Prompting students to self-explain during problem solving has proven to be an effective instructional strategy across many domains. However, despite being called “domain general”, very little work has been done in areas outside of math and science. In this dissertation, I investigate whether the self-explanation effect holds when applied in an inherently different type of domain, second language grammar learning. Through a series of in vivo experiments, I tested the effects of using prompted self-explanation to help adult English language learners acquire the English article system (e.g., teaching students the difference between “I saw a dog” versus “I was the dog”). In the pilot study, I explored different modalities of self-explanation (free-form versus menu-based), and in Study 1, I looked at transfer effects between practice and self-explanation. In the studies that followed, I added an additional deep processing manipulation (Study 2: analogical comparisons) and a strategy designed to increase the rate of practice and information processing (Study 3: worked example study). Finally, in Study 4, I built and evaluated an adaptive self-explanation tutor that prompted students to self-explain only when estimates of prior knowledge were low. Across all studies, results show that self-explanation is an effective instructional strategy in that it leads to significant pre- to post-test learning gains, but it is inefficient compared to tutored practice. In addition to learning gains, I compared learning process data and found that both self-explanation and practice lead to similar patterns of learning and there was no evidence in support of individual differences. This work makes contributions to learning sciences, second language acquisition (SLA), and tutoring system communities. It contributes to learning sciences by demonstrating boundary conditions of the self-explanation effect and cautioning against broad generalizations for instructional strategies, suggesting instead that strategies should be aligned to target knowledge. This work contributes to second language acquisition theory by demonstrating the effectiveness of computer-based tutoring systems for second language grammar learning and providing data that supports the benefits of explicit instruction. Furthermore, this work demonstrates the relative effectiveness of a broad spectrum of explicit learning conditions. Finally, this work makes contributions to tutoring systems research by demonstrating a process for data-driven and experiment-driven tutor design that has lead to significant learning gains and consistent adoption in real classrooms.

Mokslinis realizmas yra filosofinis požiūris tvirtinantis, kad mokslo teorijos teigia tiesą apie pasaulį. Šis požiūris nebūtų filosofiškai įdomus, jei jo nesiektų paneigti įvairūs filosofiniai, istoriniai ir sociologiniai kontrargumentai. Šiame darbe analizuojami Paulo Feyerabendo, Arthuro Fine‘o, Thomo S. Kuhno, Larry Laudano, Baso van Fraasseno bei socialinio konstruktyvizmo prieš mokslinį realizmą nukreipti argumentai. Vertinama, kaip šie argumentai atsilaiko prieš naujausius argumentus mokslinio realizmo naudai, pateiktus Philipo Kitcherio, Jarretto Leplino, Ilkka Niiniluoto, Stathiso Psillos ir kitų mokslinių realistų darbuose. Darbe teigiama, kad mokslinis realizmas yra nuoseklus, savo teiginius gerai pagrindžiantis, geriausiai mokslo sėkmę paaiškinantis mokslo teorijų aiškinimas ir todėl laikytinas teisingu teorinis požiūris. Mokslinis realizmas yra nuoseklus teorinis požiūris, kadangi pagrįsdamas dvi prielaidas, kad egzistuoja nuo mąstymo nepriklausomas ir tam tikrą struktūrą turintis pasaulis (ontologinė prielaida) bei kad mokslas yra pajėgus šį pasaulį pažinti (episteminė prielaida), daro išvadą apie mokslo teorijų semantiką, jog teorijos parodo, koks yra pasaulis. Mokslinis realizmas gerai pagrindžia savo teiginius ir prieš jį nukreipti argumentai nepajėgia jo paneigti. Savąjį episteminį optimizmą mokslinis realizmas pagrindžia neigdamas galimybę nubrėžti griežtą ribą tarp stebimų ir negalimų stebėti esinių ir reiškinių bei tvirtindamas abdukcijos (geriausio... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Scientific realism is a philosophical approach that claims the literal truth of scientific theories. This approach would not be philosophically interesting if there were not ample philosophical, historical and sociological arguments that would argue against it. In this thesis we evaluate the arguments of Paul Feyerabend, Arthur Fine, Thomas S. Kuhn, Larry Laudan and Bas van Fraassen as well as the challenge of social constructivists. All the counterarguments are weighed against the most up-to-date arguments for scientific realism – notably, Philip Kitcher, Jarrett Leplin, Ilkka Niiniluoto, Stathis Psillos and others. We claim that scientific realism is a consistent and soundly