AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP LEVELS OF PRE-SERVICE PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS AND THEIR DEMOCRATIC VALUES

This study seeks to investigate the relationship between digital citizenship levels of pre-service primary school teachers and their democratic values. The research was designed in descriptive survey model. The research was conducted with the participation of 346 pre-service primary school teachers (juniors and seniors) from Adnan Menderes University and Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University. “Digital Citizenship Scale” developed by İşman and Güngören (2014) and “Democratic Values Scale” developed by Çermik (2013) were used as the data collection tools. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and t-test while the unrelated samples were analyzed through one-way analysis of variance. Also, the relationship between the variables was analyzed by using correlation analysis. The results of the analyses reveal that there is a statistically insignificant difference among the pre-service primary school teachers’ digital citizenship scores in terms of the variables of gender and class. As for the democratic values scores, it is observed that there is a statistically significant difference among the pre-service primary school teachers’ scores in terms of gender, having access to the Internet connection, the duration of the Internet use experience, and the duration of daily Internet use.  There is also a statistically significant difference among the digital citizenship scores in terms of having the Internet connection, the duration of the Internet use experience, the duration of daily Internet use, and perceived level of the Internet using skills. Democratic values scores differ significantly in terms of class and perceived level of the Internet using skills. When the scores taken from the digital citizenship and democratic values scales are analyzed, it is observed that there is a weak positive correlation between these two variables.  Article visualizations

Trends of Serious Games Research from 2007 to 2017: A Bibliometric Analysis

This study examines the tendencies of studies carried out using text mining methods under the title of “serious game”. A query was run for the “serious game” keyword in the Web of Science search engine to acquire the data. The study included publications that were scanned in the SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI and A&HCI indices between 2007-2017. Information could be acquired for a total of 1431 publications. Firstly, the obtained data were cleansed of erroneous and unnecessary information by way of a pre-process. According to the data set cleansed of errors, the total number of common citations was 12701, number of citations per publication was 8.88, whereas h-index was determined as 51. Analyses were carried out by examining all “serious games” publications on the basis of: year, author, journal/symposium name, keywords, research areas and common citation parameters. According to the results, there was a continuous increase over time in the number of publications and citations. Even though “serious games” is a topic that is frequently studied in the field of education technology studies in fields such as psychology, health care sciences, environmental sciences, ecology, public environmental occupational health, rehabilitation, business economics and psychiatry shows that “serious game” is also a popular topic for studies in different disciplines

The effects of metacognitive mapping tool on the self-regulation skills of students, metacognitive awareness and achievement of these students in a web based education

