Thyroid hormones status during pregnancy in normal Iranian women     

Nosratollah Zarghami  Mohammad Rohbani-Noubar  Ali Khosrowbeygi 《Indian journal of clinical biochemistry : IJCB》2005,20(2):182-185

Pregnancy is associated with significant, but reversible changes in thyroid function studies, which are among the most profound seen as a result of a normal physiologic state. The present study was carried out to find out alterations in thyroid function tests in each trimester in normal pregnant women as compared to non-pregnant women in Tabriz-Iran. A case-control study designed with 229 normal pregnant women that randomly selected from the first (64 samples), the second (92 samples), and the third (73 samples) trimesters and 250 randomly selected non-pregnant healthy female controls. Age range in both groups was 16–40 years. Thyroid function tests carried out by measuring serum levels of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free and total thyroxin (FT₄, TT₄), and free and total triiodothyronine (FT₃, TT₃) by commercially available radio immunoassay kits. We found that mean TT₄ increased progressively during pregnancy. Our study showed increasing in serum levels of TT₃ in the second trimester and then declining during the third trimester compared with non-pregnant women. We showed that FT₄ strongly decreased during the third trimester. Free T₃ showed declining in the second and third trimesters. Mean TSH did not show significant difference in each trimester compared with non-pregnant women. The thyroid function tests in pregnancy should be interpreted against gestational age-related reference intervals to avoid mis-interpretation of thyroid function during pregnancy.  相似文献   

Hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic and antioxidant properties of combination ofCurcumin fromCurcuma longa, Linn, and partially purified product fromAbroma augusta, Linn. in streptozotocin induced diabetes     

Halim Eshrat M. Ali Hussain 《Indian journal of clinical biochemistry : IJCB》2002,17(2):33-43

Dietary spice components ofCurcuma longa andAbroma augusta have been screened for their protective effect against reactive oxygen species induced lipid peroxidation. They have been found to be efficient antioxidant when administered in combination. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of oral administration (300mg/Kg) of the aqueous extract of turmeric whose active ingredient isCurcumin andAbromine powder as a hypoglycemic agent mixed with diet. The effect of this aqueous extract on blood glucose, lipid peroxidation (LPO) and the antioxidant defense system in rat tissues like liver, lung, kidney and brain was studied for 8 weeks in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats. The administration of an aqueous extract of turmeric and abromine powder resulted in a significant reduction in blood glucose and an increase in total haemoglobin. The aqueous extract also resulted in decreased free radical formation in the tissues studied. The decrease in thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and increase in reduced glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) clearly showed the antioxidant property of the mixture. It is suggested that these changes initially counteract the oxidative stress in diabetes however, a gradual decrease in the antioxidative process may be one of the factors which results in chronic diabetes. These results indicate that the mixture of the two plants have shown antidiabetic activity and also reduced oxidative stress in diabetes. A combination ofAbroma augusta and Curcuma longa also restored the other general parameters in diabetic animals. The results were statistically analyzed and indicated that combination of herbal extracts showed better efficacy as compared to individual herbal plant extracts used.  相似文献   

Evaluating students experiences using a virtual learning environment: satisfaction and preferences     

Hamutoglu  Nazire Burcin  Gemikonakli  Orhan  Duman  Ibrahim  Kirksekiz  Ali  Kiyici  Mubin 《Educational technology research and development : ETR & D》2020,68(1):437-462

Educational technology research and development - Virtual learning environments (VLEs) are web-based software systems that enable students to interact with their teachers and classmates, access...  相似文献   

Factors affecting the adoption of e-learning systems in Qatar and USA: Extending the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2)     

Mazen El-Masri  Ali Tarhini 《Educational technology research and development : ETR & D》2017,65(3):743-763

