ea

The Rising Star Scaffolding Guide: Supporting Young Children’s Early Spelling Skills

Encouraging pre-kindergarten children to write affords teachers the opportunity to provide scaffolds to improve spelling development. Teachers, however, tend to provide more support than necessary to guide children's early spelling, which may stifle children's opportunities to engage in important thinking that helps them to grow in their literacy knowledge.




ea

Teaching Reading to African American Children: When Home and School Language Differ

Reading depends on spoken language. This is a simple statement with profound consequences for children whose spoken language differs from the language they are expected to read. For most children, the language skills they bring to school will support learning to read, which is mainly learning to understand their spoken language in a new form: print. However, some children’s language skills differ in important ways from the classroom language variety, and teachers rarely receive sound guidance on how to enhance their literacy instruction to meet these children’s needs.




ea

Simple RSS Feed Reader

Adding RSS/Atom syndicated content inside your Joomla website is now super-easy and simple with the 'Simple RSS Feed Reader' module from JoomlaWorks. All you have to do is add a few feeds to the module parameters, publish the module in some position and that's it!

You can even publish multiple feeds at the same time (meaning in the same module instance) and have them display combined!

The 'Simple RSS Feed Reader' module is based on the same feed parsing engine that powers JoomlaReader.com, the most popular Joomla news aggregator in the Joomla Community.

The feeds are stored inside your Joomla site's cache folder and refreshed in a specific time interval, which you set in the module's parameters. This feed cache is different to Joomla's cache, as you may need to have your site refreshed every 5 minutes, but have the feeds the module retrieves stored longer than 5 minutes.

 

FEATURES

  • one input box for feeds enables you to add unlimited feeds per module instance
  • combine multiple feeds into one output list
  • show or hide the first image inside each feed content
  • extract and resize remote images for more layout control
  • there's an additional option to serve resized images using a remote image resizing service (Images.weserv.nl - powered by CloudFlare's CDN) for fast loading times and without stressing your server
  • additional content options include pre-text, post-text and a custom link option at the bottom of the feeds block
  • MVC templating is standard - the module comes pre-packed with 3 sub-templates that will fit most sites - they also serve as a great starting point if you want to create your own
  • a special 3rd template (which was added in v3.8.0) allows for rendering any YouTube Playlist's feed as a list of videos (requires the use of the AllVideos plugin - also free)
  • one input box for feeds enables you to add unlimited sources to your module  

After you install the module, add one or more feed sources in the related box under "Fetch Options" and simply adjust the "Feed Content Options" in the module parameters.

 

STYLING

The module comes with 3 sub-templates, which should be sufficient for most websites. If you want more control, you can simply override both the generated HTML and CSS, using MVC template overrides within your Joomla template. Or you can create new folders inside your template's /html/mod_jw_srfr/ folder and just select the new ones in the module's parameters.

The compact template is inspired by JoomlaReader.com.

 

COMPATIBILITY

Simple RSS Feed Reader is fully compatible with Joomla versions 1.5, 2.5 & 3.x on servers running PHP versions 5, 7 & 8.

A version for Joomla 4.x will be released soon.

 

LICENSE

Simple RSS Feed Reader is a Joomla module developed by JoomlaWorks, released under the GNU General Public License.




ea

Discover Something New at Home this Holiday Season

Filed under: , ,

Traveling "home" this holiday season? Don't fall into your old routine. Your high school hangout may be an easy go-to, but if you don't live there anymore there's a good chance you're missing out on some great new local spots. (Plus, be honest: you already know what all your classmates are up to from Facebook.)

We turned to local writers to help you rediscover your hometown over Thanksgiving and the winter holidays. Each city guide features a great new restaurant to try while you're in town, a cool neighborhood that wasn't on the radar last year or a store where you can pick up a keepsake to bring your old home back to your new home. We'll also catch you up to speed on the hot topics of conversation in each city, so you'll come back savvy enough to join the local sports banter or eat your holiday weight in Cronuts.

