Speech motor deficits in cerebellar infarctions

Functional imaging studies demonstrated cerebellar activation during speech movements in the rostral cerebellar region. Ischemic lesions of this area, which is supplied by the superior cerebellar artery, induce dysarthria.     

On the numerical approximation of the bivariate normal (tetrachoric) correlation coefficient

In this paper a rapid and reliable method is found for estimating the value of the Bivariate Normal Correlation Coefficient, ρ, given values of the joint probability and the normal deviates,h andk, or the related areas. This technique finds useful application in the computational approximation of the tetrachoric correlation coefficient,r, when the underlying distributions may be assumed to be normal.     

Neurophysiologic evaluation of early cognitive development in high-risk infants and toddlers

New knowledge of the perceptual, discriminative, and memory capabilities of very young infants has opened the door to further evaluation of these abilities in infants who have risk factors for cognitive impairments. A neurophysiologic technique that has been very useful in this regard is the recording of event-related potentials (ERPs). The event-related potential (ERP) technique is widely used by cognitive neuroscientists to study cognitive abilities such as discrimination, attention, and memory. This method has many attractive attributes for use in infants and children as it is relatively inexpensive, does not require sedation, has excellent temporal resolution, and can be used to evaluate early cognitive development in preverbal infants with limited behavioral repertories. In healthy infants and children, ERPs have been used to gain a further understanding of early cognitive development and the effect of experience on brain function. Recently, ERPs have been used to elucidate atypical memory development in infants of diabetic mothers, difficulties with perception and discrimination of speech sounds in infants at risk for dyslexia, and multiple areas of cognitive differences in extremely premature infants. Atypical findings seen in high-risk infants have correlated with later cognitive outcomes, but the sensitivity and specificity of the technique has not been studied, and thus evaluation of individual infants is not possible at this time. With further research, this technique may be very useful in identifying children with cognitive deficits during infancy. Because even young infants can be examined with ERPs, this technique is likely to be helpful in the development of focused early intervention programs used to improve cognitive function in high-risk infants and toddlers.     

交腿皮瓣修复血栓闭塞性脉管炎的足底溃疡

为了探讨应用交腿皮瓣修复对侧血栓闭塞性脉管炎足底溃疡的临床效果,对2008年3月～2011年7月期间收治的8例血栓闭塞性脉管炎足底溃疡的患者进行研究,观察采用交腿皮瓣修复对侧足底渍疡的手术治疗效果。结果显示8例患者术后全部一期愈合,效果良好。因此,应用交腿皮瓣修复对侧缺乏有效动脉血供的血栓闭塞性脉管炎足底溃疡是一种简单...     

A Transtheoretical Approach to Case Formulation

In answer to the need for a comprehensive, systematic, yet flexible case formulation method, the present article describes the Causal Analysis and Synthesis of Events (CASE) system, a transtheoretical case formulation method. This method of functional case formulation is useful in terms of explicating the problem and identifying potential areas for intervention when dealing with clinical problems of both an intrapersonal and interpersonal nature. Further, this formulation method may improve communication between the therapist and the client during case conceptualization and facilitate dialogue between therapists of different theoretical orientations. This paper describes the case formulation method and includes an example incorporating this case formulation technique for a young man with social phobia.     

ON TESTING THE COMMONALITY OF CONSTRUCTS IN SUPPLIED GRIDS

The repertory grid technique has long been the empirical tool of choice for research based on personal construct theory (Kelly, 1955). In some situations, respondents are asked to evaluate a set of elements with respect to a fixed or supplied repertoire of constructs, and an assumption is made that respondents will employ these constructs similarly. This situation is thus equivalent to the semantic differential technique. In the repertory grid context it is justified through the commonality of construing corollary of personal construct theory. This is an assumption that can be tested, although it seems to have attracted little attention in the past. Here a criterion for commonality of a construct is proposed, namely that of the data conforming to a unidimensional scaling model, and a simple method of testing this is illustrated.     

