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WORKING HARDER, OR WORKING FASTER? NOVEL AND WORKING MEMORY TASK VALIDITY FOR INIDIVIDUALS WITH ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER
Get PDFImagine having a disorder where you are predisposed to score a year below average on examinations for your age (Lawrence et al., 2020). This is the frustrating reality for individuals with ADHD. This life-long neurodevelopmental disorder impacts people\u27s functioning in their everyday lives, including standardized task performance. However, it is possible that individuals with ADHD may actually present advantages in tasks that require the ability to release taxing cognitive processes, such as proactive cognitive control. This question has not been examined before and may shed light on the interpretation of ADHD individuals’ performance on standardized tests and tasks. To this end, the study examined performance of ADHD individuals and controls on novel and practiced cognitive tasks 24 English-speaking undergraduate and graduate students at St. John’s University completed the Letter-Number Sequencing test (WAIS-III), and the Task Switching (DMCC) task. The thought being here that individuals with ADHD will perform better on the DMCC task than individuals without ADHD given their ability to stay on act based on cues is stronger. Two 2 x 2 factorial analyses were conducted. The findings showed no statistically significant results; future research implications and limitations are discussed
EXAMINATION OF SCHOOL PROFESSIONALS’ KNOWLEDGE OF SELECTIVE MUTISM AND OTHER CHILDHOOD MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS
Get PDFSelective Mutism (SM) is an anxiety disorder characterized by the consistent failure to speak in specific social situations, despite the ability to effectively communicate in other settings. School professionals play an important role in identifying and supporting students with SM; however, previous studies suggest that knowledge of SM among school professionals is limited. The purpose of this study was to examine school professionals’ knowledge of SM compared to their knowledge of two other more common childhood disorders – Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). This study investigated whether knowledge of ADHD or SAD was a stronger predictor of SM knowledge and whether other factors such as professional role and prior training had any influence on SM knowledge. A total of 151 school professionals, including school psychologists, social workers, general and special education teachers, speech and language pathologists and school counselors participated in a series of online surveys. Participants completed the Selective Mutism Survey (SMS), Knowledge of Attention-Deficit Disorders Scale (KADDS), and Knowledge of Social Anxiety Disorder Scale (KSADS), which evaluated their understanding of each disorder. Results showed that overall knowledge of SM was low across all professional roles and was significantly lower than ADHD knowledge but similar to SAD knowledge. ADHD knowledge was a stronger predictor of SM knowledge than SAD knowledge, which suggests that school professionals may be more familiar with disorders that have a direct impact on classroom functioning. Significant differences were not found across professional roles although school psychologists did demonstrate greater knowledge when compared to other mental health professionals within the schools. Previous training on SM was not associated with higher knowledge, highlighting a possible gap in professional development initiatives. These findings highlight the need for enhanced SM training for school professionals to enhance early identification, referral, and intervention efforts. Given school professionals role in supporting students, targeted professional development would help bridge the knowledge gap and lead to better student outcomes
THE IMPACT OF AN EXPERIENTIAL FINANCIAL LITERACY WORKSHOP ON FIRST-GRADE STUDENTS’ COMPREHENSION OF FINANCIAL CONCEPTS
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to investigate the impact that an experiential financial literacy workshop has on first-grade students’ comprehension of financial concepts. Financial literacy is a lifelong skill. It is essential for children to establish and maintain the financial literacy skills necessary to be successful in money matters throughout their lives; yet many young children are not being taught financial concepts (Center for Financial Security, 2016). In addition, a person’s financial attitudes are shaped in childhood (Drever et al., 2015). Currently, elementary schools throughout the United States are not consistently creating age-appropriate financial literacy curricula for children (Collins & Odders-White, 2015). Many children are not introduced to financial concepts and skills at home, and this can have a negative impact on their future financial well-being (Center for Financial Security, 2016). This explanatory sequential mixed methods research study determined that first-grade students acquired and applied financial concepts while engaging in an experiential