An examination of technology and its influence on reading in struggling students and an autoethnography of a preservice teacher

Educators have never had the possibility of incorporating technology into the classroom like they do today. Although technology can have its difficulties, it can truly help the development of reading for struggling students. Reading research is providing more and more clarity about how to use technology effectively within our school communities to support and enhance the academic performance of today\u27s students (i.e. Gallagher, 2009; Isazadeh, 2004; Rice, 2011). A review of studies conducted by the CEO Forum (2001)emphasizes: technology can have the greatest impact when integrated into the curriculum to achieve clear, measurable educational objectives. This meaning that with the help of technology and all of the resources it provides, if used within the curriculum correctly teachers can reach their learning goals better. Technology can aid the growth of reading development in students with, or without, a learning disability. The beginning chapter will define students who are struggling readers and outline the effects technology will have on these students. Following, will be a present case study of a student who struggles with reading in order to frame the research in a contemporary setting. There will also be a personal experience with technology,focusing primarily on the IPAD, and a self-reflected journey within each chapter in a quest in becoming a technology savvy teacher. The next chapter will present the use IPADs within the classroom. It will then describe ways teachers can spark their students\u27 interests in reading with alternative practices. With the help of a local, technology savvy teacher, there will be a real-life circumstances that have aided struggling readers at any specific grade level

The post-breakup evolution of the western Indian high-elevation passive margin

The tectonic development of the Western Indian high-elevation passive margin is complex. At least two major rifting events (India/Madagascar and India/Seychelles) and a major hotspot (The Reunion plume) are believed to have been instrumental in the formation and development of the margin. However, the temporal and spatial extent of these major tectonic events remains poorly constrained. The Western Ghats of India has also been cited as a type example of a downwarped, elevated passive continental margin. However, published low temperature thermochronometry suggests downwearing or parallel escarpment retreat as alternative models of margin evolution. Here are present the results of a sediment mass balance study utilising new data for the offshore portion of the Western Indian margin, new onshore apatite fission track and (U-Th)/He thermochronometry for the onshore portion of the Western Indian margin, and flexural isostatic modelling. The combined methodologies used within this study are used to resolve some of the fundamental questions regarding the tectonic development and subsequent long term landscape evolution of the Western Indian margin. The Konkan-Kerala basin is a major depocentre for sediment from the onshore hinterland of Western India and as such provides a valuable record of the timing and magnitude of Cenozoic denudation along the continental margin. This study presents an analysis of sedimentation in the Konkan-Kerala basin, coupled with a mass balance study, in order to test competing conceptual models for the development of the Western Indian margin. An estimated 109,000 km3 of Cenozoic clastic sediment are present within the Konkan-Kerala basin, a volume difficult to reconcile with the denudation of a downwarped rift flank onshore, and more consistent with denudation of an elevated rift flank. There is evidence for two major pulses in sedimentation; an early phase in the Palaeocene, and a second beginning in the Pliocene. The Palaeocene increase in sedimentation can be interpreted in terms of a denudational response to the rifting between India and The Seychelles, whereas the mechanism responsible for the Pliocene pulse is more enigmatic. Mass balance analysis only provides spatially and temporally averaged estimates for denudation; consequently, this study presents new low temperature thermochronology from onshore regions to constrain the onshore pattern of denudation. Apatite fission track ages increase from c.55 Ma at the coast to <350 Ma at the escarpment with mean confined track length between 11.3 µm and 14.3 µm. Apatite (U-Th)/He ages range from 37 Ma to 123 Ma and zircon (U-Th)/He ages range from 324 Ma to 426 Ma. These data, when modelled, are consistent with accelerated denudation contemporaneous with rifting between India and The Seychelles. Inverse-modelling of the thermochronmetric data suggest denudation of at least 4.5 km at the coast decreasing to more modest amounts of denudation of between 1.5km and 2.5km further inland towards the escarpment. The pattern of denudation inferred from low temperature thermochronometry is consistent with escarpment evolution into an elevated rift flank. The flexural response of the Western Indian margin to sediment loading and denudational unloading can be modelled as a thin elastic beam overlying a fluid substratum. Modelling the isostatic response of the Western Indian lithosphere to sediment loading offshore and denudation onshore infer that flexural isostasy is an important component in the development of the Margin. However, flexural isostasy alone cannot account for the pattern of subsidence offshore or the pattern of uplift onshore and additional mechanisms must be invoked

The Environmental Implications of War: Analysis of the Spectacular and Slow Environmental Violence Inflicted through Russia’s Deliberate Targeting and Weaponization of Ukrainian Environments

