Using Cogenerative Dialogues to Open Conversations of Rigor in Teacher Preparation Programs

abstract: The purpose of this action research study was to examine the impact of cogenerative dialogues on instructor and student perceptions of rigor in a master's and certification program for alternatively certified teachers. Additionally, the study was designed to determine if these open dialogues would impact instructional decisions of college instructors in the program. The investigator used a mixed methods research model that included surveys, interviews, and video of the dialogues to measure the impact. The results of the study indicated that both sets of participants remained consistent in their identification and definition of the term rigor. The cogenerative dialogues did have an impact on instructor understanding of student definitions of rigor. Instructors began to change some instructional decisions as a result of the dialogues in small groups.Dissertation/ThesisEd.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 201

Proceedings of the Conference on Production Systems and Logistics: CPSL 2022

[no abstract available

Key human factors in the E-readiness of academic employees at Higher Education institution

Within the context of technological development, the needs and preferences of the 21st century student (Generation Y), the changing higher education environment, the increasing use of technology in teaching and learning, and the significant role of online learning facilitators in e-learning, the e-readiness of academic employees became imperative. Thus, considering the importance of academic employees' e-readiness, the primary objective of the study aims to determine the role of key human factors in their e-readiness, with specific focus on personal work profile patterns, preferred learning style and pace and style of technology adoption. The research problem therefore is how to determine the role of these key human factors in the e-readiness of academic employees. In this respect the study argues that the e-readiness assessment of academic employees must be included in the human resource performance appraisal process. The purpose of this research is to develop a framework for assessing the ereadiness of academic employees during their performance appraisals, as well as determining and assessing the role of key human factors in their e-readiness in order to draft an e-profile which will provide guidance in terms of structuring unique training and development approaches for each e-profile. Once accademic employees' e-readiness has been assessed during their performance appraisals, they can be plotted on the framework. The outcome of their e-readiness assessments will reveal their e-profiles, which will portray insight into the presence or absence of particular ereadiness indicators, outlined in an e-readiness construct. Subsequently, a personal development plan can be drafted, making provision for uniquely structured training and development interventions, best suited for each accademic employees' e-profile. The most suitable motivating factors for each employee will also be considered during the drafting of the personal development plan. The empirical research by means of a self-administered questionnaire and a focus group discussion revealed two prominent e-profiles indicating various levels of ereadiness, namely an early adopter-pragmatist-compliance e-profile and an early majority-theorist-steadiness e-profile. The findings made it evident that the traits portrayed by a person belonging to a certain technology adoption category show similarities to traits portrayed by particular learning styles and personal work profile patterns. Certain profiles could be identified, based on trends and similarities pertaining to interpersonal traits. The findings further revealed that with an increase in age and teaching experience of respondents (which also imply an increase in age), the willingness to be assessed on e-readiness declined. It was also determined that the human resource performance management policies and practices at the North-West University (NWU) (which is used as case study), do not make provision for the inclusion of e-readiness in performance appraisals of academic employees. Further it became evident that training and development interventions should not only focus on the technical skill of e-learning, but follow a broader teaching and learning approach, also including the philosophy of e-learning and the use and adaptation of teaching and learning strategies to obtain optimal learner learning. The findings of the study thus supported the need for a framework, providing guidance in this regard. Presently, neither the literature of human resource performance appraisal nor the literature of e-readiness or e-learning makes provision for assessing the e-readiness of academic employees. The study thus contributes to the scholarly discourse and knowledge in the field of public human resource management, as sub-field of Public Administration, by developing a theoretical framework (that currently does not exist), consisting of three matrixes for this purpose to determine the role of the key human factors in the e-readiness of academic employees.Public Administration and ManagementD. Litt. et Phil. (Public Administration

Component-based Adaptation Methods for Service-Oriented Peer-to-Peer Software Architectures

