The presence of hydronephrosıs ın stagıng bladder cancer: an omınous sıgn

Objective: We investigated whether the presence of unilateral or bilateral upper tract obstruction could accurately predict advanced cancer stage. Methods: Six hundred and ten patients with bladder cancer entered into the tumor registries of our institutions between January 1990 and December 1994. The median patient age was 64 years (range 35 to 80). A total 75 (12%) patients had unilateral or bilateral hydronephrosis on an IVP at the time of initial diagnosis of the bladder cancer. Preoperative screening included physical examination, chest radiograph, complete blood count, blood urea nitrogen, creatinin, electrolyte analysis and IVP. Furthermore, patients were usually evaluated by bone scan and computerized tomography (CT). The diagnosis of transitional cell carcinoma was made by cystoscopy and transurethral resection of the tumor. Staging transurethral resection was done in all cases. Results: During a 5-year period 75 of 610 patients with carcinoma of the bladder had ureteral obstruction on excretory urography at the time of the initial diagnosis. Preoperative IVP revealed unilateral and bilateral hydronephrosis in 55 (73%) and 20 (27%) patients, respectively. Pathological staging revealed predominantly pT1 lesions for patients with unilateral obstruction. There were 30 (55%) patients with pT1, 10 (18%) with pT2, and 15 (27%) with pT3. Pathological staging revealed predominantly pT2 lesions for patients with bilateral obstruction. Pathological stage was pT2 in 10 (50%) cases, pT3 in 5 (25%), and pT4 in 5 (25%). Conclusion: IVP can be used in staging because hydronephrosis may Indicate the presence of a muscle-invasive bladder cancer, especially, bilateral hydronephrosis was strongly associated with advanced stage disease

Yield stability and agronomic performance of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes in the Central Black Sea Region in Turkey

Grain yield and yield stability of genotypes are of great importance in wheat genetics and breeding programs. Yield stability can be used to select promising and stable wheat genotypes across environments. It can also represent good adaptation ability of high-yielding genotypes across environments. This study was conducted in 7 environments in the Central Black Sea Region in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 growing seasons. Twenty-three bread wheat cultivars and advanced lines were tested in a randomized complete block design with 4 replications. Data were recorded for grain yield, plant height, hectolitre weight, thousand kernel weight and SDS (sodium dodecyl sulphate) sedimentation volume. Parametric and nonparametric methods were used to determine the stable genotypes for grain yield. Mean grain yields of genotypes ranged from 5742 to 3262 kg ha-1. The highest mean values for thousand kernel weight, hectolitre weight and SDS sedimentation were obtained from Samsun/Bafra location in 2008-2009 with 46.4 g, Samsun/Bafra location in 2008-2009 with 81.2 kg, and Samsun/Karakoy location with 38.2 ml, respectively. While the genotypes G11 and G22 were most stable by all stability parameters except for the TOP statistic, the genotype G6 was the most stable by all stability parameters except for ASV statistic. The genotypes G6, G11 and G22 will be tested for release procedure and the genotypes with good yield potential and acceptable end-use quality will be used as elite genetic material for future breeding activities in the Central Black Sea Region

Evolutionary algorithms for multi-objective flexible job shop cell scheduling

The multi-objective flexible job shop scheduling in a cellular manufacturing environment is a challenging real-world problem. This recently introduced scheduling problem variant considers exceptional parts, intercellular moves, intercellular transportation times, sequence-dependent family setup times, and recirculation requiring minimization of makespan and total tardiness, simultaneously. A previous study shows that the exact solver based on mixed-integer nonlinear programming model fails to find an optimal solution to each of the ‘medium’ to ‘large’ size instances considering even the simplified version of the problem. In this study, we present evolutionary algorithms for solving that bi-objective problem and apply genetic and memetic algorithms that use three different scalarization methods, including weighted sum, conic, and tchebycheff. The performance of all evolutionary algorithms with various configurations is investigated across forty-three benchmark instances from ‘small’ to ‘large’ size including a large real-world problem instance. The experimental results show that the transgenerational memetic algorithm using weighted sum outperforms the rest producing the best-known results for almost all bi-objective flexible job shop cell scheduling instances, in overall