Click your city below to learn what's new since the last time you went home:

Continue reading Discover Something New at Home this Holiday Season

Discover Something New at Home this Holiday Season originally appeared on Gadling on Mon, 25 Nov 2013 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments




ea

Will You Be a Horrible Restaurant Customer This Holiday Season?

Filed under: , , ,

Getty Images

So you've finished your Thanksgiving dinner and you're finally sick of turkey leftovers. It's time to get out there and hit the great new restaurant that just opened in your hometown or wherever you're spending the holidays. (FYI: Aol Travel knows the hot restaurants in cities around the U.S.)

Wherever you go, remember that there are appropriate ways to behave. And there are horrible ways to behave, as highlighted in this Montreal Gazette story by two Montreal-area restaurant servers. Among other things, they urge:

Continue reading Will You Be a Horrible Restaurant Customer This Holiday Season?

Will You Be a Horrible Restaurant Customer This Holiday Season? originally appeared on Gadling on Wed, 27 Nov 2013 16:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments




ea

Where to Ski In Every State and 16 Ski Vacations Near Big U.S. Cities

Filed under: , ,

Squaw Valley
The period after Thanksgiving isn't just the start of the holiday shopping season, it's typically the start of the ski season as well. To that end, AOL Travel has posted these two guides to ski vacations: Now you'll be able to cross off Ski in Alabama on your bucket list.

Where to Ski In Every State and 16 Ski Vacations Near Big U.S. Cities originally appeared on Gadling on Thu, 05 Dec 2013 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments




ea

Because There Aren't Enough Reasons to Visit San Diego in Winter, Now You Can Ice Skate

Filed under: , ,

Hotel Solamar
Top reasons to visit San Diego right now:

Continue reading Because There Aren't Enough Reasons to Visit San Diego in Winter, Now You Can Ice Skate

Because There Aren't Enough Reasons to Visit San Diego in Winter, Now You Can Ice Skate originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 10 Dec 2013 15:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments




ea

Facebook, Instagram Release Top Checked-in Locations of 2013

Filed under: ,

Alamy
Photo-sharing app Instagram and Facebook, a website your parents visit, released lists of their users most checked-in locations for 2013 earlier this week.

Congratulations to Disneyland for being the top U.S. spot for Facebook check-ins and the third most photographed location on Instagram. And props to all of Canada: its most checked-in location was a hockey arena.

Here are both lists.

Continue reading Facebook, Instagram Release Top Checked-in Locations of 2013

Facebook, Instagram Release Top Checked-in Locations of 2013 originally appeared on Gadling on Fri, 13 Dec 2013 14:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments




ea

Discover Something New at Home this Holiday Season

Filed under: , ,

Traveling "home" this holiday season? Don't fall into your old routine. Your high school hangout may be an easy go-to, but if you don't live there anymore there's a good chance you're missing out on some great new local spots. (Plus, be honest: you already know what all your classmates are up to from Facebook.)

AOL Travel turned to local writers to help you rediscover your hometown over the winter holidays. Each city guide features a great new restaurant to try while you're in town, a cool neighborhood that wasn't on the radar last year or a store where you can pick up a keepsake to bring your old home back to your new home. AOL Travel also will catch you up to speed on the hot topics of conversation in each city, so you'll come back savvy enough to join the local sports banter or eat your holiday weight in Cronuts.

Click your city below to learn what's new since the last time you went home:

Continue reading Discover Something New at Home this Holiday Season

Discover Something New at Home this Holiday Season originally appeared on Gadling on Wed, 18 Dec 2013 11:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments




ea

Another Boeing 787 Dreamliner Has a Battery Problem

Filed under: , , ,

Getty Images
Japan Airlines grounded a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft today "after detecting smoke or gases that may have come from faults with the main battery," according to the BBC.

Last year, all 787s were grounded for three months, CBS reports, after a "fire in a lithium ion battery aboard a Japan Airlines 787 parked at Boston's Logan International Airport. That was followed nine days later by another battery incident that forced an emergency landing in Japan by an All Nippon Airways 787.

