International Research Symposium on Talent Education, Part 5: The challenges of offering group class

This is the fifth installment in a series of articles reporting on a large‐scale demographic survey of North American Suzuki teachers. The last article in this series examined some of the perceived benefits of group class. In this article, we will review participants’ perceptions of the challenges of group class. Participating teachers were asked to respond to the open‐ended question, "What is the greatest challenge of group class?" Their responses were coded and analyzed for important themes

International Research Symposium on Talent Education, Part 6: Parent education in Suzuki studios

This is the sixth installment in a series of articles reporting on a large‐scale demographic survey of North American Suzuki teachers. The previous article in this series examined some of the perceived challenges of group class. In this article, we will review teachers' descriptions of the parent education offerings within their studios. Teachers were asked to provide information about the structure, content, and intensity of their parent education programs. The survey questions included both initial education for new families entering their studios, as well as ongoing education for returning families

International Research Symposium on Talent Education, Part 4: The joys and benefits of Suzuki group class

This is the fourth article in a series reporting the findings of a large-scale demographic study of Suzuki teachers in Canada and the United States. Previous articles introduced the research, reporting on basic demographic statistics, teacher training, studio size, and structure of group classes. In this article we report on the results of an open-ended response question regarding the benefits of student participation in Suzuki group class

ZONING DESIGN FOR HAND­WRITTEN NUMERAL RECOGNITION

Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens, Hitachi, IAPR, NICI, IUF In the field of Optical Character Recognition (OCR), zoning is used to extract topological information from patterns. In this paper zoning is considered as the result of an optimisation problem and a new technique is presented for automatic zoning. More precisely, local analysis of feature distribution based on Shannon's entropy estimation is performed to determine "core" zones of patterns. An iterative region­growing procedure is applied on the "core" zones to determine the final zoning

A PERTURBATION­BASED APPROACH FOR MULTI­CLASSIFIER SYSTEM DESIGN

Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens, Hitachi, IAPR, NICI, IUF This paper presents a perturbation­based approach useful to select the best combination method for a multi­classifier system. The basic idea is to simulate small variations in the performance of the set of classifiers and to evaluate to what extent they influence the performance of the combined classifier. In the experimental phase, the Behavioural Knowledge Space and the Dempster­Shafer combination methods have been considered. The experimental results, carried out in the field of hand­written numeral recognition, demonstrate the effectiveness of the new approach

Why don't more boys want to become teachers? The effect of a gendered profession on students’ career expectations

Gender differences in teaching career expectations were explored among 15-year-old students in 49 countries participating in the 2015 cycle of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Results revealed that boys were generally less likely than girls to expect to work as teachers, but the magnitude of the gender gap varied across countries. Boys were more likely to expect to work as teachers in countries with a greater representation of male teachers and in countries with higher teacher salaries. In countries with more egalitarian gender beliefs (i.e., beliefs and attitudes toward gender equality), both boys and girls were less likely to expect teaching careers, but this negative association was stronger for boys than for girls

Diagnostic value of transvaginal 'tenderness-guided' ultrasonography for the prediction of location of deep endometriosis

BACKGROUND: The aim was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of transvaginal tenderness-guided ultrasonography in the identification of location of deep endometriosis. METHODS: Consecutive women scheduled for surgery in our Department for clinically suspected endometriosis were included in this prospective study. All women underwent modified transvaginal ultrasonography using a stand-off in the week before surgery, which also evaluated the painful sites evocated by a gentle pressure of the probe. Five locations of deep endometriosis were considered: vaginal walls, rectovaginal septum, rectosigmoid involvement, uterosacral ligaments and anterior compartment (anterior pouch and/or bladder). Sensitivity, specificity and likelihood ratios (LR1/2) were calculated with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: We included 88 women; surgery associated with histopathological evaluation revealed deep endometriosis in different pelvic locations in 72 patients. With respect to the vaginal walls, transvaginal ultrasonography had a sensitivity of 91% (95% CI, 79 –97%), specificity of 89% (95% CI, 81–93%), an LR1 of 8.2 and an LR2 of 0.09. For endometriosis of rectovaginal septum, transvaginal ultrasonography had a sensitivity of 74% (95% CI, 64–80%), specificity of 88% (95% CI, 4–8%), an LR1 of 6.2 and an LR2 of 0.3. For other locations, the sensitivity was lower (ranging from 67% to 33%) with a comparable specificity. CONCLUSIONS: This technique shows a high specificity and sensitivity in the detection of vaginal and rectovaginal endometriosis. Good specificity associated with a lower sensitivity was obtained in the diagnosis of deep endometriosis of uterosacral ligaments, rectosigmoid involvement or anterior deep endometriosis