The presence of war and armed conflict can cause extreme effects in the long and short term, but war as a concept holds an inherently anthropocentric bias. Among human activities causing severe changes to the environment, war’s consequences are both intensive and far reaching, and while war is incited, perpetrated, and fought specifically by humans, these conflicts come at the expense of all, including a silent victim: the greater environment in which wars take place. Today, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is the most significant confrontation in Europe in decades. Public attention and outrage, however, tends to focus on the spectacular, sudden, or catastrophic violence unfolding in Ukraine. Often forgotten are the longer-term, frequently invisible, and slowly unfolding effects of war. This thesis therefore asks: How does Russia’s deliberate weaponization of environments against Ukraine produce not just immediate, but slow violence as well? Applying Rob Nixon’s theory I argue that slow environmental violence forms a calculated part of Russian military strategy and conquest

Investigating black holes in segment routing networks: identification and detection

The new Segment Routing paradigm provides the network operator the possibility of highly in- creasing network performance exploiting advanced Traffic Engineering features and novel network programmability functions. Anyway, as any new solutions, SRv6 has a side effect: the introduction of unknown service disruption events. Network Black Holes (BHs) are logical failures that create a service disruption for a subset of traffic flows, generally due to device misconfiguration. Detection of a BH is a hard task due to its specific nature: the infrastructure is up and the disconnection affects a limited number of flows. An example of BH is the one caused by the failure of the Path MTU Discovery procedure in IPv6. The Segment Routing (SR) Architecture is an overlay infrastructure that realizes the source routing. SR exploits the connectivity service offered by the underlay IPv6 (SRv6). Thus SR inherits the problems related to BHs affecting IPv6. In SR this problem is even more stressed due to the encapsulation mechanism that is required to enforce the segment lists on packets. Even worse, existing active probing based tools to detect network BHs for IPv6 are not suitable in SR. In this paper we investigate the problem of detecting SR Black Holes in SR domains. First, we provide an experimental demonstration of the creation of an SR Black Holes. Then we show that existing tools based on active probing are not suitable to detect SR BHs. Then, a pas- sive framework named Segment Routing Black Holes Detection (SR-BHD) is introduced. SR-BHD make use of specific traffic counters available in SR capable nodes to verify the validity of the flow conservation principle on each network element. Experimental evaluation carried out through simu- lation and emulation shows the effectiveness of SR-BHD in detecting the presence of SR BHs. The proposed framework, named Segment Routing Black Holes Detection (SR-BHD) uses a passive ap- proach based on the observation of traffic counters available in SR capable nodes [9]. In particular, the main contributions of this thesis are: • an experimental demonstration of the existence of SR Black Holes and of the possible failure detecting them through an active approach; • the proposition of a passive detection system allowing a reliable identification of a black hole; • a deep performance evaluation of the proposed method through simulation. • a validation of the proposed framework over a real testbed

Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Oral History Project: Interview of Mr. Francesco “Frank” Campanile

Interviewers: Michael W. Garrambone, MORS Fellow of the Society (FS),1 and Bob Sheldon, FS

Impacts of the Recovery Movement on Treatment Adherence for Individuals with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders

The recovery movement presents a shift in the treatment of severe mental illness to a more person-centered approach. The current researcher hypothesized that the more recovery-oriented a treatment was perceived to be, the more participants would have attended appointments and adhered to their psychiatric medication regimen. The variables of empowerment, recovery assessment, attitudes toward treatment, and participatory decision-making were explored in relation to their possible correlation with increased treatment adherence. An archival data set was used. Participants included 215 adults who met criteria for a schizophrenia spectrum disorder. The participants generally rated their treatment as high on all four of the recovery measures, and treatment nonadherence was not particularly problematic for the sample explored in the current study. Participants’ reports of increased symptom severity and reports of positive quality of life were found to be associated with higher reported levels of appointment attendance. Participants’ reports of positive attitudes toward psychiatric treatment were found to be associated with reports of better quality and frequency of medication adherence. Measuring whether treatment is recovery-oriented may not be predictive of patients’ levels of service engagement. Recommendations for future research include using additional and qualitative measures to capture the full construct of service engagement, beyond measures of treatment adherence. Additionally, recovery-oriented treatment is aimed to be individualized; therefore, studies measuring the recovery-orientation of a treatment provider should include alternative treatments used to enrich the lives of the patients

