The Neurobehavioral Assessment for Preterm Infants (NAPI) is an instrument that was developed to measure the progression of neurobehavioral development in preterm infants born from 32 weeks conceptional age to term. This study examined the concurrent validity of the NAPI against another neonatal criterion instrument, the Einstein Neonatal Neurobehavioral Assessment Scale (ENNAS), which measures similar constructs and has demonstrated excellent reliability and validity. The results indicated that there was good correlation between many similar items and clusters found on both the NAPI and ENNAS. There was also a good correlation between NAPI cluster scores and performance and the ENNAS total deviant score, and the NAPI was sensitive to differences between infants classified as normal or abnormal by the ENNAS. Clinicians and researchers require instruments with psychometrically sound properties so that accurate tests results are obtained and this study has contributed to strengthening the validity of the NAPI.

Text messaging or texting has become a popular way among emerging adults to maintain their interpersonal relationships, and has recently become regarded by health professionals as a tool for communicating with young people about sexual health. To determine whether university students can be invited to receive information, and disclose their newly realized STI status to their romantic partners, their friends, and their parents, to help curb the spread of HIV, Herpes, or Hepatitis, 303 students (183 from McGill University, and 120 from The University of Kwa-Zulu Natal) (M=21 years) indicated on a survey (a) how they would prefer to self-disclose their STI status to receive care and support from others: Talking face-to-face; a mobile phone call; an SMS text message; or other modes of computer-mediated communication. Students also indicated (b) how they would prefer to receive their STI test results from a doctor or nurse, and (c) receive new information about an STI relevant to their own health. Contrary to expectations from previous literature, almost all students indicated that they would prefer to self-disclose their STI status, as well as to receive results and new information by talking face-to-face with their partners, parents, and doctors, rather than through a text message, a mobile phone call, or any mode of computer-mediated communication. Male students were two times more likely than female students to prefer to self-disclose their STI status to their romantic partner by talking with them rather than phoning or texting them. McGill students were two times more likely to talk face-to-face with their parents about their STI status than were students at UKZN. Finally, two times the number of students at UKZN, and four times more female than male students at UKZN indicated that they would prefer to receive their STI test results from a health care professional by talking with them at a health clinic rather than communicating via a mobile phone call or a text message. Reasons for students' preferences are explored through a qualitative analysis of their written responses. / Pour déterminer si les élèves peuvent être invités à recevoir de l'information et de divulguer leur résultats de maladies sexuellement transmissibles (MST) à leurs partenaires romantiques et leurs parents, pour aider à freiner la propagation du VIH, l'herpès, ou de l'hépatite, 303 élèves (183 de l'Université McGill et 120 à l'Université du Kwa-Zulu Natal, (M = 21 ans) ont été invités à indiquer comment ils préféreraient se dévoiler leur résultats MST: (1) par rendez-vous; (2) par appel cellulaire; (3) par message texte (SMS); ou (4) par d'autres modes de communication médiatisées par ordinateur. Les étudiants ont aussi indiqué qu'ils préféreraient (5) de recevoir les résultats du test MST en visitant un médecin ou une infirmière, et (6) de recevoir de nouvelles informations sur une MST qu'ils ont contractée. Contrairement aux attentes de la littérature précédente, presque tous les élèves ont indiqué qu'ils préféreraient se dévoiler leur résultats MST, ainsi que de recevoir les résultats des tests et de nouvelles informations en discutant face à face avec leurs partenaires et leurs parents, plutôt que par un message texte, un appel cellulaire, ou toutes autres modes de communication médiatisées par ordinateur. Tous les élèves de sexe masculin ont été deux fois plus susceptibles à préférer à se dévoiler leurs résultats MST à leurs partenaires romantiques en parlant seuls à seuls plutôt qu'en échangeant les appels téléphoniques ou les textos. Les raisons de ces préférences et ces différences de genre seront examinées à travers des réponses écrites données par des élèves.

