Investigation of middle school teachers' open-ended question writing skills

In this study, the skills of middle school teachers to write open-ended questions that measure higher-order mental skills were examined. For this purpose, 18 middle school teachers who worked in Artvin, Turkey and volunteered to participate in the study were asked to write questions. Teachers wrote open-ended questions for a total of 4 courses (Sciences, Mathematics, Turkish, and Social Studies) in accordance with the specified outcomes. In the study designed in the document review pattern of qualitative research methods, questions were analyzed using an evaluation form. As a result of the evaluations, it was observed that teachers were more concerned with the content dimension of the outcomes while writing questions but disregarded the cognitive level of the outcome. It was also found that teachers were inadequate in terms of language and expression in all branches, showed a tendency to copy questions from a source, or could not move away from the question writing style they adopted. However, it was determined that there were especially expression errors, subject-verb agreement problems, and punctuation marks were not used correctly in the questions written

Effect of Sex and Dyad Composition on Speech and Gesture Development of Singleton and Twin Children

Children show sex differences in early vocabulary development—with boys having smaller vocabularies than age-comparable girls—a pattern that becomes evident in both singleton and twin dyads. Twins also use fewer words than their singleton peers. However, we know relatively less about sex differences in early gesturing in singletons and twins, except for a few studies suggesting a female advantage in gesturing among singletons. We examine the patterns of speech and gesture production of 1;6-to 2;0-year-old singletons and twins in structured play interactions with their parents. Boys and girls were comparable in their speech and gesture production, but singletons used greater amount and diversity of speech and gestures than twins. There was, however, no effect of twin dyad type on either speech or gesture production. These results further confirm the close integration between gesture and speech at the early stages of language development in twins

High School Students’ Critical Thinking Related to Their Metacognitive Self-Regulation and Physics Self-Efficacy Beliefs

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between ninth grade students’ metacognitive self-regulation skills and physics self-efficacy beliefs and their critical thinking. To this end, 162 students attending the ninth grade participated in the study. Critical thinking scale, metacognitive self-regulation scale and physics self-efficacy scale were used as data collection tools in the study. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, pearson product moment correlation analysis, and stepwise multiple regression analysis. According to descriptive analysis results the students’ critical thinking, metacognitive self-regulation and physics self-efficacy beliefs were high. Moreover, stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the students’ metacognitive self-regulation and physics self-efficacy belief scores were significant predictors of their critical thinking scores, explaining 55 % of the variance of critical thinking scores. In addition, it was also determined that the main variable that best explained critical thinking was metacognitive self-regulation, explaining 53 % of variance

Evaluation of the relationship between the topographical anatomy in the axillary region of the brachial plexus and the body mass index

WOS: 000439345200023PubMed ID: 28871408To investigate the topographic anatomy of the median, musculocutaneous, radial and ulnar nerves with respect to the axillary artery and to seek whether these configurations are associated with baseline descriptive data including age, gender, and body-mass index. This cross-sectional trial was carried out on 199 patients (85 women, 114 men; average age: 46.78 +/- 15.45 years) in the department of anaesthesiology and reanimation of a tertiary care center. Topographic anatomy of the median, musculocutaneous, radial and ulnar nerves was assessed with ultrasonography. Localization of these nerves with respect to the axillary artery was marked on the map demonstrating 16 zones around the axillary artery. Frequencies of localizations of every nerve in these zones were recorded, and the correlation of these locations with descriptive data including age, gender and BMI was investigated. There was no difference between women and men for the distribution of the median (p = 0.74), ulnar (p = 0.35) and radial (p = 0.64) nerves. However, the musculocutaneous nerve was more commonly located in Zone A13 in men compared to women (p = 0.02). The localization of the median (p = 0.85), ulnar (p = 0.27) and radial (p = 0.88) nerves did not differ remarkably between patients with BMI < 25 kg/m(2) and patients with BMI 25 kg/m(2). Notably, the musculocutaneous nerve was more often determined in Zone A10 in cases with BMI 25 kg/m(2) (p = 0.001). Our results imply that the alignment of the musculocutaneous nerve may vary in men and overweight people. This fact must be considered by the anaesthetist before planning the axillary block of brachial plexus. All these informations may enlighten the planning stages of the brachial plexus blockade

Self-perceived Body Weight Status and Weight-control Behaviors of High School Students in a Southern City of Turkey

Defining »healthy weight« is not easy and for an adolescent with all concerns about newly developing physiognomy it is even harder. The aim of this study was to find out the frequency of obesity and the association between the body mass index (BMI), weight-control behaviors and self-perceived body weight status in high school students of a southern city of Turkey. The students from 10 schools were randomly selected among 46,271 students of 72 high schools in Adana from 1999 to 2000. The response rate was 94.8% (2,352/2480). The Turkish version of Youth Risk Behavior Survey Questionnaire (YRBSQ) was completed by the students. The students’ weights and heights were measured. The mean age was 16.5±1.0 years of age (range=14–21 years). The mean BMI was 21.0±3.1, 25.5% of students were underweight, 65.7% were normal, 6.4% were overweight and 2.3% were obese (p=0.0001). Of all students, 24.3% defined themselves as thin, 45.3% as normal, 24.9% as overweight and 5.5% as obese (p=0.0001). The percentage of girls defining their body weight as overweight and obese was significantly higher than the boys (p=0.0001). Of all students, 35.5% wanted to lose weight, 22.3% wanted to gain weight, 27.8% wanted to keep their current weight. Intention (p=0.0001) and interventions to lose weight such as going on a diet (p=0.0001), provocative vomiting (p=0.0001) and 24-hours starving (p=0.0001) were significantly higher in girls than boys. Of students, 26.8% (n=620) were on a diet program either to lose or to keep their body weight. There was significant relationship between being on a diet program and intention to change body weight (p=0.047). We concluded that adolescents living in Adana have relatively higher risk of being underweight than being obese and have unhealthy weight changing plans due to their misperception of their body images. Adolescents may be unconscious on plans and attempts to change their body weights and nutrition and we suggest that education on nutrition and health is required for adolescents

