Teaching Basketball Shooting Skills to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

There are few published procedures for teaching athletic skills to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study used a multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate the effects of prompting, demand fading, and differential reinforcement, on the basketball shooting skills of four school-aged boys diagnosed with ASD. During baseline, all four boys rarely made correct and accurate baskets at the regulation height and distance for their age-group in youth basketball. Following intervention, all four boys increased their percentage of correct shots and accuracy, compared to baseline, and their shooting skills transferred to the game of “P-I-G” with peers.

     

Evaluation of hydroxylapatite root implants in baboons

To determine if there is a need for close conformation of a hydroxylapatite implant to the root socket for successful prevention of alveolar ridge resorption after tooth extraction, second premolars and lateral incisors of six mature baboons were extracted bilaterally, and custom-fitted root replicas or half-length, plug-shaped forms of hydroxylapatite were implanted in the fresh sockets. Results showed that precise fit, as achieved by a custom-fitted implant, was not necessary for success. All implants were completely accepted, with evidence of new bone formation continuing for up to six months, the duration of the study. No resorption of the alveolar ridge was observed by gross or microscopic examination.     

Long-term study of hydroxylapatite implants in canine alveolar bone

Routine light and fluorescence microscopic examination of hydroxylapatite root implants showed that, in general, bone formed above the original superior surface of the ceramic implant on the lingual crest. In the 40 experimental specimens recovered, 30% also showed new bone completely covering the implant, proceeding from the buccal to the lingual area. Sixty per cent of the specimens that exhibited complete osseous covering were the more posteriorly placed implants from the fourth premolar and the first molar areas. Thirty-three per cent of the specimens exhibited bone formation at or over the superior buccal margin of the implant.     

Tissue response in dogs to dense hydroxylapatite implantation in the femur

Six and eight years after the implantation of both granular and solid ceramic hydroxylapatite forms in the femurs of beagle dogs, histologic examination demonstrated that the implants were totally encased in dense mature bone. The endosteal and periosteal surfaces appeared normal, and no resorption of the solid implants was observed. However, at six years, a few granules located at the periosteal surface showed interdigitation of connective tissue stalks, with large multinucleated cells at the interface with the implant. This phenomenon may represent some limited resorptive activity on the surfaces of these few isolated granules. Initially, radiographs showed exaggerated degrees of bone deposition on the endosteal surface under the solid implants (discs), as opposed to a less pronounced endosteal response to the implants of particulate material. In some cases, particularly with the disc implants, cracks were found in the ceramic material six years after implantation. These cracks, on staining, were found to be filled with amorphous material, suggesting an osseous matrix. The results of these long-term studies indicate that such hydroxylapatite implants in bone are highly biocompatible. Bone deposition and maturation on the implant surface resulted in a homogeneous bone/implant interface in which the host tissues appeared to respond to the implant as if it were normal bone.     

An 18-month study of the parasitologic and tumorigenic effects of hycanthone in Schistosoma mansoni-infected and noninfected mice

A study was undertaken to determine whether single in injections of 12.5 or 50 mg/kg hycanthone (4 and 16 times the recommended human clinical dose) would induce or increase the development of neoplasms in normal mice or in mice infected with Schistosoma mansoni. During the 18-month study, infected mice, shamtreated or treated with hycanthone, developed hepatic granulomas which were distinguished from neoplasms and were characteristic of chronic S. mansoni infection. Fourteen different neoplasms were observed 43 times in 40 (10.3%) of 389 mice examined. The neoplasms were randomly distributed among the experimental groups; all were considered to be spontaneous. Hepatoma was diagnosed only once whereas lymphomas were observed in various organs of 13 mice and adenoma was observed in 12 mice (8 of the 12 cases were in the lungs). Other neoplasms, which in most cases occurred in a single mouse, included a metastatic adenocarcinoma of the stomach, an adenocarcinoma and a squamous cell carcinoma of the mammary gland, a hemangiosarcoma in a lymph node, a reticulosarcoma and a fibrosarcoma. The frequency of neoplasms in either infected or noninfected mice was not significantly altered by treatment with hycanthone. The incidence of S. mansoni granulomas was directly related to the dose of cercariae and inversely related to the relative efficacy of the dose of hycanthone administered. There was no indication that schistosome worms recovered from the effects of the drug to repopulate the mesenteric veins; the percent of dead worms found 21 days and 6, 12 and 18 months postmedication with 12.5 or 50 mg/kg were essentially the same. In ancillary experiments, there was no evidence that the offspring of worms that survived treatment were more resistant to hycanthone than the parent worms.