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Society for the Quantitative Analyses of Behavior |
Saturday, May 28, 2005 |
7:00 AM–11:20 AM |
International South (2nd floor) |
Chair: William M. Baum (University of California, Davis) |
Attendees to SQAB events must register for the SQAB conference in addition to the ABA convention. Visit http://sqab.psychology.org/ for more information. |
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Newcomers' Session |
Saturday, May 28, 2005 |
9:00 AM–9:50 AM |
Private Dining Room 1 (3rd floor) |
Chair: John L. Michael (Western Michigan University) |
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W. Scott Wood (Drake University) |
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An overview of ABA, its history, structures and functions as an international locus of the field of behavior analysis. Awards, special interest groups and other features will also be addressed. Drs. Michael and Wood, two of ABAs original members, will review the origin and organization of ABA as well as describe the principles of behavior analysis that form the scientific foundation of the field. |
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International Development Brunch |
Saturday, May 28, 2005 |
10:00 AM–11:30 AM |
Continental A (1st floor) |
Chair: Ned Carter (The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions) |
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Maurice Feldman (Brock University) |
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The international brunch is scheduled on the first day of the convention to welcome the international members and review the international development of behavior analysis. |
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Opening Event: Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis Awards |
Saturday, May 28, 2005 |
11:30 AM–1:00 PM |
International North (2nd floor) |
Chair: Jay Moore (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) |
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2004 International Grant Awards |
Abstract: Joseph J. Pear, Ph.D. (University of Manitoba, Canada)
Yanqing Guo (Institute of Mental Health, Peking University, People’s Republic of China)
Paolo Moderato, Ph.D. (University of Parma, Italy) |
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JAY MOORE (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) |
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Award for Distinguished Service to Behavior Analysis: Jon S. Bailey, Ph.D. (Florida State University) |
Abstract: In this presentation I would like to pay tribute to those mentors, colleagues, and students who have inspired me and shaped my behavior over the past 44-years. Lee Meyerson, Jack Michael, and Mont Wolf all played an important role in my early years and my psychology graduate students and Florida colleagues have continued to provide me with a steady stream of challenges, learning opportunities, and reinforcers that have enriched my life in so many ways. |
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JON S. BAILEY (Florida State University) |
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Dr. Jon S. Bailey received his Ph.D. in 1970 from the University of Kansas where he worked with Lonnie Philips and Mont Wolf on the original Achievement Place Project. He took his first and only academic position in the Psychology Department at Florida State University that same year. Jon founded the Florida Association for Behavior Analysis and started Behavior Management Consultants, Inc. with Maxin Reiss and Mary Burch in 1980. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society. He has served on the Executive Councils of the Association for Behavior Analysis, FABA, and Division 25 of APA. Dr. Bailey is the past-Editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and is co-author of Research Methods in Applied Behavior Analysis, How Dogs Learn, and Ethics for Behavior Analysts with Mary Burch. Dr. Bailey is a licensed psychologist and a Certified Behavior Analyst in the State of Florida, has served on the Florida Behavior Management Peer Review Committee as well as an Expert Witness for the U.S. Department of Justice. Most recently Dr. Bailey created the Master’s program in applied behavior analysis at the FSU Panama City Campus. Dr. Bailey will give a presentation titled Time Flies: |
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Award for International Dissemination of Behavior Analysis: R. Douglas Greer, Ph.D. (Columbia University Teachers College) |
Abstract: Behavior analysts remain a happy few, as Skinner said in earlier days of ABA. We are even a few more, as we strive to become truly international. There are, however, two distinctive foci that have developed in our science and these, I argue, are natural, but important distinctions, in our scientific inquires and applications. The two are not basic versus applied, or differences in foci across geographical-cultural boundaries; these are simply artificial divisions. The two behavior analyses are (a) a science of the environmental controls of existing operants and (b) a science of the environmental sources for the formation of operants and higher order operants. The sources for behaving well and acquiring repertoires require distinctions in practice and application. International collaborations gave rise to exciting new findings in the latter effort. |
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R. DOUGLAS GREER (Teachers College, Columbia University) |
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Dr. R. Douglas Greer (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1969; M.A. and BME Florida State University; CABAS® Board Certification as Senior Behavior Analyst and Senior Research Scientist) is Professor of Education and Psychology at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Teachers College of Columbia University where he heads the M.A. and Ph.D. programs in behavior analysis and the education of students with/without disabilities. He has served on the editorial boards of ten journals, published over 100 research and theoretical articles in more than 20 journals and is the author of seven books in behavior analysis. Greer has sponsored 110 doctoral dissertations (80% have been published in refereed journals), taught over 2,000 teachers and professors, originated the CABAS® model of schooling in the USA, Ireland, Italy, England, and founded the Fred S. Keller School. He has done experimental research in schools with students, teachers, parents, and supervisors as well as pediatric patients in medical settings. He is a recipient of the Fred S. Keller Award for Distinguished Contributions to Education from the American Psychology Association and has served as guest professor at universities in Spain, Wales, England, Ireland, USA, and Nigeria. Dr. Greer will give a presentation titled Análisis del Comportamiento y Análisis de la Conducta: Two Different Behavior Analyses: |
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Award for Public Service in Behavior Analysis: Robert F. Mager, Ph.D. (Mager Associates) |
Abstract: During his presentation, Dr. Mager describes aspects of his early research on detection and elimination of instructional obstacles to learning. Specifically, he describes a method he developed for detecting and recording student-generated learning sequences, as well as application of that information to a real-world problem.
