Search results for: early movers

Authors: C. Morris, W. Ashall, K. Telling, L. Kadiwal, J. Kirby, S. Mwale

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This paper addresses experiences of liminality in the early career phase of academia. Liminality is understood as a process moving from one state (in this case of being non-academic) to another (of being academic), caught between or moving in and out these modes of being. Drawing on life-history methods, a group of academics jointly reflected on experiences of the early career. Primarily focused on the theme of imposter syndrome at this career stage, the authors identified feelings of non-belonging and lack of fit with the academy, tracing the biographical, political, and affective dimensions of such responses. Uncertainty around status within seemingly impermeable hierarchies and barriers to progression in combination with our intersectional positionings shaped by sexism, racism, ableism, and classism, led to experiences of liminality, having not yet fully achieved the desired and potentially illusionary status of established academic. Findings are contextualised within the authors’ contrasting disciplinary, departmental, and institutional settings against a backdrop of neoliberalised academia. The paper thereby contributes nuanced understandings of early-career academic identities at a time when this career stage is ever more ill-defined, extended, precarious and uncertain, exposing ongoing impacts of inequities in the contemporary academic milieu.

Keywords: early career, identities, intersectionality, liminality

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Authors: Muhammad Adamu Kwankwaso

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Early childhood is a critical period of rapid physical, cognitive and psycho-social development of a child. The quality of care and Education which a child receives at this crucial age will determine to a great extent the level of his/her physical and cognitive development in the future. In Nigeria, Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) is a fundamental aspect or form of Education for children between the age of 3-6. It was started after independence as pre-primary Education or early child development as contained in the 1977 National Policy on Education. The trends towards ECCE in Nigeria and the northwestern part of the country in particular keep up changing as in the case of other part of the world. The current trends are now towards expansions, inclusiveness, redefinition, early literacy, increased government participation and the unprecedented societal response and awareness towards the Education of the younger children. While all hands are on deck to ensure successful implementation of the ECCE programme, it is unfortunate that, ECCE is facing some challenges. This paper therefore, examines the trends in Early Childhood Care and Education and the major challenges in the north west of Nigeria. Some of the major challenges include, inadequate trained ECCE teachers, lack of unified curriculum, teacher pupil’s ratio, and the medium of instructions and inadequate infrastructural and teaching facilities respectively. To improve the situation the paper offered the following recommendations; establishment of more ECCE classes, enforcement for the use of mothers’ tongue or the languages of the immediate community as a medium of instructions, and adequate provision of infrastructural facilities and the unified curriculum across the northwestern States of Nigeria.

Keywords: early childhood care, education, trends, challenges

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Authors: M. Pramila Devi, N. V. N. Indra Kiran

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Control charts, predominantly in the form of X-bar chart, are important tools in statistical process control (SPC). They are useful in determining whether a process is behaving as intended or there are some unnatural causes of variation. A process is out of control if a point falls outside the control limits or a series of point’s exhibit an unnatural pattern. In this paper, a study is carried out on four training algorithms for CCPs recognition. For those algorithms optimal structure is identified and then they are studied for type I and type II errors for generalization without early stopping and with early stopping and the best one is proposed.

Keywords: control chart pattern recognition, neural network, backpropagation, generalization, early stopping

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Authors: Sultana Razia

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The number of children whose social, communication and behavior pattern is affected due to mental and developmental conditions is on the rise. Most of these conditions develop to uncontrollable levels because of ignorance and unaware about their child’s condition. The many myths surrounding mental or developmental conditions are a major cause of families of affected children to develop bitterness and to shy off from seeking appropriate help in time. Several early intervention programs have been put in place, and the number of beneficiaries of these programs is increasing by the day. This research seeks to look into early intervention programs and their effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of early therapeutic intervention for the children with autism spectrum disorder. Participants were 140 children with autism spectrum disorder from Autism Corner in a selected rehabilitation center of Bangladesh. This study included children who are at age of 18-month to 36-month and who were taking occupational therapy and speech and language therapy from the autism center. They were primarily screened using M-CHAT; however, children with other physical disability or medical conditions excluded. 3-months interventions of 6 sessions per week are a minimum of 45-minutes long per session, one to one interaction followed by parent-led structured home-based therapy were provided. The results indicated that early intensive therapeutic intervention improve understanding, social skills and sensory skills. It can be concluded that therapeutic early intervention a positive effect on diminishing symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Keywords: M-CHAT, ASD, sensory cheeklist, OT

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Authors: Faisal Alshammari, Abdulmajid Addali, Mosab Alrashed, Taihiret Alhashan

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The application of acoustic emission techniques is gaining popularity, as it can monitor the condition of gears and bearings and detect early symptoms of a defect in the form of pitting, wear, and flaking of surfaces. Early detection of these defects is essential as it helps to avoid major failures and the associated catastrophic consequences. Signal processing techniques are required for early defect detection – in this article, a time domain technique called the Energy Index (EI) is used. This article presents an investigation into the Energy Index’s effectiveness to detect early-stage defect initiation and deterioration, and compares it with the common r.m.s. index, Kurtosis, and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistical test. It is concluded that EI is a more effective technique for monitoring defect initiation and development than other statistical parameters.

