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Sample records for tests essay questions

  1. Comparison between Two Assessment Methods; Modified Essay Questions and Multiple Choice Questions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Assadi S.N.* MD

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Aims Using the best assessment methods is an important factor in educational development of health students. Modified essay questions and multiple choice questions are two prevalent methods of assessing the students. The aim of this study was to compare two methods of modified essay questions and multiple choice questions in occupational health engineering and work laws courses. Materials & Methods This semi-experimental study was performed during 2013 to 2014 on occupational health students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. The class of occupational health and work laws course in 2013 was considered as group A and the class of 2014 as group B. Each group had 50 students.The group A students were assessed by modified essay questions method and the group B by multiple choice questions method.Data were analyzed in SPSS 16 software by paired T test and odd’s ratio. Findings The mean grade of occupational health and work laws course was 18.68±0.91 in group A (modified essay questions and was 18.78±0.86 in group B (multiple choice questions which was not significantly different (t=-0.41; p=0.684. The mean grade of chemical chapter (p<0.001 in occupational health engineering and harmful work law (p<0.001 and other (p=0.015 chapters in work laws were significantly different between two groups. Conclusion Modified essay questions and multiple choice questions methods have nearly the same student assessing value for the occupational health engineering and work laws course.

  2. Computer-based testing of the modified essay question: the Singapore experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Erle Chuen-Hian; Seet, Raymond Chee-Seong; Oh, Vernon M S; Chia, Boon-Lock; Aw, Marion; Quak, Seng-Hock; Ong, Benjamin K C

    2007-11-01

    The modified essay question (MEQ), featuring an evolving case scenario, tests a candidate's problem-solving and reasoning ability, rather than mere factual recall. Although it is traditionally conducted as a pen-and-paper examination, our university has run the MEQ using computer-based testing (CBT) since 2003. We describe our experience with running the MEQ examination using the IVLE, or integrated virtual learning environment (https://ivle.nus.edu.sg), provide a blueprint for universities intending to conduct computer-based testing of the MEQ, and detail how our MEQ examination has evolved since its inception. An MEQ committee, comprising specialists in key disciplines from the departments of Medicine and Paediatrics, was formed. We utilized the IVLE, developed for our university in 1998, as the online platform on which we ran the MEQ. We calculated the number of man-hours (academic and support staff) required to run the MEQ examination, using either a computer-based or pen-and-paper format. With the support of our university's information technology (IT) specialists, we have successfully run the MEQ examination online, twice a year, since 2003. Initially, we conducted the examination with short-answer questions only, but have since expanded the MEQ examination to include multiple-choice and extended matching questions. A total of 1268 man-hours was spent in preparing for, and running, the MEQ examination using CBT, compared to 236.5 man-hours to run it using a pen-and-paper format. Despite being more labour-intensive, our students and staff prefer CBT to the pen-and-paper format. The MEQ can be conducted using a computer-based testing scenario, which offers several advantages over a pen-and-paper format. We hope to increase the number of questions and incorporate audio and video files, featuring clinical vignettes, to the MEQ examination in the near future.

  3. Discussion of David Thissen's Bad Questions: An Essay Involving Item Response Theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wainer, Howard

    2016-01-01

    The usual role of a discussant is to clarify and correct the paper being discussed, but in this case, the author, Howard Wainer, generally agrees with everything David Thissen says in his essay, "Bad Questions: An Essay Involving Item Response Theory." This essay expands on David Thissen's statement that there are typically two principal…

  4. Evaluating the assessment of essay type questions in the basic ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Methodology: We examined the merits and demerits of the closed and open systems of assessment of essay type questions and viva voce in professional exams in the Basic Medical Sciences together with the challenges of present day Medical Education. Result: The result showed that the closed system of marking in its ...

  5. Conceptualizing Essay Tests' Reliability and Validity: From Research to Theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Badjadi, Nour El Imane

    2013-01-01

    The current paper on writing assessment surveys the literature on the reliability and validity of essay tests. The paper aims to examine the two concepts in relationship with essay testing as well as to provide a snapshot of the current understandings of the reliability and validity of essay tests as drawn in recent research studies. Bearing in…

  6. Demise of the essay question.

    OpenAIRE

    Tombleson, P.

    1990-01-01

    Psychometric studies of the essay paper in 1988 showed this instrument to have unacceptably low levels of reliability and generalizability. Furthermore, factor analysis showed that the paper's perceived functions could not be supported statistically. It was decided to discontinue the paper and introduce a replacement which would reflect the line of development envisaged by the College in the 1990s.

  7. Teaching Critical Questions about Argumentation through the Revising Process: Effects of Strategy Instruction on College Students' Argumentative Essays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Yi; Ferretti, Ralph P.

    2013-01-01

    The effects of self-regulated strategy development revising instruction for college students that targeted the use of argumentation schemes and critical questions were assessed in three conditions. In the first condition, students were taught to revise their essays by asking and answering critical questions about the "argument from consequences"…

  8. An interim report on the MCAT Essay Pilot Project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koenig, J A; Mitchell, K J

    1988-01-01

    Results from four pilot administrations of the Medical College Admission Test essay question are reported. Analyses focused on (a) the performance characteristics of sample groups differentiated by gender, size of hometown, race/ethnicity, and dominant language; (b) the relationships between essay scores and academic/demographic characteristics; and (c) the reliability of one 45-minute versus two 30-minute essays. No differences were found for examinees grouped by gender and size of home community. Mean differences among the racial/ethnic groups were explained largely by reading level differences. Differences in essay performance by language group were large and unexplained by reading level differences. No relationship was found between the essay score and the academic/demographic characteristics. Reliability estimates for two 30-minute essays were higher than for one 45-minute essay; however, the 30-minute period yielded writing of poorer quality. Test-retest reliabilities for the 45-minute topics will remain the focus of future studies as will performance by examinees for whom English is a second language. The impact of the essay on the selection process will also be assessed.

  9. Comparing Postsecondary Marketing Student Performance on Computer-Based and Handwritten Essay Tests

    Science.gov (United States)

    Truell, Allen D.; Alexander, Melody W.; Davis, Rodney E.

    2004-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences in postsecondary marketing student performance on essay tests based on test format (i.e., computer-based or handwritten). Specifically, the variables of performance, test completion time, and gender were explored for differences based on essay test format. Results of the study…

  10. Should essays and other "open-ended"-type questions retain a place in written summative assessment in clinical medicine?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hift, Richard J

    2014-11-28

    Written assessments fall into two classes: constructed-response or open-ended questions, such as the essay and a number of variants of the short-answer question, and selected-response or closed-ended questions; typically in the form of multiple-choice. It is widely believed that constructed response written questions test higher order cognitive processes in a manner that multiple-choice questions cannot, and consequently have higher validity. An extensive review of the literature suggests that in summative assessment neither premise is evidence-based. Well-structured open-ended and multiple-choice questions appear equivalent in their ability to assess higher cognitive functions, and performance in multiple-choice assessments may correlate more highly than the open-ended format with competence demonstrated in clinical practice following graduation. Studies of construct validity suggest that both formats measure essentially the same dimension, at least in mathematics, the physical sciences, biology and medicine. The persistence of the open-ended format in summative assessment may be due to the intuitive appeal of the belief that synthesising an answer to an open-ended question must be both more cognitively taxing and similar to actual experience than is selecting a correct response. I suggest that cognitive-constructivist learning theory would predict that a well-constructed context-rich multiple-choice item represents a complex problem-solving exercise which activates a sequence of cognitive processes which closely parallel those required in clinical practice, hence explaining the high validity of the multiple-choice format. The evidence does not support the proposition that the open-ended assessment format is superior to the multiple-choice format, at least in exit-level summative assessment, in terms of either its ability to test higher-order cognitive functioning or its validity. This is explicable using a theory of mental models, which might predict that the

  11. Effectiveness of a Test-Taking Strategy on Achievement in Essay Tests for Students with Learning Disabilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Therrien, William J.; Hughes, Charles; Kapelski, Cory; Mokhtari, Kouider

    2009-01-01

    Research was conducted to ascertain if an essay-writing strategy was effective at improving the achievement on essay tests for 7th- and 8th-grade students with reading and writing disabilities. Students were assigned via a stratified random sample to treatment or control group. Student scores were also compared to students without learning…

  12. Using Automated Essay Scores as an Anchor When Equating Constructed Response Writing Tests

    Science.gov (United States)

    Almond, Russell G.

    2014-01-01

    Assessments consisting of only a few extended constructed response items (essays) are not typically equated using anchor test designs as there are typically too few essay prompts in each form to allow for meaningful equating. This article explores the idea that output from an automated scoring program designed to measure writing fluency (a common…

  13. A comparative study of students' performance in preclinical physiology assessed by multiple choice and short essay questions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oyebola, D D; Adewoye, O E; Iyaniwura, J O; Alada, A R; Fasanmade, A A; Raji, Y

    2000-01-01

    This study was designed to compare the performance of medical students in physiology when assessed by multiple choice questions (MCQs) and short essay questions (SEQs). The study also examined the influence of factors such as age, sex, O/level grades and JAMB scores on performance in the MCQs and SEQs. A structured questionnaire was administered to 264 medical students' four months before the Part I MBBS examination. Apart from personal data of each student, the questionnaire sought information on the JAMB scores and GCE O' Level grades of each student in English Language, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics. The physiology syllabus was divided into five parts and the students were administered separate examinations (tests) on each part. Each test consisted of MCQs and SEQs. The performance in MCQs and SEQs were compared. Also, the effects of JAMB scores and GCE O/level grades on the performance in both the MCQs and SEQs were assessed. The results showed that the students performed better in all MCQ tests than in the SEQs. JAMB scores and O' level English Language grade had no significant effect on students' performance in MCQs and SEQs. However O' level grades in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics had significant effects on performance in MCQs and SEQs. Inadequate knowledge of physiology and inability to present information in a logical sequence are believed to be major factors contributing to the poorer performance in the SEQs compared with MCQs. In view of the finding of significant association between performance in MCQs and SEQs and GCE O/level grades in science subjects and mathematics, it was recommended that both JAMB results and the GCE results in the four O/level subjects above may be considered when selecting candidates for admission into the medical schools.

  14. Constitution 200: A Bicentennial Collection of Essays.

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    Hepburn, Mary A., Ed.; And Others

    Constitutional essays which formed the basis of public assemblies throughout three states are compiled in this book. The first three essays consider the U.S. government principles of federalism, judicial review, and the separation of powers. Michael L. Benedict proposes that the question of ultimate sovereignty has been answered differently by…

  15. Two-Year-Old Children Differentiate Test Questions from Genuine Questions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grosse, Gerlind; Tomasello, Michael

    2012-01-01

    Children are frequently confronted with so-called "test questions". While genuine questions are requests for missing information, test questions ask for information obviously already known to the questioner. In this study we explored whether two-year-old children respond differentially to one and the same question used as either a genuine question…

  16. Discriminant analysis of essay, mathematics/science type of essay, college scholastic ability test, and grade point average as predictors of acceptance to a pre-med course at a Korean medical school.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jeong, Geum-Hee

    2008-01-01

    A discriminant analysis was conducted to investigate how an essay, a mathematics/science type of essay, a college scholastic ability test, and grade point average affect acceptance to a pre-med course at a Korean medical school. Subjects included 122 and 385 applicants for, respectively, early and regular admission to a medical school in Korea. The early admission examination was conducted in October 2007, and the regular admission examination was conducted in January 2008. The analysis of early admission data revealed significant F values for the mathematics/science type of essay (51.64; Pgrade point average (10.66; P=0.0014). The analysis of regular admission data revealed the following F values: 28.81 (Pgrade point average, 27.47 (P<0.0001) for college scholastic ability test, 10.67 (P=0.0012) for the essay, and 216.74 (P<0.0001) for the mathematics/science type of essay. Since the mathematics/science type of essay had a strong effect on acceptance, an emphasis on this requirement and exclusion of other kinds of essays would be effective in subsequent entrance examinations for this premed course.

  17. Valuing Essays: Essaying Values

    Science.gov (United States)

    Badley, Graham

    2010-01-01

    The essay regularly comes under attack. It is criticised for being rigidly linear rather than flexible and reflective. I first challenge this view by examining reasons why the essay should be valued as an important genre. Secondly, I propose that in using the essay form students and academics necessarily exemplify their own critical values. Essays…

  18. Essays on financial market integration

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pungulescu, C.

    2009-01-01

    The four essays in this dissertation address these main questions and alternate a general perspective with focused analysis on specific measures of integration and regions, providing several novel answers. First, new relevant proxies are proposed to measure financial market integration. They give

  19. Blue Marble Space Institute essay contest

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wendel, JoAnna

    2014-04-01

    The Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, based in Seattle, Wash., is inviting college students to participate in its essay contest. Essays need to address the question, "In the next 100 years, how can human civilization prepare for the long-term changes to the Earth system that will occur over the coming millennium?" According to the institute, the purpose of the contest is "to stimulate creative thinking relating to space exploration and global issues by exploring how changes in the Earth system will affect humanity's future."

  20. Essays on Character & Opportunity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Center on Children and Families at Brookings, 2014

    2014-01-01

    These essays provide richer set of writings on the philosophical, empirical and practical issues raised by a focus on character, and in particular its relationship to questions of opportunity. Each one is an intellectual pemmican: sharp and to the point. Two scholars draw attention to the gendered nature of character formation (Segal and Lexmond);…

  1. Three essays in energy and environmental economics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Redlinger, Michael

    This thesis exploits the boom in U.S. oil and gas production to explore several empirical questions in environmental and energy economics. In the first essay, statistical techniques are employed to evaluate learning-by-doing in the Bakken Shale Play. Furthermore, the essay demonstrates organizational forgetting and knowledge spillovers among firms. The results show rates of learning in an important sector the U.S. economy and may have broader lessons for productivity gains and losses. The second essay investigates interfirm learning economies in oil well drilling in terms of productivity improvements and increases in environmental safety. The empirical results improve our understanding of how interfirm relationships influence productivity as well as the drivers of environmental incidents. Lastly, the third essay analyzes the impacts of stricter environmental regulations on oil production and well drilling in North Dakota. The results have particular relevance for policymakers seeking to understand the trade-offs between resource development and environmental quality. These three essays ultimately expand our knowledge of how learning economies occur and the effects of environmental regulations on economic activity.

  2. Three Essays In and Tests of Theoretical Urban Economics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Weihua

    This dissertation consists of three essays on urban economics. The three essays are related to urban spatial structure change, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and housing redevelopment. Chapter 1 answers the question: Does the classic Standard Urban Model still describe the growth of cities? Chapter 2 derives the implications of telework on urban spatial structure, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions. Chapter 3 investigates the long run effects of minimum lot size zoning on neighborhood redevelopment. Chapter 1 identifies a new implication of the classic Standard Urban Model, the "unitary elasticity property (UEP)", which is the sum of the elasticity of central density and the elasticity of land area with respect to population change is approximately equal to unity. When this implication of the SUM is tested, it fits US cities fairly well. Further analysis demonstrates that topographic barriers and age of housing stock are the key factors explaining deviation from the UEP. Chapter 2 develops a numerical urban simulation model with households that are able to telework to investigate the urban form, congestion, energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission implications of telework. Simulation results suggest that by reducing transportation costs, telework causes sprawl, with associated longer commutes and consumption of larger homes, both of which increase energy consumption. Overall effects depend on who captures the gains from telework (workers versus firms), urban land use regulation such as height limits or greenbelts, and the fraction of workers participating in telework. The net effects of telework on energy use and GHG emissions are generally negligible. Chapter 3 applies dynamic programming to investigate the long run effects of minimum lot size zoning on neighborhood redevelopment. With numerical simulation, comparative dynamic results show that minimum lot size zoning can delay initial land conversion and slow down demolition and

  3. The Early (Feminist) Essays of Victoria Ocampo

    OpenAIRE

    Doris Meyer

    1996-01-01

    This study examines the essays written by Ocampo between 1920 and 1934, prior to the time when she publicly voiced her adhesion to feminism and the rights of women in Argentine society. In these works from her Testimonios in which Ocampo struggles to find her voice as a female writer, the maleable essay serves her need to engage in discursive dialogues from the margins of the literary culture of her time. Both as a woman and a member of the oligarchy, she questions cultural assumptions and ...

  4. ‘Everybody’s Doing It’ : Essays on trust, social norms and integration

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Smerdon, D.C.

    2017-01-01

    This thesis investigates three topics at the intersection of behavioural and development economics, using a combination of experiments, econometric analysis and mathematical theory. The essays are borne out of topical questions with important policy implications. The first essay seeks to answer why

  5. On Voting, Violence, and Health: Essays on Political Economics and Development

    OpenAIRE

    Leon, Gianmarco

    2012-01-01

    The three essays conforming this thesis are representative pieces of my approach to analyzing the causes and consequences of economic underdevelopment. The overaching topic that ties together these essays is role that institutions and culture play in affecting specific behaviors that undermine development. The approach to the questions addressed in each essay is empirical, using data from Per\\'{u} and Sierra Leone, and relies on economic theory to provide a general framework and deepen our un...

  6. Essays in microeconomics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davies, Tim

    This dissertation consists of three essays in applied microeconomics. Each essay explores a different issue of economic interest. The essay in Chapter 2 describes an experiment designed to investigate if using assets with an intrinsic value that increases over time leads to persistent undervaluation in laboratory asset trading markets. This question has not previously been investigated by researchers. Results from ten sessions are reported. Three used assets with an intrinsic value that decreased over time. The results from these sessions are consistent with the findings by prior researchers who frequently observed price bubbles in laboratory asset trading experiments. The remaining seven sessions used assets with an intrinsic value that increased over time. In all these sessions trading generally occurred at prices below the asset's intrinsic value. In Chapter 3, in an essay co-authored with Adrian Stoian, we study road running races. Tournaments, where ordinal position determines rewards, are an important component of our economy. By studying sporting tournaments, we hope to shed light on the nature of other economically significant tournaments where data may be less readily available. We separately quantify the sorting and incentive effects of tournament prizes by employing a novel two-part model which we apply to a unique data set of road running race results. We present a counterfactual example of how a hypothetical change in prizes would be predicted to change race participation and speed. In Chapter 4, in an essay co-authored with Jedidiah Brewer and Joseph Cullen, we examine the combined effects of the locations and the brands of retail gasoline outlets in Tucson, Arizona on market prices. We apply an innovative approach to model the impact of competing gas stations that avoids limiting analysis to predetermined nearby locations. We show that increased brand diversity is associated with higher prices and that gas stations affiliated with mass

  7. Using the Creative Cognition Approach in Essay Assignments in Leadership Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atkinson, Tim

    2018-01-01

    This application brief covers, "The Final Question," an alternative essay design that encourages the learner to think creatively in Ph.D. Organization Theory or Leadership courses. "The Final Question" asks, "Do leaders change organizations or do organizations change leaders?" It is a simple question, but only the…

  8. Essays in energy economics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Malischek, Raimund

    2016-10-25

    This thesis presents four essays in energy economics. The first essay investigates one of the workhorse models of resource economics, the Hotelling model of an inter-temporally optimizing resource extracting firm. The Hotelling model provides a convincing theory of fundamental concepts like resource scarcity, but very few empirical validations of the model have been conducted. This essay attempts to empirically validate the Hotelling model by first expanding it to include exploration activity and market power and then using a newly constructed data set for the uranium mining industry to test whether a major resource extracting mining firm in the industry is following the theory's predictions. The results show that the theory is rejected in all considered settings. The second and third essays investigate the difference in market outcomes under spot-market based trade as compared to long-term contract based trade in oligopolistic markets with investments. The second essay investigates analytically the difference in market outcomes in an electricity market setting, showing that investments and consumer welfare may be higher under spot-market based trade than under long-term contracts. The third essay proposes techniques to solve large-scale models of this kind, empirically, by exploring the practicability of this approach in an application to the international metallurgical coal market. The final essay investigates the influence of policy uncertainty on investment decisions. With France debating the role of nuclear technology, this essay analyses how policy uncertainty regarding nuclear power in France may feature in the French and European power sector. Applying a stochastic model for the European power system, the analysis shows that the costs of uncertainty in this particular application are rather low compared to the overall costs of a nuclear phase-out.

  9. Essays in energy economics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Malischek, Raimund

    2016-01-01

    This thesis presents four essays in energy economics. The first essay investigates one of the workhorse models of resource economics, the Hotelling model of an inter-temporally optimizing resource extracting firm. The Hotelling model provides a convincing theory of fundamental concepts like resource scarcity, but very few empirical validations of the model have been conducted. This essay attempts to empirically validate the Hotelling model by first expanding it to include exploration activity and market power and then using a newly constructed data set for the uranium mining industry to test whether a major resource extracting mining firm in the industry is following the theory's predictions. The results show that the theory is rejected in all considered settings. The second and third essays investigate the difference in market outcomes under spot-market based trade as compared to long-term contract based trade in oligopolistic markets with investments. The second essay investigates analytically the difference in market outcomes in an electricity market setting, showing that investments and consumer welfare may be higher under spot-market based trade than under long-term contracts. The third essay proposes techniques to solve large-scale models of this kind, empirically, by exploring the practicability of this approach in an application to the international metallurgical coal market. The final essay investigates the influence of policy uncertainty on investment decisions. With France debating the role of nuclear technology, this essay analyses how policy uncertainty regarding nuclear power in France may feature in the French and European power sector. Applying a stochastic model for the European power system, the analysis shows that the costs of uncertainty in this particular application are rather low compared to the overall costs of a nuclear phase-out.

  10. Automated essay scoring and the future of educational assessment in medical education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gierl, Mark J; Latifi, Syed; Lai, Hollis; Boulais, André-Philippe; De Champlain, André

    2014-10-01

    Constructed-response tasks, which range from short-answer tests to essay questions, are included in assessments of medical knowledge because they allow educators to measure students' ability to think, reason, solve complex problems, communicate and collaborate through their use of writing. However, constructed-response tasks are also costly to administer and challenging to score because they rely on human raters. One alternative to the manual scoring process is to integrate computer technology with writing assessment. The process of scoring written responses using computer programs is known as 'automated essay scoring' (AES). An AES system uses a computer program that builds a scoring model by extracting linguistic features from a constructed-response prompt that has been pre-scored by human raters and then, using machine learning algorithms, maps the linguistic features to the human scores so that the computer can be used to classify (i.e. score or grade) the responses of a new group of students. The accuracy of the score classification can be evaluated using different measures of agreement. Automated essay scoring provides a method for scoring constructed-response tests that complements the current use of selected-response testing in medical education. The method can serve medical educators by providing the summative scores required for high-stakes testing. It can also serve medical students by providing them with detailed feedback as part of a formative assessment process. Automated essay scoring systems yield scores that consistently agree with those of human raters at a level as high, if not higher, as the level of agreement among human raters themselves. The system offers medical educators many benefits for scoring constructed-response tasks, such as improving the consistency of scoring, reducing the time required for scoring and reporting, minimising the costs of scoring, and providing students with immediate feedback on constructed-response tasks. © 2014

  11. Application essays and future performance in medical school: are they related?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dong, Ting; Kay, Allen; Artino, Anthony R; Gilliland, William R; Waechter, Donna M; Cruess, David; DeZee, Kent J; Durning, Steven J

    2013-01-01

    There is a paucity of research on whether application essays are a valid indicator of medical students' future performance. The goal is to score medical school application essays systematically and examine the correlations between these essay scores and several indicators of student performance during medical school and internship. A journalist created a scoring rubric based on the journalism literature and scored 2 required essays of students admitted to our university in 1 year (N = 145). We picked 7 indicators of medical school and internship performance and correlated these measures with overall essay scores: preclinical medical school grade point average (GPA), clinical medical school GPA, cumulative medical school GPA, U.S. Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) Step 1 and 2 scores, and scores on a program director's evaluation measuring intern professionalism and expertise. We then examined the Pearson and Spearman correlations between essay scores and the outcomes. Essay scores did not vary widely. American Medical College Application Service essay scores ranged from 3.3 to 4.5 (M = 4.11, SD = 0.15), and Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences essay scores ranged from 2.9 to 4.5 (M = 4.09, SD = 0.17). None of the medical school or internship performance indicators was significantly correlated with the essay scores. These findings raise questions about the utility of matriculation essays, a resource-intensive admission requirement.

  12. Development and Psychometric Properties of the Emotional Intelligence Admission Essay Scale

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sharon A. Gutman

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The purpose was to describe the development and psychometric properties of the Emotional Intelligence Admission Essay scale. The authors developed an admission essay question and rating scale designed to provide information about applicants’ emotional intelligence (EI. Content validity, convergent validity, interrater reliability, and internal consistency were established. The scale was also examined to determine if it could discriminate between students with and without professional behavior problems in the academic and fieldwork settings. Content validity was found to be high by a panel of three experts in EI (content validity index = 1.0. Convergent validity with the Assessing Emotions Scale was moderate (r = .46, p < .02. Interrater reliability between two trained faculty raters was high (ICC = .91, p < .000. Internal consistency of the scale was high with a Cronbach’s alpha of .95. This version of the scale was not able to discriminate between students with and without professional behavior problems. The moderate to strong psychometric properties suggest that the EI Admission Essay Scale has the ability to provide information about applicants’ EI. The wording of the essay question must be modified to better instruct applicants to address interpersonal conflict.

  13. French Higher Education: A Cartoon Essay

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, Matthew Henry

    2012-01-01

    In this cartoon essay, the author shares his experience from a travel to Paris to see the French higher education system. From his travel, he learned that in France, "degree" inflation may be an issue, but not grade inflation. On the flight home, the author reflects how French and American academics answer one question about the state of…

  14. Discriminant Analysis of Essay, Mathematics/Science Type of Essay, College Scholastic Ability Test, and Grade Point Average as Predictors of Acceptance to a Pre-med Course at a Korean Medical School

    OpenAIRE

    Geum-Hee Jeong

    2008-01-01

    A discriminant analysis was conducted to investigate how an essay, a mathematics/science type of essay, a college scholastic ability test, and grade point average affect acceptance to a pre-med course at a Korean medical school. Subjects included 122 and 385 applicants for, respectively, early and regular admission to a medical school in Korea. The early admission examination was conducted in October 2007, and the regular admission examination was conducted in January 2008. The analysis of ea...

  15. Effects of Analytical and Holistic Scoring Patterns on Scorer Reliability in Biology Essay Tests

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ebuoh, Casmir N.

    2018-01-01

    Literature revealed that the patterns/methods of scoring essay tests had been criticized for not being reliable and this unreliability is more likely to be more in internal examinations than in the external examinations. The purpose of this study is to find out the effects of analytical and holistic scoring patterns on scorer reliability in…

  16. Researching Race and Social Justice in Education: Essays in Honour of Barry Troyna.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sikes, Pat, Ed.; Rizvi, Fazal, Ed.

    The essays in this book comprise a "festschrift", a group of essays, to commemorate Barry Troyna, who made an important contribution to thinking about race, racism, and research on social-justice issues in the school context. Much of his work was directed at showing that it was impossible to research questions of "race"…

  17. STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR REFLECTIVE ESSAY WRITING EXPERIENCE AND TEACHER FEEDBACK COMMENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Asiah Mohd Sharif

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Reflection which encompasses critical and analytical capabilities is a critical 21st century skill for students to develop. To ensure students are equipped with this skill, reflective writing has been identified as a possible tool. Teacher feedback on students’ written output therefore plays a role in developing students’ reflective skills. This study asks two questions: How do students perceive their experience writing reflective essays? What is the nature of the teacher’s feedback comments on students’ reflective essays and how do students perceive them? To answer these questions, nineteen ESL students in an entry-level Medical programme completed a questionnaire concerning their experiences writing reflective essays and perceptions of teacher feedback on these essays. Interviews were conducted with two students to follow-up on questionnaire responses. The content analysis showed that the students believed reflective writing played a small contribution to their language learning. Further investigation into the students’ perspectives of their teachers’ feedback comments suggests that even though the teachers’ feedback was positive, the students also referred to the comments as inadequate and ineffective. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

  18. Essays on Asset Pricing with Financial Frictions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Klingler, Sven

    The first essay focuses on Credit default swap (CDS) premiums of safe sovereigns, that is, the insurance against the default of countries with a low credit risk, like Germany, Japan, or the United States. We motivate the essay by establishing the following two stylized facts. First, we document...... insurance against the default of safe sovereigns? Second, what drives safe-haven CDS premiums if not credit risk?...... between bond yield and risk-free rate, for safe sovereigns. This finding is in opposition to the no-arbitrage theory that CDS premiums and yield spreads should move in lockstep. Motivated by these stylized facts, we investigate the following two questions: First, what are the motives behind purchasing...

  19. Essays on Pricing of Information Goods and Services

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lahiri, Atanu

    2010-01-01

    This dissertation consists of three essays that examine, in three specific contexts, issues related to pricing of information goods and services. As the ability to measure technology resource usage gets easier with increased connectivity, the question whether a technology resource should be priced by the amount of the resource used or by the…

  20. Chapter 9: Questions from CNEN specific exams

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2018-04-01

    The following are real questions from CNEN specific exams for obtaining the certification of RSO for gamma irradiators. These are questions that require essay answers, that are interpretative ones and therefore that may accept more than one interpretation, therefore more than one answer. For this reason, suggestions of answers will be presented in the second part of this chapter.

  1. Chapter 9: Questions from CNEN specific exams

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2018-01-01

    The following are real questions from CNEN specific exams for obtaining the certification of RSO for gamma irradiators. These are questions that require essay answers, that are interpretative ones and therefore that may accept more than one interpretation, therefore more than one answer. For this reason, suggestions of answers will be presented in the second part of this chapter

  2. Essays on incentives and pro-environmental behaviour

    OpenAIRE

    De Martino, Samantha

    2017-01-01

    This thesis consists of four self-contained essays at the nexus of applied microeconomics, behavioural economics, and environmental economics. In the essays of the thesis, I use field experiments and econometric tools to examine the impact of monetary and non monetary incentives for behavioural change during resource scarcity. I use methods of eliciting intrinsic motivations and then empirically test theories on the interaction of intrinsic motivation and extrinsic incentives. Specifically I ...

  3. A philosophical essay on probabilities

    CERN Document Server

    Laplace, Marquis de

    1996-01-01

    A classic of science, this famous essay by ""the Newton of France"" introduces lay readers to the concepts and uses of probability theory. It is of especial interest today as an application of mathematical techniques to problems in social and biological sciences.Generally recognized as the founder of the modern phase of probability theory, Laplace here applies the principles and general results of his theory ""to the most important questions of life, which are, in effect, for the most part, problems in probability."" Thus, without the use of higher mathematics, he demonstrates the application

  4. Essays on the Impact of Social Media: Evidence from the Music Industry and the Stock Market

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Hailiang

    2012-01-01

    As both individuals and businesses are starting to embrace social media, understanding the power and influence of social media becomes an important question. This dissertation aims to address this issue and study the impact of social media in different contexts. It consists of two essays. The first essay examines the effectiveness of social media…

  5. Essays on Strategic Communication

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Z. Sharif (Zara)

    2016-01-01

    markdownabstractThree essays on strategic communication are discussed in this dissertation. These essays consider different settings in which a decision maker has to rely on another agent for information. In each essay, we analyze how much information the sender is able to credibly communicate to

  6. Essaying the essay: nursing scholarship and the hegemony of the laboratory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gardner, Lyn; Rolfe, Gary

    2013-01-01

    It might appear odd or even perverse to be arguing for the essay as a vehicle for academic thought and writing, particularly given the current emphasis on scientific research and evidence-based practice. In fact, the scholarly essay has virtually ceased to exist as an academic form in practice disciplines such as nursing, excluded by what we will identify and refer to as the hegemony of the laboratory. In a practical as well as an intellectual attempt to reinstate it, this paper is structured in the form of two consecutive short essays. In the first, we identify the character, features and purpose of the scholarly essay and examine its demise as an academic form. In the second, we explore some possible reasons why the essay never became fully accepted as an academic form in nursing. We suggest that the essay is thematically eclectic and stylistically promiscuous, drawing from a broad range of cultural, disciplinary and academic reference points. As such, it presents a challenge to the dominant technical rational approach to academic nursing in both its form and its content, particularly in its disregard for the rigidly imposed genres and structures increasingly demanded by academic nursing journals. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. The "Paranormal": African Philosophy Questions Science Modern ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This essay will address the question of the reality of 'paranormal' events and defend the thesis ..... philosophy and science, guided exclusively by the canons of the logic of binary opposition ..... independent entity (Davies 1990: 72-90). Ifit does ...

  8. Use of X-ray essay and fluoroscopy in the armament industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bohnsack, G.

    1989-01-01

    Of the nondestructive testing the process of test by radiography has a special place. With view to great variety of problems of essays in the armament industry, the X-Ray radiography has excellent possibilities of testing, that not possible, for example, with ultrasonography. Different possibilities that the X-ray radiography offer to essays of grenade and blasting cap, through practice examples described case to case are presented. (V.R.B.)

  9. Reliability of Holistic Scoring for the 1985 MCAT Essays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mitchell, Karen J.; Anderson, Judith A.

    A pilot essay was included in the 1985 Spring and Fall administrations of the Medical College Admission Test. A sample of 320 of the essays written by Fall examinees who had expressed an interest in allopathic medicine was used to calculate interrater reliability estimates. Sixteen of 20 readers who had been trained by White's suggestions for…

  10. Astr 101 Students' Attitudes Towards Essays On Transits, Eclipses And Occultations

    Science.gov (United States)

    D'Cruz, Noella L.

    2012-05-01

    Joliet Junior College, Joliet, IL offers a one semester introductory astronomy course each semester. We teach over 110 primarily non-science major students each semester. We use proven active learning strategies such lecture tutorials, think-pair-share questions and small group discussions to help these students develop and retain a good understanding of astrophysical concepts. Occasionally, we offer projects that allow students to explore course topics beyond the classroom. We hope that such projects will increase students' interest in astronomy. We also hope that these assignments will help students to improve their critical thinking and writing skills. In Spring 12, we are offering three short individual essay assignments in our face-to-face sections. The essays focus on transits, eclipses and occultations to highlight the 2012 transit of Venus. For the first essay, students will find images of transit and occultation events using the Astronomy Picture of the Day website and describe their chosen events. In addition, students will predict how variations in certain physical and orbital parameters would alter their particular events. The second essay involves transits, eclipses and occultations observed by spacecraft. Students will describe their transit event, their spacecraft's mission, orbital path, how the orbital path was achieved, etc. The third essay deals with transiting exoplanets. Students will choose at least two exoplanets from an exoplanet database, one of which has been discovered through the transit method. This essay will enable students to learn about detecting exoplanets and how they compare with our solar system. Details of the essay assignments and students' reactions to them will be presented at the meeting.

  11. Writing anxiety: an affective filter for essay writing instruction among ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This study which adopted the descriptive research design investigated the relationship between writing anxiety and students' achievement in essay writing. SS2 Students from six schools in Ibadan Metropolis were used for the study. The instruments used were Essay Writing Achievement Test(r=0.81) and Writing Anxiety ...

  12. The use of an essay examination in evaluating medical students during the surgical clerkship.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smart, Blair J; Rinewalt, Daniel; Daly, Shaun C; Janssen, Imke; Luu, Minh B; Myers, Jonathan A

    2016-01-01

    Third-year medical students are graded according to subjective performance evaluations and standardized tests written by the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME). Many "poor" standardized test takers believe the heavily weighted NBME does not evaluate their true fund of knowledge and would prefer a more open-ended forum to display their individualized learning experiences. Our study examined the use of an essay examination as part of the surgical clerkship evaluation. We retrospectively examined the final surgical clerkship grades of 781 consecutive medical students enrolled in a large urban academic medical center from 2005 to 2011. We examined final grades with and without the inclusion of the essay examination for all students using a paired t test and then sought any relationship between the essay and NBME using Pearson correlations. Final average with and without the essay examination was 72.2% vs 71.3% (P essay examination increasing average scores by .4, 1.8, and 2.5 for those receiving high pass, pass, and fail, respectively. The essay decreased the average score for those earning an honors by .4. Essay scores were found to overall positively correlate with the NBME (r = .32, P essay examination as part of the third-year surgical core clerkship final did increase the final grade a modest degree, especially for those with lower scores who may identify themselves as "poor" standardized test takers. A more open-ended forum may allow these students an opportunity to overcome this deficiency and reveal their true fund of surgical knowledge. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Essay and Ekphrasis (Herbert - Bieńkowska - Bieńczyk

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roma Sendyka

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Michel Riffaterre in article L'lllusion d'ekphrasis put forward an idea of "critical ekphrasis" (1994 what may become an invitation to ask if other sub-genres/modes of ekphrasis may be described. The text Essay and Ekphrasis develops this question in the field of essayistic traditions. Evoking the tendency of writing on art in that genre (from Montaigne, Diderot, Ruskin, Pater to art historians, critics and artists the article analyses three examples of ekphrases (by Zbigniew Herbert, Ewa Bieńkowska and Marek Bieńczyk to voice a hypothesis that ekphrasis in an essay may be a useful proof for those who question (ostensive representational powers of that textual tool. Essayistic ekphrasis seems to have a foremost referential character, pointing towards an object of art only to use it in order to describe cognitive procedures of the subject who in such a way (performatively and not overtly pictures himself mirroring his inner self in dispersed fragments of cultural object, dismantling the temporal and spatial difference between the viewer and the object in an illusion of an immediate presence.

  14. An Evaluation of the IntelliMetric[SM] Essay Scoring System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rudner, Lawrence M.; Garcia, Veronica; Welch, Catherine

    2006-01-01

    This report provides a two-part evaluation of the IntelliMetric[SM] automated essay scoring system based on its performance scoring essays from the Analytic Writing Assessment of the Graduate Management Admission Test[TM] (GMAT[TM]). The IntelliMetric system performance is first compared to that of individual human raters, a Bayesian system…

  15. EXTROVERT PERSONALITY AND ITS IMPACT ON STUDENTS’ ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY WRITING SKILL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wida Sopia Marwa

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This research aims at finding the positive correlation between extroversion personality and students’ argumentative essay writing skill. The objective of this research is to know the correlation between extroversion personality and students’ argumentative essay of sophomore English Department students in University of Kuningan. The population in this research was all sophomore English Department students with total 60 students. A convenience purposive sampling was applied to get the sample students. The samples of this research were 12 extrovert students. From the results of statistical tests to test the correlation between two variables, this research used Pearson product moment. As the result of the calculation, it was found that r-observed (0,778 > t-tables (0, 532. Then, based on the hypothesis test with two tail test, the result of hypothesis test obtained t-observed (3, 917 > t-tables (1, 782. Thus, it can be concluded that Ha was accepted and there was a correlation between extroversion personality and students’ argumentative essay writing skill.

  16. Four essays on market power in energy economics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hansen, Petter Vegard

    2008-07-01

    Market power in energy markets is discussed intensively in both academic and public arenas. There has been an intense energy debate on market power at least since the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) exercised its market power and caused the 'oil crisis' of the 1970s, and again following the deregulation of electricity markets at the beginning of the 1990s. However, this debate is not new. In 1911, for example, the US Supreme Court divided Standard Oil into 34 separate companies using antitrust law. With increasing energy prices and the ongoing process of liberalization of electricity markets throughout the world, the topic is still relevant for future markets. The four essays in this dissertation discuss specific aspects of market power in energy markets. The first essay concerns the crude oil market, and the remaining three essays relate to market power in the Nordic and Norwegian electricity markets. In the first essay, a multi-equation dynamic econometric model tests whether the behaviour of OPEC, as a whole or as different subgroups, is consistent with the behaviour of dominant producers in the world crude oil market. The second essay is a theoretical work that introduces uncertainty in inflow to the discussion of market power in hydropower markets by analysing the effects of uncertainty in inflow on market performance under alternative assumptions about market structure. In the third essay, high-frequency data are used to analyse how price signals from the spot market affect end-user demand in the Norwegian and Swedish electricity markets. Finally, in the fourth essay, retailer and household behaviour in the Norwegian electricity market are analysed using detailed information on prices and other market characteristics. In the following section, I provide highlights from a general discussion of market power in order to set the essays included in this dissertation in context. (Author). refs., figs., tabs

  17. Toxicity minimization of pipelines hydrostatic tests fluids, stage I: laboratory essays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lacerda, Jorge A.S.; Penna, Monica de O.; Portela, Daniele B.; Christino, Fernando P.; Silva, Joao L.B. da; Geraldo, Lucia M.L. [Petroleo do Brasileiro S.A. (PETROBRAS), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Mota, Vanessa V.C. [Fundacao Gorceix, Ouro Preto, MG (Brazil); Cravo Junior, Walter [Pontificia Univ. Catolica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), RJ (Brazil)

    2009-07-01

    This paper presents the results of the laboratory essays stage of the project for toxicity minimization of pipelines hydrostatic tests fluids. The hydrostatic-hibernation fluid composition most used by PETROBRAS in offshore operations is seawater added with sodium bis sulfite, fluorescein, alquildimetilbenzilamonium chloride, and tetrakis-hydroxymethyl-phosphonium sulfate (THPS). In order to reduce the toxicity of the fluid used in hydrostatic tests, the use of lesser concentrations of THPS was attempted with UV radiation application as a disinfection technique prior to the adding of the fluid's components. The compositions were evaluated in different conditions of temperature use of UV radiation or not and oxygen scavenger adding (presence and absence). The fluids were kept hibernating for 120 days. All the parameters tested after hibernation were compared to fresh from preparation samples (zero time samples). The fluid's characteristics were evaluated by microbiological control and toxicity as well as the THPS residual. Results showed that the UV treatment was more effective in the absence of oxygen scavenger. The temperature acts as a microbial growth control agent, as expected. To large scale operations, a water quality monitoring must be performed previously to any field operations, in order to determinate the best treatment to be used in each case. (author)

  18. THE EFFECTS OF TEACHING CRITICAL THINKING ON STUDENTS’ ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A’am Rifaldi Khunaifi

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available This study is directed to find out whether teaching critical thinking affects the writing ability of argumentative essay. This research employed quasi experimental design as it was intended to measure the effects of the strategy on the students’ ability in writing argumentative essay. The samples of the study were the students of class A and B enrolled in the seventh semester of the English Education Department of State Islamic College of Palangka Raya. To collect the data needed, it was used test as the instrument; it was Academic Writing for IELTS Test. The data were processed and analyzed by using SPSS 19.0 statistic technique of independent t-test and paired-sample t-test, and the analized data were concluded. From the result of the test, the independent t-test calculation in posttest scores in both groups shows that the significance value is higher than level of significance (0.194 > 0.05. It indicates that there is no significant difference between experimental and control groups. Moreover, the paired t-test calculation shows the result of paired sample test (0.000 < 0.05 in which there is a significant difference between pretest and posttest scores in experimental group after having treatments. Keywords: critical thinking, writing ability, argumentative essay

  19. Essays on pricing electricity and electricity derivatives in deregulated markets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Popova, Julia

    2008-10-01

    This dissertation is composed of four essays on the behavior of wholesale electricity prices and their derivatives. The first essay provides an empirical model that takes into account the spatial features of a transmission network on the electricity market. The spatial structure of the transmission grid plays a key role in determining electricity prices, but it has not been incorporated into previous empirical models. The econometric model in this essay incorporates a simple representation of the transmission system into a spatial panel data model of electricity prices, and also accounts for the effect of dynamic transmission system constraints on electricity market integration. Empirical results using PJM data confirm the existence of spatial patterns in electricity prices and show that spatial correlation diminishes as transmission lines become more congested. The second essay develops and empirically tests a model of the influence of natural gas storage inventories on the electricity forward premium. I link a model of the effect of gas storage constraints on the higher moments of the distribution of electricity prices to a model of the effect of those moments on the forward premium. Empirical results using PJM data support the model's predictions that gas storage inventories sharply reduce the electricity forward premium when demand for electricity is high and space-heating demand for gas is low. The third essay examines the efficiency of PJM electricity markets. A market is efficient if prices reflect all relevant information, so that prices follow a random walk. The hypothesis of random walk is examined using empirical tests, including the Portmanteau, Augmented Dickey-Fuller, KPSS, and multiple variance ratio tests. The results are mixed though evidence of some level of market efficiency is found. The last essay investigates the possibility that previous researchers have drawn spurious conclusions based on classical unit root tests incorrectly applied to

  20. Essay Genre in Tatar Journalism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aigul A. Guseinova

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available In this article, an essay is considered as a journalistic genre in the context of modern Tatar journalism. Using the example of works by contemporary authors in the Tatar-speaking periodicals of Russia, the main genre and the semantic features of this genre are studied. An essay is a publicistic form to reflect on the topical issues of Russian reality. The reproduction of a fact is not so important for an essay. An important role is played by the description of the author's impressions, reflections and emotions. The periodical press has many materials in the Tatar language in which the author's opinion, author's principle and subjective opinion are strongly expressed. In fact, during the last decades of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century there was a surge of essays in modern journalism. Due to some political events in Russia during the early 90s of the twentieth century, it was possible to express their thoughts and speak on the urgent problems in society openly in comparison with the Soviet reality. The object of research is essayism as a kind of journalistic creativity, the subject of the study is the essay genre in Tatar journalism. The empirical basis of the work consisted of the essays from Tatar journalists, publicists and writers. Provided that the personality of an author is one of the effectiveness factors concerning the publications in the genre of essay, the essayization of texts in Tatar journalism will be increased in the future.

