4,589 research outputs found
Can Civic and Moral Education Be Distinguished?
Para pengajar pendidikan kewarganegaraan selalu mengalami dilemma antara pengajaran nilai-nilai kewarganegaraan dengan pendidikan moral. Jika terfokus kepada yang pertama, pengajaran hanya akan berupa observasi antropologis terhadap fakta-fakta empiris pada suatu bangsa. Sementara jika menekankan kepada pendidikan moral per se, meskipun normatif tetapi sarat dengan premis-premis metafisik yang kontroversial yang mungkin tidak semua siswa dapat menerimanya. Untuk memecahkannya banyak teori politik dan pendidikan telah dirumuskan diantaranya civic religion dari Gutmann, teori komunitarian Rober N. Bellah dan mungkin yang paling relevan adalah paham libertarian yang bicara soal keadilan dari John Rawls dan lain-lain. Semuanya akan diintegrasikan dalam kurikulum yang bertujuan untuk memberi kemampuan siswa untuk memahami konsensus, bagaimama memahami masyarakat dan memahami hubungan antara merefleksikan hubyungan tersebut serta membangun moral pribadi mereka. Rawls percaya bahwa pendidikan harus mengajak kepada keterlibatan dalam dialog publik mengenai nilai-nilai kewarganegaraan demi merumuskan sebuah moralitas pribadi
Investigation of phonon behavior in Pr2NiMnO6 by micro-Raman spectroscopy
The temperature dependence of phonon excitations and the presence of spin
phonon coupling in polycrystalline Pr2NiMnO6 samples were studied using
micro-Raman spectroscopy and magnetometry. Magnetic properties show a single
ferromagnetic-to-paramagnetic transition at 228 K and a saturation
magnetization close to 4.95 \muB/f.u.. Three distinct Raman modes at 657, 642,
and 511 cm-1 are observed. The phonon excitations show a clear hardening due to
anharmonicity from 300 K down to 10 K. Further, temperature dependence of the
657 cm-1 mode shows only a small softening. This reflects the presence of a
relatively weak spin-phonon coupling in Pr2NiMnO6 contrary to other double
perovskites previously studied.Comment: 10 pages, 4 fig
Discrete and fuzzy dynamical genetic programming in the XCSF learning classifier system
A number of representation schemes have been presented for use within
learning classifier systems, ranging from binary encodings to neural networks.
This paper presents results from an investigation into using discrete and fuzzy
dynamical system representations within the XCSF learning classifier system. In
particular, asynchronous random Boolean networks are used to represent the
traditional condition-action production system rules in the discrete case and
asynchronous fuzzy logic networks in the continuous-valued case. It is shown
possible to use self-adaptive, open-ended evolution to design an ensemble of
such dynamical systems within XCSF to solve a number of well-known test
problems
Type II pneumocytes in mixed cell culture of human lung: a light and electron microscopic study.
Alveolar Type II epithelial cells dedifferentiate rapidly in vitro. Studies with animal tissue suggest that cell-cell and extracellular matrix-cell interactions are important in the retention of Type II cell morphology in vitro. Thus, in this study with human tissue, alveolar Type II cells, alveolar macrophages, and spindle cells were prepared from the same sample of lung (obtained following lobectomy for cancer, n = 3), cocultured on glass cover slips or tissue culture plastic, and studied by light microscopy with scanning (SEM) and transmission (TEM) electron microscopy for 8 days. The primary cell isolates contained approximately 45% Type II cells; the remainder were macrophages or unidentifiable cells. Clusters, made up of a single layer of cuboidal Type II cells around a central core of connective tissue (largely collagen and some elastic tissue), formed above a monolayer of spindle cells. The Type II cells were morphologically similar to those seen in vivo. The cells were still cuboidal at 8 days but had lost their lamellar bodies, which were released into the medium via the apical surface. The clusters increased in size with time (area, microns 2: day 1, 29(5-143) x 10(2); day 8, 63(10-311) x 10(2); mean(range); p less than 0.02) without changing in number per culture, suggesting Type II cell proliferation. This may have been due to factors produced by the other cells and adherence to the extracellular matrix (ECM); (free collagen fibers, present in the original preparation, spindle cells, and/or Type II cells could be responsible for presence of ECM). We propose this as a useful model for the study of human Type II epithelial cells in vitro
Re-Ranking Sequencing Variants in the Post-GWAS Era for Accurate Causal Variant Identification
Next generation sequencing has dramatically increased our ability to localize disease-causing variants by providing base-pair level information at costs increasingly feasible for the large sample sizes required to detect complex-trait associations. Yet, identification of causal variants within an established region of association remains a challenge. Counter-intuitively, certain factors that increase power to detect an associated region can decrease power to localize the causal variant. First, combining GWAS with imputation or low coverage sequencing to achieve the large sample sizes required for high power can have the unintended effect of producing differential genotyping error among SNPs. This tends to bias the relative evidence for association toward better genotyped SNPs. Second, re-use of GWAS data for fine-mapping exploits previous findings to ensure genome-wide significance in GWAS-associated regions. However, using GWAS findings to inform fine-mapping analysis can bias evidence away from the causal SNP toward the tag SNP and SNPs in high LD with the tag. Together these factors can reduce power to localize the causal SNP by more than half. Other strategies commonly employed to increase power to detect association, namely increasing sample size and using higher density genotyping arrays, can, in certain common scenarios, actually exacerbate these effects and further decrease power to localize causal variants. We develop a re-ranking procedure that accounts for these adverse effects and substantially improves the accuracy of causal SNP identification, often doubling the probability that the causal SNP is top-ranked. Application to the NCI BPC3 aggressive prostate cancer GWAS with imputation meta-analysis identified a new top SNP at 2 of 3 associated loci and several additional possible causal SNPs at these loci that may have otherwise been overlooked. This method is simple to implement using R scripts provided on the author's website
Region-based analysis in genome-wide association study of Framingham Heart Study blood lipid phenotypes
