The aim of the study is to examine which reading comprehension strategies by the teaching material "A Reading Class" a teacher in second grade tutors about and how the teacher tutors, and which reading comprehension strategies pupils in second grade state that they use when they read on their own, and in what whey they use those reading comprehension strategies. Therefore this study proceeds from the following questions: Which reading comprehension strategies does the teacher tutor about and how does the teacher tutor about those strategies? Which reading comprehension strategies do the pupils state that they are using when they are reading on their own? How do the pupils use the reading comprehension strategies when they read on their own, according to themselves? The investigation is based on three observations of the tutoring about reading comprehension strategies and six interviews with a total of eleven pupils. The theoretical basis is composed of theories about the sociocultural perspective, scaffolding, zone of proximal development and reciprocal teaching. The result showed that the teacher tutored about the reading comprehension strategies: predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing. She encouraged the pupils to create inner images and to make text connections (text-to-self, text- to-text, text-to-world). She tutored about the strategies by the model "think aloud". The pupils seem to use the strategies predicting and clarifying most frequently when they are reading on their own but also creating inner images. For example, they use the strategy predicting when they are choosing books to read and the strategy clarifying when they don’t understand words while they are reading. A lot of the pupils seem to have trouble explaining how to use the strategy summarizing, and also seem to find it hard to summarize after reading, but skillful readers seem to accomplish that better than less skillful readers. The pupils seem to use the reading comprehension strategies in greater occurrence when they are reading on their own than they are aware of.

In the 1960s, the government formed the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice to looked at the problem of crime and fear of crime in modern American society. In addition to looking at these issues, the Commission also looked at ways to potentially reduce both crime and fear of crime. One of the primary outcomes of the Commission's report was that policing agencies in the United States needed to fundamentally alter the way they served their communities, notably by transitioning to community-oriented policing (COP). Starting in the 1970s, law enforcement agencies around the nation began to embrace the COP philosophy in the hopes that it would effectively reduce crime. A plethora of research suggests that the crime reduction benefits of COP are dubious at best; however, COP shows great promise in reducing fear of crime in neighborhoods. However, scholars remain uncertain as to why COP can effectively reduce fear. The uncertainty surrounding the efficacy of COP lies in the incomplete theoretical understanding of fear of crime. Three largely divergent fear of crime models have been developed. The first, the social integration model, posits that fear is influenced by the degree to which a person is integrated into their community. The thought being that the more socially integrated a person is, the stronger the sense of informal social and thus the lower the fear of crime. Research generally--although not always--supports this notion. Other scholars developed the disorder model, which posits that disorderly conditions or other signs of incivility can lead residents to feel as though informal social control has broken down, and thus elevate levels of fear. Again, this notion is well supported in the research. The final model suggests fear of crime is a result of sociodemographic differences (e.g., gender and age) that make a person feel more vulnerable to victimization, and thus those feeling most vulnerable exhibit the highest levels of fear. The findings from this so-called vulnerabilities model receive inconsistent support in the research. The problem with the extant fear of crime research is that it largely relies on singular explanations of fear. In other words, it operates from the premise that one of the models described above is responsible for residents' levels of fear. Recently, scholars have begun developing multimodel explanations in an effort to improve criminologists' ability to explain fear of crime. However, this multimodel approach is not a complete theoretical model of fear because it fails to account for the likely existence of a reciprocal effect between fear of crime and social integration. Further, it fails to account for the effects of social context may exert on fear and the way in which neighborhood differences may condition the individual-level fear of crime relationships. This dissertation, using two data sources, attempts to predict fear of crime using a more complete fear of crime model than those used in much of the prior research. The first source of data used is the 2004 Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office community survey (N=1898), which was distributed to a random sample of households in unincorporated Hillsborough County. Additionally, to create measures of social context, this dissertation utilizes data from the 2000 United States Census for census designated places in unincorporated Hillsborough County--which serve as the proxy for neighborhoods (N=30). Based on theory and prior research, it was hypothesized that the best fear of crime model would contain elements from all three theoretical models developed in prior research. Additionally, it was hypothesized that there would be a significant and negative reciprocal effect from fear of crime to social integration. Finally, it was hypothesized that social context would condition the relationships between individual-level fear of crime predictors. As predicted by the hypothesis, the empirically strongest fear of crime model did contain elements from all three explanatory fear of crime models. Additionally as hypothesized, there was a significant reciprocal relationship between fear of crime and social integration. However, contrary to expectations the relationship was positive. In other words, fear of crime motivated residents to become more socially integrated in their neighborhoods. Finally, as hypothesized social context did condition the effects of the individual-level variables. However, contrary to the hypotheses proffered, social context augmented the size of the effect between the individual-level variables. The findings from this dissertation offer some interesting insights for scholars and posivy makers alike. The findings suggest that it is imperative to use a more complete (e.g., multimodel) approach when explaining fear of crime. Additionally, it is necessary to account for the reciprocal relationship between fear of crime and social integration; otherwise research will yield deceptive parameter estimates for social integration on fear of crime. Lastly, social context matters and needs to be considered in further research. However, the theoretical model in this dissertation--while a step forward--does not represent the theoretical model to explain fear of crime. The results suggest that the model may be even more complex than the model presented here. The results of this dissertation for policy makers suggest that community oriented policing strategies are likely an effective mechanism for reducing residents fear of crime for two reasons; 1) the strengthening of social integration programs in neighborhoods and 2) focusing on reducing disorder problems in neighborhoods. Study strengths and limitations, as well as directions for future research are discussed.

