C++ is one of the most commonly used programming languages in academic and professional environments. Java is a relatively new language that is rapidly gaining popularity and acceptance. Java's designers claim that Java offers all the functionality of C++ and more. Java's syntax is similar to C++, but Java code is not compatible with C++. Java offers platform independence and better support for internet-oriented applications. Platform independence may come at a price. A major concern regarding any language is performance.This thesis looks at the performance of Java and C++. A comparison is made of C++ and Java runtimes for a simple algorithm (bubblesort). It covers the differences in compilation of an application developed in C++ versus an application developed in Java. It reports the execution time of an algorithm written in both languages. / Department of Computer Science

M.A. (Afrikaans) / Language is the heartbeat of broadcasting, and is regarded primarily as a means of communication that is used for different purposes in different situations. The register of broadcasting language embodies and perpetuates standard language, and fits the specific situation or circumstance in terms of formal, informal and stylistically neutral language. It could be said that the various forms of Afrikaans cannot be regarded as right or wrong, but should be measured against the norms for the situation in which, and the purpose for which, it is used. All the varieties of Afrikaans are of equal value and each register has its rightful place, measured against the standards of functionality with regard to situation and purpose. The Komitee vir Taaladvies (KTA), as the official normative body for the Afrikaans of the SABC, does not act as a competitive linguistic standardiser, but is definitely in an authoritative position in the speech community when it comes to pronouncements on the standardisation of language. The KTA's approach to the usage corpus is that each item should provoke the least resistance from viewers and listeners. The KTA's objective is to promote communication by applying standardisation of language and using standard Afrikaans as the model. The KTA, the Language Bureau and the staff of the Language Bureau apply the generally recognised norms for standardising the formal broadcasting register of Afrikaans that promotes communication in Afrikaans. A lay phonetic system was developed for SAUKT and received favourably by the Language Bureau and the KTA. The system is easily understood since it is modelled on written Afrikaans.

This study determines how the COBOL competencies taught in information systems programs and those attained by information systems students compare to those needed on the job. Five research questions were posed: 1. What are the introductory COBOL programming competencies required to be a COBOL programmer? 2. To what extent do information systems program faculty perceive that they have taught COBOL programming competencies? 3. What level of competence in COBOL programming do prospective employers expect information systems graduates to have on the job? 4. To what extent do information systems seniors perceive that they have developed COBOL programming competencies? 5. Which COBOL programming competencies did the faculty, prospective employers, and seniors rate similarly in regard to level of skill? The respondents in the study were information systems faculty, prospective employers of information systems graduates, and information systems seniors. Usable responses were received from 85.4% of the total population. Findings reveal that there were two competencies for which the groups responded differently. These competencies were both in the preparation area. They were "Prepare a card record layout," and "Prepare a system flowchart." The two competencies which the groups had the least disagreement on were "Be familiar with group printing," and "Be familiar with accept statement." Based upon the findings in this study, the following conclusions were drawn: 1. The competencies identified through the search of the literature and validated by the panel of experts are the competencies needed on the job for COBOL programming and therefore appropriate for inclusion in the four-year information systems programs. 2. The information systems faculty are adequately emphasizing in their programs the COBOL competencies they should be. 3. The faculty rated the competencies taught somewhat higher than the prospective employers felt they were needed. / Ed. D.

