Visual attention in orienteers at different levels of experience

This study explored how differences in orienteering experience are related to differences in how visual attention is allocated to the map, the environment and to travel. Twenty more experienced and 20 less experienced individuals orienteered while wearing a head-mounted video camera with microphone. The participants verbalized what they were attending to (map, environment or travel) at any given time. Each recorded film was coded at each point in time in terms of what the participant was attending to and whether the participant was moving or stationary. More experienced orienteers attended to the map markedly more while moving and spent less time stationary than less experienced orienteers. The participants' performance was significantly related to the ability to attend to the map while moving. The strategic control of attention is proposed to explain this ability. It is proposed that attentional training might enhance performance in sports characterized by multiple and dynamically varying elements.     

Nanotechnology for the management of COVID-19 during the pandemic and in the post-pandemic era

Following the global COVID-19 pandemic, nanotechnology has been at the forefront of research efforts and enables the fast development of diagnostic tools, vaccines and antiviral treatment for this novel virus (SARS-CoV-2). In this review, we first summarize nanotechnology with regard to the detection of SARS-CoV-2, including nanoparticle-based techniques such as rapid antigen testing, and nanopore-based sequencing and sensing techniques. Then we investigate nanotechnology as it applies to the development of COVID-19 vaccines and anti-SARS-CoV-2 nanomaterials. We also highlight nanotechnology for the post-pandemic era, by providing tools for the battle with SARS-CoV-2 variants and for enhancing the global distribution of vaccines. Nanotechnology not only contributes to the management of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic but also provides platforms for the prevention, rapid diagnosis, vaccines and antiviral drugs of possible future virus outbreaks.     

Effects of Computerized Instruction on the Use of Punctuation Strategies by Students with LD

An interactive multimedia software program was developed for teaching punctuation strategies and then tested with middle‐school and high‐school students with learning disabilities. Students at each school level were randomly selected into an experimental or control group. Results showed that experimental students at both school levels performed similarly by earning significantly higher scores on a test of punctuation usage than the control students. Additionally, experimental students in both school cohorts inserted significantly fewer incorrect punctuation marks than the controls. Furthermore, the experimental students generalized their use of the strategies to a test where they wrote their own sentences. Thus, this study shows that students with LD can learn punctuation strategies at a high level of mastery and can generalize their skills to sentence editing and sentence construction tasks when taught through interactive multimedia.     

Examining Estimates of Intervention Effectiveness Using Sensitivity Analysis

Making causal inferences from a quasi‐experiment is difficult. Sensitivity analysis approaches to address hidden selection bias thus have gained popularity. This study serves as an introduction to a simple but practical form of sensitivity analysis using Monte Carlo simulation procedures. We examine estimated treatment effects for a school‐based support intervention designed to address student strengths and needs in academic and nonacademic areas by leveraging partnerships with community agencies. Middle school (Grades 6–8) statewide standardized test scores in mathematics and English language arts (ELA) were examined for students in a large urban district who participated in City Connects during elementary school. Results showed that the estimated treatment effects in both subjects were reduced slightly with the inclusion of U, a hypothesized unobserved binary variable. However, simulated effects fell within one‐sided 90% confidence intervals for original treatment effects, suggesting only a mild sensitivity to hidden bias. Moreover, almost identical estimated treatment effects were observed when the magnitude of the mathematical difference between each pair of the conditional probabilities of U given the treatment indicator Z was the same.     

Benefits of multisensory structured language instruction for at-risk foreign language learners: A comparison study of high school Spanish students

In this study, the benefits of multisensory structured language (MSL) instruction in Spanish were examined. Participants were students in high-school-level Spanish attending girls’ preparatory schools. Of the 55 participants, 39 qualified as at-risk for foreign language learning difficulties and 16 were deemed not-at-risk. The at-risk students were assigned to one of three conditions: (1) MSL—multisensory Spanish instruction in self-contained classrooms (n=14); (2) SC—traditional Spanish instruction provided in self-contained classrooms (n=11); and (3) NSC—traditional Spanish instruction in regular (not self-contained) Spanish classes (n=14). Not-at-risk students (n=16) received traditional Spanish instruction in regular classes similar to the instruction provided to the NSC group. All three at-risk groups made significant gains over time on some native language skills regardless of teaching method. The MSL group also made significant gains on a foreign language aptitude measure. The MSL group and the not-at-risk group made greater gains than the two other at-risk groups on foreign language aptitude and native language measures of reading comprehension, word recognition, and pseudoword reading. Although most at-risk learners achieved an “expected” level of foreign language proficiency after two years of instruction, significant group differences were found. On measures of oral and written foreign language proficiency, the MSL and not-at-risk groups scored significantly higher than the at-risk groups instructed using traditional methods. After two years of Spanish instruction, no differences in foreign language proficiency were found between the MSL group and the not-at-risk group.     

Cluster score performance of learning disabled students on the Woodcock-Johnson psycho-educational battery

Research suggests that the Woodcock-Johnson may be ineffective in its ability to identify learning disabled students, to depict their aptitude accurately, and to highlight processing strengths and deficits. Seventy-one previously identified learning disabled students were given the WJPEB, and their cluster score performance was evaluated. Using three different methods of obtaining discrepancies, only slightly more than half of the LD students were identified. Memory deficits were apparent. Support is given for cautious use of the WJPEB in LD diagnosis.     

Mediating Voices: Community Participation in the Design of E-Enabled Community Care Services

In the United Kingdom, information and communication technologies are being used to e-enable multiagency community services for children. Public policy advocates that practitioners as well as users should be involved in the shaping of services including the information systems used in their delivery. This article discusses how a group of social and computer scientists developed the social formation methodology to facilitate nonexpert community participation in the design of e-enabled community care services. The longitudinal study adapts qualitative methods to understand community welfare and to foster participation in the design of communication systems. By exploring the perspectives of welfare practitioners and families, the importance of situated and mediated conversations in community care is identified. The facilitative conversation approach of the study then brings these community perspectives, as well as ICT perspectives, into design processes of e-enabled services.     

‘Reading’ pictures: what do they reveal? Young children's reading of visual texts

What does the ‘reading’ of pictures reveal compared with the reading of print? The researcher examines aspects of visual literacy through the responses of young children to two picture storybooks. The findings emphasise how images can evoke different levels of response. The study confirms that we need to reconsider the nature of reading and reading education in an environment where words and print are no longer the dominant medium. Examples of responses are shown from children who are native speakers of English, as well as from children for whom English is a second language.