Gifted students with a reading disability : the impact of lived experience

Gifted students who have a reading disability have learning characteristics that set them apart from their peers. The ability to read impacts upon all areas of the formal curriculum in which print-based texts are common. Therefore, the full intellectual development of gifted students with a reading disability can be repressed because their access to learning opportunities is reduced. When the different learning needs caused by concomitant giftedness and reading disability are not met, it can have serious implications for both academic achievement and the social-emotional wellbeing of these students. In order to develop a deeper understanding of this vulnerable group of students, this study investigated the learning characteristics of gifted students with a reading disability. Furthermore, it investigated how the learning characteristics of these students impact upon their lived experiences. Since achievement and motivation have been shown to be closely linked to self-efficacy, self-efficacy theory underpinned the conceptual framework of the study. The study used a descriptive case study approach to document the lived experiences of gifted students with a reading disability. Nine participants aged between 11 and 18, who were formally identified as gifted with a reading disability, took part in the study. Data sources in the case study database included: cognitive assessments, such as WISC assessments, Stanford Binet 5, or the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices; the WIAT II reading assessment; the Reader Self-Perception Scale; document reviews; parent and teacher checklists designed to gain information about the students' learning characteristics; and semi-structured interviews with students. The study showed that gifted students with a reading disability display a complex profile of learning strengths and weaknesses. As a result, they face a daily struggle of trying to reconcile the confusion of being able to complete some tasks to a high level, while struggling to read. The study sheds light on the myriad of issues faced by the students at school. It revealed that when the particular learning characteristics and needs of gifted students with a reading disability are recognised and met, these students can experience academic success, and avoid the serious social-emotional complications cited in previous studies. Indeed, rather than suffering from depression, disengagement from learning, and demotivation, these students were described as resilient, independent, determined, goal oriented and motivated to learn and persevere. Notably, the students in the study had developed effective coping strategies for dealing with the daily challenges they faced. These strategies are outlined in the thesis together with the advice students offered for helping other gifted students with a reading disability to succeed. Their advice is significant for all teachers who wish to nurture the potential of those students who face the challenge of being gifted with a reading disability, and for the parents of these students. This research advances knowledge pertaining to the theory of self-efficacy, and self-efficacy in reading specifically, by showing that although gifted students with a reading disability have low self-efficacy, the level is not the same for all aspects of reading. Furthermore, despite low self-efficacy in reading these students remained motivated. The study also enhances existing knowledge in the areas of gifted education and special education because it documents the lived experience of gifted students with a specific learning disability in reading from the students' perspectives. Based on a synthesis of the literature and research findings, an Inclusive Pathway Model is proposed that describes a framework to support gifted students with a reading disability so that they might achieve, and remain socially and emotionally well-adjusted. The study highlights the importance of clear identification protocols (such as the use of a range of assessment sources, discussions with students and parents, and an awareness of the characteristics of gifted students with a reading disability) and support mechanisms for assisting students (for example, differentiated reading instruction and the use of assistive technology).

Transcriptional regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis in nectarine (Prunus persica) by a set of R2R3 MYB transcription factors

Background Flavonoids such as anthocyanins, flavonols and proanthocyanidins, play a central role in fruit colour, flavour and health attributes. In peach and nectarine (Prunus persica) these compounds vary during fruit growth and ripening. Flavonoids are produced by a well studied pathway which is transcriptionally regulated by members of the MYB and bHLH transcription factor families. We have isolated nectarine flavonoid regulating genes and examined their expression patterns, which suggests a critical role in the regulation of flavonoid biosynthesis. Results In nectarine, expression of the genes encoding enzymes of the flavonoid pathway correlated with the concentration of proanthocyanidins, which strongly increases at mid-development. In contrast, the only gene which showed a similar pattern to anthocyanin concentration was UDP-glucose-flavonoid-3-O-glucosyltransferase (UFGT), which was high at the beginning and end of fruit growth, remaining low during the other developmental stages. Expression of flavonol synthase (FLS1) correlated with flavonol levels, both temporally and in a tissue specific manner. The pattern of UFGT gene expression may be explained by the involvement of different transcription factors, which up-regulate flavonoid biosynthesis (MYB10, MYB123, and bHLH3), or repress (MYB111 and MYB16) the transcription of the biosynthetic genes. The expression of a potential proanthocyanidin-regulating transcription factor, MYBPA1, corresponded with proanthocyanidin levels. Functional assays of these transcription factors were used to test the specificity for flavonoid regulation. Conclusions MYB10 positively regulates the promoters of UFGT and dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR) but not leucoanthocyanidin reductase (LAR). In contrast, MYBPA1 trans-activates the promoters of DFR and LAR, but not UFGT. This suggests exclusive roles of anthocyanin regulation by MYB10 and proanthocyanidin regulation by MYBPA1. Further, these transcription factors appeared to be responsive to both developmental and environmental stimuli.

