ABSTRACT A STUDY ON LEARNERS&amp / #8217 / READINESS FOR AUTONOMOUS LEARNING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE KO&Ccedil / AK, Ayfer MSc, Department of Educational Sciences Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Fersun Payko&ccedil / September 2003, 115 pages The purpose of this study is to investigate whether, or not, students attending English Language Preparatory School at BaSkent University are ready to be involved in autonomous language learning. This study also argues that before any interventions aiming at fostering autonomy are implemented, it is necessary to explore learners&amp / #8217 / readiness for autonomous learning in four different areas. These areas are as follows: (a) Learners&amp / #8217 / motivation level in learning English, (b) Learners&amp / #8217 / use of metacognitive strategies in learning English, (c) Learners&amp / #8217 / responsibility perception of their own and their teachers&amp / #8217 / in learning English and (d) Learners&amp / #8217 / practice of English in the outside class activities. The questionnaire used in the study was administered to 186 students attending Preparatory School of BaSkent University. The data analysis was carried out through quantitative (frequencies, means, standard deviations, t-test and one-way ANOVA) analysis techniques. The results of the study indicated that majority of the students had high motivation. Another result revealed that the students tended to use some metacognitive strategies like self-monitoring and self-evaluation. The third result showed that the learners considered the teacher as more responsible for most of the tasks during their own learning process. Fourthly, majority of the students tended to be spending quite little time for out-of-class activities to improve their English. The fifth result displayed that females and elementary learners had higher motivation in learning English, but a significant difference was not in the motivation level concerning the learners&amp / #8217 / major field. The sixth result pointed out that females used more metacognitive strategies in learning English / however, proficiency level and major field of the learners were not found to be significant factors in the use of metacognitive strategies. The seventh result revealed that responsibility perceptions did not show a significant difference regarding the respondents&amp / #8217 / gender, proficiency level and major field. Finally, the present study indicated that intermediate level language learners tended to do more out-of-class activities in learning English. On the other hand, the frequency of respondents&amp / #8217 / conducting out-of-class activities in learning English did not show a significant difference concerning the subjects&amp / #8217 / gender and major field. Key words: Learner Autonomy, Learner Responsibility, Self-regulated learner.

I denna uppsats jämförs och diskuteras gynnsamma faktorer för elevers läs- och skrivutveckling. Jag lyfter fram tre olika forskares syn på vad som kan ha en positiv inverkan för elevers utveckling på området och sätter det i relation till gynnsamma faktorer för lärande i stort. Frågeställningarna berör likheter i forskarnas metoder, lärarrollen samt lärande utifrån individ- och grupperspektiv.   Som jag skrev ovan så fokuseras arbetets kring tre huvudtexter. Dessa texter är Judith Langers Effective Literacy Instruction (2002), Palincsar och Browns Reciprocal Teaching (1984) och Graham, Harris och Santangelos Self-Regulated Strategy Development (2008). Dessa tre texter ger tillsammans en bild av faktorer som kan vara av betydelse för både läs- och skrivutveckling.   I resultaten av studien kommer bland annat vikten av att eleverna lär sig strategier fram. En lustfylld och trygg miljö är något som visat sig vara ytterst viktigt för både lärare och elev. Av resultatet går också att konstatera att både individanpassat lärande och lärande i grupp har sina fördelar.

Five-character poetry is an important poems form in Chinese Literature, which have five-character-four-sentences, six-sentences, eight-sentences, ten-sentences,twelve-sentences or even longer. Although the regulated verse form got into matured in Tang Dynasty,but it was brewing in the Southern Qi Liang.Start from Southern Song Dynasty,five-character poetry was gradually appeared into a large number,especially of the five-character-eight-sentences poetry.However, among the academia only focus on researching poetry rhythm and the antithesis,did not put efford into research the structure of five-character poem.This thesis focuses on this phenomenon,based on the number of five-character poems and the poems structure,try to research the process of five-character poems evolve into regulated verse.

Kawasaki disease (KD) is characterized by a systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology. More research indicates that KD is related to genetic. In 2003, Sekiya et al. studied the correlation of Th2-related genes and the KD in Japan. They found out that -431T allele would increase the concentration of Thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC)/ CCL17 protein in serum by single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) -431 C>T of chemokine TARC/ CCL17 operon 5¡¦-flanking region , which suggests that SNP has functionality. Therefore, this study explored the polymorphism and relationship between the regulation of chemokine of TARC/ CCL17 and KD. Firstly, we performed polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) to detect TARC/CCL17 -431 C>T genotype. Then enzyme immunoassay was used to detect TARC/CCL17 chemokine¡¦s expression. The results showed that the performance of TARC -431 C/T SNP, the alleles from KD patients with -431 T, were significantly less than the non-KD control group. It was observed that the -431 T alleles had a lower chance to occur in KD with aneurysms, but independent with coronary artery lesions (CAL). In addition, the acute stage of KD has a higher TARC protein expression, which gradually decreases during IVIG treatment period. However, the up-regulation of TARC protein may not be the direct consequence caused by the single nucleotide polymorphism of TARC -431 C>T.

