Motor Performance in Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech and Speech Sound Disorders

Purpose: This study sought to determine if (a) children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS), other speech sound disorders (SSDs), and typical development (TD) would perform differently on a standardized motor assessment and (b) whether comorbid language impairment would impact group differences. Method: Speech, language, and motor abilities were assessed in children with CAS (n = 10), SSD (n = 16), and TD (n = 14) between the ages of 43 and 105 months. Motor skills were evaluated using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition (Henderson, Sugden, & Barnett, 2007), a behavioral assessment that is sensitive in identifying fine/gross motor impairments in children with a range of motor and learning abilities. Data were reanalyzed after reclassifying children by language ability. Results: The CAS group performed below the normal limit on all components of the motor assessment and more poorly than the TD and SSD groups on Aiming and Catching and Balance. When children were reclassified by language ability, the comorbid CAS + language impairment group performed worse than the SSD-only and TD groups on Manual Dexterity and Balance and worse than the TD group on Aiming and Catching; all 7 children with CAS + language impairment evidenced performance in the disordered range compared to 1 of 3 children in the CAS-only group and 2 of 6 children in the SSD + language impairment group. Conclusions: Children with CAS + language impairment appear to be at an increased risk for motor impairments, which may negatively impact social, academic, and vocational outcomes; referrals for motor screenings/assessments should be considered. Findings may suggest a higher order deficit that mediates cognitive-linguistic and motor impairments in this population

A Comparison of Oral Motor and Production Training for Children with Speech Sound Disorders

Despite the many debates about the usefulness of nonspeech oral motor exercises (NSOMEs) in the treatment of speech disorders, few controlled experiments have evaluated their efficacy in the remediation of phonological/articulatory disorders (PADs). More importantly, the relative effect of NSOMEs compared with traditional production treatment (PT) has not been established. The current study employed an alternating treatment design to evaluate changes in production of sounds targeted by NSOMEs and PT in nine children with PAD. Each subject received treatment on two linguistically distinct sounds in which one sound was treated with NSOMEs and the second sound was targeted with PT. The difference in treatment efficacy, measured as the percentage change in target production for NSOMEs versus PT, was compared using a paired t test. Because NSOMEs typically are used to ready a child for subsequent PT, comparison of PT treatment accuracy was made between NSOME-first and PT-first sessions. Results demonstrated a statistically significant effect of treatment type with greater production gains with PT compared with NSOMEs. Further, no facilitative effect of NSOMEs on PT was noted; however, the choice of distinct treatment targets may have contributed to this null effect. Although additional investigation is warranted, the current investigation does not support the efficacy of NSOMEs in the treatment of PAD

Short and long distance translocations: Movement and survival in eastern box turtles (_Terrapene carolina carolina_)

*Background/Question/Methods*

Human development represents a serious threat to wildlife populations through continued habitat loss and incidental mortality from construction activities. Resource managers responsible for protecting species with legal status or high public profile are faced with difficult decisions on how to best manage populations located in construction zones. One approach to mitigate mortalities is to relocate individuals. The effectiveness of translocation for reptiles and amphibians has been questioned, with studies often reporting higher mortality and increased movements of translocated individuals. Translocations of reptiles and amphibians have primarily involved moving animals long distances, well beyond an individual’s home range. For reptiles this means finding new nesting, foraging, and overwintering sites, which may be problematic. Moving individuals only short distances, within their home range, may reduce those problems. As part of the mitigation plan for a highway construction project in central Maryland, groups of eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) were translocated both short distances (<0.5km), and long distances (~5km). To investigate differences in survival and movement patterns among long distance translocation, short distance translocation, and non-translocation groups, I tracked 94 turtles (31 long distance translocation, 29 short distance translocation, and 34 non-translocation) using radio telemetry. 

*Results/Conclusions*

Eleven animals died during the first activity season after translocation (April through November 2008). The mortalities included two long distance translocation, six short distance translocation, and three non-translocation animals. The causes of mortality included road kill, construction activity, and unknown (1, 4, and 6 mortalities respectively). All construction related mortalities were a result inadequate exclusion fencing to keep turtles from trespassing back onto the construction site. All mortalities due to construction were either non-translocation or short distance translocation animals. Eleven other individuals were located at least once within the construction zone, suggesting that without our intervention mortality rates would have been much higher. Preliminary results for movement show that turtles in the non-translocation group had the lowest average movements while long distance translocation animals had the greatest average movements. Long distance translocation turtles also chose overwintering sites farther away from their initial overwintering sites than either short distance translocation or non-translocation turtles (average distance from original site of 261.8m, 155.6m, and 124.3m respectively). This suggests that movement patterns of short distance translocation turtles are more like native turtles.
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Some Preliminary Statistical, Qualitative, and Anecdotal Findings of an Empirical Study of Collegiality among Law Professors

This article is an empirically-based follow-up to a piece I published last year in the Journal of Legal Education entitled, On Collegiality, 54 J. Legal Educ. 406 (2004). It provides insight into the process of conducting empirical research and sets forth some preliminary – yet very intriguing – data and qualitative information gleaned from a survey responded to by more than 1200 law professors nationwide. The survey addressed a wide range of topics related to collegiality and job satisfaction in the legal-academic profession

Space, the new frontier

Space program - high thrust boosters with greater payload capabilities, superior guidance and control, and astronaut trainin

Exploring the Overlap Between Dyslexia and Speech Sound Production Deficits

Purpose Children with dyslexia have speech production deficits in a variety of spoken language contexts. In this article, we discuss the nature of speech production errors in children with dyslexia, including those who have a history of speech sound disorder and those who do not, to familiarize speech-language pathologists with speech production-specific risk factors that may help predict or identify dyslexia in young children. Method In this tutorial, we discuss the role of a phonological deficit in children with dyslexia and how this may manifest as speech production errors, sometimes in conjunction with a speech sound disorder but sometimes not. We also briefly review other factors outside the realm of phonology that may alert the speech-language pathologist to possible dyslexia. Results Speech-language pathologists possess unique knowledge that directly contributes to the identification and remediation of children with dyslexia. We present several clinical recommendations related to speech production deficits in children with dyslexia. We also review what is known about how and when children with speech sound disorder are most at risk for dyslexia. Conclusion Speech-language pathologists have a unique opportunity to assist in the identification of young children who are at risk for dyslexia

Deviations from Scale Invariance near a General Conformal Background

Deviations from scale invariance resulting from small perturbations of a general two dimensional conformal field theory are studied. They are expressed in terms of beta functions for renormalization of general couplings under local change of scale. The beta functions for homogeneous background are given perturbatively in terms of the data of the original conformal theory without any specific assumptions on its nature. The renormalization of couplings to primary operators and to first descendents is considered as well as that of couplings of a dilatonic type which involve explicit dependence on world sheet curvature.Comment: 24 pages.; latex file; RI-147; (07/92

Geometry of the Prytz Planimeter

The Prytz planimeter is a simple example of a system governed by a non-holonomic constraint. It is unique among planimeters in that it measures something more subtle than area, combining the area, centroid and other moments of the region being measured, with weights depending on the length of the planimeter. As a tool for measuring area, it is most accurate for regions that are small relative to its length. The configuration space of the planimeter is a non-principal circle bundle acted on by SU(1,1), (isom. to SL(2,R)). The motion of the planimeter is realized as parallel translation for a connection on this bundle and for a connection on a principal SU(1,1)-bundle. The holonomy group is SU(1,1). As a consequence, the planimeter is an example of a system with a phase shift on the circle that is not a simple rotation. There is a qualitative difference in the holonomy when tracing large regions as opposed to small ones. Generic elements of SU(1,1) act on S^1 with two fixed points or with no fixed points. When tracing small regions, the holonomy acts without fixed points. Menzin's conjecture states (roughly) that if a planimeter of length L traces the boundary of a region with area A > pi L^2, then it exhibits an asymptotic behavior and the holonomy acts with two fixed points, one attracting and one repelling. This is obvious if the region is a disk, and intuitively plausible if the region is convex and A >> pi L^2. A proof of this conjecture is given for a special case, and the conjecture is shown to imply the isoperimetric inequality.Comment: AmS-TeX, 23 pages, 12 figures in 2 *.gif files. To appear in Reports on Mathematical Physics. Part of proceedings of Workshop on Non-holonomic Constraints in Dynamics, Univ. of Calgary, Aug. 199

Immunoreactivity of Pluripotent Markers SSEA-5 and L1CAM in Human Tumors, Teratomas, and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Pluripotent stem cell markers can be useful for diagnostic evaluation of human tumors. The novel pluripotent marker stage-specific embryonic antigen-5 (SSEA-5) is expressed in undifferentiated human induced pluripotent cells (iPSCs), but little is known about SSEA-5 expression in other primitive tissues (e.g., human tumors). We evaluated SSEA-5 immunoreactivity patterns in human tumors, cell lines, teratomas, and iPS cells together with another pluripotent cell surface marker L1 cell adhesion molecule (L1CAM). We tested two hypotheses: (1) SSEA-5 and L1CAM would be immunoreactive and colocalized in human tumors; (2) SSEA-5 and L1CAM immunoreactivity would persist in iPSCs following retinal differentiating treatment. SSEA-5 immunofluorescence was most pronounced in primitive tumors, such as embryonal carcinoma. In tumor cell lines, SSEA-5 was highly immunoreactive in Capan-1 cells, while L1CAM was highly immunoreactive in U87MG cells. SSEA-5 and L1CAM showed colocalization in undifferentiated iPSCs, with immunopositive iPSCs remaining after 20 days of retinal differentiating treatment. This is the first demonstration of SSEA-5 immunoreactivity in human tumors and the first indication of SSEA-5 and L1CAM colocalization. SSEA-5 and L1CAM warrant further investigation as potentially useful tumor markers for histological evaluation or as markers to monitor the presence of undifferentiated cells in iPSC populations prior to therapeutic use