This, and subsequent work, led to the Criterion-Referenced Instruction model, with which he and his colleagues are able to achieve a high rate of success in enabling students to reach pre-specified performance levels. Because of the universality of the laws of behavior, this model is effective in every culture in which it is being applied. |
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ROBERT F. MAGER (Mager Associates) |
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Dr. Mager received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in Psychology from Ohio University and his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the State University of Iowa. He has held teaching posts in psychology and human relations at colleges and universities, and served as research scientist for the Human Resources Research Office. He established behavioral research laboratories for Varian Associates and Xerox Corporation, was Technical Director of the Learning Systems Institute in Paris, France, and Director of module development for Project PLAN, American Institutes for Research.
One of his significant contributions is his Criterion-Referenced Instruction (CRI) methodology, applied world-wide to support education and human resource professionals through his successful instructor development programs, including: Criterion-Referenced Instruction (with Peter Pipe), Instructional Module Development, and The Training Director Workshop.
Author of numerous books, technical papers, and articles, Dr. Mager is widely known for his book Preparing Instructional Objectives. Other Mager books include Developing Attitude Toward Learning, Analyzing Performance Problems (with Peter Pipe), Goal Analysis, Measuring Instructional Results, Making Instruction Work, Measuring Instructional Results, Troubleshooting the Troubleshooting Course, The How to Write a Book Book, and What Every Manager Should Know About Training. The procedures described in his books provide the bases for many of the courses in instructional design taught in colleges and universities today. Dr. Mager will give a presentation titled On Elimination of Learning Obstacles. |
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Award for Impact of Science on Application: Howard Rachlin, Ph.D. (State University of New York at Stony Brook) |
Abstract: From the teleological viewpoint self-control consists of the building of high-valued patterns out of discrete acts that may be individually very low in value (just as a highly valued melody may be built up out of individual notes low in value). Each of an alcoholic’s drink-refusals, for example, may individually be extremely low in value relative to its individual alternative (having a drink) yet a consistent pattern of drink refusals (sobriety in the long run) may be more valuable than consistent drinking (alcoholism). The problem of self-control is to restructure alternatives so that a person chooses among relatively long-term patterns of acts rather than among relatively short-term acts. Aiding in this effort is the coherence of patterns once they are formed and the cost of breaking them up.
The advantage of the teleological viewpoint is that it is thoroughly behavioral in the sense that it deals only with the whole organism; it allows you to go from simple laboratory situations to complex real-world situations without the hypothesizing of internal events such as internal operants, reinforcers or discriminative stimuli. |
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HOWARD RACHLIN (State University of New York, Stony Brook) |
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Dr. Howard Rachlin obtained a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from Cooper Union in New York City, where he learned to treat all scientific and practical questions as if they had answers in the back of the book rather than as invitations to self-expression, an M.A. in psychology from The New School of Social Research in New York City, where he learned that the whole may be greater than the sum of its parts, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University where B. F. Skinner and Richard Herrnstein taught him how to be a behaviorist. He is currently an emeritus Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has published more than 100 articles, written six books including Behavior and Mind (Oxford University Press, 1994) and The Science of Self-Control (Harvard University Press, 2000), and edited two others. Although he has retired from teaching, he is actively engaged in research on self-control and social cooperation in humans and nonhumans. Dr. Rachlin will give a presentation titled Teleological Behaviorism and Self-Control: |
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Award for Enduring Programmatic Contributions in Behavior Analysis: The New England Center for Children |
Abstract: The New England Center for Children (www.necc.org), founded in 1975, is a private, non-profit organization providing a full range of educational, residential and treatment programs for more than 250 children with autism and related disabilities based on the principles of behavior analysis.
