CHARACTER EDUCATION THROUGH MATERUNA NYOMAN CEREMONY IN TENGANAN PEGRINGSINGAN VILLAGE, KARANGASEM-BALI

<p class="p2">This research aims to study the phenomenon of character education through the <em>Materuna Nyoman </em>Ceremony in Tenganan Pegringsingan Village, Karangasem Regency, Bali Province. This research was conducted using a qualitative approach and found results, such as (1) the <em>Materuna Nyoman </em>ceremony is a ceremony that must be followed by every youth in Tenganan Pegringsingan Village as a requirement of being recognized as an adult; (2) through the <em>Materuna Nyoman </em>Ceremony, religious characters, patience, care for the environment, social care, responsibility, independence, and self-sacrifice can be formed; and (3) the participation of <em>teruna </em>in the <em>Materuna Nyoman </em>Ceremony has implications for increasing the <em>teruna’s </em>knowledge of ethics, responsibility, social care, environmental care, and so on. The development of positive knowledge evidently also has implications for the formation of good attitudes, and ultimately leads to the development of good behavior for <em>teruna </em>who have participated in the <em>Materuna Nyoman </em>Ceremony.</p>

Attentive 3D-Ghost Module for Dynamic Hand Gesture Recognition with Positive Knowledge Transfer

Hand gesture recognition is a challenging topic in the field of computer vision. Multimodal hand gesture recognition based on RGB-D is with higher accuracy than that of only RGB or depth. It is not difficult to conclude that the gain originates from the complementary information existing in the two modalities. However, in reality, multimodal data are not always easy to acquire simultaneously, while unimodal RGB or depth hand gesture data are more general. Therefore, one hand gesture system is expected, in which only unimordal RGB or Depth data is supported for testing, while multimodal RGB-D data is available for training so as to attain the complementary information. Fortunately, a kind of method via multimodal training and unimodal testing has been proposed. However, unimodal feature representation and cross-modality transfer still need to be further improved. To this end, this paper proposes a new 3D-Ghost and Spatial Attention Inflated 3D ConvNet (3DGSAI) to extract high-quality features for each modality. The baseline of 3DGSAI network is Inflated 3D ConvNet (I3D), and two main improvements are proposed. One is 3D-Ghost module, and the other is the spatial attention mechanism. The 3D-Ghost module can extract richer features for hand gesture representation, and the spatial attention mechanism makes the network pay more attention to hand region. This paper also proposes an adaptive parameter for positive knowledge transfer, which ensures that the transfer always occurs from the strong modality network to the weak one. Extensive experiments on SKIG, VIVA, and NVGesture datasets demonstrate that our method is competitive with the state of the art. Especially, the performance of our method reaches 97.87% on the SKIG dataset using only RGB, which is the current best result.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Regarding Brucellosis among Parents in Aseer Region, Southwestern Saudi Arabia

This study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding brucellosis among parents in the Aseer region of southwestern Saudi Arabia in order to estimate the population sectors that are at high risk for accidental exposure to brucellosis. This was a cross-sectional survey conducted in 2018, including 311 participants representing various genders, ages, and levels of education. Bivariate analysis showed a significant association of good awareness of the disease with the male gender and higher education levels. Of the 311 participants, 90.0% had good knowledge, whereas 10.0% showed inadequate knowledge about brucellosis. Practices and attitudes regarding brucellosis were satisfactory as participants did not eat meat from their own animals (52.7%), did not practice slaughtering (71.4%), did not participate in the birth of animals (91.3%), were not exposed to abortion in animals (93.2%), and practiced burial of aborted animal fetuses (59.2%). The practice regarding brucellosis was unsatisfactory as 66.6% never wore gloves when dealing with animals. The study concluded that the majority of parents showed fair and positive knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding brucellosis and found that gender and education were determinants of satisfactory awareness.

KEPLER – NEWTON – LEIBNIZ – HEGEL

Kepler’s Laws of planetary motion (following the Copernican revolution in cosmology), according to Leibniz and his follower Hegel, for the first-time in history discovered the keys to what Hegel called the absolute mechanics mediated by dialectical laws, which drives the celestial bodies, in opposition to finite mechanics in terrestrial Nature developed by mathematical and empirical sciences, but that are of very limited scope. Newton wrongly extended and imposed finite mechanics on the absolute mechanics of the cosmic bodies in the form of his Law of one-sided Universal Gravitational Attraction, by distorting and misrepresenting Kepler’s profound laws and in opposition to Leibniz’s more appropriate “Radial Planetary Orbital Equation”. The still-prevailing error by Newton (notwithstanding his well known manipulation of science for selfish ends), not only shows the limitation of mathematical idealism and prejudice driven modern cosmology in the form of Einstein’s theories of relativity; but also, have made gaining positive knowledge of the cosmos an impossibility and has impaired social/historical development of humanity by reinforcing decadent ruling ideas. Hegel’s Naturphilosophie is not only a protest against the misrepresentation of Kepler’s Laws in particular; his Enzyklopädie der Philosophischem Wissenschaften is the negation and the direct rebuttal of Newtonian physics and Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, in general. Modern natural science ignores Leibniz and Hegel at its own peril! Kepler’s phenomenological laws of planetary motion and the dialectical insights of Leibnitz and Hegel opens the way for gaining positive knowledge of the dynamics, structure and the evolution of the cosmic bodies and other cosmic phenomena; without invoking mysteries and dark/black cosmic entities, which has been the pabulum of official astrophysics and cosmology so far.

