Childhood Maltreatment and Early Developmental Vulnerabilities at Age 5 Years

This study examined associations between maltreatment and early developmental vulnerabilities in a population sample of 68,459 children (M_age = 5.62 years, SD = .37) drawn from the Australian state of New South Wales, using linked administrative data for the children and their parents (collected 2001–2009). Associations were estimated between (a) any maltreatment, (b) the number of maltreatment types, and (c) the timing of first reported maltreatment and vulnerability and risk status on multiple developmental domains (i.e., physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and communication). Pervasive associations were revealed between maltreatment and all developmental domains; children exposed to two or more maltreatment types, and with first maltreatment reported after 3 years of age, showed greater likelihood of vulnerability on multiple domains, relative to nonmaltreated children.     

‘Othering’ the archive—from exile to inclusion and heritage dignity: the case of Palestinian archival memory

This paper seeks to address, from the critical perspectives of cultural heritage discourse, the issues at stake in critically apprehending the archive as both a technology of disinheritance and one of potential inclusion and re-inheritance. The first section draws on the work of Jacques Derrida, Edward Said and other critics whose work has sought to address the marginalizing capacity of dominant European/North American archival and cultural–museological institutions. The remainder of the paper grounds these conceptual–ethical issues in the context of Palestinian cultural politics and memory-work. This critical framework is used not only to draw out the absences and silences in archives and cultural institutions, and the epistemological and ‘real’ violences at play in what Derrida characterises as ‘archive trauma’, but responds to Said’s call to ‘re-read’ the colonial archive ‘contrapuntally’ in order to create an ‘othering’ of dominant archival discourse. What is needed to provoke such an ‘othering’ is a commitment to rethink the archive in terms of alternative understandings of ‘hospitality’, ‘memory-work’ and what Derrida has referred to as ‘heritage dignity’. This strategy is capable of apprehending in greater depth the moral-ethical ‘debts’ and ‘duties’ and the operational ‘responses’ and ‘responsibilities’ towards ‘inclusion’ and towards full recognition of those constituencies which have been disenfranchised or exiled outside the realms of dominant cultural–institutional discourse.     

Microwave frequency sensor for detection of biological cells in microfluidic channels

We present details of an apparatus for capacitive detection of biomaterials in microfluidic channels operating at microwave frequencies where dielectric effects due to interfacial polarization are minimal. A circuit model is presented, which can be used to adapt this detection system for use in other microfluidic applications and to identify ones where it would not be suitable. The detection system is based on a microwave coupled transmission line resonator integrated into an interferometer. At 1.5 GHz the system is capable of detecting changes in capacitance of 650 zF with a 50 Hz bandwidth. This system is well suited to the detection of biomaterials in a variety of suspending fluids, including phosphate-buffered saline. Applications involving both model particles (polystyrene microspheres) and living cells—baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and Chinese hamster ovary cells—are presented.     

A study of the relationship between concept emphasis in high school biology textbooks and achievement levels

A two part study investigated any relationship between student achievement and textbook content as well as any impact of a national project's recommendations on textbook content. First, analyses of student responses to biological items on the 1977 National Assessment of Educational Progress's survey of science showed a direct, linear relationship between achievement level and concept emphasis in biology textbooks. Second, a comparison between biology textbooks, published a decade apart, indicated significant changes in the degree of emphasis placed on 10 commonly accepted conceptual areas. Closer examination revealed that change in the amount of emphasis in one conceptual area, Growth and Development, was responsible for the significant difference found. Generally, the recommendations of the biology project were not reflected in the newer textbooks.     

Promoting Strategic Learning by Eighth‐Grade Students Struggling in Mathematics: A Report of Three Case Studies

Abstract. This article presents three in‐depth case studies focused on supporting students with learning challenges to learn math strategically. Participants were three eighth‐grade students enrolled in a learning assistance classroom who were of at least average intelligence but who were performing significantly below grade level in mathematics. These case studies document the processes by which these students were supported to self‐regulate their learning in mathematics more effectively. We begin by outlining important instructional foci in mathematics education for intermediate or secondary students with learning disabilities, along with what research indicates are effective instructional processes. In that context, we introduce the theoretical principles underlying the instructional model used here—Strategic Content Learning (SCL). Based on analyses of case study data, we describe how SCL instruction was structured to promote strategic learning. Throughout the discussion, intervention processes are described in sufficient detail to be of use to practitioners.