bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Diagnosis and treatment of vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia
Authors: Wee Wei‐Wei , Chia Yin N. , Yam Philip K.‐L.
Published: January 2012

Objective

To audit our experience of the diagnosis and treatment of vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia (VAIN) in Kandang Kerbau Women's Hospital, Singapore.

Methods

The clinical records of the patients diagnosed as having VAIN at our institution in the calendar year 2009 were periodically reviewed until March 2011.

Results

There were 21 cases of VAIN. The mean follow‐up duration was 18.2 months. The lesion grades were VAIN 1 in 9 patients (42.9%), VAIN 2 in 9 patients (42.9%), and VAIN 3 in 3 patients (14.3%). The mean patient age was 39.1 years. Sixteen patients (76.2%) were referred to our institution because of abnormal results to cytology tests and 4 patients (21.9%) were referred because of vaginal warts. The remaining patient was diagnosed from a surgical specimen. The diagnosis involved a cytology test, a colposcopic examination, an acetowhite test, a Schiller test, and a colposcopy‐directed biopsy. The treatments varied and included watchful waiting but carbon dioxide laser vaporization was used the most frequently.

Conclusion

After 6 months of follow‐up 18 patients were considered cured, for an overall cure rate of 85.7%. Two patients wanted no treatment and disease remained persistent in 1 patient despite laser vaporization and intravaginal applications of imiquimod cream.
When consumers care about being treated fairly: The interaction of relationship norms and fairness norms
Authors: Aggarwal Pankaj , Larrick Richard P.
Published: January 2012

Prior research suggests that people assess overall fairness of an event by focusing on the distribution of the final outcome (distributive fairness) and on how they are treated by others during the conflict resolution process (interactional fairness). The primary goal of this work is to use a social relationship framework to study differences in consumers' responses to interactional fairness as revealed by their evaluations of a brand. Two types of relationships are examined—exchange relationships in which benefits are given to get something back in return; and communal relationships in which benefits are given to take care of others' needs. Results of two studies suggest that the type of consumers' relationship with the brand moderates the effect of interactional fairness such that consumers who have a communal relationship are more responsive to interactional fairness under conditions of low distributive fairness while those who have an exchange relationship are more responsive under conditions of high distributive fairness.
Biomechanics of human movement and its clinical applications
Authors: Lu Tung‐Wu , Chang Chu‐Fen
Published: January 2012

All life forms on earth, including humans, are constantly subjected to the universal force of gravitation, and thus to forces from within and surrounding the body. Through the study of the interaction of these forces and their effects, the form, function and motion of our bodies can be examined and the resulting knowledge applied to promote quality of life. Under gravity and other loads, and controlled by the nervous system, human movement is achieved through a complex and highly coordinated mechanical interaction between bones, muscles, ligaments and joints within the musculoskeletal system. Any injury to, or lesion in, any of the individual elements of the musculoskeletal system will change the mechanical interaction and cause degradation, instability or disability of movement. On the other hand, proper modification, manipulation and control of the mechanical environment can help prevent injury, correct abnormality, and speed healing and rehabilitation. Therefore, understanding the biomechanics and loading of each element during movement using motion analysis is helpful for studying disease etiology, making decisions about treatment, and evaluating treatment effects. In this article, the history and methodology of human movement biomechanics, and the theoretical and experimental methods developed for the study of human movement, are reviewed. Examples of motion analysis of various patient groups, prostheses and orthoses, and sports and exercises, are used to demonstrate the use of biomechanical and stereophotogrammetry‐based human motion analysis studies to address clinical issues. It is suggested that further study of the biomechanics of human movement and its clinical applications will benefit from the integration of existing engineering techniques and the continuing development of new technology.
Cancer immunotherapy
Authors: Gajewski Thomas F.
Published: January 2012

The remarkable specificity of the immune system through antigen recognition has long attracted investigators to the possibility of immune‐based therapy for cancer. Previous cancer immunotherapeutics had been restricted to non‐specific immunomodulatory agents, such as the cytokines IL‐2 or IFN‐α. However, the molecular definition of cancer‐associated antigens introduced the possibility of specific vaccines and adoptive T cell approaches aiming to target the tumor cells more specifically. The recent introduction of total exome sequencing has enabled the identification of patient tumor‐specific epitopes generated through somatic point mutations, raising the possibility of targeting tumor antigens in individual patients which are even more tumor‐specific. Transcriptional profiling and immunohistochemistry analyses have revealed a subset of patients with a pre‐existing T cell‐inflamed tumor microenvironment. This phenotype may be predictive of clinical outcome to immunotherapies and offers the possibility of a predictive biomarker. Further analysis of these tumors has identified a set of defined immune suppressive factors which themselves are being targeted with new immunotherapeutics, already with interesting early phase clinical trial results. Understanding not only the expression of tumor antigens but also the dynamic between a growing tumor and the host immune response is thus generating a rich set of opportunities for the specific immunotherapy of cancer.
‘NORMAL POLITICAL ACTIVITIES’: RHODESIA, THE PEARCE COMMISSION, AND THE AFRICAN NATIONAL COUNCIL
Authors: WHITE LUISE
Published: January 2012

