Discrete-trials teaching (DTT) is one of the principal techniques used in Applied Behaviour Analysis programs for children with autism. Although the demand for training individuals to implement DTT is high, published studies on strategies to do so are few. I conducted two experiments to investigate a training package for teaching individuals to implement DTT. In Experiment 1, I used a modified multiple-baseline design to evaluate the training package for teaching five university students to implement DTT to teach three tasks to a confederate role-playing a child with autism. Also, in an AB within-subject design with each participant, I compared two components of the training package, a Self-Instructional Manual and Feedback plus Demonstration. Experiment 2 was a systematic replication of Experiment 1, with 2 teaching assistants, a resource teacher, and 3 parents of children with autism as participants. In both experiments I assessed the generalization (G1) of participants’ ability to implement DTT (while teaching the confederate) to teach tasks not targeted for Feedback plus Demonstration, as well as generalization (G2) of DTT while teaching a child with autism. After an average of approximately 3 hours to master the self-instructional manual, participants’ DTT accuracy in both experiments improved from an average of 34% in Baseline to an average of 61% following the Self-Instructional Manual. Results appeared to be due to the Self-Instructional Manual phase for 9 of the 11 participants. Following an average of 35 minutes of Feedback plus Demonstration of DTT of one task, participants’ DTT accuracy improved to an average of 91% while teaching a confederate. The improvement appeared to be due to the intervention with 10 of the 11 participants. The participants’ DTT accuracy averaged 90% during G1 and 86% during G2. These results demonstrate that this training package has considerable potential for teaching DTT to tutors, educational assistants, and parents of children with autism. / February 2008

Discrete-trials teaching (DTT) is one of the principal techniques used in Applied Behaviour Analysis programs for children with autism. Although the demand for training individuals to implement DTT is high, published studies on strategies to do so are few. I conducted two experiments to investigate a training package for teaching individuals to implement DTT. In Experiment 1, I used a modified multiple-baseline design to evaluate the training package for teaching five university students to implement DTT to teach three tasks to a confederate role-playing a child with autism. Also, in an AB within-subject design with each participant, I compared two components of the training package, a Self-Instructional Manual and Feedback plus Demonstration. Experiment 2 was a systematic replication of Experiment 1, with 2 teaching assistants, a resource teacher, and 3 parents of children with autism as participants. In both experiments I assessed the generalization (G1) of participants’ ability to implement DTT (while teaching the confederate) to teach tasks not targeted for Feedback plus Demonstration, as well as generalization (G2) of DTT while teaching a child with autism. After an average of approximately 3 hours to master the self-instructional manual, participants’ DTT accuracy in both experiments improved from an average of 34% in Baseline to an average of 61% following the Self-Instructional Manual. Results appeared to be due to the Self-Instructional Manual phase for 9 of the 11 participants. Following an average of 35 minutes of Feedback plus Demonstration of DTT of one task, participants’ DTT accuracy improved to an average of 91% while teaching a confederate. The improvement appeared to be due to the intervention with 10 of the 11 participants. The participants’ DTT accuracy averaged 90% during G1 and 86% during G2. These results demonstrate that this training package has considerable potential for teaching DTT to tutors, educational assistants, and parents of children with autism.

Discrete-trials teaching (DTT) is one of the principal techniques used in Applied Behaviour Analysis programs for children with autism. Although the demand for training individuals to implement DTT is high, published studies on strategies to do so are few. I conducted two experiments to investigate a training package for teaching individuals to implement DTT. In Experiment 1, I used a modified multiple-baseline design to evaluate the training package for teaching five university students to implement DTT to teach three tasks to a confederate role-playing a child with autism. Also, in an AB within-subject design with each participant, I compared two components of the training package, a Self-Instructional Manual and Feedback plus Demonstration. Experiment 2 was a systematic replication of Experiment 1, with 2 teaching assistants, a resource teacher, and 3 parents of children with autism as participants. In both experiments I assessed the generalization (G1) of participants’ ability to implement DTT (while teaching the confederate) to teach tasks not targeted for Feedback plus Demonstration, as well as generalization (G2) of DTT while teaching a child with autism. After an average of approximately 3 hours to master the self-instructional manual, participants’ DTT accuracy in both experiments improved from an average of 34% in Baseline to an average of 61% following the Self-Instructional Manual. Results appeared to be due to the Self-Instructional Manual phase for 9 of the 11 participants. Following an average of 35 minutes of Feedback plus Demonstration of DTT of one task, participants’ DTT accuracy improved to an average of 91% while teaching a confederate. The improvement appeared to be due to the intervention with 10 of the 11 participants. The participants’ DTT accuracy averaged 90% during G1 and 86% during G2. These results demonstrate that this training package has considerable potential for teaching DTT to tutors, educational assistants, and parents of children with autism.

