Assessment of Language Functions in Patients With Disorders of Consciousness Using an Alternative Communication Tool

This study aimed to describe the percentage of tasks involving language functions that were completed by patients diagnosed with disorders of consciousness, as observed during neurorehabilitation conducted for different periods of time using an alternative communication tool. The project involved six participants, who were observed for 1 month, 6 months, and 1 year. The patients were asked to solve tasks involving language functions with the use of an eye-controlled device. The language functions were evaluated on the basis of the average number of tasks performed by the patients, which was 70.45% for the whole subject group. It is not entirely clear what determined the changes in language functions during the research. It is crucial that patients performed the presented tasks even though their state of consciousness, as confirmed through medical documentation (unresponsive wakefulness syndrome), did not suggest the possibility of establishing any contact with them.

STUDY OF THE SCIENTIFIC TEMPER OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCIENCE STUDENTS

This research aims to study the scientific temper of senior secondary science students in the context of the locality, gender and subject groups. Investigator developed a standardized tool for measuring the scientific temper, consists of 100 test items related to six dimensions of scientific temper. The tools reliability, cross validity and concurrent validity were found 0.68, 0.72 and 0.68 respectively. A sample of 600 was selected randomly from the population and the tool was administrated on the sample to compare the scientific temper in the context of the locality, gender and subject group. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis of the raw score revealed that the scientific temper of urban senior secondary science students is significantly higher than their rural counterpart and the scientific temper of PCM (Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics) subject group students is also significantly higher than PCB (Physics, Chemistry and Biology) subject group students but the scientific temper of boys and girls of senior secondary science students does not differ significantly.

SUBJECT GROUP OF OXYMORONS WITH JOY / SADNESS SEMANTIC LOAD IN POEMS OF VASYL STUS

Vasyl Stus is a brilliant representative of Ukrainian existentialism, a person of tragic fate. Emotionalism and complexity of his poetic manner, «obscureness» of verses to his contemporaries and even the majority of readers are neither escape from reality, nor deliberate inversion of reality, of which the poet was blamed by the Soviet critics; it is more of a creation of Stus’s own reality, search of new ways for Ukrainian literature to move forward. Finding a solution to the existential problem of meaning in the person’s existence, inner world, spiritual experience in relations with the world is the object of Vasyl Stus’s creative concept. Guided by philosophical tenets of existentialism, the poet’s persona is in search of his identity within it. This search causes horror, despair, and a sense of existential tragedy. Thus, the poet’s existentialistic nature has determined the figurative method of expressing his philosophy. V. Stus’s existentialism, the depth of his philosophical thinking are brilliantly expressed in conceptual polysemantic images that fill his poetry. The main ones among them are oxymorons. The existentialistic spirit in his poetry is manifested in the form of oxymorons, which we associate with the peculiarities of the poet’s tragic worldview and great capabilities of oxymorons for its expression, as well as with the features of his poetic style that are unusual for Ukrainian literature: reach after condensed and concentrated imagery; poetical reproduction of the emotional charge of facts; search for new overtones in the words to convey new emotional and psychological connotations. Poet’s use of oxymorons represents the hard way he went from contradictory worldview, internal disharmony, complex and unconventional worldview to all these internal conflicts being reflected in his extraordinary imagery. This present article deals with the subject group of oxymoronic imagery with the joy/sadness semantic opposition in the poetry of the Ukrainian poet Vasyl Stus; analyzes the semantic connection of oxymoron with the peculiarities of the artist’s worldview. New figurative meanings acquired by the lexemes in oxymoronic expressions are the means used by the author to manifest his attitude towards reality.

Analysis of Interleukin-4 in Thrombocytopenia Autoimmune Patients

Thrombocytopenia is a disease characterized by a decreased platelet count. Some of the causes are decreased platelet production, increased platelet use, such as due to infection, and autoimmune causes, namely the loss of tolerance of the immune system to self-antigens on the surface of the platelets and megakaryocytes marked with a platelet count <100,000 / μL and based on the pathomechanism classified as primary Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP) and secondary, as well as several other causes. IL-4, one of the cytokines produced by Th2 which stimulates B cells to increase antibody production. The aim of this study was to compare IL-4 levels in primary ITP patients and non-primary ITP tombocytopenia. This study involved 30 primary ITP subjects and 30 non-ITP primary tombocytopenia subjects obtained based on data medical records, examination of IL-4 cytokine levels by the ELISA method. The results of this study that the IL-4 levels of the primary non ITP tombocytopenia subject group were higher than the primary ITP subject group, which means that there were differences in IL-4 levels in the primary ITP subject group and the non-ITP primary tombocytopenia subject group.

