Selection and evaluation of Internet information by adults with intellectual disabilities

Internet offers people with intellectual disabilities (ID) unique opportunities to access information and to participate in society. But concerns have been raised about the potential risks they face when accessing the Internet (e.g. giving credit to false information, being exposed to manipulative content). As part of the current debate between positive risk-taking and overprotection, our study empirically tested the extent to which 43 adults with ID identified and selected topically relevant as well as trustworthy web pages while searching the Internet for several topics (e.g. Can social networks use your pictures for advertisement?). Participants also justified their search decisions. Results revealed that while searching familiar topics (i.e. social networks), participants selected more relevant and trustworthy pages than irrelevant and less trustworthy ones. Searches of less familiar topics (i.e. daily health), were carried out randomly, that is, without applying a specific criterion. Results point to the importance of topic familiarity on people’s with ID performance on Internet searching tasks. This pattern of results suggests that, first, we should avoid overprotection when people with ID search for familiar topics and, second, they need more support when searching for information about less familiar topics.     

Visuospatial working memory in adolescents with poor performance in mathematics: variation depending on reading skills

The first purpose of this study was to investigate whether the visuospatial working memory (VSWM) skills of 15–16‐year‐old pupils with difficulties in mathematics differ from those of their normally achieving peers. The goal was to broaden the view of the complex system of VSWM. A set of passive and active VSWM tasks was used. The study’s second purpose was to investigate whether pupils with mathematical difficulties differed in their VSWM skills based on whether they had signs of reading deficits or not. Results indicate that the pupils with poor performance in maths showed poorer performance on certain VSWM tasks. The group with deficits only in maths had less capacity for storing passive visual simultaneous information, while the group with difficulties both in maths and reading had deficits in both storing (passive visual and visuospatial information) and processing, and had less ability to control irrelevant visuospatial information compared to their peers of the same age. The results indicate a general VSWM deficit in pupils with both mathematics and reading problems and a specific VSWM deficit in pupils with only mathematics problems.     

Identification of Alcohol by Smell among Preschoolers: Evidence for Early Socialization about Drugs Occurring in the Home

This study tested preschoolers' ability to provide accurate verbal associations to alcoholic beverage odors and whether this ability was related to parental drinking patterns and motivations. Older preschoolers performed better than younger preschoolers; photographic cues improved performance; children who correctly identified a substance by smell had socially appropriate knowledge of the culturally appropriate users of the substance; children reported liking substances that are used mainly by children and adults, and generally reported disliking substances whose use is legally limited to adults only; children were better at identifying substances they commonly use, but success at recognition of alcoholic beverages was related to heavier parental drinking and use of alcohol for escape reasons. Findings have implications for theories of socialization to drug use and for models of prevention.     

基于DSP的人脸识别系统的设计与实现

为了提高身份识别系统的实时性、可靠性和便捷性,设计了基于DSP的人脸识别系统。基于肤色的人脸检测算法和基于小波变换的主成分分析的人脸识别算法构成了所设计系统的软件算法;DSP(DM642)微处理器、CCD传感器摄像头和显示屏等构成了该系统的硬件平台。测试结果表明,设计的人脸识别系统具有识别速度快和成功率高等优点。     

Comparison of mediation between paraprofessionals and individuals with intellectual disability: vocational rehabilitation centres versus special education schools

The applicability of Klein's Mediational intervention for sensitizing caregivers (MISC) to adolescents and adults with intellectual disability (ID) was examined, and the quality of paraprofessionals' interactions with these populations in special education schools and in vocational rehabilitation centres was compared. Interactions were video taped and coded. The findings support the MISC suitability for adolescents and adults with ID, but demonstrate significant differences between facilities. Opportunities for choice making, expanding and encouraging with explanation were observed more at the schools, whereas mediation of verbal instructions and physical assistance were observed more in the centres. Negative attitudes of staff towards modifiability of adult persons with ID may be a possible explanation.     