This paper is the use of the active inductor instead of passive inductors to save area, enter the match aspects of the use of the feedback capacitor in parallel with the resistor to achieve matching with the control input voltage, in addition to adjusting the feedback resistor can control the noise. The LNA dissipates 13.2 mW power and achieves input return loss (S11) below -10dB, output return loss (S22) below -10 dB, forward gain (S21) of 11.3~14.5dB, reverse isolation (S12) below -40dB, and noise figure (NF) of 3~3.18 dB. 1-dB compression point (P1dB) of -24 dBm and input third-order inter-modulation point (IIP3) of -14 dBm .

The aim of this thesis is to explore a brand new learning activity named Mission-based Learning (MBL), which is based on the Complex Problem Learning. Two research objectives are to develop the designing principles for MBL and to analyze the relationship among entrepreneurship, learning strategy and performance while learners participating Mission-based learning activities in groups. According to the concept of ARCS model proposed by Keller, we developed six designing principles for MBL activities; they are (1) Commitment (2) Risk-taking (3) Persistence (4) Positive Self-talk (5) Self-reflection and (6)_ Self-improvement. According to the designing principles we developed, we designed and conducted two real MBL activities, ¡§Searching and Backtracking of Chinese Family Names¡¨ and ¡§Unified Invoice¡¨ using the K12 digital school (http://ds.k12.edu.tw/). We adopted all the student groups that participated MBL activities from the beginning to the end as valid samples. Then we took the whole participated groups as valid samples and analyzed their narratives by content analysis. We explored the relationship among entrepreneurship, learning strategy and performance for groups participating in Mission-based learning activities. Our study has found that the participated groups with competitive aggressiveness would favore adopting action control as learning strategy in doing the two MBL activities. We also found that the participated groups with higher competitive aggressiveness would have a higher performance in two MBL activities. Moreover, we found that the relationship between learning strategy and performance would be affected by different orientations of MBL activities. The participated groups with good adaptation of information-processing strategy will show a higher performance in knowledge-deep oriented MBL activities. And the participated groups with good adaptation of action control strategy will show a higher performance in knowledge-wide oriented MBL activities. To effectively applying MBL activity, some suggestions are provided for teachers. (1) Participating groups should be well-informed the meaning and spirit of MBL activities before their participation. (2) All groups should be working independently and autonomously by minimizing teacher¡¦s intervention. (3) In order to strengthen the action control strategies of participated groups, adequate psychological scaffolding should be provided by teachers during groups participated in MBL.

This thesis analyzes the evolution of European social policy via focusing on the unfolding contentions between two different notions that disagree over Europe&rsquo / s direction regarding the best social-economic system in Europe. Taking its point of departure in the ratification crisis and the impasse surrounding the Constitutional Treaty, the thesis argues that the contrasting interpretations of the Treaty and the attendant cleavages in the European polity are illustrations of such ongoing ideological struggles among alternative paradigms and approaches. Naming these contending approaches as &ldquo / project of neoliberalism&rdquo / and &ldquo / project of regulated capitalism&rdquo / , the evolution of European social policy is investigated with a focus on interplays between these projects / the self-transformation of the projects in the course of integration / and the relations between economic and social governance in the construction of an &ldquo / ever closer Union&rdquo / . To this purpose, the thesis theoretically employs Polanyian conceptual framework of &ldquo / double movement&rdquo / alongside theoretical approaches of Streeck, Hooghe&amp / Marks, and Pochet that view the evolution of European social policy in conflictual encounters between two opposing notions. Against this theoretical background, the thesis surveys the integration history from the Treaty of Rome until the Lisbon Treaty of 2007. It concludes that the European social policy has evolved within interplays among projects of neoliberalism and regulated capitalism and there has always been an asymmetric relationship between the economic and social governance in Europe as the social governance has always had a secondary and even a subservient position with regard to economic governance in the European polity.

