A series of five experiments was conducted to determine whether operant or respondent factors controlled the emission of a particular vocalization ( "Q" ) by human infants 16 to 18 months old. Experiment 1 consisted of a pilot investigation of the effects of an autoshaping procedure on three infants' vocal behavior. All three subjects demonstrated increased emission of the target sound during the CR period. Experiments 2 through 4 attempted to replicate the findings of Experiment 1 under controlled conditions, and failed to do so. Experiment 5a presented infant subjects with a discrete-trial operant procedure (having the identical temporal parameters as the autoshaping procedure used in Experiments 1 through 4) , during which subjects received rewards only after emitting the target sound. All three experimentally naive subjects in this condition emitted the target sounds, and each met an acquisition criterion of 15 successive trials with at least one target response (CR) per trial. Subjects in Experiment 5b were exposed to the autoshaping procedure employed in Experiments 1 through 4; in addition, they were rewarded verbally for emitting the target sound at any time during the session. One of these three subjects increased her rate of target sound emission, but never met the acquisition criterion. The results suggest that vocalizations of subjects in this age range are susceptible to response-reinforcer (operant) manipulations and not to stimulus-stimulus (Pavlovian) associations. This conclusion differs from the findings of previous investigations that used younger infant subjects, suggesting that subject age may be important when conditioning vocalizations. Further research is also recommended to determine the utility of employing autoshaping procedures with humans.

Small burnet (Sanguisorba minor scop.) Is a hardy, relatively long lived evergreen forb native to Eurasia that has potential to improve grazinglands and extend grazing into late fall and winter. Trials evaluating small burnet tolerance to spring and fall postemergence herbicide applications were conducted at the Utah State University Evans farm in Millville, UT. Two small burnet genotypes were grown in a randomized complete block design with a split-plot arrangement. Twelve treatments, clethodim, clopyralid, imazamox, 2,4DB, metribuzin, aminopyralid, pendimethalin, dimethenamid-P, bromoxynil, dicamba, quinclorac, and an untreated were applied at moderate field use rates either spring or fall of the establishment year. Plots were rated for visual injury on a 0 to 100 scale where 0 = no injury and 100 = complete mortality. Ratings were done 7, 14, 60 days after treatment (DAT) and the spring following treatment. Seed yield, seed viability, and dry matter yield (DMY) were determined. Fall treatments of aminopyralid reduced seed yield 65%, seed germination 43%, and DMY 67%. Fall applied imazamox treatments reduced DMY by 36%, and seed yield by 33%, but did not impact germination. Visual injury was greatest from spring and fall applied aminopyralid treatments with ratings of 24% and 79%. Spring applied treatments did not impact seed yield or seed germination. Results suggest that clethodim, metribuzin, quinclorac, clopyralid, dimethenamid-P, bromoxynil, and pendimethalin cause little or no injury to small burnet.

Severe problem behavior may interfere with the education of children as well as cause serious injury to person and property. This study examined the correspondence of results obtained from trial-based and standard functional analyses for identifying function of problem behavior with high-school aged students. This study also examined the feasibility of school personnel conducting trial-based functional analyses within the classroom environment with procedural integrity. School personnel conducted four trial-based functional analyses with three high-school aged students referred for problem behavior. One student had two topographies of problem behavior assessed. The trials were interspersed throughout the school day. Results of the trial-based functional analyses were compared with results from standard functional analyses conducted by trained graduate students to show correspondence, or lack thereof between assessment results. Two cases showed correspondence between the two assessments. Two participants showed partial correspondence, which was attributed to limited exposure to contingencies during the brief trials in the trial-based functional analyses as well as differences in the analysts’ opinion of function depicted by the data. These results indicate that a trial-based functional analysis may be a viable assessment tool when school personnel lack the resources needed to complete a standard functional analysis. Two teachers and a paraprofessional were able to conduct trial-based functional analyses with high procedural integrity. Future direction of trial-based assessment research is discussed.

