Development of Data Processing Skills of Physics Students in Intermediate Laboratory Course

Peer reviewe

The Relationship between Physical Growth and Infant Behavioral Development in Rural Guatemala

The present study investigated the relationship between a number of anthropometric indices and behavioral development during the first 2 years of life in rural Guatemala. Length and weight were the indices most strongly correlated with behavioral development. If the effect of the infant\u27s length and weight was statistically controlled for, none of the other anthropometric variables explained a significant proportion of the variance in behavioral development. Con- trolling for length (or weight) assessed at the same age as the behavioral assessment, length (or weight) for younger ages was not significantly correlated with behavioral development. Changes in length or weight over time were correlated with changes in behavioral performance. We were unable to explain the association between physical growth and behavioral development by a number of variables including gestational age, nutrient intake, prevalence of disease, and familial characteristics

Peningkatan Kemampuan Public Speaking melalui Metode Pelatihan Anggota Forum Komunikasi Remaja Islam

Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners. Speaking in front of audience is not an easy task. It needs a good speaking skill. Fear and nervousness become major problem, especially for beginners who have not experienced in public speaking. This also occurs in members of the Muslim Youth Forum Gayamsari (Foksari). Their speaking competence is inadequate. That is why Public Speaking training activity is held. It is expexted to improve their skills. This activity is performed in two stages, namely the delivery of content and practice. Based on the evaluation, the results obtained are very significant. The existence of enthusiastic participants indicates that they are very interested. Besides, there is a seriousness of the participants who attend a series of events organized by the team from beginning to end

Coping Manufactured Technique of Spinell Slip Cast All Ceramic by Conventional Methods and Cad/cam

Background: Ceramic restorations is divided into two kindsnamelyPorcelain Fused to Metal (PFM) and all-ceramic restorations. In ceram spinell is one of the materials needed for manufacturing anterior coping of all ceramic which has better aesthetic than in other in ceram. Methods which have been done are Conventional Slip Cast by application of spinell paste on refractory die manually and CAD/CAM computer-based technique. The difference of mentioned previously methods is few step-in slips cast methods can be performed only by one step CAD/CAM methods. Objective: To discover the differences between Conventional Slip Cast methods and CAD/ CAM methods. Review: Application of CAD/CAM methods has few advantages compared to conventional methods. Since few step-in conventional methods can be performed only one step in CAD/CAM methods. Conclusion: In order to shorten the time in manufacturing spinell all-ceramic, the dental technician may use CAD/CAM methods. Few advantages of CAD/CAM methods compare to slip cast methods are not necessary to do die to block out, die duplication, wetting agent spraying, vitasonic and ultrasonic USAge, giving border by ink pen for determining application border, preparing spinell paste for coping application. Those steps all can be performed only by scanning, design, and milling by CAD/CAM methods. Besides that, coping result produced by CAD/ CAM methods has good accuracy due to spinell block utilization which has better homogenous composition

Seven Steps Towards the Classical World

Classical physics is about real objects, like apples falling from trees, whose motion is governed by Newtonian laws. In standard Quantum Mechanics only the wave function or the results of measurements exist, and to answer the question of how the classical world can be part of the quantum world is a rather formidable task. However, this is not the case for Bohmian mechanics, which, like classical mechanics, is a theory about real objects. In Bohmian terms, the problem of the classical limit becomes very simple: when do the Bohmian trajectories look Newtonian?Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, uses latexsy

Socio-Demographic Characteristics of Patients Diagnosed with HIV in Accra and Kumasi Metropolis

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is RNA virus that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). In Ghana the AIDS epidemic is spreading very fast in densely populated areas with higher numbers of cases occurring in the southern regions especially the densely populated capitals such as Kumasi, Koforidua and Accra as well as mining towns like Obuasi and Tarkwa, and in border towns. Data was collected from Accra and Kumasi on socio-economic backgrounds such as age, sex, education, marital status, household size, among others with a structured questionnaire and analysed using statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0. About 72% females and 28% males were interviewed with close to 74% lying between 22 to 40 age brackets. Also 63% of these completed JHS/Middle school, Seventeen (36.1%) are married people, 15 (31.9%) widowed. Majority of them are Akans who are also Christians with different denominations. Among these people, 20 (42.6%) of them are unemployed, and 3 (6.4%) claimed to be self-employed in various disciplines. Most of them said they use condoms as contraceptives in order to prevent the spread of the disease. Income level of the respondents predominantly lies between GH¢50.00- GH¢450.00 per annum. Some of the interventions for preventing the disease include promoting abstinence and faithfulness, promoting reductions in the number of sexual partners, encouraging delays in the onset of sexual activity among others

Evidence Propagation and Consensus Formation in Noisy Environments

We study the effectiveness of consensus formation in multi-agent systems where there is both belief updating based on direct evidence and also belief combination between agents. In particular, we consider the scenario in which a population of agents collaborate on the best-of-n problem where the aim is to reach a consensus about which is the best (alternatively, true) state from amongst a set of states, each with a different quality value (or level of evidence). Agents' beliefs are represented within Dempster-Shafer theory by mass functions and we investigate the macro-level properties of four well-known belief combination operators for this multi-agent consensus formation problem: Dempster's rule, Yager's rule, Dubois & Prade's operator and the averaging operator. The convergence properties of the operators are considered and simulation experiments are conducted for different evidence rates and noise levels. Results show that a combination of updating on direct evidence and belief combination between agents results in better consensus to the best state than does evidence updating alone. We also find that in this framework the operators are robust to noise. Broadly, Yager's rule is shown to be the better operator under various parameter values, i.e. convergence to the best state, robustness to noise, and scalability.Comment: 13th international conference on Scalable Uncertainty Managemen