Continue reading Another Boeing 787 Dreamliner Has a Battery Problem

Another Boeing 787 Dreamliner Has a Battery Problem originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 14 Jan 2014 14:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments




ea

Monfort optimistic about long-term Arenado deal

Rockies owner, chairman and CEO Dick Monfort expressed optimism that the team can reach a multi-year contract with third baseman Nolan Arenado, beyond the one-year, $26 million agreement that was finalized recently.




ea

Get ready to watch: MLB.TV available for 2019

Spring Training is imminent, Opening Day is within sight and the big league season isn't complete for fans without a subscription to MLB.TV. The most comprehensive streaming service in professional sports is now available for the 2019 season.




ea

Rockies' youth could fill offseason departures

This time of year you read a lot about championship windows -- a way of thinking that seems to be standard operating procedure, whether clubs are in small or big markets. Well, the Rockies don't believe in that concept.




ea

Inbox: How will Rox use McMahon this year?

How do you see the Rockies utilizing Ryan McMahon this season? Beat reporter Thomas Harding answers this question and more from fans in the latest Rockies Inbox.




ea

Uniform patch to mark 150 years of pro baseball

All 30 Major League teams will wear special "MLB 150" patches on their uniforms for the entire 2019 season in honor of the 150th anniversary of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first openly all-salaried professional baseball team.




ea

Arenado won't set hard deadline on negotiations

Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado said Thursday he won't make Opening Day a hard deadline for negotiations on a possible multiyear contract.




ea

Black likes Blackmon in role of leading man

A year after looking for ways to move Charlie Blackmon out of the leadoff spot, Rockies manager Bud Black is counting the reasons to keep him up top.




ea

Anderson hopes to build off healthy 2018

Given a difficult injury history, one of Rockies left-hander Tyler Anderson's biggest accomplishment in 2018 was his wire-to-wire availability.




ea

Dahl, Rox have confidence in 2019 breakout

Rockies outfielder David Dahl spent last September signing his home runs with his bad dude sashay. He did it then, he'll do it again in 2019.




ea

Reasons for optimism for each MLB club

On this opening week of Spring Training, all 30 Major League teams have one thing in common: optimism. Here's an optimism cheat sheet for each of them.




ea

McMahon hopes adjustment leads to 2B job

Ryan McMahon and the Rockies hope the struggles of 2018 lead to an immediate payoff. McMahon is a prime competitor for regular starts at second base, and those will come his way if he realizes potential for power and run production.




ea

Arenado: Manny deal 'really good for baseball'

The baseball field is Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado's refuge from contract talks. But Tuesday's breaking news -- Manny Machado's 10-year, $300 million contract with the Padres -- made its way onto the field.




ea

A real opportunity to improve neurology services in England




ea

US drug costs are rising faster than overall health spending, officials report




ea

Australian neuroscientist given two year suspended sentence for falsifying Parkinson's research




ea

Health anxiety: the silent, disabling epidemic




ea

“Impressive results” in stem cell treatment for multiple sclerosis




ea

Disease modifying therapies for relapsing multiple sclerosis




ea

Potential role for BCG in treatment of autoimmune diseases




ea

Projecting Vlad Jr.'s first 10 seasons

If Vladimir Guerrero Jr. can handle the hot corner -- at least for a while -- that would be gravy. The real attraction is the bat, and if these projections are any indication, it may be a special one.




ea

Get ready to watch: MLB.TV available for 2019

Spring Training is imminent, Opening Day is within sight and the big league season isn't complete for fans without a subscription to MLB.TV. The most comprehensive streaming service in professional sports is now available for the 2019 season.




ea

Vlad Jr. ready to take center stage this spring

No matter what happens this spring, the player everyone is going to be talking about on a daily basis is Vladimir Guerrero Jr.




ea

Uniform patch to mark 150 years of pro baseball

All 30 Major League teams will wear special "MLB 150" patches on their uniforms for the entire 2019 season in honor of the 150th anniversary of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first openly all-salaried professional baseball team.




