The role of book features in young children's transfer of information from picture books to real-world contexts

Picture books are an important source of new language, concepts, and lessons for young children. A large body of research has documented the nature of parent-child interactions during shared book reading. A new body of research has begun to investigate the features of picture books that support children's learning and transfer of that information to the real world. In this paper, we discuss how children's symbolic development, analogical reasoning, and reasoning about fantasy may constrain their ability to take away content information from picture books. We then review the nascent body of findings that has focused on the impact of picture book features on children's learning and transfer of words and letters, science concepts, problem solutions, and morals from picture books. In each domain of learning we discuss how children's development may interact with book features to impact their learning. We conclude that children's ability to learn and transfer content from picture books can be disrupted by some book features and research should directly examine the interaction between children's developing abilities and book characteristics on children's learning. © 2018 Strouse, Nyhout and Ganea

Literary Theories of Circumcision

“Literary Theories of Circumcision” investigates a school of thought in which the prepuce, as a conceptual metaphor, organizes literary experience. In every period of English literature, major authors have employed the penis’s hood as a figure for thinking about reading and writing. These authors belong to a tradition that defines textuality as a foreskin and interpretation as circumcision. In “Literary Theories of Circumcision,” I investigate the origins of this literary-theoretical formulation in the writings of Saint Paul, and then I trace this formulation’s formal applications among medieval, early modern, and modernist writers. My study lays the groundwork for an ambitious reappraisal of English literary history, challenging the received understanding of pre-modern literary theory’s sexual politics. Whereas feminist medievalists have emphasized the heteronormative valence of pre-modern literary theory, this study demonstrates that, within the school of preputial poetics, the male anatomy queerly embodies the plasticity and multiplicity of rhetoric. I also argue for the necessity of thinking about post-medieval literature from a pre-modern theological framework that, in its spiritual orientation and in its use of genital metaphors, sidesteps the discourses of identity and sexuality that often have preoccupied queer theorists. Chapter 1 examines how, in response to Paul’s teachings about circumcision, early Christian theologians used the foreskin as a key term for theorizing allegory and for using allegoresis to appropriate pagan philosophy. Chapter 2 examines how Paul’s metaphor developed into a conceit, by which the foreskin came to structure attitudes toward various rhetorical devices (especially allegory, concision, and witticism, as well as marriage plots). Chapter 3 examines how monastic applications of the trope changed in response to the rise of medieval humanism, so that rhetorical circumcision governed the negotiation between doctrine and liberal learning, especially as this negotiation interrelated with shifting modes of masculinity. Chapter 4 tracks the vernacularization of theological constructions of the literary-theoretical foreskin: I argue that a literary theory of the foreskin structures the narrative trajectory of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as the poem’s protagonist ventures from a literal to an allegorical perspective. I argue that the narratological “circumcision” of the poem’s textual body aligns the genre of the Arthurian romance with the more explicitly religious material of the rest of the Gawain manuscript. Chapter 5 considers how theological constructions of marriage-as-uncircumcision shape the narrative trajectory of “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” especially as that poem’s protagonist ventures from a literal to an allegorical perspective. I argue that the Wife stages a “circumcision” of the flesh of marriage in order to promote the spiritual aspect of conjugal matrimony. Chapter 6 surveys the metaphor’s uses among Puritans, arguing that Puritan attacks upon the Renaissance theater as “uncircumcised” can provide a framework for understanding how Measure for Measure and Merchant of Venice intertwine marriage plots with threats from overly literal antagonists (Puritan Angelo and Jewish Shylock). The study’s Coda examines uses of the trope by Pound and Williams, who reflect upon modernism by redefining Paul’s theories of circumcision

School climate, emotions, and relationships : children’s experiences of well-being in the Midwestern U.S.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore children’s perceptions of school relationships, and the ways in which those relationships supported or undermined children’s emotional well-being (EWB). This sub-study of a multinational comparative investigation of children’s well-being followed a semi-structured qualitative interview protocol. Rural and urban children (age 8 to 13, N = 23) from the Midwestern U.S. completed the interview and mapping exercise used to explore aspects of and influences on their subjective well-being (including school). Phenomenological analyses of interview transcripts focused on 1) the essence of children’s EWB (including emotional valence and arousal) within the context of school relationships and 2) children’s perception of the impact of school relationships on their EWB. A seasonal metaphor captured the essence of children’s experiences of EWB, which naturally clustered into four themes based on emotional intensity and valance: spring, summer, fall, and winter. Children’s emotional experiences with teachers and peers were similarly represented in the themes, with the exception of winter emotions, which diverged. Children expressed complex, multilayered emotions within the school setting that were connected to the quality of school relationships. Findings are discussed in the context of improving school relationships and climate to support children’s EWB.peer-reviewe

Cystic mesothelioma of the testis in an adolescent patient.