The purposes of this study are to investigate how mathematics achievement can be explained in terms of motivational beliefs (intrinsic goal orientation, extrinsic goal orientation, task value, control and learning beliefs, self efficacy for learning and performance and test anxiety), self-regulated learning components (cognitive strategy use and self-regulation), gender and school types and to determine the differences between two gender (girls and boys) and two school types (public schools and private schools) with respect to the variables above in the subject domain of mathematics. The study was conducted in Istanbul and Ankara, two largest cities of Turkey, with 577 seventh-grade students (274 boys, 303 girls) from nine private and public schools. Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and Mathematics Achievement Test (MAT) were used. By using Linear Stepwise Regression and MANOVA, respectively, the results indicated that (1) The combined effect of three predictor variables (school type, self-efficacy and intrinsic goal orientation) on students&rsquo / mathematics achievement was significant. Boys&rsquo / mathematics achievement at public schools was significantly affected by extrinsic goal orientation and cognitive strategy use whereas self-efficacy and intrinsic goal orientation were two predictors for boys at private schools. Girls&rsquo / mathematics achievement both at public and private schools was significantly affected by self-efficacy. (2) There was no statistically significant mean difference between girls and boys with respect to task value, self-efficacy and test anxiety. Also, there was no statistically significant mean difference between public schools and private schools with respect to extrinsic goal orientation, task value, self efficacy and self-regulation.

The petroleum industry faces problems in transportation of crude petroleum be- cause of the deposition of paraffins, hydrates and asphaltenes on the insides of the pipeline. These are conventionally removed using either chemical inhibitors or mechani- cal devices, called pigs, which travel through the pipeline and mechanically scrape away the deposits. These pigs are propelled by the pipeline product itself and hence travel at the same velocity as the product. Research has indicated that cleaning would be better if the pigs are traveling at a relatively constant velocity of around 70% of the product velocity. This research utilizes the concept of regulating the bypass flow velocity in order to maintain the pig velocity. The bypass flow is regulated by the control unit based on the feedback from the turbine flowmeter, which monitors the bypass flow. A motorized butterfly valve is used for actually controlling the bypass flow. In addition to cleaning, the proposed pig utilizes on-board electronics like accelerom- eter and pressure transducers to store the data gathered during the pig run. This data can then be analyzed and the condition of the pipeline predicted. Thus, this research addresses the problem of designing a pig to maintain a constant velocity in order to achieve better cleaning. It also helps gather elementary data that can be used to predict the internal conditions in the pipe.

