A Case of Severe Myoclonus due to Carbon Dioxide Retention in the Setting of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Exacerbation

A-70-year-old male patient with a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) over the previous 10 years was referred from Physical Therapy Department for etiological investigations on his inability to walk. His medical history revealed that he had been discharged from pulmonology 3 weeks ago after the administration of medications for COPD exacerbation. He was hospitalized for 2 weeks and received antibiotherapy of ceftriaxone (2 g intravenous daily for 1 week) for pneumonia, medication for COPD, as well as bilevel positive airway pressure (BIPAP) therapy

Impact of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Based Education Applications on Prospective Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Belief Levels Toward Science Education

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of technological pedagogical content knowledge-based education applications on prospective teachers’ self-efficacy belief levels toward science education. The study was conducted on the 3rd year prospective science teachers of a public university and continued for 14 weeks. In the study, quasi -experimental method, pretest-posttest experimental design with a control group. The research was performed in the Instructional Technologies and Material Design courses during the education year of 2015-2016. In the research, one of the classes of the 3rd years was determined as a control and another one as an experimental group. There were 65 students (control=33, experiment=32) in the study group. As the instrument of data collection, the self-efficacy belief levels toward science education scale was used and the scale was applied as pretest, posttest and follow-up test. Cronbach Alpha (a) consistency coefficient of the scale is 0.82. To the students in the experimental group, the education applications based on Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge were introduced by the researcher; the courses were made with these applications and they were requested to use these applications that they learned in the materials that they were making. As for the control group, the courses were made with the current curriculum. The research results show that the self-efficacy belief levels of prospective science teachers toward science education design is higher in the experimental group than the students in the control group

The Effect of Science Teaching Enriched With Technological Applications on the Science Achievements of 7th Grade Students

This study aims to research the impacts of science teaching enriched with technological applications on the science course achievement levels of 7th grade students. 13 weeks long research was carried out with 7th grade students studying at a state secondary school in Turkey in 2016. In the study, quasi-experimental method, experimental design with the pretest-posttest control group was used. There were 83 students (control=42, experiment=41) in the study group. “Science Achievement Test” developed by the researchers was used as data collection tool. There are 28 multiple-choice, four-choice items in the achievement test covering subjects taught, and the KR 20 reliability coefficient is 0.78. “Science Achievement Test” was used as the pretest, posttest, and follow-up test. Teaching was carried out by the same science teacher in the science class in both the control and experiment groups. In the control group, student-centered learning approach suitable to the 2013 Science Course Curriculum was given to the students, and no experimental procedure was applied. In the experiment group, 2013 Science Course Curriculum was followed, and teaching was carried out with technology enriched science teaching applications. At the end of the research, it was found that the achievement levels of the experiment group with the technology enriched science teaching applications increased significantly and was higher at a meaningful level than the achievement of the control group students. According to this findings, it can be suggested that technology enriched teaching should also be used in science teaching to address individual differences by enriching teaching

Relationship Between Body Composition and Muscle Strength in Early Adolescence Goal-Ball players with Visual Impairments

adolescence goal-ball players with visual impairments. Methods: Thirteen early adolescence goal-ball players with visual impairments that are goal-ball players participated (mean age 13.54±1.27 years, height 155.23±10.86 cm and, body weight 48.23±10.43 kg). Body composition measurements that were assessed included body mass index, body fat percentage and skinfold (abdominal, subscapular, triceps and suprailiac). Participants were also assessed on several strength measurements including standing long jump, the right hand grip, left hand grip, vertical jump, leg strength, sit-up and push up. Results: Positive correlations between ages and height with the standing long jump, the right hand grip, the left hand grip, vertical jump were found in the early adolescence goal-ball players with visual impairments (P\u3c0.05). Negative correlations were found between body mass index and body fat percentage with standing long jump, vertical jump, sit-up (P\u3c0.05) and among skinfold (subscapular, triceps and suprailiac) with standing long jump, the right hand grip, left hand grip, vertical jump, push up (P\u3c0.05) and between abdominal skinfold with standing long jump, the right hand grip, left hand grip, vertical jump, sit-up, push up (P\u3c0.05). On the other hand, there was not a correlation between body weight with muscle strength and leg strength with body composition (P\u3e0.05). Conclusins: In an assessment of body composition and muscle strength, it was found that body weight did not significantly impact muscle strength in early adolescence goal-ball players with visual impairments. This finding could be of importance for understanding the role of muscle strength and body composition in routine training of goal-ball players

Prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility of Mycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum in pregnant women

SummaryBackgroundMycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum are important opportunistic pathogens implicated in urogenital infections and complicated pregnancy. We aimed to study the role of these pathogens in symptomatic and asymptomatic pregnant women and determine their clinical significance and antibiotic susceptibility.MethodsOne hundred pregnant women were included in the study, 50 symptomatic patients and 50 asymptomatic controls. Duplicate endocervical samples were taken from each individual and analyzed using the Mycoplasma IST-2 kit and A7 agar medium. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested against doxycycline, josamycin, ofloxacin, erythromycin, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, azithromycin, clarithromycin, and pristinamycin using the Mycoplasma IST-2 kit.ResultsTwelve symptomatic pregnant women had spontaneous abortions. Of these, eight (66.7%) cases had been colonized with M. hominis and/or U. urealyticum. Of the pregnant women infected with M. hominis and/or U. urealyticum, 40.7% delivered a low birth weight infant. M. hominis was successfully cultured in five women (5%) and U. urealyticum in 27 (27%). Among positive cultures, 15.6% and 84.4% of isolates were M. hominis and U. urealyticum, respectively. M. hominis and U. urealyticum were uniformly susceptible to doxycycline, tetracycline, and pristinamycin, which may be successfully used in the empirical therapy of infected individuals.ConclusionsIt can be concluded that genital colonization with M. hominis and U. urealyticum may predispose to spontaneous abortion and low birth weight

