Social Networks of Children With Developmental Language Disorder in Inclusive Preschool Programs

This study takes an ecological approach to examine how children with developmental language disorder (DLD) interact with their classmates within early childhood special education (ECSE) inclusive classrooms. Participants were 124 children with DLD, 56 children with other disabilities, and 247 typically developing children (M_age = 52.42 months, SD = 6.27) from 56 ECSE inclusive classrooms. Results of social network analysis showed that children with DLD had significantly smaller peer social networks and were more likely to be isolated. Children tended to interact with peers with the same DLD status. These effects of children's DLD status were above and beyond the effects of children's social pragmatics skills.     

Trends in Female Authorships, Editorial Board Memberships, and Editorships in Educational Psychology Journals from 2003 to 2008

Robinson, McKay, Katayama, and Fan (Contemporary Educational Psychology, 23, 331–343, 1998) reported that women were underrepresented in terms of authorships, editorial board memberships, and editorships in the field of educational psychology based on membership trends. More recently, Evans, Hsieh, and Robinson (Educational Psychology Review, 17, 263–271, 2005) reported that women had made gains as editors but had not kept pace with organizational membership in terms of authorships and editorial board memberships. Our goal in this paper was to further examine women’s participation in educational psychology journals by extending the datasets of Robinson et al. and Evans et al. The number of female authors per article, particularly those from non-US institutions, has continued to increase. However, consistent with Evans et al., although females are continuing to make numerical gains in both authorships—both primary and secondary—and editorial board memberships, their involvement has not kept pace in relation to membership trends.     

Resolving ambiguity in biomedical text to improve summarization

Access to the vast body of research literature that is now available on biomedicine and related fields can be improved with automatic summarization. This paper describes a summarization system for the biomedical domain that represents documents as graphs formed from concepts and relations in the UMLS Metathesaurus. This system has to deal with the ambiguities that occur in biomedical documents. We describe a variety of strategies that make use of MetaMap and Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD) to accurately map biomedical documents onto UMLS Metathesaurus concepts. Evaluation is carried out using a collection of 150 biomedical scientific articles from the BioMed Central corpus. We find that using WSD improves the quality of the summaries generated.     

Computational design optimization for microfluidic magnetophoresis

Current macro- and microfluidic approaches for the isolation of mammalian cells are limited in both efficiency and purity. In order to design a robust platform for the enumeration of a target cell population, high collection efficiencies are required. Additionally, the ability to isolate pure populations with minimal biological perturbation and efficient off-chip recovery will enable subcellular analyses of these cells for applications in personalized medicine. Here, a rational design approach for a simple and efficient device that isolates target cell populations via magnetic tagging is presented. In this work, two magnetophoretic microfluidic device designs are described, with optimized dimensions and operating conditions determined from a force balance equation that considers two dominant and opposing driving forces exerted on a magnetic-particle-tagged cell, namely, magnetic and viscous drag. Quantitative design criteria for an electromagnetic field displacement-based approach are presented, wherein target cells labeled with commercial magnetic microparticles flowing in a central sample stream are shifted laterally into a collection stream. Furthermore, the final device design is constrained to fit on standard rectangular glass coverslip (60 (L)×24 (W)×0.15 (H) mm³) to accommodate small sample volume and point-of-care design considerations. The anticipated performance of the device is examined via a parametric analysis of several key variables within the model. It is observed that minimal currents (<500 mA) are required to generate magnetic fields sufficient to separate cells from the sample streams flowing at rate as high as 7 ml∕h, comparable to the performance of current state-of-the-art magnet-activated cell sorting systems currently used in clinical settings. Experimental validation of the presented model illustrates that a device designed according to the derived rational optimization can effectively isolate (∼100%) a magnetic-particle-tagged cell population from a homogeneous suspension even in a low abundance. Overall, this design analysis provides a rational basis to select the operating conditions, including chamber and wire geometry, flow rates, and applied currents, for a magnetic-microfluidic cell separation device.     

Teaching Practices that Promote Motor Skills in Early Childhood Settings

Early childhood educators, especially those in preschool centers, are often expected to design and implement movement programs. However, these individuals may not have been taught these skills during their education. The purpose of this study was to determine if early childhood majors could successfully be taught to implement a mastery climate instructional approach to promote motor skill development to preschool-age children. Twenty undergraduate Early Childhood Education majors, who completed a Motor Development Across the School Years course, designed and implemented a movement program to develop preschoolers’ locomotor and object control skills. Fourteen preschoolers participated in an 11-week movement program. Preschoolers’ motor performance was assessed with the Test of Gross Motor Development—2nd Edition prior to and following the intervention. Results indicate significant improvements in total performance (p < .05) and locomotor skills (p = .037). Findings indicate that with guidance and training, early childhood majors can effectively design and implement a mastery-based movement program that enhances motor skill competence. The findings also demonstrate the need and value for early childhood majors to receive training in the design and implementation of movement programs. This paper provides a conceptual framework and practical recommendations to assist teachers and educators with implementing a mastery climate movement programs.     