financial literacy workshop and that they gained a better understanding of age-appropriate foundational financial literacy concepts. The sample population is a first-grade class consisting of nine students, in a private elementary school located in New York. Constructivism and sociocultural theory are the theoretical frameworks that guided all aspects of this study. These frameworks allowed the researcher to closely examine how first-grade students acquire and apply financial literacy concepts while engaging and participating in an experiential financial literacy workshop. The results of this explanatory sequential mixed methods research study indicate that it is inherently important to include financial literacy in the early elementary grades, K-2. This study helped fill the gap in the literature by identifying the outcomes and benefits of introducing an experiential financial literacy workshop in first grade. Investigating the outcomes of financial literacy in the first grade addressed the shortcomings of current studies
TEACHER ROLE, TRAINING, EXPERIENCE, AND SELF-EFFICACY TOWARD THE INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Get PDFGrounded in Bandura\u27s social cognitive theory, this quantitative, non-experimental study examined the relationship between teacher role, training, and experience and their self-efficacy regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities. A total of 107 K-12 teachers from a large, suburban school district participated and completed an online demographic survey and the Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practices (TEIP) Scale. Two-way ANOVAs found that teacher training (certification and professional development) significantly impacted teacher self-efficacy. Teachers with dual certifications and more than seven hours of professional development reported higher self-efficacy scores. Teachers collaborating more than one hour per week also had significantly higher self-efficacy scores. The independent samples t-test showed that special education teachers had higher self-efficacy than general education teachers. Descriptive statistics found that most teachers reported that collaboration and professional development are the most essential support needed to improve the inclusion of students with disabilities. The results of the study provide recommendations for future research and policymakers. The findings of this research underscore the importance of teacher preparation programs, targeted professional development, and collaboration in fostering teacher self-efficacy for inclusive education
NEURAL CONGRUENCY CONTRASTIVE LEARNING FRAMEWORK VALIDATION USING ARTIFICIALLY CREATED EEG DATA FOR DYSLEXIA RESEARCH
No full textAnalysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings in children with dyslexia has been commonly used to explore the neural mechanisms underlying reading disorders. Yet, challenges such as low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), high inter-subject and inter-trial variability, and the inherently multivariate nature of EEG signals hinder the isolation of neural components elicited during reading diagnostic tests. To mitigate these challenges, the neural-congruency analysis framework was recently proposed, leveraging traditional machine learning optimization methods to incorporate domain knowledge about the congruency of neural responses across participants (i.e., consistent neural responses among proficient readers). However, the application of deep learning techniques, specifically contrastive learning, remains underexplored in analyzing EEG recordings from dyslexic individuals. Motivated by the success of the neural-congruency analysis framework, this study explores the use of a novel deep neural network designed to enforce the neural-congruency constraints and isolate informative neural components in EEG signals. Particularly, our approach integrates spatial, frequency, and temporal convolutions and vectorizations, trained using contrastive learning to extract meaningful neural patterns and identify similarity across different participants’ EEG data. Moreover, the model utilizes a predictive neural network architecture to distinguish neural responses between participants’ grouping. We evaluate our method using synthetically generated EEG data simulating two participant groups (dyslexic and control) performing a shared cognitive task. The data are synthesized across a range of SNR levels from -37 dB to -7 dB to test the model’s robustness under varying noise conditions. Results demonstrate that our network successfully identifies discriminative neural components even at SNR levels as low as –25 dB—substantially noisier than typical real-world EEG recordings—suggesting strong potential for real EEG data applicability. In future work, we plan to apply our methods to three EEG datasets involving dyslexic children performing Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) and Phonological Processing (PA) tasks. This study represents a significant step toward applying advanced machine learning techniques to complex neural data, offering a novel tool for educational and clinical research on reading difficulties
