The Integration Of Computing Technology Into Undergraduate Mathematics Classes

This study investigated different calculus professors’ conceptions about mathematics and mathematical learning, calculus teaching with or without the use of computing technology, and the experiences in which those conceptions were grounded. Six college professors were purposefully selected and studied. The results showed the professors’ perceptions of the effects of technology use on pedagogy and students’ learning; their perceptions of barriers and challenges to the adoption and use of technology for teaching and learning calculus; and their experience, knowledge, and motivation for adopting instructional technology that made unique and significant contributions to explaining faculty use of technology for teaching and learning calculus. Some professors were categorically opposed to the use of computing technology in calculus, but others envisioned that computing technology could play a multitude of roles in their calculus classrooms. The more that the calculus professors wanted to focus on real-world applications and wanted students to apply calculus concepts in their academic disciplines, the more they were concerned about their own ability to facilitate such learning and the need to integrate computing technology into calculus. The more that the calculus professors focused on procedural understanding in mathematics and on teacher-centered lessons, the more they were concerned about students misusing computing technology and failing to develop a proper understanding of calculus concepts

Early phases of different types of isolated neutron star

Two Galactic isolated strong X-ray pulsars seem to be in the densest environments compared to other types of Galactic pulsar. X-ray pulsar J1846-0258 can be in an early phase of anomalous X-ray pulsars and soft gamma repeaters if its average braking index is ~1.8-2.0. X-ray pulsar J1811-1925 must have a very large average braking index (n~11) if this pulsar was formed by SN 386AD. This X-ray pulsar can be in an early phase of evolution of the radio pulsars located in the region P~50-150 ms and \.{P}~10$^{-14}-10^{-16}$ s/s of the P-\.{P} diagram. X-ray/radio pulsar J0540-69 seems to be evolving in the direction to the dim isolated thermal neutron star region on the P-\.{P} diagram. Possible progenitors of different types of neutron star are also discussed.Comment: to appear in the International Journal of Modern Physics

The war in Ukraine: Why knowing the country of origin of tech components is vital

The war in Ukraine has highlighted the significance of knowing the Country of Origin (COO) of technology product components. A single Iranian drone was found to contain parts made by more than a dozen US and western companies, and digital products can contain hardware components, software elements, and embedded systems and data from a range of countries and computing environments. How can this conundrum best be addressed to support national security? How can the end-consumer be better informed about the origin of digital products he/she is buying? And what are the implications for sustainability and the recyclability of these products

Cybersecurity and Country of Origin: Towards a New Framework for Assessing Digital Product Domesticity

Recent events concerning the Kaspersky anti-virus software in the UK and the Android operating system in the US have highlighted the significance of the domesticity of digital products for national cybersecurity, and the importance of establishing the origin of digital products has been further brought into focus by the war in Ukraine and China’s military activities around Taiwan. Digital products can contain hardware components, software elements, embedded systems, and data, and determining the country of origin (COO) in these circumstances is problematic. The aim of this research, and its main contribution, is to provide an operational framework for the application of the COO concept to address this problem. Using an inductive research methodology based on semi-structured interviews and an online survey, a 19-parameter framework for assessing the COO of digital products is developed and then applied to the case example of a mobile phone import in Turkey. This article concludes that new processes and policies are urgently required to enhance the cyber and information security for digital products, aid domestic digital technology production, and support the transition to recyclable technologies. Such developments are of significance not only for western nations concerned with data and security issues, but also for developing world countries trying to develop their own domestic digital product manufacturing capabilities. This is also of relevance to the computer end-user, who would benefit from greater clarity on the origin of digital products ahead of a purchase decision

Psoriasis and 5HT-R2C Gene Polymorphism: Association between Clinical, Demographic and Therapeutic Parameters in the Turkish Population

We aimed to investigate the relationship between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the promoter region of the 5-HT-R2C gene and stress-related disease psoriasis in the Turkish population. The putative association between the 5-HTR2C variant (rs6318 Cys23Ser allele) and patients with psoriasis was investigated. 100 patients with psoriasis and 100 age-sex matched, unrelated healthy subjects representing the control group were included in the study. The PCR-RFLP method was used for genotyping the 5-HTR2C variation. There was no statistically difference in terms of genotype distributions and allele frequencies between the control subjects and patients with psoriasis (P=0.360 and P=0.439, respectively). The comparison between the presence and absence of the 5-HTR2C gene rs6318 G allele within the determined clinical subsets resulted in a significant difference with regard to treatment methodology only when conventional therapy and one or more medical therapy was compared (P=0.021). This study is the first clinical study to investigate the association between 5-HTR2C polymorphism and psoriasis. The role of the 5-HTR2C gene should be examined with more parameters in a larger case series

Psoriasis and 5HT-R2C Gene Polymorphism: Association between Clinical, Demographic and Therapeutic Parameters in the Turkish Population

We aimed to investigate the relationship between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the promoter region of the 5-HT-R2C gene and stress-related disease psoriasis in the Turkish population. The putative association between the 5-HTR2C variant (rs6318 Cys23Ser allele) and patients with psoriasis was investigated. 100 patients with psoriasis and 100 age-sex matched, unrelated healthy subjects representing the control group were included in the study. The PCR-RFLP method was used for genotyping the 5-HTR2C variation. There was no statistically difference in terms of genotype distributions and allele frequencies between the control subjects and patients with psoriasis (P=0.360 and P=0.439, respectively). The comparison between the presence and absence of the 5-HTR2C gene rs6318 G allele within the determined clinical subsets resulted in a significant difference with regard to treatment methodology only when conventional therapy and one or more medical therapy was compared (P=0.021). This study is the first clinical study to investigate the association between 5-HTR2C polymorphism and psoriasis. The role of the 5-HTR2C gene should be examined with more parameters in a larger case series

