Teacher consultation: impact on teachers' effectiveness and students' cognitive competence and achievement.

Teachers from six ethnically diverse inner-city schools participated in weekly mental health consultation for more than two years. Using a quasi-experimental design, a longitudinal sample of 91 teachers and 209 students was assessed periodically through multiple standardized measures. Results indicate that a low-cost, indirect intervention had a direct impact on teachers' sense of professional competence and was linked to positive changes in students' sense of cognitive competence and their academic achievement.

Pygmalion and the student: age and classroom differences in children's awareness of teacher expectations.

This study explores age and classroom differences in children's awareness of teacher expectations and in the relation between awareness and self-expectations. In a sample of 579 children and their teachers in 30 first- (6-7-year-olds), third- (8-9-year-olds), and fifth-grade (10-11-year-olds) classrooms, assessed in the fall, younger children were found to be less accurate than fifth graders in predicting teacher expectations and in reporting differential patterns in their own interactions with the teacher. Yet first graders identified classroom differences in the degree of differential teacher treatment toward high and low achievers that were associated with differences in the expectations that high and low teacher-expectancy students reported for themselves. Fifth graders appeared more likely than younger children to mirror teacher expectancies in their self-descriptions regardless of the degree of differential treatment reported in the classroom environment.

Estimation of the volume of lung below the left atrium using computed tomography.

Gravity has significant effects on the microvascular pressure in the lungs and thus on regional fluid filtration in the lungs. Below the level of the heart, gravity increases the microvascular pressure with respect to the left atrial pressure; above the level of the heart, microvascular pressure is less than atrial pressure. To assess the contribution of gravity to fluid filtration in the lungs independent of left-heart filling pressure, the distribution of lung volume above and below the left atrium must first be determined. To permit calculation of the contribution of hydrostatic pressure per unit of lung volume, 26 computed tomographic scans of the entire chest were traced and measured, marking the level of the center of the left atrium (LAL) on each slice. The intrathoracic volume above and below the left atrium was measured by multiplying scan slice thickness by the area of the lung above or below the LAL measured on each scan slice. On 16 scans, intrathoracic volumes of 1-cm horizontal layers of lung above and below the LAL were also calculated by measuring corresponding segments of the transverse scan slices. The calculations indicate that in the supine posture more lung is dependent than when upright, and that elevation of a patient to 30 degrees reduces the volume of lung below the LAL nearly as much as does the upright posture.

Measuring lung volumes from chest films using equations derived from computed tomography.

Computed tomographic scans show true cross-sectional area of a segment of the chest. Measurement of the cross-sectional area of the lung at several adjacent levels permits calculation of a geometrically defined volume. CT scans from 26 cases were used to derive equations to predict regional volume from measurements which can be obtained from plain PA and lateral chest films. Separate equations were derived for slices above and below the top of the diaphragm. The best correlation between linear dimensions and true volume was obtained with equations that used lung width and antero-posterior (AP) diameter of each scan, maximum AP lung diameter, and relative scan level (apex to base). These equations predicted the volumes of individual slices above the diaphragm with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.99 on the right, 0.97 on the left. Below top of the diaphragm, r was 0.91 on the right, 0.92 on the left. Total lung volume was predicted with an r of 0.98 (s.e. 4.8%) on the right and 0.97 (s.e. 5.3%) on the left. Using total chest width instead of AP diameter of each slice reduced r to 0.96 for the volume of either lung. This method compares favorably with previous regression or geometric approximation methods for total lung volume and also makes it possible to obtain estimates of portions of lung volume from chest films.