This study aimed to compare the Sakarya University which follows a new curriculum and a public university which follows the current curriculum in terms of problems experienced by the students of ...Computer Education and Instructional Technologies (CEIT) and their professional future concerns alongside to take students' opinions on the CEIT program. Study group was consisted of 198 CEIT students adopted a new curriculum in Sakarya University and 116 CEIT students adopted a current curriculum in a public university excluding first grades. Cross-sectional survey model was used in the study. Beside quantitative data, students' opinion were collected with open ended questions qualitatively in the questionnaire. According to quantitative data results, the problems students encounter and the future concerns of CEIT students in current curriculum was found to be higher than the CEIT students' in new curriculum. In addition, qualitative findings have been collected under three headings as student ideas which can be potential answers to sub-problems, potential problems in curriculum and in its application, professional concern about future and the shift in educational program. Based on these findings, equilibrium distribution of field courses and other courses, increasing the elective courses, sustainability of the up to dateness of the curriculum by the in keeping with technological development, increasing the quality of the instructors and the teaching methods can be suggested.
Summary
Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of primary Sjogren’s syndrome (pSS) in a general Turkish population according to the latest proposed American–European ...Consensus Group (AECG) criteria and European‐1 (EU‐1) criteria.
Methods: The study was conducted in two districts of Izmir and involved 2835 subjects 20 years of age and older. In the first stage, face‐to‐face interviews were performed at the registered households. In the second stage, subjects reporting symptoms of both dry eye and dry mouth were invited to the hospital for a full examination, which included Schirmer‐1, sialometry and serologic tests. In the third stage, a minor salivary gland biopsy was performed as required.
Results: A total of 2887 subjects were contacted and a complete interview was obtained for 2835 (1551 female, 1284 male) subjects. A total of 159 subjects (126 female, 33 male) confirmed oral and ocular dryness, and 86 of these patients (54.1%) underwent a detailed clinical examination in the hospital. pSS was diagnosed in 10 patients (nine females) according to the EU‐1 criteria, and in six patients (six females) according to the AECG criteria. We found a minimum crude prevalence of 0.21% 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.03–0.29 in the sample population and an age–sex adjusted prevalence of 0.16% (95% CI: 0.06–0.35), according to AECG criteria. According to EU‐1 criteria, these prevalence rates were found to be 0.35% (95% CI: 0.10–0.45) and 0.28% (95% CI: 0.13–0.51) respectively.
Conclusion: The pSS prevalence rates found in the Turkish population in this study were lower than the estimated prevalence rate in a general population.
Schizophrenic patients are known to have difficulty processing emotions and to exhibit impairment in stimuli discrimination. However, there is limited knowledge regarding their physiological ...responsivity to auditory stimuli.
The purpose of this study was to compare the respiratory effects of two types of auditory stimuli with emotional content, classical Turkish music (CTM) and white noise (WN), on schizophrenia patients and healthy control subjects.
Forty-six individuals participated in the experiment, and respiratory signals derived from a strain-gauge were recorded. Two important respiratory patterns, respiration rate and depth, were analyzed.
The results indicated that the patients presented a significantly higher respiration rate than control subjects during the initial baseline and WN exposure periods. Although CTM evoked an increase in respiration rates and a decrease in respiration depths in the control group, no significant differences were found during the stimulation periods in the patient group. The respiration rate was lower in the post-stimulation period than during the initial baseline period, and no respiration depth differences were found for the WN, music or post-stimulation periods in the schizophrenia group. Patients exhibited a greater respiration depth than the control subjects over all periods; however, a significant difference between the patient and control groups was obtained in the second resting condition and CTM exposure period. Furthermore, to analyze the effect of symptom severity on respiratory patterns, patients were divided into two classes according to their Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale score.
Further studies are needed to correlate respiratory differences with emotionally evocative stimuli and to refine our understanding of the dynamics of these types of stimuli in relation to clinical state and medication effects.
The present study investigated the frequency of chromosome aberrations and AZF microdeletions in infertile patients with nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA) or severe oligozoospermia. Additionally, the ...effect of the AZFc microdeletions on the success of microdissection testicular sperm extraction (microTESE) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) methods were evaluated. Peripheral blood samples were received from 1,300 infertile men with NOA and severe oligozoospermia. Karyotyping and FISH analysis were performed according to standard methods. AZF microdeletions were analysed using multiplex polymerase chain reaction or GML Y‐chromosome Microdeletion Detection System consisting of 14 markers. The chromosomal aberrations and the AZF microdeletions frequency among 1,300 infertile men were 10.6% and 4.0% respectively. Either ejaculated spermatozoa or microTESE was performed on only in 19 out of 26 patients with AZFc deletions. Of the 19 patients, four had severe oligozoospermia and 15 had NOA. In eight out of 15 NOA patients, testicular mature spermatozoa were obtained (53.3%) and then ICSI was applied to mature oocytes. After undergoing ICSI treatment, clinical pregnancy and live birth outcome rates were found to be 37.5% and 25% respectively. These results suggest that infertile patients with AZFc microdeletion could achieve successful fertilisation pregnancies with the help of assisted reproductive technology.
