Univ., Diss.--St. Gallen, 2006.

Frankfurt (Main), University, Thesis (doctoral), 2001.

Reading fluency bridges the concepts of word recognition and reading comprehension, both of which are vital skills needed to become a successful reader. This study evaluated the impact of video self-modeling (VSM) on oral reading fluency in four upper elementary students at-risk for failing in reading. A multiple-baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the outcomes of the VSM intervention. The results indicate that VSM may have a positive impact on reading fluency of students at-risk for reading failure; the use of VSM was positively associated with increases in reading fluency in three of the four participants. The participant for whom VSM alone did not result in substantial reading gains needed an additional repeated reading intervention to improve fluency. Generalization occurred for all participants and some evidence of maintenance was noted in three participants. Social validity surveys indicated high acceptability of the VSM intervention by study participants.

The effects of coaching on teacher and student outcomes were compared to outcomes of classes randomized to professional development only and comparison conditions. Twenty-one teachers, trained to implement a Tier II reading intervention curriculum, were grouped by campus then randomized to one of three conditions: professional development plus coaching support (n=6), professional development only (n=7) and a comparison condition (n=8). Teachers in the coached and professional development only (un-coached) conditions were compared on measures of teacher knowledge and implementation fidelity as an indication of teacher practice. Student achievement scores on word attack, reading fluency and reading comprehension measures were compared for students in each of the three conditions. A multiple-gating procedure was used to help teachers identify the five lowest-performing readers in their first grade classrooms. Students completed a battery of seven reading ability assessments prior to and immediately following teacher-implementation of a seventeen-week reading intervention curriculum. Results of ANCOVA analyses indicated students in classes of teachers who received professional development and coaching support did not demonstrate significantly higher scores than teachers who only received professional development training on a battery of reading measures. Further analysis indicated students in the professional development plus coaching condition did have significantly higher scores than those in comparison conditions on five of the seven outcome measures. Teachers in coached and professional development only conditions completed a teacher knowledge survey to measure their knowledge of evidence-based reading practices. ANCOVA analysis revealed no significant differences between groups at posttest. Changes in teacher practice were measured as a function of intervention implementation fidelity. Intervention teachers were videotaped three times over the course of the intervention and taped classes were scored, rated and compared across conditions. Results of a Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance on fidelity scores revealed a statistically significant difference in favor of the teachers who received professional development plus coaching. / text

Using a multivariate correlational design, this study was designed to determine the degree to which selected risk and protective factors were related to resilience in an at-risk student population. A total of 12 individual, family and external risk and protective factors were identified and data were collected from 142 6th through 11th grade students in an alternative education program for individuals who had committed severe behavioral infractions. A series of multiple regression analyses were conducted using three outcome variables: a rating of students' resilient behavior, number of behavior referrals in the students' records, and standardized reading achievement scores. Five percent of the sample then was selected for semi-structured interviews to glean additional information about the relationships between the identified variables and student resilience.The combination of individual, family and external risk variables explained a significant amount of the variance in student behavior referrals and reading achievement, but not in overall resilient status. With regard to behavior referrals, the largest contributors to the model were age, severity of sending offense and neighborhood crime. Reading achievement was related to special education status, as predicted, and negatively related to community violence. Parental structure was positively correlated with resilient status but the percentage of variance explained by the overall model was not significant.The combination of selected protective factors explained a significant amount of variance when resilient status and reading achievement were the measured outcomes, but not for the model addressing behavior referrals. Being a male and having strong cohesion as a family unit were the variables most highly related to resilient status, while special education eligibility and perceptions of school belongingness accounted for the largest variance in reading scores. School belongingness was negatively relate d to reading achievement in this sample.An examination of qualitative data revealed that teacher characteristics were important to students' motivation to succeed, and information collected reiterated the importance of family structure and cohesion in students' resilient status. Other emerging themes were apparent when mentoring and friendship were discussed, as well as when students' self-perceived strengths, weaknesses and future aspirations were identified.

