Elementary Questions Research Articles

Determining the Field Knowledge of Teacher Candidates Who Are Students of German Language Teaching Department at Gazi University

In our study, we have put forward the argument that foreign language teaching, especially German language teaching has not been in the desired levels, and that German Teaching Departments are inadequate in training teachers. We have tried to prove our argument with numerical data in different aspects. First of all, we presented the list of order for Gazi University German Teaching Department and other teaching departments. In this list, Gazi University was 3 times the top in the list among 16 universities in the last 5 years. Next, we sought an answer to the question “What are the qualities of a good teacher?” On this topic, we presented the views of different experts as well as the criteria ‘The General Qualifications for the Teaching Profession’ prepared by the Ministry of Education. The third step was a table showing the success rates of students for subjects related to field knowledge at Gazi University German Teaching Department. This detailed table showed that the rate of passing classes was 87.5% and the success rates for the classes passed was 88.3 % for the years 2013-2017. As the fourth step, we conducted a questionnaire with students at Gazi University German Teaching Department to measure their subject knowledge. We asked 35 basic and elementary level questions to the students. We converted the obtained answers to relevant tables and we evaluated the success rates of numerical values. As a result, we found a shocking result of 66% failure and 34% success. Last of all, we found that the success rates of students in graduate classes, and the results of our questionnaires are not in line with each other. We also found out that the exam results of the Teaching Subject Knowledge Test supported the data found by our questionnaire. We have stated that teachers are not well trained. More than that, if we want to achieve success in education, especially in foreign language teaching, we suggest that the teaching profession receives higher salaries and that intelligent students are motivated to choose foreign language departments.In our study, we have put forward the argument that foreign language teaching, especially German language teaching has not been in the desired levels, and that German Teaching Departments are inadequate in training teachers. We have tried to prove our argument with numerical data in different aspects. First of all, we presented the list of order for Gazi University German Teaching Department and other teaching departments. In this list, Gazi University was 3 times the top in the list among 16 universities in the last 5 years. Next, we sought an answer to the question “What are the qualities of a good teacher?” On this topic, we presented the views of different experts as well as the criteria ‘The General Qualifications for the Teaching Profession’ prepared by the Ministry of Education. The third step was a table showing the success rates of students for subjects related to field knowledge at Gazi University German Teaching Department. This detailed table showed that the rate of passing classes was 87.5% and the success rates for the classes passed was 88.3 % for the years 2013-2017. As the fourth step, we conducted a questionnaire with students at Gazi University German Teaching Department to measure their subject knowledge. We asked 35 basic and elementary level questions to the students. We converted the obtained answers to relevant tables and we evaluated the success rates of numerical values. As a result, we found a shocking result of 66% failure and 34% success. Last of all, we found that the success rates of students in graduate classes, and the results of our questionnaires are not in line with each other. We also found out that the exam results of the Teaching Subject Knowledge Test supported the data found by our questionnaire. We have stated that teachers are not well trained. More than that, if we want to achieve success in education, especially in foreign language teaching, we suggest that the teaching profession receives higher salaries and that intelligent students are motivated to choose foreign language departments.

THE IMPACT OF PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITIES ON EFL LEARNERS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION

The present study investigated the extent to which four pre-listening activities, “pre-teaching vocabulary”, “content discussion”, “pre-reading questions” and “topic discussion,” assisted EFL learners with their performance on listening comprehension tests across two different proficiency groups (elementary and advanced). Both proficiency groups were divided into four experimental groups, and each was assigned one of the pre-listening activities. The findings revealed that in elementary level, vocabulary preparation and pre-reading questions groups respectively outperformed the two other groups, while in advanced level, vocabulary preparation and content discussion groups respectively outperformed the two other groups. Therefore, vocabulary knowledge should be emphasized more strongly in pre-listening activities.

Hygienic quality of public natural swimming pools (NSP)

Abstract Natural swimming pools (NSP) have become more popular in the past 20 years, both for private and public use, but their hygienic status remains a matter of discussion. Elimination rates in NSP are well defined for Escherichia coli, enterococci and Pseudomonas but a lack of knowledge exists regarding elimination rates in NSP concerning the parasitic protozoans Giardia and Cryptosporidium. First studies indicate that in-situ zooplankton filtration proved to reduce these protozoans efficiently: the in-situ elimination of Cryptosporidium is dependent on the population of zooplankton. In the 50% percentile the elimination rate is four times faster than in the chlorinated pool. The ex-situ elimination of Cryptosporidium in an NSP is approximately 10% faster than in a chlorinated pool. In ex-situ treatment of NSP the elimination rate reached 2 log-steps versus 1 log-step in chlorinated pools. For the further development of NSP for the best possible hygiene and health status some elementary questions, stated in this paper, will have to be solved in the next years or decades. This work describes the in-situ (water treatment inside the pool) and ex-situ water treatment (water treatment via external water treatment plants) of NSP, and the influence of zooplankton in existing NSP on the elimination rate of Cryptosporidium and Giardia.

The diabetes mellitus and their buccal manifestations

The diabetes, as a risk factor to develop oral disease, has always been very discussed, although it seems that at the moment it is accepted that the prevalence of periodontal disease is higher in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) than in healthy patients, and higher in poorly controlled insulin-dependent diabetes (PIDD) that in controlled insulin-dependent diabetes (CIDD), so that this negligence can conspire against health in general. In diabetic patients complex biological, psychological and social transformations occur, which is why it is necessary to provide comprehensive medical care to this population group . On the base of such reflections, the pertinent bibliography was revised on some elementary questions in this respect. In diabetic patients, complex biological, psychological and social transformations take place. Based on these reflections, the pertinent bibliography was reviewed. KEY WORDS: diabetes mellitus; oral health; education; risk

Pulse-shape discrimination techniques for the COBRA double beta-decay experiment at LNGS

In modern elementary particle physics several questions arise from the fact that neutrino oscillation experiments have found neutrinos to be massive. Among them is the so far unknown nature of neutrinos: either they act as so-called Majorana particles, where one cannot distinguish between particle and antiparticle, or they are Dirac particles like all the other fermions in the Standard Model. The study of neutrinoless double beta-decay (0νββ-decay), where the lepton number conservation is violated by two units, could answer the question regarding the underlying nature of neutrinos and might also shed light on the mechanism responsible for the mass generation. So far there is no experimental evidence for the existence of 0νββ-decay, hence, existing experiments have to be improved and novel techniques should be explored. One of the next-generation experiments dedicated to the search for this ultra-rare decay is the COBRA experiment. This article gives an overview of techniques to identify and reject background based on pulse-shape discrimination.

Research on Dynamic Structure Emergency Resource Integration Based on Information Fusion

Emergency decision, especially emergency resources dispatching decision is one of the elementary questions in emergency management. The paper takes dynamicity of emergency resources into consideration and gives a multi-stage dispatching thought, which includes the process of two-stage emergency rescure and continuous comsumption dynamic structure, on the basis of emergency resources’ identification and integration.

The Capacity of Wireless CSMA/CA Networks

Due to a poor understanding of the interactions among transmitters, wireless networks using carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) have been commonly stigmatized as unpredictable in nature. Even elementary questions regarding the throughput limitations of these networks cannot be answered in general. In this paper, we investigate the behavior of wireless CSMA/CA networks to understand how the transmissions of a particular node affect the medium access, and ultimately the throughput, of other nodes in the network. We introduce a theory which accurately models the behavior of these networks and show that, contrary to popular belief, their performance is predictable and can be described by a system of equations. Using the proposed theory, we provide the analytical expressions necessary to fully characterize the capacity region of any wireless CSMA/CA network. We show that this region is nonconvex in general and agnostic to the probability distributions of all network parameters, depending only on their expected values. Our theory is also shown to extend naturally to time division multiple access (TDMA) networks and to predict how the network responds to infeasible input rates.