Service-oriented peer-to-peer architectures aim at supporting application scenarios of dispersed collaborating groups in which the participating users are capable of providing and consuming local resources in terms of peer services. From a conceptual perspective, service-oriented peer-to-peer architectures adopt relevant concepts of two well-established state-of-the-art software architectural styles, namely service-oriented architectures (also known as SOA) and peer-to-peer architectures (P2P). One major argumentation of this thesis is that the adoption of end-user adaptability (or tailorability) concepts is of major importance for the successful deployment of service-oriented peer-to-peer architectures that support user collaboration. Since tailorability concepts have so far not been analyzed for both peer-to-peer and service-oriented architectures, no relevant models exist that could serve as a tailorability model for service-oriented peer-to-peer architectures. In order to master the adaptation of peer services, as well as peer service compositions within service-oriented peer-to-peer architectures, this dissertation proposes the adoption of component-oriented development methods. These so-called component-based adaptation methods enable service providers to adapt their provided services during runtime. Here, a model for analyzing existing dependencies on subscribed ser-vice consumers ensures that a service provider is able to adapt his peer services without violating any dependencies. In doing so, an adaptation policy that can be pre-arranged within a peer group regulates the procedures of how to cope with existing dependencies in the scope of a group. The same methods also serve as a way to handle exceptional cases, in particular the failure of a dependent service provider peer and, hence, a service that is part of a local service composition. In this, the hosting runtime environment is responsible for detecting exceptions and for initiating the process of exception resolution. During the resolution phase, a user can be actively involved at selected decision points in order to resolve the occurred exception in unpredictable contexts. An exception could also be the reason for the violation of an integrity constraint that serves as a contract between various peers that interact within a given collaboration. The notion of integrity constraints and the model of handling the constraint violation aim at improving the reliability of target-oriented peer collaborations. This dissertation is composed of three major parts that each makes a significant contribution to the state of the art. First of all, a formal architectural style (SOP2PA) is introduced to define the fundamental elements that are necessary to build service-oriented peer-to-peer architectures, as well as their relationships, constraints, and operational semantics. This architectural style also formalizes the above-mentioned adaptation methods, the exception handling model that embraces these methods, the analysis model for managing consumer dependencies, as well as the integrity constraints model. Subsequently, on this formal basis, a concrete (specific) service-oriented peer-to-peer architecture (DEEVOLVE) is conceptualized that serves as the default implementation of that style. Here, the notions described above are materialized based on state-of-the-art software engineering methods and models. Finally, the third contribution of this work outlines an application scenario stemming from the area of construction informatics, in which the default implementation DEEVOLVE is deployed in order to support dispersed planning activities of structural engineers

A Malaysian professional communication skills in English framework for English for occupational purposes courses

Malaysian employers have considerable reservations when it comes to graduates’ employability skills, particularly their flawed English language competence. Given the challenges faced by higher education institutions in Malaysia to match employers’ requirements, there is a need to initiate holistic and comprehensive research on the curriculum practices of current English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) courses. This study sought to better comprehend employers’ perspectives, expectations and practices in dealing with the English language demands of the workplace environment. The requirements demanded by Malaysian employers will determine the key definition of professional communication skills for successful workplace functions. The aim of this study was twofold. Firstly, it intended to define Professional Communication Skills (PCS) by looking at the needs and requirements of Malaysian stakeholders, namely employers, the government and academia. This component explores the requirements, suggestions as well as common practices in relation to English language communication carried out at the workplace in the public and private sectors in Malaysia as voiced by the stakeholders. These valuable facts will help to fulfil the fundamental objective of this study, which is to determine the key definition of professional communication skills identified by Malaysian stakeholders for successful workplace functions. A clearly defined Professional Communication Skills Framework in English is aimed for at the end of this study. Secondly, it also aims to produce an informed, impartial and highly valid PCS framework for English by having the stakeholders thoroughly involved in creating meaning and amending the components within the framework during the validation stage of the study. Additionally, in order to make sure that the framework is not only valid but also achievable, a few experts in the field of teaching English in higher education have looked through the framework thoroughly. This qualitative study sits within the interpretivist paradigm, where data were primarily drawn from in-depth interviews with 24 respondents in the following subgroups: 1) human resource managers from key multi-national industries (10 respondents); 2) government executives who recruit entry-level employees for public sector (4 respondents) and; 3) EOP instructors and HE liaison officers for industrial training (10 respondents). The data were subjected to rigorous deductive and iterative analysis in which soft systems methodology (SSM) was applied. To assure the rigour, integrity and legitimacy of the research process and its worth, trustworthiness criteria were applied all the way through the study. Key findings of the study centre on the complexities of graduates’ English language workplace literacies, where it was discovered that the balance of breadth and depth of communicative competence should be embedded throughout the system of education, as early as in pre-primary education. Contrary to expectations, the findings illustrate that graduates’ personal attributes were rated more important than communicating fluently in the English language. Stakeholders compellingly proposed that these attributes should be stressed during the teaching and learning process in HE institutions and observable measures should be designed to assess the graduates’ personal attributes that are desired by stakeholders. The findings also stress the dire need to put emphasis on fluency over accuracy in the HE curriculum. This study has yielded findings that make an original contribution to both the theory and practice of English language literacies since it adds to the broader view of workplace literacies by unveiling the requirements for English language used in a professional setting situated in a Malaysian context. This study has provided conclusive evidence by documenting Malaysian stakeholders’ requirements regarding the workplace literacies of graduates, scrutinising the findings and developing a practical PCS framework for English, using a Communication Competence Model (Morealle, Spitzberg and Barge, 2007) as its point of departure. These outcomes are especially beneficial for informing policy makers’ agendas in producing competent graduates for the future local and global workforce