  1. Essay on the pertinence of Luscher's abbreviate test in psychological evaluation of the radioactive accident victims of Goiania

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Costa Neto, Sebastiao Benicio da

    1995-01-01

    The essay on the pertinence of Luscher's abbreviate test in psychological evaluation of the radioactive accident victims of Goiania - Brazilian city - occurred in 1987 is consequence of confront of data obtained in two distinct situations having for criterion: time, efficiency and pertinence. Besides of this, they are introduced palografic and the house-tree-person - HTP - tests. These tests aimed at the common psychological characteristics verification to radioactive accident victims' personality of Goiania and to the data existential moment for those people. Among the three tests, the one of Luscher was what obtained the best interviewees acceptance index

  2. Three Essays Examining Household Energy Demand and Behavior

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murray, Anthony G.

    This dissertation consists of three essays examining household energy decisions and behavior. The first essay examines the adoption of energy efficient Energy Star home appliances by U.S. households. Program effectiveness requires that consumers be aware of the labeling scheme and also change their purchase decisions based on label information. The first essay examines the factors associated with consumer awareness of the Energy Star label of recently purchased major appliances and the factors associated with the choice of Energy Star labeled appliances. The findings suggest that eliminating identified gaps in Energy Star appliance adoption would result in house electricity cost savings of $164 million per year and associated carbon emission reductions of about 1.1 million metric tons per year. The second essay evaluates household energy security and the effectiveness of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), the single largest energy assistance program available to poor households within the United States. Energy security is conceptually akin to the well-known concept of food security. Rasch models and household responses to energy security questions in the 2005 Residential Energy Consumption Survey are used to generate an energy insecurity index that is consistent with those found in the food insecurity literature. Participating in LIHEAP is found to significantly reduce household energy insecurity score in the index. Further, simulations show that the elimination of the energy assistance safety net currently available to households increases the number of energy insecure house- holds by over 16 percent. The third essay develops a five equation demand system to estimate household own-price, cross-price and income elasticities between electricity, natural gas, food at home, food away from home, and non-durable commodity groups. Household cross-price elasticities between energy and food commodities are of particular importance. Energy price shocks

  3. Questions of qualification exam for non-destructive testing and materials science - the first level

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shaaban, H.I.; Addarwish, J.M.A.

    2013-01-01

    The book contains seven chapters: Questions of qualification for magnetic particles testing method - Questions of qualification for liquids penetrant testing method - Questions of qualification for the visual inspection testing method - Questions of qualification for the ultrasonic testing method - Questions of qualification for the eddy current testing method - Questions of rehabilitation for industrial radiographic testing method - Qualification questions about materials science and manufacturing defects of castings and welding and comparison between non-destructive testing methods.

  4. Validating Automated Essay Scoring: A (Modest) Refinement of the "Gold Standard"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Powers, Donald E.; Escoffery, David S.; Duchnowski, Matthew P.

    2015-01-01

    By far, the most frequently used method of validating (the interpretation and use of) automated essay scores has been to compare them with scores awarded by human raters. Although this practice is questionable, human-machine agreement is still often regarded as the "gold standard." Our objective was to refine this model and apply it to…

  5. Questioning the Question: How can a husband rape his wife? : A Discussion in an International Classroom

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anjali Nicole Walquist

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available This essay discusses the question “How can a husband rape his wife?” I assume that upon reading this you already have some reaction or answer. I have one, too. The interesting part is that they can be very different. Some people think along the lines of “Yes, I can't imagine how a husband can rape his wife because that is so cruel.” Other people may think something like “Yes, how is this even possible, that a husband having sex with his wife could be considered rape.” These views are quite different, and it is this difference that interests me.In this essay, I will reflect upon the question “How can a husband rape his wife?” I will discuss my personal background, and describe the situation and experience in which this question was brought up. Next, I will discuss various reflections I have had about this difference. I will then reflect on how this idea, or even the definitions of the terms, may be based on a person’s culture, gender, and/or opinions. After that, I will look at how this topic may affect social workers, service users and social work as a profession. Lastly, I will also explain how this has helped me gain a better understanding of this issue.

  6. Self-Assessment in Coursework Essays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Longhurst, Nigel; Norton, Lin S.

    1997-01-01

    Self-assessments of coursework essays were compared with tutor grades for 67 college students. Students could accurately assess their overall essay grades and could give an overall rank for deep processing, but when judging essays on individual criteria they were not so accurate when compared to tutor evaluations. (SLD)

  7. Plagiarism in residency application essays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Segal, Scott; Gelfand, Brian J; Hurwitz, Shelley; Berkowitz, Lori; Ashley, Stanley W; Nadel, Eric S; Katz, Joel T

    2010-07-20

    Anecdotal reports suggest that some residency application essays contain plagiarized content. To determine the prevalence of plagiarism in a large cohort of residency application essays. Retrospective cohort study. 4975 application essays submitted to residency programs at a single large academic medical center between 1 September 2005 and 22 March 2007. Specialized software was used to compare residency application essays with a database of Internet pages, published works, and previously submitted essays and the percentage of the submission matching another source was calculated. A match of more than 10% to an existing work was defined as evidence of plagiarism. Evidence of plagiarism was found in 5.2% (95% CI, 4.6% to 5.9%) of essays. The essays of non-U.S. citizens were more likely to demonstrate evidence of plagiarism. Other characteristics associated with the prevalence of plagiarism included medical school location outside the United States and Canada; previous residency or fellowship; lack of research experience, volunteer experience, or publications; a low United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 score; and non-membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. The software database is probably incomplete, the 10%-match threshold for defining plagiarism has not been statistically validated, and the study was confined to applicants to 1 institution. Evidence of matching content in an essay cannot be used to infer the applicant's intent and is not sensitive to variations in the cultural context of copying in some societies. Evidence of plagiarism in residency application essays is more common in international applicants but was found in those by applicants to all specialty programs, from all medical school types, and even among applicants with significant academic honors. No external funding.

  8. Questioning the foundations of physics which of our fundamental assumptions are wrong?

    CERN Document Server

    Foster, Brendan; Merali, Zeeya

    2015-01-01

    The essays in this book look at way in which the fundaments of physics might need to be changed in order to make progress towards a unified theory. They are based on the prize-winning essays submitted to the FQXi essay competition “Which of Our Basic Physical Assumptions Are Wrong?”, which drew over 270 entries. As Nobel Laureate physicist Philip W. Anderson realized, the key to understanding nature’s reality is not anything “magical”, but the right attitude, “the focus on asking the right questions, the willingness to try (and to discard) unconventional answers, the sensitive ear for phoniness, self-deception, bombast, and conventional but unproven assumptions.” The authors of the eighteen prize-winning essays have, where necessary, adapted their essays for the present volume so as to (a) incorporate the community feedback generated in the online discussion of the essays, (b) add new material that has come to light since their completion and (c) to ensure accessibility to a broad audience of re...

  9. Tradition as Gelotopoesis: An Essay on the Hermeneutics of Laughter in Martin Heidegger

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tziovanis Georgakis

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available In this essay, I argue that laughter stands as the tricky possibility of the question of the meaning of Being, which ridiculously limits and gets limited by tradition beyond limitation. I introduce a hermeneutics of laughter and contend that the event of Ereignis receives its meaning from Gelotopoesis—the poetic act of laughter. Moreover, I claim that the echo of Gelotopoesis becomes the possibility of the transmission of tradition and is attested by a hypertonic boastfulness and a hypotonic irony. These two echoing tonalities question an unquestionable presence, which tradition never questions, in the most excessive manner so that it becomes the proper question of tradition once again.

  10. The Question Concerning Thinking

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Riis, Søren

    2008-01-01

    Martin Heidegger's thought-provoking essay "The Question Concerning Technology" (1977a) placed technology at the heart of philosophy. Heidegger tried to show that the essence of technology provokes humans to think about the world in a very dangerous way. Yet if we follow Heidegger's analysis...... of technology, what role does that ascribe to philosophy? To be able to understand the programmatic scope of Heidegger's question ‘concerning' technology, we need to see it as inseparable from his famous thesis about the end of philosophy (1977c) and what he considers to be the ideal kind of thinking. However......, by doing so, we will in the end realize two important things. First, that Heidegger's declaration of the end of philosophy in fact also means the end of anything we can meaningfully call thinking. Second, that Heidegger's own thinking is completely different from his own ideal of thinking. Our question...

  11. Essays in behavioral strategy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dumas, Jean-Malik

    2016-01-01

    This dissertation is composed of three quantitative empirical essays. Using social psychology, psychology and economic theory, the first essay explores how fear of death, belief in afterlife, self-esteem and generation influence the way employees project themselves in the future of their working

  12. Review: Questioning Ireland: debates in political philosophy and public policy

    OpenAIRE

    Sheehan, Helena

    2000-01-01

    This is a review of a collection of essays entitled Questioning Ireland: debates in political philosophy and public policy, edited by Joseph Dunne, Attracta Ingram and Frank Litton, published in Dublin by the Institute of Public Administration in 2000.

  13. Project Physics Tests 4, Light and Electromagnetism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA. Harvard Project Physics.

    Test items relating to Project Physics Unit 4 are presented in this booklet. Included are 70 multiple-choice and 22 problem-and-essay questions. Concepts of light and electromagnetism are examined on charges, reflection, electrostatic forces, electric potential, speed of light, electromagnetic waves and radiations, Oersted's and Faraday's work,…

  14. Review Essay: "Personal Relations" as a Sociological Category?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rainer Schützeichel

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available This review essay discusses the question raised by the handbook "Personal Relations": whether and to what extent personal relations can be understood as a fundamental sociological category, one that is uniform and covers social relations such as pair relationships, brother-sister and parent-child relationships, family relations, friendships, neighbourhoods or informal working groups. It examines the different criteria which—according to the publishers—plead for establishing personal relations as a joint structural form. However, it also considers further aspects, such as the ways in which these forms of personal relations differ from other social relations, and raises the question of whether these differences can only be reconstructed through the means of an a-historical, systematic comparison of social relations—as suggested by the handbook. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1003187

  15. Essays on partial retirement

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kantarci, T.

    2012-01-01

    The five essays in this dissertation address a range of topics in the micro-economic literature on partial retirement. The focus is on the labor market behavior of older age groups. The essays examine the economic and non-economic determinants of partial retirement behavior, the effect of partial

  16. Essays on Empirical Asset Pricing : Essays over het empirisch prijzen van financiele producten

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    R.W.M. Verbeek (Roy)

    2017-01-01

    textabstractThis dissertation consists of three essays on empirical asset pricing. In the first essay, I investigate whether common risk factors are priced across investment horizons. I show that only the market and size factors are priced, but only up to sixteen months. The results highlight the

  17. Mathematical statistics essays on history and methodology

    CERN Document Server

    Pfanzagl, Johann

    2017-01-01

    This book presents a detailed description of the development of statistical theory. In the mid twentieth century, the development of mathematical statistics underwent an enduring change, due to the advent of more refined mathematical tools. New concepts like sufficiency, superefficiency, adaptivity etc. motivated scholars to reflect upon the interpretation of mathematical concepts in terms of their real-world relevance. Questions concerning the optimality of estimators, for instance, had remained unanswered for decades, because a meaningful concept of optimality (based on the regularity of the estimators, the representation of their limit distribution and assertions about their concentration by means of Anderson’s Theorem) was not yet available. The rapidly developing asymptotic theory provided approximate answers to questions for which non-asymptotic theory had found no satisfying solutions. In four engaging essays, this book presents a detailed description of how the use of mathematical methods stimulated...

  18. Project Physics Tests 1, Concepts of Motion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA. Harvard Project Physics.

    Test items relating to Project Physics Unit 1 are presented in this booklet, consisting of 70 multiple-choice and 20 problem-and-essay questions. Concepts of motion are examined with respect to velocities, acceleration, forces, vectors, Newton's laws, and circular motion. Suggestions are made for time consumption in answering some items. Besides…

  19. Source-Based Tasks in Writing Independent and Integrated Essays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Javad Gholami

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Integrated writing tasks have gained considerable attention in ESL and EFL writing assessment and are frequently needed and used in academic settings and daily life. However, they are very rarely practiced and promoted in writing classes. This paper explored the effects of source-based writing practice on EFL learners’ composing abilities and investigated the probable differences between those tasks and independent writing ones in improving Iranian EFL learners’ essay writing abilities. To this end, a quasi-experimental design was implemented to gauge EFL learners’ writing improvements using a pretest-posttest layout. Twenty female learners taking a TOEFL iBT preparation course were randomly divided into an only-writing group with just independent writing instruction and essay practice, and a hybrid-writing-approach group receiving instruction and practice on independent writing plus source-based essay writing for ten sessions. Based on the findings, the participants with hybrid writing practice outperformed their counterparts in integrated essay tests. Their superior performance was not observed in the case of traditional independent writing tasks. The present study calls for incorporating more source-based writing tasks in writing courses.

  20. Project Physics Tests 3, The Triumph of Mechanics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA. Harvard Project Physics.

    Test items relating to Project Physics Unit 3 are presented in this booklet. Included are 70 multiple-choice and 20 problem-and-essay questions. Concepts of mechanics are examined on energy, momentum, kinetic theory of gases, pulse analyses, "heat death," water waves, power, conservation laws, normal distribution, thermodynamic laws, and…

  1. Humanizing mathematics and its philosophy essays celebrating the 90th birthday of Reuben Hersh

    CERN Document Server

    2017-01-01

    This Festschrift contains numerous colorful and eclectic essays from well-known mathematicians, philosophers, logicians, and linguists celebrating the 90th birthday of Reuben Hersh. The essays offer, in part, attempts to answer the following questions set forth by Reuben himself as a focus for this volume: Can practicing mathematicians, as such, contribute anything to the philosophy of math? Can or should philosophers of math, as such, say anything to practicing mathematicians? Twenty or fifty years from now, what will be similar, and what will, or could, or should be altogether different: About the philosophy of math? About math education? About math research institutions? About data processing and scientific computing? The essays also offer glimpses into Reuben’s fertile mind and his lasting influence on the mathematical community, as well as revealing the diverse roots, obstacles and philosophical dispositions that characterize the working lives of mathematicians. With contributions from a veritable “w...

  2. A Window to the Past: What an Essay Contest Reveals about Early American Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Justice, Benjamin

    2015-01-01

    In 1795 America's premier scholarly association, the American Philosophical Society (APS), posed the following question: [Write] an essay on a system of liberal education, and literary instruction, adapted to the genius of the government, and best calculated to promote the general welfare of the United States; comprehending, also, a plan for…

  3. E-education Essay

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    李妍

    2012-01-01

    This entry is filed under Examples and tagged e-education essay sample,free education essay example,sample education essay.So many things around us have been changed by development of technology of which education can't help being an exception.Some kinds of technology have applied to education and one of produc~ is the E-education which makes us be ableto get education wherever and whenever we want to.This feature of E-education has given us many advantages.However,there is debate between online education and ordinary education due to some of concern such as technology of E-education and students responsibility for learning.Even though some problems have heen found in E-education,it could be one of best way to get good quality education and supplement ordinary education because technology which supports online education keeps developing and there are a lot of good online course which offer good qualityeducation.

  4. Essays in industrial organization and management strategy

    OpenAIRE

    de Bijl, P.W.J.

    1996-01-01

    This thesis contains five essays in the theory of industrial organization and management strategy. An introduction makes the main ideas accessible to non-specialists by presenting the essays as fictitious cases. The first essay investigates strategic disclosure of verifiable information. The disclosed information concerns a hidden action, and the transmission of information takes place in a noisy environment. The second essay explores how search costs and informational asymmetries influence t...

  5. Review Essay : Virtually Alive or Questionably Dead? The Ambivalence of Modern Korean Identity in Literature and Cinema

    OpenAIRE

    Kim, Kyu Hyun

    2012-01-01

    Theodore Hughes, Literature and Film in Cold War South Korea: Freedom's Frontier. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. 304 pp. $55 (cloth).Kyung Hyun Kim, Virtual Hallyu: Korean Cinema of the Global Era. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011, pp. 208. $90 (cloth), $25 (paper).The studies by Kyung Hyun Kim and Theodore Hughes discussed in this essay are rich with information and insights but are also challenging, almost subversive, to some prevalent views on Korean cinema and literatur...

  6. CAREM reactor thermohydraulic essays laboratory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Horro, R.; Mazzi, R.; Rossini, A.

    1990-01-01

    The main characteristics, essays projected and the present state of the Thermohydraulic Essays Laboratory -under construction at present- prepared to meet the experimental needs resulting from a power reactor design of the CAREM type, are herein described. (Author) [es

  7. Project Physics Tests 2, Motion in the Heavens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA. Harvard Project Physics.

    Test items relating to Project Physics Unit 2 are presented in this booklet. Included are 70 multiple-choice and 22 problem-and-essay questions. Concepts of motion in the heavens are examined for planetary motions, heliocentric theory, forces exerted on the planets, Kepler's laws, gravitational force, Galileo's work, satellite orbits, Jupiter's…

  8. Essays in industrial organization and management strategy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Bijl, P.W.J.

    1996-01-01

    This thesis contains five essays in the theory of industrial organization and management strategy. An introduction makes the main ideas accessible to non-specialists by presenting the essays as fictitious cases. The first essay investigates strategic disclosure of verifiable information. The

  9. Questions for the Study and Teaching of Shakespeare and Milton.

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeVito, Angela, Ed.; Medine, Peter, Ed.

    The discussion questions and essay prompts in this collection were compiled from contributions made by participants in the 1991 Arizona Shakespeare-Milton Institute. After an introduction which presents some general guidelines for teachers and students, the collection addresses the following works: "As You Like It"; "The…

  10. ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ DECISION MAKING TO SOLVE SCIENCE REASONING TEST OF TRENDS IN INTERNATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE STUDY (TIMSS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N. Novianawati

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available This study aims to determine students’ decision making strategy to answer TIMSS science reasoning test in cognitive reasoning domain. This research is quantitative descriptive research. The result shows that students tend to use compensatory strategy for decision making in solving multiple-choice questions and use rational category to answer essay questions. The result shows that more than half of students have been able to answer the questions TIMSS science tests correctly.

  11. Essays on energy, equity, and the environment in developing countries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Israel, Debra Kim

    1999-11-01

    The essays in this dissertation explore different environmental and public policy issues relevant to developing countries. Essay I examines household-level survey responses to the question "How willing would you be to pay somewhat higher taxes to the government if you knew the money would be spent to protect the environment and prevent land, water and air pollution?" Specifically, for twelve developing and three developed countries included in the survey, the empirical relationships among willingness to pay for environmental quality, relative household income and national income are investigated. The results indicate that when the effects of household and national income are combined, households with below-average income in low-income countries are less willing to pay for environmental protection than those with above-average income in high-income countries. Furthermore, willingness to pay for environmental protection increases more significantly with relative household income than with national income. Essay II uses data from urban Bolivia to study the determinants of household fuel choice, an important link between deforestation and indoor air pollution in developing countries. In particular, the effects of fixed fuel costs, income growth, and female earned income on household fuel choice are examined. The results imply that reduction in firewood use in developing countries is not likely to occur simply as the result of income growth. The essay discusses possible policy implications based on the results that fixed fuel costs appear to be a deterrent to switching to a cleaner fuel and households with female earned income seem less likely to use firewood than other households. Essay III analyzes the equity implications of the elimination of fuel subsidies in the 1985 Bolivian economic reforms. An analysis of the direct static burden shows that while the elimination of gasoline subsidies was progressively distributed, the elimination of LPG and kerosene subsidies

  12. Essays on Economic Volatility and Financial Frictions

    OpenAIRE

    Zhao, Hongyan

    2012-01-01

    This dissertation consists of three essays in macroeconomics. The first one essay discusses the reasons of Chinese huge foreign reserves holdings. It contributes to the literature of sudden stops, precautionary saving and foreign assets holdings. In the second essay, I study the price volatility of commodities and manufactured goods. I measure the price volatility of each individual goods but not on the aggregated level and therefore the results complete the related study. The third essay exp...

  13. Three Essays on Bureaucracy at American Research Universities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taggart, Gabel

    2017-01-01

    The three essays in this dissertation each examine how aspects of contemporary administrative structure within American research universities affect faculty outcomes. Specific aspects of administrative structure tested in this dissertation include the introduction of new administrative roles, administrative intensity (i.e., relative size of…

  14. Essays on Customization Applications in Marketing

    OpenAIRE

    Adiguzel, Feray

    2006-01-01

    The primary objective of this thesis is to develop and validate new methodologies to improve the collection of data and the effectiveness of promotion customization. This thesis contains two essays. In these essays, we search for optimal combinations of components of questionnaires to design split questionnaires and product categories to offer promotions. The first essay deals with how to improve collection of data. We focus on split questionnaires to collect data instead of using the more ty...

  15. A Comparison of SSCE Questions Set by the West African ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The purpose of this study was to compare the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) essay questions set by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO) in terms of how much they were distributed across the various levels of the cognitive domain. To this effect, the ...

  16. Essays on Dynamic Competition and Academic Entrepreneurship

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pham, Huyen T.

    2012-01-01

    My dissertation focuses on dynamic firm competition and academic entrepreneurship. The first essay studies the dynamics and equilibrium outcomes of a duopoly in which firms make decisions about both capacity expansion and cost reduction. The second essay is an extension of the framework used in the first essay to study the strategic roles of…

  17. The Test of Practice–An Essay

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lars Løvlie

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available This essay starts in medias res, in the puzzling reappearance of the classical metaphor of Bildung as the transformation of man’s “first” animal nature into the “second” cultivated one. I call it the two-natures metaphor. I think it misrepresents children by prescribing form rather than asking what actually takes form in the child’s mind—in his/her relationship with adults. It made me wonder whether this mistake also lingers on in the current discourse on education. I then turn to aspects of John Dewey’s subtle and revolutionary critique of the classical theory of formation, but also to make the controversial point that he, too, seems to miss the importance of the child’s internal point of view. The importance of the subjective life of the child is suggested first by reinscribing Rousseau and Kant into the intersubjective theories of Hegel and Dewey; second, by reference to recent studies in developmental psychology that offer detailed and in-depth descriptions of our relationship with children. My basic point of departure is the existential encounters between children and adults, for example, as part of classroom practices. The title has a double connotation. It means that theory must be taken as the measure of practice. It means, too, that practice must work as the measure of theory. I will, in the main, try and pursue the last course.

  18. Essays on the behavior of the oil market and OPEC

    Science.gov (United States)

    Algudhea, Salim

    This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay is mainly concerned with investigating the risk-responsive behavior of OPEC members. Economic theory suggests that producers respond to the risk of volatile price by lowering production level. In the case of OPEC, the risk of the volatility in the price of crude oil does not seem to be a key determinant in the production decision-making process. Engineering constraints, data frequency, and political consideration may be the main causes of such a result. In the second essay, we tested the presence of the asymmetric adjustment in the cheating behavior as a result of crude oil price shocks. We utilize a set of cointegration and error correction methods that do not assume a linear adjustment to test whether cheaters within OPEC respond more to positive or negative crude oil price shocks. We conclude that cheaters respond more to negative shocks than positive shocks in oil price. The inelastic nature of demand for oil seems to play a crucial role in such asymmetric behavior. When there is a negative price shock, OPEC producers compensate for the loss in revenue by overproducing (i.e. cheat). Yet, if there is a positive shock in the price of crude oil, OPEC producers have less incentive to overproduce because of the inelastic demand for oil. The third essay is concerned with testing for the asymmetric adjustment in gasoline prices in the U.S. We consider a Momentum Threshold Autoregressive (MTAR) process to test for the asymmetric adjustment in all of the possible stages that a gallon of gasoline goes through in order to find the source of asymmetry. Then, we examine the dynamics of gasoline prices using asymmetric error correction models based on the MTAR specifications. We find the asymmetric adjustment present in all stages. The asymmetry in the retail stage seems to be the result of insufficient demand faced by retailers.

  19. Decision-Making and the Law in Higher Education--Emphasis on Student Rights: Essay and Bibliography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tice, Terrence N.

    The essay and bibliography presented here are designed for general use among those concerned with questions of campus rights and responsibilities and with the application of legal principles in campus decision-making. The primary focus is on student rights issues. The discussion falls into three parts: (1) "Law and Morality in the Open Society" is…

  20. Essays on market design and strategic behaviour in energy markets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lorenczik, Stefan

    2017-01-01

    The thesis at hand consists of four essays which are divided into two parts. In the first part, consisting of the first two essays, market design issues in electricity markets are discussed. More precisely, it deals with concerns regarding security of supply: First, the concerns regarding the availability of sufficient flexibility to cope with intermittent renewable energy electricity generation. And second, the consequences of insufficient investments signals in energy only markets in interconnected electricity markets. Part two deals with strategic behaviour in spatial natural resource markets. Strategic behaviour and the exertion of market power have always been a matter of concern in energy markets, especially in natural resource markets. The exertion of market power can result in deadweight losses - regulatory bodies try to address this by market regulations aiming for a welfare maximising market outcome. The first problem is to detect collusive behaviour as available data is frequently limited. The second question is how regulatory decisions may influence the market outcome. Both topics are investigated by using the example of the international metallurgical coal market.

  1. Essays on market design and strategic behaviour in energy markets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lorenczik, Stefan

    2017-11-13

    The thesis at hand consists of four essays which are divided into two parts. In the first part, consisting of the first two essays, market design issues in electricity markets are discussed. More precisely, it deals with concerns regarding security of supply: First, the concerns regarding the availability of sufficient flexibility to cope with intermittent renewable energy electricity generation. And second, the consequences of insufficient investments signals in energy only markets in interconnected electricity markets. Part two deals with strategic behaviour in spatial natural resource markets. Strategic behaviour and the exertion of market power have always been a matter of concern in energy markets, especially in natural resource markets. The exertion of market power can result in deadweight losses - regulatory bodies try to address this by market regulations aiming for a welfare maximising market outcome. The first problem is to detect collusive behaviour as available data is frequently limited. The second question is how regulatory decisions may influence the market outcome. Both topics are investigated by using the example of the international metallurgical coal market.

  2. Essays on electricity markets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rud, Linda

    2009-07-01

    The report covers several topics of electricity markets: The first essay, 'Selected Topics on Early Electricity Market Design in Norway' studies market design issues in establishing the market-based Norwegian electricity market. Essays 2-4 focus on issues of network congestion: 'Capacity Charges: A Price Adjustment Process for Managing Congestion in Electricity Transmission Networks' presents the capacity charge approach for managing transmission constraints in electricity networks. 'Understanding the Stochastics of Nodal Prices: Price Processes in a Constrained Network' seeks a further understanding of stochastic nodal prices processes. 'Investment Evaluation in a Constrained Electricity Network with Stochastic Nodal Price Processes' studies how the interaction of the competitive market and the capacitated network affects the evaluation of investments under uncertainty, and points out potential pitfalls of evaluation. In the last essay, 'A Newsboy Model Perspective on the Power Market: The Case of a Wind Power Producer' we discuss aspects of optimal bidding for a wind power producer. (Author)

  3. Essays on electricity markets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rud, Linda

    2009-07-01

    The report covers several topics of electricity markets: The first essay, 'Selected Topics on Early Electricity Market Design in Norway' studies market design issues in establishing the market-based Norwegian electricity market. Essays 2-4 focus on issues of network congestion: 'Capacity Charges: A Price Adjustment Process for Managing Congestion in Electricity Transmission Networks' presents the capacity charge approach for managing transmission constraints in electricity networks. 'Understanding the Stochastics of Nodal Prices: Price Processes in a Constrained Network' seeks a further understanding of stochastic nodal prices processes. 'Investment Evaluation in a Constrained Electricity Network with Stochastic Nodal Price Processes' studies how the interaction of the competitive market and the capacitated network affects the evaluation of investments under uncertainty, and points out potential pitfalls of evaluation. In the last essay, 'A Newsboy Model Perspective on the Power Market: The Case of a Wind Power Producer' we discuss aspects of optimal bidding for a wind power producer. (Author)

  4. Can we share questions? Performance of questions from different question banks in a single medical school.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Freeman, Adrian; Nicholls, Anthony; Ricketts, Chris; Coombes, Lee

    2010-01-01

    To use progress testing, a large bank of questions is required, particularly when planning to deliver tests over a long period of time. The questions need not only to be of good quality but also balanced in subject coverage across the curriculum to allow appropriate sampling. Hence as well as creating its own questions, an institution could share questions. Both methods allow ownership and structuring of the test appropriate to the educational requirements of the institution. Peninsula Medical School (PMS) has developed a mechanism to validate questions written in house. That mechanism can be adapted to utilise questions from an International question bank International Digital Electronic Access Library (IDEAL) and another UK-based question bank Universities Medical Assessment Partnership (UMAP). These questions have been used in our progress tests and analysed for relative performance. Data are presented to show that questions from differing sources can have comparable performance in a progress testing format. There are difficulties in transferring questions from one institution to another. These include problems of curricula and cultural differences. Whilst many of these difficulties exist, our experience suggests that it only requires a relatively small amount of work to adapt questions from external question banks for effective use. The longitudinal aspect of progress testing (albeit summatively) may allow more flexibility in question usage than single high stakes exams.

  5. The official guide to the TOEFL test

    CERN Document Server

    2017-01-01

    The new Official Guide to the TOEFL® Test is the best, most reliable guide to the test that is used to meet English-language proficiency requirements at more than 10,000 institutions worldwide, including top universities in Australia, Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. This completely updated fifth edition includes real TOEFL test questions for practice, as well as explanations of all four sections of the test. The guide provides learners with information on how to integrate reading, listening, speaking and writing skills in order to construct effective answers that demonstrate university-level English proficiency. Inside you'll find: • Hundreds of authentic TOEFL test questions and essay topics from the test maker • Four authentic TOEFL iBT practice tests (available in the book and on DVD) • Test-taking strategies to help you do your very best on the test

  6. Essays on Customization Applications in Marketing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Adiguzel, Feray

    2006-01-01

    The primary objective of this thesis is to develop and validate new methodologies to improve the collection of data and the effectiveness of promotion customization. This thesis contains two essays. In these essays, we search for optimal combinations of components of questionnaires to design split

  7. Conference Essay: The Relationship between Gender Studies and Discourse Studies: Synergies, Frictions, and Pitfalls

    OpenAIRE

    Kleiner, Bettina; Dinsleder, Cornelia

    2017-01-01

    The interdisciplinary conference "Gender Studies Meets Discourse Studies Meets Gender Studies: Entanglements, Affinities, Tensions, and Open Questions" focused on the relationship between gender studies and discourse studies. On the one hand this essay provides insights into the conference debates, and on the other it critically discusses the contributions. The following three key aspects provide guidelines for reconstructing and developing the arguments: 1. theoretical perspectives on the re...

  8. Einstein's essays in science

    CERN Document Server

    Einstein, Albert

    2009-01-01

    His name is synonymous with ""genius,"" but these essays by the renowned physicist and scholar are accessible to any reader. In addition to outlining the core of relativity theory in everyday language, Albert Einstein presents fascinating discussions of other scientific fields to which he made significant contributions. The Nobel Laureate also profiles some of history's most influential physicists, upon whose studies his own work was based.Assembled during Einstein's lifetime from his speeches and essays, this book marks the first presentation to the wider world of the scientist's accomplishme

  9. Essays in Household Finance

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hanspal, Tobin

    This Ph.D. thesis, entitled Essays in Household Finance, analyzes the determinants and implications of investment biases, personal experiences in financial markets, and financing disruptions on households, individual investors, and entrepreneurs and small business owners. The first essay...... on risk taking is the potential bias resulting from inertia and inattention, which has been shown to be endemic in household finance. If individuals are inert or inattentive, it is difficult to establish whether changes in risk taking are caused by personal experiences or whether the change in risk taking...

  10. Use of Multi-Response Format Test in the Assessment of Medical Students’ Critical Thinking Ability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mafinejad, Mahboobeh Khabaz; Monajemi, Alireza; Jalili, Mohammad; Soltani, Akbar; Rasouli, Javad

    2017-01-01

    Introduction To evaluate students critical thinking skills effectively, change in assessment practices is must. The assessment of a student’s ability to think critically is a constant challenge, and yet there is considerable debate on the best assessment method. There is evidence that the intrinsic nature of open and closed-ended response questions is to measure separate cognitive abilities. Aim To assess critical thinking ability of medical students by using multi-response format of assessment. Materials and Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on a group of 159 undergraduate third-year medical students. All the participants completed the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) consisting of 34 multiple-choice questions to measure general critical thinking skills and a researcher-developed test that combines open and closed-ended questions. A researcher-developed 48-question exam, consisting of 8 short-answers and 5 essay questions, 19 Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ), and 16 True-False (TF) questions, was used to measure critical thinking skills. Correlation analyses were performed using Pearson’s coefficient to explore the association between the total scores of tests and subtests. Results One hundred and fifty-nine students participated in this study. The sample comprised 81 females (51%) and 78 males (49%) with an age range of 20±2.8 years (mean 21.2 years). The response rate was 64.1%. A significant positive correlation was found between types of questions and critical thinking scores, of which the correlations of MCQ (r=0.82) and essay questions (r=0.77) were strongest. The significant positive correlations between multi-response format test and CCTST’s subscales were seen in analysis, evaluation, inference and inductive reasoning. Unlike CCTST subscales, multi-response format test have weak correlation with CCTST total score (r=0.45, p=0.06). Conclusion This study highlights the importance of considering multi-response format test in

  11. Use of Multi-Response Format Test in the Assessment of Medical Students' Critical Thinking Ability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mafinejad, Mahboobeh Khabaz; Arabshahi, Seyyed Kamran Soltani; Monajemi, Alireza; Jalili, Mohammad; Soltani, Akbar; Rasouli, Javad

    2017-09-01

    To evaluate students critical thinking skills effectively, change in assessment practices is must. The assessment of a student's ability to think critically is a constant challenge, and yet there is considerable debate on the best assessment method. There is evidence that the intrinsic nature of open and closed-ended response questions is to measure separate cognitive abilities. To assess critical thinking ability of medical students by using multi-response format of assessment. A cross-sectional study was conducted on a group of 159 undergraduate third-year medical students. All the participants completed the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) consisting of 34 multiple-choice questions to measure general critical thinking skills and a researcher-developed test that combines open and closed-ended questions. A researcher-developed 48-question exam, consisting of 8 short-answers and 5 essay questions, 19 Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ), and 16 True-False (TF) questions, was used to measure critical thinking skills. Correlation analyses were performed using Pearson's coefficient to explore the association between the total scores of tests and subtests. One hundred and fifty-nine students participated in this study. The sample comprised 81 females (51%) and 78 males (49%) with an age range of 20±2.8 years (mean 21.2 years). The response rate was 64.1%. A significant positive correlation was found between types of questions and critical thinking scores, of which the correlations of MCQ (r=0.82) and essay questions (r=0.77) were strongest. The significant positive correlations between multi-response format test and CCTST's subscales were seen in analysis, evaluation, inference and inductive reasoning. Unlike CCTST subscales, multi-response format test have weak correlation with CCTST total score (r=0.45, p=0.06). This study highlights the importance of considering multi-response format test in the assessment of critical thinking abilities of medical

  12. Essays on Social Media Fundraising and E-Commerce

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tan, Xue

    2017-01-01

    This dissertation has two components: social media fundraising and e-commerce. The first component of social media fundraising discusses social media users' charitable content generation in essay 1 and charitable giving in essay 2. In essay 1, we examine how reciprocity of followees affects social influence on users' charitable content generation.…

  13. A single-question screening test for drug use in primary care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Peter C; Schmidt, Susan M; Allensworth-Davies, Donald; Saitz, Richard

    2010-07-12

    Drug use (illicit drug use and nonmedical use of prescription drugs) is common but underrecognized in primary care settings. We validated a single-question screening test for drug use and drug use disorders in primary care. Adult patients recruited from primary care waiting rooms were asked the single screening question, "How many times in the past year have you used an illegal drug or used a prescription medication for nonmedical reasons?" A response of at least 1 time was considered positive for drug use. They were also asked the 10-item Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST-10). The reference standard was the presence or absence of current (past year) drug use or a drug use disorder (abuse or dependence) as determined by a standardized diagnostic interview. Drug use was also determined by oral fluid testing for common drugs of abuse. Of 394 eligible primary care patients, 286 (73%) completed the interview. The single screening question was 100% sensitive (95% confidence interval [CI], 90.6%-100%) and 73.5% specific (95% CI, 67.7%-78.6%) for the detection of a drug use disorder. It was less sensitive for the detection of self-reported current drug use (92.9%; 95% CI, 86.1%-96.5%) and drug use detected by oral fluid testing or self-report (81.8%; 95% CI, 72.5%-88.5%). Test characteristics were similar to those of the DAST-10 and were affected very little by participant demographic characteristics. The single screening question accurately identified drug use in this sample of primary care patients, supporting the usefulness of this brief screen in primary care.

  14. Essays on energy derivatives pricing and financial risk management =

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madaleno, Mara Teresa da Silva

    This thesis consists of an introductory chapter (essay I) and five more empirical essays on electricity markets and CO2 spot price behaviour, derivatives pricing analysis and hedging. Essay I presents the structure of the thesis and electricity markets functioning and characteristics, as well as the type of products traded, to be analyzed on the following essays. In the second essay we conduct an empirical study on co-movements in electricity markets resorting to wavelet analysis, discussing long-term dynamics and markets integration. Essay three is about hedging performance and multiscale relationships in the German electricity spot and futures markets, also using wavelet analysis. We concentrate the investigation on the relationship between coherence evolution and hedge ratio analysis, on a time-frequency-scale approach, between spot and futures which conditions the effectiveness of the hedging strategy. Essays four, five and six are interrelated between them and with the other two previous essays given the nature of the commodity analyzed, CO2 emission allowances, traded in electricity markets. Relationships between electricity prices, primary energy fuel prices and carbon dioxide permits are analyzed on essay four. The efficiency of the European market for allowances is examined taking into account markets heterogeneity. Essay five analyzes stylized statistical properties of the recent traded asset CO2 emission allowances, for spot and futures returns, examining also the relation linking convenience yield and risk premium, for the German European Energy Exchange (EEX) between October 2005 and October 2009. The study was conducted through empirical estimations of CO2 allowances risk premium, convenience yield, and their relation. Future prices from an ex-post perspective are examined to show evidence for significant negative risk premium, or else a positive forward premium. Finally, essay six analyzes emission allowances futures hedging effectiveness, providing

  15. 75 FR 32484 - Array-Based Cytogenetic Tests: Questions on Performance Evaluation, Result Reporting and...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-06-08

    ...] Array-Based Cytogenetic Tests: Questions on Performance Evaluation, Result Reporting and Interpretation... public meeting: Array-Based Cytogenetic Tests: Questions on Performance Evaluation, Result Reporting and... cytogenetic tests. Date and Time: The meeting will be held on June 30, 2010, from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Location...

  16. Video essay

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    2015-01-01

    Camera movement has a profound influence on the way films look and the way films are experienced by spectators. In this visual essay Jakob Isak Nielsen proposes six major functions of camera movement in narrative cinema. Individual camera movements may serve more of these functions at the same time...

  17. Impression formation of tests: retrospective judgments of performance are higher when easier questions come first.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jackson, Abigail; Greene, Robert L

    2014-11-01

    Four experiments are reported on the importance of retrospective judgments of performance (postdictions) on tests. Participants answered general knowledge questions and estimated how many questions they answered correctly. They gave higher postdictions when easy questions preceded difficult questions. This was true when time to answer each question was equalized and constrained, when participants were instructed not to write answers, and when questions were presented in a multiple-choice format. Results are consistent with the notion that first impressions predominate in overall perception of test difficulty.

  18. Essays on the effects of human capital, innovation and technology on economic performance

    OpenAIRE

    Tiruneh, Esubalew Alehegn

    2014-01-01

    This thesis is on human capital (HC) and innovation in Germany and comprises of three essays. The first essay provides a comparative analysis on the economic performance impacts of creative class and HC at regional level with the purpose of testing whether the contemporary occupation-based creative class or the conventional education-based HC can be used as a better driver of regional economy. In doing so, I disaggregate creative class into creative core (scientific experts), creative profess...

  19. Writing Essays on a Laptop or a Desktop Computer: Does It Matter?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ling, Guangming; Bridgeman, Brent

    2013-01-01

    To explore the potential effect of computer type on the Test of English as a Foreign Language-Internet-Based Test (TOEFL iBT) Writing Test, a sample of 444 international students was used. The students were randomly assigned to either a laptop or a desktop computer to write two TOEFL iBT practice essays in a simulated testing environment, followed…

  20. Three essays on economic development

    OpenAIRE

    Méndez Errico, Paula Luciana

    2014-01-01

    The main objective of this dissertation is to study some of the mechanisms suggested by the economic literature as factors that could prevent individuals from attaining certain domains of well-being. This thesis is divided in three independent essays providing new evidence on three issues within the field of economic development: the effect of social networks on immigrants' labor market outcomes (first essay), the long-lasting impact of income inequality on entrepreneurial success and job cre...

  1. How Reflective Is the Academic Essay?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maclellan, Effie

    2004-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the extent of reflection in academic essays. Forty essays, all previously deemed to be of merit quality, were analysed in terms of three elements of reflection--how the educational issue is conceptualized; what the issue means for practice; and how practice might be changed to resolve the problematic. Each…

  2. Ecosociological essays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vaillancourt, J.

    1982-01-01

    This book contains a collection of 25 essays, articles and reports of work in the domain of environmental sociology, a new area of sociology which can be labelled ΣecosociologyΣ. This area is situated on the border between sociology and ecology but from the point of view of sociology rather than that of ecology

  3. Essays on financial structure and macroeconomic performance

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhu, D.

    2006-01-01

    In addressing the matter, two essays study the effects of the debt vs. equity dimension of the financial structure on international consumption smoothing and macroeconomic volatility (in particular, economic downturns). Another essay evaluates the role of informal financial institution by looking

  4. Generation of Test Questions from RDF Files Using PYTHON and SPARQL

    Science.gov (United States)

    Omarbekova, Assel; Sharipbay, Altynbek; Barlybaev, Alibek

    2017-02-01

    This article describes the development of the system for the automatic generation of test questions based on the knowledge base. This work has an applicable nature and provides detailed examples of the development of ontology and implementation the SPARQL queries in RDF-documents. Also it describes implementation of the program generating questions in the Python programming language including the necessary libraries while working with RDF-files.

  5. Essays on preference formation and home production

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Xu, Yan

    2017-01-01

    This thesis consists of three essays in quantitative marketing, focusing on structural empirical analysis of the evolution of consumer brand preference under incomplete information and the effect of time on consumer purchase behavior. The first essay studies the evolution of consumer brand

  6. Questions of economics. [solar energy conversion

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Graeff, P

    1976-05-01

    The essay deals with questions of profitability in connection with the use of solar energy to heat buildings or to prepare hot water. The total problem is approached from 3 points of view: 1. General national economy point of view: Judgment by politicians determines the possibilities of support by the government. 2. The business economy aspect: Here the most important matter is to construct the plants with dimensions permitting to obtain the highest profits possible. 3. The financing model: possible incentives must be taken into consideration as well as technical aspects, e.g. the service life of the plants.

  7. Audiotape Feedback for Essays in Distance Education

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kirschner, P.A.; Brink, H. van den; Meester, M.

    1991-01-01

    Students who were required to write three short essays for a university level course on photochemistry at the Open university of the Netherlands received either audio-cassette or written feedback on their essays. The students receiving the audio feedback described their experience as personal,

  8. Aristotle, De Memoria et Reminiscentia. Text, Translation and Interpretive Essays

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bloch, David Kristian

    2006-01-01

    The dissertation analyses Aristotle's De Memoria et Reminiscentia. It contains an introduction, a critical edition accompanied by an English translation, an essay on Aristotle's own theories and an essay on the Aristotelian tradition.......The dissertation analyses Aristotle's De Memoria et Reminiscentia. It contains an introduction, a critical edition accompanied by an English translation, an essay on Aristotle's own theories and an essay on the Aristotelian tradition....

