76 FR 7701 - Special Local Regulations; Krewe of Charleston Mardi Gras Boat Parade, Charleston Harbor...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-02-11

...-AA08 Special Local Regulations; Krewe of Charleston Mardi Gras Boat Parade, Charleston Harbor... establishing a special local regulation for the Krewe of Charleston Mardi Gras Boat Parade on the Ashley River... Charleston Mardi Gras Boat Parade with sufficient time to publish an NPRM in advance of the effective date of...

Gras Dowr joins world`s FPSO fleet

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

NONE

1997-05-05

The Gras Dowr, a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (FPSD) for Amerada Hess Ltd.`s North Sea Durward and Dauntless fields, is one of the latest additions to the world`s growing FPSO fleet. The Gras Dowr, anchored in about 90 m of water, lies between the Durward (U.K. Block 21/16) and Dauntless (U.K. Block 21/11) fields, about 3.5 km from the subsea wellhead locations. The Gras Dowr`s main functions, according to Bluewater Offshore Production Systems Ltd., are to: receive fluids from well risers; process incoming fluids to separate the fluid into crude, water, and gas; store dry crude oil andmore » maintain the required temperature; treat effluent to allow for water discharge to the sea; compress gas for gas lift as a future option; provide chemical injection skid for process chemical injection; use a part of the produced gas for fuel gas, and flare excess gas; inject treated seawater into the injection wells; house power generation for process and offloading operation and utilities; offload to a tandem moored shuttle tanker including receiving liquid fuel from the same tanker; provide accommodations for operating and maintenance crews; allow helicopters landings and takeoffs; allow handling and storage of goods transported by supply vessels; moor a shuttle tanker; and control the subsea wells.« less

21 CFR 570.35 - Affirmation of generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... to the NAS-NRC GRAS list survey (36 FR 20546), shall submit a petition for GRAS affirmation pursuant... included where applicable.) (g) Quantitative compositions. (h) Manufacturing process (excluding any trade... quantitative methods for determining the substance(s) in food, including the type of analytical procedures used...

21 CFR 570.35 - Affirmation of generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... to the NAS-NRC GRAS list survey (36 FR 20546), shall submit a petition for GRAS affirmation pursuant... included where applicable.) (g) Quantitative compositions. (h) Manufacturing process (excluding any trade... quantitative methods for determining the substance(s) in food, including the type of analytical procedures used...

21 CFR 570.35 - Affirmation of generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... to the NAS-NRC GRAS list survey (36 FR 20546), shall submit a petition for GRAS affirmation pursuant... included where applicable.) (g) Quantitative compositions. (h) Manufacturing process (excluding any trade... quantitative methods for determining the substance(s) in food, including the type of analytical procedures used...

21 CFR 570.35 - Affirmation of generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... to the NAS-NRC GRAS list survey (36 FR 20546), shall submit a petition for GRAS affirmation pursuant... included where applicable.) (g) Quantitative compositions. (h) Manufacturing process (excluding any trade... quantitative methods for determining the substance(s) in food, including the type of analytical procedures used...

21 CFR 570.35 - Affirmation of generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... to the NAS-NRC GRAS list survey (36 FR 20546), shall submit a petition for GRAS affirmation pursuant... included where applicable.) (g) Quantitative compositions. (h) Manufacturing process (excluding any trade... quantitative methods for determining the substance(s) in food, including the type of analytical procedures used...

Y2K affiliation, immediate pedestrian density, and helping responses to lost letters.

PubMed

Bridges, F S; Thompson, P C

2001-06-01

Of 75 letters "lost" in Florida, 41 were returned in the mail (the helpful response). Immediate pedestrian density was significantly related to nonhelping responses. The greater the number of subjects passing by a lost letter, the less likely any one of them would respond to it. The rates of return did vary with the addressees' affiliations. Returned responses for the affiliates, Y2K Arkbuilders and the Believers of God's Judgement Against Homosexuals: Y2K Millennium Bug, were substantially lower than for the affiliate, Y2K Computer Repair & Programming, Inc. Returns for the Believers of God's Judgement Against Homosexuals: Y2K Millennium Bug affiliate were significantly lower than for the Y2K Arkbuilders affiliate. Variables such as sex, race, and estimated age of subjects were not associated with helping to return a lost letter. The rate of return of lost letters is not the only important measure to be examined in studies using lost letters.

Learning to Write Letters: Examination of Student and Letter Factors

PubMed Central

Puranik, Cynthia S.; Petscher, Yaacov; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2016-01-01

Learning to write the letters of the alphabet is an important part of learning how to write conventionally. In this study, we investigated critical factors in the development of letter-writing skills using exploratory item response models to simultaneously account for variance in responses due to differences between students and between letters. Letter-writing skills were assessed in 415 preschool children aged 3 to 5 years. At the student level, we examined the contribution of letter-name knowledge, letter-sound knowledge, and phonological awareness to letter-writing skills. At the letter level, we examined seven intrinsic and extrinsic factors in understanding how preschool children learn to write alphabet letters: first letter of name, letters in name, letter order, textual frequency, number of strokes, symmetry, and letter type. Results indicated that variation in letter-writing skills was accounted for more by differences between students rather than by differences between letters, with most of the variability accounted for by letter-name knowledge and age. Although significant, the contribution of letter-sound knowledge and phonological awareness was relatively small. Student-level mechanisms underlying the acquisition of letter-writing skills are similar to the mechanisms underlying the learning of letter sounds. However, letter characteristics, which appear to play a major role in the learning of letter names and letter sounds, did not appear to influence learning how to write letters in a substantial way. The exception was if the letter was in the child’s name. PMID:25181463

Effect of different GRAS compounds in the control of apples blue mould.

PubMed

Venditti, T; Cubaiu, L; Ladu, G; D'Hallewin, G

2013-01-01

The most important pathogen for apples is Penicillium expansum that is the causal organism of blue mould. Postharvest losses are controlled with chemical fungicides such as TBZ but a growing concern for human health and a greater awareness for environmental conservation have multiplied the studies on new ecological technologies. In the search of new environment and consumer friendly technologies that can reduce toxic residues, the use of GRAS compounds represent a valid alternative to the use of synthetic postharvest fungicides. The aims of the present work were: (1) To evaluate the effectiveness of different GRAS compounds in the control of P. expansum in artificially inoculated fruit; (2) To assess the capability of injured and treated fruit with GRAS compounds, used alone or combined, to heal the wounds in order to resist to infection. Fruit was injured with a steel rod and after 1 hour was (1) Inoculated with the pathogen and after 24 hours treated or (2) Treated and after 24 hours inoculated. Treatments were performed with the following compounds: sodium bicarbonate (SBC), boric acid (BA) and calcium chloride (CC) by using a 1% solution for all of them. After 9 or 14 days fruit lesion diameters were assessed. In the trial (1) the combined treatment with BA and SBC was the most effective reducing the lesion diameter by 86.5% with respect to untreated fruit, after 9 days from infection. A good pathogen control was also obtained with BA used alone or combined with CC. When the treatment was performed before infection the best results were achieved with the combination of SBC and CC, with 87% of reduction of the lesion diameter. The addition of CC also reduced the lesion if combined with BA (66.8%). These preliminary results showed that GRAS compounds can be effective in reducing blue mold by a direct effect on the pathogen, and by modulating fruit responses enhancing host resistance.

32 CFR Appendix A to Part 327 - Sample DeCA Response Letter

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 32 National Defense 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Sample DeCA Response Letter A Appendix A to Part...) PRIVACY PROGRAM DEFENSE COMMISSARY AGENCY PRIVACY ACT PROGRAM Pt. 327, App. A Appendix A to Part 327—Sample DeCA Response Letter Mrs. Floria Employee 551 Florida Avenue Oakland, CA 94618 Dear Mrs. Employee...

Army Response Letter & Analysis - signed January 19, 2001

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

A response to the letter, which requested a review of the proposed decision by the Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District to issue four Department of the Army permits to Baltimore County (3 permits) and Anne Arundel County (1 permit), MD.

Chemistry, manufacturing and exposure assessments to support generally recognized as safe (GRAS) determinations.

PubMed

Barraj, Leila; Murphy, Mary; Tran, Nga; Petersen, Barbara

2016-08-01

Identity, stability, purity, intended use levels in what foods and technical effects, and probable intake are among the key components in an assessment to support GRAS determinations. The specifications of identity of a food substance are an important component of the safety assessment as changes in the physical and chemical properties of a food substance can influence its technical effect in food and can influence its nutritional or toxicological properties of the food substance. Estimating exposure is a key determining step in the safety evaluation of a food substance. Intake assessment in GRAS determination is necessarily comprehensive based on cumulative exposure, i.e. proposed new uses plus background dietary exposure. Intake estimates for safety assurance in a GRAS determination also represent conservative overestimate of chronic exposure as they are based on 2-day average daily intake and the upper percentile (90th) intake among consumers. In contrast, in a nutrient assessment where realistic intake estimates are of interest, usual intake estimates are relied upon. It should also be noted that intake estimates for GRAS determinations are also more conservative than estimate of dietary exposure by EPA (FIFRA), where mean per capita are used to assess chronic exposure. Overall, for safety assurance, intake assessments in GRAS determinations are comprehensively cumulative and typically conservative overestimate of exposures. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

19 CFR 207.104 - Response to charging letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 19 Customs Duties 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Response to charging letter. 207.104 Section 207.104 Customs Duties UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION NONADJUDICATIVE INVESTIGATIONS INVESTIGATIONS OF WHETHER INJURY TO DOMESTIC INDUSTRIES RESULTS FROM IMPORTS SOLD AT LESS THAN FAIR VALUE OR FROM...

The GraS Sensor in Staphylococcus aureus Mediates Resistance to Host Defense Peptides Differing in Mechanisms of Action.

PubMed

Chaili, Siyang; Cheung, Ambrose L; Bayer, Arnold S; Xiong, Yan Q; Waring, Alan J; Memmi, Guido; Donegan, Niles; Yang, Soo-Jin; Yeaman, Michael R

2016-02-01

Staphylococcus aureus uses the two-component regulatory system GraRS to sense and respond to host defense peptides (HDPs). However, the mechanistic impact of GraS or its extracellular sensing loop (EL) on HDP resistance is essentially unexplored. Strains with null mutations in the GraS holoprotein (ΔgraS) or its EL (ΔEL) were compared for mechanisms of resistance to HDPs of relevant immune sources: neutrophil α-defensin (human neutrophil peptide 1 [hNP-1]), cutaneous β-defensin (human β-defensin 2 [hBD-2]), or the platelet kinocidin congener RP-1. Actions studied by flow cytometry included energetics (ENR); membrane permeabilization (PRM); annexin V binding (ANX), and cell death protease activation (CDP). Assay conditions simulated bloodstream (pH 7.5) or phagolysosomal (pH 5.5) pH contexts. S. aureus strains were more susceptible to HDPs at pH 7.5 than at pH 5.5, and each HDP exerted a distinct effect signature. The impacts of ΔgraS and ΔΕL on HDP resistance were peptide and pH dependent. Both mutants exhibited defects in ANX response to hNP-1 or hBD-2 at pH 7.5, but only hNP-1 did so at pH 5.5. Both mutants exhibited hyper-PRM, -ANX, and -CDP responses to RP-1 at both pHs and hypo-ENR at pH 5.5. The actions correlated with ΔgraS or ΔΕL hypersusceptibility to hNP-1 or RP-1 (but not hBD-2) at pH 7.5 and to all study HDPs at pH 5.5. An exogenous EL mimic protected mutant strains from hNP-1 and hBD-2 but not RP-1, indicating that GraS and its EL play nonredundant roles in S. aureus survival responses to specific HDPs. These findings suggest that GraS mediates specific resistance countermeasures to HDPs in immune contexts that are highly relevant to S. aureus pathogenesis in humans. Copyright © 2016, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

The Massachusetts BMI letter: A qualitative study of responses from parents of obese children

PubMed Central

Moyer, Lindsay J.; Carbone, Elena T.; Anliker, Jean A.; Goff, Sarah L.

2015-01-01

Objectives Massachusetts (MA) public schools conduct mandated body-mass index (BMI) screening and until recently, communicated results in a letter to parents/caregivers, to encourage primary care visits and provide aggregate data to the state Department of Public Health. This study assessed the letter's readability and qualitatively explored parents’ responses to it. Methods Readability of the BMI letter was calculated. Audio-taped 1-h focus groups were conducted with parents/caregivers of 8- to 14-year-old obese (≥95th BMI-for-age percentile) children. A semistructured interview guide was used to elicit responses. Qualitative content analysis was conducted on transcripts to identify emergent themes. Results Readability analysis showed higher grade levels than recommended. Eight focus groups consisting of two to six parents each were conducted (n = 29); 83% were female, mean age 41 ± 9 years, and 65% self-identified as Hispanic/Latino. Key themes identified included usefulness of the BMI letter, concerns about utility of BMI for screening, concerns about impacting self-esteem, and failure to understand the letter. Conclusions The MA BMI letter may not have been achieving its desired goal with some parents. Practice implications: Emergent themes from this study could be used to test effectiveness of similar BMI letters nationwide and develop strategies to improve communication to parents. PMID:24290240

National and Governmental Advisory Committee Advice Letters and EPA Responses for 2017

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Advice Letters and produced by the National Advisory Committee and Governmental Advisory Committee to the United States Representative to the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, and EPA responses

21 CFR 186.1 - Substances added indirectly to human food affirmed as generally recognized as safe (GRAS).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... an independent determination that a use of an ingredient is GRAS may submit a GRAS petition in... this part does not authorize the use of such substance in a manner that may lead to deception to the consumer or to any other violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act). (e) If the...

21 CFR 186.1 - Substances added indirectly to human food affirmed as generally recognized as safe (GRAS).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... an independent determination that a use of an ingredient is GRAS may submit a GRAS petition in... this part does not authorize the use of such substance in a manner that may lead to deception to the consumer or to any other violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act). (e) If the...

Personally addressed hand-signed letters increase questionnaire response: a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

PubMed Central

Scott, Pippa; Edwards, Phil

2006-01-01

Background Postal questionnaires are commonly used to collect data for health studies, but non-response reduces study sample sizes and can introduce bias. Finding ways to increase the proportion of questionnaires returned would improve research quality. We sought to quantify the effect on response when researchers address participants personally by name on letters that accompany questionnaires. Methods All randomised controlled trials in a published systematic review that evaluated the effect on response of including participants' names on letters that accompany questionnaires were included. Odds ratios for response were pooled in a random effects meta-analysis and evidence for changes in effects over time was assessed using random effects meta-regression. Results Fourteen randomised controlled trials were included covering a wide range of topics. Most topics were unrelated to health or social care. The odds of response when including participants' names on letters were increased by one-fifth (pooled OR 1.18, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.34; p = 0.015). When participants' names and hand-written signatures were used in combination, the effect was a more substantial increase in response (OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.27 to 1.66; p < 0.001), corresponding to an absolute increase in the proportion of questionnaires returned of between 4% and 10%, depending on the baseline response rate. There was no evidence that the magnitude of these effects had declined over time. Conclusion This meta-analysis of the best available evidence indicates that researchers using postal questionnaires can increase response by addressing participants by name on cover letters. The effect appears to be enhanced by including hand-written signatures. PMID:16953871

Applications for approval to market a new drug; complete response letter; amendments to unapproved applications. Final rule.

PubMed

2008-07-10

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is amending its regulations on new drug applications (NDAs) and abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) for approval to market new drugs and generic drugs (drugs for which approval is sought in an ANDA). The final rule discontinues FDA's use of approvable letters and not approvable letters when taking action on marketing applications. Instead, we will send applicants a complete response letter to indicate that the review cycle for an application is complete and that the application is not ready for approval. We are also revising the regulations on extending the review cycle due to the submission of an amendment to an unapproved application and starting a new review cycle after the resubmission of an application following receipt of a complete response letter. In addition, we are adding to the regulations on biologics license applications (BLAs) provisions on the issuance of complete response letters to BLA applicants. We are taking these actions to implement the user fee performance goals referenced in the Prescription Drug User Fee Amendments of 2002 (PDUFA III) that address procedures and establish target timeframes for reviewing human drug applications.

The Complaint Letter and Response.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shukla, P. K.

1998-01-01

Describes an assignment in which students write a letter of complaint, and discusses how this assignment aids students in seeing the importance of effective written communication to their daily lives. (SR)

Data archiving and serving system implementation in CLEP's GRAS Core System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zuo, Wei; Zeng, Xingguo; Zhang, Zhoubin; Geng, Liang; Li, Chunlai

2017-04-01

The Ground Research & Applications System(GRAS) is one of the five systems of China's Lunar Exploration Project(CLEP), it is responsible for data acquisition, processing, management and application, and it is also the operation control center during satellite in-orbit and payload operation management. Chang'E-1, Chang'E-2 and Chang'E-3 have collected abundant lunar exploration data. The aim of this work is to present the implementation of data archiving and Serving in CLEP's GRAS Core System software. This first approach provides a client side API and server side software allowing the creation of a simplified version of CLEPDB data archiving software, and implements all required elements to complete data archiving flow from data acquisition until its persistent storage technology. The client side includes all necessary components that run on devices that acquire or produce data, distributing and streaming to configure remote archiving servers. The server side comprises an archiving service that stores into PDS files all received data. The archiving solution aims at storing data coming for the Data Acquisition Subsystem, the Operation Management Subsystem, the Data Preprocessing Subsystem and the Scientific Application & Research Subsystem. The serving solution aims at serving data for the various business systems, scientific researchers and public users. The data-driven and component clustering methods was adopted in this system, the former is used to solve real-time data archiving and data persistence services; the latter is used to keep the continuous supporting ability of archive and service to new data from Chang'E Mission. Meanwhile, it can save software development cost as well.

Just a Spoonful of Sugar Will Land You Six Feet Underground: Should the Food and Drug Administration Revoke Added Sugar's GRAS Status?

PubMed

Card, Melissa Marie; Abela, John Francis

2015-01-01

This article assesses whether added sugar meets FDA's standard to be generally recognized as safe ("GRAS"). If added sugar is not GRAS, then manufacturers are subject to premarket approval prior to using added sugar in their products. This article advocates that FDA should issue a Federal Register notice determining that added sugar is not GRAS, allowing FDA to regulate the amount of added sugar used in processed foods, decreasing the health adversities that stem from added sugar consumption.

Tagatose, the new GRAS sweetener and health product.

PubMed

Levin, Gilbert V

2002-01-01

Tagatose, a low-calorie, full-bulk natural sugar, has just attained GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) status under U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, thereby permitting its use as a sweetener in foods and beverages. This paper presents all current aspects of tagatose with respect to demonstrated food and beverage applications and the potential health and medical benefits of this unique substance. Summarized studies are referenced to detailed peer-reviewed papers. The safety studies followed the recommendations in the FDA "Red Book." Results were submitted to an Expert Panel for determination of GRAS status under FDA regulation. Small phase 2 clinical trials showed tagatose to be effective in treating type 2 diabetes. The results, buttressed by the references cited, support the efficacy of the various applications disclosed for tagatose. Tagatose has been found to be safe and efficacious for use as a low-calorie, full-bulk sweetener in a wide variety of foods, beverages, health foods, and dietary supplements. It fills broad, heretofore unmet needs for a low-calorie sweetener in products in which the bulk of sugar is important, such as chocolates, chewing gum, cakes, ice cream, and frosted cereals. Its synergism with high-intensity sweeteners also makes it useful in sodas. Various health and medical benefits are indicated, including the treatment of type 2 diabetes, hyperglycemia, anemia, and hemophilia and the improvement of fetal development.

Region 4: South Carolina Adequate Letter and Response to Comments (6/21/2012)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This May 25, 2012 letter from EPA approves South Carolina's reasonable further progress (RFP) plan including the motor vehicle emission budget (MVEB) for volatile organic compounds (VOC) and EPA's response to comments received on the adequacy notification

21 CFR 170.35 - Affirmation of generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... as provided in § 170.30(e), except those subject to the NAS/NRC GRAS list survey (36 FR 20546...) Quantitative compositions. (h) Manufacturing process (excluding any trade secrets). (ii) Use of the substance... the substance in food, including: (a) References to qualitative and quantitative methods for...

21 CFR 170.35 - Affirmation of generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... as provided in § 170.30(e), except those subject to the NAS/NRC GRAS list survey (36 FR 20546...) Quantitative compositions. (h) Manufacturing process (excluding any trade secrets). (ii) Use of the substance... the substance in food, including: (a) References to qualitative and quantitative methods for...

21 CFR 170.35 - Affirmation of generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

...), except those subject to the NAS/NRC GRAS list survey (36 FR 20546; October 23, 1971), shall submit a... Food Chemicals Codex monograph should be included where applicable.) (g) Quantitative compositions. (h..., including: (a) References to qualitative and quantitative methods for determining the substance(s) in food...

21 CFR 170.35 - Affirmation of generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... as provided in § 170.30(e), except those subject to the NAS/NRC GRAS list survey (36 FR 20546...) Quantitative compositions. (h) Manufacturing process (excluding any trade secrets). (ii) Use of the substance... the substance in food, including: (a) References to qualitative and quantitative methods for...

21 CFR 170.35 - Affirmation of generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... as provided in § 170.30(e), except those subject to the NAS/NRC GRAS list survey (36 FR 20546...) Quantitative compositions. (h) Manufacturing process (excluding any trade secrets). (ii) Use of the substance... the substance in food, including: (a) References to qualitative and quantitative methods for...

32 CFR Appendix A to Part 327 - Sample DeCA Response Letter

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 32 National Defense 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Sample DeCA Response Letter A Appendix A to Part 327 National Defense Department of Defense (Continued) OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE (CONTINUED) PRIVACY PROGRAM DEFENSE COMMISSARY AGENCY PRIVACY ACT PROGRAM Pt. 327, App. A Appendix A to Part 327...

A GRAS-like gene of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) alters the gibberellin content and axillary meristem outgrowth in transgenic Arabidopsis plants.

PubMed

Fambrini, M; Mariotti, L; Parlanti, S; Salvini, M; Pugliesi, C

2015-11-01

The GRAS proteins belong to a plant transcriptional regulator family that function in the regulation of plant growth and development. Despite their important roles, in sunflower only one GRAS gene (HaDella1) with the DELLA domain has been reported. Here, we provide a functional characterisation of a GRAS-like gene from Helianthus annuus (Ha-GRASL) lacking the DELLA motif. The Ha-GRASL gene contains an intronless open reading frame of 1,743 bp encoding 580 amino acids. Conserved motifs in the GRAS domain are detected, including VHIID, PFYRE, SAW and two LHR motifs. Within the VHII motif, the P-H-N-D-Q-L residues are entirely maintained. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that Ha-GRASL belongs to the SCARECROW LIKE4/7 (SCL4/7) subfamily of the GRAS consensus tree. Accumulation of Ha-GRASL mRNA at the adaxial boundaries from P6/P7 leaf primordia suggests a role of Ha-GRASL in the initiation of median and basal axillary meristems (AMs) of sunflower. When Ha-GRASL is over-expressed in Arabidopsis wild-type plants, the number of lateral bolts increases differently from untransformed plants. However, Ha-GRASL slightly affects the lateral suppressor (las-4-) mutation. Therefore, we hypothesise that Ha-GRASL and LAS are not functionally equivalent. The over-expression of Ha-GRASL reduces metabolic flow of gibberellins (GAs) in Arabidopsis and this modification could be relevant in AM development. Phylogenetic analysis includes LAS and SCL4/7 in the same major clade, suggesting a more recent separation of these genes with respect to other GRAS members. We propose that some features of their ancestor, as well as AM initiation and outgrowth, are partially retained in both LAS and SCL4/7. © 2015 German Botanical Society and The Royal Botanical Society of the Netherlands.

Representation of Letter Position in Spelling: Evidence from Acquired Dysgraphia

PubMed Central

Fischer-Baum, Simon; McCloskey, Michael; Rapp, Brenda

2010-01-01

The graphemic representations that underlie spelling performance must encode not only the identities of the letters in a word, but also the positions of the letters. This study investigates how letter position information is represented. We present evidence from two dysgraphic individuals, CM and LSS, who perseverate letters when spelling: that is, letters from previous spelling responses intrude into subsequent responses. The perseverated letters appear more often than expected by chance in the same position in the previous and subsequent responses. We used these errors to address the question of how letter position is represented in spelling. In a series of analyses we determined how often the perseveration errors produced maintain position as defined by a number of alternative theories of letter position encoding proposed in the literature. The analyses provide strong evidence that the grapheme representations used in spelling encode letter position such that position is represented in a graded manner based on distance from both edges of the word. PMID:20378104

32 CFR 701.47 - FOIA fees must be addressed in response letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... PUBLICATION OF DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY DOCUMENTS AFFECTING THE PUBLIC FOIA Fees § 701.47 FOIA fees must be... 32 National Defense 5 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false FOIA fees must be addressed in response letters... all fees which are charged and apprised of the “Category” in which they have been placed. For example...

Overcoming the effect of letter confusability in letter-by-letter reading: a rehabilitation study.

PubMed

Harris, Lara; Olson, Andrew; Humphreys, Glyn

2013-01-01

Patients who read in a letter-by-letter manner can demonstrate effects of lexical variables when reading words comprised of low confusability letters, suggesting the capacity to process low-confusability words in parallel across the letters (Fiset, Arguin, & McCabe, 2006). Here a series of experiments is presented investigating letter confusability effects in MAH, a patient with expressive and receptive aphasia who shows reduced reading accuracy with longer words, and DM, a relatively "pure" alexic patient. Two rehabilitation studies were employed: (i) a word-level therapy and (ii) a letter-level therapy designed to improve discrimination of individual letters. The word-level treatment produced generalised improvement to low-confusability words only, but the serial processing treatment produced improvement on both high and low confusability words. The results add support to the hypothesis that letter confusability plays a key role in letter-by-letter reading, and suggest that a rehabilitation method aimed at reducing ambiguities in letter identification may be particularly effective for treating letter-by-letter reading.

Left cortical specialization for visual letter strings predicts rudimentary knowledge of letter-sound association in preschoolers

PubMed Central

Lochy, Aliette; Van Reybroeck, Marie; Rossion, Bruno

2016-01-01

Reading, one of the most important cultural inventions of human society, critically depends on posterior brain areas of the left hemisphere in proficient adult readers. In children, this left hemispheric cortical specialization for letter strings is typically detected only after approximately 1 y of formal schooling and reading acquisition. Here, we recorded scalp electrophysiological (EEG) brain responses in 5-y-old (n = 40) prereaders presented with letter strings appearing every five items in rapid streams of pseudofonts (6 items per second). Within 2 min of recording only, letter strings evoked a robust specific response over the left occipito-temporal cortex at the predefined frequency of 1.2 Hz (i.e., 6 Hz/5). Interindividual differences in the amplitude of this electrophysiological response are significantly related to letter knowledge, a preschool predictor of later reading ability. These results point to the high potential of this rapidly collected behavior-free measure to assess reading ability in developmental populations. These findings were replicated in a second experiment (n = 26 preschool children), where familiar symbols and line drawings of objects evoked right-lateralized and bilaterally specific responses, respectively, showing the specificity of the early left hemispheric dominance for letter strings. Collectively, these findings indicate that limited knowledge of print in young children, before formal education, is sufficient to develop specialized left lateralized neuronal circuits, thereby pointing to an early onset and rapid impact of left hemispheric reentrant sound mapping on posterior cortical development. PMID:27402739

Uncovering DELLA-Independent Gibberellin Responses by Characterizing New Tomato procera Mutants

PubMed Central

Livne, Sivan; Lor, Vai S.; Nir, Ido; Eliaz, Natanella; Aharoni, Asaph; Olszewski, Neil E.; Eshed, Yuval; Weiss, David

2015-01-01

Gibberellin (GA) regulates plant development primarily by triggering the degradation/deactivation of the DELLA proteins. However, it remains unclear whether all GA responses are regulated by DELLAs. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) has a single DELLA gene named PROCERA (PRO), and its recessive pro allele exhibits constitutive GA activity but retains responsiveness to external GA. In the loss-of-function mutant proΔGRAS, all examined GA developmental responses were considerably enhanced relative to pro and a defect in seed desiccation tolerance was uncovered. As pro, but not proΔGRAS, elongation was promoted by GA treatment, pro may retain residual DELLA activity. In agreement with homeostatic feedback regulation of the GA biosynthetic pathway, we found that GA20oxidase1 expression was suppressed in proΔGRAS and was not affected by exogenous GA3. In contrast, expression of GA2oxidase4 was not affected by the elevated GA signaling in proΔGRAS but was strongly induced by exogenous GA3. Since a similar response was found in Arabidopsis thaliana plants with impaired activity of all five DELLA genes, we suggest that homeostatic GA responses are regulated by both DELLA-dependent and -independent pathways. Transcriptome analysis of GA-treated proΔGRAS leaves suggests that 5% of all GA-regulated genes in tomato are DELLA independent. PMID:26036254

Pre-announcement of symbiotic guests: transcriptional reprogramming by mycorrhizal lipochitooligosaccharides shows a strict co-dependency on the GRAS transcription factors NSP1 and RAM1.

PubMed

Hohnjec, Natalija; Czaja-Hasse, Lisa F; Hogekamp, Claudia; Küster, Helge

2015-11-23

More than 80 % of all terrestrial plant species establish an arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) symbiosis with Glomeromycota fungi. This plant-microbe interaction primarily improves phosphate uptake, but also supports nitrogen, mineral, and water aquisition. During the pre-contact stage, the AM symbiosis is controled by an exchange of diffusible factors from either partner. Amongst others, fungal signals were identified as a mix of sulfated and non-sulfated lipochitooligosaccharides (LCOs), being structurally related to rhizobial nodulation (Nod)-factor LCOs that in legumes induce the formation of nitrogen-fixing root nodules. LCO signals are transduced via a common symbiotic signaling pathway (CSSP) that activates a group of GRAS transcription factors (TFs). Using complex gene expression fingerprints as molecular phenotypes, this study primarily intended to shed light on the importance of the GRAS TFs NSP1 and RAM1 for LCO-activated gene expression during pre-symbiotic signaling. We investigated the genome-wide transcriptional responses in 5 days old primary roots of the Medicago truncatula wild type and four symbiotic mutants to a 6 h challenge with LCO signals supplied at 10(-7/-8) M. We were able to show that during the pre-symbiotic stage, sulfated Myc-, non-sulfated Myc-, and Nod-LCO-activated gene expression almost exclusively depends on the LysM receptor kinase NFP and is largely controled by the CSSP, although responses independent of this pathway exist. Our results show that downstream of the CSSP, gene expression activation by Myc-LCOs supplied at 10(-7/-8) M strictly required both the GRAS transcription factors RAM1 and NSP1, whereas those genes either co- or specifically activated by Nod-LCOs displayed a preferential NSP1-dependency. RAM1, a central regulator of root colonization by AM fungi, controled genes activated by non-sulfated Myc-LCOs during the pre-symbiotic stage that are also up-regulated in areas with early physical contact, e.g. hyphopodia and

Are All Letters Really Processed Equally and in Parallel? Further Evidence of a Robust First Letter Advantage

PubMed Central

Scaltritti, Michele; Balota, David A.

2013-01-01

This present study examined accuracy and response latency of letter processing as a function of position within a horizontal array. In a series of 4 Experiments, target-strings were briefly (33 ms for Experiment 1 to 3, 83 ms for Experiment 4) displayed and both forward and backward masked. Participants then made a two alternative forced choice. The two alternative responses differed just in one element of the string, and position of mismatch was systematically manipulated. In Experiment 1, words of different lengths (from 3 to 6 letters) were presented in separate blocks. Across different lengths, there was a robust advantage in performance when the alternative response was different for the letter occurring at the first position, compared to when the difference occurred at any other position. Experiment 2 replicated this finding with the same materials used in Experiment 1, but with words of different lengths randomly intermixed within blocks. Experiment 3 provided evidence of the first position advantage with legal nonwords and strings of consonants, but did not provide any first position advantage for non-alphabetic symbols. The lack of a first position advantage for symbols was replicated in Experiment 4, where target-strings were displayed for a longer duration (83 ms). Taken together these results suggest that the first position advantage is a phenomenon that occurs specifically and selectively for letters, independent of lexical constraints. We argue that the results are consistent with models that assume a processing advantage for coding letters in the first position, and are inconsistent with the commonly held assumption in visual word recognition models that letters are equally processed in parallel independent of letter position. PMID:24012723

Disentangling the developmental trajectories of letter position and letter identity coding using masked priming.

PubMed

Kezilas, Yvette; McKague, Meredith; Kohnen, Saskia; Badcock, Nicholas A; Castles, Anne

2017-02-01

Masked transposed-letter (TL) priming effects have been used to index letter position processing over the course of reading development. Whereas some studies have reported an increase in TL priming over development, others have reported a decrease. These findings have led to the development of 2 somewhat contradictory accounts of letter position development: the lexical tuning hypothesis and the multiple-route model. One factor that may be contributing to these discrepancies is the use of baseline primes that substitute letters in the target word, which may confound the effect of changes in letter position processing over development with those of letter identity. The present study included an identity prime (e.g., listen-LISTEN), in addition to the standard two-substituted-letter (2SL; e.g., lidfen-LISTEN) and all-letter-different (ALD; e.g., rodfup-LISTEN) baselines, to remove the potential confound between letter position and letter identity information in determining the effect of the TL prime. Priming effects were measured in a lexical decision task administered to children aged 7-12 and a group of university students. Using inverse transformed response times, targets preceded by a TL prime were responded to significantly faster than those preceded by 2SL and ALD primes, and priming remained stable across development. In contrast, targets preceded by a TL prime were responded to significantly slower than those preceded by an ID prime, and this reaction-time cost increased significantly over development, with adults showing the largest cost. These findings are consistent with a lexical tuning account of letter position development, and are inconsistent with the multiple-route model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

78 FR 36662 - Safety Zone; Fairport Harbor Mardi Gras, Lake Erie, Fairport, OH

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-19

...-AA00 Safety Zone; Fairport Harbor Mardi Gras, Lake Erie, Fairport, OH AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. ACTION: Temporary final rule. SUMMARY: The Coast Guard is establishing a temporary safety zone on Lake Erie, Fairport Harbor, OH. This safety zone is intended to restrict vessels from a portion of Lake Erie during...

Region 9: Nevada Adequate Letter (1/26/2002), Response to Comments, and Adequacy Review Table

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

A letter from Jack Broadbent, Director, to Allen Biaggi Regarding Nevada's PMlO State Implementation Plan for Clark County; EPA's response regarding the adequacy of the PM10 Transportation Conformity budgets Contained in Clark County's PM10 Attainment

Letter-transposition effects are not universal: The impact of transposing letters in Hebrew

PubMed Central

Velan, Hadas; Frost, Ram

2009-01-01

We examined the effects of letter transposition in Hebrew in three masked-priming experiments. Hebrew, like English has an alphabetic orthography where sequential and contiguous letter strings represent phonemes. However, being a Semitic language it has a non-concatenated morphology that is based on root derivations. Experiment 1 showed that transposed-letter (TL) root primes inhibited responses to targets derived from the non-transposed root letters, and that this inhibition was unrelated to relative root frequency. Experiment 2 replicated this result and showed that if the transposed letters of the root created a nonsense-root that had no lexical representation, then no inhibition and no facilitation were obtained. Finally, Experiment 3 demonstrated that in contrast to English, French, or Spanish, TL nonword primes did not facilitate recognition of targets, and when the root letters embedded in them consisted of a legal root morpheme, they produced inhibition. These results suggest that lexical space in alphabetic orthographies may be structured very differently in different languages if their morphological structure diverges qualitatively. In Hebrew, lexical space is organized according to root families rather than simple orthographic structure, so that all words derived from the same root are interconnected or clustered together, independent of overall orthographic similarity. PMID:20161017

Letter Names, Letter Sounds and Phonological Awareness: An Examination of Kindergarten Children across Letters and of Letters across Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evans, Mary Ann; Bell, Michelle; Shaw, Deborah; Moretti, Shelley; Page, Jodi

2006-01-01

In this study 149 kindergarten children were assessed for knowledge of letter names and letter sounds, phonological awareness, and cognitive abilities. Through this it examined child and letter characteristics influencing the acquisition of alphabetic knowledge in a naturalistic context, the relationship between letter-sound knowledge and…

Resource Letter: GW-1: Global warming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Firor, John W.

1994-06-01

This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on the possibility of a human-induced climate change—a global warming. Journal articles and books are cited for the following topics: the Greenhouse Effect, sources of infrared-trapping gases, climate models and their uncertainties, verification of climate models, past climate changes, and economics, ethics, and politics of policy responses to climate change. [The letter E after an item indicates elementary level or material of general interest to persons becoming informed in the field. The letter I, for intermediate level, indicates material of somewhat more specialized nature, and the letter A indicates rather specialized or advanced material.

Letter-Sound Knowledge: Exploring Gender Differences in Children When They Start School Regarding Knowledge of Large Letters, Small Letters, Sound Large Letters, and Sound Small Letters

PubMed Central

Sigmundsson, Hermundur; Eriksen, Adrian D.; Ofteland, Greta Storm; Haga, Monika

2017-01-01

This study explored whether there is a gender difference in letter-sound knowledge when children start at school. 485 children aged 5–6 years completed assessment of letter-sound knowledge, i.e., large letters; sound of large letters; small letters; sound of small letters. The findings indicate a significant difference between girls and boys in all four factors tested in this study in favor of the girls. There are still no clear explanations to the basis of a presumed gender difference in letter-sound knowledge. That the findings have origin in neuro-biological factors cannot be excluded, however, the fact that girls probably have been exposed to more language experience/stimulation compared to boys, lends support to explanations derived from environmental aspects. PMID:28951726

Pre-notification letter type and response rate to a postal survey among women who have recently given birth.

PubMed

Todd, Angela L; Porter, Maree; Williamson, Jennifer L; Patterson, Jillian A; Roberts, Christine L

2015-12-01

Surveys are commonly used in health research to assess patient satisfaction with hospital care. Achieving an adequate response rate, in the face of declining trends over time, threatens the quality and reliability of survey results. This paper evaluates a strategy to increase the response rate in a postal satisfaction survey with women who had recently given birth. A sample of 2048 Australian women who had recently given birth at seven maternity units in New South Wales were invited to participate in a postal survey about their recent experiences with maternity care. The study design included a randomised controlled trial that tested two types of pre-notification letter (with or without the option of opting out of the survey). The study also explored the acceptability of a request for consent to link survey data with existing routinely collected health data (omitting the latter data items from the survey reduced survey length and participant burden). This consent was requested of all women. The survey had an overall response rate of 46% (913 completed surveys returned, total sample 1989). Women receiving the pre-notification letter with the option of opting out of the survey were more likely to actively decline to participate than women receiving the letter without this option, although the overall numbers of women declining were small (27 versus 12). Letter type was not significantly associated with the return of a completed survey. Among women who completed the survey, 97% gave consent to link their survey data with existing health data. The two types of pre-notification letters used in our study did not influence the survey response rate. However, seeking consent for record linkage was highly acceptable to women who completed the survey, and represents an important strategy to add to the arsenal for designing and implementing effective surveys. In addition to aspects of survey design, future research should explore how to more effectively influence personal

ERP correlates of letter identity and letter position are modulated by lexical frequency

PubMed Central

Vergara-Martínez, Marta; Perea, Manuel; Gómez, Pablo; Swaab, Tamara Y.

2013-01-01

The encoding of letter position is a key aspect in all recently proposed models of visual-word recognition. We analyzed the impact of lexical frequency on letter position assignment by examining the temporal dynamics of lexical activation induced by pseudowords extracted from words of different frequencies. For each word (e.g., BRIDGE), we created two pseudowords: A transposed-letter (TL: BRIGDE) and a replaced-letter pseudoword (RL: BRITGE). ERPs were recorded while participants read words and pseudowords in two tasks: Semantic categorization (Experiment 1) and lexical decision (Experiment 2). For high-frequency stimuli, similar ERPs were obtained for words and TL-pseudowords, but the N400 component to words was reduced relative to RL-pseudowords, indicating less lexical/semantic activation. In contrast, TL- and RL-pseudowords created from low-frequency stimuli elicited similar ERPs. Behavioral responses in the lexical decision task paralleled this asymmetry. The present findings impose constraints on computational and neural models of visual-word recognition. PMID:23454070

Developing a Standardized Letter of Recommendation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walters, Alyssa M.; Kyllonen, Patrick C.; Plante, Janice W.

2006-01-01

The Standardized Letter of Recommendation (SLR) is a Web-based admission tool designed to replace traditional, narrative letters of recommendation with a more systematic and equitable source of information about applicants to institutions of higher education. The SLR includes a rating scale and open-ended response space that prompt evaluators to…

Learning to recognize letters in the periphery: Effects of repeated exposure, letter frequency, and letter complexity

PubMed Central

Husk, Jesse S.; Yu, Deyue

2017-01-01

Patients with central vision loss must rely on their peripheral vision for reading. Unfortunately, limitations of peripheral vision, such as crowding, pose significant challenges to letter recognition. As a result, there is a need for developing effective training methods for improving crowded letter recognition in the periphery. Several studies have shown that extensive practice with letter stimuli is beneficial to peripheral letter recognition. Here, we explore stimulus-related factors that might influence the effectiveness of peripheral letter recognition training. Specifically, we examined letter exposure (number of letter occurrences), frequency of letter use in English print, and letter complexity and evaluated their contributions to the amount of improvement observed in crowded letter recognition following training. We analyzed data collected across a range of training protocols. Using linear regression, we identified the best-fitting model and observed that all three stimulus-related factors contributed to improvement in peripheral letter recognition with letter exposure being the most important factor. As an important explanatory variable, pretest accuracy was included in the model as well to avoid estimate biases and was shown to have influence on the relationship between training improvement and letter exposure. When developing training protocols for peripheral letter recognition, it may be beneficial to not only consider the overall length of training, but also to tailor the number of stimulus occurrences for each letter according to its initial performance level, frequency, and complexity. PMID:28265651

Duonix Beatrice Determination Letter

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Determination letter in response to the petition from Duonix Beatrice, LP regarding their production process for biodiesel from non-food grade corn oil under the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) program.

Letter to the editor of TAAP, in response to letter from Anders et al.

EPA Science Inventory

To the Editor, Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology: We would like to address the letter to the editor submitted by Anders et al. regarding the substantive issues raised regarding our paper "Evaluation of two different metabolic hypotheses for dichloromethane toxicity using physi...

Recovery in a letter-by-letter reader: more efficiency at the expense of normal reading strategy.

PubMed

Ablinger, Irene; Huber, Walter; Schattka, Kerstin I; Radach, Ralph

2013-01-01

Although changes in reading performance of recovering letter-by-letter readers have been described in some detail, no prior research has provided an in-depth analysis of the underlying adaptive word processing strategies. Our work examined the reading performance of a letter-by-letter reader, FH, over a period of 15 months, using eye movement methodology to delineate the recovery process at two different time points (T1, T2). A central question is whether recovery is characterized either by moving back towards normal word processing or by refinement and possibly automatization of an existing pathological strategy that was developed in response to the impairment. More specifically, we hypothesized that letter-by-letter reading may be executed with at least four different strategies and our work sought to distinguish between these alternatives. During recovery significant improvements in reading performance were achieved. A shift of fixation positions from the far left to the extreme right of target words was combined with many small and very few longer regressive saccades. Apparently, 'letter-by-letter reading' took the form of local clustering, most likely corresponding to the formation of sublexical units of analysis. This pattern was more pronounced at T2, suggesting that improvements in reading efficiency may come at the expense of making it harder to eventually return to normal reading.

Black Greek-Lettered Organizations and Civic Responsibility

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evans, Stephanie Y.

2004-01-01

This article discuss the potential impact of Black Greek-Lettered Organizations (BGLOs) in advancing African American civil and political rights. During the antebellum years and Jim Crow era, barriers to Black voting included enslavement, anti-literacy laws, violence and intimidation, grandfather clauses, gerrymandering, literacy requirements,…

Developmental changes in category-specific brain responses to numbers and letters in a working memory task

PubMed Central

Libertus, Melissa E.; Brannon, Elizabeth M.; Pelphrey, Kevin A.

2009-01-01

Neuroimaging studies have identified a common network of brain regions involving the prefrontal and parietal cortices across a variety of working memory (WM) tasks. However, previous studies have also reported category-specific dissociations of activation within this network. In this study, we investigated the development of category-specific activation in a WM task with digits, letters, and faces. Eight-year-old children and adults performed a 2-back WM task while their brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Overall, children were significantly slower and less accurate than adults on all three WM conditions (digits, letters, and faces); however, within each age group, behavioral performance across the three conditions was very similar. FMRI results revealed category-specific activation in adults but not children in the intraparietal sulcus for the digit condition. Likewise, during the letter condition, category-specific activation was observed in adults but not children in the left occipital–temporal cortex. In contrast, children and adults showed highly similar brain-activity patterns in the lateral fusiform gyri when solving the 2-back WM task with face stimuli. Our results suggest that 8-year-old children do not yet engage the typical brain regions that have been associated with abstract or semantic processing of numerical symbols and letters when these processes are task-irrelevant and the primary task is demanding. Nevertheless, brain activity in letter-responsive areas predicted children’s spelling performance underscoring the relationship between abstract processing of letters and linguistic abilities. Lastly, behavioral performance on the WM task was predictive of math and language abilities highlighting the connection between WM and other cognitive abilities in development. PMID:19027079

NASA/DoD Aerospace knowledge diffusion research project. III - The impact of a sponsor letter on mail survey response rates

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kennedy, John M.; Pinelli, Thomas E.

1990-01-01

The paper describes the impact of two interventions in the design of mail surveys. The interventions were devised to increase response rates and to clarify sample eligibility. To test their effectiveness, interventions occurred at different points in each of three surveys. One intervention was a letter from the research sponsor (NASA) supporting the research. The other intervention was the inclusion of a postcard that could be used by the respondent to indicate that the questionnaire was not appropriate for him/her. The sample was drawn from the membership of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics research society. The results indicate that the sponsor letter improved response rates under certain conditions described in the paper. The postcards assisted in identifying noneligible persons particularly when they accompanied a pre-survey letter. The implications for survey costs are discussed.

The role of sensorimotor learning in the perception of letter-like forms: tracking the causes of neural specialization for letters.

PubMed

James, Karin H; Atwood, Thea P

2009-02-01

Functional specialization in the brain is considered a hallmark of efficient processing. It is therefore not surprising that there are brain areas specialized for processing letters. To better understand the causes of functional specialization for letters, we explore the emergence of this pattern of response in the ventral processing stream through a training paradigm. Previously, we hypothesized that the specialized response pattern seen during letter perception may be due in part to our experience in writing letters. The work presented here investigates whether or not this aspect of letter processing-the integration of sensorimotor systems through writing-leads to functional specialization in the visual system. To test this idea, we investigated whether or not different types of experiences with letter-like stimuli ("pseudoletters") led to functional specialization similar to that which exists for letters. Neural activation patterns were measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before and after three different types of training sessions. Participants were trained to recognize pseudoletters by writing, typing, or purely visual practice. Results suggested that only after writing practice did neural activation patterns to pseudoletters resemble patterns seen for letters. That is, neural activation in the left fusiform and dorsal precentral gyrus was greater when participants viewed pseudoletters than other, similar stimuli but only after writing experience. Neural activation also increased after typing practice in the right fusiform and left precentral gyrus, suggesting that in some areas, any motor experience may change visual processing. The results of this experiment suggest an intimate interaction among perceptual and motor systems during pseudoletter perception that may be extended to everyday letter perception.

Army Response Letter & Analysis - signed February 5, 2001

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

A reply to a letter from Mr. J. Charles Fox, former Administrator for Water requesting to review the proposed decision of the Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District Department of the Army (DA) permit to Vail Associates.

[Analysis of characteristics shown in self introduction letter and professor's recommendation letter].

PubMed

Kim, Sang Hyun

2013-09-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate applicants' behavioral characteristics based on the evaluation of cognitive, affective and social domain shown in self introduction letter and professor's recommendation letter. Self introduction letters and professor's recommendation letters of 109 applicants students who applied to medical school were collected. Frequency analysis and simple correlation were done in self introduction letter and professor's recommendation letter. Frequency analysis showed affective characteristics were most often mentioned in self introduction letter, and cognitive characteristics were most frequently described in professor's recommendation letter. There was a strong correlation between cognitive domains of self introduction letter and cognitive domain of professor's recommendation letter. There was a strong correlation between affective domain of self introduction letter and cognitive domain professor's recommendation letter. It is very important to make full use of self introduction letter and professor's recommendation letter for selecting medical students. Through the frequency analysis and simple correlation, more specific guidelines need to be suggested in order to secure fairness and objectivity in the evaluation of self-introduction letter and professor's recommendation letter.

Effects of an Introductory Letter on Response Rates to a Teen/Parent Telephone Health Survey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woodruff, Susan I.; Mayer, Joni A.; Clapp, Elizabeth

2006-01-01

The authors conducted a pilot study in preparation for a larger investigation that will rely on telephone surveys to assess select health behaviors of teens and their parents, with a focus on indoor tanning. This study used a randomized design to assess the impact of a presurvey letter on response rates to a telephone survey, as well as prevalence…

IRTs of the ABCs: Children's Letter Name Acquisition

PubMed Central

Piasta, Shayne B.; Anthony, Jason L.; Lonigan, Christopher J.; Francis, David J.

2015-01-01

We examined the developmental sequence of letter name knowledge acquisition by children from 2 to five years of age. Data from 2 samples representing diverse regions, ethnicity, and socioeconomic backgrounds (ns = 1074 & 500) were analyzed using item response theory (IRT) and differential item functioning techniques. Results from factor analyses indicated that letter name knowledge represented a unidimensional skill; IRT results yielded significant differences between letters in both difficulty and discrimination. Results also indicated an approximate developmental sequence in letter name learning for the simplest and most challenging to learn letters -- but with no clear sequence between these extremes. Findings also suggested that children were most likely to first learn their first initial. We discuss implications for assessment and instruction. PMID:22710016

Effects of Letter-Identification Training on Letter Naming in Prereading Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayashi, Yusuke; Schmidt, Anna C.; Saunders, Kathryn J.

2013-01-01

Three prereading children who named 0 to 3 of 20 targeted letters were taught to select the 20 printed letters when they heard spoken letter names. For all participants, letter-identification training resulted in naming for the majority of letters.

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 3: The impact of a sponsor letter on mail survey response rates

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kennedy, John M.; Pinelli, Thomas E.

1990-01-01

We describe the impact of two interventions in the design of mail surveys. The interventions were devised to increase response rates and to clarify sample eligibility. To test their effectiveness, the interventions occurred at different points in each of three surveys. One intervention was a letter from the research sponsor (NASA) supporting the research. The other intervention was the inclusion of a postcard that could be used by the respondent to indicate that the questionnaire was not appropriate for him/her. The sample was drawn from the membership of a professional aerospace research society, the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Scientists and engineers are difficult to survey for two reasons. First, there are significant problems with the definition of scientists and engineers. Second, typically there are low response rates in surveys of this group. These two problems were found in the NASA surveys. The results indicate that the sponsor letter improved response rates under certain conditions described here. The postcards assisted in identifying non-eligible persons, particularly when the postcards accompanied a pre-survey letter. The implications for survey costs are discussed.

Letter names and phonological awareness help children to learn letter-sound relations.

PubMed

Cardoso-Martins, Cláudia; Mesquita, Tereza Cristina Lara; Ehri, Linnea

2011-05-01

Two experimental training studies with Portuguese-speaking preschoolers in Brazil were conducted to investigate whether children benefit from letter name knowledge and phonological awareness in learning letter-sound relations. In Experiment 1, two groups of children were compared. The experimental group was taught the names of letters whose sounds occur either at the beginning (e.g., the letter /be/) or in the middle (e.g., the letter /'eli/) of the letter name. The control group was taught the shapes of the letters but not their names. Then both groups were taught the sounds of the letters. Results showed an advantage for the experimental group, but only for beginning-sound letters. Experiment 2 investigated whether training in phonological awareness could boost the learning of letter sounds, particularly middle-sound letters. In addition to learning the names of beginning- and middle-sound letters, children in the experimental group were taught to categorize words according to rhyme and alliteration, whereas controls were taught to categorize the same words semantically. All children were then taught the sounds of the letters. Results showed that children who were given phonological awareness training found it easier to learn letter sounds than controls. This was true for both types of letters, but especially for middle-sound letters. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Substituted-letter and transposed-letter effects in a masked priming paradigm with French developing readers and dyslexics.

PubMed

Lété, Bernard; Fayol, Michel

2013-01-01

The aim of the study was to undertake a behavioral investigation of the development of automatic orthographic processing during reading acquisition in French. Following Castles and colleagues' 2007 study (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 97, 165-182) and their lexical tuning hypothesis framework, substituted-letter and transposed-letter primes were used in a masked priming paradigm with third graders, fifth graders, adults, and phonological dyslexics matched on reading level with the third graders. No priming effect was found in third graders. In adults, only a transposed-letter priming effect was found; there was no substituted-letter priming effect. Finally, fifth graders and dyslexics showed both substituted-letter and transposed-letter priming effects. Priming effects between the two groups were of the same magnitude after response time (RT) z-score transformation. Taken together, our results show that the pattern of priming effects found by Castles and colleagues in English normal readers emerges later in French normal readers. In other words, language orthographies seem to constrain the tuning of the orthographic system, with an opaque orthography producing faster tuning of orthographic processing than more transparent orthographies because of the high level of reliance on phonological decoding while learning to read. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mantle transition zone input to kimberlite magmatism near a subduction zone: Origin of anomalous Nd-Hf isotope systematics at Lac de Gras, Canada

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tappe, Sebastian; Graham Pearson, D.; Kjarsgaard, Bruce A.; Nowell, Geoff; Dowall, David

2013-06-01

Late Cretaceous-Eocene kimberlites from the Lac de Gras area, central Slave craton, show the most extreme Nd-Hf isotope decoupling observed for kimberlites worldwide. They are characterized by a narrow range of moderately enriched Nd isotope compositions (ɛNd(i)=-0.4 to -3.5) that contrasts strongly with their moderately depleted to highly enriched ɛHf(i) values (+3.9 to -9.9). Although digestion of cratonic mantle material in proto-kimberlite melt can theoretically produce steep arrays in Nd-Hf isotope space, the amount of contaminant required to explain the Lac de Gras data is unrealistic. Instead, it is more plausible that mixing of compositionally discrete melt components within an isotopically variable source region is responsible for the steep Nd-Hf isotope array. As development of strongly negative ΔɛHf requires isotopic aging of a precursor material with Sm/Nd≫Lu/Hf for billion-year timescales, a number of models have been proposed where ancient MORB crust trapped in the mantle transition zone is the ultimate source of the extreme Hf isotope signature. However, we provide a conceptual modification and demonstrate that OIB-type domains within ancient subducted oceanic lithosphere can produce much stronger negative ΔɛHf during long-term isolation. Provided that these OIB-type domains have lower melting points compared with associated MORB crust, they are among the first material to melt within the transition zone during thermal perturbations. The resulting hydrous alkali silicate melts react strongly with depleted peridotite at the top of the transition zone and transfer negative ΔɛHf signatures to less dense materials, which can be more easily entrained within upward flowing mantle. Once these entrained refertilized domains rise above 300 km depth, they may become involved in CO2- and H2O-fluxed redox melting of upper mantle peridotite beneath a thick cratonic lid. We argue that incorporation of ancient transition zone material, which includes

Sequential then Interactive Processing of Letters and Words in the Left Fusiform Gyrus

PubMed Central

Thesen, Thomas; McDonald, Carrie R.; Carlson, Chad; Doyle, Werner; Cash, Syd; Sherfey, Jason; Felsovalyi, Olga; Girard, Holly; Barr, William; Devinsky, Orrin; Kuzniecky, Ruben; Halgren, Eric

2013-01-01

Despite decades of cognitive, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging studies, it is unclear if letters are identified prior to word-form encoding during reading, or if letters and their combinations are encoded simultaneously and interactively. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that a ‘letter-form’ area (responding more to consonant strings than false fonts) can be distinguished from an immediately anterior ‘visual word-form area’ in ventral occipitotemporal cortex (responding more to words than consonant strings). Letter-selective magnetoencephalographic responses begin in the letter-form area ~60ms earlier than word-selective responses in the word-form area. Local field potentials confirm the latency and location of letter-selective responses. This area shows increased high gamma power for ~400ms, and strong phase-locking with more anterior areas supporting lexico-semantic processing. These findings suggest that during reading, visual stimuli are first encoded as letters before their combinations are encoded as words. Activity then rapidly spreads anteriorly, and the entire network is engaged in sustained integrative processing. PMID:23250414

Underlying Cause(s) of Letter Perseveration Errors

PubMed Central

Fischer-Baum, Simon; Rapp, Brenda

2011-01-01

Perseverations, the inappropriate intrusion of elements from a previous response into a current response, are commonly observed in individuals with acquired deficits. This study specifically investigates the contribution of failure-to activate and failure-to-inhibit deficit(s) in the generation of letter perseveration errors in acquired dysgraphia. We provide evidence from the performance 12 dysgraphic individuals indicating that a failure to activate graphemes for a target word gives rise to letter perseveration errors. In addition, we also provide evidence that, in some individuals, a failure-to-inhibit deficit may also contribute to the production of perseveration errors. PMID:22178232

Identification and characterization of dwarf 62, a loss-of-function mutation in DLT/OsGRAS-32 affecting gibberellin metabolism in rice.

PubMed

Li, Wenqiang; Wu, Jianguo; Weng, Shili; Zhang, Yujiang; Zhang, Dapeng; Shi, Chunhai

2010-11-01

A dwarf mutant, dwarf 62 (d62), was isolated from rice cultivar 93-11 by mutagenesis with γ-rays. Under normal growth conditions, the mutant had multiple abnormal phenotypes, such as dwarfism, wide and dark-green leaf blades, reduced tiller numbers, late and asynchronous heading, short roots, partial male sterility, etc. Genetic analysis indicated that the abnormal phenotypes were controlled by the recessive mutation of a single nuclear gene. Using molecular markers, the D62 gene was fine mapped in 131-kb region at the short arm of chromosome 6. Positional cloning of D62 gene revealed that it was the same locus as DLT/OsGRAS-32, which encodes a member of the GRAS family. In previous studies, the DLT/OsGRAS-32 is confirmed to play positive roles in brassinosteroid (BR) signaling. Sequence analysis showed that the d62 carried a 2-bp deletion in ORF region of D62 gene which led to a loss-of-function mutation. The function of D62 gene was confirmed by complementation experiment. RT-PCR analysis and promoter activity analysis showed that the D62 gene expressed in all tested tissues including roots, stems, leaves and panicles of rice plant. The d62 mutant exhibited decreased activity of α-amylase in endosperm and reduced content of endogenous GA(1). The expression levels of gibberellin (GA) biosynthetic genes including OsCPS1, OsKS1, OsKO1, OsKAO, OsGA20ox2/SD1 and OsGA2ox3 were significantly increased in d62 mutant. Briefly, these results demonstrated that the D62 (DLT/OsGRAS-32) not only participated in the regulation of BR signaling, but also influenced GA metabolism in rice.

Premotor activations in response to visually presented single letters depend on the hand used to write: a study on left-handers.

PubMed

Longcamp, Marieke; Anton, Jean-Luc; Roth, Muriel; Velay, Jean-Luc

2005-01-01

In a previous fMRI study on right-handers (Rhrs), we reported that part of the left ventral premotor cortex (BA6) was activated when alphabetical characters were passively observed and that the same region was also involved in handwriting [Longcamp, M., Anton, J. L., Roth, M., & Velay, J. L. (2003). Visual presentation of single letters activates a premotor area involved in writing. NeuroImage, 19, 1492-1500]. We therefore suggested that letter-viewing may induce automatic involvement of handwriting movements. In the present study, in order to confirm this hypothesis, we carried out a similar fMRI experiment on a group of left-handed subjects (Lhrs). We reasoned that if the above assumption was correct, visual perception of letters by Lhrs might automatically activate cortical motor areas coding for left-handed writing movements, i.e., areas located in the right hemisphere. The visual stimuli used here were either single letters, single pseudoletters, or a control stimulus. The subjects were asked to watch these stimuli attentively, and no response was required. The results showed that a ventral premotor cortical area (BA6) in the right hemisphere was specifically activated when Lhrs looked at letters and not at pseudoletters. This right area was symmetrically located with respect to the left one activated under the same circumstances in Rhrs. This finding supports the hypothesis that visual perception of written language evokes covert motor processes. In addition, a bilateral area, also located in the premotor cortex (BA6), but more ventrally and medially, was found to be activated in response to both letters and pseudoletters. This premotor region, which was not activated correspondingly in Rhrs, might be involved in the processing of graphic stimuli, whatever their degree of familiarity.

A crowdful of letters: disentangling the role of similarity, eccentricity and spatial frequencies in letter crowding.

PubMed

Zahabi, Sacha; Arguin, Martin

2014-04-01

The present study investigated the joint impact of target-flanker similarity and of spatial frequency content on the crowding effect in letter identification. We presented spatial frequency filtered letters to neurologically intact non-dyslexic readers while manipulating target-flanker distance, target eccentricity and target-flanker confusability (letter similarity metric based on published letter confusion matrices). The results show that high target-flanker confusability magnifies crowding. They also reveal an intricate pattern of interactions of the spatial frequency content of the stimuli with target eccentricity, flanker distance and similarity. The findings are congruent with the notion that crowding results from the inappropriate pooling of target and flanker features and that this integration is more likely to match a response template at a subsequent decision stage with similar than dissimilar flankers. In addition, the evidence suggests that crowding from similar flankers is biased towards relatively high spatial frequencies and that crowding shifts towards lower spatial frequencies as target eccentricity is increased. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

78 FR 7784 - Health Information Technology Policy Committee Nomination Letters

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-02-04

... GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE Health Information Technology Policy Committee Nomination Letters AGENCY: Government Accountability Office (GAO). ACTION: Notice on letters of nomination of candidates... Technology Policy Committee (Health IT Policy Committee) and gave the Comptroller General responsibility for...

An Attempt to Simulate Letter-by-Letter Dyslexia in Normal Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fiset, Stephanie; Arguin, Martin; Fiset, Daniel

2006-01-01

We attempted to simulate the main features of letter-by-letter (LBL) dyslexia in normal readers through stimulus degradation (i.e. contrast reduction and removal of high spatial frequencies). The results showed the word length and the letter confusability effects characteristic of LBL dyslexia. However, the interaction of letter confusability and…

[The role of external letter positions in visual word recognition].

PubMed

Perea, Manuel; Lupker, Sthephen J

2007-11-01

A key issue for any computational model of visual word recognition is the choice of an input coding schema, which is responsible for assigning letter positions. Such a schema must reflect the fact that, according to recent research, nonwords created by transposing letters (e.g., caniso for CASINO ), typically, appear to be more similar to the word than nonwords created by replacing letters (e.g., caviro ). In the present research, we initially carried out a computational analysis examining the degree to which the position of the transposition influences transposed-letter similarity effects. We next conducted a masked priming experiment with the lexical decision task to determine whether a transposed-letter priming advantage occurs when the first letter position is involved. Primes were created by either transposing the first and third letters (démula-MEDULA ) or replacing the first and third letters (bérula-MEDULA). Results showed that there was no transposed-letter priming advantage in this situation. We discuss the implications of these results for models of visual word recognition.

Two rice GRAS family genes responsive to N -acetylchitooligosaccharide elicitor are induced by phytoactive gibberellins: evidence for cross-talk between elicitor and gibberellin signaling in rice cells.

PubMed

Day, R Bradley; Tanabe, Shigeru; Koshioka, Masaji; Mitsui, Toshiaki; Itoh, Hironori; Ueguchi-Tanaka, Miyako; Matsuoka, Makoto; Kaku, Hanae; Shibuya, Naoto; Minami, Eiichi

2004-01-01

In this study, we present data showing that two members of the GRAS family of genes from rice, CIGR1 and CIGR2 (chitin-inducible gibberellin-responsive), inducible by the potent elicitor N -acetylchitooligosaccharide (GN), are rapidly induced by exogenous gibberellins. The pattern of mRNA accumulation was dependent on the dose and biological activity of the gibberellins, suggesting that the induction of the genes by gibberellin is mediated by a biological receptor capable of specific recognition and signal transduction upon perception of the phytoactive compounds. Further pharmacological analysis revealed that the CIGR1 and CIGR2 mRNA accumulation by treatment with gibberellin is dependent upon protein phosphorylation/dephosphorylation events. In rice calli derived from slender rice 1, a constitutive gibberellin-responsive mutant, or d1, a mutant deficient in the alpha -subunit of the heterotrimeric G-protein, CIGR1 and CIGR2 were induced by a GN elicitor, yet not by gibberellin. Neither gibberellin nor GN showed related activities in defense or development, respectively. These results strongly suggested that the signal transduction cascade from gibberellin is independent of that from GN, and further implied that CIGR1 and CIGR2 have dual, distinct roles in defense and development.

41 CFR 102-75.670 - What responsibilities does DOI have after receiving the disposal agency's assignment letter?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... does DOI have after receiving the disposal agency's assignment letter? 102-75.670 Section 102-75.670... Property for Use As Public Park Or Recreation Areas § 102-75.670 What responsibilities does DOI have after..., the Secretary may proceed with the transfer. DOI must take all necessary actions to accomplish the...

41 CFR 102-75.670 - What responsibilities does DOI have after receiving the disposal agency's assignment letter?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... does DOI have after receiving the disposal agency's assignment letter? 102-75.670 Section 102-75.670... Property for Use As Public Park Or Recreation Areas § 102-75.670 What responsibilities does DOI have after..., the Secretary may proceed with the transfer. DOI must take all necessary actions to accomplish the...

A Response to Sam McKegney's "Strategies for Ethical Engagement: An Open Letter Concerning Non-Native Scholars of Native Literatures"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Appleford, Rob

2009-01-01

This article presents the author's response to Sam McKegney's "Strategies for Ethical Engagement: An Open Letter Concerning Non-Native Scholars of Native Literatures." In his response to Sam's diagnosis of the malaise currently afflicting non-Aboriginal critics of this literature, the author attempts to consider the "cure" Sam offers (albeit…

Knowledge about writing influences reading: Dynamic visual information about letter production facilitates letter identification.

PubMed

Schubert, Teresa; Reilhac, Caroline; McCloskey, Michael

2018-06-01

How are reading and writing related? In this study, we address the relationship between letter identification and letter production, uncovering a link in which production information can be used to identify letters presented dynamically. By testing an individual with a deficit in letter identification, we identified a benefit which would be masked by ceiling effects in unimpaired readers. In Experiment 1 we found that letter stimuli defined by the direction of dot motion (tiny dots within letter move leftward, background dots move rightward) provided no advantage over static letters. In Experiment 2, we tested dynamic stimuli in which the letter shapes emerged over time: drawn as they would be written, drawn in reverse, or with the letter shape filled in randomly. Improved identification was observed only for letters drawn as they are typically written. These results demonstrate that information about letter production can be integrated into letter identification, and point to bi-directional connections between stored letter production information (used for writing) and abstract letter identity representations (used in both reading and writing). The links from stored production information to abstract letter identities allow the former to activate the latter. We also consider the implications of our results for remediation of acquired letter identification deficits, including letter-drawing treatments and the underlying cause of their efficacy. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neural Correlates of Letter Reversal in Children and Adults

PubMed Central

Kalra, Priya; Yee, Debbie; Sinha, Pawan; Gabrieli, John D. E.

2014-01-01

Children often make letter reversal errors when first learning to read and write, even for letters whose reversed forms do not appear in normal print. However, the brain basis of such letter reversal in children learning to read is unknown. The present study compared the neuroanatomical correlates (via functional magnetic resonance imaging) and the electrophysiological correlates (via event-related potentials or ERPs) of this phenomenon in children, ages 5–12, relative to young adults. When viewing reversed letters relative to typically oriented letters, adults exhibited widespread occipital, parietal, and temporal lobe activations, including activation in the functionally localized visual word form area (VWFA) in left occipito-temporal cortex. Adults exhibited significantly greater activation than children in all of these regions; children only exhibited such activation in a limited frontal region. Similarly, on the P1 and N170 ERP components, adults exhibited significantly greater differences between typical and reversed letters than children, who failed to exhibit significant differences between typical and reversed letters. These findings indicate that adults distinguish typical and reversed letters in the early stages of specialized brain processing of print, but that children do not recognize this distinction during the early stages of processing. Specialized brain processes responsible for early stages of letter perception that distinguish between typical and reversed letters may develop slowly and remain immature even in older children who no longer produce letter reversals in their writing. PMID:24859328

Teaching Consumer Redress through Complaint Letter Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prawitz, Aimee D; Lawrence, Frances C.

1993-01-01

College students (n=40) in a consumer economics course wrote letters of complaint regarding unsatisfactory products or services. Eighty percent received responses, most within three weeks; 43% of companies complied with requests; 64% of students were satisfied with responses. Those who received no response were less likely to consider doing…

RED-LETTER DAYS

EPA Science Inventory

The word "red-letter" is an adjective meaning "of special significance." It's origin is from the practice of marking Christian holy days in red letters on calendars. The "red-letter days" to which I refer occurred while I was a graduate student of ...

Letter and symbol identification: No evidence for letter-specific crowding mechanisms.

PubMed

Castet, Eric; Descamps, Marine; Denis-Noël, Ambre; Colé, Pascale

2017-09-01

It has been proposed that letters, as opposed to symbols, trigger specialized crowding processes, boosting identification of the first and last letters of words. This hypothesis is based on evidence that single-letter accuracy as a function of within-string position has a W shape (the classic serial position function [SPF] in psycholinguistics) whereas an inverted V shape is obtained when measured with symbols. Our main goal was to test the robustness of the latter result. Our hypothesis was that any letter/symbol difference might result from short-term visual memory processes (due to the partial report [PR] procedures used in SPF studies) rather than from crowding. We therefore removed the involvement of short-term memory by precueing target-item position and compared SPFs with precueing and postcueing. Perimetric complexity was stringently matched between letters and symbols. In postcueing conditions similar to previous studies, we did not reproduce the inverted V shape for symbols: Clear-cut W shapes were observed with an overall smaller accuracy for symbols compared to letters. This letter/symbol difference was dramatically reduced in precueing conditions in keeping with our prediction. Our results are not consistent with the claim that letter strings trigger specialized crowding processes. We argue that PR procedures are not fit to isolate crowding processes.

The effect of letter string length and report condition on letter recognition accuracy.

PubMed

Raghunandan, Avesh; Karmazinaite, Berta; Rossow, Andrea S

Letter sequence recognition accuracy has been postulated to be limited primarily by low-level visual factors. The influence of high level factors such as visual memory (load and decay) has been largely overlooked. This study provides insight into the role of these factors by investigating the interaction between letter sequence recognition accuracy, letter string length and report condition. Letter sequence recognition accuracy for trigrams and pentagrams were measured in 10 adult subjects for two report conditions. In the complete report condition subjects reported all 3 or all 5 letters comprising trigrams and pentagrams, respectively. In the partial report condition, subjects reported only a single letter in the trigram or pentagram. Letters were presented for 100ms and rendered in high contrast, using black lowercase Courier font that subtended 0.4° at the fixation distance of 0.57m. Letter sequence recognition accuracy was consistently higher for trigrams compared to pentagrams especially for letter positions away from fixation. While partial report increased recognition accuracy in both string length conditions, the effect was larger for pentagrams, and most evident for the final letter positions within trigrams and pentagrams. The effect of partial report on recognition accuracy for the final letter positions increased as eccentricity increased away from fixation, and was independent of the inner/outer position of a letter. Higher-level visual memory functions (memory load and decay) play a role in letter sequence recognition accuracy. There is also suggestion of additional delays imposed on memory encoding by crowded letter elements. Copyright © 2016 Spanish General Council of Optometry. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Effect of Orthographic Processes on Letter Identity and Letter-Position Encoding in Dyslexic Children

PubMed Central

Reilhac, Caroline; Jucla, Mélanie; Iannuzzi, Stéphanie; Valdois, Sylviane; Démonet, Jean-François

2012-01-01

The ability to identify letters and encode their position is a crucial step of the word recognition process. However and despite their word identification problem, the ability of dyslexic children to encode letter identity and letter-position within strings was not systematically investigated. This study aimed at filling this gap and further explored how letter identity and letter-position encoding is modulated by letter context in developmental dyslexia. For this purpose, a letter-string comparison task was administered to French dyslexic children and two chronological age (CA) and reading age (RA)-matched control groups. Children had to judge whether two successively and briefly presented four-letter strings were identical or different. Letter-position and letter identity were manipulated through the transposition (e.g., RTGM vs. RMGT) or substitution of two letters (e.g., TSHF vs. TGHD). Non-words, pseudo-words, and words were used as stimuli to investigate sub-lexical and lexical effects on letter encoding. Dyslexic children showed both substitution and transposition detection problems relative to CA-controls. A substitution advantage over transpositions was only found for words in dyslexic children whereas it extended to pseudo-words in RA-controls and to all type of items in CA-controls. Letters were better identified in the dyslexic group when belonging to orthographically familiar strings. Letter-position encoding was very impaired in dyslexic children who did not show any word context effect in contrast to CA-controls. Overall, the current findings point to a strong letter identity and letter-position encoding disorder in developmental dyslexia. PMID:22661961

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 23, Number 1, January-February 2007

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2007-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Response to Intervention: A New Approach to Reading Instruction Aims to Catch Struggling Readers Early (Nancy Walser); (2) Getting Advisory Right: Focus and…

Response to the Letter to the Editor of Crop Science from Donald R. Davis regarding our research article published in Crop Science (2011: 51:2721-2727)

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

This letter serves as a response to the Letter to the Editor submitted by Donald R. Davis regarding our research article entitled “Mineral Concentration of Broccoli Florets in Relation to Year of Cultivar Release” published in Crop Science (2011, 51:2721-2727). In our manuscript, we clearly stated ...

17 CFR 140.98 - Publication of no-action, interpretative and exemption letters and other written communications.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

..., interpretative and exemption letters and other written communications. 140.98 Section 140.98 Commodity and... and any written responses thereto, each written response by the Commission or its staff to a letter or..., together with the letter or other written communication making the request, for inspection and copying by...

Underlying Cause(s) of Letter Perseveration Errors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fischer-Baum, Simon; Rapp, Brenda

2012-01-01

Perseverations, the inappropriate intrusion of elements from a previous response into a current response, are commonly observed in individuals with acquired deficits. This study specifically investigates the contribution of failure-to activate and failure-to-inhibit deficit(s) in the generation of letter perseveration errors in acquired…

Resumes, Applications, and Cover Letters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crosby, Olivia

2009-01-01

Good resumes, applications, and cover letters broadcast one's abilities. They tell employers how one's qualifications match a job's responsibilities. If these critical preliminaries are constructed well, one has a better chance of landing interviews--and, eventually, a job. This article provides some guidelines for creating resumes and cover…

All About Letters.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Post Office Dept., Washington, DC.

This booklet, designed to promote the letter writing habit, provides information about writing letters in a variety of situations. It is divided into several short sections with illustrations. Reasons to write letters and postcards are offered by several authors and celebrites including Stevie Wonder, Darryl Stingley, and "Dear Abby." Addresses…

Experimental test of contemporary mathematical models of visual letter recognition.

PubMed

Townsend, J T; Ashby, F G

1982-12-01

A letter confusion experiment that used brief durations manipulated payoffs across the four stimulus letters, which were composed of line segments equal in length. The observers were required to report the features they perceived as well as to give a letter response. The early feature-sampling process is separated from the later letter-decision process in the substantive feature models, and predictions are thus obtained for the frequencies of feature report as well as letter report. Four substantive visual feature-processing models are developed and tested against one another and against three models of a more descriptive nature. The substantive models predict the decisional letter report phase much better than they do the feature-sampling phase, but the best overall 4 X 4 letter confusion matrix fits are obtained with one of the descriptive models, the similarity choice model. The present and other recent results suggest that the assumption that features are sampled in a stochastically independent manner may not be generally valid. The traditional high-threshold conceptualization of feature sampling is also falsified by the frequent reporting by observers of features not contained in the stimulus letter.

Letters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2008-07-01

Confused or incorrect? J Khan Reply to the above letter from the authors of 'Aerodynamics experiments with an observable airflow: a fog-wind-tunnel' B Priemer A misleading explanation H Fricker Reply to the above letter from the authors of 'Demonstrate Lenz's law with an aluminium ring' Lyna, C T Chee, C L Sai, G N Khang and T A Ling The heart of the problem B Marshall

Comparison of content of FDA letters not approving applications for new drugs and associated public announcements from sponsors: cross sectional study

PubMed Central

Chahal, Harinder S; Sigelman, Daniel W; Stacy, Sylvie; Sclar, Joshua; Ddamulira, Barbara

2015-01-01

Objectives To describe the content of non-public complete response letters issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) when they do not approve marketing applications from sponsors (drug companies) and to compare them with the content any subsequent press releases issued by those sponsors Design Cross sectional study. Data sources All applications for which FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research initially issued complete response letters (n=61) from 11 August 2008 to 27 June 2013. Complete response letters and press releases were divided into discrete statements related to seven domains and 64 subdomains and assessed to determine whether they matched. Results 48% (29) of complete response letters cited deficiencies in both the safety and efficacy domains, and only 13% cited neither safety nor efficacy deficiencies. No press release was issued for 18% (11) of complete response letters, and 21% (13) of press releases did not match any statements from the letters. Press release statements matched 93 of the 687 statements (14%), including 16% (30/191) of efficacy and 15% (22/150) of safety statements. Of 32 complete response letters that called for a new clinical trial for safety or efficacy, 59% (19) had matching press release statements. Seven complete response letters reported higher mortality rates in treated participants; only one associated press release mentioned this fact. Conclusions FDA generally issued complete response letters to sponsors for multiple substantive reasons, most commonly related to safety and/or efficacy deficiencies. In many cases, press releases were not issued in response to those letters and, when they were, omitted most of the statements in the complete response letters. Press releases are incomplete substitutes for the detailed information contained in complete response letters. PMID:26063327

Name-letter branding under scrutiny: real products, new algorithms, and the probability of buying.

