Instrument adaptation in cross-cultural studies of students’ mathematics-related beliefs: learning from healthcare research     

Paul Andrews  Jose Diego-Mantecón 《Compare》2015,45(4):545-567

Much comparative research into education-related beliefs has exploited questionnaires developed in one culture for use in another. This has been particularly the case in mathematics education, the focus of this paper. In so doing, researchers have tended to assume that translation alone is sufficient to warrant a reliable and valid instrument for cross-cultural research, prompting concerns that a number of necessary equivalences are unlikely to have been addressed. In this paper, we consider the nature of these equivalences before examining the literature of a different field, healthcare research, to synthesise an approach to instrument adaptation that is pragmatic but rigorous. Finally, we demonstrate how this pragmatic approach, incorporating extensive cognitive interviews, enabled us to adapt and refine a mathematics-related beliefs questionnaire, developed in Flanders, for use with students aged 14–15 in England and Spain. Analyses indicate that the instrument so developed is multidimensional, reliable and cross-culturally valid. Some implications are discussed.  相似文献   

A Review on the Role of Nutraceuticals as Simple as Se2+ to Complex Organic Molecules Such as Glycyrrhizin That Prevent as Well as Cure Diseases     

Regi Jose  G. R. Sajitha  K. T. Augusti 《Indian journal of clinical biochemistry : IJCB》2014,29(2):119-132

Nutraceuticals are nutritional medicines which are present in edible food items. Most of them are antioxidants with various other biological properties viz, anti inflammatory, anti atherogenic, anticancer, anti viral, anti aging properties etc. They are as simple as minerals like Se²⁺ to complex organic molecules such as glycyrrhizin (Ca²⁺, K⁺ salts of glycyrrhizic acid). They can prevent as well as cure various diseases. Most of the medical people are not aware of the importance of the nutraceuticals as such matters are not part of their text books. Many still think that vitamins are the major nutritional medicines. Actually other dietary principles like terpenes, carotenes, phytosterols, polyphenols, flavanoids, di and poly sulphides, their sulfoxides and their precursor amino acids are necessary to scavenge free radicals in the body which are reactive oxygen species to protect and maintain the vitamin levels in the body. They down regulate the activities of those enzymes which are increased in diseases and they increase those that remove oxidants and detoxify carcinogens. They are immune boosters too. Recently glucosinolates, non toxic alkaloids, certain proteins and even fiber are included in the list of nutraceuticals.  相似文献   

Application of Think Aloud Protocols for Examining and Confirming Sources of Differential Item Functioning Identified by Expert Reviews     

Kadriye Ercikan  Rubab Arim  Danielle Law  Jose Domene  France Gagnon  Serge Lacroix 《Educational Measurement》2010,29(2):24-35

This paper demonstrates and discusses the use of think aloud protocols (TAPs) as an approach for examining and confirming sources of differential item functioning (DIF). The TAPs are used to investigate to what extent surface characteristics of the items that are identified by expert reviews as sources of DIF are supported by empirical evidence from examinee thinking processes in the English and French versions of a Canadian national assessment. In this research, the TAPs confirmed sources of DIF identified by expert reviews for 10 out of 20 DIF items. The moderate agreement between TAPs and expert reviews indicates that evidence from expert reviews cannot be considered sufficient in deciding whether DIF items are biased and such judgments need to include evidence from examinee thinking processes.  相似文献   

Globalization, National Cultures and Ethics     

Ignacio Ramonet 《International Information and Library Review》1997,29(3-4)

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An ontological model for managing professional expertise     

Juana María?Ruiz-MartínezEmail author  Jose Antonio?Mi?arro-Giménez  Rodrigo?Martínez-Béjar 《知识管理研究与实践》2016,14(3):390-400

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Forensic child sexual abuse evaluations: assessing subjectivity and bias in professional judgements     

Everson MD  Sandoval JM 《Child abuse & neglect》2011,35(4):287-298

Objectives

Evaluators examining the same evidence often arrive at substantially different conclusions in forensic assessments of child sexual abuse (CSA). This study attempts to identify and quantify subjective factors that contribute to such disagreements so that interventions can be devised to improve the reliability of case decisions.

Methods

Participants included 1106 professionals in the field of child maltreatment representing a range of professional positions or job titles and years of experience. Each completed the Child Forensic Attitude Scale (CFAS), a 28-item survey assessing 3 forensic attitudes believed to influence professional judgments about CSA allegations: emphasis-on-sensitivity (i.e., a focus on minimizing false negatives or errors of undercalling abuse); emphasis-on-specificity (i.e., a focus on minimizing false positives or errors of overcalling abuse); and skepticism toward child and adolescent reports of CSA. A subset of 605 professionals also participated in 1 of 3 diverse decision exercises to assess the influence of the 3 forensic attitudes on ratings of case credibility.

