The Effect of Penalty upon Frequency of Stuttering Spasms

One of the features with which the psychologist must constantly deal when investigating stuttering is the great amount of variation in the frequency of stuttering blocks or spasms. Steer 1 has shown that frequency of stuttering spasms is, at least to a certain degree, a function of the type of speech situation. Van Riper and Hull2 showed a progressive decrease in frequency of spasms as the stutterer adapted to any given speech situation. However, little knowledge was gained from these experiments as to what factors in the situations were responsible for the variations in frequency

A Study of Handedness

Simultaneous writing of both hands on a variable angle board showed large differences in performance between thoroughly right and left handed groups, the non-dominant hand producing mirror-script or mirror-patterning. A measure of amount of laterality by means of the angle at which mirroring occurred was shown. A recheck of Jasper\u27s work on the phi-phenomenon as a measure of laterality gave corroborative results. The use of the Japanese Illusion as an indication of laterality was shown to be invalid. Failure of the non-dominant hand to reverse at a sound signal when both were describing opposite circles was demonstrated

Synthesis of 3-deoxy-N-acetylglucosamine and Attempted Synthesis of 4-deoxy-N-acetylglucosamine as Possible Antibacterial Agents

An antibacterial agent is a substance which destroys or suppresses bacterial growth or reproduction. Gerhard Domagk\u27s discovery of the antibacterial activity of the sulfonamides began one of the brightest eras in modern anti-bacterial chemotherapy. The sulfonamides are effective and are still used today but the introduction of the antibiotics has made them less popular. Antibacterial agents cannot be classified by one chemical grouping or mechanism of action. The phenols and alcohols act by denaturing protein while others, such as arsenic and the heavy metals, exert their effect by combining with the sulfhydryl grouping present as an active site on certain enzymes. The sulfonamides exert their effect by interfering with the utilization of paminobenzoic acid in bacteria. The antibiotics including cycloserine, vancomycin, penicillin, and cephalothin inhibit normal build-up of the cell wall of the bacteria. The proposed compounds would theoretica1ly inhibit the normal cell wall synthesis of bacteria because these compounds would have the necessary binding sites needed for normal cell wall synthesis. However, the compounds synthesized should be bio-isosteric to the normal precursors to be accepted by the enzymes needed for biological synthesis

First-Year Movements by Juvenile Mexican Spotted Owls in the Canyonlands of Utah

We studied first-year movements of Mexican Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis lucida) during natal dispersal in canyonlands of southern Utah. Thirty-one juvenile Mexican Spotted Owls were captured and radiotracked during 1992-95 to examine behavior and conduct experiments related to the onset of natal dispersal. Juvenile Spotted Owls dispersed from their nest areas during September to October each year, with 85% leaving in September. The onset of movements was sudden and juveniles dispersed in varied directions. The median distance from nest area to last observed location was 25.7 km (range = 1.7-92.3 km). Three of 26 juveniles tracked (11%) were alive after one year, although none were observed with mates. We conducted a feeding experiment, using Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguicuculatus), to test the influence of increased food supply on dispersal onset. The mean dispersal date of five owls that received supplemental food Julian day no. 255 +/- 2.6 SD) was significantly different than a control group (day no. 273 +/- 12.3)

Comment on ``Signal of Quark Deconfinement in the Timing Structure of Pulsar Spin-Down''

This is a comment on a paper by Glendenning, Pei, and Weber (Phys. Rev. Lett., 79, 1603, 1997), where the authors gave an incorrect estimate of the event rate and neglected the important gravitational energy release. Previous work on the same subject is reviewed, and a new suggestion is made to link quark-hadron phase transitions with soft gamma-ray repeaters.Comment: 4 pages; to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Linguistic dual tasking reduces emotionality, vividness and credibility of voice memories in voice-hearing individuals:Results from a controlled trial

Dual taxation of the working memory during recall is an effective strategy to reduce the emotionality and vividness of visual intrusive memories and potentially changes dysfunctional beliefs associated with the memories. This study tested the hypothesis that dual tasking decreases emotionality, vividness and credibility of auditory intrusive images (i.e., memories of auditory hallucinations) with a two-level (time: pre and post; condition: dual tasking and recall only) within-subjects design. Thirty-seven voice-hearing participants selected two negative voice-hearing experiences. They recalled one of these experiences while performing a lingual dual task (i.e., language game on smartphone app) and recalled one memory without a dual task (in counterbalanced order). During the pre-test and post-test, emotionality and vividness of the voice-hearing memories were rated, as well as the credibility of the voice statements. There was a significantly greater decrease in emotionality, vividness and credibility during dual tasking than during recall only. This study provides proof of principle that the salience and credibility of the content of auditory hallucinations can be reduced by dual tasking; the clinical implications are also discussed

