Entrenamiento en habilidades cognitivas y enriquecimiento motivacional : nuevas tecnologías para la Educación Compensatoria.

Crear un programa integrado para el desarrollo cognitivo y motivacional dirigido a alumnos del segundo ciclo de EGB, especialmente desfavorecidos, evaluando su eficacia. Consta de 3 partes: 1. Examina la viabilidad del material del Proyecto Inteligencia, elaborado por la Universidad de Harvard. Incluye 6 trabajos que evalúan la fundamentación teórica de cada subprograma, la interacción entre ellos, el grado de generalización de las habilidades entrenadas y la posibilidad de que actúen como criterio predictor del rendimiento. 2. Incluye un trabajo valorativo de otros programas de entrenamiento de habilidades cognitivas. 3. Procede a la estandarización y validación de pruebas de evaluación de aspectos motivacionales. Estudia la eficacia diferencial de un entrenamiento atribucional o de autoinstrucciones ante una situación de fracaso. De una muestra de 1000 ss. en edad escolar se extraen para cada subprograma dos muestras pertenecientes a colegios diferentes de niños de segundo ciclo de EGB y que puntúan bajo o medio en las pruebas: fundamentos de razonamiento (30 ss. grupo experimental y 24 ss. grupo control), razonamiento verbal (32 ss. y 31 ss. respectivamente), comprensión lectora (27 y 27), solución de problemas (29 y 29), toma de decisiones (30 y 25) y pensamiento inventivo (32 ss. grupo experimental y 25 grupo control). 6 Trabajos empíricos independientes que evalúan cada uno de los subprogramas del Proyecto Inteligencia (Harvard, 1983). Diseños intergrupo, pretest posttest. Grupos nivelados en rendimiento inicial. Variable dependiente: rendimiento evaluado según pruebas que incluye el programa inteligencia. Variable independiente: aplicación del programa (grupo experimental) o no aplicación (grupo control). En todos los casos los análisis se refieren al efecto del programa, grado de generalización de las habilidades entrenadas e interacción entre los distintos subprogramas (posibilidad de predecir rendimientos). Las diferencias entre el grupo control y el experimental en el pretest no fueron significativas. La ganancia del grupo experimental es mayor que la del grupo control. Cierta generalización de las habilidades entrenadas a problemas de estructura similar. Los niveles previos en cada subprograma no predicen el rendimiento posterior en otros programas, ni a la inversa. Dentro del mismo programa se observa, en algunos casos, cierta correlación que indica que los sujetos con niveles más bajos son los más beneficiados por el programa. Independencia en los efectos de los distintos subprogramas, por lo que pueden aplicarse de forma independiente. En caso de aplicarlos en bloque, su efecto es aditivo, no hay modificación cognitiva estructural. Menciona la escasa duración de los programas y la necesidad de reestructurar los materiales dándoles un enfoque de metaconocimiento. Así mismo se apunta la necesidad de desarrollar instrumentos de evaluación más precisos que identifiquen procesos y productos.

Entrenamiento de habilidades cognitivas y enriquecimiento motivacional : nuevas tecnologías para la Educación Compensatoria.

