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This study aimed to develop the "Students' Perception of Instructional Feedback Scale" (SPIFS) determining a framework related to the perception of instructional feedback by students. The sequential exploratory mixed method was used in the study. The study was conducted during the instructional design course offered to sophomores in the Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology at two different universities. Accordingly, firstly a scale consisting of 31 items with Likert-type responses was prepared based on the literature review. Validity and reliability analyses of the scale were completed with a total of 231 participants. After necessary steps were applied in exploratory factor analysis (EFA, n=100), a structure with three factors and 19 items was established. The internal consistency analysis (Cronbach's alpha), which was applied to the factors obtained and the whole scale, showed the scale to be reliable (whole scale [alpha]=0.85, 1st factor (mastery, 8 items) [alpha]=0.92, 2nd factor (positive affect, 6 items) [alpha]=0.90, and 3rd factor (negative affect, 5 items) [alpha]=0.96). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed (n=131). The structure established through EFA was tested via CFA. The results indicated that the developed structure had acceptable fit (RMSEA=0.08, CFI=0.91, and RMR=0.03).

This study aimed to define the relationships between the factors affecting the learning processes of participants in project-based courses. The study sample consisted of 132 participants who had taken an instructional design course offered at the undergraduate level. The MSLQ, SAGE, and SPIF were used as data collection tools. The findings showed that the conflicts caused by the individuals with negative affect about instructional feedback diminished the quality of product and process during group work. Positive affect was found to be directly affected by "extrinsic goal orientation," which is one of the motivation variables.

Background : : Tumor budding is a negative prognostic factor for many solid malignancies. We investigated the relationship between patients' clinicopathological characteristics and tumor budding, as well as the effect of budding level on prognosis. Methods : : In this retrospective, cross-sectional, and descriptive study at a tertiary university hospital, 104 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma were divided into two groups according to whether they had a high (< 10 buds) or low (< 10 buds) level of budding. The patients were retrospectively evaluated. Results : : Sixty-two patients had a low level of budding and 42 had a high level of budding. The mean time from the first diagnosis to the last followup was significantly longer (P < 0.05) in the low-budding group (27 months) than in the high-budding group (17 months). As the T stage, N stage, grade, and size of the tumor increased, the proportion of patients with high budding was found to be significantly higher (P < 0.05). High tumor budding, an age of 60 or over at diagnosis, a low body mass index, high N stage, presence of lymphovascular invasion, and recurrence were associated with overall survival. Conclusion : : Our study supports that budding is a negative prognostic factor in gastric cancer.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of rapid maxillary expansion (RME) on metabolic activity in the temporomandibular joints (TMJs) of young adult patients using scintigraphy.Methods: The images of the TMJs were obtained from the retrospective scintigraphic images taken from 17 adult females (between 16.1 and 18.8 years of age, mean age of 17.3 ± 0.86 years) who had non-functional bilateral posterior crossbite, deep palatal vault, and dental crowding, and had been treated with RME. Bone scintigraphs were collected at 3 time intervals: at the beginning of treatment (T1), during the opening of the mid-palatal suture (T2), and at the end of screw activation (T3). Alteration in bone activity in the TMJ regions were evaluated in sagittal and transaxial slices. To determine the differences between the intervals, repeated analysis of variance and Bonferroni multiple comparison tests were applied.Results: In the right and left TMJ regions, significantly increased metabolic activity was exhibited between T1 and T2 (P < .001). At the time of opening the maxillary mid-palatal suture, the metabolic activity increased by approximately 60% compared to the initial status. At the end of the active expansion period (T3), the change in metabolic activity was approximately 20% lower compared to T2.Conclusions: Metabolic activity intensified in the regions of interest in the TMJ during RME. After mid-palatal suture opening, the activity noticeably decreased (T2-T3). This decrease in bone activity suggests that the TMJ complex adapts to RME forces.

