Regulation of GSK-3 Activity as A Shared Mechanism in Psychiatric Disorders

Serin/Treonin kinaz ailesinin üyelerinden bir kinaz olarak ilk kez glikojen sentaz’ı inhibe ettiği keşfedilen glikojen sentaz kinaz-3 (GSK-3), günümüzde bilinen 50’den fazla substratı ile birçok hücre içi düzenleyici mekanizmada görev alan geniş etki spektrumlu bir enzim olarak kabul edilmektedir. GSK-3’ün memelilerde GSK-3α ve GSK-3β olmak üzere yapısal olarak yüksek homoloji gösteren iki izoformu bulunmaktadır. Her iki izoform birçok dokuda yaygın dağılım göstermekle beraber, en yüksek oranda beyinde bulunmakta ve genellikle benzer fonksiyonlar göstermektedirler. Diğer protein kinazların aksine GSK-3 uyarılmamış hücrede yapısal olarak aktif yani defosforile halde bulur. Protein kinaz A (PKA), protein kinaz B (PKB;AKT) ve protein kinaz C (PKC) gibi diğer protein kinazlarla fosforilasyona uğrayarak olarak inaktive edilir. Günümüzde artmış GSK-3 aktivitesinin major depresyon, bipolar bozukluk, hiperaktivite bozuklukları gibi hastalıklar ve şizofreni oluşumunda rol oynayabileceğine ilişkin önemli bulgular mevcuttur. Bu nedenle söz konusu psikiyatrik hastalıklarda arttığı gösterilen GSK-3 aktivitesinin azaltılmasının tedavide umut verici bir yaklaşım olabileceği kabul edilebilir. Bu gözden geçirme çalışmasında yukarıda sözü edilen psikiyatrik hastalıkların oluşmasında görev alan GSK-3 aracılı mekanizmalara kısaca değinilerek GSK-3’ün aktivitesinin düzenlenmesinde rol oynadığı gösterilen klinikte kullanılan ilaçlara yer verilmiştir. Anahtar sözcükler: GSK-3, depresyon, bipolar bozukluk, şizofren

Establishing mathematics for teaching within classroom interactions in teacher education

Teacher educators’ processes of establishing “mathematics for teaching” in teacher education programs have been recognized as an important area for further research. In this study, we examine how two teacher educators establish and make explicit features of mathematics for teaching within classroom interactions. The study shows how the establishment of mathematics for teaching is dependent on the use of keywords from the mathematics education domain, the introduction of variation, and the use of generic communicative strategies. As such, the study could be seen as a contribution to ongoing research on how mathematics teacher educators interactively deal with mathematics for teaching

Mathematics education as a matter of discourse

What does it mean to conceive of Mathematics Education as “a matter of discourse”? This question can be answered in several ways, varying according to theoretical understanding of the nature of discourse and according to the scope of what is taken to be Mathematics Education. At a basic level, discourse is sometimes defined as verbal interaction. Taking this definition, it is hard to dispute the claim that mathematics education involves discourse and there is substantial agreement among researchers and curriculum developers that verbal interaction has an important role to play in learning. In this article, however, discourse is taken to involve not only use of language but also its functions within the social practices of mathematics education. These practices involve distinctive ways of seeing the world and acting in it, forms of identity and relationships among participants, sets of values and expectations, all of which shape and are shaped by language use. The discursive component of a practice involves the distinctive patterns of language and other forms of communication that participants use to construe their experience of the world. Considering Mathematics Education as a matter of discourse, therefore, entails studying the patterns of language use: the objects and actions that are spoken of, the relationships between them and the values attached to them; the subject positions that are available and the ways these may be taken up or contested; what kinds of things can be said and which participants in the discourse are able to say what

Analyzing effective communication in mathematics group work : the role of visual mediators and technical terms.

Analyzing and designing productive group work and effective communication constitute ongoing research interests in mathematics education. In this article we contribute to this research by using and developing a newly introduced analytical approach for examining effective communication within group work in mathematics education. By using data from 12-13-year old students playing a dice game as well as from a group of university students working with a proof by induction, the article shows how the link between visual mediators and technical terms are crucial in students’ attempts to communicate effectively. The critical evaluation of visual mediators and technical terms, and of links between them, is useful for researchers interested in analyzing effective communication and designing environments providing opportunities for students to learn mathematics.The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com</p

Analysing the relationship between the problem-solving-related beliefs, competence and teaching of three Cypriot primary teachers

In this article, we analyse the problem-solving-related beliefs, competence and classroom practice of three Cypriot upper-primary teachers. Data derived from semistructured interviews focused on teachers&rsquo; beliefs about the nature of mathematical problems, problem-solving, and their competence as both problem-solvers and teachers of problem-solving; clinical interviews during which teachers solved a context-free geometrical problem, and observations of a lesson during which teachers introduced that problem to students of grade six. Analyses, structured by a framework derived from key problem-solving literature, indicated firstly, that the framework was an effective tool, sensitive to variation within and across the data from teachers, and secondly, that all participants, in largely explicable ways, exhibited consistency and inconsistency in the ways in which their beliefs, competence and practice interacted. Some implications for further research are discussed