Israel College

Background There is a link between visual and hearing impairments and poor cognition in older people, although it is not clear how depressive symptoms contribute to this association. Specifically, this study examines how sensory impairment (vision and hearing) affects cognitive performance and how depression mediates that effect. Method We examined whether vision and hearing impairment affects cognitive performance and whether depression mediates that effect. Utilizing data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe which assessed 32,325 participants in 2011 (baseline, Time 1) and 2015 (follow up, Time 2), we analyzed sociodemographic and health factors, self‐reported vision and hearing impairment at baseline, depression, and cognitive performance at the 4‐year follow‐up. A multiple mediator model was tested by bootstrapping with resampling strategies. Result At baseline, 22.9% had impaired vision only, 10.2% impaired hearing only, and 10.4% impairment of both. We found significant negative association between vision impairment (b = ‐0.023, p = 0.001) and dual sensory impairment (b = ‐0.083, p = 0.001) and cognitive performance; both were also associated with depression, which in turn was linked with poor cognition. Conclusion Visual impairment or dual sensory impairment among older adults are associated with poor cognitive function directly and indirectly by increasing depression symptoms.

В работе рассматривается задача о построении квазиклассической асимптотики разности пары близких нижних энергетических уровней квадратичного оператора, заданного на неприводимом представлении алгебры Ли $\mathrm{su}(1,1)$. В координатах Дарбу на гиперболоиде гамильтониан задает ландшафт симметричной двойной ямы. Известно, что асимптотика туннельного расщепления верхних энергетических уровней для данного класса операторов не только экспоненциально убывает, как обычно бывает в двойных ямах, но и быстро осциллирует. В данной работе показано, что этот эффект сохраняется и при рассмотрении основных энергетических состояний. Показано, что в пространстве голоморфных функций оператор принимает вид дифференциального оператора второго порядка. Собственные функции, отвечающие исследуемым энергиям, в окрестности кратной точки поворота выражаются в терминах функций параболического цилиндра и ВКБ-асимптотик. Доказана теорема об осциллирующем туннельном эффекте для основных состояний оператора, используя условие аналитичности собственных функций в круге единичного радиуса. Также показано, что туннельные асимптотики для верхних энергетических уровней отличаются от асимптотик для основного состояния в $\sqrt{\pi/e}$ раз. Библиография: 24 названия.

This study investigates the interrelationship between gender-shift in child-directed speech (CDS), child gender, and parenting styles among Arabic-speaking caregivers. A survey of 180 Palestinian parents assessed their parenting styles and reported use of gender-shift in relation to their child’s gender. The findings reveal no significant correlation between gender-shift and child’s gender. However, a positive association exists between gender-shift and indulgence, a characteristic of permissive parenting, while a negative correlation is seen with autonomy granting, regulation, and warmth/support, central to authoritative parenting. These results highlight the need for detailed analysis of parenting dimensions towards deeper understanding of the role of gender-shift use in Arabic CDS, suggesting that broader parenting style categories might overlook crucial differences. The study emphasizes the importance of culturally and linguistically sensitive, interprofessional approaches in language development research, especially in relatively unexplored areas like CDS, while also acknowledging the complexities of exploring such relatively unexamined areas.

This chapter focuses on Rachel Nemesh’s series of oil paintings and graphite drawings consisting of observations of her elderly mother and their mother-daughter relationship. The series will be discussed in light of the theory of narrative empathy, combining methodologies of indepth interviews with the artist as well as visual analysis of each work. Nemesh, a second-generation Holocaust survivor, born in Israel in the beginning of the 1950s uses two main features of narrative empathy as a means of expression: character identification and narrative situation. The representation of characters’ consciousness and emotional expression is a central feature creating empathic identification with Nemesh’s mother. Narrative situation pertains to the mediation between the artist as a narrator and the main characters (her mother and herself), the perspective of the artist as a narrator, and the stylistic manners which formulate the characters’ realm.

Purpose Word learning requires the creation of phonological and semantic representations and links in long-term memory. Phonological distance of a given word from the spoken language affects children's lexical–phonological representations and processing. The study investigates the role of the phonological distance of Modern Standard Arabic (StA) words from the child's Spoken Arabic (SpA) vernacular in word learning in Arabic diglossia. It also examines whether, given their vulnerable phonological skills, children with developmental language disorder (DLD) show a stronger impact of phonological distance on word learning than children with typical language development (TLD). Method One hundred children with TLD and DLD in kindergarten and in first grade (25 per group) were tested on comprehension and production word-learning probes manipulating phonological distance. Learning monosyllabic and disyllabic nonwords encoding only SpA phonemes was compared with the learning of parallel nonwords encoding one unique StA consonant each. Results Repeated-measures analyses of variance showed higher word learning scores in children with TLD on both probes and for both syllable lengths. Moreover, all children fared significantly lower, in both comprehension and production probes, when the target stimulus was phonologically distant from the spoken language. Finally, an interaction effect was observed on the production probes, revealing differences in the developmental dynamics of phonological distance effects between the groups: Phonological distance hindered word learning among children with TLD in kindergarten, but among children with DLD in the first grade. Conclusions The results support the role of phonological distance as a phonological complexity factor in word learning in Arabic diglossia. Furthermore, they show that the effect of phonological distance is complex and it interacts with modality, language aptitude, and grade level. The theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

