Unsettling borders of archives:Activating the audiovisual heritage of the Turkish community in the Netherlands

This article explores issues with archival preservation and access in the case of the audiovisual heritage of migrant communities, which defies hegemonic categories of nation, race, ethnicity, language. As such, although these communities are somewhat present in archives, they are marginalised and remain absent, silent, and dormant. Through two case studies of audiovisual representations of Turkish migrants from Dutch public archives, the article tackles possible ways to unravel such hegemonic categories, thereby reflecting the multiplicities and instabilities of migrant archival objects. It explores the pivotal role of community engagement for more inclusive archival practices that undermine its constitutive limits –– to work with archives against the archives

Flash flood simulations for an Egyptian city - mitigation measures and impact of infiltration

Within this work, the impact of mitigation measures and infiltration on flash floods is investigated by using a 2D robust shallow water model including infiltration with the Green-Ampt model. The results show the combined effects of infiltration and mitigation measures as well as the effectiveness of bypass channels in addition to retention basins. Retention basins at appropriate locations could reduce the maximum water depth at critical locations by 23%, while the additional implementation of drainage channels lead to a reduction of 75%, considering also infiltration lead to a further reduction of 97%. If infiltration was considered without mitigation measures, the peak water depth was reduced by 67%. For an exceptional extreme event the measures lead to a reduction of 73% at some locations, while at other locations the overflow from retention basins due to overstraining generated even higher inundations with an increase of 58%

The triticeous cartilage — redefining of morphology, prevalence and function

Background: Triticeous cartilage is a small cartilaginous component of the laryngeal skeleton. This cartilage, located in posterior end of the thyrohyoid ligament, presents in different shapes. Radiological studies indicate clinical and anatomical importance of the triticeous cartilage but these studies have limited information due to inadequate inspection method. Computed tomographic angiography is able to evaluate the triticeous cartilage with using three-dimensional images in more detail. The aim of this study is to describe prevalence and morphological properties of the triticeous cartilage. Materials and methods: We examined computed tomographic angiography images of 746 patients (368 women, 378 men) retrospectively. Shapes, calcification degrees, volumes, lengths and wideness of the triticeous cartilage were evaluated by OsiriX-Lite software. Results: According to our results, triticeous cartilage presents common in the examined population (68.1%). The prevalence of the triticeous cartilage was higher in men than in women. We also found that the degree of calcification was not related with age and gender. Conclusions: Clinical importance of the triticeous cartilage is that it could be misdiagnosed with atherosclerosis in common carotid artery because the triticeous cartilage is located almost at same level as the bifurcation of the common carotid artery. Therefore, clinicians should be aware about the triticeous cartilage

Antioxidant and hepatoprotective effects of Astragalus echinops and Astragalus logopodioides ethanolic extracts on paracetamol-induced liver injury in rats

Background: Paracetamol (PCM) has an adequate safety profile when taken in normal doses. However, it could produce oxidative stress with liver injury when taken in an overdose. Plants of Astragalus genus (F. Fabaceae) are of wide-spread applications. Astragalus echinops (A. echinops) and Astragalus logopodioides (A. logopodioides) were tested for their potential hepatoprotective activities against liver injury induced by PCM in rats.Material and Methods: Seven groups of rats were used for determination of hepatoprotective activities of the extracts. The normal and hepatotoxic control groups received the vehicle while other groups were treated with silymarin (100 mg/ kg), A. echinops (250 and 500 mg/kg) and A. logopodioides (250 and 500 mg/ kg), respectively for seven days. Liver injury was induced on the 5th day by oral dosing of PCM (2g/kg) to all rats except those in normal control group. Moreover, the in vitro antioxidant activities of A. echinops and A. logopodioides extracts were tested using 2,2- diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging.Results: Hepatic enzyme markers as alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase and glutamyl transferase and level of total bilirubin were significantly elevated, while total protein and albumin were declined significantly in PCM-exposed animals. The liver antioxidant markers like the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase and the levels of reduced glutathione were significantly declined, while hepatic malondialdehyde levels were significantly increased in PCM alone-treated rats. Administration of A. echinops (250 and 500 mg/kg) and A. logopodioides (500 mg/ kg) extracts prior to PCM, significantly protected against the elevation in the serum activities of hepatic enzymes and bilirubin and reduced oxidative stress. The hepatoprotective effect of both extracts was further confirmed by histological findings in the liver tissue. In addition, both extracts displayed in vitro antioxidant activities in a concentration-dependent way.Conclusion: Our results suggest that both extracts protect the liver against oxidative damage and they could be used as effective hepatoprotectives against PCM induced liver injury.Keywords: Astragalus, Paracetamol, Hepatotoxicity, Hepatoprotective, DPPH, Antioxidan

Category training affects colour discrimination but only in the right visual field

There is indirect evidence that categorical colour perception (better discrimination of colours from different categories than those from the same category) can be learned. For instance, CP can be induced across a newly learned category boundary (Özgen & Davies 2002). Here we replicate and extend Özgen and Davies's category learning study to try and pinpoint the nature of the changes underlying category learning. Participants learned to divide green into two new categories 'yellow-green'/'blue-green' across four days. The trained group showed CP across the new boundary on a target detection task and this was restricted to the left hemisphere (LH; cf. Drivonikou et al. 2007), whereas the controls did not. The results could suggest that category training produces changes at early stages in visual processing mainly in the LH. © 2011 - John Benjamins B.V

