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Recently, research has begun to identify cognitive and social-emotional predictors of early academic success. Yet few studies have examined the mechanisms by which children's social-emotional skills are associated with later academic success. The present study examines the associations between preschool emotion knowledge, kindergarten attention skills, and first grade academic competence in a sample of mostly disadvantaged children. Results indicate that attention during kindergarten is a significant mediator of this association, even after accounting for the effects of maternal education, family income, and children's age, sex, and receptive vocabulary skills. The findings provide further support for the implementation of preventive curricula that focus on both social and emotional development as well as attentional development as one strategy for improving future academic success in young children.

The infant and toddler years are a watershed of development in the emotional domain. These skills lay the foundation for positive social interactions, and ultimately, academic and life success. This article describes the development of three skills that are central in creating successful relationships: expressing emotion, understanding emotion, and processing social information. These foundational skills are increasingly targeted in preschool curricula promoting social-emotional competence.

Preschoolers' ability to demonstrate awareness of their own emotion is an important socio-emotional competence which has received increasing attention in the developmental literature. The present study examined emotion self-awareness of happiness, sadness, and anger in response to a delay of gratification task in 78 preschool children. Maternal emotion-related socialization behaviors (ERSBs) including reported emotional expressivity, responses to her child's emotions, and observed emotion talk, were examined as predictors of children's emotion self-awareness skill one year later. Results show that, after controlling for receptive language ability, supportive ERSBs were predictive of high self-awareness of happiness whereas non-supportive ERSBs were predictive of low self-awareness of sadness. The results demonstrate that the concordance between observed and self-reported emotion serves as a useful index of children's awareness of their emotional experience.

By Susan Hill Lindley. Louisville: Westminister/ Knox, 1996. Pp. xi + 500. $35. Lindley presents an admirable introduction to the history of women in American religious life. In a well-written [...]

Objectives: Magnetic sphincter augmentation (MSA) is a surgical treatment option for patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). MSA consistently improves quality of life, maintains freedom from PPIs, and objectively controls GERD. However, up to 24% of patients did not achieve these outcomes. We sought to identify factors predicting outcomes after MSA placement with the aim of refining selection criteria.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed clinical, endoscopic, manometric, pH data, and intraoperative factors from two databases: Pivotal Trial (N = 99) and our prospectively maintained esophageal database (N = 71). A priori outcomes were defined as excellent (GERD-HRQL <5, no PPI, no esophagitis), good (GERD-HRQL 6-15, no PPI, grade A esophagitis), fair (GERD-HRQL 16 to 25, PPI use, grade B esophagitis), and poor (GERD-HRQL >25, PPI use, grade C/D esophagitis). Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to determine predictors of achieving an excellent/good outcome.Results: A total of 170 patients underwent MSA with a median age of 53 years, [43-60] and a median BMI of 27 (IQR = 24-30). At baseline, 93.5% of patients experienced typical symptoms and 69% atypical symptoms. Median DeMeester score was 37.9 (IQR 27.9-51.2) with a structurally intact sphincter in 47%. Esophagitis occurred in 43%. At 48 [19-60] months after MSA, excellent outcomes were achieved in 47%, good in 28%, fair in 22%, and poor in 3%. Median DeMeester score was 15.6 (IQR = 5.8-26.6), esophagitis in 17.6% and daily PPI use in 17%. At univariable analysis, excellent/good outcomes were negatively impacted by BMI, preoperative LES residual pressure, Hill grade, and hiatal hernia. At multivariable analysis, BMI >35 (OR = 0.05, 0.003-0.78, p = 0.03), structurally defective LES (OR = 0.37, 0.13-0.99, p = 0.05), and preoperative LES residual pressure (OR = 0.89, 0.80-0.98, p = 0.02) were independent negative predictors of excellent/good outcome.Conclusions: Magnetic sphincter augmentation results in excellent/good outcomes in most patients but a higher BMI, structurally defective sphincter, and elevated LES residual pressure may prevent this goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traces the origins of Protestant and Jewish religious educators' ideas about the role of religious education in building a multicultural democracy. Constant flow of Jewish contributions to `Religious Education'; Common interests of Jewish and Protestant religious educators; Interfaith discussion on ways of uniting Americans in a more perfect democracy.

The article describes the case of a 64-year-old woman who underwent a simple Ivor Lewis esophagogastrectomy for esophageal adenocarcinoma. She had high chylous output from the left chest tube and underwent reexploration due to persistent high-chylous output despite being started on octreotide and total parenteral nutrition. Therapy using midodrine, an alpha 1 adrenergic agonist that cause vasoconstriction of the lymphatic system, was implemented with positive results in reducing chyle flow.