Lowercase Letters Research Articles

Using class-specific compound consequences to teach dictated and printed letter relations to a child with autism.

The effects of class-specific compound consequences embedded in an identity-matching task to establish arbitrary emergent relations were evaluated. A 3-year-old child with autism was taught identity relations between lowercase letters (Set 1) and uppercase letters (Set 2). A compound stimulus that consisted of an auditory component (dictated letter name) and a visual component (an uppercase letter for Set 1 or lowercase letter for Set 2) followed correct responses. All targeted arbitrary relations emerged (uppercase-lowercase, lowercase-uppercase, dictated name/uppercase, and dictated name/lowercase), suggesting that this procedure may be useful for teaching.

L'invisibile tecnologia della parola: design e sviluppo di un font per dislessici

The relationship between written text and the spatial dimension is so evident and obvious as to become practically transparent, invisible. Assuming Ong’s definition of writing as a technology of the word, written text is certainly classifiable among the “invisible technologies”. The work presented here is based on the consideration that not all technologies are transparent in the same way for everyone. For example, the process of reading and writing continues to present degrees of opacity that can have a dramatic impact in the case of specific learning disabilities. This paper discusses the choices made in the design of a font called D-FONT, which is geared towards making reading easier for dyslexic subjects. It also reports the results of a pilot study carried out to verify the font’s effectiveness for this purpose. At its present stage of development, D-FONT consists of 102 glyphs, including upper and lowercase letters, numbers, accents, symbols and punctuation.

Writing in the Air Using Kinect and Growing Neural Gas Network

This paper discusses an approach which helps us to recognize English language characters which are written in the air by hands. This method is done by using Kinect camera and growing neural gas network. The proposed character recognition method has three main steps: preprocessing, training and recognition. The system and the proposed method can be considered from two aspects: (a) runtime, and (b) accuracy. One of the main goals in this method is to provide noise tolerance which is necessary for these kinds of methods. IN addition, it has influence upon accuracy rate because the proposed method can remove more outliers. The results show that the proposed method provides good results with the accuracy rate of 95.54%, 97.86% and 99.08% for lower case letters, upper case letters and digits respectively.

Effects of script similarity on bilingual advantages in executive control are likely to be negligible or null.

Effects of script similarity on bilingual advantages in executive control are likely to be negligible or null.

Individualized Meaning-centered Approach to Braille Literacy Education (I-M-ABLE) Case Study: Ajay's Story

The following case study documents the strategies employed and successful results of implementing Diane Wormsley's Individualized Meaning-centered Approach to Braille Literacy Education (I-M-ABLE) with a student with multiple disabilities, including autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), who was also learning English as a second language. Ajay (a pseudonym), a 5-year-old boy, entered our public school system at the beginning of the school year shortly after moving to the United States from India during the summer. Ajay had significant language delays in English and Tegulu (the primary language spoken at home), and he communicated through incomplete sentences to express wants and needs. He had medical diagnoses of autism, sensory-integration disorder (SID), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and ADHD (Ajay was primarily hyperactive, with attention deficit). Ajay had progressive Leber's congenital amaurosis with approximately 20/1000 acuity. Ajay was placed in an enhanced autism classroom, which specialized in applied behavior analysis (ABA) strategies, with 10 hours per week of direct services from a teacher of students with visual impairments. INITIAL LITERACY SKILLS Ajay arrived at school with a few key literacy skills. He could read and write English upper and lower case letters and his first name in print, although he could not read his handwriting. Ajay understood that letters make up words and that words have meaning, and he could spell a few words in English. Given a book, he oriented it correctly and attempted to visually examine the pages, turning one to three pages at a time. Ajay's parents consented to braille instruction, but they requested that he also be instructed in print. The enhanced autism program implemented a literacy curriculum that paired picture symbols with words. Ajay participated for only two months, because he could not visually engage with the content. PURSUING I-M-ABLE When considering teaching Ajay braille, I wondered how to show him that braille had meaning, just like the print he already understood. I knew that Dr. Wormsley's I-MABLE would provide the best chance of success, given its ability to tailor instruction to his specific interests and needs. The combination of Ajay's disabilities meant he either perseverated or quickly disengaged from activities. To capture and maintain his attention, his literacy instruction had to be highly appealing. I was reluctant to implement I-M-ABLE, however, because although I know braille, I am not a reading specialist. With the encouragement of my mentors, I started I-M-ABLE, and soon became caught up in Ajay's rapid skill acquisition. Before I introduced any key words, we embarked on a series of emergent literacy and tactile skill activities. Ajay and I worked individually in a quiet room for 30 to 90 minutes a day, for an average of 60 minutes a day. We focused on activities such as scribbling on the braillewriter together, tracking a line of braille, sorting strips of lines and broken lines, and reading braille and tactile books together. These activities reinforced appropriate hand-finger placement and concepts including left, right, top, middle, and bottom, depending on where we placed different baskets along his braille mat for the sorting activities. INITIAL STRATEGIES--READING AND WRITING When considering initial key words to teach Ajay, I realized that he had already selected them. He knew his name could be written in print, so we explored his name. The next words were P.E. (physical education was his preferred school activity, written pe to teach him the letters without the extra braille characters) and tape measure a noisy object he became fixated with during his functional vision and learning media assessment. Because they were topographically unique in braille, Ajay soon mastered these words, and we slowly added more. One mistake I made in the first months was introducing two key words that were too similar in braille for Ajay to discriminate between them. …

