STEM Pedagogical Content Knowledge Scale (STEMPCK): A Validity and Reliability Study

The aim of this study was to develop the STEM Pedagogical Content Knowledge Scale (STEMPCK Scale). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to examine the structural validity of the scale. Exploratory factor analysis of the scale was conducted using data from 443 preservice teachers who were studying to become science teachers, preschool teachers, elementary school teachers, and mathematics teachers. The confirmatory factor analysis of the scale was conducted using data from 212 students who were enrolled in the same departments. The scale was administered to 655 preservice teachers in total. To determine the reliability of the scale, the Cronbach’s Alpha internal consistency coefficient, the corrected total item correlation, and the significance of the differences between the item averages of the top 27% and bottom 27% were examined by t-test. According to the results obtained, the STEMPCK Scale consists of six factors: 21st-Century Skills, Pedagogical Knowledge, Mathematics, Science, Engineering, and Technology. The scale included 56 items. The Cronbach’s Alpha values of the factors ranged from 0.878 to 0.90, and the corrected item total score correlations ranged from 0.306 to 0.895. The results of the t-test showed that all the differences between the mean scores of the top 27% and bottom 27% on the items were significant. The results of the analyses indicate that the instrument has reasonable internal consistency and that the theoretical structure was supported by empirical data. These results indicate that the STEMPCK Scale is an appropriate tool for measuring preservice teachers’ STEM pedagogical content knowledge. Implications and suggestions for further studies are included

1908 elections in the province of Baghdad in The Second Constitutional Era and the deputies of Baghdad

23 Temmuz 1908’de II. Meşrutiyet’in ilan edilmesiyle Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda anayasal döneme geçiş gerçekleşti. II. Abdülhamid Kanun-ı Esasi’nin devreye girdiğini, Meclis-i Mebusan’ın açılacağını ve bu yüzden en yakın sürede bir seçimin gerçekleşeceğini duyurdu. Bunun üzerine ülkede bir seçim sürecine girildi ve hem merkezde hem de taşrada meclise girecek olan adaylar belirlenmeye başladı. 1908 seçimlerinde İttihad ve Terakki Cemiyeti istibdadı yıkıp meşrutiyeti yeniden getirdiği için hâkim unsur olmayı başarmıştı. Ancak Irak kıtasının merkezinde yer alan Bağdat vilayetinde cemiyet, seçimlerde tam anlamıyla etkin olamadı ve yalnızca İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti’nin mensubu olarak iki mebus meclise girebildi. Bu çalışma II. Meşrutiyet Dönemi’nde Arap vilayetlerindeki seçim sürecine bir örnek olarak Bağdat vilayetinde gerçekleşen 1908 seçimlerini ele almaktadır. Ayrıca Bağdat’tan seçilen mebusların kimler olduğu ve meclisteki deneyimleri bu makalenin konusunu teşkil etmektedir.The transition to the constitutional period in the Ottoman Empire took place with the declaration of the The Second Constitutional Era on July 23 1908. Abdulhamid II announced that the Kanun-i Esasi had come into force that the Assembly of Deputies would be opened, and therefore an election would take place as soon as possible. Upon this, an election process was started in the country and the candidates who would enter the parliament both in the center and in the provinces began to be determined. In the elections of 1908, the Unity and Progress Committee succeeded to become the dominant element, as it overthrew the tyranny and restored the constitutionalism. However, in the province of Baghdad, located in the center of Iraqi region, they could not be fully active in the elections and only two deputies were able to enter the parliament as members of the Committee of Union and Progress. This study addresses the 1908 elections in the province of Baghdad as an example of the election process in the Arab provinces during the The Second Constitutional Era. In addition, identities of the elected deputies from Baghdad and their experiences in the parliament are subjects of this article

Have Skin Biopsy Results in Adults Been Affected in the COVID-19 Pandemic?

The purpose of this study was to assess how skin biopsy results from adults, which occupy an important place in dermatological practice, have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Adult patients aged over 18 presenting to the dermatology clinical of a tertiary hospital between March 12, 2019 and March 11, 2020, and between March 12, 2020 and March 11, 2021, from whom skin biopsies had been taken and who had undergone pathological examination were included in the study. Pre-COVID-19 pandemic data were compared with post-pandemic data. No significant difference was determined between the two periods in terms of age, sex, type of biopsy, preliminary diagnosis numbers, or clinicopathological correlation (P>0.05). The diseases most frequently diagnosed through biopsy before the pandemic were psoriasis (13.7%), pseudopelade of Brocq (6.8%), and fibroepithelial polyp (5.5%), compared with psoriasis (9.4%), basal cell carcinoma (BCC) (6.3%), lichen planus (6.3%), and urticarial vasculitis (6.3%) during the pandemic. Diagnoses of BCC and urticarial vasculitis were significantly elevated after the COVID-19 pandemic (P<0.05), while no periodic difference was observed in other diagnoses. A rise in the incidence of various diseases, such as urticarial vasculitis, may be indicative of a risk of asymptomatic COVID-19. Further polymerase chain reaction and/or antibody-based investigations should be carried out in order to establish whether dermatological diseases are associated with asymptomatic COVID-19 cases. Determining the clinical and histopathological aspects of COVID-19, which can progress with various cutaneous findings, will be useful in the early diagnosis and treatment of this novel and life-threatening disease

Have Skin Biopsy Results in Adults Been Affected in the COVID-19 Pandemic?

