scholarly journals Is the Letter ‘t’ in the Word ‘gourmet’? Disruption in Task-Evoked Connectivity Networks in Adults with Impaired Literacy Skills

NeuroSci ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-94
Author(s):  
Kulpreet Cheema ◽  
William E. Hodgetts ◽  
Jacqueline Cummine

Much work has been done to characterize domain-specific brain networks associated with reading, but very little work has been done with respect to spelling. Our aim was to characterize domain-specific spelling networks (SpNs) and domain-general resting state networks (RSNs) in adults with and without literacy impairments. Skilled and impaired adults were recruited from the University of Alberta. Participants completed three conditions of an in-scanner spelling task called a letter probe task (LPT). We found highly connected SpNs for both groups of individuals, albeit comparatively more connections for skilled (50) vs. impaired (43) readers. Notably, the SpNs did not correlate with spelling behaviour for either group. We also found relationships between SpNs and RSNs for both groups of individuals, this time with comparatively fewer connections for skilled (36) vs. impaired (53) readers. Finally, the RSNs did predict spelling performance in a limited manner for the skilled readers. These results advance our understanding of brain networks associated with spelling and add to the growing body of literature that describes the important and intricate connections between domain-specific networks and domain-general networks (i.e., resting states) in individuals with and without developmental disorders.

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyla Lee

Avokiddo. ABC Ride. Vers. 1.3.5. Apple App Store, https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/avokiddo-abc-ride/id827657068?mt=8 Suggested age range: 3-6Cost: $3.99 The alphabet is a crucial building block for reading and writing so it is important to have a variety of tools for teaching it. ABC Ride can be one such tool as it turns learning about the alphabet into an exciting adventure.  The game follows Avokiddo’s brother and sister duo, Beck and Bo, on a bike ride. Along the way, they come across puzzles which they must solve to unearth a particular letter. Instructions are delivered in creative alliteration such as “tie the tire to the tree”, which helps the child hear the sound the letter makes. After completing the puzzle, cheerful music plays to indicate success and the letter appears. To continue biking along, the player then must spell a word starting with that letter by dragging and dropping the letters into their correct spot. There is lots of repetition to deepen understanding as each letter is announced when picked up, and the final word is spelled out when completed. Again, the game uses sound very well to indicate success as there is plenty of encouraging cheering and music once the word is spelled. The game is extremely original in its non-traditional choice of words to be associated with each letter. It will have children and adults alike giggling with its silly puzzles such as scrubbing a dirty pig for P, blow drying an igloo for I, and jumping on jelly for J. The non-lingual interface is very intuitive which allows for even the youngest player to navigate it confidently. However, some challenges are a little hard to understand, which could be frustrating as you must complete each challenge before moving onto the next. For example, building the robot requires very precise placement of the pieces. Thankfully, after a short time, obvious hints are given such as the correct area shaking enticingly. This ensures that the player does not get stuck and give up on the game. In addition to the strategic use of sound, the graphics are stunning. The images are made of a patchwork of different textures such as cardboard and fabric, which is Avokiddo’s trademark style. One of the app’s greatest strengths is its customizability. For example, you can choose to turn off the spelling for younger players, or you can turn off the puzzle instructions for the added challenge of solving it independently. You can also choose to work on upper case or small case letters, and make the sound of each letter be announced rather than the letter when spelling. You can also decide if puzzles follow the order of the alphabet or arrive in random order. Overall, this app is a very good supplement for any young learner just starting out or well on their way to mastering the alphabet and simple spelling. Its inventive letter puzzles, well-used sound, superb graphics, and customizability make it a good choice for any school, library, or home. Rating: 3 out of 4 stars, recommendedReviewer: Kyla LeeKyla Lee is a first year student in the Library and Information Studies program at the University of Alberta, and a Library Assistant at EPL. She is very interested in helping youth develop digital literacy skills from a young age, and incorporating creative apps into programming.  