Unusual Chair-Like G-Quadruplex Structures: Heterochiral TBA Analogues Containing Inversion of Polarity Sites

Heterochiral oligodeoxynucleotides based on the thrombin binding aptamer sequence, namely, 5′gg3′-3′TT5′-5′ggtgtgg3′-3′TT5′-5′gg3′ (H1), 5′gg3′-3′TT5′-5′gg3′-3′TGT5′-5′gg3′-3′TT5′-5′gg3′ (H2), and 5′gGTTGgtgtgGTTGg3′ (H3), where lower case letters indicate L-residues, have been investigated in their ability to fold in G-quadruplex structures through a combination of gel electrophoresis, circular dichroism, and UV spectroscopy techniques. InH1andH2inversions of polarity sites have been introduced to control the strand direction in the loop regions. Collected data suggest that all modified sequences are able to fold in chair-like G-quadruplexes mimicking the originalTBAstructure.

The Loleva Oral and Written Language Test: Psychometric Properties

LolEva, a computerized test for ages 3 to 8 years old, identifies issues in the development of skills that can lead to reading acquisition difficulties. Its structure captures two distinct areas: Phonological Awareness (PA, seven subtests: rhyme, identification-addition-omission of syllable and phoneme at the beginning and end of a word), and Initial Reading Competence (IRC, six subtests: reading uppercase and lowercase letters, simple words, complex words, and pseudowords, and word segmentation). With results collected in a sample of 341 children with the target ages and attending public or private schools, the alpha coefficient was .94 for PA, and .92 for IRC. Factor analysis indicated three factors are present (performance on PA and IRC, and word reading times), together explaining 75% of variance, providing evidence to support the construct validity of the test. On the other hand, analysis of variance showed significant differences for year-in-school variable for PA subscale, F(4, 336) = 191.385, p < .001, η2 p = .695, 1-β = 1.0, as well as for IRC subscale, both in number of correct answers, which increased as schooling progressed: F(4, 336) = 197.897, p < .001, η2 p = .702, 1-β = 1.0, and task completion time, which decreased as education progressed: F(4, 335) = 47.048, p < .001, η2 p = .360, 1-β = 1.0. Also, PA repeated measures analysis revealed that was easier Identification than Addition and Omission , F(2, 672) = 31.639, p < .001, η2 p = .086, 1-β = 1.0, syllable-related tasks than phoneme-related task, F(1, 336) = 229.000, p < .001, η2 p = .405, 1-β = 1.0, and syllable or phoneme at the end of the word than at the beginning, F(1, 336) = 59.201, p < .001, η2 p = .150, 1-β = 1.0. Moreover, all items were examined and indexes of difficulty and discrimination were obtained.

