This study aims to determine the effect of school conditions on learner reading achievement in primary schools in South Africa. Reading skills are not only imperative for further study but are essential for economic and meaningful citizenship. Initiatives such as the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign, geared to improve the quality of education for all children and to ensure improved learner achievement have resulted in an increase in educational spending. Despite such initiatives, learner achievement remains poor. In order to measure the relative relationship between school conditions and learner reading achievement, this study focused on selected variables from the PIRLS 2006 South African data, notably from Grade 5 learner reading achievement, teacher and school questionnaires. A secondary data analysis through multiple regression technique was utilised in an attempt to measure those school conditions that may enhance or impede learner reading achievement. This study follows the tradition of school effectiveness research by utilising the context-input-process-output (integrated model for school effectiveness research) model as espoused by Scheerens (2000; 2005). The integrated model was adapted combining school and classroom factors in order to measure the effect of school wide processes on learner reading achievement. Although this study was unable to measure the effect of educational leadership on learner reading achievement, it found significant school and classroom factors associated with learner reading achievement. This study highlights the importance of improving the teaching and learning of literacy across all 11 official languages. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / Unrestricted

This study aims to establish the relationship between reading literacy in the primary school and parental attitudes and behaviour to reading. Reading literacy is another dimension of literacy (Dubin & Kuhlman, 1992), notably the ability to understand and make use of written language (Mullis, Martin, Kennedy, Trong & Sainsbury, 2009). Despite various educational improvement initiatives undertaken by the South African Education system (ANAs, SACMEQ, TIMMS, PIRLS) as a means of creating systems to improve standards of education (Education Policy Act 2015 of 1998), learner achievement in the primary school remains low. This study makes use of selected variables from the PIRLS 2011 parent questionnaire to measure the extent of the relationship between learner reading achievement in Grade 5 and home level factors such as learning environment, parental behaviours in reading and parental attitudes towards reading. It adopts a secondary analysis design and makes use of quantitative approaches (Creswell, 2003). The Developed model of Home Learning Environment, Parental Behaviours and Parental Attitudes to Reading and Reading Literacy Achievement was adapted from the model of attitudes, behaviours and reading as developed by Abu-Rabia and Yaari (2012). This study was able to establish that the home learning environment and parental behaviours to reading had negative association with reading literacy, meaning that in their absence reading literacy would decrease. It established that parental attitudes to reading had positive association with reading literacy, meaning that in the presence of positive parental attitudes, reading literacy would increase. This highlights the importance of parental involvement in learner reading development. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / Unrestricted

Across the world countries are currently striving to eliminate poverty, improve the quality of education, optimize well-being, among other areas of improvement. In an effort to help such improvements, a group called Young Lives ran a longitudinal study on youth in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam that studied the many facets of poverty. The purpose of this study is to utilize the Young Lives dataset to determine how countries can more readily improve social-emotional skills by looking at important experiences in adolescents' lives. Specifically, this study examines what factors increase a child's ability to socialize with peers, which is shown to be linked to higher academic success as well as a fuller development into adulthood. In order to measure the ability to socialize with peers, Young Lives used the relationships with Peers Scale (RPS). I examined, through implementing structural equation modeling techniques, what factors significantly predict RPS scores, as well as which time point the factors are most predictive. I also inspected the psychometric properties of the RPS on the Young Lives' population and observed measurement invariance across time and country in order to ensure this scale is a valid measure. Steps to improve relationships with peers can be taken by encouraging higher intrinsic locus of control, providing equal educational opportunities, improving safety conditions, providing nutritional education, and eliminating competition for resources.