Titanium versus absorbable tacks comparative study (TACS): a multicenter, non-inferiority prospective evaluation during laparoscopic repair of ventral and incisional hernia: study protocol for randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic repair of ventral and incisional hernias has gained popularity since many studies have reported encouraging results in terms of outcomee and recurrence. Choice of mesh and fixation methods are considered crucial issues in preventing recurrences and complications. Lightweight meshes are considered the first choice due to their biomechanical properties and the ability to integrate into the abdominal wall. Titanium helicoidal tacks still represent the "gold standard" for mesh fixation, even if they have been suggested to be involved in the genesis of post-operative pain and complications. Recently, absorbable tacks have been introduced, under the hypothesis that there will be no need to maintain a permanent fixation device after mesh integration. Nevertheless, there is no evidence that absorbable tacks may guarantee the same results as titanium tacks in terms of strength of fixation and recurrence rates. The primary end point of the present trial is to test the hypothesis that absorbable tacks are non-inferior to titanium tacks in laparoscopic incisional and ventral hernia repair (LIVHR) by lightweight polypropylene mesh, in terms of recurrence rates at 3-year follow-up. Surgical complications, post-operative stay, comfort and pain are secondary end points to be assessed. METHODS/DESIGN: Two hundred and twenty patients with ventral hernia will be randomized into 2 groups: Group A (110) patients will be submitted to LIVHR by lightweight polypropylene mesh fixed by titanium tacks; Group B (110) patients will be submitted to LIVHR by lightweight polypropylene mesh fixed by absorbable tacks. DISCUSSION: A few retrospective studies have reported similar results when comparing absorbable versus non-absorbable tacks in terms of intraoperative and early post-operative outcomes. These studies have the pitfalls to be retrospective evaluation of small series of patients, and the reported results still need to be validated by larger series and prospective studies. The aim of the present trial is to investigate and test the non-inferiority of absorbable versus non-absorbable tacks in terms of hernia recurrence rates, in order to assess whether the use of absorbable tacks may achieve the same results as non-absorbable tacks in mid-term and long-term settings

Studio delle caratteristiche fisico-meccaniche di miscele SMA Binder con alto contenuto di fresato

Notoriamente i conglomerati bituminosi Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) esibiscono elevate prestazioni in termini di resistenza alle deformazioni permanenti e durabilità nei confronti dei carichi indotti dal traffico veicolare, anche quando l'applicazione dei carichi stessi avviene secondo configurazioni particolarmente severe. Tuttavia tali miscele, pur rispondendo in modo adeguato al richiesto innalzamento degli standard prestazionali, non necessariamente soddisfano le esigenze di risparmio economico e di tutela ambientale che parimenti si pongono nella pratica progettuale. Per questo motivo il presente studio ha analizzato alcune caratteristiche prestazionali di miscele SMA per strati di binder confezionate in laboratorio con il 25% ed il 40% di fresato; le miscele con 40% di inerti riciclati sono state additivate con fibre prebitumate contenenti cellulosa e paraffina sintetica F-T, che consente l’abbassamento delle temperature di lavorazione del conglomerato. Un’ulteriore miscela di riferimento è stata confezionata solo con materiale di primo impiego. Dopo la fase di composizione granulometrica e di mix-design, si è proceduto alla produzione dei vari campioni effettuando un’analisi della lavorabilità mediante l’interpretazione delle curve di addensamento e di resistenza al taglio, ottenute dai dati della pressa giratoria e del dispositivo GLPA. La miscela con 40% di fresato è stata inoltre analizzata al variare della temperatura di compattazione. L’indagine è proseguita con la caratterizzazione meccanica delle miscele, eseguita secondo la procedura riportata nell’Appendice C della Norma UNI EN 12697-26 (configurazione IT-CY), determinando la resistenza a trazione indiretta e stimando la sensibilità all’acqua sottoponendo i campioni al ciclo di condizionamento come previsto dalla norma AASHTO T283

Exploring data and model poisoning attacks to deep learning-based NLP systems

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is being recently explored also to its application in supporting malicious activities and objects detection. Furthermore, NLP and Deep Learning have become targets of malicious attacks too. Very recent researches evidenced that adversarial attacks are able to affect also NLP tasks, in addition to the more popular adversarial attacks on deep learning systems for image processing tasks. More precisely, while small perturbations applied to the data set adopted for training typical NLP tasks (e.g., Part-of-Speech Tagging, Named Entity Recognition, etc..) could be easily recognized, models poisoning, performed by the means of altered data models, typically provided in the transfer learning phase to a deep neural networks (e.g., poisoning attacks by word embeddings), are harder to be detected. In this work, we preliminary explore the effectiveness of a poisoned word embeddings attack aimed at a deep neural network trained to accomplish a Named Entity Recognition (NER) task. By adopting the NER case study, we aimed to analyze the severity of such a kind of attack to accuracy in recognizing the right classes for the given entities. Finally, this study represents a preliminary step to assess the impact and the vulnerabilities of some NLP systems we adopt in our research activities, and further investigating some potential mitigation strategies, in order to make these systems more resilient to data and models poisoning attacks