Our mission has three components:
1. To maximize the independence of every student as measured by rates of skill acquisition, performance on assessments, reduction of aberrant behaviors, and transitions to less restrictive environments.
2. To share our work through research, professional development, consultation and dissemination of curriculum. We have published more than 150 research articles, operate six partner classrooms in area public schools, and consult with more than 30 others. Over the last 10 years, 550 of our employees have earned their master’s degree at one of three on-site graduate programs offered at NECC.
3. To secure the financial future of the organization through prudent fiscal management, professional fundraising, tax-exempt financing, and development of diverse income streams.
Our repertoire, which emphasizes skill acquisition, errorless teaching techniques, and function-based treatment, was shaped by our close collaboration with senior behavior analysts including Paul Touchette, Murray Sidman, Gina Green, Richard Foxx, Brian Iwata, and Bill Dube.
Mr. Strully and Ms. Foster will give a presentation titled Science and Autism: Translating Research into Practice:
The New England Center for Children attributes its success in the treatment of children with autism to a reliance on the experimental and applied research generated by our colleagues. NECC has a rich behavioral heritage beginning with Paul Touchette and Murray Sidman, who encouraged us to sustain a rigorous adherence to the methodology of ABA. Although this rigor is difficult to maintain, we continuously strive to avoid the temptation to drift away from the fundamentals of data based decision-making. At NECC the influence of both experimental and applied research translates across clinical treatment, staff development and organizational management. Autism responds to sophisticated scientific interventions, not politically correct bromides. If we abandon the methodology of our science, we condemn our children to an uncertain future. We believe success is measured not only by outcome but also by replication of proven methods across public and private settings, and by worldwi... |
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VINCENT STRULLY (New England Center for Children), Katherine E. Foster (New England Center for Children) |
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As Founder and Executive Director of The New England Center for Children, Mr. Strully directs all aspects of clinical and financial administration, program development, fundraising, facility design, and strategic planning. Mr. Strully has 32 years of experience working with children with autism and challenging behaviors. He received a B.A. from Hamilton College. In 1973, he was one of six founding teachers for an experimental program at the Spaulding Youth Center in Tilton, NH.In 1974, Mr. Strully and colleagues developed the first NECC program without the use of any endowed funds. The school was established from scratch in an empty building on the grounds of Taunton State Hospital. The second NECC school was founded in Framingham, MA in 1980. The two schools merged in 1987. Today NECC serves 225 children and young adults, and employs more than 600 people with an annual budget of $30 million. |
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SQAB 2005 Tutorial: Simulation of Quantitative Models of Behavior |
Saturday, May 28, 2005 |
1:00 PM–1:50 PM |
International South (2nd floor) |
Domain: Basic Research |
Chair: Frances K. McSweeney (Washington State University) |
Presenting Authors: : RUSSELL CHURCH (Brown University) |
Abstract: Quantitative models of behavior have been developed that may be compared to observations of behavior. Simulated data comes from the interaction of a procedure and the quantitative model; observed data comes from the interaction of a procedure and an animal. The evaluation of a simulation is based on a comparison of the observed and simulated data, and on the simplicity and generality of the model. This talk will focus on how to simulate data, and why it is useful to do so. |
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RUSSELL CHURCH (Brown University) |
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SQAB 2005 Tutorial: Response Shaping and Percentile Schedules -- or 'How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Rank Orders" |
Saturday, May 28, 2005 |
2:00 PM–2:50 PM |
International South (2nd floor) |
Domain: Basic Research |
Chair: William M. Baum (University of California, Davis) |
Presenting Authors: : GREGORY GALBICKA (sanofi aventis) |
Abstract: In the Behavior of Organisms, Skinner detailed a process of differential reinforcement of successive approximations to a terminal response, subsequently termed 'shaping,' to create novel behaviors. Despite its fundamental nature in operant conditioning, shaping has little been studied, in either the laboratory or more applied settings. Owing to the dynamic nature of the interaction between shaper and behaver, the 'rules' of shaping as typically practiced are qualitative in nature only, and shapers themselves are more often selected than shaped. Percentile schedules provide one means of formalizing these rules, generating as a consequence a more consistent arrangement between responses and reinforcements that may form the basis for an experimental analysis of the parameters involved in shaping, as well as easing the need to clearly delineate criteria a priori in applied settings. This formalization requires little mathematical ability. It does, however, depend on a perspective of viewing operant responses not as unitary events but rather as a population of behaviors clustered in time. This perspective is, I believe, in many regards closer to Skinner’s original intent in defining operants. |
