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Educational assessment tests are designed to measure the same psychological constructs over extended periods. This feature is important considering that test results are often used for admittance to university programs. To ensure fair assessments, especially for those whose results weigh heavily in selection decisions, it is necessary to collect evidence demonstrating that the assessments are not biased and to confirm that the scores obtained from different test forms have statistical equality. Therefore, test equating has important functions as it prevents bias generated by differences in the difficulty levels of different test forms, allows the scores obtained from different test forms to be reported on the same scale, and ensures that the reported scores communicate the same meaning. In this study, these important functions were evaluated using real college admission test data from different test administrations. The kernel equating method under the non-equivalent groups with covariates design was applied to determine whether the scores that were obtained from different periods and measured the same psychological constructs were statistically equivalent. The non-equivalent groups with covariates design was specifically used because the test groups of the admission test are non-equivalent and there are no anchor items. Results from the analyses showed that the test forms had different score distributions and that the relationship was non-linear. Thus, the equating procedure was adjusted to eliminate these differences and thereby allowing the tests to be used interchangeably.

This study investigates major challenges encountered by Syrian refugee youth in public high schools in Turkey, focusing on three sources of assessment: the refugee students themselves and their parents and educators. Based on qualitative interpretive research methodology, twenty-three individual semi-structured interviews were conducted. The study simultaneously hears the voices of the Syrian refugee students as well as those of their parents, teachers, and principals. Making friends among Turkish peers, social integration in school and the host society, discrimination, feeling lonely or even depressed, and other displacement problems are the crucial issues identified by this study. While most of the teachers and principals interviewed focused more on academic problems as the main reason for the deterioration of the majority of Syrian youth's education, refugee students and their parents claimed that the psycho-social challenges are more difficult and thus problematic.

To have a successful school life, a child must be able to make a healthy start to this period both socially and mentally. For this, children's views about school have a strong potential to affect their entire lives. The research aimed to examine the views of 4-5-year-old children who have not started any formal school yet. The study group consisted of 12 children aged between 4-5 years who have not started kindergarten from the province of Rize in Turkey. For the study; an open-ended, concentrated interview and drawing methods were applied with a small group. The data obtained from the group interviews with the children and the interpretation of the drawings were analyzed using the descriptive analysis technique. Based on the data, it was concluded that the family and the media are among the strong information sources of children about school and that positive features are frequently repeated. Negative features included crowding, rules, etc. The results also revealed that children who have no school experience and those who attend a pre-school education institution full-time have similar views about the school.

Purpose: Turkey offers higher education opportunities to an increasing number of international students. However, academicians have encountered some problems while teaching international students. The aim of this study is to identify the problems encountered by academicians in the education of international students and to recommend solutions to the problems. Method: This research was conducted with the qualitative research method. The study group consists of 16 academicians having international students in their classrooms. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview form. These data were analyzed with inductive content analysis. Findings: According to the findings, academicians have experienced various problems such as language barrier, asking for favours/tolerance, not achieving the learning outcomes, not participating in classes, systemic challenges, and extra workload. However, the inclusion of international students in higher education has benefits like learning about different educational systems, familiarizing themselves with different cultures, internationalization of universities and transfer of educational knowledge and experience. Implications for Research and Practice: This study was limited to views of academicians working at state universities. This study is believed to be helpful for practitioners as it offers concrete solution recommendations. It is suggested that a Turkish proficiency certificate should be asked for the enrollment of international students. Also, a support unit for the academicians should be established to consult whenever they have difficulty in the education process of international students.

Games and exercises, which have an important place in the life of the individual in every developmental period of humans as a social being contribute to the communication and interaction of the individual with the environment, to the development of social cognitive skills such as problem-solving, analytical thinking, creative thinking, and reasoning as well as positively affecting the physical and mental development. Individuals, who try to survive in a mentally and physically challenging and demanding work pace or by being inactive for a long time in front of a computer screen, spend their energy through games, exercises, and physical activities, and can be discharged by relaxing. In this respect, it is possible to evaluate the entire games, exercises, and physical activities as a driving force to gather energy again after a tiring work tempo or as a source of motivation to move away from mental and physical fatigue. It is considered that performing activities such as exercises and playing games by individuals, considering them as a way of life and evaluating the factors, which keep individuals away from these activities, can be possible by explaining individual perceptions on these issues. In the light of these data, the meanings and values associated with the concepts of games and exercises by academics and engineers who live in different cultural structures, who cannot allocate adequate time for games and exercises in a compulsory work tempo, or who can acquire internal and external motivation via games and exercises as well as exercise frequency and playing times. The present study was conducted to examine the perceptions of academics and engineers on the concepts of game and exercise via metaphor analysis in June 2019 with the participation of scientists, academicians, and engineers who participated in the 2019 International Microwave Symposium (IMS) at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Boston, MA, USA, which was held with the participation of many scientists, academicians, and engineers from all over the world as a total of 135 participants, 56 women and 79 men, who agreed to participate in the study voluntarily, made up the study group. The metaphor analysis form that was prepared by the researcher was used in obtaining the data to reveal the perceptions of the participants about the concepts of game and exercise. The participants were asked to complete the statements with the statements of "Game is like … because …" and "Exercise is like … because …" in addition to their age, gender, nationality, residence, occupation, perceived income status, and educational status. After the data were analyzed, various metaphors for the concepts of game and exercise were detected. Also, different game playing times and exercise frequencies emerged as a result of the self-evaluation of each participant.

