The Development of Historical Thinking Assessment to Examine Students’ Skills in Analyzing the Causality of Historical Events

<p style="text-align: justify;">This research aimed to develop a historical thinking assessment for students' skills in analyzing the causality of historical events. The development process of Gall and colleagues and Rasch analysis models were used to develop an assessment instrument consisting of two processes, including the analysis of the framework of cause and consequence, the validity, reliability, and difficultness test. This research involved 150 senior high school students, with data collected using the validation sheet, tests, and scoring rubric. The results were in the form of an essay test consisting of six indicators of analyzing cause and consequence. The instruments were valid, reliable, and suitable for assessing students’ skills in analyzing the causality of historical events. The developed instruments were paired with a historical thinking skills assessment to improve the accuracy of the information about students' level of historical thinking skills in the learning history.</p>

Measuring operational and quality-adjusted efficiency of Chilean water companies

The path to a sustainable management of the urban water cycle requires the assessment of both operational and quality-adjusted efficiency in a unified manner. This can be done by the use of non-radial Data Envelopment Analysis models. This study used Range Adjusted Measure models to evaluate the operational, quality-adjusted, and operational & quality-adjusted efficiency (O&QAE) scores of the Chilean water industry including water leakage and unplanned interruptions as undesirable outputs. It was found that on average water utilities presented large O&QAE scores over time. The mean O&QAE score was 0.964 which means that water utilities could further reduce costs and undesirable outputs by 3.6% on average, while trying to expand the scale of operation. This finding suggests that excellent quality-adjusted efficiency at an efficient expenditure could be feasible. It was also evidenced that customer density, mixed water resources, and ownership influenced the O&QAE of Chilean water companies.

Identifying temporal and spatial patterns of variation from multimodal data using MEFISTO

Factor analysis is a widely used method for dimensionality reduction in genome biology, with applications from personalized health to single-cell biology. Existing factor analysis models assume independence of the observed samples, an assumption that fails in spatio-temporal profiling studies. Here we present MEFISTO, a flexible and versatile toolbox for modeling high-dimensional data when spatial or temporal dependencies between the samples are known. MEFISTO maintains the established benefits of factor analysis for multimodal data, but enables the performance of spatio-temporally informed dimensionality reduction, interpolation, and separation of smooth from non-smooth patterns of variation. Moreover, MEFISTO can integrate multiple related datasets by simultaneously identifying and aligning the underlying patterns of variation in a data-driven manner. To illustrate MEFISTO, we apply the model to different datasets with spatial or temporal resolution, including an evolutionary atlas of organ development, a longitudinal microbiome study, a single-cell multi-omics atlas of mouse gastrulation and spatially resolved transcriptomics.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Non-COVID-19 Clinical Trials

Randomized controlled trials (RCT) were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but no systematic analysis has evaluated the overall impact of COVID-19 on non-COVID-19-related RCTs. The ClinicalTrials.gov database was queried in February 2020. Eligible studies included all randomized trials with a start date after 1 January 2010 and were active during the period from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2020. The effect of the pandemic period on non-COVID-19 trials was determined by piece-wise regression models using 11 March 2020 as the start of the pandemic and by time series analysis (models fitted using 2015–2018 data and forecasted for 2019–2020). The study endpoints were early trial stoppage, normal trial completion, and trial activation. There were 161,377 non-COVID-19 trials analyzed. The number of active trials increased annually through 2019 but decreased in 2020. According to the piece-wise regression models, trial completion was not affected by the pandemic (p = 0.56) whereas trial stoppage increased (p = 0.001). There was a pronounced decrease in trial activation early during the pandemic (p < 0.001) which then recovered. The findings from the time series models were consistent comparing forecasted and observed results (trial completion p = 0.22; trial stoppage p < 0.01; trial activation, p = 0.01). During the pandemic, there was an increase in non-COVID-19 RCTs stoppage without changes in RCT completion. There was a sharp decline in new RCTs at the beginning of the pandemic, which later recovered.

TRADUCCIÓN INTERSEMIÓTICA: TEORÍAS Y PROPUESTAS PARA SU ESTUDIO EN LALITERATURA Y EL CINE

El presente texto es una revisión de la noción de traducción intersemiótica desde su creación por parte de Jakobson en 1959, y a través de su recuperación en el ámbito de la semiótica, el análisis literario y cinematográfico. La primera parte surge de la necesidad de tener claridad sobre las bases teóricas que delinean los alcances y limitaciones de la intersemiosis, sus derivaciones y propuestas alternas, con especial atención de los postulados de Eco, Lotman, y Sonesson. La segunda parte aborda la aplicación de la teoría al estudio de las obras de traducción intersemiótica, enunciando los modelos de análisis propuestos a partir de la glosemática, el cronotopo, la idea de semiosfera, y el Análisis Multimodal del Discurso. Abstract: This article reviews the notion of intersemiotic translation since it was stablished by Jakobson in 1959, and uses it in the field of semiotic, literary, and cinematographic analysis. First, the article will approach and clarify the theoretical aspects of the concept, together with its scope, limitations, and derivations, and will address alternative proposals, paying special attention to Eco, Lotman, and Sonesson. Secondly, the article will apply the theory to the study of intersemiotic translation, outlining the analysis models that derives from glossematics, the chronotope, the idea of semiosphere, and Multimodal Analysis of Discourse.

