Teaching children about Allah

The increasing growth rate of the Muslim population in Australia highlights the importance of children being taught various aspects of Islam to gain a competent understanding about Allah. Diverse levels of government authorities in Australia affirm that children ought to be taken to learning environments where they will gain quality education and be provided positive impact on their lives. The process of teaching Islam is important as it lays a suitable platform through which children are given the adequate knowledge, belief, practice, rituals, and devotion. The purpose of the study was to examine the different ways through which Muslim children are taught about Allah in a private K-12 Islamic school in Sydney. The study aims at determining children’s beliefs (and questions) about Allah, the ways Muslim children learn about Allah, and, finally, textbooks’ potential in effectively teaching the belief of Allah to Muslim children. The study explains the importance of supporting religious beliefs in children from a young age so that they can practice their religion and know how to converse with God. Data collection methods which explored various ways in which children learned about Allah included a questionnaires with 60 school children aged from 9-12 years, and interviews with teachers and parents. Document analysis review of relevant Islamic textbooks was also conducteed. Through the content analysis of these qualitative and quantitative methods, the study established that it is essential to introduce Islamic education to primary school children, especially since the children at the case study school demonstrated a strong commitment to their relationship with Allah. The findings of the study indicate that it is necessary to: change the dynamics in the learning environments; increase the number of Muslim teachers who are more eligible to teach Islamic ideas to children; urge key stakeholders in the education sector to equip academic institutions with adequate materials; motivate teachers and parents to cooperate in supporting children to practice what has been taught in schools; have professional learning that takes a comprehensive approach; include diverse stakeholders in the readiness and execution of curricula and training of educators; and introduce new designs of the curricula and other instructive materials about religions and convictions

The Genetic Aspect of Thalassemia: From Diagnosis to Treatment

Hemoglobinopathies are a group of red blood cell productivity disorders, including α-thalassemia, β-thalassemia, and sickle cell disease (SCD), that are autosomal recessive and very common in Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, East Asian, and African countries. Thalassemia presents with the following clinical signs and symptoms: fatigue, weakness, yellowish skin, facial bone deformities, and abdominal swelling. Genetic studies have successfully characterized the key variants and pathways involved in hemoglobin F (HbF) regulation, providing new therapeutic targets for HbF reactivation. According to the current literature, using lentivirus vector for gene therapy and genome-editing-based treatment strategies for β-thalassemia and SCD have been discussed and well documented. According to current studies, novel treatments are becoming more important for thalassemia patients, because the consequences of supportive treatments are not sufficient for patients and their families. Supportive treatment does not have a positive effect on the survival rate of β-thalassemia patients. New treatments are empowering to develop develop a gene therapy for β-thalassemia and include pharmacological or disruption of BCL11A erythroid enhancer by CRISPR-CAS9 technology in addition to zinc-finger or transcription activator-like effector nuclease, and attempts at repairing the defective β-globin gene in hematopoietic stem cells by genome editing. These approaches are needed to improve for being more successful; gene addition has the advantage of making use of a single product applicable to all cases of β-thalassemia

Development of emulsion templated matrices and their use in tissue engineering applications

