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Flipped Learning Model - Learning Style Interaction: Supporting Pre-service Teachers on Science Teaching Methods and Personal Epistemologies
No full textThis study revealed how the flipped learning model interacted with the learning styles of primary pre-service teachers. In addition, the impact of the flipped model on participants' science teaching course achievement and personal epistemologies was investigated. A mixed-method research design was conducted with 27 primary pre-service teachers enrolled in a Science Teaching Course. The flipped classroom model was applied for 15 weeks. The Kolb Learning Style Inventory was distributed to categorize participants under learning styles. Midterm and final exam scores were used as an indicator of course achievement and compared with 30 primary pre-service teachers' achievement from the previous semester. Lesson plans of the participants were analyzed qualitatively to investigate the personal epistemologies of the participants. Analysis indicated that flip learning environment supported "divergers" more than the others on course achievement. The level of sophistication on personal epistemologies changed across learning styles and the method of teaching differed across learning styles. Further studies need to be conducted to reveal how teacher education programs help pre-service teachers improve personal epistemologies and transfer them to their instruction
What makes survival of heart failure patients? Prediction by the iterative learning approach and detailed factor analysis with the SHAP algorithm
No full textCardiovascular disease is the leading cause of global death and disability. There are many types of cardiovascular diseases. The diagnosis of heart failure, one of the cardiovascular disease types, is a challenging task and plays a significant role in guiding the treatment of patients. However, machine learning approaches can be helpful for assisting medical institutions and practitioners in predicting heart failure in the early phase. This study is the first application that analyzes the dataset containing clinical records of 299 patients with heart failure using a feedforward backpropagation neural network (NN). The aim of this study is to predict the survival of heart failure patients based on the clinical data and to identify the strongest factors influencing heart failure disease development. We adopted the Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) values, which have been used to interpret model findings. From the study, it is observed that the best and highest accuracy of 91.11% is obtained compared to previous studies and it is found that feedforward backpropagation NN performed better than the previous approaches. Also, this study revealed that time, ejection fraction (EF), serum creatinine, creatinine phosphokinase (CPK), and age are the strongest risk factors for mortality among patients suffering from heart failure
Letter to the editor regarding article: “Effectiveness of virtual reality‐based programs as vestibular rehabilitative therapy in peripheral vestibular dysfunction: a meta‐analysis”
No full textLetter to edito
Evaluation of the possible effect of inspiratory muscle training on inflammation markers and oxidative stress in childhood asthma
No full textAirway inflammation characterized as asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible effect of inspiratory muscle training on inflammation markers and oxidative stress levels in childhood asthma. A total of 105 children (age range 8–17 years), including 70 asthmatics and 35 healthy children, participated in the study. The 70 asthma patients were randomly assigned to the inspiratory muscle training (IMT) group (n = 35) and control group (n = 35), and healthy children were assigned to the healthy group (n = 35). The IMT group was treated with the threshold IMT device for 7 days/6 weeks at 30% of maximum inspiratory pressure. Respiratory muscle strength was evaluated with a mouth pressure measuring device, and respiratory function was evaluated with a spirometer. In addition, CRP, periostin, TGF-β, and oxidative stress levels were analyzed. The evaluation was performed only once in the healthy group and twice (at the beginning and end of 6 weeks) in asthma patients. In the study, there were significant differences between asthma patients and the healthy group in terms of MIP and MEP values, respiratory function, oxidative stress level, periostin, and TGF-β. Post-treatment, differences were observed in the oxidative stress level, periostin, and TGF-β of the IMT group (p [removed
Clustering of football players based on performance data and aggregated clustering validity indexes
No full textWe analyse football (soccer) player performance data with mixed type variables from the 2014-15 season of eight European major leagues. We cluster these data based on a tailor-made dissimilarity measure. In order to decide between the many available clustering methods and to choose an appropriate number of clusters, we use the approach by Akhanli and Hennig (2020. "Comparing Clusterings and Numbers of Clusters by Aggregation of Calibrated Clustering Validity Indexes." Statistics and Computing 30 (5): 1523-44). This is based on several validation criteria that refer to different desirable characteristics of a clustering. These characteristics are chosen based on the aim of clustering, and this allows to define a suitable validation index as weighted average of calibrated individual indexes measuring the desirable features. We derive two different clusterings. The first one is a partition of the data set into major groups of essentially different players, which can be used for the analysis of a team's composition. The second one divides the data set into many small clusters (with 10 players on average), which can be used for finding players with a very similar profile to a given player. It is discussed in depth what characteristics are desirable for these clusterings. Weighting the criteria for the second clustering is informed by a survey of football experts
The Effect of Reiki and Aromatherapy on Vital Signs, Oxygen Saturation, and Anxiety Level in Patients Undergoing Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy: A Randomized Controlled Study
No full textThis randomized controlled study aimed to determine the effect of Reiki and aromatherapy on vital signs, oxygen saturation, and anxiety level in patients undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. The sample consisted of 100 patients divided into Reiki (n = 34), aromatherapy (n = 33), and control (n = 33) groups. Data were collected 3 times (before, during, and after the procedure) using a descriptive characteristics questionnaire, a follow-up form, and the State Anxiety Subscale. The Reiki group had a mean State Anxiety Subscale score of 53.59 ± 2.98 and 43.94 ± 4.31 before and after the procedure, respectively. The aromatherapy group had a mean State Anxiety Subscale score of 54.03 ± 4.03 and 43.85 ± 3.91 before and after the procedure, respectively. The control group had a mean State Anxiety Subscale score of 38.79 ± 4.68 and 53.30 ± 7.26 before and after the procedure, respectively (P < .05). The results showed that the Reiki and aromatherapy groups had significantly lower State Anxiety Subscale scores than the control group after the procedure, indicating that Reiki and aromatherapy help reduce anxiety levels. There was a significant difference in the mean respiratory rates and oxygen saturation levels between the groups (P < .05). In conclusion, patients who do Reiki or undergo aromatherapy are less likely to experience anxiety before upper gastrointestinal endoscopy