This study examines the major factors that may hinder or enable the adoption of e-learning systems by university students in developing (Qatar) as well as developed (USA) countries. To this end, we used extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) with Trust as an external variable. By means of an online survey, data were collected from 833 university students from a university in Qatar and another from USA. Structural equation modelling was employed as the main method of analysis in this study. The results show that performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, habit and trust are significant predictors of behavioural intention (BI) in both samples. However, contrary to our expectation, the relationship between price value and BI is insignificant. Our results also show that effort expectancy and social influence lead to an increase in students’ adoption of e-learning systems in developing countries but not in developed countries. Moreover, facilitating conditions increase e-learning adoption in developed countries which is not the case in developing countries. Overall, the proposed model achieves an acceptable fit and explains its variance for 68% of the Qatari sample and 63% of the USA sample. These results and their implications to both theory and practice are described.  相似文献   

Parental perceptions of life context variables for involvement in their young children's education     

Ali Kemal Tekin 《Education 3-13》2016,44(3):353-366

The purpose of this study was to discover Turkish parents’ perceptions of life context variables, including personal knowledge and skills and personal time and energy for involvement activities in their young children's education. The scales used in this study were based on parents’ self-report, and included: (1) Parental Perceptions of Personal Knowledge and Skills for Involvement Activities and (2) Parental Perceptions of Personal Time and Energy for Involvement Activities. Moreover, a demographic survey was developed and used as the second instrument in this study. The results suggested that parents as a group tend to have positive perceptions of life context variables for involvement in their young children's education and their income is the strongest predictor of these perceptions.  相似文献   

Technological self-efficacy among school leaders in Oman: A preliminary study     

Aisha Salim Ali Al-Harthi 《Journal of Further & Higher Education》2017,41(6):760-772

There is more need today for school leaders to be up-to-date with technology and its various uses in education. Enhancing self-efficacy in the use of technologyis an expected role of educational leadership preparation programmes. This study investigated technological self-efficacy of a group of educators in leadership positions while participating in a leadership preparation programme at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. The findings show that these educators had high technological self-efficacy. There were also significant, positive relationships between technological self-efficacy variables, academic achievement and age. Age was negatively correlated with general learning self-efficacy and also with one indicator of academic achievement. In the qualitative analysis, the study used the framework of the Theory of Margin (TM) to identify the factors affecting technology self-efficacy. Results indicate that, while participants with a high power-load margin (PLM) reported a higher number of internal and external powers, those with a lower PLM reported a higher number of internal and external loads.  相似文献   

Using Computer Assisted Instruction to Compare the Inventive Model and the Radical Constructivist Approach to Teaching Physics     

Rezaei  Ali Reza  Katz  Larry 《Journal of Science Education and Technology》2002,11(4):367-380

This paper introduces a new way of evaluating instructional strategies by using computers. Two basic theories, instructivism and constructivism, are discussed and critically evaluated in terms of their effectiveness in conceptual learning. Despite the current popularity of constructivism, the radical form of it is criticized in this paper. The advantages and limitations of these two approaches, especially the radical forms of constructivism, are outlined. After borrowing some ideas from other effective conceptual change models, an integrative model for conceptual learning (the Inventive Model) is introduced. Two versions of multimedia physics software are developed by the authors. The first version is based on the Inventive Model and the second version based on a radical constructivist model. The effectiveness of the Inventive Model was compared with the radical constructivist approach and conventional science instruction. Students' log files were analyzed to investigate the nature and the processes of the conceptual change. A conceptual test and a knowledge test were used to compare the groups. The quantitative results showed the superiority of the Inventive Model over the other models in conceptual learning and the superiority of conventional instruction in learning the basic knowledge. The qualitative analysis showed that only the Inventive Model lead to coherent conceptual learning. It was concluded that the process of conceptual change is gradual and continuous. Analysis of students' log files revealed no moments of dramatic change in students' conceptions.  相似文献   

Effects of concomitant diabetes mellitus and hyperthyroidism on testicular and epididymal histoarchitecture and steroidogenesis in male animals     

Nazar Ali Korejo  Quan-wei Wei  Atta Hussain Shah  Fang-xiong Shi 《Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B》2016,17(11):850-863