Using a smartphone application for customer-centric banking

The banking industry is under pressure. In order to compete, banks should adapt to concentrating on the specific customer needs, following an outside-in perspective. This paper presents the design of a business model for banks that considers this development by providing flexible and comprehensive support for retail banking clients. It is demonstrated that the identification of customer processes and the consequent alignment of banking services to those processes implies great potential to increase customer retention in banking. It will be shown that information technology – especially smartphones – can serve as an interface between customer and suppliers to enable an alignment of offerings to customer processes. This approach enables the integration of banks into their customers’ lifestyle, creating emotional value added, improving the personal relationship and the customers’ affiliation with the bank. The paper presents the design of such a customer-process-centric smartphone application and derives success factors for implementation.

Application to set aside statutory demand

In C & E Pty Ltd v Corrigan [2006] QCA 47, the Queensland Court of Appeal considered whether r103 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules applied to the service of an application to set aside a statutory demand under s459G of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). The decision provides analysis and clarification of an issue that has clearly been one of some uncertainty.

Degradation modeling and monitoring of machines using operation-specific hidden Markov models

In this paper, a novel data-driven approach to monitoring of systems operating under variable operating conditions is described. The method is based on characterizing the degradation process via a set of operation-specific hidden Markov models (HMMs), whose hidden states represent the unobservable degradation states of the monitored system while its observable symbols represent the sensor readings. Using the HMM framework, modeling, identification and monitoring methods are detailed that allow one to identify a HMM of degradation for each operation from mixed-operation data and perform operation-specific monitoring of the system. Using a large data set provided by a major manufacturer, the new methods are applied to a semiconductor manufacturing process running multiple operations in a production environment.

Using extended random set to find specific patterns

With the overwhelming increase in the amount of data on the web and data bases, many text mining techniques have been proposed for mining useful patterns in text documents. Extracting closed sequential patterns using the Pattern Taxonomy Model (PTM) is one of the pruning methods to remove noisy, inconsistent, and redundant patterns. However, PTM model treats each extracted pattern as whole without considering included terms, which could affect the quality of extracted patterns. This paper propose an innovative and effective method that extends the random set to accurately weigh patterns based on their distribution in the documents and their terms distribution in patterns. Then, the proposed approach will find the specific closed sequential patterns (SCSP) based on the new calculated weight. The experimental results on Reuters Corpus Volume 1 (RCV1) data collection and TREC topics show that the proposed method significantly outperforms other state-of-the-art methods in different popular measures.

A review of efficiency measures for REITs and their specific application for Malaysian Islamic REITs

Purpose This paper aims to present a conceptual model on the efficiency of Islamic Real Estate Trusts (I-REITs) available in Malaysia. The key difference between the Islamic and their conventional investment vehicle part is mainly its own Shariah framework. Design/methodology/approach The paper reviews and synthesises the relevant literature on the performance analysis and efficiency measurements of Real Estate Investment Trusts. The paper then develops and proposes a conceptual model to measure the efficiency of Malaysian Islamic REITs. Findings The paper identifies and examines the appropriate methods and instruments to measure the efficiency in relation to the risk and profitability of Islamic REITs. The efficiency measure is important for the fund managers in order to maximise the shareholders’ return in an investment of property portfolio as well as proposing the best way to allocate resources efficiently. Research limitation/implications This is a preliminary review of current work that identifies the issues that will be addressed in future empirical research. The authors will be undertaking this future empirical research in measuring the efficiency of Malaysian REITs particularly the Islamic REITs using the non-parametric approach of Data Envelopment Analysis. Originality/value To date, there has been very limited research on the efficiency measurement of Islamic REITs. The current analysis of REIT has been focused on traditional non-Islamic funds. This paper will review and discuss the current literature on efficiency measurement to determine the most appropriate approaches and methodologies for future application in performance analysis of efficiency measure for Malaysian Islamic REITs.

Application of inverse filtering technique in power system studies

This paper demonstrates the application of inverse filtering technique for power systems. In order to implement this method, the control objective should be based on a system variable that needs to be set on a specific value for each sampling time. A control input is calculated to generate the desired output of the plant and the relationship between the two is used design an auto-regressive model. The auto-regressive model is converted to a moving average model to calculate the control input based on the future values of the desired output. Therefore, required future values to construct the output are predicted to generate the appropriate control input for the next sampling time.

Clinical application of biomarkers in prostate cancer in men with metabolic syndrome project: Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA) Positron Emission Tomography (PET) in diagnosing localised prostate cancer

Localised prostate cancer is a heterogenous disease and a multi-modal approach is required to accurately diagnose and stage the disease. Whilst the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become more common, small volume and multi-focal disease are oft en diffi cult to characterise. Prostate specifi c membrane antigen is a cell surface protein, which is expressed in nearly all prostate cancer cells. Its expression is signifi cantly higher in high grade prostate cancer cells. In this study, we compare multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging and 68-Gallinium-PSMA PET with whole-mount pathology of the prostate to evaluate the applicability of multiparameteric (MP) MRI and 68Ga-PSMA PET in detecting and locating tumour foci in patients with localised prostate cancer.

