A Case Study of the "Who is NOBODY?" Project: A Character Development Program for Children with Learning Disabilities

This research study explored a support system for children with learning disabilities. The Learning Disabilities Association of Niagara Region (LDANR) recently expanded its Better Emotional and Social Times (B.E.S.T.) program to incorporate an innovative, character education initiative called the “Who is NOBODY?” program. The objective of this qualitative case study was two-fold. First, the study aimed to support the LDANR in assessing the efficacy of the “Who is NOBODY?” program, providing the LDANR with empirical support for their programs. Second, the study enabled a more in-depth understanding of how to best support children with LD in regards to their social and emotional well-being. The study explored the “Who is NOBODY?” program through three lenses: design, implementation, and experiences of participating children. Three primary themes emerged from these three data lenses: positive character traits, prosocial behaviour, and strong self-efficacy – leading to the promotion of strong character development and self-esteem. Taken together, the “Who is NOBODY?” program was shown to be a successful remediation program for supporting vulnerable children with LD.

Bridging the Conceptualization of Youth with Intellectual Disabilities to Sentencing under the YCJA

The current study examined how disability and the concepts of risk, need and responsivity are understood by criminal justice professionals and inform their perceptions of young offenders with ID at sentencing under the ‘different but equal’ philosophy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 lawyers and 8 mental health workers across 6 major urban areas in Ontario. Participants primarily perceived ID through a medical discourse, overlooking social and structural barriers that, in some cases, may hinder adherence to sentencing dispositions. Specifically, participants discussed balancing the reduced culpability of offenders (e.g., intent) – justifying lenient sentencing – with public safety concerns (i.e., ID viewed as a barrier to rehabilitation) – justifying increasing the severity of sentences. Participants assessed clients with ID and their risks, needs and responsivity within the context of other legal factors: criminal history, severity of the offence, and YCJA objectives. Participants articulated the importance of tailored courthouse identification programs, services/funding, and education/training.

Examining Predictors of Quality of Life of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities After Deinstitutionalization

This study examined if a person’s quality of life could be predicted by six relevant factors in a sample of 114 individuals with intellectual disability who had moved from institutional settings to community living settings within Ontario. Further, two aspects of self-efficacy were tested to see if they moderated the relationship between the possible predictors and the quality of life indicator. The initial multiple regression model accounted for a very small amount of the variance in the outcome (r2 = .08). The second analysis included decision-making as a predictor (r2 = .35) but did not find it to be moderator. The third analysis used opportunities for change as a predictor (r2 = .28), and as a moderator with two significant interaction terms, health and years in an institutional setting (r2 = .35). These findings support the often-theorized influence of self-efficacy on quality of life for individuals with intellectual disability.

ESL Collections, University Libraries, and Internationalization

This research study examines the content, types of materials, locations, and library collection development policies concerning ESL (English as a second language) materials collections on university campuses in the United States and Canada. ESL learning materials are defined in this study as those materials supporting adult learners who are non-native speakers of English in a higher education setting. The purpose of this study is to describe the content and types of materials in these collections, to learn where these collections are typically housed on university campuses, to discover what collection development policies may inform the building of these collections, and to explore the potential significance of these collections for university libraries. The overriding question that informs this study is the following: Can involvement with ESL collections serve as a way for university libraries to participate in internationalization by supporting the language needs of international students?

Nature of crossmodal plasticity in the blind brain and interplay with sight restoration

Thèse réalisée en cotutelle avec l'Université catholique de Louvain.

Global and dominance with concentric hierarchical stimuli and orientation classification task. 'Dominancia global y local con est??mulos conc??ntricos y tareas de clasificaci??n de la orientaci??n'

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n. Resumen tambi??n en ingl??s

The biofeedback use in motor learning of people with spinal cord injury

The use of biofeedback in the spinal cord injuryperson rehabilitation has been increasing eventhough there are no data about the effi cacy of suchtechnique. The study aimed to evaluate the effi cacyof the technique in the motor rehabilitation ofspinal cord injured patients with different lesions.Using case studies, three participants, two paraplegicsand one quadriplegic, with different lesionlevels and degrees of defi ciency were exposed toelectromyography biofeedback training sessions.Data were obtained from the training sessions withbiofeedback, from three manual test examinationsof the muscles straight and from the reports of theparticipants after the training process. These sourcesof data were compared and the results of all thethree different sources showed improvement forall the participants. The study concluded that theelectromyography biofeedback technique can bean important tool in the rehabilitation process ofpatients with this kind of lesion.

Current status of knowledge about suicide in people with cancer

Aim: To review the current knowledge about suicide in cancer patients. Method: We searchedspecialized databases using keywords for articles published in the last two decades (1990-2010),and compiled and reviewed them in order to: indicate the prevalence of suicide in cancer patientsworldwide and in Colombia, differentiating the data by sex and age; establish the types of cancerthat are associated with suicide, identify risk factors for committing or considering suicide andpresent the strategies of professional and psychological intervention directed at cancer patientswith suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. The present article is a review of the information on thesubject. Results: We found that: in cancer patients, the suicide rate is two times higher thanin the general population; depression, suicidal ideation and location of cancer are some of therisk factors for suicide, and there is a lack of published guidelines for professional managementof the suicidal patient with cancer. Conclusion: The need to carry out research on the topic ofsuicide in cancer patients was established.

