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There is a need for a more robust conceptualization of engagement in mathematics education research. Investigating how teachers describe engagement can provide insight into relationships between purposes of engagement and dimensions of engagement. In this exploratory study, we examined how 28 secondary mathematics teachers in two states in the USA talked about their students' engagement. During interviews, we asked teachers to provide their definitions for engagement, describe their teaching strategies for engaging students, and describe their observations of engagement during a video clip from their own classroom. We interpreted teachers' talk to identify how they described the nature of mathematics engagement (dimensions such as behavioral, cognitive, affective, and/or social engagement) and purposes of engagement (engagement in learning or in schooling [Harris, 2011]). When teachers described the purpose of engagement as engagement in learning, they also tended to describe the nature of engagement with cognitive and social dimensions and with multiple dimensions of engagement.

When Katrina Lindo taught Integrated Mathematics 1 to ninth- and tenth-grade students, she encountered some students who appeared initially resistant to doing mathematics. Lindo wanted her students to see themselves as capable of making sense of mathematics. Lindo said that being a mathematician is "the process of taking what you know and using what you know to make sense of what you don't know, so we're all mathematicians." The authors had the opportunity to spend time in Lindo's classroom to discuss with her the classroom discourse that was observed. In this article, the authors illustrate discourse moves that Lindo used to engage students with mathematics. These moves are shared together with Lindo's reflections so that readers can consider ways to offer students' opportunities to develop productive dispositions and identities.

This two-part study sought to determine the equivalence of the California Verbal Learning Tests (CVLT-1 and CVLT-2) in the detection of malingering in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and chronic pain. Part 1 compared a variety of scores from the two versions in carefully matched patient groups. Part 2 used criterion groups (known-groups) methodology to examine the relative rates of false positive (FP) errors across the two versions. Participants were 442 TBI (CVLT-1 = 310; CVLT-2 = 132) and 378 chronic pain patients (CVLT-1 = 250; CVLT-2 = 128). Overall, the CVLT-2 was more difficult than the CVLT-1, with the chronic pain patients showing larger version effects than the TBI patients. The two versions of the CVLT were equally accurate in detecting malingering in TBI and chronic pain. However, they were not interchangeable. The use of CVLT-1 cutoffs with the CVLT-2 may result in an increased risk of FP error. Appropriate cutoff adjustment in clinical practice is recommended. (Contains 10 tables.)

A known-groups design was used to determine the classification accuracy of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III) variables in detecting malingered neurocognitive dysfunction (MND) in traumatic brain injury (TBI). TBI patients were classified into the following groups: (a) mild TBI not-MND (n = 26), (b) mild TBI MND (n = 31), and (c) moderate/severe (M/S) TBI not-MND (n = 26). A sample of 80 general clinical patients was used for comparison. Verbal IQ, Verbal Comprehension Index, and Working Memory Index detected approximately 25% of malingerers with a false positive (FP) error rate of approximately 5% in the mild TBI group. Comparable FP rates were obtained in M/S TBI. FP rates for Performance IQ, Perceptual Organization Index, and Processing Speed Index were acceptable in mild TBI but too high in M/S TBI. Previously studied specialized indicators (Vocabulary minus Digit Span and the Mittenberg formula) failed to differentiate malingerers from nonmalingerers. The clinical application of these findings is discussed. (Contains 6 tables.)

The present study used well-defined traumatic brain injury (TBI) and mixed neurological (other than TBI) and psychiatric samples to examine the specificity and sensitivity to Malingered Neurocognitive Dysfunction (MND) of four individual California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) variables and eight composite CVLT malingering indicators. Participants were 275 traumatic brain injury and 352 general clinical patients seen for neuropsychological evaluation. The TBI patients were assigned to one of five groups using the Slick, Sherman, and Iverson (1999) criteria: no incentive, incentive only, suspect, and malingering (both Probable MND and Definite MND). Within TBI, persons with the strongest evidence for malingering (Probable and Definite) had the most extreme scores. Good sensitivity (approximately 50%) in the context of excellent specificity (greater than 95%) was found in the TBI samples. Issues related to the appropriate clinical application of these data are discussed. (Contains 7 tables and 1 note.)

The increase of proinflammatory cytokines in vaginal secretions may serve as a surrogate marker of unwanted inflammatory reaction to microbicide products topically applied for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV-1. Interleukin (IL)-l[beta] and IL-6 have been proposed as indicators of inflammation and increased risk of HIV-1 transmission; however, the lack of information regarding detection platforms optimal for vaginal fluids and interlaboratory variation limit their use for microbicide evaluation and other clinical applications. This study examines fluid matrix variants relevant to vaginal sampling techniques and proposes a model for interlaboratory comparisons across current cytokine detection technologies. II-1[beta] and IL-6 standards were measured by 12 laboratories in four countries, using 14 immunoassays and four detection platforms based on absorbance, chemiluminescence, electrochemiluminescence, and fluorescence. International reference preparations of cytokines with defined biological activity were spiked into (1) a defined medium simulating the composition of human vaginal fluid at pH 4.5 and 7.2, (2) physiologic salt solutions (phosphate-buffered saline and saline) commonly used for vaginal lavage sampling in clinical studies of cytokines, and (3) human blood serum. Assays were assessed for reproducibility, linearity, accuracy, and significantly detectable fold difference in cytokine level. Factors with significant impact on cytokine recovery were determined by Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance with Dunn's multiple comparison test and multiple regression models. All assays showed acceptable intra-assay reproducibility; however, most were associated with significant interlaboratory variation. The smallest reliably detectable cytokine differences (P < 0.05) derived from pooled interlaboratory data varied from 1.5- to 26-fold depending on assay, cytokine, and matrix type. IL-6 but not IL-1[beta] determinations were lower in both saline and phosphate-buffered saline as compared to vaginal fluid matrix, with no significant effect of pH. The (electro)chemiluminescence-based assays were most discriminative and consistently detected < 2-fold differences within each matrix type. The Luminex-based assays were less discriminative with lower reproducibility between laboratories. These results suggest the need for uniform vaginal sampling techniques and a better understanding of immunoassay platform differences and cross-validation before the biological significance of cytokine variations can be validated in clinical trials. This investigation provides the first standardized analytic approach for assessing differences in mucosal cytokine levels and may improve strategies for monitoring immune responses at the vaginal mucosal interface.

A 66-year-old man presented to our institution with inarticulate speech. The evening before, he had been in his usual state of health when he retired to bed at 10 PM. [...]