Are We Doing Kindergarten All Wrong?

Kindergarten within the American educational system little resembles the original ideals of its founder, Friedrich Froebel (Muelle, 2013). As our society embraces the “more is better” mantra, this ideal is seeping into our educational system, and most notably into our kindergarten classrooms. As academic kindergartens replace social-centered kindergartens, the teaching of mathematical and grammatical concepts has resulted in the loss of free play and exploration therefore changing the whole kindergarten landscape (Curwood, 2007). While the United States shifts to academic kindergartens, there is an equally notable shift in Finland that is revolutionizing kindergarten in its devotion to kindergartens’ original intentions: social imitation, learning through expression, and systemized play

Roots of Stability: Arab Civil-Military Relations During Times of Political Crisis

Militaries generally play a vital role in the survival of states, neutralizing both domestic and foreign threats. In addition, during moments of political crisis when political institutions and processes break down, militaries play an integral part of a particular regime’s survival. Each chapter of this study analyzes a critical component of military decision-making and regime survival in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Jordan is the central case study for each chapter. Through the collection of data from interviews with security personnel in Jordan, this study offers an in-depth investigation of civil-military relations in the MENA region. There is a shortage of research on this topic, and this study seeks to fill the gaps in important places in the political science literature. In order to fill these gaps, this study begins by establishing a new and alternative approach to understanding security decision-making called the identity-rationalist model. This new model incorporates notions of identity into cost-benefit analysis. Then the study tests hypotheses on military loyalty, finding that integration of the military into the political economy of a country has the greatest explanatory power for military defection. Finally, this study gives a detailed exploration of Jordanian intelligence services to understand why the institutions are effective at maintaining state stability despite the volatility of the MENA region. Together the three core chapters each contribute to the literature on civil-military relations and understanding the complexity of security forces in the Arab world

The relationship of alignment hyperacuity to stereopsis

The term alignment hyperacuity , a monocularly measured entity, is functionally described as the ability to detect an alignment of two points in space. It produces spatial thresholds usually 8 to 13 arc seconds of visual angle, which is smaller than those expected given the relatively large receptor density of the human retina. It has not been firmly established whether or not alignment hyperacuity performance is related to threshold stereopsis. This study examines the correlation between threshold stereoacuity and the sum of right and left eyes\u27 monocular alignment detection hyperacuity measures. Twenty-one subjects were evaluated measuring threshold stereoacuity with the Mentor BVAT II and monocular alignment hyperacuity with software designed at Pacific University College of Optometry. This study indicates that the sum of each eyes\u27 alignment hyperacuity data should be equal to or slightly less sensitive (greater value) than an individual\u27s threshold stereoacuity. The lack of valid baseline knowledge about alignment detection hyperacuity and its relation to threshold stereopsis may be withholding optometric practitioners from understanding and/or testing certain aspects of alignment hyperacuity that might be of importance clinically including unexplained asthenopia, monitoring improvements in amblyopic therapy, and predicting potential stereoacuity in anti-strabismic treatment

Lightning Round: Not Quite Crowdsourcing

Like the idea of crowdsourcing but not sure it\u27s right for you? Are you able to digitize materials but need more help preparing files for access? Wish you had a volunteer program to let folks work directly with your collections? ME TOO, and I’ve got something that just might help you out.In this lightning session, I\u27ll walk you through a volunteer program at the Minnesota Historical Society that is designed to be flexible, affordable, and move terabytes of unprocessed scans to fully-indexed online access. We’ll talk about digitization partnerships, image processing, metadata and indexing, quality control, access platforms, working with volunteers, process improvement, and more

The Development and Evaluation of a Novel Thoracoscopic Diaphragmatic Hernia Repair Simulator

Background: Thoracoscopic diaphragmatic hernia (DH) repair has a high recurrence rate. Effective simulation modeling may improve technical performance for thoracoscopic DH repair. The study purpose was to evaluate measures of validity evidence for a low-cost thoracoscopic DH simulator. Materials and Methods: Synthetic diaphragm/intestine was connected to a to-scale left-sided neonatal rib cage and then covered with synthetic skin. Forty participants evaluated the DH repair simulator, using survey ratings that were analyzed for test content and internal structure validity evidence. Results: Observed averages (on a scale of 0?5) for the domains were 4.6 for Relevance, 4.5 for Value, 4.3 for Physical attributes, 4.0 for Realism of experience, 3.8 for Realism of materials, and 4.2 for Ability to perform. The highest observed averages were ?relevance to practice? and ?value, testing tool,? whereas the lowest ratings were realism, intestines and realism, diaphragm. The observed average of global opinion ratings was 2.84/4.0, indicating the simulator can be considered for teaching thoracoscopic DH repair but could be improved. Experienced surgeons (more than eight DH repairs, at least four thoracoscopic repairs) had higher overall ratings than inexperienced surgeons (4.4 versus 4.1, P=.001). Conclusions: We successfully created a thoracic space relevant to a thoracoscopic DH repair and completed the model using inexpensive, readily accessible materials. After participants performed a simulated thoracoscopic DH repair, their ratings indicated the simulator was relevant to clinical practice and valuable as a learning tool but still requires improvements. Improvements and additional evaluation of validity evidence (content, internal structure, response processes, and relationship to other variables) are necessary prior to full implementation of this model as an educational tool.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140147/1/lap.2013.0196.pd