PubMed

Stieger, Stefan

2010-06-01

People like letters matching their own first and last name initials more than nonname letters. This name-letter effect has also been found for brands, i.e., people like brands resembling their own name letters (initial or first three). This has been termed name-letter branding effect. In the present study of 199 participants, ages 12 to 79 years, this name-letter branding effect was found for a modified design (1) using real products, (2) concentrating on product names rather than brand names, (3) using five different products for each letter of the Roman alphabet, (4) asking for the buying probability, and (5) using recently introduced algorithms, controlling for individual response tendencies (i.e., liking all letters more or less) and general normative popularity of particular letters (i.e., some letters are generally preferred more than other letters).

Consensus on Graduate Medical Education Financing: An Analysis of Stakeholder Responses to the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Open Letter.

PubMed

Harwood, Jared L

2015-12-01

In December 2014, the Energy and Commerce Committee of the US House of Representatives sent an open letter requesting interested parties to respond to 7 questions on graduate medical education (GME). More than 100 organizations and individuals responded. An online search for responses yielded 27 organizations that had published their responses to the committee's open letter. Responses included answers to the 7 questions and additional recommendations. The 27 respondents proposed a total of 80 unique interventions. Each intervention was screened for concordance with those from other organizations, and then categorized as supportive, in opposition, or making no mention. Data were entered into a spreadsheet and rank ordered on the frequency of support. At the top of the rankings were several interventions with significant support from many respondents. Given the broader GME constituency represented by the 27 stakeholders in this analysis, the 80 proposed interventions represent a comprehensive inventory of the extant ideas regarding the financing, governance, and oversight of GME. This objective analysis could help both spur productive discussions and form the foundation for a larger public policy deliberation of GME financing.

Comparative analysis of the expression level of recombinant ginsenoside-transforming β-glucosidase in GRAS hosts and mass production of the ginsenoside Rh2-Mix

PubMed Central

Siddiqi, Muhammad Zubair; Cui, Chang-Hao; Park, Seul-Ki; Han, Nam Soo; Kim, Sun-Chang

2017-01-01

The ginsenoside Rh2, a pharmaceutically active component of ginseng, is known to have anticancer and antitumor effects. However, white ginseng and red ginseng have extremely low concentrations of Rh2 or Rh2-Mix [20(S)-Rh2, 20(R)-Rh2, Rk2, and Rh3]. To enhance the production of food-grade ginsenoside Rh2, an edible enzymatic bioconversion technique was developed adopting GRAS host strains. A β-glucosidase (BglPm), which has ginsenoside conversion ability, was expressed in three GRAS host strains (Corynebacterium glutamicum, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Lactococus lactis) by using a different vector system. Enzyme activity in these three GRAS hosts were 75.4%, 11.5%, and 9.3%, respectively, compared to that in the E. coli pGEX 4T-1 expression system. The highly expressed BglPm_C in C. glutamicum can effectively transform the ginsenoside Rg3-Mix [20(S)-Rg3, 20(R)-Rg3, Rk1, Rg5] to Rh2-Mix [20(S)-Rh2, 20(R)-Rh2, Rk2, Rh3] using a scaled-up biotransformation reaction, which was performed in a 10-L jar fermenter at pH 6.5/7.0 and 37°C for 24 h. To our knowledge, this is the first report in which 50 g of PPD-Mix (Rb1, Rb2, Rb3, Rc, and Rd) as a starting substrate was converted to ginsenoside Rg3-Mix by acid heat treatment and then 24.5-g Rh2-Mix was obtained by enzymatic transformation of Rg3-Mix through by BglPm_C. Utilization of this enzymatic method adopting a GRAS host could be usefully exploited in the preparation of ginsenoside Rh2-Mix in cosmetics, functional food, and pharmaceutical industries, thereby replacing the E. coli expression system. PMID:28423055

Connections are not enough for membership: Letter/non-letter distinction persists through phonological association learning.

PubMed

Schmitt, Andreas; van Leeuwen, Cees; Lachmann, Thomas

2017-05-01

In compound, hierarchical stimuli (also known as Navon figures), a Global Precedence Effect (GPE) can reliably be observed for both letters and non-letters. However, when presentation conditions sufficiently resemble those of reading, the GPE for letters has occasionally been found to disappear. We corroborate this effect in a study with a large group of participants. In addition, in-between two sessions, participants were trained in associating the non-letters with either phonological or non-phonological sounds. We reasoned that learning distinctive phonological associations might be akin to the acquisition of letter knowledge. This might eliminate the GPE also for the non-letters. However, the GPE persisted for the trained non-letters in both conditions. The large number of participants in this study revealed additional effects in the letter condition, which enabled further insights in the processing dissociation between letters and non-letter shapes. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

2010 Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee Letters

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Letters to and from Administrator Jackson, also including a report from CHPAC's school siting task group, address school siting guidelines issues as well as response to a National Research Council (NRC) report on risk assessment.

What Do Letter Migration Errors Reveal About Letter Position Coding in Visual Word Recognition?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Colin J.; Bowers, Jeffrey S.

2004-01-01

Dividing attention across multiple words occasionally results in misidentifications whereby letters apparently migrate between words. Previous studies have found that letter migrations preserve within-word letter position, which has been interpreted as support for position-specific letter coding. To investigate this issue, the authors used word…

Letter Names and Phonological Awareness Help Children to Learn Letter-Sound Relations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cardoso-Martins, Claudia; Mesquita, Tereza Cristina Lara; Ehri, Linnea

2011-01-01

Two experimental training studies with Portuguese-speaking preschoolers in Brazil were conducted to investigate whether children benefit from letter name knowledge and phonological awareness in learning letter-sound relations. In Experiment 1, two groups of children were compared. The experimental group was taught the names of letters whose sounds…

What Can Reduce Letter Migrations in Letter Position Dyslexia?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friedmann, Naama; Rahamim, Einav

2014-01-01

Letter position dyslexia (LPD) is a peripheral dyslexia that causes errors of letter position within words, such as reading "cloud" as "could." In this study, we assessed the effect of various display manipulations and reading methods on the reading of 10 Hebrew readers with developmental LPD. These manipulations included…

Letter Names: Effect on Letter Saying, Spelling, and Word Recognition in Hebrew.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levin, Iris; Patel, Sigal; Margalit, Tamar; Barad, Noa

2002-01-01

Examined whether letter names, which bridge the gap between oral and written language among English speaking children, have a similar function in Hebrew. In findings from studies of Israeli kindergartners and first graders, children were found to rely on letter names in performing a number of letter saying, spelling, and word recognition tasks.…

Relationship between dean's letter rankings and later evaluations by residency program directors.

PubMed

Lurie, Stephen J; Lambert, David R; Grady-Weliky, Tana A

2007-01-01

It is not known how well dean's letter rankings predict later performance in residency. To assess the accuracy of dean's letter rankings to predict clinical performance in internship. Participants were medical students who graduated from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in the classes of 2003 and 2004. In their Dean's Letter, each student was ranked as either "Outstanding" (upper quartile), "Excellent" (second quartile), "Very good" (lower 2 quartiles), or "Good" (lowest few percentile). We compared these dean's letter rankings against results of questionnaires sent to program directors 9 months after graduation. Response rate to the questionnaire was 58.9% (109 of 185 eligible graduates). There were no differences in response rate across the four dean's letter ranking categories. Program directors rated students in the top two categories of dean's letter rankings significantly higher than those in the very good group. Students in all three groups were rated significantly higher than those in the good group, F (3, 105) = 13.37, p < .001. Students in the very good group were most variable in their ratings by program directors, with many receiving similarly high ratings as students in the upper 2 groups. There were no differences by gender or specialty. Dean's letter rankings are a significant predictor of later performance in internship among graduates of our medical school. Students in the bottom half of the class are most likely either to underperform or overperform in internship.

Consensus on Graduate Medical Education Financing: An Analysis of Stakeholder Responses to the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Open Letter

PubMed Central

Harwood, Jared L.

2015-01-01

Background In December 2014, the Energy and Commerce Committee of the US House of Representatives sent an open letter requesting interested parties to respond to 7 questions on graduate medical education (GME). More than 100 organizations and individuals responded. Methods An online search for responses yielded 27 organizations that had published their responses to the committee's open letter. Responses included answers to the 7 questions and additional recommendations. The 27 respondents proposed a total of 80 unique interventions. Each intervention was screened for concordance with those from other organizations, and then categorized as supportive, in opposition, or making no mention. Data were entered into a spreadsheet and rank ordered on the frequency of support. Results At the top of the rankings were several interventions with significant support from many respondents. Conclusions Given the broader GME constituency represented by the 27 stakeholders in this analysis, the 80 proposed interventions represent a comprehensive inventory of the extant ideas regarding the financing, governance, and oversight of GME. This objective analysis could help both spur productive discussions and form the foundation for a larger public policy deliberation of GME financing. PMID:26692999

47 CFR 61.15 - Letters of transmittal and cover letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... Section 61.15 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES (CONTINUED) TARIFFS Rules for Electronic Filing § 61.15 Letters of transmittal and cover letters. (a) All... pursuant to the notice requirements of section 204(a)(3) of the Communications Act shall display...

Love letters to the dead: resurrecting an epistolary art.

PubMed

Lander, Dorothy A; Graham-Pole, John R

This article explores the art of letter-writing, specifically to our beloved dead, as a form of autoethnographic research, pedagogy, and care work. As university teachers and qualitative researchers in palliative and end-of-life care, we review the literature and history of epistolary communications with the deceased, as a prelude to writing our own letters. John writes to his long-dead mother and Dorothy to her recently deceased spouse Patrick, each letter followed by a reflective dialogue between us. Through this dialogue, we highlight the potential application of this art, or handcraft, to formal and informal palliative care, and the implications for practice, pedagogy, policy, and research. We propose that such direct, non-mediated, communications can offer a valuable form of healing for bereaved people. The therapeutic potential of letter writing and the abundance of literary and popular culture exemplars of responses from the dead are also largely unexplored in death education and research.

May 2018 Letters to the Editor-in-Chief.

PubMed

2018-05-01

Letters to the Editor-in-Chief of JOSPT as follows: "Regarding 'Unraveling the Mechanisms of Manual Therapy'" with Authors' Response "The Use of a Broad or Narrow Definition of Injury in Dance Surveillance" with Authors' Response J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2018;48(5):421-424. doi:10.2519/jospt.2018.0201.

Parafoveal letter-position coding in reading.

PubMed

Snell, Joshua; Bertrand, Daisy; Grainger, Jonathan

2018-05-01

The masked-priming lexical decision task has been the paradigm of choice for investigating how readers code for letter identity and position. Insight into the temporal integration of information between prime and target words has pointed out, among other things, that readers do not code for the absolute position of letters. This conception has spurred various accounts of the word recognition process, but the results at present do not favor one account in particular. Thus, employing a new strategy, the present study moves out of the arena of temporal- and into the arena of spatial information integration. We present two lexical decision experiments that tested how the processing of six-letter target words is influenced by simultaneously presented flanking stimuli (each stimulus was presented for 150 ms). We manipulated the orthographic relatedness between the targets and flankers, in terms of both letter identity (same/different letters based on the target's outer/inner letters) and letter position (intact/reversed order of letters and of flankers, contiguous/noncontiguous flankers). Target processing was strongly facilitated by same-letter flankers, and this facilitatory effect was modulated by both letter/flanker order and contiguity. However, when the flankers consisted of the target's inner-positioned letters alone, letter order no longer mattered. These findings suggest that readers may code for the relative position of letters using words' edges as spatial points of reference. We conclude that the flanker paradigm provides a fruitful means to investigate letter-position coding in the fovea and parafovea.

NOAA Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Sample Letters

Science.gov Websites

the Public FOIA Contacts Frequently requested records Reading Room For NOAA Staff U.S. Department of Exemption 7(a-f) Law Enforcement Records Expedited Processing Denial Response Extension Letter Documenting

Does location uncertainty in letter position coding emerge because of literacy training?

PubMed

Perea, Manuel; Jiménez, María; Gomez, Pablo

2016-06-01

In the quest to unveil the nature of the orthographic code, a useful strategy is to examine the transposed-letter effect (e.g., JUGDE is more confusable with its base word, JUDGE, than the replacement-letter nonword JUPTE). A leading explanation of this phenomenon, which is line with models of visual attention, is that there is perceptual uncertainty at assigning letters ("objects") to positions. This mechanism would be at work not only with skilled readers but also with preliterate children. An alternative explanation is that the transposed-letter effect emerges at an orthographic level of processing as a direct consequence of literacy training. To test these accounts, we conducted a same-different matching experiment with preliterate 4-year-old children using same versus different trials (created by letter transposition or replacement). Results showed a significantly larger number of false positives (i.e., "same" responses) to transposed-letter strings than to 1/2 replacement-letter strings. Therefore, the present data favor the view that the visual processing of location information is inherently noisy and rule out an interpretation of confusability in letter position coding as emerging from literacy training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Analysis of reliability of professor recommendation letters based on concordance with self-introduction letter.

PubMed

Kim, Sang Hyun

2013-12-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the concordance between a checklist's categories of professor recommendation letters and characteristics of the self-introduction letter. Checklists of professor recommendation letters were analyzed and classified into cognitive, social, and affective domains. Simple correlation was performed to determine whether the characteristics of the checklists were concordant with those of the self-introduction letter. The difference in ratings of the checklists by pass or fail grades was analyzed by independent sample t-test. Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine whether a pass or fail grade was influenced by ratings on the checklists. The Cronbach alpha value of the checklists was 0.854. Initiative, as an affective domain, in the professor's recommendation letter was highly ranked among the six checklist categories. Self-directed learning in the self-introduction letter was influenced by a pass or fail grade by logistic regression analysis (p<0.05). Successful applicants received higher ratings than those who failed in every checklist category, particularly in problem-solving ability, communication skills, initiative, and morality (p<0.05). There was a strong correlation between cognitive and affective characteristics in the professor recommendation letters and the sum of all characteristics in the self-introduction letter.

Van: An Open Letter

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tieman, John Samuel

2011-01-01

This essay is an open letter from a classroom teacher to a concerned citizen. The letter lists a variety of problems caused largely by standardization and the more corrosive effects of positivism. Many of these problems are unknown to those outside the immediate school setting. While the letter focuses on a specific setting, an inner city school…

Outcome progress letter types

PubMed Central

Lingley-Pottie, Patricia; Janz, Teresa; McGrath, Patrick J.; Cunningham, Charles; MacLean, Cathy

2011-01-01

Abstract Objective To determine health care professional and parental preferences for receiving progress letters from a pediatric mental health program between a traditional text-only format and a version in which information was presented using graphs and tables with limited text. Design Mailed survey. Setting Nova Scotia. Participants Parents (n = 98) of children who received treatment from and health care professionals (n = 74) who referred patients to the Strongest Families Program (formerly the Family Help Program) were eligible. Most of the health care professionals were family practitioners (83.8%). Main outcome measures Preference between 2 letters that contained the same content (including progress in the program, results from a questionnaire, and resolved and ongoing problems) in different formats—one using text only, the other using graphs as well as text. Results In total, 83.8% of health professionals and 76.5% of parents indicated that they preferred to receive feedback in letters containing information in graphical format. Background and demographic information did not predict preferences. Parents preferred to receive progress letters at the beginning, midway through, and at the end of treatment, and health professionals preferred to receive progress letters at the beginning and end of treatment. Conclusion When receiving progress letters from a pediatric mental health program, health care professionals and parents preferred to receive letters that used graphs to help convey information. PMID:22170209

National and Governmental Advisory Committee Advice Letters for 2016

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Advice Letters and produced by the National Advisory Committee and Governmental Advisory Committee to the United States Representative to the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, and EPA responses

Early development of letter specialization in left fusiform is associated with better word reading and smaller fusiform face area.

PubMed

Centanni, Tracy M; Norton, Elizabeth S; Park, Anne; Beach, Sara D; Halverson, Kelly; Ozernov-Palchik, Ola; Gaab, Nadine; Gabrieli, John DE

2018-03-05

A functional region of left fusiform gyrus termed "the visual word form area" (VWFA) develops during reading acquisition to respond more strongly to printed words than to other visual stimuli. Here, we examined responses to letters among 5- and 6-year-old early kindergarten children (N = 48) with little or no school-based reading instruction who varied in their reading ability. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure responses to individual letters, false fonts, and faces in left and right fusiform gyri. We then evaluated whether signal change and size (spatial extent) of letter-sensitive cortex (greater activation for letters versus faces) and letter-specific cortex (greater activation for letters versus false fonts) in these regions related to (a) standardized measures of word-reading ability and (b) signal change and size of face-sensitive cortex (fusiform face area or FFA; greater activation for faces versus letters). Greater letter specificity, but not letter sensitivity, in left fusiform gyrus correlated positively with word reading scores. Across children, in the left fusiform gyrus, greater size of letter-sensitive cortex correlated with lesser size of FFA. These findings are the first to suggest that in beginning readers, development of letter responsivity in left fusiform cortex is associated with both better reading ability and also a reduction of the size of left FFA that may result in right-hemisphere dominance for face perception. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A Letter of Apology Nearly 50 Years in the Making: How We've Failed to Solve the Cultural Bind of the American Male. Response to "The Cultural Bind of the American Male"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCandless, Greg

2012-01-01

This article presents the author's letter of apology as a response to "The Cultural Bind of the American Male". In the letter, the author offers his apologies because educators have failed to solve the cultural bind of the American male.

39 CFR 320.4 - Suspension for certain letters of college and university organizations.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... universities to carry in their internal mail systems the letters of their bona fide student or faculty... university. Colleges and universities choosing to provide their student or faculty organizations access to their internal mail systems are responsible for assuring that only letters of bona fide student or...

The Medicago truncatula GRAS protein RAD1 supports arbuscular mycorrhiza symbiosis and Phytophthora palmivora susceptibility.

PubMed

Rey, Thomas; Bonhomme, Maxime; Chatterjee, Abhishek; Gavrin, Aleksandr; Toulotte, Justine; Yang, Weibing; André, Olivier; Jacquet, Christophe; Schornack, Sebastian

2017-12-16

The roots of most land plants are colonized by symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) fungi. To facilitate this symbiosis, plant genomes encode a set of genes required for microbial perception and accommodation. However, the extent to which infection by filamentous root pathogens also relies on some of these genes remains an open question. Here, we used genome-wide association mapping to identify genes contributing to colonization of Medicago truncatula roots by the pathogenic oomycete Phytophthora palmivora. Single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers most significantly associated with plant colonization response were identified upstream of RAD1, which encodes a GRAS transcription regulator first negatively implicated in root nodule symbiosis and recently identified as a positive regulator of AM symbiosis. RAD1 transcript levels are up-regulated both in response to AM fungus and, to a lower extent, in infected tissues by P. palmivora where its expression is restricted to root cortex cells proximal to pathogen hyphae. Reverse genetics showed that reduction of RAD1 transcript levels as well as a rad1 mutant are impaired in their full colonization by AM fungi as well as by P. palmivora. Thus, the importance of RAD1 extends beyond symbiotic interactions, suggesting a general involvement in M. truncatula microbe-induced root development and interactions with unrelated beneficial and detrimental filamentous microbes. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology.

Disentangling the Developmental Trajectories of Letter Position and Letter Identity Coding Using Masked Priming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kezilas, Yvette; McKague, Meredith; Kohnen, Saskia; Badcock, Nicholas A.; Castles, Anne

2017-01-01

Masked transposed-letter (TL) priming effects have been used to index letter position processing over the course of reading development. Whereas some studies have reported an increase in TL priming over development, others have reported a decrease. These findings have led to the development of 2 somewhat contradictory accounts of letter position…

Letter Knowledge in Parent–Child Conversations

PubMed Central

Robins, Sarah; Treiman, Rebecca; Rosales, Nicole

2014-01-01

Learning about letters is an important component of emergent literacy. We explored the possibility that parent speech provides information about letters, and also that children’s speech reflects their own letter knowledge. By studying conversations transcribed in CHILDES (MacWhinney, 2000) between parents and children aged one to five, we found that alphabetic order influenced use of individual letters and letter sequences. The frequency of letters in children’s books influenced parent utterances throughout the age range studied, but children’s utterances only after age two. Conversations emphasized some literacy-relevant features of letters, such as their shapes and association with words, but not letters’ sounds. Describing these patterns and how they change over the preschool years offers important insight into the home literacy environment. PMID:25598577

40 CFR 280.99 - Letter of credit.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 26 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Letter of credit. 280.99 Section 280.99 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED) SOLID WASTES (CONTINUED) TECHNICAL STANDARDS AND CORRECTIVE ACTION REQUIREMENTS FOR OWNERS AND OPERATORS OF UNDERGROUND STORAGE TANKS (UST) Financial Responsibility § 280.99...

Reading Embossed Capital Letters: An fMRI Study in Blind and Sighted Individuals

PubMed Central

Burton, H.; McLaren, D.G.; Sinclair, R.J.

2013-01-01

Reading Braille activates visual cortex in blind people [Burton et al., J Neurophysiol 2002;87: 589-611; Sadato et al., Nature 1996;380:526-528; Sadato et al., Brain 1998;121:1213-1229]. Because learning Braille requires extensive training, we had sighted and blind people read raised block capital letters to determine whether all groups engage visual cortex similarly when reading by touch. Letters were passively rubbed across the right index finger at 30 mm/s using an MR-compatible drum stimulator. Age-matched sighted, early blind (lost sight 0–5 years), and late blind (lost sight >5.5 years) volunteers performed three tasks: stating an identified letter, stating a verb containing an identified letter, and feeling a moving smooth surface. Responses were voiced immediately after the drum stopped moving across the fingertip. All groups showed increased activity in visual areas V1 and V2 during both letter identification tasks. Blind compared to sighted participants showed greater activation increases predominantly in the parafoveal-peripheral portions of visuotopic areas and posterior parts of BA 20 and 37. Sighted participants showed suppressed activity in most of the same areas except for small positive responses bilaterally in V1, left V5/MT+, and bilaterally in BA 37/20. Blind individuals showed suppression of the language areas in the frontal cortex, while sighted individuals showed slight positive responses. Early blind showed a more extensive distribution of activity in superior temporal sulcal multisensory areas. These results show cross-modal reorganization of visual cortex and altered response dynamics in nonvisual areas that plausibly reflect mechanisms for adaptive plasticity in blindness. PMID:16142777

Liability and Letters of Recommendation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sendor, Benjamin

1997-01-01

Analyzes the California Supreme Court case "Randi W. v. Muroc Joint Unified School District." The court determined that letters of recommendation, which had omitted mentioning allegations of improper sexual conduct with students, were deceptively incomplete. Writers of letters have three choices: refuse to write a letter, write a fully…

A Retrospective Analysis Comparing the New Standardized Letter of Recommendation in Dermatology with the Classic Narrative Letter of Recommendation

PubMed Central

Mosser, Joy; Lee, Grace; Pootrakul, Llana; Harfmann, Katya; Fabbro, Stephanie; Faith, Esteban Fernandez; Carr, David; Plotner, Alisha; Zirwas, Matthew; Kaffenberger, Benjamin H.

2016-01-01

Background: In an effort to avoid numerous problems associated with narrative letters of recommendation, a dermatology standardized letter of recommendation was utilized in the 2014–2015 resident application cycle. Objective: A comparison of the standardized letter of recommendation and narrative letters of recommendation from a single institution and application cycle to determine if the standardized letter of recommendation met its original goals of efficiency, applicant stratification, and validity. Methods: Eight dermatologists assessed all standardized letters of recommendation/narrative letters of recommendation pairs received during the 2014–2015 application cycle. Five readers repeated the analysis two months later. Each letter of recommendation was evaluated based on a seven question survey. Letter analysis and survey completion for each letter was timed. Results: Compared to the narrative letters of recommendation, the standardized letter of recommendation is easier to interpret (p<0.0001), has less exaggeration of applicants’ positive traits (p<0.001), and has higher inter-rater and intrarater reliability for determining applicant traits including personality, reliability, work-ethic, and global score. Standardized letters of recommendation are also faster to interpret (p<0.0001) and provide more information about the writer’s background or writer-applicant relationship than narrative letters of recommendation (p<0.001). Limitations: This study was completed at a single institution. Conclusions: The standardized letter of recommendation appears to be meeting its initial goals of 1) efficiency, 2) applicant stratification, and 3) validity. (J Clin Aesthet Dermatol. 2016;9(9):36–2.) PMID:27878060

Embedded Picture Mnemonics to Learn Letters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shmidman, Adina; Ehri, Linnea

2010-01-01

Can embedded mnemonics ease the task of learning a foreign alphabet? English-speaking preschoolers (N = 36, M = 5;2 years) were taught 10 Hebrew letter-sound relations. Experimental letters were learned with mnemonics that embedded letter shapes in drawings of objects whose shapes resembled the letters and whose English names began with the…

Electrical Connections: Letters to Thomas Edison in Response to His Claim of Solving Incandescent Lighting, 1878.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bazerman, Charles

1994-01-01

Discusses the way in which letters sent to Thomas Edison following the report that he had solved the problem of incandescent lighting reveal the many discursive worlds that Edison's work touched. Claims these letters indicate how a technological accomplishment is also a multiple, complex social, and communicative accomplishment, creating place and…

Developmental trajectory of neural specialization for letter and number visual processing.

PubMed

Park, Joonkoo; van den Berg, Berry; Chiang, Crystal; Woldorff, Marty G; Brannon, Elizabeth M

2018-05-01

Adult neuroimaging studies have demonstrated dissociable neural activation patterns in the visual cortex in response to letters (Latin alphabet) and numbers (Arabic numerals), which suggest a strong experiential influence of reading and mathematics on the human visual system. Here, developmental trajectories in the event-related potential (ERP) patterns evoked by visual processing of letters, numbers, and false fonts were examined in four different age groups (7-, 10-, 15-year-olds, and young adults). The 15-year-olds and adults showed greater neural sensitivity to letters over numbers in the left visual cortex and the reverse pattern in the right visual cortex, extending previous findings in adults to teenagers. In marked contrast, 7- and 10-year-olds did not show this dissociable neural pattern. Furthermore, the contrast of familiar stimuli (letters or numbers) versus unfamiliar ones (false fonts) showed stark ERP differences between the younger (7- and 10-year-olds) and the older (15-year-olds and adults) participants. These results suggest that both coarse (familiar versus unfamiliar) and fine (letters versus numbers) tuning for letters and numbers continue throughout childhood and early adolescence, demonstrating a profound impact of uniquely human cultural inventions on visual cognition and its development. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Overt use of a tactile-kinesthetic strategy shifts to covert processing in rehabilitation of letter-by-letter reading.

PubMed

Lott, Susan Nitzberg; Carney, Aimee Syms; Glezer, Laurie S; Friedman, Rhonda B

2010-11-01

BACKGROUND: Letter-by-letter readers identify each letter of the word they are reading serially in left to right order before recognizing the word. When their letter naming is also impaired, letter-by-letter reading is inaccurate and can render even single word reading very poor. Tactile and/or kinesthetic strategies have been reported to improve reading in these patients, but only under certain conditions or for a limited set of stimuli. AIMS: The primary aim of the current study was to determine whether a tactile/kinesthetic treatment could significantly improve reading specifically under normal reading conditions, i.e. reading untrained words presented in free vision and read without overt use of the strategy. METHODS #ENTITYSTARTX00026; PROCEDURES: Three chronic letter-by-letter readers participated in a tactile/kinesthetic treatment aimed at first improving letter naming accuracy (phase 1) and then letter-by-letter reading speed (phase 2). In a multiple case series design, accuracy and speed of reading untrained words without overt use of the trained tactile/kinesthetic strategy was assessed before phase 1, after phase 1 and again after phase 2. OUTCOMES #ENTITYSTARTX00026; RESULTS: All three patients significantly improved both their speed and accuracy reading untrained words without overt use of the trained tactile/kinesthetic strategy. All three patients required the additional practice in phase 2 to achieve significant improvement. Treatment did not target sentence level reading, yet two of the three patients became so adept that they could read entire sentences. CONCLUSIONS: This study replicates previous findings on the efficacy of tactile/kinesthetic treatment for letter-by-letter readers with poor letter naming. It further demonstrates that this treatment can alter cognitive processing such that words never specifically trained can be read in free vision without overtly using the trained strategy. The data suggest that an important element in achieving

Overt use of a tactile-kinesthetic strategy shifts to covert processing in rehabilitation of letter-by-letter reading

PubMed Central

Lott, Susan Nitzberg; Carney, Aimee Syms; Glezer, Laurie S.; Friedman, Rhonda B.

2010-01-01

Background Letter-by-letter readers identify each letter of the word they are reading serially in left to right order before recognizing the word. When their letter naming is also impaired, letter-by-letter reading is inaccurate and can render even single word reading very poor. Tactile and/or kinesthetic strategies have been reported to improve reading in these patients, but only under certain conditions or for a limited set of stimuli. Aims The primary aim of the current study was to determine whether a tactile/kinesthetic treatment could significantly improve reading specifically under normal reading conditions, i.e. reading untrained words presented in free vision and read without overt use of the strategy. Methods & Procedures Three chronic letter-by-letter readers participated in a tactile/kinesthetic treatment aimed at first improving letter naming accuracy (phase 1) and then letter-by-letter reading speed (phase 2). In a multiple case series design, accuracy and speed of reading untrained words without overt use of the trained tactile/kinesthetic strategy was assessed before phase 1, after phase 1 and again after phase 2. Outcomes & Results All three patients significantly improved both their speed and accuracy reading untrained words without overt use of the trained tactile/kinesthetic strategy. All three patients required the additional practice in phase 2 to achieve significant improvement. Treatment did not target sentence level reading, yet two of the three patients became so adept that they could read entire sentences. Conclusions This study replicates previous findings on the efficacy of tactile/kinesthetic treatment for letter-by-letter readers with poor letter naming. It further demonstrates that this treatment can alter cognitive processing such that words never specifically trained can be read in free vision without overtly using the trained strategy. The data suggest that an important element in achieving this level of generalization is

Letters from the Future: The Use of Therapeutic Letter Writing in Counseling Sexual Abuse Survivors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kress, Victoria E.; Hoffman, Rachel; Thomas, Amanda M.

2008-01-01

In the context of counseling sexual abuse survivors, the creative counseling technique of having clients write letters--to themselves or others--from a future context is described. A theoretical framework for writing letters to oneself from the future is presented. Specific types of letters from the future are explained, and case examples and…

Involving Parents through School Letters: Mothers, Fathers and Teachers Negotiating Children's Education and Rearing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forsberg, Lucas

2007-01-01

The present article explores home-school relations by analyzing how Swedish teachers and parents negotiate responsibility for children's education and rearing through school letters. It draws on participant observations using a video camera in families, interviews with parents, and analysis of school letters written by teachers to parents. The…

Writing more informative letters of reference.

PubMed

Wright, Scott M; Ziegelstein, Roy C

2004-05-01

Writing a meaningful and valuable letter of reference is not an easy task. Several factors influence the quality of any letter of reference. First, the accuracy and reliability of the writer's impressions and judgment depend on how well he knows the individual being described. Second, the writer's frame of reference, which is determined by the number of persons at the same level that he has worked with, will impact the context and significance of his beliefs and estimations. Third, the letter-writing skills of the person composing the letter will naturally affect the letter. To support the other components of a candidate's application, a letter of reference should provide specific examples of how an individual's behavior or attitude compares to a reference group and should assess "intangibles" that are hard to glean from a curriculum vitae or from test scores. This report offers suggestions that should help physicians write more informative letters of reference.

Writing More Informative Letters of Reference

PubMed Central

Wright, Scott M; Ziegelstein, Roy C

2004-01-01

Writing a meaningful and valuable letter of reference is not an easy task. Several factors influence the quality of any letter of reference. First, the accuracy and reliability of the writer's impressions and judgment depend on how well he knows the individual being described. Second, the writer's frame of reference, which is determined by the number of persons at the same level that he has worked with, will impact the context and significance of his beliefs and estimations. Third, the letter-writing skills of the person composing the letter will naturally affect the letter. To support the other components of a candidate's application, a letter of reference should provide specific examples of how an individual's behavior or attitude compares to a reference group and should assess “intangibles” that are hard to glean from a curriculum vitae or from test scores. This report offers suggestions that should help physicians write more informative letters of reference. PMID:15109330

Statistical mechanics of letters in words

PubMed Central

Stephens, Greg J.; Bialek, William

2013-01-01

We consider words as a network of interacting letters, and approximate the probability distribution of states taken on by this network. Despite the intuition that the rules of English spelling are highly combinatorial and arbitrary, we find that maximum entropy models consistent with pairwise correlations among letters provide a surprisingly good approximation to the full statistics of words, capturing ~92% of the multi-information in four-letter words and even “discovering” words that were not represented in the data. These maximum entropy models incorporate letter interactions through a set of pairwise potentials and thus define an energy landscape on the space of possible words. Guided by the large letter redundancy we seek a lower-dimensional encoding of the letter distribution and show that distinctions between local minima in the landscape account for ~68% of the four-letter entropy. We suggest that these states provide an effective vocabulary which is matched to the frequency of word use and much smaller than the full lexicon. PMID:20866490

Letters From Peplau.

PubMed

Peden, Ann R

2018-03-01

Dr. Hildegard Peplau, considered to be our first modern Nurse theorist and the Mother of Psychiatric Nursing, was a prolific writer, engaging in correspondence with colleagues and students who sought her professional and theoretical expertise. Through these letters, she influenced psychiatric nursing while maintaining a broad international network of professional colleagues. An analysis of letters, written between 1990 and 1998, provides insights into Peplau's last decade of professional life and a model of how to support the next generation of nurse scholars. Using content analysis, 24 letters received between 1990 and 1998 were read, reread, and coded. Recurring themes were identified. Three themes were identified. These include Peplau, the Person: Living a Life of Professional Balance; Lighting a Spark: Investing in the Next Generation; and Work in the Vineyards of Nursing: Maintaining a Life of Scholarship. The letters depict Peplau's keen intellect, her wide professional network, her leisure time spent with family and friends, and her own work to assure that her theoretical legacy continued. Peplau's insights continue to be relevant as psychiatric mental health nursing leaders engage in activities to support the next generation of scholars and leaders.

Resource Letter FR-1: Fractals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hurd, Alan J.

1988-11-01

This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on fractals. Although ``fractal'' is a relatively new term in science, unifying many new ideas with established ones, its wide application and general popularity have made it one of the fastest growing fields in statistical physics. The letter E after an item indicates elementary level or material of general interest to persons becoming informed in the field; the letter I, for intermediate level, indicates material of somewhat more specialized nature; and the letter A indicates rather specialized or advanced material. An asterisk (*) indicates those articles to be included in an accompanying Reprint Book.

Can "CANISO" Activate "CASINO"? Transposed-Letter Similarity Effects with Nonadjacent Letter Positions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perea, Manuel; Lupker, Stephen J.

2004-01-01

Nonwords created by transposing two "adjacent" letters (i.e., transposed-letter (TL) nonwords like "jugde") are very effective at activating the lexical representation of their base words. This fact poses problems for most computational models of word recognition (e.g., the interactive-activation model and its extensions), which assume that exact…

Improving the quality of outpatient clinic letters using the Sheffield Assessment Instrument for Letters (SAIL).

PubMed

Fox, Adam T; Palmer, Roger D; Crossley, James G M; Sekaran, Devanitha; Trewavas, Eira S; Davies, Helena A

2004-08-01

To improve the quality of outpatient letters used as communication between hospital and primary care doctors. On 2 separate occasions, 15 unselected outpatient letters written by each of 7 hospital practitioners were rated by another hospital doctor and a general practitioner (GP) using the Sheffield Assessment Instrument for Letters (SAIL). Individualised feedback was provided to participants following the rating of the first set of letters. The audit cycle was completed 3 months later without forewarning by repeat assessment by the same hospital and GP assessors using the SAIL tool to see if there was any improvement in correspondence. Single centre: general paediatric outpatient department in a large district general hospital. All 7 doctors available for reassessment completed the audit loop, each providing 15 outpatient letters per assessment. The mean of the quality scores, derived for each letter from the summation of a 20-point checklist and a global score, improved from 23.3 (95% CI 22.1-24.4) to 26.6 (95% CI 25.8-27.4) (P = 0.001). The SAIL provides a feasible and reliable method of assessing the quality and content of outpatient clinic letters. This study demonstrates that it can also provide feedback with a powerful educational impact. This approach holds real potential for appraisal and revalidation, providing an effective means for the quality improvement required by clinical governance.

Serial position effects in the identification of letters, digits, and symbols.

PubMed

Tydgat, Ilse; Grainger, Jonathan

2009-04-01

In 6 experiments, the authors investigated the form of serial position functions for identification of letters, digits, and symbols presented in strings. The results replicated findings obtained with the target search paradigm, showing an interaction between the effects of serial position and type of stimulus, with symbols generating a distinct serial position function compared with letters and digits. When the task was 2-alternative forced choice, this interaction was driven almost exclusively by performance at the first position in the string, with letters and digits showing much higher levels of accuracy than symbols at this position. A final-position advantage was reinstated in Experiment 6 by placing the two alternative responses below the target string. The end-position (first and last positions) advantage for letters and digits compared with symbol stimuli was further confirmed with the bar-probe technique (postcued partial report) in Experiments 5 and 6. Overall, the results further support the existence of a specialized mechanism designed to optimize processing of strings of letters and digits by modifying the size and shape of retinotopic character detectors' receptive fields. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Audience Mail: Letters to an Anchorman

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gans, Herbert J.

1977-01-01

Analyzes letters sent to John Chancellor and NBC Nightly News in October of 1975 in an attempt to identify writer characteristics, letter types, stories and issues to which the writers reacted and the reasons for writing the letters. (MH)

IRTs of the ABCs: Children's Letter Name Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phillips, Beth M.; Piasta, Shayne B.; Anthony, Jason L.; Lonigan, Christopher J.; Francis, David J.