Keywords: acoustic emission, signal processing, kurtosis, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test

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Authors: Shih-Heng Sun, Hsiu-Yu Chang

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“Family centered service model” becomes mainstream in early intervention. Family outcome should be evaluated in addition child improvement in terms of outcome evaluation in early intervention. The purpose of this study is to develop a surveys to evaluate family outcomes in early intervention. Method: “Family Outcomes Survey- Revised Taiwan Version” (FOS-RT) was developed through translation, back-translation, and review by the original author. Expert meeting was held to determine the content validity. Two hundred and eighty six parent-child dyads recruited from 10 local Early Intervention Resource Centers (EIRC) participated in the study after they signed inform consent. The results showed both parts of FOS-RT exhibits good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The result of confirmatory factor analysis indicated moderate fit of 5 factor structure of part A and 3 factor structure of part B of FOS-RT. The correlation between different sessions reached moderate to high level reveals some sessions measure similar latent trait of family outcomes. Correlation between FOS-RT and Parents‘ Perceived Parenting Skills Questionnaire was calculated to determine the convergence validity. The moderate correlation indicates the two assessments measure different parts of early intervention outcome although both assessments have similar sub-scales. The results of this study support FOS-RT is a valid and reliable tool to evaluate family outcome after the family and children with developmental disability receive early intervention services.

Keywords: early intervention, family service, outcome evaluation, parenting skills, family centered

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Authors: Chiou-Shiue Ko, Pei-Fang Wu, Shu-hsien Tseng

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The researchers adopted two-year action research to investigate the professional collaborative process and development in learning communities for both early childhood and early childhood special education teachers on implementing the children’s school success curriculum framework. The participating teachers were recruited from three preschool sites for this current study. Research data were collected from multiple methods in order to ensure the data quality and validity. The results showed that participating educators had achieved professional growth, and they became more aware of teaching intentions and the preparation for the curriculum. Teachers in this research become more child-focused in teaching and create opportunities for children to participate in classroom activities and routines. The researcher also finds teachers’ participation levels were driven by each individual personality; during professional growth, some teachers are more proactive and reflective, and some are not. According to the research findings, suggestions for future studies and practices are provided.

Keywords: children’s school success curriculum framework, early childhood special education, preschool education, professional learning community

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Authors: Mohhamed El Habib Labdouni

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Introduction: Co-infection with VIH and tuberculosis poses one of the major ongoing challenges for global TB and AIDS prevention and control. The objective of this study is to raise the issue of the resurgence of TB, in People living with VIH supported in a referent center in western Algeria. Its epidemiological, clinical, biological and radiological new trends, and to compare the mortality rate between early and delayed ART. Methods: It was a prospective study, during 36 months from the 01st/01/2012 to 31st/12/2014, by identifying and analyzing cases of TB-VIH co-infection. Our population was devised in two groups/ early ART and delayed ART. The primary and secondary endpoints were analyzed with Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank test the period of follow up, which was fixed at 300 weeks. Results: Sixty cases of co-infection TB -VIH were enrolled in our study: 78.3% had pulmonary tuberculosis associated with extra-pulmonary, 13.3% had only pulmonary tuberculosis and 08.3% presented strictly extra-pulmonary TB. The clinical particularity of this co-infection is the frequency of serious localization such us: pleural 23.3%, peritoneal 31.7%, and meningeal suffusion 13.3%.y-.biologicaly we notice the predominance both of pancytopenia and leucoanemia, hyponatremia in 38,6% and hypokalemia in 19,3%. By analyzing Kaplan-Meier survival curves, we notice that early ART initiation is associated with a significant reduction of all-cause mortality (p = 0,000), and we have identified several prognostic factors such as hypokalemia hyponatremia, leukocytosis thrombopenemia leucothrombopenia (p = 0,005). Conclusion: Our study confirms most of the results reported in the literature. Early ART initiation reduces the rate of all-cause mortality, despite the probability of the occurrence of TB-IRIS.

