Reflective Writing as a Tool to Assess Affective Domain A Case Study of Educational Field Trip in a Linguistic Anthropology Course

The three domains of learning - cognitive, affective and psychomotor, are equally important for the development of students. While the cognitive domain focuses on the mental skills and knowledge acquisition, and the psychomotor domain centres on the development of motor skills, coordination and physical movement, the affective domain, on the other hand, focuses on the feelings, values, attitudes, motivation and interest of a learner. However, due to the difficulty in measuring the elements in the affective domain of learning, most instructional and assessment scheme mainly focused on the cognitive and psychomotor domains. The purpose of this study was to measure the affective learning domain based on students’ reflection writings, before and after a planned educational field trip in a Linguistic Anthropology course. 41 reflective writings were analysed using a content analysis approach. The analysis of the reflective writings revealed that learning occurred at all levels of the affective domains. However, while the majority of students achieved the two levels of receiving and responding to phenomena, not all students were able to achieve the three higher levels of the affective domain which are valuing, organization and internalizing values (characterisation)

Older adult listeners’ perception on the language used and quality of the programme at Wai FM Iban

Community radio is still relevant in today's world despite the rapid changes taking place in communication information technology. It is a faster platform for disseminating information apart from other traditional media, mobile phone and the Internet. In Sarawak, Wai FM Iban is popular among the Iban community especially those living in rural areas. This is because it is the fastest way for the local community to obtain information. This study aims to examine how older adult listeners of Wai FM Iban evaluate the language used by the broadcasters and the quality of radio programmes produced by the radio station. As listening to the radio has become a daily activity among Iban community, Wai FM Iban has a vital role to play in disseminating information to the Iban community throughout Sarawak. It plays a role to ensure proper and correct Iban language is used on air. This study employs a qualitative approach where focus group discussion is used for data collection. Findings show that older listeners of Wai FM Iban are concerned about the use of code-mixing and code-switching among broadcasters that would lead to the deterioration of the language. Findings also indicated that older adult listeners are concerned about the quality of language used and programmes produced by the radio station. As the custodian of Iban language, custom and tradition, they believed that the language used by the broadcasters will determine the quality of programmes produced by the radio station

Fluorescence optical imaging feature selection with machine learning for differential diagnosis of selected rheumatic diseases

Background and objectiveAccurate and fast diagnosis of rheumatic diseases affecting the hands is essential for further treatment decisions. Fluorescence optical imaging (FOI) visualizes inflammation-induced impaired microcirculation by increasing signal intensity, resulting in different image features. This analysis aimed to find specific image features in FOI that might be important for accurately diagnosing different rheumatic diseases.Patients and methodsFOI images of the hands of patients with different types of rheumatic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis (OA), and connective tissue diseases (CTD), were assessed in a reading of 20 different image features in three phases of the contrast agent dynamics, yielding 60 different features for each patient. The readings were analyzed for mutual differential diagnosis of the three diseases (One-vs-One) and each disease in all data (One-vs-Rest). In the first step, statistical tools and machine-learning-based methods were applied to reveal the importance rankings of the features, that is, to find features that contribute most to the model-based classification. In the second step machine learning with a stepwise increasing number of features was applied, sequentially adding at each step the most crucial remaining feature to extract a minimized subset that yields the highest diagnostic accuracy.ResultsIn total, n = 605 FOI of both hands were analyzed (n = 235 with RA, n = 229 with OA, and n = 141 with CTD). All classification problems showed maximum accuracy with a reduced set of image features. For RA-vs.-OA, five features were needed for high accuracy. For RA-vs.-CTD ten, OA-vs.-CTD sixteen, RA-vs.-Rest five, OA-vs.-Rest eleven, and CTD-vs-Rest fifteen, features were needed, respectively. For all problems, the final importance ranking of the features with respect to the contrast agent dynamics was determined.ConclusionsWith the presented investigations, the set of features in FOI examinations relevant to the differential diagnosis of the selected rheumatic diseases could be remarkably reduced, providing helpful information for the physician

Domain Ketakutan Bahasa Halus Masyarakat Iban Sebuyau, Sarawak: Satu Analisis Metafora Konseptual

