<p>In Sweden we come in contact with the English language almost daily; in television shows, radio commercials and at work. English is also mandatory in the Swedish curriculum; therefore it is important that the students learn as much as possible in school, to be able to use English in their daily life. Teachers use different methods to help students acquire the tools needed to learn English, or any other subject for that matter. One method is oral feedback, which is used to immediately encourage students or correct them when making an error. My aim in this study is therefore to investigate if students find oral feedback in the classroom valuable and if not, how they would like it to be changed. To investigate this I handed out a questionnaire to five classes. The questions were divided up into three categories: if the students had noticed oral feedback being given to them, what their experiences of oral feedback were and how they would like the feedback to be delivered. I also made observations and recorded three classes. The results of this investigation showed that the students were positive to oral feedback in the classroom. Most of the students had noticed oral feedback being given to them, and the teachers had mostly corrected the students’ grammar and pronunciation. These were also the areas where the students felt they had developed the most from oral feedback. In the questionnaire the students pointed out that they wanted the feedback to be delivered privately and that the teachers have to be careful how they give the feedback, they have to always remember to give positive feedback as well as corrective feedback.</p>

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Les oligonucléotides antisens possèdent un immense potentiel thérapeutique. Cependant, la faible efficacité avec laquelle ils traversent les membranes biologiques limite leur utilisation. De nombeuses stratégies de délivrances ont été proposées pour contourner ce problème mais la plupart restent peu adaptées à une utilisation in vivo. Durant cette dernière décennie, plusieurs peptides capables de traverser la membrane plasmique ont été caractérisés. Regroupés sour le nom de Cell Penetrating Peptide, ces peptides sont polycationiques et parfois amphipatiques. Nos travaux d'évaluation de ces CPPs dans le modèle cellulaire de correction d'épissage indiquent que ces vecteurs, couplé à des PNA ou PMO, restent bloqués dans les vésicules d'endocytose. L'utilisation d'agents endosomolytiques comme la chloroquine, libère ces conjugués améliorant ainsi l'efficacité de la correction d'épissage. D'une manière générale il est admis que le développement de nouveaux peptides vecteurs présentant une propriété endosomolytique intrinsèque constituerait une avancée majeure dans le domaine de la délivrance. Deux conjugués (R-Ahx-R)4-PMO et R6Pen-PNA corrigent efficacement l'épissage sans addition de chloroquine. Ces conjugués sont internalisés dans les cellules par un mécanisme endocytotique. Les études de structure activité ont indiqué une corrélation entre l'affinité des conjugués aux héparanes sulfates ainsi que de leur hydrophobicité et l'efficacité de correction. Les travaux sur les modèles animaux ont montré une large biodisponibilité du conjugé (R-Ahx-R)4-PMO. Nos collaborations continuent pour améliorer ces deux peptides de délivrance.

The Vanna-Volga (VV) method has been in wide use as one of the major tools for several years among foreign exchange (FX) trading desks. Despite its popularity, the properties of the VV method are not well studied and understood. This thesis attempts to understand better why and when the VV method makes sense, and how to use it better. Often under practical circumstances the state of calibration can be described as being frequent but imperfect. To take advantage of this level of calibration, we studied the properties and benefits of the Karasinski method, and extended this method to a few useful applications. We have found that the Karasinski method, if used with a reasonably calibrated model, can provide significant performance improvement over the VV method.The VV and Karasinski chapters contain most of the original research in this thesis; there are a wealth of discoveries made in these chapters. Novel methods and applications related to the VV and Karasinski methods are proposed, and some of which can be readily applied to the practical trading environment. To make the VV and Karasinski methods work well in practice, the numerical issues for computing the price and Greeks have been carefully addressed with finite difference schemes that are second-order convergent and fast to compute. As an example of easy-to-compute but difficult-to-calibrate model candidates for the Karasinski method, the Multi-Heston model has been discussed too. A sound computational preparation enables the VV and in particular Karasinski methods to enjoy high viability as being fast, efficient and practical. This thesis is tailored to the purpose of making a detailed study on these useful methods whose great potential has not been adequately understood and fully realised.

We develop and test a probabilistic real-time streamflow-forecasting platform, Multimodel and Multiproduct Streamflow Forecasting (MMSF), that uses information provided by a suite of hydrologic models and satellite precipitation products (SPPs). The SPPs are bias-corrected before being used as inputs to the hydrologic models, and model calibration is carried out independently for each of the model-product combinations (MPCs). Forecasts generated from the calibrated models are further bias-corrected to compensate for the deficiencies within the models, and then probabilistically merged using a variety of model averaging techniques. Use of bias-corrected SPPs in streamflow forecasting applications can overcome several issues associated with sparsely gauged basins and enable robust forecasting capabilities. Bias correction of streamflow significantly improves the forecasts in terms of accuracy and precision for all different cases considered. Results show that the merging of individual forecasts from different MPCs provides additional improvements. All the merging techniques applied in this study produce similar results, however, the Inverse Weighted Averaging (IVA) proves to be slightly superior in most cases. We demonstrate the implementation of the MMSF platform for real-time streamflow monitoring and forecasting in the Mara River basin of Africa (Kenya & Tanzania) in order to provide improved monitoring and forecasting tools to inform water management decisions.

Indexing and processing strings are very important topics in database management. Strings can be database records, DNA sequences, protein sequences, or plain text. Various string operations are required for several application categories, such as bioinformatics and entity resolution. When the string count or sizes become very large, several state-of-the-art techniques for indexing and processing such strings may fail or behave very inefficiently. Modifying an existing technique to overcome these issues is not usually straightforward or even possible. A category of string operations can be facilitated by the suffix tree data structure, which basically indexes a long string to enable efficient finding of any substring of the indexed string, and can be used in other operations as well, such as approximate string matching. In this document, we introduce a novel efficient method to construct the suffix tree index for very long strings using parallel architectures, which is a major challenge in this category. Another category of string operations require clustering similar strings in order to perform application-specific processing on the resulting possibly-overlapping clusters. In this document, based on clustering similar strings, we introduce a novel efficient technique for record linkage and entity resolution, and a novel method for correcting errors in a large number of small strings (read sequences) generated by the DNA sequencing machines.

Bien que le calcul quantique topologique soit tolérant aux fautes de manière intrinsèque à température nulle, cette protection topologique est perdue à toute température plus élevée. L'utilisation de méthodes servant à contrecarrer les effets délétères des excitations thermiques sera donc nécessaire pour construire un ordinateur quantique basé sur ces principes. Dans cette thèse, nous développons des outils de simulation numérique permettant l'analyse de systèmes donnant lieu à des anyons d’Ising. Nous présentons également une méthode de correction d'erreur pouvant être appliquée pour tout modèle anyonique non cyclique, abélien ou non. Cette procédure est fondée sur les travaux de Gács et de Harrington et est basée sur l'utilisation d'automates cellulaires. Une analyse détaillée démontre l'existence d'un taux de création d'excitations critique en deçà duquel l'information peut être protégée. Des simulations numériques permettent d’estimer ce dernier entre $10^{-4}$ et $10^{-3}$.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / In the past ten years reliable high-speed satellite systems have pushed slower less reliable communication systems to the bottom of the list for development programs. Concern over reduced budgets, vulnerability of expensive satellite systems, and recent advances in HF technology are creating new interest in upgrading existing HF communication systems. Nondevelopment Items (NDI) are defined as the use of off-the-shelf commercial items instead of costly, time-consuming conventional research and development programs. The Navy Department's current policies are designed to insure the maximum use of NDI to fulfill Navy requirements. The speed of HF systems can be improved using current signaling and modulation techniques, and reliability can be increased by error-correcting codes or error detection used in conjunction with automatic repeat request (ARQ) schemes. Improved HF systems not only provide survivable back-up capability, but increased capacity for present communication needs. / http://archive.org/details/longhaulcommunic00elli / Lieutenant, United States Navy

The structural and electronic properties of covalently and non-covalently functionalized graphene are investigated by means of first-principles density-functional-theory. The electronic characteristics of non-covalently functionalized graphene by a planar covalent organic framework (COF) are investigated. The aromatic central molecule of the COF acts as an electron donor while the linker of the COF acts as an electron acceptor. The concerted interaction of donor acceptor promotes the formation of planar COF networks on graphene. The distinctive electronic properties of covalently functionalized fluorinated epitaxial graphene are attributed to the polar covalent C–F bond. The partial ionic character of the C–F bond results in the hyperconjugation of C–F σ-bonds with an sp2 network of graphene. The implications of resonant-orbital-induced doping for the electronic and magnetic properties of fluorinated epitaxial graphene are discussed. Isolation of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) with specific chirality and diameters is critical. Water-soluble poly [(m- phenyleneethynylene)- alt- (p- phenyleneethynylene)], 3, is found to exhibit high selectivity in dispersing SWNT (6,5). The polymer’s ability to sort out SWNT (6,5) appears to be related to the carbon–carbon triple bond, whose free rotation allows a unique assembly. We have also demonstrated the important role of dispersion forces on the structural and electronic stability of parallel displaced and Y-shaped benzene dimer conformations. Long-range dispersive forces play a significant role in determining the relative stability of benzene dimer. The effective dispersion of SWNT depends on the helical pitch length associated with the conformations of linkages as well as π-π stacking configurations. We have revisited the constructing schemes for a large family of stable hollow boron fullerenes with 80 + 8n (n = 0,2,3,...) atoms. In contrast to the hollow pentagon boron fullerenes the stable structures constitute 12 filled pentagons and 12 additional hollow hexagons. Based on results from density-functional calculations, an empirical rule for filled pentagons is proposed along with a revised electron counting scheme. We have also studied the relative stability of various boron fullerene structures and structural and electronic properties of B80 bucky ball and boron nanotubes. Our results reveal that the energy order of fullerenes strongly depends on the exchange-correlation functional employed in the calculation. A systematic study elucidates the importance of incorporating dispersion forces to account for the intricate interplay of two and three centered bonding in boron nanostructures.

We present an evaluation of daily estimates from three near real-time quasi-global Satellite Precipitation Products-Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA), Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks (PERSIANN), and Climate Prediction Center (CPC) Morphing Technique (CMORPH)-over the African continent, using the Global Precipitation Climatology Project one Degree Day (GPCP-1dd) as a reference dataset for years 2001 to 2013. Different types of errors are characterized for each season as a function of spatial classifications (latitudinal bands, climatic zones and topography) and in relationship with the main rain-producing mechanisms in the continent: the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the East African Monsoon. A bias correction of the satellite estimates is applied using a probability density function (pdf) matching approach, with a bias analysis as a function of rain intensity, season and latitude. The effects of bias correction on different error terms are analyzed, showing an almost elimination of the mean and variance terms in most of the cases. While raw estimates of TMPA show higher efficiency, all products have similar efficiencies after bias correction. PERSIANN consistently shows the smallest median errors when it correctly detects precipitation events. The areas with smallest relative errors and other performance measures follow the position of the ITCZ oscillating seasonally over the equator, illustrating the close relationship between satellite estimates and rainfall regime.