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyla Lee

Zanotto, Lucas. LOOPIMAL. Music by Ulrich Troyer. Software by Niels Hoffmann. Vers. 1.1.0, YATATOY, 4 Feb 2016. Apple App Store.  https://itunes.apple.com/app/loopimal/id964743113The team behind YAYATOY have created their third delightfully simple app. LOOPIMAL is a game of musical choreography which introduces computer sequencing to children.The game begins with one of the six of the adorable animals nodding along to some background music. Beneath the animal, differently coloured shapes are waiting to be dragged and dropped onto the sequencing bar. Each shape corresponds to a different sound and dance movement. Fortunately, the music is composed in C major so all of the endless combinations sound great together. This makes the game a safe space for creation without the risk of failure.Like their previous apps, it has a very intuitive non-lingual interface that would be easy for a very young child to navigate. There is only one simple visual menu, and it is easily located as a plus sign in the top right corner of the screen. Clicking it allows the user to choose a split screen sequence of two or four animals, which layers each animal’s sequence of music.The charming animal animations combine perfectly with the modern music to teach children how to connect symbols to actions, which is a core element of coding. The user can continually alter the loop by changing the sequence of the shapes, or they can simply swipe in either direction to try a different animal with a different sound.This app is an extremely original way to introduce basic coding concepts to very young children. As computers become omnipresent in our daily lives, it is crucial for children to be introduced to concepts like this early. Yet the app does not feel boringly didactic. It is extremely fun to tinker with, even as an adult. Indeed, it is difficult to not smile at an octopus using its legs as bass guitar strings.Highly recommended: 4 stars out of 4 Reviewer: Kyla LeeSuggested age range: 4-8Price: $5.49Kyla Lee is a first year student in the Library and Information Studies program at the University of Alberta, and a Library Assistant at EPL. She is very interested in helping youth develop digital literacy skills from a young age, and incorporating creative apps into programming.


Author(s):  
Tracy Stewart ◽  
Denise Koufogiannakis ◽  
Robert S.A. Hayward ◽  
Ellen Crumley ◽  
Michael E. Moffatt

This paper will report on the establishment of the Centres for Health Evidence (CHE) Demonstration Project in both Edmonton at the University of Alberta and in Winnipeg at the University of Manitoba. The CHE Project brings together a variety of partners to support evidence-based practice using Internet-based desktops on hospital wards. There is a discussion of the CHE's cultural and political experiences. An overview of the research opportunities emanating from the CHE Project is presented as well as some early observations about information usage.


Author(s):  
Bukola Salami ◽  
Alleson Mason ◽  
Jordana Salma ◽  
Sophie Yohani ◽  
Maryam Amin ◽  
...  

Immigrants experience poorer health outcomes than nonimmigrants in Canada for several reasons. A central contributing factor to poor health outcomes for immigrants is access to healthcare. Previous research on access to healthcare for immigrants has largely focused on the experience of immigrant adults. The purpose of this study was to investigate how immigrants access health services for their children in Alberta, Canada. Our study involved a descriptive qualitative design. Upon receiving ethics approval from the University of Alberta Research Ethics Board, we invited immigrant parents to participate in this study. We interviewed 50 immigrant parents, including 17 fathers and 33 mothers. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed according to the themes that emerged. Findings reveal that systemic barriers contributed to challenges in accessing healthcare for immigrant children. Participants identified several of these barriers—namely, system barriers, language and cultural barriers, relationship with health professionals, and financial barriers. These barriers can be addressed by policymakers and service providers by strengthening the diversity of the workforce, addressing income as a social determinant of health, and improving access to language interpretation services.


2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-12
Author(s):  
Arno Pronk ◽  
Peng Luo ◽  
Qingpeng Li ◽  
Fred Sanders ◽  
Marjolein overtoom ◽  
...  

There has been a long tradition in making ice structures, but the development of technical improvements for making ice buildings is a new field with just a handful of researchers. Most of the projects were realized by professors in cooperation with their students as part of their education in architecture and civil engineering. The following professors have realized ice projects in this setting: Heinz Isler realized some experiments since the 1950s; Tsutomu Kokawa created in the past three decades several ice domes in the north of Japan with a span up to 25 m; Lancelot Coar realized a number of fabric formed ice shell structures including fiberglass bars and hanging fabric as a mold for an ice shell in 2011 and in 2015 he produced an fabric-formed ice origami structure in cooperation with MIT (Caitlin Mueller) and VUB (Lars de Laet). Arno Pronk realized several ice projects such as the 2004 artificially cooled igloo, in 2014 and 2015 dome structures with an inflatable mold in Finland and in 2016–2019, an ice dome, several ice towers and a 3D printed gridshell of ice in Harbin (China) as a cooperation between the Universities of Eindhoven & Leuven (Pronk) and Harbin (Wu and Luo). In cooperation between the University of Alberta and Eindhoven two ice beams were realized during a workshop in 2020. In this paper we will present the motivation and learning experiences of students involved in learning-by-doing by realizing one large project in ice. The 2014–2016 projects were evaluated by Sanders and Overtoom; using questionnaires among the participants by mixed cultural teams under extreme conditions. By comparing the results in different situations and cultures we have found common rules for the success of those kinds of educational projects. In this paper we suggest that the synergy among students participating in one main project without a clear individual goal can be very large. The paper will present the success factors for projects to be perceived as a good learning experience.


