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Sleep is an essential activity for human development. Often, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are affected by a lack of sleep due to various types of sleep problems. We identified and analyzed studies that were aimed at utilizing sleep interventions for children with ASD. A systematic search of databases, reference lists, and ancestral searches identified 18 studies for inclusion. Studies were summarized in terms of (a) participants, (b) targeted sleep problem and measures, (d) intervention components, (e) research design and rigor, and (f) results. The aim of this review was to analyze the literature by evaluating the most commonly treated sleep problems, the various treatment components, and strength of the results using a between case parametric effect size estimate. The most commonly treated sleep problems were night wakings and bedtime disturbance. For interventions, all the studies incorporated multiple treatment components, most often including the use of a consistent bedtime routine. Effect size calculations indicated a moderate effect size, however, limited due to the small number of studies. Results suggest the overall effectiveness of behavioral interventions for the treatment of sleep problems for children with ASD. Based on our analysis, suggestions for practitioners regarding current practices and future directions for research are discussed.

This study examines language attitudes towards different varieties of English through listener judgments of speaker and speech traits; in addition, the study explores the relationship of th...

This study explores whether a shift is taking place in terms of how the native speaker construct is viewed in relation to Asian Englishes. It investigates this issue through a speech rating...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of feed barrier design on displacements in dairy cows fed only roughage diets in the bunk in small commercial dairy herds. Six Norwegian dairy herds with open barriers (OB) and six herds with individual headspace barriers (IHB) were randomly selected. Number of displacements and withdrawals without physical contact was somewhat higher, but not significantly higher, in the IHB herds than in the OB herds but the variation between herds within the type of barrier were very large. The number of pushes and buttings directed towards the front part of the body of cows was significantly higher in the OB herds than in the IHB herds whereas pushes and butts directed towards the side of cows were significantly higher in the IHB herds than in the OB herds.

Background: Little information on the natural history of patients with localized NSCLC is available since many of the studies covering the subject lack information on pathological confirmation, staging procedures and comorbidity. No randomized studies have compared SBRT with no treatment for patients with localized NSCLC. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether SBRT has influence on overall survival for patients with localized NSCLC and investigate the effect of baseline ventilatory lung function on overall survival. Material and methods: From 2007 to 2013, 136 patients treated with SBRT at Odense University Hospital were prospectively recorded. The thoracic SBRT consisted of three fractions of 15–22 Gy delivered in 9 days. For comparison, a national group of 73 untreated patients in the same time period was extracted from the Danish Lung Cancer Registry. All patients had histologically/cytologically proven NSCLC T1-2N0M0 with a tumour diameter ≤5 cm. Results: The 5-year relative survival was 44% versus 7% for the SBRT and untreated groups, respectively. In a propensity score matched comparison the median overall survival was 47 months versus 11 months for the SBRT and untreated groups, respectively (p

Our goal was to investigate the relation between religiosity and oppression. We examined, in two multinational samples taken from pre-existing data, how national oppression – measured by an index of lack of liberty and by the number of refugees originating from the country – related to religiosity (e.g., belief in God, prayer frequency). We also examined how oppression related to authoritarianism and exclusivity, measures of conservatism often correlated with religiosity. Oppression’s relation to religiosity depended on what was controlled in the analysis: without additional controls, the relation was modestly positive; when controlling for human development and other demographic variables, the relation was modestly negative. In a separate student sample, participants at an ethnoculturally heterogeneous urban college who were primed with questions measuring religiosity were less supportive of oppression and militarization than if unprimed or primed with questions measuring authoritarianism. These ...

This article compares the computational cost, stability, and accuracy of continuous and discontinuous Galerkin Finite Element Methods (GFEM) for various parabolic differential equations including the advection–diffusion equation, viscous Burgers’ equation, and Turing pattern formation equation system. The results show that, for implicit time integration, the continuous GFEM is typically 5–20 times less computationally expensive than the discontinuous GFEM using the same finite element mesh and element order. However, the discontinuous GFEM is significantly more stable than the continuous GFEM for advection dominated problems and is able to obtain accurate approximate solutions for cases where the classic, un-stabilized continuous GFEM fails.