This paper examines the use of subtle language or euphemisms in the fear domain of the Iban Sebuyau community, Sarawak. The data of this qualitative study was obtained through a field study, involving 10 Iban informants who are permanent residents in the district of Sebuyau, aged between 40-70 years. The study informants consisted of five males and five females. Structured interview method was conducted to obtain data from the fear domain, guided by questions related to the element of fear of a concrete and abstract entity. The five data analyzed in this paper are akar kayu’ (wood root), jelu sungkur (shovel animal), aki’ (grandfather), utai terebai (flying object), and bisi’ orang (the presence of people). The Conceptual Metaphor approach from the cognitive semantic framework applied in the data analysis of this study succeeded in unraveling the cognitive relationship based on the knowledge and experience of the speaker with the lexical euphemisms of Iban Sebuyau. This study provides an important contribution to the vocabulary of knowledge, in addition to explain the use of euphemisms in this domain as one of the forms of figurative language that is important and significant in the daily communication of the Iban Sebuyau community. Keywords - euphemisms; Iban Sebuyau; Conceptual Metaphors; fear domain Abstrak Makalah ini mengkaji penggunaan bahasa halus atau eufemisme dalam domain ketakutan masyarakat Iban Sebuyau, Sarawak. Data kajian kualitatif ini diperoleh menerusi kajian lapangan, melibatkan 10 orang informan yang merupakan penduduk tetap di daerah Sebuyau, berusia antara 40-70 tahun dan berbangsa Iban. Informan kajian terdiri daripada lima orang lelaki dan lima orang perempuan untuk keseimbangan data dari segi jantina. Kaedah temu bual berstruktur dijalankan untuk mendapatkan data daripada domain ketakutan, berpandukan soalan-soalan berkaitan unsur ketakutan terhadap sesuatu entiti konkrit dan abstrak. Lima data yang dianalisis dalam makalah ini ialah akar kayu’ (akar kayu), jelu sungkur (haiwan sungkur), aki’ (datuk), utai terebai (benda yang terbang), dan bisi’ orang (ada orang). Pendekatan Metafora Konseptual daripada kerangka semantik kognitif yang diaplikasikan dalam analisis data kajian ini berhasil untuk merungkai perkaitan kognitif berdasarkan pengetahuan dan pengalaman penutur dengan leksikal bahasa halus Iban Sebuyau. Kajian ini memberi satu sumbangan yang penting kepada kosa ilmu, di samping dapat menjelaskan bahawa penggunaan bahasa halus dalam domain ini merupakan antara satu bentuk bahasa kiasan yang penting dan signifikan dalam komunikasi harian masyarakat Iban Sebuyau. Kata kunci - bahasa halus; Iban Sebuyau; Metafora Konseptual; domain ketakuta

Metafora Konseptual Dalam Bahasa Halus Masyarakat Iban Sebuyau, Sarawak

Penyelidikan ini dijalankan untuk mengenal pasti kosa kata bahasa halus yang terdapat dalam masyarakat Iban Sebuyau, Sarawak. Kajian ini menerapkan pendekatan metafora konseptual (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) untuk menganalisis bahasa halus tersebut dan penyelidikan ini menjadi sandaran untuk melihat hubungan budaya dengan bahasa halus masyarakat Iban Sebuyau. Kajian ini menerapkan kaedah kualitatif, iaitu melalui temu bual berstruktur untuk mendapatkan data melalui 10 orang informan perempuan dan 10 orang informan lelaki. Hasilnya, kajian ini memperoleh 20 data melalui empat domain, iaitu domain ketakutan, kematian, kepercayaan, dan kejantinaan. Pendekatan metafora konseptual yang disarankan oleh Lakoff dan Johnson (1980) menunjukkan data bagi domain kejantinaan bahasa halus masyarakat Iban Sebuyau, iaitu beganti (berganti), betubuh bisi’ (ada isi), betubuh dua (berbadan dua), bungai layu’ (bunga layu), dan rumbau (tidak berbuah) mempunyai hubungan yang sangat rapat dengan kepercayaan masyarakat Iban. Hubungan bahasa halus dengan konteks budaya masyarakat Iban Sebuyau juga menunjukkan sistem kepercayaan dan menghormati alam lain amat dititikberatkan dalam setiap tutur kata

