Prevalence of dentine hypersensitivity among university students in Turkey

Background and Objective: Dentine hypersensitivity (DH) is a common clinical finding with a wide variation in prevalence values. There is lack of data on the prevalence of dentinal sensitivity in Turkish population. The aim of this study was to establish the prevalence of DH and to examine some associated factors such as initiating stimuli among university students in Kýrýkkale, Turkey.Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among undergraduates of University of Kýrýkkale, Turkey. An electronic questionnaire was developed and distributed via e-mail to undergraduate students in Kýrýkkale University. Self-administered questionnaire elicited information on demography, self-reported dentinal sensitivity, thetrigger factor, professional treatment taken, and duration time. Test of significance was done with Chi square statistics. P<0.05 was considered as significant.Results: A total of 1463 responses were evaluated in this study. One hundred and twenty-four students were diagnosed as having DH, giving a prevalence figure of 8.4%. The prevalence of DH in females was significantly higher than that in males. The most common initiating factor was cold drinks. Tooth sensitivity was found to be common among hardtoothbrush users. About 46% of patients reported that they had not undergone any treatment for the discomfort and 35% reported having had some sort of treatment. Among the participants with dentinal sensitivity, 58.8% of the respondents reported that they use soft drinks occasionally. Approximately 64.2% of the patients claimed that DH was present for1–6 days and the majority (87%) of the patients with hypersensitive teeth experienced pain occasionally.Conclusion: The prevalence of DH among university students was 8.4%. DH is not a common problem in undergraduate university students

Determination of Temporal Change in Agricultural Land Use in Trabzon with GIS

Agricultural land has a very important at the point of people's vital activities from past to present. Especially in areas where high efficiency is obtained, people use agricultural land as a means of subsistence. This contributes to the benefit for the society and the revival of the country's economy. Agricultural lands lose their quality and cause the emergence of non-agricultural uses due to factors such as the need for living spaces increasing from day to day, developing technologies and population growth. Therefore, this situation affects negatively the sustainable use of agricultural land. In general, when the fertile agricultural land is examined, I., II. and III. class agricultural lands the most fertile agricultural lands. All these lands have been accepted as areas to be protected and various restrictions have been brought to these lands. In this context, there is report of the Working Group on the Sustainable Use of Agricultural Land for the Development Ministry's 2023 Targets. There are some regulatory initiatives in this report about the vision of the future. Consequently, soil protection, balanced use and development has unearthed the implementation of the policy after making the necessary plans, very well-defined properties, defining in detail by exploiting the developing science and technology possibilities. Trabzon province is chosen as the pilot region, the use of agricultural land (in selected areas of urban-rural and plateau) land use capability classes ongoing changes from past years are discussed depending on I., II. and III. the class of land use. In this context, as it is based on the province of Trabzon and mainly based on non-agricultural use, spatiotemporal changes of agricultural land use capability are examined using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology considereng the satellite imagery and soil data of the different time periods (2002, 2005, 2009 and 2017)Tarım arazileri, insanların yaşamsal faaliyetlerini sürdürme noktasında geçmişten günümüze önemli olmuştur. Özellikle yüksek verimin elde edildiği alanlarda insanlar, tarım topraklarını geçim kaynağı olarak kullanmışlardır. Bu durum gerek toplumsal fayda sağlanmasına gerekse de ülke ekonomisinin canlanmasına katkıda bulunmaktadır. Ancak gelişen teknolojiler, nüfus artışı, yaşam alanlarına ihtiyacın günden güne artması gibi etkenlerden dolayı tarım toprakları giderek niteliğini yitirmekte ve tarım dışı kullanımların ortaya çıkmasına sebep olmaktadır. Dolayısıyla bu durum sürdürülebilir tarım toprağı kullanımını olumsuz yönde etkilemektedir. Genel olarak verimli tarım arazileri incelendiğinde, en çok tarımsal verime sahip olan topraklar I. sınıf araziler olarak sınıflandırılmakla birlikte, diğer önemli verimli tarımsal topraklar ise II. ve III. sınıf araziler vasfında yer almaktadır. Tüm bu topraklar, korunması gereken alanlar niteliğinde kabul edilmiş, bu toprakların kullanımında çeşitli sınırlamalar getirilmiştir. Bu bağlamda, Kalkınma Bakanlığının 2023 hedeflerinde, Tarım Arazilerinin Sürdürülebilir Kullanımı Çalışma Grubu Raporu bulunmaktadır. Bu raporda; toprağın korunması, dengeli kullanılması, ayrıca gelişen bilim ve teknoloji olanaklarından faydalanılarak özelliklerinin çok iyi belirlenmesi, sonrası gerekli planların yapılarak politikaların uygulanması vurgulanmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, Trabzon ilinde arazi kullanım kabiliyeti sınıflarına (AKKS) göre tarımsal faaliyetler açısından verimli olan I., II. ve III. sınıf tarım arazilerinde meydana gelen yapılaşma miktarı zamansal değişime bağlı olarak irdelenmiş ve Coğrafi Bilgi Sistemleri (CBS) kullanılarak araştırılmıştır. Seçilen çalışma alanları kıyaslama yapmak adına kentsel, kırsal ve yayla niteliğindeki alanlardan olmak üzere farklı bölgelerden seçilmiştir. Seçilen bölgeler için farklı zamanlara rastlayan (2002, 2005, 2009 ve 2017 yıllarına ait) uydu görüntüleri ve toprak verileri temin edilerek, tarım niteliği açısından verimli olan arazilerde zaman içerisindeki değişimler incelenmiştir

