Using Cooperative Learning In A Sixth Grade Math Classroom

In this action research study of my classroom of sixth grade mathematics, I investigated the impact of cooperative learning on the engagement, participation, and attitudes of my students. I also investigated the impact of cooperative learning upon my own teaching. I discovered that my students not only preferred to learn in cooperative groups, but that their levels of engagement and participation, their attitudes toward math, and their quality of work all improved greatly. My teaching also changed, and I found that I began to enjoy teaching more. As a result of this research, I plan to continue and expand the amount of cooperative group work that happens in my classroom.

Cooperative Learning Groups in the Middle School Mathematics Classroom

In this action research study of my classroom of 8th grade mathematics, I investigated the inclusion of cooperative learning groups. Data was collected to see how cooperative learning groups affected oral and written communication, math scores, and attitudes toward mathematics. On the one hand, I discovered that many students enjoyed the opportunity to work within a group. On the other hand, there continues to be a handful of students who would rather work alone. The benefits outweigh the demands. Overall, students benefitted from the inclusion of cooperative learning groups. Oral explanations of solutions and methods improved during the study. Written expression also improved over this time period. As a result of this research, I plan to continue with the incorporation of cooperative learning groups in the middle school math classroom.

Improving Student Engagement and Verbal Behavior Through Cooperative Learning

In this action research study of my classroom of 10th grade Algebra II students, I investigated three related areas. First, I looked at how heterogeneous cooperative groups, where students in the group are responsible to present material, increase the number of students on task and the time on task when compared to individual practice. I noticed that their time on task might have been about the same, but they were communicating with each other mathematically. The second area I examined was the effect heterogeneous cooperative groups had on the teacher’s and the students’ verbal and nonverbal problem solving skills and understanding when compared to individual practice. At the end of the action research, students were questioning each other, and the instructor was answering questions only when the entire group had a question. The third area of data collection focused on what effect heterogeneous cooperative groups had on students’ listening skills when compared to individual practice. In the research I implemented individual quizzes and individual presentations. Both of these had a positive effect on listing in the groups. As a result of this research, I plan to continue implementing the round robin style of in- class practice with heterogeneous grouping and randomly selected individual presentations. For individual accountability I will continue the practice of individual quizzes one to two times a week.

Improving Student Engagement and Verbal Behavior Through Cooperative Learning

In this action research study of my classroom of 10th grade Algebra II students, I investigated three related areas. First, I looked at how heterogeneous cooperative groups, where students in the group are responsible to present material, increase the number of students on task and the time on task when compared to individual practice. I noticed that their time on task might have been about the same, but they were communicating with each other mathematically. The second area I examined was the effect heterogeneous cooperative groups had on the teacher’s and the students’ verbal and nonverbal problem solving skills and understanding when compared to individual practice. At the end of the action research, students were questioning each other, and the instructor was answering questions only when the entire group had a question. The third area of data collection focused on what effect heterogeneous cooperative groups had on students’ listening skills when compared to individual practice. In the research I implemented individual quizzes and individual presentations. Both of these had a positive effect on listing in the groups. As a result of this research, I plan to continue implementing the round robin style of in- class practice with heterogeneous grouping and randomly selected individual presentations. For individual accountability I will continue the practice of individual quizzes one to two times a week.

Cooperative Learning in Relation to Problem Solving in the Mathematics Classroom

In this action research study of my classroom of 5th grade mathematics, I investigated cooperative learning and how it is related to problem solving as well as written and oral communication. I discovered that cooperative learning has a positive impact on students’ abilities in problem solving and their overall impression of mathematics and group work. I also found that my students’ communication skills improved in oral explanations of their work. As a result of this research I plan to continue my implementation of cooperative learning in my classroom as a general method of teaching. I also plan to continue to use cooperative learning in working with my students to increase their achievement in problem solving and communication of mathematics.

