Early social experience and individual differences in infants' joint attention

Fifty-nine healthy infants were filmed with their mothers and with a researcher at two, four, six and nine months in face-to-face play, and in toy-play at six and nine months. During toy-play at both ages, two indices of joint attention (JA)—infant bids for attention, and percent of time in shared attention—were assessed, along with other behavioural measures. Global ratings were made at all four ages of infants’ and mothers’ interactive style. The mothers varied in psychiatric history (e.g., half had experienced postpartum depression) and socioeconomic status, so their interactive styles were diverse. Variation in nine-month infant JA — with mother and with researcher — was predicted by variation in maternal behaviour and global ratings at six months, but not at two or four months. Concurrent adult behaviour also influenced nine-month JA, independent of infant ratings. Six-month maternal behaviours that positively predicted later JA (some of which remained important at nine months) included teaching, conjoint action on a toy, and global sensitivity. Other behaviours (e.g., entertaining) negatively predicted later JA. Findings are discussed in terms of social-learning and neurobiological accounts of JA emergence.

Treatment of written verb and written sentence production in an individual with aphasia: A clinical study

Background: Although the efficacy of treatments for spoken verb and sentence production deficits in aphasia has been documented widely, less is known about interventions for written verb and written sentence production deficits. Aims: This study documents a treatment aiming to improve production of (a) written subject-verb sentences (involving intransitive verbs) and (b) written subject-verb-object sentences (involving transitive verbs). Methods & Procedures: The participant, a 63-year-old female aphasic speaker, had a marked language comprehension deficit, apraxia of speech, relatively good spelling abilities, and no hemiplegia. The treatment involved intransitive verbs producing subject-verb active sentences and transitive verbs producing subject-verb-object active non-reversible sentences. The treatment was undertaken in the context of current UK clinical practice. Outcomes & Results: Statistical improvements were noted for the trained sets of verbs and sentences. Other improvements were also noted in LW's ability to retrieve some non-treated verbs and construct written sentences. Treatment did not generalise to sentence comprehension and letter spelling to dictation. Conclusions: Our participant's ability to write verbs and sentences improved as a result of the treatment.

Developmental changes in the germinability, desiccation tolerance, hardseededness, and longevity of individual seeds of Trifolium ambiguum

Background and Aims: Using two parental clones of outcrossing Trifolium ambiguum as a potential model system, we examined how during seed development the maternal parent, number of seeds per pod, seed position within the pod, and pod position within the inflorescence influenced individual seed fresh weight, dry weight, water content, germinability, desiccation tolerance, hardseededness, and subsequent longevity of individual seeds. Methods: Near simultaneous, manual reciprocal crosses were carried out between clonal lines for two experiments. Infructescences were harvested at intervals during seed development. Each individual seed was weighed and then used to determine dry weight or one of the physiological behaviour traits. Key Results: Whilst population mass maturity was reached at 33–36 days after pollination (DAP), seed-to-seed variation in maximum seed dry weight, when it was achieved, and when maturation drying commenced, was considerable. Individual seeds acquired germinability between 14 and 44 DAP, desiccation tolerance between 30 and 40 DAP, and the capability to become hardseeded between 30 and 47 DAP. The time for viability to fall to 50 % (p50) at 60 % relative humidity and 45 °C increased between 36 and 56 DAP, when the seed coats of most individuals had become dark orange, but declined thereafter. Individual seed f. wt at harvest did not correlate with air-dry storage survival period. Analysing survival data for cohorts of seeds reduced the standard deviation of the normal distribution of seed deaths in time, but no sub-population showed complete uniformity of survival period. Conclusions: Variation in individual seed behaviours within a developing population is inherent and inevitable. In this outbreeder, there is significant variation in seed longevity which appears dependent on embryo genotype with little effect of maternal genotype or architectural factors.

The influence of individual characteristics on employee creative participation

In a knowledge-based economy and dynamic work environment retaining competitiveness is increasingly dependent on creativity, skills, individual abilities and appropriate motivation. For instance, the UK government explicitly stated in the recent "Review of Employee Engagement and Investment" report that new ways are required through which British companies could boost employee engagement at work, improving staff commitment and, thereby, increase workplace productivity. Although creativity and innovation have been studied extensively, little is known about employees' intrinsic willingness to contribute novel ideas and solutions (defined here as creative participation). For instance, the same individual can thrive in one organisation but be completely isolated in another and the question is to what extent this depends on individual characteristics and organisational settings. The main aim of this research is, therefore, to provide a conceptual framework for identification of individual characteristics that influence employees' willingness to contribute new ideas. In order to achieve this aim the investigation will be based on a developed psychological experiment, and will include personal-profiling inventory and a questionnaire. Understanding how these parameters influence willingness of an individual to put forward created ideas would offer an opportunity for companies to improve motivation practices and team efficiency, and can consequently lead to better overall performance.

