This edited volume presents a systematic analysis of conceptual, methodological and applied aspects related to the validation of educational tests used in Latin American countries. Inspired by international standards on educational measurement and evaluation, this book illustrates efforts that have been made in several countries to validate different types of educational assessments, including student learning assessments, measurements of non-cognitive aspects in students, teacher evaluations, and tests for certification and selection. It gathers the experience of validity studies from the main international assessments in Latin America (PISA, TIMSS, ERCE, and ICCS). Additionally, it shows the challenges that must be taken into account when evaluations are used to compare countries, groups or trends of achievement over time. The book builds on the premise that measurements in the educational field should not be used if there are no studies that support the validity of the interpretation of their scores, or the use made of such tests. It shows that, despite the recognition given to validity, relatively few educational measurement assessments have accumulated enough evidence to support their interpretation and use. In doing so, this volume increases awareness about the relevance of validity, especially when assessments are key component of educational policies.

To Hell and Back: The Life Story of an Austrian World War II Survivor is a unique, one-of-a-kind memoir. Author Maria Rosa takes us on a journey through time and history as she tells the true story of her harrowing experiences before, during, & after World War 2. Her adventures span the globe as Maria describes life as a little girl, a student, an adult, & finally as a grandmother. Emotionally charged drama alternates with historical narrative & comical anecdotes in Maria's extraordinary & entertaining narrative. Topics include: World War II - Anschluss or Nazi takeover of Austria - A child's view of the Holocaust - Salzburg & Mozart - Hitler's Eagle's Nest - Castles & cathedrals - Manhattan Freemasons - Motherhood, family, & education - Abusive marriage - Cuban Missile Crisis - Assassination of JFK - Apollo Moon Landing - Vietnam War - Major California earthquakes - Berlin Wall - Ronald Reagan Presidential Library ...and much more Compelling & educational, this eye opening book is a must read for all ages

Agroforestry has come of age during the past three decades. The age-old practice of growing trees and crops and sometimes animals in interacting combinations - that has been ignored in the single-commodity-oriented agricultural and forestry development paradigms - has been brought into the realm of modern land-use. Today agroforestry is well on its way to becoming a specialized science at a level similar to those of crop science and forestry science. To most land-use experts, however, agroforestry has a tropical connotation. They consider agroforestry as something that can and can only be identified with the tropics. That is a wrong perception. While it is true that the tropics, compared to the temperate regions, have a wider array of agroforestry systems and hold greater promise for potential agroforestry interventions, it is also true that agroforestry has several opportunities in the temperate regions too. Indeed, the role of agroforestry is now recognized in Europe as exemplified by this book, North America, and elsewhere in the temperate zone. Current interest in ecosystem management in industrialized countries strongly suggests that there is a need to embrace and apply agroforestry principles to help mitigate the environmental problems caused or exacerbated by commercial agricultural and forestry production enterprises.

This book presents some of the leading technical, professional, and political challenges associated with the development and implementation of teacher evaluation systems, along with characterizing some of these systems in different countries around the world. The book promotes a broader comprehension of the complexities associated with this kind of initiatives, which have gained relevance in the last two decades, especially in the context of policies aimed at improving the quality of education. The first section of the book includes conceptual chapters that will detail some of the central debates around teacher evaluation, such as a) performance evaluation versus teaching effectiveness; b) tensions between formative and summative uses of evaluation; c) relationship between evaluation and teacher professionalization; and d) political tensions around teacher evaluation. In the second section, the book addresses specific examples of national or state-wide initiatives in the field of teacher evaluation. For this section, the authors have invited contributions that reflect experiences in North America, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and Latin America. In each chapter, a teacher evaluation system is presented, including their main results and validity evidence, as well as the main challenges associated with its design and implementation. This wide-ranging presentation of teacher evaluation systems around the world is a valuable reference to understand the diverse challenges for the implementation of teacher evaluation programs. The presence of conceptual chapters with others that illustrate how teacher evaluation has been implemented in different contexts gives the reader a comprehensive view of the complex nature of teacher evaluation, considering their technical and political underpinnings. It is a valuable source for anyone interested in the design, improvement, and implementation of teacher evaluation systems.