Background: Neuroendocrine theories of hemispheric lateralization hold testosterone as the predominant factor mediating sex-specific patterns of cortical growth and the ensuing lateralization of cognitive functions. However, to date attention has been mostly focused on prenatal testosterone levels as opposed to peripubertal changes in testosterone. Yet puberty coincides with both a significant rise in testosterone levels and increased differences between sexes in specific cognitive skills. Currently, direct examinations of relationships between testosterone and cortical grey matter remain limited, particularly in child or adolescent subjects. Weaknesses of the literature include small sample sizes, cross-sectional designs, uncorrected multiple comparisons, and the examination of restricted age spans. As a result, findings have been conflicting and vary across studies. Thus, the exact nature of testosterone-related sex-specific trajectories in cortical growth, timing of these effects throughout adolescence and brain regions most sensitive to testosterone, remain unclear. Objective: Examine testosterone-related sex differences in cortical thickness in a large, representative, longitudinal sample of healthy children/adolescents. Methods: Data from the NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development (n=282 subjects, 4-22 yo, 469 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans obtained longitudinally over 4 years) were analyzed using linear mixed effects models to examine the association between salivary testosterone levels and cortical thickness while controlling for age, sex, total brain volume, and collection time. Results: We found significant and complex 'age by testosterone' and 'sex by testosterone' interactions on cortical thickness of widespread regions of both hemispheres, with striking differences between males and females as well as between younger pre-pubertal and older post-pubertal subjects. When males and females were tested separately, more pronounced regional effects emerged. Males showed a negative association between cortical thickness and testosterone levels exclusively in the left hemisphere, specifically in the posterior cingulate cortex starting at age 14, progressing as children age to include the precuneus (ages 16-19), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (ages 16-21) and anterior cingulate cortex (ages 20-22). Females showed fewer areas of testosterone effects, but the associations exclusively involved the right hemisphere, specifically a positive association between cortical thickness and testosterone levels in the right somatosensory cortex, which was only apparent in the 5-8 years old age epoch, and later reversed, to a negative association in the same area for subjects ages 20-22. Conclusions: Significant sex- and age-specific associations exist between testosterone and cortical thickness in the developing brain but appear more complex than previously reported. While sex-specific testosterone-related cortical maturation appears to affect widespread areas in both hemispheres, more pronounced regional effects were observed in this study in key cortical regions known to be implicated in visuospatial and sensorimotor skills as well as cognitive control and executive functions. Females also show early positive associations between testosterone and cortical thickness consistent with known protective effects of androgens on neurons. In addition, the male-specific association between testosterone and cortical thickness in the left hemisphere and the female-specific association with the right hemisphere support the view that sex differences in hemispheric lateralization progress in a dynamic fashion throughout puberty. Whether the observed testosterone-cortical thickness associations underpin age- and sex-related differentiation in behavior, psychopathology, or specific cognitive abilities during childhood and adolescence requires