  9. Material Teaching Aids: Enhancement Tool for Teaching Essay Writing in Secondary Schools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fidelia, Okonkwo Adaobi

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of material teaching aids as enhancement tool for teaching essay writing in secondary schools in Ebonyi State. A 4-point Likert-scale questionnaire was used as the instrument. A trial test was conducted and tested for reliability and a value of 0.75 was obtained from the test. The instrument was…

  10. Latin America: Essays Interpretating Colonial Legacy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María Pia López

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available A large part of the Latin–American literature of the 19th and 20th century tried to deal with the national question intertwining different dimensions: the weight of colonial legacy, the cultural peculiarity of the nation and the inner relations between social classes and ethnic groups. Thinking the nation implied, in any case, to think the difference and the conflict with others, as well as the inner conflict and the logic of local colonialism. Analyzing some of these essays that played a central role in such process of recasting the origin of the nation, the author moves around three main axes: the formulation of dualist writings (colonial/national; white /indigenous; civilization/wilderness, the issue of language (the language inherited from the colonial experience versus the multilingual nature of indigenous Latin American societies, and the hypothesis about the birth of the nation – appointed to different groups – and its normal functioning as legitimization of the order sprung from independences.

  11. Essays on top management and corporate behavior

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wu, H.T.

    2010-01-01

    Human behavior is fascinating, and there is no exception to what its influences are on the financial market. This dissertation consists of three essays that examine corporate behavior that is affected by decisions made by the top management. The first essay studies the rationale for leveraged buyout

  12. Essays in financial reporting, tax, and politics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Janssen, W.H.P.

    2015-01-01

    This dissertation contains three essays on financial reporting, tax, and politics. The first essay explores whether the tax authority is able to generate spillover effects for auditors. The IRS can generate spillover effects for auditors, as a strong IRS increases manager’s incentives to comply with

  13. Intertextual Trips: Teaching the Essay in the Composition Class.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kline, Nancy

    1989-01-01

    Cites essays by Joan Didion, John Berryman, and Martin Luther King in arguing that the essay, no matter how serious, can be considered as a fiction and a playful, exploratory and deeply interesting rhetorical game. Describes how these works were used to teach students that the essay is a living document calling for interaction. (SG)

  14. Giving Personal Examples and Telling Stories in Academic Essays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hinkel, Eli

    2001-01-01

    Analyzes the extensive use of personal examples and stories in the academic essays of students who are nonnative speakers of English. Draws on a large database of college examination essays to compare the use of personal examples in essays written by native and nonnative speakers. Finds nonnative students not only use examples more often than…

  15. Essays on incomplete contracts in regulatory activities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saavedra, Eduardo Humberto

    This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay, The Hold-Up Problem in Public Infrastructure Franchising, characterizes the equilibria of the investment decisions in public infrastructure franchising under incomplete contracting and ex-post renegotiation. The parties (government and a firm) are unable to credibly commit to the contracted investment plan, so that a second step investment is renegotiated by the parties at the revision stage. As expected, the possibility of renegotiation affects initial non-verifiable investments. The main conclusion of this essay is that not only underinvestment but also overinvestment in infrastructure may arise in equilibrium, compared to the complete contracting case. The second essay, Alternative Institutional Arrangements in Network Utilities: An Incomplete Contracting Approach, presents a theoretical assessment of the efficiency implications of privatizing natural monopolies which are vertically related to potential competitive firms. Based on the incomplete contracts and asymmetric information paradigm. I develop a model that analyzes the relative advantages of different institutional arrangements---alternative ownership and market structures in the industry--- in terms of their allocative and productive efficiencies. The main policy conclusion of this essay is that both ownership and the existence of conglomerates in network industries matter. Among other conclusions, this essay provides an economic rationale for a mixed economy in which the network is public and vertical separation of the industry when the natural monopoly is under private ownership. The last essay, Opportunistic Behavior and Legal Disputes in the Chilean Electricity Sector, analyzes post-contractual disputes in this newly privatized industry. It discusses the presumption that opportunistic behavior and disputes arise due to inadequate market design, ambiguous regulation, and institutional weaknesses. This chapter also assesses the presumption

  16. The Interlanguage Interference on the Difficulties of Building Question Sentences by the Second Year Students of MA As Soorkaty Salatiga

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sari Famularsih

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available This study is aimed to elaborate the interlanguage interference of the difficulties which are faced by 40 second year students of MA As Soorkaty Salatiga in academic year of 2004-2005 in building question sentences and the sources of difficulties. The research is conducted by such kind of test. The total number of test are 20 items, consist of 5 yes-no questions, 5 W-H questions, and 10 tag questions which is done in a written essay form. Based on the analysis, the result shows some conclusions. Firstly, the researcher finds the types of difficulties problems are faced by the students in building question mastery, such as: (1 building yes-no question sentences in translation the word “apakah”, that is related with the use of to be. (2 Building interrogative word question sentences in translation the words “apa”, “kapan”, “milik siapa”, etc. That are related with the use of “what”, “when”, “whose”, etc. (3 Completing the tag question sentences with the proper auxiliary based on tense of the sentences. The most difficulties in building question sentences are especially in yes-no question form by using the word “apakah”. In the term of interlanguage, the students’ errors are mostly included in expressing meaning by the words and grammar of the first language. The source of difficulties which have been analyzed are mostly caused by inter lingual and intra lingual transfer.

  17. Murder, He Wrote: Introducing Christian Ethics through One Question in the "Summa"

    Science.gov (United States)

    George, William P.

    2008-01-01

    The topic of murder fascinates and haunts undergraduates just as it does our culture. But even as murder violently closes doors on a human life, as a topic of discussion it can also open minds, provoking, extending, and refining students' questions about the moral life, theologically and religiously understood. The aim of this essay is to explain…

  18. Essays on numbers and figures

    CERN Document Server

    Prasolov, V V

    2000-01-01

    This is the English translation of the book originally published in Russian. It contains 20 essays, each dealing with a separate mathematical topic. The topics range from brilliant mathematical statements with interesting proofs, to simple and effective methods of problem-solving, to interesting properties of polynomials, to exceptional points of the triangle. Many of the topics have a long and interesting history. The author has lectured on them to students worldwide. The essays are independent of one another for the most part, and each presents a vivid mathematical result that led to current

  19. Essays on the role of accounting in acquisition decision-making

    OpenAIRE

    Puhakka, Hannu

    2017-01-01

    This dissertation investigates the role of accounting in acquisition decision-making via three essays. First essay examines the influence of accounting on trust development during the acquisition negotiation process. Essay 2 explores the interplay of formal and informal pre-decision control mechanisms and seeks to provide new insights on the interplay of various pre-decision control mechanisms at different stages of the acquisition decision-making process. Third essay seeks to specify how acc...

  20. The Question in Educational Leadership: For Whom and for What Are We Responsible?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carlson, Dennis

    2010-01-01

    Jacques Derrida wrote about democratic leadership in educational institutions throughout his later work, but in this article the author notes the importance of Derrida's essays published as "Eyes of the University" (2004). Derrida begins by returning to questions raised by Immanuel Kant two centuries earlier with regard to the founding of the…

  1. Concept mapping improves academic performance in problem solving questions in biochemistry subject.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baig, Mukhtiar; Tariq, Saba; Rehman, Rehana; Ali, Sobia; Gazzaz, Zohair J

    2016-01-01

    To assess the effectiveness of concept mapping (CM) on the academic performance of medical students' in problem-solving as well as in declarative knowledge questions and their perception regarding CM. The present analytical and questionnaire-based study was carried out at Bahria University Medical and Dental College (BUMDC), Karachi, Pakistan. In this analytical study, students were assessed with problem-solving questions (A-type MCQs), and declarative knowledge questions (short essay questions), and 50% of the questions were from the topics learned by CM. Students also filled a 10-item, 3-point Likert scale questionnaire about their perception regarding the effectiveness of the CM approach, and two open-ended questions were also asked. There was a significant difference in the marks obtained in those problem-solving questions, which were learned by CM as compared to those topics which were taught by the traditional lectures (pacademic performance in problem solving but not in declarative knowledge questions. Students' perception about the effectiveness of CM was overwhelmingly positive.

  2. The future-essay as a design tool

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thomsen, Bente Dahl; Kappel, Anne

    2007-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to present scenarios, photo-essays and future-essays as tools in communication, and as tools for clarifying the use of products in the future and the aesthetic qualities in the programme. In the design process, the programme is a description of the function, the condition...

  3. The future of the city. Essays; De toekomst van de stad. Essays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Uitermark, J.; Schinkel, W. [Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam EUR, Rotterdam (Netherlands); Engelen, E. [Universiteit van Amsterdam UvA, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Raspe, O.; Hamers, D. [Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving PBL, Den Haag (Netherlands); Janssen, J.; Beunen, R. [Wageningen University WUR, Wageningen (Netherlands); Schutten, I. [Studio Iris Schutten, Den Haag (Netherlands); Mommaas, H. [Universiteit Tilburg, Telos, Brabants Centrum voor Duurzame Ontwikkeling, Tilburg (Netherlands); Tillie, N. [Landschapsarchitect en adviseur duurzaamheid, Technische Universiteit Delft TUD, Delft (Netherlands); Verheijen, M. [Hogeschool Rotterdam, Rotterdam (Netherlands); Schuilenburg, M. [Vrije Universiteit VU, Amsterdam (Netherlands); De Jong, J.D. [Rebond onderzoek en advies, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Van Steekelenburg, M. [Spatialplanning.com, Provinciehuis Zuid-Holland, Den Haag (Netherlands); Vermeulen, P. [Dienst Ruimtelijke Ordening Amsterdam, Amsterdam (Netherlands); De Waal, M. [The Public Matters, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Mulder, B. [Mandorla Consultancy, Bussum (Netherlands); Soeterbroek, F. [De Ruimtemaker, Utrecht (Netherlands); Wijma, J. [Programmabureau Regio Groningen-Assen, Groningen (Netherlands)

    2012-08-15

    The essays discuss nine tasks for the city. Each problem will be approached from two angles. The focus is on the relationship between governments and the self-resolving power in the city, the capacity of individuals, groups and organizations to change. Where In what cases does the self-resolving power of the city hamper? When is government intervention required? What is the role of connections between tasks, policies and groups? [Dutch] De essays gaan in op negen opgaven voor de stad. Elke opgave wordt vanuit twee invalshoeken belicht. Centraal staat de verhouding tussen overheden en zelfoplossend vermogen in de stad, de 'veranderkracht' van individuen, groepen en organisaties. Waar hapert het zelfoplossend vermogen van de stad? Wanneer is overheidsinterventie gewenst? Welke rol spelen verbindingen tussen opgaven, beleidssectoren en groepen daarbij?.

  4. The future of the city. Essays; De toekomst van de stad. Essays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Uitermark, J.; Schinkel, W. [Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam EUR, Rotterdam (Netherlands); Engelen, E. [Universiteit van Amsterdam UvA, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Raspe, O.; Hamers, D. [Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving PBL, Den Haag (Netherlands); Janssen, J.; Beunen, R. [Wageningen University WUR, Wageningen (Netherlands); Schutten, I. [Studio Iris Schutten, Den Haag (Netherlands); Mommaas, H. [Universiteit Tilburg, Telos, Brabants Centrum voor Duurzame Ontwikkeling, Tilburg (Netherlands); Tillie, N. [Landschapsarchitect en adviseur duurzaamheid, Technische Universiteit Delft TUD, Delft (Netherlands); Verheijen, M. [Hogeschool Rotterdam, Rotterdam (Netherlands); Schuilenburg, M. [Vrije Universiteit VU, Amsterdam (Netherlands); De Jong, J. D. [Rebond onderzoek en advies, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Van Steekelenburg, M. [Spatialplanning.com, Provinciehuis Zuid-Holland, Den Haag (Netherlands); Vermeulen, P. [Dienst Ruimtelijke Ordening Amsterdam, Amsterdam (Netherlands); De Waal, M. [The Public Matters, Amsterdam (Netherlands); Mulder, B. [Mandorla Consultancy, Bussum (Netherlands); Soeterbroek, F. [De Ruimtemaker, Utrecht (Netherlands); Wijma, J. [Programmabureau Regio Groningen-Assen, Groningen (Netherlands)

    2012-08-15

    The essays discuss nine tasks for the city. Each problem will be approached from two angles. The focus is on the relationship between governments and the self-resolving power in the city, the capacity of individuals, groups and organizations to change. Where In what cases does the self-resolving power of the city hamper? When is government intervention required? What is the role of connections between tasks, policies and groups? [Dutch] De essays gaan in op negen opgaven voor de stad. Elke opgave wordt vanuit twee invalshoeken belicht. Centraal staat de verhouding tussen overheden en zelfoplossend vermogen in de stad, de 'veranderkracht' van individuen, groepen en organisaties. Waar hapert het zelfoplossend vermogen van de stad? Wanneer is overheidsinterventie gewenst? Welke rol spelen verbindingen tussen opgaven, beleidssectoren en groepen daarbij?.

  5. Essays on liberalized energy markets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nese, Gjermund

    2003-07-01

    This thesis consists of four essays that aim at contributing to the understanding of some of the new challenges associated by the liberalized energy markets. More specifically the essays consider investments in energy generation projects; international trade of Green Certificates, market power in a Green Certificate system, and finally the behaviour of public firms in liberalized markets. Essay 1 considers energy investment, when a choice has to be made between fossil fuel and biomass fired production technologies. A dynamic model is presented to illustrate the effect of the different degrees of input price uncertainty on the choice of technology and the timing of the investment. It is shown that when the choice of technology is irreversible, it may be optimal to postpone the investment even if it would otherwise be optimal to invest in one or both of the plant types. We provide a numerical example based on cost estimates of two different power plant types. Essay 2 presents an analytical equilibrium model for simultaneously functioning international markets for electricity and Green Certificates is formulated. The percentage requirement is perceived as the policy instrument affecting the level of green electricity in end-use consumption. In none of the cases considered does an increase in the country's percentage requirement necessarily result in an increase in the generation of green electricity in that country, but it may have a positive effect on the trading partner's generation of green electricity. Further, under quite realistic assumptions, a country maximizes its generation of green electricity by setting the percentage requirement to zero. In essay 3 an analytic equilibrium model for a simultaneously functioning electricity market and a market for Green Certificates is formulated. The major focus of the paper is the effect of market power in a Green Certificate system. One of the main results is that the certificate system faced with market power

  6. Essays on liberalized energy markets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nese, Gjermund

    2003-01-01

    This thesis consists of four essays that aim at contributing to the understanding of some of the new challenges associated by the liberalized energy markets. More specifically the essays consider investments in energy generation projects; international trade of Green Certificates, market power in a Green Certificate system, and finally the behaviour of public firms in liberalized markets. Essay 1 considers energy investment, when a choice has to be made between fossil fuel and biomass fired production technologies. A dynamic model is presented to illustrate the effect of the different degrees of input price uncertainty on the choice of technology and the timing of the investment. It is shown that when the choice of technology is irreversible, it may be optimal to postpone the investment even if it would otherwise be optimal to invest in one or both of the plant types. We provide a numerical example based on cost estimates of two different power plant types. Essay 2 presents an analytical equilibrium model for simultaneously functioning international markets for electricity and Green Certificates is formulated. The percentage requirement is perceived as the policy instrument affecting the level of green electricity in end-use consumption. In none of the cases considered does an increase in the country's percentage requirement necessarily result in an increase in the generation of green electricity in that country, but it may have a positive effect on the trading partner's generation of green electricity. Further, under quite realistic assumptions, a country maximizes its generation of green electricity by setting the percentage requirement to zero. In essay 3 an analytic equilibrium model for a simultaneously functioning electricity market and a market for Green Certificates is formulated. The major focus of the paper is the effect of market power in a Green Certificate system. One of the main results is that the certificate system faced with market power may

  7. Essays on Industrial Organization and Political Economy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Camara, Odilon Roberto VG de a

    2009-01-01

    This thesis presents three essays on industrial organization and political economy. In the first essay, I show how the attributes of a managerial workforce affect firms' placement decisions and wage offers, and managers' quit decisions. My OLG model features two division managers and a CEO, where each executive may be at a different point in his…

  8. Three Essays on Macroeconomics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doda, Lider Baran

    This dissertation consists of three independent essays in macroeconomics. The first essay studies the transition to a low carbon economy using an extension of the neoclassical growth model featuring endogenous energy efficiency, exhaustible energy and explicit climate-economy interaction. I derive the properties of the laissez faire equilibrium and compare them to the optimal allocations of a social planner who internalizes the climate change externality. Three main results emerge. First, the exhaustibility of energy generates strong market based incentives to improve energy efficiency and reduce CO 2 emissions without any government intervention. Second, the market and optimal allocations are substantially different suggesting a role for the government. Third, high and persistent taxes are required to implement the optimal allocations as a competitive equilibrium with taxes. The second essay focuses on coal fired power plants (CFPP) - one of the largest sources of CO2 emissions globally - and their generation efficiency using a macroeconomic model with an embedded CFPP sector. A key feature of the model is the endogenous choice of production technologies which differ in their energy efficiency. After establishing four empirical facts about the CFPP sector, I analyze the long run quantitative effects of energy taxes. Using the calibrated model, I find that sector-specific coal taxes have large effects on generation efficiency by inducing the use of more efficient technologies. Moreover, such taxes achieve large CO2 emissions reductions with relatively small effects on consumption and output. The final essay studies the procyclicality of fiscal policy in developing countries, which is a well-documented empirical observation seemingly at odds with Neoclassical and Keynesian policy prescriptions. I examine this issue by solving the optimal fiscal policy problem of a small open economy government when the interest rates on external debt are endogenous. Given an

  9. Essays on empirical industrial organization : Entry and innovation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fernandez Machado, Roxana

    2017-01-01

    The dissertation contains three essays on empirical industrial organization devoted to studying firms' strategic interaction in different settings. The first essay develops an entry model to address an important matter in the area of urban economics: the development of cities. In particular, it

  10. Empirical essays on behavioral economics and lifecycle decisions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dillingh, Rik

    2016-01-01

    This dissertation consists of four empirical essays that study decisions on insurance, consumption and the accumulation and decumulation of wealth. The studies pay due attention to behavioral factors that may limit rationality, such as complexity and intertemporal choice. The first essay looks at

  11. Testing increases suggestibility for narrative-based misinformation but reduces suggestibility for question-based misinformation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    LaPaglia, Jessica A; Chan, Jason C K

    2013-01-01

    A number of recent studies have found that recalling details of an event following its occurrence can increase people's suggestibility to later presented misinformation. However, several other studies have reported the opposite result, whereby earlier retrieval can reduce subsequent eyewitness suggestibility. In the present study, we investigated whether differences in the way misinformation is presented can modulate the effects of testing on suggestibility. Participants watched a video of a robbery and some were questioned about the event immediately afterwards. Later, participants were exposed to misinformation in a narrative (Experiment 1) or in questions (Experiment 2). Consistent with previous studies, we found that testing increased suggestibility when misinformation was presented via a narrative. Remarkably, when misinformation was presented in questions, testing decreased suggestibility. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  12. Improving Undergraduates’ Argumentative Group Essay Writing through Self-assessment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yong Mei Fung

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available When writing an argumentative essay, writers develop and evaluate arguments to embody, initiate, or simulate various kinds of interpersonal and textual interaction for reader consideration (Wu & Allison, 2003. This is quite challenging for English as a second language (ESL learners. To improve the quality of their writing, students need to review their draft throughout the writing process. This study aimed to investigate the effect of self-assessment in group writing and how group work improves students’ writing ability. An intact class comprising 22 first-year undergraduates participated in the study.  Data were collected from pre- and post-treatment writing tests, semi-structured interview and reflection entries. The results revealed that self-assessment has a significant effect on students’ writing performance. Group work also enhanced social and cognitive development of the students. This study provides insights into the use of self-assessment in writing class to develop learner autonomy and improve writing ability. Keywords: Argumentative essay, Self-assessment, Learner autonomy, Group writing, ESL learners

  13. Essay about nuclear right

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Puig, D.

    1994-01-01

    The present essay treat about all Uruguaian Nuclear Energy legislation. Nuclear energy history, international treaties, agreements, national programs, nuclear government politics, radiation protection regulations, wastes, radioactive materials transport, environment and safeguards has been given in this compilation

  14. Essays in game theory and natural resource management

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pham Do, K.H.

    2003-01-01

    This thesis presents a collection of essays in game theory with applications to environmental resource problems and their management. A major focus of these essays is related to coalitional games in which several classes of games, their properties and solution concepts are studied. Game theory is

  15. PILOTING A VOCATIONAL E-COURSE AT A UK COLLEGE: Developing strategies to support non-native English speaking learners to complete the essay-type questions of their assignments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stavroula BIBILA

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a study of practice that was conducted during the piloting of a vocational (health care e-course at the Distance Learning department of a College of Further and Higher Education in England. The purpose of the study was to establish a course of action aiming to support non-native English speaking learners to successfully complete the essay-type questions of the e-course assignments. The exploratory nature of the study means that in effect the study comprises of two distinct, yet interrelated parts, with the first one looking into how two (2 non-native English speaking learners (participants used different e-course resources to help them compose their answers. Based on the findings, the second part examines the role of writing frameworks (in the form of email communication between the tutor and the participants in helping the latter to compose answers that met the assessment criteria in terms of a content (subject accuracy, b length and c originality. Discussion of the findings includes implications for providing additional English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL support to distance learners, suggestions for further improvements to the e-course and recommendations for further research.

  16. Values in global administrative law [essays in honour of Spyridon Flogaitis and Gérard Timsit

    CERN Document Server

    2011-01-01

    Global administrative law has recently emerged as one of the most important contemporary fields in public law scholarship. Concerned with developing fuller understandings of patterns in global governance, it represents one of the most insightful ways of viewing the multifarious forms of public power that now exist beyond the State. Focusing in particular on the search for accountability and legitimacy, it carries with it: testing questions about democracy in post-Westphalian society; the meaning of ideas of "publicness" and "public good;" and the global relevance of values that include due process, equality, and fundamental rights. These, and other issues, are key to critiquing the form of governance that now envelops the globe. This collection of essays brings together leading public law scholars who are working in the field of global administrative law. Based on papers presented at a workshop held at Sciences-Po in Paris in late 2008, it addresses past and future challenges related to global governance. Eac...

  17. Back to the future: eugenics--a bibliographic essay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cullen, David

    2007-01-01

    The following essay is a review of the literature about the American eugenics movement produced by scholars over the last fifty years. The essay provides an explanation for today's renewed interest in the subject and for why the science of eugenics remains relevant to contemporary society. The essay examines the catalyst to re-examine the eugenics movement, the influence of Darwinian thought upon its development, the political and institutional support for its growth, the relationship between eugenics, sterilization, and sex, and how the twentieth-century promises of the science of better breeding was a precursor to the twenty-first-century promise of genetic engineering.

  18. Language style matching in writing: synchrony in essays, correspondence, and poetry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ireland, Molly E; Pennebaker, James W

    2010-09-01

    Each relationship has its own personality. Almost immediately after a social interaction begins, verbal and nonverbal behaviors become synchronized. Even in asocial contexts, individuals tend to produce utterances that match the grammatical structure of sentences they have recently heard or read. Three projects explore language style matching (LSM) in everyday writing tasks and professional writing. LSM is the relative use of 9 function word categories (e.g., articles, personal pronouns) between any 2 texts. In the first project, 2 samples totaling 1,744 college students answered 4 essay questions written in very different styles. Students automatically matched the language style of the target questions. Overall, the LSM metric was internally consistent and reliable across writing tasks. Women, participants of higher socioeconomic status, and students who earned higher test grades matched with targets more than others did. In the second project, 74 participants completed cliffhanger excerpts from popular fiction. Judges' ratings of excerpt-response similarity were related to content matching but not function word matching, as indexed by LSM. Further, participants were not able to intentionally increase style or content matching. In the final project, an archival study tracked the professional writing and personal correspondence of 3 pairs of famous writers across their relationships. Language matching in poetry and letters reflected fluctuations in the relationships of 3 couples: Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, and Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Implications for using LSM as an implicit marker of social engagement and influence are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

  19. Testing audiovisual comprehension tasks with questions embedded in videos as subtitles: a pilot multimethod study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juan Carlos Casañ Núñez

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Listening, watching, reading and writing simultaneously in a foreign language is very complex. This paper is part of wider research which explores the use of audiovisual comprehension questions imprinted in the video image in the form of subtitles and synchronized with the relevant fragments for the purpose of language learning and testing. Compared to viewings where the comprehension activity is available only on paper, this innovative methodology may provide some benefits. Among them, it could reduce the conflict in visual attention between watching the video and completing the task, by spatially and temporally approximating the questions and the relevant fragments. The technique is seen as especially beneficial for students with a low proficiency language level. The main objectives of this study were to investigate if embedded questions had an impact on SFL students’ audiovisual comprehension test performance and to find out what examinees thought about them. A multimethod design (Morse, 2003 involving the sequential collection of three quantitative datasets was employed. A total of 41 learners of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL participated in the study (22 in the control group and 19 in the experimental one. Informants were selected by non-probabilistic sampling. The results showed that imprinted questions did not have any effect on test performance. Test-takers’ attitudes towards this methodology were positive. Globally, students in the experimental group agreed that the embedded questions helped them to complete the tasks. Furthermore, most of them were in favour of having the questions imprinted in the video in the audiovisual comprehension test of the final exam. These opinions are in line with those obtained in previous studies that looked into experts’, SFL students’ and SFL teachers’ views about this methodology (Casañ Núñez, 2015a, 2016a, in press-b. On the whole, these studies suggest that this technique has

  20. Accounting for the income of non-renewable resources - Four essays on new theoretical approaches

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wei, Taoyuan

    2009-01-15

    Non-renewable resources are widely extracted and used in today's global economy. On the one hand, the use of these resources generates huge cash flows that can be used for current consumption. On the other hand, the extraction of these resources implies less wealth of these natural resources in the future. To compensate for this wealth decrease, we have to accumulate other kinds of real wealth, like man-made capital, human capital, and renewable resources. The wealth accumulation can be achieved by activities of investments. Reasonable financial support for the investments should come from cash flows related to non-renewable resources. Hence, cash flows related to non-renewable resources should be divided for two basic purposes: current consumption and savings to support activities of investments. The trade-off between current consumption and savings invokes a fundamental question: how much of the cash flows can we use for current consumption without impoverishing the future? Following the literature line from Hicks (1946, Chapter 14) via Samuelson (1961) to Sefton and Weale (2006), in the first essay of this dissertation, Geir Asheim and I develop a theory of sectoral income. The theory can be applied to estimate income at a sectoral level. By this notion of sectoral income, we can answer the fundamental question concerning the division of the cash flows generated by non-renewable resources into consumption and savings. In particular, by applying the new theory in this dissertation, I provide a new method for estimating real income generated by non-renewable resources. The new method has at least two advantages when compared with the wealth-based method, which is a commonly applied method in practical resource accounting. By the wealth-based method, sectoral income is associated with the interest on the sector's wealth, where the wealth is estimated as the present value of cash flows generated from the sector (see, e.g., Aslaksen et al., 1990, and Brekke

  1. Writing an academic essay: a practical guide for nurses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Booth, Y

    Writing academic essays can be a major hurdle and source of anxiety for many students. Fears and misconceptions relating to this kind of writing can be dispelled if the task is approached in a logical and systematic manner. This article outlines the key steps involved in successfully completing an essay and provides some practical tips to facilitate critical and analytical writing. These steps are: analysing the task; exploring the subject; planning the essay; writing the account; and revising the drafts. Although this process is challenging, academic writing is a means of developing both personally and professionally.

  2. The Comparison of Typed and Handwritten Essays of Iranian EFL Students in terms of Length, Spelling, and Grammar

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Behrouz Sarbakhshian

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available This study attempted to compare typed and handwritten essays of Iranian EFL students in terms of length, spelling, and grammar. To administer the study, the researchers utilized Alice Touch Typing Tutor software to select 15 upper intermediate students with higher ability to write two essays: one typed and the other handwritten. The students were both males and females between the ages of 22 to 35. The analyses of the students’ scores in the three mentioned criteria through three paired samples t-tests indicate that typed essays are significantly better than handwritten ones in terms of length of texts and grammatical mistakes, but not significantly different in spelling mistakes. Positive effects of typing can provide a logical reason for students, especially TOEFL applicants, to spend more time on acquiring typing skill and also for teachers to encourage their students with higher typing ability to choose typed format in their essays.

  3. Primary care validation of a single-question alcohol screening test.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Peter C; Schmidt, Susan M; Allensworth-Davies, Donald; Saitz, Richard

    2009-07-01

    Unhealthy alcohol use is prevalent but under-diagnosed in primary care settings. To validate, in primary care, a single-item screening test for unhealthy alcohol use recommended by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Cross-sectional study. Adult English-speaking patients recruited from primary care waiting rooms. Participants were asked the single screening question, “How many times in the past year have you had X or more drinks in a day?”, where X is 5 for men and 4 for women, and a response of 1 or greater [corrected] is considered positive. Unhealthy alcohol use was defined as the presence of an alcohol use disorder, as determined by a standardized diagnostic interview, or risky consumption, as determined using a validated 30-day calendar method. Of 394 eligible primary care patients, 286 (73%) completed the interview. The single-question screen was 81.8% sensitive (95% confidence interval (CI) 72.5% to 88.5%) and 79.3% specific (95% CI 73.1% to 84.4%) for the detection of unhealthy alcohol use. It was slightly more sensitive (87.9%, 95% CI 72.7% to 95.2%) but was less specific (66.8%, 95% CI 60.8% to 72.3%) for the detection of a current alcohol use disorder. Test characteristics were similar to that of a commonly used three-item screen, and were affected very little by subject demographic characteristics. The single screening question recommended by the NIAAA accurately identified unhealthy alcohol use in this sample of primary care patients. These findings support the use of this brief screen in primary care.

  4. Rethinking the Argumentative Essay

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schneer, David

    2014-01-01

    This article investigates the construction of the argumentative essay as it is commonly presented in academic writing textbooks and classrooms for English language learners. The author first examines the traditional three-stage structure (thesis-argument-conclusion) and then problematizes it within a genre-based approach to academic writing. He…

  5. The SAT® Essay and College Performance: Understanding What Essay Scores Add to HSGPA and SAT. Research Report 2012-9 (REV: 4-2013)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shaw, Emily J.; Kobrin, Jennifer L.

    2013-01-01

    This study examines the relationship between students' SAT essay scores and college outcomes, including first-year grade point average (FYGPA) and first-year English course grade average (FY EngGPA), overall and by various demographic and academic performance subgroups. Results showed that the SAT essay score has a positive relationship with both…

  6. Short Essay on Managing Multicultural Students Groups within Diversity Context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cătălin Ploae

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The present essay focuses on summarizing the key elements that should be considered wheneducators are in a position to manage and interact with a group of students from different culturesor social environments. In this respect, we consider that the challenge educators’ face inconnecting with students of diverse backgrounds is to develop a critical consciousness of the waysin which these larger discourses operate in their classrooms and to care enough to question them,to challenge them and to advocate for their students. To care for students who come fromhistorically marginalized populations educators need to remember that schooling can serve eithera liberating or marginalizing function. They can empower students to identify structures in societythat have contributed to marginalizing their perspective and seek to maintain inequitable structuresin society or even narrow communities.

  7. Cooperation, networks and emotions: Three essays in behavioral economics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Leeuwen, B.

    2015-01-01

    This thesis contains three essays that study how people behave in a social context. The first two essays are on cooperation and networks. Chapter 2 investigates a mechanism to facilitate public good provision in networks. It relies on the idea that people compete for attractive network positions (or

  8. A Crosscultural Analysis of Argumentative Strategies in Student Essays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamimura, Taeko; Oi, Kyoko

    A study of essays on a single topic (capital punishment) written by 22 American high school students and 30 second-year Japanese college students investigated: cultural differences in organizational patterns in argumentative essays; comparative use of rational and affective appeals; differences in content of rational and affective appeals;…

  9. Scaffolding for Second Language Writers: Producing an Academic Essay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cotterall, Sara; Cohen, Robin

    2003-01-01

    Describes how a group of intermediate learners of English were guided through the process of producing their first academic essays in English. The approach applied the concept of scaffolding to the academic writing process by proving flexible support for the learners throughout the writing of their essays. (Author/VWL)

  10. Essays on medieval computational astronomy

    CERN Document Server

    Bergón, José Chabás

    2014-01-01

    In Essays on Medieval Computational Astronomy the authors provide examples of original and intelligent approaches and solutions given by medieval astronomers to the problems of their discipline, mostly presented in the form of astronomical tables.

  11. Essays in auction theory

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Maasland, E.

    2012-01-01

    Auction theory is a branch of game theory that considers human behavior in auction markets and the ensuing market outcomes. It is also successfully used as a tool to design real-life auctions. This thesis contains five essays addressing a variety of topics within the realm of auction theory. The

  12. Rhetorical, Metacognitive, and Cognitive Strategies in Teacher Candidates’ Essay Writing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Claudio Díaz Larenas

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available This paper reports on a study about the rhetoric, metacognitive, and cognitive strategies pre-service teachers use before and after a process-based writing intervention when completing an argumentative essay. The data were collected through two think-aloud protocols while 21 Chilean English as a foreign language pre-service teachers completed an essay task. The findings show that strategies such as summarizing, reaffirming, and selecting ideas were only evidenced during the post intervention essay, without the use of communication and socio-affective strategies in either of the two essays. All in all, a process-based writing intervention does not only influence the number of times a strategy is used, but also the number of students who employs strategies when writing an essay—two key considerations for the devising of any writing program.

  13. Open-ended questions in sensory testing practice

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Piqueras Fiszman, B.

    2015-01-01

    Why use open-ended questions? This chapter provides an up-to-date overview on the use of open-ended questions in novel rapid sensory methodologies and the potential applications in which they could provide unique benefits. Next, the step-by-step process is described (from task performance to

  14. Essays and Explorations: Studies in Ideas, Language, and Literature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bloomfield, Morton W.

    Seventeen reprinted essays and an unpublished one are contained in this collection and organized under five headings: History of Ideas, Approaches to Medieval Literature, Chaucer and Fourteenth-Century English Literature, Language and Linguistics, and Essay-Reviews. Topics discussed include the origin of the concept of the Seven Cardinal Sins;…

  15. Model Essay as a Feedback Tool in Task 2 of the IELTS Writing Exam Instruction for Slovene Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nina Bostič Bishop

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available The paper discusses using a model essay as a feedback tool when teaching EFL writing to Slovene EFL students in the context of Task 2 of the IELTS Writing exam. In the present study, four IELTS students of two different levels were asked to write a response to a Task 2 IELTS Writing Exam question and compare it to a native speaker or a native speaker-like model essay by means of note-taking. The notes were then analyzed, and the findings offer an insight into what aspects of the English language Slovene students noticed and how frequently they noticed individual language items. An analysis of the differences and similarities in the quality and quantity of noticing depending on the students’ level is also provided. A comparison with a Japanese study made by Abe in 2008 has been done. Finally, recommendations for future research are made.

  16. Sokrates og oss: Et essay om Sokrates’ forsvarstale, tekstfortolkning og filosofihistorie

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roar Anfinsen

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Socrates and Us: An Essay on the Apology of Socrates, Philological Interpretations and History of Philosophy. I start out with a philological problem, the question of how to translate a disputed passage (30b 2–4 in Plato’s Apology. This problem is connected to a philo­sophical question, the Socratic and Platonic opinion on the relation between virtue, material goods and happiness. I then discuss the role of our «pre-understanding» in the interpretation of historical texts. Is a «purely» historical interpretation possible? Is a «purely» historical reading of philosophical texts worthwhile, if it does not concern our modern philosophical problems? In discussing these hermenutical questions I use John Stuart Mill’s reading of Plato as an example. A peculiar problem in the history of philosophy is the question of the historical Socrates and the different roles he has played. I investigate especially Mill’s use of the character of Socrates, but I also include examples from the twentieth century. Furthermore, I analyze Plato’s staging of Socrates in the Apology as a moral hero and the mythological status he is given. Finally, I discuss whether the Socratic philosophy is of any value today. I argue that the Socratic method ought to have an important place in moral and political education, and that this method is not value-neutral. It presupposes certain virtues, virtues taught and incarnated by the historical Socrates.

  17. Une question interdite

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pierre Legendre

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available Is legal history a left-over or is it waiting for a takeover bid (just like a company in serious trouble which would allow the expression of new analyses and outlines for a better understanding of the contemporary western world? Its propositions of erudition, are they just interesting for small academic circles, or could they open a new pathway for fundamental reflections on the phenomenon of norms in general and the structure of its evolution in the special case of norm-production coming from Roman Christianity? And what is the significance of the idea of »legal tradition«, an idea forged in Western Europe, within the framework of a presumed global westernization without any counter-balance? The essay discusses the illegibility of legal history in today’s culture. Under the well reflected motto »The Forbidden Question« it concludes firmly: To renovate itself, this discipline has to perform its work in a new way, guided by a very precise and distinct vision on theory. The author examines the conditions for this.

  18. Five essays on fiscal policy, intergenerational welfare and petroleum wealth

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Thoegersen, Oe

    1994-12-01

    Motivated by current macro economic problems facing the Norwegian economy, this thesis deals with fiscal policy and the management of petroleum wealth in a small open resource economy. The thesis highlights the fact that considerable parts of the petroleum revenues are collected by the government and studies in particular the interaction between fiscal policy, uncertain petroleum revenues and welfare between generations. Essay 1 is a paper on the calculation of the Norwegian petroleum wealth and surveys economic effects of the development of the petroleum sector and the spending of the petroleum revenues. Essay 2 deals with the effects of uncertain government petroleum revenues on fiscal policy, wealth accumulation and inter generational welfare. In Essay 3 a discussion is given of the effects of oil price risk on international risk sharing. Petroleum importing and exporting countries are considered within OECD-Europe. A possible wealth consumption policy is found to have serious and long-lasting negative effects on the welfare of coming generations, as described in Essay 4. Finally, Essay 5 considers a dynamic dependent economy model extended to incorporate finite horizons of the households and structural adjustment costs in production. 121 refs., 19 figs., 10 tabs.

  19. Exploring undergraduates' understanding of photosynthesis using diagnostic question clusters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parker, Joyce M; Anderson, Charles W; Heidemann, Merle; Merrill, John; Merritt, Brett; Richmond, Gail; Urban-Lurain, Mark

    2012-01-01

    We present a diagnostic question cluster (DQC) that assesses undergraduates' thinking about photosynthesis. This assessment tool is not designed to identify individual misconceptions. Rather, it is focused on students' abilities to apply basic concepts about photosynthesis by reasoning with a coordinated set of practices based on a few scientific principles: conservation of matter, conservation of energy, and the hierarchical nature of biological systems. Data on students' responses to the cluster items and uses of some of the questions in multiple-choice, multiple-true/false, and essay formats are compared. A cross-over study indicates that the multiple-true/false format shows promise as a machine-gradable format that identifies students who have a mixture of accurate and inaccurate ideas. In addition, interviews with students about their choices on three multiple-choice questions reveal the fragility of students' understanding. Collectively, the data show that many undergraduates lack both a basic understanding of the role of photosynthesis in plant metabolism and the ability to reason with scientific principles when learning new content. Implications for instruction are discussed.

  20. Discourse Connector Usage in Argumentative Essays by American and Thai University Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jangarun, Kamolphan; Luksaneeyanawin, Sudaporn

    2016-01-01

    This study investigated the similarities and differences in the use of discourse connectors (DCs) in argumentative essays of American undergraduate students (AMs), Thai with high-English exposure (THHs) and Thai with low-English exposure (THLs). The data of these three groups were collected from 60 essays; 20 essays were from the corpus of…

  1. The Zend PHP certification practice test book practice questions for the Zend certified engineer exam

    CERN Document Server

    Coggeshall, John

    2005-01-01

    As the usage of PHP grows, the need for a globally-recognized credentials program for professional developers is becoming more and more important. The Zend Engineer Certification Program, launched by worldwide PHP leader Zend Technologies, finally creates a professional designation that represents consistently high-quality skills and knowledge in the PHP world. Written and edited by four members of the Zend Education Board who also helped create the actual Zend Certification Exam, this book contains 200 questions on every topic that is part of the exam. The Zend Certification Practice Test Book is an invaluable resource in testing your preparedness in every area of the exam, from the basics to the most advanced topics. Each question comes with a clear answer that provides an explanation of the question's topic, its goals and end result. Answering the questions in this book will allow you to clearly and quickly identify the areas of PHP in which you are strong and those in which you need further study before b...

  2. Rethinking the Ph.D. in English. Carnegie Essays on the Doctorate: English.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lunsford, Andrea Abernethy

    The Carnegie Foundation commissioned a series of essays as part of the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID). The essays and essayists represent six disciplines that are part of the CID: chemistry, education, English, history, mathematics, and neuroscience. The essay explores the Ph.D. in English and suggests changes the author would make in…

  3. THE STRATEGY OF USING PERSUASIVE ESSAY IN ENGLISH FOR MEDICAL ACADEMIC WRITING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ellie Setyo Wahyuni

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Writing persuasive essay has the purpose of providing some techniques in organizing the idea and constructing the sentences in coherence. The content of this essay contains the health issue and medical terms. The students of medical faculty are expected to make a good persuasive essay in order to find out the recommendation solution of a health problem through the strategies (1 brainstorming (2 mapping (3 the 5 W’s (4 setting thesis statement (5 providing fact, statistic, and example (5 conclusion. The techniques have improved the student writing as the essays have been evaluated and given positive input on the content and development of paragraphs. This academic writing aims to give some practices for the Medical Faculty students of Hang Tuah University in order to produce a good persuasive essay in term of coherence, sentence structure, and organization.

  4. The Gulf War: A Critical Essay

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Tzu, Sun

    1992-01-01

    This essay, written by the famous Chinese military theoretician, Sun Tzu, proposes a thesis that ought to provoke considerable discussion among theoreticians in training at the National War College...

  5. Essays on oil: project evaluation and investment impact

    OpenAIRE

    Bagh, Dima

    2015-01-01

    This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London This thesis contains three essays related to fixed investment and crude oil. The first essay examines the implications of building a cross-border oil infrastructure project within the context of the bargaining problem (the Nash bargaining solution, and the alternating offer bargain of Rubinstein). We examine the viability of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline project, which is empl...

  6. The Doctorate in Chemistry. Carnegie Essays on the Doctorate: Chemistry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Breslow, Ronald

    The Carnegie Foundation commissioned a collection of essays as part of the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID). Essays and essayists represent six disciplines that are part of the CID: chemistry, education, English, history, mathematics, and neuroscience. Intended to engender conversation about the conceptual foundation of doctoral…

  7. Essays on globalization. Policies in trade, development, resources and climate change

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kerkelae, L.

    2009-07-01

    This research study on globalization consists of an introduction on the methodology applied, a summary and four independent essays focussing on applied policy research in international trade. The study follows the CGE (Computable General Equilibrium) research tradition. The simulation environment is the publicly available GTAP model. The essays examine the specific topics of trade and aid policies, price liberalization of the Russian energy markets, trade preferences in the sugar sector of the EU and the role of carbon sinks in mitigating climate change. The first essay examines trade and aid policies in Mozambique. The essay analyses the impact of alternative options like trade agreements, aid and trade facilitation. The results suggest that Mozambique has very little to gain from trade agreements or the Doha Round, although some agreements with the EU do yield some benefit. Trade facilitation and aid-for-trade programs on the other hand have the potential for larger benefits. The second essay examines the impact of liberalising RussiaAEs energy sector. The analysis is based on the implicit subsidies in regulated prices of electricity and gas and focuses on the effect of the different taxes and subsidies with respect to welfare and GDP in Russia and abroad. Increases in the price of electricity and gas improve efficiency and shift output from domestic markets to exports. The third essay investigates the impact of liberalising the EUAEs sugar sector by taking into account the complex structure of the EU sugar market and preferences in imports for developing countries. The fourth essay focuses on the effects of including carbon sinks into the analysis of the impacts of the Kyoto agreement. (orig.)

