Students’ Pedagogic and Professional Competencies in Teaching Practice Program

The research aims to describe pedagogical and professional competencies of students who enroll at the department of Islamic elementary education at Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teacher Training UIN Imam Bonjol Padang. A mixed method was implemented where the data collected through observation, interviews, questionnaires, and documentation. The results of the study on aspects of pedagogical competence was at the level of very good (82.4%). It was also found that the criteria to master the characteristics of students from the physical, moral, spiritual, social, cultural, emotional, and intellectual aspects were very good (80%), carrying out educational learning was very good (81%), facilitating the development of potential students to actualize various potentials which was very good (83%), communicating effectively, empathically, and politely with 88% of students (very good), and in evaluating and evaluating 80% (very good). While professional competence was with a value of 78.3% (good). Among the mastery of teaching material 78.5% (good), the use of learning media 77.5% (good), as well as contextual material or connecting teaching materials with the daily life of students 79% (good). The study recommended that prospective educators further improve pedagogical and professional competencies, often take part in training activities, practice teaching simulations. For the department of Islamic elementary education should be more professional to guide students during teaching practice programme activities, and lectures, especially in the field of teacher competency development

METODE BRAINSTORMING TERHADAP KEMAMPUAN BERPIKIR KRITIS PESERTA DIDIK PADA PEMBELAJARAN TEMATIK DI MI/SD: STUDI ANALISIS

Penelitian ingun pendeskripsikan langkah, kendala dan peran metode brainstorming dalam meningkatkan kemampuan berpikir kritis peserta didik kelas V pada pembelajaran tematik terpadu. Metode penelitian Library Research (Penelitian Kepustakaan). Metode brainstorming masih menemukan kendala dalam proses pembelajaran, seperti pertama meluasnya topik pembahasan karena munculnya pendapat yang berbeda, kedua menghabiskan banyak waktu pada sesi curah pendapat; ketiga, peserta didik yang kurang aktif berpeluang untuk tertinggal khususnya saat sesi curah pendapat. Beberapa alternatif mengatasi hal itu dengan pertama, guru harus memberi batasan ketika proses curah pendapat; kedua, guru harus membagi waktu setiap sesi kegiatan khususnya brainstorming sehingga dapat terpenuhi tujuan pembelajaran; ketiga, guru harus mengambil peran utama untuk proses partisipasi aktif peserta didik. Maka adanya metode brainstorming memiliki peran penting untuk meningkatkan kemampuan berpikir kritis peserta didik kelas V pada pembelajaran tematik terpadu di MI/SD yang dibuktikan dengan selisih perolehan nilai rata-rata pretest dan posttest, dan capaian indikator berpikir kritis melalui kegiatan pembelajaran pada setiap sesi kegiatan metode brainstorming

Maternal and perinatal factors associated with hospitalised infectious mononucleosis in children, adolescents and young adults: record linkage study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is current interest in the role of perinatal factors in the aetiology of diseases that occur later in life. Infectious mononucleosis (IM) can follow late primary infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), and has been shown to increase the risk of multiple sclerosis and Hodgkin's disease. Little is known about maternal or perinatal factors associated with IM or its sequelae.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We investigated perinatal risk factors for hospitalised IM using a prospective record-linkage study in a population in the south of England. The dataset used, the Oxford record linkage study (ORLS), includes abstracts of birth registrations, maternities and in-patient hospital records, including day case care, for all subjects in a defined geographical area. From these sources, we identified cases of hospitalised IM up to the age of 30 years in people for whom the ORLS had a maternity record; and we compared perinatal factors in their pregnancy with those in the pregnancy of children who had no hospital record of IM.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our data showed a significant association between hospitalised IM and lower social class (p = 0.02), a higher risk of hospitalised IM in children of married rather than single mothers (p < 0.001), and, of marginal statistical significance, an association with singleton birth (p = 0.06). The ratio of observed to expected cases of hospitalised IM in each season was 0.95 in winter, 1.02 in spring, 1.02 in summer and 1.00 in autumn. The chi-square test for seasonality, with a value of 0.8, was not significant.</p> <p>Other factors studied, including low birth weight, short gestational age, maternal smoking, late age at motherhood, did not increase the risk of subsequent hospitalised IM.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Because of the increasing tendency of women to postpone childbearing, it is useful to know that older age at motherhood is not associated with an increased risk of hospitalised IM in their children. We have no explanation for the finding that children of married women had a higher risk of IM than those of single mothers. Though highly significant, it may nonetheless be a chance finding. We found no evidence that such perinatal factors as birth weight and gestational age, or season of birth, were associated with the risk of hospitalised IM.</p