A Very Rare Cause of Shoulder Weakness: Concurrent Traumatic Neuropathies of Accessory, Long Thoracicus, and Suprascapular Nerves

Accessory nerve is one of the most sensitive cranial nerves to injury, and its injuries are usually caused by iatrogenic interventions. As many other causes can mimic its clinical presentation, careful physical examination should be performed while evaluating a patient suspected of accessory neuropathy. In this report, we aimed to illustrate a very rare case with concurrent traumatic cranial neuropathies of accessory nerve, suprascapular nerve, and long thoracicus. A 16-year-old boy was admitted with complaints of shoulder weakness and pain following a trauma of strain injury. He had first taken the misdiagnosis of brachial plexopathy; however, after a detailed physical examination and electrophysiological study, the diagnosis of concurrent traumatic neuropathies of accessory, suprascapular, and long thoracicus nerves was made. In our opinion, during evaluation of these rare traumatic neuropathies, detailed clinical evaluations combined with detailed electromyography investigations may give crucial data for the proper diagnosis

Inhibitory effects of regorafenib, a multiple tyrosine kinase inhibitor, on corneal neovascularization

<b>AIM:</b>To evaluate the inhibitory effects of regorafenib (BAY 73-4506), a multikinase inhibitor, on corneal neovascularization (NV).<b>METHODS:</b>Thirty adult male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 250-300 g, were used. Corneal NV was induced by NaOH in the left eyes of each rat. Following the establishment of alkali burn, the animals were randomized into five groups according to topical treatment. Group 1 (<i>n </i>= 6) received 0.9% NaCl, Group 2 (<i>n </i>= 6) received dimethyl sulfoxide, Group 3 (<i>n </i>= 6) received regorafenib 1 mg/mL, Group 4 (<i>n </i>=6) received bevacizumab 5 mg/mL and Group 5 (<i>n </i>= 6) received 0.1% dexamethasone phosphate. On the 7d, the corneal surface covered with neovascular vessels was measured on photographs as the percentage of the cornea’s total area using computer-imaging analysis. The corneas obtained from rats were semiquantitatively evaluated for caspase-3 and vascular endothelial growth factor by immunostaining.<b>RESULTS:</b>A statistically significant difference in the percent area of corneal NV was found among the groups (<i>P </i>&lt;0.001). Although the Group 5 had the smallest percent area of corneal NV, there was no difference among Groups 3, 4 and 5 (<i>P </i>&gt;0.005). There was a statistically significant difference among the groups in apoptotic cell density (<i>P </i>= 0.002). The staining intensity of vascular endothelial growth factor in the epithelial and endothelial layers of cornea was significantly different among the groups (<i>P </i>&lt;0.05). The staining intensity of epithelial and endothelial vascular endothelial growth factor was significantly weaker in Groups 3, 4 and 5 than in Groups 1 and 2.<b>CONCLUSION:</b> Topical administration of regorafenib 1 mg/mL is partly effective for preventing alkali-induced corneal NV in rats

Enhanced self-collimation effect by low rotational symmetry in hexagonal lattice photonic crystals

In this study, we present the design of a photonic crystal (PC) structure with a hexagonal lattice, where adjustments to the PC unit cell symmetry reveal an all-angle self-collimation (SC) effect. By optimizing opto-geometric parameters, such as the rotational angle of auxiliary rods and adjacent distances, we analyze the SC property in detail, leveraging group velocity dispersion (GVD) and third-order dispersion (TOD) characteristics. We also investigate the relationship between symmetry properties and their influence on dispersion characteristics. Through symmetry manipulation, we gain a comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms governing light collimation and confinement in the proposed configurations. The PC structure with a $C_1$ symmetry group exhibits all-angle SC effect within the range of $a/\lambda=0.652$ and $a/\lambda=0.668$ normalized frequencies, with a bandwidth of $\Delta \omega/\omega_c = 2.4\%$. Further breaking the symmetry, transforming from $C_1$ to $C_2$ group symmetry, enhances the SC bandwidth to $\Delta \omega/\omega_c =6.5\%$ and reveals the perfect linear equi-frequency contours (EFC) at two different frequency bands: all angle SC between $a/\lambda = 0.616$ and $a/\lambda = 0.656$ normalized frequencies in the 4th transverse magnetic (TM) band and between $a/\lambda=0.712$ and $a/\lambda=0.760$ in the 5th TM band. Additionally, we propose a composite/hybrid PC structure resembling $C_2$ group symmetry, where two auxiliary rods are replaced by rectangular photonic wires with the same refractive index and width equal to the diameter of auxiliary rods. This hybrid structure exhibits an all-angle SC effect with an operating bandwidth of $\Delta \omega/\omega_c =11.7\%$, displays near-zero GVD and TOD performance and offers enhanced robustness against potential fabrication precision issues