Development and initial evaluation of blended cognitive behavioural treatment for Major Depression in Routine Specialized Mental Health Care

Background:\ud Blended care combines face-to-face treatment with web-based components in mental health care settings. Blended treatment could potentially improve active patient participation, by letting patients work though part of the protocol autonomously. Further, blended treatment might lower the costs of mental health care, by reducing treatment duration and/or therapist contact. However, knowledge on blended care for depression is still limited.\ud \ud Objectives:\ud To develop a blended cognitive behavioural treatment (bCBT) for depressed patients in an outpatient specialized mental health care centre and to conduct a preliminary evaluation of this bCBT protocol.\ud \ud Method:\ud A bCBT protocol was developed, taking recommendations into account from therapists and experts in the field of e-health (n = 18), and depressed patients (n = 3). Next, an initial evaluation of integrated high-intensive bCBT was conducted with depressed patients (n = 9) in specialized mental health care. Patients' clinical profiles were established based on pre-treatment diagnostic information and patient self-reports on clinical measures. Patient treatment adherence rates were explored, together with patient ratings of credibility and expectancy (CEQ) before treatment, and system usability (SUS) and treatment satisfaction after treatment (CSQ-8). During and after treatment, the blended treatment protocol was evaluated in supervision sessions with the participating therapists (n = 7).\ud \ud Results:\ud Seven out of nine patients started bCBT, of whom five completed ≥ 90% of treatment. System usability was evaluated as being above average (range 63 to 85), and patients were mostly to very satisfied with bCBT (range 16 to 32). Patients reported improvements in depression, health-related quality of life and anxiety. We observed that therapists evaluated the highly structured blended treatment as a helpful tool in providing evidence-based treatment to this complex patient group.\ud \ud Discussion:\ud Although no conclusions can be drawn based on the current study, our observations suggest that a blended CBT approach might shorten treatment duration and has the potential to be a valuable treatment option for patients with severe depression at specialized mental health care settings. Further exploration of the effectiveness of our bCBT protocol by means of a randomized controlled trial is warranted

Taqman Real-Time PCR Detects Avipoxvirus DNA in Blood of Hawaìi `Amakihi (Hemignathus virens)

Margaret E. M. Farias et al...Background Avipoxvirus sp. is a significant threat to endemic bird populations on several groups of islands worldwide, including Hawaìi, the Galapagos Islands, and the Canary Islands. Accurate identification and genotyping of Avipoxvirus is critical to the study of this disease and how it interacts with other pathogens, but currently available methods rely on invasive sampling of pox-like lesions and may be especially harmful in smaller birds. Methodology/Principal Findings Here, we present a nested TaqMan Real-Time PCR for the detection of the Avipoxvirus 4b core protein gene in archived blood samples from Hawaiian birds. The method was successful in amplifying Avipoxvirus DNA from packed blood cells of one of seven Hawaiian honeycreepers with confirmed Avipoxvirus infections and 13 of 28 Hawaìi `amakihi (Hemignathus virens) with suspected Avipoxvirus infections based on the presence of pox-like lesions. Mixed genotype infections have not previously been documented in Hawaìi but were observed in two individuals in this study. Conclusions/Significance We anticipate that this method will be applicable to other closely related strains of Avipoxvirus and will become an important and useful tool in global studies of the epidemiology of Avipoxvirus.Funding for this study was provided by: U.S. Geological Survey, Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center (biology.usgs.gov/pierc/); U.S. Geological Survey Wildlife (biology.usgs.gov/wter/) and Invasive Species (biology.usgs.gov/invasive/) Programs; National Science Foundation (DEB0083944, www.nsf.gov); NIH/NCRR IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE), P20RR016467 (http://www.ncrr.nih.gov/research_infrast​ructure/institutional_development_award/​idea_networks_of_biomedical_research_exc​ellence/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewe