Reliability and validity of a sociometric picture rating scale for preschoolers.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the degree to which preschool children are able to provide reliable and valid sociometric data pertaining to their classroom peers. The applicability of a sociometric picture rating scale was assessed by examining its concurrent validity using the Kohn Social Competence Scale, a teacher rating instrument designed to provide an indication of the classroom social behavior of preschool children based on teacher observation. Reliability of the sociometric rating scale was investigated through a test-retest procedure over a six-week interval. Subject were thirty-two 3 and 4 year olds (16 male; 16 female) attending public school preschool programs in a rural community in Western Massachusetts. The data obtained included two sets of sociometric scores for each subject (test, retest) as well as scores from the rating scales teachers completed for each subject. Analysis of the data involved investigation of the strength of association between teacher rating scale scores and sociometric scores, as well as stability of the sociometric scores over the six-week test-retest interval. Additionally, analyses were undertaken to determine if there were statistically significant differences in the sociometric scores due to a subject\u27s age, gender, prior socialization experiences, or Special Education status. Results indicated fairly good reliability of the sociometric picture rating scale (correlation between the test and retest sets of scores =.71, p $\u3c$.01). Significant relationships were also found between the sociometric scores and those obtained from the teacher rating scale. Therefore, concurrent validity of the sociometric measure was demonstrated. The only differences of statistical significance found in the sociometric scores were those related to a subject\u27s gender. In this study, females were more likely to receive high sociometric ratings from peers and males were more likely to receive low ratings. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the picture rating scale technique represents a valid and reliable sociometric measure for preschoolers. It was suggested that sociometrics always be used in conjunction with other measures of social functioning, namely direct observations of behavior or teacher rating scales

The Implementation of Best Practices of International Projects as the Way of Enhancement of Higher and Business Education in Belarus

The development of education around the world is facilitated by the exchange of experience and interaction between education providers from different countries and regions. International programs and projects have become one of the drivers to improve the quality of education, the development of information and communication educational technologies, as well as the dissemination of innovative educational programs at Belarusian universities. Among them, there are the projects of the European Union ERASMUS+ CBHE program, as well as projects and exchange programs of the United States. In this publication, the authors share the experience of implementation of the best practices at universities in the European Education Area (Sweden, Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain, Latvia, Turkey) and the results of the United States experience application, which enabled the improvement of the educational process at the Sukhoi State Technical University of Gomel (Belarus). Also, it is shown how the implementation of the Detroit experience gained at the international internship contributed to the development of ties between Belarusian communities, including formation of inclusive business education and the development of skills for employment and social entrepreneurship of people in Belarus

Relationship between vegetation of the levee neo-ecosystems and environmental heterogeneity in the Lower Delta of the Paraná River, Argentina

The relationship between environmental heterogeneity and the vegetation of the levee neo-ecosystems in the Delta of the Paraná River was studied. These habitat types were considered plant communities of recent origin related to local productive activities. Vegetation coverage was evaluated in 97 plots of three different environmental units (A, B and C), using classification analysis, indirect and direct ordinations. The differential vegetation in different environmental units could be related to a greater fluvial influence of the Paraná River on unit A and a greater tidal influence of the de la Plata River on units B and C. The Lower Delta hydrological regimes only affect a few of edaphic variables particularly pH, organic matter percentage and clay content. To understand the spatial pattern of neo-ecosystems vegetation, it is also necessary to consider the invasion of alien species that has been taking place for over 50 years.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Composition, structure and successional trend of an Aliso de río (Tessaria integrifolia) forest in the Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve, Buenos Aires, Argentinaa