Agroforestry seeks to balance protection of forest resources, the exploitation of the ecosystem services that trees can contribute to agriculture and the role of agroforestry in diversifying the range of agricultural products and markets. This volume reviews the latest research on the role and implementation of main types of agroforestry, understanding and assessing the ecosystem services that agroforestry can deliver and techniques for optimising agroforestry practice. The book's main focus is on temperate agroforestry, but also reviews particular issues facing agroforestry in the tropics. The collection will be a standard reference for forestry and agricultural scientists in universities, government and other research centres in agroforestry

Smart Polymers and Their Applications, Second Edition presents an up-to-date resource of information on the synthesis and properties of different types of smart polymers, including temperature, pH, electro, magnetic and photo-responsive polymers, amongst others. It is an ideal introduction to this field, as well as a review of the latest research in this area. Shape memory polymers, smart polymer hydrogels, and self-healing polymer systems are also explored. In addition, a very strong focus on applications of smart polymers is included for tissue engineering, smart polymer nanocarriers for drug delivery, and the use of smart polymers in medical devices. Additionally, the book covers the use of smart polymers for textile applications, packaging, energy storage, optical data storage, environmental protection, and more. This book is an ideal, technical resource for chemists, chemical engineers, materials scientists, mechanical engineers and other professionals in a range of industries.

Emmaus movement transnational movement ideas in different socio-political, economic, historical and linguistic contexts. sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, discourse studies, cultural studies, and sociology.

This book presents case studies to analyse the relationship between sustainability - environmental, social, institutional and economic - and digital innovation. The respective contributions offer a contextualisation of the main present and future trends concerning these two elements, and present analyses from economic, technical, managerial, and social perspectives alike. The individual sections of the book focus on interactions between sustainability and digital innovation in existing organisations and highlight the new opportunities, challenges and threats that may emerge as a result. The contributions are mainly based on case studies and research conducted in Europe and Africa, with a few focusing on Southeast Asia and Central America, and were prepared by experts in the fields of Information Systems, Computer Science, Social Development, and Economics.

Emmaus movement transnational movement ideas in different socio-political, economic, historical and linguistic contexts. sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, discourse studies, cultural studies, and sociology.

Smart polymers are polymers that respond to different stimuli or changes in the environment. "Smart Polymers and their Applications "reviews the types, synthesis, properties, and applications of smart polymers.

Chapters in part one focus on types of polymers, including temperature-, pH-, photo-, and enzyme-responsive polymers. Shape memory polymers, smart polymer hydrogels, and self-healing polymer systems are also explored. Part two highlights applications of smart polymers, including smart instructive polymer substrates for tissue engineering; smart polymer nanocarriers for drug delivery; the use of smart polymers in medical devices for minimally invasive surgery, diagnosis, and other applications; and smart polymers for bioseparation and other biotechnology applications. Further chapters discuss the use of smart polymers for textile and packaging applications, and for optical data storage.

"Smart Polymers and their Applications" is a technical resource for chemists, chemical engineers, mechanical engineers, and other professionals in the polymer industry; manufacturers in such sectors as medical, automotive, and aerospace engineering; and academic researchers in polymer science.
Reviews the different types of smart polymer, discussing their properties, structure, design, and characterizationReviews applications of smart polymers in such areas as biomedical engineering, textiles, and food packaging

The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature: The Literature of Al-Andalus explores the culture of Iberia from the eighth to the thirteenth century, and to the centuries following the Christian conquest, when Arabic continued to be used. While the focus is on literature, the study extends to the related fields of philosophy, art, architecture and music. Edited by an Arabist, a Hebraist and a Romance scholar, with individual chapters by a team of the world's leading experts in the field, this is a truly interdisciplinary and comparative work offering a radical new approach.

A fascinating history of a brilliant lost civilization with powerful lessons for the modern world.

"Once upon a time in the mid-eighth century, an intrepid young man named Abd al-Rahman abandoned his home in Damascus, the Near Eastern heartland of Islam, and set out across the North African desert in search of a place of refuge. Damascus had become a slaughterhouse for his family, the ruling Umayyads, who had first led the Muslims out of the desert of Arabia.... This sole survivor was undoubtedly too young—he was in his late teens or early twenties—to be terrified at the odds against him, nor was his flight westward, toward what was the farthest frontier of the Islamic territories, as arbitrary or hopeless as it might have seemed....

