Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-12-11T11:13:12Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucas Tadeu Rosente Rios.pdf: 559953 bytes, checksum: aef74bce413662d03ea02596d5b00094 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-11T11:13:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucas Tadeu Rosente Rios.pdf: 559953 bytes, checksum: aef74bce413662d03ea02596d5b00094 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-10-20 / This research aims to study the development of gamified interfaces for bilingual literacy for deaf children, with LIBRAS as their first language and Portuguese as the second language. The study on the deaf individual was motivated by the need to know better the characteristics of the target audience of this research. We ought to explore the definition of deafness, how we classify hearing loss and the deaf individual, and the characteristics of this individual, especially children, in the emotional aspects, focus and attention, and acquisition of vocabulary. The research also has the focus of studying the process of bilingual literacy of the deaf subject and the difficulties presented during the learning. Also in this context, we seek to investigate the education and the bilingual literacy process of deaf children and to point out the main characteristics and difficulties in the teaching and learning of LIBRAS as first language and Portuguese as a second language. In a second moment, the research brings to the discussion the analysis and the application of gamification within the school context. We study the application of gamification within this teaching environment, trying to understand the difficulties, needs and effective learning opportunities that the use of games can provide. Finally, we propose a reflection on the influence of the use of these technologies on the behavior and social relation of the deaf individuals, as well as the survey of the main educational technologies developed exclusively for mobile devices with the intention of teaching LIBRAS. Also in this context, through the analysis of the researched material, we try to discuss and suggest some best practices for the development of educational game interfaces for this target audience / Esta pesquisa tem o objetivo de estudar o desenvolvimento de interfaces gamificadas para o letramento bilíngue para crianças surdas, tendo a LIBRAS como primeira língua, e o português como a segunda língua. O estudo sobre o indivíduo surdo foi motivado pela necessidade de conhecer melhor as características do público alvo desta pesquisa. Procuramos explorar a definição de surdez, o modo como classificamos a deficiência auditiva e o indivíduo surdo, e as características desse indivíduo, principalmente as crianças, nos aspectos emocionais, de foco e atenção e aquisição de vocabulário, por meio dos trabalhos de Santos e Molon. A pesquisa observa também o processo de letramento bilíngue do sujeito surdo e as dificuldades apresentadas durante o aprendizado, e neste contexto, procura investigar a educação e o processo de letramento bilíngue de crianças surdas, apontando para as principais características e dificuldades no ensino e aprendizagem de LIBRAS como primeira língua e o português como segunda língua, tendo como base Sales et al. Em um segundo momento, a pesquisa traz à discussão a análise e a aplicação da gamificação dentro do contexto escolar. Assim, estudamos a aplicação da gamificação dentro deste ambiente de ensino, procurando entender as dificuldades, necessidades e oportunidades efetivas de aprendizagem que o uso dos games podem proporcionar, explorando os trabalhos de Prietch e Korte, Poter e Nielsen. Por fim, propomos uma reflexão sobre a influência do uso dessas tecnologias no comportamento e na relação social dos indivíduos surdos, fazemos um levantamento de tecnologias educacionais desenvolvidas exclusivamente para dispositivos móveis com o intuito de ensinar LIBRAS, para finalmente sugerir algumas melhores práticas para o desenvolvimento de interfaces de jogos educativos para este público-alvo

This dissertation studies the transnational interactions of Deaf Americans in a transnational Deaf public sphere from 1870-1924. Deaf Americans advanced a discourse of co-equality in which they asserted their ability to participate in society as Deaf-- and as deaf-- people.