  8. Review Essay : Virtually Alive or Questionably Dead? The Ambivalence of Modern Korean Identity in Literature and Cinema

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kim, Kyu Hyun

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Theodore Hughes, Literature and Film in Cold War South Korea: Freedom's Frontier. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. 304 pp. $55 (cloth.Kyung Hyun Kim, Virtual Hallyu: Korean Cinema of the Global Era. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011, pp. 208. $90 (cloth, $25 (paper.The studies by Kyung Hyun Kim and Theodore Hughes discussed in this essay are rich with information and insights but are also challenging, almost subversive, to some prevalent views on Korean cinema and literature. While Kim looks into contemporary, post-1990s Korean films operating in the global market as an important (but perhaps since 2000 not the most influential wing of the hallyu (“Korean Wave” trend, Hughes deals primarily with early postwar literature and visual arts (including cinema from 1945 to roughly the early 1970s. Both authors are concerned with the history and contemporaneity of Korean identity and with the manners in which this localized identity is constituted, specifically in relation to colonial modernity, global late capitalism, and ethnocentric nationalism. They also address the problematic status of cinema in the context of Korean culture and history, sometimes developing arguments in unexpected directions.

  9. Situational judgement tests and personality measurement : some answers and more questions

    OpenAIRE

    Judge, Timothy A.; Hofmans, Joeri; Wille, Bart

    2017-01-01

    Abstract: Work psychologists have devoted considerable attention to studying how personality traits can best be conceptualized and assessed in 'high-stakes' contexts such as selection or hiring decisions. Lievens argued that two selection methods, Situational Judgement Tests and Assessment Centre exercises, by standardizing and contextualizing personality measurement, offer many advantages to personality psychology. In hopes of clarifying this argument, we ask two fundamental questions: (1) W...

  10. Essays on Expressivism

    OpenAIRE

    Toppinen, Teemu

    2014-01-01

    This dissertation consists of five articles plus an introductory essay, the overarching goal being that of defending an expressivist view about normative thought and talk. According to expressivism, the meaning of normative sentences (e.g. 'We ought to cut down on our greenhouse gas emissions,' 'There is more to good life than enjoyment') is to be explained by their expressing broadly practical, 'desire-like,' states of mind, rather than by what they are about, or by their truth-conditions. T...

  11. Improving the argumentative skills of high school students through teacher’s questioning techniques and argumentative assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kristianti, T. P.; Ramli, M.; Ariyanto, J.

    2018-05-01

    This research aims to know how students’ argumentative skills improved by applying teacher’s questioning techniques and argumentative assessment through collaborative action research between college student who did teaching practicum, biology teacher as tutor teacher, and lecturers. The action research was done in three cycles involving one class consisted of 36 eleventh graders. Lesson plans were developed collaboratively, and teaching practices were by the student teacher. In the reflective phase prior to the first cycle, learning processes were dominated by the teacher, hence students did not have sufficient opportunity to argue. Students were divided into two, 14 students were grouped as low achievement (LA) and 22 students were the high achievement (HA). Teacher questions and students’ responses were furtherly coded and interpreted following the validated rubric of level of argumentation. A divergent essay as an argumentative assessment was also tested to students at the end of each cycle. At the end of the third cycle, HA and LA students showed a significant change in argumentative skills responded the teacher’s questions. However, only four LA students who actively argued. Students from HA groups also showed the improvement on the level of argumentation, where they move from level 1 to 3.

  12. Essays on the economics of decarbonization and renewable energy support

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jaegemann, Cosima Claudia

    2014-01-01

    The thesis consists of five essays investigating various aspects associated with the decarbonization of Europe's power sector and the politically incentivized expansion of renewable energy generation. The first essay analyzes the economic implications of alternative decarbonization pathways and policy instruments for Europe's power sector up to 2050 and illustrates the importance of ensuring competition between all low-carbon technologies in order to limit the costs of decarbonization. The second essay analyzes the economic inefficiency associated with the concept of grid parity for the case of photovoltaic (PV). In order to both enhance overall welfare and avoid redistributional effects, the indirect financial incentive for in-house PV electricity consumption should be abolished. The third essay discusses the system price effect of wind and solar power generation and illustrates that the decrease in the marginal value of wind and solar power (as a consequence of increased penetration) is already highly relevant for both wind and solar power generation in Germany. The fourth essay adds to the ongoing debate surrounding the cost-efficient achievement of politically implemented renewable energy targets. Renewable energy support schemes that fail to incentivize investors to account for differences in the marginal value of wind and solar power generation are associated with excess costs as they prevent the equalization of net marginal costs across technologies and regions. The fifth essay analyzes the economic value of storage as a function of the overall generation mix and illustrates the economic inefficiency arising from feed-in tariff systems for the special case of thermal energy storage units in concentrating solar power plants.

  13. Essays on the economics of decarbonization and renewable energy support

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jaegemann, Cosima Claudia

    2014-06-05

    The thesis consists of five essays investigating various aspects associated with the decarbonization of Europe's power sector and the politically incentivized expansion of renewable energy generation. The first essay analyzes the economic implications of alternative decarbonization pathways and policy instruments for Europe's power sector up to 2050 and illustrates the importance of ensuring competition between all low-carbon technologies in order to limit the costs of decarbonization. The second essay analyzes the economic inefficiency associated with the concept of grid parity for the case of photovoltaic (PV). In order to both enhance overall welfare and avoid redistributional effects, the indirect financial incentive for in-house PV electricity consumption should be abolished. The third essay discusses the system price effect of wind and solar power generation and illustrates that the decrease in the marginal value of wind and solar power (as a consequence of increased penetration) is already highly relevant for both wind and solar power generation in Germany. The fourth essay adds to the ongoing debate surrounding the cost-efficient achievement of politically implemented renewable energy targets. Renewable energy support schemes that fail to incentivize investors to account for differences in the marginal value of wind and solar power generation are associated with excess costs as they prevent the equalization of net marginal costs across technologies and regions. The fifth essay analyzes the economic value of storage as a function of the overall generation mix and illustrates the economic inefficiency arising from feed-in tariff systems for the special case of thermal energy storage units in concentrating solar power plants.

  14. Transforming the Reserve Component: Four Essays

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Binnendijk, Hans; Baranick, Michael J; Bell, Raymond E., Jr; Cordero, Gina; Duncan, Stephen M; Holshek, Christopher; Wentz, Larry

    2005-01-01

    .... The first essay calls for a fundamental restructuring of the Reserve Component in light of the largest mobilization since the Korean War, which has been fraught with problems in terms of combat...

  15. General And Specific Features In Realizing An Essay In English Language – A Case Study Of Essay On Economic Themes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daliana Ecaterina TASCOVICI

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available The present paper wants to be a systematic and not only a theoretical approach on essays. This type of writing knows several points of view connecting its form, content, specific features and types, rules to be observed in its writing, structures or styles. As we know, it implies freedom of composition, originality, associations of surprising images and propensity for aphorism. We try to frame all its specifications within the economic essay, as economics is a field of exact utterance, where the speaker cannot play with the words and their meaning.

  16. Essays on environmental policies, corruption, and energy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baksi, Soham

    This thesis consists of four essays. The first essay looks at pollution taxation under capital mobility, and analyzes the role of pre-commitment by countries to their pollution tax rate. A polluting firm sells its product in two countries, and can locate and produce in a single country or in both countries. Due to the discrete-choice nature of the firm's location problem, the countries' welfare functions are discontinuous in their pollution tax rate. We show that when the countries cannot pre-commit to their pollution tax, the firm can still engender tax competition between them by strategically locating in both the countries. Moreover, pre-commitment pollution taxation may not be welfare improving for the countries, although it always makes the firm better off. The second essay studies the effect of liberalization on corruption. Corruptible inspectors enforce an environmental regulation on firms, and are monitored by an honest regulator. Liberalization not only increases the variety of goods and the marginal utility of accepting a bribe, but also puts pressure on the regulator to curb corruption. The interaction of these two effects can cause corruption to initially increase with liberalization, and then decrease beyond a threshold. Moreover, equilibrium corruption is lower when the regulator is able to pre-commit to her monitoring frequency. The third essay analyzes optimal labeling (information revelation) procedures for hidden attributes of credence goods. Consumers are heterogeneous in their preference for the hidden attribute, and producers can either self-label their products, or have them certified by a third party. The government can impose self or third-party labeling requirements on either the "green" or the "brown" producers. When corrupt producers can affix spurious labels, the government needs to monitor them. A mandatory self-labeling policy is shown to generally dominate mandatory third-party labeling. The fourth essay develops formulas for

  17. THE EFFECT OF CLUSTERING TECHNIQUE ON WRITING EXPOSITORY ESSAYS OF EFL STUDENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sabarun Sabarun

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available The study is aimed at investigating the effectiveness of using clustering technique in writing expository essays. The aim of the study is to prove whether there is a significant difference between writing using clustering technique and writing without using it on the students’ writing achievement or not. The study belonged to experimental study by applying counterbalance procedure to collect the data. The study was conducted at the fourth semester English department students of Palangka Raya State Islamic College of 2012/ 2013 academic year. The number of the sample was 13 students. This study was restricted to two focuses: using clustering technique and without using clustering technique to write composition. Using clustering technique to write essay was one of the pre writing strategies in writing process. To answer the research problem, the t test for correlated samples was applied. The research findings showed that,it was found that the t value was 10.554.It was also found that the df (Degree of freedom of the distribution observed was 13-1= 12.  Based on the Table of t value, if df was 12, the 5% of significant level of t value was at 1.782 and the 1% of significant level of t value was at 2.179. It meant that using clustering gave facilitative effect on the students’ essay writing performance. Keywords: reading comprehension, text, scaffolding

  18. Construction Of Critical Thinking Skills Test Instrument Related The Concept On Sound Wave

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mabruroh, F.; Suhandi, A.

    2017-02-01

    This study aimed to construct test instrument of critical thinking skills of high school students related the concept on sound wave. This research using a mixed methods with sequential exploratory design, consists of: 1) a preliminary study; 2) design and review of test instruments. The form of test instruments in essay questions, consist of 18 questions that was divided into 5 indicators and 8 sub-indicators of the critical thinking skills expressed by Ennis, with questions that are qualitative and contextual. Phases of preliminary study include: a) policy studies; b) survey to the school; c) and literature studies. Phases of the design and review of test instruments consist of two steps, namely a draft design of test instruments include: a) analysis of the depth of teaching materials; b) the selection of indicators and sub-indicators of critical thinking skills; c) analysis of indicators and sub-indicators of critical thinking skills; d) implementation of indicators and sub-indicators of critical thinking skills; and e) making the descriptions about the test instrument. In the next phase of the review test instruments, consist of: a) writing about the test instrument; b) validity test by experts; and c) revision of test instruments based on the validator.

  19. Essays in Education and Macroeconomics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herrington, Christopher M.

    2013-01-01

    This dissertation consists of three essays on education and macroeconomics. The first chapter analyzes whether public education financing systems can account for large differences among developed countries in earnings inequality and intergenerational earnings persistence. I first document facts about public education in the U.S. and Norway, which…

  20. Essays on mergers and acquisitions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Faelten, A.I.

    2016-01-01

    Essays on Mergers and Acquisitions" tackles some of the most prominent business challenges related to M&A activity. The Introduction examines the reasons why deals fail through well-known case studies; Chapter 1 presents a new index measuring countries M&A maturity worldwide; Chapter 2 focus on the

  1. Essays in energy economics: The electricity industry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martinez-Chombo, Eduardo

    Electricity demand analysis using cointegration and error-correction models with time varying parameters: The Mexican case. In this essay we show how some flexibility can be allowed in modeling the parameters of the electricity demand function by employing the time varying coefficient (TVC) cointegrating model developed by Park and Hahn (1999). With the income elasticity of electricity demand modeled as a TVC, we perform tests to examine the adequacy of the proposed model against the cointegrating regression with fixed coefficients, as well as against the spuriousness of the regression with TVC. The results reject the specification of the model with fixed coefficients and favor the proposed model. We also show how some flexibility is gained in the specification of the error correction model based on the proposed TVC cointegrating model, by including more lags of the error correction term as predetermined variables. Finally, we present the results of some out-of-sample forecast comparison among competing models. Electricity demand and supply in Mexico. In this essay we present a simplified model of the Mexican electricity transmission network. We use the model to approximate the marginal cost of supplying electricity to consumers in different locations and at different times of the year. We examine how costs and system operations will be affected by proposed investments in generation and transmission capacity given a forecast of growth in regional electricity demands. Decomposing electricity prices with jumps. In this essay we propose a model that decomposes electricity prices into two independent stochastic processes: one that represents the "normal" pattern of electricity prices and the other that captures temporary shocks, or "jumps", with non-lasting effects in the market. Each contains specific mean reverting parameters to estimate. In order to identify such components we specify a state-space model with regime switching. Using Kim's (1994) filtering algorithm

  2. Essays on the Determinants of Prosocial Behavior in Singapore

    OpenAIRE

    Lim, Daniel

    2015-01-01

    Previous research has sought to explain why people engage in prosocial behavior and undertake activities that are costly to themselves and mostly benefit others, such as volunteering and donating. My dissertation comprises three essays that collectively explore the determinants of prosocial behavior and leverages insights from behavioral economics to design interventions to nudge people to behave more prosocially. The first essay is an observational study that examines how rapid demographic c...

  3. Essays in Industrial Organization: Intermediation, Marketing, and Strategic Pricing

    OpenAIRE

    Wismer, Sebastian

    2014-01-01

    This dissertation deals with certain business strategies that have become particularly relevant with the spread and development of new information technologies. The introduction explains the motivation, discusses different ways of defining the term "two-sided market", and briefly summarizes the subsequent essays. The first essay examines the effects of product information on the pricing and advertising decision of a seller who offers an experience good whose quality is unknown to cons...

  4. Backward Dependencies and in-Situ wh-Questions as Test Cases on How to Approach Experimental Linguistics Research That Pursues Theoretical Linguistics Questions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pablos, Leticia; Doetjes, Jenny; Cheng, Lisa L.-S.

    2018-01-01

    The empirical study of language is a young field in contemporary linguistics. This being the case, and following a natural development process, the field is currently at a stage where different research methods and experimental approaches are being put into question in terms of their validity. Without pretending to provide an answer with respect to the best way to conduct linguistics related experimental research, in this article we aim at examining the process that researchers follow in the design and implementation of experimental linguistics research with a goal to validate specific theoretical linguistic analyses. First, we discuss the general challenges that experimental work faces in finding a compromise between addressing theoretically relevant questions and being able to implement these questions in a specific controlled experimental paradigm. We discuss the Granularity Mismatch Problem (Poeppel and Embick, 2005) which addresses the challenges that research that is trying to bridge the representations and computations of language and their psycholinguistic/neurolinguistic evidence faces, and the basic assumptions that interdisciplinary research needs to consider due to the different conceptual granularity of the objects under study. To illustrate the practical implications of the points addressed, we compare two approaches to perform linguistic experimental research by reviewing a number of our own studies strongly grounded on theoretically informed questions. First, we show how linguistic phenomena similar at a conceptual level can be tested within the same language using measurement of event-related potentials (ERP) by discussing results from two ERP experiments on the processing of long-distance backward dependencies that involve coreference and negative polarity items respectively in Dutch. Second, we examine how the same linguistic phenomenon can be tested in different languages using reading time measures by discussing the outcome of four self

  5. Backward Dependencies and in-Situ wh-Questions as Test Cases on How to Approach Experimental Linguistics Research That Pursues Theoretical Linguistics Questions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pablos, Leticia; Doetjes, Jenny; Cheng, Lisa L-S

    2017-01-01

    The empirical study of language is a young field in contemporary linguistics. This being the case, and following a natural development process, the field is currently at a stage where different research methods and experimental approaches are being put into question in terms of their validity. Without pretending to provide an answer with respect to the best way to conduct linguistics related experimental research, in this article we aim at examining the process that researchers follow in the design and implementation of experimental linguistics research with a goal to validate specific theoretical linguistic analyses. First, we discuss the general challenges that experimental work faces in finding a compromise between addressing theoretically relevant questions and being able to implement these questions in a specific controlled experimental paradigm. We discuss the Granularity Mismatch Problem (Poeppel and Embick, 2005) which addresses the challenges that research that is trying to bridge the representations and computations of language and their psycholinguistic/neurolinguistic evidence faces, and the basic assumptions that interdisciplinary research needs to consider due to the different conceptual granularity of the objects under study. To illustrate the practical implications of the points addressed, we compare two approaches to perform linguistic experimental research by reviewing a number of our own studies strongly grounded on theoretically informed questions. First, we show how linguistic phenomena similar at a conceptual level can be tested within the same language using measurement of event-related potentials (ERP) by discussing results from two ERP experiments on the processing of long-distance backward dependencies that involve coreference and negative polarity items respectively in Dutch. Second, we examine how the same linguistic phenomenon can be tested in different languages using reading time measures by discussing the outcome of four self

  6. Backward Dependencies and in-Situ wh-Questions as Test Cases on How to Approach Experimental Linguistics Research That Pursues Theoretical Linguistics Questions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Leticia Pablos

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The empirical study of language is a young field in contemporary linguistics. This being the case, and following a natural development process, the field is currently at a stage where different research methods and experimental approaches are being put into question in terms of their validity. Without pretending to provide an answer with respect to the best way to conduct linguistics related experimental research, in this article we aim at examining the process that researchers follow in the design and implementation of experimental linguistics research with a goal to validate specific theoretical linguistic analyses. First, we discuss the general challenges that experimental work faces in finding a compromise between addressing theoretically relevant questions and being able to implement these questions in a specific controlled experimental paradigm. We discuss the Granularity Mismatch Problem (Poeppel and Embick, 2005 which addresses the challenges that research that is trying to bridge the representations and computations of language and their psycholinguistic/neurolinguistic evidence faces, and the basic assumptions that interdisciplinary research needs to consider due to the different conceptual granularity of the objects under study. To illustrate the practical implications of the points addressed, we compare two approaches to perform linguistic experimental research by reviewing a number of our own studies strongly grounded on theoretically informed questions. First, we show how linguistic phenomena similar at a conceptual level can be tested within the same language using measurement of event-related potentials (ERP by discussing results from two ERP experiments on the processing of long-distance backward dependencies that involve coreference and negative polarity items respectively in Dutch. Second, we examine how the same linguistic phenomenon can be tested in different languages using reading time measures by discussing the outcome of

  7. Essays on optimal hedging and investment strategies and on derivative pricing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van den Goorbergh, R.W.J.

    2004-01-01

    This dissertation encompasses four essays on various topics within the field of finance. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the contributions of each essay. Chapter 2, titled Risk Aversion, Price Uncertainty, and Irreversible Investments, extends the theory of irreversible investment under

  8. Calculation of uncertainties in influence quantities in biological essays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pierre Morel

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available Due to the need of showing the reliability of results from biological essays, such as in health and environmental areas, laboratories have been implementing quality systems, particularly ABNT NBR ISO/IEC 17025 (ABNT, 2001, which include as one of the requirements, the calculation of uncertainty in essays results. It is of common knowledge that estimating uncertainty in essays using organisms, such as animal and vegetal species, is difficult, preventing from meeting that requirement in the standard. The paper shows the calculation of uncertainties in influences quantities in these essays as a tool to allow validating the measuring process, by using the essays performed by Rhodia Environmental Impact Analysis Laboratory and IPEN Ecotoxicology Laboratory as examples.Devido à necessidade de demonstrar a confiabilidade dos resultados de ensaios biológicos como, por exemplo, nas áreas de saúde e ambiental, laboratórios vêm implementando sistemas da qualidade, em especial a ABNT NBR ISO/IEC 17025 (ABNT, 2001 que inclui como um dos requisitos o cálculo da incerteza dos resultados dos ensaios. É reconhecidamente difícil de estimar a incerteza de ensaios que utilizam organismos, como com espécies animais e vegetais o que impede, consequentemente, o atendimento deste requisito da norma. O trabalho apresenta o cálculo de incerteza das grandezas de influências nestes ensaios como uma ferramenta que permite validar o processo de medição, utilizando como exemplos aqueles realizados pelos Laboratórios de Análise de Impacto Ambiental da Rhodia e de Ecologia e Ecotoxicologia do IPEN.

  9. Essays on the theory of numbers

    CERN Document Server

    Dedekind, Richard

    1963-01-01

    Two classic essays by great German mathematician: one provides an arithmetic, rigorous foundation for the irrational numbers, the other is an attempt to give the logical basis for transfinite numbers and properties of the natural numbers.

  10. Development and testing of new candidate psoriatic arthritis screening questionnaires combining optimal questions from existing tools.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coates, Laura C; Walsh, Jessica; Haroon, Muhammad; FitzGerald, Oliver; Aslam, Tariq; Al Balushi, Farida; Burden, A D; Burden-Teh, Esther; Caperon, Anna R; Cerio, Rino; Chattopadhyay, Chandrabhusan; Chinoy, Hector; Goodfield, Mark J D; Kay, Lesley; Kelly, Stephen; Kirkham, Bruce W; Lovell, Christopher R; Marzo-Ortega, Helena; McHugh, Neil; Murphy, Ruth; Reynolds, Nick J; Smith, Catherine H; Stewart, Elizabeth J C; Warren, Richard B; Waxman, Robin; Wilson, Hilary E; Helliwell, Philip S

    2014-09-01

    Several questionnaires have been developed to screen for psoriatic arthritis (PsA), but head-to-head studies have found limitations. This study aimed to develop new questionnaires encompassing the most discriminative questions from existing instruments. Data from the CONTEST study, a head-to-head comparison of 3 existing questionnaires, were used to identify items with a Youden index score of ≥0.1. These were combined using 4 approaches: CONTEST (simple additions of questions), CONTESTw (weighting using logistic regression), CONTESTjt (addition of a joint manikin), and CONTESTtree (additional questions identified by classification and regression tree [CART] analysis). These candidate questionnaires were tested in independent data sets. Twelve individual questions with a Youden index score of ≥0.1 were identified, but 4 of these were excluded due to duplication and redundancy. Weighting for 2 of these questions was included in CONTESTw. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that involvement in 6 joint areas on the manikin was predictive of PsA for inclusion in CONTESTjt. CART analysis identified a further 5 questions for inclusion in CONTESTtree. CONTESTtree was not significant on ROC curve analysis and discarded. The other 3 questionnaires were significant in all data sets, although CONTESTw was slightly inferior to the others in the validation data sets. Potential cut points for referral were also discussed. Of 4 candidate questionnaires combining existing discriminatory items to identify PsA in people with psoriasis, 3 were found to be significant on ROC curve analysis. Testing in independent data sets identified 2 questionnaires (CONTEST and CONTESTjt) that should be pursued for further prospective testing. Copyright © 2014 by the American College of Rheumatology.

  11. Transforming the Reserve Component: Four Essays

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Binnendijk, Hans; Baranick, Michael J; Bell, Raymond E., Jr; Cordero, Gina; Duncan, Stephen M; Holshek, Christopher; Wentz, Larry

    2005-01-01

    This volume contains four essays on various aspects of the Reserve Component. We publish it at a time when Reserves are serving overseas at historically high rates and when new missions like homeland security demand their attention...

  12. Pictorial essay: Orbital tuberculosis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Narula, Mahender K; Chaudhary, Vikas; Baruah, Dhiraj; Kathuria, Manoj; Anand, Rama

    2010-01-01

    Tuberculosis of the orbit is rare, even in places where tuberculosis is endemic. The disease may involve soft tissue, the lacrimal gland, or the periosteum or bones of the orbital wall. Intracranial extension, in the form of extradural abscess, and infratemporal fossa extension has been described. This pictorial essay illustrates the imaging findings of nine histopathologically confirmed cases of orbital tuberculosis. All these patients responded to antituberculous treatment

  13. Guidelines for writing an argumentative essay

    OpenAIRE

    Aleksandra Egurnova

    2014-01-01

    The guidelines below are intended for teachers, professors, students, and the public at large who are interested in the issues of English writing culture. They provide a detailed plan for completing the writing task–writing an argumentative essay.

  14. The Ph.D. in Education. Carnegie Essays on the Doctorate: Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richardson, Virginia

    The Carnegie Foundation commissioned a collection of essays as part of the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID). Essays and essayists represent six disciplines that are part of the CID: chemistry, education, English, history, mathematics, and neuroscience. Intended to engender conversation about the conceptual foundation of doctoral…

  15. A text of two titles: Kant's 'A renewed attempt to answer the question: "is the human race continually improving"?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zammito, John H

    2008-12-01

    The essay, 'A renewed attempt to answer the question: "Is the human race continually improving?"' appeared as Part II of Kant's 1798 publication, The conflict of the faculties, where it was subordinated under a second title: 'The conflict of the philosophy faculty with the faculty of law'. How did this new situation (and title) affects the meaning of the essay? My argument considers first, the conflict of the faculty of philosophy with the faculty of law; second, the earlier philosophy of history Kant had developed; and, finally, the revision of this position in 'A renewed attempt'. The situation of his argument in the contest between the philosophical and the legal faculties points to other veins of argumentation in Kant's political theory, particularly his appeal to a principle of publicity, but they hardly achieve the theoretical clarity or the systematic centrality they should command. They are displaced in the quest for prediction of the future history of mankind. The question of human progress exceeds the frame of the coordination of the university, and the main question must remain: what was new in Kant's approach to the question of human progress, and was it in fact an enhancement of his philosophy of history? In those terms, 'A renewed attempt' must be regarded a distinct failure. Its innovations prove problematic. Its retreats and equivocations, moreover, threaten to undermine the grander vision of Kant's philosophical history and his political theory, entangling them in an unacceptably theological recourse.

  16. Enhancing Argumentative Essay Writing of Fourth-Grade Students with Learning Disabilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deatline-Buchman, Andria; Jitendra, Asha K.

    2006-01-01

    A within-subject pretest-posttest comparison design was used to explore the effectiveness of a planning and writing intervention in improving the argumentative writing performance of five fourth-grade students with learning disabilities. Students were taught to collaboratively plan and revise their essays and independently write their essays using…

  17. Four essays on the economics of climate change - with a supplement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Torvanger, A.

    1993-01-01

    Climate change has been a main environmental issue over the last decade. The atmospheric concentration of some trace gases are increased through various human activities. Some of these trace gases, the greenhouse gases (GHGs), are transparent to incoming solar radiation, but absorb the infrared radiation from the Earth's surface. Through this mechanism the GHGs are able to induce global warming and climate change, even if their concentration is relatively low. The essays of this dissertation relate to different aspects of the climate change issue. The first essay and the supplement analyze the carbon dioxide emission sources and the distribution of emissions. In the first essay, ''Manufacturing sector carbon dioxide emissions in nine OECD countries 1973-87'', the relation between carbon dioxide emissions in manufacturing and output, structure, energy source mix and technology is discussed. In the supplement, ''Global, regional and national carbon dioxide emissions 1949-86'', the geographical distribution and time series of emissions are described. The next three essays relate to various aspects of climate policy. In ''An optimal growth model for Norway with a carbon dioxide emissions constraint'', the focus is on the economic consequences of an emissions abatement policy implemented as a carbon tax on fossil fuels. The topic of the subsequent essay, ''Efficient contracts in a game of nations pursuing greenhouse gas emissions abatement'', is the design and enforcement by a policing institution of efficient contracts to reduce GHG emissions under country moral hazard. Finally, in the last essay, ''Uncertain change in an intergenerational planning model'', some long-term aspects of climate policy such as intergenerational equity and uncertainty are analyzed

  18. Dance for two selected essays

    CERN Document Server

    Lightman, Alan

    1996-01-01

    The author of Einstein's Dreams now presents a collection of essays, written over the past 20 years, that displays his genius for bringing literary and scientific concerns into ringing harmony. Sometimes provocative, sometimes fanciful, always elegantly conceived and written, these meditations offer readers a fascinating look into the creative compulsions shared by the scientist and the artist. Reading tour.

  19. What Do Education Students Think about Their Ability to Write Essays?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Quintero, Gisela Consolación

    2018-01-01

    The present study reflects the results obtained from a diagnosis carried out with Education students concerning the writing of academic essays. The objective was to identify the perceptions that Comprehensive Education students have about their ability to write academic essays. A descriptive cross-sectional research study was conducted at a single…

  20. Essays on the frontiers of modern astrophysics and cosmology

    CERN Document Server

    Mathew, Santhosh

    2014-01-01

    This book is a collection of engaging and intriguing essays that describe an intellectual journey from the beginning to the end of universe. It is the product of an ongoing effort to know our place in the universe and share with readers the underpinnings of the magnificent cosmos where we are given a chance to exist only very briefly. The essays incorporate a group of challenging ideas that modern physics and cosmology are struggling to understand, in a unique way that incorporates mythological, religious, and philosophical perspectives. The author relies on a simple and powerful philosophy that we are part of the universe and the universe is part of us.   This wonderful collection of essays provides a journey through the current frontiers of modern astrophysics and cosmology. Its depiction of the most important unsolved mysteries about our place in the Universe is peppered with original insights and philosophical perspectives, making it an intellectual treat. – Avi Loeb, Professor, Harvard University Chai...

  1. Fertility in the Age of Demographic Maturity: An Essay

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anatole Romaniuk

    2010-12-01

    wage is better than one even for the higher middle class. No less important is the woman’s financial independence in a societal environment where marriage as an institution is under considerable stress. Motherhood is to be rewarded adequately for its highly important social role and it has to be sufficient to reassure potential mothers of their financial concerns. What is required is a more balanced resource allocation between production and reproduction. The old welfare type hand-outs like child bonuses do not work. Societies, particularly the rich, ought to realize that to raise fertility, even to generational replacement level, not only is a much greater financial effort called for but some of the tenants of the liberal economy need to be put into question to make room for social concerns such a renewal of generations, if they want to survive as national entities. This essay advocates a stationary population as the best response to challenges such as ecological health, national identity and cohesion, and possibly world peace.

  2. CopperCore Service Integration, Integrating IMS Learning Design and IMS Question and Test Interoperability

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vogten, Hubert; Martens, Harrie; Nadolski, Rob; Tattersall, Colin; Van Rosmalen, Peter; Koper, Rob

    2006-01-01

    Vogten, H., Martens, H., Nadolski, R., Tattersall, C., Rosmalen, van, P., Koper, R., (2006). CopperCore Service Integration, Integrating IMS Learning Design and IMS Question and Test Interoperability. Proceedings of the 6th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (pp.

  3. Reading and Theorizing James Baldwin: A Bibliographic Essay

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Conseula Francis

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Readers and critics alike, for the past sixty years, generally agree that Baldwin is a major African-American writer. What they do not agree on is why. Because of his artistic and intellectual complexity, Baldwin’s work resists easy categorization and Baldwin scholarship, consequently, spans the critical horizon. This essay provides an overview of the three major periods of Baldwin scholarship. 1963–73 is a period that begins with the publication of The Fire Next Time and sees Baldwin grace the cover of Time magazine. This period ends with Time declaring Baldwin too passé to publish an interview with him and with critics questioning his relevance. The second period, 1974–87, finds critics attempting to rehabilitate Baldwin’s reputation and work, especially as scholars begin to codify the African-American literary canon in anthologies and American universities. Finally, scholarship in the period after Baldwin’s death takes the opportunity to challenge common assumptions and silences surrounding Baldwin’s work. Armed with the methodologies of cultural studies and the critical insights of queer theory, critics set the stage for the current Baldwin renaissance.

  4. Essays in renewable energy and emissions trading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kneifel, Joshua D.

    Environmental issues have become a key political issue over the past forty years and has resulted in the enactment of many different environmental policies. The three essays in this dissertation add to the literature of renewable energy policies and sulfur dioxide emissions trading. The first essay ascertains which state policies are accelerating deployment of non-hydropower renewable electricity generation capacity into a states electric power industry. As would be expected, policies that lead to significant increases in actual renewable capacity in that state either set a Renewables Portfolio Standard with a certain level of required renewable capacity or use Clean Energy Funds to directly fund utility-scale renewable capacity construction. A surprising result is that Required Green Power Options, a policy that merely requires all utilities in a state to offer the option for consumers to purchase renewable energy at a premium rate, has a sizable impact on non-hydro renewable capacity in that state. The second essay studies the theoretical impacts fuel contract constraints have on an electricity generating unit's compliance costs of meeting the emissions compliance restrictions set by Phase I of the Title IV SO2 Emissions Trading Program. Fuel contract constraints restrict a utility's degrees of freedom in coal purchasing options, which can lead to the use of a more expensive compliance option and higher compliance costs. The third essay analytically and empirically shows how fuel contract constraints impact the emissions allowance market and total electric power industry compliance costs. This paper uses generating unit-level simulations to replicate results from previous studies and show that fuel contracts appear to explain a large portion (65%) of the previously unexplained compliance cost simulations. Also, my study considers a more appropriate plant-level decisions for compliance choices by analytically analyzing the plant level decision-making process to

  5. Academic Essay Writing as Imitative Problem Solving: Examples from Distance Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robertson, Sydney Ian

    2014-01-01

    Students in tertiary education are often faced with the prospect of writing an essay on a topic they know nothing about in advance. In distance learning institutions, essays are a common method of assessment in the UK, and specified course texts remain the main sources of information the students have. How do students use a source text to…

  6. Metadiscourse in persuasive essays by elementary students in South Korea and the US

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kim Il-Hee

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available This study investigated metadiscourse in the persuasive essays of fourth graders from both urban and rural communities: 224 students in South Korea and 188 in the US. Each student was asked to write a persuasive essay in his or her native Korean or English in response to a story not previously read or discussed. Analysis with a taxonomy developed by Hyland (2004 indicated significant differences in the metadiscourse by country. In terms of interactive metadiscourse, South Korean students used more sentence-level transitions than U.S. students, who used more frame markers and endophoric markers. With regard to interactional metadiscourse, U.S. students used more hedges, boosters, engagement markers, and self-mentions in their essays. This study also compared the students′ essays by the type of community in which the writers lived. In the US the essays of students in rural communities contained more hedges, whereas those of students in urban areas included significantly more self-mentions. In South Korea, no significant difference was detected in the metadiscourse of students living in rural and urban areas.

  7. Cosmopolitanism and peace in Kant's essay on 'Perpetual Peace'

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Huggler, Jørgen

    2010-01-01

    Immanuel Kant's essay on Perpetual Peace (1795/96) contains a rejection of the idea of a world government (earlier advocated by Kant himself). In connexion with a substantial argument for cosmopolitan rights based on the human body and its need for a space on the surface of the Earth, Kant presents...... the most rigorous philosophical formulation ever given of the limitations of the cosmopolitan law. In this contribution, Kant's essay is analysed and the reasons he gives for these restrictions discussed in relation to his main focus: to project a realistic path to perpetual peace....

  8. Reflections on Doctoral Education in Chemistry. Carnegie Essays on the Doctorate: Chemistry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kwiram, Alvin L.

    The Carnegie Foundation commissioned a collection of essays as part of the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID). Essays and essayists represent six disciplines that are part of the CID: chemistry, education, English, history, mathematics, and neuroscience. Intended to engender conversation about the conceptual foundation of doctoral…

  9. Drafting and acting on feedback supports student learning when writing essay assignments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Freestone, Nicholas

    2009-06-01

    A diverse student population is a relatively recent feature of the higher education system in the United Kingdom. Consequently, it may be thought that more "traditional" types of assessment based around essay writing skills for science undergraduates may be of decreasing value and relevance to contemporary students. This article describes a study in which the process of feedback on, and associated redrafting of, an essay was closely supervised to improve essay writing skills and subsequent exam performance. The results of this study show that students can significantly improve their learning and academic performance, as assessed by final examination mark, by a process that more closely mimics a "real-world" situation of review and redrafting. Additionally, the data show that students benefit from feedback only when this is used appropriately by the student. The article also discusses the continuing importance and relevance of essay writing skills so that writing, and acting upon feedback to do with that writing, remains an integral part of the process of learning.

  10. Essays on alternative energy policies affecting the US transportation sector

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Rear, Eric G.

    This dissertation encompasses three essays evaluating the impacts of different policies targeting the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, fuel demands, etc. of the transportation sector. Though there are some similarities across the three chapters, each essay stands alone as an independent work. The 2010 US EPA MARKAL model is used in each essay to evaluate policy effects. Essay 1 focuses on the recent increases in Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, and the implications of a "rebound effect." These increases are compared to a carbon tax generating similar reductions in system-wide emissions. As anticipated, the largest reductions in fuel use by light-duty vehicles (LDV) and emissions are achieved under CAFE. Consideration of the rebound effect does little to distort CAFE benefits. Our work validates many economists' belief that a carbon tax is a more efficient approach. However, because the tax takes advantage of cheaper abatement opportunities in other sectors, reductions in transportation emissions will be much lower than what we observe with CAFE. Essay 2 compares CAFE increases with what some economists suggest would be a much more "efficient" alternative -- a system-wide oil tax internalizing some environmental externalities. Because oil taxes are likely to be implemented in addition to CAFE standards, we consider a combined policy case reflecting this. Our supplementary analysis approximates the appropriate tax rates to produce similar reductions in oil demands as CAFE (CAFE-equivalent tax rates). We discover that taxes result in greater and more cost-effective reductions in system-wide emissions and net oil imports than CAFE. The current fuel tax system is compared to three versions of a national vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax charged to all LDVs in Essay 3. VMT taxes directly charge motorists for each mile driven and help to correct the problem of eroding tax revenues given the failure of today's fuel taxes to adjust with inflation. Results

  11. Assessing the use of multiple sources in student essays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hastings, Peter; Hughes, Simon; Magliano, Joseph P; Goldman, Susan R; Lawless, Kimberly

    2012-09-01

    The present study explored different approaches for automatically scoring student essays that were written on the basis of multiple texts. Specifically, these approaches were developed to classify whether or not important elements of the texts were present in the essays. The first was a simple pattern-matching approach called "multi-word" that allowed for flexible matching of words and phrases in the sentences. The second technique was latent semantic analysis (LSA), which was used to compare student sentences to original source sentences using its high-dimensional vector-based representation. Finally, the third was a machine-learning technique, support vector machines, which learned a classification scheme from the corpus. The results of the study suggested that the LSA-based system was superior for detecting the presence of explicit content from the texts, but the multi-word pattern-matching approach was better for detecting inferences outside or across texts. These results suggest that the best approach for analyzing essays of this nature should draw upon multiple natural language processing approaches.

  12. Computer-Automated Approach for Scoring Short Essays in an Introductory Statistics Course

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zimmerman, Whitney Alicia; Kang, Hyun Bin; Kim, Kyung; Gao, Mengzhao; Johnson, Glenn; Clariana, Roy; Zhang, Fan

    2018-01-01

    Over two semesters short essay prompts were developed for use with the Graphical Interface for Knowledge Structure (GIKS), an automated essay scoring system. Participants were students in an undergraduate-level online introductory statistics course. The GIKS compares students' writing samples with an expert's to produce keyword occurrence and…

  13. Six factors of adult dyslexia assesed by cognitive tests and self-report questions: Very high predictive validity

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Tamboer, P.; Vorst, H.C.M.; de Jong, P.F.

    2017-01-01

    The Multiple Diagnostic Digital Dyslexia Test for Adults (MDDDT-A) consists of 12 newly developed tests and self-report questions in the Dutch language. Predictive validity and construct validity were investigated and compared with validity of a standard test battery of dyslexia (STB) in a sample of

  14. Difficult Questions and Ambivalent Answers on Genetic Testing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andréa Wiszmeg

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available A qualitative pilot study on the attitudes of some citizens in southern Sweden toward predictive genetic testing – and a quantitative nation wide opinion poll targeting the same issues, was initiated by the Cultural Scientific Research Team of BAGADILICO. The latter is an international biomedical research environment on neurological disease at Lund University. The data of the two studies crystallized through analysis into themes around which the informants’ personal negotiations of opinions and emotions in relation to the topic centred: Concept of Risk,‘Relations and Moral Multi-layers, Worry, Agency and Autonomy, Authority, and Rationality versus Emotion. The studies indicate that even groups of people that beforehand are non-engaged in the issue, harbour complex and ambivalent emotions and opinions toward questions like this. A certain kind of situation bound pragmatism that with difficulty could be shown by quantitative methods alone emerges. This confirms our belief that methodological consideration of combining quantitative and qualitative methods is crucial for gaining a more complex representation of attitudes, as well as for problematizing the idea of a unified public open to inquiry.

  15. Essays on forecasting stationary and nonstationary economic time series

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bachmeier, Lance Joseph

    This dissertation consists of three essays. Chapter II considers the question of whether M2 growth can be used to forecast inflation at horizons of up to ten years. A vector error correction (VEC) model serves as our benchmark model. We find that M2 growth does have marginal predictive content for inflation at horizons of more than two years, but only when allowing for cointegration and when the cointegrating rank and vector are specified a priori. When estimating the cointegration vector or failing to impose cointegration, there is no longer evidence of causality running from M2 growth to inflation at any forecast horizon. Finally, we present evidence that M2 needs to be redefined, as forecasts of the VEC model using data on M2 observed after 1993 are worse than the forecasts of an autoregressive model of inflation. Chapter III reconsiders the evidence for a "rockets and feathers" effect in gasoline markets. We estimate an error correction model of gasoline prices using daily data for the period 1985--1998 and fail to find any evidence of asymmetry. We show that previous work suffered from two problems. First, nonstationarity in some of the regressors was ignored, leading to invalid inference. Second, the weekly data used in previous work leads to a temporal aggregation problem, and thus biased estimates of impulse response functions. Chapter IV tests for a forecasting relationship between the volume of litigation and macroeconomic variables. We analyze annual data for the period 1960--2000 on the number of cases filed, real GDP, real consumption expenditures, inflation, unemployment, and interest rates. Bivariate Granger causality tests show that several of the macroeconomic variables can be used to forecast the volume of litigation, but show no evidence that the volume of litigation can be used to forecast any of the macroeconomic variables. The analysis is then extended to bivariate and multivariate regression models, and we find similar evidence to that of the

  16. Essays on Crowdfunding: Exploring the Funding and Post-Funding Phases and Outcomes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fan-Osuala, Onochie

    2017-01-01

    In the recent years, crowdfunding (a phenomenon where individuals collectively contribute money to back different goals and projects through the internet) has been gaining a lot of attention especially for its socio-economic impact. This dissertation explores this phenomenon in three distinct but related essays. The first essay explores the nature…

  17. Sexual Essays

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Giles, James

    Through a series of interrelated essays, this book explores fundamental issues concerning gender, sexual and romantic attraction, sexual desire and fantasies, the sexual positions, age dysphoria, and the role of naked skin in human sexuality. It does so by exploring experiential, social, biological...... on sex. It is further argued that sexual desire is an existential need based on the experience of having a gendered body. A case study of age dysphoria is presented showing how the conclusions concerning concerning gender and desire apply in an atypical case. The body's fundamental role in sexuality......, and evolutionary aspects of sexual life. The author criticizes several popular views, rejecting both social constructionist accounts of gender and social constructionist and biological accounts of sexual desire. It is argued instead that gender roles and gender are often confused and that gender itself is based...

  18. Creating a Database for Test Items in National Examinations (pp ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Nekky Umera

    different programmers create files and application programs over a long period. .... In theory or essay questions, alternative methods of solving problems are explored and ... Unworthy items are those that do not focus on the central concept or.

  19. Space, Time, Matter, and Form Essays on Aristotle's Physics

    CERN Document Server

    Bostock, David

    2006-01-01

    Space, Time, Matter, and Form collects ten of David Bostock's essays on themes from Aristotle's Physics, four of them published here for the first time. The first five papers look at issues raised in the first two books of the Physics, centred on notions of matter and form, and the idea of substance as what persists through change. They also range over other of Aristotle's scientific works, such as his biology and psychology and the account of change in his De Generatione et Corruptione. The volume's remaining essays examine themes in later books of the Physics, including infinity, place, time

  20. Essays in general relativity a Festschrift for Abraham Taub

    CERN Document Server

    Tipler, Frank J

    1981-01-01

    Essays in General Relativity: A Festschrift for Abraham Taub is collection of essays to honor Professor Abraham H. Taub on the occasion of his retirement from the mathematics faculty of the University of California at Berkeley. Relativistic hydrodynamics has always been a subject dear to Taub's heart. In fact, many basic results on special relativistic fluid flows are due to him, and he has been a major contributor to the study of fluid flows near shocks. The book contains 16 chapters and begins with a discussion of a geometrical approach to general relativity. This is followed by separate cha

  1. Three essays in risky behaviors

    OpenAIRE

    Sampaio, Mafalda

    2012-01-01

    A PhD Dissertation, presented as part of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the NOVA - School of Business and Economics This dissertation consists of three essays on the relationship between risky behaviors and social environment, including the strategic construction of conversational networks to discuss HIV related issues, the impact of social stigma on risky behaviors, and how subjective expectations from parents can influence childhood obesity. Underst...

