In recent years, multiferroics was one of the most popular materials and were widely studied by many scientists. Among all we interested the most is BiFeO3, which exist a room temperature ferromagnetic and ferroelectric properties with high ferromagnetic transition temperature Tc that can provide various kind of applications. However, the drawback of the BiFeO3 is difficult to synthesize the pure phase and to eliminate the leakage of the current. According to others¡¦ reports, with a proper doping can reduce the evaporation of Bi atoms and stabilize the crystal structure. Therefore, we choose Pb as the mixed elements and wish to reduce the unstable oxygen vacancies around the Bi atoms and to increase the dielectric property of Bi1-xPbxFeO3. In our experiment, SrRuO3 is chosen as the buffer layer material, which can grow as a strain relaxed film on the substrate. It is found that the strain relaxation transforms the SrRuO3 crystal structure to a nearly cubic one which has a lattice matching with Bi1-xPbxFeO3. As a result of this, we might improve the leakage problems of Bi1-xPbxFeO3.

The purposes of this study were to explore the effects of reciprocal instruction on EFL reading comprehension and metacognition of the ninth-grade students in junior high school. The researcher employed ¡§ET-RT model¡¨ (explicit teaching before reciprocal teaching). The students received the four strategies before the dialogues started. A quasi-experimental study was used. The research subjects were 68 students of two classes from a junior high school in Kaohsiung City. The experimental group was stratified randomly and received the reciprocal instruction, whereas the control group received the traditional instruction. The experiment was implemented in a 9-week session, 2 times a week, with each time 45 minutes of reciprocal teaching instruction. Before and after the experiment, both groups took the test of English reading comprehension, the questionnaire of reading metacognition and the questionnaire of reciprocal instruction. The data were analyzed by t-test and a one-way ANCOVA. The major findings of the study were as following¡G 1. The reciprocal instruction has significantly immediate and continued effects on English reading comprehension of the ninth-grade students. 2. The reciprocal instruction has significantly immediate and enlarged effects on reading metacognitive capability of the ninth-grade students. 3. Most of the students in the experimental group believed that reciprocal teaching promoted their English reading comprehension and interests of reading.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vilka effekter två olika läsförståelsemodeller, Reciprocal Teaching och Transactional Strategies Instruction, har på elevers läsförståelse. Den metod som användes i studien var kvalitativ textanalys som applicerades på 7 forskningsartiklar. Resultatet visar att modellerna gett effekt, i olika åldrar, länder och grupper. Detta resultat visar att Reciprocal Teaching och Transactional Strategies Instruction är effektiva modeller att arbeta med för läsförståelseutveckling.

Syftet med mitt examensarbete var att undersöka och beskriva elevers arbete med lässtrategier. Mer specifikt undersöktes strategier inom RT-metoden med hjälp av textrörlighetsbegreppet. Vidare ämnade jag skapa mig en uppfattning om vilka typer av textrörlighet som var representerade i RT-metodens fyra olika strategier, i vilken av strategierna eleverna var mest textrörliga samt vilka textrelaterade frågor läraren ställde och vilka typer av textrörlighet detta gav upphov till. Studien var kvalitativ och jag använde mig av observation som insamlingsmetod och textrörlighetsbegreppet som analysmetod. Resultatet av min studie visade att typen textbaserad rörlighet var representerad i RTmetodens alla fyra strategier medan typen rörlighet utåt var representerad i tre av strategierna. Utöver detta visade resultatet även att det var i den första av strategierna som eleverna var mest textrörliga. Man kunde också utläsa av resultatet att textrelaterade frågor av typen ”slutna frågor” gav upphov till textbaserad rörlighet i elevernas textsamtal medan autentiska frågor gav upphov till rörlighet utåt i samtalen. En slutsats i min studie var att läraren måste vara väl insatt i metoden för att kunna agera god förebild och vägleda eleverna samt ge dem den stödstruktur, konstruktiv kritik och återkoppling som krävs för att de ska kunna använda strategierna effektivt och målmedvetet.