Verbal Fluency and Verbal Short-Term Memory in Adults with Down Syndrome and Unspecified Intellectual Disability

The purpose of this study was to examine verbal fluency and verbal short-term memory in 12 adults with Down syndrome (DS) and 12 adults with Intellectual Disability (ID) of unspecified origin, matched for receptive vocabulary and chronological age. Participants’ performance was assessed on two conditions of a verbal fluency test, namely, semantic and phonemic fluency. In addition to the total number of correct words produced, the use of clustering and switching strategies was also evaluated. In order to investigate the likely relations of verbal short-term memory with the test variables, a digit span task was administered. According to the results of the study, the two groups differed significantly on the average phonemic cluster size, with the ID group outperforming the DS group. Regarding the within-group comparisons, a relatively similar pattern of results was found for the two groups, indicating higher scores on all the measures involved in the semantic test than the phonemic one. The examination of the relation of verbal short-term memory with the verbal fluency test measures revealed that, in the DS group, only the total words produced in the semantic and the phonemic test and the number of phonemic switches were significantly associated with verbal short-term memory. Additionally, in both groups, word productivity in the semantic and the phonemic test was positively associated with the number of switches. The observed similarities and differences in the performance of the two groups, as well as the associations that emerged among the test variables in each group, are discussed.     

基于第二代身份证智能识别的新生入学电子注册系统开发

采用第二代身份证识别技术可以获取身份证卡智能芯片中的个人身份数据,快速验证公民的真实身份．提出利用二代身份证识别技术与高校招生录取数据库结合的方案,开发具有身份证识别功能的新生电子注册系统．设计了数据比对与验证的功能,研究了实现该方案的接口代码与算法,针对新生录取信息数据进行再次核对与修正,形成准确的新生信息数据库．同时阐述了二代身份证识别技术在高校信息化建设当中的应用价值．     

The early academic progress of children with special educational needs

Children with special educational needs (SEN) are known to experience lower average educational attainment than other children during their school years. But we have less insight into how far their poorer educational outcomes stem from their original starting points or from failure to progress during school. The extent to which early identification with SEN delivers support that enables children who are struggling academically to make appropriate progress is subject to debate. This is complicated by the fact that children with SEN are more likely to be growing up in disadvantaged families and face greater levels of behavioural and peer problems, factors which themselves impact attainment and progress through school. In this paper, we evaluate the academic progress of children with SEN in England, drawing on a large‐scale nationally representative longitudinal UK study, the Millennium Cohort Study, linked to administrative records of pupil attainment. Controlling for key child, family and environmental factors, and using the SEN categories employed at the time of data collection, we first establish that children identified with SEN in 2008, when they were age 7, had been assessed with lower academic competence when they started school. We evaluate their progress between ages 5–7 and 7–11. We found that children identified with SEN at age 7 tended to be those who had made less progress between ages 5 and 7 than their comparable peers. However, children with SEN continued to make less progress than their similarly able peers between ages 7 and 11. Implications are discussed.     

Robust video foreground segmentation and face recognition

Face recognition provides a natural visual interface for human computer interaction (HCI) applications. The process of face recognition, however, is inhibited by variations in the appearance of face images caused by changes in lighting, expression, viewpoint, aging and introduction of occlusion. Although various algorithms have been presented for face recognition, face recognition is still a very challenging topic. A novel approach of real time face recognition for HCI is proposed in the paper. In view of the limits of the popular approaches to foreground segmentation, wavelet multi-scale transform based background subtraction is developed to extract foreground objects. The optimal selection of the threshold is automatically determined, which does not require any complex supervised training or manual experimental calibration. A robust real time face recognition algorithm is presented, which combines the projection matrixes without iteration and kernel Fisher discriminant analysis (KFDA) to overcome some difficulties existing in the real face recognition. Superior performance of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by comparing with other algorithms through experiments. The proposed algorithm can also be applied to the video image sequences of natural HCI. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.60872117), and the Leading Academic Discipline Project of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (Grant No.J50104)     

Object naming ability of adults with written language difficulties

Several studies have observed that school-aged, reading-disabled children have object-naming problems. In addition, significant positive relationships between object-naming ability and reading and spelling skills have been observed for this population. The co-occurrence of these problems has been explained by common underlying phonological deficiencies. Because written language problems can persist beyond the school-aged years, the purpose of this study was to examine object-naming ability and the relationship between object naming and written language of adults. Twenty-two adults, half with written language difficulties and half without, performed four tasks: object naming, object recognition, reading, and spelling. Significant positive relationships were obtained between object-naming ability and reading ability, object-naming ability and spelling performance, and reading and spelling performance. In addition to phonological deficiencies, the results indicated that adult poor readers and spellers lack knowledge of the orthographic structure of words. These findings suggest that problems underlying object naming and written language do not resolve with cognitive maturation or additional years of experience with language and should be addressed in the early school-aged years. This research was funded by Grant A2008 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to the second author.     

