Content and language integrated learning in OpenSimulator project. Results of a pilot implementation in Greece

The study presents the results of a pilot implementation of the Content and Language Integrated Learning in OpenSimulator Project-CLILiOP. Content and Language Integrated Learning together with constructivism provided the theoretical basis of the project. A multi-user virtual environment was developed using Opensimulator, which entailed a tour of the students’ avatars on a virtual island where they viewed and exchanged information in the English language regarding geographical terms and concepts. The project’s duration was ten weeks. A total of 105 students participated, divided into three groups: one used the application, the second was taught the same cognitive material using a conventional teaching method, but still under the scope of CLIL, while the third was conventionally taught. Results indicate that the learning outcomes of CLILiOP were better compared to the other two teaching methods, but also underline the need to further investigate the uses of 3D multi-user virtual environments in second language learning.     

Academic and Managerial Skills of Academic Deans: A self-assessment perspective

Brazilian higher education institutions face a complex and challenging environment as the national market in education is becoming more competitive. International investment, a decrease in the population of potential students, and the proliferation of innumerable small institutions add to this complexity. Organizations are becoming flatter and the key managers within them are deans. Although deans are required to act as managerial experts, they are usually selected from the teaching body of the institution. In this paper, a group of deans from a large private institution gave their self-assessment of their academic and managerial skills. The results revealed that they tend to have a high perception of their managerial skills, even though they have no previous managerial experience or formal training. This underlines that senior academic administrators cannot simply assume that deans, by the nature of their work environment, are proficient in managerial skills; neither that they can easily identify inadequacies nor have them self-corrected. To accomplish the necessary institutional changes to face the complexities of the current globalized education market, a new assessment culture has to be implemented in the academic environment.

     

Supervision of master theses based on Scrum: A case study

Education and Information Technologies - The success rate of a master program on Information Systems and Computer Engineering (MEIC) in a Portuguese university is very unsatisfactory, showing that...     

Teacher factors and perceived assessment practices needs of social studies teachers in Cross River State, Nigeria

This study evaluated perceived assessment practices needs among social studies teachers in Cross River State, Nigeria, in relation to some teacher factors (attitude towards social studies, sex, teaching experience and educational qualification). Subjects who participated in this study were 297 social studies teachers (144 males and 153 females) from 116 secondary schools in the state. Teacher Classroom Assessment Practices Needs Questionnaire (TCANQ) and Teacher Attitude towards social studies Inventory were used for data collection in the study. Cronbach coefficient alpha of .81 and .93 were obtained as estimate of construct validity and internal consistency reliability for the Teacher Classroom Assessment Practices Needs Questionnaire and the Teacher Attitude towards social studies Inventory respectively. Independent t-test, one way analysis of variance and Pearson Product Moment correlation were used to test the hypotheses. Results indicated that gender and teacher qualification significantly influence perceived assessment practices needs of social studies teachers. Significant positive relationship was observed between years of teaching experience and expressed assessment practices needs; and between attitude towards social studies and assessment needs. It was concluded that factors such as years of teaching experience, attitude towards social studies, gender and educational qualification significantly influence social studies teachers perceive priority needs in assessment practices.     

Using matrix norms to estimate the direction of arrival of planar waves on an ULA

SEAD method estimates the direction-of-arrival angles on an uniformly linear array based on the difference between the two largest singular values, what is called differential spectrum. Although it presented an outstanding performance, the ability to indicate the source positions was not elucidated yet. Inspired by the differential spectrum formulation we derived a total differential spectrum and found out that the matrix norm induced by the vector 2-norm of a modified spatial covariance matrix can be used to estimate the direction-of-arrival of multiple plane waves. Indeed we show that matrix norms are estimators and we propose their use instead of the singular value decomposition in SEAD-based methods. We present a general mathematical expression in order to explicit the operating principles of the proposed methods. Consequently, we were able to explain how the relation between the arriving and the search angles produces the larger peaks on the differential spectrum. To evaluate the important role played by matrix norms, a thousand experiments were carried out. They showed that the proposed approach proved to be as accurate as the previous SEAD-based methods, while providing a significant reduction on runtime. It also outperformed well-established methods like MODEX regarding the estimation error.     

