Search

The purpose of this study was to examine the factorial invariance of the ASIS (Anadolu Sak Intelligence Scale) across gender. Raw scores from the ASIS standardization study (N = 4641) were used in the analyses. Factorial invariance was analyzed by gender across three age groups: 4-7 (N = 2528), 8-9 (N = 848), and 10-12 (N = 1265) using the Multisample Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Six models were developed from unconstrained to more constrained to test the factorial invariance. Each model tested one hypothesis. The findings showed that the second-order g model of the ASIS was invariant in all age groups. In addition, the first-order and second-order factor loadings and g variance were invariant across gender. A partial subtest intercept invariance was found for ages 4-7. Findings imply that ASIS factor scores mean the same latent variable for boys and girls in different age groups.

The main objective of this study is to investigate the relationships between digital distraction, perceived learning, and general satisfaction in emergency remote teaching. Correlational design, one of the quantitative research methods, was used for the study. The study sample consists of 1532 university students in a Turkish university during COVID-19. The study results show a significant relationship between digital distraction, general satisfaction, and perceived learning. Digital distraction is negatively related to general satisfaction and perceived learning, and general satisfaction is positively related to perceived learning. When the independent demographic variables were analyzed, digital distraction scores were higher for females, those not working in any job, not participate orientation training, and not following the live class and watching it later. In addition, it was revealed that as the age of the students decreased, the digital distraction scores increased. It was found that digital distraction variables, the amount of digital distraction, sending instant messages, checking the time, boredom, sharing social media, and system usability were significant predictors of digital distraction.

Summary: Ganglions are the most frequently seen soft-tissue tumors in the hand. Nerve compression due to ganglion cysts at the wrist is rare. We report 2 ganglion cysts arising from triangular fibrocartilage complex, one of which caused ulnar nerve compression proximal to the Guyonʼs canal, leading to ulnar neuropathy. Ganglion cysts seem unimportant, and many surgeons refrain from performing a general hand examination.

Summary: Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common and well-differentiated cancer of the thyroid. Unlike most cancers, spread to local lymph node does not worsen the survival rate of PTC, and complete resection of the metastases seems to be important and may have favorable effects on the prognosis. A 33-year-old woman was referred to our clinic with a mass involving the right angulus mandible. Incisional biopsy of the mass diagnosed follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma. Right hemimandibulectomy was performed and reconstructed with costochondral rib graft. The patient survived for 5 years after the hemimandibulectomy. Metastases to the oral cavity indicate a grave prognosis, but PTC has relatively indolent biological behavior; long-term survival is usually possible even in patients with metastatic disease.

Summary: Streptococcus mitis is a commensal organism of the human oropharynx that rarely causes infection in healthy individuals. Herein, we describe a previously healthy 35-year-old woman who presented with acute pyogenic flexor tenosynovitis of the left index finger due to S. mitis infection. The patient’s infection was treated successfully via surgical and medical interventions, and during follow-up, it was determined that she was complement component C3 deficient. Tenosynovitis is an emergent clinical syndrome that can result in permanent disability or amputation. To the best of our knowledge, this case report is the first to describe tenosynovitis due to S. mitis; in addition, it highlights the importance of initiating therapy with antibiotics that are effective against this rare pathogen.

Values are the standards that direct our beliefs and behaviors regarding the forms of proper behavior or the purposes of life. The purpose of this research is to examine the views and opinions of university students studying in various departments on values. 411 students studying at various departments of Gümüshane University in the academic year of 2020-2021 constitute the study group. In the research, the Personal Details Form prepared by the researcher and interview questions about values were used as data collection tools. The descriptive analysis method was used in the data analysis. Based on the results of the study, university students understand values as love-respect, customs, family, respect, love, traditions, culture, importance-worth, religious values, national values, moral-ethics, rule, integrity-honesty, unity-cooperation, patriotism, economy, tolerance, cleanliness, friendship, help, self-control, responsibility, law-justice, solidarity, and freedom. Students consider respect, love and integrity, as the most important values for them, respectively. In addition to the foregoing, all university students stated that they attach importance to values, and the vast majority of them stated that they live consistently with values.

There are various complications of prosthetic valvular surgeries. Among them, leaflet perforation should be emphasized and brought to mind when there have been eccentric valvular regurgitation. In this report, we presented 2 cases of iatrogenic aortic and mitral valve leaflet perforation after prosthetic valve surgeries.

