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Web 2.0 can provide learners with increased interaction and online collaboration. Among its applications, weblogs have gained an increasing popularity as they allow bloggers to voice their own perspectives which can be delivered to a large audience through the Web. Weblogs can be integrated into teaching-learning process as they encourage learners to collaborate and freely voice their ideas. However, innovative technologies might not always lead to innovative distance education practices if timely adaptation lags behind. This study presents a review on instructional use of weblogs along with implications for open and distance learning.

Liver transplantation (LT) is a viable treatment option for end-stage hepatic failure. Uludag University Liver Transplant Center has begun performing liver transplant operations in December 2007 and in this article, we review outcomes of 34 cases of LT performed until August 2010 including 30 cadaveric livers and 4 living donors. We achieved a 24-month survival rate of 84.2% in our center and LT surgeries continue with an acceptable success rate. © 2015 OMU.

Sorafenib is an inhibitor of multikinase proteins which is used for metastatic renal cell carcinoma and advanced stage hepatocellular carcinoma. Its side effects include serum amylase and lipase elevations anticipated to occur within first weeks of treatment but clinically and radiologically evident acute pancreatitis develops rarely. Five cases of acute pancreatitis have been reported in literature until date. The case we described here is the sixth case of clinically diagnosed acute pancreatitis. © 2015 OMU.

[No abstract available]

Background We investigated associations between baseline use of immunosuppressive drugs and severity of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in autoimmune hepatitis (AIH). Patients and methods Data of AIH patients with laboratory confirmed COVID-19 were retrospectively collected from 15 countries. The outcomes of AIH patients who were on immunosuppression at the time of COVID-19 were compared to patients who were not on AIH medication. The clinical courses of COVID-19 were classified as (i)-no hospitalization, (ii)-hospitalization without oxygen supplementation, (iii)-hospitalization with oxygen supplementation by nasal cannula or mask, (iv)-intensive care unit (ICU) admission with non-invasive mechanical ventilation, (v)-ICU admission with invasive mechanical ventilation or (vi)-death and analysed using ordinal logistic regression. Results We included 254 AIH patients (79.5%, female) with a median age of 50 (range, 17-85) years. At the onset of COVID-19, 234 patients (92.1%) were on treatment with glucocorticoids (n = 156), thiopurines (n = 151), mycophenolate mofetil (n = 22) or tacrolimus (n = 16), alone or in combinations. Overall, 94 (37%) patients were hospitalized and 18 (7.1%) patients died. Use of systemic glucocorticoids (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 4.73, 95% CI 1.12-25.89) and thiopurines (aOR 4.78, 95% CI 1.33-23.50) for AIH was associated with worse COVID-19 severity, after adjusting for age-sex, comorbidities and presence of cirrhosis. Baseline treatment with mycophenolate mofetil (aOR 3.56, 95% CI 0.76-20.56) and tacrolimus (aOR 4.09, 95% CI 0.69-27.00) were also associated with more severe COVID-19 courses in a smaller subset of treated patients. Conclusion Baseline treatment with systemic glucocorticoids or thiopurines prior to the onset of COVID-19 was significantly associated with COVID-19 severity in patients with AIH., Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR)-Department of Excellence project PREMIA (PREcision MedIcine Approach: bringing biomarker research to clinic), A. Gerussi, L. Cristoferi, and P. Invernizzi acknowledge that this research was partially supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR)-Department of Excellence project PREMIA (PREcision MedIcine Approach: bringing biomarker research to clinic).

The aims of the present study were to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of ledipasvir/sofosbuvir (LDV/SOF) with or without ribavirin in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) in patients with advanced liver disease and to analyse whether the use of LDV/SOF treatment is associated with a new occurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) during and after LDV/SOF treatment. The Turkish Early Access Program provided LDV/SOF treatment to a total of 200 eligible CHC patients with advanced liver disease. The median follow-up period was 22 months. All patients were Caucasian, 84% were infected with genotype 1b, and 24% had a liver transplantation before treatment. The sustained virological response (SVR12) was 86.0% with ITT analysis. SVR12 was similar among patients with Child-Pugh classes A, B and C disease and transplant recipients. From baseline to SVR12, serum ALT level and MELD score were significantly improved (P < 0.001). LDV/SOF treatment was generally well tolerated. Only one patient developed a new diagnosed HCC. Seventeen of the 35 patients, who had a history of previous HCC, developed HCC recurrence during the LDV/SOF treatment or by a median follow-up of 6 months after treatment. HCC recurrence was less commonly observed in patients who received curative treatment for HCC compared with those patients who received noncurative treatment (P = 0.007). In conclusion, LDV/SOF with or without ribavirin is an effective and tolerable treatment in CHC patients with advanced liver disease. Eradication is associated with improvements in liver function and a reduced risk of developing a new occurrence of HCC.

