Students’ opinions about teaching of the controversial topics in the social studies classes

The aim of this study is to determine middle school 7th grade students’ opinions on controversial issues. In the research, screening model and quantitative research method has been used. The sample of the study consists of 7th graders from 5 public schools located on the center of Demirci district of Manisa province. The 5-point Likert-type questionnaire prepared with 20 items has been applied to 203 students. The data has been put into the statistical program and analyzed. By determining means, deviations and frequencies of all items in the survey, it has been tabulated and interpreted separately. “Mann Whitney U” and Kruskal Wallis H” tests have been used to find out whether the students' opinions about which subjects can be discussed in the classroom, shows significant difference according to various variables or not. Interpretation of the results has been done by the significance level of 0,5. According to the findings of the research, the topics that the students want to discuss the most in the classroom respectively are human rights, multiculturalism, election system, animal rights and freedom of the press. The topics that the students do not want to discuss in the classroom are terror and violence. When the results of the research has been examined according to various variables; Significant differences has been seen in different items, such as; The Gender (Military System, Religious Communities, Fanaticism and Cloning), Reading Books (TV Broadcasts), The Education of Father (Religious Communities, Multiculturalism), The Education of Mother (Military System, Religious Communities and Cloning), Father’s Profession (Religious Communities, Fanaticism, Internet and Elections System), Mother's Profession (Religious Communities) and Family Income Status (Internet)

The frequency of Duchenne muscular dystrophy/Becker muscular dystrophy and Pompe disease in children with isolated transaminase elevation: results from the observational VICTORIA study

IntroductionElevated transaminases and/or creatine phosphokinase can indicate underlying muscle disease. Therefore, this study aims to determine the frequency of Duchenne muscular dystrophy/Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD/BMD) in male children and Pompe disease (PD) in male and female children with isolated hypertransaminasemia.MethodsThis multi-center, prospective study enrolled patients aged 3–216 months with serum alanine transaminase (ALT) and/or aspartate transaminase (AST) levels >2× the upper limit of normal (ULN) for ≥3 months. Patients with a known history of liver or muscle disease or physical examination findings suggestive of liver disease were excluded. Patients were screened for creatinine phosphokinase (CPK) levels, and molecular genetic tests for DMD/BMD in male patients and enzyme analysis for PD in male and female patients with elevated CPK levels were performed. Genetic analyses confirmed PD. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of the patients were analyzed.ResultsOverall, 589 patients [66.8% male, mean age of 63.4 months (standard deviation: 60.5)] were included. In total, 251 patients (188 male and 63 female) had CPK levels above the ULN. Of the patients assessed, 47% (85/182) of male patients were diagnosed with DMD/BMD and 1% (3/228) of male and female patients were diagnosed with PD. The median ALT, AST, and CPK levels were statistically significantly higher, and the questioned neurological symptoms and previously unnoticed examination findings were more common in DMD/BMD patients than those without DMD/BMD or PD (p < 0.001).DiscussionQuestioning neurological symptoms, conducting a complete physical examination, and testing for CPK levels in patients with isolated hypertransaminasemia will prevent costly and time-consuming investigations for liver diseases and will lead to the diagnosis of occult neuromuscular diseases. Trial RegistrationClinicaltrials.gov NCT04120168

Farklı Vektörleştirme ve Ön işlem Yöntemleri ile Talep Sınıflandırma

Firmalarda, ihtiyaçlara yönelik gelen taleplerin doğru şekilde işlenmesi hem iş sürecini hızlandırır hem de ortaya çıkabilecek sorunları bertaraf eder. Geliştirme, destek, sorun çözme gibi farklı konulardaki taleplerin, verimli ve doğru kişilerce çözülmesi için öncelikle ilgili alt departmana yönlendirilmesi gerekir. Yönlendirmeler belirli kişilerce elle gerçekleştirilebilir. Ancak firma büyüklüğüyle doğru orantılı olarak gelen talep sayısının çok olması süreci zorlaştırıp zaman kaybına yol açmaktadır. Özellikle bilişim sektöründe hizmet veren kurumsal firmalarda taleplerin otomatik olarak alt-departmanlara aktarılabilmesi, işin verimliliğinin ciddi şekilde arttırabilir. Bu ihtiyacın giderilmesi içi metni işleyerek içerisinden kolaylıkla bilgi çıkarımını sağlayabilen metin madenciliği ve makine öğrenmesi yöntemleri kullanılabilir. Çalışmamızda, Detaysoft Danışmanlık firmasına ait gelen taleplerin doğru şekilde alt departmana yönlendirilmesini sağlayan bir sistem önerilmiştir. Sistem performansının ölçülebilmesi amacıyla gerçek müşteri taleplerinden oluşan 2103 veri toplanmış ve işaretlenmiştir. Toplanan verilerin varsayımlardan bağımsız olarak doğru şekilde işaretlenmesi için de veriye göre sınıf etiketlerinin belirlendiği temellendirilmiş teoriden faydalanılmıştır. Ham metinlerin vektörleştirilmesi için kelime çantası ve türevlerinin (TF, TFIDF) yanı sıra GloVe ve Word2Vec gibi kelime gömme yöntemleri de denenmiş ve hangi vektörleştirme yönteminin daha başarılı olduğu irdelenmiştir. Ayrıca gereksiz kelimelerin ve sadece kelime köklerinin kullanılmasının talep sınıflandırmaya etkileri analiz edilmiştir. Yapılan analizler sonucunda SVM algoritmasını kullanan modellerin %79 gibi iyi sayılabilecek bir başarım ile gelen talebi doğru şekilde sınıflandırabildiği gözlemlenmiştir. Elde edilen sonuçların, talep sınıflandırma konularındaki gelecek çalışmalara hem vektörleştirme hem de ön işlem süreçleriyle alakalı ışık tutması beklenmektedir

