Women are under-represented in science fields; this poses a significant challenge considering the emerging digital revolution. The intersectionality theory suggests that women whose social identities ...intersect across gender and class have distinct experiences; affecting their science aspirations. This research examined gender and class intersections, measuring science experiences and aspirations of working-class girls versus those who are not. A total of 421 female students (ages 15-18) from Irish secondary schools answered questions about their science experiences and views. The findings revealed that working-class girls displayed lower levels of confidence and interest in pursuing science; additionally, they felt that their ability in science was lower than other students. These findings provide highlight the impact of gender and class on science aspirations, showing the value of considering intersectionality when addressing unequal participation in science. Science interventions should consider the intersectional layers of disadvantage which can affect young women's science aspirations.
This open access book introduces the fundamentals of the space–time conservation element and solution element (CESE) method, which is a novel numerical approach for solving equations of physical ...conservation laws. It highlights the recent progress to establish various improved CESE schemes and its engineering applications. With attractive accuracy, efficiency, and robustness, the CESE method is particularly suitable for solving time-dependent nonlinear hyperbolic systems involving dynamical evolutions of waves and discontinuities. Therefore, it has been applied to a wide spectrum of problems, e.g., aerodynamics, aeroacoustics, magnetohydrodynamics, multi-material flows, and detonations. This book contains algorithm analysis, numerical examples, as well as demonstration codes. This book is intended for graduate students and researchers who are interested in the fields such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD), mechanical engineering, and numerical computation.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a small change in reverberation time (from 0.57 to 0.69 s) in a classroom on children's performance and listening effort. Aiming for ...ecological listening conditions, the change in reverberation time was combined with the presence or absence of classroom noise. In three academic tasks, the study examined whether the effect of reverberation was modulated by the presence of noise and depended on the children's age.
A total of 302 children (aged 11-13 years, grades 6-8) with normal hearing participated in the study. Three typical tasks of daily classroom activities (speech perception, sentence comprehension, and mental calculation) were administered to groups of children in two listening conditions (quiet and classroom noise). The experiment was conducted inside real classrooms, where reverberation time was controlled. The outcomes considered were task accuracy and response times (RTs), the latter taken as a behavioral proxy for listening effort. Participants were also assessed on reading comprehension and math fluency. To investigate the impact of noise and/or reverberation, these two scores were entered in the statistical model to control for individual child's general academic abilities.
While the longer reverberation time did not significantly affect accuracy or RTs under the quiet condition, it had several effects when in combination with classroom noise, depending on the task measured. A significant drop in accuracy with a longer reverberation time emerged for the speech perception task, but only for the grade 6 children. The effect on accuracy of a longer reverberation time was nonsignificant for sentence comprehension (always at ceiling), and depended on the children's age in the mental calculation task. RTs were longer for moderate than for short reverberation times in the speech perception and sentence comprehension tasks, while there was no significant effect of the different reverberation times on RTs in the mental calculation task.
The results indicate small, but statistically significant, effects of a small change in reverberation time on listening effort as well as accuracy for children aged 11 to 13 performing typical tasks of daily classroom activities. Thus, the results extend previous findings in adults to children as well. The findings also contribute to a better understanding of the practical implications and importance of optimal ranges of reverberation time in classrooms. A comparison with previous studies underscored the importance of early reflections as well as reverberation times in classrooms.
In this work, the authors analysed the co-dependency between models and analyses, particularly the structure and interdependence of artefacts and the feature-based decomposition and composition of ...model-based analyses. Their goal is to improve the maintainability of model-based analyses. They have investigated the co-dependency of Domain-specific Modelling Languages (DSMLs) and model-based analyses regarding evolvability, understandability, and reusability.
For long horizontal propagation distances, it is the atmosphere, not the sensor technology which is responsible for the quality of acquired image data. Atmospheric turbulence causes increased blur, ...reduced (color) contrast and (apparent) image motion, as well as image deformation. This work addresses the question of how best to mitigate these degrading effects and improve image data quality using suitable reconstruction techniques.
•Divided attention ability defines profiles of reading and maths in autistic pupils.•Within-domain discrepancies most prominent for those with poorer divided attention.•Transdiagnostic subgroups ...characterised by attention and achievement exist.•Autistic pupils are present across all three subgroups of attention and achievement.•Children with poorer attention and achievement display relative weaknesses in maths.
Academic outcomes for autistic individuals are heterogeneous, but the reasons for this are unknown. Attention is known to predict learning in typical development, but there is less evidence about this relationship in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), even though attention is reported as atypical in this group.
