Family-related risk factors and their associations with behavior problems of children in foster care

Children in foster care are at risk for problems associated with breakdowns in their ecological system. Possible explanations for this may be that children’s daily interactions in early childhood are primarily with their parents. The relationship between child and parent (the dyad) is a crucial part of the way children grow and develop. Past research focuses on the child’s behavior problems as separate and isolated instead of focusing on the behavior problems as a symptom of the dysfunction in the dyad. This study explored the role of two specific risk factors for children in foster care and how these may influence their daily behaviors and wellbeing, parental mental illness and prenatal substance exposure. This study used Child Behavior Checklist scores as a measure for children’s daily behaviors. Data analyses include quantitative group- and case-level information retrieved from clinical records. Ecological systems theory is used as a framework to understand the dimensions of problems associated with child maltreatment and foster care placement. Results suggested that children in foster care who have been exposed to a parent with mental illness experience more behavior problems than children who have not been exposed to a parent with mental illness. Case level data suggested that age upon entry into foster care, duration of exposure to parental mental illness, number of placements, and children’s diagnoses could possibly be linked to more behavior problems for children in foster care

Using least-to-most assistive prompt hierarchy to increase chilld compliance with directives in an inclusive preschool classroom

Prompt strategies have been used in the literature to increase the compliance of preschool-aged children to teacher directives (Wilder & Atwell, 2006; Wolery & Gast, 1984). The purpose of this study was to train teachers to use guidance/prompt strategies to increase child compliance with teacher directives related to play and social skills. This study builds on the current literature base by using prompting, specifically the least-to-most assistive prompt hierarchy (LtM) (first described by Horner & Keilitz, 1975), with the additional requirement of teacher-child proximity and teacher-child eye level prior to beginning the prompt sequence. These two additional requirements are consistent with recommended practice in early childhood education (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997). The participants consisted of 3 preschool teachers in an inclusive early childhood classroom. Teacher prompts and children’s completion of teacher directives were measured during free choice center time. Results were consistent with previous research (Wilder & Atwell, 2006; Wolery & Gast, 1984) in that compliance to teacher directives increased in preschool children with the implementation of the least-to-most assistive prompt hierarchy

TEMPORAL TRENDS IN THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF IMPERVIOUS COVER RELATIVE TO STREAM LOCATION

Use of impervious cover is transitioning from an indicator of surface water condition to one that also guides and informs watershed planning and management, including Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. §1251 et seq.) reporting. Whether it is for understanding surface water condition or planning and management, impervious cover is most commonly expressed as summary measurement (e.g., percentage watershed in impervious cover). We use the National Land Cover Database to estimate impervious cover in the vicinity of surface waters for three time periods (2001, 2006, 2011). We also compare impervious cover in the vicinity of surface waters to watershed summary estimates of impervious cover for classifying the spatial pattern of impervious cover. Between 2001 and 2011, surface water shorelines (streams and water bodies) in the vicinity of impervious cover increased nearly 10,000 km. Across all time periods, approximately 27% of the watersheds in the continental United States had proximally distributed impervious cover, i.e., the percentage of impervious cover in the vicinity of surface waters was higher than its watershed summary expression. We discuss how impervious cover spatial pattern can be used to inform watershed planning and management, including reporting under the Clean Water Act

Segmental and prosodic features in Lama Reduplication processes

Lama Reduplication presents segmental and prosodic feature variations such vowel reduction, stranded syllable deletion, CV template insertion, nasality feature insertion and tone reversal, among other processes. In paper, I present first the duplication typology involving frozen reduplication, simple total reduplication, complex total reduplication and triplication. I then discuss some linguistic functions of duplication such as phonosemantic function, syntactic function, and pragmatic function. Within the theoretical framework of non linear morphophonology, I posit principles and steps for the analysis of Lama Reduplication. The implementation of my analytical framework shows that the order of duplication is governed by the morphological nature of the copied material (suffix and infix mainly) and the general principles and conventions of Multilinear phonology.Keywords: Reduplication, frozen reduplication, triplication, phonosemantic function, syntactic function, pragmatic function, mirror-image tone