An Inertial Pen With Dynamic Time Warping Recognizer for Handwriting and Gesture Recognition

This paper presents an inertial-sensor-based digital pen (inertial pen) and its associated dynamic time warping (DTW)-based recognition algorithm for handwriting and gesture recognition. Users hold the inertial pen to write numerals or English lowercase letters and make hand gestures with their preferred handheld style and speed. The inertial signals generated by hand motions are wirelessly transmitted to a computer for online recognition. The proposed DTW-based recognition algorithm includes the procedures of inertial signal acquisition, signal preprocessing, motion detection, template selection, and recognition. We integrate signals collected from an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a magnetometer into a quaternion-based complementary filter for reducing the integral errors caused by the signal drift or intrinsic noise of the gyroscope, which might reduce the accuracy of the orientation estimation. Furthermore, we have developed a minimal intra-class to maximal inter-class based template selection method (min-max template selection method) for a DTW recognizer to obtain a superior class separation for improved recognition. Experimental results have successfully validated the effectiveness of the DTW-based recognition algorithm for online handwriting and gesture recognition using the inertial pen.

Medication Safety

Medication Safety

Stereoisograms for three-membered heterocycles: II. Chirality, RS-stereogenicity, and ortho-stereogenicity on the basis of the proligand-promolecule model

The stereoisogram approach is applied to promolecules derived from an oxirane skeleton. First, the four substitution positions of the oxirane skeleton are examined under the action of the RS-stereoisomeric group \(\mathbf{C}_{2v\widetilde{\sigma }\widehat{I}}\), where point groups for chirality (or enantiomeric relationships), RS-permutation groups for RS-stereogenicity (or RS-diastereomeric relationships), and ligand-reflection groups for sclerality (or holantimeric relationships) are integrated in a consistent way. A notation system for giving \(R_{\mathrm {a}}/S_{\mathrm {a}}\)-descriptors is proposed to specify the absolute configurations of oxirane derivatives on the basis of RS-stereogenicity (or RS-diastereomeric relationships) inherent in type-I, -III, or -V stereoisograms. The concept of chirality faithfulness is revised to give a rational judgement on whether \(R_{\mathrm {a}}/S_{\mathrm {a}}\)-descriptors are labelled in uppercase or lowercase letters. Pseudoasymmetry and extended pseudoasymmetry are discussed on the basis of type-V stereoisograms. Second, the stereoisomeric group \(\widetilde{\mathbf{C}}_{2v\widetilde{\sigma }\widehat{I}}\), which is a supergroup of the RS-stereoisomeric group \(\mathbf{C}_{2v\widetilde{\sigma }\widehat{I}}\), is used to characterize the cis/trans- or Z/E-isomerism, where multiple stereoisograms are introduced as graphic representations of stereoisomeric groups. The notation system of specifying Z/E-descriptors is modified to be applicable to oxirane derivatives by adopting ortho-stereogenicity (or ortho-diastereomeric relationships). Finally, the isoskeletal group \(\widetilde{\widetilde{\mathbf{C}}}_{2v\widetilde{\sigma }\widehat{I}}\), which is a supergroup of the stereoisomeric group \(\widetilde{\mathbf{C}}_{2v\widetilde{\sigma }\widehat{I}}\), is used to characterize total features of isomerism based on an oxirane skeleton. Multiple stereoisogram sets are introduced as graphic representations of such isoskeletal groups, where flowcharts for determining types of multiple stereoisogram sets are proposed.

THE IMPACT OF THE ACQUISITION OF THE LETTERS IN A SYSTEMATIC LITERACY ON WRITING SKILLS

Learning letters is associated with a long-term learning. Two basic models are present in obtaining letters in a systematic literacy in Slovenia and abroad. One represents a separate acquisition of the uppercase and lowercase printed letters (sequentially) and the other deals with letters simultaneously. In practice, teachers often asked themselves, especially in times of reforms in literacy, which model of the acquisition of the letters in initial literacy is more efficient. The research focused on the effect of the two most frequently chosen procedures for acquiring letters of structured literacy in Slovenia, namely the simultaneous treatment of the uppercase and lowercase printed letters (lowercase cursive letters and upper-case cursive letters) and consecutive treatment of letters (uppercase printed letters, lowercase printed letters, lowercase cursive letters, and at last, uppercase printed letters). Furthermore, the focus of the research was on the impact of gender on the ability to write. The incidence of errors was observed in terms of selected procedures for acquiring the letters in groups and gender. At the same time, the effect of consolidation of writing individual letters (uppercase and lowercase printed letters in 2nd class, and lowercase and uppercase cursive letters in 3rd class), was examined. Key words: literacy, the process of acquiring letters, 2nd class, 3rd class, prior knowledge, writing skills.

CTE

1. PROBLEM STATEMENT Internet Traffic Engineering (TE) is a very important research topic for production networks, where TE is typically formulated into minimizing the maximum link utilization (MLU). For example, with increasing IPv6 traffic, the backbone network of CERNET2[1] is suffering big traffic pressure on some critical longhaul links under the traditional shortest-path routing. Taking CERNET2 as an example, we develop a practical and costeffective intra-domain TE method in this paper. Existing intradomain TE proposals, such as MPLS-based proposal [2], OpenFlow-based proposal [3] and reactive-TE proposal [4], need to make great modifications to routers, and even have to replace existing routers with brand new routers, which makes the deployment be very high-cost. Other TE proposals, such as the work [5], optimize OSPF weights for the goal of TE. Although these methods have low deployment cost, they need to frequently change OSPF weights based on dynamically changed traffic matrices. Each change to OSPF weights may lead to transient routing loops or traffic disruption. Frequent routing loops or traffic disruption is intolerable for network operators. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a new intra-domain TE method named CTE. CTE works in an OSPF/IS-IS network, where shortest-path routing is run. The core idea of CTE is to use loop-free next hops [7] to route some traffic, which is realized by configuring some static routes and some access control list (ACL) rules. CTE does not make any modifications to existing routers. We only need to develop a remote control program that can configure static routes and ACL rules on routers. In addition, CTE can be incrementally deployed. We now use an example to illustrate how CTE works. Figure 1 is a network topology composed a set of nodes and a set of links. The lowercase letters beside a node denote the prefixes associated with the node. We suppose that the capacity of each link is 100 units and the weight of each link is 1. We give the shortest-path tree towards the destination F as shown in Figure 2. In Figure 2, the solid arrows direct the next hops towards the destination F and the dash lines will not be used by the traditional shortest-path routing towards the destination F. Table 1 shows a prefixgranularity traffic matrix. Table 2 shows the corresponding nodegranularity traffic matrix. Under this traffic matrix, the MLU A F

Interplay between sugar and hormone signaling pathways modulate floral signal transduction.

NOMENCLATURE The following nomenclature will be used in this article: Names of genes are written in italicized upper-case letters, e.g., ABI4.Names of proteins are written in non-italicized upper-case letters, e.g., ABI4.Names of mutants are written in italicized lower-case letters, e.g., abi4.The juvenile-to-adult and vegetative-to-reproductive phase transitions are major determinants of plant reproductive success and adaptation to the local environment. Understanding the intricate molecular genetic and physiological machinery by which environment regulates juvenility and floral signal transduction has significant scientific and economic implications. Sugars are recognized as important regulatory molecules that regulate cellular activity at multiple levels, from transcription and translation to protein stability and activity. Molecular genetic and physiological approaches have demonstrated different aspects of carbohydrate involvement and its interactions with other signal transduction pathways in regulation of the juvenile-to-adult and vegetative-to-reproductive phase transitions. Sugars regulate juvenility and floral signal transduction through their function as energy sources, osmotic regulators and signaling molecules. Interestingly, sugar signaling has been shown to involve extensive connections with phytohormone signaling. This includes interactions with phytohormones that are also important for the orchestration of developmental phase transitions, including gibberellins, abscisic acid, ethylene, and brassinosteroids. This article highlights the potential roles of sugar-hormone interactions in regulation of floral signal transduction, with particular emphasis on Arabidopsis thaliana mutant phenotypes, and suggests possible directions for future research.

Erratum to: Welfare States and Social Support: An International Comparison

Two small corrections about the tables the author had suggested in the proofs have not been included. First, in Table 5, the Word COUNTRIES is in capital letter, instead of in lower case letter, as it appears in Tables 3 and 4. Second, in Tables 3, 4 and 5 the words Individual variables are in the upper part of the table with the categories of the dependent variables, but they should be included below, in the first row with the independent variables. The tables should read:

Size or spacing: which limits letter recognition in people with age-related macular degeneration?

