Validity Arguments for Diagnostic Assessment Using Automated Writing Evaluation

Two examples demonstrate an argument-based approach to validation of diagnostic assessment using automated writing evaluation (AWE). Criterion ®, was developed by Educational Testing Service to analyze students’ papers grammatically, providing sentence-level error feedback. An interpretive argument was developed for its use as part of the diagnostic assessment process in undergraduate university English for academic purposes (EAP) classes. The Intelligent Academic Discourse Evaluator (IADE) was developed for use in graduate EAP university classes, where the goal was to help students improve their discipline-specific writing. The validation for each was designed to support claims about the intended purposes of the assessments. We present the interpretive argument for each and show some of the data that have been gathered as backing for the respective validity arguments, which include the range of inferences that one would make in claiming validity of the interpretations, uses, and consequences of diagnostic AWE-based assessments

Are You Being Rhetorical? A Description of Rhetorical Move Annotation Tools and Open Corpus of Sample Machine-Annotated Rhetorical Moves

Writing analytics has emerged as a sub-field of learning analytics, with applications including the provision of formative feedback to students in developing their writing capacities. Rhetorical markers in writing have become a key feature in this feedback, with a number of tools being developed across research and teaching contexts. However, there is no shared corpus of texts annotated by these tools, nor is it clear how the tool annotations compare. Thus, resources are scarce for comparing tools for both tool development and pedagogic purposes. In this paper, we conduct such a comparison and introduce a sample corpus of texts representative of the particular genres, a subset of which has been annotated using three rhetorical analysis tools (one of which has two versions). This paper aims to provide both a description of the tools and a shared dataset in order to support extensions of existing analyses and tool design in support of writing skill development. We intend the description of these tools, which share a focus on rhetorical structures, alongside the corpus, to be a preliminary step to enable further research, with regard to both tool development and tool interaction</jats:p

Towards mining sequences and dispersion of rhetorical moves in student written texts

© 2017 ACM. There is an increasing interest in the analysis of both student's writing and the temporal aspects of learning data. The analysis of higher-level learning features in writing contexts requires analyses of data that could be characterised in terms of the sequences and processes of textual features present. This paper (1) discusses the extant literature on sequential and process analyses of writing; and, based on this and our own first-hand experience on sequential analysis, (2) proposes a number of approaches to both pre-process and analyse sequences in whole-texts. We illustrate how the approaches could be applied to examples drawn from our own datasets of 'rhetorical moves' in written texts, and the potential each approach holds for providing insight into that data. Work is in progress to apply this model to provide empirical insights. Although, similar sequence or process mining techniques have not yet been applied to student writing, techniques applied to event data could readily be operationalised to undercover patterns in texts

Factores abióticos y su influencia en la eutroficacion estacional en las aguas de la laguna la encantada, año 2013

Objetivo.- Contrastar como los factores abióticos influyen en la eutrofización de las aguas de la laguna La Encantada ubicada en el distrito de Santa María, Provincia de Huaura. Material y Métodos.- Se localizaron cuatro Estaciones de muestreo, donde se registraron diferentes parámetros abióticos, durante las cuatro estaciones del año; dichos parámetros fueron la temperatura del agua, transparencia, pH, oxígeno disuelto, anhídrido carbónico, nitritos y amoniaco y se recogieron muestras de plancton utilizando redes de fito y zooplancton. Resultados.- Las aguas de la laguna tuvieron aspecto verde amarillento y poco transparentes; existió una relación directa entre la temperatura del agua y tenores de oxígeno existentes; la relación entre los compuestos de nitrógeno y amoniaco y la demanda de oxígeno en el medio, el pH se encuentró dentro del estándar nacional, categoría 4 (lagos y lagunas); el análisis biológico del agua arrojó abundancia de zooplancton representado en mayor porcentaje por el género Copepodo sp. Conclusiones: La laguna como ecosistema esta camino a la eutrofización, las causas son las excretas y excedentes de la alimentación suplementada no captadas por los peces en cultivo y que se depositan en el fondo del cuerpo de agua, otra causa lo constituyen las aguas de regadío desde los sembríos y que ingresan a la laguna cargadas de iones nitrógeno , fósforo y otros polutos; otro factor contaminante es de tipo antropogénico causada por esparcimiento en la laguna, como por animales que viven en las inmediaciones o que visitan la zon