For this study, a scale was developed to measure the factors that may affect the gamification process in undergraduate education. The sequential exploratory mixed method was used to recruit the required data. Through the use of convenient sampling, 91 pre-service teachers participated in this study. Kahoot!, one of the online game platforms, was applied by the researchers to create a gamified learning environment, and a 10-week course plan was implemented. To collect the qualitative data, unstructured observations were undertaken each week. All the qualitative data were analysed via the content analysis method. Then, a scale initially including 26 items was developed based on the observation results and related literature. The quantitative data were gathered using this scale and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was applied to examine the factor structure of the scale. The observation results were categorised under the following six themes: learning effect, expected outcome, competition, entertainment, engagement and intention. After required EFAs were implemented, three items were removed; thus, the final scale consisted of 23 items, and six factors that affect the gamification process in undergraduate education were revealed. The results concluded that the developed scale to measure the factors affecting the gamification process was remarkably valid and reliable.

The numbers of project competitions and interest in this kind of competition have been steadily increasing in Turkey. Accordingly, it is important to determine what challenges teachers and students may face while preparing themselves for project competitions, so that recommendations may be made to overcome these challenges. This study investigated challenges faced by secondary school students and their project advisors. The teachers' own solutions for the difficulties that were encountered are presented at the end. Both quantitative and qualitative research approaches were used in the data collection and analysis processes. One hundred twenty-one teachers participated in this study. The identified challenges include the students' lack of requisite information and skills, insufficient financial and technical support, the students' lack of interest, and problems with cooperation from universities. The recommended solutions include improving financial and technical support, revising education programs to be more project-based, and strengthening cooperation with universities.

Peptidoglycan is a universal component of bacterial walls that exerts various biological activities, including tumoricidal effect. Anti-cancer effect of various peptidoglycan fractions and their derivates is different. Muramyl pentapeptide (MPP) is the most complete building block of peptidoglycan. MPP can stimulate cell reactivity as well as other muropeptides. In the present study, we evaluated inhibitory MPP effect on viability and migration of glioblastoma cells U373MG. As markers of cell reactivity we determined the amounts of proteins PARP1 and NF-kB. MPP exposure induced decrease in viability and migration activity of glioblastoma cells. Besides, MPP treatment increased the amounts of PARP1 and NF-kB in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, NADH level in exposed glioblastoma cells was depleted as compared to control. Thus, MPP exhibits tumoricidal effect in glioblastoma cells U373MG via depletion NADH content and consequently metabolic energy level. Moreover, upregulation of the amounts of PARP1 and NF-kB in glioblastoma cells could be an important mechanism of the inhibition of cell migrative capability and the progress of the tumor. The obtained results evidenced that muramyl pentapeptide could initiate lack of migration via metabolic energy expenditure as a result of gliotypic reactivity. Further studies are actual and extremely required to clarify tumoricidal effect of this muropeptide in glia-derived tumors.

Stress has a negative impact on cognitive functioning and occupational well-being. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship among perceived stress, cognitive complaints and work engagement in public employees from Córdoba, Argentina. In this cross-sectional study, self-report questionnaires were administered to 240 participants. Spanish versions of the following instruments were used: Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), Memory Failures in Everyday (MFE), Executive Complaint Questionnaire (ECQ). Statistical analysis included ANOVA, path analysis, and multiple logistic regression. Stressed workers showed lower work engagement and more cognitive complaints, even after adjusting for demographic variables. Negative associations were also observed between work engagement and cognitive complaints, suggesting that cognitive difficulties are related to engagement. Given the relation among stress, cognition, and work engagement, it is important to consider these factors to foster workers’ health and work productivity.

This study proposes a model for determining preservice teachers' intentions to adopt mobile learning from a motivational perspective. Data were collected from 276 preservice teachers and analyzed by structural equation modeling. A model capable of explaining 87% of the variance in preservice teachers' intention to adopt mobile learning was developed. According to this model, preservice teachers' attitudes and cognitive needs have an influence on their behavioral intention while their affective and social needs do not. The fourth sentence of the Abstract has been edited to align it to the Discussion section following the re-analysis. Their social needs are influenced by their affective and cognitive needs. In addition, affective needs have an influence on their cognitive needs. Therefore, focusing on mobile learning's practices and their roles in preservice teacher training are important to develop effective ICT course contents.

