Effectiveness Of Relationship Marketing Tactics In A University Setting

We test the correlation between student perception of three university relationship-building tactics - commercial friendships, preferential treatment, and tangible rewards - with university student satisfaction. We also test whether two student characteristics - enduring involvement with education and sense of entitlement - have a moderating effect on the aforementioned relationship between university relationship-building behaviors and student satisfaction. Results revealed positive correlations between perceived relationship tactics and overall satisfaction. Correlations between the relationship-building behaviors and satisfaction were also greater among high-involvement students than among their lesser-involved cohorts. Students who felt a sense of entitlement were more likely to believe that they were recipients of relationship-building behaviors, but they didn’t always appreciate them more than students who felt less entitled

Evidence for prelocalization of cytoplasmic factors affecting gene activation in early embryogenesis

Differentiation begins early in embryogenesis as different genes become active in different cells. Within the closed system of the early embryo, equal genomes thus direct the creation of diverse cell types. Though the nuclei of these cells contain complete copies of the same genome,(1,2) the nucleoplasmic and cytoplasmic environments of these genomes are not the same, as a result of the distribution of cleavage nuclei into diverse areas of egg cytoplasm early in the cleavage process. In some cases the fate of these nuclei, i.e., the type of differentiated cell to which they or their descendants give rise, has been seen to depend on the area of cytoplasm in which they come to lie

A PC parallel port button box provides millisecond response time accuracy under Linux

For psychologists, it is sometimes necessary to measure people's reaction times to the nearest millisecond. This article describes how to use the PC parallel port to receive signals from a button box to achieve millisecond response time accuracy. The workings of the parallel port, the corresponding port addresses, and a simple Linux program for controlling the port are described. A test of the speed and reliability of button box signal detection is reported. If the reader is moderately familiar with Linux, this article should provide sufficient instruction for him or her to build and test his or her own parallel port button box. This article also describes how the parallel port could be used to control an external apparatus

Millisecond accuracy video display using OpenGL under Linux

To measure people’s reaction times to the nearest millisecond, it is necessary to know exactly when a stimulus is displayed. This article describes how to display stimuli with millisecond accuracy on a normal CRT monitor, using a PC running Linux. A simple C program is presented to illustrate how this may be done within X Windows using the OpenGL rendering system. A test of this system is reported that demonstrates that stimuli may be consistently displayed with millisecond accuracy. An algorithm is presented that allows the exact time of stimulus presentation to be deduced, even if there are relatively large errors in measuring the display time

Constraint-Induced aphasia therapy: Three single case studies.

TITLE OF POSTER: CONSTRAINT INDUCED APHASIA THERAPY - THREE SINGLE CASE STUDIES INTRODUCTION This research project was inspired by the Specific Interest Group in Aphasia study day given by Professor Pulvermuller in January 2011. Constraint Induced Aphasia Therapy (CIAT) is sometimes referred to as Intensive Language Action Therapy (ILAT). This technique has an impressive research base to support its use for people with aphasia (PWA) and the evidence base includes both single case and randomised control trial evidence (Pulvermuller, Neininger, Elbert, Mohr, Rockstroh, Koebbl & Taub, 2001). Pulvermuller et al (2001) describe CIAT as a game of pairs. The game is normally played by four players: a therapist and three PWA. A 32 pack of cards consisting of 16 pairs is shuffled and divided equally between the four players. No one can see anyone else’s cards. The aim of the game is to win the most pairs of cards. Clients can win a pair by asking each of the other players in turn, for a matching card. All requests and responses should be verbal but participants may describe the target word or use a gesture in order to achieve saying the word. An essential part of the game is that each player should see and hear the name of the card in play. RESEARCH METHOD Three PWA were prioritised from a typical general hospital SLT caseload. All three clients were one to two years post onset of their aphasia and had already been provided with impairment focussed, functional and psychosocial SLT input. They had moderate to severe aphasia, had difficulties at several levels of single word processing and frequently failed to convey their message despite having a degree of linguistic competence and an ability to use alternative communication strategies. Accessible formal assessment measures (Kaplan, Goodglass & Weintraub 1983, Goodglass, Kaplan & Barresi 2000 & Swinburn, Porter & Howard 2004) were used to evaluate the success of therapy in a four step repeated measures research design: Baseline 1, 30 hours CIAT therapy, Baseline 2, Baseline 3. SUMMARY OF RESULTS For 2/3 clients, assessment results suggested that participation in the CIAT programme resulted in a positive measurable change in language behaviour. This positive change was not apparent in assessments of understanding. Selective improvement of language ability suggests that the therapy directed at language output had resulted in improved word and sentence level skills for 2/3 of our clients. There were also positive changes that were not captured by the assessment data: reduced use of written and therapist cues, improved repetition skills, improved self-monitoring and a reduced tendency to produce jargon type utterances. Relatives corroborated therapist perceptions. CONCLUSIONS In 2006 Beeson & Robey (2006, p162) proposed that rehabilitation outcome research should be conducted in five phases. Our study is one of the first to provide evidence to support the use of intensive CIAT therapy in the community (phase 4 – an effectiveness study). Other studies have assessed the usefulness of the therapeutic effect of ILAT (phase 1), optimised the ILAT procedure (phase 2) and tested its usefulness under ideal conditions (phase 3). The final phase outlined by Beeson & Robey (2006) is the cost-benefit analysis (phase 5) and we would welcome debate within the profession on improving this type of input and the role of Speech and Language Therapists in intensive aphasia therapy provision. REFERENCES Pulvermuller, F., Neininger, B., Elbert, T., Mohr, B., Rockstroh, B., Koebbl,P. & Taub, E. (2001) Constraint induced therapy for chronic aphasia after stroke. Stroke, 1621-1626. Beeson, P. M. & Robey, R.R. (2006) Evaluating single-subject treatment research: Lessons learnt from the aphasia literature. Neuropsychological Review, 16, 161-169. KAPLAN, E., GOODGLASS, H. and WEINTRAUB, S. (1983) The Boston Naming Test. Philadelphia: Lea and Febiger. Goodglass, H., Kaplan, E. & Barresi, B. (2000) Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination. 3rd Edition. San Antonio: Pearson. Swinburn, K., Porter, G., & Howard, D. (2004). The Comprehensive Aphasia Test. Hove: Psychology Press

Demonstration of vincristine resistance in primary intestinal neoplasms in the rat by the 'post-metaphase index'.

