The roles of instructional practices and motivation in writing performance

The authors investigated what and how instructional practices are related to students' motivation and performance in writing. The participants were 6 teacher interns and their (N = 209) secondary-school students in Hong Kong. In a 3session instruction unit, the teacher interns taught their students how to write an expository essay. The students completed the essay and then a questionnaire to report their motivation in the task and their perception of the instruction. Results of structural equation modeling showed that students' motivation mediated the effects of instructional practices on writing performance. The authors found that when the teachers adopted more motivating teaching strategies, the students were more motivated. When the students were more motivated, they, in turn, had better performance in writing. Copyright © 2006 Heldref Publications.published_or_final_versio

Beliefs about learning and constructive strategies in text comprehension

This study investigated the roles of epistemological beliefs and constructive strategies in text comprehension among elementary-school children in Hong Kong. Specifically, three questions were addressed: (a) What characterized children s beliefs and did they vary with age, gender, and ability? (b) What strategies did children use when they learned from text and did these strategies vary with age, gender, and ability? And (c) Did beliefs contribute to text comprehension over and above the effects of age, ability, and strategy use? Eighty-two children, 40 grade-five and 42 grade-six, participated in the study. They were interviewed on their beliefs about learning and asked to think aloud to a scientific text passage. Several tasks including recall, summary, new learning, and questions were administered to assess their text comprehension. Qualitative analyses showed different beliefs ranging from reproductive to constructivist beliefs, and surface to deep text-processing strategies were identified. Quantitative analyses indicated that high achievers more often held constructivist beliefs and used deeper constructive strategies. Gender and age effects were not significant. Regression analyses indicated that constructivist beliefs contributed to text comprehension over and above the effects of age, achievement scores, and strategy use. Implications of examining children s beliefs about learning in strategy instruction are discussed.published_or_final_versio

Chinese children’s causal knowledge and text comprehension

Theme 3: Cognitive and Languagepostprin

On attack-resilient wireless sensor networks with novel recovery strategies

proceedings of the IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference, 2009, p. 1-6In a wireless sensor network (WSN), when an adversary physically captures one or more sensor nodes, all the information stored on these nodes may be exposed completely. Consequently, the adversary can use the information to attack the remaining part of the network. In this paper, we investigate the effects of different node capture attack patterns on state-ofthe-art key management schemes. We find that a compromised WSN can be made resilient to such attacks by introducing new resources, such as new nodes and new keys. Based on this observation, we propose two recovering strategies, namely, link replacement strategy and node replenishment strategy, to replace the compromised links and the functions of the compromised region, respectively. Simulation results indicate that our proposed strategies can improve the network resilience of a compromised WSN significantly with a small amount of additional resources. ©2009 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

A cost-effective digital forensic investigation model

Computers operate at discrete points in time and hence digital traces are discrete events in temporal logic that re°ect the occurrence of computer processes. From the perspective of a digital investigation, it is the duty of digital investigators or forensic examiners to retrieve digital traces so as to prove or to refute the alleged computer acts. Given the resource constraints of most organizations and the limited time-frame available for the examination, it is not always feasible or indeed necessary for forensic examiners to retrieve all the related digital traces and to conduct a thorough digital forensic analysis. It is therefore the aim of this paper to propose a model that can o®er swift and practical digital examination in a cost-effective manner.postprin

Enhancing peer acceptance of children with learning difficulties: classroom goal orientation and effects of a storytelling programme with drama techniques

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The Effect of Paternal Age on Relapse in First-Episode Schizophrenia

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Maintaining hard disk integrity with digital legal professional privilege (LPP) data

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Prevalence of workplace violence against nurses in Hong Kong

Objectives. To determine the prevalence and nature of workplace violence against nurses, and how nurses deal with such aggression; and to identify the risk factors related to violence in the hospital environment. Design. Cross-sectional questionnaire study. Setting. University teaching hospital, Hong Kong. Participants. All nursing staff in the hospital, except nurses who were unable to read Chinese or who did not have patient contact (eg those worked in administrative positions), were invited to complete a questionnaire. Main outcome measures. Demographic data of the respondents, incidence of and risk factors contributing to workplace violence. Results. A total of 420 nurses returned the completed questionnaire (response rate, 25%). Three hundred and twenty (76%; 95% confidence interval, 72-80%) nurses reported abuse of any kind - verbal abuse, 73%; bullying, 45%; physical abuse, 18%; and sexual harassment, 12%. Most (82%) nurses who experienced verbal abuse tended to confide in friends, family members, or colleagues. Some (42%) ignored the incident. Risk factors for workplace violence included: working in male wards and in certain specialties such as the Accident and Emergency Department, Community Nursing Service, and the Orthopaedics and Traumatology Department. Conclusion. Workplace violence against nurses is a significant problem in Hong Kong. Further large-scale studies should be conducted to more closely examine the problem.published_or_final_versio

Lysosomal membrane permeabilization is involved in oxidative stress-induced apoptotic cell death in LAMP2-deficient iPSCs-derived cerebral cortical neurons

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