Orthography and Reading Disabilities

Recently, a number of influential writers have emphasized the role of orthography in the development of reading disabilities. The English writing system has been described by Gleitman and Rozin (1977), for example, as possessing “rampant irregularity, redundancy, and downright misrepresentation” (p. 35), while to these writers the Japanese writing system “seems ideal” (p. 36) from the point of utilizing scripts that represent both meanings and sounds. English, it is argued, poses problems for the beginning reader that are not encountered in learning to read the logographs (Chinese characters) and syllabary used in Japanese. Could it be that the widespread incidence of reading disabilities in our culture can be traced in large part to the idiosyncracies of the spelling and writing system used in English? If this is true, what can be done to remedy the situation, other than following those who have proposed that the written form of English must be revised? The purpose of this article is to discuss these issues in the context of research dealing with writing systems and their relation to reading and reading disabilities.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68530/2/10.1177_002221948401700511.pd

Using Alternative Silvicultural Systems to Integrate Mountain Caribou and Timber Management in British Columbia

Even-aged forest management using the clearcutting silvicultural system as it is currently applied threatens mountain caribou habitat in British Columbia. Since neither complete preservation nor maximum development of timber resources are socially acceptable alternatives, forest managers are anxious to find integrated management options. We describe alternative silvicultural systems currently being tested, including single-tree and group selection. All the treatments have the goal of periodically extracting viable timber volumes while perpetually retaining stand characteristics necessary for caribou. The effects of these logging prescriptions on lichen biomass and growth rates are being tested. Alternative silvicultural systems may become part of a larger strategy to maintain caribou habitat in managed forests

Multiplication by Electronic Analogue

Electrical Engineerin

Cross-linguistic differences in digit span of preschool children

This study reports cross-linguistic differences in forward digit span between 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old American and Chinese children. Several explanations for the remarkable superiority of Chinese children are examined. Hypotheses concerning practice, counting systems, and use of strategies were not supported. Analyses related to pronunciation duration of digits favored the temporally limited store hypothesis. Nonsignificant cross-linguistic differences were found in backward digit span. The results support the notion that forward and backward digit span involve different mechanisms.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27188/1/0000191.pd

Burden of disease variants in participants of the Long Life Family Study

Case control studies of nonagenarians and centenarians provide evidence that long-lived individuals do not differ in the rate of disease associated variants compared to population controls. These results suggest that an enrichment of novel protective variants, rather than a lack of disease associated variants, determine the genetic predisposition to exceptionally long lives. Using data from the Long Life Family Study (LLFS), we sought to replicate these findings and extend them to include a larger number of disease-specific risk alleles. To accomplish this goal, we built a genetic risk score for each of four age-related disease groups: Alzheimer's disease, cardiovascular disease and stroke, type 2 diabetes, and various cancers and compared the distribution of these scores between older participants of the LLFS, their offspring and their spouses. The analyses showed no significant differences in distribution of the genetic risk scores for cardiovascular disease and stroke, type 2 diabetes, or cancer between the groups, while participants of the LLFS appeared to carry an average 1% fewer risk alleles for Alzheimer's disease compared to spousal controls and, while the difference may not be clinically relevant, it was statistically significant. However, the statistical significance between familial longevity and the Alzheimer's disease genetic risk score was lost when a more stringent linkage disequilibrium threshold was imposed to select independent genetic variants

Dalcroze Workshop, July 9, 1975

Hayden AuditoriumWednesday EveningJuly 9, 19758:00 p.m