초등 과학교과서 천문 내용에 대한 예비교사들의 질문의 배경지식 유형과 출처 분석

The purpose of this study is to find out the relationship between types and sources of background knowledges of elementary preteachers' questions about astronomy contents in the elementary science text books. Data were extracted from the preteachers' classes established in a university of education. The results are as follows. First, right background knowledges of questions were found in about 58% questions, wrong background knowledges 15%, and no background knowledges 26%. Second, it was found that 'school' as a source of background knowledges was found in 29% questions, 'friend' 21%, 'internet' 14%, 'book reading' 12%, 'others' 9%, 'TV' 7%, 'institute' 4%. In case of the type that right background knowledges have casual relation or correlation with question contents, 'book reading' and 'TV' sources rate increased, but 'internet' and 'others' decreased when compared to total questions. In the type which background knowledges are right and did not have casual relation or correlation with question contents, 'internet' source rate increased and 'friend' decreased. In case of the type that wrong background knowledges do not have casual relation or correlation with question contents, 'friend' and 'TV' sources rate increased, but 'school' and 'book reading' decreased. The type which background knowledges are right and did not have casual relation or correlation with question contents, 'internet' source rate increased and 'friend' decreased. In case of the type of no background knowledges, 'TV' and 'institute' source rate increased, but 'internet' and 'book reading' decreased. Third, the questions in 'Earth and Moon' unit have little background knowledges. The questions in 'solar system and stars' have background knowledges with no relation to the questions. Especially, in the unit 'changes of seasons', right background knowledges were found in more than half questions, but the contents of questions and background knowledges were not connected scientifically.

The Autonomy of Psychiatric Wards’ Patients

For many years now, a conscious consent of the patient to their medical treatment is fundamental for medical ethics. The patients’ acceptance is a confirmation of his autonomy here. Since the time when the issue of autonomy became a fundamental issue in the doctor – patient relationship, the concept of „autonomy” has been given numerous definitions. This text includes a number of suggestions of how to understand this concept. However, an elementary questions becomes vital: whether the autonomy applies to all types of patients to the same degree. Whether psychiatric wards’ patients, patients addicted to alcohol, drug addicts, patients serving a jail sentence are entitled to the same extent of autonomy as others. Whether they are capable of undertaking, together with their doctors, their course of medical treatment, whether they are capable of taking conscious decisions relating to their state of health and needs. Where are the limits of their autonomy, is their autonomy possible at all and to which extent?. It was only in 2009 that the legal regulations relating to the patient’ right for their personal life to be respected came into force in Poland. The summary of the text is a statement, that paternalistic approach of doctors to their patients is dangerous and that there is a need to reflect on the scope of autonomy of psychiatric wards’ patients.

Modellierung, Messung und Förderung sozial-kommunikativer Kompetenzen von Medizinischen Fachangestellten in der Ausbildung: Ableitungen aus dem Projekt CoSMed

In many occupational fields social competences are unanimously seen as important to fulfill professional demands. At the same time, many open and to some extent elementary questions still exist. Hence, on closer inspection it becomes unclear what social competences are, how they can be measured and specifically teached. In the project CoSMed1, an occupation-specific approach was pursued based on the understanding that competences are context-specific performance-dispositions. In this paper we show how we defined, modelled and measured occupation specific social competences for medical assistants. Then, we present existing approaches to foster the three central social competence dimensions of CoSMed, being emotion regulation, perspective coordination and communication strategies. Finally, we conclude on how these approaches can be transferred into occupation-specific trainings by using videos of critical social interactions.