Effect of joint mobilization on the H Reflex amplitude in people with spasticity

Objective: To determine the effect of ankle joint mobilization on the H reflex amplitude of thesoleus muscle in people with spasticity. Materials and methods: A quasi-experimental study withcrossover design and simple masking was conducted in 24 randomized subjects to initiate thecontrol or experimental group. Traction and rhythmic oscillation were applied for five minutesto the ankle joint. H wave amplitude changes of Hoffmann reflex (electrical equivalent of themonosynaptic spinal reflex) was assessed, stimulating the tibial nerve at the level of the poplitealfossa and recording in the soleus muscle. In each subject 12 measurements were taken: basalrate, during and after mobilization. Changes in H reflex amplitude were calculated in relationto basal measurement. For each measurement a hypothesis test was performed (Student t test).Results: In groups of patients with brain injury and incomplete spinal cord injury, a significantdifference was found between measurements of both studies, concerning variation in H reflexamplitude during the application of joint mobilization techniques, with a decrease in the experimentalgroup and an increase in the control group. In contrast, no significant differences werefound after mobilization therapy. Patients with complete spinal cord injury showed no significantdifferences in any measurements. Conclusion: We demonstrate the effectiveness of jointmobilization in the decrease of H reflex amplitude in patients with brain injury or incompletespinal cord injury during the mobilization maneuver, but no residual effect after completion ofthe trial. This research showed no evidence regarding excitability reduction in complete spinalcord injury. We suggest that therapeutic interventions to decrease muscle tone based on the jointmobilization should be reconsidered.

A shift to randomness of brain oscillations in people with autism

BACKGROUND: Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) enables investigation of the intrinsic functional organization of the brain. Fractal parameters such as the Hurst exponent, H, describe the complexity of endogenous low-frequency fMRI time series on a continuum from random (H = .5) to ordered (H = 1). Shifts in fractal scaling of physiological time series have been associated with neurological and cardiac conditions. METHODS: Resting-state fMRI time series were recorded in 30 male adults with an autism spectrum condition (ASC) and 33 age- and IQ-matched male volunteers. The Hurst exponent was estimated in the wavelet domain and between-group differences were investigated at global and voxel level and in regions known to be involved in autism. RESULTS: Complex fractal scaling of fMRI time series was found in both groups but globally there was a significant shift to randomness in the ASC (mean H = .758, SD = .045) compared with neurotypical volunteers (mean H = .788, SD = .047). Between-group differences in H, which was always reduced in the ASC group, were seen in most regions previously reported to be involved in autism, including cortical midline structures, medial temporal structures, lateral temporal and parietal structures, insula, amygdala, basal ganglia, thalamus, and inferior frontal gyrus. Severity of autistic symptoms was negatively correlated with H in retrosplenial and right anterior insular cortex. CONCLUSIONS: Autism is associated with a small but significant shift to randomness of endogenous brain oscillations. Complexity measures may provide physiological indicators for autism as they have done for other medical conditions.

Combinatorial peptide ligand libraries and plant proteomics: a winning strategy at a price

The mechanism of action and properties of a solid-phase ligand library made of hexapeptides (combinatorial peptide ligand libraries or CPLL), for capturing the "hidden proteome", i.e. the low- and very low-abundance proteins constituting the vast majority of species in any proteome, as applied to plant tissues, are reviewed here. Plant tissues are notoriously recalcitrant to protein extraction and to proteome analysis. Firstly, rigid plant cell walls need to be mechanically disrupted to release the cell content and, in addition to their poor protein yield, plant tissues are rich in proteases and oxidative enzymes, contain phenolic compounds, starches, oils, pigments and secondary metabolites that massively contaminate protein extracts. In addition, complex matrices of polysaccharides, including large amount of anionic pectins, are present. All these species compete with the binding of proteins to the CPLL beads, impeding proper capture and identification / detection of low-abundance species. When properly pre-treated, plant tissue extracts are amenable to capture by the CPLL beads revealing thus many new species among them low-abundance proteins. Examples are given on the treatment of leaf proteins, of corn seed extracts and of exudate proteins (latex from Hevea brasiliensis). In all cases, the detection of unique gene products via CPLL capture is at least twice that of control, untreated sample.

Combinatorial peptide ligand libraries and plant proteomics: a winning strategy at a price

The mechanism of action and properties of a solid-phase ligand library made of hexapeptides (combinatorial peptide ligand libraries or CPLL, for capturing the "hidden proteome", i.e. the low- and very low-abundance proteins Constituting the vast majority of species in any proteome. as applied to plant tissues, are reviewed here. Plant tissues are notoriously recalcitrant to protein extraction and to proteome analysis, Firstly, rigid plant cell walls need to be mechanically disrupted to release the cell content and, in addition to their poor protein yield, plant tissues are rich in proteases and oxidative enzymes, contain phenolic Compounds, starches, oils, pigments and secondary metabolites that massively contaminate protein extracts. In addition, complex matrices of polysaccharides, including large amount of anionic pectins, are present. All these species compete with the binding of proteins to the CPLL beads, impeding proper capture and identification I detection of low-abundance species. When properly pre-treated, plant tissue extracts are amenable to capture by the CPLL beads revealing thus many new species among them low-abundance proteins. Examples are given on the treatment of leaf proteins, of corn seed extracts and of exudate proteins (latex from Hevea brasiliensis). In all cases, the detection of unique gene products via CPLL Capture is at least twice that of control, untreated sample. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.