In 1972 a British commission arrived in Rhodesia to test how acceptable the latest and most comprehensive proposals to end Rhodesia's rebellion were to its entire people. Africans rejected the proposals in overwhelming numbers. Such powerful opposition was attributed to the African National Council, said to be a new and spontaneous organization, but in fact the creation of the banned political parties. This article examines the political agitation during the Pearce Commission's visit to show how commonplace the layers of political affiliation, substitution, and deception were in the groups that both supported and opposed the proposals in 1970s Rhodesia.
WHO BELONGS TO THE ‘STAR PEOPLE’? NEGOTIATING BEER AND GIN ADVERTISEMENTS IN WEST AFRICA, 1949–75
Authors: VAN DEN BERSSELAAR DMITRI
Published: January 2012

This article explores the different trajectories of advertising for schnapps gin and beer in Ghana and Nigeria during the period of decolonisation and independence up to 1975. It analyses published newspaper advertisements alongside correspondence, advertising briefs, and market research reports found in business archives. Advertising that promoted a ‘modern’ life-style worked for beer, but not for gin. This study shows how advertisements became the product of negotiations between foreign companies, local businesses, and consumers. It provides insights into the development of advertising in West Africa, the differing ways in which African consumers attached meanings to specific commodities, and possibilities for the use of advertisements as sources for African history.
HOW SLAVES USED ISLAM: THE LETTERS OF ENSLAVED MUSLIM COMMERCIAL AGENTS IN THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY NIGER BEND AND CENTRAL SAHARA
Authors: HALL BRUCE S.
Published: January 2012

Historians of slavery in Africa have long struggled to recover the voices of enslaved people. In this article, an unusual set of sources found in Timbuktu (Mali) reveals the existence of a stratum of literate, Muslim slaves who wrote and received letters written in Arabic. These letters make it possible to probe the Islamic rhetoric used by Muslim slaves and ask how enslaved people who adopted Islam understood their faith. Did Muslim slaves arrive at different interpretations of Islam than those Muslims who were free? Using the correspondence of two slaves who worked as agents in their master's commercial activities in the Niger Bend and Central Sahara during the second half of the nineteenth century, this article demonstrates the extent to which Muslim slaves used appeals to their own piety in attempting to carve out a certain amount of social autonomy. For these Muslim slaves, Islam could be made to serve both spiritual and practical ends. And yet, this did not require slaves to interpret Islam in ways that rejected the legitimacy of slavery.
Policy Success and Public Health: The Case of Public Health in England
Authors: BAGGOTT ROB
Published: January 2012

Like many countries, England has introduced a range of policies and strategies on public health since the early 1990s. Using concepts drawn from the policy success and failure literature, this article concludes that recent governments in England achieved only ‘precarious success’ in McConnell's typology. It demonstrates, with wider significance, that success or failure is not merely about policy achievement in programme terms, but that policy processes and the political dimensions of policy must be included in any evaluation. It also highlights the adversarial nature of public health policy, the subjectivity of judgments about effectiveness and the political problems this creates for government. The article pinpoints the relevance of public health policies for judgements about government competence, trustworthiness and accountability. It argues that failures of public health policy, including poor evaluation and failures to learn from experience, may be more comprehensible by adopting a political analysis of public policy making in this field.
Ontologies, depth, and otherwise: critical notes on Wight's meta-theoretical proposal of a scientific realist IR
Authors: WEBER MARTIN
Published: January 2012

This contribution investigates in some more depth a limited set of the premises on which Wight's argument for a ‘scientific realist’ approach to the study of International Relations (IR) rests, an approach, which, according to him, raises the hitherto unacknowledged centrality of ontological premises to all forms of knowledge and human action. Positing ‘Politics as Ontology’ (the book's subtitle) permits, so Wight's argument goes, the conduct of social science in a way which renders most epistemological and methodological disagreements obsolete, since the latter can be shown to be enabled only by competing, mutually exclusive, relatively incompatible, or unreflectively fragmentary ontological commitments. On this view, clarifying the respective ontological commitments, which underpin – tacitly or explicitly – competing theories yields the prospect of demonstrating relatively precisely what it is that enables disagreements at the levels of epistemology and methodology to arise in the first place. Programmatically, Wight seeks to establish the scientific realist account as a consistent, critical, fallibilist, unified account of scientific practice, reintegrating social and natural sciences in a reconceptualised naturalist scheme.
1-loop graphs and configuration space integral for embedding spaces
Authors: SAKAI KEIICHI , WATANABE TADAYUKI
Published: January 2012

We will construct differential forms on the embedding spaces Emb(j, n) for n − j ≥ 2 using configuration space integral associated with 1-loop graphs, and show that some linear combinations of these forms are closed in some dimensions. There are other dimensions in which we can show the closedness if we replace Emb(j, n) by Emb(j, n), the homotopy fiber of the inclusion Emb(j, n) ↪ Imm(j, n). We also show that the closed forms obtained give rise to nontrivial cohomology classes, evaluating them on some cycles of Emb(j, n) and Emb(j, n). In particular we obtain nontrivial cohomology classes (for example, in H3(Emb(2, 5))) of higher degrees than those of the first nonvanishing homotopy groups.
‘In each town I find a triple harmony’: idealizing the city and the language of community in early modern (East) Central European urban historiography
Authors: MILLER JAROSLAV
Published: January 2012

In referring to the sociological concept of community as a cultural field with a complex of symbols, the article examines the language of urban communities as applied by pre-1800 urban historiography. The analysis of mostly (East) Central European urban chronicles, burgher diaries and panegyrical texts discloses the strong presence of a normative vision of an idealized community which was projected, however, into the life of a real city.
Mumbai's suburban mass housing
Authors: URBAN FLORIAN
Published: January 2012

In the 1960s and 1970s, the state-operated Maharashtra Housing Board and its successor organization Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) responded to Mumbai's exponential growth with what at the time was internationally considered to be the most effective measure to fight the housing shortage: large estates of standardized apartment blocks. In Mumbai's northern suburbs, housing compounds were built for designated income levels, such as Kannamwar Nagar and Sahyadri Nagar for the ‘low-income group’ and DN Nagar or Sahakar Nagar for the ‘middle-income group’. This article argues that Mumbai's state-sponsored tower blocks adapted an internationally discussed urban design concept to specific local conditions. The designers took up influences from both local Maharashtrian and European housing typologies of the mid-twentieth century, including upper-class art deco apartments, socialist housing compounds and serially built working-class chawls. In contrast to mass housing developments in Chicago, Moscow or Paris, Mumbai's tower blocks were built individually rather than from prefabricated parts, offered rather high standards of living compared to that of the majority and, as a result, became increasingly inhabited by comparably wealthy groups. Since the beginning of economic liberalization in the 1990s, many have been converted into private co-operatives. Once designed to house the masses, they are now visible symbols for a growing minority that constitutes Mumbai's new middle class. At the same time, they are an example for the local evolution of the modernist housing block type that is only apparently similar all over the world.
Imagining the street in post-war Britain
Authors: MORAN JOE
Published: January 2012

This article discusses the changing ways in which the residential street has been imagined in post-war Britain. From the ethnographers and street photographers who emerged in Bethnal Green in the late 1940s and early 1950s, to the planning concept of ‘streets in the air’, to modern geodemographics, the street has been a way of thinking through shifting ideas about civil society and collective social life. Imagined as a space of spontaneous community when set against the rational, contractual operations of both the market and the state, the street has been a means of articulating hopes for and anxieties about social change.
Perceived quality and availability of fruit and vegetables are associated with perceptions of fruit and vegetable affordability among socio-economically disadvantaged women
Authors: Williams Lauren K , Thornton Lukar , Crawford David , Ball Kylie
Published: January 2012

Objective

Perceptions that fruit and vegetables are expensive have been found to be associated with lower consumption of fruit and vegetables among disadvantaged women; however, the determinants of these perceptions are relatively unknown. The purpose of the current paper is to examine whether perceived availability and quality of fruit and vegetables, and social support for healthy eating, are associated with perceptions of fruit and vegetable affordability among women residing in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Design

Cross-sectional self-report survey.

Setting

The study was conducted in Melbourne, Australia.

Subjects

An Australian sample of 4131 women, aged 18–45 years, residing in neighbourhoods ranked in the lowest Victorian tertile of relative disadvantage by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, an index that considers aspects of disadvantage such as residents’ income, education, motor vehicle access and employment.

Results

Results showed that irrespective of education, income and other key covariates, women who perceived poor availability and quality of fruit and vegetables in their local neighbourhood were more likely to perceive fruit and vegetables as expensive.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that perceptions of fruit and vegetable affordability are not driven exclusively by lack of financial or knowledge-related resources, but also by women's psychological response and interpretation of their local nutrition environment.
Vegetarian diets and blood pressure among white subjects: results from the Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2)
Authors: Pettersen Betty J , Anousheh Ramtin , Fan Jing , Jaceldo-Siegl Karen , Fraser Gary E
Published: January 2012

Objective

Previous work studying vegetarians has often found that they have lower blood pressure (BP). Reasons may include their lower BMI and higher intake levels of fruit and vegetables. Here we seek to extend this evidence in a geographically diverse population containing vegans, lacto-ovo vegetarians and omnivores.

Design

Data are analysed from a calibration sub-study of the Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2) cohort who attended clinics and provided validated FFQ. Criteria were established for vegan, lacto-ovo vegetarian, partial vegetarian and omnivorous dietary patterns.

Setting

Clinics were conducted at churches across the USA and Canada. Dietary data were gathered by mailed questionnaire.

Subjects

Five hundred white subjects representing the AHS-2 cohort.

