Teaching Job-Seeking Skills to Learning Disabled Adolescents: An Experimental Analysis and Social Validation

This research was published by the KU Center for Research on Learning, formerly known as the University of Kansas Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities.Procedures designed to teach the skills involved in completing an employment application and resume writing were evaluated with three learning disabled adolescents using a multiple-baseline design. Training involved reading instructional materials, practicing skills on sets of application materials to a criterion performance, and trainer feedback during and after each practice trial . Results showed that training was effective in teaching resume writing and employment application completion skills. Rating data obtained from potential employers suggest that training was effective in improving the appearance and content of the application materials. In addition, the employers viewed applicants as better qualified for employment after training and stated that they were more likely to invite the applicants in for a job interview. The study demonstrates an effective method of training job-seeking skills and for assessing the impact of training on employers' perception of the applicants

Development and Validation of an Occupational Skills Assessment Instrument

This research was published by the KU Center for Research on Learning, formerly known as the University of Kansas Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities.The development and validation of an occupational skills assessment instrument is described. The instrument was designed to describe accurately a participant's actual level of occupational skills in a variety of job-related situations. The results showed that: (a) the situations involved in the assessment were considered by participants and employment experts to be important and representative, (b) the satisfaction ratings of employment experts were correlated with the observed performance of participants, and (c) participant performance as observed with the behavioral assessment instrument was correlated with observations using another method of measuring job-related behavior. These findings suggest that the occupational skills assessment instrument is a reliable and valid method of determining a person's skill in job-related situations

Behavioral Assessment of Job-Related Skills: Implications for Learning Disabled Young Adults

This research was published by the KU Center for Research on Learning, formerly known as the University of Kansas Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities.Th is study, using direct observation and measurement techniques, analyzed the occupational skills of these two groups. The results showed that the employed adults performed significantly better on each of the thirteen job-related skills involved in the occupational skills assessment . These differences were found consistent across job-finding and job-retention skills. These findings suggest that an important role for employment counselors might be to teach the skills involved in finding and retaining employment to unemployed persons

Behavioral Assessment of Occupational Skills of Learning Disabled Adolescents

This research was published by the KU Center for Research on Learning, formerly known as the University of Kansas Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities.This study, using direct observation and measurement techniques, analyzed the differences in occupational skills among learning disabled youths and their non-learning disabled peers . The results showed low levels of employment-related skills for both groups of high school adolescents . However, the non-LD high school students performed significantly better on the job-related skills. These differences were more marked for non-social interaction skills. These findings suggest the need for the development of employment preparation methods designed to teach the skills involved in finding and retaining employment

Teaching Job-Related Social Skills to Learning Disabled Adolescents

This research was published by the KU Center for Research on Learning, formerly known as the University of Kansas Institute for Research in Learning Disabilities.Previous research has indicated that LD adolescents perform poorly on a test of employment-related social skills (Mathews, Whang, & Fawcett, in press). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of training procedures designed to teach various job-related social skills to learning disabled adolescents. Six job-related social skills were trained using written instructional materials and role-playing practice to criterion. The results showed that the learning disabled adolescents performed the skills in role-playing situations better after training than before training. Generalization measures taken at the adolescents place of employment also suggest the generality of the training effects to actual work environments

Quasar Proper Motions and Low-Frequency Gravitational Waves

We report observational upper limits on the mass-energy of the cosmological gravitational-wave background, from limits on proper motions of quasars. Gravitational waves with periods longer than the time span of observations produce a simple pattern of apparent proper motions over the sky, composed primarily of second-order transverse vector spherical harmonics. A fit of such harmonics to measured motions yields a 95%-confidence limit on the mass-energy of gravitational waves with frequencies <2e-9 Hz, of <0.11/h*h times the closure density of the universe.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure. Also available at http://charm.physics.ucsb.edu:80/people/cgwinn/cgwinn_group/index.htm

Surgical treatment of uterine prolapse in women with bladder exstrophy: report of two cases with modified Prolift™ procedure

The incidence of pelvic organ prolapse is 18% in women with bladder exstrophy. A vaginal technique to correct the prolapse may be preferable in these women with multiple abdominal operations in their histories. We have performed a modified Prolift™ procedure for the repair of severe uterine prolapse in two young women. A review of the literature is presented

Antithymocyte Globulin Plus G-CSF Combination Therapy Leads to Sustained Immunomodulatory and Metabolic Effects in a Subset of Responders With Established Type 1 Diabetes.