1973 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 234-267 ◽  

James Bertram Collip was a pioneer in endocrine research, especially in its biochemical aspects. Following an excellent training in biochemistry under Professor A. B. Macallum, F.R.S., at the University of Toronto, he spent thirteen years at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. There was a momentous year at the University of Toronto about midway through the Edmonton period; this coincided with the discovery of insulin by Sir Frederick G. Banting, F.R.S., and Professor Charles S. Best, F.R.S., and the experience altered the course of his career. Henceforth, Professor Collip’s life was dominated by an urge to discover hormones that would be useful in clinical medicine. Success attended these efforts, first in the isolation of the parthyroid hormone, called parathormone, while he was at the University of Alberta and later in the identification of placental and pituitary hormones during particularly fruitful years at McGill University. There were other important facets to Professor Collip’s career. These included the training of young scientists, many of whom subsequently came to occupy positions of responsibility, work with the National Research Council of Canada, and in his latter years an important contribution as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Western Ontario. In addition to a life of fulfilment through accomplishments of scientific and medical importance, Professor Collip’s career was enriched by a happy family life and by the friendship of a host of individuals who were attracted to his brilliance as a scientist and his warm personality.


1995 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. R. Stringam ◽  
V. K. Bansal ◽  
M. R. Thiagarajah ◽  
D. F. Degenhardt ◽  
J. P. Tewari

The doubled haploid breeding method and greenhouse screening using cotyledon bio-assay were successfully applied to transfer blackleg resistance from the Australian cultivar Maluka (Brassicas napus), into susceptible advanced B. napus lines from the University of Alberta. This approach for blackleg resistance breeding was effective and efficient as several superior blackleg resistant breeding lines were identified within 4 yr from the initial cross. One of these lines (91–21864NA) was entered in the 1993 trials of the Western Canada Canola/Rapeseed Recommending Committee. Key words: Blackleg resistance, Leptosphaeria maculans, doubled haploid, Brassica napus


2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Lynette Lutes ◽  
Sarvesh Logsetty ◽  
Jan McGuinness ◽  
Joan M. Carlson

Explores the development of a clinical quality improvement pilot project at the University of Alberta Hospital and Stollery Children’s Hospital which aimed to establish a team of individuals that could disseminate a culture of quality improvement and develop a framework for a quality process that could be replicated and repeated. Outcomes of the clinical pilot project included improved performance as well as opportunities to learn some key lessons around team membership and involvement.


1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 937-942 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Sinton Gerling ◽  
Arthur W. Bailey ◽  
Walter D. Willms

The response of Festuca hallii (Vassey) Piper to time of burning was examined on the Festuca–Stipa grasslands of the Aspen Parklands at the University of Alberta Ranch located 150 km southeast of Edmonton, Alberta. Two defoliation treatments (burning and mowing) were examined on five dates in 1978 (8 April, 27 April, 1 June, 31 July, and 18 October), corresponding to different phenological stages of F. hallii. Burning and mowing reduced the standing crop of F. hallii produced in the first growing season after treatment, but tiller densities increased. Defoliation in early spring (8 April) had little effect on the standing crop; apparently the increase in tiller density compensated for the reduction in tiller length. Inflorescence density also increased following burning or mowing from 8 April to 1 June. Soil temperature (3 cm deep) on previously burned or mown sites was greater than on the control the year after treatment. Festuca hallii tolerates single burns at any time of the year, but early spring fires have the greatest benefits by increased tillering and standing crop. Key words: standing crop, tiller number, leaf length, litter, defoliation, mowing.


1998 ◽  
Vol 14 (54) ◽  
pp. 139-145
Author(s):  
Teresa Dobson

As a companion piece to the foregoing study of Ophelia and /, Hamlet, there follows a full appraisal of a project discussed in the previous issue (NTQ53) as part of our feature on the Open University/BBC experiments in ‘multimedia Shakespeare’. For King Lear: Text and Performance – one of the pilot CD-ROMS which were the end-products of the experiment – three teams of performers were commissioned, in collaboration with the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, to create over a two-day period their own variations on the Heath Scene in Lear. The most innovative of these, in Teresa Dobson's judgement, was conceived and directed by the Canadian performance artist and writer Beau Coleman, who envisioned a female Lear – a woman who, having found success in a male-dominated world, comes to confront the nature of that power in the process of relinquishing it. Teresa Dobson, who teaches in the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta, witnessed and here records the development of the project, also assessing how far it succeeded in its intention to ‘raise questions about the gender and power relations in King Lear, as well as questions about what happens when Lear himself is cast against gender’.


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