The Development of a Predictive Theory of Science Education Based Upon Information Processing Theory

This thesis describes the establishment of a new predictive theory for science education which can give direction to the improvement and transformation of science teaching at all levels. It is based upon Information Processing Theory. It has the ability to predict performance in science on the basis of independent psychological tests and to provide a framework for understanding how scientific learning takes place. The development of the theory has resulted from empirical work on 529 school pupils at "0" Grade (age 16) and on 440 Glasgow University students, through two series of experiments in addition to two confirmatory studies in the U.S.A. and Egypt. The first series related to students performance in individual questions, and the second related to students over-all performance in conventional examinations. Throughout this empirical work, a constant pattern has emerged showing that the students' holding-thinking space limited their ability to solve problems of different complexity. As soon as there was an overload on students' holding-thinking space, their performance fell away. In addition, the students' holding-thinking space is considered to be a good predictor for success in the conventional "0" Grade examinations, as well as the university examinations not only in chemistry, but also in physics, biology and mathematics. Where the theory and the empirical measurements have not agreed exactly, further investigation has been done to examine the disparities. In some cases new understanding has occurred which has allowed the theory to be modified. This thesis illustrates the importance of the teaching of learning strategies. In fact, it raises the teaching of strategies on to a par with the teaching of content. Three ways of successfully reducing the load on the students' holding-thinking space have been described and tested. The effect of the limitation of students' perceptual fields and of holding-thinking space on learning and problem solving tasks is also explored. The theory, which has been established in this thesis, answered some of the questions that educators have concerning students' limitations in learning and in problem solving. The outworking of this theory in terms of instructional methods, design of computer programs, books and laboratory experiences, is forming the basis of several follow-up studies

Serum calprotectin as a diagnostic marker of late onset sepsis in full-term neonates

Background: Calprotectin, a complex of two calcium-binding proteins that belong to the S100 protein family, is abundant in the cytosolic fraction of neutrophils. A high level of calprotectin reportedly exists in extracellular fluid during various inflammatory conditions, but its role in neonatal sepsis was investigated only in one study as a marker of sepsis in very low birth weight neonates. Objective: This study aimed to measure the serum calprotectin level by ELISA in full-term neonates with late onset neonatal sepsis, its correlations with other laboratory markers of sepsis as interleukin-6, C-reactive protein (CRP), total leucocytic count and platelet count and its relation to the outcome of cases. Methods: This study comprised 48 full-term neonates with gestational ages of 37 to 42 weeks with manifestations of late onset neonatal sepsis admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit, Minia University Hospital during the period from February, 2011 to December, 2011 and 40 healthy neonates, age and sex matched as a control group. Serum levels of calprotectin, IL6 and CRP were measured for all neonates recruited in this study. Results: Serum calprotectin levels were significantly higher in term neonates with late onset neonatal sepsis than controls (3.77±1.85 μg/ml and 0.70±0.33 μg/ml respectively, P-value = 0.000). Cases with positive blood cultures and poor outcomes had the highest levels of calprotectin (5.8±0.61 μg/ml and 6.1±0.42 μg/ml respectively). Significant positive correlations were found between calprotectin levels and IL6 (P-value =0.000, r=0.92), C-reactive protein (p=0.000,r=0.95) and total leucocytic count (P-value =0.000, r=0.72), and negative correlations were found between its level and platelet count (P-value =0.000, r=-0.87), gestational age (P-value =0.014, r=-0.35) and body weight (P-value=0.018, r=-0.34). No significant differences were observed between males and females as regards calprotectin levels (3.96±2.10 μg/ml vs 3.55±1.52 μg/ml, P-value=0.444). Conclusions: Serum calprotectin levels are significantly higher in full-term neonates with late onset neonatal sepsis. Its levels correlated well with other laboratory markers of sepsis and neonatal mortality. It is a sensitive diagnostic marker for late onset neonatal sepsis.Keywords: Calprotectin, IL6, Full-term, Late-onset sepsisEgypt J Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2012;10(1):19-2

MYCOBIOTA OF SOLARIZED AND UNSOLARIZED CUCUMBER SOILS AND ROLE OF SOLARIZATION IN CONTROLLING OF SCLEROTINIA SCLEROTIORUM (LIB.) de BARY UNDER GREENHOUSE CONDITIONS