Recent evidence suggests a double dissociation of size and spacing limit on letter recognition-it is limited by size in the fovea and critical spacing in the normal periphery. Here, we evaluated whether size or spacing limits letter recognition in people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) who must use their peripheral vision. We measured the size threshold for recognizing lowercase letters presented alone, or flanked by two letters at various center-to-center nominal letter spacings (multiples of letter size) for 11 observers with AMD. For comparison, similar measurements were obtained at 5° and 10° eccentricity in the nasal and lower visual fields in three older adults with normal vision. Single-letter size thresholds were worse for observers with AMD than at comparable retinal locations in the normal periphery. For flanked letters, size threshold improved with larger nominal spacing up to the critical spacing, beyond which size threshold was unaffected by the flankers. Seven AMD observers had a nominal critical spacing between 1.25× and 1.80×, values close to those in the normal fovea, suggesting that their letter recognition is size-limited; two had a nominal critical spacing of 3-4×, values close to those in the normal periphery, implying that their letter recognition is limited by spacing; and another two had a nominal critical spacing of ∼2.3×, implying that their letter recognition is limited by both size and spacing. The wide range of nominal critical spacings observed in our AMD observers may reflect the degree of completeness of their adaptation process to vision loss.

IL CARATTERE DEI CARATTERI: SISTEMI DI CLASSIFICAZIONE E NUOVE TENDENZE NELLA TIPOGRAFIA

This essay aims at considering the following questions concerning typographical “characters”: 1) questions of meaning, distinguishing between “typefaces” (short etymological route) and “typography” (common, specialized and international meaning); 2) Latin alphabet: uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers, fonts variants (shape and weight), along with a case of study, i.e. the first page of «The Times», 22 June 1815; 3) classifying typefaces: the classification of Thibeaudeau and the typefaces classification of Bringhurst; 4) the current crisis of typefaces classification systems.

Examining the relationship between motor assessments and handwriting consistency in children with and without probable developmental coordination disorder.

Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) often experience difficulties in handwriting. The current study examined the relationships between three motor assessments and the spatial and temporal consistency of handwriting. Twelve children with probable DCD and 29 children from 7 to 12 years who were typically developing wrote the lowercase letters "e" and "l" in cursive and printed forms repetitively on a digitizing tablet. Three behavioral assessments, including the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI), the Minnesota Handwriting Assessment (MHA) and the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC), were administered. Children with probable DCD had low scores on the VMI, MABC and MHA and showed high temporal, not spatial, variability in the letter-writing task. Their MABC scores related to temporal consistency in all handwriting conditions, and the Legibility scores in their MHA correlated with temporal consistency in cursive "e" and printed "l". It appears that children with probable DCD have prominent difficulties on the temporal aspect of handwriting. While the MHA is a good product-oriented assessment for measuring handwriting deficits, the MABC shows promise as a good assessment for capturing the temporal process of handwriting in children with DCD.

FokI polymorphism in the vitamin D receptor gene (VDR) and its association with lumbar spine pathologies in the Italian population: a case-control study.

Alterations in vitamin D homeostasis, mainly involving its nuclear receptor (VDR), could have a role in the pathophysiology of the spine. The association between VDR polymorphisms and spine disorders has been analyzed in different ethnic groups, focusing on the functional FokI polymorphism. However, so far, inconsistent findings were reported. The aims of this study were to evaluate, in the Italian white population, the VDR FokI polymorphism frequencies distribution in subjects with clearly defined lumbar spinal pathologies compared to asymptomatic controls and to analyze the interplay of genetic and conventional risk factors. Using a case-control design, 267 patients with spinal disorders and 220 asymptomatic controls were enrolled, evaluating their exposition to putative risk factors. Patients’ clinical assessment was performed by Magnetic Resonance Imaging. FokI polymorphism (rs2228570) was detected by PCR-RFLP. Genotypes were designated by a lowercase letter (f allele, T nucleotide) for the presence of the restriction site and by a capital letter (F allele, C nucleotide) for its absence. Family history, higher age and BMI, exposure to vibration, physical job demand, smoking habit and lower practice of leisure physical activity were associated with spinal disorders. The FF genotype and F allele represented approximately 2-fold risk factors to develop discopathies and/or osteochondrosis concomitant with disc herniation, while f allele was protective. In conclusion, the link we observed between VDR FokI variants and specific lumbar spine pathologies suggests that spinal tissue degeneration is influenced by the genetic background. Future studies should evaluate the signaling pathways involving alterations in VDR and influencing the development and/or progression of spine disorders.