"This book tells the story of how this remarkable turn of events... powerfully affected the course of European history and civilization. Many aspects of the story are largely unknown and the extent of their continuing effects on the world around us is scarcely understood...."
-From The Ornament of the World

A portrait of the vibrant civilization of medieval Spain, The Ornament of the World is the story of an extraordinary place and time. Both history and literature often depict the Middle Ages as a dark and barbaric period, characterized by intellectual backwardness and religious persecution. Now María Rosa Menocal brings us an altogether different vision of medieval Europe, where tolerance was often the rule and literature, science, and art flourished in a climate of cultural openness.

The story begins as a young prince in exile—the last heir to a glorious Islamic dynasty—flees the massacre of his family and founds a new kingdom on the Iberian peninsula: al-Andalus. Combining the best of what Muslims, Jews, and Christians had to offer, al-Andalus and its successors influenced the rest of Europe in dramatic ways, giving it the first translations of Plato and Aristotle, the tradition of love songs and secular poetry, advances in mathematics, and outstanding feats of architecture and technology.

In a series of captivating vignettes, Menocal travels through time and space to reveal the often paradoxical events that shaped the Andalusian world and continue to affect our own. Along the way, we meet a host of intriguing characters: the brilliant and dedicated Jewish vizier of a powerful Muslim city-state; the Christian abbot who commissions the first translation of the Quran; the converted Jew who, under a Christian name, brings a first taste of Arabic scholarship and storytelling to northern Europe.

This rich and complex culture shared by the three faiths thrived, sometimes in the face of enmity and bigotry, for nearly seven hundred years. Ironically, it was on the eve of the Renaissance that puritanical forces finally triumphed over Spain's long-standing traditions of tolerance, ushering in a period of religious repression. In the centuries since, even the memory of the vital and sophisticated culture in which Muslims, Jews, and Christians once lived and worked side by side has largely been overlooked or obscured.

In this remarkable book, we can at last uncover and explore the lost history whose legacy is still with us in countless ways and whose lessons—both inspirational and cautionary-have a powerful resonance in today's world.

L’esperienza mediante esplorazione e la familiarità con l’ambiente migliorano la capacità di muoversi competentemente nel mondo. Questo libro intende potenziare il senso dell’orientamento fin dalla prima infanzia, proponendo esercizi eseguibili a scuola e a casa. La prima parte illustra le teorie sulla capacità navigazionale e sull’acquisizione di tale competenza, seguita da un’indagine sperimentale condotta su bambini di 4-7 anni per indagare lo sviluppo di differenti tipi di memoria implicati nell’orientamento. La seconda parte ha come protagonista un piccolo alieno “Kosmos� che si è perso sul nostro pianeta e ha bisogno di aiuto per imparare ad usare i prerequisiti di percezione visuo-spaziale, il linguaggio spaziale, la memoria di posizioni nell’ambiente, le rotazioni mentali e il riconoscimento di luoghi e oggetti da diverse prospettive. I bambini dovranno inoltre aiutare Kosmos a consultare delle mappe e a riprodurre dei percorsi all’interno di un ambiente virtuale.

The extraordinary breadth and depth of Leibniz's intellectual vision commands ever increasing attention. As more texts gradually emerge from seemingly bottomless archives, new facets of his contribution to an astonishing variety of fields come to light. This volume provides a uniquely comprehensive, systematic, and up-to-date appraisal of Leibniz's thought thematically organized around its diverse but interrelated aspects. Discussion of his philosophical system naturally takes place of pride. A cluster of original essays revisit his logic, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of nature, moral and political philosophy, and philosophy of religion. The scope of the volume, however, goes beyond that of a philosophical collection to embrace all the main features of Leibniz's thought and activity. Contributions are offered on Leibniz as a mathematician (including not only his calculus but also determinant theory, symmetric functions, the dyadic, the analysis situs, probability and statistics); on Leibniz as a scientist (physics and also optics, cosmology, geology, physiology, medicine, and chemistry); on his technical innovations (the calculating machine and the technology of mining, as well as other discoveries); on his work as an 'intelligencer' and cultural networker, as jurist, historian, editor of sources and librarian; on his views on Europe's political future, religious toleration, and ecclesiastical reunification; on his proposals for political, administrative, economic, and social reform. In so doing, the volume serves as a unique cross-disciplinary point of contact for the many domains to which Leibniz contributed. By assembling leading specialists on all these topics, it offers the most rounded picture of Leibniz's endeavors currently available.