Soil mycoflora play an important role in agri-cultural economy of a country. The current study was made to have the knowledge about soilborne fungi associated with cucumber crop in solarized and unsolarized soils. Solarization exerted various effects, some of which are biological, others are chemical and still others are physical. All together these changes affected directly or indirectly the mycoflora of the soil, especially the soilborne pathogenic ones. Forty-nine fungal species belong to thirty genera have been isolated from solarized and unsolarized soils. The diversity as well as the count was greatly affected by solarization. By comparison of the species lists of the fungal flora of solarized and unsolarized soils it was evident that soil fungi behave differently toward soil solar-ization, while some new species developed e.g. Absidia, Acrophialophora, Talaromyces, Glio-cladium, some remained unaffected e. g. Aspergil-lus, Penicillium, Chaetomium, Botryotrichum, still others disappeared e. g. Acremonium, Cephali-ophora, Eurotium and others. Regarding solariza-tion for controlling white cucumber rot caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, the obtained data clearly show that solarization had led to a marked in-crease in the number of healthy plants up to 72.5%

TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED CONTROL OF SESAME (SESAMUM INDICUM L.) CHARCOAL ROT CAUSED BY MACROPHOMINA PHASEOLINA (TASSI) GOID

Soil solarization in combination with fungal antagonists and soil amendments has been sub-jected to evaluation as a potential disease man-agement strategy for the control of charcoal rot of sesame caused by Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid. Solarization alone or in combination with Trichoderma pseudokoningii and Emericella nidulans singly or in mixed inocula reduces dis-ease incidence from 30 % (control) to 80%, 91 %, 82 % and 85% respectively. It is noted that while pairing improved the biocontrols potentiality of E. nidulans by increasing the number of healthy plants in both unsolarized and solarized soils it leads to decrease in the biocontrol potentiality of T. pseudokoningii. On the other hand the combina-tion of solarization with soil amendment with Eu-calyptus powdered leaves showed a synergistic effect by increasing number of healthy plants from 65 % in amended unsolarized soil to 77 % in amended solarized soil

Association of Helicobacter pylori infection and severity of coronary artery atherosclerosis in patients with suspected coronary artery disease

Background: There is a strong correlation between Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection and coronary artery disease (CAD). There is also a strong correlation between HP infection and the severity of coronary artery atherosclerosis in patients with CAD. Our study determined the association of HP infection and severity of coronary artery atherosclerosis in patients with suspected CAD. Methods: A prospective study of 100 individuals who had coronary angiography for coronary atherosclerosis was conducted. Body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood glucose, leukocyte count, hemoglobin, and urea breath test were all done on the patients. Coronary angiograms were graded based on vascular and angiographic severity scores. Results: Triglyceride, (TG), Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL), C- Reactive Protein (CRP), Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR), vessel score, and angiographic severity score all showed high correlations with Gensini score. There was a substantial association between vessel score and TG, LDL and angiographic severity score. It was found that angiographic severity score has a substantial positive link to a person's BMI; LDL; CRP; ESR, and vessel score. Conclusion: Although HP infection has been linked to an increased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD), established risk variables outweigh their potential impact

Prevalence and antimicrobial sensitivity of Escherichia coli and Salmonella species in field cases of rabbit intestinal coccidiosis treated with prebiotic

This study aimed to investigate the effect of prebiotic treatment on E. coli and Salmonella species during natural intestinal coccidiosis in rabbits. The experiment was conducted on 45 selected farm rabbits of which 15 were coccidian free (Negative control; NC, group) and 30 were naturally coccidian infected. The infected animals were allocated into two equal groups including positive control (PC) and prebiotic treated (PT) that were orally treated with prebiotic for 8 successive days. Fecal oocyst count was assessed daily during the course of treatment. Meanwhile, the PC group had a significantly high oocyst count (21.67×103 ± 0.82 OPG), with a significant increase in the prevalence of E. coli and Salmonella (86.7 % and 46.7 %, respectively). Moreover, the NC group remained coccidian free and exhibited E. coli infection only with no detection of salmonella isolates. Findings of in-vitro susceptibility testing showed that E. coli isolates were highly resistant to most of the tested antimicrobials while Salmonella isolates showed variable degrees of resistance. In conclusion, the prebiotic treatment significantly reduced the prevalence of E. coli and Salmonella infections coexisted with intestinal coccidiosis in naturally infected rabbits