Can the FDA Improve Oversight of Foreign Clinical Trials: Closing the Information Gap and Moving Towards a Globalized Regulatory Scheme

Currently, pharmaceutical companies\u27 utilization of foreign clinical trial data is a ubiquitous and indispensable aspect of gaining approval to market drugs in the United States. Cost benefits, a larger pool of ready volunteer subjects, and greater efficiency in clinical testing are some of the reasons for conducting clinical trials overseas. Despite these advantages, lack of proper oversight may have serious public health implications regarding the integrity of clinical research, ethical treatment of human subjects, and drug safety. Due to the expansive global nature of foreign clinical trials, there are concerns with the FDA\u27s ability to monitor and regulate these trials. This article examines the FDA\u27s oversight of foreign clinical trials and the agency\u27s limitations regulating these trials. In addition to looking at steps the FDA is taking to address these limitations, the article examines other potential regulatory and cooperative actions that can be taken to effectively monitor foreign clinical trials and to ensure data integrity and patient safety

Effects of current velocity on habitat suitability of exotic giant ramshorn snails (Marisa cornuarietis) in Comal Springs, Texas

The effect of velocity on habitat suitability of Marisa cornuarietis (Pilidae) was studied over a four month (28 Feb 98 - 12 June 98) period at Landa Lake, New Braunfels, Comal Co., TX, and in the laboratory. Well withdrawals and drought conditions cause decreases in springflows that lead to subsequent decreases in current velocities within the lake. Springflows during this study ranged from 9.4 to 6.7 m3 /s. Except for two instances of M. cornuarietis observed in Saggitaria platyphylla, no snails were observed in macrophyte beds other than Vallisneria americana. A negative relationship between velocity and snail abundance was found in field observations (r = -0.335). The greatest numbers of snails were found in velocities less than 0.03 meters per second (mps). The partitioning velocity in the lake was predicted to be 0.17 mps by way of a simple linear regression. No snails were found in velocities greater than 0.16 mps. In laboratory experiments, t-tests for independent samples revealed that of four size classes of snails, the three smallest were significantly impacted with respect to mobility by a velocity of 0.18 mps. The largest size class was also effected, though to a lesser degree. These findings show that there is a relationship between current velocity and habitat suitability for M. cornuarietis in Landa Lake.Biolog

Can the FDA Improve Oversight of Foreign Clinical Trials: Closing the Information Gap and Moving Towards a Globalized Regulatory Scheme

Currently, pharmaceutical companies\u27 utilization of foreign clinical trial data is a ubiquitous and indispensable aspect of gaining approval to market drugs in the United States. Cost benefits, a larger pool of ready volunteer subjects, and greater efficiency in clinical testing are some of the reasons for conducting clinical trials overseas. Despite these advantages, lack of proper oversight may have serious public health implications regarding the integrity of clinical research, ethical treatment of human subjects, and drug safety. Due to the expansive global nature of foreign clinical trials, there are concerns with the FDA\u27s ability to monitor and regulate these trials. This article examines the FDA\u27s oversight of foreign clinical trials and the agency\u27s limitations regulating these trials. In addition to looking at steps the FDA is taking to address these limitations, the article examines other potential regulatory and cooperative actions that can be taken to effectively monitor foreign clinical trials and to ensure data integrity and patient safety

Phonological processes in the noun class system of lama.

The purpose of this paper is to account for the phonological processes taking place within noun classes and across noun classes in Lama, particularly when some class suffixes are attached to noun stems. This study is therefore an overview of the noun class phonology. After an introduction to the phonology and to the noun class system, we will examine specific phonological problems. It will be shown that when some root final sounds are in contact with some suffixes, they undergo structural changes, namely, assimilation, vowel truncation, and root controlled vowel harmony.</jats:p