2012-01-01

We examined the developmental sequence of letter name knowledge acquisition by children from 2 to five years of age. Data from 2 samples representing diverse regions, ethnicity, and socioeconomic backgrounds (ns=1074 and 500) were analyzed using item response theory (IRT) and differential item functioning techniques. Results from factor analyses…

Resource Letter MA-2: Musical acoustics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rossing, Thomas D.

1987-07-01

This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on musical acoustics. The letter E after an item indicates elementary level or material of general interest to persons becoming informed in the field. The letter I, for intermediate level, indicates material of a somewhat more specialized nature; and the letter A indicates rather specialized or advanced material. An asterisk (*) indicates articles that are especially useful or interesting; a double asterisk (**) indicates those articles to be included in an accompanying Reprint Book.

Intensive Variables in Primary Kimberlite Magmas (Lac de Gras, N.W.T., Canada) and Application for Diamond Preservation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fedortchouk, Y.; Canil, D.; Carlson, J. A.

2002-12-01

Crystallization temperatures (T) and oxygen fugacity (fO2) are not well constrained for kimberlites. Knowledge of these intensive variables of kimberlite melt is important for understanding the origin and evolution of kimberlites and prediction of diamond preservation in the magma. Difficulties in interpreting the equilibrium mineral assemblages in kimberlites and the high degree of secondary alteration usually complicate use of mineral geothermometers and oxygen barometers. Some of Lac de Gras (N.W.T., Canada) kimberlites are extremely fresh and provide opportunity to apply mineral thermobarometers. The presence of numerous chromite inclusions in the rims of olivine phenocrysts allows application of the olivine-spinel thermometer and oxygen barometer to constrain T and fO2 of the melt. We performed T and fO2 calculations on samples from three kimberlite pipes - the Leslie, Aaron and Grizzly. The T obtained from olivine - chromite pairs for crystallization of olivine phenocryst rims are 1050° to 1100°C +/- 50°C (calculated at 1 GPa). Few olivine - chromite pairs from Leslie and Grizzly record higher temperatures of 1250° - 1350°C. The cores of olivine phenocrysts usually lack chromite inclusions and their crystallization T and fO2 could not be estimated. The fO2 recorded by coexisting olivine and chromite are +0.3 to 1.0 +/- 0.4 log units more oxidized than the nickel-nickel oxide (NNO) buffer. The established fO2 of kimberlites would require fO2 in their mantle source to be higher than that of cratonic mantle and oceanic lithosphere producing MORB's but comparable to the source of subduction-related magmas. The T and fO2 for the Lac de Gras kimberlites constrain the path of any mantle material entrained in these magmas in fO2-T-P space and provide limits on diamond destructive processes. Diamonds are not stable in kimberlite magma and are oxidized to CO2 or converted into graphite. The former process is more favorable for their preservation. The results of

The letter knowledge assessment tool.

PubMed

Pedro, Cassandra; Lousada, Marisa; Pereira, Rita; Hall, Andreia; Jesus, Luis M T

2017-10-10

There is a need to develop letter knowledge assessment tools to characterise the letter knowledge in Portuguese pre-schoolers and to compare it with pre-schoolers from other countries, but there are no tools for this purpose in Portugal. The aim of this paper is to describe the development and validation procedures of the Prova de Avaliação de Competências de Pré-Literacia (PACPL), which assesses letter knowledge. This study includes data that has been gathered in two phases: pilot and main study. In the pilot study, an expert panel of six speech and language pathologists analysed the instrument. Children (n = 216) aged 5;0-7;11 participated in the main study that reports data related to the psychometric characteristics of the PACPL. Content validity, internal consistency, reliability and contributing factors to performance were examined statistically. A modified Bland-Altman method revealed good agreement amongst evaluators. The main study showed that the PACPL has a very good internal consistency and high inter-rater (96.2% of agreement and a Cohen's k value of 0.92) and intra-rater (95.6% of agreement and a Cohen's k value of 0.91) agreement. Construct validity of the PCAPL was also assured (Cronbach's α of 0.982). Significant differences were found between age groups with children increasing their letter knowledge with age. In addition, they were better at identifying than at producing both letter names and letter sounds. The PACPL is a valid and reliable instrument to assess letter knowledge in Portuguese children.

Open Letter Regarding the University of Minnesota's Program on Human Sexuality and Sexual Attitude Reassessment Seminars

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunt, William C.; Nelson, James

1976-01-01

This article contains a letter which questions the value and ethics of the Program on Human Sexuality (University of Minnesota) and also contains the response to the letter by a member of the Theological-Ethical Task Force which sponsors the program. (Author)

49 CFR 107.309 - Warning letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 49 Transportation 2 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Warning letters. 107.309 Section 107.309... PROGRAM PROCEDURES Enforcement Compliance Orders and Civil Penalties § 107.309 Warning letters. (a) The Associate Administrator may issue a warning letter to any person whom the Associate Administrator believes...

49 CFR 107.309 - Warning letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 49 Transportation 2 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Warning letters. 107.309 Section 107.309... PROGRAM PROCEDURES Enforcement Compliance Orders and Civil Penalties § 107.309 Warning letters. (a) The Associate Administrator may issue a warning letter to any person whom the Associate Administrator believes...

49 CFR 107.309 - Warning letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Warning letters. 107.309 Section 107.309... PROGRAM PROCEDURES Enforcement Compliance Orders and Civil Penalties § 107.309 Warning letters. (a) The Associate Administrator may issue a warning letter to any person whom the Associate Administrator believes...

49 CFR 107.309 - Warning letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 49 Transportation 2 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Warning letters. 107.309 Section 107.309... PROGRAM PROCEDURES Enforcement Compliance Orders and Civil Penalties § 107.309 Warning letters. (a) The Associate Administrator may issue a warning letter to any person whom the Associate Administrator believes...

49 CFR 107.309 - Warning letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 49 Transportation 2 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Warning letters. 107.309 Section 107.309... PROGRAM PROCEDURES Enforcement Compliance Orders and Civil Penalties § 107.309 Warning letters. (a) The Associate Administrator may issue a warning letter to any person whom the Associate Administrator believes...

49 CFR 190.205 - Warning letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 49 Transportation 3 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Warning letters. 190.205 Section 190.205... REGULATORY PROCEDURES Enforcement § 190.205 Warning letters. Link to an amendment published at 78 FR 58909... or order issued thereunder has occurred, the Associate Administrator, OPS, may issue a Warning Letter...

7 CFR 1773.33 - Management letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 12 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Management letter. 1773.33 Section 1773.33... AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) POLICY ON AUDITS OF RUS BORROWERS RUS Reporting Requirements § 1773.33 Management letter. The CPA must prepare a management letter that includes, at a minimum, comments on: (a) Audit...

The Quiet Clam Is Quite Calm: Transposed-Letter Neighborhood Effects on Eye Movements during Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Rebecca L.

2009-01-01

In responses time tasks, inhibitory neighborhood effects have been found for word pairs that differ in a transposition of two adjacent letters (e.g., "clam/calm"). Here, the author describes two eye-tracking experiments conducted to explore transposed-letter (TL) neighborhood effects within the context of normal silent reading. In…

Neural Correlates of Top-Down Letter Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Jiangang; Li, Jun; Zhang, Hongchuan; Rieth, Cory A.; Huber, David E.; Li, Wu; Lee, Kang; Tian, Jie

2010-01-01

This fMRI study investigated top-down letter processing with an illusory letter detection task. Participants responded whether one of a number of different possible letters was present in a very noisy image. After initial training that became increasingly difficult, they continued to detect letters even though the images consisted of pure noise,…

33 CFR 127.009 - Letter of recommendation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Letter of recommendation. 127.009... General § 127.009 Letter of recommendation. After the COTP receives the Letter of Intent under § 127.007(a) or (b), the COTP issues a Letter of Recommendation as to the suitability of the waterway for LNG or...

33 CFR 127.009 - Letter of recommendation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Letter of recommendation. 127.009... General § 127.009 Letter of recommendation. After the COTP receives the Letter of Intent under § 127.007(a) or (b), the COTP issues a Letter of Recommendation as to the suitability of the waterway for LNG or...

24 CFR 200.1505 - Warning letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 2 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Warning letter. 200.1505 Section... Lender Quality Assurance Enforcement § 200.1505 Warning letter. (a) In general. HUD may issue a warning letter, which specifies problems or violations identified by HUD, to a MAP lender. (b) Effect of warning...

49 CFR 190.205 - Warning letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 49 Transportation 3 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Warning letters. 190.205 Section 190.205... PROCEDURES Enforcement § 190.205 Warning letters. Upon determining that a probable violation of 49 U.S.C..., OPS, may issue a Warning Letter notifying the owner or operator of the probable violation and advising...

17 CFR 38.711 - Warning letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 1 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Warning letters. 38.711... MARKETS Disciplinary Procedures § 38.711 Warning letters. Where a rule violation is found to have occurred, no more than one warning letter may be issued per rolling 12-month period for the same violation. ...

17 CFR 38.711 - Warning letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 1 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Warning letters. 38.711... MARKETS Disciplinary Procedures § 38.711 Warning letters. Where a rule violation is found to have occurred, no more than one warning letter may be issued per rolling 12-month period for the same violation. ...

24 CFR 200.1505 - Warning letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 2 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Warning letter. 200.1505 Section... Lender Quality Assurance Enforcement § 200.1505 Warning letter. (a) In general. HUD may issue a warning letter, which specifies problems or violations identified by HUD, to a MAP lender. (b) Effect of warning...

49 CFR 190.205 - Warning letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Warning letters. 190.205 Section 190.205... PROCEDURES Enforcement § 190.205 Warning letters. Upon determining that a probable violation of 49 U.S.C..., OPS, may issue a Warning Letter notifying the owner or operator of the probable violation and advising...

24 CFR 200.1505 - Warning letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Warning letter. 200.1505 Section... Lender Quality Assurance Enforcement § 200.1505 Warning letter. (a) In general. HUD may issue a warning letter, which specifies problems or violations identified by HUD, to a MAP lender. (b) Effect of warning...

24 CFR 200.1505 - Warning letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 2 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Warning letter. 200.1505 Section... Lender Quality Assurance Enforcement § 200.1505 Warning letter. (a) In general. HUD may issue a warning letter, which specifies problems or violations identified by HUD, to a MAP lender. (b) Effect of warning...

24 CFR 200.1505 - Warning letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 24 Housing and Urban Development 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Warning letter. 200.1505 Section... Lender Quality Assurance Enforcement § 200.1505 Warning letter. (a) In general. HUD may issue a warning letter, which specifies problems or violations identified by HUD, to a MAP lender. (b) Effect of warning...

49 CFR 190.205 - Warning letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 49 Transportation 3 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Warning letters. 190.205 Section 190.205... PROCEDURES Enforcement § 190.205 Warning letters. Upon determining that a probable violation of 49 U.S.C..., OPS, may issue a Warning Letter notifying the owner or operator of the probable violation and advising...

Nanocarriers from GRAS Zein Proteins to Encapsulate Hydrophobic Actives.

PubMed

Weissmueller, Nikolas T; Lu, Hoang D; Hurley, Amanda; Prud'homme, Robert K

2016-11-14

One factor limiting the expansion of nanomedicines has been the high cost of the materials and processes required for their production. We present a continuous, scalable, low cost nanoencapsulation process, Flash Nanoprecipitation (FNP) that enables the production of nanocarriers (NCs) with a narrow size distribution using zein corn proteins. Zein is a low cost, GRAS protein (having the FDA status of "Generally Regarded as Safe") currently used in food applications, which acts as an effective encapsulant for hydrophobic compounds using FNP. The four-stream FNP configuration allows the encapsulation of very hydrophobic compounds in a way that is not possible with previous precipitation processes. We present the encapsulation of several model active compounds with as high as 45 wt % drug loading with respect to zein concentration into ∼100 nm nanocarriers. Three examples are presented: (1) the pro-drug antioxidant, vitamin E-acetate, (2) an anticholera quorum-sensing modulator CAI-1 ((S)-3-hydroxytridecan-4-one; CAI-1 that reduces Vibrio cholerae virulence by modulating cellular communication), and (3) hydrophobic fluorescent dyes with a range of hydrophobicities. The specific interaction between zein and the milk protein, sodium caseinate, provides stabilization of the NCs in PBS, LB medium, and in pH 2 solutions. The stability and size changes in the three media provide information on the mechanism of assembly of the zein/active/casein NC.

The letters of John Dastin.

PubMed

Thiesen, Wilfred

2008-07-01

John Dastin, a noted alchemist who lived ca. 1300, followed the lead of many of his contemporaries and predecessors in using letters to propagate his views on alchemy. This article identifies a number of letters that Dastin wrote, and includes one text addressed to a cardinal of the city of Naples. This letter is virtually a copy of a work by Arnold of Villanova. I believe that other works ascribed to Dastin will also show a great dependence on Arnold's works.

Strategy Effects on Word Searching in Japanese Letter Fluency Tests: Evidence from the NIRS Findings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hatta, Takeshi; Kanari, Ayano; Mase, Mitsuhito; Nagano, Yuko; Shirataki, Tatsuaki; Hibino, Shinji

2009-01-01

Strategy effects on word searching in the Japanese letter fluency test were investigated using the Near-infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS). Participants were given a Japanese letter fluency test and they were classified into two types of strategy users, based on analysis of their recorded verbal responses. One group, AIUEO-order strategy users, employed…

Improving Responsiveness to Intervention for English-Language Learners: A Comparison of Instructional Pace on Letter Naming Rates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilbertson, Donna; Bluck, John

2006-01-01

An alternating treatments design was used to compare the effects of a 1-s and a 5-s paced intervention on rates of letter naming by English Language Learners (ELL). Participants were four kindergarten students performing below the average letter naming level and learning rate than other ELL classmates. The fast paced intervention consisted of a…

Context-dependent similarity effects in letter recognition.

PubMed

Kinoshita, Sachiko; Robidoux, Serje; Guilbert, Daniel; Norris, Dennis

2015-10-01

In visual word recognition tasks, digit primes that are visually similar to letter string targets (e.g., 4/A, 8/B) are known to facilitate letter identification relative to visually dissimilar digits (e.g., 6/A, 7/B); in contrast, with letter primes, visual similarity effects have been elusive. In the present study we show that the visual similarity effect with letter primes can be made to come and go, depending on whether it is necessary to discriminate between visually similar letters. The results support a Bayesian view which regards letter recognition not as a passive activation process driven by the fixed stimulus properties, but as a dynamic evidence accumulation process for a decision that is guided by the task context.

Letter to the Editor: Appropriate selection of dose coefficients in radiological assessments: C-14 and Cl-36: response to the letter of G Smith and M Thorne (2015 J. Radiol. Prot. 35 737-40)

DOE PAGES

Harrison, John D.; Leggett, Richard Wayne

2016-01-01

This letter to the editor of Journal of Radiological Protection is in response to a letter to the editor from G. M. Smith and M. C. Thorne of Great Britain concerning the appropriate selection of dose coefficients for ingested carbon-14 and chlorine-36, two of the most important long-lived components of radioactive wastes. Smith and Thorne argue that current biokinetic models of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) for carbon and chlorine are overly cautious models from the standpoint of radiation dose estimates for C-14 and Cl-36, and that more realistic models are needed for evaluation of the hazards ofmore » these radionuclides in nuclear wastes. We (Harrison and Leggett) point out that new biokinetic models for these and other elements (developed at ORNL) will soon appear in ICRP Publications. These new models generally are considerably more realistic than current ICRP models. Here, examples are given for C-14 inhaled as carbon dioxide or ingested in water as bicarbonate, carbonate, or carbon dioxide.« less

A versus F: the effects of implicit letter priming on cognitive performance.

PubMed

Ciani, Keith D; Sheldon, Kennon M

2010-03-01

It has been proposed that motivational responses outside people's conscious awareness can be primed to affect academic performance. The current research focused on the relationship between primed evaluative letters (A and F), explicit and implicit achievement motivation, and cognitive performance. Given the evaluative connotation associated with letter grades, we wanted to know if exposure to the letter A before a task could improve performance, and exposure to the letter F could impair performance. If such effects are found, we suspected that they may be rooted in implicit approach versus avoidance motivation, and occur without participants' awareness. The current research was conducted at a large research university in the USA. Twenty-three undergraduates participated in Expt 1, 32 graduate students in Expt 2, and 76 undergraduates in Expt 3. Expts 1 and 2 were conducted in classroom settings, and Expt 3 in a laboratory. In Expt 1, participants were randomly assigned to either the A or F condition. The letter manipulation came in the form of an ostensible Test Bank ID code on the cover of an analogy test, which participants were prompted to view and write on each page of their test. Expt 2 followed a similar procedure but included the neutral letter J as a third condition to serve as a control. In Expt 3, participants' letter condition was presented in the form of an ostensible Subject ID code prior to an anagram test. Expts 1-3 demonstrated that exposure to the letter A enhances performance relative to the exposure to the letter F, whereas exposure to the letter F prior to an achievement task can impair performance. This effect was demonstrated using two different types of samples (undergraduate and graduate students), in two different experimental settings (classroom and laboratory), using two different types of achievement tasks (analogy and anagram), and using two different types of letter presentation (Test Bank ID and Subject ID). Results from the funnelled

Thoughts on the condolence letter.

PubMed

Feldmann, B M

2000-11-15

Genuine, specific, timely emotional support of caregivers at the time of euthanasia is an important part of the veterinary professional obligation. Such support helps ease client pain during the grieving process. However, caution and sensitivity are essential when assessing and responding to caregiver-companion animal relationships.(1) For example, some caregivers are highly bonded but conceal their emotions, so our perceptions and responses must be thoughtful and discerning. My veterinary technician and I are supportive of our clients during euthanasia. I later write the condolence letter according to our perceptions of that particular human-companion animal bond. The only exceptions to our attempt to be thoroughly supportive at the time of euthanasia are those instances when we perceive that there has been obvious and willful abuse or neglect. At such times, we try to maintain emotional neutrality. The condolence letter and its variations described here are intended to serve as a guide. We send the condolence letter to caregivers within 24 hours of euthanasia, and it is addressed to the entire family. In addition, a euthanasia packet is provided at the time of euthanasia. The packet includes 2 brochures on coping with the loss of a companion animal, (2,3) contact information for a pet loss support hotline and a pet loss support group, an essay and a poem about the death of a companion animal, and a how-to article on dealing with children and their emotions on the loss of a pet. (4) My veterinary technician almost always phones the caregiver 1 to 3 days after euthanasia of their companion animal. The timing of the call depends on the circumstances of death and our judgment as to the emotional needs of the caregiver and family. Where emotions around euthanasia and loss are especially deep, the follow-up call may be made as early as that night or the next morning, with a second call 2 to 3 days later. The nature of the conversation depends on the technician

The influence of visual and phonological features on the hemispheric processing of hierarchical Navon letters.

PubMed

Aiello, Marilena; Merola, Sheila; Lasaponara, Stefano; Pinto, Mario; Tomaiuolo, Francesco; Doricchi, Fabrizio

2018-01-31

The possibility of allocating attentional resources to the "global" shape or to the "local" details of pictorial stimuli helps visual processing. Investigations with hierarchical Navon letters, that are large "global" letters made up of small "local" ones, consistently demonstrate a right hemisphere advantage for global processing and a left hemisphere advantage for local processing. Here we investigated how the visual and phonological features of the global and local components of Navon letters influence these hemispheric advantages. In a first study in healthy participants, we contrasted the hemispheric processing of hierarchical letters with global and local items competing for response selection, to the processing of hierarchical letters in which a letter, a false-letter conveying no phonological information or a geometrical shape presented at the unattended level did not compete for response selection. In a second study, we investigated the hemispheric processing of hierarchical stimuli in which global and local letters were both visually and phonologically congruent (e.g. large uppercase G made of smaller uppercase G), visually incongruent and phonologically congruent (e.g. large uppercase G made of small lowercase g) or visually incongruent and phonologically incongruent (e.g. large uppercase G made of small lowercase or uppercase M). In a third study, we administered the same tasks to a right brain damaged patient with a lesion involving pre-striate areas engaged by global processing. The results of the first two experiments showed that the global abilities of the left hemisphere are limited because of its strong susceptibility to interference from local letters even when these are irrelevant to the task. Phonological features played a crucial role in this interference because the interference was entirely maintained also when letters at the global and local level were presented in different uppercase vs. lowercase formats. In contrast, when local features

The influence of two different invitation letters on Chlamydia testing participation: randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Ten Hoor, Gill; Hoebe, Christian Jpa; van Bergen, Jan Eam; Brouwers, Elfi Ehg; Ruiter, Robert Ac; Kok, Gerjo

2014-01-30

In The Netherlands, screening for chlamydia (the most prevalent sexually transmitted infection worldwide) is a relatively simple and free procedure. Via an invitation letter sent by the public health services (PHS), people are asked to visit a website to request a test kit. They can then do a chlamydia test at home, send it anonymously to a laboratory, and, within two weeks, they can review their test results online and be treated by their general practitioner or the PHS. Unfortunately, the participation rates are low and the process is believed to be not (cost-) effective. The objective of this study was to assess whether the low participation rate of screening for chlamydia at home, via an invitation letter asking to visit a website and request a test kit, could be improved by optimizing the invitation letter through systematically applied behavior change theories and evidence. The original letter and a revised letter were randomly sent out to 13,551 citizens, 16 to 29 years old, in a Dutch municipality. Using behavior change theories, the revised letter sought to increase motivation to conduct chlamydia screening tests. The revised letter was tailored to beliefs that were found in earlier studies: risk perception, advantages and disadvantages (attitude), moral norm, social influence, and response- and self-efficacy. Revisions to the new letter also sought to avoid possible unwanted resistance caused when people feel pressured, and included prompts to trigger the desired behavior. No significant differences in test package requests were found between the two letters. There were also no differences between the original and revised letters in the rates of returned tests (11.80%, 581/4922 vs. 11.07%, 549/4961) or positive test results (4.8%, 23/484 vs. 4.1%, 19/460). It is evident that the new letter did not improve participation compared to the original letter. It is clear that the approach of inviting the target population through a letter does not lead to higher

Implied reading direction and prioritization of letter encoding.

PubMed

Holcombe, Alex O; Nguyen, Elizabeth H L; Goodbourn, Patrick T

2017-10-01

Capacity limits hinder processing of multiple stimuli, contributing to poorer performance for identifying two briefly presented letters than for identifying a single letter. Higher accuracy is typically found for identifying the letter on the left, which has been attributed to a right-hemisphere dominance for selective attention. Here, we use rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of letters in two locations at once. The letters to be identified are simultaneous and cued by rings. In the first experiment, we manipulated implied reading direction by rotating or mirror-reversing the letters to face to the left rather than to the right. The left-side performance advantage was eliminated. In the second experiment, letters were positioned above and below fixation, oriented such that they appeared to face downward (90° clockwise rotation) or upward (90° counterclockwise rotation). Again consistent with an effect of implied reading direction, performance was better for the top position in the downward condition, but not in the upward condition. In both experiments, mixture modeling of participants' report errors revealed that attentional sampling from the two locations was approximately simultaneous, ruling out the theory that the letter on one side was processed first, followed by a shift of attention to sample the other letter. Thus, the orientation of the letters apparently controls not when the letters are sampled from the scene, but rather the dynamics of a subsequent process, such as tokenization or memory consolidation. Implied reading direction appears to determine the letter prioritized at a high-level processing bottleneck. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Letter order is not coded by open bigrams

PubMed Central

Kinoshita, Sachiko; Norris, Dennis

2013-01-01

Open bigram (OB) models (e.g., SERIOL: Whitney, 2001, 2008; Binary OB, Grainger & van Heuven, 2003; Overlap OB, Grainger et al., 2006; Local combination detector model, Dehaene et al., 2005) posit that letter order in a word is coded by a set of ordered letter pairs. We report three experiments using bigram primes in the same-different match task, investigating the effects of order reversal and the number of letters intervening between the letters in the target. Reversed bigrams (e.g., fo-OF, ob-ABOLISH) produced robust priming, in direct contradiction to the assumption that letter order is coded by the presence of ordered letter pairs. Also in contradiction to the core assumption of current open bigram models, non-contiguous bigrams spanning three letters in the target (e.g., bs-ABOLISH) showed robust priming effects, equivalent in size to contiguous bigrams (e.g., bo-ABOLISH). These results question the role of open bigrams in coding letter order. PMID:23914048

Intra- and interpattern relations in letter recognition.

PubMed

Sanocki, T

1991-11-01

Strings of 4 unrelated letters were backward masked at varying durations to examine 3 major issues. (a) One issue concerned relational features. Letters with abnormal relations but normal elements were created by interchanging elements between large and small normal letters. Overall accuracy was higher for letters with normal relations, consistent with the idea that relational features are important in recognition. (b) Interpattern relations were examined by mixing large and small letters within strings. Relative to pure strings, accuracy was reduced, but only for small letters and only when in mixed strings. This effect can be attributed to attentional priority for larger forms over smaller forms, which also explains global precedence with hierarchical forms. (c) Forced-choice alternatives were manipulated in Experiments 2 and 3 to test feature integration theory. Relational information was found to be processed at least as early as feature presence or absence.

Treatments with gras compounds to keep fig fruit (Ficus carica L.) quality during cold storage.

PubMed

Venditti, T; Molinu, M G; Dore, A; D'Hallewin, G; Fiori, P; Tedde, M; Agabbio, M

2005-01-01

The trade of fresh fig fruit is restricted by its high perishability and numerous attempts have been done to extend the postharvest life. The main difficulties can be found in the fast ripening and the easiness of pathogen spread. Although the ripening can be slowed by low storage temperatures (close to 0 degrees C) the control of pathogens remains still unsolved since no pesticide treatments are allowed. Generally Recognized As Save Compounds (G.R.A.S.) are possible candidates to fulfil this void. Sodium carbonate (SC) solutions (0.5, 1, 2 and 3%) and acetic acid (AAC) vapours (25, 50 and 100 ppm) have been used as postharvest treatments to control Botrytis cinerea on black (Craxiou de Porcu) and white (Rampelina) fig varieties. Fruit was subsequently stored at 2 or 8 degrees C and 90% relative humidity for two weeks. At the end of the experiment decay, weight loss, pH, acidity, total soluble solids and visual assessment were performed. SC treatment at 1% reduced significantly the decay while, lower and higher concentrations did not. Between the two studied varieties the lowest decay percentage (9.8%) was found for the Craxiou de Porcu. Using AAC a good efficacy was achieved only with 100 ppm, this treatment decrease to 2.4% the incidence of decay irrespective to storage temperature. Lower concentrations were lesser effective and the efficacy was strictly dependent on the storage temperature, being higher at 2 degrees C. No treatment damages were observed following SC or AAC applications. Regarding fruit weight loss all treatments did not affect this parameter that was 10.1% and 16.9% at 2 and 8 degrees C, respectively. Chemical analyses performed at the end of the storage period did not evidenced differences among the treatments and slight ones if compared to initial values. Visual score of the fruit at the end of storage evidenced a better keeping quality for Craxiou de Porcu especially when stored at 2 degrees C. Both G.R.A.S. compounds are promising, but in

Models of Discourse in the Letter of Complaint

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hartford, Beverly; Mahboob, Ahmar

2004-01-01

In both the Outer Circle and the Expanding Circle countries, books which provide examples of letters written in English and guidelines for writing these letters are available for students, business people, and any others who have an interest or need for writing such letters. These model letters are not only for business correspondence, but also…

15 CFR 700.63 - Letters of Understanding.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 15 Commerce and Foreign Trade 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Letters of Understanding. 700.63... DEFENSE PRIORITIES AND ALLOCATIONS SYSTEM Official Actions § 700.63 Letters of Understanding. (a) A Letter of Understanding is an official action which may be issued in resolving special priorities assistance...

50 CFR 216.188 - Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 9 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Letters of Authorization. 216.188 Section 216.188 Wildlife and Fisheries NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC... Low Frequency Active (SURTASS LFA sonar) Sonar § 216.188 Letters of Authorization. (a) A Letter of...

50 CFR 216.188 - Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 7 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Letters of Authorization. 216.188 Section 216.188 Wildlife and Fisheries NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC... Low Frequency Active (SURTASS LFA sonar) Sonar § 216.188 Letters of Authorization. (a) A Letter of...

33 CFR 401.68 - Explosives Permission Letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... granted and the vessel shall not transit. (c) A written application for a Seaway Explosives Permission... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Explosives Permission Letter. 401... Permission Letter. (a) A Seaway Explosives Permission Letter is required for an explosive vessel in the...

Letter to Daniel Gilligan of Petroleum Marketers Association of America

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

A letter in response to a request for the Agency’s view regarding whether several approaches would satisfy 40 CFR §112.7(a)(2)’s “equivalent environmental protection” provision and for clarification of the scope of the requirements in 40 CFR §112.

A Stimulus Sampling Theory of Letter Identity and Order

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norris, Dennis; Kinoshita, Sachiko; van Casteren, Maarten

2010-01-01

Early on during word recognition, letter positions are not accurately coded. Evidence for this comes from transposed-letter (TL) priming effects, in which letter strings generated by transposing two adjacent letters (e.g., "jugde") produce large priming effects, more than primes with the letters replaced in the corresponding position (e.g.,…

Launch of Zoological Letters.

PubMed

Fukatsu, Takema; Kuratani, Shigeru

2016-02-01

A new open-access journal, Zoological Letters, was launched as a sister journal to Zoological Science, in January 2015. The new journal aims at publishing topical papers of high quality from a wide range of basic zoological research fields. This review highlights the notable reviews and research articles that have been published in the first year of Zoological Letters, providing an overview on the current achievements and future directions of the journal.

Reasons for Letter Contracts.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-09-01

accelerated Initial Operational Capability (IOC). The TOW-DRAGON PM reacted accordingly. This also is a good example of a letter contract award to permit...Government. Good pricing depends pri- marily upon the exercise of sound judgement by all personnel concerned with the procurement. I: 3-801.2...Contracts. (a) The written determination required by DAR 3-408(c)(1) shall in- clude an outline of the reaons for a letter contract and the alternatives

Learning to identify contrast-defined letters in peripheral vision

PubMed Central

Chung, Susana T.L.; Levi, Dennis M.; Li, Roger W.

2009-01-01

Performance for identifying luminance-defined letters in peripheral vision improves with training. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether performance for identifying contrast-defined letters also improves with training in peripheral vision, and whether any improvement transfers to luminance-defined letters. Eight observers were trained to identify contrast-defined letters presented singly at 10° eccentricity in the inferior visual field. Before and after training, we measured observers’ thresholds for identifying luminance-defined and contrast-defined letters, embedded within a field of white luminance noise (maximum luminance contrast = 0, 0.25, and 0.5), at the same eccentric location. Each training session consisted of 10 blocks (100 trials per block) of identifying contrast-defined letters at a background noise contrast of 0.5. Letters (x-height = 4.2°) were the 26 lowercase letters of the Times-Roman alphabet. Luminance-defined letters were generated by introducing a luminance difference between the stimulus letter and its mid-gray background. The background noise covered both the letter and its background. Contrast-defined letters were generated by introducing a differential noise contrast between the group of pixels that made up the stimulus letter and the group of pixels that made up the background. Following training, observers showed a significant reduction in threshold for identifying contrast-defined letters (p < 0.0001). Averaged across observers and background noise contrasts, the reduction was 25.8%, with the greatest reduction (32%) occurring at the trained background noise contrast. There was virtually no transfer of improvement to luminance-defined letters, or to an untrained letter size (2× original), or an untrained retinal location (10° superior field). In contrast, learning transferred completely to the untrained contralateral eye. Our results show that training improves performance for identifying contrast

Resource Letter ETC-1: extraterrestrial civilization.

PubMed

Kuiper, T B; Brin, G D

1989-01-01

This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature about intelligent life beyond the human sphere of exploration. It offers a starting point for professionals and academics interested in participating in the debate about the existence of other technological civilizations or in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). It can also serve as a reference for teaching. This Letter is not intended as an exhaustive bibliography, but several extensive bibliographies have been cited. The letter E after an item indicates elementary, nontechnical material of general interest to persons becoming informed in the field. Intermediate level material, of a somewhat more specialized nature, is indicated by the Letter I. The annotation A indicates advanced, technical material. An asterisk (*) precedes items to be included in an accompanying Reprint Book.

Educators' Liability for Negative Letters of Recommendation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tidwell, James A.

1986-01-01

Discusses the protection of "qualified privilege" provided by the law to teachers writing letters of recommendation for students. The letter must be written in good faith and with a belief that it contains no inaccurate information. Reviews some related court decisions and provides seven recommendations for writing such letters. (MD)

50 CFR 216.277 - Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... MAMMALS Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to U.S. Navy Training in the Southern California Range Complex (SOCAL Range Complex) § 216.277 Letters of Authorization. (a) A Letter of Authorization, unless suspended... and renewal of the Letter of Authorization will be based on a determination that the total number of...

50 CFR 218.7 - Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... MAMMALS Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to U.S. Navy Training in the Virginia Capes Range Complex (VACAPES Range Complex) § 218.7 Letters of Authorization. (a) A Letter of Authorization, unless suspended... and renewal of the Letter of Authorization will be based on a determination that the total number of...

50 CFR 218.16 - Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... MAMMALS Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to U.S. Navy Training in the Jacksonville Range Complex (JAX Range Complex) § 218.16 Letters of Authorization. (a) A Letter of Authorization, unless suspended or... and renewal of the Letter of Authorization will be based on a determination that the total number of...

Formation of automatic letter-colour associations in non-synaesthetes through likelihood manipulation of letter-colour pairings.

PubMed

Kusnir, Flor; Thut, Gregor

2012-12-01

Grapheme-colour synaesthesia is a well-characterized phenomenon in which achromatic letters and/or digits automatically and systematically trigger specific colour sensations. Models of its underlying mechanisms diverge on a central question: whether triggered sensations reflect (1) an overdeveloped capacity in normal cross-modal processing (i.e., sharing characteristics with the general population), or rather (2) qualitatively deviant processing (i.e., unique to a few individuals). To test to what extent synaesthesia-like (automatic) letter-colour associations may be learned by non-synaesthetes into adulthood, implied by (1), we developed a learning paradigm that aimed to implicitly train such associations via a visual search task that employed statistical probability learning of specific letter-colour pairs. In contrast to previous synaesthesia-training studies (Cohen Kadosh, Henik, Catena, Walsh, & Fuentes, 2009; Meier & Rothen, 2009), here all participants were naïve as to the end-goal of the experiment (i.e., the formation of letter-colour associations), mimicking the learning conditions of acquired grapheme-colour synaesthesia (Hancock, 2006; Witthoft & Winawer, 2006). In two experiments, we found evidence for significant binding of colours to letters by non-synaesthetes. These newly-formed associations showed synaesthesia-like characteristics, because they correlated in strength with performance on individual synaesthetic Stroop-tasks (experiment 1), and because interference between the learned (associated) colour and the real colour during letter processing depended on their relative positions in colour space (opponent vs. non-opponent colours, experiment 2) suggesting automatic formation on a perceptual rather than conceptual level, analogous to synaesthesia. Although not evoking conscious colour percepts, these learned, synaesthesia-like associations in non-synaesthetes support that common mechanisms may underlie letter-colour associations in synaesthetes

Letter from Army to EPA accepting elevation - signed June 27, 1994

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

A letter in response to the request to review issues related to a Department of the Army permit that would allow Mr. Mike Cusack to construct a residential development within 15 acres of wetlands associated with Ktatt Bog in Anchorage, Alaska.

Written Communications Simulation: Write Me a Letter.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

North Carolina State Dept. of Public Instruction, Raleigh. Div. of Vocational Education.

This simulation is intended for use as a culminating activity after students have been exposed to personal and/or business letter writing, use of reference manuals, typing of letters, mailing procedures, typing of numbers, punctuation practice, and filing procedures. Stated objectives are to enable students to type a mailable letter; to inspect,…

Age-related differences in the automatic processing of single letters: implications for selective attention.

PubMed

Daffner, Kirk R; Alperin, Brittany R; Mott, Katherine K; Holcomb, Phillip J

2014-01-22

Older adults exhibit diminished ability to inhibit the processing of visual stimuli that are supposed to be ignored. The extent to which age-related changes in early visual processing contribute to impairments in selective attention remains to be determined. Here, 103 adults, 18-85 years of age, completed a color selective attention task in which they were asked to attend to a specified color and respond to designated target letters. An optimal approach would be to initially filter according to color and then process letter forms in the attend color to identify targets. An asymmetric N170 ERP component (larger amplitude over left posterior hemisphere sites) was used as a marker of the early automatic processing of letter forms. Young and middle-aged adults did not generate an asymmetric N170 component. In contrast, young-old and old-old adults produced a larger N170 over the left hemisphere. Furthermore, older adults generated a larger N170 to letter than nonletter stimuli over the left, but not right hemisphere. More asymmetric N170 responses predicted greater allocation of late selection resources to target letters in the ignore color, as indexed by P3b amplitude. These results suggest that unlike their younger counterparts, older adults automatically process stimuli as letters early in the selection process, when it would be more efficient to attend to color only. The inability to ignore letters early in the processing stream helps explain the age-related increase in subsequent processing of target letter forms presented in the ignore color.

Water in the Cratonic Mantle: Insights from FTIR Data on Lac De Gras Xenoliths (Slave Craton, Canada)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Peslier, Anne H.; Brandon, Alan D.; Schaffer, Lillian Aurora; O'Reilly, Suzanne Yvette; Griffin, William L.; Morris, Richard V.; Graff, Trevor G.; Agresti, David G.

2014-01-01

The mantle lithosphere beneath the cratonic part of continents is the deepest (> 200 km) and oldest (>2-3 Ga) on Earth, remaining a conundrum as to how these cratonic roots could have resisted delamination by asthenospheric convection over time. Water, or trace H incorporated in mineral defects, could be a key player in the evolution of continental lithosphere because it influences melting and rheology of the mantle. Mantle xenoliths from the Lac de Gras kimberlite in the Slave craton were analyzed by FTIR. The cratonic mantle beneath Lac de Gras is stratified with shallow (<145 km) oxidized ultradepleted peridotites and pyroxenites with evidence for carbonatitic metasomatism, underlain by reduced and less depleted peridotites metasomatized by kimberlite melts. Peridotites analyzed so far have H O contents in ppm weight of 7-100 in their olivines, 58 to 255 in their orthopyroxenes (opx), 11 to 84 in their garnet, and 139 in one clinopyroxene. A pyroxenite contains 58 ppm H2O in opx and 5 ppm H2O in its olivine and garnet. Olivine and garnet from the deep peridotites have a range of water contents extending to higher values than those from the shallow ones. The FTIR spectra of olivines from the shallow samples have more prominent Group II OH bands compared to the olivines from the deep samples, consistent with a more oxidized mantle environment. The range of olivine water content is similar to that observed in Kaapvaal craton peridotites at the same depths (129-184 km) but does not extend to as high values as those from Udachnaya (Siberian craton). The Slave, Kaapvaal and Siberian cratons will be compared in terms of water content distribution, controls and role in cratonic root longevity.

