Evaluating Interventions with Multimethod Data: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

In many intervention and evaluation studies, outcome variables are assessed using a multimethod approach comparing multiple groups over time. In this article, we show how evaluation data obtained from a complex multitrait–multimethod–multioccasion–multigroup design can be analyzed with structural equation models. In particular, we show how the structural equation modeling approach can be used to (a) handle ordinal items as indicators, (b) test measurement invariance, and (c) test the means of the latent variables to examine treatment effects. We present an application to data from an evaluation study of an early childhood prevention program. A total of 659 children in intervention and control groups were rated by their parents and teachers on prosocial behavior and relational aggression before and after the program implementation. No mean change in relational aggression was found in either group, whereas an increase in prosocial behavior was found in both groups. Advantages and limitations of the proposed approach are highlighted.     

The LINDSAY Virtual Human Project: An immersive approach to anatomy and physiology

The increasing number of digital anatomy teaching software packages challenges anatomy educators on how to best integrate these tools for teaching and learning. Realistically, there exists a complex interplay of design, implementation, politics, and learning needs in the development and integration of software for education, each of which may be further amplified by the somewhat siloed roles of programmers, faculty, and students. LINDSAY Presenter is newly designed software that permits faculty and students to model and manipulate three‐dimensional anatomy presentations and images, while including embedded quizzes, links, and text‐based content. A validated tool measuring impact across pedagogy, resources, interactivity, freedom, granularity, and factors outside the immediate learning event was used in conjunction with observation, field notes, and focus groups to critically examine the impact of attitudes and perceptions of all stakeholders in the early implementation of LINDSAY Presenter before and after a three‐week trial period with the software. Results demonstrate that external, personal media usage, along with students' awareness of the need to apply anatomy to clinical professional situations drove expectations of LINDSAY Presenter. A focus on the software over learning, which can be expected during initial orientation, surprisingly remained after three weeks of use. The time‐intensive investment required to create learning content is a detractor from user‐generated content and may reflect the consumption nature of other forms of digital learning. Early excitement over new technologies needs to be tempered with clear understanding of what learning is afforded, and how these constructively support future application and integration into professional practice. Anat Sci Educ. © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.     

An unexpected large continental source of reactive bromine and chlorine with significant impact on wintertime air quality

Halogen atoms affect the budget of ozone and the fate of pollutants such as hydrocarbons and mercury. Yet their sources and significances in polluted continental regions are poorly understood. Here we report the observation of unprecedented levels (averaging at 60 parts per trillion) of bromine chloride (BrCl) at a mid-latitude site in North China during winter. Widespread coal burning in rural households and a photo-assisted process were the primary source of BrCl and other bromine gases. BrCl contributed about 55% of both bromine and chlorine atoms. The halogen atoms increased the abundance of ‘conventional’ tropospheric oxidants (OH, HO₂ and RO₂) by 26%–73%, and enhanced oxidation of hydrocarbon by nearly a factor of two and the net ozone production by 55%. Our study reveals the significant role of reactive halogen in winter atmospheric chemistry and the deterioration of air quality in continental regions where uncontrolled coal combustion is prevalent.     

Relevance feedback and cross-language information retrieval

This paper presents a study of relevance feedback in a cross-language information retrieval environment. We have performed an experiment in which Portuguese speakers are asked to judge the relevance of English documents; documents hand-translated to Portuguese and documents automatically translated to Portuguese. The goals of the experiment were to answer two questions (i) how well can native Portuguese searchers recognise relevant documents written in English, compared to documents that are hand translated and automatically translated to Portuguese; and (ii) what is the impact of misjudged documents on the performance improvement that can be achieved by relevance feedback. Surprisingly, the results show that machine translation is as effective as hand translation in aiding users to assess relevance in the experiment. In addition, the impact of misjudged documents on the performance of RF is overall just moderate, and varies greatly for different query topics.     

