ACHIEVEMENT OF CHILDREN IN AN ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION PROGRAMME FOR REFUGEE, STATELESS AND UNDOCUMENTED CHILDREN IN SABAH, MALAYSIA

Access to formal education is an arduous and difficult process for undocumented and stateless children with entry into government schools often hindered by their status and prevailing national policies and procedures.  The Alternative Education Programme (AEP) is structured as a response for the need to provide some form of schooling for children under this classification. This study investigated students’ attainment in the AEP curriculum at Murni Alternative Education Centre (MAEC). A questionnaire, which incorporated a proxy pre-test, measured the achievement of children pre and post-participation in the MAEC learning among 136 female and 113 male learners with the mean age being 10.17 years. Achievement of the intended outcomes of the MAEC curriculum was investigated using Rasch Analysis. Achievement of MAEC objectives was demonstrated in the five curriculum components. In Literacy and Numeracy, item difficulty of reading, speaking, writing and counting showed significant decreases. In Religious Practice, a slight improvement was found with learners able to read the Quran and perform Islamic obligations and acts of worship. For Civics and Citizenship, increase in awareness and appreciation of Malaysian nationhood was ascertained with almost all children identifying themselves as ‘Malaysians’. Improvement in Self-Management was also demonstrated through increased awareness of personal hygiene and well-being except in the matter of environment upkeep. For Living Skills, the majority concurred that MAEC learning equipped them with skills to generate income. These insights into the MAEC learning outcomes from the perspectives of learners themselves could serve as guidelines towards any restructuring of AEP curriculum in MAEC in particular, and Sabah in general.    Keywords: Alternative education programme, alternative learning centre, curriculum evaluation, Rasch analysis, undocumented children   Cite as: Pang, V., Ling, M. T., & Tibok, R. P. (2019). Achievement of children in an alternative education programme for refugee, stateless and undocumented children in Sabah, Malaysia. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 4(2), 335-361.  http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol4iss2pp335-36

Empirical Analysis of Body Constitution and Food Intake in Persons with Type 2 Diabetes from a TCM Perspective

This study examined the correlations between body constitution (BC) and food intake in a sample of persons with Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) from a perspective of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Past research on BC of persons with diabetes (DM) from a TCM perspective revealed imbalanced state of Yin and Yang in terms of Yin-deficiency (YID), Yang-deficiency (YAD), and Yin-Yang-deficiency (YYD). However, no studies have attempted to find out if daily food intake has an influence on Yin-Yang balance. The present study adapted a mixed method, which constituted of two phases. Phase one involved an exploratory case study (n=18) conducted between May and June 2011 and phase two, a descriptive correlation study (n=210) between October and December 2013. Results showed that in phase-one, three cases showed YID and higher food intake in hot/warm nature, 12 cases with YAD and higher food intake in cold/cool nature while three cases with Yin-Yang-deficiency (YYD) and extremely high food intake in cold/cool nature. In phase-two, Spearman's correlation coefficient between food intake and YID presentations (YIDPs) (hot/warm food: rho=0.34, p=0.000; cold/cool food: rho= 0.18, p=0.006); YAD presentations (YADPs) (hot/warm food: rho=0.18, p=0.008; cold/cool food: rho=0.2, p=0.006); and YYD presentations (YYDPs) (hot/warm food: rho=0.29, p=0.006; cold/cool food: rho=0.2, p=0.003) have been noted. The findings concluded that persons with T2DM and YIDPs, YADPs, or YYDPs tend to have food intakes higher in hot/warm nature or cold/cool natur

Multidetector CT Findings of a Congenital Coronary Sinus Anomaly: a Report of Two Cases

Congenital coronary sinus anomalies are extremely rare, and they have received relatively little attention. This is probably due to the lack of both clinical symptoms and significant cardiac functional disturbance. We present two cases of a coronary sinus anomaly and briefly review the literature. Recognizing and being familiar with the variations of a congenital coronary sinus anomaly in congenital heart disease may avoid a misinterpretation of cardiac catheterization findings and the troublesome disruption of coronary sinus blood return during the surgical management of cardiac lesions

Detecting Inappropriate Clarification Requests in Spoken Dialogue Systems

Spoken Dialogue Systems ask for clarification when they think they have misunderstood users. Such requests may differ depending on the information the system believes it needs to clarify. However, when the error type or location is misidentified, clarification requests appear confusing or inappropriate. We describe a classifier that identifies inappropriate requests, trained on features extracted from user responses in laboratory studies. This classifier achieves 88.5% accuracy and .885 F-measure in detecting such requests