A Bezier curve is significant with its control points. When control points are given, the Bezier curve can be written using De Casteljau's algorithm. An important property of Bezier curve is that every coordinate function is a polynomial. Suppose that a curve $ \alpha (t) $ is a curve which coordinate functions are polynomial. Can we find points that make the curve $ \alpha (t) $ as Bezier curve? This article presents a method for finding points which present $ \alpha (t) $ as a Bezier curve.

The complications of both first and second types of diabetes mellitus patients are important cause of decline in quality of life and mortality worldwide. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a widespread complication that affects almost 60% of patients with prolonged (at least 10–15 years) diabetes. The critical role of glial cells has been shown in retinopathy initiation in the last decades. Furthermore, glial reactivity and inflammation could be key players in early pathogenesis of DR. Despite the large amount of research data, the approaches of effective DR therapy remain unclear. The progress of DR is accompanied by pro-inflammatory and pro-oxidative changes in retinal cells including astrocytes and Muller cells. Glial reactivity is a key pathogenetic factor of various disorders in neural tissue. Fullerene C60 nanoparticles were confirmed for both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capability. In the presented study glioprotective efficacy of water-soluble hydrated fullerene C60 (C60HyFn) was tested in a STZ-diabetes model during 12 weeks. Exposure of the STZ-diabetic rat group to C60HyFn ameliorated the astrocyte reactivity which was determined via S100β and PARP1 overexpression. Moreover, C60HyFn induced the decrease of TNFα production in the retina of STZ-diabetic rats. By contrast, the treatment with C60HyFn of the normal control rat group didn’t change the content of all abovementioned markers of astrogliosis and inflammation. Thus, diabetes-induced abnormalities in the retina were suppressed via the anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and glioprotective effects of C60HyFn at low doses. The presented results demonstrate that C60HyFn can ensure viability of retinal cells viability through glioprotective effect and could be a new therapeutic nano-strategy of DR treatment.

The aim of the study is to examine undergraduate students' awareness of metacognition, the metacognitive strategies they use in their learning and their learning performance in pre-class asynchronous activity in a flipped classroom. The sample consisted of 47 undergraduate students. Eleven students were not included in this study since they did not participate in all quizzes and most of the metacognitive strategy activities. Metacognitive Awareness Inventory and Metacognitive Strategies Evaluation Activities were used as data collection tools. The results showed that Computer Education and Instructional Technology students' metacognitive awareness was at a high level and their metacognitive strategy levels and learning performances differed weekly. Post hoc results indicated no difference between metacognitive strategy and learning performance in the first three weeks. However, the results of the first 3 weeks differed from those of the 4th and 5th weeks. In addition, our regression analysis result indicated that using metacognitive strategies predicted 80% of students' learning performance. This rate shows the importance of using metacognitive strategies for the learning process in pre-class asynchronous activity in the flipped classroom.

This study proposes a model for determining preservice teachers' intentions to use information and communication technology (ICT) in future lessons. Data were collected from 21 preservice teachers via interview in the first stage of the study and from 2904 preservice teachers from 16 different universities via a designed scale in the second stage of the study. Data were analyzed through structural equation modeling. A model capable of explaining 85% of variance in preservice teachers' intentions to use ICT in their future lessons was developed. Perceived usefulness (PU) was seen to have the highest influence on their intentions, while facilitating conditions, social influence, and anxiety had a low direct effect. In addition, these factors were found to have a high indirect influence on intention through other factors such as PU, perceived ease-of-use, and efficacy.

The use of mobile devices that have high technical capabilities has increased in the last years. These devices are appropriate instructional tools reflecting the trends in modern education by providing instant access to information that is used with mobile learning purposes. As is in many areas of education, m-learning has been becoming widespread in medical education. Therefore, medical students’ readiness for m-learning is highly important. This study aims to investigate how medical students’ beliefs influence their behavioral intention to use mobile devices for learning purposes. The 376 medical students (222 juniors, 154 sophomores; aged between 18 and 24 years; 214 males, 162 females) participated in this study. All participants had mobile devices. Data were collected through a survey. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the findings. The proposed model, which is created based on the theory of planned behavior, was tested in the study. Based on the findings, the medical students’ perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, learning autonomy, intention to use, perceived self-efficacy toward mobile devices, and m-learning are found to be high level. However, according to medical students, instructors’ readiness to apply m-learning has been found to be low level. The findings showed that the proposed model explains medical students’ behavioral intention to use m-learning reasonably well. The behavioral intention is explained with a variance of 76% in the model. Subjective norm is the main indicator of behavioral intention, followed by perceived behavioral control and attitude. The proposed model in the study could be useful to design m-learning applications, environments, and implementation plans effectively in medical education.