Keywords: TB-HIV co-infection, early ART, hyponatremia, extrapulmonary tuberculosis

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Authors: Dagmawit Tewahido

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Purpose: This qualitative study was conducted to explore social norms around adolescent girls’ marriage practices in West Hararghe, Ethiopia, where early marriage is prohibited by law. Methods: Twenty Focus Group Discussions were conducted with Married and Unmarried adolescent girls, adolescent boys and parents of girls using locally developed vignettes. A total of 32 in-depth interviews were conducted with married and unmarried adolescent girls, husbands of adolescent girls and mothers-in-law. Key informant interviews were conducted with 36 district officials. Data analysis was assisted by Open Code computer software. The Social Norms Analysis Plot (SNAP) framework developed by CARE guided the development and analysis of vignettes. A thematic data analysis approach was utilized to summarize the data. Results: Early marriage is seen as a positive phenomenon in our study context, and girls who are not married by the perceived ideal age of 15 are socially sanctioned. They are particularly influenced by their peers to marry. Marrying early is considered a chance given by God and a symbol of good luck. The two common types of marriage are decided: 1) by adolescent girl and boy themselves without seeking parental permission (’Jalaa-deemaa’- meaning ‘to go along’), and 2) by just informing girl’s parents (‘Cabsaa’- meaning ‘to break the culture’). Relatives and marriage brokers also arrange early marriages. Girls usually accept the first marriage proposal regardless of their age. Parents generally tend not to oppose marriage arrangements chosen by their daughters. Conclusions: In the study context social norms encourage early marriage despite the existence of a law prohibiting marriage before the age of eighteen years. Early marriage commonly happens through consensual arrangements between adolescent girls and boys. Interventions to reduce early marriage need to consider the influence of Reference Groups on the decision makers for marriages, especially girls’ own peers.

Keywords: adolescent girls, social norms, early marriage, Ethiopia

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Authors: Ichihan Tai, Bill Olson, Paul Blessner

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Traditional early warning systems that alarm against crisis are generally based on structured or numerical data; therefore, a system that can make predictions based on unstructured textual data, an uncorrelated data source, is a great complement to the traditional early warning systems. The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) Volatility Index (VIX), commonly referred to as the fear index, measures the cost of insurance against market crash, and spikes in the event of crisis. In this study, news data is consumed for prediction of whether there will be a market-wide crisis by predicting the movement of the fear index, and the historical references to similar events are presented in an unsupervised manner. Topic modeling-based prediction and representation are made based on daily news data between 1990 and 2015 from The Wall Street Journal against VIX index data from CBOE.

Keywords: early warning system, knowledge management, market prediction, topic modeling.

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Authors: J. Aliyu, A. O. Raji, A. A. Ibrahim

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The study was carried out to assess the fertility, early and late embryonic mortalities as well as hatchability by strain, season and hen’s weight in Nigerian indigenous chickens reared on deep litter. Four strains (normal feathered, naked neck, frizzle and dwarf) of hens maintained at a mating ratio of 1 cock to 4 hens, fed breeders mash and water ad libitum were used in a three year experiment. The data generated were subjected to analysis of variance using the SAS package and the means, where significant, were separated using the least significant difference (LSD). There were significant effects (P < 0.05) of strain on all the traits studied. Fertility was generally high (84.29 %) in all the strains. Early embryonic mortality was significantly lowest (P < 0.01) in naked neck which had the highest late embryonic mortality (P < 0.001). Hatchability was significantly highest (P < 0.01) in normal feathered (80.23 %) and slightly depressed in frizzle (74.95 %) and dwarf (72.27 %) while naked neck had the lowest (60.80 %). Season of the year had significant effects on early embryonic mortality. Dry hot season significantly (P < 0.05) depressed fertility while early embryonic mortality was depressed in the wet season (15.33 %). Early and late embryonic mortalities significantly increased (P < 0.05) with increasing weight of hen. Dwarf, frizzle and normal feathered hens could be used to improve hatchability as well as reduce early and late embryonic mortalities in Nigerian indigenous chickens.

Keywords: chicken, fertility, hatchability, indigenous, strain

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Authors: Darma Putra Sitepu, Dewi Larasati, Yohanes Wolter Hendrik George

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Sepsis is a life-threatening medical emergency frequently observed in intensive care unit (ICU). Surviving Sepsis Campaign in 2018 has recommended the administration of early vasopressor in the first hour of sepsis or septic shock but has not yet included de-resuscitation protocol. De-resuscitation in acute management of septic shock is where patient received active removal of accumulated fluid. It has been proposed by some studies and ongoing clinical trials. Here we present a case with early vasopressor and de-resuscitation. Male, 27 years old presenting to the emergency room with shortness of breath, altered mental status, and widespread blisters on his body and lips started a few hours prior, after receiving non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug through intravenous injection. Patient was hypotensive, tachycardic, and tachypneic at admission, diagnosed with Steven Johnson Syndrome with Septic Shock. Patient received fluid resuscitation, early vasopressor, and diuresis agent aimed to actively remove fluid after the initial phase of resuscitation. Patient was admitted to ICU and progressively recovering. At day-10, patient was stabilized and was transferred to general ward. Early vasopressor and de-resuscitation are beneficial for the patient.