Clinical oxidative stress during leprosy multidrug therapy:impact of dapsone oxidation

This study aims to assess the oxidative stress in leprosy patients under multidrug therapy (MDT; dapsone, clofazimine and rifampicin), evaluating the nitric oxide (NO) concentration, catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities, glutathione (GSH) levels, total antioxidant capacity, lipid peroxidation, and methemoglobin formation. For this, we analyzed 23 leprosy patients and 20 healthy individuals from the Amazon region, Brazil, aged between 20 and 45 years. Blood sampling enabled the evaluation of leprosy patients prior to starting multidrug therapy (called MDT 0) and until the third month of multidrug therapy (MDT 3). With regard to dapsone (DDS) plasma levels, we showed that there was no statistical difference in drug plasma levels between multibacillary (0.518±0.029 μg/mL) and paucibacillary (0.662±0.123 μg/mL) patients. The methemoglobin levels and numbers of Heinz bodies were significantly enhanced after the third MDTsupervised dose, but this treatment did not significantly change the lipid peroxidation and NO levels in these leprosy patients. In addition, CAT activity was significantly reduced in MDT-treated leprosy patients, while GSH content was increased in these patients. However, SOD and Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity levels were similar in patients with and without treatment. These data suggest that MDT can reduce the activity of some antioxidant enzyme and influence ROS accumulation, which may induce hematological changes, such as methemoglobinemia in patients with leprosy. We also explored some redox mechanisms associated with DDS and its main oxidative metabolite DDS-NHOH and we explored the possible binding of DDS to the active site of CYP2C19 with the aid of molecular modeling software

Study on properties of rice husk ash and its use as cement replacement material

This paper investigates the properties of rice husk ash (RHA) produced by using a ferro-cement furnace. The effect of grinding on the particle size and the surface area was first investigated, then the XRD analysis was conducted to verify the presence of amorphous silica in the ash. Furthermore, the effect of RHA average particle size and percentage on concrete workability, fresh density, superplasticizer (SP) content and the compressive strength were also investigated. Although grinding RHA would reduce its average particle size (APS), it was not the main factor controlling the surface area and it is thus resulted from RHA's multilayered, angular and microporous surface. Incorporation of RHA in concrete increased water demand. RHA concrete gave excellent improvement in strength for 10% replacement (30.8% increment compared to the control mix), and up to 20% of cement could be valuably replaced with RHA without adversely affecting the strength. Increasing RHA fineness enhanced the strength of blended concrete compared to coarser RHA and control OPC mixtures

A Mouse Model for Degeneration of the Spiral Ligament

Previous studies have indicated the importance of the spiral ligament (SL) in the pathogenesis of sensorineural hearing loss. The aim of this study was to establish a mouse model for SL degeneration as the basis for the development of new strategies for SL regeneration. We injected 3-nitropropionic acid (3-NP), an inhibitor of succinate dehydrogenase, at various concentrations into the posterior semicircular canal of adult C57BL/6 mice. Saline-injected animals were used as controls. Auditory function was monitored by measurements of auditory brain stem responses (ABRs). On postoperative day 14, cochlear specimens were obtained after the measurement of the endocochlear potential (EP). Animals that were injected with 5 or 10 mM 3-NP showed a massive elevation of ABR thresholds along with extensive degeneration of the cochleae. Cochleae injected with 1 mM 3-NP exhibited selective degeneration of the SL fibrocytes but alterations in EP levels and ABR thresholds were not of sufficient magnitude to allow for testing functional recovery after therapeutic interventions. Animals injected with 3 mM 3-NP showed a reduction of around 50% in the EP along with a significant loss of SL fibrocytes, although degeneration of spiral ganglion neurons and hair cells was still present in certain regions. These findings indicate that cochleae injected with 3 mM 3-NP may be useful in investigations designed to test the feasibility of new therapeutic manipulations for functional SL regeneration