This study analyzes ten beginning-level, Spanish-language graded readers in an attempt to answer the question of how much vocabulary do students need to know before being able to successfully participate in an extensive reading program. The study also analyzes the vocabulary taught in a beginning-level Spanish textbook to determine how well this vocabulary reflects the most common words in Spanish according to a frequency dictionary. It was found that a lexicon of 5,000 words was needed to obtain a sufficient level of comprehension in order for extensive reading to occur and that the textbook examined in this study did not present vocabulary that was extremely reflective of the most common words in the Spanish language.

Student Number:0400612E Faculty:Humanities Degree:MA / THE PSYCHOSOCIAL CHALLENGES OF UNACCOMPANIED REFUGEE CHILDREN IN URBAN ZIMBABWE Abstract This study explores the psychosocial coping mechanisms of unaccompanied migrant children in Harare, Zimbabwe. While refugees who stay in camps are provided formal assistance through various forms of psychosocial intervention, those who live in cities must typically rely on their own resources and strategies. Using existing academic literature on psychosocial interventions and coping strategies in camps as a comparative referent, this study documents and explains the responses on unaccompanied displaced youth in Harare. Given that this research focuses on the exploration of the informal coping strategies of unaccompanied refugee children a qualitative research is the most preferable method on collecting data. The instruments for collecting the data were semi-structured interviews with key informants and unaccompanied refugee children. Although this project is for academic purposes it is expected that the findings can also be used to for advocacy and programme formulation to meet the psychological needs of unaccompanied refugee children in Zimbabwe as the country undergoes this transitional phase.

This study investigated the deliberate use of learners‟ home languages in the teaching and learning of linear programming. The study involved a Grade 11 teacher and his Grade 11 multilingual learners in a township school in the East Rand. Data was collected through lesson observations for five consecutive days, reflective interview with teacher and clinical interview with two learners. Analysis of data revealed that the teacher used learners‟ home languages to probe learners‟ understanding of specific terms frequently used in linear programming concepts, for example terms such as, „at least‟ and „at most‟. Learners‟ responses suggest that they drew on their home languages for the meaning of these words. Learners explained the term „at least‟ in their home languages as „buncinci‟ in Isixhosa, „bonnyane‟ in Sesotho and Sepedi and „okungenani‟ in IsiZulu. Learners also used mathematical English term minimum to explain „at least‟ and maximum to explain „at most‟.

A tese que apresento perante a Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de São Paulo tem por foco a análise dos mecanismos de controle da dupla-tributação apurados pelas Convenções Fiscais Bilaterais e os princípios decorrentes dos Tratados Comerciais, especialmente o de não-concessão de subsídios e o tratamento da nação mais favorecida. Tomando como pano de fundo a relação entre os países desenvolvidos e em desenvolvimento, demonstro que a resistência dos Estados exportadores de capital na implementação das cláusulas de crédito fictício nas Convenções Fiscais Bilaterais é injustificada, prestando-se unicamente para dar prevalência à tributação com base na residência, em detrimento da neutralidade fiscal em face dos Estados de fonte dos rendimentos. Ainda, colocada a relação entre os fundamentos da celebração de Convenções Fiscais Bilaterais, afasto a possibilidade de o regime delas decorrente ser estendido a terceiros por força da cláusula do tratamento da nação mais favorecida constante do GATT e de outros Tratados Comerciais. / This thesis makes an analysis of the mechanisms of control of the double-taxation thickened by the Bilateral Fiscal Conventions and the principles of the Commercial Agreements, especially the one of no-concession of subsidies and the treatment of the most-favored-nation. Taking as backdrop the relationship among the developed countries and indevelopment countries, I demonstrate that the resistance of Capital Exporters States in the negotiating fictitious credit in the Bilateral Fiscal Conventions is unjustified, being only rendered to maintain to the taxation based in the residence, avoiding the fiscal neutrality in face of States of source of the revenues. Still, placed the relationship among the foundations of the Bilateral Fiscal Conventions, I move away the possibility of the regime of them to be extended in favor of Third Countries using the GATTs most favored nation clause.

