Soil organic matter, soil pH and soil nutrient dynamics in forest stands after fire

Fires burn, spread and release energy. The process of burning not only helps increase the decomposition of organic matters but also causes the plant nutrients bound to vegetation and organic dead material to get into soil and inflicts changes on the physical and chemical properties of soil. Changes taken place in soils and their status over time are extremely important for the success of the vegetation that will establish on the site after fire. This study presents the results of a study conducted to monitor the changes in plant nutrients and soil’s chemical properties. In the study, soil organic matter, soil reaction (pH), salinity and soil nutrients were measured. Soil reaction, N and K slightly increased after fire and decreased gradually thereafter. Other nutrients gradually decreased after fire throughout the study period. As a result, it can be said that the effect of fires on soils in areas having little or no dead surface fuels are limited, yet important

Contrasting cardiovascular mortality trends in Eastern Mediterranean populations: contributions from risk factor changes and treatments

Background Middle income countries are facing an epidemic of non-communicable diseases, especially coronary heart disease (CHD). We used a validated CHD mortality model (IMPACT) to explain recent trends in Tunisia, Syria, the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) and Turkey. Methods Data on populations, mortality, patient numbers, treatments and risk factor trends from national and local surveys in each country were collated over two time points (1995–97; 2006–09); integrated and analysed using the IMPACT model. Results Risk factor trends: Smoking prevalence was high in men, persisting in Syria but decreasing in Tunisia, oPt and Turkey. BMI rose by 1–2 kg/m2 and diabetes prevalence increased by 40%–50%. Mean systolic blood pressure and cholesterol levels increased in Tunisia and Syria. Mortality trends: Age-standardised CHD mortality rates rose by 20% in Tunisia and 62% in Syria. Much of this increase (79% and 72% respectively) was attributed to adverse trends in major risk factors, occurring despite some improvements in treatment uptake. CHD mortality rates fell by 17% in oPt and by 25% in Turkey, with risk factor changes accounting for around 46% and 30% of this reduction respectively. Increased uptake of community treatments (drug treatments for chronic angina, heart failure, hypertension and secondary prevention after a cardiac event) accounted for most of the remainder. Discussion CHD death rates are rising in Tunisia and Syria, whilst oPt and Turkey demonstrate clear falls, reflecting improvements in major risk factors with contributions from medical treatments. However, smoking prevalence remains very high in men; obesity and diabetes levels are rising dramatically

Diagnosis of comorbid migraine without aura in patients with idiopathic/genetic epilepsy based on the gray zone approach to the International Classification of Headache Disorders 3 criteria

BackgroundMigraine without aura (MwoA) is a very frequent and remarkable comorbidity in patients with idiopathic/genetic epilepsy (I/GE). Frequently in clinical practice, diagnosis of MwoA may be challenging despite the guidance of current diagnostic criteria of the International Classification of Headache Disorders 3 (ICHD-3). In this study, we aimed to disclose the diagnostic gaps in the diagnosis of comorbid MwoA, using a zone concept, in patients with I/GEs with headaches who were diagnosed by an experienced headache expert.MethodsIn this multicenter study including 809 consecutive patients with a diagnosis of I/GE with or without headache, 163 patients who were diagnosed by an experienced headache expert as having a comorbid MwoA were reevaluated. Eligible patients were divided into three subgroups, namely, full diagnosis, zone I, and zone II according to their status of fulfilling the ICHD-3 criteria. A Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis was performed to bring out the meaningful predictors when evaluating patients with I/GEs for MwoA comorbidity, using the variables that were significant in the univariate analysis.ResultsLonger headache duration (<4 h) followed by throbbing pain, higher visual analog scale (VAS) scores, increase of pain by physical activity, nausea/vomiting, and photophobia and/or phonophobia are the main distinguishing clinical characteristics of comorbid MwoA in patients with I/GE, for being classified in the full diagnosis group. Despite being not a part of the main ICHD-3 criteria, the presence of associated symptoms mainly osmophobia and also vertigo/dizziness had the distinguishing capability of being classified into zone subgroups. The most common epilepsy syndromes fulfilling full diagnosis criteria (n = 62) in the CART analysis were 48.39% Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy followed by 25.81% epilepsy with generalized tonic-clonic seizures alone.ConclusionLonger headache duration, throbbing pain, increase of pain by physical activity, photophobia and/or phonophobia, presence of vertigo/dizziness, osmophobia, and higher VAS scores are the main supportive associated factors when applying the ICHD-3 criteria for the comorbid MwoA diagnosis in patients with I/GEs. Evaluating these characteristics could be helpful to close the diagnostic gaps in everyday clinical practice and fasten the diagnostic process of comorbid MwoA in patients with I/GEs

Evaluation of serum insulin, leptin, neuropeptide Y, ghrelin and adiponectin levels and common carotid artery intima media thickness in epileptic children receiving valproate