substantiated account of scientific theories which best explains the empirical success of scientific theories and which, therefore, is justly believed to be a truthful theoretical attitude. Scientific realism is a consistent theoretical attitude because it starts from the two premises that there is a mind independent world of a particular structure (an ontological premise) and that science is able to know this world (an epistemic premise) and concludes with a semantic thesis that scientific theories represent what the world is like. Scientific realism is a sound and well substantiated theoretical attitude because the arguments against it do not succeed to refute it. It grounds its epistemic optimism in the denial to draw a rigid line between the observable and unobservable aspects of the world and in... [to full text]

Artical 2 of civil procedure code establishes the main aims of civil litigation:defence of violated subject rights and licit interests, proper applying of law when hearing civil cases and passing judicial decisios,swift restoration of legal peace,interpretation and development of law. The essential goal of master's final thesis is to investigate how the above mentioned aims of procedure are implemented in the judicial practice. The author claims that procedural aim of proper appliance of law in the practice of Lithuanian courts is interpreted as the duty of court to identify material truth.The author as well analyses the influence of the recent reform of civil procedure unto the rapidity of litigation and states that there still exist some negative practice in pastponing the hearing of the case when there are no serious reasons for such procedural decision instesd of passing a default judgement or appying procedural penalties. It is generalished that the new Code of Civil procedure established better premises to materialise the essential aims of the procedure.

Les concepts d’écosystèmes et de communautés sont centraux aux explications en écologie ainsi qu’à plusieurs débats environnementaux. Cependant, depuis l’introduction de ces concepts, leur statut ontologique est controversé (c'est-à-dire un écosystème a-t-il une existence à part entière au-delà de l’existence de ses parties constituantes?). Alors que certains favorisent une interprétation épistémique de ces concepts, d’autres défendent plutôt que ces unités écologiques fassent partie intégrante du monde naturel. Dans le cadre de ce mémoire, j’argumente que la meilleure manière d’appréhender cette question ontologique est de comprendre que les communautés ainsi que les écosystèmes sont des mécanismes. Plus précisément, je propose que les écosystèmes et les communautés soient des ensembles d’entités et d’activités organisés de manière à exhiber de manière régulière des phénomènes précis. Les entités sont les composantes de ces mécanismes (ex : espèce, niche écologique) alors que les activités sont les relations causales produisant des changements (ex : photosynthèse, prédation). Finalement, les phénomènes que ces mécanismes produisent sont les propriétés émergentes propres au niveau d’organisation des communautés et des écosystèmes (ex. : pH, Biomasse). En utilisant l’approche manipulationniste développée par James Woodward (2003, 2004, 2010), j’argumente qu’il est possible d’identifier les composantes causales des écosystèmes et des communautés ainsi que leurs relations. Puisqu’il est possible de manipuler empiriquement et de manière contrefactuelle de différentes manières les communautés et les écosystèmes (Penn 2003; Swenson et Wilson 2000), je conclus que nous pouvons affirmer de manière robuste (Wimsatt 2007) que ces entités existent réellement. / The concepts of ecosystem and community are central to ecological explanations. However, since the introduction of these concepts, their ontological status is controversial. Taking as a starting point the mechanistic explanatory theories in philosophy of science, I argue that ecosystems and communities are mechanisms. More precisely, I suggest that they are entities and activities organized in such a way as to exhibit regular and precise phenomenons (Machamer, Darden, Craver 2000). While entities are the components of the mechanisms (ex: species, ecological niche), activities are the causal relations that produce changes (ex: photosynthesis, predation). Finally, the interaction of the entities and the activities produce emerging properties that are unique to the community and ecosystem level (ex: pH, biomass). By using the manipulationniste theory of Woodward (2003) and the experimental results of Swenson and Wilson (2000), I argue that it is possible to identify the causal components of the ecosystems and communities and their relations to one another. Since it is possible to manipulate empirically and counterfactually ecosystems and communities, I conclude that they are real entities.

<p>Spontanabort i tidig graviditet hos kvinnor är den vanligaste typen av spontanabort och drabbar 10-35 % av alla gravida kvinnor. Syftet var att beskriva kvinnors upplevelser av omvårdnad i samband med spontanabort i tidig graviditet. Metoden som användes var systematisk litteraturstudie som totalt inkluderade nio studier. Datainsamlingen genomfördes i databaserna Cinahl, PubMed och PsycINFO. Studierna kvalitetsgranskades, och resultatet analyserades utifrån syftet. Materialet färgkodades utifrån funna mönster och tre kategorier växte fram. Kategorierna blev slutligen: kvinnors upplevelser av emotionellt stöd, kvinnors upplevelser av information och förklaring samt kvinnors upplevelser och behov av eftervård. Litteraturstudiens övervägande resultat innefattade upplevelser av otillfredsställelse med omvårdnaden bland de drabbade kvinnorna. Många kvinnor upplevde ett osympatiskt bemötande, bristande medicinsk förklaring av orsaken till spontanaborten samt en avsaknad av eftervård. Slutsatsen var att majoriteten av kvinnorna inte upplevde tillfredsställelse med det emotionella stödet, den medicinska förklaringen samt att de saknade eftervård i samband med spontanaborten i tidig graviditet. Ny forskning föreslås ur patientperspektivet med fokus på kvinnornas unika känslor och behov och ur personalperspektivet om bemötande och eftervård av kvinnor som nyligen varit med om spontanabort i tidig graviditet.</p> / <p>Early pregnancy loss occurs to 10-35% of all pregnant women and it is the most common type of pregnancy loss. The aim was to describe women’s experiences of nursing care in relation to early pregnancy loss. The used method was systematic literature review and resulted in totally used nine articles. The data collection was accomplished in the databases Cinahl, PubMed and PsycINFO. The articles quality was checked and the result was analyzed with regard to the aim. The material was coded in to colours from the found patterns and three categories took place. The categories were finally women’s experiences of emotional support, women’s experiences of information and explanation and women’s experiences and needs of aftercare. The greater part of the result included experiences of dissatisfaction with the nursing care among the women. Many women experienced an unsympathetic attitude, lack of medical explanation to the course and lack of aftercare. The conclusion was that the majority of the women didn’t experience satisfaction with the emotional support, the medical explanation and the aftercare, in relation to early pregnancy loss. Suggestion for new research is made, with focus on women’s unique feelings and needs, and also with focus on the nurses’ attitude and aftercare of these women.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

Uppsatsen tar sin utgångspunkt i antagandet att det svenska luftvärnet under 2000- talet har haft en begränsad utveckling och att truppslaget inte har följt den internationella trenden med mer högpresterande system. Syftet med uppsatsen är att försöka förklara vad som har drivit det svenska luftvärnets utveckling och vilka faktorer som lett till att luftvärnet idag ser ut som det gör. Graham Allison klassiska verk Essence of Decision har utgjort den teoretiska referensramen som legat till grund för undersökningen. Luftvärnets utveckling har studerats utifrån perspektiven om Rationellt beslutsfattande och Maktutövat beslutsfattande. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att Allisons teorier är gynnsamma för att studera drivkrafter och förklara luftvärnets utveckling. Det maktutövade beslutsfattandet kan till stor del klargöra utvecklingen men har visat sig sakna fullständig förklaringskraft. Perspektivet kan därför med fördel nyttjas för att ge en alternativ bild av utvecklingen men inte ensamt förklara drivkrafterna bakom. Det rationella beslutsfattandet är det som av denna uppsats deklareras ha bäst förklaringskraft. Försvarsmaktens begränsade förmåga att driva utvecklingen av luftvärnet framåt antas ha berott på förändrade målsättningar som skett till följd av skiftande fokus på nationella och internationella insatser. Tilldelning av resurser har stundtals varit knapphändig men har i stora drag följt de övergripande målsättningar Försvarsmakten haft med luftvärnet. / The thesis is based on the assumption that the Swedish Ground Based Air Defense (GBAD) in the 21st century has had a limited development and has not followed the international trend of higher performance systems. The purpose of this thesis is to explain what has propelled the GBAD development and to study the underlying factors that have shaped today´s GBAD. Graham Allison classical work Essence