Bu araştırmanın amacı, web temelli eğitim ortamlarında öğrencilerin bilişüstünü destekleyecek bir araç geliştirilmesi ve geliştirilen aracın öğrencilerin öz düzenlemelerine, bilişüstü farkındalıklarına ve başarılarına etkisinin belirlenmesidir. Araştırmanın bağımsız değişkeni web temelli eğitim ortamında kullanılan Bilişüstü Haritalama Aracı, bağımlı değişkenleri öğrencilerin öz düzenleme beceri düzeyleri, bilişüstü farkındalıkları ve başarı düzeyleridir. Çalışma, 2010-2011 öğretim yılı bahar döneminde Gazi Üniversitesi Gazi Eğitim Fakültesi Bilgisayar Öğretim Teknolojisi Eğitimi Bölümü üçüncü sınıf ikinci yarıyıl programında Veri Tabanı Yönetim Sistemleri dersini alan 55 öğrencinin katılımı ile 8 hafta süresince gerçekleştirilmiştir. Uygulama esnasında öntest-sontest kontrol gruplu deneysel desen kullanılmıştır. Öğrenciler; öz düzenleme beceri düzeyleri, bilişüstü farkındalıkları ve başarı düzeyleri açısından denkleştirilerek bilişüstü haritalama aracının bulunduğu ve bulunmadığı web temelli eğitim ortamlarına yansız olarak atanmışlardır. Uygulamada kullanılan web temelli eğitim ortamı ve bilişüstü haritalama aracı, PHP programlama dili ve MySQL veri tabanı yönetim sistemi kullanılarak hazırlanmıştır. bilişüstü haritalama aracı bilişüstü modellerine uygun olarak planlama, izleme, öz değerlendirme ve yeniden düzenleme aşamaları temel alınarak geliştirilmiştir. Öğrencileri ders çalışmaya teşvik etmek ve düzenli olarak sistemi kullanmalarını sağlamak amacıyla 6 adet görev sunulmuştur. Öğrencilerin öz düzenleme becerilerinin belirlenmesinde, Baş (2007) tarafından hazırlanan Web Tabanlı Eğitime Yönelik Öz Düzenleme Becerileri Ölçeği kullanılmıştır. Bilişüstü farkındalık düzeylerine ilişkin veriler, Schraw ve Dennison (1994) tarafından geliştirilmiş, Akın, Abacı ve Çetin (2007) tarafından Türkçe uyarlaması yapılmış olan Biliş ötesi Farkındalık Envanteri ile elde edilmiştir. Başarı düzeylerine ilişkin verilerin elde edilmesi için çalışma öncesinde başarı testi geliştirilmiştir. Başarı düzeyleri belirlenirken geliştirilen başarı testi ile elde edilen verilerden faydalanılmıştır. Sekiz hafta süren uygulama süreci sonrasında, kovaryans analizi (ANCOVA) sonuçlarına göre, öğrencilerin öntest puanlarına göre düzeltilmiş sontest öz düzenleme beceri ortalama puanları arasında, bilişüstü haritalama aracı bulunan ortamda çalışan öğrenciler lehine anlamlı bir farkın bulunduğu [F(1-52) = 4,56 p.05] görülmektedir. Başarı testine ilişkin yapılan analizde, öntest puanlarına göre düzeltilmiş sontest başarı ortalama puanları arasında, bilişüstü haritalama aracı bulunan ortamda çalışan öğrenciler lehine anlamlı bir farkın bulunduğu [F(1-52) = 7 p<.05] görülmektedir. Verilerin analizi ile elde edilen sonuçlar doğrultusunda, web temelli öğrenme ortamlarına dahil edilen bilişüstü haritalama aracının öğrencilerin öz düzenleme becerilerine ve başarılarına olumlu etkiye sebep olduğu görüşmüştür. Bilişüstü farkındalık düzeyleri deney ve kontrol gruplarına göre ele alındığında aracın etkisi görülmemiştir.The purpose of this study is to develop a metacognitive mapping tool which will support students' metacognition and to determine the effect of this tool on the students' self-regulation, metacognitive awareness and achievement. The independent variable of the study is the metacognitive mapping tool which is used in a web based education environment. The dependent variables of the study are the level of the students' self-regulation skills, their metacognitive awareness and their level of achievement. The study was conducted in the spring semester of the 2010-2011 academic year in a duration of 8 years with the participation of 55 students taking the Database Management Systems course within the third grade second semester program of the Department of Education on Computer Education Technologies in Gazi University Faculty of Education. During the application, pre-test and post-test research design was used. The students have randomly been assigned to web based education environments where the mapping tool were and were not present after equilibrating the students in terms of their level of self-regulation skills, metacognitive awareness and level of achievement. The web based educational environment and the metacognitive mapping tool used in the application has been prepared by using PHP programming language, and MySQL database management system. The metacognitive mapping tool has been developed based on the principles of planning according to metacognitive models, monitoring, self-assessment and reorganization stages. 6 assignments have been presented in order to encourage students to study and to ensure their regular use of the system. Scale of Self-Regulation Skills for Web based Education which has been prepared by BAS (2007) has been used in the determination of the self-regulation skills of the students. Data related to the metacognitive awareness has been developed by Schraw and Dennison (1994) and has been obtained by Metacognitive Awareness Inventory which has been adapted to Turkish by Akin, Abaci and Cetin (2007). An achievement test was developed in order to obtain the data related to the level of achievement before the test. The data obtained by the achievement test has been used while the level of achievements was being determined. According to the findings of the covariance analysis (ANCOVA) at the end of the eight-week application period, it has been observed that there is a significant difference between the average scores of the post-test self-regulation skills adjusted according to the pre-test scores of students in favor of the students working in the treatment group [F(1-52)=4.56,p<.05]. The findings of the covariance (ANCOVA) demonstrated that there is no presence of a significant difference between the post-test metacognitive awareness average scores adjusted according to the pre-test scores of the students [F(1-52)=.08,p<.05]. The findings of the covariance analysis (ANCOVA) also demonstrated that there is a significant difference between the post-test achievement average scores adjusted according to the pre-test scores of students in favor of students working in a treatment group [F(1-52)=7,p<.05]. In accordance with the findings obtained through the analysis of the data, it has been observed that a metacognitive mapping tool included in the web based learning environments cause a positive effect on the self-regulation levels and achievement of students. The tool has not demonstrated any effects when metacognitive awareness levels are considered according to the experimental and control groups

