The Impact of a Text-Reader Support Program on Intermediate Students' Reading Comprehension

This study examined the efficacy of providing four Grade 7 and 8 students with reading difficulties with explicit instruction in the use of reading comprehension strategies while using text-reader software. Specifically, the study explored participants' combined use of a text-reader and question-answering comprehension strategy during a 6-week instructional program. Using a qualitative case study methodology approach, participants' experiences using text-reader software, with the presence of explicit instruction in evidence-based reading comprehension strategies, were examined. The study involved three phases: (a) the first phase consisted of individual interviews with the participants and their parents; (b) the second phase consisted of a nine session course; and (c) the third phase consisted of individual exit interviews and a focus group discussion. After the data collection phases were completed, data were analyzed and coded for emerging themes, with-quantitativ,e measures of participants' reading performance used as descriptive data. The data suggested that assistive technology can serve as an instructional "hook", motivating students to engage actively in the reading processes, especially when accompanied by explicit strategy instruction. Participants' experiences also reflected development of strategy use and use of text-reader software and the importance of social interactions in developing reading comprehension skills. The findings of this study support the view that the integration of instruction using evidence-based practices are important and vital components in the inclusion oftext-reader software as part of students' educational programming. Also, the findings from this study can be extended to develop in-class programming for students using text-reader software.

A Scalability Study and New Algorithms for Large-Scale Many-Objective Optimization

Many real-world optimization problems contain multiple (often conflicting) goals to be optimized concurrently, commonly referred to as multi-objective problems (MOPs). Over the past few decades, a plethora of multi-objective algorithms have been proposed, often tested on MOPs possessing two or three objectives. Unfortunately, when tasked with solving MOPs with four or more objectives, referred to as many-objective problems (MaOPs), a large majority of optimizers experience significant performance degradation. The downfall of these optimizers is that simultaneously maintaining a well-spread set of solutions along with appropriate selection pressure to converge becomes difficult as the number of objectives increase. This difficulty is further compounded for large-scale MaOPs, i.e., MaOPs possessing large amounts of decision variables. In this thesis, we explore the challenges of many-objective optimization and propose three new promising algorithms designed to efficiently solve MaOPs. Experimental results demonstrate the proposed optimizers to perform very well, often outperforming state-of-the-art many-objective algorithms.

Network pricing problems : complexity, polyhedral study and solution approaches

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Characterization of Wastes from Natural Rubber and Rubber Wood Processing Industries and Their Utilization for Biomethanation

The research work which was carried out to characterization of wastes from natural rubber and rubber wood processing industries and their utilization for biomethanation. Environmental contamination is an inevitable consequence of human activity. The liquid and solid wastes from natural rubber based industries were: characterized and their use for the production of biogas investigated with a view to conserve conventional energy, and to mitigate environmental degradation.Rubber tree (flevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg.), is the most important commercial source of natural rubber and in india. Recently, pollution from the rubber processing factories has become very serious due to the introduction of modern methods and centralized group processing practices.The possibility of the use of spent slurry as organic manure is discussed.l0 percent level of PSD, the activity of cellulolytic, acid producing,proteolytic, lipolytic and methanogenic bacteria were more in the middle stage of methanogenesis.the liquid wastes from rubber processing used as diluents in combination with PSD, SPE promoted more biogas production with high methane content in the gas.The factors that favour methane production like TS, VS, cellulose and hemicellulose degradation were favoured in this treatment which led to higher methane biogenesis.The results further highlight ways and means to use agricultural wastes as alternative sources of energy.

The Koundoum sheep breed in Niger: morpho-biometric study and description of the production system