  2. Essays on parametric and nonparametric modeling and estimation with applications to energy economics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Weiyu

    My dissertation research is composed of two parts: a theoretical part on semiparametric efficient estimation and an applied part in energy economics under different dynamic settings. The essays are related in terms of their applications as well as the way in which models are constructed and estimated. In the first essay, efficient estimation of the partially linear model is studied. We work out the efficient score functions and efficiency bounds under four stochastic restrictions---independence, conditional symmetry, conditional zero mean, and partially conditional zero mean. A feasible efficient estimation method for the linear part of the model is developed based on the efficient score. A battery of specification test that allows for choosing between the alternative assumptions is provided. A Monte Carlo simulation is also conducted. The second essay presents a dynamic optimization model for a stylized oilfield resembling the largest developed light oil field in Saudi Arabia, Ghawar. We use data from different sources to estimate the oil production cost function and the revenue function. We pay particular attention to the dynamic aspect of the oil production by employing petroleum-engineering software to simulate the interaction between control variables and reservoir state variables. Optimal solutions are studied under different scenarios to account for the possible changes in the exogenous variables and the uncertainty about the forecasts. The third essay examines the effect of oil price volatility on the level of innovation displayed by the U.S. economy. A measure of innovation is calculated by decomposing an output-based Malmquist index. We also construct a nonparametric measure for oil price volatility. Technical change and oil price volatility are then placed in a VAR system with oil price and a variable indicative of monetary policy. The system is estimated and analyzed for significant relationships. We find that oil price volatility displays a significant

  3. A Strategy for Detection of Inconsistency in Evaluation of Essay Type Answers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shukla, Archana; Chaudhary, Banshi D.

    2014-01-01

    The quality of evaluation of essay type answer books involving multiple evaluators for courses with large number of enrollments is likely to be affected due to heterogeneity in experience, expertise and maturity of evaluators. In this paper, we present a strategy to detect anomalies in evaluation of essay type answers by multiple evaluators based…

  4. An Analysis of the Language of Attribution in University Students' Academic Essays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jabulani, Sibanda

    2014-01-01

    The study reports on challenges related to the use of the language of attribution in academic essay writing by Post-Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) students at Rhodes University, as a microcosm of similar challenges faced by university students elsewhere. The study content-analysed 150 essays written by 50 PGCE students taking the course…

  5. Relations between scripted online peer feedback processes and quality of written argumentative essay

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Noroozi, Omid; Biemans, Harm; Mulder, Martin

    2016-01-01

    Teachers often complain about the quality of students' written essays in higher education. This study explores the relations between scripted online peer feedback processes and quality of written argumentative essay as they occur in an authentic learning situation with direct practical relevance.

  6. The Relationship of Deep and Surface Study Approaches on Factual and Applied Test-Bank Multiple-Choice Question Performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yonker, Julie E.

    2011-01-01

    With the advent of online test banks and large introductory classes, instructors have often turned to textbook publisher-generated multiple-choice question (MCQ) exams in their courses. Multiple-choice questions are often divided into categories of factual or applied, thereby implicating levels of cognitive processing. This investigation examined…

  7. The Effects of Browse Time on the Internet on Students' Essay Scores

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doan, Kim; Bloomfield, Aaron

    2014-01-01

    This study examined how 30 minutes of search time on the Web affected students' essay scores in response to a writing prompt. Expository essays were obtained from 49 fourth- and fifth-grade students enrolled in an elementary school in Virginia, in the United States. Students were placed by random assignment into three groups with the same writing…

  8. Integrating IMS Learning Design and IMS Question and Test Interoperability using CopperCore Service Integration

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vogten, Hubert; Martens, Harrie; Nadolski, Rob; Tattersall, Colin; Van Rosmalen, Peter; Koper, Rob

    2006-01-01

    Please, cite this publication as: Vogten, H., Martens, H., Nadolski, R., Tattersall, C., van Rosmalen, P., & Koper, R. (2006). Integrating IMS Learning Design and IMS Question and Test Interoperability using CopperCore Service Integration. Proceedings of International Workshop in Learning Networks

  9. Essays in Empirical Asset Pricing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rzeznik, Aleksandra

    This thesis consists of three essays investigating financial and real estate markets and identifying a relationship between them. A 2008 financial crises provides a perfect example of sizeable interactions between US housing market and equity prices, where a negative shock to house prices trigger...... a word-wide recession. Therefore, understanding forces driving investors behaviour and preferences, which in turn affect asset prices in both equity and housing market are of great interest....

  10. How to improve nuclear security worldwide: Three young women win IAEA essay contest

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Jeremy

    2016-01-01

    Three essays that provided actionable and innovative recommendations to strengthen nuclear security through stronger border controls, closer international cooperation and public education won the IAEA’s first ever nuclear security essay contest. In preparation for the International Conference on Nuclear Security: Commitments and Actions, the IAEA invited students and young professionals to submit essays focusing on challenges and recommendations to strengthen nuclear security. A panel of experts from the IAEA and the International Nuclear Security Education Network selected three winners from among the 353 submissions received. The winners will present their papers at the conference, taking place in Vienna in December 2016

  11. How to improve nuclear security worldwide: Three young women win IAEA essay contest

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Jeremy

    2016-01-01

    Three essays that provided actionable and innovative recommendations to strengthen nuclear security through stronger border controls, closer international cooperation and public education won the IAEA’s first ever nuclear security essay contest. In preparation for the International Conference on Nuclear Security: Commitments and Actions, the IAEA invited students and young professionals to submit essays focusing on challenges and recommendations to strengthen nuclear security. A panel of experts from the IAEA and the International Nuclear Security Education Network selected three winners from among the 353 submissions received. The winners will present their papers at the conference, taking place in Vienna in December 2016.

  12. Proposing a Wiki-Based Technique for Collaborative Essay Writing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mabel Ortiz Navarrete

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims at proposing a technique for students learning English as a foreign language when they collaboratively write an argumentative essay in a wiki environment. A wiki environment and collaborative work play an important role within the academic writing task. Nevertheless, an appropriate and systematic work assignment is required in order to make use of both. In this paper the proposed technique when writing a collaborative essay mainly attempts to provide the most effective way to enhance equal participation among group members by taking as a base computer mediated collaboration. Within this context, the students’ role is clearly defined and individual and collaborative tasks are explained.

  13. Essays on oil and the macroeconomy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Melolinna, M.

    2012-07-01

    This dissertation studies the effects of crude oil on the macroeconomy using a vector autoregression (VAR) modelling framework. In particular, the importance of identifying different types of oil shocks is explored for both small and large open economies. A VAR model is also used to study the information content of oil futures contracts. The dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay of the dissertation introduces a methodology for identifying oil supply shocks in a small open economy. Financial market information is used to construct an identification scheme that forces the response to an oil shock of the VAR model to be the same as that implied by futures markets. Due to the identification scheme, the model is only partially identified, and confidence intervals for impulse responses are calculated by using a bootstrapping procedure. The methodology is applied in illustrative examples to two small open economies in a VAR model that includes key domestic and international macroeconomic variables. The results suggest that while oil supply shocks have had an effect on domestic inflation during recent past, the effect on domestic GDP is ambiguous. The second essay of the dissertation studies the existence of risk premiums in crude oil futures prices with simple ordinary least squares regression and Bayesian VAR models. It also studies the importance of three main theoretical risk premium models in explaining and forecasting the risk premiums in practice. Whilst the existence of the premiums and the validity of the models can be established at certain time points, it turns out that the choice of sample period has a considerable effect on the results. Hence, the risk premiums are highly time-varying. The study also establishes a model, based on speculative positions in the futures markets, which has some predictive power for future oil spot prices. The third essay of the dissertation explores oil market and other macroeconomic shocks in a structural VAR

  14. The Mathematics Doctorate: A Time for Change? Carnegie Essays on the Doctorate: Mathematics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, Tony F.

    The Carnegie Foundation commissioned a collection of essays as part of the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID). Essays and essayists represent six disciplines that are part of the CID: chemistry, education, English, history, mathematics, and neuroscience. Intended to engender conversation about the conceptual foundation of doctoral…

  15. Essays on household time allocation decisions in a collective household model

    OpenAIRE

    Silvennoinen, Heidi

    2008-01-01

    This thesis considers the consequences of traditional division of labour in households in a setting where spouses are allowed to have distinct preferences. This approach leads to different results compared to the traditional unitary approach and is better equipped to take into consideration gender related issues of household decision making. The thesis consists of three theoretical essays where the household production theory is applied in the collective household model. The first essay ...

  16. Biotechnology essay competition: biotechnology and sustainable food practices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peng, Judy; Schoeb, Helena; Lee, Gina

    2013-06-01

    Biotechnology Journal announces our second biotechnology essay competition with the theme "biotechnology and sustainable food practices", open to all undergraduate students. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  17. Solving the Students’ Problems in Writing Argumentative Essay Through the Provision of Planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lestari Setyowati

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Most Indonesian students who are learning English often consider writing as not only the most difficult skill to master, but also a demanding activity. To help them cope these problems, the application of planning in the writing process seems to be a solution. This study attempts to find out howdifferent planning formats can improve EFL students’ writing performance in argumentative essays. The subjects of the studywere the fourth semester students taking essay writing class. The research was conducted from May to June 2015, consisting of three cycles in Classroom Action Research design by using different planning types, namely rough drafting and outlining strategy in which each cycle consisted of two meetings.The students’ compositions were measured by using primary trait scoring rubric for argumentative essay. The result of the study shows that the provision of planning is effective to improve the students’ performance in writing argumentative essay. The effectiveness of different types planningdepends on the students’ preference of which to use.

  18. Educational testing, the question of the public good, and room for inclusion

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ydesen, Christian; Au, Wayne

    2018-01-01

    Testing is a technological tool best addressed from within society at large, along with attendant questions of power, education access, education management, and social selection, rather than as an object to be treated in isolation. It has been argued that modern societies, in keeping...... of the two case countries, their political priorities differ. Scotland is oriented towards traditional social democratic welfare state values, arguing its links and commonalities with the Scandinavian and Baltic states. The United States, on the other hand, has largely embraced the neoliberal economic...

  19. Incorporating Learning Characteristics into Automatic Essay Scoring Models: What Individual Differences and Linguistic Features Tell Us about Writing Quality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crossley, Scott A.; Allen, Laura K.; Snow, Erica L.; McNamara, Danielle S.

    2016-01-01

    This study investigates a novel approach to automatically assessing essay quality that combines natural language processing approaches that assess text features with approaches that assess individual differences in writers such as demographic information, standardized test scores, and survey results. The results demonstrate that combining text…

  20. Essays in empirical finance and monetary policy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Holle, Frederiek

    2017-01-01

    This dissertation consists of three essays. In the first paper, “Stock-Bond Correlations, Macroeconomic Regimes and Monetary Policy”, we link the evolution of stock-bond correlations for an international sample to both local and global regimes in inflation, the output gap and monetary policy. We

  1. Essays on Entrepreneurship and Innovation

    OpenAIRE

    Queiro, Francisco

    2015-01-01

    These essays investigate the role of entrepreneurial human capital as a driver of innovation and growth. In the first chapter, I estimate the effect of manager education on firm employment growth using administrative panel data on the universe of firms in Portugal between 1995 and 2009. I exploit manager changes and switches between management and other occupations to account for unobserved firm and manager characteristics as well as selection into management. I find that a year of manager sc...

  2. Five essays in property valuation

    OpenAIRE

    Yang, Zan

    2000-01-01

    This doctoral thesis consists of five self-contained essayspresented to the Faculty Board of the Royal Institute ofTechnology. Property valuation is a central issue that forms acommon thread in the analysis in these essays. In the thesisproperty is considered in a mixed asset context in an attemptto build a bridge between valuation, property investment andfinancial theory. The object of the thesis is to value propertyfor finance, sales and purchases and investment. Theinvestigation of the the...

  3. Essays on mergers and acquisitions

    OpenAIRE

    Faelten, A.I.

    2016-01-01

    Essays on Mergers and Acquisitions" tackles some of the most prominent business challenges related to M&A activity. The Introduction examines the reasons why deals fail through well-known case studies; Chapter 1 presents a new index measuring countries M&A maturity worldwide; Chapter 2 focus on the importance of corporate governance when conducting deals in unknown territories; whilst Chapter 3 and 4 conduct research on companies’ decision to tap capital markets and their subsequent M&A acti...

  4. Essays in real-time forecasting

    OpenAIRE

    Liebermann, Joelle

    2012-01-01

    This thesis contains three essays in the field of real-time econometrics, and more particularlyforecasting.The issue of using data as available in real-time to forecasters, policymakers or financialmarkets is an important one which has only recently been taken on board in the empiricalliterature. Data available and used in real-time are preliminary and differ from ex-postrevised data, and given that data revisions may be quite substantial, the use of latestavailable instead of real-time can s...

  5. Enhancing Content Knowledge in Essay Writing Classes: A Multimedia Package for Iranian EFL Learners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marziyeh Tahmouresi Majelan

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available The main objective of this study was to investigate empirically if promoting a multimedia package enhances content knowledge in essay writing of 80 junior English translation students at a University in Karaj, Iran; plus, whether the learners’ writing content improve due to the presence of the multimedia package or not. The multimedia was considered to be a CD, containing recordings both in first language (L1=Farsi and in second language (L2=English along with manipulative and task-based activities. A homogenizing test, the pre-posttests, and the material in a form of a CD (treatment including forty of the most common TOEFL essays both in L1 and L2 plus manipulative tasks to fulfill provided by the researcher, were the instruments in the study.  After 14 weeks, both the experimental and control groups sat for the posttest with exactly the same characteristics of pretest except for the topics. When the collected data was analyzed, a mean difference of t-test along with a paired t-test showed a significant difference between the performance of the control and the experimental groups, regarding the content. Consequently, the statistics proved that enhancing content knowledge by means of a multimedia package containing recordings plus manipulative and task-based activities would improve students’ writing ability while the control group in which a current traditional rhetoric approach was used, the placebo, did not show any statistically significant improvement regarding content.

  6. Automated Essay Grading using Machine Learning Algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramalingam, V. V.; Pandian, A.; Chetry, Prateek; Nigam, Himanshu

    2018-04-01

    Essays are paramount for of assessing the academic excellence along with linking the different ideas with the ability to recall but are notably time consuming when they are assessed manually. Manual grading takes significant amount of evaluator’s time and hence it is an expensive process. Automated grading if proven effective will not only reduce the time for assessment but comparing it with human scores will also make the score realistic. The project aims to develop an automated essay assessment system by use of machine learning techniques by classifying a corpus of textual entities into small number of discrete categories, corresponding to possible grades. Linear regression technique will be utilized for training the model along with making the use of various other classifications and clustering techniques. We intend to train classifiers on the training set, make it go through the downloaded dataset, and then measure performance our dataset by comparing the obtained values with the dataset values. We have implemented our model using java.

  7. Non-Destructive Testing: Sample Questions for Conduct of Examinations at Levels 1 and 2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2010-01-01

    The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supports industrial applications of radiation technology which include non-destructive testing (NDT) under its various programmes such as individual country Technical Co-operation (TC) projects, Regional Projects and Coordinated Research Projects (CRPs). NDT technology is essentially needed for the improvement of the quality of industrial products, equipment and plants all over the world, especially in developing Member States. Trained and certified personnel is one of the essential requirements for applying this technology in industry. With this in view, the IAEA first played an important role in cooperation with the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) for the development of a standard for training and certification of NDT personnel, namely ISO 9712, 'Non-Destructive Testing: Qualification and Certification of Personnel'. Subsequently the syllabi and needed training materials were identified and developed for the creation of, in each of the Member States, a core group of personnel who are trained and qualified to establish the training and certification process in their respective countries. One of the important requirements for such a process is to have the examination questions for conducting the certification examinations. A need had been felt to compile the appropriate questions firstly for conducting these examinations at the national and regional levels and secondly to provide these to the certification bodies of the Member States so that they could initiate their own level 1 and 2 certification examinations. For this purpose, Experts' Task Force Meetings were convened first in Accra, Ghana and then in Vienna, Austria under the AFRA regional projects on NDT. The experts examined and discussed in detail the ISO 9712 (1999 and 2005 versions) requirements for general, specific and practical examinations for level 1 and 2 personnel. After that a set of questions has been established which are

  8. Essays on electricity transmission investment and financial transmission rights

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shang, Wenzhuo

    The U.S. electric power industry has been going through fundamental restructuring and realignment since the 1990's. Many issues and problems have emerged during the transition, and both economists and engineers have been looking for the solutions fervently. In this dissertation, which consists primarily of three essays, we apply economics theory and techniques to the power industry and address two related issues, transmission investment and financial transmission rights (FTRs). The first essay takes the decentralized perspective and investigates the efficiency attribute of market-based transmission investment under perfect competition. We clarify, for the first time, the nature of the externality created by loop flows that causes transmission investment to be inefficient. Our findings have important implications for better understanding of transmission market design and creating incentives for efficient transmission investment. In the second essay, we define several rules for allocating transmission investment cost within the framework of cooperative game theory. These rules provide fair, stable or efficient cost allocations in theory and are good benchmarks against which the allocation mechanism in practice can be compared and improved upon. In the last essay, we make exploratory efforts in analyzing and assessing empirically the performance of the Midwest independent system operator (MISO) FTR auction market. We reveal some stylized facts about this young market and find that it is not efficient under the risk-neutrality assumption. We also point out and correct the drawbacks in previous related work and suggest about more complete empirical work in future. In all, this dissertation makes both theoretic and empirical analysis of the two hot issues related to the power industry and comes up with findings that have important implications for the development of this industry.

  9. Equal Opportunity in the Classroom: Test Construction in a Diversity-Sensitive Environment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghorpade, Jai; Lackritz, James R.

    1998-01-01

    Two multiple-choice tests and one essay test were taken by 231 students (50/50 male/female, 192 White, 39 East Asian, Black, Mexican American, or Middle Eastern). Multiple-choice tests showed no significant differences in equal employment opportunity terms; women and men scored about the same on essays, but minority students had significantly…

  10. Topical Structure in Argumentative Essays of EFL Learners and Implications for Writing Classes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kiliç, Mehmet; Genç, Bilal; Bada, Erdogan

    2016-01-01

    The literature on the topical organization of essays suggests that there are four possible types of progression from the topic of one clause to the topics of the following clauses. These are parallel, sequential, extended parallel, and extended sequential progressions. Essay writers' ability to create cohesion and coherence can be evaluated on the…

  11. Bioremediation of polluted wasewaterwater influent: phiosphorus and nitrogen removal. Scientific Research and Essays

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Muchie, Mammo; Akpor, OB

    2010-01-01

    Akpor OB and Muchie M. (2010). Bioremediation of polluted wasewaterwater influent: phiosphorus and nitrogen removal. Scientific Research and Essays, Vol. 5(21), pp. 3222–3230......Akpor OB and Muchie M. (2010). Bioremediation of polluted wasewaterwater influent: phiosphorus and nitrogen removal. Scientific Research and Essays, Vol. 5(21), pp. 3222–3230...

  12. Three essays on the links between agriculture and energy policies in the U.S

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whistance, Jarrett

    The first essay develops and applies a structural, partial equilibrium model of United States biomass supply and demand. The aim is to examine the biomass price and expenditure effects of domestic biofuel policies. The results indicate that the cellulosic biofuel sub-mandate alone could increase biomass prices by an average of 50% to 100% over the baseline values. Biomass expenditures by sectors competing with biofuel producers increase by an average of 26% relative to the baseline suggesting those sectors cannot fully shift away from biomass energy sources. A sensitivity analysis focusing on supply response indicates that the results are not very sensitive to the supply elasticity. This study contributes to the literature by providing policymakers and other energy policy stakeholders with a forward looking analysis of potential policy effects on the U.S. biomass market. The second essay develops a similar type of model applied toward the domestic and international petroleum and petroleum products markets as well as the domestic biofuel market and the domestic light-duty vehicle sector. The goal is to investigate the impact of CAFE standards and alternative-fuel vehicle production incentives on the biofuel market and RFS compliance, in particular. The results suggest that holding CAFE standards at the 2010 level could significantly reduce the blendwall problem in the U.S. ethanol market. Furthermore, the alternative fuel production incentives appear to have only minimal effects. However, there is much uncertainty surrounding the appropriate level of automaker response to those incentives, and a sensitivity analysis indicates the model is fairly sensitive to the assumed level of response. The third essay highlights a few of the theories put forth regarding the expected price behavior of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs). The theories are tested both observationally and empirically with a dataset containing daily RIN price observations going back to January

  13. A Pilot Intervention to Improve the Structural Quality of Exam Essay Writing in UK Undergraduate Psychology Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Connelly, Vincent; Dockrell, Julie E.; Barnett, Jo

    2006-01-01

    Psychology undergraduates need to produce good quality essays in order to succeed at university. Students find the transition to university writing difficult. Using a rubric, a profile of student weakness in psychology essay writing was described. The students were generally poor at the structural organisation of their essays. A pilot intervention…

  14. Re-Theorizing the Role of Creative Writing in Composition Studies: Cautionary Notes towards Re-Thinking the Essay in the Teaching of Writing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Julier, Laura

    An essay, often called a personal essay, familiar essay, lyric essay, the disjunctive or spiral essay, is a piece of writing which takes its form in the shifts and turns of a particular mind at work. The essay is a piece of writing which pays attention to and sometimes plays with form; often uses images and figures that are familiar with poetry;…

  15. Art and Pornography: Philosophical Essays

    OpenAIRE

    2012-01-01

    Art and Pornography presents a series of essays\\ud which investigate the artistic status and aesthetic\\ud dimension of pornographic pictures, films, and\\ud literature, and explores the distinction, if there is\\ud any, between pornography and erotic art. Is there\\ud any overlap between art and pornography, or are\\ud the two mutually exclusive? If they are, why is\\ud that? If they are not, how might we characterize\\ud pornographic art or artistic pornography, and how\\ud might pornographic art b...

  16. Can Style Be Creative? An Exploratory Essay

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clinton, Gregory

    2016-01-01

    This essay explores the nature of creativity of the practicing professional through the examination of the role of personal style in creative work, as well as how personality can affect and sustain creativity. Instructional designers, as practicing creatives, must balance the divergent and novel with the restraints of clients, projects, and…

  17. Automated Assessment of Non-Native Learner Essays: Investigating the Role of Linguistic Features

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vajjala, Sowmya

    2018-01-01

    Automatic essay scoring (AES) refers to the process of scoring free text responses to given prompts, considering human grader scores as the gold standard. Writing such essays is an essential component of many language and aptitude exams. Hence, AES became an active and established area of research, and there are many proprietary systems used in…

  18. Asking Bigger Questions: An Invitation to Further Conversation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stephen Bloch-Schulman

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available In this essay, the editors and contributors to this special section on SoTL in the Arts and Humanities argue that given the current climate and context, debates within SoTL about appropriate methodology both lead scholars from their disciplines to reject SoTL and also, more importantly, distract us from more significant questions and challenges. If, instead, SoTL would embrace not only its diversity but also its political potential, then we, as a scholarly community, would be in a position to do more than merely improve students’ learning in our own classrooms. We could help to transform higher education. To achieve that, we need a broader conversation and a wider range of studies. We also need to be mindful of and engaged with the political, economic, and ideological forces that are shaping our institutions, our work, and our students’ expectations.

  19. The Wireless Craze, The Unlimited Bandwidth Myth, The Spectrum Auction Faux Pas, and the Punchline to Ronald Coase's 'Big Joke': An Essay on Airwave Allocation Policy

    OpenAIRE

    Hazlett, Thomas W.

    2001-01-01

    In 1959 the Federal Communications Commission invited economist Ronald Coase to testify about his proposal for market allocation of radio spectrum rights. The FCC's first question: 'Is this all a big joke'' Today, however, leading policy makers, including the current FCC Chair, decry the 'spectrum drought' produced by administrative allocation and call for the creation of private bandwidth markets. This essay examines marketplace trends driving regulators' change of humor, and considers the p...

  20. Application of the PEE Model to essay composition in an IELTS preparation class

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ender Orlando Velasco Tovar

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Based on two case studies, this study investigates the application of the Point, Explanation, Example (PEE model to essay composition in a multi-lingual IELTS preparation class. This model was incorporated into an eight-week programme of instruction to ESL adults in London, England. Students preparing for the IELTS exam were asked to write pre and post instruction essays on a given topic within 40 minutes. Employing the IELTS band descriptors (IELTS, 2013b and analyses of coherence and cohesion in line with Systemic Functional Linguistic concepts (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004; McCarthy, 1991, samples of students’ writing were analysed. Data from students’ pre and post instruction interviews was also gathered and analysed. The findings of this study suggest that the PEE model is to some extent effective in improving the essay composition performance of IELTS students, in particular in the area of cohesion and coherence. Students find the PEE model useful in regard to the clarity and structure that the model seems to add to their essays.

  1. Essays on Public Documents and Government Policies (3).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morehead, Joe

    1986-01-01

    Eight essays on government documents examine a variety of subjects--the publication "Policy and Supporting Positions," Supreme Court and separation of powers rulings, private legislation, environmental information, publications of the Department of Education, physical fitness, and national cemeteries. (EM)

  2. ReaderBench Learns Dutch: Building a Comprehensive Automated Essay Scoring System for Dutch Language

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dascalu, Mihai; Westera, Wim; Ruseti, Stefan; Trausan-Matu, Stefan; Kurvers, Hub

    2018-01-01

    Automated Essay Scoring has gained a wider applicability and usage with the integration of advanced Natural Language Processing techniques which enabled in-depth analyses of discourse in order capture the specificities of written texts. In this paper, we introduce a novel Automatic Essay Scoring

  3. Effect of two types of control questions and two question formats on the outcomes of polygraph examinations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Horvath, Frank; Palmatier, John J

    2008-07-01

    Two major variations of polygraph "Control Question" testing, the Zone Comparison (ZoC) and the Modified General Question Test (MGQT) were evaluated. Within each, the type of control question, Exclusive or "time bar" (e.g., "Before you were 21, did you ever...") and Nonexclusive or "no time bar" (e.g., "Did you ever....?") was manipulated in a mock theft scenario, with 80 male and 40 female subjects randomly assigned to be either innocent or guilty. Polygraphic data collected by experienced field examiners were numerically scored by an evaluator blind to all aspects of the study. Decision accuracy was not related to the type of procedure (ZoC/MGQT) used or the subject's sex. Accuracy was significantly related to the type of control question [chi(2) (2) = 11.46, p = 0.003; tau c = 0.29]. Nonexclusive control questions produced greater accuracy than Exclusive control questions on both innocent and guilty subjects. These results and subjects' self-reports support the general "theory" on which control question (CQ) testing is based. The need for better empirical support of accepted dogma and current field practices is strongly indicated by these findings.

  4. Essays on Labour Markets

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Buhai, Ioan Sebastian

    ), on modelling the arousal and persistence of occupational segregation and labour market inequalities between social subgroups (chapter 4), and respectively on characterizing the link between the firms' health and safety work environment and their financial performance (chapter 5). Each of the essays contributes...... return to seniority", with seniority the position of the worker in the tenure hierarchy of her firm, this concept establishing parsimoniously but effectively the link between the worker's fate in the labour market and her firm's fate in the product market; if network referrals are relevant for job search...... work") raises, but any other specific work health and safety practice indicators do not affect, a firm's productivity....

  5. Words and Responsibilities: Graduate Education and the Humanities. Carnegie Essays on the Doctorate: Humanities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stimpson, Catharine R.

    The Carnegie Foundation commissioned a collection of essays as part of the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID). Essays and essayists represent six disciplines that are part of the CID: chemistry, education, English, history, mathematics, and neuroscience. Intended to engender conversation about the conceptual foundation of doctoral…

  6. Questions of Brain Hemispheric Specialization and Gender Difference in Spatial Tests.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McWhinnie, Harold J.

    This paper presents a review of selected literature relevant to a general question of hemispheric specialization (right or left brain) and questions of gender differences in spatial abilities among a group of art students. Three basic questions for discussion are proposed: (1) is there a relationship between hemispheric dominance and spatial…

  7. Aesthetic Function Realized in the Selected Modern Chinese Essays by Zhang Peiji

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    罗丹

    2014-01-01

    The selected modern Chinese essays translated by Zhang Peiji is a masterpiece for Chinese scholars to do translation research. Prof. Zhang not only excels at translating the Chinese works accurately but also conveys the aesthetic value in the translated version. This paper wil analyse the aesthetic function used in Zhang Peiji’s selected modern Chinese essays from five aspects, music value, rhythm value, ful-grownness value, conciseness value and artistic conception value.

  8. The Effect of Individualized Technology-Mediated Feedback on EFL Learners’ Argumentative Essays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fatemeh Soltanpour

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available This quantitative quasi-experimental study, which followed a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest design, was aimed at investigating the effect of individualized technology-mediated feedback (henceforth, ITMF on the overall quality of Iranian EFL learners’ argumentative essays. The effect of ITMF, as the experimental treatment, was compared with the common written corrective feedback (henceforth, CWCF strategies as the control treatment. 57 learners, studying at general EFL courses at upper-intermediate level, formed the participants. They were assigned to two groups: ITMF and CWCF, which, in this study, is meant as the pen-and-paper form of direct and indirect feedback. Each group received six sessions of treatment. The writing tasks and tests were all of argumentative type. First, whether there was any significant difference between the ITMF and CWCF in the overall quality of the essays was investigated. The ITMF group significantly outperformed the CWCF one. Then, whether the difference between the groups varied over time was explored, and it was revealed that the ITMF was still significantly superior over the CWCF. Next, whether there would be any significant change in the ITMF in the long term was examined, and no change was seen. The study supports the advocates of screencasting feedback, revision and teacher-learner negotiation following the feedback.

  9. Testing Audiovisual Comprehension Tasks with Questions Embedded in Videos as Subtitles: A Pilot Multimethod Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Núñez, Juan Carlos Casañ

    2017-01-01

    Listening, watching, reading and writing simultaneously in a foreign language is very complex. This paper is part of wider research which explores the use of audiovisual comprehension questions imprinted in the video image in the form of subtitles and synchronized with the relevant fragments for the purpose of language learning and testing.…

  10. Interrogarsi sull’umano. Questione antropologica e scommessa su una possibile ritessitura dei saperi

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giovanni Grandi

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Questioning What Human is. The Anthropological Question and a Proposal for a New Fabric of Understanding - The essay reviews the first four issues of the Yearbook of Philosophical Studies "Anthropologica" – La differenza umana. Riduzionismo e antiumanesimo (2009, La struttura dei legami (2010, La vita in questione. Potenziamento o compimento dell'essere umano? (2011, Chi dice io? Riflessioni sull’identità personale (2012 – and introduces the research program developed by the interdisciplinary group of study promoted by the Jacques Maritain Study Centre. According to the perspective of Classical and Christian Thought, and to contemporary developments in the personalist tradition, the authors deal with many issues of the current debate on the human being and human condition. The main place in the discussion is occupied by the critical deal with different forms of anti-humanism, that directly or indirectly arise in the areas of Life Sciences, especially where there are new possibilities of intervention on human nature, opened by technological development. Investigations, always punctual and documented, analyze issues in a clear way, reporting limits, but also resources and stimulating suggestions coming from the perspectives examined.

  11. Telling Lives in Science: Essays on Scientific Biography

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Harman, Peter

    1997-09-01

    This collection of ten essays by historians of science, several of them biographers, is concerned with the role of scientific biography in forming conceptions of science and scientists. The essays include studies of the biographies of individual scientists, assessments of the aims and style of scientific portraits in different historical contexts, examinations of changing biographical interpretations of scientists, and much discussion of the methodological issues involved in the writing of scientific biographies. Many historians consider biography to be an ambiguous genre, its appeal based on nostalgia rather than history, with a focus on personality rather than historical context, but the biographer can reply that scientific biography reveals the practice of science at its most fundamental level. Indeed, scientific biography has provided a powerful medium in which public conceptions of science have been established. Einstein observed that 'the essential being of a man of my type lies in what he thinks and how he thinks', and his Autobiographical Notes suppress personality in favour of physics. But the biographer may see matters differently, and wish to integrate the public and the private life of the scientist. In their substantial introduction the editors discuss these and other problems, and the book is directed to the professional concerns of historians of science. While there is little here on the history of physics, Geoffrey Cantor's essay on public images of Faraday as constructed in popular biographies, a discussion of conflicting portraits of Faraday as romantic genius or hard-working slogger, may interest readers of this journal. (book review)

  12. Telling Lives in Science: Essays on Scientific Biography

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harman, Peter

    1997-01-01

    This collection of ten essays by historians of science, several of them biographers, is concerned with the role of scientific biography in forming conceptions of science and scientists. The essays include studies of the biographies of individual scientists, assessments of the aims and style of scientific portraits in different historical contexts, examinations of changing biographical interpretations of scientists, and much discussion of the methodological issues involved in the writing of scientific biographies. Many historians consider biography to be an ambiguous genre, its appeal based on nostalgia rather than history, with a focus on personality rather than historical context, but the biographer can reply that scientific biography reveals the practice of science at its most fundamental level. Indeed, scientific biography has provided a powerful medium in which public conceptions of science have been established. Einstein observed that 'the essential being of a man of my type lies in what he thinks and how he thinks', and his Autobiographical Notes suppress personality in favour of physics. But the biographer may see matters differently, and wish to integrate the public and the private life of the scientist. In their substantial introduction the editors discuss these and other problems, and the book is directed to the professional concerns of historians of science. While there is little here on the history of physics, Geoffrey Cantor's essay on public images of Faraday as constructed in popular biographies, a discussion of conflicting portraits of Faraday as romantic genius or hard-working slogger, may interest readers of this journal. (book review)

  13. Three essays on the exploration for non-renewable resources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sadorsky, P.A.

    1990-06-01

    A new additional motive for exploration activity is proposed in the first essay. When exploration occurs before the resource is extracted, there is an incentive to use exploration activity as a strategic instrument to capture market share and inflict capital losses on rivals. This provides an incentive for governments to use strategic taxation to capture greater rents from the imperfectly competitive world output markets. Analytic expressions for the optimal domestic extraction tax and exploration subsidy are presented. In the second essay, Canadian data are used to estimate a multiple-output translog exploration cost function. A new definition of depletion is introduced and its estimated coefficient is found to be statistically significant. Monte Carlo integration techniques were applied to ensure the estimated cost function satisfies concavity and monotonicity. The fitted cost function parameters are then used to estimate the marginal cost of oil and gas exploration. These estimates are used, along with estimates of exploration rents, to measure resource scarcity. In the third essay, Canadian data are used to estimate a stochastic and dynamic model of oil exploration and extraction in Alberta. The main determinants of current period extraction are one period lagged extraction and one period expected extraction. The main determinants of current period exploration are one period lagged cumulative exploration and a relative price variable. 150 refs., 13 figs., 19 tabs

  14. Lexical Cohesion in Students' Argumentative Essay among a Select Group of Filipino College Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alarcon, Josephine B.

    2013-01-01

    This study analyzed the lexical devices used by undergraduate students in their argumentative text using Halliday and Hasan (1976) and Halliday's (2004) taxonomy. One hundred forty-eight argumentative essays were analyzed. The essays underwent interrating by three independent raters using a 20-point rubric and were grouped according to rating.…

  15. Prognosis Essay Scoring and Article Relevancy Using Multi-Text Features and Machine Learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arif Mehmood

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This study develops a model for essay scoring and article relevancy. Essay scoring is a costly process when we consider the time spent by an evaluator. It may lead to inequalities of the effort by various evaluators to apply the same evaluation criteria. Bibliometric research uses the evaluation criteria to find relevancy of articles instead. Researchers mostly face relevancy issues while searching articles. Therefore, they classify the articles manually. However, manual classification is burdensome due to time needed for evaluation. The proposed model performs automatic essay evaluation using multi-text features and ensemble machine learning. The proposed method is implemented in two data sets: a Kaggle short answer data set for essay scoring that includes four ranges of disciplines (Science, Biology, English, and English language Arts, and a bibliometric data set having IoT (Internet of Things and non-IoT classes. The efficacy of the model is measured against the Tandalla and AutoP approach using Cohen’s kappa. The model achieves kappa values of 0.80 and 0.83 for the first and second data sets, respectively. Kappa values show that the proposed model has better performance than those of earlier approaches.

  16. Our 9/11 of hope: Short essays on European democracy since 1989

    OpenAIRE

    Tassinari, Fabrizio

    2010-01-01

    This collection of short essays proceeds from an international conference organized by DIIS on 9th November 2009, the day of the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The volume centers on the political, social, and economic implications of the revolutions of 1989 on European democracy. The authors of these essays come from very different backgrounds and interests: ranging from academics and public intellectuals that have written extensively on post-Cold War Europe, to practit...

  17. Accuracy of questions related to allergic contact dermatitis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fleming, C J; Burden, A D; Forsyth, A

    2000-12-01

    The ability of a physician to select individuals likely to benefit from patch testing depends on his or her ability to interpret responses to enquiries related to contact allergy. The significance of such responses to questions of nickel, fragrance and colophon allergy is unclear. The specificity, sensitivity and predictive value of questions relating to nickel, fragrance and colophony allergy were determined. A total of 258 patients attending for routine patch testing were questioned about skin reactions to nickel, fragrances and Elastoplast (Smith and Nephew Healthcare, Hull, England). All subjects were then patch tested to nickel, fragrance mix, and colophony. Responses to questions were compared with patch test results. The sensitivity of questions relating to nickel, fragrance, and colophony was 82%, 49%, and 71%, respectively. The specificity of the same questions was 77%, 79%, and 90%; the positive predictive value was 54%, 46% and 29%, respectively. After adjustment to include clinical relevance, the sensitivity of nickel questions rose to 100%. These data permit greater understanding of the role of patient history in selection of patients for patch testing. Copyright 2000 by W.B. Saunders Company

  18. Preliminary Process Theory does not validate the Comparison Question Test: A comment on Palmatier and Rovner

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ben-Shakar, G.; Gamer, M.; Iacono, W.; Meijer, E.; Verschuere, B.

    2015-01-01

    Palmatier and Rovner (2015) attempt to establish the construct validity of the Comparison Question Test (CQT) by citing extensive research ranging from modern neuroscience to memory and psychophysiology. In this comment we argue that merely citing studies on the preliminary process theory (PPT) of

  19. Essays on Learning, Uncertainty, and Choice

    OpenAIRE

    Frick, Mira Anna Phyllis

    2015-01-01

    This dissertation presents three independent essays in microeconomic theory. Motivated by the rise of social media, Chapter 1 (co-authored with Yuhta Ishii) builds a model studying the effect of an economy's potential for social learning on the adoption of innovations of uncertain quality. Provided consumers are forward-looking (i.e. recognize the value of waiting for information), equilibrium dynamics depend non-trivially on qualitative and quantitative features of the informational envir...

  20. [Non-EC workers in Italy: an overview of the literature and an attempt to test various hypotheses].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strozza, S

    1995-09-01

    "The essay presents an overview of the interpretations offered in scientific literature about causes and effects of non-EC [European Community] immigrants' integration into the Italian labor market....The essay uses the aggregate data of [the] Labor Ministry integrated by local surveys to answer some questions...[concerning] the link between sex, Italian region, place of origin and sector of activity...and the complementarity or competition with [the] Italian labor force." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND FRE) excerpt

  1. Questioning the Questions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tienken, Christopher H.; Goldberg, Stephanie; DiRocco, Dominic

    2010-01-01

    Historical accounts of questioning used in the education process trace back to Socrates. One of the best examples of his use of questioning is found in Plato's "The Republic." Socrates used a series of strategic questions to help his student Glaucon come to understand the concept of justice. Socrates purposefully posed a series of…

  2. Writing a pictorial essay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peh, W C G; Ng, K H

    2010-03-01

    A pictorial essay is a type of educational article that aims to provide both textual and visual portrayals of a topical issue. It usually consists of a short unstructured abstract, brief introduction, subheadings to organise the material and a summary. The number of references is limited to a few key articles, typically, eight to 15, or fewer. The text is usually short, often approximately 1,000 to 2,000 words in length, with much of the message contained in the figure legends. This type of article allows for a large number of figures, typically up to 20 figures or 30 figure parts. The main criteria for publication are currency, educational value and high quality of illustrations.

  3. Technology and Military Doctrine. Essays on a Challenging Relationship

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Holley, I

    2004-01-01

    .... In these essays, Holley primarily addresses the need for the Air Force to adapt its doctrine and the processes of formulating and disseminating that guidance as the technology of air and space warfare improves. Dr...

  4. Investigating the Effects of Word Games on Iranian EFL Learners’ Application of the Words in Writing Paragraph Essays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fatemeh Rezapanah

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available In Iran, learning vocabulary has been considered a boring subject for a long time and the traditional way of learning vocabulary by mere copying and remembering has shown to be less than effective. Meanwhile, games are also seen as a time-filling activity in most English classrooms. The current research sought to explore the effectiveness of using word games on Iranian EFL intermediate students’ application of the words in writing one paragraph essay. It was carried out at Jahad Sharif English Institute among 60 intermediate male and female learners with the age range of 17-30 through a quasi-experimental research design. The researcher administered a PET test to determine the homogeneity of the participants regarding their general English language proficiency level. Participants were randomly assigned into two groups. After coming up with the conclusion that the two groups were homogeneous, during 16 sessions of treatment, the experimental group was taught using different techniques of word games while the control group received no special treatment. At the end of the treatment, both groups participated in the word game writing test of the word game questions available in Top Notch series the post-test. A t-test was used to compare the mean scores of the two groups, the result of which showed that the learners’ mean score in the experimental group was significantly higher than the learners’ mean score in the control group. In conclusion, the result of this study suggests that foreign language pedagogy, especially for young adult English learners, would benefit from applying word games in their vocabulary instruction and writing.

  5. Effectiveness of Student Admission Essays in Identifying Attrition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadler, Judith

    2003-01-01

    From a longitudinal sample of nursing students, 193 completers and 43 noncompleters were compared, revealing significant differences in the groups' mean scores on admission essays but not admission grade point averages. Content analysis revealed how completers had internalized the role of nurse. (Contains 12 references.) (SK)

  6. Future perspectives for climate action. How economics can prescribe more than an energy charge. An essay on how economics can contribute to resolving the climate problem

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    De Bruyn, S.

    2013-07-15

    How can economics contribute to designing a 'solution' for the emerging climate crisis? This essay attempts to answer that question by investigating the roots of economic thinking and analyzing the coordination issues that are at the heart of the climate problem. While economics has been a protagonist in climate change debates by providing economic instruments such as tradeable emission permits, it has also been an antagonist by calling into doubt the need for mitigation, the benefits of which were held not to outweigh the costs. This essay argues that climate change is primarily a social equity issue and that economics is a poor science for analyzing such issues. Discussion models in economics and climate change science are fundamentally different, moreover, which means the two disciplines are prone to mutual misunderstanding. Nonetheless, to resolve the climate problem, climate science could well benefit from economic thinking, and especially from theoretical ideas from institutional economics concerning the design of effective policy instruments.

  7. Future perspectives for climate action. How economics can prescribe more than an energy charge. An essay on how economics can contribute to resolving the climate problem

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    De Bruyn, S.

    2013-07-15

    How can economics contribute to designing a 'solution' for the emerging climate crisis? This essay attempts to answer that question by investigating the roots of economic thinking and analyzing the coordination issues that are at the heart of the climate problem. While economics has been a protagonist in climate change debates by providing economic instruments such as tradeable emission permits, it has also been an antagonist by calling into doubt the need for mitigation, the benefits of which were held not to outweigh the costs. This essay argues that climate change is primarily a social equity issue and that economics is a poor science for analyzing such issues. Discussion models in economics and climate change science are fundamentally different, moreover, which means the two disciplines are prone to mutual misunderstanding. Nonetheless, to resolve the climate problem, climate science could well benefit from economic thinking, and especially from theoretical ideas from institutional economics concerning the design of effective policy instruments.

  8. HGSA DNA day essay contest winner 60 years on: still coding for cutting-edge science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yates, Patrick

    2013-08-01

    MESSAGE FROM THE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: In 2013, the Education Committee of the Human Genetics Society of Australasia (HGSA) established the DNA Day Essay Contest in Australia and New Zealand. The contest was first established by the American Society of Human Genetics in 2005 and the HGSA DNA Day Essay Contest is adapted from this contest via a collaborative partnership. The aim of the contest is to engage high school students with important concepts in genetics through literature research and reflection. As 2013 marks the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the double helix of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick and the 10th anniversary of the first sequencing of the human genome, the essay topic was to choose either of these breakthroughs and explain its broader impact on biotechnology, human health and disease, or our understanding of basic genetics, such as genetic variation or gene expression. The contest attracted 87 entrants in 2013, with the winning essay authored by Patrick Yates, a Year 12 student from Melbourne High School. Further details about the contest including the names and schools of the other finalists can be found at http://www.hgsa-essay.net.au/. The Education Committee would like to thank all the 2013 applicants and encourage students to enter in 2014.

