How and where is artificial intelligence in the public sector going? A literature review and research agenda

To obtain benefits in the provision of public services, managers of public organizations have considerably increased the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. However, research on AI is still scarce, and the advance of this technology in the public sector, as well as the applications and results of this strategy, need to be systematized. With this goal in mind, this paper examines research related to AI as applied to the public sector. A review of the literature covering articles available in five research databases was completed using the PRISMA protocol for literature reviews. The search process yielded 59 articles within the scope of the study out of a total of 1682 studies. Results show a growing trend of interest in AI in the public sector, with India and the US as the most active countries. General public service, economic affairs, and environmental protection are the functions of government with the most studies related to AI. The Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) technique is the most recurrent in the investigated studies and was pointed out as a technique that provides positive results in several areas of its application. A research framework for AI solutions for the public sector is presented, where it is demonstrated that policies and ethical implications of the use of AI permeate all layers of application of this technology and the solutions can generate value for functions of government. However, for this, a prior debate with society about the use of AI in the public sector is recommended.     

The effect of an instructional intervention on middle school english learners' science and english reading achievement

This study examined the effect of a quasi‐experimental project on fifth grade English learners' achievement in state‐mandated standards‐based science and English reading assessment. A total of 166 treatment students and 80 comparison students from four randomized intermediate schools participated in the current project. The intervention consisted of on‐going professional development and specific instructional science lessons with inquiry‐based learning, direct and explicit vocabulary instruction, integration of reading and writing, and enrichment components including integration of technology, take‐home science activities, and university scientists mentoring. Results suggested a significant and positive intervention effect in favor of the treatment students as reflected in higher performance in district‐wide curriculum‐based tests of science and reading and standardized tests of oral reading fluency. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 987–1011, 2012     

La función autorreguladora del habla privada infantil: Un análisis crítico de las recientes discusiones de la teoría de Vygotski

Resumen

Recientes hallazgos empíricos han puesto en duda la teoría de Vygotski acerca de la función autorreguladora del habla privada infantil. En primer lugar, la mayoría de los estudios en este campo señalan la aparición de habla privada sólo en la mitad de los niños de sus muestras. Además, esos niños que efectivamente hablan emiten pocas verbalizaciones, de modo que la posible relevancia del habla privada en los procesos de solución de problemas queda seriamente cuestionada. Por otra parte, un gran número de estudios han tratado sin éxito de evidenciar una relación funcional entre el habla privada producida por los niños y el logro en las tareas cognitivas. El presente estudio se basa en la hipótesis de que la escasez de habla privada es un artefacto del paradigma de investigación usado habitualmente en los estudios recientes. También argumentamos que, desde la perspectiva vygotskiana, ésta tiende a aparecer asociada al fracaso en las tareas cognitivas porque tanto el habla privada como la probabilidad de fracaso se incrementan ante tareas difíciles. Un total de 32 preescolares fueron filmados en vídeo mientras realizaban tareas semánticas y perceptivas y sus verbalizaciones fueron transcritas y codificadas en categorías de habla social y privada. Los resultados indican que la condición más frecuentemente usada en los estudios recientes de hecho minimiza la producción de habla privada por parte de los niños y que los fracasos en las tareas se asocian con niveles más elevados de habla autorreguladora. A medida que el número de verbalizaciones autorreguladoras declina, aumentan los susurros y el habla musitada, apoyando la idea de Vygotski de que el habla privada no desaparece con la edad, sino que se va interiorizando hasta constituir el habla interior.     

Using the Web as corpus for self-training text categorization

Most current methods for automatic text categorization are based on supervised learning techniques and, therefore, they face the problem of requiring a great number of training instances to construct an accurate classifier. In order to tackle this problem, this paper proposes a new semi-supervised method for text categorization, which considers the automatic extraction of unlabeled examples from the Web and the application of an enriched self-training approach for the construction of the classifier. This method, even though language independent, is more pertinent for scenarios where large sets of labeled resources do not exist. That, for instance, could be the case of several application domains in different non-English languages such as Spanish. The experimental evaluation of the method was carried out in three different tasks and in two different languages. The achieved results demonstrate the applicability and usefulness of the proposed method.     

Kinematic comparisons of 1996 Olympic baseball pitchers

The aim of this study was to compare and evaluate the kinematics of baseball pitchers who participated in the 1996 XXVI Centennial Olympic Games. Two synchronized video cameras operating at 120 Hz were used to video 48 pitchers from Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, Cuba, Italy, Korea, Nicaragua and the USA. All pitchers were analysed while throwing the fastball pitch. Twenty-one kinematic parameters were measured at lead foot contact, during the arm cocking and arm acceleration phases, and at the instant of ball release. These parameters included stride length, foot angle and foot placement; shoulder abduction, shoulder horizontal adduction and shoulder external rotation; knee and elbow flexion; upper torso, shoulder internal rotation and elbow extension angular velocities; forward and lateral trunk tilt; and ball speed. A one-way analysis of variance (P ? 0.01) was used to assess kinematic differences. Shoulder horizontal adduction and shoulder external rotation at lead foot contact and ball speed at the instant of ball release were significantly different among countries. The greater shoulder horizontal abduction observed in Cuban pitchers at lead foot contact is thought to be an important factor in the generation of force throughout the arm cocking and arm acceleration phases, and may in part explain why Cuban pitchers generated the greatest ball release speed. We conclude that pitching kinematics are similar among baseball pitchers from different countries.     

The effects of developing English language and literacy on Spanish reading comprehension

In this longitudinal study, the cross-language transfer from second language (L2) to first language (L1) was examined among Spanish-speaking English-language learners in an English intervention (Grades 1–3) in the southwest United States. Path analysis revealed statistically significant transfers (ps < .05) for the treatment group from English reading comprehension to Spanish reading comprehension. English vocabulary and English grammar also had an indirect influence on Spanish reading comprehension through English reading comprehension. For the comparison group, no English to Spanish paths were statistically significant. We concluded that intervention activities in L2 influenced L1 reading even when L1 instructional time was reduced.     

Correction to: Kindergarten and First-Grade Students’ Understandings and Representations of Arithmetic Properties

Early Childhood Education Journal - The original version of this article unfortunately contained a typo in co-author name.     

Cognitive Brain Event-Related Potentials and Emotion Processing in Maltreated Children

Cognitive event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 23 maltreated and 21 nonmaltreated children. Children were presented with slides of Ekman photographs of asingle model posing an angry (25%), a happy (25%), or a neutral (50%) facial expression. In 1 of 2 counterbalanced target conditions, children were asked to press a button in response to the angry face; in the other target condition, they responded to the happy face. Both samples, as expected, exhibited the largest amplitude of the P300 component of the ERP to target stimuli and the smallest amplitude to nontargets. For nonmaltreated children, the average amplitude of P300 across slides was comparable for the 2 target conditions. In contrast, maltreated children displaed larger P300 ampltude to stimuli when they were directed to attend to angry, as opposd children displayed larger p300 amplitude to stimuli whe they were directed to attend to angry, as opposed to happy, targets. These reaults suggest different cognitive processing for positive versus negative affective expressions by children with histories of atypical emotiaonal exotional experiences.