Physical education teachers' attitudes towards children with intellectual disability: the impact of time in service, gender, and previous acquaintance.

BACKGROUND: This study investigated attitudes towards teaching students with intellectual disability (ID) within a representative sample of secondary school physical education (PE) teachers, and to determine the effects of age, gender, teaching experience, and having acquaintance with ID and students with ID on their attitudes. METHODS: Participants were 729 secondary school PE teachers who worked in 81 major cities of Turkey. The Teachers Attitudes towards Children with Intellectual Disability Scale was administered. RESULTS: The statistical analysis revealed that there was no significant effect on factors and total attitudes scores of gender and having students with ID. Significant effects on factors and total attitudes score were found in teaching experiences and having acquaintance with ID. CONCLUSIONS: It is encouraged to maintain and further develop in-service education programmes of adapted physical activity for PE teachers.

Effects of a Special Olympics Unified Sports soccer program on psycho-social attributes of youth with and without intellectual disability.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of a Special Olympics (SO) Unified Sports (UNS) soccer program on psycho-social attributes of youth with and without intellectual disabilities (ID). Participants were 76 male youth with (n=38) and without (n=38) ID. Participants with ID were randomly allocated into a SO athletes group (n=23, mean age=14.5; SD=1.2 years) and a control group (CG) (n=15, mean age=14.5; SD=.8 years). Twenty-three randomly selected youth without ID formed the partner group (mean age=14.1; SD=.9 years) and 15 youth without ID (mean age=13.8; SD=.5 years) formed the CG. Instruments included the Friendship Activity Scale (FAS) (Siperstein, 1980), the Adjective Checklist (Siperstein, 1980), and the Children Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991). The soccer training program lasted eight weeks, 1.5h per session, three times per week, in addition to school physical education (PE). The CG did not participate in any sports in addition to PE. The findings showed that the UNS program was effective in decreasing the problem behaviors of youth with ID and increasing their social competence and FAS scores. In addition, the program was found to be effective in improving the attitude of youth without disabilities toward participants with disabilities. In conclusion, the present findings demonstrate the utility of a UNS program for both youth with and without disabilities.

The effects of rope or weighted rope jump training on strength, coordination and proprioception in adolescent female volleyball players.

AIM: The aim was to assess the effects of a 12-week "rope jumping" and "weighted rope jumping" training programs on functional parameters including multi-joint coordination and proprioception, strength, endurance in adolescent female volleyball players. METHODS: Pretest posttest experimental design. INTERVENTION: Weighted Rope Training group (N.=9; 15±1 years), Rope Training group (N.=9; 14.1±1.3 years) and Controls (N.=7; 14.4±1.3 years). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Motor coordination, proprioception, strength and endurance of the lower extremities with concentric and eccentric performances in closed kinetic chain on multi joint system assessed by the Monitorized Squat system. Absolute average error (cm) and the standard deviation for coordination and proprioception, Peak Force (N), Total Work (Nm), Average Power (Nm/s), Maximal Speed for strength and endurance tests were calculated. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann Whitney U test were utilized. RESULTS: Weighted rope jump group had significant decrease for the deviation results of coordination on the concentric and eccentric phases for both legs (P<0.05). Rope jump and weighted rope jump groups had significantly lower results on non visible second movement deviation (P<0.05). In strength tests, the difference was found for total work that there was difference on the post assessment within groups in favour of Weighted Rope Training group in comparison to controls (P<0.05). Weighted Rope Training and control groups improved in concentric maximal speed (P<0.05). Most significant changes occured on eccentric phaese of the endurance tests that peak force increased in Weighted Rope Training group (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Adding rope jump to training programs improves joint repositioning and coordination. Weighted Rope Training group got greater gains for coordination and eccentric endurance parameters for lower extremities in a closed kinetic chain.

The adsorption of Cr(VI) on sulphuric acid-treated wheat bran.

Wheat bran, a by-product of wheat milling industries, was converted into a cheap and efficient material by treating with sulphuric acid and used for the adsorption of Cr(VI) from aqueous solution. Effects of various parameters such as initial pH of solution, contact time, initial Cr(VI) concentration and temperature were studied. The sulphuric acid-treated wheat bran (STWB) gave the highest adsorption efficiency at pH 1.5. The equilibrium data were fitted better to Langmuir isotherm model compared to Freundlich model at all the temperatures studied. The adsorption capacity increased from 91 to 133 mg gl(-1) with an increase in temperature from 20 degrees C to 50 degrees C. The adsorption process was found to be endothermic and Langmuir isotherm data were evaluated to determine the thermodynamic parameters for the process. Thermodynamic parameters showed that the process was feasible. The results indicated that the chromium removal process by STWB followed first-order rate expression and adsorption rate constants increased with increasing temperature.