Are Letter Detection and Proofreading Tasks Equivalent?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saint-Aubin, Jean; Losier, Marie-Claire; Roy, Macha; Lawrence, Mike

2015-01-01

When readers search for misspellings in a proofreading task or for a letter in a letter detection task, they are more likely to omit function words than content words. However, with misspelled words, previous findings for the letter detection task were mixed. In two experiments, the authors tested the functional equivalence of both tasks. Results…

The Intentions of Letter Writers for Applicants to a Baccalaureate-M.D. Program: Self-Report and Content Analyses of Letters of Reference.

PubMed

Mavis, Brian E; Shafer, Christine L; Magallanes, Belinda M

2006-12-01

The purpose of this study was to determine how individuals providing reference letters framed the task and the specific attributes used to describe applicants. Participants were letter writers (N=106) for accepted or alternate applicants. Participants received a brief anonymous survey and a return postcard to release their past letter for content analysis. Seventy-six percent of letter writers (N=81) returned a survey. Most (64%) intended to describe applicants' positive accomplishments. According to respondents' they were most likely to write about academic accomplishments (85%), work ethic (78%), dependability (70%) and motivation (70%). Seventy-four respondents (70%) released their letter for content analysis. Academic accomplishments (77%), motivation (41%) and leadership (41%) were the attributes most frequently mentioned in the letters. Most letter writers see their role as supportive rather than evaluative. Academic accomplishments, though often mentioned, are available from other sources. Many non-cognitive attributes of most interest to admissions committees are least likely to appear in reference letters.

Understanding Performance Decrements in a Letter-Canceling Task: Overcoming Habits or Inhibition of Reading.

PubMed

Myers, Larry; Downie, Steven; Taylor, Grant; Marrington, Jessica; Tehan, Gerald; Ireland, Michael J

2018-01-01

The importance of self-regulation in human behavior is readily apparent and diverse theoretical accounts for explaining self-regulation failures have been proposed. Typically, these accounts are based on a sequential task methodology where an initial task is presented to deplete self-regulatory resources, and carryover effects are then examined on a second outcome task. In the aftermath of high profile replication failures using a popular letter-crossing task as a means of depleting self-regulatory resources and subsequent criticisms of that task, current research into self-control is currently at an impasse. This is largely due to the lack of empirical research that tests explicit assumptions regarding the initial task. One such untested assumption is that for resource depletion to occur, the initial task must first establish an habitual response and then this habitual response must be inhibited, with behavioral inhibition being the causal factor in inducing depletion. This study reports on four experiments exploring performance on a letter-canceling task, where the rules for target identification remained constant but the method of responding differed (Experiment 1) and the coherence of the text was manipulated (Experiments 1-4). Experiment 1 established that habit forming and behavioral inhibition did not produce any performance decrement when the targets were embedded in random letter strings. Experiments 2-4 established that target detection was sensitive to language characteristics and the coherence of the background text, suggesting that participants' automatic reading processes is a key driver of performance in the letter-e task.

Re-Audit of the Contents of GP Referral letters to General Adult Community Psychiatrists.

PubMed

Odelola, Catherine; Jabbar, Farid

2017-09-01

The quality of information provided by referring general practitioners to secondary care mental health services are crucial elements in the effective management of patients. In order to establish effective communication, both primary and secondary care health professionals should contribute to planning and organising this process taking into account their different opinions and views. Anonymous questionnaire was designed to collect information on items that GPs and psychiatrist rated as most important items in GP referral letters to psychiatrists. The questionnaires were sent out electronically. Each item was scored using a rating scale where 0 was least important and 10 was most important. Items that scored 8 and above were agreed by all as the most important items. 76 GP letters were audited using a devised checklist of the identified most important items. Data was collected and analysed using a devised data collection tool. A re-audit was done 6months later. A response rate of 70% was obtained for both psychiatrists and GPs. Reasons for referral were described in almost all GP referral letters (95%). Only 24% referral letters had details about current physical health which improved to 59%. Concerns about risk were described in only 47% of letters and treatment provided by GP in 50% of letters. These improved in 79% and 71% of letters respectively in the re-audit. The involvement of professionals in devising a standardised approach for referral letters has improved communication in this re-audit between GPs and Psychiatrists. This is evident in the improvement in key aspects of the referral letters: past medical history, past psychiatric history, current physical health, treatment provided by GP. Efficient communication between GPs and psychiatrists improves the quality of health care for patients.

Navon letters affect face learning and face retrieval.

PubMed

Lewis, Michael B; Mills, Claire; Hills, Peter J; Weston, Nicola

2009-01-01

Identifying the local letters of a Navon letter (a large letter made up of smaller different letters) prior to recognition causes impairment in accuracy, while identifying the global letters of a Navon letter causes an enhancement in recognition accuracy (Macrae & Lewis, 2002). This effect may result from a transfer-inappropriate processing shift (TIPS) (Schooler, 2002). The present experiment extends research on the underlying mechanism of this effect by exploring this Navon effect on face learning as well as face recognition. The results of the two experiments revealed that when the Navon task used at retrieval was the same as that used at encoding then the performance accuracy is enhanced, whereas when the processing operations mismatch at retrieval and at encoding, this impairs recognition accuracy. These results provide support for the TIPS explanation of the Navon effect.

When writing impairs reading: letter perception's susceptibility to motor interference.

PubMed

James, Karin H; Gauthier, Isabel

2009-08-01

The effect of writing on the concurrent visual perception of letters was investigated in a series of studies using an interference paradigm. Participants drew shapes and letters while simultaneously visually identifying letters and shapes embedded in noise. Experiments 1-3 demonstrated that letter perception, but not the perception of shapes, was affected by motor interference. This suggests a strong link between the perception of letters and the neural substrates engaged during writing. The overlap both in category (letter vs. shape) and in the perceptual similarity of the features (straight vs. curvy) of the seen and drawn items determined the amount of interference. Experiment 4 demonstrated that intentional production of letters is not necessary for the interference to occur, because passive movement of the hand in the shape of letters also interfered with letter perception. When passive movements were used, however, only the category of the drawn items (letters vs. shapes), but not the perceptual similarity, had an influence, suggesting that motor representations for letters may selectively influence visual perception of letters through proprioceptive feedback, with an additional influence of perceptual similarity that depends on motor programs.

Does letter rotation slow down orthographic processing in word recognition?

PubMed

Perea, Manuel; Marcet, Ana; Fernández-López, María

2018-02-01

Leading neural models of visual word recognition assume that letter rotation slows down the conversion of the visual input to a stable orthographic representation (e.g., local detectors combination model; Dehaene, Cohen, Sigman, & Vinckier, 2005, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 335-341). If this premise is true, briefly presented rotated primes should be less effective at activating word representations than those primes with upright letters. To test this question, we conducted a masked priming lexical decision experiment with vertically presented words either rotated 90° or in marquee format (i.e., vertically but with upright letters). We examined the impact of the format on both letter identity (masked identity priming: identity vs. unrelated) and letter position (masked transposed-letter priming: transposed-letter prime vs. replacement-letter prime). Results revealed sizeable masked identity and transposed-letter priming effects that were similar in magnitude for rotated and marquee words. Therefore, the reading cost from letter rotation does not arise in the initial access to orthographic/lexical representations.

48 CFR 42.504 - Postaward letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Postaward letters. 42.504 Section 42.504 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION CONTRACT MANAGEMENT CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION AND AUDIT SERVICES Postaward Orientation 42.504 Postaward letters. In some...

Teaching Complaint and Adjustment Letters--And Tact (My Favorite Assignment).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deimling, Paula

1992-01-01

Describes a three-part assignment in which each student writes a complaint letter and an adjustment letter responding to another student's complaint letter. Discusses how the third part of the assignment--journal entries--allows students to formulate their own criteria for excellent letters based upon their reactions to the letters they receive.…

Functional communication within a perceptual network processing letters and pseudoletters.

PubMed

Herdman, Anthony T

2011-10-01

Many studies have identified regions within human ventral visual stream to be important for object identification and categorization; however, knowledge of how perceptual information is communicated within the visual network is still limited. Current theories posit that if a high correspondence between incoming sensory information and internal representations exists, then the object is rapidly identified, and if there is not, then the object requires extra detailed processing. Event-related responses from the present magnetoencephalography study showed two main effects. The N1m peak latencies were approximately 15 milliseconds earlier to familiar letters than to unfamiliar pseudoletters, and the N2m was more negative to pseudoletters than to letters. Event-related beamforming analyses identified these effects to be within bilateral visual cortices with a right lateralization for the N2m effect. Furthermore, functional connectivity analyses revealed that gamma-band (50-80 Hz) oscillatory phase synchronizations among occipital regions were greater to letters than to pseudoletters (around 85 milliseconds). However, during a later time interval between 245 and 375 milliseconds, pseudoletters elicited greater gamma-band phase synchronizations among a more distributed occipital network than did letters. These findings indicate that familiar object processing begins by at least 85 milliseconds, which could represent an initial match to an internal template. In addition, unfamiliar object processing persisted longer than that for familiar objects, which could reflect greater attention to inexperienced objects to determine their identity and/or to consolidate a new template to aid in future identification.

The processing of consonants and vowels during letter identity and letter position assignment in visual-word recognition: an ERP study.

PubMed

Vergara-Martínez, Marta; Perea, Manuel; Marín, Alejandro; Carreiras, Manuel

2011-09-01

Recent research suggests that there is a processing distinction between consonants and vowels in visual-word recognition. Here we conjointly examine the time course of consonants and vowels in processes of letter identity and letter position assignment. Event related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants read words and pseudowords in a lexical decision task. The stimuli were displayed under different conditions in a masked priming paradigm with a 50-ms SOA: (i) identity/baseline condition e.g., chocolate-CHOCOLATE); (ii) vowels-delayed condition (e.g., choc_l_te-CHOCOLATE); (iii) consonants-delayed condition (cho_o_ate-CHOCOLATE); (iv) consonants-transposed condition (cholocate-CHOCOLATE); (v) vowels-transposed condition (chocalote-CHOCOLATE), and (vi) unrelated condition (editorial-CHOCOLATE). Results showed earlier ERP effects and longer reaction times for the delayed-letter compared to the transposed-letter conditions. Furthermore, at early stages of processing, consonants may play a greater role during letter identity processing. Differences between vowels and consonants regarding letter position assignment are discussed in terms of a later phonological level involved in lexical retrieval. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Transposed-Letter and Laterality Effects in Lexical Decision

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perea, Manuel; Fraga, Isabel

2006-01-01

Two divided visual field lexical decision experiments were conducted to examine the role of the cerebral hemispheres in transposed-letter similarity effects. In Experiment 1, we created two types of nonwords: nonadjacent transposed-letter nonwords ("TRADEGIA"; the base word was "TRAGEDIA," the Spanish for "TRAGEDY") and two-letter different…

From Numbers to Letters: Feedback Regularization in Visual Word Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Molinaro, Nicola; Dunabeitia, Jon Andoni; Marin-Gutierrez, Alejandro; Carreiras, Manuel

2010-01-01

Word reading in alphabetic languages involves letter identification, independently of the format in which these letters are written. This process of letter "regularization" is sensitive to word context, leading to the recognition of a word even when numbers that resemble letters are inserted among other real letters (e.g., M4TERI4L). The present…

The dishonest dean's letter: an analysis of 532 dean's letters from 99 U.S. medical schools.

PubMed

Edmond, M; Roberson, M; Hasan, N

1999-09-01

To quantify the censure of potentially negative information in dean's letters. Concordance between 532 dean's letters and the corresponding transcripts was determined for six variables (failing grade in a preclinical course, marginal preclinical course grade, failing grade for a clinical rotation, marginal clinical rotation grade, leave of absence, and requirement to repeat an entire year of medical school). The evaluated variables were not found in the dean's letters 27% to 50% of the time that they were present on the transcripts. In three of nine instances (33%), a failing grade in a clinical rotation was not included. Four students had been required to repeat an entire year, but this was noted in only two cases. In toto, 35 of 104 (34%) of the variables identified on the transcripts were not reported. In addition, deans were significantly less likely to report a student's USMLE 1 score if the score was at or below the 20th percentile (p = .03). Some deans suppress negative information in their letters and potentially obfuscate the residency selection process.

Exploring Corporate Rhetoric: Metadiscourse in the CEO's Letter.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hyland, Ken

1998-01-01

Examines how metadiscourse is used to create a positive corporate image in 137 CEOs' letters, showing how CEOs use nonpropositional material to realize rational, credible, and affective appeals. Reveals the essentially rhetorical nature of CEOs' letters by comparing the frequency and distribution of metadiscourse in their letters and directors'…

Development of Early Handwriting: Visual-Motor Control During Letter Copying

PubMed Central

Maldarelli, Jennifer E.; Kahrs, Björn A.; Hunt, Sarah C.; Lockman, Jeffrey J.

2015-01-01

Despite the importance of handwriting for school readiness and early academic progress, prior research on the development of handwriting has focused primarily on the product rather than the process by which young children write letters. In contrast, in the present work, early handwriting is viewed as involving a suite of perceptual, motor and cognitive abilities, which must work in unison if children are to write letters efficiently. To study such coordination, head-mounted eye-tracking technology was used to investigate the process of visual-motor coordination while kindergarten children (N=23) and adults (N=11) copied individual letters and strings of letters that differed in terms of their phonemic properties. Results indicated that kindergarten children were able to copy single letters efficiently, as did adults. When the cognitive demands of the task increased and children were presented with strings of letters, however, their ability to copy letters efficiently was compromised: children frequently interrupted their writing mid-letter, whereas they did not do so on single letter trials. Yet, with increasing age, children became more efficient in copying letter strings, in part by using vision more prospectively when writing. Taken together, the results illustrate how the coordination of perceptual, motor and cognitive processes contributes to advances in the development of letter writing skill. PMID:26029821

Children and adults both see 'pirates' in 'parties': letter-position effects for developing readers and skilled adult readers.

PubMed

Paterson, Kevin B; Read, Josephine; McGowan, Victoria A; Jordan, Timothy R

2015-03-01

Developing readers often make anagrammatical errors (e.g. misreading pirates as parties), suggesting they use letter position flexibly during word recognition. However, while it is widely assumed that the occurrence of these errors decreases with increases in reading skill, empirical evidence to support this distinction is lacking. Accordingly, we compared the performance of developing child readers (aged 8-10 years) against the end-state performance of skilled adult readers in a timed naming task, employing anagrams used previously in this area of research. Moreover, to explore the use of letter position by developing readers and skilled adult readers more fully, we used anagrams which, to form another word, required letter transpositions over only interior letter positions, or both interior and exterior letter positions. The patterns of effects across these two anagram types for the two groups of readers were very similar. In particular, both groups showed similarly slowed response times (and developing readers increased errors) for anagrams requiring only interior letter transpositions but not for anagrams that required exterior letter transpositions. This similarity in the naming performance of developing readers and skilled adult readers suggests that the end-state skilled use of letter position is established earlier during reading development than is widely assumed. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

33 CFR 181.17 - Label numbers and letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Label numbers and letters. 181.17...) BOATING SAFETY MANUFACTURER REQUIREMENTS Manufacturer Certification of Compliance § 181.17 Label numbers and letters. Letters and numbers on each label must: (a) Be no less than one-eighth of an inch in...

33 CFR 181.17 - Label numbers and letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 33 Navigation and Navigable Waters 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Label numbers and letters. 181.17...) BOATING SAFETY MANUFACTURER REQUIREMENTS Manufacturer Certification of Compliance § 181.17 Label numbers and letters. Letters and numbers on each label must: (a) Be no less than one-eighth of an inch in...

50 CFR 216.257 - Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... MAMMALS Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Conducting Precision Strike Weapon Missions in the Gulf of Mexico § 216.257 Letters of Authorization. (a) A Letter of Authorization, unless suspended or revoked...

Teaching Letter Formation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graham, Steve; Madan, Avi J.

1981-01-01

The authors describe a remedial technique for teaching letter formation to students with handwriting difficulties. The approach blends traditional procedures (modeling, physical prompts, tracing, self correction, etc.) with cognitive behavior modification principles. (CL)

Does letter position coding depend on consonant/vowel status? Evidence with the masked priming technique.

PubMed

Perea, Manuel; Acha, Joana

2009-02-01

Recently, a number of input coding schemes (e.g., SOLAR model, SERIOL model, open-bigram model, overlap model) have been proposed that capture the transposed-letter priming effect (i.e., faster response times for jugde-JUDGE than for jupte-JUDGE). In their current version, these coding schemes do not assume any processing differences between vowels and consonants. However, in a lexical decision task, Perea and Lupker (2004, JML; Lupker, Perea, & Davis, 2008, L&CP) reported that transposed-letter priming effects occurred for consonant transpositions but not for vowel transpositions. This finding poses a challenge for these recently proposed coding schemes. Here, we report four masked priming experiments that examine whether this consonant/vowel dissociation in transposed-letter priming is task-specific. In Experiment 1, we used a lexical decision task and found a transposed-letter priming effect only for consonant transpositions. In Experiments 2-4, we employed a same-different task - a task which taps early perceptual processes - and found a robust transposed-letter priming effect that did not interact with consonant/vowel status. We examine the implications of these findings for the front-end of the models of visual word recognition.

7 CFR 1773.33 - Management letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... letter. The CPA must prepare a management letter that includes, at a minimum, comments on: (a) Audit... condition and operations. For borrowers with a December 31 year end, the CPA must state whether the... other than December 31, the CPA must state whether the information appears reasonable based upon the...

7 CFR 1773.33 - Management letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... letter. The CPA must prepare a management letter that includes, at a minimum, comments on: (a) Audit... condition and operations. For borrowers with a December 31 year end, the CPA must state whether the... other than December 31, the CPA must state whether the information appears reasonable based upon the...

7 CFR 1773.33 - Management letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... letter. The CPA must prepare a management letter that includes, at a minimum, comments on: (a) Audit... condition and operations. For borrowers with a December 31 year end, the CPA must state whether the... other than December 31, the CPA must state whether the information appears reasonable based upon the...

Cognitive Determinants of Early Letter Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Helal, Suha; Weil-Barais, Annick

2015-01-01

The present study investigated the general cognitive determinants of alphabetic letter knowledge. It involved 60 French kindergarten children (mean age: five years six months). Two test batteries were used: the CMS to evaluate general cognitive abilities (memory, attention, and learning), and the LKT to assess letter knowledge and its various…

Resource letter SH-1: superfluid helium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hallock, Robert B.

1982-03-01

The resource letter covers the general subject of superfluid helium and treats 3He and 3He-4He mixtures as well as 4He. No effort has been made to include the fascinating experiments on either solid helium or the equally fascinating work on adsorbed helium where the helium coverage is below that necessary for superfluidity. An earlier resource letter by C. T. Lane [Am. J. Phys. 35, 367 (1967)] may be consulted for additional comments on some of the cited earlier manuscripts, but the present work is self-contained and may be used independently. Many high-quality research reports have not been cited here. Rather, the author has tried in most cases to include works particularly readable or relevant. There is a relatively heavy emphasis on experimental references. The primary reason is that these works tend to be more generally readable. No doubt some works that might have been included, have not, and for this the author takes responsibility with apology. Articles selected for incorporation in a reprint volume (to be published separately by the American Association of Physics Teachers) are marked with an asterisk(*). Following each referenced work the general level of difficulty is indicated by E, I, or A for elementary, intermediate, or advanced.

Age Changes in the Missing-Letter Effect Revisited

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saint-Aubin, J.; Klein, R.M.; Landry, T.

2005-01-01

When participants search for a target letter while reading, they make more omissions if the target letter is embedded in frequent function words than in less frequent content words. Reflecting developmental changes in component language and literacy skills, the size of this effect increases with age. With adults, the missing-letter effect is due…

Gender differences in recommendation letters for postdoctoral fellowships in geoscience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dutt, Kuheli; Pfaff, Danielle L.; Bernstein, Ariel F.; Dillard, Joseph S.; Block, Caryn J.

2016-11-01

Gender disparities in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, including the geosciences, are well documented and widely discussed. In the geosciences, despite receiving 40% of doctoral degrees, women hold less than 10% of full professorial positions. A significant leak in the pipeline occurs during postdoctoral years, so biases embedded in postdoctoral processes, such as biases in recommendation letters, may be deterrents to careers in geoscience for women. Here we present an analysis of an international data set of 1,224 recommendation letters, submitted by recommenders from 54 countries, for postdoctoral fellowships in the geosciences over the period 2007-2012. We examine the relationship between applicant gender and two outcomes of interest: letter length and letter tone. Our results reveal that female applicants are only half as likely to receive excellent letters versus good letters compared to male applicants. We also find no evidence that male and female recommenders differ in their likelihood to write stronger letters for male applicants over female applicants. Our analysis also reveals significant regional differences in letter length, with letters from the Americas being significantly longer than any other region, whereas letter tone appears to be distributed equivalently across all world regions. These results suggest that women are significantly less likely to receive excellent recommendation letters than their male counterparts at a critical juncture in their career.

Sixty-Minute Review of Letter Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cunningham, Donald H.; Graham, Louise

1974-01-01

The article describes a one-hour presentation which provides a basic stereotyped pattern of letter organization for the four types of letters (order, request, claim, and reply) the business of secretarial student is most likely to have to write. The four paragraphs of the pattern are: purpose, explanation, optional, and closing. (AG)

Copying referral letters to patients: prepare for change.

PubMed

White, Philip

2004-08-01

The National Health Service (NHS) Plan for England has directed that from April 2004 clinicians will offer patients the opportunity to receive copies of letters that are written about them. Patients like to have more information and patients who have received copies of letters have found them useful. It is hoped that copying letters will improve relationships between doctors and patients, encourage patients to be better informed, and improve the quality of information provided to patients. Relatively little empirical research has been performed in this area but what exists is generally supportive. Attention will need to be paid to issues of confidentiality, the language and content of letters, and individuals who may have difficulty obtaining information from letters. This initiative is one of many that the NHS has introduced to enhance openness, honesty and the quality of information provided to patients.

Characterisation and toxicological assessment of Neutral Methacrylate Copolymer for GRAS evaluation.

PubMed

Eisele, Johanna; Haynes, Geoff; Kreuzer, Knut; Rosamilia, Tiana

2013-12-01

Neutral Methacrylate Copolymer is a fully polymerised copolymer used in the pharmaceutical industry to permit pH-independent delayed release of active ingredients from oral dosage forms. This function has potential use with food supplements and this article describes available information on the safety of the substance. Oral administration of radiolabelled copolymer to rats resulted in the detection of chemically unchanged copolymer in the faeces, with negligible absorption. Safety studies revealed no adverse toxicity following repeated administration at doses of up to 2000 mg/kg bw/d in a sub-chronic study in rats or 250 mg/kg bw/d in a sub-chronic study in dogs. No reproductive toxicity occurred at up to 2000 mg/kg bw/d in rats or rabbits. The substance shows no evidence of genotoxicity, has low acute toxicity and no irritation or sensitisation potential. An ADI value of 20 mg/kg bw was concluded from two alternative approaches. Daily exposure from use in dietary supplements is estimated as up to 10.0 mg/kg bw in adults and 13.3 mg/kg bw in children. There would therefore appear to be no safety concerns under the intended conditions of use. The information provided is intended to support an evaluation that the substance may be "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS). Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Powerful Letter Writing: Students Discover the Power of the Pen(cil).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neuhauser, Sandra P.

Students can better experience the impact of written words by the response of a real audience. This paper describes a letter-writing activity for sixth graders in which the students first identified and discussed real-life happenings which had caused disappointments with companies that had produced faulty items. They then obtained all the…

Susan Parker Bodine, Letter to Brian Jennings of American Coalition for Ethanol, November 7, 2006

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

This letter responds to correspondence concerning the applicability of EPA's Facility Response Plan (FRP) regulations to ethanol production and storage facilities and whether denatured ethanol is an oil.

Record bid for Einstein letter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeandron, Michelle

2008-06-01

A letter written by Albert Einstein the year before his death has sold for the staggering amount of £170 000 at an auction in London last month. The previously unrecorded letter, which has spent the past 50 years in a private collection, includes a discussion of Einstein's views on religion, bringing new material to the debate about whether or not he believed in God. The lot had been expected to fetch between £6000-£8000.

A versus F: The Effects of Implicit Letter Priming on Cognitive Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ciani, Keith D.; Sheldon, Kennon M.

2010-01-01

Background: It has been proposed that motivational responses outside people's conscious awareness can be primed to affect academic performance. The current research focused on the relationship between primed evaluative letters (A and F), explicit and implicit achievement motivation, and cognitive performance. Aim: Given the evaluative connotation…

The Case of the Purloined Letter.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zirkel, Perry A.

2003-01-01

Analyzes Arkansas case wherein the Eighth Circuit held 6-5 that letter written by seventh-grade student threatening violence against his former girl friend was not protected by the First Amendment even though a friend took the letter from student's home without his knowledge and gave it to the girl. Upheld board's decision to expel student.…

Improved communication in post-ICU care by improving writing of ICU discharge letters: a longitudinal before-after study.

PubMed

Medlock, Stephanie; Eslami, Saeid; Askari, Marjan; van Lieshout, Erik Jan; Dongelmans, Dave A; Abu-Hanna, Ameen

2011-11-01

The discharge letter is the primary means of communication at patient discharge, yet discharge letters are often not completed on time. A multifaceted intervention was performed to improve communication in patient hand-off from the intensive care unit (ICU) to the wards by improving the timeliness of discharge letters. A management directive was operationalised by a working group of ICU staff in a longitudinal before-after study. The intervention consisted of (a) changing policy to require a letter for use as a transfer note at the time of ICU discharge, (b) changing the assignment of responsibility to an automatic process, (c) leveraging positive peer pressure by making the list of patients in need of letters visible to colleagues and (d) provision of decision support, through automatic copying of important content from the patient record to the letter and email reminders if letters were not written on time. Statistical process control charts were used to monitor the longitudinal effect of the intervention. The intervention resulted in a 77.9% absolute improvement in the proportion of patients with a complete transfer note at the time of discharge, and an 85.2% absolute improvement in the number of discharge letters written. Statistical process control shows that the effect was sustained over time. A multifaceted intervention can be highly effective for improving discharge communication from the ICU.

June 6, 2011 Letter from Shelley Lucas to Stephen Smith and Melissa Waters

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

June 6, 2011 Letter from Shelley Lucas to Stephen Smith and Melissa Waters, USEPA, Subject: Response to Information Request Under 92 U.S.C. 9604 to Gannett Co., Inc., Dated March 24, 2011, Regarding Capitol City Plume Site, Montgomery, AL

Warning letters to sponsor-investigators at academic health centres - the regulatory "canaries in a coal mine".

PubMed

O'Reilly, Erin K; Blair Holbein, M E; Berglund, Jelena P; Parrish, Amanda B; Roth, Mary-Tara; Burnett, Bruce K

2013-12-01

This study highlights Warning Letter (WL) findings issued to sponsor-investigators (S-Is) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The online index of WLs issued from October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2012 was reviewed [1]. Through a manual screening process, letters were evaluated if specifically issued to 'clinical investigators', 'sponsors' or 'sponsor-investigators'. A particular focus was given to S-Is at Academic Health Centres (AHCs). Each letter was scored for the presence of violations in 40 general regulatory categories. A review of FDA WLs issued over a five-year period (FDA Fiscal Years 2008-2012) revealed that WLs to S-Is represent half of the WLs issued to all sponsors (16 of 32 letters). A review of these letters indicates that S-Is are not aware of, or simply do not meet, their regulatory responsibilities as either investigators or sponsors. In comparing total sponsor letters to those of S-Is, the most cited violation was the same: a lack of monitoring. A review of publicly available inspection data indicates that these 16 letters merely represent the tip of the iceberg. This review of the WL database reveals the potential for serious regulatory violations among S-Is at AHCs. Recent translational funding initiatives may serve to increase the number of S-Is, especially among Academic Health Centres (AHCs) [2]; thus, AHCs must become aware of this S-I role and work to support investigators who assume both roles in the course of their research.

Probability effects on stimulus evaluation and response processes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gehring, W. J.; Gratton, G.; Coles, M. G.; Donchin, E.

1992-01-01

This study investigated the effects of probability information on response preparation and stimulus evaluation. Eight subjects responded with one hand to the target letter H and with the other to the target letter S. The target letter was surrounded by noise letters that were either the same as or different from the target letter. In 2 conditions, the targets were preceded by a warning stimulus unrelated to the target letter. In 2 other conditions, a warning letter predicted that the same letter or the opposite letter would appear as the imperative stimulus with .80 probability. Correct reaction times were faster and error rates were lower when imperative stimuli confirmed the predictions of the warning stimulus. Probability information affected (a) the preparation of motor responses during the foreperiod, (b) the development of expectancies for a particular target letter, and (c) a process sensitive to the identities of letter stimuli but not to their locations.

Development of early handwriting: Visual-motor control during letter copying.

PubMed

Maldarelli, Jennifer E; Kahrs, Björn A; Hunt, Sarah C; Lockman, Jeffrey J

2015-07-01

Despite the importance of handwriting for school readiness and early academic progress, prior research on the development of handwriting has focused primarily on the product rather than the process by which young children write letters. In contrast, in the present work, early handwriting is viewed as involving a suite of perceptual, motor, and cognitive abilities, which must work in unison if children are to write letters efficiently. To study such coordination, head-mounted eye-tracking technology was used to investigate the process of visual-motor coordination while kindergarten children (N = 23) and adults (N = 11) copied individual letters and strings of letters that differed in terms of their phonemic properties. Results indicated that kindergarten children were able to copy single letters efficiently, as did adults. When the cognitive demands of the task increased and children were presented with strings of letters, however, their ability to copy letters efficiently was compromised: Children frequently interrupted their writing midletter, whereas they did not do so on single letter trials. Yet, with increasing age, children became more efficient in copying letter strings, in part by using vision more prospectively when writing. Taken together, the results illustrate how the coordination of perceptual, motor, and cognitive processes contributes to advances in the development of letter writing skill. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Role of the GRAS transcription factor ATA/RAM1 in the transcriptional reprogramming of arbuscular mycorrhiza in Petunia hybrida.

PubMed

Rich, Mélanie K; Courty, Pierre-Emmanuel; Roux, Christophe; Reinhardt, Didier

2017-08-08

Development of arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) requires a fundamental reprogramming of root cells for symbiosis. This involves the induction of hundreds of genes in the host. A recently identified GRAS-type transcription factor in Petunia hybrida, ATA/RAM1, is required for the induction of host genes during AM, and for morphogenesis of the fungal endosymbiont. To better understand the role of RAM1 in symbiosis, we set out to identify all genes that depend on activation by RAM1 in mycorrhizal roots. We have carried out a transcript profiling experiment by RNAseq of mycorrhizal plants vs. non-mycorrhizal controls in wild type and ram1 mutants. The results show that the expression of early genes required for AM, such as the strigolactone biosynthetic genes and the common symbiosis signalling genes, is independent of RAM1. In contrast, genes that are involved at later stages of symbiosis, for example for nutrient exchange in cortex cells, require RAM1 for induction. RAM1 itself is highly induced in mycorrhizal roots together with many other transcription factors, in particular GRAS proteins. Since RAM1 has previously been shown to be directly activated by the common symbiosis signalling pathway through CYCLOPS, we conclude that it acts as an early transcriptional switch that induces many AM-related genes, among them genes that are essential for the development of arbuscules, such as STR, STR2, RAM2, and PT4, besides hundreds of additional RAM1-dependent genes the role of which in symbiosis remains to be explored. Taken together, these results indicate that the defect in the morphogenesis of the fungal arbuscules in ram1 mutants may be an indirect consequence of functional defects in the host, which interfere with nutrient exchange and possibly other functions on which the fungus depends.

Extensions of the lost letter technique to divisive issues of creationism, darwinism, sex education, and gay and lesbian affiliations.

PubMed

Bridges, F Stephen; Anzalone, Debra A; Ryan, Stuart W; Anzalone, Fanancy L

2002-04-01

Two field studies using 1,004 "lost letters" were designed to test the hypotheses that returned responses would be greater in small towns than from a city, that addressees' affiliation with a group either (1) opposed to physical education in schools, (2) supporting gay and lesbian teachers, or (3) advocating Creationism or Darwinism would reduce the return rate. Of 504 letters "lost" in Study A, 163 (32.3%) were returned in the mail from residents of southeast Louisiana and indicated across 3 addressees and 2 sizes of community, addressees' affiLiations were not associated with returned responses. Community size and addressees' affiliations were associated with significantly different rates of return in the city. Return rates from sites within a city were lower when letters were addressed to an organization which opposed (teaching) health education in the schools than to one supporting daily health education. Of 500 letters "lost" in Study B, 95 (19.0%) were returned from residents of northwest Florida and indicated across 5 addressees and 2 sizes of community, addressees' affiliations were significantly associated with returned responses overall (5 addressees) and in small towns (control, Creationism, Darwinism addressees), but not with community size. Community size and addressees' affiliations were associated with significantly different rates of return in small towns, with returns greater than or equal to those in the city (except for the addressee advocating teaching Darwinism in public schools). The present findings appear to show that applications of the lost letter technique to other divisive social issues are useful in assessing public opinion.

Symbiotic Fungi Control Plant Root Cortex Development through the Novel GRAS Transcription Factor MIG1.

PubMed

Heck, Carolin; Kuhn, Hannah; Heidt, Sven; Walter, Stefanie; Rieger, Nina; Requena, Natalia

2016-10-24

In an approaching scenario of soil nutrient depletion, root association with soil microorganisms can be key for plant health and sustainability [1-3]. Symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are major players in helping plants growing under nutrient starvation conditions. They provide plants with minerals like phosphate and, furthermore, act as modulators of plant growth altering the root developmental program [4, 5]. However, the precise mechanisms involved in this latter process are not well understood. Here, we show that AM fungi are able to modulate root cortex development in Medicago truncatula by activating a novel GRAS-domain transcription factor, MIG1, that determines the size of cortical root cells. MIG1 expression peaks in arbuscule-containing cells, suggesting a role in cell remodeling during fungal accommodation. Roots ectopically expressing MIG1 become thicker due to an increase in the number and width of cortical cells. This phenotype is fully counteracted by gibberellin (GA) and phenocopied with a GA biosynthesis inhibitor or by expression of a dominant DELLA (Δ18DELLA1) protein. MIG1 downregulation leads to malformed arbuscules, a phenotype rescued by Δ18DELLA1, suggesting that MIG1 intersects with the GA signaling to control cell morphogenesis through DELLA1. DELLA1 was shown to be a central node controlling arbuscule branching [6-8]. Now we provide evidence that, together with MIG1, DELLA1 is responsible for radial cortical cell expansion during arbuscule development. Our data point toward DELLA proteins being not only longitudinal root growth repressors [9] but also positive regulators of cortical radial cell expansion, extending the knowledge of how DELLAs control root growth. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Letter position coding across modalities: the case of Braille readers.

PubMed

Perea, Manuel; García-Chamorro, Cristina; Martín-Suesta, Miguel; Gómez, Pablo

2012-01-01

The question of how the brain encodes letter position in written words has attracted increasing attention in recent years. A number of models have recently been proposed to accommodate the fact that transposed-letter stimuli like jugde or caniso are perceptually very close to their base words. Here we examined how letter position coding is attained in the tactile modality via Braille reading. The idea is that Braille word recognition may provide more serial processing than the visual modality, and this may produce differences in the input coding schemes employed to encode letters in written words. To that end, we conducted a lexical decision experiment with adult Braille readers in which the pseudowords were created by transposing/replacing two letters. We found a word-frequency effect for words. In addition, unlike parallel experiments in the visual modality, we failed to find any clear signs of transposed-letter confusability effects. This dissociation highlights the differences between modalities. The present data argue against models of letter position coding that assume that transposed-letter effects (in the visual modality) occur at a relatively late, abstract locus.

Letter-Sound Reading: Teaching Preschool Children Print-to-Sound Processing

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

This intervention study investigated the growth of letter sound reading and growth of consonant–vowel–consonant (CVC) word decoding abilities for a representative sample of 41 US children in preschool settings. Specifically, the study evaluated the effectiveness of a 3-step letter-sound teaching intervention in teaching pre-school children to decode, or read, single letters. The study compared a control group, which received the preschool’s standard letter-sound instruction, to an intervention group which received a 3-step letter-sound instruction intervention. The children’s growth in letter-sound reading and CVC word decoding abilities were assessed at baseline and 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks. When compared to the control group, the growth of letter-sound reading ability was slightly higher for the intervention group. The rate of increase in letter-sound reading was significantly faster for the intervention group. In both groups, too few children learned to decode any CVC words to allow for analysis. Results of this study support the use of the intervention strategy in preschools for teaching children print-to-sound processing. PMID:26839494

The Effectiveness of Pictured Letters Mnemonics Strategy in Learning Similar English Language Letters among Students with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dakhiel, Maysoon A.; Al Rub, Mohammed O. Abu

2017-01-01

The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of pictured letters mnemonics strategy in learning similar English language letters among students with learning disabilities in Saudi Arabia according to experimental group (1) and (2), control group, gender, and interaction between them. The study sample comprised (90) students with…

Learning of Letter Names and Sounds and Their Contribution to Word Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levin, Iris; Shatil-Carmon, Sivan; Asif-Rave, Ornit

2006-01-01

This study investigated knowledge of letter names and letter sounds, their learning, and their contributions to word recognition. Of 123 preschoolers examined on letter knowledge, 65 underwent training on both letter names and letter sounds in a counterbalanced order. Prior to training, children were more advanced in associating letters with their…

Rudbeck's complaint: a 17th-century Latin letter relating to basic immunology.

PubMed

Ambrose, C T

2007-10-01

Basic immunology can be said to have its origin in the mid-17th-century with the discovery of the peripheral lymphatics. They completed the gross anatomical picture of the lymphatic system, which is the basis for much of the immune response. Their recognition almost simultaneously by two Scandinavian anatomists led to a protracted war of words over priority of discovery, pitting a young Swedish medical student (Olof Rudbeck) against an honored Danish anatomy professor (Thomas Bartholin). In a 752-word letter in Latin, Rudbeck charged Bartholin with pre-dating a key observation, thereby giving priority of discovery to the latter. The purpose of this paper is to provide an English translation of this accusatory letter. It is a notable document in basic immunology, for it cites much of the knowledge then current in the field. And by raising the issue of priority, the letter indirectly piqued the interest of the scientific community in the lymphatic system and hastened its study. Examining the system's various functions in health and disease led to this new discipline.

