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Seaweed is seen as a promising future source of biomass, and significant efforts are taken to upscale seaweed aquaculture production in Europe. Despite regulatory frameworks for food safety, environmental safety, and occupational health and safety applicable to seaweed production, a major barrier to upscaling production is the lack of commonly accepted, uniform frameworks for safety assessment. As a consequence, efforts to deal with food safety, environmental safety, and occupational health and safety are fragmented. Based on a literature review and consultations with stakeholders, this paper introduces a generic protocol on how to approach safety of the production of seaweed. A prototype version of the generic protocol was evaluated in a practical setting in Norway. Results show that a consistent, structured approach to safety makes it possible to identify hazards and prioritize and collect data on key hazards. The protocol facilitated a sector discussion on safety, providing a shared discourse to talk about safety. It must be acknowledged that the farming and processing practices and the location of cultivation strongly influence which hazards are most relevant. The protocol succeeded in bringing focus to data collection, putting effort into the analysis of hazards considered most relevant in a practical setting.

Commissioned by the Belgian federal government, a BelRAI screening tool for the detention context was developed. The aim of this screening instrument is to collect all information necessary for care providers inside prison to decide whether a penitentiary care trajectory is needed.

Contains fulltext : 292160.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)

Contains fulltext : 219156.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access), Previous research found a beneficial effect of augmentative signs (signs from a sign language used alongside speech) on spoken word learning by signing deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. The present study compared oral DHH children, and hearing children in a condition with babble noise in order to investigate whether prolonged experience with limited auditory access is required for a sign effect to occur. Nine- to 11-year-old children participated in a word learning task in which half of the words were presented with an augmentative sign. Non-signing DHH children (N = 19) were trained in normal sound, whereas a control group of hearing peers (N = 38) were trained in multi-speaker babble noise. The researchers also measured verbal short-term memory (STM). For the DHH children, there was a sign effect on speed of spoken word recognition, but not accuracy, and no interaction between the sign effect in reaction times and verbal STM. The hearing children showed no sign effect for either speed or accuracy. These results suggest that not necessarily sign language knowledge, but rather prolonged experience with limited auditory access is required for children to benefit from signs for spoken word learning regardless of children’s verbal STM.

Item does not contain fulltext, The lexical quality hypothesis emphasizes the importance of the quantity and the quality of lexical knowledge for reading comprehension: children need to quickly and accurately access the meanings of the written words they encounter. This chapter discusses research on the quality and quantity of lexical representations in spoken language and in signed language in children with cochlear implants (CIs). It also describes the impact of three multimodal approaches that have been used to enhance the quantity and quality of lexical representations in deaf and hard-of-hearing children, including those with CIs: Cued Speech, orthographic information, and augmentative signs. The chapter argues that these three multimodal approaches are promising tools for enhancing the quality of lexical representations in spoken language in children with CIs.

Previous research found a beneficial effect of augmentative signs (signs from a sign language used alongside speech) on spoken word learning by signing deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. The present study compared oral DHH children, and hearing children in a condition with babble noise in order to investigate whether prolonged experience with limited auditory access is required for a sign effect to occur. Nine- to 11-year-old children participated in a word learning task in which half of the words were presented with an augmentative sign. Non-signing DHH children (N = 19) were trained in normal sound, whereas a control group of hearing peers (N = 38) were trained in multi-speaker babble noise. The researchers also measured verbal short-term memory (STM). For the DHH children, there was a sign effect on speed of spoken word recognition, but not accuracy, and no interaction between the sign effect in reaction times and verbal STM. The hearing children showed no sign effect for either speed

Item does not contain fulltext, Purpose: The present study investigated the effects of signs on word learning by children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), in comparison with typically developing children (TD), and the relation between a possible sign effect and children's linguistic and cognitive abilities. Method: Nine- to eleven-year-old children with DLD (N=40) and TD children (N=2659) participated in a word learning experiment. Half of the spoken pseudo words were taught with a pseudo sign with learning outcomes being assessed in accuracy and speed. To investigate whether sign effects would hold for children with varying linguistic and cognitive abilities, we measured children's linguistic (vocabulary, syntax) and cognitive skills (divided attention, working memory (WM), lexical access). Results: The children with DLD showed a positive sign effect in both accuracy and speed. For the TD children, there was no effect of signs on word learning. Principle component analyses of the linguistic and cognitive measures evidenced a four-component solution (Language Skills, Visual WM, Verbal WM, Executive Attention). A rRepeated measures ANCOVAs with the component scores as covariates yielded no significant interactions with the linguistic and cognitive components. Conclusions: Our results suggest that children with DLD benefit from signs for word learning, regardless of their linguistic and cognitive abilities. This implies that using sign-supported speech as a means to improve vocabulary skills of children with DLD is effective, even still at the age of nine to eleven years.

Item does not contain fulltext, This chapter focuses on factors that support word learning for both hearing and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. Vocabulary development is first discussed in hearing children and then DHH children. The chapter suggests several interventions for improving DHH children's language skills and reviews studies on the efficacy of sign-supported speech for word learning. Sign-supported speech is frequently used in schools for the deaf in the Netherlands. Professionals working with DHH children indicate that this helps the children to better understand the spoken message; however, it is unclear whether this mode of communication aids spoken word learning. Implications for educational practice and future directions are discussed.

Item does not contain fulltext, Background: Augmentative signs may facilitate word learning in children with vocabulary difficulties, for example, children who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing (DHH) and children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Despite the fact that augmentative signs may aid second language learning in populations with a typical language development, empirical evidence in favor of this claim is lacking. Aims: We aim to investigate whether augmentative signs facilitate word learning for DHH children, children with SLI, and typically developing (TD) children. Methods and procedures: Whereas previous studies taught children new labels for familiar objects, the present study taught new labels for new objects. In our word learning experiment children were presented with pictures of imaginary creatures and pseudo words. Half of the words were accompanied by an augmentative pseudo sign. The children were tested for their receptive word knowledge. Outcomes and results: The DHH children benefitted significantly from augmentative signs, but the children with SLI and TD age-matched peers did not score significantly different on words from either the sign or no-sign condition. Conclusions and implications: These results suggest that using Sign-Supported speech in classrooms of bimodal bilingual DHH children may support their spoken language development. The difference between earlier research findings and the present results may be caused by a difference in methodology.

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