Assessment and Evaluation for Learners in Multilingual Societies at Technical Civil Engineering Ekasakti University

This analysis examines some of the problems that are faced by teachers and students in the teaching and learning of English for special purposes (ESP) in multilingual nations. A survey recently found that although 98 percent knew that English was the sole language of instruction at the institution, only 49 percent expected to study English as a subject in any form as part of their curriculum. Many students looked upon English as a subject of study necessary only to gain entrance into the university, and had little motivation to study it past the secondary level. Other problems faced by teachers and students include the multilingual background of the learners, lack of cooperation from teachers of other subjects, the need to import language materials, poor levels of language teacher training, and large class sizes. An alternative approach to ESP is suggested, one in which the learner's native language and other languages in the learner's environment play a major role in tertiary education. The importation of culturally and educationally irrelevant materials is noted along with the urgent need for teacher training reform

How the Black Swan damages the harvest: Extreme weather events and the fragility of agriculture in development countries

Climate change constitutes a rising challenge to the agricultural base of developing countries. Most of the literature has focused on the impact of changes in the means of weather variables on mean changes in production and has found very little impact of weather upon agricultural production. Instead, we focus on the relationship between extreme events in weather and extreme losses in crop production. Indeed, extreme events are of the greatest interest for scholars and policy makers only when they carry extraordinary negative effects. We build on this idea and for the first time, we adopt a conditional dependence model for multivariate extreme values to understand the impact of extreme weather on agricultural production. Specifically, we look at the probability that an extreme event drastically reduces the harvest of any of the major crops. This analysis, which is run on data for six different crops and four different weather variables in a vast array of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, shows that extremes in weather and yield losses of major staples are associated events. We find a high heterogeneity across both countries and crops and we are able to predict per country and per crop the risk of a yield reduction above 90% when extreme events occur. As policy implication, we can thus assess which major crop in each country is less resilient to climate shocks

Patient Opinions on the Helpfulness of External Rehabilitative Activities in Residential Psychiatric Care: A Pilot Study

INTRODUCTION: This study explores the patient opinions about the helpfulness of the External Rehabilitative Activities (ERA) delivered in two residential facilities for psychiatric rehabilitation. METHODS: We administered a Questionnaire developed to assess general helpfulness, helpfulness of specific therapeutic processes and satisfaction with the ERA to a sample of 46 psychiatric patients participating in at least three external activities. RESULTS: The External Rehabilitative Activities, tested by the ERA-Questionnaire, were considered helpful or very helpful by most of the patients. The therapeutic process with the highest score was "relaxation", followed by "general helpfulness", "socialization", "knowledge of social context", "community integration". The least-valued process was "autonomy". CONCLUSION: This pilot study has shown that psychiatric patients consider ERA helpful and rate more helpful the specific therapeutic processes, such as relaxation and socialization, that assure symptomatic relief and interaction with the outside world

An Analysis of Precipitation Extremes in the Inner Mongolian Plateau: Spatial-Temporal Patterns, Causes, and Implications

To improve how extreme events and climate variations are managed, there is a need to foster a deeper understanding of their interconnections. Consistent with this objective, this paper describes how precipitation extremes change both temporally and spatially in the Inner Mongolian Plateau (IMP), China and explains their causal factors. The paper refers to data collected from 43 meteorological stations in IMP and describes how precipitation extremes formed and how they influence agriculture. Data gathered and presented in this paper may be useful in understanding the extent to which the IMP is being influenced by global environmental change. This study reveals that the eleven precipitation extremes indices, except the number of precipitation days with over 0.5 mm (R0.5), number of heavy precipitation days (R10), and total precipitation in wet days (PRCPTOT), decreased in the IMP between 1959 and 2014, and most of them were non-significant in temporal. But the dry index has a larger magnitude decreasing trend than that of the wet indices, which can indicate that the dry situation was alleviated in IMP during the study interval. This study also indicated that precipitation extremes have strong relationships with elevation, latitude, and longitude. Atmospheric circulation and topography may be further primary reasons which result in the spatial variation characteristics in precipitation extremes over the IMP. Decreases in precipitation extremes, together with human activities such as livestock improvement and ecological restoration programs, has a positive effect in gross output value of agriculture and animal husbandry in the IMP. The results contribute to a deeper insight on the possible impacts of precipitation extremes and support the development of appropriate adaptation and mitigation strategies to cope with climate extremes. This paper further proposes science-based policies for grassland protection, agriculture, and animal husbandry on the national or regional and herdsman scales

Exploration of experiences in therapeutic groups for patients with severe mental illness: development of the Ferrara group experiences scale (FE-GES)

The study has been supported by the University of Ferrara (University Funds for Scientific Research 2008–2009

Il disco di Festo e la direzione di scrittura

La presente ricerca è stata in grado di mostrare come la sequenza geroglifica del disco di Festo si svolga in direzione lineare lungo il percorso delle spirali, partendo dal centro verso la periferia, cioè da sinistra verso destra, per terminare infine con la linea contrassegnata da cinque punti dello stilo. L'attuale vulgata sulla direzione di scrittura da destra a sinistra, dall'esterno verso il centro del disco, desunta da 2 o 5 sovrapposizioni, è definitivamente superata da due particolari mai considerati fino ad ora: 1) le deformazioni di alcuni segni, causate dalla punzonatura del carattere alla loro destra; 2) il ritocco-graffio della linea di intersezione tra A XIV e A XIII, con la serie di trattini paralleli interrotti dalla svasatura dei cinque punti, posti sulla presunta linea di apertura, che l'ingrandimento fotografico rivela invece essere la linea di chiusura del testo.This research was able to demonstrate how the hieroglyphic sequence of the Phaistos disc unfolds in a linear direction along the path of the spirals, starting from the centre towards the periphery, that is, from left to right; to end finally with the line marked with five stylus dots. The current vulgate on the right-to-left writing direction, from the outside towards the centre of the disc, deduced from 2 or 5 overlapping, is definitively overcome by two details never considered up to now: 1) the deformations of some signs, caused by the punching of the sign on their right; 2) the retouching-scratch of the intersection line between A XIV and A XIII, with the series of parallel dashes interrupted by the countersinking of the five dots, placed on the presumed opening line, which the photographic enlargement reveals instead to be the text closing line