Nonlinear programming approach to optimal scaling of partially ordered categories

A modified technique of separable programming was used to maximize the squared correlation ratio of weighted responses to partially ordered categories. The technique employs a polygonal approximation to each single-variable function by choosing mesh points around the initial approximation supplied by Nishisato's method. The major characteristics of this approach are: (i) it does not require any grid refinement; (ii) the entire process of computation quickly converges to the acceptable level of accuracy, and (iii) the method employs specific sets of mesh points for specific variables, whereby it reduces the number of variables for the separable programming technique. Numerical examples were provided to illustrate the procedure.     

A note on the use of goal programming for the multiplicative AHP

The main aim of this paper is to identify the opportunities of utilizing goal programming (GP) in the multiplicative analytic hierarchy process (MAHP). It starts with the issue of weight derivation from judgemental matrices. The use of GP for the weight derivation problem is not new, but GP is viewed in this paper from the perspective of augmenting the capabilities of the widely used row geometric mean method (RGMM) of the logarithmic least squares technique (LLST). Different possible approaches using GP are discussed. It is shown that the formulation of the GP problem can be easily modified to provide the same weights as those of the LLST. While this proposed GP technique is not superior to the RGMM in terms of computational ease or speed, it is quite useful in solving certain other problems of the MAHP, such as interval judgements and missing judgements, which cannot be readily solved by the RGMM. The proposed technique provides extensive scope for utilizing the vast literature on non-linear programming, say, for conducting sensitivity analysis. It also has the potential to be useful to more complicated issues of the MAHP, such as group decision making and interlevel dependence, hitherto little explored areas of the MAHP. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inelastic supply: An economic approach to simple interval schedules

Economic theory predicts an inverse relationship between the quantity of a commodity supplied to the marketplace and the equilibrium market price of that commodity. This prediction was tested in three experiments. Pigeons responded on simple variable-interval schedules, and quantity of reinforcement supplied was varied in a different way in each experiment. In Experiment 1, quantity supplied was varied by manipulating reinforcement rate while keeping session length constant. In Experiment 2, quantity supplied was varied by manipulating reinforcement rate while keeping reinforcers per session constant. In Experiment 3, quantity supplied was varied by manipulating reinforcer magnitude while keeping number of reinforcers constant. As predicted by economic theory, the obtained behavioral cost (responses per reinforcer) increased as supply decreased. The results could not be explained by simple artifacts such as satiation and time available to respond. In addition, the function relating response rate to reinforcement rate was bitonic in 7 of 9 animals in Experiments 1 and 2, which supports economic and regulatory theories over more traditional reinforcement theories.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This is a working guide for a technique for the initial interview in marital therapy. There is a discussion of the seating arrangement and the opening. The therapist lays out ground rules and suggests a theoretical framework for the couple. Each partner is asked to do a self-assessment scale aimed at assessing his or her desire to stay in the marriage. This is followed by a discussion of family behavior. The session is terminated with homework for each of the partners, and a therapeutic contract is made. Nonsystematic feedback suggests the technique is useful.     

Aspects of language in children with ADHD: applying functional analyses to explore language use

This article reports some outcomes from an exploratory study that compares children diagnosed with ADHD and without language impairment with typically developing children for aspects of language use. Discourse analysis based on a systemic functional linguistics approach is applied to spoken and written samples from three different text types that are supplied by 11 children diagnosed with ADHD and 11 typically developing children. Comparisons of multiple variables most often show differences in use between the groups. Closer examination of these differences shows that relative to the controls, the ADHD group uses fewer strategies of textual organization and more avoidance, tangential, and unrelated meanings and more abandoned utterances and spelling and punctuation errors. Clinical implications suggest that careful linguistic analysis of spoken and written language of children with ADHD cannot only identify the linguistic resources they use within everyday contexts but may also indicate areas where intervention may be beneficial.     

Spiritual issues in anxiety states

This overview points to large areas of human concern that cannot be bounded by the biomedical, behavioral, and narrowly cognitive approaches that characterize current understanding and treatment of anxiety disorders. I look at some aspects of existential, wholistic, and transpersonal psychology that I have found especially useful in enhancing therapy of the anxiety spectrum.     