EMBRACING AN ONLINE LITERARY IDENTITY: HOW BOOKTOK MAKES LITERATURE MORE ACCESSIBLE
No full textIn this thesis I examine conversations that occur on TikTok’s literary corner, “BookTok.” My research involves focusing on the multimodality of BookTok, following comment sections and search options, as well as analyzing the components of the videos themselves. BookTok content creators focus on these features in order to spark literary conversation in an approachable way. These influencers heavily sway the app itself and the books being recommended. Extending my research beyond BookTok influencers, this essay seeks to understand the value of influencer backing on products towards their social legitimacy. Some users on TikTok are not fans of how the algorithm pushes novels with high influencer backing – labeling the repetition of these works as a seemingly watered down reading experience. However, through my research I’m hoping to demonstrate how BookTok’s range and representation of various reading experiences allows valuable conversations on how we understand literacy to occur in the digital age. The focus of this thesis is to study literature and literacy in relation to my experience having social media as an extension of my outerworld perception for so long
Object Tracking based on Quantum Particle Swarm Optimization
No full textIn Computer Vision domain, moving Object Tracking is considered as one of the toughest problems. As there are so many factors associated like illumination of light, noise, occlusion, sudden start and stop of moving object, shading which makes tracking even harder problem not only for dynamic background but also for static background. In this paper we present a new object tracking algorithm based on Dominant points on tracked object using Quantum particle swarm optimization (QPSO) which is a new different version of PSO based on Quantum theory. The novelty in our approach is that it can be successfully applicable in variable background as well as static background and application of quantum PSO makes the algorithm runs lot faster where other basic PSO algorithm failed to do so due to heavy computation. In our approach firstly dominants point of tracked objects detected, then a group of particles form a swarm are initialized randomly over the image search space and then start searching the curvature connected between two consecutive dominant points until they satisfy fitness criteria. Obviously, it is a multi-swarm approach as there are multiple dominant points, as they move, the curvature moves and the curvature movement is tracked by the swarm throughout the video and eventually when the swarm reaches optimal solution, a bounding box drawn based on particles’ final position. Experimental results demonstrate this proposed QPSO based method work efficiently and effectively in visual object tracking in both dynamic and static environments and run time shows that it runs closely 90% faster than basic PSO.in our approach we also apply parallelism using MatLab ‘Parfor’ command to show how very a smaller number of iteration and swarm size will enable us to successfully track object
ESTABLISHMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF VINCRISTINE-RESISTANT S1 COLON CANCER CELLS
No full textColorectal cancer (CRC) remains one of the most common causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Vincristine is frequently used to treat CRC, although the specific pathways leading to acquired resistance are still not fully understood. In this study, we established two novel vincristine-resistant human colon cell lines (S1/V1 and S1/V4) to explore the mechanisms underlying vincristine resistance, with a particular emphasis on the overexpression of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters. The S1/V1 and S1/V4 sublines were derived by continuously exposing human S1 colon cancer cells to vincristine. An MTT cytotoxicity assay revealed that S1/V1 cells exhibit about 39-fold greater resistance to vincristine than the parental S1 cells; while the S1/V4 cells exhibit about 35-fold greater resistance to vincristine than the parental S1 cells, alongside cross-resistance to other ABCB1 substrates. RT-qPCR and Western blot analysis indicated a substantial increase in ABCB1 mRNA and protein levels in S1/V1 cells, and a substantial increase in ABCC1 mRNA and protein levels in S1/V4 cells. Immunofluorescence studies demonstrated that this elevated ABCB1 and ABCC1 is localized at the cell membrane in S1/V1 and S1/V4 cells respectively, suggesting an active efflux function. Further reversal experiments showed that inhibiting the efflux function of the respective overexpressed transporters completely eradicated the resistance to vincristine S1/V1 and S1/V4 cells. In conclusion, this research provides an in vitro CRC model of vincristine resistance and identifies ABCB1 and ABCC1 overexpression as a key contributor to acquired drug resistance. The newly developed cell lines may serve as a valuable tool for investigating strategies to overcome drug resistance and enhance CRC treatment outcomes