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Mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, aggression, and inattention are common in autistic youth and are challenging to treat by community providers. We aim to parse the heterogeneity of autism based on dimensions of executive function and determine whether specific executive function profiles are differentially related to psychiatric symptoms. Parents of 397 well-characterized 8-14-year-old autistic children without an intellectual disability reported on their child's executive function skills and psychiatric symptoms. We applied a data-driven, graph theory-based, community-detection approach to a common executive function measure, revealing three distinct executive function profile subgroups. Despite having similar social challenges, the executive function subgroups differed on anxiety, aggression, affect, and inattention symptoms. Results support the need for more intensive subtyping with autistic youth to develop appropriate, individualized mental health treatments and supports. Characterizing youth through neurocognitive strengths and challenges can guide the development of precision medicine, allowing for more meaningful, specialized treatment.

Spatial perspective-taking (SPT) ability positively influences performance in STEM fields. While limited research studies have been done with school students, they have yielded inconclusive findings and, hence, here we report findings from our study with an augmented reality (AR) enhanced learning environment (ARELE), GeoSolvAR, on middle-school students' SPT ability. We conducted a sequential explanatory mixed-method study with 90 students to test GeoSolvAR's twin features of augmented systems and inquiry-based activities. The study had one experimental (n = 30) and two control groups (n = 30 × 2), where students were individually administered an online pre- and posttest to measure their SPT ability. The experimental group worked with both the features of GeoSolvAR, while the control group worked with only the AR feature or had no intervention. Our findings reveal that the experimental group showed significant improvement in SPT ability while students in the control groups showed non-significant improvement or no change. Furthermore, we found that all experimental group students used certain body movements and imagined shifts in spatial positions while solving the activity questions. Thus, we conjecture that GeoSolvAR affords thinking and imagining with the body which makes it a potent tool for improving students' SPT ability.

Audacity is a multi-platform free, open-source audio recorder and editor software. The advantage of Audacity software is as follows: easy installation and simple visual interface, no registrations or hardware requirements, and availability at no cost might make it a preferred software to carry out class demonstrations and lab activities for an undergraduate course in the Communication Sciences and Disorders discipline. The tutorial aims to illustrate how Audacity software can be used to demonstrate various psychoacoustic phenomena commonly taught in undergraduate Hearing Science courses. This tutorial is divided into fundamental and advanced concepts from the pedagogy and student learning standpoint. The fundamental concepts involve using sine waves to demonstrate frequency, amplitude, and phase related to auditory perception. The advanced concepts include the generation of complex periodic non-speech signals, wave superposition, beats, missing fundamental frequency, demonstration of different filters, and amplitude and frequency modulation. Future research is needed to evaluate the benefits of using Audacity software for psychoacoustical demonstrations in an undergraduate Hearing Science course.

Purpose: The study aimed to explore the core competencies that make educators competent in delivering and achieving the purpose of business/management education effectively. Design/methodology/approach: An exploratory-cum-descriptive approach has been used. Educators at different academic levels in university-led B-schools were the participants of this study. For data collection, a structured questionnaire was developed and implemented. Findings: This study has explored ten core competencies that educators must possess. These competencies have been described based on their attributes and relevance in an educator's academic role. Research limitations/implications: This study was limited to university-led B-schools of South Asia, thus further validation may more adequately generalize the findings. Practical implications: This study is raising awareness of the current state of educators in university-led B-schools in South Asian countries and the need for educator competencies toward responsible management education. This study would help educators to develop core competencies, and university-led B-schools to make and manage a system for their educators to keep them competent and performing. Originality/value: Business/management education is expected to offer the required competencies and opportunities to learn the intricacies of business and management, so students can readily enter into corporate life. It exhibits the significance of educators' competencies. University-led South Asian institutions have seldom tried to develop a standardized framework for the sensitization and development of their educators. It is a key challenge to identify, understand and define a diverse range of competencies and methods of competency development.

