Female Urethral Malignant Melanoma With Vesical Invasion: A Case Report

We report a 75-year-old female with a primary urethral malignant melanoma. A mass protruding from inside the urethra was detected on physical examination. Abdominopelvic magnetic resonance imaging revealed a mass extending from the urethra with dimensions of 4 × 2 cm, and periurethral heterogenous fatty planes consistent with infiltration. The histopathologic examination was consistent with HMB45(+) malignant melanoma. We performed cystourethrectomy and bilateral inguinal and pelvic lymphadenectomy in one session. The pathology report revealed primary malignant melanoma of the urethra invading the inferior bladder wall. The patient received no adjuvant therapy because of cardiopulmonary morbidities and the presence of multiple pulmonary metastases. The patient eventually died 13 months after surgery

Screening for Y Chromosome Microdeletion in a Nonobstructive Azoospermic Male Patient with Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplantation from His Sister

Genomic DNA of a patient diagnosed with nonobstructive azoospermia and with the history of allogenic bone marrow transplantation from his sister due to chronic myeloid leukemia was isolated from peripheral blood in order to screen Y chromosome microdeletions. 13 short tagged sites belonging to AZF a, b, and c loci were detected with multiplex polymerase chain reaction technique. Bands were determined in ZFX/ZFY wells, whereas no bands were determined in wells of other STS regions. DNA isolation was done from buccal mucosa smear to obtain genomic DNA from patient's own cells and multiplex polymerase chain reaction technique was performed again. Bands were seen in all wells of 13 STS regions. Y chromosome microdeletion was not detected in the patient. In conclusion, genomic DNA isolation in patients undergoing BMT should be done from patients' own cells

Censoring the Internet: The Situation in Turkey (originally published in June 2002)

Censoring the Internet is quite prevalent, though the extent of this activity markedly differs from country to country. While some prohibit controversial sites such as those with explicit sexual images or blatantly racist remarks, others implement restricted access. Turkey, showing the symptoms of a developing country, has not yet established the jurisprudence necessary for the Internet. The existing Turkish laws, especially the Press Law, are naively applied to alleged lawbreakers on the Internet, resulting in ludicrous outcomes. This paper investigates the Turkish case of Internet censorship, focusing on two publicized cases with some political content

Censoring the Internet: The Situation in Turkey

Censoring the Internet is quite prevalent, though the extent of this activity markedly differs from country to country. While some prohibit controversial sites such as those with explicit sexual images or blatantly racist remarks, others implement restricted access. Turkey, showing the symptoms of a developing country, has not yet established the jurisprudence necessary for the Internet. The existing Turkish laws, especially the Press Law, are naively applied to alleged lawbreakers on the Internet, resulting in ludicrous outcomes. This paper investigates the Turkish case of Internet censorship, focusing on two publicized cases with some political content

Does Diabetes Affect the Outcome of Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy?

Aim: The increased mortality and morbidity in diabetic patients who underwent cardiac surgery is well documented. However, there are few data about non-cardiac surgical interventions. This study is designed to evaluate whether diabetes has any effects on outcome of percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL). Methods: The records of 1658 patients who underwent PNL between October 2002 and December 2009 in our clinic were retrospectively analyzed. Data of patients with diagnosis of diabetes mellitus (group 1, 231 patients) were compared with data of patients without diabetes (group 2, 1427 patients) by means of operative and postoperative findings. Results: Complete stone clearance was achieved in 206 (89.1%) patients in group 1 and 1355 (94.9%) patients in group 2 (p:0.000). Auxiliary treatment modalities were needed in 44 (19.0%) diabetic and 153 (10.7%) non-diabetic patients (p:0.000). In diabetic patients, operation and hospitalization time, and time of nephrostomy tube removal were significantly longer. In addition, bleeding, fever and urosepsis rates were significantly higher in diabetic patients. Conclusion: PNL in diabetics is an effective procedure with acceptable complication rates in the treatment of renal stones. However, the increased risk of bleeding and infection needs extra attention in diabetic patients when compared with non-diabetics. (The Medical Bulletin of Haseki 2010; 48: 80-4

ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION AND TREATMENT AFTER RETROPUBIC RADICAL PROSTATECTOMY

Introduction: The incidence of erectile dysfunction in men following radical prostatectomy has been estimated to range between 16% and 82%. The most important predictors of erectile function are pre-operative erectile function and nerve sparing nature of the procedure. The former is determined by age and vascular risk-factors whereas the latter is decided by the stage of the tumor and the skill of the surgeon. Apoptosis of corporeal smooth muscle cells plays a significant role in the development of cavernosal dysfunction following radical prostatectomy. Symptomatic therapy may be applied according to the current general standards of treatment in men with erectile dysfunction (ED). In addition, pharmacological prophylaxis and treatment of postoperative ED with different treatment alternatives is effective and safe, and PDE5 inhibitors have similar outcome after radical prostatectomy. The concepts of cavernous nerve reconstruction and neuroprotection have been associated to promising results

Exploitation of multi-camera configurations for visual surveillance

In this paper, we propose novel methods for background modeling, occlusion. handling and event recognition by using multi-camera configurations. Homography-related positions are utilized to construct a mixture of multivariate Gaussians to generate a background model for each pixel of the reference camera. Occlusion handling is achieved by generation of the top-view via trifocal tensors, as a result of matching over-segmented regions instead of pixels. The resulting graph is segmented into objects after determining the minimum spanning tree of this graph. Tracking of multiview data is obtained by utilizing measurements across the views in case of occlusions. Finally, the resulting trajectories are classified by GM-HMMs, yielding better results for using all different trajectories of the same object together

Multi Camera Visual Surveillance for Motion Detection Occlusion Handling Tracking and Event Recognition

This paper presents novel approaches for background modeling, occlusion handling and event recognition by using multi-camera configurations that can be used to overcome the limitations of the single camera configurations. The main novelty in proposed background modeling approach is building multivariate Gaussians background model for each pixel of the reference camera by utilizing homography-related positions. Also, occlusion handling is achieved by generation of the top-view via trifocal tensors, as a result of matching over-segmented regions instead of pixels. The resulting graph is segmented into objects after determining the minimum spanning tree of this graph. Tracking of multi-view data is obtained by utilizing measurements across the views in case of occlusions. The last contribution is the classification of the resulting trajectories by GM-HMMs, yielding better results for using together all different view trajectories of the same object. Hence, multi-camera sensing is fully exploited from motion detection to event modeling