The Impact of Process Instructions on Judges’ Use of Examinee Performance Data in Angoff Standard Setting Exercises

Despite being widely used and frequently studied, the Angoff standard setting procedure has received little attention with respect to an integral part of the process: how judges incorporate examinee performance data in the decision‐making process. Without performance data, subject matter experts have considerable difficulty accurately making the required judgments. Providing data introduces the very real possibility that judges will turn their content‐based judgments into norm‐referenced judgments. This article reports on three Angoff standard setting panels for which some items were randomly assigned to have incorrect performance data. Judges were informed that some of the items were accompanied by inaccurate data, but were not told which items they were. The purpose of the manipulation was to assess the extent to which changing the instructions given to the judges would impact the extent to which they relied on the performance data. The modified instructions resulted in the judges making less use of the performance data than judges participating in recent parallel studies. The relative extent of the change judges made did not appear to be substantially influenced by the accuracy of the data.     

30 Days to Better Thinking and Better Living Through Critical Thinking,Revised & Expanded: A Guide for Improving Every Aspect of Your Life. Elder,L., & Paul,R. (2013)

The recognition of patterns and creativity are two characteristics associated with mathematical talent. In this study, we analyzed these characteristics in a group of 37 mathematically talented students. The students were asked to find the pattern the Braille code had been built upon and reinvent it with the aim of making its mathematical language become more functional. Initially, the students were unable to identify the formation pattern of Braille, but after experiencing the difficulties that blind people face when reading it, they recognized the generating element and the regularity. The results were in contrast with those of a control group, and it is noted that the students with mathematical talent were more effective in using visualization to identify the regularity of the pattern and their invention proposals were more sophisticated and used less conventional mathematical content.     

组织小组研讨活动的几点思考

成人高师教学法课程实施中，组织小组研讨活动具有重要意义。活动的开展要求针对实际需要，选择合适的内容，进行有效的组织，给予有力的指导，使小组研讨活动成为课程的重要有机组成部分，在师资培训中发挥积极作用。活动的开展面临诸多困难和问题，反映新的学习方式形成中必然遇到的严重挑战，只能在不断的探索改进中求得更好的实效。     

A different view of literacy

The Equals Formal Curriculum English Scheme of Work has been designed for that very small percentage of the school population, perhaps as low as one or two per cent, who have global learning difficulties (GLD) to such a degree that they are consistently working at levels significantly below their age-related peers for all of their academic lives. The term GLD includes all those in England currently ascribed as having severe learning difficulties (SLD) and many if not most, currently ascribed as having moderate learning difficulties (MLD). Evidence of the difficulties faced by such pupils will become increasingly obvious beyond Year 1 at age 6, because the difficulties are global rather than specific. That is, they are likely to affect all learning, but will be particularly apparent in numeracy and literacy. This paper, the first of two, seeks to clarify why reading and writing are so extraordinarily difficult for this population and posits that the answers lie in challenging perceived wisdoms within the education system’s predilections towards (i) regarding phonics as the only solution to reading difficulties (ii) persisting over time (and in the face of evidence to the contrary) with the view that children, young people and adults with GLD can make sufficient progress within phonics teaching and (iii) the use of differentiation of a standardised national curriculum model as being a sufficient answer to global learning difficulties. Clearly the main language used in England is English, but the principles and ideas outlined in this paper should apply in any language which uses a phonic structure when teaching language.     

一种改进的彩色人脸鉴别特征抽取方法及自动识别

针对传统的线性分析方法中都需要的平均样本的共性,提出了基于中间样本的人脸识别．这种方法有效去除了干扰样本对平均样本的影响,并结合彩色人脸识别,提出了基于中间样本的彩色人脸鉴别特征抽取及自动识别方法．最后,在国际通用的AR标准彩色人脸库中进行了大量实验,验证了算法的有效性．     

A Pilot Study in the Field of Professional Further Education — Cooperative Learning in a Multimedia Learning Environment

ABSTRACT

Based on cooperative learning models, the present study investigated the specific effects of performance, interpersonal relations and affective variables in a computer‐based cooperative learning environment. Subjects were male and female adults who studied a multimedia learning program as a professional training task. After randomization 50 subjects worked in cooperative settings, while 25 subjects worked individually as a control group. In keeping with our assumptions, the subjects benefited from being paired. Further advantages for cooperative learning seem likely if instructions are modified and cooperative strategies used.     

