Search results for "SSM"

Creaky voice and utterance fluency measures in predicting perceived fluency and oral proficiency of spontaneous L2 Finnish

2022

While utterance fluency measures are often studied in rela tion to perceived L2 fluency and proficiency, the effect of creaky voice remains ignored. However, creaky voice is frequent in a number of languages, including Finnish, where it serves as a cue for phrase-boundaries and turn-taking. In this study we inves tigate the roles of creaky voice and utterance fluency measures in predicting fluency and proficiency ratings of spontaneous L2 Finnish (F2) speech. In so doing, 16 expert raters participated in assessing narrative spontaneous speech samples from 160 learn ers of Finnish. The effect of creaky voice and utterance fluency measures on proficiency and fluency ratings was studied using …

Impact assessment of a solar powered water treatment project

2015

Water treatment technologies are seen as the best alternative to be considered for adoption in developing countries where access to portable water supply that is free of pathogens is yet a challenge. This study intended to assess impact brought forth by a project, which employed a water treatment technology in rural settings of Morogoro Region in Tanzania. The project used solar photovoltaic panels to trap solar energy, converted to mechanical power to treat water with the help of sterilization ultraviolet membrane. A comparative analysis was used as an assessment framework to study impacts of the project with respect to the quality of approach used during the project life cycle. Determinan…

Resilience and the Aging Process: Assessment Tools and Needs

2015

Abstract Successful resilience is a variable often related to an optimal aging process and that might have a role on education. However, literature is rather limited when dealing with assessment instruments for the elderly in the Spanish language. The objective of this work is to examine the Brief Resilient Coping Scale (Sinclair &Wallston, 2004), a four item likert scale, in the Spanish elderly. This scale was administrated to a sample of 920 elderly Spanish participants, and the data set analysed in terms of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and internal consistency. The scale demonstrated good psychometric properties. Furthermore, the homogeneity indices were higher than in th…

A New Academic Quality at Work Tool (AQ@workT) to Assess the Quality of Life at Work in the Italian Academic Context

2022

Refereed/Peer-reviewed The present study provides evidence for a valid and reliable tool, the Academic Quality at Work Tool (AQ@workT), to investigate the quality of life at work in academics within the Italian university sector. The AQ@workT was developed by the QoL@Work research team, namely a group of expert academics in the field of work and organizational psychology affiliated with the Italian Association of Psychologists. The tool is grounded in the job demands-resources model and its psychometric properties were assessed in three studies comprising a wide sample of lecturers, researchers, and professors: a pilot study (N = 120), a calibration study (N = 1084), and a validation study …

Landslide susceptibility assessment in the upper Imera river basin (central Sicilian chain)

2009

Assessment of Microstressors in Adults: Questionnaire Development and Ecological Validation of the Mainz Inventory of Microstressors

2020

Background Many existing scales for microstressor assessment do not differentiate between objective (ie, observable) stressor events and stressful cognitions or concerns. They often mix items assessing objective stressor events with items measuring other aspects of stress, such as perceived stressor severity, the evoked stress reaction, or further consequences on health, which may result in spurious associations in studies that include other questionnaires that measure such constructs. Most scales were developed several decades ago; therefore, modern life stressors may not be represented. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) allows for sampling of current behaviors and experiences in real…

Susceptibility assessment for flows landslide in the upper Salso river basin (Sicily)

2009

Test-retest reliability and validity of a web-based food-frequency questionnaire for adolescents aged 13-14 to be used in the Norwegian Mother and Ch…

2014

Background: The assessment of food intake is challenging and prone to errors; it is therefore important to consider the reliability and validity of the assessment methods.Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the reproducibility and validity of a developed food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) for use among adolescents.Design: In total, 58 students (aged 13–14) from four different schools in the southern part of Norway participated in the reproducibility study of filling out the FFQ 4 weeks apart. In addition, 93 students participated in the relative validity study where the FFQ was compared to 2×24-hour dietary recalls, while 92 students participated in the absolute validity study w…

The meaningfulness of two curriculum-based national tests of English as a foreign language

2022

This paper addresses the aspect of the meaningfulness of a national assessment in English as a foreign language, applying the fairness framework proposed by Kunnan (2018). We compared students’ performance on two receptive language skills of listening and reading on two subsequent national evaluations in Finland, taken by students at the end of compulsory basic education and at the end of general upper secondary education, respectively. The research questions focus on (1) the relationship between students’ performance on the two tests and their gender, language of schooling and parents’ educational level, and (2) the relationship between the students’ receptive language proficiency at the e…

Physiotherapists’ validating and invalidating communication before and after participating in brief cognitive functional therapy training : Test of c…

2021

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate physiotherapists’ validating and invalidating communication, before and after brief Cognitive Functional Therapy (CFT) training that included a session on validation skills. Associations between validation/invalidation and the characteristics of the interviews and physiotherapists were also explored. Methods Eighteen physiotherapists treating patients with low back pain participated in the study. The study had a within-group design in which validation and invalidation for physiotherapists were rated before and after training using a reliable observational scale. We also collected data on interview length and physiotherapists’ and patients’ …