A numerical approach based on Bernstein collocation method: Application to differential Lyapunov and Sylvester matrix equations
No full textIn this paper, we apply the Bernstein collocation method to construct the solution set of the Sylvester matrix differential equation (Sy-MDE) which involves the Lyapunov matrix differential equation. The method depends on the collocation method and Bernstein polynomials. The main advantage of the proposed method is that by using this method Sy-MDE reduces to a linear system of algebraic equations which can be solved by using an appropriate iterative method. We analyze the error and give a theorem that bounds the error. We also give the residual correction procedure to estimate the error. By using the procedure, we obtain a new approximate solution, namely a corrected Bernstein collocation solution. To illustrate how the proposed method is applied, several examples are given. Numerical experiments show the effectiveness and accuracy of the method for solving such types of Sy-MDE
Bi-Attempted Base Optimization Algorithm on Optimization of Hydrosystems
No full textThis study aims to search for optimum design parameters for a slurry pipeline problem and optimum operation parameters for a multi-reservoir scheduling problem by using Bi-Attempted Base Optimization Algorithm (ABaOA), which has been recently developed as a numerical bidirectional search algorithm. The slurry pipeline problem is a constrained non-linear cost minimization problem with constraints on facility capacities. It has two separate cost terms that behave differently with changes in decision variables. The problem includes several decision variables in addition to the fact that the objective function is highly non-linear. On the other hand, the multi-reservoir problem is a well-known problem in Hydraulics that aims to maximize benefit by optimizing the releases of each reservoir. The problem has a known global optimum, which is used to test the abilities of the ABaOA. The ABaOA is developed from Base Optimization Algorithm (BaOA) by transforming its operators with the aim to diversify the search paths to reach the global optimum. Its applications in hydrosystems show that it converges to the optimum solutions in reasonable times. The results from the first application are compared to the ones obtained from Genetic Algorithms (GA) application. It is observed that ABaOA outperformed GA in terms of speed of convergence and finding a better alternative solution. The ABaOA reaches the global optimum in the second application. In addition, alternatives with better benefit functions, including some penalties have been determined
A potential posttranscriptional regulator for p60-katanin: miR-124-3p
No full textKatanin is a microtubule severing protein belonging to the ATPase family and consists of two subunits; p60-katanin synthesized by the KATNA1 gene and p80-katanin synthesized by the KATNB1 gene. Microtubule severing is one of the mechanisms that allow the reorganization of microtubules depending on cellular needs. While this reorganization of microtubules is associated with mitosis in dividing cells, it primarily takes part in the formation of structures such as axons and dendrites in nondividing mature neurons. Therefore, it is extremely important in neuronal branching. p60 and p80 katanin subunits coexist in the cell. While p60-katanin is responsible for cutting microtubules with its ATPase function, p80-katanin is responsible for the regulation of p60-katanin and its localization in the centrosome. Although katanin has vital functions in the cell, there are no known posttranscriptional regulators of it. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a group of small noncoding ribonucleotides that have been found to have important roles in regulating gene expression posttranscriptionally. Despite being important in gene regulation, so far no microRNA has been experimentally associated with katanin regulation. In this study, the effects of miR-124-3p, which we detected as a result of bioinformatics analysis to have the potential to bind to the p60 katanin mRNA, were investigated. For this aim, in this study, SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells were transfected with pre-miR-124-3p mimics and pre-mir miRNA precursor as a negative control, and the effect of this transfection on p60-katanin expression was measured at both RNA and protein levels by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and western blotting, respectively. The results of this study showed for the first time that miR-124-3p, which was predicted to bind p60-katanin mRNA by bioinformatic analysis, may regulate the expression of the KATNA1 gene. The data obtained within the scope of this study will make important contributions in order to better understand the regulation of the expression of p60-katanin which as well will have an incontrovertible impact on the understanding of the importance of cytoskeletal reorganization in both mitotic and postmitotic cells
Hydroquinidine displays a significant anticarcinogenic activity in breast and ovarian cancer cells via inhibiting cell-cycle and stimulating apoptosis
No full textBreast and ovarian cancers are women’s most commonly diagnosed cancers. Seeking an efficient anticarcinogenic compound is still a top priority regarding the aggressiveness of these cancers and the limited benefit of current therapies. Hydroquinidine (HQ) is a natural alkaloid used in arrhythmia and Brugada syndrome. As an ion channel blocker, HQ exhibits its activity by altering ion gradient and membrane potential. Considering the growing evidence of ion channel blockers’ antineoplastic potential, we were prompted to test HQ’s effect on breast and ovarian cancers. MCF-7 and SKOV-3 cell lines were used to inspect how HQ acts on survival, clonogenicity, migration, tumorigenicity, proliferation, and apoptosis. The molecular basis for the remarkable antiproliferative and proapoptotic effect of HQ in these cells was dissected by proteomics. CDK1, PSMB5, PSMC2, MCM2, MCM7, YWHAH, YWHAQ, and YWHAB proteins in HQ-treated MCF-7 cells, and RRM2, PSMD2, PSME2, COX2, COX4l1, and CDK6 proteins in HQ-treated SKOV-3 cells were found as low-abundant, which was noteworthy. Based on the in-depth analysis, upon HQ treatment, several cell cycle-related processes were found as suppressed, whereas apoptosis and ferroptosis pathways were found to be activated. The observed proteome alteration in cancer cells may provide mechanistic explanations for the growth-limiting effects of HQ at the cellular level