  9. A Small Essay About a Big Boulevard

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elena Grigoryeva

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available The essay presents the analogies of turning city borders and walls into boulevards and gardens through the examples of Moscow and Irkutsk. The main street of Irkutsk is viewed in a new light, as a boulevard. It is proposed to take into consideration the peculiarities of the four sense-parts of the street when working on design codes.

  10. Games in libraries essays on using play to connect and instruct

    CERN Document Server

    Kirsch, Breanne A

    2014-01-01

    Librarians are beginning to see the importance of game based learning and the incorporation of games into library services. This book is written for them--so they can use games to improve people's understanding and enjoyment of the library. Full of practical suggestions, the essays discuss not only innovative uses of games in libraries but also the game making process. The contributors are all well versed in games and game-based learning and a variety of different types of libraries are considered. The essays will inspire librarians and educators to get into this exciting new area of patron

  11. Questões discursivas para avaliação escolar = Open-ended questions in school tests

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Auxiliadora Bezerra

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available O objetivo deste artigo é descrever questões discursivas presentes em atividades escolares do Ensino Médio para avaliação da aprendizagem. Foram estudadas, à luz de teorias sobre atividades e tarefas escolares (Chartrand, 2002, sobre elaboração de provas eexercícios (Moretto, 2005; Bloom, 1973 e sobre perguntas de compreensão (Marcuschi, 1996, 93 questões recolhidas nas disciplinas Literatura Brasileira, História e Geografia. Foram descritas questões (descontextualizadas, propondo, do ponto de vista cognitivo,tarefas funcionais (predominantes, seguidas de formativas e metacognitivas. Seus comandos são dados por meio de pronomes interrogativos (principalmente e de verbos no imperativo ou no infinitivo. As questões focalizam os conteúdos específicos das disciplinas, privilegiando seus conceitos, e enfatizam o desenvolvimento cognitivo dos alunos, sem relação com aspectos sociais. Parece ser suficiente a demonstração passiva de conhecimentoscomo resultado de uma aprendizagem correspondente a acúmulo de informações e de um ensino entendido como repasse de dados.Open-ended questions in high school activities are described to evaluate the learning process. Ninety-three questions fromBrazilian Literature, History and Geography were analyzed, based on school activity and task theories (Chartrand, 2002, test and exercise theories (Moretto, 2005; Bloom, 1973, and comprehension question theories (Marcuschi, 1996. (Decontextualized questions,which propose (predominantly functional, formative and metacognitive tasks, were described from the cognitive point-of-view. Question instructions were given by using (mainly interrogative pronouns and verbs either in the infinitive or in the imperative. Questions focus on the specific contents of the subject matter, emphasizing concepts and the students’ cognitive development, regardless of social aspects. Passive demonstration of knowledge as a result of learning related to collected passive

  12. Admitted or Denied: Multilingual Writers Negotiate Admissions Essays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wight, Shauna

    2017-01-01

    This article presents data from a collection of yearlong case studies on resident multilingual writers' college admissions essays. The focal student in this piece revealed the challenges that such writers face in presenting themselves to college admissions officers. Exploring these cultural and linguistic conflicts, this analysis uses Goffman's…

  13. Imaging evaluation of middle ear cholesteatoma: iconographic essay

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Avila, Ana Flavia Assis de; Aburjeli, Bruna de Oliveira Melim; Moreira, Wanderval; Motta, Emilia Guerra Pinto Coelho; Ribeiro, Marcelo Almeida; Diniz, Renata Lopes Furletti Caldeira, E-mail: fauassis@hotmail.com [Hospital Mater Dei, Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil)

    2013-06-15

    Middle ear cholesteatoma is a relevant and relatively common disease that may have severe consequences. In the present pictorial essay, the authors have selected illustrative examples of multislice computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging depicting the main presentations of cholesteatomas, and describing their characteristics, locations, and major complications. (author)

  14. Anatomy of the ankle ligaments: a pictorial essay

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Golanó, Pau; Vega, Jordi; de Leeuw, Peter A. J.; Malagelada, Francesc; Manzanares, M. Cristina; Götzens, Víctor; van Dijk, C. Niek

    2010-01-01

    Understanding the anatomy of the ankle ligaments is important for correct diagnosis and treatment. Ankle ligament injury is the most frequent cause of acute ankle pain. Chronic ankle pain often finds its cause in laxity of one of the ankle ligaments. In this pictorial essay, the ligaments around the

  15. Anatomy of the ankle ligaments: a pictorial essay

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Golanó, Pau; Vega, Jordi; de Leeuw, Peter A. J.; Malagelada, Francesc; Manzanares, M. Cristina; Götzens, Víctor; van Dijk, C. Niek

    2016-01-01

    Understanding the anatomy of the ankle ligaments is important for correct diagnosis and treatment. Ankle ligament injury is the most frequent cause of acute ankle pain. Chronic ankle pain often finds its cause in laxity of one of the ankle ligaments. In this pictorial essay, the ligaments around the

  16. Profiling Learners' Achievement Goals when Completing Academic Essays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ng, Chi-Hung Clarence

    2009-01-01

    This study explored adult learners' goal profiles in relation to the completion of a compulsory academic essay. Based on learners' scores on items assessing mastery, performance-approach, and work-avoidance goals, cluster analyses produced three distinct categories of learners: performance-focused, work-avoidant, and multiple-goal learners. These…

  17. Librarianship and literature essays in honour of Jack Pafford

    CERN Document Server

    Milne, A T

    2014-01-01

    These essays are produced in honour of the seventieth birthday of Dr J. H. Pafford, Goldsmith's Librarian of the University of London from 1945 to 1967, and reflect his interests in librarianship, textual editing and local history.

  18. A Flipped Writing Classroom: Effects on EFL Learners’ Argumentative Essays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fatemeh Soltanpour

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available According to the literature, flipped teaching is a relatively new pedagogical approach in which the typical activities of classroom lectures followed by homework in common teaching practice are reversed in order, and most often integrated or supplemented with some types of instructional materials, such as instructional videos or PowerPoint files. This experimental study, using a pre-test-treatment-posttest-delayed posttest design, was aimed at investigating the effect of flipped instruction on Iranian EFL learners’ quality of argumentative essays. The participants were 55 students, who were assigned to two groups: the flipped classroom (FC and the traditional classroom (TC. Each group received 3 sessions of treatment. First, whether there was any significant difference between the FC and TC in the overall quality of the essays was investigated. The FC group significantly outperformed the TC one. Then, whether the difference between the groups varied over time was explored, and it was revealed that the FC was still significantly superior over the TC. Next, whether there would be any significant change in the FC in the long run was examined, and no significant change was seen. The promising results found in FC group can be attributed to not only the flipped instruction but also the process of actively engaging the learners in their learning in addition to incorporating different techniques, such as the video screencasting, collaborative writing, as well as in-class teacher-learner interaction and negotiation because it is argued that the crucial point in flipped instruction is how teachers best use in-class-time with students.

  19. On the placement of practice questions during study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weinstein, Yana; Nunes, Ludmila D; Karpicke, Jeffrey D

    2016-03-01

    Retrieval practice improves retention of information on later tests. A question remains: When should retrieval occur during learning-interspersed throughout study or at the end of each study period? In a lab experiment, an online experiment, and a classroom study, we aimed to determine the ideal placement (interspersed vs. at-the-end) of retrieval practice questions. In the lab experiment, 64 subjects viewed slides about APA style and answered short-answer practice questions about the content or restudied the slides (restudy condition). The practice questions either appeared 1 every 1-2 slides (interspersed condition), or all at the end of the presentation (at-the-end condition). One week later, subjects returned and answered the same questions on a final test. In the online experiment, 175 subjects completed the same procedure. In the classroom study, 62 undergraduate students took quizzes as part of class lectures. Short-answer practice questions appeared either throughout the lectures (interspersed condition) or at the end of the lectures (at-the-end condition). Nineteen days after the last quiz, students were given a surprise final test. Results from the 3 experiments converge in demonstrating an advantage for interspersing practice questions on the initial tests, but an absence of this advantage on the final test. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  20. The Ph.D. in English: Towards a New Consensus. Carnegie Essays on the Doctorate: English.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Graff, Gerald

    The Carnegie Foundation commissioned a collection of essays as part of the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID). Essays and essayists represent six disciplines that are part of the CID: chemistry, education, English, history, mathematics, and neuroscience. Intended to engender conversation about the conceptual foundation of doctoral…

  1. Consumption-based learning about brand quality : Essays on how private labels share and borrow reputation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Szymanowski, M.G.

    2009-01-01

    CONSUMPTION-BASED LEARNING ABOUT BRAND QUALITY: ESSAYS ON HOW PRIVATE LABELS SHARE AND BORROW REPUTATION is a collection of essays exploring the process of consumer cross-brand learning in the context of brands belonging to retailers: the so-called private labels. Private labels have gradually grown

  2. A Corpus-based Study on the Use of Contractions by EFL Learners in Argumentative Essays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Pınar Babanoğlu

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Contraction forms in English are mostly occur in speech and informal writing and they are generally avoided in formal writing types such as academic prose, business reports and journal articles, therefore, most teachers discourage their use in academic essays (Biber, Johansonn, Leech, Conrad and Finegan 1999. Contractions in English have two types; negative contractions (isn’t, haven’t, doesn’t and verb contractions (I’m, they’ve, that’s. This corpus based study attempts to investigate contraction usage in learner and native English speaker essays. Major goal is to examine whether learners consider essay writing rules in respect of contractions which are accepted inappropriate for academic prose style. Five corpora, three learner and two native English, were utilized in order to analyze verb and not-contraction forms. Frequency calculations of contraction forms in each corpus compared via log-likelihood measurement for statistical significance.  Results revealed that learners use considerably more contraction forms, especially negative ones, than native English students in their argumentative essays.

  3. [Immigrants and the national question: a comparative study of Quebecois and Walloon societies].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Assimopoulos, N; Humblet, J

    1987-06-01

    "The essay presents a comparative analysis of two Francophone regions, [Wallonia, Belgium] and Quebec [Canada], which have experienced similar institutional and cultural problems, following the great migrant inflows. If, on the one hand, these immigrants constitute an enriching opportunity for the local population, on the other hand, they can aggravate pre-existing difficulties or raise the question of their integration. While the Canadian federal system allows Quebec an autonomous legislation in the field of immigration and of linguistic choices, [Wallonia] is bound to the decisions of the central Belgian government. The expectations of local and immigrant population push toward more open policies regarding citizenship, immigration and linguistic choices." (SUMMARY IN ENG) excerpt

  4. Photo Essay: Pictures for Our “Honorable American Friends”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Samuel Hideo Yamashita

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available An American minister’s outrage over a celebration of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan led to a generous gift of school supplies for students at a primary school in Hiroshima City. In gratitude, students at this school sent dozens of drawings and paintings to the minister’s church. This exchange was inspired by the minister’s Unitarian faith and moral decency and realized through the generosity of his parishioners. But the Japanese children’s artwork can be read in several other ways that greatly complicate the story and implicate Cold War narratives of victory and defeat as well as powerful memories of the destruction, death, and suffering caused by the war. This essay accompanies the “Hiroshima Children’s Drawings” photo essay featured in the March 2013 issue of Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review...

  5. Automated Guidance for Thermodynamics Essays: Critiquing versus Revisiting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donnelly, Dermot F.; Vitale, Jonathan M.; Linn, Marcia C.

    2015-01-01

    Middle school students struggle to explain thermodynamics concepts. In this study, to help students succeed, we use a natural language processing program to analyze their essays explaining the aspects of thermodynamics and provide guidance based on the automated score. The 346 sixth-grade students were assigned to either the critique condition…

  6. Ideals and realities selected essays of Abdus Salam

    CERN Document Server

    Salam, Abdus; Lai, CH

    1989-01-01

    The latest edition of "Ideals and Realities" includes some of the most recent talks given by Professor Abdus Salam. They replace a few essays which were published in the second edition. An attempt has also been made to update some of the figures rendered absolete with the passage of time.

  7. Coherence in the Argumentative Essays of First Year College of Liberal Arts Students at De La Salle University

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alphie G. Garing

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The study investigates five textual features of coherence in the students’ argumentative essays for text comprehensibility and overall writing quality. Specifically, it examines how comprehensible the students’ argumentative essays considering the following: focus, organization, cohesion, support and elaboration, and conventions; and the relationship between the textual features and the comprehensibility of the students’ argumentative essays. The data consists of 13 argumentative essays written in ENGLCOM class first year College of Liberal Arts students of De La Salle University. Two techniques were used to analyze the data. First, an analytic and holistic scorings using a four-point writing rubric were used to evaluate each of the textual features of coherence and comprehensibility, respectively. Second, correlation analysis was performed to determine the relationship between the coherence features and the comprehensibility of the students’ texts and between the comprehensibility of the students’ argumentative essays.

  8. Essays on investor behavior and trading activity

    OpenAIRE

    Kyröläinen, P. (Petri)

    2007-01-01

    Abstract This thesis investigates a set of equity market phenomena associated with investors' trading activity, using a comprehensive Finnish Central Securities Depository (FCSD) database that records practically all trades by Finnish investors. This database enables us to classify a large number of heterogeneous investors using both economic and institutional characteristics. The first essay classifies investors by trading activity. It analyzes trading styles of active and passive inv...

  9. Passages to Literature: Essays on Teaching in Australia, Canada, England, the United States, and Wales.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Milner, Joseph O'Beirne, Ed.; Milner, Lucy Floyd Morcock, Ed.

    Representing Australia, Canada, England, the United States, and Wales, this collection of essays focuses on ways in which teachers can adapt classroom activities and modify writing assignments to encourage personal response and exploration of texts. Essays, their authors, and nationalities are as follows: (1) "The River and Its Banks:…

  10. MDCT imaging of post interventional liver: a pictorial essay

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Romano, Stefania; Tortora, Giovanni; Scaglione, Mariano; Lassandro, Francesco; Guidi, Guido; Grassi, Roberto; Romano, Luigia

    2005-01-01

    In this pictorial essay, we consider the post operative MDCT findings after liver resection, transplantation, surgical managed major trauma and radiofrequency ablation of focal lesions. Common complications such as fluid collections, hemorrhage, biloma, vascular disease, hematoma, abscesses will be also considered

  11. Provider Initiated Testing and Counseling (PITC for HIV in resource-limited clinical settings: important questions unanswered

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peter Twyman

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available Testing is the gateway to HIV care and support services, and efforts to broaden treatment must include a proactive and inclusive approach to testing. Provider Initiated Testing and Counseling (PITC for HIV utilizes the opportunity afforded by the clinical encounter for the care provider to make a clinical recommendation that the patient have a voluntary HIV test. It is hoped that by broadening testing by such strategies as PITC more patients may be identified and linked to treatment and support. However, there exist multiple challenges and questions regarding the provision of routine HIV testing and counseling in clinical facilities. In order to support further PITC efforts and scale up of current testing programs, a research agenda that addresses the ethical, social and operational components of PITC programming in health facilities, is critically needed to further guide its expansion.

  12. Three essays on access pricing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sydee, Ahmed Nasim

    In the first essay, a theoretical model is developed to determine the time path of optimal access price in the telecommunications industry. Determining the optimal access price is an important issue in the economics of telecommunications. Setting a high access price discourages potential entrants; a low access price, on the other hand, amounts to confiscation of private property because the infrastructure already built by the incumbent is sunk. Furthermore, a low access price does not give the incumbent incentives to maintain the current network and to invest in new infrastructures. Much of the existing literature on access pricing suffers either from the limitations of a static framework or from the assumption that all costs are avoidable. The telecommunications industry is subject to high stranded costs and, therefore, to address this issue a dynamic model is imperative. This essay presents a dynamic model of one-way access pricing in which the compensation involved in deregulatory taking is formalized and then analyzed. The short run adjustment after deregulatory taking has occurred is carried out and discussed. The long run equilibrium is also analyzed. A time path for the Ramsey price is shown as the correct dynamic price of access. In the second essay, a theoretical model is developed to determine the time path of optimal access price for an infrastructure that is characterized by congestion and lumpy investment. Much of the theoretical literature on access pricing of infrastructure prescribes that the access price be set at the marginal cost of the infrastructure. In proposing this rule of access pricing, the conventional analysis assumes that infrastructure investments are infinitely divisible so that it makes sense to talk about the marginal cost of investment. Often it is the case that investments in infrastructure are lumpy and can only be made in large chunks, and this renders the marginal cost concept meaningless. In this essay, we formalize a model of

  13. Three essays on human resource management

    OpenAIRE

    Avgoustaki, Argyro

    2012-01-01

    This thesis comprises three essays on human resource management. The first one studies the effect of on-the-job training on firm productivity using a micro-dataset of a large firm in Greece for the period 2005 to 2006. The data consist of daily observations on the productivity of the same workers tracked before, during, and after the receipt of training. Overall, the empirical findings show that after the implementation of on-the-job training, productivity improves by almost 6.5 percent. Resu...

  14. An analysis of medical students’ reflective essays in problem-based learning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jihyun Si

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Purpose This study aimed to explore students’ learning experience in problem-based learning (PBL particularly in terms of what they learned and how they learned in one Korean medical school by analyzing their reflective essays with qualitative research methods. Methods This study included 44 first-year medical students. They took three consecutive PBL courses and wrote reflective essays 3 times anonymously on the last day of each course. Their reflective essays were analyzed using an inductive content analysis method. Results The coding process yielded 16 sub-categories and these categories were grouped into six categories according to the distinctive characteristics of PBL learning experience: integrated knowledge base, clinical problem solving, collaboration, intrinsic motivation, self-directed learning, and professional attitude. Among these categories, integrated knowledge base (34.68% and professional attitude (2.31% were the categories mentioned most and least frequently. Conclusion The findings of this study provide an overall understanding of the learning experience of Korean medical students during PBL in terms of what they learned and how they learned with rich descriptive commentaries from their perspectives as well as several thoughtful insights to help develop instructional strategies to enhance the effectiveness of PBL.

  15. Corrections on Grammar, Sentence Variety and Developing Detail to Qualify Academic Essay of Indonesian Learners

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solikhah, Imroatus

    2017-01-01

    This experimental research examines: (1) significant differences of corrections on grammar, sentence variety and developing details on the quality of the essay by Indonesian learners; and (2) different effect of corrections on grammar, sentence variety, and developing details on the quality of the essay. Treatments for each were served as follows:…

  16. Antropologie tussen wetenschap en kunst : Essays over Clifford Geertz

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kuiper, Yme; Bakker, Jan Willem; Miedema, Jelle

    1987-01-01

    Clifford Geertz (*1926) is one of the most influential anthropologists of his generation. His most famous monographs and collection of essays are The Religion of Java, Agricultural Involution, Islam Observed, The Interpretation of Cultures, Local Knowledge, Negara: The Balinese Theatre State in

  17. Questions for Bernard Spolsky

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCarty, Teresa L.

    2016-01-01

    This essay is based on a June 2014 interview with Bernard Spolsky, in which he discussed his life with educational linguistics. A self-described "accidental professor," Spolsky directed the first study of Navajo sociolinguistics, established educational linguistics as a field of study and practice, co-created a national language policy…

  18. Classification of Swedish Learner Essays by CEFR Levels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Volodina, Elena; Pilán, Ildikó; Alfter, David

    2016-01-01

    The paper describes initial efforts on creating a system for the automatic assessment of Swedish second language (L2) learner essays from two points of view: holistic evaluation of the reached level according to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), and the lexical analysis of texts for receptive and productive vocabulary per CEFR…

  19. Argument-Counterargument Structure in Indonesian EFL Learners' English Argumentative Essays: A Dialogic Concept of Writing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rusfandi

    2015-01-01

    This study investigates the potential use of the argument-counterargument structure in English L2 essays written by Indonesian EFL learners. It examines whether L2 proficiency affects the use of opposing views in their essays, and measures whether there is a correlation between the use of the rhetorical structure and the participants' overall…

  20. An essay on the importance of being nonlinear

    CERN Document Server

    West, Bruce J

    1985-01-01

    One of my favorite quotes is from a letter of Charles Darwin (1887): "I have long discovered that geologists never read each other's works, and that the only object in writing a book is proof of earnestness, and that you do not form your opinions without undergoing labour of some kind. " It is not clear if this private opinion of Darwin was one that he held to be absolutely true, or was one of those opinions that, as with most of us, coincides with our "bad days," but is replaced with a more optimistic view on our "good days. " I hold the sense of the statement to be true in general, but not with regard to scientists never reading each other's work. Even if that were true however, the present essay. would still have been written as a proof of earnestness. This essay outlines my personal view of how nonlinear mathematics may be of value in formulating models outside the physical sciences. This perspective has developed over a number of years during which time I have repeatedly been amazed at how an "accepted" ...

  1. Improving the identification accuracy of senior witnesses: do prelineup questions and sequential testing help?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Memon, Amina; Gabbert, Fiona

    2003-04-01

    Eyewitness research has identified sequential lineup testing as a way of reducing false lineup choices while maintaining accurate identifications. The authors examined the usefulness of this procedure for reducing false choices in older adults. Young and senior witnesses viewed a crime video and were later presented with target present orabsent lineups in a simultaneous or sequential format. In addition, some participants received prelineup questions about their memory for a perpetrator's face and about their confidence in their ability to identify the culprit or to correctly reject the lineup. The sequential lineup reduced false choosing rates among young and older adults in target-absent conditions. In target-present conditions, sequential testing significantly reduced the correct identification rate in both age groups.

  2. Accounting Issues: An Essay Series Part V--Intangible Assets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laux, Judy

    2008-01-01

    This article represents the fifth in a series of theoretical essays intended to supplement the introductory financial accounting course and investigates the accounting treatment and related conceptual connections for intangibles. In addition, intangibles present unique accounting issues, conceptual challenges, and measurement dilemmas not found…

  3. Automated Subscores for TOEFL iBT[R] Independent Essays. Research Report. ETS RR-11-39

    Science.gov (United States)

    Attali, Yigal

    2011-01-01

    The e-rater[R] automated essay scoring system is used operationally in the scoring of TOEFL iBT[R] independent essays. Previous research has found support for a 3-factor structure of the e-rater features. This 3-factor structure has an attractive hierarchical linguistic interpretation with a word choice factor, a grammatical convention within a…

  4. Green dynamics as the motor for sustainable welfare. An essay on economic control with regard to the process of sustainability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    De Vries, J.; Warmenhoven, H.

    2011-03-01

    The core question in this essay is how, in these times of economic turbulence in which ecological awareness is crumbling, we can change the course of our ecological development into a sustainable direction. Chapter 2 - in the light of the economic theory - characterizes sustainability issues as a new type of scarcity. In chapter 3, the analysis broadens towards the new generation of environmental problems that dominate the 21st century. Chapter 4 explores points of action for 'green dynamics': a strategic perspective in which countries and businesses with sustainable ambitions expand their action opportunities to bring the targeted scenario closer. The focus in the final chapter is on the Netherlands in 2011. [nl

  5. The Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate: The Case of Mathematics. Carnegie Essays on the Doctorate: Mathematics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bass, Hyman

    The Carnegie Foundation commissioned a collection of essays as part of the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID). Essays and essayists represent six disciplines that are part of the CID: chemistry, education, English, history, mathematics, and neuroscience. Intended to engender conversation about the conceptual foundation of doctoral…

  6. The Question Complexity Rubric: Development and Application for a National Archive of Astro 101 Multiple-Choice Questions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cormier, Sebastien; Prather, E. E.; Brissenden, G.; Collaboration of Astronomy Teaching Scholars CATS

    2011-01-01

    For the last two years we have been developing an online national archive of multiple-choice questions for use in the Astro 101 classroom. These questions are intended to either supplement an instructor's implementation of Think-Pair-Share or be used for assessment purposes (i.e. exams and homework). In this talk we will describe the development, testing and implementation of the Question Complexity Rubric (QCR), which is designed to guide the ranking of questions in this archive based on their conceptual complexity. Using the QCR, a score is assigned to differentiate each question based on the cognitive steps necessary to comprehensively explain the reasoning pathway to the correct answer. The lowest QCR score is given to questions with a reasoning pathway requiring only declarative knowledge whereas the highest QCR score is given to questions that require multiple pathways of multi-step reasoning. When completed, the online question archive will provide users with the utility to 1) search for and download questions based on subject and average QCR score, 2) use the QCR to score questions, and 3) add their own questions to the archive. We will also discuss other potential applications of the QCR, such as how it informs our work in developing and testing of survey instruments by allowing us to calibrate the range of question complexity. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0715517, a CCLI Phase III Grant for the Collaboration of Astronomy Teaching Scholars (CATS). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

  7. Essays on issues relevant to the regulation of radioactive waste management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bishop, W.P.; Hoos, I.R.; Hilberry, N.; Metlay, D.S.; Watson, R.A.

    1978-05-01

    This document contains a collection of essays prepared by the individuals who participated in a Special Task Group for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the purpose of identifying and proposing goals (or guiding principles) for the regulation of radioactive waste management. The report of the Special Task group to the NRC is contained in 'Proposed Goals for Radioactive Waste Management'. The titles of the essays are as follows: History and interpretation of radioactive waste management in the United States; The credibility issue; Assessment of methodologies for radioactive waste management; Remarks on managerial errors and public participation; Observations and impressions on the nature of radioactive waste management problems; and Goals for nuclear waste management

  8. Team Dynamics. Essays in the Sociology and Social Psychology of Sport Including Methodological and Epistemological Issues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lenk, Hans

    This document contains nine essays on the sociology and social psychology of team dynamics, including methodological and epistemological issues involved in such study. Essay titles are: (1) Conflict and Achievement in Top Athletic Teams--Sociometric Structures of Racing Eight Oar Crews; (2) Top Performance Despite Internal Conflict--An Antithesis…

  9. Essays on the economics of British Columbian timber policy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Niquidet, Kurt

    2007-01-01

    This thesis examines the process of institutional change in British Columbia’s timber sector. It is composed of a series of essays which highlight the underlying political and economic factors that have shaped past and current reforms. Taking center stage in the analysis, are the resource rents

  10. Essays on Port, Container, and Bulk Chemical Logistics Optimization

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    E. van Asperen (Eelco)

    2009-01-01

    textabstractThe essays in this thesis are concerned with two main themes in port logistics. The first theme is the coordination of transport arrivals with the distribution processes and the use of storage facilities. We study this for both containerized and bulk chemical transport. The second theme

  11. Archives and societal provenance Australian essays

    CERN Document Server

    Piggott, Michael

    2012-01-01

    Records and archival arrangements in Australia are globally relevant because Australia's indigenous people represent the oldest living culture in the world, and because modern Australia is an ex-colonial society now heavily multicultural in outlook. Archives and Societal Provenance explores this distinctiveness using the theoretical concept of societal provenance as propounded by Canadian archival scholars led by Dr Tom Nesmith. The book's seventeen essays blend new writing and re-workings of earlier work, comprising the fi rst text to apply a societal provenance perspective to a national sett

  12. Tales from the front lines: the creative essay as a tool for teaching genetics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koehler, K E; Hawley, R S

    1999-07-01

    In contrast to the more typical mock grant proposals or literature reviews, we describe the use of the creative essay as a novel tool for teaching human genetics at the college level. This method has worked well for both nonmajor and advanced courses for biology majors. The 10- to 15-page essay is written in storylike form and represents a student's response to the choice of 6-8 scenarios describing human beings coping with various genetic dilemmas. We have found this tool to be invaluable both in developing students' ability to express genetic concepts in lay terms and in promoting student awareness of genetic issues outside of the classroom. Examples from student essays are presented to illustrate these points, and guidelines are suggested regarding instructor expectations of student creativity and scientific accuracy. Methods of grading this assignment are also discussed.

  13. Three essays in control, entrepreneurship and innovation

    OpenAIRE

    Cardenas, F.

    2012-01-01

    One of the key emphases of these three essays is to provide practical managerial insight. However, good practical insight, can only be created by grounding it firmly on theoretical and empirical research. Practical experience-based understanding without theoretical grounding remains tacit and cannot be easily disseminated. Theoretical understanding without links to real life remains sterile. My studies aim to increase the understanding of how radical innovation could be generated at large est...

  14. Essays on Online and Multi-Channel Marketing

    OpenAIRE

    Zhang, Lingling

    2016-01-01

    Firms increasingly adopt online and multi-channel marketing strategies to reach and persuade consumers. Therefore, designing an effective marketing mix is critical to their success. The aim of my dissertation is to understand the strategy behind firms’ channel choices and assess marketing effectiveness. It consists of three large-scale empirical studies examining several important aspects of online and multi-channel marketing. My first essay focuses on the business-to-business (B2B) inte...

  15. Testing audiovisual comprehension tasks with questions embedded in videos as subtitles: a pilot multimethod study

    OpenAIRE

    Casañ Núñez, Juan Carlos

    2017-01-01

    [EN] Listening, watching, reading and writing simultaneously in a foreign language is very complex. This paper is part of wider research which explores the use of audiovisual comprehension questions imprinted in the video image in the form of subtitles and synchronized with the relevant fragments for the purpose of language learning and testing. Compared to viewings where the comprehension activity is available only on paper, this innovative methodology may provide some benefits. Among them, ...

  16. SISTEM PENILAIAN ESAI OTOMATIS PADA E-LEARNING DENGAN ALGORITMA WINNOWING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sariyanti Astutik

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Exam essay is an evaluation of learning in the form of essay questions that have answers more variable than multiple choice questions. Variations of these answers provide its own difficulties for teachers in assessing response. Essay grading system is built to be one solution that can speed up and simplify the process of grading. Essay grading system in this study was done by measuring the similarity of responses of the students and teacher answer key. This research use winnowing algorithm. Winnowing algorithm is an algorithm for text similarity measure. Winnowing algorithm produces fingerprint of text that will represent the answer to the calculation of similarity with jaccard coeficient equation. Testing was conducted to determine the ability of the algorithm winnowing to provide an essay grading using n-gram and window value changes of the winnowing algorithm. The test results showed the use of the value of n-grams and window on the method of winnowing effect on fingerprint similarities were found. The more similarities fingerprint found, the value of the resulting system also be higher. The accuracy of the grading system showed better results on text answers that have the answer sentence structure same with key answer.

  17. Essays on carbon policy and enhanced oil recovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cook, Benjamin R.

    The growing concerns about climate change have led policy makers to consider various regulatory schemes designed to reduce the stock and growth of atmospheric CO2 concentrations while at the same time improving energy security. The most prominent proposals are the so called "cap-and-trade" frameworks which set aggregate emission levels for a jurisdiction and then issue or sell a corresponding number of allowances to emitters. Typically, these policy measures will also encourage the deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in geological formations and mature oil fields through subsidies or other incentives. The ability to store CO 2 in mature oil fields through the deployment of CO2 enhanced oil recovery (CO2--EOR) is particularly attractive as it can simultaneously improve oil recovery at those fields, and serve as a possible financial bridge to the development of CO2 transportation infrastructure. The purpose of this research is to explore the impact that a tandem subsidy-tax policy regime may have on bargaining between emitters and sequestration providers, and also to identify oil units in Wyoming that can profitably undertake CO 2--EOR as a starting point for the build-out of CO2 pipelines. In the first essay an economics lab experiment is designed to simulate private bargaining between carbon emitters (such as power plants) and carbon sequestration sites when the emitter faces carbon taxes, sequestration subsidies or both. In a tax-subsidy policy regime the carbon tax (or purchased allowances) can be avoided by sequestering the carbon, and in some cases the emitter can also earn a subsidy to help pay for the sequestration. The main policy implications of the experiment results are that the sequestration market might be inefficient, and sequestration providers seem to have bargaining power sufficient to command high prices. This may lead to the integration of CO2 sources and sequestration sites, and reduced prices for the injectable CO2 purchased by oil

  18. VQABQ: Visual Question Answering by Basic Questions

    KAUST Repository

    Huang, Jia-Hong

    2017-03-19

    Taking an image and question as the input of our method, it can output the text-based answer of the query question about the given image, so called Visual Question Answering (VQA). There are two main modules in our algorithm. Given a natural language question about an image, the first module takes the question as input and then outputs the basic questions of the main given question. The second module takes the main question, image and these basic questions as input and then outputs the text-based answer of the main question. We formulate the basic questions generation problem as a LASSO optimization problem, and also propose a criterion about how to exploit these basic questions to help answer main question. Our method is evaluated on the challenging VQA dataset and yields state-of-the-art accuracy, 60.34% in open-ended task.

  19. VQABQ: Visual Question Answering by Basic Questions

    KAUST Repository

    Huang, Jia-Hong; Alfadly, Modar; Ghanem, Bernard

    2017-01-01

    Taking an image and question as the input of our method, it can output the text-based answer of the query question about the given image, so called Visual Question Answering (VQA). There are two main modules in our algorithm. Given a natural language question about an image, the first module takes the question as input and then outputs the basic questions of the main given question. The second module takes the main question, image and these basic questions as input and then outputs the text-based answer of the main question. We formulate the basic questions generation problem as a LASSO optimization problem, and also propose a criterion about how to exploit these basic questions to help answer main question. Our method is evaluated on the challenging VQA dataset and yields state-of-the-art accuracy, 60.34% in open-ended task.

  20. Sources of Social Control in School: A Speculative Essay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schlechty, Phillip C.; Burke, William I.

    1980-01-01

    This essay attempts to demonstrate that age segregation and subject matter specialization are two important supports of the authority of teachers and the school's ability to control students. Therefore, efforts to change these organizational patterns without considering alternative means of establishing control are doomed to failure. (Author/SJL)

  1. The Psychology of Reading Instruction (A Collection of Essays).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ediger, Marlow

    Focusing on various areas of concern to classroom teachers, this collection contains the following essays: (1) "Herbart versus Froebel on Teaching Pupils"; (2) "The Integrated Reading Curriculum"; (3) "Motivation and the Learner in Reading"; (4) "Issues in the Reading Curriculum"; (5) "Inservice Education and the Curriculum"; (6) "Textbooks and…

  2. Entrepreneurship and innovation. Essays in honour of Wim During

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Sijde, Peter; Ridder, Annemarie; Groen, Arend J.

    2004-01-01

    Wim During started his work at the University of Twente in 1973. During his academic career, he elaborated two main themes: (high tech) entrepreneurship and high-tech small firms. The essays in this book -published on the occasion of his retirement as professor of Innovative Entrepreneurship at the

  3. The Sensible and Insensible Body: A Visual Essay

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joanna Bourke

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Translating pain into tangible images brings it into the public consciousness, raising the spectre of bodily suffering as virtually intrinsic to the human condition. Beginning with Descartes, who famously advanced mind-body theories in the late seventeenth century, this essay explores the effects of his influence together with shifting attitudes towards pain and its role over the long nineteenth century.

  4. Essays on regulation, institutions, and industrial organization

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bergara, Mario Esteban

    Essay I develops a comparative institutional analysis of network access price regulation and "light-handed" regulation. While the former is a specific-agency-based arrangement with higher political influence, the latter is a court-based system. Consequently, the main trade-off between both frameworks reflects the merits of having efficient political and judicial institutions. Price regulation is superior when distributional concerns are irrelevant and information asymmetries are lower. Poorly functioning political systems and high welfare costs of raising funds make price regulation less attractive. Light regulation is more attractive when potential rents are smaller, the monopolist is more risk averse, the judicial system is more efficient, and the threat of government intervention is more credible. The possibility of private transfers makes price regulation more advantageous. Higher information asymmetries among firms makes light-handed regulation more attractive. The main results are consistent with a plausible interpretation of the drastic deregulatory process in New Zealand. Essay II studies the preliminary effects of the deregulation of direct access in the New Zealand's electricity market. A slight improvement in quality standards and an overall efficiency increase took place after two years of deregulation. Retailers were able to successfully enter in large demand, dense areas, with a large proportion of industrial and commercial users, where incumbents were not distributing electricity efficiently. Pricing policies appears to be influenced by market forces (associated to economic and demographic characteristics) as expected in a light regulatory framework. Essay III focuses on the possibility of endogenous sunk costs and the introduction of new products. Firms that exert some monopoly power in one market and introduce a new good whose demand is determined by a broader set of consumers might be forced to change their competing strategies. If the new product

  5. Fostering Effective Studying and Study Planning with Study Questions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilhelm, Pascal; Pieters, Jules M.

    2007-01-01

    In a course on biological psychology and neuropsychology, study questions were provided that also appeared as test questions in the course exam. This method was introduced to support students in active processing and reproduction of the study texts, and study planning. Data were gathered to test the hypothesis that study question use would be…

  6. Evaluating the Validity and Applicability of Automated Essay Scoring in Two Massive Open Online Courses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erin Dawna Reilly

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available The use of massive open online courses (MOOCs to expand students’ access to higher education has raised questions regarding the extent to which this course model can provide and assess authentic, higher level student learning. In response to this need, MOOC platforms have begun utilizing automated essay scoring (AES systems that allow students to engage in critical writing and free-response activities. However, there is a lack of research investigating the validity of such systems in MOOCs. This research examined the effectiveness of an AES tool to score writing assignments in two MOOCs. Results indicated that some significant differences existed between Instructor grading, AES-Holistic scores, and AES-Rubric Total scores within two MOOC courses. However, use of the AES system may still be useful given instructors’ assessment needs and intent. Findings from this research have implications for instructional technology administrators, educational designers, and instructors implementing AES learning activities in MOOC courses.

  7. På kant med Kant : Et bekjennende essay

    OpenAIRE

    Dahl, Per

    2013-01-01

    Kant can’t always be right. There are some aspects of Kant’s philosophy that make him unsuitable for the understanding of a musical experience. His contribution to aesthetic theory is developed in the Critique of Judgement (1790), where he investigates the possibility and logical status of “judgements of taste”. In this essay, I argue that his exploration of the inherent limits of our knowledge through philosophical reasoning seems to impede an understanding of the musical expe...

  8. The Determination of Children's Knowledge of Global Lunar Patterns from Online Essays Using Text Mining Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheon, Jongpil; Lee, Sangno; Smith, Walter; Song, Jaeki; Kim, Yongjin

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to use text mining analysis of early adolescents' online essays to determine their knowledge of global lunar patterns. Australian and American students in grades five to seven wrote about global lunar patterns they had discovered by sharing observations with each other via the Internet. These essays were analyzed for…

  9. The Impact of Training Students How to Write Introductions for Academic Essays: An Exploratory, Longitudinal Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Gavin T. L.; Marshall, Jennifer C.

    2012-01-01

    Successful academic writing requires strong command of the rhetorical moves that orient the reader to the theme and substantive material of an academic essay. Effective control of the introduction leads to better overall writing. The goal of this study was to devise and evaluate a pedagogy for teaching the writing of academic essay introductions.…

  10. Improving Undergraduates' Argumentative Group Essay Writing through Self-Assessment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fung, Yong Mei; Mei, Hooi Chee

    2015-01-01

    When writing an argumentative essay, writers develop and evaluate arguments to embody, initiate, or simulate various kinds of interpersonal and textual interaction for reader consideration (Wu & Allison, 2003). This is quite challenging for English as a second language (ESL) learners. To improve the quality of their writing, students need to…

  11. "Argument!" Helping Students Understand What Essay Writing Is About

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wingate, Ursula

    2012-01-01

    Argumentation is a key requirement of the essay, which is the most common genre that students have to write. However, how argumentation is realised in disciplinary writing is often poorly understood by academic tutors, and therefore not adequately taught to students. This paper presents research into undergraduate students' concepts of argument…

  12. Three Epiphanic Fragments: Education and the Essay in Memory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aldridge, David

    2014-01-01

    Pádraig Hogan has argued for a powerful conception of education as epiphany that is illuminated by the work of Heidegger and Joyce. But what are we to make of Stephen Dedalus' intention (pretension?) to "Remember your epiphanies"? Developing the phenomenological Erinnerungsversuch or "essay in memory" of David Farrell…

  13. Scoring and setting pass/fail standards for an essay certification examination in nurse-midwifery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fullerton, J T; Greener, D L; Gross, L J

    1992-03-01

    Examination for certification or licensure of health professionals (credentialing) in the United States is almost exclusively of the multiple choice format. The certification examination for entry into the practice of the profession of nurse-midwifery has, however, used a modified essay format throughout its twenty-year history. The examination has recently undergone a revision in the method for score interpretation and for pass/fail decision-making. The revised method, described in this paper, has important implications for all health professional credentialing agencies which use modified essay, oral or practical methods of competency assessment. This paper describes criterion-referenced scoring, the process of constructing the essay items, the methods for assuring validity and reliability for the examination, and the manner of standard setting. In addition, two alternative methods for increasing the validity of the pass/fail decision are evaluated, and the rationale for decision-making about marginal candidates is described.

  14. Essays on environmental policy analysis: Computable general equilibrium approaches applied to Sweden

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hill, M.

    2001-01-01

    This thesis consists of three essays within the field of applied environmental economics, with the common basic aim of analyzing effects of Swedish environmental policy. Starting out from Swedish environmental goals, the thesis assesses a range of policy-related questions. The objective is to quantify policy outcomes by constructing and applying numerical models especially designed for environmental policy analysis. Static and dynamic multi-sectoral computable general equilibrium models are developed in order to analyze the following issues. The costs and benefits of a domestic carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) tax reform. Special attention is given to how these costs and benefits depend on the structure of the tax system and, furthermore, how they depend on policy-induced changes in 'secondary' pollutants. The effects of allowing for emission permit trading through time when the domestic long-term domestic environmental goal is specified in CO 2 stock terms. The effects on long-term projected economic growth and welfare that are due to damages from emission flow and accumulation of 'local' pollutants (nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide), as well as the outcome of environmental policy when costs and benefits are considered in an integrated environmental-economic framework

  15. 7-ad attoe-an essay concerning the foundational myth of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    JONATHAN

    5 No. 1. January – June, 2016. P age. 1. 0. 0. AN ESSAY CONCERNING THE ... philosophy, which eventually led to the proliferation of a vast array of mostly ... often tend to forcefully impose the concept of philosophical on certain stories,.

  16. Rhombencephalitis: pictorial essay

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Líllian Gonçalves Campos

    Full Text Available Abstract The term rhombencephalitis refers to inflammatory diseases affecting the hindbrain (brainstem and cerebellum. Rhombencephalitis has a wide variety of etiologies, including infections, autoimmune diseases, and paraneoplastic syndromes. Infection with bacteria of the genus Listeria is the most common cause of rhombencephalitis. Primary rhombencephalitis caused by infection with Listeria spp. occurs in healthy young adults. It usually has a biphasic time course with a flu-like syndrome, followed by brainstem dysfunction; 75% of patients have cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis, and nearly 100% have an abnormal brain magnetic resonance imaging scan. However, other possible causes of rhombencephalitis must be borne in mind. In addition to the clinical aspects, the patterns seen in magnetic resonance imaging can be helpful in defining the possible cause. Some of the reported causes of rhombencephalitis are potentially severe and life threatening; therefore, an accurate initial diagnostic approach is important to establishing a proper early treatment regimen. This pictorial essay reviews the various causes of rhombencephalitis and the corresponding magnetic resonance imaging findings, by describing illustrative confirmed cases.

  17. THE AFFECTING FACTORS ADDRESSED IN EFL ESSAY CLASS OF UM METRO LAMPUNG IN RESPECT TO THE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION AND THE LECTURER’S REFLECTION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dedi Turmudi -

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available This research paper discusses a number of key points addressed in teaching essay writing course of EFL class in Indonesia. The lecturer applied some various techniques in teaching, including a new proposed technique called FBFRP technique (Turmudi 2013 which basically leads to assist learners in self regulatory process in writing composition ( Magno, 2009. Research goals were to disclose some critical points and to what extents of each point was qualified compared among the addressed issues. This research was a descriptive reflective expose-facto and the primary data was taken with instruments: tests, reflection, and questionnaires resulting a descriptive qualitative with quantitative data output. The subjects or participants were 100 undergraduate students of English Department enrolled at essay writing class and the objects were the students’ responses on the addressed points formatted in a rating scale questionnaire (Sugiono, 2009.The data analysis was first hand data as exposed-facto data which was processed through a set of procedures.  No statistical inferences were reported but descriptive statistics and logical inferences. The result turned out that none of all components were dominants; but a certain technique as medium to assist the students’ ability to write computer-based-essay test was needed to develop. Thus, this research has the same red thread with that of Magno (2009 hypothesizing that learners of EFL tend to use specific approach to learning and eventually undergo self regulatory process.

