128-bit microprocessor compatible programmable correlator chip for use in synchronous communication

A single-chip microprocessor-compatible 128-b correlator is designed and implemented in a 3-μm M2CMOS process. Full-custom design techniques are applied to achieve the best tradeoff among chip size, speed, and power consumption. The chip is placed in a microprocessor-based portable data terminal using HF radio communication. It marks the beginning of a synchronous data stream received from the very noisy channel by detecing the synchronization (sync) word. The sync word can be detected for either inverted or noninverted input data streams. Two chips can be cascaded to make a 256-b correlator. The chip is fully programmable by a microprocessor to set the number of tolerable errors in detection and to select the bits of the 128-b (or 256-b) data stream to be used in the correlation

Serum Alkaline Phosphatase Levels in Healthy Children and Evaluation of Alkaline Phosphatasez-scores in Different Types of Rickets

Objective: Serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels show great variation with age and sex in children and adolescents. Additionally, different buffers used even in the same method cause variable results. This detail is not usually taken into account in the evaluation. We aimed to study pediatric age- and sex-specific reference ranges for ALP by colorimetric assay using p-nitrophenyl phosphate as substrate and diethanolamine as buffer and also to compare the ALP levels in patients with different types of rickets

The Effect of Vascular Graft and Human Umbilical Cord Blood-Derived CD34+ Stem Cell on Peripheral Nerve Healing

AIM: There are many trials concerning peripheral nerve damage causes and treatment options. Unfortunately, nerve damage is still a major problem regarding health, social and economic issues. On this study, we used vascular graft and human cord blood derived stem cells to find an alternative treatment solution to this problem. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We used 21 female Wistar rats on our study. They were anesthetized with ketamine and we studied right hind limbs. On Group 1, we did a full layer cut on the right sciatic nerve. On Group 2, we did a full layer cut on the right sciatic nerve, and we covered synthetic vascular graft on cut area. On Group 3, we did a full layer cut on right sciatic nerve, and we covered the area with stem cell applied vascular graft. RESULTS: At the end of postoperative 8. weeks, we performed EMG on the rats. When we compared healthy and degenerated areas as a result of EMG, we found significant amplitude differences between the groups on healthy areas whereas there was no significant difference on degenerated  areas between the groups. Then we re-opened the operated area again to reveal the sciatic nerve cut area, and we performed electron microscope evaluation. On the stem cell group, we observed that both the axon and the myelin sheet prevented degeneration. CONCLUSION: This study is a first on using synthetic vascular graft and cord blood derived CD34+ cells in peripheral nerve degeneration. On  the  tissues  that  were  examined  with  electron  microscope,  we  observed  that  CD34+  cells  prevented  both  axonal  and  myelin  sheath degeneration. Nerve tissue showed similar results to the control group, and the damage was minimal

Investigation of efficacy of mitomycin-C, Sodium hyaluronate and human amniotic fluid in preventing epidural fibrosis and adhesion using a rat laminectomy model

Study Design: A retrospective study. Purpose: The aim of this study was to evalute the effects of mitomycin-C, sodium hyaluronate and human amniotic fluid on preventing spinal epidural fibrosis. Overview of Literature: The role of scar tissue in pain formation is not exactly known, but it is reported that scar tissue causes adhesions between anatomic structures. Intensive fibrotic tissue compresses on anatomic structures and increases the sensitivity of the nerve root for recurrent herniation and lateral spinal stenosis via limiting movements of the root. Also, neuronal atrophy and axonal degeneration occur under scar tissue. Methods: The study design included 4 groups of rats: group 1 was the control group, groups 2, 3, and 4 receieved antifibrotic agents, mitomycin-C (group 2), sodium hyaluronate (group 3), and human amniotic fluid (group 4). Midline incision for all animals were done on L5 for total laminectomy. Four weeks after the surgery, the rats were sacrificed and specimens were stained with hematoxylineosin and photos of the slides were taken for quantitive assesment of the scar tissue. Results: There was no significant scar tissue in the experimental animals of groups 2, 3, and 4. It was found that there was no significant difference between drug groups, but there was a statistically significant difference between the drug groups and the control group. Conclusions: This experimental study shows that implantation of mitomycin-C, sodium hyaluronate and human amniotic fluid reduces epidural fibrosis and adhesions after spinal laminectomy in rat models. Further studies in humans are needed to determine the complications of the agents researched. © 2013 by Korean Society of Spine Surgery