Se analizaron atributos ecológicos de un bosque conformado por la especie pionera aliso derío (Tessaria integrifolia), en la Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur de la ciudad de Buenos Aires. Para ello setuvieron en cuenta los conceptos de sucesión ecológica, neoecosistema y banco de semillas. La hipótesisplanteada fue que, teniendo en cuenta la eliminación casi total de bosques nativos y el proceso invasivode especies exóticas en la región, era de esperar una dominancia de especies arbóreas exóticas en laestructura del bosque, que la misma se mantendría en las próximas generaciones, que dicho proceso seevidenciaría también a nivel del banco de semillas, y que se confirmaría la conformación de un nuevotipo de bosque o neoecosistema. Se realizaron diez censos de vegetación espaciados regularmente a lolargo de todo el perímetro del bosque. En los mismos se estimó la cobertura y se midieron densidadesde especies arbóreas clasificadas según cinco clases etarias. Por otro lado, se estudió el banco de semillasdel bosque mediante la técnica de conteo directo de semillas.Los resultados permitieron corroborar las hipótesis planteadas. El análisis de las distintas característicasfisonómico - estructurales y del papel de las especies exóticas del bosque demostró que el mismo puedetratarse en la actualidad como un neoecosistema y denominarse bosque mixto de Tessaria y Ligustrumen función de sus características principales: un estrato superior (8 a 10 m) dominado por Tessariaintegrifolia, y uno intermedio (3 a 4 m) con predominio de Ligustrum sinense. El estudio de patronesde estructura poblacional y de banco de semillas permitió estimar la tendencia sucesional del bosquehallándose que la similitud entre las especies arbóreas del banco de semillas y la vegetación en pie fuealta, que la actual estructura se mantendría en un futuro próximo, pero que corresponde a un estadosucesional temprano a intemedio.Ecological attributes of a forest formed by the pioneer species ‘aliso de río’ (Tessaria integrifolia) was analyzed in the Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve, Buenos Aires city. For this, concepts of ecological succession, neo-ecosystems and seed bank were taken into account. The hypothesis was that, given the almost total elimination of native forests and the invasive process of alien species in the region, was to be expected a dominance of exotic tree species in the forest structure, that this dominance would continue in the coming generations, that this process will also be evidence at the seed bank level, and that the conformation of a new type of forest or neo-ecosystem would be confirmed. Ten vegetation samples, evenly spaced along the entire perimeter of the forest, were made. In the same, coverage was estimated and tree species densities were measured according to five age classes. On the other hand, the forest seed bank was studied by the seeds direct counting technique. The results allowed to confirm the hypotheses. The analysis of different physiognomical and structural features, and the role of exotic species, showed that the forest can be treated today as a neo-ecosystem and can be classified as Tessaria and Ligustrum mixed forest according to its main features: an upper stratum (8 10 m) dominated by Tessaria integrifolia, and one intermediate (3-4 m) with predominance of Ligustrum sinense. The study of patterns of population structure and seed bank allowed to estimate the successional trend, being found that the similarity between forest tree species of the seed bank and of the standing vegetation was high, that the current structure would be maintained in the near future, but which it corresponds to an early to intermediate successional stage.Fil: Sirolli, Horacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Kalesnik, Fabio Alberto. Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur; Argentin

Калориметрический способ определения температуры активной области мощных светодиодов

Предложен калориметрический способ определения температуры активной области мощных светодиодов.A calorimetric method for determining the temperature of the active region of high-power LEDs is proposed

Land Cover Map of the Fluvial/Littoral Parana River Complex (FLPRC) Using Geomatic Tools

El Complejo Fluvio/Litoral del río Paraná (CFLRP) es un humedal que posee características de sistemas ambientales complejos y heterogéneos, las cuales están dadas por la acción conjunta de procesos hidrológicos, geomorfológicos, biológicos y de origen antrópico asociados con el uso del suelo y la gestión del territorio. En el caso de los procesos de origen antrópico, se ha observado que las principales actividades económicas en el CFLRP se han centrado en los últimos a˜nos en la ganadería de isla y la forestación de salicáceas, si bien se pueden nombrar otras actividades como la urbanización, la pesca, la apicultura, el transporte fluvial, etc. Estas actividades han amenazado al CFLRP, ante lo cual se han realizado algunos esfuerzos de conservación que han conducido a la declaración de una parte de la región como área natural protegida. En este escenario, la cartografía de la cobertura y especialmente las cubiertas vegetales son un insumo básico para los planes de gestión territorial. Los datos de teledetección constituyen una base importante para la cartografía y seguimiento de cubiertas y permiten lograr mapas precisos y a escalas adecuadas. Teniendo lo anterior en cuenta, el presente trabajo se propuso generar un mapa de cobertura de suelo para el CFLRP mediante el uso de datos del sensor Landsat 8 OLI que sirva como propuesta metodológica para la generación de cartografía que puedan emplear los responsables de la gestión del territorio. Se descargó la escena 227-82 del servidor EarthExplorer (USGS, NASA, 2013). Como ventana temporal se utilizaron fechas representativas contrastantes en la región: primavera (período de aguas bajas) y oto˜no (período de aguas altas). De esta forma se incluyó la variabilidad temporal propia del área de estudio. Con el software e-Cognition (Trimble, 2000) se segmentó un compuesto multitemporal de 12 bandas (primavera y oto˜no). Se usaron como criterios un factor de escala de 100, de color de 0.9 y de forma de 0.1, a partir de lo cual se obtuvo un vectorial de polígonos de clases. Por otra parte, se realizó una clasificación no supervisada con el clasificador KMEAN (Técnica de Análisis de Auto-Organización Iterativa de Datos), empleando como parámetros 60 clases y 10 iteraciones. El mapa raster resultante se integró al vectorial producto de la segmentación a fin de obtener estadísticas (moda y diversidad) sobre el comportamiento de los píxeles en cada polígono. Finalmente, en la interpretación de los resultados, se le asignó la clase al polígono a partir de la moda e información de terreno. Se discriminaron 11 clases de cobertura, algunas de las cuales se asociaron con las características fisonómicas de la vegetación (fisonomías arbóreas, arbustivas, herbáceas de gran porte y herbáceas de baja altura). Otras de las clases de cobertura identificadas fueron agua, suelo, áreas urbanas, entre otras.Fluvio/Littoral Parana River complex (FLPRC) is a major wetland that has the characteristics of complex and heterogeneous environmental systems, which are given by the joint action of hydrological, geomorphological, biological and anthropogenic processes associated to land use practices. In the case of anthropogenic processes, it has been observed that the main economic activities have been focused, in recent years, on livestock farming and Salicaceae forestation, and other activities such as fishing, beekeeping, river transport, and recently urbanization. These activities have threatened the FLPRC, where some conservation efforts have been done, and led to the creation of some protected areas. In this context, land cover cartography is a basic input for land management plans. Remote sensing data are an important base for mapping and monitoring of land cover and allow achieving accurate maps. With this in mind, the present work was proposed to generate a map of land cover for CFLRP by using data from Landsat 8 OLI sensor, which serve as methodological proposal for generating cartography that can be used by those responsible of land management. 227-82 scene images of EarthExplorer server (USGS, NASA, 2013) were downloaded. Two temporal windows representing contrasting dates were used: spring (low water period) and autumn (high water period). Thus, the temporal variability of the study area was included. With e-Cognition software (Trimble, 2000), a segmentation of a multi-temporal product of 12 bands (spring and fall) was done. The result was a feature class. Furthermore, an unsupervised classification with KMEAN classifier using as parameters 60 classes and 10 iterations was performed. The resulting raster map was joined to the segmentation product to obtain statistics on the behavior of the pixels in each feature class. Finally, in the interpretation of the results, a class assignment was made to the feature class based on mode and field data. 11 land cover classes were discriminated, some of which were associated with the physiognomic characteristics of the vegetation (tree, shrubs, grass physiognomies). Other land cover classes were water, land, urban areas, among others.Fil: Aceñolaza, Pablo Gilberto. Provincia de Entre Ríos. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción. Universidad Autónoma de Entre Ríos. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción; ArgentinaFil: Zamboni, Lisandra Pamela. Universidad Autónoma de Entre Rí­os. Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología. Centro Regional de Geomática; ArgentinaFil: Tentor, Fernando Raul. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Kalesnik, Fabio Alberto. Universidad Nacional de Luján; ArgentinaFil: Rodriguez, Estela Elizabeth. Provincia de Entre Ríos. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción. Universidad Autónoma de Entre Ríos. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción; ArgentinaFil: Sione, Walter Fabian. No especifica;Fil: Serafini, Maria Cristina. No especifica