Beyond HERA: Contributions of specific prefrontal brain areas to long-term memory retrieval

Recent neuroimaging studies have provided a wealth of information about areas within prefrontal cortex involved in long-term memory. These studies prompted a proposal by Tulving and colleagues (Tulving, Kapur, Craik, Habib, & Houle, 1994) that prefrontal contributions to memory function are related to laterality differences (the hemispheric encoding/retrieval asymmetry model). This review goes beyond a general characterization of prefrontal lobes to a more specific analysis of distinct areas within the prefrontal cortex. Separate prefrontal areas, sometimes within the same hemisphere, are discussed in terms of selective contributions that they might make to memory retrieval. In the end, it is concluded that a framework which tries to understand prefrontal function in terms of specific areas is a useful complement to models, like HERA, which attempt to find unifying principles across multiple areas.     

The best of two worlds—observations with norms

This paper reiterates the utility of both standardized tests and direct observations of behavior, despite the problems related to each of these assessment procedures. An additional assessment technique is recommended which combines the “best of both worlds”; this technique is the collection of normative data by means of observation procedures. These norms, which are also a positive aspect of standardized tests, are useful in identifying problem behaviors and in evaluating the success of intervention programs. Three examples of observations with norms are described.     

Quasi-Truth,Supervaluations and Free Logic

The partial structures approach has two major components: a broad notion of structure (partial structure) and a weak notion of truth (quasi-truth). In this paper, we discuss the relationship between this approach and free logic. We also compare the model-theoretic analysis supplied by partial structures with the method of supervaluations, which was initially introduced as a technique to provide a semantic analysis of free logic. We then combine the three formal frameworks (partial structures, free logic and supervaluations), and apply the resulting approach to accommodate semantic paradoxes.     

Stable individual differences in situation-behaviour,construct-behaviour,and goal-behaviour relations

This study starts from a cognitive-social-learning conceptualization of the contribution of static person by situation interaction to overt behaviour variance. Individual differences in the relation between, on the one hand, situational variation in behaviour and, on the other hand, situational variation in objective situational characteristics, situational variation in construed situational characteristics, and situational variation in goals-in-situations were systematically investigated. Thirty-six first-year psychology students had to freely generate and briefly describe 20 interpersonal situations that they had encountered during the last year. Afterwards, they had to rate each situation for four basic behavioural continua, eight supplied objective situational characteristics, eight supplied constructs, and eight supplied goals. Correlational analysis revealed many stable individual differences, not only in degree, but also in direction (sign) of situation-behaviour, construct–behaviour, and goal–behaviour relations. These relational variables could be reduced to seven relational factorial dimensions. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

MRA和无创FAIR灌注成像在早期脑缺血中的诊断价值

为了探讨3D—TOFMRA脑血管成像及流动敏感交互式反转恢复（FAIR）MR灌注成像在早期（发病2h-7d）脑缺血中的诊断价值,对27例早期脑缺血患者行3D—TOFMRA和FAIR检查。结果显示,MRA异常27例,表现为血管闭塞、狭窄、硬化;FAIR异常27例,表现为缺血区血流灌注的减低,患侧和对侧灰、白质信号强度的差异均有统计学意义（P〈0．005）,患者患侧与志愿者灰、白质信号强度的差异亦均有统计学意义（P〈0．005）。FAIR灌注技术无需注射造影剂,能够提供早期脑缺血患者血流动力学受损情况,FAIR与3D—TOF法MRA联合运用,对早期脑缺血的诊断、血流灌注评价会更全面、更准确。     

Reading in Colors: Highlighting for Active Reading in Religious Studies

This note from the classroom suggests that multicolor highlighting is a useful study technique for religious studies students. The note first reviews the literature regarding the effectiveness of traditional highlighting, then discusses advantages of the modified technique. Monochrome highlighting works only if readers select text through a discriminating reading process. Reading in colors fosters this sort of active reading. It prompts readers to ask how and why a given term, phrase or passage is important. This technique can help students grasp the basic categories and concepts of the discipline and it can embody course requirements or learning outcomes. The note concludes with practical suggestions for using the technique in the classroom.