The Effects of Toys, Prompts, and Flotation Devices on the Learning of Water Orientation Skills for Preschoolers with or without Developmental Delays

The work of children is play; and in that work, toys can be used to educate, provide enjoyment and help build the foundation of social skills. One of the guidelines from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) regarding developmentally appropriate practice is that children learn through interacting with their environment. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of toys, prompts, and flotation devices on the learning of water orientation skills for preschoolers with or without developmental delays. The 42 participants (ages 3 - 5 yr., male/female) were volunteers from a community preschool aquatics program. They were pre- and posttested with the Water Orientation Skills Checklist - Advanced (WOC-A) developed by Killan, Arena-Ronde, and Bruno (1987). The children were recruited to either the control-19 or intervention- 23 groups. The children received swimming lessons for 4 weeks, 30 minutes twice a week. The control group lessons consisted of demonstration and practice and the intervention group lessons consisted of environmental arrangements enhanced with toys, prompts, and flotation devices. The data were analyzed with the Mann-Whitney U test for nonparametric statistics. The findings demonstrated that with the Mann-Whitney z score of .33 at the .05 level, the toys, prompts, and flotation devices did not significantly enhance the preschoolers\u27 learning of water orientation skills. An important finding, however, is that while the toys, prompts, and flotation devices did not enhance water skills, they also did not hinder the learning of swimming skills, as both groups\u27 mean score of improvement was 11 points

Rethinking Justice in Massachusetts: Public Attitudes Toward Crime and Punishment

Presents results from a public opinion survey about the sharp increase in the incarcerated population in Massachusetts and about current strategies for reintegrating ex-offenders who have been released into the community

Bats of Missouri : information for homeowners (2003)

This publication provides some answers for Missouri homeowners on managing bat problems. It also provides information on how to attract bats to your property.New 9/93, Revised 8/03/5M

Saving Cultural Heritage with Digital Make-Believe: Machine Learning and Digital Techniques to the Rescue

The application of digital methods for content-based curation and dissemination of cultural heritage data offers unique advantages for physical sites at risk of damage. In areas affected by 2011 Arab spring, digital may be the only approach to create believable cultural experiences. We propose a framework incorporating computational methods such as: digital image processing, multi-lingual text analysis, and 3D modelling, to facilitate enhanced data archive, federated search, and analysis. Potential use cases include experiential search, damage assessment, virtual site reconstruction, and provision of augmented information for education and cultural preservation. This paper presents initial findings from an empirical evaluation of existing scene classification methods, applied to detection of cultural heritage sites in the Palmyra region. Results indicate that deep learning offers an appropriate solution to semantic annotation of publicly available cultural heritage image data

Characteristics of Effective GSS Facilitators

As businesses increase their use of groups to solve problems, the importance of strong group facilitation skills has increased. This paper investigates the characteristics of high-performing group facilitators versus low-performing group facilitators. The characteristics investigated represent two broad areas of interest: general facilitator background and skills possessed by the facilitator. The facilitator background factors that proved to be good predictors of high performance included: overall experience and number of computer-supported meeting facilitated. The skills possessed by high performers included: plans and designs meetings, demonstrates flexibility, and listens to, clarifies, and integrates information. The analysis provides a rule for accurately predicting whether a facilitator is a high-performer or a low-performer more than 77% of the time

Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 Induces Lipid Production in Human SEB-1 Sebocytes Via Sterol Response Element-Binding Protein-1

An understanding of the molecular signaling involved in sebaceous gland lipid production is needed to develop therapeutic targets to improve acne. Treatment with methylisobutylxanthine, dexamethasone, and a high dose of insulin (MDI) has been shown to differentiate 3T3-L1 preadipocytes into adipocytes, a differentiation marked by an increase in lipid production. The present study has the following aims: (1) Since high doses of insulin, as found in MDI, will activate the IGF-1 receptor, we sought to determine if IGF-1 is capable of reproducing the lipogenic effect seen with MDI treatment, and (2) to determine if the sterol response element-binding protein-1 (SREBP-1) pathway mediates the increase in lipogenesis. Here we report that MDI increases lipogenesis and that this effect can be attributed wholly to the high-dose insulin in SEB-1 cells. Further, we show that a physiologically relevant dose of IGF-1 or high-dose (1μm) insulin induces an increase in SREBP-1 mRNA, protein, and total lipid production; while 100nm insulin induces lipogenesis yet the SREBP protein levels remain unchanged. These data indicate that activation of the IGF-1 receptor increases lipogenesis in SEB-1 cells through both SREBP-dependent and SREBP-independent pathways