The authors used the frameworks of reciprocal determinism and occupational socialization to study the effects of work characteristics (consisting of control and complexity of work) on personal initiative (PI)--mediated by control orientation (a 2nd-order factor consisting of control aspiration, perceived opportunity for control, and self-efficacy) and the reciprocal effects of PI on changes in work characteristics. They applied structural equation modeling to a longitudinal study with 4 measurement waves (N = 268) in a transitional economy: East Germany. Results confirm the model plus 1 additional, nonhypothesized effect. Work characteristics had a synchronous effect on PI via control orientation (full mediation). There were also effects of control orientation and of PI on later changes in work characteristics: As predicted, PI functioned as partial mediator, changing work characteristics in the long term (reciprocal effect); unexpectedly, there was a 2nd reciprocal effect of an additional lagged partial mediation of control orientation on later work characteristics.

Reciprocal processes, whose concept can be traced back to E. Schrödinger, form a class of stochastic processes constructed as mixture of bridges, that satisfy a time Markov field property. We discuss here a new unifying approach to characterize several types of reciprocal processes via duality formulae on path spaces: The case of reciprocal processes with continuous paths associated to Brownian diffusions and the case of pure jump reciprocal processes associated to counting processes are treated. This presentation is based on joint works with M. Thieullen, R. Murr and C. Léonard.

This is an Action Research. The purpose is to understand that if there is any change within the student¡¦s reading comprehension and how the condition of using the Reading comprehension strategy is by accepting the methods of Reciprocal Teaching. This research does the survey on the class of 32 students in one elementary school in Kaohsiung City through the instructions of Reciprocal Teaching on Reading comprehension strategy within 20 weeks. Before teaching, the researcher used ¡§ Reading Comprehension Screening Test ¡¨, ¡¨ Chinese Reading Comprehension test for Elementary school students ¡¨ and ¡§ Reading Comprehension Strategy Scale for Senior Students of Elementary School ¡¨ to confirm the students¡¦ performance on reading comprehension. After teaching for 20 weeks, the researcher used two copies of tests designed by the teacher herself and ¡§Reading Comprehension Strategy Scale for Senior Students of Elementary School¡¨ to understand the students¡¦ different performances after using the reading comprehension strategy. The conclusion is as below. First, after accepting the Reciprocal Teaching instruction, the most significant influence is inferential comprehension and text base comprehension. The ability of questioning is less effective. The effect of summarization and the literal comprehension are much weaker. Second, after accepting the Reciprocal Teaching instruction, the students use the variety of prediction strategies most frequently. The second is the usage of clarification. The last is the application of the summarization and questioning strategies.

Angus - Bos indicus (Brahman or Nellore) reciprocal backcross embryo transfer calves belonging to 28 full-sib families were evaluated for differences in birth weight (BW), gestation length (GL), weaning weight (WW), carcass weight (HCW), longissimus muscle area (REA), fat thickness (adjusted (ADJFAT) and actual(ACTFAT)), intramuscular fat (MARB), and Warner-Bratzler shear force tenderness (WBSF). Family types with a greater proportion of Bos indicus in the sire in relation to the amount in the dam (F1 x A and B x F1) averaged longer GL and heavier BW than their respective reciprocal crosses (A x F1 and F1 x B). Calves had longer GL when the F1 parent was BA as opposed to AB. Small differences (statistically insignificant) were detected for BW, but no consistent difference was found between offspring of AB and BA parental types, with the exception of male F1-sired calves. F1 x A and B x F1 crosses also showed a large BW difference between males and females (about 5.0 kg), while A x F1 and F1 x B crosses showed no BW difference between males and females. Further examination within each sex showed a difference between male reciprocals that was two times that of females. Calves with a higher percentage of Bos indicus in the sire compared to the proportion in the dam showed the same trend, as they were still heavier at weaning, and produced heavier carcasses than the reciprocal crosses, though these differences were not significant. As a whole, A backcross calves had more ACTFAT, more ADJFAT, larger REA, more MARB, and lower WBSF than B backcross calves, though no significant differences were detected between reciprocal crosses for any of these traits. These results suggest that for weight related traits, especially BW, both the breed constitution of the calf and the cross that produces the calf play an important role in its ultimate performance for Bos indicus crossbred calves. For carcass and meat related traits, it appears that the breed make-up of the calf itself is more significant in influencing performance than the cross used to produce the calf.

