Sexual dimorphism in bone–muscle relationship in young adults

The purpose of this study was to analyse associations between lean soft tissue (LST), a surrogate of skeletal muscle mass and key fracture-related geometric characteristics of the proximal femur. Moreover, we examined the role that muscle played on the proximal femur geometry in response to physical activity (PA). Participants were 83 young adults. Leg LST (exposure) was assessed by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Proximal femur geometry was derived from a left hip DXA scan. Geometric variables (outcomes) included the femoral neck axis length (FNAL), the femoral neck width (FNW), the neck–shaft angle and FNW|FNAL (an index of robustness). PA was evaluated by accelerometry. Linear regression was used to analyse relationships. Additional exposure variables included body height and mass. In males, leg LST explained 17.4% of variation in FNAL (P < 0.001) and 15% in FNW (P = 0.015). In females, it explained 8.8% of the variance in FNAL (P = 0.020). Associations remained significant in males, but not in females, when vigorous PA was added to the models. These results suggest that public health approaches to promote PA may be particularly important in females since vigorous PA seems to convey advantages in femur geometry and consequently in bone strength.     

Moving Beyond Test-Prep Pedagogy: Dialoguing With Multicultural Preservice Teachers for a Quality Education

In a “post-NCLB era,” the schooling experiences of mostly low-income students of color continue to be consumed by a test-prep pedagogy—narrowed curriculum, low expectations, and ignored relationships. In this article the author describes a pedagogical approach using educational dialogues to engage preservice teachers to critically define a quality education.     

Examiner scoring of ambiguous WISC-R responses

Fabricated test protocols were used to study how effectively examiners agree in scoring ambiguous WISC-R responses. Clinical and school psychologists (N = 62) and graduate students (N = 48) scored WISC-R Similarities, Comprehension, and Vocabulary responses obtained in a group administration procedure. From over 15,000 responses obtained, only unusual, atypical, or ambiguous responses were selected; 726 responses were scored, with 11 groups of 10 raters each scoring 66 responses. Considerable scoring disagreement occurred. Unanimous agreement (within each group of 10 raters) was found on only 13% of the responses, while 80% of the raters agreed on 44% of the responses. Rates of scoring agreement were not related to level of rater experience, but were related to specific subtests. Higher rates of agreement were found on the Similarities and Comprehension subtests than on the Vocabulary subtest for both experienced and inexperienced raters. The results suggest that even with the improved WISC-R manual, scoring remains a difficult and challenging task.