Toward Self-Organising Service Communities

This paper discusses a framework in which catalog service communities are built, linked for interaction, and constantly monitored and adapted over time. A catalog service community (represented as a peer node in a peer-to-peer network) in our system can be viewed as domain specific data integration mediators representing the domain knowledge and the registry information. The query routing among communities is performed to identify a set of data sources that are relevant to answering a given query. The system monitors the interactions between the communities to discover patterns that may lead to restructuring of the network (e.g., irrelevant peers removed, new relationships created, etc.).

Consumer appraisals of mobile marketing communications

This paper reports on a study that investigates the emotions elicited from appraising SMS-based mobile marketing (m-marketing) communications under three marketing conditions: product consistency, incentives and permission giving. Results from the experimental design show that appraising m-marketing communications elicits both single emotions and mixed emotions; that is, a mixture of positive and negative emotions in the same response. Additionally, the results show that the influence of specific marketing conditions may increase or reduce the intensity of the emotions elicited. This study contributes to marketing practice by examining consumer appraisals of m-marketing communications under different combinations of marketing conditions. The results provide insights into which emotions are likely to be elicited as a result, and how a specific marketing condition might influence their levels of intensity. The study contributes to marketing theory also through combining appraisal theory with Richins (1997) consumption emotion set.

Impediments to Cosmopolitan Engagement: Technology and Late-Modern Cosmopolitanism

What characterises late modern variety of cosmopolitanism from its classical predecessors is the inherent connection between cosmopolitanism and technology. Technology enables a vital dimension of the cosmopolitan experience – to move beyond the cosmopolitan imagination to enable active, direct engagement with other cultures. Different types of technologies contribute to cosmopolitan practice but in this paper we focus on a specific set of these enabling technologies: technologies which play a crucial role in regulating the free movement of people and populations. We briefly examine how three of the great surveillance states of the 20th century – Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and the German Democratic Republic – used hightech solutions in pursuing an anti-cosmopolitanism. We suggest that in the period from 2001 to the present, important elements of the cosmopolitan ethos are being closed down, and once again high-tech is intimately connected to this moment. The increasing (and proposed) use of identity cards, biometric identification systems, ITS and GIS all work to make the globalised world much harder to traverse and inhibit the full expression and experience of cosmopolitanism. The result of these trends may be that the type of cosmopolitan sentiment exhibited in western countries is an ersatz, emptied out variety with little political-ethical robustness.

IT service desk process improvement : a narrative style case study

This paper is a detailed case narrative on how a Faculty of a leading Australian University conducted a rigorous process improvement project, applying fundamental Business Process Management (BPM) concepts. The key goal was to increase the efficiency of the faculty’s service desk. The decrease of available funds due to reducing student numbers and the ever increasing costs associated with service desk prompted this project. The outcomes of the project presented a set of recommendations which leads to organizational innovation having information technology as an enabler for change. The target audience includes general BPM practitioners or academics who are interested in BPM related case studies, and specific organisations who might be interested in conducting BPM within their service desk processes.

here/there/then/now

here/there/then/now was a practice-led research project that brought together 10 independent artists in dance, music, theatre and visual/media arts to create a site-specific program within the walls of the Brisbane Powerhouse. The purpose was to explore how to best conceive flexible performance platforms, theatricalise site-specific work and engage new audiences through forms of promenade experience that could provide open choices on how and where to view it. The sold out season of 6 performances, which took place 14-19 May 2002, presented three discrete performance installations set in intimate parts of the building, each with their own aesthetic and communicative intention, culminating in a fourth in-theatre installation, where memories of the first three coalesced and were reinterrogated. Each site thereby investigated meaning-making via the moving body and its critical relationship with space and objects, in a dramatic re-contextualisation of traditional solo dance forms, now re-articulated through interdisciplinary practices. The benefit of this approach was the creation of a layered and multimodal experience that could be both shared and subsequently critiqued by performers and audience alike.

The lens of ludic engagement : evaluating participation in interactive art installations

Designers and artists have integrated recent advances in interactive, tangible and ubiquitous computing technologies to create new forms of interactive environments in the domains of work, recreation, culture and leisure. Many designs of technology systems begin with the workplace in mind, and with function, ease of use, and efficiency high on the list of priorities. [1] These priorities do not fit well with works designed for an interactive art environment, where the aims are many, and where the focus on utility and functionality is to support a playful, ambiguous or even experimental experience for the participants. To evaluate such works requires an integration of art-criticism techniques with more recent Human Computer Interaction (HCI) methods, and an understanding of the different nature of engagement in these environments. This paper begins a process of mapping a set of priorities for amplifying engagement in interactive art installations. I first define the concept of ludic engagement and its usefulness as a lens for both design and evaluation in these settings. I then detail two fieldwork evaluations I conducted within two exhibitions of interactive artworks, and discuss their outcomes and the future directions of this research.