Design, development and assessment of the Java Intelligent Tutoring System

The "Java Intelligent Tutoring System" (JITS) research project focused on designing, constructing, and determining the effectiveness of an Intelligent Tutoring System for beginner Java programming students at the postsecondary level. The participants in this research were students in the School of Applied Computing and Engineering Sciences at Sheridan College. This research involved consistently gathering input from students and instructors using JITS as it developed. The cyclic process involving designing, developing, testing, and refinement was used for the construction of JITS to ensure that it adequately meets the needs of students and instructors. The second objective in this dissertation determined the effectiveness of learning within this environment. The main findings indicate that JITS is a richly interactive ITS that engages students on Java programming problems. JITS is equipped with a sophisticated personalized feedback mechanism that models and supports each student in his/her learning style. The assessment component involved 2 main quantitative experiments to determine the effectiveness of JITS in terms of student performance. In both experiments it was determined that a statistically significant difference was achieved between the control group and the experimental group (i.e., JITS group). The main effect for Test (i.e., pre- and postiest), F( l , 35) == 119.43,p < .001, was qualified by a Test by Group interaction, F( l , 35) == 4.98,p < .05, and a Test by Time interaction, F( l , 35) == 43.82, p < .001. Similar findings were found for the second experiment; Test by Group interaction revealed F( 1 , 92) == 5.36, p < .025. In both experiments the JITS groups outperformed the corresponding control groups at posttest.

Development of techniques for testing the effect of the E1 region on adenovirus integration /

Adenoviral vectors are currently the most widely used gene therapeutic vectors, but their inability to integrate into host chromosomal DNA shortened their transgene expression and limited their use in clinical trials. In this project, we initially planned to develop a technique to test the effect of the early region 1 (E1) on adenovirus integration by comparing the integration efficiencies between an E1-deleted adenoviral vector (SubE1) and an Elcontaining vector (SubE3). However, we did not harvest any SubE3 virus, even if we repeated the transfection and successfully rescued the SubE1 virus (2/4 transfections generated viruses) and positive control virus (6/6). The failure of rescuing SubE3 could be caused by the instability of the genomic plasmid pFG173, as it had frequent intemal deletions when we were purifying It. Therefore, we developed techniques to test the effect of E1 on homologous recombination (HR) since literature suggested that adenovirus integration is initiated by HR. We attempted to silence the E1 in 293 cells by transfecting E1A/B-specific small interfering RNA (siRNA). However, no silenced phenotype was observed, even if we varied the concentrations of E1A/B siRNA (from 30 nM to 270 nM) and checked the silencing effects at different time points (48, 72, 96 h). One possible explanation would be that the E1A/B siRNA sequences are not potent enough to Induce the silenced phenotype. For evaluating HR efficiencies, an HR assay system based on bacterial transfonmatJon was designed. We constmcted two plasmids ( designated as pUC19-dl1 and pUC19-dl2) containing different defective lacZa cassettes (forming white colonies after transformation) that can generate a functional lacZa cassette (forming blue colonies) through HR after transfecting into 293 cells. The HR efficiencies would be expressed as the percentages of the blue colonies among all the colonies. Unfortunately, after transfonnation of plasmid isolated from 293 cells, no colony was found, even at a transformation efficiency of 1.8x10^ colonies/pg pUC19, suggesting the sensitivity of this system was low. To enhance the sensitivity, PCR was used. We designed a set of primers that can only amplify the recombinant plasmid fomied through HR. Therefore, the HR efficiencies among different treatments can be evaluated by the amplification results, and this system could be used to test the effect of E1 region on adenovirus integration. In addition, to our knowledge there was no previous studies using PCR/ Realtime PCR to evaluate HR efficiency, so this system also provides a PCR-based method to carry out the HR assays.

Construing social dimensions of personality development: nurses as educators

A convenience sample of twenty registered nurses was recruited from two' general hospitals and two community college nursing schools. Kelly's (1955) Personal Construct Theory provided the theoretical framework to discover how nurses perceived themselves as educators. The nurses completed a self-administered Self-Perception Inventory (Soares, 1983) to determine their perception of self as nurse and ideal self as nurse. In an interview, each of the nurses constructed a rank-order repertory grid adapted from Kelly's (1955) Role Repertory Construct Test. Twelve constructs derived from the Self-Perception Inventory (Soares, 1983) were ranked according to a list of ten elements common to a teaching situation. Rank order correlations among the constructs were determined with Spearman's rho. Using a dependent samples t-test, significant differences were found between perceptions of current and ideal self for staff nurses. Significant differences were also found between nurse educators' perceptions of self and ideal self as nurse. No significant differences were determined in perceptions of self as nurse and ideal self as nurse between the staff nurse and nurse educator groups with an independent samples t-test. However, observations of single constructs revealed that although several constructs are shared between the groups in the perception of self in a teaching situation, both groups hold constructs that operate exclusively in their separate domains. The nature and strength of the relationships between the common and unique constructs are different for each group. Nurses I self-perceptions appear to be influenced by the historical development of nursing, role socialization during nursing education, social expectations and gender issues in the health care system.