Transit Migration in North Cyprus (TRNC)

This study aims at exploring the flows of transit migration to North Cyprus by type: whether or not it is labour, refugee or asylum. To determine that, the question of which push factors lay behind transit migration in the origin country tries to be answered. Also this study seeks to analyze origins, routes and destinations of transit migrants in TRNC from 2004 to 2008. In addition, the paper analyzes what kind of measures TRNC government was taking to deal with illegal transit migrants, human trafficking and smuggling through its borders, and how non-state institutions in TRNC considered and dealt with transit migrants and especially refugees.

Risk factors for exacerbations and pneumonia in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a pooled analysis.

BACKGROUND: Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are at risk of exacerbations and pneumonia; how the risk factors interact is unclear. METHODS: This post-hoc, pooled analysis included studies of COPD patients treated with inhaled corticosteroid (ICS)/long-acting β2 agonist (LABA) combinations and comparator arms of ICS, LABA, and/or placebo. Backward elimination via Cox's proportional hazards regression modelling evaluated which combination of risk factors best predicts time to first (a) pneumonia, and (b) moderate/severe COPD exacerbation. RESULTS: Five studies contributed: NCT01009463, NCT01017952, NCT00144911, NCT00115492, and NCT00268216. Low body mass index (BMI), exacerbation history, worsening lung function (Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease [GOLD] stage), and ICS treatment were identified as factors increasing pneumonia risk. BMI was the only pneumonia risk factor influenced by ICS treatment, with ICS further increasing risk for those with BMI <25 kg/m2. The modelled probability of pneumonia varied between 3 and 12% during the first year. Higher exacerbation risk was associated with a history of exacerbations, poorer lung function (GOLD stage), female sex and absence of ICS treatment. The influence of the other exacerbation risk factors was not modified by ICS treatment. Modelled probabilities of an exacerbation varied between 31 and 82% during the first year. CONCLUSIONS: The probability of an exacerbation was considerably higher than for pneumonia. ICS reduced exacerbations but did not influence the effect of risks associated with prior exacerbation history, GOLD stage, or female sex. The only identified risk factor for ICS-induced pneumonia was BMI <25 kg/m2. Analyses of this type may help the development of COPD risk equations

Batch and continuous removal of heavy metals from industrial effluents using microbial consortia

Bio-removal of heavy metals, using microbial biomass, increasingly attracting scientific attention due to their significant role in purification of different types of wastewaters making it reusable. Heavy metals were reported to have a significant hazardous effect on human health, and while the conventional methods of removal were found to be insufficient; microbial biosorption was found to be the most suitable alternative. In this work, an immobilized microbial consortium was generated using Statistical Design of Experiment (DOE) as a robust method to screen the efficiency of the microbial isolates in heavy metal removal process. This is the first report of applying Statistical DOE to screen the efficacy of microbial isolates to remove heavy metals instead of screening normal variables. A mixture of bacterial biomass and fungal spores was used both in batch and continuous modes to remove Chromium and Iron ions from industrial effluents. Bakery yeast was applied as a positive control, and all the obtained biosorbent isolates showed more significant efficiency in heavy metal removal. In batch mode, the immobilized biomass was enclosed in a hanged tea bag-like cellulose membrane to facilitate the separation of the biosorbent from the treated solutions, which is one of the main challenges in applying microbial biosorption at large scale. The continuous flow removal was performed using fixed bed mini-bioreactor, and the process was optimized in terms of pH (6) and flow rates (1 ml/min) using Response Surface Methodology. The most potential biosorbent microbes were identified and characterized. The generated microbial consortia and process succeeded in the total removal of Chromium ions and more than half of Iron ions both from standard solutions and industrial effluents