The 21st century has been called the age of genomic medicine, yet gene therapy for medicinal use remains a theory. One reason that there are no safe and effective treatments for human disease is the lack of a vehicle capable of delivering genetic material to a specific target. In nature we observe gene pathology by viral vectors, which deliver their own genetic material to specific host cells efficient at spreading the viral blueprint throughout the organism. The aim of my research into gene therapy has been to develop a synthetic vector with the delivery capability of viral vectors found in nature. This includes the ability to protect genetic cargo from modification and degradation in vivo, target to a desired cell type within a specific tissue, facilitating absorption into the cell, and delivery to the nucleus, where expression of genetic material occurs. The goal of this thesis project was to synthesize a novel vector which would selectively target the dendritic cell SIGN receptor, mirroring the method of pathogens such as HIV, which target this receptor and subsequently the immune system, resulting in chronic infection. The vector we designed contains two major components, the high mannose N-glycan Man9GlcNAc2Asn, and a peptide composed of nine amino acids: four lysine spacing residues, four lysines derivatized with acridine on the epsilon amine of their side chains, and a cysteine for conjugation to the glycan. This compound, the Man9-AcrLys Glycopeptide, was engineered to intercalate into plasmid DNA via the acridine functional groups and to bind the DC-SIGN receptor through the glycan's mannose residues. The vehicle was tested in vitro in CHO cells bearing a recombinant DC-SIGN receptor in the context of luciferase reporter gene delivery. We found that under equal treatment conditions, DC-SIGN (+) CHO cells expressed more luciferase and were 100-fold more luminescent than control DC-SIGN (-) CHO cells. My delivery method was further analyzed in a cell-sorting FACS experiment. I covalently labeled pGL3 reporter plasmid with a fluorophore, and transfected the CHO cells under typical transfection conditions. The experimental results confirmed preferential DC-SIGN mediated gene delivery.

A devastating feature of drug-dependence is the susceptibility of relapse (40-60%) after stretches of abstinence. One theory that may account for relapse suggests that drug cues (e.g., paraphernalia) may increase stress hormones, and this may prompt relapse. Repeatedly pairing a neutral cue with a reward is commonly utilized to measure what subjects learn about a cue that is predictive of reward. Research has shown that animals that attend to a cue more than to the reward (sign trackers) may be more vulnerable to drug addiction. Additionally, research has shown that sign tracking is associated with an increase in corticosterone (CORT), a primary stress hormone. PT 150 is a novel glucocorticoid receptor antagonist that attenuates the effects of CORT. Experiment 1 hypothesized that subjects given repeated oral administration of 40 mg/kg PT 150 would reduce sign tracking compared to subjects given placebo. Results of Experiment 1 showed that repeated oral consumption of 40 mg/kg PT 150 decreased sign tracking behavior compared to placebo. In Experiment 2, it was hypothesized that PT 150 (20/40/60 mg/kg) given by subcutaneous (SC) injection would reduce sign tracking dose-dependently, and that sign tracking behavior would correlate with CORT levels. Results of Experiment 2 showed that SC injection of 20 mg/kg PT 150 reduced sign tracking but not 40 or 60 mg/kg. Additionally, the correlation between CORT and the sign tracking for the 20 mg/kg approached significance. Although tentative, the correlation may suggest that elevated plasma CORT concentrations correlate with elevated sign tracking. The current findings extend the current literature by suggesting that the glucocorticoid receptor may be a potential pharmacological target for reducing relapse-like behaviors.

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of graduated guidance procedure on teaching imitation of manual signs to students with moderate to severe disabilities. Sessions began with student initiation and were embedded across already established reinforcement routines across the student’s day. A multiple baseline across participants design was used to evaluate these effects.

Pathogenic fungi are increasingly associated with epidemics in wildlife populations and represent a significant threat to global biodiversity. Snake fungal disease is an emerging disease caused by the fungus, Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, and appears to be widespread in the eastern United States. Yet an evaluation of field diagnostics, and an understanding of the population-level consequences of the disease, are lacking. First, I evaluated the use of clinical signs to predict the presence of O. ophiodiicola across season and snake habitat affiliation (aquatic or terrestrial) and I compared two sampling methods to see if collection method impacts PCR result. Overall, snakes with clinical signs had a higher probability of testing positive regardless of season or habitat association. However, terrestrial snakes had a lower overall probability of testing positive for O. ophiodiicola compared to aquatic snakes. I found no significant difference between sampling methods. Second, I used Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) telemetry, and multistate capture-mark-recapture modelling to determine if SFD affects the short-term survival, movement, and behavior of wild snakes. I found no difference in short-term survival for snakes with SFD. Snakes with SFD spend more time surface-active and have lower permanent emigration and temporary immigration rates than snakes without SFD.