Notre étude est dédiée au développement d’un protocole d’évaluation du langage à visée clinique. Nous examinons les spécificités du traitement du langage oral à travers le filtre des fonctions langagières actualisées par la prosodie. Système composite par excellence, largement négligé tant dans l’étude du traitement du langage que dans les évaluations orthophoniques, la prosodie est cependant en étroite relation avec les composantes du langage et réalise par ce biais l’ensemble des fonctions structurantes du langage. Deux fonctions linguistiques de la prosodie sont ici testées en compréhension : une fonction syntaxique, sous-tendue par le marquage accentuel des frontières de syntagmes réalisé par un accent final et un accent initial, et une fonction pragmatique impliquant la fonction de focalisation initiée par un accent emphatique. Après avoir procédé à la normalisation de notre protocole auprès d’un groupe de sujets contrôles, notre évaluation a été intégrée à la prise en charge longitudinale de deux patients atteints de gliomes de grade II. Dans ce cadre spécifique, nous avons adapté nos épreuves au contexte de la chirurgie éveillée. Les capacités langagières des patients ont été testées en condition pré-opératoire afin d’observer l’impact cognitif de la tumeur et en condition post-opératoire afin d’évaluer les conséquences de l’exérèse. Les résultats soulèvent des questionnements concernant la spécialisation hémisphérique de la prosodie. Ils ont aussi permis de mesurer la sensibilité de notre protocole. L’étude exploratoire réalisée en condition peri-opératoire nous a permis de soulever les contraintes inhérentes à la méthode de stimulation électrique directe. / This study is dedicated to the development of an exploratory clinical protocol for language evaluation, where prosody is seen as the core system for assessing spoken language processing in a more comprehensive way than is usually the case in clinical studies. Indeed, prosody is usually largely neglected in studies on language processing, as well as in speech therapy and neuropsychological evaluations. However, prosody is tightly linked to the different components of language, and plays a central role in linguistic structuring. Two linguistic functions of prosody are tested here in language comprehension: 1) the syntactic function of prosody, where both final and initial accenting help delimit syntagmatic grouping ; 2) the pragmatic function of prosody, where prosodic focus brings salience to a specific part of discourse. The protocol was first normalized on a control group of healthy participants. We then ran the evaluation in a peri-surgical context on two patients suffering from grade II glioma. The protocol had to be adapted to the context of awake surgery. The language capacities of the patients were tested first in pre-surgical context in order to assess the cognitive consequences of the brain tumor, then in post-surgical context to evaluate the consequences of the tumor removal. Results raise questions regarding the hemispheric specialization of prosody, and more globally regarding the localization of language processing. The other interesting outcome of this research is to propose improvements for the evaluation of language capacities in a surgical context using direct brain electric stimulation.

The study critically explored the language of reportage of the Zimbabwe Land Reform programme as presented in selected Shona and English newspapers in Zimbabwe. The study focused on Kwayedza, The Herald, The Daily News and The Daily Mirror. The objective was to find out whether or not the verbal and visual languages used in reporting the Land Reform programme left readers more knowledgeable about the programme, and then adopt a critical attitude towards the Land Reform exercise. The study used qualitative textual analysis to unpack the language frames used in representing Land Reform in the selected newspapers. Some relevant critical voices from readers were also enlisted in order to support or complicate interpretations of how Land Reform was portrayed in the selected stories. Kwayedza and The Herald unequivocally supported the Land Reform. This official stance was contested in Chapter Four in which The Daily News adopted an ideological position opposed to both the idea of the Land Reform and the confiscatory way the land was repossessed. The Daily News’ extremely negative criticism of the Land Reform was challenged and then modified in The Daily Mirror. The Daily Mirror criticised both the government’s extremely supportive view of the Land Reform. The Daily Mirror also openly criticised The Daily News for refusing to acknowledge the historical inevitability and necessity of the Land Reform. The Daily Mirror advanced a perspective that suggested that Land Reform programme should benefit the masses more than the elites. It was argued that in contexts of political change such as that of Zimbabwe, newspapers take a stance and support particular ideological interests. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

