Letter from Geraldine Ferraro to Laurence M. Wiig, YMCA International Institute for Peace

Letter from Geraldine Ferraro to Laurence M. Wiig, of the YMCA International Institute for Peace. Letter has handwritten notes.https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/vice_presidential_campaign_correspondence_1984_international/1359/thumbnail.jp

Letter from Members of the Hiroshima YMCA to Geraldine Ferraro

Letter from members of the Hiroshima YMCA to Geraldine Ferraro. The authors invite Ferraro to visit the Atomic Bomb Museum in Hiroshima. A letter from Laurence M. Wiig of the YMCA International Institute for Peace is enclosed.https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/vice_presidential_campaign_correspondence_1984_international/1360/thumbnail.jp

Early predictors of phonological and morphological awareness and the link with reading : evidence from children with different patterns of early deficit

This study examines the contribution of early phonological processing (PP) and language skills on later phonological awareness (PA) and morphological awareness (MA), as well as the links among PA, MA, and reading. Children 4–6 years of age with poor PP at the start of school showed weaker PA and MA 3 years later (age 7–9), regardless of their language skills. PA and phonological and morphological strategies predict reading accuracy, whereas MA predicts reading comprehension. Our findings suggest that children with poor early PP are more at risk of developing deficits in MA and PA than children with poor language. They also suggest that there is a direct link between PA and reading accuracy and between MA and reading comprehension that cannot be accounted for by strategy use at the word level

Assessment and diagnosis of Developmental Language Disorder: The experiences of speech and language therapists

© The Author(s) 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).Background: For many years research and practice have noted the impact of the heterogeneous nature of Developmental Language Disorder (also known as language impairment or specific language impairment) on diagnosis and assessment. Recent research suggests the disorder is not restricted to the language domain and against this background, the challenge for the practitioner is to provide accurate assessment and effective therapy. The language practitioner aims to support the child and their carers to achieve the best outcomes. However, little is known about the experiences of the language practitioner in the assessment process, in contrast to other childhood disorders, yet their expertise is central in the assessment and diagnosis of children with language disorder. Aims: This study aimed to provide a detailed qualitative description of the experiences of speech and language therapists involved in the assessment and diagnosis of children with Developmental Language Disorder. Methods & Procedures: The qualitative study included three focus groups to provide a credible and rich description of the experiences of speech and language therapists involved in the assessment of Developmental Language Disorder. The speech and language therapists who participated in the study were recruited from three NHS Trusts across the UK and all were directly involved in the assessment and diagnosis procedures. The lengths of practitioner experience ranged from 2 years to 38 years. The data was analysed using a thematic analysis in accordance with the principles set out by Braun & Clarke (2006). Outcomes & Results: The data showed a number of key themes concerning the experiences of speech and language therapists in assessing children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). These themes ranged from the participants’ experiences of the barriers to early referral, challenges for assessment and the concerns over continued future support. Conclusions & Implications: This study provides first-hand evidence from speech and language therapists in the assessment of children with Developmental Language Disorder, drawing together experiences from language practitioners from different regions. The findings provide insight to the barriers to referral, the potential variations in the assessment process, the role of practitioner expertise and the challenges faced them. The importance of early intervention, useful assessment tools and future support were expressed. Taken together, the results relate to some issues to be addressed on a practical level and a continuing need for initiatives to raise awareness of DLD in the public domain.Peer reviewe

Investigating the use of patient involvement and patient experience in quality improvement in Norway: rhetoric or reality?