The effects of alphabet and expertise on letter perception

PubMed Central

Wiley, Robert W.; Wilson, Colin; Rapp, Brenda

2016-01-01

Long-standing questions in human perception concern the nature of the visual features that underlie letter recognition and the extent to which the visual processing of letters is affected by differences in alphabets and levels of viewer expertise. We examined these issues in a novel approach using a same-different judgment task on pairs of letters from the Arabic alphabet with two participant groups—one with no prior exposure to Arabic and one with reading proficiency. Hierarchical clustering and linear mixed-effects modeling of reaction times and accuracy provide evidence that both the specific characteristics of the alphabet and observers’ previous experience with it affect how letters are perceived and visually processed. The findings of this research further our understanding of the multiple factors that affect letter perception and support the view of a visual system that dynamically adjusts its weighting of visual features as expert readers come to more efficiently and effectively discriminate the letters of the specific alphabet they are viewing. PMID:26913778

Letter Imperfect

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kramer, Stephen

2003-01-01

In this essay, the author, a 5th-grade teacher, questions how well a standardized test can measure his students. This article presents a letter he wrote for the Washington state science test scorer regarding his students' test scores. He shares stories about some of the students in his class. He points out that tests can turn out to be more like…

The Indirect Empathic Approach to Claim Letters.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bell, James D.

1985-01-01

In discussing letter-writing methods for business communication classes, the article explains that claim letter formats other than the direct approach are not only legitimate, but also effective, and suggests that the approach selected should depend upon the circumstances surrounding the claim. (CT)

Target--distractor separation and feature integration in visual attention to letters.

PubMed

Driver, J; Baylis, G C

1991-04-01

The interference produced by distractor letters diminishes with increasing distance from a target letter, as if the distractors fall outside an attentional spotlight focussed on the target (Eriksen and Eriksen 1974). We examine Hagenaar and Van der Heijden's (1986) claim that this distance effect is an acuity artefact. Feature integration theory (Treisman 1986) predicts that even when acuity is controlled for, distance effects should be found when interference is produced by conjoined distractor features (e.g. letter-identities), but not when interference arises from isolated distractor features (e.g. letter-strokes). The opposite pattern of results is found. A model is proposed in which both letter-strokes and letter-identities are derived in parallel. The location of letter-strokes can also be coded in parallel, but locating letter-identities may require the operation of attention.

Comparative effectiveness of mailed reminder letters on mammography screening compliance.

PubMed

Romaire, Melissa A; Bowles, Erin J Aiello; Anderson, Melissa L; Buist, Diana S M

2012-08-01

Reminder letters are effective at prompting women to schedule mammograms. Less well studied are reminders addressing multiple preventive service recommendations. We compared the effectiveness of a mammogram-specific reminder sent when a woman was due for a mammogram to a reminder letter addressing multiple preventive services and sent on a woman's birthday on mammography receipt. The study included 48,583 women 52-74 years enrolled in Group Health Cooperative, a health plan in Washington State. From 2005 to 2009, women were mailed 88,605 mammogram-specific or birthday letters. In this one group pretest-posttest study, we modeled the odds of obtaining a screening mammogram after receiving a letter by reminder type using logistic regression, controlling for demographic and healthcare use characteristics and stratifying by whether women were overdue or up-to-date with mammography at the mailing. Among women up-to-date with screening, birthday letters were negatively associated with mammography receipt compared to mammogram-specific letters (birthday letters with 1-2 recommendations: OR=0.73; 95% CI:0.68-0.79; 3 recommendations: OR=0.74; 95% CI:0.69-0.78; 4-8 recommendations: OR=0.62 95% CI:0.55-0.68) after. Among overdue women, birthday letters with 4-8 recommendations were negatively associated with mammography receipt. Transitioning from mammogram-specific reminder letters to multiple preventive service birthday letters was associated with decreased mammography receipt. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

46 CFR 169.219 - Renewal of letter of designation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 46 Shipping 7 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Renewal of letter of designation. 169.219 Section 169.219 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) NAUTICAL SCHOOLS SAILING SCHOOL VESSELS Inspection and Certification Letter of Designation § 169.219 Renewal of letter of designation. At...

46 CFR 169.219 - Renewal of letter of designation.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 46 Shipping 7 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Renewal of letter of designation. 169.219 Section 169.219 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (CONTINUED) NAUTICAL SCHOOLS SAILING SCHOOL VESSELS Inspection and Certification Letter of Designation § 169.219 Renewal of letter of designation. At...

33 CFR 143.210 - Letter of compliance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

...) OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF ACTIVITIES DESIGN AND EQUIPMENT Mobile Offshore Drilling Units § 143.210 Letter of compliance. (a) The Officer in Charge, Marine Inspection, determines whether a mobile offshore... of a foreign mobile offshore drilling unit requiring a letter of compliance examination must pay the...

48 CFR 52.228-14 - Irrevocable Letter of Credit.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... acceptable financial institution that had letter of credit business of at least $25 million in the past year... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Irrevocable Letter of....228-14 Irrevocable Letter of Credit. As prescribed in 28.204-4, insert the following clause...

A Logical Letter-Sound System in Five Phonic Generalizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gates, Louis; Yale, Ian

2011-01-01

In five phonic generalizations, this article introduces a logical system of letter-sound relationships. Ranging from 91% to 99% phonic transparency, these statements generalize a study of 16,928 words in children's literature. The r-controlled vowels aside, the analysis shows 54 basic transparent letters and letter combinations, 39 transparent…

A Mentoring Opportunity: A Joint Effort in Writing Letters of Recommendation.

PubMed

Master, Zubin

2017-01-01

Integrity in writing letters of recommendation is important to academic research because it is an influential criterion used pervasively in peer review. While research in the integrity of recommendation letters has concentrated on contents of the letter, bias, and reliability, few have questioned the process of letter writing. Here, I argue that letter writing should be a joint opportunity between mentor/supervisor/advisor and trainee. It results in more compelling letters, may prevent errors and the use of biased language, and serves as an excellent mentoring opportunity promoting self-reflection.

Letter Position Coding Across Modalities: The Case of Braille Readers

PubMed Central

Perea, Manuel; García-Chamorro, Cristina; Martín-Suesta, Miguel; Gómez, Pablo

2012-01-01

Background The question of how the brain encodes letter position in written words has attracted increasing attention in recent years. A number of models have recently been proposed to accommodate the fact that transposed-letter stimuli like jugde or caniso are perceptually very close to their base words. Methodology Here we examined how letter position coding is attained in the tactile modality via Braille reading. The idea is that Braille word recognition may provide more serial processing than the visual modality, and this may produce differences in the input coding schemes employed to encode letters in written words. To that end, we conducted a lexical decision experiment with adult Braille readers in which the pseudowords were created by transposing/replacing two letters. Principal Findings We found a word-frequency effect for words. In addition, unlike parallel experiments in the visual modality, we failed to find any clear signs of transposed-letter confusability effects. This dissociation highlights the differences between modalities. Conclusions The present data argue against models of letter position coding that assume that transposed-letter effects (in the visual modality) occur at a relatively late, abstract locus. PMID:23071522

Letter Writing Made Easy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Porec, Carol J.

1989-01-01

Describes how "The Children's Writing and Publishing Center" (a desktop publishing program for elementary students) combines word processing with computer graphics and motivates students to write letters. (MM)

Parents’ Talk About Letters With Their Young Children

PubMed Central

Treiman, Rebecca; Schmidt, John; Decker, Kristina; Robins, Sarah; Levine, Susan C.; Demir, Özlem Ece

2015-01-01

A literacy-related activity that occurs in children's homes—talk about letters in everyday conversations—was examined using data from 50 children who were visited every 4 months between 14 and 50 months. Parents talked about some letters, including those that are common in English words and the first letter of their children's names, especially often. Parents’ focus on the child's initial was especially strong in families of higher socioeconomic status, and the extent to which parents talked about the child's initial during the later sessions of the study was related to the children's kindergarten reading skill. Conversations that included the child's initial were longer than those that did not, and parents presented a variety of information about this letter. PMID:26014495

When Do First Letters Mnemonics Aid Recall?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morris, P. E.; Cook, N.

1978-01-01

The evidence for the effectiveness of the first letter mnemonic technique is confused. There are at least three studies showing no effect, and one where an improvement in recall occurred. Reports two experiments which attempted to locate the conditions under which the first letter mnemonic is effective. (Author/RK)

Claim and Adjustment Letters: Theory Versus Practice and Legal Implications.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aalberts, Roberts J.; Krajewski, Lorraine A.

1987-01-01

Addresses the reasons companies respond to consumer complaints, analyzes 35 business letters responding to complaints and the ways in which the letters deviate from textbook recommendations, and examines legal theories applicable to claim adjustment letters. (JC)

The Predictive Validity of Teacher Candidate Letters of Reference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mason, Richard W.; Schroeder, Mark P.

2014-01-01

Letters of reference are widely used as an essential part of the hiring process of newly licensed teachers. While the predictive validity of these letters of reference has been called into question it has never been empirically studied. The current study examined the predictive validity of the quality of letters of reference for forty-one student…

Teaching letter sounds to kindergarten English language learners using incremental rehearsal.

PubMed

Peterson, Meredith; Brandes, Dana; Kunkel, Amy; Wilson, Jennifer; Rahn, Naomi L; Egan, Andrea; McComas, Jennifer

2014-02-01

Proficiency in letter-sound correspondence is important for decoding connected text. This study examined the effects of an evidence-based intervention, incremental rehearsal (IR), on the letter-sound expression of three kindergarten English language learners (ELLs) performing below the district benchmark for letter-sound fluency. Participants were native speakers of Hmong, Spanish, and Polish. A multiple-baseline design across sets of unknown letter sounds was used to evaluate the effects of IR on letter-sound expression. Visual analysis of the data showed an increase in level and trend when IR was introduced in each phase. Percentage of all non-overlapping data (PAND) ranged from 95% to 100%. All participants exceeded expected growth and reached the spring district benchmark for letter-sound fluency. Results suggest that IR is a promising intervention for increasing letter-sound expression for ELLs who evidence delays in acquiring letter sounds. Copyright © 2013 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

12 CFR 614.4720 - Letters of credit.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... 12 Banks and Banking 7 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Letters of credit. 614.4720 Section 614.4720 Banks and Banking FARM CREDIT ADMINISTRATION FARM CREDIT SYSTEM LOAN POLICIES AND OPERATIONS Banks for Cooperatives and Agricultural Credit Banks Financing International Trade § 614.4720 Letters of credit. Banks...

19 CFR 162.4 - Search for letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 19 Customs Duties 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Search for letters. 162.4 Section 162.4 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY; DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY (CONTINUED) INSPECTION, SEARCH, AND SEIZURE Inspection, Examination, and Search § 162.4 Search for letters. A...

T-SENSE a millimeter wave scanner for letters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nüßler, Dirk; Heinen, Sven; Sprenger, Thorsten; Hübsch, Daniel; Würschmidt, Tobais

2013-10-01

Letter bombs are an increasing problem for public authorities, companies and public persons. Nowadays every big company uses in his headquarters inspection system to check the incoming correspondence. Generally x-ray systems are used to inspect complete baskets or bags of letters. This concept which works very fine in big company with a large postal center is not usable for small companies or private persons. For an office environment with a small number of letters x-ray systems are too expensive and oversized. X-ray systems visualize the wires and electric circuits inside the envelope. If a letter contains no metallic components but hazard materials or drugs, the dangerous content is invisible for the most low-cost x-ray systems. Millimeter wave imagining systems offer the potential to close this gap.

Exploring Nonfiction through Depression-Era Letter Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ousley, Denise M.

2002-01-01

Notes that by exploring Depression-era teens' letter writing, language arts teachers can enjoy more fruitful uses of nonfiction with their students. Discusses how reading, analyzing, and responding to the letters could help minimize the widening gap between the 1930s and the twenty-first century. Concludes that researching everyday Americans'…

The elaboration of motor programs for the automation of letter production.

PubMed

Thibon, Laurence Séraphin; Gerber, Silvain; Kandel, Sonia

2018-01-01

We investigated how children learn to write letters. Letter writing evolves from stroke-by-stroke to whole-letter programming. Children of ages 6 to 9 (N=98) wrote letters of varying complexity on a digitizer. At ages 6 and 7 movement duration, dysfluency and trajectory increased with stroke number. This indicates that the motor program they activated mainly coded information on stroke production. Stroke number affected the older children's production much less, suggesting that they programmed stroke chunks or the whole letter. The fact that movement duration and dysfluency decreased from ages 6 to 8, and remained stable at ages 8 and 9 suggests that automation of letter writing begins at age 8. Automation seems to require the elaboration of stroke chunks and/or letter-sized motor programs. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Using Incremental Rehearsal to Teach Letter Sounds to English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rahn, Naomi L.; Wilson, Jennifer; Egan, Andrea; Brandes, Dana; Kunkel, Amy; Peterson, Meredith; McComas, Jennifer

2015-01-01

This study examined the effects of incremental rehearsal (IR) on letter sound expression for one kindergarten and one first grade English learner who were below district benchmark for letter sound fluency. A single-subject multiple-baseline design across sets of unknown letter sounds was used to evaluate the effect of IR on letter-sound expression…

Comparing the visual spans for faces and letters

PubMed Central

He, Yingchen; Scholz, Jennifer M.; Gage, Rachel; Kallie, Christopher S.; Liu, Tingting; Legge, Gordon E.

2015-01-01

The visual span—the number of adjacent text letters that can be reliably recognized on one fixation—has been proposed as a sensory bottleneck that limits reading speed (Legge, Mansfield, & Chung, 2001). Like reading, searching for a face is an important daily task that involves pattern recognition. Is there a similar limitation on the number of faces that can be recognized in a single fixation? Here we report on a study in which we measured and compared the visual-span profiles for letter and face recognition. A serial two-stage model for pattern recognition was developed to interpret the data. The first stage is characterized by factors limiting recognition of isolated letters or faces, and the second stage represents the interfering effect of nearby stimuli on recognition. Our findings show that the visual span for faces is smaller than that for letters. Surprisingly, however, when differences in first-stage processing for letters and faces are accounted for, the two visual spans become nearly identical. These results suggest that the concept of visual span may describe a common sensory bottleneck that underlies different types of pattern recognition. PMID:26129858

Letter from Galo Jackson, USEPA to Prashant Gupta, Honeywell International, Inc. Subject: Leaching to Groundwater OU3 (Uplands) Baseline Human Health Risk Assessment

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

May 27, 2011 letter in response to a request for a status letter for the LCP Chemicals Superfund site and interest in selling Parcel B05308053001 and Tract 4 of Parcel B007800000001 in Brunswick, Georgia. Region ID: 04 DocID: 10748549, DocDate: 05-27-2011

Linguistic Prescriptivism in Letters to the Editor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lukac, Morana

2016-01-01

The public's concern with the fate of the standard language has been well documented in the history of the complaint tradition. The print media have for centuries featured letters to the editor on questions of language use. This study examines a corpus of 258 language-related letters to the editor published in the English-speaking print media. By…

An Open Letter to Premier Wen Jiabao

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chinese Education and Society, 2008

2008-01-01

This article is an open letter of a group of early childhood education (ECE) practitioners to Premier Wen Jiabao. This open letter was written with one goal in mind: to ask Premier Wen's government to take measures to protect young children and support early childhood education. These practitioners have become worried about the many accidents that…

Letter to, and Paintings by, George Catlin

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenbaum, David; Potter, Lee Ann; Eder, Elizabeth K.

2008-01-01

Letters received and sent by Secretary of War Lewis Cass in the 1830s reveal much about relations between the U.S. government and Native Americans. In the immediate aftermath of the Indian Removal Act, signed into law on May 28, 1830, by President Andrew Jackson, some letters came from interpreters and school teachers seeking payment for their…

An Open Letter to Tomorrow's Secondary Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Worthy, Jeff

2016-01-01

The article takes the form of a letter written to pre-service or beginning teachers at the secondary level in the public school system. The letter acknowledges the attributes they bring to the profession (enthusiasm, optimism, creativity, and open-mindedness) and calls on them to make the most of and work to sustain these traits as they begin…

Computerized reminders for five preventive screening tests: generation of patient-specific letters incorporating physician preferences.

PubMed Central

Murphy, D. J.; Gross, R.; Buchanan, J.

2000-01-01

Compliance with preventive screening tests is inadequate in the United States. We describe a computer based system for generating reminder letters to patients who may have missed their indicated screening tests because they do not visit a provider regularly or missed their tests despite the fact that they do visit a provider. We started with national recommendations and generated a local consensus for test indications. We then used this set of indications and our electronic record to determine test deficiencies in our pilot pool of 3073 patients. The computer generated customized reminder letters targeting several tests. Physicians chose any patients who should not receive letters. The response rate for fecal occult blood (FOB) testing was 33% compared with an 18% historical compliance rate within the same community. FOB reminders generated improved test compliance. Test execution must be considered when commencing a program of screening test reminders. PMID:11079954

Letters in time and retinotopic space.

PubMed

Adelman, James S

2011-10-01

Various phenomena in tachistoscopic word identification and priming (WRODS and LTRS are confused with and prime WORDS and LETTERS) suggest that position-specific channels are not used in the processing of letters in words. Previous approaches to this issue have sought alternative matching rules because they have assumed that these phenomena reveal which stimuli are good but imperfect matches to a particular word-such imperfect matches being taken by the word recognition system as partial evidence for that word. The new Letters in Time and Retinotopic Space model (LTRS) makes the alternative assumption that these phenomena reveal the rates at which different features of the stimulus are extracted, because the stimulus is ambiguous when some features are missing from the percept. LTRS is successfully applied to tachistoscopic identification and form priming data with manipulations of duration and target-foil and prime-target relationships. © 2011 American Psychological Association

Peace in a nuclear age: The bishops' pastoral letter in perspective

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reid, C.

1986-01-01

This book is a discussion of The Challenge of Peace, the Catholic bishops' pastoral letter on nuclear war. It is a collection of twenty-five essays which confront issues raised by nuclear deterrence policy and the Catholic Church's response to this ethical dilemma. This book addresses the tradition of the Church, the making of public policy, religious ethics, and the implications for American Catholics.

Transposed-letter priming effects in reading aloud words and nonwords.

PubMed

Mousikou, Petroula; Kinoshita, Sachiko; Wu, Simon; Norris, Dennis

2015-10-01

A masked nonword prime generated by transposing adjacent inner letters in a word (e.g., jugde) facilitates the recognition of the target word (JUDGE) more than a prime in which the relevant letters are replaced by different letters (e.g., junpe). This transposed-letter (TL) priming effect has been widely interpreted as evidence that the coding of letter position is flexible, rather than precise. Although the TL priming effect has been extensively investigated in the domain of visual word recognition using the lexical decision task, very few studies have investigated this empirical phenomenon in reading aloud. In the present study, we investigated TL priming effects in reading aloud words and nonwords and found that these effects are of equal magnitude for the two types of items. We take this result as support for the view that the TL priming effect arises from noisy perception of letter order within the prime prior to the mapping of orthography to phonology.

Color associations for days and letters across different languages

PubMed Central

Rouw, Romke; Case, Laura; Gosavi, Radhika; Ramachandran, Vilayanur

2014-01-01

While colors are commonplace in everyday metaphors, relatively little is known about implicit color associations to linguistic or semantic concepts in a general population. In this study, we test color associations for ordered linguistic concepts (letters and days). The culture and language specificity of these effects was examined in a large group (457) of Dutch-speaking participants, 92 English-speaking participants, and 49 Hindi-speaking participants. Non-random distributions of color choices were revealed; consistencies were found across the three language groups in color preferences for both days and letters. Interestingly, while the Hindi-speaking participants were presented with letter stimuli matched on phonology, their pattern of letter-to-color preferences still showed similarities with Dutch- and English-speaking participants. Furthermore, we found that that the color preferences corresponded between participants indicating to have conscious color experiences with letters or days (putative synesthetes) and participants who do not (non-synesthetes). We also explored possible mechanisms underlying the color preferences. There were a few specific associations, including red for “A,” red for “Monday,” and white for “Sunday.” We also explored more general mechanisms, such as overall color preferences as shown by Simner et al. (2005). While certainly not all variation can be explained or predicted, the results show that regularities are present in color-to-letter or color-to-day preferences in both putative synesthetes and non-synesthetes across languages. Both letter-to-color and day-to-color preferences were influenced by multiple factors. The findings support a notion of abstract concepts (such as days and letters) that are not represented in isolation, but are connected to perceptual representational systems. Interestingly, at least some of these connections to color representations are shared across different language/cultural groups. PMID

Gender Gaps in Letter-Sound Knowledge Persist Across the First School Year

PubMed Central

Sigmundsson, Hermundur; Dybfest Eriksen, Adrian; Ofteland, Greta S.; Haga, Monika

2018-01-01

Literacy is the cornerstone of a primary school education and enables the intellectual and social development of young children. Letter-sound knowledge has been identified as critical for developing proficiency in reading. This study explored the development of letter-sound knowledge in relation to gender during the first year of primary school. 485 Norwegian children aged 5–6 years completed assessment of letter-sound knowledge, i.e., uppercase letters- name; uppercase letter -sound; lowercase letters- name; lowercase letter-sound. The children were tested in the beginning, middle, and end of their first school year. The results revealed a clear gender difference in all four variables in favor of the girls which were relatively constant over time. Implications for understanding the role of gender and letter-sound knowledge for later reading performance are discussed. PMID:29662461

48 CFR 28.204-3 - Irrevocable letter of credit (ILC).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... no document other than a written demand and the ILC (and letter of confirmation, if any), expire only... by another acceptable financial institution that had letter of credit business of at least $25... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Irrevocable letter of...

How To Write a Business Letter. Power of the Printed Word.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forbes, Malcolm

Business letters should turn people on rather than turning them off. To write a good business letter, know what the goal is before starting to write, call the reader by name, tell what the letter is about in the first paragraph, refer to dates when answering letters, and write from the reader's point of view. Be positive, be nice, and be natural.…

Ten steps to writing curriculum vitae covering letters.

PubMed

Pearce, Chris

2007-12-01

As guides for recruiters, the covering letters of applicants' curricula vitae (CVs) can be almost as important as the CVs themselves. When applying for posts therefore, you should regard the writing of such letters as an opportunity to distinguish yourself from other candidates.

Data on eye behavior during idea generation and letter-by-letter reading.

PubMed

Walcher, Sonja; Körner, Christof; Benedek, Mathias

2017-12-01

This article includes the description of data information from an idea generation task (alternate uses task, (Guilford, 1967) [1]) and a letter-by-letter reading task under two background brightness conditions with healthy adults as well as a baseline measurement and questionnaire data (SIPI (Huba et al., 1981) [2]; DDFS (Singer and Antrobus, 1972) [3], 1963; RIBS (Runco et al., 2001) [4]). Data are hosted at the Open Science Framework (OSF): https://osf.io/fh66g/ (Walcher et al., 2017) [5]. There you will find eye tracking data, task performance data, questionnaires data, analyses scripts (in R, R Core Team, 2017 [6]), eye tracking paradigms (in the Experiment Builder (SR Research Ltd., [7]) and graphs on pupil and angle of eye vergence dynamics. Data are interpreted and discussed in the article 'Looking for ideas: Eye behavior during goal-directed internally focused cognition' (Walcher et al., 2017) [8].

47 CFR 61.33 - Letters of transmittal.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... Rules for Dominant Carriers § 61.33 Letters of transmittal. (a) Except as specified in § 61.32(b), all... with Number 1, and must be accompanied by a letter of transmittal, A4 (21 cm×29.7 cm) or 81/2 by 11... purpose of the filing; (2) Specify whether supporting information under § 61.38 is required; (3) State...

Visual-Motor Symbol Production Facilitates Letter Recognition in Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zemlock, Deborah; Vinci-Booher, Sophia; James, Karin H.

2018-01-01

Previous research has suggested that handwriting letters may be an important exerciser to facilitate early letter understanding. Experimental studies to date, however, have not investigated whether this effect is general to any visual-motor experience or specific to handwriting letters. In the present work, we addressed this issue by testing…

The Processing of Consonants and Vowels during Letter Identity and Letter Position Assignment in Visual-Word Recognition: An ERP Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vergara-Martinez, Marta; Perea, Manuel; Marin, Alejandro; Carreiras, Manuel

2011-01-01

Recent research suggests that there is a processing distinction between consonants and vowels in visual-word recognition. Here we conjointly examine the time course of consonants and vowels in processes of letter identity and letter position assignment. Event related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants read words and pseudowords in…

Acceptability of reminder letters for Papanicolaou tests: a survey of women from 23 Family Health Networks in Ontario.

PubMed

Karwalajtys, Tina; Kaczorowski, Janusz; Lohfeld, Lynne; Laryea, Stephanie; Anderson, Kelly; Roder, Stefanie; Sebaldt, Rolf J

2007-10-01

To explore women's perspectives on the acceptability and content of reminder letters from the family physician for Papanicolaou (Pap) test screening and the effect of reminder letters on compliance with screening recommendations. A population-based survey was conducted in 23 Family Health Networks and Primary Care Networks participating in a demonstration project to increase the delivery of preventive services in Ontario. Questionnaires were mailed to randomly selected women aged 35 to 69 years who had received a reminder letter for a Pap test from their family physician within the previous six months. Two focus groups were conducted with a volunteer sample of respondents. The usable response rate was 54.3% (406/748). Two-thirds (65.8%, 267/406) of women who completed the survey recalled receiving the reminder letter. Overall, 52.3% (212/405) reported having a Pap test in the past six months. Among women who recalled the reminder letter and scheduled or had a Pap test, 71.4% (125/175) reported that the letter influenced their decision to be screened. The majority of respondents (80.8%, 328/406) wanted to continue to receive reminder letters for Pap tests from their physician, and 34.5% (140/406) wanted to receive additional information about cervical screening. Focus group interviews indicated that women who have had a Pap test may still be unsure about screening recommendations, what the test detects, and the rationale for follow-up procedures. Reminder letters in family practice were viewed as useful and influenced women's decisions to undergo Pap test screening. Women who have had a Pap test may still need additional information about the test.

ECOS Assumable Waters Letter

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Environmental Counsel of the States (ECOS) letter to EPA on state or tribal assumption encouraging the EPA to bring clarity and certainty to the identification of assumable and non-assumable waters, should a state assume the 404 program.

IMPLEMENTATION REVIEW LETTERS, 2002

EPA Science Inventory

The following letters provide a summary of the Environmental Protection Agencys comments regarding 2002 Implementation Review of nineteen estuary programs in the National Estuary Program. Various strengths within the programs included use of implementation progress and tracking s...

EDITORIAL: New criteria for Letters in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stoneham, A. M.

2003-12-01

Today, the median time from receipt to publication for regular articles in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter is about four months. Letters can be reviewed, possibly revised, and on the Web in little more than a week in favourable circumstances, and the median time is six weeks. When the Journal of Physics series was started, over thirty years ago, Letters took typically three months from receipt to print, and articles took substantially longer. Now that publication times for regular papers are of a similar order to those of Letters in the past, it makes sense to review the types of submission we accept as Letters and put a higher premium on urgency. In the past, Letters have been of several different types. There have been Letters giving a first announcement of some important new result, and these have a justifiable urgency and need for priority. In addition, there have been what one might call short papers, self-contained pieces of work, but with no requirement for rapid publication. The Editorial Board of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter has decided that in future all Letters published will have to satisfy criteria of significant importance and urgency. To achieve this, all manuscripts submitted as Letters will be processed as follows. First, the Letter will be looked at by a Board Member, who will decide whether or not the proposed Letter has the right level of importance, urgency, and interest to appear as a Letter. The Board Member will not usually act as referee, unless the Letter is in a field in which they normally referee. If their decision is yes, then the manuscript will go to a regular referee. Special efforts will be made to ensure rapid treatment, both by the referee and in processing at Bristol. The ideal Letter would address a significant topic in condensed matter physics. It would be recognized as important by a large number of condensed matter physicists, including those whose research area is a different one. So it is crucial that the

Transposed-letter priming of prelexical orthographic representations.

PubMed

Kinoshita, Sachiko; Norris, Dennis

2009-01-01

A prime generated by transposing two internal letters (e.g., jugde) produces strong priming of the original word (judge). In lexical decision, this transposed-letter (TL) priming effect is generally weak or absent for nonword targets; thus, it is unclear whether the origin of this effect is lexical or prelexical. The authors describe the Bayesian Reader theory of masked priming (D. Norris & S. Kinoshita, 2008), which explains why nonwords do not show priming in lexical decision but why they do in the cross-case same-different task. This analysis is followed by 3 experiments that show that priming in this task is not based on low-level perceptual similarity between the prime and target, or on phonology, to make the case that priming is based on prelexical orthographic representation. The authors then use this task to demonstrate equivalent TL priming effects for nonwords and words. The results are interpreted as the first reliable evidence based on the masked priming procedure that letter position is not coded absolutely within the prelexical, orthographic representation. The implications of the results for current letter position coding schemes are discussed.

Women's views on reminder letters for screening mammography: Mixed methods study of women from 23 family health networks.

PubMed

Kaczorowski, Janusz; Karwalajtys, Tina; Lohfeld, Lynne; Laryea, Stephanie; Anderson, Kelly; Roder, Stefanie; Sebaldt, Rolf J

2009-06-01

To explore women's perspectives on the acceptability and content of reminder letters for screening mammography from their family physicians, as well as such letters' effect on screening intentions. Cross-sectional mailed survey followed by focus groups with a subgroup of respondents. Ontario. One family physician was randomly selected from each of 23 family health networks and primary care networks participating in a demonstration project to increase the delivery of preventive services. From the practice roster of each physician, up to 35 randomly selected women aged 50 to 69 years who were due or overdue for screening mammograms and who had received reminder letters from their family physicians within the past 6 months were surveyed. Recall of having received reminder letters and of their content, influence of the letters on decisions to have mammograms, and interest in receiving future reminder letters. Focus group interviews with survey respondents explored the survey findings in greater depth using a standardized interview guide. The response rate to the survey was 55.7% (384 of 689), and 45.1% (173 of 384) of responding women reported having mammograms in the past 6 months. Among women who recalled receiving letters and either making appointments for or having mammograms, 74.8% (122 of 163) indicated that the letters substantially influenced their decisions. Most respondents (77.1% [296 of 384]) indicated that they would like to continue to receive reminders, and 28.9% (111 of 384) indicated that they would like to receive additional information about mammograms. Participants in 2 focus groups (n = 3 and n = 5) indicated that they thought letters reflected a positive attitude of physicians toward mammography screening. They also commented that newly eligible women had different information needs than women who had had mammograms done in the past. Reminder letters were considered by participants to be useful and appeared to influence women's decisions to

Covert Reading of Letters in a Case of Global Alexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Volpato, Chiara; Bencini, Giulia; Meneghello, Francesca; Piron, Lamberto; Semenza, Carlo

2012-01-01

This study describes the case of a global alexic patient with a severe reading deficit affecting words, letters and Arabic numbers, following a left posterior lesion. The patient (VA) could not match spoken letters to their graphic form. A preserved ability to recognize shape and canonical orientation of letters indicates intact access to the…

The Distribution of Information within Letters. Technical Report No. 215.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Navon, David; Shimron, Joseph

Two experiments were designed to study the relative importance of various letter segments in letter recognition. One experiment was conducted with 24 subjects and the English alphabet, the other with 15 subjects and the Hebrew alphabet. In each experiment a letter was presented for identification, but was preceded by a brief presentation of either…

Different Effects of Hypoxia on Mental Rotation of Normal and Mirrored Letters: Evidence from the Rotation-Related Negativity.

PubMed

Ma, Qingguo; Hu, Linfeng; Li, Jiaojie; Hu, Yue; Xia, Ling; Chen, Xiaojian; Hu, Wendong

2016-01-01

The present study explored the neural mechanism underlying the effect of moderate and transient hypoxic exposure on mental rotation of two-dimensional letters in both normal and mirror versions. Event-related potential data and behavioral data were acquired in the task of discrimination between normal and mirrored versions separately in conditions of normoxia (simulated sea level) and hypoxia conditions (simulated 5000 meter altitude). The behavioral results revealed no significant difference between the normoxia and hypoxia conditions both in response time and error rate. However, obvious differences between these two conditions in ERP were found. First, enlarged P300 and Rotation-related Negativity (RRN) were observed in the hypoxia condition compared to the normoxia condition only with normal letters. Second, the angle effect on the amplitude of RRN was more evident with normal letters in the hypoxia condition than that in the normoxia condition. However, this angle effect nearly disappeared with the mirrored letters in the hypoxia condition. Third, more bilateral parietal activation was observed in the hypoxia condition than the normoxia condition. These results suggested that the compensation mechanism existed in the hypoxia condition and was effective with normal letters but had little effect on the mirrored letters. This study extends the research about the hypoxic effect on spatial ability of humans by employing a mental rotation task and further provides neural evidence for this effect.

Different Effects of Hypoxia on Mental Rotation of Normal and Mirrored Letters: Evidence from the Rotation-Related Negativity

PubMed Central

Ma, Qingguo; Hu, Linfeng; Li, Jiaojie; Hu, Yue; Xia, Ling; Chen, Xiaojian; Hu, Wendong

2016-01-01

The present study explored the neural mechanism underlying the effect of moderate and transient hypoxic exposure on mental rotation of two-dimensional letters in both normal and mirror versions. Event-related potential data and behavioral data were acquired in the task of discrimination between normal and mirrored versions separately in conditions of normoxia (simulated sea level) and hypoxia conditions (simulated 5000 meter altitude). The behavioral results revealed no significant difference between the normoxia and hypoxia conditions both in response time and error rate. However, obvious differences between these two conditions in ERP were found. First, enlarged P300 and Rotation-related Negativity (RRN) were observed in the hypoxia condition compared to the normoxia condition only with normal letters. Second, the angle effect on the amplitude of RRN was more evident with normal letters in the hypoxia condition than that in the normoxia condition. However, this angle effect nearly disappeared with the mirrored letters in the hypoxia condition. Third, more bilateral parietal activation was observed in the hypoxia condition than the normoxia condition. These results suggested that the compensation mechanism existed in the hypoxia condition and was effective with normal letters but had little effect on the mirrored letters. This study extends the research about the hypoxic effect on spatial ability of humans by employing a mental rotation task and further provides neural evidence for this effect. PMID:27144444

7 CFR 1737.80 - Description of characteristics letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... the amount of the proposed loan, its purposes, rate of interest, loan security requirements, and other... SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE PRE-LOAN POLICIES AND PROCEDURES COMMON TO INSURED AND GUARANTEED TELECOMMUNICATIONS LOANS Characteristics Letter § 1737.80 Description of characteristics letter. (a) After all of the...

Dimensionality and Reliability of Letter Writing in 3- to 5-Year-Old Preschool Children

PubMed Central

Puranik, Cynthia S.; Petscher, Yaacov; Lonigan, Christopher J.

2015-01-01

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the dimensionality and reliability of letter writing skills in preschool children with the aim of determining whether a sequence existed in how children learn to write the letters of the alphabet. Additionally, we examined gender differences in the development of letter writing skills. 471 children aged 3 to 5 years old completed a letter writing task. Results from factor analyses indicated that letter writing represented a unidimensional skill. Similar to research findings that the development of letter-names and letter-sound knowledge varies in acquisition, our findings indicate that the ability to write some letters is acquired earlier than the ability to write other letters. Although there appears to be an approximate sequence for the easiest and most difficult letters, there appears to be a less clear sequence for letters in the middle stages of development. Overall, girls had higher letter writing scores compared to boys. Gender differences regarding difficulty writing specific letters was less conclusive; however, results indicated that when controlling for ability level, girls had a higher probability of writing a letter correctly than boys. Implications of these findings for the assessment and instruction of letter writing are discussed. PMID:26346443

50 CFR 218.237 - Applications for Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active (SURTASS LFA) Sonar § 218.237 Applications for Letters of... scheduled to begin conducting SURTASS LFA sonar operations or the previous Letter of Authorization is...

50 CFR 218.237 - Applications for Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active (SURTASS LFA) Sonar § 218.237 Applications for Letters of... scheduled to begin conducting SURTASS LFA sonar operations or the previous Letter of Authorization is...

50 CFR 218.237 - Applications for Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active (SURTASS LFA) Sonar § 218.237 Applications for Letters of... scheduled to begin conducting SURTASS LFA sonar operations or the previous Letter of Authorization is...

Pseudo-Synesthesia through Reading Books with Colored Letters

PubMed Central

Colizoli, Olympia; Murre, Jaap M. J.; Rouw, Romke

2012-01-01

Background Synesthesia is a phenomenon where a stimulus produces consistent extraordinary subjective experiences. A relatively common type of synesthesia involves perception of color when viewing letters (e.g. the letter ‘a’ always appears as light blue). In this study, we examine whether traits typically regarded as markers of synesthesia can be acquired by simply reading in color. Methodology/Principal Findings Non-synesthetes were given specially prepared colored books to read. A modified Stroop task was administered before and after reading. A perceptual crowding task was administered after reading. Reading one book (>49,000 words) was sufficient to induce effects regarded as behavioral markers for synesthesia. The results of the Stroop tasks indicate that it is possible to learn letter-color associations through reading in color (F(1, 14) = 5.85, p = .030). Furthermore, Stroop effects correlated with subjective reports about experiencing letters in color (r(13) = 0.51, p = .05). The frequency of viewing letters is related to the level of association as seen by the difference in the Stroop effect size between upper- and lower-case letters (t(14) = 2.79, p = .014) and in a subgroup of participants whose Stroop effects increased as they continued to read in color. Readers did not show significant performance advantages on the crowding task compared to controls. Acknowledging the many differences between trainees and synesthetes, results suggest that it may be possible to acquire a subset of synesthetic behavioral traits in adulthood through training. Conclusion/Significance To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of acquiring letter-color associations through reading in color. Reading in color appears to be a promising avenue in which we may explore the differences and similarities between synesthetes and non-synesthetes. Additionally, reading in color is a plausible method for a long-term ‘synesthetic’ training program. PMID

30 CFR 1.3 - Use of letters and acronym MSHA.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Use of letters and acronym MSHA. 1.3 Section 1.3 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR OFFICIAL EMBLEM AND...; ESTABLISHMENT AND USE OF OFFICIAL EMBLEM § 1.3 Use of letters and acronym MSHA. The letters and acronym MSHA may...

30 CFR 1.3 - Use of letters and acronym MSHA.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Use of letters and acronym MSHA. 1.3 Section 1.3 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR OFFICIAL EMBLEM AND...; ESTABLISHMENT AND USE OF OFFICIAL EMBLEM § 1.3 Use of letters and acronym MSHA. The letters and acronym MSHA may...

50 CFR 216.187 - Applications for Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active (SURTASS LFA sonar) Sonar § 216.187 Applications for Letters of... scheduled to begin conducting SURTASS LFA sonar operations or the previous Letter of Authorization is...