The recent observed growth in the diffusion of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies phenomena on the U.S stock market may be analyzed from a mathematical standpoint, where different approaches of the Bass Diffusion Model might be utilized. The Bass diffusion model originates from analysis of product diffusion, where only a few applications have been seen by financial scholars. The thesis takes a multi analytical approach to examine the phenomena, where multiple regression analysis and Bayesian statistics are used in the parameter estimation processes. Estimated parameter are applied in three different scenarios of expressing the Bass diffusion model in a discrete time state. By utilizing these different approaches that arise, the study shows that the diffusion of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies Initial Public Offerings in fact can be analyzed from a mathematical standpoint utilizing the Bass diffusion model. Some approaches and scenarios indicate better results in terms of fitting the diffusion, while purposing practical actualities towards the reader and market practitioners. The study further purposes potential modifications that might improve the results of fitting the phenomena

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第18583号 / 工博第3944号 / 新制||工||1606(附属図書館) / 31483 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科建築学専攻 / (主査)教授 門内 輝行, 教授 髙田 光雄, 教授 神吉 紀世子 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of grit and intrinsic motivation regarding students' propensity to procrastinate. Three specific research questions were constructed: "How much of the variance in participants' procrastination is explained solely by their degree of grit?" "Does the degree of intrisic motivation contribute with additional explanatory information for the regression between grit and procrastination?" "Is intrisic motivation a mediator for the regression between grit and procrastination?" To test this, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was constructed. To collect data an electronic questionnaire was constructed. The sample consisted of 271 students who all studied at Karlstad University. The data was collected through the learning platform itslearning. Grit was measured with Swedish-Grit Scale. Intrinsic motivation was measured with a modified version of Task Evaluation Questionnaire and the students' propensity to procrastinate was measured with Pure Procrastination Scale. Grit and intrinsic motivation constituted the independent variables and the students' propensity to procrastinate was the dependent variable. The results showed that both the grit and intrinsic motivation significantly contributed with explained variance in the students' propensity to procrastinate. The strongest predictor variable was grit. The results also showed that intrinsic motivation was not a mediator for the regression between grit and procrastination. The conclusion is that grit should play a greater part in the Swedish school system. / Syftet med studien var att undersöka betydelsen av grit och inre motivation för studenters benägenhet att prokrastinera. Tre konkreta frågeställningar konstruerades: ”Hur stor del av variansen inom deltagarnas prokrastinering förklaras ensamt av deras grad grit?”, ”Bidrar inre motivation med ytterligare förklarande information för regressionen mellan grit och prokrastinering?” och “Är inre motivation en mediator för regressionen mellan grit och prokrastinering?” För att testa detta genomfördes en hierarkisk multipel regressionsanalys. För att samla in data konturerades en elektronisk enkät. Stickprovet bestod av 271 studenter som alla studerade på Karlstads universitet. Datainsamlingen gjordes via lärplattformen itslearning. Grit mättes med Swedish-Grit Scale. Inre motivation mättes genom en modifierad version av Task Evaluation Questionnaire Prokrastinering mättes med hjälp av Pure Procrastination Scale. Grit och inre motivation utgjorde oberoende variabler och studenternas prokrastineringsbeteende utgjorde den beroende variabel. Resultatet visade att både grit och inre motivation signifikant bidrog med förklarad varians inom studenternas prokrastineringsbeteenden. Den starkaste prediktorvariablen var grit. Resultatet visade också att inre motivation inte var en mediator för regressionen mellan grit och prokrastinering. Slutsatsen av arbetet är att grit borde spela en större del i det svenska skolväsendet.

