Play Behaviors of Young Children with and without Expressive Language Delay: An Exploratory Study

The association between language and play development during the early years of children’s lives is important as tremendous growth in development occurs in both at this time. Literature has suggested that if children have less developed language abilities, they may also have less developed play skills. The aim of the current exploratory study was to observe and categorize children’s play behavior using a comprehensive play assessment tool. This tool, the Play in Early Childhood Evaluation System (PIECES) coding scheme developed by Kelly-Vance and Ryalls (2005, 2014), provides information on differences in percentage of time in exploratory, simple pretend, and complex pretend play, highest levels of play behavior observed, and dimensions of social play. For the present exploratory study, six young children, three with and three without language delay, were matched in dyads. The six children ranging in age from 24-31 months. Using videotaped 40-minute play observations of each child during free play with a parent, researchers coded the play behaviors of each child using the PIECES coding scheme and interpreted findings accordingly. In two of the three participant dyads, participants with language delay spent more time in exploratory play and less time in pretend play compared to their counterparts without language delay. However, two out of the three participants had the same highest level of play as their matched peer. Participants with language delay demonstrated a lower percentage of play initiation than participants with no language delay. These results, although limited in generalization to only the participants of the study, suggest support of the positive association between play and language of young children and warrant further investigation. Additionally, this study offers a description of a play assessment approach that could be utilized with a larger participant cohort to extend this line of research as researchers continue to determine the appropriate role of play in assessment and intervention for young children with language delay

National and State Economic and Environmental Impacts of NETL

This report documents the development of state-level input-output models for Pennsylvania and West Virginia and the augmentation of the national input-output model with employment data. The models were developed to assess the economic and environmental impacts of expenditures and employment at, and research and development awards originating from, the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) sites located in Pittsburgh, PA and Morgantown, WV

World squid fisheries

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Building a Personal Protective Equipment Monitor Team as Part of a Comprehensive COVID-19 Prevention Strategy

We instituted Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Monitors as part of our care of COVID-19 patients in high-risk zones. PPE Monitors aided healthcare personnel (HCP) in donning and doffing, which contributed to nearly zero transmission of COVID-19 to HCP, despite their care of over 1400 COVID-19 patients

Management for sustainable cephalopod fisheries in Europe: review and recommendations

Although cephalopod fisheries are of world-wide importance, in Europe catching cephalopods is managed only in small-scale fisheries, at national level, and few stocks are formally assessed. Because cephalopods are not quota species under the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, there is currently no requirement for assessment or management at European level. Given increasing interest in targeting cephalopods in Europe, there is a risk that they will be fished unsustainably. Although there have been recent review papers on progress in stock assessment and fishery forecasting for commercially fished cephalopods there has been no recent review of cephalopod fishery management. We aim to fill this gap, with a particular focus on European cephalopod fisheries.We review potential barriers to sustainable fishing and reasons why management of cephalopod fisheries differs from that for finfish fisheries, e.g. due to the high inherent volatility and the possibly cyclic nature of year-to-year variation in cephalopod abundance, reflecting their short lifespan, rapid growth and high sensitivity to environmental conditions. We review fishery management approaches in important cephalopod fisheries worldwide (e.g. in the USA, Japan, Falklands, South Africa, Australia and Russia) and current management of small-scale cephalopod fisheries in Europe. We identify knowledge gaps and limitations to current monitoring programmes and stock assessments and discuss the options available for cephalopod fishery management in Europe, considering the suitability or otherwise of catch and effort limits, use of closed areas and seasons, restrictions on sizes caught and types of fishing gear, and the ole of market-based sustainability pathways.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Le Forum, Vol. 45 #4

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/francoamericain_forum/1109/thumbnail.jp

Ecological-Fishery Forecasting of Squid Stock Dynamics under Climate Variability and Change: Review, Challenges, and Recommendations

World Fisheries Congress 2021 (WFC), 20-24 September, onlineN

Effects of Climate Variability and Change on the Population Dynamics of Cephalopods and a Predictive and Forecast Framework to Inform Fisheries Management

AFS Global Conference, 22-23 October 2020, onlineN