Registered Reports in Child Development: Introduction to the Special Section

Registered Reports (RRs) are an emerging format for publishing empirical journal articles in which the decision to publish an article is based on sound conceptualization, methods, and planned analyses rather than the specific nature of the results. This article introduces the Special Section on Registered Reports in Child Development by describing what RRs are and why they are necessary, outlining the thought process that guided the Special Section, describing key thematic insights across the eight articles included in the collection, and providing recommendations for developmental researchers interested in publishing via the RR format. This article also serves as a formal announcement that RRs will be a standard publishing option at Child Development, effective immediately.     

Misconceptions About Human Rights and Women’s Rights in Islam

This paper aims to clarify three current misconceptions about the Islamic faith and issues of human rights and women’s rights in the West. The first misconception is that Muslims are terrorists because they believe in Jihad. It is factually the case that Islamic teachings stress the value of peace and prosperity for all human beings. The second misconception is that Muslims prohibit scientific knowledge and only aim to seek religious knowledge. To the contrary, Qur’an emphasizes that the opportunity to seek all forms of knowledge is a human right and responsibility of all Muslims. The third misconception and perhaps, the most controversial, is that Islam oppresses women. In reality, Islam offers women the right to make their own choices in the areas of education, business, and property, to name a few. By sharing my own experiential narrative as a Muslim born woman and that of a Canadian women who converted to Islam, I can actually see the similarities between human rights in Islam and the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).     

Ethnic and Racial Identity During Adolescence and Into Young Adulthood: An Integrated Conceptualization

Although ethnic and racial identity (ERI) are central to the normative development of youth of color, there have been few efforts to bring scholars together to discuss the theoretical complexities of these constructs and provide a synthesis of existing work. The Ethnic and Racial Identity in the 21st Century Study Group was assembled for this purpose. This article provides an overview of the interface of ERI with developmental and contextual issues across development, with an emphasis on adolescence and young adulthood. It proposes a metaconstruct to capture experiences that reflect both individuals’ ethnic background and their racialized experiences in a specific sociohistorical context. Finally, it presents milestones in the development of ERI across developmental periods.     

A roadmap for offering MOOC from an LMIC institution

MOOCs are massive open online courses that are globally accessible, free of charge. Given their cost-free and open accessibility, it is surprising that only a few institutions have offered MOOCs from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Pakistan recently made this short list of LMICs as the first two MOOCs were launched from the country, in 2014 and 2016. Drawing from that experience, the organizers of that course present a roadmap for LMIC institutions for developing a MOOC, focusing especially on the technological and pedagogical limitations that an LMIC institution might find deterring.     

Foreign Communications

Masami Ito, et al. Broadcasting in Japan (London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978—E4.95/$9.50, paper)

Ibrahim Elsheikh Mass Media and Ideological Change in Egypt (1950-1973) (Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam, 1977—about $40.00, paper)

Mass Media and Cultural Relationships by Anthony Piepe, Sunny Crouch and Miles Emerson (1978, 169 pp.—price not given)

Trade Unionism in Television by Peter Seglow (1978, 287 pp.—price not given)

Cuadernos de Comunicaci(5n (Communication Notes) (Comunicolgia Aplicada de Mexico, S.A. Comunal No. 7, Mexico 20, D.F.—about $55 per year/12 issues).

Godwin C. Chu, Syed A. Rahim, and D. Lawrence Kincaid Institutional Exploration in Communication Technology (Honolulu: East West Communication Institute, East-West Center, 1978 —$3.00, paper)

P. Gould and J. Johnson, An Experiment in the Classification of Television Programs, October 1978, $3.00, paper), and the paper written for laymen, #5 (P. Gould, How Should We Classify Television Programs? October 1978, $2.50, paper)

Journalism Training: An Interim Report by Robert Amerson and John Herbst (30 pp. $1.75)

An Analysis of Ten International Radio News Broadcasts in English to Africa by Douglas A. Boyd and Donald R. MacKay (16 pp., $1.25)

A Look at the World's Radio News by Bert Cowlan and Lee M. Love (39 pp., $2.25)

Education for Communication Development: The Global View by Robert Lindsay (27 pp., $1.75)

A Brief Study on News Patterns in 16 Third World Countries by Edward T. Pinch (15 pp., $1.25)

International Telecommunications and the Requirements of News Services by Ithiel de Sole Pool and Stephen Dizard (19 pp., $1.25)

Foreign News in Nine Arab Countries by Gehan Rachty (21 pp., $1.25)

International News Wires and Third World News in Asia by Wilbur Schramm, et al. (79 pp., $4.00)