Background Patient involvement in health care decision making is part of a wider trend towards a more bottom-up approach to service planning and provision, and patient experience is increasingly conceptualized as a core dimension of health care quality. The aim of this multi-level study is two-fold: 1) to describe and analyze how governmental organizations expect acute hospitals to incorporate patient involvement and patient experiences into their quality improvement (QI) efforts and 2) to analyze how patient involvement and patient experiences are used by hospitals to try to improve the quality of care they provide. Methods This multi-level case study combines analysis of national policy documents and regulations at the macro level with semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation of key meetings and shadowing of staff at the meso and micro levels in two purposively sampled Norwegian hospitals. Fieldwork at the meso and micro levels was undertaken over a 12-month period (2011–2012). Results Governmental documents and regulations at the macro level demonstrated wide-ranging expectations for the integration of patient involvement and patient experiences in QI work in hospitals. The expectations span from systematic collection of patients’ and family members’ experiences for the purpose of improving service quality through establishing patient-oriented arenas for ongoing collaboration with staff to the support of individual involvement in decision making. However, the extent of involvement of patients and application of patient experiences in QI work was limited at both hospitals. Even though patient involvement was gaining prominence at the meso level − and to a lesser extent at the micro level − relevant tools for measuring and using patient experiences in QI work were lacking, and available measures of patient experience were not being used meaningfully or systematically. Conclusions The relative lack of expertise in Norwegian hospitals of adapting and implementing tools and methods for improving patient involvement and patient experiences at the meso and micro levels mark a need for health care policymakers and hospital leaders to learn from experiences of other industries and countries that have successfully integrated user experiences into QI work. Hospital managers need to design and implement wider strategies to help their staff members recognize and value the contribution that patient involvement and patient experiences can make to the improvement of healthcare quality

High-salt diet causes osmotic gradients and hyperosmolality in skin without affecting interstitial fluid and lymph

The common notion is that the body Na+ is maintained within narrow limits for fluid and blood pressure homeostasis. Several studies have, however, shown that considerable amounts of Na+ can be retained or removed from the body without commensurate water loss and that the skin can serve as a major salt reservoir. Our own data from rats have suggested that the skin is hypertonic compared with plasma on salt storage and that this also applies to skin interstitial fluid. Even small electrolyte gradients between plasma and interstitial fluid would represent strong edema-generating forces. Because the water accumulation has been shown to be modest, we decided to reexamine with alternative methods in rats whether interstitial fluid is hypertonic during salt accumulation induced by high-salt diet (8% NaCl and 1% saline to drink) or deoxycorticosterone pellet implantation. These treatments resulted both in increased systemic blood pressure, skin salt, and water accumulation and in skin hyperosmolality. Interstitial fluid isolated from implanted wicks and lymph draining the skin was, however, isosmotic, and Na+ concentration in fluid isolated by centrifugation and in lymph was not different from plasma. Interestingly, by eluting layers of the skin, we could show that there was an osmolality and urea gradient from epidermis to dermis. Collectively, our data suggest that fluid leaving the skin as lymph is isosmotic to plasma but also that the skin can differentially control its own electrolyte microenvironment by creating local gradients that may be functionally important.acceptedVersio

The hybrid identity of micro enterprises: Contrasting the perspectives of community pharmacies’ owners-managers and employees

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of ownership of community pharmacies on the perception of organizational identity and its relationships with organizational performance. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was carried out on a sample of pharmacists working in community pharmacies in Portugal. The sample comprised 1,369 pharmacists, of whom 51 percent were owner-managers. Measures of pharmacies’ normative (community health oriented) and utilitarian (business oriented) identities, identity strength (clear and unifying), substantive (stockholder focused) and symbolic (society focused) performance were included. Findings: Both owners and employed pharmacists rated the normative identity of pharmacies higher than the utilitarian identity. Compared with employed pharmacists, owners perceive a lower level of utilitarian identity, the same level of normative identity, and higher levels of identity strength. Normative identity and identity strength predicted symbolic performance. Normative and utilitarian identities and identity strength predicted substantive performance. The relationship between utilitarian identity and substantive performance was significant among owner pharmacists but not among employed pharmacists. Research limitations/implications: The limitations include the use of perceptive measures and the focus on the individual level of analysis. Practical implications: In order to improve pharmacies’ performance, pharmacists who manage community pharmacies are challenged to reconcile tensions arising from the co-existence of business and community health identities and from their own agency (self-serving) and stewardship (altruistic) motives. Originality/value: This study draws on institutional, identity and stewardship theories to understand how pharmacists, owners and employees, view the identity of community pharmacies and how identity relates to organizational performance

Combining implicit and explicit intervention approaches to target grammar in young children with Developmental Language Disorder

