Turkish Adaptation, Validity, and Reliability Study of the Children and Adolescent Behavior Inventory Family Questionnaire.

Introduction: This study aimed to conduct the Turkish adaptation, validity, and reliability analyses of the Children and Adolescent Behavior Inventory (CABI) Family Questionnaire. Method: A total of 1015 parents of children and adolescents aged 6-14 years, with 762 from the community sample and 253 from the clinical sample, participated in the study. After the language adaptation of the scale was completed by experts, its construct validity was determined using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and discriminant validity. The reliability was assessed with Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficients, and the test-retest reliability of the scale was tested on 100 participants. Results: The results of the EFA showed that the scale had 10 factors. The items associated with the 10th factor, which was different from the original scale, aligned with the subscales of the Sluggish Cognitive Tempo. The results of the CFA indicated that the factor load values were statistically significant, and the fit index values were at moderate, good, and excellent levels. A comparison of the subscale scores of the clinical and population sample groups showed that the scale had a distinctive feature. The Cronbach's alpha value of the total scale score was calculated to be 0.94. No statistically significant difference was found between the mean test-retest scores obtained on the subscales. The test-retest correlation coefficient was found to be within the range of r=0.605-0.853 for the subscales (p<0.01). Conclusion: This study proved that the CABI Family Questionnaire was a valid and reliable scale and could be administered to the parents of Turkish children and adolescents aged between six and 14 years in population and clinical samples.

Projections of adult skills and the effect of COVID-19.

In this paper, we project Skills in Literacy Adjusted Mean Years of Schooling (SLAMYS) for the working age population in 45 countries and quinquennial time periods until 2050 according to various population scenarios. Moreover, we integrate the effect of school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic on these projections. Adult skills are projected using the cohort components method. They can help in assessing the potential consequences of the recent trends for the adult population, particularly the workforce, whose skills are essential for the jobs contributing to economic growth and development outlooks. Our projections are novel as they take into account both the amount of schooling and quality of education and also consider the changes in adult skills through lifetime. Projections show that the adult skills gap between countries in the Global North and countries in the Global South will likely continue to exist by 2050, even under very optimistic assumptions-but may widen or narrow depending on the demographic development trajectories specific to each country. Moreover, the loss of learning due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbates inequalities between countries. Particularly, in countries where schools have been closed for a prolonged period of time and the infrastructure for effective online schooling is lacking, the skills of cohorts who were in school during the pandemic have been severely affected. The fact that the duration of school closures has been longer in many low- and middle-income countries is a serious concern for achieving global human capital equality. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is projected to erase decades-long gains in adult skills for affected cohorts unless policies to mitigate learning loss are implemented immediately.

Determination of an effective agent combination using nisin against Salmonella biofilm.

This present study aims to determine the lowest concentration effects of the assayed different antibiotics; antimicrobial agents alone and their combinations with nisin were investigated to prevent the biofilm formation and break down the biofilm structure of Salmonella. While the combination of nisin and EDTA showed a synergistic effect against Salmonella strain, chlorhexidine digluconate and streptomycin with nisin showed a partial synergetic effect; citric acid and sulfonamides with nisin showed an indifferent effect. The use of citric acid and chlorhexidine digluconate alone was very effective in Salmonella inhibition. While the citric acid combined with other agents had not much effect, the use of chlorhexidine digluconate combined with nisin and EDTA inactivated the total initial count within 24 h. Significantly, when citric acid and sulfonamides are used alone, they reduce by 64% and 44%, respectively. When they used nisin + EDTA, this ratio increased to 83% and 84%, respectively. For the prevention of biofilm, the most suitable conditions were determined as 97% biofilm inhibition. The results of this study can be used as a guide for the emergence of new approaches to ensure the food safety and quality of the food industry.

The role of bcsE gene in the pathogenicity of Salmonella.

The effects of the bcsE gene and BcsE protein on bacterial physiology and pathogenicity in SalmonellaTyphimurium and Salmonella Group C1 were investigated. It was observed that biofilm and pellicle formation did not occur in the bcsE gene mutants of wild-type strains. Besides, the 'rdar' (red, dry, rough) biofilm morphotype in wild-type strains changed significantly in the mutants. In terms of the bcsE gene, the swimming and swarming motility in mutant strains showed a dramatic increase compared to the wild-type strains. The Salmonella bcsE gene was cloned into Escherichia coli BL21, and the his-tagged protein produced in this strain was purified to obtain polyclonal antibodies in BALB/c mice. The antibodies were showed labeled antigen specificity to the BscE protein. As a result of immunization and systemic persistence tests carried out with BALB/c mice, BscE protein was determined to trigger high levels of humoral and cellular responses (Th1 cytokine production, IgG2a/IgG1 > 1). Systemic persistence in the liver and spleen samples decreased by 99.99% and 100% in the bcsE mutant strains. Finally, invasion abilities on HT-29 epithelial cells of wild-type strains were utterly disappeared in their bcsE gene mutant strains.

Skills-adjusted human capital shows rising global gap.

