AutoFocus – Ein Werkzeugprototyp zur Entwicklung eingebetteter Systeme

Der Beitrag stellt AutoFocus vor, einen Werkzeugprototyp zur Entwicklung verteilter, eingebetteter Systeme auf der Grundlage formaler Techniken. AutoFocus unterstützt die Systementwicklung mit integrierten, im wesentlichen graphischen Beschreibungstechniken, mit deren Hilfe sowohl unterschiedliche Sichten als auch verschiedene Abstraktionsebenen eines Systems beschrieben werden. Um konsistente und vollst?ndige Beschreibungen sicherzustellen, bietet AutoFocus die M?glichkeit, Konsistenzbedingungen zu formulieren und Systembeschreibungen daraufhin zu überprüfen. Aus ausführbaren Spezifikationen k?nnen Prototypen des entwickelten Systems erzeugt werden und in einer Simulationsumgebung ausgeführt und visualisiert werden. Zur formalen Verifikation von Systemeigenschaften verfügt AutoFocusüber Anbindungen an Modellprüfungswerkzeuge wie -cke oder SMV.     

Communication Research and General Media

William B. Fairley and Frederick Mosteller, eds. Statistics and Public Policy (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1977— price not given)

Julian L. Simon's Basic. Research Methods in Social Sciences: The Art of Empirical Investigation (New York: Random House, 1978—$14.95)

Delbert C. Miller's Handbook of Research Design and Social Measurement (New York: McKay, 1978—$14.95, with a paperback edition available)

James Monaco, ed. Media Culture and Celebrity: The Media as Image Makers (New York: Delta Books (Dell), 1978—$4.95 each, paper)     

Individual Differences in Fifth Graders’ Literacy and Academic Language Predict Comprehension Monitoring Development: An Eye-Movement Study

In this study, we investigated fifth graders’ (n = 52) fall literacy, academic language, and motivation and how these skills predicted fall and spring comprehension monitoring on an eye movement task. Comprehension monitoring was defined as the identification and repair of misunderstandings when reading text. In the eye movement task, children read two sentences; the second included either a plausible or implausible word in the context of the first sentence. Stronger readers had shorter reading times overall suggesting faster processing of text. Generally fifth graders reacted to the implausible word (i.e., longer gaze duration on the implausible vs. the plausible word, which reflects lexical access). Students with stronger academic language, compared to those with weaker academic language, generally spent more time rereading the implausible target compared to the plausible target. This difference increased from fall to spring. Results support the centrality of academic language for meaning integration, setting standards of coherence, and utilizing comprehension repair strategies.     

Teaching Music Fundamentals to the Beginning College Student

In this study, we examine the impact of a curriculum designed to increase first year college student political engagement. We used a staggered implementation design in which eight classes of traditional first year college students in were taught a political engagement curriculum by two instructors. The results confirm the positive impact of the political engagement curriculum above and beyond a rhetoric and composition curriculum for traditional first-year college students on important political indicators such as internal political efficacy and attentiveness and interest in politics. Further, participants exhibited significant post-intervention differences with regard to their comfort level joining political conversations as well as employing important conversational strategies to strengthen democratic dialogue. These results support the use of this curriculum to increase first year college students’ political engagement and underscore the impact that classroom curriculum and instruction can have promoting a deliberative and active citizenry.     

International research orientation of Swiss universities: self-regulated or politically imposed?

International openness is essential to science in small modern countries. The modernization of Swiss science and economy in the nineteenth century was promoted largely by foreigners: newly founded Swiss universities were staffed to a large extent by foreign professors, but students also came from abroad. Up to the middle of this century, the development of Swiss universities was marked by distinct successive phases of inviting in or shutting out international influence, depending mainly on changes in the political context. The international landscape of knowledge and science since the 1950s has undergone dynamic change. University structures were installed as a reaction to this dynamism. Patterns of international research orientation emerging in different universities and in the disciplinaryfields of business administration, chemistry and history are discussedin a comparative perspective.     

Metacognition and Middle Grade Mathematics Teachers: Supporting Productive Struggle

Communicating mathematical ideas through writing, listening, and verbalizing allows students to think about how they “think” about mathematics. By focusing this communication on a reflection of how one thinks about mathematics, metacognitive writing engages students as mathematicians and learners. In this article we describe a professional development that we implemented with middle grade mathematics teachers focused on metacognitive writing as a tool to support productive struggle in the mathematics classroom. Thus, this practitioner article adds to the knowledge base on how to develop middle grade teachers metacognitive writing through engagement in productive struggle. Recommendations for practice are included.     

Individual differences in mathematical competence modulate brain responses to arithmetic errors: An fMRI study

Data from both neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies have implicated the left inferior parietal cortex in calculation. Comparatively less attention has been paid to the neural responses associated with the commission of calculation errors and how the processing of arithmetic errors is modulated by individual differences in mathematical competence. Do more competent individuals exhibit a different brain response to errors than less mathematically able individuals? These outstanding questions were addressed in the present functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study through an investigation of which brain regions respond more to erroneously versus correctly solved arithmetic problems while a group of 24 adult participants with varying levels of mathematical competence solved problems of all four arithmetic operations. Despite high levels of accuracy, a robust main effect of accuracy (incorrect vs. correct) was observed in both medial and lateral regions of the prefrontal cortex. These regions have frequently been associated with both the detection of errors and the deployment of cognitive control following an error. Furthermore, mathematical competence was found to modulate the activation of an area in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Specifically, individuals with relatively higher mathematical competence (n = 12) were found to activate this region more for incorrectly solved trials than their less mathematically competent peers (n = 12). Taken together, these findings suggest that the commission of arithmetic errors modulates responses of prefrontal regions and, moreover, that activation of the right lateral prefrontal cortex during arithmetic errors is affected by individual differences in mathematical competence. In view of the evidence associating the lateral prefrontal cortex with the implementation of cognitive control, we suggest that individuals with relatively high mathematical competence may exhibit greater awareness of calculation mistakes and implement greater control following the commission of errors.