Developing experiment based science teaching skills : a lifelong learning opportunity for teachers in a rural area of Turkey

Modular Mobile Education: Science Experiments (MOBILIM) is an innovative pilot project for the vocational training of science teachers in rural regions of central Turkey supported by the European Commission in the frames of the Leonardo da Vinci programme. In this project, a mobile science laboratory (MSL) was established in order to cope with the great disparities in opportunities between science teaching in urban and rural areas. Teacher training both in what concerns practical competencies and subject knowledge is one of the main reasons for these disparities in the standards of science teaching. Teacher training via MOBILIM is based on hands-on and demonstration practical activities. At the end of the MSL based phase a two-day conference was organized to provide an opportunity for discussion with and among teachers and also to make it possible to exchange ideas and experiences with European partners of the project. Results indicate that in order to improve teachers’ practice in the classroom, experimental vocational education via mobile laboratories is advisable and allow good results. The majority of the teachers were pleased with the participation in both the training phase and the subsequent project conference. All of the teachers involved want to become a better and more active teaching force. There is a high expectation to carry on with similar courses in the future

DETERMINATION OF LANDSCAPE TYPOLOGY WITH REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUES AND CORRELATION WITH DIFFERENT BIOCLIMATIC CONDITIONS: THE CASE OF BUYUK MENDERES BASIN

Due to the multidisciplinary nature of landscape research, there are different systems and methods for landscape identification and classification. The methodology of the study is based on landscape characterization, which is based on the pre-selection of geo-ecological and land-use related features of the landscape. For this purpose, landscape character types were identified using climate classes, land use/land cover (LULC), soil and morphological structure. In obtaining the LULC data, which is one of the major inputs of the study, 36-band images were created covering four seasons by producing NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index); LAI (Leaf Area Index); MSAVI2 (Modified Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index); fCOVER (fraction of Cover); indices, which are important in determining LULC, together with the basebands in the remotely sensed Sentinel 2 satellite data. LAI is used to determine the amount of leaves per unit area; NDVI is used to determine the green areas in the area; fCOVER is used to determine the ratio of the study area to the area covered by vegetation, MSAVI2 is used to determine the amount of vegetation cover in the study area by using the soil reflectance correction factor (L). The phenological structure of the species was statistically determined with the indices derived from satellite images, and the bioclimatic condition and landscape character type were associated with the species

Adherence to a Mediterranean-like dietary pattern in children from eight European countries : the IDEFICS study

BACKGROUND: Despite documented benefits of a Mediterranean-like dietary pattern, there is a lack of knowledge about how children from different European countries compare with each other in relation to the adherence to this pattern. In response to this need, we calculated the Mediterranean diet score (MDS) in 2-9-year-old children from the Identification and prevention of dietary-and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and infants (IDEFICS) eight-country study. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Using 24 h dietary recall data obtained during the IDEFICS study (n = 7940), an MDS score was calculated based on the age- and sex-specific population median intakes of six food groups (vegetables and legumes, fruit and nuts, cereal grains and potatoes, meat products and dairy products) and the ratio of unsaturated to saturated fats. For fish and seafood, which was consumed by 10% of the population, one point was given to consumers. The percentages of children with high MDS levels (43) were calculated and stratified by sex, age and by having at least one migrant parent or both native parents. Demographic (sex and age) and socioeconomic characteristics (parental education and income) of children showing high (43) vs low (<= 3) MDS levels were examined. RESULTS: The highest prevalence of children with MDS 43 was found among the Italian pre-school boys (55.9%) and the lowest among the Spanish school-aged girls (26.0%). Higher adherence to a Mediterranean-like dietary pattern was not associated with living in a Mediterranean country or in a highly educated or high-income family, although with some exceptions. Differences in adherence between boys and girls or age groups varied between countries without any general pattern. CONCLUSIONS: With the exception of Italian pre-schoolers, similar adherence levels to a Mediterranean-like dietary pattern have been observed among European children

Photoelectrical performances of semiconductor-based devices having CoFe and CoFeNi magnetic interlayers

This study was designed to examine the photoelectric device performances of cobalt-iron (CoFe) and cobalt-iron-nickel (CoFeNi) materials with good magnetic properties, specifically to investigate the effect of the Ni element on the electrical properties. In this context, Al/CoFe/p-Si and Al/CoFeNi/p-Si devices were produced by coating both materials between the semiconductor and the metal using the radio frequency (RF) sputtering method. First of all, to investigate the structural properties of the coated films, the content analysis was carried out by x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. To determine the photoelectrical properties of the produced devices, current–voltage and transient photocurrent measurements were performed and analyzed under different light intensities. While the ideality factor (barrier height) values of the devices produced using CoFe and CoFeNi materials were found to be 11.45 (0.487 eV) and 9.86 (0.513 eV), respectively, in the dark, they were obtained as 13.29 (0.446 eV) and 11.02 (0.484 eV) under 100 mW cm−2 illumination. It was determined that both devices are sensitive to light, with the sensitivity of the device with the CoFeNi interlayer being much higher. In addition, photocapacitance and photoconductivity measurements were carried out to examine the photocapacitor performance of the devices. As a result of the investigations, both current–voltage, photocurrent, and photo-capacitance/conductivity measurements showed that the device with the CoFeNi interface layer showed better performance than the device with the CoFe interface. Therefore, it has been determined that the Ni element has a positive effect on electrical properties. The results obtained show that the prepared materials and produced devices can be used in photovoltaic applications