Keywords: sepsis, shock, de-resuscitation, vasopressor, fluid, case report

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Authors: Harishkumar Kamath, Chandrakant R. Kini, N. Yagnesh Sharma

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Gas turbines are highly effective engineered prime movers for converting energy from thermal form (combustion stage) to mechanical form – are widely used for propulsion and power generation systems. One method of increasing both the power output and thermal efficiency is to increase the temperature of the gas entering the turbine. In the advanced gas turbines of today, the turbine inlet temperature can be as high as 1500°C; however, this temperature exceeds the melting temperature of the metal blade. With modern gas turbines operating at extremely high temperatures, it is necessary to implement various cooling methods, so the turbine blades and vanes endure in the path of the hot gases. Merely passing coolant air through the blade does not provide adequate cooling; therefore, it is necessary to implement techniques that will further enhance the heat transfer from the blade walls. It is seen that by incorporating helical grooved passages into the leading edge built on turbulence and higher flow rates through the passages, the blade can be cooled effectively. It seen from the analysis helical grooved passages with diameter 5 mm, helical pitch of 50 mm and 8 starts results in better cooling of turbine blade and gives the best thermal performance.

Keywords: blade cooling, helical grooves, leading edge, numerical analysis

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Authors: Djalal Boualili

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This article considers the problem of sizing prime movers for combined heating and power (CHP) systems operating at full load to satisfy a fraction of a facility's electric load, i.e. a base load. Prime mover sizing is examined using three criteria: operational cost, carbon dioxide emissions (CDE), and primary energy consumption (PEC). The sizing process leads to consider ratios of conversion factors applied to imported electricity to conversion factors applied to fuel consumed. These ratios are labelled RCost, R CDE, R PEC depending on whether the conversion factors are associated with operational cost, CDE, or PEC, respectively. Analytical results show that in order to achieve savings in operational cost, CDE, or PEC, the ratios must be larger than a unique constant R Min that only depends on the CHP components efficiencies. Savings in operational cost, CDE, or PEC due to CHP operation are explicitly formulated using simple equations. This facilitates the process of comparing the tradeoffs of optimizing the savings of one criterion over the other two – a task that has traditionally been accomplished through computer simulations. A hospital building, located in Chlef, Algeria, was used as an example to apply the methodology presented in this article.

Keywords: sizing, heating and power, ratios, energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions

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Authors: Vladimir Ryabov, Mikhail Baryshevs, Mikhail Voskresenskey, Boris Popov

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The human prostate gland (PG) samples were obtained from patients who had undergone radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer (PC) and used to extract total RNA and prepare the prostate stromal cell cultures (PSCC) and patients-derived organoids (PDO). Growth of the cell cultures was accessed under microscopic evaluation in transmitted light and the marker expression by reverse polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immunofluorescence, and immunoblotting. Some PCR products from prostate tissue, PSCC, and PDO were cloned and sequenced. We found that the cells of early and late passages of PSCC and corresponding PDO expressed luminal (androgen receptor, AR; cytokeratin 18, CK18) and basal (CK5, p63) epithelial markers, the production of which decreased or disappeared in late PSCC and PDO. The PSCC and PDO of early passages from cancer tissue additionally produced cancer markers AMACR, TMPRSS2-ERG, and Ezh2. The expression of TMPRSS2-ERG fusion transcripts was verified by cloning and sequencing the PCR products. The results obtained suggest that early passages of PSCC might be used as a pre-clinical model for the evaluation of early markers of prostate cancer.

Keywords: localized prostate cancer, prostate epithelial markers, prostate cancer markers, AMACR, TMPRSS2-ERG, prostate stromal cell cultures, PDO

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Authors: Sadeem A. Alolayan

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The purpose of early intervention (EI) programs and services is to minimize the impact of disability on children ages 0-5 and to reduce future special education costs. This literature review identifies the status of families of children with special needs. Four major themes emerged from this literature review. The first was the family’s needs and the expressed desire for services to be obtained or outcomes to be achieved. The second was family support, meaning any information or skills needed to facilitate parents’ role as professionals in order to enable them to train and provide their child with the best quality of life. The third theme, barriers, was defined as parents’ actions or life circumstances that hindered families in obtaining appropriate EI services. The conclusions derived from the recommendations are that effective parent participation involves careful planning, establishing and maintaining a trusted rapport between parents, and EI providers that understand parents’ individual needs and interests, thus motivating effective parent involvement in early intervention programs.

