Literacy: A cultural influence on functional left-right differences in the inferior parietal cortex

The current understanding of hemispheric interaction is limited. Functional hemispheric specialization is likely to depend on both genetic and environmental factors. In the present study we investigated the importance of one factor, literacy, for the functional lateralization in the inferior parietal cortex in two independent samples of literate and illiterate subjects. The results show that the illiterate group are consistently more right-lateralized than their literate controls. In contrast, the two groups showed a similar degree of left-right differences in early speech-related regions of the superior temporal cortex. These results provide evidence suggesting that a cultural factor, literacy, influences the functional hemispheric balance in reading and verbal working memory-related regions. In a third sample, we investigated grey and white matter with voxel-based morphometry. The results showed differences between literacy groups in white matter intensities related to the mid-body region of the corpus callosum and the inferior parietal and parietotemporal regions (literate > illiterate). There were no corresponding differences in the grey matter. This suggests that the influence of literacy on brain structure related to reading and verbal working memory is affecting large-scale brain connectivity more than grey matter per se

Turbulence driven particle transport in Texas Helimak

We analyze the turbulence driven particle transport in Texas Helimak (K. W. Gentle and Huang He, Plasma Sci. and Technology, 10, 284 (2008)), a toroidal plasma device with one-dimensional equilibrium with magnetic curvature and shear. Alterations on the radial electric field, through an external voltage bias, change spectral plasma characteristics inducing a dominant frequency for negative bias values and a broad band frequency spectrum for positive bias values. For negative biased plasma discharges, the transport is high where the waves propagate with phase velocities near the plasma flow velocity, an indication that the transport is strongly affected by a wave particle resonant interaction. On the other hand, for positive bias the plasma has a reversed shear flow and we observe that the transport is almost zero in the shearless radial region, an evidence of a transport barrier in this region.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figure

THE EFFECTS OF WATER RIGHTS AND IRRIGATION TECHNOLOGY ON STREAMFLOW AUGMENTATION COST IN THE SNAKE RIVER BASIN

Three species of salmon in the Snake River Basin have been listed as endangered. Recovery efforts for these fish include attempts to obtain increased quantities of water during smolt migration periods to improve habitat in the lower basin. Agriculture is the dominant user of surface flows in this region. This study investigates farmer cost of a contingent water contract requiring the agricultural release of stored irrigation supplies in low flow years during critical flow periods. Results show that contingent contracts can provide substantial quantities of water at a relatively modest cost without significantly affecting the agricultural base of the area.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

TECNOLOGIA Assistiva e Computacional: Contribuições para O atendimento Educacional Especializado e Desafios Na formação de Professores

Neste trabalho, analisamos aspectos relacionados a como a tecnologia computacional é utilizada no Atendimento Educacional Especializado (AEE) e como se deu a formação de professores para utilizar esses recursos. Para tanto, delimitamos os seguintes objetivos específicos: investigar a utilização da tecnologia assistiva (TA) computacional no âmbito das salas de recursos multifuncionais (SRM); problematizar as tensões, dificuldades e possibilidades relacionadas à TA com ênfase na tecnologia computacional para o AEE; analisar a formação do professor de educação especial para o AEE tendo como recurso a TA com ênfase na tecnologia computacional, visando à mediação dos processos de aprendizagem. O aporte teórico deste trabalho foi a abordagem histórico-cultural, tomando por referência os estudos de Vigotski e seus colaboradores. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa que fez uso de diferentes instrumentos metodológicos como, os grupos focais, o questionário online e a entrevista semiestruturada. Para desenvolvê-lo, realizamos a coleta de dados em diferentes contextos, começando pelos grupos focais da pesquisa inaugural do Oneesp, que serviram como dispositivo para esta pesquisa, seguida da aplicação de um questionário aos professores participantes da pesquisa-formação desenvolvida como um desdobramento no estado do Espírito Santo da pesquisa inaugural do Oneesp pelos integrantes do Oeeesp e da aplicação in loco de entrevistas semiestruturadas com professores de educação especial, de uma SRM do Tipo II. Foram oitenta e nove professores participantes na pesquisa do Oneesp, trinta professores na pesquisa-formação do Oeeesp e dois professores para aplicação da entrevista semiestruturada in loco, respectivamente. Esses dois professores participaram tanto da pesquisa do Oneesp como da pesquisa do Oeeesp. Analisamos esses três momentos, dos quais emergiram os apontamentos que nos proporcionaram pensar, com base nas narrativas orais e escritas dos professores: sua formação para uso da TA computacional; seu entendimento sobre sua formação para este fim; seus anseios por uma formação mais direcionada; a forma como utilizam a tecnologia na sala de recursos; seus entendimentos sobre as dificuldades e possibilidades relacionadas a TA com ênfase na tecnologia computacional para o AEE. Após essas análises, concluímos que poucos professores que atuam nas SRM tiveram uma formação que possibilitasse a aplicação das tecnologias computacionais em sua mediação pedagógica, aliando teoria e prática, com momentos de formação que privilegiassem os momentos presenciais e em laboratórios, onde possam interagir com os computadores e suas ferramentas simbólicas. Sem essa familiaridade com os recursos computacionais, os professores acabam sentindo-se inseguros para utilizá-los, deixando de potencializar, pela via desses recursos, os processos de ensinoaprendizagem do aluno com deficiência. Faz-se necessário um investimento nesse tipo de formação e, mais do que isso, que se viabilize para os professores que atuam ou que pretendem atuar nas SRM. A partir de uma formação apropriada é possível fazer com que os professores utilizem os recursos computacionais como mediadores dos processos de ensino-aprendizagem de seus alunos