Use these coloring pages to aid in meditation, concentration, and relaxation. Un libro con im�genes para colorear en la bÚsqueda de un espacio de meditaciÓn, concentraciÓn y relajaciÓn.

hombres que ame y se fueron. Como dijo Campoamor: El amor se transforma y no varia, un mismo amor puede tener mil nombres.

From Comfort Woman: "We began the day with breakfast, after which we swept and cleaned our rooms. Then we went to the bathroom downstairs to wash the only dress we had and to bathe. The bathroom did not even have a door, so the soldiers watched us. We were all naked, and they laughed at us, especially me and the other young girl who did not have any pubic hair. "At two, the soldiers came. My work began, and I lay down as one by one the soldiers raped me. Every day, anywhere from twelve to over twenty soldiers assaulted me. There were times when there were as many as thirty; they came to the garrison in truckloads." "I lay on the bed with my knees up and my feet on the mat, as if I were giving birth. Whenever the soldiers did not feel satisfied, they vented their anger on me. Every day, there were incidents of violence and humiliation. When the soldiers raped me, I felt like a pig. Sometimes they tied up my right leg with a waist band or a belt and hung it on a nail in the wall as they violated me. "I shook all over. I felt my blood turn white. I heard that there was a group called the Task Force on Filipino Comfort Women looking for women like me. I could not forget the words that blared out of the radio that day: 'Don't be ashamed, being a sex slave is not your fault. It is the responsibility of the Japanese Imperial Army. Stand up and fight for your rights.'" In April 1943, fifteen-year-old Maria Rosa Henson was taken by Japanese soldiers occupying the Philippines and forced into prostitution as a "comfort woman." In this simply told yet powerfully moving autobiography, Rosa recalls her childhood as the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy landowner, her work for Huk guerrillas, her wartime ordeal, and her marriage to a rebel leader who left her to raise their children alone. Her triumph against all odds is embodied by her decision to go public with the secret she had held close for fifty years. Now in a second edition with a new introduction and foreword that bring the ongoing controversy over the comfort women to the present, this powerful memoir will be essential reading for all those concerned with violence against women.

From Comfort Woman: "We began the day with breakfast, after which we swept and cleaned our rooms. Then we went to the bathroom downstairs to wash the only dress we had and to bathe. The bathroom did not even have a door, so the soldiers watched us. We were all naked, and they laughed at us, especially me and the other young girl who did not have any pubic hair. "At two, the soldiers came. My work began, and I lay down as one by one the soldiers raped me. Every day, anywhere from twelve to over twenty soldiers assaulted me. There were times when there were as many as thirty; they came to the garrison in truckloads." "I lay on the bed with my knees up and my feet on the mat, as if I were giving birth. Whenever the soldiers did not feel satisfied, they vented their anger on me. Every day, there were incidents of violence and humiliation. When the soldiers raped me, I felt like a pig. Sometimes they tied up my right leg with a waist band or a belt and hung it on a nail in the wall as they violated me. "I shook all over. I felt my blood turn white. I heard that there was a group called the Task Force on Filipino Comfort Women looking for women like me. I could not forget the words that blared out of the radio that day: 'Don't be ashamed, being a sex slave is not your fault. It is the responsibility of the Japanese Imperial Army. Stand up and fight for your rights.'" In April 1943, fifteen-year-old Maria Rosa Henson was taken by Japanese soldiers occupying the Philippines and forced into prostitution as a "comfort woman." In this simply told yet powerfully moving autobiography, Rosa recalls her childhood as the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy landowner, her work for Huk guerrillas, her wartime ordeal, and her marriage to a rebel leader who left her to raise their children alone. Her triumph against all odds is embodied by her decision to go public with the secret she had held close for fifty years. Now in a second edition with a new introduction and foreword that bring the ongoing controversy over the comfort women to the present, this powerful memoir will be essential reading for all those concerned with violence against women.

This book sheds new light on an amazing history, only partially known in the west: Russian cosmonautics and its spectacular record. From Laika, the cosmonaut dog, to Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, to Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, to the first spacewalk, the Soviets set many goals that they subsequently achieved. But there are shadows behind these headline moments, moments involving human loss, some of which are known, others only rumored. Questions remain, such as: * What was the "flying coffin"? * What secrets are still hidden inside the Russian archives, despite two rounds of declassification? * Why didn't Marina Popovich ("Madame Mig") become a cosmonaut? * What problems made it necessary to film Valentina Tereshkova's return? * What (scientific) hypotheses exist concerning Gagarin's mysterious disappearance? The author addresses all of these issues, with help from the documents now available. This book will benefit a broad readership, from interested laypersons to graduate and undergraduate students to those who merely enjoy good history-based stories.

