Identification of crystals forming on porcine articular cartilage: a new method for the estimation of the postmortem interval.

Articular cartilage was examined to determine its decomposition sequence and its potential for assessing the postmortem interval. Scanning electron microscopy of articular cartilage from buried porcine trotters showed the presence of microcrystals on the synovial surface. These orthorhombic pyramidal or "coffin"-shaped crystals, appeared at 3 weeks (22 days) after interment and disappeared after 6 weeks. The disappearance of these crystals was linked to decompositional changes to the integrity of the synovial joint. The formation and disappearance of these crystals was associated with a pH change at the cartilage surface. Scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) analysis showed that the five main elements contained within these crystals were carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, magnesium, and phosphorous. Such elemental analysis suggested the crystals may be struvite (MgNH4 PO4 6(H2 O)). Bacteria cultured from the cartilage synovial surface produced struvite crystals when grown in suitable media and were identified by DNA analysis to be Comamonas sp.

Phonological assessment and analysis of bilingual preschoolers' Spanish and English word productions.

PURPOSE: The major purpose of this study was to examine Spanish and English phonological productions (patterns/deviations) of typically developing bilingual preschool children. Phonological scores were compared in order to determine if significant differences exist between (a) boys and girls, (b) 4- and 5-year-olds, and/or (c) their productions of Spanish and English words. METHOD: Fifty-six bilingual 4- and 5-year-old children (27 boys and 29 girls) who attended Head Start programs named stimulus items for Spanish and English phonological assessment instruments that were similar in procedures and analyses. RESULTS: Multivariate analyses indicated no significant differences for phonological scores between boys and girls or between the 2 languages. Differences between the 4- and 5-year-olds, however, were significant, with the 5-year-olds performing better than the 4-year-olds. Liquid deviations and omissions of consonants in clusters/sequences were the most frequently occurring phonological deviations. CONCLUSIONS: Phonological score differences between typically developing bilingual Spanish-English-speaking preschool boys and girls from similar backgrounds are not likely to be significant. Better phonological scores, however, can be expected for 5-year-olds than for 4-year-olds. Moreover, phonological deviation percentage scores of typically developing bilingual children for comparable Spanish and English assessment instruments are likely to be similar.

Postmortem degradation of porcine articular cartilage.

Postmortem decompositional changes to articular cartilage were analysed to help establish a new methodology in determining the postmortem interval. The cartilage was collected from porcine trotters buried in simulated shallow graves for different time periods. The trotters were dissected to expose the cartilage located at the metatarsal joint. Numerous macroscopic changes including a colour change, gradual degradation of cartilage and adjacent soft tissues and a loss of cartilage covering articular facets were observed. Further analysis was conducted using light microscopy (LM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to assess microstructural changes. Both LM and SEM showed gradual morphological and structural changes to the tissue over time, along with loss of nuclear material. Tissue surface analysis with SEM highlighted orthorhombic shaped crystals that appear at approximately three weeks postmortem and persist until six weeks postmortem. Both microscopic and macroscopic characteristics followed a recognisable succession over the burial times observed. These results indicate that postmortem degradation of articular cartilage may be useful for estimating a presumptive postmortem interval.

Analysis of spelling error patterns of individuals with complex communication needs and physical impairments.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between patterns of spelling error and related linguistic abilities of four persons with complex communication needs and physical impairments, compared to younger individuals without disabilities matched by spelling age. All participants completed a variety of spelling and linguistic tasks to determine overall spelling age, patterns of spelling errors, and abilities across phonemic, orthographic, and morphological awareness. Performance of the spelling-age matched pairs was similar across most of the phonemic, orthographic, and morphological awareness tasks. Analysis of the participants' spelling errors, however, revealed different patterns of spelling errors for three of the spelling-age matched pairs. Within these three pairs, the participants with complex communication needs and physical impairments made most of their spelling errors due to phonemic awareness difficulties, while most of the errors on the part of the participants without disabilities were due to orthographic difficulties. The results of this study lend support to the findings of previous investigations that reported difficulties among individuals with complex communication needs and physical impairments evidence when applying phonemic knowledge to literacy tasks.

Communicative ability conceptions among children who stutter and their fluent peers: a qualitative exploration.