An Examination of Competency Restoration Training in a South Florida Community-based Setting by Josephine J. Tang, M.S. Doctor of Philosophy, Nova Southeastern University, 2010 Dr. David Shapiro, Chairperson The deficiency in competency restoration programs according to the literature (Grudzinskas & Clayfield, 2004) is that this intervention only provides a limited treatment to satisfy the legal requirements. There is also lack of research that examines the efficacy of treatment for incompetent defendants and the duration of competency restoration (Nicholson & McNulty, 1992). The present study examined a competency restoration program for pre-trial individuals. Those (BAP group) who received psychotherapy, competency restoration training, and medication were compared with those (BA group) who did not receive psychotherapy to determine which group will obtain competency faster and maintain it longer. The survival analyses did not find any significant difference between the groups in regard to duration of competency. Propensity scores were based on the logistic regression of psychotherapy on other covariates. Psychotherapy was not statistically significant in three way analyses. When all covariates were unadjusted, the hazard ratio was 2.09 (p = 0.13). When using the propensity score as a continuous variable, the hazard ratio was 1.75 (p = 0.70) and when using the propensity score in quintiles, the hazard ratio was 1.84 (p = 0.42). The probability is that participants in the BAP group are twice as likely to obtain competency as participants of the BA group. Although this result did not reach a significant level, the effect size is meaningful. The three analyses yielded similar results and identical direction. Logistic regression was used to examine the correlation between the treatment time and being judged incompetent among the individuals who were initially judged competent. Individuals of the BA group had slightly lower odds of being judged competent and later to relapse than those in the BAP group. Relapse of competency occurred more frequently in individuals diagnosed with psychotic symptoms, low intellectual functioning, and/or neurological deficit. The findings suggested that severe and persistent mental disorder is a chronic condition that requires long-term care and consideration for more comprehensive treatment.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The “total-etch” or “etch-and-rinse” systems have been the gold standard of dental bonding for decades. However, these systems are very technique-sensitive and time-consuming compared to newer “self-etch” or “self-adhesive” systems and have been implicated in cases of postoperative sensitivity. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of two surface treatment protocols (self-etch vs. selective-etch) on the clinical performance of a universal adhesive and resin composite in Class V non-carious cervical lesions (NCCLs). Thirty-three volunteer subjects (17 male; 16 female; age range = 20 to 75 years) having at least two NCCLs were selected from patients of record at Indiana University School of Dentistry. Each subject received one resin composite restoration (Tetric EvoCeram, Ivoclar Vivadent) utilizing a self-etch (SfE) universal adhesive (Adhese Universal, Ivoclar Vivadent) with no separate enamel etching and another restoration utilizing adhesive and selective enamel etching (SelE) with 37% phosphoric acid (H3PO4). Both the adhesive and composite were placed following the manufacturer’s instructions. The two techniques were compared for differences in sensitivity, retention, marginal discoloration, marginal adaptation, and clinical acceptability at baseline and 6 months using the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel tests for stratified, ordered categorical outcomes. Seventy-four restorations (37 SfE, 37 SelE) in 30 volunteers were evaluated at 12 months. No significant differences were found between the SfE and SelE groups for any variable at the 12-month recall (p>0.21). Retention was 100% at 12 months for both groups. Marginal adaptation was significantly worse at 12 months than at baseline for SelE (p=0.0163), but there was no difference for SfE (p=0.08). Sensitivity improved significantly from baseline to 12 months for both SelE (p=0.0113) and SfE (p=0.0128). The results obtained from this study are comparable to results observed in similar studies. Like similar studies involving self-etch adhesives in non-carious cervical lesions, our study showed no restorations lost to caries and excellent retention. The deterioration of selective-etch dentin margins was a result that differed from similar studies. A likely explanation for this finding would be the difficulty of controlling precise placement of phosphoric acid gel, causing undesired etching of dentin; this could result in suboptimal bonding to dentin. This report on 12-month data for a two-year study indicates significantly reduced sensitivity for both the SelE and SfE groups, and deterioration of SelE marginal adaptation. No decreases in retention, marginal discoloration, or clinical acceptability were observed in either group.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The marker strategy design (MSGD) has been proposed to assess and validate predictive markers for targeted therapies and immunotherapies. Under this design, patients are randomized into two strategies: the marker-based strategy, which treats patients based on their marker status, and the non-marker-based strategy, which randomizes patients into treatments independent of their marker status in the same way as in a standard randomized clinical trial. The strategy effect is then tested by comparing the response rate between the two strategies and this strategy effect is commonly used to evaluate the predictive capability of the markers. We show that this commonly used between-strategy test is flawed, which may cause investigators to miss the opportunity to discover important predictive markers or falsely claim an irrelevant marker as predictive. Then we propose new procedures to improve the power of the MSGD to detect the predictive marker effect. One is based on a binary response endpoint; the second is based on survival endpoints. We conduct simulation studies to compare the performance of the MSGD with the widely used marker stratified design (MSFD). Numerical studies show that the MSGD and MSFD has comparable performance. Hence, contrary to popular belief that the MSGD is an inferior design compared with the MSFD, we conclude that using the MSGD with the proposed tests is an efficient and ethical way to find predictive markers for targeted therapies.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間健康科学) / 甲第18908号 / 人健博第22号 / 新制||人健||2(附属図書館) / 31859 / 京都大学大学院医学研究科人間健康科学系専攻 / (主査)教授 菅沼 信彦, 教授 鈴木 眞知子, 教授 中原 俊隆 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human Health Sciences / Kyoto University / DFAM

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The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the use of 360 degree virtual reality training videos to teach pre-service teachers to implement a Trial-Based Functional Analysis (TBFA). Additionally, the current study sought to assess if following training, participants could generalize the assessment skills learned to a novel problem behavior. Three undergraduate education majors in their junior year of coursework participated in the study, and were exposed to 360 degree virtual reality training videos for each of the TBFA conditions (attention, demand, and tangible) in various orders in a multiple-probe design. Results from the study indicated that the videos were effective in teaching participants to conduct a TBFA, and none of the participants required performance feedback to reach mastery criteria. Additionally, all participants were able to successfully generalize the skills learned to a novel problem behavior. When asked about their perceptions of the virtual reality training methods through a social validity questionnaire, participants gave high ratings indicating that these training methods overall were useful, effective, and acceptable. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

No description available.