Submitted by Jorge Silva (jorgelmsilva@ufrrj.br) on 2016-10-20T18:25:56Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2016 - Cristina Fernandes do Amarante.pdf: 776756 bytes, checksum: 758e9e88a96110176bd0dff013f8c6ac (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-20T18:25:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2016 - Cristina Fernandes do Amarante.pdf: 776756 bytes, checksum: 758e9e88a96110176bd0dff013f8c6ac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-03 / CNPq / This study aimed to assess the factors involved in the determination of ecological events, including parasite aggregation, abundance, and dominance, via multivariate analysis using fish as a biological model. For this purpose, we used a database consisting of 3,746 fish specimens collected on the coast of Rio de Janeiro and from the Guandu river and evaluated their characteristics, habits, and associated parasites. Parasites were grouped into seven higher taxa: Nematoda, Monogenea, Cestoda, Trematoda, Acanthocephala, Hirudinea, and Crustacea. Aggregation was calculated using the dispersion index; abundance was determined by calculating the total number of parasites; and dominance was calculated using the Berger-Parker index. Data normality was tested using the Shapiro-Wilk test; group comparisons, when necessary, were performed using the Wilcoxon test or the Kruskal-Wallis test. Adjustments were made in the linear regression models for parasite aggregation in each parasite taxon evaluated and in the mixed-effect models to evaluate abundance and dominance using Poisson and Gaussian distributions, respectively. The factors inherent to the hosts, including sex, size, habitats, formation of schools, eating habits, and aquatic environments, were tested as potential explanatory variables of these ecological events. In addition, the parasite development stage and parasite taxa were included as explanatory variables in the analysis of the determinants of aggregation and dominance, respectively. In the mixed-effects model, the ecological events were considered an outcome variable, and fish species were considered a random variable. Regression coefficients were calculated in the study of aggregation, and parasite dominance and prevalence rate were estimated in the study of abundance. Significance was determined using confidence intervals (CI) and the Wald test. All calculations were performed using R software with a confidence interval of 95%. Statistically significant associations between levels of parasite aggregation and explanatory variables (factors inherent to the host and the percentage of larvae) varied according to the parasite taxon. The coefficient of determination was lower than 60% in all of the adjusted models, indicating that factors other than those analyzed may be associated with the level of parasite aggregation. Parasite abundance was significantly associated with sex, formation of schools, habitats, and host length, which were considered risk factors. The numerical dominance of parasites was significantly associated with host length and the taxa Nematoda, Trematoda, Monogenea, Hirudinea, and Crustacea. In addition, our results indicate that the mixed-effects model was more parsimonious compared with the classical model, underscoring the importance of choosing a statistical model that takes into consideration the nature of the data to avoid spurious results, especially when autocorrelations data were not considered. In general, our results point to the need for developing studies with more comprehensive databases and larger samples of parasite species, in which data on the life cycles of fish species and parasite taxa can be analyzed more thoroughly. / Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar fatores envolvidos na determina??o dos eventos ecol?gicos: agrega??o, a abund?ncia e a domin?ncia parasit?ria por meio de an?lises multivariadas, utilizando peixes como modelo biol?gico. Para tanto, foi utilizado um banco de dados composto por 3.746 esp?cimes de peixes, suas caracter?sticas e h?bitos e seus parasitos, provenientes do litoral do Rio de Janeiro e do Rio Guandu. Os parasitos foram agrupados em sete t?xons superiores: Nematoda, Monogenea, Cestoda, Trematoda, Acanthocephala, Hirud?nea e Crust?cea. A agrega??o foi calculada atrav?s do ?ndice de dispers?o; a abund?ncia pela quantidade total de parasitas computados; e a domin?ncia atrav?s do ?ndice de Berger Parker. A normalidade