Association between prenatal maternal anxiety and/or stress and offspring's cognitive functioning: A meta-analysis

This meta-analysis examined the relationship between prenatal maternal stress and/or anxiety and the outcomes of children aged 3 months to 9 years. Of the 8754 studies published before June 2021 that were synthesized, 17 conducted in Western countries were included in the meta-analysis (N_total = 23,307; M_males 54%; M_ethnicity White 77%, Pacific 15%, African American/Black 10%, Middle Eastern 7%, Eastern 8%). Effect sizes ranged from −0.41 to 0.15. A weak negative association was found between prenatal stress and/or anxiety exposure and children's general intellectual development. Associations varied based on the type of exposure. Findings are limited to developed counties and cannot be generalized to low- and middle-income countries. Directions for maternal prenatal intervention and future studies are discussed.     

When Archives Have Artifacts: From Inventory to Cataloging at the Associated Press Corporate Archives

Abstract

The Associated Press Corporate Archives, located at its New York City headquarters, is the repository for the organization’s permanently valuable records, regardless of format. One important component of the holdings is a collection of 275 artifacts, spanning the years 1892 to 2017, which document the history of The Associated Press’s news technology and tell the stories of its staffers. This paper describes the project to catalog, describe and secure the artifact collection and to facilitate discovery for staff and outside researchers. It examines the process from preliminary spreadsheet to a complete cataloging initiative and the creation of digital images of each item.     

Solomon,his Demons and Jongleurs: the Meeting of Islamic,Judaic and Christian Culture

The legend of Solomon's special ability to control demons originated in Jewish-Hellenistic circles and became widespread in later Judaic, Islamic and Christian culture. In the Qur’ān, as well as in the earlier Babylonian Talmud and other rabbinic sources, the legend was adopted with a clear tendency to avoid the pragmatic demonic aspects of the story. In a similar vein, Qur’ānic commentators presented the relations between Solomon and the demons as an expression of the supernatural rule of the king over the cosmos and ignored his shameful end. The inclusion of the legend in the most sacred canonical text of Islam, and its connotation of eternity may explain the frequent representation in Muslim art. On the other hand, the avoidance by the Christian establishment authorities and the relegation to profane literature mocking the king may account for its absence in western official art. A combination between the high and low aspects of Solomon is seen in an illuminated medieval Hebrew Mahzor from South Germany. The divine aspect of Solomon as he appears in the Mahzor is paralleled in the Muslim examples. These similarities are the result of close textual traditions deriving from the same sources. Yet a possible pictorial testimony linking East and West may be discerned in the Ottoman illuminated Book of Suleiman, possibly based on a western tradition.     

A microfluidic platform for studying the effects of small temperature gradients in an incubator environment

Studies on the effects of variations in temperature and mild temperature gradients on cells, gels, and scaffolds are important from the viewpoint of biological function. Small differences in temperature are known to elicit significant variations in cell behavior and individual protein reactivity. For the study of thermal effects and gradients in vitro, it is important to develop microfluidic platforms which are capable of controlling temperature gradients in an environment which mimics the range of physiological conditions. In the present paper, such a microfluidic thermal gradient system (μTGS) system is proposed which can create and maintain a thermal gradient throughout a cell-seeded gel matrix using the hot and cold water supply integrated in the system in the form of a countercurrent heat exchanger. It is found that a uniform temperature gradient can be created and maintained in the device even inside a high temperature and high humidity environment of an incubator. With the help of a hot and cold circuit controlled from outside the incubator the temperature gradient can be regulated. A numerical simulation of the device demonstrates the thermal feature of the chip. Cell viability and activity under a thermal gradient are examined by placing human breast cancer cells in the device.     

Promoting Integration of Multiple Texts: a Review of Instructional Approaches and Practices

The ability to meaningfully and critically integrate multiple texts is vital for twenty-first-century literacy. The aim of this systematic literature review is to synthesize empirical studies in order to examine the current state of knowledge on how intertextual integration can be promoted in educational settings. We examined the disciplines in which integration instruction has been studied, the types of texts and tasks employed, the foci of integration instruction, the instructional practices used, integration measures, and instructional outcomes. The studies we found involved students from 5th grade to university, encompassed varied disciplines, and employed a wide range of task and text types. We identified a variety of instructional practices, such as collaborative discussions with multiple texts, explicit instruction of integration, modeling of integration, uses of graphic organizers, and summarization and annotation of single texts. Our review indicates that integration can be successfully taught, with medium to large effect sizes. Some research gaps include insufficient research with young students; inadequate consideration of new text types; limited attention to students’ understandings of the value of integration, integration criteria, and text structures; and lack of research regarding how to promote students’ motivation to engage in intertextual integration.     

