Inclusion in the Middle School Science Classroom

Chief Justice, Earl Warren, in the Supreme Court decision Brown v. the Board of Education, stated that public education was foundational to good citizenship. Access, therefore, to public education should be upheld by all as a necessary part of development for tomorrow’s citizenry. However, segregation of developmentally challenged students existed well past this famous court decision. This thesis project discusses the impact of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, and subsequent legislation, as it bears on handicapped and disabled children’s access to public education in America. This year-long study examines the LRE (least restrictive educational) placement in the full inclusion classroom. Questions posed include: Is inclusion an effective way of meeting the educational and social needs of students with disabilities? Who are the actual beneficiaries of such a program? Methods of study include a partial review of the academic literature, as well as a case study following the academic and socio-emotional progress of two special education students and their teachers as first-time participants in an inclusion setting. The students in this study participated in a seventh grade life science inclusion class. In addition to interviews with the two students and a review of the cumulative education records, a survey of attitudes toward the inclusion program by all participating students was utilized to demonstrate the benefits of inclusion for all students. The study further describes how the seventh grade life science curriculum lends itself to the practice of inclusion, and the types of modifications made by the participating teachers to the curriculum and materials. Cooperative learning experiences and hands-on activities assisted the students in the case study to function as partners in the classroom. Conclusions drawn from this study support the improvement of student outcomes by inclusion in a general education setting, and of paramount importance, the strong collaboration of the participating teachers in planning and discussion of daily and long-range activities for the class which facilitated joint responsibility for the inclusion program\u27s success. Both academic and social improvements were noted

Nutraceutic Food: Testing The Consumer’s WTP for Sunflower PUFA Oil

Nutraceutical foods are supposed to procure medical or health benefits beyond the effects of nutrients compounds alone. However, few of them are accompanied by convincing health claims, as the response to nutraceutical components varies from subject to subject, depends on the concentration of bioactive components and their efficacy must be tested in repeated clinical trials. Many medical studies have proved the non-substitutable roles of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids (PUFA) in many biological and regulatory patterns. The purpose of this research is to test the consumers’ attitude to sunflower PUFA oil and their willingness to pay (WTP) a premium price for the quality of this nutraceutical food. The inference is based on the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) able to capture the complexity of credence quality of this nutraceutical oil to influence the customer decisions. A survey with “ad hoc” questionnaire using CASI technique was submitted to a sample of consumers located in the northeast region FVG in Italy. The results confirmed the two above hypotheses and suggested to frame the communication strategy according with claim regulation to strengthen the customization for PUFA sunflower oil

Il boom del Distretto del Prosecco: immagine dell'utilit\ue0 dell'inutile tra austerit\ue0 e ripresa

The industrial districts have given rise to a variety of biocultural paths, but in the post-industrial era these are continuously threatened by the trend towards product standardisation. Despite this, local districts are able to survive, albeit in a weakened state, with two possible effects: A) the risk of fading; B) the desirability of resilience. The Biocultural fingerprint of the Prosecco District (placed 3rd in the Intesa San Paolo ranking of Italian districts for 2008-2011) reveals that its clusters of municipalities are characterised by agricultural and eno-gastronomic excellence in both rural and urban contexts. Meanwhile, its tourist attractiveness index, owing to its lack of apparently "useless components" such as nature parks and protected areas, and cultural heritage, is relatively low. It follows that the marketing-image strategies devised for immediate profit appear to be insufficient at coping with the competition and ensuring a sustained level of development in the long term

The developmental pathways of preschool children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: communicative and social sequelae one year after treatment

Early childhood is considered to be a period of rapid development, with the acquisition of abilities predicting future positive school competences. Motor, cognitive, and social diculties related to cancer therapies heavily impact the development of children with cancer. This study focused on two main aims: To assess the developmental pathways of preschool children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia one year post-treatment and to compare these abilities both with those of a control group of healthy peers and with Italian norms. Forty-four children and their families, recruited through the Hematology-Oncologic Clinic of the Department of Child andWoman Health (University of Padua), agreed to participate in this study. The children\u2019s mean age was 4.52 years (SD = 0.94, range = 2.5\u20136 years), equally distributed by gender, all diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Matched healthy peers were recruited through pediatricians\u2019 ambulatories. Each family was interviewed adopting the Vineland adaptive behavior scales. Paired sampleWilcoxon tests revealed that children were reported to have significantly more developmental diculties than their healthy peers. When compared with Italian norms, they scored particularly low in verbal competence, social, and coping skills. No significant association was found between treatment variables and developmental abilities. These findings suggest that the creation of specialized interventions, both for parents and children, may fill the possible delays in children\u2019s development probably due to stress, lack of adequate stimulation, or dicult adaptation

