HOW TO PROMOTE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ CRITICAL THINKING

Promoting students’ critical thinking in Armenian universities is not an easy task and this can be explained historically. In the past it was not a usual practice for students to challenge the views of professors, lectures being usually taken without retorting or questioning. Though some radical changes have taken place in the Armenian educational system during the last two or three decades, the old tradition is still preserved in some national universities. The aim of the present paper is to show what strategies can be applied to promote university students’ critical thinking, particularly in theoretical classes. The strategies chosen for this purpose include: psychological preparation, stimulating interest, identifying the problem, suggesting related sources, evaluating the problem indirectly, solving the problem independently, making cross-linguistic references, mastering scientific language register. A survey was conducted to assess the level of the students’ critical thinking during Theoretical English Grammar Course. The results show that out of 34 students involved in the survey only 35 % could actually display critical thinking ability, the rest making tentative, probing steps only.Promoting students’ critical thinking in Armenian universities is not an easy task and this can be explained historically. In the past it was not a usual practice for students to challenge the views of professors, lectures being usually taken without retorting or questioning. Though some radical changes have taken place in the Armenian educational system during the last two or three decades, the old tradition is still preserved in some national universities. The aim of the present paper is to show what strategies can be applied to promote university students’ critical thinking, particularly in theoretical classes. The strategies chosen for this purpose include: psychological preparation, stimulating interest, identifying the problem, suggesting related sources, evaluating the problem indirectly, solving the problem independently, making cross-linguistic references, mastering scientific language register. A survey was conducted to assess the level of the students’ critical thinking during Theoretical English Grammar Course. The results show that out of 34 students involved in the survey only 35 % could actually display critical thinking ability, the rest making tentative, probing steps only

The system of EAS time analysis

The extensive air showers' (EAS) front shape, angle of incidence, disk thickness, particle distribution along the shower, on the delayed and EAS front advancing particles were determined. The suggested system of the EAS time analysis allows determination of the whole EAS longitudinal structure at the observation points. The information from the detectors is continuously recorded in the memory with the memory cell switching in 5 ns, this enables fixation of the moment of pulse input from the detector with an accuracy to + or - 2.5 ns. Along with the fast memory, a slow memory with the cell switching in 1 micron s is introduced in the system, this permits observation of relatively large time intervals with respect to the trigger pulse with an appropriately lower accuracy

Dependence of some physiological indicators of generative and vegetative organs of Sambucus nigra on habitat conditions

We carried out studies on water deficiency of Sambucus nigra L. (black elderberry) plant leaves extract and fruit juice, relative turgidity, sucrose content in fruits, chlorophyll content in the leaves, as well as gas exchange rates in the leaves, in particular, the changes in the concentrations of oxygen released during photosynthesis by leaves and carbon dioxide released during leaf respiration depending on habitat conditions (altitude of the habitat, position of slopes, average annual precipitation). Taking into account the difference in climatic conditions and the generality of some indicators, Vanadzor (1326–1600 m above sea level) and Stepanavan (1400–1830 m above sea level) regions of Lori Province, "Dilijan" National Park, Lake Parz, and the forest areas adjacent to the city of Dilijan (1240–1612 m above sea level) in Tavush Province in Armenia were chosen as the research sites. The test samples were taken from eight different test sites in Lori and Tavush provinces. Tavush Province is more humid than Lori Province. The highest rate of water deficiency in the leaves of the studied plants was recorded in S. nigra f. laciniata (L.) Zabel., and the lowest in S. nigra in Vanadzor forest. It can be assumed that the index of water deficiency in the leaves may depend on the position of the slopes of the test sites and the value of the filtration coefficient of the soil types. On the north-facing slope at the height of 1341 m above sea level and on the south-facing slope at the height of 1830 m above sea level, the values of water deficiency of the leaves are almost the same. Such data allows us to assume that the degree of water deficiency in the leaves is also affected by the filtration coefficient of habitat soil types. In two points that have north-facing positions, the water deficiency of leaves at the height of 1341 m above sea level is 2.14 times more than at the height of 1328 m above sea level. At 1328 m above sea level the filtration coefficient is small and the plant absorbs a lot of water. Based on the data we received we obtained rankings of plants according to the different criteria of the experimental plants: water deficiency in leaves tissues, relative turgidity, the sum of chlorophylls in the leaves, the sucrose content in the fruits, percentage of oxygen released as a result of photosynthesis, percentage of carbon dioxide released as a result of respiration. We found a certain dependence between the indicators of the water regime and the height above sea level of the researched habitats. We also found out that the water regime is influenced by certain microclimatic conditions such as the position of the slopes, whether they are north or south facing, as well as the average annual precipitation. Knowing the physiological processes taking place in the vegetative and generative organs of the S. nigra plant is important from the point of view of evaluating the intensity of growth and development of the generative organs. We consider that the results of the study will be applicable in the process of plant selection based on the indicators of the physiological processes taking place in the plant organism

Combating Gender-Biased Sex Selection in Armenia

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Perturbation theory in radial quantization approach and the expectation values of exponential fields in sine-Gordon model

A perturbation theory for Massive Thirring Model (MTM) in radial quantization approach is developed. Investigation of the twisted sector in this theory allows us to calculate the vacuum expectation values of exponential fields $exp iaphi (0)$ of the sine-Gordon theory in first order over Massive Thirring Models coupling constant. It appears that the apparent difficulty in radial quantization of massive theories, namely the explicite ''time'' dependence of the Hamiltonian, may be successfully overcome. The result we have obtained agrees with the exact formula conjectured by Lukyanov and Zamolodchikov and coincides with the analogous calculations recently carried out in dual angular quantization approach by one of the authors.Comment: 16 pages, no figures, LaTe

Three-photon electron spin resonances

We report the observation of a three-photon resonant transition of charge-carrier spins in an organic light-emitting diode using electrically detected magnetic resonance (EDMR) spectroscopy at room temperature. Under strong magnetic-resonant drive (drive field $B_1$ ~ static magnetic field $B_0$), a $B_0$-field swept EDMR line emerges when $B_0$ is approximately threefold the one-photon resonance field. Ratios of drive-induced shifts of this line to those of two- and one-photon shifts agree with analytical expressions derived from the Floquet Hamiltonian and confirm the nature of these three-photon transitions, enabling access of spin physics to a hitherto inaccessible domain of quantum mechanics.Comment: 32 pages, 18 figure

Wightman function and vacuum densities for a Z_2-symmetric thick brane in AdS spacetime

Positive frequency Wightman function, vacuum expectation values of the field square and the energy-momentum tensor induced by a Z_{2}-symmetric brane with finite thickness located on (D+1)- dimensional AdS background are evaluated for a massive scalar field with general curvature coupling parameter. For the general case of static plane symmetric interior structure the expectation values in the region outside the brane are presented as the sum of free AdS and brane induced parts. For a conformally coupled massless scalar the brane induced part in the vacuum energy-momentum tensor vanishes. In the limit of strong gravitational fields the brane induced parts are exponentially suppressed for points not too close to the brane boundary. As an application of general results a special model is considered in which the geometry inside the brane is a slice of the Minkowski spacetime orbifolded along the direction perpendicular to the brane. For this model the Wightman function, vacuum expectation values of the field square and the energy-momentum tensor inside the brane are evaluated as well and their behavior is discussed in various asymptotic regions of the parameters. It is shown that for both minimally and conformally coupled scalar fields the interior vacuum forces acting on the brane boundaries tend to decrease the brane thickness.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures, discussion adde