Andreev reflection at point contacts with heavy-fermion UBe13 ?

We comment on a recent Letter by Waelti et al. (PRL 84, 5616 (2000)) on 'Spectroscopic evidence for unconventional superconductivity in UBe13'. We show - by using the basic Wexler formula - that it is unlikely to observe Andreev reflection at point contacts between UBe13 and a normal metal. The large superconducting anomalies usually found for those contacts are mainly due to the resistive Maxwell resistance vanishing below Tc of UBe13.Comment: 1 page, no figures, RevTeX, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Teaching Approaches: Theory and Practice

While according to some authors, teaching approach is the way of teaching students, implying the kinds of teaching and learning activities that a teacher conducts and the ways in which teacher engages students with the subject matter, other authors use this term to refer to the way of teaching, which can take the form of a lecture, tutorial, or laboratory work. The paper first focuses in particular on the theoretical understandings of teacher-centered and student-centered approaches, executive, facilitator, and liberationist teaching approaches, as well as lecture, direct instruction, and group discussion. These theories are then examined in regard to teaching approaches in Kazakhstan, whose educational system has recently undergone significant changes, moving from traditional to a more competence-based type of education, thereby encouraging students to develop the ability to apply the knowledge and experience in order to solve problems. By examining these theories and their application in Kazakhstan, it is hoped to shed light on the areas for further growth and improvement

In defense of the student-centered approach: responding to a critical review

What can be more rewarding than having your article published and read? It is, of course, having it critiqued. I do think that if your work has motivated others to think and create something of their own, writing it was not in vain. Therefore, I was extremely delighted to see a critical response to my article in the December 2017 edition of NUGSERIE, written by Serik Ivatov. In my opinion, this is a very well-written article, which makes many valuable points. However, as having academic discourse is almost as enjoyable as writing articles, I have decided to address some of the comments Ivatov makes in his article. In his critical response, Ivatov gradually analyzes the main points that have been made in the article, as well as gives his suggestions regarding the areas that could be improved. In this article I will follow the same order to make it easier for readers to review both articles

Teaching Approaches: Theory and Practice

While according to some authors, teaching approach is the way of teaching students, implying the kinds of teaching and learning activities that a teacher conducts and the ways in which teacher engages students with the subject matter, other authors use this term to refer to the way of teaching, which can take the form of a lecture, tutorial, or laboratory work. The paper first focuses in particular on the theoretical understandings of teacher-centered and student-centered approaches, executive, facilitator, and liberationist teaching approaches, as well as lecture, direct instruction, and group discussion. These theories are then examined in regard to teaching approaches in Kazakhstan, whose educational system has recently undergone significant changes, moving from traditional to a more competence-based type of education, thereby encouraging students to develop the ability to apply the knowledge and experience in order to solve problems. By examining these theories and their application in Kazakhstan, it is hoped to shed light on the areas for further growth and improvement

Investigating the Effectiveness of Private Small Group Tutoring of English in Kazakhstan: Perceptions of Tutors and Students

The main focus of education studies has been on mainstream schools and institutions. However, the growing phenomenon of private tutoring has been largely overlooked by scholars. In Kazakhstan, numerous specialists offer private tutoring, and the tendency to supplement mainstream schooling continues to grow. The actual effectiveness of private tutoring, meanwhile, remains an open question. Since the study of English language is the most popular among the various subjects offered by tutors, this research studies the effectiveness of private tutoring of English and the way it can – or cannot – complement school education. This qualitative study explores the experiences of five private tutors and five privately tutored small groups of high-school students at private tutoring facilities in Astana, based on data obtained from semi-structured individual face-to-face and focus group interviews. The results of the study indicate that private tutoring is effective in enhancing students’ knowledge of English, as well as serves as a remedial purpose by helping students to form the knowledge required by mainstream schools. However, it should be noted that for other tutored subjects the situation may be different. Also, the results of the research may not be representative for the whole country due to the small size of the sample

Continuous Monocyclic and Polycyclic Age Structured Models of Population Dynamics

This paper focuses on the study of continuous age-structured models, or more general, physiologically structured models, which used for detailed and accurate study of population dynamics in many ecological, biological applications and medicine. In contrast to simpler unstructured models, these models allow us to relate the individual life-histories described as fertility and mortality rates of an individual at a given age with population dynamics. Depending from the particularity of reproduction mechanism continuous age-structured models are divided into monocyclic (reproduction occurs only at the one fixed age of individuals) and polycyclic (reproduction occurs with age-dependent probability at some age reproductive window) models. The linear monocyclic age-structured models are used often in cell cycles modelling, in population dynamics of plants, etc. In this case continuous age-structured models allow for obtaining the exact analytical solution. Since the linear and non-linear polycyclic age-structured models are more general then monocyclic models, they coverwider  range of applications in life science. But in this case solution of model can be obtained only in the form of recurrent formulae and can be used only in numerical algorithms. Both solutions obtained in this work allow us to study numerically the important dynamical regimes population outbreaks of three types: oscillations with large magnitude, pulse sequence and single pulse. Thus, analysis of continuous age-structured models of population dynamics provides insight into features and particularities of complex dynamical regimes of populations in many applications in biology, ecology and medicine

Isolation, culture, and differentiation of Blastema cells from the regenerating caudal fin of zebrafish

The caudal fin of teleost fish has become an excellent system for investigating the mechanisms of epimorphic regeneration. Upon amputation of the caudal fin, a mass of undi erentiated cells, called blastema, proliferate beneath the wound-epidermis and di erentiate into various cell types to faithfully restore the missing fin structures. Here we describe a protocol that can be used to isolate and culture blastema cells from zebrafish. Primary cultures were initiated from 36 h post-amputation (hpa) blastema and optimal cell growth was achieved using L-15 medium supplemented with 5% fetal bovine serum in plates either coated with fibronectin or uncoated. After seeding, zebrafish blastema cells formed a uniform culture and exhibited polygonal shapes with prominent nucleus, while various cell types were also observed after few days in culture indicating cell di erentiation. Upon treatment with all-trans retinoic acid, zebrafish blastema cells di erentiated into neuron-like and oligodendritic-like cells. Immunocytochemistry data also revealed the presence of mesenchymal and neuronal cells. The availability of blastema cell cultures could contribute to a better understanding of epimorphic regeneration by providing a mean to investigate the mechanisms underlying blastema cell di erentiation. Furthermore, this protocol is simple, rapid, and cost-e cient, and can be virtually applied to the development of any fish blastema cell culture.FP7/227799; UID/Multi/04326/2019info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Margin to Margin: Arts-Based Research for Digital Outreach to Marginalised Communities

This article discusses the artistic activity titled ‘Conversations with the edge’ that was executed by communities in Australia, Russia and Finland, and curated for an exhibition at the Helinä Rautavaara Museum in Espoo, Finland in 2017. This activity was created in the context of Margin to Margin: Women living on the edges of the world, a larger arts-based research project that took place between four geographical margins: outback South Australia, Finnish Lapland, Russian Kola Peninsula and Namibia. Margin to Margin was a collaboration between artist communities with the aim to explore the relationship between art-making and empowerment of makers living and working ‘on the edges’. The aim of the project was to understand the realities marginalised communities face whilst giving voice to these communities by exhibiting their art in various formats, stimulating digital participation and utilising technology for digital inclusion. The purpose of the article is to develop a model that will guide virtual arts-based project mediation for digital outreach in both urban and regionally situated marginalised communities