Results

Covariate-adjusted regression analyses demonstrated that the vegan vegetarians had lower systolic and diastolic BP (mmHg) than omnivorous Adventists (β = −6·8, P < 0·05 and β = −6·9, P < 0·001). Findings for lacto-ovo vegetarians (β = −9·1, P < 0·001 and β = −5·8, P < 0·001) were similar. The vegetarians (mainly the vegans) were also less likely to be using antihypertensive medications. Defining hypertension as systolic BP > 139 mmHg or diastolic BP > 89 mmHg or use of antihypertensive medications, the odds ratio of hypertension compared with omnivores was 0·37 (95 % CI 0·19, 0·74), 0·57 (95 % CI 0·36, 0·92) and 0·92 (95 % CI 0·50, 1·70), respectively, for vegans, lacto-ovo vegetarians and partial vegetarians. Effects were reduced after adjustment for BMI.

Conclusions

We conclude from this relatively large study that vegetarians, especially vegans, with otherwise diverse characteristics but stable diets, do have lower systolic and diastolic BP and less hypertension than omnivores. This is only partly due to their lower body mass.
Alterations in Movement Dynamics in a Tool-Use Task
Authors: Fitzpatrick Paula , Wagman Jeffrey B. , Schmidt Richard C.
Published: January 2012

This research evaluated how the inertial properties of a tool influence tool-using actions. Grip patterns and movements of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children and adults were recorded while hammering. Results revealed that both number of pegs driven and movement amplitude increased developmentally and changed as a function of inertial properties of the tool but other aspects of motor control (i.e., period, grip position) did not. This suggests that both children and adults were able to discriminate and modulate only those parameters that had the largest impact on performance (i.e., the delivery of force with the hammer). Even though the ability to adjust tool movements as tool characteristics change is evident during preschool years, the ability to do so did not reach adult levels and appears to continue to develop beyond preschool.
The Acquisition of Flexible Tool Use in Preschoolers
Authors: Elsner Birgit , Schellhas Bernd
Published: January 2012

To investigate how preschoolers acquire a tool use strategy and how they adapt their tool use to a changed situation, 2- to 4-year-olds were asked to retrieve chips from a transparent box with a rod, either by stabbing and lifting through a top opening or by pushing through a front and a back opening. In both conditions, about 40% of the children acquired effective tool use by individual learning, and 90% of the other children learned this by observing only one demonstration. When confronted with a changed situation (i.e., previous opening covered, alternative opening uncovered), children perseverated with the recently learned, but now ineffective tool use strategy. Neither age nor acquisition type of the first strategy affected preschoolers’ perseverations. Results indicate that prior tool use experiences have differential effects in situations that require either transferring known functions to novel objects or using a familiar tool for an alternative purpose.
ODP Site 1063 (Bermuda Rise) revisited: Oxygen isotopes, excursions and paleointensity in the Brunhes Chron
Authors: Channell J. E. T. , Hodell D. A. , Curtis J. H.
Published: January 2012

An age model for the Brunhes Chron of Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1063 (Bermuda Rise) is constructed by tandem correlation of oxygen isotope and relative paleointensity data to calibrated reference templates. Four intervals in the Brunhes Chron where paleomagnetic inclinations are negative for both u‐channel samples and discrete samples are correlated to the following magnetic excursions with Site 1063 ages in brackets: Laschamp (41 ka), Blake (116 ka), Iceland Basin (190 ka), Pringle Falls (239 ka). These ages are consistent with current age estimates for three of these excursions, but not for “Pringle Falls” which has an apparent age older than a recently published estimate by ∼28 kyr. For each of these excursions (termed Category 1 excursions), virtual geomagnetic poles (VGPs) reach high southerly latitudes implying paired polarity reversals of the Earth's main dipole field, that apparently occurred in a brief time span (<2 kyr in each case), several times shorter than the apparent duration of regular polarity transitions. In addition, several intervals of low paleomagnetic inclination (low and negative in one case) are observed both in u‐channel and discrete samples at ∼318 ka (MIS 9), ∼412 ka (MIS 11) and in the 500–600 ka interval (MIS 14–15). These “Category 2” excursions may constitute inadequately recorded (Category 1) excursions, or high amplitude secular variation.
Average properties of geomagnetic storms in 1932–2009
Authors: Yakovchouk O. S. , Mursula K. , Holappa L. , Veselovsky I. S. , Karinen A.
Published: January 2012

