Behavioral and Brain Measures of Morphological Processing in Children With and Without Familial Risk for Dyslexia From Pre-school to First Grade

School-age reading skills are associated with and predicted by preschool-age cognitive risk factors for dyslexia, such as deficits in phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, letter knowledge, and verbal short-term memory. In addition, evidence exists that problems in morphological information processing could be considered a risk factor for dyslexia. In the present study, 27 children at pre-school age and the same 27 children at first grade age performed a morphological awareness task while their brain responses were measured with magnetoencephalography. Our aim was to examine how derivational morphology in Finnish language, and concomitant accuracy and reaction times are associated with first grade reading, in addition to the preschool age reading-related cognitive skills. The results replicated earlier findings; we found significant correlations between pre-school phonological skills and first-grade reading, pre-school rapid naming and first-grade reading, and pre-school verbal short-term memory and first-grade reading. The results also revealed a significant correlation between the pre-school children's reaction time for correctly derived words in the morphological task and the first-grade children's performance in rapid automatized naming for letters. No significant correlations were found between brain activation measures of morphological processing and first-grade reading.

More than Surviving, Thriving in the Information Age: Reading as a bais for using Information Technology Efficiently

Within recent years, computer technology has revolutionized infomation production, in storage, and information retrieval. Information is available in unprecedented quantity, easily and quickly obtained, often inexpensively. The patterns of work are changing; learning how to learn becomes more necessary than ever for survival. Standard information-handling skills and strategies and a range of technical skills will enhance the chances of success, but reading skills are fundamental. We can learn from the skills exhibited by good readers and good users of infomation; awareness of the habits of poor readers and infomation-users will help us help them cope in an increasingly in-glutted world.

Old Lives

Chapter 2 takes a disability studies approach to aging by viewing Brave New World (1932) as a thought experiment that explores the value of old age. Reading the novel alongside Ezekiel Emanuel’s claim that it would be best for everyone to die at around age seventy-five, before their abilities begin to decline, the chapter reads the absence of old people in the World State as an aspect of its dystopia. The chapter first argues that the persistent youth embraced by the society robs life of its narrative arc and thereby of an important aspect of its meaning. It then explores the reasons suggested by the novel that such a sacrifice of life narratives is not worthwhile, even to avoid periods of possible disability or frailty. Brave New World makes clear that the excision of old age has significant political, moral, and emotional costs.

Age validation of yellowfin (Thunnus albacares) and bigeye (Thunnus obesus) tuna of the northwestern Atlantic Ocean

Estimates of age and growth of yellowfin (Thunnus albacares) and bigeye (Thunnus obesus) tuna remain problematic because validation of growth zone deposition (opaque and translucent) has not been properly evaluated. Otolith growth structure (zone clarity) can be poorly defined for tropical tunas, but the use of bomb radiocarbon dating has validated age estimates to 16–18 years for yellowfin and bigeye tuna. Use of the radiocarbon decline period — defined by regional coral and otoliths — provided valid ages through ontogeny. Yellowfin tuna aged 2–18 years (n = 34, 1029–1810 mm FL) and bigeye tuna aged 3–17 years (n = 12, 1280–1750 mm FL) led to birth years that were coincident with the bomb radiocarbon decline. The results indicate there was no age reading bias for yellowfin tuna and that age estimates of previous studies were likely underestimated for both species.

Contradicting the Golden Age Reading Agatha Christie in the Twenty-First Century

This chapter argues that it is precisely because Agatha Christie is synonymous with the Golden Age of detective fiction that her novels have long been neglected by literary criticism. A critical shift, in the form of “millennial criticism”, is described, which is now breaking down this monolithic view of Christie’s work and challenging the limitations of “genre criticism”, whose focus was typically on antecedents, influences and developments. Crime fiction is in turn opened up to a multiplicity of readings. Christie’s work is shown to be far more than the sum of its plots, however ingenious; instead, it offers the literary range and textual pleasures of Modernism and genuine social interventionism, including a surprising focus on world politics.

KUALITAS BACA AL-QUR’AN ANAK

Reading the Qur'an for Muslims is worship to Allah SWT. Forthat a child must be given understanding and familiarized to recite theQur'an from an early age. Reading the Qur'an does not give priority tothe absorption and understanding through the transfer of informationalone, but more priority on the development of ability. For that theability of learners need to be developed through active roles andexercises or activities that can support the ability to read Al-Qur'an. Inreading the Quran the quantity and quality go hand in hand. Which isthe best thing, all back to the condition of the child who read it. If thereading is good, of course the better for him is the quantity As for thechild who is not smooth, the best for him is the quality of reading theQur'an is still very minimal to find a quality child in reading the Quran.Many of the Muslims who read Al-Quran are not yet fluent, let aloneknow the correct rules of tajwid.

Age validation of juvenile cod in the Western Baltic Sea

The methods routinely used to estimate fish age are often un-validated and susceptible to errors and uncertainties. Despite numerous attempts, age determination of western Baltic cod (WBC, Gadus morhua) using otoliths is still unreliable, predominantly due to inconsistent interpretation of the first translucent zone (TZ). Length-frequencies of undersized (<38 cm) cod collected during 2013–2016 from pound nets near Fehmarn Island were analysed to understand TZ formation patterns. A clear minimum separated two cohorts within the length-frequency samples every year. The length-frequency information was combined with otolith edge analysis to observe the development of TZs in age-0 and age-1 cod otoliths, and to validate the timing of TZ formation, which was consistently completed between September and December. Mean TZ diameters of 4 917 juvenile cod otoliths varied between cohorts (mean diameters of the first TZ: 2.0 ± 0.5 mm; second TZ: 3.9 mm ± 0.5) and TZ diameter variation was found to be related to individual growth rate. The timing of formation of the first TZ was positively related to water temperature, and was confirmed as a “summer ring” rather than a “winter ring”. TZ formation and shallow-water occupancy suggest an influence of peak summer water temperatures on WBC ecology. An age reading guide for juvenile WBC otoliths is provided.

Hitting the Target: Mathematical Attainment in Children Is Related to Interceptive-Timing Ability

Interceptive timing is a fundamental ability underpinning numerous actions (e.g., ball catching), but its development and relationship with other cognitive functions remain poorly understood. Piaget suggested that children need to learn the physical rules that govern their environment before they can represent abstract concepts such as number and time. Thus, learning how objects move in space and time may underpin the development of related abstract representations (i.e., mathematics). To test this hypothesis, we captured objective measures of interceptive timing in 309 primary school children (5–11 years old), alongside scores for general motor skill and national standardized academic attainment. Bayesian estimation showed that interceptive timing (but not general motor capability) uniquely predicted mathematical ability even after we controlled for age, reading, and writing attainment. This finding demonstrates that interceptive timing is distinct from other motor skills with specificity in predicting childhood mathematical ability independently of other forms of attainment and motor capability.