The health and well-being of older parents, especially in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) like India, depend on adult children. As such, using the 2017-18 wave 1 of the Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI), we examined (1) the association between adult children's education and older parents' cognitive health in India; (2) the extent to which this association is mediated by (a) parents' empowered status and (b) their active engagement; and (3) whether the associations between (1) and (2) vary for older men and women. Findings reveal that adult children's education was, indeed, positively associated with older parents' cognitive health, and this association was significantly stronger for older mothers. The educational attainment of adult daughters was found to have a relatively stronger association with the cognitive functioning of older parents, particularly their older mothers, compared to their male counterparts. We also found that parents of well-educated children were more empowered and mentally and physically engaged, both factors linked to better cognitive functioning. These findings highlight that educating even one child beyond the 'compulsory' secondary education proves consequential not just for the child but for parents in later life. Given the considerable generational disparities in educational attainment and the proportion of joint families in the country, older Indians may be particularly well-situated to reap the cognitive health dividends of educating the next generation.

Background: Dealing with uncertainties is inherent in the engineering design process and often poses challenges for young learners. This necessitates providing learners with adequate support to navigate their uncertainties effectively. However, achieving this requires a deeper understanding of the factors influencing learners' uncertainty management processes. Method: In this paper, we analyze learners' framing of uncertain situations in collaborative engineering design tasks. Using the case study method, we explore two framing dimensions--epistemological and positional--to understand their impact on collaborative uncertainty management processes. Specifically, we examine how learners' framing dynamically shifts during uncertainty management activities by analyzing two contrasting cases from a sixth-grade classroom where groups tackled an engineering design problem, employing interaction analysis. Findings: Learners' epistemological and positional framings are intertwined, collectively influencing their own and their team members' uncertainty management actions. Additionally, contextual factors such as mentor intervention, early success, affect induced by prolonged failure, and time constraints can prompt shifts in learners' framing, both in productive and unproductive manners. Contribution: The paper provides nuanced insights into how learners' evolving epistemological orientations and positioning influence uncertainty management, offering practical insights into supporting learners' uncertainty management processes in problem-solving contexts such as engineering design.

The purpose of this research is to study the moderating role of organizational support on the relationship between social support and self-employment intentions of professional and technical education students. A total of 418 valid responses were used for data analysis. SPSS AMOS version 24 and Process Macro version 4.2 were used to test the proposed hypotheses. The direct relationship between social support and self-employment intentions was found to be strong and significant. The moderation analysis shows that at the higher level of organizational support, social support has a significant positive impact on the self-employment intentions of the students. Subsequently, as the organizational support is lessened, the relationship becomes non-significant.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors determining students' attitude toward using newly emerged artificial intelligence (AI) tool, Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (ChatGPT), for educational and learning purpose based on technology acceptance model. Design/methodology/approach: The recommended model was empirically tested with partial least squares structural equation modeling using 375 student survey responses. Findings: The study revealed that students have a favorable view of the instructional use of ChatGPT. Usefulness, social presence and legitimacy of the tool, as well as enjoyment and motivation, contribute to a favorable attitude toward using this tool in a learning environment. However, perceived ease of use was not found to be a significant determinant in the adoption and utilization of ChatGPT by the students. Practical implications: This research is intended to benefit enterprises, academic institutions and the global community by offering light on how students perceive the ChatGPT service in an educational setting. Furthermore, the application enhances confidence and interest among learners, leading to improved literacy and general awareness. Eventually, the outcome of this research will help AI developers to improve their product and service delivery, as well as benefit regulators in regulating the usage of AI-based bots. Originality/value: Due to its novelty, the current research on AI-based ChatGPT usage in the education sector is rather restricted. This study provides the adoption aspects of ChatGPT, a new AI-based technology for students, thereby contributing significantly to the existing research on the adoption of advanced education technologies. In addition, the literature lacks research on the adoption of ChatGPT by students for educational purposes; this study addresses this gap by identifying adoption determinants of ChatGPT in education.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the key factors through which an optimum pedagogy mix can be determined towards effective teaching practice and enhanced student learning outcomes in business/management education. Design/methodology/approach: An exploratory research design has been used. A sample of 310 was analyzed using exploratory factor analysis. A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data. It was pre-tested, and essential modifications were made before its final implementation. Findings: The study has presented the idea of pedagogy mix, which refers to a set of most obvious teaching methods/tools suitable to deliver marketing education in a context-bound manner. Eight factors have been identified that help to decide and/or maintain an optimum mix of pedagogies for effective teaching. An adequate "pedagogy mix" would help achieve educational objectives and equip students with the essential competencies. Practical implications: The study is particularly significant to educators who are in the initial years of their careers. The identified factors help educators decide and/or maintain an optimum mix of pedagogies by offering an understanding of different pedagogies, their strategic relevance and student needs. Originality/value: An institution's academic philosophy and commitment to the learning outcomes make it excellent or poor. Present institutions have and retain a main focus on preparation for professional careers, and without a perfect blend of pedagogies, it cannot be achieved. An optimum pedagogy mix would facilitate the key learning process and proffer the intricacies of the concerned profession. In this sense, this paper is a significant attempt, particularly in management education and higher education in general, that enables the educators of higher academics to decide and utilize an idyllic blend of pedagogies towards the successful execution of an educational process of higher order and ensuring the holistic student development.

