Youth in Arts: Evidence of Effectiveness Their Music Program Has On Communication and Social Aspects of Students With Special Needs

Music education has an important place for students with special needs. Through the Youth in Arts program, student benefits range from social to academic. The problem is that too often music education, among arts programs, is not taught in special education classrooms. The purpose of this study is to measure the impact that music education has on students with special needs, focusing specifically on socialization and communication aspects. A review of the literature revealed that music is beneficial to students in a variety of ways, when they are provided the opportunity to engage in music education. Through this qualitative study, data are collected from teachers, Youth in Arts master teachers, and elementary school students, over a 10-week residency art program in a public elementary school in northern California. Key Words: music education, Youth in Arts, socialization, communication, special educatio

The Benefits of Music Education on Academic, Behavioral, and Communicative Skills with Middle School Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Music education has an important place for students with special needs. Through community based arts education programs, student benefits range from social to academic. The problem is that too often music education, among arts programs, is not taught in special education classrooms. The purpose of this study was to identify benefits that music education has on students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), focusing specifically on academic, behavioral, and communicative skills. A review of the literature revealed that music is beneficial to students in a variety of ways, when they are provided the opportunity to engage in music education. Through this qualitative study, data were collected from teachers, community based master teachers, and middle school students, over a 9-week residency art programs in a public elementary/middle school in Northern California. Preliminary findings identified that music education is beneficial to students with ASD in the areas of academics, behavior, and communicative skills. Key Words: music education, academics, behavior, communication, special education, Autism Spectrum Disorde

The art of place-making on Wurundjeri Country today

This thesis moves through an old stony part of south-east Australia where Merri Creek trickles along a crack in the hardened urbanised lava flow of Melbourne’s north. I connect as a non- Indigenous woman with the First Nations Wurundjeri people here. Together we acknowledge Wurundjeri Country in the thesis through its fragmented grasslands, valleys and the remnants of indigenous plants and animals including reedy Phragmites and elusive Golden Sun Moths. In Australia, ‘Country’ with a capital ‘C’, doesn’t simply refer to creeks, rocky outcrops, or hills in ‘landscape’ terms. Rather, ‘Country’ describes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ family origins and associations with particular places and embraces spiritual, physical, social and cultural connections. The thesis began in the contemporary contact zone from relationships between Merri Creek Management Committee where I work, and Wurundjeri Tribe Land Compensation and Cultural Heritage Council. This thesis was planned with the Wurundjeri people I worked with. Noticing the lack of published work about Wurundjeri Country today motivated some of us who were working together to shape the necessary intercultural agreements so I could address the issues carefully in this academic context. We designed the thesis as a storying of the things we saw, did and made that connected us to Wurundjeri Country. The overarching research question between us became: ‘How do we see, feel and identify Wurundjeri Country in a contact zone of cultural differences, in a largely urbanised place?’ The formal study positioned me as researcher and therefore created a different relationship for Wurundjeri people and me. As researcher, I had to sharpen my attention to colonisation, my non-Indigeneity, and concerns regarding representation and the risks involved, such as the production of deficit narratives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Within the developing thesis, I began to recognise how layers of volatility contained unexpected possibilities in a contact zone of differences, boundaries, and responsibilities. I have used a relational, emergent and decolonising approach to read the materiality of Country and its objects, creatures, rocks, bark, feathers, plants and ochre. The product is a ‘deep map’ of Wurundjeri Country that includes our various ‘makings’, including necklaces, bouquets, shields and skirts, and two recorded conversations with two Wurundjeri leaders. This is all expressed alongside my etchings, letter writing, and journaling. The emergent deep map is ‘a/r/tographic’ in the sense that it combines art, research, teaching, writing, talking, making, feeling, and learning (Springgay et al., 2005). The concept of ‘the art of place-making’ produces this contemporary deep map of Wurundjeri Country with its intercultural volatilities as well as the unpredictable qualities of making, talking, and remembering. Findings unfolded by constantly going to and fro with people, ideas, places, materials and sharing draft versions of the text. A commitment to motion and a multiplicity of methods is shown to be a vital part of ethical practice in the contact zone, a momentum which built rich exchanges here and is applicable to knowing Country at the cultural interface elsewhere in Australia. In all these ways, ‘antiphonal calling’ has become the signature of this thesis. While antiphonal calling ordinarily refers to vocalising between birds or interacting choirs, here, antiphonal calling lies within intercultural encounters, and with Country. My antiphonal methodology is relational geologically, ancestrally, archivally, contemporarily, and seasonally. The antiphonal prism calls between intercultural spaces to connect in multiple ways with the crying, singing, and feeling that continues to make Wurundjeri Country knowable today

Music Education and Its Impact on Students with Special Needs

Using music in a setting that includes students with special needs can have an effect on student communication and socialization. A review of the literature indicates that little is known about the effect of music on student\u27s academic performance and behavior. Overall the research indicates that using music in a classroom, particularly with children with special needs has a positive effect on communication and socialization. Additional studies are needed to document the effect of music on student learning