We investigate the average properties of geomagnetic storms using the global and local Dxt indices at four Dst stations in 1932–2009. Imposing the condition of complete data availability during storms, our study includes 1268/362/134/59 storms with Dxt minimum less than −50/−100/−150/−200 nT, respectively. The global Dxt minima were, on an average, −94/−156/−216/−275 nT, while deepest storm‐time local Dxt minima were −137/−214/−285/−350 nT. Accordingly, the local Dxt minima are typically 25–30% stronger than the global Dxt minima. The distribution of largest storm‐time disturbances is strongly peaked at 18 local time (LT), challenging local midnight as the dominant ion source. Relative timing of local minima verifies that stations at earlier LT hour observe their minimum a couple of hours after the deepest minimum, in agreement with westward drift of ions. Storm‐time maximum asymmetries were found to increase with storm intensity level from about 70 nT to 150 nT for −50 to −200 nT storms. However, strong storms are relatively more symmetric than weak storms when compared to the typical level of local disturbance. During individual storms the asymmetry can be more than 200 nT. The rate of evolution of storm‐time asymmetry is found to be roughly twice as fast for large storms. We emphasize that the unique database of local Dxt indices proves to be very useful in studying the average spatial distribution and temporal evolution of storms.
The physical basis for anomalous diffusion in bed load transport
Authors: Martin Raleigh L. , Jerolmack Douglas J. , Schumer Rina
Published: January 2012

Recent studies have observed deviation from normal (Fickian) diffusion in sediment tracer dispersion that violates the assumption of statistical convergence to a Gaussian. Nikora et al. (2002) hypothesized that particle motion at short time scales is superdiffusive because of inertia, while long‐time subdiffusion results from heavy‐tailed rest durations between particle motions. Here we test this hypothesis with laboratory experiments that trace the motion of individual gravels under near‐threshold intermittent bed load transport (0.027 < τ* < 0.087). Particle behavior consists of two independent states: a mobile phase, in which indeed we find superdiffusive behavior, and an immobile phase, in which gravels distrained from the fluid remain stationary for long durations. Correlated grain motion can account for some but not all of the superdiffusive behavior for the mobile phase; invoking heterogeneity of grain size provides a plausible explanation for the rest. Grains that become immobile appear to stay at rest until the bed scours down to an elevation that exposes them to the flow. The return time distribution for bed scour is similar to the distribution of rest durations, and both have power law tails. Results provide a physical basis for scaling regimes of anomalous dispersion and the time scales that separate these regimes.
Diffusivity of rocks: Gas diffusion measurements and correlation to porosity and pore size distribution
Authors: Peng Sheng , Hu Qinhong , Hamamoto Shoichiro
Published: January 2012

Diffusivity was measured for 12 rock and construction material samples using a diffusion chamber method with oxygen as the tracer gas. Several steps were implemented to minimize leakage between the sample and the core holder, and rigorous tests were performed to evaluate and correct the overall leakage of the diffusion apparatus. This method was proven capable of rapidly measuring the diffusion coefficient for consolidated samples having dimensionless diffusivity values greater than 4.7 × 10−4 in a relative short duration (hours to 1 day). Gas diffusion measurements were also conducted for 11 repacked sediments and sands. Our results are consistent with literature data from liquid tracer through‐diffusion methods; the diffusivity versus porosity relationship for our data can be described by Archie's law. The m value in Archie's law was found to be correlated to pore size: the finer the pore size is, the larger the m value is. A linear regression equation can describe the change of m with ln d50 (the volumetric mean pore diameter) for most rocks with d50 < 1.3 μm, while the outliers can be correlated to narrower pore size distribution.
The adaptive immune system as a fundamental regulator of adipose tissue inflammation and insulin resistance
Authors: Winer Shawn , Winer Daniel A
Published: January 2012

Over the past decade, chronic inflammation in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) has gained acceptance as a lead promoter of insulin resistance in obesity. A great deal of evidence has pointed to the role of adipokines and innate immune cells, in particular, adipose tissue macrophages, in the regulation of fat inflammation and glucose homeostasis. However, more recently, cells of the adaptive immune system, specifically B and T lymphocytes, have emerged as unexpected promoters and controllers of insulin resistance. These adaptive immune cells infiltrate obesity expanded VAT and through cytokine secretion and macrophage modulation dictate the extent of the local inflammatory response, thereby directly impacting insulin resistance. The remarkable ability of our adaptive immune system to regulate insulin sensitivity and metabolism has unmasked a novel physiological function of this system, and promises new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to manage the disease. This review highlights critical roles of adipose tissue lymphocytes in governing glucose homeostasis.
The importance of an asymmetric distribution of acidic lipids for synaptotagmin 1 function as a Ca2+ sensor
Authors: Lai Ying , Shin Yeon-Kyun
Published: January 2012

Syt1 (synaptotagmin 1) is a major Ca2+ sensor for synaptic vesicle fusion. Although Syt1 is known to bind to SNARE (soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive fusion protein-attachment protein receptor) complexes and to the membrane, the mechanism by which Syt1 regulates vesicle fusion is controversial. In the present study we used in vitro lipid-mixing assays to investigate the Ca2+-dependent Syt1 function in proteoliposome fusion. To study the role of acidic lipids, the concentration of negatively charged DOPS (1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-L-serine) in the vesicle was varied. Syt1 stimulated lipid mixing by 3–10-fold without Ca2+. However, with Ca2+ there was an additional 2–5-fold enhancement. This Ca2+-dependent stimulation was observed only when there was excess PS (phosphatidylserine) on the t-SNARE (target SNARE) side. If there was equal or more PS on the v-SNARE (vesicule SNARE) side the Ca2+-dependent stimulation was not observed. We found that Ca2+ at a concentration between 10 and 50 μM was sufficient to give rise to the maximal enhancement. The single-vesicle-fusion assay indicates that the Ca2+-dependent enhancement was mainly on docking, whereas its effect on lipid mixing was small. Thus for Syt1 to function as a Ca2+ sensor, a charge asymmetry appears to be important and this may play a role in steering Syt1 to productively trans bind to the plasma membrane.
An Examination of the Associations Among Multiple Memory Systems, Past Tense, and Vocabulary in Typically Developing 5-Year-Old Children
Authors: Lum Jarrad A. G. , Kidd Evan
Published: January 2012