Turner syndrome and associated problems in turkish children: A multicenter study

Objective: Turner syndrome (TS) is a chromosomal disorder caused by complete or partial X chromosome monosomy that manifests various clinical features depending on the karyotype and on the genetic background of affected girls. This study aimed to systematically investigate the key clinical features of TS in relationship to karyotype in a large pediatric Turkish patient population. Methods: Our retrospective study included 842 karyotype-proven TS patients aged 0-18 years who were evaluated in 35 different centers in Turkey in the years 2013-2014. Results: The most common karyotype was 45,X (50.7%), followed by 45,X/46,XX (10.8%), 46,X,i(Xq) (10.1%) and 45,X/46,X,i(Xq) (9.5%). Mean age at diagnosis was 10.2±4.4 years. The most common presenting complaints were short stature and delayed puberty. Among patients diagnosed before age one year, the ratio of karyotype 45,X was significantly higher than that of other karyotype groups. Cardiac defects (bicuspid aortic valve, coarctation of the aorta and aortic stenosi) were the most common congenital anomalies, occurring in 25% of the TS cases. This was followed by urinary system anomalies (horseshoe kidney, double collector duct system and renal rotation) detected in 16.3%. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis was found in 11.1% of patients, gastrointestinal abnormalities in 8.9%, ear nose and throat problems in 22.6%, dermatologic problems in 21.8% and osteoporosis in 15.3%. Learning difficulties and/or psychosocial problems were encountered in 39.1%. Insulin resistance and impaired fasting glucose were detected in 3.4% and 2.2%, respectively. Dyslipidemia prevalence was 11.4%. Conclusion: This comprehensive study systematically evaluated the largest group of karyotype-proven TS girls to date. The karyotype distribution, congenital anomaly and comorbidity profile closely parallel that from other countries and support the need for close medical surveillance of these complex patients throughout their lifespan. © Journal of Clinical Research in Pediatric Endocrinology

ANTIOXIDANT AND HEPATOPROTECTIVE EFFECTS OF ASTRAGALUS ECHINOPS AND ASTRAGALUS LOGOPODIOIDES ETHANOLIC EXTRACTS ON PARACETAMOL-INDUCED LIVER INJURY IN RATS

Background: Paracetamol (PCM) has an adequate safety profile when taken in normal doses. However, it could produce oxidative stress with liver injury when taken in an overdose. Plants of Astragalus genus (F. Fabaceae) are of wide-spread applications. Astragalus echinops (A. echinops) and Astragalus logopodioides (A. logopodioides) were tested for their potential hepatoprotective activities against liver injury induced by PCM in rats. Material and Methods: Seven groups of rats were used for determination of hepatoprotective activities of the extracts. The normal and hepatotoxic control groups received the vehicle while other groups were treated with silymarin (100 mg/ kg), A. echinops (250 and 500 mg/kg) and A. logopodioides (250 and 500 mg/ kg), respectively for seven days. Liver injury was induced on the 5th day by oral dosing of PCM (2g/kg) to all rats except those in normal control group. Moreover, the in vitro antioxidant activities of A. echinops and A. logopodioides extracts were tested using 2,2- diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging. Results: Hepatic enzyme markers as alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase and glutamyl transferase and level of total bilirubin were significantly elevated, while total protein and albumin were declined significantly in PCM-exposed animals. The liver antioxidant markers like the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase and the levels of reduced glutathione were significantly declined, while hepatic malondialdehyde levels were significantly increased in PCM alone-treated rats. Administration of A. echinops (250 and 500 mg/kg) and A. logopodioides (500 mg/ kg) extracts prior to PCM, significantly protected against the elevation in the serum activities of hepatic enzymes and bilirubin and reduced oxidative stress. The hepatoprotective effect of both extracts was further confirmed by histological findings in the liver tissue. In addition, both extracts displayed in vitro antioxidant activities in a concentration-dependent way. Conclusion: Our results suggest that both extracts protect the liver against oxidative damage and they could be used as effective hepatoprotectives against PCM induced liver injury

Integrating transposable elements in the 3D genome

Chromosome organisation is increasingly recognised as an essential component of genome regulation, cell fate and cell health. Within the realm of transposable elements (TEs) however, the spatial information of how genomes are folded is still only rarely integrated in experimental studies or accounted for in modelling. Whilst polymer physics is recognised as an important tool to understand the mechanisms of genome folding, in this commentary we discuss its potential applicability to aspects of TE biology. Based on recent works on the relationship between genome organisation and TE integration, we argue that existing polymer models may be extended to create a predictive framework for the study of TE integration patterns. We suggest that these models may offer orthogonal and generic insights into the integration profiles (or "topography") of TEs across organisms. In addition, we provide simple polymer physics arguments and preliminary molecular dynamics simulations of TEs inserting into heterogeneously flexible polymers. By considering this simple model, we show how polymer folding and local flexibility may generically affect TE integration patterns. The preliminary discussion reported in this commentary is aimed to lay the foundations for a large-scale analysis of TE integration dynamics and topography as a function of the three-dimensional host genome