Is it useful to routinely biopsy hot nodules in iodine deficient areas?

Incidence of nodular thyroid disease as well as that of functioning thyroid nodules (FTN) increases dramatically in iodine deficient (ID) areas. Cancer is extremely rare in FTN; thus, some do not routinely biopsy and treat them with radioactive iodine (RAI) straight away or follow-up. The outcome of 296 patients followed or treated at our institution for solitary or multiple FTN were retrospectively evaluated. Hospital records of 224 female, 72 male patients, with a mean +/- SD age of 54.9 +/- 12.4 yr and followed for 22 (0-156) months were examined. 175 patients had solitary, 121 had multiple hot or warm nodules. 230 (77.7%) of the patients received RAI treatment. 402 fine needle aspiration biopsies (FNABs) were performed on 260 patients and on 343 FTN (381 benign and 21 suspicious diagnoses). Eleven of the patients were operated for suspicious FNAB results and 10 were followed-up. Only one nodule turned out to be malignant. Malignancy is extremely rare in functioning thyroid nodules (0.34%) and some of malignant cases could be predicted by their suspicious clinical features. Routine practice of treating FTN with RAI therapy is reasonable in clinically low-risk patients. FNAB is reserved for cases with suspicious clinical features, resulting in fewer surgeries and reduced cost.

Salivary nickel and chromium in patients with fixed orthodontic appliances.

The purpose of this study was to determine the alterations in the chromium and nickel concentrations in the saliva of orthodontic patients treated with fixed orthodontic appliances. Forty-five orthodontic patients were included in this study. The first group consisted of 15 patients (7 female, 8 male) with fixed appliances placed in their upper and lower arches. The second group consisted of 15 patients (8 female, 7 male) with a fixed appliance placed only in the upper arch. The control group consisted of 15 patients (7 female, 8 male) who were not undergoing orthodontic treatment. Four samples of stimulated saliva were collected from each patient before insertion of the fixed appliance, 1 week after insertion of the appliance, 1 month after insertion of the appliance, and 2 months after insertion of the appliance. The same 4 samples of saliva were collected from each control patient at the same time intervals as for the fixed-appliance groups. The chemical analyses were done with an electrothermal atomic absorption spectrophotometer (Perkin Elmer 2380, Perkin Elmer Corp, Baden Seewerk, Germany). The Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed ranks test was used to test differences between samples before and after insertion of orthodontic appliances. A Kruskal Wallis 1-way analysis of variance was used to test differences in nickel and chromium concentration among the 3 test groups. It was observed that there was a large variation in the concentrations of both nickel and chromium in saliva. No significant differences were found between the no-appliance group and the samples obtained after insertion of the appliances. The results of the study suggest that fixed orthodontic appliances do not significantly affect nickel and chromium concentrations of saliva during the first 2 months of treatment.

Evaluating a measure of the five-factor model of personality.

An evaluation is made of Goldberg s (1992) 100 Unipolar Markers of the five-factor model of personality. The factor structure of these items in samples of older men from the Normative Aging Study and undergraduate students are examined, and both item transformation and consistency testing approaches are used to evaluate replications of the five-factor structure. Results show that the five-factor structure is difficult to replicate in the sample of older men. While item transformations and sample trimming based on a consistency test did improve the quality of the replication in this older, nonstudent sample, both methods have serious drawbacks. The five-factor solution appeared in the student sample without sample trimming or data transformation. Additionally, in both student and nonstudent samples, oblique rotation resulted in inter-factor correlations relevant to more general issues in the study of trait structure. We conclude that the 100 Unipolar Markers may be unsuitable for use in older populations or with nonstudent samples.

