A redistricting problem applied to meter reading in power distribution networks

The capacitated redistricting problem (CRP) has the objective to redefine, under a given criterion, an initial set of districts of an urban area represented by a geographic network. Each node in the network has different types of demands and each district has a limited capacity. Real-world applications consider more than one criteria in the design of the districts, leading to a multicriteria CRP (MCRP). Examples are found in political districting, sales design, street sweeping, garbage collection and mail delivery. This work addresses the MCRP applied to power meter reading and two criteria are considered: compactness and homogeneity of districts. The proposed solution framework is based on a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure and multicriteria scalarization techniques to approximate the Pareto frontier. The computational experiments show the effectiveness of the method for a set of randomly generated networks and for a real-world network extracted from the city of São Paulo. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Dialogic reading of a novel for children: effects on text comprehension

Estudos experimentais têm demonstrado efeitos positivos da leitura dialógica de livros ilustrados (leitura em voz alta intercalada com prompts e feedback para verbalizações por parte do ouvinte) sobre o vocabulário e a expressão verbal de crianças pequenas. Este estudo verificou o efeito da leitura dialógica sobre a compreensão textual de um romance infanto-juvenil por três crianças de 7-8 anos, utilizando um delineamento de sujeito único. Na Condição A, o texto era lido sem intervenções. Na Condição B, a leitura era intercalada com intervenções dialógicas baseadas nas funções narrativas presentes no texto. As medidas de compreensão mostraram um desempenho superior na Condição B para os dois participantes submetidos ao delineamento B-A-B, mas não para o participante submetido ao delineamento A-B-A. São discutidas possíveis interações da leitura dialógica com características do gênero textual e a necessidade de replicações sistemáticas com um maior número de sessões e reversões das condições.

Reading strategies - from L1 to L2.

This paper intends to present a selection of the most useful reading strategies for the typical ESP students in Brazilian universities, showing whether the readers use them in their native language or not, the way the teacher should develop these strategies in the classroom, the problems involved in their use and the reasons for using them.

Uma leitura de 26 poetas hoje / A reading of 26 poetas hoje

Este trabalho procura identificar selecionadas produções poéticas da antologia 26 Poetas Hoje as faces da resistência indicada por Alfredo Bosi no ensaio “Poesia Resistência”. Do “grito de alarme” pessoal de poetas pertencentes a gerações diferentes, emerge uma poesia espontânea, autêntica e, sobretudo, resistente, como produto da renovação da expressão poética, impregnado de afetividades e de intimismo e que incorporou o coloquial e os recursos da grande poesia brasileira desde 22. This reading presents a sample from this anthology and tries to identify in it the faces of resistance indicated by Alfredo Bosi in his essay: “ Poesia Resistência”. In the several manners the poets of different generations chose for their personal cry of alert we find a poetry wich is spontaneous, authentic and, above all, “resistent”. This is due mainly to the renewal of the poetical expression, impregnated with affective ness and intimism, which included colloquial language and devices used by all great Brazilian poetry since the modernism of 1922.

Construction and validation of an instrument to assess the reading comprehension of students from the third to the fifth grades of elementary school

Objetivo:Este estudo teve como objetivo construir e validar um instrumento de avaliação da compreensão de leitura a fim de caracterizar o perfil de leitura e detectar dificuldades de compreensão em escolares do terceiro ao quinto ano do Ensino Fundamental.Métodos:Participaram 378 escolares divididos em trés grupos para avaliação da compreensão de proposições literais e inferenciais de micro e macroestruturas de dois textos expositivos e dois textos narrativos por meio de questões de múltipla escolha.Resultados:Os dados analisados estatisticamente indicaram valores do teste alfa de Cronbach apresentando consisténcia interna nos quatros textos aplicados para os trés grupos.Conclusão:Foi possível constatar que os escolares apresentaram menor número de erros com o aumento da escolarização e que cada tipo de texto apresentou uma dificuldade específica para os escolares.