additional study. / Contexte:Les théories de latéralisation hémisphérique postulent que la testostérone serait le facteur principal à l'origine des différences de développement cortical entre les sexes. Cependant, une plus grande attention a été accordée à l'exposition intra-utérine à la testostérone plutôt qu'aux changements de testostérone autour de la puberté. Pourtant, la puberté coïncide avec une augmentation significative de la testostérone ainsi qu'une différence accrue entre les sexes en termes d'habiletés cognitives spécifiques. Les investigations directes des relations entre la testostérone et le cortex demeurent limitées, particulièrement en ce qui a trait aux enfants/adolescents. étant donné des petits échantillons, des études transversales, plusieurs analyses sans correction pour comparaisons multiples, et l'inclusion de groupes d'âges limités. La nature des trajectoires de développement cortical reliées à la testostérone et le déroulement de ces effets, ainsi que les régions du cerveau les plus sensibles à la testostérone, demeurent incertains. Objectif: Examiner les différences de développement cortical entre les sexes reliés à la testostérone dans un échantillon longitudinal d'enfants et d'adolescents représentatifs de la population générale. Méthodes: Des données du NIH MRI Study of Normal Brain Development (n=282 sujets, 4-22 ans, 469 résonances magnétiques obtenues longitudinalement sur 4 ans) ont été analysées en utilisant des modèles linéaires mixtes pour examiner la relation entre les niveaux de testostérone salivaire et l'épaisseur corticale tout en contrôlant pour l'âge, le sexe, le volume cérébral total et le temps de collection de la testostérone. Résultats: Nous avons trouvé des interactions significatives entre l'âge et la testostérone ainsi que le sexe et la testostérone, des effets qui affectent l'épaisseur corticale des deux hémisphères. Quand les hommes et les femmes sont examinés séparément, des effets localisés plus prononcés ont émergé. Chez les hommes, il y avait une association négative entre la testostérone et l'épaisseur corticale exclusivement dans l'hémisphère gauche, plus spécifiquement dans le cortex cingulaire postérieur commençant à l'âge de 14 ans, progressant avec l'âge jusqu'à inclure le précuneus (âges 16-19 ans), le cortex dorsolatéral préfrontal (âges 16-21) et le cortex cingulaire antérieur (âges 20-22). Chez les femmes, les associations affectaient exclusivement l'hémisphère droit, spécifiquement une association positive entre l'épaisseur corticale et la testostérone dans l'aire somatosensitive, seulement apparente de l'âge de 5 à 8 ans, et s'inversant plus tard, devenant une association négative dans la même région pour les sujets de 20 à 22 ans. Conclusions: Il y a des interactions significatives entre l'âge et la testostérone et le sexe et la testostérone affectant l'épaisseur corticale. Bien que le développement cortical spécifique à chaque sexe semble affecter des régions étendues dans les deux hémisphères, des effets localisés plus prononcés ont été observés dans cette étude dans des régions corticales connues pour être associées au contrôle cognitif et aux habiletés visuo-spatiales et sensorimotrices. Les femmes ont aussi démontré des associations positives avec le cortex somatosensitif qui sont consistantes avec les effets neuroprotecteurs des androgènes précédemment rapportés dans la littérature. De plus, la relation spécifique entre la testostérone et l'épaisseur corticale de l'hémisphère gauche chez les hommes et l'hémisphère droit chez les femmes supportent le concept de latéralisation hémisphérique comme un processus dynamique qui évolue pendant la puberté. D'autres études seront nécessaires pour confirmer si les associations observées entre la testostérone et l'épaisseur corticale sont vraiment reliés à une différentiation entre les sexes en termes de comportementset d'habiletés cognitives spécifiques au cours de la puberté.