Uso do clorofilômetro como indicador da necessidade de adubação nitrogenada em cobertura em arroz irrigado.

O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a influência do manejo de N baseado no uso do clorofilômetro no desempenho da cultivar BRS Tropical de arroz irrigado

Alterations in brain connectivity due to plasticity and synaptic delay

Brain plasticity refers to brain's ability to change neuronal connections, as a result of environmental stimuli, new experiences, or damage. In this work, we study the effects of the synaptic delay on both the coupling strengths and synchronisation in a neuronal network with synaptic plasticity. We build a network of Hodgkin-Huxley neurons, where the plasticity is given by the Hebbian rules. We verify that without time delay the excitatory synapses became stronger from the high frequency to low frequency neurons and the inhibitory synapses increases in the opposite way, when the delay is increased the network presents a non-trivial topology. Regarding the synchronisation, only for small values of the synaptic delay this phenomenon is observed

Mitigating Gender Bias in Machine Learning Data Sets

Artificial Intelligence has the capacity to amplify and perpetuate societal biases and presents profound ethical implications for society. Gender bias has been identified in the context of employment advertising and recruitment tools, due to their reliance on underlying language processing and recommendation algorithms. Attempts to address such issues have involved testing learned associations, integrating concepts of fairness to machine learning and performing more rigorous analysis of training data. Mitigating bias when algorithms are trained on textual data is particularly challenging given the complex way gender ideology is embedded in language. This paper proposes a framework for the identification of gender bias in training data for machine learning.The work draws upon gender theory and sociolinguistics to systematically indicate levels of bias in textual training data and associated neural word embedding models, thus highlighting pathways for both removing bias from training data and critically assessing its impact.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 5 Tables, Presented as Bias2020 workshop (as part of the ECIR Conference) - http://bias.disim.univaq.i

Stimulation of banana in vitro shoot growth by yellow-cellophane-film shading.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-07T00:55:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ID287961.pdf: 143935 bytes, checksum: 0ad1ce291f672d3af6915f37262af44a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-01-2

The effectiveness of therapies for dual language children with developmental language disorder: a systematic review of interventional studies

Purpose: This study aims to understand the effect of therapies on dual language children with developmental language disorder (DLD) on a range of bilingual language outcomes, compare with second-language-only therapy and determine whether there is any cross-linguistic transfer. Methods: A systematic review of English articles in 10 electronic databases was conducted. Screening, reviewing and appraising were performed independently by two reviewers. Quality was appraised and findings synthesised in accordance with the research questions. Results: Nine reports were identified. Five studies were found to be low in bias and therefore high in quality. Two were medium bias and two were high. Key findings were that instruction in the first language is required to support its continued acquisition and that bilingual instruction does not limit second language growth. Conclusions: There is no identified evidence to suggest that second-language-only is better than bilingual therapy for dual language children with DLD for the development of the second language. There is evidence to suggest that bilingual therapy is equally effective for second language development, and also supports development of the first language. Further work is required to understand the efficacious doses of both languages in order to develop cost effective therapies and achieve optimal outcomes