STEM Club Evaluation Scale: Validity and Reliability Study

In STEMNET's report, 76% of 500 teachers interviewed stated that joining the STEM Club increased students' ability to solve real-world problems. This study aims to develop a valid and reliable measurement tool for evaluating STEM clubs. The research sample consisting of 149 teachers who carry out STEM club activities in schools in Turkey was determined using the purposive sampling method. Content and construct validity and reliability analyses have been performed for this purpose. To ensure content validity, (1) a pool of questions based on the literature was created, (2) draft scale items were determined, (3) an expert was allowed to check them, and (4)item difficulty and discrimination index were calculated. To ensure construct validity, (1) exploratory factor analyses (EFA) and (2) confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were performed on both the same and different samples. As a result of the analyses, having the same data set be analyzed with different software was sufficient for verifying the factor structure. A three-factor structure consisting of 29 items was obtained, which explains 52% of the variance. Cronbach’s alpha of reliability for the overall scale was calculated as .92. As a result, a valid and reliable scale was determined to have been developed for researchers and program practitioners to evaluate STEM clubs. Suggestions have been made that the scale can be used on STEM clubs at the provincial, district, and school levels to determine their efficiency and productivity

IMPROVING ENERGY EFFICIENT OPERATION OF BUILDINGS WITH WIRELESS IT SYSTEMS

Reducing energy consumption is one of the major challenges for present day and will continue for future generations. The emerging EU directives relating to energy (EU EPBD and the EU Directive on Emissions Trading) now place demands on building owners to rate the energy performance of their buildings for efficient energy management. Moreover European Legislation (Directive 2006/32/EC) requires Facility Managers to reduce building energy consumption and operational costs. Currently sophisticated building services systems are available integrating off-the-shelf building management components. However this ad-hoc combination presents many difficulties to building owners in the management and upgrade of these systems. This paper addresses the need for integration concepts, holistic monitoring and analysis methodologies, life-cycle oriented decision support and sophisticated control strategies through the seamless integration of people, ICT-devices and computational resources via introducing the newly developed integrated system architecture. The first concept was applied to a residential building and the results were elaborated to improve current building conditions

Abscess in Adenomyosis Mimicking a Malignancy in a 54-Year-Old Woman

Background: Although there are a few reports describing abscess formation in endometriotic foci no report of abscess formation arising de novo within adenomyosis appears in the literature. Preoperative diagnosis of adenomyosis is frequently difficult because of non-specific signs and symptoms. Synchronous pelvic pathologies such as leiomyoma, endometrial polyp, endometrial hyperplasia, as well as endometrial cancer may cause differential diagnostic problems. Case: A 54-year-old postmenopausal woman complaining of inguinal pain, nightsweats and hot flashes is presented. Radiologic examinations of the pelvis revealed a 95 × 85 mm leiomyoma-like lesion including a 53 × 43 mmcystic space and 9 × 6 mmpapillary formation within the uterus raising clinical suspicion of malignancy. A total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy were performed accompanied by a frozen section diagnosis. The frozen section revealed an abscess formation arising in a focus of adenomyosis. The postoperative period of the patient was uneventful. Conclusion : The present case, to our knowledge, is the first report representing abscess formation in adenomyosis. Abscess arising within adenomyosis can strongly raise the suspicion of endometrial cancer, particularly if the patient is postmenopausal. If endometrial cancer cannot be ruled out with definitive histopathological diagnosis in the preoperative period, a frozen section becomes mandatory during surgical intervention

Monocyte/high-density lipoprotein ratio predicts the mortality in ischemic stroke patients

Objective The inflammatory process is a very important stage in the development and prognosis of acute ischemic stroke (AIS). The monocyte to high-density lipoprotein (HDL) ratio (MHR) is accepted as a novel marker for demonstrating inflammation. However, the role of MHR as a predictor of mortality in patients with AIS remains unclear. Methods We retrospectively enrolled 466 patients who were referred to our clinic within the first 24hours of symptom presentation and who were diagnosed with AIS between January 2008 and June 2016. Four hundred and eight controls of similar age and gender were also included. The patient group was classified into two groups according to 30-day mortality. The groups were compared in terms of monocyte counts, HDL, and MHR values. Results The patient group had significantly higher monocyte counts and lower HDL levels; therefore, this group had higher values of MHR compared to controls. Additionally, the monocyte count and MHR value were higher, and the HDL level was lower in non-surviving patients (p<0.001). The MHR value was also observed as a significant independent variable of 30-day mortality in patients with AIS (p<0.001). The optimum cut-off value of MHR in predicting the 30-day mortality for patients with AIS was 17.52 (95% CI 0.95–0.98). Conclusion Our study demonstrated that a high MHR value is an independent predictor of 30-day mortality in patients with AIS

Implementation Of Structural Health Monitoring For Movable Bridges

This paper discusses how the current practice of bridge inspection and assessment can be complemented with long-term structural health monitoring (SHM) data within a bridge asset management framework. A brief discussion of asset management is presented with data used in current practice and complementary data from SHM. To use any data in a timely and effective manner requires an information management system that considers all constituents, from bridge owners to decision makers to users. Thus a multilayered bridge information system that considers multiple end users and includes a broad range of data sources is presented. After discussion of the proposed system, the paper presents long-term SHM data and inspection and maintenance data from a movable bridge in Florida. Dynamic data from long-term monitoring were analyzed with time and frequency domain methods as well as statistical methods, which were feasible with large amounts of data. The results of the analysis showed that certain anomalies at critical components of the bridge (e.g., span-lock and gearbox mechanisms) were captured. It was also shown that the issues identified with SHM data were related to the operation and maintenance of the bridge, as described in its maintenance logs. Integration of monitoring systems with routine maintenance applications could be expected to provide timely and effective bridge management

A theoretical study on tautomerism and tautomers of N-confused porphyrins

N-confused porphyrins (NCP) display tautomerism and have three primer and six seconder tautomers. In the present paper, their chemical properties and potential barriers of synchronously proton migration occurred among tautomers of NCP were theoretically examined. All computations containing geometry optimizations and transition state search were achieved by using AM I semi-empirical molecular orbital method at restricted Hartree-Fock level. To accomplish more satisfactory scanning on potential energy surface obtained for reaction maps synchronously devised, Quadratic Synchronous Transit algorithm was used instead of Linear Synchronous Transit algorithm. H-1 NMR peaks were theoretically estimated with confidence range. Results from 1H NMR spectra prediction were used to enlighten magnetic features of primer tautomers and how inner proton migration mechanism progresses. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved