A core vocabulary approach for management of inconsistent speech disorder

Developmental speech disorder is accounted for by theories derived from psychology, psycholinguistics, linguistics and medicine, with researchers developing assessment protocols that reflect their theoretical perspective. How theory and data analyses lead to different therapy approaches, however, is sometimes unclear. Here, we present a case management plan for a 7 year old boy with unintelligible speech. Assessment data were analysed to address seven case management questions regarding need for intervention, service delivery, differential diagnosis, intervention goals, generalization of therapeutic gains, discharge criteria and evaluation of efficacy. Jarrod was diagnosed as having inconsistent speech disorder that required intervention. He pronounced 88% of words differently when asked to name each word in the 25 word inconsistency test of the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology three times, each trial separated by another activity. Other standardized assessments supported the diagnosis of inconsistent speech disorder that, according to previous research, is associated with a deficit in phonological assembly. Core vocabulary intervention was chosen as the most appropriate therapy technique. Its nature and a possible protocol for implementation is described.

Treating Jarrod: A core vocabulary approach

This paper is the final paper in a special issue of Advances in Speech-Language Pathology. The paper presents an intervention case study of a 7 year old child with severe phonological difficulties described in Holm and Crosbie (2006). Dodd et al (2006) hypothesised that Jarrod had an underlying deficit of generating phonological plans for word production and suggested that Jarrod would benefit from core vocabulary therapy. This paper reports on one block of core vocabulary therapy undertaken with Jarrod. Pre- and post-intervention measures showed that Jarrod made significant progress. His speech became more consistent and his accuracy (percent consonants correct) increased.

A comparison of three therapy methods for children with different types of developmental phonological disorder

Treatment case studies of three children whose speech was characterized by non-developmental errors are described. Three therapy methods were trialed with each child: phonological contrast; core vocabulary and PROMPT. The accuracy and intelligibility of the children's connected speech improved throughout: the course of the programme. Intervention that focused on teaching a rule about the contrastive use of phonemes was most successful for a child who consistently made non-developmental errors. Children making inconsistent errors received most benefit from the core vocabulary approach that markedly enhanced consistency of production. However, once consistency was established, one child benefited from phonological contrast therapy. While the results of the study should be interpreted with caution due to the small sample size and the cumulative effects of intervention, the findings suggest that different parts of a child's phonological and phonetic system may respond to various types of treatment approaches that target different aspects of speech production. The implication drawn is that just as no single treatment approach is appropriate for all children with disordered phonology, management of some children may involve selecting and sequencing a range of different approaches.

On the validity of the shrinking core model in noncatalytic gas solid reaction

By using a matched asymptotic expansion technique, the shrinking core model (SCM) used in non-catalytic gas solid reactions with general kinetic expression is rigorously justified in this paper as a special case of the homogeneous model when the reaction rate is much faster than that of diffusion. The time-pendent velocity of the moving reacted-unreacted interface is found to be proportional to the gas flux at that interface for all geometries of solid particles, and the thickness order of the reaction zone and also the degree of chemical reaction at the interface is discussed in this paper.

Foraging and vein-cutting behaviour of Euploea core corinna (W.S. Macleay) (Lepidoptera : Nymphalidae) caterpillars feeding on latex-bearing leaves

Caterpillars of Euploea core corinna (W. S. Macleay) sever leaf veins prior to feeding on their latex-bearing host plants, which restricts the flow of latex at feeding sites. The severing of leaf veins by insects feeding on latex-bearing plants is commonly referred to as 'sabotaging' and is thought to be an evolved response by the insect to counter the negative effects of feeding on latex-rich leaves. Sabotaging behaviour is described for all instars of E. core corinna, with particular attention given to neonates. Vein cutting by neonate E. core corinna caterpillars can occur within 2 h of hatching, with most caterpillars establishing feeding sites within 10 h. Commonly, first instars cut an are-shaped row of leaf side-veins parallel to the leaf margin, but they may also cut the leaf mid-rib in a fashion similar to older instar larvae. From a sample of 50 E. core corinna larvae, representing all instars, we found that the diameters of the veins cut by caterpillars are closely correlated to larval head width (r=0.90). Through manipulative experiments, we demonstrate for the first time that sabotaging behaviour in neonate caterpillars imposes no detectable short-term physiological costs on those caterpillars.

Continental extension: From core complexes to rigid block faulting

Extension of overthickened continental crust is commonly characterized by an early core complex stage of extension followed by a later stage of crustal-scale rigid block faulting. These two stages are clearly recognized during the extensional destruction of the Alpine orogen in northeast Corsica, where rigid block faulting overprinting core complex formation eventually led to crustal separation and the formation of a new oceanic backarc basin (the Ligurian Sea). Here we investigate the geodynamic evolution of continental extension by using a novel, fully coupled thermomechanical numerical model of the continental crust. We consider that the dynamic evolution is governed by fault weakening, which is generated by the evolution of the natural-state variables (i.e., pressure, deviatoric stress, temperature, and strain rate) and their associated energy fluxes. Our results show the appearance of a detachment layer that controls the initial separation of the brittle crust on characteristic listric faults, and a core complex formation that is exhuming strongly deformed rocks of the detachment zone and relatively undeformed crustal cores. This process is followed by a transitional period, characterized by an apparent tectonic quiescence, in which deformation is not localized and energy stored in the upper crust is transferred downward and causes self-organized mobilization of the lower crust. Eventually, the entire crust ruptures on major crosscutting faults, shifting the tectonic regime from core complex formation to wholesale rigid block faulting.

Structure optimization combining soft-core interaction functions, the diffusion equation method, and molecular dynamics

Smoothing the potential energy surface for structure optimization is a general and commonly applied strategy. We propose a combination of soft-core potential energy functions and a variation of the diffusion equation method to smooth potential energy surfaces, which is applicable to complex systems such as protein structures; The performance of the method was demonstrated by comparison with simulated annealing using the refinement of the undecapeptide Cyclosporin A as a test case. Simulations were repeated many times using different initial conditions and structures since the methods are heuristic and results are only meaningful in a statistical sense.

Nonword repetition and young children's receptive vocabulary: A longitudinal study

A longitudinal study investigated the claim that phonological memory contributes to vocabulary acquisition in young children. In the first phase, children were given tests of receptive vocabulary, receptive grammar, nonword repetition, phonological sensitivity (or awareness), and performance IQ. In the second phase, children were given the nonword repetition and receptive vocabulary tests. In Session 1, both nonword repetition and phonological sensitivity accounted for variation in receptive vocabulary and grammar after performance IQ effects were controlled. When phonological sensitivity was also controlled, nonword repetition did not account for significant additional variation in receptive vocabulary and grammar, When performance IQ and autoregression effects were controlled, all Session I verbal ability measures predicted Session 2 vocabulary, but only Session 1 vocabulary predicted Session 2 nonword repetition. When phonological sensitivity was also controlled. Session 1 nonword repetition (leniently scored) predicted Session 2 vocabulary. Overall, these findings show qualified support for the claim that the capacity component of nonword repetition contributes directly to vocabulary in young children. They suggest that the association between nonword repetition and vocabulary in young children may, to a substantial extent, reflect a latent phonological processing ability that is also manifest in phonological sensitivity.

An Ethics Core Curriculum for Australasian Medical Schools

Teaching ethics incorporates teaching of knowledge as well as skills and attitudes. Each of these requires different teaching and assessment methods. A core curriculum of ethics knowledge must address both the foundations of ethics and specific ethical topics. Ethical skills teaching focuses on the development of ethical awareness, moral reasoning, communication and collaborative action skills. Attitudes that are important for medical students to develop include honesty, integrity and trustworthiness, empathy and compassion, respect, and responsibility, as well as critical self-appraisal and commitment to lifelong education.

Some vocabulary and grammar for the analysis of multi-environment trials, as applied to the analysis of FPB and PPB trials

For the improvement of genetic material suitable for on farm use under low-input conditions, participatory and formal plant breeding strategies are frequently presented as competing options. A common frame of reference to phrase mechanisms and purposes related to breeding strategies will facilitate clearer descriptions of similarities and differences between participatory plant breeding and formal plant breeding. In this paper an attempt is made to develop such a common framework by means of a statistically inspired language that acknowledges the importance of both on farm trials and research centre trials as sources of information for on farm genetic improvement. Key concepts are the genetic correlation between environments, and the heterogeneity of phenotypic and genetic variance over environments. Classic selection response theory is taken as the starting point for the comparison of selection trials (on farm and research centre) with respect to the expected genetic improvement in a target environment (low-input farms). The variance-covariance parameters that form the input for selection response comparisons traditionally come from a mixed model fit to multi-environment trial data. In this paper we propose a recently developed class of mixed models, namely multiplicative mixed models, also called factor-analytic models, for modelling genetic variances and covariances (correlations). Mixed multiplicative models allow genetic variances and covariances to be dependent on quantitative descriptors of the environment, and confer a high flexibility in the choice of variance-covariance structure, without requiring the estimation of a prohibitively high number of parameters. As a result detailed considerations regarding selection response comparisons are facilitated. ne statistical machinery involved is illustrated on an example data set consisting of barley trials from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). Analysis of the example data showed that participatory plant breeding and formal plant breeding are better interpreted as providing complementary rather than competing information.

New W-isotope evidence for rapid terrestrial accretion and very early core formation

The short-lived Hf-182-W-182-isotope system is an ideal clock to trace core formation and accretion processes of planets. Planetary accretion and metal/silicate fractionation chronologies are calculated relative to the chondritic Hf-182-W-182-isotope evolution. Here, we report new high-precision W-isotope data for the carbonaceous chondrite Allende that are much less radiogenic than previously reported and are in good agreement with published internal Hf-W chronometry of enstatite chondrites. If the W-isotope composition of terrestrial rocks, representing the bulk silicate Earth, is homogeneous and 2.24 epsilon(182W) units more radiogenic than that of the bulk Earth, metal/silicate differentiation of the Earth occurred very early. The new W-isotope data constrain the mean time of terrestrial core formation to 34 million years after the start of solar system accretion. Early terrestrial core formation implies rapid terrestrial accretion, thus permitting formation of the Moon by giant impact while Hf-182 was still alive. This could explain why lunar W-isotopes are more radiogenic than the terrestrial value. Copyright (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd.