Spectrofluorimetric Determination of Aliskiren in Tablets and Spiked Human Plasma through Derivatization with Dansyl Chloride

A simple and sensitive method has been developed and validated for the determination of aliskiren (ALS) in its dosage forms and spiked plasma. The method was based on the reaction of the drug with dansyl chloride in the presence of bicarbonate solution of pH 10.5 to give a highly fluorescent derivative which was measured at 501 nm with excitition at 378 nm in dichloromethane. Different experimental parameters affecting the development of the method and stability were carefully studied and optimized. The calibration curves were linear over the concentration ranges of 100–700 and 50–150 ng/mL for standard solution and plasma, respectively. The limits of detection were 27.52 ng/mL in standard solution, 4.91 ng/mL in plasma. The developed method was successfully applied to the analysis the drug in the commercial tablets and spiked plasma samples. The mean recovery of ALS from tablets and plasma was 100.10 and 97.81%, respectively. A proposal of the reaction pathway was presented

Evaluation of renal near-infrared spectroscopy for predicting extubation outcomes in the pediatric intensive care setting

BackgroundIn pediatric intensive care units, extubation failure following invasive mechanical ventilation poses significant health risks. Determining readiness for extubation in children can minimize associated morbidity and mortality. This study investigates the potential role of renal near-infrared spectroscopy (RrSO2) in predicting extubation failure in pediatric patients.MethodsA total of 84 patients aged between 1 month and 18 years, mechanically ventilated for at least 24 h, were included in this prospective study. RrSO2 levels were measured using near-infrared spectroscopy before and during an extubation readiness test (ERT). The primary outcome measure was extubation failure, defined as a need for reintubation within 48 h.ResultsOf the 84 patients, 71 (84.6%) were successfully extubated, while 13 (15.4%) failed extubation. RrSO2 was found to be lower in the failed extubation group, also decrease in RrSO2 values during ERT was significantly greater in patients with extubation failure. ROC analysis indicated a decrease in ΔRrSO2 of more than 6.15% from baseline as a significant predictor of extubation failure, with a sensitivity of 0.984 and a specificity of 0.889.ConclusionMonitoring changes in RrSO2 values may serve as a helpful tool to predict extubation failure in pediatric patients. Further multi-center research is warranted to improve the generalizability and reliability of these findings

The effect of coursebooks on the development of proficiency levels of turkish learners of english : yabancı dil ders kitaplarının türk öğrencilerin yabancı dil gelişim düzeyleri üzerindeki etkisi

KISA ÖZETYABANCI DİL DERS KİTAPLARININ TÜRK ÖĞRENCİLERİN YABANCIDİL GELİŞİM DÜZEYLERİ ÜZERİNDEKİ ETKİSİFerhat SARIBu çalısmada Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı tarafından liselerde okutulmak üzere tavsiyeedilen ve bizzat Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı tarafından kurulmus komisyonlar tarafındanhazırlanan ders kitapları ( New Bridge to Success) ve yabancı (Britanyalı) yayınevlerinin anadili Đngilizce olan uzmanlara hazırlatmıs olduğu ders kitaplarının(Attain) öğrencilerin yabancı dil gelisim düzeyleri üzerindeki etkileriincelenmektedir. Arastırmanın deneklerini 2005–2006 öğretim yılında Đstanbul’dabulunan bir devlet lisesinde eğitim gören öğrenciler olusturmaktadır. Çalısmasırasında önce denekleri olusturan gruba yabancı dil ders kitapları hakkındakifikirlerini öğrenmek üzere Cunningsworth,(1984); Ur,(1996); Jones, (1999);Harmer, (2001)’a arastırmacı tarafından adapte edilen bir anket uygulanmıs ve dahasonra öğrencilerin çalısma öncesi yabancı dil bilgi seviyelerini ölçmeyi amaçlayanbir ön test uygulanmıstır. Daha sonra arastırmacı bir akademik dönem boyuncaçalısmanın konusunu olusturan iki değisik ders kitabını iki değisik sınıfta kullanarakĐngilizce eğitimi vermistir. Arastırmacı iki sınıfın da Đngilizce öğretmeni olarak, birsınıfta New Bridge to Success, diğer sınıfta ise Attain kitaplarını kullanmıstır. Dönemsonunda öğrencilere verilen bu eğitimin sonunda yabancı dil gelisim düzeyleriniarttırıp arttırmadığını kontrol etmek üzere ikinci bir basarı testi verilmistir. Tümarastırma süreci boyunca öğrencilerin dersler ve kullanılan ders kitapları hakkındakidüsüncelerini gözlemlemek üzere öğrenci günlüklerine çalısmada yer verilmistir.Öğrencilerin cevapladıkları anketler, kullanılan basarı testleri ve öğrenci günlüklerisonuçları SPSS 10,0 programı ve kalıp kodlama sistemi (Miles ve Huberman, 1994)kullanılarak değerlendirilmis ve yorumlanmıstır. Yapılan değerlendirme çalısmanınbaslangıcında aynı seviyede bulunan her iki grupta da çalısmanın sonunda yabancıdil gelisiminin olduğunu ve Britanyalı yayım evi tarafından hazırlanan Attain isimliixkitabın diğer kitaba (New Bridge to Success) oranla öğrencilerin öğrenmelerine dahaçok katkıda bulunduğu gözlenmistir.xABSTRACTThe Effects of Coursebooks on the Development of ProficiencyLevels of Turkish Learners of EnglishbyFerhat SARIThis study aims to investigate and compare the effects of two foreign languageeducation coursebooks. One is produced by a commission appointed by the TurkishMinistry of Education and the other book written by a native speaker expert hired bya foreign (British) publishing house on the development of proficiency levels ofTurkish learners of English. The participants were students at the year nine classes ofa state secondary school in the 2005-2006 educational year. Two classes were chosento conduct the study. In one class, the Ministry Book (New Bridge to Success) wasused, in the other class (Attain) which was published by a British publishing housewas exploited by the researcher as the English teacher of two classes. Prior to thestudy, the participants were given a questionnaire in order to investigate theiropinions about the foreign language education coursebooks and a questionnairewhich was adapted from the questionnaires used by Cunningsworth, (1984); Ur,(1996); Jones, (1999); Harmer, (2001). Following the questionnaire, a pre- testaiming to find out proficiency levels of the participating students was applied.Following these procedures, two classes were taught English with two differentcoursebooks mentioned above. At the end of the term, the students were given posttests in order to see the effects of both coursebooks on proficiency levels of studentsin both groups. The students also kept diaries about the lessons they took and thecoursebooks they used. The questionnaires answered by the participating learnersand the tests applied were subjected to SPSS 10, 0 programme and pattern-codingxianalysis system (Miles & Huberman, 1994). The results obtained from the analysesindicated that the progress of the experiment group was better than the progress ofthe control group. That is, their coursebook helped them during the Achievement testsignificantly more in comparison to the control group

