THE ROLE OF BROAD IN DETERMINING NEURONAL COMPOSITION IN THE DROSOPHILA BRAIN

To elucidate the individual roles of the four Broad-Complex (BR-C) isoforms, Z1-Z4, on neuronal composition in the mushroom body, I undertook a series of overexpression experiments and created tools for knockdown experiments. Specifically, I imaged and analyzed Drosophila brains from earlier experiments in which BR-C isoforms Z1 and Z3 were individually overexpressed in the MB. The knockdown experiments required the creation of the molecular tools necessary for isoform-specific RNA interference (RNAi). For these I performed PCR to amplify DNA sequences unique to each isoform and inserted those into the pWIZ vector, which will permit expression of loopless hairpin double stranded RNA to trigger the RNAi pathway in the fly

Education policy issues in Turkey

Since the mid-1990s, public education provision in Turkey has been in constant transformation, a result of modernization efforts connected to the political determination of governments to complete Turkey's accession to the European Union. During this period two nation-wide reforms stand out due to their dramatic impact on children, students, teachers and the education system as a whole. First, the Compulsory Education Law enacted in 1997 required that all the children enrolled in grade 4 or lower must stay in school until the completion of the eighth grade. Second, in 2002, the Ministry of National Education (MONE) abandoned recruiting teachers based on lottery and started to use teachers' test scores instead. Following new legislation, the Center of Measurement, Selection and Placement (ÖSYM) launched a central examination process which is known as the Public Servant Selection Examination (KPSS). This dissertation provides an econometric evaluation of the impact of these interventions on education outcomes in Turkey. The dissertation seeks to establish a causal link between the enactment of KPSS and student achievement. It presents evidence indicating that teacher recruitment via a meritocratic, test-based assessment instead of a lottery may have a positive impact on student achievement. The research also shows that the increase in the average student achievement displayed by Turkey in international assessments such as PISA (Programme of International Student Assessment) and TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) may be partially explained by the inception of KPSS. The identification strategy for this assessment is based on the fact that the TIMMS data includes information on teachers and test scores for each student sampled in Turkey in both1999 and 2007, that is, before and after KPSS was enacted in 2002. This allows the estimation of a difference-in-differences model with student fixed effects. The findings highlight that students whose teachers were recruited after the enactment of KPSS perform 0.2 standard deviations higher than their counterparts whose teachers were recruited before the enactment of KPSS. This finding remains stable in several sensitivity and robustness checks.The dissertation then turns to analyzing an earlier intervention, the Compulsory Education Law of 1997. The research estimates the impact of the Compulsory Education Law on the years of schooling of women aged between 18 and 29. For this purpose, the dissertation uses the Turkey Demographic Health Survey 2003 and 2008. The identification strategy is based on the fact that, first, cohorts born after 1986 (children enrolled in grade 4 in the1996-1997 school year and later) were subject to the Compulsory Education Law and earlier cohorts were not, and, second, the intensity of the intervention varied between regions. Hence the investigation exploited the between-cohort and between-region variation in intensity of the intervention to estimate the causal impact of the Compulsory Education Law on years of schooling. The findings suggest that the Compulsory Education Law led to a 34 percentage point increase in the probability of completing eight years of schooling and an additional 1.5 years of schooling. Also, the econometric results indicate that the Compulsory Education Law affected high school completion rates, i.e. eleven years of schooling. The analysis of the impact of the Compulsory Education Law is extended to a two-stage least-squares (TSLS) estimation of the impact of completing eight years of schooling/additional years of schooling on teenage marriage and fertility. The between-cohort and between-region variation in intensity of the intervention are used to instrument completing eight years of schooling and additional years of schooling. However, in contrast with the existing research on this issue in Turkey, these TSLS estimations did not supply any evidence in favor of the presence of a causal link between completing eight years of schooling/additional years of schooling and teenage marriage and fertility

Comorbid Medical Conditions as Predictors of Overall Survival in Glioblastoma Patients

Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive central nervous system tumor with a poor prognosis. This study was conducted to determine any comorbid medical conditions that are associated with survival in GBM. Data were collected from medical records of all patients who presented to VCU Medical Center with GBM between January 2005 and February 2015. Patients who underwent surgery/biopsy were considered for inclusion. Cox proportional hazards regression modeling was performed to assess the relationship between survival and sex, race, and comorbid medical conditions. 163 patients met inclusion criteria. Comorbidities associated with survival on individual-characteristic analysis included: history of asthma (Hazard Ratio [HR]: 2.63; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 1.24–5.58; p = 0.01), hypercholesterolemia (HR: 1.95; 95% CI: 1.09–3.50; p = 0.02), and incontinence (HR: 2.29; 95% CI: 0.95–5.57; p = 0.07). History of asthma (HR: 2.22; 95% CI: 1.02–4.83; p = 0.04) and hypercholesterolemia (HR: 1.99; 95% CI: 1.11–3.56; p = 0.02) were associated with shorter survival on multivariable analysis. Surgical patients with GBM who had a prior history of asthma or hypercholesterolemia had significantly higher relative risk for mortality on individual-characteristic and multivariable analyses