Retroperitoneal sarcomas (RPS) are rare tumors accounting for 1%–2% of all solid malignancies and 10%–20% of sarcomas. Surgery is the main treatment modality for patients with RPS. To date, there is no established model to predict perioperative risks for RPS patients. In this study, we evaluate the association between preoperative sarcopenia,hypoalbuminemia, and frailty and 30-dayperioperative morbidity and survival in patientswith RPS undergoing surgical resection. Ourgoal is to determine the ability of these factorsto predict surgical and oncological outcomes inthese cases.

The diagnostic yield of exome sequencing (ES) has primarily been evaluated in individuals of European ancestry, with less focus on underrepresented minority (URM) and underserved (US) patients. We evaluated the diagnostic yield of ES in a cohort of predominantly US and URM pediatric and prenatal patients suspected to have a genetic disorder. Eligible pediatric patients had multiple congenital anomalies and/or neurocognitive disabilities and prenatal patients had one or more structural anomalies, disorders of fetal growth, or fetal effusions. URM and US patients were prioritized for enrollment and underwent ES at a single academic center. We identified definitive positive or probable positive results in 201/845 (23.8%) patients, with a significantly higher diagnostic rate in pediatric (26.7%) compared to prenatal patients (19.0%) (P = 0.01). For both pediatric and prenatal patients, the diagnostic yield and frequency of inconclusive findings did not differ significantly between URM and non-URM patients or between patients with US status and those without US status. Our results demonstrate a similar diagnostic yield of ES between prenatal and pediatric URM/US patients and non-URM/US patients for positive and inconclusive results. These data support the use of ES to identify clinically relevant variants in patients from diverse populations.

BackgroundGroundbreaking studies have linked the gut microbiome with immune homeostasis and antitumor immune responses. Mounting evidence has also demonstrated an intratumoral microbiome, including in soft tissue sarcomas (STS), although detailed characterization of the STS intratumoral microbiome is limited. We sought to characterize the intratumoral microbiome in patients with STS undergoing preoperative radiotherapy and surgery, hypothesizing the presence of a distinct intratumoral microbiome with potentially clinically significant microbial signatures.MethodsWe prospectively obtained tumor and stool samples from adult patients with non-metastatic STS using a strict sterile collection protocol to minimize contamination. Metagenomic classification was used to estimate abundance using genus and species taxonomic levels across all classified organisms, and data were analyzed with respect to clinicopathologic factors.ResultsFifteen patients were enrolled. Most tumors were located at an extremity (67%) and were histologic grade 3 (87%). 40% were well-differentiated/dedifferentiated liposarcoma histology. With a median follow-up of 24 months, 4 (27%) patients developed metastases, and 3 (20%) died. Despite overwhelming human DNA (>99%) intratumorally, we detected a small but consistent proportion of bacterial DNA (0.02-0.03%) in all tumors, including Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes, as well as viral species. In the tumor microenvironment, we observed a strong positive correlation between viral relative abundance and natural killer (NK) infiltration, and higher NK infiltration was associated with superior metastasis-free and overall survival by immunohistochemical, flow cytometry, and multiplex immunofluorescence analyses.ConclusionsWe prospectively demonstrate the presence of a distinct and measurable intratumoral microbiome in patients with STS at multiple time points. Our data suggest that the STS tumor microbiome has prognostic significance with viral relative abundance associated with NK infiltration and oncologic outcome. Additional studies are warranted to further assess the clinical impact of these findings.

Clinicians in the emergency department (ED) face challenges in concurrently assessing patients with suspected COVID-19 infection, detecting bacterial coinfection, and determining illness severity since current practices require separate workflows. Here, we explore the accuracy of the IMX-BVN-3/IMX-SEV-3 29 mRNA host response classifiers in simultaneously detecting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and bacterial coinfections and predicting clinical severity of COVID-19. A total of 161 patients with PCR-confirmed COVID-19 (52.2% female; median age, 50.0 years; 51% hospitalized; 5.6% deaths) were enrolled at the Stanford Hospital ED. RNA was extracted (2.5 mL whole blood in PAXgene blood RNA), and 29 host mRNAs in response to the infection were quantified using Nanostring nCounter. The IMX-BVN-3 classifier identified SARS-CoV-2 infection in 151 patients with a sensitivity of 93.8%. Six of 10 patients undetected by the classifier had positive COVID tests more than 9 days prior to enrollment, and the remaining patients oscillated between positive and negative results in subsequent tests. The classifier also predicted that 6 (3.7%) patients had a bacterial coinfection. Clinical adjudication confirmed that 5/6 (83.3%) of the patients had bacterial infections, i.e., Clostridioides difficile colitis (n = 1), urinary tract infection (n = 1), and clinically diagnosed bacterial infections (n = 3), for a specificity of 99.4%. Two of 101 (2.8%) patients in the IMX-SEV-3 "Low" severity classification and 7/60 (11.7%) in the "Moderate" severity classification died within 30 days of enrollment. IMX-BVN-3/IMX-SEV-3 classifiers accurately identified patients with COVID-19 and bacterial coinfections and predicted patients' risk of death. A point-of-care version of these classifiers, under development, could improve ED patient management, including more accurate treatment decisions and optimized resource utilization. IMPORTANCE We assay the utility of the single-test IMX-BVN-3/IMX-SEV-3 classifiers that require just 2.5 mL of patient blood in concurrently detecting viral and bacterial infections as well as predicting the severity and 30-day outcome from the infection. A point-of-care device, in development, will circumvent the need for blood culturing and drastically reduce the time needed to detect an infection. This will negate the need for empirical use of broad-spectrum antibiotics and allow for antibiotic use stewardship. Additionally, accurate classification of the severity of infection and the prediction of 30-day severe outcomes will allow for appropriate allocation of hospital resources.

