Reinterpreting City as a Critical Ground in Atelier 1 Projects: Some Prospects and Projections on Ankara

This article is based on the critical approaches developed in Atelier 1, an architectural design studio in the Gazi University Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture in Ankara, Turkey. The main theme of Atelier 1 Projects in the 2014–15 academic year was the ‘City as a Critical Ground’, in which the city, ground and criticism were discussed within the interdisciplinary theoretical field of architecture. Atelier 1, involving second, third and fourth year undergraduate students, reinterpreted and redesigned the urban ground of Ankara with a critical approach to reveal its unique identities and implicit values. Ground, accepted as the main critical material in the design process, was criticised not only in its physical sense, but also its social, cultural, political, economic, technological and even psychological aspects. The students were able to discover their own design methods from their criticisms of the urban ground, which also allowed them to determine their sites and programmes. In this way, Atelier 1 promoted freedom and flexibility as well as criticality in the design process, and pointed out that the relationship of architecture with city, ground and criticism should be discussed from a new theoretical perspective, primarily in the architectural design studio, as the core of architectural education. Atelier 1, as a theory‐based architectural design studio, motivated the students to develop a critical approach to the urban ground of Ankara so as to replace the rising formalism with criticism in architecture.     

Evaluation of Serum Fetuin-A and Osteoprotegerin Levels in Patients with Psoriasis

Psoriasis patients are determined to have a high ratio of coronary artery calcification. Fetuin-A and osteoprotegerin are systemic calcification inhibitors and related to vascular calcification and cardiovascular mortality. In this study we investigated the relationship between fetuin-A and osteoprotegerin levels in psoriasis patients. The study included 40 healthy volunteers and 40 psoriasis patients. Venous blood were collected from healthy volunteers and psoriasis patients in order to search the fetuin-A and osteoprotegerin levels. Disease severity were grouped as mild, moderate and severe according to psoriasis area and severity index (PASI). The relationship between fetuin-A and osteoprotegerin levels and clinical features as sex, PASI and presence of psoriatic arthritis were analyzed. Fetuin-A levels in psoriasis patients were statistically lower than the control group (p < 0.001). In serum osteoprotegerin levels, no statistically significant difference was found in two groups (p > 0.05). Serum fetuin-A and osteoprotegerin level differences were not statistically significant between patients with psoriatic arthritis history and those without. When we grouped patients in respect of their sexes fetuin-A and osteoprotegerin levels of males and females were not significantly different (p > 0.05). No correlation was detected between the ages and PASI scores and the fetuin-A and osteoprotegerin levels of patients. As a result fetuin-A levels in psoriasis patients are found to be low but not related to disease severity. In the light of our results we concluded that fetuin-A may have a role in psoriasis pathogenesis and may contribute to the calcification process developed in psoriasis.     

Evaluating the potential effect of the increased importance of the impact component in the Research Excellence Framework of the UK

The UK's Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a system that is intended to evaluate the quality of the research produced by higher education institutes (HEIs) in the UK in three areas: quality of research outputs; impact of this research beyond academia; and research environment. For the next REF, the funding bodies have reviewed the importance of the three assessment elements and decided to increase the weight of ‘impact’ to 25% (from 20% in REF2014) and decrease the weight of ‘outputs’ to 60% (from 65% in REF2014). This article first examines the relevance of some factors for the quality of impact submissions in REF2014 and finds that larger submissions and institutes with higher external research income received better impact scores in the REF. The article then examines the units of assessment (UoAs) and HEIs that benefitted from the inclusion of the impact agenda as part of REF2014 by examining the distribution of the quality-related research (QR) funding in the 2017–2018 period and finds that the QR funding gap among different UoAs tends to decrease but the gap among HEIs in most of the UoAs increased. With the increased importance of the impact agenda as a criterion for funding bodies, it is expected that research income will be concentrated in fewer universities in the future, with the increased importance of non-academic impact. This article also discusses some of the gaming strategies and long-term investment priorities that HEIs may engage in based on the new submission rules of the next REF.     

Transient heat conduction in an anisotropic medium in cylindrical coordinates

Three dimensional, time dependent heat conduction for an anisotropic medium of a triclinic system is solved for an infinitely long hollow or solid cylinder of finite radius with a restriction ε₂₃ = ε₁₂ε₁₃. Several special cases are obtained from the present solution.     

Generalizability of the effectiveness of a preschool mathematics intervention for low-socioeconomic status Turkish children

A socioeconomic status (SES)-related achievement gap in mathematics emerges in children from many countries before school entry, persists in primary school, and imposes challenges for education systems worldwide. In response, the United Nations' sustainable development goals include universal access to quality preschool education to support universal numeracy. A generalizability study of the effectiveness of an early mathematics intervention was conducted for low-SES Turkish preschool children (33 boys, 27 girls; M_age = 4.32). Classrooms were randomly assigned to treatment (Pre-K Mathematics) or control conditions. Children's early mathematical knowledge was assessed by the Child Math Assessment. A statistically significant positive impact was found (ES = 1.32). This indicates some generalizability of the intervention and supports the feasibility of using early intervention to achieve UN goals.     

Science Teachers’ Professional Development about Science Centers

Science & Education - The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to delve into professional development (PD) of science teachers’ views about nature of science (NOS) throughout...     

Comparing the job satisfaction of hourly paid and salaried preschool teachers in Turkey

This two-phase mixed-methods study compares the job satisfaction of Turkish preschool teachers who are paid hourly against the satisfaction of those on regular contracts. The participants in its first, quantitative phase were 260 preschool teachers, of whom 81 also participated in the second, qualitative phase. Initial data collection from all phase-one participants was via the Job Satisfaction Scale. Then, in phase two, the members of the hourly paid group were asked three open-ended questions, and the regular-contract teachers two of the same questions, related to the advantages and disadvantages of hourly paid teaching. The results indicated a significant difference in job satisfaction levels between the two types of teachers. None of the interactive effects between preschool teachers’ working status and their gender, age, marital status, and in-service training was statistically significant. In phase two, moreover, more than half of the 41 hourly paid teachers (n?=?22) emphasised that they worked as hourly for economic reasons, while more than a third (n?=?30) of the overall phase-two sample stated that there was no advantage of working as an hourly paid teacher. Working conditions for hourly paid teachers were described as disadvantageous by almost half the members of the phase-two sample (n?=?37).     

Examining Knowledge Levels of High School Students Related to Conductors at Electrostatic Equilibrium and Electric Field Lines Using the Drawing Method

Research in Science Education - The purpose of this study was to investigate knowledge of high school students related to conductors at electrostatic equilibrium and electric field lines. The...     

Comparing the effects of different book reading techniques on young children’s language development

The purpose of this research study is to compare the effects of digital, dialogic and traditional reading on children’s language development aged 48–66 months. Fifty-six randomly selected children enrolled in three different classrooms in a public preschool in Turkey participated in the study. The three classrooms were again randomly assigned as digital, dialogic and traditional reading groups. During the reading activities, a total of 24 storybooks were read by each group every three times in 8 weeks. While the children’s language scores (the receptive and expressive language scores) resulted in a significant increase in dialogic reading, the children’s language scores in a digital and traditional reading group slightly changed during the intervention. Alternatively, qualitative data suggested that the interaction between teacher and children and between children and children were very limited in a digital and traditional reading group and that limited interaction during reading was the underlying cause of the insignificant increase in children’s language scores.