ea

Axford makes 'ideal' return to Blue Jays for '19

The Blue Jays officially added another veteran to their bullpen Saturday morning by signing right-hander John Axford to a Minor League deal with an invitation to Spring Training. Axford hasn't received any guarantees with the short-term contract, but he is a strong candidate to make Toronto's 25-man roster and head north at the end of camp.




ea

Reasons for optimism for each MLB club

On this opening week of Spring Training, all 30 Major League teams have one thing in common: optimism. Here's an optimism cheat sheet for each of them.




ea

Famous dads no big deal for Blue Jays quartet

It's not rare to see former Major League sons in Major League uniforms, but is it unusual to find four in one clubhouse?




ea

Pillar eager to fill leadership void

Kevin Pillar may have only turned 30 on Jan. 4, but nobody on the Blue Jays' roster has been with the ballclub longer than Pillar, who now is entering his seventh season. Longevity with one team is a source of pride.




ea

Correspondence on 'Dispute arises over World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s involvement in WHO’s trans health guideline' by Jennifer Block




ea

Cardiovascular disease: Just one in 12 eligible people had health check last year, watchdog finds

The current system for delivering NHS cardiovascular disease (CVD) health checks is not working effectively and must be reviewed to ensure that it reaches people with the highest risk, the National Audit Office has said.1In a review of the commissioning, delivery, and performance of CVD health checks the watchdog found that just over one in 12 people (8.8%) who were eligible attended a health check in 2023-24—which, if maintained, would equate to a five year coverage of 44%.Health checks were first introduced in 2009, with the aim of reducing ill health from CVD by offering everyone aged 40-74 without a pre-existing heart condition a check-up every five years. However, problems have arisen since the responsibility for commissioning these checks was transferred to local authorities in 2013, said the National Audit Office.The move led to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) losing its ability to influence local authority performance,...




ea

Monosynaptic Inputs to Ventral Tegmental Area Glutamate and GABA Co-transmitting Neurons

A unique population of ventral tegmental area (VTA) neurons co-transmits glutamate and GABA. However, the circuit inputs to VTA VGluT2+VGaT+ neurons are unknown, limiting our understanding of their functional capabilities. By coupling monosynaptic rabies tracing with intersectional genetic targeting in male and female mice, we found that VTA VGluT2+VGaT+ neurons received diverse brainwide inputs. The largest numbers of monosynaptic inputs to VTA VGluT2+VGaT+ neurons were from superior colliculus (SC), lateral hypothalamus (LH), midbrain reticular nucleus, and periaqueductal gray, whereas the densest inputs relative to brain region volume were from the dorsal raphe nucleus, lateral habenula, and VTA. Based on these and prior data, we hypothesized that LH and SC inputs were from glutamatergic neurons. Optical activation of glutamatergic LH neurons activated VTA VGluT2+VGaT+ neurons regardless of stimulation frequency and resulted in flee-like ambulatory behavior. In contrast, optical activation of glutamatergic SC neurons activated VTA VGluT2+VGaT+ neurons for a brief period of time at high frequency and resulted in head rotation and arrested ambulatory behavior (freezing). Stimulation of glutamatergic LH neurons, but not glutamatergic SC neurons, was associated with VTA VGluT2+VGaT+ footshock-induced activity and inhibition of LH glutamatergic neurons disrupted VTA VGluT2+VGaT+ tailshock-induced activity. We interpret these results such that inputs to VTA VGluT2+VGaT+ neurons may integrate diverse signals related to the detection and processing of motivationally salient outcomes.




ea

Behavioral and Neural Mechanisms of Face-Specific Attention during Goal-Directed Visual Search

