Stimulant Medication and Reading Performance

The study examined the sustained effects of methylphenidate on reading performance in a sample of 42 boys, ages 8 to 11, with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Two subgroups were formed based on the presence or absence of co-occurring conduct disorders. Subjects were selected on the basis of their positive response to methylphenidate as determined in a series of original medication trials (Forness, Cantwell, Swanson, Hanna, & Youpa, 1991). For the purpose of this study, subjects were placed on their optimal dose of medication for a 6-week period and then tested on measures of oral reading and reading comprehension equivalent to those used in the original trials, retested after a week without medication (placebo), then tested again the following week after return to medication. Only the subgroup with conduct disorders responded, and this response was limited to reading comprehension improvement in only those subjects who also demonstrated improvement in oral reading on original trials. No response differences were found between subjects with or without learning disabilities.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68569/2/10.1177_002221949202500205.pd

To retrieve or not to retrieve: These are the issues

There are many factors that must be evaluated when determining whether a buried mixed waste site should be retrieved and subsequently stored, treated, and/or disposed of or if some other action is more appropriate. The criteria developed for the evaluation of remedial actions at mixed waste sites under Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) regulation EPA, provide an excellent methodology for deciding upon a preferred action even if the site is not under CERCLA regulation. Each topic for evaluation in the criteria is not mutually exclusive, and many tradeoffs must be reviewed. The criteria have been broken down into a number of categories: overall protection of human health and the environment; compliance with Applicable or Relevant and Appropriate Requirements (ARARs); long-term effectiveness and permanence; reduction of toxicity, mobility, and volume; short-term effectiveness; implementability; cost; state acceptance; and community acceptance. Once the data is gathered, a Hazards Analysis must be performed to understand the risks of the site to workers, the public, and the environment. The Hazard Analysis is critical in helping personnel understand the associated issues so that an effective evaluation can take place. The intent of this paper is not to focus on a particular site, but to provide information that is useful for many problem holders to better understand the issues associated with buried mixed waste retrieval. Ultimately, these issues affect the final decision of whether or not retrieval is a feasible alternative

The visual sociogram in qualitative and mixed-methods research

The paper investigates the place of visual tools in mixed-methods research on social networks, arguing that they can not only improve the communicability of results, but also support research at the data gathering and analysis stages. Three examples from the authors’ own research experience illustrate how sociograms can be integrated in multiple ways with other analytical tools, both quantitative and qualitative, positioning visualization at the intersection of varied methods and channelling substantive ideas as well as network insight in a coherent way. Visualization also facilitates the participation of a broad range of stakeholders, including among others, study participants and non-specialist researchers. It can support the capacity of qualitative and mixed-methods research to reach out to areas of the social that are difficult to circumscribe, such as hidden populations and informal organisations. On this basis, visualization appears as a unique opportunity for mixing methods in the study of social networks, emphasizing both structure and process at the same time

Myers' type theorems and some related oscillation results

In this paper we study the behavior of solutions of a second order differential equation. The existence of a zero and its localization allow us to get some compactness results. In particular we obtain a Myers' type theorem even in the presence of an amount of negative curvature. The technique we use also applies to the study of spectral properties of Schroedinger operators on complete manifolds.Comment: 16 page

Constructing Hybrid Baryons with Flux Tubes

Hybrid baryon states are described in quark potential models as having explicit excitation of the gluon degrees of freedom. Such states are described in a model motivated by the strong coupling limit of Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory, where three flux tubes meeting at a junction play the role of the glue. The adiabatic approximation for the quark motion is used, and the flux tubes and junction are modeled by beads which are attracted to each other and the quarks by a linear potential, and vibrate in various string modes. Quantum numbers and estimates of the energies of the lightest hybrid baryons are provided.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX. Submitted to Physical Review Letter

Practising social justice: Community organisations, what matters and what counts

This thesis investigates the situated knowing-in-practice of locally-based community organisations, and studies how this practice knowledge is translated and contested in inter-organisational relations in the community services field of practices. Despite participation in government-led consultation processes, community organisations express frustration that the resulting policies and plans inadequately take account of the contributions from their practice knowledge. The funding of locally-based community organisations is gradually diminishing in real terms and in the competitive tendering environment, large nationally-based organisations often attract the new funding sources. The concern of locally-based community organisations is that the apparent lack of understanding of their distinctive practice knowing is threatening their capacity to improve the well-being of local people and their communities. In this study, I work with practitioners, service participants and management committee members to present an account of their knowing-in-practice, its character and conditions of efficacy; and then investigate what happens when this local practice knowledge is translated into results-based accountability (RBA) planning with diverse organisations and institutions. This thesis analyses three points of observation: knowing in a community of practitioners; knowing in a community organisation and knowing in the community services field of practices. In choosing these points of observation, the inquiry explores some of the relations and intra-actions from the single organisation to the institutional at a time when state government bureaucracy has mandated that community organisations implement RBA to articulate outcomes that can be measured by performance indicators. A feminist, performative, relational practice-based approach employs participatory action research to achieve an enabling research experience for the participants. It aims to intervene strategically to enhance recognition of the distinctive contributions of community organisations’ practice knowledge. This thesis reconfigures understandings of the roles, contributions and accountabilities of locally-based community organisations. Observations of situated practices together with the accounts of workers and service participants demonstrate how community organisations facilitate service participants’ struggles over social justice. A new topology for rethinking social justice as processual and practice-based is developed. It demonstrates how these struggles are a dynamic complex of iteratively-enfolded practices of respect and recognition, redistribution and distributive justice, representation and participation, belonging and inclusion. The focus on the practising of social justice in this thesis offers an alternative to the neo-liberal discourse that positions community organisations as sub-contractors accountable to government for delivering measurable outputs, outcomes and efficiencies in specified service provision contracts. The study shows how knowing-in-practice in locally-based community organisations contests the representational conception of knowledge inextricably entangled with accountability and performance measurement apparatus such as RBA. Further, it suggests that practitioner and service participant contributions are marginalised and diminished in RBA through the privileging of knowledge that takes an ‘expert’, quantifiable and calculative form. Thus crucially, harnessing local practice knowing requires re-imagining and enacting knowledge spaces that assemble and take seriously all relevant stakeholder perspectives, diverse knowledges and methods