The purpose of this study was to assess how skin biopsy results from adults, which occupy an important place in dermatological practice, have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Adult patients aged over 18 presenting to the dermatology clinical of a tertiary hospital between March 12, 2019 and March 11, 2020, and between March 12, 2020 and March 11, 2021, from whom skin biopsies had been taken and who had undergone pathological examination were included in the study. Pre-COVID-19 pandemic data were compared with post-pandemic data. No significant difference was determined between the two periods in terms of age, sex, type of biopsy, preliminary diagnosis numbers, or clinicopathological correlation (P>0.05). The diseases most frequently diagnosed through biopsy before the pandemic were psoriasis (13.7%), pseudopelade of Brocq (6.8%), and fibroepithelial polyp (5.5%), compared with psoriasis (9.4%), basal cell carcinoma (BCC) (6.3%), lichen planus (6.3%), and urticarial vasculitis (6.3%) during the pandemic. Diagnoses of BCC and urticarial vasculitis were significantly elevated after the COVID-19 pandemic (P<0.05), while no periodic difference was observed in other diagnoses. A rise in the incidence of various diseases, such as urticarial vasculitis, may be indicative of a risk of asymptomatic COVID-19. Further polymerase chain reaction and/or antibody-based investigations should be carried out in order to establish whether dermatological diseases are associated with asymptomatic COVID-19 cases. Determining the clinical and histopathological aspects of COVID-19, which can progress with various cutaneous findings, will be useful in the early diagnosis and treatment of this novel and life-threatening disease

Hasta yakını olmanın getirdiği güçlükler ve dini başa çıkma (Palyatif bakım servisi onkoloji hasta yakınları)

xi, 148 sayfa29 cm. 1 CDÖZETBu araştırmada kanser hastası yakınlarının hastalık sürecinde dini başa çıkma stratejilerinden yararlanma düzeylerinin incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Araştırmada nitel çalışma deseninden yararlanılmıştır. Araştırmaya 2017-2018 yılında İzmir Tepecik Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi Palyatif Bakım Servisinde yatmakta olan kanser hastası yakınları (n20) dâhil edilmiştir. Hasta yakınlarının yaşadığı güçlükler ve dini başa çıkmada başvurulan dini referansların rolünü öğrenmek, hangi başa çıkma davranışlarına başvurulduğunu tespit etmek için araştırmacı tarafından hazırlanan mülakat formu kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın sonunda hasta yakınlarının tedavi sürecinde birçok sorunla karşılaştıkları belirlenmiş, karşılaşılan sorunların başında aile bireylerinin genel olarak duygusallaşması, refakatçilerin tedavi sürecinde işlerini bırakmaları nedeniyle maddi zorluk yaşamaları, hasta yakınlarından bazılarının aileden uzaklaşması, hasta yakınlarının zamanlarının büyük bir bölümünü hastanın yanında geçirmek zorunda kalmaları gibi bir takım zorlukların geldiği tespit edilmiştir.ABSTRACTThe present study aimed to investigate the level of benefiting from religious coping strategies by the relatives of cancer patients. Qualitative study design was performed in the study. In the year of 2017-2018, the relatives of cancer patients (n 20) who were hospitalized in İzmir Tepecik Training and Research Hospital Palliative Care Service were included in the study. The interview form which was prepared by the researcher was used to find out the difficulties experienced by the relatives of the patients, the role of religious references in religious coping and which coping strategies were used by them. As a result of the study, it was determined that the relatives of the patients faced many problems during the treatment period. The main problems were the emotional feeling of the family members, the economical difficulty of the participants due to leaving their jobs in the treatment process, being distant from their families, having to spend a large part of their time with the patient

Erythropoietin Improves the Healing of Skin Necrosis Resulting From Doxorubicin Extravasation in a Rat Model