Predicting First Grade Reading Performance from Kindergarten Response to Tier 1 Instruction

Many schools are beginning to implement multi-tier response to intervention (RTI) models for the prevention of reading difficulties and to assist in the identification of students with learning disabilities (LD). The present study was part of our larger ongoing longitudinal RTI investigation within the Florida Learning Disabilities Center grant. This study used a longitudinal correlational design, conducted in 7 ethnically and socio-economically diverse schools. We observed reading instruction in 20 classrooms, examined response rates to kindergarten Tier 1 instruction, and predicted students' first grade reading performance based upon kindergarten growth and end of year reading performance (n = 203). Teachers followed an explicit core reading program and overall, classroom instruction was rated as effective. Results indicate that controlling for students' end of kindergarten reading, their growth across kindergarten on a variety of language and literacy measures suppressed predictions of first grade performance. Specifically, the steeper the students' trajectory to a satisfactory outcome, the less likely they were to demonstrate good performance in first grade. Implications for future research and RTI implementation are discussed.     

The Critical Role of Stereopsis in Virtual and Mixed Reality Learning Environments

Anatomy education has been revolutionized through digital media, resulting in major advances in realism, portability, scalability, and user satisfaction. However, while such approaches may well be more portable, realistic, or satisfying than traditional photographic presentations, it is less clear that they have any superiority in terms of student learning. In this study, it was hypothesized that virtual and mixed reality presentations of pelvic anatomy will have an advantage over two-dimensional (2D) presentations and perform approximately equal to physical models and that this advantage over 2D presentations will be reduced when stereopsis is decreased by covering the non-dominant eye. Groups of 20 undergraduate students learned pelvic anatomy under seven conditions: physical model with and without stereo vision, mixed reality with and without stereo vision, virtual reality with and without stereo vision, and key views on a computer monitor. All were tested with a cadaveric pelvis and a 15-item, short-answer recognition test. Compared to the key views, the physical model had a 70% increase in accuracy in structure identification; the virtual reality a 25% increase, and the mixed reality a non-significant 2.5% change. Blocking stereopsis reduced performance on the physical model by 15%, on virtual reality by 60%, but by only 2.5% on the mixed reality technology. The data show that virtual and mixed reality technologies tested are inferior to physical models and that true stereopsis is critical in learning anatomy.     

Struggling to Recognize their Existence: Examining Student–Adult Relationships in the Urban High School Context

In today’s reform context, much attention is placed on policies and outcomes and far less emphasis on understanding the social and cultural processes in schools. Using case-study methodology, I examine relationships between low-income, urban high school students of color, and the school adults with whom they interact. Using grounded theory, students’ experiences are analyzed and interpreted through the lens of recognition. Recognition is used as both a theoretical and empirical concept to illuminate students’ experiences and voices, especially since the construct is largely absent in the U.S. education discourse. Students revealed that being known by adults, talking with adults, engaging with adults personally, and experiencing encouraging adults were all critical elements of recognition. I suggest that student–adult relationships, via the practice of recognition in urban schools, needs to be interrogated, deliberate, and political so that the transformative purpose of education can be realized.

上海市成年智障人士家庭需求调查

理解家庭需求有助于促进成年智障人士的社会融合。研究采用自编的智障人士家庭调查表,调查了上海市1412个成年智障人士家庭需求。结果发现:(1)成年智障人士大多赋闲在家,只有少数接受过职业训练和康复训练。(2)智障人士的现状与家庭的期望不一致,而许多家长将现状归因于家庭努力不够和智障者能力的限制。(3)有半数家长认为子女不能工作,但事实上他们还是可能从事许多工作。(4)影响社会融合的因素是智障人士自身能力的限制和社会接纳不力,家庭为此作了很多努力,也表示需要政府更多的帮助。(5)智障人士可以从事多种运动,包括特奥运动。