Emotional/Behavioral Disorders: A Retrospective Examination of Social Skills, Linguistics, and Student Outcomes

A language-based social skills instruction intervention used to prepare middle and high school students with emotional/behavioral disorders for return to less restrictive public school placements was evaluated. The daily 50-minute intervention focused on repetitive readings, recitations, and role-playing of skill step procedures until students achieved mastery on each required task in five broad dimensions: peer relations, self-management, academic, compliance, and assertion. The students were divided into three groups according to the length of intervention (under 2 years, 2 to 3 years, and more than 3 years). Dependent t tests were used to test the effects of prolonged intervention on past year and final year disruptive behavior totals and response to a self-control question for students in each group. In addition, a chi-square was used to evaluate the frequency of students with four or fewer disruptive behaviors across groups to determine progress toward unsupervised transition. Implications for social skills intervention and communication disorders practice are discussed

Differences in Heart Disease Risk Perception and Actual Cardiac Risk in Men vs. Women

Differences in Heart Disease Risk Perception and Actual Cardiac Risk in Male vs. Female Cardiac Patients Amanda Dietz, Julie Borsack, Steve Martin, Kathy L. Hill, Thomas Meade, Stephen F. Crouse, FACSM, and John S. Green, FACSM Texas A&M University, College Station, TX (Sponsor: John S. Green, FACSM) PURPOSE: To describe gender differences in both risk perception and actual coronary risk in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS: 33 females and 67 males with documented CAD completed a questionnaire designed to assess CAD risk perception. They also underwent assessments for all ACSM risk factors. Five-point Likert scale responses to the question “Compared to others of your own age and gender, how would you rate your risk of ever having a heart attack?” were used to quantify CAD risk perception. To quantify actual risk, the number of ACSM risk markers for each subject was tabulated. It should be noted that, since all of the subjects had active CAD, they were all at high risk. Tabulations and Likert scale responses were compared using Chi-square analysis or Fisher’s Exact test with significance accepted at p\u3c0.05. To further assess risk perception accuracy, Chi-square analysis with pre-determined expected cell count percentages was used. RESULTS: Likert responses for perceived risk between genders were not significantly different but showed perception inaccuracies of the entire cohort. Only 41% of the subjects perceived their risk as “higher” or “much higher” than their peers while 27% perceived their risk as lower or much lower. 32% of the subjects perceived their risk to be the same as their peers. Comparison of risk marker number between genders was significantly different (Fisher’s exact test, p = .046) with males having 33% more markers than females. Chi-square analysis using an expected cell percentage of 75% in the “higher” Likert category, 25% in the “much higher” Likert category, and fractions of 1 in the other categories revealed significance (p\u3c.0001) with only 29.8% of subject responses in the “higher” category and 11.9% in the “much higher” category. The female cohort showed similar results with test percentages of 73% in the “higher” category and 27% in the “much higher” category. Responses were significantly different (p\u3c.0001) with only 30% choosing the “higher” category and 10% choosing the “much higher” category. CONCLUSIONS: Although significant differences in actual cardiac risk exist between genders in a cohort of cardiac patients, perceived risks are not significantly different. Both genders greatly underestimate their risk

Memory Inflation during Chronic Viral Infection Is Maintained by Continuous Production of Short-Lived, Functional T Cells

SummaryDuring persistent murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) infection, the T cell response is maintained at extremely high intensity for the life of the host. These cells closely resemble human CMV-specific cells, which compose a major component of the peripheral T cell compartment in most people. Despite a phenotype that suggests extensive antigen-driven differentiation, MCMV-specific T cells remain functional and respond vigorously to viral challenge. We hypothesized that a low rate of antigen-driven proliferation would account for the maintenance of this population. Instead, we found that most of these cells divided only sporadically in chronically infected hosts and had a short half-life in circulation. The overall population was supported, at least in part, by memory T cells primed early in infection, as well as by recruitment of naive T cells at late times. Thus, these data show that memory inflation is maintained by a continuous replacement of short-lived, functional cells during chronic MCMV infection

Profiles of Coronary Artery Disease Risk in Cardiac Patients: Actual versus Perceived

PURPOSE: To describe interrelations and differences between actual vs. perceived cardiac risk in a cohort of coronary artery disease (CAD) patients. METHODS: 33 females (HT: 164 cm, WT: 80kg) and 67 males (HT: 179 cm, WT: 93kg) with documented CAD completed a questionnaire designed to assess CAD risk perception. They also underwent assessments for all ACSM risk factors. Five-point Likert scale responses to the question “Compared to other persons of your own age and sex, how would you rate your risk of ever having a heart attack?” were used to quantify CAD risk perception. To quantify actual risk, the number of ACSM risk markers for each subject was tabulated. It should be noted that, since all of the subjects had active CAD, they were all at high risk. Tabulations and Likert scale responses were compared using Chi-square analysis or Fisher’s Exact test with significance accepted at p\u3c0.05. To assess risk perception accuracy, Chi-square analysis with pre-determined expected cell count percentages was used. RESULTS: When compared to diagnosis driven expected frequencies of risk perception being higher or much higher (75% and 25% respectively), patients responses were only 30% and 11% respectively (Chi-square=19696.9, p\u3c.0001). Also, as the number of actual ACSM risk markers increased for each patient, no increase in patient risk perception was found (Chi-square=40.2, p=0.29). Factors associated with accurate perception include age, resting ECG status, and number of bypass grafts. Factors that were not accurately included in risk perception include family history, waist circumference, number and type of angioplasties, smoking, having had a heart attack, number of additional structural cardiac abnormalities present, the presence of arrhythmias, elevated blood lipids and blood glucose, and elevated systolic and diastolic blood pressures. CONCLUSION: Although substantial differences in number and type of actual cardiac risk exist in a cohort of cardiac patients, individual perception of these risks is not accurate in the majority of cases