of Decision has provided the theoretical framework that formed the basis for the study. The development of GBAD has been studied from the perspective of Rational Actor model and the Governmental Politics model. The result of the survey shows that Allison's theories are favorable for studying the driving forces and explain GBAD development. The Governmental Politics model almost provides a sufficient explanation but does not provide a comprehensive explanation. The perspective can be beneficially used to give an alternative approach of the development but not alone explain the underlying factors. The Rational Actor model offers the best explanatory power. The Swedish Armed Forces' limited ability to develop GBAD is assumed to have been a result of the changing objectives, which occurred due to an altering focus of national and international missions. Allocation of resources has, at times, been inadequate but has broadly followed the overall objectives the Armed Forces had had with GBAD.

This diploma work consists of two parts ? theoretical and practical. The theoretical part concerns on questions which accompany man since his childhood till the end of his life. It looks for answers for questions from different points of view. It looks at the problems from religious, scientific and historical points of view. It connects questions in the historical context. It gives ideas how to make these questions accessible for children. It uses digital photos for displaying the pictures which are further adjusted by using the computer graphics. It thinks over the texts and visual works dealing with the questions which accompany a man and with looking for answers. It focuses mainly on questions about life, the meaning of life, death, life after death, violence and the end of the world. It explains the term ? artist?s book?, it is concerned with the history of this visual media and main representatives dealing with making of artists? books. The aim of this work is to make an author?s book which would be stimulation for thinking of the questions and looking for the answers for them. This book would be created with the help of graphic techniques and on the basis of theoretical knowledge and comparing different points of view.

Considerando que o ativismo judicial é uma realidade contemporânea da prática decisória do Supremo Tribunal Federal, como melhor explicar sua recente ascensão e, principalmente, como identificar as decisões ativistas da Corte? Este trabalho é dedicado a investigar o ativismo judicial do Supremo Tribunal Federal de modo a tornar possível responder a essas perguntas. Nele são examinadas as práticas ativistas de importantes cortes constitucionais ou supremas cortes, principalmente a norte-americana, com o propósito de extrair lições para a elaboração de uma definição abrangente do ativismo judicial e para a montagem de um esquema explicativo e categorizador das decisões ativistas. As conclusões são por uma explicação multifacetada e por uma identificação multidimensional do ativismo judicial. Aplicando essas premissas sobre a realidade decisória do Supremo, é verificado que seu ativismo judicial responde a um conjunto de fatores institucionais, sociopolíticos e jurídico-culturais que se desenvolveram gradualmente a partir da Constituição de 1988. E, principalmente, que é possível descrever cinco dimensões de manifestação de seu ativismo judicial: metodológico (interpretativo); processual; estrutural (horizontal); de direitos; antidialógico. / Considering that judicial activism is a contemporary reality of the Federal Supreme Tribunals decision-making, how better explain its recent rising and, foremost, how identify the Courts activist decisions? This research is dedicated to investigate the Federal Supreme Tribunals judicial activism so as to make possible answer those questions. Here shall be examined the activist practices of important constitutional courts or supreme courts, chiefly the American one, with the purpose of obtaining lessons towards the elaboration of an inclusive definition of judicial activism and towards the making of a framework to explain and categorize the activist decisions. The conclusions are a multifaceted explanation and a multidimensional identification of judicial activism. Applying these premises on the Supremos decision-making reality, it is verified its judicial activism reacts to a group of institutional, social-political and legal-cultural factors that have advanced gradually since the Constitution of 1988. And, principally, its possible describe five dimensions of its judicial activism: methodological (interpretative); procedural; structural (horizontal); on rights; anti-dialogic.