Low back pain has a significant impact on global public health and economics. The bright facet sign (BFS), a common finding on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the lumbar spine, is associated with low back pain. While degenerative joint disease (DJD) affects low back pain, its presence appears independent of the BFS at the disc and facet joints at the same spinal level. Increased BMI, considered a risk factor for DJD, has an inverse association with the BFS. The independent relationship of DJD and the BFS is poorly understood and may represent a previously unreported pain pathway. In this nested case-control quantitative study, based on an accepted conceptual framework, 350 lumbar MRI studies on symptomatic patients with historic and anthropomorphic data related to low back pain were analyzed using Spearman's Rho and Multivariate Logistic Regression to examine any associations between the BFS at 3 spinal levels and the independent variables age, race/ethnicity, physical activity, BMI, trauma, low back pain, and DJD. The findings revealed significant associations between the BFS and the duration of pain, age, and gender at 1 or more spinal levels, the BFS and BMI and degenerative facet disease (DFD) at all 3 spinal levels, and no association between the BFS and degenerative disc disease (DDD). These results, contrary to current medical constructs where BMI, DFD, and DDD are considered predictive of low back pain, facilitate an improved understanding of joint function and contribute to the current body of knowledge related to low back pain. An understanding of the BFS as it relates to DJD and low back pain will assist clinicians with the early detection of spinal degeneration and the mitigation of pain and suffering, contributing to positive social change.

Variable selection procedures for high dimensional data have been proposed and studied by a large amount of literature in the last few years. Most of the previous research focuses on the selection properties as well as the point estimation properties. In this paper, our goal is to construct the confidence intervals for some low-dimensional parameters in the high-dimensional setting. The models we study are the partially penalized linear and accelerated failure time models in the high-dimensional setting. In our model setup, all variables are split into two groups. The first group consists of a relatively small number of variables that are more interesting. The second group consists of a large amount of variables that can be potentially correlated with the response variable. We propose an approach that selects the variables from the second group and produces confidence intervals for the parameters in the first group. We show the sign consistency of the selection procedure and give a bound on the estimation error. Based on this result, we provide the sufficient conditions for the asymptotic normality of the low-dimensional parameters. The high-dimensional selection consistency and the low-dimensional asymptotic normality are developed for both linear and AFT models with high-dimensional data.

This dissertation examines the connection between language ideologies and second language learning, specifically in the case of American Sign Language. I argue that students' and teachers' ideologies about American Sign Language (ASL) influence the goals and pedagogies of ASL teachers. ASL students enter the classroom with ideologies that conflate ASL with gesture or view it as simplified visual English. ASL students also view deafness as a disability that needs to be fixed. This contrasts with ASL teachers' view that Deaf people are a distinct cultural minority who wish to remain Deaf. As a result, ASL teachers' goals focus on teaching ASL students to respect Deaf people and their language. This leads to three major pedagogical differences with teachers of spoken languages. First, ASL teachers focus their cultural lessons on teaching their students a non-pathological view of Deafness. Second, ASL teachers are far more likely than spoken language teachers to think that a member of Deaf Culture should teach ASL. Finally, ASL teachers go to greater lengths than spoken language teachers to avoid the use of English in their classrooms. This research was conducted at five different public universities in the United States. I observed ASL classes at all five universities and a Spanish class at one university. I administered a survey at four of the five universities. I interviewed ASL teachers and teachers of other languages at all five universities.

Research indicates that many elementary students do not comprehend that the equal sign is an indication that an equality relation exists between two structures. Instead, they perceive the equal sign as an indication that a particular procedure is to be performed. As students mature, and as their exposure to the equal sign and equality relations in multiple contexts increases, most obtain the ability to interpret the equal sign as an indicator of an equivalence relation. Incorrect usages of the equal sign, however, by post-algebra students indicate a tendency for students to regress back to a comprehension of the equal sign as an operator symbol or to ignore the equal sign altogether. The purpose of this project was to develop an instrument that is relevant to objectives associated with the interpretation of the equals relation, and to perform a test reliability analysis to assess measurement reliability and construct validity for the instrument. The model that was utilized to develop items for the instrument followed a general item development and validity assessment model proposed by Cangelosi. This model requires an iterative process that includes a peer review of objectives and instrument items by a panel of experts and a revision of the items based upon recommendations from the panel. A pilot test was synthesized from the revised items and administered to a group of subjects, and an instrument reliability analysis and an item efficiency analysis were performed. The quantitative and qualitative data obtained from this process were used to create the 18-item instrument entitled, Wheeler Test for Comprehension of Equals. The researcher recommends further validity assessments for the instrument across multiple settings and subject groups.