A method is described enabling the direct measurement of vincristine resistance in intact tissues in vivo by morphological study. Using the metaphase arresting properties of the drug, counts were made of escaping anaphase and telophase mitotic figures at a range of doses. The proportion of post-metaphase mitotic figures is called the post-metaphase index (PMI). In 95 primary intestinal tumours induced by dimethylhydrazine (DMH) in rats, an increase in resistance to vincristine was shown over normal mucosa (P less than 0.001). The data were analysed by computer modelling and a linear relationship is demonstrated between the logit of the post-metaphase index, and log dose of vincristine. To achieve a PMI of 1% the fitted lines show an enhanced vincristine dose requirement over normal mucosa of 6 times in colonic tumours, and 8 times in small intestinal tumours. Non-neoplastic mucosa from the DMH-treated animals requires an enhanced dose of vincristine of 1.5 times, compared with normal mucosa, to achieve a PMI of 1%. Given current interest in the mechanism of vincristine resistance in cell lines this new approach provides a technique for assessing the resistance of solid tumours, both in vivo and in vitro, and for subsequent experimental manipulation

Editorial: Recent advances in the immunology of helminth infection – protection, pathogenesis and panaceas

[Extract] Helminths (parasitic worms) are a diverse group of organisms that utilize a wide range of species as their intermediate and definitive hosts. The nematodes consist of the whipworms, roundworms, hookworms and filarial worms, and these sit alongside the platyhelminth flatworms (or blood flukes) and tapeworms - all of which have species that cause serious disease in humans. Some species have free living stages, others rely on insect vectors for transmission, while some can reproduce to release live larval stages within their mammalian host. The diversity of infection route, larval migration within the host and the location of the adult parasite have major implications for the pathology and immune responses elicited by each species. Here, we briefly outline the contributions to the Research Topic Recent Advances in the Immunology of Helminth Infection – Protection, Pathogenesis and Panaceas

An Analysis of the Parasites of a Mid-winter Population of the Snowshoe Hare, Lepus americanus, on Insular Newfoundland During a Cyclical Peak

A mid-winter sample of 78 Snowshoe Hares (Lepus americanus) was collected during their cyclical peak in population from three eco-regions (Western Newfoundland, North Shore and Avalon Forest) on insular Newfoundland and was examined for the presence of enteric parasites. The length of the hares was significantly shorter in the Avalon Forest Region (n = 27) than those of the Western Newfoundland Region (n = 25) and North Shore Region (n = 26) samples (P ≤ 0.001 and P ≤ 0.003 respectively); however, no significant differences occurred for other morphological measurements. Four species of parasites, two cestodes (Mosgovoyia pectinata and Taenia pisiformis) and two nematodes (Obeliscoides cuniculi and Rauschia triangularis), were recovered. Taenia pisiformis was recovered from the North Shore eco-region only. No other significant differences with respect to their prevalence, intensity, mean intensity, relative density and dispersion between eco-regions were found. Within eco-regions, only R. triangularis showed a significantly higher value (P ≤ 0.027) for males and the prevalence of this species was lower than that previously reported. The occurrence of O. cuniculi was significantly different between the higher weight classes of hares and the prevalence of this species was higher than that previously reported. No trends for multiple infections were noted. The expansion of a new animal species, the Coyote, Canis latrans, to Newfoundland appeared to have had no effect on the diversity of parasites found in the hare

Using Adobe Flash Lite on mobile phones for psychological research: reaction time measurement reliability and inter-device variability

Mobile telephones have significant potential for use in psychological research, possessing unique characteristics—not least their ubiquity—that may make them useful tools for psychologists. We examined whether it is possible to measure reaction times (RTs) accurately using Adobe Flash Lite on mobile phones. We ran simple and choice RT experiments on two widely available mobile phones, a Nokia 6110 Navigator and a Sony Ericsson W810i, using a wireless application protocol (WAP) connection to access the Internet from the devices. RTs were compared within subjects with those obtained using a Linux-based millisecond-accurate measurement system. Results show that measured RTs were significantly longer on mobile devices, and that overall RTs and distribution of RTs varied across device

Verapamil sensitizes normal and neoplastic rodent intestinal tissues to the stathmokinetic effect of vincristine in vivo.

A morphological method has been developed allowing measurement of the effect on intestinal epithelia of vincristine. In routinely prepared tissue sections the proportion of mitotic events progressing beyond metaphase is counted by microscopy. When estimated over a range of doses of vincristine this post-metaphase index (PMI) can be used to compare the sensitivity of differing intact tissues. Intestinal tumours were induced in rats by chemical carcinogenesis. Administration of vincristine in the presence or absence of verapamil was performed in these tumour-bearing animals. Sections were prepared from colonic and small-bowel tumours and from normal mucosa. The results show that verapamil increases the sensitivity of the tissues studied to vincristine. A dose dependent effect of verapamil on vincristine sensitisation was demonstrated in colonic tissues. These findings indicate a shared pharmacological property between the resistance of primary tumour tissue and the multidrug-resistance phenotype