This study examined the effects of professional development in the form of a teacher study group and a particular discussion approach, Collaborative Reasoning (CR) (Anderson, et al., 2001) upon teachers' questioning and students' levels of thinking during discussion of text. The study explored how five middle school teachers achieved a deeper understanding of teachers' authentic questioning and the facilitation of CR discussion. The Formative and Design Experiment (FandDE) framework was used in this investigation. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Teachers coded transcripts of one baseline and four CR discussions for each teacher. Transcripts were coded for teachers' CR instructional moves, CR features incorporated by the students in discussion, and the levels of thinking supporting students' responses. Data indicated that the nature of discussions progressed from recitation to more dialogical discussion patterns. Teachers implemented more authentic questioning, and students were observed to use more higher-order thinking in the responses. Students discourse showed a higher incidence of exploratory talk and uptake. Students used multiple kinds of evidence from personal experience, texts, and knowledge from previous reading/lecture/discussion to support their arguments. The data suggest that the implementation of a specific discussion model may enhance teachers' questioning and encourage students to engage in higher-order thinking and reasoning when discussing text. / Ph. D.

"Blind" inversion of the effects of a given operator on a signal is an extremely difficult task that has no easy solutions. However,. Dr. Hany Farid has published several works that each individua:lly appear to achieve exactly this seemingly impossible result. In this work, we contribute a comprehensive overview of the published applications of blind process inversion, as well as provide the generalized form of the algorithms and requirements that are found in each of these applications, thereby formulating and explaining a general framework for blind process inversion using Farid's Algorithm. Additionally, we explain the knowledge required to derive the ROSA-based cost function on which Farid's Algorithm depends. As our primary contribution, we analyze the algorithmic complexity of this cost function based on the way it is currently, naively calculated, and derive a new algorithm to compute this cost function that has greatly reduced algorithmic complexity. Finally, we suggest an additional application of Farid's Algorithm to the problem of blindly estimating true camera response functions from a single image.

No / Chromatin structure and spatial interactions between proximal and distal gene regulatory elements, including gene core promoters and enhancers, are important in the control of gene transcription. In this issue, Oh et al. characterized an AP-1-dependent enhancer at the epidermal differentiation complex locus that establishes spatial interactions with numerous gene promoter regions at that locus.

Yes / This paper extends the PDE method of surface generation. The governing partial differential equation is generalised to sixth order to increase its flexibility. The PDE is solved analytically, even in the case of general boundary conditions, making the method fast. The boundary conditions, which control the surface shape, are specified interactively, allowing intuitive manipulation of generic shapes. A compact user interface is presented which makes use of direct manipulation and other techniques for 3D interaction.

The first few chapters of the dissertation will catalogue what is known regarding z-ideals in commutative rings with identity. Some special attention will be paid to z-ideals in function rings to show how the presence of the topological description simplifies z-covers of arbitrary ideals. Conditions in an f-ring that ensure that the sum of z-ideals is a z-ideal will be given. In the latter part of the dissertation I will generalise a result in higher order z-ideals and introduce a notion of higher order d-ideals / Mathematical Sciences / M. Sc. (Mathematics)

In this thesis we study novel higher order total variation-based variational methods for digital image reconstruction. These methods are formulated in the context of Tikhonov regularisation. We focus on regularisation techniques in which the regulariser incorporates second order derivatives or a sophisticated combination of first and second order derivatives. The introduction of higher order derivatives in the regularisation process has been shown to be an advantage over the classical first order case, i.e., total variation regularisation, as classical artifacts such as the staircasing effect are significantly reduced or totally eliminated. Also in image inpainting the introduction of higher order derivatives in the regulariser turns out to be crucial to achieve interpolation across large gaps. First, we introduce, analyse and implement a combined first and second order regularisation method with applications in image denoising, deblurring and inpainting. The method, numerically realised by the split Bregman algorithm, is computationally efficient and capable of giving comparable results with total generalised variation (TGV), a state of the art higher order method. An additional experimental analysis is performed for image inpainting and an online demo is provided on the IPOL website (Image Processing Online). We also compute and study properties of exact solutions of the one dimensional total generalised variation problem with L^{2} data fitting term, for simple piecewise affine data functions, with or without jumps . This gives an insight on how this type of regularisation behaves and unravels the role of the TGV parameters. Finally, we introduce, study and analyse a novel non-local Hessian functional. We prove localisations of the non-local Hessian to the local analogue in several topologies and our analysis results in derivative-free characterisations of higher order Sobolev and BV spaces. An alternative formulation of a non-local Hessian functional is also introduced which is able to produce piecewise affine reconstructions in image denoising, outperforming TGV.

