O presente trabalho na área de Psicologia e Educação tem como objeto de estudo práticas de mediação de uma professora em conjunto com a pesquisadora, visando melhorar o envolvimento das crianças durante as atividades. O campo de investigação é a educação infantil de uma EMEI na cidade de São Paulo. Os sujeitos da pesquisa são crianças de 4 e 5 anos e a professora da turma. O estudo enquadra-se na modalidade de pesquisa educacional, que discute prática de melhor qualidade, sustentadas nos saberes praxiológicos, tendo como pressupostos a educação democrática, que acredita na criança como ator social, atuante em seu processo de aprendizagem, subsidiada por uma pedagogia para a criança participativa. A pesquisa adotou uma concepção de educação com base na experiência que requer um currículo para a criança participativa sustentada por Dewey (1959a, 1959b, 1973, 1976). A prática pedagógica concebe a mediação como eixo de aprendizagem baseado em Vygotski (1978, 1995, 1999) e a brincadeira na educação infantil como possibilidade de aprendizagem. A metodologia baseou-se no paradigma qualitativo e na utilização de um estudo de caso com o uso de pesquisa-ação, observando as orientações de Elliott (2000a, 2000b), Kemmis e Smith (2008) e Máximo-Esteves (2008), o que exigiu um compromisso ético e uma investigação colaborativa entre a pesquisadora e a professora. O tempo estendido por mais dois anos (2010 e 2011) possibilitou mudanças da práxis pedagógica. Como ferramenta para a coleta de dados, foram utilizadas na investigação a escala criança-alvo (Target), nos itens correspondentes ao envolvimento da criança e suas interações, e a escala de empenho do adulto (LAEVERS, 1994; PASCAL; BERTRAM, 1999). Durante a análise, pesquisadora e professora realizaram planejamentos e avaliaram conjuntamente as ações. Para a triangulação de dados, foram utilizadas as vozes das crianças, da professora, da pesquisadora e dos pais dos alunos. Os resultados estão divididos em três eixos de discussões, baseados na teoria de Lev S. Vygotski, tendo sido analisadas as práticas de mediações entre sujeitos, signos e instrumentos. Assim, as mediações foram discutidas em parceria estabelecida entre a professora e a pesquisadora, no sentido de possibilitarem um envolvimento mais significativo da criança na organização de um ambiente com materiais diversificados, por meio da utilização de signos e da interação de parceiros mais experientes. As ações colaborativas de empenho do adulto favoreceram o interesse das crianças, possibilitando a vivência de experiências em plenitude na participação do contexto educativo. / The work in the field of Psychology and Education has as its object of study, practices mediation of a teacher in conjunction with the researcher to improve the involvement of children during activities. The field of research is in early childhood education in a EMEI in São Paulo. The research subjects are 4-5 years old children and the teacher. The study fits in the educational research modality which discusses practice of best quality, sustained by the praxeological knowledge, having as assumptions, the democratic education that believes in the child as a social actor, who participates in the learning process, supported by pedagogy for the participative child. The research adopted a concept of education based on an experience that requires a curriculum for the participative child sustained by Dewey (1959a, 1959b, 1973, 1976). The pedagogical practice conceives the mediation as the axis of learning based on Vygotsky (1978, 1995, 1999) and the prank in early childhood education as possibilities of learning. The methodology was based on the qualitative paradigm, in the use of a case study using action research, observing the guidelines of Elliott (2000a, 2000b), Kemmis and Smith (2008) and Maximo-Esteves (2008), in which an ethical commitment and a collaborative investigation between the researcher and the teacher is required. The length of time longer than two years (2010 and 2011) allowed changes of pedagogical praxis. As a tool for data collection, the child scale target (Target) was used in the investigation, in the corresponding items to the involvement of children and in their interactions and the scale of commitment of adult was also used (LAEVERS, 1994; PASCAL; BERTRAM 1999). During the investigation, the researcher and the teacher performed planning and jointly assessed the actions. For the triangulation of data was used the voices of the children, the teacher, the researcher and the parents. The results are divided into three areas of discussion, based on the theory of Lev Vygotsky, in which we analyzed the practices of mediation between subjects, signs and instruments. Thus, the mediations were discussed in a partnership between the teacher and researcher in the sense of allowing greater involvement of the child in organizing an environment with diverse materials, through the use of signs and the interaction of more experienced partners. The actions of collaborative effort made by the adults favored the interests of children, enabling a full experience concerning the participation in the educational context.