Background and objectivePancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is characterized by the occurrence of pathogenic variants in BRCA1/2 in 5-6% of patients. Biallelic loss of BRCA1/2 enriches for response to platinum agents and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 inhibitors. There is a dearth of evidence on the mechanism of inactivation of the wild-type BRCA1 allele in PDAC tumors with a germline BRCA1 (gBRCA1) pathogenic or likely pathogenic variant (P/LPV). Herein, we examine promotor hypermethylation as a "second hit" mechanism in patients with gBRCA1-PDAC.MethodsWe evaluated patients with PDAC who underwent Memorial Sloan Kettering-Integrated Mutation Profiling of Actionable Cancer Targets (MSK-IMPACT) somatic and germline testing from an institutional database. DNA isolated from tumor tissue and matched normal peripheral blood were sequenced by MSK-IMPACT. In patients with gBRCA1-PDAC, we examined the somatic BRCA1 mutation status and promotor methylation status of the tumor BRCA1 allele via a methylation array analysis. In patients with sufficient remaining DNA, a second methylation analysis by pyrosequencing was performed.ResultsOf 1012 patients with PDAC, 19 (1.9%) were identified to harbor a gBRCA1 P/LPV. Fifteen patients underwent a methylation array and the mean percentage of BRCA1 promotor methylation was 3.62%. In seven patients in whom sufficient DNA was available, subsequent pyrosequencing confirmed an unmethylated BRCA1 promotor. Loss of heterozygosity was detected in 12 of 19 (63%, 95% confidence interval 38-84) patients, demonstrating loss of heterozygosity is the major molecular mechanism of BRCA1 inactivation in PDAC. Two (10.5%) cases had a somatic BRCA1 mutation.ConclusionsIn patients with gBRCA1-P/LPV-PDAC, loss of heterozygosity is the main inactivating mechanism of the wild-type BRCA1 allele in the tumor, and methylation of the BRCA1 promoter is a distinctly uncommon occurrence.

While significant progress has been made in improving the wellbeing of women and girls around the world, a gender gap still exists between men and women which is very evident in Ghana. Gender inequalities continue to persist in Ghana because of cultural gender norms that exalt and favor men and put women in subordinate and subservient roles. These cultural gender norms hinder women's development and widen gender inequality between men and women in different system levels of society. Therefore, there is a need to examine the influence of these cultural gender norms on women's lives using a systems framework to capture a full picture of women's experiences at these systemic levels of society. In this paper, we use Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems multilevel approach to examine the impact of these cultural gender norms on women's lives at the different system levels. We conducted a desk review of studies published in sub-Saharan Africa focused on cultural gender norms and gender inequality. The findings showed that the impact of cultural gender norms on gender inequality at the levels of the four social systems (microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem) are interconnected, creating and widening the inequality gap between men and women. Cultural gender norms influence gender role socialization in the home, which then transmits to the school and religious institutions as the mesosystem. At the school level, cultural gender norms act as a mesosystem manifest through discriminatory classroom practices, gender role assignment of school responsibilities, and gender role representations in textbooks. In Christianity and Islam, cultural gender norms create doctrines that enforce men's domination over women, and, in the workplace, cultural gender norms have gendered labor by defining a man's occupation and limiting women to domestic and low-paying occupations. The mass media is the exosystem that displays images of women to fit cultural gender norms of what is defined as acceptable for women. Finally, the macrosystem is the overall sociocultural norms that have been accepted by society that perpetuate discriminatory practices against women. Keywords: Cultural gender norms, Ecological systems theory, Gender inequality, Ghana, Introduction Human development is the capability of all individuals, irrespective of gender, to have dignity, self-determination, freedom from discrimination, good health, and access to knowledge, human security, a decent standard [...]