Students Engagement in Science during Covid-19 Pandemic: Role of Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Achievement Goals

This study investigated the relationships among achievement goals, self-efficacy beliefs, and engagement in science during COVID-19. Distance education was launched due to COVID-19, and there is a need to examine these relations in the online science learning context. Participants were 448 students between 5th and 8th graders receiving distance education for eight months. Path analysis indicated mastery-approach goals and particular self-efficacy aspects positively predicted student engagement. Science communication and conceptual understanding have become prominent among self-efficacy aspects, while higher-order cognitive skills were unrelated to student engagement. Also, negative linkages were identified between performance-approach goals, emotional engagement, cognitive engagement, and performance-avoidance goals. The variance explained in the engagement components ranged from 47% to 60%. Some of the participants’ engagement and motivation in science were negatively affected by distance education. Suggestions were made to foster students’ engagement and motivation in distance science education

Industrial Heritage Buildings in Cyprus; Spatial Experience of the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre

This study focuses on the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre [NiMAC] in Nicosia, one of the prominent historical industrial buildings in Cyprus, which has been re-functionalized as an art centre. The overall goal of this study is to examine and clarify the human experience of the NiMAC building as part of one’s lifeworld. The main argument of the research is that proposing an effective research design for examining how a person distinguishes the components of a re-used building is possible by human responses to architecture rather than focusing on the physical aesthetics of it. Hence, the purpose of the study is to make a multi-sensory analysis to grasp how a person develops an emotional attitude in the re-functioned space which can be the core assessment of the adaptive re-use purposes. In this context, this research basically explores the main research question which is about what spatial experiences the NiMAC building is offering to people after it is re-functioned when space is experienced in a multisensory approach. Methodologically, this research design is basically created by the hybrid use of first-person, existential, and hermeneutic tactics of the phenomenological approach

English Language Teachers’ Awareness of English as a Lingua Franca in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts

Today English has become the Lingua Franca or common language of many people, regardless of their being native or nonnative speaker of English all over the world. Therefore, it has become necessary to educate pre-/in-service teachers with an awareness towards the significance of the involvement of an “English as a lingua franca” (ELF) perspective in their language teaching practice in multilingual/multicultural contexts. In a rapidly changing world, many English language teachers and teacher trainers are cognizant of the impact of migration in their teaching contexts. However, it is still not very clear to what extent and in what context they are integrating ELF related issues in their language teaching practice. In this study, we make an attempt to unveil in-service teachers’ beliefs about ELF in pedagogical practice in three different countries – Poland, Portugal and Turkey. In order to do that we have adopted a questionnaire from an earlier study investigating the involvement of culture in ELT in expanding circle contexts. The findings of the study revealed that although teachers in these contexts are aware of the significance of the inclusion of an ELF-aware perspective in ELT, they are still hesitant about its applicability in their own teaching context. This study has implications for raising English language teachers’ awareness in conceptualizing how an ELF-aware pedagogical approach can be implemented in a multilingual/multicultural context

Evaluation of sleep quality in patients with carpal tunnel syndrome

AMAÇ: Karpal tünel sendromu (KTS) median sinirin el bileği düzeyindeki tuzak nöropatisidir. Geceleri şiddetlenen ağrı ve dizesteziler hastalığın tipik bulgusudur. Çalışmamızın amacı KTS hastalarında uyku kalitesinin araştırılması, mevcut uyku bozukluklarının semptom şiddeti ve fonksiyonel bozuklukla ilişkisinin saptanmasıdır. GEREÇ VE YÖNTEMLER: Elektrodiagnostik olarak KTS tanısı alan 29 kişi ve kontrol grubu olarak hastane personelinden 25 sağlıklı kişi çalışmaya alındı. Tüm katılımcıların bilgilendirilmiş onamı alındı. Hastaların semptom şiddeti ve fonksiyonel bozukluklarını değerlendirmek üzere Boston sorgulaması kullanıldı. Çalışmaya katılan hastaların ve sağlıklı kontrol grubunun uyku kalitesi Pittsburgh Uyku Kalitesi İndeksi ile değerlendirildi. BULGULAR: Karpal tünel sendromlu hastaların genel uyku kalitesinin kontrol grubuna kıyasla anlamlı olarak daha kötü olduğu saptandı (p=0,046). Pittsburgh skoru bileşenleri ayrıntılı olarak değerlendirildiğinde alışılmış uyku etkinliğinin karpal tünel sendromlu hastalarda anlamlı düzeyde bozulmuş olduğu saptandı (p=0.001). SONUÇ: Uyku kalitesi KTS’li hastalarda anlamlı düzeyde bozulmaktadır ve gece uykuda geçirdikleri toplam süre azalmaktadır.OBJECTIVE: Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is defined as entrapment neuropathy of the median nerve at the wrist. Pain and disestesia that worsen at night are characteristic features of the disease. The aim of this study was to determine sleep quality of patients with CTS and also defining the association between symptom severity, functional impairment with existing sleep disturbance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-nine patients with CTS according to electrodiagnostic evaluation and 25 healthy volunteers recruited from hospital staff were included into the study. Informed consent was obtained from all participants. Boston Questionnaire was used to evaluate symptom severity and functional impairment. Sleep quality of the participants was assessed with Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. RESULTS: Overall sleep quality of the CTS patients was significantly worse than control group (p=0.046). Detailed analysis of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality index components revealed that habitual sleep efficiency was significantly impaired in patients with CTS (p=0.001). CONCLUSION: Sleep quality was significantly disturbed in patients with CTS, and also the total time that patients were asleep was shortened