A benchmark dataset for multi-objective flexible job shop cell scheduling

This data article presents a description of a benchmark dataset for the multi-objective flexible job shop scheduling problem in a cellular manufacturing environment. This problem considers intercellular moves, exceptional parts, sequence-dependent family setup and intercellular transportation times, and recirculation requiring minimization of makespan and total tardiness simultaneously. It is called a flexible job shop cell scheduling problem with sequence-dependent family setup times and intercellular transportation times (FJCS-SDFSTs-ITTs) problem. The dataset has been developed to evaluate the multi-objective evolutionary algorithms of the FJCS-SDFSTs-ITTs problems that are presented in ‘Evolutionary algorithms for multi-objective flexible job shop cell scheduling’. The dataset contains forty- three benchmark instances from ‘small’ to ‘large’, including a large real-world problem instance. Researchers can use the dataset to evaluate the future algorithms for the FJCS-SDFSTs- ITTs problems and compare the performance with the existing algorithms

Imaging patterns of fatty liver in pediatric patients

Fatty liver can present as focal, diffuse, heterogeneous, and multinodular forms. Being familiar with various patterns of steatosis can enable correct diagnosis. In patients with equivocal findings on ultrasonography, magnetic resonance imaging can be used as a problem solving tool. New techniques are promising for diagnosis and follow-up. We review imaging patterns of steatosis and new quantitative methods such as proton density fat fraction and magnetic resonance elastography for diagnosis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in children

Okuma Performansını Geliştirmede Bilgisayar Yazılımı Kullanımına Yönelik Öğretmen ve Öğrenci Görüşlerinin Değerlendirilmesi

Özel öğrenme güçlüğü ülkemizde özel eğitim alanında en hızlı gelişen kategorilerden birisidir. Akıcı okuma ve okuduğunu anlama gibi beceriler başta olmak üzere özel öğrenme güçlüğü olan öğrencilerin en sık güçlük yaşadıkları alaların başında okuma gelmektedir. Özel öğrenme güçlüğü olan öğrencilerin okuma becerilerini geliştirmede son yıllarda pek çok yöntem ve teknik geliştirilmiştir. Bu yöntemlerden birisi de bilgisayar destekli okuma eğitimidir. Ancak ülkemizde özel öğrenme güçlüğü ve okuma becerisini geliştirmede bilgisayar destekli okuma eğitimine yönelik çalışmaların sayısı sınırlıdır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, TÜBİTAK 113K726 kodlu araştırma projesi kapsamında geliştirilen okuma yazılımına yönelik katılımcı öğretmenlerin ve öğrencilerin görüşlerinin belirlenmesidir. Araştırma sonuçlarına göre, katılımcı öğretmenler geliştirilen bilgisayar yazılımının öğrenci performansı üzerinde olumlu etkisi olduğuna yönelik görüş belirtmişlerdir. Ayrıca, katılımcı öğrenciler okuma becerisine yönelik etkinliklerde geliştirilen yazılımı kullanmayı tercih ettiklerini belirtmişlerdir

EVALUATION OF CLINICAL PROGRESS AND THERAPY RESPONSE OF PATIENTS WITH IMMUNE THROMBOCYTOPENİC PURPURA; SINGLE CENTER EXPERIENCE