50 CFR 216.187 - Applications for Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active (SURTASS LFA sonar) Sonar § 216.187 Applications for Letters of... scheduled to begin conducting SURTASS LFA sonar operations or the previous Letter of Authorization is...

Open Letter to Religious Leaders about Sex Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

American Journal of Sexuality Education, 2011

2011-01-01

The "Open Letter to Religious Leaders about Sex Education" reinforces scriptural and theological commitments to truth-telling in calling for "full and honest education about sexual and reproductive health." This "Open Letter" was published in 2002, at about the midpoint of a decade-long federal government commitment to…

Letters to Our Forebears: Reconnecting Generations through Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Okawa, Gail Y.

2003-01-01

Proposes that students writing public letters to their forebears might provide a reminder of how individuals and communities can learn from the experience of their foremothers and forefathers. Includes the author's letter to her grandfather, who was imprisoned in internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II. (PM)

49 CFR 1503.703 - Civil penalty letter; referral.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 49 Transportation 9 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Civil penalty letter; referral. 1503.703 Section... AND ENFORCEMENT PROCEDURES Judicial Assessment of Civil Penalties § 1503.703 Civil penalty letter; referral. (a) Issuance. In a civil penalty action in which the amount in controversy exceeds the amounts...

Tracing information flow on a global scale using Internet chain-letter data

PubMed Central

Liben-Nowell, David; Kleinberg, Jon

2008-01-01

Although information, news, and opinions continuously circulate in the worldwide social network, the actual mechanics of how any single piece of information spreads on a global scale have been a mystery. Here, we trace such information-spreading processes at a person-by-person level using methods to reconstruct the propagation of massively circulated Internet chain letters. We find that rather than fanning out widely, reaching many people in very few steps according to “small-world” principles, the progress of these chain letters proceeds in a narrow but very deep tree-like pattern, continuing for several hundred steps. This suggests a new and more complex picture for the spread of information through a social network. We describe a probabilistic model based on network clustering and asynchronous response times that produces trees with this characteristic structure on social-network data. PMID:18353985

Task switching and response correspondence in the psychological refractory period paradigm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lien, Mei-Ching; Schweickert, Richard; Proctor, Robert W.

2003-01-01

Three experiments examined the effects of task switching and response correspondence in a psychological refractory period paradigm. A letter task (vowel-consonant) and a digit task (odd-even) were combined to form 4 possible dual-task pairs in each trial: letter-letter, letter-digit, digit-digit, and digit-letter. Foreknowledge of task transition (repeat or switch) and task identity (letter or digit) was varied across experiments: no foreknowledge in Experiment 1, partial foreknowledge (task transition only) in Experiment 2, and full foreknowledge in Experiment 3. For all experiments, the switch cost for Task 2 was additive with stimulus onset asynchrony, and the response-correspondence effect for Task 2 was numerically smaller in the switch condition than in the repeat condition. These outcomes suggest that reconfiguration for Task 2 takes place after the central processing of Task 1 and that the crosstalk correspondence effect is due to response activation by way of stimulus-response associations.

Changes in FDA enforcement activities following changes in federal administration: the case of regulatory letters released to pharmaceutical companies.

PubMed

Nguyen, Diane; Seoane-Vazquez, Enrique; Rodriguez-Monguio, Rosa; Montagne, Michael

2013-01-22

The United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for the protection of the public health by assuring the safety, effectiveness and security of human drugs and biological products through the enforcement of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) and related regulations. These enforcement activities include regulatory letters (i.e. warning letters and notice of violation) to pharmaceutical companies. A regulatory letter represents the FDA's first official notification to a pharmaceutical company that the FDA has discovered a product or activity in violation of the FDCA.This study analyzed trends in the pharmaceutical-related regulatory letters released by the FDA during the period 1997-2011 and assessed differences in the average number and type of regulatory letters released during the last four federal administrations. Data derived from the FDA webpage. Information about the FDA office releasing the letter, date, company, and drug-related violation was collected. Regulatory letters were classified by federal administration. Descriptive statistics were performed for the analysis. Between 1997 and 2011 the FDA released 2,467 regulatory letters related to pharmaceuticals. FDA headquarters offices released 50.6% and district offices 49.4% of the regulatory letters. The Office of Prescription Drug Promotion released the largest number of regulatory letters (850; 34.5% of the total), followed by the Office of Scientific Investigations (131; 5.3%), and the Office of Compliance (105; 4.3%). During the 2nd Clinton Administration (1997-2000) the average number of regulatory letters per year was 242.8 ± 45.6, during the Bush Administration (2001-2008) it was 120.4 ± 33.7, and during the first three years of the Obama administration (2009-2011) it was 177.7.0 ± 17.0. The average number of regulatory letters released by the Office of Prescription Drug Promotion also varied by administration: Clinton (122.3 ± 36.4), Bush (29.5�

Lexical access via letter naming in a profoundly alexic and anomic patient: a treatment study.

PubMed

Greenwald, M L; Gonzalez Rothi, L J

1998-11-01

We report the results of a letter naming treatment designed to facilitate letter-by-letter reading in an aphasic patient with no reading ability. Patient M.R.'s anomia for written letters reflected two loci of impairment within visual naming: impaired letter activation from print (a deficit commonly seen in pure alexic patients who read letter by letter) and impaired access to phonology via semantics (documented in a severe multimodality anomia). Remarkably, M.R. retained an excellent ability to pronounce orally spelled words, demonstrating that abstract letter identities could be activated normally via spoken letter names, and also that lexical phonological representations were intact when accessed via spoken letter names. M.R.'s training in oral naming of written letters resulted in significant improvement in her oral naming of trained letters. Importantly, as M.R.'s letter naming improved, she became able to employ letter-by-letter reading as a compensatory strategy for oral word reading. M.R.'s success in letter naming and letter-by-letter reading suggests that other patients with a similar pattern of spared and impaired cognitive abilities may benefit from a similar treatment. Moreover, this study highlights the value of testing the pronunciation of orally spelled words in localizing the source of prelexical reading impairment and in predicting the functional outcome of treatment for impaired letter activation in reading.

Analysis of Letter Name Knowledge Using Rasch Measurement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowles, Ryan P.; Skibbe, Lori E.; Justice, Laura M.

2011-01-01

Letter name knowledge (LNK) is a key predictor of later reading ability and has been emphasized strongly in recent educational policy. Studies of LNK have implicitly treated it as a unidimensional construct with all letters equally relevant to its measurement. However, some empirical research suggests that contextual factors can affect the…

LETTER TO EDITOR ON ARTICLE "ARSENIC MEANS BUSINESS"

EPA Science Inventory

The letter to the editor was written to point out that different forms of arsenic are found in source waters and that the technologies listed in the article such as POU RO will not necessarily be effective on all waters. The letter pointed out that most technologies are more eff...

Analyzing International Letters in a Business Communication Class.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Devet, Bonnie

1998-01-01

Shows how students can use persuasive principles of communication (format and writer's purpose) and of classical rhetoric (organization, ethos, pathos, logos, and style) to improve their ability to analyze business letters. Shows how applying these principles to the analysis of business letters from other countries helps students write better and…

Inside the Letter

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duke, Roger; Graham, Alan

2007-01-01

In this article, the authors describe how a Java applet can help to build learners' intuitions about basic ideas of algebra. "Matchbox Algebra" is a Java applet the authors have designed to enable learners to grasp a key idea in learning algebra: that the letter "x" may be thought of as representing an as-yet-unknown number. They describe the…

Transposed-Letter Effects in Reading: Evidence from Eye Movements and Parafoveal Preview

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Rebecca L.; Perea, Manuel; Rayner, Keith

2007-01-01

Three eye movement experiments were conducted to examine the role of letter identity and letter position during reading. Before fixating on a target word within each sentence, readers were provided with a parafoveal preview that differed in the amount of useful letter identity and letter position information it provided. In Experiments 1 and 2,…

The distributed neural system for top-down letter processing: an fMRI study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Jiangang; Feng, Lu; Li, Ling; Tian, Jie

2011-03-01

This fMRI study used Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) to investigate top-down letter processing with an illusory letter detection task. After an initial training that became increasingly difficult, participant was instructed to detect a letter from pure noise images where there was actually no letter. Such experimental paradigm allowed for isolating top-down components of letter processing and minimizing the influence of bottom-up perceptual input. A distributed cortical network of top-down letter processing was identified by analyzing the functional connectivity patterns of letter-preferential area (LA) within the left fusiform gyrus. Such network extends from the visual cortex to high level cognitive cortexes, including the left middle frontal gyrus, left medial frontal gyrus, left superior parietal gyrus, bilateral precuneus, and left inferior occipital gyrus. These findings suggest that top-down letter processing contains not only regions for processing of letter phonology and appearance, but also those involved in internal information generation and maintenance, and attention and memory processing.

Readability of "Dear Patient" device advisory notification letters created by a device manufacturer.

PubMed

Mueller, Luke A; Sharma, Arjun; Ottenberg, Abigale L; Mueller, Paul S

2013-04-01

In 2006, the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) recommended that cardiovascular implantable electronic device (CIED) manufacturers use advisory notification letters to communicate with affected patients. To evaluate the readability of the HRS sample "patient device advisory notification" letter and those created by 1 CIED manufacturer. The HRS sample letter and 25 Boston Scientific Corporation letters dated from 2005 through 2011 were evaluated by using 6 readability tests. Readability (Flesch-Kincaid score) of the HRS sample letter was grade level 12.5, and median readability of the device manufacturer letters was grade level 12.8 (range 10.8-18.9). Similar results were obtained by using other readability scales. No letters had readability scores at the National Work Group on Literacy and Health's recommended reading level-fifth grade; the letters' readability exceeded this recommended level by an average of 7.7 grades (95% confidence interval 6.9-8.5; P<.001). Likewise, no letters had readability scores at the average reading level of US adults-eighth grade; the letters' readability exceeded this level by an average of 4.7 grades (95% confidence interval 3.9-5.5; P< .001). The readability of the HRS sample letter and those created by a CIED manufacturer significantly exceeded the recommended and average US adults' reading skill levels. Such letters are unlikely to be informative to many patients. CIED manufacturers should ensure that advisory letters are comprehensible to most affected patients. Copyright © 2013 Heart Rhythm Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of Visual and Auditory Perceptual Aptitudes and Letter Discrimination Pretraining on Word Recognition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Janssen, David Rainsford

This study investigated alternate methods of letter discrimination pretraining and word recognition training in young children. Seventy kindergarten children were trained to recognize eight printed words in a vocabulary list by a mixed-list paired-associate method. Four of the stimulus words had visual response choices (pictures) and four had…

Strigolactone Biosynthesis in Medicago truncatula and Rice Requires the Symbiotic GRAS-Type Transcription Factors NSP1 and NSP2[W][OA

PubMed Central

Liu, Wei; Kohlen, Wouter; Lillo, Alessandra; Op den Camp, Rik; Ivanov, Sergey; Hartog, Marijke; Limpens, Erik; Jamil, Muhammad; Smaczniak, Cezary; Kaufmann, Kerstin; Yang, Wei-Cai; Hooiveld, Guido J.E.J.; Charnikhova, Tatsiana; Bouwmeester, Harro J.; Bisseling, Ton; Geurts, René

2011-01-01

Legume GRAS (GAI, RGA, SCR)-type transcription factors NODULATION SIGNALING PATHWAY1 (NSP1) and NSP2 are essential for rhizobium Nod factor-induced nodulation. Both proteins are considered to be Nod factor response factors regulating gene expression after symbiotic signaling. However, legume NSP1 and NSP2 can be functionally replaced by nonlegume orthologs, including rice (Oryza sativa) NSP1 and NSP2, indicating that both proteins are functionally conserved in higher plants. Here, we show that NSP1 and NSP2 are indispensable for strigolactone (SL) biosynthesis in the legume Medicago truncatula and in rice. Mutant nsp1 plants do not produce SLs, whereas in M. truncatula, NSP2 is essential for conversion of orobanchol into didehydro-orobanchol, which is the main SL produced by this species. The disturbed SL biosynthesis in nsp1 nsp2 mutant backgrounds correlates with reduced expression of DWARF27, a gene essential for SL biosynthesis. Rice and M. truncatula represent distinct phylogenetic lineages that split approximately 150 million years ago. Therefore, we conclude that regulation of SL biosynthesis by NSP1 and NSP2 is an ancestral function conserved in higher plants. NSP1 and NSP2 are single-copy genes in legumes, which implies that both proteins fulfill dual regulatory functions to control downstream targets after rhizobium-induced signaling as well as SL biosynthesis in nonsymbiotic conditions. PMID:22039214

Professional Citation Practices in Child Maltreatment Forensic Letters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schryer, Catherine F.; Bell, Stephanie; Mian, Marcellina; Spafford, Marlee M.; Lingard, Lorelei

2011-01-01

Using rhetorical genre theory and research on reported speech, this study investigates the citation practices in 81 forensic letters written by paediatricians and nurse practitioners that provide their opinion for the courts as to whether a child has experienced maltreatment. These letters exist in a complex social situation where a lack of…

Visual Imagery for Letters and Words. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weber, Robert J.

In a series of six experiments, undergraduate college students visually imagined letters or words and then classified as rapidly as possible the imagined letters for some physical property such as vertical height. This procedure allowed for a preliminary assessment of the temporal parameters of visual imagination. The results delineate a number of…

Letter to the Editor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2000-01-01

All the Letters to the Editor in this issue are in the same PostScript or PDF file. Contents Looking back on Physics Peter Gill Lecturer in Education, School of Education, King's College London, Franklin-Wilkins Building, Waterloo Road, London SE1 8WA

Sexual risk behavior in men attending Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, Louisiana.

PubMed

Benotsch, Eric G; Nettles, Christopher D; Wong, Felicia; Redmann, Jean; Boschini, Jill; Pinkerton, Steven D; Ragsdale, Kathleen; Mikytuck, John J

2007-10-01

Previous research with travelers points to higher risk behaviors during vacations. Relative to their day-to-day lives, leisure travelers have more free time to pursue sexual activities and are likely to engage in higher rates of substance use than when at home. Risk behaviors during vacation have not been thoroughly examined in men who have sex with men (MSM), a key group at risk for HIV. The present investigation examined substance use, sexual risk behaviors, and components of the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) Model in MSM attending Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans. Almost half of the sexually active men reported having sex with a partner of unknown HIV status while in New Orleans and a similar number did not disclose their own HIV status to all of their sexual partners. Drug use and excessive alcohol use were associated with unprotected sex (ps < .05). Components of the IMB model also predicted sexual risk behavior: individuals with more accurate HIV transmission information reported fewer unprotected sex acts, and motivation to engage in sexual activity on vacation was associated with more unprotected sex (ps < .05). Findings suggest that some MSM on vacation are placing themselves at risk for HIV. Traditional HIV prevention interventions do not readily lend themselves for use with transient populations. New intervention approaches are needed to reduce sexual risk behaviors in persons traveling for leisure.

SEXUAL RISK BEHAVIOR IN MEN ATTENDING MARDI GRAS CELEBRATIONS IN NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

PubMed Central

Benotsch, Eric G.; Nettles, Christopher D.; Wong, Felicia; Redmann, Jean; Boschini, Jill; Pinkerton, Steven D.; Ragsdale, Kathleen; Mikytuck, John J.

2008-01-01

Previous research with travelers points to higher risk behaviors during vacations. Relative to their day-to-day lives, leisure travelers have more free time to pursue sexual activities and are likely to engage in higher rates of substance use than when at home. Risk behaviors during vacation have not been thoroughly examined in men who have sex with men (MSM), a key group at risk for HIV. The present investigation examined substance use, sexual risk behaviors, and components of the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) Model in MSM attending Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans. Almost half of the sexually active men reported having sex with a partner of unknown HIV status while in New Orleans and a similar number did not disclose their own HIV status to all of their sexual partners. Drug use and excessive alcohol use were associated with unprotected sex (ps < .05). Components of the IMB model also predicted sexual risk behavior: individuals with more accurate HIV transmission information reported fewer unprotected sex acts, and motivation to engage in sexual activity on vacation was associated with more unprotected sex (ps < .05). Findings suggest that some MSM on vacation are placing themselves at risk for HIV. Traditional HIV prevention interventions do not readily lend themselves for use with transient populations. New intervention approaches are needed to reduce sexual risk behaviors in persons traveling for leisure. PMID:17922205

Walking a Fine Line: Writing Negative Letters in an Insurance Company.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schryer, Catherine F.

2000-01-01

Examines the situated-language practices associated with the production of negative letters in an insurance company. Combines textual analyses of a set of negative letters together with writers' accounts of producing these letters to identify effective strategies for composing this correspondence. Identifies some strategies that characterize…

Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color

PubMed Central

Colizoli, Olympia; Murre, Jaap M. J.; Rouw, Romke

2014-01-01

Synesthesia is a rare condition in which a stimulus from one modality automatically and consistently triggers unusual sensations in the same and/or other modalities. A relatively common and well-studied type is grapheme-color synesthesia, defined as the consistent experience of color when viewing, hearing and thinking about letters, words and numbers. We describe our method for investigating to what extent synesthetic associations between letters and colors can be learned by reading in color in nonsynesthetes. Reading in color is a special method for training associations in the sense that the associations are learned implicitly while the reader reads text as he or she normally would and it does not require explicit computer-directed training methods. In this protocol, participants are given specially prepared books to read in which four high-frequency letters are paired with four high-frequency colors. Participants receive unique sets of letter-color pairs based on their pre-existing preferences for colored letters. A modified Stroop task is administered before and after reading in order to test for learned letter-color associations and changes in brain activation. In addition to objective testing, a reading experience questionnaire is administered that is designed to probe for differences in subjective experience. A subset of questions may predict how well an individual learned the associations from reading in color. Importantly, we are not claiming that this method will cause each individual to develop grapheme-color synesthesia, only that it is possible for certain individuals to form letter-color associations by reading in color and these associations are similar in some aspects to those seen in developmental grapheme-color synesthetes. The method is quite flexible and can be used to investigate different aspects and outcomes of training synesthetic associations, including learning-induced changes in brain function and structure. PMID:24638033

Letters to the Editor of the AAS Newsletter: A Personal Story

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Linsky, Jeffrey L.

2006-01-01

Since 1987 the American Astronomical Society Newsletter has published some 142 Letters to the Editor that provide the personal statements and concerns of astronomers about the policies, priorities, and experiences of being an astronomer. While these Letters do not provide a scientific sampling of the issues, they do provide an illuminating picture of the astronomical scene as seen from the perspectives of our colleagues. I describe the history and policies of the Letters section, then summarize the issues presented and debated in these Letters. The topics (in order of numbers of Letters published) are: (1) publishing and refereeing, (2) how the AAS and IAU conduct their business, (3) jobs and how to get them, (4) support for astronomy, (5) scientific units and time, (6) public policy issues, (7) planning for telescopes and space missions, (8) how astronomers do their work, (9) women in astronomy, (10) the work environment, and (11) other issues. A chronological list of the Letters by title and author is included.

Should intellectual property be disseminated by "forwarding" rejected letters without permission?

PubMed

Gupta, V K

1996-08-01

Substantive scientific letter writing is a cost-effective mode of complementing observational and experimental research. The value of such philosophically uncommitted and unsponsored well-balanced scientific activity has been relegated. Critical letter writing entails the abilities to: maintain rational scepticism; refuse to conform in order to explain data; persist in keeping common sense centre-stage; exercise logic to evaluate the biological significance of mathematical figures, including statistics, and the ability to sustain the will to share insights regarding disease mechanisms on an ostensibly lower research platform. During peer review, innovative letter writing may share the occasionally unfortunate fate of innovative research. Rejected scientific letters do not automatically lose copyright. Periodicals with high letter loads will see some valuable contributions wasted, but that is the price for maintaining autonomy in scientific publication. The scientific community is an integrated whole that must respect the rights of authors at all levels. Unauthorised forwarding of rejected letters sets the dangerous precedent of justifying unjust means.

Orthographic Coding: Brain Activation for Letters, Symbols, and Digits.

PubMed

Carreiras, Manuel; Quiñones, Ileana; Hernández-Cabrera, Juan Andrés; Duñabeitia, Jon Andoni

2015-12-01

The present experiment investigates the input coding mechanisms of 3 common printed characters: letters, numbers, and symbols. Despite research in this area, it is yet unclear whether the identity of these 3 elements is processed through the same or different brain pathways. In addition, some computational models propose that the position-in-string coding of these elements responds to general flexible mechanisms of the visual system that are not character-specific, whereas others suggest that the position coding of letters responds to specific processes that are different from those that guide the position-in-string assignment of other types of visual objects. Here, in an fMRI study, we manipulated character position and character identity through the transposition or substitution of 2 internal elements within strings of 4 elements. Participants were presented with 2 consecutive visual strings and asked to decide whether they were the same or different. The results showed: 1) that some brain areas responded more to letters than to numbers and vice versa, suggesting that processing may follow different brain pathways; 2) that the left parietal cortex is involved in letter identity, and critically in letter position coding, specifically contributing to the early stages of the reading process; and that 3) a stimulus-specific mechanism for letter position coding is operating during orthographic processing. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Letters to a Young Baller: Exploring Epistolary Criticism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chawansky, Megan

2010-01-01

This article explores the possibilities of epistolary criticism within the realm of sport studies and aspires to encourage scholars to consider the use of non-traditional sport memorabilia and source materials when telling emotive stories about sport and sport practices. The use of letters and the letter-writing format to tell a personal narrative…

Melanie Klein's letters addressed to Marcelle Spira (1955-1960).

PubMed

Quinodoz, Jean-Michel

2009-12-01

Between 1955 and 1960, Melanie Klein wrote some 45 hitherto unpublished letters to Marcelle Spira, the Swiss psychoanalyst living at that time in Geneva. In 2006, after Spira's death, these letters were deposited with the Raymond de Saussure Psychoanalysis Centre in Geneva. They are the only known letters that Klein addressed to her psychoanalyst colleagues. Several topics are mentioned in them: (1) the meetings between the two women in Geneva and London; (2) Spira's contribution to Boulanger's translation into French of The Psychoanalysis of Children, which Klein herself carefully revised; (3) the papers that Klein was at that time working on, including Envy and Gratitude; (4) Spira's own work; (5) the difficulties that Spira, a Kleinian psychoanalyst who trained in Buenos Aires, was encountering in her attempt to be admitted to the Swiss Psychoanalytical Society; and (6) a few items of personal and family news. In addition to the invaluable historical information that these letters provide, they offer us a very moving epistolary self-portrait of Melanie Klein, enabling us to discover her personality in the final years of her life - she died in September 1960, just two months after writing her last letter to Spira.

[Representation of letter position in visual word recognition process].

PubMed

Makioka, S

1994-08-01

Two experiments investigated the representation of letter position in visual word recognition process. In Experiment 1, subjects (12 undergraduates and graduates) were asked to detect a target word in a briefly-presented probe. Probes consisted of two kanji words. The latters which formed targets (critical letters) were always contained in probes. (e.g. target: [symbol: see text] probe: [symbol: see text]) High false alarm rate was observed when critical letters occupied the same within-word relative position (left or right within the word) in the probe words as in the target word. In Experiment 2 (subject were ten undergraduates and graduates), spaces adjacent to probe words were replaced by randomly chosen hiragana letters (e.g. [symbol: see text]), because spaces are not used to separate words in regular Japanese sentences. In addition to the effect of within-word relative position as in Experiment 1, the effect of between-word relative position (left or right across the probe words) was observed. These results suggest that information about within-word relative position of a letter is used in word recognition process. The effect of within-word relative position was explained by a connectionist model of word recognition.

[Patients' letters and pre-modern medical lay-culture].

PubMed

Stolberg, Michael

2007-01-01

Consulting by letter was fairly common practice among the educated, upper classes of early modern Europe. Surviving letters of consultation written by patients, relatives or friends count among the most valuable source for the analysis of pre-modern experiences of disease and the body. This essay gives a brief overview of the various types of consultation letters and related documents which resulted from this practice before tracing the historical development of epistolary consultations from the late Middle Ages through the heyday medical correspondence in the 18th c. before its decline in the 19th c. It presents "experience", "self-fashioning" and "discourse" as three particularly fruitful levels of analysis on which patients' letters can be used within the wider framework of a cultural history of medicine. These three levels of analysis, or three distinct approaches, enable historians to access a greater awareness of the ways in which the experience of illness and the body is culturally framed with an analysis of the performative effects of patients' narratives and the influence of medical discourse among the wider society.

78 FR 2407 - Medicare Payment Advisory Commission Nomination Letters

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-01-11

... GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE Medicare Payment Advisory Commission Nomination Letters AGENCY: Government Accountability Office (GAO). ACTION: Notice on letters of nomination. SUMMARY: The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 established the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and gave the Comptroller...

76 FR 81503 - Medicare Payment Advisory Commission Nomination Letters

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-28

... GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE Medicare Payment Advisory Commission Nomination Letters AGENCY: Government Accountability Office (GAO). ACTION: Notice on letters of nomination. SUMMARY: The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 established the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and gave the Comptroller...

Caring Letters for Military Suicide Prevention: A Randomized Controlled Trial

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-03-01

AWARD NUMBER: W81XWH-11-2-0123 TITLE: Caring Letters for Military Suicide Prevention: A Randomized Controlled Trial PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Dr...Caring Letters for Military Suicide Prevention: A Randomized 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER Controlled Trial 5b. GRANT NUMBER W81XWH-11-2-0123 5c. PROGRAM...determine if the intervention is effective in preventing suicide and suicidal behaviors among Service Members and Veterans. The “caring letters

Letter from the Board of Directors of Astronomy & Astrophysics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meynet, Georges

2005-07-01

1. New A&A memberships and scientific editorial structure for the Letters section At its meeting in Tartu, Estonia on 8 May 2004, the A&A Board of Directors decided to grant observer status on the Board to Brazil, Chile, and Portugal (Sandqvist 2004, A&A, 426, E15). Then on 6-7 May 2005, at its meeting in La Laguna, Spain, the Board of Directors admitted these three countries to full membership in A&A, starting 1 January 2006. The Letters Editor, Dr. P. Schneider, will complete his terms of service on 31 January 2006. A&A is indebted to him for his thoughtful and competent editing over the past several years. As a consequence of his departure, the Board has decided to restructure the manner in which the Letters will be handled as of 1 January 2006. The Associate Editor-in-Chief, Dr. M. Walmsley, will also become Editor-in-Chief for the Letters, and he will forward the Letters to the appropriate topical Associate Editor to organize the reviewing process. Likewise, the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. C. Bertout, will become the Associate Letters-Editor-in-Chief. This change will permit a more specialized treatment of Letters in the future and also allow Letters to benefit from language editing. Hence, after 1 January 2006, manuscripts for Letters should be submitted via the A&A Manuscript Management System (MMS) that is already in place for Main Journal submissions. Letters submitted before that will be handled by the current Letters Editor even after 1 January 2006. 2. New Associate Editor positions Considering both the increased workload on the Associate Editors due to the above change and the continuing specialization of sub-fields in astronomy, the Board decided to open two new positions for Associate Editors, one specialized in Cosmology with a particular interest in theoretical aspects and the other in Observational Stellar Physics. Applications are invited for these two new positions. The Associate Editors are expected to have a broad knowledge of astronomy and

[Letters] LightSquared Subsidiary LCC.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-07-01

For consideration in the above-referenced pending proceeding before the Federal : Communications Commission (FCC), the National Telecommunications and Information : Administration (NTIA) forwards for inclusion in the record the enclosed letter from t...

Parallel public spheres: distance and discourse in letters to the editor.

PubMed

Perrin, Andrew J; Vaisey, Stephen

2008-11-01

This article examines letters to the editor as one of the ways citizens seek to enact a public sphere using technological mediation. Using a sample of all letters received by a metropolitan newspaper during a three-month period (N = 1,113), the authors demonstrate that the tone and argumentative styles of letters differ with the scope of the issues the letters address. Local issues evoke more reasoned, conciliatory tones, while issues beyond the local context evoke more emotional, confrontational tones, even after controlling for individual writers' characteristics and anger as a motivation to write.

The impact of familiarization strategies on the missing-letter effect.

PubMed

Plamondon, Andréanne; Roy-Charland, Annie; Chamberland, Justin; Quenneville, Joannie; Laforge, Christian

2017-08-01

When reading a text and searching for a target letter, readers make more omissions of the target letter if it is embedded in frequent function words than if it is in rare content words. While word frequency effects are consistently found, few studies have examined the impacts of passage familiarity on the missing-letter effect and studies that have present conflicting evidence. The present study examines the effects of passage familiarity, as well as the impacts of passage familiarization strategy promoting surface or deep encoding, on the missing-letter effect. Participants were familiarized with a passage by retyping a text, replacing all common nouns with synonyms, or generating a text on the same topic as that of the original text, and then completed a letter search task on the familiar passage as well as an unfamiliar passage. In Experiment 1, when both familiar and unfamiliar passages use the same words, results revealed fewer omissions for the retyping and synonyms conditions. However, in Experiment 2, when different words are used in both types of texts, no effect of familiarization strategy was observed. Furthermore, the missing-letter effect is maintained in all conditions, adding support to the robustness of the effect regardless of familiarity with the text.

Do They Know Their ABCs? Letter-Name Knowledge of Urban Preschoolers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edwards, Liesl

2012-01-01

This study analyzed the performance and growth in letter knowledge and letter identification skills of children across an academic year. Repeated measures analyses of variance were conducted on letter name knowledge measures administered at three time points for all participating children (N = 177) and seven time points for children (n = 106)…

Harvard Education Letter, 1999.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graves-Desai, Kelly, Ed.

1999-01-01

This document is comprised of the six issues in volume 15 of the Harvard Education Letter, a bimonthly newsletter addressing current issues in elementary and secondary education. Articles in this volume include the following: (1) January-February--"Retention vs. Social Promotion: Schools Search for Alternatives" (Kelly), and "School…

50 CFR 216.258 - Renewal of Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE MARINE MAMMALS REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE TAKING AND IMPORTING OF MARINE MAMMALS Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Conducting Precision Strike Weapon Missions in the Gulf of Mexico § 216.258 Renewal of Letters of Authorization. (a) A Letter of Authorization...

What differs in visual recognition of handwritten vs. printed letters? An fMRI study.

PubMed

Longcamp, Marieke; Hlushchuk, Yevhen; Hari, Riitta

2011-08-01

In models of letter recognition, handwritten letters are considered as a particular font exemplar, not qualitatively different in their processing from printed letters. Yet, some data suggest that recognizing handwritten letters might rely on distinct processes, possibly related to motor knowledge. We applied functional magnetic resonance imaging to compare the neural correlates of perceiving handwritten letters vs. standard printed letters. Statistical analysis circumscribed to frontal brain regions involved in hand-movement triggering and execution showed that processing of handwritten letters is supported by a stronger activation of the left primary motor cortex and the supplementary motor area. At the whole-brain level, additional differences between handwritten and printed letters were observed in the right superior frontal, middle occipital, and parahippocampal gyri, and in the left inferior precentral and the fusiform gyri. The results are suggested to indicate embodiment of the visual perception of handwritten letters. Copyright © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Contributions of Emergent Literacy Skills to Name Writing, Letter Writing, and Spelling in Preschool Children

PubMed Central

Puranik, Cynthia S.; Lonigan, Christopher J.; Kim, Young-Suk

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine which emergent literacy skills contribute to preschool children’s emergent writing (name-writing, letter-writing, and spelling) skills. Emergent reading and writing tasks were administered to 296 preschool children aged 4–5 years. Print knowledge and letter-writing skills made positive contributions to name writing; whereas alphabet knowledge, print knowledge, and name writing made positive contributions to letter writing. Both name-writing and letter-writing skills made significant contributions to the prediction of spelling after controlling for age, parental education, print knowledge, phonological awareness, and letter-name and letter-sound knowledge; however, only letter-writing abilities made a significant unique contribution to the prediction of spelling when both letter-writing and name-writing skills were considered together. Name writing reflects knowledge of some letters rather than a broader knowledge of letters that may be needed to support early spelling. Children’s letter-writing skills may be a better indicator of children’s emergent literacy and developing spelling skills than are their name-writing skills at the end of the preschool year. Spelling is a developmentally complex skill beginning in preschool and includes letter writing and blending skills, print knowledge, and letter-name and letter-sound knowledge. PMID:21927537

Harvard Education Letter, 2002.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gordon, David T., Editor

2002-01-01

This document is comprised of the 6 issues in volume 18 of the Harvard Education Letter, a bimonthly newsletter addressing current issues in elementary and secondary education. Articles in this volume include the following: (1) January/February--"Curriculum Access in the Digital Age" (David T. Gordon) and "Using Charters To Improve…

Harvard Education Letter, 2001.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gordon, David, T., Ed.

2001-01-01

This document is comprised of the six issues in volume 17 of the Harvard Education Letter, a bimonthly newsletter addressing current issues in elementary and secondary education. Articles in this volume include the following: (1) January-February--"Charters and Districts: Three Stages in an Often Rocky Relationship" (Kelly) and "'We…

Linking the shapes of alphabet letters to their sounds: the case of Hebrew

PubMed Central

Levin, Iris; Kessler, Brett

2011-01-01

Learning the sounds of letters is an important part of learning a writing system. Most previous studies of this process have examined English, focusing on variations in the phonetic iconicity of letter names as a reason why some letter sounds (such as that of b, where the sound is at the beginning of the letter’s name) are easier to learn than others (such as that of w, where the sound is not in the name). The present study examined Hebrew, where variations in the phonetic iconicity of letter names are minimal. In a study of 391 Israeli children with a mean age of 5 years, 10 months, we used multilevel models to examine the factors that are associated with knowledge of letter sounds. One set of factors involved letter names: Children sometimes attributed to a letter a consonant–vowel sound consisting of the first phonemes of the letter’s name. A second set of factors involved contrast: Children had difficulty when there was relatively little contrast in shape between one letter and others. Frequency was also important, encompassing both child-specific effects, such as a benefit for the first letter of a child’s forename, and effects that held true across children, such as a benefit for the first letters of the alphabet. These factors reflect general properties of human learning. PMID:22345901

50 CFR 218.188 - Modifications to Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 9 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Modifications to Letters of Authorization. 218.188 Section 218.188 Wildlife and Fisheries NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND... Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division § 218.188 Modifications to Letters of Authorization. (a...

50 CFR 218.188 - Modifications to Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 7 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Modifications to Letters of Authorization. 218.188 Section 218.188 Wildlife and Fisheries NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND... Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division § 218.188 Modifications to Letters of Authorization. (a...

50 CFR 218.188 - Modifications to Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 10 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Modifications to Letters of Authorization. 218.188 Section 218.188 Wildlife and Fisheries NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND... Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division § 218.188 Modifications to Letters of Authorization. (a...

50 CFR 218.188 - Modifications to Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... 50 Wildlife and Fisheries 10 2013-10-01 2013-10-01 false Modifications to Letters of Authorization. 218.188 Section 218.188 Wildlife and Fisheries NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND... Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division § 218.188 Modifications to Letters of Authorization. (a...

Sensory factors limiting horizontal and vertical visual span for letter recognition

PubMed Central

Yu, Deyue; Legge, Gordon E.; Wagoner, Gunther; Chung, Susana T. L.

2014-01-01

Reading speed for English text is slower for text oriented vertically than horizontally. Yu, Park, Gerold, and Legge (2010) showed that slower reading of vertical text is associated with a smaller visual span (the number of letters recognized with high accuracy without moving the eyes). Three possible sensory determinants of the size of the visual span are: resolution (decreasing acuity at letter positions farther from the midline), mislocations (uncertainty about the relative position of letters in strings), and crowding (interference from flanking letters in recognizing the target letter). In the present study, we asked which of these factors is most important in determining the size of the visual span, and likely in turn in determining the horizontal/vertical difference in reading when letter size is above the critical print size for reading. We used a decomposition analysis to represent constraints due to resolution, mislocations, and crowding as losses in information transmitted (in bits) about letter recognition. Across vertical and horizontal conditions, crowding accounted for 75% of the loss in information, mislocations accounted for 19% of the loss, and declining acuity away from fixation accounted for only 6%. We conclude that crowding is the major factor limiting the size of the visual span, and that the horizontal/vertical difference in the size of the visual span is associated with stronger crowding along the vertical midline. PMID:25187253

Sensory factors limiting horizontal and vertical visual span for letter recognition

PubMed Central

Yu, Deyue; Legge, Gordon E.; Wagoner, Gunther; Chung, Susana T. L.

2014-01-01

Reading speed for English text is slower for text oriented vertically than horizontally. Yu, Park, Gerold, and Legge (2010) showed that slower reading of vertical text is associated with a smaller visual span (the number of letters recognized with high accuracy without moving the eyes). Three possible sensory determinants of the size of the visual span are: resolution (decreasing acuity at letter positions farther from the midline), mislocations (uncertainty about the relative position of letters in strings), and crowding (interference from flanking letters in recognizing the target letter). In the present study, we asked which of these factors is most important in determining the size of the visual span, and likely in turn in determining the horizontal/vertical difference in reading when letter size is above the critical print size for reading. We used a decomposition analysis to represent constraints due to resolution, mislocations, and crowding as losses in information transmitted (in bits) about letter recognition. Across vertical and horizontal conditions, crowding accounted for 75% of the loss in information, mislocations accounted for 19% of the loss, and declining acuity away from fixation accounted for only 6%. We conclude that crowding is the major factor limiting the size of the visual span, and that the horizontal/vertical difference in the size of the visual span is associated with stronger crowding along the vertical midline.

The Fuzzy Scarlet Letter

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pallas, Aaron M.

2012-01-01

Critics of the public release of teacher evaluation scores sometimes liken these ratings to the scarlet letter worn by Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel. The comparison is apt. But public school teachers who are subjected to public shaming because of their students' test scores can rarely expect the opportunities for redemption…

Letters in this Issue

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1998-01-01

Reforming the General Chemistry Textbook individual letters by Edward T. Samulski; Stephen J. Hawkes; Stephen J. Fisher; J. Stephen Hartman; A. R. H. Cole; Stanley Pine, Ronald Archer, and Herbert Kaesz; Jimmy Reeves; Robert Hill; and Brock Spencer, C. Bradley Moore and Nedah Rose. Re: article by R. J. Gillespie The author replies

Harvard Education Letter, 2000.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gordon, David T., Ed.

2000-01-01

This document is comprised of the six issues in volume 16 of the Harvard Education Letter, a bimonthly newsletter addressing current issues in elementary and secondary education. Articles in this volume include the following: (1) January-February--"Grade Inflation: What's Really behind All Those A's?" (Birk) and "Every Friday was Fight Day"…

Letter from Brian Croft and Andrew Johnson, Tetra Tech EM, Inc., to Steve Spurlin, USEPA. Subject: Emergency Response Report, American Drum and Pallet Site, TN. EPA Contract Ep-W-05-054, TDD No. TTEMI-05-001-0040

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Contains April l4, 2008 letter submitting the emergency response report for the American Drum and Pallet Site in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee. This report summarizes field activities conducted at the site from June 11, 2007 through January 18, 2008.

