There were two purposes set out in this study, first to identify the principal associations with educational performance of Scottish students as reported in the 2007 wave of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS2007), and second to evaluate methods of data analysis where sample surveys use plausible value (PV) methodology. Four sets of data were used for the secondary analysis of TIMSS2007, with student's responses to cognitive items and questionnaire data emanating from two stages (G$ and G*) that each addressed two disciplines (mathematics and science). Explanatory models for each stage and discipline were analysed using hierarchical linear modelling techniques to accommodate the cluster sample design of the survey. Guided by existing literature in STEM education the study examined elements of students' learning experiences that fell within a social constructivist theory of learning to ascertain whether the empirical data supported current claims on effective practice. A number of control variables were included in the analyses, some well-established constructs and others derived from background questionnaires. Overall, the results showed that selected background characteristics were consistently related to mathematics and science achievement. The strength of association with home resources, and although girls were generally associated with lower achievement scores, that gender association was strongest in G4 mathematics achievement. The findings suggest there is limited support for current claims in respect of a reform agenda that privileges discussion and collaborative group work. Other policy initiatives on assessment for learning and using technologies in class are not supported in the data, with either no evidence of association or a significant negative effect in the models of mathematics and science achievement. Aspects of practical work and scientific enquiry are positively associated with G4 science achievement, with particular credence given to 'doing' and 'watching' experiments or investigations, buy there is no association with achievement scores at G8 for any of planning, watching or conducting experiments. This latter finding provides empirical evidence of difference across stages on an aspect of practice that is heavily debated. The primary method of analysis utilised a four-level structure, with PV as the unit of analysis. Substantive findings were compared with alternative methods: first making the dependent variable an average of the five PVs; second using one PV as the response variable; and third computing statistics from all five PVs and merging results using Rubin's Rules for combining multilevel method underestimates standard errors in the model in the same way as witnessed for the average of PVs. This leads to the conclusion that the only valid route to analysing imputed data is through Rubin's method of combining results from all five PVs.

No description available.

Tarptautinis švietimo tyrimas PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) tiria penkiolikmečių mokinių skaitymo gebėjimus, matematinį ir gamtamokslį raštingumą. Taip pat tyrimo metu renka informaciją apie mokinį, jo pomegius, informacinius ir komunikacinių technologijų išmanymą ir naudojimą, namų aplinką, mokyklą kurioje jis mokosi ir pan. Informacija surinkta tyrimo metu yra vertinga švietimo tyrėjams, sprendimų priėmėjams, švietimiečiams ir pan. Šio darbo tikslas – taikant hierarchinė regresiją rasti mokinių matematinio raštingumo rezultatų prikausomybę nuo mokymo(si) aplinkos veiksnių. Kadangi mokiniai yra pirmojo lygmens objektai, o mokyklos – antrojo lygmens, todėl analizuojant duomenis reikia atsižvelgti į duomenų hierarchiškumą. Besąlyginio hierarchinio modelio analizė atskleidė, kad 32 % Lietuvos penkiolikmečių matematinio raštingumo rezultatų skirtumų lemia mokyklos. Taikant hierarchinį tiesinį modeliavimą, sudarytas geriausias hierarchinis tiesinis modelis su atitinkamais kintamaisiais bei užrašyta lygtis, kuri gali būti naudojama Lietuvos penkiolikmečių matematinio raštingumo rezultatų prognozavimui. / International education survey PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) examine 15-yers-old reading, mathematical and science literacy. A lot of information about student‘s, theirs hobbies, knowledge and use of information and comunication technology, home and school environment and etc. is collected during PISA survey. The collected information is valuable source of information for researchers, policy makers, educators and ect. The main purpose of this work, “Analysis of Lithuanian Students Literacy Using International Survey PISA 2009 Data“, is using hierarchical regression to find the students' mathematical literacy dependency of training and learning environment factors. The students are first-level objects and schools - at the second level, so data analysis should take into account the data hierarchy. Unconditional hierarchical model analysis revealed that 32 % of Lithuanian 15-years-old students’ mathematical literacy outcomes determined by the school. Best hierarchical linear model with relevant variables was done using hierarchical linear modelling. Also a prognostic equation of Lithuaninan 15-years-old students matematic literacy was created.