Percentile growth charts for biomedical studies using a porcine model

Increasing rates of obesity and heart disease are compromising quality of life for a growing number of people. There is much research linking adult disease with the growth and development both in utero and during the first year of life. The pig is an ideal model for studying the origins of developmental programming. The objective of this paper was to construct percentile growth curves for the pig for use in biomedical studies. The body weight (BIN) of pigs was recorded from birth to 150 days of age and their crown-to-rump length was measured over the neonatal period to enable the ponderal index (Pl; kg/m(3)) to be calculated. Data were normalised and percentile curves were constructed using Cole's lambda-mu-sigma (LMS) method for BW and PI. The construction of these percentile charts for use in biomedical research will allow a more detailed and precise tracking of growth and development of individual pigs under experimental conditions.

Vascular plant diversity and climate change in the alpine zone of the Lefka Ori, Crete

The aim of this study is to analyse the vascular flora and the local climate along an altitudinal gradient in the Lefka Ori massif Crete and to evaluate the potential effects of climate change on the plant diversity of the sub-alpine and alpine zones. It provides a quantitative/qualitative analysis of vegetation-environment relationships for four summits along an altitude gradient on the Lefka Ori massif Crete (1664-2339 m). The GLORIA multi-summit approach was used to provide vegetation and floristic data together with temperature records for every summit. Species richness and species turnover was calculated together with floristic similarity between the summits. 70 species were recorded, 20 of which were endemic, belonging to 23 different families. Cretan endemics dominate at these high altitudes. Species richness and turnover decreased with altitude. The two highest summits showed greater floristic similarity. Only 20% of the total flora recorded reaches the highest summit while 10% is common among summits. Overall there was a 4.96 degrees C decrease in temperature along the 675 m gradient. Given a scenario of temperature increase the ecotone between the sub-alpine and alpine zone would be likely to have the greatest species turnover. Southern exposures are likely to be invaded first by thermophilous species while northern exposures are likely to be more resistant to changes. Species distribution shifts will also depend on habitat availability. Many, already threatened, local endemic species will be affected first.

A GIS-based empirical model for vegetation prediction in Lefka Ori, Crete

The aim of the study was to establish and verify a predictive vegetation model for plant community distribution in the alti-Mediterranean zone of the Lefka Ori massif, western Crete. Based on previous work three variables were identified as significant determinants of plant community distribution, namely altitude, slope angle and geomorphic landform. The response of four community types against these variables was tested using classification trees analysis in order to model community type occurrence. V-fold cross-validation plots were used to determine the length of the best fitting tree. The final 9node tree selected, classified correctly 92.5% of the samples. The results were used to provide decision rules for the construction of a spatial model for each community type. The model was implemented within a Geographical Information System (GIS) to predict the distribution of each community type in the study site. The evaluation of the model in the field using an error matrix gave an overall accuracy of 71%. The user's accuracy was higher for the Crepis-Cirsium (100%) and Telephium-Herniaria community type (66.7%) and relatively lower for the Peucedanum-Alyssum and Dianthus-Lomelosia community types (63.2% and 62.5%, respectively). Misclassification and field validation points to the need for improved geomorphological mapping and suggests the presence of transitional communities between existing community types.

Donepezil for the symptomatic treatment of patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease: a meta-analysis of individual patient data from randomised controlled trials

Background: The objective was to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of donepezil (5 and 10 mg/day) compared with placebo in alleviating manifestations of mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). Method: A systematic review of individual patient data from Phase II and III double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled studies of up to 24 weeks and completed by 20 December 1999. The main outcome measures were the ADAS-cog, the CIBIC-plus, and reports of adverse events. Results: A total of 2376 patients from ten trials were randomised to either donepezil 5 mg/day (n = 821), 10 mg/day (n = 662) or placebo (n = 893). Cognitive performance was better in patients receiving donepezil than in patients receiving placebo. At 12 weeks the differences in ADAS-cog scores were 5 mg/day-placebo: - 2.1 [95% confidence interval (CI), - 2.6 to - 1.6; p < 0.001], 10 mg/day-placebo: - 2.5 ( - 3.1 to - 2.0; p < 0.001). The corresponding results at 24 weeks were - 2.0 ( - 2.7 to - 1.3; p < 0.001) and - 3.1 ( - 3.9 to - 2.4; p < 0.001). The difference between the 5 and 10 mg/day doses was significant at 24 weeks (p = 0.005). The odds ratios (OR) of improvement on the CIBIC-plus at 12 weeks were: 5 mg/day-placebo 1.8 (1.5 to 2.1; p < 0.001), 10 mg/day-placebo 1.9 (1.5 to 2.4; p < 0.001). The corresponding values at 24 weeks were 1.9 (1.5 to 2.4; p = 0.001) and 2.1 (1.6 to 2.8; p < 0.001). Donepezil was well tolerated; adverse events were cholinergic in nature and generally of mild severity and brief in duration. Conclusion: Donepezil (5 and 10 mg/day) provides meaningful benefits in alleviating deficits in cognitive and clinician-rated global function in AD patients relative to placebo. Increased improvements in cognition were indicated for the higher dose. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Meta-analysis of individual patient data from randomised trials: a review of methods used in practice