A logical criticism of Craig and Sinclair’s kalam argument

Ünlü kelam kozmolojik argümanı, evrenin bir ilk nedeni olması gerektiği sonucunu, var olmaya başlayan her şeyin bir nedeni olduğu ve evrenin de var olmaya başladığı öncülleri üzerinden tanıtlamaya çalışır. Craig ve Sinclair, “The Kalam Cosmological Argument” başlıklı çalışmalarında, her iki öncülü de desteklemeyi amaçlayan önemli argümanlar geliştirir. Craig ve Sinclair, söz konusu ilk nedenin tanrı olduğunu göstermek için, çok tartışmalı bir kavramsal analiz de önerirler. Bu makalede, kelam argümanının aslında geçersiz, önerdikleri kavramsal analizin ise açıkça temelsiz olduğu gösterilmeye çalışılacaktır.The kalam cosmological argument attempts to show that the universe has a first cause of its existence, because everything that begins to exist has a cause of its existence and the universe began to exist. This paper discusses Craig and Sinclair’s defense of this argument. In “The Kalam Cosmological Argument”, they offer both a priori and a posteriori arguments for the premises of the argument. So, after claiming that the argument is sound, they also go on to argue, on the basis of a conceptual analysis, that the first cause of the universe must be a person, namely god. In this paper, we will contend that while the first part of the kalam argument is invalid, the second part of it is clearly groundless

Publication rates of congress abstracts is associated with abstract quality: Evaluation of Turkish National Medical Education Congresses and Symposia between 2010 and 2014 using MERSQI

Abstract There are many parameters that could be used to evaluate the quality of scientific meetings such as publication rates of meeting abstracts as full-text articles after the meeting or scoring with validated quality scales/tools that evaluate individual papers, project proposals, or submitted abstracts. This study aimed to determine the full-text publication rates for abstracts presented at Turkish National Medical Education Congresses and Symposia and to assess the quality of given abstracts. Abstracts presented at national medical education congresses and symposia between 2010 and 2014 in Türkiye were evaluated. Initially, the abstracts were evaluated if they were published as full-text articles in international and national peer-reviewed journals following the meeting. Secondly, the quality of presented abstracts was assessed with the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI) scale. Overall publication rate for the abstracts was 11.3%. The publication rate of oral and poster presentations were 26.6% and 8.1%, respectively. Oral presentations had a statistically higher publication rate than poster presentations (p = .000). The mean MERSQI score for abstracts was 7.73 ± 2.59. The oral presentations had higher MERSQI mean scores than poster presentations (8.28 ± 2.46 vs. 7.61 ± 2.6; p = .032). Similarly, published abstracts had a significantly higher score compared to unpublished abstracts (10.07 ± 2.74 vs. 7.43 ± 2.41; p = .000). Interestingly, there was no statistical difference between the mean MERSQI scores of the published oral and poster presentations (9.33 ± 2.45 vs. 10.61 ± 2.72; p = .101). This study showed that the main factor for a meeting abstract to be published as a full-text article is the scientific quality of the study. The quality of presentations at annual medical education meetings in Türkiye were low compared with international meetings which did not improve over five years. An institutional policy that would set quality standards for medical education research and increase the awareness of researchers on the topic might help improve the design, execution, and reporting of such studies in Türkiye. The MERSQI could be a valuable tool to monitor the quality of submitted abstracts and to increase the awareness of novice researchers on high quality research