Atomoxetine treatment may decrease striatal dopaminergic transporter availability after 8 weeks: pilot SPECT report of three cases

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders. The pathophysiology is thought to involve noradrenaline and dopamine. The role of dopamine transporter (DAT) was evaluated in imaging studies using mostly dopamine reuptake inhibitors. Atomoxetine is a selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor. Here we report the results of a pilot study conducted to evaluate changes in striatal DAT after 8 weeks of atomoxetine treatment. Our results suggest that 8 weeks of atomoxetine treatment may change striatal DAT bioavailability as measured via SPECT but that change was not correlated with genotype or clinical improvement

A nationwide multicentre study in Turkey for establishing reference intervals of haematological parameters with novel use of a panel of whole blood

IntroductionA nationwide multicentre study was conducted to establish well-defined reference intervals (RIs) of haematological parameters for the Turkish population in consideration of sources of variation in reference values (RVs). Materials and methodsK2-EDTA whole blood samples (total of 3363) were collected from 12 laboratories. Sera were also collected for measurements of iron, UIBC, TIBC, and ferritin for use in the latent abnormal values exclusion (LAVE) method. The blood samples were analysed within 2 hours in each laboratory using Cell Dyn and Ruby (Abbott), LH780 (Beckman Coulter), or XT-2000i (Sysmex). A panel of freshly prepared blood from 40 healthy volunteers was measured in common to assess any analyser-dependent bias in the measurements. The SD ratio (SDR) based on ANOVA was used to judge the need for partitioning RVs. RIs were computed by the parametric method with/without applying the LAVE method. ResultsAnalyser-dependent bias was found for basophils (Bas), MCHC, RDW and MPV from the panel test results and thus those RIs were derived for each manufacturer. RIs were determined from all volunteers’ results for WBC, neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, MCV, MCH and platelets. Gender-specific RIs were required for RBC, haemoglobin, haematocrit, iron, UIBC and ferritin. Region-specific RIs were required for RBC, haemoglobin, haematocrit, UIBC, and TIBC. ConclusionsWith the novel use of a freshly prepared blood panel, manufacturer-specific RIs’ were derived for Bas, Bas%, MCHC, RDW and MPV. Regional differences in RIs were observed among the 7 regions of Turkey, which may be attributed to nutritional or environmental factors, including altitude

BCKDK deficiency: a treatable neurodevelopmental disease amenable to newborn screening

There are few causes of treatable neurodevelopmental diseases described to date. Branched-chain ketoacid dehydrogenase kinase (BCKDK) deficiency causes branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) depletion and is linked to a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by autism, intellectual disability and microcephaly. We report the largest cohort of patients studied, broadening the phenotypic and genotypic spectrum. Moreover, this is the first study to present newborn screening findings and mid-term clinical outcome. In this cross-sectional study, patients with a diagnosis of BCKDK deficiency were recruited via investigators’ practices through a MetabERN initiative. Clinical, biochemical and genetic data were collected. Dried blood spot (DBS) newborn screening (NBS) amino acid profiles were retrieved from collaborating centres and compared to a healthy newborn reference population. Twenty-one patients with BCKDK mutations were included from 13 families. Patients were diagnosed between 8 months and 16 years (mean: 5.8 years, 43% female). At diagnosis, BCAA levels (leucine, valine and isoleucine) were below reference values in plasma and in CSF. All patients had global neurodevelopmental delay; 18/21 had gross motor function (GMF) impairment with GMF III or worse in 5/18, 16/16 intellectual disability, 17/17 language impairment, 12/17 autism spectrum disorder, 9/21 epilepsy, 12/15 clumsiness, 3/21 had sensorineural hearing loss and 4/20 feeding difficulties. No microcephaly was observed at birth, but 17/20 developed microcephaly during follow-up. Regression was reported in six patients. Movement disorder was observed in 3/21 patients: hyperkinetic movements (1), truncal ataxia (1) and dystonia (2). After treatment with a high-protein diet (≥ 2 g/kg/day) and BCAA supplementation (100–250 mg/kg/day), plasma BCAA increased significantly (P < 0.001), motor functions and head circumference stabilized/ improved in 13/13 and in 11/15 patients, respectively. Among cases with follow-up data, none of the three patients starting treatment before 2 years of age developed autism at follow-up. The patient with the earliest age of treatment initiation (8 months) showed normal development at 3 years of age. NBS in DBS identified BCAA levels significantly lower than those of the normal population. This work highlights the potential benefits of dietetic treatment, in particular early introduction of BCAA. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to increase awareness about this treatable disease and consider it as a candidate for early detection by NBS programmes.A.G.C. is supported by FIS P118/00111, FI21/0073 ‘Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII)’ and ‘Fondo Europeo de desarrollo regional (FEDER)’

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements