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The author states that little research has been done to date in the area of audience reaction to Readers Theater stimuli, but some guidelines can be cited for directors and authors in their efforts to involve audiences in Readers Theater productions. Authors of Readers Theater materials are advised to use aesthetic factors inherent in the literature itself, supplemented by presentational rather than representational production factors, to guide audiences into their role as mental participants in the stage events. Further, technical effects should be limited to those possible in small conventional theaters such as are in most communities. Directors of Readers Theater productions should be aware that a presentation time of one hour or less seems most effective and that the more theatrical effects of sound and dramatic lighting, movement, and dress can be used to enhance audience appeal. The focus of presentations should always be toward the audience and to its horizontal center. Research into increasing the audience appeal of Readers Theater should be carried beyond present levels. (CH)

This study was designed to determine if embedded remediation is significant in accelerating the pathway to completion of a college-level math course for students needing remediation. The project studied the impact on student success in a quantitative literacy course at a Massachusetts four-year state university with remedial material embedded. The course satisfies the university’s general education math requirement for students with liberal arts majors who are not required to complete college algebra or calculus-based courses. The paper begins with a presentation of the issues with remedial mathematics and its impact on students’ graduation and persistence. Next, the paper covers the design and implementation of the pilot program. In addition, the placement criteria and the pilot nature of the program are discussed, including attempts at the random assignment of students to regular or embedded-remediation course groups. A discussion of the findings follows including that students succeeded in the course with embedded remediation at 87% compared to 72% for those in the traditional version of the course though the differences are not statistically significant at the sample size. The paper concludes with lessons learned and next steps at this university for further study.

Publisher Summary Increasing knowledge and research of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms with or without the presence of specific alleles, neuropsychological test scores, neuroimaging profiles, or family histories can surely lead to different ADHD manifestations that have at their root quite different etiologic processes. Although there are currently three major subtypes of ADHD, one might expect research advances to ultimately reveal many different disorders, many different etiologic pathways, and, quite possibly, an array of different treatment and prevention strategies, depending on the particular etiologies of that form of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Sophisticated diagnosis of ADHD and LD of the future will become increasingly dependent on tools such as neuroimaging, genetic profiling, neuropsychologic and physiologic testing, and consideration of other accompanying symptoms and clinical characteristics. The effective use of these advances would require cross-training and multidisciplinary teams with the knowledge of neuropsychological tests, brain imaging, and advanced technology for bypassing educational limitations. Paraprofessionals may become a cost-effective means for providing a continuity of services and intervention across families, schools, and communities. Community-based collaborative services may serve to bridge the gap among home, school, and community.

A treatment package, consisting of multiple exemplar training and community-based instruction, was evaluated for its effectiveness in teaching four students with profound mental retardation and multiple disabilities to participate in two sets of community-living tasks. All training took place in community settings, and each student demonstrated improved performance on at least one task set. In addition, all students demonstrated improved performance on a series of tasks selected to assess generalization of performance across settings, materials, and/or motoric responses required to complete the target task. Maintenance of performance over a 4-to 5-month period was assessed and achieved for two of the students. The results of this investigation are discussed in terms of the implications for programming for students with profound mental retardation.

In a series of three experiments, we evaluated the use of microswitches as a means for students with profound, multiple handicaps to demonstrate preferences between toys and to make requests for specific activities. In Experiment 1, 5 students learned to demonstrate toy preferences by using microswitches to activate battery-operated toys. Experiment 2 was conducted to evaluate the students' preferences for social attention. Microswitches were used to activate prerecorded messages that signaled the classroom teacher to attend to the students. In Experiment 3, the students used the switches and prerecorded messages to make specific requests of educational staff in school and community settings. Results of these experiments, evaluated within multiple baseline, alternating treatments, and simultaneous treatments designs, indicated that these students could request specific activities. Results are discussed with respect to the continued use of microswitches and to program development.