Due to the high-dimensionality of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data, region-based methods are an attractive approach to the identification of genetic variation associated with a certain phenotype. A common approach to defining regions is to identify the most significant SNPs from a single-SNP association analysis, and then use a gene database to obtain a list of genes proximal to the identified SNPs. Alternatively, regions may be defined statistically, via a scan statistic. After categorizing SNPs as significant or not (based on the single-SNP association p-values), a scan statistic is useful to identify regions that contain more significant SNPs than expected by chance. Important features of this method are that regions are defined statistically, so that there is no dependence on a gene database, and both gene and inter-gene regions can be detected. In the analysis of blood-lipid phenotypes from the Framingham Heart Study (FHS), we compared statistically defined regions with those formed from the top single SNP tests. Although we missed a number of single SNPs, we also identified many additional regions not found as SNP-database regions and avoided issues related to region definition. In addition, analyses of candidate genes for high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, and triglyceride levels suggested that associations detected with region-based statistics are also found using the scan statistic approach
Influence of lattice distortion on the Curie temperature and spin-phonon coupling in LaMnCoO
Two distinct ferromagnetic phases of LaMnCoO having
monoclinic structure with distinct physical properties have been studied. The
ferromagnetic ordering temperature is found to be different
for both the phases. The origin of such contrasting characteristics is assigned
to the changes in the distance(s) and angle(s) between Mn - O - Co resulting
from distortions observed from neutron diffraction studies. Investigations on
the temperature dependent Raman spectroscopy provide evidence for such
structural characteristics, which affects the exchange interaction. The
difference in B-site ordering which is evident from the neutron diffraction is
also responsible for the difference in . Raman scattering
suggests the presence of spin-phonon coupling for both the phases around the
. Electrical transport properties of both the phases have been
investigated based on the lattice distortion.Comment: 9 figure
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Executive functioning as a predictive measure of offending behaviour
Purpose – Prosociality is considered important in the study of offenders and associated cognitive skills: theory of mind, empathic understanding and moral reasoning, are said to enable self-control and reduce the risk of offending behaviours. Previous research has made associations between these skills and executive functioning; however, research into a link between them, in an offending population, is limited. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach – To further understand the practicalities of this, the present study considered the predictive abilities of the constructs believed to underpin executive functioning: working memory, cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control, in relation to theory of mind, empathic understanding and moral reasoning. In total, 200 male and female offenders completed measures in all six constructs.
Findings – Using path analysis working memory was demonstrated to be predictive of theory of mind and empathic understanding, cognitive flexibility was found to be predictive of theory of mind, and inhibitory control was found to be predictive of theory of mind, empathic understanding and moral reasoning.
Research limitations/implications – The study focussed on offenders serving a custodial sentence of six months or less and did not differentiate between crime categories or take into consideration the socio-environmental backgrounds or ethnicity. Therefore, considering these things could further establish the generalisability of the current findings. It is noted that the more focussed the intervention is to the specific needs of an offender, the greater the impact will be. Therefore, pre-screening tests for the constructs discussed may be able to more accurately assess an offenders’ suitability for a programme, or indeed tailor it to meet the specific needs of that person.
Practical implications – These findings may enable practitioners to more accurately assess offenders’ suitability for interventions aimed at reducing offending behaviours by improving levels of prosociality and develop more focussed programmes to meet the specific needs of individual offenders to reduce re-offending. Social implications – As recommended in the study, a more tailored approach to offender rehabilitation may be a potential aid to reducing levels of recidivism.
Originality/value – The present study adds to the literature as it is the first to consider whether the constructs of executive functioning can predict levels of theory of mind, empathic understanding and moral reasoning and so provide a more accurate method in assessing the cognitive abilities of offenders prior to participation in rehabilitative interventions
Small Energy Scale for Mixed-Valent Uranium Materials
We investigate a two-channel Anderson impurity model with a magnetic
and a quadrupolar ground doublet, and a excited triplet. Using
the numerical renormalization group method, we find a crossover to a non-Fermi
liquid state below a temperature varying as the triplet-doublet
splitting to the 7/2 power. To within numerical accuracy, the non-linear
magnetic susceptibility and the contribution to the linear
susceptibility are given by universal one-parameter scaling functions. These
results may explain UBe as mixed valent with a small crossover scale
.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, REVTeX, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Neuro-evolution Methods for Designing Emergent Specialization
This research applies the Collective Specialization Neuro-Evolution (CONE) method to the problem of evolving neural controllers in a simulated multi-robot system. The multi-robot system consists
of multiple pursuer (predator) robots, and a single evader (prey) robot. The CONE method is designed to facilitate behavioral
specialization in order to increase task performance in collective behavior solutions. Pursuit-Evasion is a task that benefits
from behavioral specialization. The performance of prey-capture strategies derived by the CONE method, are compared to those
derived by the Enforced Sub-Populations (ESP) method. Results indicate that the CONE method effectively facilitates behavioral specialization in the team of pursuer
robots. This specialization aids in the derivation of robust prey-capture strategies. Comparatively, ESP was found to be not
as appropriate for facilitating behavioral specialization and effective prey-capture behaviors
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