Accuracy in dictation after improvement of reading and copying skills in a student with learning difficulties

The aim of this study was to use systematic teaching in a clinical setting using software to teach reading and writing in one boy with learning difficulties and obtain accurate performance in dictation. In the pre-test, the student showed good performance in matching-to-sample tasks (96% in matching printed words to dictated words; 88% in matching pictures to dictated words), although he obtained a low percentage of correct answers in the dictation of constructed responses (52%) and manuscripts (24%). The teaching strengthened the selection of printed words matched to dictated words and copying words. The student obtained 100% correct answers in the teaching tasks. In post-tests of dictation, he obtained 100% correct answers in constructed response and 96% correct answers in manuscripts. The results indicate that carefully teaching copying may promote accuracy in the performance of responding to minimal units in dictation tasks.

Phonological working memory and reading in students with dyslexia

Purpose: To investigate parameters related to fluency, reading comprehension and phonological processing (operational and short-term memory) and identify potential correlation between the variables in Dyslexia and in the absence of reading difficulties.Method: One hundred and fifteen students from the third to eighth grade of elementary school were grouped into a Control Group (CG) and Group with Dyslexia (GDys). Reading of words, pseudowords and text (decoding); listening and reading comprehension; phonological short-term and working memory (repetition of pseudowords and Digit Span) were evaluated.Results: The comparison of the groups showed significant differences in decoding, phonological short-term memory (repetition of pseudowords) and answers to text-connecting questions (TC) on reading comprehension, with the worst performances identified for GDys. In this group there were negative correlations between pseudowords repetition and TC answers and total score, both on listening comprehension. No correlations were found between operational and short-term memory (Digit Span) and parameters of fluency and reading comprehension in dyslexia. For the sample without complaint, there were positive correlations between some parameters of reading fluency and repetition of pseudowords and also between answering literal questions in listening comprehension and repetition of digits on the direct and reverse order. There was no correlation with the parameters of reading comprehension.Conclusion: GDys and CG showed similar performance in listening comprehension and in understanding of explicit information and gap-filling inference on reading comprehension. Students of GDys showed worst performance in reading decoding, phonological short-term memory (pseudowords) and on inferences that depends on textual cohesion understanding in reading. There were negative correlations between pseudowords repetition and TC answers and total score, both in listening comprehension.

Modos de ler e ações de leitura waysto read and actions of reading

This paper is the result of discussions held during the initial research on ways of reading and reading activities, to obtain the title of the Ph.D. graduate program in Education at UNESP - Marilia. The paper seeks to rethink the practice followed the reality historically constructed as reference, creating a dialectic movement, and a constant construction, and the overcoming of it. In this perspective, we approach possible practices that can enhance the student's prior knowledge, and from it, to propose ways of action that lead to the development of the subject through the processes of teaching and learning of reading in school. From the study of actions that are agreed as reading practices, the study proposes to work with the Reading Strategies to promote the development of the individual. Among the different results that have been announced in the research, we highlight the need for conscious mediation of the teacher in the act of teaching reading and conscious participation of the student in the process. Partial results give evidence to confirm the hypothesis that: intentional actions are driving the learning of children in activity in the classroom, considering their experiences and choices of the teacher as mediator in the process. Students in third grade of elementary school are the subjects of research, theory and practice. The researcher is the mediator and proposer of the actions based on microgenetic research.

The phonological and visual basis of developmental dyslexia in Brazilian Portuguese reading children

Evidence from opaque languages suggests that visual attention processing abilities in addition to phonological skills may act as cognitive underpinnings of developmental dyslexia. We explored the role of these two cognitive abilities on reading fluency in Brazilian Portuguese, a more transparent orthography than French or English. Sixty-six children with developmental dyslexia and normal Brazilian Portuguese children participated. They were administered three tasks of phonological skills (phoneme identification, phoneme, and syllable blending) and three visual tasks (a letter global report task and two non-verbal tasks of visual closure and visual constancy). Results show that Brazilian Portuguese children with developmental dyslexia are impaired not only in phonological processing but further in visual processing. The phonological and visual processing abilities significantly and independently contribute to reading fluency in the whole population. Last, different cognitively homogeneous subtypes can be identified in the Brazilian Portuguese population of children with developmental dyslexia. Two subsets of children with developmental dyslexia were identified as having a single cognitive disorder, phonological or visual; another group exhibited a double deficit and a few children showed no visual or phonological disorder. Thus the current findings extend previous data from more opaque orthographies as French and English, in showing the importance of investigating visual processing skills in addition to phonological skills in children with developmental dyslexia whatever their language orthography transparency.

