This paper brings together extensive data from 257 children to explore the relative importance of social-environmental factors during critical periods of children's musical development. The paper also presents preliminary findings from a follow-up of 20 of the most musically successful children 8 years later to determine which childhood factors predict differences in success as adult performers...

A n orientation to teaching is outlined that stresses the necessity of matching both motivation and capabilities. This model encompasses both regular instruction and remediation. The approach begins with an emphasis on improving regular instruction by enhancing the ability of teachers to personalize instruction. For students found to need additional assistance, remediation is introduced and pur...

This study evaluates the success of the monthly deposit of funds into hypothetical retirement portfolios for the period January 1926 to December 2003. The results of the study indicate that, in general, portfolios with a higher equity portion had a greater likelihood of achieving the desired terminal value. We also find that monthly deposits based on the historical asset class returns generally...

A case of selection and adaptation of weekly work schedules is presented. Weekly work schedules in two franchises of an important retail clothing chain have to be established. Working time accounts are used: each week, an employee can owe the company a certain number of hours or vice versa. Nevertheless, over a certain threshold, the hours have to be paid for by the company and the account bala...

Developmental disorders show wide variations in severity even when, on genetic grounds, it is known that there is a common underlying cause. We use connectionist models of development combined with population modelling techniques to explore possible mechanistic causes of variations in disorder severity. Specifically, we investigate the plausibility of the hypothesis that disorder variability st...

objective mental retardation (mr) or intellectual disability is one of three chronic and disabling neurological disorders of children and adolescents. its prevalence is estimated 1-3% of the population. mr is defined as significant sub-average intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior that become detectable before the age of 18. mr may come into view before 5 years as delay in at least two...

We exploit a unique merchant-level dataset from the monopoly payment card network in China to study payment card pricing. We develop hypotheses associating payment card pricing to card penetration rate, profitability and fraud risk. Our empirical analysis uses the variations in those three factors across industries to show that the card network charges a higher merchant discount for industries ...