The diffusion of highly productive breeds across developing countries goes along with a neglect of indigenous breeds, which are well suited to their environment but often show low yields. Thus, in Niger, the flock of Koundoum sheep are rapidly decreasing. The Koundoum is one of the few wool sheep breeds of Africa and shows important adaptive feature to its native environment, i.e. the humid pastures on the banks of the Niger River. To characterise the breed and to understand its production context, a survey has been conducted in 104 herds in four communes along the Niger River (Kollo, Tillabery, Say and Tera). Nine body measurements, including live weight, were taken on 180 adult sheep (101 females and 79 males). The herds varied from 2 to 60 heads, with a median size of eight animals and two thirds of the herds having less than 10 animals. Mainly fed on natural pastures, 85.6% of the herds received crop residues. Only natural mating was practiced. Veterinary care was restricted to anti-helminthic and some indigenous treatments. The frequent affiliation of breeders to professional unions appeared as favourable to the implementation of a collective conservation program. The Koundoum sheep were white or black coated, with the black colour being most frequent (75.6%). Wattles were present in both sexes at similar frequencies of around 14%. All biometric variables were significantly and positively correlated between them. The thoracic perimeter showed the best correlation with live weight in both males and females. Three variables were selected for live weight prediction: thoracic perimeter, height at withers and rump length. From the present study, it is expected that the in situ conservation of the Koundoum sheep will be highly problematic, due to lack of market opportunities for wool and the willingness of smallholders to get involved in pure Koundoum rearing.

Research and teaching: a holy or an unholy alliance?

Much of the self-image of the Western university hangs on the idea that research and teaching are intimately connected. The central axiom here is that research and teaching are mutually supportive of each other. An institution lacking such a set of relationships between research and teaching falls short of what it means to be a university. This set of beliefs raises certain questions: Is it the case that the presence of such a mutually supportive set of relationships between research and teaching is a necessary condition of the fulfilment of the idea of the university? (A conceptual question). And is it true that, in practice today, such a mutually supportive set of relationships between research and teaching characterises universities? (An empirical question). In my talk, I want to explore these matters in a critical vein. I shall suggest that: a) In practice today, such a mutually supportive set of relationships between research and teaching is in jeopardy. Far from supporting each other, very often research and teaching contend against each other. Research and teaching are becoming two separate ideologies, with their own interest structures. b) Historically, the supposed tight link between research and teaching is both of recent origin and far from universally achieved in universities. Institutional separateness between research and teaching is and has been evident, both across institutions and even across departments in the same institution. c) Conceptually, research and teaching are different activities: each is complex and neither is reducible to the other. In theory, therefore, research and teaching may be said to constitute a holy alliance but in practice, we see more of an unholy alliance. If, then, in an ideal world, a positive relationship between research and teaching is still a worthwhile goal, how might it be construed and worked for? Seeing research and teaching as two discrete and unified sets of activity is now inadequate. Much better is a construal of research and teaching as themselves complexes, as intermingling pools of activity helping to form the liquid university that is emerging today. On this view, research and teaching are fluid spaces, ever on the move, taking up new shapes, and themselves dividing and reforming, as the university reworks its own destiny in modern society. On such a perspective, working out a productive relationship between research and teaching is a complex project. This is an alliance that is neither holy nor unholy. It is an uneasy alliance, with temporary accommodations and continuous new possibilities

Curs DOW-ETSEQ. Una experiència docent compartida entre la URV i l'empresa DOW

Presentació del curs DOW – ETSEQ, que té l’objectiu de formar en continguts, valors i actituds i aportar informació de última generació sobre seguretat, medi ambient i qualitat

Utilización de laboratorios virtuales como soporte para la docencia de prácticas de laboratorio en Ingeniería de Materiales

En el presente trabajo se plantea como objetivo principal la optimización del proceso enseñanza-aprendizaje en la docencia de prácticas de laboratorio, caracterizadas por la limitación de equipamientos específicos, en el campo de las Ingenierías y concretamente el Ingeniería de Materiales, mediante un planteamiento innovador basado en el uso de laboratorios virtuales. Para ello se deben cubrir una serie de objetivos parciales, pero no por ello menos importantes, como favorecer el incremento de la participación de los estudiantes durante su proceso de formación experimental haciendo esta docencia interactiva, flexibilizar el proceso enseñanza-aprendizaje adecuándolo a las posibilidades y necesidades de cada alumno, y aumentar la calidad de la docencia de prácticas de laboratorio. Además hay que convertir a los alumnos en los principales protagonistas del proceso enseñanza-aprendizaje en la educación superior, mediante un planteamiento innovador

