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Fritillaria is highly endangered in their natural habitats, and these species are perennial bulbous plants with an important medicinal and ornamental value whose reproductive strategies and adaptive evolution mechanisms are still not fully clear. Therefore, the reproductive strategies of endemic species, like Fritillaria michailovskyi Fomin are important to detect the community structure and the diversity patterns of ornamental plants. The current paper on the reproductive strategy of F. michailovskyi, a rare endemic species, was carried out at the Erzincan Horticultural Research Institute, Turkey. Our results indicate that the flowering stages of F. michailovskyi may be divided into eight phases. According to pollination experiments and the pollen/ovule ratio, and the self-incompatibility index (SII) in an ex-situ population, F. michailovskyi indicated high levels of xenogamy and self-incompatibility. It was determined that the pollination of F. michailovskyi mostly depended on pollen vectors, and the effective pollinators of F. michailovskyi were Apis mellifera and Bombus terrestris. In addition, average seed number, seed germination, and average seed viability were found as 144, 46%, and 67%, respectively. The stigma receptivity, pollen grains, and pollen viability were detected as 83%, 252,000, and 95%, respectively. Our study is the first report providing a detailed explanation of the reproductive strategy of this rare endemic species, which could aid in the genetic evolution and conservation of this valuable taxa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As in all fields of medicine, animal studies are widely performed in orthopaedics and have increased in number over time. However, it is not clear to what extent these studies provide a basis for future research or advancements in clinical science. Concerns about the reliability and translational ability of animal studies have been reported, and major orthopaedic journals and organizations are encouraging the reduction of unnecessary experiments on animals. QUESTION/PURPOSES: (1) What proportion of animal studies conducted for orthopaedic research in Turkey were never published? And of those that were published, how long did it take to publish? (2) What proportion of those studies were published in journals with an Impact Factor of 2 or more? (3) What proportion of those published papers were never cited or cited only once? (4) What was the contribution to science of an animal euthanized for orthopaedic research in Turkey?Methods: We reviewed all oral and poster presentations at the Turkish National Congress of Orthopaedics and Traumatology from 2009 to 2017 (retrieved from the archives of Acta Orthopaedica et Traumatologica Turcica), as well as all postgraduate theses in orthopaedics from 1991 to 2017 (retrieved from the archives of the National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education) to identify all orthopaedic studies that involved animals. We searched the keywords "animal studies," "experimental studies," and "orthopaedics" in these archives. We defined animal research as orthopaedic studies based on animal models. From this search and using that definition, 252 studies were identified. Of those, 4% (9) were excluded as they were thesis studies with no abstract in the archives. Thus, a total of 243 animal studies performed in Turkey were included for analysis in this retrospective study. The abstracts of these studies were examined to determine the study model (such as bone fracture models, tendon healing models, cartilage models) and number of euthanized animals. Between 1991 and 2017, 9412 vertebrate animals were euthanized for these studies. We searched PubMed, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and ORCID to determine whether these papers were subsequently published, in which journal, and how long after the initial presentation publication occurred. The Web of Science 2019 database was used to determine the Impact Factor of the journals, the total citation count of each study, and the mean annual citation for each study (citations per year). For purposes of this analysis, we divided journals into those with an Impact Factor of 2 or more, 4 or more, and those with an Impact Factor below 2. The mean annual citation per euthanized animal (citations per animal per year) was calculated to determine the contribution of a euthanized animal to science.Results: A total of 42% (101 of 243) of the animal studies in Turkey were never published. For all published studies, the mean time to publication was 2.2 ± 2.6 years (95% CI 1.7 to 2.6). The proportion of studies published in orthopaedic journals with an Impact Factor of 2 or more was 14% (34 of 243). Among the 142 published papers, 38% (54) were either never cited or were cited only once, and the mean citations per year was 1.1 ± 1.7 (95% CI 0.7 to 1.3). The mean citations per animal/year among the 142 published studies was 0.03 ± 0.04 (95% CI 0.02 to 0.04).Conclusion: In the 243 theses and national congress presentations, 9412 animals were euthanized. Based on the low percentage of papers using animals that were euthanized and the very low proportion of studies published in higher-Impact Factor journals or garnering more than a single citation, in aggregate, little seems to have been gained from the loss of animal life. Future studies should try to replicate or refute our results in other countries.Clinical Relevance: Orthopaedic researchers should try to reduce their use of unnecessary animal studies, for example, by reporting on the use of the "3Rs" (replacement, reduction, and refinement) in the development of an animal study design, as well as through following universal guidelines so that a study might have a clinical impact. Researchers should not conduct an animal study until they are