Three-Part Tariffs with Heterogeneous Users: Monopoly and Duopoly Cases

Although two-part tariffs are widely studied, only three papers consider three-part tariffs, which consist of an access fee in return for an allowance consumption level along with a unit “overage” price for consumption beyond the allowance. Moreover, none of these papers addresses some elementary and fundamental questions concerning the optimal features of the tariff in the presence of heterogeneous users: (1) How does the overage price (and thus marginal benefit for a high-demand user) compare to the marginal cost of the service? (2) How does marginal benefit compare to marginal cost for a low-demand user consuming at the allowance level? (3) How large is the access fee relative to benefits from the service? The purpose of this paper is to answer these questions by using a simple model with two types of consumers and a constant marginal cost. The analysis is carried out for a monopoly provider and then for the duopoly case, with the outcomes under the two market structures compared.

The ontology of money: institutions, power and collective intentionality

The aim of the thesis is to revisit elementary questions about the nature and the existence of money and to propose an alternative framework to the textbook description of money according to three functions, i.e., as a means of exchange, unit of account and store of value. The main task that the thesis sets for itself is to investigate and to present how individual attitudes, social institutions, and technological contingencies ascribe to money its social significance, its functions and its value, in an effort to understand how the monetary system can be studied in the current socio-technological juncture. The motivation of the project is the dissatisfaction with the dominant commodity theory of money and its inability to contribute to the conversation on the recent economic crisis or on the technological transformation of money through digital payment systems.The framework of analysis is developed through a comparison between the two major scientific research programs on money, the commodity and the state theories. In order to compare the two theories, three fundamental questions are raised: What is money? How does it get or lose its value? Where does it come from or how does it get into society? (Ingham 2004, 10) The two research programs offer different answers to the aforementioned questions because they adopt different methodological and ontological starting points. The commodity theory describes the economy as an all-encompassing market characterized by rationality, individualism, complete information and free choice. In this universe there is no place for power or the state, while the relations and the rules that regulate social interaction are minimal. The state theory of money is developed in a different, historically informed, theoretical framework, where state authority, rules, and norms are acknowledged and money is defined as an abstract standard of value.The analysis of money according to the state theory is compatible with the reality of state-sponsored nonconvertible paper currency, but the appeal to state authority alone cannot provide a full explanation for the existence of money as an institution that regulates individual and collective behavior. In the thesis, social ontology and institutional economics supplement the state theory by providing a comprehensive framework for the analysis of the existence, the operation and the evolution of the institution of money. State money is supported by an account of social existence built upon the notions of collective intentionality and constitutive rules. Intentionality is a philosophical notion that defines the relation of the mind to the world. Collective intentions express a 'we-mode' rather than the 'I-mode' that characterizes individual intentionality. Constitutive rules establish the shared meaning of institutional facts and provide desire-independent reasons for action (Searle 2005, 5). An account of social existence, based on collective intentionality and constitutive rules, can provide the basis for an institutional analysis of money, delineating a form of collective acceptance that is both able to carry the ontology of money and that is consistent with an institutional analysis of its identity and evolution.The definition of money as an institution is necessary, according to the ontological framework of the thesis, because the functions of money and its social significance depend on a system of constitutive and normative rules. Normative rules have the form of 'do X in context C' and constitutive rules communicate the status-functions of money through the structure 'X counts as Y in the context C'. The combination of normative and constitutive rules establish money and explain how it gets invested with a specific social significance-as an abstract standard of value-in virtue of which it assumes a specific institutional status and can perform its social function. …

Sensitivity Analysis in a Complex Marine Ecological Model

Sensitivity analysis (SA) has long been recognized as part of best practices to assess if any particular model can be suitable to inform decisions, despite its uncertainties. SA is a commonly used approach for identifying important parameters that dominate model behavior. As such, SA address two elementary questions in the modeling exercise, namely, how sensitive is the model to changes in individual parameter values, and which parameters or associated processes have more influence on the results. In this paper we report on a local SA performed on a complex marine biogeochemical model that simulates oxygen, organic matter and nutrient cycles (N, P and Si) in the water column, and well as the dynamics of biological groups such as producers, consumers and decomposers. SA was performed using a “one at a time” parameter perturbation method, and a color-code matrix was developed for result visualization. The outcome of this study was the identification of key parameters influencing model performance, a particularly helpful insight for the subsequent calibration exercise. Also, the color-code matrix methodology proved to be effective for a clear identification of the parameters with most impact on selected variables of the model.