Synthesis of plasmodione metabolites and 13C-enriched plasmodione as chemical tools for drug metabolism investigation

Malaria is a tropical parasitic disease threatening populations in tropical and sub-tropical areas. Resistance to antimalarial drugs has spread all over the world in the past 50 years, thus new drugs are urgently needed. Plasmodione (benzylmenadione series) has been identified as a potent antimalarial early lead drug, acting through a redox bioactivation on asexual and young sexual blood stages. To investigate its metabolism, a series of plasmodione-based tools, including a fully 13C-labelled lead drug and putative metabolites, have been designed and synthesized for drug metabolism investigation. Furthermore, with the help of UHPLC-MS/MS, two of the drug metabolites have been identified from urine of drug-treated mice

Efecto de la aireación en la producción de compuestos volátiles por cultivo mixto de Brettanomyces intermedius y Saccharomyces cerevisiae durante la fermentación de sidra

The influence of aeration on the fermentative activity of Brettanomyces intermedius RIVE 2-2-2 was studied in a mixed culture with Saccharomyces cerevisiae RIVE 15-1-416 in order to evaluate the production of chemical compounds of sensory importance. To achieve this, the strains were cultured in Erlenmeyer flasks containing sterilized and aroma-removed apple juice. The chemical compounds produced during fermentation under shaking (200 min-1) or static cultivation were determined by gas and liquid chromatography. The results showed that the stirring during cultivation diminishes the production of glycerol (0.53±0.1 g/L) and acetic acid (94.0±10.0 mg/L) and, on the other hand, increases the production of higher alcohols (1.009 g/L) and ethyl acetate (122.0±5.0 mg/L). Additional batch cultivations carried out in a bioreactor with an air flow of 25 l/h reported a growth rate (µ) and a biomass yield (Yx/s) of 0.05 h-1 and 0.24 (g. dry biomass/g. sugar) respectively. At the end of cultivation, no presence of acetic acid was observed and furthermore, concentrations of ethanol and glycerol reached values of 0.34±0.1 g/L and 1.3±0.05 g/L respectively. The best results in terms of organoleptic quality of the cider regarding to taste and smell were obtained when fermented under static cultivation conditions. The regulation of aeration during fermentation is a useful tool to control the fermentative activity of these two strains in a mixed culture.Se estudió el efecto de la aireación en la actividad fermentativa de Brettanomyces intermedius RIVE 2-2-2 en cultivo mixto con Saccharomyces cerevisiae RIVE 15-1-416 con el objetivo de evaluar la producción de compuestos químicos de importancia sensorial. Para ello se cultivaron ambas cepas en matraces Erlenmeyer conteniendo jugo de manzana estéril sin aroma. Los compuestos químicos producidos durante la fermentación en cultivo agitado (200 min-1) o estático (sin agitación) fueron determinados por cromatografía gaseosa y líquida. Los resultados mostraron que la agitación durante el cultivo, disminuye la producción de glicerol (0.53±0.1 g/L) y ácido acético (94.0±10.0 mg/L) e incrementa la producción de alcoholes superiores (1.009 g/L) y etil acetato (122.0±5.0 mg/L). Cultivos por lote realizados adicionalmente en biorreactor con un flujo de aire de 25 l/h reportaron una tasa de crecimiento (µ) y rendimiento de biomasa (Yx/s) de 0.05 h-1 y 0.24 (g biomasa seca/g azúcar) respectivamente. Al término del cultivo, no se observó presencia de ácido acético y además las concentraciones de etanol y glicerol alcanzaron valores de 0.34±0.1 g/L y 1.3±0.05 g/L respectivamente. Los mejores resultados en términos de calidad organoléptica de la sidra en lo referente al sabor y olor se obtuvieron en la fermentación en cultivo estático. El control de la aireación es una herramienta útil para controlar la actividad fermentativa de estas dos cepas en cultivo mixto