The impact of friendship on synchronous collaborative retrieval tasks in the primary school

Two experiments aim at describing the impact of friendship during a synchronous collaborative information retrieval (SCIR) with young pupils (recruited in Grade 3). In the first study, 68 pupils were asked to look for 13 answers in one of the three following conditions: on an individual basis (condition “Single”), as part of a designed duo with social friendship (condition “Affinity +”), or as part of a designed duo without social friendship (condition “Affinity ?”). In the second experiment, we investigated more precisely the impact of friendship on verbal interactions between partners. Main results obtained in these two experiments are the following: (1) pairs retrieved effectively more answers, more correct answers and were more efficient than singles; (2) pairs composed of pupils without social friendship retrieved more answers, more correct answers and were more efficient than pairs composed by friends; (3) pairs composed of friends produced significantly more irrelevant queries; and (4) pairs composed of friends produced more verbalisations related to conflicts, while pairs composed of pupils without social friendship are engaged in a great deal of consensus seeking. Finally, educational implications are discussed.     

Multiple dimensions of family engagement in early childhood education: Evidence for a short form of the Family Involvement Questionnaire

The primary aim of this study was to develop and validate a short form of the 42-item Family Involvement Questionnaire (FIQ) for use in preschool. Empirical evidence derived from a representative sample of preschool programs in a large city in New York State with the original version of the FIQ was used to select the items for a 21-item short form. A representative sample of 590 Head Start families was also identified from a large Head Start program in Pennsylvania to serve to validate the short form. Confirmatory factor analysis of the short form substantiated the three robust dimensions of family involvement from the original FIQ. Concurrent measures of parental satisfaction and assessments of children's literacy and mathematics skills along with an examination of family demographic variables supported the validity of the confirmed dimensions. Implications for the use of this multidimensional, short form of family involvement in large-scale program evaluation were discussed.     

Forecasting performance of grey prediction for education expenditure and school enrollment

GM(1,1) and GM(1,1) rolling models derived from grey system theory were estimated using time-series data from projection studies by National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). An out-of-sample forecasting competition between the two grey prediction models and exponential smoothing used by NCES was conducted for education expenditure and school enrollment under the assumption that grey prediction was as promising as NCES's forecasting technique in dealing with univariate time-series data while some other determinants of the variables under examination were excluded. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to verify that the GM(1,1), and GM(1,1) rolling models would provide forecasts that were at least as accurate as the NCES's approach to extrapolating education expenditure and school enrollment. The findings revealed that the forecasting efficiency of GM(1,1) rolling model was superior to exponential smoothing and GM(1,1) model. The results can offer valuable insights and provide a basis for further research in model building for short-term estimation on educational statistics.     

Decisions Hispanic families make after the identification of deafness

This study examines the decision-making process for Hispanic families living in the United States who have a child with a hearing loss. Twenty-nine families in four geographical areas shared their experiences in searching for appropriate interventions and making choices regarding communication and education. We explored the impact of language, culture, minority status, and access to information and services on the decision-making process. The results indicate that the deliberations of Hispanic parents are often complicated by language and cultural barriers and by limited access to information, resources, and a full range of options. The communication method chosen tended to be the one recommended by professionals, usually a combination of spoken English and sign language. Parents frequently expressed the hope that their child would learn Spanish as well. These subjects displayed a higher degree of assertiveness in obtaining services for their children than other studies have suggested.     

A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis of the development of turn taking in adult–child vocal interactions

Fluent conversation requires temporal organization between conversational exchanges. By performing a systematic review and Bayesian multi-level meta-analysis, we map the trajectory of infants’ turn-taking abilities over the course of early development (0 to 70 months). We synthesize the evidence from 26 studies (78 estimates from 429 unique infants, of which at least 152 are female) reporting response latencies in infant–adult dyadic interactions. The data were collected between 1975 and 2019, exclusively in North America and Europe. Infants took on average circa 1 s to respond, and the evidence of changes in response over time was inconclusive. Infants’ response latencies are related to those of their adult conversational partners: an increase of 1 s in adult response latency (e.g., 400 to 1400 ms) would be related to an increase of over 1 s in infant response latency (from 600 to 1857 ms). These results highlight the dynamic reciprocity involved in the temporal organization of turn-taking. Based on these results, we provide recommendations for future avenues of enquiry: studies should analyze how turn-by-turn exchanges develop on a longitudinal timescale, with rich assessment of infants’ linguistic and social development.     

Acid Phosphatase as a Marker in Malaria

The serum acid phosphatase (ACP) activity and Hemoglobin (Hb) levels were measured in malaria patients and nonmalarial fever patients. The results were compared with normal healthy control subjects. ACP was significantly increased (P < 0.001) in all the malaria patients. ACP was significantly higher in Plasmodium falcifarum malaria and mixed malaria when compared to Plasmodium vivax malaria. Hb levels were significantly decreased in all the malaria patients which indicates that malaria parasite uses host erythrocyte Hb as a major nutrient source. There is negative correlation(r = −0.478) between ACP and Hb in malaria patients, which is highly significant. These results suggest that the measurement of ACP could be used as a marker for malaria.     

图书馆馆际间的合作：全球性的进展

作者鼓励图书馆专业人员,不单要为自己的图书馆尽心尽力,也要走出自己的图书馆,贡献才智与全世界数字图书馆链接。为了达到提供更快的服务,把好的资源信息送到更边远的地区,作者列举近年来图书馆界馆藏数字化的多项工程的进展,说明图书馆馆际间合作的必要性,因为工程浩大,影响深远,需要靠跨国界、跨行业、跨机构的参与、精诚地合作、克服挑战和经费的大力支持。作者更鼓励图书馆专业人员,贡献一己之力,来完成服务无围墙的世界图书馆的宏愿,做一个真正的世界图书馆人。参考文献43。