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With the increasing demands of technology integration by the institutions, educators felt the need to develop themselves professionally. In this study, as a way of professional development, we focused on one-on-one technology mentoring for in-service teachers because the experiences of mentors would shed light on professional development programs in the context of both mentors' progress and mentoring in-service teachers. Mentors for teachers were assigned to facilitate teachers' ICT usage and ICT integration skills. The mentorship implementation lasted two semesters with 42 mentors' participation. The determination of the content of the mentoring process was completely based on the needs and interests of the teachers. After the implementation, the perceptions and experiences of the mentors were asked and coded through content analysis. According to the analysis, the responses of the mentors were grouped into five main categories; (a) affordances of the technology mentoring process, (b) the contribution of the project to the teachers, (c) the contribution of the project to the mentors, (d) the challenges experienced by the mentors, and (e) the weaknesses of and the suggestions for the mentoring process. The findings of this study indicated that future ICT coordinators believed that one-on-one technology mentoring in real school settings is an effective way not only for training in-service teachers but also for creating awareness of being an ICT coordinator and developing ICT mentoring skills.

Blogs have the potential to improve in-depth thinking, reflection, interaction and sense of community in higher education settings. Although the effectiveness of blogging on performance and thinking skills, student interaction and collaboration have been investigated by many educators, the number of studies on what influences learning in blog-based learning environments is limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between sense of community, perception of peer feedback, course engagement and learning in a blog-based learning environment. A relational study was adopted, and 170 university students participated in this study. The data of the study were collected through an online questionnaire that measures students' sense of community, peer feedback, course engagement, and perceived learning. In order to analyze the data, correlation and multiple regression tests were applied, as well as mean and standard deviation. At the end of the study, it was found that students' perceived learning, sense of community, peer feedback perceptions and course engagement were at a high level. In addition, the results of this study showed that in blog environments, students' sense of community, peer feedback perception and course engagement were significant predictors of their learning. The study findings have implications for both teachers and students and can be used as a framework to help the successful use of educational blogs.

Literature indicated that attitude toward programming, programming self-efficacy, gender, and students' department was related to achievement in computer programming. However, there is a need for further studies investigating to what extent these factors explain programming achievement in a model. This study aimed to investigate the effects of programming self-efficacy, attitude towards programming, gender, and students' department on their perceived learning. The correlational study design was adopted for this study. The sample of the study was 742 students of an engineering faculty at a state university Turkey. To collect data, Programming Self-Efficacy Scale, Computer Programming Attitude Scale, and Perceived Learning Scale were used. To analyze data, descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, and Pearson Correlation tests were administered. In addition, to determine the factors affecting perceived learning, multiple regression analysis was employed. The results indicated that the engineering faculty students' attitudes towards programming, programming self-efficacy, and perceived learning were at a high level. In addition, significant correlations between perceived learning and predictive variables were found. Finally, it was concluded that gender, attitude towards programming, and programming self-efficacy significantly predicted perceived learning. The results of the study provide a deeper understanding of how students' learning was affected in programming courses.

AbstractContext The genus Glaucium Mill., one of the important Papaveraceae family plants, is rich in isoquinoline alkaloids and distributed worldwide.Objective Isolation and identification of bioactive alkaloids from Glaucium grandiflorum Boiss. & Huet. subsp. refractum (Nabelek) Mory var. torquatum (Cullen) Mory and G. corniculatum (L.) Rudolph var. corniculatum (Aslan 2012), and investigation of their antioxidant and anticholinesterase activities.Materials and methods The aerial parts of each plant were dried, powdered, and percolated with methanol, then each extract was fractionated between 50% aqueous acetic acid and petroleum. Their aqueous acidic layer was adjusted to pH 7–8 with NH4OH and extracted with chloroform, the extract was subjected to CC separation and isolation. Structures of the isolated alkaloids were elucidated by 1D and 2D-NMR and mass spectral analyses. The alkaloid extracts and their pure alkaloids were tested for anti-cholinesterase (AChE and BuChE) and antioxidant (ABTS, CUPRAC, β-carotene linoleic acid tests) activities in vitro.Results Methanol extracts of Glaucium grandiflorum subsp. refractum var. torquatum and G. corniculatum var. corniculatum afforded a novel compound glauciumoline and seven known isoquinoline alkaloids three of which have an aporphine-type and the other five have a protopine-type skeleton. Among them, trans-protopinium (7) and cis-protopinium (8) were isolated from a Glaucium species for the first time. Tertiary amine extracts (TAEs) of both plants showed very strong acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity. The TAE of the plants also showed strong antioxidant activity while the isolated alkaloids showed no meaningful activity in the anticholinesterase and antioxidant tests.Discussion and conclusions Glaucium species are considered promising therapeutic agents in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

