How Much Does a Shared Name Make Things Similar? Linguistic Labels, Similarity, and the Development of Inductive Inference

This article examines the development of inductive generalization, and presents a model of young children's induction and two experiments testing the model. The model specifies contribution of linguistic labels and perceptual similarity to young children's induction and predicts a correspondence between similarity judgment and induction of young children. In Experiment 1, 4- to 5-year-olds, 7- to 8-year-olds, and 11- to 12-year-olds were presented with triads of schematic faces (a Target and two Test stimuli), which varied in perceptual similarity, with one of the Test stimuli sharing a linguistic label with the Target, and another having a different label. Participants were taught an unobservable biological property about the Target and asked to generalize the property to one of the Test stimuli. Although 4- to 5-year-olds' proportions of label-based inductive generalizations varied with the degree of perceptual similarity among the compared stimuli, 11- to 12-year-olds relied exclusively on labels, and 7- to 8-year-olds appeared to be a transitional group. In Experiment 2 these findings were replicated using naturalistic stimuli (i.e., photographs of animals), with perceptual similarity manipulated by "morphing" naturalistic pictures into each other in a fixed number of steps. Overall results support predictions of the model and point to a developmental shift from treating linguistic labels as an attribute contributing to similarity to treating them as markers of a common category-a shift that appears to occur between 8 and 11 years of age.     

Is a picture worth a thousand words? Preference for auditory modality in young children

Linguistic labels play an important role in young children's conceptual organization: When 2 entities share a label, people expect these entities to share many other properties. Two classes of explanations of the importance of labels seem plausible: a language-specific and a general auditory explanation. The general auditory explanation argues that the importance of labels stems from a privileged processing status of auditory input (as compared with visual input) for young children. This hypothesis was tested and supported in 4 experiments. When auditory and visual stimuli were presented separately, 4-year-olds were likely to process both kinds of stimuli, whereas when auditory and visual stimuli were presented simultaneously, 4-year-olds were more likely to process auditory stimuli than visual stimuli.     

Are teachers techno-optimists or techno-pessimists? A pilot comparative among teachers in Bolivia,Brazil, the Dominican Republic,Ecuador, Finland,Poland, Turkey,and Uruguay

The aim of the article is to highlight the key elements related to the implementation of new technologies in education from the perspective of the opinions and experiences of educators in the field in Bolivia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Finland, Poland, Turkey, and Uruguay. The text compares issues related to attitudes towards the use of new media in education, experiences with different forms of e-learning, and the level of restrictions on the use of smartphones in school. These variables are juxtaposed with the self-assessment of digital competence and how cyberspace is used. The survey was conducted using a standardised survey questionnaire translated into the relevant national languages in the first half of 2019, and involved a sample of 873 teachers representing eight countries. On the basis of the pilot studies it was noted that: 1) Teachers from LAC and EU like to use digital media - this is a constant trend independent of geographical location; 2) Teachers note that new technologies are not always better than analogue didactic aids; 3) Teachers from selected countries (the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Turkey, and Uruguay) have much greater techno-optimism in themselves than teachers from Bolivia, Poland, Finland and Turkey in terms of the impact of ICT on student motivation and engagement; 4) In all countries teachers prefer free online courses (the different forms of e-learning are used most often by those in the Dominican Republic, and the least often in Bolivia and Poland); 5) In each country teachers who highly value their own digital competences and have a positive attitude towards new media use ICT much more actively; 6) There is also a global trend in that the extensive use of cyberspace (typical e-services) appears in combination with the extensive use of various forms of e-learning; 7) Teachers from Ecuador are most likely to want to ban the use of smartphones in schools. The most liberal approach in this respect is taken by the Uruguayans; 8) The knowledge of the conditions related to restricting the use of smartphones goes beyond the analyses related to the style of use and attitude towards new media. This article is the result of pilot studies conducted within the framework of the SMART ECOSYSTEM FOR LEARNING AND INCLUSION project carried out in selected Latin American, Caribbean (LAC) and European (EU) countries.