Purpose

Considerable research has investigated the role of verbal working memory in language development in children with and without language problems. Much less is currently known about the relationship between language and the declarative and procedural memory systems. This study examined whether these 2 memory systems were related to typically developing children’s past tense and lexical knowledge.

Method

Fifty-eight typically developing children approximately 5 years of age completed a battery of linguistic and nonlinguistic tasks, including tests of vocabulary, past tense production, and procedural and declarative memory.

Results

The results showed that declarative and procedural memory were not correlated with either regular or irregular past tense use. A significant correlation was observed between declarative memory and vocabulary.

Conclusions

The results of the study were not consistent with the view that the declarative and procedural memory systems support children’s use of the regular and irregular past tense. However, evidence was found suggesting that declarative memory supports vocabulary in this age group.
Linking Outcomes From Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Forms Using Item Response Models
Authors: Hoffman Lesa , Templin Jonathan , Rice Mabel L.
Published: January 2012

Purpose

The present work describes how vocabulary ability as assessed by 3 different forms of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT; Dunn & Dunn, 1997) can be placed on a common latent metric through item response theory (IRT) modeling, by which valid comparisons of ability between samples or over time can then be made.

Method

Responses from 2,625 cases in a longitudinal study of 697 persons for 459 unique PPVT items (175 items from Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Revised [PPVT–R] Form M [Dunn & Dunn, 1981], 201 items from Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—3 [PPVT–3] Form A [Dunn & Dunn, 1997], and 83 items from PPVT–3 Form B [Dunn & Dunn, 1997]) were analyzed using a 2-parameter logistic IRT model.

Results

The test forms each covered approximately ±3
SD
s of vocabulary ability with high reliability. Some differences between item sets in item difficulty and discrimination were found between the PPVT–3 Forms A and B.

Conclusions

Comparable estimates of vocabulary ability obtained from different test forms can be created through IRT modeling. The authors have also written a freely available SAS program that uses the obtained item parameters to provide IRT ability estimates given item responses to any of the 3 forms. This scoring resource will allow others with existing PPVT data to benefit from this work as well.

Supplemental Material

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14963565
Application of the Envelope Difference Index to Spectrally Sparse Speech
Authors: Souza Pamela , Hoover Eric , Gallun Frederick
Published: January 2012

Purpose

Amplitude compression is a common hearing aid processing strategy that can improve speech audibility and loudness comfort but also has the potential to alter important cues carried by the speech envelope. In previous work, a measure of envelope change, the Envelope Difference Index (EDI; Fortune, Woodruff, & Preves, 1994), was moderately related to recognition of spectrally robust consonants. This follow-up study investigated the relationship between the EDI and recognition of spectrally sparse consonants.

Method

Stimuli were vowel-consonant-vowel tokens processed to reduce spectral cues. Compression parameters were chosen to achieve a range of EDI values. Recognition was measured for 20 listeners with normal hearing.

Results

Both overall recognition and perception of consonant features were reduced at higher EDI values. Similar effects were noted with noise-vocoded and sine-vocoded processing and regardless of whether periodicity cues were available.

Conclusion

The data provide information about the acceptable limits of envelope distortion under constrained conditions. These limits can be used to consider the impact of envelope distortions in situations where other cues are available to varying extents.
The Impact of Sound-Field Systems on Learning and Attention in Elementary School Classrooms
Authors: Dockrell Julie E. , Shield Bridget
Published: January 2012

Purpose

The authors evaluated the installation and use of sound-field systems to investigate the impact of these systems on teaching and learning in elementary school classrooms.

Methods

The evaluation included acoustic surveys of classrooms, questionnaire surveys of students and teachers, and experimental testing of students with and without the use of sound-field systems. In this article, the authors report students' perceptions of classroom environments and objective data evaluating change in performance on cognitive and academic assessments with amplification over a 6-month period.

Results

Teachers were positive about the use of sound-field systems in improving children’s listening and attention to verbal instructions. Over time, students in amplified classrooms did not differ from those in nonamplified classrooms in their reports of listening conditions, nor did their performance differ in measures of numeracy, reading, or spelling. Use of sound-field systems in the classrooms resulted in significantly larger gains in performance in the number of correct items on the nonverbal measure of speed of processing and the measure of listening comprehension. Analysis controlling for classroom acoustics indicated that students' listening comprehension scores improved significantly in amplified classrooms with poorer acoustics but not in amplified classrooms with better acoustics.