Studies of UHRF1-mediated mechanisms regulating DNA methyltransferase 1

Epigenetic processes include the establishment, maintenance and coordinated change of DNA and histone modifications to shape chromatin structure across cell divisions without affecting the DNA sequence. This thesis addresses the Regulation of DNA methylation with particular focus on the interplay between epigenetic factors DNMT1 and UHRF1, their role during development and disease as well as technology advancements in genome editing and transcriptomics towards better understanding of chromatin biology. The field of epigenetics increasingly relies on genome editing and genome-wide transcriptomic analyses as key technologies to study and understand the Regulation of individual genes, their protein products as well as systemic effects on gene expression. During my PhD, I co-established a multifunctional integrase (MIN) tag for rapid and versatile genome engineering. Based on CRISPR/Cas mediated manipulation, this approach enables efficient generation of multiple isogenic cell lines to study gene function under physiological conditions. Moreover, I participated in a comprehensive study comparing different library preparation methods for single-cell transcriptomic analyses. The main study of this thesis focuses on mutations in the TS domain of DNMT1 that are linked to a neurodegenerative disease called HSAN1E. Here, we characterized two disease related mutations with functional complementation assays in mouse embryonic stem cells. We showed that these mutations impair both interaction with UHRF1 and DNMT1 heterochromatin association resulting in decreased methylation levels. The next objective of this work was to investigate UHRF1-mediated modifications and their functional interplay with DNMT1 regulating DNA methylation. We identified H3K18 as a novel ubiquitination target of UHRF1. H3K18ub is essential for DNMT1 targeting and function. Consequently, we identified a ubiquitin interacting motif (UIM) within the TS domain of DNMT1, responsible for binding H3K18ub. Finally, with UHRF1 and UHRF2 single knockout ESCs, we assayed for differential ubiquitination using mass spectrometry and identified novel non-histone ubiquitination targets. We show that UHRF1 ubiquitinates PAF15 at Lys 15 and Lys 24 and thereby promotes its binding to PCNA during late s phase. Together my findings indicate a novel functional aspect of UHRF1 in regulating DNA methylation via H3K18ub and suggest a non-epigenetic role in DNA damage response. Despite sequence and domain similarity of UHRF1 and UHRF2, my results suggest that UHRF1/2 are involved in different cellular pathways, arguing for non-redundant functions.Epigenetische Prozesse umfassen die Etablierung, Aufrechterhaltung und koordinierte Veränderung von DNA- und Histon-Modifikationen. Desweiteren beeinflussen sie die Chromatinstruktur während des Zellzyklus, ohne