Classroom peer acceptance, friendship, and victimization: distinct relational systems that contribute uniquely to children's school adjustment?

The proposition that relationships make differential (i.e., unique, redundant, contingent) contributions to adjustment was examined by investigating the linkages between children's participation in different types of peer relationships (i.e., friendship, peer acceptance, peer victimization) and their adjustment to school. Relationship measures were gathered for 5- to 6-year-old children (105 males, 95 females) twice during kindergarten (i.e., fall and spring) and were correlated with adjustment indicators at each time of assessment and used to predict changes in school adjustment over time. Examination of the relative associations between the relationship measures and children's adjustment revealed evidence of both unshared (i.e., unique) and shared (i.e., redundant) linkages, depending on the form of adjustment examined. These findings suggest that adjustment may be influenced by the diverse experiences (i.e., provisions) that children encounter in different forms of relationship, and that certain types of relationships may have greater or lesser adaptive significance depending on the adjustment outcome examined.     

Immature chemodifferentiation of Purkinje cell synapses revealed by 5''-nucleotidase ecto-enzyme activity in the cerebellum of the reeler mouse

Data from child and adolescent emergency mental health screening episodes prior and subsequent to privatized Medicaid managed care in Massachusetts are used to investigate the relationship between payer source and disposition and to compare the match between clinical need and disposition level of care. Having Medicaid as the payer in the post-Medicaid managed care period decreased the odds of hospitalization by nearly 60%. None of the clinical need variables that contributed to hospitalization for Medicaid episodes in the pre-Medicaid managed care period were significant in the post-Medicaid managed care period. Multiple forces shaping professional standards, decision making, and quality of care are described. Public sector agencies must lay the groundwork for comprehensive evaluation prior to the implementation of privatized Medicaid managed care initiatives.     

An interactive activation approach to object processing: effects of structural similarity, name frequency, and task in normality and pathology

We present a computational model of the processes involved in retrieving stored semantic and name information from objects, using a simple interactive activation and competition architecture. We simulate evidence showing a cross-over in normal reaction times to make semantic classification and identification responses to objects from categories with either structurally similar or structurally dissimilar exemplars, and that identification times to objects from these two different classes correlate differentially with measures of the structural similarity of objects within the category and the frequency of the object's name. Structural similarity exerts a negative effect on object decision as well as naming, though this effect is larger on naming. Also, on naming, structural similarity interacts with the effects of name frequency, captured in the model by varying the weight on connections from semantic to name units; frequency effects are larger with structurally dissimilar items. In addition, (1) the range of potential errors for objects from these two classes, when responses are elicited before activation reached a stable state, differ--a wider range of errors occur to objects from categories with structurally similar exemplars; and (2) simulated lesions to different locations within the model produce selective impairments to identification but not to semantic classification responses to objects from categories with structurally similar exemplars. We discuss the results in relation to data on visual object processing in both normality and pathology.     

Superiority of hyperpolarizing to depolarizing cardioplegia in protection of coronary endothelial function

A sensitive, selective, and specific assay was needed to study the degradation kinetics of taurolidine and its stabilization by polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the usefulness of the chromotropic acid method and other formaldehyde or amine derivatization methods. The methods evaluated included formaldehyde derivatization with chromotropic acid, acetylacetone, 4-amino-5-hydrazino-3-mercapto-1,2,4-triazole, semicarbazide hydrochloride, or 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine and taurolidine decomposition product derivatization with dansylchloride or 7-chloro-4-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazole chloride. Results indicated that the chromotropic acid method provided sufficient selectivity, reproducibility and sensitivity. It was able to quench taurultam decomposition and avoided PVP interference. The method was optimized by performance based selection of reagent lots, appropriate reagent storage and preparation, and controlled derivatization conditions. In conclusion, the optimized chromotropic method was the most appropriate method for quantitating taurolidine decomposition.