convinced that the expected results are quite likely to deliver substantial benefit to people or to advance science in a meaningful way; although this seems intuitive, our results suggest that this may not be taking place. Ethics committees in Turkey should consider more detailed questioning before approving animal studies. If our results are replicated elsewhere, then a broader look at how these approvals are conducted should be performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the economically important species is Penaeus kerathurus (Forskål, 1755), which is widespread in the Mediterranean ecosystem. This paper presents results of research on reproductive biology of Penaeus kerathurus in the Sea of Marmara. A total of 1404 specimens were dissected to determine the maturity stages, reproduction time, and length at first reproduction. The female-to-male ratio was 1:0.9. A high percentage of mature females was determined in April, May and July. Moreover, the value of the gonadosomatic index (GSI) decreased after July. The spawning period was observed between April and July, and its intensity increased in July. The carapace length at first sexual maturity was determined to be 39 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the effects of augmented reality (AR) activities on students' academic achievement and motivation in a biology course. For this purpose, a mixed study was conducted, and a pretest and posttest control group model was used. In addition, the opinions of the experimental group students and the teacher about the AR activities were taken, and classroom observations were made during the study. The study group consisted of 40 (22 female and 18 male) ninth‐grade biology course students. The control group followed the biology course programme, whereas the experimental group students conducted AR activities in addition to the course programme using tablets. Consequently, it was found that the motivation of the students in the experimental group increased more than that of the students in the control group. However, no significant difference was found between the academic achievement scores of the groups. The teacher and the students stated that AR activities might be effective in increasing course success and motivation. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Biology is one of the fields that cover too many abstract and invisible contents.Abstract and invisible course contents cause misunderstandings and low academic achievement.Augmented reality (AR) technology stands out with its visualization feature.AR appears to be an effective technology for making invisible subjects visible and giving concrete examples for abstract content in biology education.What this paper adds: AR activities could positively affect students' motivation in biology courses.Students' perceptions of the augmented reality into classroom are highly positive.AR activities raise students' participation to the course.However, AR does not significantly affect students' academic achievement.Implications for practice and/or policy: More long‐term and interaction‐based AR activities in a school with proper infrastructure might influence students' academic achievement positively.AR materials that have better image quality, more interesting design for students, and more interactivity will increase the effectiveness of instruction.It could be beneficial to use more AR technology when preparing curricula and textbooks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers need to be aware of biology misconceptions in their classrooms and how to address them. In response, researchers and science educators have suggested and examined effective practices to prevent and ameliorate misconceptions. An extensive review of the literature gives researchers and educators insights into trends, practices, and gaps in the misconceptions research and helps decide which issues to address and why. The current study shares how researchers in Turkey conduct a content analysis of published misconception research in Turkey by using a form. The analysis resulted in a meta-synthesis (thematic content analysis) that inventoried and compared the purposes, research methods, data collection instruments, and findings of the selected publications. Biology educators in other regions of the world can inform their practice by using this instrument and research methods to learn about trends and patterns in misconception research. Researchers will gain insights into effective methods that have been used to examine misconceptions and will be able to identify biology misconceptions that have been under-investigated and need further analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive revision of Circassina (Gastropoda: Hygromiidae). Circassina is divided into two subgenera. The nominotypical subgenus is characterized by an inflation forming a brim at the base of the dart apparatus, whereas Circassina (Abchasohela) is characterized by a granular shell sculpture. Circassina (Circassina) includes C. frutis (with the subspecies C. f. frutis, C. frutis circassica and C. frutis veselyi), which ranges from the northwestern slope of the Caucasus Mountains throughout most of Georgia to northernmost Armenia and the Eastern Pontic Mountains in Turkey, and C. lasistana new species, which is only known from the Vileyet Artvin in Turkey. Circassina (Abchasohela) includes C. christophori, C. pachnodes, C. pergranulata new species, C. septentrionalis new species and C. stephaniae. All species of Circassina (Abchasohela) are restricted to Abkhasia and the adjacent Russian regions in westernmost Caucasia. The shell and the genitalia of each taxon are described and illustrated. All synonyms and all locality records are listed. The distribution of the species is illustrated on a UTM-grid map. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]