Working around the ERM: Automating Accurate Electronic Serials Holdings Data in Bibliographic Records

Accurate holdings information for electronic serials is essential to librarians and users. Collection management staff spent copious amounts of time creating and updating links and public notes in electronic serials bibliographic records. This effort not only duplicated the work of our e-resource access and management software, but the updated information also quickly became outdated and inaccurate. This article describes our project to replace platform-specific Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) with an International Standard Serial Number–specific, static URL that points to the e-resource access and management software resource page and details the. process, from generating the URL and batch-editing machine-readable cataloging records, to garnering support from stakeholders and teaching users to navigate new steps.     

Nonword repetition with spectrally reduced speech: some developmental and clinical findings from pediatric cochlear implantation

Nonword repetition skills were examined in 24 pediatric cochlear implant (CI) users and 18 normal-hearing (NH) adult listeners listening through a CI simulator. Two separate groups of NH adult listeners assigned accuracy ratings to the nonword responses of the pediatric CI users and the NH adult speakers. Overall, the nonword repetitions of children using CIs were rated as more accurate than the nonword repetitions of the adults. The nonword repetition accuracy ratings from both groups of subjects were correlated with open- and closed-set word recognition scores and forward digit spans. Only the perceptual accuracy scores from pediatric CI users were correlated with measures of speech production accuracy. These results suggest that although the pediatric CI users had more experience and success in perceiving speech under degraded auditory conditions, developmental differences in their memory skills prevent them from performing as well on working memory tasks as mature listeners.     

以言行事观念下的句法学、语义学和语用学

语力逻辑系统既包括本体层面,与真及成真条件有关,也包括认知层面,与以言行事的语力和行为有关.语力逻辑系统可以通过往标准的逻辑系统中添加施事性算子而得到.通过提供一个联系着以言行事的行为的理性承诺的解释,并且通过形成以施事性行为为前提和结论的自然演绎的推理系统,这类算子标示了以言行事的语力.本文利用一个简单的处理了断言、否定、假设的语力逻辑系统,证明经过恰当的考虑,对以言行事的语力和理性承诺的研究属于语义学,而不属于语用学.这一论证依赖于这样的事实,即表达式的赋值函项可被同时用于处理语力逻辑系统的本体和认知层面,在这两种情况下,这些函项都为建立恰当性和完全性的结果提供了基础.句法学研究的是表达式的结构,而语义学关心的则是语言使用者的意义,无论这些意义是不是习规上的意义.剩下的第三项研究,即所谓语用学,考察的是语言行为的意义是如何被说话者传达给听者的.     

Do Double Minority Students Face Double Jeopardy? Testing Minority Stress Theory

Data from 2 studies revealed that ethnic and sexual minority clients experienced greater psychological distress on multiple dimensions than did European American or heterosexual clients, respectively, as did ethnic and sexual minority students who were not clients. Among sexual minority students, ethnicity was not an added source of distress. Among ethnic minority students, sexual minority status was associated with heightened psychological distress.     

The Effect of Birth weight on Child Development Prior to School Entry

The present study examines variation in the effect of birth weight on children’s early cognitive and socioemotional outcomes by family socioeconomic status (SES). It is hypothesized that not only will lower birth weight children display worse cognitive and socioemotional outcomes prior to school entry, as prior research has found, but that effects will be stronger for lower-SES children. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort, the study compares the age 4 outcomes of twins discordant for birth weight (N ~ 1,400). Twin fixed-effects models are run on the full twin sample and separately for low- and high-SES children. Results support the study’s hypotheses, suggesting that socioeconomic risk accentuates the effects of birth weight on early development.     

A report on the current access to academic information at the University of Pretoria for visually impaired students: challenges and opportunities

This study aimed to determine what the best practice guidelines were for making academic reading material available to visually impaired students at the University of Pretoria (UP) easily and efficiently. A basic literature review of relevant research data was done to help create further context for this study. A semi-structured interview with a staff member from the Disability Unit at the UP as well as a focus group consisting of five visually impaired students who make use of the unit were used to obtain responses to the research questions. The visually impaired students felt that local publishers and UP staff needed further insight into these students’ academic needs in order to make the acquisition process for their academic material run smoother and more efficiently.     

Women teachers in Liberia: Social and institutional forces accounting for their underrepresentation

This study focuses on cultural and institutional factors that affect women's decision to become primary school teachers in Liberia. It exposes current dynamics that account for the male-dominated primary school teaching force and the barriers that dissuade women from becoming teachers. Based on semistructured interviews with pre-service and practicing teachers, school administrators, faculty at teacher training institutions, and Ministry of Education officials, the research findings indicate that women face several cultural barriers to receiving an education: patrilineal assumptions that daughters are destined to become resources for their husbands’ families (and thus a poor investment), early onset of sexual activity and teenage pregnancy, and social expectations about early family formation. Women who enter teacher training programs receive no recognition for their children and family responsibilities and are given insufficient financial support. When women do become teachers, they face difficult working conditions such as distant schools, poor housing facilities, late payments, and large classes filled with overage students. The probability of rural assignment brings additional dissuading factors: poor quality roads and few transportation options, a dearth of safe housing, and lack of childcare services. The study offers several policy options for increasing female teachers in the workforce.     

Does Maternal Employment Following Childbirth Support or Inhibit Low‐Income Children’s Long‐Term Development?

This study assessed whether previous findings linking early maternal employment to lower cognitive and behavioral skills among middle‐class and White children generalized to other groups. Using a representative sample of urban, low‐income, predominantly African American and Hispanic families (n = 444), ordinary least squares regression and propensity score matching models assessed links between maternal employment in the 2 years after childbearing and children’s functioning at age 7. Children whose mothers were employed early, particularly in their first 8 months, showed enhanced socioemotional functioning compared to peers whose mothers remained nonemployed. Protective associations emerged for both part‐time and full‐time employment, and were driven by African American children, with neutral effects for Hispanics. Informal home‐based child care also heightened positive links.     

A NEW LOOK AT INTELLIGENCE TESTING

The aim of the paper is to explore teachers’ methods of delivering an ethos of tolerance, respect and mutual understanding in one integrated secondary school in Northern Ireland. Drawing on interviews with 18 teachers in the school, it is argued that most teachers make ‘critical choices’ which both reflect and reinforce a ‘culture of avoidance’, whereby politically or religiously contentious issues are avoided rather than explored. Although teachers are well-intentioned in making these choices, it is shown that they have the potential to create the conditions that maintain or even harden psychological boundaries between Catholics and Protestants rather than dilute them.