Pedagogical beliefs are a critical factor in terms of integrating technology into teaching, but very few technology acceptance models (TAMs) have considered them. Hence, this study aims to extend the TAM by incorporating pre-service teachers' conception of teaching and learning. The revised model examined the influence of pre-service mathematics teachers' constructivist and traditional pedagogical beliefs on their technology acceptance through perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude toward technology, and behavioral intention to use. Survey data were collected from 714 pre-service mathematics teachers in Turkey and analyzed through path analysis. The results showed that pre-service mathematics teachers' pedagogical beliefs were more constructivist-oriented than traditional-oriented, and constructivist beliefs had a significant influence on the components of the TAM. On the other hand, pre-service teachers' traditional-oriented beliefs did not influence their perceived usefulness of and attitudes toward technology but had positive effects on perceived ease of use. Implications for pre-service mathematics teacher education were discussed.

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a scale aiming to assess pre-service teachers' attitudes towards 3D printing for teaching and learning processes. The data were collected from 250 pre-service teachers in different departments at a public state university. The validity of the scale was tested with exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). As a result of EFA, the scale consisted of three factors; perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and intention to use, with 18 items in 5 point Likert scale. The fit values from the CFA confirmed the three-factor structure of the scale. The correlations among the factors were positive, and collinearity among the factors was not evident. The scale and factors demonstrated a satisfactory level of internal reliability, ranging from 0.68 to 0.94. The findings of this study showed that the scale was valid and reliable, and could be used by researchers interested in technology integration in teaching and learning environments.

The aim of this study was to investigate the factors affecting the pre-service computer science teachers' attitudes towards computer programming (ATCP). The sample consists of 119 preservice teachers at a public state university. The influences of students' demographic characteristics (gender, grade level, and high school type), their achievement in computer programming courses, perceived learning, and computer programming self-efficacy on their ATCP were tested using multiple linear regression. Descriptive, correlation and regression analyses revealed three findings: (1) students had moderately high ATCP, (2) their ATCP had significant correlations with their achievement in computer programming courses, computer programming self-efficacy, and perceived learning, and (3) three variables (achievement in computer programming courses, computer programming self-efficacy, and perceived learning) were significant predictors of their ATCP.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNAs that are involved in regulating gene expression and have an important role in biological pathways such as differentiation, migration, cell proliferation, and other cellular processes. Previous studies have shown that miR-564 and miR-718 are either downregulated or upregulated in various cancers. The purpose of this study was to examine the levels of expression of miR-564 and miR-718 in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients’ tumor and non-tumor tissues.

Abstract Immunodeficient mice reconstituted with a human immune system (HIS mice) give rise to human T cells, which make them an attractive system to study human immune responses to tumors. However, such HIS mice typically exhibit sub-optimal responses to immune challenges as well as fail to develop antigen-specific B or T cell memory. Here we report HIS mice mediate spontaneous regression of human B cell lymphoma Raji. Tumor regression was dependent on CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses and resulted in T cell memory. The T cell memory elicited was mainly Raji-specific, however some level of cross-protection was also elicited to a related B cell lymphoma cell line Ramos. Single-cell RNAseq analysis indicated activation of CD8+ T cells in regressing Raji tumors as well as clonal expansion of specific T cell receptors (TCRs). Cloning of TCRs from Raji-infiltrating T cells into a Jurkat reporter cell line showed reactivity specific for Raji tumor cells. Overall, we report a platform for studying in vivo human T cell tumor immunity by highlighting spontaneous Raji tumor regression, clonal TCR expansion, and T cell memory in HIS mice.

