Aktiviti pembelajaran dalam persekitaran autentik berdasarkan kontinum pemikiran visualisasi bagi pembentukan ingatan kerja kanak-kanak sindrom down

Penyediaan sebuah persekitaran pembelajaran dengan pengintegrasian bersama pendekatan yang bersesuaian kepada para pelajar haruslah berdasarkan kepada keperluan dan kemampuan mereka dalam mencapai objektif sesebuah pembelajaran. Melalui pengimplementasian sebuah suasana dengan strategi pembelajaran yang baik, mampu membantu dan menyokong kepada pengembangan intelektual seseorang pelajar itu. Namun tidak semua pendekatan pembelajaran yang dikatakan terbaik sesuai di implemenkan dalam sesebuah kelas terutama dalam kalangan kanak-kanak yang mengalami masalah sindrom down. Kanak-kanak sindrom down ini secara umumnya mempunyai beberapa kelemahan secara fizikal mahupun kemahiran berfikir dalam pembelajaran serta mempunyai masalah melakukan sesuatu tugasan dengan baik. Kelemahan kanak-kanak ini dalam menerima pendekatan pembelajaran konvensional seperti melalui kaedah verbal iaitu kuliah dan pengajaran dalam kelas biasa dilihat sebagai satu kesukaran buat mereka ini untuk menerima maklumat dan seterusnya memproses apa yang dipelajari. Hal ini sekaligus memberi kesan kepada perkembangan intelektual mereka yang sedikit ketinggalan dari kanak-kanak normal yang lain. Justeru, keperluan melihat kepada kelebihan dan kemampuan kanak-kanak sindrom down ini dalam menerima maklumat dari sudut yang berbeza perlu diberi perhatian seperti penggunaan media visual dalam pelbagai bentuk penyampaian, serta persekitaran pembelajaran yang autentik iaitu berdasarkan kepada situasi realistik perlulah diintegrasikan bersama agar ia dapat membantu meningkatkan pemahaman mereka menerima sesebuah konsep pembelajaran. Namun pengintegrasian bersama media visual yang realistik dalam sesebuah pembelajaran haruslah secara berperingkat kerana ianya berkait rapat dengan perkembangan tahap visualisasi seseorang pelajar yang secara tidak langsung membantu kepada peningkatan pemahaman mereka. Tahap visualisasi seseorang ini sebenarnya berkembang daripada pemikiran visual kepada pembelajaran visual dan akhir sekali yang tertinggi adalah komunikasi visual yang dikenali sebagai kontinum pemikiran visualisasi. Melalui perkembangan visualisasi ini, ianya menyokong kepada peningkatan ingatan kerja kanak-kanak sindrom down berdasarkan pembelajaran mereka. Oleh demikian dengan merujuk kepada elemen kontinum pemikiran visualisasi ini serta ciri-ciri pembelajaran dalam persekitaran autentik, maka sebuah aplikasi mudah alih (apps) KIDDO dibangunkan bagi menyokong kepada pembentukan Ingatan Kerja kanak-kanak sindrom down ini dari aspek Visuo-Spatial serta Phonological Loop

Is the impact of hospital performance data greater in patients who have compared hospitals?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Public information on average has limited impact on patients' hospital choice. However, the impact may be greater in consumers who have compared hospitals prior to their hospital choice. We therefore assessed whether patients who have compared hospitals based their hospital choice mainly on public information, rather than e.g. advice of their general practitioner and consider other information important than patients who have not compared hospitals.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>337 new surgical patients completed an internet-based questionnaire. They were asked whether they had compared hospitals prior to their hospital choice and which factors influenced their choice. They were also asked to select between four and ten items of hospital information (total: 41 items) relevant for their future hospital choice. These were subsequently used in a hospital choice experiment in which participants were asked to compare hospitals in an Adaptive Choice-Based Conjoint analysis to estimate which of the hospital characteristics had the highest Relative Importance (RI).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Patients who have compared hospitals more often used public information for their hospital choice than patients who have not compared hospitals (12.7% vs. 1.5%, p < 0.001). However, they still mostly relied on their own (47.9%) and other people's experiences (31%) rather than to base their decision on public information. Both groups valued physician's expertise (RI 20.2 [16.6-24.8] in patients comparing hospitals vs. 16.5 [14.2-18.8] in patients not comparing hospitals) and waiting time (RI 15.1 [10.7-19.6] vs. 15.6 [13.2-17.9] respectively) as most important public information. Patients who have compared hospitals assigned greater importance to information on wound infections (p = 0.010) and respect for patients (p = 0.022), but lower importance to hospital distance (p = 0.041).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Public information has limited impact on patient's hospital choice, even in patients who have actually compared hospitals prior to hospital choice.</p