Phytohormones act as signals to regulate plant growth and development by modulation of gene expression in response to internal developmental cues or external environmental stimuli, such as light and pathogen infection. There are five major classes of phytohormones, viz. auxins, cytokinins, gibberellins, ethylene and abscisic acid. Of these, cytokinins, 6N substituted adenine derivatives, are of special importance owing to their possible diverse roles in plant growth and development. They induce cell division, cell expansion in cotyledon, chloroplast and etioplast development, suppression of apical dominance and senescence, and differentiation of in vitro cultured cells. However, very little is known about the mechanism of cytokinin action at the molecular level. Cytokinins have been demonstrated to modulate the expression of genes coding for several enzymes including nitrate reductase, ribulose-l,5-bisphosphate carboxylase, RNA polymerase I, and pathogenesis-related (PR) enzymes, i.e. chitinases and β-1,3- glucanases. One of the important questions regarding cytokinin regulation of enzyme activities and/or the accumulation of their corresponding proteins and mRNAs is how the cytokinin signal is transduced. There is considerable evidence from earlier reports demonstrating that pathogens alter hormone physiology of the host plant and it has been proposed that the infection-associated enzyme changes might be mediated by phytohormones. In the present study, two PR enzymes, viz. cucumber chitinase and β-l,3-glucanase, have been chosen to examine the mode of regulation of their gene expression by cytokinins, including the identification of cytokinin signal transduction components. Plant chitinases and glucanases are important enzymes in plant defense mechanisms against fungal pathogens as they degrade the major fungal cell wall components, chitin and β-1,3-glucan, respectively. Besides their role in plant defense, they are known to be involved in diverse physiological and developmental processes, such as embryogenesis, seed germination and flower development, and are also developmentally and hormonally regulated. Initially, in order to study the effects of various cytokinins on chitinase and β-1,3-gIucanase enzyme activities and their gene expression, cotyledons excised from seven-day-old dark-grown cucumber seedlings were treated with water, and cytokinins, viz. benzyladenine, kinetin, zeatin and zeatin riboside. It was observed that chitinase and β-l,3-ghucanase enzyme activities and their transcripts were induced to varying extents following treatments of cotyledons with the cytokinins tested. However, a maximum increase in enzyme activities and their transcript levels was noticed in zeatin-treated cotyledons. Therefore, zeatin was used for further studies. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the cytokinin signal transduction mechanism involving the induction of expression of chitinase and β-1-3-glucanase. In order to obtain insights into the downstream components of the cytokinin-signaling pathway, effects of several agonists and antagonists of the signal transduction components on zeatin-induced chitinase and β-l,3-glucanase activities, and their protein and transcript levels were monitored by enzyme assay, by immunoblot analysis, and by northern analysis, respectively. Treatment of excised dark-grown cucumber cotyledons with staurosporine, a broad spectrum protein kinase inhibitor, reduced the zeatin-induced chitinase and β-l,3-glucanase enzyme activities and the accumulation of their proteins and transcripts. On the other hand, treatment with sodium fluoride, a general inhibitor of protein phosphatases, stimulated the basal chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase enzyme activities and their protein and transcript accumulation, whereas it had no effect on the zeatin-induced enzyme activities and their protein and transcript accumulation. These findings suggested that protein phosphorylation is critical in the cytokinin induction of expression of chitinase and β-l,3-glucanase. Since Ca2+ is known to be an important second messenger in several plant signal transduction pathways, the possible involvement of Ca2+ in the cytokinin-induced expression of chitinase andβ-l,3-glucanase was examined. The results of the present investigation showed that the chitinase and β-1,3-ghicanase activities and their proteins and transcripts were appreciably increased by exogenous CaCl2 treatment in control cotyledons. Treatment of cotyledons with zeatin plus CaCl2 did not result in a further increase in either these enzyme activities or their protein and transcript accumulation as compared to zeatin or CaCl2 treatment alone. The lack of additivity of zeatin plus CaCl2 treatment indicated a common mechanism of action of zeatin and Ca2+ in the induction of these enzyme activities and their gene expression. To test the occurrence of influx of extracellular Ca2+ by cytokinin, cotyledons were treated with the plasma membrane Ca2+ channel blocker, verapamil, and Ca2+ ionophore A23187. Verapamil treatment inhibited the zeatin-induced chitinase and β-1,3-ghicanase enzyme activities and their protein and transcript accumulation. An increase in the intracellular Ca2+ levels by means of Ca2+ ionophore treatment resulted in a significant increase in basal chitinase and β-l,3-glucanase activities and their protein and transcript accumulation. These results suggested that an influx of extracellular Ca2+ leading to increased levels of cytosolic Ca2+ is required for the cytokinin induction of expression of these enzymes. The correlation of chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase enzyme activities and their protein and transcript accumulation in the zeatin-treated cotyledons suggested that the cytokinin zeatin stimulates chitinase and β-l,3-glucanase accumulation at the mRNA level and that the increase in enzyme activities is due to an increase in the amount of the enzyme protein and not by the activation of the existing enzyme. Further, the effect of zeatin on both the enzyme activities and their transcript levels under conditions that inhibit protein synthesis was studied. Treatment of excised dark-grown cucumber cotyledons with cycloheximide, an inhibitor of protein synthesis, in the presence of zeatin, completely nullified the stimulatory effect of zeatin. These results indicated the requirement of cytokinin-induced enhanced concurrent protein synthesis in the observed stimulation of chitinase and β-l,3-glucanase enzyme activities as well as their transcript accumulation Ca2+ In an attempt to isolate the full length cucumber β-l,3-glucanase cDNA from a cucumber cDNA library, we isolated and sequenced one cDNA clone, which was 978 bp long and had a potential polyadenylation signal A ATA A starting 172 bases before the polyadenylation tail A deduced amino acid sequence of the cDNA, which was 242 amino acids in length, apparently encoded a partial β-amyrin synthase. Sequence comparison of the deduced partial amino acid sequence of cucumber β-amyrin synthase with other known plant β-amyrin synthase sequences available in databases revealed significant homologies to β-amyrin synthases from Panax, Pisum and Glycyrrhiza. Southern blot analysis indicated that there was only one β-amyrin synthase gene in the cucumber genome. RT-PCR analysis performed on total RNA isolated from zeatin- and salicylic acid-treated cotyledons using forward and reverse primers designed from the internal regions of the cDNA showed that the transcript levels of β-amyrin synthase were enhanced by both zeatin and salicylic acid. In conclusion, we have demonstrated that chitinase and β-l,3-glucanase accumulation is stimulated by exogenous cytokinin treatment of excised cucumber cotyledons, and this effect is correlated with the content of chitinase and β-1,3-glucanase transcripts as judged by northern analyses. Further, the findings reported in the thesis suggested that Ca2+ influx from extracellular space, protein phosphorylation by staurosporine-sensitive protein kinase(s) and concurrent protein synthesis are required for the signaling of cytokinin-induced expression of both these pathogenesis-related enzymes.