Conclusions

Both teacher ratings and student performance on standardized tests indicated that sound-field systems improved performance on children’s understanding of spoken language. However, academic attainments showed no benefits from the use of sound-field systems. Classroom acoustics were a significant factor influencing the efficacy of sound-field systems; children in classes with poorer acoustics benefited in listening comprehension, whereas there was no additional benefit for children in classrooms with better acoustics.
Intelligibility of 4-Year-Old Children With and Without Cerebral Palsy
Authors: Hustad Katherine C. , Schueler Brynn , Schultz Laurel , DuHadway Caitlin
Published: January 2012

Purpose

The authors examined speech intelligibility in typically developing (TD) children and 3 groups of children with cerebral palsy (CP) who were classified into speech/language profile groups following Hustad, Gorton, and Lee (2010). Questions addressed differences in transcription intelligibility scores among groups, the effects of utterance length on intelligibility, the relationship between ordinal ratings of intelligibility and orthographic transcription intelligibility scores, and the difference between parent and naïve listener ordinal ratings.

Method

Speech samples varying in length from 1 to 7 words were elicited from 23 children with CP (
M
age
= 54.3 months) and 20 TD children (
M
age
= 55.1 months). Two hundred fifteen naïve listeners made orthographic transcriptions and ordinal ratings of intelligibility. Parent ordinal ratings of intelligibility were obtained from a previous study (Hustad et al., 2010).

Results

Intelligibility varied with speech/language profile group and utterance length, with different patterns observed by profile group. Ratings of intelligibility by parents and naïve listeners did not differ, and both were highly correlated with transcription intelligibility scores.

Conclusion

Intelligibility was reduced for all groups of children with CP relative to TD children, suggesting the importance of speech-language intervention and the need for research investigating variables associated with changes in intelligibility in children.
Application of Classification Models to Pharyngeal High-Resolution Manometry
Authors: Mielens Jason D. , Hoffman Matthew R. , Ciucci Michelle R. , McCulloch Timothy M. , Jiang Jack J.
Published: January 2012

Purpose

The authors present 3 methods of performing pattern recognition on spatiotemporal plots produced by pharyngeal high-resolution manometry (HRM).

Method

Classification models, including the artificial neural networks (ANNs) multilayer perceptron (MLP) and learning vector quantization (LVQ), as well as support vector machines (SVM), were evaluated for their ability to identify disordered swallowing. Data were collected from 12 control subjects and 13 subjects with swallowing disorders; for this experiment, these subjects swallowed 5-ml water boluses. Following extraction of relevant parameters, a subset of the data was used to train the models, and the remaining swallows were then independently classified by the networks.

Results

All methods produced high average classification accuracies, with MLP, SVM, and LVQ achieving accuracies of 96.44%, 91.03%, and 85.39%, respectively. When evaluating the individual contributions of each parameter and groups of parameters to the classification accuracy, parameters pertaining to the upper esophageal sphincter were most valuable.

Conclusion

Classification models show high accuracy in segregating HRM data sets and represent 1 method of facilitating application of HRM to the clinical setting by eliminating the time required for some aspects of data extraction and interpretation.
Determination of pressure balance distortion coefficient and zero-pressure effective area uncertainties
Authors: Ramnath V.
Published: January 2012

The behaviour of piston-cylinder operated pressure balances is characterized by the distortion coefficientλand zero-pressure effective areaA0which model the variation of a pressure balance’s area in terms of the applied pressure. This paper determines the uncertainties inλandA0when utilizing the method of cross-floating with another pressure balance standard whose parameters and associated uncertainties are known. A limitation that is frequently encountered in many attempts of the uncertainty analysis for a pressure balance is that no readily accessible uncertainty quantification framework for the distortion coefficient is present. As a result the uncertainty in a pressure balance’s area at elevated applied pressures is typically underestimated in the absence of this uncertainty information. We firstly review the uncertainty formulation for a pressure balance generated pressure involving correlation effects in terms of an implicit multivariate matrix equation approach and then utilizing the resulting solution present the methodology to consistently perform the uncertainty analysis forλandA0.
Metabolic Syndrome Indicators and Target Organ Damage in Urban Active Coping African and Caucasian Men: The SABPA Study
Authors: de Kock A. , Malan L. , Potgieter J. , Steenekamp W. , van der Merwe M.
Published: January 2012