In software engineering, software reuse has been a popular topic since 1968. Nowadays, Software Product Line (SPL) engineering promotes systematic reuse throughout the whole software development process. Within SPL, reusability strongly depends on variability. In this context, variability modelling and management are crucial activities that crosscuts all development stages. Different techniques are used to model variability and one of them is Feature Diagrams (FDs). FD languages are a family of popular modelling languages used to model, and reason on, variability. Since the seminal proposal of a FD language, namely FODA, many extensions have been proposed to improve it. However, the pros and cons of these languages are difficult to evaluate for two main reasons: (1) most of them are informally defined and (2) no well defined criteria were used to justify the extensions made to FODA. As a consequence, variability modelling and management techniques proposed in the literature or used by practitioners may be suboptimal. Globally, this work underlines that the current research on FDs is fragmented and provides principles to remedy this situation. A formal approach is proposed to introduce more rigour in the motivation, definition and comparison of FD languages. Thereby, examining their qualities should be more focused and productive. A formal approach guarantees unambiguity and is a prerequisite to define formal quality criteria and to produce efficient and safe tool automation. A quality analysis is necessary to avoid the proliferation of languages and constructs that are an additional source of misinterpretations and interoperability problems. The creation or selection of a FD language should be driven and motivated by rigourous criteria. Translations from one FD language to another should be defined and carefully studied to avoid interoperability problems. The main contributions of this work are: (1) to use a quality framework to serve as a roadmap to improve the quality of FD languages, (2) to formally evaluate and compare FD language qualities according to well-defined criteria and following a clear method, (3) to formally define and motivate a new FD language that obtains the best scoring according to the quality criteria and (4) to develop tool support for this language.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:25:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2222.pdf: 2028194 bytes, checksum: 069bb69ee62ece533677e4392f107a09 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-12-03 / As English is the most frequent language in science and in the academic community, the proficiency in this language is necessary to whom is in this environment included, mainly regarding reading comprehension. Many proficiency exams that evaluate this ability in candidates or graduate students, although request students only to translate a text. At ICMC (USP - São Carlos) since 2001 an English Proficiency Exam (EPE) has been made evaluating graduate students knowledge of research article as a genre (Swales,1990; Weissberg & Buker, 1990). The assessment is divided into four modules: 1) linguistic conventions, 2) structure of research article, 3) reading comprehension and 4) writing strategies which are peculiar to Academic English (Aluísio et al, 2003). However, the modules are not fully implemented and there s still a lot of space for linguistic reflections, once the exam was elaborated by a professor in the Computer Science area. The current study aims the construction of a corpus and the elaboration of questions referring to module 1 with the axioms needed in any evaluation (Perrenoud, 1999; Miller et al, 1998), the peculiar characterists of a foreign language test, Bloom s Taxonomy (1984), the Admissible Probability Method (APM) (Klinger, 1997) and the most recurrent mistakes made by Brazilian graduate students (Genoves Jr. et al, 2007). Computer tools will be used, such as: a concord and a word list that are commonly available in corpus processor like WordSmith Tool besides a chunker, a parser and a parser tree. The questions will be part of an item base to be used for: 1) the elaboration of future EPEs; 2) raising relevant information about the conditions of the testees reading comprehension; and 3) testees´ study and preparation through CALEAP-Web (Gonçalves, 2004). / Como o inglês é a língua franca da ciência e da comunidade acadêmica, a proficiência em tal idioma se faz necessária a quem está neste meio inserido, principalmente no que diz respeito à compreensão de leitura. Muitos exames de proficiência que avaliam tal habilidade de candidatos ou alunos de pós-graduação, entretanto, requerem que os avaliandos apenas traduzam um texto. No ICMC (Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e Computação) da USP de São Carlos, desde 2001, já ocorre um EPI (Exame de Proficiência em Inglês) que avalia os conhecimentos dos mestrandos acerca do gênero artigo científico (Swales, 1990; Weissberg & Buker, 1990). Tal avaliação está dividida em quatro módulos: 1) convenções lingüísticas, 2) estrutura de textos científicos, 3) compreensão de texto e 4) estratégias de escrita peculiares ao inglês acadêmico (Aluísio et al, 2003). Entretanto, os módulos ainda não estão plenamente implementados, e ainda há campo fértil para reflexões lingüísticas, uma vez que o exame foi elaborado por um docente da área de Computação. A presente pesquisa visa à construção de um córpus de artigos científicos e à criação de questões referentes ao módulo 1, com axiomas necessários a qualquer avaliação (Perrenoud, 1999; Miller et al, 1998), nas características peculiares a uma avaliação em língua estrangeira, na Taxonomia de Bloom (1984), no Método de Probabilidade Admissível - MPA (Klinger, 1997) e nos erros mais recorrentes na escrita científica de brasileiros (Genoves et al, 2007). Para tanto, serão utilizadas ferramentas computacionais tais como: um concordanciador e um contador de freqüência que comumente são disponibilizados em processadores de córpus como o WordSmith Tool , além de um chunker, um parser e um parser tree. Tais questões farão parte de um banco de itens que poderá ser utilizado para: 1) a elaboração de futuros EPIs; 2) levantamento de informações relevantes sobre o panorama da compreensão de leitura dos examinandos; e 3) estudo e preparação por parte dos avaliandos através da ferramenta CALEAP-Web (Gonçalves, 2004).

