VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Phonological awareness combined with explicit alphabetic coding instruction in kindergarten, classroom observations and evaluation

Recent research has consistently demonstrated that through explicit teaching, beginning readers can develop the abilities (i.e., alphabetic coding and phonological awareness) considered to be key to early reading success. However, there is controversy as to the best means of promoting the development of these skills in the classroom. Through comparisons with control classrooms, the current study evaluated the effectiveness of a commercially available early-reading teaching program (Jolly Phonics - Lloyd, 1993) which combines these key elements. Time-sampling observations of experimental and control classrooms were undertaken to investigate which literacy components were related to reading and spelling success. Midway through the school year, children in 10 experimental and 10 control semor kindergarten classes (265 participants) were pretested on phonological awareness and early literacy measures to ensure group comparability. Classroom observations took place throughout the spring. At the end of the year children were tested on phonological awareness, and on a range of reading and spelling measures. Results showed that on 16 of the 19 measures including complex literacy skill knowledge (alphabetic coding) and application (reading and spelling both real words and nonwords), the experimental group significantly (and practically--i.e., most effect sizes were large) outperformed the control children. In addition, the performance of children considered to be "at-risk" for future reading failure (determined by very low pretest letter-naming scores) was analyzed. Results showed that this subsample of children also benefited from the Jolly Phonics program and outperformed their at-risk control counterparts. Furthermore, on most measures, the at-risk experimental group performed as well as the control children who were designated as having average literacy skills (and on one measure, scored significantly higher), thus, appearing to have changed their at-risk status. Correlational and multiple regression analyses found several links to literacy achievement, with the Phonics Literacy Component being the strongest predictor, followed by time Tent involved in letter formation. A unique mnemonic feature of the Jolly Phonics program (meaningful actions associated with letter-sounds) was also related to outcome measures.
Explorations of spirituality in the writings of the Venerable Bede, King Alfred and Abbot AElfric of Eynsham

This thesis challenges the resistance of past scholarship to consider the spirituality of the Anglo-Saxon period. By comparison with the vast body of scholarship on the spirituality of the later Middle Ages, the history of Anglo-Saxon spirituality remains to be written. As a step toward such a broad historical account, this study examines the literary expressions of spirituality in the Old English and Latin writings of three of the period's most prolific authors, the Venerable Bede (d. 735), King Alfred of Wessex (d. 899), and Abbot Ælfric of Eynsham (d. 1010). Chapter 1 considers the history of the word "spirituality" and tracks some shifts in conceptualization that have occurred in recent years; it also attempts to account for the near omission of Anglo-Saxon material from the extant histories of medieval spirituality that have shaped understanding of the field, and to point the way out of this quandary. Chapter 2 explores conceptions of prayer and contemplation in Bede's Latin biblical exegesis, and argues that in treating these subjects Bede consciously stressed active ideals and downplayed contemplative ones, in an effort to shape the kind of spiritual lifestyle he believed was needed to further his plan for church reform. Chapter 3 examines the connections between reading, writing, and spirituality in the Old English writings of King Alfred and in his Latin 'vita' written by the Welsh cleric Asser. It challenges the assertion that the representation of Alfred's spirituality in Asser's text should be dismissed out of hand on the grounds that it is a fabricated piece of literary fiction with no basis in fact. By considering the role of reading and textuality in early medieval spirituality in general and in Alfred's translations of Augustine, Boethius, and Gregory the Great in particular, I provide a valorizing framework for understanding Alfred's spirituality, reconfiguring it from the purely fictive, to one grounded in the living of texts and 'topoi'. Chapter 4 studies the relationship between models of sainthood and modes of spirituality by contrasting the approaches and aims of Ælfric and the anonymous Blickling hagiographers in the Old English legends of SS Peter and Paul and St Andrew. I argue that Ælfric's battle against 'gedwyld' ("error") may have extended to the way these saints were depicted in the anonymous tradition, and that his "iconic" depictions served on the one hand to underscore the power and glory of these apostles, and on the other to incite Anglo-Saxon Christians to venerate them with an attitude of wonder and penitential awe. These three explorations have as their linking aim an elucidation of Bede, Alfred, and Ælfric as "spiritual writers," in the sense that their works manifest an abiding concern to direct and enhance the way their audiences understand and appropriate the Christian message. But instead of uniformity, my chapters try to convey a sense of the diversity of the themes and concerns that went into Anglo-Saxon spiritual writing, and to lay a foundation for future study of it.
Factors affecting the acquisition of health care services, a case study from NingMing County, GuangXi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China

