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Serum Magnesium and Calcium Levels in Children With Breath-holding Spells
No full textObjective: Although breath-holding spells (BHS) are the most common form of non epileptic paroxysmal events in infancy, the pathophysiology of these events remain unknown. Several studies have indicated that multiple factors can be involved in the pathogenesis of BHS. The aim of this study was to assess the associations between BHS and serum magnesium and calcium levels.
Materials and Methods: This prospective, case-control study enrolled 79 consecutive children with BHS and 114 healthy children, who were included as controls, without any illness between October 2012 and January 2014. Mean hemoglobin (Hb), mean corpuscular volume, serum iron, serum iron binding protein, magnesium(Mg), calcium(Ca), phosphorus (P), and alkaline phosphatase levels and Ca/Mg ratiowere compared between the two groups.
Results: Overall, the Hb, Ca, and P levels were in the normal range in both groups; however, the mean Hb, Ca, and P levels were significantly lower in the BHS group than in the control group. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in the mean serum Mg level or Ca/Mg ratio between the groups.
Conclusion: Therefore, low Hb, Ca, and P levels may decrease the threshold of BHS and thus constitute a risk factor for the development of BHS
A Structural Model for Students' Adoption of Learning Management Systems: An Empirical Investigation in the Higher Education Context
No full textWith the recent advances in information technologies, Learning Management Systems have taken on a significant role in providing educational resources. The successful use of these systems in higher education is important for the implementation, management and continuous improvement of e-learning services to increase the quality of learning. This study aimed to identify the factors affecting higher education students' behavioral intention towards Learning Management Systems. A research model was proposed based on the belief factors of the technology acceptance model; namely perceived usefulness, perceived ease-of-use and external factors including self-efficacy, enjoyment, subjective norm, satisfaction, and interactivity and control. Then, a self-reported questionnaire was distributed online. A total of 470 higher education students participated in the survey. The proposed structural model was assessed and validated using structural equation modeling, in particular the partial least square method. The predictors of behavioral intention were identified as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, enjoyment, subjective norm, satisfaction, and interactivity and control with the validated structural model. The relationships between the influencing factors provided an insight about the students' behavioral intention towards the use of Learning Management Systems. It is expected that the academicians and practitioners will benefit from the design and findings of the current study in their future research
Turkish Standardization of Movement Disorders Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale and Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale
Get PDFBackground: Movement Disorders Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) and Unified Dyskinesia Rating Scale (UDysRS) were developed as standard tools to rate Parkinson's disease (PD) and drug-induced dyskinesias of PD. As these scales have become widely used, there is a need for translation to non-English languages. Here we present the standardization for the Turkish translations.
Methods: The scales were translated into Turkish and then back-translated to English. These back-translations were reviewed by the MDS team. After cognitive pretesting, movement disorder specialists from nine centers tested 352 patients for MDS-UPDRS, and 250 patients for UDysRS. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were used to determine if the factor structures for the reference standards could be confirmed in the Turkish data. The comparative fit indexes (CFIs) for the scales were required to be 0.90 or higher. Exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) were conducted to explore the underlying factor structure without the constraint of a pre-specified factor structure.
Results: For both scales, the CFIs were 0.94 or greater as compared to the reference standard factor structures. The factor structures were consistent with that of reference standards, although there were some differences in some areas as compared to the EFA of the reference standard dataset. This may be due to the inclusion of patients with different stages of PD and different cultural properties of raters and patients.
Conclusions: These results demonstrate that the Turkish translations of MDS-UPDRS and UDysRS have adequate clinimetric properties. They are established as the official translations and can be reliably used in Turkish speaking populations
A national, multicenter, non-interventional, observational study on treatment patterns in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma in Turkey - NOTES study
Get PDFIntroduction: The introduction of targeted therapies in renal cell carcinoma has significantly improved its prognosis and treatment outcomes in recent years. Such treatment options are targeted therapies of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway and the mammalian target of the rapamycin pathway. With the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and mammalian target of the rapamycin inhibitors, overall survival has increased up to 2 years. In Turkey, due to applicable reimbursement conditions for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), interferon use is mandated as a first-line treatment, thus providing information on the use of everolimus only after initial interferon and second-line VEGF-targeted treatments such as VEGF-TKI.
Patients and methods: To provide a first real-life data set in Turkey, we conducted a prospective, non-interventional, observational study and assessed the efficacy and safety of everolimus after two lines of treatment including interferon. A total of 100 patients with histologically confirmed mRCC were enrolled in the study from 11 centers between June 2012 and March 2014 (70 males and 30 females). Efficacy was assessed on the basis of progression-free survival and overall survival; safety of everolimus was assessed on the basis of adverse event occurrence.
Results: The study results showed that the median progression-free survival with everolimus treatment was 8.1 months (95% CI: 5.1-11.1) and the median overall survival was 17.6 months (95% CI: 10.1-25.1), thus indicating a better overall response based on survival durations than those from the randomized Phase III REnal Cell cancer treatment with Oral RAD001 given Daily study results (4.9 and 14.8 months, respectively).