The mechanisms underlying the high incidence of fetal abnormalities including fetal lung immaturity during maternal diabetes are not fully understood. Utilizing streptozotocin-diabetic rats as the model, I have examined the role of fetal hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia and other factors on fetal adrenal and lung functions in culture. Insulin and glucose did not alter fetal adrenal and lung cell proliferation and adrenal corticosterone output. On the other hand, a novel protein-bound, low molecular weight non-proteinaceous cytotoxic factor was detected in the serum of diabetic animals. In addition, a novel protein with cytostatic activity was found in fetal lungs, the concentration of which increased during diabetes. Partial amino acid sequence and Western Blot analysis revealed this protein to be similar to histone H2B. An extra-nuclear role is suggested for this protein because it appears to be present in the microsomal fraction of fetal lungs. It is concluded that fetal lung immaturity during diabetes may be contributed by cytotoxic and cytostatic factors contained in the serum and fetal lungs, respectively.

Gain modulation is believed to be a common integration mechanism employed by neurons to combine information from various sources and modalities. Gain fields have been shown to widely exist in cortical and subcortical areas of the brain and are believed to be the basis for fundamental brain functions such as coordinate transformation. Nevertheless the existence of gain fields has not been explored in lower brain areas like the brainstem. In this thesis, a physiologically relevant control system model is developed for both the slow and quick phases of the angular horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). This model is then used as a framework to show that if nonlinear gain fields are embedded in the response of VOR premotor neurons (in contrast to generally assumed linear neurons) viewing-context-dependent behavior of the VOR results automatically. This shows that, in principle, reflex modulations with sensori-motor context could be the outcome of local premotor nonlinearities, and not complex cortical computations. Interestingly, similar nonlinearities have been previously discovered in the spinal circuits. Simulations of this hybrid nonlinear model predicts that disconjugate eye movements during the VOR would be an inevitable consequence of the existence of such gain fields in the central bilateral VOR pathway. Behavioral data collected from normal human subjects during the angular VOR in darkness confirm the presence of large disconjugate components which are fully compatible with the model predictions. These theoretical and experimental results have implications for the design of clinical protocols to test reflexes. / La modulation du gain est consideree comme un mecanisme general d'integration dans le cerveau, employee par les neurones pour combiner des informations provenant de diverses sources et modalites. Ces characteristiques de champs de gain se sont montrees souvent, repandues dans le cortex et sous-regions du cerveau. Elles sont soupconnees detre a la base de fonctions fondamentales comme la transformation de coordonnees spatiales. Neanmoins, l'existence de champs de gain n'a pas ete exploree dans les regions inferieures du cerveau, comme le tronc cerebral.Dans cette these, un modele du systeme de controle des yeux est developpe a la fois pour les phases lentes et rapides du reflexe vestibulo-oculaire (VOR) angulaire, tout en soutenant la compatibilite avec les donnees physiologiques pertinentes. Ce modele est ensuite utilise pour demontrer que si de tels champs de gain nonlineaires sont ancres dans le circuit du VOR sur les neurones premoteures (contrairement aux presumes neurones lineaires), le comportement et les aspects dynamiques du VOR dependraientt automatiquement du contexte binoculaire sans recours a d'autres calculs exterieurs. Ceci demontre que, en principe, les modulations du VOR et de plusieurs autres reflexes avec le contexte sensori-moteur pourrait etre le resultat de nonlinearites locales. Notons que des nonlinearites semblables ont deja ete decouvertes dans les circuits de la moelle epiniere. Des simulations de ce modele hybride non-lineaire predisent que les mouvements oculaires seraient disjoints pendant le VOR, en consequence inevitable de l'existence de tels champs de gain dans les centres premoteurs bilateraux. Les donnees experimentales recueillies ici chez l'homme et le singe soutiennent ces predictions: pendant le VOR angulaire dans l'obscurite, nous avons observe une importante reponse en vergence dans les movements binoculaires que ce soit en phase lentes ou rapides. Les resultat

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University OF MICHIGAN.

Metalinguistic awareness is transferable between oral and written forms of language, and between different languages. Recent research has established a connection between monolingual children's grammatical awareness and their morphological spelling knowledge. Studies of bilingual children have shown that phonological awareness and alphabetic knowledge transfer across languages, even if the languages are dissimilar and are written with different scripts. This study investigates transfer of grammatical awareness and morphological spelling knowledge across dissimilar languages and scripts. In spoken language, children learn not only surface-level language 'facts' specific to that language (e.g. vocabulary) but also deeper-level grammatical principles (e.g. morphological and syntactic relationships), which govern other languages. Similarly, literacy requires surface-level knowledge of a specific script (e.g. letters and their sound values), and knowledge of the principle underlying that script (e.g. that alphabets represent phonology and morphology), which governs other scripts of the same type. I propose that transfer across languages occurs at the level of grammatical awareness but not at the level of vocabulary. The hypothesis was tested in Englishspeaking children (6-11 years) learning Hebrew as a second language. In Study 1, Hebrew learners were given oral measures of vocabulary and grammatical awareness, and measures of morphological spelling knowledge. Grammatical awareness and morphological spelling knowledge were significantly correlated across languages, but vocabulary was not. In Study 2, awareness of conceptually similar aspects of English and Hebrew morphology was measured in oral language and spelling. These were significantly correlated across languages. In both studies, Hebrew learners with high levels of Hebrew scored significantly higher than English-speaking monolinguals on grammatical and spelling measures. I conclude that grammatical awareness and morphological spelling knowledge are transferable across languages and scripts, and that learning a second language can benefit specific aspects of metalinguistic and spelling development.