This master thesis concerns the modeling of the pedestal in the fusion plasma device DTT and its dependence on several plasma parameters. The modeling was performed using the Europed code which is based on the EPED model. Several parameters were found to have a significant impact on the pedestal predictions. This included the plasma current, toroidal magnetic field and the density at the pedestal top. It was also found that the relative position between the temperature pedestal and density pedestal as well as one of the coefficients in the EPED model had a large impact on the pedestal predictions. Of these, the coefficient in the EPED model and the relative position shift are expected to impart the greatest uncertainty in the pedestal predictions performed. The reason for this is that there is currently no reliable method for estimating these parameters beforehand of an experiment. In the span of this work it was also found that restrictions on the safety factor in the core could have large impacts on the pedestal predictions.

Delays in communication are one of the defining characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Educators have begun using technology to teach students with ASD to label different items. However, more research needs to be conducted with technology (such as iPads and other tablets) to find the most effective teaching procedures. We wanted to find the most effective way to teach children with ASD age-appropriate action verbs, such as drawing and painting. Five preschool-aged students with ASD participated in this study. We taught these participants to label action verbs using pictures and short video clips, to test which method was the most effective. With two of the five participants, we wanted to see if the action verbs we taught as pictures generalized to video clips, and vice versa. With these same two participants, we asked if they remembered all of the verbs two weeks later, to see if the skill maintained. At the end of the study, we conducted an assessment with the participants to see if they preferred learning action verbs with pictures or video clips. The results show that all of the preschoolers with ASD learned to identify verbs both as pictures and video clips.

Teaching using matrix programming has been shown to result in recombinative generalization. However, this procedure has not been compared to more standard discrete trial training formats such as DTT. This study compared acquisition and recombinative generalization of two-component tacts using each procedure. Matrix training was found to be more efficient than the DTT format. Half the amount of teaching was required to teach roughly the same number of targets using matrix training as compared to DTT.

The aim of this study was to develop a Digit Triplet Test (DTT) using NZ English. The DTT is a hearing screening tool that uses spoken numbers presented in background noise to estimate speech recognition thresholds (SRTn). The NZ DTT will be made available via telephone or the internet, and will provide each person who completes the screening test with information about whether they should seek a professional hearing assessment. Normal-hearing participants (22 listeners) with hearing thresholds ≤20 dB HL were tested to establish the intelligibility of the individual digits at various signal-to-noise ratios (-20; -17.5; -15.0; -12.5; -10.0; -7.5; and -5.0 dB). The mid-points of the resulting psychometric functions were then used to adjust the level of each digit to achieve the same intelligibility. A SRT of -10.40 ± 1.75 dB SNR for the broadband presentation was established for the separate ear triplet test with the average slope of 17.3%/dB ± 3.9 %/dB for the ten test lists generated. The binaural ear DTT results were compared to best ear threshold PTA and found to have a highly significant correlation (r = 0.816, p<0.001) and a significant correlation to the QuickSIN sentence-in-noise test (r = 0.668, p<0.001). The binaural triplet test was found to have a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 85%. The separate ear DTT results were compared to the best ear threshold pure tone audiometry and found to have a highly significant correlation (r = 0.809, p<0.001). The separate ear triplet test was found to have a sensitivity of 88% and specificity of 81% (1 – specificity = 0.187). The internet version of the DTT hearing screening test will provide New Zealanders with an easily accessible and objective test that will raise awareness about hearing and hopefully reduce the length of time people take before seeking advice about their hearing.