Because many individuals with developmental disabilities prefer to be as independent as possible, strategies need to be developed to teach them functional skills. Video prompting is a fairly new technology, in which a person learns to engage in a complex behavior by viewing steps of a task analysis on video. The steps are broken down so that the task is more manageable for the individual. The present study evaluated how many steps needed to be presented in the video model for the learner to acquire a functional skill. Three individuals between the ages of 17 and 29 and diagnosed with mental retardation were selected as participants. The target behaviors were to complete a 10 component laundry skill in a group home setting. Starting with viewing the entire task on video, the task was broken down into halves, then thirds, and so on until the individual performed all steps to criterion. A multiple baseline design was used to show the results of the video prompting procedure. The results showed that one individual learned the task with 5 steps in each video segment, another learned the task with the video broken into 4, 3, and 3 segments, and the final participant did not learn from video. For this participant, a least to most prompting procedure was effective.

The purpose of this study was to teach four preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to wash their hands independently using a video modeling-based intervention package. A research questions was asked: Is there a functional relation between a video modeling-based intervention package and increases in level and trend for washing hands independently? A multiple probe across participants design was used to answer this question. Results indicated that the intervention package had functional relation with the increase in level and trend of the three participants’ performance in washing hands. The intervention package of video modeling and least-to-most prompting was found to be effective to teach the participants the skills taught.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience difficulties with learning age-appropriate daily living skills (DLS) at their homes, schools, and in the community. Such skills are significant for independent life, post-school education, employment, and overall quality of life. Video prompting (VP) is a teaching practice that has demonstrated positive outcomes in teaching a variety of DLS to individuals with ASD. The overarching purpose of this collected papers dissertation was to investigate the effects of VP interventions on improving DLS of individuals with ASD. This dissertation included two separate papers. The first paper was a meta-analysis that examined the overall effect of VP when teaching DLS to individuals with ASD across single-case research design (SCRD) studies. An analysis of potential moderators was also examined: VP intervention types, participants’ ages, and participants’ disabilities. There were 54 participantsacross17 studies meeting the study’s inclusion criteria. The results demonstrated a high-moderate effect size (ES) for VP on the acquisition of DLS across 17 studies including 54 participants. The analysis of potential moderators showed no significant differences across all moderator variables. Limitations and implications for research and practices are provided in Chapter II. The second paper was a SCRD study comparing the effects of VP alone to least-to-most prompting alone on improving three office-related tasks to secondary-aged children with developmental disabilities. An adapted alternating treatment design (AATD), including baseline, comparison, best treatment, and final treatment phases was used to examine the interventions. Data related to the effects, efficiency, and social validity of both interventions were collected to address the research questions. Video prompting was effective for all participants, while least-to-most promoting was effective for two participants. Also, VP was more efficient than least-to-most prompting in terms of sessions-to-criterion and percent of errors for all participants. Least-to-most prompting was more efficient than VP in terms of the total duration of teaching time for all participants. Finally, all participants and their teachers reported positive perspectives regarding the study’s procedures and outcomes. Limitations, future research, and implications for practices are discussed in Chapter III. Lastly, the summary of the entire dissertation and extended discussions of both papers are presented in Chapter IV.

Nous avons développé un algorithme de prédiction des résidus impliqués dans le noyau du repliement par des approches couplées. La prédiction des Most Interacting Residues (MIR) est associée aux méthodes d'analyse structurale par fragments, les Tightened End Fragments (TEF) et d'alignement multiple. Cet algorithme a été développé sur une banque de protéines à faible identité en séquence appartenant à une famille bien documentée, les immunoglobulines. Les résultats obtenus sont comparés à ceux produits par d'autres techniques similaires, mais aussi à ceux provenant d'études expérimentales. Comme résultat nous avons pu voir qu'il existe une bonne corrélation entre les résidus prédits par notre méthode et les données expérimentales. Dans une deuxième partie, nous avons généré une banque de multimères biologiques dans le but de développer un outil de prédiction de la structure quaternaire. La banque est validée par le programme DiMoVo utilisant la représentation des protéines par tesselation de Voronoï. Afin d'analyser les modes d'interaction entre domaines, les différents complexes ont été découpés en fragments par la méthode des Tightened End Fragments. Nous avons développé un algorithme permettant d'inclure chaque fragment dans un cylindre, afin de pouvoir caractériser le fragment par une hauteur et un rayon. Ces fragments ont ensuite été classés sur ces critères structuraux et les interactions de différentes classes de fragments au sein des interfaces protéines-protéines ont été comptabilisées. On observe que les classes ne sont pas utilisées de façon homogène dans les interactions protéines-protéines.