African American male students (AAMSs) can benefit from literacy instruction that is student-based and geared towards using higher-level thinking skills. The conceptual framework was guided by Dewey's constructivism theory, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore whether high school English language arts (ELA) teachers in an urban-suburban Midwest region of the United States have sufficient knowledge and skills to incorporate higher order thinking skills (HOT) instruction for AAMSs. Five ELA teachers from a low-performing, urban-suburban high school in the Midwest region of the United States participated in semistructured interviews; observations were conducted in the classroom, and lesson plans were reviewed. Patterns, categories, and themes emerged through using the coding process by breaking down the data into units and then grouped according to their characteristics. According to the findings, participants from this study suggested that problem- solving was the main higher level thinking skill for AAMSs. These local ELA teachers also used the Socratic questioning method as their primary instructional strategy but limited constructivist activities for AAMSs to engage during the instructional process. The findings from the data collection support the development of a professional training program. The professional development program could help teachers engage AAMSs in increasing their academic endeavors. ELA teachers can participate in professional learning communities by communicating concerns about AAMSs, using HOT skills to increase AAMSs literacy performance, become change agents, and promote a positive social change by using constructivist practices into school curriculum and instructions for AAMSs, eventually closing the achievement gap.

The aim of the work reported in this thesis is to establish a generic approach for the study of the propagation of higher-order modes in ducts of circular cross section when a simple aperture device is installed in the duct. Additionally to describe the effects of the simple aperture device on the whole in duct acoustic field, especially in the frequency range after the first higher-order mode cuts on. The approach, which is based on approximating each higher-order mode as an uncoupled mode, requires an accurate and effective decomposition of the in duct field in the higher frequency range. In the theoretical work for the propagation of the higher-order modes in circular ducts, one established model to describe the open end of the duct is considered. Another model to describe the sound source (both plane wave source and point source) and the boundaries between the aperture device and the main duct is proposed. Combining the two models together, a revised model to describe the whole acoustic system is obtained and used to carry out the in duct field decomposition in the higher frequency range. From this the amplitudes of various higher-order modes are obtained. Experimental investigations have also been carried out to determine the applicability of this model. The experimental work can be divided into two groups: reference measurements for the inputs to the models and direct measurements of the sound fields. The reference measurements are used to obtain the strength of the sound source. The direct measurements are used to compare with the results obtained from the theoretical calculations. Through the comparison, the errors and the applicability of the theoretical model are established. It is shown that this approach to the problem may be used in the normalized wave number region up to k * R -< 7 , which is nearly four times the plane wave region and includes sixteen propagating higher-order modes. By determining the amplitudes of the higher-order modes, the whole in-duct acoustic field is fully decomposed into individual model contributions and can be reconstructed in detail. In order to get a complete and coordinate-independent description of the effects of installing different simple aperture devices, the power radiated out of the open end of - i - the duct is calculated in the fonn of different single modes. Additionally the insertion losses for different aperture device situations are also obtained. Then through the comparison of the powers and the insertion losses, it is possible to find an effective and direct way to express the effects of installing different simple aperture devices in a duct.

The semiconductor industry has decreased silicon-based device feature sizes dramatically over the last two decades for improved performance. However, current technology has approached the limit of achievable enhancement via this method. Therefore, other techniques, including introducing stress into the silicon structure, are being used to further advance device performance. While these methods produce successful results, there is not a proven reliable method for stress and strain measurements on the nanometer scale characteristic of these devices. The ability to correlate local strain values with processing parameters and device performance would allow for more rapid improvements and better process control. In this research, x-ray diffraction and convergent beam electron diffraction have been utilized to quantify the strain behavior of simple and complex strained silicon-based systems. While the stress relaxation caused by thinning of the strained structures to electron transparency complicates these measurements, it has been quantified and shows reasonable agreement with expected values. The relaxation values have been incorporated into the strain determination from relative shifts in the higher order Laue zone lines visible in convergent beam electron diffraction patterns. The local strain values determined using three incident electron beam directions with different degrees of tilt relative to the device structure have been compared and exhibit excellent agreement.

This paper develops an estimator for higher-order spatial autoregressive panel data error component models with spatial autoregressive disturbances, SARAR(R,S). We derive the moment conditions and optimal weighting matrix without distributional assumptions for a generalized moments (GM) estimation procedure of the spatial autoregressive parameters of the disturbance process and define a generalized two-stage least squares estimator for the regression parameters of the model. We prove consistency of the proposed estimators, derive their joint asymptotic distribution, and provide Monte Carlo evidence on their small sample performance.