Abstract Background The role of free oxygen radicals in inflammatory conditions is well known. Free radicals cause lipid peroxidation of cellular membranes resulting in cell death. The purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of total anti-oxidant status (TAS), as a marker of anti-oxidant defense system and malondialdehyde (MDA), as a marker of oxidative stress, in the plasma of patients with acute appendicitis. Methods Fifty-one adult patients with a median age of 31 years who underwent operations with a preoperative diagnosis of acute appendicitis were included in this prospective study. Blood samples for C-reactive protein (CRP), MDA and TAS were collected preoperatively. Groups were compared by using the Mann-Whitney U test. Results There were 27 patients with acute phlagmenous appendicitis and 19 patients with advanced appendicitis (10 gangrenous and 9 perforated appendicitis), while 5 negative explorations were documented. No significant differences in WBC counts and MDA levels between groups were encountered. Plasma CRP was significantly higher in patients with perforated appendicitis, but not in the other groups. In advanced appendicitis group, TAS level was significantly lower than the other groups. On the other hand, plasma TAS level in acute phlagmenous appendicitis group was significantly higher. Conclusion A decrease in plasma total anti-oxidant capacity might be a predictor of the progression of inflammation to the perforation in acute appendicitis.

Following the recent developments in information and communication technologies (ICT), educators cannot opt-out using technology in educational settings. Yet, research studies have indicated that teachers' lack of ICT knowledge is considered among the barriers for successful technology integration. Within this framework, this study aimed at documenting the perceptions of in-service teachers about individualized technology-related (ITR) mentoring processes based on the TPACK model. The ITR mentorship provided one-to-one mentoring sessions lasting two semesters at the schools where the teachers worked. The collaboration between the mentor and the mentee (teacher), called ITR mentorship, included not only the support for technological needs of the teachers but also preparing course materials for teaching specific content of the subject. Through mixed methodology, quantitative and qualitative data were collected from participating 31 (17 mathematics and 14 language) teachers. At the end of the study, the change in perceived TPACK levels of teachers was quantitatively examined and qualitatively supported with their views on this process. It was found that technology-related TPACK constructs significantly increased through one-to-one mentoring due to its non-threatening atmosphere, enabling flexible time and content, and addressing the needs of the teachers. In the light of these findings, the ITR mentorship can be suggested for the professional development of teachers and considered for in-service teacher trainings.

The automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) system is one of the key components of the next generation air transportation system (NextGen). ADS-B messages are transmitted in unencrypted plain text. This, however, causes significant security vulnerabilities, leaving the system open to various types of wireless attacks. In particular, the attacks can be intensified by simple hardware, like a software-defined radio (SDR). In order to provide high security against such attacks, radio frequency fingerprinting (RFF) approaches offer reasonable solutions. In this study, an RFF method is proposed for aircraft identification based on ADS-B transmissions. Initially, 3480 ADS-B samples were collected by an SDR from eight aircrafts. The power spectral density (PSD) features were then extracted from the filtered and normalized samples. Furthermore, the support vector machine (SVM) with three kernels (linear, polynomial, and radial basis function) was used to identify the aircraft. Moreover, the classification accuracy was demonstrated via varying channel signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) levels (10–30 dB). With a minimum accuracy of 92% achieved at lower SNR levels (10 dB), the proposed method based on SVM with a polynomial kernel offers an acceptable performance. The promising performance achieved with even a small dataset also suggests that the proposed method is implementable in real-world applications.

