Turkish Translation, Accreditation, and Validation of the Otitis Media-6 Questionnaire

Objective: Otitis media is one of the most common ear disorders occurring in childhood, which causes alterations in communication between parents and children, thereby having a significant effect on the health-related quality of life. Otitis Media-6 questionnaire (OM-6) is a Likert-type scale used to assess the health-related quality of life in children with otitis media. In this study, our aim was to create a consistent, reliable, and valid Turkish version of the OM-6. Methods: Children with otitis media presenting with effusion and healthy children were enrolled in this study between February 2019 and September 2019. The OM-6 test was administered to three different groups, including preoperative, postoperative, and control, among the children who had undergone ventilation tube insertion operation and among the healthy children. Results: The overall scores of children with otitis media presenting with effusion exhibited a changing pattern, indicating a statistical significance in the evaluation of the health-related quality of life. The Turkish version of OM-6 includes the scores of construct validity (Spearman values between 0, 58-0, 89), internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha values between 0, 88-0, 96), and reliability (Pearson correlation value between 0, 67-0, 91). These scores exhibited a statistical significance. Conclusion: The Turkish version of OM-6 is a stable, valid questionnaire with internal consistenc

Empagliflozin-induced ketoacidosis in a patient presenting with new-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus due to indolent pancreatic cancer

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Boylu ardıç (Juniperus excelsa Bieb.) fidanlarının su tüketimi ve meteorolojik parametrelerle ilişkisi

Bu çalışmanın amacı; farklı sulama aralıkları için Boylu ardıç fidanlarının su tüketim miktarını ve optimum sulama aralığı ile sulama suyu miktarını belirlemektir. Çalışma 2007 ve 2008 vejetasyon dönemini kapsamaktadır. Boylu ardıç fidanları tüplerde yetiştirilmiştir. Tüplü fidanlar her bir sulamadan önce tartılmış ve hemen sonra tarla kapasitesine ulaşıncaya kadar sulanmıştır. Bu işlemler 3, 5 ve 7 gün sulama aralıkları için gerçekleştirilmiştir. Geleneksel fidanlık uygulaması kontrol işlemi olarak kullanılmış ve aynı ölçümler bu uygulama için de yapılmıştır. Her sulama işlemi için tüketim miktarları oldukça farklı bulunmuştur. Bununla birlikte ölçülen meteorolojik parametreler ile su tüketimi ilişkisi belirlenmiştir. Elde edilen denklemler yardımıyla benzer meteorolojik koşullar için evapotranspirasyon (ET) ve transpirasyon (T) değerlerinin tahmin edilebileceği ortaya koyulmuştur. Anahtar kelimeler: Tüplü fidan, Sulama aralığı, Su tüketim miktarı, Meteorolojik parametrele

Head and Neck Tuberculosis in Southeastern Region in Turkey, Near the Syrian Border

Objective: The study was conducted to evaluate profiles, demographical data, diagnostic, clinical and treatment approaches in relation to the cases of diagnosed head and neck tuberculosis after the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011. The aim of the study is to share current knowledge on head and neck tuberculosis and to investigate whether there is an epidemiological change with the admission of immigrants after the start of the Syrian civil war. Methods: Demographic data, contact history, relapse, localization, tuberculin test, BCG vaccination and treatment duration are evaluated variables. Two groups were created. The first group was diagnosed with head and neck tuberculosis between 2006 and 2011 before the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, and the second group was diagnosed between 2012 and 2017 after the war in Syria caused hundreds of thousands of Syrian citizens to flee their homes and cross the border into Turkey. Results: Head and neck tuberculosis cases tend to increase after the year of 2012. The number of diagnosed non-Turkish citizens expand after the year of 2012 and reach the highest number in 2017. BCG vaccination status and contact history were found to be the only variables that display statistical significance between the groups. Conclusions: The number of head and neck tuberculosis cases increased after the Syrian war began due to insufficient rates of vaccination among the Syrian population and this population’s overcrowded living environment in Turkey. The burden of these crises affects a region rather than the whole country

A Rare Sinonasal Malignancy: Biphenotypic Sinonasal Sarcoma

Biphenotypic sinonasal sarcoma (BSNS), which has been described in the recent years, is a low-grade spindle cell sinonasal sarcoma characterized by rare neural and myogenic features. It has a slow growth pattern; does not metastasize, but local recurrences are common after surgery. Non-specificity of examination findings and symptoms and similarities of its histopathological features with other spindle cell sarcomas, neural tumors, and skeletal muscle-derived tumors involving the nasal cavity make the diagnosis difficult. Therefore, histopathological features should be evaluated together with immunophenotyping and molecular studies for differential diagnosis. There are very few BSNS cases or case series in the literature. In this report, we reported our clinical approach to a case with BSNS in the right nasal cavity and the histopathological features of the disease in the light of the current literature