This study has considered the predisposing and enabling traits associated with the access to and use of health care services by the inhabitants of four rural villages in NingMing County, GuangXi Zhuang Autonomous Region (PRC). The methods employed utilized classical anthropological techniques and a version of rapid assessment procedures known as focused ethnographic studies (FES). Drawing on a sample of 893 individuals chosen through preferential random sampling, it was found that age, sex, income levels, and occupation of the subjects had little bearing on access and subsequent use of health care services in the region, once severity of illness was controlled for. Instead, the perceived level of sickness, interpretations of health and ill-health, and the quality of services available for the money expected, were found to be of higher priority to the end users of these services. As expenses were seen to be of utmost consequence, a new model considering less recognized or assessed factors such as the costs of travel, accommodations, and lost hours of labour, by people traveling to the health care units, and their accompanying parties, was developed. This model, has proven to be functional within the context of the group considered here, and with modification, to groups elsewhere in the world. Comparative data may now be derived, which can aid in the structure and development of effective and efficient health care services. The current fee-for-service system in place in NingMing County warrants use of such a model. It does not alleviate the costs, but instead aims at forming a better understanding of the current reluctance to use high cost services in this region.
Neurogenic modulation of articular cartilage degeneration

In this thesis study it is hypothesized that alterations of normal joint mechanoreceptor activity contribute to the degeneration of articular cartilage. By conveying sensory feedback information to the CNS, joint afferents contribute to the appropriately-timed contraction of muscles acting across joints. Changes in normal joint sensory input may, therefore, alter muscle activity and articular loading patterns. This would subsequently lead to articular cartilage degeneration and osteoarthritis. To test this hypothesis the effect of unilateral joint denervation in a canine non-osteoarthritis model and in a canine bilateral osteoarthritis model was assessed. Each animal underwent resection of the articular nerves in one knee and sham nerve resections in the contralateral control knee. In the canine bilateral osteoarthritis model, this was followed by bilateral arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament transection. In all experiments, pair-wise analysis of the data from the denervated knee was compared with the data obtained from the contralateral innervated knee. Chronic electromyographic (EMG) recordings of the hindlimb musculature and the associated ground reaction forces were performed in the awake, walking animal. This date demonstrates that the loss of joint afferent input is associated with altered patterns of muscle activity. Significantly, the co-contractile activity of functional antagonist pairs of muscles became asynchronous following joint deafferentation. Importantly, the joint afferent-mediated changes in muscle activity were associated with altered vertical ground reaction forces. These findings show that the loss of joint sensory input can lead to altered loading patterns across articular surfaces. Articular cartilage was harvested from multiple articular surfaces from both the innervated and denervated knees in each animal. The articular cartilage was subsequently examined by gross pathology, histology, biochemistry and magnetic resonance imaging. These studies show that the loss of joint receptor input accelerates the development of degenerative articular cartilage changes in the anterior cruciate deficient knee and induces cartilage degeneration in the stable knee joint.
Rousseau et la Bible, mythocritique fondée sur les principes de Northrop Frye