Results

Exploratory factor analysis identified 4 factors or attitude subscales that corresponded closely with the original CFAS scales: 2 subscales for emphasis-on-sensitivity and 1 each for emphasis-on-specificity and skepticism. Attitude subscale scores differed significantly by sample source (in-state trainings vs. national conferences), gender, years of experience, and professional position, with Child Protective Service workers unexpectedly more concerned about overcalling abuse and more skeptical of child disclosures than other professionals—a pattern of scores associated with an increased probability of disbelieving CSA allegations. The 3 decision exercises offered validation of the attitude subscales as predictors of professional ratings of case credibility, with adjusted R²s for the three exercises ranging from .06 to .24, suggesting highly variable effect sizes.

Conclusions

Evaluator disagreements about CSA allegations can be explained, in part, by individual differences in 3 attitudes related to forensic decision-making: emphasis-on-sensitivity, emphasis-on-specificity, and skepticism toward child reports of abuse. These attitudes operate as predispositions or biases toward viewing CSA allegations as likely true or likely false. Several strategies for curbing the influence of subjective factors are highlighted including self-awareness of personal biases and team approaches to assessment.  相似文献   

The European university landscape: A micro characterization based on evidence from the Aquameth project   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Cinzia Daraio  Andrea BonaccorsiAldo Geuna  Benedetto LeporiLaurent Bach  Peter BogetoftMargarida F. Cardoso  Elena Castro-MartinezGustavo Crespi  Ignacio Fernandez de LucioHarold Fried  Adela Garcia-AracilAnnamaria Inzelt  Ben JongbloedGerhard Kempkes  Patrick LlerenaMireille Matt  Maria OlivaresCarsten Pohl  Tarmo RatyMaria J. Rosa  Cláudia S. SarricoLéopold Simar  Stig SlipersaeterPedro N. Teixeira  Philippe Vanden Eeckaut 《Research Policy》2011,40(1):148-164

This paper provides a new and systematic characterization of 488 universities, from 11 European countries: Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and UK. Using micro indicators built on the integrated Aquameth database, we characterize the European university landscape according to the following dimensions: history/foundation of university, dynamics of growth, specialization pattern, subject mix, funding composition, offer profile and productivity.  相似文献   

Surface tension effects on submerged electrosprays     

álvaro G. Marín  Ignacio G. Loscertales  Antonio Barrero 《Biomicrofluidics》2012,6(4)

Electrosprays are a powerful technique to generate charged micro/nanodroplets. In the last century, the technique has been extensively studied, developed, and recognized with a shared Nobel price in Chemistry in 2002 for its wide spread application in mass spectrometry. However, nowadays techniques based on microfluidic devices are competing to be the next generation in atomization techniques. Therefore, an interesting development would be to integrate the electrospray technique into a microfluidic liquid-liquid device. Several works in the literature have attempted to build a microfluidic electrospray with disputable results. The main problem for its integration is the lack of knowledge of the working parameters of the liquid-liquid electrospray. The “submerged electrosprays” share similar properties as their counterparts in air. However, in the microfluidic generation of micro/nanodroplets, the liquid-liquid interfaces are normally stabilized with surface active agents, which might have critical effects on the electrospray behavior. In this work, we review the main properties of the submerged electrosprays in liquid baths with no surfactant, and we methodically study the behavior of the system for increasing surfactant concentrations. The different regimes found are then analyzed and compared with both classical and more recent experimental, theoretical and numerical studies. A very rich phenomenology is found when the surface tension is allowed to vary in the system. More concretely, the lower states of electrification achieved with the reduced surface tension regimes might be of interest in biological or biomedical applications in which excessive electrification can be hazardous for the encapsulated entities.  相似文献   

An approach to web-based Personal Health Records filtering using fuzzy prototypes and data quality criteria     

Francisco P. Romero  Ismael CaballeroJesus Serrano-Guerrero  Jose A. Olivas 《Information processing & management》2012

Nowadays, new ways of managing and accessing to health-care information are continuously appearing. Web-based Personal Health Records (web PHRs) have the potential to make data about health-care available to clinicians, researchers and students in different medical contexts and applications. Therefore, the amount of web PHRs accessible through Internet has grown enormously and as a result health-care professionals are currently burdened with more and more data. It’s probable that these data, unfortunately, have not always the adequate levels of quality, making that their work cannot always be as successful as expected. As a way of alleviating this fact, the present work is focused on improving the document filtering results in the context of web PHRs management. To achieve this goal, a new kind of document filtering model is proposed. This model is based on fuzzy prototypes which are defined by means of conceptual prototypes. These prototypes are obtained by using a data quality analysis of documents. This analysis guarantees that filtered information will be relevant enough for the information user. The complete model provides an efficient strategy of document filtering that can be very useful when it is necessary to deal with a constant flow of new information.  相似文献   

Soft approaches to information access on the Web: An introduction to the special issue     

Enrique Herrera-Viedma  Guy De Tré  Slawomir Zadrozny  Jose Angel Olivas 《Information processing & management》2012

Soft Computing (SC) tools present a great potential in real-life problems related with engineering, industrial applications, medicine, finances, etc. In this special issue we present a set of seven papers that report original research about the use of SC techniques to solve the problems in the field of information access on the Web.  相似文献