The current study examines how and why speakers of English from multilingual contexts in Asia are identifying as native speakers of English. Eighteen participants from different contexts in Asia, including Singapore, Malaysia, India, Taiwan, and The Philippines, who self-identified as native speakers of English participated in hour-long interviews probing language backgrounds, language use and constructions of native speaker identities of both English and other native languages. The study employed Leung, Harris and Rampton’s [1997. ‘The Idealised Native Speaker, Reified Ethnicities, and Classroom Realities.’ TESOL Quarterly 31 (3): 543–560] constructs of affiliation, inheritance, and expertise to analyse how the participants defined native speaker in multilingual contexts. Findings indicate that speakers of English in Asia do not identify themselves as native speakers in comparison with or contrast to inner circle speakers of English but rather view themselves as native speakers in their own right...

We investigated the impact of moral schemas with differing levels of “transcendence” on attitudes towards torture. Participants were exposed to one of three morality-relevant experimental conditions priming different levels of moral transcendence – with moral transcendence understood as the primary psychological dimension distinguishing preconventional, conventional and postconventional reasoning. Participants later considered two hypothetical detainee scenarios. For each detainee, participants judged the importance of punishment and seeking information, and evaluated the appropriateness of “severe interrogation”, either abstractly conceived (ACSI) or concretely described (CDSI). Across scenarios, the correlations between desiring information, desiring punishment, and recommending CDSI were strongest in the least transcendent condition and weakest in the most transcendent, suggesting that greater primed transcendence reduced associations between supporting CDSI and two common motivations of such s...

This article reports on a 2015 follow-up to a survey on attitudes towards Hong Kong English which was released to students at a major university in Hong Kong in late September 2014 on the eve of the Umbrella Movement, a largely student-led protest to demand universal suffrage in Hong Kong. While the movement ultimately failed to gain full democracy for Hong Kong, the past year has seen increased political activism among Hong Kong’s youth, and a strengthening of a local identity. In order to investigate whether attitudes towards Hong Kong English have also shifted in the past year, the author re-released the same survey one year after the original study was conducted; this article compares the findings from these two surveys in order to investigate how and why attitudes towards Hong Kong English have shifted and how identity impacts attitudes towards Hong Kong English.

A comparison of PCB congener profiles and limited biological effects was made between direct exposure to PCB-contaminated soil and vapor phase PCBs from that soil to determine congener patterns useful for identifying exposure sources in humans and wildlife. Weanling female Sprague–Dawley rats were exposed to either control or PCB-contaminated soil (from a landfill in Southern Illinois) for 1 and 2 weeks. The exposures were via direct contact with the soil or via airborne exposure with the rats isolated from the soil by a wire screen. Total PCB of 25% contaminated soil used in the study was 13 500 ppm. No PCBs were detectable in control rats. In direct-exposed rats, total PCB residues in fat pad, ear skin, serum, liver, and inguinal lymph nodes after the 1-week exposure were 6256, 185, 3.2, 149, and 41 ppm, respectively, but decreased to 465, 72, 1.7, 106, and 32.4 ppm after the 2-week exposure. In airborne-exposed rats, total PCB residues were 7.8, 1.6, 0.03, 0.2, and 0.6 in the same manner and slightly i...

More than 150 scientists from the Americas, Europe, and Asia met in Brno, Czech Republic, in May 2002 at the Second PCB Workshop, entitled “Recent Advances in the Environmental Toxicology and Health Effects of PCBs”. NIEHS/EPA-Superfund Basic Research Program, the Graduate Center for Toxicology at the University of Kentucky, and the Research Centre for Atmospheric and Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology of Masaryk University, Brno, sponsored the Workshop. At six separate sessions (including posters) the origins, human residues and exposures, actions, biomarkers, risk and remediation issues relating to PCBs were discussed.