Elaborar y analizar cuestionarios con bases teóricas y empíricas que evalúen motivación, estilo atributivo y expectativas de control. Examinar el efecto diferencial entre un entrenamiento atribucional y otro en autoinstrucciones como forma de superar una situación de fracaso. Construcción y validación de cuestionarios: 1202 sujetos de segundo ciclo de EGB, divididos en muestras, una de Madrid y otra de Bilbao. Para la eficacia de los programas de entrenamiento atribucional: 90 sujetos de sexto y séptimo de EGB. Construcción y validación de cuestionarios: tras la selección de la muestra, controlando las variables sexo, curso y nivel socioeconómico, los sujetos rellenan los cuestionarios elaborados más uno de inteligencia (factor G). Se recogen las calificaciones de los alumnos. Validez de constructo: correlaciones teóricas y reales entre cuestionarios. Entrenamiento motivacional: diseño intergrupo, pretest posttest. Variable independiente: tipo de programa (atribucional vs. autoinstrucciones)/, nivel de dificultad de la tarea y trabajar con la misma o diferente tarea. Variables dependientes: conductas instrumentales y atribucionales. Cuestionarios: se obtienen estructuras factoriales parecidas en las dos submuestras. Las pruebas presentan fiabilidad y validez adecuadas. Los cuestionarios tienen capacidad predictiva alta, si se asocian con el test de factor G de Cattell. Estructuras factoriales: MAPE: incluye 3 factores de segundo orden (motivación de evitación de juicios negativos de competencia y consecución de juicios positivos vs. motivación por el aprendizaje o incremento de competencia, vagancia vs. disposición al esfuerzo y motivación de lucimiento; estos factores integran 8 de primer orden). ETA: 2 escalas, una referida a aspectos académicos y otra a aspectos interpersonales, el ETA académico incluye tres factores de segundo orden (indefensión, internalización del éxito académico e internalización y controlabilidad vs. externalización e incontrolabilidad; ambas escalas poseen cierta independencia). Y ECO, que aisla dos factores de segundo orden (expectativas de controlabilidad vs. expectativas de no controlabilidad en los resultados académicos futuros y otro factor con igual nombre pero con estructura factorial distinta). Respecto a los programas de enriquecimiento motivacional las respuestas instrumentales pueden aprenderse con facilidad. Así mismo, los efectos de la internalización dependen de la experiencia previa de éxito o fracaso. Se presentan 3 instrumentos de evaluación que pueden ser muy valiosos a la hora de pronosticar el rendimiento, especialmente si se asocian a pruebas de inteligencia. Los resultados indican cualidades psicométricas satisfactorias. Por otro lado, se enfatiza la necesidad de un entrenamiento instrumental para afrontar situaciones de fracaso en cualquier programa de enriquecimiento motivacional. Reseñas de aspectos y cuestiones que necesitan más investigación.

Didáctica del arte del siglo XX a través de la visita a dos museos : guías didácticas.

Material que recoge dos propuestas de didáctica del arte a partir de la visita a museos. En primer lugar, las actividades giran en torno a la visita al museo Thyssen. Esta guía pretende abordar el hecho artístico actual, interrelacionando objetivos del área Visual y Plástica y de Ciencias Sociales, así como de la Historia del Arte en el nivel de Bachillerato. En el segundo caso, se trata del museo Reina Sofía y se divide en dos partes. Por un lado, documentación para el profesor, que intenta ser un acercamiento al siglo XX en Europa y España desde una perspectiva de las artes plásticas. Por otro lado, ejemplos con actividades para los alumnos.

The effectiveness of assessment learning objects produced using pair programming

Pair Programming is a technique from the software development method eXtreme Programming (XP) whereby two programmers work closely together to develop a piece of software. A similar approach has been used to develop a set of Assessment Learning Objects (ALO). Three members of academic staff have developed a set of ALOs for a total of three different modules (two with overlapping content). In each case a pair programming approach was taken to the development of the ALO. In addition to demonstrating the efficiency of this approach in terms of staff time spent developing the ALOs, a statistical analysis of the outcomes for students who made use of the ALOs is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the ALOs produced via this method.

Example uses of a learning object

A self study course for learning to program using the C programming language has been developed. A Learning Object approach was used in the design of the course. One of the benefits of the Learning Object approach is that the learning material can be reused for different purposes. 'Me course developed is designed so that learners can choose the pedagogical approach most suited to their personal learning requirements. For all learning approaches a set of common Assessment Learning Objects (ALOs or tests) have been created. The design of formative assessments with ALOs can be carried out by the Instructional Designer grouping ALOs to correspond to a specific assessment intention. The course is non-credit earning, so there is no summative assessment, all assessment is formative. In this paper examples of ALOs and their uses is presented together with their uses as decided by the Instructional Designer and learner. Personalisation of the formative assessment of skills can be decided by the Instructional Designer or the learner using a repository of pre-designed ALOs. The process of combining ALOs can be carried out manually or in a semi-automated way using metadata that describes the ALO and the skill it is designed to assess.

