Older motherhood (after 30 years) is increasingly common, yet relatively little is known about the relation between mother age and child development. Mother age has been linked to offspring cognitive and motor development, but those studies measured mother age with crude categorizations (e.g., older vs. younger) and varied their focus from one developmental period to another (e.g., infancy vs. early childhood). The present study used a more sensitive measure of mother age and examined both motor and language development in the same children at the same age. Mother age was considered within an ecological systems framework as a predictor of variability in offspring walking and talking. Survival analysis was used to examine a large archival dataset in Study One to create an initial snapshot of mother age effects. Study Two used online methodologies to clarify mother age effects by examining early motor (walking) and language (gestures) development in a heterogeneous sample. Older motherhood was associated with delayed walking and talking during infancy (0 to 18 months), but advanced receptive vocabulary in childhood (4 and 5 years). Such results confirm the general idea that variation in mother age has implications for offspring development, but the pattern and direction of influence appears to vary by content domain and by age. The use of a one-size-fits-all norm for typical development and for assessing developmental delay is ill-advised because children of younger and older mothers may differ in systematic ways.

Yellow perch, Perc4 flavescens (Mitchill), were sampled by bottom trawling and gillnetting in Indiana waters of Lake Michigan near Michigan City, Indiana during the months of June, July and August, 1988.Length-frequency analysis of trawl-caught fish revealed that fish older than age 1 were represented by a single large aggregate in monthly length frequency distributions. Opercular ages were validated by establishing that opercular bone annulus formation occurred from late spring to early summer and was completed by late July.Percent agreement of age determinations by age class between the methods ranged from 0X to 100X for males and OZ to 89X for 'Females for combined months. There was a tendency for percent agreement to decrease with increasing age in both males and females. The majority of the age discrepancies were a difference of plus or minus one year for both males and females.The body-scale length relationship was determined to be linear with data points close to the regression line for both sexes by month and for months combined. Coefficients of determination values ranged from 0.92 to 0.96 for male body-scale length regression by month with a value of 0.93 for months combined . Coefficients of determination values for females ranged from 0.92 to 0.94 by month with a value of 0.93 for months combined. Combining all data for months and sexes yielded a coefficient of determination value of 0.93 for body-scale length regression.The a-values determined for the body-scale length relationship were variable from June through August for both sexes. Male avalues ranged from 30.58 to * 44.15 monthly with a months combined value of 37.63. Female a-values ranged from 25.55 to 43.30 monthly with a combined months value of 34.83. Combining all data for months and sexes yielded an a-value of 35.78.The body-opercular length relationship was determined to be linear with data points close to the regression line. Coefficients of determination values for males ranged from 0.94 to 0.98 by month with a value of 0.96 for months combined. Coefficients of determination for females ranged from 0.97 to 0.98 by month with a value of 0.97 for months combined. The combined data for sexes and months resulted in a coefficient of determination value of 0.97.The a-values determined for the body-opercular length relationship demonstrated variability from month to month. Male a-values ranged from 9.19 to 14.47 monthly with a combined months value of 11.69. Female a-values ranged from 8.83 to 12.26 monthly with a combined value of 11.57. Combining the data for months and sexes yielded an a-value of 11.59.Growth determinations based on scale and opercular data for all aged fish demonstrated a high degree of agreement between the methods for both sexes and all age classes. No significant differences were found between 95X confidence intervals for mean length at formation of last annulus for any age class. The largest observed difference in length at formation of last annulus was 23 mm in the age 3+ females in June. Growth determined from opercular bones was found to be slightly greater than growth determined from scales in both sexes. Females grew faster than males after age 2 based both on scale and on opercular data. Monthly length increment determined from scale and opercular data was determined to be small or non-existent after age 2 for both sexes.Growth determined from scales and opercular bones for only those fish with agreed age between the methods demonstrated a high degree of agreement between methods by month for both sexes. No significant differences were found between 95X confidence intervals of mean length at last annulus in any age class. Data for months combined and sexes separate revealed that growth determinations were virtually identical between the methods. Females were shown to grow faster than males after age 2 for both methods. Monthly length increment was again found to be small or non-existent after age 2.Based on these results, it is concluded that the opercular bone method is an acceptable procedure for assessing age and growth of the yellow perch in Indiana waters of Lake Michigan. Since false annuli were more readily recognized in the opercular bone than in the scales and, since there was the decreasing agreement between the methods with increasing age of fish it is concluded the opercular method is probably a more accurate method for age and growth analysis in the yellow perch from Indiana waters of Lake Michigan. / Department of Biology

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

There is no abstract available for this thesis. / Department of Physiology and Health Science

No description available.

No description available.

A large literature has described the effects of advancing age on cognitive laboratory tasks, but there have been few attempts to investigate its effects on everyday cognitive performance. The experiments reported are an attempt to explore the effects of age on the everyday memory task of comprehending and remembering events as conveyed by television and in everyday perception. The methodology used was cross-sectional with all subjects well-documented on a number of indices. These were assessed as predictors of performance on different cognitive tasks relating to the everyday memory task. Age per se was found to have a limited effect on performance, the best index of the cognitive effect of ageing being I.Q. test score. This index picked up most of the variance on the measurements taken. Experiments were designed to examine the elderlys' recall of television news broadcasts. These demonstrated that elderly people with low I.Q. test scores have difficulty recalling facts and details from such an information source. Subsequent experiments attempted to identify the processes which explain groups differences on this task.

This thesis examines the theory behind workshops, including craft specialisation, and presents a catalogue of workshops and activity areas in the Aegean from the Neolithic to the end of the Protopalatial period. No systematic procedure for analysing and classifying workshops has been used or proposed previously. The main aim of this thesis is to develop a method by which loci suggested to be workshops may be analysed, with a view to ascertaining whether this identification is correct. Following on from this, a further objective is to formulate a means of classifying the information to determine the type of working area and the degree of certainty with which it may be called a workshop or activity area. This method will be used in the compilation of the catalogue. For a comprehensive study of workshops, two main theoretical issues are considered in Volume I. Firstly, the theory of craft specialisation, integral to the study and definition of workshops, is examined. Its definition, features, associated aspects and connection with workshops are researched. Secondly, a theoretical study of the possible varieties of workshops and their likely locations, products, and consumers provides a basis for the following examination of actual loci within the Aegean. In Volume II a catalogue of working areas in the Aegean is presented, which also includes other craft-related loci: craftsman's graves, hoards and mines. The method for analysis is employed extensively throughout the catalogue to reinterpret areas previously suggested to be workshops or activity areas. New classifications are suggested for many loci. It is concluded that the proposed method is successful in achieving the aims for which it was developed.

No description available.

No description available.