Effective Early Childhood Education Programmes : A Systematic Review

This report systematically reviews research on the outcomes of programmes that teach young children in a group setting before they begin reception. Study inclusion criteria included use of randomised or matched control groups, evidence of initial equality, and study duration of at least 12 weeks. Studies included valid measures of language, literacy, phonological awareness, mathematical, and/or cognitive outcomes that were independent of the experimental treatments. A total of 38 studies evaluating 27 different programmes met these criteria for outcomes assessed at the end of preschool and/or reception/kindergarten. The review concludes that on academic outcomes at the end of preschool and/or reception, 6 early childhood programmes showed strong evidence of effectiveness and 5 had moderate evidence of effectiveness. Of the 27 programmes reviewed, 7 are available for implementation in the UK. A few longitudinal studies have followed their subjects into secondary school, and even adulthood. These studies show that comprehensive programmes focused broadly on cognitive development rather than solely academic skills had better long-term effects on social adjustment outcomes such as reductions in delinquency, welfare dependency, and teenage pregnancy, and increases in educational and employment levels

Mitochondrial genetic structure of two populations of Uca urugayensis fails to reveal an impact of the Rio de la Plata on gene flow

The Rio de la Plata. located between Uruguay and Argentina, generates a tremendous freshwater influx from the estuary into the coastal sea. It is thus suggested to constitute a biogeographic barrier for many taxa exhibiting a marine planktonic larval dispersal. However, evidence for corresponding intraspecific dispersal constraint has yet to be provided. We compared mitochondrial haplotypes of ten individuals for each of two populations of Uca (Leptuca) uruguayensis north and south of the estuary to examine the potential effect of the Rio de la Plata on the species' distribution. The populations are separated by nearly 2,000 km and were collected in São Paulo State (Brazil) and Mar Chiquita (Argentina). We found no significant indication for restricted gene flow between them, based on 823 basepairs of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene. The structure of the corresponding haplotype network and the estimated nucleotide diversities, however, suggest that the Argentinean population is genetically more diverse than the one from Brazil. In order to establish possible significant differences in haplotype distribution, further research including more populations and larger sample sizes will be necessary

Site Amplification at Permanent Stations in Northeastern Italy

The application of earthquake recordings to the estimation of an event’s magnitude and the construction of rapid-response ground-motion maps requires an adequate classification of the recording stations in terms of their site response. For permanent stations, this information can be obtained from a sufficiently large database of past recordings.In this work, we analyze more than 7300 three-component recordings collected between 1996 and 2017 by 67 permanent stations in northeastern Italy to assess their site amplification. The signals come from 368 earthquakes with a magnitude range of M 3.2–5.8 and a distance range of 10–300 km. We evaluate the frequency-dependent amplification function with respect to a reference station with a flat seismic noise horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio. The evaluation relies on the decomposition of the S-wave amplitude spectra in terms of source, propagation, and site response. We solve the decomposition with a nonparametric, single-step generalized inversion in the frequency band 0.5–20 Hz. In addition, we compute the amplification factors for peak ground acceleration and velocity with respect to a well-established ground-motion prediction equation. The results highlight that only 11 stations show a relatively flat unitary response with respect to the reference site, whereas the frequency-averaged amplification function at 23 out of 67 stations exhibits a value larger than 2. We classified the sites according to their surface geology and geo-morphological scenario and found that amplification affects not only stations installed on the alluvial soil but also several stations installed on what are assumed to be rock sites. Sites in caves and mines exhibit deamplification, whereas the stations with sensors in bore-holes exhibit the typical interference pattern. A good correlation between the amplifica tion factors and the frequency-averaged amplification functions suggests the possibility of predicting time-domain peak ground-motion values from amplification functions estimated by generalized inversion

Site response estimation in the Vittorio Veneto area (NE Italy). Part 2: mapping the local seismic effects in the urban settlement

Linear site-specific response spectra for seismic design are defined in the urban area of Vittorio Veneto (NE Italy) on the basis of the results provided by geological studies, some geophysical surveys and numerical modelling. The geological survey and the analysis of the collected stratigraphies located in the Vittorio Veneto basin allowed us to characterize four soil-types. Geophysical surveys consist of seismic noise horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio analysis (HVSR), seismic site response estimated from earthquake records, S-wave measurements from surface wave dispersion analysis and inversion, and S-wave velocity from borehole and down-hole measurements. In addition, a 2-D spectral element method (SPEM 2D) numerical modelling of the M=5.8, 1936 Cansiglio earthquake was performed along a transect crossing the centre of Vittorio Veneto in order to assess the influence of the geological structure on the seismic response of the basin. The procedure followed to define the distribution of the soil types across the area, the local response spectra and the soil amplification factors is: 1) soil class identification and definition of the maximum value of the soil factor (Smax), according to EC8; 2) computation of the amplification coefficients (Sa) from earthquake and normalized HVSR mean amplitude; 3) zonation of the area into EC8 ground types, with associated elastic response spectra. Since the earthquake dataset includes only weak events, this study provides only site response estimates for the linear behaviour. The proposed site response map identifies three narrow zones of quite high amplification, characterized by C type soils, in Serravalle Vecchia, Vittorio Veneto centre, and Ceneda