(2003). Efficacy of Prescribing Endurance Training Intensity Using the Ventilatory Equivalents for Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide in Untrained Men and Women. Research in Sports Medicine: Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 23-32.

This article examines both applied and academic research relating to East Asia published during 1994 in terms of its applied relevance and its contributions to existing theory. In recent years the volume of research related to East Asia has expanded rapidly, and this review looks at the hightlights of that literature. Research from each of the functional business areas is examined, both in terms of its current and future contributions. In addition, special attention is paid to the areas of strategic management and entrepreneurship, which had a large amount of important research published during this period. Finally, there is an overall assessment of the impact of this research.

Estonian agriculture is undergoing its third major reform of the century—redistribution in 1919, collectivization in 1949 and, now, reprivatization since 1989. This article reviews the history of twentieth‐century Estonian agriculture until the early 1990s. An initial emphasis on dairy farming in private farms organized into larger co‐operative networks gave way, in Soviet times, to large‐scale collective farming, with more emphasis on meat production and livestock product exports to other Soviet regions. Foreign trade swung away from exports to Britain and Germany toward an almost exclusively eastern, within‐USSR exchange. Central planning from Moscow, dependency on imported inputs and inefficiency were pervasive. Agricultural productivity fell relative to the West, but remained high in the Soviet Union. With independence in 1991, reprivatization has quickened and western trade has increased. Readjusting to the world economy, however, seems an enormous task which has only just begun.

Over the last 5 years, there have been a few reports on Nd YAG laser eradication of endobronchially growing carcinoids. There is increasing evidence that this can be a definite cure for some patients and that this minimally invasive method can, in some cases, help avoid thoracotomy. We report seven cases of carcinoid tumour treated with laser eradication. We also propose a set of conditions that can make patients with bronchial carcinoids eligible for this kind of treatment.

Social networks of entrepreneurs are theorized as evolving from an idea generating stage, to a business development stage, and finally to a strategic stage. A model of network evolution that relates changing network activity to the increasing complexity facing the entrepreneur is presented in this paper. A field study of premium wineries, operated by their founding entrepreneurs, is used to (1) assess the impact of social networks in the identification of entrepreneurial opportunity, (2) examine the development and use of networks in establishing the business, and (3) explore the role of interorganizational networks in startup firms. The results suggests that both broad social and interorganizational strategic networks are important to successful startup and ongoing competitive advantage. The results suggest that public policy might be better directed toward the enhancement of this type of network activity, rather than the traditional support provided to encourage business formation.

Two allylthiocarbamate herbicides, diallate and triallate, were evaluated for neurotoxicity by oral and topical dosing studies with mature white leghorn hens. Diallate was tolerated for 90 days at topical doses of 40 mg/kg/day and oral doses of 20 mg/kg/day. Reversible ataxia and narcosis occurred at diallate doses of 80 mg/kg/day and higher by either route of administration. Triallate did not elicit signs of neurotoxicity at 300 mg/kg/ day topically or 400 mg/kg/day orally. The oral dose, however, resulted in gastrointestinal irritation and severe weight loss, such that dosing was terminated after 25 days. Triallate was tolerated at oral dosages of 90 mg/kg/day and topical doses up to 330 mg/kg/day.

