Developmental links of very early phonological and language skills to second grade reading outcomes: strong to accuracy but only minor to fluency

The authors examined second grade reading accuracy and fluency and their associations via letter knowledge to phonological and language predictors assessed at 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5 years in children in the Jyv?skyl? Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia. Structural equation modeling showed that a developmentally highly stable factor (early phonological and language processing [EPLP]) behind key dyslexia predictors (i.e., phonological awareness, short-term memory, rapid naming, vocabulary, and pseudoword repetition) could already be identified at 3.5 years. EPLP was significantly associated with reading and spelling accuracy and by age with letter knowledge. However, EPLP had only a minor link with reading fluency, which was additionally explained by early letter knowledge. The results show that reading accuracy is well predicted by early phonological and language skills. Variation in fluent reading skills is not well explained by early skills, suggesting factors other than phonological core skills. Future research is suggested to explore the factors behind the development of fast and accurate decoding skills.     

Evolving Technologies Support Mobile and Collaborative Curriculum: A Case Study

This case study describes the efforts of librarians to integrate mobile devices, collaboration tools, and resources into a School of Medicine third-year pediatric clerkship. Additional class emphasis is on evidence-based searching and journal article evaluation and presentation. The class objectives ensure that students are comfortable with mobile devices and collaboration tools. Over the eight-year history of the course, student acceptance of the mobile devices used diminished as the devices aged, necessitating the evaluation and selection of new technologies. Collaboration tools and mobile applications employed in the course evolved to accommodate curriculum changes.     

Scientific schools in bibliographical science: The ideas of the professional community

This paper presents the results from a survey of the leading bibliographical scientists of the country on the problems of the formation and development of scientific schools in bibliographical science, the functions performed by them, and signs that are immanent to them.     

Perceptions of the Future of Cataloging: Is the Sky Really Falling?

Cataloging procedures have evolved in many academic research libraries over the past 10 years. Some predicted trends—outsourcing, original cataloging by paraprofessionals, more digital material—have been borne out. Others, such as a decline in the amount of material to catalog or in the number of professional catalogers, have not. Changes have been mostly procedural and have not affected the catalog itself. Recently, however, the emergence of powerful Internet search engines has allowed researchers to bypass the catalog. This has led some to question the wisdom of continuing it and others to vigorously defend current practice. In 2005–2007 this debate became especially heated, but a consensus appears to be emerging that although the character of the professional cataloger's job will continue to evolve over the next 5 to 10 years there will not be a revolution. The cataloger's basic skills will still be needed and the fundamental nature of cataloging will remain much as we know it.     

Transport and shear in a microfluidic membrane bilayer device for cell culture

Microfluidic devices have been established as useful platforms for cell culture for a broad range of applications, but challenges associated with controlling gradients of oxygen and other soluble factors and hemodynamic shear forces in small, confined channels have emerged. For instance, simple microfluidic constructs comprising a single cell culture compartment in a dynamic flow condition must handle tradeoffs between sustaining oxygen delivery and limiting hemodynamic shear forces imparted to the cells. These tradeoffs present significant difficulties in the culture of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), where shear is known to regulate signaling, proliferation, and expression. Several approaches designed to shield cells in microfluidic devices from excessive shear while maintaining sufficient oxygen concentrations and transport have been reported. Here we present the relationship between oxygen transport and shear in a "membrane bilayer" microfluidic device, in which soluble factors are delivered to a cell population by means of flow through a proximate channel separated from the culture channel by a membrane. We present an analytical model that describes the characteristics of this device and its ability to independently modulate oxygen delivery and hemodynamic shear imparted to the cultured cells. This bilayer configuration provides a more uniform oxygen concentration profile that is possible in a single-channel system, and it enables independent tuning of oxygen transport and shear parameters to meet requirements for MSCs and other cells known to be sensitive to hemodynamic shear stresses.     

Constant and variable irrelevant cues during intra- and extradimensional transfer

Experiment I compared constant (CI), variable-between (VBI), and variable-within (WVI) irrelevant cues during an extradimensional (ED) shift discrimination. Performance was better for CI than for VBI and better for VBI than for VWI. Experiment II combined CI, VBI, and VWI cues with ED or intradimensional (ID) shifts. Irrelevant-cue conditions did not affect ID performance but did affect ED performance. The typical superiority of ID, as compared to ED, shifts was observed in the VWI condition but not in the CI condition. Implications for mediating-response (i.e., attention or observing-response) theories were indicated.     

Enhancing curriculum and delivery: linking assessment to learning objectives

Typical university‐wide course evaluations do not provide instructors with sufficient information on the effectiveness of their courses. This article describes a course assessment and enhancement model where student feedback can be used to improve courses and/or programs. The model employs an assessment tool that measures student perceptions of importance and their current competence in course‐specific learning objectives both pre‐ and post‐course. Information gained from this assessment enables course improvement over time and also allows for modification in delivery and/or content of the current course. This model is intended to augment traditional course evaluation mechanisms based on specific and actionable feedback on learning objectives.     

Depending on the kindness of strangers: current national data initiatives and developmental research

This article provides a brief review of current large-scale, longitudinal data collection initiatives focusing on children. These studies will be available for secondary data analyses in the twenty-first century. In addition to child outcome data, process-oriented information is being collected on child-parent interactions, quality of child care, elementary school teacher reports and classroom observations, accessibility and use of health, educational and social services, parental mental health, family violence, fathering, parental residence patterns, income and income sources, child support, employment patterns, and community characteristics. Several of these studies are randomized trials of the efficacy of early childhood intervention services and housing mobility programs. The usefulness of these efforts for exploring policy-relevant issues (child support enforcement, work requirements for welfare recipients, antipoverty strategies, housing subsidies and relocation, availability of child care, child-care subsidies) are discussed.     

Prenatal Risk Predicts Preschooler Executive Function: A Cascade Model

Little research has considered whether prenatal experience contributes to executive function (EF) development above and beyond postnatal experience. This study tests direct, mediated, and moderated associations between prenatal risk factors and preschool EF and IQ in a longitudinal sample of 1,292 children from the Family Life Project. A composite of prenatal risk factors (i.e., low birth weight, prematurity, maternal emotional problems, maternal prepregnancy obesity, and obstetric complications) significantly predicted EF and IQ at age 3, above quality of the postnatal environment. This relationship was indirect, mediated through infant general cognitive abilities. Quality of the postnatal home and child-care environments did not moderate the cascade model. These findings highlight the role of prenatal experience as a contributor to individual differences in cognitive development.