The alarmingly high rates of teacher attrition in the UK and abroad are perhaps unsurprising given that teaching is consistently ranked among the top most stressful occupations. Up until relatively recently, researchers have sought to address this problem by investigating the causes of teacher stress and burnout, and the coping strategies that teachers may use in response to feeling stressed and burnt out. However, this has facilitated a deficit approach to understanding the problem, with teachers viewed as personally responsible for their stress and burnout because they have failed to engage in strategies to ‘cope’ with their problem. Rather than focusing on the idea of ‘coping’ with a ‘problem’, this research adopted a ‘what-works’ approach and investigated teacher resilience. This qualitative research adopted a phenomenological approach and data was collected over two phases using semi-structured interviews. In total, 30 participants were interviewed; 25 experienced mainstream class teachers in phase one of data collection and 5 mainstream primary school teachers in phase two of data collection. NVivo9 supported a thematic approach to data analysis, which identified themes in the strategies and major processes that facilitated the experience of teacher resilience. The findings reveal that complex interactions exist between the personal and environmental factors that facilitate the experience teacher resilience during professional challenges. The participants’ conceptualisations of teacher resilience are compared and contrasted with previous research and theorybased literature on teacher resilience, and directions for future research are suggested. Implications for Educational Psychologists are discussed, including systemic interventions at the individual teacher and whole school level.

Throughout our lives we engage in problem solving, which is thought to depend on executive functions (EFs) e.g., inhibition, shifting and working memory. Previous work has identified the need to consider these abilities in an everyday context. EF skills are known to be impaired in Williams syndrome (WS) and Down syndrome (DS). This thesis aims to investigate experimental and real-life problem solving in WS and DS, and how these groups use EF skills to solve problems, through experimental and questionnaire-based cross-syndrome comparisons. Participants with WS and DS aged 12-24 years (Ns=20) and typically developing (TD) controls (N=56; nonverbal matched subset = 20) completed the Tower of London (TOL) problem-solving task and a battery of EF tests. In a separate study, parents (WS, DS, TD; total N=112) completed the BRIEF (Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning) and a novel Problem-Solving Questionnaire. The WS group, but not the DS group, scored more poorly on the TOL than the nonverbal-matched controls. In WS, developmental trajectory analysis indicated over-reliance on planning for TOL performance for low planning scores. For the DS group only speed of picture matching was associated with TOL performance, while more rule violations were exhibited than for the WS group. Questionnaire scores were poor for the WS group in relation to DS and TD groups. Asking for help for the DS group, and becoming emotional for the WS group, was related to reaching the solution. In general, associations between experimental and everyday measures were scarce. It was concluded that: while EFs (planning, visuospatial working memory) were constraining factors for WS problem solving, alternative strategies were used by the DS group to reach the solution; real-life problem solving should be considered in its own right; and poor WS problem solving may be related to emotional difficulties.

Studies into the recall performance of children with moderate learning difficulties (MLD) have consistently and repetitiously shown that, where strategies are needed, these children perform deficiently when compared to typical children of the same age. The present study challenges these findings by demonstrating that MLD children can spontaneously engage in active and effective strategic behaviour, providing that the task requirements are effective in eliciting these skills. The notion of "Task Authenticity", as perceived by the memorizer, is presented to explain why some tasks, and not others, are effective in eliciting strategies already at the disposal of the MLD memorizer. Further study of the notion of "Task Authenticity" from the perspective of the memorizer reveals a taxonomy of authentic features which, when incorporated into recall tasks, will be effective in prompting the employment of mnemonic strategies to aid recall. Six factors are identified: real-world relevance, personal relevance, concrete materials, practical engagement, sensory appeal and game format. Findings from the final phase of the study, which compares spontaneous strategic employment by MLD subjects across authentic and non-authentic tasks, support and extend previous findings which indicated that MLD subjects were capable of spontaneously engaging in active and effective strategic mechanisms for authentically-perceived tasks, but not for tasks of a discrete, de-contextualised or rote-type nature. The practical implications of these findings are discussed in the final chapter and a classroom-based instructional model is proposed.