Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR): A Novel Genomic Modifying Technique

In a way akin to how technological advancements involving molecular and biological science rapidly developed during the last decade, CRISPR, a newly found genomic modifying technique, quickly gained the attention of the scientific community. This paper aims to provide a fundamental understanding of CRISPR technology by reviewing articles from several journals, consisting of general information about CRISPR technology, process, advantages, limitations, and comparisons with other technologies. This recent technology drastically altered the boundaries of genetic engineering-most notably due to its outstanding flexibility of gRNA modification, as demonstrated by the work of the two Nobel Prize award-winning scientists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna. From the journals that had been reviewed, this paper presents that the CRISPR-Cas9 is one of the most efficient tools for genetic engineering in our modern world because of its incredible potential to perform genetic material modification in a wide range of patients with greater efficiency, versatility, and accuracy than before, all the while being more cost-effective. Additionally, since significant research and newfound knowledge related to genetic science was made possible from the discovery of this CRISPR technology, the possibility of CRISPR-Cas9 treatment in patients-particularly to combat congenital genetic diseases-would become a horizon that is within the reach of humanity’s hands. Keywords: genomic modifying technique, CRISPR technology, genetic engineering, congenital genetic disease, genetic material modification.

Autobiography in the Anthropocene. A Geological Reading of Alice Munro

In the autobiographical stories of Nobel Prize award-winning author Alice Munro, questions of ontology and mortality are inextricably connected to matters of space and place. Fundamental existential dilemmas expressed in Munro’s corpus – signaled by the title of her second short story collection Who Do You Think You Are? – are linked to basic questions concerning orientation. Although autobiographical fiction frequently interweaves concerns about identity and deceased parents with recollections of ancestral spaces, as the literary critic Northrop Frye famously stated, the question ‘Where is here?’ is characteristic of the Canadian imagination. It is now also fundamental to the epoch of the Anthropocene. Although critics frequently praise Munro for her skill in presenting haunting, epiphanic moments, she is less often credited for her far less conventional tendency to tell stories covering years, even decades. My paper explores Munro’s preoccupation with these vast temporal arcs and their impact on her recursive autobiographical fiction. I argue that Munro’s penchant for ‘return and revision’ in her non-fictional works affords an opportunity for her protagonists and, by extension, her readers to revisit and ponder ancestral connections and the non-human dimensions of existence, which include sublime geological features and deep time.

Can Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity be Taught to Indonesian High School Students?

The detections of gravitational waves, which culminated in the 2017 physics Noble Prize award have again confirmed the triumph of the theory of general relativity. This theory, together with quantum mechanics, forms the backbones of our modern understanding of the world and significantly contributes to modern technologies we are using today. Despite the importance of these theories, they are still rarely part of high school physics curricula worldwide, including the Indonesian physics curriculum, due to assumptions that these theories are too difficult for students to grasp. However, there has been a growing interest to bring these theories to younger students and general public and there is growing evidence that appropriate teaching can result in measurable learning. The purpose of this research was to explore the impact of activity-based learning using models and analogies on high school students’ conceptual understanding of general relativity related concepts. It was conducted in one class of 31 students who participated in a three-week period program. Testing of their conceptual understanding used identical pre/post-tests. The results indicated a strong and statistically significant improvement in students’ conceptual understanding with a large effect size. Interestingly, the results showed that the change in conceptual understanding to physics of girls was higher than boys.

Overview of Deming Criteria for Total Quality Management Conceptual Framework Design in Education Services

Nowadays, education institutions obtain more significant influence based on society needs compared to previous years. The rise of demands towards the quality improvements in education services and awareness in being more competitive to fulfill customers’ requirements has paved a way towards better quality management. One of the quality improvement models that could be implemented is Total Quality Management (TQM), which has been widely used in industries and service sectors. In order to ensure the success of TQM implementation, there are various awards to recognize the quality initiatives by the organizations, and one of them is known as the Deming Prize. In this paper, the Deming criteria from Deming Prize award is overviewed to design a new TQM conceptual framework for education services to improve the total organization system. It complements three main principles; i) the establishment of business objectives and strategies, ii) the suitable utilization and implementation of TQM, and iii) the effects and impacts of TQM. In the next stage, a conceptual framework will be designed and used at an educational institution for the TQM system implementation. It is expected that this study will lead to new insights on TQM implementation in education services.

Deutsch-rumänische Sprachinterferenzen bei Herta Müller und Balthasar Waitz

Herta Müller’s leaning towards word for word transfer of Romanian set phrases in her texts can be explained by the environment in which she lived until her emigration to West Germany and this admittedly intensifies with the gradually increasing general interest in multi-lingualism. The fact that the authoress speaks of the German-Romanian transfer in her acceptance speech on the occasion of the Nobel Prize award proves the important role, which Hertha Müller ascribes to this procedure. Also at the centre of the latest books by Balthasar Waitz stands the multicultural region of the Banat. The author seems to be gripped by the plurilingualism of the immediate surroundings of his homeland. Different forms of Romanian, from slang to everyday speech, but occasionally also Hungarian, Slovak and Serbian phrases find their way into the texts of the Banat author. In this manner just as with Hertha Müller, language images come into being, new light. Thus literary multilingualism in both writers enables one to have a novel access to the relation between literature and reality.