Benchmarking the Turkish apparel retail industry through data envelopment analysis (DEA) and data visualization

This paper presents a benchmarking study of the Turkish apparel retailing industry. We have applied the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology to determine the efficiencies of the companies in the industry. In the DEA model the number of stores, number of corners, total sales area and number of employees were included as inputs and annual sales revenue was included as the output. The efficiency scores obtained through DEA were visualized for gaining insights about the industry and revealing guidelines that can aid in strategic decision making

Comparison of the Accuracy of Manual and Digital Cephalometric Prediction Methods in Orthognathic Surgical Planning: A Pilot Study

Objective:To compare and evaluate the reliability of manual and digital cephalometric prediction methods in orthognathic surgical planningMethods:Ten adults (5 females and 5 males) with skeletal class III malocclusion were included. The mean patient age was 21.97 years. Pre- to postoperative changes were evaluated using paired t-test. Manual surgical predictions made by tracing on acetate paper and digital predictions made using computer software were compared with actual postoperative values using intraclass correlation coefficient and root mean square.Results:Statistically significant changes were observed in SNA, SNB, ANB, U1i-FH, and Nperp-A following bimaxillary orthognathic surgery (p<0.001). Postoperative changes in Co-A and Nperp-Pg were statistically significant (p<0.05). Comparison of manual and digital surgical predictions with actual postoperative values revealed that overbite and overjet showed the lowest agreements. Manual predictions were less accurate for points that were difficult to distinguish (Co and U6). Skeletal predictions were more accurate than dental predictions.Conclusion:Parameters with low reproducibility (Co and U6) decrease the reliability of predictions. Dental predictions were inaccurate in both methods due to the effects of intermaxillary elastics, but both methods yielded similar predictions for skeletal parameters. The impact of applying strong elastics for postoperative intermaxillary fixation should be considered when making surgical predictions

Sanal Çalışma Ortamlarının Getirdiği Zorluklar: Sanal Mesafe Kavramı Üzerine Kavramsal Bir Çalışma

Sanal çalışma ortamları, farklı konumlarda çalışan ve bilgisayar aracılı iletişim kullanarak etkileşimde bulunan çalışanları içeren, çalışma sisteminin yeni normalidir. Özellikle koronavirüs pandemisi ile birlikte bir mecburiyet haline gelen sanal çalışma ortamlarını en iyi şekilde kurgulamak, işletmelerin devamlılığı için bir gerek şart haline gelmiştir. Sanal çalışma ortamları maliyet, iş gücüne erişim gibi birçok konuda işletmelere avantajlar sağlasa da, bir takım zorlukları beraberinde getirmektedir. Bu çalışmada, sanal çalışma ortamlarının getirdiği zorluklardan bir tanesi olan sanal mesafe kavramı, kavramsal olarak incelenmiştir. Çalışmanın kavramsal olarak kurgulanmasının nedeni, Türk literatüründe konunun sanal mesafe açısından ele alınmamış olmasıdır. Bu bağlamda, sanal mesafe kavramı, Türk literatüründe tartışmaya açılarak ileride yapılacak çalışmalar için alt yapı oluşturacaktır. Yapılan araştırmalar sonucunda çalışanların sanal mesafe algısını etkileyebilecek faktörler coğrafi mesafe, zamansal mesafe, ilişkisel mesafe, kültürel mesafe, sosyal mesafe, görevlerin karşılıklı bağımlılığı, ilişki geçmişi, yüz yüze etkileşim, takım büyüklüğü, çoklu görev, teknik beceriler olarak sıralanmıştır. Bu faktörleri doğru bir şekilde ele alan işletmelerin, sanal mesafenin önüne geçebileceği düşünülmektedir

Türk rock müziği ve Erkin Koray

Ankara : İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent Üniversitesi İktisadi, İdari ve Sosyal Bilimler Fakültesi, Tarih Bölümü, 2012.This work is a student project of the The Department of History, Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University.by İbrahim Mert Öztürk.Öztürk, İbrahim Mert. HIST 200-12ÖZTÜRK HIST 200-12/7 2011-1

3 ' UTR shortening and EGF signaling: implications for breast cancer

Alternative polyadenylation (APA) plays a role in gene expression regulation generally by shortening of 3'UTRs (untranslated regions) upon proliferative signals and relieving microRNA-mediated repression. Owing to high proliferative indices of triple negative breast cancers (TNBCs), we hypothesized APA to cause 3'UTR length changes in this aggressive subgroup of breast cancers. Our probe-based meta-analysis approach identified 3'UTR length alterations where the significant majority was shortening events (similar to 70%, 113 of 165) of mostly proliferation-related transcripts in 520 TNBC patients compared with controls. Representative shortening events were further investigated for their microRNA binding potentials by computational predictions and dual-luciferase assay. In silico-predicted 3'UTR shortening events were experimentally confirmed in patient and cell line samples. To begin addressing the underlying mechanisms, we found CSTF2 (cleavage stimulation factor 2), a major regulator of 3'UTR shortening to be up-regulated in response to epidermal growth factor (EGF). EGF treatment also resulted with further shortening of the 3'UTRs. To investigate the contribution of CSTF2 and 3'UTR length alterations to the proliferative phenotype, we showed pharmacological inhibition of the EGF pathway to lead to a reduction in CSTF2 levels. Accordingly, RNAi-induced silencing of CSTF2 decreased the proliferative rate of cancer cells. Therefore, our computational and experimental approach revealed a pattern of 3'UTR length changes in TNBC patients and a potential link between APA and EGF signaling. Overall, detection of 3'UTR length alterations of various genes may help the discovery of new cancer-related genes, which may have been overlooked in conventional microarray gene expression analyses

Deregulated APA and cancer specific APA isoforms

Certain aspects of diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of cancer patients are still important challenges to be addressed. We developed a pipeline to uncover patterns of alternative polyadenylation (APA), a hidden complexity in cancer transcriptomes, to further accelerate efforts to discover novel cancer genes and pathways. Here, we found a significant shift in usage of poly(A) signals in six common tumor types compared to normal tissues. We further defined specific subsets of APA events to efficiently classify cancer types/subtypes. Triple negative breast cancers, for example, have specific 3'UTR length alterations where the significant majority are shortening events (70%, 113 of 165) of mostly proliferation-related transcripts compared with normal breast tissue. Such shortening events correlate with increased protein levels and relapse free survival of patients, suggesting functional significance of isoform variability. In line with this isoform diversity, we also detected deregulated expression of mRNA polyadenylation complex proteins in breast cancer cells. Of note, APA proteins are responsive to proliferative signals including estrogen and epidermal growth factor, suggesting a potential explanation to 3'-end isoform diversity in cancer cells. Overall, our study offers a computational and experimental approach for use of APA in novel gene discovery and classification in common tumor types, with important implications in basic research, biomarker discovery, and precision medicine approaches