Reading development in European Portuguese: relationships between oral reading fluency,vocabulary and reading comprehension

This study investigated direct and indirect effects between oral reading fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension across reading development in European Portuguese. Participants were 329 children attending basic education, from grade 1 to grade 6. The results of path analyses showed that text reading fluency is much more dependent on the foundational skills of word recognition than reading comprehension, and the later, in turn, depends crucially on the specific constituent skill of text reading fluency. Text reading fluency has a significant influence on vocabulary from the beginning, but vocabulary contributed to reading comprehension only in more advanced grades. These results, obtained with an orthography of intermediate depth, are in line with the Simple View of Reading (SVR). However, they also highlight the importance of textual cues—besides the pivotal role of decoding—from the beginning of learning to read, which must be taken into account in the SVR.     

CHANGING POLICIES AND DILEMMAS IN HIGHER EDUCATION FINANCE: THE HUNGARIAN SITUATION AS COMPARED TO THAT OF OTHER EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Political change and declining economies have forced the higher education systems of the countries of east and central Europe to undergo restructuring, in particular to develop new financing mechanisms and to permit the emergence of private higher education. The Hungarian experience is described with reference to the situations in Poland and Czechoslovakia. Reference is made to the “base and addition” model of higher education finance as it evolved in eastern Europe beginning in the 1950's. This model went into crisis in the 1980's because it failed to encourage institutions to search for sources of funding other than government grants. In the post‐Communist situation, new types of funding mechanisms are being explored in the three countries. Czechoslovakia has so far made the fewest fundamental changes because of the relative strength of its economy. Poland has adopted a policy of professional co‐ordination for academic survival. Hungary is experimenting with professional and market co‐ordination.     

电压并联负反馈放大器的实验研究

本文依据电子线路理论与误差理论,讨论了电压并联负反馈放大器实验对信号源内阻R_s的选择方案;分析了测量输入、输出电阻使用半电压法的可行性;对测量输出电阻时出现输出电压V_o下降,而输入电压V_i上升这一实验现象作了理论分析与实验论证。     

Experiences on the Design,Creation, and Analysis of Multimedia Content to Promote Active Learning

In an educational context, multimedia content can be created by the students, by the faculty, or by a third party. With the aim of improving the lab work, motivation, and active learning in introductory electronics courses, several innovative technologies and instructional strategies were considered involving these three possibilities: real-time screen capture, video recording with smartphones, and technical analysis of science fiction films. Factors such as ease of use, fast production, or no need of expensive tools were critical for the choice of these technologies, which were introduced on activities (lab sessions, collaborative work) where traditional strategies required too much time or could not be applied properly due to a large number of students and/or time constraints. We found that video lab reports made by the students using smartphones are a very adequate and straightforward assessment method, combining the advantages of oral assessment and written reports. The technical analysis of science fiction films proved to be helpful to reinforce the motivation of some students towards the subject, although it requires some degree of maturity to reach this end. Video tutorials made with screen capture technology proved to be easy to record and produce, and they constitute a fast and convenient way to produce new multimedia resources adapted to the specific needs of the subject.

     

Equity in Spanish higher education

The most outstanding event in the recent evolution of higher education in developed countries has been the continuously increasing proportion of students entering higher education and, therefore, its extension to more and more inclusive groups. It seems reasonable to assume that the expansion of higher education must have facilitated access of less privileged social classes, but it is important to analyze to what extent this significant increase in higher education participation has reached all social, economic, and cultural groups. This analysis could be useful in designing a policy to help those students who have more difficulty accessing higher education. The goal in this paper is to analyze this subject thoroughly focusing especially on the level of participation of young adults in Spanish higher education controlling for economic level, parental education and occupation, and other environmental characteristics. We present a logistic model which jointly values the influence of different family and social characteristics of the individual on his/her decision to enroll in higher education. The main conclusions of the study are these: (a) There has been improvement in the equity of access to higher education. In spite of this overall improvement, about 30 per cent of the less privileged population is still underrepresented in higher education, (b) Family educational level is the most important factor in the decision to enter higher education. The weight of these educational characteristics exceeds by far the influence of family income level.     

Conceptual Profile of Substance

Science & Education - Teachers face challenges when building the concept of substance with students because tensions of meanings emerge from students’ daily life and canonical ideas...     

Higher screen time is associated with overweight,poor dietary habits and physical inactivity in Brazilian adolescents,mainly among girls

Objectives: To analyse the associations between high screen time and overweight, poor dietary habits and physical activity in adolescents according to sex. Methods: The study comprised 515 boys and 716 girls aged 14–17 years from Londrina, Brazil. Nutritional status (normal weight or overweight/obese) was assessed by calculating the body mass index. Eating habits and time spent in physical activity were reported using a questionnaire. The measurement of screen time considered the time spent watching television, using a computer and playing video games during a normal week. Associations between high screen time and dependent variables (nutritional status, eating habits and physical activity levels) were assessed by binary logistic regression, adjusted for sociodemographic and lifestyle variables. Results: Most adolescents (93.8% of boys and 87.2% of girls) spent more than 2 hours per day in screen-time activities. After adjustments, an increasing trend in the prevalence of overweight and physical inactivity with increasing time spent on screen activities was observed for both sexes. Screen times of >4 hours/day compared with <2 hours/day were associated with physical inactivity, low consumption of vegetables and high consumption of sweets only in girls and the consumption of soft drinks in both sexes. Conclusions: The frequency of overweight and physical inactivity increased with increasing screen time in a trending manner and independently of the main confounders. The relationship between high screen time and poor eating habits was particularly relevant for adolescent girls.     

Greater basal skeletal muscle AMPKα phosphorylation in men than in women: Associations with anaerobic performance

Objectives: This study was designed to investigate the association of gender, fibre type composition, and anaerobic performance with the basal skeletal muscle signalling cascades regulating muscle phenotype. Design: Muscle biopsies were obtained from 25 men and 10 women all young and healthy. Methods. Protein phosphorylation of Thr¹⁷²AMPKα, Ser²²¹ACCβ, Thr²⁸⁶CaMKII as well as total protein abundance of PGC-1α, SIRT1, and CnA were measured by Western blot and anaerobic performance by the Wingate test. Results: Percent type I myosin heavy chain (MHC I) was lower in men (37.1?±?10.4 vs. 58.5?±?12.5, P?P?P?221ACCβ and Thr²⁸⁶CaMKII fractional phosphorylation tended to be higher in men (P?=?.1). PGC1-α and SIRT1 total protein expression was similar in men and women, whereas CnA tended to be higher in men (P?=?.1). Basal AMPKα phosphorylation was linearly related to the percentage of MHC I in men (r?=?0.56; P?Conclusion: In summary, skeletal muscle basal AMPKα phosphorylation is higher in men compared to women, with no apparent effect on anaerobic performance.