Intratemporal facial nerve ultrastructure in patients with idiopathic facial paralysis. Viral infection evidence study

The etiology of idiopathic peripheral facial palsy (IPFP) is still uncertain; however, some authors suggest the possibility of a viral infection. Aim: to analyze the ultrastructure of the facial nerve seeking viral evidences that might provide etiological data. Material and Methods: We studied 20 patients with peripheral facial palsy (PFP), with moderate to severe FP, of both genders, between 18-60 years of age, from the Clinic of Facial Nerve Disorders. The patients were broken down into two groups - Study: eleven patients with IPFP and Control: nine patients with trauma or tumor-related PFP. The fragments were obtained from the facial nerve sheath or from fragments of its stumps - which would be discarded or sent to pathology exam during the facial nerve repair surgery. The removed tissue was fixed in 2% glutaraldehyde, and studied under Electronic Transmission Microscopy. Results: In the study group we observed an intense repair cellular activity by increased collagen fibers, fibroblasts containing developed organelles, free of viral particles. In the control group this repair activity was not evident, but no viral particles were observed. Conclusion: There were no viral particles, and there were evidences of intense activity of repair or viral infection.

Defect centre responsible for production of 110 degrees C TL peak in quartz

110 degrees C thermoluminescence (TL) peak in quartz is well known due to its pre-dose effect, which is used in dating technique. The generally accepted mechanism for the production of this peak is based on Ge impurity contained in quartz. Its role is to substitute for Si in SiO(4) tetrahedron and under irradiation gives rise to [GeO(4)/e(-)](-) electron centre. Heating for TL read out liberates electron that recombines with hole in [AlO(4)/h]degrees or [H(3)O(4)/h]degrees centres emitting photon. The investigation, carried out on blue quartz, green quartz, black quartz, pink quartz, red quartz, sulphurous quartz, milky quartz, alpha quartz and synthetic quartz, has shown that the 110 degrees C TL peak in all these varieties of quartz has no correlation with the respective Ge content. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements on any of these varieties of quartz revealed a signal with g(1) = 2.0004, g(2) = 1.9986 and g(3) = 1.974 and this signal does not appear to correspond to any known EPR signals in alpha quartz. Furthermore, isothermal decay measurements are carried out on the above mentioned EPR signal and 110 degrees C TL peak in alpha, blue and green quartz. A close correlation has been observed in the decay behavior. A new mechanism is proposed based on an interstitial O(-) centre. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lead and aluminum bonding in Pb-Al metaphosphate glasses

The bonding properties of cations in phosphate glasses determine many short- and medium-range structural features in the glass network, hence influencing bulk properties. In this work, Pb-Al-metaphosphate glasses (1 - x)Pb-(PO(3))(2)center dot xAI(PO(3))(3) with 0 <= - x <= 1 were analyzed to determine the effect of the substitution of Pb by Al on the glass structure in the metaphosphate composition. The glass transition temperature and density were measured as a function of the Al concentration. The vibrational and structural properties were probed by Raman spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance of (31)P, (27)Al, and (207)Pb. Aluminum incorporates homogeneously in the glass creating a stiffer and less packed network. The average coordination number for Al decreases from 5.9 to 5.0 as x increases from 0.1 to 1, indicating more covalent Al-O bonds. The coordination number of Pb in these glasses is greater than 8, showing an increasing ionic behavior for compositions richer in Al. A quantitative analysis of the phosphate speciation shows definite trends in the bonding of AlO(n) groups and phosphate tetrahedra. In glasses with x < 0.48, phosphate groups share preferentially only one nonbridging O corner with an AlO(n) coordination polyhedron. For x > 0.48 more than one nonbridging O can be linked to AlO(n) polyhedra. There is no corner sharing of O between AlO(n) and PbO(n) polyhedra nor between AlO(n) themselves throughout the compositional range. The PbO(n) coordination polyhedra show considerable nonbridging O sharing, with each O participating in the coordination sphere of at least two Pb. The bonding preferences determined for Al are consistent with the behavior observed in Na-Al and Ca-Al metaphosphates, indicating this may be a general behavior for ternary phosphate glasses.

Luminescent nanoparticles of MgAl(2)O(4):Eu, Dy prepared by citrate sol-gel method

