Evaluating novice and experienced EFL teachers' perceived TPACK for their professional development

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) is a framework which provides a number of opportunities for conducting research in teacher edu- cation, teacher professional development, and teacher’s use of technology. By applying TPACK framework, this mixed methods study aimed to examine novice and experienced EFL teachers’ differences in their perceived TPACK and its influences on their professional development. To this end, for the quantitative phase, a sample of 427 EFL teachers, both male and female with different teaching experiences were selected from various English language institutes in Tehran. In the qualitative phase, 16 EFL teachers were selected for a structured interview. The quantitative results indicated that experienced teachers were of significantly higher scores in terms of pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge subscales. In contrast, novice teachers were of significantly higher scores considering their technological knowledge, technological content knowledge, technological pedago- gical knowledge, and TPACK. The qualitative results demonstrated that novice and experienced EFL teachers favored different professional development programs tailored to their needs. Likewise, they claimed that they could bridge the gap in their knowledge through collaboration in professional development courses

Global, regional, and national cancer incidence, mortality, years of life lost, years lived with disability, and disability-Adjusted life-years for 29 cancer groups, 1990 to 2017 : A systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study

Importance: Cancer and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are now widely recognized as a threat to global development. The latest United Nations high-level meeting on NCDs reaffirmed this observation and also highlighted the slow progress in meeting the 2011 Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases and the third Sustainable Development Goal. Lack of situational analyses, priority setting, and budgeting have been identified as major obstacles in achieving these goals. All of these have in common that they require information on the local cancer epidemiology. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study is uniquely poised to provide these crucial data. Objective: To describe cancer burden for 29 cancer groups in 195 countries from 1990 through 2017 to provide data needed for cancer control planning. Evidence Review: We used the GBD study estimation methods to describe cancer incidence, mortality, years lived with disability, years of life lost, and disability-Adjusted life-years (DALYs). Results are presented at the national level as well as by Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income, educational attainment, and total fertility rate. We also analyzed the influence of the epidemiological vs the demographic transition on cancer incidence. Findings: In 2017, there were 24.5 million incident cancer cases worldwide (16.8 million without nonmelanoma skin cancer [NMSC]) and 9.6 million cancer deaths. The majority of cancer DALYs came from years of life lost (97%), and only 3% came from years lived with disability. The odds of developing cancer were the lowest in the low SDI quintile (1 in 7) and the highest in the high SDI quintile (1 in 2) for both sexes. In 2017, the most common incident cancers in men were NMSC (4.3 million incident cases); tracheal, bronchus, and lung (TBL) cancer (1.5 million incident cases); and prostate cancer (1.3 million incident cases). The most common causes of cancer deaths and DALYs for men were TBL cancer (1.3 million deaths and 28.4 million DALYs), liver cancer (572000 deaths and 15.2 million DALYs), and stomach cancer (542000 deaths and 12.2 million DALYs). For women in 2017, the most common incident cancers were NMSC (3.3 million incident cases), breast cancer (1.9 million incident cases), and colorectal cancer (819000 incident cases). The leading causes of cancer deaths and DALYs for women were breast cancer (601000 deaths and 17.4 million DALYs), TBL cancer (596000 deaths and 12.6 million DALYs), and colorectal cancer (414000 deaths and 8.3 million DALYs). Conclusions and Relevance: The national epidemiological profiles of cancer burden in the GBD study show large heterogeneities, which are a reflection of different exposures to risk factors, economic settings, lifestyles, and access to care and screening. The GBD study can be used by policy makers and other stakeholders to develop and improve national and local cancer control in order to achieve the global targets and improve equity in cancer care. © 2019 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Nano-technological methods for increasing the oral bioavailability of curcumin

Background & Objective: Curcumin is a tropical plant in the ginger (Zingiberaceae) family. Three curcuminoids were from turmeric: Curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, and Bisdemethoxycurcumin. The potential health benefits of curcumin are limited by their poor solubility, hydrophobic property, and low absorption from the gut, rapid metabolism and rapid systemic elimination. Materials & Methods: Scholarly articles were selected using valid keywords and searching on the SID, Google Scholar, PubMed and Elsevier databases. The aim of this paper is to introduce Nano-technological techniques for increasing the oral bioavailability of curcumin. Results: Increase in the drug bioavailability is one of the goals of nanotechnology. Nano-scale materials increase the drug bioavailability due to their unique features. The bioavailability of a drug is defined as a percentage of the initial dose that is independent of the administration route of the drug entering the bloodstream. To improve the bioavailability of curcumin, numerous techniques are used such as curcumin liposome complex, curcumin phospholipid nanoparticles and structural analogues of curcumin. Conclusion: Curcumin has a unique biological and pharmaceutical property. Of course, one of the major limitations of curcumin is its instability and its low solubility. Thus, it is useful to provide a method that can increase the solubility of poorly soluble drugs in water and protect them to achieve the target site. Nanotechnology has provided many ways to improve the solubility and transport of these drugs. &nbsp