Tissue Engineering (TE) aims to devise solutions for the healing of critical defects which cannot heal naturally, within the host tissue. In a typical TE approach, biodegradable scaffolds are used to fill the defect site to provide temporary mechanical support and to serve as a three-dimensional substrate for cell attachment and proliferation. These TE scaffolds need to have a highly interconnected porous architecture to enable cell infiltration, nutrient flow, and integration of the material within the host tissue. To date, various scaffold fabrication routes have been reported. However, recently, emulsion templating has gained particular attention as a scaffold fabrication technique due to its ability to introduce (i) up to 99% porosity, (ii) high interconnectivity, and high tunability. The technique is briefly based on the preparation of emulsion composed of at least two immiscible liquids where one phase is dispersed in the other phase and solidification of the continuous phase of the emulsion and removal of the internal phase. Fabrication of emulsion templated matrices made of a wide range of synthetic and natural polymers have been reported. However, polycaprolactone (PCL)-based emulsion templated substrates have previously been shown to be challenging to formulate due to the high viscosity of the polymer, which limits the efficient mixing of the two phases within the emulsion. In this study, tetramethacrylate functionalised PCL (4PCLMA) was synthesised, and photocurable PCL-based Polymerised High Internal Phase Emulsions (PolyHIPEs) were developed. The effect of diluting solvent volume and composition on the stability of HIPEs and morphology of PolyHIPEs was studied in depth. Following the development of the formulation of PCL PolyHIPEs using a solvent blend of chloroform and toluene and their initial cytotoxicity test were conducted. Then, the suitability of PCL PolyHIPEs to be used as a dental membrane (BM) was tested. Bilayer BM was developed by combining electrospinning and emulsion templating techniques. Impact of air plasma treatment of PolyHIPEs on cell viability and cell penetration was investigated. Results showed that PCL electrospun layer was capable of limiting cell infiltration at least for four weeks while the morphology of the PCL PolyHIPEs allows infiltration of bone cells through the pores. Especially, cell infiltration was significantly higher in air plasma treated PolyHIPEs. Ex ovo chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay showed that the pore structure of PolyHIPEs allows blood vessel growth through the pores. PCL PolyHIPE-based multiscale porous scaffolds were also fabricated by combining emulsion templating with additive manufacturing. In this study, PCL-based emulsions were prepared and transferred into the syringe of the pneumatic extrusion printer, and scaffolds were printed and cured simultaneously by the integrated LED of the printer. This multi-step fabrication route is a promising way to develop scaffolds with more complex shapes using three-dimensional data of the defect site. To increase the biological performance of the polymeric multiscale porous scaffolds, they were decorated with in vitro generated bone extracellular matrix (ECM). Briefly, bone cells were grown on PCL PolyHIPEs, and a decellularisation procedure was applied to remove the genetic material and create a biohybrid scaffold. The presence of bone ECM, which is mainly composed of collagen and mineral, was shown to improve the osteogenic performance of PolyHIPE scaffolds in vitro and enhance the angiogenic performance in vivo. In addition, a higher degree of cell infiltration and a higher number of blood vessels within the macropores was observed in biohybrid scaffolds compared to PolyHIPEs. To summarise, 4PCLMA was used as a novel biomaterial with an emulsion templating as a scaffold fabrication technique, to produce highly tunable scaffolds, demonstrating that emulsion templated 4PCLMA is a promising candidate to be used for tissue engineering applications

The reflection of the independence of the Belgian Congo in 1960 in the Belgian press.

The reason I chose to make an extended essay about “The reflections of the independence of Congo in 1960 in the Belgian Press” is my curiousity about the events occurred at those times.Analyzing the press and how they reflected the same situation from different perspectives assisted me to track the pulse of the public. The independence move in Belgian Congo was reflected in Belgium in mostly a negative tone, creating barriers between people to understand and realize the reality. I used different newspapers: La Soir and Le Libre Belgique as resources which provided me with various chances to have an overall opinion about the issue. I divided this essay into sections which firstly briefs out the independence and the period, then analyzing the press. I believe it is fundamental to have background information in order to have a concrete view about this period. It is also a fact that independence of the Belgian Congo had an outstanding figure, Patrice Lumumba, who is mentioned I a whole section, since the Belgian Press used it’s all power to mispresent him. All in all, this essay mainly focuses on the press and it is crucial to mention that recources in Dutch were also used as guidance. On the other hand, translation of those documents and newspapers were difficult. That is why French newspapers have been picked mostly

Next Generation Bridge Management Tools and Inspection

The objectives of this research were twofold. The first objective was to identify the needs for the inspection methodology, manuals, training, and the timetable needed for all bridge owners to start collecting element-level bridge inspection data. The second objective was to identify how to incorporate this new inspection methodology into the rich reporting tools and performance measures that the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) uses for determining the bridge projects in the annual program. Working with the MnDOT Bridge Office, the research team identified the necessary changes to the bridge inspection elements that would both ensure MnDOT conforms to the new American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Guide Manual for Bridge Element Inspection and provide the necessary data for the agency’s bridge management process. The changes needed for MnDOT’s Bridge Replacement and Improvement Management (BRIM) were also identified working with the MnDOT Bridge Office

