A Randomized Trial Examining the Effects of Parent Engagement on Early Language and Literacy: The Getting Ready Intervention

Language and literacy skills established during early childhood are critical for later school success. Parental engagement with children has been linked to a number of adaptive characteristics in preschoolers including language and literacy development, and family-school collaboration is an important contributor to school readiness. This study reports the results of a randomized trial of a parent engagement intervention designed to facilitate school readiness among disadvantaged preschool children, with a particular focus on language and literacy development. Participants included 217 children, 211 parents, and 29 Head Start teachers in 21 schools. Statistically significant differences in favor of the treatment group were observed between treatment and control participants in the rate of change over 2 academic years on teacher reports of children’s language use (d = 1.11), reading (d = 1.25), and writing skills (d = .93). Significant intervention effects on children’s direct measures of expressive language were identified for a subgroup of cases where there were concerns about a child’s development upon entry into preschool. Additionally, other child and family moderators revealed specific variables that influenced the treatment’s effects

Empirical Study of Financing Barriers to Women Entrepreneurship in the state of Alabama

Entrepreneurship has attracted the attention of many and is seen as the economic engine that has the potential to deliver future job growth. Because of this potential it is crucial to identify what drives entrepreneurship. Extant literature has focused on entrepreneurial wealth-sufficient collateral-as a liquidity constraint hindering small business capitalization. Our study empirically investigates the expected linkage between personal wealth constraints and intention to start a business for women entrepreneurs in the state of Alabama. Further we examine the effect of availability of public financing support mechanisms on women entrepreneurship in the state of Alabama. Our results from a survey of 1200 women intending to start a business in Alabama reveal that presence of public financing programs can mitigate the lack of personal wealth and liquidity constraints that thwart business start-ups. We conclude our study with implications for women entrepreneurs, policy makers and for future research

Late Neolithic Settlement in Wadi Ziqlab, Jordan: al-Basatîn

Research in Wadi Ziqlab, Northern Jordan, has focused on the discovery and excavation of Late Neolithic sites in an attempt to understand its regional settlement system in the sixth millennium cal. BC. Previous evidence suggested that small hamlets or farmsteads may have characterized this settlement system, as represented at Tabaqat al-Bûma. Recent excavations at a site downstream, al-Basatîn, have revealed evidence for a settlement that was partly contemporary with Tabaqat al-Bûma and shared much of its material culture, but seems to have been markedly different in character. Whether for seasonal or some other reasons, its architecture as currently understood consisted of stone platforms and possibly tents, rather than the substantial houses found at the other site. Toward the end of the sixth millennium, like Tabaqat al-Bûma, it was abandoned, not to be reoccupied until Early Bronze I.Les recherches dans le Wadi Ziqlab (Jordanie) ont porté sur la découverte et la fouille de sites du Néolithique récent afin de comprendre le système régional d’implantation des sites au sixième millénaire cal. av. J.-C. Si les recherches précédentes ont suggéré que de petits hameaux ou fermes caractérisaient ce système, ainsi que l’illustre l’exemple de Tabaqat al-Bûma, les fouilles récentes du site d’al-Basatîn, localisé en aval, ont mis en évidence une occupation partiellement contemporaine de Tabaqat al-Bûma. Malgré les fortes similitudes de la culture matérielle avec celle de ce dernier site, al-Basatîn semble d’un caractère différent. Que ce soit pour des raisons saisonnières ou autres, son architecture, telle qu’elle est actuellement comprise, était constituée de plateformes en pierre et probablement de tentes, plutôt que de maisons véritables, comme celles connues à Tabaqat al-Bûma. Vers la fin du sixième millénaire, le site, à l’instar de Tabaqat al-Bûma, a été abandonné, puis réoccupé à partir du Bronze Ancien I.Kadowaki Seiji, Gibbs Kevin, Allentuck Adam, Banning Edward B. Late Neolithic Settlement in Wadi Ziqlab, Jordan: al-Basatîn. In: Paléorient, 2008, vol. 34, n°1. pp. 105-129

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An Update on Anti-thrombotic Therapy Following Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation: Expert Cardiologist Opinion from a UK and Ireland Delphi Group

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is an effective and established treatment for symptomatic aortic stenosis. However, there is a lack of consensus concerning the need for peri- and post-procedural anti-thrombotic medication. Contemporary guidelines recommend that anti-thrombotic therapy is balanced against a patient’s bleeding risk following TAVI, but do not fully consider the evolving evidence base. The purpose of the Delphi panel recommendations presented here is to provide a consensus elicited from a panel of experts who regularly prescribe anti-thrombotic therapy post-TAVI. The goal was to address evidence gaps across four key topics: anti-thrombotic therapy (anti-platelet and/or anti-coagulant) in TAVI patients in sinus rhythm; anti-thrombotic therapy in TAVI patients with AF; direct oral anti-coagulants versus vitamin K antagonists; and the need for UK/Ireland specific guidance. This consensus statement aims to inform clinical decision-making by providing a concise, evidence-based summary of best practice for prescribing anti-thrombotic therapies following TAVI and highlights areas where further research is needed

Introduction to Guitar Ethnographies: Performance, Technology and Material Culture.

Entangled in global cultural flows, but also held in place locally, empowered and agential, musical instruments resonate with social significance. The guitar is, perhaps, the example par excellence, yet it has received little attention within ethnomusicology. This Introduction sets out the theoretical and methodological framework informing the four case studies of the guitar that follow, and provides a relevant literature review. Based largely on deep immersive ethnography and prolonged study in the field, we have been especially influenced by publications in the areas of the ethnography of musical performance, material culture studies, organology, the anthropology of globalisation, and studies of the role of audio technologies in the production of music cultures. Each one of the articles represents a first for the study of the guitar. In two cases, local professional guitarists have a hand in writing the articles. Therefore, this Introduction and the articles that follow include semi-autobiographical detail as we take our guitars with us into ‘the field’ and further into the ever-broadening terrain covered by ethnomusicological studies. The case studies demonstrate the value of the authors' performance skills and knowledge of the instrument and its manufacture in providing an entrée into often-challenging and close-knit guitar worlds (e.g., workshops, retail outlets, backstage meet and greets, and recording studios). Yet local questions about the guitar often demand a larger context of study; for instance, in relation to processes of globalisation, nationalism and ethnicity, the location of the instrument within a wider web of sound technologies, the international trade in musical instruments and natural resources, and hybrid designs and performance techniques