Objective The aim of this study was to compare the somatic and neurodevelopmental outcomes of small and late preterm infants and also to determine the prenatal, natal and postnatal factors affecting ...these outcomes. Methods A total of 163 infants that were born < 32 weeks of gestation (small preterms, control group) and 240 infants born >32 weeks of gestation (late preterms, study group) were included to this prospective study. All infants were evaluated at postnatal 42 weeks. Neurodevelopmental outcomes of these infants were evaluated with neurological examination and Denver II Developmental Screening Test. Also somatic evaluation including the determination of the length according to Turkish children percentilles was also performed. Results The major neurological sequele ratio was significantly higher in small preterm infants (13.9%) compared with the late preterms (2.4%). Apgar scores at 5 minute, need of resuscitation in delivery room and male gender were all significantly associated with an increased risk of adverse neurological outcomes. Also presence of neonatal morbidities including neonatal hypoglycemia, sepsis, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, intraventricular hemorrhage greater than stage III were also abnormal Denver results. Somatic growth failure was detected in 2% and 4.9% of the late and small preterm infants. Conclusion Small preterm infants might have significantly higher abnormal neurodevelopmental outcomes compared with late preterms. However, late preterm infants might be routinely followed-up for somatic growth and also neurodevelopmental outcomes.
Objective:
To evaluate the relationship between serum total homocysteine levels and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).
Methods:
This prospective case-control study involved premature infants diagnosed ...with ROP 4 weeks after birth (cases); controls were premature infants not developing ROP during follow-up. Fasting serum total homocysteine concentrations were determined in all participants 4 weeks after birth, using high performance liquid chromatography.
Results:
A total of 45 and 35 infants were included in the case and control groups, respectively. The mean ± SD (range) serum total homocysteine levels were 10.36 ± 1.72 μmol/l (7.45 - 14.84) in infants with ROP and 8.41 ± 2.12 μmol/l (5.56 - 13.90) in controls. This difference was statistically significant. Mean ± SD total homocysteine levels were higher in infants with more severe ROP (11.45 ± 1.76 μmol/l) compared with mild ROP (9.92 ± 1.56 μmol/l).
Conclusions:
Elevated serum total homocysteine levels are associated with the development of ROP in premature infants. Further studies with larger patient populations are required, to improve understanding of the relationship between homocysteine and ROP development.
Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is classically an autosomal recessive periodic inflammatory disease occurring in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern populations. It is caused by mutations affecting ...both alleles of MEFV, a gene that encodes pyrin (marenostrin), an uncharacterized neutrophil protein. Occasional reports of autosomal dominant FMF have often been discounted, on the basis that asymptomatic FMF carriers are common in certain populations, and give rise to pseudo‐dominant inheritance. We performed comprehensive MEFV genotyping in five families in whom FMF appeared to be inherited dominantly. Transmission proved to be pseudo‐dominant in two cases, but true dominant inheritance of FMF with variable penetrance was supported by the genotyping results in the other three families. The disease in these cases was associated with heterozygosity for either pyrin ΔM694 alone or the compound pyrin variant E148Q/M694I, the latter occurring in two unrelated families. Complete MEFV sequencing failed to identify any coding region abnormality in the other allele in any of these cases, and, in the largest kindred, single‐allele disease transmission was further supported by analysis of silent single nucleotide polymorphisms, which proved that affected individuals had at least three different complementary alleles. Studies of two further unrelated British patients with FMF associated with simple heterozygosity for pyrin ΔM694 were also consistent with autosomal dominant inheritance. The clinical features of dominantly inherited FMF were absolutely typical, including AA amyloidosis in a patient with pyrin ΔM694. These findings extend the spectrum of FMF, and suggest that the methionine residue at position 694 makes a crucial contribution to pyrin's function, and that a 50% complement of normal pyrin activity does not prevent susceptibility to FMF.
An outbreak of trichinellosis occurred in Izmir, Turkey, between January and March 2004. The outbreak was caused by the consumption of raw meat balls made of beef deceptively mixed with pork infected ...with Trichinella britovi. A total of 1098 people who had consumed this food either in 14 restaurants or from the street vendors located in three different neighbourhoods, consulted six different healthcare centres with a wide range of clinical signs and symptoms. Of them, 418 (38.1%) patients fulfilled the criteria for the diagnosis of acute trichinellosis. The most commonly observed signs and symptoms were myalgia (89.2%), arthralgia (69.9%) and eyelid (67%) and facial oedema (65.8%). High levels of creatinine kinase (69.3%) and lactate dehydrogenase (93.8%) with leucocytosis (>10 000/mm³, 58.9%) and eosinophilia (>1000/mm³, 60.5%) were the most prominent laboratory findings. All, but 13 of these patients were treated with mebendazole or albendazole. Based on the physicians' assessments of disease severity, 78 (19%) patients were additionally given prednisolone in whom a significantly more rapid recovery of clinical signs and symptoms (e.g. fever, myalgia, facial and eyelid oedema) was observed, with a rapid improvement in leucocytosis, eosinophilia and muscle enzymes, compared with those, who had not received corticosteroids (P < 0.05). Beef illegally mixed with pork of unknown origin, by a wholesale butcher who had sold this product to restaurants and street vendors at a lower price than the prevailing market price of beef, was the cause of this large-scale outbreak in a country with a predominantly Muslim population.
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