Table1_The frequency of Duchenne muscular dystrophy/Becker muscular dystrophy and Pompe disease in children with isolated transaminase elevation: results from the observational VICTORIA study.docx

IntroductionElevated transaminases and/or creatine phosphokinase can indicate underlying muscle disease. Therefore, this study aims to determine the frequency of Duchenne muscular dystrophy/Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD/BMD) in male children and Pompe disease (PD) in male and female children with isolated hypertransaminasemia.MethodsThis multi-center, prospective study enrolled patients aged 3–216 months with serum alanine transaminase (ALT) and/or aspartate transaminase (AST) levels >2× the upper limit of normal (ULN) for ≥3 months. Patients with a known history of liver or muscle disease or physical examination findings suggestive of liver disease were excluded. Patients were screened for creatinine phosphokinase (CPK) levels, and molecular genetic tests for DMD/BMD in male patients and enzyme analysis for PD in male and female patients with elevated CPK levels were performed. Genetic analyses confirmed PD. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of the patients were analyzed.ResultsOverall, 589 patients [66.8% male, mean age of 63.4 months (standard deviation: 60.5)] were included. In total, 251 patients (188 male and 63 female) had CPK levels above the ULN. Of the patients assessed, 47% (85/182) of male patients were diagnosed with DMD/BMD and 1% (3/228) of male and female patients were diagnosed with PD. The median ALT, AST, and CPK levels were statistically significantly higher, and the questioned neurological symptoms and previously unnoticed examination findings were more common in DMD/BMD patients than those without DMD/BMD or PD (p DiscussionQuestioning neurological symptoms, conducting a complete physical examination, and testing for CPK levels in patients with isolated hypertransaminasemia will prevent costly and time-consuming investigations for liver diseases and will lead to the diagnosis of occult neuromuscular diseases. Trial RegistrationClinicaltrials.gov NCT04120168.</p

Delayed colorectal cancer care during covid-19 pandemic (decor-19). Global perspective from an international survey

Background The widespread nature of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been unprecedented. We sought to analyze its global impact with a survey on colorectal cancer (CRC) care during the pandemic. Methods The impact of COVID-19 on preoperative assessment, elective surgery, and postoperative management of CRC patients was explored by a 35-item survey, which was distributed worldwide to members of surgical societies with an interest in CRC care. Respondents were divided into two comparator groups: 1) ‘delay’ group: CRC care affected by the pandemic; 2) ‘no delay’ group: unaltered CRC practice. Results A total of 1,051 respondents from 84 countries completed the survey. No substantial differences in demographics were found between the ‘delay’ (745, 70.9%) and ‘no delay’ (306, 29.1%) groups. Suspension of multidisciplinary team meetings, staff members quarantined or relocated to COVID-19 units, units fully dedicated to COVID-19 care, personal protective equipment not readily available were factors significantly associated to delays in endoscopy, radiology, surgery, histopathology and prolonged chemoradiation therapy-to-surgery intervals. In the ‘delay’ group, 48.9% of respondents reported a change in the initial surgical plan and 26.3% reported a shift from elective to urgent operations. Recovery of CRC care was associated with the status of the outbreak. Practicing in COVID-free units, no change in operative slots and staff members not relocated to COVID-19 units were statistically associated with unaltered CRC care in the ‘no delay’ group, while the geographical distribution was not. Conclusions Global changes in diagnostic and therapeutic CRC practices were evident. Changes were associated with differences in health-care delivery systems, hospital’s preparedness, resources availability, and local COVID-19 prevalence rather than geographical factors. Strategic planning is required to optimize CRC care