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GREGORY GALBICKA (sanofi aventis) |
Gregory Galbicka completed undergraduate and graduate training programs in Experimental Analysis of Behavior at the University of Florida, earning a Ph.D. in 1981. That training included both applied work, in personalized systems of instruction with Hank Pennypacker, and basic research on aversive control and behavioral pharmacology as a student of Marc Branch. In 1982 he journeyed north to collaborate with John Platt at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. They published work on differentiation, of interresponse-times (IRTs) through punishment--providing a basis for understanding the puzzling phenomenon of 'shock-maintained behavior'--and of IRTs and spatial response location through reinforcement under percentile schedules. In 1987, he accepted a position at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, where he remained for 13 years, ultimately becoming the Chief of the Department of Neurobehavioral Assessment. During his tenure there he continued to work in the areas of response differentiation and behavioral pharmacology. He has served several terms on the Board of Editors of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB), and was an Associate Editor from 1988-1992. He also chaired the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee there, an experience that proved profitable in 2000, when he accepted an offer to develop the Animal Use Program for newly-formed Aventis Pharmaceuticals. Today, he is the Global Associate Director within Laboratory Animal Science and Welfare of the sanofi aventis Group, responsible for Global Administration and Planning. His publications include several dozen papers in a variety of scientific journals on a range of topics from those mentioned above to list-learning in monkeys and drug effects thereon, circadian rhytmicity in complex operants, assessing monkey's demand for television as environmental enrichment, and shaping smoking cessation. He has also authored several textbook chapters and review articles, and edited a special edition of JEAB on Behavioral Dynamics. Although no longer directly involved in laboratory research, he continues to consult on projects involving percentile schedules in smoking cessation, and on behavioral allocation in the developmentally disabled. His hobbies including driving his Audi to and from work, building furniture, and living in the mountains of lower New York state with his wife, two dogs, and several dozen fish. |
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Int'l SQAB 2005 Tutorial: Choice and Value |
Saturday, May 28, 2005 |
3:00 PM–3:50 PM |
International South (2nd floor) |
Domain: Basic Research |
Chair: Leonard Green (Washington University) |
Presenting Authors: : RANDOLPH C. GRACE (University of Canterbury, New Zealand) |
Abstract: Herrnstein’s (1961) discovery that response allocation matched relative reinforcement rate in concurrent schedules – ‘the matching law’ – began a tradition of research on behavioral choice. Subsequently, however, theoretical explanations for the matching law proliferated, with no clear resolution. I argue that the problem has been that the concurrent schedules procedure is unable to answer the questions it was originally meant to. The more complex concurrent-chains procedure overcomes this difficulty, and in the last decade, research has shown that the matching law provides an integrative quantitative framework for concurrent chains and other choice procedures. We now know that stimuli acquire value according to a temporal discounting process with generality across species; that choice as well as resistance to change is determined by relative value; and that effects of different aspects of reinforcement such as delay, probability, and magnitude on value are additive. These results confirm the utility of the matching law for understanding behavioral choice. |
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RANDOLPH C. GRACE (University of Canterbury, New Zealand) |
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SQAB 2005 Tutorial: Temporal Regulation of Choice |
Saturday, May 28, 2005 |
4:00 PM–4:50 PM |
International South (2nd floor) |
Domain: Basic Research |
Chair: Robert W. Allan (Lafayette College) |
Presenting Authors: : DANIEL T. CERUTTI (Duke University) |
Abstract: In the simplest example of temporal control, animals responding on a fixed interval (FI) schedule show a characteristic pause-and-respond pattern—the FI “scallop.” Parametric research on FI schedules reveals a lawful relationship between post-reinforcement-pausing and the inter-food interval (IFI), pausing is a fixed proportion of IFI. If temporal control of any sort is common to all schedules of reinforcement, it should play a role in conditioned reinforcement (chained schedules), choice (concurrent schedules), and choice for different magnitudes of reinforcement (self-control). Empirical studies confirmed informal predictions of differential pausing in concurrent and concurrent-chain schedules, with greater pausing shown on schedules with longer average IFIs. Thus, rates of responding on concurrent schedules may derive from differential pausing. The most parsimonious model to fit choice data is one that assumes a single representation of time from the last reinforcer, ignoring the response that produced it, with pauses on each response proportional to the corresponding last IFI, constant running rates after pauses. Subsequent findings confirm that pigeons responding on concurrent schedules is timed from the last reinforcer, but further suggest that behavior on concurrent schedules can be understood better as a temporal-stochastic process in which (a) the overall reinforcement delay determines the overall rate of behavior and (b) the individual schedules’ reinforcement delays determine the allocation of responses to each alternative. Taken together, findings suggest that animals responding on simple schedules learn when to respond, and animals responding on choice tasks learn when to respond where. |
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DANIEL T. CERUTTI (Duke University) |
Dan Cerutti is a Research Associate Professor of Psychology at Duke University. He has done experimental and theoretical work on operant conditioning, rule-governed behavior, and discrimination. His previous work includes demonstrations of recombinant generalization in the pigeon (with A.C. Catania), studies on the interaction between instructions and schedule performance in humans, experiments on the spatial-attentional biases in children (with C. Arciniega), and studies on choice in pigeons. In addition to teaching classes in learning and research methodology at Duke, Dan maintains two labs, one for pigeons and another for fish. His pigeon experiments, done in collaboration with John Staddon and Jeremie Josefowiez, are concerned with understanding temporal variables in choice. Those experiments appear to show that what pigeons learn about reinforcers in a choice task is a simple rule of /when/ and /where/. That is, when the pigeons are faced with two choices, each presenting a different rate of reinforcement, they begin responding on the choice with the shortest delay to reinforcement, and only later respond on the choice with the longer delay to reinforcement. Dan has spent the last few years developing technology to study operant behavior in fish to study the generality of timing processes, their ecological basis, and perhaps shed light on their evolutionary origins. |
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Behavioral Follies |
Saturday, May 28, 2005 |
10:00 PM–12:00 AM |
International North (2nd floor) |
Chair: Kelly G. Wilson (University of Mississippi) |
Co-Czars: and Kate Kellum, M.S. (University of Mississippi), Dermot Barnes-Holmes, Ph.D. and Yvonne Barnes-Holmes, Ph.D., (National University of Ireland, Maynooth) and Ian Stewart, Ph.D. (National University of Ireland, Galway)
Open Letter to the ABA Membership
Re: Czar for Behavioral Humor Named
Last year, the Behavioral News Tonight reported on corruption at the highest level of follies administration. Prior to last year’s reorganization efforts, some “comedy” sketches had risen to the level of war crimes. Thousands of ABA members had to be treated for PTSD (post terrible sketch disorder) after the tragic Osama Bin Watermist episode of 2003. Because of immanent threats uncovered by Behavioral News Tonight staff, we have sought and obtained special dispensation for the reorganization of the follies staff and for centralized humor oversight within ABA. Effective immediately, Kelly Wilson will assume the role of the Czar for Behavioral Humor.
Having small pockets of humor enforcement that communicate poorly with one another leaves us open to serious risk of malhumor attack. Central oversight will allow for clear lines of communication and a pre-emptory humor strike at the follies (which could save millions). We realize that the creation of this Czarship goes against ABA’s democratic traditions; however, present security risks necessitate strong countermeasures.
Initially, Kate Kellum, Yvonne Barnes-Holmes and Dermot Barnes-Holmes were appointed as Co-Czars for Behavioral Humor. Dermot Barnes-Holmes requested that we also include Ian Stewart as a Co-Czar. This seemed reasonable for two reasons. First, because the mal-humor threat is international, we need to build a strong international mal-humor coalition (under U.S. command, of course). And, second, the Irish have suffered so much, it seems the least we could do to throw them a bone with an additional token Co-Czarship.
Ever Vigilant, Seldom Politic, Your Servants,
Kelly G. Wilson
Kate Kellum
Yvonne Barnes-Holmes
Dermot Barnes-Holmes
Ian Stewart |
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