Amaç: İmmun Trombositopeni (İTP), trombositlere karşı oluşan otoantikorların trombositlerin yaşam sürelerini kısaltması sonucu gelişen ve trombositopeni ile seyreden edinsel bir hastalıktır. Trombositopeninin derecesine bağlı olmak üzere, sıklıkla, purpurik deri lezyonları, mukozal kanamalar, nadiren iç organ kanamaları gibi hayatı tehdit eden kanamalar gelişir. Yöntemler: Bu çalışmada 1988 - 2011 yılları arasında tedavi ve takiplerine merkezimizce devam edilen 76 hastanın sonuçları retrospektif olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Bulgular: 76 hastanın 49'u kadın (%64,5), 27'si erkek (%35,5) olup, ortanca yaş 50,7 (19 - 83 yıl) idi. Olguların 20'si tedavisiz takip edilmiş, tedavi uygulanan 56 olgunun 53'ünde (%92) ise başlangıç tedavisi olarak 1 mg/kg metil prednizolon uygulanmıştı. Bu hastaların 24'ünde (%44,6) tam yanıt, 13'ünde (%23,2) yanıt elde edilmiş ve 17 (%31,5) olguda ise yanıt alınamamıştı. Steroide yanıt vermeyen ya da yanıt sonrası nüks eden hastalara splenektomi uygulanmıştı (37 hasta). Bu hastalardan 33'ünde tam yanıt, 2'sinde yanıt elde edilirken, 2 hastada yanıt alınamadı. Toplamda 8 hastaya Rituksimab verildi. 3 hastada tam yanıt, 2 hastada yanıt alındı. 3 hastada ise yanıt elde edilemedi. Sonuç: ITP hastalarında başlangıç prednizolon tedavisi ve splenektomi, olguların çoğunda etkili bir tedavi seçeneği olmakla birlikte, bu tedavilere cevap vermeyen refrakter ITP olgularında ise ritüksimab kullanımı etkili bir tedavi seçeneğidir. Objective: Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune thrombocytopenic disease characterized by destruction of platelets mainly at spleen in reticuloendothelial system. The initiation of ITP is mostly insidious, usually defined with mild to moderate history of hemorrhage. Rarely, life threatining bleeding episodes are documented. Methods: 76 ITP patients diagnosed at Dokuz Eylul University Faculty of Medicine Hospital from 1988 to 2011 are included in this retrospective study. Results: 49 of 76 (64.4%) patients were female and 27 patients diagnosed as ITP were male (35,5%) (F/M: 1.81). At diagnosis the median age of patients was 50.7 (Interval; 19 - 83). 20 patients were followed without any treatment. 53 of 56 patients (92%) in treated group received 1 mg/kg methyl prednisolone. 24 patients (44.6%) achieved complete response after initial steroid therapy, 13 patients (23.2%) were followed with partial response and 17 patients (31.5%) had no response. Splenectomy was applied to patients that were not responded or relapsed after steroid treatment. After splenectomy 33 patients achieved complete response, 2 patients achieved partial response and 2 patients were followed as nonresponders to splenectomy. Totally 8 patients received rituximab. 3 of 8 patients (37.5%) were complete responders, 2 of 8 patients (25%) were partial responders on the other hand 3 of 8 patients (37.5%) were nonresponders. Conclusion: Most of the patients are successfully treated with steroids or splenectomy. Hence, in relapsed and refractory ITP after splenectomy rituximab is an effective treatment option

Türkiye’de kooperatifçiliğin tarihi gelişimi ve cumhuriyet dönemi kooperatifçiliği

TÜRKİYE’DE KOOPERATİFÇİLİGİN TARİHİ GELİŞİMİ VE CUMHURİYET DÖNEMİ KOOPERATİFÇİLİĞİ Son yıllarda Türkiye’de ki ve diger ülkelerde ki kooperatif sirketler faaliyet gösterdikleri ülkelerin ekonomilerini yönlendiren önemli aktörlerden birisini haline gelmeye baslamıslardır. Ülkemizde ki kooperatifçilik faaliyetleri önemli gelismeler göstermis olmasına ragmen, günümüzde istenilen seviyede degildir. Bu çalısma ile Türkiye’de Kooperatifçiligin Cumhuriyet Dönemi tarihsel gelisimi anlatılmaya çalısılmıstır. Cumhuriyet Döneminde kooperatifçilik, Atatürk zamanında önemli atılımlar yapmıstır. Ayrıca, 1961 Anayasasıyla, kooperatiflerin gelistirilmesinin devletin sorumluluguna girmesinden sonra kooperatifçilikle ilgili maddeler, Hükümet Programlarında ve Bes Yıllık Kalkınma Planlarında yer almaya baslamıstır. Günümüzde 26 farklı alanda 89.964 kooperatif faaliyet göstermektedir. Bu kooperatiflerin üye sayısı ise 8.709.756 dır. Cumhuriyet Dönemi boyunca kooperatiflerin temel sorunları arasında kooperatif egitiminin çok yetersiz olusu ve maddi kaynak yetersizlikleri göze çarpmaktadır. SUMMARY THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COOPERATIVE SYSTEM IN TURKEY AND COOPERATIVES DURING PERIOD OF REPUBLIC During last few years, the cooperative companies both in Turkey and abroad have became one of the leading economic factors in their countries. Although the cooperative activities had a great succes, they are not at the estimated level. With the ease of this work it has been tried to be explained that the historical improvements of the cooperative system during Period of Republic. During Period of Republic, cooperative activities had a considerable progress. Besides, with the Law Constitution of 1961, after improving the cooperatives have become the state’s responsibility, the sections which are related to cooperatives have began taking part in Government Programs and Five Years’ Development Plan. In our time, in 26 different field, 89.964 cooperatives are active. The number of the membership of these cooperatives are 8.709.756. During the Period of Republic, among the basic problems of cooperatives the inadequecy of cooperative education and lack of economical sources can be observed

