We sampled an abundant, native minnow (Longnose dace—Rhinichthys cataractae) throughout the Oldman River, Alberta, to determine physiological responses and possible population level consequences from exposure to compounds with hormone-like activity. Sex ratios varied between sites, were female-biased, and ranged from just over 50% to almost 90%. Histological examination of gonads revealed that at the sites with >60% females in the adult population, there was up to 38% occurrence of intersex gonads in fish identified through visual examination of the gonads as male. In the majority of intersex gonad cases, there was a large proportion (approx., 50%) of oocytes within the testicular tissue. In male dace, vitellogenin mRNA expression generally increased with distance downstream. We analyzed river water for 28 endocrine disrupting compounds from eight functional classes, most with confirmed estrogen-like activity, including synthetic estrogens and hormone therapy drugs characteristic of municipal wastewater effluent, plus natural hormones and veterinary pharmaceuticals characteristic of livestock production. The spatial correlation between detected chemical residues and effects to dace physiology indicate that multiple land uses have a cumulative impact on dace in the Oldman River and effects range from altered gene regulation to severely female-biased sex ratios.

BackgroundIn 2001, a white paper set out a commitment to ensure that people with a learning disability receive equal access to health services, with an expectation that general practices would have identified all people with a learning disability registered with the practice by June 2004. AimTo outline the development of a template to create practice-based registers of people with learning disabilities in general practice. Design of studyThe study was prospective, employing a template to identify patients in general practice with a learning disability. The study used capture-recapture methodology to estimate the prevalence of learning disability in the population. SettingGeneral practices in Leeds. MethodA template was developed that uses Read code searches of practices' electronic medical records, along with practice knowledge to identify patients who have a learning disability. ResultsThe tool was piloted in 30 general practices in Leeds and validated against a city-wide database of people with learning disability. There was a wide variation between the practices in terms of how many people were identified, with the average being 0.4% of the practice population. Combined with validation from the city-wide database, this increased to 0.7%. ConclusionThe template provides a valuable tool for general practices to begin developing a practice-based register of patients with a learning disability. This is particularly timely in view of the revised General Medical Services contract Quality and Outcomes Framework indicator, stimulating practices to produce a register of patients with learning disability. Use of a common definition for learning disability is needed to improve consistency in identification across practices.

This analysis combines the study of a preschool predictive instrument with the assessment of the effects of preschool training program on the later academic achievement of children with language and learning disabilities. A preliminary follow-up study of children who were initially evaluated and trained in a joint project of the Houston Speech and Hearing Center and the Pasadena, Texas, Independent School District from 1963--1966 revealed marked differences in later academic achievement. From a sample of subjects with language and learning disabilities, 70 percent of those who completed the preacademic training program were found to be achieving at grade level in 1969. Of those subjects who entered but did not complete the program, only 25 percent were achieving at grade level, just 18 percent of a control group with language and learning disabilities who did not receive preacademic training were achieving at grade level. The results of the pilot study support the use of the Language and Learning Assessment for Training battery as an initial identifying instrument during preschool years, and the use of specific preschool training methods for children with language and learning disabilities.

Inservice training must be improved and expanded in the years ahead to meet the needs of those who work with young handicapped children. Recognizing and avoiding the problems of general inservice and viewing inservice as adult education with a content focus on the child provides a background for improving training. Inservice must be individualized by matching teacher needs with inservice options, Selecting experienced consultants to meet specific local needs and incorporating a variety of instructional strategies into training sessions can provide a positive direction for inservice in the 1980's.

Auditory abilities, measured by word-pair discrimination and single word imitation, of economicallydisadvantaged native-Spanishspeaking preschool children were investigated in two languages, Spanish and English. In order to provide age-related comparative information, a group of nondisadvantaged, native-English speakers were evaluated on the same tasks. In spite of the dual problems of economic disadvantage and second language learning, these children were not significantly different from their advantaged English-speaking peers in total performance on the four tasks. In addition, the Spanish speakers made less errors in their native language than did the English speakers. Thus, previously hypothesized negative effects of poverty or of linguistic interference do not appear to be depressing auditory performance. A descriptive analysis of errors indicates directions for educational programs in the area of auditory training for preschool bilingual programs.Among Mexican-American children there is a high incidence of school failure, as shown by poor academic achievement (Silberman 1970), excessive placement in classes for the retarded (Meisgier 1966, Calzoncit 1971, and high dropout rates (Yarborough 1970, p.6). Lack of proficiency in English, the predominant lan-guage of classroom instruction, is a major contributing factor. Through bilingual programs, some Mexican-American children today have the opportunity to begin formal education in their native Spanish, although others do not. Even those who begin in Spanish must eventually learn oral and written English.A critical subskill of oral language competency is the ability to auditorily discriminate and imitate the words and sounds of that language. Research with native-Spanishspeaking children has focused on their English language abilities, primarily of the school-aged child, and has shown that these children are not proficient in auditory discrimination of wordpairs (Wist 1968) or in imitation of specific sounds within English words (Ott 1967, Jameson 1967.The choice of English word items was based on both a linguistic theory -specifically, a contrastive analysis of Spanish and English phonological systems -and on the position that interference from the Spanish sound system creates problems in learning the sounds of English. An implicit assumption underlying this theory of linguistic interference is that the child already possesses the same abilities and knowledge of sounds in his first language (this knowledge must be present, if it is to interfere). However, because no comparison of the