Goal-directed visual attention is a fundamental cognitive process that enables animals to selectively focus on specific regions of the visual field while filtering out irrelevant information. However, given the domain specificity of social behaviors, it remains unclear whether attention to faces versus nonfaces recruits different neurocognitive processes. In this study, we simultaneously recorded activity from temporal and frontal nodes of the attention network while macaques performed a goal-directed visual search task. V4 and inferotemporal (IT) visual category-selective units, selected during cue presentation, discriminated fixations on targets and distractors during the search but were differentially engaged by face and house targets. V4 and IT category-selective units also encoded fixation transitions and search dynamics. Compared with distractors, fixations on targets reduced spike–LFP coherence within the temporal cortex. Importantly, target-induced desynchronization between the temporal and prefrontal cortices was only evident for face targets, suggesting that attention to faces differentially engaged the prefrontal cortex. We further revealed bidirectional theta influence between the temporal and prefrontal cortices using Granger causality, which was again disproportionate for faces. Finally, we showed that the search became more efficient with increasing target-induced desynchronization. Together, our results suggest domain specificity for attending to faces and an intricate interplay between visual attention and social processing neural networks.




ea

A Prefrontal->Periaqueductal Gray Pathway Differentially Engages Autonomic, Hormonal, and Behavioral Features of the Stress-Coping Response

The activation of autonomic and hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) systems occurs interdependently with behavioral adjustments under varying environmental demands. Nevertheless, laboratory rodent studies examining the neural bases of stress responses have generally attributed increments in these systems to be monolithic, regardless of whether an active or passive coping strategy is employed. Using the shock probe defensive burying test (SPDB) to measure stress-coping features naturalistically in male and female rats, we identify a neural pathway whereby activity changes may promote distinctive response patterns of hemodynamic and HPA indices typifying active and passive coping phenotypes. Optogenetic excitation of the rostral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) input to the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG) decreased passive behavior (immobility), attenuated the glucocorticoid hormone response, but did not prevent arterial pressure and heart rate increases associated with rats’ active behavioral (defensive burying) engagement during the SPDB. In contrast, inhibition of the same pathway increased behavioral immobility and attenuated hemodynamic output but did not affect glucocorticoid increases. Further analyses confirmed that hemodynamic increments occurred preferentially during active behaviors and decrements during immobility epochs, whereas pathway manipulations, regardless of the directionality of effect, weakened these correlational relationships. Finally, neuroanatomical evidence indicated that the influence of the rostral mPFC->vlPAG pathway on coping response patterns is mediated predominantly through GABAergic neurons within vlPAG. These data highlight the importance of this prefrontal->midbrain connection in organizing stress-coping responses and in coordinating bodily systems with behavioral output for adaptation to aversive experiences.




ea

Neural Predictors of Fear Depend on the Situation

The extent to which neural representations of fear experience depend on or generalize across the situational context has remained unclear. We systematically manipulated variation within and across three distinct fear-evocative situations including fear of heights, spiders, and social threats. Participants (n = 21; 10 females and 11 males) viewed ~20 s clips depicting spiders, heights, or social encounters and rated fear after each video. Searchlight multivoxel pattern analysis was used to identify whether and which brain regions carry information that predicts fear experience and the degree to which the fear-predictive neural codes in these areas depend on or generalize across the situations. The overwhelming majority of brain regions carrying information about fear did so in a situation-dependent manner. These findings suggest that local neural representations of fear experience are unlikely to involve a singular pattern but rather a collection of multiple heterogeneous brain states.




ea

Cycling to the unreached

Staff from OM SportsLink and Campus Crusade for Christ cycled from Pretoria to Cape Town to minister to people in rural villages along the way.




ea

Golden years, new beginnings

While other couples in their fifties talk about retirement, Philip and Riana Dyason are talking about a new beginning: pioneer ministry in Russia.




ea

OM South Africa appoints new leader

On 23 January 2015, OM South Africa celebrated Pranesh Anandlal’s leadership as director since 2008 and welcomed his successor, Andrè van der Bergh.




ea

Using arts to open hearts

In July, an OM team of artists will use their creative gifts to share about the Creator at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.




ea

Midwifery in the Middle East

A South African OMer plans to use her nursing skills to build relationships with Muslim women in the Arabian Peninsula.




ea

Kids' reading club

Marleen was challenged to create reading curriculum for kids by what she saw while climbing Mount Everest in Nepal.