Dynamics of oralrespiratory coordination in full-term and preterm infants: II. Continuing effects at 3 months post term

Thirty-two infants participating in a longitudinal study of the effects of premature birth on sucking and breathing were tested at 3 months post term. They were assigned at a previous test to either a healthy full-term, healthy preterm, or high risk preterm group on the basis of birth weight, postconceptional age at birth, and perinatal medical status. Positive and negative sucking pressure as well as chest and abdominal breathing movements were recorded during nutritive sucking. The high risk preterms used a simpler and more stable pattern of coordination between sucking and breathing, were more likely to interrupt breathing at milk onset, and produced longer phase lags between positive and negative sucking pressure.     

Effects and timing of developmental peer appraisals in self-managing work groups

This study used a repeated measures time-series design to examine the immediate and longer term impact of a structured, face-to-face developmental peer appraisal on 294 undergraduates in 44 self-managing work groups (SMWGs) and 217 MBA students in 36 SMWGs. Results revealed an immediate positive impact on perceptions of open communication, task motivation, social loafing, group viability, cohesion, and satisfaction. Also, the effects of the peer appraisal were not dependent on the perceived ratio of positive to negative feedback, and the enduring impact of the appraisal was influenced by its timing relative to task deadline. Overall, results emphasized that peer appraisals can have a positive effect on relationships and task focus, are influenced by temporal context, and have great potential for work teams.     

The role of overt activity in children's sentence production

Nursery schooler's abilityto associate pairs of toys was assessed under four experimental conditions: (1) control, (2) S manipulating the toys, (3) S generating a sentence, and (4) S generating a sentence while manipulating the toys. All three S-involvement conditions produced significantly better recognition performance than the control but contrary to initial predictions, the difference between the sentence-only and sentence-plus-manipulation conditions was not significant. In contrast to previous research, Ss in the sentence-only conditions had little difficulty producing sentences when asked. Of interest was the finding that the quality of sentence production was poorer in the sentence-plus-manipulation condition than in the sentence-only condition. Results are discussed in terms of the possible “conflict” produced when the child is required to engage in more than one overt activity simultaneously.     

‘Joining into God's breath’: travail of the negative as a connection between mysticism and political activism

This essay argues that a negative hermeneutics, i.e., a hermeneutics that takes its starting point from the experience of gaps, failures, and limits, is a suitable lens for the study of mysticism. It uses the concept of travail of the negative, which focuses on the dynamics of a continuous ‘unsaying’ and ‘subverting’ of traditional expressions of faith and religious practice, to explore the connection between aspects of practical and theoretical negativity in mystical expressions. It suggests that this approach to mystical theology makes an important contribution to the wider theological discourse and encourages theology to take the fundamental character of negation seriously.