Background: data regarding outcome of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) are lacking. Patients and methods: we performed a retrospective study on AIH patients with COVID-19 from 34 centres in Europe and the Americas. We analyzed factors associated with severe COVID-19 outcomes defined as the need for mechanical ventilation, intensive care admission, and/or death. The outcomes of patients with AIH were compared to a propensity-score matched cohort of non-AIH patients with chronic liver diseases (CLD) and COVID-19. The frequency and clinical significance of new-onset liver injury (alanine aminotransferase>2xupper limit of normal) during COVID-19 was also evaluated. Results: we included 110 AIH patients (80%,female) with a median age of 49 (range:18-85) years at COVID-19 diagnosis. New-onset liver injury was observed in 37.1% (33/89) of the patients. Use of antivirals was associated with liver injury (p=0.041; odds ratio (OR) 3.36[1.05-10.78]) while continued immunosuppression during COVID-19 was associated with a lower rate of liver injury (p=0.009; OR 0.26[0.09-0.71]). The rates of severe COVID-19 (15.5% vs 20.2% p=0.231) and all-cause mortality (10% vs 11.5%; p=0.852) were not different between AIH and non-AIH CLD. Cirrhosis was an independent predictor of severe COVID-19 in patients with AIH (p, Italian Ministry of University; Research (MIUR)-Department of Excellence Project PREMIA; AMAF Monza ONLUS; AIRCS

Background and Aim: The prevalence and clinical significance of extrahepatic autoimmune diseases (EHAIDs) have not been evaluated in a large cohort of primary biliary cholangitis (PBC). Methods: The medical records of 1554 patients with PBC from 20 international centers were retrospectively reviewed. Development of decompensated cirrhosis (ascites, variceal bleeding, and/or hepatic encephalopathy) and hepatocellular carcinoma were considered clinical endpoints. Results: A total of 35 different EHAIDs were diagnosed in 440 (28.3%) patients with PBC. Patients with EHAIDs were more often female (92.5% vs 86.1%, P&nbsp

EgeUn###, INTRODUCTION: Risk stratification based on biochemical variables is a useful tool for monitoring ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA)-treated patients with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC). Several UDCA response criteria and scoring systems have been proposed for risk prediction in PBC, but these have not been validated in large external cohorts. METHODS: We performed a study on data of 1746 UDCA-treated patients with PBC from 25 centers in Europe, United States, and Canada. The prognostic performance of the risk scoring systems (GLOBE and UK-PBC) and the UDCA response criteria (Barcelona, Paris I, Paris II, Rotterdam, and Toronto) were evaluated. We regarded cirrhosis-related complications (ascites, variceal bleeding, and/or hepatic encephalopathy) as clinical end points. RESULTS: A total of 171 patients reached a clinical end point during a median 7 years (range 1-16 years) of follow-up. The 5-, 10- and 15-year adverse outcome-free survivals were 95%, 85%, and 77%. The GLOBE and UK-PBC scores predicted cirrhosis-related complications better than the UDCA response criteria. The hazard ratio (HR) for a 1 standard deviation increase was HR 5.05 (95% confidence interval (CI): 4.43-5.74, P < 0.001) for the GLOBE score and HR 3.39 (95% CI: 3.10-3.72, P < 0.001) for the UK-PBC score. Overall, the GLOBE and UK-PBC risk scores showed similar and excellent prognostic performance (C-statistic, 0.93; 95% CI: 0.91%-95% vs 0.94; 95% CI: 0.91%-0.96%). DISCUSSION: In our international, multicenter PBC cohort, the GLOBE and UK-PBC risk scoring systems were good predictors of future cirrhosis-related complications.

Background/Aims: To investigate the relationship between gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) levels and histopathological status determined by biopsy in patients with chronic hepatitis B and C. Materials and Methods: Patients with chronic hepatitis B and C who were referred to the Uludag University Faculty of Medicine Gastroenterology outpatient clinic between January 2005-January 2011 and underwent liver biopsy were included in the study. Overall, 246 patients with hepatitis B and 151 patients with hepatitis C were enrolled. According to the evaluation based on the Ishak score, patients with a histological activity index (HAI) between 0-12 were defined as low activity, and those with an HAI between 13-18 were defined as high activity. In addition, patients with a fibrosis score of 0-2 were defined as low fibrosis, and those with a score between 3-6 were defined as high fibrosis; comparisons were made accordingly. Results: In patients with hepatitis B, the mean GGT level was 38.86 +/- 42.4 (IU/L) in the low activity group and 60.44 +/- 44.4 (IU/L) in the high activity group (p

