Oral language acquisition by deaf pupils in primary education: impact of musical education

When a child has some hearing loss, a great number of interdependent factors of human development, and more particularly linguistic development that come into play, is apparent. From a school perspective, some requirements can be met in order to make school the best place to enhance this linguistic development, while at the same time the deaf child is educated in a normalized environment. The aim of this paper is to carry out a longitudinal follow‐up of a group of five deaf pupils educated in mainstream schools, considered as optimal for school integration, and to analyse their linguistic development considering both the excellence of the school and the use of a programme of musical education with deaf pupils throughout the period of study. These data are compared with those obtained from another sample of deaf pupils, educated in similar settings, who did not follow the aforementioned hearing training programme. The main results show that musical education has some positive effects on supra‐segmental aspects of language, on voice quality and on the structuring of simple sentences.     

Beyond stigmatization of children with difficulties in learning

In the Albanian schools settings does not exist religious discrimination, neither gender discrimination, but there exists a discrimination, as unfair against children called ＂difficulty＂. The children who drop out of school are by far less numerous compared with those who start school, but who are not properly treated, so that they can progress the same as other children. The object of this article is the children with learning difficulties, the causes of these difficulties. One of the reasons, among many others, why this secret dropping out of school happens is also difficulty in learning that quite a few number of pupils have, which are not known to everyone, and consequently are not treated by all the teachers, or by the other people who surround the child, condemning him to a school failure and slim chances to succeed later in life. It has often been pointed out that to define the causes of these learning difficulties it is not an easy task. A large number of factors intermingle bringing about the hell of learning for some children. If it is impossible to intervene in different organic damages （even they in many cases can be prevented though）, at least those depending on people can be avoided by offering a favorable environment, showing fondness towards them and making efforts to help these children. Above all, the authors have to be willing, to know and be able to do this as parents and precisely as teachers.     

Longer-term effects of minimalist shoes on running performance,strength and bone density: A 20-week follow-up study*

This study investigated whether male runners improve running performance, running economy, ankle plantar flexor strength, and alter running biomechanics and lower limb bone mineral density when gradually transitioning to using minimalist shoes for 100% of weekly running. The study was a planned follow-up of runners (n?=?50) who transitioned to minimalist or conventional shoes for 35% of weekly structured training in a previous 6-week randomised controlled trial. In that trial, running performance and economy improved more with minimalist shoes than conventional shoes. Runners in each group were instructed to continue running in their allocated shoe during their own preferred training programme for a further 20 weeks while increasing allocated shoe use to 100% of weekly training. At the 20-week follow-up, minimalist shoes did not affect performance (effect size: 0.19; p?=?0.218), running economy (effect size: ≤?0.24; p?≥?0.388), stride rate or length (effect size: ≤?0.12; p?≥?0.550), foot strike (effect size: ≤?0.25; p?≥?0.366), or bone mineral density (effect size: ≤?0.40; p?≥?0.319). Minimalist shoes increased plantar flexor strength more than conventional shoes when runners trained with greater mean weekly training distances (shoe*distance interaction: p?=?0.036). After greater improvements with minimalist shoes during the initial six weeks of a structured training programme, increasing minimalist shoe use from 35% to 100% over 20 weeks, when runners use their own preferred training programme, did not further improve performance, running economy or alter running biomechanics and lower limb bone mineral density. Minimalist shoes improved plantar flexor strength more than conventional shoes in runners with greater weekly training distances.     

Systemic adaptation to a changing environment: Towards a next generation of quality assurance models

Quality assessment has been part of thefeedback mechanisms of European highereducation systems since around 1980. Due tointernal dynamics, `erosion' of theeffectiveness of first-generation qualityassessment systems has led to loss ofcredibility (legitimacy) of these systems inthe late 1990s. External dynamics alsonecessitate designing a next generation ofquality assurance systems. They include notablya loss of transparency (hence, legitimacy) ofthe European higher education system throughincreased internationalisation (most notablythrough the Bologna process) which puts new,increased demands on institutional arrangementsfor quality assurance.In this paper, we first intend to schematisethe developments of quality assurance in highereducation by introducing a phase model of theeffects of internal and external dynamics.Next, we will analyse this phase model from theperspective of argumentative policy inquiry.Finally, we will contrast policy developmentsin higher education with one other example,viz. environmental policy in the Netherlands.The conclusions of this comparison, as well asthe new challenges set for quality assurance inhigher education by the Bologna process, arethe subject matter for the final section of ourpaper.     

Why Siblings Are Important Agents of Cognitive Development: A Comparison of Siblings and Peers

This study explored older siblings' and peers' influence on young children's cognitive development. Although we anticipated many similarities in siblings' and peers' influence, our principal goal was to test the hypothesis that siblings are unique agents of cognitive development. Young children, their older siblings, and an older, familiar peer first participated in an unstructured building session where each built their own construction. Then, one of the older children taught the younger child how to copy a model windmill. Finally, the younger child was given an individual posttest in which he or she copied the windmill. Although there were many similarities in older siblings' and peers' guidance, the results highlighted the uniqueness of the sibling relationship. In the unstructured building session, young children were more likely to observe, imitate, and consult their older siblings than their older peers, and older siblings were more likely than older peers to provide them with guidance spontaneously. In the teaching session, older siblings provided more explanations and positive feedback and gave learners more control of the task than older peers. However, older siblings' behavior was not independent from the learners', as young children often prompted the siblings' explanations and pressured them into giving them more control of the task. These differences in teaching and learning strategies affected young children's task mastery; Children taught by siblings obtained higher posttest scores than children taught by peers. The discussion interprets these findings within the context of shared and unique functions of siblings and peers in cognitive development and highlights the role of the learner in promoting his or her own development.     

Arthrospira maxima (Spirulina) prevents endoplasmic reticulum stress in the kidney through its C-phycocyanin

正Arthrospira maxima (Spirulina) is a cyanobacterium which is considered a nutraceutical because it has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and cytoprotective properties in different renal disease models (RodriguezSánchez et al., 2012; Aziz et al., 2018; Memije-Lazaro et al., 2018).