Measuring

"Following the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 security policies aimed at combating terrorist threats have been implemented all around the world. Governments and experts emphasize that this ‘new terrorism’ requires totally new means of fighting it. As a result new counter-terrorism is spreading and seems to be appearing everywhere. But how do we know if any of the policies intended to tackle terrorism are really working? How can we measure the effectiveness of these measures? Governments and officials point to the number of incidences, arrested and killed terrorists or the amounts of terrorist financing that has been confiscated as an indicator, while academia often refers to more sophisticated equations involving time series in risk management and cost-benefit calculations. Although, these rationalist approaches appear straightforward and seem to provide the quantified data required for the measurement of the success of these policies, there seems to be an error in the measure of terror! This paper will provide a critique of the existing rationalist methods of assessing the effectiveness of counter-terrorism and is predominantly aimed at highlighting their
weaknesses as well as introducing the need for further research into additional and alternative ways of evaluating counter-terrorism."

El artículo presenta los resultados de una investigación cuyo objetivo fue medir las habilidades
de comprensión lectora y auditiva de estudiantes de Pedagogía en Inglés de una universidad chilena.
Para ello se aplicaron tres exámenes estandarizados de la Universidad de Cambridge: el examen English
Test KET (KET), el Preliminary English Test (PET) y el First Certificate Exam (FCE), a estudiantes de segundo,
tercer y quinto año, respectivamente. Los datos recolectados fueron analizados con el programa
SPSS mediante estadísticas descriptivas. Adicionalmente, estos resultados se complementaron con
información recabada de tres grupos focales que tuvieron como propósito determinar las principales
dificultades que se presentaron durante la ejecución de los exámenes. Los resultados revelaron que el
estudiantado presenta problemas en la habilidad de comprensión auditiva y en la comprensión lectora
en los exámenes KET y FCE, donde este último examen es el que obtuvo el más bajo nivel de logro.
En cambio, en el examen PET, los puntajes de aprobación alcanzaron un mejor nivel. En los grupos
focales, el estudiantado manifestó que sus principales dificultades fueron entender adecuadamente
las instrucciones de cada tarea, el alto nivel de concentración requerido para rendir estos exámenes
y la poca exposición a ensayos de este tipo de instrumentos de medición. El artículo plantea una
posible explicación de los bajos resultados obtenidos en dos de los exámenes, utilizando el concepto
de efecto meseta en el proceso de aprendizaje de una lengua. Se concluye con una reflexión sobre la
formación inicial del profesorado de inglés en Chile, la importancia del conocimiento del contenido
y los desafíos que enfrenta el sistema educativo y las instituciones formadoras a partir de los nuevos
estándares pedagógicos establecidos por el Ministerio de Educación.

Problem Statement: Researches of quality of life are concentrated mainly on the urban nature in the recent years and the urban quality of life gained many attentions in empirical studies. The concept of urban quality of life is a multi-dimensional and complex issue. So, needless to ...

Instrumentation and techniques are described to image small objects, such as but not limited to individual human chromosomes, with nanometer resolution. This instrument and method are also used to cut-off identified parts of objects, to move around and manipulate the cut-off parts on the substrate on which they are being imaged to predetermined locations on the substrate, and to remove the cut-off parts from the substrate. This is accomplished using an atomic force microscope (AFM) and by modification of the conventional cantilever stylus assembly of an AFM. The plural cantilevers are used with either sharp-tips or knife-edges. In addition, the invention can be utilized for measuring the hardness of materials. 10 figs.

Plagiarism is a significant area of concern in higher education, given university students' high self-reported rates of plagiarism. However, research remains inconsistent in prevalence estimates and suggested precursors of plagiarism. This may be a function of the unclear psychometric properties of the measurement tools adopted. To investigate this, we modified an existing plagiarism scale (to broaden its scope), established its psychometric properties using traditional (EFA, Cronbach's alpha) and modern (Rasch analysis) survey evaluation approaches, and examined results of well-functioning items. Results indicated that traditional and modern psychometric approaches differed in their recommendations. Further, responses indicated that although most respondents acknowledged the seriousness of plagiarism, these attitudes were neither unanimous nor consistent across the range of issues assessed. This study thus provides rigorous psychometric testing of a plagiarism attitude scal...