The Camouflage of the Sacred in Hemingway’s Short Fiction

Ernest Hemingway's short fiction illustrates Mircea Eliade's notion that camouflage or even occultation of the sacred and of spiritual meanings in general characterizes all crepuscular eras {Autobiography 153). In short play (Today Is Friday) and four short stories (The Killers, A Clean Well-Lighted Place, Old Man at the Bridge, and Light of the World), light imagery, biblical allusions, and the figure of Christ, reveal hidden imaginary universe. This sacral dimension casts subterranean love that pulsates beneath the terse dialogue of Hemingway's characters.Hemingway grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, town with so many churches that it was known as Saint's Rest. His parents were devout Protestants who belonged to the Third Congregationalist Church. As an adolescent, Ernest rebelled against their moral strictures, ridiculing his mother's religious material as moron literature (McDaniel 21, 40). Later, as young adult, Hemingway converted to Catholicism. Although he distrusted sonorous pieties and theological abstractions, Hemingway acknowledged that he learned to write from the Bible (Maurois 49). The biblical influence was not confined to style, for Christian imagery permeates his fiction.3 Deep down, Hemingway remained Christian, such as in his reluctance to write on Sundays because it brought bad luck (Hotchner 149).Hemingway's fiction, like life, remains elusive and inchoate. We glimpse the inner life of the characters only obliquely. In an interview, Hemingway explained this fragmentary characterization: always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven eighths of it under water, for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg (qtd. in Plimpton 34). This fictional technique is distinct feature of modernism which Peter Faulkner describes as part of the historical process of disassociation from nineteenth century assumptions that posited a stable relationship in which the writer could assume community of attitudes, shared sense of reality (1).In the late nineteenth century, the literary sense that we are transcendentally connected to one another, which had reached its apotheosis in the novel, finally began to unravel. Matthew Arnold expresses consequent feeling of loss in the final verses of Dover Beach (1867):the world, which seemsTo lie before us like land of dreams,So various, so beautiful, so new,Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;And we are here as on darkling plainSwept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,Where ignorant armies clash by night. (517-18)This sense of violence and chaos pervades Hemingway's first collection of stories, In Our Time (1925; expanded edition 1930), which borrows its title from passage in the Book of Common Prayer. Give us peace in our time, O Lord (Maurois 43). In one vignette, the narrator repeats the name of Jesus amidst the shelling, holding it close like talisman:While the bombardment was knocking the trench to pieces at Fossalta, he lay very flat and sweated and prayed oh jesus christ get me out of here. Dear jesus please get me out. Christ please please please christ. If you'll only keep me from getting killed I'll do anything you say. I believe in you and I'll tell every one in the world that you are the only one that matters. Please please dear jesus. The shelling moved farther up the line. We went to work on the trench and in the morning the sun came up and the day was hot and muggy and cheerful and quiet. The next night back at Mestre he did not tell the girl he went upstairs with at the Villa Rossa about Jesus. And he never told anybody. (Complete Stories 109)4The narrator alternates between upper and lower case letters when he invokes the name of Jesus Christ as if mediating between intimacy and respect. …

Embedding Video-Based Modeling Handwriting Instruction in a Montessori Preschool Phonics Program

A video-based modeling handwriting program for lowercase letter formation was embedded in a Montessori preschool phonics curriculum in one of two Montessori classrooms for 16 weeks. Children could view the DVD on request during phonics lesson time. Phonics skill and letter sequencing patterns improved for the children in both classrooms. The children with access to viewing the video-based modeling showed greater improvement in letter legibility. As part of early intervening services, occupational therapy practitioners may be called upon to make recommendations that benefit all the children in a classroom. Video-based modeling was compatible with the Montessori phonics curriculum and effective for this group.