Accounting for motion in fMRI: What part of the spectrum are we characterizing in autism spectrum disorder?

The exclusion of high-motion participants can reduce the impact of motion in functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data. However, the exclusion of high-motion participants may change the distribution of clinically relevant variables in the study sample, and the resulting sample may not be representative of the population. Our goals are two-fold: 1) to document the biases introduced by common motion exclusion practices in functional connectivity research and 2) to introduce a framework to address these biases by treating excluded scans as a missing data problem. We use a study of autism spectrum disorder to illustrate the problem and the potential solution. We aggregated data from 545 children (8-13 years old) who participated in resting-state fMRI studies at Kennedy Krieger Institute (173 autistic and 372 typically developing) between 2007 and 2020. We found that autistic children were more likely to be excluded than typically developing children, with 29.1% and 16.1% of autistic and typically developing children excluded, respectively, using a lenient criterion and 80.8% and 59.8% with a stricter criterion. The resulting sample of autistic children with usable data tended to be older, have milder social deficits, better motor control, and higher intellectual ability than the original sample. These measures were also related to functional connectivity strength among children with usable data. This suggests that the generalizability of previous studies reporting naïve analyses (i.e., based only on participants with usable data) may be limited by the selection of older children with less severe clinical profiles because these children are better able to remain still during an rs-fMRI scan. We adapt doubly robust targeted minimum loss based estimation with an ensemble of machine learning algorithms to address these data losses and the resulting biases. The proposed approach selects more edges that differ in functional connectivity between autistic and typically developing children than the naïve approach, supporting this as a promising solution to improve the study of heterogeneous populations in which motion is common.

Knowledge Management Model for Smart Campus in Indonesia

The application of smart campuses (SC), especially at higher education institutions (HEI) in Indonesia, is very diverse, and does not yet have standards. As a result, SC practice is spread across various areas in an unstructured and uneven manner. KM is one of the critical components of SC. However, the use of KM to support SC is less clearly discussed. Most implementations and assumptions still consider the latest IT application as the SC component. As such, this study aims to identify the components of the KM model for SC. This study used a systematic literature review (SLR) technique with PRISMA procedures, an analytical hierarchy process, and expert interviews. SLR is used to identify the components of the conceptual model, and AHP is used for model priority component analysis. Interviews were used for validation and model development. The results show that KM, IoT, and big data have the highest trends. Governance, people, and smart education have the highest trends. IT is the highest priority component. The KM model for SC has five main layers grouped in phases of the system cycle. This cycle describes the organization’s intellectual ability to adapt in achieving SC indicators. The knowledge cycle at HEIs focuses on education, research, and community service.

Influence of E-Learning and Project-Based Learning on Engineering Education

Imparting quality technical education and training can be expected to be the vision of most engineering institutions globally to build a healthy society. The major stakeholders who contribute to this are students, teachers, industrialists, researchers, and institutes. The current scenario of rapid technological advancements demands engineering students to be dynamic and novel. Considering the heterogeneous intellectual ability of students, institutions frame time-restricted curriculums. Students who want to outperform have a challenge that they cannot be completely dependent on their academic curriculum. The objective of this chapter is to motivate and bring awareness among engineering students to adapt self-learning to excel in their professions. E-learning and project-based learning are identified as the two significant tools that could help students to self-learn. The influence of these tools on engineering students has been proved in this chapter with a case study, surveys, and feedback from students.

Inclusive Formative Assessment for Diverse Pre-Service Foundation Phase Literacy Teachers

Many classrooms in South Africa are very diverse in terms of culture, gender, language, and intellectual ability. Thus, educators need to be inclusive in the way they plan for teaching and learning. This chapter attempts to show how teacher educators at one institution of higher education in South Africa implemented inclusive formative assessments in their initial teacher education programme. Traditional assessment practices like examinations, tests, and essays, which dominate many classrooms, have proven to be unable to capture the range and nature of the diverse learning outcomes sought from courses. In this study, students were given different assessment tasks to demonstrate their knowledge of the handwriting skills and pedagogy. Findings of the study show that teacher educators managed to accommodate all the students through their use of inclusive assessments. Teacher educators observed improvement in student's self-esteem, motivation, and engagement.

Analytical Anthropology of Peter Hacker

Purpose. The article is an explication of the features of the anthropological teaching of Peter Hacker in the context of analytical philosophy with consideration to the context of European philosophy within the framework of the Oxford School of ordinary language philosophy. The theoretical basis of the research is determined by the latest research in the English-language analytical philosophical tradition, rethinking the place of anthropological problems in the system of philosophical knowledge. Originality. Referring to primary sources, we reconstructed the philosophical and anthropological teaching of Peter Hacker in the unity of its basic principles and theoretical and practical results. We determined philosophical origins of the key ideas of his philosophical anthropology and substantiated their originality, systematicity and logical argumentation. His philosophical position is defined as anthropological holism, synthesizing the reinterpreted ideas of Aristotle and Wittgenstein. Conclusions. Peter Hacker is the creator of the original version of Analytic Philosophical Anthropology. His anthropology is based on criticism of Cartesian dualism and physicalism, which underlie modern neurosciences and which he tries to overcome on the basis of Wittgenstein’s philosophical "logotherapy". The conceptual framework of his holistic anthropology is a rethought conceptual scheme of the Ordinary language philosophy. Hacker considers consciousness not as a separate mental reality, but one of the powers of human nature – an intellectual ability, which, along with emotional (passionate) and moral, belongs to a person as an integral socio-biological being. Asserting the free will of man, the Oxford thinker criticizes various forms of determinism, especially its most common form in modern science – neurobiological determinism, which is built on false philosophical foundations. This criticism allows the modern British philosopher to build an original, systematic and logically consistent anthropological concept that asserts the immutability of the highest human values – goodness, love and happiness.

