The effects of a text structure intervention on struggling third grade readers\u27 comprehension of expository text

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of an intervention focused on expository text structure instruction, specifically compare-contrast and cause-effect, on the comprehension of struggling third grade readers within the science curriculum. To increase students\u27 comprehension, 10 third grade students participated in this eight week study. During the study, the 10 participants met with the researcher thirty minutes a day, four times a week for eight weeks. The focus during this intervention concentrated on explicit text structure instruction. Students learned about compare-contrast and cause-effect text structure by identifying signal words in passages and completing text structure graphic organizers and text frame paragraphs. The results suggested that overall the participants\u27 demonstrated growth in retelling of key ideas and comprehension of expository text

Methods for Monitoring Process Control and Capability in the Presence of Autocorrelation

When standard control charts are applied to a process whose measurements of quality exhibit autocorrelation, the performance of those charts can be considerably different than that expected when no autocorrelation is present. To model this performance, the existing definitions of assignable and chance causes of variation are extended to account for the variation induced by the autocorrelation structure. The application of statistical thinking toward continuous process improvement using the proposed taxonomy is discussed. A method to select control limits which yield a specified average run length in the absence of assignable causes of variation and which is suitable for use on processes whose behavior can be modelled as an ARMA(1,1) process is developed. The current paradigm for process improvement is centered around monitoring the state of statistical control. A new paradigm, based upon monitoring process capability, is proposed. The time varying aspects of capability are highlighted. A capability monitoring system for stationary ARMA(1,1) processes is developed and compared to other standard methods. The benefits of additional knowledge are demonstrated by simulating the response of capability monitoring systerns tailored to independent normal and mixed ARMA(1,1) models to shifts in the mean and variance

Spin-orbit and tensor mean-field effects on spin-orbit splitting including self-consistent core polarizations

A new strategy of fitting the coupling constants of the nuclear energy density functional is proposed, which shifts attention from ground-state bulk to single-particle properties. The latter are analyzed in terms of the bare single-particle energies and mass, shape, and spin core-polarization effects. Fit of the isoscalar spin-orbit and both isoscalar and isovector tensor coupling constants directly to the f5/2-f7/2 spin-orbit splittings in 40Ca, 56Ni, and 48Ca is proposed as a practical realization of this new programme. It is shown that this fit requires drastic changes in the isoscalar spin-orbit strength and the tensor coupling constants as compared to the commonly accepted values but it considerably and systematically improves basic single-particle properties including spin-orbit splittings and magic-gap energies. Impact of these changes on nuclear binding energies is also discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Physical Review

High-spin intruder states in the fp shell nuclei and isoscalar proton-neutron correlations

We perform a systematic shell-model and mean-field study of fully-aligned, high-spin f_{7/2}^{n} seniority isomers and d_{3/2}^{-1} f_{7/2}^{n+1} intruder states in the A~44 nuclei from the lower-fp shell. The shell-model calculations are performed in the full sdfp configuration space allowing 1p-1h cross-shell excitations. The self-consistent mean-field calculations are based on the Hartree-Fock approach with the Skyrme energy density functional that reproduces empirical Landau parameters. While there is a nice agreement between experimental and theoretical relative energies of fully-aligned states in N>Z nuclei, this is no longer the case for the N=Z systems. The remaining deviation from the data is attributed to the isoscalar proton-neutron correlations. It is also demonstrated that the Coulomb corrections at high spins noticeably depend on the choice of the energy density functional.Comment: 4 pages. submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Badger: Complexity Analysis with Fuzzing and Symbolic Execution

Hybrid testing approaches that involve fuzz testing and symbolic execution have shown promising results in achieving high code coverage, uncovering subtle errors and vulnerabilities in a variety of software applications. In this paper we describe Badger - a new hybrid approach for complexity analysis, with the goal of discovering vulnerabilities which occur when the worst-case time or space complexity of an application is significantly higher than the average case. Badger uses fuzz testing to generate a diverse set of inputs that aim to increase not only coverage but also a resource-related cost associated with each path. Since fuzzing may fail to execute deep program paths due to its limited knowledge about the conditions that influence these paths, we complement the analysis with a symbolic execution, which is also customized to search for paths that increase the resource-related cost. Symbolic execution is particularly good at generating inputs that satisfy various program conditions but by itself suffers from path explosion. Therefore, Badger uses fuzzing and symbolic execution in tandem, to leverage their benefits and overcome their weaknesses. We implemented our approach for the analysis of Java programs, based on Kelinci and Symbolic PathFinder. We evaluated Badger on Java applications, showing that our approach is significantly faster in generating worst-case executions compared to fuzzing or symbolic execution on their own

The effect of argon ion bombardment on the adhesion of gold and aluminum

Ion bombardment was studied as an effective means of cleaning metal surfaces and removing contaminant layers. This cleaning allowed aluminmum couples and gold couples to form bonds in thirty to sixty minutes without raising the temperature of the adhesion zone about 200 C In comparison tests conducted without ion bombardment cleaning, temperatures of 350 C, contact forces of 150 grams and exposure times of 172 hours were necessary to achieve a similar bond, in vacuum

Finite size scaling analysis of intermittency moments in the two dimensional Ising model

Finite size scaling is shown to work very well for the block variables used in intermittency studies on a 2-d Ising lattice. The intermittency exponents so derived exhibit the expected relations to the magnetic critical exponent of the model. Email contact: [email protected]: Saclay-T93/063 Email: [email protected]

Hardware Certification for Real-time Safety-critical Systems: State of the Art

This paper discusses issues related to the RTCA document DO-254 Design Assurance Guidance for Airborne Electronic Hardware and its consequences for hardware certification. In particular, problems related to circuits’ compliance with DO-254 in avionics and other industries are considered. Extensive literature review of the subject is given, including current views on and experiences of chip manufacturers and EDA industry with qualification of hardware design tools, including formal approaches to hardware verification. Some results of the authors’ own study on tool qualification are presented

An absorption spectrum amplifier for determining gas composition

Compositions of gas samples are frequently studied by laser absorption spectroscopy. Sensitivity is improved by two orders of magnitude when absorption cell is placed inside an organic-dye laser cavity