Chronic Autoimmune Thyroiditis in Industrial Areas in Brazil: A 15-Year Survey

To investigate whether there is an increased incidence of chronic autoimmune thyroiditis (CAT) in individuals living in the vicinity of industrial plants that manufacture petroleum byproducts in the state of So Paulo, Brazil. Between 1989 and 2004, 6,306 patients of both sexes, from 5 to 78 years old were divided in two groups according to their home location: Group 1: 3,356 residents living near industrial plants that manufacture petroleum byproducts (Region A), and Group 2: 2,950 residents living far from Region A in an area with predominantly steel industries (Region B). For all patients, we measured the serum levels of antithyroglobulin antibody, antithyroperoxidase antibody, triiodothyronine, thyroxine, free thyroxine and thyrostimulating hormone. Sonographic scans of the thyroid gland were also conducted. The proportion of patients with CAT coming from Region A increased from 2.5 % (5 patients with CAT/200 total patients) in 1992 to 57.6 % (106 patients with CAT/184 total patients) in 2001. This striking increase was highly significant (p < 0.001). Similar findings were not observed in Region B. The difference in the number of patients with CAT between 1989 and 2004 coming from Region A and Region B was highly significant (p < 0.001), with 905 CAT patients (83.95 %) in Region A and 173 CAT patients (16.05 %) in Region B. Our results showed a striking increase in the incidence of CAT in residents in the vicinity of large industrial plants that manufacture petroleum byproducts compared with residents living near steel industries, which opens the field to new areas of research.

Elemental composition evaluation in lichens collected in the industrial city of So Mateus Sul, Parana, Brazil

In this study, Canoparmelia texana lichenized fungi species was used as a passive biomonitor of the atmospheric pollution from the industrial city of So Mateus do Sul, PR, Brazil. Lichen samples collected from tree barks were cleaned, freeze-dried and analyzed by neutron activation analysis. Comparisons were made between the element concentrations obtained in lichens from this city and that from a clean area of Atlantic Forest in Intervales Park, SP. The high concentrations of elements As, Ca, Co, Cr, Fe, Hf, Sb, and Th found in lichens could be attributed to the emissions from a ceramic and an oil shale plants.

Analysis of the interplay between knowledge and performance management in industrial clusters

The concept of industrial clustering has been studied in-depth by policy makers and researchers from many fields, mainly due to the competitive advantages it may bring to regional economies. Companies often take part in collaborative initiatives with local partners while also taking advantage of knowledge spillovers to benefit from locating in a cluster. Thus, Knowledge Management (KM) and Performance Management (PM) have become relevant topics for policy makers and cluster associations when undertaking collaborative initiatives. Taking this into account, this paper aims to explore the interplay between both topics using a case study conducted in a collaborative network formed within a cluster. The results show that KM should be acknowledged as a formal area of cluster management so that PM practices can support knowledge-oriented initiatives and therefore make better use of the new knowledge created. Furthermore, tacit and explicit knowledge resulting from PM practices needs to be stored and disseminated throughout the cluster as a way of improving managerial practices and regional strategic direction. Knowledge Management Research & Practice (2012) 10, 368-379. doi:10.1057/kmrp.2012.23

Synthetic biology: a novel approach for the construction of industrial microorganisms

The recent achievement of synthesising a functioning bacterial chromosome marks a coming of age for engineering living organisms. In the future this should allow the construction of novel organisms to help solve the problems facing the human race, including health care, food, energy and environmental protection. In this minireview, the current state of the field is described and the role of synthetic biology in biotechnology in the short and medium term is discussed. It is particularly aimed at the needs of food technologists, nutritionists and other biotechnologists, who might not be aware of the potential significance of synthetic biology to the research and development in their fields. The potential of synthetic biology to produce interesting new polyketide compounds is discussed in detail.