Каталитические свойства и устойчивость порошковых сплавов никель–олово в процессе электрохимического выделения водорода из раствора щелочи

Ni–Sn powder alloys with a nickel content from 24.4 to 78.5 at.% and from 30.6 to 55.1 at.%, respectively, were synthesized chemically and electrochemically for the use as catalysts for the hydrogen electrochemical reduction (HER) in alkali solution. It was established that the catalytically active surface area of chemically synthesized powders was larger in comparison with electrochemically obtained ones. Ni24.4Sn75.6 powder alloy has the largest surface area. It was found that catalytic properties of chemically synthesized powders increased in the row Ni24.4Sn75.6 < Ni78.5Sn21.5 < Ni. Electrochem ically obtained alloys are inefficient as HER catalysts. It was found that Ni24.4Sn75.6 alloy is characterized by the greater re tention of catalytically active surface area during exploitation in alkali solution in comparison with Ni and Ni78.5Sn21.5 alloy. Химически и электрохимически синтезированы порошковые сплавы Ni–Sn с содержанием никеля соответственно от 24,4 до 78,5 ат.% и от 30,6 до 55,1 ат.% для применения в качестве катализаторов электрохимического восстановления водорода в растворе щелочи. Установлено, что каталитически активная площадь поверхности химически синтезированных порошков больше в сравнении с электрохимически полученными, максимальной площадью характеризуется сплав Ni24,4Sn75,6. Выявлено, что для химически синтезированных порошков каталитические свойства, оцененные по значению потенциала, при котором достигается плотность тока 10 мА/см2, возрастают в ряду Ni24,4Sn75,6 < Ni78,5Sn21,5 < Ni; электрохимически полученные сплавы являются неэффективными катализаторами. Установлено, что сплав Ni24,4Sn75,6 характеризуется большей сохранностью каталитически активной площади поверхности в процессе эксплуатации в сравнении с никелем и сплавом Ni78,5Sn21,5

Scientific, institutional and personal rivalries among Soviet geographers in the late Stalin era

Scientific, institutional and personal rivalries between three key centres of geographical research and scholarship (the Academy of Sciences Institute of Geography and the Faculties of Geography at Moscow and Leningrad State Universities) are surveyed for the period from 1945 to the early 1950s. It is argued that the debates and rivalries between members of the three institutions appear to have been motivated by a variety of scientific, ideological, institutional and personal factors, but that genuine scientific disagreements were at least as important as political and ideological factors in influencing the course of the debates and in determining their final outcome