Improving students’ use of argumentation is front and center in the increasing emphasis on scientific practice in K-12 Science and STEM programs. We explore the construct validity of scenario-based assessments of claim-evidence-reasoning (CER) and the structure of the CER construct with respect to a learning progression framework. We also seek to understand how middle school students progress. Establishing the purpose of an argument is a competency that a majority of middle school students meet, whereas quantitative reasoning is the most difficult, and the Rasch model indicates that the competencies form a unidimensional hierarchy of skills. We also find no evidence of differential item functioning between different scenarios, suggesting

Background :Atherosclerosis is the most
frequent underlying cause of ischemic heart
disease and a major cause of death all over the
world. This study was carried out to analyze and
compare the angiographic findings in patients
with diabetes mellitus versus non diabetics with
coronary heart disease , and to correlate these
findings with some risk factors for coronary
heart disease.
Methods: A total of 100 patients were studied,
50 with diabetes mellitus, and 50 non diabetics.
This study was carried out at Al-Sadr teaching
hospital in Basrah, Southern Iraq during the
period April 2009- September 2009. All patients
were known to have coronary heart disease. Risk
factors for coronary heart disease

The application of physiological oxygen (physoxia) concentrations is becoming increasingly commonplace within a mammalian stem cell culture. Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) attract widespread interest for clinical application due to their unique immunomodulatory, multi-lineage potential, and regenerative capacities. Descriptions of the impact of physoxia on global DNA methylation patterns in hMSCs and the activity of enzymatic machinery responsible for its regulation remain limited. Human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-hMSCs, passage 1) isolated in reduced oxygen conditions displayed an upregulation of SOX2 in reduced oxygen conditions vs. air oxygen (21% O2, AO), while no change was noted for either OCT-4 or NA

Background: Colonic cancer is a very common disease world-wide being fourth most common cancer characterized by abnormal proliferation of the inner wall of colon then taking full colon wall thickness then spreading to surrounding lymph nodes and tissues and finally distant metastasis. It is one of most complicated diseases with debilitating symptoms which becomes more sever , prominent and specific with advancing stage with high percent of fatality and relatively short survival if diagnosed late or if left untreated.Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of serum CEA & sAPRIL levels in the diagnosis and screening of colon cancer and their validity for this.Patients and methods: This study was applied on 35 patients with colonic can

Background: The world health organization estimates that worldwide 2 billion people still have iodine deficiency Objectives: Is to make comparison between the effect of identification of recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) and non-identification of the nerve on incidence of recurrent laryngeal nerve injury (RLNI) in different thyroidectomy procedures.

Type of the study: cross –sectional study.

Methods: 132 patients with goiters underwent thyroidectomy .Identification of RLN visually by exposure were done for agroup of them and non-identification of the nerves for the other group. The outcomes of RLNI in the two groupsanalyzed statistically for the effect of

The current study aims at using non-hatchable artemia eggs of local origin and making use of these eggs by decapsulating and presenting them as food for the larvae of the Cyprinus carpio as a source of animal protein with high nutritional value instead of throwing them away. The results showed that the second parameter (A2) was highly significant at the level (P≤0.05) in the growth rates of the larvae that were fed on decapsulated artemia eggs alone, and it was better than the two control parameters (A1), in which the larvae were fed with feed designated for Cyprinus carpio fish. It also outperformed the third parameter (A3), in which the feed was mixed with artemia eggs with 50% decapsulation, which also outperformed the control paramete

The important device in the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is the Sink Node (SN). That is used to store, collect and analyze data from every sensor node in the network. Thus the main role of SN in WSN makes it a big target for traffic analysis attack. Therefore, securing the SN position is a substantial issue. This study presents Security for Mobile Sink Node location using Dynamic Routing Protocol called (SMSNDRP), in order to increase complexity for adversary trying to discover mobile SN location. In addition to that, it minimizes network energy consumption. The proposed protocol which is applied on WSN framework consists of 50 nodes with static and mobile SN. The results havw shown in each round a dynamic change in the route to reach mobi

    The present paper confirmed the presence of Phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus Haas, 1957 in Iraq and recorded the first observations of this taxon in Al-Muthanna province southwestern of Iraq. The existence of the species is yet uncertain in Iraq. The habitat and morphological characteristics of this species were reviewed.

    The present paper confirmed the presence of Phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus Haas, 1957 in Iraq and recorded the first observations of this taxon in Al-Muthanna province southwestern of Iraq. The existence of the species is yet uncertain in Iraq. The habitat and morphological characteristics of this species were reviewed.