The John Holmes Memorial Lecture: Representing the United Nations—Individual Actors, International Agency, and Leadership

THE FIRST MAJOR BIOGRAPHY OF JOHN W. HOLMES CARRIES THE EMBLEMATIC title Canadas Voice: The Public Life of John Wendell Holmes. (1) The title implies that here we have an example of one individual speaking for and shaping the voice of a whole nation, embodying the values and principles of Canadian foreign policy. This is, of course, a suitable title for a biography that by its very nature underlines the significance of the person portrayed. It may, however, also illustrate that we quite commonly refer to the fact that it is concrete individuals that represent abstract institutions or ideas. It is also customary for political institutions to regulate specifically who will speak on behalf of the respective entity--be it heads of state and government or executive heads of international organizations. In a static understanding of the term, representation is closely tied to of law and protocol defining the situations and responsibilities that are tied to the execution of political offices. But going beyond this understanding of the term for established routines and hierarchies, a dynamic understanding of the term may see it as a crucial ingredient in the growth and development of a given institution or the idea behind that institution. It is in this context that I discuss a special type of actor in the United Nations system that has not received the amount of attention in academic and political circles that it deserves: special representatives of the Secretary-General (SRSGs). (2) The argument that I present starts with a reflection on what it means to represent an international organization. Then, I analyze how the representatives of the Secretary-General have developed as a specific type of individual actor. Looking both at their origin as well as their development over time, I argue that the actions of these individual actors account for a special kind of agency of the organization that they represent. The question of how individual actions translate into international agency inevitably leads to a discussion of leadership, which I would like to introduce and illustrate as a constitutive feature of that process. SRSGs are persons appointed by the Secretary-General to fulfill various roles from peacemaking to peacekeeping and peacebuilding. They work in specific conflict situations or are engaged in transregional and thematic issues, with activities ranging from discreet mediation efforts to conducting a peace operation and, as in the case of Kosovo, virtually running a country. Since 1990, their number and the tasks they have been entrusted with have increased dramatically. The current website of the Secretary-General lists about seventy names. (3) The acronym SRSG is used for a broader category comprising a wide variety of high-level appointments. (4) Mirroring different tasks, contexts, and mandates, it includes, for example, special envoys, heads of mission, special advisers, personal representatives, and transitional administrators. Twenty years ago, Donald J. Puchala (coincidentally another Holmes Lecturer), in one of the few articles dealing with the phenomenon, argued that even some very elementary questions regarding their origin, development, functions, and performance remain unanswered. (5) Some twenty years later Puchala's assessment holds true, although a few articles and reports explicitly dealing with SRSGs have been published. (6) The work of Connie Peck especially must be mentioned since she not only wrote several pieces on the SRSGs, but also compiled material from a series of interviews with SRSGs for the UN Institute for Training and Research in an attempt to facilitate training of SRSGs. With various tasks in peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding, three main subgroups of SRSGs emerge from the titles used: representatives, envoys, and advisers. Although the labels are not the result of strict procedure and originate from such diverse rationales as tradition, preference of the officeholder, and, last but not least, preference of the country to which they are deployed, a rough distinction can be made. …

