Empowering Marginalized Youth: A Self‐Transformative Intervention for Promoting Positive Youth Development

This article reports the results of a positive youth development (PYD) intervention for adolescents in alternative high schools (209 African American and Hispanic American adolescents, aged 14–18; 118 females and 91 males). The intervention was guided by a self‐transformative model of PYD (Eichas, Meca, Montgomery, & Kurtines, 2014). This model proposes that the actions youth take to define themselves function as active ingredients in positive development over the life course. Consistent with the self‐transformative model, results provided support for direct or mediated intervention effects on the self‐transformative processes of self‐construction and self‐discovery, life goal development, identity synthesis, and internalizing problems. The findings illustrate the utility of using a self‐transformative approach to PYD in work with marginalized youth populations.     

Fear potentiation of the acoustic startle reflex using noises of various spectral frequencies as conditioned stimuli

The effectiveness of noise of various intensities and frequencies in modulating the amplitude of the acoustic startle reflex was evaluated, as a preliminary test of the capacity of these noises to produce consistent and reliable fear-potentiated startle in rats. It was determined that bands of noise containing high frequencies (greater than 10 kHz) tend to unconditionally reduce acoustic startle responses, probably by masking the high-frequency startle-eliciting stimulus. Noise containing high frequencies produced reliable fear-potentiated startle only when its estimated unconditioned startle suppression was subtracted from the enhancement obtained after pairing it with footshocks. Noises devoid of high frequencies produced modest-unconditioned startle enhancements and the most robust and reliable fear-potentiated startle when they were paired with footshocks. A nonmonotonic relationship between training shock intensity and the level of fear-potentiated startle was also exhibited when a low-frequency noise was used as a conditioned stimulus, a finding consistent with previous studies in which a visual stimulus was used. Finally, a differential Pavlovian conditioning procedure indicated that rats could readily discriminate between two different low-frequency bands of noise. The outcome of these experiments indicates that it is easier to employ low-frequency bands of noise to obtain auditory fear-potentiated startle with high-frequency startle-eliciting stimuli.     

Phonological working memory: A critical building block for reading development and vocabulary acquisition?

In this article we review findings from a recent longitudinal study of the contribution of phonological working memory to vocabulary acquisition and reading development. A total of 80 children were tested initially at school entry at the age of four years, and were tested in three further waves at ages 5, 6, and 8 years. The results indicate that phonological memory skills constrain vocabulary growth during the first year or so in school but that subsequently, vocabulary knowledge is a pacemaker in the development relationship with memory. Phonological memory skill in prereading children was found to be significantly linked with scores on a reading test at age 8 which encourages the use of a phonological recoding strategy. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings, and important areas for future research, are discussed.     

Pathways of China's PM2.5 air quality 2015-2060 in the context of carbon neutrality

Clean air policies in China have substantially reduced particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution in recent years,primarily by curbing end-of-pipe emissions.Howev...     

A call for international research on COVID-19-induced brain dysfunctions

The COVID-19 pandemic,still raging worldwide,imposes staggering human and economic costs.These will only increase as many convalescent patients suffer consequen...     

A text to speech interface for Universal Digital Library

INTRODUCTION The objective of Universal Digital Library (UDL) is to capture all books in digital format (Universal Digital Library, 2005; Digital Library of India, 2005). Most of the digital information present in the digital world is accessible to a few who can read or under- stand a particular language. Language technologies can provide solutions in the form of natural interfaces so that digital content can reach the masses and fa- cilitate the exchange of information across differe…