Catalytic liquid- and gas-phase oxidations for the synthesis of intermediates and specialty chemicals: some examples of industrial relevance

Nowadays, it is clear that the target of creating a sustainable future for the next generations requires to re-think the industrial application of chemistry. It is also evident that more sustainable chemical processes may be economically convenient, in comparison with the conventional ones, because fewer by-products means lower costs for raw materials, for separation and for disposal treatments; but also it implies an increase of productivity and, as a consequence, smaller reactors can be used. In addition, an indirect gain could derive from the better public image of the company, marketing sustainable products or processes. In this context, oxidation reactions play a major role, being the tool for the production of huge quantities of chemical intermediates and specialties. Potentially, the impact of these productions on the environment could have been much worse than it is, if a continuous efforts hadn’t been spent to improve the technologies employed. Substantial technological innovations have driven the development of new catalytic systems, the improvement of reactions and process technologies, contributing to move the chemical industry in the direction of a more sustainable and ecological approach. The roadmap for the application of these concepts includes new synthetic strategies, alternative reactants, catalysts heterogenisation and innovative reactor configurations and process design. Actually, in order to implement all these ideas into real projects, the development of more efficient reactions is one primary target. Yield, selectivity and space-time yield are the right metrics for evaluating the reaction efficiency. In the case of catalytic selective oxidation, the control of selectivity has always been the principal issue, because the formation of total oxidation products (carbon oxides) is thermodynamically more favoured than the formation of the desired, partially oxidized compound. As a matter of fact, only in few oxidation reactions a total, or close to total, conversion is achieved, and usually the selectivity is limited by the formation of by-products or co-products, that often implies unfavourable process economics; moreover, sometimes the cost of the oxidant further penalizes the process. During my PhD work, I have investigated four reactions that are emblematic of the new approaches used in the chemical industry. In the Part A of my thesis, a new process aimed at a more sustainable production of menadione (vitamin K3) is described. The “greener” approach includes the use of hydrogen peroxide in place of chromate (from a stoichiometric oxidation to a catalytic oxidation), also avoiding the production of dangerous waste. Moreover, I have studied the possibility of using an heterogeneous catalytic system, able to efficiently activate hydrogen peroxide. Indeed, the overall process would be carried out in two different steps: the first is the methylation of 1-naphthol with methanol to yield 2-methyl-1-naphthol, the second one is the oxidation of the latter compound to menadione. The catalyst for this latter step, the reaction object of my investigation, consists of Nb2O5-SiO2 prepared with the sol-gel technique. The catalytic tests were first carried out under conditions that simulate the in-situ generation of hydrogen peroxide, that means using a low concentration of the oxidant. Then, experiments were carried out using higher hydrogen peroxide concentration. The study of the reaction mechanism was fundamental to get indications about the best operative conditions, and improve the selectivity to menadione. In the Part B, I explored the direct oxidation of benzene to phenol with hydrogen peroxide. The industrial process for phenol is the oxidation of cumene with oxygen, that also co-produces acetone. This can be considered a case of how economics could drive the sustainability issue; in fact, the new process allowing to obtain directly phenol, besides avoiding the co-production of acetone (a burden for phenol, because the market requirements for the two products are quite different), might be economically convenient with respect to the conventional process, if a high selectivity to phenol were obtained. Titanium silicalite-1 (TS-1) is the catalyst chosen for this reaction. Comparing the reactivity results obtained with some TS-1 samples having different chemical-physical properties, and analyzing in detail the effect of the more important reaction parameters, we could formulate some hypothesis concerning the reaction network and mechanism. Part C of my thesis deals with the hydroxylation of phenol to hydroquinone and catechol. This reaction is already industrially applied but, for economical reason, an improvement of the selectivity to the para di-hydroxilated compound and a decrease of the selectivity to the ortho isomer would be desirable. Also in this case, the catalyst used was the TS-1. The aim of my research was to find out a method to control the selectivity ratio between the two isomers, and finally to make the industrial process more flexible, in order to adapt the process performance in function of fluctuations of the market requirements. The reaction was carried out in both a batch stirred reactor and in a re-circulating fixed-bed reactor. In the first system, the effect of various reaction parameters on catalytic behaviour was investigated: type of solvent or co-solvent, and particle size. With the second reactor type, I investigated the possibility to use a continuous system, and the catalyst shaped in extrudates (instead of powder), in order to avoid the catalyst filtration step. Finally, part D deals with the study of a new process for the valorisation of glycerol, by means of transformation into valuable chemicals. This molecule is nowadays produced in big amount, being a co-product in biodiesel synthesis; therefore, it is considered a raw material from renewable resources (a bio-platform molecule). Initially, we tested the oxidation of glycerol in the liquid-phase, with hydrogen peroxide and TS-1. However, results achieved were not satisfactory. Then we investigated the gas-phase transformation of glycerol into acrylic acid, with the intermediate formation of acrolein; the latter can be obtained by dehydration of glycerol, and then can be oxidized into acrylic acid. Actually, the oxidation step from acrolein to acrylic acid is already optimized at an industrial level; therefore, we decided to investigate in depth the first step of the process. I studied the reactivity of heterogeneous acid catalysts based on sulphated zirconia. Tests were carried out both in aerobic and anaerobic conditions, in order to investigate the effect of oxygen on the catalyst deactivation rate (one main problem usually met in glycerol dehydration). Finally, I studied the reactivity of bifunctional systems, made of Keggin-type polyoxometalates, either alone or supported over sulphated zirconia, in this way combining the acid functionality (necessary for the dehydrative step) with the redox one (necessary for the oxidative step). In conclusion, during my PhD work I investigated reactions that apply the “green chemistry” rules and strategies; in particular, I studied new greener approaches for the synthesis of chemicals (Part A and Part B), the optimisation of reaction parameters to make the oxidation process more flexible (Part C), and the use of a bioplatform molecule for the synthesis of a chemical intermediate (Part D).