As well as affecting physical health, COVID-19 can impact mental health. While many studies have examined stigma related to having COVID-19, almost none have examined the larger issue of attitudes toward mental health and stigma since the pandemic began. This study examined public/external mental health stigma among Israelis after the COVID-19 outbreak, including whether there were changes to it. Surveys were administered to a sample of 1,099 Israelis aged 18–55 and multivariate analyses were performed. Israelis were found to have faced increased mental health risks since the COVID-19 outbreak and extensive mental health stigma was found among many of them. However, the stigma was reduced in later months as well as during lockdown periods. Variations in stigma were found by types of stigma and mental health illness, as well as by sociodemographic groups. COVID-19 can negatively impact mental health and appropriate mental healthcare utilization, although there may be positive effects as well. A crisis such as COVID-19 which began as a physical threat can cause society to reconsider how it views mental health, with important and potentially positive implications in the long term, and potential lessons learned for future crises. Interventions are needed, especially when appropriately tailored for vulnerable populations.

This article focuses on coercive debt, a form of economic abuse inflicted on women belonging to an indigenous-national minority by their partners/ex-partners. Coercive debt isolates and controls women, making it difficult for them to build a life free of their abuser even after separation, and impeding their ability to meet basic needs, such as housing, employment and amenities. Through a series of semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted in 2022 with Arab-Palestinian women in Israel, along with an analysis of several legal cases ( n = 21), we uncovered the mechanism, dynamics, and implications of economic abuse manifested as coercive debt from the women’s subjective perspective. Our findings were then examined against the backdrop of these women’s multiple positions of marginality, vulnerability, and civic exclusion due to their belonging to a minority group. This study enhances the understanding of the predicament faced by minority women in coercive debt, shedding light on the specific difficulties and barriers they encounter.

This study tested the potential of a technological intervention procedure for promoting letter-naming and initial-phoneme detection skills among preschoolers at risk for Specific Learning Disorder. The study rational is based on evidence for paired associated learning of visual-verbal stimuli, integrated with the use of a tangible technological device (educational floor robot) as means for promoting letter knowledge. Two intervention groups ( N = 60) participated. The intervention lasted for eight sessions of phonological training; each dedicated to one target letter. Participants were asked to navigate the robot’s path from a current stopping point to the next according to phonological information processing. Both groups went through the same procedure, but using a different type of mat (one with and one without a visual form of the letter). A control group ( N = 30) of at-risk preschoolers received no intervention except for their preschool educational routine. We found that children who participated in phonological training with linkage to the visual form of the letter scored higher in post-intervention tests. Among other proposed explanations, we mention the advantages of using a tangible robot and seemingly three-dimensional letters, along with the tendency to consider visual features while processing language stimulus among children with dyslexia.

According to strong emergentism, it is a brute fact that higher-level properties (e.g., consciousness, values, etc.) emerge given certain complex structures. In this paper, I will argue that since it is allegedly a brute fact that emergent properties emerge in certain complex systems, they should emerge in anything. Since they do not emerge in anything, they also do not emerge only in certain complex systems. I will apply this argument to consciousness as the primary target, to refute certain views within the philosophy of mind, according to which consciousness is an emergent property that arises only in certain complex aggregates, i.e., brains.

Research–practice partnerships around educational research may have beneficial outcomes but also present tensions. By considering the dynamics of manifested tensions, our study aims to understand how teachers engage with the various stages of the research in an inquiry-based professional development community consisting of eleven in-service teachers and three mathematics education researchers. In light of Heider's Balance Theory, we identify and analyze tensions expressed by teachers in the community discourse. Findings indicate that epistemic tensions related to teachers' and researchers' different cultural orientations act as powerful generators of inclusionary and exclusionary actions shaping community members' participation paths. While downplaying epistemic tensions can evoke individual actions detrimental to learning and destructive to the community's existence, awareness of and well-timed coping with tensions can become a springboard for community development.

This conceptual paper draws on a wide range of research and policy literature, providing a contemporary view of issues, factors and practices that affect education for digitally excluded populations. Concern for how education for digitally excluded populations can be supported is focal to this paper, with different sections offering key related perspectives. From an analysis of issues, factors and practices, actions for policy, practice and research are identified. Given a key finding that power issues can have major effects on plans, implementation processes and outcomes when addressing needs of education for digitally excluded populations, the paper concludes by offering frameworks to support and enable key discussions, to involve representatives from an excluded population as well as those from policy (government and industry), practitioners (teachers and learners) and researchers.