University of Lisbon

About: University of Lisbon is a education organization based out in Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 19122 authors who have published 48503 publications receiving 1102623 citations. The organization is also known as: Universidade de Lisboa & Lisbon University.

Understanding and Measuring Student Engagement in School: The Results of an International Study from 12 Countries.

Abstract: The objective of the present study was to develop a scale that is appropriate for use internationally to measure affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions of student engagement. Psychometric properties of this scale were examined with data of 3,420 students (7th, 8th, and 9th grade) from 12 countries (Austria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States). The intraclass correlation of the full-scale scores of student engagement between countries revealed that it was appropriate to aggregate the data from the 12 countries for further analyses. Coefficient alphas revealed good internal consistency. Test-retest reliability coefficients were also acceptable. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the data fit well to a second-order model with affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement as the first-order factors and student engagement as the second-order factor. The results support the use of this scale to measure student engagement as a metaconstruct. Furthermore, the significant correlations of the scale with instructional practices, teacher support, peer support, parent support, emotions, academic performance, and school conduct indicated good concurrent validity of the scale. Considerations and implications regarding the international use of this student engagement in school measure are discussed.

A randomized trial to study first-line combination therapy with or without a protease inhibitor in HIV-1-infected patients.

Abstract: Objective: To compare one protease inhibitor (PI)-based and two PI-sparing antiretroviral therapy regimens. Methods: International, open label, randomized study of antiretroviral drug-naive patients, with CD4 lymphocyte counts greater than or equal to 200 x 10(6) cells/l and plasma HIV-1 RNA levels > 500 copies/ml. Treatment assignment to stavudine and didanosine plus indinavir or nevirapine or lamivudine. Primary study endpoint was the percentage of patients with plasma HIV-1 RNA levels <500 copies/ml after 48 weeks in the intention-to-treat analysis (ITT). Results: In total, 298 patients were enrolled. After 48 weeks, the percentage of patients in the indinavir, nevirapine and lamivudine arms with HIV-1 RNA <500 copies/ml was 57.0%, 58.4% and 58.7%, respectively, in an ITT analysis. After 96 weeks of follow-up, these percentages were 50.0%, 59.6% and 45.0%, respectively. The percentage of patients with HIV-1 RNA <50 copies/ml was significantly less for those allocated to lamivudine in an on-treatment analysis after 48 and 96 weeks of follow-up. Patients in the nevirapine arm experienced a smaller increase in the absolute number of CD4 T lymphocytes. There were no significant differences in the incidence of serious adverse events. Conclusions: A comparable virological response can be achieved with first-line PI-base and PI-sparing regimens. The triple nucleoside regimen utilized may be less likely to result in viral suppression to <50 copies/ml, while the nevirapine-based regimen is associated with a lower increase in CD4 T lymphocytes. (C) 2003 Lippincoft Williams Wilkins

Harnessing the biodiversity value of Central and Eastern European farmland

Abstract: A large proportion of European biodiversity today depends on habitat provided by low-intensity farming practices, yet this resource is declining as European agriculture intensifies. Within the European Union, particularly the central and eastern new member states have retained relatively large areas of species-rich farmland, but despite increased investment in nature conservation here in recent years, farmland biodiversity trends appear to be worsening. Although the high biodiversity value of Central and Eastern European farmland has long been reported, the amount of research in the international literature focused on farmland biodiversity in this region remains comparatively tiny, and measures within the EU Common Agricultural Policy are relatively poorly adapted to support it. In this opinion study, we argue that, 10 years after the accession of the first eastern EU new member states, the continued under-representation of the low-intensity farmland in Central and Eastern Europe in the international literature and EU policy is impeding the development of sound, evidence-based conservation interventions. The biodiversity benefits for Europe of existing low-intensity farmland, particularly in the central and eastern states, should be harnessed before they are lost. Instead of waiting for species-rich farmland to further decline, targeted research and monitoring to create locally appropriate conservation strategies for these habitats is needed now.

Open-WBO: A Modular MaxSAT Solver ,

Abstract: This paper presents open-wbo, a new MaxSAT solver. open-wbo has two main features. First, it is an open-source solver that can be easily modified and extended. Most MaxSAT solvers are not available in open-source, making it hard to extend and improve current MaxSAT algorithms. Second, open-wbo may use any MiniSAT-like solver as the underlying SAT solver. As many other MaxSAT solvers, open-wbo relies on successive calls to a SAT solver. Even though new techniques are proposed for SAT solvers every year, for many MaxSAT solvers it is hard to change the underlying SAT solver. With open-wbo, advances in SAT technology will result in a free improvement in the performance of the solver. In addition, the paper uses open-wbo to evaluate the impact of using different SAT solvers in the performance of MaxSAT algorithms.