Keywords: early intervention, individuals with disabilities education act, parents, recommendations

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Authors: Kenneth Larsen, Astrid Aasland, Synnve Schjølberg, Trond Diseth

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Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are neurodevelopmental disorders emerging in early development characterized by impairment in social communication skills and a restricted, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior and interests. Early identification and interventions potentially improve development and quality of life of children with ASD. Symptoms of ASD are apparent through the second year of life, yet diagnostic age are still around 4 years of age. This study explored whether symptoms associated with ASD are possible to identify in typical Norwegian day-care centers in the second year of life. Results of this study clearly indicates that most described symptoms also are identifiable by day-care staff, and that a short observation list of 5 symptoms clearly identify children with ASD from a sample of normal developing peers.

Keywords: autism, early identification, day-care, screening

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Authors: Mahdi Kazemi

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Today's performances on Piano Forte or Fortepiano are cheerful, musical, expressive, and at the same time informative. AlterMuskie is an exciting and richly drawn magazine that is unmatched in its field. First published in 1973, it is a magazine for anyone interested in early music and its contemporary interpretation. Alexander Scriabin's (1871_1915) work has traditionally focused on his music in the mid and late 1902s. The discussion of his personal philosophy and his influence on music also focuses on these two periods. Over the last few decades, the repertoire of British classical solo pianos has received increasing interest from researchers. From the piano rolls of the early 20th century, much can be inferred about the practice of romantic piano playing. Summary Haydn's most important piano works are the sonatas, which generally represent Haydn's development as a composer from the early to the last three sonata dates, 1794.

Keywords: piano, classic piano, performance, music

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Authors: Kailash Ghimire, Manoj Thapa

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This study focuses on early identification of deficiencies in pre-required areas of students who are enrolled in College Algebra and Calculus I classes. The students were given pre-diagnostic tests on the first day of the class before they are provided with the syllabus. The tests consist of prerequisite, uniform and advanced content outlined by the University System of Georgia (USG). The results show that 48% of students in College Algebra are lacking prerequisite skills while 52% of Calculus I students are lacking prerequisite skills but, interestingly these students are prior exposed to uniform content and advanced content. The study is still in progress and this paper contains the outcome from Fall 2017 and Spring 2018. In this paper, early intervention used in these classes: two days vs three days meeting a week and students’ self-assessment using exam wrappers and their effectiveness on students’ learning will also be discussed. A result of this study shows that there is an improvement on Drop, Fail and Withdraw (DFW) rates by 7%-10% compared to those in previous semesters.

Keywords: student at risk, diagnostic tests, identification, intervention, normalization gain, validity of tests

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Authors: Seden Demirtaş, Feyza Tantekin Erden

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The importance of research in early childhood education is growing all around the world. This study aims to investigate research trends in graduate theses written in Turkey in the area of early childhood education. Descriptive, contextual and methodological aspects of graduate theses were analyzed to investigate the trends. A sample of the study consisted of 1000 graduate theses (n= 1000) including both MS theses and Ph.D. dissertations. Theses and dissertations were obtained from the thesis database of Council of Higher Education (CoHE). An investigation form was developed by the researcher to analyze graduate theses. The investigation forms validated by expert opinion from early childhood education department. To enhance the reliability of the investigation form, inter-coder agreement was measured by Cohen’s Kappa value (.86). Data were gathered via using the investigation form, and content analysis method was used to analyze the data. Results of the analysis were presented by descriptive statistics and frequency tables. Analysis of the study is on-going and preliminary results of the study show that master theses related to early childhood education have started to be written in 1986, and the number of the theses has increased gradually. In most of the studies, sample group consisted of children especially in between 5-6 age group. Child development, activities (applied in daily curriculum of preschools) and teaching methods are the mostly examined concepts in graduate theses. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were referred equally by researchers in these theses.

Keywords: content analysis, early childhood education, graduate thesis, research trends

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Authors: Abdul Rofiq Badril Rizal Muzammil

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Education is an absolute necessity for human’s life that one must fulfill for the entire life. Without education it is impossible for human to develop her/himself well. The education process is an effort to maintain a good behavior within one’s life. Good behavior will be absolutely achieved if it is taught to early-aged children. This paper focuses on how the story telling method enables teachers to make the students have the construction of good behavior and obtain the goal of national education in Indonesia. The targeted students would involve students in As-Solihin kindergarten, Salafiyah-Syafi’iyah Mumbulsari, Jember, Indonesia. Story is what early-aged children like most. Thus, it is a gorgeous chance to make story telling activity as a method to invest Islamic education values to children. This paper, however, also focuses on some deliberately important aspects which of course teachers need to consider including objectives and strategies of the method’s implementation. The teachers will be in need of knowing each student’s characteristic in the classroom so that it would enable them to select appropriate stories that fit best to early aged students. The selected stories are taken from Islamic stories that tell the life of Prophet and heroes of Islam as well as well-known persons in Islam. In addition, there will be a number of activities done in the classroom after the delivery of the story is over on purpose of leading students to have the fundamental foundation of how to build self-awareness in order they could understand better about the importance of being a well-behaved person. After reviewing relevant theories, secondary research and scholars’ opinion involved in all aspects of early-aged children behavior, the author concludes that by leveraging trusted sources, a proactive, co-operative and creative strategy, the teacher can successfully build up children’s good behavior by instilling the Islamic value toward early-aged children through story telling method.