This edited volume presents a systematic analysis of conceptual, methodological and applied aspects related to the validation of educational tests used in Latin American countries. Inspired by international standards on educational measurement and evaluation, this book illustrates efforts that have been made in several countries to validate different types of educational assessments, including student learning assessments, measurements of non-cognitive aspects in students, teacher evaluations, and tests for certification and selection. It gathers the experience of validity studies from the main international assessments in Latin America (PISA, TIMSS, ERCE, and ICCS). Additionally, it shows the challenges that must be taken into account when evaluations are used to compare countries, groups or trends of achievement over time. The book builds on the premise that measurements in the educational field should not be used if there are no studies that support the validity of the interpretation of their scores, or the use made of such tests. It shows that, despite the recognition given to validity, relatively few educational measurement assessments have accumulated enough evidence to support their interpretation and use. In doing so, this volume increases awareness about the relevance of validity, especially when assessments are key component of educational policies.

Las investigaciones que articulan este volumen se vinculan con todo aquello que se refiere al monacato femenino en America y en la peninsula iberica. La pluralidad de perspectivas, que abarcan multitud de disciplinas humanisticas (arte, archivistica, arquitectura, cine, historia, literatura, etc.), es el componente esencial de la seleccion de los trabajos que configuran Desde el clamoroso silencio. Asimismo, la gran variedad de temas abordados revela su importancia aun desde una perspectiva cronotopica, puesto que se analiza el monacato femenino en America, Espana y Portugal, desde la Edad Media hasta la actualidad. El contenido de este monografico, pues, evidencia la relevancia y el valor que la vida monacal suponia para las mujeres del ambito luso-hispano.

"Eroticism, it seems to me, is something hidden, something that doesn't come out, doesn't let itself be discovered. In those places where it announces itself, where it is put on view and put on sale, it is not to be found . . . so as to appear later, even slyly, in a place where no one expected to seek it, ambiguous and crafty, furtive and fitting."--from "The Zipper" by Dacia Maraini
For centuries, the stereotypical image of the voluptuous Italian woman has served as an object of desire for Western man: from the paintings of Venetian courtesans who modeled for the erotically charged canvases of Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto, to nineteenth-century reports of the beautiful dancer Marie Taglioni, to the twentieth-century cinematic images of Sophia Loren and Dominique Sanda.
Now Italian women have turned the tables. In this volume, acclaimed novelist Maria Rosa Cutrufelli brings together fourteen short erotic stories by contemporary Italian women writers. Well-established voices are juxtaposed with new ones; traditional forms provide a contrast with the experimental. In Sandra Petrignani's dialogue "Body," a women and a former lover engage in a heady debate about desire and indifference; Margherita Giacobino delivers a tale of lesbian desire, a theme uncommon in Italian literature; Dacia Maraini writes on the literature of eroticism penned by women writers that ingeniously manages to be erotic in its own right; and Rossana Campo offers a hip-rattling tri-logue on love voiced by three super-cool adolescents. In her introductory essay on the nature of desire and seduction, Cutrufelli draws in writers such as Jean Baudrillard, Angela Carter, and Georges Bataille. Available for thefirst time in English, "In the Forbidden City" constitutes a breakthrough volume in literary erotica that is both profound and engaging.

It's amazing how 100 keywords and phrases provide instant communication! Do you want to speak simple Tagalog but are too busy to study it? Are you visiting the Philippines for a short time and want a Tagalog phrasebook to help you communicate? If so, this is the book for you--it's the quickest and easiest way to learn the most common Filipino language. Its tiny 0.4 x 4.1 x 5.9 inches size makes it incredibly convenient to travel with but without losing any essential content. The idea of Instant Tagalog is simple--learn 100 words and phrases and say 1,000 things. The trick is knowing which 100 words to learn, but the authors Jan Gaspi and Sining Marfori have solved the problem, choosing only those words you'll hear again and again. Even with a vocabulary this small, you'll be surprised how quickly and fluently you too can communicate in the Tagalog language. Added features include an easy-to-use pronunciation guide and Tagalog dictionary for quick reference. Here's a sample of what you'll be able to do: Meet people. Go shopping. Ask directions. Ride the subway. Order food and drinks. And much more.