Developing communication skills in deaf primary school pupils: Introducing and evaluating the smiLE approach

Many profoundly deaf signers have difficulty communicating with hearing people. This article describes a therapy called ‘Strategies and Measurable Interaction in Live English’ (smiLE; Schamroth and Threadgill, 2007a), an approach used to teach deaf children skills to become successful communicators in real-life situations. This study evaluates the effectiveness of smiLE in helping deaf pupils develop their ability to make successful requests in a specific communication situation and whether this generalized to another communication situation. Sixteen severely and profoundly deaf primary school pupils (7.2—11.0 years old) received an 11-week programme of therapy. Their performances in a trained and an untrained communication situation were compared pre- and post-therapy. In the trained task, the pupils’ interactions improved significantly. No differences were found in the untrained task, suggesting that the learnt skills did not generalize. Anecdotal findings suggest that some carry-over into a similar situation had occurred and that trained skills were maintained. The smiLE therapy approach is effective in providing deaf children with the communication skills and confidence to interact with English speakers in targeted situations. The lack of generalization of these skills to similar situations may be overcome by a longer therapy programme that specifically promote these skills across different situations

Agricultural banks: causes of failures and the condition of survivors

Agricultural credit ; Bank failures

A Mini-survey of X-ray Point Sources in Starburst and Non-Starburst Galaxies

We present a comparison of X-ray point source luminosity functions of 3 starburst galaxies (the Antennae, M82, and NGC 253) and 4 non-starburst spiral galaxies (NGC 3184, NGC 1291, M83, and IC 5332). We find that the luminosity functions of the starbursts are flatter than those of the spiral galaxies; the starbursts have relatively more sources at high luminosities. This trend extends to early-type galaxies which have steeper luminosity functions than spirals. We show that the luminosity function slope is correlated with 60 micron luminosity, a measure of star formation. We suggest that the difference in luminosity functions is related to the age of the X-ray binary populations and present a simple model which highlights how the shape of the luminosity distribution is affected by the age of the underlying X-ray binary population.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. accepted for publication in Ap

EC90-106 Nebraska Grain Sorghum Hybrid Tests 1990

Extension circular 90-106 is about Nebraska grain sorghum hybrid tests in 1990

Demonstration of a state-insensitive, compensated nanofiber trap

We report the experimental realization of an optical trap that localizes single Cs atoms ≃ 215 nm from surface of a dielectric nanober. By operating at magic wavelengths for pairs of counterpropagating red- and blue-detuned trapping beams, dierential scalar light shifts are eliminated, and vector shifts are suppressed by ≈ 250. We thereby measure an absorption linewidth Γ/2π = 5.7 ± 0.1 MHz for the Cs 6S_(1/2), F = 4 → 6P_(3/2), F' = 5 transition, where Γ_0/2π = 5.2 MHz in free space. Optical depth d ≃ 66 is observed, corresponding to an optical depth per atom d_1 ≃ 0.08. These advances provide an important capability for the implementation of functional quantum optical networks and precision atomic spectroscopy near dielectric surfaces

Solar variability indications from Nimbus 7 satellite data

The cavity pyrheliometer sensor of the Nimbus 7 Earth Radiation Experiment indicated low-level variability of the total solar irradiance. The variability appears to be inversely correlated with common solar activity indicators in an event sense. the limitations of the measuring system and available data sets are described

Greenland turbot Reinhardtius hippoglossoides of the eastern Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands region

Greenland turbot (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) is a commercially important flounder in both the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans. In the latter, its center of abundance is in the eastern Bering Sea and along the Aleutian Islands chain where its population is managed as a single stock. Harvest levels in this region of the North Pacific during the period 1970-81 were comparable with those in the northwest and northeast Atlantic, with annual average catches of 53,000 metric tons (t). However, the catch in 1984 dropped sharply to 23,100 t, in part because of reduced quotas arising from concern over continued poor recruitment and declining catch-per-unit-effort. Recruitment failure was manifested in 1) the sharp decline in the catch rate of young flsh in annual research trawl surveys on the continental shelf of the eastern Bering Sea and 2) an increasing proportion of older and larger fish in the commercial catch from the continental slope of both the eastern Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands. The cause ofthe decline in recruitment could not be clearly identifled. Greenland turbot of the Bering Sea-Aleutian Islands share certain distributional features with the North Atlantic form. There is an apparent bathymetric change in the size and age of fish, with younger animals occupying continental shelf depths and the older individuals residing at depths of the continental slope. At shallow depths the young are exposed to temperature fluctuations, whereas older animals along the slope are exposed to relatively stable temperatures. A hypothesis is proposed for describing the temporal and spatial paths by which young animals reach the mature or spawning portion of the population. (PDF file contains 38 pages.

The Energetics of Molecular Gas in NGC 891 from H2 and FIR Spectroscopy

We have studied the molecular hydrogen energetics of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC\,891, using a 34-position map in the lowest three pure rotational H$_2$ lines observed with the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph. The S(0), S(1), and S(2) lines are bright with an extinction corrected total luminosity of $\sim2.8 \times 10^{7}$ L$_{\odot}$, or 0.09\% of the total-infrared luminosity of NGC\,891. The H$_2$ line ratios are nearly constant along the plane of the galaxy -- we do not observe the previously reported strong drop-off in the S(1)/S(0) line intensity ratio in the outer regions of the galaxy, so we find no evidence for the very massive cold CO-free molecular clouds invoked to explain the past observations. The H$_2$ level excitation temperatures increase monotonically indicating more than one component to the emitting gas. More than 99\% of the mass is in the lowest excitation (T$_{ex}$ $\sim$125 K) ``warm'' component. In the inner galaxy, the warm H$_2$ emitting gas is $\sim$15\% of the CO(1-0)-traced cool molecular gas, while in the outer regions the fraction is twice as high. This large mass of warm gas is heated by a combination of the far-UV photons from stars in photo-dissociation regions (PDRs) and the dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy. Including the observed far-infrared [OI] and [CII] fine-structure line emission and far-infrared continuum emission in a self-consistent manner to constrain the PDR models, we find essentially all of the S(0) and most (70\%) of the S(1) line arises from low excitation PDRs, while most (80\%) of the S(2) and the remainder of the S(1) line emission arises from low velocity microturbulent dissipation.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. Figure 10 available at http://www.physics.uoc.gr/~vassilis/papers/ngc891.pd