Developing pedagogical content knowledge in preservice science teachers through microteaching lesson study

4th World Conference on Educational Sciences (WCES) -- FEB 02-05, 2012 -- Univ Barcelona, Barcelona, SPAINWOS: 000314465902165The focal point of this study is to investigate the development of pedagogical content knowledge through focusing on the problems that preservice science teachers run through in "Heat and Temperature" subject of the science course curriculum. One of the qualitative research designs, case study has been benefited in this study. The members of the study group have been chosen from preservice science teachers of the education faculty through deviant case sampling which is one of the purposive methods. The pedagogical developments of the teacher candidates are to be evaluated by recording microteaching practices on "Heat and Temperature" subject within "Special Teaching Methods- II" course. While analyzing data, frequency and percentage values which are two of the descriptive statistics have been benefited. According to the results, it is seen that microteaching practices contribute a lot to the pedagogical content knowledge of preservice science teachers the content knowledge of whom are high in terms of teaching a concept or principle and the content knowledge of whom are high and low in terms of ending and evaluation the course. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Huseyin UzunboyluAcad World Educ & Res Ctr, Near E Univ, Bahcesehir Univ, Ankara Univ, Hacettepe Univ, Cyprus Educ Sci Asso

Misconceptions of science teacher candidates about heat and temperature

3rd World Conference on Educational Sciences (WCES) -- FEB 03-07, 2011 -- Bahcesehir Univ, Istanbul, TURKEYWOS: 000466750602149In this study, the misconceptions that the students have about heat and temperature and the reasons behind it have been focused. Members of study group include 60 second grade students of the Faculty of Education of Ahi Evran University during 2009-2010 school year. Multiple-choice tests have been used to be able find out misconceptions. In this test, also entitled as "Diagnostic Test", there is a space where students are expected to write why they have chosen that particular option after a number of items including the right answer along with confounding options. In addition, the misconceptions of teacher candidates have been put forth as an outcome of the analysis of data about heat and temperature. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.Ankara Univ, Near E Uni

Socio-Scientific Issues as a Context for STEM Education: A Case Study Research with Pre-Service Science Teachers

This study was designed as a case study. Participants were 12 senior pre-service science teachers (PSTs), who took theoretical and practical courses about STEM education and socio-scientific issues (SSIs) during their education at a state university. For the study, in the first 4 weeks, theoretical courses on SSIs and STEM education were carried out. Afterwards, PSTs were asked to choose a SSI and configure this issue as a problem statement to perform a STEM activity. Participants were given a total of 3 weeks to determine the issue and prepare the STEM activity, and the researchers of the study gave systematic feedback during this period. Then, starting from the fifth week of the study, groups started to implement their STEM activities in the class, where their peers were assigned as their students. The activity plans they prepare, the field notes taken by the researchers during the implementation of the activities and the semi-structured interviews about the opinions of the PSTs on the use of SSI in STEM education were the data sources of the study. Findings revealed that PSTs found establishing STEM problem situations over SSIs suitable since they provide features such as conformity to real life, having multiple criteria and providing compatibility with other disciplines. Moreover, after their practices, they pointed out that the activities enabled both the teaching of the SSI and the integrated teaching to be carried out. As a conclusion, it is recommended to use socio-scientific problem situations to perform STEM education

The genetic architecture of membranous nephropathy and its potential to improve non-invasive diagnosis

Membranous Nephropathy (MN) is a rare autoimmune cause of kidney failure. Here we report a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for primary MN in 3,782 cases and 9,038 controls of East Asian and European ancestries. We discover two previously unreported loci, NFKB1 (rs230540, OR = 1.25, P = 3.4 × 10-12) and IRF4 (rs9405192, OR = 1.29, P = 1.4 × 10-14), fine-map the PLA2R1 locus (rs17831251, OR = 2.25, P = 4.7 × 10-103) and report ancestry-specific effects of three classical HLA alleles: DRB1*1501 in East Asians (OR = 3.81, P = 2.0 × 10-49), DQA1*0501 in Europeans (OR = 2.88, P = 5.7 × 10-93), and DRB1*0301 in both ethnicities (OR = 3.50, P = 9.2 × 10-23 and OR = 3.39, P = 5.2 × 10-82, respectively). GWAS loci explain 32% of disease risk in East Asians and 25% in Europeans, and correctly re-classify 20-37% of the cases in validation cohorts that are antibody-negative by the serum anti-PLA2R ELISA diagnostic test. Our findings highlight an unusual genetic architecture of MN, with four loci and their interactions accounting for nearly one-third of the disease risk

Detection and comparison of cut-off values for total AgNOR area/nuclear area and AgNOR number/nucleus in benign thyroid nodules and normal thyroid tissue

Argyrophilic nucleolar organising region associated proteins (AgNORs) are of interest in a variety of diseases including thyroid disorders. We have investigated the cut-off values for AgNOR count and with a new approach, Total AgNOR area/nuclear area (TNORa/Na) proportions to discriminate thyrocytes obtained from benign thyroid nodules and normal thyroid tissue. Thirty patients whose fine needle aspiration (FNA) materials were compatible with a benign lesion (named as goiter group) and 30 controls (subjects with normal thyroid tissue) were included. In the control group, biopsy material was obtained from histologically normal thyroid gland operated on because FNA material was compatible with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). These samples were stained for AgNOR and 100 nuclei per individual were examined. Both AgNOR values for individual cells and cut-off values were detected for each group. Patients with goiter had significantly (P<0.001) higher AgNOR count (2.1 +/- 0.6%) and TNORa/Na (6.1 +/- 1.5%) than the control groups (1.4 +/- 0.2 and 3.0 +/- 0.4, respectively). The cut-off values were <1.5 for AgNOR count and <3.8 for TNORa/Na in thyrocytes of the controls. This modified method is an easy and reliable method for discriminating various thyroid disorders, including the differentiation of benign thyroid nodules from malignant ones. It also helps to discriminate thyrocytes obtained from benign nodules from normal thyroid tissue, aiding accurate localisation of sampling in FNA material

Prevalence and Prognostic Importance of High Fibrosis-4 Index in COVID-19 Patients

Introduction. The fibrosis 4 (FIB-4) index was developed to predict advanced fibrosis in patients with liver disease. We aimed to evaluate the association of FIB-4 with risk factors for progression to critical illness in middle-aged patients hospitalized for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Method. We included patients aged 35-65 years who were hospitalized following a positive RT-PCR SARS-Cov-2 test in a tertiary hospital. All data were obtained from the medical records of the patients during the first admission to the hospital. The FIB-4 index was calculated according to the equation (age (years) x AST (IU/L)/platelet count (10(9)/L)/root ALT (IU/L)). The FIB-4 index was divided into three categories according to the score categorisation: 2.67 = high risk. Results. A total of 619 confirmed COVID-19 patients (mean age = 52 yrs.) were included in this study; 37 (6.0%) were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), of which 44% were intubated and eight (1.3%) patients died during follow-up. The results of patients with high FIB-4 scores were compared with those with low FIB-4 scores. In patients with high FIB-4 scores, male gender, and advanced age, decreased neutrophil, lymphocyte, thrombocyte, and albumin counts, elevated AST, LDH, CK, ferritin, CRP, and D-dimer, and low GFR were the high-risk factors for critical illness. Additionally, the number of patients referred to ICU with high FIB-4 who died had higher scores than from those with low scores. Conclusion. The FIB-4 index derived from baseline data obtained during hospitalisation can be used as a simple, inexpensive, and straightforward indicator to predict ICU requirement and/or death in middle-aged hospitalized COVID-19 patients

Value of Argyrophilic Nucleolar Organizing Region Protein Determinations in Nondiagnostic Fine Needle Aspiration Samples (Due to Insufficient Cell Groups) of Thyroid Nodules

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the diagnostic value of argyrophilic nucleolar organizing regions (AgNORs) in the nondiagnostic fine needle aspiration biopsy (NFNAB) specimens (due to insufficient cell groups) of cases with thyroid nodules