UNLABELLED: Meta issues in stuttering were examined by analyzing verbal-descriptive data drawn from structured interviews with 23 male children who stutter (CWS) and their 23 fluent male peers. Participants described others' "good" and "bad" talk behaviors and provided their self-appraisals as talkers. Analysis of interview transcripts suggested that CWS favored unidimensional criteria for describing others' talk behaviors, where others' speech-language forms, particularly allusions to stuttering behaviors, were noted most commonly in the descriptions. In contrast, children who did not stutter used multidimensional criteria to describe others' talk behaviors, where others' speech-language forms and pragmatic behaviors were weighted evenly, particularly for positive descriptions. Additionally, many CWS expressed reservations in describing themselves as "good talkers," whereas their fluent peers provided mainly positive appraisals of their own talking abilities. Outcomes provide evidence that early conceptions of communicative abilities among CWS are influenced by their stuttering experiences and diverge from early communicative ability conceptions among their fluent peers. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will learn about and be able to; (1) recognize the relevance of examining communicative ability conceptions among children who stutter within the context of educational research on ability conceptions in children; (2) identify qualitative methods used to analyze interviews with participants; and (3) appreciate the role of personal experiences in shaping communicative ability conceptions among children who stutter.

An examination of phonological awareness treatment outcomes for seventh-grade poor readers from a bilingual community.

PURPOSE: The goal of this study was to examine posttreatment outcomes following direct, systematic phonological awareness instruction for seventh-grade poor readers, most of whom had English as their second language. METHOD: The treatment group (n = 35) participated in small-group instruction sessions that emphasized phonological awareness at the phoneme level and incorporated explicit linkages to literacy. The treatment, which was administered in the participants' school setting over a 12-week period, involved approximately 45 hr of contact with a trained instructor. Postintervention performance of the treatment group was compared to performance of students from the same school and grade level who were waiting to receive phonological awareness treatment (nontreatment group, n= 33). RESULTS: ANCOVA results for total reading scores and MANCOVA results for Phonological Awarenes, Word Attack, Word Identification, Word Comprehension, and Passage Comprehension subtests indicated that group differences were significant. The posttreatment scores of the treatment group were higher for all measures. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Seventh-grade poor readers, including bilingual students who have English as their second language, can benefit from direct, systematic instruction that emphasizes phonological awareness and is linked to literacy.

Performance on phonological and grammatical awareness metalinguistic tasks by children who stutter and their fluent peers.

UNLABELLED: This study was undertaken to examine the performance of 23 children who stutter (CWS) and 23 children who do not stutter (CWNS) on three metalinguistic tasks. These included two phonological awareness assessment procedures (The Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Test (LAC) and a Phoneme Reversal Task) and one modified Grammar Judgments Task where syntactic and semantic appropriateness of sentences was evaluated. Differences between groups were significant for the grammar judgment task, where CWNS outperformed CWS in judging syntactically and semantically anomalous sentences. Group differences were not significant for the phonological awareness tasks. The results underscore the importance of examining metalinguistic abilities of CWS through a variety of tasks. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will learn about and be able to: (1) recognize the relevance of examining metalinguistic abilities within the context of research on language-stuttering dynamics; and (2) identify measures of metalinguistic abilities that can be used to compare the performances of CWS and CWNS.

Collaborating to Obtain Phonological Acquisition Data for Local Schools.

PURPOSE: Twelve school-based speech-language practitioners enlisted the assistance of a university clinical phonologist to help them implement a collaborative research project for their school system in order to investigate phonological acquisition. METHOD: The school practitioners transcribed speech samples of 520 typically developing children between the ages of 2:6 and 8:0 (years:months). Responses were coded for syllable/word structures (e.g., final consonant deletion) and phoneme classes (e.g., velar deficiencies). RESULTS: The 3-year-olds in this sample had acquired all major phoneme classes except liquids. For the older participants, /l/ was acquired between 4 and 5 years of age and /r/ between 5 and 6 years of age. Although the strident phoneme class had reached the criterion for acquisition by age 3 years, sibilant lisps were still common until the age of 7 years. Another finding was the rare occurrence of omissions. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: The practitioners resolved that when determining whether a preschooler would be eligible to receive treatment services as a part of their caseloads, consistent speech sound omissions appeared to be a critical indicator and should be considered a higher priority than substitutions and/or distortions. CONCLUSION: The collaborative effort between the university clinical phonologist and the school-based speech-language practitioners was considered to be a valuable experience and a model for future collaborative partnerships.