Evaluation of patients with fibrotic interstitial lung disease: Preliminary results from the Turk-UIP study

OBJECTIVE: Differential diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is important among fibrotic interstitial lung diseases (ILD). This study aimed to evaluate the rate of IPF in patients with fibrotic ILD and to determine the clinical-laboratory features of patients with and without IPF that would provide the differential diagnosis of IPF. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study included the patients with the usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP) pattern or possible UIP pattern on thorax high-resolution computed tomography, and/or UIP pattern, probable UIP or possible UIP pattern at lung biopsy according to the 2011 ATS/ERSARS/ALAT guidelines. Demographics and clinical and radiological data of the patients were recorded. All data recorded by researchers was evaluated by radiology and the clinical decision board. RESULTS: A total of 336 patients (253 men, 83 women, age 65.8 +/- 9.0 years) were evaluated. Of the patients with sufficient data for diag-nosis (n=300), the diagnosis was IPF in 121 (40.3%), unclassified idiopathic interstitial pneumonia in 50 (16.7%), combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema (CPFE) in 40 (13.3%), and lung involvement of connective tissue disease (CTD) in 16 (5.3%). When 29 patients with definite IPF features were added to the patients with CPFE, the total number of IPF patients reached 150 (50%). Rate of male sex (p<0.001), smoking history (p<0.001), and the presence of clubbing (p=0.001) were significantly high in patients with IPE None of the women <50 years and none of the men <50 years of age without a smoking history were diagnosed with IPE Presence of at least 1 of the symptoms suggestive of CTD, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and antinuclear antibody (FANA) positivity rates were significantly higher in the non-IPF group (p<0.001, p=0.029, p=0.009, respectively). CONCLUSION: The rate of IPF among patients with fibrotic ILD was 50%. In the differential diagnosis of IPF, sex, smoking habits, and the presence of clubbing are important. The presence of symptoms related to CTD, ESR elevation, and EANA positivity reduce the likelihood of IPF

The rock authenticity in the context of the musical production: The case of Mor ve Ötesi

Bu çalışmanın amacı, müziksel üretim bağlamında rock otantisitesini, Türkiye'de ünlü bir rock grubu olan Mor ve Ötesi'nin müziksel pratikleri ve söylemlerinden hareketle tartışmaktır. Çalışmada teorik bir çerçeve oluşturmak için birinci olarak popüler müzik incelemelerinin üretim, tüketim ve metin gibi temel analiz kategorileri gözden geçirildi. İkinci olarak öncelikle felsefe ve sosyal bilimler gibi çalışma alanlarına daha sonra kültürel çalışmalara konu olmuş ve sonucunda popüler müziğin önemli analiz gereçlerinden biri haline gelmiş olan otantisite kavramı ele alındı ve Mor ve Ötesi'nin müziksel ve müzik dışı söylemleriyle ilişkilendirildi. Çalışma mahiyeti itibariyle bir vaka (casestudy) incelemesi olduğu için Mor ve Ötesi'nin müziksel üretim pratiklerine odaklanır. Müziksel üretim çerçevesinde enformasyon toplayıp bunu analiz etmek için gerekli en önemli yollardan birisi müzisyenlerin kendi söylemlerinden yansıyan ve metinlerine de yansıttıklarını söyledikleri argümanları dikkate almaktır. Müziksel üretim pratiklerinin gerçekleştirildiği mekanlarda yapılan gözlemler, Mor ve Ötesi üyeleriyle yapılan görüşmeler ve hatta müzik endüstrisi ile bağlantılı olarak yapımcılarla yapılan görüşme ve müzakerelerle birlikte oluşturulan enformasyon, çalışmanın üçüncü bölümündeki metin analizine bağlanmaktadır. Kısacası hem müziksel üretim koşullarının müzik dışı bileşenleri hem de müziğin üretimi içerisinde grubun düşüncülerini metne yansıttıkları stratejiler, görüşmeler yoluyla ele alınmıştır. Dolayısıyla müziksel üretim süreci içerisinde grubun yaptığı müziğin özelliğine ilişkin toplanmış olan enformasyon, genel olarak rock müziğe özel olarak ise Mor ve Ötesi'ne ilişkin bir dizi söylemsel biçimleniş ortaya çıkarmıştır. Bu söylemsel formasyonu denetim altına almak için ise temel olarak otantisite kavramlaştırılması kullanılmıştır. Sonuç olarak çalışmada, grubun üretim-tüketim-metin üçgenine dayalı otantisite işaretleyicileri irdelenmiş ve anlaşılmaya çalışılmıştır. The aim of this research is to discuss the rock authenticy in the context the musical production process by considering ‘Mor ve Ötesi, a prominent rock group in Turkey. In order to create a theoretical framework of this study, firstly, the main analysis categories of popular music studies such as production, text and consumption have been rewieved. Secondly, the concept of authenticy which becomes a subject for philosophy, social sciences, cultural researches and finally an important instrument for analysing popular music is used in order to associate with Mor ve Ötesi's expressions of music. The research is focused on Mor ve Ötesi's musical production process because of being a case study by its nature. One of the most important path for gathering data and analysing it, is to take into account the musicians' own expressions and lyrics that have been reflected in lyrics. The data that is constructed by the observations that have been made in musical production process, the interviews by Mor ve Ötesi and even the interviews with producers are connected with the third chapter which contains text analyse. Briefly, the thoughts and the strategies of the group have been introduced by the interviews in and out of musical production process. So the data which shows us the character of the music is gathered by the group's musical production process and reveals the discursive formation, generally for rock music but privately for Mor ve ötesi. In order to manage the discursive formation, fundamentally, the authenticty is conceptualized. As a result of the research, the authenticty of the group's production-consumption and text triangle is explicated