Knowledge of mothers about use of fissure sealant therapy and professional fluoride therapy among children in Saudi Arabia

Purpose: To evaluate mothers’ knowledge of the use of fissure sealant (FS) and topical fluoride (TF) therapy among children aged between 7 to 12 years in Saudi Arabia. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, participants (n = 350) were selected based on simple random sampling method from the mothers’ of children aged from 7 to 12 years old, attending outpatient pediatric dental clinics in College of Dentistry King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia. Results: The age group of mothers included are as follows: 31.7 % in 20 - 30 years age group, 53.1 % in 31 - 40 years age range, and 15.1 % in 41 - 50 years. On FS therapy benefits in the prevention of caries in children, 22 % responded that it was beneficial. When participants were asked regarding FS wearing out easily after application on the tooth, 8 % agreed while 13.4 % disagreed. A majority of mothers (40.9 %) agreed that TF therapy prevents caries, while 47.7 % stated that they brush twice daily with fluoride toothpaste. The mothers that disagreed that fluoride gel is recommended only for children, not for adults were 32.9 %. When the mothers were asked about the benefit of fluoride if its cost is taken into consideration, 46.6 % disagreed that fluoride gel was worth its cost, while 22.3 % took the opposite view. Conclusion: Positive knowledge of FS and TF therapy have been observed among mothers. However, mothers demonstrated greater positive knowledge of TF therapy than FS therapy.

Perception and willingness to contribute towards food banking in the Ashanti Region of Ghana

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the perception and willingness to contribute towards food banking in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.Design/methodology/approachStructured questionnaire was used to elicit primary data for the study from 385 respondents via the multistage sampling approach. The quantile regression model was used to analyse the factors that influence the willingness to contribute towards food banks across quantiles of contribution. Factor analysis was further used to examine the perception of food banking.FindingsGender, education and awareness influence the quantiles of contribution. Gender positively influences contribution at the 0.50 quantile. Education negatively affects contribution at the 0.25 and 0.50 quantiles whereas awareness influences contribution at the 0.75 quantiles. The benefit perception of the user and the social status perception of receiving food from food banks convey a sense of positive knowledge concerning what food banking should entail.Research limitations/implicationsThe study provides insights on the determinants affecting the contribution towards food banking across quantiles of contribution. However, it worth noting that, the study uses cross-sectional data which fail to account for the changes over time. A Longitudinal study would therefore be imperative concerning the implementation of food banking.Practical implicationsThe perceived positive knowledge of food banking is suggestive that, the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) should strengthen measures directed towards the implementation of food banking. Moving forward, non-governmental organisations on the verge of conducting a pilot implementation of food banks should give critical focus to the given area of study as the inhabitants are most likely to be attuned to such a course. Finally, to champion contribution amongst the inhabitants, leaders of food banking initiatives and other stakeholders should work in conjunction with residents that are aware of food banks at the high-income class. This procedure would aid in reducing the chances of low contributions to the implementation of food banking.Social implicationsThis paper provides empirical implications for the development of food banks in Ghana. The findings emanating from this study has substantial social implications, because it serves as an instrumental guide to the implementation of food banks by the MOFA, and when implemented would assuage the poor living conditions of individuals that do not meet a three-square meal per day.Originality/valueIn this research, the authors add to the body of knowledge by employing a quantitative approach. Moreover, the authors extend the frontiers of the methodological approach by using the quantile regression model to understand the factors that influence the contribution towards food banking across quantiles of contribution. Furthermore, several studies in the developed world have been geographically limited to UK, USA, Canada and Germany with few studies in Ghana. Besides, there is limited rigorous empirical study of the perception and willingness to contribute towards food banking in Ghana.

