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A laboratory experiment that exposes students to fundamental concepts in kinetics and statistical thermodynamics to study systems of great current interest in nanotechnology by employing a foundational technique in physical chemistry is described. A modified commercial flash photolysis spectrometer was used to study photoinduced isomerization reactions on the millisecond time scale for several hydroxy-substituted azobenzene compounds. The temperature-dependent transient decays were analyzed with an Eyring plot to yield the enthalpy and entropy of activation of the reverse isomerization process. The specific compounds studied were 4-phenylazophenol, 4-methyl-2-(phenylazo)phenol, and 2,4-dihydroxyazobenzene in ethanol solvent. Instrumental modifications include substitution of a UV-LED for the probe light source and use of a thin polyimide film heater adhered to the side of the sample cuvette to control temperature. Collection of experimental data and the subsequent plotting and analysis are easily accomplished by upper-division chemistry students and the results are consistently good, comparing well with literature values.

The aim of this study is to reveal the applications for the tools, methods, and strategies used to provide motivation in online instrument education in line with the opinions of instrument educators. In the study, interview, observation, and literature review, which are among the qualitative research methods, were used. Within the scope of the research, 41 teachers who provided online instrument training were interviewed, and 10-hour lesson observations were made. In the content analysis based on the ARCS model, it was observed that teachers used technological tools and applications to provide motivation in their lessons, included games, and planned their lessons according to age groups and individual differences of students in online instrument education. To provide motivation in the context of the ARCS model, it was seen that they applied the most to establish interest and the least to the satisfaction dimension. Based on this research, it has been proposed to use methods and strategies that motivate students in online courses and to develop online pedagogical approaches and technological course programs.

The purpose of this action research was to enable university students to learn about children's rights with the scenarios developed based on the problem-based learning (PBL) approach. In this context, three scenarios related to daily life have been developed on the right to participate, the right to education, the right to rest, leisure, play, and participate in cultural and artistic life and the legal basis of these rights. The study group consists of students studying in the Child Development associate degree program of a state university in Türkiye. Pre-post application questions, structured interview form, and researcher diary were used as data collection tools. The obtained data were subjected to content analysis with the NVivo qualitative analysis program. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that the students' knowledge about children's rights increased, they could make more accurate and explanatory definitions, and they could explain national and international legal bases. In addition, students expressed positive opinions about the scenarios developed for the application.

This study investigates the trends of postgraduate theses on skills teaching in Social Studies education between 2010-2020, identifies the problems encountered by researchers in the process of skills teaching, and presents the solutions provided to these problems. With this purpose, 74 master and doctoral theses on skills teaching in the Social Studies course were included in the research. Descriptive content analysis was used in data analysis. The results demonstrated that there are mainly attempts towards practical implementations in skills teaching, and the teaching processes are important in the Social Studies course. The investigation revealed that many studies were conducted on skills development, but the number of theses on social skills was limited. It was determined that some of these theses had insufficient explanation regarding the teaching-learning processes. However, the experiences of the researchers concerning the processes were not included in many of the theses. It was also observed that in some of the theses, there was no information about the assessment tools utilized, and some researchers were not critical of the results of the analyses. In addition, there was no scientific justification for the time allocated to the implementations in most of these theses. Researchers stated that they encountered problems due to insufficient implementation time in the skills development process. The suggestions made by the researchers at the end of the process include updating the curricula and course books, eliminating the school infrastructure deficiencies, and providing in-service training to teachers.

Peer review is an important part of the scientific process, but traditional peer review at journals is coming under increased scrutiny for its inefficiency and lack of transparency. As preprints become more widely used and accepted, they raise the possibility of rethinking the peer-review process. Preprints are enabling new forms of peer review that have the potential to be more thorough, inclusive, and collegial than traditional journal peer review, and to thus fundamentally shift the culture of peer review toward constructive collaboration. In this Consensus View, we make a call to action to stakeholders in the community to accelerate the growing momentum of preprint sharing and provide recommendations to empower researchers to provide open and constructive peer review for preprints.

Abstract Background A growing body of literature focuses on the role of benevolent childhood experiences (BCEs) in predicting adulthood well-being, in addition to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). However, cross-cultural differences are generally ignored in this endeavor. Hence, this study aimed to explore the role of BCEs in predicting life satisfaction, resilience, and hopelessness. We also examined the potential of resilience and the role of hopelessness in mediating the relationship between BCE and life satisfaction. Methods A total of 850 university students from Turkey (n = 371), Portugal (n = 248), and India (n = 231), aged 17 to 58 years (M = 22.12, SD = 4.41), participated in the study. Participants completed an online protocol consisting of measures to assess BCEs, life satisfaction, resilience, and hopelessness. Results BCEs, hopelessness, and life satisfaction have significantly differed among the samples based on the country of residence. BCEs were positively correlated to resilience and life satisfaction and negatively to hopelessness. In the sequential mediation model, after controlling for country and sex, resilience and hopelessness sequentially mediated the relationship between BCEs and life satisfaction. BCEs were associated with life satisfaction, resilience, and hopelessness across countries and sexes. The model explains 42.8% of the variability. Conclusion Despite differences between countries, BCEs are important predictors of adult well-being in all three countries and should be monitored along with ACE. Further, resilience seems to have an important role in lowering the negative consequences of lower BCEs and feelings of hopelessness, pointing to the need to strengthen psychological resilience among adults.