This study evaluated the effects of comorbid disorders of diabetes and hyperthyroidism in the adult male mice. In total, 32 ICR strain mice were equally distributed into four groups: control (C), diabetic (D), diabetic-plushyperthyroid (DH), and hyperthyroid (H). Mice allocated for diabetes received a single intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ) at 200 mg/kg body weight. At the onset of diabetes, one group of mice was concomitantly injected levothyroxine (LT4; 0.3 mg/kg body weight) and the other set of animals received the same treatment independently on a daily basis. The body weight, as well as the testicular and epididymal weights, was reduced markedly in D and DH mice. Higher trends of blood glucose levels were seen in the DH group, in comparison to euthyroid diabetic mice. Thyroid hormones could exert a transient effect on blood glucose homeostasis by altering the serum blood glucose level in diabetic patients. Histomorphometric analysis showed increased luminal sizes of seminiferous tubules, along with decreased epithelial height and atrophic changes in germinal stem cells in the testis of DH and H mice. Caput epididymis of DH mice showed extensive compaction of principal cells, loss of stereocilia, lipid vacuolization, and inflammatory infiltrations; however, damaged tubular integrity, packed clear cells, exfoliated cells, and round spermatids were profoundly noticed in the cauda epididymis. Hyperthyroidism elevated the serum testosterone levels in H and DH mice and produced critical damages to the histoarchitecture of the epididymis. Collectively, this experiment endeavored to mimic the polyglandular autoimmune syndrome, which will be helpful to better understand the reasons for male infertility in diabetic-cum-hyperthyroid patients.  相似文献   

Optimization of cultural conditions for thermostable β-1, 3-1, 4-glucanase production byBacillus subtilis ZJF-1A5     

He Guo-qing  Tang Xing-jun  Mukhtar A. M. Ali  Chen Qi-he 《浙江大学学报(A卷英文版)》2003,4(6):719-726

The optimization of cultural conditions for β-glucanase production byBacillus subtilis ZJF-1A5 was investigated in flask trials. Temperature had great effect on β-glucanase production which maximized at optimal temperature of 37°C and decreased significantly when temperature was over 37°C. Charge quantity affected β-glucanase production significantly. Adding oxygen vector N-dodecane or acetic ether benefited β-glucanase production, but it depended on the concentration and charge quantity. The results of fractional factorial design showed that age and size of inoculum and shaking speed were the key factors affecting β-glucanase production and the cultivation time span to reach the highest β-glucanase activity. The optimal cultural conditions for β-glucanase production obtained with CCD were as follows: inoculum age and size (16 h, 3.82% (v/v)), shaking speed 210 r/min, charge quantity of 30 mL in 250 mL flask and initial pH 7.0, cultured at 37°C for 50 h. Repeated experimental results accorded with those predicted by a second-order polynomial model. The amount of β-glucanase, α-amylase and neutral protease produced byB subtilis ZJF-1A5 was associated partially with cell growth. Those three enzymes' activities increased following the cell growth and increased significantly when cells entered the stationary phase. Project (No. B0608) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and a grant (2001121B25) from Hangzhou Science and Technology Development Project of Zhejiang Province, China  相似文献   

What difference could in-service training make? Insights from a public school of Pakistan     

Ali Nawab 《Teacher Development》2017,21(1):142-159

In-service courses have been used as a common strategy to build the capacity of teachers to meet the constantly changing demands of modern schooling. But how the teachers implement the ideas and strategies acquired from such in-service training and what conditions influence the implementation process is the least examined area in Pakistan, especially in the rural context. Using a case study approach, the current study explored the possibilities and challenges of implementing strategies, learnt through in-service training, in a public school in rural Pakistan. It was found that in-service courses have a positive impact upon the attitude and practices of the trainee teacher. However, due to various structural and cultural barriers, the teacher is not able to implement many of the strategies and ideas in the school context. The hierarchical structure of schools, teachers’ workload, lack of resources and insufficient support from colleagues and management hinder the process of implementation. The study suggests that in-service training should provide the trainees with ideas and skills to cope with the structural and cultural challenges at school. Moreover, ongoing support and encouragement from colleagues, course facilitators and management is required to sustain the implementation of strategies learnt during training.  相似文献