Enhancement of myeloperoxidase activity in WBCS in oral cancer patients treated with Granulocyte Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor (GM-CSF)—A pilot study

In a pilot study with five oral cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy (RT) three were given Granulocyte Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor (GM-CSF) as a protective agent to reduce the mucosal inflammation during radiotherapy. The myeloperoxidase (MPO) enzyme activity in WBC was quantitated. The three patients showed a significant increase in the MPO activity when compared with two untreated controls indicating the efficacy of GM-CSF as a protective agent. It is suggested that further detailed studies with larger number of patients would be useful.     

POLYMERIZATION OF METHYL METHACRYLATE WITH IRON-YTTERBIUM DINUCLEAR METALLOCENE CATALYST

ＩＮＴＲＯＤＵＣＴＩＯＮＨｅｔｅｒｏｄｉｎｕｃｌｅａｒｃｏｍｐｌｅｘｅｓａｒｅｏｆｇｒｅａｔｉｎｔｅｒ ｅｓｔｆｏｒｔｈｅｓｔｕｄｙｏｆｓｙｎｅｒｇｉｓｔｉｃｅｆｆｅｃｔｓｆｏｕｎｄｉｎｂｉｍｅｔａｌｌｉｃｃａｔａｌｙｓｉｓ(Ｄｏｍｂｅｋ ,1 985;ＪｎＬｉｎｇｅｔａｌ.,1 993 ;Ｍｃｃｏｌｌｕｍｅｔａｌ.,1 996) .Ｍｏｒｅａｎｄｍｏｒｅｓｙｎｔｈｅｔｉｃｒｏｕｔｅｓｈａｖｅｂｅｅｎｒｅｐｏｒｔｅｄｉｎｔｈｅｌａｓｔｄｅｃａｄｅ(Ｈａｒｔｅｒｅｔａｌ.,1 989;Ｓｃｏｔｔｅｔａｌ.,1 993 ;Ｄｉａｍｏｎｄｅｔａｌ.…     

奥林匹克多元文化主义:走向文化相对主义

"7月9日,当世界杯足球赛决赛在柏林开赛时,这个星球上的五分之一人口,即10多亿人将在观看同一电视画面,这是世界历史进程中的一个新标志.     

The impact of exercise training on the lipid peroxidation metabolomic profile and respiratory infection risk in older adults

Aging is associated with oxidative stress that may increase susceptibility to respiratory infections (RIs). We aimed to assess the impact of exercise training on the risk of RIs in older adults and on a targeted metabolomic profile of stress oxidative lipid peroxidation-related metabolites. Methods: In an 8-month clinical trial, 38 participants over 60 years of age were allocated to an exercise group (EG), in which participants underwent 90-min training sessions three times/week(n?=?20), or a control group (CG), in which participants maintained daily physical activities(n?=?18). Daily respiratory symptoms and RIs number and severity were collected. Serum by-products were assessed by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry with time of flight analyzer. Serum metabolomic profiling comprised 76 metabolites (alcohols, aldehydes, alkanes, and ketones). Principal components analysis and ANOVA-simultaneous component analysis were used to evaluate the metabolomic profile change. Results: The odds ratio of RIs for the EG was 2.0 CI 95% [0.2;25]. The incidence of RIs was 47% [23;70] in the EG vs. 44%[12;77] in the CG. The metabolomic profiling showed that alkanes and aldehydes classes differed between the EG and the CG before and after intervention. A calibration model showed a relation between the metabolites from four main classes (ketones, alcohols, alkanes and aldehydes) and the prediction of the number of RIs. Conclusion: Moderate exercise training, in older adults, compared with no exercise in controls, did not show a difference in the risk of RIs. A pattern of lipid peroxidation was associated with the number of RIs.