Banking and online financial services are part of our critical infrastructure. As such, they comprise an Achilles heel in society and need to be protected accordingly. The last ten years have seen a steady shift from traditional show-off hacking towards cybercrime with great economic consequences for society. The different threats against online services are getting worse, and risk management with respect to denial-of-service attacks, phishing, and banking Trojans is now part of the agenda of most financial institutions. This trend is overseen by responsible authorities who step up their minimum requirements for risk management of financial services and, among other things, require regular risk assessment of current and emerging threats.For the financial institution, this situation creates a need to understand all parts of the incident response process of the online services, including the technology, sub-processes, and the resources working with online fraud prevention. The effectiveness of each countermeasure has traditionally been measured for one technology at a time, for example, leaving the fraud prevention manager with separate values for the effectiveness of authentication, intrusion detection, and fraud prevention. In this thesis, we address two problems with this situation. Firstly, there is a need for a tool which is able to model current countermeasures in light of emerging threats. Secondly, the development process of fraud detection is hampered by the lack of accessible data.In the main part of this thesis, we highlight the importance of looking at the “big risk picture” of the incident response process, and not just focusing on one technology at a time. In the first article, we present a tool which makes it possible to measure the effectiveness of the incident response process. We call this an incident response tree (IRT). In the second article, we present additional scenarios relevant for risk management of online financial services using IRTs. Furthermore, we introduce a complementary model which is inspired by existing models used for measuring credit risks. This enables us to compare different online services, using two measures, which we call Expected Fraud and Conditional Fraud Value at Risk. Finally, in the third article, we create a simulation tool which enables us to use scenario-specific results together with models like return of security investment, to support decisions about future security investments.In the second part of the thesis, we develop a method for producing realistic-looking data for testing fraud detection. In the fourth article, we introduce multi-agent based simulations together with social network analysis to create data which can be used to fine-tune fraud prevention, and in the fifth article, we continue this effort by adding a platform for testing fraud detection. / Finansiella nättjänster är en del av vår kritiska infrastruktur. På så vis utgör de en akilleshäl i samhället och måste skyddas på erforderligt sätt. Under de senaste tio åren har det skett en förskjutning från traditionella dataintrång för att visa upp att man kan till en it-brottslighet med stora ekonomiska konsekvenser för samhället. De olika hoten mot nättjänster har blivit värre och riskhantering med avseende på överbelastningsattacker, nätfiske och banktrojaner är nu en del av dagordningen för finansiella institutioner. Denna trend övervakas av ansvariga myndigheter som efterhand ökar sina minimikrav för riskhantering och bland annat kräver regelbunden riskbedömning av befintliga och nya hot.För den finansiella institutionen skapar denna situation ett behov av att förstå alla delar av incidenthanteringsprocessen, inklusive dess teknik, delprocesser och de resurser som kan arbeta med bedrägeribekämpning. Traditionellt har varje motåtgärds effektivitet mätts, om möjligt, för en teknik i taget, vilket leder till att ansvariga för bedrägeribekämpning får separata värden för autentisering, intrångsdetektering och bedrägeridetektering.I denna avhandling har vi fokuserat på två problem med denna situation. För det första finns det ett behov av ett verktyg som kan modellera effektiviteten för institutionens samlade motåtgärder mot bakgrund av befintliga och nya hot. För det andra saknas det tillgång till data för forskning rörande bedrägeridetektering, vilket hämmar utvecklingen inom området.I huvuddelen av avhandlingen ligger tonvikten på att studera ”hela” incidenthanteringsprocessen istället för att fokusera på en teknik i taget. I den första artikeln presenterar vi ett verktyg som gör det möjligt att mäta effektiviteten i incidenthanteringsprocessen. Vi kallar detta verktyg för ”incident response tree” (IRT) eller ”incidenthanteringsträd”. I den andra artikeln presenterar vi ett flertal scenarier som är relevanta för riskhantering av finansiella nättjänster med hjälp av IRT. Vi utvecklar också en kompletterande modell som är inspirerad av befintliga modeller för att mäta kreditrisk. Med hjälp av scenarioberoende mått för ”förväntat bedrägeri” och ”value at risk”, har vi möjlighet att jämföra risker mellan olika nättjänster. Slutligen, i den tredje artikeln, skapar vi ett agentbaserat simuleringsverktyg som gör det möjligt att använda scenariospecifika resultat tillsammans med modeller som ”avkastning på säkerhetsinvesteringar” för att stödja beslut om framtida investeringar i motåtgärder.I den andra delen av avhandlingen utvecklar vi en metod för att generera syntetiskt data för test av bedrägeridetektering. I den fjärde artikeln presenterar vi ett agentbaserat simuleringsverktyg som med hjälp av bland annat ”sociala nätverksanalyser” kan användas för att generera syntetiskt data med realistiskt utseende. I den femte artikeln fortsätter vi detta arbete genom att lägga till en plattform för testning av bedrägeridetektering. / <p>QC 20151103</p>

This research was purposed to discover how students perceived the impact of participation or lack of participation in school music classes on their global school experiences during secondary school. The research stemmed from concern that recent focus on state and federal mandates may have resulted in a return to educational policies that discount consideration of student experience. All choir students (N = 160) at a large university in the southeastern United States comprised the participant population for the initial screening questionnaire, with 135 students returning completed surveys. Questionnaire results informed the purposeful sampling of 16 students in six focus groups. The focus-group responses guided the selection of the six students from the focus groups to participate in one 30-45 minute individual interview. The researcher-designed screening questionnaire was a structured survey with open-ended and closed questions (Creswell, 2012; Markus & Nurius, 1986). The interview instruments had guiding questions based on the phenomenological suggestions of Moustakas (1994). The resulting information is in narrative form. Analysis, beginning with the data generated by the questionnaire, was ongoing throughout the study. Hallam’s (2002) motivational model positing the malleable aspects of the personality such as self-esteem, self-efficacy, possible selves, and the ideal self anchored the final analysis. Students reflected on the overarching question, “Did involvement or lack of involvement in school music affect students’ perceptions of the global school experience and extra-musical success?” The findings support the premise that participation in school music can have a positive affect on students’ comprehensive school experience extending to a sense of community, increased self-confidence and leadership, enhanced learning in non-music classes, and a time of relief from academic stress. At-risk students described the ameliorating effects of music participation on their challenging life situations. An ancillary finding was that many students were advised to discontinue music classes to take advanced academic classes, rather than for remediation. These results of this study may provide a useful tool for advocacy. Future research could investigate whether participation in music classes promotes learning and memory consolidation of academic knowledge by providing divergent learning tasks that stimulate new modes of thinking.