Psychosocial stress relating to an urban environment or acculturation increases the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS). The objectives of this study were firstly to indicate and compare differences regarding appraisal of stress or active coping responses in urban African (n=88) and Caucasian (n=101) male teachers of South Africa, in accord with the prevalence of MetS indicators. And secondly to investigate the extent to which utilisation of active coping responses, together with MetS indicators, predict target organ damage, in these men. The Coping Strategy Indicator determined high and low active coping responses in male teachers from the Sympathetic Activity and Ambulatory Blood Pressure in Africans (SABPA) study. SABPA inclusion and exclusion criteria were used. Additionally, diabetic medication users (n=8), and participants with renal impairment (n=2) or HIV positive (n=13), were excluded. MetS indicators included glucose, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, blood pressure, and waist circumference, independent of confounders (age, physical activity, gamma glutamyl transferase). Microalbuminuria and carotid intima-media thickness indicated target organ damage. More MetS indicators exceeded the IDF cut-off points in high active coping African men (14.71%) than in their Caucasian counterparts (3.33%), as determined from χ² analyses. Furthermore, stepwise regressions indicated that more MetS indicators predicted endothelial dysfunction, especially in the high active coping African men. High active coping African men showed more manifestation of MetS, compared to their Caucasian counterparts, and revealed progress towards endothelial dysfunction.
Comment on “Securing special nuclear material: Recent advances in neutron detection and their role in nonproliferation” [J. Appl. Phys. 108, 111101 (2010)]
Authors: Fisher Peter , Ahlen Steven
Published: January 2012

We comment on an omission from the above mentioned article.
Electronic structure and bonding of HBeLi, HmgLi, and HCaLi in their bent equilibrium geometries
Authors: Penotti Fabio E.
Published: January 2012

Compact, yet accurate, non-orthogonal multi-configuration wavefunctions have been computed for HBeLi, HMgLi, and HCaLi in their respective nonlinear equilibrium geometries. They appear to be dominated by just two configurations, “orbitally relaxed” versions of the single-configuration spin-coupled and generalized valence bond (GVB) wavefunctions, respectively, with a smaller contribution from a self-consistent field (SCF)-like configuration. Double excitations out of the main configurations, while required for quantitative accuracy, enter the wavefunction with such small weights that they do not alter the qualitative picture that emerges from the orbital structure of the two main configurations. For comparison, calculations have also been carried out with two orthogonality-free configurations as reference, and no GVB-like or SCF-like configuration. Atoms-in-molecules (AIM) topological analyses of the overall electron densities, and considerations of local energetics in the differential neighbourhood of the equilibrium geometries, have been used to provide independent assessments of the nature of bonding in these molecules. Orbital structure and AIM results together suggest the existence of three-centre two-electron M–H–M′ bonds through hydrogen in all three molecules. Orbital pictures suggest these bonds are at least partially covalent, while a strict interpretation of values of the electron density Laplacian at AIM bond critical points would imply closed-shell interactions. Also for all three molecules, the orbital structures of the two main configurations suggest the presence of a one-electron two-centre bond between Li and the alkaline-earth atom. This bond may provide at least a partial explanation for the relative shortness of the inter-metallic distances, but is apparently too spread out to show up in AIM analyses of the total electron density. Considerations of local energetics support the more nuanced description of bonding that emerges, for these three molecules, from their orbital structure.
Phase separation dynamics in a two-dimensional magnetic mixture
Authors: Lichtner K. , Archer A. J. , Klapp S. H. L.
Published: January 2012

Based on classical density functional theory (DFT), we investigate the demixing phase transition of a two-dimensional, binary Heisenberg fluid mixture. The particles in the mixture are modeled as Gaussian soft spheres, where one component is characterized by an additional classical spin-spin interaction of Heisenberg type. Within the DFT we treat the particle interactions using a mean-field approximation. For certain magnetic coupling strengths, we calculate phase diagrams in the density-concentration plane. For sufficiently large coupling strengths and densities, we find a demixing phase transition driven by the ferromagnetic interactions of the magnetic species. We also provide a microscopic description (i.e., density profiles) of the resulting non-magnetic/magnetic fluid-fluid interface. Finally, we investigate the phase separation using dynamical density functional theory, considering both nucleation processes and spinodal demixing.
Accurate calculation of the intensity dependence of the refractive index using polarized basis sets
Authors: Baranowska-Łączkowska Angelika , Łączkowski Krzysztof Z. , Fernández Berta
Published: January 2012

Using the single and double excitation coupled cluster level of theory (CCSD) and the density functional theory/Becke 3-parameter Lee-Yang and Parr (DFT/B3LYP) methods, we test the performance of the Pol, ZPol, and LPol-n (n = ds, dl, fs, fl) basis sets in the accurate description of the intensity dependence of the refractive index in the Ne atom, and the N2 and the CO molecules. Additionally, we test the aug-pc-n (n = 1, 2) basis sets of Jensen, and the SVPD, TZVPD, and QZVPD bases by Rappoport and Furche. Tests involve calculations of dynamic polarizabilities and frequency dependent second hyperpolarizabilities. The results are interpreted in terms of the medium constants entering the expressions for optically induced birefringences. In all achiral systems, the performance of the LPol-n sets is very good. Also the aug-pc-2 set yields promising results. Accurate CCSD results available in the literature allow us to select the best basis sets in order to carry out DFT/B3LYP calculations of medium constants in larger molecules. As applications, we show results for (R)-fluoro-oxirane and (R)-methyloxirane.