Determination of hepatic zinc content in chronic liver disease due to hepatitis B virus.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Zinc is an essential, mostly intracellular, trace element which participates in many physiologic mechanisms. Some liver functions like urea formation require the presence of zinc; thus the determination of hepatic zinc content may contribute to the understanding of probable zinc-related clinical consequences of chronic liver disease. In this study, we aimed to determine the hepatic zinc concentrations in patients with chronic liver disease due to the Hepatitis B virus and to ascertain the relationship between the severity of liver disease and hepatic zinc content, if one in fact exists. METHODOLOGY: A total of 99 HBsAg positive subjects were included in the study. We performed a liver biopsy on all subjects. Hepatic zinc concentrations were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. RESULTS: The liver biopsies were normal in 25 subjects. There were 33 chronic active hepatitis (CAH), 34 cirrhosis and 7 chronic persistent hepatitis (CPH) patients in the study group. In the control group, CAH, cirrhosis and CPH groups, the mean liver zinc concentrations were 3.83 +/- 1.86, 1.86 +/- 0.92, 1.14 +/- 0.68 and 3.74 +/- 1.81 mumol/g dry weight, respectively. Hepatic zinc in the CAH and cirrhosis groups were lower than that of the control group (p < 0.05). We also found that liver zinc in the cirrhosis group was lower than in the CAH group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: According to these results, as the severity of liver damage increases, the hepatic zinc concentration decreases. Therefore, it can be suggested that zinc supplementation may improve hepatic encephalopathy by increasing the efficiency of the urea cycle.

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis of clenbuterol from urine.

Clenbuterol which is mostly used as an anabolic agent. It is also used for treatment of asthma. Clenbuterol was analysed from urine by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. GC-MS parameters were determined. Timolol was used as an internal standard. Extraction and derivatisation procedure of clenbuterol from urine were developed. Clenbuterol was extracted by using diethylether/ter-butanol (4:1; v:v) and pH 12 K2CO3/KHCO3 (3:2; w:w) buffer. MSTFA/NH4I (1 ml/10 mg) mixture was used for derivatization of clenbuterol. Selected ions of clenbuterol-bis-TMS were m/z: 405, 337, 336, 335, 300, and 227. Extraction yield and minimum detection limit of clenbuterol from urine were identified. Extraction yield was 94.30% and minimum detection was found 0.02 ng ml(-1) urine. It has been concluded that the GC-MS method is sensitive, accurate, precise, and reproducible for analysing of clenbuterol from urine.

The determination of nandrolone and its metabolites in urine by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

The determination of nandrolone and its major metabolites in urine of a healthy volunteer is typically performed by fused-silica capillary column gas chromatography with electron impact quadropole mass spectrometry. Two well-known urinary metabolites of nandrolone, 19-norandrosterone and 19-norethiocholanolone, were isolated by XAD-2 adsorption from urine, eluted with methanol and separated into unconjugated and conjugated fractions. The conjugated fraction was hydrolyzed with beta-glucuronidase from Escherichia coli and the samples derivatized with MSTFA/ammonium iodide/dithioerythritol. Ion fragmentograms of the bis-trimethylsilyl derivatives of nandrolone and its metabolites displayed molecular ions of M+ = 420 and M(+) -15 = 405. Extraction yield and the minimum detection limit of nandrolone in urine were identified. Finally, excretion rates of nandrolone and its metabolites in urine were determined.

Determination of ceftriaxone in aqueous humor and serum samples of differential-pulse adsorptive stripping voltammetry.

Differential-pulse adsorptive stripping voltammetry was used to determine ceftriaxone in serum and aqueous humour samples. The method involved extraction of the ceftriaxone from serum samples with an Amberlite XAD-2 column followed by elution with methanol. The recovery was 97.6% with a relative standard deviation of 3.3% at a ceftriaxone concentration of 90.9 microg 1(-1). Peak currents of ceftriaxone were measured with a hanging mercury drop electrode at -0.78 V versus an Ag-AgCl reference electrode in pH 3.0 Britton-Robinson buffer. The calibration graph was linear from 0.02 to 1300 microg 1(-1). The method was applied to cataract cases and ceftriaxone levels were measured in aqueous humour and serum samples from patients who had received 1 or 2 g of ceftriaxone intravenously. Aqueous humour was added to the polarographic cell directly. The amounts of ceftriaxone in the aqueous humour and serum samples with respect to time were measured. The pharmacokinetic profiles for 1 and 2 g were compared.

Construct validation of optimism and pessimism in older men: findings from the normative aging study.

Validation of Scheier and Carver's (1985) Life Orientation Test (LOT) has identified associations between bipolar optimism and several external constructs. However, optimism and pessimism may be not bipolar, but rather separate constructs. Furthermore, these constructs may be indistinguishable from personality traits, such as neuroticism and extraversion. This study examined the associations of separate optimism and pessimism measures with self-reports of hassles, psychological symptoms, and illness severity, controlling for personality. Ss were 1,192 men from the Normative Aging Study. Findings suggest that optimism and pessimism are separate and that their relations to external criteria remain, although attenuated, when neuroticism and extraversion are controlled.

