Barbara Tenney

Dr. Tenney knew from a very young age she wanted to become a pediatrician and first discovered her love of interacting with patients as a candy striper. After graduating from Wilson College she attended Jefferson Medical College, graduating in 1971. She then completed her fellowship and residency at New York University - Bellevue Hospital Center, where she helped establish a child abuse team. She left NYU and Bellevue Hospital Center for West Virginia for three years before rejoining the NYU faculty and becoming the Director of Pediatrics at Booth Memorial Medical Center. Dr. Tenney eventually joined a group practice in North Carolina before becoming part of the faculty at East Carolina University. She most recently worked in Pennsylvania before retiring. Throughout the years Dr. Tenney has been a member of numerous professional societies, most notably the American Academy of Pediatrics, where she was the National Chairperson of the Provisional Committee on Opportunities for Women in Pediatrics and of which she is a Fellow. Dr. Tenney is also Chair of Wilson College’s Board of Trustees.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/oral_histories/1013/thumbnail.jp

Analysis of Third- and Fifth-Grade Spelling Errors on the Test of Written Spelling-4: Do Error Types Indicate Levels of Linguistic Knowledge?

A standardized test of spelling ability, Test of Written Spelling – 4, was used to explore the error patterns of Grade 3 and Grade 5 students in public and private schools in the southwestern region of the US. The study was for the purpose of examining the relationship between types of errors students make within a grade level (Grades 3 & 5 for this study), and the students’ spelling proficiency. A qualitative analysis of errors on the Test of Written Spelling – 4 (TWS-4) resulted in distributions of errors categorized as phonological, phonetic, orthographic, etymological, and morphological. For both Grades 3 and 5, a higher proportion of phonological and phonetic errors were made by students in the lowest spelling achievement group. Students with higher standard spelling scores made a lower proportion of phonological and phonetic errors and a higher proportion of errors categorized as etymological and morphological. The Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency (TOSWRF; Mather, Allen, Hammill, & Roberts, 2004) was also administered to the students to examine the relationship of these error types to literacy. The correlation between reading fluency standard scores and phonological and phonetic errors was negative, whereas the correlation between reading fluency and orthographic, etymological, and morphological error types was positive. This study underscores the value of looking at spelling achievement as a part of students’ literacy profiles. In addition, the study highlights the importance of making sure students beyond the years of very early reading and spelling development (Grades 3-5), especially those with low spelling proficiency, have the basic skills of phonological awareness and basic sound/symbol correspondences in place to support their ability to spell and to read, and that spelling must be taught in such a way as to meet students’ individual student needs

Screening for Microsatellite Instability Identifies Frequent 3′-Untranslated Region Mutation of the RB1-Inducible Coiled-Coil 1 Gene in Colon Tumors

BACKGROUND: Coding region microsatellite instability (MSI) results in loss of gene products and promotion of microsatellite-unstable (MSI-H) carcinogenesis. Recent studies have indicated that MSI within 3'-untranslated regions (3'UTRs) may post-transcriptionally dysregulate gene products. Within this context, we conducted a broad mutational survey of 42 short 3'UTR microsatellites (MSs) in 45 MSI-H colorectal tumors and their corresponding normal colonic mucosae. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In order to estimate the overall susceptibility of MSs to MSI in MSI-H tumors, the observed MSI frequency of each MS was correlated with its length, interspecies sequence conservation level, and distance from some genetic elements (i.e., stop codon, polyA signal, and microRNA binding sites). All MSs were stable in normal colonic mucosae. The MSI frequency at each MS in MSI-H tumors was independent of sequence conservation level and distance from other genetic elements. In contrast, MS length correlated significantly with MSI frequency in MSI-H tumors (r=0.86, p=7.2x10(-13)). 3'UTR MSs demonstrated MSI frequencies in MSI-H tumors higher than the 99% upper limit predicted by MS length for RB1-inducible coiled-coil 1(RB1CC1, mutation frequency 68.4%), NUAK family SNF1-like kinase 1(NUAK1, 31.0%), and Rtf1, Paf1/RNA polymerase II complex component, homolog (RTF1, 25.0%). An in silico prediction of RNA structure alterations was conducted for these MSI events to gauge their likelihood of affecting post-transcriptional regulation. RB1CC1 mutant was predicted to lose a microRNA-accessible loop structure at a putative binding site for the tumor-suppressive microRNA, miR-138. In contrast, the predicted 3'UTR structural change was minimal for NUAK1- and RTF1 mutants. Notably, real-time quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed significant RB1CC1 mRNA overexpression vs. normal colonic mucosae in MSI-H cancers manifesting RB1CC1 3'UTR MSI (9.0-fold; p = 3.6x10(-4)). CONCLUSIONS: This mutational survey of well-characterized short 3'UTR MSs confirms that MSI incidence in MSI-H colorectal tumors correlates with MS length, but not with sequence conservation level or distance from other genetic elements. This study also identifies RB1CC1 as a novel target of frequent mutation and aberrant upregulation in MSI-H colorectal tumors. The predicted loss of a microRNA-accessible structure in mutant RB1CC1 RNA fits the hypothesis that 3'UTR MSI involves in aberrant RB1CC1 posttranscriptional upregulation. Further direct assessments are indicated to investigate this possibility.Bogdan C. Paun, Yulan Cheng, Barbara A. Leggett, Joanne Young, Stephen J. Meltzer, Yuriko Mor

Calibration trumps confidence as a basis for witness credibility

ABSTRACT—Confident witnesses are deemed more credible than unconfident ones, and accurate witnesses are deemed more credible than inaccurate ones. But are those effects independent? Two experiments show that errors in testimony damage the overall credibility of witnesses who were confident about the erroneous testimony more than that of witnesses who were not confident about it. Furthermore, after making an error, less confident witnesses may appear more credible than more confident ones. Our interpretation of these results is that people make inferences about source calibration when evaluating testimony and other social communication. How do you decide whether another person is a reliable source of information? In everyday life, you may rely on the other person’s expressions of confidence, history of accurate (and erroneous) statements, and opportunity to be well informed on the subject of the assertion, as well as on your own inferences about the person’s motives and character and, in some cases, your beliefs about his or her expertise. Such habits are very general and apply to people’s evaluations of everyone, including their acquaintances, friends, and advisors. Judgments of credibility are especially important in trials. Many behavioral studies show that jurors, or mock jurors, rely on expressed confidence when evaluating eyewitnesses ’ credibilit