Preschool Educators\u27 Instructional Practices of Bidirectional Literacy With Early Hebrew-English Learners

Effective implementation of early biliteracy instruction for heritage language learners is increasingly necessary in United States schools because of cultural diversity. Little is known about the optimal sequence of literacy instruction to emergent learners of English, along with Hebrew as a foreign language. The purpose of this study was to investigate preschool educators’ perceptions concerning simultaneous or sequential instructional strategies when teaching dual bidirectional alphabetic codes of English and Hebrew to English-speaking emergent literacy learners in Hebrew days schools. Sweller’s cognitive load theory guided this study. The research questions addressed perceptions concerning instructional strategies of preschool educators who teach early literacy to Hebrew-English learners. Data were collected using semistructured interviews from a purposeful sampling of 12 preschool teachers and 9 preschool coordinators each with a minimum of 5 years of Hebrew day school experience. Content analysis using open and pattern coding was used to analyze the data related to the conceptual framework. The results of this study indicated that Hebrew day school administrators determine the sequence of biliteracy instruction based on cultural philosophy and external factors. Instructional practices, staffing, and environment were perceived to influence biliteracy acquisition. Sequential biliteracy instruction was perceived more favorably than simultaneous instruction, which requires strong, focused support to be effective. It is recommended that school administrators of Hebrew day schools be presented with these results. These findings suggest that school administrators have the potential to create positive social change by improving curriculum design and biliteracy acquisition for heritage language learners

A connectome and analysis of the adult Drosophila central brain

The neural circuits responsible for animal behavior remain largely unknown. We summarize new methods and present the circuitry of a large fraction of the brain of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Improved methods include new procedures to prepare, image, align, segment, find synapses in, and proofread such large data sets. We define cell types, refine computational compartments, and provide an exhaustive atlas of cell examples and types, many of them novel. We provide detailed circuits consisting of neurons and their chemical synapses for most of the central brain. We make the data public and simplify access, reducing the effort needed to answer circuit questions, and provide procedures linking the neurons defined by our analysis with genetic reagents. Biologically, we examine distributions of connection strengths, neural motifs on different scales, electrical consequences of compartmentalization, and evidence that maximizing packing density is an important criterion in the evolution of the fly’s brain

Efficient Learning Machines

Computer scienc

CEREBELLUM-SEEDED FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY CHANGES IN TRAIT-ANXIOUS INDIVIDUALS UNDERGOING ATTENTION BIAS MODIFICATION TRAINING

Anxiety and anxiety related disorders are increasing at a drastic rate in the past decade, with the NIMH reporting that 31.1% of U.S. adults will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives. Anxiety is commonly characterized by increased attention bias to threat. Attention Bias Modification (ABM) is a new treatment used to reduce individual’s attention bias towards threat. The extent to which ABM leads to underlying neural changes is still unknown. The cerebellum is a neglected brain structure, with new research provides evidence that cerebellum’s functional connectivity and shared networks with threat processing regions has a direct impact on anxiety etiology and symptomology. Therefore, the current study assessed functional connectivity changes seeded in cerebellum as an outcome of ABM training. The experiment consists of a 6-week ABM or control training period bookended by pre and post resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) sessions. Heightened trait anxiety was correlated with heightened connectivity from the cerebellum to threat processing regions. (i.e., the amygdala, ACC, and the thalamus). Decreased cerebellar connectivity to threat processing regions (i.e., the amygdala, ACC, and the thalamus) was observed following ABM training. This suggests that ABM may underly neural changes within the cerebellum—resulting in decreased attention bias. This also suggests the cerebellum may contribute to the etiology and maintenance of anxiety and attention bias. Limitations and future directions concerned with both ABM and the functional role of the cerebellum are discussed

First Annual Workshop on Space Operations Automation and Robotics (SOAR 87)

Several topics relative to automation and robotics technology are discussed. Automation of checkout, ground support, and logistics; automated software development; man-machine interfaces; neural networks; systems engineering and distributed/parallel processing architectures; and artificial intelligence/expert systems are among the topics covered