1,722,074 research outputs found
A professional learning community: an italian exploratory study. The role of teachers as facilitators to develop school communities supported by the methos of cooperative learning
Full text linkThis research presents the results of a survey carried out in order to evaluate the impact of cooperative learning training delivered by CeSeDi (Centre of Didactic Services) across ten years. CeSeDi is a public institution operating in the Turin District in the field of in-service teacher education. Specifically, we collected data about the following dimensions: a) the impact of training on teachers’ educational competences (e.g. classroom management, improvement of pupils’ cognitive abilities, etc); b) the role of individual and organizational factors in the process of training transfer; c) the impact of a group of teachers playing the role of coaches for the implementation of cooperative learning methods in different schools; d) the role of school-networks in the improvement of teaching and learning quality; e) the nature and the dynamics of learning within a professional community composed by expert teachers. The data was analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. We interviewed 293 teachers and 12 expert teachers. We collected the quantitative data through a web engine solution based on the Opinio platform. We had 293 respondents out of 542 subjects among those inserted on CESEDI database (54%). The results of both qualitative and quantitative data analysis seem to show that teachers who work in coached schools feel better about the work climate and their professional role
Bidispersive thermal convection with relatively large macropores
Full text linkWe derive linear instability and nonlinear stability thresholds for a problem of thermal
convection in a bidispersive porous medium with a single temperature when Darcy
theory is employed in the micropores whereas Brinkman theory is utilized in the
macropores. It is important to note that we show that the linear instability threshold is
the same as the nonlinear stability one. This means that the linear theory is capturing
completely the physics of the onset of thermal convection. The coincidence of the
linear and nonlinear stability boundaries is established under general thermal boundary
conditions
Thermal convection with a Cattaneo heat flux model
Full text linkThe problem of thermal convection in a layer of viscous incompressible fluid is analysed. The heat flux law is taken to be one of Cattaneo type.
The time derivative of the heat flux is allowed to be a material derivative, or a general objective derivative. It is shown that only one
objective derivative leads to results consistent with what one expects in real life. This objective derivative leads to a Cattaneo - Christov theory
and the results for linear instability theory are in agreement with those for a material derivative. It is further shown that none of the theories
allow a standard nonlinear, energy stability analysis. A further heat flux due to P.M. Mariano is added and then an analysis is performed for
stationary convection, oscillatory convection, and fully nonlinear theory. For the material derivative case the analysis proceeds and global
nonlinear stability is achieved. For Cattaneo - Christov theory it appears necessary to add a regularization term in the equation for the heat flux,
and even then the analysis only works in two space dimensions, and is conditional upon the size of the initial data. For the three dimensional
situation it is shown how a nonlinear stability analysis may be achieved with a Navier - Stokes - Voigt fluid rather than a Navier - Stokes one
Anal fistulas treatment with bulking agents: An observational study
No full textBACKGROUND: Anal fistulae represent one of the most challenging conditions to treat by proctologists. Nowadays different treatment options are available. METHODS: We analysed our initial experience with bulking agents: we treated 46 patients from January 2014 to December 2017. For our prospective study, they were operated by the same surgical colo-rectal staff in our Istitution. All the details of the procedure were discussed with patients before surgery and a written consent was obtained. All patients were examined after a week, one month, six months and one year after procedure with clinical study including digital examination, proctoscopy and anal UltraSound Scan. We also did a mini-review regarding the most important bulking agents. RESULTS: None of the patients developed continence impairment after procedure. No mortality was observed. Patients needed analgesics for pain relief, for a period of 3-7 days, were 29 of 46 (63%). A total recurrence rate of 21% and overall success rate of 65.2% at 1 year follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Anal fistulas treatment is still controversial and recurrence is typically very frequent. Our results underlined the importance of an accurate tailored treatment of fistula patients. A unique treatment useful for all types of fistulas does not exist. Among the most recent techniques, bulking agents' injections can be considered simple and safe therapeutic options, with no continence impairment
The role of mental rotation in TetrisTM gameplay: An ACT-R computational cognitive model
No full textThe mental rotation ability is an essential spatial reasoning skill in human cognition and has proven to be an essential predictor of mathematical and STEM skills, critical and computational thinking. Despite its importance, little is known about when and how mental rotation processes are activated in games explicitly targeting spatial reasoning tasks. In particular, the relationship between spatial abilities and Tetris (TM) has been analysed several times in the literature. However, these analyses have shown contrasting results between the effectiveness of Tetris-based training activities to improve mental rotation skills. In this work, we studied whether, and under what conditions, such ability is used in the Tetris (TM) game by explicitly modelling mental rotation via an ACT-R based cognitive model controlling a virtual agent. The obtained results show meaningful insights into the activation of mental rotation during game dynamics. The study suggests the necessity to adapt game dynamics in order to force the activation of this process and, therefore, can be of inspiration to design learning activities based on Tetris (TM) or re-design the game itself to improve its educational effectiveness
Performance modeling and validation of a software system in a RT-UML-based simulative environment
No full textSpecification analysis of diffusion models for the Italian short rate
No full textIn recent years, diffusion models for interest rates became very popular. In this paper, we perform a selection of a suitable diffusion model for the Italian short rate. Our data set is given by the yields on 3-month BOT (Buoni Ordinari del Tesoro), from 1981 to 2001, for a total of 470 observations. We investigate among stochastic volatility models, paying more attention to affine models. Estimating diffusion models via maximum likelihood, which would lead to efficiency, is usually unfeasible because the transition density is not available. Recently, Gallant and Tauchen (1996) proposed a method of moments which gains full efficiency, hence its name of Efficient Method of Moments (EMM); it selects the moments as the scores of an auxiliary model, to be computed via simulation; thus, EMM is suitable to diffusions whose transition density is unknown, but which are convenient to simulate. The auxiliary model is selected among a family of densities which spans the density space. As a by-product, EMM provides diagnostics that are easy to compute and interpret. We find evidence that one-factor models and multi-factor affine models are rejected, while a logarithmic specification of the volatility provides the best fit to the data. © Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SPA, 2005
Le linfoadenopatie tra flogosi e tumori: un problema internistico in espansione. Aspetti onco-ematologici.
No full text- …