The relationship between tissue transglutaminase IgA antibodies and the clinical manifestations in a group of children, adolescent and adult patients with type -I diabetes mellitus

Background: Type-1 diabetes mellitus (T1-DM) is the commonest endocrine-metabolic disease in childhood. The prevalence of CD in type-1 DM ranges from 0.6 to 16.4% compared with 0.01–0.03% in the general population. The mechanism of association between the two diseases involves a shared genetic background of HLA genotype. Serum tissue transglutaminase IgA antibodies (tTG IgA) are considered specific and sensitive markers for screening of Celiac disease in more than 95 % of patients.Objective: Screening for the presence of serum tissue transglutaminase IgA antibodies (tTG ab) as a specific and sensitive biochemical marker for Celiac disease in patients with type-1DM and its relation to the clinical manifestations of those patients.Methods: One hundred-forty-nine patients with type-1 DM attending the out-patient clinic of endocrine and metabolism, Minia University Hospital were screened for the presence of serum tissue transglutaminase IgA antibodies during the period from March 2014 to November 2015.Results: Out of 149 patients 8 patients (5.3%) were positive for IgA tTG antibodies. They who were predominantly of female gender (75% were females). According to each age group, there were four sero-positive cases in children (with age group between 9 and ≤ 12 years); two cases in adolescents (with age group between 12 and ≤ 16 years) and two cases in adults (with age group 16-21 years). Intestinal manifestations, chronic diarrhea, recurrent abdominal pain/ distension, recurrent aphtha's stomatitis, anemia and bleeding tendency were significantly more common in sero-positive cases (P=0.001, 0.001, 0.016, 0.00, 0.001and 0.04 respectively). All sero-positive cases (100%) had lower BMIs than normal. There were no correlations between the tTG antibodies levels and HbA1c levels.Conclusions: The presence of tTG IgA antibodies is associated with significant changes in the clinical status of patient with type-1 DM. Celiac disease related manifestations like weight loss; anemia and chronic diarrhea were more common in sero-positive diabetic patients. Serological screening for CD should be performed in all patients with type-1DM for early diagnosis and prevention of complications.Keywords: Type-1 DM, tissue transglutaminase, IgA antibodie

Acaricidal activity of Foeniculum vulgare against Rhipicephalus annulatus is mainly dependent on its constituent from trans-anethone

Globally, the economic losses due to hard ticks infestation and the control of the associated diseases have been calculated at USD $13.9-18.7 billion per year. The economic impact is related to its direct damage to the skins, blood loss, anemia, severe immunological reactions and indirect losses that related to the effects of hemoparasites, cost of treatment for clinical cases and expenses incurred in the control of ticks. The current study evaluated the acaricidal activities of fennel Foeniculum vulgare essential oil and its main components; trans-anethole and fenchone; against R. annulatus. GC-MS analysis revealed that this oil contained 16 components representing 99.9% of the total identified compounds with E-anethole being the predominant component(64.29%), followed by fenchone (9.94%). The fennel oil and trans-anethole showed significant acaricidal activities. The LC50 of the fennel oil was attained at concentrations of 12.96% for adult ticks and 1.75% for tick larvae meanwhile the LC50 of trans-anethole was reached at concentrations of 2.36% for adult tick and 0.56% for tick larvae. On the contrary, fenchone showed no any significant adulticidal activities and its LC50 attained at a concentration of 9.11% for tick larvae. Regarding repellence activities, trans-anethole achieved 100% repellency at the concentration of 10% while fennel showed 86% repellency at the same concentration. Fenchone showed no repellency effect. Treatment of larvae with fennel, trans-anethole, and fenchone LC50 concentrations significantly inhibited the acetylcholinesterase activity. Meanwhile, glutathione s-transferase activity was significantly decreased in fennel treated larvae but no significant effect was found in the larvae of trans-anethole and fenchone groups. These results indicate that the acaricide effect of fennel oil may attributed to its high content of trans-anethole. This was supported by potent adulticidal, larvicidal, and repellency effects of trans-anethole against Rhipeciphalus annulatus tick and therefore it could be included in the list of acaricide of plant origin