Co-operative education and the development of self-esteem, an internal locus of control and work habits

This study compared approximately 50 grade 12 students studying In th~ co-operative education mode with approximately 50 grade 12 students studying in a traditional English course. Measures of self-esteem, locus of control and work habits were compared before and at the conclusion of one semester's involvement in the different programs. Using Coopersmith's Self-Esteem Inventory, the students who had chosen to study in the co-operative education mode scored significantly higher than the students in the traditional course. At the end of the semester, the co-operative education students' scores remained significantly higher than the English students'. Although the test showed no sjgnifi~ant changes in self-esteem. anecdotal reports indicated that co-operative education students had increased self-esteem over the semester. No significant differences in locus of control were observed between the two groups at any time. Significant differences in work habits were observed. While both groups had the same number of absences and the same marks before taking these courses, students who were involved in co-operative education had significantly fewer absences and significantly higher marks than the students studying in the traditional course. Anecdotal reports also indicated an improv~ment in work habits for students who had been involved in co-operative education. Recommendations of the study are for further research to determine more exactly how self-esteem and work habits develop in co-operative education students. Also. students. parents, teachers. and administrators need to be made aware of the success of this program.

The effects of computer assisted interactive fiction on the development of reading comprehension in grade five students

This study was undertaken in order to determine the effects of playing computer based text adventure games on the reading comprehension gains of students. Forty-five grade five students from one elementary school were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups, and were tested with regard to ability, achievement and reading skills. An experimental treatment, consisting of playing computer based interactive fiction games of the student's choice for fifteen minutes each day over an eight-week period, was administered. A comparison treatment engaged the control group in sustained silent reading of materials of the student's choice for an equal period of time. Following the experimental period all students were post-tested with an alternate form of the pre-test in reading skills, and gain scores were analysed. It was found that there were no significant differences in the gain scores of the experimental and control groups for overall reading comprehenSion, but the experimental group showed greater gains than the control group in the structural analysis reading sub-skill. Extreme variance in the data made generalization very difficult, but the findings indicated a potential for computer based interactive fiction as a useful tool for developing reading sl

Toward a grounded theory of trigger events and leadership development in early adulthood

The purpose of this research study was to develop a conceptual model through the use of a grounded theory approach, which explains how trigger events are related to leadership development. Trigger events are experience that cause developmental growth and may result in an increased ability to lead (Luthans and Avolio (2003). In this study, there were two phases of data collection. First participants completed the Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUSCT), where their respective leadership developmental stage was measured. Second, participants were involved in two in-depth interviews where an understanding was reached as to how various trigger events have impacted their leadership development. From these data, a conceptual model was developed to explain the relationship between trigger events and leadership development. Participants described trigger events as being important developmental periods, during which time they grew as people and became more capable leaders.

Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms might be destroying your intimacy : a test of mediational models in a community sample of couples

The present research focused on the pathways through which the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may negatively impact intimacy. Previous research has confirmed a link between self-reported PTSD symptoms and intimacy; however, a thorough examination of mediating paths, partner effects, and secondary traumatization has not yet been realized. With a sample of 297 heterosexual couples, intraindividual and dyadic models were developed to explain the relationships between PTSD symptoms and intimacy in the context of interdependence theory, attachment theory, and models of selfpreservation (e.g., fight-or-flight). The current study replicated the findings of others and has supported a process in which affective (alexithymia, negative affect, positive affect) and communication (demand-withdraw behaviour, self-concealment, and constructive communication) pathways mediate the intraindividual and dyadic relationships between PTSD symptoms and intimacy. Moreover, it also found that the PTSD symptoms of each partner were significantly related; however, this was only the case for those dyads in which the partners had disclosed most everything about their traumatic experiences. As such, secondary traumatization was supported. Finally, although the overall pattern of results suggest a total negative effect of PTSD symptoms on intimacy, a sex difference was evident such that the direct effect of the woman's PTSD symptoms were positively associated with both her and her partner's intimacy. I t is possible that the Tend-andBefriend model of threat response, wherein women are said to foster social bonds in the face of distress, may account for this sex difference. Overall, however, it is clear that PTSD symptoms were negatively associated with relationship quality and attention to this impact in the development of diagnostic criteria and treatment protocols is necessary.

The development of norm-based coding and category-specific face prototypes : an examination of 5- and 8-year-olds' face space