Effect of maternal depression on brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels in fetal cord blood

Objective: We aimed to assess the association between cord blood brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) concentration and maternal depression during pregnancy. Methods: A total of 48 pregnant women, admitted for elective caesarean section to Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Konya Research and Training Hospital and Konya Necmettin Erbakan University Meram Medical Faculty, were included in this study. The study group included 23 women diagnosed as having depression during pregnancy and the control group included 25 pregnant women who did not experience depression during pregnancy. Results: The groups had similar sociodemographic characteristics. Cord blood BDNF concentration was significantly lower in babies born to mothers with major depression as compared with those in the control group. We didn't find any correlation between the umbilical cord blood BDNF levels and BDI scores. Conclusion: The results suggest that the existence of major depression in pregnant women may negatively affect fetal circulating BDNF levels. © 2019 Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology. All rights reserved

Octreotide protects ovary against ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats: Evaluation of histological and biochemical parameters

PubMed ID: 26223286Aim This study investigated the efficacy of octreotide for prevention of ischemia-reperfusion injury in rat ovary. Methods Thirty-two adult female rats were included. Rats were divided into five groups: in the sham group, the abdominal wall was only opened and closed; in the torsion group, ischemia was induced for 3 h using a torsion model involving atraumatic vascular clips; in the torsion/octreotide group, rats were given 100 µg/kg i.p. octreotide 30 min before torsion was induced; in the torsion/detorsion group, rats underwent 3 h ischemia-3 h reperfusion; in the torsion/detorsion/octreotide group, rats underwent 3 h ischemia followed by 100 µg/kg octreotide i.p. 30 min prior to 3 h reperfusion. Ovarian tissue damage was scored on histopathology. Ovarian tissue malondialdehyde and plasma pentraxin 3 were measured biochemically. Results In comparison with the sham group, both the torsion and torsion/detorsion groups had significantly higher scores for follicular degeneration, vascular congestion, edema, hemorrhage and leukocyte infiltration. Octreotide significantly decreased these scores in both groups. Ovarian malondialdehyde and plasma pentraxin 3 were significantly higher both in the torsion and torsion/detorsion groups compared with the sham group. Octreotide also decreased these levels significantly both in the torsion/octreotide and torsion/detorsion/octreotide groups. Conclusion Octreotide ameliorated the potential side-effects of ovarian ischemia-reperfusion injury in a rat model. © 2015 Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Adversarial Sampling Attacks Against Phishing Detection

Part 2: Mobile and Web SecurityInternational audiencePhishing websites trick users into believing that they are interacting with a legitimate website, and thereby, capture sensitive information, such as user names, passwords, credit card numbers and other personal information. Machine learning appears to be a promising technique for distinguishing between phishing websites and legitimate ones. However, machine learning approaches are susceptible to adversarial learning techniques, which attempt to degrade the accuracy of a trained classifier model. In this work, we investigate the robustness of machine learning based phishing detection in the face of adversarial learning techniques. We propose a simple but effective approach to simulate attacks by generating adversarial samples through direct feature manipulation. We assume that the attacker has limited knowledge of the features, the learning models, and the datasets used for training. We conducted experiments on four publicly available datasets on the Internet. Our experiments reveal that the phishing detection mechanisms are vulnerable to adversarial learning techniques. Specifically, the identification rate for phishing websites dropped to 70% by manipulating a single feature. When four features were manipulated, the identification rate dropped to zero percent. This result means that, any phishing sample, which would have been detected correctly by a classifier model, can bypass the classifier by changing at most four feature values; a simple effort for an attacker for such a big reward. We define the concept of vulnerability level for each dataset that measures the number of features that can be manipulated and the cost for each manipulation. Such a metric will allow us to compare between multiple defense models

study in three centers

Objective: The relationship between menstruation disorders and antidepressant drugs usage in women remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the incidence rate of antidepressant-related menstruation disorders and to examine whether or not antidepressant use is associated with menstrual disorders in women.Methods: The study sample was gathered from three centers and four hospitals. A total of 1432 women who met the criteria of inclusion were included in the study. The sample was divided into two groups: the antidepressant group (n=793) and the control group (n=639). The menstruation disorders were established with reports from the study participants on the basis of related gynecological descriptions.Results: The prevalence of menstrual disorders was significantly higher in the antidepressant group (24.6%) than the control group (12.2%). The incidence of antidepressant-induced menstruation disorder was 14.5%. The antidepressants most associated with menstrual disorders were paroxetine, venlafaxine, sertraline and their combination with mirtazapine. Overall, the incidence rate was similar in women receiving selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and serotonin noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors.Conclusions: The results of the present study suggest that menstruation disorders are frequently observed in women taking antidepressants and that it appears to be associated with antidepressant use at least in some women. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

THE ROLE OF PREOPERATIVE SERUM VASCULAR ENDOTHELIAL GROWTH FACTOR AND MIGRATION INHIBITOR FACTOR IN THE DIFFERENTIATION OF BENIGN AND MALIGNANT ADNEXIAL MASSES

WOS: 00033037950205