Orientador: Hércules de Araújo Feitosa / Banca: Maria Cláudia Cabrini Grácio / Banca: Ítala Maria Loffredo D’Ottaviano / Resumo: Em 1999, Grácio introduziu a Lógica do Plausível como uma particularização de uma família de sistemas lógicos, caracterizados pela inclusão de um quantificador generalizado na sintaxe da lógica clássica de predicados, a saber, as Lógicas Moduladas, cuja formalização semântica é dada por um subconjunto do conjunto das partes do universo. Nesta particularização de lógica modulada, é incluído o quantificador do Plausível P, que engendra a formalização de um raciocínio indutivo de maneira que "uma 'boa parte' dos indivíduos possui determinada propriedade". O presente trabalho introduz um novo sistema dedutivo para a Lógica do Plausível, denominado TLP, construído seguindo os princípios de tableaux semânticos clássicos. Na elaboração do sistema de tableaux TLP, há uma forma original de localizar pontos nos ramos de um dado tableau. Ademais, por meio do raciocínio indutivo engendrado por esta lógica, discussões sucederam acerca da indução ser considerada um processo genuinamente lógico, tendo por ponto de partida o problema epistemológico da indução. / Abstract: The Logic of the Plausible was introduced in 1999 by Grácio as a particularization of a family of logical systems characterized by the inclusion of a generalized quantifier in the syntax of the classical logic of predicates, denominated the Modulated Logics, whose semantical interpretation is given by a subset of the power set of the universe. In this particularization of modulated logics, it is included the quantifier of Plausible P that engenders the formalization of a type of inductive reasoning so that "a 'good' number of individuals possesses certain property ". This work introduces a new deductive system for the Logic of the Plausible, denominated TLP, built according to the principles of the classical semantical tableaux. In the construction of the tableaux system TLP, an original form of locating points in the branches of any tableaux is presented. Besides, through the inductive reasoning engendered by this logic, the work also promotes discussions concerning the consideration of the induction as a genuinely logical process, beginning from the epistemological problem of the induction. / Mestre

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2005-09-27Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:26:17Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 silvestrini_lhc_me_mar.pdf: 390849 bytes, checksum: 3e56bcae7fb7fbdc04cda1eb30e5f1ea (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Em 1999, Grácio introduziu a Lógica do Plausível como uma particularização de uma família de sistemas lógicos, caracterizados pela inclusão de um quantificador generalizado na sintaxe da lógica clássica de predicados, a saber, as Lógicas Moduladas, cuja formalização semântica é dada por um subconjunto do conjunto das partes do universo. Nesta particularização de lógica modulada, é incluído o quantificador do Plausível P, que engendra a formalização de um raciocínio indutivo de maneira que uma 'boa parte' dos indivíduos possui determinada propriedade. O presente trabalho introduz um novo sistema dedutivo para a Lógica do Plausível, denominado TLP, construído seguindo os princípios de tableaux semânticos clássicos. Na elaboração do sistema de tableaux TLP, há uma forma original de localizar pontos nos ramos de um dado tableau. Ademais, por meio do raciocínio indutivo engendrado por esta lógica, discussões sucederam acerca da indução ser considerada um processo genuinamente lógico, tendo por ponto de partida o problema epistemológico da indução. / The Logic of the Plausible was introduced in 1999 by Grácio as a particularization of a family of logical systems characterized by the inclusion of a generalized quantifier in the syntax of the classical logic of predicates, denominated the Modulated Logics, whose semantical interpretation is given by a subset of the power set of the universe. In this particularization of modulated logics, it is included the quantifier of Plausible P that engenders the formalization of a type of inductive reasoning so that a 'good' number of individuals possesses certain property . This work introduces a new deductive system for the Logic of the Plausible, denominated TLP, built according to the principles of the classical semantical tableaux. In the construction of the tableaux system TLP, an original form of locating points in the branches of any tableaux is presented. Besides, through the inductive reasoning engendered by this logic, the work also promotes discussions concerning the consideration of the induction as a genuinely logical process, beginning from the epistemological problem of the induction.

Livestock agriculture provides society with many forms of nutritious, accessible, and delicious foods. On the other hand, livestock agriculture, and cattle in particular, have been shown to be unsustainable in their current form from environmental, social, and economic perspectives. Taking both of these statements as my premise, in this thesis I turn to the field of Future Studies to explore future of dairy farming in Oregon. I use semi-structured stakeholder interviews to understand industry stakeholder perceptions of plausible and desirable futures for the industry. The concepts of plausible and desirable futures are strongly connected to sustainable futures as they look both at what is possible for the future and consider the normative question of what is valued. I used thematic analysis to explore my data, identifying salient ideas and patterns from my interviews with stakeholders. I found three plausible-desirable outcomes for the Oregon dairy industry; human and animal welfare improve, some small and medium sized farm stay afloat, and the industry reduces its environmental impact. These outcomes were not straightforward, however. For example, in some cases, the paths participants identified to reach one plausible-desirable outcome, would make another less likely to occur. The public and farmers themselves were seen as key to reaching plausible-desirable futures, along with scientists, researchers, and interest groups. Identifying stakeholders’ plausible and desirable futures and influential actors to reach these futures is a first step towards developing strategies to reach such futures.