     

Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among children in Children’s Hospital Zagreb during the initial and second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in Croatia

IntroductionThe study aimed to investigate the prevalence and titres of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in children treated at the Children’s Hospital Zagreb in the first and the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Statistical significance of difference at two time points was done to determine how restrictive epidemiological measures and exposure of children to COVID-19 infection affect this prevalence in different age groups.Materials and methodsAt the first time point (13th to 29th May 2020), 240 samples and in second time point (24th October to 23rd November 2020), 308 serum samples were tested for anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and electrochemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLIA). Confirmation of results and titre determination was done using virus micro-neutralization test. Subjects were divided according to gender, age and epidemiological history.ResultsSeroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies differs significantly in two time points (P = 0.010). In first time point 2.9% of seropositive children were determined and in second time point 8.4%. Statistically significant difference (P = 0.007) of seroprevalence between two time points was found only in a group of children aged 11-19 years. At the first time point, all seropositive children were asymptomatic with titre < 8. At the second time point, 69.2% seropositive children were asymptomatic with titre ≥ 8.ConclusionsThe prevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was significantly lower at the first time point than at the second time point. Values of virus micro-neutralization test showed that low titre in asymptomatic children was not protective at the first time point but in second time point all seropositive children had protective titre of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.     

中俄天然气贸易安全格局与态势

中俄天然气合作对两国天然气贸易安全具有重要影响。已有研究对于天然气贸易安全评价以定性分析为主,近年来越来越多的研究开始采用定量方法评价天然气贸易安全。本文基于HHI指数(赫芬达尔-赫希曼指数),构建了天然气进口和出口安全评价体系,科学评估了在不同因素影响下中俄天然气贸易安全格局与态势。研究表明：中国天然气进口多元化程度逐渐提升,从俄罗斯进口天然气比例呈上升趋势在均衡中国天然气进口来源、降低中国天然气进口风险总体具有积极作用;俄罗斯逐渐增加的天然气出口潜力对于提升中国进口安全产生正向作用;价格因素对中国天然气贸易安全影响显著;俄罗斯出口中国的天然气占俄罗斯天然气出口总量的比例提升在一定程度上对俄罗斯天然气出口安全产生积极影响;中国不断增加的天然气进口潜力带来的正效应相对抵消了俄罗斯主要天然气出口国天然气需求下降带来的负效应;近年来天然气价格下跌,对俄罗斯天然气出口安全产生明显负效应;未来几年,中俄天然气贸易量的急剧增加将使中国天然气进口集聚程度提升,应防范天然气进口风险上升。     

对波黑医学院校的综合评估

按照国际标准对波黑的5所医学院进行了内部评估和外部评估,参与者包括医学院管理人员、教师、学生以及外部评估专家.评估内容包括10个项目:学校宗旨和目标、课程、管理、教师、学生、设施和技术、经费情况、国际关系、内部质量保证和发展规划.结果表明,内部评估中有的学校高估了自己的总体表现,有的学校明显高估或低估自己在某些项目上的表现.评估工作表明,即使在复杂和不利的条件下,对医学教育进行建设性的、有组织的评估也是可能的.     

Health-related messages about physical activity promotion: an analysis of photographs on social networking sites of universities

The main aim of this study was to examine how different physical activity domains are represented on the official social media sites of Spanish universities, through a content analysis of the photographs. Our results show that the representation of different physical activity domains is not balanced. While the analysed images do promote a message of gender equality in sedentary and leisure time physical activity behaviour, pictures illustrating active commuting and disabled groups were under-represented. We conclude that Internet-based physical activity promotion in university settings must to be guided by the principles of ‘health-promoting universities’ in the sense of promoting a comprehensive view on healthy behaviours in every action carried out with the university community, and in particular including diversity as a norm rather than the exception. Professionals should be aware of their responsibility in the design of the built online environment and their influence on the welfare of the university community.     

Film Production

Freddie Young and Paul Petzold's The Work of the Motion Picture Cameraman (New York: Hastings House, 1972 -- $15.00)

King Vidor on Film-Making (New York: David McKay, 1972 -- $6.95)

Vladimir Nilsen's The Cinema as a Graphic Art: On a Theory of Representation in the Cinema (New York: Hill & Wang, 1972 -- $2.95, paper)