National Standardized School Exam (USBN) is used to determine Student’s graduation. This research aims to determine the characteristics of items for Math USBN in SMP on grade 9. This kind of research ...is a descriptive-explorative quantitative research. The data collected is a USBN test instrument at SMP Negeri 3 Pati and participants' answers, which are collected by documentation. The USBN instrument was validated by experts and the characteristic items of USBN instrument were analyzed using the classical test theory approach. The question items of math USBN test at SMP Negeri 3 Pati is generally moderately good. Based on the classical theory approach, the result of the validity is 0.924. 56.7% of items are very valid. The reliability is 0.78 categorized as high reliability. Generally, Math USBN items are in the easy category with a percentage of 83.3%. The results of discrimination index indicate that in general, USBN items are in a moderate category with a percentage of 60%. The distraction effectiveness shows that USBN items are in the functional category with a percentage of 50%.
This study presents a new metaheuristic optimization algorithm named Tree Optimization Algorithm (TOA) for solving mathematical benchmark functions and engineering problems. This algorithm, which is ...inspired from the growth of trees, starts from a random initial population and improves their performance according to the growth pattern of trees. Indeed, the purpose of this new optimization method is to find the highest leaf of a tree by utilizing the position of the best leaf, and also replacing yellow dried leaves by new random fresh green ones. These strategies prevent the algorithm from the premature convergence and getting stuck in local minima. This modern optimization method is evaluated by solving several mathematical test functions and a real world constrained design problem. The obtained results are compared with those of some prominent evolutionary algorithms introduced in the literature. The numerical and simulation results verify the superiority of the TOA in terms of the solution accuracy and the convergence speed.
Do beta blockers prevent the elevation of blood pressure induced by physical exercise and mental stress? The variations of blood pressure and pulse rate observed with dynamic effort and during tests ...of mental calculation, colour stress, and grip strength were measured in 15 hypertensive patients, before and after treatment with atenolol (100 mg day-1) and in a series of 16 normotensive control subjects. With treatment, the systolic and diastolic blood pressures and the pulse rate were significantly lowered in the hypertensive patients at rest. The tests of mental stress and static physical effort caused a rise in blood pressure, significantly greater in the untreated patients than in the control subjects. Atenolol diminished the rise in systolic blood pressure and pulse rate secondary to a dynamic effort, but did not significantly alter the blood pressure variations induced by static physical effort and mental stress. These findings are in agreement with previous results obtained with other beta blockers.
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