Abstract Background Surgical resection is integral for the treatment of neuroblastoma, the most common extracranial solid malignancy in children. Safely locating and resecting primary tumor and remote deposits of disease remains a significant challenge, resulting in high rates of complications and incomplete surgery, worsening outcomes. Intraoperative molecular imaging (IMI) uses targeted radioactive or fluorescent tracers to identify and visualize tumors intraoperatively. GD2 was selected as an IMI target, as it is highly overexpressed in neuroblastoma and minimally expressed in normal tissue. Methods GD2 expression in neuroblastoma cell lines was measured by flow cytometry. DTPA and IRDye® 800CW were conjugated to anti-GD2 antibody to generate DTPA-αGD2-IR800. Binding affinity (Kd) of the antibody and the non-radiolabeled tracer were then measured by ELISA assay. Human neuroblastoma SK-N-BE(2) cells were surgically injected into the left adrenal gland of 3.5-5-week-old nude mice and the orthotopic xenograft tumors grew for 5 weeks. 111In-αGD2-IR800 or isotype control tracer was administered via tail vein injection. After 4 and 6 days, mice were euthanized and gamma and fluorescence biodistributions were measured using a gamma counter and ImageJ analysis of acquired SPY-PHI fluorescence images of resected organs (including tumor, contralateral adrenal, kidneys, liver, muscle, blood, and others). Organ uptake was compared by one-way ANOVA (with a separate analysis for each tracer/day combination), and if significant, Sidak’s multiple comparison test was used to compare the uptake of each organ to the tumor. Handheld tools were also used to detect and visualize tumor in situ, and to assess for residual disease following non-guided resection. Results 111In-αGD2-IR800 was successfully synthesized with 0.75-2.0 DTPA and 2–3 IRDye® 800CW per antibody and retained adequate antigen-binding (Kd = 2.39 nM for aGD2 vs. 21.31 nM for DTPA-aGD2-IR800). The anti-GD2 tracer demonstrated antigen-specific uptake in mice with human neuroblastoma xenografts (gamma biodistribution tumor-to-blood ratios of 3.87 and 3.88 on days 4 and 6 with anti-GD2 tracer), while isotype control tracer did not accumulate (0.414 and 0.514 on days 4 and 6). Probe accumulation in xenografts was detected and visualized using widely available operative tools (Neoprobe® and SPY-PHI camera) and facilitated detection ofputative residual disease in the resection cavity following unguided resection. Conclusions We have developed a dual-labeled anti-GD2 antibody-based tracer that incorporates In-111 and IRDye® 800CW for radio- and fluorescence-guided surgery, respectively. The tracer adequately binds to GD2, specifically accumulates in GD2-expressing xenograft tumors, and enables tumor visualization with a hand-held NIR camera. These results encourage the development of 111In-αGD2-IR800 for future use in children with neuroblastoma, with the goal of improving patient safety, completeness of resection, and overall patient outcomes.

Process-based ecosystem models are increasingly important for predicting forest dynamics under future environmental conditions, which may encompass non-analogous climate coupled with unprecedented disturbance regimes. However, challenges persist due to the extensive number of model parameters, scarce calibration data, and trade-offs between the local precision and the applicability of the model over a wide range of environmental conditions. In this paper, we describe a protocol that allows a modeller to collect transferable ecosystem properties based on ecosystem characteristic criteria and to compile the parameters that need to be described in the field. We applied the procedure to develop a new parameterisation for European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) for the Biome-BGCMuSo model, the most advanced member of the Biome-BGC family. For model calibration and testing, we utilised multiyear forest carbon data from 87 plots distributed across five European countries. The initial values of 48 new ecophysiological parameters were defined based on a literature review. The final values of six calibrated parameters were optimised for single sites as well as for multiple sites using generalised likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) and model output conditioning that ensured plausible simulations based on user-defined ranges of carbon stock output variables (carbon stock in aboveground wood biomass, soil, and litter) and finding the intersections of site-specific plausible parameter hyperspaces. To support the model use, we tested the model performance by simulating aboveground tree wood, soil, and litter carbon across a large geographical gradient of central Europe and evaluated the trade-offs between parameters tailored to single plots and parameters estimated using multiple sites. Our findings indicated that parameter sets derived from single sites provided an improved local accuracy of simulations of aboveground wood, soil, and litter carbon stocks by 35 %, 55 %, and 11 % in comparison to the a priori parameter set. However, their broader applicability was very limited. A multi-site optimised parameter set, on the other hand, performed satisfactorily across the entire geographical domain studied here, including on sites not involved in the parameter estimation, but the errors were, on average, 26 %, 35 % and 9 % greater for the aboveground wood, soil, and litter carbon stocks than those obtained with the site-specific parameter sets. Importantly, model simulations demonstrated plausible responses across large-scale environmental gradients, featuring a clear production optimum of beech that aligns with empirical studies. These findings suggest that the model is capable of accurately simulating the dynamics of European beech across its range and can be used for more comprehensive experimentations.