Perspectives on metaphyseal conservative stems

Total hip replacement is showing, during the last decades, a progressive evolution toward principles of reduced bone and soft tissue aggression. These principles have become the basis of a new philosophy, tissue sparing surgery. Regarding hip implants, new conservative components have been proposed and developed as an alternative to conventional stems. Technical and biomechanical characteristics of metaphyseal bone-stock-preserving stems are analyzed on the basis of the available literature and our personal experience. Mayo, Nanos and Metha stems represent, under certain aspects, a design evolution starting from shared concepts: reduced femoral violation, non-anatomic geometry, proximal calcar loading and lateral alignment. However, consistent differences are level of neck preservation, cross-sectional geometry and surface finishing. The Mayo component is the most time-tested component and, in our hands, it showed an excellent survivorship at the mid-term follow-up, with an extremely reduced incidence of aseptic loosening (partially reduced by the association with last generation acetabular couplings). For 160 implants followed for a mean of 4.7 years, survivorship was 97.5% with 4 failed implants: one fracture with unstable stem, 1 septic loosening and 2 aseptic mobilizations. DEXA analysis, performed on 15 cases, showed a good calcar loading and stimulation, but there was significant lateral load transfer to R3–R4 zones, giving to the distal part of the stem a function not simply limited to alignment. Metaphyseal conservative stems demonstrated a wide applicability with an essential surgical technique. Moreover, they offer the options of a “conservative revision” with a conventional primary component in case of failure and a “conservative revision” for failed resurfacing implants

Kaon-Nucleon Scattering Amplitudes and Z∗^*-Enhancements from Quark Born Diagrams

We derive closed form kaon-nucleon scattering amplitudes using the ``quark Born diagram" formalism, which describes the scattering as a single interaction (here the OGE spin-spin term) followed by quark line rearrangement. The low energy I=0 and I=1 S-wave KN phase shifts are in reasonably good agreement with experiment given conventional quark model parameters. For $k_{lab}> 0.7$ Gev however the I=1 elastic phase shift is larger than predicted by Gaussian wavefunctions, and we suggest possible reasons for this discrepancy. Equivalent low energy KN potentials for S-wave scattering are also derived. Finally we consider OGE forces in the related channels K$\Delta$, K$^*$N and K$^*\Delta$, and determine which have attractive interactions and might therefore exhibit strong threshold enhancements or ``Z$^*$-molecule" meson-baryon bound states. We find that the minimum-spin, minimum-isospin channels and two additional K$^*\Delta$ channels are most conducive to the formation of bound states. Related interesting topics for future experimental and theoretical studies of KN interactions are also discussed.Comment: 34 pages, figures available from the authors, revte

Trajectories of university adjustment in the United Kingdom: Emotion management and emotional self-efficacy protect against initial poor adjustment

Little is known about individual differences in the pattern of university adjustment. This study explored longitudinal associations between emotional self-efficacy, emotion management, university adjustment, and academic achievement in a sample of first year undergraduates in the United Kingdom (N=331). Students completed measures of adjustment to university at three points during their first year at university. Latent Growth Mixture Modeling identified four trajectories of adjustment: (1) low, stable adjustment, (2) medium, stable adjustment, (3) high, stable adjustment, and (4) low, increasing adjustment. Membership of the low, stable adjustment group was predicted by low emotional self-efficacy and low emotion management scores, measured at entry into university. This group also had increased odds of poor academic achievement, even when grade at entry to university was controlled. Students who increased in adjustment had high levels of emotion management and emotional self-efficacy, which helped adaptation. These findings have implications for intervention

The open-charm radiative and pionic decays of molecular charmonium Y(4274)

In this work, we investigate the decay widths and the line shapes of the open-charm radiative and pionic decays of Y(4274) with the $D_s\bar{D}_{s0}(2317)$ molecular charmonium assignment. Our calculation indicates that the decay widths of $Y(4274)\to D^{+}_{s}D^{*-}_{s}\gamma$ and $Y(4274)\to D^+_{s}D^-_{s}\pi^0$ can reach up to 0.05 keV and 0.75 keV, respectively. In addition, the result of the line shape of the photon spectrum of $Y(4274)\to D_s^+ {D}_s^{*-} \gamma$ shows that there exists a very sharp peak near the large end point of photon energy. The line shape of the pion spectrum of $Y(4274)\to D_s^+ {D}_s^{*-} \pi^0$ is similar to that of the pion spectrum of $Y(4274)\to D_s^+ {D}_s^{*-} \gamma$, where we also find a very sharp peak near the large end point of pion energy. According to our calculation, we suggest further experiments to carry out the search for the open-charm radiative and pionic decays of Y(4274).Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, 1 table. Published versio