Auditory Context and Memory Retrieval in Young Infants

Three-month-old infants were trained to move an overhead crib mobile while 1 of 2 musical selections was played. Retention was assessed 1 or 7 days later in the presence of either the same music or a different musical selection. in Experiment 1, the musical selections were very different (classical versus jazz); in Experiment 2, they were much more similar (two classical pieces). Infants in both experiments displayed 1 day retention regardless of wich music was played during the retention test. At 7 days, retention was seen only when the music played during the retention test matched the training music. These data are consistent with similar findings showing that 3-month-old infants'memory is disrupted at long retention intervals when the context present during retention testing does not match the learning context. As the infant's memory wanes, context appears to function as a necessary cue for the retrieval of acquired expectancies.     

Contributions of print exposure to first and second grade oral language and reading in Chile

This study examines the contribution of print exposure to oral language (expressive vocabulary and listening comprehension) and reading (word reading and reading comprehension) in first and second grade in Chile, and tests whether the contribution of print exposure to reading comprehension is mediated by language and word reading skills. Two‐hundred and eighty one children (mean age 6.55 years) participated. Print exposure was measured with a book‐cover recognition task in first grade, and outcomes were measured both in first and second grade. Print exposure had direct effects on all outcomes in first grade and indirect effects in second grade. Effects on first grade reading comprehension were partially mediated by listening comprehension and word reading, but not vocabulary. We discuss the importance of the findings for improving reading comprehension in countries with low access to books.     

Microclimate inside a semi-confined environment: Valuation of suitability for the conservation of heritage materials

The microclimatic analysis of the Petrarca's tomb in Arquà Petrarca, Padua (Italy) was performed to assess the suitability of a closed environment located outdoors respect to the conservation requirements of heritage materials. Results showed that the thermo-hygrometric conditions inside the tomb were not suitable for the conservation of organic materials, like bones and wood. The orientation (north or south) was the main responsible for the different damage features of the two sides of the wooden case housing the human remains inside the tomb. Technical solutions were finally implemented to improve the conservation conditions, thus avoiding further damage.     

Can High School Achievement Tests Serve to Select College Students?

Postsecondary schools have traditionally relied on admissions tests such as the SAT and ACT to select students. With high school achievement assessments in place in many states, it is important to ascertain whether scores from those exams can either supplement or supplant conventional admissions tests. In this study we examined whether the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) high school tests could serve as a useful predictor of college performance. Stepwise regression analyses with a predetermined order of variable entry revealed that AIMS generally did not account for additional performance variation when added to high school grade-point average (HSGPA) and SAT. However, in a cohort of students that took the test for graduation purposes, AIMS did account for about the same proportion of variance as SAT when added to a model that included HSGPA. The predictive value of both SAT and AIMS was generally the same for Caucasian, Hispanic, and Asian American students. The ramifications of universities using high school achievement exams as predictors of college success, in addition to or in lieu of traditional measures, are discussed.     

Use of biochemical parameters for non-invasive screening of oesophageal varices in comparison to elastography-based approach in patients with compensated advanced chronic liver disease

IntroductionOesophageal varices are routinely diagnosed by esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD), and their bleeding has high mortality. We aimed to evaluate diagnostic performance of biochemical tests in comparison to elastography-based approaches, as non-invasive alternatives to EGD, for ruling-out high risk oesophageal varices (HRV).Material and methodsRetrospective analysis of patients (N = 861) who underwent liver stiffness measurement (LSM) by transient elastography (TE) in a single centre over 5-year period, with available results of EGD (within 3 months from LSM). Only patients with suspicion of compensated advanced chronic liver disease (cACLD) defined by LSM ≥ 10 kPa were included comprising the final cohort of 73 subjects. Original and expanded Baveno VI criteria (B6C), controlled attenuation parameter (CAP), platelet count (PLT), aspartate aminotransferase to PLT ratio index (APRI), Fibrosis-4 index (FIB4), model for end stage liver disease (MELD) score were evaluated against the results of EGD that served as the reference method.ResultsAnalysed patients had median age 62 years, 59/73 (0.81) were males, 54/73 (0.74) had alcoholic/non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and 21/73 (0.29) had HRV. In multivariate logistic regression analysis only LSM and PLT were independently associated with HRV. The best performing tests for ruling-out HRV (% of spared EGD; % of missed HRV) were respectively: LSM < 20 kPa (53.4%; 0%), B6C (38%; 0%), Expanded B6C (47.9%; 4.8%); PLT > 214x10⁹/L (21.9%; 0%); FIB4 ≤ 1.8 (21.4%; 0%), APRI ≤ 0.34 (12.3%; 0%). CAP, MELD = 6 alone or combined with PLT > 150(x10⁹/L) did not show acceptable performance.ConclusionThe best performing biochemical tests for ruling-out HRV in our cohort of patients were PLT and FIB-4, but they were still outperformed by elastography-based approaches.Keyword: portal hypertension, cirrhosis, platelet count, esophageal varices, non-invasive tests     