Orientador: Matilde Virginia Ricardi Scaramucci / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T09:01:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pellison_JaneteAntonia_M.pdf: 896382 bytes, checksum: d6c0119241da16c4ff682672eb64e973 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: O objetivo desta dissertação é investigar as percepções de alunos e professores de um curso de Letras de uma universidade particular em relação à avaliação de rendimento de Inglês LE, e as implicações que essas percepções têm sobre a atividade pedagógica. A partir dos resultados obtidos cremos ser possível contribuir para uma melhoria na formação do futuro professor de Inglês LE. A presente pesquisa, de natureza interpretativista, utilizou os seguintes instrumentos para a coleta de registros: entrevistas e questionários semi-estruturados com duas professoras de Inglês; entrevistas e questionários semi-estruturados com alunos de 3º, 5º e 8º períodos, com o intuito de observar se há mudanças nas percepções dos alunos ao longo do curso; e observações de aulas com anotações de campo. A fundamentação teórica inclui Almeida Filho (1998), Clark (2000), Luckesi (1996), Rolim (1998), Scaramucci (2000), Perrenoud (1999), Hughes (1990), Shohamy (1995), Barcelos (1995), Silva (2005), entre outros. A análise dos dados mostrou-nos vários aspectos importantes, dentre eles: a) há muitas convergências entre as percepções das professoras e dos alunos; b) embora as professoras de Inglês LE e os alunos do curso pesquisado tenham incorporado em seu dizer acadêmico uma percepção da avaliação como algo processual, contínuo e formativo, a prática de sala de aula mostrou que o que realmente é praticado é uma avaliação somativa baseada no produto; e c) os alunos têm pouco ou quase nenhum contato com o tema avaliação durante a graduação, o que nos indica que nesse tocante o referido curso não propicia um conhecimento teórico que permita com que os alunos passem da competência implícita à competência aplicada. Os resultados da pesquisa nos levam a crer que muito ainda precisa ser discutido sobre essa questão nas aulas de Lingüística Aplicada, nas aulas de Prática de Ensino, bem como em todas as outras disciplinas, a fim de que esses futuros professores possam dominar todas as fases do processo de ensino-aprendizagem, inclusive a avaliação / Abstract: The objective of this research is to investigate the perceptions that students and teachers of a Portuguese-English Teacher's Training Program of a private university have about achievement assessment of English as a foreign language, and the implications that these perceptions have on the pedagogical practice. With the results in hands, we believe it is possible to offer an improvement in the training of the future English teachers. This research, of an interpretive nature, used the following tools to collect data: semi-structured questionnaires and interviews with two teachers of English; semi-structured questionnaires and interviews with students of the 3rd, 5th and 8th terms in order to observe if there are changes in the students' perceptions along the course; and class observations with fieldnotes. The theoretical framework includes studies by Almeida Filho (1998), Clark (2000), Luckesi (1996), Rolim (1998), Scaramucci (2000), Perrenoud (1999), Hughes (1990), Shohamy (1995), Barcelos (1995), Silva (2005), amongst others. The data analysis revealed some important aspects, such as: a) there are many convergencies between the perceptions of teachers and students; b) although the English teachers and the students of this teachers' education program have incorporated in their discourse a perception of evaluation as a continuous and formative process, the pedagogical practice showed that what really happens during the course is a series of evaluations of product; and c) the students have barely no contact with the conception of evaluation during the course, what might be taken as an indication that the course does not provide the students with the theoretical basis that they need in order to move on from implicit competence to applied competence. The results of this research make us believe that this topic must be discussed in the classes of Applied Linguistics and Didatics, as well as other subjects so that our pre-service teachers can be exposed to all phases of the learning process, including evaluation / Mestrado / Lingua Estrangeira / Mestre em Linguística Aplicada