Fusion PET-CT imaging of neurolymphomatosis

In a patient suffering from peripheral neuropathy due to neurolymphomatosis, fused PET-CT imaging, performed on a novel in-line PET-CT system, showed multiple small nodular lesions extending along the peripheral nerves corresponding to an early relapse of a transformed B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphom

Health-related quality of life in AYA cancer survivors who underwent HSCT compared with healthy peers

This\ue002study\ue002was\ue002aimed\ue002at\ue002comparing\ue002adolescent\ue002and\ue002young\ue002adult\ue002(AYA)\ue002Hematopoietic\ue002 Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) paediatric cancer survivors and a control group of healthy peers in terms of Health- Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) and frequency of posttraumatic\ue002stress\ue002symptoms\ue002(PTSS).\ue002The\ue002participants\ue002were\ue00232\ue002AYA\ue002HSCT\ue002survi- vors and 28 matched healthy peers. The survivors were, on average, 19.4 years old (SD = 3.8), with an average age of 8.1 years (SD = 4.3) at diagnosis, and with a mean time, since treatment was completed, of 8.5 years (SD = 3.2). The majority of survi- vors (78.1%) did not show clinical PTSS, with intrusion symptoms most frequently reported in those who had undergone autologous HSCT (F = 3.3; df = 2; p = 0.05) and relapse presence in their treatment associated with more PTSS avoidance symptoms (r = 0.4; p\ue002=\ue0020.002).\ue002Women\ue002reported\ue002more\ue002problems\ue002in\ue002the\ue002SF-\ue00236\ue002pain\ue002scale\ue002(t = 2.1; df = 31; p\ue002=\ue0020.04)\ue002than\ue002men.\ue002Additionally,\ue00287.5%\ue002of\ue002survivors\ue002fell\ue002below\ue002the\ue00225th\ue002per- centile\ue002in\ue002the\ue002SF-\ue00236\ue002general\ue002well-\ue002being\ue002scale,\ue002and\ue00270.8%\ue002had\ue002the\ue002same\ue002trend\ue002for\ue002the\ue002 SF-\ue00236\ue002fatigue\ue002scale.\ue002Survivors\ue002reported\ue002better\ue002emotional\ue002well-\ue002being\ue002(t\ue002=\ue0022.6,\ue002df = 27, p = 0.01) and fewer limitations than their healthy peers (t = 2.5, df = 27, p = 0.02), while they perceived a lower life satisfaction referring to the past (t\ue002=\ue002 122.8,\ue002df = 27, p = 0.009)

The complex relation between executive functions and language in preschoolers with developmental language disorders

Backgrounds: The relationship between linguistic difficulties and cognitive impairments in children with developmental language disorders (DLDs) is receiving growing interest in international research. Executive functions (EF) appear to be weak in these children. The current investigation aims at exploring the relationship between difficulties in two components of EF (i.e., updating and inhibition) and the linguistic and narrative skills of 16 DLD preschoolers matched with 24 typically developing peers. Methods: Updating skills were tested by administering the forward and backward digit recall subtests of the Wechsler Scales, while children\u2019s inhibition abilities were assessed by completion of Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment (NEPSY-II) inhibition tasks. Information on the linguistic skills of the participants was collected through a set of subtests included in the Batteria per la Valutazione del Linguaggio in bambini dai 4 ai 12 anni (Batteria per la Valutazione del Linguaggio; BVL_4-12), assessing articulatory and phonological discrimination skills, lexical production/comprehension, grammatical production/comprehension, and narrative production skills. Results: Findings revealed that DLD children performed significantly lower than their peers on both updating and inhibitory tasks. Linguistic difficulties were found in the DLD group on articulatory/phonological skills, grammatical production/comprehension, and lexical informativeness on narrative production. Measures of EF correlated with linguistic and narrative measures. Conclusion: The current study confirms a significant association between DLD\u2019s performances on EF and displayed linguistic skills, suggesting the need to include the assessment of executive functions to target early intervention rehabilitation programs for children with DLDs