Utilització de proves d'autoavaluació en una intranet docent

En aquest treball s’analitza quin ha estat l’ús de les proves d’autoavaluació accessibles a la plataforma docent de la Universitat de Girona per part d’un total de quatre-cents setanta estudiants matriculats en tres assignatures dels estudis d’Enginyeria Tècnica Agrícola, especialitats Indústries Agràries i Alimentàries i Explotacions Agropecuàries, de l’Escola Politècnica Superior al llarg dels darrers cinc cursos acadèmics. Les proves d’autoavaluació plantejades eren del tipus resposta tancada i la seva resposta era voluntària ja que la realització de les proves no intervenia en el còmput de la qualificació final de l’assignatura. De tota manera, en les activitats d’avaluació de les diferents assignatures, que consistien fonamentalment en exàmens parcials i finals, hi havia una part de qüestions amb un format similar al de les preguntes disponibles en la plataforma docent. S’ha observat que els alumnes que responien les proves d’autoavaluació es presentaven més als exàmens i aprovaven més les assignatures que els que no accedien a la intranet docent per a respondre les qüestions disponibles. Malgrat això, hi ha un nombre important d’alumnes que no realitzaven aquestes proves, probablement perquè no puntuaven per a la qualificació final de les assignatures

Anàlisi de les competències de gestió de projectes a alumnes d'enginyeria

Per la importància de l'àrea de les competències en l'educació superior europea i amb l'objectiu d'adaptar-les a la Declaració de Bologna, el nostre grup de treball va decidir fa dos anys testar i avaluar-les, realitzant un estudi a estudiants amb l'objectiu de conèixer més a fons la situació actual d’aquestes competències. Aquest anàlisi és necessari per aconseguir dissenyar una base de competències universitària el més correcte possible. Aquest article reflecteix l'anàlisi i l'evolució de competències en Gestió de Projectes utilitzant una aplicació informàtica anomenada Cycloid, participant estudiants de primer curs d'Enginyeria en Industries Agroalimentàries i Explotacions agropecuàries i Enginyeria del Disseny Industrial i Desenvolupament de Producte de l'Escola Politècnica Superior de la Universitat de Girona. El propòsit d'aquesta eina d'avaluació de competències anomenada Cycloid (TIC) es basa en una aplicació que ens ajuda en el procés d'avaluació de trenta competències concretes, personals i socials que poden ser distribuïdes en sis grans grups. Aquest model, identifica una feina genèrica en gestió de projectes, com una persona pot preparar-se per planificar, organitzar, dirigir i avaluar treballs complexos o projectes que requereixen una interacció sòlida i freqüent amb un altre grup de gent per planificar tot el projecte. En aquestes circumstàncies, els estudiants són adequats per avaluar els projectes personals i en termes generals, els estudis com a projecte. Al final, compararem diferents perfils d'estudiants en termes de situacions de treball i / o estudis. L'objectiu d'aquest anàlisi és millorar la qualitat de l'educació utilitzant el coneixement adquirit a través de les competències individuals. El nostre propòsit és obtenir resultats que ens indiquin quina és la situació actual i que és el que els alumnes voldrien millorar amb el temps (en gestió de projectes). Els estudiants, obtindran un títol i un nivell d'aprenentatge quan demostrin coneixement implícit dels seus estudis. Actualment, també han de demostrar un coneixement explícit a través de les competències. Aquesta avaluació individual descobrirà en què els estudiants estan més ben posicionats. Aquesta informació, ens serà útil en el moment d'elaborar un nou ensenyament i objectiu de mètodes d'ensenyament. Al mateix temps, donarà una informació important pels professors i universitats en termes de competències individuals i de grup

[Ressenya del llibre Rediscovering geography: new relevance for science and society, de Rediscovering Geography Committee, National Research Council]

El llibre ressenyat pretén ser una síntesi i una avaluació de la situació de la geografia als Estats Units. Estructurat en vuit capítols, els sis primers són una anàlisi de diversos aspectes de la geografia i els dos últims expliquen quina estratègia hauria de portar-se a terme per enfortir el paper de la geografia en el món acadèmic i en la societat en general

EdShare: collaboration in a University for learning and teaching

Poster for the School of Electronics and Computer Science, Learning Societies Lab Open Day, 27 February 2008 at the University of Southampton. Profile and presentation of the EdShare resource. The poster illustrates the philosophy of EdShare, how it relates to the Web 2.0 environment and its relationship to the education agenda in a University.

EdShare: collaboration in a University for learning and teaching

Poster for the Learning Societies Laboratory, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton Open Day, Wednesday 27 February 2008.

EdShare: collaboration in a University for learning and teaching

Poster for the Learning Societies Laboratory, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton Open Day, Wednesday 27 February 2008.