In Turkey, various ICT tools were integrated into the educational environments through the FATIH Project introduced by the Ministry of National Education while studies concerned with the effective use of ICT in the educational processes began to increase in number and tablet computers were given to students and teachers within the framework of the project. Despite the effort put into the technological infrastructure, in-service training for the teachers and fulfilling other components of the project in order to help the FATIH Project reach its aim, the distribution of the tablet computers was the only action taken in terms of the services intended for the students. The attitudes of the students regarding the project need to be determined in order to ensure sustainability and help the project reach its aims. In this regard, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) becomes prominent. According to TAM, the students’ beliefs will affect the behavior of the students positively as a result of thinking that using the tablet computers is easy and beneficial while this effect will cause the students to adopt the use of the tablet computers. The study was carried out with 2023 secondary school students who were enrolled in FATIH Project pilot schools in the central province of Bartin province in the spring semester of 2014-2015 academic year. In the end of this study, the secondary education students’ acceptance levels of the educational use of the tablet computers used in the FATIH Project were examined in accordance with TAM and the scale for the acceptance of the tablet computers used in the FATIH Project in terms of educational use was developed. In addition, it has been achieved that giving tablet computers to students, training with FATIH Project technologies and increasing class level negatively affects students' acceptance of educational use of tablet PC in the FATIH Project.

13th International Educational Technology Conference -- OCT 30-NOV 01, 2014 -- Lisbon, PORTUGAL, WOS: 000360920300086, Along with the fast developments in mobile technologies, the need to learn mobile learning has become more important. The easy usage and easy accessibility of these mobile devices have made them more significant than ever. This study gains importance in extend of the need for mobile learning and meeting the new learning conditions. In addition, handling the current and the future mobile learning and suggesting some new ideas about it are also considered as important topics. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

13th International Educational Technology Conference -- OCT 30-NOV 01, 2014 -- Lisbon, PORTUGAL, WOS: 000360920300030, Animation is a developing and interesting visual communication instrument. It may have multipurpose functions such as entertainment, advertisement and education. The aim of this paper is to investigate the use of animation in teaching theoretical medical information and especially surgical procedures. Three, animations were planned and created about endonasal surgery focused on procedures which are known as difficult to understand. Then a group of 20 medical students were taught with this animation whereas a second group of 20 students were taught by theoretical information and plain figures. Different evaluation questions were asked in order to clarify the benefit of the animations in teaming. Then the second group was taught again by using the animations. It is concluded that animation is a very useful tool to teach difficult procedures in medicine especially in teaching complex topics.

13th International Educational Technology Conference -- OCT 30-NOV 01, 2014 -- Lisbon, PORTUGAL, WOS: 000360920300130, The accounting information system, considered as sub-branch of the management information system, produces needed information about internal and external environment of enterprises to make major decisions. In this sense, the accounting information system can be defined as a system that produces financial and nonfinancial information about enterprises' goods, services, market, and consumers etc. In today's global competition environment, the accounting information system offers information that entrepreneurs need to make versatile decisions about past, present, and future periods. Moreover, a business manager takes various strategic decisions and directs the operations to ensure sustainability of business by using accounting data. Developing technology, increasing competition and changing consumer demands affect production. These developments have brought the necessity of realization a number of changes to enterprises, as well. In other words, the changes accounting at external around of businesses have forced internal changes within businesses. As a requirement of sustainability, businesses have had to change/renew the strategies (policies) of management, production, and marketing in accordance with the con-cot changes. These changes have also affected the accounting information system which has direct relation with other units of businesses. Furthermore, changes have made the accounting information system insufficient and have made it necessary to turn to the new systems. The accounting information system, besides the functions it holds within the enterprises, provides enterprises with healthy communication with tax and social security institutions by preparation (submission) of information and documents timely and accurately. In this study, a research about today's accounting education sufficiency, enterprises' owners and top managers' expectations related to accounting information system have been carried under the accordance of business with current changes at the Aksaray Organized Industrial Zone. The Enterprises' expectations and satisfaction level in today's accounting education have been examined in the research. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

