Level of Local Community Brand Awareness of Samosir Tourism

This study aims to: (1) determine the level of local community brand awareness of the brand "Negeri Indah Kepingan Surga" in Samosir Regency, and (2) know the local community's perception of the branding "Negeri Indah Kepingan Surga" in Samosir Regency. Methods of data collection through questionnaires and interviews. Data analysis was carried out in descriptive quantitative with a Likert scale and qualitative. In order for qualitative research to be better, member checks and group discussion forums were then carried out. The sample in this study amounted to 96 people, while the informants amounted to 9 people. The results of this study are: (1) the level of brand awareness of the local community towards the brand "Negeri Indah Kepingan Surga" in Samosir Regency is at the brand recall level, and (2) There has not been any unified perception among the local community on the brand "Negeri Indah Kepingan Surga". in Samosir Regency. Some of the ways that must be done in order to achieve brand awareness of local community. The local community's perception of the tourism brand in Samosir Regency is still varied, although it has a positive tone.

Differential Effects of Input-based and Output-based Tasks on L2 Vocabulary Learning

This paper reports on a quasi-experimental study that explored the differential effects of input- and output-based tasks on L2 vocabulary learning. The study adopted a pretest- posttest within-participants design, with sixty Vietnamese EFL university students. Participants in the experimental group completed four input and four output tasks in an online learning environment. The target items (ten single words and ten compounds) were counterbalanced across the tasks. The study measured vocabulary gains at four levels of sensitivity: spontaneous use of the target items, form recall, meaning recall and meaning recognition. The analyses showed that the input-based tasks resulted in higher vocabulary gains at the meaning recall level, whereas the output-based tasks resulted in better scores at the form recall level. No difference was found in the spontaneous use and meaning recognition tests.

EmpiReS: Differential Analysis of Gene Expression and Alternative Splicing

ABSTRACTWhile absolute quantification is challenging in high-throughput measurements, changes of features between conditions can often be determined with high precision. Therefore, analysis of fold changes is the standard method, but often, a doubly differential analysis of changes of changes is required. Differential alternative splicing is an example of a doubly differential analysis, i.e. fold changes between conditions for different isoforms of a gene. EmpiRe is a quantitative approach for various kinds of omics data based on fold changes for appropriate features of biological objects. Empirical error distributions for these fold changes are estimated from Replicate measurements and used to quantify feature fold changes and their directions. We assess the performance of EmpiRe to detect differentially expressed genes applied to RNA-Seq using simulated data. It achieved higher precision than established tools at nearly the same recall level. Furthermore, we assess the detection of alternatively Spliced genes via changes of isoform fold changes (EmpiReS) on distribution-free simulations and experimentally validated splicing events. EmpiReS achieves the best precision-recall values for simulations based on different biological datasets. We propose EmpiRe(S) as a general, quantitative and fast approach with high reliability and an excellent trade-off between sensitivity and precision in (doubly) differential analyses.

EXPLORING THE EFFECTS OF CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA ADVERTISEMENTS ON PURCHASING BEHAVIOR OF CITIZENS OF SARGODHA CITY

The socio-economic development of Sargodha city of Pakistan has positive effects on the purchase behavior of citizen of the city. The induction of different brands in this city creates an opportunity to test the purchase behavior influenced by electronic media. The study examines the effects of celebrity endorsement in electronic media advertisements on purchase behavior of citizens of Sargodha city. Television is selected from a broad range of electronic media due to its popularity and access to the majority of population. 320 individuals are selected through multi stage sampling techniques in which participants are categorized demographically by gender, age, education, and as per income level with the ratio of 160 each gender category. Survey research method is used to acquire proper response from selected sample. Statistical analysis using SPSS describes the celebrity endorsed advertisements in TV which has significant positive impact on purchase behavior of the consumers of the study. The study reveals that customers pay more attention towards celebrity endorsed rather than noncelebrity advertisement. It is also learnt that female showbiz celebrities are more adored by customers as compared to male showbiz celebrities. In addition, customers recall level about advertisement with celebrities is higher than the advertisements with absence of celebrities. Findings further show that celebrity endorsed advertisements is more influential on purchase behavior of citizen of Sargodha.

Developing a haptic glove for basic piano education

This study aims at developing a glove with integrated haptic interface to facilitate the learning of those who have just started playing piano and allowing them to perform without a need for a piano during daily activities. The steps of the analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation model were used in the research. In the analysis stage, students’ needs were analysed and problems were determined. At the design stage, practices oriented to resolving these problems were analysed and it was decided that haptic gloves might be appropriate for the solution to the problems revealed. At the development stage, evaluations were made directed to development of the product and formatting. The participants used the haptic glove for a while and have expressed their opinions, which are recorded by video camera. The recordings were analysed and it was found that the second version of the haptic glove increased the participants’ recall level of the music.

Klasifikasi Rumah Tangga Miskin Menggunakan Ordinal Class Classifier

The Central Bureau of Statistics of Indonesia (BPS) classified the target households into three different categories which were very poor households (RSTM), poor households (RTM), and nearly-poor households (RTSM). BPS need some method that can accelerate the classification process to assist the performance of BPS in order to shorten the processing time. The data scale that used in the classification of poor households was ordinal. Generally, calculations of classification using ordinal asscales only can be found in the software WEKA Ordinal Class Classifier (OCC) that was one of the existing classification in WEKA. OCC could be resolve to attributes that are nominal, numerical, and ordinal. So in this research, OCC would be using to classify poor households. By comparing the algorithms performance there were several stages that need to be traversed. The first was the data collection stage, the second was the data processing stage and information by using preprocessing, the third was the analysis stage with tools WEKA. The fourth was a test stage by counting the value of accuracy, precision, and recall. The last stage was evaluation by comparing actual data with predictive data of the result of calculating system. From the classification process, it can be concluded that OCC has the highest accuracy, precision, and recall level which is 90% (3803) of training set and 10% (423) of testing set with accuracy of 90.5437%, precision 0.919, and recall 0.905.

Needs Assessment of Anatomy for the Gastroenterology Masters Course among Teachers, Practitioners and Students: Coverage of Topics other than Topographic Anatomy

Context: Absence of formally specified course content and objectives, instructional methodology, and assessment system for Anatomy in the MD Gastroenterology course of Bangladesh has led to confusion in the implementation of its residency curriculum with respect to Anatomy. Needs assessment of Anatomy for the would-be gastroenterologists among the stakeholders of the course would help solving this problem. This study aimed at having feedback on the coverage of topics of Anatomy other than topographic anatomy in teaching and assessment of the MD Gastroenterology course attended by them. Materials & Methods: A Cross-Sectional study was carried out in the Department of Anatomy, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka from July 2002 to December 2003. A questionnaire (based on analysis of a textbook of Gastroenterology) with close-ended questions was sent to nine teachers/practitioners, students (residents) and thesis part students of the MD Gastroenterology course. Results: The number of topics that were felt to covered ‘as required’ by majority of the participants was 2 out of 11. For the most of the topics, teaching or assessment was felt to be ‘more than required’. Though more than 70% respondents considered the course as customized and 75% tended to agree that teaching and assessment had been useful in clinical work, 55.6% thought that it had catered more recall-level knowledge, 85% did not think that a ‘problem-based approach’ had been taken in the course. Conclusion: Considering the findings of this study positive steps can be taken to reorganize of Anatomyportion of the course and making it clinically to the gastroenterologists. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bja.v11i2.20672 Bangladesh Journal of Anatomy, July 2013, Vol. 11 No. 2 pp 62-67

Medical Undergraduates’ Residual Knowledge of Structural, Functional and Clinical Aspects of Cell and Histology at Recall and Understanding Levels

Context: The importance of the knowledge of Cell and Histology in grasping the paraclinical and clinical sciences by medical undergraduates is understandable. The rapidly changing scenario of the concepts of teaching-learning and assessment demands assessing the status of undergraduates’ residual knowledge from the viewpoint of teachers, curriculum planners and educational researchers. Materials and methods: Answering text-based (60%) and illustration-based (40%) single-sentence True/ False questions was attempted by 373 undergraduates who had completed the Cell and Histology portion of their course 3 to 6 months earlier in two government and two private medical colleges of Bangladesh. There were structurally-oriented (46.67%), functionally-oriented (43.33%) and clinically-oriented (10%) questions addressing mainly recall (58%) and understanding (40.67%) levels of cognitive domain. Comparisons were made among the numbers of correct answers to different types of question using ANOVA Post Hoc and t test, as applicable. Results: The mean frequency of correct response was 54.25%. Significantly more (p= 0.00) correct responses were recorded for the clinically-oriented (62.47%) and functionally-oriented (54.46%) questions than for the structurally-oriented (52.62%) questions. There were significantly (p= 0.00) fewer correct responses for the understanding-level questions (51.13%) than for the recall-level questions (56.65%). Conclusion: These results suggest that the residual knowledge of Cell and Histology in the undergraduates, though not very rich, may be governed both by a sense of relevance and by memorisation. Further study with a larger sample can add to these results to dictate curriculum modification and implementation, regarding teaching and assessment, in making learning more relevant and less memorisation-dependent. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bja.v11i1.20507 Bangladesh Journal of Anatomy, January 2013, Vol. 11 No. 1 pp 34-43

Mathematics teachers’ reflective practice and the quality of their instruction.

Researchers and theorists differ whether teachers’ reflection on their classroom practices and teaching mathematics effectively are linked or not. This study aims to align the benefits of reflective practice with the quality of education and the learning of mathematics. A qualitative case study was conducted with five mathematics teachers at a high school in a rural area of the Free State. Data were collected by conducting interviews and observing lesson presentations. The reflective aspect was evaluated by employing Lee’s (2005) three levels of reflection – ‘recall level’, ‘rationalisation level’ and ‘reflective level’. The quality of the teachers’ mathematics instruction was compared to the principles for effective teaching set by Anthony and Walshaw (2009). The study found that there was indeed a link between the teachers’ reflective classroom practice and their effectiveness in facilitating the learning of mathematics. The teachers who were more reflective in the preparation and presentation of their lessons, were also evaluated to be more effective teachers than those who were less reflective. The results of the study have implications for the professional development of practising teachers – not only due to the fact that teachers should be trained and encouraged to reflect on their teaching and the learning of mathematics, but also because they have to discuss the effective teaching of mathematics cooperatively with their fellow teachers.