Skeletal Muscle Strength and Endurance in Recipients of Lung Transplants

Purpose: Exercise limitation in recipients of lung transplant may be a result of abnormalities in the skeletal muscle. However, it is not clear whether these abnormalities are merely a reflection of the changes observed in the pretransplant condition. The purpose of this paper was to compare thigh muscle volume and composition, strength, and endurance in lung transplant recipients to people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).Methods: Single lung transplant recipients (n=6) and people with COPD (n=6), matched for age, sex, and BMI participated in the study. Subjects underwent MRI to determine muscle size and composition, lower extremity strength testing and an isometric endurance test of the quadriceps.Results: Lung transplant recipients had similar muscle volumes and intramuscular fat infiltration of their thigh muscles and similar strength of the quadriceps and hamstrings to people with COPD who had not undergone transplant. However, quadriceps endurance tended to be lower in transplant recipients compared to people with COPD (15 ± 7 seconds in transplant versus 31 ± 12 seconds in COPD, p = 0.08).Conclusions: Recipients of lung transplant showed similar changes in muscle size and strength as people with COPD, however muscle endurance tended to be lower in people with lung transplants. Impairments in muscle endurance may reflect the effects of immunosuppressant medications on skeletal muscle in people with lung transplant.Key Words: lung transplant, muscle function, MRI     

Use of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test with low-functioning autistic children

The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (Dunn, 1965) was adapted to facilitate administration to low-functioning autistic children who do not have a pointing response. By cutting the plates into individual pictures, children can respond by giving the examiner the target picture. Ten autistic and 10 preschool-aged children were given both the standard form (Form A) and the adapted form (Form C) by the same examiner less than one week apart. Several t-tests were calculated to test the hypotheses that the adaptation would not affect raw scores of normal, preschool-aged children; yet lowfunctioning autistic children would score significantly better on the adapted version. It was concluded that the two forms of the PPVT are equivalent forms when a pointing response exists, and it is therefore valid to use the published norms for the adapted version.     

The effects of different approaches to reading instruction on letter detection tasks in normally achieving and low achieving readers

The present study used two letter detection tasks, the classic missing letter effect paradigm and a single word versus familiar word compound version of this paradigm, to study bottom-up and top–down processes involved in reading in normally achieving as compared to low achieving elementary school readers. The research participants were children in grades first to sixth who had been taught to read by three approaches to reading instruction (ARI): the whole language/global approach, the phonic/synthetic approach or the eclectic approach. Thus, the study attempted to clarify how different ARIs activate these processes in these two types of readers. The main hypothesis was that since low achieving readers rely on top–down processes for word recognition (see, e.g., Stanovich, 1980), the whole language ARI will reduce the difference in bottom-up tasks between them and the normally achieving readers. In the two experiments included in the study, participants were required to perform a letter detection task while reading short texts in Hebrew for comprehension. Contrary to this study hypotheses, the main finding was that the whole language ARI does not compensate for difficulties in bottom-up processes of low achieving readers. Moreover, the results of this study imply that any improvement in basic processes involved in reading proficiency produced by the whole language ARI for both the normal and the low achieving readers dissipates by grade three.     

From the media of the periphery to peripheral media: The changing priorities of Brazil’s alternative ecology

ABSTRACT

This article proposes a new appraisal of Brazil’s alternative media. By investing in the concept of the periphery, this study draws on past literature, semistructured interviews, and data collected from across the country (n = 50) to propose a repertoire analysis of media producers’ views of the country’s popular notion of the periphery. Evidence shows that they have shown nuanced views of the periphery as a site of purpose, pluralism, and authorship. Despite crisis and turmoil, this study presents some paths that could help reorientate the priorities of alternative media research toward a closer consideration of the periphery as entity that appears much more in line with local realities and expectations than previous international debates.     

移动办公渐成企业主流

随着80、90后这一代在互联网浪潮中长大的年轻人渐成职场主力,随着社交网络、移动互联网、云计算等革命性IT技术的发展,人们与信息交互的方式发生了巨大的变化。在这种状况下,"移动办公"的理念无疑极其符合新一代年轻人的工作习惯:只要有专业的可移动设备以及强大的应用软件与工作平台,员工可以在任何时间、任何地点处理与业务相关的任何事情。     

Cross-language activation of phonology in young bilingual readers

We investigated whether children who were learning to read simultaneously in English and French activate phonological representations from only the language in which they are reading or from both of their languages. Children in French Immersion programs in Grade 3 were asked to name aloud cognates, interlingual homographs, interlingual homophones, and matched control words. Half of the participants performed the task in English, their first oral language, and half performed the task in French. Control monolingual children in each language were also tested. In the French reading task, fewer errors were observed for cognates and interlingual homophones than for matched control words, whereas more errors were produced for interlingual homographs than matched controls. Only the inhibitory interlingual homograph effect was observed in the English reading task. These data provide evidence that phonological activation in bilinguals is not language selective. The locus of each of these effects in the bilingual word recognition system is discussed.