Fluid dynamic analysis and modelling of industrial chemical equipment

The research is aimed at contributing to the identification of reliable fully predictive Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods for the numerical simulation of equipment typically adopted in the chemical and process industries. The apparatuses selected for the investigation, specifically membrane modules, stirred vessels and fluidized beds, were characterized by a different and often complex fluid dynamic behaviour and in some cases the momentum transfer phenomena were coupled with mass transfer or multiphase interactions. Firs of all, a novel modelling approach based on CFD for the prediction of the gas separation process in membrane modules for hydrogen purification is developed. The reliability of the gas velocity field calculated numerically is assessed by comparison of the predictions with experimental velocity data collected by Particle Image Velocimetry, while the applicability of the model to properly predict the separation process under a wide range of operating conditions is assessed through a strict comparison with permeation experimental data. Then, the effect of numerical issues on the RANS-based predictions of single phase stirred tanks is analysed. The homogenisation process of a scalar tracer is also investigated and simulation results are compared to original passive tracer homogenisation curves determined with Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence. The capability of a CFD approach based on the solution of RANS equations is also investigated for describing the fluid dynamic characteristics of the dispersion of organics in water. Finally, an Eulerian-Eulerian fluid-dynamic model is used to simulate mono-disperse suspensions of Geldart A Group particles fluidized by a Newtonian incompressible fluid as well as binary segregating fluidized beds of particles differing in size and density. The results obtained under a number of different operating conditions are compared with literature experimental data and the effect of numerical uncertainties on axial segregation is also discussed.

Cooperative and reconfigurable telecommunication systems based on FPGA

This work has been realized by the author in his PhD course in Electronics, Computer Science and Telecommunication at the University of Bologna, Faculty of Engineering, Italy. The subject of this thesis regards important channel estimation aspects in wideband wireless communication systems, such as echo cancellation in digital video broadcasting systems and pilot aided channel estimation through an innovative pilot design in Multi-Cell Multi-User MIMO-OFDM network. All the documentation here reported is a summary of years of work, under the supervision of Prof. Oreste Andrisano, coordinator of Wireless Communication Laboratory - WiLab, in Bologna. All the instrumentation that has been used for the characterization of the telecommunication systems belongs to CNR (National Research Council), CNIT (Italian Inter-University Center), and DEIS (Dept. of Electronics, Computer Science, and Systems). From November 2009 to May 2010, the author spent his time abroad, working in collaboration with DOCOMO - Communications Laboratories Europe GmbH (DOCOMO Euro-Labs) in Munich, Germany, in the Wireless Technologies Research Group. Some important scientific papers, submitted and/or published on IEEE journals and conferences have been produced by the author.