The present set of experiments was designed to investigate the organization and refmement of young children's face space. Past research has demonstrated that adults encode individual faces in reference to a distinct face prototype that represents the average of all faces ever encountered. The prototype is not a static abstracted norm but rather a malleable face average that is continuously updated by experience (Valentine, 1991); for example, following prolonged viewing of faces with compressed features (a technique referred to as adaptation), adults rate similarly distorted faces as more normal and more attractive (simple attractiveness aftereffects). Recent studies have shown that adults possess category-specific face prototypes (e.g., based on race, sex). After viewing faces from two categories (e.g., Caucasian/Chinese) that are distorted in opposite directions, adults' attractiveness ratings simultaneously shift in opposite directions (opposing aftereffects). The current series of studies used a child-friendly method to examine whether, like adults, 5- and 8-year-old children show evidence for category-contingent opposing aftereffects. Participants were shown a computerized storybook in which Caucasian and Chinese children's faces were distorted in opposite directions (expanded and compressed). Both before and after adaptation (i.e., reading the storybook), participants judged the normality/attractiveness of a small number of expanded, compressed, and undistorted Caucasian and Chinese faces. The method was first validated by testing adults (Experiment I ) and was then refined in order to test 8- (Experiment 2) and 5-yearold (Experiment 4a) children. Five-year-olds (our youngest age group) were also tested in a simple aftereffects paradigm (Experiment 3) and with male and female faces distorted in opposite directions (Experiment 4b). The current research is the first to demonstrate evidence for simple attractiveness aftereffects in children as young as 5, thereby indicating that similar to adults, 5-year-olds utilize norm-based coding. Furthermore, this research provides evidence for racecontingent opposing aftereffects in both 5- and 8-year-olds; however, the opposing aftereffects demonstrated by 5-year-olds were driven largely by simple aftereffects for Caucasian faces. The lack of simple aftereffects for Chinese faces in 5-year-olds may be reflective of young children's limited experience with other-race faces and suggests that children's face space undergoes a period of increasing differentiation over time with respect to race. Lastly, we found no evidence for sex -contingent opposing aftereffects in 5-year-olds, which suggests that young children do not rely on a fully adult-like face space even for highly salient face categories (i.e., male/female) with which they have comparable levels of experience.

The development of a Flanders Interaction Analysis style instrument for use in educational computer mediated communication research

Please consult the paper edition of this thesis to read. It is available on the 5th Floor of the Library at Call Number: Z 9999 E38 D56 1992

Development of a New Assessment System to Evaluate Students' English Communicative Capacities in China

The purpose of this study was to develop a new English assessment system to evaluate Chinese students' English communicative capacities. Since there is more interaction with people from English-speaking countries, Chinese people attach more importance to English oral skills, and a lot of Western English teaching methods were introduced into China to improve students' English communicative capacities. However, traditional paper-written examinations, like the English test of higher education entry examination, cannot evaluate it effectively. This study explored the perceptions of two Chinese English-language teachers and two Chinese students about English assessment system. A qualitative research method using telephone interviews was conducted in this study. The findings showed that the most possible ways to assess Chinese students' English communicative capacities were paper-written examination and person-machine conversations, although measures should be taken to improve these two models. On the other hand, the model of person-person conversation was the ideal assessment tool but was hard to achieve at the current stage.

Methoxypyrazine removal in grape juice: Development of a removal system using odorant and pheromone binding proteins coupled with bentonite fining

Multicoloured Asian Lady Beetles (MALB) and 7-spot Lady Beetles that infect vineyards can secrete alkyl-methoxypyrazines when they are processed with the grapes, resulting in wines containing a taint. The main methoxypyrazine associated with this taint is 3-isopropyl-2-methoxypyrazine (IPMP). The wines are described as having aroma and flavours of peanut butter, peanut shells, asparagus and earthy which collectively, have become known as “ladybug taint”. To date, there are no known fining agents used commercially added to juice or wine that are effective in removing this taint. The goal of this project was to use previously identified proteins with an ability to bind to methoxypyrazines at low pH, and subsequently develop a binding assay to test the ability of these proteins to bind to and remove methoxypyrazines from grape juice. The piglet odorant binding protein (plOBP) and mouse major urinary protein (mMUP) were identified, cloned and expressed in the Pichia pastoris expression system. Protein expression was induced using methanol and the proteins were subsequently purified from the induction media using anion exchange chromatography. The purified proteins were freeze-dried and rehydrated prior to use in the methoxypyrazine removal assay. The expression and purification system resulted in yields of approximately 78% of purified plOBP and 62% of purified mMUP from expression to rehydration. Purified protein values were 87 mg of purified plOPB per litre of induction media and 19 mg of purified mMUP per litre of induction medium. In order to test the ability of the protein to bind to the MPs, an MP removal assay was developed. In the assay, the purified protein is incubated with either IPMP or 3-isobutyl-2-methoxypyrazine (IBMP) for two hours in either buffer or grape juice. Bentonite is then used to capture the protein-MP complex and the bentonite-protein-MP complex is then removed from solution by filtration. Residual MP is measured in solution following the MP removal assay and compared to that in the starting solution by Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS). GC/MS results indicated that the mMUP was capable of removing IBMP and IPMP from 300 ng/L in buffer pH 4.0, buffer pH 3.5 and Riesling Juice pH 3.5 down to the limit of quantification of the instrument, which is 6ng/L and 2ng/L for IBMP and IPMP, respectively. The results for the plOBP showed that although it could remove some IBMP, it was only approximately 50-70 ng/L more than bentonite treatment followed by filtration, resulting in approximately 100 ng/L of the MPs being left in solution. pIOBP was not able to remove IPMP in buffer pH 3.5 using this system above that removed by bentonite alone. As well, the pIOBP was not able to remove any additional MPs from Chardonnay juice pH 3.5 above that already removed by the bentonite and filtration alone. The mouse MUP was shown to be a better candidate protein for removal of MPs from juice using this system.