Background: Premature ovarian failure describes women under 40 who usually present with amenorrhea, hypergonadotropic hypogonadism, and infertility. Quercetin is an antioxidant flavonol. Quercetin’s oxidative, kinase and cell cycle inhibitor activities are known. Our study aimed to examine the efficacy of Quercetin on premature ovarian failure. Methods: Forty-eight regular-cycled adult female Wistar rats weighing 200 ± 40 grams, 10–12 weeks old, were used in the study. They were randomly divided into four groups with 12 animals. Four groups are Control, Cyclophosphamide, Cyclophosphamide + Quercetin (100 mg/kg) and Quercetin (100 mg/kg) groups. At the end of the experiment, the ovarian tissues were quickly removed. Follicles were counted to determine the ovarian reserve. Serum was extracted, and an Anti-Müllerian hormone analysis was performed. RT-PCR (reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction) from ovarian tissue performed mRNA expression analysis of the Ddx4 gene. Results: As a result of Cyclophosphamide administration, it was determined that there was a decrease in both early-stage follicles and total follicles. This decrease was also statistically significant (p < 0.05). Anti-Müllerian hormone levels were significantly lower in the group given Cyclophosphamide (p < 0.01). On the histological examination, the number of early-stage and total follicles was significantly decreased in the Cyclophosphamide group compared to the control group, and those of the Cyclophosphamide + Quercetin were very close to that of the control group. Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels were also significantly lower in the Cyclophosphamide group compared to the control, but they were recovered to the level of the control group by Quercetin treatment. Conclusions: Our study may prove that Quercetin can protect ovarian function against Cyclophosphamide-induced ovarian damage.

One of the natural disasters encountered mostly on barren slopes and in the spring season, in the mountainous parts and high plateaus of Turkey, in Central and Eastern Anatolia, is avalanche. Especially in heavy snow areas of the Eastern Anatolia, people living in villages and hamlets far from the city centers, lose their lives and homes, roads are closed. Energy pilons and energy transmission lines are destroyed due to heavy snow accumulation and avalanches. During snow storms, excessive snow accumulation on flat and earthen roofs, and icing on eaves adversly affect the living conditions of people. Every year, about 25 people lives are lost in avalanche accidents in urban areas, very few at winter tourism locations, and the loss of property is not clearly known. In this study, the present situation of the areal distribution of avalanche events, their distribution in time, and in this context, the recent avalanche mapping, modelling and simulation studies that have been done so far are exemplified. Based on the data available, avalanche-hazardous zones in Turkey are identified, the analysis of avalanche data for the period 1950–2019 is given. The structural and non-structural measures necessary to control the avalanche problem are defined. Opinions are shared on the necessity of coordination among the state institutions working on avalanche disaster prevention.