Optimizing the Performance of Rule-Based Fuzzy Routing Algorithms in Wireless Sensor Networks

© 2019 IEEE.Effective data routing is one of the crucial themes for energy-efficient communication in wireless sensor networks (WSN). In the WSN research domain, fuzzy approaches are in most cases superior to well-defined methodologies, especially where boundaries between clusters are unclear. For this reason, a significant number of studies have recently proposed fuzzy-based solutions for the problems encountered in WSNs. Rule-based fuzzy systems are part of these widespread fuzzy-based solutions that often involve some field experts for identification and derivation of fuzzy rules as well as fuzzy membership functions; thus, a considerable amount of time is devoted to the realization of the final system. Nevertheless, it is almost impossible or not feasible to realize a fuzzy system with an optimality property. In this study, we utilize the modified clonal selection algorithm (CLONALG-M) to improve the performance of rule-based fuzzy routing algorithms. Although previous studies have been devoted to fuzzy optimization in general, to the best of our knowledge, improving the efficiency of rule-based fuzzy routing algorithms has not yet been considered. For this reason, CLONALG-M is applied to determine the approximate form of the output membership functions that improve the overall performance of fuzzy routing algorithms, whose rule base and shapes of membership functions are initially known. Experimental analysis and evaluations of the approach used in this study are performed on selected fuzzy rule-based routing algorithms and the obtained results verify that our approach performs and scales well to improve fuzzy routing performance

Increasing energy efficiency of rule-based fuzzy clustering algorithms using CLONALG-M for wireless sensor networks

© 2021 Elsevier B.V.Because of its efficiency, clustering is used for effective communication in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). In the WSN clustering area, fuzzy approaches are found to be superior to crisp cluster counterparts when the boundaries between clusters are unclear. As a result, many studies have proposed some fuzzy-based solutions to the cluster problem in WSNs. Most rule-based fuzzy clustering systems employ field experts in trial and error processes, identifying and defining fuzzy rules as well as the forms of membership functions at the output; thus, considerable time has been allocated to realize and define these functions. Therefore, it is almost impossible or impractical to achieve a fuzzy system optimally. In this study, we propose a modified clonal selection algorithm (CLONALG-M) to improve the energy efficiency of rule-based fuzzy clustering algorithms. Although some studies in the literature focus on fuzzy optimization in general, to the best of our knowledge, performance improvement of rule-based fuzzy clustering algorithms is not taken into account. The CLONALG-M algorithm based on the Clonal Selection Principle is used to elucidate the basic principles of an adaptive immune system. In this study, we apply this principle to determine the approximate deployment of output-based membership functions that increase the performance of rule-based fuzzy clustering algorithms, whose rule base and shape of membership functions are previously known. Experimental analysis and evaluations of the proposed approach have been performed on selected fuzzy clustering approaches, and obtained results show that our approach performs and adapts well for improving performance of fuzzy output functions