Introducing Self-Nanoemulsifying Drug Delivery System to Increase the Bioavailability of Oral Medications

Due to low cost, ease of administration, and lack need for trained personnel, the oral route is the most convenient and accessible way to design different medicines that could be simply consumed by patients. Regardless of the great benefits of this route, the main challenge in the bioavailability of oral medications is gastrointestinal instability. Nanotechnology is used to improve the solubility and bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs. The self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system is an ideal method for improving the solubility and bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs. This system is a sustainable combination of drugs, oils, surfactants, and cosurfactants. The combination of these components causes the nanoemulsion of oil in water with the size of droplets in the range of nm, thereby increasing the bioavailability and oral absorption of poorly water-soluble drugs. This system is highly regarded for its benefits and the ability to improve the healing properties of oral medications

Functional Brain Response to Emotional Muical Stimuli in Depression, Using INLA Approach for Approximate Bayesian Inference

Introduction: One of the vital skills which has an impact on emotional health and well-being is the regulation of emotions. In recent years, the neural basis of this process has been considered widely. One of the powerful tools for eliciting and regulating emotion is music. The Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) is part of the emotional neural circuitry involved in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The current study uses functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to examine how neural processing of emotional musical auditory stimuli is changed within the ACC in depression. Statistical inference is conducted using a Bayesian Generalized Linear Model (GLM) approach with an Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) algorithm. Methods: A new proposed Bayesian approach was applied for assessing functional response to emotional musical auditory stimuli in a block design fMRI data with 105 scans of two healthy and depressed women. In this Bayesian approach, Unweighted Graph-Laplacian (UGL) prior was chosen for spatial dependency, and autoregressive (AR) (1) process was used for temporal correlation via pre-weighting residuals. Finally, the inference was conducted using the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) algorithm in the R-INLA package. Results: The results revealed that positive music, as compared to negative music, elicits stronger activation within the ACC area in both healthy and depressed subjects. In comparing MDD and Never-Depressed (ND) individuals, a significant difference was found between MDD and ND groups in response to positive music vs negative music stimuli. The activations increase from baseline to positive stimuli and decrease from baseline to negative stimuli in ND subjects. Also, a significant decrease from baseline to positive stimuli was observed in MDD subjects, but there was no significant difference between baseline and negative stimuli. Conclusion: Assessing the pattern of activations within ACC in a depressed individual may be useful in retraining the ACC and improving its function, and lead to more effective therapeutic interventions

Functional brain response to emotional musical stimuli in depression, using INLA approach for approximate Bayesian inference

Introduction: One of the vital skills which has an impact on emotional health and well-being is the regulation of emotions. In recent years, the neural basis of this process has been considered widely. One of the powerful tools for eliciting and regulating emotion is music. The Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) is part of the emotional neural circuitry involved in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The current study uses functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to examine how neural processing of emotional musical auditory stimuli is changed within the ACC in depression. Statistical inference is conducted using a Bayesian Generalized Linear Model (GLM) approach with an Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) algorithm. Methods: A new proposed Bayesian approach was applied for assessing functional response to emotional musical auditory stimuli in a block design fMRI data with 105 scans of two healthy and depressed women. In this Bayesian approach, Unweighted Graph-Laplacian (UGL) prior was chosen for spatial dependency, and autoregressive (AR) (1) process was used for temporal correlation via pre-weighting residuals. Finally, the inference was conducted using the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) algorithm in the R-INLA package. Results: The results revealed that positive music, as compared to negative music, elicits stronger activation within the ACC area in both healthy and depressed subjects. In comparing MDD and Never-Depressed (ND) individuals, a significant difference was found between MDD and ND groups in response to positive music vs negative music stimuli. The activations increase from baseline to positive stimuli and decrease from baseline to negative stimuli in ND subjects. Also, a significant decrease from baseline to positive stimuli was observed in MDD subjects, but there was no significant difference between baseline and negative stimuli. Conclusion: Assessing the pattern of activations within ACC in a depressed individual may be useful in retraining the ACC and improving its function, and lead to more effective therapeutic interventions