Purpose: Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are becoming increasingly interwoven into people's daily lives, with applications in fields such as science, engineering, medical, the arts, education, finance and business. While much study has been conducted in the field of VR and AR in a variety of areas, less attention has been paid to online education. The purpose of this research is to conduct a systematic review of studies on AR and VR, as well as its applications in many disciplines of education, with a special emphasis on online education. Design/methodology/approach: The data were gathered from the SCOPUS database under the subject "Augmented and Virtual Reality Applications in Online Education." The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) format has been used to summarize the available literature and research in academics throughout the world. First, systematic literature reviews and later bibliometric analysis were conducted for performance and science mapping analysis. Findings: The research adds to the body of knowledge about the role of AR and VR in online education and its future prospects. AR and VR have demonstrated a substantial contribution to facilitating teaching in a variety of fields, including engineering, medicine, nursing and chemistry. Additionally, this research indicates that AR and VR can be utilized to teach various areas and specialties. Additionally, it can be used in other aspects of online education, such as admissions, industry visits, training, internationalization and specific courses for students with disabilities. Practical implications: This research lays the framework for educational institutions, legislators and researchers to investigate additional applications of VR and AR. Though this research suggests some possible uses for AR and VR in the online education system, more applications can be integrated into the online education system to fully leverage the potential of AR and VR worldwide. AR and VR have the potential to be a very cost-effective method of delivering online education on a wide scale in the future. Originality/value: The article explores the applicability of VR and AR in education using bibliometric analysis. This is one of the first studies to do an assessment of VR and AR, evaluating their strengths, drawbacks and current applications. Future application areas are also identified as a result of the investigation.

A cost-effective method has been developed with utmost efficiency for the determination of density of a liquid. The experimental setup for this purpose is a Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) cylinder fitted with an overflow spout, a volume measuring cylinder, a wooden block along with a hook and a known mass taken from scientific weight box. For this purpose, a PVC cylinder is filled up to the neck of the over flow spout with the liquid whose density is to be measured. A wooden block along with the hook is entered gently inside the cylinder, so that the wooden block along with the hook floats inside the liquid. As a result, some liquid will overflow through the overflow tube, and is collected in the volume measuring cylinder. The volume of the measuring cylinder is noted. Now the wooden block along with the hook is taken out from the liquid and a known mass from the weight box is fixed with the hook. The PVC cylinder again filled up with the liquid up to the neck of the overflow tube and put gently the wooden block fixed with the known mass by the hook inside the liquid. The fixed mass is such that the mass with the block floats inside the liquid, as a result some liquid will overflow again through the overflow tube and is collected in the volume measuring cylinder. The volume is recorded. This volume will be greater than the earlier one. From differences of volume and the mass associated with the block the density of the liquid used can easily be determined.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in school education is considered as one of the important tools to make education learner centric and helps to reduce the digital divide between different socio-economic classes in a developing country like India. The government is implementing policies to encourage schools to adopt ICT and integrate in the school curriculum, but the response is lukewarm from the schools. School teachers have a decisive role to play in the effective implementation of ICT in the classroom. Their level of acceptance of new pedagogy using ICT is a key to successful implementation. The existing research shows that the lack of willingness of the teachers to use ICT in the classroom is one of the major hurdles in its implementation at the ground level. At present, there are very few studies that identify these perceived barriers of the teachers. This paper focuses on identifying the barriers to use of ICT from the teachers' perspectives by using the rank order method for English and Regional medium school teachers. The paper uses logistic regression analysis to find out how the willingness to use ICT can be improved if some barriers are mitigated for both types of schools.