Keywords: story, Islam, children, early age

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Authors: Rana Alkhamra

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Background: Child's earliest experiences with books and stories during the first years of his life are strongly linked with the development of his early language and literacy skills. Interacting in routine learning activities, such as shared book reading, storytelling, and teaching about the letters of the alphabet make a critical foundation for early learning, language growth and emergent literacy. Aim: The current study explores family and preschool early interactive literacy practices in families and preschools (nursery and kindergarten) in Jordan. It highlights the importance of early interactive literacy activities on child language and literacy growth and development. Methods: This is a cross sectional study that surveyed 243 Jordanian families. The survey investigated literacy routine practices, largely shared books reading, at home and at preschool; child speech and language development; and family demographics. Results: Around 92.5% of the families read books and stories to their children, as frequently as 1-2 times weekly or monthly (75%). Only 19.6% read books on daily basis. Many families reported preferring story-telling (97%). Despite that families acknowledged the importance of early literacy activities, on language, reading and writing, cognitive, and academic development, 45% asked for education and training pertaining to specific ways and ideas to help their young children develop language and literacy skills. About 69% of the families reported reading books and stories to their children for 15 minutes a day, while 71.2% indicated having their children watch television for 3 to > 6 hours a day. At preschool, only 52.8% of the teachers were reported to read books and stories. Factors like parent education, monthly income, living inside (33.6%) or outside (66.4%) the capital city of Amman significantly (p < 0.05) affected child early literacy interactive activities whether at home or at preschool. Conclusion: Early language and literacy skills depend largely on the opportunities and experiences provided to children in the home and in preschool environment. Family literacy programs can play an important role in bridging the gap in early literacy experiences for families that need help. Also, speech therapists can work in collaboration with families and educators to ensure that young children have high quality and sufficient opportunities to participate in early literacy activities both at home and in preschool environments.

Keywords: literacy, interactive activities, language, practices, family, preschool, Jordan

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Authors: Chen-Ya Juan

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In recent years, the increasing number of children with special needs has brought a lot of attention by many scholars and experts in education, which enforced the preschool teachers face the harsh challenge in the classroom. To protect the right of equal education for all children, enhance the quality of children learning, and take care of the needs of children with special needs, the special education paraprofessional becomes one of the future employment trends for students of the department of the early childhood care and education. Problem-based learning is a problem-oriented instruction, which is different from traditional instruction. The instructor first designed an ambiguous problem direction, following the basic knowledge of early intervention, students had to find clues to solve the problem defined by themselves. In the class, the total instruction included 20 hours, two hours per week. The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship of student academic scores, self-awareness, learning motivation, learning attitudes, and early intervention knowledge. A total of 105 college students participated in this study and 97 questionnaires were effective. The effective response rate was 90%. The student participants included 95 females and two males. The average age of the participants was 19 years old. The questionnaires included 125 questions divided into four major dimensions: (1) Self-awareness, (2) learning motivation, (3) learning attitudes, and (4) early intervention knowledge. The results indicated (1) the scores of self-awareness were 58%; the scores of the learning motivations was 64.9%; the scores of the learning attitudes was 55.3%. (2) After the instruction, the early intervention knowledge has been increased to 64.2% from 38.4%. (3) Student’s academic performance has positive relationship with self-awareness (p < 0.05; R = 0.506), learning motivation (p < 0.05; R = 0.487), learning attitudes (p < 0.05; R = 0.527). The results implied that although students had gained early intervention knowledge by using PBL instruction, students had medium scores on self-awareness and learning attitudes, medium high in learning motivations.

Keywords: college students, children with special needs, problem-based learning, learning motivation

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Authors: Surekha Tony, Roshan Mevada

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Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS) is a primary immunodeficiency disease resulting in recurrent infections, eczema, and microthrombocytopenia. In its classical form, significant combined immune deficiency, autoimmune complications, and risk of hematological malignancy necessitate early correction, preferably before 2 years of age, with hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) or gene therapy. Clinical features and severity are varied, making the diagnosis difficult in milder cases. We report an Omani boy diagnosed in early infancy with WAS based on clinical presentation and confirmed by genetic diagnosis with cure by HSCT from an HLA-identical sibling donor.