A very simple structure is sought when using factor analysis to develop measurement scales. The present article is about the SIMLOAD program; it computes measures of factor simplicity for rows and columns of loading matrices (usually the factor pattern) as well assome overall measures. These include Kaiser’s (1974) index of factor simplicity for variables (rows), Fleming’s scale fit index for factors (columns), Bentler’s (1977) scale-free matrix measure, and hyperplane counts. Routine use of these measures is recommended for multifactor scale development. The measures may also be useful in more general factorapplications, and in confirmatory as well as  exploratory analysis. SIMLOAD additionally computes factor scale intercorrelations, scale alpha coefficients, including alpha when item removed, and sorted loadings for ease of interpretation. / Una estructura simple es sólida cuando se utiliza el análisis factorial para desarrollar instrumentos de medición. El presente artículo se basa en el programa SIMLOAD, que produce índices que miden la simplicidad factorial para las filas y columnas de una matriz de cargas factoriales (generalmente, el patrón de factores), tanto como índices globales de ajuste. Estos incluyen para las filas el índice de simplicidad factorial de Kaiser (1974); para las columnas, el índice de ajuste a la escala de Fleming; la medida matriz libre de escalas de Bentler (1977); y, el conteo de hiperplanos. Estas medidas se recomiendan para la construcción de escalas multifactoriales. Estos índices también pueden ser útiles para aplicaciones factoriales más generales, en el análisis exploratorio o confirmatorio. El programa SIMLOAD también calcula intercorrelaciones entre las escalas, coeficientes alfa de Cronbach, el efecto de la eliminación de un ítem sobre el alfa y el  ordenamiento de las cargas factoriales de los ítems para facilitar la interpretación de la matriz resultante.

A presente pesquisa analisa usos contemporâneos da fronteira física entre Brasil e França, demonstrando que a partir da década de 1990 um novo cenário sócio-econômico e político entre Amapá e Guiana Francesa foi se criando, em que a lógica clássica das fronteiras políticas, do tipo discriminante e de isolamento, foi se alterando para um ambiente de cooperação em diferentes frentes (transportes, segurança, saúde, energia e meio ambiente) mesmo ainda com muitos obstáculos, sendo que para chegar aos resultados utilizamos o método de procedimento das escalas geográficas, analisando três obras (rodovia BR 156, futura ponte sobre o rio Oiapoque, e o Porto Organizado de Santana) que, juntas, motivaram a evolução da noção de fronteira, visto que este conjunto de infra-estruturas está estrategicamente pensado em várias esferas de interesses, o que é desenvolvido na pesquisa, principalmente quando das reflexões sobre a iniciativa de Implementação da Infra-estrutura Regional Sul-Americana. / The present research analyzes uses contemporaries of the physical border between Brazil and France, demonstrating that from the decade of 1990 a new partner-economic scene and politician between Amapá and French Guyana were if creating, where the classic logic of the borders politics, the discriminante type and isolation, was if modifying for an environment of cooperation in different fronts (transports, security, health, energy and environment), being that to arrive at the results we use the method of procedure of the geographic scales, analyzing three workmanships (highway BR 156, future bridge on the river Oiapoque, and the Organized Port of Santana) that, together, they had motivated the evolution of the border notion, since this set of infrastructures strategically is thought about some spheres of interests, what it is developed in the research, mainly when of the reflections on the initiative of Implementation of infrastructures South American Regional.