The Benefits of Music Education on Academic, Behavioral, and Communicative Skills with Middle School Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Music education has an important place for students with special needs. Through community based arts education programs, student benefits range from social to academic. The problem is that too often music education, among arts programs, is not taught in special education classrooms. The purpose of this study was to identify benefits that music education has on students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), focusing specifically on academic, behavioral, and communicative skills. A review of the literature revealed that music is beneficial to students in a variety of ways, when they are provided the opportunity to engage in music education. Through this qualitative study, data were collected from teachers, community based master teachers, and middle school students, over a 9-week residency art programs in a public elementary/middle school in Northern California. Results identified that music education is beneficial to students with ASD in the areas of academics, behavior, and communicative skills

The impact of regulation on market quality

This dissertation studies the impact of market structure changes on market efficiency and integrity. Thematically, it is concerned with the actual behaviour of market participants and their associated impact on key market variables such as the degree of liquidity, the size of trading costs, the quality of price discovery and the integrity of the market itself. The fundamental changes to the trading landscape brought about by fragmentation have significantly changed the way that many traders execute transactions. In light of the vast and complex changes that have recently occurred in markets, this thesis conducts an empirical investigation of these microstructure issues. These studies contribute to the understanding of modern markets, the health of which is integral for effective price discovery and liquidity provision. The four studies in this dissertation examine several key market microstructure issues, including: causes of the pre-bid price run-up ahead of takeover announcements; the impact high frequency trading has on market efficiency and integrity; and the effect of both the introduction and regulation of dark trading. The outcomes of these studies are comprehensively discussed and their contributions to the field are duly noted. Given the significant and rapid change occurring in current equity markets, the findings in this dissertation are relevant for market practitioners, exchange venue designers, and market regulators

The impact of regulation on market quality

This dissertation studies the impact of market structure changes on market efficiency and integrity. Thematically, it is concerned with the actual behaviour of market participants and their associated impact on key market variables such as the degree of liquidity, the size of trading costs, the quality of price discovery and the integrity of the market itself. The fundamental changes to the trading landscape brought about by fragmentation have significantly changed the way that many traders execute transactions. In light of the vast and complex changes that have recently occurred in markets, this thesis conducts an empirical investigation of these microstructure issues. These studies contribute to the understanding of modern markets, the health of which is integral for effective price discovery and liquidity provision. The four studies in this dissertation examine several key market microstructure issues, including: causes of the pre-bid price run-up ahead of takeover announcements; the impact high frequency trading has on market efficiency and integrity; and the effect of both the introduction and regulation of dark trading. The outcomes of these studies are comprehensively discussed and their contributions to the field are duly noted. Given the significant and rapid change occurring in current equity markets, the findings in this dissertation are relevant for market practitioners, exchange venue designers, and market regulators

Swift UVOT Grism Observations of Nearby Type Ia Supernovae - I. Observations and Data Reduction

Ultraviolet (UV) observations of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are useful tools for understanding progenitor systems and explosion physics. In particular, UV spectra of SNe Ia, which probe the outermost layers, are strongly affected by the progenitor metallicity. In this work, we present 120 Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory UV spectra of 39 nearby SNe Ia. This sample is the largest UV (lambda < 2900 A) spectroscopic sample of SNe Ia to date, doubling the number of UV spectra and tripling the number of SNe with UV spectra. The sample spans nearly the full range of SN Ia light-curve shapes (delta m(B) ~ 0.6-1.8 mag). The fast turnaround of Swift allows us to obtain UV spectra at very early times, with 13 out of 39 SNe having their first spectra observed >~ 1 week before peak brightness and the earliest epoch being 16.5 days before peak brightness. The slitless design of the Swift UV grism complicates the data reduction, which requires separating SN light from underlying host-galaxy light and occasional overlapping stellar light. We present a new data-reduction procedure to mitigate these issues, producing spectra that are significantly improved over those of standard methods. For a subset of the spectra we have nearly simultaneous Hubble Space Telescope UV spectra; the Swift spectra are consistent with these comparison data.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

NALNET book system: Cost benefit study

The goals of the NASA's library network system, NALNET, the functions of the current book system, the products and services of a book system required by NASA Center libraries, and the characteristics of a system that would best supply those products and services were assessed. Emphasis was placed on determining the most cost effective means of meeting NASA's requirements for an automated book system. Various operating modes were examined including the current STIMS file, the PUBFILE, developing software improvements for products as appropriate to the Center needs, and obtaining cataloging and products from the bibliographic utilities including at least OCLC, RLIN, BNA, and STIF. It is recommended that NALNET operate under the STIMS file mode and obtain cataloging and products from the bibliographic utilities. The recommendations are based on the premise that given the current state of the art in library automation it is not cost effective for NASA to maintain a full range of cataloging services on its own system. The bibliographic utilities can support higher quality systems with a greater range of services at a lower total cost