dos dados foi testada pelo teste de Shapiro Wilk e a compara??o de grupos, quando necess?ria, foi realizada pelo teste de Wilcoxon ou Kruskal-Wallis. Foram ajustados modelos de regress?o linear para a agrega??o parasit?ria para cada t?xon parasit?rio estudado e modelos de efeitos mistos para an?lise dos determinantes da abund?ncia e da domin?ncia, com distribui??o de Poisson e gaussiana, respectivamente. Os fatores inerentes aos hospedeiros tais como: sexo, tamanho, habitat, forma??o de cardumes, h?bitos alimentares e ambiente aqu?tico foram testados como poss?veis vari?veis explicativas desses eventos ecol?gicos. Al?m desses, na an?lise dos determinantes da agrega??o e domin?ncia foram inclu?dos os fatores est?dio de desenvolvimento do parasita e os t?xons parasit?rios como vari?veis explicativas, respectivamente. Os eventos ecol?gicos foram considerados vari?veis desfecho e nos modelos mistos a esp?cie de peixe como vari?vel aleat?ria. Foram calculados os coeficientes de regress?o nos estudos de agrega??o e domin?ncia parasit?ria e estimada a raz?o de preval?ncia no estudo de abund?ncia. A signific?ncia foi verificada por meio o intervalo de confian?a (IC) e do teste de Wald. Todos os c?lculos foram realizados utilizando o software R, com um IC de 95%. As associa??es estatisticamente significativas entre o n?vel de agrega??o parasit?ria e as vari?veis explicativas (fatores inerentes ao hospedeiro e propor??o de larvas) variaram conforme o t?xon parasit?rio. O coeficiente de determina??o foi inferior a 60%, em todos os modelos ajustados, indicando que outros, fatores al?m dos analisados, devam estar relacionados ao grau de agrega??o parasit?ria. A abund?ncia parasit?ria mostrou-se associada significativamente ?s vari?veis: sexo, forma??o de cardumes, habitat e comprimento do hospedeiro, que se comportaram como poss?veis fatores de risco. A domin?ncia num?rica de parasitos esteve associada significativamente ao comprimento do hospedeiro e aos t?xons Nematoda, Trematoda, Monogenea, Hirud?nea e Crust?cea. Os resultados mostraram que os modelos mistos foram mais parcimoniosos em rela??o aos modelos cl?ssicos, refor?ando a import?ncia da escolha de um modelo estat?stico mais adequado ? natureza dos dados, evitando-se resultados esp?rios, principalmente quando n?o se leva em conta a autocorrela??o dos dados..De um modo geral, os resultados deste estudo sinalizam para a necessidade de pesquisas com bancos de dados mais abrangentes e com amostras maiores de esp?cies de parasitos, nos quais as caracter?sticas do ciclo biol?gico das esp?cies de peixes e dos t?xons parasit?rios possam ser mais detalhados nas an?lises.

Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) is located along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in southern Florida, in an area vulnerable to hurricane strikes. At FGCU, The Office of Housing and Residence Life (OHRL) is responsible for three locations on- and off-campus where students reside in apartment or suite-style housing. Due to the large number of students with varying backgrounds, the OHRL staff members have become essential personnel during severe weather events that may cause safety concerns for the residents living in OHRL housing locations. This study's purpose is to assess the Residence Life staff on their level of preparedness in the event of a hurricane strike, including carrying out severe weather procedures and maintaining the safety of residents. After running multiple regression analyses, bivariate correlations, and t-tests, this study indicates that those with a higher hurricane knowledge and experience score were more likely to be females and that one's preparedness confidence was the single independent variable found to have a relationship with, and was considered a predicting variable for, the dependent variable (preparedness as an RA/RD). Further analysis was done to consider specific answers on RA's and RD's knowledge of FGCU procedures in comparison to recent campus emergency management studies to consider the overall effectiveness of their procedures. Findings indicate that improvements can be made in the areas concerning their knowledge of when to evacuate, their duties for evacuation, and how the university communicates information. This study and survey can be adapted further to expand on student vulnerabilities to include a more broad range of students, schools and teacher's vulnerabilities, and expanded to include more natural hazards.

