This study evaluated the use of behavior skills training with the instructions and modeling components conducted using either in-vivo or a video for the acquisition of skills required to conduct a communication assessment. A total of six participants from a Communication Disorders and Sciences Masters degree program completed the training. The behavior skills training package included four components: instruction, modeling, role-playing, and feedback. A maintenance probe was conducted between three to seven days after training criterion was met. Results indicated that both in-vivo and video instructions and modeling of the communication assessment were successful in teaching students without a background in behavior analysis. The participants whose training included the video instructions and modeling scored 100% on their first maintenance trial block while the two of the three in-vivo participants did not. Implications for these results could further the growth and development of communication assessments as well as strengthen the relationship between behavior analytic principles to practices that overlap.

The thesis deals with the numerical modeling of nonreactive and nonlinearly sorbing solutes in groundwater and analysis of the effect of heterogeneity resulting from spatial variation of physical and chemical parameters on the transport of solutes. For this purpose, a hy­brid flux corrected transport (FCT) and central difference method based on operator-split approach is developed for advection-dispersion solute transport equation. The advective transport is solved using the FCT technique, while the dispersive transport is solved using a conventional, fully implicit, finite difference scheme. Three FCT methods are developed and extension to multidimensional cases are discussed. The FCT models developed are anlaysed using test problems possessing analyt­ical solutions for one and two dimensional cases, while analysing advection and dispersion dominated transport situations. Different initial and boundary conditions, which mimic the laboratory and field situations are analysed in order to study numerical dispersion, peak cliping and grid orientation. The developed models are tested to study their relative merits and weaknesses for various grid Peclet and Courant numbers. It is observed from the one dimensional results that all the FCT models perform well for continuous solute sources under varying degrees of Courant number restriction. For sharp solute pulses FCT1 and FCT3 methods fail to simulate the fronts for advection dominated situations even for mod­erate Courant numbers. All the FCT models can be extended to multidimensions using a dimensional-split approach while FCT3 can be made fully multidimensional. It is observed that a dimensional-split approach allows use of higher Courant numbers while tracking the fronts accurately for the cases studied. The capability of the FCT2 model is demonstrated in handling situations where the flow is not aligned along the grid direction. It is observed that FCT2 method is devoid of grid orientation error, which is a common problem for many numerical methods based on Cartesian co-ordinate system. The hybrid FCT2 numerical model which is observed to perform better among the three FCT models is extended to model transport of sorbing solutes. The present study analyses the case of nonlinear sorption with a view to extend the model for any reactive transport situation wherein the chemical reactions are nonlinear in nature. A two step approach is adopted in the present study for coupling the partial differential equation gov­erning the transport and the nonlinear algebraic equation governing the equilibrium sorp­tion. The suitability of explicit-implicit (EI - form) formulation for obtaining accurate solution coupling the transport equation with the nonlinear algebraic equation solved using a Newton-Raphson method is demonstrated. The performance of the numerical model is tested for a range of Peclet numbers for modelling self-sharpening and self-smearing con­centration profiles resulting from nonlinear sorption. It is observed that FCT2 model based on this formulation simulates the fronts quite accurately for both advection and dispersion dominated situations. The delay in the solute mobility and additional dispersion are anal­ysed varying the statistical parameters characterising the heterogeneity namely, correlation scale and variance during the transport of solutes and comparisons are drawn with invariant, cases. The impact of dispersion during the heterogeneous transport is discussed.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-07-18T11:46:06Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Renata Cristina Michel.pdf: 1614274 bytes, checksum: e95f711d2385e57a6d1783ef14a0dfa6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-18T11:46:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Renata Cristina Michel.pdf: 1614274 bytes, checksum: e95f711d2385e57a6d1783ef14a0dfa6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-05-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Results from previous studies indicated that there was a reduction in the percentage of intervals with occurrence of disruptive behaviors after children with ASD were taught a verbal response relevant to the situation that evoked such behaviors; and there was an increase in the percentage of intervals with occurrence of relevant verbal responses (control). In the present study, we sought to verify the effect, on disruptive behaviors, on the emission of verbal responses and non-verbal responses, from a Functional Communication Training (FCT), plus a procedure to avoid escape of important activities by participants; it was also sought to verify if there was a generalization of the verbal response before a naive experimenter. Participants were three children between three and six years old, diagnosed with autism, who attended to school for at least one year, had verbal behavior below that expected for the age, and disruptive behaviors maintained by negative reinforcement (task escape). A functional analysis was performed composed of three experimental conditions: Demand; Attention; and Control. The results of the functional analysis showed that there was a considerably greater number of disruptive responses emitted by the three participants in the demand condition. In the Functional Communication Training (FCT) phase, each participant was taught to request a pause to perform tasks through verbal command responses. Initially, the participant was instructed to issue the verbal response, immediately after the presentation of the task, and gradually increased the time between the issuance of the experimenter's instruction ("Do ...") and the tip for verbal response by participant, until the verbal response was issued without any prompt. The results showed that the three participants presented a decrease in the emission of disruptive responses after the acquisition of the verbal response to request a pause to perform tasks. Then, in the Fading out phase for the task execution response and a gradual decrease of the prompt was implemented, from highest to lowest: DF - total physical hint, DL - light physical tip, DG - gestural tip and I - independent response. The results indicated that the three participants acquired the response for the task execution, reducing the emission of verbal pause requests for execution and maintaining a low number of disruptive responses. In the generalization test of the verbal response (mand) and the non-verbal response (do the task) to a naive experimenter, it was verified that for all the participants there was generalization of the verbal response and generalization of the nonverbal response / Resultados de estudos anteriores apontaram que houve redução da porcentagem dos intervalos com ocorrência de comportamentos disruptivos após crianças com TEA serem ensinadas a emitir resposta verbal relevante à situação que evocava tais comportamentos; e houve aumento da porcentagem dos intervalos com ocorrência de respostas verbais relevantes (mando). No presente estudo, buscou-se verificar o efeito, sobre comportamentos disruptivos, sobre a emissão de respostas verbais e de respostas não verbais, de um Treino de Comunicação Funcional (FCT), acrescido de um procedimento para evitar a esquiva de atividades importantes pelos participantes; buscou-se, também, verificar se ocorria generalização da emissão da resposta verbal diante de experimentadora ingênua. Foram participantes três crianças, entre três e seis anos de idade, diagnosticadas com autismo, que frequentavam escola há pelo menos um ano, apresentavam comportamento verbal abaixo do esperado para a idade e comportamentos disruptivos mantidos por reforçamento negativo (fuga da tarefa). Foi conduzida análise funcional composta de três condições experimentais: Condição de demanda; Condição de atenção; e Condição controle. Os resultados da análise funcional mostraram que houve um número consideravelmente maior de respostas disruptivas emitidos pelos três participantes na condição de demanda. Na fase do Treino de Comunicação Funcional (FCT), cada participante foi ensinado a solicitar pausa da execução de tarefas através de respostas verbais de mando. Inicialmente, era dada dica ao participante para emissão da resposta verbal, imediatamente após a apresentação da tarefa, e aumentava-se gradativamente o tempo entre a emissão da instrução da experimentadora (“Faça...”) e a dica para a resposta verbal pelo participante, até que a resposta verbal fosse emitida sem nenhuma dica. Os resultados mostraram que os três participantes apresentaram diminuição na emissão de respostas disruptivas após a aquisição da resposta verbal para solicitação de pausa para a execução de tarefas. Em seguida, na fase de Dica para a resposta de execução da tarefa e diminuição gradativa da dica (Fading-out), foi implementado um procedimento de alteração do nível de dica, da maior para a menor: DF - dica física total, DL – dica física leve, DG – dica gestual e I – resposta independente. Os resultados apontaram que os três participantes adquiriram a resposta de execução das tarefas, reduzindo a emissão de respostas verbais de solicitação de pausa para a sua execução e mantendo baixo número de emissão de respostas disruptivas. No teste de generalização da emissão de resposta verbal (mando) e do tempo de permanência na tarefa diante de uma experimentadora ingênua, verificou-se que, para todos os participantes, houve generalização da resposta verbal e generalização da resposta não verbal

The solution of the Burgers' equation computed by the standard finite element method is degraded by oscillations, which are the manifestation of the Gibbs phenomenon. In this work we study the following numerical me- thods: Discontinuous Galerkin method, stable low order schemes and the flux corrected technique method in order to prevent the undesired Gibbs phenomenon. The focus is on the reduction of severe overshoots and under- shoots and the preservation of the smoothness of the solution. We consider a simple 1D problem on the interval (0, 1) with different initial conditions to demonstrate the properties of the presented methods. The numerical results of individual methods are provided. 1