Evaluasi Penyemprotan Dinding Rumah Penduduk di Desa Jintung dan Desa Srati Kecamatan Ayah Kabupaten Kebumen Tahun 2006

Desa Jintung dan Desa Slatri, Kecamatan Ayah, Kabupaten Kebumen merupakan daerah Reseptif malaria.Terjadi peningkatan kasus malaria pada bulan Juli dan Agustus 2006. Hasil Penyelidikan Epidemiologi di kedua wilayah tersebut telah terjadi penularan malaria setempat yang bersumber dari penderita malaria yang baru pulang dari luar jawa (import). Tersangka vektor yang teridentifikasi adalah Anophelesmaculatus, An.aconitus dan An.balabacensis yang ditemukan baik menggigit di dalam rumah dan di luar rumah.Untuk mengantisipasi terjadinya penularan malaria yang lebih luas di wilayah tersebut dilakukan upaya intervensi berupa penyemprotan rumah (IRS / indoor Residual Spraying) dengan cakupan pada seluruh rumah di Desa Jintung dan Slatri. Penyemprotan rumah dilakukan pada minggu ke IV bulan Agustus 2006, petugas penyemprot dari masyarkat/kader setempat yang dilatih oleh Dinas Kesehatan Kebumen dan Dinas Kesehatan Provinsi Jawa Tengah. Kandungan bahan aktif insektisida yang digunakan adalah Bifentrin 0, 10.Agar upaya pemberantasan vektor (IRS) dapat berhasil guna dan berdaya guna harus dilakukan dengan cara yang benar yaitu meliputi ketepatan dosis insektisida, kerataan residu insektisida yang menempel dipermukaan dinding serta cakupan rumah yang di semprot.Untuk mengetahui keberhasilan kegiatan penyemprotan rumah dilakukan upaya evaluasi, salah satunya dengan uji hayati (Bioassay)

Ear, nose and throat injuries at Bugando Medical Centre in northwestern Tanzania: a five-year prospective review of 456 cases.

Injuries to the ear, nose and throat (ENT) regions are not uncommon in clinical practice and constitute a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in our setting. There is dearth of literature on this subject in our environment. This study was conducted to describe the causes, injury pattern and outcome of these injuries in our setting and proffer possible preventive measures. This was a descriptive prospective study of patients with ear, nose and throat injuries managed at Bugando Medical Centre between May 2007 and April 2012. Ethical approval to conduct the study was sought from relevant authorities. Statistical data analysis was performed using SPSS computer software version 17.0. A total of 456 patients were studied. The median age of patients at presentation was 18 years (range 1 to 72 years). The male to female ratio was 2:1. The commonest cause of injury was foreign bodies (61.8%) followed by road traffic accidents (22.4%). The ear was the most common body region injured accounting for 59.0% of cases. The majority of patients (324, 71.1%) were treated as an outpatient and only 132(28.9%) patients required admission to the ENT wards after definitive treatment. Foreign body removal and surgical wound debridement were the most common treatment modalities performed in 61.9% and 16.2% of cases respectively. Complication rate was 14.9%. Suppurative otitis media (30.9%) was the commonest complication in the ear while traumatic epistaxis (26.5%) and hoarseness of voice (11.8%) in the aero-digestive tract were commonest in the nose and throat. The overall median length of hospital stay for in-patients was 8 days (range 1 to 22 days). Patients who developed complications and those who had associated injuries stayed longer in the hospital (P < 0.001).Mortality rate related to isolated ENT injuries was 1.3% (6 deaths). The majority of patients (96.9%) were treated successfully and only 3.1% of cases were discharged with permanent disabilities. Injuries to the ENT regions are not uncommon in our environment and foreign bodies constitute a significant cause of injury. Majority of these injuries can be prevented through public enlightenment campaigns

Ecological equivalence: a realistic assumption for niche theory as a testable alternative to neutral theory

Hubbell's 2001 neutral theory unifies biodiversity and biogeography by modelling steady-state distributions of species richness and abundances across spatio-temporal scales. Accurate predictions have issued from its core premise that all species have identical vital rates. Yet no ecologist believes that species are identical in reality. Here I explain this paradox in terms of the ecological equivalence that species must achieve at their coexistence equilibrium, defined by zero net fitness for all regardless of intrinsic differences between them. I show that the distinction of realised from intrinsic vital rates is crucial to evaluating community resilience. An analysis of competitive interactions reveals how zero-sum patterns of abundance emerge for species with contrasting life-history traits as for identical species. I develop a stochastic model to simulate community assembly from a random drift of invasions sustaining the dynamics of recruitment following deaths and extinctions. Species are allocated identical intrinsic vital rates for neutral dynamics, or random intrinsic vital rates and competitive abilities for niche dynamics either on a continuous scale or between dominant-fugitive extremes. Resulting communities have steady-state distributions of the same type for more or less extremely differentiated species as for identical species. All produce negatively skewed log-normal distributions of species abundance, zero-sum relationships of total abundance to area, and Arrhenius relationships of species to area. Intrinsically identical species nevertheless support fewer total individuals, because their densities impact as strongly on each other as on themselves. Truly neutral communities have measurably lower abundance/area and higher species/abundance ratios. Neutral scenarios can be parameterized as null hypotheses for testing competitive release, which is a sure signal of niche dynamics. Ignoring the true strength of interactions between and within species risks a substantial misrepresentation of community resilience to habitat los