Data from 75 F2 Brahman-Hereford cows of four specific breed combinations, F2 HB (produced by F1 HB sires x F1 HB dams, where “HB” refers to cattle sired by Hereford bulls and out of Brahman cows), F2 BH (produced by F1 BH sires x F1 BH dams), HB x BH and BH x HB, were evaluated for maternal performance at the Texas A&M Research Center near McGregor. Differences between breed combinations were analyzed for calf crop born (CCB), calf crop weaned (CCW), calf survival (CS), birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), and cow weight at palpation (PW). The adjusted means for F2 HB, F2 BH, HB x BH, and BH x HB were 0.84 ± 0.06, 0.57 ± 0.07, 0.82 ± 0.06, and 0.62 ± 0.08, respectively, for CCW. F2 HB cows had a 0.27 ± 0.09 higher percent calf crop weaned than F2 BH cows (P < 0.01) and a 0.22 ± 0.11 higher percent calf crop weaned than BH x HB cows (P < 0.05). HB x BH cows had a 0.25 ± 0.08 higher percent calf crop weaned than F2 BH (P < 0.01) and a 0.20 ± 0.10 higher percent calf crop weaned than BH x HB cows (P < 0.05). As 6-year-olds, the adjusted means for cow weight at palpation for F2 HB, F2 BH, HB x BH, and BH x HB cows were 523.65 ± 20.49 kg, 602.61 ± 23.63 kg, 492.84 ± 16.98 kg, and 515.93 ± 22.96 kg, respectively. Averaged across all ages, HB x BH cows weighed 56.59 ± 15.29 kg less than F2 BH cows (P < 0.001) and 41.11 ± 18.92 kg less than BH x HB cows (P < 0.05). Also, F2 HB cows weighed 40.45 ± 17.68 kg less than F2 BH cows (P < 0.05). In this herd, HB-sired cows had higher reproductive efficiency than BH-sired cows. Also, HB-sired cows tended to be lighter than BH-sired cows. Although these differences existed, exact causes could not be determined primarily due to confounding between the birth year of the cow and the sire breed of the cow.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of using different teaching strategies to promote elementary students¡¦ reading comprehension and metacognition. A nonequivalent pretest-posttest design was conducted in this study. Three fifth grade classes from Kaohsiung City were assigned to two experimental groups and one comparison group. The first experimental group students were taught by Direct Instruction; the second experimental group were taught by Reciprocal Teaching; and the comparison group students studied the same topic and content without any other extra teaching strategy. The extra teaching strategies were contiguously conducted for 12 weeks for a total of 24 classes on both experimental group student classes; furthermore, 2 sessions of teaching instruction were added. The investigator first conducted the Chinese Llanguage bility Test to determinine the experimental group students¡¦ reading ability. In addition, two reading comprehension instruments were used to assess the students¡¦ progress during pre-and-post teaching span. The researcher conducted multiple variance of analysis (MANOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) for statiscal analyses. Finally, the main findings are as follows: (1) The experimental group students¡¦ reading comprehension ability was significantly different from the comparison group students¡¦; whereas there was non-significant difference between two experimental group students. (2) The experimental group students who were introduced to Reciprocal Teaching significsantly improved on their metacognition. (3) There were significantly interactions between different teaching strategies and students¡¦ reading abilities, it was found that students with moderate reading comprehension ability made significant improvement under the Reciprocal Teaching Strategy. (4) Among the 4 different reading comprehension methods taught, students use questionaiere methods the most. This research focuses on the effects of different teaching methods on the performance of the reading ability among elementary students and can provide as a reference for future studies.

The purpose of this study is to investigate (1) how mathematics instructors develop their students’ metacognitive abilities concretely within mathematics instruction and (2) whether these teachers feel adequately prepared to develop their students’ metacognitive abilities. Qualitative email interviews with credentialed secondary school mathematics teachers in Sweden were used. Analysis of the participants’ interview responses indicate that the participants reported a limited use of the metacognitive teaching strategies described in the research. Although teacher responses indicated stress, frustration, and irritation and their responses indicated limited proficiency in their intuitive declarative metacognitive knowledge of thinking skills, whether or not teachers feel adequately prepared to develop their students’ metacognitive abilities cannot be completely answered by this study.

Processes having the same bridges as a given reference Markov process constitute its reciprocal class. In this paper we study the reciprocal class of compound Poisson processes whose jumps belong to a finite set A in R^d. We propose a characterization of the reciprocal class as the unique set of probability measures on which a family of time and space transformations induces the same density, expressed in terms of the reciprocal invariants. The geometry of A plays a crucial role in the design of the transformations, and we use tools from discrete geometry to obtain an optimal characterization. We deduce explicit conditions for two Markov jump processes to belong to the same class. Finally, we provide a natural interpretation of the invariants as short-time asymptotics for the probability that the reference process makes a cycle around its current state.