The Multinational News Pool by Roger Tatarian (19 pp., $1.25)

International Conferences: Process and Effects by Rosemarie Rogers, et al. (March 1978, 53 pp., $3.00)

Hemisphere Communications in Historical Perspective by James Nelson Goodsell (September 1978, 18 pp., $1.25)

Kaarle Nordenstreng and Herbert I. Schiller, eds. National Sovereignty and International Communication (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing Corp., 1979—$21.50)

Rosemary Righter's Whose News? Politics, the Press and the Third World (London: Andre Deutsch/New York: Times Books, 1978—$12.50)

Frank Barton The Press of Africa: Persecution & Perseverance (New York: Holmes & Meier/Africana Publishing Co, 1979—$29.50)

Godwin C. Chu, ed. Popular Media in China: Shaping New Cultural Patterns (Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1978—$12.00)     

Women’s Perceptions Using the CenteringPregnancy Model of Group Prenatal Care

A qualitative nonexperimental thematic analysis was conducted at a hospital-based midwifery practice to explore the views of participants in group prenatal care and its impact on pregnancy, birth, and postnatal care. Ten women and three support people, recruited through purposive sampling, shared their feedback on the program. The findings conveyed three broad themes: program experience, midwife relationship, and support. Women enjoyed the opportunity for in-depth learning, and peer-group support led to normalizing of pregnancy concerns. Having support people as participants also helped during pregnancy, birth, and child care. The findings showed the enhanced opportunity for education, learning, and interpersonal support provided by CenteringPregnancy to expectant mothers had a positive impact on their pregnancy experiences.     

Serum Vitamin D Levels in Indian Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Low serum vitamin D level has an increased association with risk of multiple sclerosis (MS).There has been no published data on the levels of this vitamin in Indian population with MS. Hence we decided to undertake this study to document if there is evidence of vitamin D deficiency in patients with MS in our population. 26 patients with diagnosis of MS by modified Mc Donald’s criteria were enrolled in this study. Serum vitamin D (1,25 hydroxy) levels were measured by electro-chemiluminescence in our biochemistry lab. An age-matched control group of 202 patients who did not have a diagnosis of MS were included. In our study group 76.9 % had vitamin D level less than 20 ng/ml compared to 65.5 % of control group (p value of 0.019). Our study revealed a trend towards low vitamin D values in Indian MS patients.     

Exploring ways that ePortfolios can support the progressive development of graduate qualities and professional competencies

Since the late-1990s, the University of South Australia has embedded seven Graduate Qualities across all programs. Subsequently, the higher education landscape has changed dramatically in terms of national policies and standards, as well as technologies available to support learning and teaching. Most higher education institutions now have their own list of qualities or attributes developed by graduates. Further changes in Australia include quality assurance accredited through a national body, such as the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, and the development of disciplinary Threshold Learning Outcomes under the Learning and Teaching Academic Standards project. Similar changes are underway internationally. A multi-disciplinary research project at University of South Australia explored how ePortfolios might enhance this learning environment with a focus on aligning standards, Graduate Qualities and professional requirements. This paper outlines approaches taken in Engineering and Law undergraduate programs using two different ePortfolio tools (PebblePad and Mahara), where we sought to discover if this would empower learners to articulate their achievements and to understand professional frameworks. Lessons learnt and evaluation data are presented, along with recommendations to support a progressive developmental approach across programs. Whilst the experiences relate to two disciplinary areas, the approach taken can be adapted for other programs. Many of the insights gained also apply to strategies that exclude ePortfolio tools.     

Robust synchronization of uncertain Markovian jump complex dynamical networks with time-varying delays and reaction–diffusion terms via sampled-data control

This paper is concerned with the problem of robust synchronization of a class of complex dynamical networks with time-varying delays and reaction–diffusion terms. To reflect most of the dynamical behaviors of the system, the parameter uncertainties are considered. A sampled-data controller with m stochastically varying sampling periods whose occurrence probabilities are given constants is considered. The control objective is that the trajectories of the system by designing suitable control schemes track the trajectories of the system with sample-data control. It is shown that, through Lyapunov stability theory, the proposed sample-data controllers are successful in ensuring the achievement of robust synchronization of complex dynamical networks even in the case of uncertainity and Markovian jumping parameters. By utilizing the Lyapunov functional method, Jensen’s inequality, Wirtinger’s inequality and lower bounds theorem, we establish a sufficient criterion such that, for all admissible parameter uncertainties, the complex dynamical network is robustly synchronized. The derived criteria are expressed in terms of linear matrix inequalities that can be easily checked by using the standard numerical software. Illustrative examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and usefulness of the proposed results.