An Inexpensive Gel Electrophoresis-Based Polymerase Chain Reaction Method for Quantifying mRNA Levels

In order to engage their students in a core methodology of the new genomics era, an ever-increasing number of faculty at primarily undergraduate institutions are gaining access to microarray technology. Their students are conducting successful microarray experiments designed to address a variety of interesting questions. A next step in these teaching and research laboratory projects is often validation of the microarray data for individual selected genes. In the research community, this usually involves the use of real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a technology that requires instrumentation and reagents that are prohibitively expensive for most undergraduate institutions. The results of a survey of faculty teaching undergraduates in classroom and research settings indicate a clear need for an alternative approach. We sought to develop an inexpensive and student-friendly gel electrophoresis-based PCR method for quantifying messenger RNA (mRNA) levels using undergraduate researchers as models for students in teaching and research laboratories. We compared the results for three selected genes measured by microarray analysis, real-time PCR, and the gel electrophoresis-based method. The data support the use of the gel electrophoresis-based method as an inexpensive, convenient, yet reliable alternative for quantifying mRNA levels in undergraduate laboratories.     

Combining Reflective Logs with Electronic Networks for Professional Development among Distance Education Tutors

The provision of a professional development programme for distance tutors can be problematic because of the need for flexibility to cater for a variety of working practices, or to overcome the hurdles imposed by geographical remoteness. At the UK Open University, online networks are widely in use for teaching and learning, and we are actively exploring their potential for professional development. This paper describes the Supporting Open Learners in A Changing Environment project, which has piloted a reflective approach to professional development using a log to structure reflection, which is then shared with others in a computer conference. Our evaluation of tutors’ perspectives of the project indicated that all participants found the experience stimulating and helpful for identifying and sharing issues of student support, although some found the process unexpectedly time consuming. We believe there is considerable potential for such an approach to networked reflection among distance tutors, provided the issue of tutor time can be addressed.     

Factors discriminating among profiles of resilience and psychopathology in children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV)

ObjectiveTo evaluate the social and emotional adjustment of 219 children in families with varying levels of intimate partner violence (IPV) using a model of risk and protection. To explore factors that differentiate children with poor adjustment from those with resilience.MethodologyMothers who experienced IPV in the past year and their children ages 6–12 were interviewed. Standardized measures assessed family violence, parenting, family functioning, maternal mental health, and children's adjustment and beliefs.ResultsUsing cluster analysis, all cases with valid data on the Child Behavior Checklist, Child Depression Inventory, General Self-Worth and Social Self-Competence measures were described by four profiles of children's adjustment: Severe Adjustment Problems (24%); children who were Struggling (45%); those with Depression Only (11%); and Resilient (20%) with high competence and low adjustment problems. Multinomial logistic regression analyses showed children in the Severe Problems cluster witnessed more family violence and had mothers higher in depression and trauma symptoms than other children. Resilient and Struggling children had mothers with better parenting, more family strengths and no past violent partner. Parents of children with Severe Problems were lacking these attributes. The Depressed profile children witnessed less violence but had greater fears and worries about mother's safety.ConclusionFactors related to the child, to the mother and to the family distinguish different profiles of adjustment for children exposed to IPV who are living in the community. Resilient children have less violence exposure, fewer fears and worries, and mothers with better mental health and parenting skills, suggesting avenues for intervention with this population.Practice implicationsFindings suggest that child adjustment is largely influenced by parent functioning. Thus, services should be targeted at both the child and the parent. Clinical interventions shaped to the unique needs of the child might also be tested with this population.     

Learning environments preferred by university students: a shift toward informal and flexible learning environments

Learning Environments Research - Universities are facing new challenges that pose various demands for developing learning environments. These challenges are related to different pedagogical...     

Children selectively endorse speculative conjectures

Young children are epistemically vigilant, attending to the reliability, expertise, and confidence of their informants and the prior probability and verifiability of their claims. But the pre-eminent requirement of any hypothesis is that it provides a potential solution to the question at hand. Given questions with no known answer, the ability to selectively adopt new, unverified, speculative proposals may be critical to learning. This study explores when people might reasonably reject known facts in favor of unverified conjectures. Across four experiments, when conjectures answer questions that available facts do not, both adults (n = 48) and children (4.0–7.9 years, n = 241, of diverse race and ethnicity) prefer the conjectures, even when the conjectures are preceded by uncertainty markers or explicitly violate prior expectations.