Textile-reinforced cementitious composites have great potential to offer novel design opportunities for thin-section structures thanks to their superior material capabilities. In this work, new cementitious composites with novel reinforcement configurations are developed, which have superior mechanical properties. The cementitious composites contain inclined through-the-thickness reinforcements, and their enhanced performance on thin-section material hardening under flexural loading is demonstrated. Furthermore, a new practical FE modeling approach is proposed that involves the combined use of multiple cohesive regions and 1D reinforcement elements that pass through these regions with a bilinear material law. This approach provides a new computationally efficient modelling framework whereby reinforcement pull-out during hardening is readily captured without resorting to computationally demanding interface laws between the reinforcement and the cementititous matrix. The model can model enhanced hardening of new configurations and provides comparable results with the experimental findings. The model can be used in the modelling and design of novel cementitious composites with engineered reinforcement configurations. Overall, this study aims to open up new avenues for the smart material design of cementitious composites with novel structural reinforcements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background This study aims to investigate the histopathological and analgesic effects of intrathecal administration of dexmedetomidine, preservative-free racemic ketamine, and magnesium sulfate in Sprague Dawley rats. This study included 40 male Sprague Dawley rats weighing between 240 and 260 g. After the intrathecal catheterization, the rats were randomly divided into four groups. Following the baseline measurements, no drugs were administered in the control group (group C). Simultaneously, 0.02 ml (1 μgr/kg) of dexmedetomidine was administered in group D, 0.02 ml (1 mg/kg) preservative-free racemic ketamine in group K and 0.02 ml (0.05 mg/kg) magnesium sulfate in group M via intrathecal route. Concomitantly, the hot-plate test was used to measure the analgesic effect of drugs. For histopathological evaluation, the rats were sacrificed to obtain the medulla spinalis. Results The hot-plate test revealed that the mean response time was 6.3 ± 1.2 s in baseline measurements without medication. However, prolongation in the mean response times of the drug-administered groups to the hot-plate test was also observed. Upon histopathological examination, myelin degeneration was detected in all study groups. No inflammation was observed in rats in group D, whereas inflammation was noted in only two rats in group K. Concerning the presence of red neurons, the only group that differed from the control group belonged to group K. Conclusions Dexmedetomidine, preservative-free racemic ketamine, and magnesium sulfate have an analgesic effect when administered intrathecally in rats. Of these drugs, preservative-free racemic ketamine stands out as the most histopathologically safe drug.

Holoprosencephaly is a disorder of cleavage failure or incomplete differentiation of the forebrain structures. Chromosomal anomalies and environmental teratogenic factors play a role in its development. We reported 22 cases of holoprosencephaly diagnosed between the years 2011-2020 in our clinic.

Тасқа қашалған «Күлтегін», «Білге қаған», «Тоныкөк» туындыларында (VIIIIX ғғ.) көк түріктердің дүние туралы түсінігі, наным-сенімі мен әдет-ғұрыптары, басынан кешкен қилы кезеңдері мен мықты мемлекет құрудағы жеке тұлғалардың орны сипатталады. Тарихи-шежірелік жырлардағы көне түркілік дүниетанымды анықтауда «Тәңірі» концептісінің орны ерекше. Жарылқаушы Көк Тәңірі олардың бойына ұлы Түрік мемлекетін құруда айрықша қуат, күш-жігер, жауынгерлік рух берген. Мемлекетаралық дипломатия, мемлекет іргесін нығайтудағы жеңісті жорықтар, дара тұлғалардың мемлекет іргесін нығайтудағы ерекше қызметтері мен олардың өмірден өтуі, бүкілхалықтық деңгейде аза тұтуы, наным-сенімдері мен әдет-ғұрыптары, тіршілік ортасы, табиғатқа қатысы суреттелген.Мақалада сюжеттік байланыстар негізінде «Тәңірі», «Мемлекет», «Қаған», «Батыр», «Ел бірлігі», «Аруақ», тағы басқа микроконцептілер талданады.Уақыттың күрделі сипаты, ел бірлігін сақтаудағы ақылдың қуаты, жау мемлекетке қарсы күрес идеологиясы, тағы басқа белгілер сараланып, ежелгі түркілік «Әлем» концептісінің өзіндік ерекшеліктері қарастырылған. «Білге қаған» жыры мен «Күлтегін» жырында ұқсастық пен ортақ авторлық қолтаңба, пайымдау байқалады.Баяндалатын жорықтар сарынында жақындықтың болуы – жыр қаһармандарының қатар өмір кешуімен, жорықтарға бірлесе аттануымен байланысты. «Білге қаған» жырынан байқалатын басты сипаттың бірі – ата-баба, ағайын-туыс – ұрпақ арасындағы байланыстың аса құрметтелуі. Ежелгі түрік дәстүр-салтында аруақты сыйлау, құрметтеу орныққаны жырда нақтылана түседі. «Тоныкөк» жырында Түрік қағанатының мемлекет болып қалыптасуындағы тарихи кезеңдері баяндалады. Жырда Тоныкөк ұзақ жасаған, ақылман, тек кеңесші ғана емес, қағанға түрік елінің ел болып қалыптасуына өлшеусіз үлес қосқан, қаһарман болып суреттеледі.

