Writing Beyond Campus: Writing Centers in Service-Learning and Community-Engaged Scholarship

This roundtable discussion serves as a forum for writing center professionals to discuss past experiences with and future opportunities for community-engaged work in our field. The lessons learned from this discussion will be used to both (1) identify strategic opportunities for engagement between writing labs and their respective communities and (2) inform the ongoing development of online resources for instructors and students who wish to integrate writing into current and future university-community work

Subsurface Stormflow Chemistry from a Forested Hillslope in the Ouachita Mountains

Environmental Scienc

Cortisol and externalizing behavior in children and adolescents: Mixed meta-analytic evidence for the inverse relation of basal cortisol and cortisol reactivity with externalizing behavior

An inverse relation between cortisol (re)activily and externalizing behavior has been hypothesized, but research findings seem equivocal. We tested this hypo(re)activity hypothesis in two meta-analyses, one for basal cortisol (k = 72 studies, N = 5,480) and one for cortisol reactivity to a stressor (k = 29 studies, N = 2,601). No association was found between cortisol reactivity and externalizing behaviors (r = -.04, 95% CI = -.11, .02). However, the relation between basal cortisol and externalizing behavior was significant but small (r = -.05, 95% CI = -.10, -.002). The age of the children significantly moderated this relation: Externalizing behavior was associated with higher basal cortisol (hyperactivity) in preschoolers (r =.09, 95% CI =.002, .17), and with lower basal cortisol (hypoactivity) in elementary school-aged children (r = -.14, 95% CI = -.19, -.08). There was no significant relation between cortisol and externalizing behavior in adolescents. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Effect of Atomoxetine Treatment on Reading and Phonological Skills in Children with Dyslexia or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Comorbid Dyslexia in a Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVES: Evaluated the effects of atomoxetine on the reading abilities of children with dyslexia only or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and comorbid dyslexia. METHODS: Children aged 10-16 years (N = 209) met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) criteria for dyslexia only (n = 58), ADHD and comorbid dyslexia (n = 124), or ADHD only (n = 27) and were of normal intelligence. Patients were treated with atomoxetine (1.0-1.4 mg/kg/day) or placebo in a 16-week, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial. The dyslexia-only and ADHD and comorbid dyslexia groups were randomized 1:1; the ADHD-only group received atomoxetine in a blinded manner. Reading abilities were measured with the Woodcock Johnson III (WJIII), Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP), Gray Oral Reading Tests-4, and Test of Word Reading Efficiency. RESULTS: Atomoxetine-treated dyslexia-only patients compared with placebo patients had significantly greater improvement (p < 0.02) with moderate to approaching high effect sizes (ES) on WJIII Word Attack (ES = 0.72), Basic Reading Skills (ES = 0.48), and Reading Vocabulary (ES = 0.73). In the atomoxetine-treated ADHD and comorbid dyslexia group, improvement on the CTOPP Elision measure (ES = 0.50) was significantly greater compared with placebo (p < 0.02). Total, inattentive, and hyperactive/impulsive ADHD symptom reductions were significant in the atomoxetine-treated ADHD and comorbid dyslexia group compared with placebo, and from baseline in the ADHD-only group (p ≤ 0.02). ADHD symptom improvements in the ADHD and comorbid dyslexia group were not correlated with improvements in reading. CONCLUSIONS: Atomoxetine treatment improved reading scores in patients with dyslexia only and ADHD and comorbid dyslexia. Improvements for patients with dyslexia only were in critical components of reading, including decoding and reading vocabulary. For patients with ADHD and comorbid dyslexia, improvements in reading scores were distinct from improvement in ADHD inattention symptoms alone. These data represent the first report of improvements in reading measures following pharmacotherapy treatment in patients with dyslexia only evaluated in a randomized, double-blind trial

Scantegrity Responds to Rice Study on Usability of the Scantegrity II Voting System

This note is a response to, and critique of, recent work by Acemyan, Kortum, Bryne, and Wallach regarding the usability of end-to-end verifiable voting systems, and in particular, to their analysis of the usability of the Scantegrity II voting system. Their work is given in a JETS paper [Ace14] and was presented at EVT/WOTE 2014; it was also described in an associated press release [Rut14]. We find that their study lacked an appropriate control voting system with which to compare effectiveness, and thus their conclusions regarding Scantegrity II are unsupported by the evidence they present. Furthermore, their conclusions are contradicted by the successful deployment experiences of Scantegrity II at Takoma Park