The effects of metacognitive knowledge on the pre-service teachers' participation in the asynchronous online forum

This paper researches the effects that students' metacognitive knowledge has on their participation in online forum discussions, which form part of a web-based asynchronous course based on a constructivist instructional approach. Metacognitive knowledge increases learners' ability to be independent learners, which is an indispensable characteristic of the distant learner. The study was carried out with 32 third-grade pre-service teachers. Each message in the forum discussions was analyzed in terms of interaction types identified by McKinnon ( 2000) and also scored using a grading rubric developed by the researchers. The metacognitive knowledge of the pre-service teachers was measured by the component of the General Metacognition Questionnaire. Sixty-seven percent of the pre-service teachers were at the high or medium-to-high metacognitive knowledge level and mostly sent messages having "example to idea," "clarification and elaboration," or "idea to example" type interactions. Pre-service teachers who exhibited low metacognitive knowledge, however, mostly forwarded messages having " acknowledgments," " unsubstantiated judgment," or "thoughtful query" type interactions. Moreover, metacognitive knowledge of the pre-service teachers uniquely explained 21.4% of the variance in the online participation score. We concluded by outlining some implications metacognitive knowledge has on forum discussions in relation to the constructivist approach

Effects of the asynchronous web-based course: Preservice teachers' achievement, metacognition, and attitudes towards the course

This present study aimed to investigate the effects of the asynchronous web-based "General Teaching Methods" course conducted based on direct or indirect instructional methods on pre-service teachers' achievement, metacognition, and attitudes towards web-based course. Two groups, a total of 63 third grade elementary science and mathematics education pre-service teachers, attended to one of the aforementioned web-based courses. The results indicated that the group exposed to the web-based indirect instruction significantly outperformed the group exposed to the web-based direct instruction in the final exam but not in the midterm exam and in the metacognitive questionnaire. On the other hand, the group exposed to the web-based direct instruction had significantly higher attitudes towards web-based course than the one exposed to the web-based indirect instruction

Effects of the Asynchronous Web-Based Course: Preservice Teachers’ Achievement, Metacognition, and Attitudes towards the Course

This present study aimed to investigate the effects of the asynchronous web-based “General Teaching Methods” course conducted based on direct or indirect instructional methods on pre-service teachers ’ achievement, metacognition, and attitudes towards web-based course. Two groups, a total of 63 third grade elementary science and mathematics education pre-service teachers, attended to one of the aforementioned web-based courses. The results indicated that the group exposed to the web-based indirect instruction significantly outperformed the group exposed to the web-based direct instruction in the final exam but not in the midterm exam and in the metacognitive questionnaire. On the other hand, the group exposed to the web-based direct instruction had significantly higher attitudes towards web-based course than the one exposed to the web-based indirect instruction

3D TRACKING OF PEOPLE WITH RAO-BLACKWELLIZED PARTICLE FILTERS

Visual tracking has an important place among computer vision applications. Visual tracking with particle filters is a well-known methodology. The performance of particle filters is dependent on efficient sampling of the state space, which in turn, is dependent on number of particles. In this paper, Rao-Blackwell technique is applied to particle filters to improve sampling efficiency. Both algorithms are applied to people tracking problem. Under the same circumstances, the resulting algorithm is demonstrated to perform better than the original algorithm via experiments on the PETS2009 benchmark dataset