Harmonic Analysis and Neutral-Point Potential Control of Interleaved Parallel Three-Level Inverters for Flywheel Energy Storage System

Flywheel energy storage system is a popular energy storage technology, in which inverters are the center of electrical energy conversion, directly affecting the power capacity. Parallel operation of three-level inverters is an effective approach to achieve larger motor drive power and the interleaved operation can improve the harmonic characteristics. However, harmonic analysis models of the interleaved parallel three-level inverters are rare in the literature and how the neutral-point potential imbalance affects the harmonics characteristics has not been discussed. This article establishes the harmonic calculation for balanced and unbalanced neutral-point potential through the five-level voltage capability of the interleaved parallel three-level inverters. Moreover, a neutral-point potential control method based on zero-sequence voltage injection is proposed. The implement process of the method is proposed, and how the operating frequency affect the ability of the neutral-point potential balance is studied. Finally, the simulation and experiment results verify the feasibility and practicability of the established harmonic analysis models and the neutral-point potential control method.

MOTIF KARGOISME DALAM CERITA RAKYAT FAKFAK: SEBUAH PENDEKATAN ANTROPOLOGI SASTRA/THE MOTIVATION OF CARGOISM IN FAKFAK'S FOLKLORE: AN APPROACH TO LITERATURE ANTHROPOLOGY

Abstrak Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis refleksi kargoisme di dalam cerita rakyat Fakfak melalui pendekatan antropologi sastra. Untuk menganalisis unsur budaya motif kargoisme (kultus kargo) masyarakat Fakfak dalam cerita rakyat, maka peneliti menggunakan metode deskriptif interpretatif dengan memanfaatkan cara-cara penafsiran dan menyajikannya dalam bentuk deskripsi. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan teknik wawancara dan catat, kemudian dianalisis dengan menggunakan pendekatan antropologi sastra dengan model analisis konten. Analisis konten dilakukan melalui tahap inferensi, analisis, validitas dan reliabilitas. Dari analisis diketahui bahwa motif kargoisme di dalam 6 cerita rakyat Fakfak yang berjudul “Botol Manci”, “Kisah Kaprangit Gewab”, “Sayap Burung Kasuari”, “Perlawanan Para Binatang Buruan””, Perundingan Sekelompok Burung”, dan “Pohon Kayu” terlihat jelas. Temuan ini mengukuhkan pernyataan bahwa setiap ada tindakan represif pasti akan timbul perlawanan. Oleh karena itu, tidak mengherankan jika sebagian besar cerita yang ada bermotif perlawanan. Kata kunci:motif kargoisme, cerita rakyat Fakfak, antropologi sastra AbstractThe study was intended to describe a cargoism reflection in the folklore of Fakfak through the approach of literary anthropology.To analyze cultural elements of Fakfak cargoism motive (cargo cult) in folklore, descriptive methods of interpretation used to utilize interpretations by presenting them in a description.Data collection is done with interview and recording techniques, and then analyzed using literary anthropology approaches with content analysis models. Analysis shows the cargoism motive in 6 Fakfak folklore called Botol Manci, Kisah Kaprangit Gewab, Patahnya Sayap Burung Kasuari, Perlawanan Para Binatang Buruan, Perundingan Sekelompok Burung, and Pohon Kayuclearly reflected. These findings confirm the claim that any repressive action will inevitably result in resistance. It is not suprising, therefore, that most stories have ulterior motives. Keywords:cargoism motive, Fakfak folklore, literarture anthropology

Usability Cost-Benefit Analysis for Information Technology Applications and Decision Making

Usability is an important quality attribute for information technology (IT) applications. However, integrating usability design and evaluation as an integral part of the development processes in information technology development organizations is still a challenge. This chapter gives an overview on the usability cost-benefit analysis models and provides some example cases of the importance of usability. These models and cases can be used by usability professionals to motivate the organizational management to provide resources for usability work and to integrate usability work as part of the development process. The target audience for this chapter are professionals and researchers working in the field of IT, managers in IT development organizations, as well as managers in organizations acquiring and using IT.

Fire Risk Analysis on Buildings Considering Fire Spread and Total Floor Area

Fire risk analysis models utilized for the fire risk assessment of domestic structures do not usually take into account flame spread and building size. Therefore, in this study, the effect of the building size on flame spread was investigated. Results showed that the frequency of occurrence of fires increased when the building has 11 or more floors. Additionally, the rate of occurrence of small-scale fires also increased when the total floor area was greater than or equal to 1,000 m2. From the risk analysis, the fire risk of health care, medical, and recreational facilities were calculated to be 25.7 × 10-3, 4.29 × 10-3, and 0.91 × 10-3 persons per year, respectively. As such, these were classified as high-risk facilities.