CONCEPTUAL MODELLING: KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION AND MODEL ABSTRACTION

Conceptual modelling has gained a lot of interest in recent years and simulation modellers are particularly interested in understanding the processes involved in arriving at a conceptual model. This paper contributes to this understanding by discussing the artifacts of conceptual modelling and two specific conceptual modelling processes: knowledge acquisition and model abstraction. Knowledge acquisition is the process of finding out about the problem situation and arriving at a system description. Model abstraction refers to the simplifications made in moving from a system description to a conceptual model. Soft Systems Methodology has tools that can help a modeller with knowledge acquisition and model abstraction. These tools are drawing rich pictures, undertaking analyses ‘one’, ‘two’, ‘three’, and constructing a root definition and the corresponding purposeful activity model. The use of these tools is discussed with respect to a case study in health care.

Challenging Disciplinary Boundaries in the First Year: A New Introductory Integrated Science Course for STEM Majors

To help undergraduates make connections among disciplines so they are able to approach, evaluate, and contribute to the solutions of important global problems, our campus has been focused on interdisciplinary research and education opportunities across the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. This paper describes the mobilization, planning, and implementation of a first-year interdisciplinary course for STEM majors that integrates key concepts found in traditional first-semester biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics courses. This team-taught course, Integrated Quantitative Science (IQS), is half of a first-year student’s schedule in both semesters and is composed of a double lecture and a weekly lab and workshop. Features of this first-year course, including themes and concepts covered each semester, some of the materials developed, lessons learned, challenges, and preliminary measures of success are described

Challenging Disciplinary Boundaries in the First Year: A New Introductory Integrated Science Course for STEM Majors

To help undergraduates make connections among disciplines so they are able to approach, evaluate, and contribute to the solutions of important global problems, our campus has been focused on interdisciplinary research and education opportunities across the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. This paper describes the mobilization, planning, and implementation of a first-year interdisciplinary course for STEM majors that integrates key concepts found in traditional first-semester biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics courses. This team-taught course, Integrated Quantitative Science (IQS), is half of a first-year student’s schedule in both semesters and is composed of a double lecture and a weekly lab and workshop. Features of this first-year course, including themes and concepts covered each semester, some of the materials developed, lessons learned, challenges, and preliminary measures of success are described

Phylogeography of six codistributed New Zealand cicadas and their relationship to multiple biogeographical boundaries suggest a re-evaluation of the Taupo Line

Comparative biogeographers question the extent to which codistributed species respond similarly to environmental change. Such responses should create similar, appropriately timed patterns of cladogenesis among codistributed taxa compared to evolutionary independence, which may limit the predictions that can be made for unstudied species. Here, we compare phylogeographical patterns across ecologically divergent, codistributed taxa in the light of New Zealand's palaeohistory. Location: North Island, New Zealand. Methods: Mitochondrial DNA from six codistributed cicada species (Kikihia ochrina, K. cutora, K. laneorum, K. cauta, K. scutellaris and K. dugdalei) was analysed using phylogenetic methods and molecular dating techniques. We analysed phylogeographical distributions using analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) to determine the significance of hypothesized biogeographical boundaries for clade differentiation and spatial distribution of genetic diversity. Results: Five species (Kikihia ochrina, K. cutora, K. laneorum, K. cauta and K. scutellaris) show various degrees of intraspecific concordance with biogeographical boundaries found in previously studied taxa - the Kauri Line, the Northland Line and the newly identified Cockayne's Line. Clade splits of forest species correlate with the Kauri Line and/or Northland Line, whereas splits of scrub/hill species correlate with Cockayne's Line. Four species (Kikihia ochrina, K. cutora, K. laneorum and K. cauta) diversified before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 20 ka), whereas two species (K. scutellaris and K. dugdalei) show only post-LGM diversification. Main conclusions: Despite species idiosyncrasies, we see the imprint of shared palaeoclimatic/geological events. We distinguish between (1) the importance of biogeographical lines as the demarcation between older genetically diverse and newer genetically depauperate populations, and (2) the importance of lines as biogeographical boundaries between sister clades. We also stress the importance of dating clade splits to ensure consistency with explanations for the biogeographical lines in question. We suggest that the Taupo Line has been overemphasized as a biogeographical boundary, whereas the importance of the mountain axis running north-east to south-west ('Cockayne's Line') has been overlooked

Expressions 2006-2008

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