Fourteen organophosphorus esters (OPs) were evaluated for their potential to cause organophosphorus ester induced delayed neurotoxicity (OPIDN) when administered dermally and/or orally to white leghorn hens. The compounds were chlorpyrifos, DEF, dichlorvos, dimethoate, EPN, ethoprop, fenthion, isofenphos, leptophos, merphos, ronnel, tetrachlorvinphos, terbufos, and trichlorfon. DEF induced ataxia if given dermally or orally at over 21 mg/kg/day for up to 90 days. Hens treated with EPN developed irreversible ataxia after repeated exposure to as little as 1.3 mg/kg dermally or 5 mg/kg/day orally, while leptophos was neurotoxic at doses of 6-7 mg/kg/day dermally and 10 mg/kg/day orally. Multiple treatments of chlorpyrifos, terbufos, dichlorvos and dimethoate caused death after varying periods of increasing debility; although birds had difficulty walking, they did not display typical symptoms of OPIDN. Fenthion and isofenphos induced drastic weight loss in hens at low levels of treatment; Isofenphos treated hens developed OPIDN, but died soon afterwards. Dichlorvos given at greater than 6 mg/kg/day po or dermally at 1 mg/kg/day produced cholinergic symptoms and most hens died before the end of the treatment period. At lower levels, dichlorvos did not induce overt ataxia. None of the other compounds in this series induced consistent ataxia whether administered orally or dermally. Ethoprop, with an acute oral LD50 near 5 mg/kg and an acute dermal LD50 of approximately 3 mg/kg, was the most toxic compound tested and could not be fully evaluated for its potential to cause OPIDN.

The characteristics of an axisymmetric flame propagating over a thermally thick fuel bed of polymethyl methacrylate have been studied. For a pyrolysis region diameter d p > 5 cm, the flame propagation rate is constant at V = 0.0050 cm/sec. The mass loss rate has been measured as a function of flame size and compared with results for pool burning. The measured surface temperature profile in the near field (0.4 cm) ahead of the flame has been found to be independent of flame size and to give a ratio of preheat distance to flame radius of curvature which is much less than one. Radiation measurements from the flame to the fuel surface ahead of the flame have been made and are shown to account for the slow temperature rise at distances greater than 0.4 cm ahead of the flame. For d p > 2.7 cm the flame oscillates and photographic sequences showing the development of the flame over an oscillation cycle are given.

Crossbred weanling gilts were fed a standard ration containing 0, 1, 10, or 100 ppm purified hexachlorobenzene (HCB) for 13 wk. No mortalities, ill health, neurological disorders, or significant depressions in weight gain were observed. Postmortem examination revealed brightly fluorescent livers at all levels of HCB. The group receiving 100 ppm had a tendency for smaller spleens, larger livers with swollen hepatocytes, and decreased lymphocytes. HCB accumulated in the dissectable fat of growing swine to concentrations five- to sevenfold higher than the dietary concentration; residues in 11 other tissues examined were below the dietary concentration.

Capacity-building efforts hare been suggested ax one strategy to deal with what is increasingly considered a “crisis of competence” among American governments. The sense that things are not working...

An empirical examination of the residential development patterns illustrates that accessibility and the availability of vacant developable land can be used as the basis of a residential land use model. The author presents an operational definition and suggests a method for determining accessibility patterns within metropolitan areas. This is a process of distributing forecasted metropolitan population to small areas within the metropolitan region. Although the model presented is not yet sufficiently well refined for estimating purposes, the concept and the approach may be potentially useful tools for metropolitan planning purposes.

The authors explore possible equilibrium distributions for large retail trade center's in the Baltimore metropolitan area. Possible sites for centers are selected on general planning grounds and tested for feasibility and “balance.” Balance is determined in terms of the volume of business attracted by each center in relation to its size. By repeated trials, it is established that there exists a balanced distribution in which the size of centers is related to their drawing power, which in turn depends on the distribution of purchasing power projected for the area and the transportation facilities and for trip-makers. This land use model is intimately related to transportation models, by The balanced distribution of retail outlets turns out to be the minimum cost pattern for trip-makers. This land use model is intimately related to transportation models, by way of network tracing and a gravity model trip distribution theory. It represents a departure from some of the restrictions of central place t...

(1950). Spectral Investigations of Carbon Electrodes for Light Therapy. Acta Radiologica: Vol. 34, No. 1-2, pp. 82-88.