Cette thèse est divisée en deux parties, dont la première traite des grandes structures mythiques bibliques dans l'oeuvre de Rousseau, selon les principes énoncés par Northrop Frye dans 'Words with Power'. Il s'agit en particulier des mythes de la montagne, du jardin, du souterrain et de la fournaise, qui s'inspirent des quatre besoins primaires du genre humain: le désir d'échapper à la contrainte, le besoin d'aimer et d'être aimé,celui de se sustenter et de maitriser son environnement, et celui de faire et de créer. Parce que ces préoccupations sont universelles, les mythes avec lesquels elles sont en relation doivent forcément se retrouver dans les chefs-d'oeuvre de la littérature, et à plus forte raison, chez un auteur aussi nourri de l'Écriture sainte que Rousseau. Cette première partie tente de retrouver, dans son oeuvre, tous les grands thèmes de la perte du paradis, de l'exil, de la chute, de la rédemption et autres, et tente de faire une synthèse de tout ce que l'auteur, consciemment ou inconsciemment, doit à cet ancêtre de la littérature occidentale qu'est la Bible. La deuxième partie consiste en un recensement aussi détaillé que possible des citations, allusions et échos bibliques aussi bien dans la correspondance de Rousseau, que dans ses écrits littéraires, moraux, éducatifs, politiques et autobiographiques. Dans la correspondance les emprunts sont classés par livres vétéro-et néotestamentaires et accompagnés d'un bref commentaire sur les correspondants, leur statut par rapport à l'auteur, l'esprit dans lequel il cite, fait allusion ou écho à certains passages bibliques. Dans les autres écrits, les citations, allusions et échos de l'Ancien et du Nouveau Testament, classés d'après ces catégories, sont passés en revue et comparés à l'original. Un bref commentaire tente de faire ressortir la préférence de l'auteur vis-à-vis de certains textes, le message qu'il désire transmettre, sa fidélité ou son infidélité à l'esprit biblique et les conclusions qu'on peut tirer sur la pensée rousseauiste face à l'Écriture sainte.
An evaluation of stereoscopic versus monoscopic video in a turbid underwater environment

This thesis examines the potential advantages of applying stereoscopic video for underwater inspection tasks in turbid water conditions. Inspection tasks underwater are extraordinarily difficult, in general, due to low illumination, turbidity and camouflaging of objects. An experiment was carried out to investigate human performance using stereoscopic video for underwater inspection at four turbidity levels, when the task was to detect the presence of a camouflaged object. It was found that detection rate, sensitivity and acuity were consistently and significantly better for subjects using the stereoscopic video than using the monoscopic video. More important, however, is the discovery of the property of stereoscopic video in resisting performance degradation for increasing turbidity. It was also found that the use of shuttering glasses detracted very little from subjects' performance in the monoscopic conditions. Finally, the size of disparity in the stereoscopic condition was found to have a trivial effect on subjects' acuity.
Aspect, tense and the lexicon, expression of time in Yiddish

This thesis investigates the nature of Yiddish aspect and tense and proposes a structural account of these expressions of time within a Government and Binding framework. The thesis has two main parts: the first part deals with theoretical issues of the nature of Yiddish aspect and the second with structural representations of aspectual and tense constructions. The first three chapters focus on what has been the central question of Yiddish aspect: whether there is a Slavic-style grammatical perfective/imperfective opposition in Yiddish. Arguments are presented against the use of perfective/imperfective terminology for the description of Yiddish aspect in general, or for individual aspectual constructions in particular. It is further argued that Yiddish aspectual constructions do not represent grammatical oppositions, where the term 'grammatical' is interpreted to imply obligatoriness or membership in the verbal paradigm. The ramifications of these conclusions for theories of the history of Yiddish and of Yiddish-Slavic language contact are considered. Chapter Four proposes the term 'bounded' to characterize the aspectual nature of the stem construction and of prefixed verbs; visual representations illustrate the way in which 'boundedness' can account for the co-occurrence of these constructions and for the use of prefixed verbs as a pseudo-pluperfect. Chapter Five is devoted to tense: a semantic analysis is presented within a Reichenbachian model and lexical and syntactic structures are proposed for the future, habitual past, immediate future, past, future perfect and pluperfect constructions. There is a discussion of the status and composition of the verbal paradigm. The structures of prefixed verbs and the stem construction are presented in Chapter Six. It is argued that aspect, like tense, is expressed lexically in Yiddish. That is, there are no aspectual or tense features active in the syntax and no syntactic structures that reflect tense or aspectual semantics. Issues discussed include the nature of the lexicon and the evidence needed to propose such functional categories as Aspect Phrase and Tense Phrase. This thesis builds upon earlier work on Yiddish aspect, tense and syntax to bridge the different fields and present a unified account of expression of time in Yiddish.
Raw sludge as substrate for sulphate-reducing bacteria