Characteristics and Difficulties of Teachers Who Mentor Environmental Inquiry Projects

The paper describes characteristics and analyses difficulties of environmental sciences teachers in mentoring their students in an extended inquiry project, which is a mandatory requirement of the environmental sciences matriculation in Israel. The teachers participated in a professional development program that provided both content knowledge and support for conducting inquiry, and enabled the teachers to guide the students in the inquiry project. Teachers who had experience in inquiry identified more skills required for mentoring students' inquiry, and provided a non-directive guidance pattern, whereas inexperienced teachers acknowledged less skills, and tended to present a directive-authoritative approach. Insufficient content and pedagogical content knowledge affected the teachers who closely controlled their students' work.     

Reconsidering Personal Epistemology as Metacognition: A Multifaceted Approach to the Analysis of Epistemic Thinking

One of the central unresolved conceptual issues that concerns researchers of personal epistemology is the characterization of the intersection between personal epistemology and metacognition. The contested and diverse nature of both constructs makes untangling their connections a complex yet vital task. The purpose of this article is to advance the discussion regarding this intersection by offering a theoretical approach that may serve as a basis for analyzing epistemic thinking and aligning it with current views of metacognition. Based on a synthesis of theoretical and empirical studies, we argue that epistemic thinking is a multifaceted construct with both cognitive and metacognitive aspects. Furthermore, we propose that epistemic metacognition includes several aspects such as metacognitive skills; metacognitive knowledge about persons, strategies and tasks; and metacognitive experiences. The theoretical, methodological, and instructional implications of this approach are explored.     

Learning to integrate divergent information sources: the interplay of epistemic cognition and epistemic metacognition

Learning to integrate multiple information sources is vital for advancing learners’ digital literacy. Previous studies have found that learners’ epistemic metacognitive knowledge about the nature of knowledge and knowing is related to their strategic integration performance. The purpose of this study was to understand how these relations come into play as students learn to integrate divergent information sources. To do so, we examined the contribution of scaffolds addressing the epistemic strategy of integration and epistemic metastrategic knowledge about this strategy. Participants were 99 high-achieving Arab Israeli ninth graders. All participants engaged in writing arguments based on divergent information sources. Students in the control condition received no scaffolds; students in the strategic condition received a strategic scaffold; and students in the metastrategic condition received both strategic and metastrategic scaffolds. Integration performance, epistemic metastrategic knowledge about integration, and absolutist, multiplist, and evaluativist epistemic perspectives were measured before, immediately after, and one month after the intervention. At pre-test, both epistemic metastrategic knowledge about integration and evaluativism were positive predictors of integration performance. The strategic scaffold led to a significant increase in integration performance and epistemic metastrategic knowledge. Adding the metastrategic scaffold led to greater improvement in epistemic metastrategic knowledge, but did not result in additional gains in strategic performance. An immediate decrease in absolutism occurred among all participants but was not sustained over time. A decrease in multiplism occurred only in the experimental groups and was sustained over time. The results suggest that epistemic growth can occur in both bottom-up and top-down directions.     

Audit of the Prevalence of Noncorrelation of Immunofixation with Protein Electrophoresis and Serum Free Light Chain Assays in Multiple Myeloma in a Tertiary Cancer Care Center

Multiple myeloma (MM) is diagnosed and monitored by correlating panel of test results including serum Protein electrophoresis (SPE), Immunofixation electrophoresis (IFE), serum Free Light chain (sFLC) measurements. This audit is aimed to evaluate the prevalence of non-correlation and discrepancies amongst the three investigations (SPE/IFE/sFLC) for assessment of MM. 106 MM patients were reviewed over 16 months in a tertiary cancer care center by the availability of 3 serum test results (SPE/IFE/sFLC). Patients were divided into 2 groups: group1, newly diagnosed MM patients who were yet to receive myeloma specific treatment (n = 48); and group2, already diagnosed MM patients on treatment and followup (n = 58). Treatment modalities included stem cell transplantation and standard chemotherapy regimens. Non-correlation between the three test results (IFE/SPE/sFLC) was observed (21% in group1 and 45% in group2). Three types of discrepancies were detected as follows: (a) IFE showing less number of restriction bands as compared to SPE (8.6% patients in group2); (b) SPE/IFE negative with an abnormal sFLC ratio (12.5% patients in group1 and 13.7% in group2); (c) SPE/IFE positive but normal sFLC ratio (8% in group1 and 22% in group2). To conclude, IFE may sometimes provide information that does not always correlate with either of the SPE or sFLC results due to different sensitivities, antigen–antibody interactions, or treatment. Hence, SPE plus sFLC may be more useful particularly for patients on follow-up while IFE plus sFLC may help screen the new patients. The judicious selection of the biochemical assays can effectively reduce the treatment cost in a developing country like India.