AbstractBackgroundDoxorubicin is an antineoplastic agent that causes skin necrosis when extravasated. Various agents have been tried to reduce tissue damage owing to extravasation. Erythropoietin (EPO) is an obligatory growth factor for red blood cells and has beneficial effects on wound healing.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that local EPO injection can prevent and improve healing of necrosis at the doxorubicin injection site in rats.MethodsWe used 31 female Sprague-Dawley rats. The dorsal area of each rat was shaved, and 2 mg of doxorubicin in 0.5 mL saline was injected intradermally. The rats were then divided into 3 groups: control; control with intradermal injection of saline; and treatment, which received an intradermal injection of EPO. EPO in saline was injected into 4 quadrants of the same site where doxorubicin was injected 1 hour before. The rats were monitored and the area of each ulcer was measured. Skin biopsies were excised at the end of 4 weeks using anesthetic pentobarbital. Inflammation, edema, epithelization, neovascularization, necrosis, fibroblast proliferation, and collagen synthesis were evaluated and compared between groups.ResultsThe average areas of the lesions were significantly smaller in the EPO-injected rats (P = 0.03). The histopathologic evaluation revealed that the scores for epithelization, neovascularization, fibroblast proliferation, and collagen synthesis were higher (P < 0.001, P < 0.001, P = 0.002, and P = 0.04, respectively) and the score for necrosis was lower (P < 0.001) in the EPO-injected group than in both the saline-injected and control groups.ConclusionsIn this study using female Sprague-Dawley rats, EPO treatment improved the healing of skin necrosis caused by doxorubicin injection. This finding may lead to a new therapeutic approach for the management of skin necrosis caused by doxorubicin extravasation

Choroidal vascularity index and retinal nerve fiber layer reflectivity in newly diagnosed migraine patients

Purpose: To evaluate the choroidal structural parameters, peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, and optic density index (ODI) and their correlations in patients with migraine. Methods: Twenty-eight newly diagnosed migraine patients and 28 age-matched healthy controls were included in this prospective cross-sectional study. The enhanced depth-optical coherence tomography images were evaluated. The choroidal area (CA) was binarized to the luminal area (LA) and stromal area (SA) using Image J. The choroidal vascularity index (CVI), the mean peripapillary RNFL thickness, superior-inferior-nasal-temporal quadrant RNFL thicknesses, and the ODI were compared statistically. Results: The difference in the mean CVI between the patient group and controls reached a statistical significance (p=0.035). The mean RNFL thickness was significantly decreased in patients with migraine compared with the controls (p=0.040). The mean RNFL thickness in the superior, temporal, and inferior quadrants was significantly decreased in the patient group in comparison to the control subjects (p=0.030, p=0.001, and p=0.022, respectively). There were no significant differences between the migraine group and the controls for the mean ODI of RNFL (p=0.399). Conclusion: The CVI and the RNFL thickness except for the nasal quadrant were significantly decreased in newly diagnosed migraine patients. © 2021 Elsevier B.V

The effect of different wall materials on the production of suppressed-pungent capsaicin microparticles

[EN] The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of wall materials types on the production of double-layered and suppressed-pungent capsaicin microparticles via spray chilling method. For this purpose, palm oil and different proteins (gelatin, sodium caseinate and whey protein) were used as wall materials, while soy lecithin was selected as stabilizer. Sample encapsulated only with palm oil (single-layered) was used as control. Centrifuge stability and kinetic stability were analyzed on the prepared emulsions. Total and surface capsaicin, microencapsulation efficiency, melting point temperature and fusion enthalpy analysis were carried out on the capsaicin microparticles obtained by spray chilling.The authors acknowledge TUBITAK-TOVAG (Project Number: 116 O 499) for financial support.Varhan, E.; Kasımoğlu, Z.; Koç, M.; Şahin Nadeem, H. (2018). The effect of different wall materials on the production of suppressed-pungent capsaicin microparticles. En IDS 2018. 21st International Drying Symposium Proceedings. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1735-1742. https://doi.org/10.4995/IDS2018.2018.7721OCS1735174

Epicardial adipose tissue thickness and NGAL levels in women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Cure, Medine Cumhur/0000-0001-9253-6459WOS: 000333112500001PubMed: 24528623Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is associated with an increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and early atherosclerosis. Epicardial adipose tissue thickness (EATT) is clinically related to subclinical atherosclerosis. in the present study, considering the major role of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) which is an acute phase protein rapidly releasing upon inflammation and tissue injury, we aimed to evaluate NGAL levels and EATT in PCOS patients and assess their relationship with cardiometabolic factors. Methods: 64 patients with PCOS and 50 age- and body mass index-matched healthy controls were included in the study. We evaluated anthropometric, hormonal and metabolic parameters. EATT was measured by echocardiography above the free wall of the right ventricle. Serum NGAL and high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels were measured by ELISA. Results: Mean EATT was 0,38 +/-0,16 mm in the PCOS group and 0,34 +/-0,36 mm in the control group (p = 0,144). in the obese PCOS group (n = 44) EAT was thicker compared to the obese control group (n = 41) (p = 0.026). Mean NGAL levels of the patients with PCOS were 101,98 +/-21,53 pg/ml, while mean NGAL levels were 107,40 +/-26,44 pg/ml in the control group (p = 0,228). We found a significant positive correlation between EATT and age, BMI, waist circumference, fasting insulin, HOMA-IR, triglyceride and hsCRP levels in PCOS group. Conclusions: Thickness of the epicardial adipose tissue can be used to follow the risk of CVD development in obese PCOS cases. However serum NGAL levels do not differ in patients with PCOS and control group