Purpose: This study investigates a blended learning model which incorporates online learning for a competency-focused, work-based learning (WBL) programme within allied healthcare. The case-study is centred on hearing aid audiology. Design/methodology/approach: The study evaluated the feedback received through a tripartite group of stakeholders (learners, academic staff and employers). Findings: Results showed that although there was universal support for blended learning, incorporating online learning, each stakeholder contributed different perspectives. The authors identified that in terms of curriculum design, a comprehensive analysis of the holistic perspective across all stakeholders is essential to ascertain the suitability of this learning mode for WBL. The study may provide the basis of a preparatory framework for the development of a generic, competency-focused model that can be applied across allied healthcare WBL programmes. Originality/value: Although previous studies of WBL have been reported, to the knowledge of the authors, there is no current reference in the literature to studies that examine thematic areas relevant to all three stakeholders across a programme of this nature in hearing aid audiology.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a highly heterogeneous set of neurodevelopmental disorders with the global prevalence estimates of 2.20%, according to DSM5 criteria. With the advancements of technology and availability of huge amount of data, assistive tools for diagnosis of ASD are being developed using machine learning techniques. The present study examines the possibility of automating the Autism diagnostic tool using various machine learning techniques on a dataset of 701 samples that contains 10 fields from AQ-10-Adult and 10 from individual characteristics. It takes two scenarios into consideration. First one is ideal case, where there are no missing values in the test cases. In this case Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Random Forest (RF) classifiers are trained and tested on the pre-processed dataset. To reduce computational complexity Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE) based feature selection algorithm is applied. To deal with the real-world data, in the second case missing values are introduced in the test dataset for the fields' 'age', 'gender', 'jaundice', 'autism', 'used_app_before' and their three combinations. Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, Decision Tree and Logistic Regression based RFE algorithm is introduced to handle this scenario. ANN, SVM and RF classifier based learning models are trained with all the cases. Twelve classification models were generated with RFE, out of which best performing models specific to missing value were evaluated using test cases and suggested for ASD Diagnosis.

A postgraduate student researcher coming from a context where there is an absence of an active research culture is likely to face several challenges when undertaking doctoral study at a university with a deep-rooted culture of research. They may experience academic writing, researching and thesis structuring struggles, and may specifically encounter difficulties during data collection, especially in communities which are not conversant with research practices. The literature and guides for students seldom give advice on dealing with such challenges as those faced in a research study. I wish to address this gap by providing recounts of my PhD experiences for structuring the literature review, selecting appropriate methodology and adapting data gathering methods; and do so in a reflexive way. My PhD study explores the 'assessment for learning' (AfL) practices of Design and Technology (D&T) teachers in the state secondary schools of Mauritius. The main research question was 'How are the AfL practices of Mauritius D&T teachers framed?' In light of this question, an interpretative naturalistic theoretical perspective (Crotty, 1998; Gray, 2014) was used as the participants were observed in their natural settings. Data were gathered in three stages using a multi-method approach incorporating a survey, interviews and observations along with secondary documents and field notes. In this article I progressively discuss four key stages of the PhD process and elaborate on strategies that were adopted to generate the literature review, refine the research questions as a bridge to methodology, make decisions of design and methods, and respond to the research context. In doing so, I hope to be able to inspire and guide doctoral students in these areas, particularly researchers willing to investigate teachers' practices in their natural settings.