Conclusion: The study showed that everolimus treatment is a safe and effective treatment option in the treatment of mRCC after VEGF-TKI, with an acceptable safety and tolerability profile in real-life settings
Comparison of practical application steps of the previously used adrenaline auto injector in Turkey (EpiPen) and the currently available adrenaline auto injector (Penepin): a multi-center study
No full textAim: It has been shown by a great number of studies that the correct use of adrenaline auto injectors prescribed to patients with anaphylaxis is associated with the design of the auto injector, in addition to training. The aim of this study was to compare the skills of adults in using two different auto injectors prescribed to patients with anaphylaxis.
Material and Methods: Parents of patients aged between 1 and 18 years who referred to allergy outpatients were included in the study.
Results: A total of 630 volunteers from nine centers were included in the study. Four hundred fifty-seven (72.5%) of the participants were females and 235 (37.3%) were undergraduates. The rate of showing all the steps of auto injector trainers correctly e by the participants was found as (60.2%) (n=379) for EpiPen and 42.9% (n=270) for Penepin (p<0.001). The most frequent mistake with both auto injector trainers was the step of "place appropriate injection tip into outer thigh/press the trigger so it clicks." When the preferences of the volunteers were asked after training and application, 527 (83.7%) chose EpiPen, stating that it was easier and simpler to use.
Conclusions: Our study showed that the correct usage rates of both adrenaline auto injectors were much lower than expected and there could be mistakes in the application of both. It could be appropriate to make improvements in the design of Penepin, which is still the only available adrenaline auto injector in Turkey, such that its application steps will be simpler and quicker
Reducing Processing Time for Histogram PMHT Algorithm in Video Object Tracking
No full textThis paper describes a novel approach for reducing the processing time of the histogram probabilistic multi-hypothesis tracker (H-PMHT) algorithm in video applications. Video data of flying vehicles is taken from surface to air, and a temporal difference-based technique is applied to video frames for meeting the intensity demands of H-PMHT algorithm. This technique also enables discrimination between objects and eliminates clutter. Variations between the structures of the standard and the improved version of H-PMHT algorithms are described. In addition, the improved H-PMPT is compared with the standard H-PMHT and another approved tracking algorithm to evaluate the performance and processing time reduction ratings
A New Generalized Deep Learning Framework Combining Sparse Autoencoder and Taguchi Method for Novel Data Classification and Processing
No full textDeep autoencoder neural networks have been widely used in several image classification and recognition problems, including hand-writing recognition, medical imaging, and face recognition. The overall performance of deep autoencoder neural networks mainly depends on the number of parameters used, structure of neural networks, and the compatibility of the transfer functions. However, an inappropriate structure design can cause a reduction in the performance of deep autoencoder neural networks. A novel framework, which primarily integrates the Taguchi Method to a deep autoencoder based system without considering to modify the overall structure of the network, is presented. Several experiments are performed using various data sets from different fields, i.e., network security and medicine. The results show that the proposed method is more robust than some of the well-known methods in the literature as most of the time our method performed better. Therefore, the results are quite encouraging and verified the overall performance of the proposed framework
Serum glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor levels and impulsivity in heroin addiction: a cross-sectional, case-control study of 129 heroin addicts
No full textOBJECTIVE: Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), being a protective of dopaminergic neurons, is reported to modulate addictive behaviours and have a role as a negative regulator for biochemical and behavioural adaptations to drug abuse. We aimed to reveal impulsivity and serum GDNF levels in patients with heroin addiction and investigate their relationships in order to contribute to the understanding of behavioural aspects and biological mechanisms in heroin addiction via this study.
METHODS: This study was performed at the Department of Psychiatry of Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Turkey. We recruited 129 heroin-dependent patients and 90 age, sex, and smoking-matched healthy controls with no major psychopathology. Barratt Impulsivity Scale-11, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and sociodemographic data form were applied to all participants. Laboratory analysis for serum GDNF levels was performed for each participant's blood sample.
RESULTS: Total impulsivity scores and scores of Attentional Impulsivity, Motor Impulsivity, and Unplanned Impulsivity subscales were all higher in heroin addicts compared to the controls. Heroin addicts had also lower serum GDNF levels and lower GDNF levels were associated with high impulsivity and high HADS scores in heroin addicts.
CONCLUSION: Decrement in GDNF levels in heroin addiction seems as to be an important data which could be associated with impulsivity, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. GDNF could find a prominent place among the target molecules in the treatment of heroin addiction
Yakıt türüne göre motosiklet seçimi ve yeni bir tasarım
No full textMotosikletler günümüz koşullarına oldukça uygun ulaşım araçları olup Motosikletler
benzinli ve elektrikli olmak üzere ikiye ayrılır. Bu çalışmada elektrikli ve benzinli
motosikletler belirli parametreler ile karşılaştırılarak incelenecektir.