Os avanços tecnológicos da última década tem feito dos computadores um elemento de contribuição essencial para os processos de solução de problemas e de tomada de decisão cooperativos. Hoje, alem do interesse mantido nos sistemas de solução de problemas, cujo raciocínio a baseado no processo de decisão de um único individuo (conhecidos por SE's), o esforço das pesquisas, em Inteligência Artificial, esta centrado no sentido de conceber sistemas que permitam a interação cooperativa entre diversos indivíduos participantes do processo, sejam esses humanos ou sistemas computacionais. A solução de problemas cooperativos, dentro do escopo geral da Inteligência Artificial (IA), é assunto analisado sob dois aspectos diferentes. O primeiro, mais antigo, identifica, como agentes de um dialogo, o sistema computacional e o seu usuário, onde pesquisas estão centradas no estudo da interação homem-máquina. Os esforços desta área de pesquisa tem sido no sentido de conceber, aos sistemas, capacidades de comunicação muito mais ricas do que aquelas oferecidas por sistemas de solução de problemas tradicionais, isto é, permitir aos sistemas compartilhar a solução de um problema, tomando o usuário um agente muito mais ativo e participativo. O segundo aspecto situa-se na área de Inteligência Artificial Distribuída (IAD), uma nova concepção de IA que acompanha o avanço da tecnologia de desenvolvimento de maquinas paralelas e a difusão, em larga escala, de sistemas computacionais distribuídos. Seus esforços são no sentido de conceber sistemas compostos de múltiplos sub-sistemas, capazes de resolver problemas complexos autonomamente. de forma cooperativa. Este trabalho se insere no contexto da interação homem-máquina. São apresentados métodos e estratégias para o fornecimento de capacidades cooperativas ao sistema. A descrição de uma arquitetura para Sistemas Especialistas (SE), baseada em raciocínio meta-nível, é apresentada com o intuito de enriquecer as capacidades de explanação e aquisição de conhecimentos desses sistemas. Consideramos que as ferramentas de explanação e aquisição de conhecimentos são fundamentais para a construção de diálogos cooperativos entre o sistema e o usuário. A ferramenta de explanação é o componente do SE responsável pela geração de justificativas sobre as conclusões do sistema. Ela permite ao sistema tornar explicito o seu raciocínio, fornecendo capacidades de argumentação sobre a validade de suas conclusões. O sistema, através desta ferramenta, tem condições de explicar suas ações, conclusões. escolhas e perguntas feitas ao usuário, permitindo, dessa forma, ao próprio usuário. através de um diálogo cooperativo. comparar seus conhecimentos e estratégias. concordando ou discordando do sistema. A ferramenta de aquisição de conhecimento. outro modulo importante num processo cooperativo, permite ao sistema aprender incrementalmente, através da aquisição de novos conhecimentos, bem como da reestruturação de alguns conhecimentos ou regras com falhas. Analisa-se um problema real, cuja solução e concebida através da interação homem-máquina. embora, intuitivamente, seja apresentada uma abordagem multi-agente para o problema, no final deste trabalho, com o intuito de apontar a evolução que terá essa pesquisa. Como produto deste trabalho de pesquisa, desenvolveu-se, dentro do projeto Inteligência Artificial Distribuída do grupo de Inteligência Artificial do CPGCC da UFRGS. urn sistema denominado SETA. O sistema permite a criação de SE's dedicados a auxiliar o medico na prescrição farmacológica de qualquer grupo de patologia clinica. A representação do conhecimento aplicado foi desenvolvida com o intuito de facilitar a atividade de formulação de prescrições onde o conhecimento esta estruturado em níveis de representação que denotam os conhecimentos clínico e farmacológico separadamente. Cada SE, desenvolvido pelo SETA, permite oferecer justificativas claras ao usuário sobre a prescrição farmacológica indicada pelo sistema, através de explanações do tipo how. why e why not. Oferece, ainda, facilidades de aquisição de conhecimento, permitindo a modificação do conhecimento do sistema através de um modulo interativo, cuja interface foi construída no sentido de permitir uma comunicacc7o natural entre os agentes. ou seja. o sistema e o medico especialista. Resumindo, a interação cooperativa