Land Surface Temperature (LST) is an important measurement in studies related to the Earth surface’s processes. The Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument onboard the Terra spacecraft is the currently available Thermal Infrared (TIR) imaging sensor with the highest spatial resolution. This study involves the comparison of LSTs inverted from the sensor using the Split Window Algorithm (SWA), the Single Channel Algorithm (SCA) and the Planck function. This study has used the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) data to model and compare the results from the three algorithms. The data from the sensor have been processed by the Python programming language in a free and open source software package (QGIS) to enable users to make use of the algorithms. The study revealed that the three algorithms are suitable for LST inversion, whereby the Planck function showed the highest level of accuracy, the SWA had moderate level of accuracy and the SCA had the least accuracy. The algorithms produced results with Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE) of 2.29 K, 3.77 K and 2.88 K for the Planck function, the SCA and SWA respectively.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of the imagination levels of the students of the faculty of sports sciences on mental toughness. The demographic form containing personal information, the Sports Imagination Scale developed by Hall et al. (1998) and the scale adapted to Turkish by Vurgun (2010), reliability and validity study of which was carried out, were used to collect the data. It can be said that the imagination characteristics of the participants are at a good level and their mental toughness characteristics are close to the middle level. It was found that the imagination and mental toughness of the participants did not differ according to the gender variable. The imagination levels of the participants who are interested in team sports and who are engaged in individual sports do not differ significantly. When we look at the results obtained within the scope of correlation analysis in the study, it was found that there is a moderate and positive relationship between imagination and mental toughness. As a result of the regression analysis, it was found that imagination in sports has a significant positive contribution in explaining its effect on mental toughness. It can be said that the higher the level of imagination in sports, the higher the mental toughness.

Robotic education is a popular topic in recent years. There are robotic education courses from pre-K to K-12 and these courses claim that they support STEM education. However, the teacher's perception of these activities and needs for this education is the missing part of the chain. The aim of this study to find out the perceptions and suggestions of early childhood teachers about robotic education in kindergartens. This is a qualitative phenomenological study. Ten early childhood education (ECE) teachers were the participants of this study. A semi-structured interview form was developed and in-depth interviews were conducted to collect qualitative data. After that codes and themes were defined through the content analysis process. The results of this study showed that ECE teachers have a positive attitude towards robotic education in kindergarten. The current status of kindergarten, perceived advantages/disadvantages of robotic education, and ideal robotic education were the emerged themes during data analysis. According to results, ECE teachers thought that there are many needs like teacher training, materials, curriculum, infrastructure, technical support, and parent education for implementing robotic education properly in kindergartens. Also, teachers underlined that robotics education could be beneficial for motivation, knowledge, thinking skills, development, and psychomotor skills of children. Results also revealed ECE teachers' suggestions about ideal robotic education in kindergartens. Suggestions for future studies and practitioners were also included.

This paper aims to examine the opinions of gifted children, their parents, and science teachers working at the Science and Art Centre (BILSEM) regarding science education for the gifted. The present study participants, which was conducted by utilizing the phenomenology design using one of the qualitative research methods, were ten talented students, seven parents, and two science teachers working at BILSEM. The study's data were collected using semi-structured interviews held with the participants. The collected data were analyzed by adopting the data analysis process proposed by Moustakas (1994) for phenomenological studies. The study revealed that gifted students possess a mental perception of sciences in the form of life, experience, and scientific knowledge. Talented learners want to learn science by employing experiments, projects, excursions, and observations. Based on these findings, it is recommended that gifted students should be provided with an enjoyable science learning environment to make them active, have fun while learning, perform experiments, and develop projects.