Experiments were conducted to examine raw sludge as a substrate for sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB) following four tests (Forage Fibre Analysis, BOD/COD ratio, protein and carbohydrate content, and C/N ratio) and the results were evaluated by operating three anaerobic reactors containing raw sludge at different COD/SO42- ratios (0.5, 1.0 and 2.0). From the four tests, raw sludge was determined to be a potential substrate for SRB. The factors that supported this conclusion were that raw sludge had an appropriate protein (351 mg/g) and carbohydrate (190 mg/g) content, and a suitable C/N ratio (7.1). However, neither the easily available substrate (EAS) (40%) nor the BOD/COD ratio (0.35) gave a clear indication of the suitability of the sludge for SRB. When raw sludge was assessed in batch anaerobic reactors at different COD/SO42- ratios, lag periods of at least one month for SRB growth were observed for reactors with COD/SO4 2- ratios of 0.5 and 1.0. Sulphide toxicity was not evident because very little sulphate was reduced (20%) and total sulphide did not increase after approximately 30 days. Sulphate toxicity and solids interference could have hindered microbial activity in both reactors. On the other hand, the reactor with a COD/SO42- ratio of 2.0 achieved about 84% sulphate reduction due to SRB activity. Its pH increased from 6.55 to 8.59; alkalinity increased from 1300 to 2960 mg/L as CaCO3; VFA decreased by 83% and; total sulphide levels increased from 443 to 2450 mg/L. This suggests that raw sludge can provide a suitable substrate for microbial degradation by SRB and for dissimilatory sulphate reduction, provided a COD/SO42- ratio of at least 2 is present.
Service life modelling of R.C. highway structures exposed to chlorides

The detrimental effect of chloride-induced corrosion on the service life of reinforced concrete highway structures highlights the need for the development of mathematical models that describe the mechanisms of corrosion and damage build-up in reinforced concrete. The objective of this study was to develop a generalized computer model for the prediction of service life of reinforced concrete highway structures exposed to de-icing salts. The mathematical formulation idealized the corrosion sequence as a two-stage process: an initiation stage, during which chloride ions penetrate to the reinforcing steel layer and depassivate it, and a propagation stage, in which active corrosion takes place until cracking of the concrete cover has occurred. In modelling chloride transport to the reinforcing steel (initiation stage), a modified version of Fick's 2'nd' law was used, in which the processes of diffusion, chloride binding, and convection due to water movement were taken into account. The migration of chloride ions through concrete was coupled with moisture diffusion and heat transfer within concrete. Corrosion was assumed to initiate when the chloride concentration at the steel layer reaches a specified threshold value. To model the stage corresponding to active corrosion (propagation stage), the rate of corrosion was linked to oxygen availability at the cathodic areas. The governing partial differential equations that idealize the problem were solved numerically in space as a boundary-value problem and in time as an initial-value problem by means of a two-dimensional finite element formulation, in which appropriate boundary conditions were enforced to simulate the seasonal variations in exposure conditions. A time-step integration procedure was applied to determine the variation in time of the various species concentrations at the level of the reinforcement. To assess the mechanical damage resulting from the expansion of the corrosion products, an equivalent uniform internal pressure was applied around the steel/concrete interface, and the resulting state of stress in the surrounding concrete was evaluated by means of an elastic analysis. The numerical performance of the model was examined in few example cases to assess the relative importance of the different mechanisms considered on the service life of reinforced concrete structures exposed to chloride environments.
Alexander of Ashby's Brevissima comprehensio historiarum, a critical edition with annotation