Background: Meta-analyses based on individual patient data (IPD) are regarded as the gold standard for systematic reviews. However, the methods used for analysing and presenting results from IPD meta-analyses have received little discussion. Methods We review 44 IPD meta-analyses published during the years 1999–2001. We summarize whether they obtained all the data they sought, what types of approaches were used in the analysis, including assumptions of common or random effects, and how they examined the effects of covariates. Results: Twenty-four out of 44 analyses focused on time-to-event outcomes, and most analyses (28) estimated treatment effects within each trial and then combined the results assuming a common treatment effect across trials. Three analyses failed to stratify by trial, analysing the data is if they came from a single mega-trial. Only nine analyses used random effects methods. Covariate-treatment interactions were generally investigated by subgrouping patients. Seven of the meta-analyses included data from less than 80% of the randomized patients sought, but did not address the resulting potential biases. Conclusions: Although IPD meta-analyses have many advantages in assessing the effects of health care, there are several aspects that could be further developed to make fuller use of the potential of these time-consuming projects. In particular, IPD could be used to more fully investigate the influence of covariates on heterogeneity of treatment effects, both within and between trials. The impact of heterogeneity, or use of random effects, are seldom discussed. There is thus considerable scope for enhancing the methods of analysis and presentation of IPD meta-analysis.

Intra-individual variation of flowers in Gunnera subgenus Panke (Gunneraceae) and proposed apomorphies for Gunnerales

A study of inflorescence and flower development in 12 species from four of the six subgenera of Gunnera (Gunneraceae) was carried out. In the species of subgenus Panke, initiation of floral apices along the partial inflorescences is acropetal but ends up in the late formation of a terminal flower, forming a cyme at maturity. The terminal flower is the largest and the most complete in terms of merosity and number of whorls and thus it is the most diagnostic in terms of species-level taxonomy. The lateral flowers undergo a basipetal gradient of organ reduction along the inflorescence, ranging from bisexual flowers (towards the distal region) to functionally (i.e. with staminodia) and structurally female flowers (towards the proximal region). Our results show that the terminal structure in Gunnera is a flower rather than a pseudanthium. The terminal flower is disymmetric, dimerous and bisexual, representing the common bauplan for Gunnera flowers. It has a differentiated perianth with two sepals and two alternate petals, the latter opposite the stamens and carpels. Comparisons with other members of the core eudicots with labile floral construction are addressed. We propose vegetative and floral putative synapomorphies for the sister-group relationship between Gunneraceae and Myrothamnaceae. (C) 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 160, 262-283.

Phylogenetic analysis of the pPT23A plasmid family of Pseudomonas syringae

The pPT23A plasmid family of Pseudomonas syringae contains members that contribute to the ecological and pathogenic fitness of their P. syringae hosts. In an effort to understand the evolution of these plasmids and their hosts, we undertook a comparative analysis of the phylogeny of plasmid genes and that of conserved chromosomal genes from P. syringae. In total, comparative sequence and phylogenetic analyses were done utilizing 47 pPT23A family plasmids (PFPs) from 16 pathovars belonging to six genomospecies. Our results showed that the plasmid replication gene (repA), the only gene currently known to be distributed among all the PFPs, had a phylogeny that was distinct from that of the P. syringae hosts of these plasmids and from those of other individual genes on PFPs. The phylogenies of two housekeeping chromosomal genes, those for DNA gyrase B subunit (gyrB) and primary sigma factor (rpoD), however, were strongly associated with genomospecies of P. syringae. Based on the results from this study, we conclude that the pPT23A plasmid family represents a dynamic genome that is mobile among P. syringae pathovars.