Investigation of the Mechanical Behavior of a New Generation Wind Turbine Blade Technology

Wind turbine blades are one of the largest parts of wind power systems. It is a handicap that these large parts of numerous wind turbines will become scrap in the near future. To prevent this handicap, newly produced blades should be recyclable. In this study, a turbine blade, known as the new generation of turbine blade, was manufactured with reinforced carbon beams and recycled, low-density polyethylene materials. The manufacturing addressed in this study reveals two novelties: (1) it produces a heterogeneous turbine blade; and (2) it produces a recyclable blade. In addition, this study also covers mechanical tests using a digital image correlation (DIC) system and modeling investigations of the new generation blade. For the mechanical tests, displacement and strain data of both new generation and conventional commercial blades were measured by the DIC method. Instead of dealing with the modeling difficulty of the new generation blade’s heterogeneity we modeled the blade structural system as a whole using the moment–curvature method as part of the finite element method. Then, the behavior of both the new generation and commercial blades at varying wind speeds and different angles of attack were compared. Consequently, the data reveal that the new generation blades performed sufficiently well compared with commercial blades regarding their stiffness

Neuroprotective effect of lithium in cold- induced traumatic brain injury in mice

Apart from its well-established therapeutic activity on bipolar disorder and depression, lithium exerts neuroprotective activity upon neurodegenerative disorders, such as traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, the cellular signaling mechanisms mediating lithium's neuroprotective activity and long-term dose- and time-dependent effects on close and remote proximity are largely unknown. Herein, we tested prophylactic and acute effects of lithium (2 mmol/kg) after cold- induced TBI. In both conditions, treatments with lithium resulted in reduced infarct volume and apoptosis. Its acute treatment resulted in the increase of Akt, ERK-1/2 and GSK-3 alpha/beta phosphoylations. Interestingly, its prophylactic treatment instead resulted in decreased phosphorylations of Akt, ERK-1/2, p38, JNK-1 moderately and GSK-3 alpha/beta significantly. Then, we tested subacute (35-day follow-up) role of low (0.2 mmol/kg) and high dose (2 mmol/kg) lithium and revealed that high dose lithium group was the most mobile so the least depressed in the tail suspension test. Anxiety level was assessed by light-dark test, all groups' anxiety levels were decreased with time, but lithium had no effect on anxiety like behavior. When subacute effects of injury and drug treatment were evaluated on the defined brain regions, infarct volume was decreased in the high dose lithium group significantly. In contrast to other brain regions, hippocampal atrophies were observed in both lithium treatment groups, which were significant in the low dose lithium group in both hemispheres, which was associated with the reduced cell proliferation and neurogenesis. Our data demonstrate that lithium treatment protects neurons from TBI. However, long term particularly low-dose lithium causes hippocampal atrophy and decreased neurogenesis.Turkish Academy of Science

Outcome of Patients Admitted to Intensive Care Units due to Influenza-Related Severe Acute Respiratory Illness in 2017-2018 Flu Season: A Multicenter Study from Turkey

Background: Influenza can cause severe acute respiratory illness (SARI), which occurs as local outbreaks or seasonal epidemics with high intensive care unit (ICU) admission and mortality rates. Mortality is mainly due to SARI. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcome of patients admitted to ICU due to influenza-related SARI in 2017-2018 flu season in Turkey. Methods: A retrospective multicenter study was conducted in 13 ICUs with a total of 216 beds from 6 cities in Turkey. All adult patients (over 18 years) admitted to the ICUs in 2017-2018 flu season (between September 1, 2017, and April 30, 2018) because of SARI and with a positive nasopharyngeal swab for influenza were included in the study. Results: A total of 123 cases were included in the study. The mean age of patients was 64.5 +/- 17.5 years, and 66 (53.7%) patients were older than 65 years. The ICU mortality was 33.9%, and hospital mortality was 35.6%. Invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), acute kidney injury (AKI), hematologic malignancy, and >65 years of age were the factors affecting mortality in influenza. Conclusion: SARI due to influenza carries a high mortality rate, and IMV, AKI, presence of hematologic malignancy, and older age are independent risk factors for mortality