Children with Developmental Language Disorder are likely to experience difficulties with morphosyntax, especially regular past tense marking. Few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of intervention to improve morphosyntax in young school-aged children with DLD. This study investigated the efficacy of combined explicit and implicit intervention techniques delivered by a speech pathologist to improve receptive and expressive grammar, including the use of past tense morphosyntax, using a multiple baseline single case experimental design. Participants were aged six to seven years and received two 1:1 45 minute sessions per week for five weeks (total 7.5 hours) using Shape Coding intervention techniques combined with implicit approaches. Two of the three participants made statistically significant gains on standardized tests of general receptive and expressive grammar. Two of the three children made statistically significant improvement on measures of expressive morphosyntax, with one participant continuing to improve five weeks post treatment. Findings suggest that this approach was efficacious. These findings warrant further investigation using larger group comparison research studies

Lost Highway Not Forgotten: Satellite Tracking of a Bowhead Whale (Balaena mysticetus) from the Critically Endangered Spitsbergen Stock

The Spitsbergen bowhead whale stock is critically endangered. It is believed to number in the tens. Here we report results from the first satellite transmitter ever deployed on an individual from this stock. A female whale was tagged on 3 April 2010 (at 79˚54' N, 01˚03' E), but no locations were transmitted by the tag until 30 April 2010, after which data were received continuously for 86 days. Additionally, three small clusters of locations were transmitted later in the year; the latest was received 20 December 2010 (262 days after deployment). During the 86 days of continuous tracking, the whale initially remained in the middle of the Fram Strait, between 77˚45' N, 5˚ W and 80˚10' N, 5˚ E. For a two-week period starting around 10 June 2010, the whale traveled southwest down to 73˚40' N (at least 950 km). Subsequently it remained at southern latitudes between ~70˚ and 73˚ N until the tag stopped continuous transmissions on 24 July. Movement patterns analyzed using first-passage times (FTP), fitted as functions of various environmental variables using Cox Proportional Hazards models, showed that the whale spent most of its time in waters close to the ice edge with modest ice coverage, over areas where the bottom slope was relatively steep. Winter positions (27 November – 20 December 2010) revealed that the whale was back in the North at about 80˚ N. This information, in combination with recent data from passive acoustic listening devices, suggests that the Spitsbergen bowhead stock overwinters at high-latitude locations. The north-south movements of this whale during summer are consistent with the patterns that early whalers described for bowhead whales in this region in the 16th and 17th centuries.La population de baleines boréales de Spitzberg est en danger critique d’extinction. L’on croit qu’elle se chiffrerait dans la dizaine. Ici, nous faisons état des résultats obtenus à l’aide du premier émetteur satellite à n’avoir jamais été installé sur un individu de cette population. Une baleine femelle a été marquée le 3 avril 2010 (à 79˚54' N, 01˚03' E), mais aucun signal n’a été transmis par ce marquage avant le 30 avril 2010, après quoi nous avons reçu des données continuelles pendant 86 jours. Plus tard dans le courant de l’année, nous avons également reçu trois petits blocs d’information, dont le dernier a été transmis le 20 décembre 2010 (262 jours après la date du marquage). Au cours des 86 jours d’information continuelle, la baleine restait d’abord au milieu du détroit de Fram, entre 77˚45' N, 5˚ O et 80˚10' N, 5˚ E. Pendant une période de deux semaines commençant vers le 10 juin 2010, la baleine s’est déplacée vers le sud-ouest jusqu’à 73˚40' N (au moins 950 km). Par la suite, elle est restée dans les latitudes du sud entre ~70˚ et 73˚ N jusqu’à ce que le marquage cesse les transmissions continuelles le 24 juillet. Les habitudes de déplacement analysées en recourant aux temps du premier passage (FTP), ajustées à titre de fonctions de diverses variables environnementales s’appuyant sur les modèles des hasards proportionnels de Cox, ont laissé entrevoir que la baleine passait la plus grande partie de son temps dans les eaux à proximité des lisières de glace dont la couverture était modeste par rapport aux endroits où la pente du fond était relativement abrupte. Les positions enregistrées en hiver (du 27 novembre au20 décembre 2010) ont révélé que la baleine était retournée dans le nord à environ 80˚ N. Cette information, alliée aux récentes données provenant d’appareils d’écoute acoustique, suggère que la population de baleines boréales de Spitzberg passe l’hiver à de hautes latitudes. Pendant l’été, les mouvements nord-sud de cette baleine sont conformes aux habitudes de déplacement de la baleine boréale, telles que décrites par les anciens baleiniers dans cette région au cours des XVIe et XVIIe siècles