Plasma chromium levels in small-for-gestational-age newborn infants.

Plasma chromium (Cr) levels were determined in 24 preterms and 18 full-term newborn infants. There was no statistically significant differences in plasma Cr levels between the preterm and full-term infants. Plasma Cr levels were similar in small-for-gestational-age infants and in infants with hypoglycemia compared with healthy infants.

Shared experiences and the similarity of personalities: a longitudinal study of married couples.

Do spouses become more similar over time? What processes contribute to enduring similarities between them? Using the 20-year Kelly Longitudinal Study of couples, no support for the hypothesis that couples increasingly resemble each other with time was found. Rather, couples maintain the same degree of similarity across 20 years. Structural equation analyses suggest that the shared environmental experiences of couples play a significant role in maintaining these similarities over time. We distinguish the shared marital environment from the shared rearing environment and consider developmental and dynamic-relational factors that moderate the relative importance of nonshared and shared environmental experiences in life-span personality development. Whereas nonshared influences in one's family of origin contribute to development in childhood and adolescence, shared influences in one's family of destination may contribute a great deal to development in adulthood.

Conductivity response of porous electrodes supported on perfluorosulfonic acid membranes to acidic gas mixtures.

Gold or platinum films deposited on a Nafion membrane were used to measure surface conductance of the membrane. Acidic gases such as HCI or SO2, introduced as mixtures with an inert gas, were found to affect the conductance of the membrane surface facing this mixture while the other side of the membrane was constantly supplied with a moist inert gas. The relative conductance (G/Go) is most affected within the 0-0.5 and 3-4.5 vol % ranges both for HCI and SO2. The effect is higher for the Pt-deposited than it is for the gold-deposited membrane: for an HCI concentration of 1.5 vol %, G/Go is 5 for Pt deposited on Nafion while it is only 1.3 for gold deposited on Nafion. This is attributed to different geometries and porosity of the Pt and Au electrodes. No conductance response was observed for CO2 which yields with water a much weaker acid than those formed by HCI and SO2.

In vitro effects of thyroxine on the mechanical properties of erythrocytes.

In vitro effects of thyroxine on erythrocyte deformability and mechanical fragility were observed. Deformability of erythrocytes was improved in a dose dependent manner by thyroxine. Mechanical hemolysis was found to be lower if thyroxine was included in erythrocyte suspensions at concentrations close to the physiological levels (10(-9)M). These changes might be related to the alterations of intracellular calcium concentration, as in the erythrocyte suspensions containing 10(-9)M thyroxine, intracellular calcium concentration was found to be 30 times lower than the control suspensions which did not contain thyroxine. Thyroxine also reduced the mechanical hemolysis ratio in calcium loaded cells. These observations suggest that thyroxine might play some role in the regulation of the mechanical properties of erythrocytes which might be mediated via the effects on calcium metabolism.

Patterns of personality consistency and change from childhood through adolescence.

Consistency and change in personality development is typically studied through examination of correlations indexing the consistency of individual differences over time. Despite well-known difficulties which inherently limit this approach, few empirical efforts take advantage of alternative methods. We utilize a "person-centered" approach which permits separate and independent measurement of consistency and change for each person studied. Such measures were obtained covering four intervals between ages 3 and 18 in a longitudinally studied sample. These analyses and subsequent results extend and elaborate earlier results reported in Lives through Time (Block, 1971). It is apparent that there are wide individual differences in the degree of personality consistency and change manifested by subjects, and that the degree and timing of change permit the description of various different developmental trajectories. These pathways are described and compared to results obtained by Block (1971). This research is intended as an illustration of the possibilities obtained through person-centered approaches to the study of personality consistency and change.

Personality, intelligence, and spatial visualization: correlates of mental rotations test performance.

In the context of a longitudinal study of cognitive and personality development, I examined various correlates of spatial visualization ability, as measured by Vandenberg's Mental Rotations Test, in order to elaborate the meaning of the known sex difference on this factor. Spatial visualization ability in females was correlated with verbal IQ and various aspects of personality. These relations were absent in males. Within each sex, measures of cognitive abilities obtained in childhood predicted spatial visualization ability at age 18. Hypotheses designed to explain the sex difference in spatial visualization must be sensitive to the different implications of this factor in males and females.