The purpose of this study was to contribute to the literature by examining a systematic set of methods to assess and treat the problem behavior of young at-risk children. This study examined the use of the Decision Model (Umbreit, Ferro, Liaupsin, & Lane, 2007) with two kindergarten students and one first grade student who were exhibiting chronic behavior problems despite implementation of interventions through their school's existing support system. The study was conducted across three phases including: Phase I (Descriptive Functional Assessment), Phase II (Intervention Development/Testing) and Phase III (Intervention Implementation). Interventions in Phase III, were systematically introduced to each student using a Multiple Baseline Design. The Decision Model was used to develop interventions that resulted in reductions in each child's disruptive behavior and increases in on-task academic behavior. Social validity was examined using the TARF-R and resulted in high acceptability ratings from each teacher responsible for implementing the intervention for each student. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Šalies statistika rodo, kad ne visos šeimos užtikrina vaikų gerovę ir tinkamai atlieka vaikų ugdymo ir socializacijos funkciją. Vaikai, augantys rizikos grupei priklausančiose šeimose, dažnai stokoja socialinių gebėjimų, kurie jiems leistų užmegzti ir palaikyti draugiškus santykius su bendraamžiais, konfliktus spręsti socialiai priimtinais būdais, dalyvauti įvairioje, socialiai prasmingoje veikloje. Neturėdami tinkamai išugdytų socialinių gebėjimų rizikos grupės vaikai dažnai linkę save nuvertinti, jie dažniau nei kiti vaikai patiria mokymosi, adaptacijos sunkumus, linkę užsiimti nusikalstama veikla. Šiame magistriniame darbe bandoma atskleisti rizikos grupės vaikų socialinių gebėjimų ugdymo ypatumus įgyvendinat „Savęs pažinimo“ programą. Tai svarbu vertinant šios grupės vaikų socialinių gebėjimų plėtotę juos įtraukus į socialines pratybas. Tyrimo tikslas: išnagrinėti ugdymo programos „Savęs pažinimas“ taikymo ypatumus rizikos grupės vaikų socialinių gebėjimų ugdymui. Rizikos grupės vaikų socialinių gebėjimų ugdymo ypatumams išnagrinėti buvo pasirinktas ugdymo projektas, kuriame dalyvavo septyni 9-12 metų vaikai, lankantys prevencinių programų studiją „Rafaelis“. Vieną mėnesį iki ugdymo projekto pradžios vaikai buvo stebimi įvairioje veikloje. Stebint buvo renkami duomenys apie vaiko psichosocialinius ypatumus. Remiantis surinkta informacija, vaikai suskirstyti į keturias grupes: 1 grupė - „tyleniai“ - tylūs, savimi nepasitikintys, nedrąsūs, neryžtingi vaikai; 2 grupė –... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The statistics of the country indicates that not every family guarantees the welfare of their children and carries out the function of children education and socialization in a proper way. The children being brought in families at risk very often lack social skills allowing them to establish and maintain friendly relations with their peers, to solve the arising conflicts in socially acceptable ways, to take part in various socially meaningful activities. Lacking properly educated social skills, the children at risk very often tend to devalue themselves, more often than other children they face learning difficulties or adaptation difficulties; tend to be involved in criminal acts. This final Master’s thesis tries to reveal the peculiarities of the education of social skills of the children at risk in the implementation of the programme “Self-cognition”. This is very important for the evaluation of the development of social abilities of these particular children after their involvement into social trainings. The aim of the research is to analyze the peculiarities of the application of the programme “Self-cognition” for the development of social skills of the children at risk. To analyze the peculiarities of the education of social skills of the children at risk an educational project was chosen which involved seven children aged between 9-12 and attending the club of preventive programmes “Rafaelis”. One month prior to the beginning of the educational project the children... [to full text]

One of risk measurements – Value-at-Risk (VaR) was analyzed in this work. Complete definition of VaR is presented and three classical calculation methods of it are examined: parametric, historical simulations, and Monte-Carlo generations. The main advantages and disadvantages of the application of VaR are reviewed. Correlation effect for two assets risk diversification is examined and Markowitz method for calculation of efficient frontier is presented. Analyzed methods were implemented in the program, which calculates the first moments of portfolio’s returns, correlations between different assets and for a given return adjust weights in a manner to minimize dispersion of portfolio’s returns. For every efficient portfolio VaR can be calculated at any confidence level. Created program was used to analyze three investment portfolios: one of generated data with normal distribution, one of LITIN-10 index stocks and one of OMX Vilnius index stocks. Efficient frontier for these portfolios and VaR for whole efficient frontier were calculated. We noticed difference between minimal VaR and minimal standard deviation portfolios, consequently three investment strategies were implemented. The best results for analyzed portfolios there achieved with minimized VaR strategy.