Analysis Students' Critical Thinking Skills in Solving Problems in Terms of Cognitive Style

Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis kemampuan berpikir kritis siswa dalam menyelesaikan masalah yang ditinjau dari gaya kognitif. Penelitian ini termasuk dalam Penelitian Kualitatif dengan metode deskriptif kualitatif. Subjek penelitian ini adalah siswa kelas VIII MTSN 3 Rokan Hulu. Teknik pengumpulan data dalam penelitian ini menggunakan tes GEFT (Group Embredded Figure Test) yang dikembangkan oleh Witkin dan tes kemampuan berpikir kritis berupa soal uraian. Teknik analisis data dilakukan dengan reduksi data, pemaparan data, analisis data pada kedua kelompok subjek dan penarikan kesimpulan. Analisis kemampuan berpikir kritis dalam penelitian ini menggunakan indikator dari Ennis yaitu merumuskan strategi, memberikan alasan, dan menyimpulkan. Penelitian ini menunjukkan perbedaan gaya kognitif siswa mempengaruhi kemampuan berpikir kritis siswa. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa siswa dengan gaya kognitif field independent memiliki kemampuan berpikir kritis lebih baik daripada siswa dengan gaya kognitif field dependent. Kata Kunci : Berpikir Kritis, Gaya Kogniti

Attracting shallow donors: Hydrogen passivation in (Al,Ga,In)-doped ZnO

The hydrogen interstitial and the substitutional Al_Zn, Ga_Zn and In_Zn are all shallow donors in ZnO and lead to n-type conductivity. Although shallow donors are expected to repel each other, we show by first principles calculations that in ZnO these shallow donor impurities attract and form a complex, leading to a donor level deep in the band gap. This puts a limit on the n-type conductivity of (Al,Ga,In)-doped ZnO in the presence of hydrogen.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Higher Education for All (EFA) in Nigeria: The Promise of Open and Distance Learning (ODL)

The social implication for development of educating all citizens of a country cannot be easily quantified. Education is however, seen as an instrument per excellence by many governments the world over, for social and technological development. This paper discusses the Nigeria Government promise of Education for All (EFA), by the year 2015, following the Dakar Declaration of Education for All in the World Education Summit in Dakar, Senegal in the year 2000. It noted the yawning gap between demand for higher education in Nigeria and the average intake per year using the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board statistics for 2005 to 2009 - a five-year period. It further observed that the conventional universities, with restriction on age of entrants, and the limitations of time, infrastructure and space will not enable Nigeria to meet the target of education for all in 2015. And looking at the advantages and successes of mega universities in other and similar regions of the world, the paper draws the attention of the Nigerian Government to the problem above and suggests the use of Open and Distance Learning as an educational delivery system to reach this lofty goal of Education for All in 2015. It concludes that in doing so, Nigeria will be able to meet that aspect of the Millennial Development Goal (MDG). Keywords: Education for all, higher education, access, open and distance learning, mega universities

Developing the Job Description for Diabetes Nurse Specialists: A Modified Delphi Approach

Background: The first step to establish a new academicmajor is the need assessment and extraction of professional and specialized tasks. Objectives: The current study aimed to identify and describe the duties of diabetes nurse specialists. Methods: This needs assessment study was performed using modified Delphi technique in Isfahan in 2014 - 2015. The study population consisted of patients with diabetes and their families, nurses, endocrinologists, diabetologists and nursing faculty members. The study was conducted in three rounds: first, through qualitative interviews and focus group discussions, the duties and tasks of diabetes nurse specialists were extracted, then a questionnaire was designed and in two consecutive rounds, the experts expressed their opinions about the tasks. Results: The first round of modified Delphi technique resulted in 500 initial codes. According to these codes, 164 duties were classified into seven categories. In the second round of Delphi approach, the experts reached to 100% consensus in 126 tasks. According to the participants, 74 of the 126 duties were similar, overlapping and inappropriate, and thus were eliminated. In the last round of the study according to the opinions of the experts, 15 more tasks were added to the previous list. Finally, job description for diabetes nurse specialist was developed in six tasks on professional responsibilities, 17 tasks on the area of education, 25 tasks regarding caring and treatment, 6 tasks on society and 13 tasks on management. Conclusions: This study led to identification and classification of diabetes nurse specialist duties. The findings can help nursing faculties and other institutes to develop task based educational programs for nurses in diabetes management