homem-máquina é concebida através das facilidades de explanação e aquisição de conhecimento, levando a incorporação explicita de meta-conhecimento ao sistema. / The technological advance of the past decade turned computers into an element of essential contribution for the cooperative problem-solving and decision-taking processes. Today, besides the interest kept in problem-solving systems, whose reasoning is based upon the process of decision of a single individual (known as ES), the effort of researchs in Artificial Intelligence is to create systems that allow cooperative interaction among various individuals participating in the process, these being either human beings or computer systems. The solution of cooperative problems, within the general scope of Artificial Intelligence, is a subject analysed under two different aspects. The first one, out of date, identifies the computer system and its user as agents in a dialogue, and the researches are concentrated on the study of man-machine interaction. The efforts in this area of research have been to grant the systems communication abilities much richer than those offered by tradicional problem-solving systems. that is, that allow the systems to share the solution of a problem. causing the user to be more active and participating. The second aspect is located in the area of Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI), a new conception of AI that goes with the improvement of the technology of development of parallel machines and the diffusion on a large scale of distributed computer systems. Efforts have been made to create systems made up of multiple sub-systems capable of solving complex problems by themselves, in a cooperative way. This work is inserted in the context of man-machine interaction. It presents methods and strategies to supply the system with cooperative abilities. The description of an architecture for Expert Systems (ES), based upon meta-level reasoning, is presented with the purpose of improving the abilities of explanation and knowledge acquisition of these systems. We consider explanation tools and knowledge acquisition to be fundamental to the construction of cooperative dialogues between the system and the user. The explanation tool is the ES component responsible for the generation of justifications about the system conclusions. It allows the system to make its reasoning explicit, providing it with arguing abilities about the effectiveness of its conclusions. The system. through this tool, is able to explain its actions, conclusions, choices and questions put to the user, thus allowing the user, through a cooperative dialogue, to compare his knowledge and strategies, to agree or disagree with the system. The knowledge acquisition tool, another important unit in a cooperative process, allows the system to learn more and more through the acquisition of new knowledge as well as through the restructuration of knowledge or rules that have failed. A real problem is analysed here and its solution is conceived through manmachine interaction. We also present, at the end of this work, a multi-agent approach for the problem, in order to show how this research will evolve. This research work resulted in the development, within the Distributed Artificial Intelligence project of the Artificial Intelligence group of the CPGCC of UFRGS, of a system called SETA. This system permits the creation of ES dedicated to help doctors prescribe medicines for any groups of clinical pathology. The knowledge representation used was developed with a view to facilitate the making of prescriptions, and the knowledge is organized in levels of representation that express clinical knowledge and pharmacological knowledge separately. Each ES developed by SETA can offer reasonable justifications to users about the pharmacological prescription indicated by the system through explanations such as how, why and why not. It is also ready to acquire knowledge. allowing the system to alter knowledge through an interactive unit whose interface was built to permit a natural communication between the agents. that is, the system and the medical specialist. In short, man-machine cooperative interaction is based upon readiness for explanation and knowledge acquisition, leading to an explicit assimilation of meta-knowledge by the system.