Mutualità, governance e gestione delle cooperative ortofrutticole

The objective of the research is to analyze the functioning of the fruit and vegetables cooperatives at regional level (Emilia Romagna), with particular reference to the mutuality purpose that distinguishes them, the institutional structure and the management. On the one hand the research intends to provide a definition and an explanation of the real operation/functioning of the mechanism of the mutualism and governance and on the other hand, to study the internal managerial mechanisms and the levels of functioning of the fruit and vegetable cooperatives with the purpose to provide significant indications on their real economic performance. Following a brief analysis of the market context in which the agricultural cooperatives operate, the works will proceed with a deep analysis of a sample of cooperatives regarding the structure and the forms of organization of the members and those aspects can be connected to the following dynamics: - valorisation of the social contribution (effective levels of internal mutuality); - economic efficiency (and consequent economic-financial trends); - levels of internal efficiency and productivity. The applied methodology is based in a first phase on the reclassification, elaboration and analysis of the balance of the sample enterprises. In this phase the research will give a first insight into the economic-financial and capital investment situation of the fruit and vegetable cooperatives trying to concentrate on the implemented and on the possible financing mechanisms and on the levels of efficiency and effectiveness of the productivity achieved. Subsequently the works will proceed with the realization of a direct survey in form of questionnaires to submit to the responsible persons of the sample cooperatives, in order to highlight/emphasize the critical points in respect to the three main arguments of research: mutuality, governance, management.

Cooperative Wireless Systems

This Ph.D. dissertation reports on the work performed at the Wireless Communication Laboratory - University of Bologna and National Research Council - as well as, for six months, at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuit (IIS) in Nürnberg. The work of this thesis is in the area of wireless communications, especially with regards to cooperative communications aspects in narrow-band and ultra-wideband systems, cooperative links characterization, network geometry, power allocation techniques,and synchronization between nodes. The underpinning of this work is devoted to developing a general framework for design and analysis of wireless cooperative communication systems, which depends on propagation environment, transmission technique, diversity method, power allocation for various scenarios and relay positions. The optimal power allocation for minimizing the bit error probability at the destination is derived. In addition, a syncronization algorithm for master-slave communications is proposed with the aim of jointly compensate the clock drift and offset of wireless nodes composing the network.

Development of glass-ceramics from combination of industrial wastes together with boron mining waste

The utilization of borate mineral wastes with glass-ceramic technology was first time studied and primarily not investigated combinations of wastes were incorporated into the research. These wastes consist of; soda lime silica glass, meat bone and meal ash and fly ash. In order to investigate possible and relevant application areas in ceramics, kaolin clay, an essential raw material for ceramic industry was also employed in some studied compositions. As a result, three different glass-ceramic articles obtained by using powder sintering method via individual sintering processes. Light weight micro porous glass-ceramic from borate mining waste, meat bone and meal ash and kaolin clay was developed. In some compositions in related study, soda lime silica glass waste was used as an additive providing lightweight structure with a density below 0.45 g/cm3 and a crushing strength of 1.8±0.1 MPa. In another study within the research, compositions respecting the B2O3–P2O5–SiO2 glass-ceramic ternary system were prepared from; borate wastes, meat bone and meal ash and soda lime silica glass waste and sintered up to 950ºC. Low porous, highly crystallized glass-ceramic structures with density ranging between 1.8 ± 0,7 to 2.0 ± 0,3 g/cm3 and tensile strength ranging between 8,0 ± 2 to 15,0 ± 0,5 MPa were achieved. Lastly, diopside - wollastonite (SiO2-Al2O3-CaO )glass-ceramics from borate wastes, fly ash and soda lime silica glass waste were successfully obtained with controlled rapid sintering between 950 and 1050ºC. The wollastonite and diopside crystal sizes were improved by adopting varied combinations of formulations and heating rates. The properties of the obtained materials show; the articles with a uniform pore structure could be useful for thermal and acoustic insulations and can be embedded in lightweight concrete where low porous glass-ceramics can be employed as building blocks or additive in cement and ceramic industries.