A block Hankel generalized confluent Vandermonde matrix

Vandermonde matrices are well known. They have a number of interesting properties and play a role in (Lagrange) interpolation problems, partial fraction expansions, and finding solutions to linear ordinary differential equations, to mention just a few applications. Usually, one takes these matrices square, q×q say, in which case the i-th column is given by u(zi), where we write u(z)=(1,z,…,zq−1)⊤. If all the zi (i=1,…,q) are different, the Vandermonde matrix is non-singular, otherwise not. The latter case obviously takes place when all zi are the same, z say, in which case one could speak of a confluent Vandermonde matrix. Non-singularity is obtained if one considers the matrix V(z) whose i-th column (i=1,…,q) is given by the (i−1)-th derivative u(i−1)(z)⊤.We will consider generalizations of the confluent Vandermonde matrix V(z) by considering matrices obtained by using as building blocks the matrices M(z)=u(z)w(z), with u(z) as above and w(z)=(1,z,…,zr−1), together with its derivatives M(k)(z). Specifically, we will look at matrices whose ij-th block is given by M(i+j)(z), where the indices i,j by convention have initial value zero. These in general non-square matrices exhibit a block-Hankel structure. We will answer a number of elementary questions for this matrix. What is the rank? What is the null-space? Can the latter be parametrized in a simple way? Does it depend on z? What are left or right inverses? It turns out that answers can be obtained by factorizing the matrix into a product of other matrix polynomials having a simple structure. The answers depend on the size of the matrix M(z) and the number of derivatives M(k)(z) that is involved. The results are obtained by mostly elementary methods, no specific knowledge of the theory of matrix polynomials is needed.

Scaffolding of scientific publications with open educational resources (OER)

Helping students better understand scientific publications is one of the essential tasks of higher education. This paper presents a novel learning/reading environment that incorporates innovative scaffolding methods that aim to enable students to readily access open educational resources (OER) and read and comprehend the paper in a collaborative reading environment within a course. The new system, OER-based Collaborative PDF Reader (OCPR), captures and characterizes students’ emerging information needs when they read a paper, while also auto-recommending high quality OERs, e.g., presentation videos, slides, or Wikipedia pages, when students ask for clarifying content (OER-based Scaffolding). The study was conducted in a course for students to read an article, ask questions, and rate resources suggested by the OCPR system. The preliminary results show that the students tend to ask elementary questions and rate video resources higher than other resources. The results will inform future improvement of the OCPR system.

Novel 2013 Influenza A (H7N9) Virus: Potential Pandemic Threat

Implication for health policy/practice/research/medical education: Our aims are to answer the elementary questions about: origin, diseases, transmissibility and surveillance of newly emerged avianorigin influenza A (H7N9) virus. Copyright © 2013, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences; Published by Kowsar Corp. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

A GUIDE-POST FOR THE SECOND DECADE OF THE BULLETIN OF THE SLOVENIAN ARMED FORCES

A GUIDE-POST FOR THE SECOND DECADE OF THE BULLETIN OF THE SLOVENIAN ARMED FORCES

On the possibilistic approach to linear regression models involving uncertain, indeterminate or interval data

We consider linear regression models where both input data (the observations of independent variables) and output data (the observations of the dependent variable) are affected by loss of information caused by uncertainty, indeterminacy, rounding or censoring. Instead of real-valued (crisp) data, only intervals are available. We study a possibilistic generalization of the least squares estimator, so called OLS-set for the interval model. Investigation of the OLS-set allows us to quantify whether the replacement of real-valued (crisp) data by interval values can have a significant impact on our knowledge of the value of the OLS estimator. We show that in the general case, very elementary questions about properties of the OLS-set are computationally intractable (assuming P≠NP). We also focus on restricted versions of the general interval linear regression model to the crisp input case. Taking the advantage of the fact that in the crisp input – interval output model the OLS-set is a zonotope, we design both exact and approximate methods for its description. We also discuss special cases of the regression model, e.g. a model with repeated observations.

Some Elementary Aspects of Means

We raise several elementary questions pertaining to various aspects of means. These questions refer to both known and newly introduced families of means, and include questions of characterizations of certain families, relations among certain families, comparability among the members of certain families, and concordance of certain sequences of means. They also include questions about internality tests for certain mean-looking functions and about certain triangle centers viewed as means of the vertices. The questions are accessible to people with no background in means, and it is also expected that these people can seriously investigate, and contribute to the solutions of, these problems. The solutions are expected to require no more than simple tools from analysis, algebra, functional equations, and geometry.