A Process Model of the U.S. Federal Perspective on STEM

Although advocacy for better science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education has a long and distinguished history in the United States, the recent emphasis has included strong rhetoric and concomitant funding. Policy makers legislate as though STEM is clearly defined. Yet, the concept remains nebulous, which limits the nation’s capacity to act in a strong and uniformed manner to address societal challenges. In this study, the authors used grounded theory methods to synthesize and interpret the federal perspective that defines STEM in the United States. The resulting theory is a model that includes five core processes: recruitment, recapture, retention, quality assurance, and quality control. These processes interact to support the system in achieving its goal of producing a qualified future workforce. Such a model has implications for advancing the overall goals of STEM as well as further research and development on the components of the model itself

An Application of Cognitive Diagnosis Modeling in TIMSS: A Comparison of Intuitive Definitions of Q-Matrices

Detection of students’ ability levels is one of the common aims in educational studies. Cognitive Diagnosis Modeling approach has been used recently for the purpose of ability level detection by defined Q-matrices. This paper aims to use Cognitive Diagnosis Modeling (CDM) in order to investigate the definition of a Q-matrix across the cognitive skills of different years and countries in TIMSS. There is a subjective way in defining Q-matrices; for this purpose, an application of building Q-matrices under specific CDMs, from a set of expert proposed attributes is examined. The proposed attributes are used to build Q-matrices for TIMSS mathematics questions across its cycles, and across different nations

Melanocortin 2 Receptor Mutations and Clinical Significance in Case of Cushing Syndrome and Subclinical Cushing Syndrome and Primary Aldosteronism

WOS: 000456090800002The researchers investigated whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of.M2CR were associated with the development of adrenocortical diseases including cushing syndrome (CS), subclinical cushing syndrome (SCS) and primary aldosteronism (PA) in Turkish population. Two promoter SNPs [rs1893219 (853A/G) and rs1893220 (759 G/T)J were genotyped in 43 patients with adrenal adenomas. All patients were examined hormonally with dynamic tests. While 22 of the patients had non-functional (NF) adrenal adenomas; 21 of the patients (CS-9, SCS =10, PA =2) had functional adrenal adenomas. In rs1893219 the frequencies of the CC (AA) were found to be 2, 3 and 1 patients in CS, SCS and PA, respectively. In rs1893220 the frequencies of the AA (GG) genotype were found to be 2, 1 and 1 patients in CS, SCS and PA. Also, the C allele frequency of rs1893219 was found increased in the patients with functional adenomas. The results have shown that the M2CR gene may contribute to the development of adrenocortical diseases

Tissue Thiol Concentration in High-Grade Gliomas: Is There any Association Between IDH1 Mutation Presence and Tumoral Cellular Antioxidant Defense?

AIM: To assess and compare the antioxidant capacities of high-grade gliomas (HGG) according to their grades and the presence of isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) mutation using tissue thiol level measurement