Plagiarism is a significant area of concern in higher education, given university students' high self-reported rates of plagiarism. However, research remains inconsistent in prevalence estimates and suggested precursors of plagiarism. This may be a function of the unclear psychometric properties of the measurement tools adopted. To investigate this, we modified an existing plagiarism scale (to broaden its scope), established its psychometric properties using traditional (EFA, Cronbach's alpha) and modern (Rasch analysis) survey evaluation approaches, and examined results of well-functioning items. Results indicated that traditional and modern psychometric approaches differed in their recommendations. Further, responses indicated that although most respondents acknowledged the seriousness of plagiarism, these attitudes were neither unanimous nor consistent across the range of issues assessed. This study thus provides rigorous psychometric testing of a plagiarism attitude scal...

The mechanical engineering students learned the theoretical part of the database management in the first semester at Obuda University. The students had the chance to download a sample test with same example one week before the test. One part of the students downloaded this paper, the rest of students not interested for this opportunity. Our starting hypothesis was that the group that downloaded the sample test would achieve better results in the papers. Significance level was 5% through the analysis.
Significant divergence in knowledge of students who downloaded the sample test and the students who were not interested for it was found. The students could get a more the one mark better paper results when they downloaded the sample test and pass the test in higher percent.

The mathematician John Dee, by making architecture one of his 21 derivative mathematical arts, followed a well-known Renaissance tradition that strove to disengage architecture from its medieval classification within the mechanical arts and to include it instead among the liberal arts. Mathematics had been the most obvious choice for association, not only because of the practical application of arithmetic, geometry, and perspective in the delineation and execution of architectural projects, but also because it elevated the art of building into a philosophical exercise, since proportional correspondences between the architectural members were thought to express Nature's universal laws. Within the realm of the eighteenth century's emphasis on science and method, and in the wake of important technological advances in the manufacture of instruments for measurement, the relationship between architecture and mathematics was reevaluated.

In this paper, we describe a paper-based survey for measuring seven Internet anxiety types. A paper-based survey was distributed among seventy university participants and forty-nine responded with a valid response. The evaluation and analysis of seven types of Internet anxiety revealed internal consistency and acceptable reliability. The findings also suggested for omitting non-significant Internet anxiety types. The results showed that a user feeling while browsing is independent on level of familiarity with the Internet contents.

Value creation is widely discussed in the practitioner literature and is often a part of organizations' mission statements and objectives. It is seen by many commentators as the key to long-term success, with Albrecht (1992, p 7) arguing that “the only thing that matters in the new world of quality is delivering customer value.” Despite this emphasis, little research has addressed the value construct itself and there is no well-accepted value measure, even in the retail environment in which customers evaluate products before purchase. The ...

It is widely recognised that while expenditures on research and development are important inputs to successful innovation, these are not the only inputs. Further, rather than viewing innovation as a linear process, recent work on innovation in business and economics literatures characterises it as a complex and interactive process involving multiple feedbacks. These considerations imply that relevant indicators for innovation need to do more than capture material inputs such as R&D expenditures and human capital inputs. The main contribution of this paper is to develop EU-wide aggregate measures that are used to explore at the level of national innovation systems the relation between innovation and the organisation of work. In order to construct these aggregate measures we make use of micro data from two European surveys: the third European survey of Working Conditions and the third Community Innovation Survey (CIS-3). Although our data can only show correlations rather than causali...

Resilience is a construct which describes the capacity of individuals to overcome, with relative success, adverse conditions or risky situations to their well-being, development, and mental health. Some researchers interpret this definition as an indication that resilience is similar to some other adjustment variables and they assume that it presents temporal stability. Resilience is frequently assessed using self-report scales, which may also present validity and reliability problems. The present paper discusses the history and the comprehensiveness of psychological resilience and the different ways of evaluating it. More specifically, the objective of this study is to present arguments against the use of self-report scales to measure resilience, because of the relational, processual and contextual character of such construct. The main instruments available in the literature are reviewed and discussed and new directions for research in the area are suggested.