Keywords: genetic diagnosis, hematopoietic stem cell transplant, infant, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome

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Authors: Ellen Patricia, Marilou Hyson

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Coaching has been showing great potential to strengthen the impact of brief group trainings and help early childhood teachers solve specific problems at work with the goal of raising the quality of early childhood services. However, there have been some doubts about the benefits that village teachers can receive from coaching. It is perceived that village teachers may struggle with the thinking skills needed to make coaching beneficial. Furthermore, there are reservations about whether principals and supervisors in villages are open to coaching’s facilitative approach, as opposed to the directive approach they have been using. As such, the use of coaching to develop the professionalism of early childhood teachers in the villages needs to be examined. The Coaching Pilot for early childhood teachers in Indonesia villages provides insights for the above issues. The Coaching Pilot is part of the ECED Frontline Pilot, which is a collaboration project between the Government of Indonesia and the World Bank with the support from the Australian Government (DFAT). The Pilot started with coordinated efforts with the local government in two districts to select principals and supervisors who have been equipped with basic knowledge about early childhood education to take part in 2-days coaching training. Afterwards, the participants were asked to collect 25 hours of coaching early childhood teachers who have participated in the Enhanced Basic Training for village teachers. The participants who completed this requirement were then invited to come for an assessment of their coaching skills. Following that, a qualitative evaluation was conducted using in-depth interviews and Focus Group Discussion techniques. The evaluation focuses on the impact of the coaching pilot in helping the village teachers to develop in their professionalism, as well as on the sustainability of the intervention. Results from the evaluation indicated that although their low education may limit their thinking skills, village teachers benefited from the coaching that they received. Moreover, the evaluation results also suggested that with enough training and support, principals and supervisors in the villages were able to provide an adequate coaching service for the teachers. On top of that, beyond this small start, interest is growing, both within the pilot districts and even beyond, due to word of mouth of the benefits that the Coaching Pilot has created. The districts where coaching was piloted have planned to continue the coaching program, since a number of early childhood teachers have requested to be coached, and a number of principals and supervisors have also requested to be trained as a coach. Furthermore, the Association for Early Childhood Educators in Indonesia has started to adopt coaching into their program. Although further research is needed, the Coaching Pilot suggests that coaching can positively impact early childhood teachers in villages, and village principals and supervisors can become a promising source of future coaches. As such, coaching has a significant potential to become a sustainable model for a continuous professional development program for early childhood teachers in villages.

Keywords: coaching, coaching pilot, early childhood teachers, principals and supervisors, village teachers

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Authors: Tahmeena Ali, Andrew Francis, Keong Yap, Sharynn Schuster

Abstract:

Social anxiety is a chronic and debilitating condition characterized by fear and avoidance of social situations. Several risk factors have emerged, which emphasize the role of early childhood experiences in the development of this condition. As such, the current study tested the hypothesis that early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) mediate the relationship between retrospectively reported parental criticism and social anxiety whilst controlling the effects of depression. Three hundred and thirty-four non-clinical participants completed an online questionnaire consisting of self-report measures of parental criticism, EMSs of disconnection and rejection, and symptoms of social anxiety and depression. The mediation analysis confirmed the hypothesized model, indicating that EMSs mediated the relationship between parental criticism and social anxiety symptoms when controlling for depression. Whilst the current study is limited due to its cross-sectional design, the findings lend support to the developmental formulations of social anxiety and have important therapeutic implications for treatment.

Keywords: early maladaptive schema, parental criticism, schema, social anxiety

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Authors: Maryam Ghareh Chaei, Masuzyo Chilwesa, Ali Akbarnezhad, Arnaud Castel, Redmond Lloyd, Stephen Foster

Abstract:

Cement hydration is an exothermic chemical reaction generally leading to a rise in concrete’s temperature. This internal heating of concrete may, in turn, lead to a temperature difference between the hotter interior and the cooler exterior of concrete and thus differential thermal stresses in early ages which could be particularly significant in mass concrete. Such differential thermal stresses result in early age thermal cracking of concrete when exceeding the concrete’s tensile strength. The extent of temperature rise and thus early age differential thermal stresses is generally a function of hydration heat intensity, thermal properties of concrete and size of the concrete element. Both hydration heat intensity and thermal properties of concrete may vary considerably with variations in the type cementitious materials and other constituents. With this in mind, partial replacement of cement with supplementary cementitious materials including fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag has been investigated widely as an effective strategy to moderate the heat generation rate and thus reduce the risk of early age thermal cracking of concrete. However, there is currently a lack of adequate literature on effect of partial replacement of cement with fly ash and/or ground granulated blast furnace slag on the thermal properties of concrete. This paper presents the results of an experimental conducted to evaluate the effect of addition of varying percentages of fly ash (up to 60%) and ground granulated blast furnace slag (up to 50%) on the heat capacity and thermal conductivity of early age cement paste. The water to cementitious materials ratio is kept 0.45 for all the paste samples. The results of the experimental studies were used in a numerical analysis performed using Comsol Multiphysics to highlight the effects of variations in the thermal properties of concrete, due to variations in the type of aggregate and content of supplemenraty cementitious materials, on the risk of early age cracking of a concrete raft.