Learning Through Teaching: Impact on Knowledge Retrieval Immediately After Student-Teaching in an EFL Setting

Learning through teaching is often described as an enriching experience that reflects a deeper understanding of one's area of learning focus. To understand this potentially rewarding experience, this research, as the focal point, intends to identify any significance regarding knowledge retention between students who were tested on a certain subject matter immediately after they had taught it to several classmates, and those who were tested several weeks after teaching. On a secondary note, the test scores of the student-taught material themselves help to show how well the students learned from teaching in general. The study consists of two groups, each of which was composed of 24 Ecuadorian EFL college students who taught on a basic grammar point to several other peers in their class. The retrieval of the knowledge that the subject group had taught was examined a few minutes after their teaching. The control group's knowledge was examined several weeks (at least one month) after their time in front of the classroom. The results are surprisingly insignificant. Additionally, the average test grades scored by the participants which reflect the grammar points taught were rather low. The question, thus, remains on whether or not certain factors played a role that may have influenced the results. Therefore, further research on this topic is recommended, perhaps with some variations which could favor more the notion of learning by means of teaching. Keywords: EFL, English, grammar, interteaching, learning, teaching

Impact of 24 h of isolation and confinement exposure on psychological state of healthy human volunteers

Introduction: During space missions, crew is encountered with various psychological challenges. One major challenge during space mission is the issue of isolation and confinement. Understanding of human behavior and performance in isolated and confined environment (ICE) has been the area of interest for all those involved in human space program. Ground-based mission-specific studies are necessary before undertaking any specific mission so that the psychological impact of ICE can be investigated in details. The first human space flight of India, which may be launched in the near future, may involve for a duration not more than 24 h. This scientific experiment was undertaken with an aim to study the impact of 24 h isolation and confinement on psychological state of healthy human volunteers. Material and Methods: During 24 h period of isolation and confinement, 10 healthy human volunteers were evaluated every 10–12 h with State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Positive and Negative Affect State (PANAS), and Profile of Mood States (POMS) in the existing Isolation cum Group Confinement laboratory of Institute of Aerospace Medicne (IAM). Similar psychological evaluation was also carried out among nine healthy individuals who served as controls. Results: There was a momentary increase in state anxiety level during early period of isolation and confinement exposure (ICE). However, the anxiety level returned to pre-exposure level after 24 h. Furthermore, there was a significant drop in the level of negative emotions among the subject group as well as among control group in the morning of day 2 though there was no significant change in the positive emotions. Over the period of 24 h of isolation and confinement, neither the subject group nor the control group showed statistically significant changes in the total mood disturbance. None of the groups showed any significant changes in any of the POMS subscales, that is, anger-hostility, confusion-bewilderment, depression-dejection, fatigue-inertia, and tension-anxiety except for vigor-activity. Thus, a stable mood state was observed among the participants. Conclusion: Before exposure to isolation and confinement, the subject group exhibited a higher level of “State” anxiety on day 1 which had returned to pre-exposure level in the morning of day 2. In both days, the state of positive emotions was statistically insignificant among subject as well as among control group. However, a significant decrease in the level of negative emotions among the subject group and control group was observed. There was no significant change in the mood state in the study group as well as in the control group.

Efektivitas Penerapan Model Pembelajaran Kooperatif Quick on The Draw

This research is expected to provide an overview and information on the effectiveness of the ‘Quick on the Draw’ cooperative learning model implementation, so that it can be used as a reference material and develop it in a vocational high school study. This research is a classroom action research, aiming to improve the quality or solving problems occurring in a subject group that is researched and observed as a level of success or impact of his actions. The effectiveness of the model is assessed by student activity, student learning outcomes, and student response to the use of the model. The total score of the student activity observation is 87.5% (85% < RA ≤ 100%) in ‘very active’ category. The percentage of students that are collectively completed is 100%, which means that the criteria for the effectiveness of learning devices are met. The interval of the student responses received from the average from student response poll became the class response, where the response of this class is at the range of 3.2 (͞R ≥ 3), meaning the average of overall response is positive and meet the criteria of the learning device effectiveness. The use of this learning model is expected to address the problems often faced by both teachers and students.

Conceptual compression of a text as a component of communicative competence

The article presents an example how to work with students on the text conceptual compression. The skill of compression and transferring the information of a text is a solid part of communicative competence and it seems to be crucial in the process of verbal communication including professional conversation. There was conducted a beta testing among the 1st year university students in order to evaluate the skills to compress and transfer information. The examination shows that the secondary school graduates do not perform well being asked to compress the information of a text, they are not able to use adequate ways to transform the texts, the final text product does not include all vital conceptual details. The subject group of students was offered a special training, which included a number of exercises aimed on teaching to compress texts. The article also includes the designed course which was applied. As the result of such a focused instruction on text compression studies, the students learned how to highlight the key topics and to use the needed ways of compression. What is more, the final products appeared to be more logical. Hence the proposed research leads to the conclusion that not only such specially designed training is vitally needed, but also that the designed by the researchers exercises are effective.