No description available.

Tractography is a tool that is often used to study structural brain connectivity from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging data. Despite its ability to visualize fibers in the white brain matter, it results in a high number of invalid streamlines. For the sake of research and clinical applications, it is of great interest to reduce this number and so improve the quality of tractography. Over the years, many solutions have been proposed, often with a need for ground truth data. As such data for tractography is very difficult to generate even with expertise, it is meaningful to instead use methods like reinforcement learning that does not have such a requirement. In 2021 a deep reinforcement learning tractography network was published: Track-To-Learn. There is however still room for improvement in the reward function of the framework and this is what we focused on in this thesis. Firstly we successfully reproduced some of the published results of Track-To-Learn and observed that almost 20 % of the streamlines were anatomically plausible. Continuously we modified the reward function by giving a reward boost to streamlines which started or terminated within a specified mask. This addition resulted in a small increase of plausible streamlines for a more realistic dataset. Lastly we attempted to include anatomical filtering in the reward function. The produced results were however not enough to draw any valid conclusions about the influence of the modification. Nonetheless, the work of this thesis showed that including further fiber specific anatomical constraints in the reward function of Track-To-Learn could possibly improve the quality of the generated tractograms and would be of interest in both research and clinical settings.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

O processo de avaliação de empresas por modelos e técnicas formais tem por objetivo nortear a gestão e os grupos de interessados quanto à tomada de decisão ótima. Em geral, no processo de avaliação estes modelos são utilizados seguindo pressupostos acerca do valor dos benefícios da firma, dando a conotação de que o valor do negócio é o valor destes benefícios. Em empresas que atuam em mercados com alta competitividade e elevado nível de desenvolvimento e emprego de tecnologias e inovações, a utilização isolada de técnicas focadas em benefícios dos negócios atuais se mostram inadequadas para avaliar a habilidade da organização na resposta às variáveis mercadológicas. Sob este prisma, as vantagens advindas de estratégias competitivas e minimização das possibilidades de perdas do negócio, principalmente conquistadas através de estratégias de flexibilização e de geração de oportunidades de novos negócios se mostram importantes direcionadores de valor. O valor gerado por oportunidades e flexibilidades em empresas de telecomunicações é o foco da presente pesquisa que objetiva fundamentar em suas discussões e testes a viabilidade de incorporação do modelo de opções reais no processo de avaliação das empresas do setor, partindo do pressuposto de que o mercado, visualizando a importância das estratégias de gestão dos investimentos e da estrutura da empresa para o seu sucesso na geração de valor, remuneram estas organizações, atribuindo o valor de acordo com suas expectativas. Foram testados os modelos de efeitos fixos e aleatórios de dados em painel para verificar a significância das variáveis explicativas geradoras de valor potencial de opções reais. Os testes demonstram significância estatística das variáveis, embasando o modelo. Não obstante, a pesquisa posiciona estudos e levantamentos teóricos acerca dos modelos de avaliação abordados para contextualizar a utilidade do modelo de opções reais em processos de avaliação, bem como destaca a aplicabilidade procedimental do modelo de opções reais em conjunto com a técnica de fluxo de caixa descontado na avaliação de empresas do setor. Seus objetivos de discussão e averbação da aplicabilidade da teoria são alcançados, dado o conjunto de métodos empíricos e ilustrativos de sua técnica. / The process of business valuation for formal models and techniques aims to guide the management and stakeholder groups as to the optimal decision-making. In general, in the evaluating process these models are used following assumptions about the value of the firm benefits, giving the connotation that business value is the value of these benefits. In companies that operate in markets with high competitiveness and high level of development and use of technologies and innovations, the isolated use of techniques focused on the benefits of today\'s businesses have shown inadequate to assess the organization ability in response to marketing variables. From that perspective, the benefits arising from competitive strategies and minimization of business loss chances, mainly won through relaxation strategies and generating new business opportunities to show important value drivers. The value generated by the opportunities and flexibilities in the firm\'s telecommunications companies is the focus of this research that aims to support in their discussions and tests the feasibility of incorporating the real options model in the evaluation of companies in the sector, on the assumption that the market, seeing the importance of strategies for investment management and company structure for its success in generating value, remunerate these organizations, assigning the value according to your expectations. Models of fixed and random effects panel data were tested to assess the significance of the explanatory variables generating potential value of real options. The tests demonstrate statistical significance of the variables, basing the model. Nevertheless, this research positions studies and theoretical surveys about the valuation models addressed in order to contextualize the usefulness of the real options model in evaluation processes, and highlights the applicability of the real options model procedural in conjunction with the technique of cash flow discounted in evaluating companies. The goals for discussion and annotation of the theory applicability are achieved, given the set of empirical and illustrative of this technique.