A novel Brassica–rhizotron system to unravel the dynamic changes in root system architecture of oilseed rape under phosphorus deficiency

Background and Aims: An important adaptation of plants to phosphorus (P) deficiency is to alter root system architecture (RSA) to increase P acquisition from the soil, but soil-based observations of RSA are technically challenging, especially in mature plants. The aim of this study was to investigate the root development and RSA of oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) under low and high soil P conditions during an entire growth cycle. Methods: A new large Brassica–rhizotron system (approx. 118-litre volume) was developed to study the RSA dynamics of B. napus ‘Zhongshuang11’ in soils, using top-soils supplemented with low P (LP) or high P (HP) for a full plant growth period. Total root length (TRL), root tip number (RTN), root length density (RLD), biomass and seed yield traits were measured. Key Results: TRL and RTN increased more rapidly in HP than LP plants from seedling to flowering stages. Both traits declined from flowering to silique stages, and then increased slightly in HP plants; in contrast, root senescence was observed in LP plants. RSA parameters measured from the polycarbonate plates were empirically consistent with analyses of excavated roots. Seed yield and shoot dry weights were closely associated positively with root dry weights, TRL, RLD and RTN at both HP and LP. Conclusions: The Brassica–rhizotron system is an effective method for soil-based root phenotyping across an entire growth cycle. Given that root senescence is likely to occur earlier under low P conditions, crop P deficiency is likely to affect late water and nitrogen uptake, which is critical for efficient resource use and optimal crop yields

Indacenodibenzothiophenes: Synthesis, Optoelectronic Properties and Materials Applications of Molecules with Strong Antiaromatic Character

Indeno[1,2-b]fluorenes (IFs), while containing 4n π-electrons, are best described as two aromatic benzene rings fused to a weakly paratropic s-indacene core. In this study, we find that replacement of the outer benzene rings of an IF with benzothiophenes allows the antiaromaticity of the central s-indacene to strongly reassert itself. Herein we report a combined synthetic, computational, structural, and materials study of anti- and syn-indacenodibenzothiophenes (IDBTs). We have developed an efficient and scalable synthesis for preparation of a series of aryl- and ethynyl-substituted IDBTs. NICS-XY scans and ACID calculations reveal an increasingly antiaromatic core from [1,2-b]IF to anti-IDBT, with syn-IDBT being nearly as antiaromatic as the parent s-indacene. As an initial evaluation, the intermolecular electronic couplings and electronic band structure of a diethynyl anti-IDBT derivative reveal the potential for hole and/or electron transport. OFETs constructed using this molecule show the highest hole mobilities yet achieved for a fully conjugated IF derivative

Compact groups from the Millennium Simulations: I. Their Nature and the completeness of the Hickson sample

We identify compact groups of galaxies (CGs) within mock galaxy catalogues from the Millennium Simulation at z=0 with three semi-analytic models (SAMs) of galaxy formation. CGs are identified using the same 2D criteria as those visually applied by Hickson (1982) to his CGs (HCGs), but with a brightest galaxy magnitude limit, and the blending of close projected pairs. Half of the mock CGs identified in projection contain at least 4 accordant velocities (mvCGs), versus 70% for HCGs. In comparison to mvCGs, the HCGs are only 8% complete at distances < 9000 km/s, missing the CGs with small angular sizes, a strongly dominant galaxy, and (for one SAM) the CGs that are fainter and those with lower surface brightness. We explore different ways to determine the fraction of physically dense groups. Binding energy criteria turn out to be inapplicable given the segregation between galaxies and dark matter particles. We rely instead on the combination of the 3D length of the CGs (maximum real space galaxy separation) and their elongation along the line-of-sight (ratio of maximum line-of-sight to maximum projected separations), restricting ourselves in both cases to smallest quartets within the CGs. We find that between 64% and 80% (depending on the SAM) of the mvCGs have 3D lengths shorter than 200 kpc/h, between 71% and 80% have line-of-sight elongations less than 2, while between 59% and 76% have either 3D lengths shorter than 100 kpc/h or both lengths shorter than 200 kpc/h and elongations smaller than 2. Therefore, chance alignments (CAs) of galaxies concern at most 40% of the mvCGs. These CAs are mostly produced from larger host groups, but a few have galaxies extending a few Mpc beyond the host group. The mvCGs built with the Hickson selection with (without) the close projected pair blending criterion have 10% higher (lower) fractions of physically dense systems.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. The new version has a different title and a different author list. The analysis of the nature of compact groups has been thoroughly modified, while the subsections on compact group properties and correlations have been omitted and should appear elsewher