  18. Metaphor of society (a sociological essay

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gennadii Vasil’evich Osipov

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available The essay by Academician G.V. Osipov, who is the patriarch of Russian sociology, is dedicated to one of the most cognitive topics of modern sociology – identification of sociological metaphor as such and its application in research projects. This topic is avant-garde for the world sociological thought, and in Russia such kind of research is making its first steps. However, its future importance is difficult to overestimate. Sociological metaphor, if a methodology for its application is developed, can provide scientists with qualitatively new synthetic research tools. It can also bring together scientific structures and artifacts on the space of interdisciplinary and inter-subject borderland and give them qualitatively new intellectual and sensuous (system and mental technological capabilities for learning the surrounding world. The advantage of the following essay can be found in the fact that it is based on the objective analysis of the real embodiment of social metaphor in the work of art – a pictorial triptych “The Mystery of the 21st Century”. This is the first such experience in domestic sociological and artistic-painting practice. The authors of the final product are a scientist of great scientific and life experience and a young artist, who received in-depth sociological training and defended his Ph.D. in Sociology dissertation. But the main result of their collaboration is a product that combines scientific (sociological knowledge and insight and intuitive-creative artistic perception in a qualitatively new perception of the world and world outlook

  19. Testing of serum atherogenicity in cell cultures: questionable data published

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sergei V. Jargin

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available In a large series of studies was reported that culturing of smooth muscle cells with serum from atherosclerosis patients caused intracellular lipid accumulation, while serum from healthy controls had no such effect. Cultures were used for evaluation of antiatherogenic drugs. Numerous substances were reported to lower serum atherogenicity: statins, trapidil, calcium antagonists, garlic derivatives etc. On the contrary, beta-blockers, phenothiazines and oral hypoglycemics were reported to be pro-atherogenic. Known antiatherogenic agents can influence lipid metabolism and cholesterol synthesis, intestinal absorption or endothelium-related mechanisms. All these targets are absent in cell monocultures. Inflammatory factors, addressed by some antiatherogenic drugs, are also not reproduced. In vivo, relationship between cholesterol uptake by cells and atherogenesis must be inverse rather than direct: in familial hypercholesterolemia, inefficient clearance of LDL-cholesterol by cells predisposes to atherosclerosis. Accordingly, if a pharmacological agent reduces cholesterol uptake by cells in vitro, it should be expected to elevate cholesterol in vivo. Validity of clinical recommendations, based on serum atherogenicity testing in cell monocultures, is therefore questionable. These considerations pertain also to the drugs developed on the basis of the cell culture experiments.

  20. Identification of Conflicting Questions in the PARES System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Avgoustos Tsinakos

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Student testing and knowledge assessment is a significant aspect of the learning process. In a number of cases, it is expedient not to present the exact same test to all learners all the time (Pritchett, 1999. This may be desired so that cheating in the exam is made harder to carry out or so that the learners can take several practice tests on the same subject as part of the course.This study presents an e-testing platform, namely PARES, which aims to provide assessment services to academic staff by facilitating the creation and management of question banks and powering the delivery of nondeterministically generated test suites. PARES uses a conflict detection algorithm based on the vector space model to compute the similarity between questions and exclude questions which are deemed to have an unacceptably large similarity from appearing in the same test suite. The conflict detection algorithm and a statistical evaluation of its accuracy are presented. Evaluation results show that PARES succeeds in detecting question types at about 90% and its efficiency can be further increased through continuing education and enrichment of the system’s correlation vocabulary.

  1. Four essays on offshore wind power potential, development, regulatory framework, and integration

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dhanju, Amardeep

    Offshore wind power is an energy resource whose potential in the US has been recognized only recently. There is now growing interest among the coastal states to harness the resource, particularly in states adjacent to the Mid-Atlantic Bight where the shallow continental shelf allows installation of wind turbines using the existing foundation technology. But the promise of bountiful clean energy from offshore wind could be delayed or forestalled due to policy and regulatory challenges. This dissertation is an effort to identify and address some of the important challenges. Focusing on Delaware as a case study it calculates the extent of the wind resource; considers one means to facilitate resource development---the establishment of statewide and regional public power authorities; analyzes possible regulatory frameworks to manage the resource in state-controlled waters; and assesses the use of distributed storage to manage intermittent output from wind turbines. In order to cover a diversity of topics, this research uses a multi-paper format with four essays forming the body of work. The first essay lays out an accessible methodology to calculate offshore wind resource potential using publicly available data, and uses this methodology to access wind resources off Delaware. The assessment suggests a wind resource approximately four times the average electrical load in Delaware. The second essay examines the potential role of a power authority, a quasi-public institution, in lowering the cost of capital, reducing financial risk of developing and operating a wind farm, and enhancing regional collaboration on resource development and management issues. The analysis suggests that a power authority can lower the cost of offshore wind power by as much as 1/3, thereby preserving the ability to pursue cost-competitive development even if the current federal incentives are removed. The third essay addresses the existing regulatory void in state-controlled waters of Delaware

  2. Nuclear questions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hohlfeld, W.

    1977-01-01

    This brochure 'nuclear problems' deals with the attitude of the protestant church in the region around the northern Elbe towards further quantitative economic growth, esp. nuclear energy, with the following essays: preaching the Gospel in an environment in danger: the Christian occident and the problems of the third world, facing the problems of exhausted supplies, the role of the prophet, problem of environment - a problem of theology, the political dimension, against ATW, signal Brokdorf, strange effects (defense of the church from unqualified teachings by non-professionals), Christian liberty, church and nuclear energy, violence and robes. (HP) [de

  3. Thousand Questions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    2012-01-01

    (perhaps as an expanded Turing test) on its listeners. These questions are extracted in real-time from Twitter with the keyword search of the ‘?’ symbol to create a spatio-temporal experience. The computerized voice the audience hears is a collective one, an entanglement of humans and non-humans......In this work the network asks “If I wrote you a love letter would you write back?” Like the love letters which appeared mysteriously on the noticeboards of Manchester University’s Computer Department in the 1950s, thousands of texts circulate as computational processes perform the questions......, that circulates across networks. If I wrote you a love letter would you write back? (and thousands of other questions’ ) (封不回的情書?千言萬語無人回 was commissioned by the Microwave International New Media Festival 2012....

  4. Bad Questions: An Essay Involving Item Response Theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thissen, David

    2016-01-01

    David Thissen, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Quantitative Program at the University of North Carolina, has consulted and served on technical advisory committees for assessment programs that use item response theory (IRT) over the past couple decades. He has come to the conclusion that there are usually two purposes…

  5. Essays in applied microeconomics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, Lucas William

    2005-11-01

    The first essay measures the impact of an outbreak of pediatric leukemia on local housing values. A model of residential location choice is used to describe conditions under which the gradient of the hedonic price function with respect to health risk is equal to household marginal willingness to pay to avoid pediatric leukemia risk. This equalizing differential is estimated using property-level sales records from a county in Nevada where residents have recently experienced a severe increase in pediatric leukemia. Housing values are compared before and after the increase with a nearby county acting as a control group. The results indicate that housing values decreased 15.6% during the period of maximum risk. Results are similar for alternative measures of risk and across houses of different sizes. With risk estimates derived using a Bayesian learning model the results imply a statistical value of pediatric leukemia of $5.6 million. The results from the paper provide some of the first market-based estimates of the value of health for children. The second essay evaluates the cost-effectiveness of public incentives that encourage households to purchase high-efficiency durable goods. The demand for durable goods and the demand for energy and other inputs are modeled jointly as the solution to a household production problem. The empirical analysis focuses on the case of clothes washers. The production technology and utilization decision are estimated using household-level data from field trials in which participants received front-loading clothes washers free of charge. The estimation strategy exploits this quasi-random replacement of washers to derive robust estimates of the utilization decision. The results indicate a price elasticity, -.06, that is statistically different from zero across specifications. The parameters from the utilization decision are used to estimate the purchase decision using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey, 1994-2002. Households

  6. Questioning Questions: Elementary Teachers' Adaptations of Investigation Questions Across the Inquiry Continuum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biggers, Mandy

    2018-02-01

    Questioning is a central practice in science classrooms. However, not every question translates into a "good" science investigation. Questions that drive science investigations can be provided by many sources including the teacher, the curriculum, or the student. The variations in the source of investigation questions were explored in this study. A dataset of 120 elementary science classroom videos and associated lesson plans from 40 elementary teachers (K-5) across 21 elementary school campuses were scored on an instrument measuring the amount of teacher-direction or student-direction of the lessons' investigation questions. Results indicated that the investigation questions were overwhelmingly teacher directed in nature, with no opportunities for students to develop their own questions for investigation. This study has implications for researchers and practitioners alike, calling attention to the teacher-directed nature of investigation questions in existing science curriculum materials, and the need for teacher training in instructional strategies to adapt their existing curriculum materials across the continuum of teacher-directed and student-directed investigation questions. Teachers need strategies for adapting the teacher-directed questions provided in their existing curriculum materials in order to allow students the opportunity to engage in this essential scientific practice.

  7. TEXT CLASSIFICATION USING NAIVE BAYES UPDATEABLE ALGORITHM IN SBMPTN TEST QUESTIONS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ristu Saptono

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Document classification is a growing interest in the research of text mining. Classification can be done based on the topics, languages, and so on. This study was conducted to determine how Naive Bayes Updateable performs in classifying the SBMPTN exam questions based on its theme. Increment model of one classification algorithm often used in text classification Naive Bayes classifier has the ability to learn from new data introduces with the system even after the classifier has been produced with the existing data. Naive Bayes Classifier classifies the exam questions based on the theme of the field of study by analyzing keywords that appear on the exam questions. One of feature selection method DF-Thresholding is implemented for improving the classification performance. Evaluation of the classification with Naive Bayes classifier algorithm produces 84,61% accuracy.

  8. The Multimedia Essay. The Information Technologies as a Tool for The Humanities’ Statements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Piotr Cichocki

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available The article applies for the educational experiment practiced during last several years at The Institute of Ethnology and Culture Anthropology, University of Warsaw, related to the multimedia essay. More accomplished than a multimedia presentation, more connected with textual analysis than a movie or videoclip, the multimedia essay may be mean especially fitted to humanities’ statements. The kind of attempts may result in the new discoursive hypertextual field, however nowadays they deal with dilemmas connected with copyrights and corporative control under the datas. Therefore the science is entangled with processes of constant change in the legislation.

  9. Essays on Housing Markets

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bäckman, Claes

    In Denmark and in many countries around the world, housing markets are of considerable importance for households and policy-makers alike. As the boom and bust in the US and Danish housing market so aptly demonstrated, disruptions in the housing market potentially have wide-ranging consequences...... for individual households and for the aggregate economy. Housing is important because we all have to live somewhere, but also because it serves as a considerable source of both wealth and debt. As such, housing market policy can not only create vast benefits for many, but can also have substantial negative...... impacts for all, and should therefore be a topic of major interest for economists and policy makers alike. This Ph.D. thesis, entitled “Essays on Housing Markets”, analyzes the Danish housing market during the 2000s, with a focus on how policy changes affected house prices and how changes in house prices...

  10. Onsite: A Residency with Tim Rollins/KOS. A Photo Essay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Placky, Robert

    2000-01-01

    Presents a photo essay that visually narrates the workshop that took place in State College, Pennsylvania, from October 19-24, 1998 bringing together middle and high school students with Tim Rollins, who is a conceptual artist and educator, and Kids of Survival (KOS). (CMK)

  11. Three essays on productivity and risk, marketing decisions, and changes in well-being over time

    OpenAIRE

    Larochelle, Catherine

    2011-01-01

    This dissertation is composed of three essays; the first two examine the decision-making of potato producing households in Bolivia and the third examines well-being changes among Zimbabwe households. The first essay entitled â The role of risk mitigation in production efficiency: A case study of potato cultivation in the Bolivian Andesâ estimates the costs of self-managing environmental risk through activity and environmental diversification. Risk management has the potential to reduce in...

  12. You failed your math test, comrade Einstein adventures and misadventures of young mathematicians or test your skills in almost recreational mathematics

    CERN Document Server

    2005-01-01

    This groundbreaking work features two essays written by the renowned mathematician Ilan Vardi. The first essay presents a thorough analysis of contrived problems suggested to "undesirable" applicants to the Department of Mathematics of Moscow University. His second essay gives an in-depth discussion of solutions to the Year 2000 International Mathematical Olympiad, with emphasis on the comparison of the olympiad problems to those given at the Moscow University entrance examinations. The second part of the book provides a historical background of a unique phenomenon in mathematics, which flourished in the 1970s-80s in the USSR. Specially designed math problems were used not to test students' ingenuity and creativity but, rather, as "killer problems," to deny access to higher education to "undesirable" applicants. The focus of this part is the 1980 essay, "Intellectual Genocide", written by B Kanevsky and V Senderov. It is being published for the first time. Also featured is a little-known page of the Soviet hi...

  13. One picture or a thousand words? Influence of question length and illustration support on the success and skip rates on online tests

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ernest REDONDO

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available The growing popularity of automatically graded online tests, either as an evaluation or self-assessment tool in online or blended education, demands a review of how these questions are designed and delivered to their intended audience. This paper analyzes the results of over 20,000 pre-university mock online quizzes designed to train the students for the Spanish university admission test (known as “Pruebas de Acceso a la Universidad” or “Selectividad” in the technical drawing subject, corresponding to the June and September intakes of 2009 and 2015. The influence of two key aspects on the questions success and skip rates is assessed: (a the presence or absence of illustration support and (b the length of the question as a proxy of reading comprehension difficulty. The results support that the presence of an accompanying illustration in the questions result in fewer skipped questions and mode successful answers, while the length of the question has the opposite effect. The performance difference in the 6-year span is also discussed, showing a slight decline over time in the pass rates while the skip rates remain stable. When comparing both two intakes, corresponding to different academic profiles of students that passed the June exam and those who did not, the success ratio is unsurprisingly lower for the students in the second intake. These findings should help improving the design of online quizzes, including more visual content and/or rephrasing the questions to be more concise, to fit the requirements of students educated in a more visual environment of multimedia technologies.

  14. Answer This Simple Question

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, J. Elspeth S.

    2011-01-01

    In this essay, the author discusses her journey from her first year of the PhD program at USC, and the work she is doing now for a company that builds infrastructure in Afghanistan. She explores the ways in which studies for her 1985 PhD in Rhetoric, Linguistics and Literature did and did not prepare her for the work she does now. Her memoir…

  15. The Education of a Teacher. Essays on American Culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolf, Howard

    Written in the immediacy of the Vietnam period and its aftermath, these essays record, from the perspective of a college professor, the dramatic shifts of students from the active, even violent, style of protests for social justice of the sixties to the self-interested "protest of style" of the seventies, to the insecurity and career orientation…

  16. Cosmopolitanism and Peace in Kant's Essay on "Perpetual Peace"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huggler, Jorgen

    2010-01-01

    Immanuel Kant's essay on Perpetual Peace (1795/96) contains a rejection of the idea of a world government (earlier advocated by Kant himself). In connexion with a substantial argument for cosmopolitan rights based on the human body and its need for a space on the surface of the Earth, Kant presents the most rigorous philosophical formulation ever…

  17. Quantum physics meets the philosophy of mind. New essays on the mind-body relation in quantum-theoretical perspective

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Corradini, Antonella; Meixner, Uwe

    2014-01-01

    Quantum physics, in contrast to classical physics, allows non-locality and indeterminism in nature. Moreover, the role of the observer seems indispensable in quantum physics. In fact, quantum physics, unlike classical physics, suggests a metaphysics that is not physicalism (which is today's official metaphysical doctrine). As is well known, physicalism implies a reductive position in the philosophy of mind, specifically in its two core areas, the philosophy of consciousness and the philosophy of action. Quantum physics, in contrast, is compatible with psychological non-reductionism, and actually seems to support it. The essays in this book explore, from various points of view, the possibilities of basing a non-reductive philosophy of mind on quantum physics. In doing so, they not only engage with the ontological and epistemological aspects of the question but also with the neurophysiological ones.

  18. Quantum physics meets the philosophy of mind. New essays on the mind-body relation in quantum-theoretical perspective

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Corradini, Antonella [Catholic Univ., Milan (Italy); Meixner, Uwe (ed.) [Augsburg Univ. (Germany)

    2014-07-01

    Quantum physics, in contrast to classical physics, allows non-locality and indeterminism in nature. Moreover, the role of the observer seems indispensable in quantum physics. In fact, quantum physics, unlike classical physics, suggests a metaphysics that is not physicalism (which is today's official metaphysical doctrine). As is well known, physicalism implies a reductive position in the philosophy of mind, specifically in its two core areas, the philosophy of consciousness and the philosophy of action. Quantum physics, in contrast, is compatible with psychological non-reductionism, and actually seems to support it. The essays in this book explore, from various points of view, the possibilities of basing a non-reductive philosophy of mind on quantum physics. In doing so, they not only engage with the ontological and epistemological aspects of the question but also with the neurophysiological ones.

  19. Cholestatic jaundice by malignant lesions: pictorial essay

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Santa Anna, Tatiana Kelly Brasileiro de; Santana, Alex Menezes; Rizzuto, Mauricio Soares; Chagas, Alessandro Rosa Rodrigues; Zuppani, Aguinaldo Cunha; Rezende, Marcelo Bruno; Viveiros, Marcelo de Melo

    2009-01-01

    Malignant obstructive jaundice is most commonly caused by cancer of pancreatic head, papilla tumor, cholangiocarcinoma and biliary obstruction induced by secondary lesions of the liver or lymph nodes. Patients usually present with weight loss, abdominal pain, jaundice and progressive increase of direct bilirubin, being essential the evaluation by imaging methods for the proper diagnosis, staging and therapeutic planning. This essay illustrates the imaging aspects of ultrasound and computed tomography - and in specific situations magnetic resonance cholangiography - of the major malignancies that lead to cholestatic jaundice. (author)

  20. Essays in competition with product differentiation and bargaining in markets

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bouckaert, J.M.C.

    1996-01-01

    The fourth essay uses bargaining theory and compares the outcome of a negotiation in two differently organized markets. In the first market, sellers simultaneously offer their good or service for sale. In the second market, sellers queue and offer their good or service sequentially for sale.

  1. Review Essay A history of colonialism through post-colonial lenses ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Review Essay A history of colonialism through post-colonial lenses: reading Mahmood Mamdani's citizen and subject. Sanya Osha. Abstract. No Abstract. The Nigerian Journal of Economic History Vol. 2, 1999: 155-161. Full Text: EMAIL FULL TEXT EMAIL FULL TEXT · DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT.

  2. Life without Scan-Tron: Tests as Thinking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Posner, Richard

    1987-01-01

    Claims that written tests are superior to objective, scan-tron tests in literature, composition, and vocabulary because they require students to think on paper. Describes the following types of in-class written tests and examines the advantages of each: literary essay, topical composition, imitation, brief answer, timed rewrites, and vocabulary…

  3. Accounting Issues: An Essay Series Part IV--Property, Plant, & Equipment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laux, Judy

    2007-01-01

    This fourth article in a series of theoretical essays intended to supplement the introductory financial accounting course is dedicated to the topic of property, plant, and equipment (PP&E), including both the accounting treatment and its related conceptual connections. The paper also addresses the measurement dilemmas, scandalous accounting…

  4. The Donkey Institute of Contemporary Art (DICA): A Photo-Essay

    OpenAIRE

    Yam Lau

    2014-01-01

    This photo-essay documents the conception and realization of a ‘mobile display unit,’ a kind of cabinet of curiosities attached to a donkey, and made to travel through the streets of Beijing so that the texts, works and videos displayed there were accessible to passers-by.

  5. Mass Media and the National Experience; Essays in Communications History.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farrar, Ronald T., Ed.; Stevens, John D., Ed.

    In 11 different essays, journalism historians reflect on the present state of their art and suggest ways and means of doing the important work that lies ahead. Areas of productive research suggested include freedom of expression, politics and economics, technology regionalism, Black journalism, the journalist as social critic, photographic…

  6. Accounting Issues: An Essay Series Part VI--Investments in Securities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laux, Judy

    2008-01-01

    The sixth in a series of theory-based essays, this article presents accounting for investments in debt and equity securities along with some related conceptual and measurement issues. Additional coverage is devoted to potential ethical dilemmas and both theoretical and empirical literature related to this asset. (Contains 1 footnote.)

  7. Towards a Realist Sociology of Education: A Polyphonic Review Essay

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grenfell, Michael; Hood, Susan; Barrett, Brian D.; Schubert, Dan

    2017-01-01

    This review essay evaluates Karl Maton's "Knowledge and Knowers: Towards a Realist Sociology of Education" as a recent examination of the sociological causes and effects of education in the tradition of the French social theorist Pierre Bourdieu and the British educational sociologist Basil Bernstein. Maton's book synthesizes the…

  8. Essays on the Effects of Medical Marijuana Laws

    OpenAIRE

    Smart, Rosanna

    2016-01-01

    Over half of the US states have adopted "medical marijuana" laws (MMLs), and 58% of Americans now favor marijuana legalization. Despite public support, federal law continues to prohibit the use and sale of marijuana due to public health concerns of increased dependence and abuse, youth access, and drugged driving. These essays contribute toward understanding the likely health consequences of marijuana liberalization using evidence from MMLs.Chapter 1 -- Growing Like Weed: Explaining Variation...

  9. Essays on Stock Issuance

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kohl, Niklas

    Firms which issue new equity subsequently have lower returns than other firms, but does the strength of the issuance effect vary in the cross section of firms? The essay shows, that US firms with characteristics that makes them “hard to value” have returns which are strongly related to their past...... issuance activity, while the return of “easy to value” firms are less related to their past issuance activity. In most cases the difference between “hard to value” and “easy to value” firms are signiffcant. As proxies for “hard to value”, I use three different types of firm characteristics. First, I...... consider firms for which relatively little information is available as “hard to value”. Examples are firms covered by few analysts and small firms. Second, I consider firms with high levels of analyst disagreement on stock price target, next quarter earnings per share and share recommendation as “hard...

  10. Essays in Energy Policy: The Interplay Between Risks and Incentives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lordan-Perret, Rebecca Jane Bishop

    My dissertation considers examples of how social, economic, and political incentives associated with energy production, distribution, and consumption increase the risk of harm to society and the environment. In the first essay, "Why America should move toward dry cask consolidated interim storage of used nuclear fuel," my co-authors and I discuss how the confluence of the U.S. Government and electricity utilities' political and economic incentives created a gridlock preventing a long-term nuclear waste disposal solution. We find that our current policies undermine the safety and security of the nuclear waste, and so, suggest a temporary, consolidated storage solution. In the second essay, "Import-Adjusted Fatality Rates for Individual OECD Countries Caused by Accidents in the Oil Energy Chain," my co-authors and I adopt a technique from the greenhouse gas accounting literature and assign CO2 emissions to the final consumer (rather than the producer) by allocating the risk - measured in fatalities - associated with oil production to the final consumer. The new assignments show that normal methods of tracking oil production impacts only capture part of the actual costs. In the third essay, "Insurgent Attacks on Energy Infrastructure and Electoral Institutions in Colombia," my co-authors and I consider the economic and political incentives that an energy resource create in a conflict environment. Our research shows that insurgents in Colombia, Las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN), strategically time attacks on critical energy infrastructure during elections. These results are the first to quantify insurgent tactics to target critical energy infrastructure, which potentially undermine state capacity and democratic processes.

  11. Correlation Between Lexical Richness and Overall Quality of Argumentative Essays Written by English Department Students

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rizky Lutviana

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: This study aims at revealing the contribution of diction to the overall quality of argumenta-tive essays written by 42 EFL students. The researcher compared two sets of scores, the score of students’ lexical richness, measured with LFP (Lexical Frequency Profile, and the score of overall quality of EFL students’ argumentative essay, using analytical scoring rubric. The small and not significant correlation (ñ=.18, sig=.23 implied that diction had small contribution to the overall quality of the essay. There might be another factor related to the diction that supports the quality of written text. Thus, further research is needed to be conducted. Key Words: diction, lexical richness, overall quality, argumentative essay Abstrak: Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan kontribusi diksi untuk kualitas keseluruhan dari esai argumentatif yang ditulis oleh 42 siswa EFL. Peneliti membandingkan dua set nilai, skor siswa kekayaan leksikal, diukur dengan LFP (Lexical Frequency Profile, dan skor keseluruhan kualitas siswa EFL pada esai argumentatif, dengan menggunakan rubrik skoring analitis. Korelasi kecil dan tidak signifikan (ñ = 0,18, sig = 0,23 menunjukkan bahwa diksi memiliki kontribusi kecil untuk kualitas keseluruhan dari esai. Kemungkinan, ada faktor lain yang berhubungan dengan diksi yang mendukung kualitas dari teks. Dengan demikian, penelitian lebih lanjut diperlukan untuk dilakukan. Kata kunci: diksi, kekayaan leksikal, kualitas secara keseluruhan, esai argumentatif

  12. Questions of Identity and Self Determination

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dybbroe, Susanne

    1996-01-01

    This essay on Inuit identity seeks to describe identity in terms of individual experience and of collective processes. These two elements are subsequently put into relation with the political situation of contemporary Inuit, particularly with their quest for self-determination. The author conclud...

  13. Effectiveness of Guided Multiple Choice Objective Questions Test on Students' Academic Achievement in Senior School Mathematics by School Location

    Science.gov (United States)

    Igbojinwaekwu, Patrick Chukwuemeka

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated, using pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research design, the effectiveness of guided multiple choice objective questions test on students' academic achievement in Senior School Mathematics, by school location, in Delta State Capital Territory, Nigeria. The sample comprised 640 Students from four coeducation secondary…

  14. PICTORIAL ESSAY Bamboo spine – X-ray findings of ankylosing ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Pathology and imaging characteris- tics. In this pictorial essay, we focus on the characteristic axial skeleton imaging findings of AS, as it presents on conventional X-ray:1. • florid anterior spondylitis (Romanus lesions). • florid diskitis (Andersson lesions). Ankylosing spondylitis is a debilitating disease that is one of the sero-.

  15. The Donkey Institute of Contemporary Art (DICA: A Photo-Essay

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yam Lau

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available This photo-essay documents the conception and realization of a ‘mobile display unit,’ a kind of cabinet of curiosities attached to a donkey, and made to travel through the streets of Beijing so that the texts, works and videos displayed there were accessible to passers-by.

  16. Should God Get Tenure? Essays on Religion and Higher Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gill, David W., Ed.

    Essays on the role of religion in higher education include: "Should God Get Tenure?" (David W. Gill); "On Being a Professor: The Case of Socrates" (Bruce R. Reichenbach); "Academic Excellence: Cliche or Humanizing Vision?" (Merold Westphal); "Religion, Science, and the Humanities in the Liberal Arts Curriculum" (H. Newton Maloney); "Tolstoy and…

  17. Fostering effective studying and study planning with study questions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wilhelm, P.; Pieters, J.M.

    2007-01-01

    In a course on biological psychology and neuropsychology, study questions were provided that also appeared as test questions in the course exam. This method was introduced to support students in active processing and reproduction of the study texts, and study planning. Data were gathered to test the

  18. 'Korenizatsiia' and its Discontents: Ukraine and the Soviet Nationality Policies during the 1920s: A Review Essay

    OpenAIRE

    VUSHKO, Iryna

    2009-01-01

    This essay reviews the recent literature on the nationalities policy in Soviet Ukraine during the 1920s. It brings together different Western (English and German) and native (Ukrainian and Russian) historical narratives, all produced after 2001. Different approaches to the Soviet nationalities policy, as this essay demonstrates, reveal broader methodological differences between historians working within distinct historiographical traditions. Despite the increasing contacts between...

  19. Essays on environmental, energy, and natural resource economics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Fan

    My dissertation focuses on examining the interrelationship among the environment, energy and economic development. In the first essay, I explore the effects of increased uncertainty over future output prices, input costs and productivity levels on intertemporal emission permits trading. In a dynamic programming setting, a permit price is a convex function of each of these three sources of uncertainty. Increased uncertainty about future market conditions increases the expected permit price and causes risk-neutral firms to reduce ex ante emissions to smooth marginal abatement costs over time. Empirical analysis shows that increased price volatility induced by electricity market restructuring could explain 8-11% of the allowances banked during Phase I of the U.S. sulfur dioxide trading program. Numerical simulation suggests that high uncertainty may generate substantial initial compliance costs, thereby deterring new entrants and reducing efficiency; sharp emission spikes are also more likely to occur under industry-wide uncertainty shocks. In the second essay, I examine whether electricity restructuring improves the efficiency of U.S. nuclear power generation. Based on the full sample of 73 investor-owned nuclear plants in the United States from 1992 to 1998, I estimate cross-sectional and longitudinal efficiency changes associated with restructuring, at the plant level. Various modeling strategies are presented to deal with the policy endogeneity bias that high cost plants are more likely to be restructured. Overall, I find a strikingly positive relationship between the multiple steps of restructuring and plant operating efficiency. In the third essay, I estimate the economic impact of China's national land conversion program on local farm-dependent economies. The impact of the program on 14 industrial sectors in Gansu provinces are investigated using an input-output model. Due to regulatory restrictions, the agricultural sector cannot automatically expand or shrink

  20. Küsimus „vene mõjust” Friedebert Tuglase artiklis „Valeri Brjussov”. The Question of Russian Influence on Friedebert Tuglas’ article ”Valeri Brjussov”

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lea Pild

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available This article undertakes to examine a problem that has interested many Estonian scholars for at least a century and a half – the question of the role of Russian literature in the development of Estonian literature. Friedebert Tuglas, leader of the Young Estonia movement, and recognized prose writer, critic, and literary historian, was significantly engaged with this question. In his essay on Valeri Brjussov, published in the 9th issue of the literary magazine Looming in 1924, Tuglas presents an unusual summary of the arguments over ”Russian influence”. As indicated in the subtitle, (”On the Occasion of his Death”, Tuglas’ essay on Brjussov grew out of a talk he gave in the Tartu University main hall on the anniversary of the death of the leader of the Russian symbolists. On closer examination, however, one can see a rich texture of connections between this essay and many of Tuglas’ literary-historical and critical articles in which he engages in polemic with the opponents of Young Estonia’s aesthetic program. As we know, this polemic was not limited to the first two decades of the 20th century, but continued in the 1920s and 1930s, ”when the proponents of new realism came to criticize Young Estonia’s perspectives on art”. One of the main disputed topics was the question of literary ”influences” (”borrowings”. Many of the critics of the Young Estonians accused them of the lack of literary and cultural autonomy, and of dependence on foreign models. From the beginning of the Young Estonia, the sharpest of these polemics concerned relations with Russian literature. According to Tuglas, Young Estonia, which aligned itself first and foremost with the literature of western Europe, also sought the same ”Europeanness” in Russian modernist literature; this can be seen in Estonian literature of the decade 1905–1915. With this approach to the literary process one can interpret the question of ”Russian influence” on

  1. Discerning applicants’ interests in rural medicine: a textual analysis of admission essays

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carol L. Elam

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Background: Despite efforts to construct targeted medical school admission processes using applicant-level correlates of future practice location, accurately gauging applicants’ interests in rural medicine remains an imperfect science. This study explores the usefulness of textual analysis to identify rural-oriented themes and values underlying applicants’ open-ended responses to admission essays. Methods: The study population consisted of 75 applicants to the Rural Physician Leadership Program (RPLP at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. Using WordStat, a proprietary text analysis program, applicants’ American Medical College Application Service personal statement and an admission essay written at the time of interview were searched for predefined keywords and phrases reflecting rural medical values. From these text searches, derived scores were then examined relative to interviewers’ subjective ratings of applicants’ overall acceptability for admission to the RPLP program and likelihood of practicing in a rural area. Results: The two interviewer-assigned ratings of likelihood of rural practice and overall acceptability were significantly related. A statistically significant relationship was also found between the rural medical values scores and estimated likelihood of rural practice. However, there was no association between rural medical values scores and subjective ratings of applicant acceptability. Conclusions: That applicants’ rural values in admission essays were not related to interviewers’ overall acceptability ratings indicates that other factors played a role in the interviewers’ assessments of applicants’ acceptability for admission.

  2. Discerning applicants' interests in rural medicine: a textual analysis of admission essays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elam, Carol L; Weaver, Anthony D; Whittler, Elmer T; Stratton, Terry D; Asher, Linda M; Scott, Kimberly L; Wilson, Emery A

    2015-01-01

    Despite efforts to construct targeted medical school admission processes using applicant-level correlates of future practice location, accurately gauging applicants' interests in rural medicine remains an imperfect science. This study explores the usefulness of textual analysis to identify rural-oriented themes and values underlying applicants' open-ended responses to admission essays. The study population consisted of 75 applicants to the Rural Physician Leadership Program (RPLP) at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. Using WordStat, a proprietary text analysis program, applicants' American Medical College Application Service personal statement and an admission essay written at the time of interview were searched for predefined keywords and phrases reflecting rural medical values. From these text searches, derived scores were then examined relative to interviewers' subjective ratings of applicants' overall acceptability for admission to the RPLP program and likelihood of practicing in a rural area. The two interviewer-assigned ratings of likelihood of rural practice and overall acceptability were significantly related. A statistically significant relationship was also found between the rural medical values scores and estimated likelihood of rural practice. However, there was no association between rural medical values scores and subjective ratings of applicant acceptability. That applicants' rural values in admission essays were not related to interviewers' overall acceptability ratings indicates that other factors played a role in the interviewers' assessments of applicants' acceptability for admission.

  3. Questioning Questions: Elementary Teachers' Adaptations of Investigation Questions across the Inquiry Continuum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biggers, Mandy

    2018-01-01

    Questioning is a central practice in science classrooms. However, not every question translates into a "good" science investigation. Questions that drive science investigations can be provided by many sources including the teacher, the curriculum, or the student. The variations in the source of investigation questions were explored in…

  4. Virtual Reality: A Definition History - A Personal Essay

    OpenAIRE

    Bryson, Steve

    2013-01-01

    This essay, written in 1998 by an active participant in both virtual reality development and the virtual reality definition debate, discusses the definition of the phrase "Virtual Reality" (VR). I start with history from a personal perspective, concentrating on the debate between the "Virtual Reality" and "Virtual Environment" labels in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Definitions of VR based on specific technologies are shown to be unsatisfactory. I propose the following definition of VR, b...

  5. An Examination of the Instruction Provided in Australian Essay Guides for Students' Development of a Critical Viewpoint

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hammer, Sara

    2017-01-01

    The argumentative essay has endured as a popular form of university assessment, yet students still struggle to meet key intended learning outcomes, such as those associated with critical thinking. This paper presents the results of a study that examines the instruction provided by Australian essay writing guides to support students' development of…

  6. The Role of Women in Foreign-Language Textbooks: A Collection of Essays. Collection d'"Etudes linguistiques" No. 24.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Freudenstein, R., Ed.

    Essays that consider the way that women are portrayed in foreign language textbooks are presented. The selected essays were submitted to a competition sponsored by the Federation Internationale des Professeurs de Langues Vivantes, which requested that language teachers assess such concerns as: (1) whether women were described in a stereotyped way;…

  7. Fertility in the Age of Demographic Maturity: An Essay

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anatole Romaniuk

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available As humanity is moving into a new age of its demographic evolution, I call it demographic maturity, the emerging demographic configurations – generational sub-replacement fertility, advanced aging and potential population implosion – call for new ways of thinking about population and new policy approaches. While we live longer and healthier, we also reproduce less and less. We are stuck in a culture of low fertility. The strong motivations for foregoing motherhood are financial: a two-salary wage is better than one even for the higher middle class. No less important is the woman’s financial independence in a societal environment where marriage as an institution is under considerable stress. Motherhood is to be rewarded adequately for its highly important social role and it has to be sufficient to reassure potential mothers of their financial concerns. What is required is a more balanced resource allocation between production and reproduction. The old welfare type hand-outs like child bonuses do not work. Societies, particularly the rich, ought to realize that to raise fertility, even to generational replacement level, not only is a much greater financial effort called for but some of the tenants of the liberal economy need to be put into question to make room for social concerns such a renewal of generations, if they want to survive as national entities. This essay advocates a stationary population as the best response to challenges such as ecological health, national identity and cohesion, and possibly world peace.

  8. Rhetorical, Metacognitive, and Cognitive Strategies in Teacher Candidates' Essay Writing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diaz Larenas, Claudio; Ramos Leiva, Lucía; Ortiz Navarrete, Mabel

    2017-01-01

    This paper reports on a study about the rhetoric, metacognitive, and cognitive strategies pre-service teachers use before and after a process-based writing intervention when completing an argumentative essay. The data were collected through two think-aloud protocols while 21 Chilean English as a foreign language pre-service teachers completed an…

  9. Dostoevsky: A Collection of Critical Essays. Twentieth Century Views Series.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wellek, Rene, Ed.

    One of a series of works aimed at presenting contemporary opinion on major authors, this collection includes essays by Rene Wellek, Philip Rahv, Murray Krieger, Irving Howe, Eliseo Vivas, D. H. Lawrence, Sigmund Freud, Dmitri Chizhevsky, V. V. Zenkovsky, Georg Lukacs, and Derek Traversi--all dealing with the biography and literary work of…

  10. Homer: A Collection of Critical Essays. Twentieth Century Views Series.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steiner, George, Ed.; Fagles, Robert, Ed.

    One of a series of works aimed at presenting contemporary critical opinion on major authors, this collection includes essays by George Steiner, Leo Tolstoy, Ezra Pound, Erich Auerbach, Edwin Muir, Cedric H. Whitman, Albert B. Lord, W. H. Auden, Ernst Bloch, Georg Lukacs, C. Day Lewis, Gabriel Germain, Franz Kafka, Rachel Bespaloff, Robert…

  11. Hardy: A Collection of Critical Essays. Twentieth Century Views Series.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guerard, Albert J., Ed.

    One of a series of works aimed at presenting contemporary critical opinion on major authors, this collection includes essays by Albert Guerard, Donald Davidson, Morton Dauwen Zabel, D. H. Lawrence, John Hollowan, Dorothy Van Ghent, John Paterson, A. Alvarez, Delmore Schwartz, W. H. Auden, David Perkins, and Samuel Hynes--all dealing with the…

  12. Undergraduate Essay Writing: Online and Face-to-Face Peer Reviews

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chong, Mike R.; Goff, Lori; Dej, Kimberly

    2012-01-01

    We implemented two different approaches of using peer review to support undergraduate essay assignments for students taking large second-year courses in life sciences and biology: a web-based online peer review (OPR) approach and a more traditional face-to-face peer review (FPR) approach that was conducted in tutorial settings. The essays…

  13. Review Essay: Recent Scholarship from the Buryat Mongols of Siberia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert W. Montgomery

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Review essay on the edited volume Etnicheskaia istoriia i kul’turno-bytovye traditsii narodov baikal’skogo regiona. [The Ethnic History and the Traditions of Culture and Daily Life of the Peoples of the Baikal Region] Ed. M. N. Baldano, O. V. Buraeva and D. D. Nimaev (Ulan-Ude, 2010

  14. An Online National Archive of Multiple-Choice Questions for Astro 101 and the Development of the Question Complexity Rubric

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cormier, S.; Prather, E.; Brissenden, G.

    2011-09-01

    We are developing a national archive of multiple-choice questions for use in the Astronomy 101 classroom. These questions are intended to supplement an instructor's implementation of Think-Pair-Share or for their assessment purposes (i.e., exams and homework). We are also developing the Question Complexity Rubric (QCR) to guide members of the Astro 101 teaching and learning community in assisting us with hierarchically ranking questions in this archive based on their conceptual complexity. Using the QCR, a score is assigned to differentiate each question based on the cognitive steps necessary to comprehensively explain the reasoning pathway to the correct answer. The lowest QCR score is given to questions with a reasoning pathway requiring only declarative knowledge. The highest QCR score is given to questions with a reasoning pathway that requires multiple connected cognitive steps. When completed, the online question archive will provide users with the utility to 1) use the QCR to score questions 2) search for and download questions based on topic and/or QCR score, and 3) add their own questions to the archive. Stop by our poster to test your skills at determining question complexity by trying out the QCR with our sample questions.

  15. Raising voices: How sixth graders construct authority and knowledge in argumentative essays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monahan, Mary Elizabeth

    This qualitative classroom-based study documents one teacher-researcher's response to the "voice" debate in composition studies and to the opposing views expressed by Elbow and Bartholomae. The author uses Bakhtin's principle of dialogism, Hymes's theory of communicative competence, as well as Ivanic's discussion of discoursally constructed identities to reconceptualize voice and to redesign writing instruction in her sixth grade classroom. This study shows how students, by redefining and then acting on that voice pedagogy in terms that made sense to them, shaped the author's understanding of what counts as "voiced" writing in non-narrative discourse. Based on a grounded-theory analysis of the twenty-six sixth graders' argumentative essays in science, the author explains voice, not as a property of writers or of texts, but as a process of "knowing together"---a collaborative, but not entirely congenial, exercise of establishing one's authority by talking with, against, and through other voices on the issue. As the results of this study show, the students' "I-Ness" or authorial presence within their texts, was born in a nexus of relationships with "rivals," "allies" and "readers." Given their teacher's injunctions to project confidence and authority in argumentative writing, the students assumed fairly adversarial stances toward these conversational partners throughout their essays. Exaggerating the terms for voiced writing built into the curriculum, the sixth graders produced essays that read more like caricatures than examples of argumentation. Their displays of rhetorical bravado and intellectual aggressiveness, however offsetting to the reader, still enabled these sixth graders to composed voiced essays. This study raises doubts about the value of urging students to sound like their "true selves" or to adopt the formal registers of academe. Students, it seems clear, stand to gain by experimenting with a range of textual identities. The author suggests that voice

  16. A qualitative thematic content analysis of medical students' essays on professionalism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, So-Youn; Shon, Changwoo; Kwon, Oh Young; Yoon, Tai Young; Kwon, Ivo

    2017-05-03

    Physicians in both Western and Eastern countries are being confronted by changes in health care delivery systems and medical professionalism values. The traditional concept of "In-Sul" (benevolent art) and the modern history of South Korea have led to cultural differences between South Korea and other countries in conceptualizing medical professionalism; thus, we studied medical students' perceptions of professionalism as described in essays written on this topic. In 2014, we asked 109 first-year medical students who were enrolled in a compulsory ethics course to anonymously write a description of an instance of medical professionalism that they had witnessed, as well as reflecting on their own professional context. We then processed 105 valid essays using thematic content analysis with computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software. Thematic analysis of the students' essays revealed two core aspects of professionalism in South Korea, one focused on respect for patients and the other on physicians' accountability. The most common theme regarding physician-patient relationships was trust. By contrast, distributive justice was thought to be a non-essential aspect of professionalism. In Western countries, physicians tend to promote justice in the health care system, including fair distribution of medical resources; however, we found that medical students in South Korea were more inclined to emphasize doctors' relationships with patients. Medical educators should develop curricular interventions regarding medical professionalism to meet the legitimate needs of patients in their own culture. Because professionalism is a dynamic construct of culture, medical educators should reaffirm cultural context-specific definitions of professionalism for development of associated curricula.

  17. Review essay: empires, ancient and modern.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, John A

    2011-09-01

    This essay drews attention to two books on empires by historians which deserve the attention of sociologists. Bang's model of the workings of the Roman economy powerfully demonstrates the tributary nature of per-industrial tributary empires. Darwin's analysis concentrates on modern overseas empires, wholly different in character as they involved the transportation of consumption items for the many rather than luxury goods for the few. Darwin is especially good at describing the conditions of existence of late nineteenth century empires, noting that their demise was caused most of all by the failure of balance of power politics in Europe. Concluding thoughts are offered about the USA. © London School of Economics and Political Science 2011.

  18. Rhetorical questions or rhetorical uses of questions?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Špago Džemal

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper aims to explore whether some rhetorical questions contain certain linguistic elements or forms which would differentiate them from answer-eliciting and action-eliciting questions, and thereby hint at their rhetorical nature even outside the context. Namely, despite the fact that the same questions can be rhetorical in one context, and answer-eliciting in another, some of them are more likely to be associated with rhetorical or non-rhetorical use. The analysis is based on extensive data (over 1200 examples of rhetorical questions taken from 30 plays by two British and two American writers, and the results are expected to give an insight into whether we can talk about rhetorical questions or just a rhetorical use of questions.

  19. Certainty Judgements and the Status of Propositions in Undergraduate Essays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siew Mei, Wu

    2013-01-01

    This paper explores the expression of certainty in a set of high- and low-rated Geography argumentative essays. Using one aspect of Hunston's (1989, 2000) concept of the evaluation of status, the paper compares the statement types used to construe the writer's expression of certainty in the construction of arguments. Drawing on the framework,…

  20. Essays on variational approximation techniques for stochastic optimization problems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deride Silva, Julio A.

