Correlation of fluorescence spectra with chemical structure of some naphthalene derivatives

A definite relation is shown to exist between the chemical constitution of certain naphthalene derivatives and their fluorescence and absorption behavior. The naphthalene, naphthylamine and naphthol compounds vary in intensity and region in which they fluorescence. When a radical is changed from an α to a β position, a shift in wave-length of the maximum intensity occurs. From the shape of the densitometer tracings a difference between an acid and its salt is readily discernible.The quality of fluorescence is roughly the same whether the source of excitation be ultraviolet light, X-rays or cathode rays. It is also independent of the concentration and, in the case of the specimens studied, independent of small amounts of impurities.     

Do primary students understand how pregnancy can occur? A comparison of students in Jakarta,West Java,West Nusa Tenggara and South Sulawesi,Indonesia

In Indonesian primary schools, sex education is implicitly integrated into various related subjects, such as science, biology, social studies and religion. The technical facts of ovulation and sperm are mentioned in biology, although little or no connection is made between this process and sexual intercourse. By the end of primary school, therefore, children are likely to have a poor understanding of how pregnancy can occur. Given that young girls at this age have already experienced or will soon experience menarche, and given the increasing trend towards delaying the age at marriage in Indonesian society, this lack of knowledge places young people at risk of various negative consequences, including unwanted pregnancy. In this paper, we investigate the level of understanding regarding human reproduction amongst 1762 students attending the last year of primary school, distributed across 32 different schools in Indonesia. Despite the fact that all schools follow a national curriculum, our results reveal widespread variability in the students' comprehension of how pregnancy can occur. In particular, students attending Islamic religious schools and those in less developed provinces of Indonesia appear to have a much poorer understanding of the link between sexual intercourse and conception.     

Associations Between Early Life Stress and Gene Methylation in Children

Children exposed to extreme stress are at heightened risk for developing mental and physical disorders. However, little is known about mechanisms underlying these associations in humans. An emerging insight is that children's social environments change gene expression, which contributes to biological vulnerabilities for behavioral problems. Epigenetic changes in the glucocorticoid receptor gene, a critical component of stress regulation, were examined in whole blood from 56 children aged 11–14 years. Children exposed to physical maltreatment had greater methylation within exon 1_F in the NR3C1 promoter region of the gene compared to nonmaltreated children, including the putative NGFI‐A (nerve growth factor) binding site. These results highlight molecular mechanisms linking childhood stress with biological changes that may lead to mental and physical disorders.     

Depressive Symptoms in Third‐Grade Teachers: Relations to Classroom Quality and Student Achievement

This study investigated associations among third‐grade teachers' (N = 27) symptoms of depression, quality of the classroom‐learning environment (CLE), and students' (N = 523, M_age = 8.6 years) math and literacy performance. teachers' depressive symptoms in the winter negatively predicted students' spring mathematics achievement. This depended on students' fall mathematics scores; students who began the year with weaker math skills and were in classrooms where teachers reported more depressive symptoms achieved smaller gains than did peers whose teachers reported fewer symptoms. teachers' depressive symptoms were negatively associated with quality of CLE, and quality of CLE mediated the association between depressive symptoms and student achievement. The findings point to the importance of teachers' mental health, with implications for policy and practice.     

Moving Forwards,Sideways or Backwards? Inclusive Education in Samoa

The introduction of inclusive education (IE) has been promoted to meet the needs of all students. Initially this was a western-driven ideology but has been adopted by numerous developing countries such as Samoa. In this country, the education of students with special learning needs has followed the usual pattern of development from voluntary provision to government-funded segregated placements, followed by mainstreaming, and finally inclusion in regular schools. This qualitative phenomenologically oriented study gathered data from educators and parents about their perceptions of IE and how it was being implemented. The results indicated that this has not always been an easy transition and many participants in the study, although subscribing to the notion of IE, believe that there are a number of implementation difficulties, particularly around issues of support. In relation to this, IE is regarded as a borrowed policy that has overlooked cultural issues and ownership. A model for future developments is outlined and recommendations for future research are indicated.     

Teachers' Knowledge of Literacy Concepts,Classroom Practices,and Student Reading Growth

We examined the relations of teacher knowledge (n = 42 first-grade teachers), explicit decoding instruction provided, and students' (n = 437) word-reading gains. Results revealed an interaction between teacher knowledge and observed decoding instruction: For students of more knowledgeable teachers, more time in explicit instruction predicted stronger word-reading gains. For students of less knowledgeable teachers, more time in explicit instruction was associated with weaker skill gains. Findings highlight the importance of teachers' specialized body of knowledge about reading as it informs effective instruction.