To investigate reading and maths achievement profiles for children with and without an ASD, focusing on the role of attention in these profiles and to enable a better understanding of individual differences.
Reading, maths and attention abilities of 22 autistic children (6−16 years) and 59 TD children (6–11 years) were measured using standardised assessments.
A hierarchical cluster analysis that included all children (N = 81) revealed three distinct transdiagnostic subgroups, characterised by children with good, average, and poorer divided attention and academic achievement respectively. Children with poorer attention and achievement displayed relative weaknesses in maths, while children with average or above-average attention and achievement showed no such weakness.
The findings provide a novel insight into the relationship between attention and achievement and understanding individual differences in ASD and typical development.
In contrast to the positive definite Helmholtz equation, the deceivingly similar looking indefinite Helmholtz equation is difficult to solve using classical iterative methods. Simply using a Krylov ...method is much less effective, especially when the wave number in the Helmholtz operator becomes large, and also algebraic preconditioners such as incomplete LU factorizations do not remedy the situation. Even more powerful preconditioners such as classical domain decomposition and multigrid methods fail to lead to a convergent method, and often behave differently from their usual behavior for positive definite problems. For example increasing the overlap in a classical Schwarz method degrades its performance, as does increasing the number of smoothing steps in multigrid. The purpose of this review paper is to explain why classical iterative methods fail to be effective for Helmholtz problems, and to show different avenues that have been taken to address this difficulty.
•The development of spatial skills is influenced by individual factors, such as self-efficacy.•Spatial skills self-efficacy scale produces reliable measurements for middle school students.•The ...sub-dimensions of the scale are consistent with Uttal et al. (2013).
The aim of this study was to develop a valid and reliable spatial skills self-efficacy scale for middle school students. To this end, the study sampled 5th-, 6th-, 7th-, and 8-grade students in the spring term of the 2021–2022 academic year. The data were collected from 1369 students for the pilot study and the validity and reliability analysis to investigate the psychometric properties of the scale. Twenty-five subject matter experts were asked for opinions and Lawshe's content validity ratio (1975) was used to measure the content validity of the scale. The results of the exploratory factor analysis conducted for the construct validity yielded a four-factor structure consisting of seventeen items, which accounted for 41.37 % of the total variance. The factor loadings of the scale items ranged from 0.41 to 0.75. When the fit indices of the model were examined as a result of Confirmatory Factor Analysis, it was determined that the firstorder multifactor structure were within the excellent or acceptable value ranges. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was found to be 0.77 for the total scale. The results of the independent samples t-test for the upper and lower 27 % groups showed a significant difference between the groups for all scale items. The correlation coefficients of the subscales with one another and with the total scale showed significant positive moderate and high correlations. The test–retest reliability coefficients also showed significant positive moderate and high correlations. These results indicate that the Spatial Skills Self-Efficacy Scale is a measurement tool that produces valid and reliable measurements and can be used to determine the spatial skills self-efficacy of middle school students.
The Finite Element Method (FEM) has become an indispensable technology for the modelling and simulation of engineering systems. Written for engineers and students alike, the aim of the book is to ...provide the necessary theories and techniques of the FEM for readers to be able to use a commercial FEM package to solve primarily linear problems in mechanical and civil engineering with the main focus on structural mechanics and heat transfer.Fundamental theories are introduced in a straightforward way, and state-of-the-art techniques for designing and analyzing engineering systems, including microstructural systems are explained in detail. Case studies are used to demonstrate these theories, methods, techniques and practical applications, and numerous diagrams and tables are used throughout.The case studies and examples use the commercial software package ABAQUS, but the techniques explained are equally applicable for readers using other applications including NASTRAN, ANSYS, MARC, etc. * A practical and accessible guide to this complex, yet important subject * Covers modeling techniques that predict how components will operate and tolerate loads, stresses and strains in reality
There is no consensus about whether a teacher-centred or student-centred instructional approach is more effective for students' maths achievement. Prior studies have highlighted the role of students' ...maths self-concept as a predictor and mediator for maths achievement. This study examined whether instructional approaches were related to students' maths achievement and whether the relation between instructional approaches and maths achievement was mediated by students' maths self-concept. The study used a sample from the 2015 TIMSS United States national data of 4th grade teachers and students. The results of structural equation modelling indicated that student-centred instructional approach was not associated with students' maths achievement. Nor was the relation between student-centred instruction and students' maths achievement mediated through students' maths self-concept, indicating that maths self-concept is not the mechanism through which student-centred instruction was associated with maths achievement. Our study discussed the possible ways that student-centred instruction may encourage or discourage students' maths self-concept and suggestions to overcome the methodological limitation of TIMSS data.
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