Fraction of exhaled nitric oxide is higher in liver transplant recipients than in controls from the general population: a cohort study

BackgroundFraction of exhaled nitric oxide with an expiratory flow of 50 mL/s (FENO50) is a biomarker of eosinophilic airway inflammation. Liver transplant recipients have an increased risk of pulmonary infections, but little is known about the burden of chronic pulmonary diseases in this group. We aimed to assess the prevalence of elevated FENO50 in liver transplant recipients and compare it to controls from the general population.MethodsFENO50 was measured in 271 liver transplant recipients from The Danish Comorbidity in Liver Transplant Recipients (DACOLT) study and 1,018 age- and sex-matched controls from The Copenhagen General Population Study (CGPS). Elevated FENO50 was defined as ≥25 or ≥50 parts per billion (ppb). The analyses were adjusted for known and suspected confounders.ResultsThe median age of the liver transplant recipients was 55 years (interquartile range (IQR) 46–64), and 58% were men. The liver transplant recipients had a higher median FENO50 than the controls [16 ppb (IQR 10–26) vs. 13 ppb (IQR 8–18.), p &lt; 0.001]. Furthermore, the liver transplant recipients had a higher prevalence of elevated FENO50 (for FENO50 ≥25 ppb 27% vs. 11%, p &lt; 0.001 and ≥50 ppb 4% vs. 2%, p = 0.02). The results were similar after adjusting for age, sex, smoking status, use of airway medication, and blood eosinophil counts [the adjusted odds ratio (OR) for FENO50 ≥25 ppb was 3.58 (95% CI: 2.50–5.15, p &lt; 0.0001) and the adjusted OR for FENO50 ≥50 ppb was 3.14 (95% CI: 1.37–7.20, p = 0.007)].ConclusionThe liver transplant recipients had elevated FENO50, implying increased eosinophilic airway inflammation. The clinical impact of this finding needs further investigation

Changes in lung function in European adults born between 1884 and 1996 and implications for the diagnosis of lung disease:a cross-sectional analysis of ten population-based studies

Background: During the past century, socioeconomic and scientific advances have resulted in changes in the health and physique of European populations. Accompanying improvements in lung function, if unrecognised, could result in the misclassification of lung function measurements and misdiagnosis of lung diseases. We therefore investigated changes in population lung function with birth year across the past century, accounting for increasing population height, and examined how such changes might influence the interpretation of lung function measurements. Methods: In our analyses of cross-sectional data from ten European population-based studies, we included individuals aged 20-94 years who were born between 1884 and 1996, regardless of previous respiratory diagnoses or symptoms. FEV1, forced vital capacity (FVC), height, weight, and smoking behaviour were measured between 1965 and 2016. We used meta-regression to investigate how FEV1 and FVC (adjusting for age, study, height, sex, smoking status, smoking pack-years, and weight) and the FEV1/FVC ratio (adjusting for age, study, sex, and smoking status) changed with birth year. Using estimates from these models, we graphically explored how mean lung function values would be expected to progressively deviate from predicted values. To substantiate our findings, we used linear regression to investigate how the FEV1 and FVC values predicted by 32 reference equations published between 1961 and 2015 changed with estimated birth year. Findings: Across the ten included studies, we included 243 465 European participants (mean age 51·4 years, 95% CI 51·4-51·5) in our analysis, of whom 136 275 (56·0%) were female and 107 190 (44·0%) were male. After full adjustment, FEV1 increased by 4·8 mL/birth year (95% CI 2·6-7·0; p<0·0001) and FVC increased by 8·8 mL/birth year (5·7-12·0; p<0·0001). Birth year-related increases in the FEV1 and FVC values predicted by published reference equations corroborated these findings. This height-independent increase in FEV1 and FVC across the last century will have caused mean population values to progressively exceed previously predicted values. However, the population mean adjusted FEV1/FVC ratio decreased by 0·11 per 100 birth years (95% CI 0·09-0·14; p<0·0001). Interpretation: If current diagnostic criteria remain unchanged, the identified shifts in European values will allow the easier fulfilment of diagnostic criteria for lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but the systematic underestimation of lung disease severity. Funding: The European Respiratory Society, AstraZeneca, Chiesi Farmaceutici, GlaxoSmithKline, Menarini, and Sanofi-Genzyme