The Connection Between Slavery and Prophecy as it Related to the American Nation in the Writings of the Adventist Pioneers during the Antebellum Period

The period between 1850 and 1865 was a period of major social upheavals in American society; the major issue was the slavery. This period also witnessed the birth and organization of the Sabbatarian Adventism, a pre-millennial Christian movement distinguished by an emphasis on the Seventh-day Sabbath and a special understanding of Bible prophecies. Most Adventist pioneers vehemently opposed slavery, although not always on the same ground as their Christian counterparts. Aided by their peculiar understanding of Bible prophecy, the early Adventists identified America with apocalyptical end-time power, slavery being the key attribute of the “beast that looks like a lamb but speaks like a dragon” from Revelation 13:11. This article investigates the development of Adventist connection between slavery, America and Bible prophecy

Preliminary Study on the Production of Extracellular Protease from a Newly Isolated Bacillus sp. (No.1) and the Physical Factors Affecting Its Production

A thermophilic bacterium isolated from a dumping ground in Sri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur, identified as Bacillus sp. (No.1), was able to grow at 600C and showed proteolytic activity on skim milk agar. The protease production by this bacterium and some physical factors affecting its production were investigated. Significant protease activity was detected in the basal medium after incubation for 16 h at 50°C with shaking at 200 rpm and reached its peak after 30 h. The protease production coincided with the late exponential or early stationary phase of bacterial growth and corresponded with the sporulation of this bacterium. The optimum pH, agitation rate and temperature for protease production by Bacillus sp. (No.1) were pH 8, 150 rpm and 50°C, respectively

O DIREITO COMO INTEGRIDADE E O ROMANCE EM CADEIA DE DWORKIN: DIÁLOGO COM A RESPOSTA ADEQUADA DE LENIO STRECK E COM A NOÇÃO DE ESPAÇO PÚBLICO DE HANNAH ARENDT

This study aims to analyze the connections between Ronald Dworkin's model of judicial decision-making, Lenio Streck's adequate response and the notion of human rights assumed by Hannah Arendt. In this step, we intend to demonstrate how the magistrate should decide in the light of the figure of Judge Hercules and the exercise of the chain novel woven by Dworkin. Thus, we will seek to explain the content of the legislative principle of integrity - and its necessary dialogue with the work “Origins of totalitarism” by Hannah Arendt - as well as explaining about the jurisdictional principle of integrity, while including the criticisms made to the Judge Hercules and Lenio Streck's contribution to the adequacy of Dworkin's judicial decision model in the Roman-Germanic system. The methodology used in this article comprises a qualitative, dialectical approach, of a basic nature, containing an explanatory objective and a bibliographic, documentary, historical and observational procedure. The results of the research show that the community of principles mentioned by Ronald Dworkin finds support in Hannah Arendt's ideas about public space, power, human rights and politics. Furthermore, the research undertaken concluded that the concern with the idea of ​​a correct answer, undertaken by Dworkin and Streck, implies a reinforcement of the community of principles and of the realization of fundamental rights. Future research may focus on the theme now developed in order to investigate more deeply the adaptation of Dworkin's theory in the Roman-Germanic system and the existing link between the reinforcement of the community of principles and the realization of human rights.Este estudo tem como finalidade analisar as conexões entre o modelo de tomada de decisão judicial de Ronald Dworkin, a resposta adequada de Lenio Streck e a noção de direitos humanos encampada por Hannah Arendt. Nesse passo, pretende-se demonstrar como o magistrado deve decidir à luz da figura do juiz Hércules e do exercício do romance em cadeia tecido por Dworkin. Assim, buscar-se-á explicitar o conteúdo do princípio legislativo de integridade – e seu necessário diálogo com a obra “Origens do totalitarismo” de Hannah Arendt – bem como explanar acerca do princípio jurisdicional da integridade, sem deixar de abarcar as críticas tecidas ao juiz Hércules e a contribuição de Lenio Streck para a adequação do modelo de decisão judicial de Dworkin no sistema romano-germânico. A metodologia utilizada no presente artigo compreende uma abordagem qualitativa, dialética, de natureza básica, contendo um objetivo explicativo e um procedimento bibliográfico, documental, histórico e observacional. Os resultados da pesquisa realizada apontam que a comunidade de princípios referida por Ronald Dworkin encontra amparo nas ideias de Hannah Arendt a respeito de espaço público, poder, direitos humanos e política. Outrossim, a pesquisa empreendida concluiu que a preocupação com a ideia de resposta correta, empreendida por Dworkin e Streck, implicam em um reforço da comunidade de princípios e da própria efetivação de direitos fundamentais. Pesquisas futuras poderão se debruçar a respeito da temática ora desenvolvida no sentido de perscrutar de maneira mais aprofundada a adaptação da teoria de Dworkin no sistema romano-germânico e da imbricação existente entre o reforço da comunidade de princípios e a concretização de direitos humanos

