Demographic and parasitic infection status of schoolchildren and sanitary conditions of schools in Sanliurfa, Turkey

BACKGROUND: The design and development of school health programmes will require information at demographic characteristics of schoolchildren and the major health burdens of the school-age group, the opportunities for intervention and the appropriateness of the available infrastructure. This study aims to analyse demographic and parasitic infections status of schoolchildren and sanitary conditions of schools in Sanliurfa province of south-eastern Turkey. METHOD: Three primary schools were randomly selected in the shantytown, apartment and rural districts. A total of 1820 schoolchildren between 7–14 years age were took part to the survey of whom 1120 (61.5%) were boys and 700 (38.4%) were girls. A child form (including child's name, sex, age, school grade and parasitic infections) and school survey form (including condition of water supply, condition of latrines, presence of soaps on the basins and presence of garbage piles around to the schools) were used for demographic, parasitic and sanitary surveys. Stool samples were examined by cellophane thick smear technique for the eggs of intestinal helminths. RESULTS: The demographic survey showed that number of schoolchildren was gradually decreased as their age's increase in shantytown school. The sex ratio was proportional until the second grade, after which the number of females gradually decreased in children in shantytown and rural schools while, in apartment area, schoolchildren was proportionally distributed between age groups and gender even the high-grade students. The prevalence of helminthic infections was %77.1 of the schoolchildren in shantytown, 53.2% in apartment district and 53.1% of rural area. Ascaris lumbricoides was the most prevalent species and followed by Trichuris trichiura, Hymenolepis nana and Taenia species in three schools. Sanitation survey indicated that the tap water was limited in shantytown school, toilet's sanitation was poor, available no soaps on lavatories and garbage piles were accumulated around the schools in shantytown and rural area, while, the school in apartment area was well sanitised. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicated that burden of parasitic infections and poor sanitation conditions constituted public health importance among to the shantytown schoolchildren. School health programmes including deworming and sanitation activities through the health education and improvement of sanitation conditions in the schools have a potential to better health and education for schoolchildren. These programmes also offer the potential to reach significant numbers of population in the shantytown schools with high level of absenteeism

CENGO: a web-based serious game to increase the programming knowledge levels of computer engineering students

In recent years, games are used to increase the level of knowledge and experience of individuals working in different domains. Especially in the education field, there are several different serious games to teach the subjects of the lectures or other educational materials to students in an enjoyable way. Hence, this study proposes a quantitative research approach to increase the programming knowledge levels of the first-year undergraduate students at computer engineering departments. For this aim, a responsive web platform was developed to teach the syntax and logic of C programming language by using some game elements. Therefore, the students have a chance to repeat the topics related to C programming language continuously since the platform is always accessible. To figure out the efficiency of the designed environment, 10 first-year computer engineering students were selected. According to the results obtained from the user tests, this game can be used as an educational tool, which supports the traditional training methods, to increase the knowledge levels of students about the syntax and logic of C programming language

Carbon-black combined with TiO2 and KuQ as sustainable photosystem for a reliable self-powered photoelectrochemical biosensor

Since our first work published in Electrochemistry Communication in 2010 (12, 346–350), many carbon black-(CB) based electrochemical printed (bio)sensors have been reported in the literature, addressing voltammetric and potentiometric measurements. Herein, we report the first photoelectrochemical biosensor based on a printed electrode modified with CB. In detail, the photoelectrochemical sensor has been designed by using, in addition to CB, and TiO2, KuQ dye because the use of only TiO2 and CB still requires UV irradiation, while KuQ is characterized by a broad and intense absorption spectrum in the visible region allowing for an easy set-up with a costeffective portable laser. Once optimized the fabrication and working conditions, namely the solvent for the TiO2 dispersion (i.e. water/dimethylformamide (1:1 v/v)), the amount of TiO2/KuQ to cast onto the working electrode surface (i.e. 4 μg), the applied potential (i.e. +0.4 V), and the working solution (i.e. Tris buffer at pH 8.8), the sensor was challenged for NADH measurement obtaining a linear range up to 8 mM and a detection limit, calculated as 3 σb/slope, equal to 20 μM. The subsequent immobilization of Alcohol Dehydrogenase demonstrated the capability of this biosensor to detect ethanol up to 1 M, with the detection limit equal to 0.062 mM, indicating that the CB-TiO2/KuQ modification can regenerate the coenzyme even in the immobilized form, with improved analytical performances in terms of enhancement of the linearity. Finally, ethanol was detected in a real sample, i.e. white wine, with a good recovery value of 91.60 ± 0.01%, demonstrating the applicability of the developed miniaturized biosensor in white wine samples