmented or spoken language interventions (Romski et al., In preparation; Romski et al., 2010). We found that parenting stress was elevated relative to the normative sample, however, there was no relationship between parenting stress and observed child behavior. Lower child adaptive behavior was associated with both higher parenting stress and more observed child challenging behaviors. Our results suggest a complex picture of the relationships between parenting stress, child challenging behavior, and child adaptive behavior, in which child adaptive behavior has a stronger influence on parenting stress among parents of toddlers

Low-energy behavior of spin-liquid electron spectral functions

We calculate the electron spectral function for a spin-liquid with a spinon Fermi surface and a Dirac spin-liquid. Calculations are based upon the slave-rotor mean-field theory. We consider the effect of gauge fluctuations using a simple model and find the behavior is not strongly modified. The results, distinct from conventional Mott insulator or band theory predictions, suggest that measuring the spectral function e.g. via ARPES could help in the experimental verification and characterization of spin liquids.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

Multiple Small Bowel Perforations Secondary to Cytomegalovirus in a Patient with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Cytomegalovirus gastroenteritis can be a life-threatening infection in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Although gastrointestinal ulcerations from cytomegalovirus have been widely reported, our patient is only the second case reported with actual perforations in the small bowel

T-Lymphocyte Subset Studies to Monitor Patients with AIDS and AIDS-Related Complex

Multiple specimens from 124 patients from our clinic were evaluated for T4/T8 cell ratio over three to 28 months. Twenty-nine of 30 patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), 58 of 71 patients with AIDS-related complex (ARC), and four of 23 patients at risk showed initial T4/T8 cell ratios of less than 0.8. which either remained unchanged or decreased. Seventeen of 23 AIDS patients and two of 20 ARC patients with a consistently low ratio (0.3 or less) died during the follow-up period. This indicated that the severity of disease could be predicted by periodical T4/T8 cell ratio studies. These serial studies appeared to be valuable in monitoring the course of patients with AIDS, ARC, and the human immunodeficiency virus infection and also in evaluating the effects of available drug treatment

In Vitro and Clinical Studies of Cefaclor, A New Cephalosporin

In vitro susceptibility studies of 246 clinical isolates demonstrated that this antibiotic was effective against Group A beta hemolytic streptococci, alpha hemolytic streptococci, S. pneumoniae, both penicillinase producing and nonpenicillinase producing Staphylococci, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Proteus mirabilis. Cephalothin susceptible E. coii were also susceptible to cefaclor. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia sp., Enterobacter Sp., and Streptococcus faecalis were uniformly resistant to cefaclor. The efficacy and safety of this antibiotic were studied in 27 patients with urinary tract, soft tissue, and respiratory infections. Patients with urinary tract infections became abacteriuric after 48 hours. Patients with soft tissue infections responded well within the first week of therapy, and throat cultures of patients with tonsillitis were negative ten days and six weeks after treatment. The drug was well tolerated, and no significant adverse effect was noted

Ion beam modification of PVDC and PE polymers

Electronic and nuclear stopping effects produced by MeV ion bombardment in polyvinylidine chloride and polyethylene are separated by stacking thin films of the polymers. Resulting multi-layer laminates of each polymer were bombarded with 3.5-MeV alpha particles. Energy of the incident ions was selected using the TRIM code so that the first layers experienced most of the effects of the electronic energy deposited and the last layers received most of the effects of the nuclear stopping power. Changes in conductance and chemical structure of each layer were measured by direct resistivity measurements and Raman microprobe analysis