Perspective of turkish medicine students on cancer, cancer treatments, palliative care, and oncologists (ares study): A study of the palliative care working committee of the turkish oncology group (TOG)

Cancer is one of the most common causes of death all over the World (Rahib et al. in Cancer Res 74(11):2913–2921, 2014; Silbermann et al. in Ann Oncol 23(Suppl 3):iii15–iii28, 2012). It is crucial to diagnose this disease early by effective screening methods and also it is very important to acknowledge the community on various aspects of this disease such as the treatment methods and palliative care. Not only the oncologists but every medical doctor should be educated well in dealing with cancer patients. Previous studies suggested various opinions on the level of oncology education in medical schools (Pavlidis et al. in Ann Oncol 16(5):840–841, 2005). In this study, the perspectives of medical students on cancer, its treatment, palliative care, and the oncologists were analyzed in relation to their educational status. A multicenter survey analysis was performed on a total of 4224 medical school students that accepted to enter this study in Turkey. After the questions about the demographical characteristics of the students, their perspectives on the definition, diagnosis, screening, and treatment methods of cancer and their way of understanding metastatic disease as well as palliative care were analyzed. The questionnaire includes questions with answers and a scoring system of Likert type 5 (absolutely disagree = 1, completely agree = 5). In the last part of the questionnaire, there were some words to detect what the words “cancer” and “oncologist” meant for the students. The participant students were analyzed in two study groups; “group 1” (n = 1.255) were phases I and II students that had never attended an oncology lesson, and “group 2” (n = 2.969) were phases III to VI students that had attended oncology lessons in the medical school. SPSS v17 was used for the database and statistical analyses. A value of p < 0.05 was noted as statistically significant. Group 1 defined cancer as a contagious disease (p = 0.00025), they believed that early diagnosis was never possible (p = 0.042), all people with a diagnosis of cancer would certainly die (p = 0.044), and chemotherapy was not successful in a metastatic disease (p = 0.003) as compared to group 2. The rate of the students that believed gastric cancer screening was a part of the national screening policy was significantly more in group 1 than in group 2 (p = 0.00014). Group 2 had a higher anxiety level for themselves or their family members to become a cancer patient. Most of the students in both groups defined medical oncologists as warriors (57% in group 1 and 40% in group 2; p = 0.097), and cancer was reminding them of “death” (54% in group 1 and 48% in group 2; p = 0.102). This study suggested that oncology education was useful for the students’ understanding of cancer and related issues; however, the level of oncology education should be improved in medical schools in Turkey. This would be helpful for medical doctors to cope with many aspects of cancer as a major health care problem in this country. © 2018, American Association for Cancer Education

Annual Clovers Around the World: Current Status and Future Prospects

This paper reviews the distribution and importance of annual clover (Trifolium) species for pasture and fodder production systems globally. Of the 158 recorded annual Trifolium species, 65.2% are endemic to the Mediterranean basin and surrounding areas, 14.6% to sub-Saharan Africa, 17.7% to the United States of America and 2.5% to Chile. Fourteen species have been commercialised, while other endemic and naturalised annual clovers are also utilised. Key species for self-regenerating pastures include T. subterraneum, T. michelianum and T. respinatum var. resupinatum, while major dual-purpose grazing and fodder species include T. incarnatum, T. vesiculosum, T. alexandrinum and T. respinatum var. majus. Less important commercial species include T. hirtum, T. squarrosum, T. nigrescens and T. cherleri. Australian scientists have also recently domesticated T. glanduliferum, T. spumosum, T. purpureum and T. dasyurum. The areas sown to annual clovers may increase in future years, due to increasing nitrogen (N) fertiliser costs, environmental concerns with N runoff. Climate change brings new challenges and opportunities for annual clovers. The forage plant genetic resource centres will be crucial for developing new adapted cultivars

An old woman with weight loss and chest pain

Pulmonary sarcomas constitute only 0.1-0.5% of all primary lung malignancies. These tumors may derive from the lung parenchyma, bronchial tree or pulmonary arteries. The most important entity in the differential diagnosis is metastatic synovial sarcoma. A 76-years-old woman was admitted for investigation of a fever, productive cough, dyspnea, weight loss and left-sided chest pain which had been present for one month. A chest computerised tomography showed enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes were observed, as well as a left-sided pleural effusion. Thoracentesis revealed hemorrhagic pleural effusion which was exudate and lymphocyte predominant, closed pleural biopsy showed chronic inflammation. Left sided thoracoscopy was performed under local anesthesia, total collapse of left lung and multiple pleural nodules were observed on the visceral pleura multiple biopsies were obtained from those nodules. Pathologic examinations revealed "synovial sarcoma". As skeleton single photon emission tomography was unremarkable, primary pleuropulmonary synovial sarcoma was decided as diagnosis and chemotheraphy was planned for the patient. Primary pleuropulmonary synovial sarcoma is a rare neoplasm of lung and pleura but it is rare entity