Effective implementation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) plays an important role in school education, especially in a developing country like India, to improve the quality of education. School teachers' lack of confidence and motivation for using ICT is one of the major barriers of its implementation in schools. These barriers can be either nonmanipulative (i.e. which cannot be changed) or manipulative (i.e. which can be changed with the help of school/government policies). This paper studies the impact of non-manipulative and manipulative teachers' factors on their perceived proficiency in using ICT in the classrooms. It uses the primary data of 515 school teachers from the Maharashtra region of India teaching at high-school level (8th grade to 12th grade). The study concludes that both non-manipulative as well as manipulative teachers' factors are important in affecting teachers' perception regarding their own proficiency in using ICT in the classrooms. The study also provides some suggestions to improve the perception by changing some manipulative factors.

In science and engineering education, the use of heuristics has been introduced as a way of understanding the world, and as a way to approach problem-solving and design. However, important consequences for the use of heuristics are that they do not always guarantee a correct solution. Learning by Design has been identified as a pedagogical strategy that can guide individuals to properly connect science learning via design challenges. Specifically, we focus on the effect of simulation-enabled Learning by Design learning experiences on student-generated heuristics that can lead to solutions to problems. A total of 318 middle school students were exposed to a lesson that integrated design practices in the context of energy consumption and energy conservation considerations when designing buildings using an educational CAD tool. The students were pre- and posttested before and after the 2-week long intervention. The data analysis procedures combined qualitative with quantitative methods along with machine learning approaches. Our analysis revealed two distinct groups of students based on their learning achievement: the naive developing heuristic group and semi-knowledgeable fixated heuristic group. Differences between the groups are discussed in terms of performance, as well as implications for the use of computer simulations to improve student learning.

Background: There is a need to find ways of productively engaging K-12 students with engineering design. I investigate a new class of physical models, referred to as Improvable Models, as scaffolds for helping middle school students productively engage in engineering design practices. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study is to answer two questions: (a) How do students use Improvable Models? and (b) How does the use of Improvable Models as scaffolds support students' design of engineering solutions? Design/Method: Design-based research was conducted in a sixth-grade classroom. Students used a type of Improvable Model, specifically the Suboptimal System (SS) seed model. Improvable Models make the entire design space accessible and enable iterative design optimization. An SS seed model represents inefficient design decisions and is used as an initiator for iterative design optimization. The study spanned 10 lessons, each 45 min long, totaling 8 days of instructional activity spread across 1 month. Data sources included student conversations, design work, and presentations. The productive disciplinary engagement framework was used to analyze the data. Results: Students used the seed model for productively engaging with five disciplinary practices: decomposing the design challenge into individual design parameters, considering the relationship between design parameters, reasoning through multiple design parameters and making trade-offs, weighing multiple solutions, and using design heuristics for ideation and design optimization. The seed model scaffolded students' productive engagement in various disciplinary practices such as informed decision-making and systematic exploration. Conclusion: This study provides an approach for designing learning environments for productively engaging K-12 students in engineering design practices using a suboptimal model.

Using an artificial language learning manipulation, Maye, Werker, and Gerken (2002) demonstrated that infants' speech sound categories change as a function of the distributional properties of the input. In a recent study, Werker et al. (2007) showed that Infant-directed Speech (IDS) input contains reliable acoustic cues that support distributional learning of language-specific vowel categories: English cues are spectral and durational; Japanese cues are exclusively durational. In the present study we extend these results in two ways. 1) we examine a language, Catalan, which distinguishes vowels solely on the basis of spectral differences, and 2) because infants learn from overheard adult speech as well as IDS (Oshima-Takane, 1988), we analyze Adult-directed Speech (ADS) in all three languages. Analyses revealed robust differences in the cues of each language, and demonstrated that these cues alone are sufficient to yield language-specific vowel categories. This demonstration of language-specific differences in the distribution of cues to phonetic category structure found in ADS provides additional evidence for the types of cues available to infants to guide their establishment of native phonetic categories. (Contains 2 tables and 8 figures.)

Background: The Internet can be an invaluable resource for obtaining health information by people with disabilities. Although valid and reliable information is available, previous research revealed barriers to accessing health information online. Health education specialists have the responsibilities to insure that it is accessible to all users. IDEA and ADA mandate full participation in society by people with disabilities of all ages. Healthy People 2020 also includes objectives aimed at improving health information delivery, comprehension and application in daily life. Methods: This paper summarizes legal requirements and standards to present health information using technology and offers practical guidelines for accessible health education programs. Accessibility of online information was determined for representative consumer health web sites using an evaluation tool developed by Web Accessibility In Mind (Web AIM). Web sites were evaluated according to four accessibility principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust. Results: Despite available standards to design web sites without barriers, online health information is not accessible to all users. WAVE revealed accessibility errors on representative consumer health web sites, ranging from zero errors (autism information hosted by the National Library of Medicine) to 15 errors (sleep information from CNN Health). These errors may limit access to users with disabilities. Conclusions: Implementing guidelines for universal design for learning will diminish the digital divide. Health education specialists may direct consumers to web sites designed with accessibility in mind according to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of team building and employee empowerment on employee competencies and examine the moderating role of organizational learning culture in between these relationships. Design/methodology/approach: An integrated research model is developed by combining resource-based view, signalling theory and experiential learning theory. The validity of the model is tested by applying moderated structural equation modelling (MSEM) approach to the data collected from 653 employees working in cement manufacturing companies. The reliability and validity of the dimensions are established through confirmatory factor analysis and the related hypotheses are tested by using MSEM. Findings: The findings suggest that organizational learning culture significantly strengthens the relationships of team building and employee empowerment on employee competencies. Research limitations/implications: The research is undertaken in Indian cement manufacturing companies which cannot be generalized across a broader range of sectors and international environment. Practical implications: The findings of the study have potential to help decision makers of manufacturing companies to develop strategies which will enable them to improve employee competency, to formulate effective human resource development interventions and to enhance the capability of the employees to achieve desired goals and objectives of the organization. Originality/value: The research is unique in its attempt to combine three frameworks to build a new theoretical model explaining the importance organizational learning culture along with team building and employee empowerment.

Engineering design thinking is hard to teach and still harder to learn by novices primarily due to the undetermined nature of engineering problems that often results in multiple solutions. In this paper, we investigate the effect of teaching engineering design thinking to freshmen students by using a computer-aided Design (CAD) simulation software. We present a framework for characterizing different levels of engineering design thinking displayed by students who interacted with the CAD simulation software in the context of a collaborative assignment. This framework describes the presence of four levels of engineering design thinking--beginning designer, adept beginning designer, informed designer, adept informed designer. We present the characteristics associated with each of these four levels as they pertain to four engineering design strategies that students pursued in this study--understanding the design challenge, building knowledge, weighing options and making tradeoffs, and reflecting on the process. Students demonstrated significant improvements in two strategies--understanding the design challenge and building knowledge. We discuss the affordances of the CAD simulation tool along with the learning environment that potentially helped students move towards Adept informed designers while pursuing these design strategies.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to outline the importance of social network effects in influencing the elective (courses) selection among masters of business administration (MBA) students and its role in influencing the efficacy of MBA. As such, given the enormous time and investment required for students to pursue an MBA and the role of electives in forming the student's knowledge base, it is important to consider the decision process of students while selecting elective courses as they pursue their degree. Design/methodology/approach: This study explores the relevance of network characteristics in the elective selection phenomena through questionnaires administered personally to 50 MBA students from a premier b-school in India. Thereby, it seeks to link the implications with MBA efficacy. Findings: In the sample, the authors found that social network connections in terms of homophily and heterophily (similar and dissimilar others) had the strongest association with elective course decisions. Further, the role of tie strength (the level of intensity of the social relationship between two individuals) in governing the phenomena was not confirmed. Practical implications: The authors discuss the linkage of elective selection phenomena with the efficacy of MBA. Specifically, the authors focus on a possible risk where network influences may prompt a student to select electives by surpassing his or her academic interests and thereby may hamper the efficacy. The authors also outline implications from the perspective of students, professors, and administrators. Originality/value: The study is among the initial studies to present preliminary evidence on the efficacy of MBA from the perspective of elective selection phenomena and the role of social network effects.