Çalışmada motosiklet kullanıcılarının fikirleri doğrultusunda elektrikli ve benzinli
motorların özelliklerinin ayrıntılı olarak araştırılması ve ölçülebilen değerlerin
belirlenerek karşılaştırma verisi olarak kullanılması amaçlanmaktadır. Kullanıcıların
fikirlerini belirleyebilmek amacıyla bir sorgulama sistemi oluşturulacak, alınan
cevaplar doğrultusunda tercih sebepleri ve parametreler belirlenecektir.
Ölçülen değerler ve sorgulama sistemi sonucunda elde edilen veriler uygun
yöntemler kullanılarak karşılaştırılarak, yorumlanacak ve çalışma tamamlanacaktır.
Motorcycles are very convenient transportation means for today's conditions.
Motorcycles are divided into two types as gasoline engined motorcycles and electric
engined motorcycles. In this study, electric engined and gasoline engined
motorcycles will be examined by comparing them with certain parameters.
In the examinations, it is aimed to investigate the characteristics of electric
and gasoline engines in detail in accordance with the opinions of motorcycle users
and to use the measurable values as comparison data. In the study, the features of
electric and gasoline engines will be investigated and the differences will be
determined, measurements will be obtained for the selected models, an inquiry
system will be set up to determine the opinions of the users, preference reasons
and parameters will be determined according to the answers received.
The measured values and the data obtained as a result of the query system
will be compared and interpreted using appropriate methods and the study will be
completed
Sağlıklı erişkin bireylerde LS CE-Chirp uyaran ve klik uyaran ile kaydedilen ekstra-timpanik elektrokokleoğrafi yanıtlarının karşılaştırılması
No full textGiriş
ECochG ölçümleri; Méniere hastalığı, İşitsel nöropati spektrum bozukluğu tanısının
konulması ve lezyon tarafının belirlenmesi, intraoperatif monitörizasyon ve koklear
implant öncesi değerlendirmeler gibi farklı klinik uygulamalarda kullanılmaktadır. Bu
çalışmada sağlıklı bireyler, yeni geliştirilen LS CE-Chirp uyaran ve klik uyaran ile
ekstra-timpanik elektrokokleografi ölçüm metodu kullanılarak test edilmiş ve sonuçlar
karşılaştırılmıştır.
Materyal ve Metod
Bu çalışma Ankara Başkent Üniversitesi Hastanesi KBB Anabilim dalı kliniğinde
yapılmıştır. Çalışma grubunda 18 – 40 yaş arasında normal işitmeye sahip, 19 kadın
(38 kulak) ve 4 erkek (8 kulak), toplam 23 kişi (46 kulak) dahil edilmiştir. Çalışmaya
dahil edilen gönüllü bireylerin ayrıntılı bir anamnezi alınmış, kulak burun boğaz
muayanesi yapılarak herhangi bir patoloji saptanmamış, odyometri testi ve
immitansmetri ölçümleri yapılıp işitmesinin normal olduğu görüşmüş ve gönüllülerin
test kriterlerine uygun olduğu ispatlandıktan sonra ECochG testleri yapılmıştır.
Yapılan ECochG testleri klik ve LS CE-Chirp uyaranlar kullanılarak 90, 80 ve 70 dB
nHL şiddetlerinde yapılmıştır. Elde edilen değerler, verilerin dağılımına uygun olarak
istatistiksel olarak değerlendirilmiştir.Bulgular
Hem klik hem de LS CE-Chirp uyaran kullanılarak ECochG testi yapılmıştır. 90 dB
nHL şiddetinde SP/AP oranı, 80 dB nHL şiddetinde AP latansı, 70 dB nHL şiddetinde
AP latansı ve SP/AP oranı değerlerinde klik ve LS CE-Chirp uyaranlarda istatistiksel
olarak farklılık görülmüştür.
Sonuç
Altın folyo kaplı tip trode elektrot aracılığı ile LS CE-Chirp ve klik uyaranları
kullanılarak yapılan ECochG testleri sonucunda istatiksel fark elde edilmiştir.
Introduction
ECochG testing is used for Méniere disease, auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder
diagnosis, defining the side of the lesion, intraoperative monitorization and pre coclear
implantation assesments in clinics. In this study, healty subjects were tested and
evaluated with extra-tympanic electrocochleography method using LS CE-Chirp and
click stimulus.
Material and Method
This study is held by Ankara Başkent University Hospital in the department of ENT.
The work group was 19 woman (38 ears) and 4 men (8 ears), total of 23 subjects with
the age range 18 – 40. All subjects anemnesis were taken in details and complete ENT
examinations were done. ECochG testings were done after being sure there is no
pathology with each subject, audiometric and immitansmetric testings were performed
and all were confirmed to have healthy hearing. ECochG tests were performed with
90, 80 and 70 dB nHL levels using click and LS CE-Chirp stimuluses. All acquired
data were analysed statistically according to the data distribution.Results
Statistically significant values were acquired for ECochG testing with 90 dB nHL
SP/AP ratio, 80 dB nHL AP latency, 70 dB nHL AP latency and SP/AP ratio by the
use of click and LS CE-Chirp stimuluses.
Conclusion
ECochG test performed by the use of gold foil covered tip trode electrode, LS CEChirp
and click stimulus had statistically significant results