Forskningen som ingår i den här studien undersöker effekten av att använda reciprocal teaching för, i huvudsak, lässvaga elever för att utveckla deras läsförståelse. I den tidigare forskningen som ingår i studien jämförs olika elevgrupper som arbetar utifrån fyra olika arbetssätt. Dessa arbetssätt innefattar reciprocal teaching, en annan läsförståelsemetod, enbart samma material eller att eleverna endast deltar i den ordinarie läsundervisningen. Syftet med analysen är att undersöka hur reciprocal teaching kan utveckla lässvaga elevers läsförståelse. Metoden som används till den här studien är en systematisk litteraturstudie. Olika sökord och kriterier har formats utifrån den gällande frågeställningen, som sedan har använts för att systematiskt söka efter relevant tidigare forskning. Genom analysen av de forskningsartiklar som ingår i studien, kan man se att reciprocal teaching är en gynnsam metod för att utveckla lässvaga elevers läsförståelse oavsett ålder, geografiskt område, intellektuella svårigheter eller kulturell bakgrund. Eleverna får under de olika studiernas gång göra olika tester på bland annat sin läsförståelse, för att se hur och om den utvecklas. De får även göra tester några veckor efter studiernas slut vilka visar på att eleverna bibehåller sina kunskaper samt att de även fortsätter utvecklas och förbättrar sina resultat. Något som är betydelsefullt att tänka på när metoden reciprocal teaching används i de lägre åldrarna, är att den behöver anpassas efter elevernas tidigare kunskaper. Anpassas den inte bidrar det till att eleverna inte kan använda metoden på ett fördelaktigt sätt och stjälper mer än vad den hjälper deras läsförståelseutveckling. I arbetet med metoden är lärarens roll otroligt betydelsefull. Får inte eleverna den vägledning av läraren i början som de behöver, kan de heller inte använda metoden på det sätt som gynnar deras läsförståelseutveckling på det sätt som metoden är skapad för.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / F. Todd Goodson / The purpose for this study is to look at the effects of a specific comprehension strategy—Reciprocal Teaching (RT; Palincsar & Brown, 1983,1984) on the performance of intermediate elementary students in the intermediate elementary grades on a standardized literacy assessment. The study was carried out in two implementation stages: a pilot with a small sample of fourth graders and a full-scale study with third, fourth, and fifth graders in a suburban public school district in the Midwest. The pilot study was implemented in two fourth grade classrooms, a total of 39 students, nine of which met the criterial for the experimental group who scored below the 25th percentile on an AIMSweb Maze 2016 fall benchmark. The full-scale study consisted of 269 students in grades three, four, and five across the same district, except for the fourth graders who previously were involved in the pilot. There were 71 students who met the criteria for the experimental group of scores below the 25th percentile on an AIMSweb Maze 2016 winter benchmark; however, after signed consent forms were returned, 59 participated. The students in the experimental group participated in intervention utilizing RT for approximately four weeks in Tier II small groups, instructed by classroom teachers at each elementary school. Regression discontinuity was used to determine the effect of RT on the students’ comprehension as indicated by their spring benchmark scores. The results of the pilot study showed a significant main effect in the scores along the regression line, indicating a positive effect for the intervention. Regression discontinuity analysis between groups indicated that a significant main effect exists for the intervention group. The full-scale study examined the effects per grade level for all students and with a set caliper for students whose scores were four points above and below the cut-off point, or winter 2016 benchmark, for the grade level. The results of the full-scale study focusing on all scores showed a significant main effect in the scores along the regression line, indicating a positive effect for the intervention for all grades; the effect was significant for all grades, but mostly for fourth and fifth graders. Regression discontinuity analysis between groups indicated that a significant main effect exists for the intervention group. When looking at scores within the caliper of four points above or below the benchmark, all scores showed a significant main effect in the scores along the regression line, indicating a positive effect for the intervention for all grades. Regression discontinuity analysis between groups indicated that a significant main effect exists for the intervention group within the caliper at each grade level.

Several subspecies of Monardella villosa (California Coyote Mint) have been distinguished on the basis of leaf thickness, shape, and trichome characteristics, yet many intermediates are known. We investigated morphological differences in natural populations of two subspecies (M. v. subsp. villosa and M. v. subsp. franciscana) in the Scott Creek watershed, north of Davenport, in Santa Cruz County, CA. Monardella villosa subsp. franciscana grows in coastal scrub in gulches and ocean terraces whereas subsp. villosa grows at more protected inland sites. Morphological difference between subspecies may be adaptations to these different habitats. I grew plants in a common garden at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo to determine if the morphological differences were genetically based. I also conducted a reciprocal transplant of the two subspecies between inland and coastal populations to determine if they are locally adapted. The morphological differences (leaf hair density and length as well as leaf base angle) between subspecies were maintained in the common garden, yet no patterns of local adaptation were observed in germination or survival of the subspecies in reciprocal transplants in the first year. However, Monardella is a perennial plant and fitness differences may exist in later life stages that I have not yet measured.

No description available.

There is a perception among faculty at the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) that Industrial Technology students in the Faculty of Education and Liberal Studies (FELS-IT) have difficulty learning non-technical content due to their weak reading-comprehension skills. Reciprocal Teaching strategies have been shown to improve students reading-comprehension and learning, especially across the United States and Europe (Palincsar and Brown, 1984; Rosenshine and Meister, 1993, 1994). By means of a researcher-developed Cloze-type assessment instrument, this study investigated reciprocal teaching (Palincsar and Brown, 1984) as a possible means of addressing this perceived problem in Jamaica. A total of 133 participants were involved in the study. Specifically, the study explored empirically the existence of a reading-comprehension problem among the first-year Industrial Technology teacher-education majors at UTech, and the self-perceptions of the participants with respect to their reading-comprehension skills. The study primarily investigated the effect of the reciprocal teaching strategy on improving reading-comprehension scores at the tertiary level, and its perceived efficacy by the participants. An evaluation of the evidence-based findings was used to determine whether to recommend implementing reciprocal teaching into the UTech teaching methodologies, with the overarching aim of improving student achievement. The findings of this quasi-experimental study suggest that the FELS-IT first-year teacher- education majors are not significantly different from other first-year students enrolled at UTech. Also, the reciprocal teaching intervention significantly improved the group-mean and individual post-test scores of the Treatment group over those of the Control group, and was favorably perceived. The investigation recommends that reciprocal teaching should be implemented across all faculties at UTech, preferably among the first-year students. / Ph. D.

The Cauchy-Mirimanoff Polynomials are a class of polynomials that naturally arise in various classical studies of Fermat's Last Theorem. Originally conjectured to be irreducible over 100 years ago, the irreducibility of the Cauchy-Mirimanoff polynomials is still an open conjecture. This dissertation takes a new approach to the study of the Cauchy-Mirimanoff Polynomials. The reciprocal transform of a self-reciprocal polynomial is defined, and the reciprocal transforms of the Cauchy-Mirimanoff Polynomials are found and studied. Particular attention is given to the Cauchy-Mirimanoff Polynomials with index three times a power of a prime, and it is shown that the Cauchy-Mirimanoff Polynomials of index three times a prime are irreducible.