dass die DNS Sequenz verändert wird. Diese Doktorarbeit beschäftigt sich mit den molekularen Mechanismen der DNS-Methylierung mit besonderem Fokus auf dem funktionellen Zusammenspiel der epigenetischen Faktoren DNMT1 und UHRF1 und ihrer Funktion in der embryonalen Entwicklung. Desweiteren werden technologische Fortschritte in der Genommanipulation und Transkriptomanalyse zum besseren Verständnis der Chromatinbiologie beschrieben. Das Feld der Epigenetik setzt zunehmend auf Genommanipulation und genomweite Transkriptomanalysen als Schlüsseltechnologien, um die Regulation einzelner Gene, ihre Proteinprodukte sowie systemische Effekte auf das zelluläre Transkriptom zu untersuchen und zu verstehen. Während meiner Promotion habe ich das multifunctional integrase (MIN) tag System für eine schnelle und vielseitige Genommanipulation mitetabliert. Basierend auf CRISPR/Cas-vermittelten Manipulationen ermöglicht dieser Ansatz eine effiziente Generierung von isogenen Zelllinien, um individuelle Gene unter physiologischen Bedingungen zu untersuchen. Darüber hinaus habe ich an einer umfassenden Studie teilgenommen, in deren Rahmen verschiedene Verfahren der Einzelzell-Transkriptomanalyse verglichen wurden. Die Hauptstudie dieser Arbeit konzentriert sich auf Mutationen in der TS-Domäne von DNMT1, die mit einer neurodegenerativen Erkrankung namens HSAN1E assoziiert sind. Hier haben wir zwei krankheitsbezogene Mutationen mit Komplementierungsexperimenten in embryonalen Stammzellen charakterisiert. Wir haben gezeigt, dass diese Mutationen sowohl die Bindung von DNMT1 an Heterochromatin als auch die Interaktion mit UHRF1 beeinträchtigen, was zu einem verringerten Methylierungslevel führt. Das nächste Ziel dieser Arbeit war es, UHRF1-vermittelte osttranslationale Modifikationen und deren Einfluss auf die Regulation von DNMT1 zu untersuchen. Wir identifizierten H3K18 als eine neue Histonubiquitinierungsstelle, die von UHRF1 ubiquitiniert wird. H3K18ub ist essentiell für die Funktion von DNMT1. In der Folge haben wir ein ubiquitin interacting motif (UIM) innerhalb der TS-Domäne von DNMT1 identifiziert, das für die Bindung von H3K18ub verantwortlich ist. Schließlich wurden embryonale UHRF1- und UHRF2-knockout Stammzellen auf differenzielle Ubiquitinierung mittels Massenspektrometrie untersucht und neue Ubiquitinierungssubstrate identifiziert. Wir zeigen, dass UHRF1 PAF15 ubiquitiniert und damit die Bindung von PAF15 an PCNA in der späten S-Phase fördert. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit zeigen einen neuen funktionellen Aspekt von UHRF1 bei der Regulation der DNS-Methylierung über H3K18ub und deuten auf eine Funktion bei der Reparatur von DNS-Schäden hin. Trotz der Ähnlichkeit von Sequenz und Domänenstruktur von UHRF1 und UHRF2 deuten die Ergebnisse darauf hin, dass UHRF1/2 an verschiedenen zellulären Prozessen beteiligt sind und unterschiedliche Funktionen haben

A Malaysian professional communication skills in English framework for English for occupational purposes courses

Malaysian employers have considerable reservations when it comes to graduates’ employability skills, particularly their flawed English language competence. Given the challenges faced by higher education institutions in Malaysia to match employers’ requirements, there is a need to initiate holistic and comprehensive research on the curriculum practices of current English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) courses. This study sought to better comprehend employers’ perspectives, expectations and practices in dealing with the English language demands of the workplace environment. The requirements demanded by Malaysian employers will determine the key definition of professional communication skills for successful workplace functions. The aim of this study was twofold. Firstly, it intended to define Professional Communication Skills (PCS) by looking at the needs and requirements of Malaysian stakeholders, namely employers, the government and academia. This component explores the requirements, suggestions as well as common practices in relation to English language communication carried out at the workplace in the public and private sectors in Malaysia as voiced by the stakeholders. These valuable facts will help to fulfil the fundamental objective of this study, which is to determine the key definition of professional communication skills identified by Malaysian stakeholders for successful workplace functions. A clearly defined Professional Communication Skills Framework in English is aimed for at the end of this study. Secondly, it also aims to produce an informed, impartial and highly valid PCS framework for English by having the stakeholders thoroughly involved in creating meaning and amending the components within the framework during the validation stage of the study. Additionally, in order to make sure that the framework is not only valid but also achievable, a few experts in the field of teaching English in higher education have looked through the framework thoroughly. This qualitative study sits within the interpretivist paradigm, where data were primarily drawn from in-depth interviews with 24 respondents in the following subgroups: 1) human resource managers from key multi-national industries (10 respondents); 2) government executives who recruit entry-level employees for public sector (4 respondents) and; 3) EOP instructors and HE liaison officers for industrial training (10 respondents). The data were subjected to rigorous deductive and iterative analysis in which soft systems methodology (SSM) was applied. To assure the rigour, integrity and legitimacy of the research process and its worth, trustworthiness criteria were applied all the way through the study. Key findings of the study centre on the complexities of graduates’ English language workplace literacies, where it was discovered that the balance of breadth and depth of communicative competence should be embedded throughout the system of education, as early as in pre-primary education. Contrary to expectations, the findings illustrate that graduates’ personal attributes were rated more important than communicating fluently in the English language. Stakeholders compellingly proposed that these attributes should be stressed during the teaching and learning process in HE institutions and observable measures should be designed to assess the graduates’ personal attributes that are desired by stakeholders. The findings also stress the dire need to put emphasis on fluency over accuracy in the HE curriculum. This study has yielded findings that make an original contribution to both the theory and practice of English language literacies since it adds to the broader view of workplace literacies by unveiling the requirements for English language used in a professional setting situated in a Malaysian context. This study has provided conclusive evidence by documenting Malaysian stakeholders’ requirements regarding the workplace literacies of graduates, scrutinising the findings and developing a practical PCS framework for English, using a Communication Competence Model (Morealle, Spitzberg and Barge, 2007) as its point of departure. These outcomes are especially beneficial for informing policy makers’ agendas in producing competent graduates for the future local and global workforce

Novel approaches to applied cybersecurity in privacy, encryption, security systems, web credentials, and education

Applied Cybersecurity is a domain that interconnects people, processes, technologies, usage environment and vulnerabilities in a complex manner. As a cybersecurity expert at CTI Renato Archer- a research institute from Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations, author developed novel approaches to help solve practical and practice-based problems in applied cybersecurity over the last ten years. The needs of the government, industry, customers, and real-life problems in five categories: Privacy, Encryption, Web Credentials, Security Systems and Education, were the research stimuli. Based on prior outputs, this thesis presents a cohesive narrative of the novel approaches in the mentioned categories consolidating fifteen research publications. The customers and society, in general, expect that companies, universities, and the government will protect them from any cyber threats. Fifteen research papers that compose this thesis elucidate a broader context of cyber threats, errors in security software and gaps in cybersecurity education. This thesis's research points out that a large number of organisations are vulnerable to cyber threats and procedures and practices around cybersecurity are questionable. Therefore, society expects a periodic reassessment of cybersecurity systems, practices and policies. Privacy has been extensively debated in many countries due to personal implications and civil liberties with citizenship at stake. Since 2018, GDPR has been in force in the EU and has been a milestone for people and institutions' privacy. The novel work in privacy, supported by four research papers, discusses the private mode navigation in several browsers and shows how privacy is a fragile feeling. The secrets of different companies, countries and armed forces are entrusted to encryption technologies. Three research papers support the encryption element discussed in this thesis. It explores vulnerabilities in the most used encryption software. It provides data exposure scenarios showing how companies, government and universities are vulnerable and proposes best practices. Credentials are data that give someone the right to access a location or a system. They usually involve a login, a username, email, access code and a password. It is customary to have a rigorous demand for security credentials a sensitive system of information. The work on web credentials in this thesis, supported by one research paper, examines a novel experiment that permits the intruder to extract user credentials in home banking and e-commerce websites, revealing common cyber flaws and vulnerabilities. Antimalware systems are complex software engineering systems purposely designed to be safe and reliable despite numerous operational idiosyncrasies. Antimalware systems have been deployed for protecting information systems for decades. The novel work on security systems presented in the thesis, supported by five research papers, explores antimalware attacks and software engineering structure problems. Cybersecurity's primary awareness is expected through school and University education, but the academic discourse is often dissociated from practice. The discussion-based on two research papers presents a new insight into cybersecurity education and proposes an IRCS Index of Relevance in Cybersecurity (IRCS) to classify the computer science courses offered in UK Universities relevance of cybersecurity in their curricula. In a nutshell, the thesis presents a coherent and novel narrative to applied cybersecurity in five categories spanning software, systems, and education