12th International Educational Technology Conference (IETC) -- JUL 11-13, 2012 -- Taoyuan, TAIWAN, WOS: 000317142200032, In today's world, many significant changes occur in the field of higher education just like in other fields. Increasing the quality of higher education, ensuring the transparency and comparability of sustainable education systems at international level and the attempts to make such systems more practical and easily adaptable are the significant dynamics of such changes. Considered as a mega university in the world with its well-established open and distance education system, Anadolu University provides education services for almost half of the students enrolled in Turkish Higher Education system. Since it is a system providing services for more than 30 years, it is now inevitable to initiate a restructuring process according to these certain changes, for which Bologna Process has been an important trigger. The main scope of this study is to examine the changes observed in Anadolu University open and distance education system in parallel with the attempts to adopt Bologna Process. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of The Association Science Education and Technology

WOS: 000364330100001 PubMed: 26352130 Background and aim Noninvasive tests are primarily used for staging hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease. In clinical practice, serum aminotransferase levels, coagulation parameters, and platelet count have been used to predict whether or not a patient has cirrhosis. In addition, several studies have evaluated the accuracy of combinations (or ratios) of these measures. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between five noninvasive models [AST/ALT ratio (AAR), aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI), Bonacini cirrhosis discriminant score (CDS), age-platelet index (APind), and King's score] and the degree of hepatic fibrosis as determined by biopsy in patients with chronic hepatitis B and C. Patients and methods A total of 380 patients with viral hepatitis (237 with chronic hepatitis B and 143 with chronic hepatitis C) who were seen at our clinic between January 2005 and January 2011 were retrospectively analyzed. The degree of fibrosis was determined using the Ishak score. Patients with a fibrosis score of 0-2 were considered to have low fibrosis and those with a score between 3 and 6 were considered to have high fibrosis. Five noninvasive models were compared between the groups with low and high fibrosis. Results There were statistically significant differences between the hepatitis B and C patients with high and low fibrosis with respect to APind (4.492.35 vs. 2.41 +/- 1.84; P

USLAN, MUSTAFA IHSAN/0000-0002-8890-8026 WOS: 000367668900008 PubMed: 26759574 Background: The mean platelet volume (MPV) is the most commonly used measure of platelet size and is a potential marker of platelet reactivity. In this study, we aimed to explore the relationship between hepatic histopathology in viral hepatitis and MPV levels, which are associated with platelet count and activity. Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective case-control study of baseline histological and clinical parameters in chronic hepatitis B and C patients in our tertiary reference center between January 2005 and January 2011. Two hundred and five chronic hepatitis B patients and 133 chronic hepatitis C patients who underwent liver biopsy were included in the study. The patients were divided into two groups: Chronic hepatitis B and chronic hepatitis C and were additionally divided into groups of two according to histological activity index (HAI) and fibrosis scores obtained by liver biopsy results (according to the Ishak scoring system). The clinical characteristics of chronic viral hepatitis patients, including demographics, laboratory (especially MPV), and liver biopsy findings, were reviewed. Results: One hundred and forty-three patients were male (69.1%), and the mean age was 41.9 +/- 12.75 with an age range of 18-71 years in hepatitis B patients. In the classification made according to HAI, 181 patients were in the low activity group (88.3%) and 24 in the high activity group (11.7%). In the evaluation made according to fibrosis score, 169 patients were found to have early fibrosis (82.4%) and 36 were found to have advanced fibrosis (17.6%). In patients with hepatitis B, there was no statistically significant difference in terms of their MPV values between the two groups, separated according to their degree of activity and fibrosis. Sixty-three patients were male (47.3%), and the mean age was 50.03 +/- 12.75 with an age range of 19-75 years. In the classification made according to HAI, 109 patients were in low activity group (81.9%) and 24 in high activity group (18.1%). In the evaluation made according to fibrosis score, 101 patients were found to have early fibrosis (75.9%) and 32 have advanced fibrosis (24.1%). There was a statistically significant difference between the activity and fibrosis groups of the hepatitis C patients (P = 0.04 and P = 0.02, respectively). Conclusion: MPV values are more reliable in hepatitis C patients than hepatitis B for predicting the advanced damage in liver histology. This finding might be useful for the detection of early fibrosis and also starting early treatment, which is important in hepatitis C.