Cadmium (Cd) is a heavy metal which is widespread in various environmental components. Moreover several occupational diseases have the complications that are related to Cd cytotoxicity. Low doses of Cd exposure could induce pathogenetic disturbances in several sensitive cells as result of its long biological half-life and accumulation in vital tissue types. Prolonged Cd exposure was determined as main factor in accumulation of this metal ion over time in the liver, kidneys and neural tissue cells. The neurotoxic effect of Cd was presented in several articles which reported both in vivo and in vitro study. One of the main causes of Cd neurotoxicity is the ability of this ion to increase the permeability of the blood brain barrier. Despite a focus of attention on Cd cytotoxicity over the last few decades, the effect of Cd in neural tissue cells has been presented in a limited number of articles. The neurotoxic effect of Cd is accompanied by biochemical changes as well as a lack of functional activity of the central nervous system. Taking into account that the cytotoxic effect of Cd is associated with oxidative stress, inflammation and selective cell death, antioxidants could be used to protect neural tissue cells against both chronic and acute Cd exposure. Antioxidants protect diverse cell types against metal induced cytotoxicity. Curcumin is a natural polyphenol which exhibits antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect. Soluble forms of cucrcumin can penetrate the blood brain barrier and protect neural tissue cells against detrimental effects of cytotoxic compounds. Glial cells are the most numerous cell population in CNS. Astrocytes possess the ability to protect the neuronal cells against cytotoxicity and maintain CNS functions. The cytoskeleton of astrocytes is constructed with glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). GFAP is involved in essential functions of astrocytes and reflects astrocyte reactivity. The molecular mechanisms of the neurotoxic effect of Cd on glial cytoskeleton remain unknown. Primary astrocyte cell culture was used as model to assess the gliotoxic effect of Cd as well as the potency of low doses of soluble curcumin to ameliorate the neurotoxic effect of Cd. The obtained results demonstrated depletion of GFAP and glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase (G6PD) in astrocytes treated with 10 µM Cd. The exposure to 5 µM curcumin ameliorated the expression both of GFAP and G6PD in Cd suppressed astrocytes. Moreover, low doses of soluble curcumin significantly prevented the detrimental effects of Cd on cell viability and indices of oxidative stress. The obtained results are evidence that soluble forms of curcumin improve astrocyte viability, cytoskeleton depletion and glucose utilization pathway. Thus, soluble curcumin possesses a neuroprotective effect directed on astrocyte cytoskeleton and metabolic energy production.

La evaluación audiocognitiva mediante el test de dígitos dicóticos ofrece la estimulación selectiva contralateral de vía auditiva con supresion de la ipsilateral mostrando diferencias interhemisfericas en tareas concurrentes. Con el objetivo de reconocer el patron de respuestas, orden de recuperación de los digitos escuchados y latencias se modifico el test original con el agregado de un registro de una pista de audio de las respuestas obtenidas. La muestra incluye sujetos con antecedentes en especializacion auditiva ligado a la musica y a la escucha comprensiva de segundas lenguas, normoacúsicos, sin patologías otologicas, ni neurologicas. Se utilizó 20 set de pares de digitos dicóticos con una grabacion digital para el registro de las respuestas del sujeto. Los resultado revelan: ventaja de oido derecho tanto en el patron de respuestas correctas o no y en el orden en que se recupera la información entregada. En cuanto al patron de latencias intrasets se observa un aumento hacia el cuarto digito repetido/recuperado y con mayor desacierto. La disminucion de las latencias intratest en la segunda parte del test sugieren entrenamiento positivo. Estos analisis con las modificaciones panteadas permiten nuevas perspectivas y aplicaciones a las existentes con las pruebas comportamentales.