Syfte: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) är idag ett  globalt allmänt känt begrepp och Svenska företag anses ligga i framkant med sitt ansvarastagande. Huvudsyftet med uppsatsen är att analysera huruvida ett stort engagemang inom CSR-frågor ger Svenska företag en förändring i företagsvärde och om det påverkar deras lönsamhet. Ett approximativt Tobins Q används som mått på företagsvärde och Return On Assets (ROA) används som mått på lönsamhet.   Metod: En kvantitativ deduktiv metod där undersökning av sekundärdata ska mynna ut i en prövning om huruvida det går att påvisa ett samband mellan CSR och företagsvärde och/eller lönsamhet. Sekundärdata inhämtas ifrån Folksams Index för ansvarsfullt företagande 2009 samt företagens årsredovisningar från 2011. Historiska aktiepriser har hämtats ifrån Nasdaq OMX Nordics hemsida. Sedan inhämtade data har undersökts väljs en passande analysmetod, vilket i detta fall blev multipel tvärsnittsregression.   Resultat och slutsats: Studien visar att det finns en statistiskt signifikant korrelation mellan ett högt CSR och approximativt Tobins Q där ett ökat CSR-arbete ger minskat företagsvärde. Vidare visar studien även en statistiskt signifikant positiv korrelation mellan CSR och ROA, där modellen dock uppvisar brister. En generell förklaring till detta är att det inte finns någon global begreppsbenämning av CSR, vilket försvårar mättningar.  Utöver detta upptäcktes svårigheter i att bestämma ett svenskt bolags marknadsvärde eftersom företag generellt inte har alla sina aktier på börsen och A-aktier är svårvärderade då de sällan omsätts.   Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Ett förslag är en tvärsnittsregression, liknande denna studie där olika sätt att definiera ROA och storlek jämförs. Det vore även intressant att genom en tidsserieanalys undersöka när i tiden CSR-arbetet ger utslag på Tobins Q samt ROA.   Uppsatsens bidrag: Identifiera påverkande faktorer för att bidra till en framtida benchmark av ekonometriska modeller vid mätningar av CSR. / Aim: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a widely known global concept and Swedish enterprises are considered to be cutting edge when it comes to taking responsibility. The main objective is to analyze if a large involvement in CSR gives Swedish companies a change in company value, and if it affects their profitability. An approximate Tobin’s Q is used to measure firm value and Return On Assets (ROA) is used to measure profitability.   Method: A quantitative deductive method where investigation of secondary data will lead to an examination whether it is possible to demonstrate a relationship between CSR and firm value and/or profitability. Our secondary data is retrieved from Folksam Index for corporate responsibility 2009 and the corporate annual reports from 2011. Historical stock prices were collected from Nasdaq OMX Nordic webpage. After examination of the data a suitable analysis method will be chosen, which in this case resulted in multiple regression analysis.   Result and Conclusions: The study shows that there is a statistically significant correlation between a high CSR and the approximate Tobin’s Q where increased CSR returns a reduced value of the firm. The study also shows a statistically significant positive correlation between CSR and ROA, where the model, however, have shortcomings. A general explanation for this is that there is no global concept for CSR and thus it is difficult to measure. In addition, difficulties were discovered regarding determining market value of Swedish firms as companies generally do not have all of their shares on the stock market and that there are different classes of shares.   Suggestions for future research: One suggestion is a cross-sectional regression, similar to this study that compares different ways to define ROA and size. It would also be interesting to through a time series analysis be able to examine when, time wise, CSR activities makes an impact on Tobin’s Q and ROA.   Contribution of the thesis: Identify influencing factors to contribute for a future benchmark of econometric models when measuring CSR.

Directional and horizontal drilling operations are increasingly conducted in all over the world, especially parallel to the growth of the technological developments in the industry. Common application fields for directional and horizontal drilling are in offshore and onshore when there is no way of drilling vertical wells. During directional and horizontal well drilling, many additional challenges occur when compared with vertical well drilling, such as limited weight on bit, harder hole cleaning, trajectory control, etc. This makes even harder to select the proper drilling parameters for increasing the rate of penetration. This study aims to propose a rate of penetration model considering many drilling parameters and conditions. The proposed model is a modified Bourgoyne &amp / Young&rsquo / s model which considers formation compaction, formation pressure, equivalent circulating density, and effective weight on bit, rotation of the bit, bit wear, hole cleaning, inclination, fluid loss properties and bit hydraulics. Also, a bit wear model is developed for roller cones and PDCs. The model performance is tested using field data obtained from several directional and horizontal offshore wells drilled at Persian Gulf. It is observed that the model can estimate rate of penetration with an error of &plusmn / 25 % when compared with the field data.