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Competency in making inferences is an important aspect of student learning in the twenty-first century, for making better-informed decisions. The purpose of our study is to investigate the type of ...

From the control-value theory perspective, this study investigated the mediational role of students' math self-efficacy, value, and achievement emotions between parenting practices and homework behaviors. A large sample of 2648 Singapore Secondary 2 students first took measures of parental expectancy and involvement, and then measures of math self-efficacy, value, achievement emotions (enjoyment, pride, boredom, and anxiety), and homework behaviors about 3 months later. The results of multiple-group structural equation modeling largely supported the hypothesized mediation model across gender groups. Math self-efficacy was associated with math enjoyment and pride positively, and math boredom and anxiety negatively; math value was associated with math enjoyment and anxiety positively, and math boredom negatively. The four emotions in turn showed distinct relations to homework behaviors. Partly through math self-efficacy, value, and achievement emotions, both parental expectancy and involvement predicted homework effort positively and homework distraction negatively. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

By any measure, Singapore’s educational system has generated an extraordinary record of achievement over the past two or three decades. In this article, we report on one key component of a broader three year investigation into why Singapore has done so well, and explore the logic, strength, resilience and limits of the underlying pedagogical model and policy framework that have helped secure this record of achievement. Specifically, we draw on data we collected in 2010 to analyze the pedagogical organization of four theoretically specified ‘models’ of instructional strategy– traditional instruction, direct instruction, teaching for understanding, and co-regulated learning strategies–in Secondary 3 mathematics and English. In the course of our analysis, we develop three arguments. The first is the single-minded performative orientation of instructional practices generally–and instructional strategies specifically–in Singaporean classrooms that rarely deviated from a logic of curriculum coverage, knowledge transmission and assessment. Second, while we found substantial evidence of a pervasive performative orientation to instruction, we also found that teachers in Singapore draw from a variety of instructional perspectives in ways that reflect a pragmatic, instrumental fit-for-purpose approach and broader performative orientation. Third, we found that the national high stakes assessment system, by virtue of its considerable institutional authority, both shaped the pattern of instructional practice at the classroom level and constrained opportunities for instructional improvement. In the conclusion, we review related findings from the research program on the impact of instructional practice on student achievement in Singapore.

This study examined the mediational role of achievement goals between parental behaviors and learning outcomes. A sample of 1667 Singapore Secondary 3 students took the measures of parental involvement in learning, parental control, mastery approach and avoidance goals, performance approach and avoidance goals, as well as seven learning outcome variables in their math study. We conducted complex structural equation modeling analysis to take into account the hierarchical structure of the data and found a good fit for the hypothesized partial mediation model. More specifically, parental involvement in learning was associated with an adaptive learning profile (i.e., self-regulated engagement in learning activities, low anxiety, high perceived competence, and high achievement), partially or mainly through its positive relationship with mastery approach goals. Parental control predicted a maladaptive coping orientation (i.e., low persistence and high anxiety) and low achievement partially through its positive relationship with mastery and performance avoidance goals. The findings are discussed in the academic context of Singapore.

Rapid product/process realization and enterprise integration have been identified among the major imperatives for enabling the next generation manufacturing paradigm. This paper proposes a virtual factory modeling approach to support these imperatives. A virtual factory is defined as an integrated simulation model of major subsystems in a factory that considers the factory as a whole and provides an advanced decision support capability. It seeks to go beyond the typical modeling of one sub‐system at a time, such as the manufacturing model, the business process model and/or the communication network model developed individually and in isolation. A basic virtual factory model of a semi‐conductor backend factory has been developed for concept demonstration. Application examples are used to demonstrate the integration between business processes and manufacturing system performance. Future work will move further towards the development of the complete virtual factory and its industry applications.

This study investigates attributional beliefs of Singapore secondary students in their English study and how they can be predicted by self-construal, competence and achievement goals. A total of 1,496 students were administered surveys on seven attributions, independent and interdependent self-construals, previous achievement, self-efficacy, mastery approach and avoidance goals and performance approach and avoidance goals. We found that Singapore students attributed academic success mainly to internal regulation (effort, interest and study skills), followed by teachers’ help, ability, parents’ help and tuition classes. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that three predictors (self-construal, competence and achievement goals) explained 4.2–12.3% of the variances in students’ attributional beliefs. In particular, students with interdependent self-construal, high competence or mastery goals tended to attribute academic success to internal regulation (effort, interest and study skills) and support from teachers and parents. Students with low competence, high mastery avoidance goals or high performance goals were more likely to value tuition classes, and those with high performance avoidance goals also tended to ascribe academic success to ability and parent’s help. The findings are discussed in relation to the culture of Singapore.

The article describes numerical research of fluid flow inside an axial-flow pump that includes adjustable guide vanes, impeller and discharge channel. The guide vanes in the extreme position cut off the flow through the pump. The article presents the performance curves of the pump at different pitch angle of those guide vanes, as well as some corresponding flow patterns. Cavitation characteristics are also presented. The results were obtained using the CFD software tools CFX-BladeGenPlus, CFX-TASCflow and CFX-5. In the previous article, the authors have presented a comprehensive comparison of numerical results with available experimental results for a similar pump. As it was demonstrated, the performance curves of the pump depend strongly on the guide vanes pitch angle. Conclusions concerning these dependencies are drawn. A particular attention is paid for evaluation of performance of the pump with swirl flow downstream of it.Copyright © 2005 by ASME

In this dissertation, the author has made an attempt to study the performance characteristics of various convex hull algorithms currently available. By definition, the convex hull of a set of points in a plane is the smallest convex polygon containing all the given points. Many convex hull algorithms exist in the computational geometry field. Some algorithms work better under certain circumstances when others perform better with totally different conditions. Literature survey of computational geometry and convex hull algorithms were carried out during the study on the performance characteristics of these algorithms. Each algorithm was studied both from time complexity and space complexity point of views. Most of the convex hull algorithms are usually found in papers published in technical journals rather than in textbooks. They are presented in several different forms such as using flow chart, pseudo code, or just description by words. Notation used and area of concentration also varies from one article to another. Pseudo code form, however, is the most preferred, but not always available. Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

Although cardiac axis measurement causes more confusion and difficulty than any other aspect of electrocardiogram (ECG) assessment for many doctors, it can be easily worked out in a few seconds using the simple method outlined in this article.