Since the introduction of the Griffiths Scales of Mental Development (Griffiths Scales) in the United Kingdom (1950) and South Africa (1977) they have become widely used and researched, both at a national and international level. Studies completed in South Africa have demonstrated the invaluable role the Griffiths Scales have fulfilled in the assessment of South African children of all cultural and socio-economic groups. However, research has indicated a need for the revision of the scales specifically relating to social and cultural factors that influence performance. The aim of this study was two-fold , namely: (i) to revise the 20 small pictures and the large picture of the Hearing and Speech Scale of the Griffiths Scales, making them more culturally relevant for the children of our contemporary world, and especially in South Africa; and (ii) to describe the performance of South African children, between 60 and 83 months of age, utilizing the revised pictures. For the qualitative component of the study a questionnaire pertaining to the small and large “Experimental pictures” was completed by the participants. The participants consisted of the executive committee members of the ARICD in the United Kingdom. Additionally 17 “expert “ Griffith's users and “lay-experts” working in early childhood development throughout South Africa, were included. Their responses were content analyzed and incorporated into the Experimental pictures. This resulted in the development of the Revised Griffiths pictures. The quantitative component of the study utilized two sample pools. Sample 1 (n=204) and Sample 2 (n=180) were comprised of pre-school children aged between 60 and 83 months. Sample 1 was utilized for the 20 small revised pictures and the large revised SA picture, while sample 2 was utilized for the 20 small revised pictures and the large revised United Kingdom/ European/Australian picture. Furthermore, both samples, consisted of children from all cultural, socio-economic, language, and gender groups. x The major findings of the present study were as follows: 1. Referring to sample 1, only the White and Indian pre-schoolers correctly identified a mean number of small pictures above that which was proposed by Griffiths (1960). The Coloured pre-schoolers almost identified Griffiths (1960) proposed number. 2. Referring to sample 2, all excepting the Black pre-schoolers correctly identified Griffiths’ (1960) proposed mean of small pictures. 3. All children from sample 1 and sample 2 were able to identify more stimuli from the large revised pictures, than was proposed by Griffiths (1960). 4. All four cultural groups from samples 1 and 2, elicited a mean number of descriptive words below Griffiths’ (1960) proposed criteria. 5. White pre-schoolers from sample 1 elicited a mean number of descriptive sentences above Griffiths’ (1960) proposed criteria. 6. White and Coloured pre-schoolers from sample 2 elicited a mean number of descriptive sentences above Griffiths’ (1960) proposed criteria. 7. All four cultural groups from sample 1 and sample 2, elicited a mean number of personal or possessive pronouns below Griffith's (1960) proposed criteria. 8. A general trend noted for the four cultural groups of both samples, was that the percentage of children who passed successive age-appropriate items, did not decrease stepwise as would be expected from the placement of items in order of difficulty. In view of the latter finding, it is recommended that for South African children the placement of the items for the small and large pictures of the Hearing and Speech Scale should be revised in terms of their order of difficulty. It is furthermore recommended that separate norms for South African children be established for the Hearing and Speech Scale

The ease at which individuals acquire a second language is astounding. Individuals are capable of learning a second language at any point through out their lifespan, although it is easier to learn a second language early in life. With increasing knowledge about linguistic neural processing and the brain’s capacity for plasticity, the research on bilingualism has increased substantially. Researchers have become increasingly more interested in the long-term effects of acquiring a second language, especially the enhancement of executive function (EF). This enhancement, also known as bilingual advantage, has been studied for a range of EFs, including inhibition, attention, problem solving, and reasoning. Although this effect was first demonstrated in bilingual children, researchers have extended the quest for understanding to young, middle, and older adults; however, the research findings are mixed for young adults. In order clarify these mixed results, the age of second language acquisition has been included as an experimental variable, producing three relevant groups: early bilinguals, late bilinguals, and monolinguals. There are several ways in which EFs can be measured, including behavioral rating scales, computerized cognitive tasks with behavioral outcomes (i.e., response times and accuracy), and computerized event-related potential cognitive tasks. A novel multi-level approach to measuring the bilingual advantage was developed and used as a framework for the current dissertation; i.e., the bilingual advantage was measured at three levels of measurement. This approach predicts that more complex levels of measurement (i.e., executive behaviors) would produce null findings between the three groups, while differences between early bilinguals and the other two groups would be predicted for less complex levels of measurement (i.e., neurophysiological markers). This approach predicts mixed results for levels of measurement that involve moderate complexity (e.g., computerized tasks of EF). Early bilinguals, late bilinguals, and monolinguals were compared across three hierarchical levels of measurement: (i) executive behaviors; (ii) information processing (i.e., computerized tasks of EF); and (iii) neurophysiology (i.e., event-related potential paradigm). Findings generally support the multi-level approach: no differences were found at the executive behavior level, limited and mixed differences were found at the information processing level, and differences between groups were found at the neurophysiological level. / Graduate