Ağırlık artışı valproat (VPA) tedavisinin en sık görülen yan etkilerinden birisidir. VPA ilişkili ağırlık artışının potansiyel mekanizmaları yeterince açık değildir. Kan glukozunun düşmesi, yağ asitlerinin beta oksidasyonundaki bozukluk, insülin ve leptin düzeylerindeki artış muhtemel mekanizmalardan bazılarıdır. Ağırlık artışı ve obezitenin ateroskleroz ve dislipidemi gibi birçok morbidite için risk teşkil ettiği bilinmektedir. Son yıllarda karotid arter intima media kalınlığı (K-İMK) arter duvarındaki erken dönem bozulmaları gösteren non-invazif bir ateroskleroz belirleyicisi olarak kabul edilmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, VPA ilişkili ağırlık artışında beslenme fizyolojisinde rol aldığı bilinen insülin, leptin, nöropeptid Y (NPY), ghrelin (GHR) ve adiponektinin rolünü araştırmak ve dislipidemi ve erken ateroskleroz gelişimi ile ilişkisini göstermektir. Bir yıl ve daha uzun süredir VPA kullanan 30 ergenlik öncesi hasta ve 29 sağlıklı kontrol olgusu çalışmaya alındı. Vakaların serum glukoz, insülin, leptin, NPY, GHR, adiponektin ve lipid profili çalışıldı, açlık insülin glukoz oranları (AİGO) hesaplandı ve K-İMK'ları ölçüldü. Hasta ve kontrol grubunun verileri karşılaştırıldı. Hasta grubunda istatistiksel olarak anlamlı şekilde serum glukozu düşük, insülin, AİGO, NPY ve adiponektin düzeyi yüksek bulundu. GHR, K-İMK ve lipid profili için iki grup arasında anlamlı fark tespit edilmedi. Bu sonuçlar VPA ilişkili ağırlık artışının glukoz düzeylerinde düşme ve insülin ve NPY düzeylerinde artış ile ilişkili olduğunu düşündürmektedir.Weight gain is a common side effect of valproate (VPA) treatment. Potential mechanisms of VPA-associated weight gain are not yet clear. Decreased blood glucose level, impairment of beta oxidation of fatty acids, and increased insulin and leptin levels are some of the possible mechanisms. Abnormal weight gain and obesity is associated with an increased risk of many comorbidities like dislipidemia and atherosclerosis. Common carotid artery intima media thickness (CCA-IMT) gives a comprehensive picture of early arterial wall alterations and currently considered as a non-invasive marker of premature atherosclerosis. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the role of molecules important for eating behavior like insulin, leptin, neuropeptide Y (NPY), ghrelin (GHR) and adiponectin in VPA-related weight gain, and to demonstrate the relationship between the development of dislipidemia and early atherosclerosis. 30 prepubertal epileptic children who have been receiving VPA over than 1 year period and 29 healty subjects enrolled to the study. Serum glucose, insulin, leptin, NPY, GHR, adiponectin, lipid profile and CCA-IMT were measured, fasting insulin glucose ratio (FIGR) were calculated for all subjects. Datas of patient and control groups were matched. Patients had statistically lower serum glucose, but higher insulin, FIGR, NPY and adiponectin levels than control. There was no significant difference for GHR, CCA-IMT and lipid profile between groups. These result suggest that weight gain during VPA treatment is related to a decreasing in glucose levels and an increase in insulin and NPY levels

Edge Detection Method Driven by Knowledge-Based Neighborhood Rules

Edge detection is a fundamental process, and therefore there are still demands to improve its efficiency and computational complexity. This study proposes a knowledge-based edge detection method to meet this requirement by introducing a set of knowledge-based rules. The methodology to derive the rules is based on the observed continuity properties and the neighborhood characteristics of the edge pixels, which are expressed as simple arithmetical operations to improve computational complexity. The results show that the method has an advantage over the gradient-based methods in terms of performance and computational load. It is appropriately four times faster than Canny method and shows superior performance compared to the gradient-based methods in general. Furthermore, the proposed method provides robustness to effectively identify edges at the corners. Due to its light computational requirement and inherent parallelization properties, the method would be also suitable for hardware implementation on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA)

Social Internet of Digital Twins via Distributed Ledger Technologies: Application of Predictive Maintenance

27th Telecommunications Forum, TELFOR (2019 ; Belgrade, Serbia)Predictive Maintenance in the era of Internet-of-Things is envisioned to be an important functionality of consumer electronics along with many other application areas. Challenges for Predictive Maintenance within Internet-of-Things ecosystem include heterogeneity, scalability, identification, constrained resources, mobility, security, and privacy. In this paper, we propose a reference model for Predictive Maintenance of commercial appliances, the digital twins of which interact socially via Distributed Ledger Technologies. © 2019 IEEE.TUBITA

Kemikleşmiş Ligamentum Stylohyoideumun Boyuna Yönelik Travma Olgularındaki Önemi Bir Olgu Sunumu

Ligamentum stylohyoideum (LS) temporal kemikte bulunan styloid çıkıntı ile hyoid kemiğin cornu minus'u arasında uzanan bir yapıdır. LS daha çok uzamış styloid çıkıntı şeklinde olmak üzere parça parça veya tamamen kemikleşebilmektedir. Uzamış styloid çıkıntı veya kemikleşmiş LS'un neden olduğu baş ve boyun ağrısı, yutma güçlüğü ve boğazda yabancı cisim hissi gibi kompleks belirtiler Eagle tarafından tanımlanmıştır ve Eagle Sendromu olarak adlandırılır. 82 yaşında asıya bağlı mekanik asfiksi nedeniyle ölen olguda boyun organlarının incelenmesi sırasında kemikleşmiş LS görülmüştür. Boyuna yönelik travma bulunan otopsi olgularında, bu yapıda görülen kemikleşmenin önemi adli tıp açısından değerlendirilmiştir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Boyun yaralanması, ligamentum stylohyoideum, as