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135297/1/jum2000196423.pd

Let’s Chat: On-Screen Social Responsiveness Is Not Sufficient to Support Toddlers’ Word Learning From Video

Joint engagement with a speaker is one cue children may use to establish that an interaction is relevant to them and worthy of attention. People on pre-recorded video cannot engage contingently with a viewer in shared experiences, possibly leading to deficits in learning from video relative to learning from responsive face-to-face encounters. One hundred and seventy-six toddlers (24 and 30 months old) were offered referential social cues disambiguating a novel word’s meaning in one of four conditions: responsive live (a speaker was present and engaged with children); unresponsive video (a speaker on video looked at the camera and smiled at scripted times); unresponsive live (although present, the speaker behaved as she did on the unresponsive video), and responsive video (a speaker on closed-circuit video engaged with children, as in video chat). Children of both ages reliably learned the word in the responsive live condition, and older children (30 months) learned in the unresponsive live condition. Neither group learned in the responsive or unresponsive video conditions. The results show that the addition of communicative social cues to the video presentation via video chat was not sufficient to support learning in this case. Rather, toddlers’ transfer and generalization of words presented on video chat may depend on other contextual factors, such as co-viewers who scaffold their learning. Live, responsive video as implemented in this and prior studies is compared, with implications for the use of video chat via the Internet with young children

Proliferation of genetically modified human cells on electrospun nanofiber scaffolds.

Gene editing is a process by which single base mutations can be corrected, in the context of the chromosome, using single-stranded oligodeoxynucleotides (ssODNs). The survival and proliferation of the corrected cells bearing modified genes, however, are impeded by a phenomenon known as reduced proliferation phenotype (RPP); this is a barrier to practical implementation. To overcome the RPP problem, we utilized nanofiber scaffolds as templates on which modified cells were allowed to recover, grow, and expand after gene editing. Here, we present evidence that some HCT116-19, bearing an integrated, mutated enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) gene and corrected by gene editing, proliferate on polylysine or fibronectin-coated polycaprolactone (PCL) nanofiber scaffolds. In contrast, no cells from the same reaction protocol plated on both regular dish surfaces and polylysine (or fibronectin)-coated dish surfaces proliferate. Therefore, growing genetically modified (edited) cells on electrospun nanofiber scaffolds promotes the reversal of the RPP and increases the potential of gene editing as an ex vivo gene therapy application.Molecular Therapy - Nucleic Acids (2012) 1, e59; doi:10.1038/mtna.2012.51; published online 4 December 2012

Antenatal sonographic findings of fetal adrenal hemorrhage

No Abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/38199/1/1870230710_ftp.pd

CT appearance of the spleen following conservative management of traumatic injury

Objective: To describe the long-term changes in the traumatized spleen following conservative management in pediatric patients. Methods: Between 1991 and 1997, 92 children were imaged with splenic trauma. The study population includes the 25 boys and 11 girls with follow-up computed tomography (CT) imaging at our institution. The follow-up CT studies were evaluated to determine the evolution of splenic injury. Results: On initial CT there were 6 grade I, 12 grade II, 9 grade III, and 9 grade IV–V splenic injuries. In follow-up 11 spleens were normal (30 %), including at least one in each grade of severity of injury. Splenic abnormalities were identified on follow-up in 25 children. These findings comprised clefts in 8 children, small cysts in 4, and devascularized segments involving less than 1 cm 3 in 6, 1–2 cm 3 in 2, and 2–4 cm 3 in 5 children. Conclusions: All grades of splenic injury can resolve completely on subsequent CT imaging. In this series 30 % of patients had a normal follow-up CT. The most common persistent abnormalities included clefts and devascularized areas less than 4 cm 3 .Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/42349/1/10140-6-3-157_90060157.pd