With the rapid developments in technology, training of pre-service teachers in terms of technology integration has become a crucial issue for all stakeholders of education. However, it is important to investigate the relationships among pre-service teachers' teaching beliefs, skills, and educational technology integration competencies before training pre-service teachers of all fields. Within the scope of this objective, a model was proposed to investigate the relations among pre-service teachers' epistemological beliefs, conceptions of teaching and learning (COTL), and educational technology integration competencies. As for the participants, 1499 pre-service teachers enrolled at the School of Education at Northwestern region of Turkey participated in the study. An Educational Technology Integration Competencies Scale, Epistemological Beliefs Scale, and COTL Scale, which were developed by the researchers, were utilized to collect the data. At the end of the study, it was found that there were significant relations between pre-service teachers' beliefs (epistemological beliefs and COTL) and their educational technology integration competencies, which is parallel with the findings of the studies in the literature.

Melatonin (N‐acetyl‐5‐methoxytryptamine, MLT) is suggested as a preventive agent and potential therapeutic option for breast cancer via its antioxidant as well as anticancer effects by modulating estrogen dependent and independent pathways. However, its rapid metabolic inactivation led scientists to discover novel MLT analogues. Therefore, a series of new indole‐based hydrazide/hydrazone derivatives were synthesized and characterized as MLT analogues in the present study. The initial aim is to investigate the cytotoxicity of novel 1‐ethyl indole hydrazone derivatives against two human breast cancer cells (MCF‐7 and MDA‐MB‐231) as well as a non‐tumorigenic human breast epithelial cell (MCF‐10A). Selective cytotoxic compounds for cancer cells are further investigated for their effects on selected targets; agonist/antagonist activity on estrogen receptor (ER) and inhibitory effects on aromatase and CYP1B1. Their potential antioxidant activity was also investigated by both cell based and cell free in vitro assays. Possible binding of the compounds to the selected targets is also explored by molecular modelling studies. Nonsubstituted compound E1 inhibited human aromatase and the CYP1B1 enzyme with IC50 values of 0.89 μM and 0.5 μM, respectively. Compounds EI 4 and EI 11 exhibited ER antagonist activity with IC50 values of 2.88 μM and 5.29 μM, respectively. Additionally, both EI 4 and EI 11 inhibited CYP1B1 enzyme within 60–100 nanomolar range. In conclusion among 19 tested derivatives EI 1, EI 4 and EI 11 affected either one or more targets besides their selective cytotoxic effect for MCF‐7 cells suggesting that they can be promising candidates in prevention/treatment of ER‐positive breast cancer. Further studies are needed to elucidate their metabolism, in vivo effects, and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cisplatin is a well-known cancer chemotherapeutic agent but how extensively long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) expression is modulated by cisplatin is unknown. It is imperative to employ a comprehensive approach to obtain a better account of cisplatin-mediated changes in the expression of lncRNAs. In this study, we used a transcriptomics approach to profile lncRNAs in cisplatin-treated HeLa cells, which resulted in identification of 10,214 differentially expressed lncRNAs, of which 2,500 were antisense lncRNAs. For functional analyses, we knocked down one of the cisplatin inducible lncRNAs, death receptor 5 antisense (DR5-AS) lncRNA, which resulted in a morphological change in HeLa cell shape without inducing any cell death. A second round of transcriptomics-based profiling revealed differential expression of genes associated with immune system, motility and cell cycle in DR5-AS knockdown HeLa cells. Cellular analyses showed that DR5-AS reduced cell proliferation and caused a cell cycle arrest at S and G2/M phases. Moreover, DR5-AS knockdown reduced the invasive capacity of HeLa cells in zebrafish xenograft model. These results suggest that cisplatin-mediated pleiotropic effects, such as reduction in cell proliferation, metastasis and cell cycle arrest, may be mediated by lncRNAs.