This study explores the power vector inequalities for a pair of operators (B,C)\left(B,C) in a Hilbert space. By utilizing a Mitrinović-Pečarić-Fink-type inequality for inner products and norms, we derive various power vector inequalities. Specifically, we consider the cases where (B,C)\left(B,C) is equal to (A,A*)\left(A,{A}^{* }) or (Re(A),Im(A))(\hspace{0.1em}\text{Re}\hspace{0.1em}\left(A),\hspace{0.1em}\text{Im}\hspace{0.1em}\left(A)) for an operator AA in B(H)B\left(H), where HH is a Hilbert space. This leads to the derivation of vector, norm, and numerical radius inequalities for a single operator. Furthermore, we obtain power inequalities for the ss-rr-norm and ss-rr -numerical radius of the operator pair (B,C)∈B(H)\left(B,C)\in B\left(H), which generalizes the Euclidean norm and Euclidean numerical radius. Finally, we apply these results to derive the corresponding inequalities for a single operator A∈B(H)A\in B\left(H).

Introduction Smoking has a negative impact on the chemosensory function. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of smoking experience and type of tobacco products on gustatory and olfactory function. Methods This study included 30 conventional cigarette smokers, 30 heated tobacco products (HTPs) users, and 30 non-smokers. Olfactory function was assessed with a ‘Sniffin' Sticks Screening 12 Test’ while the taste function was assessed with ‘taste strips’ for the basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. The lifetime exposure to smoking was calculated using the Brinkman index (BI). Results Conventional cigarette smokers demonstrated decreased olfactory function in comparison to non-smokers (median: 10 vs 11; p=0.001) but HTPs users did not differ between those two groups. Overall gustatory function was lower in conventional cigarette smokers (median: 9.5) and HTPs users (median: 10) than in non-smokers (median: 14; p

Zoysia japonica Steud. (zoysia grass), with its high drought, shade, and salt tolerance, it is an excellent choice for green areas. However, in regions with subtropical climates, it goes into winter dormancy with a loss of green color and functionality, which is a main barrier to its widespread use. The application of silicon and nitrogen in fall was hypothesized to enhance winter color retention of Z. japonica. This study assessed the impact of fall (late-season) nitrogen (0, 2.5, or 5.0 g/m2 ammonium sulfate) and foliar silicon (0, 3, or 6 mL/L potassium silicate) applications on the winter color retention of Z. japonica grown in the field. The experiment was conducted over two consecutive growing seasons in Antalya, Türkiye. Turfgrass quality, color, chlorophyll content, shoot density, and winter dormancy were all improved by late-season nitrogen application. Overall, two sequential nitrogen applications at 5 g/m2 in fall provided 65% to 100% green coverage with acceptable turfgrass quality during fall and winter, indicating the possibility of maintaining the year-round green color of Z. japonica in subtropical climates. However, the silicon treatment did not affect the winter color retention of Z. japonica. The apparent lack of a beneficial response of Z. japonica to the silicon application might be due to the dose, application methods, and silicon source.

Aim of the study The aim of this study was to compare the results of the treatment of the gingival smile by two techniques, Botox injection (in the first group of patients) and laser therapy (the second group of patients). Materials and methods The study included 30 female patients diagnosed with anterior gummy smile, aged of 31 and 45, who were separated into two groups. The first group of 15 patients was injected with Botox (Allergan), and second group of patients received laser therapy (Fotona LightWalker Laser). A questionnaires with four parts was used, which contained: demographic data; the degree of pain intensity after the intervention; the patient satisfaction degree according to the applied therapy; the degree of changes in patients’ life quality after the applied treatment. Results On the fourth day after the interventions (the first follow-up session), the degree of pain intensity in the patients with laser gingivectomy was much higher than in the patients injected with Botox. The satisfaction of patients with gummy smiles who were treated with Botox therapy was the highest at all monitoring sessions, in contrast to the satisfaction of patients with laser therapy, which was above average to maximum at all monitoring sessions. The quality of life of the patients was greatly increased in both groups. Conclusions The impact of both therapies on the treatment of gummy smiles was beneficial. The aesthetics and psychological well-being increased after the applied therapies.

The study examines the effects of collaborative learning techniques on written expression, self-regulation and writing motivation. It was designed according to the pre-test-posttest control group experimental model. The research was conducted during the 2017-2018 academic year with a total of 88 students in in one control and two experimental groups. The first experimental group performed writing exercises according to Co-Op Co-Op and the second experimental group utilized the STAD technique. The control group, on the other hand, carried out writing studies according to the Turkish Lesson Teaching Program (MEB, 2018). Data were collected via a Personal Information Form, 6+1 Analytical Writing and Evaluation Scale, Writing Oriented Self-Regulation Scale and Writing Motivation Scale and were analyzed with the SPSS program. When the findings are examined, a significant difference was seen between the experimental groups and the control group's post-test score average for self-regulation in writing. No significant difference was found between the written expression skills and writing motivation post-test mean scores.