Evaluation of nutritional status in pediatric intensive care unit patients: the results of a multicenter, prospective study in Turkey

IntroductionMalnutrition is defined as a pathological condition arising from deficient or imbalanced intake of nutritional elements. Factors such as increasing metabolic demands during the disease course in the hospitalized patients and inadequate calorie intake increase the risk of malnutrition. The aim of the present study is to evaluate nutritional status of patients admitted to pediatric intensive care units (PICU) in Turkey, examine the effect of nutrition on the treatment process and draw attention to the need for regulating nutritional support of patients while continuing existing therapies.Material and MethodIn this prospective multicenter study, the data was collected over a period of one month from PICUs participating in the PICU Nutrition Study Group in Turkey. Anthropometric data of the patients, calorie intake, 90-day mortality, need for mechanical ventilation, length of hospital stay and length of stay in intensive care unit were recorded and the relationship between these parameters was examined.ResultsOf the 614 patients included in the study, malnutrition was detected in 45.4% of the patients. Enteral feeding was initiated in 40.6% (n = 249) of the patients at day one upon admission to the intensive care unit. In the first 48 h, 86.82% (n = 533) of the patients achieved the target calorie intake, and 81.65% (n = 307) of the 376 patients remaining in the intensive care unit achieved the target calorie intake at the end of one week. The risk of mortality decreased with increasing upper mid-arm circumference and triceps skin fold thickness Z-score (OR = 0.871/0.894; p = 0.027/0.024). The risk of mortality was 2.723 times higher in patients who did not achieve the target calorie intake at first 48 h (p = 0.006) and the risk was 3.829 times higher in patients who did not achieve the target calorie intake at the end of one week (p = 0.001). The risk of mortality decreased with increasing triceps skin fold thickness Z-score (OR = 0.894; p = 0.024).ConclusionTimely and appropriate nutritional support in critically ill patients favorably affects the clinical course. The results of the present study suggest that mortality rate is higher in patients who fail to achieve the target calorie intake at first 48 h and day seven of admission to the intensive care unit. The risk of mortality decreases with increasing triceps skin fold thickness Z-score

Quantifying microstructure, electrical and mechanical properties of carbon fiber and expanded graphite filled cyclic olefin copolymer composites

In this study, micro-structural features and physical properties of cyclic olefin copolymer composites filled with different amounts of carbon fiber (CF) and expanded graphite (EG) were studied. The electrical percolation for the CF and EG were found to be 30 phr (volume fraction of 0.142) and 20 phr (volume fraction of 0.083), respectively. It was also found that the electrical conductivity of double-filler composites was higher than those of single-filler counterparts at a particular filler amount which implied that more conduction pathways were formed via the connection points of CF rods and EG sheets into the structure. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Rheological and mechanical properties of cycloolefin copolymer/organoclay nanocomposites

In this study, structural, rheological and mechanical properties of cycloolefin copolymer/organoclay nanocomposite films were investigated in detail. A maleic anhydride grafted polyethylene was used as conventional compatibilizer. In a series of samples, poly(ethylene-co-1-octene) copolymer was also used as a secondary component in the sample formulations. Microstructural features of the samples and clay dispersion into the polymer phase were characterized by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy studies. Physical properties of the samples were examined with the melt rheology and dynamic mechanical analysis tests. Highly transparent films with the intercalated nanocomposite structure were successfully obtained. It was found that the poly(ethylene-co-1-octene) enhances the organoclay dispersion into polymer phase and the related physical properties of the samples. Some structural properties of the samples such as the critical volume fraction of organoclay (phi(p)) and aspect ratio (A(f)) were quantified with the experimental data obtained from the rheological and mechanical measurements. Critical volume fraction of organoclay at the percolation threshold was determined as 0.018 based on the rheological measurements. The Halpin-Tsai micro-mechanical model for composite materials was employed to determine dispersion of organoclay layers. The aspect ratio of organoclay tactoids was found to be about 12-15 based on the both rheological and micro-mechanical modeling

Quantifying Structural and Solid-State Viscoelastic Properties of Poly(propylene) (PP)/Poly(oxymethylene) (POM) Blend Films

In this study, isotactic poly(propylene) (PP)/poly(oxymethylene) (POM) blend films, including of POM as minor phase in the range of 10-30 wt%, are prepared in a twin screw extruder equipped with a slit-die and cast film haul-off unit. It is found that the blend films show -characteristic immiscible matrix-droplet morphology. Short-term uniaxial tensile creep behaviors of films imply that the introducing of POM significantly improves the elastic modulus and decreases the total creep strain of PP/POM blends. Creep tests are also performed at various temperatures and long-term deformations of samples are predicted by applying of time-temperature superposition principle and the Findley model. It is found that the presence of POM domains into PP matrix enhances the creep resistance of PP especially at high temperatures. It is concluded that the PP-rich PP/POM blend films show much lower short and long-term creep strains compared to PP