We examined spontaneous attention orienting to visual salience in stimuli without social significance using a modified Dot-Probe task during functional magnetic resonance imaging in high-functioning preadolescent children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and age- and IQ-matched control children. While the magnitude of attentional bias (faster response to probes in the location of solid color patch) to visually salient stimuli was similar in the groups, activation differences in frontal and temporoparietal regions suggested hyper-sensitivity to visual salience or to sameness in ASD children. Further, activation in a subset of those regions was associated with symptoms of restricted and repetitive behavior. Thus, atypicalities in response to visual properties of stimuli may drive attentional orienting problems associated with ASD.

Background: Moderate weight loss and physical activity (PA) can prevent or delay type 2 diabetes however there is a need for innovative, effective programs to promote PA in high-risk individuals. Purpose: We examined the effect of a group-based adaption of the DPP lifestyle intervention implemented in partnership with the YMCA (YDPP) on changes in moderate-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in economically disadvantaged adults with prediabetes. The effects of psychosocial and community-level factors were explored. Methods: Participants were randomly assigned to YDPP or brief counseling. Accelerometer data from 216 participants were used to identify: 1) change in MVPA and 2) sedentary behavior over 24 months. Results: YDPP had no significant effect on either outcome. Baseline PA and crime were associated with less MVPA while higher perceived health and green space were associated with more MVPA over time. Baseline sedentary behavior, perceived health, and green space were inversely related to being sedentary. Discussion: Results suggest that changing dietary and PA behaviors simultaneously may adversely affect changes in PA. Translation to Health Education Practice: Additional research is needed to determine the preferred format for PA interventions. Peer mentoring should be considered. Research is needed to identify valid accelerometer cut points in sedentary, overweight adults.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of human resource development (HRD) interventions on organizational effectiveness by means of employee competencies which are built by some of the selected HRD interventions. Design/methodology/approach: An integrated research model has been developed by combining the principal factors from the existing literature. The HRD interventions chosen are training, performance management and career management (development). The validity of the model is tested by applying structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to the information collected from 290 executive and non-executive employees working in two medium size cement manufacturing companies. The reliability and validity of the dimensions are established through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the related hypotheses are tested by using SEM. Findings: The result indicates that the selected HRD interventions have an impact on building of employee competencies, which in turn is instrumental in improving organizational effectiveness. Research limitations/implications: The research is undertaken in Indian cement manufacturing companies which cannot be generalized across a broader range of sectors and international environment. Practical implications: The findings of the study have potential to help decision makers of manufacturing companies to develop strategies which will enable them to improve employee competency, to formulate effective HRD interventions and to enhance the capability of the employees to achieve desired goals and objectives of the organization. Originality/value: The research is unique in its attempt to measure employee competencies for organizational effectiveness by combining the existing scales of individual competences. The article contributes to the HRD literature, integrating HRD interventions and employee competencies into a comprehensive research model that influence organizational effectiveness.

This paper presents a new mobile software tool, PhotoMAT (Photo Management and Analysis Tool), and students' experiences with this tool within a scaffolded curricular unit--Neighborhood Safari. PhotoMAT was designed to support learners' investigations of backyard animal behavior and works with image sets obtained using fixed-position field cameras ("camera traps") that capture "bursts" of images in response to motion. PhotoMAT was designed to help learners emulate two ways wildlife researchers use camera traps: documenting wildlife diversity via the relative frequency of appearances of different species, and exploring species' behavior.

Chunk-based strategy and mnemonics have been developed to write ground state electron configurations of elements, which is a routine exercise for the higher secondary (pre-university) level general chemistry students. To assimilate a better understanding of the nature of chemical reactions, an adequate knowledge of the periodic table of elements is mandatory. Valence shell electrons of elements participate in redox chemical reactions. Chemistry students thus must be able to write electron configurations correctly. Here we have explored a chunking tool for determining the electron configurations of elements having atomic numbers up to 120.

