Improving storytelling and vocabulary in secondary school students with language disorder: a randomized controlled trial

Background: Although language and communication difficulties are common in secondary school students, there has been limited research into the efficacy of interventions for adolescents with language and communication difficulties. Aims: To investigate the efficacy of teaching assistant (TA)-delivered narrative and vocabulary interventions to mainstream secondary school-aged students with language disorder. Methods & Procedures: A randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a language and communication intervention was used to evaluate the efficacy of vocabulary and narrative interventions to improve the vocabulary and narrative performance of adolescents (mean age = 12.8 years) with language disorder. The language and communication programmes (narrative, vocabulary and combined narrative and vocabulary) were delivered by TAs in the classroom, three times per week, for 45–60 min each, over 6 weeks, totalling 18 sessions. Standardized and intervention-specific measures were used as outcomes. Outcomes & Results: Twenty-one schools with 358 eligible participants were recruited. The three intervention groups showed significant improvements (d =.296) on a narrative latent variable defined by a standardized narrative assessment (the Expression, Reception and Recall of Narrative Instrument—ERRNI), but there were no significant improvements on an overall vocabulary latent variable compared with the waiting control group. Differential effects were found on some non-standardized intervention-specific measures with the narrative group making significantly more progress on narrative tasks compared with the waiting control group, the vocabulary group showing the same pattern on specific vocabulary tasks, and the combined narrative and vocabulary group making significantly more progress on some of the intervention-specific narrative, and all the intervention-specific vocabulary outcomes compared with the waiting control group. Conclusions & Implications: It is possible to improve narrative but not vocabulary skills, as assessed by standardized measures, in secondary school students with a relatively brief group TA-delivered intervention. There were differential effects for both narrative and vocabulary with intervention-specific measures. Future work is required to explore whether more intensive and longer lasting interventions would be more effective and to identify which students in this age group are most likely to benefit from such interventions

Advance Care Planning in Patients Undergoing Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation

AbstractFew data are available on the prevalence of advance care planning (ACP) in patients undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). We surveyed adult patients pre-HCT to ascertain completion of various elements of ACP. We also reviewed medical records for documentation of discussions regarding ACP and for the presence of written advance directives. Evaluable surveys were returned by 155 of 335 patients (46%) who underwent HCT during the study period; we obtained permission for medical record review from 137 of these 155 survey respondents (88%). We found that 69% of the respondents reported having designated a health care proxy, 44% had completed a living will, 61% had prepared an estate will, and 63% had discussed their wishes regarding life support with family and friends. In contrast, only 16% had discussed their wishes regarding life support with their clinicians. Documentation of discussions between clinicians and patients regarding most elements of ACP was rare. Written advance directives were present in the charts of 54 patients (39%). ACP was more common in older, college-educated, and allogeneic transplant patients. Even though ACP was more prevalent among this sample than in the general population, its use still could be enhanced, given the high risks of decisional incapacity and death that HCT patients face

Recent atmospheric neutrino results from Soudan 2

An updated measurement of the atmospheric nu_mu/nu_e ratio-of-ratios, 0.68+-0.11+-0.06, has been obtained using a 4.6-kty exposure of the Soudan-2 iron tracking calorimeter. The L/E distributions have been analyzed for effects of nu_mu -> nu_x oscillations, and an allowed region in the Delta m^2 vs. sin^2 2 theta plane has been determined.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures; presented at TAUP99, the 6th Int. Workshop on Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics, Sept. 6-10, 1999, College de France, Paris, Franc

PTPT symmetric non-selfadjoint operators, diagonalizable and non-diagonalizable, with real discrete spectrum

Consider in $L^2(R^d)$, $d\geq 1$, the operator family $H(g):=H_0+igW$. \ds H_0= a^\ast_1a_1+... +a^\ast_da_d+d/2 is the quantum harmonic oscillator with rational frequencies, $W$ a $P$ symmetric bounded potential, and $g$ a real coupling constant. We show that if $|g|<\rho$, $\rho$ being an explicitly determined constant, the spectrum of $H(g)$ is real and discrete. Moreover we show that the operator \ds H(g)=a^\ast_1 a_1+a^\ast_2a_2+ig a^\ast_2a_1 has real discrete spectrum but is not diagonalizable.Comment: 20 page

Differences and overlap in self-reported symptoms of bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder

Background: Differential diagnosis between bipolar disorder (BD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) is often challenging due to some overlap in symptoms and comorbidity of disorders. We investigated correlations in self-reported symptoms of BD and BPD in screening questionnaires at the levels of both total scores and individual items and explored overlapping dimensions. Methods: The McLean Screening Instrument (MSI) for BPD and the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) for BD were filled in by patients with unipolar and bipolar mood disorders (n = 313) from specialized psychiatric care within a pilot study of the Helsinki University Psychiatric Consortium. Pearson's correlation coefficients between total scores and individual items of the MSI and the MDQ were estimated. Relationships between MDQ and MSI were evaluated by exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Results: The correlation between total scores of the MDQ and MSI was moderate (r = 0.431, P <0.001). Significant correlations were found between the MSI items of "impulsivity'' and "mood instability'' and all MDQ items (P <0.01). In the EFA, the MSI "impulsivity'' and "mood instability'' items had significant cross-loadings (0.348 and 0.298, respectively) with the MDQ factor. The MDQ items of "irritability'', "flight of thoughts'' and "distractibility'' (0.280, 0.210 and 0.386, respectively) cross-loaded on the MSI factor. Conclusions: The MDQ and MSI items of "affective instability'', "impulsivity'', "irritability'', "flight of thoughts'' and "distractibility'' appear to overlap in content. The other scale items are more disorder-specific, and thus, may help to distinguish BD and BPD. (C) 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

E835 at FNAL: Charmonium Spectroscopy in pˉp\bar p p Annihilations

I present preliminary results on the search for $h_c$ in its $\eta_c\gamma$ and $J/\psi\pi^0$ decay modes. We observe an excess of \eta_c\gamma$events near 3526 MeV that has a probability${\cal P} \sim 0.001$to arise from background fluctations. The resonance parameters are$M=3525.8 \pm 0.2 \pm 0.2 $MeV,$\Gamma\leq$1 MeV, and$10.6\pm 3.7\pm3.4(br) < \Gamma_{\bar{p}p}B_{\eta_c\gamma} < 12.8\pm 4.8\pm4.5(br) $eV. We find no event excess within the search region in the$J/\psi\pi^0$ mode.Comment: Presented at the 6th International Conference on Hyperons, Charm and Beauty Hadrons (BEACH 2004), Chicago(Il), June 27-July 3,200

Continuity of the von Neumann entropy

A general method for proving continuity of the von Neumann entropy on subsets of positive trace-class operators is considered. This makes it possible to re-derive the known conditions for continuity of the entropy in more general forms and to obtain several new conditions. The method is based on a particular approximation of the von Neumann entropy by an increasing sequence of concave continuous unitary invariant functions defined using decompositions into finite rank operators. The existence of this approximation is a corollary of a general property of the set of quantum states as a convex topological space called the strong stability property. This is considered in the first part of the paper.Comment: 42 pages, the minor changes have been made, the new applications of the continuity condition have been added. To appear in Commun. Math. Phy

Interference Study of the chi_c0 (1^3P_0) in the Reaction Proton-Antiproton -> pi^0 pi^0

Fermilab experiment E835 has observed proton-antiproton annihilation production of the charmonium state chi_c0 and its subsequent decay into pi^0 pi^0. Although the resonant amplitude is an order of magnitude smaller than that of the non-resonant continuum production of pi^0 pi^0, an enhanced interference signal is evident. A partial wave expansion is used to extract physics parameters. The amplitudes J=0 and 2, of comparable strength, dominate the expansion. Both are accessed by L=1 in the entrance proton-antiproton channel. The product of the input and output branching fractions is determined to be B(pbar p -> chi_c0) x B(chi_c0 -> pi^0 pi^0)= (5.09 +- 0.81 +- 0.25) x 10^-7.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Accepted by PRL (July 2003

Precision measurements of the total and partial widths of the psi(2S) charmonium meson with a new complementary-scan technique in antiproton-proton annihilations

We present new precision measurements of the psi(2S) total and partial widths from excitation curves obtained in antiproton-proton annihilations by Fermilab experiment E835 at the Antiproton Accumulator in the year 2000. A new technique of complementary scans was developed to study narrow resonances with stochastically cooled antiproton beams. The technique relies on precise revolution-frequency and orbit-length measurements, while making the analysis of the excitation curve almost independent of machine lattice parameters. We study the psi(2S) meson through the processes pbar p -> e+ e- and pbar p -> J/psi + X -> e+ e- + X. We measure the width to be Gamma = 290 +- 25(sta) +- 4(sys) keV and the combination of partial widths Gamma_e+e- * Gamma_pbarp / Gamma = 579 +- 38(sta) +- 36(sys) meV, which represent the most precise measurements to date.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables. Final manuscript accepted for publication in Phys. Lett. B. Parts of the text slightly expanded or rearranged; results are unchange