Ayarlı Kütlesel Sönümleyicilerin Açık Deniz Yapılarına Uygulanması

Konferans Bildirisi -- Teorik ve Uygulamalı Mekanik Türk Milli Komitesi, 2008Conference Paper -- Theoretical and Applied Mechanical Turkish National Committee, 2008Bu çalışmada, üzerine ayarlı kütlesel sönümleyici yerleştirilmiş bir deniz yapısına bir geminin yanaşma probleminin modellemesi ve sayısal çözümü sunulmuştur. Platform ve gemi arasındaki dönme ve hidrodinamik etkileşimkuvvetleri basitlik açısından ihmal edilmiştir. Usturmaça ve kazıklar lineer olmayan yaylar ile modellenmiştir. Sayısal analizde Wilson-θ metodu durum vektörü kavramı ile kullanılmıştır. Ayarlı kütlesel sönümleyicinin sistem cevabına ve enerji dağılımına etkisi sayısal olarak araştırılmış ve sonuçlar tartışılmıştır.The modeling and numerical solution for berthing a ship to a nonlinear flexible marine structure equipped with a passive tuned mass damper are studied. For simplicity; rotations and hydrodynamic interaction between the platform and the ship are ignored. Fenders and piles are modelled by nonlinear springs. In the numerical analysis, Wilson-θ method is used with the state vector concept. The effects of the tuned mass damper on the system response and energy distribution are investigated numerically and the results are discussed

Okul Öncesi Öğretmenlerince Sunulan Gömülü Öğretimin Kaynaştırma Öğrencilerinin Hedef Davranışlarını Edinmelerindeki Etkililiği

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of the embedded instruction provided by preschool teachers to students with developmental disabilities (DDs) in their classes on the acquisition of target behaviors. The first author provided teacher training to four preschool teachers regarding providing instruction by using embedded instruction presented by a simultaneous prompting procedure. After completing the teacher training, the preschool teachers provided instructions to their four children with DD regarding their target behaviors. A multiple probe design with probe trials across dyads was used in the study, which is one of the models of single-subject experimental designs. The results revealed that the teachers were able to prepare their embedded instruction plans correctly, implement the prepared plans with high procedural fidelity, and maintain their instruction skills. In addition, the teachers were able to generalize their skill of preparing embedded instruction plans presented via simultaneous prompting procedures across different discrete behaviors. The children with DDs in regular education classes were able acquire their target behaviors through the instruction provided by their teachers and were also able realize maintenance and generalization regarding their target behaviors. In the social validity data, teachers and parents presented positive opinions regarding the study, and the children with DDs were able to reach the performance levels of their typically developing peers.Bu araştırmanın amacı, okul öncesi öğretmenlerinin sundukları gömülü öğretimin sınıflarındaki gelişimsel yetersizliği (GY) olan çocukların hedef davranışlarını edinmeleri üzerindeki etkilerini incelemektir. Birinci yazar dört okul öncesi öğretmenine eşzamanlı ipucuyla öğretimle sunulan gömülü öğretimle öğretim sunmaya ilişkin öğretmen eğitimi sunmuştur. Aldıkları öğretmen eğitiminin ardından okul öncesi öğretmenleri GY olan dört çocuğa hedef davranışlarına ilişkin öğretim sunmuşlardır. Araştırmada tek-denekli araştırma modellerinden çiftler arası yoklama denemeli çoklu yoklama modeli kullanılmıştır. Araştırmadan elde edilen sonuçlar öğretmenlerin gömülü öğretime ilişkin planlarını doğru bir biçimde hazırladıklarını, hazırladıkları planları yüksek uygulama güvenirliğiyle uyguladıklarını ve uygulama becerilerinde kalıcılığı sağladıklarını göstermiştir. Ayrıca öğretmenler eşzamanlı ipucuyla öğretimle sundukları gömülü öğretime ilişkin plan hazırlayabilme becerilerini farklı tek-basamaklı bir davranışa genelleyebilmişlerdir. Genel eğitim sınıflarında bulunan GY olan çocuklar öğretmenlerinin sundukları öğretim sonucunda hedef davranışları edinmişler, hedef davranışlara ilişkin kalıcılığı ve genellemeyi sağlamışlardır. Sosyal geçerlik verilerinde öğretmenler ve ebeveynler araştırmaya ilişkin olumlu görüş bildirmiş, GY olan çocuklar da hedef davranışlarda akranlarının performans düzeyine ulaşmışlardır

Basic principles of emulsion templating and its use as an emerging manufacturing method of tissue engineering scaffolds

Tissue engineering (TE) aims to regenerate critical size defects, which cannot heal naturally, by using highly porous matrices called TE scaffolds made of biocompatible and biodegradable materials. There are various manufacturing techniques commonly used to fabricate TE scaffolds. However, in most cases, they do not provide materials with a highly interconnected pore design. Thus, emulsion templating is a promising and convenient route for the fabrication of matrices with up to 99% porosity and high interconnectivity. These matrices have been used for various application areas for decades. Although this polymer structuring technique is older than TE itself, the use of polymerised internal phase emulsions (PolyHIPEs) in TE is relatively new compared to other scaffold manufacturing techniques. It is likely because it requires a multidisciplinary background including materials science, chemistry and TE although producing emulsion templated scaffolds is practically simple. To date, a number of excellent reviews on emulsion templating have been published by the pioneers in this field in order to explain the chemistry behind this technique and potential areas of use of the emulsion templated structures. This particular review focusses on the key points of how emulsion templated scaffolds can be fabricated for different TE applications. Accordingly, we first explain the basics of emulsion templating and characteristics of PolyHIPE scaffolds. Then, we discuss the role of each ingredient in the emulsion and the impact of the compositional changes and process conditions on the characteristics of PolyHIPEs. Afterward, current fabrication methods of biocompatible PolyHIPE scaffolds and polymerisation routes are detailed, and the functionalisation strategies that can be used to improve the biological activity of PolyHIPE scaffolds are discussed. Finally, the applications of PolyHIPEs on soft and hard TE as well as in vitro models and drug delivery in the literature are summarised

Public Accounting Reform from Institutional Theory Perspectives: Case of Turkey

In the literature, it is often found that institutional theory is used as the theoretical framework to explain the development and application of accounting. By means of these studies, it becomes easier to understand accounting as a social and political activity within itself and thus to be able to understand the economic, institutional, political and social environment of the turnover of the practices. In this regard, the main aim of this study is to explain the development of the public accounting system in Turkey with the help of institutional theory. Thus, it is aimed to explain all the dynamics that provide the institutionalization of state account in the national sense, together with the economic, political and social processes of the period in question. It is revealed that the regulatory arrangements directly contribute to the institutionalization of a field, and as a result, how the public organizations directly contribute to the institutionalization process

História da educação matemática brasileira: entre genealogias e coletivos de pensamento

Disponível em: http://histemat.com.br/index.php/HISTEMAT/article/view/9A partir dos resultados de uma pesquisa anterior, focada na produção em História da Educação Matemática na pós-graduação stritu sensu do Brasil, entre 1990 e 2010, percebemos um crescimento das abordagens sobre vida e obra de matemáticos e professores de Matemática, história das instituições, história das disciplinas escolares, dentre outras atividades sociais e culturais. A diversidade de métodos de pesquisa historiográfica, advindas de áreas como a História, a Antropologia e a Sociologia, contribui para a construção de uma história social da Educação Matemática no contexto da sociedade e da cultura. Na continuação de nossa pesquisa buscamos apoio na epistemologia de Ludwik Fleck, associada aos estudos sobre genealogia para compreender a origem, a evolução e a disseminação das organizações sociais dos grupos de pesquisa em história da Educação Matemática. Assim, fizemos um levantamento dos grupos de pesquisas sobre história da Educação Matemática do Brasil para caracterizar suas dimensões, desmembramentos e ramificações, bem como as redes de conexões entre pesquisadores, estudantes de mestrados e doutorados, suas respectivas linhas de pesquisas e produções geradas durante a pós-graduação e após a sua inclusão no sistema de pesquisa em história da Educação Matemática no Brasil