Keywords: thermal diffusivity, early age thermal cracking, concrete, supplementary cementitious materials

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Authors: Zhang Bian, Zhao Jijun

Abstract:

The urban layout of Xi’an city (the capital Chang’an in the Tang dynasty) was shaped by feudal etiquette, but this dominant factor was replaced by modern city planning during the period of the Republic of China. This makes Xi’an a representative case to explore the transformation process of Chinese cities in the early 20^th century. By analyzing the contrast and connection between the historical texts of city planning and the realistic construction activities recorded by the maps and images, this paper reviews the transformation process of the urban space of Xi’an in the early 20^th century and divides it into four phases according to important events that significantly impacted planning and construction activities. Based on this, the entire transformation of Xi’an’s city planning and practices can be characterized by three aspects: 1) the dominant force of the city plan and construction changed with the establishment of modern city administrations; 2) the layout of the city was continuously broadened to meet the demand of modern economy and city life; and, 3) the ritual space was transformed into practical space for commercial and recreational activities.

Keywords: city space, the early 20th century, transformation, Xi’an city

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Authors: Najith Duminda Galmangoda Guruge, Nadeeka Rathnayake, Vinodani Wimalasena, Dinesha Wijesooriya

Abstract:

Investing in Early Learning can improve children’ interests for education and makes them ready for school. Children in economically disadvantaged communities may have reduced readiness for schools. Health Promotion approach enables communities including disadvantaged to control over their health. Mothers of children under the age five in ‘Alapathwewa’ community (n=40) were selected as the sample with the aim to promote early learning of children to improve their school readiness. Mothers in ‘Morakeewa’ community (n=40) were the control. Interventions were for a period of 2 years and children of these mothers were followed up to school entry. Importance of early learning and possibility of providing quality learning environments for children at a low cost was discussed with mothers in an experimental setting by facilitators. Mothers were enabled to make age-appropriate baby rooms which provide learning opportunities. Collective community playhouses and play areas were developed by mothers to provide opportunities for children to interact and learn with each other. Mothers started discussing with each other and sharing experiences. The progress was monitored by mothers at regular intervals. Data regarding school competencies of children were obtained from school teachers. School teachers measured thirteen competencies of children on a scale of ‘very good, good, moderate and weak’. All children in the experimental group were in ‘very good’ level in two competencies, ‘communicate friendly with others’ and ‘express ideas well’. Children in the experimental group reported a significantly higher achievement of all thirteen competencies (p < .05) than children in control. Providing quality early learning environments for children even in economically disadvantaged settings makes them ready for schools. Through a Health Promotion approach, early learning experiences for children can be provided at a low cost.

Keywords: disadvantaged, early learning, economically, health promotion

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Authors: Yongjun Kim

Abstract:

Since the agreement on the historicity of historical Buddha in eastern India, the beginning, heyday and decline of Buddhism in Early India have been discussed in urbanization, commercialism and state formation context, in short, Weberian socio-politico frame. Recent Scholarship, notably in archaeology and anthropology, has proposed ‘re-materialization of Buddhism in Early India’ based on what Buddhist had actually done rather than what they should do according to canonical teachings or philosophies. But its historical narrations still remain with a domain of socio-politico meta-narrative which tends to unjustifiably dismiss the naturally existing heterogeneity and often chaotic dynamic of diverse agencies, landscape perceptions, localized traditions, etc. An author will argue the multiplicity of theoretical standpoints for the reconstruction on the Buddhism in Early India. For this, at first, the diverse agencies, localized traditions, landscape patterns of Buddhist communities and monasteries in Trans-Himalayan regions; focusing Zanskar Valley and Spiti Valley in India will be illustrated based on an author’s field work. And then an author will discuss this anthropological landscape analysis is better appropriated with textual and archaeological evidences on the tension between urban monastic and forest Buddhism, the phenomena of sacred landscape, cemetery, garden, natural cave along with socio-economic landscape, the demographic heterogeneity in Early India. Finally, it will be attempted to compare between anthropological landscape of present Trans-Himalayan and archaeological one of ancient Western India. The study of Buddhism in Early India has hardly been discussed through multivalent theoretical archaeology and anthropology of religion, thus traditional and recent scholarship have produced historical meta-narrative though heterogeneous among them. The multidisciplinary approaches of textual critics, archaeology and anthropology will surely help to deconstruct the grand and all-encompassing historical description on Buddhism in Early India and then to reconstruct the localized, behavioral and multivalent narratives. This paper expects to highlight the importance of lesser-studied Buddhist archaeological sites and the dynamic views on religious landscape in Early India with a help of critical anthropology of religion.

Keywords: analogy by living traditions, Buddhism in Early India, landscape analysis, meta-narrative

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