Human capital, broadly defined as the skills acquired through formal education, is acknowledged as one of the key drivers of economic growth and social development. However, its measurement for the working-age populations, on a global scale and over time, is still unsatisfactory. Most indicators either only consider the quantity dimension of education and disregard the actual skills or are demographically inconsistent by applying the skills of the young cohorts in school to represent the skills of the working-age population at the same time. In the case of rapidly expanding or changing school systems, this assumption is untenable. However, an increasing number of countries have started to assess the literacy skills of their adult populations by age and sex directly. Drawing on this literacy data, and by using demographic backprojection and statistical estimation techniques, we here present a demographically consistent indicator for adult literacy skills, the skills in literacy adjusted mean years of schooling (SLAMYS). The measure is given for the population aged 20 to 64 in 185 countries and for the period 1970 to 2015. Compared to the conventional mean years of schooling (MYS)-which has strongly increased for most countries over the past decades, and in particular among poor countries-the trends in SLAMYS exhibit a widening global skills gap between low- and high-performing countries.

The Effectiveness of a Smoking Cessation Initiative Among Employees in a Textile Factory.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a smoking cessation initiative for workers who are smokers in a textile factory located in Denizli, Turkey. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This retrospective cohort was conducted by using the occupational health and safety unit records of 821 workers who are smokers. All participants underwent cognitive behavioral therapy, and in case of need, a suitable pharmacological treatment was initiated. The status of smoking cessation was checked at the end of the third month with a carbon monoxide breath monitor. A chi-square test was performed to make comparisons between categorical variables. Logistic regression analysis (backward) was used to evaluate the factors related to the smoking cessation status. RESULTS: The ratio of participants who gave up smoking was 74.3%, and 63% of them used a pharmaceutical aid to quit smoking. Working in the department of finishing and using a pharmaceutical aid to quit smoking were related to increased success in smoking cessation. CONCLUSION: Outcomes of our study emphasize that workplace-based smoking cessation programs may create a huge impact on smoking cessation among workers. Pharmacological aid and cognitive behavioral therapy have been associated with success in quitting smoking.

Validation of the Turkish Parent Supervision Attributes Profile Questionnaire.

AIM: The most common cause of death in childhood is unintentional injury. Most childhood injuries occur when children are under the supervision of caregivers. There is no valid and reliable instrument for measuring the parents' supervision attributes in Turkey. The aim of this study was to adapt the Parent Supervision Attributes Profile Questionnaire to Turkish. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This research was methodological. The data were collected through a questionnaire that consisted of 11 questions about the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the family and the Turkish Parent Supervision Attributes Profile Questionnaire. The Questionnaire, developed by Morrongiello and House, is a 5-point Likert-type scale and consists of 29 items. High scores obtained from the scale, which has no cut-off, indicate a high supervisory behavior. The language adaptation and content validity of the scale were completed by experts. Confirmatory factor analysis was used for construct validity. Reliability was tested by internal consistency coefficients. RESULTS: Five hundred sixty people participated in the study, 81.9% of whom were mothers. The mean age of the mothers was 33.8±4.6 years and the mean age of the fathers was 37.2±5.1 years. The percentage of university graduates was 56.8% among mothers and 53.9% among fathers. According to the confirmatory factor analysis, the fit index values were as follows: Standardized Root Mean Square Residual =0.097, Goodness of Fit Index =0.80, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation =0.089, Comparative Fit Index =0.88, Non-Normed Fit Index =0.87. The fit index values were moderate and confirmed 4-factor structure. It was found that the internal consistency coefficient calculated for reliability was 0.75 for the whole scale and ranged between 0.57 and 0.79 for the subscales. CONCLUSION: The Turkish Parent Supervision Attributes Profile Questionnaire is a valid and reliable measurement tool. Further research is needed to determine the current situation regarding supervisory behaviors.

Toxicity assessment of pesticide triclosan by aquatic organisms and degradation studies.

Triclosan is considered as an important contaminant and is widely used in personal care products as an antimicrobial agent. This study demonstrates the biodegradation of triclosan by two freshwater microalgae and the acute toxicity of triclosan and 2,4-dichlorophenol. The effects of culture media and light on biodegradation of triclosan and the changing morphology of microalgae were systematically studied. Geitlerinema sp. and Chlorella sp. degraded 82.10% and 92.83% of 3.99 mg/L of triclosan at 10 days, respectively. The microalgal growth inhibition assay confirmed absence of toxic effects of triclosan on Chlorella sp., even at higher concentration (50 mg/L) after 72 h exposure. HPLC analysis showed that 2,4-dichlorophenol was produced as degradation product of triclosan by Geitlerinema sp. and Chlorella sp. This study proved to be beneficial to understand biodegradation and acute toxicity of triclosan by microalgae in order to provide aquatic environmental protection.

Effects of different culture media on biodegradation of triclosan by Rhodotorula mucilaginosa and Penicillium sp.

Triclosan is an antimicrobial agent and a persistent pollutant. The biodegradation of triclosan is dependent on many variables including the biodegradation organism and the environmental conditions. Here, we evaluated the triclosan degradation potential of two fungi strains, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa and Penicillium sp., and the rate of its turnover to 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP). Both of these strains showed less susceptibility to triclosan when grown in minimal salt medium. In order to further evaluate the effects of environmental conditions on triclosan degradation, three different culture conditions including original thermal power plant wastewater, T6 nutrimedia and ammonium mineral salts medium were used. The maximum triclosan degradation yield was 48% for R. mucilaginosa and 82% for Penicillium sp. at 2.7 mg/L triclosan concentration. Biodegradation experiments revealed that Penicillium sp. was more tolerant to triclosan. Scanning electron microscopy micrographs also showed the morphological changes of fungus when cells were treated with triclosan. Overall, these fungi strains could be used as effective microorganisms in active uptake (degradation) and passive uptake (sorption) of triclosan and their efficiency can be increased by optimizing the culture conditions.