Child assessment has become imperative today as parents and teachers recognize the need for early diagnostic assessments to adequately cater for children’s’ diverse and growing needs so that children can benefit from services and attention in a psychological or educational setting. The Griffiths Mental Development Scales, an established and well-researched instrument is reported to be one of the most carefully designed measures of child development . Studies in various parts of the world have demonstrated that the Griffiths Scales are applicable to diverse populations and that they tap experiences that are common to different cultures. The recent revision and restandardisation of the Griffiths Mental Developmental Scales-Extended Revised (GMDS-ER) has necessitated investigations into its psychometric properties. In view of the important role that assessment measures play in the early identification of developmental delays, it is important that assessment measures are reliable and valid for their intended purpose(s). This study, which is part of a larger research project, attempted to explore and add further evidence of the construct validity of one of the six Subscales of the GMDS-ER, namely the Personal-Social Subscale (Subscale B). An exploratory-descriptive design using a triangulation approach was utilized to explore the construct validity of the Personal-Social Subscale. A nonprobability purposively selected sample of 18 experts working with children participated in the facet analysis to identify the constructs underlying Subscale B (the qualitative aspect of the study). The sample for the quantitative aspects of this study (i.e., the empirical validation of the identified constructs) was collected as part of the broader restandardisation and represented a stratified random sample of 1026 children between the ages of 3 and 8 years from across the United Kingdom and Eire. Three measures, namely a biographical questionnaire, the GMDS-ER and a construct evaluation form were used to gather the qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data was analysed by means of facet analysis and literature control. The quantitative data was analysed by using exploratory common factor analysis using oblique (DQUART) rotation to empirically verify the qualitatively identified construct model by specifying a onefactor solution for each underlying construct.

The perception of musical intervals by musicians can be envisaged as being accomplished in one of two ways. Most musicians appear to have only one method for identifying musical intervals: they directly evaluate the musical interval between two notes. Musicians with absolute pitch (AP) appear to have two methods available for identifying intervals: they can either directly evaluate the musical interval, or they can first identify the two pitches, and then infer the musical interval between them. This study investigated the perception of sequential musical intervals by two groups of musicians, one group with AP and the other without AP. In the first of four experiments, most subjects in both groups were able to name accurately standard sequential musical intervals based on the equal-tempered scale. In the second experiment, most subjects in the AP group were able accurately and consistently to name notes of the equal-tempered scale, whereas subjects without AP were not able to name them consistently or accurately. In the third experiment, subjects with AP identified, with varying degrees of accuracy and consistency, single notes spaced in 20-cent increments over a 9.4 semitone range, using the standard musical note names. This experiment also demonstrated that not all subjects had the same internal pitch reference. In the final and major experiment, subjects identified sequential musical intervals ranging in 20-cent steps from 260 to 540 cents, using the standard musical interval names. Subjects, both with and without AP, appeared to identify the intervals by directly evaluating the musical interval between the two notes, rather than first identifying the two pitches and then inferring the musical interval. One subject in the AP group showed a strong tendency to use the latter method, but only in certain contexts, the reason for which remains unexplained. Although more research is needed for stronger conclusions to be drawn, it appears that most musicians with AP do not use this ability in the identification of sequential musical intervals, relying instead on their sense of relative pitch. / Medicine, Faculty of / Audiology and Speech Sciences, School of / Graduate