Multi-task deep neural network acoustic models with model adaptation using discriminative speaker identity for whisper recognition

This paper presents a study on large vocabulary continuous whisper automatic recognition (wLVCSR). wLVCSR provides the ability to use ASR equipment in public places without concern for disturbing others or leaking private information. However the task of wLVCSR is much more challenging than normal LVCSR due to the absence of pitch which not only causes the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of whispers to be much lower than normal speech but also leads to flatness and formant shifts in whisper spectra. Furthermore, the amount of whisper data available for training is much less than for normal speech. In this paper, multi-task deep neural network (DNN) acoustic models are deployed to solve these problems. Moreover, model adaptation is performed on the multi-task DNN to normalize speaker and environmental variability in whispers based on discriminative speaker identity information. On a Mandarin whisper dictation task, with 55 hours of whisper data, the proposed SI multi-task DNN model can achieve 56.7% character error rate (CER) improvement over a baseline Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), discriminatively trained only using the whisper data. Besides, the CER of the proposed model for normal speech can reach 15.2%, which is close to the performance of a state-of-the-art DNN trained with one thousand hours of speech data. From this baseline, the model-adapted DNN gains a further 10.9% CER reduction over the generic model

TREND IN TUNA LANDINGS BY THE LONGLINE FISHERY OPERATING OUT ON BENOA, BALI

The number of longline vessels operabing out of Port of Benoa, Bali has increased steadily since 1986. However, this increase has been more rapid since 1994, and in 1996 there were 528 vessels registered in the port

The contribution of the low-fee private school sector towards access to quality education: a case study of two low-fee private school models

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Witwatersrand, September 2016The research investigates the contribution of the low-fee private school sector towards access to quality education by examining two models of low-fee private schools in the Gauteng province, South Africa. The study generates insights about the contribution to quality education and implications of a growing low-fee private school sector for equity in the South African context. It looks at the factors that encourage the growth of the sector, the nature and challenges of running private schools and the quality of education offered by low-fee private schools. The study uses an exploratory qualitative research methodology and a case study design. Elite interviews with three experts; three founding directors; principals and two teachers from two low-fee private schools (one non-profit and the other one for-profit) in Bramley, Johannesburg were used as data collection instruments. The findings reveal that government support for private schools post-1994; excess demand due to middle class population growth in certain areas and differentiated demand owed to better quality and faith-based education are the key factors driving the growth of the private school sector in South Africa. The quality of education offered by low-fee private schools in South Africa is different across schools and mirrors the inequalities in the public school system. With reference to the literature, it is clear that the low-fee private school sector plays a noteworthy role, ensuring that some learners have access to schools in areas where government has not been able to keep up with the middle class population growth. Low-fee private schools give parents the opportunity to choose faith-based schools in a country where the public education system is faith-neutral. Although low-fee private schools are viewed as an alternative from public schools due to the poor quality offered by the latter, it is important to note that there are great differences with the quality offered by different schools in the private sector.MT201