Background: The attentional blink (AB) phenomenon was used to assess the effect of emotional information on early visual attention in typically developing (TD) children and children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The AB effect is the momentary perceptual unawareness that follows target identification in a rapid serial visual processing stream. It is abolished or reduced for emotional stimuli, indicating that emotional information has privileged access to early visual attention processes. Methods: We examined the AB effect for faces with neutral and angry facial expressions in 8- to 14-year-old children with and without an ASD diagnosis. Results: Children with ASD exhibited the same magnitude AB effect as TD children for both neutral and angry faces. Conclusions: Early visual attention to emotional facial expressions was preserved in children with ASD. (Contains 2 figures.)

Few studies have investigated how aging influences the neural basis of implicit associative learning, and available evidence is inconclusive. One emerging behavioral pattern is that age differences increase with practice, perhaps reflecting the involvement of different brain regions with training. Many studies report hippocampal involvement early on with learning becoming increasingly dependent on the caudate with practice. We tested the hypothesis that the contribution of these regions to learning changes with age because of differential age-related declines in the striatum and hippocampi. We assessed age-related differences in brain activation during implicit associative learning using the Triplets Learning Task. Over three event-related fMRI runs, 11 younger and 12 healthy older adults responded to only the third (target) stimulus in sequences of three stimuli ("triplets") by corresponding key press. Unbeknown to participants, the first stimulus' location predicted one target location for 80% of trials and another target location for 20% of trials. Both age groups learned associative regularities but differences in favor of the younger adults emerged with practice. The neural basis of learning (response to predictability) was examined by identifying regions that showed a greater response to triplets that occurred more frequently. Both age groups recruited the hippocampus early, but with training, the younger adults recruited their caudate whereas the older adults continued to rely on their hippocampus. This pattern enables older adults to maintain near-young levels of performance early in training, but not later, and adds to evidence that implicit associative learning is supported by different brain networks in younger and older adults.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine functional anatomy of attention to social (eye gaze) and nonsocial (arrow) communicative stimuli in late childhood and in a disorder defined by atypical processing of social stimuli, Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Children responded to a target word ("LEFT"/"RIGHT") in the context of a distracting arrow or averted gaze pointing in a direction that was congruent, incongruent, or neutral (bar without arrowheads, central gaze) relative to the target word. Despite being irrelevant to the target task, both arrow and averted gaze facilitated responses (Congruent vs. Neutral trials) to the same extent in the two groups and led to interference (Incongruent vs. Congruent trials), which was greater from arrows in ASD than control children. In the brain, interaction between group and distracter-domain was observed in frontal-temporal regions during facilitation and frontal-striatal regions during interference. During facilitation, regions associated with attention to gaze in control children (left superior temporal sulcus, premotor) were associated with attention to arrows in ASD children; gaze was associated with medial temporal involvement in ASD children. During interference, regions associated with arrows in control children (anterior cingulate, right caudate) were activated in response to gaze in ASD children; further, left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a region not observed in control children, was activated during gaze-interference in ASD children. Thus, functional anatomy was atypical in ASD children during spontaneous processing of social and nonsocial communicative cues.

More than 3,000 individuals from 7 U.S. cities reported on their memories of learning of the terrorist attacks of September 11, as well as details about the attack, 1 week, 11 months, and/or 35 months after the assault. Some studies of flashbulb memories examining long-term retention show slowing in the rate of forgetting after a year, whereas others demonstrate accelerated forgetting. This article indicates that (a) the rate of forgetting for flashbulb memories and event memory (memory for details about the event itself) slows after a year, (b) the strong emotional reactions elicited by flashbulb events are remembered poorly, worse than nonemotional features such as where and from whom one learned of the attack, and (c) the content of flashbulb and event memories stabilizes after a year. The results are discussed in terms of community memory practices. (Contains 8 tables, 3 figures and 3 footnotes.)

Cognitive neuroscience studies of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) suggest multiple loci of pathology with respect to both cognitive domains and neural circuitry. Cognitive deficits extend beyond executive functioning to include spatial, temporal, and lower-level "nonexecutive" functions. Atypical functional anatomy extends beyond frontostriatal circuits to include posterior cortices, limbic regions, and the cerebellum. Pathophysiology includes dopaminergic as well as noradrenergic neurotransmitter systems. We review the major insights gained from functional brain imaging studies in ADHD and discuss working hypotheses regarding their neurochemical underpinnings.