Academic Achievement in School-Aged Children with Single Suture Craniosynostosis Over Time

Introduction: Children with single suture craniosynostosis (SSC) are at risk for neurocognitive problems. The reported magnitude of differences between children with SSC and their normative peers on standardized tests of academic and intellectual ability are small. Evaluation of real-world academic outcomes of these children and its impact on educational resources have not been conducted. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of academic outcomes of children with SSC was conducted using the data from Ontario's Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) standardized provincial reading, writing and mathematics tests. The need for special education was identified by documentation of the child's need for an Identification, Placement, and Review Committee (IPRC). Results: Of 296 eligible children, 42 participated in the study. Half of the children had sagittal synostosis, while the remaining were 10 (24%) unicoronal, 9 (21%) metopic, and 2 (5%) lambdoid synostosis. Thirty-six (86%) underwent operative management. The EQAO scores of operated children with SSC met the provincial academic standards on the Grade 3 and 6 EQAO scores across the 3 academic subjects. Converted grade-matched EQAO scores decreased in reading and writing over time, while math improved. Of the 21 patients with special education data, one child required an IPRC in Grade 3, while an additional four (24%) required an IPRC in Grade 6. Conclusions: Operated children with SSC had average academic performance, however, their needs appeared to change over time. Future studies are needed to evaluate academic difficulties and special education needs as these children progress through grade school.

Development of Problem Based Learning (Pbl)-Based E-Module to Improve Critical Thinking Skills of Students In Biology Learning Class X Sman 1 Seberida Indragiri Hulu Regency

Critical thinking should be given to students as they age in the 21st century. The continued impact of perception shows that there are still many students who do not have the option to overcome their thinking, speaking, and logic skills. Observation results show that many students have not been able to utilize their intellectual ability to think critically. Furthermore, the evaluation questions that have been given by the teacher are not analyticalin nature, resulting in not triggering students to think critically. Problem Based Learning (PBL) is a model of learning that is suitable for stimulatingstudents' critical thinking. The purpose of this research that produces the E-module -based PBL valid, p practical and i effective. Type researchis development research. The Plomp model is the applied model. The results of the study resulted in the level of validity of the PBL -based E-module which was 89.10% (very valid). The results of the practicality level of teachers are 94.17% (very practical) and the level of practicality by students is 86.47% (very practical). The results of the PBL -based E-module effectiveness test show that the PBL -based E-module is very effective. Thus, the conclusion is that the PBL -based E-module that has been developed is very valid, very practical, and very effective.

Executive Function and Metacognition: Relations and Measure on High Intellectual Ability in Typical Schoolchildren

The current understanding of high intellectual ability (HIA) involves considering the multidimensional nature of the skills that comprise it. In addition, conceptual advances related to how individuals manage the high intellectual resources available to them may help explain the possible gap between performance and high levels of competence. Understanding the role of executive functioning and metacognition in relation to the management of these resources is essential. Nonetheless, to date, the trajectory of their study is diverse, and empirical and measured evidence in this regard is limited. Thus, the objective of this work was to understand the relationship between executive functions and metacognition (and its components), as well as the measurement of these factors and their reliability. The study sample comprised schoolchildren (n = 43) with an HIA and a control group (n = 46) of schoolchildren with typical intelligence levels. Network analysis revealed differential intergroup connections between the executive functioning components as well as between those of metacognition and for each construct. The greatest relational weight was for metacognition components, with the most robust relationship being found in the group with HIA with metacognitive regulation, flexibility, and verbal working memory versus metacognitive awareness and inhibition in the typical group. Measurement derivations and their application in educational interventions to optimise the expression of high potential are also discussed.

Teachers’ Irrational Belief Scale: Psychometric Properties of the Greek Version and Measurement Invariance across Genders

Irrationality refers to human thoughts and beliefs that signify lack of rationality and entail erroneous perceptions about situational, personal, or collective idiosyncrasies, while it is independent of one’s intellectual ability. Irrational beliefs are ubiquitous in all social and cultural groups and attract a special interest in behavioral sciences, where the primary concern is the development of instruments for identifying and measuring them. The present study evaluates the psychometric properties of Greek version of Teachers’ Irrational Belief Scale (TIBS-G), a 25-item self-reported instrument using data collected from 835 participants. The exploratory procedure, implementing scree plot with parallel analysis, demonstrated the dimensionality of four factors, namely: Self-downing (SD), Authoritarianism (A), Demands for Justice (DJ), and Low Frustration Tolerance (LT). The corresponding reliability measures using Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega were ranged between 0.70 and 0.80. Subsequently, confirmatory factor analysis showed an adequate fit of the measurement model [χ2 = 579.98, df = 183, p < 0.001; CFI = 0.960; TLI = 0.956; RMSEA = 0.051]. In addition, measurement invariance was performed, which demonstrated differences between genders. Finally, discussion on the importance of irrational beliefs and the possible implementation of the TIBS instrument in educational research is provided.