Social Justice Practices on Gender,Race, and Environment Within a School in Granada

In this article we discuss the experience of the Institute Ilíberis, a public high school in a small town in Granada, Spain, that has been engaged in innovative ways of teaching. Located in Atarfe, one of the few rural Spanish municipalities with expanding, rather than shrinking demographics, in the last 2 decades the Institute Ilíberis has experienced the challenges of educating for democracy with an increasing diverse student body. This article focuses on the innovative and committed response of the entire school to address these challenges. By looking at the programs that the school prioritized in the articulation of this response, our article attempts to highlight an unorthodox Spanish school that has been successful in educating all of their students, respecting their ethnic and religious values while encouraging the students to do the same with their peers.     

Protective Factors for School Readiness Among Children in Poverty

The economic status of families and their children's learning outcomes are closely related. For example, children living in poverty tend to score worse on measures of reading and math performance than their more affluent peers, and this achievement gap is present by kindergarten. In this study, we identified protective factors associated with school readiness among an Arizona sample of children living at or below the federal poverty line (N = 230). Using multiple linear regression, we examined the association between assessments of school readiness, health status, childcare hours, home language, parent engagement, and parent education. We found that increased weekly childcare hours and better health were associated with higher proficiency in math, literacy, and approaches to learning, and may serve as resilience factors for children in poverty that may contribute to closing the achievement gap.     

Social origins,academic strength of school curriculum and access to selective higher education institutions: Evidence from Scotland and the USA

This paper analyses the role that different components of the academic strength of the secondary-school curriculum (i.e. number, subjects and grades of advanced academic courses) play in explaining social origin differences in access to prestigious universities (but also to other higher education institutions) in Scotland and the USA. A central aim of the paper is to investigate whether the mechanism behind the studied patterns of inequality differs depending on the characteristics of each educational system. Our results show pronounced social class gaps in entering top higher education institutions in both Scotland and the USA. Academic curriculum plays an important role in explaining these social class differences in both countries. However, while in Scotland type of subjects taken at an advanced level is the strongest mediator for the identified social class differences, in the USA, number of advanced subjects is the strongest. Moreover, taking into account the three academic components combined entirely explains the social class differences in Scotland. Considerable inequalities which are not explained by the strength of academic curriculum remain in the USA.     

Social inequalities in attaining higher education in Scotland: New evidence from sibling data

Over the last decades, various policies at national and local levels have been implemented to widen participation in higher education (HE) in Scotland and more widely in the UK. Despite this, the acquisition of a HE qualification is still largely determined by the family in which individuals are born. Our study provides new evidence on the extent to which family factors matter by examining sibling data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study, a large-scale linkage study created using data from administrative and statistical sources. Random effects linear probability models are used to analyse individual and family-level variance in the chances of obtaining a HE qualification. Our results show that about 40% of the variation in the chances of attaining a university degree is explained by siblings’ shared family characteristics and about a third of this share is explained by parental social class, education and housing tenure. A high degree of sibling similarity in the outcome was found across all social-origin classes. However, while siblings of advantaged families are alike because they both graduated from HE, siblings of disadvantaged families are alike because neither of them did. We suggest that parental compensatory strategies in the former families and economic constraints in the latter families may explain such stark patterns of inequality. Finally, we do not find evidence that the availability of sub-degrees makes a difference to these patterns.