ScienceDaily (July 23, 2009)
The Author
Wenhua Liu, Ph.D, Jain Feng, Ph.D from University of Buffalo
Summarized by Meksianis Ndii
The authors claimed that acute stress can improve learning and memory. Research conducted by researchers for University of Buffalo concluded that corticosterone hormone plays an important role in improving learning and memory. This is because this hormone curbs learning and emotion.
There are two procedures that they used in this research: first, they examined the effects of stress on working memory and second, they determined the role of hormone corticosterone in refining memory. In the first procedure, some rodents, as an animal model, were made stressed by forcing them to swim and the other was not, after that, rodents were put at the maze. Result showed that the stressed rodents made fewer mistake when they went through the maze compared to the other one. In the second stage, researchers injected medical compound to some rodents to block the corticosterone pathway. The result revealed that rodent group which were injected medical compound could not act better that the other one.
Glossary
Corticosterone : cortisol in humans
Rodents :belonging or pertaining to the gnawing or nibbling mammals of the order Rodentia, including the mice, squirrels, beavers, etc.
Maze : a system of paths separated by walls or hedges build in a park or garden. It is designed so it is difficult to find ways through
Monday, July 27, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
This essay describes about the writer’s ideal lecturer. In the following paragraph the writer is going to describe two characteristics and actions that, in writer opinion, a lecturer should have.
What characteristics should a lecturer has? To begin with, a lecturer should be creative. This is important because they need to create varied learning approaches or methods. For example, when students are classed in two different categories :one category is those who have got score higher than six, while the other is below six, a lecturer should prepare at least two learning approaches. The second characteristic is that a lecturer should be a communicative person. The reason is that they have to teach students. This means that they must have an ability to convey ideas. For instance, when students find lecturer’s explanation very obscure and ask the lecturer to elucidate, if the lecturer is not communicative, he may find it difficult.
Not only characteristics are the vital part of an ideal lecturer, but actions also have the same role. A lecturer has to prepare teaching material before commencing the learning process in class. This is important because they have to think about the synchronization between teaching materials and learning process goals. For example, if the goal of this week’s meeting is that students can determine the main idea and developing sentences of a paragraph, a lecturer have to prepare materials that are suitable to the goal. Furthermore, they also must conduct researches as regards the responsibility they hold in their job. The main reason is that a lecturer, as an academic, has to develop their expertise in their subject and acquire a new knowledge in their field of study. For example, HIV/AIDS, which is relatively new disease, is one of the malignant diseases, if in the past lecturers in field of study did not conduct a research, they might not know more about the disease and its characteristics.
Overall, I think that characteristics and actions hold an essential role to shape an ideal lecturer.
What characteristics should a lecturer has? To begin with, a lecturer should be creative. This is important because they need to create varied learning approaches or methods. For example, when students are classed in two different categories :one category is those who have got score higher than six, while the other is below six, a lecturer should prepare at least two learning approaches. The second characteristic is that a lecturer should be a communicative person. The reason is that they have to teach students. This means that they must have an ability to convey ideas. For instance, when students find lecturer’s explanation very obscure and ask the lecturer to elucidate, if the lecturer is not communicative, he may find it difficult.
Not only characteristics are the vital part of an ideal lecturer, but actions also have the same role. A lecturer has to prepare teaching material before commencing the learning process in class. This is important because they have to think about the synchronization between teaching materials and learning process goals. For example, if the goal of this week’s meeting is that students can determine the main idea and developing sentences of a paragraph, a lecturer have to prepare materials that are suitable to the goal. Furthermore, they also must conduct researches as regards the responsibility they hold in their job. The main reason is that a lecturer, as an academic, has to develop their expertise in their subject and acquire a new knowledge in their field of study. For example, HIV/AIDS, which is relatively new disease, is one of the malignant diseases, if in the past lecturers in field of study did not conduct a research, they might not know more about the disease and its characteristics.
Overall, I think that characteristics and actions hold an essential role to shape an ideal lecturer.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Susilo Bambang Yudoyono
By : Meksianis Zadrak Ndii
Susilo Bambang Yudoyono, the sixth president of Indonesia, is the first president who was elected by all Indonesian people. On the presidential election held at July 8, 2009, the majority Indonesian voters have elected him for the second time. In our opinion, there are three main aspects that encourage Indonesian to vote him.
To begin with, he has an excellent intellect. Two honorary doctorates, the AKABRI best alumnus, educational backgrounds are the indicators why his intellectual quality can be one of the important keys. In making policies, he has scrutinized the planned policies before running those in the society. For example, when the world oil price had decreased, he did not immediately reduce the national oil price but he was still waiting until the world oil price stable.
The second aspect is his personality. The same as his intellectual ability, this also plays an important role in attracting people trust. One of his characters that people may know is that he is an open-minded person. For instance, providing public information center that has allowed people to deliver their comments, complaints, ideas, opinions through SMS, has proved that he has respected to the pluralism.
How to solve society problems? Some people may think that he is a doubtful person especially in solving society problems, but actually, he proves that he is reliable and resourceful. For example, he was able to solve problems such as ethnic conflicts in some areas in Indonesia, natural by making the precise decisions.
It can be concluded that the three aspects mentioned above are the key factors that attract people trust to vote him for the second time. In addition, those will also support him for leading this country in his second presidential period.
Susilo Bambang Yudoyono, the sixth president of Indonesia, is the first president who was elected by all Indonesian people. On the presidential election held at July 8, 2009, the majority Indonesian voters have elected him for the second time. In our opinion, there are three main aspects that encourage Indonesian to vote him.
To begin with, he has an excellent intellect. Two honorary doctorates, the AKABRI best alumnus, educational backgrounds are the indicators why his intellectual quality can be one of the important keys. In making policies, he has scrutinized the planned policies before running those in the society. For example, when the world oil price had decreased, he did not immediately reduce the national oil price but he was still waiting until the world oil price stable.
The second aspect is his personality. The same as his intellectual ability, this also plays an important role in attracting people trust. One of his characters that people may know is that he is an open-minded person. For instance, providing public information center that has allowed people to deliver their comments, complaints, ideas, opinions through SMS, has proved that he has respected to the pluralism.
How to solve society problems? Some people may think that he is a doubtful person especially in solving society problems, but actually, he proves that he is reliable and resourceful. For example, he was able to solve problems such as ethnic conflicts in some areas in Indonesia, natural by making the precise decisions.
It can be concluded that the three aspects mentioned above are the key factors that attract people trust to vote him for the second time. In addition, those will also support him for leading this country in his second presidential period.
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