BENTUK DAN PENGGUNAAN BAHASA HALUS DALAM MASYARAKAT MELAYU DAN IBAN DI SARAWAK

Kajian ini meneliti aspek kesantunan bahasa dalam masyarakat Melayu Sarawak dan Iban di daerah Kuching dan Samarahan, khususnya dalam penggunaan bahasa halus atau eufemisme. Objektif khusus kajian adalah untuk meneliti bentuk eufemisme yang wujud dan digunakan dalam masyarakat Melayu Sarawak dan Iban, dan juga melihat sejauh mana eufemisme tersebut digunakan dalam kedua-dua masyarakat tersebut. Data kajian diperoleh menerusi kaedah soal selidik, melibatkan responden seramai 50 orang bagi setiap kaum. Soalan dirangka mengikut beberapa domain daripada pengkategorian eufemisme oleh Allan dan Burridge (1991), iaitu hal kewanitaan dan kelelakian, kemarahan/makian/kebencian, penyakit, kematian, dan ketakutan berunsurkan haiwan serta makhluk halus. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan penggunaan bahasa halus secara sederhana adalah tinggi, iaitu bagi golongan penutur berusia 40 tahun ke bawah, melibatkan kedua-dua masyarakat. Penutur juga didapati memahami perkataan dan ujaran bahasa halus walaupun ia tidak bersifat langsung. Kajian ini juga dapat memperjelas bentuk bahasa halus yang wujud dan tahap penggunaannya dalam masyarakat Melayu Sarawak dan Iban, selain memaparkan latar budaya masyarakat penutur yang kaya dengan kehalusan bahasanya

Eufemisme dan Cerminan Budaya Masyarakat Melayu Sarawak

Eufemisme atau bahasa halus umumnya digunakan dengan tujuan untuk mengurangkan kekasaran dalam berbahasa di samping menjaga keharmonian hubungan antara penutur. Penggunaan eufemisme wujud merentas budaya dan bahasa, dan kajian berkenaan eufemisme yang lahir dari kajian kesantunan dan strategi berbahasa banyak dijalankan oleh Keith Allan dan Kate Burridge. Kajian berkenaan kesantunan turut banyak dijalankan di Malaysia namun terdapat kelompangan dalam kajian eufemisme yang memfokus kepada kaum di Borneo. Masyarakat Borneo meliputi Sabah dan Sarawak dan antara kaum yang menitikberatkan hal kesantunan dalam berbahasa termasuklah kaum Melayu. Makalah ini akan meneliti perihal eufemisme dalam kalangan masyarakat Melayu Sarawak dengan mengaitkan penggunaan eufemisme tersebut vis-à-vis budaya pemiliknya. Kajian lapangan dengan kaedah soal selidik dijalankan di daerah Kuching melibatkan 50 orang penutur jati Melayu Sarawak dan memanfaatkan item yang dirangka berpandukan pangkategorian eufemisme Allan &Burridge (1991). Dapatan kajian mengupas amalan dan senario penggunaan eufemisme dalam kalangan masyarakat Melayu Sarawak turut merumuskan keakraban amalan kebahasaan dengan kepercayaan yang dipegang erat oleh penuturnya. Kata Kunci: Eufemisme; bahasa halus; budaya; Melayu Sarawak; amalan bahas

Image recognition of multi-perspective data for intelligent analysis of gestures and actions

The BERMUDA project started in January 2015 and was successfully completed after less than three years in August 2017. A technical set-up and an image processing and analysis software were developed to record and evaluate multi-perspective videos. Based on two cameras, positioned relatively far from one another with tilted axes, synchronized videos were recorded in the laboratory and in real life. The evaluation comprised the background elimination, the body part classification, the clustering, the assignment to persons and eventually the reconstruction of the skeletons. Based on the skeletons, machine learning techniques were developed to recognize the poses of the persons and next for the actions performed. It was, for example, possible to detect the action of a punch, which is relevant in security issues, with a precision of 51.3 % and a recall of 60.6 %.Das Projekt BERMUDA konnte im Januar 2015 begonnen und nach knapp drei Jahren im August 2017 erfolgreich abgeschlossen werden. Es wurden ein technischer Aufbau und eine Bildverarbeitungs- und Analysesoftware entwickelt, mit denen sich multiperspektivische Videos aufzeichnen und auswerten lassen. Basierend auf zwei in größerem Abstand gewinkelt positionierten Kameras wurden synchrone Videos sowohl im Labor als auch in realen Umgebungen aufgenommen. Die Auswertung umfasst die Hintergrundeliminierung, die Körperteilklassifikation, ein Clustering, die Zuordnung zu Personen und schließlich die Rekonstruktion der Skelette. Ausgehend von den Skeletten wurden Methoden des maschinellen Lernens zur Erkennung der Haltungen und darauf aufbauend zur Gestenerkennung entwickelt. Beispielhaft konnte die im Sicherheitskontext relevante Handlung des Schlagens mit einer Genauigkeit von 51,3 % und einer Trefferquote von 60,6 % erkannt werden