Contagiousness as a Problem in Social Epistemology

The theory of infection, although it arose in parallel with the advance of positive knowledge, has never embodied only the logic of the laboratory, in which a “clean” experiment can be devised in order to expose the true causes or symptoms of a disease. To the contrary, both the advent of laboratories and the way they work have come about as the result of a clash between the old paradigm for infection (miasma) and the new one (particular forms of life). The structure of an infection is primarily a structure of social relations, in which the history of an infection and the factors that contributed to its spread are reconstructed. The uncertainty about how an epidemic spreads led to the vindication of the autonomous knowledge which arrived at original ways of representing itself and could prove the soundness of its approach. Any discursive accuracy was regarded as questionable and unable to result in a treatment that would be superior to letting the infection run its course. The efforts of such leading epidemiologists in the modern era as Justus von Liebig, Carlos Juan Finlay, Patrick Manson, and the staff of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg brought about a reconstruction by professionalizing the stages in handling epidemics. It is argued that laboratories asserted their autonomy from universities not because of anything distinctive in their nature, but more because of a general understanding of cause and effect relationships in matters of need and famine. That counted for much more than any shortcomings in the previously established logistics and expansion of production. In addition, the development of forms of colonial, industrial and scientific expansion coupled with new types of enterprise, such as the Panama Canal or Germany’s trade with its colonies, fostered a new vision of epidemics not as natural disasters, but as a complex situations that can be managed and neutralized.

On the Accessibility of the Thing-in-itself: Kant’s Transcendentalism and Meillassoux’s Speculative Materialism

Modern philosophy has shown an unexpected interest in materialism. Why is materialism attractive? Perhaps because of the simplicity of thought, or be­cause of the direct discernment of the truth? Among the new materialists stands out the figure of Meillassoux, who tried to justify the need to move from transcendental and phenomenological idealism to speculative material­ism. But the interest in materialism is even more unexpected among young russian researchers who became volunteers of speculative materialism without hesitation. What attracts them to materialism? The answer to this question can be obtained by analyzing the philosophy of Meillassoux. This article examines the speculative materialism of Meillassoux. His idea of contingency is com­pared with Kant’s idea of productive imagination a priori. As a result, the author concludes that Meillassoux has not found the answer to the question why laws are constant. The absolutization of factuality, on which Meillassoux insists, does not give positive knowledge about the absolute. The inconsistency of Meillassoux is that the absolute is always preceded by an anthropological process of absolutization. The author concludes that speculative materialism attracts by its theoretical simplicity, which, in turn, is based on the full and merciless deprivation the world of anthropological dimension. In the material­ism of K. Meillassoux, an inescapable longing for the absolute is expressed. The speculative materialists want to restore space and time to nature with the help of the absolute, forgetting that the dif­ference between things in them­selves and things for themselves is not based on the absolutization of time, but on the presence of subjectivity. Meillassoux refused subjectivity. He chose the absolute. For him, the subject of philosophy is not the existence of a per­son, but a certain “may-be”.

FEEDBACK USE AND PERCEPTIONS OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of feedback and perceptions of the use of feedback by pre-service teachers in peer-teaching (instructing their peers in university classes) and practical placement settings (teaching in schools). Pre-service teachers specializing in primary physical education (PE) and one other teaching method (n=59) were observed while teaching a 15-minute lesson in a peer-teaching setting, with six participants also observed while teaching on practical placement. Participants retrospectively recalled the feedback they perceived providing during the lesson. Average feedback frequency rate was once every 56 seconds in peer-teaching and once every 86 seconds in practical placement. The most common type of feedback provided was verbal, non-skill related, positive feedback. Pre-service teachers perceived that they provided feedback significantly more often than they actually did (every 41 seconds versus every 56 seconds in peer-teaching). In peer-teaching, pre-service teachers perceived that they provided significantly more non-verbal, negative, knowledge of results, descriptive, and corrective types of feedback than they actually provided, whereas they perceived that they had provided significantly less verbal, non-skill related, positive, knowledge of performance, prescriptive, and terminal types of feedback than they actually provided (p<01). Pre-service teachers provided feedback frequently in peer-teaching and practical placement settings, but less often in practical placement than peer-teaching. Actual and perceived feedback frequencies differed significantly and suggest that pre-service teachers may not always be aware of how often and the type of feedback they are providing, highlighting that PE teacher education programs may need to work with pre-service teachers to develop self-awareness.

The representation of Alistair Maclean’s life as reflected in south by Java Head: a biographical study

This undergraduate thesis research aims to understand and inform the period of World War II experienced by the author Alistair MacLean from a military perspective rather than from a war leader. Because of this, the authors consider this research interesting because it can find the similarity and differences between the novel and Alistair MacLean.The writer applies the biographical approach as the basic of the analysis. The method of this analysis systematically used qualitative methods in compiling this research as the techniques – library data sources, journal article, internet and all books dealing with this research, and the main textual data in South by Java Head. The results of this analysis indicate that in the military life of the war during World War II that seemed disciplined that they made a lifelong commitment to, it turns out there are still those who consciously committed acts of violation; similarity: Japanese Cruelty, Deadly Weapons ect, differences: The Deal Punishment. But there are also some positive knowledge, especially for readers.