13th International Educational Technology Conference -- OCT 30-NOV 01, 2014 -- Lisbon, PORTUGAL, WOS: 000360920300143, There is great importance of accounting lessons on the professional careers of students that studied economics at universities. Most of the lessons includes theme of accounting, finance, tax, and law. In this context, the success or failure of students in accounting lessons affect both the students' professional careers and undergraduate education period. The success and the failure of the students at accounting lessons depend on several factors. As an example of these factors, educator factor: the ability of imparting the theoretic information to the practical, physical feasibility: the laboratories besides classes, etude, working, and counseling services etc. This study, at the first part, has a sample of two similar universities. Accordingly, this study aims to assert a comparison of the students which studies at similar cities, universities, and departments, failure or success of accounting lessons. At the second part of the study, a model have been suggested which has prevented the factors that causes the failure of accounting lessons. On the other hand, the model also have been mentioned that success should be an organizational culture which has based on the life-long education. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

13th International Educational Technology Conference -- OCT 30-NOV 01, 2014 -- Lisbon, PORTUGAL, WOS: 000360920300116, When the educational Technologies, which are used in the process of learning-teaching process, are associated with sensory organs, the least used one becomes the olfactive stimuli. Nowadays, because of being foreground of visual-audio Technologies, Positivism is based on vision and audition but it ignores the other senses. Although seeing and hearing play important roles, the ineffectiveness of other senses is delusion in this process. In this delusion the impact of visual-audio Technologic devices from telescope to television, internet, mobile phones is inevitable. However sensation and learning is wholistic and based on togetherness of five senses. Thus, with the delusion olfactive stimulus which is rejected from the educational field is effective on senses, attention, concentration and memory in learning. The purpose of this study, which is in form literature review, is to discuss the nature of olfactive stimulus the effectiveness in education, areas of usage in context of educational technology, to deduce and to make suggestions. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

13th International Educational Technology Conference -- OCT 30-NOV 01, 2014 -- Lisbon, PORTUGAL, WOS: 000360920300029, While all sort of written information were widely used in education, studies showed that visual perception is very important in learning. For this purpose new teaching strategies were developed using computer. The aim of this paper was to emphasize roles of computer in education and to make a comparison of computer aided education vs. traditional education. Computer aided education (CAE) system is a key to improve the effectiveness and the quality of education system. Computer education forms a part of the school and college curricula, as it is important for every individual today.

Information and communication technology usage in school settings has increased significantly. Most of the teacher education colleges realized this situation and change their education programs and give technology and educational technology classes to their students. In this research it is aimed to reveal pre-service teacher believe concerning ICT usage in K-12 and university settings. Results show that gender, internet connection and compute usage do not affect ICT usage believe.

HCI is a field which has an increasing popularity by virtue of the spread of the computers and internet and gradually contributes to the production of the user-friendlier software and hardware with the contribution of the scientists from different disciplines. Teacher candidates studying at the computer and instructional technologies department are individuals to take office in the field of instructional programs and software development. Acquaintance of teacher candidates studying at the computer and instructional technologies department with the HCI and its findings will enable such candidates to design usable websites and the achievement of message and interface design conforming to the rules. This research was conducted by using the phenomenological research method in order to determine the descriptions and perceptions of teacher candidates studying at the computer and instructional technologies department in respect of the human-computer interaction and respective basic concepts. Data gathered from the candidates by means of an open-ended question form were analyzed using descriptive analysis. According to the research results, it was seen that teacher candidates described the human-computer interaction and related basic concepts approximately close to the truth.

12th International Educational Technology Conference (IETC) -- JUL 11-13, 2012 -- Taoyuan, TAIWAN, WOS: 000317142200011, This study is designed in descriptive model because it aims to analyze 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th grade social studies curricula in a technology focused view. In this context, document analysis technique was used which is a qualitative research method. Learning areas, acquisitions and skills in social studies curricula are considered in evaluation process. In conclusion, it was seen that in social studies curricula, Science, Technology and Society learning is directly technology oriented and this learning area has strict connections with others. Technology oriented activities are also implemented as needed in other learning areas. Besides, it was determined that there are 23 technology oriented acquisitions in 4 th, 5 th, 6 th and 7 th grade social studies curricula in Turkey. Six of them are in the 4th grade, six of them are in the 5th grade, five of them are in the 6th grade and six of them in the 7th grade. In this context, technology oriented acquisitions formed 13,2% of whole acquisitions in curricula (total 174). In skill dimension "using information technologies" skill is technology oriented and it is towards the effective usage of technology. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of The Association Science Education and Technology

13th International Educational Technology Conference -- OCT 30-NOV 01, 2014 -- Lisbon, PORTUGAL, WOS: 000360920300139, The purpose of this paper is to measure the quality of service of the distance education that received from the educational institutions which are among the leading service enterprises, to find out students' expectations, to what extend students expectations are met and whether or not the acquired findings vary by demographical information of the students. In this paper, the data obtained from the questionnaire with 463 students is evaluated. The examination of partial SERVQUAL scores indicate that expectations are not met for all five dimensions effecting service quality in the universities providing e-MBA education. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.