End to End Deep Neural Network Frequency Demodulation of Speech Signals

Frequency modulation (FM) is a form of radio broadcasting which is widely used nowadays and has been for almost a century. We suggest a software-defined-radio (SDR) receiver for FM demodulation that adopts an end-to-end learning based approach and utilizes the prior information of transmitted speech message in the demodulation process. The receiver detects and enhances speech from the in-phase and quadrature components of its base band version. The new system yields high performance detection for both acoustical disturbances, and communication channel noise and is foreseen to out-perform the established methods for low signal to noise ratio (SNR) conditions in both mean square error and in perceptual evaluation of speech quality score

Turiyam Graphs and its Applications

The single valued neutrosophic set (SVNS) was developed to handle uncertainty in information depending on independent states called truth, indeterminacy and false. Recently, the Turiyam set was introduced for dealing with the uncertainty in data sets when those states are in silent mode based on human quantum cognition or awareness. In this way, this set gives a way to explore the uncertainty in data sets beyond the existing true, false, and indeterminacy regions. The precise analysis of data with the Turiyam set and its graphical representation is indeed a requirement for knowledge processing tasks. To achieve this goal, the current paper introduces Turiyam graphs with illustrations. In addition, we define a complete Turiyam graph, a strong Turiyam graph, and a constant Turiyam graph. Further, we apply a constant Turiyam graph to the Wi-Fi system

Multiple air pollutant exposure and lung cancer in Tehran, Iran

Lung cancer is the most rapidly increasing malignancy worldwide with an estimated 2.1 million cancer cases in the latest, 2018 World Health Organization (WHO) report. The objective of this study was to investigate the association of air pollution and lung cancer, in Tehran, Iran. Residential area information of the latest registered lung cancer cases that were diagnosed between 2014 and 2016 (N = 1,850) were inquired from the population-based cancer registry of Tehran. Long-term average exposure to PM10, SO2, NO, NO2, NOX, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m-xylene, p-xylene, o-xylene (BTEX), and BTEX in 22 districts of Tehran were estimated using land use regression models. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to generate multi-pollutant exposure profiles. Negative binomial regression analysis was used to examine the association between air pollutants and lung cancer incidence. The districts with higher concentrations for all pollutants were mostly in downtown and around the railway station. Districts with a higher concentration for NOx (IRR = 1.05, for each 10 unit increase in air pollutant), benzene (IRR = 3.86), toluene (IRR = 1.50), ethylbenzene (IRR = 5.16), p-xylene (IRR = 9.41), o-xylene (IRR = 7.93), m-xylene (IRR = 2.63) and TBTEX (IRR = 1.21) were significantly associated with higher lung cancer incidence. Districts with a higher multiple air-pollution profile were also associated with more lung cancer incidence (IRR = 1.01). Our study shows a positive association between air pollution and lung cancer incidence. This association was stronger for, respectively, p-xylene, o-xylene, ethylbenzene, benzene, m-xylene and toluene

Determining the Characteristics of the Private Equity Targets: UK Evidence

Academic research on private equity (PE) has been concerned with the management of PE funds, the returns to investors from investments in PE relative to the returns available in public equity markets and, more predominantly, the analysis of the post-investment performance of PE portfolio firms. There has been less research on how PE firms select their investments and the characteristics of their targeted firms. We derive hypotheses, from an agency perspective, on the firm-level characteristics of PE-targeted firms. Utilizing data on the population of private companies in the UK, we identify those firms that have received PE investment from the pool of potential investees within the population of private companies and known buyouts, and examine their pre-investment characteristics. Using panel logit regression, we estimate multivariate models determining the probability of PE acquisition and examine the multivariate profiles of targeted firms in relation to our hypotheses on PE selection