The mucus coat on the skin and gill of fishes serves a variety of protective functions including lubrication of the body surface, prevention of infection, and deterrence of parasites. Since mucus secretion in some teleosts appears to be controlled by the osmoregulatory hormones, prolactin and Cortisol, it was thought that the mucus coat may participate in teleost hydromineral balance. The primary objective of this study was to -examine the possible role of mucus in-osmoregulation of Leptocottus arma- tus Girard 1854 (Teleostei, Cottidae) and to relate these findings to the -endocrine control of mucus secretion. Whereas Leptocottus skin includes three types of secretory cells (eosinophilic granular, goblet, and cuticle-secreting cells) , the gill epithelium -has only goblet cells. Of ten cottid species examined histochemically, only seawater sculpins produce neutral mucins, while fresh water, seawater, and euryhaline species produce acidic mucins. Leptocottus primarily secretes a sialoglycoprotein, though sulphated mucins are present in gill goblet cells and the cuticle-secreting cells. The granular cells produce a tryptophan-rich basic protein. - Hypophysectomy or seawater adaptation reduce the number of gill goblet cells, compared to respective sham-operated or 5% seawater-acclimated controls. Ovine prolactin treatment of hypophysectomized fish prevented this decrease. In seawater-acclimated Leptocottus prolactin injections increase the number of gill mucus cells, while Cortisol injections of 5% "seawater-adapted fish had the opposite effect. The cuticle-secreting cells were most active in 5% seawater-adapted fish and this state was maintained by prolactin. A moderately active state was typical of seawater-adapted fish and this condition could be maintained by Cortisol or ovine growth hormone. The lowest activity of the cuticle-secreting cells occurred in hypophysectomized fish. Though prolactin and Cortisol appear to control the gill goblet cells and the cuticle-secreting cells, neither hy-pophysectomy nor treatment with prolactin or Cortisol significantly affected the skin goblet cells. The mucus coat appears incapable of reducing integumental permeability through steric interference of diffusion or through Donnan exclusion of ions from the mucus coat. Further, it is argued that enhancement of unstirred layers by mucus could not significantly affect hydromineral balance. Instead, alterations of the mucus coat with environmental salinity may be associated with the lubricating properties of mucus. Leptocottus mucus is a viscous non-newtonian fluid when concentrated but is an efficient lubricant when dilute. Seawater-adapted Leptocottus produce a more efficient lubricating mucus than do 5% seawater-acclimated fish; this effect appears to involve the cuticle-secreting cells. In an associated study I showed that the skin of the goby Gillichthys mirabilis participates actively in osmoregulation through extra-renal ion excretion. Thus the effects of prolactin and Cortisol may be primarily to control active transport in the skin. / Science, Faculty of / Zoology, Department of / Graduate

It is common in cross-cultural research to treat variables as if they have interval scale properties irrespective of how these scales were constructed. The purpose of this research is to explore the differences in and consequences of how respondents from different countries use the same scales over the same scale items. Previously collected data from four countries using the same 6-point verbal and 10-point numeric rating scales were used. The data was rescaled using the delta chi-square and correspondence analysis techniques (Bendixen & Yurova, 2012). The differences in means of the variables were compared in pairs for raw and rescaled data. Bootstrapping was used to estimate confidence intervals of the differences between raw and rescaled values. Furthermore, a method of partitioning the differences in means into rescaling and cultural components was devised. In 83.3% and 94.9% of the cases, the differences in raw versus rescaled means were significant at the 5% level for verbal and numeric variables respectively. The results of partitioning indicate that by not rescaling the data, the differences in raw means consistently exaggerate the true cultural differences: the extracted cultural component was underestimated by 12.8% on average for verbal variables and by 5.3% for numeric variables. Therefore, reporting the differences in raw means as a true reflection of cultural differences is in error. Finally, the effect of rescaling in pancultural research was investigated by comparing the factor structure of doubly standardized raw and rescaled data. Pancultural research attempts to identify etic, or universal, dimensions of human culture and employs double standardization to remove cultural and individual biases inherent to cross-cultural data. While no differences in latent factors extracted were found for raw and rescaled data, considerable differences in the variance explained and slight differences in factor structure were found for double standardized rescaled and double standardized raw data. The results of this research indicate that researchers and practitioners in the field of cross-cultural research should choose their scales very carefully. Furthermore, to extract true cultural differences it is probably necessary to rescale and partition differences in means. Further research on the impact of rescaling is proposed.

Title: Validity assessment of the grading scale evaluation in a new bouldering area. Objectives: The aim of this work is to assess the grading scale validity of bouldering routes in a new area. Methods: Routes grading was verified by a group of six men and four women. The evaluation took place during one continuous visit in the rocks with an individual rest period between problems. The classification of each of the 10 ascents was conducted immediately after finishing the specific problem. It was done individually, without the possibility to consult their guesses and ideas. The proposed difficulties of the classified routes ranged from 12 to 17 IRCRA. Results: The average rating of the route difficulty classification was 0.89 IRCRA points higher than the initial suggestion, with minor differences between men and women. The influence of climbers' performance on their ability to assess routes' difficulty was statistically insignificant. Conclusion: The first climbers of boulders in the area of Goethe rock underestimate the climbing grades, which proves that the determination of difficulty in local climbing centers can be significantly skewed compared to established standards. Keywords: bouldering, grading scales, IRCRA, validity