Alexander, prior of the Augustinian canons at Ashby in Northamptonshire (died ca. 1215), is one of the important Anglo-Latin authors whose works were until recently completely neglected. Now there are editions of his ' Meditationes' (1990) and his 'De artificioso modo praedicandi ' (1991), but his poetical works are still unknown to the public. The aim of this dissertation is to amend this situation by providing a critical edition and a study of Alexander's poem 'Breuissima comprehensio historiarum ', a concise versification of the historical books of the Bible. Alexander's 'Breuissima comprehensio historiarum' exists in three different versions. A short version (only 704 verses) is found in York, Durham and Oxford, while the manuscripts from London and Cambridge contain much longer compositions, 1362 and 928 verses respectively. The long versions are expansions based on the short original text, but composed independently of each other with quotations from different poets--the version in London with passages from Lawrence of Durham's 'Hypognosticon', and the one in Cambridge with passages from Peter Riga's 'Aurora'. The poem is accompanied by a prose prologue which is preserved fully only in York and Durham. It is abbreviated and modified in Cambridge, while missing entirely in Oxford and, except for its last sentence, also in London. The edition of Alexander's 'Breuissima comprehensio historiaarum ' comprises three different, but closely related parts. First, the critical edition of the short version of the text based on all five manuscripts; secondly, a diplomatic edition of the expanded version found in London, i.e. the "Lawrence of Durham"--version; and finally, a diplomatic edition of the expanded version found in Cambridge, i.e. the "Peter Riga"--version. The edition is preceded by three chapters, one on the versifications of the Bible from the early 12th to the middle of the l3th century, one on different aspects of Alexander's poem, and one on the manuscript tradition and the present edition. The dissertation ends with an annotation to the text and two appendices, the first, a table of the biblical kings, and the second, a list of the glosses found in the Durham and the London manuscripts.
The Rokusho-ji, the six superiority temples of Heian Japan

The Rokusho¢-ji were six temples constructed in the eastern part of the ancient capital of Kyoto from the 11th to the 12th centuries by emperors and ex-emperors during what is commonly referred to as the 'insei' (i.e., "cloister government") period. It is accepted wisdom that these temples were not solely built because of the pious devotion of these members of the imperial family. That is, scholars have long acknowledged that they served as the ostensible proprietors of large tracts of land for the Imperial House. With the breakdown of the 'ritsuryo¢' system of government, taxable land had been reduced and, as a result, government stipends for those serving in the state bureaucracy become increasingly unstable. Consequently, those in the position to do so sought alternate forms of income and, by and large, this took the form of acquiring private landholdings. The imperial house, which under the 'ritsuryo¢' system had been heavily subsidized by the state, was also left with limited resources and, perhaps more importantly, saw itself as being left out in the scramble for land (and, as a result, income) by the nobility. Since prevailing views held that it was unseemly for the emperor, as head of state, to partake directly in the amassing of land for personal use, retired emperors would entrust their estates to religious institutions or to other members of the imperial family (e.g., imperial ladies). However, the ability to "own" land was a concept that had developed only in the late 8th century, and it gradually led to a decentralizing of authority since, up to that time, prestige and power could be accessed only through the imperial court. Thus the phenomenon of "private" landholdings led to a shift in the balance of power from those holding positions in the state bureaucracy to autonomous household groups, or what are referred to as 'kenmon', who had private financial resources from their estates. The accumulation of landholdings, then, had more than economic implications: it also represented a rearticulation of land, and, accordingly, of authority and power. Therefore, although the Rokusho¢-ji are conspicuous examples of how the imperial house utilized temples to deal with a changing economic environment, at the same time they represent what could be said, or thought, about land and what was to be done with it.