Einstein/Roosevelt Letters: A Unit.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bodle, Walter S.

1985-01-01

The letters in this unit of study intended for secondary students are facsimile reproductions of the correspondence between Albert Einstein and President Roosevelt on the possibility of constructing an atomic bomb. Classroom activities are also suggested. (RM)

[Hemispheric differences in letter matching of hiragana and katakana].

PubMed

Iizuka, K; Sato, H

1992-07-01

The purpose of the present study was to examine the hemispheric differences in letter matching of hiragana and katakana. The stimuli with a pair of each one letter of hiragana and katakana were presented unilaterally to the right or left visual hemifield with a tachistoscope. The subjects were 40 male right handers. They were required to judge whether a pair of letters had the same name or different one. A significant right visual hemifield superiority was observed for both the accuracy of recognition and reaction time. The results suggest that the callosal relay model of Zaidel may be applied to the name matching task.

Letter processing and font information during reading: beyond distinctiveness, where vision meets design.

PubMed

Sanocki, Thomas; Dyson, Mary C

2012-01-01

Letter identification is a critical front end of the reading process. In general, conceptualizations of the identification process have emphasized arbitrary sets of distinctive features. However, a richer view of letter processing incorporates principles from the field of type design, including an emphasis on uniformities across letters within a font. The importance of uniformities is supported by a small body of research indicating that consistency of font increases letter identification efficiency. We review design concepts and the relevant literature, with the goal of stimulating further thinking about letter processing during reading.

The Syntax of Persuasion: Two Business Letters of Request.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Limaye, Mohan R.

1983-01-01

Business letter-writers are advised to develop reader empathy and benefit before they ask a favor. The author analyzed two model 16th century letters of request to determine if similar advice was given in the past, and found that the request was subordinate to building a mutually beneficial relationship. (PD)

Transhuman Education? Sloterdijk's Reading of Heidegger's "Letter on Humanism"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Long, Fiachra

2017-01-01

Peter Sloterdijk presented a reading of Heidegger's "Letter on Humanism" at a conference held at Elmau in 1999. Reinterpreting the meaning of humanism in the light of Heidegger's "Letter," Sloterdijk focused his presentation on the need to redefine education as a form of genetic "taming" and proposed what seemed to be…

Positioning Resumes and Cover Letters as Reflective-Reflexive Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Randazzo, Chalice

2012-01-01

Although the resume and cover letter genre is widely discussed in both popular and scholarly publications, discussion thus far has failed to acknowledge that the process of creating a resume and cover letter has the potential for encouraging students' reflective and reflexive capacities. This article suggests that business communication educators…

Strengthening the Ethics and Visual Rhetoric of Sales Letters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Linda Stallworth

2008-01-01

This article provides details about a comprehensive assignment for teaching sales letters in a business communication course. During the past 5 years, this assignment has evolved, moving beyond one that focused almost exclusively on strategies for making the letter persuasive, and therefore effective, to an expanded form that devotes time and…

The Overlap Model: A Model of Letter Position Coding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gomez, Pablo; Ratcliff, Roger; Perea, Manuel

2008-01-01

Recent research has shown that letter identity and letter position are not integral perceptual dimensions (e.g., jugde primes judge in word-recognition experiments). Most comprehensive computational models of visual word recognition (e.g., the interactive activation model, J. L. McClelland & D. E. Rumelhart, 1981, and its successors) assume that…

A Fragmentary Archive: Migratory Feelings in Early Anglo-Saxon Women's Letters.

PubMed

Watt, Diane

2017-01-01

The letters by Anglo-Saxon women in the Boniface correspondence are connected by cultural practices and emotions centered on the conversion mission that functioned to maintain connections between the Anglo-Saxon diaspora. A striking recurring focus of these letters is on loss and isolation, which connects them to the Old English elegies. Many of the letters describe the writers' traumatic experiences that result from the death or absence of kin. These are women who endured the trauma of being left behind when others migrated overseas or who, in traveling away from their homeland, found themselves isolated in an alien environment, displaced in time as well as space. This article offers an analysis of the letters, focusing on the queer temporalities they explore, the queer emotions they evoke, and the queer kinships that they forge. It argues that the women's letters represent fragments of an early queer archive of migratory feelings.

Toward a Better Letter

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paterson, Jim

2017-01-01

Letters of recommendation consume a lot of time and thought as they are solicited, written, and read, and, while many high school and college admission officials say that work pays off by providing a university with valuable and sometimes unique information about prospective students, most everyone also agrees they could be more effective. Some…

Open letter to the Vatican.

PubMed

1999-01-01

An open letter was published by Latin American and Caribbean women during the Special Session of the UN General Assembly on the International Conference on Population and Development. The letter generally focused on the Church¿s stand on women's reproductive rights. In particular, it questioned the Church on the following aspects of reproductive health, which include: 1) maternal death related to lack of access to reproductive health care; 2) Vatican representatives insisting that only parents can supervise their children education and health, which also lead to many cases of sexual abuse and incest; 3) women's sexual inequality and daily violence; 4) the Vatican delegation blocking the advances of contraception, sexual education, and HIV prevention; 5) problems of migrants and allocation of resources; and 6) the Church failing to recognize the capacity of young people to make decisions based on their own conscience.

Linking the Shapes of Alphabet Letters to Their Sounds: The Case of Hebrew

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Treiman, Rebecca; Levin, Iris; Kessler, Brett

2012-01-01

Learning the sounds of letters is an important part of learning a writing system. Most previous studies of this process have examined English, focusing on variations in the phonetic iconicity of letter names as a reason why some letter sounds (such as that of b, where the sound is at the beginning of the letter's name) are easier to learn than…

Gender and Ethnic Bias in Letters of Recommendation: Considerations for School Counselors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akos, Patrick; Kretchmar, Jennifer

2017-01-01

School counselors write letters of recommendation for students pursuing postsecondary education and help teachers and staff prepare for this task. Although letters of recommendation may impact admission and scholarship opportunities, research about equity and bias in letters is minimal as compared to standardized tests, teacher expectations, and…

50 CFR 216.236 - Renewal of a Letter of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... Complex, Kodiak Island, AK § 216.236 Renewal of a Letter of Authorization. (a) A Letter of Authorization...) A determination that the number of marine mammals taken by the activity will be small and that the...

Experience-Dependent Hemispheric Specialization of Letters and Numbers is Revealed in Early Visual Processing

PubMed Central

Park, Joonkoo; Chiang, Crystal; Brannon, Elizabeth M.; Woldorff, Marty G.

2014-01-01

Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging research has demonstrated that letters and numbers are preferentially processed in distinct regions and hemispheres in the visual cortex. In particular, the left visual cortex preferentially processes letters compared to numbers, while the right visual cortex preferentially processes numbers compared to letters. Because letters and numbers are cultural inventions and are otherwise physically arbitrary, such a double dissociation is strong evidence for experiential effects on neural architecture. Here, we use the high temporal resolution of event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the temporal dynamics of the neural dissociation between letters and numbers. We show that the divergence between ERP traces to letters and numbers emerges very early in processing. Letters evoked greater N1 waves (latencies 140–170 ms) than did numbers over left occipital channels, while numbers evoked greater N1s than letters over the right, suggesting letters and numbers are preferentially processed in opposite hemispheres early in visual encoding. Moreover, strings of letters, but not single letters, elicited greater P2 ERP waves, (starting around 250 ms) than numbers did over the left hemisphere, suggesting that the visual cortex is tuned to selectively process combinations of letters, but not numbers, further along in the visual processing stream. Additionally, the processing of both of these culturally defined stimulus types differentiated from similar but unfamiliar visual stimulus forms (false fonts) even earlier in the processing stream (the P1 at 100 ms). These findings imply major cortical specialization processes within the visual system driven by experience with reading and mathematics. PMID:24669789

Experience-dependent hemispheric specialization of letters and numbers is revealed in early visual processing.

PubMed

Park, Joonkoo; Chiang, Crystal; Brannon, Elizabeth M; Woldorff, Marty G

2014-10-01

Recent fMRI research has demonstrated that letters and numbers are preferentially processed in distinct regions and hemispheres in the visual cortex. In particular, the left visual cortex preferentially processes letters compared with numbers, whereas the right visual cortex preferentially processes numbers compared with letters. Because letters and numbers are cultural inventions and are otherwise physically arbitrary, such a double dissociation is strong evidence for experiential effects on neural architecture. Here, we use the high temporal resolution of ERPs to investigate the temporal dynamics of the neural dissociation between letters and numbers. We show that the divergence between ERP traces to letters and numbers emerges very early in processing. Letters evoked greater N1 waves (latencies 140-170 msec) than did numbers over left occipital channels, whereas numbers evoked greater N1s than letters over the right, suggesting letters and numbers are preferentially processed in opposite hemispheres early in visual encoding. Moreover, strings of letters, but not single letters, elicited greater P2 ERP waves (starting around 250 msec) than numbers did over the left hemisphere, suggesting that the visual cortex is tuned to selectively process combinations of letters, but not numbers, further along in the visual processing stream. Additionally, the processing of both of these culturally defined stimulus types differentiated from similar but unfamiliar visual stimulus forms (false fonts) even earlier in the processing stream (the P1 at 100 msec). These findings imply major cortical specialization processes within the visual system driven by experience with reading and mathematics.

50 CFR 216.209 - Renewal of Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... Oil and Gas Facilities in the U.S. Beaufort Sea § 216.209 Renewal of Letters of Authorization. (a) A... be a substantial modification to the described work, mitigation or monitoring undertaken during the upcoming season; (2) Timely receipt of the monitoring reports required under § 216.205, and the Letter of...

50 CFR 216.207 - Applications for Letters of Authorization.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... Oil and Gas Facilities in the U.S. Beaufort Sea § 216.207 Applications for Letters of Authorization... identified in § 216.104(a). (d) NMFS will review an application for an initial Letter of Authorization in..., and at its discretion, the National Marine Fisheries Service may submit the monitoring plan to members...

41 CFR 105-8.170-8 - Letter of findings.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Letter of findings. 105... Letter of findings. If an informal resolution of the complaint is not reached, the Official shall, within... shall contain, at a minimum, the following: (a) Findings of fact and conclusions of law; (b) A...

32 CFR 884.17 - Commander's instruction letter to member.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... instruction letter to member. Subject: Instructions in Case of Release on Bail or Personal Recognizance 1. You... 32 National Defense 6 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Commander's instruction letter to member. 884.17... civilian custody on bail or on your own recognizance, report immediately in person or by telephone to the...

78 FR 10691 - Proposed Collection; Comment Request for the MeF letter

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-02-14

... MeF letter AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Treasury. ACTION: Notice and request for comments... the MeF letter, Mondernized e-File--Non-compliance with Mandate for Large Corporations to file... Number: MeF letter. Abstract: Service will contact those taxpayers who file paper income tax returns to...

Letters to the Editor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1997-07-01

All the Letters to the Editor in this issue are in the same PostScript or PDF file. Contents Joining capacitors R Bridges King Edward's School, Birmingham B15 2UA, UK Enjoying Physics John Bausor 5 Longcrofte Road, Edgware, Middlesex HA8 6RR, UK The disadvantages of success M L Cooper Newham College of Further Education, London

Letters and American Literacy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kevis, David E.

The work itself should help a person who is going to teach reading and writing. Practical suggestions are offered in the final two chapters, while the opening three give intellectual perspectives. A theme binds the work of letting the consciousness of writing as a visual system be increased and of breaking the spell by which letter phonetics can…

Randomized controlled study of customized preventive medicine reminder letters in a community practice.

PubMed Central

Hogg, W. E.; Bass, M.; Calonge, N.; Crouch, H.; Satenstein, G.

1998-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To test the effectiveness of customized, family-oriented reminder letters in activating patients to seek appropriate preventive services. DESIGN: Randomized clinical trial. One group received computer-generated, customized letters explaining recommended preventive procedures for each family member. A second group received a form letter listing recommendations for all preventive procedures for all age and sex groups. A third group (control group) received no letters. SETTING: A private medical centre, without university affiliation, in rural Quebec. PARTICIPANTS: From 8770 patients who met study criteria, 719 families were randomly selected. Data were available for 1971 of 1998 patients in these families. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The Family Received Index is the proportion of all procedures for which a family was overdue that they received. The Family End-of-study Up-to-date Index is the proportion of procedures for which the family was eligible and for which they were up-to-date at the end of the study. RESULTS: The Family Received Index for families mailed customized letters was more than double the index for patients not mailed letters (Kruskal-Wallis P = .0139). Comparison of the Family End-of-study Up-to-date indices also demonstrated that families of patients sent customized letters were more likely to be up-to-date than families not sent letters (Kruskal-Wallis P = .0054). No statistically significant difference appeared between the number of preventive measures received by the control group and the form-letter group. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates a clinically small but statistically significant value to customizing reminder letters. PMID:9481466

A classification of marked hijaiyah letters' pronunciation using hidden Markov model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wisesty, Untari N.; Mubarok, M. Syahrul; Adiwijaya

2017-08-01

Hijaiyah letters are the letters that arrange the words in Al Qur'an consisting of 28 letters. They symbolize the consonant sounds. On the other hand, the vowel sounds are symbolized by harokat/marks. Speech recognition system is a system used to process the sound signal to be data so that it can be recognized by computer. To build the system, some stages are needed i.e characteristics/feature extraction and classification. In this research, LPC and MFCC extraction method, K-Means Quantization vector and Hidden Markov Model classification are used. The data used are the 28 letters and 6 harakat with the total class of 168. After several are testing done, it can be concluded that the system can recognize the pronunciation pattern of marked hijaiyah letter very well in the training data with its highest accuracy of 96.1% using the feature of LPC extraction and 94% using the MFCC. Meanwhile, when testing system is used, the accuracy decreases up to 41%.

The A.I.D.A. Plan and the Writing of Sales Letters.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jong, Rowena

A study based on textual analysis of sales letters is reported that evaluates the Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action (AIDA) approach to teaching the writing of sales letters. Thirty business letters written by undergraduate business students and executives were analyzed. The forms of cohesion, voice pattern, and information focus of the…

Alphabetic letter identification: Effects of perceivability, similarity, and bias☆

PubMed Central

Mueller, Shane T.; Weidemann, Christoph T.

2012-01-01

The legibility of the letters in the Latin alphabet has been measured numerous times since the beginning of experimental psychology. To identify the theoretical mechanisms attributed to letter identification, we report a comprehensive review of literature, spanning more than a century. This review revealed that identification accuracy has frequently been attributed to a subset of three common sources: perceivability, bias, and similarity. However, simultaneous estimates of these values have rarely (if ever) been performed. We present the results of two new experiments which allow for the simultaneous estimation of these factors, and examine how the shape of a visual mask impacts each of them, as inferred through a new statistical model. Results showed that the shape and identity of the mask impacted the inferred perceivability, bias, and similarity space of a letter set, but that there were aspects of similarity that were robust to the choice of mask. The results illustrate how the psychological concepts of perceivability, bias, and similarity can be estimated simultaneously, and how each make powerful contributions to visual letter identification. PMID:22036587

A Dynamic Causal Modeling Analysis of the Effective Connectivities Underlying Top-Down Letter Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Jiangang; Li, Jun; Rieth, Cory A.; Huber, David E.; Tian, Jie; Lee, Kang

2011-01-01

The present study employed dynamic causal modeling to investigate the effective functional connectivity between regions of the neural network involved in top-down letter processing. We used an illusory letter detection paradigm in which participants detected letters while viewing pure noise images. When participants detected letters, the response…

17 CFR 140.99 - Requests for exemptive, no-action and interpretative letters.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... section: (1) Exemptive letter means a written grant of relief issued by the staff of a Division of the.... (3) Interpretative letter means written advice or guidance issued by the staff of a Division of the... behalf the Letter is sought must contain: (A) The name, main business address, main telephone number and...

22 CFR 201.71 - Terms of letters of credit.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... shall not be inconsistent with or contrary to the terms of the letter of commitment. Any such letter of credit or agreement may be modified or extended at any time in such a manner and to such extent as is acceptable to the approved applicant and the bank: Provided, That such modification or extension may not be...

Use of Mobile Applications for Hospital Discharge Letters: Improving Handover at Point of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maher, Bridget; Drachsler, Hendrik; Kalz, Marco; Hoare, Cathal; Sorensen, Humphrey; Lezcano, Leonardo; Henn, Pat; Specht, Marcus

2013-01-01

Handover of patient care is a time of particular risk and it is important that accurate and relevant information is clearly communicated. The hospital discharge letter is an important part of handover. However, the quality of hospital discharge letters is variable and letters frequently omit important information. The Cork Letter-Writing…

Letter from Prashant Gupta, Honeywell to Galo Jackson, USEPA. Subject: Draft Feasibility Study Report for OU 1 (Estuary)

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

October 16, 2013 letter and attachment with responses to June 20, 2013 comments by USEPA about the Operable Unit 1 (OU1) at the LCP Chemicals site in Brunswick, Georgia. Region ID: 04 DocID: 10944892, DocDate: 10-16-2013

Manufacturer Responsiveness to Consumer Correspondence: An Empirical Investigation of Consumer Perceptions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smart, Denise T.; Martin, Charles L.

1992-01-01

Evaluation of manufacturers' responses to 300 consumer letters of praise or complaint as well as consumer's reactions to responses concluded that (1) businesses should tell consumers their input is appreciated; (2) sincere, personal responses are preferred; and (3) coupons, refunds, or similar gifts should be sent with letters. (SK)

Information Use and Attention Deferment in College Student Loan Decisions: Evidence from a Debt Letter Experiment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Darolia, Rajeev; Harper, Casandra

2018-01-01

A prominent concern is that college students are harming their long-term economic prospects by making student loan decisions without full information about the implications of their choices. We designed an experiment to examine students' responses to a debt letter, an increasingly popular strategy to provide easily accessible information about…

Involuntary attention with uncertainty: peripheral cues improve perception of masked letters, but may impair perception of low-contrast letters.

PubMed

Kerzel, Dirk; Gauch, Angélique; Buetti, Simona

2010-10-01

Improvements of perceptual performance following the presentation of peripheral cues have been ascribed to accelerated accrual of information, enhanced contrast perception, and decision bias. We investigated effects of peripheral cues on the perception of Gabor and letter stimuli. Non-predictive, peripheral cues improved perceptual accuracy when the stimuli were masked. In contrast, peripheral cues degraded perception of low-contrast letters and did not affect the perception of low-contrast Gabors. The results suggest that involuntary attention accelerates accrual of information but are not entirely consistent with the idea that involuntary attention enhances subjective contrast. Rather, peripheral cues may cause crowding with single letter targets of low contrast. Further, we investigated the effect of the amount of uncertainty on involuntary attention. Cueing effects were (initially) larger when there were more possible target locations. In addition, cueing effects were larger when error feedback was absent and observers had no knowledge of results. Despite these strategic factors, location uncertainty was not sufficient to produce cueing effects, showing that location uncertainty paired with non-predictive cues reveals perceptual and not (only) decisional processes.

Letters to the Editor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1997-03-01

All the Letters to the Editor in this issue are in the same PostScript or PDF file. Contents Criticisms of hands-on pseudoscience David J Fisher 27 Elderberry Road, Cardiff CF5 3RG, UK Measuring varying fields Don Koks Adelaide University, Australia Relativity at A-level: a comment David Sang 3 Ellasdale Road, Bognor Regis, PO21 2SG, UK

Resource Letter N-1: Nanotechnology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cela, Devin; Dresselhaus, Mildred; Helen Zeng, Tingying; Terrones, Mauricio; Souza Filho, Antonio G.; Ferreira, Odair P.

2014-01-01

This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on Nanotechnology. Journal articles, books, websites, and other documents are cited on the following topics: attributes of various types of nanomaterials, nanotechnology in the context of different academic fields, and the effects of nanotechnology on society.

The Petunia GRAS Transcription Factor ATA/RAM1 Regulates Symbiotic Gene Expression and Fungal Morphogenesis in Arbuscular Mycorrhiza1

PubMed Central

Rich, Mélanie K.

2015-01-01

Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) is a mutual symbiosis that involves a complex symbiotic interface over which nutrients are exchanged between the plant host and the AM fungus. Dozens of genes in the host are required for the establishment and functioning of the interaction, among them nutrient transporters that mediate the uptake of mineral nutrients delivered by the fungal arbuscules. We have isolated in a genetic mutant screen a petunia (Petunia hybrida) GIBBERELLIC ACID INSENSITIVE, REPRESSOR of GIBBERELLIC ACID INSENSITIVE, and SCARECROW (GRAS)-type transcription factor, ATYPICAL ARBUSCULE (ATA), that acts as the central regulator of AM-related genes and is required for the morphogenesis of arbuscules. Forced mycorrhizal inoculations from neighboring wild-type plants revealed an additional role of ATA in restricting mycorrhizal colonization of the root meristem. The lack of ATA, which represents the ortholog of REQUIRED FOR ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZA1 in Medicago truncatula, renders the interaction completely ineffective, hence demonstrating the central role of AM-related genes for arbuscule development and function. PMID:25971550

29 CFR 1626.20 - Procedure for requesting an opinion letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 1626.20 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION PROCEDURES-AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT ACT § 1626.20 Procedure for requesting an opinion letter. (a) A request for an opinion letter should be submitted in writing to the Chairman, Equal Employment Opportunity...

29 CFR 1626.20 - Procedure for requesting an opinion letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 1626.20 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION PROCEDURES-AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT ACT § 1626.20 Procedure for requesting an opinion letter. (a) A request for an opinion letter should be submitted in writing to the Chairman, Equal Employment Opportunity...

29 CFR 1626.20 - Procedure for requesting an opinion letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 1626.20 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION PROCEDURES-AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT ACT § 1626.20 Procedure for requesting an opinion letter. (a) A request for an opinion letter should be submitted in writing to the Chairman, Equal Employment Opportunity...

29 CFR 1626.20 - Procedure for requesting an opinion letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 1626.20 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION PROCEDURES-AGE DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT ACT § 1626.20 Procedure for requesting an opinion letter. (a) A request for an opinion letter should be submitted in writing to the Chairman, Equal Employment Opportunity...

22 CFR 124.12 - Required information in letters of transmittal.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

.... 124.12 Section 124.12 Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT OF STATE INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC IN ARMS REGULATIONS AGREEMENTS, OFF-SHORE PROCUREMENT AND OTHER DEFENSE SERVICES § 124.12 Required information in letters of... Defense Trade Controls. The explanatory letter shall contain: (1) A statement giving the applicant's...

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 22, Number 2, March-April 2006

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2006-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Talking 'bout Evolution: High School Science Teachers Share Strategies for Dealing with Controversy in the Classroom (Nancy Walser); (2) Standards-Based…

29 CFR 1621.3 - Procedure for requesting an opinion letter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 1621.3 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION PROCEDURES-THE EQUAL PAY ACT § 1621.3 Procedure for requesting an opinion letter. (a) A request for an opinion letter should be submitted in writing to the Chairman, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission...

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 22, Number 5, September-October 2006

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2006-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) "R" is for Resilience: Schools Turn to "Asset Development" to Build on Students' Strengths (Nancy Walser); (2) Beyond Bargaining: What…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 26, Number 4, July-August 2010

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2010-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Learning Progressions in Science: A New Approach Emphasizes Sustained Instruction in Big Ideas (Patti Hartigan); (2) Putting the "Boy Crisis" in…

Pirates at Parties: Letter Position Processing in Developing Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kohnen, Saskia; Castles, Anne

2013-01-01

There has been much recent interest in letter position coding in adults, but little is known about the development of this process in children learning to read. Here, the letter position coding abilities of 127 children in Grades 2, 3, and 4 (aged 7-10 years) were examined by comparing their performance in reading aloud "migratable" words (e.g.,…

Detecting letters in continuous text: effects of display size.

PubMed

Healy, A F; Oliver, W L; McNamara, T P

1987-05-01

In three letter detection experiments, subjects responded to each instance of the letter t in continuous text typed in a standard paragraph, typed with one to four words per line, or shown for a fixed duration on a computer screen either one or four words at a time. In the multiword and the standard paragraph conditions, errors were greatest and latencies longest on the word the when it was correctly spelled. This effect was diminished or reversed in the one-word conditions. These findings support a set of unitization hypotheses about the reading process, according to which subjects do not process the constituent letters of a word once that word has been identified unless no other word is in view.

Linking Gender-Related Toy Preferences to Social Structure: Changes in Children's Letters to Santa since 1978.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freeman, George; And Others

A study explored gender differences in toy preferences, using 824 children's responses to a southeastern newspaper's request for letters to Santa Claus. The results suggested that it is in the choice of toys associated with some aspect of the adult social structure where children's preferences show the greatest gender differences. Changes in toy…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 28, Number 2, March-April 2012

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2012-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Course Credits on the Quick: Controversial Online Recovery Programs Speed the Path to Graduation (Andrew Brownstein); (2) Collaborating to Make Schools More Inclusive…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 24, Number 4, July-August 2008

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2008-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Taking the Measure of New Teachers: California Shifts from Standardized Tests to Performance-Based Assessment as a Condition of Licensure (Robert Rothman);…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 21, Number 3, May-June 2005

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.; Sadowski, Michael, Ed.

2005-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Adding Value to Student Assessment: Does "Value-Added Assessment" Live Up to Its Name? (Anand Vaishnav); (2) No Adolescent Left Behind?…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 25, Number 1, January-February 2009

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2009-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Learning Across Distance: Virtual-Instruction Programs Are Growing Rapidly, but the Impact on "Brick-and-Mortar" Classrooms Is Still up in the Air…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 22, Number 1, January-February 2006

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2006-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) The "Data Wise" Improvement Process: Eight Steps for Using Test Data to Improve Teaching and Learning (Kathryn Parker Boudett, Elizabeth A. City,…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 25, Number 4, July-August 2009

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2009-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Putting the Brakes on "Summer Slide": Modified School Calendars Build in Time to Enrich Learning and Sustain Gains (Brigid Schulte); (2) Closing…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 27, Number 1, January-February 2011

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walser, Caroline T., Ed.

2011-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) The Greening of Environmental Ed: Teachers Focus on Complexity, Evidence, and Letting Students Draw Their Own Conclusions (Lucy Hood); (2) Like Teacher,…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 27, Number 4, July-August 2011

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2011-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Integrated Data Systems Link Schools and Communities: Researchers Combine School and Non-School Data to Inform Interventions and Policy (Patti Hartigan);…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 25, Number 3, May-June 2009

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2009-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Improving Teaching and Learning through Instructional Rounds (Lee Teitel); (2) Developmentally Appropriate Practice in the Age of Testing: New Reports Outline Key Principles…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 25, Number 6, November-December 2009

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2009-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) "Platooning" Instruction: Districts Weigh Pros and Cons of Departmentalizing Elementary Schools (Lucy Hood); (2) Behind the Classroom Door: A Rare Glimpse Indicates the…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 27, Number 3, May-June 2011

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2011-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Bringing Art into School, Byte by Byte: Innovative Programs Use Technology to Expand Access to the Arts (Patti Hartigan); (2) Differentiated Instruction…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 26, Number 2, March-April 2010

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2010-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Online Testing, Version 1.0: Oregon's Adaptive Computer-Based Accountability Test Offers a Peek at a Brave New Future (Robert Rothman); (2) Beyond…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 26, Number 5, September-October 2010

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walser, Nancy, Ed.

2010-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Scenes from the School Turnaround Movement: Passion, Frustration, Mid-Course Corrections Mark Rapid Reforms (Laura Pappano); (2) The Media Savvy Educator:…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 20, Number 1, January-February 2004

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gordon, David T., Ed.

2004-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Bringing Parents on Board: Strong Home-School Connections Enrich Learning Opportunities for Immigrant Kids--and Their Parents, Too (Sue Miller Wiltz); (2)…

EPA Lead and Copper Rule State Response Documents

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

EPA recently sent letters to Governors and state environment and public health commissioners outlining specific steps to enhance oversight of LCR implementation. Below are the state responses to these letters EPA has received.

How to write effective business letters: scribing information for pharmacists.

PubMed

Hamilton, C W

1993-11-01

Pharmacists frequently write letters but lack specific training on how to do it well. This review summarizes strategies for improving business correspondence, emphasizes basic writing guidelines, and offers practical advice for pharmacists. The first steps for effective communication are careful planning and identifying the main message to be conveyed. The purpose for writing should be stated in the opening paragraph of the letter. To ensure a successful outcome, actions needed should be clearly summarized and visually highlighted. The tone of the letter should reflect a reasonable speech pattern, not the cryptic writing found in many scientific papers. The layout of the letter should be inviting, which is readily achievable through judicious use of word processing. Many delivery options are available, such as traditional postal services, express mail, and facsimile transmission. Readers are encouraged to test these basic writing principles and decide for themselves whether these recommendations affect the success of business correspondence.

24 CFR 200.63 - Required deposits and letters of credit.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... Commissioner for collection under the letter of credit. In the event a demand for payment thereunder is not... credit. 200.63 Section 200.63 Housing and Urban Development Regulations Relating to Housing and Urban... Required deposits and letters of credit. (a) Deposits. Where the Commissioner requires the mortgagor to...

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 22, Number 4, July-August 2006

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2006-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Beyond Auto Shop 1: Is Career and Technical Education a Promising Path for High School Reform? (Lucy Hood); (2) The School Readiness Gap:…

44 CFR 70.7 - Notice of Letter of Map Amendment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Notice of Letter of Map... FOR MAP CORRECTION Mapping Deficiencies Unrelated to Community-Wide Elevation Determinations § 70.7 Notice of Letter of Map Amendment. (a) The Federal Insurance Administrator, shall not publish a notice in...

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 24, Number 3, May-June 2008

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2008-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) "Equity, Access, and Opportunity": Despite Challenges, More Districts Adopt One-to-One Laptop Programs (Colleen Gillard); (2) Small Kids, Big Words: Research-Based Strategies…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 23, Number 5, September-October 2007

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2007-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Confronting the Autism Epidemic: New Expectations for Children with Autism Means a New Role for Public Schools (Kate McKenna); (2) Internet Research 101:…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 21, Number 4, July-August 2005

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.; Sadowski, Michael, Ed.

2005-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Early Childhood Education at a Crossroads: Access to Preschool Has Come a Long Way, but Critical Choices Lie Ahead (Deborah Stipek); (2) Bridging the…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 21, Number 6, November-December 2005

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2005-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Is History... History?: Standards, Accountability, and the Future of Our Nation's Past (Robert Rothman); (2) Curriculum Access for All: How Teachers Can Use Universal Design…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 26, Number 6, November-December 2010

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walser, Nancy, Ed.

2010-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Video Games Take Testing to the Next Level: Researchers See Promise in Game-Like Assessments That Measure Complex Skills (Robert Rothman); (2) An Academic…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 25, Number 5, September-October 2009

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2009-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) The Invisible Hand in Education Policy: Behind the Scenes, Economists Wield Unprecedented Influence (David McKay Wilson); (2) Bonding and Bridging: Schools Open Doors for…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 28, Number 1, January-February 2012

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walser, Nancy, Ed.

2012-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Using Theater to Teach Social Skills: Researchers Document Improvements for Children with Autism (Patti Hartigan); (2) The Family Model of Schooling Revisited: Few Teachers,…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 22, Number 6, November-December 2006

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2006-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) (In)formative Assessments: New Tests and Activities Can Help Teachers Guide Student Learning (Robert Rothman); (2) Recent Research on the Achievement Gap: How Lifestyle…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 26, Number 1, January-February 2010

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline T., Ed.

2010-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Charters and Unions: What's the Future for This Unorthodox Relationship? (Alexander Russo); (2) From Special Ed to Higher Ed: Transition Planning for Disabled Students Focuses…

Submission Letters across English Language Teaching and Mathematics: The Case of Iranian Professionals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jalilifar, Alireza

2009-01-01

Submitting an article to an English journal for publication requires enclosing an accompanying cover letter. Yet, the phraseology and rhetorical conventions of such letters are not comprehensively documented in literature. This article investigates two English corpora of genuine electronic submission letters to journal editors by Iranian English…

Letter-case information and the identification of brand names.

PubMed

Perea, Manuel; Jiménez, María; Talero, Fernanda; López-Cañada, Soraya

2015-02-01

A central tenet of most current models of visual-word recognition is that lexical units are activated on the basis of case-invariant abstract letter representations. Here, we examined this assumption by using a unique type of words: brand names. The rationale of the experiments is that brand names are archetypically printed either in lowercase (e.g., adidas) or uppercase (e.g., IKEA). This allows us to present the brand names in their standard or non-standard case configuration (e.g., adidas, IKEA vs. ADIDAS, ikea, respectively). We conducted two experiments with a brand-decision task ('is it a brand name?'): a single-presentation experiment and a masked priming experiment. Results in the single-presentation experiment revealed faster identification times of brand names in their standard case configuration than in their non-standard case configuration (i.e., adidas faster than ADIDAS; IKEA faster than ikea). In the masked priming experiment, we found faster identification times of brand names when they were preceded by an identity prime that matched its standard case configuration than when it did not (i.e., faster response times to adidas-adidas than to ADIDAS-adidas). Taken together, the present findings strongly suggest that letter-case information forms part of a brand name's graphemic information, thus posing some limits to current models of visual-word recognition. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

The Harvard Education Letter, 1997.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graves-Desai, Kelly, Ed.; Maloney, Karen, Ed.

1997-01-01

This document is comprised of volume 13 of the Harvard Education Letter, published bimonthly and addressing current issues in elementary and secondary education. Articles in the six issues of this volume include: (1) January-February --"Making Detracking Work" (Lynn and Wheelock), "Developing a Culture of High Expectations for…

Impaired letter-string processing in developmental dyslexia: what visual-to-phonology code mapping disorder?

PubMed

Valdois, Sylviane; Lassus-Sangosse, Delphine; Lobier, Muriel

2012-05-01

Poor parallel letter-string processing in developmental dyslexia was taken as evidence of poor visual attention (VA) span, that is, a limitation of visual attentional resources that affects multi-character processing. However, the use of letter stimuli in oral report tasks was challenged on its capacity to highlight a VA span disorder. In particular, report of poor letter/digit-string processing but preserved symbol-string processing was viewed as evidence of poor visual-to-phonology code mapping, in line with the phonological theory of developmental dyslexia. We assessed here the visual-to-phonological-code mapping disorder hypothesis. In Experiment 1, letter-string, digit-string and colour-string processing was assessed to disentangle a phonological versus visual familiarity account of the letter/digit versus symbol dissociation. Against a visual-to-phonological-code mapping disorder but in support of a familiarity account, results showed poor letter/digit-string processing but preserved colour-string processing in dyslexic children. In Experiment 2, two tasks of letter-string report were used, one of which was performed simultaneously to a high-taxing phonological task. Results show that dyslexic children are similarly impaired in letter-string report whether a concurrent phonological task is simultaneously performed or not. Taken together, these results provide strong evidence against a phonological account of poor letter-string processing in developmental dyslexia. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Petunia GRAS Transcription Factor ATA/RAM1 Regulates Symbiotic Gene Expression and Fungal Morphogenesis in Arbuscular Mycorrhiza.

PubMed

Rich, Mélanie K; Schorderet, Martine; Bapaume, Laure; Falquet, Laurent; Morel, Patrice; Vandenbussche, Michiel; Reinhardt, Didier

2015-07-01

Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) is a mutual symbiosis that involves a complex symbiotic interface over which nutrients are exchanged between the plant host and the AM fungus. Dozens of genes in the host are required for the establishment and functioning of the interaction, among them nutrient transporters that mediate the uptake of mineral nutrients delivered by the fungal arbuscules. We have isolated in a genetic mutant screen a petunia (Petunia hybrida) Gibberellic Acid Insensitive, Repressor of Gibberellic Acid Insensitive, and Scarecrow (GRAS)-type transcription factor, Atypical Arbuscule (ATA), that acts as the central regulator of AM-related genes and is required for the morphogenesis of arbuscules. Forced mycorrhizal inoculations from neighboring wild-type plants revealed an additional role of ATA in restricting mycorrhizal colonization of the root meristem. The lack of ATA, which represents the ortholog of Required For Arbuscular Mycorrhiza1 in Medicago truncatula, renders the interaction completely ineffective, hence demonstrating the central role of AM-related genes for arbuscule development and function. © 2015 American Society of Plant Biologists. All Rights Reserved.

14 CFR 21.617 - Issue of letters of TSO design approval: import appliances.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... 14 Aeronautics and Space 1 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Issue of letters of TSO design approval: import appliances. 21.617 Section 21.617 Aeronautics and Space FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION... Order Authorizations § 21.617 Issue of letters of TSO design approval: import appliances. (a) A letter...

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 24, Number 2, March-April 2008

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chauncey, Caroline, Ed.

2008-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Educating Teenage Immigrants: High Schools Experiment with Ways to Group New English-Language Learners (Lucy Hood); (2) Hot Topics and Key Words: Pilot Project Brings Teachers…

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 27, Number 6, November-December 2011

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walser, Nancy, Ed.

2011-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) With Cheating on the Rise, Schools Respond (David McKay Wilson); (2) Waldorf Education in Public Schools: Educators Adopt--and Adapt--This Developmental, Arts-Rich Approach…

49 CFR 1503.301 - Warning notices and letters of correction.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... 49 Transportation 9 2011-10-01 2011-10-01 false Warning notices and letters of correction. 1503... INVESTIGATIVE AND ENFORCEMENT PROCEDURES Non-Civil Penalty Enforcement § 1503.301 Warning notices and letters of... formal adjudication of the matter, and may be taken by issuing the alleged violator— (1) A “Warning...

49 CFR 1503.301 - Warning notices and letters of correction.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... 49 Transportation 9 2014-10-01 2014-10-01 false Warning notices and letters of correction. 1503... INVESTIGATIVE AND ENFORCEMENT PROCEDURES Non-Civil Penalty Enforcement § 1503.301 Warning notices and letters of... formal adjudication of the matter, and may be taken by issuing the alleged violator— (1) A “Warning...

49 CFR 1503.301 - Warning notices and letters of correction.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... 49 Transportation 9 2012-10-01 2012-10-01 false Warning notices and letters of correction. 1503... INVESTIGATIVE AND ENFORCEMENT PROCEDURES Non-Civil Penalty Enforcement § 1503.301 Warning notices and letters of... formal adjudication of the matter, and may be taken by issuing the alleged violator— (1) A “Warning...

Harvard Education Letter. Volume 20, Number 5, September-October 2004

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sadowski, Michael, Ed.

2004-01-01

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Adolescent Literacy: Are We Overlooking the Struggling Teenage Reader? (Robert Rothman); (2) The "N-Word" and the Racial Dynamics of Teaching (Wendy Luttrell and Janie Ward);…