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In the past, physical barriers such as geography and distance limited global communication. In this paper, we explore how young children in immigrant families engage in transnational literacy practices. Specifically, we explore the transnational funds of knowledge that result from those experiences. This three-year longitudinal collective case study involves ten children from immigrant families who have come to the United States from around the world. The students entered the study in four-year-old kindergarten, grade 1 or grade 2. Each year, we collected observations, spoken data and student-created artefacts (e.g. writing samples, maps, photographs). Data sources were designed to highlight the various spaces that the immigrant families occupy or have occupied over time (i.e. home/neighbourhood/ school; native country/country of residence). Our reading and rereading of coded data across the sample led us to focus on families' digital transnational practices and children's transnational awareness. We argue that these funds of knowledge should be recognized in classrooms and schools and that they have the potential to contribute to the nurturing of cosmopolitan perspectives for all children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preschool years are a sensitive period for the development of food preferences that will affect physical growth and life-long health. The promotion of healthy eating and nutritional status was achieved by adapting the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Mission X (MX) Program among young children in South Korea. The intervention program was delivered by nutritional experts and class teachers over 10 weeks. Children from 37 school classes ( n = 534) from 7 daycares and kindergartens were randomized into a control group (CG, n = 280) and an intervention group (IG, n = 254). Parents were surveyed for their children's characteristics and nutrition quotient (NQ) at baseline and at the 10-week follow-up. At baseline, 18.8% (boys: 18.9%; girls: 18.8%) of the subjects were overweight or obese (body mass index ≥ 85th percentile). After the intervention, the mean differences in various anthropometric measures did not differ significantly between the groups in a linear regression model adjusted for age, sex, and type of school. The NQ grades were significantly higher in the IG than the CG after the intervention ( p = 0.000). In summary, the 10-week South Korean MX program improved the eating behaviors and nutrition status of young children. A further multisector prevention program is needed to prevent childhood obesity in young children.

Context: A pilot study of South Vietnamese ex-political detainees who had been incarcerated in Vietnamese reeducation camps and resettled in the United States disclosed significant mental health problems associated with torture and traumatic head injury (THI)., Objectives: To identify structural brain alterations associated with THI and to investigate whether these deficits are associated with posttraumatic stress disorder and depression., Design: Cross-sectional neuroimaging study., Setting: Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital., Participants: A subsample of Vietnamese ex-political detainees (n = 42) and comparison subjects (n = 16) selected from a community study of 337 ex-political detainees and 82 comparison subjects., Main Outcome Measures: Scores on the Vietnamese versions of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL) and Harvard Trauma Questionnaire for depression and posttraumatic stress disorder, respectively; cerebral regional cortical thickness; and manual volumetric morphometry of the amygdala, hippocampus, and thalamus., Results: Ex-political detainees exposed to THI (n = 16) showed a higher rate of depression (odds ratio, 10.2; 95% confidence interval, 1.2-90.0) than those without THI exposure (n = 26). Ex-political detainees with THI had thinner prefrontotemporal cortices than those without THI exposure (P < .001 by the statistical difference brain map) in the left dorsolateral prefrontal and bilateral superior temporal cortices, controlling for age, handedness, and number of trauma/torture events (left superior frontal cortex [SFC], P = .006; left middle frontal cortex, P = .01; left superior temporal cortex [STC], P = .007; right STC, P = .01). Trauma/torture events were associated with bilateral amygdala volume loss (left, P = .045; right, P = .003). Cortical thinning associated with THI in the left SFC and bilateral STC was related to HSCL depression scores in THI-exposed (vs non-THI-exposed) ex-political detainees (left SFC, P for interaction = .007; left STC, P for interaction = .03; right STC, P for interaction = .02)., Conclusions: Structural deficits in prefrontotemporal brain regions are linked to THI exposures. These brain lesions are associated with the symptom severity of depression in Vietnamese ex-political detainees.