MgAl(2)O(4):Eu, Dy nanoparticles were prepared by citrate sol-gel method and thermally treated at 600, 700, 800 and 900 degrees C. The trivalent europium ion is partially reduced to the divalent state at 700 and 800 degrees C. Infrared spectra of the phosphors showed bands around 700 and 520 cm(-1) corresponding to the AlO(6) groups. X-ray diffraction patterns present sharp reflections of samples heated from 700 to 900 degrees C indicating the MgAl(2)O(4) spinel phase. Grain size in the range 20-30 nm were observed by measurement of transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The emission spectra of the phosphors show a broadened band at 480 nm assigned to the 4f(G)5d -> 4f(7) ((8)S(7/2)) transition of Eu(2+) ion overlapped to the (4)F(9/2) -> (6)H(15/2) transition of the Dy(3+) ion. Besides, the (4)F(9/2) -> (6)H(13/2) transition (579 nm) of Dy(3+) ion is overlapped with the (5)D(0) -> (7)F(0) (578 nm) and (5)D(0) -> (7)F(1) (595 nm) transitions from the Eu(3+) ion. Excitation spectra of the sample heated at 900 degrees C monitoring the excitation at 615 nm of (5)D(0) -> (7)F(2) transition of Eu(3+) ion exhibit a broad band assigned to the O -> Eu(3+) ligand-to-metal charge-transfer states (LMCT) around 280 nm. The samples present green persistent luminescence after exposure to UV radiation. The chromaticity coordinates were obtained from the luminescence emission spectrum. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ni catalysts with Mo promoter for methane steam reforming

NiO/Al(2)O(3) catalyst precursors were prepared by simultaneous precipitation, in a Ni:Al molar ratio of 3:1, promoted with Mo oxide (0.05, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 wt%). The solids were characterized by adsorption of N(2), XRD, TPR, Raman spectroscopy and XPS, then activated by H(2) reduction and tested for the catalytic activity in methane steam reforming. The characterization results showed the presence of NiO and Ni(2)AlO(4) in the bulk and Ni(2)AlO(4) and/or Ni(2)O(3) and MoO(4)(-2) at the surface of the samples. In the catalytic tests, high stability was observed with a reaction feed of 4:1 steam/methane. However, at a steam/methane ratio of 2: 1, only the catalyst with 0.05% Mo remained stable throughout the 500 min of the test. The addition of Mo to Ni catalysts may have a synergistic effect, probably as a result of electron transfer from the molybdenum to the nickel, increasing the electron density of the catalytic site and hence the catalytic activity. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

To hold up prisms: Australian and Canadian indigenous publishing for children

Bradford discusses Thomas King's exhortation to writers that is directed specifically to Canadian First Nations writers, which captures the importance of language as the primary means by which individual and group identities are formed. He mentions the important contribution that Indigenous publishers make to children's literature.

Cultural orienteering: a map for Anthony Browne`s into the forest

Bullen and Parsons identify Anthony Browne's picture book Into the Forest as a re-gendered retelling of 'Little Red Riding Hood' that expresses recent assumptions about childhood, risk and the resources children need to survive in today's world. In Browne's version, the forest is the terrain in which a young male protagonist imaginatively explores his anxiety about his father's unexplained absence.

Knowledge extraction from a mixed transfer function artificial neural network

One of the big problems with Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is that their results are not intuitively clear. For example, if we use the traditional neurons, with a sigmoid activation function, we can approximate any function, including linear functions, but the coefficients (weights) in this approximation will be rather meaningless. To resolve this problem, this paper presents a novel kind of ANN with different transfer functions mixed together. The aim of such a network is to i) obtain a better generalization than current networks ii) to obtain knowledge from the networks without a sophisticated knowledge extraction algorithm iii) to increase the understanding and acceptance of ANNs. Transfer Complexity Ratio is defined to make a sense of the weights associated with the network. The paper begins with a review of the knowledge extraction from ANNs and then presents a Mixed Transfer Function Artificial Neural Network (MTFANN). A MTFANN contains different transfer functions mixed together rather than mono-transfer functions. This mixed presence has helped to obtain high level knowledge and similar generalization comparatively to monotransfer function nets in a global optimization context.

Machine vision system for automatic inspection of surface defects in aluminium die casting

A machine vision system is presented for the automatic inspection of surface defects in aluminium die casting. The system uses a hybrid image processing algorithm based on mathematic morphology to detect defects with different sizes and shapes. The defect inspection algorithm consists of two parts. One is a parameter learning algorithm, in which a genetic algorithm is used to extract optimal structuring element parameters, and segmentation and noise removal thresholds. The second part is a defect detection algorithm, in which the parameters obtained by a genetic algorithm are used for morphological operations. The machine vision system has been applied in an industrial setting to detect two types of casting defects: parts mix-up and any defects on the surface of castings. The system performs with a 99% or higher accuracy for both part mix-up and defect detection and is currently used in industry as part of normal production.