Medium development for production of bacillus thuringiensis based biopesticides

The insect pathogen Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) holds great promise as an effective and friendly way for management of the pests with safety for nontarget animals and humans. However, high capital investment due to high production and formulation cost of commercial Bt preparations has caused prohibitive effect on companies. The present study mainly aimed at developing a low cost medium that supports the growth of different Bt strains and their specific bioinsecticidal δ-endotoxins (crystal proteins). A comparison was made between the representative members of three different subspecies of Bt to observe toxin yields in response to certain nutritional conditions. Three different Bt subspecies were Bt kurstaki (strain 81), Bt israelensis (strain HD500) and Bt tenebrionis (strain 3203), producing lepidoptera- and diptera-specific Cry1 and Cry2, diptera-specific Cry4Ba and Cry11Aa and coleoptera-specific Cry3Aa toxins, respectively. Studies were conducted to optimize glucose and inorganic phosphate concentrations in standard DSM medium for the production of these Bt-based biopesticides. General suppression of toxin yields in high glucose medium (10 g/L) thought the generality of carbon catabolite regulation for biosynthesis of different types of toxins. Inorganic phosphate (Pi) level was important for Cry4Ba, Cry11Aa and Cry3Aa biosynthesis while Cry1 and Cry2 production was not responsive to high Pi. Wastewater sludge, fruit residues and broiler litter were next tested as cheap raw materials for Bt-based biopesticide production in batch cultures. Broiler litter seemed to be a much better substrate among all since some degree of production of each toxin was observed at almost every stage of fermentation. The processing of broiler litter was found to significantly improve toxin yields. The medium prepared from processed broiler litter was successfully used to cultivate all Bt stains and obtain bioinsecticidal proteins in high yields which were comparable or higher than those that can be obtained on standard semi-synthetic media.M.S. - Master of Scienc

Patojenik bakteriyel proteinlerde salgı sistemleri için örüntüler aranması.

Computational prediction of bacterial protein localization (BPL) is a very useful tool which provides clues about protein function. For pathogenic proteins in particular, detection of their subcellular location and their secretory pathways have great implications for vaccine and drug design. Cell surface and/or secreted proteins of microbes can also be used as biomarkers for sensor applications. At present, there are numerous BPL prediction algorithms and programs available, however, most of them give false positive results in order to maximize the number of positive predictions. Moreover, state of the art algorithms, specifically PSORT, successfully identify protein localization for every organism from any given sequence information but they usually fail in pathogenic sequences. Because the most of the pathogenic proteins are surface-localized, there is an imminent need for pathogen-specific secretion motif search algorithms as well. These motifs would also provide information on bacterial protein localization. In the present work, we built databases of pathogenic sequences and searched for selected 5 to 18 amino acid long motifs as a new approach, namely Pathogenic Sequence Motif Search (PSMS). The algorithm is based on a total of 52 distinct secretion-associated patterns covering 6 different secretory pathways for the prediction of surface and secreted proteins. The datasets for each of the following groups of proteins were next established for our validation studies which involved the tests for the success rate of these 52 patterns: Secreted, immunoreactive and patented vaccine, cytoplasmic and orphan-secreted with 3241, 1740, 2582 and 2533 members, respectively. A total of 3241 proteins in secreted proteins dataset represented TISSS, T2SS, T3SS, T4SS, T5SS and T6SS systems of secretion with 954, 668, 381, 770, 221 and 274 protein sequences, respectively. Cytoplasmic protein dataset, on the other hand, was used to exclude certain candidate patterns. 43 out of 52 patterns were truly secretion-related, pointing directly to a specific secretion system. Rest 9 patterns were found in secreted proteins though not related to a specific secretion system. Additionaly, LC-MS data formerly obtained in our laboratories from Bordetella pertussis surface proteome and secretome analyses were also included in the secreted protein sequence dataset. The selected patterns were demonstrated for instance in 503 out of a total of 1740 proteins in the immunoreactive protein dataset. With the help of our patterns, 75 proteins which were formerly predicted to have an intracellular localization and mistakenly ruled out as potential drug targets/vaccine candidates were successfully predicted as surface- associated/secreted ones. Besides the development of PSMS program predicting pathogenic sequences with high accuracy, the separate databases constructed in this work with respect to immunoreactivity and distinct secretory pathways are expected to constitute valuable bioinformatics resources for researchers of the field.Ph.D. - Doctoral Progra