Joining forces for public value creation? Exploring collaborative innovation in smart city initiatives

Creating public value is a key goal of public administrations, both in their daily business and in the growing field of smart government and smart cities, which focuses on IT-enabled innovations in the public sphere. However, many public administrations still struggle with such innovations due to complex technologies, high investments, and the numerous stakeholders involved. To address this issue, some local governments in continental Europe have turned to collaborative innovation approaches, partnering with (semi-)public utility companies in the hope that their additional innovation assets will boost innovativeness. Nevertheless, it remains unclear how exactly such collaborations should be governed to ensure that the focus remains on creating public value, as utility companies may have their own agendas. To explore this question, we conducted a comparative case study in the context of smart city initiatives with four cases in Swiss local governments. Drawing on agency and stewardship theory, we then propose a model of public-value-focused collaborative innovation, enabling us to explore various collaboration characteristics and their effects on public value creation. Our findings suggest that both agency- and stewardship-based collaborations increase innovativeness. However, while agency collaborations tend to produce smart city innovations that mainly serve the utility companies' business interests, stewardship relationships lead to innovations that are focused more on public value creation. As such, our study extends the literature on the effects of collaborative innovation on public value, and it provides practical recommendations on how such collaborative innovation should be designed.     

Educational self-regulation competence: toward a lifespan-based concept and assessment strategy

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - Self-regulation is crucial for learning and achievement in educational and occupational contexts. Educational self-regulation has...     

Developing Sound Knowledge of Basic Science Concepts in Children Using Flipped Classroom: A case of simple repeated measures

Education and Information Technologies - Due to the advent of coronavirus disease in most nations throughout the world, the manner of education altered from traditional face-to-face to remote or...     

Educational theory and practice in post-revolutionary times: the European academic debate on the experimental schools in Hamburg (1919–1933) in the 1930s and 1970s

After the revolution in 1918, many reformist teachers were convinced that they could put into practice their dreams of a free and independent school in a democratic republic. Four state schools in Hamburg became anti-authoritarian school communities, in which teachers, parents and students experimented with revolutionary concepts of education. For two schools, the experiment lasted until 1930, when they voluntarily gave up their status as experimental schools. The remaining two schools lost this status in 1933 after the National Socialist seizure of power. The experimental schools in Hamburg attracted the attention of educationalists worldwide, welcoming a large number of visitors during their existence and inspiring academic studies. The German–Swiss educationalist Robert Jakob Schmid presented a critical study on the Hamburg school communities in his doctoral thesis, published in French during his stay in Geneva in 1936. His work fell into oblivion for more than three decades, until it was reprinted in French and later translated into Spanish, German, Portuguese and Italian in the 1970s. The publishers of these editions were not interested in spreading Schmid’s critiques regarding the school communities and distorted his argumentation by different means, such as partial translations, shortening the most critical aspects or adding long introductions. In this way, they tried to use Schmid’s study as a tool to support their own argumentative interests in the educational discourse of the 1970s.     

酪蛋白磷酸肽-无定形磷酸钙、不同玷污层的处理和储存时间对牙本质粘接的影响(英文)

研究目的:评价含有酪蛋白磷酸肽-无定形磷酸钙(CPP-ACP)的再矿化剂Tooth Mousse(TM)的使用、不同玷污层的处理以及样本储存时间对牙本质粘接微拉伸性能的影响。研究方法:将牙本质样本分成保留玷污层组和用15%乙二胺四乙酸(EDTA)处理90秒去除玷污层组。每组根据是否使用TM处理再分亚组。每个亚组分别用三种不同的粘结剂(两步法自酸蚀Clearfil SE Bond(CSE)、一步法自酸蚀G-Bond(GB)和全酸蚀Adper Single Bond 2(SB))与牙本质样本粘接,分别经过3天和6个月的去离子水储存。样本进行切割微拉伸测试并通过扫描电镜分析断裂界面模式。重要结论:经过再矿化剂TM预处理,可以减少牙齿的敏感性,并且对于这三种粘结系统经过长时间储存后的粘结性能没有影响。EDTA的处理对于长期储存的粘结性能没有显著影响。额外的TM和EDTA对短期(3天)粘接力会有效应,但对长期(6个月)的粘接力没有影响。     

Why space matters in technological innovation systems—Mapping global knowledge dynamics of membrane bioreactor technology

Studies on technological innovation systems (TISs) often set spatial boundaries at the national level and treat supranational levels as a geographically undifferentiated and freely accessible global technological opportunity set. This article criticizes this conceptualization and proposes instead to analyze relevant actors, networks and processes in TIS from a relational perspective on space. It develops an analytical framework which allows investigating innovation processes (or ‘functions’) of a TIS at and across different spatial scales. Based on social network analysis of a co-publication dataset from membrane bioreactor technology, we illustrate how the spatial characteristics of collaborations in knowledge creation vary greatly over relatively short periods of time. This finding suggests that TIS studies should be more reflexive on system boundary setting both regarding the identification and analysis of core processes as well as in the formulation of policy advice.