Close Enough to One Another and Far Apart as Well´: The Intersection of Literature and History in Seamus Deane´s Reading in the Dark

This article analyses the intersection of narrative and history in Seamus Deane’s Reading in the Dark (1996). It uses the Benjaminian notions of memory, narration and experience to investigate how this novel creates a self through a language characterized by the absence of what it refers to. The analysis will eventually demonstrate that the tension between recollection and obliteration makes Literature and History converge as products of a narrative act.

Reading model to estimate optimum economic intakes of amino acids for poultry

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A intersecção entre literatura, memória e história em Reading in the dark, de Seamus Deane

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

The optimal lysine and threonine intake for Cobb broiler breeder hens using Reading model

This study aimed to determine the optimal intake of lysine and threonine for broiler breeder hens. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the responses of birds to digestible lysine (Lys) and threonine (Thr). Eight treatments were assessed in both experiments, with six replicates of eight birds in the Lys experiment and ten birds in the Thr experiment. The dietary levels of Lys and Thr were obtained by a dilution technique. The experimental period was ten weeks for each amino acid studied, which included six weeks of adaptation and four weeks of data collection. The amino acid intake, egg mass and body weight were adjusted using a Reading model. Based on the model coefficients, the cost of the synthetic amino acids sources and the price of fertile eggs determined the intake of each amino acid to maximize. The minimum intake of Lys and Thr reduced egg production by 40 and 30%, respectively, the weight of the eggs decreased by 12 and 9% with the same intake of Lys and Thr, respectively. The models generated by predicting Lys and Thr intake were as follows: Lys=11 x E+31 x W and Thr=9.5 x E+32 x W, where E=egg mass, g/bird per day, and W=body weight, kg/bird. Based on the models, 3 kg birds with an egg mass production of 50 g/day require 643 mg/bird per day of Lys and 569 mg/bird per day of Thr. The optimum economic intake was calculated at 954 and 834 mg/bird per day for Lys and Thr, respectively, reflecting a dietary concentration of 0.636% Lys and 0.556% Thr for a feed intake of 150 g/bird per day. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

New readers, new reading skills and meaning: challenges for media and information literacy

Recognizing the importance of developing the information and media literacy in contemporary society, this article discusses the scenario of hybrid languages born on cyberspace, hypertext and the new types of readers who interact with information, now disseminated by digital media. As theoretical references authors such as Lucia Santaella, we develop arguments that present the headquarters of language and thought within a semiotic support. Matrices help to understand the phenomenon of hybrid language in hypertext. Therefore, we emphasize that the development of skills associated with the new reading environments propitiated by the virtual environment requires the understanding of language, which is one of the concepts used within the media and information literacy (MIL) proposal of Unesco, which combines the two concepts and skills of information and media literacy. It is hoped that this article motivate scholars and practitioners of education and information to take responsibility to educate for information environments that arise with new media and technologies, emphasizing the issue of reading and language.

Reading as a Learning Strategy for Mathematics

In this action research study of 55 sophomore and junior students in my Algebra II/Trigonometry classrooms, I investigated a reading strategy of learning mathematics. Students were given background information about reading and explored the benefits of reading for themselves. Next, students were taught to read their textbook, analyzing one section of the textbook at a time. Throughout the research project, students were given reading guides to fill out during class with whole class discussion following the reading time. I discovered that students are able to read a mathematics textbook with understanding and students who are gone for activities can learn independently. Teacher observations, student surveys, and student interviews provide quantitative evidence of increased student understanding and achievement. As a result of this research, I plan to continue utilizing the reading guides and incorporating reading as a method of learning mathematics within my classrooms.