Unifying Ancient and Modern Geometries Through Octonions

We show the first unified description of some of the oldest known geometries such as the Pappus’ theorem with more modern ones like Desargues’ theorem, Monge’s theorem and Ceva’s theorem, through octonions, the highest normed division algebra in eight dimensions. We also show important applications in hadronic physics, giving a full description of the algebra of color applicable to quark physics, and comment on further applications

Algebraic Formulation of Hadronic Supersymmetry Based on Octonions: New Mass Formulas and Further Applications

A special treatment based on the highest division algebra, that of octonions and their split algebraic formulation is developed for the description of diquark states made up of two quark pairs. We describe symmetry properties of mesons and baryons through such formulation and derive mass formulae relating π, ρ, N and Δ trajectories showing an incredible agreement with experiments. We also comment on formation of diquark-antidiquark as well as pentaquark states and point the way toward applications into multiquark formulations expected to be seen at upcoming CERN experiments. A discussion on relationship of our work to flux bag models, string pictures and to string-like configurations in hadrons based on spectrum generating algebras will be given

Adenoid Vegetation in Children with Allergic Rhinitis

Objective:Pediatric patients with nasal obstruction due to adenoid vegetation (AV) can also encounter allergic rhinitis (AR) as a comorbidity. The aim of the study was to estimate the incidence of mite sensitization and its effect on adenoid size in children who underwent adenoidectomy.Methods:This prospective randomized study conducted between August and September 2014 included 84 children. Skin Prick Test (SPT) for inhalant allergens was preoperatively applied to all children who underwent adenoidectomy for nasal obstruction. Children were divided into two study groups: AV only (Group I) (n=52) and AV with Dermatophagoides Pteronyssinus and/or D. farinae allergy (Group II) (n=32). Postoperative specimen volumes, visual analogue scale (VAS) scores, and adenoid volumes measured using flexible fiberoptic nasopharyngolaryngoscopy were compared between the two groups.Results:Postoperative specimen volume measures were higher in Group II compared with those in Group I (p<0.05). Furthermore, in preoperative endoscopic examination, adenoid volume measures were higher in Group II compared with those in Group I (p<0.05). Pre and postoperative VAS scores in SPT+ group were higher in the Group II (p<0.05) than those in Group I.Conclusion:We observed that children with AR tend to have an early onset of symptoms of adenoid hypertrophy. We believe that focusing on the management of role of allergy regarding these early symptoms will reduce the need for surgery in a large number of cases. We suggest that SPT must be performed in all children with AV and adenoid examination should not be neglected in children with AR

Clifford Algebras and Their Decomposition into Conjugate Fermionic Heisenberg Algebras

We discuss a construction scheme for Clifford numbers of arbitrary dimension. The scheme is based upon performing direct products of the Pauli spin and identity matrices. Conjugate fermionic algebras can then be formed by considering linear combinations of the Clifford numbers and the Hermitian conjugates of such combinations. Fermionic algebras are important in investigating systems that follow Fermi-Dirac statistics. We will further comment on the applications of Clifford algebras to Fueter analyticity, twistors, color algebras, M-theory and Leech lattice as well as unification of ancient and modern geometries through them

Simultaneous Determination of Cyclosporine A, Tacrolimus, Sirolimus, and Everolimus in Whole-Blood Samples by LC-MS/MS

Objectives. Cyclosporine A (CyA), tacrolimus (TRL), sirolimus (SIR), and everolimus (RAD) are immunosuppressive drugs frequently used in organ transplantation. Our aim was to confirm a robust sensitive and selective liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for determination of CyA, TRL, SIR, and RAD in whole-blood samples. Materials and Methods. We used an integrated online solid-phase extraction-LC-MS/MS system and atmospheric pressure ionization tandem mass spectrometry (API-MS/MS) in the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) detection mode. CyA, TRL, SIR, and RAD were simultaneously analyzed in whole blood treated with precipitation reagent taken from transplant patients. Results. System performance parameters were suitable for using this method as a high-throughput technique in clinical practice. The high concentration of one analyte in the sample did not affect the concentration of other analytes. Total analytical time was 2.5 min, and retention times of all analytes were shorter than 2 minutes. Conclusion. This LC-MS/MS method can be preferable for therapeutic drug monitoring of these immunosuppressive drugs (CyA, TRL, SRL, and RAD) in whole blood. Sample preparation was too short and simple in this method, and it permits robust, rapid, sensitive, selective, and simultaneous determination of these drugs