Various methods have been used to estimate the amount of above ground forest biomass across landscapes and to create biomass maps for specific stands or pixels across ownership or project areas. Without an accurate estimation method, land managers might end up with incorrect biomass estimate maps, which could lead them to make poorer decisions in their future management plans. Previous research has shown that nearest-neighbor imputation methods can accurately estimate forest volume across a landscape by relating variables of interest to ground data, satellite imagery, and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data. Alternatively, parametric models, such as linear and non-linear regression and geographic weighted regression (GWR), have been used to estimate net primary production and tree diameter. The goal of this study was to compare various imputation methods to predict forest biomass, at a project planning scale (<20,000 acres) on the Malheur National Forest, located in eastern Oregon, USA. In this study I compared the predictive performance of, 1) linear regression, GWR, gradient nearest neighbor (GNN), most similar neighbor (MSN), random forest imputation, and k-nearest neighbor (k-nn) to estimate biomass (tons/acre) and basal area (sq. feet per acre) across 19,000 acres on the Malheur National Forest and 2) MSN and k-nn when imputing forest biomass at spatial scales ranging from 5,000 to 50,000 acres. To test the imputation methods a combination of ground inventory plots, LiDAR data, satellite imagery, and climate data were analyzed, and their root mean square error (RMSE) and bias were calculated. Results indicate that for biomass prediction, the k-nn (k=5) had the lowest RMSE and least amount of bias. The second most accurate method consisted of the k-nn (k=3), followed by the GWR model, and the random forest imputation. The GNN method was the least accurate. For basal area prediction, the GWR model had the lowest RMSE and least amount of bias. The second most accurate method was k-nn (k=5), followed by k-nn (k=3), and the random forest method. The GNN method, again, was the least accurate. The accuracy of MSN, the current imputation method used by the Malheur Nation Forest, and k-nn (k=5), the most accurate imputation method from the second chapter, were then compared over 6 spatial scales: 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000, and 50,000 acres. The root mean square difference (RMSD) and bias were calculated for each of the spatial scale samples to determine which was more accurate. MSN was found to be more accurate at the 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, and 40,000 acre scales. K-nn (k=5) was determined to be more accurate at the 50,000 acre scale. / Graduation date: 2013

This thesis examines whether the fundamental freedoms of the EC Treaty prescribe most-favoured-nation (MFN) treatment. The right to MFN treatment concerns the issue whether taxpayers resident in one Member State can “cherry-pick” the most beneficial tax treaty available to other taxpayers. Two issues of fundamental impor-tance are examined in this thesis. First, whether a resident of a Member State (A) who receives income in another Member State (B), can claim from that state, the most beneficial tax treaty available to a resident of a third Member State (C). Second, whether a resident can claim from his state of residence (A), the same tax treatment as provided in a tax treaty concluded by his state of residence and another Member State (C), when this tax treaty provides better treatment in terms of avoiding double taxa-tion in the state of residence than the tax treaty applicable to the source of income (B). The ECJ has held that discrimination arises only through the application of different rules to comparable situations or the application of the same rule to different situa-tions. The current state of EC law prohibits unequal treatment of residents and non-residents as well as residents who have exercised their rights to free movement in comparison to residents who have not. The condition is that they must be considered to be in comparable situations and that there is no objective difference to justify the difference in treatment. The ECJ has so far not ruled on the MFN issue. It is there-fore uncertain as to whether Member States are obligated to treat; 1) different non-resident taxpayers equally and, 2) whether Member States are prohibited from treat-ing their own residents differently when they exercise their rights to free movement in different Member States. This thesis identifies the requirements for the application of MFN treatment and ex-amines in which tax treaty provisions it is possible to apply MFN treatment. The ECJ, has in its case law, concluded that the application of tax treaties must be exer-cised in accordance EC law. It can be argued that a well-functioning internal market cannot allow bilateral tax treaties to provide preferential tax treatment to residents of one Member State, while denying it to residents of the remaining Member States. However, the application of MFN treatment could have far-reaching ramifications on the Member States’ existing tax treaty network. It is therefore fair to assume, as has been stated in other doctrinal opinions, that the ECJ will approach this issue care-fully when providing its interpretation on the matter.