    This dissertation presents five essays on approximation and modeling techniques, based on variational analysis, applied to stochastic optimization problems. It is divided into two parts, where the first is devoted to equilibrium problems and maxinf optimization, and the second corresponds to two essays in statistics and uncertainty modeling. Stochastic optimization lies at the core of this research as we were interested in relevant equilibrium applications that contain an uncertain component, and the design of a solution strategy. In addition, every stochastic optimization problem relies heavily on the underlying probability distribution that models the uncertainty. We studied these distributions, in particular, their design process and theoretical properties such as their convergence. Finally, the last aspect of stochastic optimization that we covered is the scenario creation problem, in which we described a procedure based on a probabilistic model to create scenarios for the applied problem of power estimation of renewable energies. In the first part, Equilibrium problems and maxinf optimization, we considered three Walrasian equilibrium problems: from economics, we studied a stochastic general equilibrium problem in a pure exchange economy, described in Chapter 3, and a stochastic general equilibrium with financial contracts, in Chapter 4; finally from engineering, we studied an infrastructure planning problem in Chapter 5. We stated these problems as belonging to the maxinf optimization class and, in each instance, we provided an approximation scheme based on the notion of lopsided convergence and non-concave duality. This strategy is the foundation of the augmented Walrasian algorithm, whose convergence is guaranteed by lopsided convergence, that was implemented computationally, obtaining numerical results for relevant examples. The second part, Essays about statistics and uncertainty modeling, contains two essays covering a convergence problem for a sequence

  1. Essays on competition, corporate financing and investment : A stochastic dynamic approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gryglewicz, S.

    2008-01-01

    This thesis contains four studies on economic and finance theory that analyze the effects of time, uncertainty and information on firms’ strategic and financial decisions. The first essay presents a game-theoretic model of dynamic signaling taking place in an evolving environment. The model is

  2. Tourism in a World of Risks (Essay Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maximiliano E. KORSTANJE

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Though tourism combines curiosity with security, over the recent decades, we are facing an inflation of risks that caused big problems for policy makers and officials interested in promoting tourism in their respective nations. As a result of this, one might speculate that the future of industry is uncertain. This essay review explores the already existent literature in risk perception applied on tourism fields as well as introduces the theory of attachment to explain how the world is constructed.

  3. Essays on inheritance, small businesses and energy consumption

    OpenAIRE

    Escobar, Sebastian

    2017-01-01

    Essay 1: People’s planning to evade the inheritance tax curtails its merits. However, the extent of planning remains a matter of argument. According to popular belief, it is widespread, but few estimates have been presented. This study estimates the extent of estate size under-reporting, a form of inheritance tax planning, using the repeal of the Swedish tax on spousal bequests, in 2004, and a regression discontinuity design. The results show that, on average, estate sizes were 17 percent low...

  4. The theory of relativity and other essays

    CERN Document Server

    Einstein, Albert

    2011-01-01

    E=mc2: It may be Einstein's most well-known contribution to modern science, but how many people understand the thought process or physics behind this famous equation?In this collection of his seven most important essays on physics, Einstein guides his reader step-by-step through the many layers of scientific theory that formed a starting point for his discoveries. By both supporting and refuting the theories and scientific efforts of his predecessors, Einstein reveals in a clear voice the origins and meaning of such significant topics as physics and reality, the fundamentals of theoretical ph

  5. The Body and its Able-ness: Articulating In/Eligibility through Rhetorics of Motherhood, Unjust Language, and Questionable Medical Authority

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rachel D. Davidson

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available This essay analyzes a controversy involving Amelia (Mia Rivera, a three-year old girl who was denied a life-saving kidney transplant in January 2012. As reported by Mia's mother, Chrissy, on her blog post, Mia was denied the kidney transplant because of her mental disability. Throughout the public discussion that took place over a few short weeks, we argue Mia's ineligibility was rearticulated through rhetorics of motherhood, unjust body language, and questions about medical authority. we suggest this indicates that descriptions of the body and its able-ness carry more weight in the public's understanding of health issues than does medical authority.

  6. Three essays on the effect of wind generation on power system planning and operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, Clay Duane

    While the benefits of wind generation are well known, some drawbacks are still being understood as wind power is integrated into the power grid at increasing levels. The primary difference between wind generation and other forms of generation is the intermittent, and somewhat unpredictable, aspect of this resource. The somewhat uncontrollable aspect of wind generation makes it important to consider the relationship between this resource and load, and also how the operation of other non-wind generation resources may be affected. The three essays that comprise this dissertation focus on these and other important issues related to wind generation; leading to an improved understanding of how to better plan for and utilize this resource. The first essay addresses the cost of increased levels of installed wind capacity from both a capacity planning and economic dispatch perspective to arrive at the total system cost of installing a unit of wind capacity. This total includes not only the cost of the wind turbine and associated infrastructure, but also the cost impact an additional unit of wind capacity has on the optimal mix and operation of other generating units in the electricity supply portfolio. The results of the model showed that for all wind expansion scenarios, wind capacity is not cost-effective regardless of the level of the wind production tax credit and carbon prices that were considered. Larger levels of installed wind capacity result in reduced variable cost, but this reduction is not able to offset increases in capital cost, as a unit of installed wind capacity does not result in an equal reduction in other non-wind capacity needs. The second essay develops a methodology to better handle unexpected short term fluctuations in wind generation within the existing power system. The methodology developed in this essay leads to lower expected costs by anticipating and planning for fluctuations in wind generation by focusing on key constraints in the system. The

  7. Essays on the investment behavior of independent power producers in the United States electricity industry under regulatory restructuring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, Jingming

    2002-09-01

    In recent years, there have been efforts at both the federal and state level to introduce greater competition and markets into the US electricity industry through regulatory restructuring. A key to the success of such efforts is the ability of the restructuring to attract investment from non-utility, independent power producers (IPPs). The two essays in this dissertation examine empirically the investment behavior of IPPs under the regulatory restructuring between 1996 and 2000. In both essays, the effects of restructuring on a firm's investment decision are decomposed into the effects that work through the investment cost and that through the expected profit from the investment. The first essay studies the entry behavior of IPPs under the restructuring. The main finding of the essay is that the restructuring has done little to lower the entry barrier faced by IPPs-high fixed cost to entry is still a main factor that hinders IPP investment. The second essay studies IPPs' decisions between investing through building new power plants ("make") and investing through acquiring divested plants ("buy"). It finds that the availability of the "buy" option does not "squeeze" out investment on new capacities. IPPs that chose to "buy" did so because they expected a lower return from "make" and hence would not have switched their investment to new capacities even if the "buy" option were not available. Therefore, divestiture is a viable policy tool for state regulators to attract more IPP investment.

  8. Towards a sustainable agriculture in 2030. An essay on transition; Naar een duurzame landbouw in 2030. Een essay over transitie

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hees, E.M.; Van der Weijden, W.J.; Hin, C.J.A.

    2002-05-01

    Sustainable development of the agricultural sector in the Netherlands is high on the list of priorities in the environmental policy of the Netherlands. In this report special attention is paid to sustainability indicators which can be used in the transition of a Dutch National Environmental Balance towards a Dutch National Sustainability Balance. The report consists of three parts: (1) an essay in the form of an imaginary review from the year 2030 back to the transition process of the agricultural sector from the year 2000 onwards; (2) 14 texts on proposals for economical, socio-cultural and ecological indicators; and (3) four maps which present chances for offering 'green' services in Dutch agricultural areas. [Dutch] Een van de sectoren waar duurzame ontwikkeling hard nodig is, is de landbouw. Het 4e Nationaal Miliebeleidsplan (NMP4) noernt de landbouw naast de energiesector en biodiversiteit als een prioritaire sector. In dit rapport is een visie neergelegdeen met speciale aandacht voor duurzaamheidindicatoren. Die indicatoren zouden bouwstenen kunnen zijn voor de voorgenomen overgang van een Nationale Milieubalans naar een Nationale Duurzaamheidsbalans. Dit rapport bestaat uit drie uiteenlopende delen: een essay in de vorm van een denkbeeldige terugblik vanuit het jaar 2030 naar het transitieproces dat de landbouw vanaf 2000 heeft doorgemaakt; een 14-tal tekstuele bijIagen, met onder meer voorstellen voor te hanteren economische, sociaal-culturele en ecologische indicatoren; en een viertal kaart-bijlagen waarop staat aangegeven waar in het Nederlandse landbouwareaal kansen liggen voor groene diensten.

  9. Yeats: A Collection of Critical Essays. Twentieth Century Views Series.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Unterecker, John, Ed.

    One of a series of works aimed at presenting contemporary critical opinion on major authors, this collection includes essays by John Unterecker, W. H. Auden, High Kenner, Giogio Melchiori, Frank Kermode, W. Y. Tindall, T. S. Eliot, R. P. Blackmur, Alex Zwerdling, Curtis Bradford, D. J. Gordon, Ian Fletcher, A. G. Stock, Allen Tate, and Richard…

  10. Hemingway; A Collection of Critical Essays. Twentieth Century Views Series.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weeks, Robert P., Ed.

    One of a series of works aimed at presenting contemporary critical opinion on major authors, this collection includes essays by Lillian Ross, Malcolm Crowley, E.M. Halliday, Harry Levin, Leslie Fiedler, D.H. Lawrence, Philip Young, Sean O'Faolain, Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, Carlos Baker, Mark Spilka, Ray B. West, Jr., Nemi D'Agostino,…

  11. Latin America’s Transformative New Extraction and Local Conflicts : review essay

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hogenboom, B.

    2015-01-01

    Review essay of: A. Bebbington, J. Bury (2013) Subterranean Struggles: New Dynamics of Mining, Oil, and Gas in Latin America; F. Li (2015) Unearthing conflict: Corporate Mining, Activism, and Expertise in Peru; P.I. Vásquez (2014) Oil Sparks in the Amazon: Local Conflicts, Indigenous Populations,

  12. Depressive cognition: a test of depressive realism versus negativity using general knowledge questions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stone, E R; Dodrill, C L; Johnson, N

    2001-11-01

    This research is an examination of whether cognition in depressed individuals incorporates a realistic view of the world or a general tendency toward negativity. Participants provided two types of probability judgments of the likelihood that they correctly answered general knowledge questions: the probability that they correctly answered each of the individual questions and an aggregate judgment, after completing the questionnaire, of the percentage of all the questions they thought they had correctly answered. These tasks generally elicit overconfidence and accuracy in nondepressives. In accord with theories of both depressive realism and general negativity, in their item-by-item assessments of their answers to the individual questions, depressed participants demonstrated less overconfidence than nondepressed participants. In accord with the theory of general negativity but not with the theory of depressive realism, however, depressed participants demonstrated underconfidence in their aggregate judgments. The implications of these findings on theories of depressive cognition are discussed.

  13. Evaluation of the technique 'wire on the screw' in laboratory accelerated essays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Calderon, J.; Arroyave, C.

    1998-01-01

    The CLIMAT essay has been employed as for the micro climate corrosiveness determination as for large geographic zones, allowing the qualification of corrosiveness of the interesting sites, the maps raising, the materials evaluation and the pollution focus localization. However, its utility, this has not been deepen in the understanding of his characteristics and corrosive process that it experiments. With the purpose in order to deepen in its knowledge and evaluating the useful possibilities in an immersion-emersion accelerated essay, it was accomplishment the present work. For this, was employed spiral aluminium manometers forming a galvanized pair with copper and steel screws, which were exposed to representative dissolutions of rainwater of the rural, urban and marine environment. It was measured the electrode potential for the essays, the corrosion velocities were determined gravimetrically, it was drawing polarization curves and they were characterized the corrosion products by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Infrared spectrometry (Ftir), Scanning Electron Microscopy (Sem) and stereoscopic microscope. The results allow to conclude that must pass sometime for what galvanic action was established. The potential evolution after that initial time, is approximately the same for the two pairs, for which the main losing of mass obtained in the Al-Cu screw has to be explained with kinetic arguments offered for polarization curves. The main corrosion product is bayerite (Al(OH) 3 ), with greater crystallinity in Cl - dissolution than in SO 4 (2-) and with morphologies very influenced by environment. (Author)

  14. A Corpus-based Study of EFL Learners’ Errors in IELTS Essay Writing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hoda Divsar

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The present study analyzed different types of errors in the EFL learners’ IELTS essays. In order to determine the major types of errors, a corpus of 70 IELTS examinees’ writings were collected, and their errors were extracted and categorized qualitatively. Errors were categorized based on a researcher-developed error-coding scheme into 13 aspects. Based on the descriptive statistical analyses, the frequency of each error type was calculated and the commonest errors committed by the EFL learners in IELTS essays were identified. The results indicated that the two most frequent errors that IELTS candidates committed were related to word choice and verb forms. Based on the research results, pedagogical implications highlight analyzing EFL learners’ writing errors as a useful basis for instructional purposes including creating pedagogical teaching materials that are in line with learners’ linguistic strengths and weaknesses.

  15. Executive function impairment in community elderly subjects with questionable dementia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lam, Linda C W; Lui, Victor W C; Chiu, Helen F K; Chan, Sandra S M; Tam, Cindy W C

    2005-01-01

    The neurocognitive profile of community-dwelling Chinese subjects with 'questionable' dementia was studied. One hundred and fifty-four ambulatory Chinese subjects were recruited from local social centers for the elderly. Each subject was examined using the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), the Cantonese version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (CMMSE), the Chinese version of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog), the Category Verbal Fluency Test (CVFT), digit and visual span tests, and the Cambridge Neurological Inventory. The neurocognitive profile of nondemented subjects (CDR 0) was compared with that of subjects with 'questionable' dementia (CDR 0.5). Subjects with 'questionable' dementia were older, and had lower educational levels and global cognitive assessment scores than the controls (CMMSE and ADAS-Cog; t tests, p < 0.001). In addition, they also had significantly lower scores in delayed recall, reverse span, verbal fluency tests and worse performance in complex motor tasks related to executive function (Mann-Whitney tests, p < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis revealed that ADAS-Cog, CVFT, and reverse visual span were significant predictors for the CDR of 'questionable' dementia. Aside from memory impairment, executive function deficits were also present in subjects with 'questionable' dementia. To identify groups cognitively at risk for dementia, concomitant assessments of memory and executive function are suggested.

  16. Biology Question Generation from a Semantic Network

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Lishan

    Science instructors need questions for use in exams, homework assignments, class discussions, reviews, and other instructional activities. Textbooks never have enough questions, so instructors must find them from other sources or generate their own questions. In order to supply instructors with biology questions, a semantic network approach was developed for generating open response biology questions. The generated questions were compared to professional authorized questions. To boost students' learning experience, adaptive selection was built on the generated questions. Bayesian Knowledge Tracing was used as embedded assessment of the student's current competence so that a suitable question could be selected based on the student's previous performance. A between-subjects experiment with 42 participants was performed, where half of the participants studied with adaptive selected questions and the rest studied with mal-adaptive order of questions. Both groups significantly improved their test scores, and the participants in adaptive group registered larger learning gains than participants in the control group. To explore the possibility of generating rich instructional feedback for machine-generated questions, a question-paragraph mapping task was identified. Given a set of questions and a list of paragraphs for a textbook, the goal of the task was to map the related paragraphs to each question. An algorithm was developed whose performance was comparable to human annotators. A multiple-choice question with high quality distractors (incorrect answers) can be pedagogically valuable as well as being much easier to grade than open-response questions. Thus, an algorithm was developed to generate good distractors for multiple-choice questions. The machine-generated multiple-choice questions were compared to human-generated questions in terms of three measures: question difficulty, question discrimination and distractor usefulness. By recruiting 200 participants from

  17. Questionnaire design: carry-over effects of overall acceptance question placement and pre-evaluation instructions on overall acceptance scores in central location tests.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bastian, Mauresa; Eggett, Dennis L; Jefferies, Laura K

    2015-02-01

    Question placement and usage of pre-evaluation instructions (PEI) in questionnaires for food sensory analysis may bias consumers' scores via carry-over effects. Data from consumer sensory panels previously conducted at a central location, spanning 11 years and covering a broad range of food product categories, were compiled. Overall acceptance (OA) question placement was studied with categories designated as first (the first evaluation question following demographic questions), after nongustation questions (immediately following questions that do not require panelists to taste the product), and later (following all other hedonic and just-about-right [JAR] questions, but occasionally before ranking, open-ended comments, and/or intent to purchase questions). Each panel was categorized as having or not having PEI in the questionnaire; PEI are instructions that appear immediately before the first evaluation question and show panelists all attributes they will evaluate before receiving test samples. Postpanel surveys were administered regarding the self-reported effect of PEI on panelists' evaluation experience. OA scores were analyzed and compared (1) between OA question placement categories and (2) between panels with and without PEI. For most product categories, OA scores tended to be lower when asked later in the questionnaire, suggesting evidence of a carry-over effect. Usage of PEI increased OA scores by 0.10 of a 9-point hedonic scale point, which is not practically significant. Postpanel survey data showed that presence of PEI typically improved the panelists' experience. Using PEI does not appear to introduce a meaningful carry-over effect. © 2015 Institute of Food Technologists®

  18. Modelling and essay or the polarization curve of a polymeric membrane fuel cell; Modelagem e ensaio da curva de polarizacao de uma celula a combustivel de membrana polimerica

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Almeida, Silvio Carlos Anibal de; Xavier, Bruno Domont; Gatti, George Cassani; Ribeiro, Rodrigo Minguita [Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), RJ (Brazil). Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-graduacao de Engenharia (COPPE). Programa de Engenharia Mecanica]. E-mails: silvioa@gmail.com; brunodomont@gmail.com; gatti_ufrj@yahoo.com.br; rminguita@yahoo.com.br; Furtado, Jose Geraldo de Melo [Centro de Pesquisas de Energia Eletrica (CEPEL), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Dept. de Tecnologias Especiais]. E-mail: furtado@cepel.br

    2006-07-01

    This paper describes the essays performed with a polymeric membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) at the test laboratories of the ELETROBRAS Electric Energy Research Center (CEPEL/ELETROBRAS) manufactured by the Eletrocell, which allows to study the influence of some functional parameters (voltage, current, mass and pressure fluxes)

  19. Cohesion and the Social Construction of Meaning in the Essays of Filipino College Students Writing in L2 English

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castro, Carolyn D.

    2004-01-01

    This study compares the degree of cohesion and coherence in the essays written by thirty Filipino college freshmen and analyzes how the social construction of meaning was made evident in their writing. Results showed that low, mid and highly rated essays were comparable in grammatical cohesive device use. Lexical repetition and use of synonyms…

  20. Reflecting on 25 Years of Teaching, Researching, and Textbook Writing for Introduction to Management: An Essay with Some Lessons Learned

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dyck, Bruno

    2017-01-01

    This essay describes innovations made and lessons learned while teaching introduction to management courses during a 25-year career. The essay describes how teaching two approaches to management increases students' critical and ethical thinking, and reverses the tendency for business students to become increasingly materialistic and…

  1. The Organizational Approach of Capability Theory: A Review Essay

    OpenAIRE

    Garzarelli, Giampaolo

    2006-01-01

    Richard Langlois, Tony Yu & Paul Robertson have assembled a collection of previously published papers that move beyond textbook production theory. This essay discusses work by Frank Knight and Hendrik Houthakker not reproduced in LYR in relation to the capability theory of economic organization. Knight identified the problem of organization as the search for and the coordination of different dispersed capabilities. Houthakker helps us to see more clearly that the benefits of specialization ar...

  2. Essays on Incentives and Measurement of Online Marketing Efforts

    OpenAIRE

    Berman, Ron

    2014-01-01

    This dissertation contains three essays that examine different aspects of online marketing activities, the ability of marketers to measure the effectiveness of such activities, and the design of experiments to aid in this measurement.Chapter 2 examines the impact of search engine optimization (SEO) on the competition between advertisers for organic and sponsored search results. The results show that a positive level of search engine optimization may improve the search engine's ranking quality...

  3. Gaia and the Daysies' Revolution: an Essay about Lovelockian Theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrés Betancourt Morales

    2000-07-01

    Full Text Available This essay tries to stand, from an explanatory and argumentative point of view, some aspects of the James Lovelock's Gaia's theory, such as its main ideas and influence, having in count the difficulties it had to be accepted and the consequences for the Biology's development of Gaia's theory in general and of the Daysyworld model in particular.

  4. Mucinous carcinoma of the breast: iconographic essay with histopathological correlation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gustavo Nunes Medina Coeli

    2013-07-01

    Full Text Available The present essay is aimed at describing the most characteristic imaging findings of mucinous carcinoma of the breast, with emphasis on the patterns related to better prognosis. The authors selected cases of mucinous carcinoma of the breast whose images were available, highlighting the imaging findings suggestive of this subtype of breast cancer, either at mammography, ultrasonography or magnetic resonance imaging.

  5. Accounting Issues: An Essay Series Part IX--Statement of Cash Flows

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laux, Judy

    2009-01-01

    This essay series, beginning with Laux [2007a], defends the proposition that eliminating the theoretical chapter from the principles level accounting course has weakened the introduction for students new to this subject, perhaps resulting in some adverse selection for the accounting profession. As a remedy, it offers concise theoretical articles…

  6. Jenna Ng (ed., Understanding Machinima. Essays on Filmmaking in Virtual Worlds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vincenzo Idone Cassone

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Understanding Machinima. Essays on Filmmaking in Virtual Worlds (Bloomsbury 2013, edited by Jenna Ng is an intriguing incursion into the world of machinima from a Media Studies point-of-view, trying to address the topic beyond game’s environment, in connection with the evolution of the contemporary mediascape.

  7. Hoe zaagt men van dik hout planken? : Een essay over publieksfilosofie

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kalis, A.

    2016-01-01

    Do Heidegger-teabags give philosophy a bad name? An essay about philosophy for the general public Among many academic philosophers, philosophy for the general public has a bad reputation. In this paper I give an overview of the main points of criticism, and use these to develop a positive account of

  8. To Write or to Type? The Effects of Handwriting and Word-Processing on the Written Style of Examination Essays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mogey, Nora; Hartley, James

    2013-01-01

    There is much debate about whether or not these days students should be able to word-process essay-type examinations as opposed to handwriting them, particularly when they are asked to word-process everything else. This study used word-processing software to examine the stylistic features of 13 examination essays written by hand and 24 by…

  9. Open Educational Resources: American Ideals, Global Questions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steven Weiland

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Educational relations between societies and cultures that begin with benevolent intentions can come to be seen as threats to national autonomy and local preferences. Indeed, side by side with the growth since the first years of this century of Open Educational Resources (OER there has been worry about their impact on global educational development. Evaluation and research have lagged behind the steady expansion of access to online resources, leaving estimates of the value of digital innovation to the enthusiasm of OER providers and technology minded educational reformers. The advent of the “Massive Open Online Course” (or MOOC has exacerbated the problem, with attention moving toward a form of OER reflecting the enthusiasm of leading institutions in industrialized nations. The American led movement on behalf of the MOOC requires new questions about the motives, impact, and future of OER. This essay accounts for the history of OER, culminating in the MOOC, including how the latter in particular is an expression of American pedagogical and institutional interests representing belief in the transformative educational powers of the latest communications technologies. Criticism of OER and MOOCs can reflect organizational, operational, and ideological considerations. But it should recognize what they offer when there are few other opportunities for formal learning, and as research demonstrates their uses and impact.

  10. [Suicide -- an essay trying to reveal the theme].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sampaio, M A; Boemer, M R

    2000-12-01

    This essay proposes to reveal facets of the suicide through the discourse of different authors treating this theme as well as through contacts that I was able to have in my nursing training, through my academic trajectory. This trajectory includes an incursion by phenomenological ideas, mainly by the ideas of Heidegger and his existential analysis of the man as being-there. In this way, the understanding of a person who decides to finalize his/her existence, can be, by the existential analysis perspective, a way to reconstruct and redimension his/her existential perspectives.

  11. Essays on the Design of Contracts and Markets for Power System Flexibility

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Boscán Flores, Luis Rafael

    This PhD thesis consists of five essays on the economics of Power System Flexibility, a topic that has traditionally been addressed from a technical perspective by engineers, system planners, electricity industry stakeholders and energy policymakers interested in the integration of Variable Renew...

  12. Essays on Labour Markets: Worker-Firm Dynamics, Occupational Segregation and Workplace Conditions

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    I.S. Buhai (Sebastian)

    2008-01-01

    textabstractThe main chapters of this book, “Essays on Labour Markets”, focus on analyzing the dynamics of the employment relationship between workers and firms (chapters 2 and 3), modelling occupational segregation and labour market inequalities between social groups (chapter 4) and characterizing

  13. AN ERROR ANALYSIS OF ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY (CASE STUDY AT UNIVERSITY MUHAMMADIYAH OF METRO

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fenny - Thresia

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was study analyze the students’ error in writing argumentative essay. The researcher focuses on errors of verb, concord and learner language. This study took 20 students as the subject of research from the third semester. The data took from observation and documentation. Based on the result of the data analysis there are some errors still found on the student’s argumentative essay in English writing? The common errors which repeatedly appear are verb. The second is concord, and learner languages are the smallest error. From 20 samples that took, the frequency the errors of verb are 12 items (60%, concord are 8 items (40%, learner languages are 7 items (35%. As a result, verb has the biggest number of common errors.

  14. Measuring the Effectiveness of Writing Center Consultations on L2 Writers’ Essay Writing Skills

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    Shanthi Tiruchittampalam

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available With the international growth of English-medium education, tertiary institutions are increasingly providing academic support services to L2 students, and thus, the number of writing centers working with L2 student writers has also increased. Writing center practices originated in L1 English educational contexts and their appropriateness for L2 English writers requires examination. This study investigated the effect of writing center consultations on the essay writing skills of L1 Arabic foundation level students at an English-medium university in the Gulf region. Analysis was based on quantitative measures of writing ability of two distinct groups of students: an experimental group who participated in tutoring sessions at the university’s writing center and a control group who did not. Findings indicated that students who participated in writing center consultations scored significantly higher in overall essay writing scores, as well as in two aspects of writing: task fulfilment (that is ideas and text organization/coherence. These findings contribute to a limited bank of similar empirical studies on effectiveness of writing center sessions on students’ essay writing ability. They also support the case for the expansion of writing center work beyond the domains of predominantly L1 English academic communities.

  15. Three Essays on Economic Agents' Incentives and Decision Making

    OpenAIRE

    Lee, Dongryul

    2009-01-01

    This dissertation consists of three essays on theoretical analysis of economic agents' decision making and incentives. Chapter 1 gives an outline of the subjects to be examined in the subsequent chapters and shows their conclusions in brief. Chapter 2 explores the decision problem of a superordinate (a principal) regarding whether to delegate its authority or right to make a decision to a subordinate (an agent) in an organization. We first study the optimal contracting problem of the su...

  16. Pulp fictions of medieval England: Essays in popular romance

    OpenAIRE

    McDonald, Nicola

    2004-01-01

    Middle English popular romance is the most audacious and compendious testimony to the imaginary world of the English Middle Ages. Yet, with few exceptions, it remains under read and under studied. Pulp fictions of medieval England demonstrates that popular romance merits and rewards serious critical attention and that it is crucial to our understanding of the complex and conflicted world of medieval England. Pulp fictions of medieval England comprises ten essays on individual romances that, w...

  17. Essays on Currency Competition, Institutional Restrictions and Exchange Rates

    OpenAIRE

    Bhattacharya, Arghya

    2017-01-01

    This dissertation consists of three essays on currency competition, institutional restrictions and exchange rates. When faced with currency competition, a country's government has two tools at its disposal: reduce the level of inflation or place institutional barriers to the use of foreign currency. In the first chapter, I propose a two-country, two-currency New Monetarist model to study currency competition. I model institutional barriers as a `tax' on the real value of foreign currency hol...

  18. Unusual lesions that distend the knee joint: pictorial essay

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lima, Luana T. Barros de, E-mail: luanatbl@hotmail.com [Universidade Federal de Alagoas (HUPAA/UFAL), Maceio (Brazil). Hospital Universitario; Albuquerque Filho, Eolo Santana de; Batista, Laecio Leitao [Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife (Brazil). Hospital das Clinicas; Moraes, Talita Peixoto de [Clinica Derbimagem, Recife, PE (Brazil); Pereira, Bruno Perez Guedes [Instituto de Medicina Integral Professor Fernando Figueira (IMIP), Recife, PE (Brazil)

    2016-09-15

    The high number of knee imaging exams at radiology clinics, together with the wide variety of knee disorders, calls for expanding the knowledge about the less common lesions seen in routine diagnostic practice. The purpose of this pictorial essay was to illustrate unusual lesions that distend the knee joint, selected by relevance and evaluated with multiple imaging modalities, including X-ray, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging, as well as to perform a brief review of the literature. (author)

  19. Pictorial Essay: Infants of diabetic mothers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alorainy, Ibrahim A; Barlas, Nauman B; Al-Boukai, Amer A

    2010-01-01

    About 3 to 10% of pregnancies are complicated by glycemic control abnormalities. Maternal diabetes results in significantly greater risk for antenatal, perinatal, and neonatal morbidity and mortality, as well as congenital malformations. The number of diabetic mothers is expected to rise, as more and more of the obese pediatric female population in developed and some developing countries progresses to childbearing age. Radiologists, being part of the teams managing such pregnancies, should be well aware of the findings that may be encountered in infants of diabetic mothers. Timely, accurate, and proper radiological evaluation can reduce morbidity and mortality in these infants. The purpose of this essay is to illustrate the imaging findings in the various pathological conditions involving the major body systems in the offspring of women with diabetes

  20. Pictorial Essay: Infants of diabetic mothers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alorainy Ibrahim

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available About 3 to 10% of pregnancies are complicated by glycemic control abnormalities. Maternal diabetes results in significantly greater risk for antenatal, perinatal, and neonatal morbidity and mortality, as well as congenital malformations. The number of diabetic mothers is expected to rise, as more and more of the obese pediatric female population in developed and some developing countries progresses to childbearing age. Radiologists, being part of the teams managing such pregnancies, should be well aware of the findings that may be encountered in infants of diabetic mothers. Timely, accurate, and proper radiological evaluation can reduce morbidity and mortality in these infants. The purpose of this essay is to illustrate the imaging findings in the various pathological conditions involving the major body systems in the offspring of women with diabetes

  1. The Quest(ioning of Epistemological Ground: The Spanish Generation of 1956

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    Judith Nantell

    1992-01-01

    Full Text Available Much of the critical literature written about the poetry of the Generation of 1956 asserts that for Claudio Rodriguez, José Angel Valente and Francisco Brines, among other members of this group, writing poetry is a means to knowledge. Knowledge, however, exists in tension with its apparent opposite, ignorance. Because the supplement ruptures the tidy arrangement of the knowledge/ignorance polarity, it is no longer possible to focus on either entity in isolation. If knowledge and ignorance continually imply one another, then Valente's famous dictum, "todo poema es un conocimiento haciéndose" ('every poem is knowledge becoming' which has long served as the foundation both of this generation and the critical literature written about this generation, itself is reconstituted in terms of ignorance. In scrutinizing selected poems of these poets, the critic discerns that poetry is not a process of knowing but rather a method for questioning epistemological ground. As this essay demonstrates, both the poetic text and the interpretive text investigate knowledge and ignorance, forever "becoming" their own différance .

  2. When is a research question not a research question?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mayo, Nancy E; Asano, Miho; Barbic, Skye Pamela

    2013-06-01

    Research is undertaken to answer important questions yet often the question is poorly expressed and lacks information on the population, the exposure or intervention, the comparison, and the outcome. An optimal research question sets out what the investigator wants to know, not what the investigator might do, nor what the results of the study might ultimately contribute. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the extent to which rehabilitation scientists optimally define their research questions. A cross-sectional survey of the rehabilitation research articles published during 2008. Two raters independently rated each question according to pre-specified criteria; a third rater adjudicated all discrepant ratings. The proportion of the 258 articles with a question formulated as methods or expected contribution and not as what knowledge was being sought was 65%; 30% of questions required reworking. The designs which most often had poorly formulated research questions were randomized trials, cross-sectional and measurement studies. Formulating the research question is not purely a semantic concern. When the question is poorly formulated, the design, analysis, sample size calculations, and presentation of results may not be optimal. The gap between research and clinical practice could be bridged by a clear, complete, and informative research question.

  3. Is the Essay Dead? Revitalising Argument in the Era of Multiliteracies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gyenes, Tom; Wilks, Judith

    2014-01-01

    While the essay is the default assessment tool of the Humanities in upper secondary and tertiary education, it is a text type that has been slowly bled of communicative purpose. It is suffered by students, taught according to restrictive formula and ignored in the literature. Evidence from the tertiary sector, employers and public examinations…

  4. Revisiting Japan’s Fictional Gardens: An Ecocritical Reading of Nature Imagery in Contemporary Architectural Essays

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    Catarina Vitorino

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper inspects editorial production in the field of Japanese contemporary architecture, screening the contents of essays written during the last decade (2007–2010 by four selected authors in which a recurring interplay with nature-related subjects is noticeable. This analysis highlights the diversity and intrinsic individual originality of these books by relating their specific approach with the overall work themes of each architect and discussing the existence of a common ground among them. While investigating their philosophical and conceptual standpoints, the paper also attempts to contextualize these discourses both within the larger context of architectural theory—particularly of early postmodern ecological approaches—sustainable construction, and in the milieu of Japan, where an imprinted notion of harmonious coexistence between nature and culture has long been mystified from abroad and from within. By assessing its motives and influence and finally questioning the existence of a paradox amidst the multiple existing forms of paraenvironmental architecture, it is discussed whether these narratives and practices manage to communicate ecoliteracy with their audience. Architecture’s inherent traits as a visual, perceptive, and cognitive discipline to reflect contemporary environmental conflicts and encourage paradigm change are also highlighted.

  5. Questions and Questioning Techniques: A View of Indonesian Students’ Preferences

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    Debora Tri Ragawanti

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available This study investigated students’ preference on teacher’s questions and questionings techniques and more importantly on how they could facilitate or impede their learning. The results on teacher’s questioning techniques showed that random nomination was more preferred than pre-arranged format nomination. In addition, techniques of nominating volunteering students and of giving wait-time were disliked by most student-respondents. As for types of question, the yes/no question was favored by most of the respondents. Different from the yes/no question, the number of respondents leaning forward to the analysis question, questions about fact of life, and questions to state opinion did not show a significant difference from the number of those leaning against the same questions.

  6. Debating International Learner Assessments as a Proxy Measure of Quality of Education in the Context of EFA--A Review Essay

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mulongo, Godfrey

    2014-01-01

    This review essay looks at three publications that discuss the contentious issue of evaluating education quality (Note 1) by learner outcomes as a proxy indicator (Note 2). The essay explores the debates, gaps and proposes recommendations in the context of Education For All (EFA) (Note 3). The three articles reviewed are Harvey Goldstein's (2004)…

  7. Two Essays on Learning Disabilities in the Application of Fundamental Financial Principles

    Science.gov (United States)

    Auciello, Daria Joy

    2010-01-01

    This dissertation consists of two essays which examine the relationship between dyslexia and the application and acquisition of financial knowledge. Recent behavioral research has documented that factors such as representativeness, overconfidence, loss aversion, naivete, wealth, age and gender all impact a person's risk perception and asset…

  8. Evaluation of a computer-based prompting intervention to improve essay writing in undergraduates with cognitive impairment after acquired brain injury.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ledbetter, Alexander K; Sohlberg, McKay Moore; Fickas, Stephen F; Horney, Mark A; McIntosh, Kent

    2017-11-06

    This study evaluated a computer-based prompting intervention for improving expository essay writing after acquired brain injury (ABI). Four undergraduate participants aged 18-21 with mild-moderate ABI and impaired fluid cognition at least 6 months post-injury reported difficulty with the writing process after injury. The study employed a non-concurrent multiple probe across participants, in a single-case design. Outcome measures included essay quality scores and number of revisions to writing counted then coded by type using a revision taxonomy. An inter-scorer agreement procedure was completed for quality scores for 50% of essays, with data indicating that agreement exceeded a goal of 85%. Visual analysis of results showed increased essay quality for all participants in intervention phase compared with baseline, maintained 1 week after. Statistical analyses showed statistically significant results for two of the four participants. The authors discuss external cuing for self-monitoring and tapping of existing writing knowledge as possible explanations for improvement. The study provides preliminary evidence that computer-based prompting has potential to improve writing quality for undergraduates with ABI.

  9. Jane Austen: A Collection of Critical Essays. Twentieth Century Views Series.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watt, Ian, Ed.

    One of a series of works aimed at presenting contemporary critical opinion on major authors, this collection includes essays by Virginia Woolf, C. S. Lewis, Edmund Wilson, Ian Watt, Alan D. McKillop, Reuben A. Brower, Marvin Mudrick, Mark Schorer, Arnold Kettle, Lionel Trilling, Kingsley Amis, Andrew H. Wright, Donald J. Greene, and D. W.…

  10. Mark Twain: A Collection of Critical Essays. Twentieth Century Views Series.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Henry Nash, Ed.

    One of a series of works aimed at presenting contemporary critical opinion on major authors, this collection includes essays by Henry Nash Smith, Van Wyck Brooks, Maurice Le Breton, Kenneth Lynn, Leo Marx, Walter Blair, Daniel G. Hoffman, W. H. Auden, James M. Cox, Leslie Fiedler, Bernard DeVoto, and Tony Tanner--all dealing with the biography and…

  11. Methodology for Urbanism AR2U090 : Best essays 2010-2012

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rocco, R.C.

    2012-01-01

    These are essays written by students of the course AR2U090 Research and Design Methodology for Urbanism from 2010 to 2012. This is a 5 ECTS course given within the Masters in Urbanism programme of the TU Delft by Roberto Rocco and Egbert Stolk. At the end of the course students are asked to write an

  12. Film Studies in Motion : From Audiovisual Essay to Academic Research Video

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kiss, Miklós; van den Berg, Thomas

    2016-01-01

    Our (co-written with Thomas van den Berg) ‪media rich,‬ ‪‎open access‬ ‪‎Scalar‬ ‪e-book‬ on the ‪‎Audiovisual Essay‬ practice is available online: http://scalar.usc.edu/works/film-studies-in-motion Audiovisual essaying should be more than an appropriation of traditional video artistry, or a mere

  13. Technology, organization and economic structure essays in honor of Prof. Isamu Yamada

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    Beckmann, Martin

    1983-01-01

    The essays in this volume were presented to Professor Isamu Yamada in honor of his seventy-third birthday. In view of his many professional contributions and associations, a single volume of essays is really insufficient to house the works of all those who wish to be part of a venture of this kind. Therefore, the editors would like to apologize to those friends and well-wishers of Professor Yamada who could not be accommodated in this volume. Born in Nagoya in 1909, Professor Yamada began his brilliant career at Nagoya Commercial College where he studied economics, statistics, mathematics and physics. After serving as a Professor of Economics and Statistics at Yokohama College between 1939-1940, Professor Yamada moved to Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, where he served as a Professor of Econometrics until his retirement in 1973. Currently, he is teaching at Asia University as a Professor of Economics and Statistics. During his long tenure at Hitotsubashi University (where Professor Ichiro Nakayama, a "Japane...

  14. Psychology, Counseling and the Seminarian.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wister, Robert, Ed.

    These 11 essays address the importance of psychological assessments for prospective seminary students. The articles are primarily for seminary officials who make admission decisions based on testing and the analysis of test results. The chapters also discuss questions and issues that all seminary faculty address on a daily basis: maturity of…

  15. Deepening, Broadening and Scaling up: a Framework for Steering Transition Experiments. : Essay 02

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    S.J.M. van den Bosch (Suzanne); J. Rotmans (Jan)

    2008-01-01

    markdownabstractThis essay presents a conceptual framework for analyzing and influencing the contribution of small-scale experiments to transitions towards a more sustainable society. This framework is aimed at providing academics and practitioners with a theoretical and practice oriented

  16. Team-based learning to improve learning outcomes in a therapeutics course sequence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bleske, Barry E; Remington, Tami L; Wells, Trisha D; Dorsch, Michael P; Guthrie, Sally K; Stumpf, Janice L; Alaniz, Marissa C; Ellingrod, Vicki L; Tingen, Jeffrey M

    2014-02-12

    To compare the effectiveness of team-based learning (TBL) to that of traditional lectures on learning outcomes in a therapeutics course sequence. A revised TBL curriculum was implemented in a therapeutic course sequence. Multiple choice and essay questions identical to those used to test third-year students (P3) taught using a traditional lecture format were administered to the second-year pharmacy students (P2) taught using the new TBL format. One hundred thirty-one multiple-choice questions were evaluated; 79 tested recall of knowledge and 52 tested higher level, application of knowledge. For the recall questions, students taught through traditional lectures scored significantly higher compared to the TBL students (88%±12% vs. 82%±16%, p=0.01). For the questions assessing application of knowledge, no differences were seen between teaching pedagogies (81%±16% vs. 77%±20%, p=0.24). Scores on essay questions and the number of students who achieved 100% were also similar between groups. Transition to a TBL format from a traditional lecture-based pedagogy allowed P2 students to perform at a similar level as students with an additional year of pharmacy education on application of knowledge type questions. However, P3 students outperformed P2 students regarding recall type questions and overall. Further assessment of long-term learning outcomes is needed to determine if TBL produces more persistent learning and improved application in clinical settings.

  17. The Readers’ International: The Politics of Foreign Literature in War Times in Benjamin Fondane’s Essays

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    Adrian Tudurachi

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available The Readers’ International. A foreign literature policy in war times in Fondane’s essays. Between 1919 and 1922, B. Fondane engaged himself into a legitimisation enterprise, which grew into a unique form of reading internationalism. By radically stating the subjective nature of all ‘preferences’, the essayist could figure out the character of a reader free from all national determinations, able to cross the cultural limits as well as the prejudices on their actual hierarchy. Our essay proposes to examine this form of contingence and contact with foreign literatures, inspired, paradoxically, by the warlike imaginary of the First World War.

  18. Trick questions: cosmopolitan hospitality

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    Eleanor Byrne

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available Byrne’s paper consists of two parallel texts. The first explores the limits of cosmopolitanism in practice, taking as its subject the Life in the UK Citizenship Test, inaugurated under the Labour Government in 2005. It argues that the test exemplifies the predicament of all attempts at cosmopolitan hospitality as unconditional welcoming, through a discussion of the relation between questioning and welcoming the stranger. Establishing the relationship between cosmopolitanism and hospitality as envisaged in Derrida’s reading of Kant it asks what kind of cosmopolitan hospitality is either possible or desirable by exploring what Derrida calls the ‘perversions’ inherent in the structures of hospitality. It focuses on the concept of the ‘trick questions’ that the state asks the foreigner observed by Derrida in his reading of The Apology of Socrates; questions that seem to invite answers but foreclose the possibilities of a free response. The second text asks how this logic that Derrida identifies can be pushed or coaxed into new ways of addressing the perceived threats of ‘unconditional’ hospitality through a reading of ‘unconditional hospitality’ as queer in the work of Tove Jansson.

  19. X-rays of inner worlds: the mid-twentieth-century American projective test movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lemov, Rebecca

    2011-01-01

    This essay begins to tell the neglected history of the projective test movement in the U.S. behavioral sciences from approximately 1941 to 1968. This cross-disciplinary enterprise attempted to use projective techniques as "X-ray" machines to see into the psyches of subjects tested around the world. The aim was to gather subjective materials en masse, pursuing data on a scope, scale, and manner rarely hazarded before in any science. In particular, the targeted data included the traces of the inner life and elusive aspects of subjective experience including dreams, life stories, and myriad test results from a battery of tests. This essay explores how the movement and the experimental data bank that resulted were unlikely yet telling sites for the practice and pursuit of the Cold War human sciences. To look closely at the encounters that resulted is to show how the most out-of-the-way places and seemingly insignificant moments played a role in heady scientific ambitions and global geopolitical projects. At times, the projective test movement became a mirror of Cold War rationality itself, as tests were employed at the very limits of their possible extension. The essay argues for an off-kilter centrality in the movement itself, shedding light on the would-be unified social sciences after World War II and the "subjective turn" they took. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  20. To have or not to have: the true privacy question

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    Paula Kift

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available In light of the recent US National Security Agency (NSA surveillance scandals, the article reflects on the continued importance of privacy in the information age. Based on a taxonomy of privacy violations provided by Daniel Solove, it takes the reader on an imaginary journey to a world in which privacy has ceased to exist. What does it mean “to have or not to have privacy” in the information age? This essay, part academic, part call for action, explores this question by means of an analogy, focusing on the relationship between citizens and the state. It demonstrates that the invisible presence of the NSA should be a matter of great concern to us. There is no justification for blanket surveillance. The right to security is an illusion. Instead of fighting windmills, we should fight for our right to privacy instead. We need to have privacy; we need it to live and love, to make mistakes, and to grow. We need it as individuals and as a society. And we can have it if we press our legislators to return it to us. It is time to start fighting back.