Personer som lider av multipelt myelom (MM) behandlas ofta med daratumumab. Daratumumab fäster till CD38 på erytrocyter vilket leder till problem med förenlighetsprövning, såsom antikroppsidentifiering och screening. När daratumumab i patientens plasma binder till testerytrocyter, ger det upphov till panreaktivitet. Dithiothreitol (DTT), ett reduktionsmedel, denaturerar CD38 så daratumumabantikropparna inte kan binda in och panreaktiviteten motverkas. Genom att DTT-behandla testerytrocyter kan kliniskt viktiga antikroppar påvisas och säkrare blodtransfusioner genomföras. En nackdel med DTT är att även Kell-antigenet bryts ner och anti-Kell kan ej påvisas. Syftet med examensarbetet var att verifiera metoden för DTT-behandling av testerytrocyter utifrån Region Östergötlands metodbeskrivning. I studien ingick totalt 21 plasmaprover från totalt 10 daratumumabbehandlade patienter. Testerytrocyterna behandlades med DTT enligt hänvisande metodbeskrivning. Obehandlade samt DTT-behandlade testerytrocyter testades mot plasmaproverna utan tillsatta blodgruppsantikroppar. DTT-behandlade testerytrocyter testades därefter mot plasmaproverna med tillsatt känd antikropp. Resultatet visade på en daratumumabinterferens mot obehandlade testerytrocyter och en avlägsnad interferens mot DTT-behandlade testerytrocyter. Samtliga tillsatta antikroppar kunde identifieras förutom anti-K vilket var förväntat, samt anti-s. Anti-s är främst betydelsefull vid gravidimmunisering och är därför inte lika viktig i detta sammanhang. Positiva respektive negativa prediktiva värdet (PPV och NPV) utföll 100% respektive 50%. NPV blev sämre på grund av få sanna negativa resultat i studien. Resultatet för positive respektive negative percentage agreement (PPA och NPA) utföll 88,9% respektive 100%. Under studien var hemolys ett problem och vidare studier krävs för att undersöka hållbarheten på DTT-behandlade testerytrocyter. Slutsatsen är att metodbeskrivningen för DTT-behandling av testerytrocyter kan tillämpas med vetskapen att anti-K och anti-s ej kan detekteras. / People suffering from multiple myeloma are often treaded with daratumumab. Daratumumab binds to CD38 on red blood cells (RBC) which interferes with compatibility tests, such as antibody identification and screening. Dithiothreitol (DTT), a reducing agent, acts to denature CD38 so daratumumab cannot bind. DTT treatment of RBC reagents make it possible to detect clinically significant antibodies and safer transfusions can be performed. Anti-K could not be identified because DTT destroyed the antigen. The objective of this study was to verify the method of DTT treatment of RBC reagents based on the method description of the Östergötland region. Untreated and DTT treated RBC reagents, respectively, were tested against plasma samples containing no blood group antibodies. DTT-treated RBC reagents were then tested against the plasma samples with added known antibody. The results showed a daratumumab-interference against untreated RBC reagents and that the interference was eliminated with DTT-treated RBC reagents. All antibodies could be identified, except anti-K and anti-s. Anti-s is particularly important in pregnancy immunization and is therefore not as important in this context. Positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV) were 100% and 50% respectively. NPV was low due to few true negative results in this study. The result for positive and negative percentage agreement (PPA and NPA) was 88,9% and 100% respectively. During the study, hemolysis was a problem and further studies are needed to investigate the sustainability of RBCs. The conclusion is that the method description for DTT treatment of RBC reagents can be applied with the knowledge that anti-K and anti-s cannot be detected.

The purpose of the current study was to determine the efficiency of an electronic data collection method compared to a traditional paper-based method in the educational field, in terms of the accuracy of data collected and the time required to do it. In addition, data were collected to assess users' preference and system usability. The study included a sample of 20 preschool special educators from the Mailman Segal Center's Baudhuin Preschool and Autism Institute located in Davie County, Florida, who conduct daily data collection and analysis. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods to determine answers to five research questions. These were, (1) to what extent is electronic data collection faster than traditional paper-based data collection, (2) to what extent does electronic data collection aid special education teachers and paraprofessionals to collect more accurate data than traditional paper-based data collection, (3) to what extent is the use of electronic data collection result in significant time savings relative to traditional paper-based data collection during data graphing, (4) to what extent do specialists prefer either data collection method and for what reasons, and (5) to what extent do specialists rate the usability of the handheld device used for electronic data collection. Results suggested that both formats are comparable in terms of data collection time F(1, 18) = 3.53, p = .077 and accuracy, F(1, 18) = .928, p = .348 but that electronic data graphing is faster (M = 40.4, SD = 2.17) than paper-based graphing (M = 80.4, SD = 52.61). A higher percentage of participants (60%) preferred the electronic-based data collection method due to its graphing capability and better organization of data. The electronic data collection system used in this study was found to be more usable than 86.8% of all products tested using the System Usability Scale (SUS) and, therefore, could be considered a "C" or at an "acceptable" level or "good" relative to the other 200+ systems tested using the SUS by Bangor, Kortum, and Miller (2009). The electronic-based data collection system could also be considered an "A-" based on Sauro and Lewis' (2012) scale.

Background: Gliomas are neuroepithelial tumours classified by cell type and grade. In adults, low-grade gliomas are comprised mainly of astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas grade II. The aim was to non-invasively characterise suspected low-grade gliomas through use of 11C-methionine-PET and physiological MRI in order to facilitate treatment decisions. Materials and methods: Patients with suspected low-grade glioma were prospectively and consecutively included after referral to the Neurosurgical Department, Uppsala University Hospital, between February 2010 and February 2014. All patients underwent morphological MRI, perfusion MRI, diffusion MRI and 11C-methionine PET. The institutional review board approved the study, and written informed consent was obtained prior to participation from each patient. Results: 11C-methionine PET hot spot regions corresponded spatially with regions of maximum relative cerebral blood volume in dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) perfusion MRI. The skewness of the transfer constantin dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) perfusion MRI, and the standard deviation of relative cerebral blood flow in DSC perfusion MRI could most efficiently discriminate between glioma grades II and III. In diffusion MRI, tumour fractional anisotropy differed between suspected low-grade gliomas of different neuropathological types. Quantitative diffusion tensor tractography was applicable for the evaluation of tract segment infiltration. Conclusion: PET and physiological MRI are able to characterise low-grade gliomas and are promising tools for guiding therapy and clinical decisions before neuropathological diagnosis has been obtained.