Low-dose antithymocyte globulin (ATG) plus pegylated granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) preserves β-cell function for at least 12 months in type 1 diabetes. Herein, we describe metabolic and immunological parameters 24 months following treatment. Patients with established type 1 diabetes (duration 4-24 months) were randomized to ATG and pegylated G-CSF (ATG+G-CSF) (N = 17) or placebo (N = 8). Primary outcomes included C-peptide area under the curve (AUC) following a mixed-meal tolerance test (MMTT) and flow cytometry. "Responders" (12-month C-peptide ≥ baseline), "super responders" (24-month C-peptide ≥ baseline), and "nonresponders" (12-month C-peptide &lt; baseline) were evaluated for biomarkers of outcome. At 24 months, MMTT-stimulated AUC C-peptide was not significantly different in ATG+G-CSF (0.49 nmol/L/min) versus placebo (0.29 nmol/L/min). Subjects treated with ATG+G-CSF demonstrated reduced CD4+ T cells and CD4+/CD8+ T-cell ratio and increased CD16+CD56hi natural killer cells (NK), CD4+ effector memory T cells (Tem), CD4+PD-1+ central memory T cells (Tcm), Tcm PD-1 expression, and neutrophils. FOXP3+Helios+ regulatory T cells (Treg) were elevated in ATG+G-CSF subjects at 6, 12, and 18 but not 24 months. Immunophenotyping identified differential HLA-DR expression on monocytes and NK and altered CXCR3 and PD-1 expression on T-cell subsets. As such, a group of metabolic and immunological responders was identified. A phase II study of ATG+G-CSF in patients with new-onset type 1 diabetes is ongoing and may support ATG+G-CSF as a prevention strategy in high-risk subjects

MerTK is required for apoptotic cell–induced T cell tolerance

Self-antigens expressed by apoptotic cells (ACs) may become targets for autoimmunity. Tolerance to these antigens is partly established by an ill-defined capacity of ACs to inhibit antigen-presenting cells such as dendritic cells (DCs). We present evidence that the receptor tyrosine kinase Mer (MerTK) has a key role in mediating AC-induced inhibition of DC activation/maturation. Pretreatment of DCs prepared from nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice with AC blocked secretion of proinflammatory cytokines, up-regulation of costimulatory molecule expression, and T cell activation. The effect of ACs on DCs was dependent on Gas6, which is a MerTK ligand. NOD DCs lacking MerTK expression (NOD.MerTKKD/KD) were resistant to AC-induced inhibition. Notably, autoimmune diabetes was exacerbated in NOD.MerTKKD/KD versus NOD mice expressing the transgenic BDC T cell receptor. In addition, β cell–specific CD4+ T cells adoptively transferred into NOD.MerTKKD/KD mice in which β cell apoptosis was induced with streptozotocin exhibited increased expansion and differentiation into type 1 T cell effectors. In both models, the lack of MerTK expression was associated with an increased frequency of activated pancreatic CD11c+CD8α+ DCs, which exhibited an enhanced T cell stimulatory capacity. These findings demonstrate that MerTK plays a critical role in regulating self-tolerance mediated between ACs, DCs, and T cells

Ribosome and transcript copy numbers, polysome occupancy and enzyme dynamics in Arabidopsis

Plants are exposed to continual changes in the environment. The daily alternation between light and darkness results in massive recurring changes in the carbon budget, and leads to widespread changes in transcript levels. These diurnal changes are superimposed on slower changes in the environment. Quantitative molecular information about the numbers of ribosomes, of transcripts for 35 enzymes in central metabolism and their loading into polysomes is used to estimate translation rates in Arabidopsis rosettes, and explore the consequences for important sub-processes in plant growth. Translation rates for individual enzyme are compared with their abundance in the rosette to predict which enzymes are subject to rapid turnover every day, and which are synthesized at rates that would allow only slow adjustments to sustained changes of the environment, or resemble those needed to support the observed rate of growth. Global translation rates are used to estimate the energy costs of protein synthesis and relate them to the plant carbon budget, in particular the rates of starch degradation and respiration at night