The Acceptance of Students with Physical Disabilities by Their Peers in Inclusive and Non-Inclusive Schools in Tehran

Objective: The present research determines the level of peer acceptance of students with physical disabilities in inclusive and non-inclusive schools. A number of studies which have sought to identify the influential factors in the success of inclusive education, have pointed out the acceptance of special need student by his/her regular peers to be a significant variable. Materials & Methods: This is a descriptive investigation. The instrument utilized was the Acceptance Scale (Voelts, 1980). The upper elementary level version that we were used consists of 34 items, two are general friendship items, two are veridicalite items, and the remaining items are acceptance items.Three response options are provided for each item,I agree, I disagree, and maybe. For such reliability, a Spearman-Brown corrected split-half reliability index of +.82 was reported, as well as an alpha coefficient of +.77. A test –retest stability coefficient of .68 was obtained by retesting a sample of 101 children on two occasions separated by three weeks. In Iran, with test retest on 72 students we got Reliability coefficient of .83. The sample includes 179 student boys and girls in grades three to five who had classmates with physical disability in their elementary schools in Tehran. This sample was randomly selected from each of the five different regions in the city of Tehran. In addition, for the purpose of comparison, a sample of fifty-five students in similar grades was studied in regular schools. The effect of gender and type of school (inclusive vs. non-inclusive) on students’ acceptance of a peer with physical disability all were assessed. Results: Results indicated that acceptance level is similar in boys and in girls in inclusive schools. The girl and boy students in inclusive schools demonstrated a significantly higher level of peer acceptance than their pupils in non-inclusive schools. This difference was much more noticeable in boy students. The lowest level of acceptance was found in the group of boy students in non-inclusive schools. Conclusion: As the results indicate, students with physical disabilities are much highly accepted by their peers in inclusive schools as compared with those in regular schools. This greater level of acceptance in inclusive schools could be reflective of the reality that the experience of contact and familiarity with a child who has a special need may encourage his/her feeling of being accepted by regular students. The limitations of this investigation and the overall scarcity of research in this area (in our country) points out more needs for further researches, specially in regard to appropriate interventions for enhancement of peer acceptance

Peer Acceptance of Students with Hearing Disorders in Inclusive and Non-Inclusive Schools

Objective: This study investigated the level of hearing disorder children’s acceptance by their peers in inlusive and non-inclusive schools in the city of Tehran. Materials & Methods: The sample in this study was 323 elementary school students in grades 3-5 from the schools in different regions of Tehran. These students were studying alongside their peers with mild hearing disability. Also for comparison this study used a sample of 65 students from non-inclusive (regular) schools. Level of acceptance was measured through the use of Acceptance Scale developed by Voeltz (1980). The major questions in this study were based on the impact of the following factors, gender and the type of schools attended by students (inclusive or non-inclusive). Results: The results indicated that in inclusive schools, boys level of acceptance were higher than that of the girls. Also a significantly lower level of acceptance was found in regular school students as compared with that found in inclusive schools. Conclusion: This finding led the investigators to conclude that the experience of inclusive education can lead to higher level of regular students’ acceptance towards special need students. Suggestions for future research are given in light of limitations of present research and the need for further understanding of the factors contributing to student acceptance in inclusive settings is emphasized

On the prediction of non-CG DNA methylation using machine learning

DNA methylation can be detected and measured using sequencing instruments after sodium bisulfite conversion, but experiments can be expensive for large eukaryotic genomes. Sequencing nonuniformity and mapping biases can leave parts of the genome with low or no coverage, thus hampering the ability of obtaining DNA methylation levels for all cytosines. To address these limitations, several computational methods have been proposed that can predict DNA methylation from the DNA sequence around the cytosine or from the methylation level of nearby cytosines. However, most of these methods are entirely focused on CG methylation in humans and other mammals. In this work, we study, for the first time, the problem of predicting cytosine methylation for CG, CHG and CHH contexts on six plant species, either from the DNA primary sequence around the cytosine or from the methylation levels of neighboring cytosines. In this framework, we also study the cross-species prediction problem and the cross-context prediction problem (within the same species). Finally, we show that providing gene and repeat annotations allows existing classifiers to significantly improve their prediction accuracy. We introduce a new classifier called AMPS (annotation-based methylation prediction from sequence) that takes advantage of genomic annotations to achieve higher accuracy

A Drug Repurposing Approach Reveals Targetable Epigenetic Pathways in Plasmodium vivax Hypnozoites.

Radical cure of Plasmodium vivax malaria must include elimination of quiescent "hypnozoite" forms in the liver; however, the only FDA-approved treatments are contraindicated in many vulnerable populations. To identify new drugs and drug targets, we screened the Repurposing, Focused Rescue, and Accelerated Medchem library against P. vivax liver stages and identified the DNA methyltransferase inhibitors hydralazine and cadralazine as active against hypnozoites. We then used bisulfite sequencing and immunostaining to identify cytosine modifications in the infectious stage (sporozoites) and liver stages, respectively. A subsequent screen of epigenetic inhibitors revealed hypnozoites are broadly sensitive to histone acetyltransferase and methyltransferase inhibitors, indicating that several epigenetic mechanisms are likely modulating hypnozoite persistence. Our data present an avenue for the discovery and development of improved radical cure antimalarials