Reading Words In and Out of Connected Text: The Impact of Context on Semantic and Orthographic Processing

The majority of naturalistic reading occurs within passages. Therefore, it is important to understand how reading in context affects the division of labor between semantic and orthographic processing. However, it is difficult to compare the cognitive processes elicited by reading in context and lists because of the perceptual differences that define them. In 2 experiments, undergraduate students read 72 different words divided across three conditions (context, semantic-list, and orthographic-list). Participants then completed a memory task that was used to estimate either the semantic processing (surprise recall; Experiment 1) or orthographic processing (word stem completion; Experiment 2) elicited during reading. In both experiments, memory performance for words read in context more closely resembled words read in the semantic-list condition and differed greatly from those read in the orthographic-list condition. We interpret these results as showing that contextual reading biases the division of labor toward semantic processing and away from orthographic processing.     

The impact of polytechnic institutes on the local economy

Tertiary Education and Management - Higher education institutions and, particularly, polytechnic institutes in Portugal are, generally speaking, recognized as the key stakeholders in regional...     

Technology-Mediated Writing Instruction in the Early Literacy Program: Perils,Procedures, and Possibilities

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine one kindergarten teacher's use of digital and multimodal technologies to mediate early writing instruction and explore the students' appropriation of that instruction to support their independent writing. Data sources included observations of writing instruction, as well as students' participation during independent writing time, student writing samples, and interviews with case study participants. Data were analyzed inductively using a semantic relationship analysis (Hatch, 2002). Results of the study revealed that the teacher used a range of technologies to demonstrate what it means to compose narrative texts and how young children could go about it. Students were attentive and motivated to participate in writing instruction and related activities, given their fascination with the technology and multimodal texts their teacher created. Students appropriated important concepts and strategies from their teacher's technology-mediated instruction, which they used to compose narrative texts during independent writing time.     

Can we estimate a monetary value of scientific publications?

In this paper, we analyze the compelling issue of monetary valuation of a scientific publication. While many academic scholars tend to overlook the topic, as being either too difficult or even meaningless, policymakers begin to use very rough tools for evaluating publications, which have many limitations, as we will discuss in this work. The main objective of this work is to address this open problem by stimulating further discussion on the topic and future research developments. We provide an overview of different methods to value scientific publications. We discuss their main hypotheses, pros and cons by means of an illustration based on Sapienza University of Rome. Although we begin to address the issue of monetary valuation of scientific publications, presenting a range of available methods and listing the limits and benefits of each, further methodological and empirical research is still needed to comply with policy and stakeholders' needs which we expect will increase in the near future.     

Increasing Teachers' Adherence to a Classwide Intervention Through Performance Feedback Provided by a School-Based Consultant: A Case Study

Performance feedback (PF) is an empirically supported method of increasing teachers' treatment adherence. In the evaluations of PF to date, however, PF was delivered by someone external to the school. The primary purpose of this case study was to provide an exploratory evaluation of the effectiveness and feasibility of PF when delivered by a school-based consultant to teachers implementing a classwide behavioral intervention. Teacher treatment adherence and student outcomes were also evaluated. Results indicate that overall, (a) teachers demonstrated moderate-to-high, but variable, levels of treatment adherence; (b) when teachers demonstrated lower levels of treatment adherence, the school-based consultant implemented PF with high adherence for 5 weeks, after which adherence varied; and (c) student outcomes improved.     

The importance of having a flexible scope ISO 15189 accreditation and quality specifications based on biological variation – the case of validation of the biochemistry analyzer Dimension Vista

Introduction

Technological innovation requires the laboratories to ensure that modifications or incorporations of new techniques do not alter the quality of their results. In an ISO 15189 accredited laboratory, flexible scope accreditation facilitates the inclusion of these changes prior to accreditation body evaluation. A strategy to perform the validation of a biochemistry analyzer in an accredited laboratory having a flexible scope is shown.

Materials and methods:

A validation procedure including the evaluation of imprecision and bias of two Dimension Vista analysers 1500 was conducted. Comparability of patient results between one of them and the lately replaced Dimension RxL Max was evaluated. All studies followed the respective Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) protocols. 30 chemistry assays were studied. Coefficients of variation, percent bias and total error were calculated for all tests and biological variation was considered as acceptance criteria. Quality control material and patient samples were used as test materials. Interchangeability of the results was established by processing forty patients’ samples in both devices.

Results:

27 of the 30 studied parameters met allowable performance criteria. Sodium, chloride and magnesium did not fulfil acceptance criteria. Evidence of interchangeability of patient results was obtained for all parameters except magnesium, NT-proBNP, cTroponin I and C-reactive protein.

Conclusions:

A laboratory having a well structured and documented validation procedure can opt to get a flexible scope of accreditation. In addition, performing these activities prior to use on patient samples may evidence technical issues which must be corrected to minimize their impact on patient results.     

The first year university experience: using personal epistemology to understand effective learning and teaching in higher education

Personal epistemological beliefs, or beliefs about knowing, provide a way in which to understand learning in a range of educational contexts because they are considered to act as filters for all other knowledge and beliefs. In particular, they provide a useful framework for investigating learning and teaching for first year students in tertiary education, who are typically considered to hold less sophisticated epistemological beliefs. Using semi-structured interviews, this study investigated the nature of beliefs about knowing and learning of 35 first year teacher education and creative writing students at a large metropolitan university in Australia. The interview analysis indicated that a relationship existed between individuals’ core beliefs about knowing and their beliefs about learning. This relationship has implications for the way in which we support first year students’ learning as they transition into university and progress through their courses.     

Listening to Mothers II: Report of the Second National U.S. Survey of Women's Childbearing Experiences: Conducted January–February 2006 for Childbirth Connection by Harris Interactive? in partnership with Lamaze International*

With permission from Childbirth Connection, the “Executive Summary” for the Listening to Mothers II survey is reprinted, here. The landmark Listening to Mothers I report, published in 2002, described the first national U.S. survey of women''s maternity experiences. It offered an unprecedented opportunity to understand attitudes, feelings, knowledge, use of obstetric practices, outcomes, and other dimensions of the maternity experience. Listening to Mothers II, a national survey of U.S. women who gave birth in 2005 that was published in 2006, continues to break new ground. Although continuing to document many core items measured in the first survey, the second survey includes much new content, exploring earlier topics in greater depth, as well as some new and timely topics.