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The rhetorical strategy omissio is used frequently by Cicero to make points which, for various reasons, the orator states that he is omitting from his speech. Of the forms omissio may take reticentia is perhaps the most “respectable” in that the speaker actually fulfills his stated intention to omit with a remark such as “His character is known to all; I will not discuss it here.” A more interesting form of omissio is occultatio, the device which enables the speaker to actually introduce assertions under pretext of leaving them out, with a prejudicial “omitting” statement such as “I will not discuss his past immoralities; the present case is sufficient.” The points Cicero brings out under occultatio are technically irrefutable because they are “left out” of the direct argument. The reasons Cicero gives (and does not give) for his “omissions” and the types, frequency, and significance of the strategy of omissio are examined in the article.

Objective To examine the diagnostic accuracy of standard clinical tests for the shoulder in recreational athletes with activity related pain. Design Cohort study with index test of clinical examination and reference standard of arthroscopy. Setting Sports Medicine clinic in Sheffield, U.K. Participants 101 recreational athletes (82 male, 19 female; mean age 40.8 ± 14.6 years) over a six year period. Interventions Bilateral evaluation of movements of the shoulder followed by standardized shoulder tests, formulation of clinical diagnosis and shoulder arthroscopy conducted by the same surgeon. Main Outcome Measurements Sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratio for a positive test and over-all accuracy of clinical examination was examined retrospectively and compared with arthroscopy. Results Isolated pathology was rare, most patients (72%) having more than one injury recorded. O'Brien's clinical test had a mediocre sensitivity (64%) and over-all accuracy (54%) for diagnosing SLAP lesions. Hawkins test and Jobe's test had the highest but still not impressive over-all accuracy (67%) and sensitivity (67%) for rotator cuff pathology respectively. External and internal impingement tests showed similar levels of accuracy. When a positive test was observed in one of a combination of shoulder tests used for diagnosing SLAP lesions or rotator cuff disease, sensitivity increased substantially whilst specificity decreased. Conclusions The diagnostic accuracy of isolated standard shoulder tests in recreational athletes was over-all very poor, potentially due to the majority of athletes (71%) having concomitant shoulder injuries. Most likely, this means that many of these injuries are missed in general practice and treatment is therefore delayed. Clinical examination of the shoulder should involve a combination of clinical tests in order to identify likely intra articular pathology which may warrant referral to specialist for surgery.

Background In the literature, little is known about the level and pattern of rugby injuries. Of the shoulder injuries reported, 51% of these are caused during a tackle, and 65% of all match injuries affected the shoulder. Objective The study aims to describe a sport-specific unique intra-articular shoulder pathology of professional rugby players, who presented with persistent pain and dysfunction despite physiotherapeutic treatment and rest. Method This study is a retrospective analysis set at a university sports medicine clinic. Eighty-seven professional rugby players, referred by their professional medical team since they could no longer play, underwent shoulder arthroscopy between June 2001 and October 2007 due to persistent shoulder pain and dysfunction. All were full-time professional male rugby union and rugby league players. They all had failed conservative treatment for their complaint, and the diagnosis was unclear. Arthroscopic findings were used as a measure of main outcome. Results The primary mechanism of injury was reported as direct tackling (56%; n = 49) followed in succession by falling onto the arm (10%; n = 8). However, in 30% of the cases, no definite injury could be recalled. The main operative finding was that most patients exhibited multiple shoulder pathologies, with 75% of cases presenting with two or more pathologies. A superior labrum anterior to posterior (SLAP) lesion was evident at arthroscopy in 72 of the 87 cases (83%), while rotator cuff tears were evident in 43% of cases (n = 37). One-third of all cases had a Bankart tear (n = 29), despite none of them reporting previous dislocations, while other labral tears, excluding SLAP tears, to the inferior or posterior labrum were present in 34% (n = 30) of the cohort. Conclusions Repeated tackling, which is clearly rugby specific, is most likely to be responsible for most of these shoulder injuries, which upon arthroscopic examination, showed signs of mixed pathology. We suggest that an early arthroscopic investigation is valuable in this population in order to confirm treatable diagnosis on the painful shoulder and expedite a safe return to play.